Dawn suddenly began to shine on the deep blue sky, its bright rays of light shone through the trees, causing patterns on the grass. A single ray of light rested on Allen's face causing him to wake from his sleep. Yawning, he sat up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes, looking over at Lenalee and Lavi, he couldn't help but smile at the position they were in. Lenalee was leaning up right against a tree and Lavi was using her legs as a pillow.
But still, Lavi's condition wasn't getting any better, even breathing seemed difficult for him as he slept, Allen desperately wished Bookman was with them, neither himself nor Lenalee knew what was wrong with Lavi, they'd seen people have a fever but it was just something simple like a cold, but this defiantly wasn't as simple as something like that. Allen sighed as the cold water from the river hit his face, Lenalee and Lavi were still asleep so he decided to head back to the road and see if the Finders had come yet.
Lavi finally began to wake from his dreamless sleep, he felt extremely hot for some reason forcing him to more or less kick the sleeping bag off, he sighed in relief as the cold air shifted under his shirt. He looked up at Lenalee, she was still asleep. Then he remembered his little 'incident' last night, looking back at it now, he felt like a complete idiot, he almost cried in front of her and (God forbid) if Bookman knew he'd shown some emotion he wouldn't be a happy panda. He'd probably get a smack for that remark as well. Lavi hated being in this weak state, the thought of having to rely on his friends made him feel pathetic, he needed to take care of himself, no acceptance of any kind. That was the life he'd chosen.
Even though it hurt, he forced himself to sit up and wash his face in the river, his hair was sticking to his forehead due the sudden night sweats he'd been having, but that's when he caught sight of how pale he was and how dull his once emerald green eye was in the waters reflection. He suddenly felt something rising up in his throat,
"Oh God not aga-" His thoughts were cut short when he suddenly wretched over the river bank, but blood splatted out of his mouth, slowly turning the clear water red, he tried to catch his breath but the blood was coming up too fast, it was at that unfortunate moment Lenalee woke up, horrified at what she saw; Lavi staring wide eyed at what he'd brought up, she saw the fear in his single eye, no-one should witness or experience something like that, what's worse is when you don't what the cause was or how it can stopped.
"L-Lavi?" She asked him, he turned his head to look at her, then she saw how pale he really was, he looked… afraid.
He fell limp to the ground but Lenalee caught him before he could hit his head on the ground. She gently rested his head on her lap face up so he could breathe easier; he curled up on his side as he started to shiver again. Lenalee quietly covered him with his sleeping bag; he flinched at first but soon calmed down. It took him about 20 minutes to come around and realised what happened, he was on her lap... again.
"I passed out again didn't I?" He asked her, she nodded. He tried to sit up but that stabbing pain in his chest he had before was so bad it caused him to yell, but Lenalee gently pulled him back down, he didn't object, no matter how much he wanted to. The fact that his head was pounding wasn't helping either, he could've sworn he was looking up at 2 Lenalees; he shut his dull eye hoping the dizziness would stop. Lavi unexpectedly felt Lenalee 'stroking' his hair again, he didn't want to admit it out loud but it felt kinda... nice.
"Lavi... being a Bookman apprentice, do you ever regret it? Having to watch all those wars and battles?" Lenalee felt some what embarrassed about asking something like that, but it may give her an understanding of what caused that nightmare he had the night before. At first Lavi didn't answer, trying to think of a way to respond to her question without worrying her.
"Everything I've seen, everywhere I go, it's always war, we have to stand there and watch humanity fight for their selfishness over land or power, but... when you watch war over and over again, you stop caring, realising this is what humans are, just egotistic pawns in the world." It pained him to say it, especially to Lenalee but that's what he'd grown up to learn and watch. He'd lost faith in humans from a young age, no older than about five or six, the humans he thought loved him left him to fend for himself.
There was a brief silence before Lavi spoke up again, "But witnessing such things can have an after effect... when I'm asleep..." Lenalee suddenly understood, all the conflict and death he'd seen in past was replaying in his dreams, she knew of how good his memory was, it seemed like an amazing thing to have, but even the most wonderful things can have a down side, a negative side. But she gave him a comforting smile, "Get some rest Lavi, the Finders will come soon." Lavi nodded slightly before drifting off.
Meanwhile, a group of Finders were following the little golden golem to Allen, Lavi and Lenalee's location; they were going as fast as they could after seeing what had happened. An exorcist also travelled with them going by the name Bookman, he'd also seen Timcanpy's memories and was certain he knew what was wrong with Lavi. He just hoped he'd hold on long enough till they came. Once again, he watched the projection coming from the little golem, watching Lavi's actions, he knew for a fact his eating habits had decreased dramatically and he was taking more naps than normal around a month after they'd left Germany. The fact that he was coughing up blood and collapsing was a bad sign, the virus was spreading and his immune system was weak from the lack of energy he had. This was serious, Lavi could die if he didn't receive treatment, all Bookman could do was have faith that Lavi will stay strong before it's too late. The Finders began to talk among themselves.
"You think the red-headed exorcist will be alive by the time we get there?"
"He'd be one lucky guy if he was; I've never seen something like that before."
"Well if Bookman's here, then it must be serious..."
"Lavi will be alive when we find them; he's only showing early symptoms." Bookman finally spoke up, causing the 3 Finders to hush. He let Timcanpy go back outside and show the way to the Finders.
"You'd better be breathing by the time we arrive, Junior."
Everything was quiet, too quiet. Lenalee looked around at their surroundings, it had been over an hour and Allen hadn't returned, normally he'd come back to see if they were alright. Lavi was still asleep on her lap, he hadn't stirred at all, but being how pale he was, you could've mistaken him for dead. His pulse was weak though and his breathing was pained and slow, that thought of him not surviving was slowly creeping back into her mind.
"No." She thought as she shook her head "He'll be alright, he'll survive... he has to..." Her eye's brimmed with tears again; he looked so fragile in this state, she leant over so her forehead was against his, it still felt unnaturally warm like it had the past 2 days, beads of sweat had also gathered on his forehead causing his bangs to stick again. Lifting her head up, she checked his pulse again, it was still there but ever so faint but a faint pulse is a lot better than no pulse at all. Lavi's eye began to slowly open; looking up he saw Lenalee on the verge of crying,
"Lenalee? You okay?" His voice was frail. Lenalee quickly wiped her eyes on her sleeve and nodded, seeing him awake and talking gave her more confidence on his survival.
"I'm fine, how're you holding up?" Lavi shrugged "Can't complain, my head and chest just hurt." He still managed a smile but it soon turned to grimace as he curled up into a ball.
"Lavi? Lavi what's wrong?" Lenalee's voice rang with concern.
"I-I'm okay, don't worry." He coughed a few times, blood dripping from his mouth and onto the grass. Lenalee gently rubbed his back. "Where are they? Please... he need's help... hurry..." Lenalee once again fought back the tears. She looked in the direction where the road was, still no sign of Allen or the Finders. She looked back at Lavi; he was still curled up on his side.
Lenalee suddenly heard something knocking all the bushes and branches out of its way, it was Allen with his anti-akuma weapon activated.
"Lenalee! Get Lavi outta here, there's a-" He was cut off when something hard knocked him into a tree.
"Allen!" She glared at what had attacked him, it was another Level 2 that looked like a spider, long razor sharp legs and cut throat fangs. It laughed as it watched Allen fly into the tree then looked over at Lenalee and Lavi. It laughed.
"So that's the exorcist who killed my brothers?" It motioned to Lavi, "He can barely stand up!" Within seconds it fired two spinning blades at Lavi and Lenalee but Lavi managed to shove Lenalee out the way and dodge the attack himself, but deeply regretted it when his chest seemed to tighten.
"Damnit, I can't fight in this state." He clutched his chest and leaned against a tree for support, even standing felt like he was being stabbed by daggers. Looking up he saw the Akuma aiming its gun at him, Lavi shut his eye and braced himself for the attack.
"You shouldn't pay attention to one person." The akuma turned and saw Allen charge at it, raging with attack, his sterling claws raised high. It just managed to dodge Allen's attack.
"Get Lavi away from here Lenalee!" Allen cried out to her again trying to land a hit on the arachnid, she quickly dashed over to Lavi, she wanted him to be safe but she couldn't leave Allen to fight alone.
"Go Lenalee!!!" Lenalee's eye's glazed over but it looked like she had no choice, she helped Lavi to stand and got his arm over her shoulder while she wrapped her free arm around his waist.
"Innocence, Activate." Her Dark Boots shone a neon green light and she leapt up with Lavi in her arms. Allen went to attack the spider again but it suddenly seemed to disappear in a flash of movement, where was it?
He scanned his surroundings; it suddenly reappeared and rammed into him, sending him flying across the ground into a mass of rocks along with a sickening snap followed by a cry of agony. His right wrist has snapped. Allen clutched it tightly causing blood to seep through his fingers. The pain had caught him off guard and was hit by another attack; he hit his head this time making him feel dazed, unable to focus. The Akuma took this chance to attack Lenalee who was still in midair with Lavi; it fired a small dart like object into Lenalee's legs. She yelped at the shock and pulled it out; she couldn't feel anything after she'd pulled it out. She could feel anything at all, it had made her legs completely numb and her Dark Boots returned to their normal state causing both her and Lavi to fall into the river below.
The Akuma laughed as it watched Lenalee grab onto a rock sticking out of the water with Lavi. Turning, it grabbed Allen and threw held him in it's claws.
"Give the red-head to me and this one will survive." It made its grip tighter around Allen's chest causing his gasp and cough.
"D-Don't do it..." Allen felt the grip become even tighter, he couldn't breathe. He desperately tried to suppress his yell of pain as the pressure on his broken wrist sent waves of pain travelling up his arm. But when he thought it couldn't get any tighter it did, he couldn't hold it back this time, the pain weaving through his body caused him to scream, blood starting to leak from his wrist at a dangerous rate.
"Hi... ban.." Lavi weakly spoke and his traditional fire serpent rose from the water and knocked the akuma off guard before it attack them again, he couldn't tell if he'd got a direct hit but it was enough for it to drop Allen. With that, he lost consciousness. Lenalee's grip finally slipped and all 3 of them were sent rushing through the water.