~Nothing gold can stay~

A/N: I suck at everything.

Chapter five: Happily never after

I followed the small, blue-haired girl in front of me, practically frolicking through the field. "Don't be so relaxed," I warned her, resisting the urge to head palm as she turned around and stuck out her tongue at me.

"Just make me," was all she said, and she turned around again to face the large and tall building in front of us. I sighed; she was extremely grumpy right now. As to why, I couldn't even begin to guess. I adverted my attention to the Black Order's building. It's larger than what Lulubell had described, I noted. I've never been here myself before, so I was quite keen to find out what this place was like firsthand.

"Okay, Tyki," Rhode said, her childish eyes glinted playfully, "let's go in, 'kay?"

Suppressing a sigh, I took hold of her hand and said, "Fine, fine." A small, tingling feeling spread throughout my body, and I made sure to channel some of that power into Rhode too, so we could both walk through the walls.

"Hey, what if we run into some Exorcist or something?" I asked suddenly, after walking through the building for around a minute.

Giving me a slightly irritated look, Rhode explained, "Well, if we do see any, we'll just kill them," her eyes shined dangerously, "but according to the Earl, we shouldn't run into anyone, since many of them are preparing for the funeral…" she finished her sentence with a huff.

Oh. So that's why she was being so bitchy.

"Allen'll be alive after we're through with this," I said reassuringly.

"Yeah, but it won't be him! It'll be a completely different person," Rhode stomped her Mary-Jane clad foot on the ground, crossing her arms defiantly. I tried not to sigh. Strangely, I've been having a lot of things like that. Then a sigh escaped my lips before I could stop myself. I resisted the urge not to head palm myself, trying to remain quiet.

Rhode, on the other hand, still had a lot to let out. "It's not fair that they get to steal Allen, and that we have to look for that stupid red-haired Exorcist! He likes Allen, you know," she pouted, her lower lip sticking out like a little kid. Then again, she was a little kid. I rolled my eyes, trying to tune her voice out as she continued to rant on about how this whole situation was totally unfair. You said it, I thought exasperatedly as I failed to tune her high-pitched voice out of my head.

Honestly, she was seriously going to give me a headache.

Where the hell was red-haired kid's room? I looked up, down, and all around for any signs that would've told me where the room was. The Earl said that the room number was 131...and according to the white sign on the wall to my left, room 131 should be quite close. "Rooms 120-130," Rhode read out loud, as if I couldn't read. "Damn it, why won't it just go up one more room, so we wouldn't have to walk down another fucking hallway--"

I covered her mouth quickly, diving into the nearest closet, which just happened to be right behind me. Rhode's indignant cries were merely muffled as a shadow passed the closet. It was a few moments before that person completely disappeared, and I let Rhode go. She glared, "I could've taken them out, you know…"

"The Earl doesn't want us to create any disturbances," I said in a matter-of-fact tone, causing Rhode to roll her eyes. Yeah, I felt the same way, too. "Therefore we should avoid fights if we can, alright?"

"Fine, fine," she grumbled, opening the closet door, turning at the nearest corner, where room 131 was waiting for us.

---

"Wh…where am I?" I looked around, horror gripping me. Hundreds upon hundreds of coffins laid out all around me; it was just like that time where that Noah girl had trapped me in…the weird dream world thing. The time when Allen had been yelling out my name innumerable times… My lips almost curved up at the thought. I hadn't noticed his feelings at the time. We were just friends, right? At least that's what I'd thought back then.

Of course, this fleeting emotion of happy remembrance practically evaporated when the closest coffin at my feet opened, revealing a too-familiar corpse in it. I took a few steps backwards, and it felt like I'd forgotten to breathe then.

Forget what I said about the corpse. It wasn't a corpse; it was a person. It wasn't dead. "La…vi…" the familiar white hair hung over his pale face, and even the eyes were still gray, but it wasn't that same shade. The uniform on him was all tattered and ripped, bloodstains ruining the original blue color. Slowly, the gray eyes filled with bitterness, "why didn't you help me?" He was raising his voice now, close to a yell. "Why, Lavi? Why?"

I wanted to move…I wanted to run away, but my feet were frozen in the spot, and I was completely entranced by the person walking towards me slowly. "…Allen?" I said in a hoarse whisper, hardly adverting my gaze away from his. "What are you doing…?"

Those white-gloved hands reached for me, and I cringed slightly. "You're the one who let me die," Allen said in a deadly whisper. Those words struck a cord, because they were right. I wasn't there for him, even though I should've been. I let him die, I let him die, I let him die, the mantra repeated in my head, so loudly that it was almost painful.

I let him die, I let him die, I let him die, I let him die--

The entire scene disappeared before my eyes, but I paid it no attention. Those words continued to ring in the empty darkness, but they disappeared as soon as I sat up on my bed, breaking out in cold sweat, a knife pressed against my throat.

---

"Oh, he's finally awake," sitting beside me, my beloved uncle, Tyki, said with a smirk on his lips. I couldn't help but smile a little as well. The purple and pink-striped candle I had in my hand was pressed against that redhead's neck. I wanted to go a bit further, piercing the skin of that bastard… but then the Earl would be mad at me.

Without meaning to, my mouth curled into a scowl. I wanted to kill this guy…Rip his throat out…I wanted to torture him until he couldn't take it anymore and beg me to kill him. His only visible green eye was wide in horror. I smirked, enjoying this quite thoroughly, pressing the blade a bit harder until a drop of crimson blood dribbled down his neck.

"Rhode," Tyki warned, putting a hand on my arm to stop me from completely stabbing ginger. "Don't."

I scoffed, withdrawing the candle, "I wasn't going to."

He still cast me a wary look, but then directed his attention to ginger. "Hey, Lavi, is it?"

Lavi didn't respond. His mouth was hanging slightly open, and I could tell that he was trembling a lot. Even his hands were clutching tightly at the sheets on the bed. "Oi, you deaf, ginger?" I narrowed my eyes at him, wanting nothing more than to butcher him right now.

"Why…why are you two here?" he managed to choke out through his stupor.

"That doesn't matter," said Tyki smoothly, "but just one question…Do you want to bring Allen Walker back to life?"

Lavi now seemed to completely freeze. It even seemed like he had stopped breathing. There was a few moments of silence before I got frustrated and growled at him, "Do you want to bring your friend back to life?"

He swallowed; it was easy to see that he was in turmoil inside. I hoped that he'd suffer a lot. He deserved it. "…I…I don't know…" Of course, Lavi was probably just thinking about the whole akuma process, so he wouldn't want to bring back Allen like that…

"Don't put it that way, Tyki," I scolded my uncle, and he cast a irritated look at me. "It won't be anything like the akuma process… All you need to do is retrieve Allen's Innocence for us, and he'll be back, good as new. You two will be living together, happily ever after."

"Wh-what? Retrieve Allen's Innocence…Why?"

Tyki leaned against the wall casually, "Don't ask questions. Just retrieve Allen Walker's Innocence for us if you want to bring him back to life. Meet us at the front of the Black Order building in three hours if your answer is yes. Let's go, Rhode," he started walking towards the window, opening it.

"Wait, that's it?" I demanded, "no torturing, interrogating…nothing?" I'd really gotten my hopes up that we'd be able to at least spill a bit of Exorcist blood today, but Tyki ignored me and just grabbed me by the collar, jumping out of the window.

"I hate it when you drag me around like that," I frowned as he set me down on the ground gently.

Running a hand through his hair, Tyki's eyes glinted dangerously, "He will be in a state of mental chaos," he smiled, "that's worse than physical torturing, isn't that right, Rhode?"

Casting a look back at the building, I sighed, crossing my arms. "I guess you're right."

"Oh, and Rhode…" Tyki looked at me, "you didn't mean it when you said 'happily ever after', did you?"

I scoffed, "Of course not."

A/N: I suck so much that it's not even funny. R&R, please?

Oh, and please take note of this: the whole plot thing is still "under construction" so I might replace this chapter with an edited version, because I might've changed something regarding as to what the Noah and the Earl are up to and stuff....'kay? :D