Part 2: The Merciless General

Day: 007 as a comrade

My back ached from sitting on the seats of the plane for such a long time. Finally I was off of those horrid seats. I looked outside, I had just visited the baggage claim and was now outside admiring the beautiful city of London, England. There, at the front of the airport was a boy with blonde hair that was tied in to a braid. He had two moles sitting right on top of each other on his forehead, and wore a stuffed red uniform. "Walker!" He cried out with an irritated tone in his voice. "Hey Link!," Allen waved. "Allen Walker you have once again broken the rules of Central Command!" The man named Link groaned. "Sorry for ditching you Link," Allen laughed. "Be happy I did not report it Walker." "Who's that?" I asked Lenalee in a whisper. "You could call him somewhat of a watchdog for Allen. He was sent from the pope that lives at Central Command, a.k.a the Vatican. Even though they were the ones that founded the Black Order we hate them, they're all selfish. They don't care about humans at all. They think of exorcists as sacrificial lambs, and do nothing but try to please God, or at least that's what they say but they only do what they think is right which is usually always wrong." Lenalee explained to me with a voice like ice (I've got nothing against Catholics, in fact most of my friends are actually Catholic. I'm just explaining how I think someone that works at the Black Order would explain the pope considering that it even says in -man that people that live in the order don't like the Vatican). "So he protects Allen?" "More like monitors him," Lenalee said. "He tells the pope if Allen is acting suspicious or not because Allen is under suspicion of being an enemy of the Black Order."

All of a sudden the boy from Central Command looked at me. "And who are you?" "She's an accommodator of innocence, you and your pope should be happy we brought you another lamb," Lenalee hissed, I had never heard Lenalee's voice so cold before. "Watch your tongue Lee," Link hissed back. They both glared daggers at each other. Finally Link asked, "what's your name?" "Oh, I'm Sephiria Liang!" I replied quickly. "Well I shall report to the pope and bring you back to the order immediately."

We took the bus to a forest. The forest was thick and full of vegetation. It was to be expected though since I already knew that the order would most likely be hidden away from people. After walking through the huge forest we finally reached a clearing and a giant cliff towered over us. "The order's on the top of that cliff," Lenalee pointed. Then she grabbed hold of Allen and I. she quickly jumped and before we knew it we were on top of the cliff. "Lenalee Lee! Come down here and get me up this instant!" Link cried. "Sorry Link! But my innocence won't let me carry people with stuffed suits!" she laughed. "Well I have miss Sephiria's suitcase and if you don't bring me up this instant I will throw it in to a river!" he threatened. Lenalee groaned, "fine." her innocence reactivated and she came back up with Link. He returned my suitcase to me.

Allen led me to a huge gate made of rock and cement. "Examination!" The gate screamed and I returned the scream. A huge face had come out of the rock and was now looking down on me. My eyes were the size of golf balls, "wh- what is that thing?" I half shrieked and half stammered. "It's the gate keeper, don't worry he wont hurt you," Allen reassured, but Kanda might if the gate keeper says you're no good." Allen let out a sigh and shut his eyes as if he were having a flashback of some sort. "Who's Kand-?" "A it's the cursed boy!" The gate keeper howled and I covered my ears. "Hey! Just check her would you!" Allen snapped in a defensive tone. All of a sudden the stone face's eyes lit up and I was engulfed in a bright yellow light, "clear," the gate moaned in a bored tone. Lenalee let out a sigh of relief. "You may enter," the gate said.

The order was huge. It almost looked like the tower of a castle in ancient Greek civilization. I marveled at the size, stairs wrapped around and around the walls, each floor with many rooms all lined up in a row. A cheerful skinny man in along white uniform that almost looked like an exorcist's (except white). "Ah you must be the new exorcist that Lenalee told me about!" "Yeah, I'm Sephiria Liang nice to meet you," I shook hands with the man. "Head chief of the black order, Komui Lee." "Lenalee's brother, am I right?"

"Yes and I noticed that your last name was Liang, Chinese?"

"Yeah, I am Chinese."

"Well Lenalee and I are also Chinese speak of the devil huh?"

"Yeah, I guess so."

All of a sudden Komui spotted Lenalee and his eyes began to sparkle. "Lenalee!" he almost sang running towards her so fast that his glasses almost fell off. "I'm home brother," she smiled, her cheeks were slightly flushed. "Let's show Sephiria to her room okay?" Komui nodded happily like a good dog.

"Your room is on the third floor with mine, and majority of the exorcists." Lenalee told me. "There're stairs, but most of us prefer to use the elevator, this is a new one since our old one was destroyed." "Hey Lenalee, Sephiria I'm going to go and eat okay!" Allen yelled to us and ran off in the opposite direction of where we were going. "okay, Sephiria step here," Lenalee pointed at a large square on the floor and I nodded. She followed and then tapped something in to a keypad that rose from the ground. All of a sudden the square platform rose out of the ground and in to the air. I gasped and looked off the edge, we were floating, the platform was actually floating! "How-?" "The order's science division is the most hi tech in the whole entire world. They make the impossible, possible." Lenalee explained to me. I stood there amazed as the platform lifted itself to a different floor. "We're here." The elevator stopped and the both of us walked off.

The walls of the order were all rounded making an almost perfect cylinder shape that reached in to the sky. I was surprised that such a structure could be hidden from the outside world. There was more than just the main interior though because built in to the walls were long corridors that led to more rooms and other (unknown) places. It's already so big and they still added more to it! I thought. "And here we are," Lenalee and I stopped in front of a metal door that had some bolts in it. I'd never seen a door like this one before, there were no locks. "Why isn't there a lock?" I asked. "Only the science division rooms that have experiments in them are locked, especially my brother's experiments," she mumbled. I shivered, what kind of experiments were those?

I walked in to the room. It looked very old fashioned, the walls were made of gray stone, like the rest of the order. The bed was a twin size with blankets that were made of red velvet. I sat down on the mattress. My mattress at home was also a spring one so I didn't really mind how the bed felt. "If you're thinking that the room is creepy you don't have to worry that much. In about a year we'll be moving the location of headquarters," Lenalee told me. "Don't worry. This is just fine," I smiled. "Why are we moving locations?" "Well I told you that the highest level demon was level four right?" I nodded. "Well the first time we ever saw one was when it attacked the order. The demon totally trashed this place, our main laboratory, lab 5 is gone now and a lot of other places are falling apart." "I see," I said. "Well I'm gonna leave you here to unpack, see ya'" Lenalee waved then left the room. I waved back at her.

I began to unpack my suitcase as I came across a picture in a frame. It was my family photo that had been taken while we were on a vacation. I set it down carefully on a small coffee table that sat next to my bed with it sat a small lamp. I went back to me suitcase and dumped everything else inside in to my drawers that was found on the opposite wall of my bed. For wall that were made of stone the room was actually well heated. I laid down on my bed. The blankets were soft and kept me warm. The whole set up of the room reminded of a hotel bedroom, minus the stone walls.

I realized that the plane ride had exhausted me. It had been almost impossible to sleep on the plane. From my bed I kicked off my shoes and went to sleep

t

I awoke lying in a bed of soft sprinkling snow. I quickly got to my feet and felt the sting of frost hit my face. There was a tree covered in snow, and at the base of the trunk sat… "Solara!" I cried out immediately noticing her (our) face, but she seemed oblivious to any noise around her. I ran over to her and noticed from a few dozen feet away that she with someone. It was a boy. My mind flashed back to the dream about the boy standing in front of a mountain of corpses, and I jumped back. The same boy was talking to Solara! "Solara what are you doing!" I cried trying to get her attention. Still there was no response. She couldn't hear me, but for some reason I could hear the two of them. There whole conversation echoed in my ears and it almost felt like it was ringing in my head. Suddenly I realized that Solara looked a couple years younger than I had last seen her. I guessed that there was only a year or two age difference which is why I hadn't noticed in the beginning.

"The snow is so pretty isn't it Aaron?" Solara smiled at him sweetly. "Yeah, it really is nice." The boy named Aaron agreed. Though he wasn't smiling. "You left me yesterday. Dad you get orders to kill more people?" The boy nodded in response to Solara's question. Solara took in a deep breath almost like she was sad, and suddenly I had become Solara. I knew her every thought at that moment. I felt the same way she felt. I love him so much. Why can't I help him when I love him so much! I thought. I love him so much that I could die. I want to go everywhere with him, and live forever with him.

It felt so good sitting next to Aaron under the snow covered tree, my heart felt so warm, so happy, so whole. I sucked up a breath of fresh air and exhaled. "Well it doesn't matter to me how many people you kill, because I'll always love you. You're the most important person in my life." The words came to me so naturally, I was made to say those words to him. "Thank you Solara, I love you too," a small smile curled on the side of Aaron's lips. I cheeks became flustered and I felt a wave of joy wash over me. Aaron almost never smiled. I threw my arms around him and held him tightly. Then I kissed him lightly on the lips. "I love you."

All of a sudden I was in my own body again and the distant memory slowly faded away. I looked to my left and saw the normal Solara. Tears slowly made her way down her pale cheeks. "Solara was that-?" I was interrupted her, "that was our memory, our most dear and treasured memory. When we were both Solara." She wiped the tears from her eyes. "That was a memory from a lifetime ago, am I right?" I asked. "So that means now Aaron's dea-" "Yes these are memories that I do not wish to remember, but unfortunately I do. Aaron was a part of the Noah Clan, he was normally referred to as the 14th. We made terrible mistakes back then Sephiria, horrible mistakes that I never want to remember." She looked at me. "We never want to remember it, am I right Sephiria?"

Knocks rang out from the door and I awoke with a start. I wiped my tired eyes and yelled, "I'm coming!" I kicked off my blankets, and walked to the door, unlocked it and there stood-. My heartbeat raced and my eyes widened. "Aaron?" "Uhm no it's Allen actually. Are you okay Sephiria because you don't look too well." "Oh, Allen! Sorry I just woke up so I'm a little out of it. What's up?" I said coming to my senses. "I can come back later if it's not a good time," he offered. "No it's okay really. Come in," I protested stepping out of the way so that he could enter. He came in and looked around my room. "Your room is a lot like the rest of the rooms around the order, " he chuckled.

"What, is yours different?"

"Yeah actually it's a lot bigger then your room."

"Where is it?" I said interest ed in the size part.

Allen scratched the back of his head like he always did, it looked almost like he was hesitating at telling me, "it was an old storage room for food. It's in the cafeteria, and it's actually really scary the only reason I have that room is because of the location of it."

I laughed and immediately understood. Of course Allen would want a room in the cafeteria, it meant that he could get food anytime that he wanted.

"But poor Link," Allen started up again. "He must be scared out of his mind sleeping in that room."

"Wait that Link dude sleeps in your room too!"

"Yeah he has to monitor me 24/7." Allen replied.

"Just why are you under suspicion anyways Allen?" I asked out of pure curiosity.

He looked at me probably wondering how I knew that he was under suspicion in the first place. "So Lenalee told you?"

I nodded, "not much though. Only the part about you being under suspicion."

"I see," he laughed sweeping his hair back with his hand. "Gosh I hate explaining this." He had such beautiful hair. It reminded me a lot of Aaron's hair, except it was white. "It's okay of you don't want to tell me! I don't mind!" What a lie, I so do care. he took a deep breath and exhaled. "Okay, I'll tell you." I forced back a smile.

"Well awhile back, a bunch of exorcists including myself were sucked into a portal that led to something named the Noah's Ark. Inside were people that are almost superhuman whom are immortal. They are known as the Noah Clan, the only human beings who support the Millennium Earl."

Now I remembered what the Noah Clan was. Thirteen humans that can heal their own wounds and whom have special powers that they use to kill exorcists and supporters of the Black Order. One day, a 14th Noah was born throwing the Clan into confusion. That extra was Aaron, the person that Solara loved so much and somehow those feelings have somewhat slipped into me, though not completely.

Allen explained a lot to me about the 14th, though he also mentioned no one knew his name. That was wrong, I knew his name. Allen continued talking but I knew about most of the things he brought up until his final sentence.

"I'm accused of being the 14th Noah."

I sat on my bed speechless, then tried to choke back tears of laughter.

"There's no way that you could be the 14th Noah! There's no way!" I said, letting out a suppressed laugh.

"That's what I thought at first, but then I started seeing things when I looked at myself in the mirror. It's always behind me. Although I've gotten used to it, it makes me kind of believe that I could be the 14th," he seemed very grim when he said it. I knew that he didn't want to be the 14th but I till couldn't believe that he was the 14th. He and Aaron clearly differentiated in attitude. While Allen was a bit of a gentlemen to those around him, Aaron was more of a rude type. He was known for being rude to people he cared about and being like a loyal dog to those who he hated with all his heart. Allen couldn't be Aaron. In short, they were polar opposites. If Aaron was left, Allen was right and if Allen was the sky, Aaron was the sea floor.

"Well that's pretty much it," Allen said.

"Thanks for telling me this stuff," I smiled. He smiled back.

"Oh and here," He threw a small navy blue box loosely tied with a silver ribbon.

"What is it?" I asked curiously.

"Open it and you'll find out," Allen said. He started towards the door and opened it. All of a sudden he stopped, "oh and I almost forgot," he began turning back, "Komui would like to see you in his office after you finish lunch tomorrow. One of the other exorcists or I will show you to his office." Then he shut the door.

I looked at the pretty blue box, wondering what it could possibly contain. I untied the silver sash slowly, then lifted the lid, revealing a silver pendant. A small sapphire sat in the middle of the pendant with decorative engravings circling the jewel. The necklace was incredibly beautiful. I carefully removed the necklace from the tissue paper and a small folded piece of paper fluttered onto the ground. I picked up the slip of paper and unfolded it. Inside, was a note from my family.

"We're waiting for you at home." Then the names of my family, "Mommy, Daddy, Dora, and Ben." My heart ached and tears stung my eyes. I rolled the delicate necklace in my hand and all of a sudden, my finger hit a clasp on the pendant. I allowed the necklace to once more lay flat in my pal and looked at it. Fidgeting with the small clasp, the necklace opened up with a sounding click. Inside the pendant was a picture of my family. We had taken the picture just a year before. This time, tears escaped my eyes. I realized how much I would miss my family, my friends, everyone.

I slipped on the necklace and hooked the two clasps together so that it wouldn't fall. I wiped away my tears and took a deep breath. I hadn't eaten in a while and was getting hungry. I certainly couldn't walk out of my room crying. I stepped out of my room and used the stairs to get to the first floor. Then I realized, I didn't know where the cafeteria was at all I walked around the first floor, walking by many people in lab coats, too afraid to ask them where the cafeteria was. I hoped that I would somehow come across it. Though it should've been about dinnertime, no one was heading in the same direction towards the cafeteria. I wandered into an arched hallway that seemed a little dark. It was a fancier edge to the order. Like an old European castle. Rooms lined the hallway walls. I was too busy looking at the structure around me that I didn't notice that two other people were walking down the mysterious hallway. I bumped into them and fell to the ground with a quiet yelp.

"What were you're going," one of the people snapped at me.

I looked up at the person who had spoken. It was a boy with long black hair tied up in a pony tail. He glared at me with sharp black eyes.

"C'mon Yuu, you don't have to be so mean to her," the boy next to the boy named Yuu said.

"Don't call me that, bastard," Yuu scoffed.

"Sorry, sorry Yuu," the boy laughed. Yuu gritted his teeth.

"Tch!"

A hand was reached out to me and I looked to see who it was. It was the boy who was standing next to Yuu. He had deep red hair that was spiked up using a bandana that covered his forehead. He had green eyes and a big toothy grin on his face.

"Hey, you okay?" he asked.

I nodded and could feel my cheeks getting hot. I grabbed onto his hand and got back off my feet. When I was up, he asked,

"What are you here for? I've never seen you around before."

"Oh, uhm I'm the new exorcist here," I answered. His eyes widened.

"Really? What a coincidence! Yuu and I are exorcists too! I'm Lavi, what's your name?" He asked with his toothy grin.

"I'm Sephiria, nice to meet you Lavi." I replied.

"Oh, and this is Yuu," Lavi pointed.

"Uh, nice to meet you Yuu," I said. His face was like thunder.

"It's Kanda!" he snapped.

"Oh, sorry, uh, Kanda." I said back.

"Sorry, Yuu's like that a lot," Lavi laughed.

"Call me that again and I'll cut you!" Kanda hissed, tapping on a sword that sat by his hips.

"S-sorry, Yuu!" Lavi stuttered. Kanda drew his sword and Lavi grabbed my hand.

"Uh, let's go eat Sephiria!" He yanked me and I was almost flying behind him while he dashed away.

When we finally got far enough from Kanda, Lavi's head looked down to the floor, panting

"God, that guy is so freaking evil!" He gasped.

"What do you call him Yuu?" I asked, also out of breath.

"Well it's his first name! Kanda is his last name and I don't call people by their last names." He stopped.

"He doesn't like his first name?"

"Not at all!"

"Why don't you just call him Kanda?"

"Well, it's kinda fun to make him angry."

"You're crazy!" I laughed. He laughed with me.

"So if you two are exorcists, then what's your innocence?" I asked finally regaining my breath.

"Well,, you already saw Yuu's," he said.

"The sword?"

"Yep, and mines is this," he pointed to a small black and white circus hammer that was strapped to his leg.

"You must be wondering what I can do with such a small hammer," he assumed. I nodded. "Well I'm curious about your innocence too," he said pointing to the rings on my body. "Crystal type right?"

"That's what everyone's saying, but I don't think it is." I said.

"Well, we should go to the training grounds whenever you've got time and we could both take a look at each other's innocence."

"That sounds good." I agreed.

"Well let's go eat. I'm hungry." he smiled.

"Yeah, me too," I laughed.

Lavi showed me to the cafeteria. I felt so stupid for not being able to find it, it was huge. Apparently I had made just about 50+ wrong turns. There still weren't that many people in the cafeteria yet, so I asked Lavi why. "Well everyone that works at the order are pretty much all workaholics, even the exorcists. We spend most of our days on the training grounds prepping for upcoming missions." Lavi answered. We walked up to a counter that was built in to the wall (Ahhhhhh the place where you tell Jerry what you want to order is do hard to describe! GRRRRRR! You understand right?). "Hey Jerry!" Lavi called in to the square opening in the wall. A tanned skin man with dyed pink hair that was put in to a braid popped up from the opening, "Hello there Lavi!" He said in a girly voice. Then he spotted me, "Oh my! What do we have here?" "A new exorcist," Lavi grinned. "And a cute one at that! You are the cutest exorcist I've ever seen!" Jerry marveled with his girly voice. "She sure is a cute one isn't she," Lavi agreed. My cheeks flushed a rosy pink. No guy had ever called me cute before. "Oh look Lavi she's blushing! Be careful you'll make her fall for you!" Jerry joked, or at least I think it was a joke. "So you want the usual?" Jerry asked Lavi and Lavi nodded. "And what do you want miss cutie?" Jerry asked me sweetly. "I'll just have whatever Lavi is getting," I replied. "Of course!" He sang. "It'll be ready soon!"

When Lavi and I got our food we sat down at a table together. It was quiet for a moment so I started up a conversation to stop the awkward silence. "Why did you become an exorcist Lavi?" "Well truth is being an exorcist is just one of my jobs. My real job is as a Bookman, I record history. I'm only a Bookman jr. though."

"Oh."

"What about you Sephiria? What made you want to become an exorcist?"

"I want to help people and kill demons," I told him bluntly.

"How vague," he laughed.

"Guess I'm just that kind of person that doesn't like to go in to detail about stuff. Everyone needs someone like that in there life," I smiled at him.

"Guess you're mine."

"Say how old are you Lavi?"

"I'm 18!" he said proudly. "And you?"

"I'm 12," I told him.

Lavi stared at me wide eyed. "Only 12! No way you've got to be at the least 14!"

I shook my head, "Nope. Seriously I'm only 12 years old. Though people tell me that I look 14 like you just said."

All of a sudden a boy with thick round glasses walked up to me. He wore large earphones that strapped over his head and walked with a wooden cane. "Are you the new exorcist Sephiria?" he asked sounding excited. He was quite short and looked like he was in his early twenties or younger (that's just my guess if you guys actually know his real age please tell me). "Yeah, I'm Sephiria," I answered. "Great! I need to take your measurements for your uniform," he seemed rather jumpy. "Sure, uhm go ahead."

It felt weird having my measurements taken by a male especially in front of other people, but somehow I got the vibe that no one really cared. Everyone was like family here, or more like really good friends so it didn't quite matter to anyone. I wanted to be a part of this big family also and slowly I felt myself begin to melt in to it. Al the same time though I could feel an ache In my heart. It was the wound of leaving everyone at my real home behind, so I felt guilty for wanting to become a part of this family when the one at home loved me so much already. I promised myself though that I would save everyone, no matter what the cost was though. This was my new home now and I had to accept that.

It was getting very late, but everyone was still scurrying around and concentrating on their work. "You can tell that the science department works very hard huh?" Lavi asked. "Yeah," I replied. "Must be tough." "Yeah, they have to run on little or no sleep at all sometimes. Like you know that Johnny kid that asked you for your measurements right? Well tonight he'll be pulling an all nighter to get that uniform of yours made." I looked at Lavi guilty. "Oh but don't worry Johnny loves doing stuff like that so you don't have to make a face like that!" Lavi told me. I felt a little better. I was glad that he was doing something that he liked for my sake. "Hey once you get your uniform we should go to the training grounds!" Lavi exclaimed. "Why would I need my uniform to train with you?" I asked. "Trust me if you're gonna train with me you're gonna want your uniform." Lavi warned. "Well it's gettin' real late Sephiria so I'll see you tomorrow okay?" I nodded and went to my room wondering just how strong Lavi's innocence was. I mean what could I miniature circus hammer do, right?

Hey! I did pretty darn good with this picture don't you! At least I didn't epically fail!