Sorry about the relatively short chapter, I've been a little busy but I wanted to put this out there for you all as soon as possible! Again, words cannot express how much I appreciate my reviewers and readers! Your support is my lifeblood.
If any of you want to throw suggestions at me on where to go with this story or what you would like to see, feel free to PM me or leave a review! If I like your idea I'll try to work it in.
And also I want to pledge my love to mia826. She's only just the best most wonderful beta reader ever. No biggie.
Road took one step into the room, her foot silent on the ground. There was a whirl of movement and Lenalee felt herself being pushed backward. Shaking with the effort, Lavi and Kanda moved in front of her, shielding her with their bodies.
"No freaking way," grunted Lavi as he lowered himself into a ready stance. "If you want her you'll have to go through us first." Kanda simply glared at the blue haired girl. Road stopped, looking at the duo, her face carrying a bemused expression. Her lips twitched.
Suddenly, she threw her head back, body quaking with harsh, wild laughter. As quickly as the eruption of crazed glee came, it was gone, replaced by a serious, unreadable expression.
"You would really throw your lives away trying to fight me? With no weapons and in your condition? Don't be so foolish." Her voice trembled with a sort of dark excitement. She continued to amble into the room, stopping just a breath away from the two defiant exorcists. Her smile contained all the innocence of a child, with only her shimmering golden eyes that hinted at the monster within.
Lavi shifted back slightly. Kanda didn't move.
"You people," her voice was barely a whisper, "are so annoyingly amusing." Lenalee watched in horror as Road delicately lifted a hand, reaching for Lavi's face.
"Wait." Lenalee wasn't even sure if she spoke out loud. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion – Lavi's eyes widening in surprise, Kanda's lunge – too slow – towards Road's outstretched arm, the horribly wild smile melting onto Road's face.
"Wait!" The plea exploded out of her this time as she scrambled to her feet, yanking Lavi back by the scruff of his neck. He let out a shocked yelp as he hit the floor hard. Road froze, her fingers now millimeters from Lenalee's flushed face. Her grin shifted into a satisfied smirk.
"What do you think you're doing, Lenalee?" hissed Kanda angrily, his frustration clearly evident on his usually emotionless face. Road curled her thin, cold fingers around Lenalee's wrist and dragged her towards the door, ignoring the others as one would ignore the lowliest of beings. Looking back at them, Lenalee gave her friends what she hoped was a comforting expression.
"I can't lose you guys. I'll be okay, I promise."
Road tossed a haphazard glance back towards the dumbfounded redhead on the floor and smirked. The door closed behind her, leaving Kanda and Lavi in stunned silence. Now that the warm and kind aura of Lenalee was gone, it seemed that not even the light from the moon through the window could penetrate the inky gloom.
Lavi sank back onto the floor for a moment, as if paralyzed, before leaping back to his feet and hurling himself at the door.
"HEY!" Lavi began kicking the door with all his strength and pummeling it with agonizingly clenched fists, ignoring the sharp stinging that rocketed through his body. Lenalee was out there, and he was in here. "YOU CAN'T HAVE HER! GIVE HER BACK!" He could feel the skin on his palm splitting under the force of his strikes, and he didn't care.
It was happening again. He couldn't let it happen again. His thoughts flashed back to a painfully clear image that his Bookman memory retained with unsurprising clarity. He and Lenalee were in the hospital wing, and neither of them had their Innocence. There was screaming and an alarm and then… he came.
Leverier.
He had come for her, bringing a nauseating sense of dread and fear. And yet, she moved with purpose, with a carefully placed mask of strength. She went with him willingly, sparing one last look for Lavi.
I stopped running away, back then… I stopped running, and I became an Exorcist.
That's what she'd told him. That's when he saw that look in her eyes, that quiet, scared determination - just like the eyes he saw disappear from his sight only seconds before.
But this time the door wasn't open for him to follow; this time he could do nothing. And he hated it.
"Lavi!" Kanda snatched the Bookman's hand before he could continue pounding on the door, pulling it back until a sharp pain sparked in his shoulder. "The only thing you are going to break if you keep doing that is your hand. Stop." Lavi jerked his hand back.
"So what? We're just going to let them take her away?" He snapped angrily, cradling his bloody fist to his chest.
"Tch. Of course not, you dumbass," Kanda scoffed moving back to the wall and sitting down. "We're going to practice something called patience. When the Noah come back, what are you going to do? Bleed on them? Your injuries will heal faster if you sleep."
Lavi gritted his teeth, but followed Kanda to the wall and slid down beside him. Kanda was right, of course. Until the Noah opened the door again, they were stuck.
And seeing as he had nothing better to do…
Lavi grinned.
"Hey, Yu. It totally sounded like you were worried about my health. I didn't even know you had a nice side–"
"Shut up."
Lenalee found herself stumbling over her feet as she struggled to keep pace with Road, who refused to let go of her wrist. They had been weaving throughout various corridors and passageways, crossing shadowy bridges over murky streams, dipping in and out of various dark alleys, but to Lenalee it all looked the same. The black Ark suited its color.
The white Ark had been beautiful; although she was loathe to admit that she admired any architecture crafted by her sworn enemy, there was a quiet splendor in the perpetual blue sky buffered by cotton clouds. There was even life, present in the flocks of birds that circled the sky. But here, in this desolate black wasteland, it was as if the night sky itself was trying to destroy what fragile hope the three Exorcists still had.
She vaguely noted that she could see no stars. How lonely, she found herself thinking.
Lenalee was shaken out of her reverie when she slammed into Road, who had come to an abrupt stop. The petite Noah didn't even budge. Instead, she turned around, letting go of her prisoner's wrist to place her hands on her hips. The two had stopped outside – was it always going to be this cold? – in front of a rather large featureless door.
Confused and edgy, Lenalee forced herself to stand still in case any extra movements would set off Road like a small bomb. The pixie-haired girl appeared to be just as motionless, her narrowed eyes being the only thing moving, scanning over Lenalee's body like there was something that she just couldn't see.
"I don't get it," Road finally huffed, sounding almost frustrated. "What is it about you?" The Exorcist shifted on her feet nervously. What was she talking about?
Road heaved an exasperated sigh and crammed her hands into pockets that Lenalee didn't know could exist on a skirt, withdrawing a large key – her key – and tossing it to Lenalee, who barely caught it with the tips of her fingers.
"Anyway, you'd better not lose it, because I wouldn't mind making you my little doll again," the Noah of Dreams spoke with a casual air, as if they were discussing the weather. "And you only get about an hour or so for now, because then he's got to go to a meeting and you aren't invited. So just wait in there like a good pet and he'll be back when it's over." She turned to leave.
"W-wait! Where will this key take me? Who are you talking about? What about my friends?" The questions kept slipping off Lenalee's tongue. Road gazed amusedly at the babbling girl.
"You're going to your master, silly. The Earl entrusted me on bringing the toys to their owners, so I'm moving them one by one. I can't wait until I can play with that Bookman again. Wasn't that fun?" Obviously she and Lenalee had different definitions of the word.
Remembering that horrible moment, when she was helpless to watch Lavi losing his mind to Road, Lenalee's eyes hardened and her jaw tightened before she turned around to face the door, afraid of what she might say if she let Road provoke her even more. She heard one last giggle behind her before the Noah was gone.
Alone now, Lenalee released the breath she didn't know she was holding and stepped up to the massive, smooth, black door. There was no doorknob, just a keyhole. She briefly wished it wasn't so cold – that's why her legs are trembling, there's no other reason of course – and slid the key into the lock.
As soon as metal made contact with metal, Lenalee thought that the paint had begun to melt from the door, revealing an intense shimmering white that almost seemed to glow. But it wasn't paint; the charcoal door itself was changing, shifting fluidly into a door with a color that seemed so out of place in the joyless air.
So it leads to the white Ark. Somehow she wasn't too surprised. Still gripping the key, she made to turn it and open the door, but something inside her hesitated.
Truth be told, she was happier that she would be leaving the suffocating atmosphere of her current surroundings, but that would mean she was leaving Kanda and Lavi behind as well. And that was unacceptable. I'll come back for you guys. I promise, she swore silently.
And yet, she still felt herself staring at the key in the lock, unable to make herself turn the key and open the door to see him inside.
Suddenly, the door clicked and lurched inward. Lenalee let out a squeak of shock and stumbled backwards, landing hard on her back.
Oh my god.
And there he was, all yellow eyes and granite skin, staring down at her bewilderedly, standing stock still. Lenalee wasn't sure if he was breathing. She didn't know if she was breathing as well, but if she wasn't, she was absolutely sure that it was her fall and not his presence that took her breath away.
"Lenalee?"