"Sorry I'm late."
"Where's the scum? You did take care of it, right?"
"Things didn't go exactly to plan, I'm afraid…you see th-"
"YOU LET THEM GET AWAY?! Damn your incompetence, Tyki! You're lucky you've got your looks…otherwise I'd kill you."
"Not sure if that was a compliment or a threat, Lady Millennium…but thank you, none the less…"
Tyki had returned to the lake house after failing to capture either of the girls who'd spied on the Noahs. He had a burn mark across his face from where one of them attacked him with innocence. *"I'm going to kill that blond bitch…"*
"Speaking of your looks," the Millennium Countess spoke as she propped her feet up on the dinner table as Tyki took his seat, "What's with the mark on your face?"
Tyki growled, "There were actually two of them out there. They weren't ordinary humans either. They were innocence accommodators."
The Countess' eyes widened. She twitched her upper lip into a vicious snarl. "Damn exorcists…I'll crush their bloody Order…"
"Actually, I don't think they were associated with the Black Order. They didn't have on any uniforms with rose crosses and they seemed to be completely unaware of the situation." Tyki snapped his finger. "Lero, grab me a cold towel."
The pumpkin umbrella popped out from behind the Countess' chair. "Right away! Lero!" The umbrella flew away into the kitchen and returned with a damp towel, that Tyki dabbed his face off with.
"Lero, go bring the others back inside." The Countess demanded. "We've yet to discuss why the family was gathered here."
Minutes later, the umbrella returned with Road, Devit, Jasdero, and a black cat.
"Everyone, sit." The Countess signaled over to the table where she and Tyki already sat. The cat leapt into her lap and nuzzled into her chest. "I forgot to tell you, Tyki-pet~, Lulubell arrived while you were in the woods failing to follow out my orders to eliminate the scum." The woman hissed with a slightly teasing yet menacing smile.
"Haha! Nice face!" Devit mocked Tyki's burn mark, "You get your ass beat by a chick?" His younger twin brother chuckled creepily.
Tyki scowled, "Watch your damn mouth! I didn't see you putting forth an effort to catch them yourselves!"
"We shouldn't have to, but you're such a damn girly prick, so…"
Jasdero chimed, "Wimpy girly prick! Hee, hee, hee!"
"ENOUGH!" The red haired Countess slammed her gloved fist on the table. "Why can't you damn idiots shut up and focus?!"
All the Noah's hearts dropped simultaneously as they all lowered their heads and mumbled, "Sorry, my Lady…"
The Millennium Countess rubbed her temple and groaned, "Alright, Road…show them the girl."
"Yes, Ma'am!" The young girl snapped her fingers. Suddenly, the entire Noah family was in a room; one of Road's dream realms. They were all standing in a circle. Like a hologram, standing in the center was a girl with curly blond hair and a flowing green dress.
"Who's this chick?" Devit questioned as he and his brother tilted their heads in unison.
"It doesn't really matter who she is. It's WHAT she is that's important." Road answered.
The Countess nodded. "Road is right. I'm sure all of you are feeling that feeling again; certain emotions being intensified and whatnot."
Tyki swallowed the lump in his throat. He knew that feeling. His emotions had been particularly high as of late. He couldn't stop thinking about his human friends…or his previous lover…
"I believe the Noah of Passion is being reincarnated once more." The Countess explained. "And you can save your breath, this girl is not it."
"Then what's so important about her?" Tyki questioned.
Road gestured to Emeillia's hologram. "We think she contacted the person whose Noah genes are awakening. This girl's passion to be loved has driven her to extremes. She kidnapped every man in her entire town out of jealously ever since her fiancé left her. However, she also was given a ring by her fiancé that was made of innocence; so there's a chance that she actually had no contact with Passion in the first place."
Lulubell transformed from a cat back into a human. "Let's not waste our time then. We should go find the awakening Noah or destroy the innocence."
"It's too late for the innocence, Lulu~. Exorcists have already seized it. But, I really do think this girl was a mere experiment for Passion upon awakening. We will be welcoming our new family member into this hellacious world before we know it."
"What should I do with it?" Drek questioned as she observed the chipped off piece of her boot. "That guy we fought called it 'innocence'."
"You mean like…innocence as in…virginity…?" Riche whispered, embarrassed at the word.
The two girls had gotten several miles away from the Noah Lake House already. They had a map, but it seemed to take them in circles; partly because Drek acts on instinct more often than she should. They were following some train tracks and hoping they would lead to a town.
"Why would he call my boots my virginity? That doesn't make any sense." Drek skipped along the tracks like hop-scotch.
They walked in silence for a while before the black haired girl spoke again. "Hey, Drek? Don't you ever wonder what they are; those things that we can destroy? Do you think they're demons?"
"Demons? What would demons want with two teenaged girls? You read too many fiction novels…"
An echoing whistle resounded in the distance. Drek could feel the tracks vibrate beneath her feet. "Well, we found the train…" She leapt off the tracks and into the grass with Riche.
"I'm not holding it, YOU hold it!" Silverton flung the innocence ring at Kanda.
"Don't be a baby," he placed the ring in his pocket. "How can you be squeamish when you're the one who sliced off her hand at the wrist?"
Silverton slouched in her seat. "Well HE said it was enslaving her! What else could I do?"
"I'm sure you could have convinced her to take off the ring…if not, maybe just cut off her finger…" Lavi protested, "Don't blame me!"
"I think I'm going to be sick…" Miranda mumbled and looked away.
After a long and tiresome mission in Rouen, France, finally, the exorcists were returning to the Black Order with the innocence they'd retrieved. They had boarded a train that would lead them back and they were all sharing a reserved room.
Lavi patted the nauseous Miranda's back as he spoke, "So, Silverton, how are you feeling about your first official mission? You saved a lot of lives, y'know."
The brunette slouched and looked out the window. "I almost lost my own in the process." She watched the trees outside the window rush by in blurs of green. *"I'd never forgive myself if I died before telling them I'm sorry."*
Drek and Riche walked aside the railroad as the iron horse chugged by. Drek watched the train's windows, jealous of how lucky the passengers were to have easy transportation.
Then, a single passenger caught her eye. Drek's magenta eyes locked with theirs for just a second in time, yet they seemed to be speaking to her in a way.
"What the matter?" Riche nudged her blond friend, who'd stopped walking under the gaze of the passenger. "We need to keep going if we're ever going to find a town, Drek. Let's go."
With a shake of her head, Drek snapped herself out of her trance. "Sorry…I must be seeing things…"
Through Silverton's vision out the window came a sudden blur of yellow and black; two human figures from outside the train. She couldn't exactly figure out why, but somehow the simple blurs of color seemed familiar to her. She watched as they flew by.
"What's the matter?" Lavi's voice snapped her out of it.
She shook her head and replied, "It's nothing…I must be seeing things…"
Drek continued to walk east and thought, *"Lyssa, wherever you are, I swear I'll find you."*
Silverton continued to gaze out the window of the train heading west and thought, *"Drek, Riche, wherever you are, I swear I'll find you."*