Hey, Paw-chan here with the Fifth Movement~! ^_^ Sorry about the missed update last Sunday. Chapter wasn't complete, and I was gone for over half the day because of District Band Auditions. By the time I got home, my mom was on the main computer [where chapter five was located] and I only had access to the laptop [which didn't have chapter five].
But, it's here now, so fret not~! ^_^
This chapter, Erika and Cross finally meet, and we learn who Allegro really is~! [Pfft, like we all didn't know already.]
I hope you enjoy the Fifth Movement of Allegro's Crescendo!
[Warning: There is some language in this chapter that is a little strong. You've been warned.]
Disclaimer: Still don't own D,Gray-Man
Allegro's Crescendo
Allen was never found by Cross after attempting to bring Mana back. Neither did the Millennium Earl or the Noah's take him in. No, a third party found young Allen instead, and from that day on, he wasn't 'Allen' anymore. Instead, the Destroyer of Time gained a new name. That name was…
The Fifth Movement: Mezzo-Forte
"C'mon Allegro, stop it, please, stop!" Erika pleaded in a soft tone, though it wasn't needed seeing as the monster at the end of the hall was most likely already tuned to their location because of Allegro's screaming.
But he wouldn't stop. He thrashed in Erika's arms, arms flailing, sometimes hitting Erika, other times grasping at the bandages that were wrapped around his left eye still. Allegro's hand got a lucky grasp on the bandages, and tore the wrap partially from the eye. Erika shifted Allegro in her grasp, and sidled further down the wall, deeper into the guest room.
She reached her own hand up to the bandages, swatting off Allegro's flailing ones, and undid them herself. Erika stared at the cut across the small face, the cut, which a little more than a week ago, had been a bloody gash that refused to stop bleeding. Refused to heal, and caused the little boy in her care- her cemetery stray -an infinite amount of pain. A gash that, without a doubt, was meant to scar.
Not in this way though.
When Erika thought of a scar, she thought of something small. Jagged, maybe, depending on how the cut was taken care of. A thin or fat line, depending on the width of the cause of the wound. When she saw Allegro's gash, she thought him lucky to still have an eye, and she knew that he would have a horrible scar once it was healed. A messy scar, jagged, almost as wide as his eye socket.
His scar, though, was nothing of the sort. None of those things- not jagged, not messy, none of it. In fact, it was so strange, Erika found herself almost forgetting the direness of the current situation with wondering how his gash turned into what it was now, with no outside help.
At the top was an inverted star, a pentacle, the point facing down towards his eye, with a line going straight down over his eyelid [she could see, because his eye was still closed]. The line went down a bit more, before it formed a corner and went off towards his ear a little bit, before curving down to score down his cheek some. And then, between his eye and the first corner, there was a line cutting through horizontally the line that was scoring vertically down his face, forming some sort of a cross.
"Heheh, where are you?" The thing, whatever it was, taunted as it undoubtedly came down the hall towards the room. Erika could tell it was playing with them, for it had to hear Allegro's howls. It was playing with them just like a mother would play hide and seek with a young child who was in an obvious hiding spot.
"There you are!" Disjointed words fell from the monster's mouth as it stepped into the room.
"Here I am," Erika replied, an echo, her words strangely calm as she held Allegro against her one side, and raised her gun on the other.
Before Erika could do anything though, a whirring filled the room, and the area around Erika and Allegro started glowing. Save for the whirring, there was no sound until…
"So this is where you are, you bastard."
It was a man, Erika observed, a small scowl setting on her face. Bright red hair, with contrasting dark clothes. He wore a black hat with gold around the inner rim, and his dark coat had gold adornments as well, with what looked like a symbol over his heart. Flapping above his head was gold looking bird-thing, and it looked as if it had a cross on its front.
"Exorcist," The monster hissed. Erika looked between the two, back and forth, her arms keeping a tight grip on Allegro and her gun. Exorcist? Sure there were exorcists, but that was for the superstitious- those who believed their houses were haunted by ghosts, not infested with some weird gun-firing mechanical monsters.
And Erika definitely did not believe in ghosts.
There was an echo, a distinct bang of a gun going off, followed by a second. Then…
Dust?
~~Moderately Loud~~
The Level Two went down with one hit, which wasn't very much fun for Cross. But the second shot the followed shortly after his reminded him that he was not the only one in the room. And, sure enough, across the room were two people, one of which who undoubtedly was the object of his search.
The person who had shot the gun was a woman; brown hair flew wildly around her shoulders and matching brown eyes that held a mix of fear and anger in them. Her right hand held her gun firmly, and now that the Akuma was gone, it was trained on him. The woman's other arm was wrapped around the kid.
The kid was definitely the cheeky little brat who allowed Mana Walker drag around and call him Allen. But now, he wasn't showing any of the vitality he had had when he'd been with Walker. His rats' nest of hair, which was once a dark shade of brown, now had white streaks starting to bleach their way down from his crown to the tips. Allen had a scar down the side of his face- no doubt a curse, or something of the sort -from when the Akuma that was his foster father attacked him. If it wasn't for the deadened look in his eyes, Cross would've said he was still the same brat as he had been before Mana Walker had died.
But he wasn't. Whether it was because of the incident between him and the Earl, because of the woman who had taken him for the past week and a half, or because of… him, the brat had changed. And, looking at the brat, who was sheltered snugly against the woman's side, Cross wasn't sure whether it was for the better or the worse.
"What the hell was that?" Her voice was a little shaky, but that was the only sign on her body of her fear. Her body wasn't shaking, and her hands were steady- steadily pointing her gun at him, he noticed.
"An Akuma." Cross answered simply.
"What are you talking about?" The woman didn't move from her spot, didn't do a thing, yet just with her voice she made herself seem a little more intimidating. "Akuma aren't real. They're a story made up by adults to scare little kids."
"Not all stories are made up," Cross answered simply.
"So, what then?" She asked. "Do you fancy yourself as some- some demon hunter? Fighting something that doesn't exist?"
"Actually, the professional term is Exorcist," Cross snorted as he pulled out a cigarette, lighting it. "But, yeah, that pretty much sums up the job."
"You're kidding me."
"Actually, I'm serious." Cross blew out a puff of smoke before taking another drag off of his cigarette.
"How else do you think the brat there got that scar?"
~~Mezzo-forte~~
"Well, of course,-" Erika started to say in retaliation to the crimson haired man, when she froze. Realizing that she didn't have a concrete reason as to why Allegro had that scar. She had speculations as to why, but she didn't know the actual reason. Each idea though, seemed more unrealistic than the last.
"It was an Akuma," The man said, and Erika grimaced as he tapped ash from his cigarette onto the floor. "Why do you think the brat had such a violent reaction to the Akuma?"
"First off, stop calling him a brat!" Erika found herself snapping, angry at the man. "He has a name, you know! And who the hell are you anyway?" The man looked startled, but Erika either didn't notice or didn't care.
"And second off, what sort of kid wouldn't be scared of… of that?" Erika shouted, indicating at the spot where the thing the man- 'Exorcist' or whatever -had killed had been.
"Name's Cross Marian." The man- Cross Marian -replied flippantly.
"You know the brat's name?" The man asked, and Erika was taken aback by the sudden change of subject.
"Well… no," She amended, blinking. "He never answered me when I asked him for his name, so I started calling him Allegro. But what's it to you anyway?"
"Allen." He said quietly, almost to himself, and Erika barely caught it.
"Pardon?" Erika asked, just the slightest bit confused.
"Allen. Allen Walker." Cross said louder. "That's the brat's name- not 'Alley' or whatever girly shit you said you were calling him."
"Allegro," Erika growled. "And that still does nothing to answer my question- what's it to you? Why do you care about Allegro- I mean, Allen, so much?" Because Allen was his name, not Allegro, she had to start reminding herself of that. He wasn't her little boy, no matter how much she was attached to him. He was someone else's.
Cross hesitated before speaking.
"He has potential." Was the response that he finally offered.
"Potential for what? Being an Exorcist like yourself?" Now, Erika wasn't normally this rude to people she just met, however, this man- this 'Cross' -was making her, well, very cross. It wasn't helping things either that he was claiming to be someone who fought make-believe monsters for a living [though a part of Erika was nagging at her saying that maybe- just maybe, it wasn't so make-believe].
"Yes," He admitted shamelessly, taking the cigarette butt out of his mouth, feeding it to the golden bird-like thing at his side, who opened a mouth with surprisingly sharp teeth, eating the cigarette butt.
"Allen has potential to be not only a great Exorcist, but something else." Cross continued. "Something very dangerous, if he's not trained properly."
"And why should I believe you?" Erika countered, "How do I know you aren't lying to me?"
"How do you know I'm not?" Cross grumbled, before shaking his head.
"Fuck it. I'm not dealing with this shit." He reached up, adjusting his hat.
Erika thought for a moment he was going to leave, but her thought's changed when she saw that his hand- which he brought down with all fingers but his middle and pointer down -the tips of his fingers started glowing.
"I hate dealing with women like you, so you're just going to go to sleep for a while, alright?"
~~Allegro's Crescendo~~
Oooh~! Cross wants Allen/Allegro, but Erika doesn't want to let her little boy go! What's going to happen next?
What do you think? Is Cross going to get little Allen/Allegro? Is Erika going to manage to keep him? Will either of them ever see Allen/Allegro's Anti-Akuma weapon? [I already know these answers~! ^_^]
But what are your thoughts?
Next time in Allegro's Crescendo: Accented
The light from the man's fingers had gone, but his arm really, really, really hurt and it didn't look like a normal arm anymore, and it was scary looking, and all he could remember was that glow of green and silver from when his life had ended, and he felt like he couldn't breathe, and, and, and, and-
Read and Review, and tell me what you think~! ^_^
~~Paw-Chan Signing Out~~