Stella: So this chapter was combined with the next one, but as I reread it, I realized that it just seemed like I was going on and on and on...so thus, I separated them!

Lavi: You and your last minute decisions.

Stella: Now I'm not even sure if this is a good chapter by itself. But hey, it took me a while! I was completely stuck...for five days!

Rose: So basically...

Stella: So basically...this chapter probably sucks. But maybe I'll redo it...someday. Ugh, I have school a week from now. It's absolutely depressing.

Lavi: Shouldn't you be doing your summer reading?

Stella: ...

Shortly after the encounter with Tyki and Road, Allen and Rose were rushed back to the Black Order to the hospital wing. Everyone that joined their mission accompanied them to the hospital wing for support.

"But Allen-kun…what if he d-doesn't…" Lenalee trailed off mid-sentence, tears sliding down her face.

Rose avoided everyone's gaze, especially Allen's.

'It's all my fault…'

She couldn't let go of the fact that Allen almost died earlier that day. As of the moment, he and Rose were completely fine, but that's because Miranda didn't deactivate her Time Out field yet. Most of the medical team was trying to figure out how they would be able to close the wound in Allen's heart in time. There was also the situation about his destroyed Innocence. Nobody wanted to mention that in front of Allen. He seemed destroyed by the fact itself, but he didn't blame Rose once.

"Alright, we've got it." Komui informed everyone. "We were going to see if the Head of the Asian Branch could come, but that would take too much time." Now he turned to only Miranda. "We've got the monitors plugged in, Miranda. It should keep Allen's heart beating fine and Rosalie will be okay too. You can deactivate your Innocence now."

"But I…" She began meekly, clutching the arm that wielded her weapon. "I can't! They're hurt too badly!"

"It's fine, Miranda." Allen told her with a smile, but it was obvious that there was no trace of happiness within him. "We'll be okay right, Rose?"

Rose finally looked at Allen and Miranda with puffy eyes and a red nose. Lavi and Lenalee tried constantly to cheer her up, but she just wouldn't forgive herself for what happened.

"Rose…" Allen repeated her name, hoping that she would answer.

"I…I'm sorry, Allen…" She whispered and everyone could clearly see her spirits were broken, just as much as Allen's.

"Don't be, Rose. I'll be fine." He stated determinedly.

"Rosalie, listen to me." Komui spoke up and walked over to her bed. "You and Allen need to hear this first. Allen's Innocence wasn't truly destroyed, if that's what you're so worried about."

Allen and Rose stared at him in astonishment. "What?" They demanded in unison.

"It's just been reduced…to particles, but not destroyed. So, maybe after this operation, Allen might be able to summon his Innocence again."

Now everyone in the room nodded together. "Mmmmhmmmmm…."

Allen's eyes immediately lit up with excitement. "That's great!"

Rose managed the smallest smile, but her feelings of guilt didn't go away. She knew she had to get stronger and she wasn't going to stop until she was. She turned her head slowly and put a hand over Miranda's.

"Miranda-san, please deactivate your Innocence." She said quietly and smiled at her genuinely that time. Miranda nodded and looked at Allen for reassurance.

He nodded as well. "Go ahead."

Miranda raised her arm and the disk slid up and Allen and Rose's "times" returned to Miranda's Innocence. Blood immediately flowed out of their bodies and Allen clutched his heart.

"Everyone, I'm going to please ask you to step out until we're done." Komui commanded and they all left quietly, hoping their comrades would be able to recover fast.

Allen and Rose smiled weakly at each other before closing their eyes.

~…~

On the third day of being in the hospital wing, Rose healed at a dramatic rate, but still not well enough to leave. She looked over and saw Allen sleeping soundly with his heart hooked up to a monitor. She sighed in relief.

'It looks like he made it just fine. I'm so glad…'

She rose up from the bed and snuck out and headed straight for the training hall, praying that no one would be there. Once she got in, she saw the coast was clear and immediately activated her Innocence. After taking a deep breath, she raised her arms up, but winced from the pain. She wasn't one hundred percent better yet and training right away would probably slow down her process of recovering, but at the moment, she didn't care.

Rose began training by herself for almost an hour and moved her arms all sorts of ways. In ways that felt natural to her. But, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't manipulate water or wind and it was beginning to frustrate her.

"If only I knew how…then maybe Allen wouldn't…" She muttered more to herself and shook her head.

Angrily, she punched the wall and it caused her a huge jolt of pain. But this time, she embraced the pain and punched the wall repeatedly until her fists and the wall were bloodied up. Rose sank to the floor, sobbing. Not from the pain, but from her own weakness.

A voice called her name out, but it wasn't until she felt herself being lifted did she notice that voice.

"Rosalie, what are you doing to yourself?" She turned and met Lavi's single eye, which was clouded with seriousness and concern.

"Lavi…" She choked out between sobs. "It's all my fault. My stupid, stupid fault…"

"Haven't I told you already not to blame yourself for everything? It only brings you down more."

She didn't say anything and moved her hand to punch the wall again, but Lavi grabbed it just before she could. He sighed as he looked at her bloody fists.

"Will you stop that?" He finally asked her in a serious tone. "What's wrong with you? You're not acting like yourself."

'I know the old man told me to keep an eye after her, but geez, she's going overboard right now.'

"Why are you here?" She finally asked, sliding back down to the ground again.

"Why are you out of the hospital wing?" He shot back, smirking at the glare he was receiving.

"It just…doesn't feel right…"

"What doesn't feel right?"

She looked down, fresh tears welling up in the corner of her eyes. "Being in the same room with Allen…after – "

"Are you going on about that again?" Lavi demanded in a slightly angry tone. "Rose, listen to yourself. You say you want to be stronger, but all you're doing is blaming yourself for things that couldn't have been helped. Just stop, okay?!" His voice grew louder with each word and his expression hardened into frustrated one.

Rose's tears began to fall and she began sobbing again. "But i-it's true. T-Tyki said t-t-that if I went…" Her whole body was shaking this time and Lavi started to feel uneasy, unsure of what to do with the crying Rose. "T-that if I went w-w-with them, h-he wouldn't h-h-hurt Allen, but I r-refused to…g-go!"

Lavi took a step closer to her and kneeled down to brush a few hairs that were stuck to her face. Hesitantly, he put his hand on her shoulders and she finally stopped shaking while staring at him in confusion with her tear-soaked eyes.

"As far as I know, you made the right choice." He paused and removed his hands from her shoulders, but the close proximity between the two remained the same. "You can't let yourself trust anyone from the Clan of Noah."

Rose cleared her throat and leaned closer to him, cheeks burning as red as his hair. "But…what Road said...I get the feeling that it might be true."

Lavi scanned her for a second, his face momentarily washed away of any emotions.

"Lavi?" She called out for the redhead when he didn't make an attempt to say anything.

He shook in head disbelievingly. "You would think I'd know what she was talking about, but I had absolutely no clue." He muttered more to himself than to Rose. "I'm the successor to Bookman. I'm supposed to remember everything, but yet…" He casted his eye over Rose and shook his head again.

They sat in silence for a minute pondering their apparently shared, yet hidden past.

"I know that Komui-san is hiding something from me." Rose finally said. "And…well…it involves you, too."

"What do you mean?" Lavi demanded a little too quickly.

She shrugged her shoulders and replied, "I would tell you if I knew. Road told me that she knew everything there is to know about me."

"And you believed her?"

"She knew that Innocence runs through my blood."

"And…?"

Rose sighed and turned her head away. "I don't know. I don't know why they wanted me to go with them and right now I don't know who to believe. Everyone's keeping secrets from me."

"Rosalie…"

Rose got up and made her way out of the training hall. "Just forget it."

Shortly after she left, Bookman appeared in front of his apprentice.

"So what did you find out?"

"Nothing…much. Apparently the Noah, Road, knows who she is..." Lavi stood up and looked down at the current Bookman. "And me." He added. "Do you know anything about it?"

"…I daresay not." He replied simply.

Lavi gritted his teeth. "Old man…"

"But it seems as if Miss Rosalie was once associated with the Noah Clan somehow, although the fact seemed unknown to her until that encounter."

"And what about me?" He asked in a serious tone. Lavi's lips curved downwards and he furrowed his eyebrows. Something didn't seem right since Bookman wasn't answering him directly.

"Lavi…" Bookman locked eyes with his apprentice. "You will not stray from your path to be the successor of the Bookman, correct?"

Lavi's eye narrowed at Bookman's words. In that instant, Lavi knew that Bookman was hiding something from him as well. It was all connected somehow.

'So…I really do know Rose somehow, but why don't I remember it?'

"Of course not." Lavi replied blankly. "So can you please tell me what's going on here? Road knows who I am and apparently, Rose and I have met before. That's what it seems like to me anyway."

Bookman didn't say anything.

Lavi let out an annoyed sigh. "Just tell me one thing. If I'm supposed to be the next Bookman, why can't I remember her?"

"Because…" Bookman started slowly, "Holding on to memories like that will only hinder you to become my successor."

Lavi opened his mouth to say something, but Bookman cut him off before he did. "Don't dwell on it. Right now, I need you to find out as much as you can from Miss Rosalie dealing with the Noah."

'Damn you, old man…you don't even explain yourself to me and you're still making me do all this?'

"But what about now? It doesn't seem like there's a problem with us being associated now." Lavi pointed out.

"That's because it's merely for the sake of recording history."

"And it wasn't back then?"

"She wasn't an Exorcist back then."

"Am I ever going to find out why my own memories are being kept from me?"

Bookman let out a tired sigh. "Maybe one day, but I'd prefer if you didn't."

And the old man left Lavi without another word. As soon as he left, Lavi punched the wall in frustration, just as Rose did earlier.

"Just who exactly is Rosalie Hinode?" He muttered to himself.

Lavi was completely lost in his own thoughts after the small conversation with Bookman. He had come to two conclusions. One was that he and Rosalie have definitely met before and those strange feelings of Déjà vu he had when he was around her was not a coincidence. The second was that something big must've happened between her, Lavi and the Noah Clan back then and somehow, Bookman found a way to tuck away those memories.

He also knew that he wasn't going to stop until he got his answers.

After leaving the training hall, Lavi went to search for Rose, but he couldn't find her anywhere. He asked Lenalee, Kanda, Komui, Marie, Tiedoll, Miranda and a lot of Finders and they all told him she locked herself up in her room.

Lavi took a deep breath and knocked on the door. "Hey, Rose! I know you're in there~" He decided to put on his cheerful mask to lure her out. However, despite his seemingly cheerful mood, his heart was beating a little faster than usual.

there was no answer.

"Rooooseeeeee!"

There was still no answer.

'Maybe I should try again later…'

He decided to take his mind off a few things and read a book, but reading a book got a little boring especially since he's read it about three times. After about an hour, he gave up and walked up to Rose's room again.

"Rose! Hey, can you open the door…pleeeeaaaaaase?" He begged, knocking on the door.

"If you don't open the door, I'm afraid I'll have to knock it out with my hammer." Lavi smirked and he felt his mini hammer on his holster.

Rose stared at her door from inside her room. Finally, she opened her mouth and replied, "…you wouldn't."

Lavi let out a small laugh and picked it up. "I would. I'll give you to the count of three, kay?"

She didn't make any effort to get up from her bed.

"One."

The hammer grew into a normal size.

"Two."

It shifted its size again. Rose still didn't believe him, but that was only because she couldn't see Lavi's hammer getting bigger on the other side.

'He's so bluffing. He wouldn't knock down the –'

"Three!" And the door was smacked clean off as soon as it came into contact with Lavi's hammer. Rose jumped back a bit and stared at her now door-free doorway.

"W-wow…so you weren't kidding…"

Lavi grinned and walked over to her, allowing himself a place on the bed beside her. He could tell she's been crying all day and she didn't bother to wrap up her fists that she used to angrily punch the wall. So overall, she's been in her room all day sulking.

"Told ya!"

Rose glared at him in disbelief. "…you're unbelievable…"

Stella: Yeah, well basically, Bookman isn't hiding the fact that Lavi and Rose are connected and he's telling Lavi he's better off not knowing cause it'll distract him or something like that and for the sake of history...or something like that.

Rose: My door!

Lavi: Hahah, sorry. Stella-chan made me!

Stella: And I kinda made Rosie-chan somewhat depressing in this chapter. :P
Ugh...school...I still gotta change my damn schedule. I hate our guidance office people. xP

Lavi: School isn't that bad.

Stella: Well, I did buy some dgm manga, so I guess I'll just take that to school with me! I also got my dgm illustration noche book! yay~

Rose: You should be preparing for school and that's not preparing!

Stella: Ugh, you're right. I really gotta start my summer reading. Blehh.

Lavi: Well, please review because our lazy author won't be able to write as much once school starts! :(