Sigh, nope I don't own.
Chapter two- Remote Connection
Lavi lay listening to the faint rhythmic beeping of a heart monitor. He liked e sound, he decided, it meant someone was alive. Alive was good.
Although what a heart monitor was doing on a battlefield he didn't know. And if they were on the battlefield, by al rights he should be dead.
Nothing was making much sense really.
He opened his eye and found himself staring at the familiar white ceiling of the infirmary at headquarters. Now that was definitely odd. He put his hand to his head, feeling the bandage wrapped around it and the movement brought a particularly chirpy nurse bustling over.
"It's about time you woke up!" she exclaimed while performing the usual observations. "A little knock to the head was all you got but you've been sleeping for days!" She checked his vision before removing the bandage. "Well, you're free to go. The others are in the side room; you can go through if you want." And with that she left him alone.
Feeling very confused he slid from the bed, rapidly changing out of the dreadful hospital gown and back into his own clothes. These aren't what I was wearing on the mission…did somebody bring me some clean ones down? Who'd have thought to do that? The followed the sound of voices and the beeping of the machine he had woken up to into the side room. He stuck his head inside cautiously, not sure what he'd find, and was immediately yanked through the door by Lenalee, who threw her arms around him happily.
"Lavi! I was so worried! When you wouldn't wake up I thought…"
"What happened? I thought we were all about to die."
"We don't know exactly what happened, but somehow the ark opened up right where we were standing and it brought us back. You were the first out- everyone landed on you, that's how you hurt your head." Jim supplied helpfully from the chair he was sitting on, situated next to an empty bed which was obviously his it had the remains of a rather large meal spread across it. He was looking a little worse for wear, his eyes still somewhat glazed, though much better that he had the last time Lavi had seen him.
"No one knows what happened? How did the Ark work on its own? I thought Allen was the only one who could move it to a new connection?" He looked around, struck by a sudden thought. "Where is Allen?"
Lenalee shook her head, stifling a small noise that could have been a sob and led Lavi around the curtain that hid the other bed in the room from view.
His first sight was Kanda slumped awkwardly asleep in the rigid wooden chair positioned at the bedside. His young face looked terribly old at that moment, he had heavy smudges under his eyes and worry lines creased his usually smooth forehead. His hand was resting on the bed, gripping the right hand of the figure on the bed like a lifeline.
"He won't wake up. He won't move. He's breathing, his heart's beating, but other than that…"
Lavi examined the wires connected to Allen's forehead. "What's up with him?"
"My brother says there's little brain activity…somehow Allen called the Ark to save us, but it ended up all but killing him."
"Sounds like something he'd do." Lavi snorted sounding uncharacteristically bitter. "Allen Bloody Walker, you better listen to me. You wake up, or I'll never forgive you!"
Allen opened his eyes slowly, blinking as the stark white light momentarily blinded him. The whiteness spun and contracted, resolving itself into a familiar sparsely furnished room. He frowned and pushed himself upright- for some reason he was draped awkwardly over the keys of the piano, as though he had fallen asleep whilst playing.
For a moment he just sat where he was, trying to piece together the events that had led up to this predicament. Predictably he drew a blank. Whatever was going on was very odd. He was no longer in his uniform, but wearing some kind of tuxedo, complete with pristine white gloves and black shoes polished to a high shine.
His injuries too had vanished he realised as he touched the place where he had previously been bleeding from on his forehead to find unmarked, unbroken skin.
"What's going on?" he asked no-one in particular, wondering whether he could walk. For some reason his legs, hell, all of him, looked a little insubstantial.
"You called the Ark. It came." The voice was soft and melodious, ringing with so many different tones that it could have been several people at once.
The voice startled him so much he fell backwards off the piano stool, landing heavily on the floor. Although he felt the impact, it made no noise and he felt no pain.
"Who's there?" he almost dreaded hearing the answer.
"You called the Ark. It came"
Allen frowned, "I didn't call the Ark. I prayed for help, I thought we were going to die."
"You called the Ark. It came."
"So I hear" he muttered sourly, getting to his feet.
"You are connected. You called the Ark. It came."
Allen dusted himself off. "That's getting really old, really fast. Alright, I called the Ark, it came. Why the hell am I here?"
"You are connected."
"Gah! This is ridiculous!" Allen attempted to open the door and leave the room, but nothing happened when he pressed the piano key. Well actually, it was more like he couldn't press the key; his finger just sank through it. "What's going on? Why can't I touch the piano?"
"You are connected."
"Dammit, just tell me what's going on!"
"You are connected. You are one with the Ark."
"Just give it a rest already. Wait…I'm one with the Ark? What does that mean?"
"You are connected. You called the Ark. It came. You are connected. You are one with the Ark."
Allen sat back on the stool with a sigh. "So you've said. Why am I here? What do you mean connected?"
"You are one with the Ark. You are connected."
"Did I die? Did anyone die?"
"You called the Ark. It came."
Allen suppressed the urge to slam his hand on the piano keyboard. He suspected it would not give him the satisfying noise he wanted anyway. He studied his hands instead, becoming slightly alarmed when he realised he could see through them. "Why am I like this? What's happening my body?"
"You are connected. You are one with the Ark."
Allen slid a hand over his eyes. "Well that's wonderful and all, but I wish I knew what's happening to my friends, make sure they're all okay. I want to know if Jim's okay and…"
"Connection established."
Allen opened his eyes in surprise, forgetting his hand was covering them. Not that it mattered- he could see perfectly through it. "What?"
"Connection established" the voice repeated "Desired target acquired." A screen popped up in the middle of the room, flickering mutely between several shades of black before resolving itself into a clear picture.
The room it showed was dark, dimly lit by a lamp sitting at the bedside. By its subdued light Allen could see Jim sitting up in bed reading and cradling a bowl of ice cream. The room was not a regular bedroom he realised, but one of the side rooms of the hospital in headquarters. Allen was glad to see that Jim looked much better than he had the last time he had seen him, but wasn't surprised that he was still in hospital- Jim had really been weakened by the effort needed to create all those defences.
"Can I see the others?"
"You are connected. You are one with the Ark."
"Uh, I guess that's a yes then. I want to see everyone that was transported."
The screen split, flicking through a series of shots. Lavi was in the library, head down on a book, obviously dozing. Lenalee was in her brother's office, handing a mug of coffee to an off-screen Komui. Allen's students were both in the dining hall, looking thoroughly miserable as they shared a pizza. Kanda's students were fighting each other in the training room, which Allen thought was highly typical. So where… The rectangular screen reshuffled, dividing in half, the four smaller screens subdividing one half while the other half was filled with the shot of Jim's hospital room which had grown, showing the entirety of the room instead of just Jim's bed. This revealed Kanda sitting next to the other bed occupying the room. He didn't need to see who was in the bed, he already knew. There was only one hand that Kanda would cling to so desperately. The shot panned, and Allen's fear was confirmed as it showed himself, comatose and unresponsive and apparently dead to the world.
Lavi looked up when Lenalee walked into the library, looking thoroughly miserable.
"Brother wants to see us in his office right away. I think he wants to try and figure out what happened."
Lavi sighed and closed the book he had been using as a pillow. "Sure. Who else is coming?" He didn't think that he could face seeing Kanda and the state he was in at the moment.
"Just us two. Jim's still in the hospital wing and the others…well I don't think they'd have a clue anyway."
"What about Yuu-chan?"
"I thought he should probably be there, but he's refused to move."
It was understandable really. They were all hoping to catch some sort of movement, some sign that Allen would wake up soon and everything would go back to normal.
Lavi got to his feet wearily and followed Lenalee out of the library, barely paying attention to where he was putting his feet. They arrived in Komui's office before he'd even registered walking there, and sat down on the sofa in front of Komui's desk, waiting for the supervisor to speak.
"I need to know everything that happened up to the moment you were all transported back, don't leave anything out. There must be some clue, anything that could tell us what happened to Allen when you came back" Komui began, looking at them over the top of his glasses, fingers steepled together. He pushed his glasses further up his nose and sighed, bringing his hands back down to rest on the desk. "We all know that Allen has always had some kind of connection to the Ark. I've been contacted by the grand generals, and they're worried about what this means. The Ark was always the Earl's, and the fact that Allen has had so much control over it has always been suspicious to them, but while it was useful, they turned a blind eye. Now though…if Allen is able to use the Ark more than we knew, they will think he kept it from them on purpose."
Lavi was shaking his head. "No! They can't start all this business up again. If Allen knew about being able to do this he'd have done it earlier, not wait 'til we were all about to die."
"Lavi's right. Allen would never put everyone in danger like that on purpose."
Komui lowered his head. "That's what worries me. If this is something that Allen has only recently been able to do, what does that mean?"
Neither Lavi nor Lenalee had an answer.
"I'm going to get the full report of Allen's mission from his students later today, so can you tell me everything that happened after you all met up?"
"Yuu-chan! Long time no see!" Lavi practically danced up to the Japanese man, throwing his arms around him. "How did your mission go? Did you find the innocence and-" here he stopped and looked over Kanda's shoulder and made an exclamation of mock surprise "both your students are still alive!" He slapped Kanda on the back, causing the other man to stiffen and grip his sword tighter. "General Kanda Yuu, I am very impressed!"
"Remove that hand, or I'll remove it for you" Kanda growled out. Lavi just grinned at him, though he did take his hand away. "Where's Lenalee?" he asked Lavi, who had been partnered with the Chinese girl on his mission.
"She's making sure the innocence is safe" he gestured casually over his shoulder where Lenalee was crouched packing two brightly glowing innocence cubes away in a satchel. "And no, Allen hasn't arrived yet" he added, catching Kanda's searching eyes.
"Tch."
"There's no point pretending, we both know you're missing your honey bunny."
"The only rabbit I know is you, and the time we spend apart is never long enough. I just want to get going and the little idiot's making me wait."
"Uh-huh." Lavi sat down heavily on the dusty ground. "So, how did your mission go?"
"Fine. We got the innocence, destroyed the Akuma, saved a village" Kanda rattled off the successes as though they were unimportant.
"How did they do?"
Kanda studied the two exorcists now chatting some distance away with Lenalee.
Jacob, tall, thin and ginger, was seventeen and, though he'd been an exorcist for nearly a year now, was still prone to making silly mistakes. The girl, Rowan, was shy and quiet and seemed terrified of everything, her general included.
"Dreadful" he said brusquely, thinking back to the mission which would have ended in failure if he hadn't stepped in. So much for a simple training mission.
"Ah well, they'll improve given time."
"Tch, not likely."
"Are you that bad of a general?" laughed Lavi
"Shut up. Say that again and you'll lose more than a hand."
"Aw, Yuu-chan, you know you love me really."
"Age hasn't made you any more mature, has it?"
"Growing older is definite, growing up is optional" said Lavi sagely.
Frowning Kanda tried to work through Lavi's logic, but was saved from a brain injury by a shout of greeting from the distant tree line.
The assembled group looked up to see four people dressed in the black of the exorcist's uniform emerge from the forest. Allen's students were the first to arrive, greeting the other young exorcists cheerfully and immediately launching into a highly dramatised and detailed account of their mission, which had apparently been a success in their eyes.
Jim and Allen followed at a much more sedate pace, leaning heavily on each other- Jim was limping an Allen had a gash on his forehead that was leaking blood down the side of his face.
Lavi raised an eyebrow at their state but Allen waved it off airily. "It's nothing, we're all fine."
"Moyashi…" Kanda's tone and expression were warning enough. Allen pulled a face and sat down next to Lavi. "We ran into a bit of bother a couple of miles away, but it was nothing serious, we're fine as you can see."
"What sort of bother?"
Allen scratched the back of his head in an attempt to look unconcerned. "The Noah kind."
Kanda glared at him.
"We're fine, it's nothing to worry about" Jim said, trying to avert a domestic. Thankfully he was saved from certain death at the hands of Kanda by Lenalee joining them.
"So, everyone's mission was a success?"
"Yep, three innocence cubes, one freed village, innocent lives rescued, souls saved, you know, same old, same old" Jim grinned.
"How did your newbies do Allen?"
"Huh?" Allen seemed to be miles away, frowning at the forest he had just come from and lightly fingering the left side of his in a puzzled manner. "Oh, fine. Look, I don't like it here; I think we should get going."
"Hooray" Kanda said, rolling his eyes sarcastically. He waited for the others to start walking before pulling Allen aside. "What really happened with that Noah?"
"The same as always" he sighed. "I just wish I knew what the Earl was planning- they don't seem to want to kill me, but they aren't all that gentle with me either" he finished with a rueful laugh and gingerly touched his forehead. Kanda lowered his voice. "I'm worried" he confessed, sounding ashamed at the admission. "I don't want you to get hurt."
Allen shook his head. "You should know me better than this by now. I'm more careful than I used to be, everything will be fine, trust me."
"Are you two going to stand there whispering sweet nothings all day or are we going home?" Lavi shouted back to them.
"Come on, I don't know about you but I can't wait to get home." Allen tugged Kanda's hand and gave him a saucy wink. Kanda just sighed. "You can't fool me, I know it's just the food you're desperate to get back for."
They had just caught up with the others when Allen stopped short, looking around confusedly.
"Allen, what's the matter?" Lenalee looked around too, trying to see what was distracting him.
"I'm not sure- there's just something not right." He looked disappointed that he could not give a more definitive answer. He sighed, turning back to face the concerned expressions of the others. "I'm sure it's nothing, I'm just being paranoid."
Nobody was fooled. "I say we get out of here ASAP" Lavi said, gaining immediate agreement from the other exorcists, and they picked up the pace.
Kanda noticed Allen was rubbing his left temple again. "What's the matter?"
Allen dropped his hand guiltily, as though he hadn't realised what he was doing. "My eye hurts, like it wants to activate but can't. I guess that's why I'm so on edge."
Kanda knew how much Allen relied on his cursed eye to warn him of danger. In fact they all had come to depend on it as an Akuma early warning system.
"I'm sure it's nothing really, I think I'll feel better as soon as we're home."
Nodding reluctantly Kanda started walking again, only to stop five minutes later when he realised he was on his own. "Moyashi?"
The others heard his enquiry and all stopped too, looking back curiously.
Allen was in a half-kneeling position, clutching the left side of his face, head bowed.
"Allen, are you alright?" Lenalee asked, reaching Allen's side in a series of rapid steps.
"Get away!" he rasped. "We've got to get moving! Akuma, hundreds of them! GO!"
"What are you talking about?"
He looked up desperately. His eye looked like it was trying to form the gears, but it wasn't able to stay developed for more than a few seconds, flickering in and out of sight rapidly. A trail of bloody tears tracked down his cheek, mingling with the red lines of his scar. "There's too many of them. I don't know how I didn't sense them earlier, but we can't possibly win- there's just too many!" he gasped breathlessly, using Kanda's legs to haul himself upright. "Why are you all still standing here? MOVE!"
"I think it might be too late for that" Jim pointed to the now distant tree line they had walked from earlier. All along the fringes of the forest and rapidly encircling the exorcists were Akuma. An impossible number, there should not have been able to be that many, they were everywhere. Allen was right, if not hundreds, there were thousands of the Earl's machines.
"We're trapped" whispered Hannah to her fellow students, and all of them remembered Allen's earlier panicked assertion. "We can't possibly win- there's just too many…"
"So that's what happened" Lavi finished hoarsely. "A few Akuma got too close and were destroyed before Jim put that barrier up, but Allen was right, we'd have never been able to beat them all."
"And you don't know why Allen's curse didn't activate sooner?" Komui asked, looking serious for once.
The two exorcists looked at each other. "From what Jim said, I think he thinks it was the Noah they encountered. He used some kind of attack which meant Allen's eye wouldn't activate, which is why Allen was in pain and crying blood."
Komui seemed content to accept that theory. He rubbed his temples wearily, "Alright, that'll do for now I think. We need to focus on why Allen's become a vegetable."
Lenalee flinched. "He's going to get better, right?"
Personally Lavi thought she was being a bit naïve, but who was he to crush her hopes like that? Komui was doing fine on his own, his expression spoke volumes.
"He's got to!" she almost stomped her foot in her anger, "He HAS to!"
"Do you think it could be something else to do with the Noah?" Lavi asked the supervisor.
"I don't know, it's a possibility. There's a team going over everything we know about the Ark as we speak, and we're trying to get in contact with Cross. He seems to know the most about the Ark." Komui sighed. "But you both know what trying to find that man is like." Both exorcists pulled a face and nodded grimly. "The only thing we can do know is wait…and pray."
Allen started to pace back and forth in agitation, which increased every time he turned and saw the reflection of himself in the mirror. Well, not his reflection per se, but the fact that he could see the rest of the room through his body. For a disembodied genderless voice, which held no inflection, and spoke with calm monotony, it was really starting to piss him off. "What's going on? Tell me" he ordered.
"You are connected."
Allen frowned. So I can't command the voice…so does that mean it's not part of the Ark? "How did I call the Ark without being inside it? We were still miles away from the gate, and I can't establish a new one without being in here? How did it happen?"
"You have remote connection. You are one with the Ark. You called the Ark. It came."
"How do you know all of this? Who are you?"
"Lanel."
Allen stumbled in surprise. "Lanel? Is that your name? Where are you? What's going on?" The words tumbled out in a rush.
"You are con…"
"Enough already. Just, please, tell me what's happening to me? Why am I here and out there?"
There was a soft sound, almost like a sigh. "You are one with the Ark. You have become the mind of the Ark. You are connected."
"The mind of the Ark? What does that mean? And why is my body out there and in here?"
"There is only one body. The mind cannot have two."
"Wait a minute. I am the mind of the Ark? So my mind isn't connected to my real body?"
The sigh-like noise was more pronounced this time, and sounded vaguely relieved. "That is correct. You are one with the Ark."
"I don't want to be one with the Ark; I don't want to be the mind of the Ark. I want to get out of here and back to my real body which is lying out there with nobody in it!" he yelled at the ceiling, pointing angrily at the screen still hovering in the centre of the room. He took a couple of deep breaths. "Why did this happen?"
"You are connected to the Ark. You called the Ark. It came."
"So when we were transported, my mind got left behind and everyone else and my body went through?"
"That is correct."
"Why?"
"If you do not know, then you are not ready."Lanel told him in that same calm voice.
"Ready for what?"
"To return."