Reckoning
Chapter 7
covering for family

It'd been two days since I saw Skin. He didn't show up again, but that only raised a question in my mind. Why had he come after us? Was it because of me? If it was, I was putting everyone in danger. But then, I told myself that I was also traveling with a General, one that the Earl was after. That was the only reason I stayed. I didn't know if I'd just be putting them in more danger by leaving. I had already confided in Tiedoll about these worries, since he knew my story. He told me to stay with the group. Safety in numbers right?

But ever since I saw Skin, the nightmares I'd been having had only gotten worse.

There was one I remembered vividly, one that I'd been having constantly. It was of war, of death, and of my worst fears taking form as a type of torture. It was filled with my fellow Exorcists. All of them were dead. The images of dead Exorcists filled my brain and all I could see were Allen, Lenalee, Lavi, Kanda, and everyone else lying on the ground, dead. All around me were shadows, shaped like the Millennium Earl and the Noah. But no Noah were trying to harm me. In fact, the Noah were standing and looking down at me, sympathy in their eyes. My hands were all covered in blood and as soon as I saw it, I screamed. The bodies looked like they were slashed wide open, their eyes all still staring at the sky.

And then, I woke up. Each and every time, that's how my dream ended, and I didn't remember what happened to me just before the dream ended and I woke up. I couldn't remember what happened before, but I remember it was always different. I couldn't see what happened to me, but I know that I didn't die. I never died. Maybe I was injured or beaten, but never dead.

But all I knew before I woke up? I was in pain.

The dream I had that very night was no different than the ones that came before. It was just as bloody, just as violent, and just as scarring. I couldn't help but scream this time. It was a scream that pierced the air and rattled the silence that death created in its wake. Nothing would ever allow me to forget those images, no matter how hard I tried to forget. My friends… all of them… dead.

This time, I knew what happened afterwards. I found myself looking up at the face of the very Noah whose appearance triggered all this. Skin looked at me, holding out his hand. "Come with me, Akicho," he said softly, or at least as softly as he could for being… well, Skin, and I simply stared. "Come. Don't you want to know why I'm hunting you?"

I would admit, I did want to know. So I placed my hand in my former brother's and he pulled me up into a standing position, dragging him with me to wherever he wanted me to go. The scenery of the bloody battlefield slowly melted away into a clearing. Kanda was there again, with Marie and the General. This time, they were alive, but sleeping. That's when I knew that I was in the present time, in the clearing we were sleeping in.

Slowly looking at Skin, I asked, "What is it you wanted to tell me?" He shook his head wordlessly and kept a firm grip on my hand. He pulled me along with him into the forest around where we were. I struggled a little; Skin could easily kill me, I knew that, and I didn't want to stray too far from the Exorcists. "Skin, let go!" I demanded harshly. "Just spit it out!"

He stopped without a word and dropped my hand. He was still facing away from me as he spoke, "What I'm about to tell you is something you can't tell the other Exorcists." I hesitated, but agreed. "There is a place in Edo, in Japan, that we're all gathering soon. All the Noah and all the Akuma. You have to go too, or your friends Allen Walker and the other Exorcists will die. You have a month."

I gasped. My vision would come true if I didn't stay with them. They'd all die, slowly and painfully. They'd be cut open and drained of blood, in pain but dying a slow death. "I won't allow them to die," I declared, the worry clearly visible in my eyes. Skin's own eyes widened a little. "They're my friends. I told Tyki already, but… they accepted me when no one else would."

Skin frowned a little. "Not even if I'm hunting them and, to an extent, you, because of the Innocence?" I shook my head again. "The Innocence just makes me mad. I want it destroyed, I want it gone. I won't hesitate to slice them to bits if it means that the Innocence would be just dust in my hands." I growled a little and activated my own Innocence, preparing to fight my own brother if I had to. "… You'd fight me?"

"If it means that I can buy them a little more time, then yes. I'm prepared to do whatever it takes to keep the Black Order safe. I finally found somewhere I belong, and even if it's against my family… I'll do it." Skin frowned once more. "Skin. I know I said that I won't tell the other Exorcists. I'll buy you a little time. Leave all of us alone; I won't tell any of them that you were here… but I will be telling them where you're going."

Turning just a little, I saw that he had a frown on his face. It was feral. "Fine then. I'll see you in Edo." Then he vanished as black mist, disappearing before my eyes and floating away, back to wherever he would go back to.

Trying to fight him now would be like trying to catch smoke.

-YU KANDA-

Akicho had been acting weird since she woke up. She seemed to be in a daze and really off her guard. She even lost in less than two minutes when they were sparring, and it took her at least fifteen to lose from stamina. She was out of it, and even Tiedoll seemed worried about her.

Kanda walked up behind her and snapped, "Hey, you." She jumped about five feet in the air before looking behind her, her eyes slightly glazed over. He sighed, somewhat sick of seeing that dull look on her face. "You're so out of it today. What's up?" demanded the tall Exorcist, advancing on the smaller girl.

She shook her head, the dull look suddenly focused on the floor. "You wouldn't understand." Kanda nearly growled; he probably understood a damn sight better than she would ever know.

"Try me."

Biting her lip, she cautiously replied, "I'm having these… these nightmares again. Only this time, they're not about my family or my memories. They're about the future, or what my mind thinks is the future. They're… they're about you." He looked at her in surprise, his eyes only showing a hint of surprise. "You, and Allen, and Lavi, and Lenalee, and all the Exorcists. You're all… dead. Every single one of you was murdered in some awful way. Some of you were even split open and bleeding. The Noah are always all there and the Millennium Earl is there, too. I never see the ending. And I never know where I am." She paused and shivered, squeezing her eyes shut as if in terrible pain. "But last night, in that same dream, I recognized something. I knew where I was, Kanda, and that's the first time I've ever known. The battle, it was in Edo. You all died in Edo. There was something big going on there, and I didn't see what, but I know that we all have to go there."

He raised his eyebrows. "Edo? You've been there?"

She sheepishly rubbed the back of her head and shook her head negatively. "No, but I remember pictures. Ones that my friend Emiko had in her house. They were of Edo, of her trips there. There was one, hanging over the mantle. It was exactly where the battlefield was. We couldn't do anything about it being where it is, but that's where the final showdown will be."

Kanda nodded. "I get it." He turned to the General and called, "General Tiedoll, we know where we have to go next!" The General looked up, clearly interested in what Kanda had to say. "We have to go to Japan. Edo is where everything is going to take place." Out of the corner of his eye, Kanda noticed Akicho smile softly, before turning away, the glazed over look in her eyes suddenly disappearing.

He narrowed his eyes; was it really just a dream she'd been having? He would swear up and down that he'd seen one of the Noah at the sight of the ruined mansion. Was it that Noah that contacted her and told her where the final battle would be? If not, how did she know? It was then that he decided that he'd get the information he wanted from her. By force or by her own will, it wasn't like he cared. She'd tell him what he needed to know, one way or another. He couldn't just let it go. She knew something that she wasn't supposed to, and for that, he wouldn't let it go.

He sat down and rubbed his eyes. Damn. Was she really getting to him?

-AKICHO LAMURIA-

Kanda was suspicious of me. I could tell by the way he looked at me as I walked away. It was like he knew everything. It was like he knew that I was in contact with a Noah, and he knew that all of that information I had, I'd gotten from that very Noah. It didn't matter, though. Either way, we were going to Edo, and that was all that mattered. We had to get there in time, or Allen and every other Exorcist remaining would be dead. I could never allow that to happen.

But wait, a voice in my head told me, I can't get attached to these people. I'm an Akuma, a demon… I'm already dead, and I shouldn't exist. As soon as this is over, I'm going to leave. I can't give in to the urge to hurt people. It gnaws at me every day… One day soon, I'll end up killing someone, and if I do, I'll be no worse than the very things that Kanda, that the Black Order, has to fight and destroy.

As much as I didn't want to admit it, but that voice was probably right. The thing was that I'd almost lost control the other day, during the trip to the playhouse. If I hadn't snapped out of it, I could have done much worse than I did. I could have killed people. I didn't want to hurt anyone ever again. My lapse in control made the entire house collapse into rubble, and even though Tiedoll told me that it was only my Innocence, I thought otherwise.

When I joined as an Exorcist, I swore that I'd be different than the Akuma that I had to fight. I swore that I'd continue to repress my hunger for blood, as I'd been doing since I was little. I didn't make that promise simply because I had to, but I did it because I wanted to. I wanted to be different. I wanted to be helpful to the good of mankind, not helpful to its destruction.

Maybe I just didn't want a guilty conscience.

"Akicho!" Tiedoll called from across the field. My eyes flew up, and I stood up a little straighter. The General was standing across the field with Marie and Kanda, both looking stoic and ready for battle. "Training time. Let's go!"

I sighed; this could be a longer day than I wanted.

-YU KANDA-

Training definitely didn't go as he'd expected. He'd imagined that Akicho would be eager to try and learn to control her new powers, but she wasn't. In fact, she wasn't even trying at all. During training, she'd seemed distant. Tiedoll must've noticed, but he didn't point it out.

She didn't even attempt to hurt Marie or himself, and he'd landed so many hits on her without even having to try. She had simply taken the hits without complaining, or wincing, or crying. She only managed to stand up, and take more abuse from the more experienced Exorcists.

But when Marie tried to treat her wounds, she pushed him away.

"Don't waste your resources," ordered Akicho. "I'm not hurt that badly."

After that, she spent the entire day alone. She didn't talk to anyone. When she was making dinner, she was silent. During dinner, she simply stared at the sun. Marie kept sending her worried glances, and Kanda did his best to ignore her weird behavior. But after he saw her only poke at her food, he decided that he'd had it with her abnormal behavior.

He approached her, his own dish in hand. "Hey." Akicho looked up to see him.

She smiled weakly. "Hi." She continued to poke at her food before looking up at him. "You're suspicious of me, aren't you?" He blinked, somewhat shocked at her blunt question. She just gave a dry chuckle, looking back down at her plate before quietly confessing, "I can see it in your eyes."

He nodded, even though she wasn't looking at him. "Yeah. You have information that would make any good Exorcist suspicious. But Tiedoll isn't, and I can see why. You haven't shown any signs of being like those Akuma."

The girl scoffed in disbelief before shaking her head. Looking towards him once more, she said, "But I can't say that I'm not. See, thing is, I know that I'm dangerous." Kanda raised one eyebrow, prompting her to go on. "I'm still an Akuma, and I'm not sure that I'll be able to hold back forever." She smiled wryly. "I understand why you're so suspicious of me," continued Akicho. Kanda just rolled his eyes.

"Look, before you say anything else, I am suspicious of you. But I can say that I can see that you're doing the best you can." Her head flew up to stare at him in shock. It was like he'd just given a compliment. But Kanda was being caring in his own Kanda-like way. "You're an Exorcist, and you were chosen by God to be one of us. You were chosen through Innocence."

She looked back down. "What if that was a mistake? What if, because I'm an Akuma, God chose me to make fun of you humans? What if I was chosen as a joke? A cruel joke, because God has given up on humans?" she mused darkly.

Kanda glared down at her. "The Innocence chose you because you have a power that the Innocence needs. You should know that." Her eyes darted upwards towards him, and she simply stared at him.

With a small glimmer in her eye, she said, "Maybe you're right. Maybe I should do something about myself and my power. Find that power, and harness it so I can use it for people, against the Millennium Earl. I have no heart to speak of, and I have no memory of my past life. Or, my life before I became this thing. I hate him. I hate the Earl with a passion that no human should ever have." She laughed a little. "Then it's probably a good thing that I'm not human at all."

"You're human. Just a lot less than the rest of us." Kanda stood discarding both of their meals. Clearly, neither of them were very hungry. "Now quit wallowing in your self-pity. If you're going to be an Exorcist, you can't let something like this shake you."

He held out a hand for her to take. She grabbed it, and as he helped her up, she wrapped her arms around him. Kanda froze, feeling her bury her head in his chest and feeling the tear stains soaking through his shirt.

"Thank you, Kanda," she whispered, just loud enough for him to hear her. She pulled away and gave him a smile before walking back to Tiedoll.

A warm feeling rose in his chest. As much as he tried to fight it, it wormed its way in. It made him want to try comforting her even more. It made him want to tell her that even if she did attack him, he'd try and never hurt her. She was as important to him as Marie, Daisya, Tiedoll, and, to some extent, his old friend, Alma. She was just like him. A dangerous person that could care, and could be cared about, even though they thought otherwise. But time and time again, people showed them that they could care.

"Kanda!" her voice called, breaking through his thoughts. "Come on; They have a fire started!" she continued, waving him over. He smirked a little and followed her back to the clearing, looking behind him once, up to the sky.

I'm already dead…

What she said was somewhat surprising to him. She was willing to admit that she was dead, and that she had nothing to lose. But she did now, he thought. She had being an Exorcist and getting her revenge on the Earl. He knew that she had anger that she spoke of. He saw it through the way that she destroyed the Akuma. She wanted to make him hurt as she had.

One day soon, she would get her revenge.

Short, crappy chapter is short and crappy. But also old. I'm too lazy to edit it. Mostly because I have a really important announcement, one that is also in Rainbow Shooter. I'm using Internet that I'm getting from my local library, which has its own generator and available net. There's nothing else in the town and nowhere to go.

If you're reading and you weren't caught in the Hurricane, please donate anything you can spare, even a few dollars. I'm trapped in my own town. I can't see my friends, I can't get to school, and the entire town is black. The library is only a couple minutes walk away from my home, so that's why I'm on here. Hurricane Sandy devastated the Tristate area. My town, personally, will be black for at least another two weeks.

There's few resources left in the town. All the shops are closed. My dad is having difficulty getting in and out of town to go to work, and even more trouble finding gas to keep our tiny generator running. We weren't swamped, like Sayreville, NJ or Staten Island, but there has been destruction absolutely everywhere that I turn. Please donate, and if you need your parents permission, please ask them to help out as well. Every little bit counts.