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Chapter 28: Temporary Halt

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Kanda's POV

I stared blankly at the spot of broken stone at the edge of the window. My hands were clenched so hard I couldn't feel them anymore. I couldn't stop that image from repeating itself over and over again in my mind. Nova's smiling face before she fell a thousand feet down. Not afraid of what might happen.

"Kanda…don't worry…I'll see you again when we face the Earl,"

I kept going back to the moment of when the Level 3 had stumbled into me because Nova pushed him. I had grabbed on to his arm that he yanked out of the line, in hopes of making the line stop, Marie helping out immediately. I had thought we made it just in time when someone tugged on the other end, but was wrong when the Level 3 ripped his arm-literally- out of my grasp and jumped off of the broken balcony. His severed arm flew off to the side as he had grinned up at us. He didn't care if he died, as long as he killed his target.

I would've jumped out the window if it weren't for Marie who clamped his hand down on my shoulder, breaking me out of my rage filled reverie. I had whirled around, eyes wide when I had caught him shaking his head. I would've leaped out of that window regardless of whether he stopped me or not, only if he hadn't said those words.

"I can still hear her heartbeat Yuu, she's alive."

"She-how would she survive that fall?" I had grounded out, glaring with such intensity that the nurses who had came out of the examination room cringed. I hated to ask that question but it couldn't be possible. No one could survive a thousand foot fall. Marie didn't answer me exactly, but he gave me a sufficient answer.

"I can hear her. I'll just let you know she's alive, so you don't need to be jumping out that window." Marie calmly said, his hand coming off of my shoulder. I had blinked at him silently before glaring off to the side, wishing the impossible.

"Hey Yuu," I turned my head from the window to see Marie by the door we kicked down, his thumb jerking to the bushy haired, glasses wearing man who stood outside with a frown. So he made it after all. Where did that leave the bastard who sucked in cancer?

Taking one last glance over to the shattered window, I walked over to Marie and General Tiedoll, seeing that familiar cold smile on his face. This wasn't good. Whenever Marie or I see that smile, shit's about to go down.

"These foul creatures will pay back for what they have done." The General quietly said before turning on his heel and heading off to the other location of the battle. He knew. That someone important had disappeared. Someone important to me, and the Order.

Marie and I followed behind him silently, noticing that the Head Nurse didn't say anything to us this time. I glanced over my shoulder to see her sitting down next to Tigress, a solemn look on her face. Ripping my gaze away from her, I watched as the General approached the Science Division room with a vengeful gait.

He waited for us to stop behind him to let us know that Allen, Lenalee, and Lavi were fighting Avon and that General Cross was somehow here and was fighting the Master. He wanted us to go over to fight with the others while he and Cross sorted it out with the one who started all this. With a nod, Marie and I activated our Innocence and dashed over to the three exorcists who surrounded the grinning Avon. She was in Victoria's body now.

"It's BaKanda!" Allen shouted as he jumped away from Avon's kick, alerting everyone of my presence. Great. I'm gonna kill him when I'm done here.

"Shut it, Moyashi!" I snapped as I came up beside him, unsheathing Mugen and glaring at him, willing him to come up in flames.

"Oi, if you two don't mind me cutting into your little glaring fest, we've got a Shigai to kill over here!" Lavi yelled as he slammed his hammer down on the girl, the weight of it crashing down on her creating a huge ripple of destroyed tiles. Avon held the hammer up with her bare hands, her eyes wide with pleasure.

"Tch, just kill her already!" I grumbled as I ran up to her and summoned Hell's Insects. She frowned slightly when she saw the creatures but let them sink their teeth into her, surprising me. The pieces of flesh chewed out of her immediately began to grow again, my insects disappearing.

"Oh yeah we forgot to say, it'll take a lot more than that to kill her! We have to strategize!" Lenalee said as she landed a blow from above, only to be blocked by the crossed arms of the Shigai. She leaped away from her and landed back next to Allen.

Scoffing in ridiculousness, I regrouped with the rest of them, forming a semi circle with Avon facing us. I noticed that Lavi didn't join us.

"Oi, Usagi, what're you doing?" I demanded as I saw him stiffen at the harshness of the tone.

"You all come up with a plan, I'll keep her busy," He said as he made his Innocence grow.

"What!? You can't-"

"Just do it!" Lavi interrupted as he ran away from us, heading straight for the girl who was grinning. Soon the two were clashing weapons, Lavi barely managing to get out of the way of her red sword, moving around like a crazy dancer.

Allen sighed in defeat before meeting our gazes. "Okay, we have to come up with something quick."

"Hey," Lenalee met my gaze with a look of confusion. "Where's Nova?"

I frowned slightly, still trying to not believe that she fell a thousand feet down. "She's…okay. Just resting," I hesitantly said, glaring over at Allen's suspicious expression.

"Did…something happen?" Allen inquired, holding my gaze seriously. Marie turned his head slightly to me, indicating that now wasn't the right time to say anything.

"Shut up, let's just come up with a plan." I snapped, not wanting to discuss the topic anymore. It made me feel uneasy.

"Kanda," Lenalee quietly said, her worried gaze trying to meet mine own. I turned my head away from her, a scowl on my face.

"Just leave it." I bluntly stated, finally ending the subject.

"….okay then. Now, a plan," Allen continued, his gaze never wavering from me.

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Cross' POV

Something happened. I could instantly tell as soon as the bushy haired old man jumped in with a cold glare in his eye. As I had jumped away from the Master's attack, General Tiedoll came up beside me with one of those humanoid angels floating beside him. Quirking an eyebrow at him, I played with the cigarette in my mouth for a moment before seeing that look in his eye.

"Oi, what happened?" I inquired, checking my Innocence, Judgement. White rushed past me as the General sent his humanoid angel flying towards the Master.

"An exorcist fell out of the tower," the General quietly replied, pushing his glasses up with his index finger. My jaw went slack for a moment as I took a glance over my shoulder, counting all the heads. They all added up. Who was this other exorcist?

"Since when did we get a new exorcist?" I inquired, seeing the General glance over at me.

"You need to be here sometimes or else you'll miss things, Cross…" He sighed while shaking his head, staring off at his humanoid angel battling it out with the Master.

Hm, a new exorcist?

"Well he has to be dead then. He fell out of the tower."

"She is not, according to Marie. He could still hear her heartbeat he said." I pondered on this for a moment. This girl seemed interesting. If she could survive that fall…then maybe she has some purpose of being an exorcist.

"Hm," I caught the General's eye and narrowed my own, putting my gun in my holster. "I think you can handle this guy," I said as I turned and made a move to leave.

"Hey! You can't just leave Cross!" General Tiedoll exclaimed as he clamped a hand on my shoulder.

"Sure I can, you can handle this General," I replied, giving him a raise of my eyebrow.

"No…this is a powerful opponent, one that I need to know of. Now, tell me their attack patterns."

"You think I pay any attention to that?" I retorted, giving him an incredulous stare, though knowing perfectly clear that I do.

"Cross…" General Tiedoll trailed off, his glasses shadowing over his eyes. I sighed slowly, knowing what would come if I didn't help him out. I shook his hand off my shoulder and made my way back over to him, an annoyed look crossing my face.

"Fine," Curse him, making him stop me from finding this exorcist he speaks of. I'm curious as to who she is.

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Nova's POV

The rush of water drew me out of the dark, making me realize that I was half sunk into a small river. I blinked the spots away and tried to get up, only to get suddenly jerked fully into the water. Cold enveloping every part of my body, I instantly popped back out of the water, digging my feet into the ground to stop the pulling. Only then did I realize that my left ankle was flaring with pain, probably twisted or broken.

The pull around my waist tugged harder and I glanced down to see the line from the bed sheets still tied around my waist. I turned around to see the body of the Level 3 being dragged by the water, still tied to me, but without the other arm. Before I could let the dead akuma pull my any further, I untied the line from my waist with one hand, my arm incapable of helping. After I watched the body float down the river, I dragged myself out of the water and onto the dirt with huge effort, resting on my side as I tried to remember what happened and how I ended up in a river like this.

Wind had rushed past my face as the Level 3 and I fell from the tower. I glanced up to see the Level 3 zooming towards me with a wide grin on his face. I realized that as long as he killed me, he didn't care if he died. As he approached, I materialized my katana in my hand and plunged it into his gut, just as his foot slammed into my shoulder. We flew apart, the line between us snapping us back towards each other as we continued to fall.

With my only other arm, I blocked his foot attacks, and launched a few of my own to the open wound. My ears popped as we fell, and as I glanced over my shoulder to see figures approaching us at a high speed, two legs wrapped around my stomach, pinning me to the bottom. Crap. If I didn't move soon I'd be a splattered display of guts.

I tried to reach the Level 3's face with a punch but it didn't make it. His insolent grin looked down at me. I glared at him before slamming the side of my fist into his wound, making him falter for a second. I materialized my machine gun and aimed it at his stomach and fired. Without hesitation, I pushed him away from me, and appeared above him, sending a punch into his blown out stomach. Blood splattered across my cheek but I didn't care. As soon as I saw him smash into the ground, forming a crater under him, I braced for impact and felt jarring pain everywhere as I landed straight on top of the akuma.

I opened my eyes to see dots again and blinked them away. With great difficulty, I got on to my one good foot, held my messed up shoulder in my other hand and limped my way far from the river and deeper into the forest that surrounded me. My chest flared with the wounds from before, adding on to my list of things to heal.

I knew I couldn't go back to the Order or else the Shigai would come kill me as well as everyone else I cared about. It's cowardly to go away like this, I know, but it said in the prophecy that I'd have to disappear and be unknown to the Order. Maybe this 'unknown' was to be nonexistent? Who knew? I just needed to get out of here.

I limped along in silence for a few more moments before resting beside a tree to catch my breath, my breathing shallow. After a minute, I was up on my feet again, shuffling as I glanced up towards the looming tower of the Black Order Headquarters. To think that there was something like a forest down at the bottom of it.

Now…to get as far away from this place as possible.

It was silent for a few seconds before I heard another loud thump somewhere in the forest. My heart froze in fear, resulting in me to stop moving, frozen at the spot. I hid behind a tree, hoping that whoever came couldn't see me when I heard the soft crunch of leaves against the ground. I glanced down at the dirt I just treaded on and caught the slight trail of my foot from my limping. Dammit!

Either I let this person kill me, or I fight back. Materializing my katana in my hand, I held the blade close to my face, listening to the approaching soft footsteps of the person. It was light…I didn't recognize it at all. It wasn't the Shigai's steps because those were heavy and easy to detect. Who was it then?

Before the person could bump into me, I swung my good arm around, waiting to stop the blade at the person's throat. However my arm just sailed right over him as I stared down at the unfamiliar face, my blade missing his throat entirely. The two black splotches on his eyes made it seem like he was a panda…the…Bookman?

"Hello there," He greeted, nodding his head over to me, unaffected to the fact that I had almost sliced his head off. I stared at him warily before nodding in return, silent. I could feel his gaze on my current condition.

"Do you need some help escaping?" the Bookman offered, catching me off guard. I lowered my katana, a bewildered look in my eyes.

"Why…would you be helping me?" I sheepishly inquired as my hand flew over to my throbbing shoulder.

"Explaining can wait till later…come girl," Bookman hastily replied as he walked ahead of me, leading the way. Blinking at his retreating figure, I limped behind him, wondering where this man would lead me.

"Is Lavi coming? He's usually with you all the time," I curiously asked, my head craning to the building that loomed over us, though I couldn't quite see it.

"No questions…save them for later," Was all I received in response. I frowned, unsure of what to do but follow. I needed to keep my mind off of running back into the Order to be with everyone else. No matter how much it tugged on my gut, I couldn't give in. No matter how much it hurt.

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Tyki's POV

"Ughhh…my head dammit," I groaned under my breath as I regained consciousness. My hand held the side of my head, as if trying to ease the throbbing pain. I sat up slowly, seeing that my suit was completely tattered and destroyed. My hat was nowhere to be found. I glanced at my surroundings and deduced that I was probably in some sort of training room.

"Hmm…I can't remember what happened…" I muttered as I stared down at the floor intently, my legs stretched out in front of me. "Let's see…I was fighting Nova and that ponytailed man…and….huh…strange…it's just a blank slate…"

Slowly, I got up to my feet, now officially recognizing the amount of damage this room suffered: it looked like a hurricane came in and dropped a thousand boulders into the room. What the heck happened? Why can't I remember anything? Did something happen to me?

I searched my pockets for a cigarette, my hands soon moving frantically as the urge to smoke became apparent. Finding that I didn't have a pack on me, I sighed sharply and headed towards the door, the faces of the Shigai popping up into my mind. That's right…we had an agreement. As long as we killed Allen and Nova, we'd be allies, but as soon as the two of them were disposed of, we'd be enemies once more.

"Looks like Allen's just left then…" I trailed off as I wandered out of the room, my hands shoved into my pockets. With a flick of my hand, a swarm of Tease swirled out of my shadow, fluttering near me as I stepped quietly out into the hall. I couldn't see or sense that Krest anywhere…so I suppose she's gone.

Suddenly, the sound of weapons clashing against each other and vicious laughter filled my ears, leading me to a fairly large room filled with exorcists. I was reluctant to step in there…I didn't feel like helping out those Shigai anyway. So why did I have to do this? Oh yeah, because we Noah and those Shigai both want Nova and Allen Walker gone. I was standing right outside the door of the fight, having a mental battle in my mind when I heard a couple footsteps stop near me. Lifting my head, I glanced over and raised an eyebrow at a couple of men clad in brown cloaks staring at me, wide eyed.

"Ah? What can I do for you? Looking for someone to play with?" I drawled out irritably, glaring at them as the guys in cloaks took something from within it, some black box looking thing. Like a projector. I stared at it in distaste, wondering what a contraption like that would have against me.

"N-N-Noah!" One of the guys shouted at the top of his lungs, startling me. I furrowed my brows together, obviously pissed off now. Hearing the approaching footsteps, I glanced over to the side to see the person I was searching for.

"Oh, Walker-kun! I've been looking for you." I greeted with a smile, only to have it wiped off when I caught the Japanese man right behind him, looking as pissed off as I was.

"Oi, I thought he finished you off." The teen with long hair growled out as he took a step forward towards me. I narrowed my eyes in confusion, not remembering any guy except for the one standing right in front of me.

"Apparently not," I retorted, realizing that I had no choice other than to fight back and defend myself. The Tease fluttering around me molded together to form my weapon; attaching itself to my arm.

Then, out of nowhere, someone with familiar blue eyes shot out from the crowd, grabbed my arm, and hauled me up into the air as she jumped from the railing. High in the air, we hovered above the angry expressions of the exorcists, giving me time to understand what the heck was happening.

"Just in time mister, we're about to leave." Avon greeted as she met my gaze with a wild grin. I raised an eyebrow curiously at her statement.

"Leave? You still haven't killed Walker yet," I retorted, confusion evident in my gaze.

"The Shigai's mission was to dispose of Nova, yours was to get rid of Allen Walker. You just did ours. I guess we'll have to do yours then." I spotted another pair of exorcists come out from the room, curious to see who Avon had jumped out for.

"And how will you kill Walker-kun? He's surrounded by his friends," Avon smirked, her red eyes wide.

"We won't kill him right now…soon though. Our only goal for today was Nova. We Shigai would like to keep this alliance between us strong before we dispose of Allen Walker." I frowned at this sudden surge of information that I did not know about. Since when was the goal for today only Nova? I was never informed of this.

"So you're suddenly changing the plan? You're going to make my boss very annoyed with you."

"I know. Now, that aside, we should get going; the boss is about to make sparks fly." The Shigai said vaguely before she made some sort of hand gesture, causing us to disappear instantly.

The next thing I knew, we were back in that exorcist's apartment, sprawled out on the floor. Well, me mostly. Avon stood above me, smirking as she met my gaze.

"It was fun, playing with those exorcists. Too bad we have to kill them." She softly said aloud, her eyes unfocused as if she were reliving the fight only moments before. I got up to my feet and stared at her for a moment.

"When's your boss coming here?"

"In about a few seconds…" I blinked in surprise, about to ask what she meant when all of a sudden: Sam appeared out of nowhere, his exorcist coat nowhere to be found. He didn't even seem harmed.

"Boy, that place is very entertaining," He said as he flopped down on the couch in the apartment. He seemed extremely gleeful.

"What did you even do?" I asked as I crossed my arms, facing him.

"Met some intriguing humans…and caused a massive explosion." Sam broke out into a grin, laughing as he held his stomach in laughter. I smirked slightly at how cruel and alike the Shigai were to the Noahs.

We loved destruction.

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Whoop! Another update! Lots of exciting things happening no? Hope you all enjoyed it! And I do hope that the reviewing thingy isn't being all screwy and messing with those who try to review! I'd really love to see what you thought of my chapters! Once more, you readers are awesome and I do apologize for the late two week update. School is once again being a menace with all the courses to choose for next year, so I love you all for being so incredibly patient.