A/N: At last, it's time to meet the witch...

.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.

It was a strange group of people that were gathering in the entrance hall. Komui stood in the doorway, watching as General Cross stepped into headquarters for the first time since he'd faked his death. Accompanying the redhead was a brunette woman. Between the blue streaks in her hair and the colorfulness of her dress, she looked very out of place in the church-like environment.

"Hello, Komui."

"It's good to see you again, General Cross." Komui politely bowed to the redhead, but the sarcasm in the action was strong.

The Chinese man turned to the brunette, who was looking very uncomfortable. But if everything Cross had told him over the phone was true then she had no reason to be, so Komui set about welcoming her warmly. "You must be Natasha. I'm Komui Lee; I'm the supervisor here at the Black Order."

She nodded awkwardly at him; she had come to fix things, but that didn't mean that she wasn't scared of what these people would do to her. "Where is-?"

"Oi! Moyashi! Slow the fuck down before you run into something!" Kanda's growl reverberated through the room from the ark gate.

"I've told you before! My name's Allen! Get it right!" Immediately following Allen's shout was a loud thud.

"Told you so. Baka."

The pair finally stepped out of the ark, Timcanpy flying behind them. The golem landed on Allen's head as the neko paused to stretch, but Kanda flew into action when he caught sight of Natasha, recognizing her in an instant. He drew his sword and pointed it at her. "You-"

He was interrupted by the clang of metal on metal. He tried to move his sword, but Allen had it firmly grasped in his Innocence hand. The neko was regretting not telling the samurai what was going on. He really hadn't thought that his lover would follow him all the way home; he'd even left his apprentice behind. "Put the sword away, Bakanda."

Kanda growled at him. "Moyashi, that's the-"

"What? You think I don't know that?!" Allen snorted. "I was there too, you know. She's here to fix me. Now put. The sword. Away."

"Children! Stop bickering!" Cross's tone was fierce, but inside he was laughing his head off. The brats were doing a good job at pretending they weren't together, but it didn't fool him for a second.

"Che." Kanda scoffed but sheathed Mugen.

Allen turned to Cross with a frown that was meant to be fierce but looked more like a pout. "We're not bickering. And I'm not a child anymore! I'm eighteen!"

Cross's retort went unheard when Natasha stepped between the two and placed a hand on Allen's cheek. The neko flinched, but didn't pull away. He desperately wanted to though; the last time that woman touched him he'd ended up with cat ears and a tail.

She looked him up and down before she spoke. "I don't understand. I thought I was here to dispel the curse. But he looks fine- oh!"

While she spoke, Allen had untied the bandana from around his head, dislodging Timcanpy from his perch. He shook his ears as they were freed; they always felt so cramped under that thing, yet he was too worried about the consequences of being seen to not wear it.

Natasha gaped at the sight of a teenager with cat ears. To say she was surprised was an understatement. She'd been expecting a cat, not a neko. She also could have sworn that the person she'd cursed was a girl...

When it became clear that Cross wasn't going to explain, Komui stepped forward and cleared his throat. "Ahem. Yes, we were able to determine that only some elements of the curse took hold, leaving Allen-kun in this half cat state."

"Ok." Natasha nodded in thought a few times before she turned her attention back to Allen. The way the neko was staring at her with those huge silver eyes, she had an unexplainable urge to hug him. "Umm, Allen, right? My name is Natasha... Umm, I'm going to do a simple reading spell on you. It will tell me what parts of my previous spell took hold, so that I know what to undo, ok?"

Allen nodded. He was having trouble forming words. Natasha hadn't moved her hand from his cheek and it was scaring him. Not because of what she'd done to him, but because her touch felt comforting, like he'd known it for a long time. The last time he'd felt that way was with Neah, the first time they'd spoken after the Noah was in his new host. And it understandably had him freaked out.

Natasha closed her eyes, and a soft blue light radiated from her hand as she concentrated. Kanda watched her every breath like a hawk, his hand on Mugen's hilt; he was not going to let this woman harm his Moyashi again.

Cross was watching her with similar thoughts, though with a little more faith in her. He was, after all, the only person in the room who knew that she was there of her own volition. By the time he had tracked her down, she had been struck by a major case of the guilts and wanted to make things right. But that didn't mean he wasn't prepared for if any of her spells went astray.

The light suddenly got piercingly bright and Natasha and Allen screamed in unison. Those watching had to cover their eyes or risk being blinded.

When everyone could see again, Allen was on the ground, clutching a hand to his left eye, and Natasha had backed up a few paces. She was covering her mouth and looked like she was about to throw up. Timcanpy fluttered around Allen's head, trying to make sure the neko was ok, but the golem was ignored.

"Put the sword away, Bakanda. I'm fine." Allen had the words out before the samurai had his sword fully drawn.

"Che. You don't look fine, Moyashi." Kanda scoffed, but sheathed his sword; now was not the time to piss Allen off.

Natasha stepped closer to Allen and knelt down in front of him. "Are you sure you're ok? You look a little pale."

Allen nodded as he forced himself into a sitting position. "I'm sure."

She looked wild-eyed from the neko to the others. "I- I don't know what happened. One moment I was searching for traces of my curse, and the next it was just ... hell."

"You hit my other curse." Allen's quiet words sounded like they were shouted in the quiet of the room. He dropped his hand, but he mistimed it and everyone saw his eye deactivate.

The words struck Natasha's guilt-ridden conscience hard. Not only had she cursed this boy who was completely innocent of the things she was angry over, but he had already been living with a curse long before she got to him. "I'm sorry for hurting you; will you let me pick up where I left off?"

Allen nodded slowly, and Natasha placed her hand on his cheek once again. The blue light returned as she restarted her spell. They sat like that for ten minutes before Natasha finally dropped her hand. When she spoke she was out of breath, but her fear and frustration were audible. "I can't find it. There should be at least some trace of it, but there's nothing."

"What do you mean, 'there's nothing'?" Cross crossed his arms and scowled at her; he wanted to be sure that he knew what was going on before he acted on how angry he felt.

Natasha frowned at the cat ears on Allen's head. She didn't understand it either. "If the curse was partially dispelled, then there should be fragments of it in his system. Even if it was dispelled completely, there would still be traces of it. But there aren't. I can't find anything to indicate that it was even there in the first place."

Unable to take her word for it, Cross stepped closer to the pair. He knelt in front of Allen and did his own spell on the neko. The teen made a face at the redhead for not asking him first, but was still too scared of his former teacher to actually complain out loud.

Cross cursed under his breath as he let his spell dissipate. "She's right. It's gone."

"Che. We told you that months ago. Why are you so surprised?" Kanda forced an annoyed expression to hide the concern he was feeling; his Moyashi wasn't going to take this news well.

Before Cross could react to the disrespectful comment, Komui intervened. "Kanda's right, Cross. Allen's Innocence fought off the curse, so it's understandable that it didn't leave any traces of it behind."

In the silence that followed, Allen sighed and pushed himself off the floor. He offered his left hand to Natasha, and helped her to her feet. The tingle that shot through his Innocence arm when she touched it was brushed off as it reacting to the witch who had cursed him. "Well, thanks for trying."

Everyone stared at the neko in confusion. They expected him to be pissed off. Or at least some form of upset. But his tone and body language clearly indicated that he accepted what Natasha was saying. "Oi! Idiot apprentice! Why the hell are you being so passive about this?"

Allen shrugged at Cross. "We knew from the beginning that this might not work. What good would getting worked up do?"

Kanda narrowed his eyes at his lover. "Really, Moyashi? You're not even a little upset?"

Allen hissed. "Bakanda! The only thing upsetting me is you. My name is Allen! Al-len! Get it right for once!"

He was going to say more, but the words died in his throat when Natasha touched his ear. She pulled her hand away when he turned to her. "Ah, sorry. Umm, I may not be able to find the curse, but I can still try to remove it if you want."

The neko smiled and shook his head. "Thank you, but I'm ok. It's been three months, so I've kinda gotten used to living like this."

"Are you sure about that, Allen-kun?" Komui was shocked by the change in Allen's attitude towards his curse; he had only ever seen the teen angry and upset.

Allen nodded at Komui. "I'm sure. I don't want to risk pissing off my Innocence. And I think I might just go crazy if I had to give up my enhanced senses."

Natasha reached out and touched his ear again. "But surely it can't be easy walking around with cat ears."

"And didn't you once say that you hated having a tail?"

Allen shrugged off the Supervisor's question. "Maybe. But it has its uses."

Kanda and Cross both caught the meaning of his words, causing the redheaded General to raise an eyebrow at the samurai.

Natasha frowned at Allen, she didn't understand how he was so calm, and that only made her feel worse about the whole thing. "If you don't want me to undo it, then there must be something else I can do to make it up to you."

Allen frowned in thought for a moment before he smiled hesitantly at her. "Could you tell me why you cursed me? I had assumed it was because you were the type of witch who liked cursing people, but you genuinely seem like a nice person. So why'd you do it?"

Natasha's face flushed with embarrassment. She'd been expecting that to come up, but she didn't really believe Cross when he had said they would understand. "Umm, of course, but it's not the kind of thing I want to share in a public place like this. Could we maybe go someplace more private?"

Allen blinked at her. "Sure. I-"

Cross cut Allen off. "Why don't we all go down to your office, Komui?"

.x.x.

I sat awkwardly on the couch in Komui's office. Awkwardly because Natasha, the witch who cursed me, was sitting beside me. Master Cross was sitting with his feet up on Komui's desk with Timcanpy resting on his head; it was obvious from his body language that he already knew at least some of what Natasha was about to tell us, and that worried me. Komui was sitting in one of the spare chairs, and despite my freaked out state I hoped he took notice of how uncomfortable they were.

My only source of comfort in the situation was that Kanda had followed us. I couldn't see him, he was leaning against the wall behind me, but that didn't make his presence any less reassuring.

The room was silent as we waited for Natasha to speak. I couldn't take my eyes off her. The longer I was near her, the more it felt like I knew her, and it was freaking me out. Finally, she sighed and opened her mouth. "Fifteen years ago, my three year old son was kidnapped."

I frowned. I felt bad for her, obviously, but what did this have to do with why she cursed me?

"We had a hard life. I had gotten pregnant at a young age, and was thrown out of my parents' house when they found out about it. I was taken in by a family friend, but he died just after the baby was born, and I once again found myself homeless. But Robin was my light. He kept me going when things got tough. And I managed to scrape together enough for us to live on.

"Then one day while we were traveling through London, a strange man approached me, and asked me all sorts of personal questions about Robin and his birthmark. My son had been born with a deformed left arm, and this stranger wanted to know all about it. It freaked me out, and I managed to get away from him. But he must have found out where we were staying, because when I woke up the next morning, Robin was gone.

"I searched everywhere, but I couldn't find him. There were no traces of Robin or the man who took him. It was during this time that I found magic, and I used my skills to get from one place to another, continuing to search for my lost son.

"Skip forward to three months ago, and I had given up all hope of ever seeing him again. And that's when I saw you, Allen."

I blinked when she suddenly looked up at me. But then she closed her eyes and placed a hand on the rose cross on my chest. "You were just walking through the crowd, minding your own business, wearing a coat with the same emblem on it as the one worn by the man who took my son. I went blind with rage when I saw you, and I exacted my vengeance on you."

Her hand moved to my ear, and she smiled somberly at me. And I noticed for the first time that her eyes were the same shade of silver as mine. "I am truly sorry for what I did to you. I knew you weren't the same person, but all reason went out the window when I saw that coat."

Whatever she was about to say was cut off by Komui. He leaned forward and gaped at her. "Wait! Are you saying that your son was kidnapped by an exorcist?!"

"Huh?"

Cross was sitting properly in his chair now, apparently, this was the part of the story that he hadn't known. He fed his cigarette butt to Timcanpy as he addressed the confused Natasha. "If the man who took your son was wearing a coat like Allen's, then he would have been an exorcist working for the Black Order."

She frowned and looked down at my coat before looking back at Cross. "It wasn't exactly like Allen's, it was a different design, and it wasn't gold like this one: it was silver like the one he was wearing back when I cursed him. But it definitely had that same emblem on the chest."

I felt my head start to spin. I was cursed because an exorcist kidnapped this woman's baby years and years ago?

Komui seemed shocked. "What did this man look like?"

Natasha finally moved her hand off my ear. "Aside from his coat, he was really nondescript: short brown hair, Caucasian, about the same height as the angry Asian over there." She jerked her thumb at Kanda briefly. "Why do you ask?"

Komui kept a serious face as he spoke. "The Order keeps very detailed records on its personnel. If it truly was an exorcist who took your son, then the boy was probably brought here. We might be able to find the records on it."

Natasha lit up like a Christmas tree. I couldn't help but feel excited for her. "You mean you can find my son?!"

"Maybe." Komui frowned deeply. "Fifteen years ago was before my time as Supervisor. And the man you described does not sound familiar at all. You said your son was taken in London? And he'd be eighteen now, right?"

She nodded vigorously. I felt my heart start to pound hard. It was getting hard to breathe... 'Eighteen'... 'London'... 'Deformed left arm'... Is it possible?

Komui sighed. "I'd have to check the records for him too. In all my time here, there's only been one male exorcist that age, and that's Allen. But he only joined us three years ago, so there's no way he's connected to this. Right, Allen-kun?"

I felt like I was going to throw up. There's no way... But the age is right. And then there's her eye color... It makes sense... No. It's too impossible... I made a squeaking noise when I tried to speak.

"Allen-kun?"

"Oi, Moyashi. What's wrong?"

There was another squeak before I found my voice. "You're forgetting that I'm an orphan. I never knew my parents. I grew up alone... on the streets... in London."

.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.

A/N #2: Mwahahahaha... I'm feeling evil for breaking the chapter there, but it's a great cliffhanger, right?