Rising Moon, Falling Night

A/N: I'm glad some people do like this story~ Many thanks to my first three reviewers, readwithcats, Mana D. Campbell, and GentleSoul76.

To address the following questions:

Mana D. Campbell: I'm posting two chapters today, so you'll glimpse the two brothers in the next chapter. Raven won't register the presence of the 14th until after Tyki almost kills Allen, which is when Neah really stirs if I recollect rightly. As for what will happen when he does, let's just say Raven will have a lot on his mind at the time.

GentleSoul76: The canon divergence will be definite once I finish the Noah's Ark arc. Raven will have an effect upcoming battles, but I'm still considering how. Hope you continue to enjoy reading my story.

Thanks for all who reviewed, voted, followed, or even read this fledgling of a story. Please, don't be shy and put in your two cents. Just mind your manners~

"Dialogue"

Thoughts, emphasis, etc.

/ Flashbacks and dreams /

*sounds, actions*

Formal attack names

"Akuma (in their true forms) speech"

[Time passing]

- A Forsaken Village and a Haunted Castle -

The two Walker brothers rushed at the sound of the train whistle until…

*Snatch*!

"Is that a cross on your chest, young man?"

"Okay, what just happened?" groaned Raven. Both of them were now tied to chairs with a whole group of people staring at them.

"Please, master black clergymen, you must save our village from the vampire," pleaded the old man who grabbed them.

"For years, a vampire had made its home in the castle beyond this village. Its name is Baron Arystar Krory III. He never comes down during the day. Every night, we can hear human screams breaking the night's silence. No one who has ever went up there has ever returned."

"Vampires do not exist," deadpanned Raven. "Akumas exist for sure since we're exorcists and fight them all the time, but we've traveled all over the world, and I don't recall any proof of their existence."

The man's bulging eyes were really starting to get on the youngest exorcist's nerves.

"Pardon, my brother's forthright attitude. Please continue," mediated Allen.

"Very well. So long as the villagers stayed away, nothing bad would happen. Then one night, Baron Krory came down and attacked an old maid He sucked her blood until she was naught but ash!"

"Whoa…"

Lavi should have known better, but no, the bookman had to pop out of a barrel of all things and get captured, too. Now the three exorcists trudged up the mountain to Krory Arystar III's castle. As luck would have it, Allen and Raven's old master had stopped by the castle before the killings. And, as per Cross's slovenly way, the general essentially dumped the case on any passing exorcist whom the crazy villagers caught.

Lavi's teardrop golem fluttered in place as he relayed the mission to Lenalee and Bookman (and the insane village mob still had the exorcists tied together by rope). She agreed with the others that they should at least investigate the matter. She left them with a warning to not get bitten and turned.

The group finally came to a pair of large doors to the castle estate. They pushed the doors open, and they were on the so-called vampires' stomping grounds. The decor was in a word…gothic. Creepy and weirdly posed gargoyles and other stone figures. Whoever designed the castle had a whacked out sense of style.

Raven's eyes beneath his mask slid over to his two companions – who were definitely scared out of their minds.

"Yo, Allen, scared?"

"What? No, I am not."

"Then why do you have your left glove removed?" That was true. Allen had removed his glove some time ago. The red hand oddly fit the scene.

"I am not scared. Are you?"

"Pssh, no."

"Then, why do you have your hand on your hammer?"

"Both of you are being ridiculous. There are no such things as vampires," admonished Raven. To think he was the child here! His wings twitched in agitation beneath his shawl.

He hid a wince as pain shot through his head. Ever since the rewinding town mission, Raven's head pulsed with pain. Nothing really unusual (he had chronic headaches for most of his life) except for the frequency of the episodes of pain.

Then the three stilled. The atmosphere had spiked with enormous bloodthirst. Something black blurred past the three. A scream. Someone had leaped onto a village and torn his throat out. Before the three exorcists stood a tall, thin man with black and white hair. He noisily slurped up the villager's blood.

Raven narrowed his eyes the moment the baron released his victim. That particular villager Raven decided to keep quiet on based on his gut instincts. He tried to focus on the vampire, but his vision once more clouded over like it had on and off for the past several hours. Raven shook his head and stopped focusing on his second sight. His vision went back to normal.

Lavi and Allen activated their Innocence and attacked. Krory had dodged Allen's shot only to have Lavi's oversized hammer slam down. Wow, that is a scary big Innocence.

But, Lavi's hammer didn't smash the baron into the ground. Instead, Krory had caught the hammer and flung it right at Raven.

"Activate! Silver Guardian!" Raven wrapped his wings tight and braced for impact as Lavi and his hammer crashed into him.

"Be a bit more careful, Bunny-chan," mumbled Raven in a slight daze. While Raven was preoccupied with Lavi's sudden flight, Allen had captured Krory. Instead of being intimidated, Krory began to laugh.

"Ttch, strange children, aren't you? You should quit wasting my time and flee. Unless…are you monsters as well?"

"Hardly," grumbled Raven as he shoved Lavi's hammer and Lavi himself off. "We're exorcists. I'm Raven Walker, and this is my older brother Allen Walker and Lavi the Bookman apprentice."

"Good evening then. I am Arystar Krory the third. Now, I am very busy tonight," calmly stated the captive as his face twisted in anger, "so kindly LET GO OF ME!"

He bit right into Allen's bone white hand. Not a smart idea for the not-vampire. The human and Innocence-laced blood made the guy cough and gag in utter disgust. Before the three knew it, Krory fled into the woods

- The Secret of the Vampire -

The mob essentially ran off and left the rest of the work for the exorcists to finish. Plus, Allen's bite made him very unpopular as evidenced by Lavi's stake and garlic. Where he got it, I'll never know. Maybe he borrowed it from a villager. Or he's a secret vampire hunter.

The behavior was getting ridiculous. The young academic scolded the red head. "Lavi, Allen is not turning into a damn vampire! And forget about the villager. He was already dead."

Allen and Lavi gaped at Raven's blunt words.

Lavi sputtered, "What do you mean "dead"?"

"I mean dead. Not alive. No living energy but for the chained soul of another dead human. As in, an akuma."

"Why didn't you kill it if one was with the crowd? For that matter, why didn't you warn any of us about it?" questioned Lavi.

"One, the villagers have lost too many people to take our exorcism very well. Two, I had a feeling that told me to see what would happen. And I was right. Arystar Krory targeted that very villager and no one else in the crowd. When he bit Allen, his blood or Innocence did not agree with him in the least. We've established that Allen is human, but his blood repulsed the baron. Therefore, Arystar Krory III cannot be a vampire. In addition, those fangs of his actually pierced through Allen's Innocence, and they didn't break when he grabbed Little Hammer, Big Hammer."

"He's an accommodator," reasoned Lavi. "Probably a parasitic-type like the two of you."

Raven stared at the building coming up ahead of them. "Most likely, unless vampires partake of akuma blood oil. Which means, General Cross left him for us to explain some things. I wouldn't be surprised he's the one to leave the Innocence since the attacks occurred after he visited the castle. So, we got an accommodator to initiate, it seems."

"Yeah," agreed the two exorcists.

Lavi turned to Allen. "Beansprout, are you sure he's your brother? The kid's super smart compared to you."

"Raven's always been smart, ever since we were children. And, what do you mean compared to me?"

"You both are idiots for believing in vampire stories," sighed the youngest of the three with nary a trace of diplomacy.

Fate hated the exorcist at times. This was one instance. Some monstrous man-eating plants knocked Lavi out, and grabbed Allen and him. Raven wrinkled his nose at the nauseating sweet smell. The plants were vaguely familiar.

Allen smashed several around himself and Lavi, and Raven extended his wings to hack more apart. "Dark Skies: Shining!" Feathers shorn down the wild garden plants.

"Wake up, you dumbass rabbit! Do I need to give you the Kanda-inspired special to wake you up?!" screamed Raven along with Allen. Lavi was still out until a blonde and quite pretty woman reproached the chop-happy actions of the exorcists. Lavi awoke at that exact moment.

Lavi's aura seemed to pulse with a red heart in Raven's sight. The guy posed and shouted, "STRIKE!"

This prompted Raven's dearest mature older brother to smash Lavi's head with his Innocence.

"Listen to us!"

Raven emphasized the point by flinging to sharp feathers at the rabbit, neatly slicing a stand of hair.

"If you haven't notice by now, we have man-eating plants attacking us! Why would you be so easily distracted? You're a Bookman apprentice and our senior! Show some maturity!" scolded the younger boy.

"Why are you so interested with that?" contributed Allen.

Raven smacked a hand to his face. Again, he was the thirteen-year-old brat, not them.

Eliade took their rudeness, in a word, badly. She threw the akuma villager at the plants. Black pentacles crawled across the skin of several plants. Oh, this is not-

*BOOM!*

The three exorcists flew out of the castle from the power of the explosion. Allen and Lavi barely managed to cling to the castle wall in time. Raven simply angled his wings and hovered below them.

"I blame you, Lavi and Allen" pronounced Raven. "You two just had to go and enrage the akuma lady. And I repeat, AKUMA lady, for your information, Lavi."

The Bookman's apprentice just sighed in disappointment.

Soon after substantiating the accommodator theory with the akuma blood virus tainted graveyard, the man of the hour snuck up behind Lavi and backhanded him into the wall.

"Ah, so the intruders were the three of you. You not only hurt my grandfather's beloved plants, but you tried to hurt Eliade. You've angered me. Die, exorcists," hissed the very vampire-looking Krory.

Krory's attacked with devastating speed and strength. Raven had the aerial advantage, but Krory was freaking demonic like this! He managed to clip Raven and send the small exorcist tumbling through the graves.

Once he extracted himself from the rubble, Raven flew back into battle. He darted forth to join Allen just as he finished lecturing Krory, and the guy slammed the cursed boy into the castle across from the graveyard.

"Earth Fall!" Raven flew to a great height and dove straight down. Green light sparked and scattered across his body. The exorcist plunged into the not-vampire with blinding speed. At the same time he made impact, a hammer slammed down. The baron crashed to the side.

"Oh! You actually got me," chuckled Krory. He drew a sleeve across his bleeding mouth. Lavi and Raven smiled a Cheshire grin.

"Don't you worry, I'll be paying you back, too, bastard. You shouldn't go and fuck with us exorcists! Yo, Nightingale, would it be okay if I bloody this guy up a bit?"

The younger exorcist glared at the redhead. "Nightingale? I am not a freaking songbird. Never mind. You nearly hit me, you know…if you really must. I, mean, the guy did just send my older brother into his castle with that last blow. Just make sure to let me get a few wing strokes in."

"My, my. You two are getting serious. Sound like fun, actually," sneered the baron. "Show me your power, kiddies."

Krory refused to listen when the two told him about being an accommodator. To lecture in the middle of a fight probably didn't help. Raven peered closely at Krory. His eyes behaved without too much fuss this time. He could see the green light of Innocence dim considerably.

Suddenly, Krory screamed in pain.

"UAAAAAGUGAGUGAGUGAGAGA!"

"Huh? What's wrong?" inquired Lavi.

"I would say he just ran out of steam. His Innocence is dependent on the akuma blood virus present in his blood stream," inferred Raven. "Looks like he's running on fumes."

The two exorcists exchanged smiles.

"Well then…Whatever! I don't care if you are weakened. But you're wide open. Don't take this badly." Lavi raised Iron Hammer.

""Innocence: Second Opening - Fire Seal! Hellfire and Ash!"

"Dark Skies: Shining!"

A fire serpent crashed into Krory at the same time feathers whirled around its length. Lavi remarked on how both exorcists had backed down on their respective power.

*Hissssss* Raven looked to his golem. A small image projected to report-

"Holy Guardian Spirits! Lavi, we shot Krory right where Allen is fighting!"

- Love's Destruction -

Lavi and he bust through the window in time to catch the falling Allen. The sight greeting the two was intense. Somehow, Allen's eye revealed the true form of the akuma soul. Raven could always see them, but Allen's eye allowed him to hear the crying soul. By Lavi's reaction, he, too, was affected. Krory also could see the rotting soul. The exorcists didn't have much of an opportunity to intervene in the battle erupting in front of them as the persistent flowers busted into the room.

"What is with these flowers? Did Krory forget to feed them or something?!" Another vine made a swipe at his head. He sliced it apart without mercy.

"This again!" yelled Lavi as he defended with his hammer.

Allen and Raven finally recalled where they have seen the flowers. Their master had made the two take care of a cutting of these one he called Rosanne. It was sort of memory Raven would have blocked out for the humiliation of extracting his hand from it (thrice). The exorcists managed to abate the flower's blood lust by heaping on them a ton of affection.

Krory won his battle, the plants ate them, but in the end, they had another exorcist with them. Another weird one, too. Actions speak louder than words…but the youngest exorcist definitely jumped in fear when the whole castle exploded.