Fracturing Skies DGM 791-204

by ShilaMazeri

People marked with the legendary Dark Sign have started to rise across the world, heralding the return of the Undead from the ancient stories about Lordran, a land that was once to the east of Xing on the Pacifica Continent, replaced with the more modern Noah's Ark. But with most of his memories gone, can Lavi recall his lost knowledge in time to save himself from going hollow?

2. Moving Forward

7

Fracturing Skies v2

DGM 791-204

Dark Souls AU

Arc 1 The First Change

Chapter 2 Moving Forward

Fracturing Skies

Conversation Guide

Note here that I am keeping the overall guide the same as the rest of the Fracturing Skies stories.

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Normal text.

Thinking.*feelings*

/*instincts*/

"Spoken out loud."

'Magic Weapon speaking. *feelings*'

'White Zangetsu speaking. (the true Zangetsu) *feelings*' This will also be how Soul Eater Weapons communicate with their wielder when in Weapon form.

'Old Man Zangetsu speaking. *feelings*' This will also be how Soul Eater Weapons communicate their feelings via their wavelengths. Meisters can communicate mentally with their Weapons in this manner as well.

'Junior's personas speaking when inside his mind. *feelings*' (I'll get into this in the story, but any 'voice' that is not in control but is inside his mind speaks this way. I'll tag each voice in a way so you all can understand what is going on, but there aren't enough bold/underline/italics combinations to make 49 separate ways of writing and this site doesn't allow for different fonts. Sorry)

'Werewolf 'mind' speaking.'

"Speaking a different language, but it is written in English."

Mental communication outside an imprint. *feelings*

Essence ribbon/Spirit ribbon sensing. *feelings*

'Essence Aura/Spiritual Pressure sensing. *feelings*'

"Imprint communication. *feelings*"

"Pack Link. *feelings*"

I think they are thinking this with their face. Also used for telepathic glimpses of information, like when one individual reads another's mind.

"Recalling what someone else said."

I am dwelling on what happened. *I am dwelling on how I felt.*

"I am recalling what I said."

I am recalling something I read to myself. Blood Memories are written this way. Recalling rumors I heard. *feelings from Blood Memories*

"I am reiterating what I read or heard about out loud. Blood Memories are talked about out loud this way. Rumors are shared this way." (rumors)

NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION/ANNOUNCEMENTS

*"speaking through a communication device (NOT like nonverbal communication or announcements over an intercom"*

/copied words to pull the reader to the next scene, oftentimes used when having flashbacks that can distract from a current event. /

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Without further adieu, I do NOT own Bleach, Fullmetal Alchemist, Avatar, Yu Yu Hakusho, Soul Eater, D Gray Man, nor anything in the Stargate universe (books, movies, and tv shows included). I do NOT own the world of Dark Souls, nor anything therein.

I ONLY own the characters from Chronicles of Seraphia, as well as my own twists to each of the original characters and timelines, and any OCs I add.

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I am marking this story with M for Mature.

There will be swearing, suicidal thoughts, torture and extreme blood and gore and other MATURE themes. This is NOT a complete list, just a heads up on some of the more common things in this particular story. There is a REASON that it is being marked M for MATURE. If you are squeamish, easily triggered, hate certain types of stories, etc. then you should MOVE ON.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

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ARC 1: THE FIRST CHANGE

CHAPTER 2: MOVING FORWARD

D GRAY MAN/DARK SOULS AU

Timeline: 791-204

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A large crow was circling from above before it descended toward the small fire. Its claws appeared to be clutching something, and when it swooped down from the skies, it dropped what it had been holding before flying off. Lavi couldn't help but to jump again, leaping out of the way of the crow. Then the ball of white stood, revealing itself to be a white-haired boy wearing black pants and a white shirt with a cape and hood, a red scar over his left eye. Both eyes were silver, but it looked like the left eye was more golden in appearance, but then again, maybe it was just the sunlight.

"Sorry I'm late," he apologized with a soft smile, looking at Lenalee.

Lavi found himself staring at the newcomer with wide eyes, shocked at how nonchalant he seemed to be for having been dropped out of the sky by a fricking giant crow. And Lenalee and Kanda were equally unsurprised, making him wonder just what they experienced here (wherever here was) that made that event rather innocuous.

"Welcome back, Allen!" Lenalee greeted with a wide smile, rising to stand beside Lavi. Kanda grunted a barely audible welcome, ignoring the trio in favor of…whatever it was that he was doing.

"Not going to properly greet me, Yu?" Allen questioned sweetly. Lavi noticed how his body language had changed from being polite and apologetic to something else, his silver eyes glinting gold. His voice was a silky purr that sounded altogether different from his initial apology, and Lavi wondered which of the two behaviors was an act.

"Do not call me that!" Kanda snapped, raising his katana and angling its tip toward Allen's throat. Allen's face split into a wide grin, stepping forward until the blade grazed the soft flesh of his throat, blood beading where his skin was sliced. "I will cut your head off, Shortstack," the swordsman threatened.

Allen blinked and his eyes were silver again. "My name is Allen, BaKanda! You should use it sometime!"

"Maybe you shouldn't be so fucking late every god damned time we leave the amphitheater! I don't know what the fuck it is that you do down there that makes us have to wait, but I'm fucking sick of it!" Kanda shouted back even though he was lowering his sword arm. A quick glance at Lenalee had Lavi breathing a silent sigh of relief despite the tension. She didn't appear to be too worried about their spat, nor did she acknowledge Allen's eye color and behavior shifting.

Allen crossed his arms over his chest, eyes flashing gold, "I don't see the purpose in explaining it repeatedly. We already told you. Either you can pull your head out of your ass and remember what we said, or…"

"Nea. Kanda. Stop it." Lenalee interrupted, stomping to stand beside them. Lavi found himself caught on the name Nea, like she was referring to someone else. But…hadn't she called the silver-haired boy Allen? Who was Nea?

The white-haired boy sighed and once again his body language changed. "Sorry, Lenalee," he apologized with a small smile. Then those silver eyes settled on Lavi, and he found himself entranced by those mercurial orbs, seeing a hint of gold lingering in the background. "And who might you be?"

"He's a fucking liability is what he is," Kanda snapped, but before Allen could snarl in reply, his face twisting in anger at the interruption, silver eyes momentarily flashing gold, the swordsman continued, "He doesn't even remember who the fuck he is. He's nearly hollow. I say that we end him."

Lavi wanted to back away, to run away from the violence the swordsman promised, but Lenalee's hand on his shoulder kept him rooted firmly in place. He hadn't even noticed her move to stand behind him, preventing his escape with a silence that startled him. He flinched at her touch but couldn't pull away, her grip too strong to dislodge.

Allen looked him over, scrutinizing him with a serious expression that made Lavi sweat. He didn't know what Kanda meant by 'hollow', but he sure as shit understood the other male's desire to kill him. He didn't want to die. He wanted to find the old man, to remember the things about himself that he had forgotten. He wanted to live.

After a tense moment where Lavi was practically holding his breath, Allen cocked his head to the side, commenting, "He's no hollow, and he's not about to become one." Hints of gold swam in the silver depths, grabbing Lavi's attention. Allen looked at Kanda. "He's not a threat."

"Tch," Kanda folded his arms over his chest, katana tucked against his side. "He's still a liability. The fucking rabbit has no attention to detail." Rabbit? Did he just call me a rabbit? "All he does is jump in fright. He'll be in the way or cause one of us to die and we don't have the humanity to carry him."

What does he mean by humanity?

Allen (or Nea, whatever name he was going by) sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, eyes closed. For a moment, Lavi feared what he would say and what that would mean for him. Of their own accord, his eyes slid to look at the mangled dead body, wondering if that was about to become his fate. He didn't want to die, but he didn't honestly know what he could do to defend himself. He had no weapons, and he hadn't even been able to hear Lenalee move. At best, he would fall before he could think much more about it. At worst, Kanda would shred him while he was still cognizant of his pain.

An inhuman growl followed swiftly by the sound of steel sliding through flesh grabbed Lavi's attention. A humanoid creature had approached them while he was fretting over his future survival, getting quickly dispatched by a vicious Kanda that seemed all too happy to get his blade wet with blood. Lavi hesitated to call it human, the emaciated frame looking only vaguely like a person, decaying skin pulled taut over bone and too little muscle. It was more disgusting than frightening, but it was the fact that it had snuck up on him unawares that worried him.

He wasn't as inattentive as Kanda had made it seem. Somewhere deep down he knew that. And yet, he was failing to notice his surroundings, and by the way that…thing…acted, he highly doubted it had enough sense to listen to reason. It seemed that Kanda's apparently violent nature wasn't without reason. This place, wherever they were, was dangerous.

"Great," Allen drawled, eyes glinting golden. Lavi pulled his attention away from the carnage to witness a group of three more of those things shambling over, feet dragging across the grass with mindless purpose. Behind them was a veritable horde making their way down a set of stairs built into a gentle slope. "I guess all your yelling got the attention of the merry band of fuckwits on top of the hill. Why don't you handle them while I take care of our guest?"

"Tch, whatever," Kanda grumbled before dashing forward with astonishing speed, katana tracing a wide arc through the air to collide with the swarm of inhuman creatures. Lavi watched as he took the battle up the hill, tearing through a growing number of enemies without appearing to need to slow down. Lenalee tore after him, black leather boots glowing with a green energy that hummed with power. She leapt into the air before coming down like a meteor over the crest of the hill and beyond his sight, yet he could still hear the sounds of fighting from down below.

It wasn't like it was very quiet.

Now he was alone with Allen, and he eyed the white-haired boy nervously, unsure of what he would do. His earlier comment seemed to imply that he would follow through with Kanda's threat, but yet he wasn't doing anything overtly aggressive.

Allen smiled, eyes still shining with golden flecks. "You don't need to be nervous. Those two will listen to me. Kanda just likes to fight with my decisions."

Lavi offered him a shaky grin back, still not sure if he could trust that statement. He didn't know any of them. And while Kanda was the only one to be overly violent, he had noticed how quick and tense Lenalee was. He had the feeling that she could be just as dangerous as the swordsman. And then there was Allen, who had ridden in the claws of a giant crow. Something told him that the white-haired boy was on par with the others in terms of danger to his well-being.

Allen sighed, eyes shifting fully silver. "How about I introduce myself, hmm?" Lavi watched him warily, giving him a terse nod. It was as good a place as any to start building relations, especially since he had no idea where they were, making it impossible to know how to escape—if that was even possible. "My name is Allen Walker."

Silver eyes shifted fully gold. "And my name is Nea D. Campbell."

Lavi swallowed, noting how it did indeed seem that there were two differing personalities within the boy. The dual introduction made Allen's (and subsequently, Nea's) earlier behavior suddenly make sense as well, the two identities flipping control so quickly and easily that it was only readily apparent upon gazing into their eyes.

Gold receded to mostly silver, and Allen offered him a tentative smile. "I know that it can be a lot to take in and that we haven't done much to make you not fear us, but we really do mean it when we say that you don't need to be nervous." Lavi tried to let out a relieved sigh, but all he managed to do was release a shaky breath. The gold in Allen's eyes fully disappeared then, and for some reason, Lavi suddenly felt reassured. He didn't know what it was about the golden hue. Something about it screamed danger.

As if reading Lavi's expression, Allen commented, "You're right that Nea is dangerous, but he won't hurt anyone that's sane. Only hollows have anything to fear from him."

Hollow. It was that term again. Lavi voiced his confusion, needing to know what a hollow was, what made them dangerous. Allen beckoned him to follow and as they made their way through the trail of bodies Kanda and Lenalee left behind, taking blood-slicked steps up a gentle rising stone staircase, the white-haired boy answered, keeping Lavi's attention fixated on him as opposed to the scattered remains they were stepping over.

"Hollows are those humans that have lost their sanity." Lavi's instincts bristled again, and he knew without looking that Nea was present once again. "They've lost the last of their humanity and devolved into mindless creatures devoid of reason." Nea gestured at the ruined bodies littering the first plateau up the side of the cliff. Judging by the amount of body parts strewn across the grass in a brutal crimson display, Lavi estimated that there had to have been roughly two dozen remains scattered about. His stomach threatened to rebel, so he pointedly looked away, gazing straight into silver and golden orbs instead.

Allen added with a mournful look, "I'm sure you've noticed how humanoid they look." He didn't wait for Lavi to respond, continuing, "That's because all hollows were once regular human beings, no different than the rest of us."

Lavi froze in horror, his eyes straying back down to the dead bodies left haphazardly about as that information clicked into place in his mind. There was no care in how they were killed. It was a brutal massacre. A memory tried to surface, bodies laying by the dozen in open fields of death, putrefaction tearing away the skin and the clothing. It was terrible yet familiar somehow, forgotten mental defenses rallying to separate his mind from what he was seeing. He distanced himself from the awful scene in front of him, forcing his stomach and mind to settle in spite of his surroundings.

As he returned his gaze to Nea's gold and silver eyes, he thought he saw a hint of approval there, but it was hard to tell for certain. Nea nodded and they continued moving forward, up another, steeper, staircase that ultimately led to an aqueduct built over a canyon, a stone structure that linked a building above their heads to what appeared to be an outer wall on the other side of the empty expanse. Lenalee poked her head out from a walkway at the top of the third flight of stairs, and distantly Lavi could hear Kanda grumbling, water splashing as he stomped behind Lenalee.

Nea snorted in amusement as they climbed the stairs before commenting, much to Lavi's confusion, "Rat fell through the floor again?"

Lenalee's lips quirked. "Yeah, he's not too happy about that."

Lenalee turned away before Lavi could ask, but Allen glanced back at him and apparently noted the look on his face because he elaborated, "We're in a place called Lordran. Time and Space here are warped, making it possible for…otherwise impossible things to happen. Sometimes that results in objects passing through solid objects." Allen shrugged and with a self-deprecating chuckle, added, "I guess we're just so used to it by now that it doesn't strike us as strange anymore."

"How long have you been here?"

The question was out of Lavi's mouth before he had a chance to ponder whether it would be considered rude to ask, but it didn't seem to phase Allen. The white-haired boy cocked his head to the side in consideration before replying with a weary sigh, "A very long time."

Silver flashed gold and Nea asked as he stepped into the aqueduct, feet splashing through water, "What type of weapon do you like?"

The change in topic left Lavi floundering to keep up. All he could do was gape in confusion and ask, "Huh? What do you mean?" He hesitantly followed Nea up the stone staircase leading to the entryway Lenalee had briefly appeared in, the wind whistling through the canyon below and tugging at his clothes making him desperately wish for a handrail to hang onto. The location felt highly precarious, like a decent gust of air would send him careening into the chasm.

Nea sighed, sounding like he was starting to get impatient with Lavi's ignorance. Fear crept up the redhead's spine in response. No matter what Allen had said before, he couldn't help but worry about his safety with Nea. The golden-eyed identity made his hackles rise in a way he couldn't easily explain. "I don't know if you noticed or not," Nea started with a slight glare in Lavi's direction as he joined the other boy in the waterway, "but this place is dangerous. You need something to defend yourself with. So…" Nea kept moving forward until there was a closed steel door ahead. He exited out a walkway in the stone wall to the left of it and asked, "What kind of weapon would you like to use?"

Lavi followed him through the wall and up the immediate flight of stairs to the right, thankful that his boots were waterproof, while seriously considering Nea's question. "What are my options?"

They reached the top of the steps only to find another bloodbath and a couple of smoldering piles. Lavi tried not to look that hard, but he found himself categorizing the scene, counting the dead and trying to figure out how they died. While he could easily see where high impacts and neat slices were used to defeat the dead lying on the ground (presumably from Lenalee and Kanda respectively), he couldn't place where the fire had come from.

A growl ahead and off toward the left followed swiftly by a small black ball exploding into an equally tiny flame as it collided with the ground drew Lavi's attention, answering his silent question about the fire. As Lavi and Nea moved forward, he noted that there was a short wooden plank covering a gap between the buildings. On the other side were Kanda and Lenalee making swift work of a few remaining hollows. Once he and Nea reached the plank, he could see that there was a building to the left and one to the right. However, the doorway to the right seemed filled with a white fog that he couldn't see past. Brows furrowed, he hung back behind Nea while Kanda and Lenalee finished off the mindless creatures.

Nea hummed a moment before answering Lavi's earlier question, golden eyes watching the other two fight. "Well, there are bladed weapons, clubs and hammers, spears, and bows. There are also three different kinds of magic, from pyromancies and sorceries to miracles." Nea turned to look at him, eyes narrowing thoughtfully. "Hmm, you strike me as a dagger and hammer type, maybe a bit of pyromancies thrown in for good measure."

Lavi hadn't even fully contemplated his given options yet, but Nea's apparently playful suggestion struck a chord inside him. Something stuttered in his mind, the feel of a dagger hilt resting in his palm, blade pressed against his wrist. "Yeah," he muttered as he tried to focus on the fragmented image. The thought shattered as quickly as it came though, leaving him with no more information than he had initially gotten. It was frustrating, but maybe there was hope yet to remember what he had forgotten.

Hopefully.

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AUTHOR'S NOTES:

Anyone playing Dark Souls 1 or Dark Souls Remastered has probably experienced the 'rat falling through the floor' phenomenon at least once while they've been playing. I don't know how many times and rats I've slain only to watch them plummet through the ground. And of course, those are the ones that have a humanity drop on them. *throws hands in the air*

And while I am keeping the initial map kinda the same from Dark Souls in the beginning, the number of enemies is certainly *not*. There is definitely no massive horde of undead on the hills leading to the aqueduct in the game. I gotta introduce some 'artificial difficulty' in here other it wouldn't be much more than a snooze fest for the story. 4 people traveling together would far overwhelm anything in the game normally.