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?

4. Revelations

6

Fracturing Skies v2

DGM 791-204

Dark Souls AU

Arc 1 The First Change

Chapter 4 Revelations

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 4: REVELATIONS

D GRAY MAN/DARK SOULS AU

Timeline: 791-204

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Nea stilled, golden eyes narrowing as he stared at Lavi. In that moment, he didn't look particularly friendly, the dangerous aura around him nearly tripling, prompting Lavi to take a step back. All the silver drained from his irises and in a low voice, Nea growled, "No, and despite what we told Kanda earlier, you actually have a high likelihood of going hollow on us. I don't think I'm going to waste the time explaining my situation here to someone that, in high probability, will die and go fully insane the first time he faces a demon."

Lavi grit his teeth in frustration before he snapped back, "Then why don't you kill me then? Or, better yet, show me how the fuck to leave this place?!" He didn't have a death wish, but a lack of explanation and now the threat of violence from someone he had thought cared caused him to react without thinking, to speak without considering his words more carefully. Kanda had accused him before of being close to going hollow, probably referencing a process wherein he would become nothing more than another mindless aggressive humanoid shambling around, but he didn't feel any different than he thought he should, lack of memories notwithstanding.

"Leaving this place is impossible." Lavi filed that response away for later.

"Fine, then why bother helping me? You and Allen have been teaching me shit this whole time. Why stop now?!" He was yelling now, feeling desperate. He still didn't want to die. He wanted to find Bookman and figure out just what was going on and how he had gotten here. He was determined to learn the reason, even if that goal looked nigh impossible at the moment. Reaching over his shoulder, he grasped the handle of his hammer, the hammer Nea had given him. "You know what? You don't have to bother teaching me anything anymore. I'll figure it out on my own. I'll find the old man. I refuse to give up! If you want to try and kill me, then get it over with so I can move on."

Nea grinned.

The hammer felt different in his hands this time as he lifted it off his back, power thrumming in his palm, down his arm, through his very frame. He shuddered, the weapon lighter in his grasp than before, swinging into a stance in front of him with far less effort than he had used earlier to wield it. It was different, the smooth hammer head growing in front of his very eyes, flashing a green trail of energy that appeared so similar to Lenalee's boots. Another memory stuttered across his mind's eye, a presence lingering in the air and trailing up his spine like a warm caress.

"Innocence, activate!" he growled, not knowing how the words came to his mind, just that they were there, begging to be spoken. Power shivered through his being, from the top of his head to the tips of his toes, energy tingling throughout his body. He raised his hammer into the air, the action instinctual, but nothing further happened. Despite the nearby air whipping around his body, he felt like he was pushing on an invisible wall. Something else was supposed to happen, but what?

Nea kept smiling, but Lavi noticed how his expression seemed to soften, silver filtering into gold irises. This wasn't merely excitement for a fight, this was…this was… Lavi felt his stamina bottom out, his whole body suddenly exhausted. He gasped, dropping the hammer, the extreme sense of power he had felt falling away from him at the same time. It felt like someone had dropped an anvil on him, his whole existence a sudden struggle. It was hard just to breathe. He fell to his knees, his lips tingling and going numb. As his vision faded to black and he felt himself collapse further, warm arms gathered him in a soft embrace.

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He woke an indeterminate amount of time later, staring at a stone ceiling high above him. There looked to be a red ladder that wasn't knocked all the way down, which led to a narrow-looking stairway that disappeared from his line of sight. He frowned before sitting up, seeing Nea sitting before him, Kanda leaning against the room's sole exit and Lenalee standing opposite him. Looking around, he then noticed the small flame burning happily in the center of the room. The whole place looked familiar, but why?

Looking to the world beyond, he then saw the bodies of the hollow crossbow archers lying dead as they had after Lenalee had taken care of them and realized that they were currently in the small room off to the side of that area, attached via wooden planks. It was a place they had skipped before, choosing instead to go down the narrow bridge besieged by bomb-throwing hollows, hollows that Kanda had killed before racing ahead with Lenalee. Furrowing his brows in confusion, he wondered why they had come back this way.

Nea shifted, pulling his attention. Lavi nearly reached for his hammer but hesitated. Why hadn't Nea killed him? Why had the three of them (four, if he counted Allen separately), chosen to gather here, bringing him along? Why bother keeping him alive at all? The white-haired boy offered him a sheepish smile before apologizing, "I'm sorry, but I had to be certain."

He was sorry? "About what?" Lavi asked warily, tossing an uncertain look towards Kanda and Lenalee. Kanda was pointedly ignoring him, but Lenalee… She had a sad look on her face, sad and uncertain, possibly even shamed since she wouldn't look him in the eye. She seemed to be looking everywhere but, and for the life of him, Lavi wasn't sure why.

Allen sighed as the gold retreated from his eyes, "We…knew another Lavi." Lavi gasped in shock, but the look on Allen's face kept him from saying anything. The other boy looked torn, like he was remembering something awful, silver eyes focused on the small flame, refusing to meet his gaze. "He looked just like you, in fact, and was travelling with an older man he referred to as Bookman." Lavi's eyes widened. That sounded just like him, but how? It was too coincidental for it to be an accident. Allen had to be talking about him from before he lost his memories.

"What happened to him?" What happened to me? he wanted to ask. His throat suddenly felt dry, his question coming out raspy, the sound wavering as he spoke. He was afraid of what the answer would be. Was Allen really referring to another version of himself? Could what Kanda said be true? Could he be going hollow without even realizing it? And what would that mean about him finding the old man? What few memories he had of the coot were tenuous at best and seemed to be fading fast. Did that mean that he was just a shell of his former self?

Was he going to die here after all?

"He disappeared, leaving his hammer and dagger behind." Allen swallowed, brows furrowing. He was oblivious to the stutter of a memory in Lavi's mind, the hammer slipping from his grasp, stabbing himself with a dagger. "We thought he was gone for good." Allen's words halted the image before he could get lost in it. "We went an entire cycle without seeing you again, and then you were there, at Firelink, with no memories of yourself or us." Allen met his gaze, silver eyes bright with unshed tears. "Nea thought your sudden appearance was a trick, and when the hammer didn't respond to you at first, I'm ashamed to admit that I was concerned."

Lavi didn't know what question to ask first. Allen had seemed to be talking about someone else at first, a person that somehow shared a name with him and an association with the old man named Bookman, but then his pronouns changed, and he was referencing Lavi himself, equating the Lavi of before to this version of him now. He wanted to ask how Allen could confuse them. Why were they separate in the beginning of his story and merged into one at the end? Was he the same person the other boy was talking about that had gone missing or not? But then Lavi recalled what Nea had said about innocence: "It could only be wielded to its full potential by those people the weapons themselves chose." His hammer was somehow this innocence material (him calling it to activate just before he passed out was proof enough for him despite the lingering confusion over that event for how exactly had he known how to do that) and Nea had made no mention of the substance changing wielders (although, to be fair, that question hadn't come up before), therefore, the only conclusion he could make was that he had to be the same Lavi that had travelled with them in the past.

He also wondered at what Allen had meant by 'cycle'. It implied that there was a pattern to events, that eventually the same things would happen the exact same way. Such a thing sounded impossible, but he recalled what Allen had said about the way the world here worked, that time and space was warped. He didn't have any more information than that and not nearly enough to make any kind of conjecture, so he put a pin in that thought and moved on.

The reveal that Nea thought his appearance was trick made him wonder, too, but again, he didn't have enough information to make any kind of assumptions.

It was a rather convoluted thought process, but eventually he settled and asked, "How can you know that the hammer didn't just choose a different accommodator?"

Nea chuckled, silver eyes flickering gold, but what he found amusing, Lavi couldn't say, "Every single accommodator bears the Dark Sign and ends up here. Once Innocence chooses you, you remain an accommodator until you lose your mind and go hollow. And since the hammer responded to you, I know that you are the same Lavi we met and lost track of in the past."

"What if you were wrong? What if the hammer didn't activate for me?" Lavi asked.

Nea stretched and stood, replying, "Innocence protects its chosen accommodator unless they've gone hollow. If you were insane, it would have been mercy to kill you." Looking down at him, the white-haired boy's expression hardened. "I don't regret making you feel threatened. And I know the old man would have approved of finishing you off if you had been nothing more than an empty shell."

Lavi scrambled to his feet. "So, you did know the both of us?" Silver creeped back into Nea's golden eyes as he stiffly nodded, brows furrowed. "Do you know where Bookman is, then?"

Nea huffed and looked away for a moment before glancing back at him, "No. He went missing at the same time as you. I have my…suspicions…about who is responsible, but no solid proof."

"Who do you think is responsible, then?" It wasn't like he could do much about it in his current state, but having a name to focus on could only help him later on, he reasoned.

Nea glared, the silver hue in his eyes retreating. "Why should I tell you?" he snapped back, "Not like you remember anything."

"Nea…" Lenalee started to object with a whine, but Nea interrupted her with a raised hand.

The white-haired boy pointed at her, irritation marring his face. "No, don't you dare argue now. You didn't have a problem with how I was approaching this before, and we all know better that something achieved through hard work is better than a handout."

"Don't snap at her," Kanda snarled, hand resting on the katana at his hip.

"If I don't remember anything, then how about you start telling me?" Lavi interrupted, forestalling an argument between Nea and Kanda. Before Nea could open his mouth to respond, Lavi barreled forward, "I know you just preached about handouts and hard work, but I don't give a shit. This is my life, my memories that we're talking about. I deserve to know!" He was shouting near the end, glad in hindsight that the nearest hollows were dead. Otherwise, it would have been like when he first woke up here, the first memory he had, with the horde coming down the hill because of Kanda (and Allen/Nea) yelling.

Golden eyes faded to silver. With an understanding look, Allen replied with a slow nod, "Yes, you do deserve to know. But there are things about yourself that even we don't know." He gestured to include Kanda and Lenalee with himself. "It will be better for you to remember your past without us muddling your memories."

Nea rose to the foreground, elaborating, "We won't tell you about yourself. We can't. It will create a schism in your mind and possibly even make you go hollow if what we tell you doesn't align with the truth. However, we can answer other questions, general knowledge or information about previous battles."

Lavi eyed them skeptically, weighing whether he thought they were telling the truth or not. He saw nothing but sincerity in Allen's eyes. How he knew that, he wasn't sure. A nagging instinct, perhaps? Or maybe it was just a lost memory rising to the surface. He wasn't sure, couldn't say for certain, but he chose to believe them, for now. The only person that had been outwardly hostile was Kanda and even though Nea had frightened him earlier, he recalled that the other boy hadn't actually raised a weapon against him. And Lenalee was currently watching him with a hopeful look tempered by what he imagined was a healthy dose of reality based on what he had seen thus far. She was seemingly optimistic but not overly so.

Therefore, he chose to believe they were being sincere, and he could only hope that he wasn't misplacing his trust.

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AUTHOR'S NOTES:

I'm tentatively planning an alternating schedule between stories so that each one keeps moving forward without entirely stagnating. Next week (and it'll be Saturday of next week at the earliest more than likely thanks to my new schedule change *yay* /sarcasm) will be the first chapter of the Bloodborne-based AU for this story series.

The Dark Souls and Bloodborne based AU's don't have the specific time tables that the other stories have (so many dates to make line up or simply change to fit, good grief lmao), so this lets me just write without having to do extensive planning to make sure all the calendars line up. Granted, the main timelines for D. Gray Man, Bleach, and Fullmetal Alchemist are more or less done until the first story sets are out, but then I gotta actually go back and fully write the damned things. Lol, but it all makes sense on paper and in my head and I spent a great deal of time on getting the worlds lined up the way I wanted so that everything meshed correctly.

Hopefully, I'll keep getting follows/favorites/kudos (although reviews would be helpful, too at some point) because just seeing that happen prompts me to happily move forward. I appreciate everyone that has done any of the above. It really is a self-esteem boost. Thank you!