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?

6. History

6

Fracturing Skies v2

DGM 791-204

Dark Souls AU

Arc 1 The First Change

Chapter 6 History

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 6: HISTORY

D GRAY MAN AU/DARK SOULS AU

Timeline: 791-204

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"I forgot how good you were at parrying," Nea commented thoughtfully, abruptly ending Allen's clapping. The sound echoed over the buildings below, which Lavi thought partially didn't exist due to Allen's earlier explanation. It was hard to know which were simple mirages and which still existed. It all looked the same to his eyes.

He shrugged, asking, "Am I?" feeling the blood spray from the hollows he had killed (plus the bit from his tumble into the corpses of the three dead archers earlier) cool on his body, stiffening the fabric of his clothes. A dark green cloak covered a rough spun short-sleeve shirt, a sharp contrast to the bright orange (and now speckled with crimson) scarf wrapped loosely around his neck. His pants had it worse, the cloth hardening around the knees, but it wasn't too cumbersome to work with.

"Looked impressive to me," Lenalee chimed in, startling him. He hadn't seen her behind Allen and Nea.

"Tch, I've seen better," Kanda retorted, his dark eyes not settling anywhere near Lavi's face.

Nea rolled his eyes before Allen stepped closer to Lavi and asked, "Shall we keep going?"

Feeling that he was settled after the fight, Lavi nodded and replied, "Sure."

After wiping the room without much difficulty, Lavi was feeling pretty good about himself. He suspected that it would be dangerous (and deadly) to get too cocky, but the feeling of accomplishing something without failing miserably or needing help was nice. He might not remember everything (anything) about himself, but he had already regained one brief memory. He was riding high on hope and satisfaction, but that didn't stop him from deferring to Allen for their next steps.

"Where are we headed?" Lavi asked as Allen, Lenalee, and Kanda filtered into the room, the bodies of the four dead hollows lying at his feet. He could still smell the scent of burnt flesh, but the odor was fading as the air circulated throughout the room. He hadn't realized how breezy it was before, but now that he noticed it, he could feel a soft wind gently caressing his skin.

It was crazy how calming this place could be, despite the chaos.

"We're going to let you take the lead and explore," Allen answered, giving him a reassuring smile that did nothing to quell the burst of fear and adrenaline settling suddenly in his chest. Despite his earlier confidence, he hesitated, not wanting to lead the group. There was still too much that he didn't remember. What if he screwed up? What if he got someone killed? "While I urge caution, there's only one challenging enemy to face here before we reach the end of this zone," Allen derailed his panic with that comment, adding, "We'll stop you from going that way on your own, although we will defeat it before moving on. While there isn't anything worthwhile down there, it will be good practice for you."

Lavi's face twisted into a doubtful frown.

Allen's eyes darkened to gold, Nea coming to the foreground, "If we ever get separated, it would be a good idea to have learned each area that we're going to travel through. Inevitably, someone will die during a major battle and being able to navigate without the others there to guide you will lessen the amount of time that we are all separated."

Did he just say what I think he said?

"Wait, what?!" Lavi stuttered. "How will someone dying be a thing that anyone comes back from?"

Nea slowly turned around, adjusting his clothing to reveal the back of his left shoulder. There, a dark circle looked burned into his flesh, a shadowy imprint tattooed into otherwise alabaster skin. Looking over his left shoulder, Nea explained, "All of the godforsaken souls in this country are Undead, cursed with this Dark Sign. At the expense of our individual humanity, it will repeatedly revive anyone that has fallen until they have no more humanity to spare. When that happens, the person goes hollow, trapped here forever until their bodies disintegrate into dust." Nea shrugged his shirt into place and turned, adding, "There will be signs, of course, before a person loses it." Nea looked Lavi in the eyes before elaborating slowly, "They usually forget who they are, lose their memories."

That explains why everyone was so on edge around me if I had supposedly been a friend in the past. The stiff postures. Concerned looks. Hesitation and restrained violence (sort of in Kanda's case). It all made sense now.

Nea continued, staring intently at him, "No one that goes down that path ever comes back from that. No one except you."

"Do you think that there is something else going on?" Lenalee questioned, purple eyes shifting between them.

Nea backed away, humming and staring at the redhead with a contemplative look. "It's hard to say." He met Lenalee's eyes. "We need to add finding Bookman to our tasks." Lenalee gave Kanda smug grin that screamed 'I told you so' without her having to say it.

Kanda scoffed, "Whatever," as Lavi choked on a laugh. Kanda's blistering glare told him that the swordsman wasn't pleased with his amusement, not that it stopped him from giggling a moment longer.

"Thank you," Lavi said with a soft smile aimed at the trio. Kanda simply rolled his eyes in response, but both Lenalee and Allen returned short nods. He didn't realize just how much he had needed to hear that, to know that finding the old man was on the agenda. The relief was overwhelming.

"Of course," Allen replied, his eyes shifting to silver as Nea retreated from the forefront of their mind.

Lavi shifted for a moment, chewing his lip, before he asked, "So, how does it work if one of us dies? How are we supposed to find each other again if this place is coming undone?"

"That's what Allen had done back at the bonfire," Lenalee began. At his confused glance, she elaborated, "One of Allen's abilities is to link some of us together. If one of us dies, they'll be sent back to the last bonfire they interacted with. For us right now, it's the one in that cement outbuilding next to the archers."

"As long as we remain within three zones of each other, we'll be able to wander around until we run into each other," Allen added. Kanda sighed and leaned against a nearby wall, rubbing a cloth over Mugen's blade. Ignoring him, Allen continued, "Truthfully, that power belongs more to Nea than to me."

"You can manipulate fire?" Lavi asked, puzzled. He thought back to what had happened, how power had rippled over his frame when Allen had reached for the flames. But he recalled that the same thing had appeared to happen to Kanda way back at Firelink, wiping the blood from his clothes after he had killed whoever that one guy had been prior to his own awakening there. How was what Allen had done anything different? That had been his first experience with a 'bonfire', as Lenalee had called it. Was it always like that?

Allen's eyes shifted purely gold as Nea scoffed, "No. The flames of bonfires belong to someone else." He paused, seeming to weigh something in his mind, arms folding across his chest. Lenalee frowned as she stared at him, and even Kanda seemed to stop polishing Mugen to listen. Lavi noted their behaviors, having the instinctual feeling that something was coming up that none of them were previously aware of. It made him feel a little better, knowing that they didn't have all the answers either. While their situations were different, he got a small sense of relief upon realizing that. Nea sighed.

"What aren't you telling us?" Kanda demanded, his dark eyes narrowing at the white-haired boy.

Nea rolled his eyes at the other's attempted intimidation, appearing unaffected to Lavi's eyes. "Many things," he snapped back, baring his teeth. "I…" he shuddered a moment, expression twisting a moment before he corrected, "We never wanted you to know." Nea huffed, "Allen thought you'd leave him to be all alone if you knew." Kanda opened his mouth to speak, but the golden-eyed persona barreled ahead, "I thought you'd become a threat to be eliminated."

Kanda straightened against the wall, visually considering Nea's threat while Lavi watched in confusion. Beside him, Lenalee's brows were furrowed as well, face scrunched as she watched silently.

Nea took a step back, Kanda visibly relaxing as if that action meant that no fight was imminent. Lavi still watched the two of them though, worried about what could happen. They hadn't even gone very far, and there was an indeterminate path they would need to walk to find Bookman. He didn't want their companionship to end so soon. It seemed a little unfair.

Nea let out a deep breath before dropping his arms from his chest, placing his hands on his hips instead. "I never told any of you what our identities were."

"We didn't need to know," Lenalee replied with a nod, no longer obviously tense.

Nea nodded, eyes still on Kanda. Then, he turned his gaze toward Lavi. "I am the Noah titled the Demon King of Space. Allen is known as the Balance of the King."

A memory stuttered to life in Lavi's mind with those words.

An old gravelly voice belonging to Bookman stated, "The Demon King precipitated the beginning of the Age of Darkness, bringing with him the children of Noah as his followers, the Arch Demons. It was because of their actions that Lordran became known in the modern age as Noah's Ark…"

"I hold domination over Space." Nea glared at Kanda. "We had explained this in the past, but Allen and I are attempting to piece this land back together, by offering powerful and unique souls to the remnants of the First Flame."

Lavi felt his mind slip between moments, fading in and out of the conversation as Bookman's words echoed in his memories.

"…First Flame was what had ushered in the Age of Spirits, a time when Gods roamed the world…"

"For each soul offered to Gwyn's ancient grave, Lordran takes steps towards returning to what it had once been."

"Nothing has ever changed," Kanda retorted.

"Nothing that you've seen, perhaps," Nea replied with a playful grin.

A terrible ache rose in the back of Lavi's mind.

"For a time, the Age of Darkness was rife with its own troubles, but there was a logic to the chaos. Then, the Demon King split into two..."

"Allen can see the subtle differences in Time. He exists because the Noah family attempted to force myself and my brother, the King of Time, together."

"Attempted?" Lenalee asked, concern marring her face.

"Yes," Nea replied as he looked at her. "They failed and we became three."

Buzzing filled Lavi's ears, making it hard for him to hear.

"The Bookman Clan never found out how the Demon King became three parts, but it was rumored that one of them was called the Destroyer of Time, the one prophesied to potentially end the Age of Darkness, or even the whole world…"

"Mana…lost his heart," Nea said. "It was a slow, gradual thing, but he went insane because of it, went hollow himself. He drove the rest of the Noah mad, sending them after us to hunt us down."

"…great Heart of Light was said to have continued to exist even after the Age of Spirits had ended. The Bookmen have been searching tirelessly for this ever since the Demon King fell, believing that its power could bring balance to the darkness that had shattered the King. Light cannot exist without Darkness, just as the reverse is true…"

Lavi's head spun, threatening to pitch him to the floor, the pain in his head skyrocketing.

"While Allen and I try to fix Space, we've also been searching for the progenitor of the Noah Clan, Noah himself. We're hoping that, since he is the heart of all the other Noahs' powers, that maybe he can…"

Nea's eyes shifted to silver, Allen rising to the surface and glancing his way with concern. "Lavi, are you okay?"

"…is you. That persona is not simply an identity you can shed, Junior. His existence changes everything. And the fact that you are also the…"

Lavi blinked, his vision swimming before him. He opened his mouth to speak, then suddenly everything went black.

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AUTHOR'S NOTES:

So sorry that I am late with this. My job decided to change our schedule yet again and push back when we should be getting our shift back by another month. I'm not sure how frequently I'll be able to keep adding things, but I'll do the best I can while I search for a different job. Thank you to everyone that has followed and favorited this story! It's because of you guys that I have the resolve to keep moving forward with this!