A/N: HELLO EVERYONE! Welcome to my next story. Hopefully I get somewhere with it.

Anyways, I started this story about… at the beginning of this month? In March? And while I wasn't exactly sure if I'd stick with this story, I've already written out almost 17 chapters, so I decided it was about time I start posting it.

I'm hoping to stick with this story. I kind of like where it's going.

I will apologize at any repetitiveness. Sometimes I say the same thing over and over, and I feel a bit bad when I do. Still, I'll try to cut out any scenes/parts that seem repetitive, but this isn't exactly a story I'm trying to turn into a novel. No. This is just a fun little story, with ideas I've wanted to combine together.

And to put this universe into perspective, if you get a tad lost, think of this as… a new attempt. A new timeline. A part two, perhaps. Does the events of the manga or anime happen? I'm not sure, yet. A big reason why I haven't written and posted about the Black Butler series in a while is because I was a bit afraid of getting the timeline wrong. Considering the manga is still going. Well… I enjoy the characters, especially the Undertaker. So, it's a risk I'm going to have to take.

Maybe the parts of the manga already happened and this intro/chapter 1 is about the events that transpired, as a result. I don't know. Let's not think too much about this.

Anyways, I hope you guys will ENJOY this story! Hopefully there's a few of you guys interested in this story. Once again, I wasn't exactly sure if I'd post it to begin with… but this story has been a nice stress reliever, so why not?

! #$%^&*())(*&^%$# !

"Lara!" you heard someone yelling, but it was too late for you to register who was yelling.

All you could feel is the sharp pain wedged into your side, your breath leaving your lungs as your body flew backward, hitting a tree trunk, hard. Your body crumbled to the ground, and your death weapon feel out of your hand and slumped into the mud. Someone, or rather something, was gawking at you for your misfortune, but as you felt the darkness beginning to loom over you, threatening to swallow you whole, a fairly petite, but feisty rusty brunette haired woman jumped in front of you in defense, wielding a fairly thick bladed sword in both of her hands, her knees bent as she kept a tight grip on her weapon. "Lara, a-are you okay!?"

"Fine," you managed to groan out in pain, trying desperately to stay conscious and deal with this problem before you, but the more you moved, the more your vision became fuzzy. Blood was trickling down your face, so much that you had to wipe some of the blood away to see properly, before hearing the clashing of metal against metal, steel against hardened skin, but she was giving you enough time to stir. Yet, you know she's in trouble.

She's not a reaper built for intense fighting like this, and if she goes on then she's going to… end up like everyone else you hold dear.

The fear of loss was enough to cause you to stumble to your feet, using both the tree and your weapon to maintain an upright position. "Unwilling to give up? How pitiful~" you heard someone snickering, and hissing, very close to your body, and you clutched your weapon tightly as you willed yourself to keep moving. No matter how much the pain resonated from your body, no matter how much your joints and muscles didn't want to move, you had to. Needed to. If this is going to fail, then you'll fail alongside this mission.

"Says a disgusting creature like you," you scoffed in response, finally making your move, and charging at the entity with all of your might. Your vision was pretty much shot, now, but you relied on your other senses to keep you moving. You could smell the foul stench of decay and blood, hear the swishing and footsteps. The snarls that left its mouth as it tried to fight back and dodge your swipes, and the shriek that left its breath as you managed to get a solid slice into the creature, causing it to stumble, and giving you the best moment to strike.

It was a quick swipe. A bit awkward, but by using a forceful step to change the momentum of your swing and cause your body to move in a different way, you let out a loud cry, cleanly slicing the creature into two equal parts, right up the middle from bottom to top. The look of shock was still on its face as its body separated from your blade, and you grunted in annoyance as you kicked the creature away from you, trying to not get too much disgusting demonic blood on yourself.

That stuff is hell to clean!

But now, you were in the zone. Your body moved on its own, no matter how painful everything felt. Every move you made was met with a sharp pain, but the pain slowly became numb, and every new nick or scratch or stab meant absolutely nothing.

You moved as if you were dancing. Your feet spinning as you swung your oversized weapon with such skill it caused a few of the vermin to back off and run away in terror. Only a few. The rest that remained got to meet the end of your blade as you slashed, hacked, and stabbed your way through the hoard. It was as if you were in a whole other world. A world with just you and your death weapon. An elegant macabre performance just for you, yourself, and Death.

But as the screaming stopped, leaving a hush in the air that became a strange cooling calm over your skin, your body finally stopped its deadly dance and you stood, panting. Your body suddenly gave out as you held onto your side, gripping the gapping stab wound tightly, while your bloody weapon crumbled back into the mud. "Lara!" you heard your friend shouting as she rushed to your side, and you groaned slightly in pain, more over the fact that now you could feel the pain, as she let her hands drift over your gapping wound skillfully, her energy emitting from her palms in an attempt to heal you. "You… you idiot."

"R-rosie… the others –"

"I don't know. Michael and Stevie rushed to the orphanage. We're going to have to evacuate," she told you, but all you could do is let out a deep, tired, exhausted sigh.

"So… this is the end of it, huh? This sanctuary you reapers call home, taken away by a bunch of pesky devils?" you stated rather then questioned, and she frowned at your disgruntled nature before snorting, her grip on your side tightening just slightly, and causing you to wince at the feeling.

"I'm mad too, but this is what we have to do, ain't it? They're overpowering us –"

"Where, though? T-there's no safe place, anymore," you frowned, your vision starting to go glossy as you tried to stay awake.

If you close your eyes, you know, this time, you're not waking up. If you let that happen… well, at this point you don't really care about yourself. Not really. Not anymore, but Rosie? The others?... You can't pass out here. You can't die here.

Not if you had anything to say about it.

"I… L-lara I –"

"It's… it's okay. Breathe. Your aura is starting to sting," you smiled meekly, trying to act positive, but the desperation and exhaustion was written all over your face.

Honestly, you're just tired of this. If there was a way to change all this… you'd do it, but how?

Everyone did all they could. Heck, you were born with the very thought that perhaps you could stop the inevitable destruction. You weren't exactly happy when you learned that fact, but hey, you're here and alive. That's all that matters, at the end of the day.

But there may not be another day, after today.

The thought of losing everything: your life, your world, any sort of future… Your eyes glanced up to the sky, noticing the eclipse. It wasn't… changing. The moon, blocking the sunlight…

Everything is dying. Nothing is surviving. Plants, animals, humans… you'd be surprised if anything survives, at this point. Maybe… Death will get to die off as well? But that's wishful thinking… right?

"… Lara?... Hey! Clara, stay with me!" you heard Rosie say, jolting you back into an awakened state, and you blinked, your eyes glancing her over as she began to frown, her fingers tracing your face and pushing away your messy, disorderly bangs. "You… I… always loved your human eyes. They're overworldly," she smiled, weakly, and you smiled weakly in reply as you reached up to her own face, brushing a few stray tears away from the side of her cheek before sighing in exhaustion.

"… I'm sorry."

"N-no! Don't be. Please, don't," she frowned, but you shook your head.

"Everything. I-if I wasn't such a… if I just tried a little harder and stopped being so reluctant, maybe this would have ended better," you decided to say, but she scoffed in response.

"We reapers had all the time in the world to solve this. You did nothing wrong… Clara, I-I –"

"I love you… too," you mumbled, curling up into the woman's lap as you closed your eyes.

You couldn't take the pain anymore. You wanted everything to stop, and eventually…

Everything did stop.

The pain. Suffering. Your worries. Your feeling, emotions, and even your hunger.

The world around you felt still. It was… nice. You weren't quite happy, but… at least you aren't sad. Or mad. Exhausted and tired about everything. There was…

Nothing…

But, something inside of you told you that this cannot end here.

Not now. There's too much to do. The world cannot end here. You cannot end here.

It doesn't matter what anyone's intentions for you was, or why you were conceived. What your father or mother thought about you, or what others may think.

You just know that… you need to do more. And…

Something… someone… reaching out for you and…

Your eyes snapped open and you let in a deep breath. The air felt dusty, salty, but it was enough to bring you back into sudden awareness of the situation.

You noticed you were lying on the ground, probably abandoned to decompose back into the earth. Your death weapon was laying limp beside you, as if it knew that you'd wake up, again, or maybe it was due to your own stubborn soul that it wasn't vanishing into nothingness. You sighed. The pain in your body was back, but it was something to keep you going.

Something to keep you awake. To know that you're still alive.

You sighed, but the effort to sigh was painful. Oh, so painful. Yeah… maybe you should just stay dead… but then again, what sort of abomination would you be if you just let yourself die?

With one last sigh, you began to stumble to your feet. First, by getting down on your hands and knees, crawling for your weapon, before using the long metal, hollow pole to pry yourself to your feet and steady yourself as your body naturally swayed and your feet stumbled.

It… will do.

You closed your eyes. You could sense the pain, the screaming. The children crying. If you're going to do something… it'll be for them.

The future is what matters here. No matter how much you've screwed up.

You breathed, slowly, concentrating your energy, your power, into one last attempt. You could feel the energy from your soul beginning to erupt out of your body, charging you up as you thought this over. Yes… you could just disappear, pretend that nothing is wrong. Live in the apocalyptic world and survive like everyone else. Wish and pray that everything could be alright again. That nothing horrible happened. Heck, maybe just live out your days as the human you're supposed to be. But…

No. No, you still have to fight this.

If your big brother was here, he'd be yelling at you for ever thinking about giving up, and the thought of everything he gave up and suffered for… Yeah. You cannot give up.

So… somehow.

You began to move.

You don't know how you got there to the scene, what you did, but your body, once again, moved on its own. It knew how to avoid attacks, how to defend, how to strike back. It was as if your mind had left your body, and you were floating. Floating, and seeing nothing. Hearing nothing. Just… you.

And… a voice? Snapping you out of your trance.

"Lara! Don't!" you heard Rosie screaming at you, her voice trying to stop you, but before you could become completely self aware of what was going on, your blade stabbed right into a large ticking stop watch, and…

A flash…

A chorus of screaming…

And a shocked look on a demon's face as you managed one more solid hit, cutting its head clean off before your world plummeted into utter darkness.