Chapter 5

Hello everyone! I'm back again with a new chapter, I hope it lives up to your expectations! Thank you all for your support, for the reviews, for the follows, for the faves…

I also want to apologize. Even though I have been busy lately, that is absolutely no excuse for my lateness. I actually planned to finish and post the chapter in the first half of April, but I let my laziness get the upper hand and basically slept my vacation away. Then there were troubles and stuff, and here I am, trying again a few months later.

Anyways, I won't bother you anymore and now I'll stop making the word count grow bigger with my useless babble.

Disclaimer: I don't own D..Gray-Man or any of its characters. I don't even own the idea of time travel.

"I hope you have settled in, Allen-kun, even though you didn't arrive at the best of times."

"Of course I have, everyone has been very welcoming, especially Johnny with his enthusiasm about my uniform. And the great food, let's not forget about the food…"

Lenalee let out a light laugh, eyes lightning up, erasing any traces of sleep and barely hidden concern for the boy walking beside her.

'I'll keep her happy.'

They entered Komui's office with Komui sleeping on his desk as usual. Lenalee sighed and walked up to him, her stride full with purpose.

"Brother. I'm eloping."

"LENALEE!"

In a second Komui had grabbed his sister in a desperate hug.

"How could you do this to your brother my dear Lenalee! You aren't even supposed to know what eloping is yet! Who is it? I'll exterminate that octopus immediately!"

His sister sighed again and bonked him on the head with a clipboard she had picked up from his own desk.

"There is no such thing going on, brother, now, the mission?"

"Ah, yes."

Komui coughed lightly as he composed himself. He then dug up two copies of the mission details from under all the other paperwork.

"This is a fairly regular mission and is from the type often given to new exorcists. It takes place in the town of Chigwell. The town is fairly small, but there have been sightings of akuma. The count could be from ten in the least to twenty, twenty five at most. There have been no paranormal happenings in the region, so we don't believe you'll have to retrieve Innocence. The mission shouldn't take more than three or four days. You two will have a finder accompany you. He will be the only one with a golem, since Lenalee's golem is in repair and we have yet to figure out how to connect Timcanpy to the normal network. I think this is all."

Allen and Lenalee nodded in understanding and turned to leave the office.

"See you in a few days, nii-san!"

"See you in a few days, Komui-san!"

"Good luck and come back soon!"

Allen basked in the familiarity of it all.

Allen didn't know whether to be surprised or not. Because, once again, the finder accompanying him on his first mission was Toma. Not that he had anything against it. Toma has always been a nice person to be around.

Introductions passed and they fell into a comfortable silence. Allen had actually managed to convince Toma to sit with them in the compartment and not just sit in front of the sliding door.

'This feels… surreal.'

Lenalee was watching the scenery contently, a serene smile on her face. Toma was calmly shuffling his cards, easily setting a routine of movements. It was like a dream. A dream Allen hoped would never end, but always thought he had just a few more seconds left. Just a few more seconds left of this world weaved by illusions, created from his desires for something long gone.

Chigwell was small, but charming in its simplicity. Everyone was familiar with everyone, and he could feel the closeness the people shared with each other. But there was this sense of exhaustion that went beyond the physical. Children, almost brimming with pent up energy, were clutching the long skirts of their mothers' simple dresses, warily looking at every shadow.

The mothers themselves were with dimmed eyes, the sclera a bit reddened, from exhaustion or tears. The hands they had on their children's heads were steady, providing security, but their free hands were being shaken with barely visible tremors.

Death had left scars far beyond the visible.

Sorrow gives birth to tragedy, and tragedy gives birth to akuma.

The air was thick with sorrow. Tearing, suffocating, choking, drowning, burning. The spark of life was no more.

Tragedy had arrived. It fed with death and pain and sorrow. Dreams were blown away like dust by wind.

The Sunday mass prayer. Prayer for the souls of the dead.

The akuma were here, and they had come to feast.

"Allen-kun? Y-your eye…"

Lenalee stared horrified, shivers running up and down her spine. The clear silver that was there seconds ago was replaced by angry, bloody red. Rings the same colour surrounding it, and the sclera had turned black, darker than despair. Her hands raised to cover her mouth as shudders shook her.

"I made mistakes long time ago, Lenalee. This is the consequence, the price, the cross I have to bear. This is my curse, and my punishment. To watch as the souls trapped in the akuma suffer while being distorted beyond any recognition. Watch as they lose their sanity as the body they have no control over kill people they knew, people they loved, people they could have loved. Watch as they lose their grip on humanity and their sense of self."

Allen stopped for a few seconds and did a quick count of the souls in the crowd, and then he turned over to Lenalee.

"Seventeen akuma, three of them Level two. Activate your Innocence, just give me a few seconds to protect the civilians."

Lenalee stared at him for a moment or two, and then nodded. She activated her Dark Boots and turned her back to him as she readied for a jump. Allen's heart lurched, almost stealing his breath away. Rejection by a loved one. It almost hurt more than her death.

"Please be safe Allen-kun. We need to go home, after all."

And just then, at that moment, with those few words, she somehow managed to become even more precious.

"Rakhi'ātamaka ōhalē rukāvaṭa!"

Even though he had been taught the ancient magical arts by a disciple for more than two years now, Allen was far away from Cross Marian's mastery of the Art. Even though Neah was a great teacher and a well of information, the teen's abilities weren't precise enough for this spell, at least not without help. Thus, he needed a focus. Timcanpy, a perfect combination of technology and magic, the earthly and the otherworldly, happened to be a great focus. Also, once used for a focus, he could sustain the spell himself, giving Allen the opportunity to fight and help Lenalee.

The defensive hidden barrier, much like Magdala Curtain, hid the target from the view of the enemy. But, it also protected them from stray attacks and debris, and also kept the crowd from suspecting anything was wrong.

And in cases like this, it was damn useful.

The white-haired exorcist, having finished with his task, leaped towards Lenalee and the akuma, Crown Clown already activated without so much as a thought.

The Chinesse girl was fairing quite well. Half of the Level one akumas had already been destroyed, and she was dancing around the bullets of the ones that were left. The Level two's were just contently watching her destroy their 'comrades'. More people for them to kill anyway. Allen was watching in awe.

'Is she... stronger? She is just as strong as she should have been in two years from now. His awe and confusion filled mind took three seconds to create this thought. On the first the last Level one had disappeared in a hair blowing explosion. On the second one of the Level two akumas drew its hand back. On the third, a bullet was tearing its way through the unresisting air towards Lenalee's back.

Before the end of the fourth second, the bullet had buried itself in the left side of Allen's stomach, got out from the boy's back and then having its momentum killed by the cloak of Crown Clown. The Innocence had formed a protective cocoon around the out of breath girl, leaving its wielder completely unprotected and wide open.

The fifth second was so slow to come and go. Like a minute, an hour, a day almost.

"Allen-kun!"

Then time sped up. The black pentagrams of the akuma curse spread so fast, too fast. Black just like Allen's left arm. But unlike it, they were somehow dirty, disgusting, crawling. Poisoning the dark warmth of his Innocence with slimy, icy cold.

He was still standing. Yet her tears fell.

'Too soon! Not yet! Don't take him away! He's family!

A spark of green caught her distressed eyes. It flew from his left hand and the wound was no more. Just white, creamy skin left behind. It looked like the first star in the night upon the abyssal black that overtook every other inch of his skin.

'Even with this, the curse...'

She didn't dare hope. Akuma had torn away her parents, the Order had stolen her from her home, Innocence had robbed her of her life. Was she to have everything taken away from her? Was her brother next?

Allen's skin lightened. Seemingly sucked by a vacuum, the curse was shallowed by the pentagram on his forehead.

A ripple.

Ominous red ink filled the pentagram. Coiling, almost like it was getting ready to attack.

A moment.

It shot down, following the pattern created by the scar. Two gears faded into existence, turning and moving against each other. Tears of blood so dark it was almost black flowed out of his left eye, and despite that, for just a moment, Lenalee felt relief.

His eye opened, and she saw.

Well, this was it for now. The next chapter is already in progress, and I hope I'll be able to update it soon. Also, did you guys know that DMG has started its manga serialization again? This last chapter was kinda a plot twist, but I won't spoil. It's funny how some questions were answered, but how a thousand more came up, at least for me XD. Also, one or two of my plans for people of the Noah clan, which I though would make it a little bit more AU, now actually have place in cannon. Funny XD

Anyways, big thanks to you all! I hope you liked this chapter!

Leave a review please! It'll be a great motivator!

See ya all,

splazbee