Hey guys! My apologies that this is a day (or two) late! I've been busy packing and getting ready for a sudden trip this weekend, and hadn't much time to work on this until now.

Thank you all so very, very much for your Reviews, Favorites and Follows! Each one I get motivates me even more to work on this and gosh, I cannot believe how many of you like this story! Thank you all!

I really hope you all enjoy this chapter!

See you soon!

I do not own DGM, if I did, Miranda and Marie would be together already!

The feel of death was almost overwhelming, and if he wasn't so used to it, Allen would have found himself vomiting. As it was, his stomach was turning a little. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Kanda frown just slightly, his brows furrowing in worry. "We got here as fast as we could... The other Finders are probably dead."

'No probably about it,' Allen thought, biting the inside of his cheek as he felt a few more lives flicker away in the distance. He could feel others that were almost to the end of their life, but couldn't feel any alive (it was moments like this Allen wished he had Yang magic instead) and was trying to pinpoint where the dying ones were when Kanda interrupted his concentration.

"Hey, you!" When Allen turned his head to look at the older Exorcist, he found the other scowling. "Let's get something straight. If I think at any moment that you're hindering the mission, I'm not going to save you even if the enemy is about to kill you. Casualties of war are common, so don't think of me as a friend."

"What a cold thing to say," Allen pressed his lips together tightly as he turned his gaze back towards Mater. Silver hues widened slightly as he pinpointed where the dying Finders were. "This way!" he called, taking off suddenly to the right and jumping onto the cliff. He ignored Kanda's shout of anger and Toma's call of worry while he darted down the side, rocks tumbling away at his feet, causing his balance to go askew. Thankfully, being raised by a traveling clown, he had learned how to keep his balance even in the oddest positions. His feet finally hit rough stone as he reached the city below, and the sound of crumbling rocks behind him told Allen that the others had fallen.

Without waiting for his companions, the white-haired Exorcist took off in the direction that he felt the dying bodies, grimacing as he felt another soul free itself from the Earth. His eye activated as he turned a corner, and up ahead he saw a horde of Level Ones and a Level Two Akuma. The Two gave a shout that Allen couldn't hear and suddenly the Level Ones were firing at something just out of Allen's sight, the Level Two blocking it.

The Finders were over there, he felt that, and only a few alive – but he could feel they would die within the next ten minutes. He had skidded to a stop when the Akuma had come into view, and now Kanda and Toma had caught up, the former looking blood-boiling furious. "What the hell, Moyashi?!" he snapped, but Allen ignored him as he ran forward once again.

"Get to the Finders! I'll take care of the Akuma!" he called back to them. He once again ignored Kanda's outraged shout and instead activated his arm. A surge of anger soared through Allen as he saw that the Level Two had a Finder underneath its foot.

Allen saw red at seeing the Akuma smash the Finder's head in. "I'll play with your head to kill some time." He heard the Akuma say, its voice high in pitch and rather annoying, if he was going to be honest. He could barely retrain a shout as he sudden slashed at it, sending it skidding backwards, but only for a moment. Silver hues widened in surprise as the Akuma's claw grabbed his Innocence, its face splitting into a grin as it cackled. "Smile!" He tried to jerk back, but the Akuma's grip was like steel, and Allen gasped in surprise at the sudden pain as he was kicked in the side once, then again and the second time he was sent flying through the nearby buildings.

The Exorcist could taste blood in his mouth. Using his left arm, Allen shoved the rubble around him away and spat the blood out before running his tongue along the new cut in his mouth. His eyes narrowed as he spat out (even though the Akuma was far off now), "You're the one who killed all the Finders!" His activated eye followed the motion of the Level Twom which flew right up to him. He gave it little attention, frowning as he thought, 'So Master was right; Level Twos are different from ones. It seems this one can feel emotion.' His gaze flickered to the soul that was bound to the Akuma. 'This is only the second time I've seen that but... It doesn't get easier. I wonder if the continue to corrode the higher level they reach?' Allen mused.

The sudden shadow looming over them caught both the Exorcist and the Akuma's attentions. Allen blinked in surprise at seeing the dark-haired samurai high above them, having leapt from a higher building's rooftop. He watched in wonder as Kanda spoke, his deeper seeming to echo through the still night air, "Mugen! Evil has risen! Netherworld creature, "Ichigen"!"

"Whoa..." Allen breathed, watching as the odd summons tore through the Level Ones like they were butter. He ignored the Two's confused and torn mutters and instead attacked it from behind, sending the Akuma through a few buildings (but no where near as many as it had tossed him.) Allen fought back a grin at hearing the Two's anger spluttering but it was Kanda who caught his attention again.

"Moyashi," he called from the roof of a house (Allen noticed silently that he had what looked like a girl and a very old man tucked under his arms). At hearing Allen's "Hmm?" Kanda continued, "I'm not helping. You got yourself into this fight, you clean up the mess."

"That's fine. Go ahead, as long as they're with you I don't have to worry. This shouldn't take me too long, I will catch up with you after I destroy the Akuma," Allen called back, smiling. He let himself give a faint chuckle at hearing the dark-haired teen's "Che." before he turned his attention back to the Two who was rushing him, an insane laugh leaving its lips.

Digging his heels into the ground, Allen then launched himself towards the Two, slashing out with his left arm at the same time the Akuma lashed out. A loud sounding 'BOOM' was the result, and Allen found himself skidding backwards, his back hitting the wall of a house. He dug his left 'hand' into the wall and when the Two was close enough, he ripped his hand out of the wall, bringing with him large hunks of stone and debris that flew at the Two.

When the Two began to slice away at the larger hunks of stone and rock, Allen saw an opening and took it. Leaping above the Two, he landed on one of the stone slabs right above it and lashed out with his Innocence, slicing it nearly in two. Silver hues widened, however, when his cursed eye saw no soul in the Akuma's body, nor any soul leaving it. 'It's a fake? A duplicate perhaps? Wha...' his inner musing was cut off as the Akuma's annoying voice called out.

"Over here! Over here! Little Exorcist!"

As Allen jerked around to face the Level Two, his body froze in surprise at the sudden pain that tore through his arm, and his eyes widened as he faced the Two. The Two looked like an almost perfect copy of himself, a smirk on 'his' lips and eyes narrowed in delight. 'Myself? No, a copy... not quite.' With a curse, he slashed at the Akuma who leapt away, laughing.

"Look at me! Look at me, Little Exorcist! I've cloned you! I've cloned your power. Oooh~ You've underestimated me, haven't you? I've a Level Two, I'm not li-"

Allen tuned the other out, his eyes narrowing just slightly as he looked the Akuma over. He knew that Twos had different powers, the only other Level Two he had met had control over the earth (and gods, that had been an irritating battle.) It seemed like this Two had cloned him, but something was off. 'It's a mirror imagine!' Allen's eyes widened. 'Its Crowned Clown' is on his right arm, not the left like mine! This copy power of theirs, could I use it to my advantage somehow?' He wondered, but before the white-haired Exorcist could think of anything, the Akuma's 'Innocence' shot out and sent him flying through several buildings again.

"What the hell was that?" Allen winced, sitting up in the new rubble, his new coat torn and bloody at his arm, the rest of it (to his faint surprise) didn't look touched. "I've never done that with Crowned Clown before... Is it evolving its powers? The Two moves fast, if I wasn't used to suddenly being attacked and if I hadn't caught those prongs with Crown Clown..." He glanced down at suddenly feeling a faint pain in his arm and flinched at seeing that his Innocence was damaged – again. "Twice in two days! Oh gods, Komui's going to try to fix it again!" Allen could already feel his stomach rolling.

A cracking sound pulled Allen out of his thoughts. "Cracking? I wonder wh- AHHHHHHHH!" his question turned into a scream of shock as the ground beneath him crumbled and broke away, sending him tumbling down into a pitch-black chasm. Without thinking, he quickly flipped to right himself and Allen dug his hand into the sides of the hole, managing to slow himself down as he neared a bright light below him. He still fell through the hole, the sudden brightness nearly blinding him and Allen jerked as one of his claws hooked itself on a chandelier.

Allen let out a shaky breath, a nervous laugh leaving him as he realized how close he had come to falling against the floor at a fast speed. A quick thought-spell and he released the chandelier, lightly floating to the ground instead. Dusting off his coat, silver eyes looked around, taking in the large stone columns and stone floor. "This looks like a ballroom, or something similar... I wonder if this is where they used to have the dolls dance," he mused aloud, "but I do wonder why it's underground... No matter. I need to find a way up again, and I need to warn Kanda about the Two's abilities, too. Hey Tim-" He paused as he turned his head, and Allen didn't see the golden golem flying beside him, or settled on his shoulder like normal. "Ahh... Timcanpy? Oh dear... I hope he's safe with Kanda..."

Somehow, Allen doubted that. Letting out a long, heavy sigh, he resolved himself to attempting to find the others. "Knowing myself, I'll be lost down here until I die of starvation..." Allen murmured to himself. His shoulders slumped as he realized he needed to use magic. "I suppose it's a good thing I came prepared..."

Allen loved magic, loved learning it, loved reading about it (even those fictional books some people wrote, it amused him how wrong they could be about how magic was and how it worked) but he disliked using it for things like this. To him, it felt a bit like cheating. Others had to do without it, he had for years before Master Cross had taken the time to teach him, so to use it felt a bit wrong, while at the same time it felt right.

Digging a gloved hand into his pocket, the white-haired Exorcist pulled out a long, black strand of hair – Kanda's hair. He had nabbed one of the other's loose strands when he hadn't been looking, in case of something like this happening. Loosely grasping the strand in his fist, Allen raised his hand up to his lips and pressed them against his knuckles, his eyes closing as he whispered something long and quiet under his breath.

When silver hues reopened, Allen opened his fist and the strand of hair seemed to come to life, floating a few inches off of his palm and it began to drift in a direction that – at a glance – told Allen there would be lots of hallways and rooms, if the few doors he could see from across the wide space was anything to go by.

"Lead the way," he commanded to the strand, and it began to speed up to a steady jog for him. As they navigated down long corridors and through a few tunnels that Allen had to crawl through, the white-haired Exorcist took a few moments to look at the architect around them. It was stunning, to think that five-hundred years had passed and these columns and rooms stood nearly perfectly intact, and even in a few places there was art either drawn onto the wall, or hung in frames. When he paused to look at the art, he was pleasantly surprised to see that most of the art depicted sorcery or magic.

But as they continued on, Allen caught flickering shadows out of the corners of his eyes and even once saw the ghostly apparition of a woman dancing in one of the rooms. With each shadow he saw, the smile that had been on Allen's face since seeing the art of sorcery faded bit by bit and almost completely disappeared at seeing the woman. 'Poor souls... Trapped here for hundreds of years, and I can't free them...' Only a strong Yang-sorcerer would be able to send the trapped citizens of Mater on – being a Yin-sorcerer (and one that was a natural in Necromancy at that) Allen didn't have the right kind of magic nor knowledge to send them on.

It nearly broke his heart when the shadows of a young child neared him. The Exorcist could feel the hopefulness radiating off of their soul. Allen's expression saddened as he knelt in front of the shadow, an apologetic tone to his voice as he apologized, "I am sorry. I cannot help you. I am a Dark sorcerer, my magic is not with the Light, I cannot send you on." He wasn't certain if the child knew what he was saying; he wasn't certain if they spoke Greek, Latin or Italian, but if they were apart of a sorcery family, then it was likely that they spoke the language of magic (which, to Allen's knowledge, hadn't changed in thousands of years). "But I can promise you on my magic and soul, that every strong Yang sorcerer or sorceress I meet, I will tell them about Mater and all of you here."

To his relief, he could feel the soul's disappointment (that he could not help them), understanding(they knew it was a fifty-fifty chance), surprise (it was rare that one swore on their magic, and on their soul was nearly unheard of), and then gratefulness (that he would spread the word). Allen waited until the shade disappeared before he turned his attention back to the strand of hair, which seemed impatient. "I know, I know. Let's get going, we need to hurry."

Before he knew it, he found himself back inside of a small tunnel he had to crawl in. The strand of hair was floating casually in front of him again, the front end of it pointing downwards. "Are you serious?" he whined. "I asked you to take me to Kanda, not above him! I'm lost..." A faint feeling of doom came over him. "I'm going to be stuck here fo-" He jerked back in surprise and ended up whacking his head against the stone above him. "Ow! Tim- Tim?!" Allen's hopes were renewed at seeing the golden golem, which had eaten his way through the floor. "Do you know where Kanda is?" He nearly cried in relief when the golem nodded and flew back towards the hole he had eaten and he grinned at Allen.

"Move back, Tim. I'm about to crumble some of the rock away," Allen warned the golem, his gaze focusing on the hole. He, however, accidentally put a little too much power into the spell he spoke softly, because the next thing he knew he was tumbling through the darkness. A sense of deja-vu hit him and Allen activated his Innocence, trying to catch his hand on anything, but the smooth stone he had carved out had nothing to catch nor dig into.

Below him he heard Kanda's voice calling his activation, and he could see what looked like him? His eye, however, didn't activate and he shot his Innocence hand out, wincing faintly as he caught 'Ichigen.' Popping out of the hole, he hesitated as the person that looked like him whispered.

"Sir... Walker..."

Silver eyes widened as he realized that it was Toma in front of him. 'What did... Did the Akuma project his mirror image on Toma?' Allen wondered.

"Moyashi!" Allen silently sighed at hearing the samurai bark angrily. He turned to see a furious Kanda, his blue eyes narrowed dangerously. "What the hell are you thinking!? Why did you protect the Akuma?"

"He's not an Akuma. My curse lets me see the souls of the Akuma," Allen explained, his gaze turning back to Toma. He noticed a tear in the 'skin' on the Finder's cheek. "What this?" he murmured, eyes narrowing. His now deactivated hand moved to pull away the skin, which revealed Toma's actual face, the man now unconscious. Allen heard Kanda inhale sharply and he turned to face him, his eye activating this time and he roared out, "That Toma behind you is the Akuma!"

His warning came too late, and the Level Two had tossed Kanda through a wall. "Stay with Toma, Tim!" Allen told the golem before running after the two, Mugen buried into the stone nearby. His blood boiled at hearing the Two laugh at Kanda's death. "Curse you!" he screamed, tearing the Akuma's body in two with his activated Crown Clown. The force of his attack sent the Akuma pieces flying through several walls, but Allen paid it no attention as he turned towards his comrade, fear and confusion gripping him. He had always been able to sense if someone (alive, not Akuma) was going to die within a day; he had felt those Finders' day, he had felt several others before, so why hadn't he noticed Kanda's..?

Allen's breath caught in his throat when he realized that Kanda was still alive, his heart barely beating and his breath faint. It was also something else that shocked him, the feeling, the pull of Kanda's life force being forced outwards, to heal and mend the nearly-dead Exorcist. "Is that... Kanda's curse?" Allen wondered aloud as he stooped to wrap his arm around the other's waist, pulling Kanda close. "Is his life force forced to heal him?"

He wanted to ask Kanda about it, oh so very badly, but something told him it was a personal thing. If Kanda did ever want to tell him about it, his highest chance would be to become Kanda's friend – something told Allen that it would not happen.

The white-haired Exorcist made his way back to Toma and Tim, pausing for a moment to grab Mugen. "Hey, Tim? Mind swallowing this for a while? I know you can't digest it, but please try not to harm it – Kanda would kill me." The golem bobbed up and down before swallowing the sword whole. "Thanks."

Allen leaned Kanda against a wall just long enough to pick up Toma and toss the Finder over his shoulder before grabbing the dark-haired Exorcist again. "Lead the way, Tim," he told the golden golem, praying that the little winged-ball knew where he was going.

They walked for what seemed like miles. Allen could still see shades and shadows flicker in the corner of his vision, but they stayed further away, their feelings no longer projected onto him. Nearly every step for Allen was painful, he knew he had a few cracked ribs (and possibly a broken one) and they ached and hurt in protest as he continued to carry to two heavy bodies of his comrades. Toma was awake by the time Allen was panting in exhaustion.

"Sir Walker... Leave me behind, you're injured, too," Toma said, his voice dry and cracking.

Allen smiled faintly and snorted. "It's not that bad! I'm not going to leave you behind, Toma, don't protest," he commanded and the Finder fell silent again. 'Dammit... If I continue on like this, my other ribs are going to break and I'm going to bust something... I don't know where we are, and I don't know if Tim is leading us towards the surface or not... I need to find someplace safe to put them and to tend to their wounds. Even if Kanda's if healing quickly, some of those bones need to be set to heal properly... Dammit!' His attention was pulled away from his thoughts by the sound of someone – "Singing?" Allen murmured curiously, eyes lighting up at hearing the gentle tune. "I hear... singing?"

And that's the chapter! I hope you all enjoy it very much! I'm sorry to say that I won't have another chapter next week, with having this trip suddenly pop up. But, I have posted the first chapter of a side-story (that can also be read as a stand-alone) so I hope you all enjoy that very much, too!

Hope you all enjoyed the chapter!

Comments, criticism, or just want to say what you liked about the chapter? Please leave a review! Reviews and constructive criticism helps keep me motivated! (All flames will be used to set my bonfires this summer, and roast marshmallows. Yum!) Liked what you read and want more? Please Follow and Favorite if you haven't!

I'll see you guys in a couple weeks! Until then,

~Snowy.