Time Record

Written by xmystorytime.

Full Summary: The Earl never expected to fail, but he did have a back-up plan just in case - a machine that would allow him and his Noah to go to the future, where no one could follow... or so he thought. Miranda's Innocence, pushed to its limit in the midst of battle, forces those around her to go tumbling through time, landing in the future... specifically, the minds of those in the future. Now our heroes have to re-group and counter the Earl's newest attack, but how can they if they don't know who's who? HP/DGM.

Warnings: uh... language. Not really bad language, but it's there.

Ships: None.

Disclaimer: If I owned D Grayman... I'd never go to school. But since I go to school, I guess it means I don't own it.

How unfortunate.

The annihilation of half his army was a regrettable affair; it was also a cruel reality in a world where God had deserted him, choosing to side with the exorcists once more. He was not caught unaware this time – in fact he had planned for it – but still, it was tragic he had to lose some of his family before he had caught on.

Skinn… Lulubell… Cyril…

He couldn't afford to lose those who remained. He had been forced into this, couldn't they see? Exorcists surrounded him and with God on their side how could they not? He despised them with the very fibre of his being for succeeding where he had not. What did they promise that he could not give? What had he done for God to abandon his own creation, to become a mistake?

What was done was done, however. A millennium had passed, letting him come to terms with his circumstances. Why else was he known as the Millennium Earl, if one had not haunted, chased and spiralled around him, dancing just out of reach and taunting him with what he could not be?

A bitter laugh escaped his lips and echoed in the white room, through the open doors and down the deserted corridors, until he choked on his blood and had to cough.

Once he'd recovered, he sat up and dabbed at his mouth with his sleeve. "I must be getting old," he mused, gazing at the piano in front of him. It was all that remained from the incomplete download, a mockery of what could have been. A growl escaped from his throat and chunky fingers slammed down on the keys, coating the walls with a crude noise, but his lips, cursed into a grin, showed no trace of his rage.

How dare the fourteenth side with those traitors?

He pulled away from the piano, turning his back on it. What did it matter now? He didn't have to deal with such trivial things anymore; soon the exorcists would live out their lives in peace, never to interfere with his plans. Would a farewell for this world be appropriate?

His feet dragged as he faced the piano one last time and began to play a haunting tune. A few moments later a heart-shaped door opened above him. Road had no qualms about stepping into thin air and landed on his shoulder with an impish smile. The Earl did not look at her, but felt her thin arms wrap around his neck in an awkward hug.

"It's that time already?" she sounded sad.

The Earl paused, "Will you still miss him?"

"Of course!" he winced but continued playing as Road pouted. "Are you sure we can't bring him with us? I could make him my doll and then he wouldn't ever defy me -"

"Silly girl," he chided and she fell silent. As if he would let her bring along Allen Walker, not when he had ties to their betrayer. Road shifted so she was sitting upright and then stilled when footsteps were heard outside the corridor, barely audible over the music. The Earl knew this world as well as he knew his family, however, so when Tyki Mikk stepped into the room he was not surprised.

The young aristocrat pulled off his black top hat and brushed off invisible dirt.

"As talented as ever, Earl," he complimented, moving closer until he leant against the piano. "Almost like a farewell. This is it, then?"

The Earl hummed and continued to play. Not everyone had arrived yet and until they had he would not explain. It didn't take long.

"If they ask, you're gonna explain!"

Twins Jasdero and Devit stumbled into the room, though they avoided landing on their faces by keeping tight grip on each other. Once they stopped making a ruckus it was clear what they'd been arguing about. Beneath a large hat on top of Jasdero's head, a hat that reminded the Earl of a certain red-haired man, sat a white chicken. It clucked in the silence.

The Earl showed no reaction, his fingers dancing over the keys, but Road burst into peals of laughter and nearly slipped off her perch.

"Grr, see, they're laughing at us now!" Devit snapped as he pointed a gun at the blond.

"But it's a keepsake, a keepsake, hehe!" Jasdero mimicked his twin and then twin gunshots were heard. The Earl played faster, wanting to finish before they moved to where Lero waited. He reached his crescendo and finished with a press of all ten fingers at the same time Jasdevi came into being. His children were always so impressive.

He stood up and looked at all that remained of his family. There were more Noah that had yet to awaken, but it was apparent they would not show. Perhaps, in another time…

"You all know why I called," he said.

"To finalise the plans for the box," Jasdevi flicked long thick hair over his shoulder. The Earl nodded and led the three through the door on the far side. The room they entered was much darker, with no decorations or exits. A cracked and dusty jar stood on top of a wooden stool in the middle of the room.

"That's it?" Tyki frowned. "I was expecting something more… like a box," he reached out to touch it.

"I wouldn't touch it if I were you," he warned and Tyki halted. "It may not react how you want it!" The child of pleasure narrowed his eyes and backed up as a pink umbrella suddenly peered over the rim of the jar.

"Lero?" the pumpkin on top asked before recognising who they were. "Master Earl Lero!" It floated towards the Earl who caught it and smiled.

"Is it all set?"

"Of course lero!"

Road swiped Lero out of his hands and held it up in front of her. "Lero, you have to promise you'll be there with me when we get there okay? I'll be so bored if I don't have you to play with, seeing as I've already lost Allen -"

"T-there's no way lero!" the umbrella did not seem to like the idea. "I have to stay with Master Earl lero!"

Ignoring the pair, the Earl turned to look at Jasdevi and Tyki. "You know God has forsaken us," he began and Road jumped off his shoulder and skipped over to sit cross-legged next to Tyki, keeping tight hold of Lero. "Look at what he allowed happen to Lulubell, Skinn and Cyril. He let them go." They all sobered. None of them could forget, not when being Noah meant they had to cry. "He did what I expected, repeated the actions he took before. Last time I was not ready," the Earl turned to the jar. "Now, we have this."

"I thought Pandora released all the evil in the world?" Tyki asked.

"Yeah, doesn't that mean it has no power?" Jasdevi frowned.

"Let Millenie explain!" Road hissed and, sensing they were about to begin bickering, the Earl clapped his hands together to draw their attention back to him.

"All the misfortune in this world was created by Pandora's Box. After such devastation, God took it upon himself to save his beloved race. He could not remove all evil, for evil is built into the very nature of humans, but he took the worst. What remains is in this," he tapped the jar's lid.

"Which is?"

"Hope," the Earl replied. "Humans have always underestimated the power of hope, but it works well for us. With our combined strengths, the power from this box will guide us to where we want to go." However, as he looked from one child to the next he saw they didn't seem to agree. He didn't blame them. It had taken him far longer than they ever knew to understand the true power behind this. "Do not fear for all will go according to plan," he paused. "However, so we don't arouse suspicion we must set ourselves up."

Ah, he had caught their attention again now. Had it been able to, his grin would have widened. "As the exorcists begin their epilogue, we shall finally begin our prologue. Our main story is about to begin."

HP/DGM

She'd been left for dead; discarded in the mud, limp as a rag doll. Her once pretty brown hair was matted with dried blood and her uniform was in scraps around her, showing blood oozing from deep wounds. She could only wait until she bled out or an akuma realised what an easy kill she was.

Oh, but how she wished she was still fighting, doing whatever she could to help her friends – but she'd barely been given a chance. The Noah had targeted her all at once, knowing their tactics. She never thought she'd have the choice of bleeding out instead of dying by akuma poisoning, not when so many others hadn't. She wanted to scream and shout about unfairness, to beg and plead for anyone who could help, but her body wouldn't respond.

She took a watery breath in and out as the battle raged above her. Each akuma destroyed was replaced by two more, and yet she'd dared to think her friends were succeeding. She was wrong of course, always wrong, always useless. Fierce yells came from both sides and explosions from dead akuma deafened the battlers but it was muted. Was this death?

Beneath her something shifted, gushing out, and she managed a soundless groan, eyes falling shut as she tried to sob but found her airways clogged with blood. From birth she was useless and useless she remained; her death wouldn't be remembered. After all, what had she done of any significance in her life?

But, even for a little while, it had been nice thinking Plain Useless Miranda might help save the world.

Footsteps banished her bleak thoughts and colour and sound returned. She gasped as pain bloomed down her sides, shuddering to life just in time to hear the conversation.

"An impressive imitation," her heartbeat started racing. Tyki Mikk? "Even I, the true being, cannot tell the difference." Why was he here? Why wasn't he fighting Lavi?

"Well what did you expect, something crappy?"

"We've been practising, practising, hehe!" Her eyes cracked open upon hearing Jasdevi. Why was no one fighting the Noah? Had her friends already…?

"Do you think I keep my skirt too high?" Road asked and Miranda swallowed, memories assaulting her, the strongest her very first meeting with Road. She hadn't changed much since then, despite what she'd thought. "Hey! Why am I the first to die?" the eavesdropping exorcist fought back a cough, deciding she must have heard wrong.

"Look look, Tyki's next hehe!"

There was a long silence before all four hissed in sympathy. Miranda wished she could move to see what they were looking at, but all she could manage was to make her fingers twitch.

"He must have had quite the vendetta against me," Tyki said. "Considering he was the only one I haven't fought before, I can't imagine why…" he sighed. "Ah, I suppose he didn't like what I did to the others. Not much of a Bookman is he?"

"I didn't like what you did to Allen," Road mumbled. Tyki made a noise of protest but her next words ignored him. "Jasdevi, will you go last?"

"Nah! We wanted to be -"

"- but the last to go in a show like this is the villain, hehe!"

Miranda shut her eyes, took as deep a breath in as she could and then struggled into a sitting position. Every part of her body ached and each new movement caused pain, but she knew she was the only one who could stop whatever the Noah were talking about. The only question was how.

"Oh oh oh! You're about to die!" Road cackled. "Watching this is so – oh…"

"That bloody vampire! How dare he do that to Jasdevi?"

"He'll pay for that, hehe!" There were some noises she couldn't make out and, forcing her head to turn, she eventually spotted the silhouette of a top hat and someone with spiky hair sitting on top of a wriggling lump.

"Have you two lost it?" Road demanded.

"If you go out there now, you'll ruin everything!" Tyki said.

Jasdevi struggled for a little longer before giving up. "Whatever, just get off us already!" Road and Tyki obeyed and the two forms sprung upright and wiped at their clothes. "Urgh, now we're caked in mud you bastards!"

"Jasdero's hair will be ruined, hehe!"

Her legs wouldn't respond but that didn't matter. She wasn't Lenalee after all, she didn't need them – her Innocence was in her arms. She started to summon it.

"My my, how fast you all fell," the Earl appeared out of nowhere, a pink umbrella over his shoulder, and she shut her eyes in dismay, her arms lowering back to her lap. She had no chance facing the Earl and three Noah, but… did that mean she shouldn't try? It wasn't as if she could do anything else.

"Why are you complaining?" Jasdero said. "It's a lot of work keeping so many out there!"

The Earl ignored him. "Are you ready?" he asked, pulling something out of thin air. It looked like a jar. Once he had received three affirmatives, he held the jar out in front of him. "Good. We must wait for the right moment before we use the Box."

Box? What box?

"Aw, but I wanna go now!" Road said. "I wanna see the future already."

"I wonder how much it will change," Tyki mused. "A world without us… what is it like?"

The future?

Miranda bit her lip hard enough to draw blood. She couldn't do it; she couldn't handle the responsibility of stopping their enemies from going to the future. It was impossible – she was useless Miranda! Or was she? She was the only exorcist with time as her Innocence. Was she the only one who could give it a chance? Even if she was going up against the Earl?

"Ah, it seems the fourteenth is about to win!" the Earl said and, for the first time, Miranda turned her gaze to the sky where Allen and a fake Earl fought. They parried and blocked, barely visible to normal eye, before the Earl left an opening. The sword of Exorcism pierced through the Earl's fat belly. "Oh, time to go!"

She clutched her innocence to her chest, shutting her eyes in the hopes it would stop the tears. Her Innocence was cracked, battered and bruised, but it still clung on. She still clung on – wasn't that the story of her life?

"I see. You'll use your supposed death to cover up our use of the box," Tyki realised.

Innocence… you need to help me. She shivered and cracked her eyes open to see faint green circles start to form in the disc on her arm. We're the only ones who can stop this. The circles grew brighter and in response she, too, felt more hopeful. Fight with me. Let us die fighting – let us not die useless!

The wind began to pick up.

"Here we go!" Road cheered.

Miranda opened her mouth and yelled, as loud as she could, "Time Record, activate!" Her Innocence responded at the exact moment Pandora's Box opened and the world froze. She heard a loud dong, a clock striking twelve. It reverberated in her head, her heart and her soul and she gasped for air she couldn't find.

Light expanded from the disc on her arm and, wide-eyed, she could only watch as a golden circle spread out from where she said. It crossed the battlefield, touching everyone high and low. When it hit her friends they froze in time and then just… disappeared. She jerked, her free hand clutching her chest, as suddenly she could feel them, inside her, despite being unable to see them anymore.

Her friends… Lenalee… Allen…

Agony sliced down her spine and she felt herself ripped apart as the wind howled around her. Then, everything went black.

A/N: A/N: Did Miranda stop it in time, or was the power of Pandora's Box too great? What caused the big explosion? What was that white light which surrounded her? Do you want answers? You aren't going to get them. Mwah. The reason why I'm writing this? There are so many HP/DGM stories, most of which are durable... but what ticks me off is the time periods. There's noway that people centuries apart can be together, so I'm willing to do my HP/DGM story - with a twist. -grin-