The battlefield was dark and bleak. Countless remains of what was once living creatures were strewn across the battlefield. Dust that was all that remained from the victims of Akuma poison clouded everyone's vision, so thick it was akin to a sandstorm. The once fresh earth had turned a rusty, reddish brown color from so much blood. Crows and other carrion-eating birds circled the sky, waiting for the battle for the fate of humanity to come to an end.

It was at the apex of noon when two mortal foes faced each other. One was a gentleman in a top hat with a mountain-sized body. A grotesque, twisted smile was eternally carved on his face. Several meters in front of him was a girl with white hair and a a cursed left eye. Her left arm had turned into a large sword she was currently holding. It was eeriely similar to the one her opponent held, but with inverted colors. She closed her eyes steeling herself for what she was about to do.

"It all comes down to this, huh, Earl?" she asked, looking at her opponent with a determined look. "I won't lose to you, not when everyone is depending on me!" The Earl merely smiled at her creepily.

"My dear little Musician…" he said, though there was no tone of affection in his voice. The girl merely scowled at him with narrowed eyes.

"I am not and will never be yours, Earl. Get it in that sick mind of yours," she snarled, an unnatural expression on her normally gentle face. "Now it is your time to die!" The Musician leapt towards the Earl and took him by surprise.

The Earl's expression cycled between surprise, pain, disbelief, and finally fury as the Musician's blade pierced through his heart. He was Adam! God's Chosen! He would not be defeated by a mere child, even if said child was the host of a Noah. If he was to die, then he'd take her with him. He wrapped an arm around the Musician's lithe body pulling her into an embrace and plunging the sword even deeper into his body. The Musician was so surprised that she realized the Earl's plan a second too late. She cried in pain as the Earl's steel blade pierced through the flesh of her back and into her lungs.

"See you on the other side, my darling Musician," he let out a truly disturbing laugh as he let go of his embrace and began to disintegrate into Dark Matter. There was only one thing she could think of, though.

'We did it Neah. We did it,' she said to the being residing in her mind. 'We did it.'

'Yes, Ellen. We did. He's gone now. At least until he reincarnates, but it will be several centuries, or even millennia from now. Our part is over. ' At Neah's proclamation Ellen let out a raspy, gurgling laugh and slowly fell backwards with her one arm outstretched. She lied there, on othe mudstained battlefield, slowly bleeding out her life's blood.

'Hey Neah, how does dying feels like?' she asked drowsily. 'Is it like falling asleep?'

'No… more like going back to a home you never know you had. That's how it felt to me, at least,' Neah's voice was incredibly weak, softer than a murmur.

'Aaa… I think you're wrong, Neah.' Ellen didn't say anything anymore. Her eyes were closed and now that her adrenaline rush had faded she felt her warmth slowly trickle away to be replaced with numbing coldness. She didn't feel like opening her eyes. She was too tired, too exhausted to open her eyes.

Sleep seemed like such a good option right now. Even if it was a slumber she knew she would never wake up from.

Strange. Sleep had never been something that came to her easily. Even at the Black Order, she kept having nightmares about how she turned Mana into an Akuma. Only, she never activated her innocence and was devoured by the person that she considered a father. And she wasn't even going to think about her time as Cross' apprentice.

Master Cross. It was strange, how she never thought much of her master favourably until she was on the brink of dying. Cross wasn't much of a teacher, much less a surrogate father like Tiedoll was for his students. Her time travelling with Cross had been what could be considered hell on earth but now to think of it, some of his 'training methods' were what saved her from getting killed (or, worse, turned into Road's doll) during the war.

Ofcourse, remembering her fallen master made her think of her other comrades as well. Lenalee Lee was the first to fall, protecting her dearest nii-san from an Akuma attack that would have otherwise killed him. Froi Tiedoll had died trying to buy time for the rest of the Black Order while they were ambushed by a swarm of Level Fours. Socalo went down in a blaze of glory, destroying an entire army of akumas with his suicide attack. Krory and Miranda were killed by Tyki Mikk, the latter when she desperately tried to keep the former alive using her Time Record. Hevlaska's whereabouts was unknown since the attack on the Headquarters and they were forced to leave her behind while Fou used up all of her power as a guardian deity to protect the Asian Branch.

Not all hope was lost, though. Bak Chang and Lou Fa had survived. Chaoji was still out there fighting along with Timothy who had gotten much stronger than the first time he arrived at the Black Order. In a cruel twist of fate, Komui had synchronized with an Innocence found in one of his Komurins after Lenalee's death (the Komurin was now an Equipment type Innocence much like the doll Lala). Lavi… Bookman had taken Lavi away to a faraway location before officially appointing him as a Bookman and knocking him out. Ellen could still remember the words she shared with Bookman after he returned to the Order without Lavi.

Flashback

"Where's Lavi?" Ellen demanded at Bookman angrily. "Where is he!"

"Lavi's not here. He's gone. He's a Bookman now," the old man said. Ellen's face drained of all color as she clenched her fists and glared at the old man.

"What do you mean, he's no longer here? He's an exorcist! He can't just leave! Central would never allow it to happen!"

"That's where you're wrong. We are Bookman. We record history from a neutral perspective. He is my only successor and I cannot allow him to die in the battle that will surely happen soon," Bookman said calmly. Ellen found one flaw in his reasoning, though.

"If that is so, then why are you here? Why don't you travel with Lavi and keep him as your apprentice? You're Bookman, technically you're not a member of this Order."

Bookman let out a bitter laugh at that accusation. The mask he had built over the years had finally cracked. Not that it mattered anyway. Lavi had already replaced him as a Bookman. He didn't need to record history anymore, or keep his neutral stance.

"Maybe it's because I still want to record this war and that I'm a Bookman until the end. Maybe because I'm secretly suicidal. Maybe it's because I saw my own mother killed by an Akuma right in front of my eyes as a child, and I want to stop this Holy War," he said. "Who knows, maybe all of it is true."

Ellen merely stared at him for a moment before asking That One Question.

"Why?"

Bookman considered the question for a moment.

"Why what? There are many whys in the world, girl."

"Why did you become a Bookman?"

He considered the question again. He couldn't help it- living the mask of Bookman for the better part of his life had taught him to think and consider everything.

"Do you know why the Bookman position was established in the first place?" It was a rhetorical question. Few people, if any, knew the true story behind the Bookman. "It's not a random choice, you know. We do not record history merely for the sake of recording." There was a wistful look on his face. "Humans make so many mistakes, over and over, again and again. That's why we record history. So that there is a chance, however small, that those mistakes will never be repeated again."

Flashback end

Ellen felt like laughing, even though she was on the brink of death. How suitably ironic. Bookman claimed that he didn't have any emotions, yet the very thing, that motivated him to be what he was now, was the most human emotion of all. She wondered what Lavi would do, now that the war was over. Would he continue to record history, travelling around the globe? Would the Black Order be disbanded?

She felt several presences coming towards her. Huh. She couldn't hear their footsteps. She wondered who they were. Hopefully Leverrier wasn't amongst them. She didn't want her last sight to be of that man. Though, she supposed it wouldn't matter anymore. Nothing did.

She tried to open her eyes, and it was a struggle she barely won. Even the effort left her tired. She had used all of her life force in the battle, and she knew it. But she fought to open her eyes anyway. The sight in front of her was one she never thought she'd see again.

Kanda Yuu was standing in front of her, with Mugen in all of its glory. But… that was impossible! Kanda was dead. She saw him die herself, killed by the Noah of Desire's telekinesis. Ellen was sure that not even the high speed regeneration Kanda possessed could heal having his body torn apart into bloody shreds. Then she saw her other deceased friends behind him. Lenalee, smiling happily at her and offering her a hand. Mana, Mana, her dearly beloved adoptive father, not saying anything but with a proud look on her face. Tiedoll, Noise Marie, and Daisya stood a few steps behind Miranda, who looked like she was about to burst into tears of happiness, and was that Suman Dark lurking in the corner of her eyesight?

"Guys?" Ellen croaked, her throat sore and dry. Then she couldn't hold back her tears anymore. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry I couldn't save all of you, it's all my fault, all mine. If only I was able to do something… I wouldn't have let you die." Ellen was sobbing hysterically now, causing even more damage to her fatally injured body.

"Don't cry, Ellen," Lenalee said. "Stop blaming yourself. It's not your fault." She bent down and helped the other female exorcist stand up.

"It's… not my fault?" Ellen repeated, her eyes shining with tears. "Not mine?"

"Che. Baka Moyashi. Of course it isn't. It's a ****ing war, or have you ****ing forgot?" Kanda asked. "People die all the time." Ellen almost laughed. Almost. It was just so typical of Kanda her mind barely registered the 'moyashi' part.

"It's all over, Ellen. You don't need to fight anymore. We're all here, for you."

She still couldn't believe those words. Strange. She'd gotten so used to the war that she couldn't imagine it ending. If Lenalee's world composed of her precious people, then hers was one of blood and violence. It was hard to imagine a world of peace, where there would be no akumas or blood-crazy Noahs. Why was it so hard to do so? Because she never believed in one? Suddenly she felt so much more tired and sank to her knees. Kanda quickly caught her and wrapped his arms around her torso in a tight hug.

Why did her heartbeat suddenly increase so much? It wasn't the first time Kanda had caught her or hugged her like this. Strange, but she guessed that when you saw your deceased friends with you nothing could be called ordinary. She raised her head and looked at Kanda's face. Was she blushing?

"C'mon, Ellen. Let's go," Lenalee said. Ellen stared at her somewhat blankly.

"…Go…? Wh-where…?" she asked confusedly.

"To afterlife, of course," Lenalee stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Something in Ellen's throat hitched and she frantically wrestled herself out of Kanda's hug. She looked around the battlefield, only to see corpses everywhere. Then her eyes caught the sight she dreaded the most.

It was her own body lying in the mud, blood pooling from the stab wound in her back. Her silver eyes were open but unseeing, glassy like that of a doll. She was in such a bad condition, that even without the wound the Earl had dealt her she would die soon. It was surprising that she managed to defeat the Earl in the first place. The full consequences of her death then hit Ellen in full force.

"I'm dead…" she choked. "I'm dead…" .

"Moyashi? Oi, Ellen, calm down," Kanda shook her rather roughly. There was a hint of desperate, frightened madness in Ellen's eyes. Not good, not good at all. Kanda seized her shoulders again and shook her out of her stupor. "Che. Breathe, idiot. Well, not like you need to anyway, but calm the f*** down! You're dead, there's nothing you can do to change it!" Seeing that his efforts did not bring out the desired results, Kanda was forced to use his last resort.

"I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm d-mmmph!" Ellen's chant was cut off by Kanda bending down and planting his lips over hers. Her silver eyes widened in surprise, but she did nothing to stop Kanda kissing her. She didn't return it either, much to Kanda's chagrin.

Sensing that the girl was about to suffer from asphyxiation (not that it would kill her again, but still…) Kanda tore his lips off hers and instead hugged her gently. He wrapped his arms around her torso and whispered into her ear,

"C'mon, Moyashi… let's go home…"

AN: Aiya… this fic was rather hard. This is my first foray into the DGM fandom. Not sure if I'm going to continue this or not… At first I was going to have Kanda and everyone alive but it… sorta spiraled out of control? Ehehehe… this is basically just F!Allen's fight against the Earl and her dying dream. So, Lenalee's dead, Kanda's dead, Miranda and Krory are dead, Tiedoll and Noise Marie are dead… Komui's alive and an exorcist, Lavi's alive, Timothy and Chaoji are alive. Leverrier is (sadly) still alive. Do you think I should continue it? It's probably going to be the story of the DGM crew's reincarnation as the fight against the also reincarnated Milennium Earl and the rest of the Noahs…