(Nothing But) The Darkness Overhead

Originally: "Augen Auf".

Chapter Two

Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always gotten there first and is waiting for it.

- Terry Pratchett.

There is something about snow that is haunting, thought Kanda, a chill going down his spine. Despite how cold it could get back in England, nothing compared to a Russian winter. Bleached, dead-like trees hung in the gloom and wet snow swirled around the trunks, getting inside the hoods of their jackets. Wrapped in warm fur coats, Kanda and Lavi had arrived safely in Russia despite the fight on the train. How weird it had been to learn that not one person on the train bar themselves had been human. It was lucky that their finder understood the mechanics involved in driving a train otherwise they would never have made it. Kanda was unnerved by the event – Lavi had shrugged it off as the Earl stepping up the fight but why would he have used so many Akuma and such an elaborate plan for a single piece of Innocence? Or was it just to kill two Exorcists that had been a thorn in his side? The raven haired man had a suspicion it might be something more.

From the train station, they had abandoned the empty locomotive in favour of a simple carriage. It took five hours along the bumpy paths and then an hour's trek through the snow to the tiny village. There, they picked up another finder, this one Russian.

"Good evening, exorcists!" the man had said in a thick, Russian accent, his English awkward. "Please cloak and follow me to room where to put luggage and then to manor."

They had walked through the tiny village past maybe twenty houses before arriving at the church where the local priest had prepared a room for their use. Lavi had chatted animatedly with both of the finders the entire time as they put down their things and surveyed the room and the two rickety beds, only about as wide as the men themselves. Kanda raised an eyebrow at that but had left the matter as they ate a quick lunch before heading out to the mansion.

-xxx-

The manor was eerie. It loomed up out of the forest and was comprised of a dark wood, heavily detailed and intricately carved. As they slowly approached it, they noticed that although at first glance it appeared to be two stories, when they moved around to the front, an additional story was slightly peaking out through the roof. The potential beauty of the place was marred by its dark aura, Kanda noted. The wooden shutters on the windows were closed on the first story and the open ones on the second and third showed nothing but darkness.

A few strides closer and everything changed. Instead of the dwelling simply being empty and a little bit spooky, it was like something had swallowed the life around the manor and taken away all the beauty and happiness. It felt like something primordial was watching them through the open windows, from the shadows and waiting. The four men shivered.

On the way to the manor, the sun had been shining brightly and there had been plenty of time still before it set and left everyone in darkness. Birds had been chirping excitedly - though in this dreadfully cold country Kanda could not work out why - and a few flowers and green growth had been sprouting here and there out of the snow. But everything changed. It was like they had crossed an invisible line; like everything died between one step and the next. The sun was still high in the sky but everything here was dull, dark and dim. The trees surrounding the manor were stark and barren, their ashy-grey branches reaching upwards towards something just out of their grasp. The flowers still managed to push through the snow but something about them was twisted... and wrong; a strange, subtle difference that the naked eye couldn't quite detect. The birds had hushed and everything in general just looked washed out and . . . dead.

Lavi fell silent and an unreadable expression flickered across his face. 'Lavi' had been put aside for now and 'Bookman Jr.' had reared his head. He could feel the presence in the house. It was vast and ancient. Darker than anything he could imagine and dreadfully oppressing. He felt cold and alone though he stood there with three other men and snug in his jackets.

"This was never mentioned in the report." He stated as calmly as he could, a far cry from how he'd been acting mere seconds ago which startled the both finders and prompted the Russian to speak.

"Did not happen until recently," he said haltingly in his heavily accented voice, trying to pick the right words. "And how would one describe? Better seen and understood then read and confused."

Lavi nodded in understanding, fighting back a shudder at the horrible presence. What sort of Innocence could create such terrifying feelings?

Lavi took a few difficult steps forward and studied the house despite his screaming instincts to run. Like the plants, there was something subtlety wrong with the house, something warped that his eyes couldn't trace – an unnatural twisting of the wood. Like when you see a shadow out of the corner of your eye, but when you turn your head it's was gone. But nonetheless, he reminded himself, it was his mission to go inside and discover the cause and retrieve the Innocence that possibly lay inside.

Kanda caught up to Lavi as he started walking up to the front veranda of the home.

"I assume you feel that too?" Lavi murmured to him.

Kanda could do no more than nod as his companion stopped uncertainly just before the few steps that led up onto the porch. Lavi's face was pale, he noted, pale and tight like he suspected his own would be. Kanda sighed and turned back to the two finders, instructing them to remain behind in case they didn't make it.

Lavi was scared. Although a Bookman, he was not immune to fear. Fear is the oldest and strongest of all emotions and nobody can escape it. Lavi had been taught over the years many ways to deal with it and manage it so as not to hinder his tasks but as he and Kanda walked onto that veranda and approached the door, he felt his control slip the tiniest bit. Had he mentioned so to Kanda, the other man would have possibly admitted his fear too, for Kanda believed all fear was felt for a reason but neither spoke another word as they stood there. For the moment their feet had touched the wooden, floored ground of the veranda, they could quite literally feel the pain, hatred and sorrow the seemed to make up the very support of this house. Surely something as holy as innocence couldn't be found in a place like this? The feelings of dread, anger, sorrow, suffering, pain, agony, hate, fear, horror... Lavi didn't think that even the Noah themselves could do something, make something and live in something as terrible – no, as horrifying – as this. It was like the entire world's well of evil, pain, hate and fear had been collected and trapped inside this small space.

When Kanda pushed the door open though, it was far from what they had suspected. Warmth and happiness flooded them and soaked into them as they walked into a brightly lit hallway.

-xxx-

"What the -" Kanda heard Lavi gasp, swallowing his next word as a little girl came running into the hallway and right through them and into the room through the archway on their left. Kanda was completely startled and followed Lavi as he in turn followed the strange little girl into the room she'd disappeared into.

The room was wooden with a roaring fire and blankets everywhere. The room was lavishly decorated and the furniture was of utmost quality for its time. A spruce tree sat in the corner, covered in small decorations.

"Merry Christmas, Inga!" called a feminine voice. "Come see what Grandfather Frost left under the tree!"

Kanda spotted the woman standing by the tree, breath-taking green silk and lush brown fur, her black hair piled delicately and fashionably on her head. She was holding out a present to the little girl, Inga. Lavi took a step forward, Kanda assumed to apologise for their intrusion, when the woman looked up at them.

A look of abject horror covered her face and she let out a scream of pure terror, covering her daughter and crying.

"No! No! Not us!" She continued to cry. "God, help us!"

"It's okay, ma'am! We mean you no harm." Lavi tried to reason but the woman kept screaming.

Suddenly, just as Kanda realised that the woman had been looking beyond him, there was two bangs.

The screams broke off - blood was everywhere. And then room changed. The light and warmth disappeared and the feelings of evil and worse came rushing back. The room was dark, the little paint left on the walls peeling, the wood of the floor rotting and fragments of furniture lay here and there. Though what stood out the most was the old blood stains on the floor where the woman and her child had been standing.

"Where are we, Yuu?" Lavi asked quietly, his eyes wide and Kanda wondered too. They began thoroughly searching for anything of importance and with one more glance at the blood stains, they left the room that smelt like death empty-handed and walked back into the hallway. There were still four more rooms to check before they could go up the stairs.

Kanda braced himself for what was ahead and mustered all his courage as he walked across the hall to the next room and into another memory of the past.

-xxx-

The room was empty of all furniture but a bed. After Allen had woken up in the middle of a dank alleyway, he'd had to go out and gamble again to buy more food after he'd lost the first lot. The words of the Gypsy had rolled around inside his head and he'd nearly lost a few hands of poker. Now though, safe on the Ark with all his non-perishables packed away and having fed himself, he could safely think. Walking across the room to the bed, he lay down and stared up into the ceiling. The woman had been of so little help, he thought. She had been so vague! She'd spoken in riddles when she told him where his Innocence had gone, Allen decided. With his Noah powers? Music is more powerful then the spoken word... your Noah power is related to music, my dear, destructive Musician. But he didn't understand what they were! Music? Allen himself didn't even know how to play...! It had always been the Fourteenth who knew what to do – who'd acted through Allen. You must be careful. He is not you and you are not he. Which meant that surely he could not still have the knowledge of the piano? He didn't even know what the Musician's powers had been.

You'll have a decision to make in the future. Two sides, black and white but there's no room for grey. No, not this time. Stay close to your friends, Allen. In your moment of darkness, they will be your light.

Of all the things the old woman had said, this had sent shivers down his spine, for even then; surely this meant nothing but the final battle between Noah and humanity? But something dark inside his mind, something ancient and based on the instincts humans had acquired over so many years whispered something darker was coming. Perhaps he should find the others and help them? And with this new resolve, Allen swiftly dropped into Morpheus's arms, vowing to send Timcanpy after Lavi and Kanda in the morning and to begin training himself for the dark times ahead.

-xxx-

This time there was no warmth and happiness - of the two occupants in the room, the most prominent was a man. His face was a deep purple, his eyes grotesquely bulging from their sockets, pupils blown wide, his tongue, black and swollen and around his neck, a thick noose. Flies were lazily buzzing around the room and the foulest of stenches reached Kanda's nose. The dead man's feet were idly dangling over a pile of human excrement. The second figure was a living man. He'd dragged a tattered arm chair across the room and was sitting there, watching the body. The room surrounding was chaos and from the agony written all over the dead man's face, his death hadn't been swift or willing. Lavi gagged.

A crack of lightning from the window and the scene was whisked away and they were left in another empty room, the remnants of a rope dangling from the ceiling and no body to be seen. The arm chair still remained where it had been – a gruesome reminder. Feeling sick, they checked the room too and moved back into the hallway.

The next three room held a new death - a new way to die - and some were far more gruesome then others. By the time Kanda and Lavi had made it to the foot of the stairs that led to the second story, they were both extremely pale and empty-stomached. Images of torn clothes and flesh flashed across his mind, forever burned into his brain as well as the haunting image of a child's empty eye socket staring at him, through him as a supposed doctor began removing the other from the corpse. Kanda shakily sighed and Lavi brushed a hand through the hair falling out of his bandana. Though men and soldiers, such horrifying scenes were still rare – Akuma and Noah mostly just killed humans. They didn't go to such extremes to torture them and mutilate their corpses in such vile, unholy ways. Both boys stood still for some minutes, regaining as much of their composure as they could and preparing themselves to go up the narrow wooden stairs. Kanda raised his eyes to the top of the stairs. Shadows stirred and anticipation hung heavily in the air. Something was waiting for them up there.

They moved towards the stairs and the feeling intensified. Something was lurking there, something unnatural, un-human – inhuman, inhumane and waiting. Both males moved closer to each other, shoulders pressing against the other's and hands brushing. It was something neither would do under normal circumstances but with this unknown force before them, they both clung to the little human contact they could have, without making it impossible to ascend the stairs. Kanda drew Mugen and Lavi pulled out his hammer and both slowly walked up the steps, arms still pressed tightly together. At the top of the steps nothing attacked them. The presence seemed to still be there, but it was faint; receding towards the next and final floor of the house. It was smirking at them, telling them it wanted them to go through the horrors of this floor before they went up to the final floor to meet it and their death. They shivered.

Slowly entering the first room, the two - still shoulder to shoulder - began again their routine. Watch somebody die or see someone already dead, wait for the barbarity to end and then search the room. But every room just left them empty handed, disgusted, shocked and disturbed.

They learnt some things too. Like how far the human body could stretch, bend, twist and bleed before the owner died. How much could be removed from inside or cut off from the outside and other foul things they wished they had never seen. The screams and begging of the victims rang loud in their ears. One thing was the same every time though – the murderer, rapist, and brutal torturer, - if shown - was the same person. A man in his early thirties. His hair and eyes were as black as his soul and he did nothing but laugh as he raped, tortured and mutilated his victims, living or not.

The floor proved just as empty as the last and the deaths far worse and far more painful than those suffered below.

Again they found themselves staring up the staircase at the waiting shadows. Again, the inhuman presence and the mind numbing fear – the instincts of old screaming to run...

But what they saw at the top of the stairs was unexpected. No more memories, no more blood or bodies. Just three arm chairs, two facing the other with a respectable distance between them and a roaring fire place. Sitting in the chair apart from the other two, sipping tea in his fur-lined coat was the very man who had brutally slaughtered the people in the rooms below them.

"You sick bastard!" Lavi spat, disturbed that a man could do something as foul as what he'd been made witness to. Kanda went to lunge at the man-

"Uh-uh!" the man tutted, amused. He had a faint Russian accent. "Come for me and your companion will die."

-but he quickly stopped frozen as Lavi began shaking and clutching his chest, gasping for air. The man grinned savagely and Kanda noticed the swirling dark shadow the man cast from the fire. Unable to stare straight at the demonic presence, his mind screaming that to look would mean his death, he studied the monstrous being out of the corner of his eye. Blacker than black, darker than dark, like a void that has punched a hole into the inky fabric of night itself - it of the slightest bit resembled a man, albeit a sinister, stretched and elongated one. It took up the entirety of the wall behind the Russian. Kanda had never felt so much fear in his life. It was as if all of his ancestors were screaming and shaking him at once to move, as if he could feel all their fear combined with his own. The instincts created and forged since the earliest of humans crying out and urging him to bolt. All the pain and suffering and dark emotions seemed to spew forth from the vile thing, the shadow, like a foul tar – sticking and clinging to everything. The ancient black being had thin tendrils that linked it to the man before them.

"Please. Sit."

Kanda fell more than sat in the chair to the right and Lavi on the one to the left as his breath returned to him.

"What is that beast?" he rasped through his dry throat. "What kind of creature is that?"

The being seemed to swell and fill the room more at being spoken about as such. Kanda felt the being grin maliciously at him.

"Why did you kill those people?" Lavi demanded of the man, seemingly not noticing the presence in his state of anger. The man blinked and crossed his legs as he took another sip of his tea.

"That's easy; because I can." He laughed.

Kanda ignored the man and Lavi, the Russian was just another insane killer. This creature before him that set his knees to shaking and seemed to paralyse him enough that running was not an option concerned him more.

"What are you?!" he whispered.

The man suddenly began to fit in his chair. His eyes rolled into the back of his head, showing nothing but white. The teacup fell to the ground and shattered, tea soaking up into the carpet and staining the fabric. Slowly, Kanda noticed that the whites of his eyes began to turn black and the being moved steadily closer, closing in on the man. The fitting soon stopped but a steady stream of blood poured from the man's nose and mouth.

"I. AM. OF. THE. SHADOWS. - I. AM. DEATH." The voice was agony and ripped through Kanda's mind like something had grabbed the two lobes of his brain in each hand and torn. It was a voice not meant to be heard by humans – no matter how powerful or strong. Kanda clasped his ears with his hands and could feel the blood oozing out. It was torture.

"What do you want?" gasped Lavi terror and shock, sinking to his knees as he became aware of the shadow and its apparent taking over of the body of the human in front of them.

"YOUR. SOULS." The smile that covered the man's face was feral and wrong, stretching his face impossibly.

"Why are you possessing this man?! Did you force him to kill those people?"

"IT. IS. MY. DISCIPLE." The man in question gave a shaky sigh and seemed to slump before them. The thing retreated, seemingly tired of their questions, and slowly the murderer before them gained consciousness.

All of his years of bookman training did not prepare him for this thing! He didn't even know exactly what it was! Bookman had told him once of a creature described by the Bookman before him that was similar, that had drawn on the life force of a human to survive. Of a being not of this world – but surely this could not be it! Surely the man would have told him or Bookman of the horrible, soul-consuming fear! Lavi tried to remember what had been done to stop the creature, praying that they were one and the same and the same thing would work, but the agony that had been brought about by this monster's words still felt like it was destroying his mind and sending him insane! He shot Kanda a look and saw that he was doing not much better – he needed the other man to distract the being and the murderer so he could get a chance to remember!

"Who are you?" Kanda snarled at the man right on cue. "Who are you to be friends with such beasts and to willingly hurt and kill such innocents?" Speaking of, thought Kanda, where was the Innocence? He'd noticed Lavi's mind ticking away, trying to think of a solution, but Kanda already had an idea. There was Innocence somewhere in this room, he just knew it. And what sort of coincidence could it be that it was in the same place as the creature! And that's when he saw it. The ring on the man's right middle finger, it appeared to be faintly glowing a sickly colour, though it was hard to notice through all the tendrils that seemed to be attached to it. He watched in a sick fascination as the tendrils thrummed – looking for all intents and purposes like they were sucking the power out of it. Kanda quickly looked back up as the man replied.

"I am Athanasius, the Lord of this house. A fine surgeon hobbyist and murderer, as we've established." A mad, zealous light entered his eyes. "This 'creature' is God. The Lord of the Hebrews, the Lord of Noah and the Almighty God of Heaven. Surely you recognise him, priest? He has recognised me as one of his True Disciples, and with my brethren we shall rid the world of all life. He has enticed you into my home so I may convert you to the One True Faith – you will be granted Immortality for the True Disciples, nothing it too large a gift. Our Lord accepts us all, he delights in the blood and rape and torture – he will not judge you!"

Kanda stared in horror. Why hadn't the man turned into a Fallen One yet with this kind of nonsense! He wouldn't be surprised if this monster was some demon, but to claim him as the Holy Father was blasphemy! If he hadn't thought this man to be sick and twisted, listening to him now would have been enough to change his mind.

Lavi stared in mutual horror. How..? He stopped. The innocence! If they took the Innocence from the man, from this Athanasius, they could perhaps stop this creature! Bookman has said the monster had used both the life force of a human but also of one that was an Accommodator for Innocence so that he could feed off that too! Using both sources to give itself a physical form! He looked at Kanda and made eye contact – the two sharing a sudden, clear wave length and both agreeing to the plan.

"Blasphemy!" Kanda roared, feigning rage. He could feel nearly all eyes on him. The creature let out an inhuman screech in fury at the perceived insult. "You blasphemy and worship a false God!"

Kanda rushed towards Athanasius with Mugen raised above his head, the man still sitting in the chair calmly but the shadow was too quick and grabbed him, flinging him into the wall and sending plaster showering down. However, it did not anticipate Lavi who launched himself at the human with a punch to the jaw and ripped the ring off the man's finger with such force the finger snapped.

"NO!" The man's voice screamed as he curled up and convulsed in agony. The shadow shrieked with him and the house shook dangerously. Lavi curled his hand around the Innocence piece and spat on the man with disgust.

The shadow knocked Kanda back into the wall and shrieked again as Athanasius started frothing at the mouth, still convulsing on the ground, screaming in pain. Lavi dashed over and helped Kanda up and both stood and watched in uncertainty as the man was forced to feel the pain he had caused all those poor people over the years.

The house started crumbling, timber fell from the ceiling and the two realised their stay here was long over-due. Kanda grabbed Lavi's hand and bolted towards the hall – seeing out of the corner of his eye, the murderer take his last breath and the creature let out one last shriek that blasted one of his eardrums - and down the stairs where more screams came from the rooms. They all but dove down the last flight before making a mad rush down the hallway and out the door onto the ground. Lying there, panting for breath and worried the beast might somehow have followed them, they watched as the house sighed and with one last shake, collapsed to the ground and into dust.

The aura that had been surrounding the place seemed to melt away and vanish, the land around them slowly returning to normal. A silence fell across the area as life took a gasping breath. The evil had been purged and the infection removed...

-xxx-

Later that evening, in the room Kanda shared with Lavi, he lay on his back on his bed, staring out of the tiny window at the stars. What could cause such evil? What was that shadow? It surely wasn't created by the Innocence or was it? It seemed like a sort of parasite. And what had happened that had stopped that murderer from turning into a Fallen One? Questions floated through his head and as his eyes began to shut sleepily, Kanda turned his gaze to Lavi, sprawled on the other bed and Kanda fell asleep with a small smile on his face.

Hey guys, sorry about the wait but this chapter was very difficult to write, and university got in the way. But excuses aside, ohohohoho, the plot thickens! I'm very fascinated to know everyone's opinion - what exactly does everyone think this creature was? Anyway, I should hopefully have a new chapter out faster than this one as uni finishes and summer holidays start in three or so weeks! All well, TTFN folks and don't forget to review!