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31_days2008-01-28 10:08 pm
sophiap.livejournal.com) wrote in 31_days2008-01-28 10:08 pm
[Jan. 28] [D.Gray-Man] End of Days, Part 28
Title: End of Days pt. 28
Day/Theme: Jan. 28/but what can you do when you have to deal with people?
Series: D.Gray-Man
Character/Pairing: Ensemble, with a few OCs.
Rating: PG-13
Part 27
No one would tell Lenalee what was going on. The last time she had seen her brother, he had come to tell her that Kanda had died. He stayed with her as long as he could, holding her and stroking her back while she cried and screamed, and then once her tears had stopped and she was queasy and headachey from all the crying. It wasn't until later that she realized that he hadn't told her that everything was going to be all right.
Reever had stopped by only once after that, without warning, and only for ten minutes. It was in the middle of the night and he'd been so awkward and so guarded he didn't seem like himself. She got the impression that he'd been surprised to find her awake. She'd been desperately glad to see him, but by the time he'd been there for five minutes, she wished he would leave again rather than hemming and hawing and pretending everything was just normal.
She'd told him that if she could use her Innocence, she'd kick him through a wall if he didn't stop that nonsense. Reever laughed at that, and for a moment it was as if everything was normal, but instead of telling her what was really on his mind, he'd ruffled her hair and given her a quick and mask-muffled peck on the cheek. All he said was that he was sorry he couldn't stay, but there was an experiment he had to check on. She had the feeling that there was something he wasn't telling her. All he did say as he left was that now that the parasitic types were cleared, Allen would probably stop by.
Allen hadn't. Yet. But maybe he would.
It took her a while to fall back asleep, and she slept fitfully, waking again at dawn. She wondered if she was sick, but the few symptoms she'd manifested were nothing you'd see outside of a mild cold.
Something was wrong with her Innocence, but she couldn't tell what. Why hadn't Hevlaska asked to see her about it? Once, years ago, when her synchro rate was normally only forty percent and she had pushed too hard to reach fifty, Hevlaska had actually taken Lenalee's innocence back into herself for a while. After the way she pushed her innocence against the Level Three, she thought Hevlaska would have wanted to see her right away. She had no idea how low her synchronization rate had fallen, but she knew it was bad.
Maybe Hevlaska had also fallen ill. That thought chilled her; Hevlaska was the one constant in the Order. Komui would have said something, right? Or Reever?
But no one was telling her what was going on. The nurses were evasive in a way that suggested they'd been ordered not to tell her anything disturbing.
Her Innocence and her legs weren't working the way they should. She wasn't sure what was wrong with her Innocence. The closest she could come to describing it was to compare it to the time when she'd had a dislocated shoulder field-set; things were where they belonged, but not how they belonged.
Even so, when she heard the klaxon go off, it didn't stop her from jumping out of bed. Her legs wobbled as they hit the ground, but that didn't matter. It was dangerous, but if the Order was being invaded, that didn't matter.
A whispered invocation, and her Innocence took over the job of running from her legs.
* * *
"Do you know what's happening to you?" Reever was doing most of the work of moving them along. It was as if Lavi kept forgetting that he was still critically ill. He'd surge forward two, three steps, then his legs would go slack, nearly pulling both him and Reever down.
"I'm not sure." Lavi still couldn't draw a decent breath. His face shone with sweat and Reever saw the pulse jumping in his throat. "It feels kind of like what Road did to me, but from the other side. Moving forwards, not backwards, if that makes sense."
"It doesn't. Ah, Christ...this isn't going to work, not like this." Reever pulled them to a stop. They'd managed to move maybe ten yards in the past two minutes, and this was all beginning to seem like a mistake. Lavi was panting as if he'd just gone two miles at a dead run. "Right. There's something going on with Allen, and it sounds like you know what it is--tell me and I'll go find him. If it's something I can't handle, I'll send General Nine along. The parasitic types aren't coming down with this."
"But I'm--" Lavi convulsed, but managed to come out of it standing straighter than before. Wobbly, yes, but straighter.
"You're still sick, is what you are, mate. And what with this bloody plague, we haven't had time to rebuild your hammer. Johnny could beat you to a pulp right now if he wanted." He should haul Lavi back to his sickbed, that's what he should do. That was the logical thing to do, but Reever was an honest enough mathematician to know he couldn't always apply the rules of logic to human behavior, and that included his own.
If only he could bounce this idea past Komui, but Komui was sick, possibly even dying (and didn't he feel like a first class shit for not telling Lenalee--she'd never forgive him if she found out, but he couldn't make himself do it).
Komui was the one who worked by intuition first, reason second. He'd jump unerringly from point A to point F with sheer instinct letting him know that points B through E were all taken care of. Reever sometimes knew things before he could prove them, but he always went back and showed his work, as it were, before forging ahead. This, though, this was like being on a runaway horse and spurring it on and whipping it into a mad frenzy rather than trying to rein it in to a saner pace.
Lavi was central to this, Reever was sure of it, and it wasn't just that he was likely the index case for this plague--a plague that never happened, if Rondine was to be believed.
Lavi gasped and pressed the heel of his hand against his patch. "It's changing again. It keeps changing."
"History, right? History's changing--no, it's damn well jumped the rails, am I right? You remember what was supposed to happen next, don't you? And it's not happening the way it should." The horse kept on running, kept on speeding up. Reever stepped in front of Lavi, hands on the boy's shoulders to keep him from toppling backwards. He spoke quickly, jumping slightly when the klaxon went off. "Quick--what's Rondine's first name?"
"Giuseppe," Lavi answered without thinking. "Hold on--who's Rondine?"
"Someone you brought here. Sent here. Something." With the klaxon going off, Reever had to figure out where to go, and fast. His duty should take him to the labs, but he wasn't sure that was where he belonged.
Lenalee nearly ran past them. She stopped, poised mid-stride, looking at Reever guiltily and defiantly, no doubt expecting to be ordered back to bed.
"Go help Allen. Get him whatever help he needs," Reever said. She nodded curtly, then dashed off, her legs moving with an uncanny smoothness.
The look on Lavi's face as he watched her run off made Reever look away for a moment. Rondine had only told them the bare facts of what happened to Lenalee, but Lavi was remembering it, which made it real in a way that Rondine's words never could. When he turned back, that look--it had been both awestruck and bereft--was gone along with any sign of any other feeling.
"It didn't work," Lavi said, voice harsh and clipped. "We stopped it a few times now, but it keeps happening."
Lavi--or whoever he was now--reached up and pulled off his eyepatch. Reever was mildly disappointed to see that all the patch hid was a perfectly normal-looking green eye. The only thing unusual about it was that it was surrounded by a bit of a tan line from the patch.
"It may not make a difference, not any more, but Allen killed the Ark. He didn't mean to, at least I don't think he did, but he did, and we lost the war. Now help me out there. I need to see."
Part 29
Day/Theme: Jan. 28/but what can you do when you have to deal with people?
Series: D.Gray-Man
Character/Pairing: Ensemble, with a few OCs.
Rating: PG-13
Part 27
No one would tell Lenalee what was going on. The last time she had seen her brother, he had come to tell her that Kanda had died. He stayed with her as long as he could, holding her and stroking her back while she cried and screamed, and then once her tears had stopped and she was queasy and headachey from all the crying. It wasn't until later that she realized that he hadn't told her that everything was going to be all right.
Reever had stopped by only once after that, without warning, and only for ten minutes. It was in the middle of the night and he'd been so awkward and so guarded he didn't seem like himself. She got the impression that he'd been surprised to find her awake. She'd been desperately glad to see him, but by the time he'd been there for five minutes, she wished he would leave again rather than hemming and hawing and pretending everything was just normal.
She'd told him that if she could use her Innocence, she'd kick him through a wall if he didn't stop that nonsense. Reever laughed at that, and for a moment it was as if everything was normal, but instead of telling her what was really on his mind, he'd ruffled her hair and given her a quick and mask-muffled peck on the cheek. All he said was that he was sorry he couldn't stay, but there was an experiment he had to check on. She had the feeling that there was something he wasn't telling her. All he did say as he left was that now that the parasitic types were cleared, Allen would probably stop by.
Allen hadn't. Yet. But maybe he would.
It took her a while to fall back asleep, and she slept fitfully, waking again at dawn. She wondered if she was sick, but the few symptoms she'd manifested were nothing you'd see outside of a mild cold.
Something was wrong with her Innocence, but she couldn't tell what. Why hadn't Hevlaska asked to see her about it? Once, years ago, when her synchro rate was normally only forty percent and she had pushed too hard to reach fifty, Hevlaska had actually taken Lenalee's innocence back into herself for a while. After the way she pushed her innocence against the Level Three, she thought Hevlaska would have wanted to see her right away. She had no idea how low her synchronization rate had fallen, but she knew it was bad.
Maybe Hevlaska had also fallen ill. That thought chilled her; Hevlaska was the one constant in the Order. Komui would have said something, right? Or Reever?
But no one was telling her what was going on. The nurses were evasive in a way that suggested they'd been ordered not to tell her anything disturbing.
Her Innocence and her legs weren't working the way they should. She wasn't sure what was wrong with her Innocence. The closest she could come to describing it was to compare it to the time when she'd had a dislocated shoulder field-set; things were where they belonged, but not how they belonged.
Even so, when she heard the klaxon go off, it didn't stop her from jumping out of bed. Her legs wobbled as they hit the ground, but that didn't matter. It was dangerous, but if the Order was being invaded, that didn't matter.
A whispered invocation, and her Innocence took over the job of running from her legs.
* * *
"Do you know what's happening to you?" Reever was doing most of the work of moving them along. It was as if Lavi kept forgetting that he was still critically ill. He'd surge forward two, three steps, then his legs would go slack, nearly pulling both him and Reever down.
"I'm not sure." Lavi still couldn't draw a decent breath. His face shone with sweat and Reever saw the pulse jumping in his throat. "It feels kind of like what Road did to me, but from the other side. Moving forwards, not backwards, if that makes sense."
"It doesn't. Ah, Christ...this isn't going to work, not like this." Reever pulled them to a stop. They'd managed to move maybe ten yards in the past two minutes, and this was all beginning to seem like a mistake. Lavi was panting as if he'd just gone two miles at a dead run. "Right. There's something going on with Allen, and it sounds like you know what it is--tell me and I'll go find him. If it's something I can't handle, I'll send General Nine along. The parasitic types aren't coming down with this."
"But I'm--" Lavi convulsed, but managed to come out of it standing straighter than before. Wobbly, yes, but straighter.
"You're still sick, is what you are, mate. And what with this bloody plague, we haven't had time to rebuild your hammer. Johnny could beat you to a pulp right now if he wanted." He should haul Lavi back to his sickbed, that's what he should do. That was the logical thing to do, but Reever was an honest enough mathematician to know he couldn't always apply the rules of logic to human behavior, and that included his own.
If only he could bounce this idea past Komui, but Komui was sick, possibly even dying (and didn't he feel like a first class shit for not telling Lenalee--she'd never forgive him if she found out, but he couldn't make himself do it).
Komui was the one who worked by intuition first, reason second. He'd jump unerringly from point A to point F with sheer instinct letting him know that points B through E were all taken care of. Reever sometimes knew things before he could prove them, but he always went back and showed his work, as it were, before forging ahead. This, though, this was like being on a runaway horse and spurring it on and whipping it into a mad frenzy rather than trying to rein it in to a saner pace.
Lavi was central to this, Reever was sure of it, and it wasn't just that he was likely the index case for this plague--a plague that never happened, if Rondine was to be believed.
Lavi gasped and pressed the heel of his hand against his patch. "It's changing again. It keeps changing."
"History, right? History's changing--no, it's damn well jumped the rails, am I right? You remember what was supposed to happen next, don't you? And it's not happening the way it should." The horse kept on running, kept on speeding up. Reever stepped in front of Lavi, hands on the boy's shoulders to keep him from toppling backwards. He spoke quickly, jumping slightly when the klaxon went off. "Quick--what's Rondine's first name?"
"Giuseppe," Lavi answered without thinking. "Hold on--who's Rondine?"
"Someone you brought here. Sent here. Something." With the klaxon going off, Reever had to figure out where to go, and fast. His duty should take him to the labs, but he wasn't sure that was where he belonged.
Lenalee nearly ran past them. She stopped, poised mid-stride, looking at Reever guiltily and defiantly, no doubt expecting to be ordered back to bed.
"Go help Allen. Get him whatever help he needs," Reever said. She nodded curtly, then dashed off, her legs moving with an uncanny smoothness.
The look on Lavi's face as he watched her run off made Reever look away for a moment. Rondine had only told them the bare facts of what happened to Lenalee, but Lavi was remembering it, which made it real in a way that Rondine's words never could. When he turned back, that look--it had been both awestruck and bereft--was gone along with any sign of any other feeling.
"It didn't work," Lavi said, voice harsh and clipped. "We stopped it a few times now, but it keeps happening."
Lavi--or whoever he was now--reached up and pulled off his eyepatch. Reever was mildly disappointed to see that all the patch hid was a perfectly normal-looking green eye. The only thing unusual about it was that it was surrounded by a bit of a tan line from the patch.
"It may not make a difference, not any more, but Allen killed the Ark. He didn't mean to, at least I don't think he did, but he did, and we lost the war. Now help me out there. I need to see."
Part 29