(Untitled)

[solo_insanity]

[One might be outside or catching a glimpse of the scenery through the window. But wait, Wasn't it bright and sunny just a moment before? The clouds have rolled in blocking out the golden rays, but they can't obscure them completely. The area is left in a haze of oranges and golds as if a fog had settled in. The door just passed by? Gone. The

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[solo_insanity]

[Has this place not become home to her? It is similar, isn't it? Walls that can't be escaped. Friends and family coming and going. The purpose might have faded over time and the cage changed, but in the end was is still just that?

Komui doesn't answer her. Doesn't even acknowledge her question as he goes to the center of the room where Hevaleska is waiting. The Keeper of Innocence looked old, tired, and weighed down. Her skin seemed to lose its luster and several symbols that used to hold Innocence were blackened as if scorched. The ground was blackened, too. Four spots to be exact with a trace of green dust far too shiny speckled within them.

Another voice comes from behind her. One that doesn't belong in this place.]

Tick tock, Exorcist. I believe time is running out.

[Had he been there the entire time? Hard to say. Tyki was leaning against a table piled high with papers and folders of all kinds. One hand was behind his back while the other pointed up to a giant clock.

And giant it is. Even if three Lenalees stood head to toe in a vertical line they wouldn't be able to reach its diameter. Where numbers should be where taped on photos. One o'clock, Reever. Two, Marie. And so forth. Komui's image was at 5 o'clock. Her own at 6. The hands were just about at 4:59 with about forty seconds to spare.]

[fallforthesky]

Broth- [A too-slow grab for his sleeve, which falls dismally short as her gaze moves past him and to-] Hev...laska...

[Hers or not, real or not, the sight of the woman so emaciated- almost faded- makes her throat go tight. It's the sort of thing nightmares are made of. So at first, all she does is stand dumbly in place and run her eyes over the sight without really grasping what it is she's looking at.

Tyki's voice echoes just enough in the enormous chamber to make her jump when it cuts through the oppressive air. Her heels scrape loudly over the floor when she whirls to face him, face drawn.]

Time for what-? [And then she sees the clock, and it suddenly becomes far more important than Tyki being where he shouldn't be. Her stomach makes a fabulous attempt at a somersault. Speaking faster:] Tell me what it's for, Tyki. Tell me what the clock's for.

[solo_insanity]

[Komui stands in front of Hevlaska and hands her the Innocence. She tells him to close her eyes and then the orb glows brightly basking the room. But the color is all wrong. Instead of hope for the future, it looks sickly. Like the color of disease and plague.

Such an attempt would never be successful.]

This is your dark castle, Exorcist. Shouldn't I be asking you that question? [He holds up the hand that was behind his back. It is handcuffed to the wall. Did she really think he'd pick this spot for sightseeing if he had a choice?

The clock strikes the hour and the bell starts to chime.]

Fallen. Five seconds left. Go.

[Can she beat the toll of the bell?]

1/2

[fallforthesky]

[That's the problem; she isn't thinking. Not beyond the basics and the black-and-white view she always falls back on. Tyki has every chance to phase the handcuffs and move away if he wanted to- it doesn't occur to her that the Dressing Room doesn't always take things like that into consideration; it does what it wants. Negates phasing. Protects you from the permanence of death so you can keep dying. Plays your nightmares for you in moments of cold, crystal-clear reality. Things like that.

And then the hour hits, ringing in her ears like church bells (ironic, isn't it?) for Sunday mass, but harsher. It could almost drown out that damned word if she couldn't read it so clearly on his lips. Fallen. Too close to home. Ha ha.

So Lenalee's heart drops- (five seconds left) -and everything goes quiet.

She could beat the clock if she had her Boots. She'll beat it anyway.

Almost before Tyki finishes speaking, she's turning on a heel and then a toe-

throwing herself towards the bright glow-

(it almost buzzes, it's so bright)

-with a feeling like drowning under the waves crushing down on bare ankles and her throat.

This won't happen again. Not to him. It can't. It can't. It can'titcan'titcan'titcan't!

But there's that familiar rush of wind dragging her hair across her face, half-blinding her, the same hazy colours (but they're all wrong, they're sick); she can't hear her footsteps on the stone over the silence in her head, and she's-]

2/2 wow, this tag was hard. :|a

[fallforthesky]

[-not going to make it.]

But so well executed. Your grasp of Lenalee and your descriptive style never cease to amaze

[solo_insanity]

[The light is hot against her cheeks as if she had just open a room to a furnace, and it blasted in her face. She can't see in front of her as yellow, green and purple spots her vision from the glare of it.

For a brief moment a memory will take over all her senses. A memory when she was much younger and she hadn't even heard of the Order. A memory where their is wood under her fingers as she sets a table for needing to stand on the chairs in order to reach the top. A memory of her brother humming as he finishes preparing the meal and bringing it for them.

Her family. Of what it had been like before everything had changed.

And then she is back in reality with that burning wind and cry that won't escape her lips. The light will disappear suddenly and if she doesn't put on the breaks she'll run into something.

It isn't her brother. The skin feels like crystal and it is much too thin. It has large wings growing out of its back and sings with power. Power to kill Akuma. Power to set things right in the world. Power that for a brief moment in the Order's hall she begged for as the Level 4 tore her world apart around her.

She didn't need to look up at the creature to know it didn't have a head.]

Thanks, Duet! And also, html fail!

[fallforthesky]

[For a split second, all she's consciously aware of is a tabletop beneath her fingers that's been worn smooth from use and a charred smell. Lenalee stops running, suddenly knock-kneed and wavering on her feet, her hands bracing at shoulder height as if to bodily push Komui from the glow. It could be skin singeing or dinner burning; it doesn't matter to her. Both are things that never should have come to pass. Her parents shouldn't have died. Her brother shouldn't-

Something she hadn't noticed when she and Allen tried to save Suman: the skin is cold. Cold and thrumming. Like they're already dead (because they are, aren't they?), but just haven't stopped moving yet. She wrenches her hands back, and as much as she wants to scream his name, she can't, because that makes it real.

It's not real. This isn't real.

There is no way to save someone once they've begun to Fall.

Not real, not real, not real...

And while she doesn't need to look up to know she'll see a halo perfectly centred over a severed neck, that doesn't stop her. Of course it doesn't. Self-preservation didn't stop her when they did things to that boy, and now all it does is make her feel like vomiting as her eyes raise almost of their own accord- and that's when she knows it's over. The second Lenalee catches herself looking without telling herself to look (notrealnotrealnotreal), it's over.

A sour taste floods her mouth as bile rises in her throat, and as much as she hates herself for it, she also falls (oh, puns; she's so sick- oh, and there's another). This time, Allen isn't around to catch her, and that's funny, too. Up comes her empty stomach, but she's less aware of that and more of how white her clenched hands are, of how little time she has left to get away before the carnage starts...

(Fallen. Five seconds left. Go.)

But.]

You promised! You promised that I could go back to him in the end- you can't take him, too!

[solo_insanity]

[The last toll of the hour faded away as the light did. The sound echoes across the room as she slips to her knees losing the contents of her stomach. Kmoui no longer stood before her. Something else did.

It wasn't human anymore. With no head and most likely no heart how could it be? But unlike Suman's appearance or that child many years ago the creature wasn't white. No, it was red. Red like the color of her anklets should she have them. Red like blood, like life running through veins. And the texture, the texture was wrong to. It looked like broken crystal. The same as that creature she made a promise to that night when all hope seemed lost. But despite these appearances even if she bothered to see them, it wasn't Komui. It was a Fallen. Or close enough to it that it didn't matter either way.

A exhale from the back of the room. Wasn't she supposed to be the quickest, this female Exorcist? Tyki finds a more comfortable spot on resting on the table. That would make five. Five dead people. Always on the hour. A slave to the clock. Their chance of success was abysmal at best. Impossible at worst. If only time had been kinder to her. If only she had gotten here not a minute before. Things might have changed. Should have changed. But time was the enemy. A foe that couldn't be matched with swords or steel.

As she screams and shoots, Lenalee will feel something wrap around her. Something old yet new. Familiar and foreign. It settles on her shoulders and she can feel part of it go over her eyes without blinding her. In one hand there is a tremendous weight pulls it down as the handle of a weapon appears in it. And for a moment all Lenalee can see is white. Pure white.

Crown Clown.

The Innocence didn't belong to her but had wrapped around her like a protective shield regardless. It had a mind of its own. It always did. When other shards of Innocence felt so lifeless, so mechanical, this one always felt alive, considerate, watching. And as the white enveloped her words echoed in her head. Even if she plugged her ears or tried to shake it away, she'd be able to hear it completely.

Destroyer of Time

And who was the prophecy for? Allen Walker, Neah, or the Innocence wielded by both.]