[Fic] Foresight Is 20/20 - D.Gray-man, Kanda/Lavi, 13/17?
Does anyone know if there's a site which is to D.Gray-man as leafninja.com is to Naruto? When I went to check some details on the Wiki article, I discovered it had been completely revamped and a lot of the information I count on - such as specifics about each person's known attacks - has either been removed or put somewhere I can't find it. -_-
Also, does anyone know the official spelling of the name of Lavi's Innocence? When I wrote the chapter when I first mentioned it, Wiki said it was Tettsui. Now it says it's Tessei. Either could be correct, from the little I know about the kanji involved.
Title: Foresight Is 20/20
Series: D.Gray-man
Pairing: Kanda/Lavi
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: violence, angst, yaoi, swearing, the usual
Chapter length: 4033
Total length: 50,332
Forewarned may be fore-armed, but sometimes knowing in advance isn't everything it's cracked up to be.
Though it might have come as a surprise to those who had known only his 'Lavi' alias, the former Bookman's apprentice wasn't given to actions that were rash or ill-considered. He hated being stupid, instead of just pretending to be, and 'suicidal' had never been his style.
All of those descriptions probably applied to what he was planning now, and several other uncomplimentary words besides. Worse, he knew it, and he was still going through with it. Lavi was so soaked in nervous sweat at this point that even through his gloves his grip on the hammer's shaft was slipping, and only his headband kept sweat from pouring into his eyes.
"Here we go," he said to himself as a cluster of people in dark uniforms entered the valley through the pass across the river. His voice cracked on the last word, and he realized he was in danger of hyperventilating. Lavi swallowed hard and forced his breathing to slow, and firmed his grip on the hammer.
Below the little cliff where he lay hidden, Suman Dark and his companions made their way along the riverbank, heading for the pass on the side closest to Lavi. They were tense and nervous, looking around the valley like they expected an ambush at any moment. Lavi smiled sardonically. Even though he'd ordered his Akuma to hide in the next valley over, their presence had scared off all the local wildlife. Every Exorcist worth his jacket knew what it meant when there weren't any birds or animals around. Unfortunately for them, being alert wasn't nearly enough to save them from what was coming.
Lavi wasn't paying much attention to them, however. His gaze was focused on the future, watching as various possibilities faded and merged, channelling events into one probability that was fast approaching certainty. Even as he watched, the last of the futures where Suman didn't Fall vanished - at the same moment a darkly amused voice spoke up from the other side of the river.
"Well, well, what have we here?" Tyki Mikk all but purred, stepping out of the sheer rock face where he'd been hiding. "Don't tell me you three have left your general unguarded? I didn't expect you to make it so easy for me, but I do thank you for your consideration." The Noah doffed his top hat to them, his grin widening rapidly until it passed normal human limits, becoming something closer to a shark's smile. "Let's dance, shall we?"
The three Exorcists shouted in horror and scrambled to activate their Innocence as Tyki sank into the ground, vanishing in an instant. Run, Lavi tried to shout, but his throat closed on the word and he couldn't force his voice to work. For an awful moment terror held him paralysed, his foresight screaming at him that interfering would get him killed and his instincts trying to force him to flee instead.
"Where did he go?" Chakkar shouted, turning in place to try to find the Noah. Tyki appeared out of the rock behind him, moving almost too fast to follow, a dark butterfly resting in his hand. He shoved his hand into the Exorcist from behind, making Chakkar scream and flail. When Tyki stepped back a moment later, his hand was empty, and Lavi knew with sick certainty that it was now too late to save Chakkar.
Not too late to save the others, though. Lavi forced himself to picture Lenalee and Kanda in place of Kazana and Suman, and Allen in place of Chakkar writhing on the ground. It wasn't a hard substitution to make; he knew perfectly well that Tyki would eventually do the same or worse to his friends if Lavi didn't stop him here and now.
The terrible image finally gave Lavi the strength he needed to overcome his fear, and with a hoarse shout he threw himself off the cliff. He activated his Innocence and extended the shaft rapidly as he fell, then used it as a fulcrum to swing his momentum towards the combatants on the other side of the river.
He touched down and immediately launched himself forward once more, just barely managing to shove himself between Tyki and Kazana before Tyki could push a Tease into the Exorcist. Tyki's power couldn't work on Lavi any more than Lavi's worked on him, and the Noah's hand bounced off Lavi's chest harmlessly.
Tyki took a step back, badly startled by the unexpected intrusion, but his golden eyes narrowed when he saw Lavi. "You," he said, his suave purr turned into something closer to a snarl. "If it isn't the prodigal son himself. You've got a lot of nerve, showing up here."
Lavi didn't ignore him, because taking his attention off Tyki even for an instant would mean losing the faint, flickering vision of hope that had returned to life the moment he'd entered the fight. There was now the barest possibility that Suman wouldn't Fall, and Lavi had to do everything he could to nurture that hope. But he didn't dignify the taunting with a response, either. "Run!" he shouted instead at the two living Exorcists, who were staring between him and their fallen comrade with identical looks of despair on their faces.
Tyki snapped out his foot, aiming for Lavi's ankles. Lavi jumped over the attack and swung his hammer around to block the punch that followed, and had the satisfaction of seeing Tyki flinch slightly as the other Noah's hand encountered the power of the Innocence.
"You tricked me," Tyki said, shaking his hand as if trying to make it stop stinging. "You lying little snake. That Innocence you destroyed wasn't yours at all, was it?"
"It wasn't exactly hard to fool you. I was so worried you'd see that the piece wasn't activated and realize what it meant, but you never even noticed," Lavi retorted. The longer he could keep Tyki talking, the more time the Exorcists would have to get away.
Except they weren't moving, damn it. They looked like they weren't sure whether they should be attacking him or Tyki. "Don't just stand there, idiots! Run for it while you have the chance," Lavi snapped at them.
"Don't tell me you're trying to save them?" Tyki taunted him, backing off and smirking at him from just out of the current reach of Lavi's hammer. "You don't think they'll appreciate the effort, do you? After everything you've done? The Exorcists you've hurt, the Innocence you've destroyed?"
"You... you don't fool us," Suman said, the frantic look in his eyes belying his brave words. "Everyone in the Order knows you're a Noah now, Lavi. The last thing we're going to do is what you tell us to."
Lavi swore, and exchanged another flurry of blows with Tyki before the bastard sank into the ground again, still smirking. Tightening his grip on his hammer, he tried to watch the whole valley at once, waiting for Tyki's next attack. He should have realized that the Exorcists would believe he was trying to trap them, but he'd been so focused on his suicidal plan to attack Tyki that he hadn't even thought about it. "Damn it, I'm not trying to fool you, I'm trying to save your lives! You shouldn't need me to tell you to get the fuck out of here!"
"We're not leaving," Kazana said grimly, sounding a great deal firmer than Suman had. He stood with his back against the cliff, Innocence activated and aimed straight at Lavi. "If you both want us out of here so badly, there must be something important. We're not going t-"
He choked on his words, his eyes going wide as blood suddenly trickled over his lip. A dark hand thrust right through his chest, emerging on the other side holding a pulsing mass of bloody flesh that could only have been the man's heart. An instant later Tyki stepped out of the cliff and pushed Kazana away from him, his arm passing through the Exorcist's body again as if it wasn't even there. Kazana fell to the ground, gasping, hands clutching at his chest as he writhed.
"No!" Suman cried, falling to his knees. "Please, don't kill me! I..."
"Suman, don't do it," Lavi shouted, horrified. This was exactly the moment he'd been trying to prevent. "You'll Fall, d'you hear me? You're dead either way, don't give him what he wants!" Suman looked panicked, and Lavi hoped that meant the idea of Falling was even less appealing to the man than the thought of dying. Lavi lashed out at Tyki with his hammer, trying to buy Suman an opening to run for it. If the idiot would get up and actually take it, anyway.
"Really, now?" Tyki perked up and actually looked interested, even as he casually dodged Lavi's attacks. "I've always wanted to see a Fallen Exorcist. But it appears I'm going to have to get you out of the way, first." He stepped back into the cliff face again, melting into the rock like an apparition.
Lavi took the risk of turning to Suman, grabbing the Exorcist by the arm and hauling him roughly to his feet. Suman was a parasite type like Allen, and just touching him made it feel like Lavi's hand was being dipped in acid, but he gritted his teeth and ignored the pain. "Snap out of it," he commanded, shaking Suman. "Stop worrying about dying, and run! I'll buy you as much time as I can."
"But..." Suman protested faintly, his gaze fixed on Lavi's golden eyes. Lavi was in his Noah aspect, knowing that he would need even the tiny amount of concentration it took to hold his human appearance if he hoped to survive a fight with Tyki.
Lavi shook the man again. "Angst later, run now!" He released him, giving Suman a hard shove to get him started in the direction of the pass out of the valley. At the same time he swung his hammer around, smashing the hammer into the ground just ahead of Suman.
His powers might not work against Tyki, but his intuition was functioning just fine. The other Noah gave a yell of pain as the hammer connected just as he was appearing out of the ground. Lavi laughed and increased the weight of it exponentially, though he knew it wouldn't be that easy to kill the other man. Sure enough Tyki melted into the ground again, leaving the hammer pressing against nothing but rock.
At least Suman was moving now, running like the hounds of hell were after him - which they were, in a manner of speaking. Tyki might be human-shaped, but all of the Noah were creatures of hell, as Lavi knew better than anyone.
Now it was up to Lavi to keep Tyki occupied long enough for Suman to escape. Not that the Exorcist could physically get out of reach of Tyki, but he could at least make it back to his general, where he had a much better chance of surviving. "What's the matter, afraid to come out and face me?" Lavi taunted.
"Oh, please." Tyki sounded bored. "Trying to goad me into an enraged attack? That might work on Skin, but not me." Try as he might, Lavi couldn't tell where the voice was coming from. "You really ought to know better, little brother."
Without his visions to warn him, Lavi was caught totally off guard when Tyki stepped out of the cliff and slammed a fist into his gut. Lavi swung his hammer around, but Tyki was gone again, dancing away with a laugh and vanishing into the rock once more.
"You'll have to do better than that," Lavi wheezed, trying not to sound too obviously like he was fighting for air. Which he was; Tyki might not be able to use his power to rip Lavi apart from the inside out, but that didn't stop him from packing a mean punch.
"I plan to," Tyki taunted him, and lunged up out of the ground. Lavi swung the hammer at him, and Tyki dodged adroitly aside. Lavi had been expecting that, however; his plan had never been to strike with the hammer, but rather to keep Tyki from striking him just long enough.
"Ten ban!" he shouted, and slammed the hammerhead into the ground as the seal for his lightning attack formed on the head. Thunder crashed deafeningly, and lightning struck the ground all around them. Tyki took at least one good blow before he sank into the ground again, Lavi was pleased to see. Maybe, with the help of his Innocence, he had a chance of winning this battle after all.
In what had become an automatic reflex, he checked the future to see what was coming next. When battling with Kanda his powers had given him the edge he'd needed to stay one step ahead of the other Exorcist, keeping both of them alive without making it obvious that Lavi wasn't fighting seriously. This time, however, his vision showed him only results, unable to predict what exactly Tyki was going to do - and the vast majority of the current possible futures ended in Lavi's rather gruesome death.
Shaking off the disturbing visions cost him a moment of distraction he couldn't afford. When he blinked and focused on reality again, he was rewarded with the horrifying sight of Tyki's shark grin as the other Noah reached for Tettsui with the obvious intention of reverting and crushing it.
"No!" Lavi cried, and frantically shrank the hammer back to its normal size to get it out of Tyki's reach.
That, of course, left him completely vulnerable. His grin impossibly widening, Tyki lashed out and backhanded Lavi squarely across the jaw.
There was a moment of disorientation and a strange ringing in his ears. The next thing Lavi was actually aware of was hitting the ground. Hard. The air was knocked out of his lungs again, and he choked and wheezed desperately. His jaw felt like it was on fire, and he must have struck his head when he'd gone down because he was literally seeing stars.
Still smiling like the monster he was, Tyki kicked Lavi in the groin, his heavy boot connecting solidly with the tender flesh there. Retching with pain, Lavi curled up in an instinctive effort to try to protect the bruised area. Tyki simply switched to kicking him in the ribs, which was not quite as painful but potentially more lethal.
"What, is that all you can do?" Tyki asked, his voice as pleasant as if they were merely having a discussion over tea. "An Exorcist and a Noah, and that's the best you can manage? I'm disappointed. I expected better of you."
"Go... to... hell," Lavi managed to gasp, glaring up at Tyki. The other man promptly smashed his foot into Lavi's face, breaking his nose and damned near kicking his eye in. The thick blood running down the back of his throat made it even harder for Lavi to breathe, and his world narrowed to Tyki's gloating smile and the agonizing effort to get air.
"You first, brother dearest," Tyki said, his eyes alight with a manic gleam. "Tease!"
A cloud of deadly butterflies erupted from the Noah's chest, and Lavi groaned. Tyki might not be able to put the Tease into his body to eat him alive from the inside out, but there was nothing stopping them from eating him from the outside in. Especially not while he was lying here helpless on the ground like a... like a damned Finder!
The cloud of butterflies was nibbling at every exposed inch of his skin, leaving raw, bloody wounds in their wake. It was agonizing, and more than a little distracting. He couldn't gather the concentration to summon his seals or even to expand the hammer again so he could lash out. Lavi tried to flail, to throw them off or chase them away, but they just flew out of reach of his hands until he stopped, then immediately descended on him again.
He couldn't see anything beyond the dark wings, but he could hear Tyki laughing over the sucking sounds of them eating his flesh. Closing his eyes to keep the butterflies from eating them, Lavi gritted his teeth and invoked every bit of his training in discipline as a Bookman. Slowly he managed to separate his consciousness from his body, going into a sort of half-trance that let him distance himself from the pain enough to use his powers. He couldn't fight back, he couldn't hope to win this battle, but if he could at least see for certain that Suman would escape, he could die knowing that he'd accomplished something.
Visions of possible futures flashed before his inner eye, but no matter how hard he looked he couldn't see a single branch that included a world where Suman didn't Fall. The image of the monster the man would become loomed large in Lavi's eyes, impossible to look away from.
For the first time in his life Lavi honestly, truly despaired. Was this it? Everything he'd done, all the sacrifices he'd made, all for nothing?
At least Yuu doesn't still hate me, he comforted himself. At least I got a chance to tell him the truth before I died. The Tease had peeled the skin from his body, and were now starting on the muscle beneath. The increased pain crashed over Lavi and broke his wavering concentration. He cried out in agony, thrashing in a futile effort to chase them off.
There was a sound unlike anything produced in nature, a sort of metallic shriek underlain by a high-pitched whine. It was a distinctive sound instantly recognizable to any Exorcist - or any Noah. A moment later the Akuma's cannons fired, a hail of glowing bullets streaking through the air to chew up the ground all around Lavi. When they struck a Tease the butterfly evaporated in a puff of dark smoke. They also struck Lavi, of course. As a Noah he was immune to the Akuma virus, but that didn't stop the physical damage caused by the bullets from hurting like a bitch.
Lavi clung to consciousness by the skin of his teeth, refusing to give in and pass out. He knew he would probably never wake up again if he did, and he wanted to be aware of every last moment of life he had left, no matter how painful it was.
Cursing, Tyki vanished into the cliff face again to avoid the hail of bullets. He was immune to the virus just like Lavi, but also like Lavi he wasn't immune to the physical damage. "You dare to strike a Noah?" he snarled at the Akuma from inside the cliff.
A blast of dark energy shot across the sky like a spreading ink stain, seeming to suck all the light into it. It slammed right through three of the Akuma, and they exploded just as they would have if struck by Innocence. Lavi hadn't seen Tyki use that particular power before. He'd have been impressed, if he hadn't been so busy just trying to stay alive. The hail of bullets around him stopped once the Tease were all gone, which helped a great deal.
Another blast of energy took out two more of the Akuma, and the rest scattered so that they wouldn't be such easy targets. "Get... out of here," Lavi ordered his servants. He'd told them to stay hidden in the other valley precisely because he hadn't wanted them destroyed as part of his own suicidal plan. Perhaps it was ridiculous for an Exorcist to be protecting Akuma, but they'd stopped being monsters to him when they'd been the only allies he had left.
"Noah-sama! We won't leave you," cried his favourite. Two more blasts cut their numbers down further, leaving less than half his original group.
Slowly, painfully, he managed to roll so he was on his hands and knees, but he couldn't seem to force himself any further upright. The exposed parts of his body that he could see looked like so much raw meat. His ribs screamed at him and he felt sharp, stabbing pains every time he tried to take a breath, and he was so dizzy from blows to the head that he was seeing triple. But one of the things he was seeing three of was Tyki; the other Noah had stepped out of the cliff for better aim now that the hail of bullets had stopped. The Akuma wouldn't be able to hurt him again now that the element of surprise was gone, but he could certainly hurt them.
It felt like Lavi might have broken fingers as well as ribs, but he forced his hand to close around the shaft of his hammer anyway. Weightless or not he had no hope of actually wielding it at the moment, but now that the Tease were no longer tormenting him he could gather his concentration. And the size of his hammer was irrelevant to his seals.
"Hi ban," he whispered, using the last of his strength to slam the tiny hammer down as hard as he could. Fire erupted in a swirling snake around Tyki, who screamed and vanished.
For a moment Lavi dared to hope he'd actually killed the bastard, but Tyki's voice echoed out of the cliff face and dashed his hopes. "Don't think this is over, traitor. Even if you survive this, I'll only hunt you down again. You and I have a score to settle, and I intend to charge interest."
Nothing else happened - no more blasts of energy or unsubtle taunts. When one minute had stretched to five, Lavi let himself collapse again. Tyki was gone, for whatever reason. Either Lavi had succeeded in hurting him or he'd just gotten bored, it didn't matter. Tyki was right about one thing. It wasn't likely Lavi would survive this, even with a Noah's healing ability. Not without help he was unlikely to get.
"Noah-sama?" a hesitant voice asked. Lavi opened his eyes, and found his favourite hovering over him. There was no sign of any of the rest of his dozen.
"The others?" he croaked, and the Akuma shook its head. To his surprise, Lavi felt his chest tighten with grief. They were only Akuma, but they'd been the closest thing to friends he'd had for a while now.
"You should... go," he said, forcing himself to try to focus through the pounding in his head. "I won't... be able to protect you. He might come back."
"I won't leave you!" it declared again, and if it had been human Lavi would have said it was near tears. Could Akuma cry?
Awkward metal hands closed around him, jarring his injuries even though the Akuma was clearly trying to be gentle. "What...?" Lavi started, but one of the broken ribs jabbed something sensitive inside and he broke off with a grimace of pain.
"I'm taking you to the others," the Akuma said firmly, as if that should settle everything. "They'll know what to do."
"Others?" Lavi resisted the urge to shake his head to clear it, knowing it would only make things worse. "You can't go back to the Ark. They'll kill me, and destroy you for serving me." He was rapidly losing his hold on consciousness, and he struggled futilely to hang on. He'd rather die out here alone than be delivered back to the tender mercies of his darling 'family', who might just save his life so they could torture him some more.
"Not the other Noah-sama," the Akuma said. "The other Exorcists."
Startled, Lavi tried to protest, but at that moment the Akuma pushed off the ground into the air and the jolt shook Lavi loose from his last hold on reality. Blackness rushed up to meet him, and he could only hope he wouldn't survive long enough for his Akuma to reach the Order. The Exorcists might not torture him to death... but the Grand Generals might do that or worse if they thought it would allow them to gain an advantage over the Noah.
Also, does anyone know the official spelling of the name of Lavi's Innocence? When I wrote the chapter when I first mentioned it, Wiki said it was Tettsui. Now it says it's Tessei. Either could be correct, from the little I know about the kanji involved.
Title: Foresight Is 20/20
Series: D.Gray-man
Pairing: Kanda/Lavi
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: violence, angst, yaoi, swearing, the usual
Chapter length: 4033
Total length: 50,332
Forewarned may be fore-armed, but sometimes knowing in advance isn't everything it's cracked up to be.
Though it might have come as a surprise to those who had known only his 'Lavi' alias, the former Bookman's apprentice wasn't given to actions that were rash or ill-considered. He hated being stupid, instead of just pretending to be, and 'suicidal' had never been his style.
All of those descriptions probably applied to what he was planning now, and several other uncomplimentary words besides. Worse, he knew it, and he was still going through with it. Lavi was so soaked in nervous sweat at this point that even through his gloves his grip on the hammer's shaft was slipping, and only his headband kept sweat from pouring into his eyes.
"Here we go," he said to himself as a cluster of people in dark uniforms entered the valley through the pass across the river. His voice cracked on the last word, and he realized he was in danger of hyperventilating. Lavi swallowed hard and forced his breathing to slow, and firmed his grip on the hammer.
Below the little cliff where he lay hidden, Suman Dark and his companions made their way along the riverbank, heading for the pass on the side closest to Lavi. They were tense and nervous, looking around the valley like they expected an ambush at any moment. Lavi smiled sardonically. Even though he'd ordered his Akuma to hide in the next valley over, their presence had scared off all the local wildlife. Every Exorcist worth his jacket knew what it meant when there weren't any birds or animals around. Unfortunately for them, being alert wasn't nearly enough to save them from what was coming.
Lavi wasn't paying much attention to them, however. His gaze was focused on the future, watching as various possibilities faded and merged, channelling events into one probability that was fast approaching certainty. Even as he watched, the last of the futures where Suman didn't Fall vanished - at the same moment a darkly amused voice spoke up from the other side of the river.
"Well, well, what have we here?" Tyki Mikk all but purred, stepping out of the sheer rock face where he'd been hiding. "Don't tell me you three have left your general unguarded? I didn't expect you to make it so easy for me, but I do thank you for your consideration." The Noah doffed his top hat to them, his grin widening rapidly until it passed normal human limits, becoming something closer to a shark's smile. "Let's dance, shall we?"
The three Exorcists shouted in horror and scrambled to activate their Innocence as Tyki sank into the ground, vanishing in an instant. Run, Lavi tried to shout, but his throat closed on the word and he couldn't force his voice to work. For an awful moment terror held him paralysed, his foresight screaming at him that interfering would get him killed and his instincts trying to force him to flee instead.
"Where did he go?" Chakkar shouted, turning in place to try to find the Noah. Tyki appeared out of the rock behind him, moving almost too fast to follow, a dark butterfly resting in his hand. He shoved his hand into the Exorcist from behind, making Chakkar scream and flail. When Tyki stepped back a moment later, his hand was empty, and Lavi knew with sick certainty that it was now too late to save Chakkar.
Not too late to save the others, though. Lavi forced himself to picture Lenalee and Kanda in place of Kazana and Suman, and Allen in place of Chakkar writhing on the ground. It wasn't a hard substitution to make; he knew perfectly well that Tyki would eventually do the same or worse to his friends if Lavi didn't stop him here and now.
The terrible image finally gave Lavi the strength he needed to overcome his fear, and with a hoarse shout he threw himself off the cliff. He activated his Innocence and extended the shaft rapidly as he fell, then used it as a fulcrum to swing his momentum towards the combatants on the other side of the river.
He touched down and immediately launched himself forward once more, just barely managing to shove himself between Tyki and Kazana before Tyki could push a Tease into the Exorcist. Tyki's power couldn't work on Lavi any more than Lavi's worked on him, and the Noah's hand bounced off Lavi's chest harmlessly.
Tyki took a step back, badly startled by the unexpected intrusion, but his golden eyes narrowed when he saw Lavi. "You," he said, his suave purr turned into something closer to a snarl. "If it isn't the prodigal son himself. You've got a lot of nerve, showing up here."
Lavi didn't ignore him, because taking his attention off Tyki even for an instant would mean losing the faint, flickering vision of hope that had returned to life the moment he'd entered the fight. There was now the barest possibility that Suman wouldn't Fall, and Lavi had to do everything he could to nurture that hope. But he didn't dignify the taunting with a response, either. "Run!" he shouted instead at the two living Exorcists, who were staring between him and their fallen comrade with identical looks of despair on their faces.
Tyki snapped out his foot, aiming for Lavi's ankles. Lavi jumped over the attack and swung his hammer around to block the punch that followed, and had the satisfaction of seeing Tyki flinch slightly as the other Noah's hand encountered the power of the Innocence.
"You tricked me," Tyki said, shaking his hand as if trying to make it stop stinging. "You lying little snake. That Innocence you destroyed wasn't yours at all, was it?"
"It wasn't exactly hard to fool you. I was so worried you'd see that the piece wasn't activated and realize what it meant, but you never even noticed," Lavi retorted. The longer he could keep Tyki talking, the more time the Exorcists would have to get away.
Except they weren't moving, damn it. They looked like they weren't sure whether they should be attacking him or Tyki. "Don't just stand there, idiots! Run for it while you have the chance," Lavi snapped at them.
"Don't tell me you're trying to save them?" Tyki taunted him, backing off and smirking at him from just out of the current reach of Lavi's hammer. "You don't think they'll appreciate the effort, do you? After everything you've done? The Exorcists you've hurt, the Innocence you've destroyed?"
"You... you don't fool us," Suman said, the frantic look in his eyes belying his brave words. "Everyone in the Order knows you're a Noah now, Lavi. The last thing we're going to do is what you tell us to."
Lavi swore, and exchanged another flurry of blows with Tyki before the bastard sank into the ground again, still smirking. Tightening his grip on his hammer, he tried to watch the whole valley at once, waiting for Tyki's next attack. He should have realized that the Exorcists would believe he was trying to trap them, but he'd been so focused on his suicidal plan to attack Tyki that he hadn't even thought about it. "Damn it, I'm not trying to fool you, I'm trying to save your lives! You shouldn't need me to tell you to get the fuck out of here!"
"We're not leaving," Kazana said grimly, sounding a great deal firmer than Suman had. He stood with his back against the cliff, Innocence activated and aimed straight at Lavi. "If you both want us out of here so badly, there must be something important. We're not going t-"
He choked on his words, his eyes going wide as blood suddenly trickled over his lip. A dark hand thrust right through his chest, emerging on the other side holding a pulsing mass of bloody flesh that could only have been the man's heart. An instant later Tyki stepped out of the cliff and pushed Kazana away from him, his arm passing through the Exorcist's body again as if it wasn't even there. Kazana fell to the ground, gasping, hands clutching at his chest as he writhed.
"No!" Suman cried, falling to his knees. "Please, don't kill me! I..."
"Suman, don't do it," Lavi shouted, horrified. This was exactly the moment he'd been trying to prevent. "You'll Fall, d'you hear me? You're dead either way, don't give him what he wants!" Suman looked panicked, and Lavi hoped that meant the idea of Falling was even less appealing to the man than the thought of dying. Lavi lashed out at Tyki with his hammer, trying to buy Suman an opening to run for it. If the idiot would get up and actually take it, anyway.
"Really, now?" Tyki perked up and actually looked interested, even as he casually dodged Lavi's attacks. "I've always wanted to see a Fallen Exorcist. But it appears I'm going to have to get you out of the way, first." He stepped back into the cliff face again, melting into the rock like an apparition.
Lavi took the risk of turning to Suman, grabbing the Exorcist by the arm and hauling him roughly to his feet. Suman was a parasite type like Allen, and just touching him made it feel like Lavi's hand was being dipped in acid, but he gritted his teeth and ignored the pain. "Snap out of it," he commanded, shaking Suman. "Stop worrying about dying, and run! I'll buy you as much time as I can."
"But..." Suman protested faintly, his gaze fixed on Lavi's golden eyes. Lavi was in his Noah aspect, knowing that he would need even the tiny amount of concentration it took to hold his human appearance if he hoped to survive a fight with Tyki.
Lavi shook the man again. "Angst later, run now!" He released him, giving Suman a hard shove to get him started in the direction of the pass out of the valley. At the same time he swung his hammer around, smashing the hammer into the ground just ahead of Suman.
His powers might not work against Tyki, but his intuition was functioning just fine. The other Noah gave a yell of pain as the hammer connected just as he was appearing out of the ground. Lavi laughed and increased the weight of it exponentially, though he knew it wouldn't be that easy to kill the other man. Sure enough Tyki melted into the ground again, leaving the hammer pressing against nothing but rock.
At least Suman was moving now, running like the hounds of hell were after him - which they were, in a manner of speaking. Tyki might be human-shaped, but all of the Noah were creatures of hell, as Lavi knew better than anyone.
Now it was up to Lavi to keep Tyki occupied long enough for Suman to escape. Not that the Exorcist could physically get out of reach of Tyki, but he could at least make it back to his general, where he had a much better chance of surviving. "What's the matter, afraid to come out and face me?" Lavi taunted.
"Oh, please." Tyki sounded bored. "Trying to goad me into an enraged attack? That might work on Skin, but not me." Try as he might, Lavi couldn't tell where the voice was coming from. "You really ought to know better, little brother."
Without his visions to warn him, Lavi was caught totally off guard when Tyki stepped out of the cliff and slammed a fist into his gut. Lavi swung his hammer around, but Tyki was gone again, dancing away with a laugh and vanishing into the rock once more.
"You'll have to do better than that," Lavi wheezed, trying not to sound too obviously like he was fighting for air. Which he was; Tyki might not be able to use his power to rip Lavi apart from the inside out, but that didn't stop him from packing a mean punch.
"I plan to," Tyki taunted him, and lunged up out of the ground. Lavi swung the hammer at him, and Tyki dodged adroitly aside. Lavi had been expecting that, however; his plan had never been to strike with the hammer, but rather to keep Tyki from striking him just long enough.
"Ten ban!" he shouted, and slammed the hammerhead into the ground as the seal for his lightning attack formed on the head. Thunder crashed deafeningly, and lightning struck the ground all around them. Tyki took at least one good blow before he sank into the ground again, Lavi was pleased to see. Maybe, with the help of his Innocence, he had a chance of winning this battle after all.
In what had become an automatic reflex, he checked the future to see what was coming next. When battling with Kanda his powers had given him the edge he'd needed to stay one step ahead of the other Exorcist, keeping both of them alive without making it obvious that Lavi wasn't fighting seriously. This time, however, his vision showed him only results, unable to predict what exactly Tyki was going to do - and the vast majority of the current possible futures ended in Lavi's rather gruesome death.
Shaking off the disturbing visions cost him a moment of distraction he couldn't afford. When he blinked and focused on reality again, he was rewarded with the horrifying sight of Tyki's shark grin as the other Noah reached for Tettsui with the obvious intention of reverting and crushing it.
"No!" Lavi cried, and frantically shrank the hammer back to its normal size to get it out of Tyki's reach.
That, of course, left him completely vulnerable. His grin impossibly widening, Tyki lashed out and backhanded Lavi squarely across the jaw.
There was a moment of disorientation and a strange ringing in his ears. The next thing Lavi was actually aware of was hitting the ground. Hard. The air was knocked out of his lungs again, and he choked and wheezed desperately. His jaw felt like it was on fire, and he must have struck his head when he'd gone down because he was literally seeing stars.
Still smiling like the monster he was, Tyki kicked Lavi in the groin, his heavy boot connecting solidly with the tender flesh there. Retching with pain, Lavi curled up in an instinctive effort to try to protect the bruised area. Tyki simply switched to kicking him in the ribs, which was not quite as painful but potentially more lethal.
"What, is that all you can do?" Tyki asked, his voice as pleasant as if they were merely having a discussion over tea. "An Exorcist and a Noah, and that's the best you can manage? I'm disappointed. I expected better of you."
"Go... to... hell," Lavi managed to gasp, glaring up at Tyki. The other man promptly smashed his foot into Lavi's face, breaking his nose and damned near kicking his eye in. The thick blood running down the back of his throat made it even harder for Lavi to breathe, and his world narrowed to Tyki's gloating smile and the agonizing effort to get air.
"You first, brother dearest," Tyki said, his eyes alight with a manic gleam. "Tease!"
A cloud of deadly butterflies erupted from the Noah's chest, and Lavi groaned. Tyki might not be able to put the Tease into his body to eat him alive from the inside out, but there was nothing stopping them from eating him from the outside in. Especially not while he was lying here helpless on the ground like a... like a damned Finder!
The cloud of butterflies was nibbling at every exposed inch of his skin, leaving raw, bloody wounds in their wake. It was agonizing, and more than a little distracting. He couldn't gather the concentration to summon his seals or even to expand the hammer again so he could lash out. Lavi tried to flail, to throw them off or chase them away, but they just flew out of reach of his hands until he stopped, then immediately descended on him again.
He couldn't see anything beyond the dark wings, but he could hear Tyki laughing over the sucking sounds of them eating his flesh. Closing his eyes to keep the butterflies from eating them, Lavi gritted his teeth and invoked every bit of his training in discipline as a Bookman. Slowly he managed to separate his consciousness from his body, going into a sort of half-trance that let him distance himself from the pain enough to use his powers. He couldn't fight back, he couldn't hope to win this battle, but if he could at least see for certain that Suman would escape, he could die knowing that he'd accomplished something.
Visions of possible futures flashed before his inner eye, but no matter how hard he looked he couldn't see a single branch that included a world where Suman didn't Fall. The image of the monster the man would become loomed large in Lavi's eyes, impossible to look away from.
For the first time in his life Lavi honestly, truly despaired. Was this it? Everything he'd done, all the sacrifices he'd made, all for nothing?
At least Yuu doesn't still hate me, he comforted himself. At least I got a chance to tell him the truth before I died. The Tease had peeled the skin from his body, and were now starting on the muscle beneath. The increased pain crashed over Lavi and broke his wavering concentration. He cried out in agony, thrashing in a futile effort to chase them off.
There was a sound unlike anything produced in nature, a sort of metallic shriek underlain by a high-pitched whine. It was a distinctive sound instantly recognizable to any Exorcist - or any Noah. A moment later the Akuma's cannons fired, a hail of glowing bullets streaking through the air to chew up the ground all around Lavi. When they struck a Tease the butterfly evaporated in a puff of dark smoke. They also struck Lavi, of course. As a Noah he was immune to the Akuma virus, but that didn't stop the physical damage caused by the bullets from hurting like a bitch.
Lavi clung to consciousness by the skin of his teeth, refusing to give in and pass out. He knew he would probably never wake up again if he did, and he wanted to be aware of every last moment of life he had left, no matter how painful it was.
Cursing, Tyki vanished into the cliff face again to avoid the hail of bullets. He was immune to the virus just like Lavi, but also like Lavi he wasn't immune to the physical damage. "You dare to strike a Noah?" he snarled at the Akuma from inside the cliff.
A blast of dark energy shot across the sky like a spreading ink stain, seeming to suck all the light into it. It slammed right through three of the Akuma, and they exploded just as they would have if struck by Innocence. Lavi hadn't seen Tyki use that particular power before. He'd have been impressed, if he hadn't been so busy just trying to stay alive. The hail of bullets around him stopped once the Tease were all gone, which helped a great deal.
Another blast of energy took out two more of the Akuma, and the rest scattered so that they wouldn't be such easy targets. "Get... out of here," Lavi ordered his servants. He'd told them to stay hidden in the other valley precisely because he hadn't wanted them destroyed as part of his own suicidal plan. Perhaps it was ridiculous for an Exorcist to be protecting Akuma, but they'd stopped being monsters to him when they'd been the only allies he had left.
"Noah-sama! We won't leave you," cried his favourite. Two more blasts cut their numbers down further, leaving less than half his original group.
Slowly, painfully, he managed to roll so he was on his hands and knees, but he couldn't seem to force himself any further upright. The exposed parts of his body that he could see looked like so much raw meat. His ribs screamed at him and he felt sharp, stabbing pains every time he tried to take a breath, and he was so dizzy from blows to the head that he was seeing triple. But one of the things he was seeing three of was Tyki; the other Noah had stepped out of the cliff for better aim now that the hail of bullets had stopped. The Akuma wouldn't be able to hurt him again now that the element of surprise was gone, but he could certainly hurt them.
It felt like Lavi might have broken fingers as well as ribs, but he forced his hand to close around the shaft of his hammer anyway. Weightless or not he had no hope of actually wielding it at the moment, but now that the Tease were no longer tormenting him he could gather his concentration. And the size of his hammer was irrelevant to his seals.
"Hi ban," he whispered, using the last of his strength to slam the tiny hammer down as hard as he could. Fire erupted in a swirling snake around Tyki, who screamed and vanished.
For a moment Lavi dared to hope he'd actually killed the bastard, but Tyki's voice echoed out of the cliff face and dashed his hopes. "Don't think this is over, traitor. Even if you survive this, I'll only hunt you down again. You and I have a score to settle, and I intend to charge interest."
Nothing else happened - no more blasts of energy or unsubtle taunts. When one minute had stretched to five, Lavi let himself collapse again. Tyki was gone, for whatever reason. Either Lavi had succeeded in hurting him or he'd just gotten bored, it didn't matter. Tyki was right about one thing. It wasn't likely Lavi would survive this, even with a Noah's healing ability. Not without help he was unlikely to get.
"Noah-sama?" a hesitant voice asked. Lavi opened his eyes, and found his favourite hovering over him. There was no sign of any of the rest of his dozen.
"The others?" he croaked, and the Akuma shook its head. To his surprise, Lavi felt his chest tighten with grief. They were only Akuma, but they'd been the closest thing to friends he'd had for a while now.
"You should... go," he said, forcing himself to try to focus through the pounding in his head. "I won't... be able to protect you. He might come back."
"I won't leave you!" it declared again, and if it had been human Lavi would have said it was near tears. Could Akuma cry?
Awkward metal hands closed around him, jarring his injuries even though the Akuma was clearly trying to be gentle. "What...?" Lavi started, but one of the broken ribs jabbed something sensitive inside and he broke off with a grimace of pain.
"I'm taking you to the others," the Akuma said firmly, as if that should settle everything. "They'll know what to do."
"Others?" Lavi resisted the urge to shake his head to clear it, knowing it would only make things worse. "You can't go back to the Ark. They'll kill me, and destroy you for serving me." He was rapidly losing his hold on consciousness, and he struggled futilely to hang on. He'd rather die out here alone than be delivered back to the tender mercies of his darling 'family', who might just save his life so they could torture him some more.
"Not the other Noah-sama," the Akuma said. "The other Exorcists."
Startled, Lavi tried to protest, but at that moment the Akuma pushed off the ground into the air and the jolt shook Lavi loose from his last hold on reality. Blackness rushed up to meet him, and he could only hope he wouldn't survive long enough for his Akuma to reach the Order. The Exorcists might not torture him to death... but the Grand Generals might do that or worse if they thought it would allow them to gain an advantage over the Noah.