Niteo Nix App
PLAYER
Name/Handle: Jay
Contact: asongforskyscrapers[@]hotmail[.]com
Personal LJ: furtherthannear
CHARACTER
Name: Lenalee Lee
Series: D.Gray-Man
Canon: OU
Age: Let's go with 17, since it seems Hoshino has officially aged them up to where they should be!
History: Lenalee was born into a world ravaged by a holy war spanning far in either direction of her. She was also born into it a soldier; one of the few human beings blessed with the ability to synchronize with Innocence-- that is, capable of wielding God's holy weapon in order to defeat the Millenium Earl and his reanimated Akuma minions.
She has stated that she can't recall anything before her parents' death. They were killed by an Akuma when she was about five years old, leaving her orphaned and in her older brother's care. It was around a year later that she was found to be compatible with an Innocence shard called Dark Boots and taken away from her brother so she could serve in the war. It has been implied that her synchronization with the Dark Boots wasn't entirely consensual, either; more likely, it was forced upon her. This unfortunately was a rather common practice within the Black Order and during her first few years as an Accomodator, Lenalee witnessed the process of repeatedly attempting to force Innocence onto other children against God's will. Lenalee was one (the one?) of the lucky few to survive and successfully synchronize.
Seeing all this go down sort of shot her mental health right to hell, as you might assume. Between being held against her will and witnessing the hideous tests the other children were subjected to, Lenalee began a steady decline into mental illness and suicidal tendencies. She reached such a point that the Order had to strap her to her bed to prevent her from harming herself.
Three years after being taken from her brother, she was reunited with him. He'd dedicated his entire life from the day she'd been taken from him to rising through the ranks of the Order so he could be by her side. In essence, he threw his life away for her, which Lenalee is completely aware of, and indeed, feels guilty for. But with him by her side, she eventually clawed her way back out of depression and decided to take up the mantle of Exorcist so that her brother's sacrifice could be justified. She would continue to despise the God she fought for and the Order she lived in for another seven years, but the Exorcists and Scientists that made up the working force of the Order soon became her new family; a makeshift world.
First Encounter with the Noah
On her first mission with series protagonist, Allen Walker, Lenalee travels to a town trapped in a permanent state of rewind. During the town's 30th rendition of October 9th, she helps to locate a new Innocence-compatible woman named Miranda and also encounters her first Noah, Rhode Kamelot. While attempting to defend Allen from Rhode's ambush, Lenalee takes a sound-based hit from an Akuma, and voila, instant nerve damage! She remains incapacitated until Miranda's Innocence allows for a (very temporary) recovery.
With a renewed vigour, Lenalee then rejoins the fight with Allen at her side. In a show of power and exploitation of Allen's weaknesses, Rhode orders an Akuma to self-destruct, which would destroy the soul bound to it. As Allen throws himself without thought towards what is essentially a time-bomb, Lenalee catches him and pulls him out of range of the explosion. The Akuma's soul is regrettably lost, which is traumatizing enough for Allen to see that he outright yells at Lenalee for holding him back. She slaps him and tells him she saved him "because we're friends!"
Angry at him for attempting to do everything by himself, she later snaps at him for being a 'self-sacrificing moron' at a public train station. Despite his sheepish and very public apology, she does not forgive him right away.
As the arc ends, Lenalee, Allen, Lavi and his mentor, Bookman, are assigned a mission to find Cross Marian, Allen's Master and also an Exorcist General. It's been discovered that the Noah are hunting down and murdering the Generals, and with Cross missing, it's imperative to find him before they do. They cannot afford to lose another Exorcist.
The Fall and Lost at Sea
The Cross unit is later seen in China as they hunt for General Cross. Lenalee takes the time to get frustrated with Allen over his reckless use of his Innocence. On the mainland, the group visits a brothel that Cross was known to frequent, which is where they meet Anita, the owner of the brothel as well as a covert supporter of the Church. With her help, they set prepare to set sail for Japan, where Cross was last seen headed. As per usual, an Akuma ambush lay in wait and springs upon them just as they leave port. Allen and Lenalee both get separated from the ship in the chaos and encounter a Fallen One.
A Fallen One is what happens when someone non-compatible attempts to synchronize with an Innocence, and wouldn't you know it, this Fallen One is oddly enough of Suman, a dear friend of Lenalee's. She freaks out, remembering a young boy during her childhood who Fell when he failed to successfully combine with an Innocence. Suman, while compatible, has clearly done something to fall out of God's favour. At Lenalee's behest, she and Allen rush in to attempt to help Suman. As they try to pull Suman out of his deformed shell, they find a little girl, whom Lenalee takes to safety, leaving Allen behind to fight against Suman's madness.
She is later seen desperately searching for Allen in the aftermath of the destruction. With Lavi's help, they find the clearing he had apparently taken Suman to, though there is no sign of Allen beyond a blood stain on the ground and his golem, Timcanpy. It had recorded the events preceding their arrival and plays back for them the process of Allen's Innocence being destroyed by another Noah.
Duly devastated, and with no body to be found, she returns to port with Lavi. In their absence, a member of the Asian Branch of the Order has brought a new Exorcist to help repair the damage the ship sustained during the Akuma fight. He tells Lenalee that Allen was found by another Branch member and has been taken to their Branch-- a surge of hope, needless to say. Overcome with relief, she asks to go see him, but he tells her he is sorry, that simply isn't possible. The way he words things seems to imply that Allen may have died and it is with a broken heart that she rejoins Anita's crew and departs from China-- without Allen.
For much of the trip, Lenalee traps herself in an endless cycle of depression. She blames herself for leaving Allen behind and being too slow to return, she lays all the guilt onto her own shoulders. Although Lavi does his best to snap her out of it, the most he can manage is bring her to tears. Seeking refuge, she spends some time bonding with Anita.
Some days into the journey to Edo, it appears that the Earl's attention has been drawn to their progress, and he has sent many Akuma, including a never before seen Level 3, to sink them at sea. While the lower levelled Akuma are simple enough to take down, not even the strongest of their attacks seem to phase the Level 3, named Eshi.
It is in this moment that Lenalee makes up her mind at last. She will continue fighting and she won't let everyone else suffer for her sake. As the only Exorcist capable of fighting atop the water, and despite Lavi's very intense protests, she leaves the ship. Though she admittedly does put her all into the fight, things quickly get grim; her attacks merely seem to humour him and, best of all, his ability to increase a person's gravity by hitting them renders her unable to stand atop the water. It becomes obvious to her that a Level 3 is indeed vastly stronger than Level 1 and so as Lenalee finds herself repeatedly battered and one-upped by Eshi's abilities, she pushes her Innocence past its maximum point of activation in order to commit a suicide attack. The concept of pushing herself past maximum scares her-- Allen did it, and look what happened-- but if it's the last thing she does in this world, she will protect her world.
By allowing Eshi to hit her as many times as she had, Lenalee's own personal gravity had increased to astronomical proportions. She takes to the skies and utilizes his gravity chains against him as she comes hurtling back down. Logically, there would be no way to survive the meteor-strength impact, and she accepts this.
And yet-- she did survive, thanks to her Innocence. At the height of impact, it took on a crystal-like form and solidified around her like a cocoon, thus protecting her body from burning up in the friction. This sentience and desire to protect its user, being previously unheard of, led Bookman to assume that her Innocence could be the Heart-- the shard the Black Order was in search of; the piece that would end the war in their favour were they to posses it. Once she is discovered and brought back to the ship, she awakes in tears, asking Lavi if she were really still a part of this world.
Her miraculous survival is not without repercussions, however. Her Innocence had been damaged to the point of uselessness during that last strike and her legs were so battered that even walking was a monumental undertaking. Despite her injuries, she urges everyone to press forward to Japan, which they do. In Japan, her Innocence protected her for a second time when everyone was yet again ambushed. To her completely tearful relief, they also reunited with Allen in Japan during one of those patented brawls.
What followed was a tearful reunion with Allen, she reassured him that she didn't blame him for Suman's death and believed he did all he could to save him; indeed, she believed in a way that he had saved him. Before the two can properly catch up with one another, however, a vortex opens beneath where Lenalee was resting and dragged her, as well as anyone who tried to grab onto her, into what the Earl called the 'Noah's Ark'. She is believed to be the Heart and the Earl is now determined to get his hands on her.
Noah's Ark
Stripped of her fighting ability, Lenalee spends much of her time aboard the Noah's Ark on the sidelines. She can't help any of her comrades fight against the Noah that (surprise surprise!) inhabit it, which dredges up a slew of helpless feelings, and she ultimately falls back on sharp words and physical violence.
As her comrades dwindle and stay behind to protect the remaining group, she only gets worse. Though she logically couldn't have changed their minds, she still feels incredibly guilty for her inability to help and blames herself for whatever harm will come to them. Several times, Lavi and Allen end up going to great lengths to reassure her that staying behind was their own decision, and that she has to get a hold of herself.
Keeping this in mind, she holds things together pretty well until they reach the summit of the Ark and find themselves in the company of Rhode and Tyki Mikk. They reveal that all but the building they are in has collapsed and been 'deleted' from existence, and as such, so have the people who stayed behind. Allen takes 'control' of the situation by launching into battle with Tyki, and Road quickly pulls Lavi into a dreamscape. Lenalee is left trapped inside a force-field with no way to break free and help her friends. She has no choice but to watch as things go from bad to worse.
Just as things look irrevocably grim-- they're all going to die and she has to watch it happen-- Cross himself appears to save the day. And save the day he does, although preventing the complete breakdown of the Ark is entirely up to Allen. Lenalee stays behind with the General as Allen infiltrates the control room, reverses the erasure of the Ark, and brings back everyone who had been 'deleted'. Overwhelmed with emotion, Lenalee has a good cry before they all head home.
The Invasion of Headquarters
For a while, it appears as though things are finally going to cool down. Everyone gets settled back in for much-needed recuperation. The peace is quickly broken, however, when the Order's higher ups begin to meddle in HQ affairs. Allen's ability to control the Ark-- the Noah's Ark-- is up for question. Thanks to this sudden influx of Vatican members, Lenalee runs into a nightmarish figure from her past: Secretary Leverrier. He pleasantly tells her he's going to be staying with them for a while, and that he's looking forward to examining her Innocence, but all she can see when she looks at him is the man who never wasted a moment to tell her she could never escape the Order.
Under Leverrier's orders, Hevlaska, an Exorcist capable of "holding onto" Innocence without an Accomodator, later removes Lenalee's Innocence from her body until she has healed enough to safely use it again. To everyone's surprise, she discovers during the process that Lena's synchronization rate with Dark Boots has dropped to below 10%-- plummeting more than a full 70% from her previous rate. Doubts begin to arise that she will be able to use her Innocence again, and Hevlaska warns that if she were to try, she should be prepared for the consequences that will come from it. It seems that her Innocence has reacted strangely to her feelings and may feasibly become a different type if she attempts synchronization with it; shifting from Equipment to the life-shortening Parasitic type.
Much of her recovery is thus spent in the hospital, mulling over this depressing reality. As she's resting, a new announcement goes out-- a Noah has infiltrated the Order and all Exorcists must report to defend Headquarters. Without hesitation, Lenalee jumps to the call, though her brother catches her heading for Hevlaska's chamber. He locks her in the infirmary alongside Lavi, whose broken Innocence likewise leaves him without a means of fighting. Lenalee is positive that her Innocence is testing her resolve and says she is willing to attempt the experiment of forcing an Exorcist's creation, but Komui will hear nothing of it. The two siblings argue tearfully through the locked door until Komui demands to know if she honestly thinks her death is fine as long as everyone else is safe. His blunt words shock her into silence, then tears, and hardly a moment after he leaves, she breaks down in the Head Nurse's arms. She does want to live, and oh, how she hates God and this Innocence that causes her brother so much pain.
While it's possible that at this point, Lenalee would have stayed in the infirmary until the battle was over for Komui's sake, Secretary Leverrier barges in just as she's calming down and proceeds to reverse her process of getting her emotions under control. "Are you an Exorcist or not?" he asks her. The words remind her that the entire reason she became an Exorcist was to protect her brother, which is something she can't do by sitting in the infirmary. She leaves with the Secretary and approaches Hevlaska, asking her to implant the Innocence in her once again. During the span of her argument with Komui, a newly evolved Level 4 Akuma-- absolutely unheard of even to Bookman-- had begun a rampage withing Hevlaska's quarters. Reluctantly, she does, all while the battle rages around her. An explosion during the synchronization knocks both Hevlaska and Lenalee out of commission-- the latter sustaining a harsh head injury as she is sent flying into a steel fence.
Upon regaining consciousness, Lena drags herself over to where her Innocence shard is lying on the ground. She begs for God to allow her to grant her the power to re-synch with Dark Boots and save her world. For the first time in her life, she desperately wants the Innocence. She promises to follow it until the day it all ends, wherever it takes her, but in return, it has to let her return to Komui's side at the end of it all. The cube liquefies at her touch, and Komui emerges from the wreckage just in time to see her raising it to her mouth to drink it. She gives him a loving smile and tells him that it's time she's off and swallows the raw Innocence.
At first, it appears the Innocence has rejected her, even after all she said. Cross-shaped gashes open at her ankles and promptly begin to bleed. After a moment, however, the blood shifts to coat her legs, forming new and improved Boots.
With hardly a beat of hesitation, Lenalee activates them and finally makes her entrance into the battle, arriving just in time to rescue Allen from being killed at the Level 4's hands. She expresses her regret to him for taking so long to rejoin the battle and helps him incapacitate the Level 4 before General Cross' timely arrival brings a decisive end to the battle.
The Science Department later reveals to the rest of the Order what little they can discern about her newly evolved Innocence, which admittedly isn't much. It's a new "Crystal" type that other Equipment types might evolve into, was formed from her blood but is now made of an unknown metal, and could ideally regenerate infinitely as long as there was blood in her body for it to use.
At the conclusion of the arc, the Order picks up and moves Headquarters, as the damage done by the Invasion was essentially irreparable. Allen reveals himself to be the host of the Fourteenth Noah and requests that if he were to succumb to the 14th's will, that they should please kill him. This news is obviously taken hard by Lenalee, and she is shown to be shocked-- but not afraid of him.
Everything Goes Downhill
The next we see of Lenalee, she is on a group mission in Greece. While she is unaware of the total meltdown happening back at the Order HQ without her, everything hits the fan when one of their group inadvertently goes rogue and she is forced to murder him, for lack of a kinder word.
The Noah announce that back at Headquarters, Yuu Kanda has awoken the Fourteenth in Allen, and now the Exorcist's only choices are to kill him as they had killed their rogue comrades, or let him betray everything. In a huddled heap next to the corpse of her comrade, Lenalee cries.
By the time she returns to the Order, she finds practically all her closest friends have been kidnapped, announced as dead, or locked away for treason, and reacts appropriately. Which is to say, she binges on food with the rest of the Order and forces herself not to cry. At the point that she is pulled from, Rhode and co. have broken Allen out of the Order and the (seemingly) sudden announcement has just gone out to the remaining Exorcists that he's been revoked of his Exorcist rights and will be treated henceforth as a Noah. We get a fantastic closeup of her face the moment everything goes to hell.
Boom. Nescreca. Best pull-point ever.
Personality: As traumatized as Lenalee is, were an outsider to look at her, they'd probably never know it. She's as lovely a representation of the Order as you could ask for; sweet, helpful, and polite, and with one hell of a disarming smile, to boot. Unfortunately, this extroverted personality is (surprise!) a mask she wears to keep others from worrying about her and should not be taken as an accurate representation of who she actually is.
While she may outwardly appear to enjoy your company and accept you into her life, it doesn't necessarily mean she views you as someone dear to her. She hardly interacts with strangers unless she has a reason to, because truth be told, she has legitimate reasons to treat anyone who approaches her as a potential threat. Lenalee is a soldier at heart and the nature of the Akuma has fed that wariness for most of her life, and even if she were to grow to trust someone, it may be a long while before she considers them to be part of her world.
"Part of her world" may sound like it's taking things too far, but rest assured it isn't any exaggeration. Lenalee's world is by no stretch of the imagination a map (a traditional one, at least): it's composed of the people she loves, not the places she's been, and the cruel truth is that she couldn't care less what happens to anyone who isn't a part of it. To her, even if the physical world were to be saved at the expense of her friends' lives, she would be destroyed. She admits she would rather die than live alone.
That's where Lenalee's weakness lies. She wants her friends to place their faith in her and to depend on her to make things right; emotionally, physically, in battle, every day-- whichever way they can. And as altruistic as it sounds, her way of thinking is incredibly selfish and she knows it. She wants them to be dependant on her because in reality, she's the one depending on them. Her world is Lenalee's entire reason for fighting. It is her motivation to be an Exorcist. If she fights for it, her brother hasn't shackled himself to the Order for no reason and those dear to her can live to see another day even if she can't. Should something threaten its well-being, Lenalee will readily risk her own life to preserve it, regardless of how her friends feel. Though she knows how hard it is to lose someone in battle and at times appears to be incapable of handling it, she seems to have no problem with placing that pain on someone else.
She carries the weight of her losses relatively well, all things considered. Yes, she has been known to cry hard and cry often, but her tears aren't always in grief. Lenalee is tired of grieving and she's has made the conscious decision not to be fragile. It's debatable if she always manages it in her more trying moments, but the important part is she does try.
Third-Person Sample: There was never any respite. That was what it meant to be an Exorcist: things went from bad to worse and you survived. She was surviving.
She survived Eshi, she survived the Ark, she survived Greece, and she would survive this.
It went without saying that she was used to-- not fine with, used to-- people disappearing from her world (disappearing; dying), but this wasn't fair. This was Allen. The war had taken so much from her, and she'd be damned if it took him away, too. So as the announcement broadcast, short and final, Lenalee curled her hands into fists, dug her nails in, and ran.
God knows she'd knock down every wall He put in front of her if it meant saving him.
First-Person Sample Journal Post: [It's close to 3am, Nescreca, and you have a new arrival. The audio feed clicks on to the sound of crunching footsteps in a long stride; in a run. Between footfalls, a female voice reedy with exhaustion can be heard.] This wasn't-- [a sharp exhale] --supposed to happen. Damn it, Allen.
[And then there's nothing for a handful of minutes. Just... running, and that eventually tapers out, too. A moment later, a loud scuffle comes across the line-- Lenalee's hand on the PDA-- followed by a surprised sound, and the feed cuts off again.]
Name/Handle: Jay
Contact: asongforskyscrapers[@]hotmail[.]com
Personal LJ: furtherthannear
CHARACTER
Name: Lenalee Lee
Series: D.Gray-Man
Canon: OU
Age: Let's go with 17, since it seems Hoshino has officially aged them up to where they should be!
History: Lenalee was born into a world ravaged by a holy war spanning far in either direction of her. She was also born into it a soldier; one of the few human beings blessed with the ability to synchronize with Innocence-- that is, capable of wielding God's holy weapon in order to defeat the Millenium Earl and his reanimated Akuma minions.
She has stated that she can't recall anything before her parents' death. They were killed by an Akuma when she was about five years old, leaving her orphaned and in her older brother's care. It was around a year later that she was found to be compatible with an Innocence shard called Dark Boots and taken away from her brother so she could serve in the war. It has been implied that her synchronization with the Dark Boots wasn't entirely consensual, either; more likely, it was forced upon her. This unfortunately was a rather common practice within the Black Order and during her first few years as an Accomodator, Lenalee witnessed the process of repeatedly attempting to force Innocence onto other children against God's will. Lenalee was one (the one?) of the lucky few to survive and successfully synchronize.
Seeing all this go down sort of shot her mental health right to hell, as you might assume. Between being held against her will and witnessing the hideous tests the other children were subjected to, Lenalee began a steady decline into mental illness and suicidal tendencies. She reached such a point that the Order had to strap her to her bed to prevent her from harming herself.
Three years after being taken from her brother, she was reunited with him. He'd dedicated his entire life from the day she'd been taken from him to rising through the ranks of the Order so he could be by her side. In essence, he threw his life away for her, which Lenalee is completely aware of, and indeed, feels guilty for. But with him by her side, she eventually clawed her way back out of depression and decided to take up the mantle of Exorcist so that her brother's sacrifice could be justified. She would continue to despise the God she fought for and the Order she lived in for another seven years, but the Exorcists and Scientists that made up the working force of the Order soon became her new family; a makeshift world.
First Encounter with the Noah
On her first mission with series protagonist, Allen Walker, Lenalee travels to a town trapped in a permanent state of rewind. During the town's 30th rendition of October 9th, she helps to locate a new Innocence-compatible woman named Miranda and also encounters her first Noah, Rhode Kamelot. While attempting to defend Allen from Rhode's ambush, Lenalee takes a sound-based hit from an Akuma, and voila, instant nerve damage! She remains incapacitated until Miranda's Innocence allows for a (very temporary) recovery.
With a renewed vigour, Lenalee then rejoins the fight with Allen at her side. In a show of power and exploitation of Allen's weaknesses, Rhode orders an Akuma to self-destruct, which would destroy the soul bound to it. As Allen throws himself without thought towards what is essentially a time-bomb, Lenalee catches him and pulls him out of range of the explosion. The Akuma's soul is regrettably lost, which is traumatizing enough for Allen to see that he outright yells at Lenalee for holding him back. She slaps him and tells him she saved him "because we're friends!"
Angry at him for attempting to do everything by himself, she later snaps at him for being a 'self-sacrificing moron' at a public train station. Despite his sheepish and very public apology, she does not forgive him right away.
As the arc ends, Lenalee, Allen, Lavi and his mentor, Bookman, are assigned a mission to find Cross Marian, Allen's Master and also an Exorcist General. It's been discovered that the Noah are hunting down and murdering the Generals, and with Cross missing, it's imperative to find him before they do. They cannot afford to lose another Exorcist.
The Fall and Lost at Sea
The Cross unit is later seen in China as they hunt for General Cross. Lenalee takes the time to get frustrated with Allen over his reckless use of his Innocence. On the mainland, the group visits a brothel that Cross was known to frequent, which is where they meet Anita, the owner of the brothel as well as a covert supporter of the Church. With her help, they set prepare to set sail for Japan, where Cross was last seen headed. As per usual, an Akuma ambush lay in wait and springs upon them just as they leave port. Allen and Lenalee both get separated from the ship in the chaos and encounter a Fallen One.
A Fallen One is what happens when someone non-compatible attempts to synchronize with an Innocence, and wouldn't you know it, this Fallen One is oddly enough of Suman, a dear friend of Lenalee's. She freaks out, remembering a young boy during her childhood who Fell when he failed to successfully combine with an Innocence. Suman, while compatible, has clearly done something to fall out of God's favour. At Lenalee's behest, she and Allen rush in to attempt to help Suman. As they try to pull Suman out of his deformed shell, they find a little girl, whom Lenalee takes to safety, leaving Allen behind to fight against Suman's madness.
She is later seen desperately searching for Allen in the aftermath of the destruction. With Lavi's help, they find the clearing he had apparently taken Suman to, though there is no sign of Allen beyond a blood stain on the ground and his golem, Timcanpy. It had recorded the events preceding their arrival and plays back for them the process of Allen's Innocence being destroyed by another Noah.
Duly devastated, and with no body to be found, she returns to port with Lavi. In their absence, a member of the Asian Branch of the Order has brought a new Exorcist to help repair the damage the ship sustained during the Akuma fight. He tells Lenalee that Allen was found by another Branch member and has been taken to their Branch-- a surge of hope, needless to say. Overcome with relief, she asks to go see him, but he tells her he is sorry, that simply isn't possible. The way he words things seems to imply that Allen may have died and it is with a broken heart that she rejoins Anita's crew and departs from China-- without Allen.
For much of the trip, Lenalee traps herself in an endless cycle of depression. She blames herself for leaving Allen behind and being too slow to return, she lays all the guilt onto her own shoulders. Although Lavi does his best to snap her out of it, the most he can manage is bring her to tears. Seeking refuge, she spends some time bonding with Anita.
Some days into the journey to Edo, it appears that the Earl's attention has been drawn to their progress, and he has sent many Akuma, including a never before seen Level 3, to sink them at sea. While the lower levelled Akuma are simple enough to take down, not even the strongest of their attacks seem to phase the Level 3, named Eshi.
It is in this moment that Lenalee makes up her mind at last. She will continue fighting and she won't let everyone else suffer for her sake. As the only Exorcist capable of fighting atop the water, and despite Lavi's very intense protests, she leaves the ship. Though she admittedly does put her all into the fight, things quickly get grim; her attacks merely seem to humour him and, best of all, his ability to increase a person's gravity by hitting them renders her unable to stand atop the water. It becomes obvious to her that a Level 3 is indeed vastly stronger than Level 1 and so as Lenalee finds herself repeatedly battered and one-upped by Eshi's abilities, she pushes her Innocence past its maximum point of activation in order to commit a suicide attack. The concept of pushing herself past maximum scares her-- Allen did it, and look what happened-- but if it's the last thing she does in this world, she will protect her world.
By allowing Eshi to hit her as many times as she had, Lenalee's own personal gravity had increased to astronomical proportions. She takes to the skies and utilizes his gravity chains against him as she comes hurtling back down. Logically, there would be no way to survive the meteor-strength impact, and she accepts this.
And yet-- she did survive, thanks to her Innocence. At the height of impact, it took on a crystal-like form and solidified around her like a cocoon, thus protecting her body from burning up in the friction. This sentience and desire to protect its user, being previously unheard of, led Bookman to assume that her Innocence could be the Heart-- the shard the Black Order was in search of; the piece that would end the war in their favour were they to posses it. Once she is discovered and brought back to the ship, she awakes in tears, asking Lavi if she were really still a part of this world.
Her miraculous survival is not without repercussions, however. Her Innocence had been damaged to the point of uselessness during that last strike and her legs were so battered that even walking was a monumental undertaking. Despite her injuries, she urges everyone to press forward to Japan, which they do. In Japan, her Innocence protected her for a second time when everyone was yet again ambushed. To her completely tearful relief, they also reunited with Allen in Japan during one of those patented brawls.
What followed was a tearful reunion with Allen, she reassured him that she didn't blame him for Suman's death and believed he did all he could to save him; indeed, she believed in a way that he had saved him. Before the two can properly catch up with one another, however, a vortex opens beneath where Lenalee was resting and dragged her, as well as anyone who tried to grab onto her, into what the Earl called the 'Noah's Ark'. She is believed to be the Heart and the Earl is now determined to get his hands on her.
Noah's Ark
Stripped of her fighting ability, Lenalee spends much of her time aboard the Noah's Ark on the sidelines. She can't help any of her comrades fight against the Noah that (surprise surprise!) inhabit it, which dredges up a slew of helpless feelings, and she ultimately falls back on sharp words and physical violence.
As her comrades dwindle and stay behind to protect the remaining group, she only gets worse. Though she logically couldn't have changed their minds, she still feels incredibly guilty for her inability to help and blames herself for whatever harm will come to them. Several times, Lavi and Allen end up going to great lengths to reassure her that staying behind was their own decision, and that she has to get a hold of herself.
Keeping this in mind, she holds things together pretty well until they reach the summit of the Ark and find themselves in the company of Rhode and Tyki Mikk. They reveal that all but the building they are in has collapsed and been 'deleted' from existence, and as such, so have the people who stayed behind. Allen takes 'control' of the situation by launching into battle with Tyki, and Road quickly pulls Lavi into a dreamscape. Lenalee is left trapped inside a force-field with no way to break free and help her friends. She has no choice but to watch as things go from bad to worse.
Just as things look irrevocably grim-- they're all going to die and she has to watch it happen-- Cross himself appears to save the day. And save the day he does, although preventing the complete breakdown of the Ark is entirely up to Allen. Lenalee stays behind with the General as Allen infiltrates the control room, reverses the erasure of the Ark, and brings back everyone who had been 'deleted'. Overwhelmed with emotion, Lenalee has a good cry before they all head home.
The Invasion of Headquarters
For a while, it appears as though things are finally going to cool down. Everyone gets settled back in for much-needed recuperation. The peace is quickly broken, however, when the Order's higher ups begin to meddle in HQ affairs. Allen's ability to control the Ark-- the Noah's Ark-- is up for question. Thanks to this sudden influx of Vatican members, Lenalee runs into a nightmarish figure from her past: Secretary Leverrier. He pleasantly tells her he's going to be staying with them for a while, and that he's looking forward to examining her Innocence, but all she can see when she looks at him is the man who never wasted a moment to tell her she could never escape the Order.
Under Leverrier's orders, Hevlaska, an Exorcist capable of "holding onto" Innocence without an Accomodator, later removes Lenalee's Innocence from her body until she has healed enough to safely use it again. To everyone's surprise, she discovers during the process that Lena's synchronization rate with Dark Boots has dropped to below 10%-- plummeting more than a full 70% from her previous rate. Doubts begin to arise that she will be able to use her Innocence again, and Hevlaska warns that if she were to try, she should be prepared for the consequences that will come from it. It seems that her Innocence has reacted strangely to her feelings and may feasibly become a different type if she attempts synchronization with it; shifting from Equipment to the life-shortening Parasitic type.
Much of her recovery is thus spent in the hospital, mulling over this depressing reality. As she's resting, a new announcement goes out-- a Noah has infiltrated the Order and all Exorcists must report to defend Headquarters. Without hesitation, Lenalee jumps to the call, though her brother catches her heading for Hevlaska's chamber. He locks her in the infirmary alongside Lavi, whose broken Innocence likewise leaves him without a means of fighting. Lenalee is positive that her Innocence is testing her resolve and says she is willing to attempt the experiment of forcing an Exorcist's creation, but Komui will hear nothing of it. The two siblings argue tearfully through the locked door until Komui demands to know if she honestly thinks her death is fine as long as everyone else is safe. His blunt words shock her into silence, then tears, and hardly a moment after he leaves, she breaks down in the Head Nurse's arms. She does want to live, and oh, how she hates God and this Innocence that causes her brother so much pain.
While it's possible that at this point, Lenalee would have stayed in the infirmary until the battle was over for Komui's sake, Secretary Leverrier barges in just as she's calming down and proceeds to reverse her process of getting her emotions under control. "Are you an Exorcist or not?" he asks her. The words remind her that the entire reason she became an Exorcist was to protect her brother, which is something she can't do by sitting in the infirmary. She leaves with the Secretary and approaches Hevlaska, asking her to implant the Innocence in her once again. During the span of her argument with Komui, a newly evolved Level 4 Akuma-- absolutely unheard of even to Bookman-- had begun a rampage withing Hevlaska's quarters. Reluctantly, she does, all while the battle rages around her. An explosion during the synchronization knocks both Hevlaska and Lenalee out of commission-- the latter sustaining a harsh head injury as she is sent flying into a steel fence.
Upon regaining consciousness, Lena drags herself over to where her Innocence shard is lying on the ground. She begs for God to allow her to grant her the power to re-synch with Dark Boots and save her world. For the first time in her life, she desperately wants the Innocence. She promises to follow it until the day it all ends, wherever it takes her, but in return, it has to let her return to Komui's side at the end of it all. The cube liquefies at her touch, and Komui emerges from the wreckage just in time to see her raising it to her mouth to drink it. She gives him a loving smile and tells him that it's time she's off and swallows the raw Innocence.
At first, it appears the Innocence has rejected her, even after all she said. Cross-shaped gashes open at her ankles and promptly begin to bleed. After a moment, however, the blood shifts to coat her legs, forming new and improved Boots.
With hardly a beat of hesitation, Lenalee activates them and finally makes her entrance into the battle, arriving just in time to rescue Allen from being killed at the Level 4's hands. She expresses her regret to him for taking so long to rejoin the battle and helps him incapacitate the Level 4 before General Cross' timely arrival brings a decisive end to the battle.
The Science Department later reveals to the rest of the Order what little they can discern about her newly evolved Innocence, which admittedly isn't much. It's a new "Crystal" type that other Equipment types might evolve into, was formed from her blood but is now made of an unknown metal, and could ideally regenerate infinitely as long as there was blood in her body for it to use.
At the conclusion of the arc, the Order picks up and moves Headquarters, as the damage done by the Invasion was essentially irreparable. Allen reveals himself to be the host of the Fourteenth Noah and requests that if he were to succumb to the 14th's will, that they should please kill him. This news is obviously taken hard by Lenalee, and she is shown to be shocked-- but not afraid of him.
Everything Goes Downhill
The next we see of Lenalee, she is on a group mission in Greece. While she is unaware of the total meltdown happening back at the Order HQ without her, everything hits the fan when one of their group inadvertently goes rogue and she is forced to murder him, for lack of a kinder word.
The Noah announce that back at Headquarters, Yuu Kanda has awoken the Fourteenth in Allen, and now the Exorcist's only choices are to kill him as they had killed their rogue comrades, or let him betray everything. In a huddled heap next to the corpse of her comrade, Lenalee cries.
By the time she returns to the Order, she finds practically all her closest friends have been kidnapped, announced as dead, or locked away for treason, and reacts appropriately. Which is to say, she binges on food with the rest of the Order and forces herself not to cry. At the point that she is pulled from, Rhode and co. have broken Allen out of the Order and the (seemingly) sudden announcement has just gone out to the remaining Exorcists that he's been revoked of his Exorcist rights and will be treated henceforth as a Noah. We get a fantastic closeup of her face the moment everything goes to hell.
Boom. Nescreca. Best pull-point ever.
Personality: As traumatized as Lenalee is, were an outsider to look at her, they'd probably never know it. She's as lovely a representation of the Order as you could ask for; sweet, helpful, and polite, and with one hell of a disarming smile, to boot. Unfortunately, this extroverted personality is (surprise!) a mask she wears to keep others from worrying about her and should not be taken as an accurate representation of who she actually is.
While she may outwardly appear to enjoy your company and accept you into her life, it doesn't necessarily mean she views you as someone dear to her. She hardly interacts with strangers unless she has a reason to, because truth be told, she has legitimate reasons to treat anyone who approaches her as a potential threat. Lenalee is a soldier at heart and the nature of the Akuma has fed that wariness for most of her life, and even if she were to grow to trust someone, it may be a long while before she considers them to be part of her world.
"Part of her world" may sound like it's taking things too far, but rest assured it isn't any exaggeration. Lenalee's world is by no stretch of the imagination a map (a traditional one, at least): it's composed of the people she loves, not the places she's been, and the cruel truth is that she couldn't care less what happens to anyone who isn't a part of it. To her, even if the physical world were to be saved at the expense of her friends' lives, she would be destroyed. She admits she would rather die than live alone.
That's where Lenalee's weakness lies. She wants her friends to place their faith in her and to depend on her to make things right; emotionally, physically, in battle, every day-- whichever way they can. And as altruistic as it sounds, her way of thinking is incredibly selfish and she knows it. She wants them to be dependant on her because in reality, she's the one depending on them. Her world is Lenalee's entire reason for fighting. It is her motivation to be an Exorcist. If she fights for it, her brother hasn't shackled himself to the Order for no reason and those dear to her can live to see another day even if she can't. Should something threaten its well-being, Lenalee will readily risk her own life to preserve it, regardless of how her friends feel. Though she knows how hard it is to lose someone in battle and at times appears to be incapable of handling it, she seems to have no problem with placing that pain on someone else.
She carries the weight of her losses relatively well, all things considered. Yes, she has been known to cry hard and cry often, but her tears aren't always in grief. Lenalee is tired of grieving and she's has made the conscious decision not to be fragile. It's debatable if she always manages it in her more trying moments, but the important part is she does try.
Third-Person Sample: There was never any respite. That was what it meant to be an Exorcist: things went from bad to worse and you survived. She was surviving.
She survived Eshi, she survived the Ark, she survived Greece, and she would survive this.
It went without saying that she was used to-- not fine with, used to-- people disappearing from her world (disappearing; dying), but this wasn't fair. This was Allen. The war had taken so much from her, and she'd be damned if it took him away, too. So as the announcement broadcast, short and final, Lenalee curled her hands into fists, dug her nails in, and ran.
God knows she'd knock down every wall He put in front of her if it meant saving him.
First-Person Sample Journal Post: [It's close to 3am, Nescreca, and you have a new arrival. The audio feed clicks on to the sound of crunching footsteps in a long stride; in a run. Between footfalls, a female voice reedy with exhaustion can be heard.] This wasn't-- [a sharp exhale] --supposed to happen. Damn it, Allen.
[And then there's nothing for a handful of minutes. Just... running, and that eventually tapers out, too. A moment later, a loud scuffle comes across the line-- Lenalee's hand on the PDA-- followed by a surprised sound, and the feed cuts off again.]