[ You haven't seen the last of the memories. Here's another one. By know, people are probably familiar enough with those from the Black Order to know that...most of the Exorcists have had one unhappy thing after another happening to them.

Even Lenalee. ]

( But there are reasons why she hates God )

[ Lenalee hastily switches to text. ]

I was hoping no one saw that, but if you did, I'm sorry you had to see that [ They're not exactly crowning moments of her life. ] I'll be fine tomorrow, I promise. [ She hopes. Reliving this brings back some of the old emotions she felt, and she needs time to put them back into place. ]

[are you guys sick of the memories being posted on the network yet? well either way, here's one more.

it opens up with the sound of someone screaming.]

( Sealed Away )

[a little while later Dainn's voice drifs through the device. he sounds calm but he was managing to keep his cool for the moment.]

Well well...wasn't that a blast from the past? Although I would have liked it if whoever was diving into my memories pick out a more happier one next time. Just a thought, okay?

[yeah. he's not happy about that one being aired.]

The memory that plays out is vivid, full of details. The gift and the curse that is a Bookman's memory.

Staring up at a ceiling is one Bookman Junior, years younger with a uniform he doesn't even have anymore. An orange scarf so tattered that it's amazing it's still holding together. He's resting after getting back from a mission, wondering why it feels like that one made more of an imprint on him than any before.

Was it Doug? A Finder who had said Lavi's eye was like glass but had finally changed to something warmer.

Was it Celeste? The little girl who found herself wrapped up in the mission without knowing and had made a connection with both Doug and Lavi.

Or even still, was it the realization that he had a home to come back to for once. A term as foreign as it was familiar but it had never once applied to him. Lavi thought of the Order and he had a warmth in his chest as he thought about the various people who lived here with him. Doug, the old man, Lenalee, Kanda, Komui, Reever and Johnny and the others. He felt as if he belonged here.

And now he was just waiting for Doug to come home, his first friend. Doug had stayed behind in the town of Elysee to give a gift to Colette and make living arrangements for the young orphan. He was eager to know how the little girl reacted even if she never did call Lavi by his name.




Suddenly screams of terror an pain from the halls nearby rouse him from his bed. Lavi all but falls over himself trying to get out there with Innocence in hand, wondering what it was that could have caused the yells. Only...

Once he gets there he finds a number of Finders, all of them dead and impaled in the same fashion as those attacked by the Akuma in Elysee. Confusion clouds his thoughts, he got rid of that Akuma, he knows that he did. One of the men in the pile stirs, not quite dead and Lavi leaps to his side, kneeling.

"What happened here? Who did this?" An Akuma couldn't have gotten inside the Order, could it? There was the main gate that was able to detect Akuma and no one knew about the underground entrance via the river except Finders and Exorcists. He couldn't imagine one of them giving up that information even under duress.

"Do-Doug..." The Finder points down the hall in the direction that Lavi's friend had gone before succumbing to his injuries. Gritting his teeth Lavi gets up and follows after the young Finder, finally finding him. Only Doug isn't as the redhead left him.

Doug's eyes, once full of light and life are now dulled and darkened in a way that even Lavi's hadn't been. Eyes so dark they could only belong to an Akuma. Doug wasn't alone, a golem of the Millennium Earl's, Dobi, accompanies him in order to send a message to the Earl of the entrance's location. It's from Dobi that Lavi learns that Serge, owner of the diamond that was part of the fight in Elysee and former employer of Colette, thought the young girl had stolen it and strangled her to death. Doug had been so heartbroken when he found her body that he gave in to the Earl's wicked way of tricking mourners into bringing back their loved ones.

Doug had called back Colette's soul to the skeletal machine and Colette, under instruction of the Earl, killed Doug and put on his skin. A skin now transformed into a level-two Akuma, ready to attack and kill Lavi as it had the Finders in the hall.

Lavi hesitates in his grief for his friend - how could he kill Doug? - and is hit by one of the Akuma's attacks in the narrow hallway. He snaps out of his daze slowly, defending at first to keep from becoming injured even more. And then after he gathers enough strength, enough determination to do this horrible act, Lavi has tears in his eye as he ends Doug and Colette's existence.

He hears the old man's voice in the background, turning to look at a short man with a mostly bald head save for a long ponytail in the center and huge circles of kohl around his eyes. Bookman. Congratulating him on a job well done.

Inside Lavi didn't feel like being congratulated. Inside it felt as if his heart were breaking. But he couldn't show his grief, to do so would show to his mentor that he was growing a heart.

He must never grow a heart.

---

[Those that try to find Lavi after such a vivid memory won't find him in his room, won't find him where his projects are, won't find him anywhere near the apartment building at all. Even injured as he is from his trip home the only place the redhead will be found is a place that only one remaining person knows about. One of the ruined train cars that still has a roof, a place that he hid out months ago, if not more than a year ago.

He sits there huddled up on a mostly preserved bench seat under a protected part of the roof, it still had holes in it in places, with a supply of food and drink, his pillow and blanket. Perhaps he was running but he didn't care.]

[the feed is once again showing a memory...]

( memory a; death and rebirth - warning for character death )
[the feed immeadilty cuts out after that, but slowly comes back on for one last memory.]

( memory b; sin )

[the static eventually dies down enough to reveal that Dextera had been watching the memory play. without expressing anything on his face or typing anything - no questions this time, he knew the answer - Dextera picks up the PDA and gently turns it over so the video feed is blacked out by the floor. he knew what was coming next but for once the mute did not want a question answered.]

[When the video begins, the PDA is already filming the lobby of the apartment buildings. A middle-aged man in a suit has made himself comfortable, seated regally with his legs crossed and a hand balanced on an upright black cane. He smiles kindly, if a bit distantly. The gentleman speaks with unaccented Russian, though the PDA makes short work of the translation.]

I have always been poor at catching up with technology. Forgive me if I am not using this correctly...

[He doesn't seem the slightest bit disturbed that he woke up in Nesreca.]

...Greetings. My name is Claus. With the state of this place and a few surrounding areas, I assume there are quite a few of you here.

[He sighs as if to sound annoyed, but his expression does not change.]

Your most kind neighbours inform me I am not allowed to leave this place. That will be acceptable, so long as one of you can tell me where or how I can procure a bottle of wine, fifty sheets of parchment paper, and a package of cigarettes.

Daily. I tell you this only because I absolutely need it.

[He sinks deeper into his chair, relaxing. It will only be a matter of time, now.]

One last thing. I am looking for a man named Lucas Tázlári. Should he arrive, please tell him his brother is looking for him.

Until then, I hope to come into acquaintance with each and every one of you.

[With a graceful twist of the hand, he turns off the recording.]

[Let it be known that just because one is mostly made up of sophisticated technology does not mean they know how to use it externally. In short, the video starts out upside down.]

Oops...

[The screen flips right side up, now clearly showing the person attempting to operate it. She’ll get the hang of it. Eventually.]

Hello! Is there anyone on the other side of this thing?

[The question is asked cheerfully, as she seems awfully unfazed by her current predicament.]

Anyway, if anyone finds this, I’m looking for my friends. They’re probably dressed like me. [She pulls on the edge of her ridiculous stylish red uniform for emphasis.] They might seem a little weird, but they’re really nice!

Oh, and I’m Josephine! But just call me Jo, it’s easier.

[A hand slams down on the device, turning it on and fingers are stretched out over the lens with familiar half-gloves. In the muffled background there's coughing, the shifting of dirt as if someone is being dragged when really it's just someone getting up.

A flash of red between the fingers.

The red disappears. So do the fingers. A pained gasp and rattling sigh.]

Did he have to do that...? [The familiar rasp of an injured Lavi.

And a curse in Italian as the time feeds out. The device staring up at an unrelenting and unhelpful sky.]


ooc; EDIT Forgot to mention he had gone home for a canon update so now 207 with his last appearance. Can refer to the application on this one's journal.

[The feed's on for a long moment before Kanda lets out a breath and finally speaks.]

Has anyone seen the idiot rabbit? [Lavi.] Or the broody hermit, for that matter? [Sasuke.

Two missing people usually doesn't bode well. And Kanda's afraid of the outcome he's assuming.]