Disclaimer: Katsura Hoshino owns D. Gray Man

Path Built On Graves: Chapter One: Lotus Blossoms

AN: So I got re-obsessed with DGM recently and started talking with thebeingofeverything about a fic where Allen is actually the son of an exorcist and a Noah, so this is a massive au and I've posted about it a lot on tumblr. I have no idea how au this is gonna be, but I guess we'll find out. Maria is like a tweaked version of 'Grave of Maria' but I've revamped her and obviously she's still alive.

The song that is sung in this chapter is the english version of the one in the anime, so its probably not completely translated, but I liked how it sounded, so I used it

Bak Chang's hands were shaking. There was blood smeared on his pristine white lab coat and on his chin and cheek. His eyes were red from crying, but that wasn't going to bring him parents back.

What had they been thinking, prohibiting Fou from protecting them?

(Bak couldn't even be angry at the Guardian with the distress and sorrow on her face)

He didn't know what to do…there was only one person he wanted to call, but—

"What you're doing here is inhumane, and one day it's going to cost you more than you know. I don't ever want to hear from you again, Tui."

And yet, Bak was already shakily picking up the phone to connect to the golem in question. "It's Bak," he rasped out, "something's happened…will you- will you please come?"

There was silence on this other end and Bak remembered how well she held grudges, but then a voice spoke.

"Of course, darling. I'll open a Gate directly."

Bak almost sobbed in relief, turning around to see the floor rippling as several shards of light burst from the floor, one with a bold seven on it. He'd never understood how the Ark worked, she'd never explained it very well, perhaps on purpose, but Bak did know that it allowed her to move between places almost instantaneously. A true marriage of skills, she'd once said with so much pain that he couldn't bring himself to pry.

A body stepped lightly through Gate, shattering it behind her as she did so.

Maria Walker now wore the gold instead of silver in her uniform to designate her recent ranking as general. That was surprising; the last time he'd seen her, she'd still worn silver. The golem fluttering at her side was a midnight blue with a cross spread across its body. Supposedly it was identical to the one Marian Cross possessed, but no one had ever brought that up to her, which was probably wise.

Muncanpy, it seemed, was a bit anxious at the state of Bak, fluttering nervously in the air.

Maria's eyes widened and then her eyes flicked around to the devastation and the blood before resettling on Bak, reaching out a hand to rest on his shoulder with concern.

"Bak," she said with infinite gentleness that could only be possessed in the sight of such carnage, "are you all right?"

The grey eyes so concerned when the last time he'd seen them they'd been alight with fire was what really broke him.

Bak fell into his friend's shoulder and sobbed, clinging to her like he was ten, not twenty-one, undoubtedly staining her front red, but neither of them moved for the longest time. Her arms secure around him, humming softly in a way that was calming.

That had to have been an effect of her innocence, but Bak didn't comment on it.

"Now," she said, once he'd pulled back, the sobs fading into hiccups, "tell me what happened."

Once he was done, all she did was sigh and say "I need a drink."

The whole Second Exorcist Program was enough to make Maria's skin crawl. The Noah she could handle -or not, she had to concede, they still terrified her-, but the Order…that was a whole different can of worms and she'd always been happier as far away from headquarters for as long as possible.

She twisted the band on her finger around and around; a nervous habit she'd picked up over the years. Nea would've been so furious to realize what they'd done to her, the Order, and he would've ripped apart everyone in his way.

But Nea was dead and Maria was alone.

(His smile was bright and infectious as he pressed an ear to her stomach, knowing he wouldn't be able to hear the baby yet. "If it's a boy, let's name him Allen."

"Allen?" Maria laughed.

"Why? Don't like it?" Nea's grin hadn't faded.

"It just seems a bit simple," Maria smiled softly. "I like Allen.")

"I thought I heard a familiar sigh."

Maria blinked, shutting the folder in her hands quickly to look up, a smile on her lips at the familiar deep tones of Noise Marie. "Marie!" but then she faltered.

There was a thick bandage across his eyes and he was feeling carefully along the wall.

She set the folder down to stride towards him, worry clinging to her very bones.

"I probably look quite a sight, don't I?" Marie chuckled faintly and Maria forced herself to smile even though he couldn't see it.

"A sight for sore eyes, of course, Marie," she joked but it came off a bit choked. "Oh, Marie." She took his hand and he squeezed it. "Marie, what happened?"

"Oh, the usual," Marie said simply. "Akuma attack. I got lucky, others didn't." His smile was far too carefree. "I will never see again, but my hearing, it seems, is becoming more attune." There was a lengthy pause. "And how are you, Maria?"

"It's currently up for debate," Maria's lips twisted at the long-familiar response. She'd given up saying she was fine a long time ago.

She hadn't been fine in years. She hadn't been fine since Nea kissed her for the last time and sent her through the Gate, his child growing in her belly. She hadn't been fine since the Order had locked her in chains upon her return. She hadn't been fine since they experimented with forcing innocence into her until her body rejected it. She hadn't been fine since they took her son, little Allen with his deformed left arm, her little musician, from her.

Maria had been burning alive with a flame that had threatened to consume her for as long as she remembered.

"Froi asked me to check in on you," she added, "I was with him when Bak called through Mun." She held out a finger to allow her midnight blue golem to perch, rubbing at his body with a thumb. "He was concerned about you."

"Froi?" Marie tilted his head slightly, a smile faint on his lips. "Since when are you and Master so close?"

If he'd been able to see the gold in her uniform, he wouldn't have needed to ask.

"He was giving me advice," Maria said simply. "One general to another."

It took a second for it to hit.

Marie's lips parted in surprise, well, not completely. The rumor was that Maria had broken past 100% synchronization at age seventeen, of course, she never confirmed nor denied that fact; she'd never liked to tell the Order anything if she could help it. The whole issue with her pregnancy and marriage had set her back on the path to general, but evidently, they'd decided she was trustworthy enough now, which probably annoyed her more. "Should I congratulate you?"

"Only if you're offering me alcohol," Maria decided wryly before withdrawing a flask from within her uniform. She'd never been much of a drinker, not even after all the trauma that happened with her pregnancy, but she carried a flask on her at all times, to be drunk when necessary, and this was pretty necessary.

She took a swig before taking Marie's hand to slide it around the flask. He recognized it without too much difficulty and brought it to his lips, swallowing twice. Marie was even less of a drinker than Maria, so that he's even take one swallow was surprising; it must've been an exceptionally bad day, not just for Bak.

"How are your injuries?" Maria stoppered the flask as he returned it to her. Her throat ached to sing a song of healing. Healing had never been her strongest suit and her innocence had drawbacks. Using certain notes to heal the body had a weakening affect on her own body so she rarely ever used it.

Grave of Maria, as she so aptly named her innocence at thirteen, was an innocence that could warp reality. She had initially called in Creation, since that was what it did, it created different effects through different notes and songs. Healing was so taxing because she was affecting things that were already present that was made up of so many cells that were different from each other, rather than starting from scratch; it was harder to repair organs than it was to construct a weapon or create an illusion. It was better to just leave injuries as is than leave herself open to attacks in her weakened state.

"Nothing that can't be left to heal on their own," Marie assured her and her hands dropped to her side. "But I could use a guide on a walk."

It was an invitation if ever Maria saw one. "Of course." She took him hand to rest it on her shoulder, which he gave a squeeze as she stepped forward.

"I forgot you liked to spend a lot of your time at the Asian Branch before…"

"Better the Asian Branch than Central." Maria couldn't resist the full-body shudder. She pressed one hand against her stomach like she could still feel where they'd pressed the innocence into her.

"Which one is your favorite?" Marie needed to distract himself, so asking the usually tight-lipped Maria seemed like a good way to alleviate that.

"You know, I always had a soft spot for the European Branch…"

"Closer to home?"

"Home was everywhere," Maria snorted, "I grew up in a traveling circus as a tightrope walker that did tricks while singing…home was never really a place."

What did you say when home was a person who didn't exist anymore? Maria's wedding band felt cold on her finger as she remembered Nea's malevolent smile when they first met that morphed into something soft and unbelievably fond. The warmth of his arm around her waist, chest-to-chest as they kissed had been the best feeling in the world. His sheer excitement when she told him she was with child had warmed her soul.

Now Maria was just tired beyond measure.

"Oh, there's someone you should meet," Marie said, jerking Maria out of her misery. "The boy who was with me…he saved my life more than a few times…I think the one that did all this—" Marie waved his unencumbered hand. "—was a friend of his and he's not really letting anyone near him."

Maria arched her eyebrow. "And you think he'll let me?"

"You're a lot alike," Marie said rather blithely.

Maria's eyebrow twitched that time and she glowered. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, nothing."

Yu hadn't let go of the Innocence in his hand since he used it to rip Alma apart. It felt warm in his hand, almost alive, as grotesquely shaped as it was. Yu's scowl deepened as he tried not to think about the assortment of lotus blossoms around him, the illusion that he couldn't shake.

"You must be Yu." One of the blossoms faded away as a body sat down next to Yu, not too close but not too far, either, but Yu hated the intruding presence nonetheless.

It was a woman wearing a uniform like Marie's, on with gold instead of silver. She had a soft smile on her lips and kind grey eyes, brown hair tumbling down her back despite the ponytail. There was a strange object resting on her shoulder, it looked vaguely like a golem, but those were mechanical.

Yu scrutinized it intently, startling when it bared teeth in a grin.

"Marie told me about you," the woman continued, "he thought we should talk."

"He should mind his own business," Yu growled, crossing his arms and angling himself away from her. "Who are you, anyways?"

"General Maria Walker," the woman said simply, not really looking at him, her attention faced forward.

"You're a general?" Yu countered, heavy on the doubt.

"Yes, I don't suspect I look much like one," Maria mused, unconcerned.

"Why don't you have Innocence, then?" Yu looked her up and down, still doubtful; she carried no weapons, how useful could she be in a fight?

She lips twisted then into an amused smirk. "You think I don't?"

Yu blinked and, in that time, dark ink appeared to spread across her throat like bars with circles and lines dancing between the lines. And then she opened her mouth and began to sing. The sound was unearthly and it echoed eerily in the silence.

Then she handed him an actual lotus blossom.

"I hear you have hallucinations," she said simply, the marks on her throat disappearing undoubtedly after she ceased the activation. "Speaking as someone who can bend reality to her will and struggles with her own trauma, hallucinations aren't exactly unusual to me."

"What do you see?" Yu's eyes were narrowed in suspicion and Maria's smile was pained.

"See? Nothing. Hear? Now that's something else entirely." But she didn't elaborate on it, instead she changed the subject. "How much do you know about the Second Exorcist Project that you were a part of?"

"Why?" Yu sneered. "Gonna run off and tell people what I know?"

"Child," Maria's tone was very direct as she drew his chin to face her and those eyes of hers were icy cold, "if you wish to find which of us hates the Order more, you'll find that you will lose."

Yu jerked his head away from her touch, almost turning himself completely away from her. The lotus blossom was crumpled in his hand but the illusions remained.

"You know," she said in a rather mild sort of voice, "I hear that there was once an exorcist who likened himself to a lotus blossom…his name was Mugen…do you know what that name means?"

"Don't care," Yu growled.

"It means dream, fantasy, or infinite…not a bad name for a sword for a boy who can't stop hallucinating about flowers while wearing his friend's blood."

Yu snapped with a roar, lurching towards her -she was undefended, she was slow, she would get hit- but he, like many before, underestimated how one swift move by Maria Walker could unravel an offensive.

Instead, he collided with her chest, his clenched and shaking fist impacting against the wall. She wound her arms around him, one cupping the back of his head where it came up over her shoulder. "I know it hurts, but bottling up all that rage will be the death of you, Yu. Let it out, be angry, throw things, cry, but don't keep it locked inside. It will twist and fester and it will turn you into something you hate…but you are allowed to mourn Alma, even after everything, and anyone who says different deserves to be punched."

Alma. Yu trembled, and at long last the flood came in sobbing wails. I'm sorry, Alma, but I wanna live.

Yu'd killed him, his friend, before Alma could kill him first and everything was a mess and Yu wanted things to go back to the way they'd been before, as impossible as it was.

Maria's body was warm and her voice was soothing, lulling him off to sleep, his outburst of rage and sobs subsiding. Yu was mostly out of it, focusing more on the gentle humming emanating from her than how she maneuvered Yu in her arms and picked him up with ease.

"You found him," came a relieved voice, "is he all right?"

"He probably just needs some rest…and some new clothes, Bak—"

"I've got it." Bak, that was Edgar and Tui's son, Yu's muddled mind supplied. He was the one that had been scared shitless when Yu dragged himself out of the canal after Alma kicked him into it, trying to get him to safety.

Yu felt cold suddenly as his shirt was removed but then it was replaced. Fingers smoothly buttoned the buttons as he was placed on the bed.

"You've got a look on your face…it's making me nervous," Bak's voice certainly reflected that.

"Most things about me make people nervous," Maria replied dryly. "I'm considering breaking one of my biggest rules."

"Which one? Is it the one about murdering your way through Central HQ, because you never really need a reason for that one."

Maria snorted. "Apprenticeships, Bak, the one on apprenticeships."

"Ah…guess you liked him, then."

Fingers tucked a loose lock behind Yu's ear. "I rather think he's like me."

"He's probably worse, Maria."

She chuckled. "Oh, Bak, you've just never seen me completely pissed off."

Footsteps drew away from Yu and the bed sank on one side. Yu opened an eye tiredly as Maria slid an arm underneath him to bring him against her side slightly.

"Get some sleep, Yu," she said before opening her mouth and beginning to sing.

"Falling fast asleep, may this little boy find blissful dreams

Among the ash and the flames that light up the night sky

One by one, falling softly

With your silhouette casting shadows on your lovely face

I watch the sky as a million dreams are shining

Little dreams, little dreamer…"

Yu forgot the rest of the lullaby as he fell completely asleep, only to jerk himself awake in what felt like minutes, but couldn't have been. He sat up, looking around in confusion. It looked like a medical room of sorts, but not like any that Yu had ever been in. His warped sword-like Innocence rested at his side.

The bed beside him was cold and empty and it shouldn't have bothered him but for some reason it did.

"Ah, you're awake," came a surprised admission and Yu looked over to see Bak Chang standing in a new lab coat that wasn't painted with blood, still looking somber and tired. "Maria thought it was best to let you wake up on your own…you've been sleeping for close to a day."

Yu's stomach gurgled suddenly and painfully and he wrapped his arms around himself with a wince.

Bak allowed himself a chuckle. "You're probably hungry. After you clean up—"

But Yu was already moving, throwing off the sheets to rush out of the room, sword in hand, making for the cafeteria. Retrospectively, Yu should've thought about all the carnage that Alma had caused, and even a day later, there was still a lot of repairs going on. Yu stubbed his feet on several sharp pieces of rock, following the sound of voices until he reached the cafeteria, bursting with light.

"I'd forgotten how much you eat," Marie's voice was easy to pick out and Yu twisted his head in his direction only to stare. Marie was sitting across from Maria who had a rather massive pile of dishes.

"Parasitic-types are the worst," Maria agreed without a care before swallowing down some pasta.

"How can you eat so much?" Yu couldn't help the question bursting from his lips, too astounded.

Maria paused, looking up to see Yu standing there. "Oh, you're awake, sleep well, darling?"

Yu scowled at the endearment. "Fine."

She handed him a plate of lo mein and some kind of chicken, enticing him to sit down and Yu had half the mind to refuse, but then his stomach gave a rather audible growl and Marie smiled, patting the seat next to him so he didn't have to feel the need to sit next to Maria, who was a confusing muddle of 'you pissed me off last time but also kept me company and sang me to sleep so I don't know what to think of you' to Yu.

"Parasitic-type is one of two types of innocence," she indulged him after he'd taken a bite of food, setting his Innocence beside him. "It's where your weapon is part of your body. Mine is my vocal chords."

"Maria is currently the only Parasitic-type in the Order," Marie informed Yu, who slurped up his noodles. "It's the rarer type."

"So, what're you, then?" Yu scrutinized Marie. He'd never really seen the man with a weapon but he still wore the exorcist uniform, so he had to have something.

"Marie is an Equipment-type, like you," Maria swallowed down some tea. "It's a type of Innocence that manifests as an item the exorcist uses. Yours, it seems, is some kind of sword, though it'll need to be reforged to suit you. Marie's is Noel Oregano, those rings on his fingers? That's his Innocence." Marie wriggled his fingers for Yu, who saw now that he had a metal ring on each finger.

"What do they do?"

Marie's lips twitched. "You'll just have to see them in action, I suppose." He held out his cup and Maria clicked hers against it with a light laugh.

Irritation swelled inside Yu and he glowered at both of them, though it had more of an effect on Maria, since she could see it, see and disregard. Yu made an annoyed grunt under his breath and something a bit unsavory that made Marie choke and Maria snort.

"Alma's body has been destroyed, I have personally seen to it," Maria told Yu suddenly and his heart stalled in his chest briefly. He hated how his hands shook and when he looked up Maria's eyes were gentle. "He won't be used in any further experimentation."

Yu's tongue felt thick and heavy in his mouth, conflicting emotions warring inside him, ultimately leading into gratitude. All he had been thinking about was how they'd do something to Alma's body, whatever they had done before to make him and Alma in the first place from dead exorcists, and she—

"Thank you."

Maria's eyebrows rose on her forehead.

It was the first time that he had said those words aloud and there was a heaviness in those two words, full of more gratitude than possibly was capable of conveying.

"It's no problem, darling," she said warmly, "of course, Central isn't pleased with me, but they're a bunch of assholes and I don't give two fucks."

Marie chuckled. "I think you give a bit less than two, Maria."

"You're probably right," Maria agreed, amenable, fingers tugging on the sides of her golem's face, stretching far before snapping it back. "They want to integrate you into the exorcist forces," she added to Yu, who tensed up again. "And you need a last name for that."

"A last name?" Yu was too thrown off to scowl.

"Like I've got Walker and Marie…um…" Maria faltered, her head tilting as she considered the recently-blinded exorcist. "I gotta ask, Marie, is Noise your actual first name?"

Marie swallowed his food. "Is Maria your actual first name?" he countered.

Maria scowled darkly. "All right, I'll give you that one." She turned back to Yu. "How do you feel about…Kanda? Yu Kanda?"

Yu played with the name over and over in his head. It rolled off the tongue pretty well and that was all that really mattered, right? Yu gave a nod.

"Good," Maria smiled. "Generally, new exorcists are assigned to generals to complete at least a year apprenticeship with them, obviously you're a bit of a unique case, but I've made it clear to them that I intend to take you on as my apprentice."

The newly named Yu Kanda dropped his chopsticks with a loud "HUH?!"

"Oh, Millennium Earl ̴" Road Kamelot sang as she skipped to where the Earl himself sat, for once appearing in his human form. "I have news I think you'll find in-ter-est-ing ̴!"

"Oh?" The Earl lifted his head from where he was knitting a blanket -really, Road didn't understand his interest with knitting- to see Road holding a piece of paper. "What is it?"

"It's a marriage certificate ̴" Road was positively gleeful. "Between one Nea D. Campbell and one Maria Walker ̴!"

The Earl's eyes widened. The Earl's beloved Fourteenth…the Musician Noah…he'd had a wife?

And to the Noah, family always came first.

"I want her found." Found and brought to him. Nea's twin brother had disappeared with the Fourteenth, but if the wife still lived…then she had to know something about all that had happened with Nea, and if there was one thing about Nea the Earl wanted, it was answers.