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Emilia hears the screams before she sees him. Allen Walker is bolting down the hall, carrying a thrashing Timothy in his arms, tears streaming down his face. Her heart stops. This can’t be happening. Timothy is just a child; he’s only nine years old!
On shaky feet she runs after him, making it to the infirmary after Allen has already handed Timothy off to the nurses. The heels of his hands are rubbing furiously at his eyes in an attempt to stop the tears, but its clearly not helping.
“What happened? Is he alright?” She asks breathlessly. Emilia realizes that at some point she had started crying.
“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! I’m sorry!” He sobs, sounded like a broken record. It only makes Emilia cry harder. No, he has to be alright! The boy’s screams had quieted once the nurse gave him a sedative, but the piercing sound still rings in her ears. She leaves Allen to go to the bed Timothy had been put in. She looks at his small form, he’s covered in dirt and a few minor scratches, but other than that he’s fine. So why did he make such a sound?
“What happened? Why was he screaming?” She looks back over at Allen Walker, enraged. Wasn’t he supposed to be protecting Timothy? “How could you let this happen?” She didn’t even know what was had occurred to make Timothy scream like that. Never in her life had she heard a something so heartbreaking. “Aren’t you supposed to be strong enough to protect him?” The last of her words came out in a whisper as she lost her strength to speak.
The older exorcist doesn’t respond, he just slumps into a chair and hangs his head. Rage bubbles up inside of her again. He doesn’t look injured, so why was Timothy suffering so much? Before she even knows what she’s doing, Emilia storms up to Allen and strikes him across the face. It’s irrational, but she doesn’t care. There are too many emotions flooding her mind and she can’t think straight. She’s terrified for Timothy and she’s furious with the Order for sending out child soldiers.
“I’m sorry.” Allen looks up at her with soft grey eyes. They’re glassy with tears and unfocused. Some of her anger begins to drain away.
“What happened?” She asks for a third time and Allen turns his head away.
“I thought we...” Timcampy settles in Allen’s snow colored hair, giving Emilia a displeased look despite its lack of face. “I didn’t mean... It was an accident...” It was obvious that he was having difficulty continuing. Tim took notice of this and decided to take over. The golden creature opened its mouth and cast a projection for Emilia to see.
“Is that all of them?” Timothy called down to Allen from the rubble pile he was perched on.
“I believe so. Do you need help getting down?” Brushing some debris off his arm, Allen approached the ruins the boy was sitting on.
“Nah!” Laughed, Timothy. He made to leap down, but the rubble began to shake, throwing him off balance.
“Timothy!” The exorcist ran to help, but his cursed eye activated on its own, revealing a presence beneath the wreckage. A blast sent them both flying, but Allen caught Timothy in time. When they landed, Timothy was lying unconscious in Allen’s arms. In the fall, their heads must have collided causing Timothy’s spirit into Allen’s body. Before Timothy could even get his bearings, he saw what had caused the explosion. From the rubble emerged a newly evolved level 3 akuma.
His breath caught as he stared just above the akuma’s head. Allen’s possessed body began to shake and hyperventilate, but just as quickly as it began, it stopped. Timothy returned to his own body and started screaming in terror. Without a second thought, Allen activated his innocence and destroyed the akuma in one strike. He quickly returned to Timothy, who was in hysterics.
“Timothy! Timothy, look at me!” Allen tried to calm to boy, but it was no use. He gathered the screaming child in his arms and opened a gate back to HQ.
The golemn closed its mouth, cutting off the projection. Emilia looked at Allen to find him crying again.
“I’m so sorry. I never wanted him to have to see.” His voice is so soft and full of guilt that her anger vanishes entirely.
“What do you mean? See what?” The projection had shown her what happen on the mission, but she still doesn’t know what made Timothy react like that.
“The akuma’s soul.” He puts a finger to his cursed eye and traces the scar down his eyelid. “Through my cursed eye, he saw the tormented soul chained to the akuma. We’re lucky that was only a level 3.” Allen said with a humorless laugh. Now Emilia feels guilty for being so angry at him. It wasn’t his fault.
“I’m sorry.” She says softly, gripping the thick fabric of her skirt. This boy is forced to see those horrors every time he goes out into battle. And he says Timothy was lucky? If whatever made Timothy scream like that wasn’t the worst.... What exactly did Allen Walker have to see?
“Huh? What for?” Allen lifts his head, looking genuinely confused. This is the first time Emilia has seen the exorcist look as young as he really is. She decides that she hates the Order and what they force these children to go through.
Timothy jolts awakes from a nightmare the next morning. He has stopped screaming, but it might only be because his throat was too raw and he’s just too tired. He doesn’t want to eat and he won’t talk about what he saw. He just keeps shutting his eyes tightly, then snapping them open like he can’t stand to look at whatever is painted on the back of his eyelids.
Emilia sits at his bedside, reading something from his lessons, but Timothy clearly isn’t paying attention. He’s just staring absently at his hands, uncharacteristically silent. It’s scaring Emilia to see the boy like this. She prays to god that he doesn’t stay this way. Would Timothy become just as jaded and sad as the other young exorcists? With a sigh, she closes her book and closes her eyes. The silence is stifling, but she doesn’t know how to fill it. But then Timothy speaks.
“Hey Emilia?” His voice is still hoarse and small. “I wanna go see Allen.” She’s slightly surprised. After seeing whatever horrors through Allen’s eyes, Emilia wasn’t sure how Timothy would feel about the cursed boy. Despite his good heart, Timothy was still immature and quick to anger. She didn’t think he would want to speak to Allen so soon.
“Of course, let me go speak with the nurse.” She gets up and fixes her skirt before going to find the matron. After a bit of convincing, the pair make their way to the dinning hall. As expected Allen is sitting a table, his pile of food significantly smaller than usual. He notices the two enter and Emilia can see the guilt on the teens face. Apparently, Timothy can too because he clenches his fists and marches up to the white haired exorcist. Emilia somewhat that afraid Timothy might punch the teen and Allen will just take the hit. She knows that from experience` now. She starts to stop Timothy, but its too late. He’s already running to the other side of the table.
The entire room watches in shock as Timothy launches himself at Allen and grabs him tightly in a hug. The younger exorcist is sobbing loudly, burying his face into Allen’s white dress shirt.
“I’m so sorry, Timothy.” Emilia came close enough just in time to hear Allen’s despondent apology.
“Shut up.” Timothy grumbles, but there’s no fire to it. “Don’t be sorry. You’re the one who has to see them all the time.” The rest of what he says is muffled in Allen’s now tear soaked shirt, but Emilia thinks he got what Timothy was trying to say. With a sad, but gentle smile, Allen strokes the Timothy’s head and hugs him back.
Emilia knows now that she hates the Order, but the people within it are precious. She gives a bittersweet smile as she watches the two child soldiers. They needed this.