Chapter One
Allen looked at Lenalee carefully, hardly daring to speak, not trusting his mouth to obey him. Perhaps it would be better if he just stayed quiet. But still, he had to ask her. Why was she sticking her neck out for him after what he had done? But, what had he done? He wasn't quite sure.
"L-Lenalee?" Allen whispered, causing the girl to look down at him with questioning eyes. All over HQ, they were searching for Allen, but, it would be a while before they found him. The last place that they would ever think to look would be somewhere that they already checked, so Lenalee hid in a small storage room that had already been searched for Allen. Allen knew that he was in deep trouble this time. He couldn't remember the incident at all. Suddenly, he just heard another voice in his head, the voice of the fourteenth Noah taking over his mind, and he completely blacked out, and now, he had a splitting headache and couldn't remember a thing.
"I-I did something really terrible, didn't I?" he asked, his voice sounding like a small child who was afraid to get in trouble. Lenalee looked at him, her sympathetic green eyes seeming to bore holes through his mind. Allen had never been more scared in his life. Fighting Akuma and Noahs didn't even compare to this.
"Allen, it… it wasn't your fault…"
"What happened? What did I do?"
"You didn't know what you were doing?"
"Lenalee!" Allen said, more forcefully this time, staring straight into her eyes.
"You didn't mean to do it!"
"Lenalee!" he said with such finality and force that Lenalee's heart skipped a beat, and she fell back against the door.
"Lenalee, please…" Allen said quietly, tears forming in his eyes. "I don't need you to protect me. But I do need you to be honest with me. Please tell me what I did, so at least when I'm arrested, I'll know why."
"Y-you… you invoked your anti-Akuma w-w-weapon, and started attacking everyone around you. Suddenly, your eyes just sort of went blank, and you started screaming about the Noah Clan and the Millennium Earl. Allen, everyone is scared, now. I-I'm scared. I don't want to lose you…"
"Did I injure anyone?"
"Allen…"
"Lenalee!!" he said again. He was getting frustrated with her lack of willingness to tell him what happened.
"Y-you broke Kanda's arm, and Lavi got a few cuts, but nobody died. Nii-san and I managed to restrain you…"
"Is that why you have a black eye?"
"N-no." Lenalee lied. "I-I got hit in the face with something from th-the science department."
"Don't lie, Lenalee, please. I told you. I don't need you to protect me, but now at least I know. None of you will ever be safe around me again. I can't go on being an exorcist, being free to harm people. If I did that, I'd be no better than the Noah Clan, no better than the Akumas."
"Allen… W-wait!" Lenalee pleaded. Allen pushed her gently off of him, though, and stood up, shaky on his feet at first, but after a moment, gaining his balance. He then looked at Lenalee.
"Lenalee… I love you, and I don't ever want to see you again. Tell Kanda, Lavi and everyone else that I'm sorry."
"Allen!" she breathed once more, unable to stop herself from crying. She couldn't believe herself. She had just told him exactly what she had promised herself she would never tell him.
But he forced me to.
But you promised you wouldn't.
He said he didn't need me to protect him.
And you believed him? Are you that naïve, or just that stupid?
He said he wanted the truth!
And you gave him exactly what he asked for, and now, you'll never get to see him again. After all, he's dangerous now. Dangerous to himself, dangerous to everyone around him. He can't be left to his own devices. They'll lock him up. They'll treat him like a common criminal, and then they'll do what they do with all traitors of the church. They'll execute him.
But he's entitled to a trial!
You know that their "trials" are tantamount to nothing more than a glorified witch hunt. Everyone in that courtroom will be against him. He'll be guilty before the trial even starts.
Before she realized it, though, Allen was gone. She heard the door shut and Allen get everyone's attention. Lenalee watched silently through a crack in the door as the guard rushed him and threw him violently to the ground, handcuffing him and dragging him away. She couldn't remember ever feeling worse in her entire life. She was singlehandedly responsible for Allen's death sentence. Her conscience had been right. Allen wasn't going to get a fair trial. Those things were a farce of the worst kind.
Suddenly, she heard breathing next to her and looked over to see a girl with spiky black hair and almost feral yellow eyes sitting there grinning. Lenalee fell back with a start, invoking her dark boots, but the girl just continued grinning and wagged her finger, and licking her lollypop.
"Man, do I love candy. Oh, did you want some? Sometimes a good sucker is all ya need to chase your woes away. Candy is to me like tea is to other people. I eat it when I'm happy and need to calm down. I eat it when I'm sad and need to cheer up. I eat it when I'm livid and need to simmer down a bit. It's good for any occasion. You just have to know what kind of candy is right for what occasion. There's an art to deciding what kind of candy to eat, you know. It takes years of practice. For you, to ease your guilt, I'd say that… Chocolate would be best… Unless you're on a diet, or something, sweetie…" Road said, sounding unusually good humored that night. Lenalee shook her head, her eyes still displaying her fear, but she took the candy bar and looked at it for a moment. She hadn't eaten chocolate since she was a child.
"What? It's not poison, I swear. I don't do that kinda thing. Besides, why would I want to poison you when I'm in a position to gain a much sweeter prize? Allen Walker's heart. I've never actually felt this way about anyone before, and from the look on your face, you feel the same way. I must say, I don't blame him for choosing you. After all, you're sweet, and gentle, and you've got the nicest silky black hair with a luster to it that I could never hope to achieve. Tell me, Miss Lee, what's your secret? How did you really win Allen's heart? He doesn't seem the type to be so shallow as to go for looks alone, so it must be something about your personality that he loves."
"Th-that's none of your business! Did you just come here to mock me!?"
"On the contrary, Miss Lee!" she said in something of a taunting tone. "I came to help you. I came to help Allen-kun. I could save him if I was given enough incentive."
"You mean, you can break him out of prison?"
"Were you born blonde or something, sweetcheeks?" she asked cruelly, glaring at Lenalee for the first time and slapping her lightly a few times on the cheek, more to tease her than to hurt her. "I said I'd save him, not dig his fucking hole even deeper!" Road snapped back at Lenalee who looked slightly alarmed at Road's irritability.
"I can remove the 14th Noah's memories from Allen-kun, and thus, he'd return to his normal self. He'd once again be that sweet, gentle guy that you're so in love with."
"What does the Earl get out of this?" Lenalee asked suspiciously. Road looked up and giggled, then broke out into wild peals of fitful laughter that reverberated throughout the small room and threatened to give away their hiding place. Lenalee couldn't believe that Road was actually laughing at her. She didn't yell, though, because she didn't want to attract undue attention.
"Sorry, sweetheart. It's just hilarious that you think the Earl even knows about me being here. He'd punish me for sure if he found out. But, that's just one more reason that I can't and most certainly won't do this for free."
"W-what do you want?" Lenalee asked, leering at Road, even more suspicious than ever.
"Well…" Road said, thinking for a moment. She already knew exactly what she wanted. But she also wanted to say it in such a way that would really upset Lenalee. She just loved watching that silky haired bitch squirm. Then, she had it.
"Very well. I want you… to break Allen Walker's heart… And then, you have to make sure that he won't even be able to glue the pieces back together by asking that swordsman out where you're sure that Allen-kun will see you do it… hehe…"
"Y-y-you can't be serious! Why would you want that? I thought you liked Allen, too!"
"Oh, I do love Allen-kun. But, incidentally, I love myself more, and I want to give myself every advantage when I ask him out. Some would call it catching him on the rebound. Some would call it deceitful and vicious. Me? I call it the window of opportunity."
"Why Kanda?" Lenalee asked, confused.
"You really don't know? Have you seen the way those two go at each other? They're like cats and dogs those two. They see each other they fight. How do you think Allen would feel if he saw Kanda take you right out from under him? He'd be incensed, and rightly so. Maybe even angry enough to plot a horrible revenge. And of course, infighting suits me just fine. It makes it that much easier for Earl-sama. Of course, if you'd rather ask the red haired boy out, or perhaps the vampire?" she asked, smirking ever more widely with each suggestion and at the growing horror and disgust on Lenalee's face.
"Y-you're despicable!" Lenalee spat, glaring at Road with utmost contempt and loathing. She hated Road almost as much as she hated herself at the moment for even considering such a deal. "Allen would never go out with a witch like you!" Lenalee snarled at Road, more to assure herself than to inform Road, who merely smiled and looked over at the chocolate that Lenalee hadn't even eaten yet.
"You're pretty naïve, aren't you, Miss Lee? I don't think you fully comprehend what some people would do when their heart is broken. Men are interesting creatures, really. They have an innate tendency to trust women over men, and whether the woman is good or bad, nice or mean, if that woman offers a heartbroken man some respite from his pain, he's naturally going to gravitate to that woman."
"And I suppose that you fancy yourself offering Allen that respite?" Lenalee asked, looking hatefully at Road, who just chuckled and shrugged.
"I dunno. There are dozens of ways that my plan could go wrong, and I may never end up with Allen-kun, but you'll never be able to say that I didn't try my damndest to do something, right? Well, what's your answer, sweetie?"
"How do I know that you won't go back on your word?" Lenalee asked coldly.
"Well, I suppose that is technically a possibility, and someone's word is only as good as the mouth out of which it comes, which isn't saying much in my case. So, I guess that you'll just have to trust that I really do like Allen-kun enough to save him. The rest will sort itself out. Soon after I remove the fourteenth, he'll be released from prison, and everything will become relatively normal again. I imagine that your dear brother will fight fairly hard to get Allen released, since he seems to particularly like Allen, too. But, before I do anything for you, or for Allen-kun, you have to carry out half of your side of the deal. You have to break Allen's heart. You don't have to do it meanly. His heart is fragile enough right now that the merest flick would shatter it."
"I-I'll do it…" Lenalee said, dreading what she knew had to happen, trying to convince herself that she was doing the right thing, even though doing so made her sick to her stomach.
"Excellent. I'll take care of my end of the deal after you complete half of your end. Furthermore, I suppose that it goes without saying that you are forbidden to tell Allen about this deal of ours. You're free to tell any of your other friends, I suppose, but I doubt that you would, for fear of looking utterly as reprehensible as I."