Edited 1.27.2015

Allen looked at the red-head, curiosity taking over. Okay, what do they want? He mentally asked himself, staring at Lavi for the answer. Said male cleared his throat again, staring back at Allen full force.

"We need to use the Ark to find and stop the Earl. Once and for all."

-Pawns and the Game-

"What?"

Lenalee was the one to shout out, her gaze landing on an unflinching Lavi as he stared steadily at Allen. The latter didn't respond, his calm look back in place. Use the Ark? Finish off the Earl? Did Lavi honestly believe they could do that? Allen frowned, mulling this over. No way was Link going to let that slide. And if Link wanted to stop him, Leverrier was definitely not going to allow them to go through with whatever plan Lavi had concocted in that brain of his. Allen shrugged.

"Try as you will, that doesn't seem likely to happen with the position I'm in right now." Lenalee cringed at the thought. Allen stared at her, his eyes slightly narrowed. Why was she here anyway? He shook his head to clear it of those thoughts. He really wasn't acting like himself as of late. Maybe the Fourteenth really was… No! He cut out the negative thoughts, trying to cover them with happy ones. The latter were few, and didn't seem to come to him quickly.

Krory, seeming to be acting wise for some reason, stood up slowly, before glancing at Lenalee, who stood as well. The two of them walked around Allen, leaving the room. He noted with a sour taste in his mouth that they locked the door again once they were outside. Didn't they trust him? But part of him was… oddly happy that they were gone. Maybe that half was the Noah… Allen bit his lip, trying to silence his thoughts, though this didn't help much.

Lavi sighed, continuing on as if the two either never left or were never there, "I realize what position you're in, Allen, but this isn't something that could be stopped by that." It was firm, almost as if it were a command. This must be his Bookman voice, Allen mused, a smirk almost coming to his lips. He was able to stop it in time, thankfully.

Running a hand through his hair, Allen replied, "Try telling that to Leverrier or anyone else who seems to think I'm a Noah," he mumbled, causing Kanda to growl now, before storming out of the room. Again the door was locked behind him, leaving the two boys locked into the room. Only God knew what the red-head was going to do now.

Lavi growled at him in response to his earlier statement, "I know, Allen! I fucking know what they think! All I'm trying to do is help, damn it!" he shouted, balling his hands into fists. Allen didn't react, having guessed he would snap eventually. And with no one else around, right now seemed liked a pretty good time to do so. Said the white-haired boy just sighed in response.

"I get that you're trying to help, but what can you do in the face of your higher-ups?" he questioned, his voice still cold; his eyes blank. Lavi grumbled at the boy. Allen continued, an almost joking, mocking tone clear, "And anyway, what if they're right?" Lavi snapped now, worse than before.

The redhead rose, growling as he stalked over to Allen who didn't seem to care. What he had said was pretty close to the truth right now, or seemed like it at least. He wasn't acting like himself… He paused. Or was he? Maybe it was because of his 'mask of Mana' that he had acted so nice the past few years. No, there wasn't a question to it; he had acted like that naive clown because of the 'mask.' It seemed that his true personality was hidden so well that he forgot what he was like before. Mana had been able to change him, or at least, make him out to be nice in public even if it wasn't true. And after he had…

Allen was just keeping up the facade because he was gone, wasn't he?

His eyebrows scrunched as he thought, ignoring his surroundings. He didn't even notice when Lavi stopped, standing in front of the dazed boy, anger almost visibly pouring off him. Allen did notice the other when the redhead grabbed the front of his shirt not so kindly, lifting him up slightly off of the chair. And if he squinted, Allen could just about see pain and sadness in the back of Lavi's eyes. Allen gulped.

"Are you telling me," Lavi started slowly, his voice almost cracking. His expression had softened some, but still held the property of anger, "that you're admitting to it? Are you just going to crack under pressure, Allen?" he paused, staring the younger in the eye. Allen looked away. "What happened to you? Aren't you even going to fight it… like you always do?"

Allen still didn't look up, even when he felt Lavi's hand vibrate slightly. Was Lavi mad… or was it from some sort of sadness he kept locked away? Allen looked up slowly, rebel tears unshed it the corner of his eye. It almost covered the slight golden coloring to them, but Lavi's sharp breath betrayed his small amount of hope.

"How am I supposed to fight something that's already taking over?"

Kanda would never admit it, but he did feel kind of bad for storming out of the room like that. But the Moyashi was just being so damn annoying! Annoying and so stupid. Couldn't he see that they were all trying to help? Baka Usagi said so, but he still ignored him, going on about the idiot 'higher-ups' as if he cared about what they thought. Leverrier could face his Mugen, Kanda growled.

His hand felt cramped, gripping Mugen this tight, but Kanda didn't care at the moment. He needed to get rid of this damn irritation before he killed someone. Or maybe he could kill someone to get rid of the irritation… It wasn't like Komui or anyone else thought less than that of him, but he couldn't find anyone to unleash his wrath onto… He grumbled, glaring at the empty hallways.

Kanda couldn't remember how long he was roaming the halls but sooner or later he ended up on the sand pit normally used for training. Shrugging, he jumped into the pit, dropping off Mugen and grabbing one of the wooden practice swords. He'd end up breaking more than one of these dummy's today.

Lenalee sat on the couch in her brother's messy office; her head slumped against the back, her eyes slightly glazed. She was still thinking about what Lavi said earlier; about how he thought they could take the Earl. No, she knew that Lavi hadn't thought they could take the Earl. It would be… stupid and futile with their current power levels. And anyway, how were they going to be able to find him? Lavi had said they could use the Ark, but how would they do that when the Player wasn't even able to go near it?

The girl cringed, bringing up her hand to cover her face. How could she… how could she have just called Allen that? He wasn't… he wasn't… A tear slid down her cheek, followed soon after by a stream coming from both her blank eyes. Lenalee leaned forward, burying her face in her hands. She couldn't stand this anymore…

No one except Jerry noticed when Allen didn't come down for lunch. It was starting to become normal that he didn't come down, and the times he did, he'd just take his food and leave to eat somewhere else. It was easy to miss him if you didn't notice when he came in. But Jerry was the one who made the food for him, so of course he would notice when the little white-haired one wasn't there. Actually, he was surprised that nobody noticed the boy sometimes, what with the cart full of food he always pushed around.

That and everyone should be able to notice him now, what with the rumors flying around everywhere. And even without those, the young man's appearance was enough to draw at least a few pairs of eyes. No one his age had silvery white hair like he did. And that strange pentagon over his left eye had brought out the earlier rumors. It was the mark of the Akuma; of the enemy, but here was one of their own, an Exorcist, with one of the stars clearly visible above his eye.

He had said he was cursed; cursed for something horrible he did when he was younger. Very few knew what he did, and the few that knew said nothing of it. It's said that the boy had turned his step-father into an Akuma, but then, why hadn't that Akuma taken over the boys' body? Some believed that it did and the boy was really a spy for the Earl. The rumor continued to say that his father had cursed him, causing his hair to lose all its color, as well as making it so that his eye could see the spirits trapped in the Akuma. There were many other rumors, but these seemed to be true, because someone, apparently, confronted him on them. The boy had said nothing, only lowered his head in what seemed like pained sadness.

Jerry pitied the boy. He had been born with that Innocence of his, which was something odd even in this place; had been abandoned by his original family; had been cursed by the only one who accepted him; and was now being called a traitor by the people he considered family. And yet, he still kept a smile on his face, as if nothing was wrong. The boy had courage, Jerry knew that all too well. He even went up against Kanda the day he got here.

And yet, no one else seemed to view the boy this way. And it was all because of things that he couldn't control. That and the damned Noah.

Lavi sat, slumped forward on his bed, his head held in his hands. Allen stared at him, not really conveying any emotion. The redhead hadn't said anything since Allen's little eye-color-changing incident. For this, Allen was actually glad. He didn't want to explain anything to the Bookman; especially when he didn't know the answers himself. Said Bookman sighed, lifting his head and running a hand through his messy hair.

Allen blinked uncertainly when the red-head grinned at him. His confused expression was quickly hid behind his mask, now just a glare pointed directly at the boy's one eye left. Now, if he could control fire with this gaze… Lavi coughed, bringing Allen back from his slightly morbid fantasy.

"What?" he bit out, causing the red-head to flinch. He scratched at his head; maybe he was trying to get rid of any nervousness he had.

"Um… about the plan?" he asked, hushing the word 'plan' even though no one, human or golem, was in the room. Allen rolled his eyes, crossing his arms and leaning back onto the door. He wouldn't have done this if the door wasn't there, seeing as the back of the chair was in front him and he would have leaned back onto thin air.

"What about it?" Allen knew what Lavi meant, but didn't feel like being kind to the boy right then. He paused, blinking as another uncertain look spread across his features. Why didn't he care? The cursed boy swallowed, trying to wash the unpleasant feeling away. He really needed to do something about that Noah before it disintegrated his whole persona…

"Are you going to help; 'cause I'm sure you're the only one that can control the ark," Lavi tilted his head to the side thoughtfully for a moment. "At least, the only one on our side…" Allen sighed again, but instead of running a hand through his own hair like he had done so many times before, he just glanced at his left hand.

Clenching it into a fist, he held it out to Lavi, a more Allen-like grin growing on the boys face. "I don't see the point in not trying, even though the plan seems a little iffy to me," he declared, his grin widening when Lavi copied his action, punching Allen's fist with his own.

"Yosh! Now we're one step closer to takin' down the Earl!" he cheered, pumping his fists into the air. Allen laughed, but underneath, he doubted the whole thing.

Would we really be able to take him down? Would I be able to do that? Would I be able to go against… my own kind? I want to believe I'm on the Order's side of all this, but with everything they've done to me, I just don't know where I stand. I have no idea who I am anymore.

A/N: I would like to point out the original publish date of this story and say that I was thirteen or fourteen when I wrote this. It's crap. Why did people follow this? I have no idea.
The next chapter is the last and most of it was written July 2014, so the style is a bit different. After that, the story is done. Discontinued. Abandoned. Whatever you wanna call it. Please don't follow it.