Chapter 2

So the last I stopped off was at…

Allen's brain was in a haze when the Level 3s flew off with him. His mind procession was blurry, but not enough so he knew that he was being captured by the Akuma's. His Innocence was singing strongly to him to activate it and they would go to battle, release all the souls from the chains. I wish I could do so, but the Earl's signal is too strong through the Akumas, its affecting me greatly. He thought, it was so powerful and had drowned out every single noise around him.

Meanwhile…

Nearby, there was another group of exorcists heading towards Edo too. The biggest person, Marie, jolted as he heard something that sounded eerie as well as nostalgic. What was that? It sounded like Innocence, but it had a weird edge to it.

"Is something wrong, Marie?" a samurai guy with long blue hair asked him. Marie's every movement drew everyone's eyes, after all, he was the biggest sized among all of them.

"No, nothing wrong-" Marie started to reply when the noise snagged his attention again. Without knowing it, a tear rolled out of his eye. Whose Innocence was it? It was such a grieving sound that had slashed at his heart. It was calling out to its partner but since they had maximum invocation just a week ago or so, she could not hear it. She was busy tending to others, as well as worrying for it. She? Who is 'she'? I've heard about Lenalee Lee and another one, Miranda Lotto. Who could it be?

"Marie? Are you all right? You're crying." The general, Froic Tiedoll, they were guarding enquired. "Yeah, I'm all right. It was just that one of the exorcist's Innocence has reached the 100% synchro-rate and it is calling out to its partner now."

Help. Marie jerked, what was this, Innocence talking to him? Help us. You can hear me, can't you? My partner needs help, we need your help. Please. Tell Kanda it is Allen Walker he needs to help.

"Kanda, do you know who Allen Walker is?" Marie croaked out, still in shock.

Kanda stiffened, "Why do you ask that?" he replied as coldly as ever.

"He needs our help; he's not far from here. Shall we, general?" Marie asked, turning to Tiedoll.

"We should help him. Where is he? Lead the way, Marie." Tiedoll said.

AIAIAIAIAIAIAI

His Innocence had fallen silent after it gave out those weird vibes. But even though there was nothing going on, he could feel through the thick haze of pain that something was coming. His Innocence had called something to come. It was so sudden that his mind couldn't take it in, but the level 3s around him were destroyed. He could feel the pain easing a while before his senses dulled and he fell into a dark sleep.

It was the same dream; Lenalee was alone in some kind of Romanian ruins. She was crying over an exorcist. She looked so lonely, he couldn't help but head towards her, before he was stopped by a reflection in the water that was supposed to be his, but yet not his. It was a shadow with black ripples for its skin.

Why do you stop me? I need to get to Lenalee! He wanted to shout at it.

Don't go to her, you'll hurt yourself even more, Allen. This wasn't meant to be. A voice he hadn't heard in ten years whispered out of the air. Mana! What are you doing here in my dream…? Allen jerked and opened his eyes, his breathing was strained.

"Oi, bean sprout, you're so noisy when you sleep." A certain irritating guy commented. "Shut up Kanda." Allen muttered as he sat up.

"What happened? I remembered that the level 3s were destroyed by someone… You helped me out?" Allen asked as he took in his surroundings and noticed that there were two people in the shadows, one big and the other one was smaller than the big one.

"Who are your companions?" Allen threw in another question. By the way how Kanda stiffened, Allen could tell that he wasn't supposed to know about the two shadows. Then when Kanda did not reply, he tried to remember what mission Kanda was on. Komui had said that it had something to do with guarding the generals too. Ah, it was with a general Tiedoll and someone called Marie.

"Kanda, you should reply our young friend and not leave his question unanswered." A voice resounded from the dark curtains of shadow.

It was the smaller one who had spoken, Allen did a rough guess and asked, "Are you General Froic Tiedoll?"

The person laughed and nodded, "You must be Allen Walker, Cross's pupil." He countered with his own question. Allen stiffened; he had not expected the news to travel that quickly to the Generals…

Allen swung his legs onto the floor and tried to stand up. Wobbling slightly, he managed to stand steadily and held his left hand out to Tiedoll, "Nice to meet your acquaintance."

Tiedoll laughed, "Polite, aren't you? Did Cross rub that habit onto you? I'm sorry on behalf of my colleague. He's a monster."

Allen brightened up; at least someone knew how his master could be like. "Absolutely, except he might be different than what you think…" Allen shook his head, why was he saying such good things about his master?

"This is Marie. Marie's Innocence is to do with sound. He can hear the Akuma coming towards him from a distance and he uses piano strings to pierce through the Akuma, then his Innocence will play a hymn and that will corrupt the Akuma, destroying it almost immediately. He's also the one that knew about your condition and alerted us to it." Tiedoll carried on introducing his companions.

Allen nodded, only half listening. "Um, how long have I been out?" Allen asked when Tiedoll stopped to take a breath.

"You've been out for ten minutes. It's good to meet you, Allen Walker." Allen started a little; he hadn't noticed that Marie had moved closer to them.

"Good to meet you too, Marie." Allen said politely in reply. A little jolt ran through him, the sensation of pain of pain was drilling against his left eye. It was going to activate. It probably wasn't good to let the others see his eye, they probably would freak out since they hadn't seen the 'updated version' of it. He covered his eye with his right eye, this made everyone notice.

"Hey, what's with the eye, bean sprout?" Kanda asked in his sullen way. He was looking with unsuppressed curiosity at the hand that was covering the eye, trying to see past the block that prevented them from seeing the secret Allen kept.

"That's not polite, Yuu-kun." Tiedoll reprimanded mildly to Kanda. A vein twitched in Kanda's face.

"Please stop it, General. I'm only here to protect you. Don't call me by that stupid name. I'm not here to get mushy with you." He gritted out. In the midst of the retort, the issue about Allen's eye was forgotten and Allen watched on with amusement, doing anything just to stop himself from screaming out from the bouts of pain the rode through his body. He stiffened himself so that no one would know that he was in pain.

"Should we get on soon, General Tiedoll? I should be going my way, to catch up with Lenalee and the others." Allen said timidly when there was a break in the argument. There was a sickening squelch as he voiced his opinion and Allen now clutched at his eye with both his hands. Marie; who had been standing to one side, trying to respect Allen's privacy as he heard all the soft squelching of something rolling around, jolted when he heard the tone of the sound change, he was shocked. What was happening to that eye that Allen was so desperate to prevent them from seeing it?

Kanda and Tiedoll had stopped their friendly yet cold bicker when they heard it. Tiedoll rushed over immediately, "What's wrong, Allen?" he voiced his worries as Marie walked briskly to Allen's side. Kanda walked calmly to Allen, but gave him a wide berth.

"Nothing… It'll pass in a few moments. I'm all right." Allen grinded out, but he wasn't thinking the same on the inside. Shit, this wasn't supposed to happen! Damn… the signal is just too strong. What is happening? I need to get to Lenalee quickly, everyone needs my help. I shouldn't be sitting here doing nothing. Allen cursed as he thought. The pain was fading fast and he was almost relieved of it.

"I need to go. I need to go to Edo. It's the only way to stop the Earl." Allen said out loud as he stood up. He could stand properly now, as well as make his way across the small cave they were in.

"We're heading towards Edo too. Why don't we accompany you too?" Tiedoll stated as he stood up and followed the young boy. Allen threw an amused glance at Tiedoll.

"If you can keep up." He told them and sprang off immediately; he landed gracefully on the ground and ran into the trees that were… heading away from Edo…

"That bean sprout has no sense of direction. I'll follow him." Kanda told them and ran off too.

"Aw… and I was planning on having Kanda help me pack too. Never mind, let's go quickly, Marie." Marie nodded his head and thirty seconds later, two shadows were running through the forest and heading to meet up with Kanda and Allen.

ANANANANANANAN

Allen sprang through the forest, Kanda was behind him. How far away, he didn't know, but he was following his instincts and was running in the direction of what he hoped was Edo. Once, he had sensed Kanda's hesitation, but he did not stop running after Allen.

"Oi, bean sprout, you're running in the wrong direction!" Kanda's voice carried strongly through the air. Allen stopped abruptly, making Kanda almost rush into him.

"What did you stop for, idiot!" Kanda snapped, still irritated at the young boy's speed that had surpassed his.

"I was running in the wrong direction?" Allen asked to confirm what he had heard.

"Yeah, we're now miles away from where we're supposed to be. All thanks to you." Kanda supplied the information coldly.

"Geez, I didn't know that. Why didn't you say so earlier?" Allen asked as he rubbed his head sheepishly.

"I don't know, maybe the wind was whistling in your ears too much?" Kanda suggested nastily. Allen wasn't listening; he just remembered that he was running, but actually… he was following a melody. A nostalgic melody, something Bookman said sprang into his mind. The 14th Noah, was that it? He couldn't remember, but a Noah? What did that have to do with him?

Suddenly, the melody became clearer, and without knowing it, he was humming the melody and singing the words softly. Kanda who had expected to hear a reply from Allen was surprised when he started singing a lullaby.

"Oi, bean sprout, what are you doing?" He was even more surprised when the sky split open and something emerged from it, a weird thing… it couldn't be described properly.

"Noah's…Ark? Why is it here?" Kanda turned to see Allen looking at the thing in…was that awe?

"Oi, bean sprout, you know what this thing is?" Kanda fired the question at Allen. Allen looked at Kanda in puzzlement, "it's Noah's Ark, don't you know…? Oh yeah, you've never ridden on it before. My name is Allen, you idiot." Allen added in when he realized Kanda had called him the idiotic nickname.

"Tch. Whatever, what does it do? It belongs to the Noahs, doesn't it?" Kanda said. Allen nodded and proceeded to drag Kanda to the Ark.

"Hey, what are you doing? If you think we're going to go on that crappy thing that doesn't seem big enough to fit us, you've toed yourself over the line, bean sprout!" Kanda shouted as he sort of panicked.

"Oh shut up, Kanda. My name is Allen. Oh yeah, I forgot that your brain is slower than a snail or a sloth. Despite not having met for a few months, I see that you still haven't upgraded your mental capacity." Allen said as he smirked.

"What! You've got yourself a death wish, bean sprout. I don't care if you've written your will; you're going to die here and now." Kanda growled, annoyed by the comment.

"Maybe, but Kanda's so slow that even a level 1 Akuma can sneak in a couple of attacks. Aren't I right? Yuu-chan." Allen teased as he danced towards the Ark.

That made Kanda snap, "What did you say, bean sprout? You are so dead." He snarled as he rushed towards Allen and drew his sword out, there was the figure of a monster vibrating out of him and a dark aura was around him. Allen laughed as he thought; Kanda is kind of scary… Allen stopped in front of the Ark and stood an inch away from entering it and waited for Kanda to arrive. When he did, all Allen did was to step away from his original place and Kanda tethered before entering the Ark…against his will…

Gotcha! Too bad, Kanda, you were acting like a bull… too much like one. Allen thought triumphantly. He knew he was going to be slaughtered by Kanda when he got in… well, he didn't care much. Allen stepped into the Ark and entered the familiar white town. Kanda was just recovering from shock a few paces away.

"Hey, bean sprout, what is this place?" he demanded. "Noah's Ark, it's interior. Come on, Kanda. We have to be quick if we want to reach where your general and my unit is." Allen said as he walked through the town.

"What are we looking for?" Kanda asked as he caught up with Allen.

"Mmm… anything that reminds you of Edo, related to it. That's how I found my way. Wait, I think this is it." Allen replied absentmindedly as he stopped in front of a door.

"Door 12, what does it mean?" Kanda read out loud as he asked Allen.

"I don't know either… I just have the feeling… that this should be it." Allen replied as he pushed open the door, they were greeted with the sight of a forest and Lenalee's group was just emerging from it. Allen's sharp eyes also caught sight of Tiedoll and Marie lurking among the tree shadows not far off. "Looks like they're all here." Allen announced.

Not far off too…

"Hey, Tyki, isn't that the Noah's Ark?" Jasdevi asked as they spotted the sky splitting open not far away.

"Hmm, yes, it is. The Akuma must be back with the young man…" Tyki mused as he looked in the direction of the Ark.

"Eh, is that so…" the twins said together.

"Earl-sama." "Noahs-sama." The voices of the Akuma surrounded them, the stars on their faces glowing. The Earl seemed pleased with the Akumas surrounding them.

"This is good! Now we can defeat those hated exorcists with my little pets!" he crooned.

Little pets indeed… I wonder how that boy is faring. I have already destroyed his Innocence once and he is still living… pretty annoying, yet exhilarating… that I can destroy him more than once. This boy is interesting… Too bad he is an exorcist; he would be my toy if he were not it. Tyki was thinking as he looked uninterestedly at the accumulating number of Akuma.

"Hey, where's Road?" the two twins asked when they noticed their favorite sister, Road wasn't there.

"She's helping out with the new Ark." The Earl trilled before Tyki could reply.

"Eh~ we want to help out too!" They cried.

"It's impossible. Other than the Earl and Road, no one can operate the Ark. There is another guy, of course, the first Noah that was born, if it's anyone else, they would be in the way." To their surprise it was Skin who replied.

To cover up their surprise, the twins said "We were just suggesting it. Sheesh, you don't need to get so defensive about it. So who's the first Noah?"

"He betrayed us; he tried to kill the Earl, lero. But the Earl killed him, however the Ark cannot be used because the Noah put a curse on it, lero." Lero told them. Jasdevi oohed and aahed, they were disgusted at the attempt to kill the Earl.

"But the hateful 14th went and passed the Musician's license onto a human, that's another reason why we cannot operate the current Ark." The Earl told them.

Jasdevi nodded and an idea hit them, "So THAT'S why you wanted us to kill Cross! It's him whose the Musician License is with!" The Earl just kept silent as the twins continued to rant more about the man.

Then, the attack came. A fire snake burst out of one of the buildings and rushed through the air towards them. The other Noahs managed to get away, but the Earl was swallowed within the fire.

"This isn't even the standard of a general!" the Earl scorned as he made to slice the snake open. But before he did it, a force hit him; it was a melody and a white Innocence.

"Good evening, Earl." A whisper of air blew past his ear, as another breeze blew past his other ear, "Good evening… Earl." The voice made his blood run cold. It was the voice of a Noah who was supposed to be dead…

"14th… You're back, I see. Who did you possess?" the Earl murmured angrily. "But this Innocence is almost like that of a general. Who is it, I wonder?" the Earl mused as he slashed open the fire with dark matter in his hand.

"Now, we should take care of the little rats that have snuck in so far!" the Earl cried out loud for everyone to hear. The smoke cleared and revealed Cross's unit without Allen with them.

"We will stop you from accomplishing your plans, Earl!" Lavi said quietly as they faced the battle.

Tyki's eyes almost popped out when he saw Lavi and Krory. This must be my lucky days… first, I meet that exorcist Allen Walker, the Cheater A Boy. Now, it's his accomplices… Too bad Allen Walker isn't here to play with them.

"I'll take care of the little brats, Earl." He called out as he leapt towards the unit as Lavi and Krory leapt off the roof and headed towards them. Their weapons met with a clash and Tyki landed on the roof smoothly while the other two spun around and landed roughly not far away from him. The two guys did not seem angry when they saw him, but he saw a burning of hate in the patch eye guy.

"You are a friend of Allen Walker, am I right?" he asked casually. "Shut up!" Lavi snapped, his emotions breaking loose.

"Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up!" he shouted at Tyki. The man was taken aback for a while, before he gathered his wits back.

"You killed him and you still dare to talk about him. Furthermore, it was your Akumas that captured him and killed him!" Lenalee cried. Tyki blinked, the Akumas had killed Allen?

"What? I only ordered one to go and get him. When did it become that many?" Tyki asked, rather confused.

"Stop acting! Allen was here in Edo and your Akumas dragged him off to you! You would be lying if he wasn't here!" Lavi shouted at him now, Lenalee was standing beside him, tears streaming down her face as Bookman tried to comfort her.

Tyki raised an eyebrow. "It's true that I told an Akuma to go and get Allen back. But it hasn't returned… I wonder why. And he's not here; I haven't seen that boy ever since that day in China.

I'm breaking the chapter off here. Thanks for all the comments and those who liked my story!