Disclaimer: I don't own -Man. If I did…well, there would be deaths of several characters. *cough* Leverrier *cough*

An Innocent Heart

No one moved. No one even breathed. For the longest second that any of them had ever known, there was no sound. No breath. Nothing. Finally, Kanda snapped out of his daze and placed his hand back on Mugen.

"What the hell do you mean he won't live much longer? You just said that you were able to save him!" Kanda snapped at the older woman.

"K-Kanda's right!" Krory shouted out, "You just told us that he was alive and that we could see him!"

"Yes, I did tell you that but those words don't change the fact that what I just said is also true," the Head Nurse stated, finally looking up at the exorcists.

"H-How could he still be dying then?" Lenalee demanded, tears running freely down her cheeks.

"Komui…You and I both know why strong parasitic types are so rare," the Head Nurse said, focusing on the Chinese scientist.

Komui's eyes widened when he realized what she was having such a hard time to say. Slowly standing up on shaking legs, Komui made his way to sit behind his desk. Sinking down into his chair, Komui felt a whole new wave of guilt rush through him. Why had he let Allen go on those missions with no one but Link? Why?

"Chief…What's up?" Lavi asked, almost afraid of the answer.

"Allen Walker. Point-Breaker. Potential of becoming a General if deemed worthy. Parasitic type accommodator of the Innocence named the Crown Clown," Komui muttered, staring down at the desk.

"What are you rambling on about now, Mr. Sister Complex?" Kanda nearly spat out.

"The reasons behind why Allen isn't going to live much longer," Komui said, tilting his head back to look up at the ceiling and allowing his tears to roll off his face.

"How does his Innocence and rank have to do with anything?" Krory and Lavi demanded.

"Everything…" Lenalee whimpered.

"Huh?" the older males all gasped.

"Being the parasitic type wielder that he is, Allen is granted to have an enormous amount of power and high syncro-rate with his Innocence. This however, is a double-edged sword," the Head Nurse explained, "For Allen to be able to constantly use his Innocence, it requires huge amounts of energy. If he should run out of energy to power his Innocence, his innocence can start feeding off of his life force much in the same way that Kanda's Mugen does. However, unlike Kanda, Allen does not have control on when his innocence starts to feed off of him. Most likely, whenever Allen uses Edge, his innocence hardly feeds off of him and will deactivate itself unless he is in dire need of it. This is not the case with the second stage of his Innocence. His sword and its exorcising abilities take up a huge amount energy. To be able to wield his sword, Allen must have unconsciously or even possibly consciously agreed for his innocence to take his life force to use provided that it transferred back any of it that was not used. Add that to the fact that his cloak is constantly protecting him from damage and in short, whenever Allen walks onto the battle field, should he not know when to retreat, it could be his last battle."

The room returned to the tense silence yet again. The exorcists just stood there. This wasn't happening. Innocence killing their own accommodators wasn't so unheard of ever since the Fallen incident but this was…unbelievable. Krory bit his lip with his fangs. Being a parasitic type himself, this talk was almost personal. Krory knew that his innocence did the same thing, but, with him not being completing synched to his innocence, the only time it had done so was when he killed his only love and fought that Noah bastard Jasdebi.

"I'm sure you have noticed that Allen has begun to look older, correct?" Komui suddenly asked, "Ever since he became a Point Breaker, Allen has been forced to use that sword of his in almost every battle since then. Normally, for someone as young as Allen, with a lot of rest, Allen could slowly regain some of his lost life force. Not all but some. This rest, however, has never happened. With him being the host of the fourteenth Noah, Allen has had to push his body far beyond what it should have been. Even he himself has noticed the change in his body and appearance. Before I sent him on these past missions, he had confronted me about his worries…"

Komui stopped there. He really didn't need to tell them that he had told Allen what was going on. Nor did he have to tell him that Allen had requested assistance to accompany him on his missions because of it but then changed his mind almost instantly after he said asked for it. Komui bit his lip. He never understood why. Perhaps it was that Allen was afraid that he would be of harm if more people were added to his team. Komui shook his head. That didn't make any sense either.

"So Allen knew that his Innocence was killing him?" Lenalee gasped, "Then why did he keep using that blasted sword of his!"

"Because of the kids," Lavi whispered, "Right before Jeniya passed out, she said she saw Allen's Clown Belt wrap around his body to allow him to keep fighting. He must have started to run out of energy by then. After she passed out, Allen must have been forced to continue to fight for hours, maybe even a day before we could reach him."

They all seemed to agree with Lavi on this thought. To protect the children and the innocence that they wielded, Allen probably had to fight well beyond what he should have. Komui bit his lip. This was all his fault. He should've made Allen take Kanda or Lavi with him on his missions. If he had…If only he had forced them onto Allen, maybe the young teenager wouldn't be in the condition he was in.

"H-How much time to you think he has?" Komui asked, knowing no one else would.

Just as he expected, everyone shot their shocked faces at him. They all knew that his condition was bad but…a limit on time for such a young being? It just wasn't fair. Lenalee broke down into hysterics at the word time. Why did it have to be Allen? Why was it only him that had to bear the worse kind of pain? Lenalee's mind flashed back to when they first fought Road Camelot. The expression on Allen's face when Lenalee stopped him from destroying the akuma in time stuck in her mind. The desperation and anger that filled his eyes scared her beyond belief. Back then, Lenalee couldn't believed that Allen was so ready to throw his life away. To die just to complete one thing didn't make any sense to her then. Lenalee laughed. Then. That was right. After the Fallen incident, Lenalee finally understood at least a little. Before then she had always thought that Allen had only wanted to be a savior of everyone. That he was selfish and would gladly bear the brunt of anything to gain the satisfaction of being the one to save something. But not anymore. She didn't believe that anymore. No one did.

"I don't know," the Head Nurse whispered, "But…I can't imagine the little life force he has left holding out to see his seventeenth birthday."

Lavi swore under his breath. So a little over a year. Lavi tried to stop his tears from welling up in his eye. Only a year to live a whole life. What kind of fate was worse than that? He looked at everyone's faces. Everyone was taking it hard excluding Link. Even Yuu and the old panda, who had remained miraculously silent the entire time, had finally broke down. Yuu's eyes meant Lavi's one and he instinctively wiped the few tears that had escaped his eyes. Everything was confusing Lavi's sense of what was normal. First Yuu was worried over their little Moyashi friend and now he was crying. What was wrong in that picture? Lavi wiped his own eye unconsciously. What now? Would they tell Allen? Would Allen even be able to get around to enjoy the little life he had left? Lavi's eye settled back on Link. Would the bastards from Central force Allen to fight with his last year? Of course they would. They would probably send him around the world to set up gates all over the world so that even when he was gone they could still use him. Then they would probably lock him up in a secluded room or something so that when he was reaching his end, he couldn't place the memories of the fourteenth into someone else. Not like Allen would even do such a thing. He despised the fourteenth for ruining his life with such a passion that Lavi wouldn't have been surprised if Allen tried to kill him himself before he passed. Lavi shuddered at his last thought. Allen passing… They'd have to be careful with his death…Should anyone hear that cares for him to deeply they could bring on to him a fate worse than what already stood before him. Even if they are part of the Order, someone could call upon the Earl to bring Allen back and hence…Lavi nearly slapped himself. There was no way on this planet called Earth that anyone in the Order would. No…there was. There was actually two. Lavi's eye settled on the two new children. They didn't even really know him but he had already touched him with his strange power. They were attached to him already. Lavi quickly stood up and approached the two children. Basically falling to his knees again, Lavi wrapped his arms around the two crying kids. What they needed was Allen to walk him with his smile. To say that he was alright and that he convinced the Head Nurse to play a prank on all of them. But that wasn't going to happen. No. Allen wouldn't be coming into this room anytime soon. Nor would he be around long.

"I-I wanna see him!" Jeniya exclaimed suddenly, pushing herself further into Lavi's arms.

The Head Nurse quickly dried whatever tears had fallen and slowly stood up. This was never fun. Even though they weren't supposed to, everyone grew close to each other at the Order. They all knew that death was inevitable with what they were doing but it didn't matter. Other than those from Central, everyone sought each other for comfort and in doing so, they created bonds that could never be broken. The Head Nurse scanned everyone's faces. The exorcists were no different than anyone else at the Order.

"Alright. I'll take you all down to see him. But I warn you that it will not be a wonderful sight. He's stable yes but his wounds are still terrible. Also," the Head Nurse glared at Link, "Howard Link. You are not allowed into his room under any circumstances."

"What? You cannot prohibit me from fulfilling my duties of keeping constant watch over Walker!" Link demanded.

"I don't give a damn about your duties!" the nurse snapped, "Walker is in critical condition where his life hangs because of you and the bastards in Central preventing him from creating gates when he needs to! I do not wish for you to be in there until he awakes and is conscious of everything going on around him. You may sit outside of his door and look in from there but I will not allow the first thing he sees when he awakes to be a face of someone who deems his life a nuisance!"

With that, the Head Nurse led everyone towards the hospital wing. She knew that her outburst probably just cost her her job and life and just didn't care. She was so damn tired of Central being able to control everyone at the Order and treat them like they were simple sacrifices. Sighing as they approached the hospital wing, the Head Nurse called for someone to bring Howard Link a chair and place it outside Allen's door. She was dead serious with what she said. The nurse made a mental note to make sure that there was always a nurse near the room to force the stubborn Crow out of Allen's room.

Once Link sat in his chair and made no attempt to move, the Head Nurse pushed open Allen's door. The nurse couldn't look. No matter what she had already seen, she couldn't bring herself to look at the boy on the bed near the window. She could feel the air rush past her as most of the exorcists flew into the room and to his side. Once they all entered, the nurse shut the door. Glaring at Link once more, the nurse headed down to her office. She needed to be alone.

Lenalee rushed into the room with everyone but Kanda and Bookman. She needed to see him, she told herself, saying that she didn't care how he looked. That thought was soon nearly proven wrong. The nurse hadn't lied. Lenalee sunk to her knees as soon as her gaze landed on him. She wasn't alone. The only the Bookmen and Kanda managed to stay on their feet. It was all true. There wasn't anything they could do. Allen was dying. He was dying a slow, long, painful death. Tears fell to the floor once more but no one knew each tears came from who. No one cared. No one at all cared about their tears nor the source of them. No one did then and no one ever would.

Mizu: I can't believe how well this story is coming along. Right now, I'm really glad that it is because I can get lost in my writings which is what I need. Although I kind of wish that I could be a little nicer to Allen but it suit's the story. And truthfully, he's gone through so much worse already. Thanks for reading my story so far and stick with me to the end. Reviews are welcomed and flames and critics are encouraged. Ciao for now!