A/N: What's this? A new chapter at long last? It's a miracle!

Minor edits done on 4/3/2015.

When his Uncle relinquished control of his body, Allen wasted no time. He broke out into a sprint, giving no warning to his comrades who tried and failed to keep up with him. His speed far exceeded theirs and he arrived at a building better off called a storage shed when compared to the mansion that overlooked it from the cliff above.

He stood inside the building for several minutes before the others caught up to him and filed in.

"A-Allen," Lavi heaved, though he didn't collapse to his knees like some of the others did. "When did you get so f-fast?"

Allen watched Lavi take in huge gulps of air and opened his mouth to say he could move faster. Then he closed it, knowing full well his friends would question his every action if they know he could move from one place to another in an instant with the Ark. Even without the Ark, the speed of his movements still far exceed the blink of an eye.

He wasn't human anymore.

Instead of explaining, Allen offered him an apology instead.

"Sorry," He flashed the older boy an apologetic smile that was more genuine than the empty smiles he'd been giving them all afternoon. It hadn't been his intention to outrun them; he scarcely realized it now.

"I-It's okay," Lavi said, sounding less out of breath now and more miffed that Allen's manner remained meek. He had little control over it. Smiling was hard enough when he wasn't showing off the same wide grins he'd once wore. It didn't stop Lavi from continuing. "The Earl's up on that mansion, then?"

Lavi combed a hand through his fiery red mane, giving Allen the time to nod his response.

"Along with a lot of Akuma," Allen said, eyes narrowing as his head tilted to look at the ceiling, as if seeing through it. While unable to see the souls from here, their voices remained. They kept crying for his help. They begged and pleaded, but Allen ignored them in favor of his friends.

"Lavi, can you distract them?"

Lavi grimaced.

"Allen, listen, you don't have to—"

Allen's disarming smile cut him off because of how blatantly fake it was. The emotions that should've shone through were long gone and the warmth that pierced even the coldest of souls—barring Kanda—was nowhere to be seen.

"Please, Lavi," Allen said, voice dipping as the quiet plea slipped from his pale lips. "Just distract them for a few seconds."

Time seemed to stretch into infinity as Lavi continued to stare at him, chewing on his lower lip absently. Allen understood every thought going through his head without needing to be a mind reader. Why had he changed so much? He had felt the cold caress of death, but was that what had caused this? Why had the sun he'd carried on his shoulders blinked out?

Allen continued to smile. The more he did it, the easier it became to pretend. He was falling back into his old habits. "Even if it's just a second, I may be able to get us an advantage," he said, but Lavi's face remained the same. It occurred to Allen that he shouldn't have asked Lavi what he had. If he hadn't, his hesitation would be nothing but a dream.

Lavi's hand clapped down on his shoulder. "I won't let you fight alone, Al."

Gray eyes blinked up at him before he laughed. It was small, but honest. "Since when do you call me Al, Lavi?"

"Since right now," he said, arm wrapping around his shoulders. Allen always felt protected—the white cloak wrapped snug around his body ensured that—but leaning into his friend put emphasis on it. Unlike his cloak, Lavi radiated warmth that Allen longed for. "Come on, Al, haven't you gotten hurt enough?"

The grin on Lavi's face didn't reach all the way to his eyes, but Allen remained grateful for it. For his sake, Lavi was deliberately vague. Not a single word told the full extent of the story unfolding between them.

"Let some of us pull our weight, would ya?" Something in Lavi's voice begged him to forget his idea of charging in to exorcize one of the Noah—or try to, at least—and get them the upper hand. For a split second, he considered it.

Allen discarded it another second later.

"You're going to," Allen said, smiling at his compatriot. Lavi looked like he was about to protest, but Allen didn't let him. "I never fight alone, Lavi."

To keep his friends safe, he needed to do this. If there was even one less Noah, their chances would increase exponentially when he was no longer here to protect them.

Telling them wasn't an option. He feared their eyes and the smile that would collapse under the weight of their gazes. All he could do was destroy and exorcize however many Noah he could before everything came to an end. With his emotions in turmoil, the destruction of their enemies was all he could manage.

"Allen," Crown Clown whispered in his ear, as if her voice originated from the cloak donned on his shoulders. Just the one word was enough to keep him grounded; her voice soothed him as did his Uncle's humming.

His Uncle joined her, his voice ringing in the opposite ear like he were an angel sitting on his shoulder, ready to steer him in the right direction.

"We're right here with you," he said and his breath tickled past his ear as if his Uncle's words weren't in his head. Allen nodded. No matter who else left him to wither and die alone, they were with him and always would be, even in death.

Lavi eyed him for a moment before he consented at last. "Alright."

"Thank you, Lavi," he said as Lavi's arm slipped off his shoulders. He moved to leave the building as Lavi pulled his hammer off his hip. The familiar symbol of Lavi's Fire Seal spun around him like an apparition as his hammer expanded to its normal size. It rested across the redhead's shoulders as he prepared his attack.

His hand grazed the wooden surface of the door, but someone grabbed his arm and stopped him from proceeding.

Gray eyes turned to face violet ones. When he saw Lenalee's eyes, he imagined the hate embedded in them that was hard to unsee, but he held his ground. He didn't flinch nor did he shake her off.

"Allen, please be careful."

"O-of course," Allen said faster than intended as he pulled the girl's fingers from around his arm with a touch so gentle one might expect he was handling a porcelain doll. He saw himself out without another word and listened to the footfalls that followed him for a few steps. It was relief that washed over him when he stepped outside and the sounds came to an end.

Just as he shut the door behind him, obscuring himself from view, a serpent fashioned from flames burst from the roof. Allen's right hand rose to touch his unnatural left, and he flickered out of existence as if he had never been there.

Like a ghost, he joined the Noah on top of the mansion in an instant and watched as the snake crashed into the Earl, swallowing him whole. It was the black-haired twin who screamed at the sight, yelling, "The Duke Millennium got eaten!"

Allen's face twisted into a smirk of its own accord. In a flash, he appeared before the blond twin. He startled and Allen gave him no more time to react. He swung Crown Clown and Jasdero brought his hands up to block the blade. Instead of catching her, she passed clean through him.

The ribbons from his cloak shot out and grabbed Devit by the wrist. Allen's feet touched the earth before he pulled the black-haired twin forward. Devit yelped and the events of a second ago repeated. Jasdero's howls of pains started just before Devit was impaled.

With a flick of his blade, Allen sent Devit reeling across the top of the mansion, right into Tyki's awaiting arms. White crosses lined the Noah's body where Allen had cut him and scream tore its way from his throat a second later. Their screams mingled together, creating a horrifying symphony that illustrated their pain. Allen winced as the right side of his chest throbbed, reminding him that Jasdevi's pain had once been Allen's own.

A small smile graced the Exorcist's face as he turned to the remaining Noah just in time to see the Earl burst from the fire serpent. The Earl's dark, inhuman grin turned to face him, but Allen's smile remained.

Right then, he fought right alongside Crown Clown and his Uncle Neah like they stood right there with him, back-to-back and shoulder-to-shoulder.

"What did you—"

Tyki yelled over the screams of the other two, but before he finished his sentence, the world fell silent. The howls of pain ceased as the color bled from their skin and the stigmata across their forehead faded away one mark at a time.

"Two bodies," Allen started, eyes flicking from one half of the Noah of Bonds to the other. "But one 'Memory'."

Their shadows melted into the ground, joining at Allen's feet before forming a body that Allen caught with ease. Their old bodies melted into the shadow that made their true from come to life.

Now, their one memory was one body.

"What did you do, Boy?" Tyki asked, finishing this time. He dropped his cigarette and crushed it under his heel as his eyebrows furrowed.

"I exorcized the Noah within," Allen said with nonchalance. Behind his toneless words was a twinge of regret. Jasdevi would be forsaken by the people he'd called family for something he had no control over, just like Allen had, but they had the opposite problem. He wished to trade places with him, but what would he do without his Uncle?

Even if his Uncle wasn't the issue, the Order was wrong; they'd likely condemn him just on the principle that he had been a Noah at one point in time.

"You—"

"Oh, Allen Walker," the Earl sung with sickening sweetness, but his face changed into a contradictory, hideous grin that boiled red with anger. "What do you think you've just done?!"

"I'm just protecting my friends," Allen said, lifting the long-haired former Noah into his arms. He didn't want to hurt anyone, but things would never be that simple.

"Is that silly-looking fat ass the Earl?" Crowley asked as Lavi's serpent dissipated. They stood atop the remnants of the building they'd been in that hadn't been devoured by the Fire Seal.

"Yes," Bookman said simply as the Earl's attention turned from them to something behind him—no, someone.

"What do you think you've just done?!" he screamed at the person, his voice carrying even all the way down to where they were. It was easy to guess who he was the recipient of his anger, but it wasn't so easy to figure out how he'd managed to get all the way up there in the short amount of time that it had taken Lavi to attack the Earl.

Looking up at the sight, Lavi's eyes widened.

Did Allen intend on fighting four Noah, in addition to the Earl, without them?!

"Lavi." Chomesuke's voice came through clearly, undeterred by the fight beginning up above them. He looked into her brown eyes and she spoke bluntly, "I shouldn't think that you have any chance at winning this battle."

He stared at her, shocked by her lack of faith, but not offended. The odds weren't in their favor and Lavi wasn't delusional enough to think they were. Somehow, he knew what she was going to say before she did just because he saw what her eyes followed. A flicker of white darted across the battlefield, blade locked with that of the Earl's. What she was focused on was Allen Walker and he too was mesmerized by the sight. "And if it wasn't for Lord Allen, I don't think you would. Lavi, I think he's the only one who can defeat the Millennium Earl and the Noah."

Her words served as a reminder of the prophecy Hevlaska had given Allen. The Destroyer of Time. It was impossible for Chomesuke to know about the future that Hevlaska had read in Allen's Innocence, so why did she speak with such certainty that Allen was the one who'd defeat the Earl?

"You saw his face then, Lavi. Can you really say that someone like Lord Allen deserves to wear a face like that?" she asked and his eye turned back to the battle. He remembered the look in his eyes when Allen had confessed to crying. That forced smile he'd been wearing looked like it had been on the verge of collapse and his eyes had glistened like he about to burst into tears again.

"That's all I know how to do anymore, Lavi."

Bottled up emotions were eating away at his friend. He needed to say something. He needed to vent. Without worrying about what the others would say, Allen needed to shed those tears and let them escape so he could move on. As caring as Allen was, he deserved better. That they'd let him suffer was more than just sad.

It was disgraceful.

"If something happens to me, would you protect everyone in my place?"

Allen's words echoed in his head and unease settled in his stomach. Whatever plan Allen was concocting, it was one that none of them would like—Lavi already didn't like it and he didn't even know what it was. Not exactly, anyways. Allen Walker did not planning on returning. For whatever reason, he thought this would be his last mission with the Order.

Could Lavi sit back like a good Bookman and let it happen?

In the short time that they'd known each other, they'd become fast friends. He would dare say that Allen was akin to a little brother. Something deep in his chest—the heart that these people had reminded him he had—clenched at the thought of losing him to whatever plagued him.

"Please help him, Lavi."

"You don't need to ask me to do that," Lavi said, gritting his teeth as his grasp on his hammer tightened.

Lavi didn't need to turn and look at his friends to see that they hadn't been able to follow the conversation well, but the explanation would have to wait. There were more important things than bringing them up to speed.

He turned and leapt from the building. Crowley was the only one who followed after him.

Whether it was from the Noah or himself, Lavi would save him; he would protect him.

No matter how many pieces you break into, I'll put you back together.

A/N: Hope you guys enjoyed!