As they hid Allen had decided to activate his eye; to check on Eliade and see if Tyki was following them.
"Your magic is turning gray." Allen commented.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Arystar questioned immediately.
"It's nothing, just my magic is a little weaker. So fret not dear. What we need to focus on is dealing with that blasted wizard." Eliade explained.
"And we need to find out how to get Lavi back. I'm not sure if what I did to break you away from Tyki will be the same for him." Allen shuddered as he thought back on Lavi's blank stare.
"…The flowers. We can use the flowers." Eliade pointed out. While Allen stared at the woman in confusing Arystar moved over and grabbed her by the shoulders.
"Eliade you just said your magic is weaker now, you can't use the flowers. The strain would be too much…" Arystar whimpered as he changed to a hug.
"What's going on? What flowers are you talking about? And if you need magic I'm sure I can deal with it." Allen questioned as he took a few steps away from the couple.
"Just underneath he throne room is a garden full of giant man-eating flowers. They've been dormant for months, but with the right amount of magic I can wake them up and control them." Eliade explained as she rubbed soothing circles on Arystar's back.
"You shouldn't need to do that, I'm sure I can." Allen offered, "But the new question is how do we get Tyki to them?"
"The floor can easily be destroyed. If he's not expecting it and we time things just right he won't have time to react before he gets entangled in vines." Arystar finally let Eliade go to turn around and give Allen a very serious look. Allen nodded, and as he did he noticed movement in the corner of his eye. He flinched and turned to get a better look.
"A black butterfly?" Allen muttered under his breath when he spotted his target.
"What's wrong?" Eliade asked when she noticed Allen's movements.
"Nothing. False alarm." Allen shook his head and sighed. After that he, Eliade, and Arystar huddled closer to work out the details of their plan. Meanwhile, the little butterfly flew to the throne room and fluttered right over to Tyki. The wizard held out a hand and let the butterfly land in his palm.
"Man-eating flowers under the throne room? Ha as if that would be of any issue to me. Perhaps I overestimated my cousin. What do you think kitten?" Tyki used his free hand to run it over Lavi's head.
"A-Allen…" Lavi weakly mewled.
"Nonetheless, with this I'll rid of that traitorous akuma and idiotic vampire and get Neah out of this dump. It should be easy enough so you just keep sitting there and looking pretty." Tyki shook his head and sent the butterfly back into the air. "As long as the cat is away the mice get to play." The wizard went from chuckling to laughter and watched the butterfly fly out a window. He then sat back down in the throne and awaited Allen's arrival. Speaking of Allen, he and his two companions were already on their way to the throne room.
"Say, don't you think it's weird that Tyki didn't follow us?" Arystar muttered as they got closer to the throne room.
"It's a big castle…but I do agree something doesn't feel right." Allen sighed. It was quiet after that until the doors to the throne room were opened.
"And the lambs return for their slaughter." Tyki threw his hands up into the air with an excited smile on his face.
"We're not afraid of you Tyki." Allen defended and stood in front of Arystar and Eliade.
"That may be true for you, but not your companions." Tyki hummed and stared directly at Arystar who had started shaking.
"Enough, I stood my ground against Road and I'll do the same here!" Allen yelled and started to run towards the other wizard.
"Careful now." Tyki smirked as Lavi went and grabbed Allen by the hands. Allen gasped in shock and pain as Lavi's claws sunk into the back of his hands.
"You Noah and your puppets." Allen hissed and glared at Tyki; he hadn't expected for him to use Lavi as Road had used Lenalee. Tyki's smile fell and he adopted a glare of his own.
"I don't like hearing that damn panther's words coming out of your mouth." Tyki started to step away from the throne. "I really didn't want to harm my kitten but I guess I have no choice." The wizard let out a sigh and stomped a foot into the stone flooring. The stones rumbled and before anyone could react the floor fell out from under everyone. Allen had let go of Lavi and as he fell he got grabbed mid-air by vines. Lavi had continued to fall and landed way too close to the mouth of one of the man-eaters.
"Lavi!" Allen shouted and started to squirm; which only caused the vines around him to tighten. Tyki was just casually standing in the air, while Eliade and Arystar were just on the ground with vines that threatened to touch them both.
"Oh good it doesn't want to eat him." Tyki let out a sigh of relief as he looked down to the now unconscious Lavi. He then made his way over to stand in front of Allen.
"Dammit, we should have considered the fact he knew about the flowers! He's been in the castle for so long now…" Eliade cried out.
"I was aware of the garden but not of the man-eating flowers." Tyki chuckled as he turned to see his little black butterfly returning from the outside world. "That didn't take very long…"
"The tease! How could I have forgotten!" Eliade gasped.
"That's right you stupid akuma, my tease followed you and reported back about your little plan." Tyki snickered as the butterfly disappeared into his hand.
"Don't you dare belittle her!" Arystar hissed as he went to pull Eliade back from some of the vines.
"Silence!" Tyki huffed, "All I want is Neah, the rest of you are just annoyances." The flowers then began to move around and they turned to Eliade and Arystar. The flower that also held Lavi decided to bite down on his foot which had caused him to cry out.
"Leave them alone!" Allen began to struggle even more.
"Allen don't worry about us!" Eliade called out as the vines finally entangled around her.
"Eliade!" Arystar yelped when he noticed she was caught. He then attempted to pull the vines off of her, which only caused him to get cut up by thorns.
"Arystar, please don't…I'm bound to die this day, so please drink from me. Use your powers and allow me to be apart of you one last time." Eliade weakly explained. Arystar opened his mouth wanting to argue, but he saw the look in his beloved's face. She was set on this. With a sniffle Arystar began to hug Eliade and nuzzled her neck. Allen had turned away to give the couple a small bit of privacy and quickly came up with something to keep Tyki distracted.
"You're a sick bastard Tyki. I can't believe how far the Noah family has fallen." Allen grumbled out, knowing his words would deeply bother the wizard.
"You haven't seen anything dear cousin." Tyki hissed slightly and grabbed Allen by the chin. With a final bit of strength Allen got his left hand free of the vines and grabbed Tyki by his collar.
"You'll be lucky to see the end of this day." For a second Allen's eyes looked gold and with a surge of magic there was a small explosion between the pair. Tyki was blown back and Allen was freed of the vines and began to fall. There was a loud roar and a figure quickly jumped to Allen's rescue. With blurry vision Allen looked up to his rescuer. It was Arystar, but he looked menacing and ready to kill; completely unlike his usual demeanor.
"I will not allow Eliade's death be in vain," Arystar growled, "Go get your friend and I'll deal with this bastard." The vampire put Allen onto his feet and dashed off towards the still dazed wizard. There was all kinds of noises as Allen walked over to Lavi; who happened to be dropped by the man-eating flower during the explosion. Falling to his knees, Allen pulled Lavi's body close.
"Lavi…" The ex-farmhand smiled when he noticed that the redhead no longer had any black marking on his face. "But I can't let Arystar deal with Tyki all alone." Allen turned to watch the fight above.
"Don't worry Moyashi, I can help." Leave it for Kanda to show up at just the right time. The samurai dismounted Timcanpy and pulled out his blade. With Tyki distracted Kanda jumped right into the fight, his sword digging deep into the wizard's shoulder.
"Just know the vampire is on our side!" Was all Allen yelled out as Timcanpy trotted over and rubbed his head against Lavi's. "He's ok Tim." Allen sighed as he leaned his head onto the pegasus's neck.
"Shit, I didn't think I had a lot of time." Tyki hissed as he jumped back and away from Kanda. "I should have listened to Road…" He then disappeared in flash. Everyone was left confused, but the flowers died down and the atmosphere felt calmer in a whole.
"He just left?" Arystar questioned as he started to calm down and began to look more normal. Kanda completely ignored the vampire as he strode over to Allen and Lavi.
"He okay?" Kanda asked and looked Lavi over.
"Yeah, whatever spell he was under is gone. Kanda…I'm glad you made it." Allen let out a sigh of relief.
"Tsk, next time don't run off." Kanda huffed and squatted so that he could rub shoulders with Allen.
"I could say the same to you." Allen pushed against the other.
"Um, excuse me Allen." Eyes turned to look at Arystar.
"Yeah?" Allen hummed.
"May I accompany you on your journey. Without Eliade I am nothing…but I'd willingly lay my life down for you." Arystar stated with surprising seriousness. Before Allen could speak up, Kanda stood and looked Arystar dead in the eyes.
"You swear on that fact? That you will vow your life away as my mate's knight?" Kanda stated with a small twitch of his tail.
"I will, on my honor as a Krory. May I perish before a hair on his head is harmed." Arystar stuttered slightly.
"Tsk, may it never need to come to that." Kanda gave a nod and then took Allen by surprise by taking him into his arms.
"I can walk Jerkanda!" Allen yelped and blushed.
"Shush." Kanda huffed and Allen calmed right down.
"Vampire, put Lavi on the pegasus and meet us outside." Kanda ordered. Arystar nodded and went to doing so as Kanda exited the castle with Allen.
"You were really worried weren't you?" Allen sighed and gripped the front of Kanda's shirt tightly.
"…Yu." Kanda hummed.
"Huh? Yeah I guess I was worried about you too." Allen admitted.
"No, my first name, you should be allowed to know it and use it. It's Yu, Y-U." Kanda placed Allen back onto his feet.
"Oh." Allen's blush darkened and he stared into Kanda's eyes.
"The road from here will only be more dangerous. We may have to face the Earl; also known as Adam the Necromancer. As well as my own brother." Kanda muttered and rubbed the left side of Allen's face.
"We can do it. Now quit being sappy it's scary coming from you." Allen pulled away from Kanda's touch.
"Allen." Kanda growled. Allen's eyes grew wide and his defenses were down when Kanda swooped in for a kiss. The ex-farmhand melted into the samurai and he sighed into the kiss.
"Go Yu!" The kiss was immediately broken and eyes turned to see Lavi leaning up from his lying position on Timcanpy.
"Go ahead kill him." Allen whined and turned his head in shame. Kanda grunted and pulled out his sword. Lavi squeaked and fell off the pegasus. Allen couldn't help but laugh. What a family he ended up with. He wouldn't let his old one dare get in this one's way.
