To address a question I have been getting a lot lately; No this is not a pairing fic. Well there IS a little bit if LenaleeXLavi but I have no set pairings in mind. Although I do leave it kind of open so you can take away any pairing you want. :D

This chapter is a tad late because SOMEONE jinxed my muse. (Joking)

"K-Kanda?" Neah repeated in surprise. Allen took a step back and he nodded solemnly. "Did you remember something?"

"No, I ran into Kanda on the outside and he followed me in here! He's in the Ark and Timcampy joined up with him!" Allen said and there was an edge of panic to his voice. Neah strode past Allen and cautiously peered outside of the piano room before he gently shut the door. Kanda had not been waiting just outside the door and now that it was shut, no one could get in that Neah didn't want to come in.

"Where is he?" Neah asked and he turned around to look at Allen.

"I don't know. I used the passageway that you showed me and got away while he was looking at an open doorway." Allen explained. Neah guessed that the 'open doorway' must have been the connection to Mana's grave site.

One of the things that Neah had found when he had first come to Ark was a series of seeming random tunnels that could quickly transport a person from one end of the Ark to the other. They were incredibly useful and as far as Neah knew, none of the Noah had ever discovered them. So one of the first things that Neah had shown to Allen was the passages hidden all over the Ark. Neah hadn't trusted Timcampy enough to let him hand around during the tour so the little golem had been devoured by a cat in Mexico by 'unfortunate coincidence'.

This was a lousy situation. Allen looked exhausted but even at full power he would be no match for Kanda. Not as a twelve year old kid, anyway and Neah was dead on his feet. He was injured and more weary than he had been since his death. Not only that but they were up against a perfectly healthy and remarkably powerful exorcist and a sentient golem.

Gad damn it, Cross! Who the hell makes a sentient golem? What were you thinking? Neah thought. I should have destroyed the little fucker when I had the chance.

"Neah?" Allen asked cautiously and Neah realized that he had been scowling off into space for the last couple of minutes. "Are you okay?" Allen's eyes looked big and Neah gave him a strained smile.

"Just fretting over nothing," Neah said dismissively. He walked past Allen again but this time he ruffled the kid's hair as he passed. Neah made his way over to the piano and he sat down on the long bench.

"What are you doing?" Allen asked. Neah realized that Allen had followed him and was now hovering just behind his shoulder. Neah shifted to one side of the bench and he pat the space next to him as a signal for Allen to sit down. He waited until Allen plopped down next to him before answering.

"I'm going to destroy the door to earth so Kanda cannot get through and find backup." Neah explained. In all likelihood, Lenalee was already at the site of his capture because of her dark boots and the others were on their way. The last thing Neah needed was to have all of those people running around and trying to kill him. "Then we have to deal with him."

Allen was about to say something but he fell silent the second Neah's fingers touched the keys to keep him from becoming distracted and missing a note. Of course, Neah could have played the song in his sleep but he did enjoy having a captive audients.

The door was destroyed after the first few notes but Neah continued to play for a long time after that. When he had created the room he had invested a vast amount of power into it although at the time it had seemed like nothing. Now that he was in such a weakened state, utilizing the room returned trace amounts of power back to him and it made recovery that much easier. On top of that, Neah really loved playing the piano.

XXX

Kanda walked slowly through the Ark, following Timcampy and keeping an eye out for Allen. How stupid did he have to be to let one little kid escape? Not only that but he knew for a fact that the Ark was the one place that Allen never got lost in and that would make finding him incredibly difficult. That was only amplified by the fact that Kanda's actions had doubtlessly convinced Allen that he was an enemy.

To Kanda it seemed almost ironic that once he had helped Allen recover from transforming into Neah, then he had almost forced the Moyashi to transform, and now Allen was running to Neah for protection from Kanda. Kanda smiled humorlessly and he wrapped his fingers around the hilt of Mugen.

Kanda had given his Innocents to Allen after he left the Order. Even if he had kept it, he would not have been able to use it for fear of becoming a Fallen One. Fortunately, katanas were remarkably easy to come by in Italy so Kanda had wasted no time in getting a new one and naming it Mugen as well. It was stupid, true, and it was slightly pathetic, granted, but it made Kanda feel a hell of a lot better. He was up against a Noah without any Innocents and that had to be the dumbest thing Kanda had ever done in his short life so he needed what little comfort he could get.

Up ahead, Timcampy stopped in front of a door and it flew across its surface as if it was looking for a way in. Evidently, Tim couldn't find what it was looking for because it shot back towards Kanda and zoomed by so quickly that Kanda's hair was blown back. Kanda spun around to see that Tim had come to a standstill right in front of a different door and it was looking at Kanda expectantly.

"That one?" Kanda asked and Timcampy did the golem equivalent of rolling his eyes. "Yeah, well I don't like you either." Kanda grumbled resentfully. He pushed open the selected door and Timcampy shot inside.

With a little more dignity, Kanda stepped into what could only be described as a child's bedroom. There was a ridiculously huge bed against the back wall and every surface was covered in books and toys. The mess was stark contrast to the rest of the Ark and it seemed almost natural. As if it was occupied by a human.

"Allen's…?" Kanda hazarded a guess as he watched Timcampy settle down morosely in it's Master's bed. "Why here?"

"It just knows that it's not going to get to see it's Master again." Someone said from the doorway and Kanda's heart skipped a beat. It was Allen's voice, not the child-Allen but the one Kanda remembered only now it had an edge of cold hatred mixed with sickeningly sweet music. Neah. "Poor little Tim…you think it regret's it's betrayal?"

"He hasn't betrayed Allen." Kanda said without turning around. His hand was wrapped so tightly around the hilt of Mugen that his knuckles had turned white and his breath had quickened. He was up against a Noah! Kanda could barely take one down with Innocents, without it he as good as dead.

"I suppose it has tried to remain loyal…I wonder if it could be reprogrammed…" Neah mused and Kanda heard muffled footsteps on the room's carpet. "Probably not, it is one of Cross's creations. It'll be as stubborn as it's creator was." Neah said and the hairs on the back of Kanda's neck prickled as Neah got closer.

It was time to die, Kanda decided and he unsheathed Mugen as quick as a bolt of lightning. However, Neah was quicker. A hand grabbed the wrist that held Mugen and the blade fell as Neah squeezed a pressure point. Kanda was kicked in the back and he fell forward, hitting his head against the toy chest at the foot of Allen's ridiculous bed.

"Don't bother." Neah laughed as Kanda tried to struggle out of the muddled fog caused by the contact. "I can destroy you easily, former exorcist." Kanda growled and he glared at Neah. Part of Kanda wasn't ready to see a face almost identical to Allen's taking pleasure in causing pain but the greater part of him was too pissed off to care.

Kanda started to struggle to his feet when Neah delivered a mean left hook to his jaw and Kanda was down for the count. Neah's power had surged upward in the brief period of being away from Innocents. After constant usage of Dark Matter and being wounded by Innocents, Neah had assumed that he would be slaughtered by Kanda. After all, even being around the Crown Clown had slowed his healing speed to a crawl and he was still whipped out.

That was until he remembered that Kanda had given the real Mugen to Allen when he had fled the Order. Neah had been fighting for control at that time and so he had been paying little attention to what those around Allen had been doing but that wasn't really an excuse for forgetting something so important. An exorcist was something Neah was unable to handle at the moment but a human? That was a piece of cake, even if said human was an over-aggressive, sword wielding sociopath.

Timcampy buried himself deeper into Allen's blankets but Neah paid him no heed.

"Well then, Yuu-chan," Neah purred to the dazed Kanda. He bent down and sat on his heels so that he could their faces were level. Kanda's eyes came into focus and Neah hummed an eerie tune under his breath. To Kanda, it felt as though a thousand iron chains slithered over his body like serpents and bound him in place.

That was just a taste of the powers Neah had, to transform his words into something almost tangible. Sure, there were no real chains but it felt real enough to Kanda and that was all he needed. If the human mind thought it felt something then it could become real. Belief was a power thing. Belief in an illusion spun by a song of words was more than enough to keep Kanda bound in place, especially because there were no Innocents in the area so none of Neah's Noah powers had been dulled.

Kanda tried to struggle but his body would not move. Instead, the samurai had to settle for glaring resentfully at Neah. He felt strangely calm, even though he was literally staring death in the face. "Don't call me Yuu." Kanda finally spat but this just made Neah burst out laughing.

"I will when you stop calling Allen Moyashi!" Neah said as he stood up. Then, with a speed that was almost frightening, Neah stopped laughing and his face turned dead serious. Kanda was disturbed by the sudden transition and the following silence felt smothering. "Why are you here?" Neah demanded and he added a musical edge to his voice that demanded the truth.

"I'm here to save Allen." Kanda snarled.

"Save him? From me? Then what?"

"Tell him the truth!"

"Do you think he would believe you?"

"I-"

"You might not have realized this but the Order and the Earl are both after Allen's blood. Well, my blood but they don't seem to be able to tell the difference. If you 'save' him then you'll just sentence him to death. They will find him no matter where you take him. This Ark is the only safe place for him." Neah said in a cold voice. "And anyway, before you take him away you have to find him and then you need to convince him that you're telling the truth."

"I will make him know that it's the truth! I'll make him remember!" Kanda was getting tiered of the smug look on Neah's face and he wanted nothing more than to punch it.

"Make him remember? Good luck with that." Neah said with a smirk and he felt Allen's lost memories stir in the back of his mind. Neah could destroy then without batting an eye but you never knew when such things would come in handy.

"Timcampy can-!"

"Speaking of which, where'd that little bastard fly off to?" Neah wondered and Kanda growled. Did that damn Noah ever listen? Neah looked around and he quickly spotted the gold gleam of a wing tip jutting out from under a small heap of blankets. The golem was more trouble than it was worth. The fact that it had led Kanda here was more than enough proof that Timcampy was too unpredictable. It wanted to help Allen, even if it played the role of traitor and Allen grew to hate him.

That kind of devotion was something that Neah felt was too dangerous to keep around. He walked around the irate Kanda and he snatched up Timcampy with one hand.

"Do you know why I let you live?" Neah asked Tim gently. The golem struggled desperately in Neah's grip but it was unable to break free. "It was because I felt that with you around, Allen would be more likely to come to trust me. And it worked. Allen is as loyal to me as he once was to the Order" Although he trusts me less than half as much as he trusted Cross or Mana. Neah added silently.

Kanda didn't know what to say so he just watched with a look of surprise on his face. Even Timcampy had stopped struggling while Neah talked. All eyes were on him and Neah smirked in delight. "But now what? I don't need you and you betrayed him. So…please die." Neah said gently and his fingers tightened around Timcampy.

The little golem struggled desperately as little hairline fractures appeared around Neah's fingers then the fractures deepened into long cracks. There was a final resounding bang as Timcampy's clay body finally shattered into dust and sifted through Neah's hand.

Timcampy was dead.

As Kanda watched the Noah rub the remains of Tim into the carpet with his shoe he knew that along with the golem, all hopes he had of saving Moyashi were now gone.

OOoooooOOhhh... Character death!