A/N: Huzzah, 'tis ready for viewing! - But I'm not so sure this does my original plans justice. Ah, well; what's done is done. There is still more to come - perhaps two or three more chapters? - so hopefully I can work in some of the things I have been leaving out, and wrap up what I can.

Review, pretty please with sugarcubes and apples on top? - Wait, who am I talking to, horses? Lemme rephrase that: Review, pretty please with hot smexy yaoi on top? ;D

[14]
.Into The Finale Rhythm.

"We can't waste time," Allen says grimly, and every last one of us nods in horrified agreement. "We need to call Kanda, and start packing. We have a dangerous journey ahead of us, and it's on a rather unstable path."

He sounds confident and yet fearful, wise and yet naïve, tough and yet crumbling. I move to Allen's side and hold him, rubbing his shoulder with one hand and cradling his waist with the other. I bury my face in the crook of his neck and tell him, "Whatever happens, promise me that you'll stay close. The last time we went into battle we were separated, and…"

"And you don't want to go through death for a second time," Allen whispers hoarsely. "I promise you won't, Lavi. I'm going to watch your back, and I know that you'll watch mine in return. We're going to fight, but we're not going to do it alone."

"Good," I reply as I lift my head to stare into his eyes. The pupil of his left eye is pulsating eagerly, and flashing red and black every so often. I trace the lightning bolt-like scar running down his cheek. "Because I wasn't planning on anything else."

He nods once, and then we break apart and scramble like everyone else in the house to gather supplies and weapons. I take my hammer from my backpack, Allen flexes his arm and practices the transformation several times over (and winces each time), Linalee straps on her thickest, most pointed pair of heels, and Kanda arrives with a slimmer version of kendo padding paired with a sword in his hands. It isn't Mugen, merely an ordinary katana, but it will do.

Even Komui readies himself by taking out a pair of nunchucks and swinging them around surprisingly masterfully. We all stare at him. I question him with a confused frown on my face, asking how the hell he knows how to use nunchucks.

Komui flashes a grin. "What, did you think that I'm completely useless and learned nothing from my Asian heritage?"

I laugh unsurely, mostly due to the atmosphere. "Nah, man, I never doubted you, I just didn't know that you could use those as a weapon, of all things."

"They can be quite handy," Komui sing-songs as he lashes out with another whipping strike of the metal-plated wooden nunchucks. He stops them cold and holds a specific stance, one that reminds me of all of those kung-fu movies, the ones with Bruce Li and Jackie Chan playing the leading star roles. "But I'm a little out of practice. I haven't messed with these since my college days."

I wave that aside. "Which were, what, under ten years ago? You'll be fine, Komui. What you can do now is already pretty impressive."

"Thanks," he smiles, and there's a keen light in lenses of his glasses that remind me of the good ol' days.

"I think this might actually work out," I relay to Allen a few minutes later.

But he doesn't seem to agree. He shakes his head slowly, silver hair bouncing and swaying. "I'm not so sure, Lavi," he murmurs. "Tyki is pretty powerful, and Lulubell can be anybody. What if she impersonates one of our friends to try and trick us?"

"That is possible," I sigh in defeat. "But we have to buck up, Allen. If we don't have a fraction of confidence or hope in us, then we will definitely fail. But if we pull together and keep looking on the bright side…"

"What bright side?" he snaps back. "There's not much of a bright side left. I know that you were always the one between us who would smile – even if it was forced – and remind me to, 'keep your head in the game and out of despair and shame,' but I'm not sure if I can –"

"You can, alright? We all can. Don't sell yourself short, Allen. You have always had such greatness in you, despite the dark things that have held you back in the past," I tell him firmly, my hands clamping down on his shoulders with sudden intensity. I shake him minutely. "Don't give up on my now, Allen Walker. Not before the fight's even begun! That's not your style, and I'll be damned if it becomes your style now."

He takes a sharp breath. "You're right. Damn it all, Lavi, you're right. I'm being stupid; I'm letting my nerves and fears get the best of me. This isn't the eighteen hundreds, this is the two-thousands, and things are different. We're not trapped or limited any more."

"That's right," I grin, and slap him on the back. "So c'mon, lover, and let's get cracking."

"Mhm," he agrees, and we follow the others in piling objects into the backs of our cars. Komui says that he will lead our group because he knows exactly where the church and windmill are located. We don't argue with him.

"Alright, all aboard who's going aboard!" Komui hollers to us as he stands outside of the driver's seat of his car, his hand balancing him as he hands off of the car door, left ajar. "Yuu, come ride with us. Allen, you ride with Lavi. And Red, please try to keep up."

"Why does every older guy feel the need to call me 'Red'?" I mutter under my breath as I slam my truck's door shut and snap my seatbelt into place. "Cross did it, random strangers too, and now Komui…"

Allen climbs into the passenger seat and slams his own door closed. He buckles himself and with a rigid spine and clenched fists, he turns to me. "I hate this."

"No one said that you had to like it," I shrug.

"I need music to distract my thoughts," he states, and leans over to turn on the radio. Loud metal music blasts out of nowhere, causing the two of us to wince. I pull out of Linalee's driveway and tag Komui's car while Allen surfs for a different channel to listen to. He comes to an alternative rock station and stays there.

And then we're on the road, riding to what could be a great triumph or the biggest letdown of our lives.

I can only hope that the pain and suffering is kept to a minimum.

o0-0o

The drive is long – tense and anything but boring, but especially time consuming – and takes precisely two hours and seventeen minutes, which is roughly what Tyki estimated in his letter to us.

It bothers me the entire time we're riding towards our last stand who it was that delivered the note and practically sold us out. I can't come with any answers, though, and soon it won't even matter.

I noticed while we were driving that the cities and suburbs became more and more scarce, and the cows and farms became greater in number, and the land went from flat and cement-based to hilly and spotted with forests. I've never been this far southwest of this state before, and had no idea that it could look like this.

It's all so wonderful and frightening and amazing.

Our two vehicles pull into a gas station in the last town prior to our destination, which is about half an hour's drive away, into the country, and broken pieces of an abandoned and ruined village. The clock is just turning four. We have two hours left, and yet we are already here.

"We should rest and train to gather our strength after sitting still for so long," Kanda points out in a low grumble as soon as our gar tanks are full and so are our stomachs with cheap gas station food.

Allen, for once, is on the same page as Kanda. "Kanda's got the right idea. We should all nap for fifteen to twenty minutes, and then warm up with our weapons someplace that isn't easily spotted by the public."

"I like that plan," I add. "I could use a little time to rest my eyes. I barely blinked the whole time I was driving, I was so tense!" I look to my pal Lina, and take into account the fall of her shoulders and lack of warrior spirit in her posture. "Linalee? How are you holding up?"

Linalee has been awfully quiet, and part of me thinks it could be because she witnessed Rhode being killed. Well, perhaps not entirely; she did look away unlike what I did. But she was still present when it occurred. And despite her wearing some (literally) kick-ass boots and carrying a small switchblade in a garter around her thigh, I think she's not prepared for this. She doesn't want to fight people. This version of Linalee is… a lot more frail than the one I knew. This Linalee doesn't have as much to fight for or as much to lose, and she doesn't have any Innocence, nor any real training. This version of Linalee is much more outgoing and chipper, and cries easier.

And yet, in this moment, she looks completely numb.

Komui catches the concern in my tone as I say her name and ask her what's wrong, and he steps over to us to place a hand on her thin shoulder. "Lina, baby? Are you okay?" he asks her.

She glances up at her older brother. Tears spring to her eyes, and she curls into his chest. "Komui," she sobs, "I don't know if I'm capable of hurting someone. I've only seen gang fights and one-on-one battles in movies, and those look so scary, and people bleed and people die, and I don't want that to happen to any of my friends, or my boyfriend, or you."

She hiccups, and Komui pats her on the back a couple times and tightens his grip in a soothing, protective manner. "Shh. It's going to be okay, Linalee. If you want, just us guys will take care of things. You can stay in this town and –"

"No," she says immediately, cutting him off. She lifts her head, and her expression is that of sheer rage and pain. "I would never forgive myself if I let myself hide while all of you risked your lives. I need to be there, Komui. I just wish… that in was a better fighter, that's all."

"In that case," Kanda responds from afar, "We have an hour and a half before we have to leave. In that time, I can teach you come basic combat that might save your life, or another's."

Her head whips around to her boyfriend, who is leaning against the side of my truck's bed, and a grateful smile lifts her lips. She paces over to him and hugs his slim waist. "Thanks, Yuu," she replies softly.

"Now that that's settled," I interject, "We should find a place to relax and practice."

"I know of a nice meadow nearby," Komui informs us. "I used to go duck hunting with my uncle there. It's completely hidden by a forest of trees, and the sod is soft. We can rest up and then use the clearing as a training ground."

"Sweet!" I grin. I grab Allen's hand and head to my car. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get a move on!"

o0-0o

Komui bounces with renewed strength and energy after a short power-nap, much like the rest of us. Time is slowly inching closer to the midnight hour; the figurative one, at least. Not dissimilar the five-minutes-until-midnight marker on the Doom's Day clock in Watchmen, a favorite comic book of mine.

I swing my hammer back and forth, its heavy head and spiked opposing end smashing chips and stripping trees of their bark. I miss the ability to alter the size and weight of my hammer, but the one is own now is large it can nearly be considered a mallet. In addition to that, it is composed of pure steel and when thrust against Kanda's blade and Allen's arm during our sparring, sparks fly.

I study with amused intrigue as Linalee spars with her brother, sending kicks at his nunchucks with steel-toed high-heel boots. And then, with a tuck and roll in the grass, she uncovers her switchblade, flicks it out of it's casing, and jabs thrice towards Komui's midsection (although she purposely misses her target so not to harm him). She grins as he congratulates her for her effort, but the grin is off; it looks more like a cover-up smile, as if she's trying not to break.

"Linalee, why don't you rest for a little while and let us take on your brother?" I hear Allen suggest.

Her eyes flickers over to Kanda, as if asking him to encourage her to keep fighting. He surprises him by saying, "Listen to the bean sprout, Linalee."

She sighs. "Yeah, okay," Linalee murmurs in defeat. "I'll be sitting under the old oak over there."

The four of us nod to one another, expressing thoughts and agreement without words, and then dive into another mock-battle. All the while, we're glancing at the watches on our wrists or the clocks on our cell phones in at attempt to calculate when to stop and pack up to leave.

Because we can't afford to be a second late for our very, very important date. The lives of two of our closest friends – one of them being a college professor of mine – are at stake.

o0-0o

With a panicked yell, Linalee alerts us of the time: thirty five minutes until six.

We've never moved faster in our lives.

We bolt to our cars, dodging trees the whole way, and as we jump inside our vehicles, we throw our weapons beside us. The screeching of tires meets our ears as we pull off of a dirt road and enter the main street once more.

I can't seem to obey the speed limit while I race onward, my eyes scanning the left and right fields in search of a broken-down windmill or a church reduced to essentially rubble. Next to me, Allen nibbles at his cuticles and tears at his nails with his teeth, although he only does this to his right hand. His newly deformed left hand hangs limp between the seats, and yet the fingers of it twitch with adrenaline.

I drum my nails on the wheel, the dull thrump, thrump on the hardened leather echoing in my ears. I ache to hear the radio, but know that Allen is in no mood to hear music, so I don't bother to reach for the dial.

I begin listing the landmarks in my head as I race behind Komui's car.

A trashed silo with no barn. A deer crossing sign. A small white cross on the side of the road with roses under it, signifying where someone died in a car crash. A slab of road kill, either a raccoon or a opossum, although I can't be sure. A metal bend that follows the curve of the road and saves cars from falling into the bog behind it.

And then, rearing up from curve as we head downhill, the ugly muddled brown of a windmill with missing boards all over it. And, nestled in mulberry bushes in the foreground of pine trees, a grey-bricked church with three shattered painted glass windows.

We have arrived.

Allen sucks in dry air, and in my peripheral vision, I note the way his eyes temporarily close and the way his body shakes. But then he grows still.

"Lavi," he murmurs as Komui and I pull into the gravel that leads to the church.

"Yes?"

"I sense them. The Noahs are here, waiting for us."

"But we're ten minutes early!"

"Doesn't matter," he growls. "They're here."

I swallow hard. "Alright," I say, "Then it's time to end this, like Tyki wrote."

He nods firmly and leaps out of his seat as soon as his buckle is off. He throws open the door, and I park the car prior to joining him. Allen grips my hand, and I can feel the heat radiating off of the cross in the back of his left hand. We walk over to our friends, and as a group of five, we march in the direction of the large front doors of the church, complete with rusted hinges and a green-tainted copper knocker.

Allen and I reach out a hand – my left and his right, our other hands continuing their hold on the other's – and push open the doors.

Eerie candlelight meets our eyes. It reflects off of dusty mirrors and catching in the fading sunlight caught in cobwebs. Pews are scattered and tipped over across the floor, which appears to be dirt, but on further inspection I notice that it is actually dirtied and cracked tile. As some of the light from the colorful sunset streams in through the broken windows or filters in through the colored glass, an iridescent effect decorates the desolation of the abandoned building.

"Impressive," a voice echoes throughout the room, startling the bats in the rafters. They flap from one spot to another, and a few leave via the glassless windows frames. "You are right on the button. It's six o' clock, now."

"Show yourself, Tyki Mikk!" Allen barks furiously.

"In due time," Tyki replies seemingly calmly. But I can hear the undertone of insanity in his voice. "For now, I think I will share some information with you. First of all, this is hardly a fair fight; there are five of you and only two of us. But we do have super-human abilities, so we'll permit you to use three people. The other two must sit this battle out, unfortunately. In fact," he drawls with false cheerfulness, "Why don't the two who sit out take our hostages home? That's all well and good, isn't it? Because I'm sure you want those two alive."

Suddenly, we all take a step forward as Krory and Miranda drop from the ceiling and hang in the center of the church from a rope tied around their torsos. They are unconscious, but not death or too terribly harmed, although there is blood dripping languidly from Krory's fingertips on his right hand.

Miranda groans, and he head lolls to her left shoulder as her eyes peek open. The gags from the photo is gone, which frees her to speak. "Li… na… lee?" she slurs drowsily.

Linalee bursts into tears and runs forward, clashing with the back-to-back figures of our friends. "Oh, Miranda, I'm so sorry; so very, very sorry; I would have known better, should have –"

"It's… alright, dear," Miranda coughs. She must be thirsty; who knows how many hours she has gone without water. "Could you… get us down?"

Linalee nods deftly as tears cloud her vision and stream down her face. I step away from Allen to help her, but Kanda beats me to it. He withdraws his sword and saws away at the rope until it comes loose and Miranda is caught the last two feet from the ground by Linalee, and Krory by Kanda.

The half-carry, half-drag the two limp bodies towards us, and in a moment of understanding and impossible to argue with decision-making, Komui takes Krory – the poor, vampire-looking young man – and tells Kanda, Allen and me: "Linalee and I will take my car and drive back home with these two. You three will have to stay and fight the Noah. I'll leave my nunchucks and Linalee's switchblade for you. Good luck."

Allen doesn't like this plan whatsoever, and he starts to protest, but Linalee hushes him with a gentle kiss on his right cheek. "It's alright, Allen. Brother and I aren't the best fighters, anyhow. You won't miss us. Besides, we have Miranda and Mr. Krory safe and sound now." She starts crying again, and this time I'm sure it's because she can't stand the thought of leaving the three of us in such a helpless situation. "Bye, Allen. Bye, Lavi." Linalee places a lingering kiss on Kanda's lips, and for a blinking second, I see sorrow and comprehension fill his otherwise blank face. "Goodbye, Yuu. Don't get yourself too banged up, okay?" she tries to joke.

In a gesture of tenderness, I watch as Kanda replies to this with a stoke of her hair and the words, "I love you," murmured in his deep voice in an octave so low I have to read his lips in order to know what he's saying.

Linalee's gaze falls away and she cries harder, only without any sound. She gulps once, twice, and then takes a step backward. "I love you, too. So, seriously… be careful. I would never forgive you if you let yourself get hurt, understand?" she returns fiercely, and I can almost feel my own eyes prick with tears. It's similar to something Allen told me long ago…

"I love you, you stupid rabbit! So whatever you do, don't let those Akuma kick your ass when you're in China without me!" he roared in my face, his eyes watering up.

I smiled sadly. "What do you take me for, Allen? Someone who can't take care of themselves? I'll be fine. You just watch yourself, alright? I don't trust some of the Finders and Exorcists that are traveling with you."

He wiped at his eyes, even though none of the tears had fallen. "Yeah, well, you shouldn't worry about me. I'm the goddamned 'Destroyer of Time'. I'll live."

"And yet you nearly died at least three times now," I joked, but there was a certain grim tone to my words that stuck with him. I shook my head and in one movement, grabbed the back of Allen's shorter head and brought his forehead to my lips. Kissing between his bangs, I muttered onto his lightly sweating skin, "Goodbye for now, love. Do your best."

"I always do," he had said, and then he hugged me tightly before turning and running to catch his train.

I waved to his retreating back, and felt like I was losing him all over again.

I can empathize all too well with Linalee and Kanda in this moment, and it unnerves me. And while the two Lee siblings leave on their not-so-merry way, the three of us face forward to find Tyki leaning against the pastor's podium beneath a crooked crucifixion of Christ.

The Noah gestures up with a thumb at the stature of Jesus. "Sad story, isn't it?" he remarks with a hint of craze in his tone. "A virgin woman had to give birth to a holy child in a stable, and then the boy grew up with poor parents and did wonders in His lifetime for all sorts of grateful and ungrateful men and women, and then He was killed by ruthless Roman invaders who didn't believe Him when He said that He was God's son. Killed, too, in the most gruesome of ways: crucifixion. Did you know that he had to carry his own cross? Or that he was whipped repeatedly? Or what he was made fun of by wearing a crown of thorns?"

I watch as Allen brings the thin cross necklace to his lips, the same one I've seen around his neck since I met him. He doesn't kiss it, but he does say this to Tyki as he holds it in front of his mouth: "Yes, I know all about that. I've read the Bible, Tyki. And I've seen Mel Gibson's movie. But what's your point, huh? Why do you care? You're no preacher; you're the opposite."

"A sinner?" Tyki replies with a dastardly smirk. "Yes, I suppose I am. The Earl was my master and practically a father to me, and he is no holy man. He is a god, but not God Himself; he is a demon, and to some, the devil himself. So, technically speaking, that makes me hell spawn. An evil minion, a demon. But I don't feel that way, Allen Walker," he says breathily, as if being sincere. "I don't feel as though I am an evil incarnate. I may be a little off my rocker, and I may be vengeful, but I am not a demon. I possess unearthly powers, it's true, but I do not consume souls or bear bat wings or have a forked tongue and a spiked tail. I was but a man, and now I am beyond a man, but I am no ungodly creature or fallen angel. I am simply me. I am Tyki Mikk, and I can pass through solid objects with my bare hands."

These are all things we already know, but when a villain monologues, it gives us 'heroes' time to regroup and inch closer, readying an attack.

Tyki continues, never losing ground in his tale. "I brought up the Father's Son to show you that I do believe in God and devils, and that I do know where I will end up if you succeed in killing me. Like Rhode and the other Noahs murdered before me, I will go to hell. There is no salvation for someone such as me. I know this. Still, I don't want to lie back and let it happen. I am not like Rhode; I do not dream of death. Nor do I want to keep living however. It's complicated, really," he sighs, and begins to walk around the back of the podium to a tall candleholder with three plump ivory candles lit atop it. He glides his hand slowly through the flames. "What I want… is to go out with a bang, and hopefully bring you all down with me. I wonder… will you three go to hell as well?" Tyki shoots a wicked smile to Allen and me. "After all, God doesn't like homosexuals. It even reads in the Bible, 'men shall not lie with men, nor women lie with women.'"

"Like any other sin," I reply lowly, "Homosexuality can be forgiven. Besides," I add a tad lamely, "I, er, haven't had sex with Allen."

"In this life," Tyki corrects sinisterly. "But you have in the past."

"Shut up!" Allen bellows, and in seconds his arm bursts with greenish light and is enlarged and white, claws sprouting forth to grab Tyki. He simply passes through Allen's entire body, making the silver-haired boy turn as white as a sheet.

"Tsk, tsk," Tyki chides, and wags a finger to and fro. "You know better than to charge blindly, Allen."

Allen snaps out of his sick stupor and clenches his teeth. He whips around and glares at Tyki. "I hate you!" he barks. "I hate you so fucking much!"

Cruel, hysteric laughter leaks from Tyki's mouth. "I'm glad!" he cheers, and claps his hands together. "You should hate me! The more you do, the more fun this will be~!"

With a frustrated howl bursting from Allen's throat, he slashes his way around Tyki, but e man keeps dodging, and as I'm about to leap in to assist him like I promised, Lulubell flies down from the rafters and lands in front of me. I stop dead in my tracks, halfway to Allen. She looks between Kanda and me. "Hello, doves," she coos, "Are you looking for trouble?"

I grind my teeth and feel my stomach lurch as a sandy, gritty taste assaults my tongue. "Get out of my way, Lulubell," I threaten darkly.

"Why?" she pouts. "Is it because you want to help your bedmate? Well, too bad. I'm going to play with you instead."

Insulted by her term for Allen, I swing my hammer and bolt forward. She smiles and in a flash, she looks exactly like my mother, and I stumble. I know that it's Lulubell, I do, but… the Noah has copied my mother's features down to a tee, and it's as if I'm staring directly at the framed photo in my bedroom, minus the pregnant belly that's supposed to contain me within it.

"Lavi, sweetie," she purrs in a voice that sounds like the VHS tapes I have at home featuring my mom in them, "What are you doing? You wouldn't come after your mommy, would you?"

I bite my lip, and there is a stinging sensation in the back of my eyes that will bring tears if I can't contain myself properly. "You're not my mother," I hiss, and I swallow down the bile rising in my throat as I squeeze my eyes shut and charge forward to strike.

When I open my eyes upon feeling impact, Lulubell is wide-eyed behind a cement pillar off to the side of the pews. She grows small, and turns into a younger version of myself. "It's not nice to hit people," she cries, and her eyes are so blaringly green like my own that it makes me sick all over again.

Kanda spears behind her. "Don't get distracted, Lavi," he tells me, and she screams the scream I had as a child and ducks between his legs in an attempt to escape his sword as he brings it down above where her head used to be.

I shake myself loose with closed eyes and a rub at my temples. I get my feet moving, and prepare myself not to fall for anything again. This is not like the Ark with Rhode's illusions; this is totally different, I remind myself.

But as I return to battle, I find myself gazing upon two Kandas chasing one another, one with a sword and the other with a torch made out of a plank of wood set on fire by a cluster of fallen candles. Flames roar and lick along the pews, setting fire to whatever is touching. Moldy Bibles go up in flames.

"You are pathetic!" the torch-armed Kanda tells the other one. "You will never live up to your father! You will never make u for your sins! You are a spineless, cold-hearted young man that will never amount to anything. You don't deserve a lovely girl like Linalee. You will burn in hell with the rest of us!"

"I will kill you," the sword-armed Kanda retorts venomously.

"Kill Yuu? But I am Yuu! I'm Yuu Kanda! And who are you?" Lulubell giggles, and reverts back to herself. She spins around in circles. "You're nobody. I could easily rid the world of you and take your place. I could go home to Linalee, give her a big, fat kiss on the cheek, and then stick a knife in her throat. Blood everywhere!" And she launches herself off of an overturned pew to jab the flaming torch into Kanda's left rack of ribs.

Kanda screams, truly screams, and it's all I can do to cover my ears to prevent them from bleeding due to the high-pitched wail. Lulubell surrenders to maniacal laughter, but it isn't a wise thing to choose to do, because while she's sidetracked by her own shrieking giggles, Kanda gets up from his knees and rams her into the wall, pinning her in the arm with his sword. Her blood, much like Rhode's, runs brown-black down the blade. She sputters but does not let out a single painful sound. Instead, she grins masochistically, and walks forward until her arm is severed at the elbow. She rotates her body and clubs a shocked Kanda in the side of the head with her halved arm. Her blood dribbles down his face and along his neck as he stumbles backward. I catch him and haul him to his feet.

"Is that all you got?" Lulubell sneers, and as she says this, a new forearm grows from her elbow with bloody fingers knotting into a fist.

"Y-you can regenerate?!" I stutter in accusation.

She laughs again. "Of 'course I can! I'm the lone Noah who is able to. It's because, in order to look like someone else, I have to be able to mimic their bodies in every single way, including missing limbs or extra toes. My bones rearranged themselves, as do my muscles and vocal cords; everything changes, even my body fat. The only thing that stays constant is my brain and blood." She shrugs. "But you don't need to know this, really. We should just keep fighting!"

And so begins another round.

I quickly steal a glance at Allen. My heart twists and my stomach drops as I spot dark red blood trickling down from Allen's head, matting his hair on one side. There is also a limp in his step that shouldn't be there. "Allen!" I call out to him, and rush over towards him.

"Ah-ah-ah," Lulubell scolds happily, "No rescuing your damsel in distress until you're done playing with me," she says.

I set my hammer between my legs and crack my fingers and neck. Re-gripping the handle, I cock my arms behind my head and ready myself to take aim and lop off another one of her limbs. Regeneration or not, if a head does flying or too much blood is lost, a creature will not survive the attack. It's basic monster-logic.

I signal Kanda, and he nods once. We run alongside one another and swing downwards with our weapons at the same time. Lulubell make a choking noise, and coughs up her thick, brownie-batter-looking blood as we land a blow to her gut, my hammer knocking her back into the wall and Kanda's sword creating a gash in her hip.

She shifts her appearance into that of Linalee. The two of us stop dead in our tracks. "It's cruel, you know," the fake Linalee sputters, "It's cruel, what you did to us; what you're still doing. We're just people," she whispers sweetly, her voice mirroring that of our Lina. "Why do you want to kill us off? In the past, and now…. Tyki was just joking about all of that revenge stuff; he's beyond that, truly," she keeps saying as she limps around a pillar towards Allen and Tyki, battling it out. "And I was never into the revenge stuff much; you have to believe that."

Kanda clenches his jaw shut, and in a strange moment, I can imagine a cartoon version of him with cracking teeth from the pressure of the action. I wipe my mind of the image, nearly bursting out in hysteric laughter from the wackiness and stress of it all.

Lulubell sinks to the floor and chuckles bitterly. "I can't even believe that I got sucked into this mess."

And just like that, I figure out what's going on here: Tyki has been the brains of the operations all along, the main man with a plan for all these years, and during that time poor Lulubell and Rhode were dragged along and forced to do as he said for fear of the unknown and unfamiliar.

For a fleeting second, I pity Lulubell.

But only for a second.

In the next second, I'm telling Kanda to deal with the wounded Lulubell while I help Allen handle the psychotic Tyki Mikk. He complies with a single nod, and readies his sword. I scoop my hammer off the ground. It's time to show Allen that I'm capable of protecting him, and it's also time to show Tyki that he shouldn't underestimate a guy with heavy garage tools on hand.

I fall in step beside Allen and block a few of Tyki's skillful blows with my hammer while Allen does the same with his arm. "I wish this thing could still turn into a sword," Allen grounds out around the force of impact.

"Actually, it's better that you have both of your arms fully functional for this type of battle," I hiss as I dodge the ghostly fingers of Tyki's left hand, which is twitching eagerly, hoping to capture one of my organs in its grasp. "Besides," I add as I tackle Allen to the ground to stop him from getting socked in the gut with Tyki's knee, "You would be completely off-balance with one arm missing. You don't have the same training that you used to."

I roll off of him and catch him grumbling something about having perfect balance, thankyouverymuch.

I haul Allen into standing position with a yank of his arm. He grunts in protest, and seems to waver a bit on his feet, but all in all, he's alright; for now. It is a small comfort to me, but a comfort nonetheless.

My lover wipes some blood from his mouth with the back of his hand, and proceeds to arch his arm and charge it with his own strength, his own unique energy. I take aim at Tyki's head and hurl my hammer into the air, watching it spin in a narrow arc towards the enemy.

Allen's hand slashes Tyki's abdomen half a second after my hammer connects with Tyki's shoulder. My hit made the man fall to his knees, and Allen's hit sends him flying backwards into a pew, succeeding in breaking it in two.

Outraged and bleeding, Tyki licks his lips and cackles as he launches himself past Allen and collides with me. I let out a curt cry, something akin to a mixture of a scream and a grunt, and then fall to the dirty floor. The fall is hard on me, and I can already feel bruises forming along my tailbone and tearing skin along my spine as I skid across some wooden floorboards I hadn't initially noticed.

"I got you now, Deak," Tyki Mikk hisses in my face. I can hear Allen running towards us, a battle cry bubbling from his throat and the scrape of razor fingers against brick.

Before I can react, Tyki laughs maniacally once more as he reaches forward, directly at my face. I squeeze my eyes shut and wrestle blindly with him, but it is futile; Tyki passes through my arms and pins my legs, and Allen screams my name – "LAVI!!" – as I feel a prick in my right eye and blood begin to ooze like crimson tears from my socket.

I panic, and let out a feral shriek as my eyes pop open and I find myself looking out of only one eye, and find the other emerald eye leaking fluids from Tyki's hand as he says, "Ah, that's better; now you look more like how I knew you, and it makes it easier to forget the circumstances and kill you."

Suddenly, everything grows fuzzy and my head begins to go blank, and a small voice in the back of my head tells me to stay conscious, because my body is going into shock. I breathe harshly through my lips and concentrate on the rhythm of my heartbeat, rapid and oddly soothing in my ears. It's the rhythm of a finale, dramatic and fast-paced like an action movie during the end battle.

I close my eyes and realize three things: I'm weeping, Tyki is no longer pinning me, and I can hear Allen's voice, although I have no idea as to what he is saying.

I try not to drift off into sleep – my body is pleading for slumber – but keeping the pain in mind is all I can do not to succumb to fainting on the spot.

Next chapter (but don't fear the title; it isn't the last one; like I said, there should be two or three more to come):

[15]
.Endgame.