Chapter 11

The knight, the exorcist and the trickster

Allen leaned back on the bathtub, his gaze on the ceiling as he tried to relax.

After they spoke and were more or less dismissed, he and Lenalee were brought to the dining hall where they ate, and Allen pushed down the urge to complain about the little amount of food he was given. After that, the butler Frederick -a man that is more than what meets the eye- had told them they've be staying at the guest's section, and brought them there without any of them saying a word.

As they walked through the halls Allen looked around the corridors, his expression one of fake awe and admiration, and so was Lenalee but hers was genuine. He had seen and been inside many mansions before and with how luxurious some parts of the ark were, he wasn't at all impressed.

As they stopped outside their separate rooms, hers next to the stairway and his at the end of the hall, Frederick said his goodbyes and told them to ask for him is they need anything.

Having had a long day, Allen said his goodbye to Lenalee but the pigtail wouldn't hear it. Just as he was walking away, she grabbed him by the lapels of his coat and pulled him into a corner with more force than he would expect. At first, he had been confused as to why she was angry, but then she began giving him an earful for disrespecting the annoying, so-called master of the mansion. She claimed that since he was so gracious to let them stay at his home, then they should be a little nicer to him. Of course, he had no other choice but to agree with her, and apologize even though he felt like his stomach was twisting into knots for doing so.

At the memory, his hands clenched into fists, and he rose from the bathtub, water sliding down his body as he made his way to the towel hanging by the wall.

After Lenalee had allowed him to leave, and he had finally come into his room the first thing he did was take a bath, not wanting to remain in his filthy sweat covered clothes any longer. He may not be as sophisticated as some of the other noah, but he was still just as particular about his hygiene.

Bringing the towel up to his hair he softly dried it, causing it to stick out at odd angles. After his hair, and body was dried he walked to the table in front of him and grabbed the set of clothes that had been set there for him. One of the servants had come in just as he was taking his bath, and took his dirty clothes and left these fresh ones for him. He didn't know where these clothes came from, but he dearly hoped they didn't belong to that rat.

Allen grimaced at the thought, and brought the clothes to his nose and took a short whiff at it. The fabric smelled like fresh soap, and oils, and he couldn't detect a trace of the rat so these clothes didn't belong to him.

Satisfied, he slipped into the trousers and a white dress shirt. A set of sleep clothes were also, brought in but he wasn't going to sleep, at least not yet. He still had someone he had to pay a visit to.

He rolled the sleeves of the shirt up to his elbows, and tucked his shirt inside his trousers, he then looked down at himself and gave out a satisfied huff. It wasn't exactly something he would wear, but it would have to make due.

Allen walked to the door to his room and opened it. As if desperately, Tim flew through the doorway to hover above his head. He looked up at the golem slightly annoyed but ultimately left it alone. It had been difficult to force the little thing to stay in the other room as he bathed, he'd come to get used to the golem flying above his head but he also, wanted some time to be alone as well.

Allen rolled his eyes in exasperation and looked up to scold the golem but before he could say anything he froze.

The room he was staying in was shredded in utter darkness, the candles that had been lit before he left to bathe were all blown out, leaving the moonlight shining through the window as the only source of light. From where he flew above him Tim nudged his cheek with his round form as if telling him to look somewhere.

Allen's annoyance drained as he moved his head to where the golem was trying to move it to. Just as he looked ahead of him, at the corner of the room shrouded in the darkness he realizes why Tim had been so desperate to see him.

"Good you're here saves me the trouble of going to find you." Allen mused with a grin on his lips.

With Tim following closely behind, and almost hiding behind his back Allen walked to the small seating area. One of the large chairs beside the coffee table was facing away from the corner, and so Allen grabbed it and turned it on the spot, and sat on it, his eyes looking straight at the dark corner.

Seeing as he was shrouded in darkness, and no one could see him, Allen took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Slowly the pink tone of his skin reseeded, revealing a gray skin tone instead, as well as the stigmata on his forehead. Once the change was complete, Allen let out a satisfied hum and stretched his neck. Being in his human form always felt strange, as if he had been wearing a glove for too long at it had begun to itch, and never had he been forced to remain in it for so long, which is why he was desperate to change into his real form.

Slowly he reopened his eyelids, revealing a set of amber slit eyes that seemed to glow in the darkness.

"Why don't you come out of the shadows, I hate not being able to see whom I'm talking to." He huffed, leaning back on his chair and adopting a more relaxed posture as he crossed his legs. Tim, on the other hand, flapped his wings faster, appearing to be more agitated at the situation.

From the shadows a from began to stir, and move closer into the beam of light created by the moon shining through the window. Allen watched amused as the form moved slowly until finally, it revealed itself. Standing before him was none other than the Butler, Frederick.

When he first saw the Butler he noticed how meticulous he was with his appearance, but now unlike before the old man wasn't looking as confident, but rather afraid and nervous. Allen could tell by the way his eyes darted around the room as if worried someone would walk in, and fearful because his hands shook uncontrollably, and that amused him. Allen didn't know him, but he no doubt knew who he was and feared him, not that he would blame him. Apart from the way he behaved, the old Butler's appearance was everything but pristine. His hair was standing up at odd angles due to how many times he passed his hand through its strands, and his clothes were slightly crumpled at the lapels.

"There you are." He grinned, his teeth flashing from the moonlight.

Frederick visibly tensed as he spoke, but then he seemed to gather himself. Looking down at the floor, he bowed his head deeply.

"Noah sama." He practically murmured, his voice barely above a whisper as he spoke.

"Akuma." Allen shot back.

For a little while, both of them just remained quiet, as Frederick slowly looked up from the ground to look at him. However, he still wouldn't meet his eyes, as he looked everywhere.

"I must admit I didn't think I'd find an Akuma here, and at first I was intrigued, but then I came to realize that I ultimately don't care. I don't want to know why you're here, nor how you came to be here, nor why you're pretending to be human. I just want to know one thing." Allen said, uncrossing his legs and leaning forward on his spot.

The atmosphere tensed, and the temperature seemed to get colder as he looked at the frightened Akuma/butler in the eyes, his amber eyes seeming to glow fiercely in the darkness.

"Tell me where the innocence is" he commanded.

The atmosphere in the room dipped even lower as the Akuma visibly shook on the spot. His hands were shaking more than ever before, yet his face remained the same, expressionless. Allen knew of course that he was everything but emotionless, and just the fact that he hadn't answered was evidence enough that there was something clearly wrong with this Akuma. It was incredibly rare for them to disobey or even hesitate when given an order, in fact, if Allen ordered it to kill himself a normal Akuma would do it on the spot, however, this didn't seem to be the case for this one. Of course, he knew some Akumas have been converted by Cross, and thus they'd be under his command but he didn't think this Akuma was one of them.

Frederick closed his eyes and looked down at the floor.

"I…" he stopped, hesitating and that might as well sealed his fate.

Allen sighed and leaned back on his chair, his eyes still on the Akuma.

"Come now I already know it's here, and that you know all about it. What I don't understand is why you haven't said anything? There are approximately four akumas in this town, and yet you haven't revealed your finding to anyone, now I wonder why that is?" He mused to himself, as he looked at the Akuma thoughtfully, the man's eyes filled with fear and that is when it hit him.

Once more Allen leaned forward on his spot, and the corner of his lip curled up in amusement. Could it really be? Allen's eyes narrowed as he examined the butler, his cursed eye activating as he did. Behind the Akuma floated the trapped soul within it, encased in chains. The soul itself was that of an of middle-aged man, with short hair and a short beard. Much like Frederick, the suffering soul of the man was looking away from him in fear, and as Allen looked at it he quickly started to see a resemblance in the man, and he knew who this was.

Once more his eyes went back to Frederick, and his eye deactivated. It had to be who he thought it was, and just by the fear in his eyes, he knew that what he thought was correct, and boy did that make things more interesting. Not to mention that it would so be much fun seeing all of this unravel in front of him.

Allen leaned closer, placing his elbows on his knees, the light from the moon casting half his face in light and the rest in deep shadows.

"He's your son, isn't he? This butler - Frederick- he brought you back?" He asked his voice laced with amusement.

As he looked at him, he saw as Frederick's eye widen, his expression no longer emotionless but rather filled with many different emotions. Sweat began to slide down from his forehead, and his breath came in faster as he looked straight at him for the first time. Both of their gazed remained locked until the Akuma seemed to gather himself and turned his eyes away from him to look down at the floor in guilt, and Allen couldn't help but smile in glee. Out of all the possible things that could happen in this mission, this had to be by far the most interesting, and here he thought he would have to remain bored while with the order. Clearly, he was wrong, maybe these missions could be more fun than he thought.

"Oh, and I thought these missions were going to be boring!" He practically sang, his voice sharp and his smile frightening as he looked at the shaking Akuma.

Ultimately he knew his job was to find the innocence shard, but nobody said he couldn't have fun on the way? Even Cross didn't say he couldn't use Akumas, he probably hated them after all so what would he care of he caused suffering to one? And on the other side, the Earl didn't say he couldn't still use Akumas either, and he knew he didn't care if he used them for his games, he often did and the Earl never once said anything. After all, they had hundreds of Akumas, how much could one little Akuma worth?

The Akuma continued to shake on the spot, his fists clenched tightly, as Allen stood from his seat and walked up to him. Upon his lips, a bright smile as he looked down at the butler. He knew exactly what he would do with this unruly Akuma.

Stepping closer and closer to him, Allen stood in front of him, as he looked down at the old man that was shrinking in on himself.

Allen looked down at the man, without an ounce of pity as he did. He never really liked Akumas, in fact, he hated them. They were always so quick to jump in to follow their orders and please them that to him they were nothing more than animals. Of course, that didn't mean he didn't think them important, quite the contrary really. He knew they were one of their most powerful weapons against the order not because of their strength of powers, just with his family, they had enough of that, no it was because numbers are what won wars. He wasn't as arrogant as they thought he was, he knew that –due to their sheer size- the Black order could defeat his family, which is why they had Akumas to turn the tide. So yes they were important, but in the end, they will always be mindless objects, just a weapon to be exploited and a means to an end.

Raising his hand Allen placed it on the Akumas shoulder and gripped his shoulder almost tenderly, and the old man froze from the contact.

"I want you to kill him." He ordered simply, his words filled with amusement as if he hadn't just ordered the death of someone, after all, he had been planning how to kill the annoying pest from the moment he met him.

He didn't really understand why, or where his hate for Michael came from, but he knew he got under his skin and for that reason he wanted to be rid of him. And he didn't even have to mention that he was on to him, having already figured out that he came from an aristocratic family rather than the streets. He didn't know how he did it seeing as his cover fooled even those in the Black order, but he did know that such information is dangerous to his mission. Even Lenalee had been confused and looked at him a bit skeptical after Michael said that, and he could tell as Lenalee watched him closely when he ate. For that reason, he had been forced to behave as unrefined as possible. Of course, he was aware that if Lenalee did find out then he would have to kill her, and something told him he wouldn't find that as fun as he usually would, not to mention that Cross would have a tantrum.

Frederick's eyes flew to his, as he looked at him with fear to the point he thought he might breakdown, after all a noahs orders are absolute and this Akuma had no other choice but to follow them, however, that didn't seem to be the case for this Akuma as he didn't say anything.

Allen's brows curved in both amusement and interest. Any other time he would have been annoyed that an Akuma was being rebellious, but now it only amused him and brought satisfaction as he saw how conflicted the old man was.

"Is this hesitation I see?" He asked, taking a step towards him and leaning his head down so his mouth was near his ear. Once more the Akuma froze on the spot, sweat trailing down his forehead, and his breathing quickened.

"You know, if I wanted to I could have you kill yourself in the most painful way possible, and believe me I can think up some very creative ways for you to do that. And you know what the best thing is? You'll do it without a second thought, and without hesitation, because your very purpose is to serve us noahs." He sneered.

The atmosphere tensed, as Frederick stopped breathing altogether, and looked up at him with wide eyes. And as Allen leaned back and looked at him he knew any other human would have been conflicted, and feel pity for the Akuma, but not him. He relished this moment, the moment when someone knew they were done for when they knew they had no other choice, and those were the moments he lived for.

Allen's grip on the Akuma's shoulder tightened exponentially, causing the Akuma to jerk on the spot.

His eyes turned colder, and his smile fell as he looked at the Akuma straight in the eyes.

"So if I say you kill that rat, then you do it without question am I clear?" He asked, his voice low and deathly serious.

Unlike before, the Akuma nodded hastily without hesitation.

"Yes, noah sama."

Allen's lips curled up into a smile and he let go of the Akuma and took a step away from him.

"That wasn't so hard, was it?" he asked with amusement, but the Akuma didn't say anything, he simply stood there looking down at the floor in misery.

Once more he didn't care, as he turned away from the butler until suddenly Allen grabbed his left hand an activated his innocence. In a blink of an eye, he turned on the spot and with his sword, in his hand, he drove it right into the Akuma's abdomen, barely missing any vital parts that would kill him instantly.

The silence in the room was broken as Frederick groaned sharply in pain, and coughed up what appeared to be black blood on the floor. His eyes were wide in fear and pain, as his hands trembled and looked at the cold eyes of Allen, his face devoid of a smile.

"That's for betraying your cause." He said, his voice cold more so than ever before.

Allen looked down at the Akuma one last time and he painfully pulled his sword out of his abdomen and returned it back to its natural state, as he did so the Akuma gave out another pained groan and he fell to the ground, his hands pressing down on his wound that wouldn't heal. His innocence may be converted, but it still did considerable damage to Akumas and other noahs so that wound would kill him, and there was nothing that would stop that from happening.

Allen looked down on himself and with dark matter, he burned off the blood from the Akuma that had splattered on him, not at all caring that the Akuma was writhing in pain, instead, he looked down at him annoyed, and disgusted. Without so much as another glance, he turned on the spot an headed towards the door, only to stop halfway.

"Oh, and my order still stands. Kill Michael Ecclestone before you die, if you fail I want you to end your own life." He ordered sharply, a wide grin on his lips, as he changed back to his human form and exited the room, the sounds of pain emanating from the Akuma as he did, only to die as he shut the door behind him.

For a little while, Allen stood in front of the door, looking from one side of the corridor to the other to make sure no one had heard, and more especially Lenalee. With worry, his eyes shoot to the door of her room, a few rooms away from his and noticed it was still shut, and he sighed in relief, his body seeming to deflate. At first, he hadn't known why Frederick had assigned them to rooms so far from each other, but now he did. He knew they would make a bit of noise with their conversation, and with what little left he had of commitment to their cause he made sure they wouldn't be heard. At that thought, Allen glanced back at the closed door behind him with amusement. Maybe he wasn't a lost cause? Too bad though, because he was still going to die no matter what.

Allen looked back from the door to look ahead of him, only to come nose to nose with an angry Timcanpy.

The golden golem was flapping his wings angrily, and flying up and down on the spot its tail swishing from side to side haphazardly, prompting Allen to lean his head back before it could hit him in the face.

"What are you mad about? I didn't even kill him," He hissed softly, his eyes looking around the corridor to make sure no one was listening, only to come back to Tim and glare at the little golem.

That didn't seem to be enough for the golem as he flew up, Allen's eyes following him. Once he was above him, Tim dived and hit him straight on the nose, the hit creating s soft smacking sound.

Allen groaned, more so in annoyance than pain and he reached for the golem, but his hands barely missed its long tail as he flew up and evaded him. Once more Tim flew up and head-butted him on the forehead, Allen's eyes filled with annoyance and anger as he jumped up and reached for the golem's tail only to fail to grab him.

"Oh, once I get my hands on you…" he hissed angrily, and once more leaped on the spot, appearing a lot like a cat trying to catch a bird from the air. Both Allen and Tim continued to do the same thing for a while, Allen trying to catch him and Tim avoiding his reach, and every time he failed he would head-butt him again.

After a long while, Allen had a bruise on his forehead and Tim flew above him, his wings flapping fast as if he was making fun of him.

Allen glared up at the golem, as he waited patiently like a cat hunting it's pray. Once Tim flew down a little, Allen jumped and finally grabbed him by the tail, Tim's wing s flapping haphazardly, trying fly away.

Finally, Allen brought the annoying golem to his face and smiled wickedly.

"I told you I was going to get my hands on you, you annoying-"

"Allen." Lenalee's voice rang from across the corridor, almost prompting him to let go of the golem, as he and Tim turned to look at her.

Lenalee was walking up to them. She was wearing a nice, expensive looking dress, and her hair was done in the same pigtails, but the bands that held her hair were rightly adorned. On her feet, she wore her boots which he knew were her innocence. Overall she didn't look like she was ready to go to sleep, she looked like she was ready to attend a party or something.

Finally reaching them, she stood in front of them both, looking from Tim to him as if trying to figure out what was going on, her eyes on Allen's hand that was gripping Tim's tail.

A quick as he could Allen let go of the golem, and waved his arms innocently, with an awkward smile on his face.

"Hey Lenalee, Tim and I were just playing, right Tim?" he asked, his face full of fake innocence as the golem looked from Lenalee to Allen, seeming to be conflicted and Allen actually felt himself get nervous.

Lenalee continued to look at the golem in almost worry, and again Allen felt become even more nervous.

'Stupid tennis ball.' He thought to himself, it was probably his plan to make him feel like this.

Eventually, Tim flew up and down as if in a nod, and flew to Lenalee where he flew around her head cheerfully, his wings flappy quickly.

Lenalee gave out a soft chuckle and extended her finger out so Tim could perch on it, while Allen had to spot the urge of letting out a deep sigh of relief.

Tim landed on her finger, where he curled his tail and faced Allen, and Allen couldn't help but feel like the golem was mocking him, and he had to hold the urge to narrow his eyes and glare at it. Just like Cross Tim was just as annoying, perhaps less so but still annoying.

"So." She drawled, prompting Allen to look from Tim to look up at her instead.

"It's getting late, why are you walking in the corridors?" she asked, sounding both concerned, and intrigued.

For a second he considered lying to her, and his mouth almost opened involuntarily to do just that, too used to lying. But then he thought there was no danger in Lenalee knowing, after all, he really was going to search for the innocence, to destroy it and tell Lenalee it was too late to retrieve it, but now he supposed he would have to find it and retrieve it for the order no matter how much that thought pained him.

Allen looked down at the floor sheepishly, like a child who had just been caught out of bed.

"Well I thought I'd go looking for the innocence, you know while everyone's asleep. How about you?" he asked, genuinely intrigued. If he was out of bed and poking his nose in places they couldn't be then so was she. Her very atire told him she wasn't planning to go to sleep anytime now, and he knew she wasn't going to a party or something, the servants probably brought her the dress and it was either wear it or wear her dirty exorcist uniform.

Lenalee let out a sigh, and Tim flew off her finger to fly above her head instead.

"Same thing, though I hope you were planning to get me. It's dangerous to look for innocence alone, especially when we don't know what it is, not to mention that everything's been too easy." She almost whispered the last word, as if afraid she might jinx it.

Once more, Allen had to stop himself from reacting the usual way he might react, by giving out an amused snort. This was easy to her? Walking around town for hours like a pair of idiots, neither of them knowing where to go or where to look until one of the townsfolk recommended they come here. No, for Allen this wasn't easy. Easy for him was finding an innocence and ordering Akuma to get it for him, unwilling to get his hands dirty unless it was worth his time. That being said he never once had to walk for such a long period of time. Never had to lower himself and ask strangers for help. No, for him this wasn't easy at all.

"What'd you mean?" he asked, his face one of concern.

Before answering Lenalee looked from side to side, as if making sure no one was listening and took a step towards him as she looked at him with genuine concern.

"Well we haven't encountered any Akumas all day for one, and I just can't shake the feeling that they're out there watching us. I just don't know why."

As he listened to her, Allen wanted to curve his brow in amusement and intrigue. This girl, exorcist or not, she had some good instincts on her, more than he could say for the rest. Most exorcists, talented or not, seldom to ever listen to that voice of wisdom in their head, which in the end is what brought them to their own demise. However, this girl was different. She seemed to listen to the voice in her head and he couldn't help it but actually respect her for that, especially since he knew things really weren't quite right.

Early in the day, after he had ordered the Akumas to look for the innocence and kill Lenalee and the finder, he had been confused when none of the akumas attacked or even showed their faces. As Allen had pondered as to why that was, he at first thought it was because the Earl ordered them not to follow his orders, which didn't make sense since the butler proved that theory wrong, which only left him with another answer. Tyki hadn't left as he asked him to, and he was ordering the Akumas to disregard his orders and that worried him. He didn't fear Tyki hurting him –at least too badly- but he did worry that he might sabotage his mission. He honestly couldn't know the noah of pleasure's plan, but if he was right and he was indeed still in town looking for the innocence, then Lenalee had to worry much more than finding a simple innocence.

"I agree, this has been t-"

Before he could finish what he was about to say, a loud clanking sound interrupted him, causing both of them to ready into a fighting stance and turn their heads and look at what caused the sound. As they looked, the corridor was just as empty as before, and nothing seemed to be out of place, not to mention that the sound –whatever it was- sounded like it had come from outside.

Both of them turned to look at each other for a brief second, then they both simultaneously ran down the corridor, trying to make their way outdoors to see what had caused such a loud sound. As they did he couldn't help but feel a bit of forewarning. He knew Tyki was probably still in town, and so no matter what they do they would walk into a trap one he wouldn't walk out of without revealing his identity which is why Tyki was doing this to amuse himself.

Allen clenched his jaw in annoyance. He knew he couldn't beat Tyki if he couldn't use his noah powers, and even then he couldn't and neither could he, their abilities are the exact opposites after all. Because of this they never fought each other, the Earl forbid it since there wouldn't be a definitive winner, but now they could even though it wouldn't be the same. Any other time he might have been excited, but damn it he had only spent two days with the Black order and his cover was going to be blown and in front of an exorcist.

His eyes shifted from the ground look at Lenalee who was running in front of him.

He will probably kill her before the night ends, and though he knew Cross would be beyond furious, even he had to understand there was no other way. Too bad really, for an exorcist she really was kind of decent.

Another bang rang from the outside, causing both Allen and Lenalee to stop and look out the window to see what was going on, what they saw had them both looking out the window confused.

Outside, running in the garden with a rapier was Michael, and following closely behind with a great sword was a golden suit of armour whose eyes glowed white through its helmet.

'That's something you don't see every day.' he thought to himself.

Hey so that was the next chapter, I did say it would be more interesting than the last one even though next chapter should be even more interesting.

So you'll get to see what Tyki has been up to, and hopefully, this story arc will be finished by next chapter... if everything goes according to plan that is.

So thanks for reading guys!