Allen: 'I'm pretty nervous, this is really different from being a clown...'

Lavi: 'That's normal, Allen, everybody would be nervous in times like this.'

Allen: 'Maybe it is, but I guess our lack of experience is what worries me the most...'

*mutual sigh*

Lavi: 'Me too, Allen, me too...'

The rest of the days went by quickly. They had far too little time and nobody seemed to be in his role at all, but at least they could play it now without big problems or the use of the script. There were some scenes however, like the kiss scene, which they hadn't really practiced, because Lavi understood that it was hard enough already to do it once, let alone to do it ten times at practice. He said he counted on them to do it well on the real performance though.

Now the time had come and Allen was waiting backstage for the beginning of the play. To restrain his nerves he had taken a big ball and was doing balance-exercises on it, although they were far too easy for him. He had rather eaten something while waiting, but Lavi had forbidden any food backstage to make sure their clothes would be kept clean.

Kanda seemed nervous too, because he had been meditating on the side for minutes already, frozen in his sitting position. Lenalee had taken place next to him, although she couldn't hide her anxiety as good as the knight.

The rest of the exorcists all had their own ways to deal with it too, except Cross who was just smoking a cigarette. He was the only one who looked like it didn't bother him at all.

During practice Miranda had proved a disaster backstage. She kept tripping over cords, clothes and her own feet, falling hard enough to be heard even at the furthest side of the public. Thus she was forbidden to walk at all. She had taken place on the side where she could see the stage and had to stay there the whole performance long. Hopefully she wasn't needed, but you never knew if something would damage the stage, especially not with so many exorcists. At least Allen had patrolled the doors to make sure no akuma could come in unexpected, so there was a high chance that they didn't have to fight.

Finally the music started playing and the curtains were raised, revealing Kanda and Lenalee, dressed up as knight and princes. Kanda was still as emotionless as ever, but it stood out less now that he wasn't the sad princes anymore. The catching scene had been put in again, but Kanda caught Lenalee very well, moving on to the new scene.

The princes and the knight went to save the feniks. Kanda had to fight off all the monsters. Now it was Allen's time to appear.

He sighed just before he entered the stage. He made sure the horns on his head were still well-positioned and then walked to Kanda when a stream of smoke was blown behind the knight and princes.

When the smoke had cleared the public spotted Allen, who was standing there as the villain. He had a large red cape and devil horns and tail. He laughed, but it didn't sound evil at all.

Kanda turned around. "Who are you?"

Allen smiled uncomfortably, suddenly aware of hundreds of eyes fixed on him. "I am demon Alsant and I'm the one who sent those monsters."

Kanda raised his sword against the demon. "You filthy..."

But Allen interrupted him. "I'll steal your princes." The sentence came out unmotivated and insecure instead of evil and determined.

The smoke streamed on stage again and during that turmoil, Allen walked to Lenalee and pulled her off stage with him.

When sight returned Kanda was standing there alone, looking around for his princes.

"If you want her back," Allen whispered in a microphone, "then come and get her, if you dare too." He had to produce an evil laugh again, but it again sounded ridiculously insecure.

When that was finally all over Allen sighed in desperation. "I sounded so weird. I'm really bad at this role."

Lenalee put a hand on his shoulder. "Oh, come on, Allen, you did very well for so little time of practice. Don't let it get to you."

The play went on, following the knight on his journey to safe his lost princes. Krory was a villager that was saved by him and Marie was an evil wizard who had to be defeated. At least Allen wasn't the only one having trouble with the role of the villain, as Marie didn't play it good as well.

Minutes passed until Kanda reached the demon's castle and Allen and Lenalee had to join him again. Lenalee was tied up, hanging from the ceiling and Allen stood under her, pretending to be surprised the knight made it all the way there.

"You did better than expected, Kimro," he told his enemy. "You have passed all the monsters and the evil wizard, you must be really strong. Now I want to see how strong you really are." He took out a wooden sword and pointed it at Kanda. "Let's have a duel."

Kanda unsheathed his sword too, but to Allen's terror it was Mugen. "Wait, Kanda," he whispered so softly that maybe only Marie could hear it, "You don't intent to really use Mugen, do you?"

Kanda ignored him and moved into a fighting position. "That's a good idea, Alsant. I'll defeat you and get back my princes."

"Kanda," Allen hissed frightened. He felt the hand holding his weak wooden sword beginning tremble. "Use the wooden sword that was given to you."

Mugen flashed through the air and Allen screeched. He held his sword in front of him as a reflex. When he opened the eyes he had squeezed shut he saw half of his sword fall on the ground, cut off from the rest.

Kanda didn't seem to bother at all. He just attacked again and Allen could avoid it just in time to safe his head. Then he ran away from the sword, not caring about his script at all. The knight followed him around the whole stage to Lavi's terror, who had thought he had finally solved all the problems between those two.

"Come here you cowardly, moyashi!"

"All... Alsant desu!" Allen panted.

Reever, who was in charge of the special effects, saw the problem and hurried to Cross. "You have to solve this, your part is next!"

"EEHHH?" Cross said indignant. "Why should I solve the problems of that stupid apprentice of mine?"

Lenalee had heard the conversation as well and turned her head to them. "Please, General!" she whispered so softly the public wouldn't be able to hear.

Cross looked at her and sighed. "Fine."

So while the knight was still chasing the demon suddenly a lot of smoke appeared and there stood Cross. He had horns twice as large and looked like a far better villain than his apprentice.

"Here I am, the demon king!"

Kanda stopped to look around and Allen used that moment to escape backstage out of reach of the sword.

Cross laughed evilly. "You might have been able to defeat my subordinate, but you can't defeat me!"

Kanda walked up to him, raising his sword. "I'll do everything for my princes, even fighting a demon king."

The script demanded them to fight for a few minutes before the knight would win, but Cross seemed to have forgotten that. While they fought Kanda was beginning to lose. In the end Cross pushed him on the ground and put his foot on the knight. "See, I told you nobody could win from me!" He laughed again. "Now Í will take the princes and marry her."

Allen felt his heart sink when he saw what was going on on-stage. His master didn't remember anything of the script and thus was doing what pleased him the most. He should have known the general would never take the effort to learn his text in spite of Komui's threat.

Kanda looked up at his opponent with an annoyed glare.

Suddenly the whole ceiling came down. The roof of the stage fell right on Cross, burying him under the pieces. Dust covered the stage and the public screamed.

When the air cleared a little Allen could see Timcanpy flying to him from the ceiling. "Timu, you just didn't..." He didn't finish his sentence. His golem had tried to save the performance, but this didn't seem better at all!

Then he heard Miranda activate her innocence and suddenly the stage was built up again to it's original state. Cross and Kanda were lying motionless on the ground, knocked out from the collapse. Lenalee had pulled herself free and stood safe and sound on the side of the stage.

Quickly the two fallen exorcists were pulled backstage by members of the science department.

"And so, the demon king was defeated and the princes was free again," Reever announced in an attempt to save the play. "Now she's afraid her knight has died as well and she searches for his potential dead body."

Lenalee played along and acted as if she was searching someone, calling his name with a voice trembling of desperation.

Suddenly Reever grabbed Allen's arm. "Allen, we need a knight, you're the only one who can do it. Quick, take Kanda's place."

"Heh?"

He didn't even get to answer. Reever quickly covered him in the cape of the knight and pushed a sword in his hand then pushed him on-stage.

"Act like you've made it out barely alive and that you're really happy to see the princes is still alive," the leader of the science department whispered.

Allen looked around in shock, not knowing what to do, when Lenalee walked up to him and hugged him. "Oh my knight, I'm so glad you're still alive!"

He could see the public was full of confused faces because the role was taken over by someone else.

"Ehh, yes, I'm really glad too. I'm really happy to see you standing here untied and living."

"Oh my knight," Lenalee said emotionally. "How can I ever repay you. I know it! I'll give you one kiss."

Allen felt himself blush. He had forgotten he had come in at exactly the time of the kiss scene. Was he going to get a kiss from Lenalee?

But just when Lenalee leaned over to press her lips on his the door went open en Bak saw what was happening. He ran right up to the stage and pulled Lenalee away. "No, Lenalee, you shouldn't kiss him, he's not worth it!"

Allen looked at the Chinese branch leader with a confused expression.

"Uhh, Bak, we're doing a play here," Reever whispered.

But it was obviously too much for the brother who had been eating himself away backstage while so many man were around his little sister and because he knew the kiss scene would come eventually. Komui pushed a button and all of a sudden Allen felt the ground disappear below his feet.

He and Bak splashed into water, while Lenalee was pulled to safety by a robot arm.

Coughing Allen broke through the surface to get some air. Bak next to him did the same when the floor suddenly closed again above them.

"Wait!" Allen screamed desperately because the stage was pushing him under water again.

Suddenly the floor moved away again, but then the roof began to crumble and eventually it collapsed again. He could here Miranda activating her time record again and the floor moved in on them again.

Suddenly Allen understood. As long as Miranda kept her time record activated, the stage would go back to it's original state, without the hole in the floor, but when she deactivated it, the ceiling would come down again.

Miranda backstage was all stressed and kept activating and deactivating her innocence.

Allen and Bak were trying to breath in between the activations, but the exorcist gulped in a lot of water instead. Calling for help he tried to convince someone to get him out.

It took some time, but finally Lenalee had wrestled herself free from the robot arm and saved both of the drowning men. Then she turned to her brother who was whining about her being kissed by others.

"Nii-san, you made everything even worse. How could you?"

"But Lenalee..." the chief whined.

"I don't want to hear it. Don't you dare to do something like that again." Then she looked at the wet Allen. "Come, let's finish this play. We can skip the kiss scene, let's just pretend we're getting married without giving each other a kiss." She shot a glance at her brother at those words and Allen understood that she tried to prevent something likewise to happen.

Reever took the role of narrator again. "The princes didn't listen to the other man and stayed loyal to the knight. And thus they got married and got a lot of children together."

Allen and Lenalee bowed in front of the public. Then every other actor and backstage helper, except for Cross and Kanda, joined them and they bowed.

No applause was given. The public stayed awkwardly quiet. Allen looked at them with an uneasy feeling. They really did mess up.

Allen: 'Wait, you're not ending it like this, are you?!'

Me: 'That's for you to hope and for me to know... Just read the next and last chapter to find out'

Allen: 'EEEEHH?! You can't just let us wait like that!'

Me: 'Oh, I can. But you know, Allen, just because it's you I will tell you. But keep it a secret, okay?'

Allen: *nods*

Me: *Whispers something in Allen's ear*