Edit: Changed the name of [insert name] to Chaoji. I thought I edited it already, but it seems like I missed it when I revised this chapter. Thank you for the pointing it out Hell Changer!
Allen, after searching and feeling his way around the ark, found himself in front of a rather ordinary looking door that looked no different than the other doors that he had inspected on his way. The door in question however, had one difference that the other doors didn't have, it had a number.
On it, was the number seven.
Looking back at the door he used to enter the ark, it also had a number.
'Could it mean that doors with numbers have a set destination?' Allen thought as he pondered whether he should open and enter the door.
Deciding that nothing would happen if he just kept thinking about it, he opened the door and found himself looking at a similar passage of light that he used to enter the ark.
'This definitely leads to somewhere...' Allen thought as all the other doors with no numbers either opened a normal looking room or a room completely filled with darkness and with no floor to speak of.
Steeling himself, he walked through the passage and stepped off of the ark.
It was moments later when he felt his feet touch the ground.
Opening his eyes, he found himself to a very different looking landscape.
The place seemed to have been leveled and only select buildings were left standing.
"...is this Edo?" Allen asked himself, unsure of what to make with the scenario.
Allen then heard a loud explosion and looked over at the direction. He found himself running towards the explosion as he spotted a being that he remembered clearly from his memories.
The Millennium Earl... Allen activated his Crowned Clown body armor and brought his claw out to the open.
The Millenium Earl was approaching the crystallized form of Lenalee Lee, until he sensed a presence.
Quickly turning Lero into a sword, he immediately struck the approaching presence.
In front of him, was a very alive Allen Walker with his newly formed Innocence.
"Good Evening... Earl." Allen said icily.
"Allen Walker," The Millennium Earl said menacingly, despite his ever present maniacal grin.
The two quickly disengaged and landed a few meters away from each other.
Lenalee had been trying to break free from the crystal that encased her ever since she noticed that the Millennium Earl had turned his attention on her.
Just before the Millennium Earl could touch the crystal, the Earl sensed something and immediately struck a white blur that seemingly came out of nowhere.
Upon closer observation, the white blur was a human. The person in question had a slim black claw like hand, he was wearing a white cloak with a mask right under his chin serving as a collar for the cloak.
But the detail that struck Lenalee the most was the familiar shock of white hair and the pentacle like scar near the top of the person's left eye.
It was Allen.
"It seems that your Innocence hadn't been completely destroyed..." The Millennium Earl stated as he calmly placed his sword in front of him, acting like a cane.
"I won't let you touch her." Allen answered dashing towards the Earl.
They clashed, creating a shock wave that shook the leveled city.
Allen and the Earl was locked in battle, with Allen's left arm, shielding him from the Earl's sword.
The Earl brought his free hand and gathered a purple mass of energy. Allen, noticing this, quickly brought his own free hand and gathered enough magic to hopefully shield or even counter the move of the Earl.
They then brought the energy to one another, causing a massive explosion.
Lavi had been battling the hulk-looking Noah until an explosion and a rush of smoke clouded his vision.
He was quite injured, he couldn't afford to be directly hit by that Noah. So he kept his guard up and letting his lone eye dart around for signs of any movement.
As soon as the smoke cleared enough that he could see around him, he noticed that the Noah he was fighting had disappeared.
Taking account of the situation, he looked over, and found Lenalee on the ground a few feet away from the crystal that had encased her. Quickly rushing over to her side, he was quick to note that she wasn't injured, but it seemed like she had been crying as her face was moist.
Whoever, prevented Lenalee from being taken by the Earl had fought him off here. Whatever happened, it must be something that may have ended in a tragedy for Lenalee to be crying. Looking around, he found that there were no signs of akumas or Noahs. It's as if the explosion signified that they had to leave. But what caused the explosion?
Lenalee awoke with a start. She looked around frantically, looking for the familiar white shock of hair that she had seen a glimpse earlier.
"Lenalee?" A voiced called out to her.
It was Lavi.
"Are you alright?" He asked worriedly over her frantic expression.
Lenalee took some calming breath and sighed dejectedly. Did she actually see Allen or was that a mere figment of her imagination?
"I'm fine Lavi. Thanks for asking." Lenalee then looked over to where they currently were. They seemed to all be under a bridge that survived the destruction of Edo. "What happened?"
"We're currently under a bridge that wasn't affected by the attack of the Earl." Lavi said as he stood up. "For some reason, after an explosion, all the Noahs disappeared. I was hoping you would tell me what happened before you lost consciousness."
Lenalee thought about it but she couldn't see very well due to the fact that she was encased in a crystal.
"All I can remember was a white haired person fending off the Millennium Earl."
"A white haired person?" Lavi asked. For some reason, the first thing that came to mind was Allen Walker. It couldn't be him right?
"Is everyone alright?" Lenalee asked.
"Yeah. Things got pretty hectic when the attack of the Earl leveled Edo." Lavi explained. "A few minutes after that, an explosion took place at your general location. That was when all the other Noahs fled."
Lenalee took the news silently, which Lavi thought was his cue to leave.
"Well, I'm going to check around if there's anything else around to take note of." Lavi said as he stood up.
Lenalee nodded.
Just as Lavi turned around to leave, Lero, who had been hiding near Lenalee, did what the Earl had instructed him to do.
A reverse pentagon appeared below Lenalee that slowly began to suck her in.
Lavi turned quickly turned around in shock and he quickly attempted to grab Lenalee's hand.
He wasn't fast enough as he stumbled into the portal that Lero created.
Kanda, having noticed the disturbance made an attempt to grab hold of Lavi, Chaoji also attempted to help Kanda by grabbing at Kanda's shirt while Crowley did the same. But the efforts were in vain as they all fell into the portal.
When Allen regained consciousness once again, he found himself awake inside the Ark. Maybe it wasn't such a smart idea to counter the Earl's attack with magic.
Allen sat up, and sighed. 'Back to square one.'
"Al—n, -n," Allen could hear the voice of Xuilan from his ear clasps.
"Nee-san?"
"Allen!" Xuilan's relieved voice rang out through the ear clasps. "I was so worried... I've been trying to contact you for 20 minutes now since the last explosion."
"Yeah..." Allen said rubbing the back of his head, "I was in a battle with the Earl."
"Are you alright? Where are you now?" Xuilan asked.
"Seems like I'm back at the ark." Allen said as he looked around. Oddly enough, when he tried to enter the door that he used to go back to Edo, only a black room greeted him. Not only that, but the number that marked the same door had disappeared. "It seems like whatever happened in the explosion, sent me back into the ark."
"Be careful Allen. The signal is becoming more and more difficult to maintain..." Xuilan trailed off as the ear clasps stopped making sounds.
"Nee-san? Nee-san!" Allen called out to no avail. 'Something is happening here... I don't like this.'
Allen quickly took count of his injuries and found that they were all light wounds. Most of which, had already closed. His clothing proved to be resilient and the enchantment proved true.
An earthquake shook the Ark, Allen quickly looked over at the direction of the earthquake and found that the houses in that area were collapsing.
'The ark is falling apart?' Allen thought in distress. He really needed to find out what's happening before it's too late!
Allen rushed towards the tower at the center of the ark. Hopefully, there's something in there that would give him a clue as to what was going on.
After running towards the tower, he found a locked door that he assumed would lead him inside the tower. The moment his right hand made contact with the door knob, Allen began to hear a faint melody within his head. The melody sounded for a few seconds and an audible click was heard from the door.
Opening it, he found himself on a barren plain that was a deep contrast from the villa that he came from. Aside from this, there were stars and rainbows despite the night sky. Said stars and rainbows however, looked pretty unrealistic to begin with.
Stepping into the room, he closed the door behind him. As soon as the door slammed shut, Allen heard another click from the door which signified that it had locked.
Paying the odd door no mind, he looked over to the scenery around him.
'Is this like an alternate plain of reality within the ark? Or did I end up somewhere around the world?' Allen thought.
He was brought out of his thoughts when the ark shook violently once again.
'That sound...' Allen thought as he began running towards, what he assumed to be, the direction of another door that would lead him into the tower, 'I'm definitely still at the ark...'
Quickly dashing towards the building that stood out from the scenery around him, he didn't notice that a checkered colored door appearing, and a muscular looking noah coming out of it.
'Weird...' Allen thought as he seemingly entered another plain of reality within the ark. 'It's like every door leading towards the tower leads to a different set of reality...'
For some reason, ever since he entered the door, he had a feeling of being watched. He was pretty sure the presence wasn't there a few moments ago.
'They do say discretion is the better part of valor...' Allen thought. He didn't want to go through any unnecessary complications until he can get out of the ark or until the ark stops falling apart. So taking out a sealing paper, he drew the talisman that Reed placed on him and Xuilan.
After drawing the talisman, he placed it on his right arm and hoped that it would be strong enough to hopefully divert the attention of any potential enemies.
The talisman that Allen drew was set for ten minutes of invisibility towards evil beings. So taking advantage of the time available to him, he ran as fast as he quietly could – which wasn't all that difficult due to the shoes that he was wearing.
Allen suppressed a sigh as he ran as quietly as he could through the halls. He had been so close to finally reuniting with Lenalee. Now, he was stuck in a whole new problem – the slowly breaking apart ark.
The unnerving silence made Allen think more about his current situation. For some reason, he knew the path much more clearly than he thought he would. He would purposely go through certain hallways and ignore some other. Had he really gone in here before? Wasn't this enemy territory?
He hadn't recovered all of his memories, only small glimpse of what he had done before and whom he fought side by side with. In those few memories that he had, he clearly could not remember going into the ark. What could that possibly mean? Had he really gone into the ark before? - The familiarity he had with the path he was going was a lot more clearer than some of the memories he had already recovered.
After running for five minutes, he found himself in a large circular library. In the center, stood a large column that seemed to open to another set of reality.
Deciding that thinking such about an issue on this potentially dangerous place was practically suicidal, Allen cleared his thoughts and went onwards. He could ponder about these questions after he got out of this mess.
As soon as he entered the column, his talisman failed and disintegrated into ashes.
'Just in time too...' Allen thought as he made his way up towards the stairs. After taking a few more steps, another large quake shook where he was at, signifying that the destruction of the ark was still taking place.
'Damn... I don't have time to be walking like this!' Allen thought as he ran towards the light that the stairs led to.
Author's Notes:
This is the first major deviance of the Noah's Ark Arc. Just when Allen had finally seen Lenalee, he's once again separated from her... The main reason that this has occurred is: Allen arrived a few moments earlier than in the anime and manga. As for ending up in the arc after the explosion, that will be explained much later on.
Just a note, Allen does not know that Lenalee and the gang are in the ark, and vice versa.
College is coming closer for me, so my updates will be severely slowed for nearly all my stories. It'll probably stabilize again once I get used to my schedule. Oh, and for those who reviewed in the last chapter - Thank you!