NEWS!!
I'm posting TWO chapters now, but that means that there won't be an update on Thursday, mainly because chapter 29 is MAHOOSIVE and will take longer than a week to write as long as real life continues to get in the way. That does mean, my little readers, that next week will be the very last update for CL. I SEE THE END!!! -_O if I squint a little.
Reviews! Thank you!!
Babo123- How sadistic do you think I am? Grow up fatherless indeed! I love a bit of character torture, but this story does have a happy ending! Lol. And you'll just have to read this chapter to see who attacked, won't you! Don't let me keep you!
XxMissyRandomxX- well you won't have to wait long- One week, and this will all be over!
Fallendemise21- *looks at gifts, then at computer* Damn, I wanted to sleep, but I have been guilted into writing…
MiniBloodyMurder- That has got to be the best chapter description ever!
Knux33- As long as the world doesn't end before next Thursday, you wi get the fic in its entirety before the apocalypse.
CrimsonKitsune333- Aw, you made me blush! Yay!
CatherineIshida- I'm glad you decided to drop a review, it makes me happy! Please continue to spew corniness to your heart's content!
Chapter Twenty Seven
Last time:
Kanda glared at the hand on his arm but there didn't seem to be enough fight in him to give a more verbal reprimand for the unwanted contact. He sagged a little under Jim's questioning gaze. "Komui got a scrambled message from Lanel. Something about being attacked."
"So what's got you so worked up? Allen and Nel can handle themselves against a few Akuma."
"It wasn't Akuma" said Kanda, his voice cold and hard with barely contained fury. "It was a Noah."
Lanel wasn't expecting Allen to be in such a good mood once they'd left Jim and Kanda behind, but the general was downright chatty. He strolled casually down the street, apparently completely at ease with his surroundings. Lanel supposed it had something to do with being out and about again- after all, for several weeks they'd been pretty much confined to the inn- at least Allen had. He couldn't risk being spotted still looking like a Noah by anyone who could report back to the Order and have the information reach the wrong ears. Now he was able to hide the characteristics, and for longer and longer each time he tried t, it seemed to have lifted a great weight from his shoulders.
"You ok back there Lanel?" Allen asked presently, having just realised that the Aviran was no longer right behind him and was lagging several yards back, purple eyes flitting around as though studying his surroundings. His forehead was free from any expression of worry, so Allen assumed the angel was merely looking for curiosities sake, not because he sensed any danger.
"I am quite well" the taller exorcist assured him. "It has simply been some time since I was able to freely observe human activity."
Allen had to grin at that, the whole thing sounding rather clinical. "Oh right. See anything interesting?"
Lanel's wide overly-innocent eyes swept the market place one more. "I am curious as to why the price of that fruit is being argued by the customer and vendor when it is clearly labelled" he said. "Can the customer not read?"
Allen hid his smirk, "no, it's called haggling. They both want the best price for them- the vendor wants the highest, the customer the lowest and they argue until they find a mutually agreeable price." Lanel didn't look like he understood the principle at all, so he carried on. "Do they not have anything similar where you come from?"
Lanel shook his head. "We do not have a currency on Avira, we trade skills, and if someone needs something doing, someone does it for them."
"Oh" Allen blinked. "Then I guess its just one of those Earth-things you won't understand."
Lanel seemed to accept that and went back to his thirsty observation.
The smell coming from a nearby bakery reminded Allen that he should be eating even if his body was telling him he wasn't hungry. The last thing he needed was his innocence to prematurely conk out. "I'm going to grab something to eat. You want anything?"
Lanel answered the negative, taking a seat on the edge of a fountain while he waited. The seat offered him a good view of the market square and he allowed his mind to wander where it would as he watched the people bustling around.
He became aware after several minutes that he was no longer alone and turned to his companion curiously.
A young girl, perhaps around twelve years old with messy dark hair and wide eyes, holding a hard lolly on a stick and rocking back and forth on her Mary Jane covered feet,was staring at him as though he was the most interesting thing she had ever seen. Perhaps he was. He was certainly an interesting figure, with his odd coloured eyes and hair, his pale skin contrasting with his long black uniform jacket and height apparent even though he was sitting down.
"I've not seen you before" the girl said, cocking her head to one side and taking a step back so she could see him better.
Lanel frowned, not at all liking the vibe rolling off this seemingly innocent pre-adolescent who was now leering at him wickedly.
"Are you sure you're an exorcist?" she asked, a frown creasing her face. "You don't have any innocence."
Lanel just continued to watch her warily.
"Well? What's your name? Why are you wearing that jacket if you're not an exorcist?"
"I am" he said cocking his head to one side as he took her in fully. Short skirt, high striped stockings, frilly white blouse, she didn't quite look normal enough to blend in, but wasn't so obviously different that he could understand why she put him on edge so much.
She pulled a face. "I usually kill all exorcists, but I can't feel any innocence on you. Maybe I should just kill you to be safe."
"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Road."
The girl's eyes widened at the familiar voice and she practically screamed the name before she'd even turned around. "Allen!"
Allen couldn't quite keep the hateful look off his face as the Noah yelled out his name and launched herself at him. He side stepped quickly, putting his paper bag of pastries on the edge of the fountain to free both his hands.
Road pulled a hurt face. "What was that for? Don't you like me anymore, Allen?"
Lanel was now completely lost. That is, until he caught the word bouncing around Allen's head, practically screaming at him to pick it up. Noah. Oh, a she was a Noah. OH! This was Road Camelot, the Noah of Dreams. Lanel couldn't believe he'd taken this long to realise it. Not that he could do much unless Allen told him to. He'd never fought a Noah before, and also knew that if Allen could end this without a fight, he would prefer it that way.
She was pouting a little, but Lanel knew even if he didn't know the kind of things the girl was capable of, he wouldn't have been able to completely trust that innocent face. Looking around though, he also knew that the townsfolk wouldn't be of the same mind, and two fully-grown men assaulting a twelve year old little girl probably wouldn't endear them to the exorcists' cause. They had to wait for her to show her true colour before they could even think about attacking her.
"Road, there might once have been a time where I could have found it in myself to like you, but unfortunately, you have this little hobby that involves killing people, and I just can't agree with that." He glared at little. "And the hand you had in torturing me was never going to get me on your side."
"Oh you're not still angry with me for that, are you?" she asked, her pout increasing, making her look more child-like. "It was only a bit of fun. Anyway, it was really all Fran's doing." She leaned forward conspiratorially. "Did you really rip her apart with your bare hands? Perdy told me you did. Of course, you also killed her too. Why do you hate us so much? Are us Noah really so different from you?"
Allen flinched a little at that, knowing that Road couldn't possibly know about his condition but the words hit a little too close to home. "Yes I killed them both, but they were trying to kill me first."
"Self defence was it?" she said in a mocking tone, implying she thought that he was making excuses. He didn't reply to that, merely scowling at her.
She turned again to Lanel, who almost flinched as those eyes landed on him. "So who is he? He is a he, right? Is he your new boyfriend? Do you always go for the androgynous she-males? Your last one was pretty girly too."
Allen amused himself for a few seconds imagining what Kanda would do to the little Noah if he ever heard what she thought of him. "No, he is not my new boyfriend. There's nothing wrong with the one I've got."
"So you're still with the Japanese guy? Shame, I thought we really managed to end that, what with that thing with Gregory and all. Did you kill him too?"
"Kanda did."
"Oh well, wasn't a huge loss anyway. Though you should know we thought it was you who offed him, that's why Perdy spent all those months chasing you all over the world."
"I don't really care. What are you doing here Road?"
"I'm bored!" she cried, stomping her little foot. "Since you exorcists really got busy lately, I haven't had any fun. I'm the only Noah that's ever around anymore!"
Allen raised an eyebrow, wondering whether she was deliberately dropping hints or if she truly was out of control as she seemed.
Her suddenly golden eyes snapped onto Lanel. "Who do you think you are? How dare you try and probe my mind! The mind is my domain!" She turned to Allen again. "Just who is this guy?"
Allen smirked. "Wouldn't you like to know? Try all you want, you won't be able to get into his dreams."
"Why not?" she retorted angrily.
This time it was Lanel who replied. "My mind is far stronger than yours" he said calmly. "And I don't dream."
She stamped her foot in temper again. "I hate you! You'll pay for spoiling my fun!" Her skin darkened, crosses blooming across her forehead. "I hope you enjoy my present!" and she backed away as the square suddenly swarmed with Akuma. Allen turned to Lanel. "You won't be able to destroy them, so just leave them to me. Keep an eye on Road. Innocence might be their weakness, but that doesn't mean a few good hits with a normal weapon won't hurt her."
Lanel nodded in agreement and spoke quietly, making sure his words wouldn't carry to the girl watching them with something like glee. "Do not push yourself. If you become too weak there won't be just one Noah to deal with."
Allen snorted but knew Lanel was right and gave a single nod to show he understood. "Alright, but get these people out of here!"
Lanel immediately began ushering people away from the scene. Nobody seemed too eager to leave, but a flying blood bullet that landed in the crowd and turned two bystanders to dust quickly changed their minds and there was a mad scramble to get to safety.
While Allen started the task of destroying the dozen or so level two and three Akuma, Lanel approached Road who was watching with amusement from the sidelines. The Akuma she had brought with her were no use against the exorcist general, since she'd only brought them along to help her kill off a few pitiful humans in her boredom. But they were expendable if it meant she could watch Allen in action. She turned to the other exorcist at her side, eyeing him up and down and noticing he still hadn't drawn any weapon. "You never answered me. Who are you? Why don't you have innocence?"
"I am Lanel, and I don't need innocence" he replied simply, allowing some of the choral quality of The Voice to come though his speech.
The strange vocal tones seemed to draw attention to the fact that he was definitely not human. Road stared at him, curiosity piqued. "What are you?"
He smirked, an odd expression on his face. "I am an exorcist."
She growled in annoyance and conjured a wall of deadly sharp candles in front of him. He ran his gaze over them, apparently unconcerned for his health. "I doubt your little tricks can hurt me, Road Camelot." To prove his point he neatly avoided every single one of the candles as they flew towards him, a seemingly impossible feat that only served to annoy the female Noah more.
When Allen arrived at Lanel's side, winded but uninjured, she looked around to see that all of her Akuma had been destroyed while she had been busy with the strange non-innocence wielding exorcist. She frowned in frustration and glared at the two men. "Stupid Akuma, couldn't even land a hit" she muttered fiercely, looking around as though considering her next move.
Lanel glanced at Allen, who grinned in return. "I'm fine, don't worry. I'm just a bit tired. As long as-" he was cut off by a small blur of grey and black that ploughed into him, knocking him to the ground. Road straddled his body, sitting on his stomach as she glared down at him. "I don't think I like you anymore Allen. You're just no fun."
"Sorry about that" he smirked up at her. "But some of us grew up, you know."
She smacked him powerfully across the face, pinning his arms to the ground with her knees so he couldn't defend himself. A normal human, even an exorcist, would have been no match for her Noah strength, but Allen wasn't a normal human, not anymore.
He wrenched his arms free and grabbed her shoulders, grappling with her as he pushed her back from him. Her eyes widened in shock- she had clearly not expected him to be able to move at all, never mind push her off him. Candles appeared behind him and she smirked. "One move and you're a dead man" she whispered venomously, and the tip of one of the deadly candles rested on the back of his neck to emphasise her point.
His face was lowered, looking at the floor, but as he raised his head and met her eyes with his own, she got the biggest and most unexpected shock of her life. His eyes were gold.
He was obviously fighting the change, his hair was still mostly white, but even as she watched another streak of pitch painted itself through it, root to tip. "Are you sure you want to do that?" he asked, his voice sounding the same, but lacking the warmth, the humanity it usually carried. She tried to scramble back to put herself at a safer distance. If he really was a Noah, and she was having a hard time coming to grips with it, who knew what he could do. She released her candles, hoping to make him reveal something of his abilities to her but as they reached him, they changed, and instead of solid candles, he was hit by a shower of waxy petals that broke against his back and washed around him like a wave. The golden hue of his eyes sharpened as he looked up at her and she took an involuntary step back, honestly frightened. "You're a Noah? Why…" her eyes fell on his left arm. "I don't understand" she admitted.
He shrugged lazily, brushing his hair back from his face and revealing darkening cross marks. "Neither do I, to be honest."
"Come back with me. You're my family."
The golden eyes instantly hardened. "I afraid you burned all those bridges years ago. When you tortured me all those years ago, you didn't just hurt the exorcist."
Road backed away, knowing she'd have to leave in one piece if she wanted to tell the Earl about this new development. Maybe Millennium would be able to persuade this new Noah to join their cause. A door appeared behind her and she stopped with one hand resting on the handle. "See you soon, brother." And she slipped through the portal and vanished along with it.
Allen kicked a pebble in annoyance, putting a hand to his head as he became more aware of how tired he was. He sat down heavily, the world weaving dizzily around him.
You don't learn do you? The voice of the dark asked, sounding smug. You're tired, you're weak, and you still try to fight me. We could have destroyed that Noah if you had let me. Now she'll go back to the Earl and no matter where you try to hide, he'll know what we are and he'll hunt you down.
I hate it when you're right, just shut up. I know alright, but I'm going to fight you as long as I have the strength to do so. He blinked a couple of times, but it did nothing to clear his vision.
Oh, well then, I'll just hang on the two more minutes that that's the case then shall I?
Allen groaned as the ground lurched and just managed to turn his spinning head in time to vomit violently to the side. Lanel was beside him in an instant. "We need to get you out of here, it is not safe."
Allen swiped at him with his right hand, though he couldn't for the life of him remember actually telling his body to move.
"You are too tired to fight him off properly" Lanel said, his voice low and soothing as he glanced around, all the while rubbing circles on Allen's back. Allen closed his eyes to try and control the nausea, and Lanel took his chance. He grabbed a large rounded rock from his side and, with immense speed and precision, clocked Allen across the back of the head, sprawling him unconscious on the ground, thankfully missing the sick by a couple of inches. He then dug through his pockets and pulled out a golem and proceeded to call Komui, using his own abilities to boost the golem power and so removing the need to have a telephone connection.
0o0o0o0o0
Allen blinked blearily at the ceiling, wondering where the hell he was and just what had happened. His head felt like it had been smashed with a brick, and no matter how hard he thought about it, he couldn't recall what had happened just before he lost consciousness. He looked around, finding himself lying on a bed in a sparsely furnished room which was probably in some cheap hotel. It had that look about it. He was alone in the room, but the long exorcist coat draped over a chair in the corner told him Lanel wasn't too far away. He couldn't make sense of the short exorcist jacket on the other chair, but decided not to think about it too hard while his head still throbbed painfully.
Voices outside the door drew his attention away from the chairs.
"I know you had to do something but cracking him over the head with a sodding rock? Don't you think that was slightly excessive?"
Allen frowned, he knew that voice, but he couldn't quite place it. He closed his eyes, hoping the darkness would help to sooth his aching head and laying a cool hand across his forehead to ease the pounding that seemed to originate at the back of his head and crawl into his temples.
"It was the only way to make sure he could be contained. He was already very tired; he would not have been able to fight off the dark if left alone." Allen recognised Lanel's calm voice, overly proper and collected.
"You hit him with a damned rock!" the second voice said angrily. "He's been unconscious for two days!"
Well, that was news to him, he hadn't realised he'd been out so long. The handle of the door turned and he heard it open, but couldn't bring himself to open his eyes again, a greasy nausea swimming through his body at the thought of movement, no matter how small.
"Is he still out of it?" the familiar but so far unidentified voice asked, drawing close to the bed.
"No, he isn't" Allen mumbled, his hand that had been resting on his forehead rolling off over the top of his head and hitting the pillow. "Urgh, I feel like crap."
"I'm not surprised, all those Akuma, Noah and a certain angel to deal with. When Kanda saw what Nel had done to you, he was ready to kill him."
Allen cracked open an eye slightly, looking up at Jim. "Huh?"
"You were totally knackered after destroying all those Akuma, and started to transform when facing Road. Lanel had to knock you out to stop it. Unfortunately, it seems he forgot how strong he was and was a little more forceful than was required." Jim grinned. "It worked though- he hit you so hard he knocked the dark side into next week at the same time."
Allen just closed his eye and groaned again.
"I am sorry" said Lanel, sounding as though he truly was.
"Kanda's gone to get some painkillers. I've no doubt you need them" the blonde exorcist said.
Allen groaned in agreement, choosing not to question why the other exorcist team had come to them. Surely such a small injury didn't warrant an abandoned mission on the other team's part. As though reading his mind, Jim sat on the edge of the bed. "We've got to get you back to the Order as soon as possible. By now the Earl will know about you, it's not safe for you to be out and about anymore."
Great, more house arrest Allen thought mutinously.
"Anyway, we've been sent to escort you back, but Komui's calling everyone home now. He's getting suspicious about something and wants to have everyone safe until we know what's going on."
The sound of the door opening and closing was all the warning they got before a bottle of pills hit Allen square in the face. "Get them down you and get ready. We're leaving in ten minutes" was all Kanda said before sweeping back out of the room.