Chapter Title: Destruction

Chapter Description: Lenalee refuses to tell anyone about Allen, and keeps it within her though Lavi tries to get it out of her. The Noahs attack the Asia branch, and in a moment of weakness, let one person escape.

A/N: This isn't the best written thing I've ever… well… written. But it's been a busy week; I had finals, plus my birthday was on the eleventh. It's sort of lucky that I just got this out on time. I'm going to try to update on every Friday, by the way. There's just a wee bit of character death in this chapter, just so you know, but it's not anyone who is a generally loved character.

Disclaimer: I do not own -Man, because if I did then Toma would make more appearances.

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"Tell me what I'm supposed to do with all these leftover feelings of you, 'cause I don't know. Tell me how I'm supposed to feel when all these nightmares become real, 'cause I don't know."

-'Roadside' by Rise Against

--

Through the day, Lenalee pretended that everything was normal, fine and dandy. During dinner she was even able to force a smile onto her face when Lavi made some sort of joke, though later she couldn't remember what it was about. But forcing herself to laugh was quite an accomplishment, all things considered and all circumstances taken into account.

The truth was, however, that on the inside Lenalee felt like she was falling apart. Allen was like family to her; family, and even more than that. For a long time she had known that she had been in love with Allen. Actually, she thought that she had realized it when she had first thought of losing Allen when they were in China. Never before had she been in such abject despair as when she thought that she had lost him.

Not until now. Losing him to death against the enemy was painful, but at least she knew that he had 'died' doing what was right and just. Knowing that he was alive and well, but working against her and the other members of the Order was excruciatingly painful. In some ways, it would have been better if he were dead; it would make the feeling of betrayal that was sitting in her stomach dissipate, to be replaced only by sorrow. Not that she would ever wish that he was dead; no, as long as he was alive there was still hope of bringing him back, but the tears covering her pillow that night were that of betrayal.

The clock in the hall chimed eleven, twelve, one and two, but sleep never came to Lenalee. Instead she lied there, tears silently flowing down her face as she stared at the ceiling, wondering if Allen was alright and if he was, by any strange possibility, thinking of her as much as she was thinking of him.

Without any warning there was a knock on Lenalee's door. Shooting up out of bed with surprise, she stared for a moment. She knew who she wanted it to be; in her mind she imagined Allen standing on the other side of that wood with a remorseful face, apologizing for leaving her and coming back to the Order to never leave again. Her heart uncontrollably swelled with false hope; it seemed impossible, but stranger thing had happened.

"Lenalee? It's me, Lavi. You're not sleeping, are you?" Instantly all of the hope from Lenalee's heart deflated and left her feeling more alone than she was before. Uncontrollably, she began to sob. The door opened revealing, Lavi, not Allen. It wouldn't have been Allen, but it was so easy to hope and to dream that it was him. "Lenalee?"

Not wanting him to worry, Lenalee tried to choke out words in-between sobs. "I'm- I'm f-f-ine." She paused, her sobs subsiding now. "It was just that I had a- a long day and I couldn't fall asleep."

Though her face was looking at the tear soaked stains on the sheets on the bed she was lying in, she could hear Lavi's footsteps coming closer to her. "Lenalee, where's Allen?" The question took her completely by surprise. She looked up and saw that there was no smile on Lavi's face and no inch of humor to that question. "He's been missing and you were the last person to have seen him. Where is he?"

Allen had told her not to tell anyone where he was; he wanted her to keep it a secret from her comrades and allies. When news of it got out, there would be anarchy; the Order would lose morale and the fight against the Noah would be even more difficult than it already was. If she kept it a secret then she'd be tried for treason and betray her friends. If she told now, at least people would be prepared; the science department could make precautions and find out ways to possibly defeat Allen.

The right thing to do would be to tell Lavi right here and right now that Allen had left them; that he'd gone to the other side and became a Noah.

The thing that Lenalee wanted to do was keep the façade up for a few days; to say that Allen had taken a little vacation and would be back before the week was over.

The problem was, whichever route she took, she'd betray people who she cared deeply about; if she were to stay silent then she'd be betraying all of the friends who had been like family to her since she'd gotten to the Order; her brother, Kanda, Lavi, Miranda, Krory, Reever, Johnny, 65… But if she were to talk then she'd betray the one person whom she cared most about in the world. Allen.

"I don't know where he is." Lying was not Lenalee's greatest skill, and she hadn't had much practice in it either. No eye contact was made with Lavi, there was a shake to her voice and a few more renegade tears fell down from her eyes. Each thing that she did Lavi took note of; this time not for his personal enjoyment, but for the fact that the answer she gave her would change the history of the world. "All I know is that he's left for a little while."

Wanting to scream, to shake Lenalee's shoulders and make her tell him the truth, Lavi spoke through clenched through teeth. "Lenalee, tell me everything that you know. This is bigger than just you and me and Allen." There was so much that Lenalee didn't understand about this situation; if she didn't admit what was happening, there was nothing that could be done.

In all honesty, Lavi's reaction was vaguely frightening. It was almost like he knew things that only she knew, but that was impossible, Lenalee was the only one who knew what fate Allen had been assigned to. "Lavi, I don't know where he is." Her voice rose with the words and more tears fell down her face. "I don't know where Allen is, or what's happened to him."

For a moment there was silence between them. Then Lavi sighed and sadly put a hand on the girl's shoulder. "It's okay Lenalee, I'm sorry." There was a pause, and he looked away from the girl for a moment. "I'm just worried about him, that's all." That was the truth as well. Lavi was worried, terribly worried.

"I'm worried too." As she spoke her voice cracked in an embarrassing fashion and more tears fell. Hesitantly, Lavi put a hand to her face and wiped away a tear. His hand was warm on her face, and it felt very comfortable. Inside Lavi's chest his heart was pounding and he knew that by that one gesture he was breaking everything he had been taught about being a bookman, but he didn't care. Seeing Lenalee cry ripped him up from the inside out.

But as suddenly as he had gotten there, he needed to leave. "I have to go." He said and without waiting for any response from Lenalee, he got up and walked out, almost mechanically. There were no other words of parting and no looks back or spoken hopes that Lenalee's tears would stop. Lenalee could only stare as Lavi left and left her alone once again.

Shutting the door behind him, Lavi took a deep breath of relief. Being in such close proximity to Lenalee alone made being a bookman incredibly difficult.

"How did it go?" The voice was rough and gravely and took Lavi completely by surprise. Shaking all of the thoughts that he had out of his head, he turned to Bookman and began to yell.

"Man, panda, don't scare me like that! Geez. Give a guy a little warning, won't ya?"

Rolling his eyes, Bookman began to walk and Lavi followed. As they walked, Bookman began the long row of questions that he and Lavi would be going through for the rest of the night and well into morning. It was the life of a bookman to be as thorough as possible, even if that meant losing a night of sleep.

"What was her response?" This was the most important question of them all; the question that would decide the fate of the Order and perhaps the world.

There was silence from behind Bookman for a moment, and he could guess what the girl had said even without his junior telling him. "She told me that she only knew that he had gone somewhere for a little bit; she told me that she didn't know where."

Sadly, Bookman shook his head. The pigheadedness of young humans was unbelievable. They think that they're saving themselves and the ones in love, but truly they're only putting the world into danger. Miss Lena's decisions on how she answered that questions would forever haunt her mind, that much Bookman was sure of. For such a kind human to lie to all of her peers must have been a difficult decision.

"Miss Lena has made her decision then, now we-"

Behind him, Lavi stopped walking. Staring at the floor, he spoke the thing that he had been wanting to say since he first witnessed from behind a bookshelf Allen's change into a Noah. "Old man, can't we just tell the Order?"

It was the question that Bookman had dreaded hearing from his protégé. "Lavi, you know that we-"

Lavi's head shot up. "What harm would it do?" Though he was not yelling, there was something incredibly harsh about his voice. "Just give these people level footing on the playing field, give them a chance-"

Bookman turned around abruptly and walked up close to Lavi. "Stupid apprentice. Remember that you are not supposed to care about these people. Apathy is what you need to survive at the moment, and you're not showing much of it."

For once, Lavi refused to back down. "But Bookman, don't you have any feelings for these people at all? If we told them we could save so many lives, and Lenalee wouldn't be tried and-"

"Lavi!" Lavi just stared at Bookman. "Don't let your feelings for that girl cloud your judgment. We've already interfered too much by asking her about it; a leeway that I gave to you of your own asking, don't forget that. We've already gone against what we are supposed to be as bookmen; I cannot allow any further meddling." He paused, taking in every aspect of the dejected face that his apprentice had. At the beginning he had had reservations about taking Lavi on as his protégé, and now the child was doing everything that Bookman had wanted to avoid with him. Hopefully, however, things would change. "Now, come with me, Lavi. We need to discuss what happened and also discuss plans for our change."

Though Bookman kept walking, Lavi stayed stationary. "Change?"

"Yes, Lavi." Bookman said, pausing in his steps, though not looking back. "We're switching sides again."

--

The wreck was horrible, and yet beautiful in a strange way. Smoking piles of rubble sent waves of disgust over Allen, but yet, it enticed him. Destruction was beautiful; taking away these meager things from those lesser beings was wonderful.

Besides, what was done was done and there was absolutely no use crying tears over the dead scientists and finders who were now gone.

On the way into the wreckage he had already seen the lifeless and bloody corpse of Lou Fa, the girl who had once fancied herself in love with him. As he walked to another room was Toma, the finder who had been with him on his first mission. Apparently he had been transferred over to Asia or something; Allen would never know the specifics now. The man was stone dead when he checked for a pulse.

Now he found himself in the office of the head branch, Bak Chan. From his experience with Bak, Allen had been fond of him, but now the head was rather annoying. The problem was that they could not find him anywhere. It was important that the Earl that the branch leader was dead. It would send a message to all exorcists and other important members of the order.

The message was: You are not safe. Not even in your own home will you be safe.

And though the message would be partially sent with the deaths with a grand number of finders and scientists, and with the defeated guardian deity, it wouldn't really send the entire message through unless Bak Chan's head was sent to Vatican on a silver platter. That's why it was so irritating for Road, Tyki and Allen that they could not find the man anywhere. Perhaps he was yellow; perhaps he had not been there in the first place. Either way, they were searching every corner of the vast Asian headquarters in order to find him.

After some akuma came to the group to report the fact that they had not found the branch head yet, Allen spoke for the first time since they had entered the place. "They once told me that this place is so big that a man once got lost in it and died." Road and Tyki both looked at him expectantly, waiting for a punch line of some sort. "It will take more time than that to search the entire place."

Sighing, Road flicked a piece of lint off of her shirt. "Well, if you're such an expert on the place then you should probably be the one looking for the guy; we have no idea what we're doing." She looked at Tyki, who nodded.

"Yes, lad. If you're so knowledgeable then you should have no problem finding this Bak guy." Tyki made a little hand motion that looked like him shooing Allen away. "Hurry up, I'm hungry. I want to get back home as quickly as possible at this point."

Rolling his eyes Allen angrily walked out of the room. The truth was, Allen wanted to be out of there as well. The takeover had been incredibly bloody, and though he only watched and did not partake in any of the actual battle, it still made him squirm a bit to think that these people were once his allies. To see the looks of shock on their faces as the person who had once been the 'Destroyer of Time' to them watched them die with cold and unforgiving eyes was almost too much for him to take. But he did it; he did it for the Lord Millennium.

As Allen walked through the rubble, he half-expected to find Bak's body under some stone pillar or something. With the exception of a few places, the Asian Branch was completely destroyed. The akuma did not hold back when they had attacked; there was blood and fire wherever Allen walked, the bodies of his former comrades scattered everywhere.

Allen stopped for a moment to be sick. As he wiped the remnants of the vomit off of his face, he heard a faint pounding noise.

Feeling weak and curious, he followed it to a wall that was still mostly in tact. He recognized it as some of the housing for the science department members. Mostly the lower staff lived there; they weren't the nicest apartments that the Order had to offer.

The knocking became louder as he neared the wall and there was yelling that accompanied it. "Let me out, Fou, let me out!" It seemed that the rooms had remained in tact despite all of the destruction that the akuma had caused there. The voice, however, was familiar and Allen knew what he had to do. All of his hopes of Bak having had his demise from an akuma were now gone. It would have to be him who did that dirty job.

Slowly he walked from door to door until he found the one that Bak seemed to be behind. The cries became more desperate; apparently Fou had taken some precautions to make sure that Bak had remained safe. That was so like Fou; despite all of the crap that she liked to put Bak through she really did care about him in the end. "I'm sorry Fou." Allen whispered as he touched the door. As soon as it opened, it would be the end. "Bak-san? Is that you, are you in there?"

There was a pause in the knocking from the other side. "Walker, is that you?"

"Yes, it is. Give me a moment, I'll get the door open. The attack is over." The lies slipped so easily from his lips. They would fool Bak; if Lenalee was true to her word then no one at the Order would know that he had joined the other side. To Bak, Allen was still a valuable ally.

There was a sharp intake of breath from the other side of the door. "Tell me Walker, did we have many casualties?" The worry in Bak's voice was so sincere. He truly did care about the people that worked for him. Allen remembered how Bak was when he almost lost Fou. Right now he was probably in hives and felt feverish. The thought almost brought a smile to Allen's face.

"My side didn't." And it was true. The Noahs had lost no one in this battle. Hundreds of finders and scientists gave their lives, but not a single person, not even a single akuma, died in this fight against the Asia branch.

There was a noise on the other side of the door somewhere between a 'whoop' and a snort. It brought a sad smile to Allen's face. At least Bak would spend his last few moments with some sort of happiness left in his life. At least he wouldn't die knowing that his friends had gone before him. "Thank God Walker. I was so worried. When we first found that we were attack Fou stuffed me in here and knocked me out. She thought that I wouldn't make it out alive; oh, how she was wrong! And another defeat against the Noahs how-"

Allen pried open the door. One look at Allen's face and Bak's face fell. "Hello, Bak-san." Allen said, fighting back tears. He would have resolve; he would do what his master told him to do. This man was the enemy; Bak Chan was standing between him and his final destination. People who were adversaries needed to be killed, even if they were kind-hearted people.

"Walker, don't tell me that this is true." Bak's eyes caught sight of some of the rubble from behind Allen. They grew wide with terror. "The Asian branch is…"

"Dead. They're all dead." Allen activated his Innocence and pulled out the sword that had once been his Sword of Exorcism, but was now a weapon for him to use against exorcists and the Order. For some reason the Innocence had not abandoned him and created a Fallen One when he had become a Noah, so that was now his weapon to defeat the people who considered the substance so dear. "And so are-"

Bak's eyes grew wide and frightened. They were the eyes of someone who was betrayed; the eyes of someone who had trusted another and was being stabbed brutally in the back by them. Allen had never before thought that he could inspire a look like that.

And it was in that moment that Allen's resolve broke. His sword was dropped from his hand and it skidded against the stone floor. Falling to his knees, he spoke quietly. "Run Bak. Get to the Order as quickly as you can." For a moment Allen didn't feel like a Noah; for a moment Allen thought that he was once again this man's ally. And as this man's ally, he had only one request. Looking straight into the branch head's betrayed eyes he begged. "Find someone who can kill me; find someone who can kill me quickly."

Passing out, the last thing that Allen saw was Bak grabbing Allen's sword and breaking through the window that would be Bak's escape to the outside. Before the Noah inside of Allen took him completely over once again, the faintest glimpse of a smile appeared on Allen's face.

--

Happily going through a few papers, Komui Lee sat in his office drinking a delicious cup of coffee made by his wonderful little sister. Life couldn't be sweeter. One would think that he would be worried about the impending cloud of doom hanging over the world, but with his friends and family and the lack of activity of the Noah in the past few days, Komui took the moment to just enjoy his life.

That was, until he got a phone call from some finders in Tibet.

As he picked up the phone, he was in a happy sort of mood. "Hello there!" He said into the phone. "What's new?"

"Komui, is that you?" The voice was familiar to him, though Bak's tone of voice was somewhat different. Usually he was much more of a playful sort of a guy; it was out of character for him to sound so serious.

"Yes, Bak-chan. Why do you sound so serious, you sou-"

Komui was cut off. "This is no time to joke around. The Asia branch has been destroyed. It was burned to the ground by level fours and three Noahs."

For a moment Komui didn't believe it; Bak liked practical jokes as much as he did, and though this wasn't a particularly funny one, it couldn't have been true. There was no way that an attack on the Asia branch would have happened so quickly and without any word to headquarters. Now with the Ark that Allen controlled, it would have been easy for them to evacuate as well. Sure, he hadn't seen Allen in a few days, but that shouldn't have meant that the portals just stopped working. "Bak-chan, this isn't funny. Don't joke around like tha-"

"KOMUI, LISTEN TO ME. Everyone at the Asia branch is dead. They're all gone Komui; I'm the only survivor and that's just because Walker-"

It was then that Komui realized that Bak was serious. The Asia branch was gone then, a victim to the battle against the Earl. The Order would be filled with the coffins of its members once again. "Walker? You've seen him? He's been missing for a few days now." There was a momentary pause at the other end of the line; the pause of something not being right. "Bak, where's Walker?"

"Komui, he's joined them. Walker has become a Noah, and helped bring about the destruction of the branch. I don't know why, but when he was about to kill me he suddenly let me go. If it weren't for that momentarily lapse-" There was a pause and on the other side of the line there seemed to be something almost like sniffling. When he had a moment to think, Komui noticed that there were tears falling down his face as well. "If it weren't for that I'd be dead too."

Neither of them spoke for a moment. When Komui opened his mouth again, it was not as Komui Lee, it was of a member of the Order; it was as someone who would repay the Millennium Earl for what he had done and for all of the coffins of his comrades that he had filled. "Bak, come here as soon as you can. If Walker has joined them then it's not safe to use the Ark, but for God's sake get here as soon as possible. We'll find out all of the details then. Tell all of the finders in your area to be on high alert. If Walker has truly joined the Noah," Around him the eyes of the science department were all staring, having now heard that their savior, their hero, was now with the enemy. In the corner, he could see the first tears falling down Johnny's face. "Then we must be prepared to kill him."

"Yes." Bak responded, and at the same time they put their phones down.

As he put the phone down, Komui stared at his desk. It was too much information; too much to take in for such a short period of time. They had known that there was something growing inside of Walker, but to think that it was truly Noah DNA was astounding. Between that and the destruction of the stronghold of the Asia branch, Komui wasn't quite sure what to say or what to do. Morale would be gone; the exorcists would be in a frenzy.

Kanda would swear revenge on the boy.

Miranda would break down in tears.

Krory wouldn't speak to anyone for days.

Lavi would pretend that it was no big deal, but he would be killing himself on the inside.

And Lenalee… Komui didn't want to think about how his sister would react to the news, but he knew that Lenalee would be absolutely crushed.

But yet, there were things that they needed to do and prepare for. Walker was strong; he was on the same level as a general. That meant that if he was now on the side of the Noah, he was a formidable opponent and a threat to them all.

"Everyone." He said, his voice with no trace of its usual humor in it. "I have an announcement. The Asia branch has been destroyed." There was a general gasp around the room, surrounded by a heavy silence that filled the air with sorrow. "And Allen Walker has become a Noah."

No one responded and no one spoke. It was like the last hope that they had was now extinguished.

--

Fin

Coming in chapter four: Allen spends some time getting to know his new 'family' after the destruction of the Asia Branch. Someone suspects that Allen let Bak get away, and so Allen is forced to defend himself in front of the Earl.