rrJesterxxFinale: Because, that would be too logical and easy. Much better to just leave the ignorant readers there baffled. (But really, I prefer Crowley too, obviously, and if I were to make chapter pov's Krowley and the chapter Crowley, that would just be weird. And branching from that, I could just make Lavi 'L' and Lenalee 'R' for Rinalee, which would also make things strange.) In short, not a bad idea, much cleverer than my impulsive way, but I'm going to have to decline on reason of awkwardness.
Requiem of Time: Chapter Twenty-Eight - Noah
In the Earl's new Ark, Tyki hesitated before a door.
Every Noah - from his time, at least - knew that one day Allen would slay the Earl. That much was hinted even before they knew about the Fourteenth Noah, and once they did, it became practically fact. The clashes between the two titans were always messy, and the results gruesome, even for people like them.
That last fight, however, things had been… different.
The Earl was unprepared for the onslaught that is Allen Walker, yet Walker himself hadn't been in his right mind, crippling him from his normal power. Then, once the Earl's outer-layer had fallen, when the fight was really starting to kick off... the black Crown Clown had appeared. And the Earl had been taken.
Exhausted from the experience, the Earl would have been easily defeated by Marshal Cross, yet with the downing of Allen came the downing of the Noah's entrapments, and thus they were able to get to the Earl in time. Another stalemate in a long line of draws, yet it had been different.
And so, exhausted, weakened, and pain-wracked, the Earl had retreated into his rooms where he hadn't been seen since, just as Rhode retreated to hers. Lulubell was concerned for the Earl, of course, yet she knew better than to go in his room uninvited. For that matter, Tyki did to.
Which is why the door he was hesitating outside of was not the Earl of the Millennium's. Instead, it was his dear older-yet-looking-younger sister's. Never before had he ever hesitated before her door in particular - among the whole family, they were the closest - well, save for the times he knew Allen to be there, yet for the first time he hesitated knowing that it was just her.
One hand rubbed his chest passively, but with a growl he slipped his hand away. It didn't even hurt anymore, damnit. Instead, he tapped the pocket his cigarettes used to reside. How he missed them... He could use one or twenty right now for his nerves.
Joyd sighed, glaring at his hand one last time as it twitched towards his chest, and just opened the door and stepped in.
"Yo, Rhode."
"..." was the response he got back.
Rhode was just lying on her bed, facedown, hugging her pillow with one hand and staring at a doll in the other, her legs kicking passively as she simply lied there. She didn't even look up at him, and a smile had never been further from her face than at that moment.
Tyki shifted his weight awkwardly and repressed another sigh. The things he did for his family... Whether he was speaking of Rhode or Allen, he wasn't sure. So with a weak grin, he offered, "I was thinking we could talk."
"...About what?" Rhode asked hollowly, eyes not leaving the small doll she was holding. Plushy, crude design, dark purple dress with lavender trim. Hair was yarn and eyes buttons. Tyki saw nothing interesting about it. It sure wasn't her Allen Walker doll, though.
Regardless, he didn't let that detour him. A bit more sternly, he answered, "You know what."
This time, Rhode released her doll, allowing it to float away, and faced him. Eyes dark enough to appear black, yet held a purple gleam to them with light, bore into him. "Were you telling the truth?"
"Those phantom memories of yours speak for me," Tyki said simply. At least she was talking. Now, to find some way to cheer her up...
"...You know what that means, right?" Rhode asked him suddenly, and her blank face suddenly turned a bit... peculiar.
"Hmm?" Mentioning candy, maybe. However, without some on him that would be suicide. Allen? Ack, that might make things worse, despite how much she had been hung on him earlier. What else cheered her up? Ugh, Allen was always the solution back then.
Rhode's look bloomed into a wide grin, and she sprang to her feet off her bed, swinging a new plushy around. "I marry Allen!"
It took Joyd a moment to realize that Rhode was actually not depressed, and when he did he deadpanned. All this anxiety and nervousness and worry about his sister-by-clan, and she was better than fine. And so, letting out another sigh that was mixed with a growl of frustration, he covered his face with a hand. To hide a smile. Useless or not, he was glad Rhode was okay. The girl was his favorite clanswoman, after all, and although he would never admit it to Sheryl, he did care for her.
****
Surrounded by hundreds of boxes with little numbers on them, sitting in a chair by himself, another man gave a growl of frustration. One gloved hand was used to cover his face, and the skin under that was wet with sweat. Images... Images... What are these images?
A generation of Noah he had never seen before - some, he recognized like Joyd, Road, Lustul, Bondomu, and Desires; others were new, including Wrathra. Allen Walker, older, tearing through Akuma with his damnable sword to get his head. A wedding, of all things, between little Rhode-chan and Allen Walker. A hinted connection made fact. Allen was not just the Fourteenth's Player; he was the Fourteenth reincarnated!
Yet, how did he know this? Each were problems in their own rights, amplifying and certainly hindering his Scenario, yet... Allen was not older, Rhode most certainly was not married, and while he had seen Allen reveal an inner Noah - the lack of control over him proved that to be the Fourteenth - he felt that the source that described the next Noah to be very reliable. They certainly performed accordingly.
These images were a puzzle, one he planned on figuring out at well as using. First, he would test their reliability. Then, if they proved true, he would use them to step ahead of the Exorcists and their Innocence. Ahead of Allen.
****
An older Allen Walker, coatless, hard muscles glistening with sweat, lay exhausted on the floor of her special 'training' rooms. The carpet was crimson to hide the spilt blood, although the amount that it had drank in recent months was enough to stain noticeably. All of it Allen's, of course.
Lulubell herself had also shed her coat, leaving her in a blood splattered blouse and a blue tie littered with droplets of red. Her mask of detachment was firmly in place, although her emotions were repressed so securely the mask may as well been truth. Her golden, slitted eyes were observing him coldly.
Then Allen had to open his mouth. "All Noah have to control their portion of memory, or else be consumed... That mask of yours, what else does it hide?"
The memory ended there abruptly, yet it burned in Lulubell's mind. That and another. Both related. The other... he had found out exactly 'what else it hides.' The reason behind her mask, one of her most closely held secrets, given light by a mere human boy with no training. Other memories swarmed at that, as if angry. Allen being trained, Allen the Noah, Allen... not so much a boy. Another thought carefully repressed.
Lulubell, currently transformed as a cat and gently lapping at a bowl of milk, tried to look at this logically. Ever since she had first come across the Marshal who could outmaneuver her, those strange images had appeared. Images she did not approve of. Images she had no control of. Images that defied a carefully ingrained system of indifference and stoicism.
With a wince, Lulubell realized her bowl was empty and she was still licking the now dry sides. But the wince wasn't at her foolishness or inattentiveness. No, she was addressing the problem with a rather undesirable angle. An emotional response. Taboo, but could she... love the man? Her control over her lust was great enough for that to be among the lowest of possibilities, while this had a painfully high chance if it had been anyone else.
So, starting her daily self-cleaning, she considered.
If she were to love someone - and she really emphasized the if - if she were, he was the... Pausing mid-lick, she hesitated. Then, reluctantly continued. If she were to love someone, he was the most likely choice. There, she thought coldly, I admitted it. A Marshal among Exorcists, unfortunately, and undeniably human, yet he was the only man so far who proved intellectually capable. He was no fool, and even a bit charming, if young. He certainly had a more mature feel to him though.
Lulubell winced again, and she had to slowly relax the sudden slam on her emotions. Can't get carried away, but she had to continue exploring this possibility. So he was intelligent, charming, and mature... but he was also a liar, a threat, the enemy, and a human. But... but he was also partially Noah. He denied what was in him, kept his human part separate, but the truth was he was her clansman. She supposed that made him a tad more acceptable as a... She would not associate 'Allen' and 'lover' together. Ever. Not even in a by-chance angle like this.
Moving on to her back, Lulubell quickly tightened her control again, becoming undisturbed, cold calculations again. This was all foolishness. Images of things that never happened had nothing to do with love. That was fact. While the man was more agreeable than most, perhaps second to the Earl himself, he was an enemy to the Earl and thus her. Nothing could nor ever would happen between them. That was a fact. She was not in love with him. That was a f... f...
Lulubell was near hissing at the surprising hesitation. She was not in love with the fool Marshal. Impossible. This whole thing was just a disorganized emotional response to an unexpected occurrence. She was jut grasping for answers, and she was being foolish enough to believe nonsense. She battered away the memories that tried to prove otherwise, but they weren't even real memories!
Absurd and illogical. And the man had done this to her, that was certain. The man skewed her firm control like this, caused her to fail the Earl, and had the gall to lie about giving her catnip. Since he apparently knew who she was, he was probably just mocking her then, too. She shivered suddenly, but quickly ripped her mind away before it strayed on just the thought of catnip. The stuff was just too addicting for her to control herself properly.
Allen Walker. He was the source of too many problems, and now this. The Earl would be happy with him dead, but now things were personal. She was going to kill that Marshal and be done with him. A sudden rebellion of memories, each showing what she would be missing if she did, hounded her, but all that did was make her more firm in her decision. It was Allen's fault for those, too.
There was no connection between those images and an attraction to him. She was not in the slightest bit, regardless of how anyone looked at it, in even the most mild manner, attracted to the man known as Marshal Allen Walker, the Fourteenth Noah. She was not!
****
Once Tyki left, Rhode summoned one of her doors. All those phantom memories in her mind, all those burning images of her and Allen, turned real. And he was the one from them, to boot! He loved her, and more than ever she was sure she loved him. Duke Millennium was hiding away somewhere, and only Tyki would bother to look for her, and since he was the one from the memories, too, she knew he wouldn't care where she was going.
She was going to go find Allen Walker and make him hers. And that was that.
AN: Next chapter, many of you are going to like. I think. It's already written, and I like it, though it probably depends on the person. Man, I've been in a writing binge lately, regardless of program. A chapter a day has become cake. Delicious cake. Progression, progression. We are progressing, folks, and in just a few more chapters this story is really going to kick off (and I'm going to hit a massive writer's block). :D
