Angel Fantasy: Don't worry about the inevitable block I'll get eventually. Things will turn out for the best, they always do. :D Besides, I already have two more chapters written and six after that in outline. It's after all that that I'll hit a writer's block... And lemons?! Oh my. I don't think I can do that... Well, I could, but... *shy author blush* Oh my.
Requiem of Time: Chapter Twenty-Nine - Allen
"You want to talk about Mana, right? To finish that conversation?"
Allen was hungry. Not hungry for knowledge - well he was, in a way, but that wasn't the issue - but instead that deep hunger that gnawed away one's innards and caused their stomach to burn. Being who he was, the pain was near crippling. When was the last time he ate? A quick bite in the morning as he boarded the boat leaving to Japan, a full day ago or so. For a Marshal with a parasitic Innocence, that was brutal.
He was tired, too. Oh so very tired. His eyes stung, the lids weighed a ton, his body groaned to just fall to the floor and sleep for ages. He was so tired he felt he could do so, damn the nightmares. Damn, damn, damn them. Thrice damned, if you will. When had he last slept? Three days ago, with the kindly help of Miranda. Even then, the sleep had been cut short by a natural nightmare - the unavoidable kind, despite who he was with. And after that short nap, what had he done? Hours of training with Fou, a full day's worth of it, the whole Suman Dark incidence, brought together his Innocence and Crowned the Clown, the emotional ups and downs of seeing the Joyd of his time instead of Tyki that should be, watched his newest (and promised last) apprentice die, turned her corpse into a tool for himself, rode to Japan, saved Chomesuke, saved that Kawamura girl, mock-battled the Earl, was kidnapped to his own Ark, held a meeting with his family - half of which he knew - had received a vague answer from Cross and the others, revealed to Rhode his deep secret, watched her run away from him... Thing went fuzzy from there, but he knew he had fought the Earl to a standstill yet again, almost losing. The few hours unconscious were no substitute for sleep. And finally he countered the Earl's download. All in one go.
Dear God, but he was tired. And sore.
A headache threatened to fog his mind into accidentally falling into that temptress known as Sleep, that harsh mistress who would break his soul as she always did if he didn't have help to hold her back. Help in the form of Miranda, or Lenalee... Or Cloud Nine, or Sarah, or even Lulubell... Or... His heart clinched... Or Rhode.
But Allen hardened himself. Hardened against the pain in his body, the pain in his mind. He embraced it all - he was too hard to be overwhelmed - and reduced it, as he was taught. Reduced it to some corner in his mind that he, at times, liked to pretend was the Fourteenth's, as if he was giving all his problems and stress to that other man to deal with. Regardless, it didn't bother him at the moment. All concentration was driving to one point, to one man, to what was to come.
"Yes, but first tell me what happened that night." 'That night' had happened when Allen was fifteen - as old as he currently looked - yet it was so long ago.
Cross, now sitting up, shrugged his shoulders. "I died."
Allen narrowed his eyes, not even noticing the crushing weight that wanted them to close all the way. "No, you didn't."
And his mind spiraled back...
Allen brushed the thick golden lock of hair away from Cloud Nine's right eye, exposing the most of her scar. It didn't bother him, it never had, yet, as always, she took a step back and allowed the hair to fall back in place. Her face was decidedly neutral, it usually was, though he cherished the times he could bring out her smile and laughter.
This time, though, she was here for a reason. "Azores Islands."
Allen had grown used to her sudden tidbits of information, and he knew better than to ever overlook them. "What about them?"
"They were Cross's favorite place."
Allen lashed out before he could stop himself, "Again! It's always back to him! I'm not him, Nine, and I never will be! I'm Allen fucking Walker, why can't you just see me as me?! Is it too much to ask?"
Her face remained neutral, it always did, as she simply stepped back, turned harshly, and walked out the door with that sway to her hips that usually drew his eye. Her whip cracked once while she was out of sight, but that was the only sign that she was angry.
Allen blew out a sigh as he stumbled into a chair, his face buried in a hand. Damn it. Again. He knew better than to overlook her pieces of information, but that thing about Cross had been bothering him since the start, and lately he felt more and more that his master was all she really saw in him. That had weighed heavily on his mind just before she walked in, and for something like that to be the first thing she said...
Flash!
Allen, nineteen years old, pulled his small rowboat further up the sands so that the tide wouldn't wash it away. Once that was settled, he turned to get a better view of where he was.
Azores Islands, specifically the island of Pico. He should have listened to Cloud Nine, back then. Taking a deep breath of air, he started up into the growth.
A month ago, he had been locked away, a prisoner, in the bowels of the Vatican. A month ago, half the Noah family had come to break him out. And left him safely on a boat departing from Italy. Without a word as to why. Well, Rhode had explained why, but he didn't believe her until they had actually left him alone.
Just thinking back to that brought his attention back to the candied cherry he had tasted on her mouth then, the Candied Cherry that perhaps had damned his soul, the taste that had burned into his mind up until their next meeting, the taste he remembered when he - for the first time under his own power - kissed her back. Of course, that time it was an orange taffy, but it was the Candied Cherry that had haunted his nights, that he associated with the girl - no, woman - known as Rhode Camelot.
Oh dear, he was getting very distracted. Allen wiped the smile off his mouth and proceeded up the cliff, still.
It had been a chance encounter - he was supposed to believe it was a chance encounter - that he and the blue haired Noah met upon his landing in France after the assisted breakout. Chance. That she would be at the exact dock she and the other Noah had sent him off to. That she drifted back with a smile when she saw him, off towards the abandoned shipbuilding warehouse.
Allen had charged after her, planning on laying his foot down on the lines between enemies. Planned on demanding she stop being so familiar.
They shared their first real kiss there.
That was the start, really. Rhode actually had a blush on her cheeks afterwards, grinning madly as she opened one of her doors and darted through without another word. The door was gone just as fast, leaving Allen there to wonder how screwed he'd be for doing that.
There had been a few more... 'Encounters' on his way here, each a bit more pleasant than the least, each with a new flavor of candy on her lips... But nothing serious, no Akuma, no other Noah, no Innocence. Just them... messing around. Yeah, that was it. Nothing serious.
Allen wiped back his particularly long bangs as he reached the top of the cliff, and in one motion hoisted himself up.
Yet, if that were so, why exactly was he so anxious and eager for her next 'chance' encounter? When and where would he next meet his blue haired-
The sight was not expected, driving Allen's thoughts back to the reason he was here. What had happened to his master, not the next time he could duck into an alley with a girl decidedly more vile and childishly innocent than he.
Before him was a grave, set to rest on the end of a bluff with a great view of both the majestic sea and green life of the island below. A grave. But his master was supposed to be alive! That's why Allen was there! Growling near the back of his throat, Allen plopped to the ground and crossed his legs.
All that traveling and hunting, for a grave.
Allen sighed leaning back on his too hands to peer up at a blue sky from under his top hat (black, embossed with a silver insignia and woven pearls). Nothing left to do now but climb back down, row back to the ship, and let the crew sail him back to... Somewhere.
The top of the cliff was decidedly peaceful, with warm, gentle gusts and the sound of the sea lolling below. Birds made exotic calls, and a bug he had never seen before dashed across a loose rock. Peaceful, and he used that to clear his mind and think about his situation.
He had come looking for Cross, hoping the man could help him with his latest pickle. Already distrusted by the most of Central, having the Noah break him free certainly didn't assist his innocence on the matter. With the strong ties between Central and the Dark Order, going back home to the HQ didn't seem plausible. His Ark? That was in Central's hands, and a team of Crow was probably already there, waiting for him. Not to mention the Thirds... Cross had been his way out!
Allen sighed heavily, glaring at the tombstone that marked this grave-in-the-cliffs. Well, sitting here wouldn't solve anything. He decided to pay his respects to the dead and head back.
Allen removed his hat and kneeled before the headstone, yet as he opened his mouth to pray, something caught his eye:
R.I.P.
Maria,
My guardian angel, even after her death.
1856-1884
That was it. A simple headstone for a rather grand resting location. Maria. Icy fingers clawed Allen's insides.
...And Allen's mind came back just a fast.
"I found Maria's grave, after you used her to get away," he muttered stiffly. Could flashbacks count as sleep? Feeling just as tired - if not more so - he decided they did not.
Cross sighed, and Allen noticed the man had drawn his gun and was studying the magnificent weapon. "Judgment and I had come to an understanding. After that central agent shot me in this cursed eye, Judgment was to find a new host. I did use Maria to escape, and two years later buried her at the island of her birth, on the bluff she once told me had been her favorite spot in all of Pico. For the remainder of my life, I supported your Third Faction from the side, up until you foolishly accepted that suicide mission from the Dark Order. A couple of nights later I woke up in Western China, at this time."
Allen was surprised to see the man so open. He pressed onwards. "And Mana?"
"I told you as much as I knew. At sometime he knew the Fourteenth would return to him, but he went crazy after the Fourteenth died. It's impossible to know."
Exhaustion slumped onto Allen's shoulders like an avalanche as he momentarily lost control, yet he shrugged it back just as fast. Something akin to hysteria took a hold of him from there, but it was not the same as in the dining room earlier that day. "There's no way to tell me different than any other orphan, right? Doesn't that mean he couldn't have?"
Cross sighed and stood up. The brash, innocent, foolish apprentice he had grown to love like a son had a mind so fragile it was pathetic. It was made soft from all the shit the war, the Earl, the Order, and life had piled up on it, no matter how much Allen tried to harden himself against it. There was a difference between the hard and the strong; the strong preserved, the hard... shattered. And Allen was at that point. Allen needed to be stronger mentally, yet that was something he could not beat into the boy (for all Allen's age, he was still just a boy to Cross). No, he needed someone else to teach him.
"Allen, remember Mana's face. Remember your Father's face. Who do you think he was smiling at? You yourself told me it was real. Now believe it." Cross ruffled Allen's hair, and Allen flinched at that, not realizing Cross had gotten that close to him. "Keep that reign on the Fourteenth, Allen. You are the best apprentice I could have had."
The elder Marshal had a strange urge to hug Allen, damning Tiedoll for it, yet he firmly believed once was enough in any number of lifetimes. Allen could find his own strength. He would have to. "And I chose you for you, not the Fourteenth."
Standing, Cross closed his hand and magic swirled around it once as he walked towards the far wall. A phrase too low for Allen to hear later, and the mahogany door was back and the Marshal walked out.
For a moment, there was eerie silence. Then, Allen's tight control slipped and all his exhaustion and pent up feelings slammed into him with a vengeance. He slumped against the piano, head in his hands. So he could escape on his own yet stayed to speak... More than I expected of you, Master.
"Interesting and touching, I'd say. Why don't you ask me why I chose you? Why I chose your pregnant mother? Whether Mana and I had it planned?" The grin in the voice was not derisive, yet it could be seen as such. No, Allen knew that was just how the man was. He did not give him the satisfaction of replying.
The Fourteenth continued speaking, "Well, what are we doing just sitting around here? We have things to do, Earl's to replace. Open a gate to him and finish him off. You know he's weak right now."
Allen groaned, too tried to argue. Allen's first contact with him led him to believe that the Fourteenth meant to replace the Earl - sometimes the man still claimed that - yet he knew now what the man really wanted. The Earl saved from his own damnation. Had the man actually admitted it? Not directly, yet Allen had picked enough from their conversations through their long life together.
Strange. The man believe that the Earl could be saved through the Sword of Salvation. Yet the Fourteenth also believed that he himself was beyond saving. Allen did not doubt that the man would replace the Millennium Earl if he could. Webs of logic were spun around that one, yet Allen had never been able to weave his way through it.
As the black figure in the mirror opened his mouth again, a new voice rang loudly. From the Ark's internal speakers. "Alllleeeennn!"
Both Allen and the Fourteen were struck silent at that, Allen bolting upright in his place while the Fourteen stood stock-still. That was Rhode's voice.
Emotions bubbled in Allen like a witch's concoction. Anxiety, love, fear, nervousness. Should he run? What was she there for? Calling his name? To kill him? Did she have her memories back? Biting a lip, Allen forced himself to play the short tune that opened a door for her to enter this room.
****
Walking down one of the Ark's many hallways, Cross smiled.
AN: Microsoft Word 2007 says: "You may only use this program 2 more times." 0.0 Oh shi-
I'm scared, folks; if 2007 shuts me out, still asking for that damn product key I don't have, I may very well break down crying. The only thing I can think of to use after that is Fanfiction's internal document editor, instead using it to write. And that would be bad, especially if my internet were to fail when trying to post, or if firefox has one of those random shutdown moments.
Well, enough of my sadface troubles. Hope you enjoyed the chapter!
