Requiem of Time: Chapter Thirty-Seven - Allen

His confinement had lasted for over a day, so far. A day and a half, thirty-six hours, he'd guess. He didn't sleep, of course, not willing to go back to the nightmares just yet. That left him with a lot of time and nothing to do. He was fed regularly, though, and in the right quantities. It reminded him of his time in the Vatican, before the Noah had broken him out.

And, ironically, it was the Noah again who interrupted his grueling thirty-six hours of nothingness.

The familiar Door of his wife rose in the center of the room, lifting a rug up with it. Once it was finally all the way up - double arches of black and red checkers - Rhode kicked it open with a loud bang, and her eyes found his immediately. She was in her human form, with pale skin and almost black eyes.

Her mouth quirked into a smile, lips parting to shout his name merrily, when she noticed the peculiarities about the room. Then, her eyebrows rose in curiosity. The walls were a white plaster, with nothing hanging anywhere to decorate them. Accommodations included only a small bed with a stiff pillow yet warm blanket, the plainly cut and varnished table Allen currently sat at, the matching chair, and the maze patterned rug now strewn to the side from her entrance, revealing the dull gray tile beneath. The door to get out also drew her eye, with no knob to open it. No windows, either.

Taking this all in with a casual eye, Rhode strode in and allowed her Door to close and vanish behind her. "So what'd you do to get yourself arrested this time?"

Allen let her come to him, and, with a smile at him, she settled herself into his lap, wriggling herself into a comfortable position immediately. Allen's arms came up to wrap around her, hugging her from behind. Of course, that position also sent a lance of pain into Allen's chest where she touched the white mark, but Rhode only let out a content sigh.

Allen first gave her a loving kiss. Their time together was sparse now, and he planned on getting as much as he could out of the brief moments like this. After, he told her what had happened: the riots that had followed in his wake, the plan he and Cross had regarding the Earl, and the details of his confinement.

Rhode denied Noah involvement in those riots, which he had expected, and she not so gently opposed another plan to rid the world of the Millennium Earl, which he had also expected. However, she was not at all pleased by what he told her about how evidence was linked to him, the black Crown Clown's similarity to his Innocence and such.

"Look, Allen, just forget these humans. I understand your attachment with the Dark Order, but it's just not worth involving yourself with Central again. Just open up one of your gates here and leave. They're wrong, and if they can't handle that then you aren't going to put up with it. Besides, once your away from these people it'll be easier for us to see each other. I don't want another 'sneak away from Link' situation again," Rhode all but demanded of him, her tone haughty.

Allen smiled, though in that position she couldn't see it. "You know I can't just leave. Crow going after me aside, I couldn't just walk away from my friends here. I refuse to let them all die again."

Rhode sighed at that, but she turned her head enough to smile wryly at him. "And there's the Allen that I know and lo-"

Two piercing screams cut her off, coming from the other side of the door. The room was near soundproof, so for them to be able to hear that... Allen recognized them to be his guards, and after sharing a look with Rhode, he stood up, arms lifting her until he could set her gently on the ground, standing.

Rhode understood, and her Door rose again quickly. "I should go. I will see you later, Allen. Think on what I said; you really should just leave." The arched doors of it opened, and Rhode retreated inside. "I love you!"

"I love you, too," Allen called back automatically, though his mind was now focused on the intrusion outside his door. The screams were still going. He had no idea what could be causing them. Most of the time someone screamed that loud, they were only a few seconds from death and the screams stopped moments later, so he didn't think it could be assassins, or Noah, but whatever the cause, it certainly couldn't be pleasant.

Allen grabbed his coat from the chair and threw it over his left shoulder, drawing his sword so that the jacket covered the seal. He contemplated bringing out Crown Clown as well, but he figured he need not unless things looked bad. Lulubell would call that being unprepared, but since he could activate his Innocence and bring it out at the speed of thought, he felt he would be safe enough if it came to that.

So armed with only his sword at the moment, he broke down the steel door - hinges bending and sundering – and took in the sight of the disturbance. His mouth went dry. He should have known... except, he didn't remember it happening this way before.

Both men were downed, screams wearing out both throats. Surrounding them – and the source of their agony – were two of the black Crown Clowns.

Allen could only stare for a moment. Those cloaks only appeared when an Exorcist and Noah interacted, and from experience he knew that the drawing of his sword made them appear instantly, while an unactivated Innocence made it take longer. Only when Noah and Exorcists interacted, or when the two were in proximity, like him and Rhode only moments before. So why... were these regular humans the ones engulfed?

The crystal knife Sarah had formed for him had been taken upon custody, so he had no way of dealing with the two cloaks. If only Rhode had stayed a moment longer... Still, that didn't stop him from trying. Sheathing his sword into his arm, Allen moved to help the men.

Dodging the retaliating Crown Belts was never as easy as it sounded, and it most certainly hadn't gotten easier with experience. Still, he moved quick and sure, one step ahead of the Belts, and danced around one person, unable to stop moving. Eventually, he reached in and grabbed a handful of the black Crown Clown, and like that he leapt back to both avoid the other's new Crown Belts and rip the cloak off the man.

"It's Marshal Walker, sir! He's attempting a break out!"

Allen's eyes grew wide when he heard that, looking up to see others rushing to the commotion. Others meaning Central agents, Leverier, Secretary to the Inspector Howard Link, and a few Dark Order operatives, including Komui.

For a moment, the two sides just stood there: Allen with a writhing black Crown Clown in his hand, them staring with eyes as wide as his. The worst was Komui, seeing Allen like that and forcing himself to accept the truth of it. There was no way Allen could explain himself out of this; the truth would not be very effective.

Then, a hooded Crow member could be seen running down the halls, swift and sure steps despite the obtrusive uniform cloak, and the worst thing possible happened.

Dozens of black apparitions suddenly appeared, quickly shifting into black Clown Clowns, all appearing between Allen and the non-apostle men of God, almost like bodyguards. Allen laughed at that, a desperate sound on the border of madness. It certainly couldn't help his current image in their minds, but at this point it couldn't hurt. He laughed harder.

The men moved, some taking a step forward confidently and some a cowardice step back, but suddenly everything went to Hell in one moment. The damnable cloaks reacted, and the swarm of them engulfed the Order and Central members. Surprisingly, however, both the arrived Crow member and Link were able to repel their own cloaks with their 'Holy' Magic.

Allen barely registered that, only a side note compared to everything else that was happening. The strongest question currently was why the cloaks had appeared, after Rhode had left. Right now, though, Allen turned the other way and ran.

Screams had erupted from all over, some distant and echoing through the halls. That meant the cloaks hadn't just appeared in that hall. Unease tried snaring Allen's mind, but he currently didn't have time for that. As he ran, he shrugged his Marshal jacket back on, and he tried to assess the situation. Everywhere he looked were cloak-engulfed people, some having escaped momentarily before the cloak caught them – happening right in front of him at times.

For the most part, he guessed hundreds of black Crown Clowns. He would have to deal with them all before he left. The results of leaving them here, he couldn't image. Didn't want to imagine. If Link didn't get that cloak off Leverier...!

Allen burst open the door to the giant spiraling stairway in the center of the tower, and the magnitude of the chaos was revealed. People had gotten as far as their doors at times, and dozens lay screaming not far from his current position. People were running up the stairs, trying to help them, but Allen watched, horrified, as more cloaks appeared when they came close, and then those were just as helpless.

He didn't have time to stand there, however. He turned to the left to start helping those trapped, and he found another person moving about freely. A man, brown short hair, glasses, slightly chubby but nothing extreme, short in height. Someone you would never look twice at. His white coat marked him of the Science Department.

And Allen immediately noticed the source of all his problems.

"Lulubell!" he choked, surprised. There was no doubt. The man's eyes were slightly – almost unnoticeably - narrowed, the way only she would when doing something intently. There were other things too, the position of his shoulders, the balance of his weight, the crinkle in his nose, the position of his legs... Some of it Allen noticed, most of it was his subconscious picking up on details his conscious mind missed. He could always recognize her now. She had trained him so.

The man's eyes then widened upon seeing Allen, yet Lulubell didn't even bother keeping up her... his disguise. Instead, he... er, she smiled at Allen. "Allen, there you are."

So she was looking for him. That couldn't be good. But why...? It hit Allen like a bolt, and suddenly he turned the other way and ran down the right wing of the stairway.

Why had Lulubell been here in the first life? What was the source of the second massacre? The Akuma Egg. And since it had been inside the Headquarters the first time, why not the second? Doubtless she had found it not within the building already, which made it obvious the Egg was still in Allen's possession. And what the Earl wanted, Lulubell got.

Allen didn't get far before he reached the first of the victims to reach the stairway, writhing in the span of an open door, only halfway on the landing. Lulubell had to be pursuing, but Allen couldn't ignore those in need. His gripped the black cloth as he was still running and used the force of his movement to rip the false Crown Clown off its screaming victim.

A girl victim, it appeared, but that mattered little. A girl Central Agent, and that did matter. Allen swerved back and kneeled beside the girl, screams dying out as she faded into unconsciousness. She had a gun strapped to her hip, as most Central Agents did. That was perfect.

Allen looted her of the weapon, and the strapped on extra clip beneath it. He rarely handled real guns, very rarely, yet he felt he had practice enough with the various forms of his Innocence. He just had to keep reminding himself that the ammo wasn't judged by exhaustion, instead by very limited bullets.

From his kneel he saw a man running up the stairs he had earlier. A tall man, toned muscles not entirely hidden by his white coat. Dark hair tied back in a ponytail, with a bit of bangs. His face was smooth and handsome, and his eyes an intriguing shade of dark blue. A grin tugged his mouth up on one side. A grin Allen recognized, as his mind picked multitudes of other variables.

Lulubell was here already, with a new form – whatever the purpose of that could be.

Allen rose to his feet and back-peddled, turning to continue running. The gun wouldn't help against her, even if he had been willing to fire in the first place. His turn ended fast, however, with a sharp twist of his body to dodge a black Crown Belt.

Allen rose his stolen gun and fired. A hole appeared in the hovering black cloak in his path, and it began writhing unnaturally. Another shot buried into its forehead, with spider-webbing cracks appearing from the new hole in the metal mask. Allen kept moving, using the butt of the pistol to knock the cloak out of his way.

He had barely reached the next set of stairs when he felt a pair of arms wrap around him from behind, a hot breath on his neck. Arms that halted his movement. A deep, masculine voice appeared by his ear, "Please don't run from me, Allen Walker. We have things to discuss, perhaps in... private."

Something about this form reminded Allen too much of Kanda, and that creeped him out.

But this was Lulubell, and as always, Allen's mind zoomed to one thing. One glorious, problem solving, life saving thing. Depositing his gun in his left hand with the spare clip, Allen shifted around Lulubell's... er, muscled arms and reached inside his coat to the internal pockets. The man... woman was trying to drag him back into one of the apartment doors, but Allen's fingers quickly grasped what he was looking for and pulled it out.

Chinese candy?

Allen growled and dropped them. Those were for Rhode, yet in recent days' excitement he had forgotten all about that. His hand darted back inside his coat.

They were inside a room now. Lulubell suddenly twisted Allen around and tossed him back. He landed on a bed, bouncing once before settling. A bit more frantically, he searched for the pocket housing... His hand grasped something, but suddenly Lulubell shoved him onto his back, making him lose the item.

Now this was an awkward position. A man, not a far cry off from looking like Kanda, stood between his legs, bending over with a hand on Allen's chest. On a bed. And the intense look on the 'man's' face, the twisted smirk of confidence and superiority... Allen, pinned down and helpless, his jacket already unzipped by demand of Rhode. If someone were to walk in at this moment...

Oh my.

Lulubell's hand slid up his chest painfully slow – to Allen, all he saw was that man doing it. He nearly gagged. Then, the hand – larger than her's would be – reached his neck, and the fingers surrounded it painfully, expertly cutting off his flow of oxygen. Her... his voice followed, low and hazardously sensuous, "Now Allen Walker, if your a good boy, I can make this very pleasant." The other way went unspoken.

In the silence of stranglehold, blood pounding hard in his ears, Allen had the clear-sight to notice that somewhere along the line the Fourteenth had taken up the battle for dominance. Allen's sharp focus on running and stopping the cloaks had blocked the attempts out absolutely, yet now he had to fend the attacks back.

Despite the hold on his throat, Allen did not struggle or even bother attempting to breath. He had time, if he had some patience. Which he did, after hours upon hours and days of having that beat into him. Do not panic when under distress. Instead, as the man's confident, handsome face leaned in close, Allen's calm fingers entered his coat, grabbed what he wanted, and he finally pulled it out.

A small, brown paper bag appeared in the distance between Allen's and Lulubell's face, and the fingers on his neck slackened with hesitation. Allen then moved the bag to the side, so he could see Lulubell's face, and he watched as it followed the bag's movements. Perfect. But, he really needed air soon.

Speaking was out of the question at the moment, lest Allen descend into a massive coughing and hacking fit. Same went for breathing unless it came very slowly, now that her... his grip had loosened. So, he maneuvered his hand to open the cinched top of the bag. He watched Lulubell's face as... er, he leaned in and took a deep whiff.

The following look of ecstasy on that man's face, while in this position, was not something Allen wanted, but he had no choice. And he really, really needed air.

If he had the time, Allen would normally pour some of the catnip onto his hand and enjoy the feel of kitten-Lulubell lapping it up, but the countless screams outside that door had not stopped, and he did not have that time. Instead, he moved the bag over his head and set it on the bed behind him. In an instant, the man holding him jumped up, and there was a flash of light. The cloths landed on Allen, and a black blur leaped through the neck hole.

Allen swiped the clothes off him and sat up, massaging his aching throat. The burning desire to breath was so strong he felt he needed to just suck in the biggest breath possible, like a drowning man finally reaching the water surface, but the very kitten with its head shoved deep into the now sideways brown bag (purring very loudly, mind) had taught him otherwise.

Allen kept his mouth closed and forced himself to take in air very slowly through his nose. Very slowly, with the insatiable desire to just gulped it down. Sweet air came too slow to give pleasure, but it came unhindered. Then, he exhaled a bit faster. Then inhaled a bit faster, exhaled, inhaled, exhaled...

While he worked his breathing exercise, he recovered the dropped pistol and clip, slipping the clip into a pocket, and he quickly left the room.

Allen moved quickly through the Headquarters. Every person he came across still downed, he managed to remove the cloak and shoot it to... inactivity. Cloth couldn't exactly die. Every Central Agent he came across, he snagged more clips of ammunition. And a second pistol, somewhere down the line.

While he was largely successful at this, Allen knew it wasn't enough. There were hundreds upon hundreds of people still engulfed and screaming, and with Lulubell still here, even the ones he saved were taken again after so long. Not to mention, as if to spite him, the Central Agents who managed to defend themselves with magic or recovered consciousness fast enough to not be consumed again chased after Allen, trying to either capture or kill him.

So his slow task was made even slower, dodging Crown Belts, bullets, and an assortment of spells. Lulubell finishing the bag of catnip and giving chase again was the final straw.

Two black Crown Clowns hovered before him – he had removed them from the victims – yet Lulubell currently had his arms bound, preventing him from destroying them. And her way of binding his arms was to shift hers into a long, boneless form capable of surrounding his body twice. Allen didn't know if it was good or bad that she had resumed the Kanda-like man form.

Feeling the hot breath against his ear and the deep rumble of her... his chest as 'he' spoke, Allen decided it was bad.

Bound as he was, Allen heard the footsteps hammering down the stairs, and the shouts that he barely recognized to be Central Agents. Probably with a Crow member, too. This was too much. Too much!

He turned to he fight in his mind, the push-and-shove against the Fourteenth, and he unleashed his Noah side. His form changed, skin graying, holy marks appearing along his forehead, white hair curling... grin widening. The Music, for some reason a dull buzz that hadn't gone away before, erupted suddenly, blaring and pounding so hard it consumed him. Fighting the grasps for control became like fighting a mountain, and Allen leaped back with what he could still control, hording it within his mind and keeping away from the Fourteenth... But that gave the man some control over his body.

Unfortunately – or perhaps at this point it didn't matter – the Central Agents and some of the Dark Order workers, including Komui as he was with the initial group freed by Crow and Link, reached the point of the stairs where they could see Allen, and they had watched him change.

"Noah?!" Leverier shouted, his mouth twisting into a snarl. Even Komui, face already caught in a grievous look, turned dismayed, and he turned his gaze away from Allen.

'Allen' felt Lulubell twitch in her hold over him to react before realizing that they weren't referring to her. The part that was the Fourteen ignored the stunned arrivals, instead turning his head to grin at Lulubell, completely ignoring the outer layer of a man and instead seeing her in his mind's eye. "Hello there."

Lulubell's handsome face turned victorious, and the sensuous smile was for the Fourteenth alone. 'He' spun Allen's body to face 'him,' one hand reverting to normal and caressing his chest inside his Marshal's jacket. "Hello Fourteenth... I would appreciate it very much if you would kindly tell me where Allen Walker has hid the Egg the Duke Millennium holds so dear." The hand went behind 'Allen's' back, and Lulubell squeezed him, almost into a hug. "Perhaps enough to give a... reward."

Even Leverier lost his fierce look in sight of that. Allen Walker may have just been revealed to be one of the Noah, but watching him act that way in another man's arms... The group of them shared disbelieving looks, faces twisted in disgusted shock.

The white haired Noah's grin widened a bit more at that. "A reward, huh?" He leaned in. "What kind of reward?"

"Tell me, and you'll find out."

The part that was Allen within the mind, even knowing that was Lulubell, was too disturbed to let this keep going. And he couldn't afford to let her know where the Egg was, even though he hadn't even thought to hide it in the first place. Using that bit he could still control, he tapped into the Music.

The Noah-Allen twisted out of Lulubell's arms suddenly, and a wave of Dark Matter scattered the group on the stairwell. Fortunately, the Fourteenth agreed on the necessity of what Allen meant to do, so he allowed them to move away from Lulubell for now. He still managed to blow a kiss towards the disguised Noah. The Allen part shuddered. Allen liked Lulubell, he did, but not when she looked like... that.

And so Allen moved through the Headquarters, using his power as a Noah to destroy the cloaks. He got the most of them relevantly fast, and with luck, he managed to do it before they would reappear. He had another few run ins with Lulubell and the problems that entitled, but he managed to force her away long enough to open a gate to his Ark and escape inside.

Knowing her, she would leave as well, since the key to her target was no longer there. Hopefully she would leave... Would she leave?

Allen closed the Gate behind him, and he slammed his inner Noah away, reverting to normal. With that, he asserted full control over his body, and the headache from maintaining only partial control intensified for his troubles. He really was getting tired of this. The Music resumed its buzz in the back of his mind. Was it louder now? He couldn't tell, or was afraid to.

So sitting there, his back to a closed door, breathing hard with exhaustion and trying to reduce the pounding pain in his mind, he could only look back at what had just happened. He couldn't help it. He laughed.

Everything had been so carefully planned, between him and his master. They would gather the other Marshals and strike at the Earl. It was that simple. Instead, he had been imprisoned for something he didn't do, and instead of proving his innocence, he made it infinitely worse in that regard. And the cherry on top was that he had revealed his Noah implant to them. Might as well add some sprinkles too, with the wrong sort of people gaining memories of that first life. Yeah, it was all so perfect!

Tears streaking his cheeks, still laughing frantically, Allen gasped out loud, "You are- You are complete and... and utterly... screwed, Allen!" He roared all the harder.


AN: Well, although I had the idea of how this story was to end up, I finally finished the outline for it today. Twenty pages of outline total for this story, and this chapter is the end of page fourteen in that regard. Well, that should give you an idea of how long this story truly is. Until next time. :)