Down From Heaven, Up From Hell

by amazuppai

Allen's life had always been simple, despite its ups and downs; he worked for food, he travelled, trained, followed. After being abandoned for the third time in his life, he takes again to the circus, finding strength and comfort and the benefits of travel and anonymity, but he is soon pulled away from it all by a man claiming to have strange abilities and a message from gods.

8. The Chosen Ones

He opens his eyes to a sky wide and blue and clear of clouds and buildings towering flat and white and naggingly familiar around him, stone pressing cool and hard into his back. He had hardly blinked, a split second of darkness between the dull streets of Japan and here, and yet he is now somewhere else entirely. Had he, in actuality, blacked out? Had the feeling of falling been his consciousness dropping away from him? There was no feeling of grogginess, no indication that he'd been sleeping, only the dull pain in his head and an ache in his backside from hitting the ground.

"What the fuck," somebody says gruffly beside him, and his head whips around to see the three other people picking themselves up off the ground, the voice registering in his mind as belonging to Kanda, already on his feet and drawing his sword, cobalt eyes flicking around their surroundings.

"I'll say," Lavi replies, helping Lenalee up with a hand before brushing himself off. "It looks like we're somewhere in south Europe, but there's something not right about it."

Kanda relents in his search for danger only to shoot Lavi a glare. "What, like the fact that there's no way we could be in Europe? Nice call, that's real helpful."

"Kanda, relax," Lenalee says, smoothing out her skirt, and then she glances back at Allen, still sitting on the floor and watching them with wide eyes. "Allen? Are you alright?"

He snaps to attention then, jumping to his feet. "Yeah, sorry, I'm just... a little confused," he tells her, giving the area a cursory scan and keeping his senses piqued for any danger. "What exactly happened?"

Kanda lowers his sword a little, looking away from them while Lenalee gives a thoughtful hum. "Well, we were sitting in that alley, and then this... hole, I think, opened up beneath you, and since I was sitting so close I guess I got dragged in, and then Lavi and Kanda jumped in after us and it dumped us here? I'm not so sure."

"Guys," Lavi says, drawing their attention, and they all look over to where he is inspecting something on the door of one of the buildings. He gently pulls off an envelope that had been taped to the door and turns to them as he opens it, pulling out a folded piece of paper and reading over it. "I think we've been had."

Lenalee frowns, walking closer to read over his shoulder. "What do you mean?" she asks cautiously, giving up on reading it to take the envelope from him and investigate its insides, pulling out what looks like a small brass key.

"Listen to this; 'While you are soon destined for death, we figured you were too much fun to simply kill straight away, so we've decided to play a little game with you first. Enclosed is a key that you will need to advance through the Ark; using it in a door will activate it and, after a series of adjoining rooms, you will be led up to the central tower. I advise you to work quickly. This Ark is currently disintegrating, and will be gone entirely in merely three hours. Try not do dawdle, my dear Allen; I'm looking forward to killing you myself.' It's signed by Road Kamelot."

"Road the Noah? So this is their doing?"

"That's the only conclusion we can draw. I'm more interested in this 'Ark', to be honest, but I suppose now isn't the time. Yū, what are you doing?"

They all glance over to where Kanda is climbing up to the roof of one of the buildings, standing on the flat roof to get a better look at their surroundings, and then something catches his eye, his gaze focused hard on something in the distance. "We need to get a move on," he mutters, dropping back down to the ground and stepping over to them. "They weren't lying. It's slow, but it will be here in about twenty minutes."

Lavi and Lenalee both blink, confused. "What will?" Lenalee asks, glancing past him as though she will be able to see from there.

"The disintegration. It's creeping towards us right now, so grab that key and shove it in a bloody door already."

"I know this place," Allen mutters, and all three pairs of eyes fall on him. It has been bugging him ever since he registered the scenery, standing before him like an old friend he had been unable to remember the name of. "I've been here before, but I can't remember when."

It is silent for a long moment, the three of them watching him with mixed curiosity and confusion, and then Kanda is the first to speak. "Do you know any of the streets?" he asks, more focused on any advantage they might have rather than what exactly it could mean.

Allen thinks carefully, stepping forward and holding his hand out to Lenalee, who places the key in his palm. He turns it over in his fingers for a moment, the surface old and scratched but still neatly polished. "Maybe," he murmurs, looking up at the buildings around him, and then he begins walking, heading for a building he isn't even sure of.

"Alright, hold up," Lavi says as they all fall into step beside him, stepping up to keep pace with him. "Road said it would work in any door, right? We activate it and pass through and end up at the tower. Does it matter if we know the streets?"

"They're Noah," Allen replies simply, "It's never as simple as that. Here." He stops outside of a building that looks just the same as all the others, the worn wooden door sitting resolutely closed, and he takes a deep breath before slipping the key into the small hole beneath the handle. He turns it, and there is a heavy click, the door trembling beneath his hand, and when he glances back up there is the number 'one' painted in black on the surface of the wood.

"Huh," Lavi mutters, furrowing his brow. "I guess this is the first door."

Allen removes the key and tries the handle, the door swinging open in his grip, and they step through into open, mountainous terrain, loose gravel beneath their feet and large rocks cropping up from the ground around them. "Am I the only one who thinks that this is really weird?" Lenalee asks, eyes wide as she surveys the area.

"Maybe the Noah can do magic?" Lavi suggests, seeming more interested than off-put by the current string of odd events. "I mean, there was the weird room Allen and Yū got stuck in, Noah pulling organs out without opening the body... I wouldn't put teleportation past them."

The door clicks shut behind them, and a light goes off in Allen's head, suddenly placing where he knows that town from; it was the same town that had been in his dream, the same white buildings and the same clear sky and the same still air in his lungs. All that was missing was the dark-skinned man that he swears he has met once before, but it still doesn't explain why he had known which door to use, which direction to go. There is something strange about this Ark, and he is only growing more and more uneasy about it, the ache in his eye becoming more prominent as though in response to his fear.

"Are you sure that was the right door?" Lavi asks as they begin to wander through the landscape, all of them wary and on edge.

"Yes," he replies, though he still doesn't know why he is so sure. "I imagine that there will be another door somewhere up ahead."

"I hope you're right, this place gives me the creeps." They continue in what they hope is a straight line for a good fifteen minutes, nothing but rocks and gravel around them, and they are beginning to get impatient just as they reach the crest of a hill, and Lavi grins. "That's the ticket," he beams, and the other three follow his gaze to the small building sitting just over the next hill, relief flooding over them as they head down towards it with renewed vigour.

Allen's eye begins to throb the closer they get to the building, still some ways away from it, and he is worried about what it means, what lies on the other side of the next door, but his thoughts are cut off as Kanda catches their attention. "Wait," he says, his tone low and dangerous, and they all stop to glance back at him; he's nervous, Allen notices, much moreso than even himself, sword drawn and ready and eyes flicking over everything in sight. A long moment of silence passes over them, the three of them growing more agitated as Kanda only becomes more frustrated. "Come out and fight, you bastard!" he yells suddenly, making the others jump, Kanda frantically searching for something they have yet to catch on to.

"Yū, what are you-" Lavi begins, but then Allen cries out, collapsing to his knees as his face suddenly burns, screaming in his skull and down his spine and deep in his brain. Lavi lets out a curse, he and Lenalee kneeling down beside him, Lavi's hand firm on his shoulder. "Allen, what happened? Talk to me, buddy."

"Lavi," Lenalee hisses, glancing behind them. "Lavi, look."

Allen forces his eyes open to see what she's talking about, blinking away the moisture that had welled in his good eye and catching sight of a man standing at the crest of the hill, larger than any man he'd seen, built like a fortress and probably about as strong. "About time," Kanda sneers at them, and there is a flash of white as the man grins, flexing his hands at his sides, something blue flashing between his fingers. Kanda glances back at the three of them only briefly, something flickering in his eyes that Allen can't make out. "Keep going," he tells them, and Lenalee's breath catches in her throat. "I'm going to stay and kill this bastard."

The man gives a single, short laugh, loud and rough and deep in his throat. "I'm looking forward to you trying," he says, and as the blue light flickers again, this time arcing from his fingers to the ground, Allen places that it looks like lightning, crackling from his fingertips, and he can only assume that this is a Noah. "We can't leave you to fight on your own," he tells Kanda, his voice hoarse from the attack as he tries to focus on the problem before him rather than within him.

"Like hell you won't," Kanda quips back, keeping his eyes focused on the Noah before them. "I can kill him on my own, and that's exactly what I'm going to do."

"Kanda, you'll be killed," Lenalee shouts at him, and his hands clench tighter around his sword in response. "There's no telling how long it will be before this place starts to disintegrate, or if you'll even be able to kill a Noah like that. We're not leaving you."

"I'm not losing to these bastards again," he growls, and suddenly Allen understands. Road had caught him off guard, managed to get him down, and now he has made the resolve to stand strong against her and the rest of the Noah clan. And when he is determined enough, there is naught that can stop him.

Lavi seems to understand as well, reaching up to take Lenalee's hand. She glances back at them both, recognition in her eyes, and while she looks even more torn about it than Lavi or Allen are, she knows what they have to do. "Just promise you'll join up with us later," she tells him, cringing a little as the sparks of lightning from the Noah begin to become audible, sharp cracks in the still air.

"Yeah, fine," Kanda mutters eventually, "Now get the fuck out of here."

"Allen, can you stand?" Lavi asks, and he nods in response, but when he tries he finds that his head is too hazy, too sultry, and Lavi curses again before he simply picks Allen up, hefting him over his shoulder and making for the door with Lenalee close in tow. They can hear the booming laughter of the Noah as another loud crack breaks the air, and Allen silently wishes Kanda luck as he awkwardly fishes around in his pocket for the key to hand to Lavi as they finally come up to the door.

They stop once they are on the other side of it, Lavi setting Allen down on the ground and sitting down beside him to catch his breath back. "He'll be fine," he says as he looks up at Lenalee's worried face, giving her a smile, and she meekly returns it, her eyes moving from the door to Lavi and finally to Allen. Lavi follows her gaze to where Allen sits beside him with his hands clamped over his eyes, breath coming heavy between his teeth. "Moreover, are you going to be alright? This is the worst I've ever seen it."

It's the worst he's ever had it, but he can already feel it beginning to recede, taking careful breaths from deep in his chest and focusing on anything but the pain. "I'll be fine," he replies, careful to keep his voice even. "It just took me by surprise. We need to keep moving."

They both seem dubious as he drags himself to his feet, but they let it drop as the three of them begin heading down the long corridor they've found themselves in, a staircase visible at the far end that leads up and around a corner they can't see from where they currently stand. The corridor is strangely well lit considering the lack of torches along the walls or on the ceiling, as though the sun shone even here, the ground carrying no shadows as they walk across it. The staircase leads upwards in an endless spiral, twisting towards the sky for what feels like miles. Lenalee and Lavi become steadily more complacent the longer they climb, even if they don't mean to; it feels like this stairwell goes on forever, and while the likelihood of it ending increases the longer they walk, time makes people weary. While they still stay high on their guard, their complacence begins to show, the two of them making idle chatter to fill the heavy silence and cover the echo of their boots on the stone.

Allen has no such luxuries, having to focus on simply putting one foot in front of the other without tripping up the stairs. His pain had receded for a time, but has only begun to come back in full force, growing steadily the more they ascend. He is beginning to have a growing suspicion of what it means, of what it's reacting to, and he can only hope that he is wrong, that he is somehow mistaken, but as they finally come before a door at the top of the staircase and he is hardly able to see through the pain, he can't shake the nagging feeling that he's right.

"Finally," Lavi says, huffing a sigh and turning on his heel. "Allen, hand us the key?" It takes him a moment to register the request, neither of them oblivious to the way he leans his shoulder against the wall to keep himself steady as he fishes around in his pockets for the key, holding it out to Lavi once he finds it, looking up to meet his dubious green eye. "Alright, let me take a look at your eye," he says, and before Allen can protest Lavi's hand is strong on his shoulder, holding him there while he pulls down the patch that now covers his left eye.

It looks exactly the same as it always has, a film of black covering whatever would have been left of his eyeball beneath it. Allen reluctantly lets Lavi poke at it, not bothering to hide his distaste as Lavi inspects, Lenalee peering over his shoulder to get a good look while she can. "There must be some reason it's acting up," she muses, Lavi only giving a thoughtful hum in response.

Allen has the nagging suspicion that he knows exactly why, but he isn't sure what to tell them. All he knows is that it is not just reacting randomly now, as it had previously been doing; it now aches with purpose, a warning to him of something awful the same way it had warned him of the demons. It is trying to warn him of the presence of something dangerous, something unholy. "It's the Noah," he breathes, shaky from the pain. They both freeze, eyes going wide as they look at him, a brief glance shared between them. "It's warning me about the Noah."

He looks up into confused and worried eyes, blue and green and showing sincere concern. "How do you know?" Lavi asks carefully, seeming dubious of Allen's hypothesis but not as much as he would be if he didn't believe it.

"The curse knows, somehow. It's been telling me this whole time, on our way across Asia, on the ship, before we fell into the Ark. And when the one that Kanda is fighting showed up, it reacted more strongly than ever. It's always been... It's known all along that the Noah were after us. Even now, it knows we're coming close to one, which means that there's probably a Noah on the other side of that door."

It is silent for a moment, Allen's breathing heavy in his ears as the two of them think it over, considering. "I don't believe it," Lavi murmurs, seeming awestruck by it all, before he composes himself again. "Still, are you even able to fight them?"

Allen looks up to meet their eyes, suddenly defiant at the query. "Yes," he says, as firmly as he can, straightening himself up to try and back up his claim, reaching up to replace his eyepatch.

"Lavi's right," Lenalee says softly, more gentle in her concern but no less worried. "With the state you're in, I doubt you'll be able to fight very well."

"I can fight them," he bites, taking the key from Lavi's hand and stepping forward to insert it into the door. It clicks when he turns it, the number three coming into focus on the surface of the door, and he turns to give them both a smile. "When the time comes, I'll be ready. We're going to defeat these Noah, and we're all going to get out of this alive."

They share a look between them, dubious of that statement and his condition and reminded of Kanda's battle, worried for his safety, but they seem to decide on letting it go to work on the task at hand. "Well, it's not like we have a choice," Lavi sighs, running a hand over his hair. "We're stuck in here until we beat them, after all."

He nods towards the door, Allen's hand still clasped around the handle. Allen glances over at Lenalee, seeking her opinion, and while she looks hesitant, she nods. "We should keep going," she says quietly, giving him a small smile.

He turns back to the door, taking a deep breath, then pushes it open. It creaks a little on its hinges as it opens, the three of them stepping through to find themselves in what looks like a small library, shelves lining the round room with a glass window running the height of the room to their left, sunlight filtering in and casting shadows over the table and the pair of armchairs beside it. It is from one of these chairs that a girl launches herself towards them, and before Allen can register what she's doing there are arms flung around his neck and unbalanced weight causing him to take a step backwards. "Allen!" she says excitedly, placing a kiss on his cheek before she steps back, and the moment she is far enough away for him to see her face is the moment that he is imbued with rage.

"Road," he grinds out, and recognition dawns on Lavi and Lenalee's faces.

"This is Road?" Lenalee asks, sounding as dubious of her appearance as Allen had been at first. The body of a fourteen-year-old girl doesn't exactly strike fear into a person, but at least Allen knew better, could feel how dangerous she was. He supposed the curse had known then, too.

"Pleasure to meet you both," Road chirps, stepping far enough away that she is out of immediate range if they decide to attack. She's not stupid, after all. "Even if you weren't supposed to be here."

"What do you mean?" Allen asks her, watching her carefully as she begins to pace.

"We were only after you when we pulled you into the Ark, Allen. But look at how many of your friends jumped in after you! I was honestly surprised. It's why we had to send Skinn in, but then you surprised me again by leaving that guy behind to fight him off for you. I'd say it was heroic of him, if it wasn't so stupid."

It dawns on him that if the others hadn't come with him, that if he had been on his own here, then that Noah wouldn't have appeared and Kanda wouldn't have fought him, and it makes him feel guilty, puts the weight of the outcome on his own shoulders. "Call him off," he says lowly, hands clenching at his sides.

She laughs, the same harsh cackles that he remembers so clearly from that night in Denmark. "Sorry, no dice!" she sings, leaning back against one of the chairs. "They're both long gone. Even if your friend had survived, the room has already disintegrated. There's nothing left of them. But hey, at least he managed to defeat Skinn before he disappeared into oblivion."

"You bitch," he growls, taking a step forward, but Lenalee touches his arm, mouths the word 'wait' when he glances back to look at her before casting his eyes back to Road. She shrugs, as though entirely nonplussed by his anger and this turn of events; he wonders if all Noah are this cold. "Why are we even here?"

"Didn't you read my letter?" she asks, and he clamps his mouth shut. "To have fun with you before we kill you. You're a very interesting Apostle, after all."

"What the hell does that mean?"

"Careful, dear, you'll pull something. You're not looking so good as it is. I can't tell you exactly, family secret and all, but what I can tell you is that you're one of the biggest players on the board. Taking you out will make things a lot easier for us, and the most interesting way to do that was sticking you in here to watch you squirm before we got more... up close and personal, you could say."

"Why are you doing this?" Lenalee asks, somehow managing to keep herself composed. "You're not demons, so what do the Noah have to do with all of this?"

Road's smile shifts a little, less malicious and more thoughtful. "I just want to see this whole fucked up world destroyed," she says, far too easily for the weight of the statement. "That, and the Earl is part of my family. If he wants a few false prophets out of the way, then I'm more than happy to oblige."

"False prophets?" Lavi asks cautiously, the first he's spoken since they stepped into the room. Allen glances behind him to see Lavi tense and uneasy, a rare sight on the ever-peppy Apostle.

She just cackles, loud and obnoxious. "You're not the chosen ones!" she laughs exasperatedly, as though telling a child that the world isn't flat. "You think you're chosen by God to save the planet, but He probably couldn't care less about roaches like you. Allen is the only one with an even remotely interesting prophecy, and we're still going to kill him anyway. You want to know why? Because you're worthless, all of you. We've killed six of you in the past two months alone, and we're only just getting started. Seven, if you include your boy-toy downstairs."

"Shut up," Allen hisses through his teeth, his nails digging into his palms at his sides. He's sick of hearing this, sick of her, but of course she isn't going to stop just because he told her to.

"What," she chides, "Am I making you mad? I like you, Allen, don't get me wrong, but riling you up is just too much fun. Take that Marshal we killed, for example. Do you know what the best part was? Stringing him up and watching him squirm, helpless to do anything but wriggle and die. And your long-haired friend? Man, did he put up a good fight! Every time it looked like Skinn killed him, he'd just get back up and keep going. Something fishy there, I'd say, he's got lives to rival even a Noah, which I guess was proven when he killed poor Skinn. Do you want to know what the look on that guy's face was when he died? Because I saw it, and my God it was heartbreaking, even for me. Just the look in those eyes alone as the Ark swallowed him, molecule by molecule-"

"I said shut up!" he bursts, his voice echoing off the walls and back in his ears, and Road finally shuts her mouth, watching him with an amused upturn of her lips. It doesn't matter how much his head hurts, how badly he just wants to take the others and find a way out of here; he knows, with more certainty than he knows anything else right now, that he needs to kill her. She's dangerous, she's killing his friends, killing their family, and he cannot condone that. "We are going to leave this Ark," he says lowly, keeping his gaze set harsh on hers, burning silver meeting calm gold, "And you are going to die here, because I am going to kill you."

"You can't kill me," she chuckles, pushing herself off of the chair she'd been leaning against, "And while I'd love to see you try, there's somebody else I want you to meet first. He's just been dying to meet you." Before he has time to figure out what she means the air behind her shimmers, and he knows what's coming before it takes physical form; he remembers it from Denmark, the large, obscure door that had materialised seemingly out of nowhere. She grins at them as it takes shape, swinging open before them to reveal the black abyss inside. "I'll meet you upstairs, darling," she coos, then steps through it, disappearing before them.

There is a long silence that follows her exit, heavy with continence and anticipation, until Lenalee finally breaks it, her voice quiet in the suddenly still air of the library. "I think we should follow her," she says, and Allen turns to look at her, Lavi watching the door with a narrowed eye. "It's the only way out, right? And we don't have a lot of time left, so if we're going to fight them, we should do it sooner rather than later."

She is, unsurprisingly, right in her assumption, and despite his hesitation to follow a Noah through a mysterious door to meet what he can only assume is another of their clan, Allen has to agree; there is no way but forward. Lavi gives him an affirmative nod at his glance, and Allen steps forward to pull the door open, staring into the dark abyss beyond. He takes a deep breath, gives his friends a reassuring smile, then steps through, both of them following after him.

They find themselves at what he assumes is the top of the tower, standing in a large open room with a rounded roof and archways along the outside looking over the blue sky beyond, the town small enough now that they can't see it from where they stand. There is a slight breeze that flows between the archways, light on Allen's skin and picking up his hair, a welcome change to the closed corridors and rooms they had been traipsing through. There is a figure across the room, sitting on the edge of the tower and overlooking what must be left of the Ark's town, smoke trailing languidly from between their fingers and a hat sitting beside them; Road stands next to them, glancing back at the Apostles with a sly smile at their entrance. "Tyki," she says, looking down at the figure, "We have guests."

The man turns around, flicking his cigarette down into the world below as he turns and stands up, slicking his hair back with a hand and placing the hat on top. "So we do," he hums, glancing up at them, and Allen's heart stops in his chest.

"I know you," he blurts out, his brow creasing as he tries to figure it out. This is the man that had been in his dream, had torn his heart from his chest, and while he finally understands why he had felt such fear at their face, he knows them from somewhere else, some time earlier than that.

The man grins, watching them with clear gold eyes. "I should hope so," he says, teeth flashing white. "It wasn't too long ago that we met."

"Holy crap," Lavi breathes, his eyes set wide on the Noah. "You're that guy Allen stripped at poker."

And then it all clicks; the route back from Turkey, the smoky pub on the corner, the deck of cards that still sits heavy in his breast pocket, a rough hand firm in his own. "Mikk," he whispers, and the Noah both smile in unison. "All this time, you were...?"

"A Noah?" he chuckles, "Yes. It's a shame, though; I was really looking forward to a second round, but it looks like we're going to be playing a game of a different nature."

Road clicks her fingers and the air shifts behind Allen, startled yelps coming a moment after, and he turns to be met with clear glass, Lavi and Lenalee trapped inside, Lavi slamming his fist against it in frustration. "What did you do?" Allen snaps, whirling back around to face the Noah.

"Not much," Road replies, absently tugging at a piece of her hair. "It's perfectly safe, don't worry. I've just detained them for a while so that you and Tyki can have a fair fight, without any interruptions."

He hates the way her eyes fall on his friends as she says this, that smile still on her face but her eyes cold and hard. Tyki takes a step forward, fixing his gloves with a look on his face that makes Allen nervous. "I hope you've said your prayers, boy," he says smoothly, and then he holds his palm out towards Allen, a small black orb forming in the space just before it; Allen barely has time to activate his arm to use as a shield before it launches across the room towards him, a low whistle sounding in his ears at it clips past his shoulder, and before he can wonder why Tyki had missed with such a clear shot, something drags him backwards, following the trajectory of the orb as he is flung across the room, tumbling across the floor. Tyki laughs, low and darkly humoured as Allen picks himself up off the ground. "You're in way over your head, Apostle," he chides, picking the gloves off his hands finger by finger, slipping them off and into his pocket.

Allen grits his teeth, trying to focus on Tyki as his vision blurs in and out of focus. There is moisture welling in his left eye, and he knows that if he reaches his hand up to touch it, his fingers will come away red; this close to two members of Noah, it is giving him even more agony than before, and the fight is only proving to agitate it further. He glances at Lavi and Lenalee, hands pressed against the glass as they watch in horror, and his resolve hardens as he looks back at Tyki, both Noah carrying their sick grins. They have killed so many, and he will not let them kill again- he has to protect the few he can. He charges towards Tyki, ducking and digging his claws into the ground as another of those strange spheres is fired at him, its pull even stronger than the last, and he worries about what will happen if one actually makes contact with him, but he is not willing to find out. Tyki doesn't move from his place even as Allen draws closer, close enough that he is within reach, but when Allen swings his arm his claws only meet with empty air,

Lenalee screams "Behind you!" just as Tyki says "Surprise," and Allen swivels around just in time for the back of Tyki's hand to collide with his face, hard enough for his vision to swim black and his knees to hit the ground. There is a laugh resounding through the tower, in Tyki's smooth voice but with the tone of the truly insane, high and somehow pleasured, and while it should scare him, it only makes him angrier, untapped fury rising in his chest and fuelling him where he should have long since collapsed. "I'll kill you," he hisses, sticky with the blood in his nose, to which Tyki only says, "Try me," and Allen charges at him again.

"Stop," Lenalee breathes, and Lavi pulls his eyes from the fight to glance down at her, hands against the glass and dark eyes wide with horror. "We have to stop them. Allen can't win this on his own."

He moves his eyes over to Road, sitting atop her umbrella and watching the fight with pleased curiosity. "We need to get out of here first," he mutters, trying to sift through the information he has already been able to gather. There must be some kind of loophole to the Noah's abilities, one that they should be able to exploit to get out of whatever Road has put them in; he returns to watching Tyki, trying to catch if the abilities of an Apostle seem to have any effect, but his attention is drawn away again as Lenalee steps back from the glass, his eyes drifting down to her feet as a familiar red encasement begins to creep up her legs, forming the boots that he has always been intrigued with, but there are bigger things at hand and he simply asks her, "What are you planning to do?"

"Get us out," she replies, her eyes hard, and then she swings, her knee colliding hard with the glass; the impact leaves only a few cracks in the surface, but it is more than either of them had been expecting, so she repositions her feet to prepare for another shot.

"I suggest you stop doing that," Road says beside them, her eyes still glued to the commotion before them. Lenalee pauses for a moment, gauging the Noah's expression, then promptly ignores her, striking the glass again, harder this time. "I warned you," Road sighs, then clicks her fingers, and Lavi cries out in agony.

Lenalee turns to look as Lavi presses his back against the wall, pulling a small, pointed candle from where it had been buried in his upper arm, his blood dripping from its tip. "Lavi," she breathes, stepping over to place a hand on his shoulder, "Lavi, are you alright?"

"Dandy," he spits through his teeth, opening his eye to catch Road's proud grin in their direction. "I suggest you listen to her, though. I get the feeling the next one won't be so kind."

Road barks out a laugh, Lenalee turning back to glare at her. "You're smart, bookman," she says, kicking her feet where she hovers beside the glass. "I like you, so it's a shame I have to use you as an example."

"If you feel remorse for what you're doing," Lenalee bites, "Then don't do it."

"I never said I felt remorse, I just said it was a shame." They all glance back at the fight as there is a small explosion, dust rising in the air, but the nerves of the Apostles settle just a little as Allen emerges on his feet, lapsing back into action. "Tell me, bookman," Road begins, bringing their attention back to her, "Have you found Eve yet?"

They both stiffen, stricken with thoughts of wonder at how much the Noah know, what they are aware of. Lavi wonders especially why Road is specifically asking him, and he only hopes that she can accept that he has no information to offer. "What do you know about Eve?" he asks instead of providing a real answer, hoping to have some of his own questions answered.

Road grins, her gold eyes almost gentle in the expression. "No more than you do at this point, I believe," she tells him, and then her eyes spark with mischief, glancing down at Lenalee. "It could be any one of you. My bet is on this pretty little girl here. Quite fitting for her, don't you think?"

"What makes you say that?" Lenalee asks, tearing her eyes from the battle before her to glare hard at the girl. "What do you know about me? What do you know about any of us?"

"I know many things about many people, Apostle. You have no idea how insignificant you are in the grand scheme of things."

They are interrupted by raucous laughter from Tyki, high cackles that strike fear in all of the Apostles, but Allen especially; he has not been as strong as he thought he could be, the pain in his eye overwhelming and leaving him weak, defenceless before the hands of the Noah that now towers above him. Tyki squats down and grabs his collar, picking him up off the floor, gold too thick around his diluted pupils as he grins sickeningly in Allen's face. "What's the matter, boy?" he hums, dragging Allen to his feet as he stands up. "Is that all you've got? I was expecting more from the cursed prophet, but I suppose you all die the same."

Allen grits his teeth and pushes Tyki away from him, struggling to regain his balance as the man lets go of his collar and takes a step back, chuckling all the while. He can't falter, not here, not now, not when so much is depending on him- but he has very little strength left. He is so tired, of the fighting, of the pain, of the fruitlessness of it all. Lenalee calls out to him, seeming so quiet across the vast space of the tower and through the rush in his ears, and he remembers why he is there, what he is fighting for; he shifts his feet, raises his arms, meets Tyki's eyes with all the determination he can muster. "I'm going to end you," the Noah says quietly, almost gentle, and then a wide-toothed grin breaks out across his face, laughter bubbling in his throat. "I'm going to end you!"

Tyki raises his arms, palms facing the Apostle, and something sparks around Allen, a cold feeling dropping in his gut. The Noah cackles as something begins to form around him, a darkness beginning to obscure his vision, and then it swells, outward from his chest and encapsulating his whole body, plunging him into a darkness deeper than any he has known and stealing the breath from his lungs. He can still hear Tyki screaming at him, die, die, die, but it soon fades out to nothing, a silence so still that he can hear his own heartbeat pulsing steadily weaker in his ears, can feel every drop of blood pushing through his veins, throbbing in every nerve. He can't breathe here, his lungs gasping for air he can't find, and he absently wonders if he is finally going to die, his eyes sliding closed and his arm reverting back to its natural state as his consciousness wavers.

He dreams that he is floating, immersed in water but able to move freely under its weight, and he opens his eyes to a colourless expanse, endless and dark, and he feels as though he could rest here forever, weightless and untroubled by the world he can no longer see. He can hear whispers in his mind, a faint voice that is too quiet for him to make out, gentle yet feeling somehow urgent, calling to him.

His heart thumps suddenly in his chest, a single, hard kick, and he coughs, somehow finally sucking in a much needed breath. Allen, he hears, and it kicks again, shaking every fibre of his body, burning in his chest. Allen, get up. Again, and bile rises in his throat.

It pulses through the floor, vibrating under the feet of those who watch, only seeing the bursts of energy rolling outwards from within the black sphere that holds him. Even Tyki, who had been smitten with glee only moments ago, now watches with curiosity bordering on surprise, on worry, but does not relent his hold. A beam of white light spears through the sphere, others following it in time with the pulses they come to recognise as a heartbeat, and then there is one final, bone-rattling pulse, rolling out as a shock wave that sends Tyki toppling to the floor, cracking the floor and rattling the walls. The blackness around Allen disintegrates, leaving him shrouded in a cloak of white that almost hurts to look at, hovering in the middle of the room.

To Allen there is only darkness, his body calm and his breath coming evenly. There is a warm presence around him, gentle and reassuring, and he welcomes it like an old friend, revelling in the stillness it brings. He remembers the words in his mind, the voice that is not his own but feeling so much a part of him; the voice remembers him, too.

Fight, it says, and he obeys.

The others watch as the white shroud disperses, Allen's body slowly touching down, and he stands facing Tyki as he picks himself up off the ground. There is something different about him, the Apostles know, watching from within their cage; he is calm, serene, almost terrifyingly so. He raises his left hand, still in its red-stained skin, index finger pointing directly at Tyki, and there is nothing but silence, nothing but the wind whistling between the arches. Tyki at first looks surprised by the transformation within Allen, but after a long moment of nothing, he seems to figure that it must be an empty threat, that the Apostle is still just as weak as before; he snickers, and then there is the sound of something tearing as Tyki's upper right side is burst clean from his body. Allen watches with unsettling impassiveness as Tyki screams, falling to his knees, clutching at the space where his arm had been.

"What the hell," Road mutters, and Lavi glances up to see her eyes wide with shock, stricken with horror. He feels as though it is safe to assume that they have never come across something like this before; it is rare for the Noah to be surprised, and even rarer for them to be so visibly shaken by it.

"Lavi," Lenalee breathes, and he glances down at her before following her eyes out to where Allen still stands over Tyki, hand dropped back down to his side as the Noah watches him in panic while his arm regrows. "That can't be Allen," she whispers, "It can't be. Allen's not..."

She trails off, and Lavi only puts a hand gently on her shoulder in response, unable to find the words himself. They watch in silence as Tyki rises to his feet again, fear in his eyes as he takes a few steps backwards. "What are you?" he asks, but Allen doesn't answer; he only raises his arm again, pressing a finger gently to his lips with what almost looks like a smile before pointing once more at Tyki. He holds the hand still for a moment, letting the Noah stew in his fear, then draws a small cross in the air with his finger, down and across, opening his hand so that the palm faces his opponent once more. His lips part as a single word rolls off his tongue, and blood spurts from Tyki's chest, the shape of the cross carved into his flesh with its points meeting in the place over his heart. He stumbles backwards and collapses in a heap on the floor, Road screaming out his name as she floats over to land beside him when there is no response, gathering him in her arms and cradling him.

Allen suddenly drops to his knees, short for breath and his vision swimming, and as he blinks his eyes clear Road's eyes snap up to him, Tyki's blood on her hands and her face wrought with rage, dark and more terrifying than she has ever been before. "You," she growls lowly, small hands clasping in the fabric of his coat. "What did you do?"

Panic and fear knot themselves in Allen's chest and leave him at a loss for any kind of reasonable answer. He has been lucid the whole time, but he can find no explanation for his actions, no way to figure out what the hell he just did; he looks down at his hand and finds it the same as it has always been, red-stained and rough and a little numb through his fingers. "I don't know," he says, moving his eyes over to Lavi and Lenalee in the small hope that they might understand, but their faces show just as much confusion as he feels.

"Liar!" she screams, her voice reverberating around the damaged room, but she brings it back down to her more menacing tone. "Not even Apostles have that kind of power. You need to pay for what you've done," she says, and Allen doesn't understand until her eyes flick over to where Lavi and Lenalee stand.

"Don't you dare," he mutters, but she narrows her eyes and Lenalee gives a surprised yelp, forced backwards by something they can't see, and the cage splits around them, forming two separate holds to keep she and Lavi apart. "Road, please, don't do this."

"Why not?" she barks, the three of them watching in horror as an abundance of sharp-tipped candles materialise in a wide circle around Lenalee's container, all pointed inwards. "You hurt my family, I hurt yours. Your actions have consequences, Allen. You would do well to remember your place here."

"Allen doesn't even know what he did!" Lenalee cries, trying to keep herself composed despite the wide panic in her eyes. "You can't blame him for something he didn't consciously do."

"Shut up," Road snaps, flames igniting on the ends of all the candles. "You deserve to die, you fake piece of shit."

"Road," a man says from behind them, and Allen's blood runs cold. "Leave the pretty young lady alone."

---

A/N: This is perilously close to canon, but it's going to start deviating a lot more in the next few chapters.