To my dear readers,

i just found this short story somewhere deep in the bowels of my hard drive and thought 'well since i'm taking so durn long to update my stories, i might as well toss this out and hope it breaks the wait.' i hope someone enjoys it.

all characters are the intellectual and creative property of their respective owners. i make no money in writing this.

Allen was going to cry. It was all too much. He couldn't keep doing this stuff, day after day, week after week. He hadn't had a break since they had entered the ark. Sure, he had moments where he wasn't fighting; but Crown Clown wouldn't let him go. His Innocence wouldn't back down, staying activated to the point of its host's exhaustion. Allen was ready to drop, but it wouldn't let him.

He had asked for this. He couldn't object because he had asked for this. I will keep going, keep fighting until there's no life left in me… As long as he was alive, Crown Clown would move him. Even if his body was broken beyond repair, his Innocence would hold him together and keep him alive. It burned. It was terrifying. It was wonderful. It wasn't going to let him die, but it was killing him on its own.

His Innocence was going to kill him, he wasn't sure when or where but it was going to happen. Allen was living on borrowed time. Before even traveling to the ark he had spoken to Komui about it. He knew; he knew all about the strain that it was putting on the boy's body. He wouldn't survive having his Innocence destroyed again. The man told him to run if he was faced with fighting a Noah again.

When the time came though, Allen was determined to fight and even more, win. His friends were trapped, held in the strange grasp of the Noah girl. She professed love for him even as she forced Lavi to fight inside her twisted dream world. Allen would save them; he would destroy that Noah.

Like the last time he fought Tyki Mick, it was horribly one-sided. Allen found it difficult to keep control of Crown Clown. It kept taking him; anytime he didn't see an attack coming or was too slow, Crown Clown possessed him. Every time the mask covered his eyes he was a passenger in his own body. When the threat passed he could reach up and pull the cool metal away and regain control.

Violent cracks split his arm clear through to the bone as he took the attack meant to break down his Innocence. He was thrown against Rhode's barrier with enough force to shatter bone. He tasted blood; something in him had broken. He would never know what it was; Crown Clown was too fast. Allen had enough time to spit the foul blood from his mouth as it healed the damage.

It was an unnerving sensation. It didn't hurt. His Innocence loved him and couldn't bear to see him in pain. Warm ribbons raced through his blood to his wounds. His Innocence wrapped around his nerves, cutting the signals off, binding them so the message of pain would never reach his brain. It sent its own signals instead to distract him as it repaired him. Allen jolted with the sheer pleasure of it; Crown Clown loved him. It wanted him to enjoy its presence. Lenalee was calling his name; he was loved. He smiled reassuringly at her.

The Noah smirked. Then Allen recovered and surprised it. Tyki stumbled back a step, his face blank with confusion. His carefully slicked back hair fell loose and hung like a black curtain around his face. For just a moment there was fear in his eyes; for a split second he was human. It was the strength of humans that the monster needed to fear. Tyki started to laugh; it was a loud mad laugh that's edges dipped into insanity. His eyes told Allen that he was going to kill him right here and now. It would not be quick. Those eyes promised that he would be begging for mercy and that Tyki would show him none.

"Reject…"

The Noah stole the very air from his lungs. Allen was only aware of an intense pressure and darkness pushing in on him from all sides. He tried to hold his breath, to keep some of the precious oxygen in his body but the pressure on his chest was slowly forcing it out. Mana…

The outward appearance of his Innocence was receding inwards, unable to maintain its form and keep its host from suffocating. It retreated. There wasn't enough time for it to shield his nerves; it sang apologies as it moved inside. It tore through him, violent, painful, searching out every bit of usable oxygen. It slowed his heart to an almost agonizing pace. The stressed muscle fluttered spastically between labored beats.

His curse activated.

I can't die here! His dimming mind screamed. I want to live! He couldn't see anymore, only blurred shapes. Please I need… I need more! I… I have to… It was getting harder to think. Allen grabbed his left wrist tightly. More…! If he couldn't will his Innocence to react, he was going to manually force it. He had done it this way before. It wasn't pleasant. Even after he had regained his arm in the Asian Branch Office, it was highly sensitive.

Allen forced his body to move, his fingers poised over his cross, ready to push. Crown Clown hesitated in him; it was torn between keeping its host alive and following his commands. Allen silently pleaded with it. He begged it to invoke. Through hazy eyes he watched the Noah approach safely within an amorphous bubble of reality. He seemed surprised that Allen was still moving, however feebly it might be.

When he stopped in front of the boy, Allen managed to lurch forward enough to put his face in the atmosphere around the Noah. He gasped; the sudden rush of oxygen to his deprived system was intense to the point of blacking out. Allen held on as the Noah chuckled and pushed him back.

Allen's body stopped moving as it returned to the vacuum; Tyki's hand didn't. It kept moving right through the boy. A fist closed around his heart. Allen convulsed, his eyes going wide. Crown Clown was fighting to keep the delicate tissues of his heart from tearing in monsters grip, healing the damage as it occurred. The Noah wasn't playing around anymore. This wasn't like the time in the woods when he had callously tortured the boy and left him for dead. No, he was going to do it himself.

Ignore it! Concentrate! Allen screamed to himself. It was crushing him. He moved to stay with that hand. Ignore it… focus. Please, together as one… please! Breath that he didn't possess hitched and Crown Clown took him. Yesssss… It breathed in a happy sigh. Some barrier inside him broke down. Exquisite warmth spilled over him as he arced over the critical point. The right for humanity. The left for Akuma. They are the same. Allen would save them both.

Crown Clown showed him how to move, how to use him. He took his wrist and pulled. With a strange but not unpleasant sliding sensation, Allen pulled a weapon of his own flesh. He was unbalanced for a moment as he adjusted to a new weight distribution. Crown Clown gave his remaining arm strength. His left shoulder ached; the sensitive empty socket raw and exposed to the cold of the room. Crown Clown was there too; it lovingly covered and protected the space.

Allen shivered. He was so loved.

There was phantom feeling in the sword, familiar and foreign. Allen was aware it was part of his body that he was holding; it still felt like his arm. He could imagine his fingers laced together. It was his wrist that he was holding, but it was separate and new. Crown Clown moved over him like a second skin. Lights exploded behind his eyes and God, it was so good it hurt. It hurt so good.

There was a sense of many things happening at once. Allen was no longer himself; he was his Innocence. Crown Clown was no longer itself; it was Allen. Some built in barrier had broken and together as one, Allen knew he could keep going indefinitely.

He was a symphony, many parts combining into one. Allen was the melody. Crown Clown was the harmony. Running underneath it all was the solid, steady bass of his curse; Mana and his conviction to follow the path before him keeping tempo with his heart.

It took two strikes to kill the Noah inside Tyki Mick. For a moment they were frozen. Allen's weapon buried hilt deep in the Noah's chest; their bodies flush. Tyki touched his face, golden eyes trying to process what was happening.

Allen didn't resist. Let him touch; let him see that what the boy did was not out of malice or hate, but of a desire to save.

"I'm sorry." Allen whispered. "But I will save you."