A/N: Oh, look, the person who hasn't posted anything on here in two years is posting something on here! Been doing a lot of writing for DGM lately, but this is the first thing I've ever posted for it. Hope you guys like it!

Some minor edits done on 01/11/15.

Disclaimer: I don't own DGM, obviously.

Entering the Ark, an intense wave of nostalgia washed over him for the second time that day. Just like when he'd stepped into the Ark earlier, guided only by the word of a rapidly fading Akuma, Allen was struck by the same, undeniable feeling of deja vu.

It was like he'd come home at long last. Yet at the very same time, an overwhelming and uncharacteristic rage coursed through him, making his fingers twitch.

Of course, his friends tumbling down out of the same gate that he had and crushing him under their weight didn't help his apparently bad mood, but something deep down told him that wasn't the bulk of the issue.

"You're crushing me!" Allen screamed at them, though he doubted yelling at them had much to do with them actually getting off him.

"What is this place?" Kanda asked, looking around the town bathed in white as they all came to stand on their own two feet. Allen could understand the feeling; he'd been in awe the first time he'd come here and he'd known he was headed into Noah's Ark. It hadn't really prepared him for the sight, but no longer did he feel even the slightest bit of confusion. Instead, a strange sense of belonging swelled in his chest.

"We're in the Ark," Allen explained, sounding more surprised than felt. Nothing had indicated they'd be brought here, yet it was like he had somehow expected it.

A dark thought occurred to him and he shook his head, pushing it away. He hadn't grabbed onto Lenalee because he'd wanted to come back here; it was because she was his friend.

So lost in thought, he ignored Kanda when the older man asked what they were doing there; he didn't respond to anything at all, in fact, until Lavi called out to them, "H-hey, there's some weird pumpkin under Lenalee!"

"M-move, lero! Damn Exorcists!"

Kanda immediately unsheathed his sword, threatening the pumpkin umbrella. Allen half expected himself to do the same, but something stopped him. He crouched down to look the pumpkin in its eyeless sockets and asked, "You're Milennie's golem, aren't you?"

Allen nearly face-planted into the pavement when those words tumbled out of his mouth. It was like they weren't his own, like he'd read something off a sheet of paper. A script. Since when did he call the Earl that? And what was that about that pumpkin umbrella being a golem?!

"Milennie?" Kanda repeated, raising an eyebrow at his choice of words. Allen chuckled nervously.

"I-it suits him more than 'Milennium Earl', don't you think?"

Kanda glared; he didn't have to open his mouth for Allen to figure out that he didn't agree.

"And how do you know I'm a golem, lero?!"

Apparently, Kanda didn't appreciate the pumpkin opening its big mouth. Without skipping a beat, he lightly jabbed the pumpkin umbrella in its... neck? "Let us out, if you don't want to be sliced to bits." When a moment passed and the umbrella still hadn't answered, Kanda yelled, "Where's the exit?!"

"Th-there is... no exit, lero..."

How could they operate the Ark without its musician?

Why would the Ark even listen to them?

Allen pulled on a tight-lipped smile, folding his arms behind his back. He couldn't place what he was feeling. Was it anger?

Kanda spared him a glance, the change in his body language not going unnoticed. Lero, however, remained oblivious and continued, speaking like his words were no longer his own; it took even Allen a second to realize it was a recording.

"This ship has just completed its role and come to a stop. Nice job, Lero, it's time for the young exorcists to depart!" Though the words came out of Lero's unmoving mouth, it didn't take a genius to figure out who the owner of such a strident, grating voice could be.

As he finished speaking those words, a balloon bearing the Earl's likeness shot out of the umbrella's mouth. "You and this ship will go on a one-way voyage to hell!"

The buildings around them collapsed, an explosion with no origin sending debris falling in the direction of the cracking pavement. The whole area was on the verge of collapsing right beneath their feet.

"Be careful! The places that have been downloaded have begun to collapse!"

Allen didn't look away from the speaker, narrowing his eyes at the balloon bearing the Earl's likeness. Allen was more confused over his lack of confusion than anything else. Why did he know exactly what the Earl meant?

"This ship will soon disappear. Three more hours is all you have left in this world!" His hands that had remained folded behind his back for the better part of the Earl's rambling came back down to hang at his sides. "Little lady, you have such good fri—Ah?"

The Earl was cut off by a loud pop, the balloon loosing all its air and flying off to destinations unknown. Allen huffed, glaring at the space the Earl balloon had previously been occupying before retracting his sharp claw. He could feel the eyes of his friends boring holes into the back of his head, all of them jarred by the abrupt ending of the Earl's cryptic message.

When he met their gazes, he laughed slightly. There was no way he could justify his sudden irritability; he didn't understand it himself. Debris from a nearby collapsing building fell between him and his friends. He jumped, startled, as the impact started a chain reaction and the floor fell from beneath his feet.

"We need to move!" With surprising ease, Allen maneuvered himself back onto solid ground, grabbing onto a partially intact building with Crown Clown. The Ark was collapsing—fast—and something told Allen that Lero wasn't lying when he said there was no exit. You can't run, something whispered to him. You can't hide. The ghostly, familiar voice's words were punctuated by a soft laugh.

If there wasn't an exit, he'd just have to make one.

Although he had no idea how he planned on doing that.

They continued through the maze of crumbling streets and falling walls, Allen somehow navigating it all with ease. They couldn't outrun the collapsing city. It caught up to them, the very floor they were standing on cracking right down the middle like an egg.

"I-I was telling the truth, lero; there's no exit! You can't get off this ship. You're going to die here, lero!" Allen grit his teeth, casting a glare at the pumpkin umbrella. That was all he could do to keep himself from flattening the umbrella's face with his fist.

"If it just an exit you want, there is one." Allen didn't even need to glance at the source. The image of a handsome, dark-haired man he'd never met popped into his head. "Boy."

Crowley and Lavi both pointed and screamed, "Thick Lens!"

Both of Allen's arm shot up in the air and he joyfully cried out, "Joyd!" His friends turned to him, startled. The big grin that broke out across his face quickly fell when he turned and saw the person in question... dressed like a hobo. His arms fell back to his sides. "What on earth are you wearing?"

This man was unlike the one in that image he'd seen when he'd heard his voice. He'd recalled someone else, yet something told Allen that this man was one and the same. He was "Joyd".

Allen watched with no small amount of amusement as the cigarette fell out of the man's mouth and dropped to the ground.

A smirk grew on the man's face, replacing his previous shock. "How do you know that name, Boy?" What? Was he not supposed to?

He hummed softly, pressing a finger to his chin as if he were thinking. "I'm not sure, Joyd," he said lowly, tasting the word on his tongue as he said it slowly. "Maybe you could help me remember?"

Joyd's smirk widened into a grin. "What did you have in mind, Boy?"

A whimsical giggle escaped pale lips. "Well," he said, bridging the gap between them, coming close enough to the other man that their chest nearly touched. "I can think of a few uses for the Noah of Pleasure's power to 'Choose'."

"What the hell, Allen?!" Lavi screamed. Allen spared them a glance, his lips twisting upwards into a smirk. Their wide eyes and dropped jaws were amusing to be sure, but he wasn't interested in them. His focus turned back to Joyd.

"Oh?"

Tyki's hand raised, his knuckle softly caressing Allen's cheek before reaching back and taking a fistful of his snow white hair in his hand. Allen purred his approval of the rough handling, until the man's forehead crashed into his own. An offended yell of genuine surprise passed through his lips. "Boy, why are still alive?!"

Allen fell back, clicking his tongue as he nursed his aching forehead. He felt vaguely disappointed—and a little pissed, to be honest. As if triggered by his apparent rejection, he recalled the visage of that man who'd almost destroyed his Innocence, who'd thrust his hand into his chest and used that cannibalistic butterfly to tear a hole open in his heart.

He stiffened. "You're—"

Joyd, Joyd, Joyd, something whispered in the back of his head, the tone escalating each time it repeated the word until it matched the drone of a throaty moan.

"I had to put up with everything the Earl and those midgets said to me because of you," he said and Allen watched with muted horror as his skin suddenly darkened, dyed an ashen gray.

"You want an exit, right? I can give you one," he said as he gingerly pulled the glasses from his face and pocketed them, revealing amber eyes. Allen's eyes narrowed at Joyd as he pushed his hair back, showing off a row of stigmata that stretched across his forehead.

Allen frowned as the man—Joyd, the persistent voice in his head reminded him—stuck his tongue out at him. "This ship doesn't have it's own exit anymore, but another can be made through Road's ability."

My Ark.

People shouldn't play with toys that don't belong to them.

Allen shook his head furiously, trying to clear the thoughts from his head. Tyki tossed the key up and caught it, clenching it in his fist. The door that shot up out of the ground was what brought his focus back; he probably wasn't nearly as shocked as he should have been the see the heart-shaped door behind Tyki.

Road's door, the same voice whispered to him and Allen startled. As if the owner of the voice was standing just behind him, their breath tickled his ear. He swiveled around to meet their gaze, but found only his friends.

But the voice he kept hearing sounded nothing like any of them.

"That door, lero!"

"Our Road is the only one who can move through space without having to use the Ark. So how about we continue our match, boy? I'll bet my 'exit' against your 'lives'," he said, resting a hand on his hip. "But no cheating this time, boy."

The grim atmosphere was the only thing stopping him from cracking a devious smile. After all, Allen was very good at cheating and usually good at the most important part of process: Not getting caught. Tyki wasn't someone that was easy to fool, but that's what made it so much fun, right?

The thought gave him pause.

Fun? Gambling with his friends' lives wasn't fun! Why had something like that even occurred to him?

"Wh-what is the meaning of this Lord Tyki, lero?!" the pumpkin cried out, clearly panicking. "L-Lord Millennium will never—"

Tyki ignored him, drowning out Lero's words by starting to explain.

"This is the key that can open Road's door and the three doors that lead to it," Tyki said, twirling the key on his finger. "And you can have it. Think about it."

As he spoke, the key slipped through finger, stopping halfway as he "chose" to touch the key already halfway through his index finger.

"Not that you have much time to waste grumbling about it."

As if on cue, a nearby building collapsed. Allen leapt away as the debris landed right where the two of them had been standing. "Joyd!" Allen yelled. He felt his fingers twitch as he watched the dust clear; it was hard to will himself not to run over and check on the older man, but he managed. Tyki was still a human at the end of the day and Allen had to worry about another human.

That was all that was, right?

"Th-the building collapsed on top of him!" Crowley yelled, shocked just like the rest of them, even as the ground that was supporting them threatened to split apart.

"Is he dead?!"

No, the voice told him. The power to 'choose'...

As if in response to Lavi's question, something was thrown to Kanda. The small object that he expertly caught turned out to be the key.

"Hunting for exorcists is pretty fun..." Tyki's voice seemed to echo through the air. Allen quietly released a breath that he hadn't realized he'd been holding in. "The door has been placed at the top of the tallest building. If you get there before it crumbles, you win."

Allen opened his mouth to speak, but immediately snapped his jaw shut when he realized what he was going to say. He was going to point out that Noah were supposedly immortal, but he remembered what he'd thought just a moment ago: Even the Noah were human. No longer needing to ask the question, Allen realized that a subtle smirk had spread across his face. His mouth opened again but like before, Allen stopped himself from speaking. What he had been about to say shocked him.

That sounds like fun.

It wasn't a game! He wanted to scream at the part of himself that had so much as thought that. They were all in danger! How could he think something like that!?

But... maybe they weren't his thoughts.

Something about that voice...

His mouth moved of its own accord, like someone else was speaking for him. "Jo-oyd," he sung, sounding entirely unlike himself. Though he couldn't see the Noah, something told him that he was still listening. "Will you be waiting for me at the end?"

"Of course, Boy. I have to finish what I started."

"Oh, good! I can't wait..." he said, his smirk widening. "I can't wait to play with you, Joyd." His words were punctuated with a soft, sadistic giggle.

As the words left him, he felt himself gain proper control over his body once again. Something was using his body. For now, it proved relatively harmless, but he was being strung along like a puppet. He was forced to speak when he didn't wish to and made to move where he didn't want to go. Each time he took a step, spoke even the shortest of syllables, he had to wonder if they were really his own. Would whoever was doing this attack his friends? Was it a Noah or...

He didn't have the guts to turn and look his friends in the eyes after the way he'd been acting; he didn't have the guts to see what their faces looked like. But he didn't have to.

As if sensing his predicament, the Ark gave him the distraction he needed to pull himself out of the spotlight. Right beneath his feet, the floor collapsed, the pieces falling as the cracks in the floor finally exceeded their limits.

Kanda cursed loudly. "Run to a safer area!"

Falling, Allen extended his Crown Clown to grab onto the crumbling floor above, pulling himself up and catching Lenalee on the way. "Hang on tight!" he told her, flinging himself back up to the area that was still hanging on, if only by a thread. Carrying Lenalee, he made his way to a safer part of the "town" that hadn't started collapsing yet.

It was probably a miracle that all of their friends made it.

Most of them were bent over, clutching their knees and trying to catch their breaths. Even Lenalee was and she hadn't even had to run most of the way like Lavi or Kanda had. Instead, she'd hitch-hiked.

"What do we do now..."

"We can't keep running forever," Lavi said, pointing out what was already obvious. The places they could run to were already limited and with each passing minute, they were becoming more limited. "If what the Earl said is true, we only have three hours."

"Two hours left, lero!"

"No matter where we turn, we're trapped!"

Allen clicked his tongue. "Useless twits," he muttered, grabbing the attention of the exorcists that stood closest to him, the others likely unable to hear him over the sound of the entire city crumbling in the distance.

"You okay, Allen...?" Lavi asked, casting him a look of what appeared to be genuine concern. What a pity. It seemed the Bookman was still terrible at picking apprentices that could actually be neutral and unbiased.

"Oh, I'm perfect, Lavi," he said, smiling softly as he quietly stole Road's door key out of Kanda's hand.

"What the hell are you doing, Beansprout?"

"Beansprout? Really?" he asked, but didn't bother to give the samurai princess the time of day beyond those two words. Stepping up to the nearest door, he unlocked it without hesitation. In little more than the blink of an eye, the door changed to something bright and colorful; it featured stars, the sun, a rainbow and even a butterfly, all of them like they were drawn by a child. Allen barely blinked, taking in Road's unique tastes with a small hum.

"Allen, that was dangerous!"

Allen cast a look at the speaker: The only female in their merry entourage. "Not particularly."

"But the Noah—"

He rolled his eyes as the started speaking. "The Noah enjoy their fun," Allen said firmly. "Why would they cut the game short when we've barely started playing?"

"Playing...?"

He could only nod enthusiastically. "Ending the game early... Well, there's no fun in that, is there?" His words were followed by a short, light-hearted laugh.

Not giving them much of a chance to further question him and wonder why their Goody-Two Shoes Allen was suddenly acting the way he was, he swung the door open and stepped inside and the others scrambled to follow him. Even with his unusual behavior, he was still their "friend", he supposed—in their eyes, at least.

He'd like to say he would disagree with that sentiment.

Allen hummed thoughtfully as he glanced around, taking in the unique landscape. "Interesting," he said dryly.

"This definitely isn't outside..."

Allen scoffed, casting a look at Lavi. Had he not heard a word of what he'd said not even a minute ago or what Joyd had been saying a little while ago? Allen could only hope that he was playing dumb or the Bookman Clan was in trouble if that was the extent of this apprentice's observational skills.

Ending the game early wasn't fun and the Noah family lived for fun, especially when it involved Exorcists. They weren't going to give them a free pass without at least a little entertainment first. Of course, that might mean a couple of people had to die, but that was fine by him!

Kanda hushed them, quietly gesturing to a dark figure lurking just on the horizon, a drawn-in rainbow soaring into the night sky instead of the typical moon. "He's here."

"Well, thank you, for informing me, Princess."

The samurai glared at him through the corner of his eye and probably would've normally cut him to pieces where he stood, but something in the samurai's gaze seemed almost... concerned. How precious.

"Go on ahead of me," Kanda said, though Allen couldn't feign surprise on good conscious.

The others tried to fight it, the bookman apprentice being shocked and the cripple saying something that he happily tuned out. On the other hand, Crowley—in other words, the only other actual adult—said very little about it. While those two were trying to convince Princess Kanda to reconsider, Allen had only one response to his request. After all, unlike the better part of their merry little band of morons, he had his priorities straight.

"I can do that."

"What are you saying, Allen?!" Lenalee asked him. Please, did she have the slightest grasp of the situation they were in? He was here, struggling to understand and piece together memories that were torn and fragmented and even he understood that they were on a very strict time regiment and interruptions were not advised. "You're not acting like yourself! You haven't been since we entered the Ark!"

Allen was going to retort that he was acting exactly like himself, but Lavi felt the need to throw in his two cents before he could so much as open his mouth.

"And it's gotten worse since that Noah gave us that key."

"Oh?" Allen hummed thoughtfully at Lavi's words. Allen barely understood his own circumstances. For now, he was not the same person as Allen Walker; they were unique individuals with different experiences, memories and relationships who happened to be sharing a body. But that would not always be. Allen Walker was his name; it wasn't an alias he'd manufactured. The person that the Exorcists knew was the thing that was manufactured. He was a persona—a false pretense. He wasn't a person at all and he would disappear, as all Allen's aliases did.

"I—"

He stopped, not finishing his sentence. That's right... What was he saying? He couldn't let Kanda stay here on his own! This whole area was going to collapse soon, wasn't it? It'd be downloaded just like everything else on the Ark. Allen could only manage flashing a weak smile at his worried friends.

"I'm not feeling like myself at all, to be honest."

A/N: Thanks for reading, you guys!