Prologue: Disaster Strikes at Midnight & Author's Note.

It was the middle of the night, and Allen Walker was laying in his bed in the temporary head quarters of the Black Order, the building wasn't far in distance from the original which was undergoing serious repairs.

It was a building much like the old head quarters with long passageways and dated masonry with a womb like aura and dark rooms. It's protection had been hugely updated and maintained since the move, and rather than being a huge, visible tower, this building was mostly underground with only the top few levels actually above ground, though they were well hidden as well.

This sense of camouflage gave people a sense of security that was much needed after the devastation wrought on HQ, but Allen could quite share in his friend's comfort. Though he had managed to move the Ark and keep the doorways open, joining the Asian branch to both the old HQ and the temporary one, he still didn't understand why he knew how to do so. It only made Rouvelier more and more suspicious and he continued to increase the security on Allen since the man returned three days ago. Strangely, General Cross had not returned with the Inspector, and when Allen had been brave enough to ask, he'd been rebuffed very rudely by the older man.

Ever since his master had left for the meeting in Central Administration a week ago he'd felt a lingering sense of dread. Not only for his own unexplained situation but also a strange fear for General Cross. Allen didn't know anything about why he'd been able to control the Ark; he'd been restricted in even seeing his master, let alone speaking to him, and then they'd been attacked by the Level 4. There'd been no time for talking then.

He wanted to know why Cross knew so much about the mysterious Ark, and why he too, seemingly, knew about it without knowing that he did. He wanted to know why Mana had taught him the music symbols of the Ark's song. Allen had been going out of his mind and he'd come up with all sorts of wild theories to explain it all. Most of which he'd thought up lying in bed in the dead of night while everyone else was sleeping.

Allen sighed and hunched over as Timcanpy gently nudged his shoulder reassuringly, he wrapped his arms around his knees, resting against the headboard as his thoughts continued to swirl, but his head snapped up when he heard muffled footsteps from down the corridor. It wasn't an unusual sound to hear though, even in the middle of the night. A lot of people had insomnia and bad dreams and ended up walking the halls at odd hours, it wasn't unusual. With Inspector Rouvelier back, Allen himself had a lot of trouble sleeping, so he paid it little heed.

...That was, until his door creaked quietly as it was opened slowly, as though not to disturb him in his sleep. Thinking it was just one of his friends checking to see if he was getting some sleep - they'd been worrying about the dark bags under his eyes lately - so he fell back on the bed, feigning sleep, hoping they'd leave him to his brooding.

He heard several sets of footsteps approach the bed, and found this a little strange, so he opened his eyes and they widened in shock instantly.

"Who..." he breathed, sitting bolt upright. He saw six figures, all concealed by the darkness, and by the scarlet cloaks and cowls they wore. All of them appearing like the most evil of wraiths coming to take his soul.

"Breathe a single word and every one in this building dies," a deep voice spoke as they moved closer to him.

"Hey! What're you..." Allen started to yell, but before he could even defend himself, he felt a sharp crack to the back of his head, and he blacked out.

Meanwhile, Timcanpy floated around helplessly trying to defend Allen when one of the men approached the golem, muttering to himself Tim fell uselessly to the ground, invisible and dead, waking up only a later only because he was unique in comparison to other golems.

The next morning, Lavi entered the room early, intending to loudly rouse his sleeping friend, but found the room empty. For a while he searched calmly, thinking Allen had simply risen before him, but after a while the junior Bookman started to worry. He called on Lenalee, Miranda, and Krory, Chouji and Marie, the scientists, and even Kanda, but in the end they couldn't find him. Allen was no where to be seen. Komui was frantic, and the Generals were surprised to hear that Allen Walker was missing.

"He escaped!" Rouvelier cried as they gathered in Komui's office.

"He was kidnapped," Komui said.

"There's no proof," Rouvelier hissed.

"Cross' golem is gone too," General Klaud remarked.

"That's proof that he ran," the Inspector nodded eagerly.

"It doesn't prove anything," the General added sternly.

"The Ark is still functioning," Socalo said, "If that brat was gonna make a run for it, wouldn't he have made sure to take it with him, you idiot."

"Allen's clothes and things are still in his room, too," Lavi said thoughtfully.

"Well, it just proves that your security here is lax, I'll be sure to report this..."

"Allen Walker was under your supervision, Inspector," Tiedoll said suddenly, "You and your men were watching him like a hawk, if anyone is at fault here, whether he ran or was kidnapped..." he broke off without needing to finish.

"You better have evidence to make such an accusation. Even if you are a General, the Order doesn't take lightly on accusing Agency Inspectors," Rouvelier furrowed his brow and marched from the room, slamming to doors behind him.

"Now what?" Lavi sighed, "Ahhhh, Allen-kun...where'd you go..." he muttered, running a shaking hand through his messy hair.

While they talked, Rouvelier stalked the halls with a dark smile spreading across his face as he moved.

A.N. First thing's first; because I can't stand the idea of General Cross being killed off, this is set after the anime so that I can let the poor guy live. Honestly, how someone can kill of such a great character is beyond me!?

Anyway, the main focus of this story will be the father / son, teacher / pupil relationship between Cross and Allen. I was actually surprised that there aren't more; when I looked most of what I found was based predominantly when they were still travelling, all of which were really good, but not what I was looking for. One of the best ones , I think was; 'A Year' by ' Esherymack', which unfortunately is unfinished.

Personally, I think the manga got really depressing so I actually stopped reading it a while back, but I still loved the anime, so this is my attempt to solve the problem and pass the time. I think I have a tendency to treat my favourite projects on here like experiments in psychology, so be prepared for some emotion here people.

If you read my note, thank you very much for your patience :) I know prologues tend to be boring, but I included important detail about the timeline I'm setting up, so just bear with me.