Disclaimer: I do not, in fact, own D. Gray-Man
Just after the Invasion of the Black Order Arc
Allen felt... confused. His last meeting with Marian Cross - his mentor, had severely shaken him. Cross's words seemed to echo and repeat themselves over and over again, filling Allen's mind with a mixture of fear, doubt and anger.
"What would you do, if I told you you'll have to kill someone you love?"
Why, why did Cross have to wait until now to tell him? He had known all that time and never once... But no, it was too late for answers now. Ever since he left the room Allen had somehow felt that everything was already too late. An unshakable sense of finality had settled over him as soon as he heard the door close behind him. There would be no more answers from Cross.
Suddenly Allen sensed a movement to his left, he looked over, and he couldn't help but smile as he watched Lenalee mutter in her sleep. Johnny was in turn asleep on her lap and Allen imagined they must have been an amusing trio to anyone who may walk through the room. He sighed slightly and looked out of the window, the rain was hammering down in torrents and it didn't help his feeling of unease. Something was going to happen tonight, something that may well change the course of this war for good. The 14th had warned him of this, and although Allen didn't know why, he felt inclined to believe him.
In truth, Allen was one step ahead of Cross, he had already known the 14th was trying to take over his mind and use his body as a vessel. The night after he came back from the Ark the 14th had appeared to him in his dreams and told him as much. But even as the words came out of his mouth Allen felt he somehow knew already, both about the 14th and the terrible event that was to transpire that night. However, the 14th also told him one last thing before Allen woke up: do not interfere. Along with Cross's urgent words that instruction lingered in Allen's mind. It was difficult, Allen knew he couldn't trust the 14th, and that to listen to what he said was foolish, and yet... Although the 14th was not an ally, he also wasn't an enemy and never once had he lied to Allen.
There was that feeling when the door had closed on Cross, the feeling that Allen would never see him again. While Allen tried not to think of the worst case scenario he couldn't help but wonder if Cross's fate wasn't linked to the events of tonight. Of course, the thought of Cross dying was ludicrous but still... These thoughts and possible paths continued to whirl in his consciousness until he began to feel his eyes grow heavy and the world faded to black.
Allen opened his eyes to see that familiar crescent moon shining down at him. He was relieved to find everything as it had been before, for some reason he had feared that his inaction tonight would change to landscape of his dreams.
"What an odd notion." Said a voice from behind him.
Allen whipped around, knowing who the voice belonged to and realised that something had changed after all. Rather that the shadowy and almost featureless creature that usually stood before him, there was a young man. He had dark hair and yellow eyes and bore a striking resemblance to-
"Tyki?"
The 14th smiled, bemused, and said,
"Not quite. I'm afraid I've been quite rude and neglected to show you my true form until now. Allow me to reintroduce myself. I am Nea, Noah of Destruction."
And with these words he offered his hand as though he wanted Allen to shake it. Instead Allen stepped back cautiously, and asked the question that had been plaguing him ever since he left Cross.
"Who am I?"
For a moment Nea looked slightly disgruntled at being rebuffed, but at Allen's question his face lit up with a knowing grin.
"Ah, so you've finally heard about that, have you?"
"You know I did," said Allen, annoyed, "you see everything I see."
"Under normal circumstances, yes. But as I've already told you, today is far from a normal day." Nea sighed dramatically and continued, "Sadly today I could barely see at all, much less hear what was going on around you."
Allen still wasn't entirely sure whether he could trust Nea's word, but so far he had never tried to deliberately deceive Allen and he knew for a fact Nea had a vested interest in keeping him alive. Nea was still looking at him, doubtless waiting for an account of the day. Allen was about to open his mouth to explain, but quite suddenly he felt as though telling Nea what Cross said would be a mistake.
"Well, you still haven't answered my question." said Allen, projecting a note of impatience into his voice. To his surprise Nea laughed in response.
"You're unusually restless today Allen. But do you seriously think I'm just going to give you that kind of valuable information for free?"
"Valuable? That information is completely useless to everyone except me!" said Allen, indignantly.
"Hmm, are you so sure about that, Allen? I can think of at least thirteen people who I'm sure are dying to know who you are." Nea had been smirking throughout the whole of their exchange but at those last words his smile grew so wide Allen was surprised his face didn't split in two.
"But they don't-"
"Oh, but they do, Allen. They've known ever since that stunt we pulled with the Ark."
Allen took a moment to consider this new information. If what Nea said was true, he was in a lot more trouble than he had anticipated. However Allen couldn't help but think it was extremely odd, that if the Noah knew that the 14th was currently residing in his mind, they hadn't yet done anything to tell him as much. It was exactly the kind of thing he would have expected of them, given how much certain members of the family seemed to like causing him pain. What's more, under any other circumstances he would be thoroughly miserable about the fact he had a Noah in his head, trying to take over his body. But there was something, a feeling he couldn't explain, that made him feel as though Nea was meant to be there.
"Hey! Don't space out when I'm talking to you!"
The sudden voice threw Allen out of his reverie; he looked up to find Nea glaring at him. Sighing, Nea continued,
"Anyway, I'm surprised you actually listened to me about not interfering tonight. I could feel you getting all anxious before you fell asleep. You're right by the way, Cross is involved in tonight's events."
"Did you, or did you not just tell me you couldn't work out what was going on today?" asked Allen, irritably. Nea opened his mouth and tried to say something but Allen cut him off, "And another thing, how do you know what's going to happen? You said you're the Noah of Destruction, not Clairvoyance."
"Well I'd explain if you'd let me-" Nea shot back, but was interrupted by a huge tremor that shook the entirety of Allen's dreamscape.
"Although it looks as though I won't have to. Goodbye Allen. Thanks for that little chat." With that Nea disappeared, leaving Allen with even more questions than he'd started with.
