Lord Joyde The Madman: Heylo, Everybody! Its been a while, hasn't it?
Okay so first off, I believe I owe you guys and girls a big apology.
SO SORRY! FOR BOTH BEING AN ARSEHOLE AND A LIAR.
Let me set something straight - my stories, except for this one and my original, ARE ALL DISCONTINUED.
I'm really sorry for all of my fans and friends, but the heart's universe just felt like it dragged on and on and on... it was eating away at my soul and I couldn't keep it up anymore.
However, there is something that has come out of this that may or may not surprise all of you in a good way. D Gray Man Hallow. The so-long-awaited continuation of the D Gray Man anime...
And with it, an immense burst of nostalgia, inspiration and desire to return to my roots, to the story that started.. EVERYTHING.
So, with that said, I hope you will enjoy this new story of mine; Not This Time, Never Again.
Don't mind me guys and girls! I'm just a line break...
At The End Of Days... - Noah's Ark - Allen's Point Of View...
"Its over..." I hear myself muttering out as the Millennium Earl's broken body is laid out before me, his wretched flesh dissipating to reveal a strange, yet undoubtedly familiar looking man.
He opens his eyes, immensely weakened from blood loss as he silently turns his head around, gazing at the corpses, at the blood, at the carnage around us.
Men...
Women...
Akuma...
Exorcists...
Noah...
Friends...
... Family.
Our.. family. Mine?
Or is it the Earls?
I honestly can no longer tell."A-ah.. so you've given up on finding out the truth, haven't you? .. Seven thousand years and you're still damned, clown."
The Millennium Earl's voice echoes within this scarlet-drenched garden as I look up, just now realizing that I'm on my knees, not crying, not moving, not celebrating.
Not feeling, a single, bloody, thing."Tell me, just for.. curiosities sake, Allen... what do you think you are?"
I feel my head turning upwards, dead, colorless eyes staring deep into that of the Earls."A Clown."
My answer makes the earl burst into chuckles."Who would've thought that hobby of yours would end up fitting you so perfectly.. liar, deceiver.. monster."
I stare into the wretched things eyes as I hear him call me all that and yet... I find myself, agreeing."What do you mean?"
He chuckles, just as heartily and insanely as he always does... as he always did."Heheh... its almost ironic. We Noah share the burden of having to remember everything... or so my poor family thinks.. truth is, the human brain is bound to lose something after dying so many times... Not even we are exempt from this.."
I do not understand, the Noah can also forget things from their past? Does that mean the Noah Memories are... incomplete? No.. that can't be right...
He notices the look on my face as he chuckles."W-well.. not that... any of this matters... you've won this time. Not me.. Not Neah... and most definitely not... Mana..."
Another deep gulp as his pained groan echoes throughout the area around us."I do not understand..."
He chuckles again."You aren't meant to.. Allen... it's the only... reason... why you've.. won..."
"But I want to know.. who am I? WHAT, am I..." My voice grows in strength and the Earl just looks at me with saddened eyes before turning around."Hah.. you won't.. like what.. you see.."
"What I see?" My question makes him exhale a breath of pure despair..."Go... to the Noah's.. Library.. the knowledge there is... locked.. false.. but with.. ARGH!.. The, the musician's s-sc-score...Aaa..aaaaaaaahhh..." But before he could finish his sentence, the Earl Passes away, his Noah soul finally dispersing into nothingness, never to be reborn again.
Just like Rhode.
Like Tyki.
Like Devit.
Like Jasdero..
Like everyone.. I never knew.. was my family.
The last vestiges of life leave the Earl's broken flesh as he passes away, the grip of death claiming him completely.
Just like Kanda.
Like Lenalee.
Like Krory.
Like Miranda.
Like everyone... I've referred to as... a friend.
Turning around, I notice my cloaked companion, my Crown Clown, floating above ground, its mask looking directly at me... or.. at least.. it was its mask.
Until, in exchange for the power needed to defeat the Earl... I...
D-E-V-O-U-R-E-D I-T
"URG!" A mass of bile rose up from my throat, the aptly named *last supper* made by Jerry before we all mounted one last desperate attack upon the Noah's Ark.
Everyone is dead. All of us. Enemy, foe, friend and lover alike.
Nothing even matters anymore... the earl is right.. should I even..
Is it important? Do I want, to know who and what exactly I am?
I have so many questions...
Why did Neah chose me? No... Why did I let Neah posses me.. Who..
Just who, is this strange-convoluted thing everyone keeps calling...
Allen Walker.
As my thoughts run rampant, I remember the moment I found out that simply devouring Crown Clown would not be enough to kill the earl. The moment I realized that, in order to be able to fully strike him down, I had to be rid of the Noah inside of me.
Idiot Neah.
He underestimated me. Thought I was weak.
Made me out to be the fool.
Just like Master.
Just like Leverrier.
Just like... everyone I've ever bloody known.
He got what he deserved no, all of them did. All I had to do after devouring my only real companion, was find him in my dreams.. and run him through like every other Noah... Like every other member of my supposed family.
"It's okay, Allen... I forgive you..." Rhode's dead, lifeless voice echoed in the room we were in as my exorcism blade cut through her dream self, a writhing mass of white tendrils, uncertain and afraid.
... All... Alone.
"But why?.. why do you forgive me..?" I remember myself asking, the slightest shreds of my sanity were still intact.
Just enough emotion for me to *care*.
"B-because we're family, d-d-dummy.." She trails off and I hear myself scoff."I am not your family, Noah. I am not Neah. Hell, I'm not even his host anymo-Mmph?!" I try to explain as my broken mind only captures reason and logic, like some form of sentient machine, a bunch of advanced code thrown together to make up the perfect tool.
But whose tool? I do not know.
Within moments, Rhode's weakened arms lose all of their strength and I do not move, failing to catch her as her lips fall off of mine. She smirks and giggles, an action that, in her current state, only causes her further pain."It does not matter.. even if you aren't a Noah.. You will.. forever be.. my family..." And with that... she dies.
I blink as Rhode's wording repeats in my head... Not a Noah, but still.. forever, her family?
... I have to know.
And with that thought had, my legs rise up by themselves, crossing over the legion of corpses. Finders, passerby, akuma, noah, exorcists, crows... monsters and innocents alike.
All just prey.
All just food.
All just lives devoured by this wretched, *holy* war.
I just want it all to end!
... Or do I?
Is it even me, that want's this all to end? Or is it, yet another puppeteer's string being pulled, telling me what to do now that things are supposedly at an end.
Suddenly, I find myself within the Noah's library. The books floating around like puppets on an invisible string, reminding myself of me, really.
Slowly, soullessly, I recite the Musicians Score.
And every single book within the Library suddenly opens wide, the words and letters within them glowing an ominous gold as the all launch themselves at me, slamming and disappearing into my head, knowledge of seven thousand years of war, suffering and pain start pounding against my fragile, already shattered brain.
Noah Record has been activated - User Recognized as Allen D. Campbell/Camelot - Commencing Sequence
A heavily mechanical voice echoes in my mind as some form of electricity digs into my skin, it hurts a lot... but I am far too exhausted to even whimper.
A scene shows before my eyes, a picture. A woman. A strange woman, with an almost clown-like aura.
This is Katerina D. Campbell, wife of $%&&, more commonly known as The Millennium Earl.
Wife of the Millennium Earl? This woman? He didn't seem like the type to marry, especially not to a seemingly normal, human woman.
Katerina was born a noblewoman eighty years ago, alongside her twin brother and uncle to the two children she would raise as her own, Mana and Neah Campbell.
Interesting... but who is this uncle of theirs? Mana was a son of the Earls? So is that what Rhode meant by us being family either way?... no, there has to be something else.
Eventually, she would meet $%&& during a small outing in front of her home. Intrigued by what looked to be a lonely, but handsome young nobleman, she approached him and eventually they fell in love.
However, $%&& was The Millennium Earl and, as such, he had a duty to annihilate the human race and usher forth The Three Days Of Darkness. Their love for one another was a detriment to this goal... so, in order to save himself and his love from the wrath of his own Noah Memory, he split himself into two parts, parts which would later come to hold the names, Mana and Neah.
Huh? Mana and Neah were once the same person? The Millennium Earl split himself because of his love for Katerina.. in order to not be consumed by ... by his own Noah Memory.
Hah, the Irony.
The twin boys grew up in complete peace, never truly knowing, never truly caring about the war they would be eventually dragged into once the Noah Family found them and introduced them into the war. However, the twins Noah Memory had still been asleep at that time, regardless of the fact that they had powers of their own already matured. They were Noah, but different, stronger.
During their time with the Noah, they could not help but miss their own Human Family as well, namely their mother Katerina and their uncle, Allen D. Campbell.
H... huh? I'm... Mana's.. and Neah's... Uncle?!.."W-w-w-what is this? Is this some kind of j-joke?!" But without even bothering to reply, or perhaps because it could not reply, the machine-like voice continues.
At first, it would seem that the boys human and Noah families would not mix at all, the innate hatred between the two differing entities causing much infighting to appear. However, one of each family managed to get over their hate and fear of one another, eventually resulting in a bond of matrimony that none could have foreseen.
The ninth child of Noah, Dreams and her human lover, Allen D. Campbell, had decided to marry under god's prying eyes, an effort to follow what they believed to be $%&&'s unwritten will, a final end to the wretched war that had plagued the Noah clan and humanity itself for untold ages.
So.. that's what she meant. Rhode is.. or was, at least, my wife.
Which means I killed my own wife in cold blood... wonderful. The earl was right, I am a monster.
However, this would later turn out to be a massive mistake, as god's agents recognized the child of dreams at her wedding ceremony and thus, a plan was forged. They would capture the husband and turn him against the Noah Clan, causing him to lose most of his memory in the process.
This caused Rhode to adopt an even greater hatred towards mankind, as this was seen as an absolute betrayal.
As is a natural reaction.. damn, that explains her intimate behavior towards me.. If only I had known.. If only I realized, somehow.
Fuck... it must have been horrifying for you, Rhode. Hah, what a terrible husband I am...
... But then, wouldn't she try to make me remember? Wouldn't she at least attempt to show me the truth?
... maybe, if what the earl said about Noah's memories is correct, she herself didn't remember and just felt a random connection to a seemingly *interesting* human.
Another outcome of this event was the continuation of the so-called Holy War, as the twins were forced to quickly grow up. Mana, the darker of the twins, decided that the Noah were correct, that Humanity had to be destroyed for what they had done but Neah wasn't convinced. He secretly began fighting against the Noah Clan, aiding the humans in secret, even if he knew just what form of hands guided them from the side-lines.
Guided them from the side-lines? I believe that means Apocryphos?... no, The Heart itself?
I go through an involuntary shudder as I remember all the times that wretched sentient innocence tried to fuse itself to me, only to cower and run away in terror and fear once it saw me devour Crown Clown. I never saw that vile, ungodly thing again.
Eventually, the twins Noah Memory returned after years of sleep. The sheer amount of hate and agony it caused to the twins was excruciating and, in Mana's case maddening. While Neah managed to defend himself from the all-consuming memory and eventually completely destroy its influence upon himself, Mana was not so lucky and, after years of torment, it had finally gotten to the point where he lost himself.
The Raging Noah's Memory then proceeded to assault Neah, as it knew that he was a traitor. Using its power as the Memory Of Adam, the dark thing then caused all other Noah Memories to utterly despise Neah. However, Neah would prove not to be easy prey. He had managed to annihilate pretty much the entirety of the Noah's clan, save for his Aunt and twin brother, before being decimated by the reincarnated memory of The Millennium Earl.
Having been thrown aside into an alley to die alone, Neah was found by his unfortunate Uncle, who managed to momentarily break the spell cast upon him by God's servants and offered himself as a vessel to Neah's Memories, telling the second twin that he would preserve his memory and keep it safe from the others until he was ready to return and have his vengeance upon the Earl of Millennium.
I... I volunteered? W-what the h-hell? Wait a minute, this all happened at least thirty-five years ago, right? So how come I'm so young?! And how does Cross fit in with all this?
Neah accepted and implanted a shard of his memory inside of Allen, which would slowly grow into his entire memory during a long period of time. Still alive in the alley, the next person to find him was his own brother Mana... or rather, The Millennium Earl, who then proceeded to drag him back to the Noah's Mansion... and devour him whole. This action completed the cycle, fully killing the first twin Mana and awakening the power of The Millennium Earl once more, but at the cost of his own memory.
The massive shock of the main memory losing resetting itself caused the other Noah Memories to do much the same, except for The Memory Of Dreams, who managed to retain some of herself, but would only ever recover her entire self after an extended period of time.
So Rhode really didn't know... Well, I guess she was still pretty pissed off at me with how sadistic she was acting when we first met.. Ahh, what I wouldn't give to be able to just... wipe this timeline from existence!
Allen, having been spared much of the recent events, was forcefully implanted with a specifically designed parasite-type innocence as a means of control and a way for The Central Of Vatican to keep an eye on the host of the Fourteenth. However, this forced synchronization combined with the recent implantation of Neah's memory, as well as the former mind-break spell cast upon him caused the man to experience an utter mental shutdown, turning him into a human vegetable.
Not allowing their new toy to be taken from them, the Central stole The Black Order's second-exorcist research data and used it to improve upon the Innocence later dubbed *Crown Clown*. This improvement caused the innocence to be completely integrated into its hosts body, allowing it to completely wipe any form of memory and repair the damaged mind of its host. During this time, the innocence also began de-aging Allen, turning him back into a child in a manner of months and implanting several Anti-Earl false memories into his brain, such as the murder of his foster father which it ironically named *Mana*.
Hah... aha.."AHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHHAHAHA!" My crazed laughter echoed throughout the entirety of the otherwise silent complex.
"My entire life... nothing more than a FUCKING LIE!" I screamed out in frustration as I slammed the ground below my feet with all of my might, cracking the slate-stone floor with ease.
Additionally, using the dark-matter technology they stole from The Black Order, The Vatican manufactured a pseudo-curse to be placed upon the now young Allen. A course which could detect Akuma an-
I stopped paying attention to the voice.. it was all lies.
Everything. All of it.
ALL OF MY ENTIRE BLOODY LIFE WAS LIES!
I began crying, tears flowing out like an ocean... emotions I long since believed to be lost, rushing to the surface as the enormous wall of nothingness was finally broken within me. If only.. if only there was some way to re-do everything.
"If only there was a way, I could make things right!" I heard myself scream out in agony before a the calm, machine voice made a rather sudden and abrupt proclamation.
You can.
"What? H-how?! Just what can I do, Library?!" I ask, suddenly full of hope and yet, dread.
You are Allen D. Campbell, the human designated as the *Destroyer Of Time*. This ark is a trans-dimensional object. It belongs in multiple places at the same *time*. With but a single command, it can take you to any one of these times, Past, present and future alike.
"But even if I go back in time, I will either find myself inside Edo or at a point where it is already far too late." I reply, my voice begging for an answer.
The Ark is not limited to itself, Allen. It can take you anywhere in time... however, in doing so, you will kill the Allen of that time and take his place. Whichever point of time you chose, there can never be two of you, so choose carefully.
..."I will kill the Allen of that time? Does that mean that I will have to kill myself?"
Yes. Once you appear at your chosen time-point, you will only have 24 hours to kill your current self before you are swallowed by time itself and are forever deleted.
I look down onto the ground. Am I truly willing to do this all over again? Am I truly capable of going through all this bloodshed once again? I steel myself."Then do it. Send me back, before I even entered the order, before I even became a real exorcist... send me.. to that lonely church."
As you wish, Allen. Teleportation... commencing.
As white lights begin to circle around me and I see myself disappearing into nothingness, I take notice of an emotion I haven't felt in a long time.
Rage.
Utter, complete, unyielding.
Fury.
I, Allen D. Campbell, lived a terrible and disgusting life of lies and deceit. I was everybody's clown, everybody's fool.
Everybody's.. Pawn.
NO MORE!
"This time... I will kill, each and every last one of you that dared use me for your own purposes.. Neah, The Vatican, Leverrier... Cross.." I mutter out as the last bits of my body start to dissipate.
"All of you... will be Judged, by my hand."
Don't mind me guys and girls! I'm just a line break...
And that is it for this chapter of Not This Time, Never Again!
I sincerely hope that you've enjoyed it as much as I did typing it down!
Man.. it feels great to write D Gray Man again!
Anyways, read and review! And Good Morning/Day/Night to you all! ADIOS FOR NOW!