Edit 1/3/12: - Added Timcampy, cuz I some how wrote this fic without thinking about him.

A Flight on Wings

By Uniasus

Chapter 2

When Allen woke, the smell of the Order's medical ward filled his nose. Memories and feelings of home flooded through him and he couldn't help but smile.

Until he remembered the Order wanted him dead.

He snapped open his eyes and was met with a white ceiling. The Order's was gray, just like the walls and floor. Good, so he hadn't been captured while passed out.

The sound of snoring and warmth in his right hand had him direct his gaze to his hip. There was someone with curly hair drooling on the bed, fast asleep. Allen tried to gently reclaim his hand, but the movement caused the unknown man to stir and blink sleepily at Allen. After a moment, a thought must had accrued to him because the man was suddenly alert and searching in his pockets for something. When he pulled out a pair of glasses and put them on, Allen finally recognized him.

"You're awake!" Johnny grabbed Allen into a crushing hug. The teen had no idea Johnny was even capable of crushing him. Tim, who had been napping on his head, flapped his wings in protest.

"Johnny? What are you doing here?"

The scientist let him go and then looked around for a chair. He had slept on his knees all night. Really, he shouldn't have done that. Allen patted his bed and then scooted over a bit. He tried to use both arms to do so, but then remembered Tyki had cut his left arm off and butt shuffled over instead.

Johnny sat. "I resigned from the Order."

"What, why?"

"You've always done your best to help us, so I figured it wasn't right that you didn't have help now. Not when you need it most."

"Johnny," Allen could feel tears in the corner of his eyes because in the almost four months he had been on the road he had never thought anyone would come after him. In fact, considering the circumstances of his departure, he wouldn't be surprised if most of the Order actually hated him.

"Johnny," he began again, tears making their way down his checks in slow tracks, "I'm so, so happy that you found me."

The scientist crawled forward and pulled the teen into a hug. Allen just absorbed the warmth, enjoyed the little bit of home he now had. It had been so long since he'd seen a friend, Tyki and Rhode didn't count especially not after what they just did, and Allen hadn't realized just how homesick he had been. He understood Lenalee a lot better now, how her friends were her family and her world. The people he wanted to protect.

Allen pushed Johnny away and hastily scrubbed away the remains of his tears. "I'm happy you're here and all Johnny, but you have to leave. I'm being chased by this monster, and I can't let you get hurt."

"But you get hurt all the time Allen! It's not fair that only you should take blows for you friends. I came because I want to help you!"

"Seriously Johnny, this thing is something I have no chance of beating."

"Only because you've been alone. Now that I'm here, you will."

"Sorry, but I don't think you'll help much."

"Than at least let me take care of you. Reever gave me money, I can get you food, you're so skinny when was the last time you ate anyway? Please Allen."

"You're not going to leave me alone, are you?"

"No."

"At least let me fill you in on what's going on before you commit to a life on the run."

And so Allen told him, starting with Apocryphos 's attack on him and Link in the Order's dungeons, how he recovered at Mother's house, and had been running ever since. How his Innocence had been acting up, what Neah told him, and how Tyki and Rhode had cut off his arm and…and…

"Tyki threw a cube of Innocence at me, told me to force myself to sync with. I don't think it worked, I'm still armless, so I think it's still there. Do you mind go getting it? I don't feel right, leaving it in the open. And maybe Tyki was right. It's not like I'm no longer an accommodator."

"But now that you don't have Crown Clown," Johnny thought out loud, "doesn't that mean you're safe from Apocryphos?"

Allen shook his head. "No, he still wants to absorb me, but he'll have a harder time finding me now. Plus we still have to worry about the Noah."

"Right." Johnny got off the bed and started towards the door.

"Johnny," Allen called. "Think about what I told you, before you decided to stay. Take Tim, have him show you anything you want to see."

"Sure, but that means you have to read these while I'm gone." He placed a think envelope on Allen's lap. "See you soon, Allen."

"Kay."

Curious, Allen opened the envelope and peaked inside. Letters. Letters from home. Letters, that he didn't think he could read right now.

Hoping for a distraction, he got out of bed with the intention of walking around the hospital. The cold air hit his skin, they had taken his shirt off and he couldn't find it, but Allen could deal. He walked towards the door, but paused when he saw something in the dull mirror over the sink across the room from his bed.

It looked like Tyki had been right, because there were now two black wings tattooed on his back and Allen didn't remember getting them. Curious, he reached around to touch them with his hand.

They felt just his left arm used to.

Concentrating, he activated this new Innocence. It wasn't as natural as Crown Clown, not nearly as smooth or intuitive as it had been even when he had first arrived at the Order, but he was still able to activate it.

And stare in shock at the reflection of him with white angel wings.

When Johnny came back to Allen's room, the white haired teen looked very sheepish, as if he had hastily hid something. The letters were spread around him, but it didn't look as if Allen had opened any of them. It was more like they were for show, for when someone came into the room.

"Oh, it's you." Allen breathed in relief and Johnny sent him a quizzical look. "I thought you might have been a nurse."

"No, but there's one bringing lunch who'll be here in a little bit."

"Oh good, I'm starving."

Johnny mentally winced, as this time it probably wasn't an exaggeration. Allen was just in hospital bottoms with no shirt and the scientist could count his ribs. It made his two scars, the large run one running up his right side and the small stab wound to the left of his stomach more stark and prominent.

Seeing Allen's body, a child's body, like that just reinforced Johnny's desire to help out the exorcist. And Allen was his favorite, so he wasn't going anywhere.

"I'm not leaving," he declared, sitting down in the room's single chair he had snagged earlier and giving Allen a serious, determined look. He hadn't looking at anything Tim could have shown him, it wouldn't have made a difference anyway. After a moment he sighed, deflating a bit. "But I don't know how much I'll be able to help. I couldn't find the Innocence."

"Ah, about that –"

"Eat!" a nurse said, announcing her entrance into the room with one of the few bits of English she knew. Allen clammed up and leaned back into his bed to allow the nurse to place a tray over his lap and the letters there. Johnny gave her a smile and it widened as she handed him an extra juice.

Allen was already halfway done with the meal by the time she left the room and Johnny silently handed him the juice. Compared to the amount Allen had at the Order, this was pitiful. The teen was even going slower than normal, as if to fool himself it was more than it truly was.

"Here," Johnny handed him the paper bag at his feet. He figured the hospital wouldn't feed him and had stopped at a deli for lunch. And knowing Allen's stomach, had bought three extra sandwiches.

Allen's face lit up as he looked into the bag. "Johnny, if you stay out of sight when Apocryphos comes and feed me the rest of the time, that would be wonderful. Don't worry about not finding the Innocence cube, in fact."

He turned so his back faced Johnny. There were two wings tattooed on it, solid black silhouettes whose edges spoke of feathers.

"You got a tattoo?"

"Um, no. Tyki was right, I synced with the Innocence."

"Is that even possible? I mean, you already have – had Crown Clown."

"Well, I think my sync rate is low. I know I was over 80 when I joined the Order and this isn't as natural. I'm at 50? 60? But."

Allen's back gave off a familiar glow and Johnny leaned back quickly, not aware he had moved forward to get a closer look until then. From the exorcist's back sprouted feathered wings, white not black like the marks. He reached out a hand to touch them, but couldn't quite bring himself to do so, leaving his palm hovering over the feathers.

"You can touch. I was playing with them before you came it. I can…feel them, as weird as it sounds. I feel as if I'm suddenly much larger and it'll take getting use to where they are. But when you touch them, it's just like touching my skin. To the wings anyway. It still felt like feathers to my hand."

Johnny did, and was surprised at how unsoft the wings felt. He was used to down feathers, but these weren't soft. There was a hard base in the center, the parts of the feather coming off of it. Giving, smoothing to the touch, but not rub-your-face-against-it soft. Which made sense, these were the wings of a bird.

Tim bit a wing, and Allen quickly drew them in, almost clipping Johnny's nose. "That hurt Timcampy!" Sheepish, the golem settled into Allen's lap.

"Can you fly?" Johnny asked.

"I can flap." Allen stretched his wings back out and did so. "As to whether I can fly, let's find out once the nurses let me go."

"And some where low. I don't want you coming back here within an hour of us leaving."

"Me neither!" Allen laughed, and Johnny couldn't help but smile at the sound. It had been so long since he heard it.

"He's really going to follow us here?" Tyki asked, staring out at the white scenery all around him.

"He'd follow us anywhere, well, Allen's hand anywhere." Rhode answered and kicked aforementioned wrapped hand with her left toe.

"But the South Pole? Very few normal humans have even been here. And there's

no transportation either. Apocryphos would have to swim or fly to get here. There's no reason he'd think Allen would come here."

"One: He'd actually just walk along the bottom of the ocean. So we could just leave Allen's arm here and go do other stuff but I don't know how long it would take him. Two: This is an isolated place and Allen would think similarly to you, and thus yes Apocryphos would think this is Allen. Allen getting help and moving around thanks to us. Who can get here no problem."

"Fine! You win." Tyki stomped his boots. Being a Noah meant the cold wasn't a danger to him, but it wasn't pleasant that's for sure. He still felt the ice in the air and was really upset with himself over his idea to not bring a coat.

"But can we please go back to the Ark sometimes just to stay warm? There's no way he can travel from New York to here in a week."

"Gah, we'll just move. Let's go to Easter Island. It's just as remote."

"Thank you Rhode!"

"This is our last time. It might as well be someplace we can relax."

And relax they did, a lie-in-the-sun-and-not-do-anything type of thing. Rhode always kept Allen's hand near her. Tyki attributed it to her fascination with the boy, and as for some reason it didn't decay at all, didn't mind seeing it lying next Rhode instead of wrapped and stuffed in her purse. He suspected it hadn't started rotting because it was for the most part pure Innocence, having changed every cell in Allen's arm to inhabit it.

What was even weirder was how Rhode had interacted with it over the past two months. She would unwrap it, the wings had disappeared and it was solid black again, and stroke it. Tyke had joked once about her wishing it was Allen, but that wasn't it at all.

"Allen's one of us and has Innocence. What if, by some chance, we could too? What's the point of destroying it but to prevent it from being used against us? If we could understand it, use it, that's better for us."

Not that she had learned anything. Maybe it had to do with the fact they were Noah before anything else, but Tyki didn't care. He liked destroying Innocence, seeing the look of hopelessness on the faces of the exorcists. It felt good, destroying something that bothered him so much. He didn't understand where Rhode was coming from at all. Tyki figured it might have something to do with what had happened before he came around.

"Rhode."

"Hmm?" She was tracing the cross on the back of Allen's hand.

"How come the 14th didn't kill you 35 years ago?"

She paused her fingers, staring at Crown Clown for a few seconds before a lewd smile over took her face as she turned to Tyki. "We were lovers. And for Neah, the first 14th ever, it was a true lasting emotion for him undiluted by numerous reincarnations. It might be a few rotations before he could even think of seriously harming me."

"Is that why you like Allen?" Tyki asked, rolling onto his side to see her better.

"No, I liked him before I knew he was one of us."

"There's just something about him that draws me in too," Apocryphos said, stepping out from behind bushes on the shore they had been sun bathing in. "But I don't see him here."

Tyki jumped to his feet, but Rhode simply sat up and turned to face the white creature, legs crossed. Apocryphos was dripping water, and looked tired. Which was good. They wanted to keep it off of Allen's tail enough to let the teen recover.

"No," Rhode answered. "But I have this." She pulled Allen's arm into her lap, stroked down it once, and then pressed her finger onto the back of the hand. The Innocence shattered, fine particles scattering around her and then falling to mingle with the sand.

Apocryphos snarled. "How long have I been following you two?"

"Oh, a little more than two months." Tyki offered.

"And without his Innocence, has Allen Walker joined you?"

Both Noah just smiled, too wide and sharp to be human.

Apocryphos stared at them, his own lips spread to reveal crocodile teeth. "I'm going to say no," he finally said, "because if the 14th had taken control, you would show that off. Where is he?"

Rhode shrugged, her evil aura mellowing to that of a child's again. "We haven't seen him for almost just as long as you."

The Innocence snarled and then disappeared back into trees.

Tyki stared after him for awhile, till Rhode called his name. "Tyki, I couldn't tell, did I really destroy Allen's Innocence or is it going to return to him like it did when you destroyed it?"

He sighed. "I don't know. When I destroyed it, it looked just like that."

It felt good to be an exorcist again.

One, it meant he was gaining ground against Neah in his mind, still human. Not having to fight two battles at the same time was such a relief.

Two, like he had told Bak Chan before, Allen really did live to fight the akuma and save their souls. Maybe it had to do with the fact that he had been born with Innocence, or that he had been fighting them for so many of his formative year. Regardless, he felt strangely at peace destroying akuma.

"You're getting better," Johnny noted.

Allen waited until he had landed on the roof securely before answering. Landing was still tricky, despite Tim's (not rather helpful) flying lessons, and he had to focus to not feel the impact of landing jar up his legs.

"I still hit you pretty good in the head when I activated though."

Johnny laughed it off. "It's my fault for not moving out of the way. I'm perfectly aware of how large your wingspan is."

"Only because I've hit you so many times. I am sorry about all of them."

"Don't worry about it. You looked liked you handled turning better. And you did something new. You usually just fly by them and slice them with your wings. But today you actually shot something." Johnny held out a hooded cloak for Allen to step into.

"I think my sync rate is up a bit. And I kept thinking Crown Clown had a range attack, as do most other Innocences, so it made sense for this one too." He wrapped the cloak around him tightly.

There was a drawback to his new Innocence, which was that when activated it shredded normal shirts. The jacket Johnny had made him held up, but too well, restraining them and not allowing him to unfurl them. Which meant Allen was essentially shirtless all the time, you never knew when an akuma would show up, but wore outer garments that were easier to slip out of.

And then there were people who called him an angel. White hair, white wings, fighting a demon, it was easy to see why. But he didn't feel like one, not while hosting an inhuman monster himself and living on the run. Of which rumors of an avenging angel weren't helping. The Order, or Apocryphos, was sure to hear of them and come investigate. And with white hair, he got lots of town residents asking if he was an angel or calling him Gabriel. He had tried dying it, but every time he activated his Innocence, it turned white again.

Slowly, they climbed down from the roof into an alley. Allen pulled his hood up, not wanting to be recognized. Sometimes he entered a town by himself, killed the Akuma, and then met back up with Johnny on the road. But this place was bigger, almost a city, and Johnny said they needed to stock up on supplies.

Ever since Johnny had joined him, life was a whole lot better. It might mostly have to do with the lack of Apocryphos (thanks to his lack of Crown Clown), but Allen also liked to attribute a huge part of that to Johnny's presence. Johnny took care of him, found good places to sleep and always made sure he ate. It was never until he was full due to funds, but it was enough to keep him going. Tim, as if sensing their tight wallets, hadn't eaten anything either of the two males offered him, but Allen had seen him eat the scraps from tables at cafes and restaurants they passed by.

In order to keep their life style, worrying about Apocryphos but not in a pressing manner, Allen had taken to using the Ark. Quick transportation from one place to another meant the Innocence would have less of an opportunity to catch up to them, and Allen didn't like the idea of Apocryphos and Johnny meeting. Plus, it's not like he stayed and hid behind akuma and other exorcists anymore.

So they would gate from one city to another, walk around the area a bit as if on a working vacation, and then go off to another location. Allen was actually quite fond of it; it really was just like traveling with a friend. No orders from the Order, no pressing matters to concern himself with, and just a free, bohemian way of living.

Sometimes he thought he could do it forever.

So did Neah.

The musician had no desire to join the Noah family. Once he killed them all, and the Heart, he would love to just travel the world. He didn't mind if Johnny tagged along either.

That was the weird thing. Neah, the Musician, the 14th, the Noah of Destruction, ultimately wanted peace. And not just for this rendition of this war, all of it. He figured that if he destroyed both sides completely, years down the road, decades, centuries, no one would have their life ruined by the secret war.

It was hard for Allen to not at least sympathize with that.

When Miranda Lotte came to report about her and Timothy's most recent mission, she was paler and trembling more than usual. Koumi figured it meant something had happened in that small Italian town he sent her, but nothing stood out that would cause such a reaction in her verbal or written report. It was only when she was finished, yet was still sitting on the couch with her hands on her knees did Koumi figure it was something unofficial.

"Miranda," he said gently, "is there something else?"

She started sobbing, really bawling and the supervisor drew back in surprised at its suddenness.

"Allen, Allen, he's dead." She whispered it, for walls had ears these days. "I saw him defeat an akuma in a town we passed through, but he was an angel. Complete with white wings. And he was smiling. I'm so sad he's gone, but I'm so happy he's happy."

Allen gated them to Brazil. Neither he nor Johnny had ever seen a rainforest, and they figured they would rough it with local tribes for a little bit. But as soon as the moved from Germany to Brazil, Allen felt his left arm stump tingle. He rubbed at it with his right hand.

"You okay Allen?" Johnny asked, always tuned to the exorcist's moods and needs. He had gotten pretty good at it over the almost three full month's they'd been together.

"Yeah," Allen gave his friend a smile and lowered his arm. "Let's see if we can find some natives."

They set off in no real direction, just walking and pointing out things that interested them. When they stopped for lunch on the edge of a small stream, Allen took to the air and practiced tight corners. It didn't really work. After hitting five trees he quit and settled on a rock next to Johnny.

"It's too narrow," Allen explained in response to Johnny's raised eyebrow. "Plus, I think my wings are wider that then most of the tree gaps." He activated them and Johnny looked.

"You're right. So how are you going to fight in a closed space?"

"I guess I'll have to run to some open area."

"Which rainforests don't have."

"We'll figure something out."

As they finished eating, it got darker to the point where lunch felt like dinner. Fog crept up from the stream, and Allen found it hard to make out the trees ten feet way. Something was bothering Timcampy too, he huddled next to Allen's neck.

"Is this normal for a rainforest?" he asked after swallowing the last bite of his last sandwich.

"I have no idea," Johnny answered. "But maybe if we move away from the water? And it's probably a good idea to start looking for someplace to sleep if it gets dark this early."

But moving away from the stream didn't bring them out of the fog, and Allen's stump continued to tingle. Actually, looking around he thought the fog had actually thickened around them. And something about it felt familiar.

"Johnny."

"Yeah, Allen?"

"Take twenty steps that way and tell me what you discover. I'll stay here."

"You sure?"

"Yup, with this fog I won't be able to see you, but I'll still hear you." He titled his head and smiled.

Johnny gave him an I-don't-like-this look, but did as Allen asked anyway. The exorcist listened to his friend tramp through the forest and then stop.

"This is weird," Johnny said, just as Allen felt the tingling increase a bit. It didn't hurt, in fact it was strangely warm, and at the thought a feel of being missed and welcomed home washed through him.

"The fog," Johnny continued, "it's – "

"Just around me, right?" Allen was sure Johnny could he his smile. "That's because it isn't actually fog. It's Crown Clown. Tyki and Rhode probably destroyed my Innocence again, and because we've been traveling so much it couldn't find me until now."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive." As proof, Allen closed his eyes and called out to his original Innocence. Welcome back, Crown Clown. I missed you. And while the Innocence couldn't respond in words or even true emotions, Allen understood the feeling was mutual.

He stuck out his right hand and the fog condensed underneath it until he was holding the Sword of Exorcism in it. Allen brought the tip up; it was heavier than he remembered, he'd have to pick up the pace on his push-ups. Tim settled down on the tip, flying to Allen's head as he changed the sword to his hand.

"Wow Allen, you were right." Johnny jogged over. "How'd you know?"

Allen shrugged. "It was familiar to when Tyki destroyed it back in China. I'm just glad that I didn't have to wait as long to reform it as last time."

Johnny was staring at Allen's left hand, and then switched his gaze to the tattoos on the white haired teen's back. He had that scientist look on his face, the one where he was presented with a problem and trying to fix it.

"You know, I think you're the first to actually have two Innocences."

"But Master-"

"Cross only had Judgment. Grave of Maria wasn't really his, it was Maria's, and he just controlled her. But you…" he trailed off and his face drained of color. "Both of yours are parasite types. How much are you going to eat now?"

A/N: Right, so I was going to write one more, maybe two scenes and that was going to be the end of the story. But then Halloween got in the way of my writing. And suddenly my plot grew huge. And I mean suddenly, as in 5 minutes ago when I proofread this.

But, all my fanfiction will be put on hold during NaNoWriMo, so all next month. If you want to join me in a quest to write 50K in 30 days, sign up on the site (nanowrimo (dot) com). Or you can just head over there to check up on me, I'm using the same user name.

Considering that fact that it will be a long time till you see me again, think of this as a parting gift for now. You most likely won't see much from me till about Christmas.