Note: I shouldn't have been working on this, but I needed a break from wrapping up my NaNo novel and now that two chapters of DGM have been released since the first chapter of this was uploaded, this is now firmly AU. But I kinda expected it to be so anyway. I just want to try to finish it before it gets too off track from the manga because at that point since I'd no longer be speculating I might not want to finish :/ Which would suck for you guys.

Edit 1/3/12: Went back and added our favorite golem.

A Flight on Wings

By Uniasus

Chapter 3

Allen reminded Johnny of a hummingbird. Those tiny little birds beat their wings so fast and had such a high metabolism that most of their day was occupied with finding food. And indeed, that's what Allen was doing now. Johnny too, for Allen. Did that make Allen a parasitic hummingbird?

The truth of the matter was that Allen had always eaten a lot. But he usually limited himself to three meals a day while at the Order. Three giant meals, mind you, and snacks. Since they were on their own and traveling now however, Allen had cut back to two normal sized meals and one twice that size – usually dinner. And paying for that was always an issue.

Of course, that was when Allen just had wings. Now that he had Crown Clown as well, he was eating two double meals a day, and a third slightly larger than normal one. Seeing as their, okay really Allen's means of making money because Johnny was only good at science and it was hard finding someone on the street saying they needed a chemist, was cheating at cards and street performing they needed to be in cities. Cities had more people to give money to a dancing clown and meant more bars so they would be harder to recognize.

Cities were a necessity. But neither one of them liked them. The crowds meant more akuma and more akuma meant a greater likely hood of running into someone from the Order. There was also the issue with how accessible cities were. It was easier for Apocryphos to find them. And it just caused the rumors of an avenging angel to spread faster.

Johnny had still to met the self aware Innocence. At first, he was fascinated by the prospect. But then Tim showed him videos of his first attack, and Johnny couldn't get the image of how sickly and skinny Allen had been when he found the teen out of his mind. If Apocryphos could do that to Allen, who was an exorcist who could hold his own for a bit against the Earl, he didn't want to met it.

But Apocryphos wasn't the only think he was on the watch for. Sometimes, Allen would freeze, his eyes glassy and a brighter color. It was if they just caught the reflection of a candle, but Johnny knew that hint of gold was internal. Allen was still battling with the Fourteenth.

Battling may have been the wrong word. Allen never seemed to struggle with the Noah, just shake off the brief periods of being frozen and smile. A smile that said nothing was wrong. Allen had said Neah talked to him, showed him things.

"He's not trying to take over, per say," Allen said over lunch one day. "Just persuade me to see his side and end the war."

"But isn't that what we want to? To see it over?"

"Yes, but to you the end is the defeat of the Earl. To Neah…it's a little different."

"And what did he show you this morning?"

"Mana." Allen's smile was so bittersweet Johnny almost choked on his water. "Neah was his brother, and so he has lots of memories of him."

Family time, Neah was….being an uncle. It set Johnny on edge, and he kept waiting for The Fourteenth to decided Allen was placid enough and attack his mind. A healthy Allen would have a better chance, and so Johnny did what he could to keep his friend safe – he learned how to juggle, helped earned money, and made sure Allen ate properly.

If he skipped a meal here and there, Allen didn't have to know.

Buenos Aries had apparently been Mana's favorite city, according to Neah. It hadn't been the capital of Argentina then, political differences had caused it to succeed from the federation and it had been its own city-state. Neah had fond memories of the place, and so the next time Allen opened the Ark's door they stepped from Frankfurt to the Latin city.

It was immediately different from what he remembered. No, what Neah remembered. The Noah's memories were so vivid Allen sometimes got mixed up between what was and what wasn't his own experiences. Buenos Aries had bloomed, was now a multiethnic city, and the regional capital of radio, television, cinema, and theatre. Perhaps Mana had felt the city's potential and that was why he fell in love with it.

"This way," Allen instructed, and made his way towards an inn Mana had liked to stay at. Johnny fell in behind him. But when he got to where the inn had been, Allen stopped. The area was all residencies now. "I don't remember it being like this," he mumbled to himself.

The door to the house opened, and out stepped a women a few years older than Allen. Allen's eye whirled to life and both his Innocences activated. He was having a hard time distinguishing between the two of them. Allen would think activate! and both would spring into being. Crown Clown had even changed shape to accommodate his wings; it no longer had a cowl and instead hung from two points in his shoulders with a drape long enough were the fabric only connected under his wing joints.

Attacking resulted in a similar double action from both Innocences. With Crown Clown he performed Crown Edge, and with Gabriel (a name his wings had picked out themselves, by humming pleasantly whenever someone watching Allen fight had called out 'It's the Angel Gabriel here to save us!') he sent forward sharp feathers from his wings in an attack called Truth's Spear.

It was very much an over kill for a new level one. It also took out the front door of the house, taking away so much support that the building crumpled forward.

Johnny, from his position of lying on the ground where he quickly fell to prevent being hit in the head by Allen's wings, again, let out a low whistle. Large amounts of destruction due to an inability to control his Innocences was another reason cities were a pain.

Quickly Allen retracted his wings and claw. Johnny grabbed Allen's black cloak, the clasp he had fixed to drop anytime his wings activated, and handed it to the exorcist. Allen quickly put it on and they ran to the far side of town with Timcampy leading the way. They didn't have the cash to spare for a new house.

They ran further than they needed too, simply for the enjoyment that they were running from a non-serious threat. It reminded Allen of freedom, of when he was running with Mana from crowds begging for more and not from Noah on their tail because he had betrayed them. Simple times. They meant so much.

Johnny stopped first, leaning against a side of a clock repair shop and gasping for air. Allen stopped in front of him, leaned over to put his hands on his thighs and took in lungfuls of air. He looked up at the scientist, who looked back at him, and they sank to the ground laughing. It was so good to be alive and with a friend.

His arm left ached, so Allen rolled his shoulder back. He didn't remember running into anything, but maybe it was just a hint that after usage of it he needed to eat.

Johnny noticed the action. "I'll go find us a cheap bed and food. We passed a busy corner one block over. Why don't you set up over there?" He tossed the teen their bag of performance props, things they had scavenged and polished up.

"No problem, Johnny," Allen said, and made his way towards the corner.

Johnny paused at the edge of Allen's crowd. It was amazing how well he fit in, now that he was wearing a cap that hid most of his hair. His skin had darkened more than any one that white should. With his accent most of his audience probably thought he was of double parentage; one Latin and one English. He wondered, not for the first time, about Allen's birth parents. But Allen didn't seem to do so. He had had Mana.

And increasingly Neah.

Allen was losing to the Fourteenth, his growing ease with conversing with the Noah and his physical changes were proof of it. But the scariest part was that Allen didn't seem to be noticing.

Johnny pushed closer, intent of joining Allen by either adding another act or walking around with a spare shirt in his hand to collect coins. The closer he got, the more he noticed that Allen seemed to be favoring his left arm. Which made no sense. Quickly, he took off his own shirt and the motion caught Allen's eye. Johnny looked pointed at the shirt, a command to wrap up the show, and Allen complied.

In Spanish, Allen asked for those who liked his show pay him for his time. Johnny couldn't remember if Allen had always known that, or if the Fourteenth had. The scientist held out the shirt, gripping the sleeves in one hand and the bottom in another, and people dropped coins in as he walked in a circle around Allen's performing space.

Once most of the people were gone, Johnny dumped the coins in their bag and Allen pulled him into the nearest alley. Timcampy was flitting around nervously.

"We have to go," the white haired teen hissed. "Apocryphos is here, or at least close by." He was gripping his Innocence hand with his flesh one and Johnny noticed that the black hand was trembling.

"Yeah, yeah, let's just gather everything together." Johnny bent down to fit Allen's juggling sacks in the bag and set to deflating the ball he stood on to perform.

"Johnny, you don't understand. My arm only reacts when-" Allen let out a muted sound of pain. Johnny turned to look at him. He had sunk against the wall, and small white feathers were sprouting along his arms. Tim had settled in Allen's hair, it looked like he was huddling out of fear.

"Allen…your arm…"

"I know, this happens every time. I won't be able to use Crown Clown very well, so hopefully Gabriel will be enough." He hissed. "Johnny, he's coming closer we have to move now!"

Johnny slung the bag over his shoulder and stuffed the ball in it partially deflated. The air would escape on it's own, eventually.

"Can't you just call the Ark?"

"I'd rather not. It's hard for me to concentrate on the song, Crown Clown really wants to join with Apocryphos." The wings on Allen's arms were larger now, reaching up and over his back to point west. They looked like a grotesque version of Gabriel. Actually, they had merged with Gabriel. Allen's wings had activated without their usual furl. They were small, warped, and the feathers all pointed in an unnatural position to join with the mini wings coming from Crown Clown.

"Looks like Gabriel wants to join too, to some extent."

Allen was panting now, sweat dripping down his face. He didn't look like he could stand without help, but somehow he managed to half shuffle, half run down the alley. Johnny quickly caught up and forced Crown Clown around his shoulders. The wings felt prickly, like dull needles pressing on his skin, but this way Johnny could help Allen walk and try to control the arm tremors.

"I noticed," Allen panted.

"Well, you said Apocryphos works for the Heart. We've always known there was some type of connection between it and all the other Innocence, why else would we spend so much time searching for it? It's possible they all work for the Heart, share it's goals to some extent. The question is why does the Heart want you gone?"

"Take a guess," Allen said weakly, stumbling to keep up with Johnny's fox trot. Johnny looked up into the exorcist's face and his eyes flashed gold. Not a flicker like he had seen before, in just a part of his eye, but the entire iris changed to a feral yellow.

"I don't need to. "

The alley ended, and they found themselves out on the street. They tried to sneak back into the shadows, but they had already been spotted.

"It's the Angel!" a voice to their left whispered. Before either of them could blink there was a mob around them, reaching out to touch Allen, asking for God's blessing, and ultimately slowing them down. Timcampy bite a few hands, but it didn't stop the rest of the crowd.

"Johnny," Allen said in a whisper, not to hide there conversation from the crowd but because that type of breathy voice was all he could manage at the moment. The teen suddenly got heavier, as if he couldn't stand on his own any longer. "He's here, to your right."

Johnny turned his head and caught the eye of the Cardinal. He stood out for two reasons. One was that he was not mobbing towards Allen, he was just standing there staring at him and his stillness gave him away. The second was the smile on his face. His lips had turned black and taunt, stretched over a too wide, blocky toothed smile that stifled Johnny's soul just at the crowd around them was stifling the air he was breathing.

The Cardinal morphed into Apocryphos, and most of the crowd didn't even notice.

"My son, heal my son!"

"Angel, tell us God's message!"

"His wings! So many!"

"Demon!" Johnny screamed, pointing towards Apocryphos.

It sort of worked. The crowd cleared, scattering with screams and shouts of 'save us Angel!'. They were free to move, but it wasn't very fast. Apocryphos seemed to take his time stalking toward them. And he could, because Allen wasn't going anywhere fast.

Johnny looked down at Allen. He was gasping for air, his eyes closed tightly as if in pain.

"How'd you get away before?"

"I'd run…sooner...Tyki and Rhode… helped too."

"They aren't here now. We need to do something!" Johnny kept looking over his shoulder as they tried to move away from Apocryphos as quickly as possible. The crowd kept on getting in the way, and the needle feeling Allen's Innocences were giving him had long ago stopped being dull points.

"The Ark…but I can't…concentrate."

"What if I sing the song with you, would that help? I've heard you sing it enough by now."

"Maybe."

Softly, under his breath so Apocryphos couldn't hear him, Johnny began singing. His voice was better suited for showers.

"And then the little boy falls asleep."

Allen began taking deep breaths, trying to get the energy to sing. Apocryphos was in no hurry to get to them, confident in his eventual catch of the pair. Eventual being in roughly two minutes.

"Thousands of dreams," Johnny sang, his tenor trembling. But Allen's low alto, an unusual high voice for male even with the exorcist's age, joined on the last word. It was so strong it surprised Johnny, and when he looked at Allen's scrunched up, pain filled face he saw stigmata bleeding into existence on the teen's forehead.

The Ark opened in front of them. Johnny stumbled into it with Allen and felt himself fall. Allen usually opened the gate from one location to another, so that in the span of a step or two they had moved from a sunny Greece to rainy Poland. Falling was new.

Johnny twisted in the air, pulling Allen against his chest and situating himself to land first on his back. Over Allen's shoulder he saw the gate ripple, as if something made to cross through it but pulled back. It closed immediately after that and Johnny was left staring at an unnatural bright blue sky. He had only seen that color inside of the Ark.

He pushed aside the desire to look below him to see if he would identify the sprawling town in the Ark. It won't help matters to know what he would land on, and he didn't want to run the risk of Allen landing first.

Gabriel and Crown Clown were still in the after throws of Apocryphos's presence, and Johnny could feel his shirt absorb wetness. Allen's blood, most likely. The teen was still struggling to get his breath and on a whim Johnny started singing again, beginning with the start of the verse he had left off with.

"Thousands of dreams

Trickle back to the Earth

On the night when the silver eyes were trembling,

The shining you was born."

They crashed through the roof of a pavilion, and landed on pillows. Johnny didn't know if they had always been there or if Allen had the presence of mind to have them appear. It barely helped, they had fallen too far and Johnny gasped in pain as his back collided with the hard floor.

Johnny's arms reflexively loosened and Allen rolled to the side. He was Noah gray, and the stigmata on his forehead had stopped bleeding but remained there in midnight black. His eyes though, thank God his eyes were still sliver. Trembling with pain and worry and battle.

Trembling silver eyes.

Something connected in Johnny's head. He had always wondered why it was only that one song that worked the Ark, but had never given the lyrics much meaning. The melody was what had always captured him. But….the little boy falls asleep, ashes in the flames, show this child what love is.

On the night when the silver eyes were trembling, the shining you was born.

What, or who was the 'you' being born?

Allen's eyes turned to suns, blazing with yellow light.

"Oh Allen," Johnny whispered, "You've been singing your doom." He felt a tear roll down the side of his cheek just before he passed out from pain.

Allen had always been confused by his ability to use the Ark. At first, it was because of why he even had the ability. And then it was about how the Ark was connected to Mana. There was also the mystery of how it worked. Allen was the only one who could create and dismiss doors, but the Order had quickly found out that once a door was open they could control the portal.

Gates became available only for a certain time on mission locations, because that was when members of the science division opened the door in the town leading to them from inside the Ark. It was also funny how Allen could feel that timing, as each opening and closing of a door caused his blood to reverse flow for just the fraction of a second.

But what caught his attention the most was that he never sung to the Ark alone. There was always a second voice singing with him, too quietly to be heard but Allen could sense in his inner ear and mind a harmony.

He knew from the beginning it was the shadow in the mirror, the Fourteenth, the Musician.

Neah though was barely there, easy to brush aside. Normally. Apocryphos had called to him so strongly, that Allen had dared not use the Ark when he first fled from the Order after visiting Mother. He didn't want to take any risks. Travelling with Johnny had eliminated that, and Neah was back to being a soundless singing companion when they moved.

The Noah talked a lot during other times though. Of Mana, of the previous incarnations of the Noah, of his plans. He always brought up something after use of the Ark, and Allen had begun to look forward to the conversations. Johnny was great and all, but you could only hang out so long with a person before you wanted a small change of scenery. Neah gave that to him.

Whenever they did talk, Neah was just a voice in his head. Sometimes Neah wouldn't talk, just share a memory, and in that case Allen saw everything from Neah's point of view. And when Allen dreamed, he was amongst a ruined city or naked trees. But even then Neah was just a voice that seemed to echo from the sky and Allen's own chest at the same time.

This time…he knew Apocryphos got too close. He had ignored the warning signs of his arm, wanting to earn the money he and Johnny so desperately needed and refusing to acknowledge that Apocryphos had caught up to him, was near Johnny, after having eluded him for almost four months.

Neah always reacted to the living Innocence, physically taking over Allen's body and sinking into random memories that Allen was usually good at avoiding. But he hadn't this time. It was the memory of Neah trying to kill the Earl. All the other Noah (aside Rhode) had been destroyed and so Neah had challenged the first Noah. It had been a great fight, with Neah keeping his own, until there seemed to be a snap in the Earl's eyes and Neah found himself on the floor with a large sword hovering over his belly button.

Allen pulled himself out of the memory, and found himself no longer with Johnny. He was sitting in a stone throne, chained. Neah was standing in front of him, thumbs hooked into his front pocket.

It was exactly as it had been during the fight with Alma, and it set him on edge.

"Neah, what's going on?"

"You were too close to Apocryphos, with two misbehaving Innocences on top of that. It took a lot out of you."

"That doesn't explain things, why am I here?"

Neah gave a soft laugh and reached over to ruffle Allen's hair.

"Tell me, 'Allen'," the teen frowned at the obvious quotation marks around his name. "About the first time you saw Rhode."

"Rhode? I met her soon after her Noah genes activated, playing in a dirty alleyway by stabbing a knife into the dead body of a dog. She was doing it for fun. I told her to stop, and when she asked why, I said it was because I knew how to have more fun. "

"That's right. And what about Road? Tell me the first time you saw her."

Allen pursued his lips. While the name Neah had said sounded exactly the same, the second had a heavier weight of power to it. He knew, without seeing it spelled, that it was a different name. But was it a different person?

"I…remember her being really tall and slender. And she has this way of weaving back and forth so her body forms really distinct curves. She glows black."

"Yes, yes. But when did you meet her?"

"During a fight. I was playing with her, in a room, and hurt her badly. She didn't like that, and…changed. I hadn't expected that to happen."

Neah bent at the hip to look into Allen's eyes. "Wrong. The first time you met Rhode was on a mission with Lenalee, remember her?. It was when you met Miranda. And you've never meat Road, or at least not her true self."

"What are you talking about? I remember it!"

"No," and Neah's grin took on the creepy, mouth too wide smile that all Noah seemed to have. "Those are my memories. Tell me Allen, who is the Noah of Pity?"

"Javier Hortez."

"Really? Because as I remember it, you only know Tyki, Adam, Rhode, Lulu Bell, and Jasdevi by name. And none of them are the Noah of Pity."

Allen paled, because now that it was pointed out to him, he could tell Neah was right.

"Face it, 'Allen'," Neah continued. "You can't separate your memories from mine. You are more Noah that Tyki, who has never completely merged with Joido. We're becoming one. But me?" Neah stood up to his full height again and threw his arms up as he took a step back. "I'm the original Fourteenth. All incarnations become a part of me. I'll keep growing and growing, but you end here. With your body, I'll stop the war." The Noah continued to step backward, the darkness wrapping around his limbs and taking him away.

"Wait!" Allen called out, and Neah stepped back into full view. "I…I want the war to end too. I'm tired of all this pain, of seeing friends get hurt and leaving. And I know part of why it all happens, like me being you and Kanda's past, because this war never ends!" He screamed the words out, all pain and sorrow.

"I just want to save people, be they souls in akuma, my friends, strangers, or those not yet born."

"And your plan?" Neah asked, grinning.

Allen frowned, bowing his head to look at the chain over his thighs. "Will use yours," his head jerked up. "But I don't want my friends to get hurt. And we won't have to fully merge. Let me still be Allen."

Neah walked around him. Allen followed the Noah as well as he could, until he disappeared behind the chair out of his view. Neah's hot voice breathed in the ear on Allen's other side.

"Alright, but I'm telling you now, we've already started the process of merging and there's no going back. You were worried about control before, but I'm going to tell you straight out that from this point on there's no guarantee that you'll have it. Actually, it's a given that at times you'll find yourself back here in your or my mind and I'll be controlling your body. Nothing you can do about that, but I wonder how your friend Johnny will react?"

Allen snapped his head around. "Leave Johnny alone!" But Neah was already gone.

Rhode liked to play. A lot. But it didn't always involve hurting people. Sometimes it was just doing things she had wished and dreamed about when she had been a human child.

Like flying. The stars had always managed to hold her attention, not for long of course, but for a long enough period of time where she felt a small bit of attraction to them and could name the constellations.

She regularly stole Lero, and sometimes at night she would find an empty field and fly around on him like a witch on a broom. Lero didn't actually mind, it was one of Rhode's more pleasant activities after all. And sometimes, like tonight, Tyki would come too to escape the pressure at home.

Rhode didn't know how he got there. There had been no bright white light to signal the opening of a gate, but she had turned a corner in the air and noticed a figure standing on top of the closest hill. She landed next to Tyki.

"Hmm?" he said, interrupted from enjoying his cigarette. He followed her gaze and saw the figure too.

He was dark, a silhouette, and would have been unrecognizable except for how the moon and stars made his white hair glow a soft gray.

No one talked, they just stared at one another for a moment. Then Allen shifted on his feet, and there was something about the small movement that warmed Rhode's blood.

"Hello Tyki, Road."

It wasn't Allen. It was Neah. He pulled his hands out of a pocket, to show off the Innocence he had in it by holding it up in the air between his thumb and forefinger.

"Finally joined us, Musician?"

But Neah didn't answer, just turned around and walked back down the hill. She didn't make to follow, and Tyki stood still as well.

"So," he began around the cigarette in his mouth. "We have ourselves our missing brother."

"Not quite," Road answered from deep inside herself. "Neah has always been a wild card. He may look like he's helping us, but he has his own agenda. We have more than the Order to worry about."

When Johnny awoke, he was lying in a bed. An extremely comfortable bed, much better than he and Allen could afford. Or even his bed in the Order.

There was the sound of fingernails tapping on glass, and Johnny turned to see someone sitting in a chair next to the bed. He had white hair, but ash gray skin and unblinking gold eyes.

"A-allen?" he ventured, hating the unsteadiness of his voice.

"No." The Noah said.

"Fourteenth?"

The answering grin was all the answer he needed.

"Is Allen, gone?"

"For now, but he'll be back. And please, call me Neah. You'll be seeing a lot more of me and Fourteenth is too long and formal. Even the Earl rarely used numbers."

The Fourteenth, for Johnny refused to call him Neah, it was too familiar, two friendly, and that was how he had trapped Allen, held out what he had been tapping his fingers against. It was a piece of Innocence.

"I just wanted to let you know that I like you Johnny. You've been real good to my host, and you're a good person. I have no problem with you sticking around and doing what you've been doing. It'll almost be as if nothing has changed. But I just wanted to make sure that you knew one thing."

The Fourteenth shook the Innocence. "Things have changed." And he crushed the Innocence in his fist. Johnny watched the glitter like particles drift to the floor, and then turned to stare at the Noah. He was grinning.

Johnny swallowed. "I'll keep that in mind."

"Good, now get back to healing. You have deep bruises, and that broken leg of yours needs time." Johnny looked at his leg, he hadn't even noticed the feel of a cast on his skin, the Noah had captured his attention that fully. "Allen will feel even more guilty if you're not a little bit healed when he's back."

And with that parting phrase, Johnny was left alone in the room.

A/N: That song thing/Allen singing his doom? Totally pulled that out of thin air only after Johnny started singing. I hope that works for you guys. The song is, as you should know, Hands Sealed with a Kiss/Tsunaida te ni Kiss wo, but you might not recognize my translation. That's because when I want a translation of a song, I compare multiple ones and piece together an English version I like best. I don't know how accurate it is, but it's personalized. Thus, my version is this one:

Hands Sealed with a Kiss/ Tsunaida te ni Kiss wo

And then the little boy falls asleep

Among the ashes in the flames shining...

First one, then two...

Welling up, that beloved face

Thousands of dreams

trickle back to the earth

On the night when the silver eyes were trembling,

the shining you was born

Across millions of years,

no matter how many prayers fall back to earth

I shall continue to pray

Please show this child what love is

Give a kiss to his hands you hold

Other notes, while looking over this before posting I realized Tim doesn't show up even once. Um...oops? But did you guys really miss him, because not a single one of you pointed out his absence. Also, due to the new chapters, I might have to weave Kanda back in. What do you think, good idea?

Please review!