History of a Mystery
-The Secret-
Neah pulled an old, yellowed paper from his jacket pocket. He handed it to Cross, who read through it thoroughly before double taking back to the middle, "You can't be serious!"
An eerie silence filled their corner of the room. Cross was in shock at the information he'd read in the letter, "Where did you get this from?" He handed the paper back to Neah, who folded it up gently and replaced it to its jacket pocket. The man sat quietly, the tension building between the two friends as Cross waited for the answer.
"The midwife who was by my mother's side when I was born. Mana gave me this letter when I left to join the Noah clan five years ago."
"You mean to tell me that your brother knew all along? How in the world could this woman have known? It's nearly impossible to tell a Noah apart from a normal human!" Neah closed his eyes with a smile before calmly leaning over the table.
"She was an akuma, Cross. She left that letter for me knowing I was a Noah and didn't harm us because she knew it would give her away to the Earl." Cross was shocked. He'd not only learned that the man in front of him was determined to destroy his own family but that he had been born into that life unknowingly.
"We have to go find Mana," Cross spat out. "I know where he is and he needs to know what your plans are."
"I can't. You can't tell me where he is. As a Noah I would make his life way too dangerous. His location needs to be a secret for me. If something were to happen then the Earl could find him."
"Then I'll tell him, but he needs to know. It would be terrible if Mana didn't know what you were doing."Neah nodded in agreement to the idea. As the conversation continued, Neah could feel the anxiety building in the exorcist's eyes.
The Black Order was dim and murky as ever and Cross hated every minute he had to spend there. That's what he enjoyed about his job as a General; being gone for long periods of time.
As he approached the branch head's office he couldn't help but feel a bit uneasy about the whole situation. He'd been trying to convince Central for several years that a fourteenth Noah existed and was failing miserably. Now he was going to have to explain that not only does he exist but he's trying to kill the other Noah. That wouldn't go over well. He let out a little sigh and slowly walked up to the door. After a light knock Cross was prepared to leave when it opened.
'Damn,' he thought, 'I really thought I'd be able to get away with it.'
"What is it General? Is something wrong?" The branch director's voice was hoarse from days of yelling in the science department.
"No, Supervisor Mackley. I have news for you from the Noah." Cross cringed at the thought. Even though he and Neah were friends he had a hard time swallowing his alliance with the Noah.
The branch head just sighed, knowing full well where this was going, "Okay, Cross. Spit it out so I can get back to bed." The nonsense about a fourteenth Noah and his plans were going to spew from the kid's mouth again.
"I met up with the fourteenth Noah today and he's been sharing his plot to destroy the Earl with me. He's found out how to control the Noah's Ark and plans to use it to help us help him kill them."
'Yadda yadda,' Mackley thought to himself, "Oh really? How does he plan on doing that, Cross?"
The General had a look of disgust on his face. He knew Mackley wasn't listening to what he had to say, "I don't care if you don't believe me, Supervisor, but I hope to God you at least hear me. This could get very bad for everyone and I don't want that on my hands when the time comes."
Mackley sighed again and rolled his eyes, "Very well, General. I'll hear what you have to say but be warned that you'll be disgraced if this turns out to be a lie."
"Believe me, Supervisor, I wish it was."
Noah's Ark may have been brightly lit and very welcoming, but Neah always felt uneasy when he wandered around. Something about the air was foreboding to an enemy and he was going to be making himself one soon. He spent hours at a time hashing out his plans to destroy the clan. He knew he needed to interfere with the destruction of the Order, but most of the exorcists were dead anyway. There wasn't much he could do to save this generation, but Neah knew that he could help prevent the clan from destroying the next set of Innocence hosts. Of the 109 pieces of Innocence scattered throughout the world Neah had been told that twenty had been collected by the Order and fifteen had been destroyed by the clan, which left seventy four pieces of Innocence up for grabs. At full force with an extra Noah the clan wouldn't have much trouble finding the remaining pieces and destroying the world. He wouldn't allow that, though. His desire to protect his older brother fiercely overwhelmed his desire to destroy Innocence.
When Neah's technique for controlling the Ark was finally perfected he connected it to the main Heart and began making slow, inconspicuous moves to test his ability. It began with the Earl thinking he'd made a mistake when sending the Ark around the world, ending up a few hundred miles from where he wanted to be, but never really thought much of it until the day they were set to destroy one of the few people Neah didn't want to lose.
The meeting was routine, the Noah gathered in the meeting room to discuss their next target. A large group of exorcists were in Africa hunting down several Innocence fragments.
"We need to beat them to the Innocence," the Earl stated to the clan. "They are being led by a General, so we need to be on our guard."
"A General?" Neah stated in surprise. "How many are there?"
"Only one," Rhode said, "His name is Cross and he's going to be a treat to kill."
