Chapter Fourteen:

~Tyki~

Everyone at the table was silent, even the twins and Skin had settled down, respecting the tension that filled the room. Tyki sat next to Road who in turn sat next to her father, Sheril. Both looked equally concerned about what the Earl was up to now by suddenly calling a family meeting.

It wasn't unusual to have one out of the blue but Tyki could tell this was different than the other times and everyone else could sense it. The Earl finally stepped into the room but not in his usual bloated self with the silly grin permanently fixed to his face.

He was in his human form, grey skin and golden eyes with the seven stigmata crossing over his forehead, the usual characteristics of the Noah. This surprised everyone but they kept quiet as the Earl took his seat and began to address everyone.

'I suppose you are wondering what is going on?' The Earl began as Tyki caught Wisely staring at him from across the table with a confused frown creasing his face. It almost made Tyki wonder what had gotten into the Noah of Wisdom before the Earl coughed for attention, mainly from Tyki.

'As I was saying, it seems likely that it is about to make its move,' Earl said as Tyki leaned on his hand in confusion.

'What do you mean by that, Lord Millennium?' Tyki asked with a frown as the Earl chuckled softly as he slowly raised his finger in front of him.

'It is the thing that protects the Heart, Apocryphos,' the Earl said in a lower tone of voice than before causing some of the Noah across the table to lean forward to hear their leader before murmuring in confusion.

'Apocryphos? Earl, who is this you speak of?' Sheril spoke up as the murmuring of confusion subsided quickly.

'Not 'who', Sheril, 'what',' the Earl said as the man relaxed in his chair slightly.

'Most of you will not be able to remember since the accident that happened three decades ago,' the Earl began to explain as Tyki quickly glanced at Road whose golden eyes quivered slightly but wasn't sure of the emotion he saw in them.

The Noah began to murmur amongst them before the Earl clapped his hands for silence. When they were finally silent did the Earl begin to speak again.

'The memory lapse happened because of the violent death of one of our family members…'

….

~Elena~

As soon as they entered headquarters they were greeted by many bewildered stares, mostly because General Cross had shown up once in a blue moon after about three years of nothing but short contacts and brief letters. The other, would have been because Cross would not let go of her shoulder not matter how hard she clubbed the womanizer in the stomach with her elbow.

'Elena, I heard General Cross returned and…' Lenalee paused as she saw her friend's irritated expression and stopped there, Elena seemed to be too preoccupied by the bastard who dare wrap his arm around her without her permission. Cross just smirked smugly at his apprentice's silence, as Sachiko stayed quiet close to the both of them.

No one could blame the akuma, after all she had wondered into a place where akuma were loathed and it seemed the safest place was by the General's side for her.

'Uh, it's good to see you again General Cross,' Komui greeted them as he glanced up from his paperwork in surprise seeing the General standing in his office.

'What's been happening around here, Komui?' Cross addressed the head supervisor casually as Elena finally managed to slip from her master's grip and stand a good distance from him.

The General grunted with annoyance and slumped onto the couch as Elena felt a pair of hands gently grip her arm before glancing down at a frighten Sachiko. Elena couldn't help but sigh in sympathy and let it be as Komui pushed the current load of paper onto the already messy floor.

'Nothing that has cause for concern, General Cross,' Komui replied dryly as the General chuckled before Komui turned to Elena.

'You can leave now…' Elena knew the head supervisor was glancing nervously at the akuma behind her as she quickly left the room for the two men to talk in private.

'This is scaring…' the akuma whimpered as she still clung nervously onto Elena's arm, Elena paid no attention to her as she quickly made her way to the cafeteria where she could get something to eat.

'Hey beansprout, you look rather good in that, who picked it?' Elena fumed as she saw a certain redhead run towards her and wrap his arms around her body. At this point Sachiko let got of her and stepped back nervously.

'My name is Elena, stupid rabbit and that bastard of a master chose this for me,' Elena hissed as Lavi glanced her up and down before giving her the thumps up.

'He's got good tastes,' Lavi said with a wink as Elena just moaned aloud at her friend's hopelessness before the redhead caught sight of Sachiko standing behind her.

'Strike!'

'I don't think so,' Elena said sternly gripping Lavi by the back of his collar with her left hand as he tried to wrap his arms around the akuma.

'Your friend seems feisty, Elena,' Sachiko said giddily as Lavi calmed down with a depressed sigh.

'You're mean beanspr…' Lavi never got to finish as Elena let go of his collar and whacked him over the head with her left hand. Lavi collapsed onto the ground gripping his throbbing head in pain.

'How many times do I have to tell you, it's Elena,' Elena hissed at Lavi in a murderous tone before someone called for her nervously.

'I see you're having a good reunion with Lavi,' Elena rolled her eyes as she stared at Lenalee.

'Sure if you call that a reunion,' Elena said sarcastically as Lenalee giggled politely before looking at Sachiko.

'Who's your friend Elena?' Lenalee asked as Elena glanced at the akuma before shrugging.

'My master's charge, ask him,'

'Okay?' Lenalee wasn't so sure what Elena was getting at as she went over to Jerry and ordered her large quantity of food and came back to the table. Sachiko sat next to her looking at the pile of food with shock.

'You certainly eat a lot,' Sachiko said as she winced at the glare Elena gave her and began to eat her food. Lenalee sat across from them undisturbed by how fast the white haired girl was eating.

'So where do you come from?' Lenalee asked as Sachiko looked at her and pointed to herself as if asking the Chinese girl if she was speaking to her. Lenalee nodded and waited for the girl to answer.

'I'm Sachiko, I come from Japan before I left to accompany Cross-sama,' Sachiko explained as Lenalee nodded at her as Elena snorted rudely halfway through on of her plates of food. Sachiko frowned at her before turning back to Lenalee.

'I'm from a nice little village that is surrounded by many rice fields, it was a very pretty place,' Sachiko kept chatting about her hometown, leaving out the part of being an akuma until later in time. Elena silently listened as she quickly finished off her food.

Something had been irritating her very since she got back to headquarters. For one, Link was nowhere to be seen and secondly, the atmosphere felt… strange enough that she couldn't place a finger on it.

'Oi Beansprout, are you really letting that thing seat next to you?' Elena glanced up from her now empty plate and stared into the stone face of Kanda before frowning.

'Don't worry, if she tries anything, I'll be the first to act,' Elena said placing the plate next to the other dirty dishes and leaned on her hands. Lenalee was staring at the both of them in confusion as she wondered why they were both being hostile to Sachiko.

Sachiko shuddered in fear as Kanda drew his mugen and pressed the tip of the blade against her throat just as Lenalee was about to protest.

'Don't try anything funny…' but Elena intervened and placed her left hand over the blade.

'That's enough, Bakanda,'

'What do you think you're doing beansprout?' Kanda glared at her as she made no attempt to remove her hand from his blade.

'It's Elena,'

'So what? You think you can just guard the bloody thing knowing what it is?' Kanda was shouting this loud enough for the whole staff to pause from their conversations and food and watch the pair argue.

'Ah, guys…'

'She's under my master protect, which puts me into a position to do the same, idiot,' she hissed back as she noticed the samurai's dark eyes falter slightly before she let go of his sword. Kanda sheathed his blade and exited the room with a pissed off 'che'.

'Elena what was that about?' Lenalee asked as Sachiko shuddered with relief as Elena stared coldly at her briefly from it thawed into a warm smile quite suddenly.

'Nothing you should be concerned with now Lenalee,' Elena chirped cheerfully making her friend confused about whether or not the whitehead was actually certain about that.

….

~Tyki~

Tyki gazed into the crackling flames of the roaring fire, the conversation at the family meeting replaying in his mind over and over again. He hadn't been aware of the events three decades ago probably because he had woken as the Noah of Pleasure fifteen years after the incident.

But that still wasn't an excuse to have missed something that important. It concerned Tyki that the Apocryphos was somehow involved in this and had enough motives to strike again.

'It's interesting, the events from thirty years ago,' a voice called Tyki out of his thoughts as he gazed reluctantly from the flames and stared at the Noah of Wisdom who had strolled into the room.

'Don't worry, I wasn't reading your mind, it's quite easy to tell actually,' came Wisely's reply as Tyki rolled his eyes at the whitehead.

'What do you want, Wisely?' Tyki asked dryly as the Noah snickered and sat in the chair across from Tyki with little intention of leaving the room much to the Noah of Pleasure's wishes.

'Exactly what I said… the events from thirty years ago, don't they frighten you?' Wisely questioned Tyki as the crackling fire barely broke the silence held between them.

'No… Just feel a little betrayed, that's all,' Tyki mumbled under his breath, many of the Noah had felt the same when they had heard this coming from the Earl, the reasoning though was taking its sweet time sinking in.

'The Earl has his reasons for keeping silent, for all those years he could never be certain whether it was safe to mention this or not,'

'We all respect the Earl without question, we would have believed him either way,' Tyki cut in as Wisely scowled him for it like a father would to his child. Tyki quickly glanced back at the roaring flames.

'That's besides the point Tyki, it was to protect a member of our family from harm once they had awakened,' Wisely seemed persistent to make Tyki understand the true intentions of the Earl's silence. Tyki hadn't gotten it and still wasn't getting any of it even though Wisely did his best to explain it to him.

'So there are more than thirteen members of the Noah family?' Tyki asked feeling quite stupid doing so as Wisely nodded slowly but with a frown creasing his brow.

'Over the last few generations of the Noah family, yes,'

Tyki glanced away from the fire and stared at the Noah of Wisdom with curiousness but decided not to say anything.

'Even the Earl's not certain where the extra Noah fits, but he is certain that it was important enough for Apocryphos to go after them,' Tyki grizzled when Wisely read his thoughts only to receive a smirk from the Noah across from him.

'I really wasn't wanting an answer Wisely,' Tyki growled and gazed back at the flames of the fire.

'Knowledge is valuable but it can also be one's destruction,'

'Oh, shut up already!'

….

Author's note:

Another chapter, but a little short compared to other chapters but oh well…

I'm starting to hit that dreaded writer's block so reviews will be much appreciated up to this point, as they have always been, thanks…