A/N the Second: This is not an update. This is the updated version of this chapter that was necessary to stay in canon after Chapter 220. Darnit, Hoshino Katsura. STOP CONFUSING MEEEEEEEEEE!

A/N: Well, we've made it! This is the final chapter! Listen to dramatic music while you read it. It will improve the experience, guaranteed, or your money back 100%.

No, but seriously. Listen to dramatic music. Two Steps from Hell is always a good idea.

Well, the immediate problem was obvious; the students lined up around the edge of the lake were about to become AKUMA-cannon fodder, which wouldn't be a very good thing for either the students or the Exorcists tasked with protecting them.

The second problem were all the crazy Death Eaters who were trying to kill the Exorcists who were trying to stop the students from being killed.

Neah had chosen this moment to display his very wide and varied vocabulary of swear words in other languages – Allen actually knew some of them, the boy noted absently – which was funny but very unhelpful because there's a freakin' army! Two armies! And civilians who can't do anything!

In this sort of situation, humor is rather uncalled for and rather out of place.

But anyway, armies. Crazy Earls. Joy.

Krory and Marie were already herding the students into the castle as fast as possible, their task made difficult by the Death Eaters who insisted on casting spells so as to inhibit their progress.

They'd be fine, Allen decided. That left Voldemort and his baddies and the Earl's forces.

Actually, said Neah, they look like they might be one and the same now.

Allen paused for a second. Doesn't matter. The others have got the Death Eaters. You go deal with Mana.

Ugh, Mana. This would be difficult. That's why Allen was letting Neah deal with it.

I can hear you, you know!

Allen smiled. I know.

And the two rushed off into the fight.

Adam could feel him the moment that he got within a mile of Hogwarts.

"Fourteenth~" he whispered and Maashima looked at him for a moment and then back at the ground.

Actually, he was looking at himself, younger. That was a little weird.

Admittedly, the Noah clan was the definition of weird.

The outfits that they wore really said it all.

The Noahs tore through Death Eaters like wet paper.

Red wet paper.

Tyki had leaped (literally) at the chance to finally do some fighting and as soon as the black-robed wizards and witches had appeared he had thrown himself into the air, choosing to let the air support him. He ran at the nearest witch and his hand collided with her.

And didn't stop. It went right through her chest and out her back. So did her heart, which he dropped a moment later, looking at his now-dirtied hand with disgust before peeling off his glove and replacing it with a new one. He had sped off to his next target before the witch had a chance to even keel over in the air and land on the ground in a boneless, bloody heap.

The other Noahs were having just as much fun – a few had squared off with the older Noahs (and wasn't that a fun concept to wrap their heads around) but the rest were obliterating the battle field and more importantly, having fun.

Wisely paused in the middle of exploding a couple heads (the heads still combusted into brain matter anyway) and looked around the battlefield. The Death Eaters were being handled, no problem – and the AKUMA were also being obliterated rather quickly by the Exorcists.

Which, of course, left the Earl. (Something whispered in his mind that that was not quite right but he ignored it anyway). Neah seemed to be handling it, so the white-headed Noah turned back to his prey and let the infamous Noah smile loose.

Ahhh~ it was good to be insane again.

Draco Malfoy stood in the center of the ring of torn-apart Death Eaters, covered in blood. His hands were stained bright red and his face was dripping. Nothing shall be said of his clothes; suffice to say, he did not look pretty.

He looked at his parents. They looked back.

He said, "You should run."

They took his suggestion. As they skidded past the boundaries of the school wards, just before apparating, Narcissa Malfoy smiled and said, "Our boy's grown up." And then there was a crack and the pair disappeared.

On the Exorcists side of the battle, things were not quite as gleeful (at least externally.) Nevertheless, it was going about the same – the Accommodaters were crushing the AKUMA under their heels – in Lenalee's case, that was literal. Kanda, in particular, was terrifying. Being cooped up in a school for so long had taken its toll, and the samurai had a look on his face that almost resembled a smile. Which, in itself, was a really really really bad sign.

Lenalee was having plenty of fun, as well. There was no need for details. Lavi looked away with a shudder, just in time to almost get caught in the face by the very sharp arm of a Level 3.

"Hi Ban: Gouka Kaijin!"

He grinned as the giant snake of fire ate up a whole swath of the enemy – it did feel good to stretch his legs a bit.

Neah took a deep breath. "Yo, Millenium Earl." He spread his hands in a affable manner and took a step forward, looking up at the bulk that the Noah leader was.

It saddened the Fourteenth Noah, right now, seeing just how much his brother's sanity had decayed.

"It's me." He took another step forward – the suit around his sibling's face began to split, the edges coming apart like puzzle pieces.

"It's me," he said again. "Neah." He smiled blindingly, his hands still held out in a supplicating fashion, his body language purposely unthreatening. "We finally meet again."

The suit vanished in a swirl of skin and fabric as the Earl practically threw himself in to the waiting arms. They tightened around the Noah after a second, Neah hesitant to show affection.

The Millenium Earl began to shudder. "Neah – who betrayed me. Neah who tried to destroy me." He was tensing now, his fists gripping the black Exorcist uniform.

"Neah, who I destroyed."

"I hate you, Mana's Neah." The Fourteenth froze just for a milisecond at that – then smiled, just a touch.

The Earl continued. "Why won't you just disappear? I have a mission – so then why – why do I want to be by your side so badly?" His whole frame was juddering, his eyes wide and bloodshot – and Neah felt at a loss.

So he pulled the man closer, just for a second, and gave his brother a proper hug. He stepped back a little, looking at his sibling. "Your face has changed." He reached out, wanting to confirm what he was seeing. "Did it change after you remember me?"

"Huh?" He had lost the Earl. "I've always had this face."

Neah paused, then smiled again. "So both your face and your memories got destroyed." He stepped back again. "For a villain, you're quite the softie."

And then, quieter, "Do you truly not remember why you want to be with me?" He closed his eyes. "That burning sunset, the sound of wind – have you really forgotten?"

He took a breath, then continued. "That scene remains in the heart of the Millenium Earl, who has endured for 7,000 years."

"Our mother – Katerina –" A woman with beautiful black hair and a sweet smile placed two identical dark-haired babies in a crib, singing them to sleep. "Our mother had given her children the names Mana D. Campbell and Neah D. Campbell." A field of golden wheat and the exhilerating joy of just running before collapsing happily of exhaustion. "Like peas in a pod, Mana and Neah were raised as twin brothers."

And the ever twisting tree in the distance and their mother's dark form of black lace and a parasol, a happy smile mirrored across his sibling's face – and the wind – Neah remembered.

And by the flickering of emotions across Mana – now Adam's face – maybe the Earl did as well.

Neah continued, looking up at the man now. "But we aren't twins." The Noah flinched at that, like he had been struck a physical blow. "Nor was our mother our real mother." The battlefield silenced to their perspective, everything intent on Neah's next words. "In the course of 7000 years, the Millenium Earl has only vanished from this world once." He tilted his head a bit. "Unexpectedly, at that time. What remained there was the wind –" The hand on the Earl's lapel trembled a little. "Do you understand?"

And then, "Mana." It wasn't a question. "That is who we are, me and you. Neah and Mana."

Road sucked in a breath. So her memories hadn't been decieving her.

"The two of us were once one." Neah continued.

The silence was nearly unbearable.

"We were the Millenium Earl."

For a second, the world held its breath. Neah broke it.

"But Mother dearest lied." He shrugged, continued. "The two of us were originally a single existence. Mana and Neah were not twins by blood. We were literally two parts of one whole." His smile grew a bit manic.

"But in the end, because of you, we returned to the 'one' we were used to. The 'Millennium Earl.'" The grip on the Earl's face twitched spasmodically, becoming uncomfortably tight. "The current you!"

The eyes boring into the Earl's were becoming more and more golden by the second, the scar almost squirming on the boy's face. "Do you understand now, Mana? The Millennium Earl was no longer the Millennium Earl, becoming instead the 'two of us'. That 17 year period…" His voice grew hard. "The day that you devoured me…"

The face of Neah began to bleed through to the softer features of Allen. His grip was tight enough to crush a human's skull. "Have you really forgotten?"

And suddenly the Earl wasn't there anymore, thrown back into a memory of a broken mirror and a goal more important than death.

(But maybe, now that he thought about it, not as important as life.)

The grip on the side of his face was gone. He lifted a hand and asked, "Why do you keep calling me Mana?"

Neah smiled again. "Because you are Mana. Because in this world, only you are Mana." His voice was softly ruthless now, drowning out the "You're wrong you're wrong" of the Earl's muttering. "Because you're the one that made me this way." He closed his eyes.

"Eh, it doesn't matter if you remember me." His eyes began to flutter open, except now they weren't even gold, just the black of killing. "My Mana."

The expression on Neah's face was terrifying. "As long as I destroy you, it's fine."

His face closed off, staring at the Earl on his knees.

Dumbledore smiled with a grim satisfaction as the last of the Horcurxes was stabbed neatly through by the sword of Gryffindor. He set it down carefully on the table, flicking the oily black blood of the blade next to the locket now cracked exactly down the middle. Really, those Exorcists had been a lot of help.

Especially the one with the soul-sensing abillities.

There were no more AKUMA – Lenalee had taken out most of them, actually, and the number of Death Eaters were waning, as well, though that they weren't already dead was probably due to the fact that the Noahs were having their sadistic fun.

Voldemort stood a wreck among his fallen followers, his hands shaking and his inhuman eyes wide. "No. No!"

"THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE! – urk." His body rocked back and forth in an odd motion as Kanda's sword impaled him in the back while Tyki's hand stabbed him right through the front.

When he spat out blood onto the ground, it was black.

He fell slowly, cold as a snake even in death.

Neah stepped away from the shaking Earl, looking at the fallen corpse of arguably the greatest Dark Wizard in Wizarding history since the 1700s, and sighed.

"Goodbye, Mana." He opened a gate and disappeared. The Earl froze in his screaming.

"Wait! Neah! What do you mean?!" He ran to the gate only to be rebuffed, and would have tried to force his way in if it weren't for the strong hand of Maashima grabbing his back and pulling him away, away into the Black Ark, away from the Fourteenth.

The Millenium Earl and his Noah retreated slowly, and the second the black door of the other Ark disappeared, everybody released a breath they didn't know that they had been holding.

The Gate appeared again, and Neah poked his head through. "Is he gone?"

Mentally, Allen was berating him. Hiding? Is that really the best way to deal your mistakes?

It's not my mistake! he protested.

Whatever you say, Neah. The boy heaved a huge sigh, and the Noah was inclined to agree. The encounter had rattled both of them, and worse was yet to come.

Lavi got to them first.

"Hey, Moyashi. What exactly was that about?" He raised a single eyebrow, but before he could ask more, a very familiar voice cut in.

"Looks like this is a good time to step in."

A familiar pair of black boots came to a halt just beyond the ring of destroyed AKUMA.

Everybody, including Neah, slowly turned to face the speaker, who smiled beautifically.

"Hi guys!" said Allen Walker.

THE END!

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PSYCHE!

This is not the end. This is the end of the first half. I'm going to be focusing on other stories for a while before I start the second half, though.

Hope you enjoyed! Let's see how many reviews I can get. Maybe over 9000? ...

I'm sorry.

Until later,

Kenzie Perth out.