I already published this chapter once, but I wasn't really satisfied so I wanted to change some parts. The general plot's the same.
*Readers can still submit Noah OC's. A few people submitted characters for the Black Order Headquarters, but most of the story will be centered around the Noah so I'm hoping for more of them. I need your Noah's name, "power", physical appearance and personality.
You can send them in until I publish my 5th chapter…Anyway, enjoy and please submit Noah OC's~
It was another sleepless night. This time, around 2 am, Road slipped through Allen's unlocked door. She sat on the edge of his bed and whispered, "Are you okay?"
Allen shrugged, "As well as I'll ever be."
Road smiled and said playfully, "You should kiss me."
"Yeah, I should." He pulled them together, and put his lips on hers. They were surprisingly warm. Road leaned down so that they were pretty much lying in the spacious bed together. They kissed again, for minutes, then it became something more. Road sighed and stroked Allen's hair.
Allen broke away, "I know you and your family aren't telling me the whole truth."
Road sat up and smoothed down her hair. She was hoping that the boy wouldn't ask, but she couldn't stave it off forever. Allen still believed that he had lived with them for the most part of his former life. She thought for a moment, then said, "Do you really want to know?"
"Yes."
"Your biological parents gave you up at birth because of your deformed arm. Mana Walker, your adoptive father, raised you as his child. A few years before that, one of the Noah died, the 14th. He was Mana's best friend. Mana hated the thought that the 14th would be dead forever, so he planted the Noah's memories into yours, so that one day they will come out of their current slumber and dig their way into your mind. It had already begun to come out before the accident. As a result, someday you will become a Noah." Road shifted and started at Allen Walker. She stopped talking.
"That's not all there is, right? Tell me everything."
"Mana Walker died when you were 10, and, well, I have to tell you what the Millennium Earl does first. Thousands of people die every day, Allen. And at least a few of them have dear ones who love them enough to risk their lives. The Earl finds those people and offers them to revive the dead ones. And he does, but they become soulless weapons instead of the actual person. Those are the akuma. But that's not as cruel as you think it is. Humans kill each other every day, out of love and hate. They're an evolution gone wrong.
"So you tried to bring him back, and that's when your Innocence activated. General Cross Marian took you in to train your Innocence and you were brought up from that day on to believe that the Noah and akuma are heartless monsters. From a human's perspective, we are. But you're not a human, Allen. You're above their petty miserable lives. You were taken to the Black Order Headquarters. And that's where you met Lenalee, Lavi, all those people. They all hate what we are. I'm not going to say they're wrong, because from a mere human's perspective they're saviours. And for every other species, they're the catalysts of what eventually will be the end of the world.
"And remember that you have a Noah's memories? You will slowly become the 14th. His memories are thousands of years old, like the rest of us. So now you're one of the Noah Clan."
Allen gave a nervous chuckle, "I'm not sure I got all that. But…sounds kinda hypocritical on both parts. I don't know, is that the right adjective for it? Weren't you a human before? It just…doesn't seem right."
"That doesn't really matter. I haven't been a human for a millennium. And we're really no different from the Exorcists. They're trying to save their own race, and we're trying to save ours." The female Noah stood up to leave, the white skirt of her nightgown swishing around her thighs.
"No, stay with me." Allen whispered. He didn't know what to think of Road's slightly extremist theory, but he was beginning to really love her. They spent the rest of the night laying side by side, but barely touching. Road fell asleep quickly. Allen stared at her calm sleeping face. It was so…childish compared to when she was talking about how humans deserved to die, her hatred fuelled by a thousand years of life. Bloody hell…he was sleeping with a thousand-year-old in the form of a rather sexy teenager. He gave a nervous chuckle.
The first rays of dawn found the two of them curled together. But not completely together. The Millennium Earl noticed Road's absence an hour later, and waited near their newest family member's room until he heard commotion. So he knew about his past. Now he needed to know the 14th. The Earl held two white sheets of paper, slightly stained from age. The 14th last composition before the betrayal, and the death.
"Should I give him the music?" The Millennium Earl asked Road. She nodded, and led a still-sleepy Allen into a white room whose only two pieces of furniture was a pricey white grand piano and its plush white leather seat. He felt almost awkward in the all-white room wearing a grey T-shirt, as if he would somehow leave a non-white stain. The Earl handed Allen a page of piano music.
"I've never played a single instrument!" Allen protested. And besides, he was pretty sure the notes were different from normal ones. The bars swirled into a circle, and little black squares and circles dotted the lines. Nevertheless, he sat down and ran his fingers over the cool keys. It was all so achingly familiar. Like if he tried hard enough, he could unlock something.
The Earl stood behind him and guided his fingers towards the first chord. And somehow, Allen knew what volume it should be played at. He was automatically reaching for the next chord, which was a roll chord with a little squiggly line. And the next measure required his left hand to softly leap over octaves to harmonize with the haunting melody that came from the keys under the fingers on his right hand.
As Allen Walker made his way through the first ring of music, fragments of memory came back to him. He flinched, but his fingers continued to find the keys and coax a beautiful tune out of the piano. He wrote this song after he had watched Mana Walker, his best friend, perform at the circus. A trill-Sitting at the dinner table with the Noah Clan, but it wasn't the dining table they used now. Road complaining about her homework. Skinn putting a huge spoonful of sugar on his bread.
They came faster and faster. And they hurt him now. Allen wanted to pull away from the piano, but he couldn't. Guiding an army of akuma to a city, where they slaughtered hundreds of frightened citizens. It was all for a good cause. Or was it? Carefully writing out sheets of music note by note. Creating the ark with the Earl and Road Kamelot.
Finally, he ended the song with an A minor arpeggio. Allen gasped and fell over, the pain of all the memories intensifying. The Millennium Earl carried the boy to his room. Allen writhed under his sheets. He was on fire, and there was an excruciating pain on his forehead that stood out from the rest. Someone was sitting at the end of the bed. She stroked his forehead with her fingers and stuck a lollipop in his mouth.
Somehow, after what seemed like an eternity, he made it through. The pain had faded except for the one in his forehead, and he felt…different.
"Welcome back to the Noah Clan, Neah." He could hear the Millennium Earl's voice in his head, but he couldn't see him in the room. Maybe it was just his imagination…
"That was fast." Road said in amusement, "It took the rest of us weeks for the full change and you only needed a few days. Oh, aren't you lucky. Want more candy?"
"What do I look like?" Allen asked instead.
Road fumbled in a dresser and came up with a hand-held mirror. He gasped when he saw his reflection. His hair was jet black. Like all the other Noahs'. The combination of a row of black crosses lined his forehead, the jagged scar across his eye and the grey tint of his skin made him look slightly dangerous, unlike the good-natured teenager he had been before. Allen examined his face for a full minute, and was shocked when he suddenly became his former self again.
"We all have human-looking sides." Road explained softly, "It's hard to control which side comes out at first. You'll learn to do it soon."
She took out a few crumpled pages out of her pocket and gave them to Allen, "You might wanna see a few drawing of the 14th. I'm assuming you'll have the same abilities as him."
The sketches showed a Noah that looked surprisingly similar to Allen Walker, except slightly taller and older. There was a malicious glint in his eyes, but he didn't have the scar. His hair brushed past his shoulders. The 14th -Neah- carried a sword in his right hand, like Allen's Innocence but black. A black hooded coat of some sort flowed around him like a shadow.
"His powers are really similar to yours. When he's a complete Noah, he had this black coat that could lengthen and wrap around his enemies. The coat's edges were sharp. His sword could also transform into a rifle, and I think yours can too at full synchronization. And you know how each Noah has something that makes them seem pretty much immortal? The 14th drew energy from his enemies. It's kinda hard to explain. Like when your opponent is hurt and loses some of their energy, the energy goes to your body."
"Huh. Nice." Allen mused. He sat up and studied his left arm. It hadn't changed much, since it was black anyway. The cross on the back of his hand seemed to have altered; it was more lengthened, like the crosses on the Noahs' foreheads.
"Wanna play poker with me after dinner?" Tyki Mikk asked Allen at the dinner table. He had healed very fast from the transformation, although it was annoying how his hair would suddenly change from black to white, then to black again. Neah was 20 years old. He rarely played poker, but was an incredibly skilled piano and violin player.
"Sure…but I don't know if I'm any good." He replied apologetically.
Road smirked, "Of course you're good. Hey, mind if I join in?"
Neah and Road were close friends. They might've even loved each other, but in the neither wanted to show their true feelings.
It turned out that Allen Walker was also an ace at poker. Him and Tyki had two cards left each, and Road had barely made it halfway. She sighed and threw down her cards, "I quit. You two have fun and tell me who wins later."
Allen put down a queen, and Tyki flicked out a joker with a grin. Allen sighed and shook his head. Then his eyes widened as the joker slowly floated onto the table. It was definitely a déjà vu, but…how? He stared transfixed at the elaborated drawn card, with a detailed caged clown in the centre and the words "JOKER" in a fancy font on both sides.
His opponent said impatiently, "Do you have anything?"
Allen shook his head. He had lost this round. But as he expertly shuffled the cards, he slipped two up his sleeve. It was an automatic reflex from who knows when.
Later into the game, Tyki put out his hand and said, "Hand them over."
"What?"
"I know you're cheating, Allen."
Allen shrugged and reluctantly pulled the two cards out of his sleeves. How did Tyki Mikk know?
"Are you really on our side? Or is this some kind of charades?" Tyki suddenly asked with a slightly amused tone. He pulled out a pair of cards and set them onto the table.
The teenager's head snapped up, "What do you think? I can't remember anything. So no, I won't say I'm entirely on your side, but I'm definitely not on the Exorcists' side. After all, I'm a Noah now."
The Noah sighed, "I guess that's what you believe. But you'd better not hurt Road. She's always loved you, and she's important to our entire family. If you break her heart…"
Allen felt slightly annoyed, "I'm not that type of a person."
"Is that what your former friends back at the Black Order Headquarters think?"
Allen glared at the smirking Tyki, "Don't patronize me."
"Oh, didn't realize I was."
"The core of every Noah is 6529 years old. That's around how old the first traces of human civilization are. The ones before then were washed out by a great flood, and only one family survived on an ark. The Noahs' spirits were formed during that flood. So you're really the same age as me, Tyki Mikk."
"Yes, I'm aware of that. I understand if you feel sympathy for the Exorcists, but I just…I'm hoping that you won't do anything reckless that might endanger our Noah Clan. We're your family now, whether you like it or not. And it's our destiny to be the Exorcists' enemies."
"I know you have human friends." Allen suddenly said.
Tyki was slightly surprised, but replied, "Yes, but they don't know anything about my job. And my family is more important than them. If you had to choose between Road and Lenalee, whose life would you save? And who would you be willing to sacrifice? Because either way you'll make yourself some powerful enemies."
Allen ignored that and said instead, "Royal flush. I win. Good night."
There was a golden ball with wings sitting impatiently on his bed. Wait, how could a ball seem impatient?
"Hey Tim! You've gotten bigger!" The words came automatically out of Allen's mouth before he even noticed what he was saying. Timcanpy was a golem used by General Cross. Mana Walker had explained that to the 14th before. Mana was also friends with a few of the Exorcists, which the 14th had found irritating at first.
But he also remembered the golem from somewhere else. Which a shock, Allen realized that it was the same hazy golden ball from that terrifying memory of the fire, the only memory he had left. So Timcanpy was also his golem? At the sight of one of his masters, Timcanpy fluttered over and settled himself contently on the boy's head. He swished his tail over the now-black strands in what seemed like surprise. One of Allen Walker's trademarks was his distinctive white hair.
Allen was startled by the familiarity of the weight on his head. Timcanpy had stayed there many times on his head. And he was often on General Cross' shoulder. Lenalee and Kanda's golems were black. Snatches of…things popped into his mind. The place where he bumped his head months ago was hit by a sharp stab of pain, and he covered his mouth to suppress a moan. Somehow, the golem was the catalyst for the return of all those forgotten memories. Allen threw himself onto his bed and squeezed his eyes shut as the memories flooded into his mind.
"Timcanpy…leave." Allen whispered.
The golem seemed annoyed, but flew out the window anyway. But he left a small triangular device behind. Allen fingered it, then hid it in his pocket. He knew that it was a communication device.
Road Kamelot slipped silently into his bedroom a few minutes later. She came over and stroked his hair. He had been taken to Central for experiments in his last couple of weeks with the Black Order. Painful experiments, where they tried to study and modify his Innocence. They also tested for whether or not he was a threat to their order. There were others in the testing labs too, called second and third Exorcists. Innocence was somehow forced into their bodies, hoping that they could synchronize with it and help with "cause".
"I hate Central." Allen muttered.
Road smirked, "They don't really care about the people working for them, do they?"
"I want to prove myself to your family. I want to attack Central, and make sure it's completely destroyed. Hopefully those scientists and so-called leaders perish with it." Allen said with determination.
Cliffhanger ending, yay I was hoping to either update this story or Headquarters last weekend, but I had no time at all. Between school, homework, tennis, art lessons, piano, my social life…yeah. Quite busy.
No spoilers for the next chapter this time, because it would ruin the plot. The 199 chapter for the manga came out. Unfortunately, it was confusing and didn't say much about the 14th. I really suck at reading manga…too many random boxes.
And if I don't get another chapter in before Halloween…Happy Halloween! Eat lots of candy! Okay that was random. So, read and review! And submit Noah OC's.