Hello, dear readers, and welcome to chapter 12 of this fabrication of a mind that runs on no sleep ^.^

Kanda's out of commission, the Noah are attacking, and Neah joins in. The bad way.

D Gray-man belongs to Hoshino Katsura~

Broken Moonlight

Chapter 12: Latitude

"Oh, 14th."

Tiredly, Neah lifted his gaze to see the man that stood before him, a faint yet somehow unpleasant smirk emblazoned onto his chiseled, dark features. An unconvincing smile spread over Neah's face, the expression combined with his emotional instability causing a glint of madness to reflect in his golden eyes.

"Sheril," he acknowledged, his tone still somewhat raspy after his encounter with his own near unendurable wrath.

The Noah of desire chuckled and moved over to one of the many doors lining the hall, twisting the handle of one and opening it, his features remaining fixated on Neah. Motioning out of it, the Noah's smirk grew. "We'll be needed soon," he stated simply, offering the white-haired Noah a glance out of the door.

Wearily, Neah's gaze trailed over to see just what he was needed for. If it was another menial task, he'd have to politely refuse. He doubted he was physically or mentally prepared for tasks that would involve bloodshed at the moment, considering the fact that he would likely lose his grip on himself.

"Isn't it lovely?" the taller Noah stated casting a glance out of the door. "It's brilliant-!"

Amber eyes widened as Neah's gaze was met with the sight of the exorcists' Headquarters. His eyes drifted back to Sheril as he realized that there was a familiar doll nestled upon his shoulder. Turning to stare out of the door once again, he plucked Timcanpy off his shoulder.

Murmuring something to the creature, he launched him off his hand, allowing him to fly out into the fray. Immediately in succession, Neah shut the door, leaning against it tiredly. "So… What happened?" he questioned, almost in a monotone.

"Millenie is going to destroy the exorcists once and for all, Allen~" Road chirped from where she sat upon Sheril's shoulder in her doll form. "And we're going to destroy the innocence for good!"

A slow, mirthless smirk spread itself over Neah's dark lips. "Oh, is that so?" he questioned, his eyes darkening slightly. A soft chuckle passed his lips as he opened the door once again, staring down at the carnage that was being wreaked below him.

"Isn't it wonderful," he stated simply. His smirk widened slightly, his eyes partially lidding over in pleasure at the sight of the devastation. A louder laugh passed his lips. "Isn't it?" he repeated, his voice rising as a hint of manic derangement slipping into his tone.

After his experience with the Earl, the sight of such a butchery burned pleasurably through his veins. Even he could not resist the urge to jump into the fray and slaughter along with his family. It was an innate urge that he found he resented, but it ran powerfully through his blood; it was ingrained into his DNA itself.

He found himself dissolving into almost non compos mentis laughter as his flashing gaze turned back to face Sheril and Road. The two seemed surprised by his sudden volatile switch in behaviour. He muted his laughter and merely smiled maniacally at the two, the expression causing his face to contort into an expression that was beautiful in all its frightfulness.

"Lift the curtain for me, Road, Sheril," he chuckled, gripping the doorframe with the intention of jumping from the door to join the battle.

Somewhere within the corner of his mind, he was aware that this was not what he wished to do. He had only one goal, but the urge to deviate from it was so tempting, he could not allow the opportunity to wreak havoc to slip from his grasp. After all, he was gifted with the memories of Noah's destruction.

"Allen! Not yet," Road called out from her adoptive father's shoulder, reaching out with a plush arm as though attempting to stop him from going. "We're supposed to head out later - not now!"

"Don't stop me, Road," Neah almost crooned, his beatific amber eyes shining with a yearning to shed blood. The expression caused even the sadistic Sheril to take a wary step back from the 14th Noah who chuckled at the response that seemed to have evoked itself unasked from the Noah's body.

"I'm being called," he stated, his tone managing to remain somewhat deranged despite its initial expression of wistfulness. "I need to go," he added before leaping down from the door. Landing upon the back of one of the many level four akuma, his face twisted into a smile of sadistic glee.

Pulling the glove from his left hand to reveal the innocence-embedded limb, he tossed the pristine article of clothing away. Ordering the akuma to sweep lower, he allowed himself the liberty of setting foot upon the bloodstained ground.

His manic gaze turned to one of the many windows of the Headquarters as he lifted his left hand and waved. "Hello, Supervisor," he called out, his mellow tone hinting madness.

Immediately, the engagement between the two sides seemed to moderately freeze as all gazes of the exorcists stole over to him for at least the briefest of moments before resuming their fights with evident expressions of blank shock.

Neah laughed, despite the despair that lanced through his chest at the sight. He shouldn't be here. He wasn't meant to be fighting this. He had another battle to fight. And yet, he could not withstand the instinct that screamed at his weakening will to fight.

"Won't you stop me?" he questioned, a sibilant edge to his voice. "Who knows what might happen if you allow me to run loose," he continued, stepping closer to the nearest exorcist upon the field. It was clear that the man, whom Neah did not recognize, was hesitating, although refusing to back down.

His tongue snaked out to lick his darkly smirking lips as he launched himself at the exorcist. Without a second thought, he plunged Allen's hand into the man's chest and tore out his heart in a much less dignified exhibition than Tyki. Lifting it, he dropped the body and crushed the heart within his hand, his tongue flicking out to savour the taste of the life fluid.

His eyes narrowed in pleasure as he whirled around to face the other exorcists that stood upon the island, a mad chuckle eliciting from his lips. Without even a word, he dashed for them, relishing their stricken expressions, the knowledge that most could not turn their weapons against Allen sitting well in his mind.

A flash of remorse crossed his golden gaze as his body moved of its own desires and ran for the exorcists. The fight that was exhibited by them was half-willed and weak; it did not take a fully functioning mind to realize that. And yet, for the exhilaration that ran through his body in the form of ecstatic adrenaline, he did not hesitate to tear them apart with his bare hands.

It was much better than utilizing the dark matter that was often exuded by his fellow Noah and that cursed the akuma with their form. To feel the hot liquid cool on his hands was gratifying in the most twisted of ways, he decided, a breathy sound of glee leaving his lips.

A sharp laugh left his throat as his gaze trailed up into the sky, sighting the redhead and the girl staring his way, both frozen in indubitable shock. He smiled almost pleasantly at them before lowering his gaze to those upon the ground, searching for his next target.

"Walker!"

The cry jolted him from his blood-induced reverie, and he turned to catch sight of that man with the blond hair… Link - yes that was his name: Howard Link. Neah's eyes narrowed as a smile stole over his lips. "Ah, someone who is willing to face me?"

"I am responsible for you, Walker, and if that responsibility incorporates being the cause of your death, then so be it," the blond stated calmly, his sharp gaze fixating upon the Noah as two switchblades were freed from the confines of his red sleeves.

Neah chuckled and held a hand out to the man, motioning for him to move closer. "Come," he invited. "I will make sure your life is well ended."

Without a word, the blond flew towards him at an alarming speed, blades flashing with a dull light as they aimed themselves at Neah with no hesitation. The golden eyes narrowed in gratification as he busied himself with dodging the repeated strikes.

"Should I take my time with you?" he taunted, his tone soft yet possessing an underlay of unhinged threat. His words did not seem to break the stone-faced expression of the Inspector, however, as the onslaught of flashing steel persisted.

"You aren't Walker," Link stated simply, his blade grazing the skin near Neah's neck as the Noah barely shifted out of harm's way. "I will have no guilt if I kill you."

"Oh? You would be killing Allen as well if you killed me," Neah countered, the smirk painted upon his features widening. He caught the split-second's hesitation within the inspector's eyes and deemed it an opportune moment to strike.

Thrusting his arm out, he hooked his fingers into the flesh of the blond man's shoulder. Pulling himself closer to Link, he chuckled. His lips beside the inspector's ear, he whispered, "You made a mistake, Link."

Jerking his appendage back with a savage strength, he completely tore off the blond's arm, causing a slight cry of pain to leave the normally taciturn inspector's lips. A cry passed his own lips, but of satisfaction at the sound that elicited from the blond.

"Melodious!" he exclaimed, ecstasy blanketing his voice as he revelled in the cry of the inspector. His slender, dark digits clasped around the appendage that he had torn off, snapping it in his manic grip without even realizing.

"Mamori Bane," Link hissed between gritted teeth, his tone muffled by pain. As the talismans surrounded him, creating a barrier that segregated him from the Noah, his eyes widened. Glancing behind himself, he stared at the Headquarters. Gritting his teeth in vexation, he flashed another glance at Neah who had fixated his maniacal golden gaze upon him.

No one had yet moved to attack him, and Link himself was being restrained from that liberty as well. After all, Lvellie had higher priority than the Noah; he was not an exorcist, so strictly speaking, this was not a battle he was under official obligation to fight.

With those thoughts in mind, Link retreated from the scene with a frown upon his features as he gripped his shoulder from where his arm had been utterly torn off.

Neah stared after him with vague disappointment in his gaze as he dropped the severed arm onto the blood-watered ground. His eyes drifted around at the remainders of his company, none of them daring to attack him for the attachment that they bore for his host.

"Oh my, is that it?" he taunted, his crazed eyes shining with condescending amusement despite his features retaining their almost unnatural pulchritude. "Won't you come to me?" he invited, spreading his arms as though to initiate an embrace. "Or must I come to you?"

A terrifyingly beauteous grin stole over Neah's lips as he once again broke into a run for the exorcists, his dark hands still dripping with crimson from his previous prey.

Even as his body wreaked havoc upon the battlefield, he could feel despair-filled gazes fixed upon him as the people who had once considered his host an ally despondently turned against him. Neah could only laugh at the momentous event, his humanity lost within his bloodlust.

Hs gaze was dyed in a haze of red as his nails and teeth sunk into flesh with a deranged haphazardness, his senses dulled until the only thing that he could register was the sight, feeling, and scent of crimson that dyed his victims, himself, and his surroundings.

If any injury had been inflicted upon his being while his mind was completely overridden by his desire to destroy exorcists and innocence, he could not feel it. His gaze was wide and could almost be described as demented as he traversed the field of conflict, laying waste to whatever his feet set themselves upon and leaving a trail of gruesomely mutilated corpses in his wake.

His gaze trailed up into the sky as he spotted the ones that were still combating the akuma that flew through the air. His blood-soaked body twitched at the sight, desiring to enter the thick of the battle, wherever it was, and sate his detrimental desires.

Whatever had been left of his mild nature was swallowed in his craze to kill and utterly devastate all that contacted his path. After all, his memories were composed of Noah's destruction: the destruction of any and all, friend or foe, proven by the akuma that had been annihilated by his unarmed hands in his craze.

Even so, his golden eyes shone brightly despite being veiled by a faint haze of obvious bloodlust. The Neah that had possessed a personality and empathy had been constrained into the recesses of his body's psyche, and all that remained was the killing contrivance, the 14th Noah of destruction.

His feet launched him off the ground as his eyes set themselves upon the redhead with the hammer, of whose name he did not take the trouble of delving into Allen's memories to recall. His features were curled into a serene smile that reeked of vociferous, inimical mania.

Lavi gathered himself together at the last possible moment in order to dodge the bloodstained hands that reached out to him with an aura of sadistic desire hanging off of them. It did not take the master observational ability that he had due to his status as the apprentice Bookman to catch sight of the malicious intent virtually dripping from every inch of his body alongside the blood he had shed.

His expression morphed into a prominent frown as he evaded the onslaught directed towards him without making any move to play on the offensive.

His jaw clenched. This was why he had been told to be wary of bonds that could potentially form mutually between his acquaintances and himself. Were a case such as this to occur, he should have found himself able to strike without a second thought. And yet, here he stood, unable to even attempt harm towards this Noah, merely because he was within the body of the white-haired boy who Lavi considered one of his best friends.

And yet when he caught sight of that golden gaze that seemed to penetrate his very soul, his heart fell with the awareness that this was neither the short-statured teen, nor was it the mild-mannered Noah. This thing was neither human, nor akuma. This thing had become the personification of its memories: destruction.

Lavi's lone visible eye drifted down to the carnage upon the ground. His sharp gaze caught sight of a few of the once many exorcists still engaged in battle with the akuma that advanced mercilessly. The sight of the crimson-stained scene was nearly enough to make him retch in repulsion, was his attention not occupied by the white-haired creature before him.

"Neah? You sent my dear Neah into battle when he's still injured?" the Earl burst, his grotesque caricature wrapping around his body.

Sheril sighed and glanced over at his shoulder where Road still remained in her doll form. "We wouldn't be able to stop him if we wanted to - he was intent on going."

"He may have gotten hurt! Everyone - go and stop him!"

The Noah of desire sighed, running a hand through his long, black locks. His features twisted into a frown of displeasure, but he nodded. "Of course, Duke Millennium," he stated simply.

Stepping through the halls, he opened a door and stepped out. The sight that met his eyes caused him to stop short and stare in shock. Even Road upon his shoulder grew from limp to tense, her form transitioning from the doll to her true appearance.

"A…llen…?" she whispered, staring at the wreckage.

Almost on instinct, Sheril moved in front of her vision, trapping her behind himself in an unusually familial protective stance. His gaze narrowed and his arm extended towards Neah. His fingers began to move, the strings of dark matter extending from them.

To his relief, it seemed to hinder the white-haired creature, who was momentarily rendered helpless in the face of his strings. He relaxed at the sight, his hands moving the Noah away from the exorcist boy with the eyepatch. It was an abnormal move, to allow the exorcist to live, but he could feel it, even from this distance; the consciousness residing within the teen's body was not that of the 14th. In truth, it didn't seem to possess a consciousness at all.

His posture abruptly tensed as his fingers grew stiff. His gaze trailed back to the Noah who had begun to struggle, despite the complete manipulation he should have exercised over the body. His amber eyes widened as he could see the strings being forcibly severed by the 14th.

"Allen!" Road shrieked.

Sheril stiffened further. It was the first time he had heard such a tone elicit from his darling daughter's lips; she always seemed so composed, even under her guise of a child, despite being the first disciple of Noah. Immediately, he wrapped his strings around her body, preventing her from dashing for the white-haired life.

"Road, don't," he rebuked, his voice strewn with hints of fear. She could not move under his hold, he realized, but he did not relinquish his grip. "Don't go near him."

Glancing back, he spotted his fellow Noah beginning to flank him as they surveyed the damage and the source of the destruction. His lips curled into a frown. The only ones missing were Wisely and the Millennium Earl. Come to think of it, he had not seen the other white-haired Noah since the incident of that morning.

"That boy…" Tyki murmured, pulling his cigarette from between his teeth and allowing it to drop to the ground. Sheril glanced over at his brother to see the grim expression in Tyki's golden eyes.

"Let go of me!" Road screeched, Sheril having loosened his grip enough for her to speak. "I need to get to him! Let me go!"

"Road, no," Tyki stated monotonously, his eyes drifting over to her.

She glared at him with eyes that were on the verge of angered tears. The utter desperation in her gaze was enough to cause him to move back slightly.

"He is untameable. Let him be."

The eyes of the remaining Noah turned to stare at the one other woman, who ignored them all in favour of watching the desolation unfold before her eyes.

"Let me get to him!" Road demanded once again, her voice catching in her throat as for the first time, tears spilled from her eyes that were not caused by the death of a family member.

Shocked eyes stared at her, but she ignored them all. "Let me go!" she screamed once again, her amber gaze fixed upon the white-haired male upon the battleground. "I need to get to him - I can't leave him like this! I…I love him…"

Even with the confession in mind, Sheril allowed his grip to tighten once again as he remorsefully put an end to her speech. He didn't want to hear any of this any longer. If he did, he would most likely release her, only for her to rush to her death at the hands of that monstrosity that raged.

As a father, it was his responsibility to ensure the wellbeing of his daughter, and if that included preventing her from obtaining what she wanted, then he would do it. He could not allow her to face that beast that took no sides below them.

"Sheril, you stay here with Road," Tyki stated tonelessly. His amber gaze drifted to the rest of the Noah. "Tryde, Fiddler, Mercym, twins, Lulu, Mightra. Let's subdue him."

"No!" The high-pitched howl left Road's lips as she relentlessly struggled against the ability of her adoptive father in attempts to free herself. "Don't! Not…not this! Not again!" she screamed, her voice growing hoarse with exertion.

Her endeavor to continue to speak was abruptly terminated by Sheril, who unwillingly shot a stern glare in her direction. "Road, you will not stop them," he reprimanded. His eyes drifted over to his brother and he nodded. "I'll try to help you. I can hinder him, but I can't manipulate him for long."

A nod was the simple response he received as the Noah of pleasure was flanked by the remaining Noah, save that of dreams, desire, destruction, and wisdom. The line of eight filed towards the Headquarters, for once having no intention of doing harm to the exorcists.

Their path was abruptly cleared of both akuma and exorcists, and the obvious despondency washed over the umber bodies as the sight of more Noah stole their final glimpses of hope from them.

Tyki's gaze met that of the Noah of destruction, provoking an unwanted shudder to run down his back. Whatever had happened thirty-five years prior was known to only four Noah, but staring into that insanity-laced gaze that somehow retained its inhuman beauty, he was inundated by the sudden realization of what just may have occurred.

"Hello, dear family."

The voice was near mocking, and dripped with patronizing cynicism. Tyki stared down at the white-haired body, removing his gloves from his dark hands and tucking them into his jacket with a certain grace that harboured an underlay of threat.

"Hello, 14th of destruction."

Yay I don't know what's going on. Neah, what's wrong with you