Here's chapter 17 dear readers, a little earlier as I have to leave soon ^.^"
There's a lot of explanation stuff in this chapter, but much of it is my imagination and not really canon so bear with me once again ^.^ And people finally remember that Kanda is right there for goodness sake
D Gray-man belongs to Hoshino Katsura~
Broken Moonlight
Chapter 17: Wane
The vaguely amused expressions in the eyes of both twins caused the confusion to shine more prominently within Allen's eyes as he looked from one to the other in puzzlement.
Neah nodded. "I was the first to become a Noah," he stated. "It's both terrifying and lonely when you can't accept it. The hatred you have for humanity is something that most Noah don't have to contend with and just accept. When I saw that, it scared me. Even though I was a Noah, I didn't want to become like that. If I hated humanity, I hated Mana, and that was something I didn't want to accept."
"Of course, that was before he knew that I too was a Noah," Mana interjected mildly.
"When I did discover that Mana was a Noah, I could not let him undergo his transformation," Neah continued. "It was too painful a thing to think about; like I said, Mana is the most beautiful person I know, both in appearance and personality. To imagine him becoming a being controlled by hatred was something I didn't want to see. And yet…there is no running from the Noah. No matter how far you run, you will never escape it."
"I stayed with Neah even when he became a Noah, because he was my only family and and I loved him too much to leave him, even if he had the other Noah. But there was a time where I was about to transform into a Noah. That was when Neah 'killed' me," Mana explained.
"I thought I had, at least," Neah interjected. "Even before he became a Noah, Mana was already loved by the family. I'm not surprised - it's hard to not like him."
"I beg to differ," Mana interrupted mildly. Neah chuckled faintly before resuming.
"I was then driven by a blind rage at the Noah for making Mana suffer all of this. In that rage, I went and killed the other Noah. When I returned to where Mana was, I found Road with him. Some sense managed to get into me then, and I knew I couldn't stay, so I fled."
"He didn't know that I had already gone through the process of becoming a Noah, and when he killed me, I think that may have brainwashed me somewhat. I remembered who Neah was, but I seemed to have forgotten who I was. I knew who Mana was, but I didn't know that I was Mana."
The twins paused for a few moments, their gazes losing some of their lustre.
"I, in human form, had returned to the place we called home once, after I had awakened, to see if it would bring back the gaps in my memories. I saw Neah, in the form of the Millennium Earl, holding our mother," Mana continued.
"I was lost within my anger," Neah admitted, "I hated everything - especially my mother who had birthed Mana into all his suffering. But when I saw Mana…"
"That was when I killed him," Mana interrupted, noting Neah's discomfort with the subject. "The despair that I felt caused me to kill him before Mother's body. The strange thing was, I recognized Mother, but I could not recognize Neah… I did recognize the name he had called while fighting. He had said that he had done it all for Mana." Mana sighed softly.
"When I killed Neah, the memories of destruction left him and threatened to kill what it had called an 'inadequate vessel. I, having already killed Neah myself, couldn't bear the thought of harming him more. I begged Destruction to stop, and eventually took Neah's sword to force it to lay dormant in his body. However, being half the Millennium Earl, Destruction had utilized telepathic powers to transport its memory into my mind creating my memory of the event to be from an its perspective, and I saw Mana holding Neah… The Mana I loathed. When I returned to the ark, I saw myself in a mirror, and I realized that I looked like Mana. Not knowing that I was Mana, I cursed the image and destroyed my own body because I loved Neah, and Neah loved Mana."
"I found out the truth about the Millennium Earl, and whether you knew it or not, I made a deal with Red, a person from thirty-five years ago who would not let me die. That was you, Allen." Neah continued. "I think that the Noah genes in your body may have prevented you from ageing. And somewhere in that time, Mana found you."
"But...Mana was a travelling clown, wasn't he?" Allen queried, his eyes still blank as he attempted to register what his mind was being fed.
"That's why, as the Millennium Earl, I felt empty," Mana responded gently. "Not only was I missing my other half, Neah, but parts of my own soul too, that had been embedded into the body of another when Neah had 'killed' me and scattered it with his sword. Even though I had no knowledge of the Noah and akuma in that body, I did remember Nea, and that left me a little...unhinged, you could say."
"A little?" both Neah and Allen challenged skeptically.
"You mock-hanged yourself when the group's dog died!" Allen yelped indignantly.
"Maybe a bit more than a little," Mana remedied, a bead of sweat running down his forehead as he chuckled. "Nonetheless, as things went, I adopted you and raised you. And when I died, the Earl came to retrieve the remainder of my soul, turning my body into that of an akuma. However, I managed to leave you with your curse, and you destroyed that body before it could manifest into something dangerous."
"I think you know how things proceeded from there," Neah finished.
Allen was silent for a few moments as he processed the thoughts than ran through his head. He frowned. "So I was the adoptive son and nephew of the Millennium Earl?" he questioned, his voice near breathy with disbelief at the revelation.
"Yes," they responded in synchronization.
"And as your father, I need to apologize to you," Mana continued, remorse within his amber gaze.
"As your uncle, I think I should apologize to you too," Neah added.
"...but how can you be two halves of one whole if your representations are different?" Allen inquired, a frown crossing his lips. The two smiled faintly.
"Neah is Noah's destruction," Mana began.
"While Adam is Noah's creation," Neah finished. "The Millennium Earl is Noah's balance."
"Noah...of creation?" Allen interjected.
"How else did I create akuma and the ark?" Mana chuckled. "Although Mightra is the ability of Noah, his skills are limited to inanimate things."
Allen nodded silently, his gaze lowering to the ground as he contemplated on the newfound information. It had barely sunk in, but the shock was quite real, he knew. Only upon regaining control of his body was he told all of this, and succeeding the destruction that had been wreaked upon the island that he had once called home.
Neah stepped away from his older twin, releasing his grip on their hands as he moved back to the body of the Earl, staring at it while he retrieved his sword. His gaze narrowed slightly and he stepped away from the body quickly, almost as if being within close range of it would contaminate him.
"I suppose after all the chaos we've caused, we need to repent," he stated, glancing over at Mana, who nodded in response.
"For the grief that I've caused both the world and my dear brother, I must remedy it somehow," he stated. His gaze drifted back to Allen and he smiled. "Allen, do you know what the balance of Noah's destruction and creation add up to?" he questioned mildly.
"Eh…?" The white-haired exorcist could only stare dumbly at his adoptive father, not even having registered the question for all the other thoughts that were running through his head.
"Genesis," Mana stated simply. "The destruction of the old and the birth of the new from the destruction. Origin. That is Noah's balance."
Reaching out, Mana retrieved the sword of exorcism from the ground. "….I'll be borrowing this for a while," he informed softly, testing the object in his hand.
"Wait- how can you stand that if you're a Noah?" Allen questioned, the fact having troubled his mind for a while now.
"Mana is beautiful," Neah stated simply, smiling warmly at his twin, who in turn rolled his eyes, not unkindly.
"If it wanted to resist me, it could," Mana responded to Allen, holding the sword carefully in both hands. "As long as it does not turn against me, it cannot harm me."
"Even the Innocence likes him," Neah interjected, a playful hint in his tone.
"..." Allen's eyes drifted from one to the other, slowly beginning to tear up once again as he watched them. Noting this, the two ceased their well-meant jesting and stepped closer to him with worried frowns.
"Allen..?" Neah ventured.
"Did we say anything wrong?" Mana asked gently.
Allen buried his face in his hands for the briefest of moments before lifting his head to look at them, a smile printed on his face despite the streamlets of water that dripped down his cheeks.
"I feel like I have a family again…" he mumbled, his voice cracking slightly.
The twins exchanged a look before the two wrapped the younger exorcist in a gentle grip, smiling fondly.
"We're a terrible excuse for a family," Neah stated.
"But we'll remedy that from now onwards," Mana promised.
The two stepped away from Allen with a smile and lifted their swords, brandishing the weapons that were so similar in build and marking, yet inverse in colour.
"Shall we?" Neah questioned, glancing over to his long-haired older twin, his hand proffered towards him.
"We shall," Mana concurred with a soft smile, taking Neah's hand in his own.
As they stood amidst the barren ground, stained by the blood of both Noah and exorcists, they lifted the broadswords in their hands, and directed the tip towards the ground.
"As Balance, we will create Genesis together," they stated simultaneously.
In perfect synchronization, their weapon-brandishing arms brought the broadswords down upon the ground, penetrating the solid surface and driving the swords hilt-deep into the earth. Silently, the knelt side by side, their hands still holding on to each other, and the hilts of their respective weapons.
The air stilled as not a sound left anyone present, due to either lack of life, or desire to maintain the silence lest breaking it resulted in disaster.
After nearly a minute, they stood, hand in hand, releasing the broadswords. Beams of bright light and dark energy illuminated the respective blades, merging with each other before the two Noah and growing in quantity, beginning to spread over the land.
Whenever it settled upon a body, it remained there, shielding the figure from the destruction that surrounded it in a white forcefield-like barrier protected by crackling dark matter. Soon, the bloodstained field was covered with the shells of light that housed a lone body, devoid of life.
Allen stared, unsure of what to make of the situation. It was unlike any he had witnessed before, mainly due to the fact that the sight of both Innocence and dark matter collaborate with each other and not cause any destruction upon contact.
He blinked as the two forces surrounded his body and it began to heal over, regardless of how dire his injuries had been mere moments before. As he watched, shock embedded within his silver eyes, the bodies that had once laid mutilated and lifeless were restored to their original state, their wounds healing over until all that remained were thin, almost invisible scars.
Wisely, Tryde, Fiddler and the twins, which had now separated into two entities, reached up to their foreheads, nonplussed, as their stigmata began to bleed.
In attempts to staunch the bleeding, Wisely tightened his scarf around his forehead, only for it to easily soak through and continue to spill down his face like tears of crimson. Timcanpy flew around his head in circles, worriedly and a sigh of weariness passed his lips.
All of this had come to pass, and now the true genesis, as the twins had stated, would come to pass. All just as he had prevised. The only thing he hadn't expected was for that exorcist to do something so….drastic. From the looks of it, it seemed as though that had been his downfall.
And perhaps he hadn't expected the reunification of the true Millennium Earl either, but then again, who did? It was something considered an impossibility, even to the Noah themselves.
The land was otherwise silent, save for the faint snaps that emitted from the dark matter around the bodies. Soon, even that was muted as it began to disappear.
"Where… what happened…?"
The first to break the silence was Road, sitting up from the ground beside Sheril and looking around in confusion before recalling the events that had happened prior. Her eyes widened and she turned back, catching sight of the three figures that stood the small distance away. Shakily, she pushed herself to her feet and stepped towards them with wide eyes.
Allen could see that, despite her body having been repaired, she still bled from the stigmata that lined her forehead like a coronet.
The young first disciple stumbled over to where the two brothers stood and stared up at them wordlessly for a few moments before her lips parted. "Neah…? Mana?"
"Welcome back, Road," Mana stated with a smile. "I'm sorry for causing all of this."
"For the last time- it's my fault!" Neah contradicted, a frown on his face.
She laughed before leaping up and throwing her arms around both their necks, hanging onto them as she hugged them. "Thank goodness you've both returned to your senses- it's been a while," she responded, smiling at them.
"It has," Mana replied simply, wrapping an arm around her slender waist with joy lighting up his gaze.
"Yeah," Neah concurred, mimicking the motion. "The last time you saw me was when I was Allen, right?"
His words caused her to release them and turn back to where the white-haired exorcist was standing, staring dazedly at them. Turning, she ran up to Allen and reached up to his cheek, resting her hand upon it for a few moments as she inspected him silently. Her shorter figure relaxed as a relieved smile curled onto her face.
"Allen - you're back," she stated, her words tight within her throat. He could only nod in response, as she wrapped her arms around him, relaxing her head against his chest.
"No - Road! Don't go near that monster!" The mood killing cry left the dark lips of Sheril Kamelot as he scrambled to his feet, lifting his hand to pull her away; only to realize that no strings of dark matter appeared from his fingers. His narrow eyes widened as he stared down at his hands before lifting it to his bleeding stigmata.
Opening her eyes and turning to face him but not moving away from the Allen that merely stared dumbly at the events that unraveled before his eyes, she pouted and poked her tongue out petulantly. "I'm not going anywhere now that I've got the real Allen back."
"Eh? Ehhh?!" Allen near squeaked as he looked from one to the other, pointing at them, stunned. Road giggled and poked his cheek playfully.
Sheril could only stare, dumbfounded, as the situation registered in his mind. His amber gaze scanned the scene before him before landing upon the two translucent figures that stood, watching the scene with a vague amusement.
Before he could even speak, however, the bodies of both Noah and exorcists that had been brutally murdered by the 14th began to rise once again, one by one in near rapid succession, bodies healed of their wounds and confused looks trying to piece together the recent events.
"It seems as though the unprecedented events have grown even more unprecedented," Tyki stated, stepping up to his brother with his polite but not friendly smile upon his lips. In response, Sheril had nothing to say.
As the Noah gathered together upon re-awakening, Allen caught sight of the stigmata upon all their heads bleeding. Perplexed, he shifted his gaze back to Neah and Mana who merely watched from their distance in silence.
To his surprise, the Innocence and dark matter too had surrounded their bodies. It was quick to dissipate, and when it had, Allen noted the lack of translucence in their bodies. His eyes widened as they glanced at him, one with a familiar warmhearted smile, the other with mildly mischievous grin.
Road, noting the change, released Allen, only for him to stand still in a daze, his silver gaze fixed upon his assumed-dead adoptive family. She sighed and slipped behind him, reaching out and pushing him sharply towards the two.
Taking the initiative, he stumbled over to them, only for Neah to laugh, not unkindly, in amusement. He sighed and wrapped his own arms around the two of them, holding them close as a smile adorned his pale features. They, in turn, returned the embrace willingly.
"You won't have any more need for this, Allen. I remove your curse from you," Mana pronounced serenely, resting his hand over Allen's left eye. As he did so, Allen felt as though an immense weight had been lifted off his shoulders.
When Mana's hand drew back, he blinked and reached up to his eye. The scar was still present, he could tell from the slight disruption of skin and tissue upon his face. However, the burden that had acquainted itself with him seemed to have vanished.
As his grey eyes drifted up to look at Mana and Neah, he saw the familiar stigmata opening onto their foreheads as well, and beginning to bleed just like the other Noah.
As he glanced back, to the scene from where he stood with the twin brothers, he could see the silent tension that hung in the air. The exorcists that had awoken had made the rift between themselves and the Noah well known, the two groups standing abruptly apart from each other.
Between both of them lay the last body that had yet to rise. As the realization dawned upon him, he released the two Noah and ran for the body that lay pitifully still on the ground upon which flames still licked greedily. The forest too, was still ablaze, but the lives that had been returned to their bodies restored life to the previously dead battlefield.
He promptly knelt by the side of the long-haired exorcist, noting that no innocence or dark matter surrounded his figure. His eyes still remained partially opened, and their dullness squeezed painfully at Allen's chest. Almost shakily, he reached up to touch the cheek of the exorcist.
His hand stiffened. It was so cold… He had seen Kanda in a death-like state before, but the long-haired exorcist always recovered, After all, his regenerative ability characteristic of a second exorcist prevented him from being killed off so easily….right?
And yet, the feeling of dread that settled in his stomach was nauseating. It nearly made him want to vomit. However, he resisted the urge as he waited in silence for the raven to heal, wake up, and begin yelling at him for his stupidity.
Moments passed in deathly silence, and not a movement or a word escaped the lips of the onlookers as they surveyed the saddening sight that was laid out before their unaided eyes. Allen stared down at Kanda, dry-eyed as he waited.
"Allen…" The one that broke the silence was Neah, who had stepped up behind him and knelt down upon one knee to the left of him, laying a hand on Allen's shoulder. "Allen - the deaths of everyone were untimely, but he… He chose his own death," the younger twin murmured.
Mana flanked Allen's right side, a hand resting on that shoulder as he shifted closer. "He's gone, Allen…" the older twin whispered softly.
"No… No he isn't!" Allen suddenly snapped, tears accumulating in his eyes but refusing to spill down his cheeks. "He's not - he's BaKanda! He doesn't die just like that! He...doesn't…"
The younger of the two twins glanced up his eyes scanning the ruins of Headquarters before reaching out. Pulling apart the ruins from his distance, he retrieved eight flowers, one, a bouquet of seven, six of which were in full bloom, the other, a pitifully shriveled and brown flower.
Yay Neah is telekinetic apparently. And Kanda is noticed. But he's gone. -.-