A/N: Here we go, the second to last chapter...

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The Fourteenth Noah was instantly on edge when Allen walked into the room. The neko's ears were pinned flat against his head and his tail was thrashing from side to side. Add in the look in the teen's silver eyes, and it was clear he was incredibly agitated by whatever it was that had caused the feelings of distress that Neah had picked up. He had initially assumed that the kid had a fight with his boyfriend, but that was clearly not the case.

"What do you want, Neah?" Allen's tone, coupled with the fact that he wasn't speaking telepathically, only made the Noah more concerned for his wellbeing.

But before he could ask the neko what was wrong, someone else came into the room. Neah looked past Allen to the woman who had clearly followed him there. His golden eyes widened at the sight of her. "Natasha? What are you doing here?"

"You two know each other?" Allen looked from Neah to his mother before throwing his hands up with an irritated groan. "Of course you know each other, why wouldn't you?"

Neah turned his confused look from Natasha to the grumbling teenager. "I'm more interested in how you two know each other. She's not exactly someone you would see in your line of work. So, spill. How do you know Natasha?"

Allen crossed his arms and scowled at the Noah. "She's my mother."

Neah raised an eyebrow at the neko. "Your mother? As in, the woman who gave birth to you?!"

The teen shrugged. "Apparently. Though you probably know her better as the witch who cursed me."

It took Neah longer than he would ever admit to control the rage that bubbled up inside him. Allen laughed at the murderous thoughts the Noah unintentionally transmitted to him. "Relax, Neah. I already told you, my Innocence made me like this. She's already tried to undo her spell, but it wouldn't let her. Let it go."

Natasha smiled at the interaction between the two. She didn't know much about Neah, but she knew he wasn't a normal human, and clearly Allen knew that as well. Their interactions made it rather obvious that they had a connection that went well beyond friendship. "So how do you two know each other?"

Allen frowned at the question. There were so many possible answers to it and each was more complicated than the last. "I told you about Mana, my adoptive father. Well, Neah's his brother."

Neah quirked an eyebrow at his nephew. "Really? That's all you're going to tell her?"

The neko snorted. Given that I still don't know how you know her, I was waiting to find out what she already knows about you before I said more. Besides, telling her that you used to possess me seemed like a bad idea.

Natasha looked from one young man to the other. "What's going on?"

"You're not going to like the answer to that question." Cross spoke from where he had appeared in the doorway. Ignoring Natasha, as he was having a hard time processing that bomb she'd dropped on him, the redhead focused his stare on the Fourteenth Noah. "Neah."

"Marian." Neah's greeting was equally cold, but before he said more, he caught that same wave of distress from Allen that had brought him to headquarters. What's wrong? Why are you suddenly scared of Marian?

When Allen didn't respond, standing frozen like he'd seen a ghost, Neah read the kid's recent memories. The answer he found made him laugh so hard that he collapsed to the ground.

The Noah's laughter earned him a smack to the back of the head from a very upset neko. "I told you not to read my mind like that, Neah!"

"But I wanted to know, and you were never going to tell me!" The Fourteenth pouted at his former host.

Allen's tail curled behind him as he hissed at Neah. "That's because I didn't want you to know!"

Neah turned from the pouting neko to the two who were watching them bicker. He smirked devilishly at Cross. The redhead had figured out what was happening and was scowling at the Noah, daring him to say what he was thinking. The unspoken threat only made the Noah's smirk bigger. "So you did end up with an illegitimate child, Marian. I told you that you should have been more careful."

Allen winced at being described like that. It was still so hard for him to believe that Cross was actually his father. Ignoring the redhead and the Fourteenth as they shot insults back and forth, he carefully approached Natasha, who was looking very lost. He didn't know what to say to her, but he knew he should say something. Because as hard as it was to believe that Cross was his father, he had no trouble accepting Natasha as his mother, and he didn't like seeing her look so lost.

Mother and son shared an awkward smile, and all of Allen's uncertainty towards Natasha melted away. His ears perked up and his smile brightened as he guided her out of the entry hall. "You know that Neah's not entirely human, right Mum?"

She nodded; more than a little stunned that Allen would actually call her that. "Sort of. He mentioned that once, but he never explained."

The neko led the way into the small lounge next door. As they sat down, he explained the Noah and their role in the war as briefly as he could. "Anyway, Neah is the Fourteenth Noah. He betrayed the rest of the Noah several years ago and they killed him for it. He survived by implanting his memories in a human host, and when he awakened earlier this year, he joined our side."

He paused to let Natasha ask her question, even though he knew what it would be. "And how do you connect to all this?"

Allen sighed and began fiddling with his tail. He didn't want to have to tell her this part. But a gruff voice spoke, answering the question for him. "He was the host that Neah planted his memories in."

Natasha's silver eyes widened as she looked from Allen's grimace to where Cross was standing in the doorway with Neah. She had questions, but Cross didn't give her the chance to ask them. "And that's the part I don't understand. You should have disappeared when the Noah in you awoke. How did you survive that?"

Knowing Allen wouldn't say it, Neah answered for him. "We found a new host for me before I fully awakened."

As grateful as he was to be alive, Allen's caring spirit still hated that he'd had to sacrifice someone else to do it, and he felt the need to explain that to Cross. "Neither of us wanted him to take me over, and my Innocence would have fallen if he had, so we found someone else for him to take over."

Silence fell as Natasha and Cross processed everything they'd been told. Neah grinned at the others. "Speaking of that, I think I figured out how I ended up in Allen in the first place."

Allen turned in his seat to stare wide-eyed at the Noah, the ears on his head standing up straight. "Really?"

"Yep." Neah's grin turned smug as he pointed at Cross. "It's his fault."

The redhead nearly snarled at the Noah. "My fault? How is it my fault? Wasn't it your idiot brother who put you in the stray kid he picked up?"

Neah snorted. "First of all, Mana would never have done that to anyone, especially not Allen. And second, don't you think it's a little ironic that you spent thirty-some years looking for my host, only for it to turn out to be the illegitimate son you never knew you had?"

The pair continued to bicker back and forth, as Allen just sat there stunned. What Neah was suggesting made sense; Cross was one of his biggest supporters, it was believable that his memories had ended up in the man's child. And maybe it was wishful thinking on the neko's part, but it made more sense that he ended up as Neah's host because he was Cross' son than because Mana had done it to him on purpose.

Natasha was also stunned by everything she'd just heard. So much of it was just plain disturbing, and she didn't like it. But it all seemed to have worked out somehow, so she put it aside and let her thoughts turn from what Allen had been through to the neko himself. The cat ears on his head made it hard to look at him, not just because they were a reminder of the stupidest thing she had ever done, but because he never got mad at her for it. Even the way he sat there fiddling with his tail screamed his acceptance of that situation. But he had taken it further than just acceptance. The way he smiled at her when their gazes locked made it quite clear that he loved her; he'd only known her for a few hours, but he already loved her. And that had been her greatest fear, that her son would reject her when she finally found him. It blew her mind that he was already willing to call her "Mum".

Eventually Neah and Cross grew tired of bickering, and the room fell silent. No one really knew what to say next. Well, Allen had a topic in mind, but it took him a bit to work up the nerve to ask what he was thinking. "Can we keep this a secret?"

Natasha blinked at the neko and pushed herself out of her seat. What he was suggesting hurt her deeply. She had thought that he had accepted her. "Are you embarrassed by me?"

Seeing how hurt she was, Allen hurried to correct her. He hopped up and gave her an awkward hug. "No, Mum, never. We may have met under bizarre circumstances, but I'm so happy to have found you. You're not the problem, he is."

Cross narrowed his eye at the neko as the teen gestured at him. He knew exactly what the neko was suggesting, and was unsure whether or not he should be offended by it. "You're talking about not telling the Order that I'm your father."

Allen nodded, forcing himself not to wince at the phrase. "Yeah. Obviously, Komui already knows, and I'll probably end up telling Kanda, but I'm worried about what will happen if this gets out. Neither of us are Central's favorites, and there's no telling how they'll react to this."

There was a lot of truth to what Allen was saying, but Cross would never admit to that. "You just don't want your friends to tease you over this."

The neko snorted at the very true accusation. "Oh, like you want Teidoll or Klaud to find out that you have a kid?"

"Touché."

Neah shrugged when Allen looked to him. "I see no reason to tell anyone."

When the neko turned back to Natasha, she pulled him back into a hug and ruffled his hair. "I want to meet all of your friends though. How am I supposed to do that if we're keeping this a secret?"

Allen laughed lightly at her confusion. "Just don't tell them who my father is, Mum."

The tender moment was interrupted by Cross, who was more than a little uncomfortable with the whole situation. "If you want to keep this a secret, you should probably go explain that to Komui before he runs his mouth off to someone."

"Ah, right." Allen pulled away from his mother's hug, but Neah stopped him from going anywhere.

"I'll do it. I have to go talk to him anyway." The Noah smirked devilishly at Cross before he turned his attention back to where Natasha and Allen were standing. "Why don't you come with me, Natasha? Let's give these two a moment alone."

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A/N #2: See you in two weeks for the final chapter, and then it's on to the sequel!