The New 14th Noah

Allen grunted as his eye activated. He ignored it though and went back to sleep. At the moment, the eye was just another annoyance with the pain. He'd deal with that problem later.

He was too tired and in too much pain to realize that the curse would be a BIG problem with all the Akuma around. A real big problem.

All of that day and throughout the night, Tyki had watched over Allen as he slept. Allen had a few spouts of pain but it was nothing a quick tune couldn't calm. the other Noah and the Earl hcame to visit him throughout the day, Lullebell even came to see him, but Tyki made sure that he wasn't disturbed in his sleep.

the next morning Tyki was found on the other couch with his top hat still by the piano. Candy wrappers were found askew around where he was aleep in an upright position; since he couldn't smoke around Allen and he would get fidgety once an hour he was almost constantly sucking on candy to keep his nerves down.Tyki had just passed out a few hours ago and now was out like a light, dreaming of Allen playing cards with him and his mining buddies and allen this time was stripped down to his boxers and everyone was having a good laugh about it

Allen, meanwhile, was wide-awake. He felt sore all over, but it was no worse than returning from a mission with the pulp beaten out of him by Akuma. He stretched and cringed when his muscles screamed in complaint. 'Okay, I'm not quite ready to be up and about,' he thought.

He got up anyway and waved a hand in front of Tyki's face. There was no response. 'Guess I can't ask about breakfast.' He grinned and glanced around for a marker or a pen. He saw one on the table next to a few papers. Even before he uncapped the pen, he had a nagging feeling. He had to let his friends know he was okay. Noah or not, Allen knew that Lavi and Lenalee were worried sick about him.

After scribbling a quick note of "I'm okay. Don't worry about me," Allen opened the door in the parlor. The sun was already bright in the ark--if it had ever set, that is.

Allen glanced around and saw an Akuma in a made uniform a few feet away. He recognized it instantly as a Level 2. "Hey! Akuma!" he hissed.

The Akuma looked over at Allen, surprised. "Master Noah, shouldn't you be resting? In your condition--"

"Never mind that," Allen said. He thrust the note into the Akuma's hands. "Deliver this message to the exorcists Lenalee and Lavi. Don't tell anyone about it, either--not even the Earl. And don't look at it either!" he cried when the Akuma went to read the note.

The Akuma nodded, confused. "Lenalee is the young female exorcist and Lavi is Bookman Jr., right?" The Akuma turned and left before Allen could reply. It didn't need confirmation because it already knew. Akuma were able to understand commands because they knew exactly what the Noah wanted them to know. It was how the Earl had created them, after all.

Allen watched the Akuma leave and went back into the parlor. He then grinned evilly as he drew on Tyki's face. Once he was finished drawing mustaches and other silly things on the sleeping Noah's face, he sat back on the couch and waited for Tyki to wake up. He wasn't about to wake the person who'd stayed up and watched over him all night, after all.

it was only a few hours after Tyki had passed out when a ray of light caught his eye when Allen openned he door. The light was enought to stirr him out of a deep slumber but he stilldidn't feel like getting up. A little bit afterwards he felt something run across his upper lip and around his eyes. Tyki frowned in his sleep and he thought tohimself, That little...well at least he's able to get up and walk around a little. "Very funny Allen." Tyki said to Allen in a monotone voice while his eyes were still closed and the ink seemed to be absorbed by his skin but acctually he let it phase through him and the sofa. He opened his eyes and looked at his new brother and smirked, "How're you feeling?" he asked in curiostity. Tyki knew he couldn't be too much better but he wanted to hear it from Allen.

"A little achy, I guess," Allen replied. He couldn't help but grin. "I'm starving, too. When do we eat? I can't wait to stuff myself!" The only thing he'd had yesterday was a piece of hard candy, after all.

He glanced around. The others didn't seem to be up yet. If they were, they weren't in the parlor. "Where're the others?" he asked. He hoped they hadn't seen him passing that note along with the Akuma. He knew the Akuma wouldn't blab because he'd told it not to, but if someone had seen... he'd have a really hard time explaining that one.

Tyki grabbed one of the last pieces of candy from the bowl, unwrapped it and started to suck on it; he still was figdetty from not being able to smoke. as he began playing with the candy in his mouth, he replied. "Everyone else is off doing there own thing at the moment. The Earl is still sleeping, Roads probably either still dreaming or playing around with Lero and Jasdevi just keep to themselves in their own room. We'll know when breakfast is ready when one of the akuma maids come around to anounce its served; we don't eat until the Earl is awake and he's good and ready to eat, which is usually around 10:30ish. Speaking of which..." Tyki grabbed a bell that was sitting on the coffee table and rang it. Not long after, an akuma maid appeared and Tyki asked it, "Can You refill Skin's bowl? I had quite a sweet tooth yesterday."

The akuma nodded it's head, came in and grabbed the bowl and left without a word.

Tyki waited for the door to shut when he started up again, "It's good to hear you're better today but I highly doubt that the stigma has run it's course fully...does you're arm feel any different today?"

Allen blinked. "My... arm?" He pulled looked at his left hand.

It still moved, although a little more slowly than he was used to. It hurt as much as the rest of him, so he didn't think much of it when he'd woken up. The cross made of Innocence that was imbedded in the back of his hand seemed to have dulled--it was no longer the shimmering green it had been for so long. It seemed to have turned a dull red.

Allen closed his eyes and took a deep breath. 'Active,' he thought. His arm reacted and the Crown Clown did appear, but in a new form.

The new Crown Clown was all black except for his Claw Edge, which was pure white. It looked as if it had flipped colors. It also felt cold. None of the once familiar warmth remained to the invocation.

"What is this...?" Allen asked.

Tyki jumped out of his chair and activated his white cross blades at the sight of his Innocence. However Tyki looked at it a second time and realized that it was different. His blades meldded back into Tease the Fluttered about the room and Tyki went over to examine Allen's Innocence. Tyki hesitantly reached out towaards Allen's left wrist and eventually he grabbed it. after a few moments Tyki finally said, "This is so strange...I can tell it's still Innocence because i can't phase through it...but...it's not hurting me."

Tyki continues to hold Allen's arm and he held his chin in thought, well, he thought ot himself, he did have a few spazems during the night...but i couldn't tell what was happening to him....maybe the Stigma did run it's course. "I think..." Tyki finally added, "that your Innocence has addapted to the Noah gene...I mean, It's changed before, thanks to me, which i still am sorry for, but... I think it's changed again but this time...it like it reversed itself." Tyki looked at the glow of his arm which was less like green and more like red. "If a normal excorsists innocence is green than this innocence is red...Like Red Innocence."

Tyki finally let go of Allen's arm and he said, "Why don't we wait one more day before you try to activate your arm again. I'm still questioning if the Stigma has ran its full course. This could be a temporary phase that might change when the stigma has settled in completely."

Tyki sat back down and then remembered about Allen's sleep talk last night and was curious about that. After Allen deactivated his arm Tyki asked in an awkward voice, "Oye Allen, I'm not sure how personal this question might be...but who's Mana?" Tyki looked at Allen with serious but not intense eyes as he waited for an answer.

"Eh? Mana was..." Allen thought for a moment. Did he have to hide that from Tyki? He decided it didn't matter if Tyki and the other Noah knew the truth. "Mana was my father--er--foster father. When he died, I tried to bring him back as an Akuma and got cursed." Allen sat back down on the couch and felt tears in his eyes, which he stubbornly rubbed away. He wasn't about to let Tyki see him cry. "I guess he was the reason I became an exorcist."

The Akuma came back and set the bowl on the table, bowed once for each Allen and Tyki and then left just as quickly.

"I thought this was going to be a touchy subject." Tyki grabbed another piece of candy and placed it in Allen's hand, "Here, candy makes everything better." he sat back down and thought about what Allen said and he thought about it for a minute. He was turned into an akuma huh... Tyki thoughts churned through his head when he finally thought of a possible problem....Could a Noah really be turned into a Akuma? "Say Allen..." Tyki added in the same awkwards voice, "do you remember what he looked like?"

"He had black hair and was a lot taller than I was." Allen thought harder. "I can't remember his face," Allen said, and the realization shocked him. "Why... why can't I remember?!" Everything swirled around him again--another attack. It was the worst pain he'd ever experienced, but whether it was from the stigma or the realization that his father was but a faded memory, Allen didn't know. He curled up on the couch and felt the tears he'd been holding back stream from his eyes.

Tyki pondered about it and he thought to himself, Black hair... did he have black hair?...wow, now i can't remeber either... "I was just curious because you-" tyki started but he was cut off when Allen started going into another cycle. Tyki went over to him quickly and forced Allen to lay out flat. It was better for him to lie flat instead of curling up because the stigma was able to settle easier when he was laying out. Tyki held his head down gently to keep him from moving so much and he started singing again.

one of the Tease went over and rang the bell and sooin enough that akuma came into the room again. Tyki took a small break in his song to yell at it, "Go get Road and Jasdevi, I need help down here!" Tyki returned back to it quickly as he held down Allen to controll his thrashing, hoping he'd stop soon.

The song wasn't enough. His body felt like it was on fire and under a huge amount of pressure. Everything was spinning again.

Allen could barely feel Tyki forcing him to lie straight. He didn't see the Akuma run in at the sound of the bell. Everything was burried under the pain.

The Earl awoke hearing noise. He slowly got up and walked to the room Tyki and Allen were in. Seeing what Tyki was trying to do, the Earl yawned and walked to the piano and sat down. Slowly, he stretched and laid his fingers on the keys and started playing the song. " It too early for this." The Earl yawned again.