Sooo... I bet everyone hates me don't they? I can't believe that I basically abandoned this story after saying that I hated people who did that. I have an excuse though (several actually) I met the love of my life and hopefully soon to be Mr Aerika a little over a year ago and he has stolen all my time- I have become addicted to Minecraft thanks to said love of my life- I took on more stuff at work so I could no longer write during the day- I wrote bits and pieces over the summer ready to start to finish this fic in the autumn... and had a crash on my motorbike. So, twice broken right leg, once broken left leg, both broken wrists, broken neck and badly broken face (nose, eyesockets, upper jaw, lower jaw, cheekbones) later, and I have regained enough consciousness and ease of movement when it comes to typing to get back into the swing of things.

So I do apologise for this and hope I haven't given many people a heart attack when they saw that I updated. Thank you so much to the people who have reviewed and encouraged me to finish this fic- it was greatly appreciated.

Chapter 6

Neah stared in shock at the figure standing at the entrance to the cave he was currently squatting in. Never in his wildest dreams did he even imagine that his plan could have gone so spectacularly wrong. His call was supposed to have attracted an Akuma, one hopefully stupid enough to see him and think 'Noah' rather than be able to think for itself. But no, not only did karma hate him, she thought that he deserved to be royally fucked too, for not only was another Noah standing in the entrance of the cave, it was none other than Tyki Mikk.

Neah threw his arms into the air with a put-upon sigh. There was no way he'd be able to fight Tyki- certainly not if he wanted to live at any rate. "Fantastic. Just the man I wanted to see" he drawled sarcastically, cocking his head to one side. Tyki looked a little shell-shocked. Perhaps Neah should have taken the chance and charged at him- maybe he could have thrown him off the mountain. "Are you coming in or are you planning on standing in the doorway all night?"

Tyki jumped, startled, and took a few steps inside out of the weather, shaking snow from his hair as he did so. "Walker?"

"Guess again, genius."

Tyki stumbled, spreading a hand out across the wall to keep his balance as he stared disbelieving at the figure sprawled lazily on the floor. He took a couple of wobbly steps forward before collapsing to his knees beside Neah and gripping his face between both hands, turning it this way and that, taking in the pale skin, yellow-green eyes and hair that was darker than the brown that he remembered on Allen Walker when they met in Beauvais. "Neah?" he breathed, as though he hardly dared to believe his own eyes.

"Hello lover" Neah smirked back, an expression that was lost when Tyki swept down and kissed him firmly.

Tyki looked up in surprise when the door to the room he and Neah usually shared was flung open and the Noah stumbled gracelessly through the door, falling to his knees just over the threshold as the door swung closed behind him.
He jumped to his feet and ran to Neah's side, dropping to the floor beside him and wrapping his arms around the other Noah's trembling shoulders. "What the hell happened to you?" he asked as Neah collapsed into him, his face pale and sweat-beaded.
Neah tried to push him away, his hands fluttering like leaves on the wind. "Nothing, it's fine."
"Don't even think about trying to lie to me, I can see that it's not fine!" Tyki snarled, giving Neah a little shake. "Now, tell me what happened!"
Neah wouldn't meet his eyes. "It's nothing Tyki, just leave it." He got to his feet shakily, one hand moving to the small of his back as he used the door to haul himself upright. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get my things."
"What are you talking about?" Tyki asked, still sitting on the floor. "What things? Where are you going?"
"To my own room" Neah replied shortly as he grabbed a bag and began stuffing clothes into it hurriedly. Tears gathered in his eyes and he dashed them away roughly, determined not to let Tyki see him upset. He had to get out of here before the Earl's time limit of one hour ran out. He didn't even want to begin to imagine what would happen to Tyki if he outstayed his welcome.
Tyki jumped to his feet, reaching out and grasping Neah's wrist as he shoved more clothes into the bag resting on the bed. "No, there's something wrong, and you're going to tell me what it is! What did he say to you? What did he do to you?" When the shorter man didn't reply, Tyki shook the thin wrist he held sharply. "Dammit Neah, talk to me!"
Neah didn't look at him, but he reached over and gently disengaged Tyki's grip on his arm. "It doesn't matter. I just need to stay in my own room from now on."
"NO!" Tyki yelled angrily. "That's not good enough! I love you! Why are you doing this? What did the Earl do?!"
"Nothing! He didn't do anything alright!"
"Neah..." Tyki tried, his voice gentling as he put his arms around his shaking lover. "Please... I can't stand to see you like this, please, tell me what's going on!" he begged, the sight of Neah's tears tugging at his heart.
Neah tried to shrug off his arms, but he was shaking too much to do anything effectually, and only succeeded in half-dislodging Tyki's arm which shifted and dragged Neah's loose shirt from his shoulder.
Tyki's next words were stopped dead in his mouth when he saw the ugly purple bruise on the smaller man's shoulder- no, not a bruise... it was a bite mark. A mark that Tyki knew for sure that he had not put there. It was large and brutal, red where teeth had broken the skin and Tyki knew that it had not been caused by anything that resembled affection.
Neah must have noticed his sudden stillness because he jumped away, dragging the sleeve back up his arm and keeping his eyes firmly fixed on the floor, not looking anywhere near where Tyki stood, frozen in horror as he stared at Neah with wide golden eyes.
"Neah..." he whispered. "Why?"
Neah still couldn't meet his eyes as he continued to put his clothes away in the bag. "I had to."
"But... but...why?" TYki implored, confusion all over his handsome face.
Neah smiled sadly, his eyes, so desperate and heartbreakingly distressed, finally rose up to look at Tyki. "Because the Earl wants me, and he'll go through you to get me."
"You can't do this! I'm not worth that! Nothing is!"
"You are. I have to."
"Neah, no. I'm not worth you giving yourself over to that... that man. Nothing is worth having to-"
"Tyki, love, honestly, you think I'd rather see you dead by his hand? He may have my body but he'll never have my heart- that belongs only to you. This arrangement will only last until I know you're safe and I can rid us of that menace forever."
"Get rid of the Earl? Neah, what are you talking about?"
"That man... that monster- I hate him Tyki. And I'll do anything and everything in my power to make him pay. Whatever it takes" Neah swore vehemently, his hands fisting at his sides. Tyki walked to his side and placed a hand on his shoulder, trying to offer comfort but knowing that nothing he could say or do would help his lover.
"I understand. Do what you have to do. But know this- I love you, I will always love you. I will always be here for you. I will do anything to help you, but I need you to trust me, to tell me everything."
Neah sighed, knowing that Tyki would not be dissuaded. "Alright. You see..."

Tyki couldn't believe what he was seeing- Neah, his Neah, alive and well and in the body of disgraced exorcist Allen Walker. His life had never been conventional but this was beyond bizarre. After he had finally got over the fact that his ex-lover was sitting in this dank cave halfway up a mountain, he could move onto the more important topics.
"Where the hell have you been?" he asked helplessly, staring across the campfire that he had lit in the middle of the small cavern at the other Noah. Neah was looking a little worse for wear- thin and drawn and tired, but he seemed cheerful enough, knees pulled up to his chest with his arms looped loosely around them, staring into the depth of the flames.

The other man sighed. "After I left you, I tried to find a way to defeat the Earl, but there was nothing. No clue- I had no idea where to start and every time I thought I was getting close, he would call for me. I think he knew what I was up to, but he never said anything. I think I must have never posed much of a threat to him if he never tried to stop me from researching..." Neah sighed again, shuffling closer to the warmth of the fire. "But, one day, he just snapped- something I said, something I did... I still don't know what it was" which was a total lie, but there was no way that Neah was going to tell Tyki that the Earl had threatened to take the older Noah in Neah's place. The threat against the man he loved had been the final straw and Neah had forgotten all of his careful plans and smart theories and blindly attacked the older man. He hadn't stood a chance. "He killed me. I don't remember much about it, but I think it was pretty violent." He shook his head. "Then the next thing I remember I was awake inside this child. I had no idea how it had happened, why my memories had been awoken in this strange little boy, but as time went on I realised that my memories had not awoken- this boy was not the newest 14th Noah, he was just a little homeless child. I was forced to watch him grow up- aware but unable to influence. It was hard- and the worst thing was, this child bore innocence- he was destined to be an exorcist." Neah rubbed his arms against the goosebumps that had risen there. Those early years, before Allen had met Mana, had been tough and hard- there had been times when he didn't think that the young child would survive.
"Mana found us. He must have known who we were, though he never told Allen ay of it. I don't know how he found us... it had been years, so he couldn't have been watching from the start..." Neah sighed again, shaking his head ruefully. He still didn't understand how it was that his brother had finally managed to track him down, but he had recognised this elder sibling almost immediately, despite the clown costume. The little, then nameless, boy had approached the man to mourn the dead dog, but Neah had wondered often in the years since whether something else had drawn these two together. He had never found out. When Mana had died, he had been so overcome with grief that he had retreated into the dark, and had not become aware until the Earl stood before Allen, offering to bring Mana back to life. He had been unable to stop his brother's rebirth as an Akuma, and though he was grateful that Allen's innocence had awoken and freed Mana's trapped soul, he had hated the boy for being so weak. The curse was apt- a reminder of the suffering that Allen had inflicted on his own adopted father. Neah still hated Allen a little bit for that moment of weakness.
"And now you have control of this body, what will you do? Stay hidden? Try to fight the Earl?" Tyki asked, standing and moving to sit next to the younger man.
"No. I am going to save Allen Walker from disappearing completely, and help him in any way I can. This is not my war any more, but that doesn't mean I can't help Allen do what he needs to."

Tyki stared at his ex-lover's face for several moments, stunned into silence. Ever since the Earl had forced himself onto the young Noah, all Neah had wanted was to get his revenge- but now… he was giving it all up for this boy, this... this exorcist? He couldn't even begin to understand.
"Why?" he implored when it became clear that Neah wasn't going to offer a further explanation. "Why would you give it all up… for him?"
Neah's smile was small, but warm and soft and everything that Tyki did not expect to see on the face of any Noah when discussing a member of the Black Order.
"Because he's special" Neah said quietly, the smile not leaving his face even as he turned to face the older Noah and gaze earnestly into his amber eyes, willing him to understand. "He reminds me of myself, before all this happened. And look at what became of me when I gave into revenge! Allen could have so easily become me when the Order turned on him, he could have looked for revenge against those he had trusted, but he didn't!" By this point Neah's voice had risen to almost a shout and his hands were fisted in the front of Tyki's shirt. He cleared his throat awkwardly and shuffled back, lowering his voice to a normal level as he continued. "He tried to help them, even though they would condemn him for it, and when it seemed like it would become too much for him, he sought to remove himself from the world to keep people safe. Allen is everything I should have been when the Earl…" after all these years he still couldn't say it, "did what he did. If I had not sought revenge, if I had come to you and told you what I was doing instead of facing it all alone…" his throat constricted on a lump that he couldn't seem to breathe around, his face twisted with the force of not choking on the sobs that wanted to burst from him. There would be no point in allowing himself to break down- what's passed is past and he would do well to remember that. It was too late for him and Tyki now, but if he could save Allen then perhaps his own redemption would follow. He took a deep breath, the urge to cry diminishing as his the ache in his chest dulled. He would forever regret what had happened in those weeks following his first, but certainly not last, visit to the Earl, but it was too late to look back on it now and wish it was different. "Allen deserves life, and love, and everything that I denied myself twenty years ago. And as it is in my power to help him, I shall do so" he finished, raising pale eyes to stare defiantly at Tyki. "And you have three choices: You can help me, or you can go away from this place and pretend that you never saw me." Neah sighed, hoping against hope that Tyki would take either of these options. He didn't think his already broken heart could stand it if he chose number three. "Or you can take me now to the Earl, where who knows what he will do to us. Allen and Me. He won't kill us, not now- if he did that he'd have to wait for the essence of the Fourteenth Noah to be reborn again in a new body, and he won't want to have to start the search for me all over again. But a person can be dead and still breathe Tyki, and I'm sure you know that the Earl won't even think twice about doing it."

Tyki did indeed know, and he also knew that no matter what had happened between himself and Neah in the past, hell, even what had happened between him and Allen Walker, it was not a fate he would wish on either of them. He bowed his head with a sigh. "I'll help, just tell me what you need."

The explanation has been as short and simple. By going into a meditative state Neah hoped to be able to reach into the part of their mind that Allen was resting in and draw him out. Tyki still didn't like it- from the rather concise explanation, he gathered that it was not, in fact, as simple as Neah was making out to be, and there was no end to the list of things that could go wrong.
"Alright," Neah said, sitting on the floor with his legs folded in front of him, hands resting on his bent knees. "Allen is very weak right now, and I don't know how to wake him up. I need to talk with him, try and see if he'll come back to us without too much help on our parts, but," and he paused, scrunching up his face as he thought, "I'm not sure if that will work… he'd pretty much given up when we were in that cave. Between fighting the Akuma and fighting against me, he wore himself out. I'm not sure if he'll be up to coming back yet." He sighed, shaking his head "I just need to talk to him" he said again. He glanced up at Tyki who was sitting opposite him. "I don't know how long this will take, so I need you to look after us while I do this."
Tyki nodded shortly, his expression worried. He wasn't sure if this was a good idea, but when he'd tried to voice this opinion Neah had given him a stern glare and told him this was the only way. So Tyki had agreed, but that didn't mean he was happy about it.

"Alright, here we go." Neah closed his eyes and settled his breathing, drifting through the layers of their shared consciousness until he came to the part that was 'Allen'. It was perhaps even darker than it had been previously, the distant, flickering grey flame weak and at times almost disappearing all together. Neah flinched- this was going to be harder than he had thought. When he arrived at the odd corner-that-wasn't in which Allen had tucked his consciousness, he drew in a sharp breath. The figure was ghost-like, delicate and fragile and far too thin- a fluttering presence clinging to life by a rapidly unravelling thread.
Neah crouched beside the barely-there figure, sweeping stark white hair from Allen's forehead tenderly. As his fingers brushed Allen's skin, there was a small spark, barely noticeable even in the almost-dark, and Neah felt a small tug around his heart. When he looked down he saw that, though there was no difference to Allen's appearance, his breathing was a little more even, no longer catching as often as it had been before.
Neah sighed and lay beside the other man, propping himself up on one arm as he freed Allen's right hand from beneath his cheek, laying it between them. As soon as he touched bare skin, that same tugging feeling crept through him, making him feel tired and worn-out, as though he hadn't slept in a week. He lay down completely, noticing just before he closed his eyes that Allen looked a little more solid than he had when he had first arrived, his breathing calm and even and his face was flushed a little.
Then Neah only knew darkness.

Tyki stared in shock as the body of Allen Walker that contained the consciousness of his ex-lover collapsed sideways, slumping onto the hard wooden floor with his legs still tangled together, like a puppet with cut strings.
After several seconds of just looking at the boy sprawled uncomfortably across his floor, Tyki jumped his feet, falling to his knees beside the crumpled figure and turning him onto his back. He immediately became worried- there was hardly any movement in the body- scarcely a breath stirred his chest and his face was lax and still, pale to the point of illness but without the grey pallor of death. Tyki didn't quite know what to make of it. He tried shaking the body by the shoulders a few times, calling first the name of the Noah who he knew resided inside, then the name of the person that the body actually belonged to. He hoped that Allen would not be the one in control of the body - if Neah hadn't explained everything to him in the short time since he had entered their combined mind, then the exorcist was bound to get a shock waking up in the arms of his enemy.
However, no matter what he did (and that included a few pinches and slaps for good measure), neither Neah nor Allen opened their eyes.
Resigned to a night of vigil at Neah's (Allen's? Just what was he supposed to call him?) bedside, he scooped the body up and laid him on the only bed in the house, tucking the covers around his neck before taking his place in a chair beside the bed. It was going to be a long night.

The next day dawned bright and clear and Tyki stretched lazily, luxuriating in the slash of sunlight that fell across his body, warming and relaxing him to a greater degree than anything else had in some time. Although he could do with spending less time sitting in such a hard chair as he had last night.
That reminded him of his roommate and he glanced down at the figure in the bed. Nothing had changed overnight- in fact it looked as if Neah hadn't moved once- the covers were still smooth and unwrinkled and pulled up to his chin.
Tyki sighed, rubbing a hand over the back of his neck and he stood and stretched again, arching his back until he heard the satisfying pops of his joints settling back into place. Really, he was far too old to be sleeping upright on hard wooden chairs.
He reached out and lay a hand across Neah's forehead. The skin was not feverish as Tyki had expected given Neah's sudden collapse, it was cooler than a normal person's temperature, but not worryingly so. Unlike last night however, there was some life painted on the pale features- a delicate blush lit high cheek bones, picking out the scar that carved its way down Neah's left cheek. It felt strange to think of his ex-lover with the features of Allen Walker- the boy was outwardly so different to the previous incarnation of the Fourteenth Noah, although after Neah's impassioned rant before, he could see that the two were more alike than he could have ever imagined. He reached out to touch the scar softly. He wasn't sure what he expected- an indentation in the flesh, a rise? But there was no difference from the actual scar to the skin surrounding it. He traced it to the bottom where it tapered near Neah's jaw- as smooth as it had always been- Neah had never been able to grow facial hair, something that had annoyed him once upon a time- being the baby-faced Noah had always been Rhodes place, not his, and it appeared that seventeen year old Allen Walker suffered from the same inability, before following the gently twisting line back up his face, ending with his fingers running around the outline of the downturned pentagram. He swept downy brown hair, complete with its snowy white roots, away to see the face better.

Allen Walker had been a pretty boy. He had noticed that when he had first met the lad without even knowing who and what he was, but he had matured into a beautiful young man, unusual and exotic. Knowing that the man he had loved was living within such an exquisite shell brought a sly smile to his face. Neah was determined to save this boy's life, but if he couldn't and was forced to take the empty body as his own, well, Tyki didn't think that he's raise any objections.
He thought back to the graveyard in Beauvais, his reaction at seeing the then-disguised Allen Walker. The long brown hair and deep dark eyes had been pleasant, though not remarkable , shielding the beauty behind a veil of ordinariness, and he had flirted merely to wind up the Japanese exorcist.
Later, knowing who he was, and hearing the stories that Allen's roommate Josephine has told of Allen's exploits with the dark-haired exorcist, the strange need had crept back, twisting and burying and insinuating itself into his mind.

Slowly he leaned down, brushing his lips across the dry chapped ones of the still figure on the bed, feeling the small puff of air caress his face with every exhalation. He drew back, smirking to himself, reminded of the fairy tale where the prince woke the sleeping princess with a kiss.
As he watched the non-responsive form on the bed, a thought struck him. What would happen if this body died? It was a human body, easily dispatched, and the human soul along with it, but what of the Noah spirit that also called the fragile human shell home? Would the essence of the Fourteenth also die, or would it come to the forefront, taking over as permanent resident?
Could he risk it? If he succeeded, then he'd have Neah back. Even if the younger Noah hated him for doing it, he's eventually come round, and then they could go back to the way they were. They didn't even have to join the Earl once more- in fact that was probably the best idea- Neah should stay as far away from the Earl as possible. Tyki would not miss being one of the Earl's puppets, not if he had his lover by his side once more.

And if he failed, he'd be no worse off than he was now, would he?

Decisively, he tugged the pillow from beneath the head before clamping it across Allen's face. There was no struggle, no fight as he slowly suffocated the life out of the figure in the bed.

Neah woke up groggily, with the distinct feeling that something was very wrong. Beside him Allen didn't move except to twitch a finger, but even though it seemed like nothing had changed since Neah had arrived, he realised that that simply wasn't true. Even as he watched, Allen's face became a degree paler, his lips turning blue as though he couldn't breathe… Neah gasped out loud- Allen was suffocating! What the hell was going on? He snarled, scrambling to his feet. "TYKI MIKK! What the HELL do you think you are doing!?" he screamed into the air, but there was no answer, only the slowly decreasing breaths of the figure who lay beside him. Neah dropped to his knees at Allen's side. "Oh no you don't Walker, don't you even think about it! I haven't dragged you this far to have you give up now, you hear me you little bastard?"
He bent down low, his head resting on Allen's chest as he tried to listen to the faint heartbeat. It was decreasing rapidly and Allen's chest hardly moved with each hitching breath. "Damn you Tyki, what the hell were you thinking?" he muttered, wringing his hands together pathetically. He was no good in a crisis like this- he was a Noah- he took lives, he didn't save them!
Briefly, the thought that perhaps this was for the best crossed his mind. If Allen was gone… NO! He couldn't think like that- he didn't want Allen to die- he liked the boy too much to allow that to happen. Vaguely remembering instructions from a past life, another lifetime ago, he tilted Allen's chin back and clamped his fingers over his nose, not even knowing if he was doing this right, and pressed his mouth to Allen's, preparing to blow air in his ailing lungs. What he wasn't prepared for however, was the sudden flash of light that swept through their joined mind as soon as their lips touched, nor the darkness that followed.

Tyki didn't know how he knew, but he could see the moment that life left the already stock still body on the bed. It was as though every muscle had gone lax, though they hadn't been tensed to begin with, and he almost fancied he heard the last sighing breath whisper between dry lips.
He removed the pillow and waited. Hopefully if his theory was correct, Neah would be waking up any minute. Probably very pissed off, but alive and no longer the co-resident of a body. Fixing a welcoming, though smug smile on his face, Tyki sat back, lacing his fingers together across the pillow on his stomach, the very same pillow he had just used to smother his ex-lover (no, he told himself firmly, Allen Walker. I killed Allen Walker). The thought made him a little giddy- he had been trying to kill that accursed exorcists for so long now, and finally, finally he had done it- in the most simple and non-violent way- a gentle pillow over a sleeping face, and Allen never knew what was happening to him.
His attention was attracted by the flicking movement of a finger, a precursor to the whole hand movement that followed, almost jerking the limb from the bed. Another full-body twitch and then Neah was gasping, his head bowed back as his back arched, a hoarse scream falling from his lips.
"Neah, Neah, calm down, it's just me, it's Tyki, you're alright, it's okay…" Tyki murmured into the other Noah's ear, cradling him close and rocking him steadily. Gently he eased back, trying to look into the smaller man's eyes to judge how much trouble he was in.

As it turned out, he probably couldn't have been in more trouble than he was right then. But not because he was currently cradling his furious ex-lover who he could have just murdered, but because the eyes that looked back at him held no recognition at all. They were bright, aware, watching him curiously, but they were not Neah's eyes.

They were not even Allen Walker's.