A/N: Happy Valentine's Day! Surprise ~ We're moving into Phase 3 this week. But first, here's a quick overview of what I'd planned on covering during the rest of Phase 2 and the shift into Phase 3:
2D and Noodle grow closer in their friendship and Noodle begins to wonder why she feels so at ease when they're together. 2D has similar thoughts. Noodle begins to grow weary of Murdoc's judgments with the progression of Demon Days and they end up butting heads on a regular basis. Murdoc finally confides in Noodle that he's gotten into some trouble and needs her to go through with a risky music video shoot for El Manana in order to financially save Gorillaz' hide. She ends up agreeing to do the shoot, despite the dangers involved. However, she vanishes without a trace during filming. Murdoc is suspected for her disappearance, but he pledges that he has nothing to do with it. 2D is the last person that Noodle speaks to before she boards the Windmill. He expresses his concern over the situation, but she assures him that everything will be fine. After she goes missing, 2D blames himself for not stopping her from doing the music video. When weeks turn into months without word, he begins to lose himself in alcohol and pain pills, dropping contact with Murdoc and Russel all together until Murdoc steals him away to record tracks for Plastic Beach a few years later. Murdoc borrows some of 2D's lyric sheets for material to use on the new demos without his knowledge. 2D is then forced to sing the music he had conjured so long ago for a sleeping Noodle, which evolves into On Melancholy Hill. 2D misses Noodle and keeps her Tamagotchi pet alive, for some odd reason. He feels like if he keeps the virtual pet alive, it will keep Noodle's memory alive as well. Meanwhile, Noodle has been in hell for the past few years, held against her will by a strange force. She eventually escapes (visions and loud thumping led her out) and she winds up on an ocean shore where she's able to find refuge and recollect herself. Listening to a resident radio station changes her demeanor entirely. The reason she has fought so hard to get back, the reason she needs to keep endeavoring on—Music, what had happened to the music? The modern music was sickening and bland, mainstream tar that was rotting the minds of the youth. Where was the musical sense? Her mission has not yet been fulfilled and how foolish she was for nearly forgetting about it. What had happened to Gorillaz? She needs to find her band. She decides to begin her journey to find 2D, Murdoc, and Russel. She meets up with Russ not long after and the two of them come across Plastic Beach while it's under attack. Noodle saves 2D and Murdoc both from the chaos, destroys a cyborg that looks suspiciously like her, and gets shot in the chest in the process, causing her to pass out.
And this, my friends, is where the following draft picks up. I apologize for the lengthy author's note, but I wanted to at least give you an idea of where I wanted to take the story before the next set of drafts take place. Hopefully now you have a semi-clear notion.
Enjoy!
-04-
[Phase 3]
When she woke up, the room was dim. As her blurred vision came into focus, she recognized a wide window to her left. The curtains were drawn open enough for her to make out some light seeping in from an otherwise dark sky.
The moon.
It wasn't long before she was soon realizing where she was.
It appeared to be some sort of clinical room...perhaps a hospital bed supporting her weak frame.
Why was she here?
The pieces she tried to sew together were random and unfocused.
A building falling apart...Jets swooping down from the clouds...Gun fire.
She winced when she remembered that she had been shot.
She peered down at her chest, trying to tilt her head down for a better view. Though she could not see it, she felt bandages. The bullet had hit just below her collar bone. The fact that she was alive suggested there had been no damage to vital organs.
She could breathe ok and she could move her toes. She must have been there due to sheer exhaustion and loss of blood.
She remembered being taken aboard an ocean liner.
And a person was there with her. She had barely been awake. But someone had definitely been by her side. She knew their presence like the back of her hand, but she couldn't place who it had been. Had they said anything to her? Or had they simply been there while she slept?
She felt so tired, but she was unable to calm her nerves.
What was she to do once she left this hospital? Where was she to go? Was everything over now? Confusion enveloped her...
She let her head rest again on the pillow. Her whole body felt heavy; like dead weight. She sighed. She hated the feeling of vulnerability.
It was then that she happened to catch a glimpse of something out of the corner of her eye.
She struggled to turn her head.
There to her right, seated in the shadows with his head down, was Stuart Pot.
As if a huge title wave came crashing down, relief poured over her. Finally, things became clear. He had been there with her the whole time.
She had found him on Plastic Beach, amongst the chaos. She'd been shot, but had risked her life to save him. She nearly went down with Plastic Beach, but he had come back for her.
Russel had pulled them both to safety. Her small water raft had been the only thing able to support them. That was where she passed out.
She could only assume that Russ had flagged down a ship to pick them up as they were adrift at sea.
Murdoc too had been aboard the raft, but had lost his marbles and Russ had knocked him comatose.
She must have been in and out of consciousness herself the entire time.
The liner had delivered them to the nearest harbor where she'd been rushed off for medical attention, she assumed.
And 2D must have accompanied her….
How long had she been asleep, she wondered. How long had he been there with her?
The clear sight of him though in the calm room finally allowed her to believe she was safe. In the presence of a friend she had desperately wanted to see, she couldn't help but wish for some sort of communication. She hadn't conversed with him in 4 and a half bloody years. Where should she begin?
It was probably for the best that when she tried to speak, her voice did not emerge from her throat. The exhaustion had temporarily overridden most of her bodily functions.
She instead put all her strength into lifting her right arm, battered and bruised, towards him. When her knuckles rested alongside his forehead, he peered up from where he had been resting on his hands.
She could see he hadn't shaved in a couple days. He looked tired and beaten up. But as soon as he saw her lengthy arm stretched out to him, he smiled.
The air between them was quiet for a moment, and then…
"G'mornin."
She tried to speak. "It's still night." Her voice was so spaced out and hoarse that she barely sounded like herself.
He didn't seem phased by it. "Well, it's mornin' somewhere."
His reasoning, however peculiar, was correct.
She didn't try to speak again. She just lay there smiling. She was so happy to see him; so relieved to be beside a familiar form.
And after everything he'd been through as well, he could only feel the same.
She recoiled her arm as he sat with his legs apart, hands dangling off his knees.
There was a sense of concern she read in him. A sense of prolonged effort.
She studied his face; still the same as she remembered it, with slight aged differences. He somehow looked wiser, astoundingly. This gave her an urge to chuckle to herself, but she made no sound as her smile widened.
2D tried not to stare, but it was hard. He'd waited so long to see her again that he felt if he looked away for even a second, she would vanish.
Although she was beaten up rather badly, fatigued and black-and-blue, he'd never seen a more beautiful person in his life.
The pang of having endured everything for so long without her suddenly hit him like a freight train.
He remembered the last time he saw her…while her windmill lifted off the ground. She had looked back one last time and tossed him a wide and guiltless grin.
He remembered realizing at that very moment that she meant a lot to him. She was a part of his family. And as she drifted off into the sky, he swore that the next time he saw her, he would tell her how important she was to him.
He blinked and left his thoughts. His eyes had veered away from her. He looked back quickly to make sure she was still there. She was.
She had closed her eyes to rest again.
He observed her features carefully, as if trying to memorize them.
The bruised right eye didn't detour him from witnessing not the teenaged girl he'd known in the past, but instead a young woman.
She had grown up.
And the more he stared at her, the more engulfed in her image he became.
To him, she was chaste and lovely; a creature he shouldn't be worthy of associating with.
He was dim-witted and hallow-eyed, while she was gifted and striking.
Why she had been so fond of him in the past, he would never understand.
But then he realized, what was he thinking? This was Noodle! This wasn't just some bird that would enter and exit his life in a fowl swoop. Noodle had always been there, and probably always would be… to some extent.
He had mistakenly thought of her completely different than what she was. And for this reason, he astonished himself.
As he had conjured before, they were family. And it was because of this that he felt the unprecedented need to stay by her side. He'd made the mistake of leaving her once. He would never make that mistake again.
He leaned forward and rested his arm on the side of her bed. Her resting face made him feel secure.
"I'm not goin' anywhere, blud. I'll be right 'ere…."
He hesitantly rested his hand over hers. Before he could withdraw, she slowly turned her hand over and cupped his palm lightly.
He looked up at her; she still had her eyes closed.
There was some sort of silent communication between them.
He wasn't going to leave her, she understood that. He'd be there with her from then on.
She wouldn't be alone, and that gave her a surge of happiness she hadn't experienced in years.
x
