Chapter 27: Far From The Tree
"Come on Bart. I will give away anything if you just answer right now…" Robin cursed as he pressed his cell phone to his ear. The Titans were down in the garage by now, and Cyborg was checking all the vehicles to see if Noel's supposed sabotage was more then a few torn out wires. Unfortunately, Noel thought too well: every vehicle's engine had been methodically disassembled: it would take hours to even put one back together.
Robin cursed again and hung up. Whatever Bart Allen was doing, he wasn't answering the phone. That would be his luck: of course they couldn't get ahold of the teenager who could run over to Los Angeles in the space of a few seconds and stop Noel.
For a few brief seconds, Robin considered his next possible call. Should he really call the Justice League over this? They were supposed to protect the world, not save the life of a horrible man who probably…no. As horrible and evil as he might be, Robin couldn't start deciding who deserved to live and die, at least not in a professional sense. That was what their enemies did. What they tried to stop.
And surely the Justice League would understand that. And if they didn't, Tim would add that if Noel murdered his father and revealed his secret identity in the process, the bad press about superheroes would go on for years and make their job even harder…and with that Robin put away his cell phone, flipped open his communicator, and began hailing.
"FUCK!" Cyborg cursed, as he checked the last possible vehicle that might be able to use and found that Noel had trashed it too. He'd been right: they wouldn't be able to catch up, at least not in time with what they had.
"Come on, pick up, please…" Robin said as his communicator rang and rang. Finally, the ringing stopped.
And then four quick beeps sounded on the device before the line went dead. At that sound, Robin's heart sank. To an average man (well, one that had somehow connected into the super secret line to the Justice League's systems), the beeps would mean nothing, but Robin knew what they were: codes designed by Batman and given to a few other superhero groups in case they needed help. Four beeps meant the Justice League was all out, probably dealing with a problem on the other side of the galaxy. And unfortunately at this point in time, the League consisted of only seven members.
They wouldn't be able to stop Noel.
As Robin hung up, his mind raced as he tried to think of other Speed Force users. But the only one he could think of was Jay Garrick, the first Flash, who Robin barely knew and didn't know how to contact, and Max Mercury, Bart's sometime mentor, but if Robin couldn't raise Impulse, Max was even further out of the question…
"All the cars and machines are toast. We can't use them." Cyborg reported to Robin, though he already knew.
"Damn it. Ok, what are our other options…" Robin said.
"Raven! You must teleport us there!" Starfire said. Raven had been standing in a corner, watching the four remaining Titans run around seemingly with an air of calm, but Robin knew that Raven was so used to repressing herself that even with her father dead and her free to feel that was what she was doing in response to the crisis.
"I can't." Raven replied.
"What? Raven, you must try…!"
"I CAN'T!" Raven screamed. "I can teleport a maximum of 100 miles, give or take. Los Angeles is over 3000 miles away. I'd have to train and meditate for a WEEK before I could even try moving a FOURTH of that distance. Try it now without preparing and bringing all of you? My head would explode before we'd gone a 1/20th of the distance. It's not like with the Lord; I was able to tap briefly into his power and use it to give myself the boost I needed when I warped us all to the Sahara, but even if he was here I couldn't do that again, he'd be expecting it. Without him it's even more impossible. Not even what I feel for Noel could prevent that Star. I'm sorry…I wish it was different…oh god…oh god…" Raven said, putting her face in her hands.
"Gee, it figures. We go through our everyday lives breaking all the laws of physics, but when we really NEED to do it it's all like "Oh, sorry! Unchangeable laws of time and space!" You must respect my authori-TAH! And…" Beast Boy growled.
"THAT'S IT!" Robin yelled.
"What? Dude, come on, quoting South Park hasn't become painful yet…" Beast Boy said.
"No no no! Time and SPACE! Noel may have destroyed all our cars, but I'll bet he didn't go after the T-Ship! And why would he? He was off with the flame girls when Starfire had her transformation problem, he wouldn't know we converted it for space travel!"
"Tim what…OF COURSE!" Cyborg said. "Noel had to go around the earth, but if we use the spaceship…come on guys, we may just have a chance!"
Silence.
Which was expected, Noel supposed. His father had always had that aura of unbreakable, untouchable calm. He certainly hadn't expected his father to suddenly start cackling and twirling his closely cut mustache that was part of his beard.
No. That would have been more…acceptable.
Maxwell laid down the pen he had tapped once and crossed his fingers, regarding his son with an air of…what? Was there some surprise in there? Impossible. His father knew what Cameron had done. Surely he had expected…or maybe not something this abrupt, this open?
"Noel." His father said, not betraying anything. He could be utterly terrified that Noel had shown up with a gun or overjoyed that his oh so precious son had returned, he would not show an iota of it. His father made the Rock of Gibraltar look like a Jello Pudding Pop. "This is…unexpected."
"Oh really…" Noel said, drawing out the last syllable of the word, keeping the gun trained on his father as he slowly began stepping away from the end of the table. "You being caught unprepared? I thought that was impossible."
"I harbored that impression myself." Maxwell replied, as casually as if he discussing the weather.
Silence again.
"So, do you want to sit down or do you want to stay standing to keep up your impression of a gunfighter of some kind? You really don't fit the image Noel. I can imagine Keanu Reeves has nothing to fear. Then again…"
"SHUT. UP." Noel hissed.
"Don't be rude Noel. I taught you better then that."
"Taught me. Taught ME?" Noel said incredulously. "What in the HELL is wrong with you? You think this is some kind of family reunion?"
"Well, you HAVE been gone for…what is it? A little over two years? I guess you needed to sort through some issues after the death of your mother. I expected you come back eventually…albeit not quite in this way…"
A gunshot splintered the side of the table next to Maxwell. He didn't even blink, as he calmly turned and looked at the small hole where the bullet had gone through.
"I expect you missed on purpose. Your shooting scores were a lot higher then that."
Noel stared. Maxwell held his gaze.
"Do you even listen to yourself?" Noel said, as he slowly began to walk towards his father. "You think this is like the bible story where a father welcomed back his son after the son ran off and came back humbled by life lessons? Is that what you think this is?"
"Somewhat, but you clearly have different views. And since you are the one with the gun, you may as well share them."
"No. No. NO." Noel snarled.
"You don't want to?'
"NO, I MEAN STOP IT!" Noel screamed. "Stop acting like you care! Stop acting like you're some wise figure who wants nothing more then my best interests! Your hypocrisy is suffocating me." Noel said, his voice lowering into a tone of deep cold. "There isn't anyone else here father. The security is down. Your cronies and sycophants have fled for their lives. And no one else…"
A loud booming noise exploded from behind Noel as the C4 on the stairs blew. A slight wind and cloud of dust puffed through the open door behind Noel.
"Is going to show up." Noel said. There was a slight clicking noise as the empty clip from Noel's gun was ejected, even as he reached into his pocket and removed, inserted, and snapped in a new clip within the space of two seconds. "It's just you and me father. So why don't we have a little chat?"
"Guys, I don't know about this." Beast Boy said as he strapped himself in.
"It's simple Beast Boy." Robin said over his mike, even as he prepared things. Talking kept his mind off the ponderings, the musings that this was all pointless, that Maxwell Collins was already lying in a pool of his own blood and Noel had blighted his soul beyond redemption. "Planes fly around the circumference of the planet. That's what Noel did. But the T-Sub's modifications have given it the capacity to leave the planet's atmosphere. But we're not going to do that. We're going to go up at a very precise angle, fly on the very outskirts of the stratosphere, and then come back down almost immediately. If we do it right, it will be like us doing a "checker jump" across the entire continent, which MIGHT just allow us to catch up to Noel in time."
"Oh." Beast Boy replied, and left it at that. Without anyone to talk to, Robin began doing math in his head. While Cyborg and the others had gone to get the T-Sub/Ship up and running, Robin had taken a brief detour and asked the computer to call up the last security footage of Noel in the tower. He had left a little under four hours ago, according to it, and while Noel might have trashed the cars, Robin doubted he, after what he had been told, had the tactical thought of altering the footage. Noel was good, but not THAT good. Or that cold.
So, Robin assumed the footage was accurate. With that, Robin could start his calculations. Four hours and roughly 3000 miles to traverse going west. Just by itself…Cyborg's T-Car Mk 2.5 had a maximum top speed of Mach 4, four times the speed of sound. It took sound roughly four and a half seconds to go a mile…and with 3000 miles and four times that speed…roughly a mile a second, 60 miles per minute…Noel could make the trip in under an hour. But Cyborg had told Robin, and most likely Noel, that the T-Car Mk 2.5 was still unfinished, so Noel probably wouldn't want to push it that hard. So assuming he stuck with a lower speed, probably no more then Mach 2, most likely less due to Noel's cautious nature…anywhere between 2 ½ and three hours. Factoring in the time zones…Noel had probably been in Los Angeles at least an hour. And counting. Robin gathered their "checker jump" would take about 30 minutes, providing nothing went wrong…
Robin thought over what Noel was like. Even pushed into an intense rage, Robin severely doubted that Noel would pull a 9/11 and just crash the T-Car Mk. 2.5 into CollinsCorp's head offices. No. He wanted to punish his father, not all the people who worked for him. Noel would try and set up something more personal. Had Noel been totally normal, that could have taken weeks, but with his metahuman abilities and all he had learned during his stint on the Titans…considerably less time.
But maybe…just long enough.
"Everything reading green here. Any deviations elsewhere?" Robin asked. His teammates all replied with "Aye." Good. Everything was set, including their…cargo. They might need it.
"Understood. Initiating launch procedure."
The T-Ship began to swing vertical even as pistons and motors turned it around and opened up the hatch above them. Robin looked over the readings to see if there were any problems. None. Good. Time to move.
"Five to mark." Robin said as he fired up the engines, even as the T-Ship completed its vertical stance and slid out the hatch and into the open air next to the T-Tower. "Five, four…"
"We are on the express elevator to hell. Going UP." Cyborg said grimly.
"Three. Two. One." Robin said as he flipped open the launch switch. "Mark."
To the people who happened to be passing on the nearby shore, it was a spectacular sight.
"You wish to speak candidly son? Very well. You are not going to shoot me." Maxwell said, as he slowly got up.
"Oh really? And what do you base that on?" Noel said.
"Because it's not what you do. Your mother saw to that."
Noel cocked back the hammer.
"You know Noel, you really should stop looking at your mother as a saint. She had her own sins."
"Most likely, but they could never hope to TOUCH yours."
"No, I believe not. Most likely because your same distorted view of my so called sins is standing right next to the worship of your late mother."
"YOU'RE telling me I'M delusional? Who the hell do you think you are?"
"You keep saying that. I know who I am Noel. It was always you who never knew who you were." Maxwell said, as he began matching Noel's slow walk around the long board table, not out of any fear but of his eternal vigilance in watching and waiting. "I tried to teach you, but you never listened. Your mother's simplistic views, everything always in it's place. She taught you the world is always black and white. But Noel, you surely know, deep down, that this simply isn't true."
"I know what shade you are."
"Do you? How can you Noel? After all you did to defy me, block me out, content to suckle at your mother's teat. Indeed, with this little…outburst of yours, I am getting more and more of an…Oedipus impression."
If looks could kill, Maxwell Collins would have been vaporized. But somehow Noel kept his finger from squeezing the trigger and sending Maxwell Collins to hell straight then and there.
"This is a very harsh world we live in son. I wanted to give you the proper skills to survive and thrive in it. But no, no. You would rather listen to the rumors rather then see the reality. Your mother, always trying to save the world…you can't save the world Noel. You can just get into whatever position you can and ride out your time. All I wanted was for you to have one so that you could…"
"You never wanted ANYTHING FOR ME!" Noel yelled. "You wanted a clone of you to continue on your life!"
"Well my son…who says that is a bad thing?"
"You're a MONSTER."
"No Noel. I'm a man. A man who saw what he wanted and took it before someone else did. That's all it is Noel."
Noel ground his teeth so hard his jaw ached. He felt like fire was starting to flow through his veins. If he were cut, he would not be surprised if his blood began to eat into the floor like a famous movie monster.
"Noel, stop pretending. You'll never shoot me, no matter how much you want to act out the little rage fantasies that your mother implanted in you. You never had the steel to even let a bad employee go, much less kill a man. You were the type to run away and sit in your corner while you plotted and stewed. Which is what you did in the end. Ran away." Maxwell said. "Yet you came back. Despite all your so-called odium, you have returned. If you really wanted nothing to do with me, you would have stayed gone. I tried to find you, but you had vanished quite effectively. If you truly hated me, who I am, what I seemingly represent in my attempts to make a good life for myself, and your mother, and you, you would have gone someplace and died in obscurity. But you didn't. You came back here. And not to kill me Noel. The truth is, as much as you profess to hate me, deep down you know I'm right. You know that this is what you were meant for, no matter how much you supposedly abhor it."
Noel said nothing.
"Come on Noel. Put the gun down. You're a man now. You and I can finally see each other on a level that was impossible during the chaos of growing up. Let me show you the truth behind all the lies and falseness. Before you commit yourself to destroying me, at least understand what you want to destroy. I promise you…things will be so much clearer."
Again, nothing.
"Put the gun down. Son."
Silence.
And then Noel lowered the gun and tossed it aside.
"That's my boy…" Maxwell said, looking pleased. "As much as part of you claims otherwise, I think you will find you made the right choice."
"That's impossible." Noel said.
Confusion crossed Maxwell's brow.
"You know…you really missed your calling Dad. You should have been an actor. You'd have a shelf full of Oscars for this little performance."
"What are you talking about Noel?"
"Oh I don't know Dad…" Noel said as he put his hand to his chin in an exaggerated thinking motion. "I bust in here after two years gone, during which you somehow, despite all the resources, favors, and likewise at your command, have not an inkling where I am, where no one called in with sightings of me, as if I had vanished into thin air…"
"I figured you may have left the country…"
"Sure, fine. Ok then, on top of that let's point out how I basically left with the clothes on my back, and yet when I return I appear to be in grand health with nice new clothes, despite god knows how long I would have to spend fighting and clawing to make a living without you detecting where I am…"
"I taught you well, I assumed you found ways to survive, you were always very intelligent Noel…"
"Oh, compliments now, huh? Gee, if you were trying to find an argument against mine that you're just putting on a performance…THAT WASN'T IT." Noel growled. "So cut the shit Dad. I know the truth. Cameron told me before your will caught up to him."
"Cameron?" Maxwell said, and the look he gave Noel sent chills to his very core: he honestly, genuinely looked bewildered. "Cameron went on vacation four days ago. How could…"
"Oh, he's on vacation, all right. A very LONG vacation. Say, till the END OF TIME." Noel hissed.
"…My god, you didn't murder him first, did you Noel?"
The words hung in the air for a second, before they plunged straight into Noel's being.
"HOW DARE YOU!" Noel screamed, slamming his hands on the table. "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU! How can you stand there, knowing all you've done, and not think that even the slightest, smallest bit of it was wrong? How can you sit there, with all you've destroyed and contaminated and all you still plan to do, and not feel the slightest twinge of guilt, regret, remorse, or even ANYTHING? What the hell are you? A demon? Something from beyond our realm that can touch such levels of malevolence? You can't be a human! YOU CAN'T!"
"Noel, calm down…" Maxwell said, finally backing up a bit. "Have you been using drugs? I think you're having paranoid delusions…"
"Are you a MAN!"
"Noel…yes. I'm a man." Maxwell said plainly.
Abruptly it was gone, the rage suddenly disappearing, as Noel leaned back up, putting his hands over his face. He made a slight noise that Maxwell couldn't identify, but some people could. It was a noise made by people when they realize that they are totally and irrevocably doomed. It came from prisoners just before the electric chair was turned on. It came from Jewish people just before the first breath of gas entered their lungs. It came from every torture chamber ever run by every dictator and every soldier who realized that they were not going to die in bed of old age but by violence on some godforsaken rock.
It was the sound of hope dying.
"Then so be it…" Noel said, lowering his hands and regarding his father with a look of intensity that made his previous one look like the bleary gaze of a drunkard. "I know what I have to do."
"Noel…let me…"
"No father. No more doing. For you, or for me. In fact, why you don't you do me a favor and drop the act. It's getting tiresome. I know what you did. I know you destroyed my mother, and when that wasn't enough, that you murdered her."
"Noel, your mother died of cancer…"
"I know what you had planned for my friends, the only people in my life who ever cared for me…"
"What friends…"
"And I know, that you know, who I am, and that is why I don't need a gun."
"Noel…what are you talking about?"
A gigantic flash of light suddenly blinded Maxwell, and he recoiled and hunched over, spears of color stabbing behind his closed lids. But he heard his son speak.
"You're right Dad. I can't kill you."
Trying to blink away the blindness, wondering what the hell had just happened, on top of all that had, Maxwell Collins looked up, rubbed his eyes, and blinked away the blurriness.
And stared at where his son had been, replaced by the white-haired and garbed Savior.
"But I can." Noel finished.
"What the…who the hell are you?"
"I know what I'm not. I'm not your son." Noel said, taking a step forward.
"What happened to my son?"
Noel screamed, and suddenly the Shimmer lashed out, slamming into the business table as the shards smashed through it. Maxwell recoiled as wood shards and splinters flew through the air, even as Noel picked up the table and hurled it to the side, smashing through the window with a gigantic crashing noise. People on the lower floors yelled and screamed in surprise as the wrecked desk and glass shards plummeted to earth…and crashed into the empty space at the foot of the building that Noel had roped off with crime scene tape he had "borrowed" from a police station before he had headed over here. He had thought something like this might have happened, and planned ahead.
"Take a look, DAD." Noel said, walking towards Maxwell and spreading his arms.
"Noel…is that you?" Maxwell replied.
"You know damn well it's me. You know everything!"
"Noel…I honestly don't know what you're talking about…"
"STOP LYING GODDAMNIT!" Noel roared. "You know this is me! You know what happened! Take one dousing of paint, add a few dashes of SXZ-12, sprinkle with a billion to one odds…and you have one metahuman!"
"Wha…huh…?" Maxwell said.
Noel could barely believe it. He knew his father was good, but THIS good?
Then again, why wouldn't he be? He sat in his office and ordered the suffering of heavens knows how many people and thought it was the way it was. He married a woman to break her, lobotomized her when he couldn't, and then slowly murdered her over the course of years and then sat and spoke of the flaws she possessed that forced him to do what he did. Who always had to have things go his way in victory, even if it meant committing atrocity after atrocity until they somehow all blurred together and became something else, and thinking…hey, that's the way things went.
Many people would rather have their perception of reality then true reality, but those people eventually broke if true reality bore down hard enough. But Maxwell Collins would never break…because he thought his perception WAS reality.
A reality that wouldn't be erased, or corrected, or stopped. There was only one solution.
Burn it down.
The Shimmer shot out again, zipping past Maxwell as the ends tore into the beautifully carved wooden walls and tore through them, reducing painstakingly crafted designs to kindling. Maxwell recoiled and retreated from the storm of wood. Noel didn't pursue: rather he just turned to face him and aimed his other arm at the other wall as the Shimmer shot out again and repeated it's precious action.
"You sit here and think you command power. You sit here and think that when you tell the world to jump, it promptly asks how high. You sit here and destroy lives and call it victory." Noel said.
He took a step towards his father, and the Shimmer lines recoiled and then smashed back against each wall, smashing them to pieces and showering the whole room with wooden debris. Maxwell recoiled again, turning around slightly and realizing he was trapped. One direction offered the empty space that Noel had created when he had thrown the desk through the window, and the other one offered Noel himself.
The devil and the deep open air.
"And you wanted that for me. For you. You wanted me to become you. You wanted me to be your legacy, your future, you. You wanted eternal power." Noel said. "I didn't want it then, and I don't want it now. I have power now. More power then you could ever have. And I decide what to do with it."
Maxwell looked at Savior, then back at the broken window, and then back at Noel.
There was no sudden outburst of anger, the rot that lay deep within Maxwell Collins' soul suddenly imposing itself on his features. There was no breaking down into begging or tears as the falseness of one's might was exposed as just that. There was no attempt at bribery, or forgiveness, or understanding, or anything even remotely redeemable.
Instead, Maxwell Collins turned back to Noel…and then the alarm that had pervaded his features faded, as he brushed his suit off, checked his cuff links, and then stood up straight and looked Noel straight in the eye.
"And what might that be?" Maxwell said.
The Shimmer lashed out in a low arc, catching Maxwell on his ankles and throwing him up and into the air like he had slipped badly on ice, as he crashed down on the glass and wood covered floor.
"To accomplish what the world couldn't. Your fall."
Maxwell coughed, and then started to get up, slowly, his body not used to being touched like that. But Noel wasn't looking at him though. Instead, as the Shimmer strand he had used returned to him, it wrapped around him, coiling up and down his body before the end slid up around the back of his neck and over his right shoulder. It twisted a bit so that the end was pointing at Noel's ear.
And then Noel turned his head towards it, looking at the end as if it were the head of a snake, his eyes softening, just a bit, as if he were looking at an old friend. And as strange as it seemed, the end of the line seemed to look right back at him.
"I don't know if there's anything in there. Or if there ever was." Noel said, looking at his power, his ability that might have possessed a small bit of intelligence, awareness, a tiny bit of existence all its own. "I don't know why you were born, or why you serve and protect me. I don't know if this is what you wanted me to do. If you want to leave afterward and never return, I'll accept that. But all I ask you, now and ever, is to stay with me now, and carry out one final task."
Maxwell was on his feet now, and Noel turned to look back at him. And as if a mirror were perched on his shoulder, the end of the line did the same thing, possessing no eyes yet still somehow SEEING.
"DO WHAT HAS TO BE DONE."
The line blasted out as if all the spirits of snakes and predators past had possessed it with one sole purpose: make this blow one to be remembered.
And it was, as the line caught Maxwell Collins right between the eyes and threw him backwards, his limbs stretching out at the impact before he came crashing back down on his back, just before the edge of the broken window, with a loud, low thud.
The Shimmer turned and headed back, wrapping itself around Noel…almost as if it was giving him a hug.
Goodbye.
And in a way, it was, as the line passed through his clothing and was reabsorbed back into his body. After this, there wouldn't be any more Noel Collins, or Savior. He'd be a number on a jersey, locked away in some dank pit before the world rotted his evil genetics away.
After today, he'd have paid for his own sins. His father's sins.
Noel started walking, heading for his father, who was making a few motions as his body tried to recover from the blow.
"You know, you mentioned Oedipus. How fitting, in a way…" Noel said as he walked over. "I can't marry my mother, because she's dead, and I can't blind myself by shoving needles through my eyes, because my little friend here regenerates nerve tissue and hence they'd just grow back…but there's still the first part of Freud's favorite legend's prophecy, and I can do. It's why I was put on this earth."
Noel knelt down next to his father, grabbing him by the front of his shirt and yanking him up, looking into his father's eyes once more.
And as close as this, Noel realized that while his features mirrored those of the man he had come here to destroy…he had his mother's eyes.
He hoped she was watching.
"I have something for you father." Noel said, as he raised his right arm and the Shimmer flowed out again, forming into a cruel looking tool.
But nothing could match the cruelty that was suddenly unleashed when Maxwell, his eyes finally clearing, returned his son's look, and Noel could finally see it: the pit, the same pit he had seen in the eyes of the Joker, that abyss that Maxwell had hidden his whole life behind his poise, control and so called perfection before Noel had smashed through it, revealing Maxwell for what he was, something no man or woman had ever seen before or ever would.
As Noel shoved his arm forward and jammed the prongs of the Shimmer-weapon straight into his father's face, the lines shooting up through his nasal cavity and reaching deep into his brain, linking the two, and for a brief moment Noel got a glimpse of the deep chasm within, yawning open to consume Noel.
Before he found something to fill it, as the link was completed and Noel, perhaps inspired by something he had seen an eternity ago, let his father have it.
The pit slammed shut as sudden shock and horror filled Maxwell's eyes. He opened his mouth but nothing came out but a low nasal moan as Noel fired everything he had kept locked up for years into his father's brain and being, every single bit of pain, resentment, anger, and hate that his father had bred in him, and most of all, every bit of pain and misery his mother had shouldered after his father had cursed her with her burden, which she had borne all the way to her death, with nothing but good intentions for others and a smile.
"THIS IS YOUR LEGACY FATHER." Noel hissed as he continued slamming the data into Maxwell's brain, overwhelming his senses and scrambling the neurons as they were bombarded by agony. "Every single drop of pain, anguish, and torment that you inflicted on me, and my mother. I don't want it anymore. TAKE IT! EMBRACE IT! LOVE IT! CHOKE ON IT!"
The Birdarang slammed into the side of Noel's head.
The connection was abruptly severed as the Shimmer instinctively reverted to its main task: protecting its host, as the force of the blow to his head threw Noel sideways. The Shimmer pulled out of Maxwell's nose with a spurt of blood and an agonized gasp from the man as Noel, his reflexes and desires scrambled by the sudden pain, tried to get up, stumbled, and fought the darkness as the blow threatened to plunge him into unconsciousness. But Noel refused to go, digging in his metaphorical heels and refusing to be knocked out, the Shimmer aiding him as it retreated into it's base, the nervous system, and began firing neurons and forming connections to keep Noel conscious.
Unfortunately, it was so busy doing this that it couldn't much help Noel with his balance, as he stumbled sideways, and then fell out through the broken window, gravity seizing him immediately and drawing Noel to her bosom.
"NOEL!" Starfire yelled, as she watched her companion fall. She would have flown to his rescue, but Robin stopped her.
"He'll be ok. You are not going down there alone." Robin said, letting the message behind his words speak for itself. Starfire looked unhappy, but she soldiered up and didn't fly after Noel, as Robin ran over to Maxwell Collins. If anything Noel had said was true, Robin would have tossed him out the window after Noel, but Robin had been over that ground before, so instead he knelt and checked for a pulse. He got one, and though it wasn't strong, it was steady enough. Enough for the Titans to deal with more serious business.
Maxwell Collins would live, for now anyway, and whatever he had interrupted Noel doing, Robin didn't think he could help the man with it.
Nor did he really want to, as he signaled to Raven.
Considering that Noel was on the 77th floor, that there was twelve feet per floor, and the gravity acceleration of 32 feet per second per second, Savior had roughly seven and a half seconds before he was turned into street pizza.
Fortunately, the Shimmer kicked in after three, lancing out lines and trying to grab a hold of the steel and glass structure. All it really succeeded in doing was smashing more windows and cutting itself up…and that proved to be the key as that agonizing pain woke Noel up just before he was about to hit, and his hundreds of hours of training kicked in as he spun around and coiled the Shimmer under him like a spring, at a precise angle.
He came crashing down among the wooden wreckage and bounced off the ground like a smooth stone skipping over a pond, as the glass barely missed cutting him to ribbons, spinning through the air like an out of control trapeze artist as the Shimmer bounced him off the ground once again and then he hit it himself, rolling and tumbling along the hard concrete that would have broken most of his bones if it had not been for, once again, the Shimmer, which righted him for the last bounce which he turned into a flip, landing on one knee, hard, as the last of kinetic energy was bled away.
For a moment he knelt there, staring at the ground. No. No. NO. NO.
He pushed himself up, hoping…
Too late.
The Teen Titans were in front of him, no doubt teleported down by Raven.
Somehow, he had known this would happen. And it broke his heart.
Because he had to do what needed to be done.
"Noel…listen to me…" Robin said, keeping his hands, trying to be as non-threatening as possible, not wanting to set Noel off. He had to hear the truth about the situation.
"Kill me." Noel said quietly.
"What?" Robin said.
"Kill me." Noel said louder, as a look of intense fury and hate came over his face. It wasn't directed at the Titans as much as it was at the fact that they were getting in his way of doing what was necessary, but it chilled them all the same that Noel had been keeping this kind of darkness locked inside him for so long, darkness that was now running wild.
"Noel…we will never do that." Robin said.
"Then stand aside." Noel growled.
"Noel…please…listen…as our friend…you must…" Starfire begged.
"I'm sorry Kory. I wish I could…oh god I wish…" Noel said, putting his face into his hands again. "But I can't. No more talking, no more debating, no more rationalizing or delaying. I have to do this."
"No you don't man! That wasn't…!" Cyborg began.
"SHUT UP AND MOVE, OR KILL ME!" Noel bellowed.
"Noel, please! If we mean anything to you, listen to us!" Robin yelled.
"No. Listen to me Robin. To paraphrase the Marquis De Sade, kill me now or accept what I have to do, because I'll be damned if I EVER CHANGE!"
For a moment, there was silence, as the teenager known as Noel Collins and the team that had accepted him as one of their own stared at each other.
"We will not kill you Noel. No matter what." Robin said.
Noel didn't reply, but the words seemed to cause him to wilt, like a flower under the intense heat of a desert. He brought his hand to his face, and then down to his side.
A pause that lasted forever.
Then his hand balled into a fist.
"THEN STAND ASIDE!"
And he launched himself at his team.