Many thanks to BeaconHill and GlassGirlCeci for betareading.

Crystalline 11.6

Dragon's suits were still attacking Noelle. I could hear the explosions of missiles and the thumping of machine guns in the distance. It was a relief to know that I hadn't driven her away completely.

"Will Dragon even let us get close?" Sophia asked.

"She won't hurt us," I said. "She won't help either, of course."

"You know her better than I do," said Sophia, and it warmed me to hear the lack of doubt in her voice—and frightened me, too. "They're fast, though. How do we get to them?"

"If I still had Nenya, I could just run in," I muttered.

"And if wishes were horses, we'd be able to ride," Sophia said, nudging me. "Let's get in touch with Vista."

I hesitated. "Dragon's running communications," I pointed out. "I'm not saying she wouldn't put our message through, but…"

"We have phones, don't we?" She grinned at me. "I realize that's a little primitive for you, these days."

I chuckled. "I have gotten used to a bit of an infrastructure, haven't I?" I reached into a pocket and pulled out my old Wards phone. When was the last time I'd used it? I couldn't remember. Vista was still in the contacts, though.

She picked up on the second ring. "Vista here. What's up, Annatar?"

"Shadow Stalker and I have a plan to stop Noelle," I said. "Where are you? We need transportation."

"Still near Keene Park," Vista said. "The Eidolon Clone fell back before Clockblocker could freeze it. I think it's gone to join Noelle."

That didn't bode well. Dragon was powerful—very powerful, with the entire Dragonflight coming in—but with two Eidolon clones Noelle would be able to seriously challenge her. "Shadow Stalker and I are"—I glanced at the street signs—"at the corner of Birch and Mason. Think you can swing by and pick us up?"

"Sure. On my way. I'll bring the others. Give me five minutes."

"You have three." I hung up and slipped the phone back into my pocket. Then I turned back to Sophia. "She'll be here soon," I said. "In the meantime—what happened to Miss Militia and the Travelers?"

She grimaced. "The Travelers heard what happened to Trickster," she said. "I think we lost a lot of their support with that. Miss Militia went after them."

I nodded sadly. "We'll have to follow up on that, once this is done."

"Sure," Sophia agreed. "But one thing at a time. This first."

A couple minutes later, Vista arrived, stepping between us through a tunnel of folded space. Behind her, Clockblocker, Armsmaster, and Aegis appeared a moment later. "Welcome back to Vista air," she said in a sing-song voice. "We hope you enjoy your trip." She glanced up at me. "What's the plan? Just straight in towards her?"

I nodded. "You shouldn't get too close," I said. "Just get me close enough to touch her, and I'll do the rest."

"Okay," she said doubtfully. "Don't get eaten." She twisted her hands through the air, and the road ahead of us compressed. "After you."

A couple of steps later, we were on a rooftop overlooking the battle—or what was left of it. Only a few of Dragon's suits remained in the air, and these were being torn apart by the two Eidolon clones. Noelle seemed to have stopped to watch the slaughter, a twisted smile on her face.

"Okay, one more," murmured Vista. "You won't have long before the Eidolon clones notice you, though. Want us to distract them?"

"Yes," I confirmed. "Get them off Dragon. She can't sustain these losses for much longer."

Vista didn't answer. It wasn't until Aegis yelped, "What the—" that I realized why.

I whirled. A Trickster clone was in the middle of us, a knife in one hand and a dagger in the other. It was wearing loose-fitting clothes in red and black, and its face was slightly rounded and chubby, like an infant's. Its eyes, however, were small, sharp, and glittered cruelly.

The gun was pointed at Sophia. For a moment, my heart stopped. But just as it fired, Sophia flickered into mist, and the bullet passed harmlessly through. The knife, on the other hand, arced towards a chink in Clockblocker's armor.

Clockblocker jumped back. Armsmaster stepped away, too, trying to make enough space to use his halberd. "Move, Annatar!" he shouted. "This is your best chance!"

I hesitated. My eyes flickered to Sophia, her form still little more than an indistinct mass of mist. Then I swallowed, turned, and vaulted over the low façade and down into the street.

I landed light on the sidewalk. Noelle was already looking in my direction, a sneer on her face. "You again," she said, and as she spoke, the animal heads below her waist growled and snarled, giving her words a guttural undertone. "What do you want?"

"I want to help you," I said.

"Right," she answered. I couldn't even hear the sarcasm over the growling, the dissonance, the anger. "Of course you do."

"I can help," I stressed. "I can—Noelle, I can sever your connection to your power. I can free you!"

She stared at me. "Eidolon said they had a cape like that," she said. "But he said they wouldn't help. Why would you?"

"Because I care," I said. I wasn't even trying to draw on my inhuman insight, or the millennia of charisma I had cultivated. I was just speaking the truth. "Because you're hurting, and I know what that's like. Because I have to believe that it's possible to come back from being a monster."

She stared at me. Her cheeks were streaked with dry tears, her eyes were stained with red. For a moment she was perfectly still, though the sound of battle continued echoing above us. "Okay," she said at last. "Okay. You can try."

I came forward, ignoring the battle, ignoring the danger, ignoring the fact that Sophia was fighting for her life behind me. This was Noelle's moment. I had to give her that. Sophia could take care of herself.

I reached out a hand as I approached one of the animal heads. It growled at me as I approached, but it allowed me to put my hand upon its neck. Its thick fur was not fur at all, but dark, human hair, tangled and tousled together.

I reached out, as I had when I faced Heartbreaker. The eye of my consciousness sought out the place where Noelle ended and Echidna began.

The tether wasn't clean, like it had been with Heartbreaker. Nikos Vasil had never rejected his power, had never fought it the way Noelle had. His power was attached to his Fëa like a prosthetic, with clean, surgical cuts made to allow it to connect with him.

Noelle's power had forced itself onto her with all the precision of a bulldog. It had bitten into her soul, leaving gaping wounds which festered and swelled painfully around its seeking tether. It burrowed deep, like a Morgul blade worming its way to the heart of its victim. I could only vaguely see the shape of the thing it was attached to, at the other end, but it looked wrong, somehow, in a way even the monster I'd fought hadn't. It looked incomplete, rent, like a man missing an arm.

"This is going to hurt," I found myself saying aloud. Tearing that toothed harpoon out of Noelle's very soul would not be easy. "It might…" I swallowed. "You might not be… okay, after. It's buried deep inside you."

"Do I look okay now?" Noelle asked. "It can't hurt worse."

Yes, it can, I knew. But saying so would accomplish nothing. There could be no preparing for this. So, after only a moment to steel myself, I gripped the would-be haft of the would-be tether, and tore it roughly out of Noelle's would-be flesh.

Noelle screamed. Her lower half howled, screeched, flailed. I leaped back as the head I had been touching lunged at me. But no, it was merely roiling, lolling from side to side, its eyes rolling sightlessly as it cast itself hither and thither in its agonized death throes.

Then, slowly, the bulk of Noelle collapsed upon itself, falling under its own weight, fragmenting as it fell. Extremities shriveled, wrinkled, and dried, as though aging decades in mere moments. The great fleshy bulk blackened, then greyed, then began to crumble to a pale dust, blowing away in small puffs in the wind.

Noelle's upper body slowly sank as her lower body fell apart beneath her. The dissolving flesh blew past me as I pushed forward, forcing my way through the mass towards her. Around me, among the rain of dying flesh, I heard three audible thumps as Gallant, Eidolon, and Trickster fell to the ground, their prison collapsing around them.

She fell at my feet, her human body miraculously whole, legs and all. She had stopped screaming, and her chest rose and fell heavily, and her eyes stared up, unshed tears misting them like a curtain of rain.

I knelt beside her. Around us, the remains of Echidna fell in a faint patter, the dust of the dissolving flesh filling the air with pale particles. "Noelle?" I murmured.

She blinked. Her eyes cleared slightly, and slowly turned to seek mine. "Annatar," she murmured. "Is it—am I human?"

"Yes," I said gently, putting a hand on hers where it lay upon the ground. "Yes, you are human."

"Good," she whispered. Her eyes closed, but she forced them open again. "I think—I think I'm dying."

No, I wanted to say. No, you're just exhausted. You'll be okay—you've got your whole life ahead of you! But I knew. I had known the moment I ripped the thing away from her. A wound like that, festering for so long… There could be no recovery from that. Her very spirit had been sundered. Though her body was whole, her Fëa was coming apart.

"There was too little of you left," I whispered. "It had—it had eaten away at you for too long. I'm sorry."

She sighed and gave a tiny nod. "I think I knew," she said quietly, her voice barely a whisper on the wind. "When you told me how you would help. I think I knew I wouldn't outlive my power."

"You'll see Trickster again soon," I told her, my voice scraping painfully against the lump in my throat. "He'll be waiting for you in the Halls of Mandos, and from there you can go into your uncertain future together."

"That's a nice thought, but I'm not sure I can believe it," she murmured. "Maybe it's for the best anyway."

"How can you say that?" I asked, my voice rising. "How can it be better to die?"

"If I lived, I'd spend the rest of my life trying to make up," she murmured. Her eyes were drifting, now, her lids flickering, her pupils growing unfocused. "Make up for something I never could make up for. If I die—that's the end of it. I can't hurt anymore."

"No." I shook my head vehemently. "No, I won't—you can't give up like this! I won't let you!" I reached out and touched her, extending my senses. I found the wound, and reached to the frayed edges of Noelle's very being. I grasped, and pulled, trying to force the injury shut, trying to hold her together by brute force.

Noelle whimpered. I didn't stop. "I can help you," I said, and almost believed it. "I can… I can heal you!"

"It hurts," she whispered.

I gritted my teeth. The wound was almost shut. I might yet—

Noelle screamed. It was a weak sound, frail and high, but unmistakably a sound of agonizing pain. I blinked, and saw that as I had pulled her together in one place, she had begun to tear in another. There was not enough of her left to hold the rest together. And I had known that, known it perfectly well—and I had tried anyway, in the knowledge of what might—what would—go wrong.

I let her go and pulled away. "I'm so sorry," I whispered. "I couldn't… I shouldn't have…"

"You tried." The words came out as a pained exhalation as her body relaxed, the tension leaving her frame alongside the life. Her gaze turned from me, looking up into the clear sky above. "Tell the others I'm sorry. Krouse… I'm coming. I'll see you soon."

Her eyes drifted shut. A slow, peaceful breath escaped her. She did not breathe in again.

I have to believe that it's possible to come back from being a monster.

I took Noelle's limp hands and folded them over her chest. My eyes were blurring with tears. "I'm so sorry," I whispered. But I wasn't saying it to Noelle.

Some small, ugly corner of me, the same part of me that had cowered and fled when Eönwë ordered my return to Aman, whispered in my head. This is what redemption looks like, it whispered. It's not Prospero. It's Lear.

I bowed my head and wept.