A Waken 13.10.N
Noelle closed the phone and smiled.
Maybe Sabah was right. She was real... That would be nice.
Damn could the girl keep a secret though. A stranger? Noelle wondered who it was but there wasn't time. Taylor would arrive soon and the Protectorate wouldn't be far behind.
Noelle dropped the phone and turned.
The guards started to move toward her, and Noelle pressed Chevalier's shadow out. Cody laughed at her. Asked her what she thought she was doing. She grimaced, step faltering for a moment.
The clone emerged and he made quick work of the men, throwing them to the ground and taking their weapons. He fused the guns together with his power, and then added a pipe from a nearby trolly.
A woman cowered against the wall, but Noelle ignored her.
The voices mocked her. Cody. Oliver. Krouse. They called her weak. Reminded her of every failure. Asked why she never did what needed to be done.
Noelle cursed the monster in the sky.
She ignored the voices and stepped forward.
Fuck the Simurgh. Fuck her voices. She should have noticed on her own. The manipulations. The subtle changes. Jess was the most compassionate person Noelle knew. She'd never have become so bitter. Luke was never so ill-tempered before. Marissa was gay!
That fucking bitch fucked with all of them. Twisted them to. She saw it now. The little way the voices pecked at her in the weakest moments. The way the changes in her friends only made her feel alone. That was the Simurgh's power. How much she could change you to your core, without you ever noticing.
She should have noticed.
No more.
It all ended today.
Noelle walked forward, letting Chevalier's shadow shoot the next guard in both legs. He hit the ground, and Noelle forced her shadow's hands to the side as he fired again. Damnit. Cody laughed at her and she let it affect her. The shadow came out more aggressive than she wanted.
The voices were still trying to twist her around. They'd always twisted her around. Made her worse.
She kept going. Too late to stop now.
Maybe this was what the Simurgh wanted. She'd never really know. No point wondering. What do you do when anything you might do is exactly what the fucking Endbringer wants you to do?
"The only thing that matters," Noelle whispered to herself.
David was right.
People did deserve to have a chance to make their own fate. They deserved to know the truth. Taylor couldn't tell anyone. She'd just screw herself. That was fine.
Noelle could do it. She was doomed anyway. Too dangerous to live with the Simurgh in her head. So if someone had to put targets on their back, it might as well be her.
Ahead of her, heads turned. Conversations stopped. A few forks froze mid-bite. Noelle ignored the douche at the podium and walked up like she belonged there. Oliver begged her for justice. Asked her to make others suffer as he did.
Noelle pushed his pleas away. It hurt. Like watching his corpse bleed all over again.
Fuck that bitch for making it hurt.
Oliver cried. Cody shouted and yelled. Krouse pleaded.
Kill them.
Be the hero.
Do something.
Noelle raised her head, fighting to keep the pain from her face, the heartbreak. Chevalier's shadow stepped up beside her. She kept an eye on him, lest he start shooting.
Time for the truth. For better or worse.
She poked a finger at the microphone.
"Ehm. Testing. Testing. One, two, tricycles. Can you hear me in the back?"
Some figures reacted. A few started to leave the room, moving toward the exit quietly. Others brought out their phones. Typical. Guess even Blue Cosmos wasn't immune to that little bit of stupidity.
Well, maybe it would be fun to see their faces when they found out who was really running things.
"Sorry," she began. "Not sure I have a whole lot of time, so I'm just going to say it. Fuck it. The truth is the truth."
Tell them what David did to us.
...
Noelle's lips shook. The Simurgh wanted her to tell them about David? But if he controlled the Endbringer—No time.
"So first off. There's this group. Cauldron? They run the PRT and the Protectorate. They're also kidnapping people, forcing power juice down their throats, and turning them into monster capes. They dump them around here and there with no memories because they think heroes or villains winning makes things worse."
They fucking smiled. Of course they did. That was their wet dream. The psychos probably fantasized about half the shit they said actually being true.
Cody shouted at her. Called her weak. Tell them the truth. Oliver cursed her. Tell them what David did! Krouse—
If that bitch wanted it, it was bad. But David. Everything he did...
"Do you have evidence of this claim?"
Noelle glanced at the blond guy and scowled.
Tell the truth, Noelle.
Make him eat it.
Kill them.
Where's our justice?
"Teacher," she said.
She hesitated, looking at the cameras. No. No, if the Simurgh wanted it, she couldn't do it.
"Know him? Total ass douche that ruins people's lives? He used to be a member, and all this shit he does is his idea of saving the world. He's working with this shit heel"—she pointed at the man—"to start a war between capes and everyone else, but that's just because Teacher is full of himself."
Focus. People needed to know what Blue Cosmos is doing.
She struggled to keep her face straight. She begged them to forgive her, but the pleas fell silent before the voices. Why? The Simurgh wanted her to talk about David, to kill. Why?
The man beside her stumbled back.
Kill them.
Tell them about David!
Stop running!
The blond recovered, stepping toward her with an angry glare. "I think that's—"
A man in the room shot to his feet and shouted. "Shut up, Azrael! Keep talking, girl. Ignore him."
…
A choice had to be made.
"Are those the choices you really want?" Noelle asked. "Fake heroes who think more suffering is all there is, or these fucks, collecting charity money while eating five hundred dollar steaks and working for a supervillain playing them all for fools?"
She watched the room. Watched the myriad of expressions play out. Anger. Disbelief. Fear.
So much fear and for a moment the voices fell away.
It didn't matter. They weren't real. Oliver was dead. Cody was dead. Krouse… She'd never see him again, so it didn't matter anymore.
Taylor was right.
It wasn't about her. It wasn't about what she wanted. It wasn't about what David did. People had to know. The world was broken. Someone had to fix it. The truth had to be said.
She smiled, thinking back. Taylor quoted Sam Stansfield. She didn't have time to explain that, but maybe she could take a page.
Noelle looked at the camera and asked for the truth.
"You have to fight for your future. Will either of their worlds satisfy you?"
She gripped the podium as the voices flooded back. So strong. So loud. The Simurgh didn't deserve to win.
Kill them, Noelle.
She tried to focus, but they felt so heavy. Cody's cries. Oliver's cries. Krouse' condemnation. Hard to think. Why shouldn't she kill them? She heard what Dean Stansfield said. She could just kill Muruta Azrael and those close to him, except Cecily Fairchild, apparent—
No, that's what she wanted. The truth. Tell the truth. Tell people what they needed to know! What she learned when she touched Chevalier.
"Alexandria knows all about it," she croaked. Justice. "Her real name is Rebecca Costa-Brown." Stop running. "Yeah. That one." You let us die. The truth. Not what David did to her. What they needed to know. His fucking name. "And Teacher's real name is Da"—she felt the bullet before she heard the shot. Her voice cracked—"vid"
You're so stupid.
She was. A Pet. Of course David had a Pet in the room!
She pushed Bastion out and his power fell around her as more bullets followed the first. The room erupted into chaos. People panicked and ran, crushing each other in the rush to escape. The cameras fell over, falling to the ground.
That was it then.
She ignored the voices, hoping it mattered. It was all she'd get to say. Now… Now she was too dangerous to live. Not that she'd go quietly.
Maybe she should kill some of them. If she killed Azrael at least. He sounded important to whatever was going on. He'd already scrambled, forcing his way past others as Noelle pressed on Sabah's light.
She'd never killed anyone, but if she was going to die, why not take a few with her?
Maybe then Oliver would stop crying so much…
She stared, watching as the drops fell. Black against black, an infinite mirror reflecting itself. She'd seen it before, many times from many angles. They'd all seen it. All the lights in her mind.
"I'm sorry." The woman loomed over her, green eyes watching Noelle from above. "Be at peace."
Peace? That was funny.
She was about to die. She couldn't go on like this, with the voices in her head. Constantly questioning if whatever she did next was what the Simurgh wanted her to do. She had to die. Telling the truth was all she could think to do that would matter and now...
The woman smiled solemnly. "You've won more than you know."
She sat up, watching as the silvery-goo twisted across the room. Guns fired and Parian's shadow tried to tie them down. A blade shot from the mass, severing bodies and splintering like thorns as it hit the floor.
She blinked, watching the carnage unfold around her in slow motion. One woman tried to run but was trampled by others. A man reached for a fallen gun only to have his hand severed as a silver splinter absorbed the metal. The barrel twisted and turned, firing at Parian's shadow.
The clone vanished and another large arm swept the room and cut everything in its path.
Noelle raised her arms as it impacted Bastion's barrier and tossed her across the room and into a wall. She gasped from the blow and scrambled to her feet.
Her hand touched blood and her heart stilled.
Won?
How did she win?
The voices wanted her to kill them, and now they were dying.
She looked back, watching the mass. It spread from a center, a figure crying out and screaming from within. A girl? A broken trigger. Myrddin knew these.
Noelle's blood chilled as it hit her.
The Simurgh wanted this. She wanted her to set it off, to make this happen. She never wanted anyone to die. She just wanted to tell the truth.
She wanted to be a hero…and this is what she'd done.
"I—"
The floor exploded and light flooded the room.
Taylor roared. "Everyone move!"
She swung, her sword breaking through the wooden floor and cutting a swinging tendril. Her Gundam spun, batting another away and shielding a woman clutching a child.
"Move!" She turned her weapons on the mass and fired. "Get out of the building! Anyone who can walk, help those who can't!"
The figure at the center began to move, a howling wail escaping the girl's twisted throat. She reached for Taylor and the tendrils swung like a vice. She cut one and one of her other suits crushed through the roof and trapped the other in a claw.
"What do we do?" Laughter called.
"Drag it from the building!" Taylor snapped. Guns emerged from the silver flesh. They fired and panged off the armored suits holding the horror down. "Get it outside!"
Not a moment's hesitation. She didn't care that the people she was protecting were wrong. They were people, and they didn't deserve to die. That's how Taylor thought. She wouldn't lash out in hate, lose herself in recklessness. She didn't have to fight that darkness because for all the brooding... It wasn't in her.
Noelle smiled.
She rose as Taylor grabbed hold of the monster she'd unleashed. The die was cast. Looking back now, yes. Someone needed to be the hero.
And it was never going to be her.
