Doll House – Crooked Smile
Note: If you are 100% not interested in Crooked Man or the Monochrome boys, or why most of this happened, feel free to skip the entire section between ***'s. You can pick up with Bruce again at the end. I don't really advise this but some people might really, really not want to know.
…
…
They'd been sitting out front of Barry's house for what felt like an hour now. Noire didn't want to utter a single word on the off chance it might get Batman glowering at him again. However it was becoming increasingly difficult to simply sit there while the grown ups did their job. At first Noire had been eager to help, trying to find ways that maybe he could assist but the very second he got near the door, Batman had blocked him off. Proceeding to give him a very short and painful lecture about the last time he'd touched this door and how it had ended for him.
So there he sat, on the curb waiting for Gl's ring to come up with anything useful while scanning the house. Batman had vanished a number of times, what he was doing and how he managed to simply drop off the face of the planet when he stepped into the shadows was a trick that still unnerved Noire to this day.
Tired, and beyond fed up, Noire kept his mouth firmly shut and his eyes on the ground between his feet. Small ants were scuttling around looking for food and Noire found himself feeling almost envious. When was the last time an ant had a fight with their foster parent that resulted in a magically sealed house and unexplainable trips to the cemetery? When was the last time that happened to an ant? Instead they looked for food and tried not to get eaten by larger animals. That seemed simple.
"At least I don't have to serve a queen." Noire conceded while reaching down to gently probe one of the ants. It didn't seem to enjoy that very much, so he stopped it and instead let the ant crawl over his finger at its own pace.
The ant was just seeming to become comfortable with roaming Noire's hand when suddenly Jordan landed by his side, causing Noire to yelp in alarm and accidentally knock the little guy off his finger. Caught between snarling at Lantern and checking he hadn't accidentally killed the little critter, Noire must have looked rather ridiculous.
He tried to play this off by asking in his most serious tone. "Find anything?" It wasn't nearly as impressive as Batman's serious tone.
"The ring knows everything about the galaxy." Noire didn't bother to tell him that had been proven wrong a number of times. "But it doesn't exactly cover magic bullshit."
"Magic?" Noire asked, looking back at the house that had been his home for some time now. It looked incredibly unremarkable, not like what he expected an enchanted house to look like.
"Lantern is correct." Noire jumped a second time when Batman appeared seemingly out of no where, thankfully this time he had no ant friend to drop. "It would explain why there was a reaction to your magic but not when you touched the door."
Now the three of them were staring at the house with matching grim expressions. By now there was no doubt that Barry was inside, but it felt like they were missing crucial details. Noire had to see for himself.
"Where do you think you're going?" Batman asked when Noire took his first step towards the house. How one man could sound so condescending with so few words was beyond Noire's understanding.
"I'm not going to hit it with my magic!" Noire defended himself angrily. "I just want to see, maybe I can find something?"
Hal snorted, no doubt finding it funny that Noire thought he'd magically find something that he and Batman had missed. Noire had to admit it was a long shot, but what would they know about magic? Hal treated his ring like it was science most of the time and Batman mostly kept away from magic. Noire was made out of the stuff – he might not have textbook knowledge on the stuff but if anyone here was going to notice something magical, it ought to be him right? That was how he justified it anyway.
While he approached the house, taking his turn peeking around the windows and sides as if something obvious might give him an answer, Hal and Bruce merely observed. Neither would have put it past the kid to lash out with his magic despite having said that wasn't his intention. Noire wasn't the smartest nor the most levelheaded kid on the block. He was certainly no Robin.
"Seriously nothing Spooky?" Hal asked, turning to look at Batman's stoic form. "Aren't you a detective or something?" Batman didn't even bother to glare at GL, instead he opted to keep his eyes on Noire's figure. Just in case.
Huffing in annoyance, Hal looked back at the supposedly magic house. It looked like he'd always seen it, Barry held BBQ's here for Pete's sake – it was hardly a haunted house. Well it had been housing a demon since the kid moved in but other than that it was fine. Just thinking about how Noire would lurk behind walls and doors when he was smaller still unnerved Hal.
He used to just stare at people with those huge red eyes of his. Something out of a horror film where all the children were possessed and worshipped haunted vegetables of some kind. It wasn't much better when he got brave enough to start talking – the kid never had a cute phase. Jumped straight from creepy to cranky.
Still, it wasn't as if Hal hated the little brat. He really wished that Noire would stop biting and hissing at him every time they were in the same room. It was difficult to see any of his mother in him most of the time. He could have inherited at least some of her chill.
"Huh." The kids small exclamation of surprise seemed to cut through the silence like a knife and Hal felt his heart jump in alarm. Had he really found something. Then much to his genuine relief, Noire turned to look back at them with a beaming grin – it made him look much more his age to not be snarling for once. "I found something!" He exclaimed, positively thrilled that he could be of assitence.
"No way." Hal dismissed, floating over to Noire's side just in case. "There's no way you really…" He didn't get to finish that sentence as Noire stubbornly pointed at the door. Hal didn't see anything and he thought maybe Noire was pulling his leg – wouldn't be unusual but with Barry missing it was unlikely Noire would be kidding around.
As if he was just indulging the child, Hal scanned his ring over the area he was furiously gesturing to. Really he shouldn't have been surprised when the ring let out a shrill alarm, it had found something and after a few seconds of analyzing what it found, his ring announced it would give a visual. What it showed him was nothing more than a green outline of whatever Noire's eyes were seeing. A small circular symbol that did not fit any he recognized.
It looked rather nonthreatening in all honesty, just a little oval with some black shape inked into it. But it was the thing that should not be here and Noire seemed to think it was new.
"So what is it?" Hal asked bluntly and some of Noire's victorious smirk dried up. So he didn't recognize it either.
"It's Dame-Dame." Bats had gotten there awful fast and silent, as usual and Hal did his best not to jump. Noire didn't have much success and visibly flinched, giving the Bat plenty of space as he shied away from the older man. He was probably still sulking about their previous chat. Batman seemed unperturbed by Noire's nervousness.
"What-what?" Hal glanced back at Batman with a frown. Did the man just know everything?
"Dame-Dame. It means board game – more accurately a checkerboard game. Although it's a bit…modernized."
"Okay, that's great and all but – what is it doing on Barry's door?"
Batman paused looking at the symbol that was only now visible under Hal's ring. The silence stretched on a touch too long and Hal was beginning to think that maybe for once Batman did not have an answer. Then like some sort of switch had been flicked he moved. Some sort of understanding had dawned on Bruce and Hal was still clueless – it felt very much like he was being left out of a conversation.
"Black." The boy at least didn't flinch this time. "You've never seen this symbol before?"
"No, it's the first time I've seen it. Well I…" Noire hesitated, hands wringing together anxiously as he thought about what the symbol meant. "It might look a little familiar. But I can't place it."
Batman's mask did little to hide the firm way his jaw set. There was another lengthy pause while both Batman and Black seemed to be thinking something over and Hal was left wondering what it was he was missing. So maybe he didn't recognize some obscure symbol right off the bat, but Noire didn't know it either – so why were they both so miserably silent.
"Lantern." Batman suddenly called his attention away from his almost sulking. "With me for a moment. Black, don't touch anything."
And like a child, Noire pouted. Bruce then grasped Hal's upper arm, despite the ace pilots protests, and dragged him out of ear shot. It was about then that Hal realized that Batman had done that incredible thing he did and figured something impossible out without anyone else realizing. Whatever it was, it wasn't to be said in front of the kid.
That alone was almost enough to give Hal a heads up.
"The person that did this is supposedly dead."
Almost enough. He felt like he didn't get nearly enough pay for this gig sometimes.
"Supposedly?"
From there he had to listen to Batman pitch his rather insane sounding idea and somehow twist it to seem perfectly plausible. He did that a lot. While Hal listened to Batman explain very slowly and firmly that he suspected a man that went by the title of 'Crooked Man' was behind this, or at least someone playing copy cat, he failed to notice Noire was staring at the place on the door where the symbol was. Apparently his creepy red eyes could see the magic symbol without Hal's ring and he was currently scrutinizing it closely.
No one could call the kid a genius but Hal dared not call him an idiot either. Even if only because he liked his skin too much to risk Noire trying to flail it with his shadows. At the same time that Hal was being clued in to who the Crooked Man was or had been, what he meant to the Harlow boys, Noire was putting a symbol to a memory.
"A board game…" Noire mumbled under his breath, sorely tempted to reach out and touch the symbol that – to his eyes at least – seemed to glimmer just slightly in the dim lighting. Its familiar shape was driving him up the wall, he knew he'd seen it somewhere before but Noire just couldn't seem to place it.
It was unlikely that his close inspection actually helped Noire to remember a thing about the symbol, but as he stood there, sorting through memories in search of a fleeting glance of something even remotely similar – it finally came back to him.
"A game." It came back in dust and tears. Along with the echo of a smile he'd seen as a child and a gun.
All at once Noire remembered and recoiled from the door as though it were something that burned him with its mere presence. He didn't remember screaming, but he must have because suddenly both the Green Lantern and Bat were flanking him. Voicing some kind of question or concern that didn't properly register in Noire's head. Everything was getting lost in the chaotic buzz of memories.
He'd never forgotten entirely. It was not the sort of memory that he could easily discard but it had been pushed down deep. He'd tried not to think about that day anymore, tried to let Barry's presence and comfort fill him with thoughts of the future as opposed to looking back. Of course such a small detail like the mad ramblings of the monster he remembered could be forgotten and the small flash of an obscure symbol didn't stick in his mind.
It wasn't his fault. Barry had told him that countless times. Reassured him that no matter what he'd done, there were just some things that couldn't be helped. The fault lay with the criminal that had kidnapped a bunch of orphaned children for some sick game. The fault had been with the man that decided to kill himself rather than face the consequences of what he'd done.
They'd promised him time and time again – it wasn't his fault.
But Noire didn't feel that. He'd said he understood, nodded when they asked if he was okay – done all he could just to stop those people from looking at him with such sad eyes. But ultimately their efforts were wasted on him, because they hadn't been there – they hadn't made the choices he'd made. Hadn't heard what he'd heard.
…
The term kidnap had not meant anything to Noire the first time he'd heard it, holding his little brother's hand as they stood out-front of their home that for some reason was being covered by yellow looking strips of plastic.
The human adult that saw the two boys approaching the children's home had rushed to them, asking all sorts of questions about where they lived and if they knew where the other children were. Alois had clung tighter to his side, shying away from the human and Noire would have liked to do the same but the adult kept asking them things and looking like he was expecting them to speak in return.
Noire wished his mother was there, she was good at talking to the humans. They seemed to like her and the gentle way she spoke, Noire thought that it made them want to protect her like she protected them. Because she spoke quietly and smiled gently, they seemed to think there was something wrong with her – something they could help with. How odd humans were.
While he was still trying to remember how to speak to adult humans, his little brother gave a small tug on his sleeve. Confused Noire had glanced down at Alois, only to see his fair brother pointing past the human in the bulky clothes and the yellow plastic with words on it, to their house. It looked wrong. The door, the thing that his mother locked each night for some reason, looked wrong. It was cracked and splintering in places, like something had busted it down.
It was slightly ajar and Noire could just see inside, there was something shiny on the floor. The stuff that pictures were placed behind, the sharp stuff that their mother cautioned them about touching. It could hurt one of the children, Noire knew this and tried to tell the adult as such. The man's face had pinched in a painful way that made Noire think he might be sad about something. Their mother taught them about emotions on human faces, encouraged them to mimic those expressions when they themselves felt certain ways. It all felt very clunky and unnatural at first. Noire didn't like smiles very much, he always showed too much teeth and felt silly. But over time he noticed that sometimes when he was happy, he'd smile without teeth – Alois was always sure to tell him, ask how he did it and together they learnt what a real smile looked like.
The adults weren't smiling. None of them, instead they all had the ugly distressed expression. Mother never wore that one, and tried to cheer up the children when they had it. But adults wore it the most often, Noire hoped he wouldn't make that one.
Then the humans wanted to take them away. Away from the house where their mother should be but for some reason wasn't. The man said that their family had been 'kidnapped', whatever that meant. It had kid in the name, the little ones were called kids sometimes and Noire liked them. So how bad could kidnap be? Noire didn't like being apart from their family or left out of this kidnapping buisness and Alois didn't like it either, so they'd run away. The adults shouted after them, saying it wasn't safe.
"Where do you think mother is?" Alois asked after they'd lost the human adults down a dark alleyway. Gotham was such a pretty city, full of looming building and dark corners. Alois liked it more than Noire did but losing humans in the shadows was something Noire was very good at, although Lacie discouraged it most of the time.
"With the others." Noire answered simply as he lead his little brother by the hand through the backstreets. The grime and hostile glances form the shadows didn't bother Noire, it never occurred to him that humans would do nasty things. Lacie liked them so much, so Noire figured they must be all good. Even if the adults sometimes asked them to do silly things, like not look for their kidnapped family.
"Brother, look." Alois pointed to the ground and Noire noticed a faint lingering colour. Like a trail of rainbow dust, their mother sometimes said that they could follow rainbows back to her if they ever needed. Said it was a special sort of magic, that lead lost children back home. Noire had never seen it before, but their family had never not been where he knew they should be before. Lacie never lied, so Noire followed the trail, urging Alois to follow after him.
The path led them through Gotham for a long time and neither spoke. Words were important according to humans but Noire and Alois had only just learnt to use them properly and it was exhausting. So instead they just kept their hands linked and spoke with actions to one another. Where their hands links Noire noticed that Alois's light with soften and his shadows became less prominent. He thought it was nice that they turned to a gentle grey when touching.
It took too many minutes in Noire's mind but he wasn't sure how many of those minutes made how many hours. Alois probably did, he was better at math and time than Noire was but he didn't ask. It didn't matter – the rainbow dust was getting brighter and they took that as a good sign. Except it had taken them to a place they'd never seen before. Noire wasn't sure exactly what humans thought was a good building but the one the path led them to didn't look impressive.
The walls looked like they were crumbling here and there and – now Noire didn't want to be rude to the humans – but it looked like no one had cleaned it in years. Their nest tended to get messy and broken with so many little ones around, but they always fixed it right back up – who looked after this nest?
Alois seemed to think the same and Noire heard him snort – definitely a rude sound and Noire had half a mind to chide him for it. Except he made a good point and Lacie wasn't here to remind them of their manners, so he let his brother disapprove of the human nest's poor state. Humans should take care of their nest, especially if they were going to bring their family over to visit.
Ignoring how breakable parts of the building looked, the two brothers went inside. There was no door to knock on and no body inside the first, big empty room to greet them. A quick glance between the brother and a silent agreement was made to look at the tops of this strange nest. It felt abandoned but Noire could hear shuffling above them in the higher floors. He and his brother lived at the highest point of their nest, Alois seemed to dislike the height of it but Noire thought it was a good vantage point – perhaps these humans thought the same and wanted to show their family the best part of their nest.
Their nest was not very good.
As Noire and Alois crept up the steps, ignoring the squeaks and creaks as they went – the shuffling of feet got louder. They were at the fifth level of the strange building when the echoes of distant movement began to give way to voices. This particular nest was very empty and hollow – what few sounds there were traveled long distances. Back home there was always movement, the little ones never stopped making noise and it was a lot smaller and warmer. Noire didn't like this next very much, it felt very dead and cold inside.
When his body shuddered, that strange little shiver it did when he was cold, Alois reached out to touch his bare shoulders. Alois had such warm hands, it helped a bit. Noire wanted to give his brother a smile, to show it helped and that he was grateful but when he glanced back to so as such, Alois already managed to a smile of his own. His little brother was very good at picking up emotive expressions. His little brother was so cool.
Satisfied that they understood one another without words, the pair continued on. Noire hadn't wondered what he'd say to the humans when he found them. He wasn't particularly upset about not being kidnapped along with the rest of their family, Lacie had asked them to go on an errand for her – it must have just been bad timing. Surely that hadn't meant to be left out.
It was when they reached the sixth floor that Noire could properly make out the voices and honestly for a few seconds he was stumped. The tones, the words, all of it was off. Didn't match any human emotion or expression Lacie had actively taught them.
Alois shared his confusion and when Noire tried to go to the next step, his brother's form stayed firmly put. Jerked back by the sudden unwillingness of his brother and anchoring hand, Noire glanced at his brother to try and gauge his reasoning. Alois's expression was fairly blank but Noire thought he saw something a bit too firm there.
Alois didn't speak but Noire knew – wait and listen and learn. Think then act.
A simple set of rules of observation to follow. The same rules they followed when Lacie had a lesson for them. So Noire stood there in the middle of the stairs and listened to the humans above.
"He's paying us a bucket." Someone was saying. Their voice was coarse and unpleasant but Noire knew he shouldn't think that. It was unkind.
"Yeah, but kidnapping a bunch of kids?" Another weighed in. "It's a bit fucked up, even for Gotham."
"He said he ain't gunna hurt any of them. Wants to make a point or something. I don't know – none of my business. All I know is that this is paying for my drinks for the next month."
"Thought you might actually pay your rent first." It sounded like someone got hit after that. "Jeez, chill out Joe. I'm just saying."
"Yeah, well don't." The first snarled back. "How long are we going to wait here for anyway? What did rich boy say we were meant to do?"
"Well he told us to wait for two kids to show up, but…"
The human sounded uneasy, like he thought that wasn't going to happen but Noire brightened. They were two children, the kidnappers must have realized they missed them and were waiting for them to show up. That was enough to convince Noire it was okay to keep moving but Alois remained firmly rooted in place. Confused by his brother's refusal to move, Norie tried to feel what was going on in Alois's head. They'd been one entity once, it was easy to access the other's thoughts when they were welcome.
'What is it?' Noire tried to ask and Alois frowned. An expression that Noire didn't see his brother make often. This may have been the second time he'd ever seen it.
'Not right.' Alois responded, staring at Noire as if he was trying to pass something to him without words or thoughts. Something more. 'These humans, they're not right. Something is not right.'
Now he didn't know his brother to be wrong about many things when he put his mind to it, but Noire wasn't sure what to make of this. But if Alois thought something was wrong, perhaps it would be a good idea to listen to him.
'What do you want?' Noire asked, willing to follow whatever it was Alois decided was the correct course of action.
There was a brief silence in Noire's head where Alois debated what he would do. Then finally his brother's set in a hard way that Noire knew he hadn't picked up from Laice. Where did Alois learn that expression?
'Find the rich boy and ask,' He paused, changed his mind. 'Demand everyone come home. Visit over.'
Noire didn't mind. He didn't feel like socializing with the humans that lived in such a depressing nest. Surely Lacie would understand and they'd all head home. Noire agreed without a second thought and only then did Alois's legs unlock and the pair walked to the top of the stairs. The very second they appeared on the sixth floor, the two humans that had been talking spotted them.
They pointed shiny metal at them, seeming surprised to see them. He didn't recognize what they were holding until Alois hissed at his side, the things were called guns and they hurt humans. They probably shouldn't be holding those if they could hurt humans. Noire didn't think anything of it as he knocked the guns from their hands, the black whip he'd formed from their shadows easily pulling the dangerous things away from them.
He remembered too late that Lacie told him not to use his extra hands around other humans. It could scare them apparently. The expressions on their faces were rather distressed and so Noire made a smile for them. To try and help calm them, Lacie said smiles helped when people were upset.
"Hello." He chimed because Alois didn't seem like he wanted to speak from where he clung to Noire's side.
"What the…?" One of the humans sputtered. Noire thought he sounded like the second voice from earlier. He didn't sound very calm. "What the hell is going on?"
"We're looking for Rich Boy?" Noire said, to try and help the process along. Humans sometimes got so distracted, it took forever to do anything.
The pair looked between one another in alarm. Their faces had turned awful pale after Noire took the dangerous things away from them. But if they could hurt humans then they shouldn't hold them – they had to be careful just like the little ones couldn't touch the fire. No matter how pretty it was.
"Well I mean…they're kids?" One of them eventually managed to say. It seemed to be enough for them and Noire made another smile when they gestured to the door at the end of the room. Noire didn't hesitate to take Alois and himself over to it, ignoring the way the two humans stared at them as they passed.
Noire had to stand on his tippy toes to reach the door's handle but the moment he pressed his hand against it, the thing swung open. He guessed it must have been broken as well. Undeterred by this Noire entered the room with his brother in tow, from there everything moved very quickly.
He saw their mother, standing in front of their little ones, facing a stranger at the end of the room. Lacie must have heard the door open because she whipped around to look at the pair of them and just as Noire felt a real smile forming on his face, he noticed the expression she was wearing. It was gut wrenching, she looked terrified and behind her the stranger grinned.
A human had their mother upset, made her wear an ugly expression. Noire didn't like this one bit. He acted without thinking, dragging up his own shadow to throw it at the stranger, to make him back away from their mother. By his side, Alois let out a cry, it sounded like something meant to stop Noire from acting rashly but he didn't pay it any mind.
The human was alarmingly fast and Noire's strike missed by a large stretch as he easily side stepped away, the wall that had been behind him did not fair as well. It immediately caved under Noire's attack, exposing the nest to the open air of the evening sky. Human emotions still stumped Noire and when the stranger laughed in absolute delight, he couldn't make any sense of it.
Alois's hand was still in his own and Noire had placed himself protectively in front of his little brother even as he threw the attack. But now they were becoming aware of just how bad this really was. Their little ones weren't just sitting patiently on the ground; someone had wrapped them up in rope and covered their mouths with some sort of sticky white paper.
Their mother was still standing in front of them but her body wasn't like theirs, it could break more easily than the little ones. They had to protect their family. Alois felt this through their link and immediately let go of his big brother's hand to rush to his family's side while Noire stayed focused on the stranger that still wore a smile. It didn't look like any smile Noire had ever seen, it looked twisted and wrong.
"I hope I didn't scare you too much." The stranger said, his voice was high and airy as if he was jittery with either excitement or fear. "I was waiting for you two."
He sounded happy to see them, his words and actions didn't match the scene and Noire wasn't sure what to do. So there he stood, crouched and waiting for any sign that the human meant to harm someone.
"I heard about your abilities but…I never expected it to be so obvious. Black and white, polar opposites. It's incredible, I knew that white would come for the children but I didn't expect you to come as well." He looked at Alois when he spoke and Noire bristled furiously. Didn't want this human looking at his brother.
"I really didn't expect you…" The stranger paused, looking at Noire with sharp eyes. "Shall we play a game then?"
Noire tensed as the human flicked his wrist, a card flashing between his fingers as he held up a symbol. It was a circle and Noire didn't recognize it from any of the math problems Alois liked to play with. It meant nothing to him, but he knew what games were. They were fun, to be played with friends – perhaps this human meant to apologize for his bullying by offering a game?
It didn't feel like that's what he wanted to do.
""You want…to play with me?" Noire asked slowly, he liked games but he wasn't sure if he could trust this man to play fair.
"I do." He confirmed happily.
"Here are the rules, be a hero." He made that smile again, the no right one. Noire didn't have a word for what was wrong with it. "Do you know what a hero is Black? A hero doesn't kill, they protect others first – they are selfless. I like heroes; I want your brother to be a hero. You're darkness and he is light, you don't fit a hero type but…lets give you a chance."
Noire didn't know what to make of the stranger, but being a hero didn't sound half bad. It sounded like the sort of person their mother always praised but… his comments about Noire being the dark side of the coin he and Alois shared did dig deeper into his mind than he was willing to admit.
"Of course, I'm the villain – so all you have to do is stop me. Easy right?" The man's grin was vicious and excited, making Noire's stomach twist up into tight knots. Why did this human want to play a game like this?
The card in his fingers was suddenly dropped, falling to the ground slowly but at the same time something clicked. It sounded like a switch had been flicked somewhere and Noire saw a brief look of shock cross the stranger's face. Then his mother's voice rang out.
"Protect the children!"
For a second Noire didn't understand, but then the entire nest shook. Something above them had exploded, the force of the explosion nearly knocked Noire to the ground and from the corner of his eye he could see parts of the building beginning to crumble and break apart. Only then did he realize why his mother had shouted what she did.
The little ones that Alois huddled near were directly under a particularly weak part of the building. Noire knew that things that heavy could hurt someone if it fell on them. He knew that human bodies could be crushed under that sort of weight. Amongst the horrible sounds of the building breaking apart and crumbling to the ground in places, Noire knew that place was not safe. This place wasn't safe.
Noire took a step towards the little ones, mind working fast to think of how much his shadows could shield them from the destruction when he noticed something else at the same time. His mother was standing apart from them. The explosion had thrown everyone off balance and Lacie had already been a small distance away from the little ones and Alois. She'd been looking small again; she sometimes lost her breath or needed to sit down abruptly and she'd turn very pale. Noire didn't know the word for it at the time; he didn't understand why his mother could look so frail so suddenly.
Right now he only needed a glance to know that she wasn't going to be able to get to the others. Her legs wouldn't work – one of those small moments had stolen the ability from her. She wasn't safe.
Lacie had told him to protect the little ones, but she was in danger as well. Noire hesitated, it was the smallest hesitation but it was costly. The building did not wait for him to decide and in a horrible avalanche of rubble and dust. By the time he'd rushed for his mother the upper level of the building had collapsed and he lost sight of her in the downpour. He heard Alois scream out his name but he knew the roar of half the building collapsing to the ground below had drowned out the sound. He'd heard Alois calling him in his head before his brother and the little ones vanished in the downpour of stone and metal.
The force of half the building breaking apart shook the remaining half that Noire stood on, it knocked him down as a few pieces of the upper floor fell around him, bruising and cutting Noire's body.
As the sound began to fade away, and the tremors stopped leaving the dust to settle around the wreckage, Noire slowly became aware of the fact he was still breathing. But he couldn't move, couldn't force himself to pick his battered body up and move the rubble off of him. Because he knew, he knew that he'd just lost something precious. No one had been there to grab his mother, she couldn't have moved herself and the place where she'd been was now nothing more than empty space. The entire section of the floor she'd been standing on had fallen from under her and been buried by the floors above it.
In a matter of seconds he'd lost sight of the little ones, his brother and their mother.
For a while he wasn't even capable of coherent thought, he simply lay there under the smaller sections of brick work that had collapsed on him, staring out at the setting sun. It looked pretty he'd thought distantly, glowing a wonderful gold and orange as it ducked behind the tall buildings of Gotham. He'd always liked colour but it felt like it was fading from his eyes with every passing second. He was crying but even though there was no sobbing, the tears just kept coming dragging through the dust that had covered his face and leaving streaks through it.
It wasn't until Noire heard someone else moving that he came back to the world. There was a shifting and the sound of rubble being displaced as someone dragged themselves out of it. If Noire listened closely he thought he could hear someone crying, and he knew that he wasn't the one making the sound.
So Noire began to very slowly pull himself up as well. The sections of brick that had fallen on him gave away easily under his shoulder and Noire was able to pull himself free of the wreckage easily. He was still on the sixth floor, only fragments of the building remained around him and the sky was now visible from all angles. But against the glow of the setting sun, there stood the stranger's figure. It looked black against the colour of the sky but Noire knew who it was.
It was the monster that ruined everything.
Noire wasn't thinking as he stood up, ignoring the way his body screamed and ached with pains he'd never felt before. His back straightened out and Noire felt his shadows curling up around his feet, he could push the human off the building. He wouldn't survive the fall – he'd die like everyone else. That thought propelled Noire's feet forward because he didn't want his shadows to touch the human, instead he reached out with his flesh hand.
Then suddenly the human turned around to face him in a single violent swing. His face looked a lot like what Noire thought his must look like. The crying he'd heard came from this human and the memory of the tears he'd shed lingered in the clean streaks down his dust-layered face. On that same face he wore that same smile Noire hadn't had a name for – he had the word now.
That crooked smile stared back at him.
"T-Tragedy." The human gasped out and Noire noticed that there blood splashing his lip when he spoke. Something inside the human had been broken then the upper floor fell on them. Humans were breakable. "Tragedy makes a hero. So I took something valuable from you." He elaborated, but then Noire took another step forward and the stranger took a step back, smile twisting on his face.
"Ah-ah! Better not get too close." Then much to Noire's horror the human produced a gun and pointed it right at Noire's head. The small distance between them made it impossible to see anything except for the barrel of the gun and a hint of a smile from the man holding it.
"When I discovered you and your brother – I was positively thrilled you know. I had been racking my brains. 'Who would make a good hero?' – I kept asking myself. Then out of nowhere I catch wind of two little demons that embody light and dark and all of a sudden it was all so easy. Who would make a better hero than a being made of light?"
Noire knew the gun could hurt humans, he wasn't human but…if falling rocks and flames could hurt him like the little ones then it was possible that thing could hurt him as well and so he didn't move an inch as the monster's words passed over him.
"And I thought, I will mold them, breaking them and recreate them – until they were perfect. A perfect hero to do what weaker people could not. So what do I do? Well I start to plan. Hire some low life thugs, whose lives were not worth much to begin with and steal what the creature values. Then I create a situation where they have a choice to protect the innocents or kill the person that hurt them by rigging an old abandoned building with explosives."
The gun made a little clicking sound and Noire froze in alarm, not sure if that sound meant it would hurt him or not. It didn't seem to do much else.
"What did you choose? You took a third option and tried to save at least someone. I was wrong; you're not a villain to match the dark side of your brother. I am sorry for that."
Silence followed for a few tense seconds and then slowly the gun was lowered. Noire didn't understand what was going through the crooked human's mind as he gazed at the gun with a faint smile. It didn't look painful like the others had and Noire then realized that not all smiles were warm or kind. They could be sad, just like this.
"It was not supposed to end like this. Those explosives were not meant to go off so soon, I hadn't even explained the rules of the game to you. No one was supposed to- no one except me…" He murmured under his breath and then slowly the gun came up again, resting just below the man's face with the barrel pointed between his eyes. "But, I think this was enough. I can't let you be the one to kill me Black – that would mean your choice meant nothing."
Humans could be killed with guns.
"….I am satisfied with just this."
Noire lunged, hand outstretched at the same time as a second, smaller explosion cracked through the air. This one was closer and Noire realized to his horror that the sound came from the gun as the crooked human fired at himself. Noire tried to grab his hand as it fell limp, tried to catch him before he plummeted off the edge of the sixth floor – but he was too slow.
It only took a few seconds. A splash of blood and sudden flutter of fabric as the crooked human tilted over the edge – then he was gone, vanishing down to the ground below. Noire swore he heard the sound of the human's body meeting the pavement and he knew without a doubt that he was dead.
When his knees hit the ground, Noire didn't bother to get back up. His hand was still reaching out into the empty space where the human had been. He didn't know that human's name, or really understand anything he'd said. Noire couldn't process any of his jumbled thoughts, let alone force himself to move. So there he sat in the stilling dust, staring at the sky until a shadow descended over him.
The Bat came to take him away and Noire didn't protest when he was gently pulled to his feet and taken away from that place. He found out later that the young ones had survived as well as his brother with minor injuries – but his mother was gone. He heard the large ones talking about it, the ones that weren't all human.
They talked about it while probing him, checking his condition. Some of it hurt but slowly the physical hurt faded away the more they tended to him. The green man was kind and asked permission to go through Noire's head. He didn't say no and he felt it when the adult entered his thoughts. It didn't feel like his link to Alois which had gone concerningly silent. But it was gentle and comforting.
When the alien remerged he reassured the other large ones that Noire was fine, in shock he said, but ultimately not mentally damaged. They thought a rock must have hit his head and that's why he didn't respond when they spoke to him. Noire knew he should make words for them, his mother would have told him it would only be polite to speak so they could hear him. But his voice wouldn't work and even if it did – he had no words to give.
He didn't know how long he sat there, unable to understand the constant buz of conversation the large ones were having. He stared at them because they were colourful – a big one in blue and red looked at him kindly and a little sadly. The one in black seemed scary, only looked in sharp stares and glares – Noire wondered if it was because he was their dark one, like he was. The others all had colour. The green alien that spoke smoothly in a deep voice had been gentle with him, the pretty woman wore colours like the kind strong man. Even the emerald that shone almost as brightly as his own little brother was able to brighten the room – no matter how rough his way of speaking was.
The emerald man never looked at Noire, he looked anywhere but him and should their eyes meet for even a second – he'd turn away fully. That man hated him, Noire knew it, could feel it in the way he refused to look at him.
Did the emerald man hate him because he couldn't save his mother or the crooked human?
Then suddenly there was warmth, a gentle pressure around his shoulders and when Noire turned to look up he saw the man in red. The one that walked with lightening in his step and an open smile on his face. He spoke to Noire in a voice that was as kind as the strong man and gentle as the green one. This human is a good human – Noire thought to himself.
"Hey there little guy." The good human in red said as he sat down with him. Now the red man was small like Noire, not standing tall with the other large ones. "You looked cold."
He had been, but even the cold that he knew was dangerous to his body hadn't been enough to jog him from his daze. But the good human's voice had done it. Noire thought about his little brother, thought about the warm hand he'd placed on his shoulders when he'd been cold before. The good human didn't touch him but the blanket was warm and reminded him of Alois's attempts to comfort him. His little brother, who he had not been able to reach since hearing him scream his name. Their link was so silent, it had never been like that before.
But the dark one, the Bat, told him that Alois was alive. Hurt but alive – soon he'd see him again. Noire believed that.
"I'm the Flash." The one in red said gently and Noire thought that was a funny name. Never heard one like that before, it almost sounded like the sort of name the crooked human used – a title like Black and White rather than a name. The Flash human looked uncomfortable when Noire remained silent.
Then he remembered his mother telling him that when he met someone he should give his name, especially if they wanted to talk or offered theirs. The Flash human was a good one, Noire didn't want to be rude to him and so he opened his mouth to say his name.
"I wasn't fast enough." That was what came out instead.
In an instant it felt like all of the numbness vanished and Noire was overwhelmed with feelings he did not have names for. He began to cry, this time it wasn't silent. He sobbed and choked on his own air and the tears seemed to burn his already sore eyes as they relentlessly poured down his cheeks.
The Flash human's response was immediate; his arms wrapped around Noire and pulled him into a hug. For a moment Noire felt surrounded by warmth and a comfort he didn't think possible. It felt like he was safe with this human's arms around him. The crying continued and so did the pain but Noire clung onto this human tightly like a lifeline.
It hurt and he thought that if the human let go of him he would fall into pieces. Noire didn't know how long he cried for but the whole time that human was there, arms around him with nothing but soft words of comfort to offer. Promises that didn't sound empty and Noire trusted every word he said.
This was a good human.
Noire could feel the dark one's eyes on them from time to time and he made sure to look back at him when he was coherent enough to do so. This group was full of colour and light, but they had someone made up of shadows just like him – this large one he'd follow. Rely on him to prove that just because he was 'Black' he didn't have to be the bad brother.
Eventually he nodded off, tears still slipping from his eyes even as what little strength he had left his body. Even then when he was barely conscious, his good human didn't leave, kept him wrapped up, safe and warm. He trusted this human not to let him be hurt anymore.
The Flash human had taken him in, given him a home and all the warmth in the world. He showed Noire what good food tasted like, taught him how to walk like a real human and not float a few inches off the group while pretending he was walking. When Noire got sick or sad, he was always there to help him through it even if he didn't know what the right thing to do or say was, he still tried. This human, even when Noire was cold or mean always had a ready smile for him.
This human was a good human, called Barry – and this human was his.
***
…
His human was in this house, trapped by the crooked human that Noire was sure was dead.
Noire saw nothing but red and before Batman could stop him, Black slammed his fist against the door. As he drew back to throw a second punch, tendrils of shadow wrapped firmly around his fist and gave the blow a stronger force behind it. Noire hit the door again and again. It creaked and groaned under the abuse but even when he thought it should have been broken off its hinges it remained firmly blocking him from Barry.
He'd been so incredibly stupid as a child. Noire knew that most of this could be blamed on the fact that he physically aged too fast and didn't learn the same things that human children did. How could he be expected to know what kidnapping had meant? He had long since stopped thinking of people in such closed categories. It wasn't 'little ones' and 'big ones' anymore, but there was still a very distinct good and bad factor. Noire no longer felt as separated from humanity as he had when he was smaller.
Barry had practically raised him, he'd grown up with those humans and now he knew that he was nearing an age where he couldn't afford to be naïve to everything. He couldn't ignore it when someone would say something and expect him to understand when he just didn't, he couldn't just rush into everything and expect people not to be alarmed, not to worry.
Noire's fist jolted to a halt for a second when he remembered the last thing he and Barry had spoken about. Barry had been so scared and Noire didn't see it through his anger. Through his own fear. He'd been so focused on his brother and proving that he could be a 'hero' that he hadn't stopped to question why Barry had been upset.
He was just scared that Noire would get hurt and instead of reassuring him or at least hearing out his feelings – Noire had slammed the door shut on him. Now that same door wouldn't let him back inside to help Barry – in a sense it was punishment.
His fist flew down to connect with the door again and Noire didn't intent to stop until either he or the door gave out. If nothing else he had to get inside, just to apologize to Barry for being such a selfish, rotten little monster.
"Black!" His name must have been called at least three times by now but he barely even heard it that time. What did get through to him was Batman's hand on his shoulder. Firm and demanding. "Noire!" Without thinking Noire whipped around and damn near hit Batman like he had been the doing to the door. He stopped just in time and Batman hadn't even flinched, even with Noire's fist – still writhing with unruly, inky shadows – a mere centimeter away from his face.
"Stop." The command was quiet, simple and just like that Noire dropped his fist, arms slack at his sides. Batman didn't sound comforting but that voice wasn't harsh either. "That's enough."
Just like that, Noire knew that Batman had already guessed who's calling card that symbol was. He knew and somehow that was all the comfort in the word, Noire wasn't crazy and now Batman was here to help. He had never let Noire down in all of his life. Not as a representation of what a dark hero could be or in any other aspect.
He trusted Batman just like he'd trusted the Flash back when he was still small.
Once Noire was calm enough to be spoken to, Batman looked up to the door to note the reaction it had to Noire hitting it with both his flesh and magic. There was definitely a reaction; half the door was covered in an inky black substance that did not require Jordan's ring to see. Inside the black side of the door half of the symbol was now visible to the naked out, standing out as a white mark on the door.
Batman had an idea.
Alois had been silent on his end the moment Noire had screamed. Bruce knew that the younger brother was most likely no longer in his house. It was entirely possible that he had left for Barry's home the second Noire's distressed cry reached him through the other end of the communicator. His indifferent, cruel little brother façade was paper thin but Bruce knew Noire was too thick to see through it any time soon.
Despite Alois leaving the house being a direct breach of their agreement, it would be a great help. Bruce knew everything there was to know about the Crooked Man, everything he could scrap up from the man's past and his actions that day at the abandoned building. The accounts from the hostage children and even Noire's small snippets of information built a rather telling picture.
If the door reacted to Noire's magic like this, it was entirely possible it would have a similar reaction to Alois's. The Crooked Man had stated he wanted to make heroes of them before he died, even if this culprit was a mere copycat, that would still stand as a fact of importance to his actions.
"Lantern." Jordan, for all his faults, jumped into action when need be. Without much guidance he took Bruce's place at Noire's side. The boy seemed to be shutting down which Bruce guessed was the effect the door would have on him. Bruce had to be sure that Noire wouldn't suddenly sleep walk himself to a cemetery or somehow get hurt. Jordan didn't make any snide comments or complaints as Noire fell limp in his hold.
His only real question was a glance up at Bruce, he had that expression on his face. The one that demanded Bruce pull an answer out of thin air like magic – thankfully he might really have one up his sleeve. "Mind him." Bruce commanded. "I have a theory, but we can't have him wandering off. Keep him away from the door."
"Going to pull some detective magic?" Hal asked dryly, his spirit not really behind the jab and Bruce very nearly smiled. He would do the detective and should everything go according to plan, White would deliver the magic.
"Something of the sort." Was his answer. Hal snorted but didn't say anything more as he carried Noire away from the front door, to set him down against a tree closer to the edge of the property. Just out of earshot.
"How close are you." Batman asked as soon as he turned his communicator on. He didn't bother to pretend that White wouldn't be rushing to this place as face as he could.
"Would it be off putting if I told you that I've been sitting in a tree three buildings over for the past ten minutes?" Seemed Alois still had it in him to be snarky. Batman didn't respond in kind.
"Get over here, now."
Another pro to Alois was his ability to follow commands. Provided they did not in some way go against his one track mind he was a very efficient and obedient solider. Bruce heart a slight creak from the tree closest to him and took that as a sign of Alois's arrival. A glance up and he could just see the male's fingers harshly gripping the tree branch. He could guess why.
"Your brother is fine. He is merely knocked out due to coming into contact with a charmed object." He explained under his breath, glad for the communicator between them.
"And you want me to do the same." Alois replied dryly.
There was a stretch of silence between the pair and Bruce knew Alois would be studying his brother's collapsed form. He even heard Alois snort in disbelief, as if he couldn't believe it was Green Lantern helping his hot-headed brother.
"Fine." Bruce didn't look Alois's way when he agreed. "But if its really that man inside – Crooked Man or whatever it is you call him – you take care of him. You keep it quick, quiet and away from my big brother – deal?"
"I'll do what I can."
"That will do." Alois then uncurled silent from his position in the tree and dropped down into a crouch in front of Bruce. He knew that the young man's thin frame would be blocked from sight even if Hal happened to look up. Between the trees between them and Batman's looming figure it was fairly easy for Alois to summon up a single white beam and tap it against the door. It was a far more gentle display than what his older brother had down but the effect was much the same.
White swayed on his feet, seemingly hit with some sort of dizzy spell and Bruce only just caught him before he collapsed – but Alois remained conscious. If this could attributed to his greater strength or less excessive connection with the door Bruce couldn't say. The effect was immediate, the remaining side of the door gradually brightened until it too was coated in a paint like substance, this time it was white and the symbol on its side black.
Alois stared at it tiredly while allowing Batman to keep him upright. There was a distant, bitter sort of amusement in his gaze and Bruce caught him muttering something about symbolic nonsense.
Then the two colours split apart and drained to the ground as if they'd been nothing but liquid this whole time. Left in their place was the simple woodened door that Bruce knew from his visits to Barry's home. The door looked real and when Bruce reached out to press his hand flat against it, it bent inwards with enough force when before it had been unyielding. It was finally accessible.
"Go on then." Alois muttered under his breath. "Go and save that friend of yours."
Batman didn't smile but he felt that if he had it would not have been inappropriate. Alois's eyes began to slide shut and Batman checked once over his shoulder to make sure that hal was distracted with the other Harlow boy, before picking up his sleeping form and moving him out of sight. It was easy enough to place him around the side of the house, obscured by trees and shadows. Alois hadn't wanted to be seen by anyone and Bruce kept true to his word, Alois's involvement in this whole thing would be kept between the two of them.
Heaven forbid Bruce reveal that any part of Alois was not thoroughly corrupted.
This time Bruce did smile, a brief fleeting expression he kept to himself before he returned to the front door. He'd call Lantern and hopefully Black could be persuaded to wake up – it was time they go and make sure that their speedster was safe.