by Adam Sklar
CHAPTER FIVE: THE DEVASTATION OF EDEN
“I’ve managed to stop the missiles from launching, but there’s that one that I can’t stop, it simply doesn’t have an override!” Quinton yells.
“What is the missile’s target?!” Noah shouts, as he struggles to hold the door closed.
“This can’t be right.” Dillon mutters.
“What is it?!” Noah yells with impatience.
“You, Noah! The target is you! Or Wildcard, I don’t know!” Dillon blares.
“Somebody’s coming.” Quinton speaks alarmingly as he notices numbers changing on an elevator shaft at the end of the room.
“You aren’t stopping anything, any of you.” Hilary barges into the room with a small group of soldiers and an unidentified clone. Hilary stands beside the clone and strokes his arm. “He’s gorgeously muscular, isn’t he? Oh, you haven’t met. Let me introduce you all to Tyler Noble, one of our finest private-hire soldiers who perished in some long-forgotten war. We didn’t make as many clones as we should have, Tyler was one of the first and he’s been around a long time. It never ceases to strike me how albinism looks on him, I just remember him as this dark and handsome man.” She continues to admire the clone.
“You got over your husband pretty quickly, from the looks of it.” Noah lectures sarcastically.
“Noah, can you get them all out of here?” Dillon faces Noah and whispers.
“I don’t know how. Riley’s been the one in control up until now.” Noah stammers.
“They’re your powers, not his. It should be just like riding a bike, I hope.” She explains whilst self-replicating in order to create a distraction for the clones. Hilary immediately raises her gun and shoots Dillon in the chest, causing all of the clones to dissipate.
“Dillon!” Quinton shouts whilst he runs up to catch her from falling.
“We have no time for your pointless distractions.” Hilary barks. Quinton slowly places a wounded Dillon to the ground and bursts towards Hilary, placing his hand on her head as he begins to take her life away. The armed soldiers suddenly raise their guns towards Quinton as Noah quickly manages to stop time. He gasps in shock as he realises that he was able to stop time. Everybody has stopped moving, apart from Tyler. Noah concentrates on all of the soldiers and waves his hand in the air, teleporting them out of the area. Tyler rushes towards Quinton angrily with the intention of killing him. Noah pushes Tyler out of the way, knocking him to the ground whilst Quinton and Hilary remain frozen in time.
“You don’t want to do this.” Noah speaks confidently as he tries to use his powers on Tyler.
“Don’t waste your energy, your powers won’t work on me. Only I know what I wish to do, saviour.” Tyler growls, slowly circling Noah like wolves do their prey. Instantly, Tyler leaps for Quinton and Noah jumps in the way to physically attack him. The two enter a fist fight as Quinton desperately tries to get Noah out of the way so that he may prevent Quinton from killing Hilary. Noah struggles to keep Tyler out of the way and continues to use what powers he can against Tyler. With time at a halt, any powers against the environment will not come into effect until time has resumed once more.
“Get out of my way.” Tyler speaks forcefully.
“No.” Noah grunts whilst examining the structure of his surroundings. He notices that the support beams surrounding the elevator shaft are separate from the ones around the control panel and the silo. Tyler continues to try and get to Quinton whilst Noah blocks his every move.
“I take it you don’t have any abilities.” Noah presumes.
“I don’t need any. This is futile, give up.” Tyler argues.
“One last chance, Tyler. You’re on the wrong side here. You can come with us. We can help you.” Noah insists whilst he uses his telekinesis to crush four of the six support beams.
“I’m already dead. We’re all pawns, Noah. Every single one of us. I’m doing what I know to be the right thing.” Tyler grunts as he makes one last effort to reach Quinton. Noah collapses the remaining two beams and resumes time as he rushes towards Quinton and teleports with him to where Dillon is resting. The concrete ceiling collapses on top of Hilary’s already lifeless body and crushes Tyler. The support beams surrounding the rest of the silo begin to groan whilst the concrete floor cracks slightly.
“Noah, what did you do?” Quinton stammers.
“I gave him a chance, Quinton. I saved the soldiers, but Tyler was a clone, immune to my powers. Time was stopped and I collapsed the structural beams.” Noah answers as small chunks of debris begin falling from the walls around the rest of the facility.
“This place is going to fall.” Quinton complains and crouches down to care for Dillon. Noah reaches towards Dillon and heals her wounds.
“It’ll hold. We’ll be fine.” Noah reassures Dillon and Quinton as banging occurs on an industrial door on the other side of the facility. “Looks like somebody else heard us.” He mutters to himself.
Dillon stands up and rapidly approaches the console, confirming that all the missiles have been deactivated.
“What do we do now, Noah?” Quinton asks impatiently.
“Now we save Riley. We find him and we try to restore his consciousness.” Noah nods confidently and is suddenly overwhelmed with dizziness.
“Noah?” Dillon calls out worriedly as Noah passes out onto the ground.
“Noah!” Quinton yells as banging continues to occur on the industrial door.
“Noah.” Hope murmurs with an echo. “Riley doesn’t have long.” She explains.
“Hope? You’re alive?” Noah gasps as he realises he is inside the dark corners of his mind.
“I had to find some way to talk to you. It took some time for me to understand what had happened earlier today. When you… absorbed my body, you took my conscience with it. The human mind only has enough strength to contain one conscience. Because you’re this powerful, you were able to temporarily hold onto more than one. When you… absorbed me, it destroyed a lot of Riley. He’s nearly gone. Being trapped inside of here is so unearthly, it’s like a transcendent dream. Occasionally I hear Riley, then sometimes I hear you. You’re both more alike than you’d care to admit.” Hope explains.
“What… what do I do?” Noah stutters.
“Find Riley’s body as soon as you can and see where you can go from there. You have to find the man responsible for all of this. He’s used you to work against everybody without you even knowing it. He’s immensely dangerous, Noah.” Hope explains whilst Noah can hear the faint banging of the industrial door and the muffled shouts of Dillon and Quinton who are trying to wake him up. “You need to go, Noah. Find a way to save Riley. Find a way to save me.” She pleads.
“You can stop the Godsend Device, can’t you? I don’t have a power like yours yet, at least nowhere near as strong as yours is. Maybe you can give me that strength?” Noah wonders.
“I don’t know. Noah, I don’t know.” Hope explains.
“Noah!” Dillon screams loudly whilst Quinton shakes his unconscious body until he wakes up.
“What happened? Are you okay?” Dillon whimpers worriedly.
“It was Hope. She’s alive. Her conscience is inside of me and she warned me that Riley is nearly gone, we have to find his body and restore his conscience.” Noah explains.
“Glad to hear it, but she really could’ve picked a better time.” Quinton groaned as he helps pick Noah up. “He’s nearly through.” He whispers.
Noah levitates the collapsed concrete from the other side of the facility and blocks the industrial door, granting them some more time away from the deranged Wildcard.
“You guys need to understand that I’m still learning how to do everything. I’m still trying to remember who I am. Hope said I was good. Riley and Owen believed that once too, I hope you do as well.” Noah gasped.
“We do. You’re breaking free of him. His hold over you is lessening.” Dillon answered. “What is that?” Dillon notices a small shard protruding from Noah’s head.
“What’s what?” Noah asks, tapping his on his head trying to pinpoint where Dillon is looking.
“Hold still.” Quinton instructs Noah as he slowly places his hand onto the side of Noah’s head and slowly pulls out a broken black fragment. “It looks advanced. It’s a technological chip of some kind.” Quinton stammers.
“He influenced you, Noah. He puts chips into all of his employees, I never would have guessed he’d put one inside of you too. His powers have a very limited reach, maybe just from here to the end of the room.” Dillon murmurs whilst she points out an estimated length. “In order to control people no matter where they are, he had a chip designed in order for his powers to reach further. I think he intends to have you use the Godsend Device in order to allow him to expand his reach to cover the entire world.” Dillon reveals.
“It must have broken earlier on in the restaurant when Riley attacked me.” Noah mutters to himself. “So it wasn’t me that hurt Owen? It wasn’t me that absorbed Hope?” His eyes widen as he prayed for his innocence.
“No… He can’t control you with this, he could only influence you. If he raised you with the belief that you had to kill Hope, he would have made sure he etched that belief into every corner of your mind. Whilst you were in control of what happened, he was the one responsible for it all, not you.” Dillon discloses.
“We have to go, before he breaks—” Quinton informs the others as Wildcard smashes through the industrial door, shredding the remarkably strong steel and obliterating the obstacles that surrounds him.
“Guys, you have to go, now!” Noah shouts.
“We’re not leaving you!” Dillon remarks loudly.
“You will die! Powers don’t work on it. I just explained to Quinton, powers don’t work on clones! I have a plan, trust me!” Noah insists.
“Powers might not work on it, but that doesn’t mean I can’t help with a distraction.” Dillon states, as she clones herself multiple times to serve as a diversion for Wildcard. He begins to barbarically destroy Dillon’s alternates one by one, giving Noah enough time to teleport with Dillon and Quinton to the far end of the room by the emergency exit.
“The missile is meant for him, not me. I’ll lure him somewhere where nobody else will get hurt.” Noah explains hastily.
“That might kill you too!” Dillon speaks worriedly.
“It shouldn’t, but I have a feeling the Preservation of Eden has done everything to keep me alive so far, I have to try. They didn’t anticipate that Wildcard would go rogue, Hisoka told me that this missile was designed as a contingency to disable Wildcard, nothing else.” Noah debates.
“Okay, that’s a good point. They do need you.” Quinton agrees.
“Now go, please. I’ll find you guys after it’s all over. You saved the world, again.” Noah nods whilst he bids farewell to Dillon and Quinton. They run out through the emergency exit that leads into a small tunnel with stairs to the surface. The two continue to sprint as far as they can and rapidly turn a corner.
“Don’t!” A figure yells, aiming a gun towards Dillon and Quinton, who raise their hands.
“Please don’t. Wait, you’re not from the Preservation of Eden, are you?” Quinton notices.
“No. I’m not. Where is Noah Gray?” The figure questions quickly.
Wildcard has unforgivingly destroyed Dillon’s short-lived distraction, and quickly teleports in front of Noah, punching him with such a powerful force that he slams against the steel wall. Noah groans in shock and raises his hands in order to crush the ceiling above them, debris falls and violently slashes Wildcard’s body. His wounds heal as fast as they form. When Noah remembers that direct powers such as teleportation won’t work on the clone, he decides to grab him instead and begins to fly as fast as he can. Noah jolts through the exit of the silo as he struggles to carry his alternate form. Wildcard continues to unleash his unrelenting powers upon Noah, who is unable to defend himself against the horrendously vicious attacks. The Clone slashes severely deep cuts into Noah’s body and temporarily causes blindness from a mixture of fire and electricity emerging from Wildcard. He tries to withstand the attacks for as long as he can before he succumbs to the pain and collapses into a field far away from any source of human life.
“Please, stop.” Noah gasps breathlessly, struggling to speak as his healing ability endeavours to keep up with all the damage being done to his now extremely fragile body. Bones crack as they heal and relocate themselves, wounds close, stopping blood from pouring endlessly.
“I know how good it feels, I know. The power fills you with euphoria. You just want more and more until all sense of normality is tucked well away. You want to become so high with power that life becomes a blur. I am you. You are me. Please stop.” He implores.
Wildcard walks silently around Noah as he attempts to crawl away.
“I’m not you. You’re merciful. I’m merciless. Clearly something changed with you. You see, my last proper memory is my blood being taken from you after he showed me The Godsend Device.” Wildcard mutters his first words, his voice raspier and deeper than Noah’s.
“The Godsend Device? He wanted you to use it.” Noah stammers.
“You don’t remember everything, do you? He wiped your memory. The Godsend Device was designed for me. For us. It was created in the future, an artificial stone that can grant anybody the powers they desire. It can also take anybody’s powers away from them. But it only works with our biological fingerprint… When I worked out what had happened, where I came from, I rebelled against him and sought to use the Godsend Device for my own gain. I can’t even find him, I can’t find it.” Wildcard explains thoroughly and aggressively.
“I know that I’m meant to be the one to use it, but I don’t understand any of this. Why was my memory wiped? Why is all of this happening?” Noah struggles to speak.
“My blood was taken from you before all of this happened, I don’t share your pathetic memories. I am however remarkably surprised that my memories are intact at all.” Wildcard responds. “But I am going to get The Godsend Device eventually. I’m going to kill our beloved step-father and I will start by killing you first.” He remarks violently and begins crushing Noah’s internal organs by aggressively clenching his fist. Noah screams out in excessive agony as he begins bleeding from the mouth. He grabs his chest whilst he suffers from excruciating pain. The Clone continues to clench his fist and starts breaking Noah’s bones, beginning with the fingers and working his way through the rest of the bones in his body, following up with the shattering of his femur. Noah cries out uncontrollably as he experiences the worst form of pain a mortal human can experience. His internal organs begin to shut down as he continues yelling out breathlessly whilst he sees he trail in the sky heading towards the field he is lying down in. As Wildcard continues to cause massive injuries to Noah, unaware of the incoming missile, Noah gasps and cries, accepting the possibility of imminent death. He blinks rapidly and slowly closes his eyes after relishing in the view of the wondrous night sky. The missile hits the ground right where Noah is lying and decimates the entire field. Gigantic chunks of land soar into the dark sky and come crashing down into the newly formed crater below. Dirt and thick dust swarms the devastated field. Noah’s body reforms almost instantaneously and falls to the ground below. In his unconscious state, he sees Riley separate from him inside his own mind. An empty black space surrounds Noah and Riley as his mind holds no other present thoughts.
“I’m dead, aren’t I?” Riley fretted.
“I don’t know, Riley. I don’t remember what happened, but you’re here.” Noah exclaims.
“It’s okay, Noah. With you in control, I’ve had time to remember. I remember dying now. I think The Nomad intended for us to forget, but being as powerful as you are, your memories effectively healed themselves… I’ll try my best to remind you of what I can… I remember you spoke to my Mum, well, her clone. She told you about his secret. That’s when it happened. You went after him. Your powers went o
ut of control and he had to interrupt the process.” Riley explains.
“Riley, I never wanted this.” Noah mutters.
“It wasn’t your fault. He is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. We believed him to be a wonderful father, when in truth he is a despicable character with the intention of controlling the future. I helped you become a better person, Noah. You were damaged, frightened and lost. You’d never seen the outside world, only the images he planted in your mind.” Riley proclaims.
“I’m not evil, am I?” Noah’s lips jitter.
“No, you’re my brother. I love you. He told us lies about the world, he said it was dangerous to go out there, that the surface was destroyed. When you woke up after the eclipse, your first thought was to defend yourself and try to stay alive. You were on the surface, a place you had never been to before. The last thing you remembered was probably Dad killing me. You wanted to defend yourself next.” Riley explains carefully.
“I knew what I was doing, Ri. Sometimes I could see what was happening when you were in control. When Lily died, I could see it happening but I couldn’t control anything. By the time you were really anguished, I was able to take over and I got scared, I felt like I had to kill everybody. I felt like I didn’t have a choice. I thought I was going to die. I thought we were going to die.” Noah clarifies with regret. “I didn’t mean to get Lily involved, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to kill Owen. I know Hope is alive, but I hurt her.” He exclaims.
“Hope Never Dies. I heard Hisoka, even he knew it to be true. Since she… ‘died’, I was able to sense her within us, as if she were in an unconscious limbo. I hope that you’ll be able to find out how to save her one day.” Riley answers. “Your fear, your conflicted need to kill, I could feel it. But as time progressed, I sensed it fading away. His control over you is gone, Noah. You are your own person, you are your father’s son. Just like him, there has always been goodness in you. You’re my brother after all, biological or not.” He consoles Noah.
“After I saw you die, the next thing I saw was him. I recognised him.” Noah states.
“Who did you recognise, Noah?” Riley asks patiently.
“Frank. I recognised Frank. When I came to during the Eclipse, I looked at him and all I saw was Dad, your Dad. I killed him out of… out of self-defence and fear. I… I didn’t know he was a clone.” Noah answers with a stammer.
“The Machine was made with his genetic detail, Noah. Who else would he trust to oversee his infiltration of the Petrelli Manors other than himself? He had a mole at every single one. Frank was just ‘F’, the person in charge of the sixth Petrelli Manor in the country. Because it’s made from his genetic detail, his clones are the only ones that will never have albinism like so many of the other clones are likely to get.” Riley answers as he reveals that Frank was also a pawn in a larger game run by The Nomad. “My presence within you may have helped you find that goodness quicker. It may have granted you my ability, it enhanced the hero within you. Please don’t forget that you are good, and you will be a hero. I feel like I’m fading away. Do what you have to do, stop him, find a way to destroy the Godsend Device, save the world.” He explains confidently.
“Please don’t leave me on my own, Ri.” Noah stammers.
“You’re never on your own, Noah. You take care, I don’t think I can—” Riley continues to reassure Noah as his sentence cuts short, the remainder of his essence fades away.
“Ri? Riley?” Noah calls out, looking out into the endless emptiness of his mind.
“Remember.” Riley’s disembodied voice utters, as he uses the last of his energy to help Noah to recall the critical events of his life that led up to his appearance outside of Petrelli Manor.