She’d have to wait until a period of calm before she made any real headway.  The passage of time would help as well.  Then it wouldn’t be so painful to use her ability.

I thought it was going to get worse?

She got caught up in the painstaking operation, and it was some time before she realized the banging had stopped.  Still, the gathered people in the room waited.  Just in case Crawler was bluffing them, waiting until they opened the door.

That is probably a good call. Especially since he seemed well aware that they were almost certainly in there. Otherwise he probably wouldn’t have banged on this door anywhere near as long.

Long minutes passed before Coil gave the order.

Dinah was blind.  Her power too fragile and painful to use, so she couldn’t see the future that awaited them outside the door.  Her heart pounded in her throat as the door was opened.  The first squads moved out, fanning through the complex to find if Crawler was lurking in some corner of the underground base.

…I think we might not actually get to see Crawler in this chapter.

The mood of this last portion has been very horror-game-esque, and while I’m not big on watching or playing horror stuff, I do know that one of the best ways to maintain scariness for a monster is to not show it until you absolutely have to. Instead, convey its presence with other senses, like sounds, things that don’t allow the audience to become certain of the monster’s form. The uncertainty as to what the monster is like is key.

That’s part of what’s going on with Noelle too, I think, besides her form being saved for a future reveal. For the reader, there’s a degree of uncertainty as to what is happening to her (much like there is for the characters, but the venn diagram between what the characters know and what the readers know is not quite a circle), and it makes it all the more worrying.

They returned and gave the all-clear.

For now. Maybe.

Noelle didn’t reply.  The silence lingered, punctuated by the heavy blows on the metal door, echoing through the concrete chamber.

“Come on, Noelle.  Let’s go back, before you or someone else here does something they’ll regret,” Trickster urged.

Yeah…

The banging continued.

“Come with me, Krouse?  We can talk alone?”

Oh yeah, that was Trickster’s civilian name! I forgot about that.

“That sounds good,” Trickster said.

Dinah felt the tension in the room ease.  The pain in her skull didn’t get any better.  She set about the tedious task of trying to reorganize the images in her head.

Noelle and Trickster talking hopefully helps keep her calm and distracted from the hunger. As long as it doesn’t lead to her eating Trickster, that’s a good thing.

Meanwhile, Dinah’s still trying to use her power even after everything she’s just been through.

Building a house of cards in an unpredictable wind.  Every time the numbers changed, what she’d started to sort out fell apart.

And considering they seem to change as every moment passes, that house of cards is doomed.

“No.”

“And these guys, as good as they are, I can’t be positive that one of them won’t shoot you in a moment of panic.  We don’t want that either.”

Yeah, probably not, though I do suspect it might prevent trouble down the line.

“I’d live.  Don’t want to, but I’d live.”

“You would.  But would I?  Would Oliver and Marissa, if you went berserk?  They’re in here too.”

Marissa is a nice name for Sundancer. I like it. 🙂

Sundancer spoke up, calling out, “Remember the promise we made together.”

Whatever happens, you stick together?

Noelle sounded like someone who was very, very tired.  “Can’t wait.  Can’t wait at all these days.  I can smell them.”

Wait for what? Food?

She wants food as badly as I want my ‘candy‘, Dinah thought.  The difference is that she can and will take what she wants, even if it means eating one of us.  I don’t have that power.

Hm, yeah, seems like and apt comparison.

God, her head hurt.  Worse, she knew this was the calm before the storm.  Her head would hurt more with every passing hour until she wanted to die.

Nothing quite like feeling shitty and being fully aware that it’s going to get worse.

“You can hold on,” Trickster said, his voice gentle.  “You don’t want to come any closer than that.  You know what your power does.  None of us want that.”

What does it do?

By the sound of it, it’s something unusual, considering it’s something that could harm Crawler, but not something that would kill him (but probably would kill a mundane).

A series of hits collided with the metal door.  A roar rattled through the air, painfully loud despite the muffling effect of the intervening wall.  It was a roar heavy with frustration and anger.

“Hey, guys, let me in! Come on, it’s boring out here!”

I wonder how strong he really is, offensively. His power seems primarily defensive, even if the parts that grow back get “stronger”.

There was the sound of guns cocking.  She almost missed it in the midst of the steady, relentless crashes that came from the metal door.

What do you see, soldiers? Noelle making a move?

“I’m so hungry,” a girl’s voice echoed through the chamber.  She’s close.

This whole scenario seems right out of a horror game.

“I know, Noelle,” Trickster answered.  “Just a little while.  Let’s go back to the other side, away from these people.”

Yes, that would be nice.

I like how gentle he seems when dealing with Noelle.

Then a massive impact against the vault door made the room shudder.

I told you he’d come here…

Is the vault door strong enough to withstand his attacks?

Sundancer kept talking, as if oblivious to the ongoing attack.  “When you’ve been through hell and back again with a group of people, when you’ve all lost everything, and you collectively stand to lose more?  I- I don’t even know what I’m saying.  Maybe there’s no justification for letting you go through what you are.  I just… they’re all I’ve got.  I’m sorry.”

I see, so it’s a loyalty thing. She can’t do anything because she risks having to cut ties with the Travelers, and they’ve gone through so much together that she really doesn’t want that to happen.

That explains why she sticks with them despite the problems she was talking about in Hive, too.

Dinah reached up and fumbled around until she found Sundancer’s hand.  She didn’t have a response, couldn’t speak if she’d been able to think of what to say.  She just held the hand tight.

This is nice.

“I’m sorry,” A girl’s voice whispered in Dinah’s ear.  Sundancer?

I would guess so.

Dinah tried to answer, but her voice came out in a croak.

“I’d help you if I could, but I can’t, you understand?” Sundancer whispered to her.  She had her arms around Dinah.

Hmm. I wonder what would happen if Taylor and Sundancer had a talk about Dinah. Sundancer is resigned to the idea that while what Coil is doing to Dinah is horrible and she wants to stop it, she just can’t. Meanwhile, Taylor is doing her best – sometimes a little too much – to do just that, even though she doesn’t have much greater chances than Sundancer as far as I’m aware.

She smelled like barf, but that was Dinah’s fault.  “It’s not just that my friends and I are in a bad spot, or having to help Noelle, or even that I don’t think I could save you on my own…  We made a promise to each other, when everything began.  Fuck, it sounds so stupid, sounds so lame, when I say it like that.”

…oh?

Does this also have something to do with the internal issues in the Travelers that you were talking about in Hive?

There was a crash nearby, the sound of metal on metal.

“Come out, come out, wherever you are!”

“Do it,” Coil ordered.  He strode over to one of his squad captains and spoke in the man’s ear.  Dinah thought she might have overheard something about night vision goggles.

Ah, that makes sense. They’ll still be able to tell if Noelle fails to keep the killer instinct in check.

She closed her eyes, as if it could help shut out the pain that continued to tear through her skull.

The pink of the light shining through her eyelids turned to black as the lights went out.

And we’ve officially reached the future. Dark, cramped, and smelling of meat and soon sweat.

The main reason I’ve discounted the theory that Noelle is turning into an Endbringer is that Tattletale’s power said Leviathan was never human. But it just occurred to me that the same Interlude showed us that Tattletale is basically super-Sherlock, and we’ve seen several times that her power can be wrong once in a while if it’s basing things on insufficient information.

On another hand, if Leviathan was human at some point, what would the narrative point in a mostly trustworthy source saying he wasn’t be? Was something planned to rely on Tattletale believing the Endbringers were never human? I suppose if Noelle were to be turning into an Endbringer, inaccurate beliefs about Leviathan may cause her to not be able to figure that out, but that still feels like a stretch as far as justifying such a misdirection for the audience goes.

A third option is that Leviathan was never human, but the other Endbringers were. That would imply that Leviathan was the source of their power somehow. I’m not sure I like this hypothesis.

Also, another point against this theory is Noelle’s increasing hunger. That seems to clash with the existing Endbringers appearing not to need substinance, though it might be a result of an incomplete transformation.

So yeah, currently there are more things pointing away from Noelle transforming into an Endbringer than towards it, but it’s something that’s worth keeping in mind nonetheless.

She’s definitely turning into something, and she probably ain’t gonna stay contained indefinitely.

“Scared.  Hungry.  She said she didn’t get her meal tonight,” Trickster answered, his voice quiet.

Aw.

Coil folded his arms.  “She did.  I personally observed the delivery.  I suspect she’s needing more food as of late.  Unfortunate we find this out now.”

Hm, so that would imply she’s developing into needing more energy for her body. A larger form, perhaps, or a more powerful one?

Also, does she genuinely believe she didn’t get her meal, or is she just saying that in hopes they’ll give her more? If it’s the former, her memory may be failing too.

“She asked me to turn out the lights on this end of her room.  Said it would be easier if she can’t see us.”

Ahh, that would explain the darkness in this timeline.

Are all the dark timelines from earlier the ones where they escaped here?

Also, it sounds like Noelle is fighting an instinct to kill. I have a feeling it’s only going to get worse if this, whatever this is, continues.