“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.

And on the other side of the room – darkness.  Trickster was emerging.

Wait, what?

…

Did Trickster somehow teleport off to actually get Grue after all? But I thought his teleportation was limited by line of sight, not to mention the distance from this base to Grue’s, so I don’t think that’s really possible.

Unless… could line of sight work through cameras and screens? That sounds like it’d be a really powerful workaround for teleporters limited by line of sight. Trickster could, for instance, have a wristwatch-like device that shows him camera feeds from various Coil-co. locations, and use that to teleport to each of them.

“How is she?”  Coil asked.

Orrrrr I could be completely overthinking things and it’s just that the lights are on in one end of the room and off in the other, and Trickster is “emerging” in the sense that he’s walking into the light part.

Duh.

There were affirmative responses.  Dinah could hear guns cocking.

Another crash, the closest yet.  The sound of rubble and concrete falling echoed through the underground complex.

“I thought there were supposed to be people here?”

Although I’m not sure he’s actually made it in yet.

“He’s here,” Coil said.  “Last people inside, hurry.  Close the first door.”

Dinah opened her eyes.  They were in a concrete room with steel girders at set intervals, as if forming a cage against the inside of the room.

Seems like a reasonable design considering this room is a cage.

It smelled like meat that had gone bad.

Oh hey, there we go. Now it’s a real smell.

The second vault door slowly swung closed as the last few stragglers slipped through the gap.  Employees, technicians, people in suits, some soldiers.  They packed in close at the end of the room closest to the door, their bodies pressing against her.  Three fifths of the chamber were left unoccupied.

Except for Noelle, I’d imagine?

We’re so close to the prophecy being fully fulfilled. All we need now is for the lights to go out, either turned off by Coil or turned off by a power outage caused by Crawler.

Come to think of it, it’s probably the latter. Many timelines were dark earlier, which I suppose suggests that the darkness covers the entire base. And it’s not like this base has windows, either.

“Nine point eight percent,” she managed.  Was she being carried?  They were venturing inside, past the first of the two heavy vault doors.

Alright, so the chance is three times higher for Noelle to kill them than Crawler, but still significantly lower than the chances of Crawler killing them if they stay out. Sounds good to me.

How much time had just passed?  Where was Trickster?

Her grip on the present moment just keeps getting weaker.

“That’s good information to have, pet,” Coil said, from somewhere near her.  “Squad leaders.  As you gather inside the containment room, I want you organizing your troops into ranks, your backs to the door.

Ahh, that’s fair. So is that to defend against Noelle?

Weapons need to be locked, loaded and ready to fire.  Be sure to equip the laser attachments and battery packs.  Don’t venture any further than ten paces inside.”

I doubt Trickster’s gonna like this plan, even if it is necessary.

“Pet, it’s the last question we’ll ask you tonight.  I promise,” Coil said.

So she did.  She reached for the number.  It can’t kill me.  It doesn’t do permanent damage.  It just hurts.  It’s my brain telling me my power shouldn’t be used to find answers like that.

Is it? I suppose that makes some sense.

With most other powers we’ve seen, the host body (including the brain) has seemed to be fine with the use of the power, though in some cases not fully capable of using its more intense abilities due to the rest of the body’s inability to handle the results (such as getting knocked out by sensory overload). But I suppose what’s happening here is along the lines of the sensory overload thing, and the brain saying “don’t do this” because it’s too much.

The words she used to convince herself did little to soften the pain that came with digging for a number once more.  She screamed, and tears flowed down her face as she sank into Sundancer’s arms, screwing her eyes shut.

I wonder how Sundancer is going to look at Coil and Trickster after this. She’s rightfully horrified by what they’re forcing this 12-year-old girl to do to herself, and she’s demonstrably attributing it to the right people – she said Coil was killing Dinah, not that Dinah was killing herself.

“Reassuring,” Coil said.  The vault door opened before them.  “Trickster?  Would you announce our imminent arrival to Noelle?”

“Yeah,” Trickster sighed.  “Fuck.  I hate to do this, but can I get a number?”

For what, Noelle hurting or killing you?

“Trickster!” Sundancer admonished him, sounding horrified, “You can see how much pain it’s causing her.”

Again, Sundancer is a Good.

“It’s important.  Kid, what’s the chance that Noelle kills us?”

There was another series of crashes, closer.

Dinah shook her head, “Please.  I just want to put everything back together.  Every time I use my power, it all falls apart and it hurts.”

It is a pretty important question, especially if Dinah was looking for a timeline where they survived Crawler specifically, though I don’t think she was. The lower chances getting killed by Crawler could be caused by getting killed by Noelle instead.

“I need to barf.”

Coil set her down and held her by the wrists as she leaned forward to cough up mouthfuls of bile.  Her stomach was already empty of food.

Yeeah. Ew.

“The number, pet?”

Sundancer bent down to hold her, so her shoulders weren’t being twisted with her arms held behind her by Coil.

She can’t, Coil.

“Three point one percent,” Dinah gasped out.

Oh, looks like she can, just barely.

And those odds look a lot better. Good work, Dinah. I wish you hadn’t had to do it, but good work.

“Pet, the chance that Crawler kills us, now that we’ve undertaken this route?”

“I don’t.  I can’t.”  Her head hurt so much.

You’re on your own now, Coil. You’ve burnt out your seer.

“Try,” and in his hard tone, she heard the unspoken threat of having her candy taken away.

She did.  The scenes had no order to them.

Oh, so it is still possible for her to do it at this point, but it’s messed up, and if she does it too much, it’ll probably go badly.

They were all jumbled, and trying to pull some semblance of order and sense into them was like thrusting her hands into fire and razor blades, thrusting her mind into fire and razor blades.  A long groan of pain was drawn from her throat, and the strength went out of her body.

She can see things, but she can’t organize them like she usually does to get the numbers.

“You’re killing her!” Sundancer gasped.

“No,” Coil said, as if from a place far away.  “I’ve had her use her power to check.  This may be miserable for her, but she can’t die from it.”

Oh right, that was mentioned earlier.

Coil touching her, that overpowering phantom smell, the fear, the nausea…

If there’s anything left in Dinah’s stomach, I doubt it’s staying there very long.