Chapter 19.
Noah was sweating. It trickled down his forehead, chest and back. He was tired to the point of exhaustion. He had put on a brave face in front of Elijah and Molly but the huge jars of explosive formula he had had to carry, and the injuries he had suffered were taking their toll on him. He thought to himself he was going to need a long holiday when this was all done. It would be done as well, the other two would make sure of that. He had been gazing down at the floor as he walked, mouth open and breathing just a little ragged. He looked up though, and was relieved to see he was very nearly there. There, looming above him, were the last set of chains holding the Cloud in place.
His eyes followed the chains upwards, higher and higher until they met the bottom of the floating chunk of rock. It was tilting at a crazy angle now, but was, as it had always been, an impressive sight, especially with the morning sun shining out from behind it. Noah lowered his gave towards the last cable carriage station, fixing his sight on the last set of chains he began to march over, taking the last massive container out of the burlap sack he had been carrying and fixing the fuse into it as he got closer. As usual he skirted around the many innocent people still locked and frozen into place in their awful ether crystals.
It was like someone had taken a snapshot of city life, people had been on their way to work, heading home, going to see friends or…Noah spotted a child frozen to the spot and looked away. Some had just been playing, perfectly innocent. He truly hoped that between Elijah and Molly, fighting up on the Cloud, and him down here sending Azrael away forever, that they would be able to return things to normal.
He reached the chains and began arranging the explosives at the base of them. He had set a fairly long fuse into the last jar here, giving him plenty of time to get away. He would probably need it, he actually felt like the old man that he often refused to admit he was for once. Kneeling down, he did his final checks. Everything seemed to be in place, time to finish this. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a match, and went to light the fuse. Just as he struck it and went to hold it against the fuse wire a large shadow fell over him. Completely ignoring the fuse he rolled to one side as fast as he could. He felt the trident whistle past where his head had just been, felt the whoosh of the air as if was driven down into the ground where he had just been kneeling.
Noah finished rolling to the side and got to his feet. Just as he feared, standing in front of him was Percy, standing there in his resplendent armour, pulling the trident out of the ground ferociously. He managed to retrieve it and turned to face Noah. This wasn’t good. Noah had nothing with him, no weapons, no means of defending himself, and he was hurting bad. Clearly it had been a mistake to leave him on the ground after they had fallen. Or had it? Noah looked into Percy’s face, and it looked like something was different. Before there had been an almost blank, glazed look on his face as he blindly and helplessly followed whatever orders Azrael gave him. Now…it looked like he was in pain, like he was struggling with some kind of huge decision.
“Percy? Are you…are you in there?” He asked tentatively. Percy’s eyebrows raised almost as if in surprise, and he replied.
“Noah I…I’m sorry, I can’t stop it. I don’t want to…ARGH!” His sentence cut off as he lunged towards Noah, trying to impale him on the brutal, indestructible trident he carried around with him. Noah moved backwards. He wasn’t at his fastest at the moment, but neither was Percy. The fall earlier had clearly slowed him down as well. The armour might well be indestructible, but the body wasn’t, which was lucky or Noah thought to himself he might already be dead. The problem now was that Percy was between him and the fuse. He didn’t know if sending Azrael up to the heavens would stop him, but he had to try. The question was, how to get past Percy?
“Listen to me. Azrael’s in your head. This isn’t you! You can fight this, look at me, look at who I am. Think about who you really are, Percy.”
Percy stopped moving towards him, the trident dropped to his side for a moment, and then he lifted it again. He was completely conflicted. Even so, he was still very dangerous. As much as Noah wanted to believe he could get through to him he still needed to be careful, as one false move would lose him his life, and there was no way to conduct against Percy and hold him in the air, not while he was wearing that armour.
“Noah? Noah help me…I don’t want this…I don’t want to do this. Do what you need to do. Please…get him out…of…my…HEAD!” As Percy said the word he shook his head violently, as if trying to rid himself of the evil influence. It appeared to do no good though. He stopped shaking and looked straight at Noah with an evil grin on his face. He rushed Noah down, trying to catch him off guard. Noah was ready though. Instead of dodging to one side he met Percy in the middle, but caught him low, tackling and physically lifting him off the ground and slamming him back down onto the cobbles beneath them, driving the wind out of him. He climbed on top of Percy and held his arms. Percy struggled, one hand still tightly gripping the trident, trying to angle it towards Noah and impale him. Noah shouted in Percy’s face for him to snap out of it, but there was now no sign of the real Percy. Noah tried to think fast. What could he do?
He didn’t have long to think. He was exhausted, and Percy, even in his weakened state, had much more energy left than him. Noah could feel his arms shaking, particularly the broken one, trying to hold his old friend down, and then everything was spinning as Noah went head over heels as Percy managed to throw him off of him. Noah’s world turned upside down as he span through the air and landed heavily at the base of the last set of chains, still anchoring the Cloud. He cried out in pain as his already cracked and broken ribs connected with the metal and stone.
He suddenly felt very faint. He shook his head a little, trying to clear his vision. The world swam in front of him, and with sad clarity he suddenly knew that this was it. This would be where his life ended. He had one last thing to do though, and fumbled in his pockets for one last match as the blurry image of multiple Percy’s got up and began to walk slowly towards him. He had no idea which one was real anymore, not that it mattered.
He turned to look to his side. He could barely reach the end of the fuse from here, almost the whole length of the fuse wire was out of his reach. But he had to try. He went to strike the match when a shadow fell over him for the second time. Out of time. He looked up to see Percy standing over him.
“Noah…I can’t stop it…I can’t…” Percy was looking straight down at him. A tear rolled out of one eye and down his cheek as he began to slowly raise the trident, arm shaking. He was still fighting it, even now, even at the end. Noah had managed to fumble three matches out. He struck them against the ground, lighting them.
“It doesn’t matter. Some things are worth dyin’ for.” Noah began to reach up towards the end of the fuse. It was agony, his whole body felt like it was on fire with pain. His hand shook as it neared the wire, he couldn’t reach it!
“Oh god I can’t stop it.” Percy spoke as he finished raising the trident above his head. He held it there, arms shaking as he desperately tried to stop the inevitable. For a moment, everything seemed to pause, and time slowed down to a crawl for Noah. He looked up at the beautiful blue sky above him, and thought about the city he loved. His thoughts raced, flashes of his life jumping in and out of his head. Things he had done, sights he had seen, friends he had made. It had been a good life, full of meaning. Something to be proud of. No regrets. He looked up at Percy and smiled.
“It’s alright Percy. It’s goin’ to be alright.” He said, and he meant it. He was ready. Percy could fight it no longer. With tears streaming down his face he finally gave in, and brought the trident down, hard. He drove it straight through Noah’s chest, and as he did so he pushed Noah backwards, well within reach of the fuse. It was enough for Noah to reach the base of the fuse, no more than a few inches from where it entered the vial, perhaps a handful of seconds until it burned its way to the container. He lit the fuse, it was done. N
oah felt the intense pain, felt the air leave his lungs and body for the last time in what almost felt like a contented sigh and then…nothing. No more pain. He had done what he needed to. He gazed up into the bright morning sky until his eyes gently closed.
The fuse burned and sparked its way to the jar, the explosives within igniting and combusting, Percy had done what Azrael had needed him to and felt Azrael finally release his mental grip on him. He and Noah, together underneath the Cloud, were both swept up in the explosion, the white hot heat incinerating everything in its path. The last chains exploded outwards with incredible force, chunks of metal flying out in multiple directions to bounce across the open area around them, or punch holes in the nearby houses. After the explosion had burned itself out all that was left was a blackened square, the burned out husk of a cable carriage, rolled several times, and the most beautiful, shimmering golden armour and trident laying some distance away from where the blast had been.
The Cloud had begun to drift away.