Shadowstruck

Chapter 6 Part 3

Personality block or not, he wasn't going to leave him behind.

"Cooper!" Noah sprinted around the now motionless Watcher, concern washing over his face. "Holy shit, are you..." He trailed off when Cooper looked up, a dazed look on his face. "You good?"

"It's not me..." Cooper mumbled, barely above a whisper. "It's not me."

"I- what?" Noah grew even more worried. "You're not...huh?"

He watched Cooper's eyes widen and his breathing quicken. "It's not me, it's not me, I'm sorry, it's not me - " He pulled his right hand closer to his chest. "Please..."

Noah put up his hands. "Whoa, hey, calm down, it's just me." Cooper shut his eyes and Noah bit his lip, kneeling. "What happened to you...?"

Cooper's gaze locked onto the blood streaming out of his wrist, silent for a moment. He muttered another apology before glancing at Noah, fearful. "S'alright, Cooper, I'm not gonna hurt you.' Noah held out his hand and Cooper cautiously showed him the fairly deep cut.

Noah took it in, wincing at the amount of blood still leaking from it. At least, he had thought it was blood. Now he realized it was more like ink - thicker and darker, closer to black. He looked up at Cooper, who was breathing steadily for the most part and had his own gaze locked on his hand.

"Do you want me to guess, or...?" He watched Cooper quickly nod. "Alright, so, if I'm not mistaken, you got hit the same day April did." A second nod. "But, since it wasn't a direct hit, it wasn't as powerful, so you kept your memories." A shrug. "And whatever just happened with the Watcher broke whatever memories were blocked." Another shrug.

"I...I think you're sort of right." Cooper's voice was low and quiet and he was looking away. "I think I was being, like, controlled? Somehow?" Noah thought about it. It made sense; all the strange behaviors and coldness.

"That sounds right." Cooper blinked, surprised. "You were joking about April and I dying a few days ago. That was weird. Plus, I was pretty sure your eyes were glowing red."

"I remember saying that."

"You do?"

"Yeah. It's like...I could see what I was doing, but I had no control, if that makes sense?" He took in a breath. "And...it was like that...for two weeks, and I didn't know how to get rid of it, I tried, but -"

"Hey, no, it's fine, I get it." Noah grinned. "Glad to know you don't hate me."

Cooper laughed. "It's sorta hard to hate you."

"I find that debatable. Whoever's put all of us in this mess definitely does."

"And their opinion matters?"

"...touche." Noah looked back towards Cooper's wrist. "We should probably fix that up." He stood up, turning to look at the Watcher's corpse.

Cooper got to his feet. "How the hell did you do that, anyway?"

"I have my ways."

"Can you tell me those ways?"

"Maybe later. You're still bleeding." He glanced down. "Does that count as blood?"

"It hurts, so probably."

Noah frowned. "Yeah, we're getting you back. Koko will probably know what to do."