Disclaimer: I do not claim to or make any attempt to claim to own any recognizable or licensed material appearing in this work of fiction in any way, shape, or form and I am not attempting to or making a profit from this work of fiction in any way, shape, or form. All recognizable or licensed material belongs to its respective owners in every way, shape, or form in accordance to the law said owners are bound by.
AN: Well, I'm surprised I haven't seen something like this before. I've browsed the InFAMOUS section for a minute and didn't find anything like this so I hope you enjoy this. Depending on feedback I'll either make it into a story or scrap it.
Enjoy!
Sometimes it was hard to think it was even worth it.
I had brought the Beast down in seconds and it was kind of anticlimactic when I look at it. This guy had been a major pain in my ass ever since Kessler showed me his visions of him and I took him down in about ten seconds, tops. If I could have done that then why couldn't Kessler? He had to be stronger than me, had his powers for what seemed like decades, and he could travel in time, something I still couldn't do despite the Blast Cores supercharging more powers.
But was it really worth it, was any of this worth it at all?
Hell, Nix was dead, Zeke was dying of the plague, and Kuo had only just changed her mind at the last minute and was urging me to fire off the RFI. And I'm not even talking about John yet, he turned out to be the Beast and the real kicker is that me, the guy who's supposed to be saving the world from the Beast, made him when I destroyed the Ray Sphere back in Empire City. I thought for sure John was dead but it turned out getting killed by the Ray Sphere means a massive power boost for Conduits and I guess that means a major pain in my ass. And that was only one of the many choices I've made. One of them killed Trish.
Every choice I made was leading to this moment and sometimes it all felt so pointless when I figured out what the RFI would do. It would kill thousands of people, including me, but save so many others. The Plague would be gone but I wouldn't live to see it, fitting since I basically caused it, me and that bastard Kessler were a big part of this mess I'm in right now.
I guess it's pointless now but right now I'm thinking about what my parents would think of me now. Cole MacGrath, the Demon of Empire City! The Conduit Menace! The Hero of Empire City! Yeah, they still wouldn't give a damn even with all that and these powers. They still wouldn't care, I'm still nothing but a bike messenger to them and I always will be. Even now that I think about I don't even know if those two are even alive anymore. They could both be dead and with everything I've gone through I wouldn't know and in truth I couldn't even bother to care.
The fully charged RFI buzzing in my hands brings me back. I helped remind that that it's filled with my power and even now it's still increasing my power. It's brought me back to what I was before the Beast broke my powers before he destroyed Empire City, I can feel limitless energy flooding through my body and it's almost like a high. If I wasn't used to it I'll probably be out of my mind at the moment. I'm tempted to keep it, use it to supercharge my powers and just rip the Beast apart….
No, that's not right. I caused this mess and I've got to fix it, even if I'm not so sure the RFI will even work. Hell, Wolfe's dead and he never even fully explained what it could do to me, he just called it an anti-Ray Sphere. Yeah, you were real clear there Wolfe, real clear. Oh damn, look at me, I'm talking about a dead man now. I guess the stress of my life recently has finally gotten to me, I'm turning into a lunatic who talks to himself.
But know I'm getting off topic again, I have to focus on what's in front of me despite the mess my life turned out to be. I'm not even twenty-five and I've go the fate of the world on my shoulders, sucks to be me. The powers, a nice bonus to it all but half the time they mess things up. Sure I can do good with them but these powers took away my life and sometimes, after everything I've been through, I wish I hadn't been born, I made a lot of bad things happen even if I didn't know it and it's hard knowing that. I know, despite everything anyone says, that I made the Beast, I know that I caused the plague that's going to wipe out anything not a Conduit and even them, that I revealed Conduits to the world and started a new arms race, that I caused Empire City to get destroyed and a dozen others because I couldn't take down John when I had the chance.
The worse one by far is knowing that it was from what I did that killed the woman I loved, if I had never met her than maybe she would have survived. At least that's what I tell myself but I know I'm wrong, Empire City would have killed someone like her. She was too good for the twisted thing the blast turned the city into.
John's trying to get up now and I know the time has finally come, I've got to fire this thing off before he tries something else and the RFI gets wrecked even more. I empty all of my power into the thing then, I hold nothing back and I feel myself losing consciousness, everything slipping to black despite me trying to fight it. The RFI still isn't ready to fire through so I force myself to stay awake, force myself to keep pushing everything I have into the cure for the plague I caused.
I'm going to end what I began, I'm going to make it all right when this thing kills me when it goes off. The truth, I'm not upset at my death, I'm almost glad I can do one last good thing before I die, for the longest I thought some bullet to the back would finish me off but I guess I'm wrong.
Then, pain I knew was coming but still couldn't brace myself for engulfed me, lighting every single nerve I have on fire and this time it's not a question of fighting to stay conscious, the pain forces me to, dragging me from the blackness and into hell. In an instant, I'm engulfed in a blast of light, the RFI the source of it and sending it into the sky, it screaming through the air as it unleashes the cure for the plague, the salvation of every living thing on this planet.
I feel myself slipping away and, somehow, I can hear Kuo's body collapse as the RFI takes her. With Kuo dead, I know I'm next but even John falls before I do, the husk he created around himself crumbling and blowing away in the storm foe energy the RFI is unleashing. I hear John's body hit the ground next but I'm still alive, the RFI is still draining me of everything as it cures the plague around the world.
God, it's taking forever for the damn thing to off me, it just won't finish the job on me but it'll do it to every other Conduit. I can almost feel the Conduits at war in the city falling, dropping like flies as the RFI does it's job and gets rid of the Ray Field Energy that they need to live.
Finally I feel myself slipping as the RFI begins to stop, the light from it dimming as the iron grip I forced myself to hold on it isn't necessary any more. It slips through my fingers and I'm almost glad, the constant drain was getting to me and I'm sure would have killed me if I wasn't certain I was going to die.
I can already feel myself slipping away, the lack of Ray Field Energy making me unbelievably thirsty like when the power's down somewhere. My body suddenly is too heavy and I barely feel my knees hit the ground as my vision swims, the cathedral in front of me surprisingly comforting, almost as if it knows I'm dying and wants me to go peacefully.
"…." Someone shouts something but its hard to hear, everything muted by the roaring filling my ears, as if I'm in the middle of a thunderstorm.
"…." They shout again and I somehow, I don't have any idea how, manage to turn to face them.
It's Zeke, he's pushing through the crowd that somehow got around me when I fired off the RFI. He's crying, his sunglasses got lost somewhere but he doesn't care. I can't look up anymore by the time he reaches me and I'm falling, the darkness rushing to greet me.
"COLE!"
Somehow, somehow I manage to hear him as I fall and I manage to stop myself, using both hands as Zeke crouches down next to me, trying to drag me up but he can't, I'm just dead weight at this point.
"Zeke…don't bother…" I hardly manage to get the words out, my mouth like lead even as Zeke panics, shouting something about Blast Cores or Shards to get me up again.
"Come on Cole, don't talk like that! You're still alive dammit, that counts for something!" Zeke knows he's just making desperate pleas, he knows what me firing off the RFI did and knows it's hopeless.
"..take…ca…" Damn, I can't even talk anymore, I can't do anything as I fall to the ground, the darkness once again engulfing me without remorse.
I know death when I see it, I've seen it and dished it out enough to know exactly what it must feel like but it's still surprising. My suddenly too heavy body is gone, replaced by…nothing, nothing at all as I feel as if I'm slipping out of something bulky, something heavy.
Right then and there, I realize something.
I realize…
I…I…
I...I don't want to die.
I don't want to die yet, I don't want to leave my legacy like this. Dying because it was the only choice in fixing something I've caused. Something I could have avoided if I've had done something different, if I had…
Right then and there it clicks, it all comes together and I feel something inside me. I feel something that I've never felt before. And now, I've got a choice to make. I can feel myself slipping away more and more but I fight it, I fight it when I make my choice.
I make the choice to start over, to stop everything that happened when I opened that damn package.
I'm engulfed in a blinding flash of light, everything around me simply vanishing as my body vanishes with a bolt of lightning…no, that's not accurate at all, I turned into lighting itself. I feel myself slipping through what can only be called energy in its purest and rawest form and it strengthens me. It gives me more power, for the briefest second, than I thought possible and just as fast as it was there, it was gone.
I don't know what happened to anything else but I know what I just did. I know that I opened up something that I can't close, something I won't close. I've opened up the door to a new chance, a second chance to make it all right. To end the chaos I created before it started. I just traveled back in time, back to the day I set all of this in motion.
I traveled back to the day of the Blast.
AN: Well? How was it? Good? Bad? This was originally just a death oneshot but it got away from me and seeing that Kessler can travel in time I figured an RFI supercharged Cole could do the same.
Anyway, review if you want and, like I said up at the top, I'll either continue it or scrap it based on feedback.
Peace.
