Sorry it's taken this long to update! It's been quite a rough time for me, as I've been restarting grad school and dealing with moving.

"Okay," Ash said, her brow knit in worry. "Tell me again about these people you saw."

"I didn't talk to them all that much," Anna said. Putting her hands into her lap, she sighed. "There were five of them, one guy was always writing in a notebook." She frowned, trying to remember more about the encounter. "There was a guy with sandy hair. Kind of twitchy."

Ash's frown deepened. Anna could faintly hear her mutter under her breath "it can't be".

"Did you catch his name?" Ash said out loud.

"Evan. I think. Do you know him?"

Ash sighed. "I thought—"She stopped. "I suppose this had to come out eventually. He's one of the Reckoners."
"Wait, the Reckoners are real?" Anna said. This could be what we've been looking for, she thought. They actually know what they're doing fighting Epics. "This could be really important for out plan."

Ash's face was dark. "It's not what you think," she said, fumbling with her hands. "They're not here for Permafrost."

Anna's eyes widened. "They're not—Don't the Reckoners only go after the worst Epics?"

"I'm a High Epic," Ash said, her voice harsh. "You're not as naive as you pretend to be. You knew I had to have done something in my past that could've drawn their attention."

Anna looked down at her shoes. She's right, Anna thought, recalling the glowing-eyed nightmare that had confronted her several days ago after Ash had taken the bullet. If even that little bit could turn her into that, who knows what she was like after using her powers for years. "What was it? What did you do?" she whispered.

Not meeting Anna's eyes, Ash turned away.

Evan's heart was not in unpacking. Shuffling the lid off of one of the crates of supplies they had packed, he sighed.

"Something wrong?" Charlie looked up from his notes.

"I still can't believe she's here," Evan said. "I mean—We knew where she was going, but I don't know. I didn't think it would be this soon."

"Sometimes we don't get enough time to prepare for these things," Charlie said. "We're still at least a week or two out from the actual hit, though. Speaking of—Have you made any progress on figuring out exactly what you did that triggered her weakness?"

Evan looked down. "I don't know. I've been going over in my mind everything that happened before that night. If Julie turned before then, she may have been avoiding it even before I eventually triggered it."

"You may have a point there, though what you've described seems like classic Rending behavior. Have you found anything?"
"I don't know. She seemed different after the Resurrectionist hit, though. Harsher. A bit more erratic. It could be just a coincidence, Nina died on that mission, anyone would've been affected by that. "

"It could be that. Though you're right, it could also be grief." Charlie flipped to another page in his notes, hmming quietly to himself. "The Resurrectionist. Odd choice of name, that. If you don't mind my asking, what were their powers, again?"

"It's fine. Her powers were simple, if I remember right. Speed, healing, a bit of strength. Pretty standard physical enhancement portfolio, just more of it than most Epics had. If I had to guess, the name probably came from the healing."

"Maybe," Charlie said. His gaze seemed far away. "It's odd. Epics that powerful often do more than just one thing. Even Nightwielder—Both of his powers are shadowy, yes, but they're two distinct things. It's not without precedent, but still a bit odd. And something still bothers me about that name. It has other connotations. It refers to people who used to take body parts from graves."

Evan swore. "Otherwise known as a body snatcher. Sparks."

Though Ash tried, she still found it nearly impossible to meet Anna and Dan's eyes. "You'll have to understand I was a lot worse then. I'm not saying it to excuse anything, it just—" She broke off, trying to ignore the sudden wetness in her eyes. No, she thought. What you did was your own damn fault, you don't deserve to cry about this. "I was in Butte working under another Epic at the time. Baroness Mystica, she called herself. Yes, I thought the name was ridiculous too. Anyway, I was getting a bit bored, and—You know what bored Epics like doing." Anna nodded. Ash looked over at Dan, whose brow was knit with worry and fear.

"Anyway, I caught wind that the Reckoners were coming to town. They'd do that every so often. Guess having homicidal supervillains near a pit of toxic waste made them a bit anxious." Ash laughed, but it was a laugh without humor.

"You probably guessed I wasn't being completely honest with my powers. There was one I left out." She shook her head. "Sparks, I don't even like thinking about it when I don't have to. When I touch people or fairly recently dead corpses, I can take over their bodies."

"So that's why you were so insistent on us not touching you. Sparks, Ash, being vague about this kind of thing doesn't help us!" Dan said.

Ash sighed. "No. No, it doesn't. Anyway. The Reckoners came after me and I—I—" The tops of Ash's cheeks felt hot and wet. "There were two of them that were close to me. The others were on sniper duty, covering the exits, that kind of thing. I killed one, and I took the other. Julie Winters, her name was. Better person than I'll ever be."

"So that's why they want you dead," Dan said.

"And why you—Why I found you in the woods."

"No," Ash said, focusing intently on the wall behind them. Had it always seemed that close? The pictures on it, of a long-dead family, seemed to be glaring at her. Judging her. "That was only step one. I wanted Mystica dead, remember? My plan—"Ash spat out the last word. "Was to infiltrate them, get them to do my dirty work for me, then murder them before they could discover me." She shook her head. "It worked perfectly."

"For hopefully obvious reasons, I couldn't use my powers. I think you know what happens when I do that. I started to actually care about the people I was going to use and kill. Unfortunately, I couldn't exactly just run off without them noticing, and—" Ash lookd down. "Once I take someone's body, they're basically dead. There's memories, but there's no way that'll ever become a person again." The room seemed smaller, like the walls were threatening to crush in on her. Ash looked at the door, fighting every instinct in her that was telling her to run.

"I thought I'd see it through to the end, then fake my death. I'd done it a ton of times before, the only problem was doing it in a way where I wouldn't be seen using my powers. Thankfully, Mystica handed me an opportunity on a silver platter. She'd somehow gotten wind of our trap, I swear I had nothing to do with that, and set up a dead man switch linked to a bunch of explosives. Don't know what she was thinking with them. If it were me, I'd've just gotten out of town as fast as I could, but I figure she knew something we didn't."

"So I was alone when everything came crashing down on me. Can anyone here guess the problem with this plan?"

"You healed," Dan said.

"Yep. And suddenly, everything I'd remembered during those last few weeks didn't seem to matter." She closed her eyes, memories washing over her. "Evan was the only survivor. He gave me this," she said, touching the bandaged wound on her side. "It didn't turn me back, not completely. But even that little bit, while I was surrounded by so much death—"

"That's why the Reckoners want me dead." And why, when they finally caught up to her, she would let them do it.

–

Charlie frowned, flipping furiously through the overflowing binder of notes. His mumbling was too low for Dan to hear, but Evan thought he could catch the names of Epics. When Charlie finally looked up, his face was lined with worry. "We have a problem."

"A bigger problem than a super-fast Epic who knows our secrets and can look like anyone?"

Charlie's face was solemn. "Yes." He laid out the binder pages he had taken out on the table. They had pictures of Epics on them from all over the Fractured States, with notes on their powers habits neatly written below. "While we were talking, it occurred to me this might not have been the first time the Resurrectionist has pulled something like this. The first time with us, hopefully, but—" He cleared his throat. "It reminded me of a conundrum my colleagues and I have been pondering for a while." He pointed down at the pages.

"All of these Epics have very similar, if not identical power sets. Completely different locations of course, and they all had well-documented pre-Calamity histories, but oddly enough, none of them were active at the same time. Our main hypothesis was that Calamity somehow recycled powersets, but I'm starting to wonder."

Evan leaned over the pages, noting every detail. He shuddered. "The eyes," he muttered to himself. Charlie stared at him, concern lining his face. "That night, Ju—The Resurrectionist—Her eyes were glowing. Like golden fire. Over half of these Epics have that, too."

"I suspected something like that." Charlie's eyes were thoughtful. " I'd never been entirely happy with the reusing idea. Even beyond their powersets, all of these Epics had the same pattern. Abruptly show up, cause chaos, inevitably backstab whomever they were working for, and then die. And in every single one of them, a body was recovered." At Evan's puzzled look, he continued. "Which is unusual when you consider some of the people these Epics have angered."

Evan's heart sunk. Even just seeing Charlie's notes, he understood the implications of what he was saying. "They're all the same person," he said. Both of them left unspoken the worst implications of this truth. By infiltrating the Reckoners, the Resurrectionist had been given extremely powerful tools. And if they let her get away, there was no way the Reckoners could find her until it was too late.

Anna stared ahead, neither able to speak nor meet Ash's eyes. She hates you, a voice inside Ash's mind said. She knows what you really are, and she'll never trust you again. Dan was frowning, and though his eyes were mainly on Anna, they occasionally fearfully darted to Ash.

"Just using your powers once did all that?" Anna said.

"Yeah," Ash said. She shook her head. "All these powers are good for is death. I wish it didn't take me this long to realize that." Anna winced, and Dan stared nervously at her. "And if you think that means I'm too dangerous to be around, I wouldn't fault you one bit."

Anna stared ahead, suddenly very interested in the paisley wallpaper behind Ash. "No, it's not that," she said very quickly. "I guess it never really hit me how dangerous your powers were."

"Anna, we got lucky in the abandoned house. Incredibly lucky. And using my powers like that, it builds on itself. Every time I do crap like that, it gets more dangerous for me. For everyone."

Anna blushed, the shadow of what almost looked like shame crossing her face. "I don't blame you," she said. "Yes, I'm scared, but that was a really big thing you used your powers for. I don't think anyone could've withstood that."

Dan put a hand on Anna's shoulder. "Anna..." he began. He turned toward Ash. "How long do we have? Until the Reckoners try to kill you?"

"I don't know. They're usually cautious. Most hits take a couple of months or so to plan out. But with my habit of running away, something tells me they'll do it sooner." Ash frowned, studying Dan's face. "You're taking this remarkably well."

Dan shook his head. "I don't know what to think, really. You're right, there had to be something like this in your past. But—"Dan fidgeted with his hands. "I guess it's different hearing it. And I want to believe you that it was just the fault of your powers, but—"He closed his eyes. "I just think of your team, and can't help but picture us."

Ash stared out the window, at the snow falling. "You're right. And unfortunately, all I can do is promise."

"I know. And I think I do believe your story. If nothing else, if you were lying, you'd have made a lie that was a bit more flattering to yourself." Dan stood up.

"This means, even more than before, that we have a time limit. And Permafrost, your situation, we will figure both of these out."