So this is a project I've been working on for a while now, and should hopefully be posting fairly consistently (I'm thinking on an every other week basis, at least until I'm done with grad school applications in January.) For some basic background, it's set roughly 6 years post-Calamity appearing and roughly 6 years before the beginning of Steelheart, with an all-OC cast. This fic will get somewhat dark, so please PM me if you need me to give you any warnings.
With all that out of the way, I hope you enjoy this!
12/6/2020 Edit: So, decided to streamline the way I'm doing content warnings for this fic by putting the major ones in the first chapter. If there is anything besides those, I'll warn for them in individual chapters. With that said, warnings include: mild gore, canon-typical violence, suicide, self-destructive behavior, panic attacks, PTSD, major character death, and a general bleak atmosphere.
Prologue: Tomorrow Never Came
Evan Harris's life was one big, messy pile of 'should have's.
Right now, his team should have been packing up for the next mission. He should have been putting things into boxes, all the while making sure Lief didn't break anything. Thomas and Elaine should have been busy discussing strategy. JulieāHis thoughts broke off.
They weren't here anymore. They never would be. Their bodies stank silently in the midday heat.
Evan picked himself up. He needed to move forward. That's what everybody else would have done. Sparks, why? Why was he the one that was left, the one who could fight the least (okay, better than Elaine, but lorists didn't count)? What had happened to make him the one who was spared?
No. He had to think of something else. The only thing waiting for him at the end of that road was madness. Evan had to focus on what was next.
What was next, even? The plan was to go to Detroit to hit Spearfall, but he had a feeling there were more important things to do now. Calamity, he thought. I don't even have a team to do that with, even if I wanted to go there. And that brought him back to the thoughts he was trying desperately to push to the side.
He had to give his friends at least some kind of burial, that was certain. Evan took a sharp intake of breath and shuddered at the thought of them being left here to rot or be eaten by scavengers. Human or animal, he didn't know, and honestly didn't want to.
Evan turned to look at the safehouse. (Could he even call it that anymore?) It was a run-down wooden building of the sort that was common around here. The remnants of white paint had long ago peeled away, with only faint streaks remaining as a reminder of what had been. The roof was missing many of its shingles, and he had the feeling that, had they been here when it rained, it would have leaked.
It didn't matter now. They would never need it again. Evan hesitated upon opening the door. He didn't believe in ghosts, but the memories around this house seemed almost tangible. Screaming. The sharp, silver flash of a knife, faster than his eye could track, faster than what should have been possible. Nowhere to hide. Stop it, he thought. It's safe here. For now, anyway. The Epic who had done this had run off when Evan had figured out her weakness, but that was no guarantee she wouldn't come back. Most of them didn't like leaving jobs undone, particularly when their weaknesses were involved. Whatever he did, he had to be quick.
Evan steeled himself and pulled open the door. The stench inside the building made him nearly gag, but he kept going. He needed Thomas's mobile. As the leader, Thomas was the only one who was in contact with any of the other cells, and if he was to have a hope of stopping this from happening again, he needed help.
The room inside was a mess. Bits of plaster hung down from the ceiling where bullets had hit it, and there wasn't a table in sight that wasn't overturned, smashed, or both. Elaine's body lay near the remains of the table they used for medical examinations. She had been their medic. She was the first one to die.
Lief lay nearby, crouched behind an old bookshelf they had re-purposed for storage. He had been trying to use it for cover while he shot at the Epic. His crushed-in skull was evidence enough that it wasn't enough. Evan closed his eyes. He had to keep on task.
Carefully, he made his way over to what was left of his team leader. Numerous objects around his body, from old books to a dingy, discarded lamp, were strewn around where he lay, and the walls around him were covered in bullet holes. He had put up quite a fight. Not that it mattered, in the end. Evan plugged his nose and reached into Thomas's pocket for his mobile.
Searching further in the room, and trying his best not to look at the bodies lying on the floor, Evan searched for the other items he needed to grab. A few minutes' search found a lighter, some old papers he could use as tinder, and an accelerant they had kept for this very occasion. This safehouse was known now, and any evidence they had been here needed to be destroyed. When he was done, there would be nothing to find, just another burnt-out building in a city that was falling apart anyway.
A voice in his mind that Evan, with a wince, recognized as Julie's reminded him that he needed to get out of the area as soon as he got the fire going. Everyone for miles around would see the smoke, and the best he could hope for was for scavengers to come looking to profit off the chaos. At worst-
No. He couldn't think about that. His hands shook as she prepared the fire, and the lighter sputtered several times as he tried to get a spark. After several minutes of trying, he succeeded. The fire was still small. Hopefully it will be enough, Evan thought. He felt a twinge of regret at having to leave all the information they had gathered behind to be burned, but it had to be that way. There was no way he could carry all of it without looking conspicuous, and if anyone else were to discover it-
It was better this way. Better for memories to be all that was left of his friends.
With one sad look behind him, he bolted for the door, not wanting to stay one more minute in that house. There was only one more thing left to do.
His hands shook as he flipped through Thomas's contacts, before finding the one he needed. Jonathan Phaedrus. He had wanted to meet him, once upon a time. If only it could be under better circumstances, Evan thought. He steadied his hands while composing his message. "This is Evan Harris, Rocky Mountain cell technical specialist," he typed. "Requesting immediate assistance."
Evan paused. The memories he'd been trying to hold back came flooding back. No, I have to focus, he thought. "Julie's an Epic. I'm the only one left." He shuddered. More memories came. Julie coming back, covered in lacerations no one should have survived. The cuts healing, right before her team's eyes. The glint off her teeth as his friend's face warped into a sneer. Focus! He screamed inside his own head. I need to keep this professional. He erased the last sentence. Too dramatic. "No other known survivors," he wrote. "Confirmed healing and strength," he continued, trying to pin himself down onto something solid. This was just another mission. He could do that. "Magnitude of abilities suggests other potential powers. Will send detailed report for lorists when position is secured."
"She's still alive. I'm sorry." Calamity, he was useless, wasn't he? Not to mention, of all of the possible ways he could get introduced to one of his heroes, this had to be one of the worst. Before Evan could lose his nerve, he hit the "send" button.
He looked up, into the bright light of noon and the mountains all around him. Evan had hesitated before, had looked into Julie's eyes and seen his friend, not the monster she had become. "Next time," he said out loud, even though only the wind and the crows circling overhead would hear him.
Next time he would take his shot. Next time, Julianne Winters, or whatever mockery of herself she had become, would die.
