Dan stared in horror at Ash, collapsed and motionless on the ground, and Anna's swiftly retreating form. Several moments passed, and he stood there frozen, unsure of what to do or even if he could do anything at all. That had really happened. The thing that Anna and Dan had talked about many nights before this, that she had never seemed to believe as a legitimate possibility. Anna had fallen to Calamity's darkness, and there was absolutely nothing Dan could do about it. He took several deep breaths. In. Out. In. Out. Whatever he could do to hold it together enough to do something. Anything.

He glanced down at Ash, then reached down to check her pulse. Nothing. He changed spots, hoping to Calamity that he had missed it. Still nothing. Was she—Dan banished the thought from his mind. Words burst out from him, all of the emotion of the past couple of hours coming out at once. "Heal! Dammit Ash, heal! You always survive, you sparking said so yourself, why won't you—"Dan broke off, only able to sob. He was alone. Her weakness, Dan thought. Of course. Ash, who had seemed like the strong one, the one able to withstand everything, the one who survived even when so many would've died, was gone. Forever. And all because the wrong person had killed her. Anna.

Dan stood up, searching around him for some clue as to what to do next. Anna was gone, and was most likely on her way to confront Permafrost. Ash was dead. And even if he knew where the Reckoners were hiding in this town, there was no way he could convince them that they should help a complete stranger. Not to mention, their form of help would almost certainly result in Anna's death. Though she might have been gone for good anyway. He glanced down at the discarded bracelet. Even she didn't believe there could be heroes anymore.

And Dan couldn't even believe she was wrong in that, given how much everything had fallen apart. Every hero he had ever known was either dead or worse, gone forever.

A loud, shuddering breath from behind him interrupted his thoughts and made Dan jump at least two inches in the air. He heard a muffled grumbling, then a muttered "Sparks. I never want to do that again." Dan turned around and saw Ash struggling to push herself back up. "Seriously. Never get electrocuted. It is the. Worst."

Dan gaped at her, his mouth moving but unable to make any sounds. "Ash, how did you? I thought you were—Anna—You shouldn't have—"

"No," Ash said. Any trace of humor disappeared from her face. "I shouldn't have healed. Which, unless I miss my mark, says something extremely, incredibly, bad about how Anna is doing."

Dan inched backwards, suddenly aware that, for the second time in five minutes, he was way too close to an Epic who had just used their powers for comfort. "Dan, I'm not the one you need to worry about right now. I've got this under control."

Dan took another step back. Ash flinched. "Which I now realize is exactly what Anna said, not a day before barbecuing me. I've got it pretty pinned down for now, and if it gets worse, I have a plan for that too. And that plan is not bottling it up until I try to kill someone, before you ask."

Dan opened his mouth to ask what that plan was, but thought better of it. They had bigger problems than whatever Ash was going to do. Problems like—"Anna," Dan said. "I think she's gone off to fight Permafrost."

Ash shook her head. "Of course she would. I take it you're going after her?"

"What do you mean "I'm" going after her? What the sparks are you doing?"

"I'm leaving. If you haven't noticed, I've been making things worse from the moment I arrived here. You would've been a lot more cautious without me. None of this—"Ash gave a wide, sweeping gesture. "Would have happened. I'm sorry Dan. But if I go any further, I will lose myself just as much as Anna did. Getting her back is a fool's errand. No one's ever come back from Calamity's darkness. Ever."

"You did," Dan said.

"What I got was a temporary reprieve. And I only got that much through luck. In case you haven't noticed, we don't have a lot of that at the moment."

"So, that's it, then? You're not going to even try?"

"Dan, you trying and me trying mean very different things. You try and fail, you die. Probably pretty painfully, but it's still just you. I try and fail? Everyone else dies. And not just everyone here. If I get corrupted again, I will go to other places, and I'll do the same damn thing I've done everywhere else I've been since I got these powers." Ash turned, and started walking in the direction of the edge of town. "I'm sorry," she said. "But I don't even know if there's anything I can even do that wouldn't make things worse."

Dan looked on in silence, unable to come up with anything he could say to make her turn around. This was it. Even though Ash was still alive, he was just as alone, just as powerless, as he had been when she was on the ground.

Ash walked away, a part of her yearning, but at the same time too scared to look back and see Dan's face. This wasn't fair to him. Nothing that happened that night was, for that matter, but this, in particular—No. She had to leave. Staying would only mean another tragedy, and worse yet, untold tragedies to come once her time finally ran out. There was no way forward that would lead to a happy ending.

As she left, something, small and dark against the snow, caught her eye. She bent over to get a closer look at it, only slightly mindful of how it would disturb the drama of her exit. She picked it up, turning it over in her hand, and feeling the rough wood and string it was made of. Even without looking at it, she knew what it was. And she understood it now too, with the timing of when Anna had ripped it off. It wasn't about Anna's belief that she was the one hero in the world after all. It was about Ash. Yet another promise Ash had broken. She hesitated in her next step. No. What she said to Dan was true. No one had truly come back from Calamity, not for good, and even then not without a huge amount of luck.

It was true. It was an immutable law of nature, one that she had tried and failed to defy before. And yet-

Something in Ash didn't want to believe it. Or did believe it, but in typical Ash fashion decided that as a stupid, poorly thought out rule, she was well within her rights to ignore it. Anna wasn't that far gone, not really. As Dan said, Ash was living proof that Epics could come back. And even if it was temporary, if Anna only lasted days or months before turning again, those were days and months of truly living that she would never have had otherwise. "Fuck it," she muttered, putting on the bracelet, and remembering her last promise to Dr. Carpenter. It was impossible, but Ash had been impossible her entire life. Tonight, even if it did end in tragedy later, the impossible would happen. Tonight there would be heroes.

Ash turned around.

"You know, I think you may have been right," she said. "And I was being cowardly. So, do you have any idea for how we're going to do this?"

Dan stood, seemingly unable to make words come out. "What—"

"I have a promise to keep." And, no matter what it cost her tonight, Ash would keep it. Somehow.

"I don't really have a plan. Or I had a plan, but between you, and Anna, and literally everything, it blew up into a bunch of tiny pieces." Dan frowned. "I guess follow Anna, and try to stop her from fighting Permafrost?"

"Right. And talking might be a bit tricky at this point." Ash let out a long, exasperated breath. "So we're doing improv. Favorite plan I've ever made, I like it."

"Ash, you've been though a lot," Dan said. "Are you sure you can do this?"

Ash frowned. "By that, I assume you mean 'am I sure I won't overuse my powers and kill everyone if I go on this rescue mission?'" Dan nodded, grimacing. "Fair questions. And I'm not saying that's impossible. But I have a backup plan in case that happens," Ash said. "And sorry, the backup plan is going to have to be kind of a secret. But it exists, and it's solid." Dan would probably try to stop her if he knew what her backup plan was. But it needed doing, and was probably the only way of getting Permafrost killed, and both Anna and Dan out safely.

"Not suspicious at all," Dan said.

"No matter what happens, you will be safe. Safe from me, anyway. Lots of other ways this can go wrong, of course, but I can promise you that I will not hurt you. And I should really stop talking."

"Yes. Yes you should," Dan said.

"I need to do a thing for that plan before we go get Anna. It probably won't be too long, just some setup that needs doing. We have time for that, right?"

"Be quick about it," Dan said, frowning. "Anna isn't that fast, but we still need to make it to Permafrost's tower as fast as we can."

"Dan, this is me you're talking about. I can do quick." Ash didn't meet Dan's eyes. This was something that had to be done. Even if her plan's success would mean her end.

Evan looked out at the sky, still dark with storm clouds. He still hadn't gotten used to the weather in this city, how it would turn even faster than the natural weather around here would've. To be fair, even after several years in the area, he still hadn't been able to fully wrap his head around the natural weather, either. He wouldn't need to get used to this place's weather for long, though. The team was incredibly close to cracking the Resurrectionist's weakness, and they knew where she was hiding out, in a recently refurbished abandoned building near the edge of town. The only problem was getting her truly alone, as she frequently kept non-Epics around her. Possibly as servants, possibly as meat shields. The distinction was a fine and frequently blurry one. Either way, if they could help it, his team wanted to keep them out of the way when they did their work.

A loud clatter at his window shocked him, making him freeze and reach for his gun, before realizing he had left it on the opposite side of his room. A sudden, frigid draft blew in from the direction of the commotion. Julie Winters stood, crouched in the now open window. No. Not Julie Winters. The Epic impersonating her.

"Resurrectionist," Evan said. Did the Epic just wince? No, that had to be his imagination. "You're here to finish the job you did in Butte, aren't you." He looked across the room at the gun, neatly put in its place. Useless to him.

"In a way," the Resurrectionist said. Evan closed his eyes and shrunk back, accepting his fate. His screaming could alert the rest of the team, but he would be dead long before they arrived. And, given the Resurrectionist's display in Butte, they would probably be next. "Not in that way. Wording." Evan cautiously opened one eye to see the Resurrectionist shaking her head. "I'm here to ask you to kill me," she said.

Evan opened both eyes and frowned in confusion. "Was it really necessary to sneak in my window to tell me that?" he hissed.

"Well yeah," the Resurrectionist said. "I had to tell you how to do it."

"What the—" Evan broke off, unable to form any meaningful sentence. "Isn't that the opposite of how that's supposed to work?"

"Yeah, I know, I'm really doubting it myself, if I have to be honest here. But yeah. If I explain myself, will you promise not to shoot me? Because I can't explain things if you shoot me."

"I thought you literally just said you wanted me to shoot you, Resurrectionist."

"Not yet. Slontze. Also, call me Ash. Less syllables than that long-winded monstrosity."

"Ash would be your latest alias, I'm assuming? Fine. If you're not out in five minutes, I will scream and bring everyone down on us. How did you even get in here anyway?"

"Got it. I'm on a bit of a time crunch too," Ash said. "To make a very long, very complicated story short, I'm about to do something that will necessitate me using my powers. Potentially, like, a lot. I assume you can figure out what happens when I do that." Evan winced. "Now. I really don't want that to happen, which is where you come in." Ash looked into Evan's eyes, and though they no longer glowed like they did in Evan's memory, they still burned into him. "There's going to be a big fight tonight. It'll be at Permafrost's tower. If I know most Epics' sense of drama, it'll probably be at the top, too. And when you get there, I want you to shoot me before I can hurt anyone else. Also." Ash closed her eyes. "If for some reason this plan of mine falls apart, I want you to kill Permafrost, if at all possible. If he keeps doing what he's doing, this won't be the last place he turns into a ghost town. Also, to answer your question, I saw the smoke. It's a known limitation of it being so cold and so remote."

"I'm surprised an Epic like you would even care."

"That makes two of us. Look, I wish I didn't have to dump this on you, but things are pretty bleak from where I'm standing, and I think this is the only way I can make any of this work. So yeah. Point two: My weakness is hopeful people. People who think they can do things despite impossible odds. As you've seen, you, and probably any member of your team, qualify. I'm assuming you know what to do with that information?" Ash stopped. "Sorry. It's been a trying day, I know you really don't want me here, and I've probably used my powers already more than I probably should. Anyway, with that out of the way, I'm going to get out of here so you can kill me later." Before Evan could react, Ash leapt out the window. Despite the fact that they were two stories up, she didn't even hesitate. Yet another confirmation, if one was even needed, that she had those powers well before the Resurrectionist even appeared in Butte.

He stood, staring at the open window, not even noticing the cold air that was rushing in, for several moments. A knock came from the opposite direction, and Evan jumped. He spun around. "Charlie, what the hell—"

"I heard talking. Is everything all right up here?"

"We need a new base. Now."

"What the sparks just happened?"

Evan sighed. This was going to be a very long story.