Anna Carpenter stood at the foot of Permafrost's tower, staring up at it and suddenly feeling very small next to the power of the raging storm in front of her. She looked down at her hands. Sparks of electricity crackled between her fingers. The familiar, numb feeling they brought was almost a comfort, reassuring her that she was doing the right thing, that in the end, all of her sacrifices would be worth it. She wondered why she had ever been afraid of it. This power, and this power alone, was what was going to let her do what needed to be done.
A pang of guilt, one that felt almost alien against the backdrop of the all-consuming lightning, struck her. She brushed it aside. Dan and Ash were nothing to her now. They should've known better than to stand in her way, particularly when she was trying to accomplish exactly what they were planning on in the first place. And yet, did they need to—No. As long as they continued to breathe, they would try to stop her.
Through the wind, she saw a guard standing near the door and probably freezing his ass off. She called out to him in her best attempt at an intimidating voice. "Um, Voltage approaches. And, uh, she wishes to battle. With Permafrost. Not you. Could you pass that on?" Sparks. Her first attempt at an Epic battle was getting off to a fantastic start. But she wouldn't need fancy words for her upcoming fight. Just the powers that lay inside her.
The name she gave still sounded odd on her tongue, and she wasn't sure she liked it. Whatever. It was a cover, mainly. Permafrost was expecting an Epic, and Anna was not going to disappoint him. There would be plenty of time to choose a better name afterwards. As the man, frozen in terror, retreated into Permafrost's palace, Anna felt another twinge of something resembling guilt.
Anna Carpenter would not survive this night. She was certain of this, in that small, annoying part of her brain that still hesitated, still felt uncertain she was doing the right thing. It didn't matter much. Anna Carpenter was too weak to survive. She had held back, denying herself the use of talents that could have saved her, saved everyone, and out of what? Nothing more than baseless fear. If she had to be honest, her death may have been a mercy. Or a public service.
She pushed the thought of that useless brat out of her head. Anna Carpenter would be of no help here, and what she would bring to the table, regret, would only hold her back.
Voltage waited a few more minutes for the man to deliver his message. When the barrier opened, a hole in it appearing like pulled back curtains, she couldn't help but smile. It was finally time to get started.
Dan trudged through the snow as quickly as he could. Ash was back at his side after the unexpected diversion she had taken and still refused to properly explain, and Dan couldn't help but notice she was having a much easier time of it than he was. To be fair, in addition to the powers, Ash was a lot taller than he was. Which honestly made him even more jealous. At least they had grabbed some musty, moth-eaten, but still technically usable jackets from the nearby abandoned house before leaving the funeral site. Otherwise the walk would've been cold, as well as tedious. Whatever. At least they were nearly there.
Permafrost's tower, the only one of the three former dorms that hadn't collapsed under the weight of snow and decay, loomed before him, the tornado of snow around it making it almost intimidating. Almost. There was only so intimidating a place could get when he could still remember the wild college parties (and himself, trying and occasionally failing to block the noise out so that he could actually study) taking place there only a few years earlier.
In a way, as much as had been changed about it in the intervening years, it still felt like home. Dan shook his head, trying to rid himself of the memories. There would be time for nostalgia when Anna wasn't in danger.
He looked over at Ash. "Got any ideas?" he said, gesturing at the tornado of wind and sharp, swirling ice before him.
"One. It's pretty terrible." Without another word, Ash grabbed him and, shielding him as best as she could with her body and coat, ran at the tornado.
On the other side, Dan, still catching his breath, face burning from the cold of the tornado, gaped at Ash. "A little warning next time? Please?"
"To be fair, you probably wouldn't have been nearly as cooperative if I'd warned you."
"That's exactly the point I was—" Both of them froze, suddenly aware of a bewildered-looking guard standing a few feet away from them.
"Hi," Ash said. "Have you seen a friend of ours? Blonde, about yay tall, lots of electricity?"
The man visibly shuddered, even through all the layers he had on. "And that would be a yes," Ash said. "I'm really sorry you had to see that. Where'd she go?" The man pointed wordlessly into the tower. "And we're allowed to go that way, I presume?" Ash's eyes glowed with that golden light that still unnerved Dan, no matter how many times she had done it. The man shrunk back even more, nodding and ushering them inward.
As soon as they were out of the man's earshot, Ash turned to Dan, an expression of what almost looked like guilt on her face. "Poor guy," she said. "Two Epics, if not three if Permafrost also got in on it, being scary in one night. Incentive to try a new career, I'll say that much." She shook her head. "Come on," she said. "Unless I miss my guess, we have a lot of stairs ahead of us."
Lydia paced back and forth, and Evan watched the gears in her mind turn as she tried to parse his story. It was an unbelievable story, and Evan himself didn't entirely think it was true. At the same time, though, he had never even heard of anything like what he had just experienced. Epics didn't just stop in to chat, and they even more didn't stop for a chat in a place filled with people trying to kill them. Unless that chat had murder at the end of it, which wasn't that uncommon. But there Evan stood, still alive despite the fact that he, multiple times over, should not be.
"Are you sure you told me everything?" Lydia said. The skepticism was blatantly apparent in her voice. Evan didn't blame her.
He nodded. "Everything she said fits with the information we already have about her," Charlie said, intent on the conversation. "Including some of the information I don't think she knows we know about."
"True," she said. "But it also wouldn't be unreasonable for her to know we would do some digging, and make up her story accordingly."
"Also true," Charlie said, flipping through the pages of his binders, as if one of them could give the answers they were looking for. "It's almost certainly a trap," he finally said.
"I'm glad we agree about that. Just what kind of trap? And what could she possibly be planning?"
"Overthrowing Permafrost, maybe? Why else would she have mentioned him as a target? Her story about wanting no other towns to suffer seems too good to be true," Lena, their sniper, said from over in the corner.
"It is too good to be true," Lydia said.
Evan shuddered, then spoke. "I don't think the Resurrectionist would need any help killing Permafrost," he said. "I've seen her in action. She's fast, and she can take pretty much anything, so long as her weakness isn't involved. And nothing we have on Permafrost says he has anything defensive, apart from his ice shields, which are so flimsy they shouldn't even count for someone like her." The others looked at him, surprised at his sudden speech after being silent for so long. "Something is up with her, but I don't think it's that."
"Unfortunately," Lydia said. "I don't think we have a lot of options right now. At any moment the Resurrectionist could take another body, and we'd have no way of finding her again, not until she showed up and put knives in our backs." She frowned. "And she knows that too, which makes this situation even more odd. Why resort to an elaborate plan when she could just disappear?"
"It wouldn't be the first time an Epic's played mind games with us. Remember the Lord of Dust?" Lena said. Everyone in the room, barring Evan, shuddered. Evan didn't know what had happened, but it had clearly not been good.
"And they don't necessarily always act in rational ways. Epics can be even pettier than us humans can be."
"But why not kill us all when she was already in our base? If she wanted to settle a grudge, wouldn't that have been the simplest way?"
Lydia stopped pacing, and turned to face the rest of the group. "We'll go. This might be a mistake, and we're almost certainly walking into some kind of trap, but we can't let the Resurrectionist get away again. Not with everything she knows."
Ash and Dan stopped near the trap door to the roof. Though they were nearly at their destination, neither of them wanted to open it out of fear of what or who they might see on the other side. Dan cleared his throat. "Okay, are we good on the plan?" They had discussed it at length on the way over, but Ash supposed Dan wanted to be extra sure, just so that he could remember what things were supposed to look like when they inevitably had to improvise.
"Yep, both of us try to take down Permafrost to stop her from using her powers further, you go and talk down Anna, and I and my loud mouth stay far, far away when you do that."
"Ash, your mouth isn't loud, you're just not the most sensitive of people. Particularly now."
"Yep, that sounds a lot like what I just said. I'm right about the rest of it, though?"
"Just about correct, anyway," Dan said. His weapon, which they had retrieved from the field the day after the first fight with Permafrost, was in his hand. Ash desperately hoped he would get the chance to use it. The alternative was a bit on the gruesome side. Hope. There was that word again. Powers, it seemed, were not going to be something she could rely on this night. Which, given that she was here to wrestle an obscenely powerful weather controller, was not exactly a comforting thought.
It would be fine, though. Ash was there as a distraction, and though additional tankiness would be a bonus, many point people worked perfectly fine without it. Of course, many point people, Julie included, died horribly because of their role, but dying horribly was just a part of life these days. Even for the Epics, if Ash had to be honest. Their horrible deaths were just a bit flashier.
Dan nodded at her, interrupting her thoughts. Right. They needed to get going. She pushed open the trap door in the crumbling, mildew-y ceiling, extended the ladder (mainly for Dan's benefit) and carefully pulled herself up onto the roof.
On the roof, Anna was making quite the light show. Lightning flashed dangerously around the roof, illuminating the storm around it with an eerie blue glow. Ash's whole body twitched in memory of the shock from earlier, and she nearly ducked down back into the safety of the building. Nope, this was definitely beyond the point of no return. If nothing else, facing that guard at the bottom after she had chickened out would've been way too embarrassing.
She dashed behind the rusted remains of an old air conditioning unit. An old air conditioning unit that, come to think of it, was most likely made of conductive material. Oh sparks. Literally. At least the concealment could help her get a picture of the situation before she dove in.
The picture was not, in any sense, good. Anna and Permafrost clashed, hurling bolts of lightning and of ice at each other. The expression on Anna's face was almost a snarl, and her eyes seemed to glow, reflecting the cold blue of lightning on ice. And, even as she seemed to be giving all that she could give, she was losing. Ash had fallen asleep in most of her science classes, but one of her former hosts hadn't, and through those memories she knew that ice was a surprisingly poor conductor of electricity. And Permafrost was taking full advantage of that, practically covering himself in the stuff. Anna had no such defense. There were red streaks all over her from where his icicles had hit their marks, and Ash was unsure how much longer she could keep up the fight.
Well, it was time to even those odds a bit. Ash stood up, coming out from behind the air conditioning unit in what was hopefully a dramatically swooping manner. "Hi, I was told there was going to be a fight happening. I hope I didn't miss the good part?" Ash said, raising her fists at Permafrost. Permafrost looked away from Anna for a second, and shot a couple of icicles at Ash. Ash dodged out of the way, though one of them did manage to graze her, making a long cut in the sleeve of her jacket that swiftly healed. "That would be a 'no' then? Excellent."
In a flash, Ash was on top of Permafrost, pummeling him with her fists, for the first time in a while uncaring of any consequences her powers might have. This was to be her last night, after all, and so long as she didn't actively become a threat before the Reckoners got into position, she might as well use what she had to its fullest. Last chance, anyway.
She broke through Permafrost's shields as if they were made of paper. Or, to be specific, like they were made of easily breakable ice. The sharp ice slashed at her hands as she punched through his shields, and she felt the wounds heal, but only slowly. Okay. She may not have completely been going all out.
Ash dodged another blow, and just barely missed getting hit by a stray bolt of lightning from Anna. She didn't seem to be aiming at her, but Permafrost was right next to her, and she didn't seem to be in the frame of mind to care about collateral damage. Ash didn't like it, but she'd been there.
It was okay. She didn't need to be the one to win this, Dan was there with his weapon.
Another large block of ice broke off Permafrost's makeshift armor at the force of Ash's punch. "What in Calamity are you?" Permafrost said. He was out of breath. "Another of Voltage's puppets?" Voltage? Wait, who was—Oh wait. Ash looked over at Anna, who had stopped fighting, and was staring at Ash in shock.
"Kind of weak. I'm definitely docking points for originality," Ash said. Wait. Fight still going on. Focus. She turned back to Permafrost. "Nope, I'm the Epic you really should've been afraid of. Hello!" She gave a little wave at Permafrost.
"And yet you ran away before," Permafrost said, shooting another dagger in Ash's direction. "Just as you continue to evade now."
"Hey, running away is what I do best," Ash said. She frowned. "Wait, that came out really badly." Ash saw an opening in Permafrost's defenses, grabbing him and putting him into a headlock before he could even react.
She willed herself to tighten her grip, to finish the job she had started, but her body would not follow. "Come on, do it," she muttered. She had never hesitated like this before, and no one would ever argue Permafrost didn't deserve it. Why wouldn't she—Memories echoed in her mind, of others' last moments. The fear in their eyes. Thomas—Elaine—Evan—No. Those were innocents. Permafrost deserved it. It was the only logical thing to do at this point. But Ash still hesitated, still stopped before delivering the final strike. Those terrified eyes before her, they didn't belong to any of them. They were, in a very abstract way that didn't even entirely make sense to her, her own. Yet another monster who may not have been had Calamity, had fate, taken a different path. Ash sighed. She supposed she had grown weak.
A shot rang out and Permafrost cried out in pain, his eyes soon glazing over. Thank you, Dan, Ash thought. For doing what she had been too cowardly to do.
Dan emerged from behind the same AC unit Ash had hidden behind earlier. The only cover on this otherwise very flat, very open roof. Anna looked at them both, the exhilaration of the fight draining out of her like air from a punctured balloon. "You—" she said, her voice wavering. "I thought I—" What little color remaining in her face drained from it. "I thought I killed you."
"Sorry, a bit tougher than that," Ash said. "Scared the sparks out of Dan though. I'd've been scared too, but I was a bit too unconscious for that."
"Dan—He's—" She stared at him, seemingly unable to process the fact that he was, in fact, still alive and standing right before her. "You came back. Why did you come back?"
Ash was silent. Both of her reasons, to help her (which could potentially seem condescending) and to stop her (which was self-explanatory), would be most likely more provocative than good in Anna's current state. "We started this together," Dan said. "And no betrayal would keep me from finishing it the same way."
Anna looked down at her hands. The sparks that had wreathed them sputtered and died. "I—What have I—Why?" Tears were in her eyes.
"You didn't," Dan said. "You came very close—"Far too close, in Ash's mind—"But I'm fine. Everything is—"
"No it isn't," she said. "I came so close to killing you. Again." She shook her head. "I am so, so sorry." Dan reached out his arms, and embraced her in a hug.
Ash took a step back towards the edge of the roof in order to let the two enjoy their reunion without her getting in the way. She had done her part.
It appeared that, Permafrost being gone, and the shock of seeing them both alive despite her actions had broken whatever darkness still lingered. At least a little, for this moment. But it was a moment that would never existed, if she hadn't turned back.
Turned back—The thought brought her back to something, something that had been at the back of her mind since she had started climbing the tower, but only now took form. She had been in a full-on brawl with Permafrost. She'd used her powers more than she had since that day in Butte. But everything felt strangely normal. Not the icy calm that, at the same time, was usually accompanied by a lot of gratuitous violence, but actual nothing. For the first time in five years, she was just Ash. This is impossible, Ash thought. Epics didn't just magically turn good. This had to be some kind of trick, or she was deluding herself, or yet again her powers were yanking her chain and yet again, she was enough of a slontze to fall for it. She stared at her companions, searching the depths of her brain for impulses that should've been there. To kill. To betray. Nothing. Only a sense of—Was that relief?
That left one possibility. Not one, but two impossible things had happened that night. Could it be that simple? After five years, was she really, truly free? She looked down at the cuts on her hands from the fight. They were healing, if slower than they should've been. But even still, the darkness kept its distance, allowed her to truly enjoy the moment in a way she hadn't done in five years.
Movement from near the trap door caught her eye, distracting her from both Dan and Anna, who were having a discussion in hushed voices, as well as her own internal revelations. A familiar head emerged, followed by the barrel of a gun. Of course.
She met Evan's eyes, and gave a slight nod. It was time. To get what she deserved.
The gun fired.
Anna and Dan's conversation stopped abruptly, and they cried out as the bullet pierced Ash in the leg, making it buckle. Ash cried out in pain, stumbled, then finally lost her balance. They ran towards her, but were not fast enough.
Ash plummeted towards the ground.
