Ash fell from the sky.

Anna could only watch as her friend plummeted downward, a storm of guilt filling her heart just as the literal storm around her started abating. She was the reason this had happened. If she hadn't lost control, if she hadn't charged in in the most unsubtle manner possible, the Reckoners would never have caught up with them. And if she hadn't hurt Ash, if she hadn't tried to hurt Dan— Without a word, she raced towards the exit, knocking over the very surprised team of Reckoners. Dan followed afterwards, a bit more slowly, and she could hear the sounds of muffled "excuse me"'s behind her.

She flew down the stairs, not even thinking about the possibility of tripping. Anna had to get down there before the Reckoners did, before they could finish the job. Or take away the body, a small, cynical part of her said. But she paid it no mind. Either Ash was dead or she wasn't, and letting the Reckoners get to her first would guarantee that she would be dead. Which may have been what Ash wanted in the first place, she thought. She had always seemed strange when talking about them, like she felt she somehow deserved what was coming for her.

After tonight, and what had nearly happened, Anna found it hard to blame her.

What if they had taken longer, she thought? What if they hadn't been able to stop you? She still felt odd thinking of herself as someone who needed to be stopped, but Anna couldn't deny what had happened. What she had nearly done. Even though there was still a part of her that made her want to believe they deserved it.

She reached the bottom of the stairs, out of breath and mildly wishing that Calamity had given her anything resembling physical powers. Nope. In that respect, she was still normal, tiny Anna. Not that using said physical powers would be anything resembling a good idea at the moment. But, that didn't stop her from wishing.

Ash lay outside, crumpled, her body sticking in unnatural positions. No, Anna thought. Please. Ash was the survivor. She even, according to Dan, had survived her heart stopping (something she was responsible for. Great job, Anna), with nothing more than a bit of sarcasm to show for what had happened. But it wasn't her who did it, her, in the depths of her despair. It was Evan. Evan, who had managed to hurt Ash in a way that stuck last time the two had met. Who still apparently held the hope that Ash could've been defeated. Who, Anna thought as she checked desperately for a pulse in Ash's neck, but only finding a faint flutter that was gradually growing weaker, may have been correct. The blood spread on the snow, turning it to red. A detached part of Anna that still remembered what medical training she had told her that the wound was unlikely to have hit any major arteries with the amount of blood coming out, that if she got to proper medical attention, she would be fine even with her weakness having been activated. Apart from the injuries she undoubtedly sustained from the fall, which Anna had no idea if they would heal. It wasn't technically Evan causing them, but if not for him, she wouldn't have fallen.

She inspected Ash as best as she could, ignoring the snow that was quickly turning to rain around her. The first rain that had fallen in nearly four months. Anna would find time to celebrate later. Dan appeared besides her. "How does she look?" he said.

"Not good. Checking. Can you go distract them for a while?" Anna said, pointing at the approaching group of assassins. "I'd love to chat, but I'm busy, and really not in the mood for talking with them at the moment." Dan gulped and nodded.

Dan walked away from the body with some trepidation. Anna seemed more back to normal, but there was still a part of her that scared him. Probably a part of her that would always scare him. He didn't think he would ever forget what happened at the funeral, even if he tried.

Dan cleared his throat, and went to face the Reckoners. Distract a group of assassins who were probably very keen on checking if Ash was dead? What could possibly go wrong?

The leader, a greying blonde woman, spoke. "Have you seen a body? It should've fallen right around here."

"Nope, no bodies around—"Dan swore under his breath. There was no way in Calamity he was going to get away with this lie. "Look. Our friend just died, and given you're the ones who sparking killed her, no, I'm not going to let you anywhere near her body." He raised his fists. "You're going to have to go through me if you want to do that." Okay, that was probably a bit much. These were assassins he was dealing with. Assassins who had possibly just killed someone. One tiny, nerdy guy was not going to be an obstacle.

The Reckoners looked at him in a mixture of fear and confusion. Sparks, did they think he had powers he was going to pull out? Yep, he was for sure dead. They started whispering to themselves, and Dan was able to pick out the phrase "how does she have friends?" and very little else.

"We think you may have been lied to," the sandy-haired man said slowly. "The Resurrectionist—Ash, I think she's calling herself now, has done terrible things, and I think she may have been using you to hide."

Dan closed his eyes, going through all of his interactions with Ash in his memory. He could not deny the possibility, though that didn't explain how she had been even a bit too honest with her past. And, seeing them here, with this timing, he thought he now understood what Ash's "errand" before coming here was. "She told me what she did," he said. "And yes, it is terrible. But I think in the end, she may have been trying to do something good for once." He opened his eyes. "She told me that she'd rather die than fall to Calamity's darkness again. And, looking at you being here, I think that's what she did. Please," he said. "Let us mourn her in peace."

They looked at each other, probably nonverbally trying to decide what to do. Dan didn't blame them. This was probably the first time in their lives they'd come across one of their targets actually being mourned. Even in his isolated state, Dan had heard about a few of them. They were typically the worst of the worst. Eternity and the Shattered Rose would never have anyone standing by their graves, except for maybe to spit on them. Or to check whether they were really dead. But fate, luck, and, if Dan had to be honest, poor planning on her part, had made Ash different. "She's dead. I wouldn't lie to you about that," Dan said. Or at least, she wasn't far from death. Which was a distinction that Dan did not want them to ask about.

One of them produced a device from their pocket, and Dan couldn't help but feel his heart leap in excitement. Life or death situation or not, he could never not be excited to see a new piece of motivator tech. Ash's voice, calling him a nerd in that way that seemed like she didn't actually mind, sounded in his head. The voice that he may never hear again. Dan winced. That definitely brought him back down to Earth. "What's that?" he asked, trying to keep his excitement out of his voice. (He was likely not going to see them again, but better them not think he was completely insane. He was trying to persuade them, after all.)

"I'm sorry," the man with the device said. "But knowing what the Resurrectionist can do, we have to check before we can let you go."

A dowser. Dan had never seen one of those in real life before, though he definitely had colleagues who were working on things like that. If not for the severity of the situation, Dan would've clamored to get a closer look at it. But he recognized the implication. One of Ash's powers was possession, and the man thought that he was Ash. Telling them that she, herself, was dead. He hadn't known her when she was fully corrupted, but that sounded like something Ash would've done. Probably would've found it funny, too. "Okay, zap away," he said. At least this would buy some more time for Anna to finish checking on Ash and get the body safely away.

"It's a blood test," the man said, gesturing to Dan's hand.

"Right," Dan said, offering out his hand. "Poke away, then." Dan winced as the needle stabbed into his fingers, then jerked his hand away. Yep, five or so years since he had last seen one, and he still did not like needles. Dan waited, expectantly, for the device to do its work.

The man frowned. "He looks clean," he said to his teammates. "You don't think he's telling the truth?"

"The truth, at least as he believes it," the other woman said.

The sandy haired man was silent, lost in thought.

"Are we good?" Dan said. "Because as I may have mentioned, I have a body I have to get back to burying." He turned, and went back to the others.

As he watched the man retreat, disappearing off into the night, Evan frowned. The Resurrectionist was a puzzle that he still could not piece together, a puzzle that seemed so different from any other Epic he had encountered. Was she lying, a trickster to the very end, or could her words, back when she had appeared in his window, have held some truth to them? This man seemed to think it was the latter, but Evan had been fooled by her before.

And yet the image of her as a schemer, playing some game of chess too complicated for him to understand, didn't entirely fit either. She had come to the tower, as she said she would, and he had seen her nod before he fired. Almost accepting of her fate, it seemed. But why would someone who had so much power, who could disappear and reappear anywhere with no consequence, want to die? Unless—

In the end, it didn't matter. He had done his job, and though his aim still left a lot to be desired, the Resurrectionist would never hurt innocents again.

Dan returned to the site of the body, out of breath from the slight jog over there, to find Ash—Was she sparking waving? "Keep it down," he hissed at her. "Are you trying to get yourself shot again?"

Ash abruptly put her hand down, and pretended to lie still. "How long has she been like this?" he whispered towards Anna, trying to keep his voice down in case any of the Reckoners were still listening in.

"She just woke up," Anna said. "Her healing factor kicked in, but it's still slower than it should be."

"Ash," Dan whispered. "I'll have you know that this is the second heart attack you've given me tonight."

"I had one of those too," Ash said, earning a glare from Dan and a guilty look from Anna.

"Not remotely funny," Dan said.

"By the way," Ash said. "I'm sorry about, up there, you know." She tried to point up to the roof but stopped mid-point, wincing. "Ouch, that arm is going to have to take a little longer. But yeah, I feel bad for not telling you about letting the Reckoners know about this."

"Yeah," Dan said. "That was a completely terrible idea. What if they'd seen Anna, when she was being all—"Dan waved his hands around in an effort to mime throwing electricity around. "They would've killed her too." Anna shrunk back.

"I was scared," Ash said. "Scared that tonight would be my last night as myself. That I'd go too far with my powers, that I'd start killing again. And yeah, I agree, that was a stupid way of trying to stop that from happening. But it was the best I could come up with at the time. And I didn't tell you because I figured you would stop me."

"Hell yes I would have," Dan muttered under his breath. "Why aren't you killing again? That fall, going through the barrier of wind, fighting Permafrost—"

"Yes, and all of the other myriad ways I used my powers tonight. You don't have to remind me," Ash said. "And to answer your question, I have no sparking idea. Tonight should've corrupted me beyond no return several times over, but—"

"But what?"

"It's gone. Or, it's there, but it's a shadow of what it's ever been. And the worst part is that everything's been so busy, I have no idea what did it." Ash turned away, staring off into the distance. "Or how long it will last."

Which was another thing for Dan to put on his list of things that could probably bite him in the ass in the future. Fantastic. "Something happened," Ash said. "And I wish to Calamity I could tell you what that something was." She looked over at Anna, who was still silent. They were evidently thinking the same thing.