Outsider Chronicles: Absolute Demise

Getting reborn as one of the most reviled characters in a world destined for the shitter is not my idea of a good time. Fortunately, it seems that this is a world that actually has some good in it to keep it out of said shitter.

So, this is a rather...interesting idea. In a way, its not too dissimilar to my old Slash Dog story in that its DXD and Worm as a genuine fused world. However, this time things are very, VERY different. In other words, this is highly AU and if you don't like that, go read something else. Enjoy!

Chapter 1

You know, there are several things about dying that I never wanted to know. To start with, its bloody uncomfortable. Of course, being reborn is even more uncomfortable. Yeah, I'm living proof that the Soul is real, despite the fact that I'm a sceptic at the best of times. Of course, that doesn't stop me from feeling like I've either won the lottery or been sent here due to some horrific sin I committed in my last life. Why? Well, I'd been reborn in a world full of superpowered beings, but it wasn't one where heroes and villains balanced each other out and the heroes always win. It wasn't even My Hero Academia where EVERYONE has powers in one form or another. Oh no, I'm not that lucky. Instead, the world I now lived in was one where the greatest hero was actually its greatest potential threat and was definitely under threat from a bunch of OP monsters. Yep, I'd ended up being reborn in Worm. This is really gonna blow…

On the up side, I could at least guarantee that Taylor Hebert wouldn't be suffering in this world! Why? Because I'd been reborn as Emma Barnes herself. Lovely.

A few years after I was born, once I could actually do things for myself again, I found myself feeling utterly confused and yet extremely relieved. Why? Because this world, while clearly Worm, wasn't actually very Worm-like at all. By which I mean it wasn't a complete hellhole. For one thing, the Endbringers weren't a thing. Well, actually that wasn't entirely accurate. They WERE a thing, then they disappeared. Behemoth managed three attacks before he hit New York and somehow ended up getting dragged into a massive crack in the ground by chains the size of buildings that appeared out of nowhere and vanished just as quickly, Ziz managed two before she was trapped by some kind of glowing cube and vanished, while Leviathan didn't even manage to destroy more than a town before he (and a good chunk of the surrounding area) was frozen in a block of ice, before vanishing a few days later. No one ever figured out what in the world happened to the nascent Endbringers and reports of what happened were...strangely incoherent at times.

Of course, the disappearance of the Endbringers had some pretty impressive knock on effects. While the world was still hilarious dangerous and had more Villains than was probably healthy, without the Endbringers to act as a deterrent for the good guys to play nice to ensure the Villains showed up to fight, the kids gloves never even made an appearance, forcing the Villains to either be very, very careful or powerful enough that they could handle whatever was thrown at them, while still being careful enough to make sure the Triumvirate didn't decide to show up.

Relevant to me, Brockton Bay wasn't a hellhole barely holding on in this world. Oh, it still had its gangs, the Empire was a thing, as were the Merchants and a large number of small, constantly fighting Asain gangs, but it wasn't even close to the mess it was in canon. Without Leviathans interference with the shipping industry, the Docks were still thriving and likely would be for a long time to come, meaning that there weren't as many people falling into the Merchants poisoned embrace, the Empire was barely tolerated so long as they didn't make to much noise and without Lung, the ABB simply could not exist.

Unfortunately, even without the Endbringers, some threats still existed. The Nine was still just as much of a murderous bunch of cockroaches as ever, Elisburg still ended up getting turned into a goblin playground and many of the other Human threats existed in one form or another. Oh, and Zion was still buzzing around. However, something told me that the golden idiot wouldn't actually be that hard to deal with if whatever offed the Endbringers turned its attention on the Entity. Assuming that that thing was benevolent or at least, not actively hostile.

In other news, the Brockton Bay Brigade apparently decided that attacking Marquis at home wasn't worth the risk in the world and thus, his gang, the Peerage, was still the main power in the city. Now, you might think that that would make things as bad as in canon, but it really didn't. Marquis was very much an 'old school' criminal mastermind, less inclined to random acts of violence and more tending towards very carefully planned and extremely excessive violence after giving whatever poor schmuck got skewered enough rope to hang himself. There were rumours floating around that he might even have genuine connections to the Mob, although that was never really confirmed.

Whatever the case, Marquis and his men kept the cities seedy underbelly somewhat civilized and provided an excellent reason for the Empire to not rock the boat too much and the Teeth over in Boston to stay well away. Especially after he killed the last lot who showed up Vlad the Impaler style. How did he keep from getting the Triumvirate dropped on him you ask? Well, despite his reputation, he wasn't actually that prone to killing people and his brand of crime was the type that wasn't necessarily that dangerous to society. It probably helped that his gang only had three Parahumans, those being Marquis himself, Radiance (or rather Purity without the racism) and a much less prone to exploding shit Oni Lee. They did also occasionally hire the services of independent Villains, but those three were the main ones.

Unfortunately, the more things change the more they stay the same and even whatever bizarre additions had changed so much about the world couldn't save everyone. As a result, Aunt Annette still ended up on the wrong side of a drunk truck driver and was killed. The event devastated the Hebert's and I ended up having to provide a shoulder to cry on for Taylor for a long time afterwards, not helped in the slightest by Danny basically shutting down. Fortunately, there were plenty of people around to pull him out of his funk, including a man I met at Annette's funeral who turned out to be Danny's older brother. I was fairly sure I'd seen him and his daughter somewhere before, but for the life of me I couldn't figure out where and I had a crying Taylor to deal with, so I didn't put much thought into it.

And then we come to...THAT day. I admit, I really don't want to discuss this since, although I didn't technically Trigger, not being a Parahuman and all, it sure as fuck was bad enough to be one if I was. I honestly wasn't expecting it to happen. I mean, without Lung, the Asian gangs were shattered and comparatively weak and generally more interested in killing each other. Unfortunately, it appeared that I forgot that the sorts of people who would willingly join a gang without a fire breathing rage dragon forcing the issue still exist and people like that tend to get their jollies from hurting people.

So yeah, you can guess how that whole thing went down. Dad and I were on our way back from the theater and Dad decided to take a shortcut through a side street which turned out to be blocked by a dumpster. I didn't realize what was happening until the thugs started banging on the car and laughing and by that point, it was too late to do anything.

What happened next is something of a blur, but that doesn't mean I don't clearly remember seeing Shadow Stalker crouched on the roof of the car doing jack shit.

In that moment, as scared as I had been just seconds before, all I could feel was an icy cold determination. A determination that I wouldn't let this break me and turn me into the same monster as my counterpart. No matter what, I would survive, both physically and mentally, even if it meant losing my face.

The touch of cold metal on my face brought my attention back to the sneering girl this was all for as she drew the razor sharp blade over my eyelid.

"Pick," she said, "No, wait…"

She shoved the handful of hair she'd cut away into my mouth.

"Eat it, then pick."

I didn't respond, I simply stared at her. I'm not sure what it was, but something in my gaze must have changed because she slowly began to look uncomfortable under my stare.

"Don't look at me like that bitch!" she snarled, shoving the knife in my face.

I didn't react, drawing even further on the icy chill that was rising inside me. It hardly felt like a simple emotion any more. In fact, unless I was very much mistaken, the hot brick of the alley was starting to get colder…

"Fine, you asked for it," spat the girl with the knife, "If you won't stop staring, I'll just take those eyes!"

She seized my chin and brought up the knife. Despite my previous cold calmness, the action broke through to the part of me that was panicking and I instinctively drew on the coldness inside me to try and regain control.

Instead, there was a loud crack and the girl started screaming as the knife shattered under a sudden abrupt and very violent temperature change. At the same time, the thug holding me down was suddenly grabbed from behind and lifted off his feet, kicking and screaming, by a three foot tall woman composed entirely of ice. The other thugs yelped at the dolls sudden appearance and tried to back up, only to end up being smacked aside with a rapidly growing iceberg.

I ignored them all and my Dad and Shadow Stalkers reactions as my entire focus was taken up by the doll in front of me. The towering figure was vaguely feminine, with a slender form and a facsimile of an elegant ballroom dress. Four long, slender arms extended nearly to the floor and ended in large, spider-like taloned hands that somehow still managed to appear elegant. Its face wasn't Human in the slightest, with six eyes on the left side and the right a flat mask studded with thorns and its head was crowned by long spikes of ice.

She was also completely under my control.

It took no effort to have the doll drop the goon, who decided to stay down, although that could have something to do with the way his throat was starting to blister from the sheer cold given out by the doll and turn its attention to the dumpster blocking the road. It seized the large bin with all four hands and easily lifted it out of the way.

Once the dumpster was removed, I let myself relax and the doll faded, taking most of the ice with it. The moment it did, a bone deep exhaustion slammed into me and I slumped to the ground unconscious.

I came too to the sound of a heart monitor and the smell of antiseptic. I opened my eyes, blinking a few times until I could see without being blinded, then slowly sat up. I was alone in the room and the windows were covered with blinds, meaning that no one could see in. Aside from the monitors attached to me, I could hear the general hubbub of the hospital's daily business and the sound of muffled voices coming in through the door.

I tuned all that out after a few moments and looked down at my hands. I could still feel the cold inside me. It was dormant now, but I knew it was always there, an eternal guardian of ice, just waiting to be called forth again. I swallowed. Had I Triggered? I wasn't so sure, it didn't feel anything like I had imagined Triggering to feel, but what other explanation could there be? As different as this world was, it was still Worm, right? The only powers that could exist came from Zion and there was no indication that that wasn't the case. Well, other than the disappearances of the Endbringers, but that wasn't enough proof of anything other that someone with an ungodly amount of power. It certainly wasn't enough for me to consider that there could be other power sources floating around without a damn good reason.

Of course all of that did nothing to explain why I was almost certain that I recognized my power from a certain Anime about a boob obsessed Harem king.

At that moment, my woolgathering was interrupted by the door opening and a nurse armed with a clipboard entering the room.

"Oh good, your awake," she said when she saw me sitting up, "Thats good, your Father was worried."

"How long was I out?" I asked as the nurse came over and started running through some basic tests.

"Around 12 hours," said the nurse, "You had the doctors rather confused since they couldn't find anything wrong with you."

"Really? Huh…"

I didn't say anything else as the nurse finished checking me over, then left the room. There was a brief pause, before the door opened again and my Dad entered, looking rather like he'd gone an entire night without sleep.

"Oh thank god you're alright!" he gasped as he crossed the room and hugged me hard, "When you wouldn't wake up…"

He trailed off and hugged me harder. I grunted, but hugged him back, knowing better than to protest.

"Dad, I'm fine," I said, "Just a bit shaken up is all."

Dad smiled shakily as he pulled away.

"Well, thats something at least," he said, "Still, I'm sorry you had to go through that. I should have..."

I quickly hugged him again, making him let out a soft oof.

"Don't say that Dad," I said, "There was nothing you could have done."

Dad sighed and hugged me back.

"I know, but still the fact that you Triggered right in front of me...thats not something any good Parent wants," he said.

I just hugged him harder. After a moment of silence, I pulled back a little and looked up at Dads face.

"So, how much longer am I going to be stuck here?" I asked.

Not that much longer as it turned out. Since there was nothing wrong with me, I was let go after just a few more tests and returned home to my relieved Mother and sister.

The next couple of weeks were...irritating to put it mildly. Dad was in full on hover mode and Mom wasn't much better. Thankfully, Anne apparently figured out that I wasn't so fragile as to need someone hovering around me all the time and eventually managed to get Mom and Dad to calm down enough to leave me alone. I admit, I had a few nightmares, but nothing even close to what Canon Emma went through. I did want to talk to Taylor about it all, even my power (which I really wanted to try using again but hadn't had chance to), but her camp didn't have much in the way of phone signals, so I figured it was best to wait till she got back.

Eventually, after a couple of weeks of Parental hovering, I had enough and, with a bit of help from my sister who could tell I was about ready to start climbing the walls and chewing the furniture, managed to get out of the house for a few hours. I intended to go find somewhere quiet to test my powers and see if they were actually what I remembered or if my summoning of Absolute Demise was a very weird dream.

Instead, I found my feet guiding me back to the side street where it had all gone down, apparently without prompting.

For a moment, I was more than tempted to just leave, but instead I stepped into the street and looked around. It was...normal. I don't really know what I was expecting, but there was no sign of the struggle that had taken place here. Even the dumpster tucked into an alcove at the end didn't have any sign of the claws that had shifted it. For a rather insane moment, I almost thought that the whole thing had been a dream, but a gust of wind blowing my cropped short hair quickly reminded me of the truth.

"Takes guts."

I jumped at the sudden voice and whipped around. The girl standing in the entrance of the alley was instantly recognizable, even if I'd only ever read her description in the past. I ruthlessly shoved down the urge to freeze Hess solid and drop her in the sea. This world wasn't the same as canon, so it wasn't impossible that Sophia Hess was a less of a sociopath, although that didn't mean I wouldn't punch her teeth out for not helping out sooner. I wasn't about to forget that she just stood back and watched after all.

"What takes guts?" I asked.

"Coming back," said Hess, "The only reason you'd do it is because you were looking for revenge, or you were looking for me. Or both, depending on how cracked you are."

I tilted my head on one side.

"Actually, I'm not sure why I came back," I said, "Closure maybe? Or maybe it was just a whim. Whatever the case, I have a question for you."

I fixed her with a glare and pulled on the cold inside me just enough to make the air around me chill slightly.

"You were there," I said, "Why didn't you help me?"

Hess didn't seem bothered by my glare. In fact, she looked mildly amused.

"Because I wanted to see who you are," she said.

Oh dear.

"Who I am?" I asked coldly, "What does that mean?"

"There's two people in the world," she said, "Those who get stronger when they come through a crisis and those who get weaker. The ones who get stronger naturally come out on top. There's ups and downs, but they'll win out."

She grinned at me, apparently completely oblivious to the incredulous look I was giving here.

"And you girl are most DEFINITELY the former," she said, "Like holy shit girl, that power of yours is freaking AWESOME!"

Her grin widened.

"Hey, if your interested, we should totally team up," she said, "We could-"

"Not a chance in hell," I said.

"Wha...but-"

"You were perfectly willing to leave me to die until I Triggered," I said, "I don't want anything to do with a person like that."

I turned on my heel and walked out of the side street, ignoring Sophia's attempts to get my attention. Fortunately, she was smart enough not to try grabbing me or I might have frozen her. Unfortunately, I got the distinct impression I hadn't seen the last of her.

I was so annoyed by the whole thing that I wasn't paying attention as I left the side street and ended up walking straight into a wall of solid muscle. I took a few steps back and looked up, barely resisting the urge to back up a bit further as I took in the man I'd walked into.

He was taller than me by a good head and looked pretty much exactly like a stereotypical delinquent. His blonde hair was spiked up with a rather large amount of gel and shaved down at the sides, he was wearing sunglasses, had two silver studs in his left eyebrow, another three in his right ear and his front teeth were chipped. He was wearing a black tank top with a skull on the front, a leather jacket around his shoulders, jeans that hung low around his hips, complete with a chain attached to the belt, ratty sneakers and a couple of bulky looking silver rings. He also had a number of scars, ranging from a nick in one eyebrow, to a rather nasty looking one that emerged out from under his tank top. All in all, he looked like the sort of person who'd be right at home as an Empire thug and certainly not someone I'd want to mess with.

He was also ripped, which was clearly visible under his tight tanktop, which certainly didn't help me keep from staring, despite the sheer intimidation factor.

He seemed to notice me staring as he snorted and crossed his arms.

"Take a picture, it'll last longer," he grunted.

I blinked, his deep voice snapping me out of my trance, and I immediately blushed.

"A-ah, sorry," I said, "I wasn't...um…"

I trailed off, my blush deepening. Good god, I was blushing like a schoolgirl around a hot jock! Wait...

Something cold touching my hand nearly made me jump out of my skin and I looked down to see a small, black and gray puppy sitting at my feet, looking up at me through big, red eyes with a happy look on its face. I glanced up at the blonde, who looked mildly surprised.

"Huh, he doesn't normally take to strangers that quickly," he said, looking between me and his dog with a frown, "Do you…"

He was abruptly interrupted as a girl suddenly popped out of nowhere and slapped him on the back.

"Hey Toby, speed it up," she said, "The kids are getting away and I don't fancy getting scolded by the boss if we lose them again!"

She was a slim, Japanese girl (putting any ideas that the blonde might be affiliated with the Empire well and truly to rest. They were less of a problem, but their members tended to be positively rabid in exchange) with light brown hair worn tied up, brown eyes and a figure that made me feel positively inadequate, despite her rather conservative choice of a blouse and skirt.

"I told ya not to call me Toby!" snapped the boy, "Aww never mind, lets just go before we really do lose 'em. And you…"

I jumped slightly at the sudden snap.

"Watch where ya going next time," he growled, "The next person you walk into might not be as nice as me. Nyct, heel boy!"

With that, he stalked past me, hands in his pockets and ignoring his friend as she started badgering him about me. His dog gave my hand a lick and bounded after the two, leaving me staring after them and wondering why in the hell the girl and the dog seemed so damn familiar.

A week later, I was sat at the table eating breakfast when Mom came back from where she'd been talking on the phone.

"Taylor got back from camp this morning," she said, making me perk up.

"Really? Great!" I said.

I was really starting to miss my best friend.

"She might drop by later," said Mom as I dropped my breakfast bowl in the sink and grabbed my water bottle ready for my morning run.

What? I hadn't really done much with my powers since I wanted to talk to Taylor first, but that didn't mean I couldn't get into an actually decent shape first!

"If she comes by when you're not here-"

"I'll call her back or something," I said, "Later!"

I jogged outside and paused when I saw someone standing by the gate. For a moment, I thought it was Taylor, right before I saw her dark skin and scowled. Great, Sophia was back, again. The little bitch had approached me a few times while I was out and about and now apparently she had figured out where I'd lived.

"What the hell are you doing here?!" I snapped as I stomped up the path to the gate.

"I found out where you lived," she said with a smug grin, "Came to see if you'd come around yet."

I twitched and shoved down the urge to freeze her solid and punt her into the Bay. It was an urge that was becoming both very familiar and very hard to resist.

"No, I have not come around," I snapped, "Get it through your thick skull Hess, I. Am. Not. Interested! I am nothing like you, I would never stand back and watch someone get mutilated just because they were, quite rightly, terrified of the lunatic with the knife inches from their fucking eye!"

Sophia shook her head.

"Nah, you're wrong," she said, "People like you and me, we're strong, not like those weak pieces of trash."

I gritted my teeth. Good god, talking to this bitch was like pulling teeth! She only seemed to hear about one word out of five and didn't seem to get it through her thick skull that I wanted nothing to do with her!

Fortunately for Sophia's future as a Human and not an iceberg, at that moment I spotted movement and saw Taylor approaching from the direction of her house.

She looked pretty much the same as when she left, all gangly limbs, gawky features and glasses that looked just slightly too large for her face. She was still wearing her camp gear, a blindingly orange shirt with the remains of a printed logo and the number 6 on the front, shorts and long dark curls were tied into a loose set of twin braids, one bearing a series of colorful 'friendship bracelet' style ties at the end. Only her height gave her age away.

The sight of my oldest friend caused the tension I hadn't noticed was there to drain out of me and I smiled. Sophia seemed to be smart enough to realize I wasn't smiling at her and turned to look, a sneer crossing her face as she spotted Taylors approach.

"Who the fuck is that?" she asked.

I ignored her, waving to my friend as she approached.

"Hey Emma!" she chirped as she jogged up to the gate.

"Who the fuck are you?" asked Sophia before I could say anything.

Taylor's smile faltered, a brief look of confusion flickered across her face.

"We're friends," she said, "Emma and I have been friends for a long time."

"Really?" asked Sophia with a sneer.

"Really," said Taylor, eyeing the other girl with some confusion and trepidation clear in her overly large eyes.

I took a deep breath and decided to step in before anything else happened.

"Sophia, fuck off," I said, "I've told you repeatidly to leave me alone, so kindly do so. I am not interested in being your friend in the slightest and I'm getting very close to doing something to you that you'll regret."

Sophia eyed me for a moment, then nodded.

"Alright, I'll go," she said, "But I'll be in touch. We'll kick ass together someday, count on it."

She grinned at me, shot one last sneer at Taylor and saunted away.

"What was that all about?" asked Taylor.

I took a deep breath and shook my head.

"I'll tell you inside," I said as I opened the gate.

"O...K," said Taylor as she stepped through, "Whats going...EEP!"

She was cut off as I pulled her into a tight hug and buried my face in her hair, my body relaxing further as I took in the familiar scent of her shampoo. I could feel tears beginning to well in my eyes and it seemed that Taylor noticed as well.

"Emma, whats wrong?" asked Taylor, "Seriously, you're scaring me."

I let out a slightly strangled bark of laughter.

"Thats a long story," I said as I forced myself to pull back, "Come on, I'll tell you everything inside."

I pulled Taylor inside and told her everything.

And with that, I'm done. This was an...interesting experience to be sure and I honestly like the idea enough that I'm probably going to end up doing more since my other stories are refusing to go anywhere.

So, anyone want to guess what happened to the Endbringers? Its not really that hard if you pay attention to what happened and where, although the Simurghs little vanishing act is probably less obvious.

To be clear, its only the Endbringers that have been removed by way of literal Divine Intervention. Any Human threats are only dealt with by the Supernatural crowd if they encroach too much on their territory or piss off someone high up the food chain too badly. As of this moment, most of them have not.

To be clear (again), I am aware that Marquis is not a nice man. Hes no hero and his gang are most definitely villains, but they are so, SO much better than the canon alternative. Your not going to get shot for having the wrong skin colour or kidnapped and sold into sexual slavery in his territory. The general public are willing to put up with him because they are well aware of the alternative is likely the Empire and the Teeth. The PRT tolerates him for much the same reason, so long as he doesn't start murdering people at random. Which he doesn't.

As for how the powers stack up, well, it can basically be summed up like this. The most powerful Parahumans count as roughly High Class Devils and Shards have a hard time even PERCEIVING the supernatural because, regardless of how good they are at crunching data, they count as Mortal and lack even the slightest hint of belief or faith that could allow them to see past the Vail and perceive the Mythical world. Additionally, any non-direct Magical attack, so basically anything that isn't physical or some form of cogeneration, can bypass any Shard based defence. Which basically means that even someone like Alexandria is just as vulnerable to curses as everyone else.

However, I don't really see any of that being an issue because we'll mostly be dealing with Humans with Sacred Gears and Demi-gods, who are still Human enough to not cause Shards any issues...mostly. That said, its not impossible that a Shard could evolve enough to see past the Vale, but to do so would mean that they wouldn't exactly be the same anymore...

I'm not...entirely sure what I'm going to do with Emma just yet. I'm considering have her join the Wards, at least at first, since the idea of her accidentally dragging them all into the Mythic world without meaning to be utterly hilarious. Especially since I have a rather amusing and adorable idea for a possibly future relationship involving a Ward and the Antichrist.

So, any guesses as to who it was that Emma encountered after her first 'chat' with Sophia? It shouldn't be that hard, hell, I drew the idea of Toby from one of my other stories...sort of. Hes not actually anything like that character, other than his background to a degree.

Hehehe, and another element of AU, where Taylor went to camp. You might be able to guess what I have in mind for her with the clues already given, but heres one last one. Her nickname had to come from somewhere.

And with that, I think I'm done. I really need to get some sleep at some point anyway. As an added bonus, I get to actually post something on my birthday, even if it is only 2 in the morning, so yay me! Anyway, don't forget to leave a review on the way out!