Dragon's Progeny: Chapter 60

This one was a doozy! Hope you all enjoy!

Legend had attended more than his fair share of Endbringer battles and he would easily admit that Leviathan was likely his least favorite. Though Behemoth was far more dangerous to fight and the Simurgh was the kind of threat you couldn’t even within a mile of without possibly having your mind twisted like a pretzel, he personally thought that Leviathan was the worst of the three. 

Whereas its siblings could be driven back, Behemoth’s kill-aura and the Simurgh’s precognition made it almost impossible to actually do that. Fighting Leviathan gave the impression that you could actually win. He reacted to their attacks and even retreated to another part of the battlefield when he was at a disadvantage. 

And that was what made him dangerous. That hope he gave his enemies, making them think that they might actually have a shot at felling one of the most dangerous creatures on the planet if they just tried a bit harder, got a little more reckless with their attacks and took more chances, all in hopes to deal the final blow.

It was a facade, all of it. Leviathan was just as durable as its siblings and by the time you realized that, it was already too late. Most capes who died in battles involving Leviathan suffered from the mistake of fatally underestimating the Endbringer. They thought the waves were the biggest thing to worry about, never realizing that they were second to the monster in front of them.

One in four. That was the best possible outcome of battles involving the beast. That number had already been exceeded by now, and Legend had been prepared to call the battle a loss when that dragon appeared and began to actually drive the monster back. And now, as he watched from high above as the two mythical monsters duked it out in the streets, he wasn’t sure what to think.

Whoever this cape was was doing a good job of keeping Leviathan occupied. From the moment the dragon appeared on the battlefield, the monster had been completely focused on it, apparently deeming it a threat above the rest of them.

The dragon's body was already littered with damage, with broken scales and cuts dripping blood into the water around them, but it was much less than it should have been when faced with Leviathan's claws. Attacks that would have cut a lesser cape in half merely wounded her, and even Leviathan's razor-sharp tail grazed her instead of carving into her flesh as it should have. Those scales must have been extremely hard.

Leviathan also seemed to have trouble getting a grip on the monster. The water which was usually the biggest danger when facing the Endbringer was rendered completely impotent. Legend could see it churning unnaturally around them as they fought, but aside from his water clones, Leviathan hadn’t used it offensively at all. Could the dragon be stopping it somehow like it had with the rain?

As Legend watched them fight, a frown grew on his face as he noticed something. Whoever this cape was clearly had no regard for the landscape or even the people around them. He watched as a parahuman with a large-brimmed hat raised his hands, pointing a glowing finger at the pair, only to be swatted away as the dragon's tail flicked in his direction. It didn't look intentional, but neither did the dragon seem to care, continuing to harass Leviathan as the hatted cape crumpled to the ground.

Several other capes were injured in similarly reckless ways, heroes and villains who strayed too close to the fight incapacitated or even killed completely on accident because they got in the way.

Legend’s frown deepened and he prepared to step in, but before he could move, his armband pinged with a priority alert.

Attention, any and all capes still present in the battle please report to zone CD-1 for debrief. We may have found a way to stop Leviathan.

The words caught the attention of everyone nearby and Legend’s eyes widened. A way to stop Leviathan? They might actually be able to turn this battle around?

He didn't waste any time, leaving the dueling monsters behind and zooming towards the meeting spot at record pace. As he touched down, he was met with a rather large crowd of capes already present, and more arriving just as he was.

Alexandria and Eidolon were already here, talking urgently with a man in a black costume with a bright red demon mask. Several other people were standing nearby, also listening, but the demon caught Legend's eyes immediately. He looked oddly fresh and wasn't even wearing an armband. Did he just get here?

“Legend.” Alexandria nodded at him as he reached them, “This man is Oni Lee, one of Yosei's subordinates. He claims to have something that might stop Leviathan for good.”

“For good?” Legend often wondered if that was even possible. They threw everything they had at the Endbringers when they appeared, and often it proved to be just barely enough, “What is it?”

In response, the man held something out. Legend examined it, recognizing it for what it was, “A bomb?”

“Tinkertech.” The man said in a muffled, slightly scratchy voice, “Upon detonation, it will freeze time in a localized area for the next ten thousand years. At least according to the creator.”

As Legend's eyes widened, a man in the golden, lion-themed armor stepped forward, seeming incredulous and slightly, “Bakuda created a Grey Boy bomb? That would have gotten her an instant Kill Order!”

“Hence why we never used it.” Oni Lee said monotonously, “Yosei-sama expressly forbade using this bomb and any like it during our war with the Empire. She sees them as… inhumane.”

A sentiment Legend agreed with. Trapping someone in time was consigning then to a fate worse than death. Either they were stuck conscious, forced to watch the world move around them, or they blinked and everything they knew and loved was dead. He wouldn't want to put anyone through that sort of torment. An Endbringer through…

“If we can catch Leviathan with this, it's an instant game over for him.” Legend said, staring at the device.

“The problem is getting him with it.” Eidolon said, “We've tried using tinkertech on him before but he's too fast. We'll never be able to catch him.”

“We might if we use our newest variable.” Alexandria argued, “Yosei is clearly able to push Leviathan around much more than we are. We just need to get her to being him into an area away from everyone else. A kill zone where he won't have any chance to escape.”

“That might not work.” 

All eyes turned to the one had spoken, a teenager in a soaked hoodie with only a scarf to hide her face. She was standing with the Brockton Bay capes, or what few of them were still able to fight, and looked a bit spooked at the sudden attention, as if she hadn't meant to speak in the first place.

Eidolon stepped forward first, “What do you mean? What wouldn’t work?”

The girl seemed to regain some of the confidence that made her speak up in the first place, “Getting her to go along with the plan.”

“Why not? You think she'd just refuse to help?”

The girl shook her head, "That's not what I'm saying.Yosei’s powers mess with her head. She explained it to me once; it's like every monster she becomes has a personality of its own, trying to influence her every time she transforms. The stronger the monster, the stronger the influence. With her like that, she might not even be able to understand you. And even if she did, she probably wouldn’t care. She’s too focused on Leviathan right now.”

“Then we can use that to our advantage.” Alexandria said, “They’re completely focused on each other. If we can herd them properly, we can still get Leviathan in the kill zone and set off the bomb.”

“But she'll be caught in it too!” The girl protested as a chorus of agreements rang from the capes around them. 

Eidolon seemed a bit angered by her words, “This is a chance to finally get rid of one of those things once and for all. If we have to sacrifice one more cape to do so, then that's what we'll do.”

“We'll try and reason with her first.” Legend reassured the girl gently, “But if it comes down to it, we can't afford to let a chance like this slip away, and I'm sure your friend wouldn't want us to.” 

“But–”

“We need an area to use for the plan.” Alexandria rolled right over her protests, which was unfortunate but necessary. They couldn't worry about a single cape at a time like this, “Somewhere where we can put a lot of capes but won't give Leviathan the means to turn it into a killing ground. We'll also need capes to contain him for at least a little whole in case this doesn't go as planned. Narwhal can help, but do we have any other capes that can do something similar?”

“We used to have Kaiser, but Yosei killed him earlier today.” The man in golden armor said, “I know some of New Wave is still around. Shielder, at least, could be useful.”

“I think he went down a little while ago. I saw someone holding Laserdream back from a suicide rush so he might not still be around.”

“Seriously? Fuck…”

“There's an out of towner, Barricade, who might be able to help. His costume’s pretty clunky though so he'll need someone to get him there.”

“I can do that, just send me his location and where to bring him.”

As they began to form a plan, assigning capes to various sections based on powers and strengths, Legend felt a small bit of traitorous hope spark in his heart. This battle had been a bad one but if things went right, it might be the last.

~~~

The world passed me by in a haze, sights floating through my mind without rhyme or reason as the Lóng’s instincts completely overrode my own. This creature was by far the strongest I had manifested ever before, surpassing even the Raijū by a good amount, and it was all I could do to stay cognizant of my surroundings and not completely fade into the background of the monster’s rage.

In some ways, I was thankful for it. Barely present as I was, I could put aside all of the hesitance and heartstopping terror that resided within me at the thought of battling Leviathan and sink comfortably into the Lóng’s mind, letting its instincts and desire to defend the city overpower any fear that I had. It wasn’t hard. A monster this powerful had desires far above my own, and chief among them all was the want-the need-to punish Leviathan for daring to step foot in the city I called home.

Divine power sang through my veins as I prowled through the darkened streets, slitted eyes turning this way and that as I searched for any sign of the creature that had dared intrude upon my domain. There were people around me, other capes who seemed stunned and even fearful at my appearance, but they were insignificant. Nothing more than Gnats buzzing around the edge of my consciousness as I searched for my quarry.

A ruined building to my right burst into fragments of stone and glass as a dark form came farting out and I turned, roaring as the slimy interloper reappeared before me. Leviathan looked just as I remembered him on that day but I felt no fear as I raced to meet him in combat, eager to prove my superiority by ripping him apart with my jaws.

The water around me churned with the desire to rise up but my own presence kept it firmly tamped down. Indignation flared inside of me as I realized that this beast was trying to use nature against me, to turn nature and the very weather against the one who presided over it. It was infuriating!

I roared in the face of the beast as I closed the distance, clamping my jaws down on its shoulder as my body curled around it like a python. Lightning crackled over my scales as I called forth the storm inside of my very being, sending millions of volts of electricity straight into its body. Sparks played over the water as I fried Leviathan, arcs of lightning lashing out at anything and anyone nearby as I delivered my wrath right into its disgusting body.

It squirmed and water poured from its body like a raging waterfall, slipping between my scales and bursting outwards. It didn’t do much to move me, but it did enough and Leviathan slipped free, sliding its scorched body out of my coils and leaping away. It landed on all fours nearby and leapt towards, claws raking down the side of my face and tearing scales and flesh away from my visage. 

I reared up in pain, trying to get away, but it clung there, using the wound that it had inflicted as a handhold as it attached itself to my face like a leech. Its tail snaked up into the air and whipped down, trailing water behind it as it carved a deep, bleeding gash into my body. Ruined scales flew in every direction and my blood flowed like water and I roared in agony, thrashing like a wild beast as I tried to dislodge the monster to no avail.

As Leviathan raised its tail once more, a beam of light shot down from above, slamming into the monster and myself by proxy. It pushed away with the force of a thousand freight trains, sending the both of us flying away and finally dislodging Leviathan from my skin as I was forced through a nearby building and landed on the ground on the other side of it.

Shaking my head where I landed, I looked up and growled at the familiar man flying high above. He said something but the words might as well have been underwater for all they made sense to me. I tried to understand him for but a moment before my attention was taken by Leviathan making its reappearance, surfing towards me on a wave of churning water. Its body was covered in soot and layers of its skin had been scorched from its form by my lightning, and it clearly wasn’t happy about that considering that it had actually sought me out.

My chest rumbled in a facsimile of laughter as it came towards me, before I reached out with my power and took hold of the water under its feet, disrupting the wave and sending it to the ground. I could feel Leviathan’s own power trying to push back against my influence, but it might as well have been a child trying to keep its parent from taking a toy away for all the good it did. All the natural elements were my domain and mine alone, and this close to me, it had no hope of bending nature to its will.

Leviathan got back to its feet quickly but I was upon it even quicker, snatching its body up in my massive jaws and throwing it into the air. A barrage of colorful lasers flew from the heavens, slamming into its body and bursting apart in a light show as they sent it careening back towards the ground, and I didn’t waste a moment in pressing the advantage.

My jaws smashed down on the beast’s body but it was slippery, sliding through my teeth with the barest effort and leaving a mockery of itself made from the water around us in its place. Anger burned deep in my body as my teeth gnashed through the salty water and I kicked off the ground with a roar. It was trying to get away, to flee and regroup, but I wouldn’t let it.

I slithered through the sky, smashing down upon the beast once more and attacking with claw and fang even as it returned the favor. Its flesh was strange, soft like clay on the outside but sturdier than the hardest stone just below the surface. My claws carved scars into its body like a brush on a canvas, spilling black ichor onto the soaked streets below but it wasn’t enough. The beast was only giving the barest reaction to my wrath, like an actor playing the part of a wounded villain on a grand stage, waiting for the show to end. And that, more than anything else, was unacceptable.

Fire coursed through my veins as water poured from Leviathan’s pores, allowing him to slip through my claws. It landed on the ground and turned, whipping its tail around and carving a line of white hot fire through my hand. I reared backwards, pain and fury filling me with equal measure at the audacity.

That fury gathered in my clenched jaws, building to a boiling point as tongues of white-hot flame licked my lips, and I thrust my muzzle forward, roaring at Leviathan even as I unleashed the flames of hell upon the creature. Light seared my eyes, as if the sun itself had been brought upon the world, driving the darkness back and turning night to day. Water hissed and became steam and stone melted to molten slag in an instant as the full force of my heat was brought upon Leviathan.

Screams tickled my ears as the fools who had strayed too close to my battle were forced to contend with my strength but they were insignificant. They should have stayed out of my way.

Something dark and impossibly fast suddenly came from outside of my field of view, spearing through my flames like they weren’t even there. There was no scream of pain as they crossed into my wrath made manifest, and with a sound akin to a thunderclap, something shot out of the flames, soaring down the road like it had been launched from a cannon.

It was Leviathan. The lizard was covered in burns and flailing wildly, trying to find some sort of purchase in the air. My jaws clamped shut, ceasing my flames as I turned to follow it, but before I could pursue, someone floated down directly into my field of view. 

She looked familiar, in dark spandex with a tower emblazoned on the chest, as well as a helmet that covered the upper half of her face. She spoke to me, pointing in the opposite direction of Leviathan, but her words were nothing but white noise to me. The beast was getting away.

I disregarded her, turning away and running in the direction that Leviathan had disappeared. The woman called after me, shouting somewhat angrily, but I ignored her. Though strong, she wasn't a concern to me.

I wasn't going to let the beast get away. 

~~~

Eidolon’s cape whipped in the wind as he floated upwards into the skyline, getting well out of the way of the brawl ensuing on the streets down below. He watched from on high as his friend and colleague, Alexandria, retreated from the battle as well, giving up the task of trying to talk or reason with the scaled monster tearing Leviathan a new one.

“Guess it's plan b.” She said, crossing her arms as she watched Yosei catch-up to Leviathan.

Yosei was doing almost as much damage to the city as Leviathan himself. She didn’t seem to care about any of the capes around her as she attacked the Enbringer like a wild animal, chasing after it almost obsessively and getting angrier every time that it escaped her grasp.

That being said, she was also doing more to actually hurt Leviathan than most of them had done so far. The scars littering Leviathan’s body so far had mostly been the result of luck and Armsmaster’s newly developed technology, but Yosei had already done just as much damage and more with her teeth and claws. 

It irked him somewhat, that this new cape had done more than all of them in the short time she had been on the battlefield. He disliked having to rely on another parahuman like this. There was once a time when he was all that was needed, a time where he could turn the tide of a battle with just a wave of his hand and the right application of his vast abilities, and it was grating that that role seemed to be falling to another this time. He would deal with it though if it meant finally putting one of these things in the ground.

Eidolon threw away a pyrokinetic Striker power and one that would give him stone skin, casting them both back into the void as he searched for powers that would fit the current situation. After a moment, he eventually settled on one that would allow him to grow incredible amounts of crystal from solid surfaces and another that would accelerate his speed based on his current momentum, which would pair well with the power he was currently using to fly.

If this was just a few years ago, he wouldn’t need that power. He would have just picked from the almost infinite number of flight or even teleportation powers available to him. He wouldn’t have to sift through his powers like some sort of card catalogue, looking for one that wasn’t completely useless to him. Even now he could feel his current power slipping through his grasp like melting ice, and he knew this would be its last battle.

Putting the frustration with his weakness behind him, Eidolon flew forward, taking the place of Legend as the man darted away from a burst of fire from the dragon, retaliation for hitting her with one of his lasers. Narrowing his eyes, Eidolon raised a hand, calling forth a towering wall of quartz as thick as the buildings that had one stood around them all. It manifested directly in their path and Leviathan, smart enough to know that it would take far too much time to break through the crystal, diverted his path. Yosei, of course, followed right behind him.

Eidolon trailed behind them, bringing a hand to his arm band, “They are approaching the target area. ETA, thirty seconds.”

“Understood “ Dragon's voice cracked through the speaker, and Eidolon refocused on the pair down below, watching as Yosei nipped at the Endbringer's heels. Unlike before, Leviathan wasn't trying to fight back. It was running, trying to get away from the persistent cape so that it could return to whatever task it had laid out before it.

Eidolon guided the pair along creating strategic walls in their path to keep them moving where he wanted them to. Lasers from Legend and a variety of other powers from the capes still on the battlefield hemmed them in, keeping them on the path as they approached the target area.

The place chosen for the final blow against Leviathan could have charitably been called a park. At least once upon a time. The trees had been completely flattened by repeated waves and whatever benches that had been scattered around the area were long gone. It was out in the open though, and on a steep enough slope that little water would gather on it.

As Leviathan and Yosei came upon the kill zone, a cape with a costume composed purely of  glittering forcefield floated down from above with the help of the scarfed girl. Narwhal raised her hands and created a plane of layered, sharpened forcefields directly in Leviathan's path at knee height. The Endbringer didn't have time to dodge and slammed into it, breaking through the fields at the cost of ripping his legs to shreds.

It stumbled and that was enough for Yosei to catch up to it. The cape tackled it to the ground once more, slamming it into the soaked dirt with her claws and clamping her jaws around its head. Leviathan squirmed but Yosei's other hand came down, keeping it still and just like that everything was in place.

“Yosei has Leviathan restrained.” Eidolon spoke into his armband, watching as the dragon kept the Endbringer tamped to the ground, “Bring in the limb.”

En route.

Yosei clearly had no intention of letting Leviathan go, even as walls of crystal and forcefields, and other barriers sprung up around them both. She was intent on holding Leviathan right where he was. Flames began to light up her jaws as she prepared to unleash them directly into his flesh, and Eidolon cursed, knowing that if she did that then the bomb would be fried the moment that they tried to get close enough to use it.

He searched through his powers, trying to find one that would stop the flames from burning everything around them, but before he could find one suitable, someone else took charge. 

Alexandria flew past him like a bullet, slamming through the barriers and impacting Yosei like a freight train and pushing the cape off of Leviathan. The dragon roared in anger that her glory had been taken from her, clawing at Alexandria as the woman took her further into the city and away from the fight, and Eidolon knew without being told that she would keep her occupied for as long as it took to finish this.

Now that Yosei was gone, Leviathan was free to stand and wreak havoc as he normally would. As the Endbringer got to his feet, all around him tensed. He scanned the area, seemingly taking them all in, before crouching down as water began to pour off his body. Eidolon recognized the beginnings of a water echo and held out a hand, preparing to create another wall around him, but he didn't have to bother.

Package has arrived. Clear the area.

The demon-maked cape suddenly flickered into view right behind Leviathan, popping into the space like he had always been there. The bomb that would hopefully end this all was blinking merrily on his chest, attached to a bandolier.

Leviathan reacted the instant he appeared  turning and swiping his tail through the cape who burst into ash. Reappearing behind Leviathan, the masked man brought a hand up to the bomb on his chest and pressed the tiny button on its surface. He did so just in time, as the moment it clicked, Leviathan was suddenly in front of him again and swiped his arm off with a single claw.

Blood sprayed in every direction as the masked man stumbled backwards, looking down at his missing arm with shock. Leviathan strode forward, its claws closing around the man's body but just as it did so, the bomb on his chest beeped.

Leviathan moved faster than Eidolon had ever seen it move before, blurring out of sight as it jumped away from the impending explosion, and yet even then it wasn't quite fast enough. 

The bomb erupted. A wave of distorted air burst from the device, freezing all it came into contact with exactly where it stood. Time itself ceased to exist in a tiny pocket of existence, forever trapping the masked man inside. 

Leviathan actually almost managed to escape. If it had been just a second later in acting, it would have been caught. As it stood, only the monster's left arm and leg had been caught, permanently trapped in the sands of time.

Eidolon didn't waste the opportunity. Though it wasn't what they had been hoping for, this was still a fair shot at the creature. He perused his available powers, letting go of even his flight in exchange for the most devastating and dangerous powers still left in his once endless arsenal. And then he threw every single one of them straight at that monster.

The capes around him had the same idea and soon enough, the area was filled to the brim with a bevy of powers, some esoteric, some not. Light, fire, even sound, everything and the kitchen sink was thrown at the monster responsible for such pain.

The assault lasted for what felt like minutes as everyone unloaded everything possible at the trapped Endbringer. Eventually though, it tapered off as capes either got tired or simply thought that the job was over with. Slowly but surely, the people present stopped firing, and as the smoke cleared, they were left with a sight to behold.

Endbringers were durable. That was an undeniable fact, one of the great truths of the world, if there were any to be had. And yet it seemed that even one of their kind couldn't stand up to the full might of over three dozen combined powers and the rage of humans who had nearly lost all hope.

Leviathan was a mess, there wasn't any other way to put it. Strips of crystalline flash hung in chunks from its ruined body, torn from it by the powers it had endured and exposing black, bone-like structures underneath. One of its legs was missing, laying some ways away with the strangely clean cut dripping blood into the grass around it. Its face had been utterly destroyed and all four of its eyes were gone as well, stripped from it just as the rest of its skin. 

It was almost vindicating, seeing the monster like this, wounded and on its last legs, but that vindication took a back seat to wonder at the sight of the strange, glowing mass that had been revealed just below its abdomen. It didn't look like the rest of the creature's skin or even bones and it pulsed with a strange purple light that was almost mesmerizing.

All at once, every single armband on the battlefield rang loudly as a priority message came through in the form of the frantic voice of a teenage girl, “Hit that thing! That's it's core! Hit it with everything you have and it's all over!”

The words ignited the remnants of hope in everyone present, and the barrage began once more this time aimed directly at the pulsing mass in the lower part of its body. 

Despite their earlier success however, none of their attacks seemed to have any effect on the core. Even Eidolon’s more esoteric abilities did nothing to crack its crystalline surface.

Despite their lack of success, Leviathan seemed almost panicked as it realized what they were trying to do. It began thrashing in place. Water poured off its body as it tried to free itself from the pocket of stopped time by ripping off its own trapped limbs. It couldn't seem to manage it though, its strength not quite enough to overcome its own durability.

Tidal wave incoming, Eidolon’s armband spoke. Alexandria must have distracted Yosei enough for whatever hold she had on the ocean to slip, or maybe she was no longer with them. Either way, nobody present even considered the idea of stopping. Instead, those still capable doubled their efforts  putting in a hundred and ten percent in hopes that something would manage to actually pierce that thing.

It was the most innocuous thing that finally did it. The final nail in the coffin for Leviathan's story wasn't one of Legend's lasers or Myrdin's burning rays, no. Instead, it was a single arrow, pulsing with a purple light similar in shade to the core they were all trying to crack. It flew through the air, slipping through all of the attacks like they weren't even there on the path to its objective and then… It flew through that too.

The moment that the core was pierced, Leviathan went completely limp. Like a puppet that had its strings cut, whatever was animating it ceased to be and it simply slumped to the ground, only held aloft by the limbs stuck in that pocket of stopped time.

The battlefield was completely silent. Eidolon could hear his blood ringing in his ears and the steady thumping of his heart in his chest as they all stared at the monster that had seemingly been defeated, waiting for it to get back up like it always did.

But this time it didn't. And as the reality began to set in that they might have finally done it, the proclamation of their victory was signed by Dragon's voice over the comms.

Tidal and weather patterns are returning to normal. Leviathan's presence is no longer detected.

The woman's words were met with silence, and then the most rancorous cheering that Eidolon had ever heard in all of his years of being a cape. A wave of relief and jubilation spread across the battlefield as their enemy was declared dead, and even Eidolon himself felt the stirrings of happiness fill him at the beast's death.

He turned his gaze up as something caught his attention in the air, and a small smirk came to his face as Alexandria floated down from the sky, carrying a woman in a red and black costume on her shoulder. The Brute’s costume was scorched and torn and her cape was missing, but as usual, she seemed no worse for wear as she landed on the ground, gently setting who Eidolon assumed to be Yosei, down at her feet.

The slowly stirring cape was immediately crowded by a dozen other parahumans but the one in the red scarf reached her first, swooping down on her platform and stumbling to her knees beside Yosei, wrapping the woman in a tight hug just before the crowd converged on them.

Alexandria floated above the crowd, landing beside Eidolon who was standing a small distance away. She smelled like smoke and ozone and as she turned to him, he could spot a small frown on her face.

“We'll need to update her threat assessment.” She said in a slightly hoarse voice, rubbing her throat, “She nearly killed me.”

Eidolon's eyes widened under his mask, “What? How?”

“Burned all the oxygen out of the air. I couldn't catch a breath if I tried. I managed to get around it by flying away faster than she could follow, but for a second there, I actually thought I was going to die.” Alexandria chuckled wryly, brushing soot off of her gloves, “Guess she wasn't a mindless beast like we thought.”

Despite her words, the incident had clearly shaken her and Eidolon patted her back sympathetically. She accepted the gesture, turning to look at Leviathan's corpse. She stood there silently for a long moment, just taking it in.

“Do we know who did it?”

Eidolon pointed wordlessly at a nearby crowd of capes, this one even larger than the one surrounding Yosei. It was hard to see through the throng of people, but in the center, clearly overwhelmed by all of the attention, was a girl in purple wielding a crossbow, “It was her. Her power passed through him like he wasn't even there.”

“Flechette.” Alexandria said, watching the girl get swamped with congratulations, “I signed off on the order that got her sent to Brockton Bay in the first place. Never in my life did I think that she'd manage to do something like this.”

“I don't think any of us thought something like this would happen when we got here.” Eidolon commented idly, “The death of an Endbringer… something like that just didn't seem possible until a few minutes ago. They can really be beaten.”

“Let's not rest on our laurels just yet.” Alexandria admonished, “There's still two more of those things out there. And him.”

That sobered him up immediately, the reminder that the true enemy had not yet been defeated. She turned to him, gesturing at herself in askance and Eidolon inclined his head, reaching into his catalogue of powers for one that would be able to repair her extremely expensive costume.

Only when he did so, he froze. Alexandria noticed his pause and her face twisted in slight concern, “Are you alright?”

But he couldn't hear her. He was too busy taking in the incredible array of powers that he had at his disposal now, many that he thought he had lost years ago. It was like time had taken a step back, giving him access to strength he had thought lost forever, and as he picked one out, his power sang with a familiar tune.

He waved a glowing hand through the air, and golden light pulsed from his fingers, spreading throughout the battlefield and consuming the nearby capes in its glow. Those it reached had their wounds closed, their clothes repaired, and their energy restored as his power turned back the clock on the toll the battle had taken upon them. 

A moment later, he lowered his hand, staring at his gloves as the power he had chosen failed to slip away, instead sliding firmly back into the catalogue, waiting to be called on again.

The parahumans around them cheered, happy to be back to full strength, and Alexandria’s eyes dug into him from underneath a pristine helmet, “I thought you lost that power a long time ago.”

“I did.” Eidolon said, laughter in his voice as he embraced his returned strength, “I did…”

The battlefield ran wild with the jubilation of everyone present. An Endbringer, one of the greatest terrors the world had ever known, an enemy thought undefeatable, was dead. This day would go down in history as the day humanity regained a small sliver of the hope that had been stolen from them. Songs would be written and stories would be told. “Where were you on the day Leviathan died?” they would ask, and all would recall exactly where they were.

And two young women, brought together despite fate itself doing its best to tear them apart, would remember the safety of being in the arms of one they loved.

...

...

...

Honestly debated not killing Leviathan here, but it felt like that would be a nice little bow on top of the ending to this whole, messed up ordeal. Hope you all enjoyed! 'Till next time!