Chapter Text
The last thing Cole MacGrath remembered before he saved the world was how his fingers ached from gripping the RFI. The last thing Cole saw was Kuo, apologetic and afraid for what was to come. She had been scared, in the end, and sided with the Beast -- John -- who had been trying to save the world in his own way. It seemed perverse, somehow.
The Beast was trying to kill the many to save the few.
And Cole had to kill the few to save the many.
It was dilemma on who would inherit the earth: humanity or conduits. At least, that was how it appeared on the surface. That was the flaw in John's argument -- that humanity was inseparable from Conduits. All Conduits were humans, but not all humans were Conduits.
It wouldn't surprise him if Conduits started to pop up, long after the RFI's activation. But that shouldn't have been a thought. Cole should have been dead. The ache in his fingers returned, growing as he sought leverage beneath him.
He groaned, feeling the crackling power inside him awaken. It fizzled and fuzzed like a lightbulb struggling to turn on. Cole rolled onto his side, spitting blood. He blinked, seeing tendrils of electricity dance along the spat red.
Against all odds, Cole was alive.
Panic pushed against the inside of his chest, making it hard to breathe. Had he failed? Was Zeke dead? Was the rest of New Marais dead? Was the world destroyed?
After everything, all the crap he went through… was it all for naught?
Cole hissed, finally pushing himself up. His vision was darkened, shadows sinking all around him. It took him a moment to realize it was the downcast clouds that messed with his sight. He shook off the exhaustion, stumbling up a nearby crest.
Too dark to see.
He fell onto his knees, hands gripping the edge off the cliff. He blinked. The rolling dark was coming toward him, signifying that something was coming. A pulse of energy bloomed in his head, a power that he used as a crude radar to sense enemies among other things.
At this distance, he couldn't make out the exact, individual bio-electrical signatures. But he could feel something big, weighty, like the sun's light pushing through a thin layer of fog. It should have consoled him, but unlike the sun's warming rays, it merely unnerved him. Something big, something powerful was coming.
He shook off his weariness and fear that if he survived, then so to did the Beast. He turned around, stumbling to the other side of the crest. Cole looked around, suddenly aware that he was on a suspended tower of dirt and stone. Like the earth had punched up and froze half-way through the uppercut.
Vertigo struck, wobbling and teetering, as if his feet registered the shakiness of this platform. This shouldn't be a problem for him. He had been doing parkour and urban exploration for the longest of times, even before the Blast that gave him his powers. Why would he suddenly falter now?
Was he really that drained of energy?
Cole made his way to the opposite end and his heart lodged up in his throat, unable to breathe, unable to hear the beat of his heart.
All across the horizon, havoc and rampage had ran rampant. A destroyed city, buildings crumbling and fallen apart like wood wore down by termites. Collapsing, fragile, and liable to fall apart at the faintest breeze. It looked like Empire City after the Blast, but instead of waking up at Ground Zero, he was on the outside, looking in.
He failed.
Game over.
He fell to his knees, feeling the weight of his failures. His fingers grasped the muck, clawing through until it curled into fists. He started to rip the turf apart and hammering at it. Sparks crackled from his fists as he had mourn everything he had known once again. More electricity traced down his face in two parallel lines.
It was like waking up from the Blast: confused, disorientated, and utterly alone. His whole world had been uprooted. It seemed to be a recurring theme of his life: the Blast, Trish dying, finding out Kessler was him from a bad future, losing to the Beast… the revelation that he would have to die to save the world.
He had been alone, but never for long. Zeke came back, even after his betrayal, and things had gotten better. For a few passing moments, he scrambled to find the RFI and activate it once more -- just so he could cease and tell himself he did all he could.
Cole patted his pockets then his arms rummaged through the sling bag on his back. His hands wrapped around the Amp. A weapon designed by Zeke to help him. He let out a slow breath and drew the device.
It sprung to life, extending out like an old friend meeting him with a handshake. The Amp practically shone, clean and pristine. Care was inscribed into the very creation and the continued maintenance almost seemed like a promise, even now, even so far from home. He sent a small surge of power through it, watching a string of blue dance between the two prongs.
These were the moments that defined a person, what they did against the impossibility of overwhelming failure.
Cole couldn't just give up. He wouldn't give up.
He holstered the Amp and stepped to the edge. The drop was about a thousand stories high. Cole felt the rush of freefall, letting his current worries and problem slide off him like the air rushing at him. They fell beside him in the freefall, tangibly connected, but not directly related to the ongoing momentum.
Reorientating himself, he pressed his hands down and static electricity rumbled out, slowing his descent down considerably. The momentum started to fizzle out and Cole glided through the air, taking in the horrific sights. He almost wished he just jumped off and gathered energy for an explosive landing. But he couldn't risk it, not in this unknown environment.
For all he knew, it would break the natural tower at the base and crush someone.
So, he bore the sight of red skies, filled with ash and smoke. The ruined landscape where the earth was torn apart like the cracks on concrete. For now, his goal was to figure out what happened and worked from there.
If the Beast was defeated and this was the damage wrought before he croaked, then… maybe… maybe this would be… bearable to swallow.
Half a story away from the ground, he cut off the power from his palms and dropped the rest of the way. A shock ran through one of his legs, rattling inside the limb. He staggered, falling onto one side.
Cole clenched his fists. This just confirmed it. He was really out of it, considering that he survived way worse falls than this. He really needed to drain some energy to boost him back to snuff. As he looked around, Cole did not see anything he could absorb from. His powers were much more suited for an urban environment. The absence of electricity was making him weaker.
Place him in a nature-inclined area, even as ruined as this one, and he was especially weakened with him being drained as he was. He held his hands apart and let a lash of energy pass between them. The glow was bright, but not as bright as it could have been. As it stood, he had a limited quantity of energy. He was a battery three-quarters dry. And when he ran on empty, there was very little he could do.
Right now, finding a source of power was his secondary objective.
He set off walking.
Cole would figure out what his primary goal would be later.
XXX
Eventually the destruction wore away, revealing a beaten and battered path. An old road rested beneath his feet, almost unrecognizable. Cars hadn't driven down these roads for a long while.
Cars…
Now that was a lark. He hadn't been able to ride in one since he tended to cause the fuel to combust. But they tended to be a familiar sight. Without them, everything seemed barren, lifeless. Combine that with the supreme lack of electrical systems and his body feeling like utter garbage in response, Cole didn't exactly like the great outdoors. Yet, there he was in the thick of it.
He never felt more alone.
He walked with a slight limb, putting more weight on his unwounded leg. After nearly an hour of broken roads and shattered trees, he found a sign. Nearly illegible as it stood tall, the only thing standing in a forest of broken trees.
Salmon Bay.
Even if there was nobody there, he hoped the power was at least still be running, so he could spruce himself up.
The first step didn't get much farther before a gunshot nearly blow his brains out. Cole moved, throwing out his right and casting a circular screen of frost. The next few bullets pattered against the shield. It wasn't energy-extensive, considering it wasn't even part of his normal powerset and was transferred from Kuo.
With his actual powers, he drew most of his energy into his palm and collated it into a ball. He shaped its power, its effects, and waited. He would have only one of these shock grenades and maybe just enough juice for a few blasts.
"You bastard!" the shooter called out.
He continued to hold up the shield, facing toward the source of gunfire. Following half-instinct and half battle-born reflex, he found the enemy and lobbed the ball of energy. It struck true, evident by the sudden shout of panic and the explosive crackle seconds later.
Cole dismissed the ice shield and walked up to the shooter. The shock grenade had knocked him back and lashed him to the tree with ropes of electricity. He strained against, hissing all the while.
"I've been told that it hurts less if you don't struggle," Cole commented idly.
He stopped in front of the man, taking in his features. Looked like to be in his late 20s, with dark hair, and Native American features.
"You're a monster," the man spat.
"Actually, it's demon. The Demon of Empire City if you want to insult me correctly."
The man glared at Cole. Then he shook his head, whether from agitation or to clear his head, Cole couldn't tell. "No, it's the Beast."
Cole froze, taking a step forward and then back as his mind tried to process what just happened. Him? The Beast? Unreality tried to set in, but met the crazy, reality of his life. It almost seemed reminiscent of the moment when Kessler forced his memories onto Cole. That split-second of impossibility before he accepted the truth.
His stomach lurched before flashes of light pitched him across the forest. Cole tumbled and smacked his back into a stump. The flashing, rave lights formed into a dark pink-haired, punk woman in a green coat. Clearly a Conduit with light-based abilities. Joy.
"I got you, fucker!"
Cole rubbed his jaw. "So, you did."
She threw her hand out, shooting a beam of colorful purple light at him. Cole rolled out of the way and returned fire with a precise bolt of lightning. He didn't catch any scent from the light, before the smell of ozone filled the air.
He took a stab at a guess at her powers. Was she using neon? She dodged the bolt, transforming a bright, translucent figure. The Conduit moved so fast that he could only catch glimpses of her vague after-images, taunting him with his sluggishness.
Cole spun around, trying to keep track of her position. He stopped trying to catch up to her and instead aiming for where she was going to be. She circled around at him and he fired, but the Conduit was too fast.
She clocked him in the face with a fist of neon, causing the bolt to fire askew. He was bashed into a tree and he directed the momentum into a mad scramble. The Conduit's follow-up swing sent chips of wood and splashes of neon scattering on the floor.
Cole barely had enough time to put his fists up before the Conduit zipped up to him, delivering a furious barrage of purple-coated punches. Cole blocked best he could, but she was too fast. They were Conduits, equal in durability, but unequal on footing.
He swung an energized fist at her and in that time, she weaved under it and pummeled his back. The force caused him to fall to his knees, where she switched to kicking his ribs. Cole, in one swift and angry motion, drew the Amp and brained her hard.
She fell to the ground, but Conduits were tough. What would have been fatal to a human would have been merely painful to them. He quickly pinned her by the throat with the Amp, the two prongs touching the skin.
"Don't move or you'll fry," he said.
"Like you did with Eugene?" she shot back, shimmering with energy.
He sent a small pulse, causing her to flail in response. "I don't even know who that is."
Outrage shuddered through her, causing her very mass to vibrate half-way into neon. Cole dissuaded that with another charge of the Amp.
"Of course you wouldn't know their names," she gritted out, angry tears brimming in her eyes. "Not my friends, not my brother…"
"I don't know what you're talking about. I really, really don't. Okay? I don't know what's going on. I prefer diplomacy right now, because my self-restraint only goes so far." He paused, taking a ragged breath, and then called out, "That goes for both of you!"
The Conduit scowled and he could feel the intensity of the glare from the shooter.
"Fine!" the man eventually shouted.
Could he trust them? Honestly, Cole felt so… tired. Not just physically, but mentally. It seemed like a whole other lifetime, the years when he didn't have his powers. And once he did, there was that insurmountable mountain that was the Beast.
What would he have done, if he had won without dying? Maybe… maybe just hanging out with Zeke, with only having occasionally needing be the hero. Without that one big pressure, he could have handled all the other smaller pressures. Life would go on. Go back even further with these hypotheticals, he had to wonder… without the external threat of the Beast where would Cole MacGrath be?
Married to Trish, with two daughters…
And Kessler stole that possible future away, saddling him with the task of stopping the Beast.
Damnit. He couldn't think about that. Instead he had to ponder the insinuation of an internal threat of the Beast.
The Beast. Kessler traveling through time. The RFI activation…
The dots connected and the conclusion seemed insane, but there was little logic in his life, post-Blast. It was like that saying: life was stranger than fiction, because fiction needed to have some sort of logic. He looked at the two, knowing he need to confirm certain details.
He really preferred not to fight, because he doubted he had enough energy to be non-lethal. Cole sighed, pulling the Amp free from the ground and walked over to the ensnared man. He kept glancing back at the Conduit, making sure she didn't stab him in the back.
Cole drained the bonds, gaining a diminishing return from the expended energy. It was about a quarter of the power he used for the shock grenade. Cole stepped back, seeing the Conduit rub at her throat. He maneuvered himself to cover his back with a tree. He leaned against it, palms pressing against, ready to push himself away from any possible attack.
"Who are you two?" he asked.
The two shared a wary look. The Conduit was ready to move, but whether to fight or flee, Cole couldn't tell.
"Fetch," the Conduit relented. "Just Fetch."
Cole nodded, looking at the man. He looked like he chewed on something sour, but he still said, "Reggie. Reggie Rowe."
He said his last name like it would have meant something to Cole.
"I assume you both know of me?" Cole sounded unsure, trying best how to phrase the next sentence. "But not as Cole MacGrath, the Demon of Empire City or the Electric Man, or whatever dumb name people give me. No. You know me as Cole MacGrath, the Beast."
Another shared look, another conceded nod.
"What year is it?" he asked.
Reggie looked confused, while Fetch looked at him like he was an idiot.
"What year is it?" he repeated.
"2018," Fetch said.
Damn it. Damn it! Just another point in his current theory's favor. It had been 2011, when it all ended.
Cole ran a hand over his scalp. Despite the burgeoning gravity of the situation, he started feeling a little more steady. Even if these two were against him, at least he found the starting line for this long journey.
"What happened in New Marais? In 2011?"
"How would you not know?" Fetch challenged, pressing down as though it was a weak point.
"Humor me."
"There were sources about what happened in New Marais, the start of the Beast's… your rampage," Reggie explained slowly, as though each word pained him. Like he should have continued his suicidal attack on him.
"What about the RFI? It was suppose to destroy the plague."
Reggie let loose a bitter laugh. "A plague's not much of a problem when everyone who has it is dead."
"And I take it the Beast is still a problem."
"Yeah, I'm looking at him."
Cole sighed. Somehow, his counterpart here was either too cowardly or just plain callous enough to go through with John's plan. A course of action that had been unacceptable. After all, he himself had been empowered by the Blast. The cost of his powers had been the death of thousands. The Beast planned to repeat that heavy cost so far that the scales would have broken under the weight of lost lives.
And this… timeline's Cole continually rolled those odds.
"Look. This isn't what you think it is."
"And what would this be?" Fetch challenged.
Might as well rip the band-aid off, he thought.
He took a deep breath. "I'm actually a Cole MacGrath from a different timeline, one where I didn't go with the Beast… the first Beast's plan of activating Conduits. I went with activating the RFI, that's the Ray Filed Inhibitor, in an attempt to cure the plague at the cost of all the Conduits dying. And somehow I ended up here."
"That," Fetch started, "Is the stupidest thing I ever heard."
Cole shrugged. "Lady, my life took a turn for the crazy and the only reason why I even came to this conclusion is because I have some experience with time-travel."
"You." She raised an eyebrow. "Traveled through time before?"
"Well… not me me." He shook his head. "That's beside the point. If the plague's no longer the problem, then the Beast is. Clearly, he's still wrecking havoc."
"That's an understatement," Reggie muttered bitterly.
"Why? If the plague's gone --"
"He started a war," Reggie interrupted, incensed and stood taller than before. A rallying point for his anger. "Doesn't matter if some insane way he was justified, he started a war on humanity! Did he not expect us to retaliate? And the bombs dropped. We all lost."
Some of the fight left him and his shoulders drooped, but he tilted his chin up, looking directly at Cole. "But they lost less than us. A whole lot less."
There was a silence as each of them tried sifting through the revelations each had espoused.
"Do you believe me?" Cole finally asked.
"I don't know. I don't know what to think. You… the Beast, whoever… they give no quarter. Even to the Conduits. If they aren't with them, then they are against them. And the few Conduits that protect humanity are killed."
He glanced at Fetch and an unspoken sorrow passed between the two.
"Someone you knew went up against him and they lost." The words felt like an intrusion on holy ground, sullying it and trampling all over their feelings. But Cole needed more bearings on what just happened.
"My… my brother," Reggie admitted, quietly. "He had the best chance of defeating you… the Beast. He absorbed all the powers he could and he still lost."
Cole turned away. At the end, he managed to bring down the Beast. Not wholly defeat him, but managed to knock him down. In a prolonged fight, he might not have won. But it was clear that somehow this timeline's Cole had been empowered by the Beast. Power atop of power.
"Is the Beast the only thing standing in the way of rebuilding everything?" Cole asked.
"Yes!" Fetch exclaimed.
While Reggie shook his head sadly. "He is a big obstacle. But there are many factors at play. It wouldn't be as simple as taking him down and everything gets better."
"But you have to admit that everything would be better if he was dead!" Fetch continued.
Reggie pursed his lips, waited, and then gave a tight nod.
Cole sighed. "Then that's what I've got to do: kill the Beast."
"I don't trust you," Reggie said, stepping forward. "You have to have some sort of ulterior motive."
"Partly," he admitted. "I'm… I'm hoping, by the time the fight's over, that I siphoned a chunk of the Beast's power in the fight and use it to somehow head back to my time."
"So you sweep in and save us before promptly leaving us with the bill," Fetch said.
"I'm fully prepared to die trying. As far as I know, this might as well be a stay of execution. I activated the RFI. I should be dead. But what else is here for me here? How can I help reconstruct civilization? I might be able to help out with powering some stuff with my powers. And everything else? I was a bike courier and maybe I could deliver packages again. But with this mug? The mug of someone that helped destroy the world? Nuh-uh. I won't leave without trying to help, but don't expect me to stay here forever."
Reggie looked away, while Fetch stared. Finally, she said, "Fair. You know, if you're telling the truth and if you do defeat the Beast."
"Is he nearby?" he asked.
"Yeah," Reggie added. "He's been staging attacks on our community with his Conduits. We're on our last legs. All the Conduits except Fetch here are dead."
"So… we all don't have long then." Cole looked away, trying to think what to do. "I think I can keep the Beast's attention on me, give you guys a chance to flee if things turn to shit."
If I die, went unstated.
"A lot of the community are not able-bodied."
"I might be able to help with that. If you have any sources of electricity -- hell, even batteries will do, I could heal some of your guys. Don't know how much it would help, but it's better than nothing."
A tight nod from Reggie. It was a tight rope that Cole was balancing on. Even now, with such precarious plans made, they didn't trust him. But what else could they do? To them, if he was really the Beast, then trying to kill him would get themselves killed. And if Cole was telling the truth, they just lost an ally that stood a chance against the Beast. They still waited for the knife in the back. It didn't matter -- Cole was used to it.
There was nothing more to be said and they started making their way back to the community. It must have been a surreal experience for the two of them and doubtlessly still thought it a ploy of sorts. Even though they were outmatched by the Beast, who wouldn't do anything so elaborate when his MO had been overwhelming force.
Fetch was behind him, ostensibly to blast him to bits if he stepped out of line. Reggie led the way, always looking over his shoulder, at Cole. He wondered if Reggie was merely fearless with his trust in Fetch or wanted to be vindicated with Cole betraying them.
What a world this was.
He looked up into the sky. The dark clouds had spread, trailing behind them slowly.
"Are the clouds the work of a Conduit?" he asked.
Reggie turned around again, scrutinizing Cole's face, before he nodded. "Yeah. The clouds are used as, well, a conduit for other powers. I heard they use it soak up the radiation for a Conduit with the Beast, but I never seen that. What is undeniable is that they use as a delivering mechanism for their Blasts."
"All the more reason to hurry then."
XXX
When they finally arrived, Cole expected an outrage, rocks thrown at him, and everything but pitchforks and torches. What he got was looks of fear and resignation. The people here came from all walks of life and they all shared the same despair. Cole hung back, watching Reggie explaining what had happened. He was not vouching for Cole, but merely explaining the circumstances. A proper decision had not been made.
There was one Asian woman who hung back near a ruined wall, folding a piece of paper over and over into a pointy-looking slice. She looked at him dispassionately, yet utterly unafraid of him. She pocketed the piece of paper and immediately took out another piece, staring at Cole while she started folding again.
Fetch had walked off to a nearby shed, rummaging through a bunch of unlit neon lights. Picking up a 'Open' sign, she plugged in and started draining. Cole took a deep breath, feeling the electricity in him respond to what little energy was still here. Slowly the fatigue bled away and now he only felt mildly winded.
When he finally noticed the silence, everyone looked at him like he was a bomb about to go off.
Cole waited patiently, because making the first move might be too presumptuous.
The small crowd parted to let an older woman through. Reggie deferred to her with a respectful nod. Looking at the diminished population, it was clear she was only the leader only by virtue of age and continued survival. He heard someone mention her name, Betty. Which was good, because he doubted she would introduce herself to him.
"So, you claim to be a different Cole MacGrath," she said.
"That's right. Um, ma'am." He didn't want to overdo on the flattery, but didn't want to be insensitive.
"You know he could be a Conduit that has the powers to disguise himself for some weird ploy," Fetch said, her right hand shimmering with light. The purple sank into her skin and Fetch looked much healthier.
"That's more plausible than me being from a different timeline?" he asked.
Fetch took a moment to think and then replied, "Yeah."
Betty walked closer, expecting Cole with a wary look. She nodded with a grim conclusion, not pleased, but not dissuaded either. "I saw… the Beast, when he took Delsin away from us forever. He did not look as hale as you and the pallor on his skin… you look very much like him, but so different. I heard of your plan and I approve. But… it hurts looking at you. So, I would ask that you accept what we can give you and then leave."
Cole nodded. Uneasily the crowd shifted and a few people brought a bundle of proffered items. There were bags of batteries, car batteries, and even a few broken electronics still with a charge in them.
"This all we have," the woman said. They were only ceding because they feared reprisal.
Unbidden, he sensed the rest of the town's power. They had far more than what was offered. He could easily drain more. These were a beaten down people and Cole might need every edge he could get against the Beast.
But that was the wrong choice to take.
"Thank you."
They dropped the bags and other items on the ground. Cole outstretched a hand to it and pulled the power into himself. Slowly, lethargically, he started to fill up and ended up half-full.
It would have to do.
With one last look at the frightened people, he turned away and left to face off with the Beast.
XXX
Fetch was following him. That much he was sure of. He didn't know if she was following him to help out or to make sure Cole actually left.
It didn't matter much.
Cole was used to crossing the finishing line alone.
He walked down the road, entering into the dark and foreboding land. The clouds grew thick, rumbling with unseen energy. Unlike the lack of electricity in the woods, Cole feel the power up in the clouds. But instead of feeling negative from the lack of energy or positive from an overabundance, he merely felt neutral. Static.
Then he entered the ruins of Seattle, sensing a small gathering in the distance. A bald, scarred man with barbed wire wrapped around his arm guarded the road. He perked up, eager and ready for a fight.
"You came to the wrong place, pal."
"I doubt it," Cole replied.
The Conduit lashed out with a tendril of barbed wire. Cole blocked with his arm as it wrapped around it, tightening and digging into his flesh. He growled and wound more barbed wire onto his arm, getting a tight grip on it. He whipped out the wire, sending a current of electricity through it. It traveled along the metal, passing back into the man and frying him.
He tried groaning and crying out, but Cole kept the current running. The man shook from the attack, limbs spasming and curling. Cole stopped just short of killing the man. Steam rose from the Conduit's skin before he finally slumped forward down to the ground.
Cole walked past him, but not before restraining him to the ground with brands of electricity.
There was a small crowd surrounding a raised dais of concrete and ruin, where his counterpart stood. He was significantly paler than Cole, with gray skin, and a dark red shirt. Black and red energy laced through his body. He didn't look at Cole, instead staring up at the sky. The air thrummed with power, the moments of fear and dwindling seconds before a Blast. Cole spotted Kuo, standing with the Beast. Her blue hair was disheveled and her arms were covered in a layer of frost.
She stood with him, tired and exhausted, but committed to the Beast's course of action. This was a Kuo who went off the deep end, the point of no return. The rest of the Conduits began to notice Cole's presence.
And finally the Beast looked down, features twisting into distaste as he looked at Cole.
"Kessler?" he called out angrily.
"Hell no! But being Kessler would be better than being the Beast!"
The Beast leapt off and landed with a thunderous drop, sending shockwaves of dark-red electricity rippling across the ground. Unlike Cole, the Beast carried no Amp, instead just brimming with John's former power.
"So," Cole started. "You went with John's plan. What happened to him? You kill him, stole his power?"
"I sided with him. It was the only way!" Anger started to diminish slightly. "It wasn't my fault that he didn't have the heart to continue."
"Or the lack of a heart," Cole replied.
"At least it worked! But you…" He jabbed a wagging finger at him. "You activated the RFI, didn't you?"
"And how would you know?" Cole smothered his shock on how quickly the Beast came to the conclusion.
The Beast smiled, pulling out a clear-white shard the size of a large phone and presenting it to Cole. "Do you know what this it? Power."
"Ah…" Cole smiled fearlessly. "Your little plan backfired, didn't it? Didn't have enough power to go against the world."
"Yeah… I managed to save the US from the plague. But they won't let me save the rest of the world."
"No small wonder, huh? That they won't let you commit genocide."
Kuo glided down next to the Beast. "But it works! We had no idea if the RFI would even work!"
"I still did it."
"Did you even know it worked?" Kuo asked quietly. Then she turned to him with determined eyes. "How would you even know? You died!"
Cole had no answer to that. In truth, he really didn't know, but somethings had to be taken on faith.
"So… you're going to use that shard somehow to empower yourself? What is it? A Blast shard? Or a Blast core?"
The Beast smirked. "I don't know what it is. But it is power. It came from the sky and struck me. All of us can feel it, but none of us can take it. When it hit me, I thought I saw double, a delusion that I took a different path. But… I saw you, activating the RFI. And now you're here. Now, I know what this is for: to destroy you and take your power."
Cole didn't know what the shard was, but it seemed to be the answer to his travel problem. All he had to do was take that shard and do what the Beast was planning to do to him. The Beast looked around, raising a hand to the Conduit crowd. There it was -- same sort of pride and anger that made Cole fight the Beast one last time before he activated the RFI. One on one. Kuo didn't step away. Well, then… two on one.
"You're welcome to try," Cole said.
Cole channeled ice to his feet and had a pole of ice shoot beneath him, launching him at the two. He unsheathed the Amp, ready to strike at the Beast. Kuo raised her hands, ready to stop Cole cold. But a charging neon light slammed into her, tackling Kuo further into the ruins.
The Beast swung wide, red energies forming into a blade underneath his arm. The swing was casual, powerful. The blade met the Amp and nearly tilted Cole off his axis, but there was a second of contact. Zeke's design worked wonders, acting as a good enough buffer for Cole and allowed him to absorb up the blade. The Amp cracked hard into the Beast's forearm, bone breaking.
The Beast growled before drawing both arms back and thrusting them out. The shockwave blast was so much stronger than Cole's ever was. His body tried to mitigate the damage, two electrical natures going against one another. If they weren't so similar, every bone in his body would have broken and he'd be dead within seconds.
It didn't stop the blast from searing into his skin and launching him into a wall. Cole fell onto staggering knees as the Beast launched a stream of lightning at him.
Cole rolled out of the way, but the stream followed him. He circled around the Beast, firing bolts of blue electricity at him. They struck true, one, two, three, and forced him back a few steps.
But the Beast was barely fazed, flying toward him like a vulture on fiery, napalm wings. Cole's eyes widened. Nix's power? How different was the Beast was from Cole? The Beast slammed into him, further driving Cole into the wall.
A flurry of electrified and burning fists beat Cole, who found it increasingly difficult to hold onto the Amp. Cole started to slump against the wall, as the Beast grabbed him by the throat and uplifted him into the air with a single hand.
The Beast raised the white shard and Cole stared down the pointed end, seeing countless images splitting and colliding like a kaleidoscope. Thousands of realities crashing into one another, endless deaths of the Conduit named Cole MacGrath. They were the branches of a tree, reaching toward the sky. All of them insubstantial, nothing more than flitting thoughts and what-ifs. They were the branches that withered and died, falling apart from the tree, and rotting on the ground.
Yet, among all the decay, there were two lone branches left. Full of life, hearty and healthy with leaves, blossoming. But the two were not entwined, instead they were competing to reach the stars.
Without a doubt, this shard would cut him down and leave the Beast the only one left. The branch that would be a tree.
Everything that he was would be undone, reduced and rotted to feed the roots below. The Beast tried to stab the shard into Cole's chest. Aching fingers grabbed onto the Beast's wrist, trying to push the point away.
Each inch lost was just making Cole more and more winded. He needed a boost or he would perish. Cole met the Beast's dark eyes, the malice and eagerness in him. Not only the Beast relished in his power, he was more than willing to destroy any possibility of him being better.
Cole focused, prepared to use an ability he didn't like using, but there was little recourse. He freed one hand and pressed it against the Beast's face, pulling what laid beneath. The Beast screamed, trying to pull back, as Cole ripped the bioelectric energies from the Beast's nervous system. It fueled him like he just sapped an entire city's worth of energy.
Long after the point where it would have killed a normal human, the Beast still stood, suffering, before he delivered a shockwave blast to separate them. It was weaker than before. Manageable. The Beast stumbled back, covering his face and swatting at the air. He howled and the rest of the Conduits began to converge on Cole's position.
So, Cole did the only reasonable course of action.
He threw a tornado at them, burning through about a quarter of the energy gained. Everyone screamed as they were flung into the air. They swirled around in the air as if they were caught in a whirlpool.
The Beast roared, finding purchase where so many did not. Red energies flooded from his hands, anchoring him place as the tornado raged behind, casting blue lightning onto the people caught in the vortex. The Beast flew higher and higher, alongside the growing tornado. The clouds above fed into it, fueling his vortex far longer than normal and keeping it anchored in place.
Cole launched himself at the Beast with another ice jump. He started to fly, the static thrusting beneath his palms, and thundered toward his counterpart. They slammed into one another, grappling for dominance as they rose higher and higher into the eye of the storm.
"You can't ever win!" the Beast hollered. "You never had the guts to use the power we were given! I can see it now! Too cowardly to take what is rightfully ours! But not me! I will tear out your soul and feast!"
The Beast raised his arms and Cole shot through the air, flying to avoid the oncoming attack. He expected it to come from above, but the earth shuddered as pillars of magma shot from the earth. Cole's eyes widened as the Beast drew power from the very core of the earth.
Cole rocketed from left to right, dodging the flames. The Beast fired off unwieldy rockets of napalm at him. They were far from precise, but utterly overwhelming in their numbers. It served their purpose, cutting off Cole's options. His flight turned turbulent and his concentration on his thrusters wavered, sending him off into a tailspin. The trajectory led right into a column of lava.
Taking the last of the Beast's energy, an icy explosion bloomed from Cole. It couldn't freeze all of it, but the output of power was more than enough to overwhelm the surface. A thin ice wall formed and the outline of a plan formed. He needed to be smart, because the Beast could afford not to be. He pushed off it, speeding back toward the Beast, following his instincts.
He unsheathed his Amp in his charge while the Beast pulled out the shard, supercharging it with red energies. The Beast pulled back, redness spilling off the shard like a river against a boulder.
Cole enhanced the Amp, channeling two bladed tips along the prongs, flying ever so closer to the enemy. Six feet away and Cole was just on the stroke of no return. No backing out now. He threw out his left hand, letting loose an electrical tether that latched onto the shard.
He tore it from the Beast's grasp, outrage writ upon his face.
"No!" the Beast screamed.
He swung the budding blade of red at Cole, who only had enough time to snatch the shard and could not commit to a proper, two-handed swing. Instead he tanked the blow, letting it sear his insides. But he managed to skewer the Beast with the Amp. The blades of electricity made the opening volley, allowing for the two prongs to pierce the skin.
The Beast gasped and they began to plummet. Cole threw his weight onto the Amp as the fall passed in no time at all. He barely registered the impact to the ground. Just the feeling of shock rumbling underneath as he flopped to the side, exhausted beyond belief.
He turned his head to the side, seeing the Beast slain. The Amp lodged in his chest, sticking out like the sword in the stone. Cole blinked, unable how to comprehend how easy this was. But they were both Cole MacGrath, equal in skill, but not in power. And yet the Beast preferred the latter, while Cole was relegated to the former. It had proved a critical difference, in the end.
Cole got up, limping toward the Beast's corpse, and saw the shard stabbed into the abdomen. Someone shouted Cole's name and he turned, seeing Kuo in a headlock by Fetch. She screamed again, slow streaks streaming down her face. Fetch wrangled her back, her hands clasping Kuo's face, brimming with neon.
And then she evaporated Kuo into nothing but bright light.
Cole turned away, not wanting to see Kuo die for a second time, but it was too little, too late. His last memory of Kuo wouldn't be with the sorrowful regret in the end, but her dying defiant in the name of the Beast. He focused on the shard as it pulsated and absorbed something from the Beast. He reached down to reach it and it responded, reaching out with elongated fingers of white.
Fingertips almost touched and Cole received flashes of the Beast's life. Him being selfish with his powers, Trish dying and hating him, the grab for power by activating the Ray Sphere again… Oh, how their lives differed.
Without a doubt, if Cole grabbed the shard, the two of them would merge and the Beast's power would be his. But Cole did not want to share a headspace with that psycho. Still, power held enormous temptation. All it took was a single choice that took less than a second to make and a lifetime to undo.
Against all odds and everyone against him, Cole somehow managed to be a hero. And it didn’t make him impervious to these thoughts. His fingers strayed, lingered, and then something grabbed at his wrist, trying to drag him.
He hissed, pulling back his arm, but he was being reeled in like a fish caught by a fisherman. Cole grunted, trying to yank himself free. And then he made the mistake of looking at the shard. It had fed on the Beast, the clear-white twisted into red.
In his mind's eye, he saw a sickened version of himself with blacken veins on a deathly pallor, a road-map of disease writ upon skin. With pointed ears and red eyes, it was clear how much farther gone this Cole was. Their eyes met in this vision, his counterpart baring his teeth. Pointed, vampire-like teeth. The creature lunged at him. Despite it, debatably, being in his head, Cole knew that if they touched, something would happen.
Would he rip another him from space and time?
Whatever this shard's purpose was, it couldn't be good. He needed power, but not this power. He opened his eyes, seeing wispy, white tentacles wrapped around his forearm. He laced it with electricity, arcing it over to the shard and severing the connection.
Everything whiplashed out, shunting that vampiric him out of his mind and into the void. Cole shuddered as he lowered his arms, exhausted. Before he knew what he was doing, he kicked the shard out of the corpse, grabbing the Amp as he did, and then started to smash it against the shard.
He battered at it and after four swings, Cole realized that it had little effect. Holding the Amp to his side, he knelt down and stared at it. Whatever active power had, it was gone now, but it still laid dormant. There was a small charge left, barely enough for Cole to take. If he had accepted the merge, it would be less of a gamble.
But these thoughts were all smoke, no real fire to it.
He picked up the shard carefully, ready to chuck if it started acting up again. A tiny bit energy flooded into him and he got the strangest sense that a weak thread had formed, connecting him to a greater web.
Fetch appeared at this side in a streak of neon. "Well, damn. Looks like it all turned out fine."
Cole looked at her. "Surprised I was telling the truth?"
"A bit." She smiled brittlely. "I'm more surprised that you won. But it makes sense. Same powers, same person."
"I only won because I took enough to make things even." Cole pocketed the shard and grasped onto that fleeting sensation of the shard's charge. "Even then, if the battle went any longer, I would have been crushed."
He didn't elaborate how extremely lucky he was that the Beast wanted to skewer him with the shard, otherwise there wouldn't have been much of a fight in the first place.
"You leaving?"
"Gonna try." He tried shaping the charge inside him, following in Kessler's footsteps. But it wasn't one to one, as Cole had to veer away from actually traveling back in time. It was more like taking a step to the side. "Not much for me here."
"It's probably for the best."
"Yeah." Something clicked inside him, the right wires crossing. However, Cole would have only one shot at this, because it would fry the wiring, never to be used again. Probably the reason why Kessler didn't time-travel more than his initial jump to the past.
"Well… good luck I suppose."
Cole wished the jump would happen soon to escape this after-battle awkwardness.
And then he was gone in a flash of light.