Of Heroes And Villains: The Ties That Bind By Minikisa An assassin. A fallen hero. An unlikely meeting. The road to redemption is long and hard and filled with explosives.

Claws closed around Dawn’s ankle and she kicked at them, firing another energy blast as she beat her wings furiously to escape his grip, but the beast only smiled, showing off rows and rows of jagged teeth.

Blinding light illuminated the night sky, throwing the steep walls of the Asylum into sharp relief.

The beast howled, clawing at its eyes – but not before flinging Dawn away, his claws leaving deep gouge marks in her legs. She tried to spread and angle her wings to catch herself but she couldn’t tell what was up and what was down – and then she slammed into something warm which gently slowed her down.

Dawn blinked up at Captain Patriot. His face was a grim mask as he gazed down at the courtyard below.

Villains were crawling all over the enclosure, throwing off their power suppressors as dozens of heroes tried to stop them. Every time it looked like they were succeeding in subduing a prisoner, the beast charged in with a roar.

“Thanks,” she murmured and wiggled herself out of his embrace, beating her glowing wings.

“That thing needs to go down or we’ll get nowhere. Can you blind it again?”

Dawn blinked at his brusque tone, wondering where the Captain’s (questionable) charm had gone. She had heard that the Event had changed him, but the Captain rarely needed to team up, least of all with her, so she hadn’t had occasion to confirm. Just about the only one he’d been regularly seen with in recent months was her ex-boyfriend.

Ex-girlfriend.

Dawn, straight as an arrow, still had trouble wrapping her head around that one.

There was a rumor that Shade and Captain Patriot were dating now. She didn’t really know how to process that either. Dawn vividly remembered the dislike Shade used to hold for the iconic hero, but maybe that had just been an act to hide the attraction. Which made her wonder if Shade had ever been attracted to her at all. Dawn did not appreciate being used as a beard.

“Probably,“ she answered, trying to ignore the pain in her leg. “But I don’t think you getting a hit in is going to help. Damn thing is invulnerable.”

“Don’t need to hurt it. Just need to throw it over the cliff.”

She nodded, her palms shining with a pale glow. “All right. T minus ten. Close your eyes.”

Dawn spread her magnificent wings wide. Their prismatic sheen was almost completely dimmed – but she had one last attack in her. Then she rapidly accelerated, the wind a deafening roar in her ears.

Dazzling Dawn streaked across the dark sky like a comet and just as the beast turned to face her, she ignited a shockwave of blinding light, illuminating the night. Then she flared her wings, catching herself, and rapidly ascended to get out of reach of the monster, just as a red, white and blue blur shot past her to tackle it.

The beast caught Captain Patriot, not budging an inch. Its massive arms wrapped themselves around his neck in a chokehold as the Captain kicked and fought to free himself. Dawn’s eyes widened in horror, and she tried to summon the power for another energy blast, but the light in her palms simply sputtered out.

She twisted around, looking for someone, anyone who had the power to do something, but too many heroes were scattered on the ground, defeated, or were fighting the escaping villains.

And then the night sky lit up again in a purple flash.

The beast roared.

Blood spilled.

The Captain fell to his knees, clutching his throat as he regained his breath. The monster staggered back.

There was a gaping hole in its torso.

Far above The Asylum hovered a red-haired woman. Her cape fluttered in the wind.

It was still white.

But these days it was stained with red.


***


David wheezed, clutching his throat. The thing’s strength was absolutely monstrous. He’d never felt pain like this without first being stripped of his invulnerability.

The ground shook as the massive beast hit the ground.

David’s eyes widened when he saw that it was dead, dark blood seeping onto the pavement. The hole in its chest was burned at the edges, and carried the sickening stench of cooked meat. An energy blast. David craned his neck, looking for whoever had saved him; for one absurd second he thought it might have been Dazzling Dawn, but Dawn wasn’t supposed to have that kind of power.

She was hovering far above him, frozen, staring at something not far from her. David followed her gaze.

And time stood still.

Nobody had seen Amethyst Star since the Event. One of her former teammates had come forward with her civilian identity, yet when a taskforce of heroes had surrounded her home they had found it abandoned. While everyone else had been angry and disappointed, David had stared at the small, cramped apartment, something in his chest twisting at the thought of her having lived like that when she had, quite literally, saved the world.

But despite nobody having seen her in person for many months, there had been hints to her presence in the city.

The bodies of previously undefeated villains were hard to ignore after all.

David forced himself to get up, ignoring the protest of his aching body, crouching low. Then he pushed himself off the ground, flying high into the sky with a deafening boom as he hit the sound barrier in his ascent. He came to a halt in front of her.

Amethyst tilted her head at him, her arms crossed over her chest.

Her eyes, once green and vibrant, shone like stars, cold and distant. They looked just like they had on that horrible day.

“Amethyst,” he rasped, and somehow all his carefully prepared speeches were gone. He’d thought so long and hard about the things he wanted to say to her, things that might pull her from the abyss, but now they had all slipped out of his reach.

“Not my name.”

“Elaine, then.” Elaine Evans. David wished he had found out her real name under different circumstances. Nonetheless, he treasured knowing it.

She cocked her head at him and was silent for a long moment. Then she spoke, and her voice was almost gentle. “Not my name either. Anymore.”

David opened his mouth, but fuck, he didn’t even know what to call her, let alone what to say, and somehow his entire ambition of thinking he of all people could reach her felt foolish. She had that effect on him, stripping away all his carefully practiced Captain Patriot phrases until he stammered and faltered and sounded like an idiot. More so than usual, and not on purpose like the demeanor he’d adopted so long ago so people would stop thinking of him as his father.

But then she spoke. “Your hand.”

He blinked, glancing down at it. Was she threatening him, trying to remind him of what she was capable of? As if he didn’t know.

“I’m glad,” she said softly. “That it was healed. For what it’s worth, I am sorry for what I did that day. I was not thinking clearly.” A sad smile. “Too many powers. Too many voices. Not a recipe for mental clarity.”

David’s eyes widened, hope making him trip over his words. “It was nothing–“

“No. It was something. There are points of no return. Things that can never be undone, or made right. And that was one of them.” Her eyes shone brighter. “You wish to know what to call me, Captain? I am Event Horizon.”

She swept her arm, splaying her fingers. Purple light gathered in her palm.

“And while I can never atone, I will make the world a better place.”

The night glowed brightly as a hundred shooting stars streaked across the night sky and rained death from above.

When the blinding light was gone, so was Event Horizon.

And below them lay the burned bodies of dozens of escaping villains.