Fun fact: In InFamous there are in-game documents that place the year it's set in as 2011, which means that Second Son takes place in 2018. Because of that, I vowed to finish GM&I this year to celebrate.

I remember telling you that I was going to continue writing for the InFamous timeline, going into Alice's battles with Evil!Fetch, Evil!Eugene, and Celia, and then the aftermath of a world without Augustine, Delsin, Fetch, Eugene, and Celia. Seeing how long my chapters in this story tend to be, I decided to instead focus on the Beast timeline, the world where Cole is a villain.

For you fans of InFamous and InFamous 2, I hope you found my representation of Evil!Cole to be satisfactory and in character for how he would go about being the Beast along with the aftermath of InFamous 2's evil ending and the integration with the lore of Second Son. I hope you all enjoy this, and without further to do, on to the chapter!

The Good, the Mad, and the Infamous

The Beast

Seven years ago, I awoke to a world gone mad.

For ten years, I had called a cell in the Rutledge Mental Institute home, as my young mind attempted to overcome the intense guilt and sorrow following the house fire that took my family's lives. After fighting off the false guilt and finally rising from my comatose state, I found myself in a world only a few steps from becoming the twisted realm of Wonderland.

Of all the nations and people in the world, of course the US would be one to create superhumans.

The American government was waging a war with these "Conduits" while attempting to contain and cure a new disease, the "Plague". With the Plague incurable and the Conduits led by the most powerful of them, a man known as the "Beast", it was clear that the US was fighting a war they could not win. Unwilling to use nuclear weapons on their own soil and against a being that could apparently survive them, the United States turned to the international community for help.

The United Kingdom responded in the positive, and I watched from my new room at the Houndsditch Neurological Research Facility as British troops bound for American soil marched through the streets. The forces of NATO were called out, and resources from its member nations flowed to find a cure for the Plague before it could spread outside American borders. The "Empire Initiative" was hailed as the solution to what was the biggest threat humanity had ever faced.

Within a year, it had utterly failed to stop neither the Beast nor the Plague. With the betrayal of Brooke Augustine and the Department of Unified Protection to the Beast, the governments of America, Canada, and Mexico fell to the fledgling "Conduit Empire." While I was attempting and failing to come to terms with the deaths of my family, NATO withdrew its surviving forces from the North American continent before formally dissolving, its main backer gone.

The Plague had spread and infected cites in South America, Asia, and Europe. The East End had once again become a cesspool for the worst of London's citizens as the global economy fell into depression and rumors of the Plague spread faster than it did. It was during this time that I found out the truth behind the fire, the deaths of my parents and sister, and my "therapy". My most traitorous thoughts against humanity were spawned by the memory of Dr. Angus Bumby.

It was not one hour after the death of that revolting parasite that I was on the run from Scotland Yard. I was moments away from having a pair of handcuffs around my wrists when the world exploded and turned white.

When I came to, London was gone, utterly destroyed. Everything I had ever known and what little of it I cared for smoldered in the aftermath of a devastating attack. As Big Ben crumbled and collapsed in the distance, I watched as He hovered to the ground, orange lightning and ashes dancing around him.

The Demon of Empire City, the Beast of New Marais, the Ruler of the Conduit Empire. Cole MacGrath had come to London.

And I was a Conduit, one of the individuals who would rise as part of the "evolutionary leap forward", a human being with the potential to become a god. To become a monster.

At first, however, nothing about me seemed to have changed. It wasn't until Lucy Kuo, MacGrath's second-in-command, helped me to my feet that my powers activated for the first time, giving me a portion of hers. I saw into her mind, and I learned a horrible truth. While MacGrath was saving those with the Conduit gene from the Plague, he could have cured the Plague and saved the infected at New Marais. It would have killed off Conduits, but so many more people would be alive today.

Six years have passed. I was in no position to stop him after the London blast, and while my stockpile of abilities has grown, I'm nowhere near being powerful enough to challenge the Beast. Humanity is on the verge of extinction, while the Conduit Empire stretches over much of what was the First World. Quite a few Conduits and even some humans worship MacGrath as a god, hoping to gain his favor. Humanity can't be saved at this point, but the future and freedom of the Conduit race must be saved from the Beast.

I've heard rumors of a Conduit much like me, a Native American who can absorb the powers of other Conduits. If I can get to him, convince him of my cause, then we just might stand a chance of exposing Cole MacGrath's duplicity and taking him down for good.

I wasn't able to save my parents and Lizzie from Bumby; I couldn't protect London or Nanny when the Beast came; I won't even be able to save the remaining humans, but I will not let the Beast's atrocities go unpunished. The Conduit race will live free of his tyranny, or I will die trying to save it!

GM&I~~GM&I~~GM&I

When Rome had burned, Nero hadn't been playing a fiddle. It had been a harp. He couldn't help but wonder what the history books would say about him and the day that New Empire City burned.

A few months after New Marais, he had returned to the ruins of Empire City, several hundred Conduits following him. The eastern United States was gone, destroyed by first the Beast and then him. With Washington, D.C. gone, the domestic forces of the United States were broken. However, US forces abroad were coming home to combat him, NATO following right behind. The only thing capable of fighting nations was a nation. And so, there at the epicenter of the original Ray Sphere Blast, he, Cole MacGrath, the Demon of Empire City, the Beast of New Marais, declared the creation of the Conduit Empire.

From what little they had scavenged from Bertrand's operation in New Marais and from the remnants of Kessler's in Empire, they were able to recreate the original Ray Sphere, which would exponentially increase the rate of Conduit activation. Weaponizing the sphere against the invading NATO forces was the tactic that won them the North American continent, wiping out thousands of humans and activating potential Conduits in one blast, diminishing their enemies and increasing their own ranks. After all, it wasn't like the former soldiers could go back to their human counterparts. The horror stories that arose from such incidents were enough to convince the new recruits that his side was the best for them now.

As his blasts and the spheres' were identical, it kept the military guessing about where he truly was, allowing them to move about and utilize guerilla tactics with superpowers. The radiation generated from him using the Beast's powers and the blasts from the spheres also increased the rate at which the Plague spread, further creating chaos and diverting forces that would have fought against him. The Plague was simultaneously an ally and enemy; it divided the attention and efforts of his enemies, while threatening to kill off potential Conduits before he or a Ray Sphere could reach them.

By the end of the year, the North American continent was under the control of the Conduit Empire, with New Empire City as its capital. The American, Canadian, and Mexican populations had been converted into Conduits, safe from the Plague. It had spread however, infecting cities on other continents. Knowing that his job was far from over, he and his most trusted generals had planned their "conversions" accordingly, targeting cities and military bases of the most powerful nations left, knowing that they would be the first to respond to a Conduit attack outside North America.

When CD-Day had arrived, he had personally converted the city of London. All across the world, bigger and better Ray Spheres had gone off at the exact same time, killing millions of humans and activating thousands of Conduits. The enemies of the Conduit people had fallen in one surgical stroke, any effective resistance against them wiped out or converted. Over the next few years, humanity was converted into Conduits at the latter's leisure.

From all corners of the globe, from every race, creed, religion, and culture, the Conduits came, streaming to the last bastion of civilization. With its population, New Empire City had grown in grandeur and glory, becoming a modern wonder of the world, filled with the creations of his subjects. Rich with culture, New Empire City had become a new, reversed Babel, languages ringing out not with confusion, but with understanding, the people of the world coming to the city instead of fleeing from it. A new culture was emerging, centered around the destruction of the old world and the birth of a new one, strengthened with every new concept and facet instead of weakened. Seven billion human beings spread across the entire planet, replaced by one shining city of seven million Conduits.

As the strongest Conduit of them all, he had declared himself the absolute ruler of the Conduit Empire, the Beast. Those few voices that had risen against him had been silenced quickly and brutally, cementing his power. In the new order, it was how powerful a Conduit was that decided their station in life. Conduits with similar abilities banded together, forming organizations that ranged from guilds down to gangs, depending on how numerous each type was. He himself was the "Guildmaster" of the lightning, ice, and napalm Conduits.

His most powerful generals included Lucy Kuo, the ice Conduit who had been with him since the beginning and also his wife, bearing the title of Beast's Consort and the commander of the Vermaak 88; Brooke Augustine, whose defection with the newly-formed Department of Unified Protection had permanently crippled the US government's ability to fight Conduits; and Sasha, whose organic mind control agent made taking care of particularly troublesome and powerful individuals easy.

There was a cult in the city whose adherents worshipped him as a god, known as the "Church of the Beast". They knew his generals as the "Beast's Trinity". It competed with the other religions for followers and influence in New Empire. He didn't care whether they worshipped him or not; after all, he wielded godlike powers, why not let some see him as one? The only good fanatic was the one who would die for him, would do anything for him, and they already had.

Today was the tenth anniversary of the first Ray Sphere blast, the one to give him his powers and set him on his destiny. This was supposed to be a special occasion. Humanity had officially been wiped out, the Plague was now completely harmless, and he was at the height of his power. Nothing should have been able to disturb this day.

Instead, the city was in chaos. At noon, as the festivities for Empire Day were about to begin, every TV in the city had been hijacked, a familiar individual on the screens. It was Abigail Walker, one of Augustine's best and most powerful agents, dressed in the specialized DUP uniform that only the most loyal were allowed to wear. He could remember her speech as clearly as when it had broadcasted.

"Hello New Empire City!" she had begun with a smile. "My name is Abigail Walker, but my friends and enemies call me Fetch." She raised two fingers. "Two things you should know about me: One, I'm a Pisces. Two…." The camera panned out to show that she was standing on a building across from the massive statue of himself in MacGrath Square, formerly Archer Square. Her smile fell as she brought her other hand up, revealing that she was holding a detonator.

"I really hate Cole MacGrath," she finished, and then pressed the button. His statue exploded violently, the blast echoing across the city. Crafted of the strongest materials, it had been guaranteed to stand for ten thousand years. Now, the pieces flew across the sky, literally raining on his parade. It crashed to the ground, raising a cloud of dust right from the Square.

"You see," Walker had continued, "back before MacGrath took up the power and title of the Beast, he was actually working on stopping the original Beast. MacGrath and Kuo joined up with him when they learned that being a Conduit was the only way to survive the Plague and only he could make more Conduits. The thing is," she paused dramatically as more explosions rang out through the city, "that wasn't the only option. There was this device called the RFI, and it could have cured the Plague and wiped it out. But instead of using it to save billions of people, MacGrath destroyed it and then became the Beast."

Anger and rage, not all of it focused on him, had spread across her face.

"Yes, he saved us from the Plague, but at what cost? Seven billion innocents, slaughtered to save seven million, all because we had won the genetic lottery. My fellow Conduits, we have lost our friends, our families, and our communities to this monster, who has declared himself king over us. We can't save the human race, but we can make sure that this false god, this Beast of a man, faces justice for the horrors he committed in Old Empire, in New Marais, and across the world. Join us, my brothers and sisters, and fight!"

And with that, she had turned and sped off in a burst of neon. The camera had caught her opening fire on military Conduits before it had been knocked down.

For the past hour, war had engulfed the city. Members of this revolutionary group battled against his loyal soldiers and followers, while citizens took sides and further added to the chaos. The rebels had somehow got their hands on energy upgrades, which improved their powers to match his soldiers and agents, giving them a fighting chance. Between their guerilla tactics, their knowledge of his troops and their tactics, and the citizens that kept joining the rebellion, his palace would be overrun within the next half-hour.

With the telepathy that came along with being the Beast, MacGrath stretched out with his mind and looked over the city. He couldn't take control of someone, merely listen to their thoughts and communicate his if he so wished.

His generals were in the thick of combat, battling multiple opponents at once while commanding his armies. Kuo was the only one to be doing well, her Vermaak ice soldiers trained in combat before their conversion and mentally stabilized by John's last blast. Augustine was angry, well, angrier than she usually was. It was the DUP that used the energy upgrades and suits and somehow the rebels had stolen them and even hijacked those energy drones still under DUP control. Sasha was having the worst of it. The majority of her troops had been powerful dissidents, and her control over them had suddenly snapped as soon as the attacks had begun. With support from the rebels, the freed dissidents were penetrating deeper and deeper towards his palace.

Turning to the minds of the rebels, he was surprised to find how many there were. Apparently, they had figured out ways of blocking his mental scans to keep their organization safe. It had existed for some years now and counted figures within his own regime among their numbers.

He found Walker sniping off DUP troopers at a checkpoint gate, one at a time, finishing up with a massive singularity that brought the structure to the ground. She was grinning savagely as she fired off heat-seekers into the mass of soldiers that rushed forward to fend her and the other invaders off. She was truly powerful in her own right. Pity that she was going to have to die for her crimes against himself.

Another agent of Augustine's among the rebels was Eugene Sims. Right after New Marais, his mother had been a US senator who had contributed in the creation of the DUP. She had also been the first US official to die at Augustine's hands when she had defected to his side and brought the department under his control. Sims had turned every TV and computer monitor in the city into a weapon, spewing out demonic and angelic hard-light constructs to fight against those loyal to him while flying around as a gigantic angel, He-Who-Dwells.

After he fried Walker and Sims, he was going to have a very long talk with Augustine about those she trusted and let into the upper echelons of the DUP. A very long, electric talk.

Sensing alarm, panic, and surprise from some of his subordinates in the lower levels of the palace, he turned his attention to that area. A group of enemy insurgents had managed to breach the perimeter.

His servants, as powerful as some of them were, ran in fear from the terrorists, while his guards, most of them veterans of the Ascension War, stood their ground and fought back, laying down their lives for their savior and leader. He was going to teach his servants a lesson about loyalty.

As guardsman and terrorist alike fought and died in the halls, he could sense their final thoughts before their brains began cycling through the events of their lives. He was pleased that most of their last moments were spent thinking of him; his guards were relieved that they were escaping punishment for failing him, while his enemies were disappointed that their part in the…White Queen's plan was over before they could see it fulfilled?

Scowling, he began casting around for thoughts and knowledge of this "White Queen" and her plan. The best image he could find was of a TV screen image of a white queen chess piece, and none of the terrorists' minds knew of the entire plan, just their part in it. The names of their parts in the plan were known by chess and card terms and names. Frowning now, he got up from his throne and began crossing his court to the entrance.

That such a revolutionary movement had been able to hide within his society until now and reveal themselves on their terms was worrying. That their apparent leader was able to maintain such a level of secrecy and planning among the terrorists was very disturbing. Whoever this White Queen was, they had been able to earn the trust of the silent ingrates of his city and turn them into an effective revolution while remaining anonymous.

Part of this was his fault: As long as they feared him, he had been willing to let those who dissented against him in only thought to live in the city instead of sending them to Augustine's personal little kingdom in Curdun Cay Station on the other side of the former continental US. They evidently needed more than the threat of annihilation, they needed to see it firsthand.

After he killed this group that was rapidly approaching his courtroom, he was going to show the terrorists why so many venerated him as a living god. He was going to amplify the powers of those who remained loyal to him, use his own godlike abilities against them, and once the rebellion was quelled, he was going to tour the entire city and smite those who harbored dissent against him in their hearts and/or minds. Fear was the only true way to keep people in line, it didn't matter if they were humans or Conduits, and he was going to strike the same fear the humans had for him into the hearts of the populace.

Halfway across the room, he glanced at a mirror as he passed by it. If it wasn't for the orange glow in his eyes and his younger face, he could easily have passed for Kessler.

Seven years earlier, he had personally confronted the only rebel leader and dissenter to be a real threat to him. The young man was the only one in his entire African tribe to survive a ray sphere blast. His strength and skill in plasma manipulation had truly been magnificent; he would have been an asset to the science and powers research boards. If only he hadn't obliterated most of Cole's right arm and damaged his abdomen. There had been nothing left but ashes once Cole had finished him off.

When his scientists had unveiled his prosthetic arm (able to channel his powers like his old one) and cybernetics for his chest, he had instantly recognized them. They were identical to Kessler's in every way, and so, had begun adopting his look and traits over time, even going so far as to take up his speech pattern. He had hated Kessler so much, still hated him in fact, and yet he wore and used his style so well. As he was the Beast and had subjected the world to an apocalyptic event, he supposed that it was something of an "in-your-face" to Kessler's memory that he took up his looks. That, and it did make him look pretty damn intimidating.

The doors, made of the highest quality materials known to Conduitkind, exploded inward just then. The farthest blown shards came to rest against his feet as he stopped and waited. The terrorists came right in, ready to face him.

Until they actually saw him, that was.

They all froze up as they realized he was expecting them. Him, the Demon of Old Empire City, the Beast of New Marais, the Prime Conduit. Mothers told their children that if they weren't good, the Beast would come and get them. What Conduits had been to humans, he was to them; a being in a league of his own. And he was ready and waiting for them.

"You have broken into my home, killed my guards, and here you stand before me," he said in the same patronizing tone that Kessler had used. "And yet, you lack the spine necessary to attack me here and now. How disappointing." He could now see why Kessler had done that; it always wound up the receiving party.

As one, the group unleashed on him, hitting them with everything they had. Projectiles of every material and energy type raced towards him; Gamma rays, wood, water, ice, marble, bone, blood, glass, iron, copper, even electricity, and others, a deadly testament to the variety of Conduit abilities and powers.

When the barrage finally ended and the debris cleared, he stood there, smiling as he took down his Polarity Wall/Frost Shield. He and Kuo had found a second Transfer Device in the ruins of Tokyo, which they had used to give him a sample of her powers. Combined with his retrieved polarity wall, the frost shield just made it stronger.

"My turn," he said as horror dawned on their faces. Before they could run, he activated one of his most deadly powers: Ionic Drain.

Gathering power within his hands and chest, he reached out to the energy that fueled all living beings. Their backs arched and their skeletons blazed white as he leeched their life energy right out of them and into his own reserves of power, the very act empowering him beyond all feasible limits. If only Nix could see how he was using the power she had given him all those years ago.

He would have made sure that she wouldn't have been a nobody in his world.

He straightened back up as the drain ended, his attackers collapsing to the ground, dead. At the very back, just beyond the range he allowed the ionic drain to have (collateral damage was fun but messy after all), a single terrorist turned and tried to flee, morphing into a cloud of smoke particles. Rolling his eyes, Cole shot forward faster than any Conduit was capable of and grabbed his would-be assassin as he rematerialized, passing a strong current of electricity into his body.

The man screamed and twitched as the electricity flowed through him, making him convulse uncontrollably and causing his flesh to smoke before letting him go. The man collapsed to the ground, his healing factor trying to fix the damage Cole had just done. Flipping him onto his back, he recognized the man.

Henry "Hank" Daughtry, one of the heart-and-mind dissenters. He had been a criminal before his powers had activated, and as soon as Conduit society had been established, he gone right back to crime. He had gone underground about a year earlier, probably to escape the bounty put on his head and the threat of a prison sentence in Curdun Cay. Now, it was apparent that he had additional motive in going quiet.

"Daughtry, you disappoint me," Cole growled at the man as he regained consciousness. "Who is the White Queen? What was the point of this idiotic attack?" He would have just used his telepathy, but Daughtry was an intelligent man, with an iron will to boot.

"I-I ain't tellin' you nothin'," Daughtry spat, "you genocidal son of a bitch."

"That's not a respectful thing to say," Cole glared down at him as he wiped the sparking spittle from his face, "especially considering where you were when I found you: Cold, hungry, dying of the Plague in the filthy alley of some backwater in the South. I saved you, gave you power, and now you literally spit in my face."

"You killed my girlfriend and daughter," Daughtry snapped, "so you can just take your whole savior act and shove it up your ass!"

"Natural selection is hardly a kind process," Cole retorted, "as I'm about to demonstrate." Before Daughtry had a chance to plead for his life, Cole's hands were on him. He forced himself into Daughtry's mind, the electrical impulses between the neurons going into overdrive as he tore it to pieces and looked through them at his leisure, Daughtry screaming the whole while.

When he was done, he let go of Daughtry's smoking head, his dead body slumping to the ground. He had known a lot for only being in this organization for a year. This movement against him had been brewing in the shadows since the foundation of the Conduit Empire. It had only really gained steam in the past three years with the arrival of this White Queen and her "Ace". Nobody knew who they really were, yet they had been able to unite the disparate dissenting factions. They used chess and card decks to name operations and individuals (he remembered seeing this trend starting in the citizenry and had originally brushed it off as a new interest in the games; he was going to ban them after this). They had agents in every level of his government, society, and military. This attack had been meticulously planned, and it was basically a Hail Mary; all or nothing now.

Finally, he learned the whole point of the attack upon his person: Daughtry and his group's job had been to draw Cole out into the open and then retreat to the outside and continue fighting against his forces.

Draw him out?

His ears picked them up instead of his radar sense, two sets of very quiet footsteps right behind him. He shot around to behold two individuals creeping up on him.

They were both dressed in white form-fitting skinsuits, one male and one female. Their faces were covered by their suits' material, barring their identities. Their suits were featureless, other for the woman's leg holster which held a huge kitchen knife, while the male had a chain wrapped around his wrist and the symbols from a deck of cards on his chest. He couldn't read their minds or sense their bioelectricity, likely a property of the suits. Their part in the plan must be to assassinate him.

Well, they had gone through so much trouble to draw him out. Might as well give them what they wanted.

Cole brought his hands up and fired off two bolts of electricity at his would-be assassins. Just before the lightning struck, both assassins disintegrated, the male into a cloud of smoke particles like Daughtry while the female turned into…a swarm of blue butterflies? Both clouds shot to his sides, utterly avoiding his lightning. Just as he turned off the attack and turned to deal with them, both rematerialized at his sides. The material on their hands slid back as they each grabbed a hand.

Almost instantly he felt power flowing from his arms and into the two attackers. He was familiar with the sensation of giving power to his subordinates, just as John had done for him in New Marais. This was entirely different; these two were actually taking power from him without his permission! He tried to rip his hands away from them, but they had a grip like titanium. Struggle as he might, he couldn't stop the world was blurring together into a mess of colors.

In New Marais, John's mental voice had been just loud enough in his head to sound like they were having a conversation. In Old Empire, Sasha had been far more invasive, his brain feeling like she was drilling into it with a huge, dirty screw whenever she spoke to him and gave him hallucinations. Whatever these two were doing, it was a far cry from either John or Sasha's telepathic abilities. In fact, it was just like Kessler's intrusions into his mind to show him memories of the original timeline, only this was a two-way street.

He could feel the assassins(?) in his head as he saw into theirs. The scatterings of their memories were two distinct sets of images mixed together. One which resembled graffiti art and symbolism, while the other consisted of two-dimensional images which moved around like an odd puppet show. The images were rushed and mixed together, making it hard to separate them and truly understand.

A photo with a bearded man, two women by his side, and a little girl whose eyes were almost too large for her face. Another photo with a man and a teenager wearing Native American vests, a smiling woman, and a little boy with a beanie.

A burning house overshadowed by a giant lizard. A burning longhouse with the Seattle Space Needle falling in the background.

Two large men in medical scrubs trying to hold a teenaged girl in a straitjacket down. A teenaged boy crying as he stood over the ruins of a burning house and a Ray Sphere crater.

A cat with mad eyes and a wide smile. A raven with outstretched wings and burning red eyes.

The same girl wielding a knife and facing some monstrous thing. The same boy wielding a chain and standing up to DUP agents.

The girl on a couch talking to a centaur with wire-rim glasses. The boy in cuffs talking to Augustine.

A toy rabbit whose head exploded in a geyser of blood and black goo. A man laying on a medical cot and coughing up blood.

A monstrous train spewing out armies of the goo creatures from its smokestack. A black figure with red eyes walking across the world, monsters rising in its wake.

The same centaur, the goo oozing from his eyes and down into his beard, his mouth full of fangs. The boy being allowed to hold the hands of the DUP agents and doing something to them.

Rows upon rows of dolls on hooks like a sick assembly line. Puppets rising from the bodies of the powerless and following the Beast.

A key with a strange symbol. A keycard with a DUP insignia.

The girl fighting the centaur and pushing him into the path of the train. The boy blowing a hole in a prison wall and running for his life.

The girl running from new enemies, only to turn into a white, red-eyed demon. The boy running from the DUP agents and facing Augustine in the ruins of Seattle.

The boy and the girl finally meeting and striking a pact together, to succeed or die trying in their endeavor, their images replaced by a white queen chess piece and the four aces from a card deck.

He could feel them in his mind too, looking at the various choices he had made since becoming a Conduit.

In Old Empire: Frying some of the people at Archer Square to claim the airdropped food. Opening fire on the guards at the Stampton Bridge to trigger a riot. Killing Brandon rather than telling him that his wife Lynnae was dead. Stealing blast shards from cops rather than helping them first. Forcing a civilian to close the tar valve. Letting a bomb go off at a police station rather than defusing it. Allowing cops to die to weaken the Reapers. Overcharging the tar kegs on the water towers rather than destroying them. Taking that girl's blast shards rather than helping her brother. Choosing the scary posters of himself. Leaving looters to hang by their feet. Shooting the gas tank to blow off the golem's arm and killing the injured bystanders. Killing a man and taking all his blast shards when he offered just one in payment for protection. Choosing to save Trish instead of the doctors and losing her anyway. Taking shards instead of helping their injured owner. Activating the Ray Sphere a second time instead of just destroying it. And finally, Kessler's revelation to him.

And in New Marais: Overcharging the bridge and killing civilians along with the Militia. Killing that mouthy Militia soldier rather than handing him off to the cops. Ramming the streetcar full of explosives into the plantation instead of freeing cops. Tricking Laroche and the Rebels by impersonating the Militia. Helping Nix to imprint on Bertrand's monsters rather than exposing him as he was making the creatures. Killing the Blast Shard Bomber and his hostages. Siding with John White, the original Beast, instead of fulfilling Kessler's purpose for him and stopping both the Beast and the Plague with the RFI. And finally, killing Zeke and becoming the Beast.

After that, it was the decisions he made as the Beast: Recreating the Ray Spheres to create more Conduits and speed up the plan. Setting himself up as ruler of the Conduits. Killing human prisoners without the Conduit gene to conserve resources. Turning people into spies by telling them he had the cure to the Plague and he would give it to their sick relatives if they would do his bidding, and then screwing them over when they were done. Killing anyone who represented a threat to his powerbase within the Conduits. Killing Conduit children as they weren't fit for combat. Allowing people to worship him as a god. And ultimately, driving humanity to extinction.

With that, it all went dark.

Cole coughed as he regained consciousness. That was one of the most intense things he had experienced since John had transferred the powers of the Beast into him.

Pulling himself up, he realized that his attackers were up too. The female tore off her mask, revealing an oval face with large, green eyes and framed by raven hair. She was on her feet, leaning over on her knees and gasping for breath. As her male counterpart got up, she glanced over at Cole, her eyes going wide as she realized that he was up.

"He's waking up, go!" she yelled at her companion. Stumbling to his feet, he began running down the hall rather than using his smoke powers.

Grunting, Cole got to his feet and fired off a large hellfire rocket after the man's retreating form. Just before it struck him, the butterfly swarm flew between the projectile and the target, rematerializing into the woman with some kind of shield in front of her. Instead of detonating, the rocket reversed direction and flew right back at him. Before he could dodge or bring up a polarity wall, the rocket struck him, sending him flying right back into his court.

Pushing off from the ground, Cole used his momentum to right himself. He glared as the butterfly swarm came in through the destroyed doors and reformed, the woman now wielding her huge kitchen knife and glaring right back at him.

"You're the 'White Queen' that's behind all this, I presume?" he asked, Kessler's speech pattern all too easy for him to assume.

"Indeed I am, Cole MacGrath," she answered, giving her blade a few swings as she sized him up. "I've been planning this since the day I gained my powers."

"Since I gave you your powers," he corrected. These days, everyone called him all sorts of titles: "Beast", "Your Excellency", "Lord and Savior", "Emperor", "Prime Conduit", and his personal favorite, "Demon". Only Kuo called him "Cole" and only in private. This one had a lot of misplaced confidence in herself. "If you're so bold as to call me by my given name, what is yours, child?"

Her face turned absolutely murderous.

"My name," she growled out, "is Alice Pleasance Liddell. And I am not your child!"

And with that, she charged forward.

From the onset of the fight, Cole felt something that hadn't afflicted him in years: Fear, and the doubt that his powers wouldn't be enough. This girl was the most vicious and mobile opponent he had ever faced, avoiding his attacks with a grace beyond Olympic level, only to charge in and deal out massive attacks and damage to him whenever the opportunity presented itself. She was smart, she was fast, she was tough, and she was strong. Dangerous in every and all senses of the word.

He had all of the powers he had ever wielded and then some. His lightning and electromagnetism, napalm abilities from Nix, ice abilities from Kuo, all of it amped insanely high by the power of the Beast.

She dodged his bolt streams and scythe bolts by twisting to the side, dodging around as a swarm of butterflies, and at one point doing the Matrix dodge. The freeze and hellfire rockets he fired at her were returned thanks to the shield she utilized. She alternated between dodging and shielding herself when he fired his shatter and nightmare blasts at her. Ice, napalm, and cluster grenades thrown at her were batted right back to him. She maneuvered past his frost shield to strike at him. She actually laughed at the spikers he summoned, cutting into the bugs with a strange familiarity, like she was used to killing inhuman monsters.

What really shocked him was the strength of her attacks, which were on par with his own. Playing cards that cut into his skin before exploding. Ball-lightning rockets that sent bits and pieces of his surroundings to strike him. Acid grenades that melted through every material that they touched, taking a nice chunk out of his prosthetic. Smoke projectiles poured from her hands like a machine gun. A huge hobby horse made out of marble sent one of his teeth flying. Hurling sharpened scraps of metal at him like Alden used to. She tossed out grenades that spat fire everywhere. At one point, she got right in his face and blew a mask of ice over him. She showed up his spikers by summoning demonic monsters that used Conduit-like powers. And finally, she struck him with an intense beam of laser light.

Getting up from the beam, Cole finally broke his Kessler impersonation. Roaring, he activated his Gigawatt Blades and charged her, any sense of strategy or control breaking down into rage. She unsheathed her oversized kitchen knife as he came at her, neon energy glowing along its edge with black particles flitting around it. The melee was even more intense than their ranged attacks, orange electricity dancing with red and blue neon. His power was offset by her skill and speed with the blade, his wild slashes and stabs dealt with by well-timed parries, most of her own slashes and thrusts getting past his defense.

Finally, they were caught in a blade-lock, the energy of the weapons buzzing and throwing arcs everywhere, their eyes meeting each other, glowing orange against acid emerald, bared teeth against set lips.

"Who the hell do you think you are, you little bitch?!" he roared. "You think you can take me on, the Beast?!"

"Yes I do, MacGrath," she answered, baring her teeth in defiance. "Underneath all that power, underneath your supposed godhood, there's nothing but a selfish and scared little man." She smirked suddenly. "And I've found that those are easily disposed of."

Gritting his teeth in rage, Cole broke the blade-lock and threw her back, right into the middle of the court. His court was literally a courtroom, the ceiling giving way to the sky above, streaked with smoke and glowing orange from the carnage below. He had the opening above for exactly what he was about to do.

Gathering every reserve of power he had, he focused on the girl, his rage and power centered on this one insect that dared to fly in the face of the only god on Earth. He could feel the electrons in the air above vibrating with anticipation at being unleashed, itching to show the world just what they could do when properly exercised and concentrated.

Raising his arm, he channeled every ounce of the titanic power he wielded into this one ability, the ultimate expression of power, worshipped by ancient humans as the weapon of every major god figure in mythology and theology, now his and his alone to use as he saw fit. The sky darkened overhead, and in the one instant after he brought his arms down, crackling with electricity, he saw the realization in Liddell's eyes, and reveled in it.

With a crack that shook the entire city, the largest and brightest bolt of lightning that he had ever called down lanced from the sky and struck her. The sky and the courtroom were lit up as though by a second sun, the only thing Cole could see was a small form within the lightning itself. As he had with Kessler and in his first fight with the Beast, he kept pouring on the juice, longer and harder than he had for both of them combined. If losing their White Queen to this didn't scare off the rebels, the mere mention of his name or seeing his face would be enough for them to piss themselves and run.

Finally, the immense light and sound faded away, leaving a small, blackened form at the bottom of a new crater in his courtroom. If he had held the lightning any longer, the floor would have collapsed beneath them. The entire room was a mess from their battle, portraits burned, decorations smashed beyond repair, ice, paper and who knew how many other elements were strewn among the rubble of his courtroom. The only thing that wasn't damaged at all was his throne, which was both ironic and symbolic at the same time. They could destroy the surroundings and order that he had instilled, but they couldn't destroy his power.

Right then, a contingent of the Lightning Bolts, his personal guard, ran, flew, and teleported into the courtroom, their clothes torn and nursing severe (for a human) wounds. The commanding officer strode up and saluted him, quickly followed by his soldiers.

"My lord," he addressed him, "my deepest apologies for not dealing with this scum myself." He sneered down at the form in the crater. "The rebels outside were proving to be far more of a threat than we thought possible."

"And what of them now?" Cole asked, turning his eyes to the officer and his troops, smiling to himself when most of them flinched beneath his orange gaze.

The man smiled. "They're cracking, sir. Shall we go out and finish the job?" From the electricity that flowed around his fists, he was looking forward to it.

"No, I'll do it myself," Cole answered as he turned from the crater and walked towards the entrance, soldiers parting before him like the Red Sea. "There was another one, who ran off. Find him and kill him."

"Yes, your Excel-"

Before the man could finish, a scream from the depths of Hell erupted from the crater along with a blast of pure, raw force. It sent the guards flying throughout the courtroom and sent Cole into the hall. Getting up and turning around angrily, he was about to firebird strike back into the room when he saw what was floating out of the crater. His blood froze colder than his and Kuo's ice as it touched down.

Cole had seen plenty of freakish and messed-up things since the first blast: Sasha and her tendrilled tongue, the amped-up Conduit David, Bertrand's monster form and his forced Conduits, and of course, John White's Beast form. But they were nothing compared to this Angel of Death.

She stood at least a foot taller than himself, red eyes glowering at the world while blood fell like tears from them. The woman's skin had turned as bone-white as the dress she was wearing, blood oozing from her chest like a gunshot wound, while her arms were bathed in the red fluid. Her hair, alternating between a deathly black and a sickening green, blew wildly in a nonexistent wind. A pair of wings adorned her back, the feathers as pure white as the rest of her, dampened by the blood that flowed from where they connected to the wings. For first time in years, Cole felt true fear lance through him.

For an instant, they just stared at each other, two mortals approaching godhood. A lightning rocket suddenly hit the Death Angel's face, not even scratching her. With another shriek born of Hell, she turned and engaged his guards as they attacked her.

Cole could only watch as she slaughtered them. A paper card sliced into a female guard's neck before exploding and decapitating her. Acid burned through the armor and then flesh of another. Fire consumed a guard as another beside him was frozen and then shattered. A summoned monster bit the head off another. Not only were the guards' electric attacks not even hurting her, but hers were even stronger now, stronger than his. It was a bloodbath.

Fear finally overtaking him, Cole turned and ran away at superhuman speeds, leaving his guards to fight and die in his name. He made it to the first turn in the corridor, only for a smoke missile to greet him as he rounded the corner.

Picking himself up from the floor, he found himself looking up at the male assassin, the "Ace" apparently, as he approached him, smoke swirling around his hands and mask off. He looked familiar, but Cole couldn't remember where and when he had seen the Native American man in front of him.

"That," the Ace declared as he glared down at Cole, "was for my brother, you asshole."

Cole replied by throwing a large bolt of lightning at the Ace, aiming for his head. His new opponent simply raised his hand and caught it, the orange electricity turning to blue as he absorbed it.

"Sorry," he smirked, "I got that with your Beast powers. Here's something you don't have."

Two tentacles of water shot out from his hands and struck Cole before he could dodge, sending him howling down the hall on a veritable tsunami, agony coursing through his body as electricity arced and sparked into the water.

It was only through sheer strength of will that he summoned his ice abilities, freezing the water and taking away its ability to hurt him. He broke out of the ice with a combination of napalm and lightning, electricity actually arcing from his eyes as he glared furiously down the hall. This was the exact reason why he had hydrokinetic Conduits killed on the spot or given over to Sasha.

"Tell me," the Ace burst forward into a vaguely humanoid form of energized neon, flying down the hall and stopping just in front of him. "Are you angry because of the water, or that someone is finally standing up to you?"

Cole snarled and whipped the Amp from his back for the first time in years. The Ace's chain was unwrapped from his wrist, blue energy coursing through it before it transformed into a massive video sword. Both weapons intersected each other before breaking off and a new melee duel started.

A fusion of lightning, napalm, and ice swept along the Amp's prongs as Cole swung it, skill abandoned in exchange for strength and brutality. The Ace wasn't quite as strong as Cole, but he had enough skill to offset the Amp's attacks. When the Amp finally brushed aside the cumbersome video sword to finally score a hit, the Ace recovered by energizing his chain with neon instead, allowing for much faster maneuvering.

After that, the Ace kept changing his weapon up to throw Cole off. From a neon lightsaber to a glass hammer, to a smoke-infused chain, to a concrete mace and chain, to a paper sword. And those were just the abilities that he was able to channel into his chain.

As the Ace landed a hit right on Cole's jaw, he realized where he had seen him before. The first time had been on a DUP prisoner file; brought in for multiple charges of grand theft in partnership with Henry Daughtry, along with countless charges of misdemeanor vandalism. After that, it had been on video recordings of Augustine and her agents training the young man in Curdun Cay's extensive agency program. Finally, it had been on a report detailing his escape from Curdun Cay, his flight to the ruins of Seattle, and the subsequent battle with Augustine before his disappearance and apparent death.

"Delsin Rowe," Cole said as he spat out a mixture of saliva and blood (how long had it been since he last bled?). "I was so disappointed when I learned of your alleged death. You had such promise."

"As what?" Rowe snarled, "as another one of your stooges? As one particularly powerful toy for you to use and manipulate? Don't think so." He brought the paper sword up, water coating it and making it wave around like a tentacle.

"As my successor." At the look of surprise on Rowe's face, Cole continued. "You have the potential to become the most powerful Conduit in existence. What's more, I can see the drive and will in your eyes, focused and strong enough to do what needs to be done. Whatever you set your mind to, you have the strength to see it through to the end." He smiled at the young powerhouse. "Just like me."

Delsin studied him for a moment before his water curled the chain back around his wrist and disappeared. "This the part where you try to convince me to join you?"

Cole nodded and dropped Kessler's voice. "I don't know if you've ever let someone down. Got your ass kicked or straight up failed. But those are the moments that define us. They push you further than you ever thought possible and force you to make choices." He remembered a broken set of sunglasses laying in the ruins of St. Ignatius Cathedral. "No matter what the cost," he finished softly.

Delsin was silent for a moment. "So, I either join you, and take your place as the Beast when the time comes, or I continue fighting you, and possibly die."

Cole smiled. "Stand with the strong, or die with the weak. That simple."

Delsin brought up one hand to stroke his chin in thought. "Let me think about it." An instant later, the hand left his chin and fired a smoke missile right into Cole's face, again. "Hell no!"

Cole snarled. "You'll regret this, you little-"

He was abruptly caught off by the deluge of powerful missiles that shot from Delsin's hands. Smoke, neon, video, concrete, electricity, glass, wire, paper, and water projectiles struck the Beast faster than he could dodge, shield himself, or strike back. The hall around him was devastated from the blasts. As he was forced further down the hall, he could only watch as Rowe's attacks shredded the tapestries, paintings, and other art that depicted his rise to power.

His first stand against the Reapers. His battle with Sasha, painted by herself with her tar. His battles with Alden and his Dustmen. His final fight with Kessler. Achieving domination over old Empire. His first stand against the Beast. Facing off against the Militia, Bertrand's monsters, and the Vermaak 88. Joining the Beast and becoming his successor. Establishing New Empire City as the capital of the Conduit Empire. Crushing the US and NATO forces. Conquering the world. All of it destroyed by the power and hate of Rowe and his allies.

If he lost now, everything he had done would be wiped away and branded as the actions of a monster. History was written by the victors, and he had to win this. After all of the death, all of the pain, all of his sacrifices, he couldn't afford to become the villain.

Rowe finally stopped his bombardment because of the cloud of smoke that obscured the hallway, absorbing it all. Cole took the opportunity to summon an Ionic Vortex and hurled it at Rowe with all of his remaining strength.

The tornado, crackling with electricity, destroyed what little that Rowe had missed as it picked him up and sucked him in along with every piece of rubble from his rampage. It was strong enough to tear through the roof above them before it dissipated, dropping the debris to the ground. As the chunks of various building materials, art, and furniture rained down, Cole couldn't spot a body among any of it.

Cole ran forward towards the pile and studied it. When a surface scan revealed nothing, he sent a nightmare blast at it, sending the bits and pieces flying through the air. Still no sign of Rowe or his body. He turned and looked up at the new sky-light and the walls, still not seeing him. Where had the little punk gone?

He heard it too late, the sigh and hiss of hot particles coming together and forming into a whole, right behind him. He shot around too late.

Rowe raised his hands and a huge ball of concrete formed in front of him. He squeezed his hands together and the concrete was forced into the size of a beach ball without breaking down or melting. Cole remembered seeing something similar prior to the blast, some anime or cartoon that Zeke had liked to watch a couple of years before everything changed. His eyes widened as he remembered what happened next and brought up his polarity wall just in time.

An onslaught of concrete projectiles exploded off the ball and shot towards him, impacting off the electric/ice shield and practically vaporizing into dust. He could feel the power behind the impacts and actually wondered if something was going to finally penetrate his best defensive ability.

If he hadn't been so focused on the concrete ball of doom, he would have seen Rowe's next attack. Just as the ball ran out of concrete to throw at him and disappeared, a shadow appeared from above him. Cole had enough to time to look up into the most terrifying thing he had ever seen before it slammed into him.

A torrent of angelic beings, equipped with wings, armor, and the whole nine yards, fell from the sky and hit him in a kamikaze attack that kept on coming and coming. It was if the Heavens had finally had it with him and sent their armies to strike him down, something that some of the more religious Conduits who weren't in his Church wished would happen to him because of things he had done.

When the stream of heavenly avengers finally subsided, Cole was on the ground in a miniature crater, groaning as his healing factor began repairing his body. He hadn't felt this level pain since he became the Beast, since he had become powerful enough to either deflect or take damage as he saw fit.

"That was a beautiful sight." Rowe pranced into view, smirking down at him. "Sadly, those weren't real angels showing you God's displeasure for your sins of genocide and murder, but I'll take what I can get."

Cole grit his teeth as he got up. He was going to murder this little brat and scatter his entrails through the streets and hang his compatriots with his intestines.

He got to his feet and was about to resume fighting Rowe when the Angel of Death showed up. She flew in on her bloodstained wings and landed right besides Rowe, making him jump back.

"Holy shit!" Rowe yelped, his eyes wide. "Alice, that you?"

The winged being that towered over both of them suddenly vanished, shrinking down to reveal the young woman who had confronted him in his throne room and not the charred piece of flesh at the bottom of the crater.

"Of course it's me," she snapped, rolling her eyes. "Who else would it be?"

"I don't know, the actual Angel of Death come to punish Troll MacAssface for his sins?" Rowe snarked back. "You just missed me hit him with Hellfire Swarm. Oh man, I hope somebody got that on camera, it was so epic. And it was right after I hit him with Big Concrete Balls."

"And I'm sure it was," Alice answered, glaring at Cole. "But can you give me your play-by-play after we've subdued or killed him?"

"Oh, right, sorry." Delsin turned back to him and adopted his own glare. If he wasn't so mad, Cole would have told him that the girl was better at it.

"How about the good, old one-two?" Delsin continued. "You hit him with a powerful attack, and then I hit him, and then we keep doing it until he's down or dead?"

"That sounds marvelous." Liddell aimed her hand at him, a golden glow appearing in her palm, growing in size and intensity quickly. "Here's a little something I got from you, Mr. MacGrath."

Finally getting his third wind, Cole roared and charged at them, aiming to stop her before she hit him with whatever she had brewing. He hadn't moved a foot before the glow exploded from her hand, and his world exploded with it.

He came to a few minutes later, his entire body on fire. He was looking up at the gray sky above, the smoke swirling upwards just another shade against it. He hadn't been hit hard enough to turn the world gray and get him this close to death since New Marais.

Moving his head around, Cole could see that he was on the ground floor, just short of the main gate. All around him were the bodies of his elite Lightning Bolts along with the armies of his Trinity: Kuo's Vermaak, Augustine's DUP, and Sasha's Reapers, the best of all his forces. And they had been killed by the rabble standing around him, eyes wide and limbs trembling as they realized who he was.

Looking back up at his palace, built over the remains of Alden's tower from Old Empire, Cole could see the massive hole in the side, likely the point where he had involuntarily exited the structure. It was going to take forever to repair his palace.

As he struggled to get up, the Conduit rebels around him began to back away, fear penetrating their minds and neurons prompting their hearts to beat faster. He was going to kill all of these little, fearful, ungrateful peons and then he was going to slaughter Rowe and Liddell and parade their heads around New Empire while he personally hunted all who had stood against him or harbored dissenting thoughts.

In Old Empire and New Marais, he had been the Conduit walking among the humans. Here in New Empire, he was the Beast walking among the Conduits. Nothing had truly changed; he was a god among mortals. The strong take what they want, and the weak are their slaves, their playthings. And no one was stronger than him.

Apparently, he had let himself get soft, thinking that inaction against him was enough. After today, he was going to slaughter those who hated him, from the children who were good so he wouldn't come after them, all the way to anyone who actively plotted against him or had been caught up in the heat of the moment. Even if the members of his Church were the only civilian Conduits who were left alive, it would be worth it.

Cries suddenly broke, and they all scattered, looking up at the sky. Cole followed their gaze.

Shooting up from the gaping hole in his palace were three balls of smoke particles, arcing further and further into the sky. At their apex right above him, the balls came together and formed a man, who then began plummeting headfirst back towards the earth, igniting his fists.

Cole struggled to get up, his still-healing injuries bad enough to prevent him from using his powers. He wasn't going down like this. He was the Beast, a god among gods, the most powerful being on Earth! He had no equals!

Just before Rowe hit him, Cole looked up into his smirking face, and realized that that wasn't quite true anymore.

GM&I~~GM&I~~GM&I

Cole groaned as consciousness returned to him. Damn, that had been a pretty nasty dream. A revolution in New Empire and two Conduits with absorbing powers taking him down? He needed to lay off his bartender's special cocktail mixtures. Some of that stuff was enough to kill a human, and he needed only a moderate amount for it to affect him. Now, which of the Trinity had he gone to bed with?

A morning romp was always a great way to start off the day, especially if it was a foursome.

Cole frowned when he couldn't feel any warm bodies next to him, or any sheets for that matter. In fact, he felt cold metal, and he couldn't move.

Opening his eyes, he realized that he wasn't in his sumptuous chambers, surrounded by one or any of the Trinity, or any of the palace concubines. He was in some kind of pod; he would have called it a coffin if it wasn't made of metal with a glass porthole. Peering through it, he could see nothing but walls and more pods like his lining them. What was this?

He moved forward to rip the door off his pod and get out, figure out what was going on, only for his right arm to hinder him. Glancing at it, he froze.

His right arm was gone, the stump of it hooked up to some kind of machine. He tried to tear himself out, only to cry out at the burst of pain that shot through him. He banged on the porthole with his good arm to break out, but he only succeeded in hurting his hand. Drawing back, he finally registered something. He could feel power draining out of him, through his right arm, and into the device attached to it. The damn thing was draining his powers, using him like a battery! What the hell was going on?

Outside his pod, lights turned on and the pods opened. One by one, their occupants came out. Instead of walking, they floated out. He recognized most of them: Kuo, Augustine, Sasha, the High Priest of the Church of the Beast, his advisors, officers in the army, the captains of his small navy, and others, all of them powerful figures in his government and supporters.

Lucy saw him and floated right up to his pod, peering in and trying to talk to him. He could barely hear her reassurances as she tried to break open his pod. Whatever this thing was made of, it was incredibly strong and Conduit-proof. Not even her powers could break it open. He could see her mouthing the same thing he was wondering: What the hell is going on?

With a short burst of static, a set of speakers came on in his pod. From the reactions of the people outside, there was a PA system or something hooked up to the same source.

"Good morning," a very annoying and familiar male voice sounded out, "Beast, Unholy Trinity, and all the other scum of the Earth who joined up in the biggest genocide of all time. I hope you're all having a great flight on the Execution Express, courtesy of the White Queen, her loyal Ace, and all the people who lost their loved ones to you assholes!"

Oh shit, it hadn't been a dream.

"I think we can forget the code names now, Delsin," a feminine voice joined in. Liddell's. "Besides, this is a recording. It's not like you're going to hear their reactions."

"Ok, ok," Rowe replied. "Introductions then. I know who all of you are. My name is Delsin Rowe, yes Augustine, that Delsin. When I was just seventeen years old, I lived on the Akomish Native American Reservation, Salmon Bay, with my parents and brother. After destroying Seattle, one of your goons brought a Ray Sphere right into town." Anger was evident in his voice now. "My parents, my brother Reggie, Betty, and most of my tribe were wiped out in the blast. I'm proud to say that all the Akomish Conduits were involved in the uprising against you."

"As for myself," Liddell joined in, "my name is Alice Pleasance Liddell. Cole MacGrath, you came to London when I was nineteen years old. While you saved me from arrest by Scotland Yard and activated my powers, you killed my old Nanny and all of the orphans at the Houndsditch Neurological Research Center, even the Conduits." He could hear the controlled anger in her voice. "Lucy Kuo, you tried to help me up at London. From you, I got my first power and the truth. At New Marais, you and MacGrath had a choice: Join the Beast, or use the Ray Field Inhibitor to cure the Plague and kill the Beast. Yes, the latter choice would have killed off all Conduits, but it would have saved seven billion human beings. Seven billion people you callously murdered."

"I believed her when she told me about the RFI," Delsin joined in, "but seeing your actual betrayal of humanity, along with all the other shit you pulled at Old Empire and New Marais, damn man. You're the biggest monster this world has ever vomited up."

"Before this recording goes into the accounts from every Conduit you've wronged, which would be all of them," Alice continued, "let us explain your current situation. You are onboard the old International Space Station, which has miraculously stayed in orbit and which we have repurposed. It is now your collective tomb."

MacGrath could see the fear appear on Kuo and everyone else's face. He feel it racing though his veins.

"By the time you hear this, the ISS will be beyond the moon's orbit, far beyond rescue or survival, even for a Conduit or the Beast. It is currently powered by Cole MacGrath himself," Liddell mocked, "all of that tremendous power of his is keeping the thrusters firing, the life support systems on, and everything else running."

"Your problem," she added, "is that the navigational equipment and the controls have been completely removed, forcing the ISS to a single direction: Out. As long as Cole MacGrath is alive, the ISS will go further and further out into the abyss of deep space. And thanks to the modifications we made to his pod, he'll be alive for a long time."

Cole yelped as he was jabbed in several places around his body. Glancing around, he realized that IV needles had pierced his skin and entered his veins. Liquid traveled down them and into his bloodstream; nutrients to keep him alive without directly feeding him. He jumped as something clamped around his nethers. Looking down, he spied a device that resembled a diaper with two tubes sticking out of it. He recognized it; it was the suction equipment that astronauts used to urinate and defecate in zero gravity. This pod was designed to keep him contained and keep him alive for as long as Conduitly possible.

"There's only one way to stop yourselves from flying farther into space," Rowe explained, "and that's to press the button on the side of his pod, which should be lit up by now."

Kuo's face disappeared as she looked for it.

"Pressing that button will disconnect your false god from supplying power to the ISS and its thrusters. However, the remaining energy in the system will go into powering and detonating this one special device that we had in case the Beast won and he killed everyone who remotely disliked or disagreed with him. Think of it as a fusion of a Ray Field Inhibitor and a nuclear bomb."

Son of a…they called him a monster and they had a device like that prepped to go in case he won? What, if they couldn't have the Conduit Empire, then no one could? He could only snort. They were no better than he was.

"Oh, and one more thing," Alice cut in. "We've got power on the same magnitude as the Beast's now, but we aren't going to lord over Conduitkind as gods. Ever since your defeat, we've been working night and day to dismantle the Conduit Empire. You see, we can't save humanity now, if there are any left. Our goal this entire time has been to avenge humanity and to free the Conduit race from your brutal tyranny. I am proud to announce that on this day, the tenth anniversary of the beginning of the first Beast's rampage across the Eastern United States, the Conduit Republic has been established in the former New Empire City, now known as Republic City, and we are its protectors, not its rulers."

"By the way," Rowe chimed in, "we tore down every statue of you idiots, along with that huge-ass palace of his. Oh, and the Church of the Beast too." He snickered. "We're going to use the materials to make a new sewer, my idea."

Both he and Liddell laughed at that while Cole seethed. What was worse than being beaten by these punks was that they weren't even going to use his power right. They had won because they were stronger than him, not because they were right! Didn't they realize that that was all power was good for?

Rowe and Liddell stopped laughing abruptly.

"You have your choice," Liddell stated coldly. "Keep your god alive and drift through the void until you run out of oxygen or puncture a hole in the hull. Or, press the button, and bring a swift end."

"Live or die," Rowe added in a poor mimicry of Jigsaw's voice, "the choice is yours. Well," he switched back to normal, "die later or die now, but you get the idea. Ciao!"

As their recording stopped and a new voice began to tell who and what they had lost to the Beast, Cole could see the others through the porthole, arguing about what to do. He couldn't tell who was arguing for what. The worst part was that he wasn't making this decision himself; he couldn't press the button, couldn't yank his arm out of the device. This was up to them entirely.

Only Kuo didn't join in the argument. She just drifted in front of his pod, looking down (?) at her feet. When she looked back up at him, he nodded to her. This wasn't in their hands either. Her choice now.

He could see the look in her eye when she finally decided what to do, and he accepted it.

With the True Hero and Infamous endings, I mainly used Alice's powers from Madness Returns to come up with her Conduit abilities. Seeing as there would be far more Conduits for her to absorb powers off of, I decided to add more of her attacks from American McGee's Alice to her Conduit repertoire.

Here's a quick list of her abilities in the Beast timeline and which Wonderland powers and attacks they go with:

Lace: Umbrella Shield

Smoke: Pepper Grinder, Dodge, and Jump/Twirl

Paper: Playing Cards and Dodge

Acid: Teapot Cannon

Marble: Hobby Horse

Neon: Shrink sense drawings and platforms, and Neon energy for Vorpal Blade

Lightning: Croquet Mallet

Ice: Ice Wand

Jacks: Metal Manipulation

Organic (like Bertrand's): Demon Dice and Grasshopper Tea

Fire: Jack Bomb

Light: Jabberwock's Eyestaff and Looking-Eye Glass

Video: Giant Form

Napalm: Blunderbuss

Time (Pause, wouldn't work with MacGrath): Deadtime Watch

Karma Bomb: Hysteria

Whoo boy, that's a lot of powers. In case you're wondering why I didn't have Cole, Alice, or Delsin absorbing their elements to replenish their powers, they dimply didn't have to. At the beginning of InFamous 2, Cole doesn't need to replenish his electricity in his first fight with the Beast. Apparently, his powers were upgraded to the point that he didn't have to replenish them, allowing him to recharge like how Kessler was able to in their final fight. The powers of the Beast allowed Delsin and Alice to reach that point, along with allowing Delsin access to all his abilities at once.

Ok, I hope you all enjoyed this crazy fusion of American McGee's Alice and Alice: Madness Returns with the InFamous games. Maybe I'll go into the aftermaths of each of these stories with some 50 word prompts in the future. Until then, I've got WonderShock and The Lion and the Lamb to work on. Have a good one, everyone, and happy reading and writing!