Disclaimer: Worm is the property of Wildbow, and I do not claim to own any of his ideas or characters. I do plan on writing something as awesome as Worm in the near future though =).

-Materia Blade's Copacetic has influenced this piece more than any other work. Although I am trying very hard not to create a Copacetic clone, it has affected the way I look at characters like the Heberts and Alternate!Annette Rose.

-Death Ray is an unashamed ripoff of Death Point from Brandon Sanderson's Steelheart. There is more than a passing resemblance between the Bookstore scene and the opening bank scene from Steelheart.

-Guardian's power is based heavily off of the "Coinshot" archetype from the Mistborn franchise, and Jonathan "Professor" Phaedrus from the Reckoners.

-I have lifted some cape powersets from Marion G. Harding's "Wearing the Cape" series, most notably the villains in the first Sogand interlude.

If you haven't read Brandon Sanderson's books or Wearing the Cape, I highly recommend 'em .

A special thanks to Wanton Construction for being an awesome beta from arc 2 and beyond.

We're so very small, in the end.

The first bullet hit me from behind, where my mask offered no coverage, and I slowly toppled. The second hit me before I could fall, before there could be any pain.

Darkness.

Cold...

My life flashed before my eyes. My mother's tender smile as I fumbled over her flute for the first time. Clinging to Emma, crying on her shoulder after the fatal car accident that claimed my mother's life.

Am I dead?

Emma, how she turned her back on me seemingly out of nowhere. The bullying, the cruelty, the anguish she had inflicted on me with Sophia and Madison. All those intimate, vulnerable moments shared with her, turned around and twisted like a knife in my stomach..

Taylor….

Shutting me in that locker, the awful, awful vomit inducing stench that caused my trigger event and landed me in the hospital.

"Please..."

Juice raining down on my head in the bathroom stall, soaking me from head to toe as teenage girls giggled maliciously. Painstakingly crafting my first costume. My first night out, the battle against Lung on the rooftop.

Meeting the Undersiders, people who I cherished above all else. Loved even. Dad. My anchors.

Drifting.

The bank robbery, the fundraiser, holding off Leviathan in the shelter, executing Coil - my first kill. Captured by Bonesaw. Lying helpless, unable to help Brian as he was splayed out and tortured by Bonesaw.

The cafeteria.

Dragon and Armsmaster revealing my identity to the world. All these images quickly flashed by in succession. My deep impression of shock and horror when I watched Behemoth flash fry Regent alive. Two years, training and planning with the Wards to stop Jack Slash, halt the apocalypse, only to fail at the end. The terrible, excruciating agony of being split in two by Scion, and having my arm cauterized by Lung not too long after.

Pain.

Huh?

Pain.

Burning.

Agony.

Blurring.

Focusing.

Bright lights.

I woke.

I bolted up frantically, throwing off a heavy object straped over my torso. My chest rattled with an intense, burning pain, and the monitors around me to begin beep furiously as I clawed at the tubes and needles sticking into my body.

*Thump. Thump.*

My heart rate skyrocketed as my eyes swept the room, searching for danger.

Deadly golden lights, the screams of dying men, Lab Rat, an insectoid body, Oil Rig, Gavel's last charge, ripped apart the crazed and maniacal laughter of Scion as he slaughtered us by the dozens.

"Taylor! You're awake!" .

Dad.

I was flabbergasted, I had walked into my final battle thinking just about everything I had ever cared for was dead or lying in a smoking crater, and left it knowing I could not ever be trusted again by the world at large. What I had done and was capable of warranted a kill order ten times over.

"Dad...w-where are we?" I croaked weakly as the initial surge of adrenaline faded.

I reached out to him with my arm and froze, seeing the prosthetic prop where my arm used to be. I couldn't feel the bugs around me - the cries and sensations of a billion lifeforms, silent for the first time in years, it was eerily quiet.

My powers were seemingly gone.

My entire body was wracked in a burning agony, and a splitting headache radiated out from the back of my head.

Sadly enough, I'd gotten through much worse.

"A woman brought you to me while the whole Scion incident was simmering down. You were covered head to toe in bandages. Taylor, I-I can't even begin to tell you how worried I was. Seeing you lying there, bleeding from the back of your head with half your arm missing..."

I reached over with my one good arm, and I could feel two indentations on the back of my head. The holes flared up with a dull pain as my fingers passed over the bandages.

Just when I'd thought Contessa's powers couldn't be any more ridiculous, she managed to up the ante by performing brain surgery on me with a fucking handgun.

"She told me that you were too instrumental in stopping Scion, that you made too many enemies in the last battle and made tough, terrible decisions, decisions that overloaded your powers. The woman told me that we needed to go to a new world to stay safe, that it would better if our world thought you were dead."

He paused for a second, a troubled look on his face, likely wondering if he would ever want to know exactly what had happened in the final battle against Scion

Could I look him in the eyes if he ever knew what truly happened that day? What I did… how I became Khepri?

"She told me it was important that we went to a world without a cape presence for the our own safety. Luckily enough, she knew about a portal to a world that fit the bill. They're also sympathetic to refugees here, since Scion did do a fair share of damage to the planet. Scion...h-he made one pass over the planet and wiped large chunks of their world off the map. They got off lightly compared to us though, they only had a death toll at around 500 million people."

500 million, what a world we lived in, where 500 million dead could be considered comparatively light.

"Anyway, she blended us in with other Earth Bet refugees and helped us register over at D.C. They gave us identification papers, a fake background in their systems, and a little bit of money to start us off. We're on a different world now Taylor. We have new identities, a fresh start, and more importantly we're in a world where you're not… you're not Skitter or Weaver, and never have to be."

He reached down into a bag and pulled out a New York State government ID and a US passport. The picture they used was the same as the one on my old Winslow High School ID, but my last name had been changed to Harris of all things.

Dad stared at the picture for a second, and promptly began tearing up. I couldn't do anything but gape at him in silence.

"It's finally over Taylor, you've done your part. This is Earth Samek, a world without superheroes and villains. We can move on, happily ever after. No more Weaver, no more Skitter, no more crazy psychos and city-destroying monsters."

He wrapped his arms around me in a hug, sobbing as I choked to breathe through his gangly but tight grip. He let me go after a moment, and gave me a moment to collect myself.

For the first time in two years, I smiled in was defeated, and I had earned my happy ending of sorts. I had a fresh start, a new identity, and I was on a quiet world with no Grade A superpowered psychos.

I took a deep breath and sighed in relief, glad that the nightmare was finally over.

-ooo-

"Well, it could've been much worse." I deadpanned

Dad and I stood outside the open door of my new apartment, travel bags in hand.

We had been on Earth Samek for about a year, and for the first couple of months we moved from DC to Boston and Philadelphia looking for work. Luckily enough, skilled labor was in large demand along the coastal cities that the companies didn't care if their applicants were natives or if they were refugees from Aleph or Bet. Sion's rampage had killed off a good chunk of the world's population, and millions had died along the eastern seaboard before he had left Samek.

I'd taken classes at a community college in between physical therapy sessions while we were moving, and filed an application to NYU's under the Golden Morning Refugee Program. A month ago, Dad finally landed a job at an IT firm in New Jersey, and before we knew it, we'd found ourselves driving to New York City. I helped dad get settled down at Jersey City yesterday, and now it was his turn to help me move in.

The apartment I rented out had definitely seen better days, but it was definitely in better shape than it had been when we first looked at it. It was a one bedroom located right above a grocery store in the Lower East Side, where the previous tenant had vanished and fallen off the grid entirely a few months ago. The landlord was in a hurry to rent it out below as quickly as he could, pricing it below the area's market price, but he hadn't had enough time to clean it out before we browsed it.

I reached out with my mind, feeling the faintest tug on my mind as I sensed the presence of a population of roaches in the walls and floors. In the months since I had woken up in the hospital, I felt a small portion of my power return to me. However, I had never ended up regaining more than a modicum of it back, just slightly elevated multitasking ability and the ability to sense bugs despite my best efforts.

Despite the dotted indents in the wall that looked suspiciously like bullet holes, it was still the best offer I found in the area. The wooden floor glowed with a sparkle of fresh polish, and the walls were smooth with the sheen of a new paint job.

"At least it has hot water and electricity" I said, setting my bags on the floor. "Plus school is only a fifteen minute walk away."

"You'll be living here until school starts next week Taylor, so you'd might as well make yourself comfortable" Dad replied.

After a while, we finished filling out the empty apartment with some basic furniture. It was fairly spartan, consisting of a couch and table for the living room and work desk for me to study at. I wouldn't have internet access for a few more days, but the laptop we had purchased for school did have wi-fi access, and I figured it would be a good time to explore the campus

Dad reached over, and gave me a tight hug.

"Stay safe, alright sweetie? Don't get into any trouble" he said before heading out the door.

Time to look around a little, I guess.

A few hours later I strode up second avenue, laptop in my backpack, walking stick secured in my prosthetic hand as I nibbled at a Matcha gelato cone. I had gotten it from a tea shop the block over, and I would definitely be visiting it again.

The cars around me blared their horns, stuck in a traffic jam, and the wonderful fragrance of grilled kebabs and gyro meat wafted in the hot summer air.

Manhattan was a nice place to live after all, despite the questionable state of my apartment.

I walked up the street, adjusting my prosthetic arm, and passed by a cluster of televisions turned to a talk show. I continued down the street for a moment until I heard something that made me snap around to gape at the screens.

"Helllooooooo lady and gentleman and welcome to Kirkland Live! This is Abby Kirkland, and we are here today with Professor Jonas Kunhardt of New York University's Langone Medical Center to discuss the rapid rise in what the tabloids have been calling "metahumans", people with superpowers!" the TVs echoed her exclamation, passing the mic to the middle aged Professor.

"Thank you Abby, as you know, Scion's attack on our world left us with a considerable death toll, rest their souls, not to mention trillions of dollars of infrastructural damage. His appearance was already quite surreal as it was. After all, it isn't every day that gold-skinned psychopath blazes out of a portal in the sky, bringing destruction and genocide upon our world."

"Something just as strange has been occurring over the past year , however. When news first came to our world about the multiverse and what could be found in our parallel worlds, we could scarcely believe it. It invoked countless questions in philosophy, the nature of free will, and quantum mechanics, but that's a story for another time. Could any us have believed in the existence of honest to god superheroes if we hadn't seen it for ourselves?"

"Whether it was due to the portals opening to other worlds or if it was due to Scion's passage through our world, we have discovered a plethora of new exotic matters and particles in research institutes across the world since then. It still remains to be seen if this will prove to be a blessing or a curse, but one thing cannot be denied."

He took a remote in hand and changed view of the screen in the backdrop, replacing the Kirkland show's logo with aerial footage depicting a battle between two costumed individuals in some sort of city street. There was a man with a devil mask clad in a red duster throwing red lightning at a man with a ski mask, poncho, and dark grey jeans as he ducked between tight alleyways.

"Although nothing like the spectacular powers we witnessed in the countless courageous individuals battling Scion, people in our world have been appearing in public with the ability to run as quickly as cars, shoot bolts of plasma out of their hands, turn invisible, and more. People have been turning into metahumans, beings with superpowers, 'capes' if you want to borrow the Earth Bet term. What's more, they are acting out the roles they have played in our media for decades. Supervillains and superheroes, can you believe it?"

Superpowers. Capes.

I stared at the screens in total shock and disbelief.