Steelheart

Before he can process Megan’s appearance, Nightwielder’s trademark shadowy tendrils strike at David, who dodges until he realizes that Nightwielder must be in sight to attack him. He discovers the Epic partway through the wall and chases him away with UV light. David reports over the comms that he saw Megan alive, but Tia reminds him that he likely just saw Firefight’s illusion of Megan. Meanwhile, Prof has emerged to combat Steelheart directly, tensors over his hands.

Abraham also reports that phase three—one of the Faithful shooting Steelheart—failed. David fights Nightwielder again, who turns out to be Firefight’s illusion; just in time, David spins away from the real Nightwielder’s attacks. Cody reports that the crossfire theory failed as well, to David’s disappointment. Suddenly, David remembers Megan’s missing mobile, wondering if Enforcement found her device and used it to monitor the Reckoners’ conversations. Megan appears again, expressionless, and David searches around the room for Firefight. Seemingly confused, she says, “‘I do know you. Something about…about knees.’ Her eyes narrowed at me. ‘I should kill you now’” (355). She walks toward him, and before she can recoil, he grabs her solid arm. Then, the corridor explodes.

David miscalculated his position, so Abraham didn’t realize that he detonated an explosive right next to him. Prof, in full combat mode, commands David to help him. Cody says he’ll come help David, who—thinking the comms compromised—reports that he’ll wait inside the fourth-floor restrooms. Instead, he waits outside for Nightwielder’s appearance. David then hears Megan’s voice and sees her trapped beneath the explosion’s rubble, but he ignores the illusion. Nightwielder materializes outside the restroom looking confused. David deliberates which Epic to attack: If Firefight is pretending he’s Megan, then shooting her would kill him; however, the injured Megan might be an illusion itself.

David aims his flashlight on Nightwielder and shoots, and the Epic dies. Behind him, Megan cocks her handgun at David, and the illusory injured Megan evaporates. She says that David did her a favor by killing Nightwielder, and David realizes that Megan has been Firefight all along and that she betrayed their plans to kill Conflux. Megan stares at his guns and recalls their conversation from the day they killed Fortuity. Suddenly, she says, “David. […] That’s your name. And I think you’re very aggravating” (362). David realizes that she’s only now remembering her past. He asks what side she’s on, as she has both betrayed and saved them numerous times. She runs away, and David heads toward the battlefield.

David unmutes his mobile to hear Prof screaming, “…find that idiot boy and shoot him for me, Cody!” (364). The others believed David dead until he speaks. He enters the battlefield and remarkably sees Prof fighting against Steelheart and Cody trapped behind rubble. David tells the others to take care with their mobile communications, and Tia makes new mobile channels to exclude Megan’s device. Cody gets badly wounded, with three shots to the leg and one to the torso. Abraham carries him toward Tia’s waiting copter while David covers him. Against Tia’s orders, David take’s his father’s gun and, once in firing range, unloads three shots toward Steelheart.

Each bullet bounces off Steelheart. The Epic turns around and, to David’s shock, recognizes him from the bank. Prof attacks Steelheart from behind, but to no avail. Steelheart punches Prof’s face so hard that David sees a discernable dent in his skull. David reports Prof’s death—and his own—telling the others to leave. David kneels next to Prof, feeling as he did 10 years prior when he knelt over his father. In the distance, David notices the sun rising for the first time in ten years—Nightwielder’s death ends the darkness. Remembering his father, David finally understands Steelheart’s weakness. He shoves the detonator pen into his father’s gun and points it at Steelheart. Steelheart easily crushes David’s hand, steals his gun, and aims it at him. David says, “You keep us in darkness. You show off your terrible powers. You kill, you allow the Epics to kill […] You want us to be afraid… […] …because you can only be hurt by someone who doesn’t fear you” (375). Steelheart fires the gun, detonating explosives below. He is killed by the only person who doesn’t fear him: himself.

The blast halts before it reaches David, and he looks over to see Prof with his hand forward. David realizes that Prof is an Epic, and the powers from his inventions are his own: He is a gifter, lending his powers to the other Reckoners. Prof is unreasonably angry and explains that using his powers makes him hateful, which is why he never liked using the tensors himself. David then understands why Megan couldn’t use the tensors—Prof can only gift to non-Epics—and why she appeared irrationally angry after using her powers. By spending time with the Reckoners and hiding her abilities, Megan detached from her powers: “The people she was meant to have infiltrated had instead turned her more human” (380). Prof examines the rubble and brings David Steelheart’s steel skull—likely the result of the Epic’s powers triggering upon his death.

Before the copter arrives for David and Prof, David runs inside the stadium to look for Megan. He finds her in a janitor’s closet and hears his own voice on her mobile. The recording plays David’s final words to Megan before she died. She quietly explains that she keeps an audio and video recording device in her skin which activates when she’s close to death. External caches store the files so that when Megan reincarnates, she can watch the videos and feel less disoriented. However, the footage of David confuses her, and she only recently realized that he carried her all that way out of affection. David tries to coax her toward the copter, but she refuses, insisting she needs more time to think. Prof calls David, demanding he board the copter, and he complies.

The Reckoners fly away from Soldier Field. Cody heals rapidly, thanks to Prof’s gifting. David dedicates himself to helping Newcago rebuild; he expects more Epics will investigate Steelheart’s death and try to take control of Newcago. However, he knows that they can defeat the Epics and, maybe, even rescue some. As he sits in the copter, David thinks, “I [realized] that I hadn’t been fighting for vengeance, and hadn’t been fighting for redemption. I hadn’t been fighting because of my father’s death. I fought because of his dreams” (384).