(Every character depicted in the story below is a consenting legal adult over the age of 18)

A/N: Covenant gets stronger.

-x-X-x-

“What is it, Jason?”

At Crystal’s inquiry, Jason just sort of shrugs, still staring down at his phone.

“It’s uh… it’s a text from Alexandria asking to meet with her at ‘my earliest convenience’.”

A ripple of surprise goes through the room at that, but Vicky just nods.

“Makes sense given everything you’ve told us, I guess. She probably just wants to follow up with the man who now controls the Endbringers.”

Everyone else slowly nods in agreement… except for Lisa. Lisa is still staring at Jason’s phone with wide eyes and she pointedly shakes her head.

“That’s not quite it. She wants more than that from Jason. My powers are telling me she hopes… to seduce him.”

Now the shock is much more prevalent, jaws dropping open in disbelief and exclamations of surprise filling the room. Jason himself blinks dumbly and furrows his brow at the rather innocuous text message.

“Wait, seriously? You’re getting all of that from a text you haven’t even read?”

Lisa shrugs.

“You boosted my powers this morning, Jason. And you made it so I can read you. Though I might be able to get more if I read the text directly… or even if you let me text back on your behalf.”

He barely even has to think about it. Alexandria had seemed like a reasonable enough sort, but it was everyone in this room that Jason truly trusted. Lisa included. Without hesitation, he holds his phone out to the blonde.

“Go ahead.”

She flashes him a bright smile, likely picking up on his trust, before focusing on the screen. While she’s working, Taylor steps up beside him.

“It wouldn’t be the first Protectorate Heroine you’ve seduced.”

Her dry tone makes Jason wince.

“Caught that, did you?”

Taylor just smirks and nods, clearly not upset about it. If not for her powers, Jason would assume she was talking about Fletchette… but no, it’s rather obvious now that she’d been watching over him while he met with Miss Militia… and had therefore seen everything they’d done together.

He’s not mad about it, he knows she only spied to make sure Miss Militia didn’t try anything untoward. Still…

“The rest of you should know… I had sex with Miss Militia yesterday. It was a bit spur of the moment.”

Funnily enough, they’re less surprised about that then they are about him taking control of the Endbringers. He hasn’t become a man whore, has he? The thought makes him frown in consternation but before he can think about it too much longer, Lisa pipes up.

“Alright, I’ve got confirmation. Alexandria is definitely going to try to seduce you Jason and from the sound of things, she’s bringing a friend along to make it a threesome. Also you’re meeting them tomorrow morning.”

Jason wishes he could say he’s surprised by that last part, but he DID give Lisa permission to talk to Alexandria for him. Holding out his hand wordlessly, he takes back his phone from Lisa and checks the conversation. Fortunately, Lisa had kept it professional. In fact, he can’t see a single ounce of seduction anywhere in the texts. He’s supposed to meet Alexandria tomorrow out on the Rig for a private conversation.

He briefly wonders how Lisa got everything she got from this conversation, especially the part about it being a threesome, but ultimately, her power is bullshit and he made it even more bullshit. Simple as that. And hell…

“Alright then, that’s good. Gives me the rest of the day to parcel out an Endbringer apiece to each of you.”

There’s a pause as that idea washes over everyone again. And then…

“Dibs on the Simurgh.”

All eyes turn towards the owner of that voice. Said owner is not Lisa as one might expect… but Amelia. The mousy brunette flushes a bit at all the attention but stands her ground while Vicky raises an eyebrow.

“Wha- dibs? You can’t just call dibs, Ames! And not on the Simurgh of all things!”

“Just did.”

“B-But that’s not how it works! We should be more thoughtful about this. That much power… it should go where it does the most good.”

Suddenly, Lisa speaks up with a knowing smirk on her lips.

“Actually, I think the Simurgh is best suited to go with Amelia.”

The brunette biokinetic blushes harder as Vicky just throws her hands up in the air.

“Fine then! Dibs on Leviathan!”

As everyone looks at her, Vicky crosses her arms over her chest and sticks her nose up.

“What? I’ve always liked water and if we’re just calling dibs, then that’s what I want. Hell, what does Leviathan even look like at this point if this is what the Simurgh looks like now?”

She gesticulates wildly at the blonde angel standing among them before looking pointedly to Jason. Huffing, Jason conjures up an image of Leviathan’s new form.

“Mermaid-like, but with legs instead of a tail.”

Vicky steps closer and peers at the image for a moment.

“Huh… interesting.”

“What about Behemoth?”

Taylor’s question prompts another conjured image, this time of the new dragon woman-esque Endbringer, what with all of her sediment and rock scales coating her voluptuous form.

“… Huh. Interesting. Alright, dibs on Behemoth.”

And just like that, all three of the ‘active’ Endbringers are claimed. Admittedly, they’re not going to who Jason would have thought. Amelia with the Simurgh, Vicky with Leviathan, Taylor with Behemoth… but in the end, does it really matter if they bother maximizing efficiency? Jason doesn’t really think so. What matters is each woman having the power to protect themselves from anyone who might want to come after them in order to get at him.

Over the next few hours, Covenant gets to work. Between Chaos Magic and Flash Air, Jason is able to bring Leviathan and Behemoth over in the ‘flesh’ so to speak, even if neither of them actually has real flesh. And then he brings out some of the other Endbringers as well.

Binding an Endbringer to each member of Covenant is not… difficult necessarily, merely time consuming. It’s definitely not as simple as modifying Lisa’s power was, but it is a bit easier than taking control of all twenty Endbringers from Eidolon’s subconscious in the first place was.

Jason does go a step further than just connecting his allies to the Endbringers’ cores, however. He wants them to not only be able to control their Endbringers but also benefit from the association. So he makes sure to tie the immense regenerative abilities as well as the incredible durability of each Endbringer into each member of Covenant as well.

By the time he’s done, Jason can tell that they’re all feeling it. Power beyond anything they’ve ever had before. Lisa is the one who actually puts it into words though.

“Fuck… they were sandbagging weren’t they? All these years… all this time, they were holding back.”

Jason nods solemnly.

“Eidolon didn’t want the world to end… he just wanted a decent fight. Unfortunately, a decent fight for him was still a city-ending threat. His subconscious prompted the Endbringers to start attacking, but it also made them pull their punches.”

Taylor grits her teeth, hands curling into fists at her sides as she shakes a bit with anger.

“It was all just a game then? A game between Eidolon and the Endbringers. And the rest of the world was caught up in the middle.”

Wincing, Jason shakes his head.

“Eidolon didn’t know at least. I know that’s little comfort given how many millions of lives were lost to the Endbringers, but it wasn’t on purpose.”

Vicky huffs from off to the side, where she’s already playing a bit with her new toy, water from the nearby sink flowing out and swirling around her and Leviathan in interesting patterns.

“That honestly almost makes it worse. At least if it was malicious we would know who deserved to die for this shit. But while I wouldn’t say no to punching Eidolon in the face, we still can’t even really put all the blame on him. And we can’t out it publicly or else it risks destabilizing the fucking world.”

Crystal nods along with Vicky.

“Yeah, while I may not be as punch happy as Vicky, it would feel better if we had a proper enemy to face and defeat instead of it just all being… an accident or something.”

Jason stays quiet, letting them all vent for a moment while he holds his tongue. See, there’s another reason he was more than willing to let Lisa set up a meeting with Alexandria tomorrow aside from just that he trusted Lisa to have his back.

There’s also what he learned up there above the city when he and Alexandria were talking telepathically with one another. The entire reason Jason didn’t just destroy the Endbringers outright… because they weren’t the biggest threat around.

Lisa clearly hadn’t asked the right question of her power yet, or she would have been all over him already about this. But as things stand, Jason had to admit he was a little worried about potentially alerting the threat… by way of those who only had powers because of him.

And yet, he couldn’t very well just leave them in the dark, now could he? Hm… he’d already given Lisa control over the source of her powers and that had somehow summoned the Simurgh to Brockton Bay. So maybe if he stayed loose with it and stuck to just Lisa…

“Lisa.”

His tone causes the blonde to look at him curiously. He can practically see her asking her power a question, something along the lines of ‘why does Jason look so solemn?’ or something. And given the way her eyes widen a moment later, her powers tell her exactly what he’s thinking.

Lisa’s legs wobble and very nearly give out on her before her new Endbringer, who just so happens to take the form of a Nine-Tailed Kitsune, catches her deftly in her arms.

“H-Holy shit…”

All eyes turn towards them immediately, more specifically towards Lisa.

“Lisa? You okay?”

“Y-Yeah… well, no. I’m definitely not okay. N-None of us are… but… we can’t talk about it.”

That was what he’d been afraid of. Lisa looks to him and shakes her head.

“Don’t say a word, Jason. If you start talking, it’ll all kick off right fucking now.”

Now it’s Jason’s eyes to turn wide. Seriously? That alone would be enough? But what if…

“What if I tried to obfuscate it? To hide the conversation with Chaos Magic? Would that work?”

Lisa hesitates, clearly asking her power, only to shake her head a moment later.

“In order to do so, you’d have to use so much that it would attract notice and everything would start up all the same. No… you need to have that conversation with Alexandria tomorrow after all. And it won’t be at the Rig like we thought. Just wait for the doorway and then… and then once you’re through, then you can talk about what has to happen next.”

Well shit. He’d wanted confirmation, he supposed. But now that he got it, Jason felt more lost than ever. He wanted to be able to talk about all of this with Covenant, but if it was going to start the apocalypse, he had to hold his tongue.

“And I can’t… do for them what I did for you?”

“Not… not yet. I’m already a risk, honestly. An anomaly that might draw attention. But the more parahumans like me that you make, the bigger the signal fire. It’s another beacon, just of a different type.”

Jason lets out a shuddering breath, only to look around the room at everyone who is watching them with curious, frustrated looks on their faces. It’s obvious they all have questions… and just as obvious that their respect for him is making them hold their tongues given everything he and Lisa have said so far.

“… I’m sorry everyone. I promise I’ll tell you all as soon as I can. Hopefully I’ll have an answer for what to do by tomorrow afternoon. Please, until then… just have faith in me, alright?”

Taylor is the first to respond to that.

“Of course we have faith in you.”

Vicky throws her hands in the air.

“Good grief! You literally just gave us all our own pet Endbringers and suddenly you and Lisa are acting like there’s something even worse out there. Way to give a girl nightmares. But… yeah, Taylor is right. You’ve got this Jason. We know you do.”

Similar affirmations come from all the others as well and Jason feels bolstered by their confidence in him. They truly believe in him, they truly believe he can do it. Smiling slightly, he lets out an explosive breath.

Today he’d ended the Endbringer Threat for good. Tomorrow… well, they’d see what tomorrow held, wouldn’t they?

-x-X-x-

A/N: Remember to go back and VOTE!

-x-X-x-

A/N: Will try to keep this up to date at the end of every chapter, get on me if I forget please. Though if it gets too out of hand, I might have to change it at some point.

Jason's current banked points:

300 Celestial Points

Jason's current banked power:

Darkin Weapon (400 Points)

Jason's current powers:

= Flash Air (Gained in Chapter 1

= Transformation Pendant (Gained in Chapter 4)

= Keen Eye (Gained in Chapter 4)

= Blood, Death, and Demons (Gained in Chapter 6)

= Alchemical Prodigy (Gained in Chapter 8)

= Staff of Magnus (Gained in Chapter 13)

= Bind and Seal (Gained in Chapter 17)

= Hero of a Hundred Faces: Everyone's Leader (Gained in Chapter 20)

= Minor Regeneration via Blood Empowerment Ritual (Gained in Chapter 23)
(Taylor got Major Agility, Vicky got Major Intelligence)

= Restraining Order (Gained in Chapter 25)

= Focus (Gained in Chapter 28)

= Scarborough Fair (Gained in Chapter 30)

= Chaos Magic (Gained in Chapter 36)

= Major Regeneration via Blood Empowerment Ritual (Gained in Chapter 40)
(Taylor, Vicky, and Amy all got Minor Regeneration)

= A Collection of Magic Rings (x6 Cursed Rings, x12 Drawback Rings, x6 Buff Rings) (Gained Chapter 44)

= Jason: T3 Armor Ring + Blue Ring, Taylor: T3 Armor Ring + Expert’s Ring, Vicky: Red Ring + T2 Heart Ring, Amelia: T3 Armor Ring + T2 Heart Ring (Handed out Chapter 46)

= Lucky Charm (Gained in Chapter 51)

(Currently worn by Jason as of Ch. 51)

= Presidential Suit (Gained in Chapter 52)

(Currently reshaped to be Jason’s new costume while still looking like the old costume Parian made for him as of Chapter 56)

= Taylor, Vicky, and Amy all get Major Regeneration via Blood Empowerment Ritual (Gained in Chapter 57)

= Jason gains Major Intelligence via Blood Empowerment Ritual (Gained in Chapter 58)

(Crystal and Lisa both get Minor Regeneration)

= Second Skin (Gained in Chapter 58)

= Iron Fist (Gained in Chapter 63)

= Exceptional and Lucky (Gained in Chapter 69)

= Safety Minded (Gained in Chapter 72)

= Oathsworn – Deathless Knight (Boosted by Major Regeneration) (Gained in Chapter 81)

= Covenant Connected to Endbringers – Taylor/Behemoth, Vicky/Leviathan, Amelia/Simurgh, Crystal/Unnamed Endbringer, Lisa/Unnamed Endbringer, Sherrel/Unnamed Endbringer (Gained in Chapter 82)