Cole

Cole, also known as the Son, was born to Ella from an unknown father while she was dying from an EIDR strain of the zombie infection. This resulted in Cole manifesting abilities different even than Kuma or Galen Dawson, and the pronouncement of his destiny to defeat the Demon.

Birth
Ella learns she is pregnant by accident when she is injured exploring the caves Ricard Luther made his final stand in. Tyler Dawson's confrontation with the Demon sparks a chain of events which drastically change living conditions within the Hearth Compound. When Amy Stapleton learns that Ella is pregnant (as well as very sick), it is the final straw and she vows to help her escape. Mateo gets them out of the Compound, and the two women are picked up by John Taylor's Utopians.

In the Utopians' care, Ella's sickness continues to worsen, and the symptoms lead Amy to suspect she has been infected with an EIDR strain, potentially the mysterious fifth strain that Chad Thompson had been studying. Ella prematurely gives birth to a small boy whom she names Cole before she dies. Having birthed a human child, Amy has no proof she was ever infected, but as is later discovered when Taylor's Utopians find Kuma and Galen Dawson, the rules are not as clear as they once seemed.

Childhood
When Cole was growing up, he was always small and often sick. He was nurtured and cared for by his paternal grandmother Sara Abbott and Amy Stapleton. However, the two were also burdened with the orphaned Kuma Dawson and Galen Dawson, often leaving Cole to look to Anya Welling for care as he has no family left.

When Cole is of age he is sent to the Academy along with Kuma and Galen, finding it much changed since Abraham Murphy attended. While there, Cole is an easy target for bullies, but finds that Kuma and Galen stick up for him. Being already very tall and strong for their age, this is an effective deterrent for most bullies. Cole is grateful, as he had grown up resentful of the twins and the attention they got.

One day, Cole is off grounds away from the twins. He is approached by some bullies who are angry they got beat up by the twins earlier and are out for revenge. However, they are then approached by a pack of emaciated zombies. When Cole screams at them, they stop attacking. Mystified, he tells them to back up and they obey. One of the bullies pisses himself and they all run away.

Word gets out and Cole is nervous, even Kuma and Galen are treating him strangely since the rumors started to spread. Phineas counsels the boy, believing everything he says even though it sounds unbelievable. One night, Horst tells Cole to accompany him. Horst has been working with Damon Ferguson and Amy Stapleton since the incident. Together, they get Cole out of the Academy and Amy tells him his family history. Amy and Damon bring him to the Hodgan Sisters, where he begins intensive education and study unlike that he had been learning at the Academy.

Becoming the Son
With the Hodgan Sisters, Cole finds his education much more demanding and much different from the Academy. At the Academy, they teach you practical skills such as fighting, farming, crafts, and yes also mathematics and history. With the Sisters, he learns geography, mathematics, poetry and literature. Cole is still just a scrawny teenager, confused and upset that he has once again been abandoned. This all changes when he meets the Brother.

The Brother is the only male permitted in the Order of the Sisterhood, he lives apart from them but interacts with them. It is with the Brother that Cole begins to train his body, and make his mind strong. Cole asks why the Brother has no name, as the Sisters all have names. The Brother explains that names are the titles of lives, and that when you give up a name you are giving up a life. Cole has already been taken from his family, from his school, from his life. All he has left is his name, and the Brother soon takes that as well. Cole no longer, the Brother rechristens him "the Son."

Training with the Brother
Under the Brother's rigorous training, the Son's once weak body grows strong and muscle inflates across him. The Sisters tutelage continues, keeping him busy 24/7. The Brother allows no guns, but they spar with staff and sword and the Son learns about the spirituality shared by the Brother and the Sisters. The Brother asks the Son why he believes he should destroy the Demon. The Son is confused by the question and answers it is his destiny. The Brother does not accept this as an answer. The Son says it is because the Demon is evil, because he is a threat, many other reasons but the Brother counters them all. The Demon has isolated himself. He makes no moves to threaten anyone. The Son finally says it is because the Demon is in pain, and he is the last in a line of monsters that have threatened humanity and mankind will never be free, never be able to move forward until that line is extinguished. The Brother does not respond.

The next morning, Sister Maya says the Brother will not see the Son today. Instead, she takes him to the edge of the commune where Sara awaits. There is no more for the Brother to teach him. She accompanies the Son on a trip to port, where the Son meets his next teacher: the Pirate.

Training with the Pirate
The Son is surprised, as he believed the Pirate to be halfway across the world on a trade voyage. Vega reveals he has come in secrecy and has been awaiting the Son's arrival. They then take off on a long journey which takes the Son halfway across the globe. He continues training with the Pirate, learning a new kind of swordplay. At sea, with the shifting ship beneath him, Vega is easily able to sidestep and dodge the Son's brutish swinging blade and score points with his thin rapier. The Pirate gifts the Son with his sea blade, a sword much like Vega's, with which the Son becomes as adept as he is with his land blade.

Along the way, the Son participates in a handful of skirmishes with other vessels, either attacking pirates or victims. The Son is reminded he is aboard a privateer's vessel. On one of these skirmishes, the Son witnesses Vega kill a man in a sword-fight, Captain Daniel MacMoran. The Son meets Isabel when the crew next goes to port, and he loses his young heart to her. However, when she is caught attacking Vega, it comes out that she was only using him to get vengeance for her father, Daniel MacMoran. Vega sends her away and orders the Son to destroy her, but he cannot do this and instead warns her to never come near them again.

Much later, the crew is again at port on a bizarre foreign market that the Son finds fascinating. A myriad of rope and wood structures sprawl across a cliffside, full of trading posts and bridges that look too dangerous to cross. While in the marketplace, the Son is ambushed by a pack of ragged sailors. The Son draws his sea blade but the Pirate arrives with Arman Diggory and others from his crew. They engage the attackers and the Son and Vega duel side by side against the Son's attacker. Vega drives him to the cliff's edge and over it. He turns to the Son with a wild smile on his face before a gunshot rips the air and hits the Pirate in the heart. That wild smile bubbles into a manic laugh and the Pirate topples over the cliff's edge.

The Son turns to see Isabel MacMoran, and realizes this was all done by her design. He chases after her and she draws a sword, leading him to draw his land blade. He drives her back onto a ramshackle bridge, striking down at her. Disarmed, she blocks his savage downward cuts with a plank of wood. He strikes again and again, flashes of falling in love with her and training with Vega and sailing at sea. Ropes snap around him and the planks fall away, taking Isabel with them. He grabs on and keeps his footing, but watches the girl he once loved plummet to her death.

After the Pirate's death, Arman becomes captain and he follows Vega's instructions regarding the boy. They sail back west and come quietly into the Gallic Utopia. Here, the Son is released into the custody of Alexis Levinson, whom the Son discovers has been close with his family for a long time. But she is not to be his next teacher. She delivers him to an offshore island where he meets an old recluse, the Hermit.

Training with the Hermit
Since the death of Kane Perkins, Alexis is the only one who knows of the Hermit's existence. She delivers them supplies on a routine basis, although these trips are infrequent and the Son is forced to deal with the Hermit as his only company. The Pirate's death has left the Son in a dark place, but he is bent on continuing his training so he can fulfill his destiny. The Son is shocked when the Hermit says he wants nothing to do with the Son and refuses to see him. The Son believes it to be a trick at first and says he has come a very long way to be here. Still the Hermit refuses. The Son does not give up and helps the Hermit with his chores, which have become difficult in his old age. Eventually, the Hermit begins to speak to the Son.

A life of honest hard labour humbles the Son, tempering the fire that was left in him after the Pirate's death. Every night, the Hermit tells the Son fantastic stories about heroes and monsters and Forts, going back all the way to the beginning of the world the way it is now. The Son is hesitant to believe the stories ever really happened, but he is entertained by them nonetheless. The Hermit tells how he had lived here for sixteen years with a companion, who died only recently. It was just his time. Fella was none too old but he had lived a great deal more than most men. Perhaps more than anyone else.

Alexis notices that after her initial handful of visits, the Son's complaints had trickled off and he began to enjoy life on the island. The Hermit tells the Son that Vega had been and always was a survivor first and foremost. He feared loose ends because he knew all too well how they could come back to haunt you. All his life he'd hunted after every loose end because he could not permit the specter of a threat stalking him. The Son believes Vega's death is his fault then, because he disobeyed when the Pirate ordered him to take care of a loose end. The Hermit acknowledges that it is the Son's fault, but it is also Vega's. The Son finally accepts his guilt and is able to move on.

After some years, the Son is a grown man and the Hermit is on his deathbed. The Hermit reveals his identity as Vince Lawson, and the man he had lived with on the island was Terence Payne. All the stories he told the Son were true, all of them. Do with that knowledge what you will. When Alexis arrives next, the Son is the sole inhabitant of the island. She sends him home, and the Son walks alone into the forbidden lands, fully prepared to face his destiny.

Training with the Warrior
As he walks the forbidden lands, he encounters the fourth teacher he was never meant to have. The Warrior, an old loner who has also hunted the Demon. The two become allies and the Son spars against him. The Son is amazed at the speed and strength of the older man, and realizes he has not had a proper duel in a very long time, much less against someone of such skill. If the Demon is half as good as this man, the Son would have been unprepared. Training with the Warrior refines the weapon that the Son has become. The Brother made him strong. The Pirate made him fierce. The Hermit tempered his rage, and now the Warrior has made him ready.

After several days traveling with the Warrior, the two go their separate ways. The Warrior says he is to meet a friend, and it will take him off route for some time. The Son and the Warrior agree that they stand a better chance together, and so plan to rendezvous in two days time. As the Son hikes, he is joined by yet another stranger. The Stranger offers him nothing as the Warrior had. No training, no insights. The Stranger speaks seemingly in riddles, and the Son deduces that the man is simple. His broad, muscled body makes the Son wary at first, but he soon realizes the Stranger poses no threat. The Stranger asks him many questions about his quest, about his destiny and about the Demon. He asks about the man the Son has traveled with, and how much he really knows about him.

Oddly, the Stranger's words have an effect on the Son. Despite continuing to assert it is his destiny to slay the Demon, the fingers of doubt begin to prod at him. Where is this destiny coming from? Who is telling him he is to kill the Demon? Where is this decision, this choice, being made? In the morning the Stranger is gone.

When the Son meets with the Warrior again, he is accompanied by the Brother. The Son recalls his last conversation with the Brother about why the Demon must be defeated, and his resolve is strengthened again.

The Son and the Demon
The Brother concedes it is the Son who will strike down the Demon, but he is the only of the Son's teachers still alive and he will be there to help. The Son, the Brother and the Warrior arrive at the keep of the Demon. The three are approached by a snarling sentry, who the Son asserts his influence upon and makes him back down. The three enter and the Son goes forth to face the Demon.

Upon encountering the Demon, the Son recognizes him as the Stranger who had sat by his campfire on the way here. The Son is shocked that the Demon is so human. Why didn't he just kill the Son in his sleep? The Demon and the Son begin to fight, and the Son is joined by the Brother and the Warrior. The sentry, Mateo, attacks when the Son's concentration is broken and the Brother kills him.

At the end of the battle, the Brother is defeated and the Warrior is severely maimed, an injury that will cost him his leg. However, the Son's training with the Brother has made him a fighter. The Pirate has made him quick. The Hermit has made him calm. The Warrior prepared him for fighting an enhanced human. The Demon falls before the Son, and the Son stands poised to deliver the final blow. The words of the Stranger flash before his eyes, everything he has learned on his journey, visions of Kuma and Galen. The Son spares the Demon's life. This is his destiny, he proclaims. He is the only one who could do this because anyone else would have visited utter annihilation upon the Demon and his court. Tyler is not impressed. Mercy? The boy he encountered on the road a day ago was firm in his convictions to kill the Demon. Cole still does not finish it.

Cole insists he has discovered his purpose. The Son was created to destroy in order to bring peace, but Cole will bring peace in order to bring peace. He tells Tyler of his sons, proud heroes of the nations of man. This is his legacy. Tyler looks at Cole and ponders his words, wondering if this is how it had looked when his father had defeated the Tall Man. Tyler realizes with shock that he has become everything his father fought to destroy. He wonders what his sons must think of him. He asks their names and Cole explains the hope behind the name Galen. The sting that threatens tears arises in Tyler's eyes unbidden when he hears his other son has been named Kuma. Instead of killing the Demon, the Son forges a secret truce with him.

Cole returns to the Brother and they leave with the injured Warrior. As they leave, the wounded Tyler goes to his court and gently, lovingly kills Chad Thompson and Sadie Hunt, his love. His last connections to his human self. Like his human self, they were only shadows of the past.

The Hero
Cole returns to a home that has changed much in the years he has been gone. His adopted brothers, Kuma and Galen have become legendary warriors during the wars of New Concord's conquest. Many of the city-states and the North American Collective are now united in a state called the Commonwealth, of which New Concord is the capital city. Cole finds his family living in the safe zone established by Tyson Lancaster, encompassing the Academy, the commune of the Hodgan Sisters and the lands given to the Church. Cole lives here for several years until the Syrenese invasions planned by General Selena Bolton, successor to Ogden Bishop. Bishop's predecessor, disgraced war hero Graham Buchanan has been recruiting from the Academy for some time and makes a move to take back power in Syrene when they are discovered to be in possession of advanced military technology (working guns and ammunition while everyone else has been reduced to swords and spears).

Another war begins between Syrene and the Commonwealth, with Syrene's superior military winning battle after battle. In the midst of a massive war, one single death strikes Cole to his knees. On a battlefield fighting the enemies of the Commonwealth, Kuma Dawson falls to Syrenese fire. Not only has Cole lost a brother, but he has also failed to uphold his truce with the Demon.

A Broken Promise
Knowing the tendency of Tyler Dawson to walk among the nations of man, Cole knows it is just a matter of time until the Demon realizes Cole has failed to protect his sons, and accidentally broken their truce. Terrified at what is coming, Cole warns Graham Buchanan and heads north to the Ur-Hegemony, a land of peoples regarded by most as savages but in truth a civil people. They are known for their strange connection to the zombies, and Cole goes seeking insight. He is introduced to the Ur-sect, one of two leaders within the community. Unlike his counterpart, the Ur-sect is more of a spiritual figure and has no real political power. The Ur-sect and Cole converse, and the next day the Ur-sect brings Cole to a hidden grove in the forest where Cole meets an old crippled zombie capable of speech. Leader.

Leader reveals the Red Horde still lives in these lands of the north, away from human lands. They are cared for by the Ur, and are simple farming folk. Leader tells Cole this is what they were always meant to be, eventually they would have run out of people to infect and the zombie germ would have evolved to make them survive. Leader becomes a mentor to Cole and trains him to use his abilities.

Leader compares the Demon to the Denizen, saying he is the next successor to the Tall Man. He shows Cole the Horde, farming livestock and says that his abilities allowed him to accelerate their process of learning, but without him they would devolve into what they were and likely consume each other. He says that human society is not so different, that strong leaders are required to stop them from tearing each other apart.

When Cole hears word of the Demon's EIDR mutant zombies attacking Syrenese settlements, he knows the Demon is coming for the nations of man. When he hears word that a horde is approaching the Ur-Hegemony, he believes the Demon is coming for him. They fight against the horde and Cole uses his powers to pacify large swaths of the attackers at a time, using the training Leader gave him. Cole realizes the attack is a distraction and that the Demon is going around the back. He is not going after the Son at all, he is going after Leader. The Ur-sect and a group of soldiers rush to his defense but the Demon kills Leader and takes control of the Red Horde. Even from a distance, Cole feels the sudden change in the air and his blood turns to ice.

Cole speaks to the lead Ur and they order an immediate retreat. They flee the battlefield just before the Demon arrives with the first enhanced of the Red Horde. Cole watches in horror as the grand army moves south.

Cole and the Ur-sect travel to a coastal Syrene town, dodging sentries like it isn't wartime. They struggle to find a ship until Holly Rackham recognizes their plight and agrees to ferry the Ur-sect to Alexis Levinson in the Utopia. Cole rides hard to the safe zone, arriving nearly dead on his horse from exhaustion. Amy finds him recuperating with the Hodgan Sisters and returns to the Academy, where a team is put together and ambassadors sent to New Concord, Drifttide and Syrene asking for aid. Cole joins the team of fighters going to reinforce Graham Buchanan's defense, which should hold if he followed the specifications Cole gave him.

Cole and the others arrive in time to throw back several hordes, each attack differing as though an intelligent mind was adapting the attack strategy each time. Cole proved instrumental in defending the position, but after the wall fell the group knew they had no choice but to flee. The caravan is attacked by a horde of Lurkers, but rescued by Dume's cavalry, which had been recruited by Cade Benedict and Tatum Weiss.

Destiny Realized
The Red Horde comes south, butchering through Syrenese forces to avenge the Demon's lost son. As they come, Cole is with the grand assembled defense awaiting their arrival. Armies of the Commonwealth are assembled, uniting Collective forces with city-state militias. When the Red Horde storms from the ruins of Syrene, the grand assembled army is prepared for their last stand.

During the battle, Cole is fighting when he sees Galen Dawson return from his mysterious disappearance and singlehandedly kill Tank, boosting morale across the army. The poison they use is not as effective as the original Exterminator poison, but it is definitely having an effect. The biggest game changer is Alexis's weapons, which she spent her whole life developing for a moment like this. In the midst of the enormous battle, Cole comes face to face with the Demon, and consequently, his destiny.

Finally prepared to do what must be done, the Son fights the Demon for the last time. During the fight, Cole hurls his land blade at Tyler, who smashes it aside. Cole deftly picks up his sea blade, analyzing Tyler's brutish attacks and stance. Cole dodges and slips inside Tyler's defense, slashing the Demon's heart with his sea blade. Tyler looks down in shock as blood drips out from between his ribs. Cole stabs at him again and he grabs the blade, finger bones grating against steel as the sea blade cuts into his fingers. Cole draws his knife and sticks it into Tyler's shoulder where it meets the neck. Tyler drops the sea blade and falls to his knees. Cole sees Galen approaching, watching curiously. Cole realizes with a shock that Galen has never seen his father before. Tyler realizes this as well and is suddenly struck with a great shame at what he has become. "I have failed you."

When the Demon is dead once and for all, Cole is able to turn the tide of the battle. He uses all of Leader's training to replicate the trick he had only heard tales of. The Ur-sect claimed to have witnessed it, and the Hermit told of it being done to the Denizen. Cole kills a zombie without touching it by turning its own infection against it. He performs the trick on Ava Dawson, putting down a massive Fourth Kind without touching it. When he is able to summon strength he never knew he had, he stills the remaining zombies and make them take a knee. Awed at this feet, the nearby humans also kneel before him. Cole looks around in surprise and looks at Galen, who regards Cole with awe before also taking a knee before him. Cole remembers what Leader said about both zombies and humans needing strong leadership.

Disrupted Timeline
Cole's life bears many parallels to Lucien in the Disrupted Timeline. Both were orphaned as children, Cole losing his mother Ella and Lucien's parents Dark Tyros and Dark Rosa being murdered. Both were then raised by adoptive mothers and trained under various teachers to prepare for a destiny of returning to a land overrun by monsters to defeat an inhuman enemy. Both Lucien and Cole initially spare their opponent, although Cole is later forced to face the consequences of this with the invasion of the Red Horde, while Lucien attends Wrane's death after the two confront Ayahk and his master. Despite these similarities, Lucien is not the Disrupted Timeline counterpart of Cole.