Ezra Fowler

art by @littlechmura

**Ezra Fowler** was a part of Atlas Blakely's generation of initiates (2000–2002) and Libby Rhodes's ex-boyfriend.

## Biography

### Early life

Ezra was born in 1977 to an unnamed (possibly Jewish) mother in the far east side of Los Angeles, California. One day in 1989, when Ezra was twelve, he witnessed his mother die by shooting at their temple of worship (most likely a Jewish temple, as they are much more commonly found than other temples—and *The Atlas Complex* refers to it as a hate crime). He fell back, assuming he had been shot, but then woke up in his bed again, having unknowingly traveled through time. He tried to stop his mother from going to the temple in hopes of preventing her death, but failed. He quickly realized his ability and continued trying to save his mother.

After twelve unsuccessful attempts to save her, he realized her death was a fixed point in time and gave up. He went back for a thirteenth time, allowing the entire day to play out as it would without his interference and stayed there. He then traveled three weeks after his mother’s funeral (which was as far he could go at that time), and by the time Social Services came to take him into custody, he let them, already numb from the thirteen times he had witnessed his mother die.

### *The Atlas Six*

Ezra met Atlas Blakely when they were both invited into the Alexandrian Society. The two immediately hit it off, though Ezra didn't get along well with the other four of his generation's candidates, and the majority had voted to have him killed. He and Atlas had anticipted that, though, and came up with a plan. Atlas would "kill" Ezra, but in reality, Ezra would be jumping ahead in time to help Atlas enact the rest of his plan, which is to take down the Alexandrian Society and reform it. However, this unintentionally caused a tear in the order of the Library. Because Ezra had not died, the archives were owed a body. They did not receive one, and the four members apart from Atlas died under what were seen as untimely but natural deaths. They didn’t die simultaneously, but instead their deaths were spread out so that by the time the next round of initiates (2010–2012) arrived, all members of Ezra and Atlas’s generation had died.

As per the blueprints of their plan, Ezra and Atlas agreed that they would need a physicist; a telepath (to be Atlas's right hand); someone who could see, use, and manipulate quanta (which Ezra had stated was impossible, but Atlas argued that someone must exist); and a "battery" to boost the abilities of others—which came in the form of a naturalist. Ezra would be the sixth initiate, and the fifth medeian they chose—who ended up coming in the form of an empath, Callum Nova—would be the one to die. That way, Ezra would be able to join Atlas's side once more.

The plan hit a bump, though, when Ezra discovered Libby Rhodes and Nico de Varona. He managed to convince Atlas to ditch him since Libby and Nico are a set. He insisted that he couldn't have one without the other until Atlas had caved. After the year was nearly over, Atlas had stated that he wanted Parisa disposed of as it was obvious that she would never join Atlas. Ezra was disappointed to discover that Atlas had essentially changed the fundamentals of their plan and abandoned him, so created a plan of his own: he would kidnap one of the six to blow up Atlas's plan, which he had traveled to the future to see the results of. He discovered that Atlas’s plan would lead to the end of the world, more or less. In an effort to combat this, he went to see an animator known as The Prince to create an animation for him. During the meeting with The Prince, Ezra was told that he would need to know the person intimately to make the animation believable and unmistakable, which narrowed down his options significantly.

Left with no other choice, Ezra broke into Libby’s room and abducted her, leaving the animation in her place. She had screamed—not out of shock but anger—which alerted the other five candidates plus Dalton Ellery. He took her to a pocket of time where no one would be able to find them and explained everything: his ability, how he worked and aided Atlas, the reason he took her away. This calmed her anger somewhat slightly, as she finally understood his intentions, though she was still skeptical. One of the many reasons she was upset was because she believed their whole relationship to be built on a lie because of his ability. Ezra assured her it was real to him, too. He was aware that Libby won't find a way out of his wards and that she may even lose herself, too.

### *The Atlas Paradox*

Months after the abduction of Libby, Ezra had been well into his plan. He had recruited six medeians he knew to be against the Society: Nothazai, head representative of the Forum; Sef Hassan, an Egyptian mineral naturalist representing the magical interests of the whole Middle East/North Africa (MENA) region; Julian Rivera Pérez, a technomancer for the USA's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA); Li, a professor from Beijing, China; Doctor J. Araña, a climate professor from the Philippines; and James Wessex, infamous for being… well, himself.

On Sunday, August 13th, 1989, during a routine check-in with Libby, Ezra was surprised when she suddenly broke free of his wards and nearly killed him. He escaped using one of his time-traveling doors, though he was not able to find Libby again. He didn’t really mind it seeing as she was stuck in 1989 and couldn’t return to 2022 without him, so he kept his focus on stopping Atlas. He held and attended meetings, discussed how to apprehend the current initiates in Atlas’s care, and gave out the necessary information. During one of these meetings, Atlas found Ezra and quietly confronted him. They went back in forth in argument as Atlas lied to, gaslit, and telepathically violated Ezra. Atlas didn’t stick around for long as he left as soon as he got bored of Ezra.

Ezra was at the Alexandrian Gala, though he was illusioned and went largely unnoticed by the attendees, even Atlas. However, since Tristan Caine was also in attendance, Ezra was not able to escape conversation with him. It was nothing confrontational or sinister, but Ezra tends to dislike most social interactions.

Unfortunately, the gala was not without consequences. Dr. Araña had gone to Atlas’s office to confront him, and when she came out, she was changed—Callum Nova had emotionally transformed her. Ezra was somewhat unaware of Araña’s change, and he did not know that Callum was behind it. Later on, he confronted Araña along with Nothazai. At this point, Ezra had determined her “unstable” and therefore necessary to get rid of. He convinced Nothazai to kill her, which Nothazai did.

Months later, after the initiates had left the house, Ezra confronted Atlas for the final time. Atlas confessed that he was responsible for the four deaths of their initiation class: Alexis Lai, Ivy Breton, Folade Ilori, and Neel Mishra. When Ezra asked how Atlas could possibly still be alive when the archives should clearly want him dead, Atlas explained that by becoming Caretaker, he had pleased the archives. Ezra admitted that Atlas really *should* die, and Ezra himself should kill him. Atlas agreed to this, prompting Ezra to hope for some kind of godly punishment such as smiting, but he knew it would never come.

Atlas once again telepathically violated Ezra and seemingly began to unravel him. Atlas gaslit Ezra into believing that he was much worse than Atlas ever could be, making him believe that he was pure evil for kidnapping Libby. Ezra, growing desperate and trying to be the best person he possibly can be, said he would kill her to stop Atlas (even though he knew he couldn’t). Atlas called his bluff and presumably continued to undo Ezra until Ezra fell to his knees in defeat. In the same moment, Libby finally arrived in 2022 and stormed into Atlas’s office. She unleashed some sort of explosion from her hand towards Ezra, killing him for good this time. Ezra didn’t open any doors and allowed himself to die, believing he deserved it. With Ezra’s death, Atlas became the sole surviving member of his initiation class. Without Ezra in his path, Atlas was virtually unstoppable and clearly dead-set on destroying the world, dooming everyone within it. This remained true until Libby Rhodes killed Atlas herself (seemingly sometime soon after killing Ezra).

His body was disposed of by Tristan Caine.

## Personality

> Most people don't know how to starve.
>
> Ezra Fowler to Atlas Blakely, The Atlas Six

Ezra is indifferent to most of his surroundings thanks to his time travelling ability. He does what he needs to and doesn't stick around a certain time if he gets bored, though sometimes he has to stay or jump around for practicality. He's calculating, sometimes so much so that he's cold. When he really has his mind set on something, he can be cruel, though it's for good reason.

Ezra is logical and doesn't like wasting time—or breath—whether it be his or someone else's. He dislikes messing around and likes to be organized, but he can improvise when needed. In certain contexts, he also dislikes change. Ezra is very antisocial. In addition to all this, Ezra does not like killing people, but he recognizes that sometimes it is unavoidable. When he had Nothazai kill Dr. Araña, he could not meet her eyes and very clearly displayed signs of guilt at having committed the crime.

## Appearance

Because of his ability, Ezra ages much differently than everyone else. Physically, he is around the age of his ex-girlfriend, Libby Rhodes. His mental age is also very similar to his physical age. However, his actual age is unknown, though it has been confirmed to be near that of Atlas Blakely's (about 44). He has curly black hair and blue eyes. He's tall—about six feet (~1.83 meters)—and lithe, with movements described by Libby to be feline.

## Relationships

### Atlas Blakely

Ezra met Atlas when they were both recruited into the Alexandrian Society. The two quickly became friends and formed a plan together to take over the Society. Ezra was betrayed by Atlas though, and began secretly working against him. He recruited six medeians to aid him in taking down Atlas, which he saw as poetic justice since Atlas had also planned to use six medeians to take over the Society and destroy the world.

### Libby Rhodes

Ezra and Libby were dating for three years before they broke up. Libby was the one who initially began their relationship, and she was the one who ended it. It was possible for her and Ezra to at least remain friendly, though that was ruined when he kidnapped her to foil Atlas's plan. Stuck in 1989–1990, Libby grew to resent Ezra despite his warning that Atlas is worse than Libby ever thought Ezra could be. She never listened, though, and eventually killed Ezra upon her return to the present.

## Gallery

Ezra & Libby by @littlechmuraEzra by @littlechmura