Last Battle (Chapter 42)

Quote: "Power consumes all morals. No matter how great."

"That's it! If I can't rule as king, then I will burn you all to the ground!" He shouted, and a thick layer of armor appeared on his body all of a sudden. Unlike all the times previously, this time, the armor actually shared a lot of similarities with mine, but slightly weaker.

I didn't know how, but it seemed as though he got his hands on some enchanted gear.

"Not on my watch..." I stepped up in front to protect the campers, wielding my scythe that was gripped firmly in my grasp. I took a defensive pose, prepared to strike if he were to try and do anything to the campers.

The demigods were the first priority. I don't know how unstable Jack was, maybe he finally cracked after all this time, but I can't let him take anyone else.

I'll make him pay for Jason.

Jack growled in response, bringing out a large silver trident that reminded me of the one Poseidon had given him a long time ago, the one that I broke. This time however, it seemed as though it had been rebuilt, and made with better quality.

Since when did he get competent?

I tried using my control over air to freeze him, or use my time powers in order to stop him in a blink of an eye, but it wasn't working as it should. Only sputters of wind gushed out, when it should have done much more. I put more pressure onto performing the spell, but it didn't seem to change much, and I couldn't waste any energy doing nonsense.

For some strange reason, none of my powers were...optimal.

It felt like my powers had halved since only a few moments ago. Nothing out of the ordinary had taken place during the short timespan of me arriving here and now, so I was clueless on how this weakness of mine came to be.

This shouldn't be happening.

Not now.

Suddenly, Jack raised his right hand in the air, and a crack in the earth began to manifest around the bleachers, where the campers were. I wasn't aware he was capable of displaying this level of power, and since I wasn't even sure how my powers were working as of now, I was hesitant on whether the tides were set equally among the both of us. The campers began to scurry to safety, but were running closely alongside the developing ravine, as there wasn't much space to flee.

Now I could see his outline perfectly, he had gone insane.

He saw himself as the fallen ruler, the tragic lord of the people who couldn't bear to see a world without him.

The gloves were off this time, because I won't hold back after what that cretin did to Jason.

Using my power over the earth as well, I closed the large gaps slowly, with more effort than I intended, which shocked me. Something told me that I couldn't rely on power this time, and that I would have to tread carefully this time. The incisions in the ground sealed in an extremely weak pace, but I tried to make it so that nobody could possibly fall in and die.

"So, you've turned into a full-fledged villain, huh?" I wiped my forehead, finished with sealing the cracks in the dirt, and I faced my indecent brother.

"There is no point in having this world if I am not here to claim it for myself." Jack stated with crazed brown eyes that seethed with bitterness and loathe.

"You do realize how insane you sound, right?" I pointed out, but had very little humor in my tone, as I wasn't going to forgive him for what he did to my friend.

He gave me a sour glare.

"Just so you know, Jack..." I said while flicking Razer in my hands, getting a familiar feel for the weapon I had only used a few times and had some mastery over at least. I flipped the blade over my shoulder and positioned it with both my hands clasping the gripped black handle of the scythe.

"One of us isn't going to walk away from this..." I warned.

"Oh, I plan on it. However, that person will be you, brother." Jack spat out bitterly, and I couldn't help but take a deep breath in resentment for him.

It seemed as though my words fell on deaf ears.

"So be it, Jack." I said in a murky voice, as I almost wanted to call him my brother, but that would be far too deserving of him, especially after what he's done.

I let him rush to me, pointing his trident straight at my heart, and I could only look in utter sadness as to what this had turned into. My own brother had fallen from his grace, and to drop so far into the pit that there was no redemption. The deaths he's caused, and the consequences he had laid upon the camp as well as I, are numbered far too greatly.

He closed the gap between us in a matter of seconds, and charged with his polearm in a forward motion.

I stepped to the side and swiftly grabbed the area under the spiked arrow, and swiped the trident from Jack's grip with somewhat ease. Taking him by surprise, I threw his weapon as far as I could, sending it into the distance into the deep forest where we couldn't even see it land.

It soared in the air like a spear, and hopefully landed somewhere far, far away.

And that was how our fight went.

It went by that quickly, and in the span of less than a minute, I had Jack already in a corner.

"Just give up already. It's not worth it, whatever it is that you want." I stared into his deluded gaze, and I saw the face of a lost traveler, a person who couldn't be saved. Someone who made the wrong choice, and is too stubborn to turn around and change it.

He growled at me before quickly raising his fist to punch me, but I took a step backwards and his arm flailed in the air helplessly.

Should...should I just kill him?

Would it be right for me to just end it?

Right here, right now?

I wanted nothing more than to do so, for Jason, but now that I was faced with the opportunity...I didn't know if I could do it. I've killed countless monsters and beasts, but I've never had to kill one of our own, and my brother at that.

But I can't go back on what I promised earlier.

This is for camp, and for all the campers, that I will kill my own blood in order to protect them.

Razer began to feel a little bit more dense between my fingers as I started to hold it a bit firmer than previously. 

"It's not too late. You can still turn this around, you know?" I ensured. I stood over him, with my bade hovering over him like a Grim Reaper, about to claim a sinful soul.

I knew he didn't care, so I didn't even know why I even asked.

"Oh, it's already too late. Too late for you." He replied, and suddenly, his hands began to glow a bright blue color as a fire began to ignite at the tips of his fingers.

Blue Fire...

"Aquatic fire..." I said, shocked that he was able to conjure the exact same magic I used to fend off Pontus, and had used many other times against foes much stronger than I.

"Looks like you're not the only one with powers. Now burn!" He said, rising to his feet as he gathered a ball of flames that cracked and sizzled in his palm.

That power...even a portion of it's capability would be enough to wipe out all the campers in a second's notice.

"Jack...you don't know the power that you are using...don't do it." I had my eyes open as wide as can be, because now the game had changed entirely. With Aquatic fire, anything was possible, and if he wanted to, he could kill everybody in a mile's radius.

I slowly put my hands up and gestured for him to think about what he was about to do, but I had a sinking feeling in my heart that this wasn't going to go as I planned it to.

"You've always thought you were better than I am..." Jack said with loathe dripping at his tone, and I faced back at him with determination in my own eyes, because I knew what was about to transpire.

"JACK! STOP THIS!" I shouted, but I might as well have been screaming at a brick wall, because the fire never stopped growing in his hands.

The orb of Aquatic fire became the size of a sports ball, which seemed very minimal, but the flames were extremely dangerous, and using it in a place full of wooden cabins was quite undesirable. 

The cabins...

Jack raised his hands, with the ball of fire circling in the air, and it grew larger and larger as it went into the sky, and I could barely believe what I was seeing. This type of power...it was one that only I thought could use it, and I had never imagined in a million years that my cursed brother would have mastery over the same domain as I did.

I watched the blue orb light up into the sky, as it went by far too quickly for me to react to. 

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw some leftover campers still staring in shock at the new development, and I immediately felt fear run down my spine.

"RUN! ALL OF YOU, RU-" I cried, but it was too late.

I felt flames surge everything in sight.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

...

...

...

My eyes had been disoriented from the flashing effect that the Aquatic fire had caused.

The first thing that came to mind was that I had been sprawled onto the floor without even knowing, with my knees dug into the dirt, and the smell of smoke filling my lungs when I took my first breath.

Then, I looked up, only to wish that I hadn't.

Fire.

Everywhere, there was a blazing inferno.

I remember before the blast, I saw campers, and my friends all huddled around the exit of the arena.

Now, there was nothing but ashes, and burning timber of the cabins.

The trees that once sat firmly around camp had been scorched to dust, and the arena's frames had been transformed from a freshly cut brown wood color, to a scrawny charcoal attire. The wooden sections of the arena had been burnt completely, and I was able to see what remained of camp outside the arena.

Cabins were on fire, some were completely melted into a pile of debris, as I think the Aphrodite and the Hades cabins had been obliterated entirely, and the other cabins were about to join them. Blue flames engulfed the wooden cabins one by one, burning them to the ground in a fiery haze.

The presence of the campers...the hunters...life signs....

Gone.

Everything within camp had been destroyed and reduced to rubble.

"Jack...what have you done...?" I said, wiping my eyes from the dust that had been carried along the wind.

I saw his body appear from the smoke, his outline was that of a shadow until he walked out of the flames, as a true angel of death and destruction.

His armor changed into a slick, cleaned color, and seemed more refined than it had been before, and his cape was blood-red as always, but now it carried the blood of camp within it as well.

"I've exacted my own justice. The Greek and Roman world deserve to die, and so do you." He muttered, flashing his arm to the side. In a flash of sea mist, his trademarked trident appeared right back into his hand.

"This...this is your justice? You've killed everybody! You sick monster!" I slurred as I rose to my feet in a hurried motion, summoning Razer in my hands as I charged my brother.

There was no debate anymore.

He had to perish. First Jason...now everybody.

Even Annabeth was in the area...and he killed her as well. 

Our blades clashed against one another, and sparks ignited from the edges of the majestic metals. Both of our weapons were strong in terms of power and magic, but I was sure that I was superior in terms of skill and technique. Jack's never been able to beat me, or even come close, so I was pretty confident in securing my victory.

I let him hack away to his pleasure, as he attempted multiple strikes, stabs, and swings with his trident, but I avoided them easily, or blocked them with the handle of Razer, which was thankfully unbreakable. He was an extremely aggressive fighter, slashing with extreme vigor and strength, and very little aim and tactics.

It was sad, really.

My brother was trying to kill me.

I got tired of being on defense, so I finally built up the nerve to shove him backwards and knock him to the ground, with his butt on the dirt.

Before I could consider finishing him, I felt the ground begin to rumble as the earth opened up once again, the ground shook and twisted around me, and the land started to fall and rise. I looked towards Jack, who glared at me with utmost anger, as if he was going to try anything in his power to get rid of me.

It was an earthquake, or at least a phenomenon in that domain, as cracks and piercings in the terrain widened, and these were not small in any way, as the fault lines began to shift all around camp, as if dividing it in some sort of meticulous geography puzzle.

Camp was completely destroyed, with the trails buried and overturned, the lunch tables were sunken into the ground and broken into wooden planks, and the smell of fire from the cabins wafted in the air as trees were burning into ashes.

There was no going back from this.

It all ends here.

Jack rose to his feet as I had been distracted by the change in altitude as I stood on a piece of earth that became slightly higher, almost like an artificial hill or mound.

"Why won't you DIE?" Jack shouted in frustration, grabbing the sides of his head in agony, probably from overusing his capacity for magic during his little attempt to move the tectonic plates.

I lowered Harvester as I saw that Jack started to appear unstable, and I became less worried about fighting him again.

"You killed everyone. Destroyed everything that we built here, as a family. It's all gone." I gave a heavy breath, looking around at the rising smoke and the burned strawberry fields in the distance.

It was still processing in my mind, all this. I couldn't believe that everyone was...was dead. It just didn't feel real, and a numbing feeling invaded all parts of my being. I just couldn't feel a thing, because the fight wasn't over.

"Doesn't matter. We're all gonna die soon." Jack grumbled under his breath, standing with a hunched over posture, with a hand over his left eye.

Power exhaustion.

"It mattered to them." My shoulder nudged to the direction of the burning cabins, where everyone had tried to escape to, only to receive a quick, painless transition to dust in a blinding flash.

I saw his hands begin to glow a familiar blue color as he swiftly raised his hand at me, sending a wave of Aquatic fire at me in the shape of multiple orbs of destruction. He roared in pain and harmful intent as he used more of his already drained powers, and was fully-determined to finish this once and for all.

Expecting his move, I sliced the incoming projectile in half, letting the sliced pieces fly past me, and the other orbs flailed their way behind me and landed somewhere in the dirt, adding more damage to the camp's already scorched property.

"It's over Jack! I have the high ground!" I said, waving both of my arms as I reverted Razer back into it's watch form.

Jack's hands didn't stop glowing, and he didn't look very well. His face was ghostly pale, with beads of sweat forming under his brow, and his eyes had this blueish tint to them that also began to grow. A very bright blue, almost a neon color, infected his body, spreading from his arms and legs, all the way to his eyes.

He had used too much energy...and his body was overheating from the inside out.

Death was imminent.

"You...you were supposed to destroy the evil! Not join them!" I cried, a tear falling from my right eye.

I remembered the time he arrived at camp, how overjoyed I was at the prospect of having another demigod brother, someone who I could fight beside. I thought I would no longer have to bear the responsibility of being the hero of Olympus alone, and that I could have a person to help carry the torch in case I faltered.

I even wanted to help train him, because I knew that one day Camp would be in danger, and I wouldn't always be there to save them. 

Look how it all turned out...

"I...I HATE YOU!" He screamed in both pain and anger, his voice riddled with pure resentment and agony.

The blue completely overtook his body, spreading all over to the point that his skin began to look like a metal with it's bright blue glint. Even though I was fairly far from him, I could feel a growing amount of heat building up in him, radiating from his body.

Similar to Lady Chaos, his body disappeared.

However, unlike the deity, Jack's death was instant, with his entire body erupting in a blue flash, and I peered into his eyes just moments before it occurred. It was as if someone threw a flash grenade into a pool of blue paint, and it left behind the smell of burnt grass and dirt. It was ironically fitting for someone like my brother.

Though, I couldn't tell if he noticed because his eyes were clouded in a blue color as well.

...

The first thing I did after he died, was look up into the sky. I was greeted by the sun's dim scene, and I noticed that I could stare at the sun and not be blinded. It was just a yellow color, very plain, unlike the way it should usually be. I had never seen it like that way before, and it wasn't very difficult for me to piece together what had happened.

Apollo must have faded.

There were no clouds either.

So Zeus must've kicked the bucket as well.

The ocean next to camp was calm and lifeless, with no waves at all.

Father had moved on.

I could assume that most of the Olympians had left as well. The gods had fallen, even though I talked to them not very long ago. Probably Hera, Hestia, Hades, Hephaestus, Artemis, Dionysus, Demeter, Persephone, Aphrodite, and Ares were either already gone, or on their way like the rest of them.

Honestly...I couldn't believe it.

So this was how the Greek World perished...not by the sword...not by Kronos or Gaea...but by nature.

I didn't whine, I didn't complain, and I didn't cry.

I only felt chilled.

...

Then, I had this funny, funny feeling that surprised me. My chest had this tingling sensation, like something was growing from my heart.

I didn't even need to take off my shirt to see what it was, as I could see this golden shine appear where my heart should be, and it was as if I had a flashlight pointed directly at my chest. The light began to stretch out slowly, with it starting out as a small circle around my heart, but it was gradually growing larger in size. From the speed of it's increasing size, I would say I had about a minute or so before it encompassed my entire body.

What perfect timing, wasn't it?

This light...this meant that I would soon fade.

This is what Pontus, Chaos, and the Olympians must have experienced, and now it was my turn.

For all I knew, I could be the last being in the Greek World alive. With the campers and hunters gone, and most monsters faded, there was an eerie possibility that I was completely alone, literally being the last man of my world.

The light took hold on my lower body, and my shoulders. 

Damn, quicker than I thought.

I glanced around Camp once more, looking at the piles of ashes and charred wood that once was my home and my faithful friends. I could still remember only moments ago, that I was still talking to them. Thalia, Jason, Pipes, Leo, Frank, Hazel, Nico...even the others like Calypso and Rachel, whom I had rarely spoken to, but had good relations with.

I failed them.

"Sorry guys..." I whispered in the smoke-filled air.

Then, I felt my hands and feet begin to lose the battle.

...

I stood up, and I noticed a wooden bench that had been in the Camp, and had somehow escaped most of the disaster and remained relatively unscathed, with only a few burn marks on the sides, but it was mostly still a colorful light brown color.

I walked over to it, and felt the light growing underneath my neck, slowly reaching higher and higher, and I knew my time was coming to an end.

Plopping myself onto the seat, I stretched my arms and yawned loudly, with the quiet winds and the sound of sizzling wood and grass next to me.

If I was going out, I wasn't going to beg and cry.

"Hey Zoe...you watching?" I said aloud, unravelling my sleeve and saw the familiar tattoo of a huntress with a bow.

The huntress didn't move. Not even a glow.

"Figures." I sighed, her soul must have moved on as well.

I felt the light begin to takeover the last of my body, with my being completely showcasing a bright golden shine of luminescence, like I was a human lightbulb or something strange like that.

"Well...looks like it's game over for me." I muttered under my breath.

Lots of things were going through my head, but I was sure that I only had a few seconds left to lose. I had my legs crossed in a displeased position, and I put my arm under my chin as I leaned to the side of the bench. I rubbed the dirt off of what remained of my face, and I felt my skin one, last time.

This was it.

"Man...I hate how this fanfiction ends. I didn't even get to use all the different powers I got fr-"

And I was gone.

The End

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author's Note: Or is it?

P.S: +10 points to HufflePuff to the people who can tell me where I got the dialogue for Percy and Jack's fight from. (If it isn't already obvious.)