Chapter 49: Titan of the Dark
The explosion from Pandora blinded Dark Pit's eyes. He was forced to look away for a few seconds as the flash died down. When he looked back to the spot where the goddess of chaos had fallen, all he saw was a persistent blue flame that had not gone out. This was the manifestation of Pandora's power.
Dark Pit looked directly at Pit, and understanding passed between them. They strode forward together and stepped into the flames, absorbing Pandora's power. Dark Pit felt with relief and welcome as Pandora's power once again flowed through his wings.
Then he felt something unusual coming from inside his coat. He opened his coat and produced his bow. He saw the flames gathering around it, congealing into the blade itself. He watched as it glowed first sky blue, then golden. As he watched, the silhouette of the bow changed. It elongated, becoming much longer than it had been before. It was now only a head shorter than he was. The blades had taken a new shape as well. While they had the same curvature on the cutting edges, the other edges had taken a jagged view. With a start, Dark Pit realized that it looked like feathers. When the blade stopped glowing, it was a new weapon entirely. The blades looked like angel's wings, while it retained the paint job of the Silver Bow. Dark Pit was shocked to feel the sheer amount of power coming from the blade.
As soon as the flames dissipated, Dark Pit immediately looked to where he'd set Aria. She was deathly pale now, and he knew that there wasn't much time. He gently picked her up and walked to the spring. As he set her down by its edge, he noticed Raven coming over to help him with the water. Dark Pit stepped back when Raven levitated a ball of water from the spring and settled it directly in Aria's wound. The wound closed so fast that Dark Pit almost missed it. He watched as color rapidly returned to her face. Her breathing evened out and Dark Pit could tell that she had just fallen into normal, albeit deep, sleep.
Dark Pit turned and saw Jerund's soul coming from the stairs. The soul made the motion of walking towards them, but it looked more like it was floating. Wordlessly, the soul moved through the group and submerged itself into the spring. A great flash of light shot up from where the soul entered, and continued to bubble out for a full quarter-minute. Then, the water exploded, releasing a fully formed, eleven-year-old boy. He was wearing nothing but a simple, white night gown. He quickly ran to Magnus and embraced him. Magnus, silent tears in his eyes, gladly embraced his son.
"Well, I'd call this a happy ending," Pit said. "What do you guys say?"
Dark Pit rose from kneeling by Aria. "For once, I agree with you."
"I don't know about you guys," Magnus called out, "but I'm ready to head home and take a very, very long nap."
Magnus's family had a little laugh at that. Dark Pit was happy for them. Of course, the mansion wouldn't be as quiet, but as he looked down at Aria, he decided he could live with that.
"Not just yet," Vinnia cut Dark Pit's train of thought. "We still have to find the rest of the gods."
Dark Pit looked over to the stairs, feeling divine power coming from them. Sure enough, gods and goddesses were ascending the stairs, as well as the boy that looked like Raven. There was Dyntos, Poseidon, Viridi, and Palutena.
The gods approached the rag-tag band of heroes.
"Sorry we had to miss whatever just happened," Palutena said to them, the tiredness of her ordeal evident in her features. "We were kind of…"
The goddess trailed off as her eyes went to Aria. The goddess wobbled over towards Aria, but only made it a few steps before tripping and falling. In an instant, Pit was there to catch his sovereign. Without so much as a single word between them, Pit helped Palutena over to Aria.
Dark Pit stared at the goddess in amazement, still struggling to believe that Palutena was in fact Aria's mother. He should have seen it coming from a mile, given the resemblance, but he didn't. Which left him to wonder why Aria had never told him, or anyone. Dark Pit put the question out of his mind. That was a question he didn't want to know the answer to just yet.
"See," Viridi called out from her position, "what did I tell you? I told you she would be fine. It's the Rewind Spring for crying out loud."
Palutena seemed not to have heard it. She was stroking Aria's face, tears of relief and gladness in her eyes. Dark Pit found that he couldn't keep the goddesses' gaze. He still felt guilty for allowing Aria into that situation in the first place.
Dark Pit didn't want to intrude into Palutena's moment, but he knew they had to leave. The sooner they could all leave that accursed land the better. Dark Pit bent down and gently lifted Aria off of the ground.
"Let's go," he announced, more of an order than a request. Judging by the looks on everyone's faces, it was one that none of them felt like refusing. The entire procession headed for the staircase. Dark Pit felt the relief sink in at long last. He could relax. Their quest was over, and the gods had been recovered. Whatever dark force had abducted them had obviously failed, and everything would be made right as rain.
There was a loud shattering noise, snapping Dark Pit out of his sense of relief. He watched in horror as the shards of the stairs that led to the spring descended into the abyss below them. Dyntos and someone Dark Pit had never seen before had been about to step onto the bridge when it completely shattered.
A loud deep laugh resounded. It came from everywhere, and nowhere. Dark Pit looked frantically around for the source of the voice. He couldn't find it. He clutched Aria closer to his chest, hoping to shield her from whatever was coming at them.
"So you defeated my prime agents," the voice rang out, smooth and steady. "Interesting. And here I thought that the angels without flight would fall easily."
Dark Pit felt his anger rising at the insult. He forced it to subside as he realized that it was meant to get a rise out of him. He continued to look around in silence for whomever was speaking.
Dark Pit felt energy gathering where the stairs once were. Black lightning was converging on a point. A ball of black suddenly ripped open, showing a portal whose inside colors reminded Dark Pit of the Chaos Vortex. When the portal vanished, a man was floating where it was.
Not a man, Dark Pit thought, a god. There could be no other answer. The power and the evil coming off of him was too strong for him to be anything else.
The man had an interesting appearance. He wore a black cape with an insanely high collar. The collar nearly wrapped around his face. His clothes actually couldn't be seen underneath the cape, as it was wrapped around him. The man had long, white, messy hair, which covered his left eye. His right eye was fire-red, and dripping with malice. Dark Pit could see fangs coming from the corner of his mouth. His smile was not one of joy, it was one of evil.
"My name is Panomni," the god said.
"It was you, wasn't it?!" Pit yelled to the god. "You kidnapped all the gods!"
Panomni smirked and said, "What can I say? I like to think of myself as an overachiever."
"Why?" Dark Pit said simply.
"I brought you here to destroy you," the dark god stated. "Shall we get started?"
The god casually raised his hand, palm out. Without warning, a black-rimmed energy wave crashed forth. The entire team was forced to brace and take their eyes off the god. Dark Pit noted that many were thrown off their feet. Dark Pit carefully handed Aria to Palutena.
He stood up once again and glared at the god.
"That's it, this god's going down," Dark Pit seethed.
"God?" Panomni questioned. "You honestly think I'm a god? That's laughable. No, I consider myself a Titan."
"Uh, dude," Pit called out. "I kind of don't have a weapon."
Dark Pit sweatdropped and smacked himself in the forehead.
Panomni let out a mocking laugh at the light angel. "Take your time," the dark Titan said. "You face the same end regardless."
Dark Pit heard Dyntos say something to Pit, but he could not hear what was said. He turned to look at Pit, wondering what was going on.
Suddenly, nine weapon gems came from Pit's person. Eight floated around one, while they began releasing an inner light. The gems began to spin around the center gem. Suddenly, the gems all shot into the center, combining on top of whatever weapon was in the center. There was a brief flash of light, and then Dark Pit looked at the weapon.
The new weapon looked a lot like a First Blade, but it had some key differences. For one, the small blade that stuck out of the end was no longer small. It was a full size, elegant blade, with an elegant and ornate design on the flat of the blade. The white plates of the blade had ornate blue designs that reminded Dark Pit of angel wings. Overall, it was an impressive looking weapon.
"Even with your new toy," Panomni said, almost bored, "your demise will soon arrive."
Dark Pit took this as the cue for the battle to begin. He reached within himself and unleashed the Power of Flight, feeling its strength wash through him as it had not since the day he'd saved Pit's life three years earlier. Dark Pit rose into the air, far above the spring. Pit joined him, apparently having some trouble flying on his own.
Panomni simply appeared in front of them, having teleported himself from the lower altitude. Without any warning, the battle began.
Panomni shot a beam of black energy at them. Dark Pit moved just a few inches, barely dodging the beam. He lifted his great-bow, and began firing at Panomni. The new shots from the weapon were silver, and bursting with the power of all the weapons Dark Pit had absorbed. Meanwhile, Pit was releasing a barrage of golden hail of mini-bolts. Panomni took the hits, and vanished.
"Above us!" Pit yelled.
The two angels split, barely avoiding Panomni as he charged straight down, leaving a pillar of black electricity behind him. 100 feet below, Panomni disappeared again. Pit shot over Dark Pit's head. As Dark Pit rotated around, he watched the charged shot curve into Panomni. Before the god could disappear, Dark Pit added a charge shot of his.
The Titan vanished.
"Where is he?" Dark Pit asked Pit.
The other angel went back to back, as he felt his twin connection opening wide. He could feel the impressions of Pit's mind as they swiveled around. Suddenly, he felt a twitch from Pit's mind that told him that their target was below them. They separated, angling out and then back towards Panomni as a massive black blast 20 feet wide ripped through where they just were. Dark Pit broke his weapon into its dual blade form. He slashed through Panomni at the same time that Pit did. Panomni teleported out once again, with a screech of pain.
Dark Pit didn't have time to react. Panomni came flying past them at lightning speed, a black energy sword in each hand. He flew right between them, nearly cutting an arm off each of the angels, and leaving a nasty wound in his wake.
Dark Pit felt the pain welling in his arm as the dark energy took hold. It was like a poison specifically designed to incite all imaginable types of pain at once.
"We can't take another hit like that," Dark Pit stated bluntly.
Pit nodded in agreement, clutching his injured arm. Panomni came at them again, this time from below and at an angle. Dark Pit and Pit separated, and turned to where Panomni went. The each fired a special attack before the Titan could disappear again. Dark Pit's attack was like a hail of arrows, except that they all had a silver light around them, giving them a comet-like effect. Dark Pit could feel enormous amounts of devastating power in each bolt. Pit's attack was an enormous beam of gold energy that engulfed the Titan even as the arrows pounded him.
Panomni reappeared above them, seeming to be in intense pain. The angels gave him no time to rest. Dark Pit once again split his bows into blades and charged upwards. Pit had filled his blade with the energy of a melee strike. The two angels collided with the Titan at the same time. Dark Pit felt his blade pierce the monster. As they continued to fly upwards, Dark Pit looked below, seeing black electricity sparking around Panomni. With a bone-chilling scream, Panomni exploded into black flames. Soon, the Titan was no more.
Dark Pit landed, feeling winded from the amount of power he expended. Though Pandora's power was the fuel, the Power of Flight was still taxing on his body. He slowly dragged himself to the Rewind Spring. Ever so carefully, he dipped the tip of his forefinger into the spring. Immediately, he felt rejuvenated. He yanked his finger out of the spring as fast as he could.
He heard a moaning from behind him, and stood to see what it was. Aria was waking up in Palutena's arms. Dark Pit immediately ran over to the goddess and her daughter.
Aria was still out, but was coming very close to consciousness. As she looked at Aria's face, and then Palutena's, he could very clearly see that they were related. Aria had many of Palutena's facial features, but Aria's eyes and hair were brown. Although, Dark Pit saw the faintest glint of green as the light of the spring struck her hair in certain spots.
"How come she never told me about her lineage?" he asked Palutena.
Palutena sighed, pain evident on her face. "It is dangerous to be a child of mine. 500 years ago, her older brother was kidnapped and used as leverage against me. He didn't make it. I swore never to have children again, but…"
"Aria was born," Dark Pit finished.
Palutena could only nod. Dark Pit saw all the love that Palutena had for her daughter in that one look. It must have been heart-wrenching to watch Aria grow up from a distance. But Dark Pit understood the risk.
Aria finally opened her eyes. They widened in shock when she recognized the face she was staring into.
"Mother?" Aria asked in a disbelieving whisper.
"Oh how I've missed you," Palutena said, drawing her daughter into a tight hug. Well, as best as she could, given that Palutena was carrying Aria.
Aria suddenly looked around. Her eyes widened once again when they settled on Dark Pit and the group behind him.
"Do they know?" she asked.
"Yes," Palutena answered, "And even if they didn't, I would have no doubt had to tell them."
Aria seemed to realize her mistake. Dark Pit was almost tempted to say, 'Know what?' just to tease her. However he didn't.
As Aria was set on her feet, Dark Pit drew her into a fierce hug, letting tears of joy spill from his eyes.
"I was so afraid of losing you," he whispered into her ear.
"Funny," she said tiredly. "That same thought entered my mind when I sacrificed myself for you."
"Don't you ever scare me like that again," Dark Pit sobbed into her hair, letting all of his bottled up emotion out. And then he looked at Palutena.
She was casting a disapproving glare in his direction. Dark Pit felt like he wanted to wilt under the malice in Palutena's gaze. It was if she was saying, Touch my daughter, and you're a dead man.
Then Dark Pit heard a familiar voice in the crowd, one that he had not heard in what seemed like an age.
"Dark Pit," Ladon's voice called. Dark Pit turned, and, to his eternal shock, he saw Ladon standing there. Not the staff, Ladon the man. Dark Pit wasted no time in rushing over and embracing his old friend.
"Ouch," Ladon said. "Be careful, I just got this body."
Dark Pit laughed.
"It is good to see you in high spirits," Ladon said simply.
"It's good to have an old friend back," Dark Pit replied.
Ladon's eyes glazed over, as if he were suddenly somewhere else.
"What's wrong?" Pit asked his friend.
"Nothing. I am still dealing with confusing memories. It does not matter though. The important thing is that I have I life once more."
"That is certainly something to be thankful for."
Ladon suddenly got a gleam in his eye. "You know, I remember you once asking me why I never wound up being more than a friend to Lilia."
Dark Pit had to think a little. He remembered that it was only a few days before he revealed to Ladon his proposal plans for Lilia. He had in fact asked that question.
"Well," Dark Pit prompted.
"I never felt that way towards her because we share blood. I am also a son of Hecate."
Dark Pit would have reeled in shock if not for all the other things that had happened on that day. As it was he just said, "Still doesn't change the fact that you're a friend."
"No, I suppose it does not."
"Come on," Dark Pit said, "Let's get out of here."
A/N: Thank you all for staying with our stories thus far. The main story is at last over. However, there is still one more chapter and an epilogue to come, hopefully before the end of the weekend. So stick around and enjoy. Also, let me know of what you thought of this story, as the main plot is in fact over. See you all next chapter.
