Rock unsteadily got to her feet and looked at the two wizards duelling, blinding flashes of light and colourful ribbons of light bounced between the pair almost too quickly for Rock to see. She winced in pain as she looked down and saw that her knee was bent the wrong way. With a silent hiss she re-set the fractured joint and limped her way towards the fight.
"I see your skills have improved." Voldemort grimaced. "Too bad you had to be give this power, little Harry Potter always relying on others to save his skin." He smirked.
"Strength. In. Unity. Together. We. Stronger." Harry stated firmly, slowly learning to focus his thoughts. "Love. Makes. Us. One."
"Love!" Voldemort spat, unleashing a flurry of explosive spells towards Harry. "A pathetic excuse for weakness."
Harry ducked out of the way and responded in kind with an attack of his own.
"Mato." Rock whispered to herself.
"What was that?" Strength groaned, approaching the distracted Otherself from behind. The shorter girl had reattached her left arm, the other however was still missing, black and white blood dripped slowly from the stump as it coagulated.
"When.." Rock started, struggling to find the right words. "When Mato and I fought.. We also talked about love, and pain."
"You were ranting about how it was unfair that we carried their pain when we fought a few days ago, was it the same with her?" Strength asked, sitting on the ground hard.
"It was, I did what none of our kind should ever do, I attacked my companion in hatred." Rock said numbly.
"It's good that you're talking about this, even we can get affected by the burdens we wilfully carry." Strength sighed. "But why are you saying this now? That was over twenty years ago, Mato forgave you almost immediately." She smiled reassuringly.
"I.. I don't know. Something is compelling me to speak about it, making me feel it all over again." Rock said hesitantly.
Rock's flaming crown started burning more purple.
"It's over Harry, even with your borrowed power you still can't defeat me." Voldemort declared.
The duel had lasted several hours, both wizards were worn out and injured. Burns and cuts covered them, their robes were torn and the rocky ground was now smooth and glassy.
Exhaustion was creeping into Harry, his body overheating, he had reached the limit of the power of the Otherselves.
He spared a quick glance at Red Wing Axe, his wifes' Otherself.
"It's. Not. Over." Harry snarled through gritted teeth. Focusing the remainder of his power through his wand, it slowly started to change shape, becoming longer and wider. It gained a black sheen with silvery lettering down the middle. Once the transformation was complete, Harry was holding a black replica of the Sword of Griffindor.
"Impressive, but a sword is not match for a wand!" Voldemort gloated, casting a spell at Harry.
Harry swung the sword at the incoming spell, it rebounded and sailed harmlessly overhead. He allowed the momentum of the swing to spin him and cast a disarming spell from the weapon.
Voldemort only just managed to avoid the surprise attack, diving to the floor as the spell burnt a hole through his robes.
Not sparing a moment, Harry surged forwards, sword raised ready to end the legacy of the evil wizard.
"Black Rock Shooter Beast? What's wrong?" Strength asked again.
Rock was silent, staring off into the distance, not even paying attention to the fight between Harry and Voldemort. It looked like she had completely shut down.
The only signs of life was the crown of fire blazing above her head, rapidly flickering from blue to purple as if fighting for dominance.
You betrayed Mato! Rock thought, screaming inside her own head.
I wanted freedom! Kill. To live without pain! Him.She replied back to herself.
We have a duty! We carry the pain of those we love!
They can listen carry their to own pain, this isn't me life!
We wouldn't exist without her!
We don't kill need him her!
You don't deserdie to be a siskillter!
But ignore her I am!
Yokill a fathem! An aboall!!
Wait.. Yes! What's happening? Listen!
Kill Harry Potter!
Yes Lord.
With faltering steps, Rock stumbled forwards, quickly regaining control and broke out into a sprint.
"Hey! Where are you going?" Strength shouted after her, she quickly noticed that the crown had died out and instead a large, solid purple flame emanating from Rock's face had replaced it.
"No, no no no no, NO!" Strength screamed, chasing after her. "Not now! We're so close!"
Not sparing a moment, Harry surged forwards, sword raised ready to end the legacy of the evil wizard.
With an overhead swing aimed at Voldemort's neck, Harry went for the killing blow.
His sword never reached its target.
Mere inches from the Dark Lord's neck, the blade hit a wicked and evil looking black katana. Cruel metal claws held it firm, never wavering.
Harry looked up at it's owner.
"Rock?" The empowered auror asked.
Rock nodded, she kicked him away and helped Voldemort get to his feet.
"Why? He. Almost. Killed. Mato." Harry said getting up off the floor.
Rock stayed silent, summoning the Insane Cannon Lance.
"Well done!" Voldemort clapped from behind her. "As much as it pains me to use a disgusting creature like this, she certainly serves a purpose doesn't she?" He laughed. Both he and Rock disappeared into a cloud of black mist as a small Otherself dove through the air towards them. They reappeared a few feet away.
"Well, shit. That could have been smoother." Strength muttered as she picked herself up and stood next to Harry.
Rock gave them both a cold glare and pointed her cannon at them.
"What. Have. You. Done?" Harry demanded, his face twisted with rage.
"This?" Voldemort asked, turning to Rock. "Just a touch of the old Imperius curse, sitting, waiting, growing stronger, a safeguard just in case someone had this crazy idea to copy all I had done. Can't very well have pretenders to the throne now, can I?" He grinned.
The Otherselves drew their weapons and readied themselves to attack.
"I don't think so." Voldemort muttered, raising his wand and casting a large shield dome over the four of them.
"Now that we've got some privacy, I'm curious to see how good my new toy is." Voldemort smiled. "Kill them."
Rock lowered her head slightly and stalked towards Strength and Harry, her clothes slowly transforming back into her insane persona.
"Shit, shit, shit!" Strength muttered. "I swear Black Rock Shooter, we survive and I'm taking you to a therapist! I'm sick of your insane shit!"
Rock didn't respond.
"I even considered you a friend, I enjoyed spending time with you." Strength admitted, unfurling her second set of ogre arms. "Remember all those nights we spend talking on top of the astronomy tower in Hogwarts?"
Rock leapt at her while firing the cannon lance. Strength shielded herself with two of her hands as the third attempted to grab the pigtailed girl in mid-air.
Harry threw himself at Voldemort, channelling every single emotion and ounce of power given to him by a hundred Otherselves. Keeping Voldemort on the back foot, forcing him to defend. Despite this, the dark lord was evenly matched and very quickly the pair was lost to sight by dozens of spells and curses being thrown around.
"Damn it!" Strength bellowed as her cheek got sliced by Rock's sword. "I know you're in there Black Rock Shooter! Snap out of it!"
She got bullets as a reply.
Harry was very quickly using up his borrowed power, and it was affecting him physically. Blood vessels beneath his skin started to glow and the sweat he had built up during the fight was rapidly evaporating. A small part of him realised that if he kept this pace he would burn.
Then he thought about Albus, James and Lily, his children and Ginny. Picturing them in his mind, briefly remembering the last time they were all together, it was only a few days before he broke Rock out of prison. They had taken a trip to Shell Cottage a small house by the coast in Cornwall, it was owned by Ron's older brother Bill and he had allowed the family to spend the weekend there as a small holiday
He thought about this, and pushed himself even harder.