Here we are! Finally, after one hundred plus chapters, Nikandreos finally appears! This is probably one of the most mind-bending, yet important chapters of the fic. It was one of the toughest to write too, I'll be honest. The reason it took so long for this update is because I kept going back, rereading, changing some things, and just in general not being happy with the chapter. But I'm satisfied with how it turned out. Hope you all feel the same. If not, let me know what confused you or irked you in the reviews. I might've messed up somewhere.
Anyway, regardless, hope you like it!
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters (except the OC's) Percy Jackson & The Olympians, Heroes of Olympus, or Trials of Apollo. All of that belongs to Rick Riordan.
17. My Destiny Is Revealed
Talon
Okay, I ain't gonna beat around the bush here. I know this has been a long time coming.
I know ya'll want to see what pops looks like, how he talks and acts, all that shit. I get it. I've felt the same way for years, ever since I heard the story.
"He is a legend known to few. Only the gods...and myself, are familiar with such a story."
"How?"
"He told me himself, when he gave you to me."
"Why couldn't he raise me? Isn't he my dad?"
"He's a god, kid. And he's not a very...well-liked one, either. He's vilified in the eyes of the Olympians."
"Why?"
"The story goes, that long ago, mortals decided they no longer needed the gods. Got big-headed, thinking they could manage without them. So they tore down the statues, stopped praying, and stopped believing altogether. This angered many of the gods, and they enacted their wrath on the mortals. Killing several with the might of their will alone."
"But I thought they made people. Why would they want to kill em' all?"
"They aimed to start over. Zeus himself aimed to destroy everything and begin anew. It wasn't until one day, they attacked a small Greek village, no different from the rest, when everything changed. In that village, resided Nikandreos."
"A former warrior, retired, living with his wife and children. Before they attacked, Hera, the Queen goddess, warned him, and gave him the power to stop it."
"Why'd she do it?"
"She must've been the only one with a clear head, seeing what kind of monsters the gods had become. Either way, with his new power, Nikandreos was able to fend off the attack, and went on a mission to protect humanity."
"He actually fought the gods?"
"By himself."
"Where is he now?"
"Well, when he defeated the gods, he made them promise to be better. They agreed at first, but anger and fear filled their hearts, at the prospect of this man, this god rather, coming after them once again. So they attacked him all at once, and thought they killed him. But they didn't."
I waited patiently, but he remained vague as ever.
"Before you know it, you came along. Guess he was too weak to continue, and too weak to face the gods again. So he had you, and gave you to me."
Had me. Gave me away.
It was all fuzzy, and even at the time, not detailed enough to give me a real answer. Maybe I had a decent idea of what happened as far as Nikandreos and the gods go, but the god himself, who my mother is, and why he's been hiding out here, giving me cryptic visions for all this time, have stayed as mysterious as ever.
Until now.
Now, I'd press for the truth. I wouldn't let him slip away again. I'd look him in the eye, or eyes, or whatever the hell he has, and demand some answers. Straight up.
As much as I hated it. I had to force back my worry for the others, and just put faith in them that they could handle Tsukuyomi and his band of demon freaks. I needed this. Call me selfish, call me crazy, but right now, I'm not gonna focus on a battle, or anything else. I'm focusing on this talk.
I'd find out just who he is, and what's been going on this entire time.
I found it a hell of a lot easier to keep walking when the worry for my buddies was in the back of my head. It was hard, yeah, but those bastards are tough. Hell, they might not even need me.
Any opposing thoughts were shot away. Nope. Don't think like that. Keep walking, keep going. This is the truth we're talking about, buddy. This is the big deal, remember? Remember all the years of questioning? It's coming to a head.
Don't you wanna find out what your destiny is?
I thought I already knew what it was. Maybe not then, but recently...I've found the people beside of me to be a damn good purpose. I figured that was it. Okay, I've joined a band of unfortunates, all with different, tragic stories. We'd fight some big bad, beat em', and live happily ever after. Sappy shit, but I wasn't complaining.
That was until said big bad kept slipping away, and things got more grim as time went on. Matt's dad died. Harper's brother died. I thought...I thought I'd lost Malachi and Sera for good. Sera, in a different way, and Malachi, to his own self-loathing.
The edge of that mountain still scares me. Because I wonder...what would've happened if he'd done it?
"Malachi, don't! Don't fucking dare!"
"I don't deserve to live!"
Memories like that flashed before my eyes. Moments where I felt helpless, confused, completely fearful for what could happen in the next second.
I felt the same fear here.
It wasn't overwhelming, or enough to induce a panic attack. But it was there. I'd built several versions of Nikandreos in my head, but I knew that not all of them would check out.
I didn't want to be disappointed.
As I continued down the cave path, a small golden light entered the fray of pitch-black darkness, at the very end of the tunnel. It was only the size of a dot when I first saw it, but it grew as I got closer. It must be where he is.
My slow, nervous walk turned into a run of desperation. I hadn't run like this in a long time, and I'd be embarrassed if anyone else saw. I just knew what my face looked like, and I hated it. Why should I be excited? He wasn't there for me. Never bothered to really show his face, or explain things the way he should've. So why am I running like this?
Either way, I couldn't stop it. I ran and ran until the golden light took the shape of a thin triangle, outlining a mesh of rocks piled against each other, with little wiggle room leading into another place.
That's when I halted. The golden light shone bright. I couldn't see on the inside, but I knew that whatever was in there, it seemed to be surrounded with similar energy, floating in the air. I could feel it, from deep within. It felt...familiar.
Like a gun you haven't used in years. Or a toy you haven't played with since your knee-high days. Or...
You get the idea. A nostalgic wave came over me, and it made me sigh. I didn't know what was happening, or why I felt this way. Maybe it had to do with that weird glitching thing earlier. Maybe being near this energy made me feel better in a way. In fact, since I entered this cave, I haven't glitched yet.
On the other side of these rocks...that's where he is.
That's where the truth is.
All I have to do is duck and enter. Make my body move.
So why can't I? Why's it so hard?
I know exactly why. All these expectations are about to be confronted, and in about ten seconds, they won't exist anymore. Reality will settle.
But I've been let down before. And I've been surprised. Nothing new.
So either way the street goes, I'll travel.
Finally, I bent my knees and shuffled through the golden gate, entering a different plane of existence.
Well, if you told me that's what it was, I'd believe you. The tight, dark cave, widened into something completely different. A world of golden glass, shimmering and moving like dark matter, in a hexagon structure, with walls rising to the sky, farther than the eye could see. Suddenly, it felt like I was no longer in a cave, or anywhere near a cave. It felt like I was hovering on clouds in the air, or some castle made of energy.
It was well lit, almost in an artificial way, with absolutely nothing in the space. No furniture, no bugs, no rocks, just...nothing. It was like I had been thrown in some giant golden tube, and fell straight towards the diamond-colored floor. Said diamond floor moved, each particle just floating around as if it sat in water.
I stared at it for a moment, not even worried about where pops might be. I thought it was so unusual, so completely out of element, it had to be in my head. I mean, how could this shit be slam in the middle of a damn cave?!
"Talon."
My eyes didn't move, and neither did anything else. I froze stiff. The voice...it sounded exactly like the one I hear in my head, the one that gives me all that power. Only this time it's not some reverberation, or muffle, or a little note in my mind, it's real.
I slowly look up at the direction of the distinct sound, and find it to my right, about forty feet away.
Nikandreos.
Before you ask, no, he didn't look anything like I expected. It actually took me by surprise, because I pictured him as...well, something different. Not looking this much like me.
Which he does. Just a bit aged up by about...thirty years. A couple of inches taller, which means about six foot or just under, in good shape, but not god buff, or even that big, just in good shape. My eyes sort of darted all over the place, trying to take in as much of him as possible, even though I had plenty of time to, it felt like I only had a second.
He wore Greek armor that looked like it had been through the ringer. Splotched with stained blood, dented, cracked, cut in several places with swords, and so on. He sat on a large rock, his sword propped up next to him, completely covered in dried blood, no, not blood, but ichor.
Then my eyes fell on his face, immediately noticing the unkempt, medium length dirty blonde hair, pushed back behind and beside his head, as if frozen in the middle of a blow-drying session. His beard matched the hair. Trimmed down to his chin, but unkempt and wild. His eyes were the same color as mine, brown, only they looked dead, completely blank and void of any emotion.
Just the entire way he sat screamed depressed and worn out. Slouched shoulders, casual forearms propped on his knees, hands dangling limp on the edge. He looked like the lone survivor on a deserted island, or a man that just dredged through an entire battle, watching all his friends die, killing twice as many enemies.
For a minute, we stared at each other. He didn't blink, and I didn't speak.
"Hello, Talon." He said, still not blinking.
I shouldn't have been expecting an enthusiastic reaction, or even a smile. But maybe I'd been hoping for it. And maybe I was a little disappointed. Which is fucking stupid. It's stupid how I feel a little wave of anger at the monotone in which he greeted me. Like a business partner he was about to have a meeting with.
Must be all I am to him, after all. Not a son. What did I expect anyway? It wasn't there as a kid, so it's not gonna be here all these years later.
I nodded at him, taking careful steps forward. "So this is where you've been hiding all along, huh?"
He didn't laugh sarcastically, or scoff. He nodded back at me, still not blinking.
"Yes. It is."
"How long?" I asked, admiring the place like an open house. But really, I couldn't stare at those eyes, never blinking. It freaked me out, because it felt like looking in a mirror. "I mean, how many years you been cooped up in here?"
A pause. "A long time. Waiting for this moment."
"Yeah?" My voice rose a bit, my insides flaring up. "Well ya didn't have to wait around so long, you know. You could've come by a couple of times."
"I couldn't," He said, "I had to wait for this."
"Why?" I countered quickly. He just stared at me.
"Got a chair or rock I can pull up?" I asked, my voice cold and snappy. "Ah hell, I'll just do it myself. That's what you gave me all that power for, right?" I started to lift my hand, preparing to create a lawn chair, when my forearm glitched again. Flashing a transparent gold and sending a jolt through my entire body.
It nearly knocked me to the ground. Nikandreos just sat there, watching, and I looked like an idiot.
I heard his fingers snap, and looked up to see a lawn chair, the dollar store one that I was going to imagine. He summoned it right in front of him, and kicked it to slide across the glass in my direction.
It stopped perfectly at my feet. With a scowl on my face, I tucked it behind me and sat down, glaring at him.
"You're angry with me. I understand." For the first time, something besides his mouth moved. A hand gesture. "I can answer your questions if you want."
"First, we're gonna fix this problem." I demanded, pointing at the arm that glitched. "You said my power ran out, so give me some more."
He didn't move or respond.
"That's why you brought me here, isn't it? I almost died. That's what you said."
"I never said you'd die. You asked me if you would, and I didn't answer that specific question. But...yes, you will fade if you use more energy."
"Okay, but-" I did a double take, "Fade? Why did you say that?"
"You came here for the truth. That's what you want, isn't it?"
I didn't like how he avoided the question. "Yeah, that's what I want. But I also don't wanna 'fade' or 'die' or whatever the fuck might happen. In case you hadn't noticed, I got buddies that need me. And if I gotta have your energy to help them, then I need some more!"
He stared intently at me, his next words coming out with a hint of the same coldness mine had. "You're angry with me. Yet you believe my words."
"Yeah well, it's your energy. Why the hell wouldn't I believe you?"
"Why would you? Why do you think you'll die in the next minute? You survived the trip over here, correct?"
He didn't give me time to answer. "I know a part of you hates me, but you need to listen for just a moment. Push back the worry of dying for now. As long as you don't use your energy to summon anything, you'll be fine. You won't die."
That calmed me down a bit, and I'll be honest, him getting a bit firmer and sterner with me helped. "Okay. So what gives?"
"The truth."
"The truth, yeah. And exactly how much time we got? My buddies are out there fighting Jeepers Creepers right now!"
"In here, we have all the time we need."
Not sure if that's true. But for now, I'm willing to accept it. "Okay, first things first, who's my mother?"
His mouth fell open a bit, and then it tightened. For the first time, he averted his gaze.
"You said the truth, so what's the truth? Who's my mother? She dead? Been dead? If not, where is she? What's her name? Do you even know her name?"
Nothing.
"C'mon! Answer me!"
Quietly, under his breath, "You don't...have a mother."
That threw me for such a loop that I honestly thought he was kidding. "What? How the hell else am I here? Look, if it's someone crazy, like Hera, I ain't gonna freak. I figured it was a goddess anyway after I bled Ichor a few days ago."
Now he looked almost squeamish. Like all of this is turning out to be more difficult than he imagined.
I pressed. "I ain't gonna tell her about it or visit her. None of that. I'm just curious on who it is."
"You don't have a mother, Talon. It's the truth."
He said it again. My eyebrow raised on its own, "Then how the hell do I even exist? What do you mean I don't have a mother? Ain't that impossible or something?"
Nikandreos sighed, "I didn't think that would be your first question."
I smiled mockingly, "Well sorry pops, it's been on my mind for a few years now, so excuse me."
He struggled with his words, putting them together slowly. "There are...things you've always needed to know, but it was never the right time to tell you. That is, until now." He shook his head helplessly, "I just don't know how to say it."
"I'll wait."
"It's just...this will change everything. I figured we would build up to it, but...no, you want answers. You want to get to bottom of it all right away, and that's understandable." He scratched his neck nervously, "I need to see it from your perspective."
The way he said "your" and even "you" in general sounded off. I don't really know how to even describe it, but it's almost as if he hesitated before he said those words. But that's stupid. Those are just simple...words. I mean damn, what's got a hold of his tongue all of a sudden?
"Yep, I want answers. I wanna know all the stuff you've been waiting to tell me until now."
"Very well." He looked at me, "Do you want to know the reason why you bled Ichor recently? Why other than that instance, you've never been harmed or felt pain in all your life? Why you don't have a mother? Why you can create things from nothing?"
I didn't say anything. Just nodded firmly, ready for it.
"The reason you can do all of that...is because you're me."
Well, I wasn't ready for that one. My immediate reaction was just to lean forward and shake my head at him like I was missing something.
"I'm you? Yeah...I figured in some ways. I'm your son."
"No, you're not. You're literally a piece of me, broken off twenty one years ago."
As he started to elaborate more, my expression turned horrified. My heart started racing, and I sat stiff in my seat.
"W-What? So you just cut your arm off and I grew from it? That type of shit?!"
"No. You are my avatar. You're not actually a demigod. You're...an advanced projection of me."
Each word hit me like a bullet, shifting my entire world. They had such an impact, but I refused to believe it, and I even started laughing.
"Shut up, man. Tell me the real truth."
"That is the real truth."
"You're just embarrassed to say Hera's my real mom. I get it, really, I'm cool with it. It ain't gonna weird me out too much."
He paused at my front, sighing. "I told you this would change everything."
I kept laughing, until it stopped being funny. Then my face changed completely. "So what? So I'm not even a human? I'm not even a real fucking person? I'm just...a clone?"
"Not a clone. An avatar."
I didn't want to believe it. "Nah...nah, that can't be right. I mean...I do all the stuff that a normal person does. Eat, drink, piss, sleep, the nine yards. You're telling me I ain't made of flesh? I'm just made of energy? All my experiences weren't real?" I laughed humorlessly, gesturing to the place we were in. "Is this even real? Am I having a vision?"
"It's real." He said, "I know it's difficult to understand, but It's the truth. I'm not saying your experiences weren't real, they were. Your childhood leading up to now, it all happened. But you haven't really been...'Talon' this entire time. You've been me."
I absolutely refused to believe this bullshit. This had to be some sick way of messing with me, some kind of twisted game I walked into. Hell, this probably isn't even the real Nikandreos. It's probably one of Tsukuyomi's tricks!
"It's not a trick, Talon. It's real."
"Prove it." My heart hadn't stopped racing yet, the chills still hadn't left my body. I wanted to throw up from the sensations, it was all too overwhelming. "Prove it right now! Prove that I'm you!"
"My memories." He started, "You've seen some of them, right? They feel familiar, don't they?"
I lied, "No."
"Don't lie. You get a sense of deja vu when you see them, don't you?"
"So what? That ain't enough!"
"You can't feel pain because you're a god. You're me. And the only thing that works on gods is Heavenly Diamond. That's why you bled when Ouranos cut you."
"S-Still ain't enough."
"If you were a demigod, why does your body glitch? It wouldn't. When I created you, I detached a chunk of energy from myself to do so, and I knew that with every use of power, the 'life force' so to speak, would decrease. That's why you're glitching, because the energy inside of you is drained."
My breathing got harder with every word. All of this was becoming too much for me, and it was scaring me, how I started to believe it. It does explain why I could use his powers, why I couldn't feel pain, why I bled ichor, and why I don't have a mother.
But still, I wanted more answers. As many as I could scoop in. "Why didn't I remember everything when I was a kid? How come I'm just now seeing some of your...or my memories?"
"I never imparted those when I created you. I gave us a fresh start, as...almost a new, real person."
"Why?" My voice sounded almost pleading. "Why the fuck would you do this to me? Why wouldn't you give me the memories? At least then I'd know who I am! I wouldn't wander through life thinking something completely different!"
He didn't speak.
"Was I just some experiment?! Some glorified spy?! So you could keep an eye on the outside world?!"
"No, nothing like that. It was selfish, yes. But I never intended to create you as a spy. More like a...gate. Like a video game character that I have control over, while the real player remains here, locked away in this cave."
I scoffed, "Comparing this shit to a video game. That's what all that was? A video game? People getting killed! Mary dying! Master dying! That all just part of the game code? The movie script? Huh?!"
"Those events hurt me equally, Talon." He countered, "I induced those emotions. I felt them. They were all mine. You were a vessel for me!"
"Are you just in control of everything?" I accused. "Is the universe, the fate of everyone just all a part of your little movie? Did you decide for Mary to die? For all those people to die? For my friends and what they went through?!"
"I was only in control of our actions, and only for a little while." He answered calmly, which pissed me off even more. The fact that he's so calm. He doesn't understand, or even empathize with the way I'm feeling right now!
But why would he? He's you. He's just talking to himself right now.
No, stop! That's not true!
"A little while?!" I shouted, my eyes stinging. "So what happened? When did you lose control?!"
"Talon, when I created you...I did it as an act of desperation. I wanted to be human again before I died."
"Died? You're a god! Whaddya mean die?!"
He shook his head, "It doesn't matter what I am. My destiny is to die for mankind. Our destiny, rather. And before that happened, I wanted to experience life again, from a newborn to an adult. I wanted to have friends again, fall in love again, grow up again, fight for what I believed in...again. I detached my core from your creation so much, that it was almost like I was hosting a real person. Eventually, as time went on...you developed in a way that surprised me. You became something all on your own."
All of this confused me. So he's saying he wanted to be human again? That's why he made me? And then...I became independent enough to push him out?
I leaned back in my seat, closing my eyes and wiping the new sweat on my forehead. "This is all too much. Way too much."
"Perhaps it would be easier if I told you the full story. How everything happened from start to finish."
"Save it!" I spat. "I got the gist from Master. Colter. You remember him?"
"I do. And he didn't tell you the entire story."
"What?"
"Because I didn't tell him the entire story."
"What's there to know that I didn't already hear? You beat the Olympians' asses, they nearly killed you for it, and you hid away. Seems simple enough to me."
"None of that explains why I did this." Finally, he stood up straight, and began to walk towards me. "Why I chose to create you, place you in a small village, become friends with Mateo, and pursue Mary. Those were the things I had control over, in the beginning. Before you deviated."
The idea that all of that was just some...conjoined memory that belonged to him, that all of it was crafted by him. It made me sick. I never had control over anything. Im not even a person. I'm just...a part of him.
But still, I feel as if we're separated. I still feel like me. And that's why it's so frustrating. It makes it seem like everything was pointless.
In a burst of anger, I shot up from the chair and threw it at him. He didn't move and let it bounce off of his chest.
"I don't need to hear that! I don't want to!"
"I know it's not easy. And I know you think it all doesn't mean anything. But it does. All of these years...they were vital. So vital for our destiny."
"What destiny? To die?"
He pursed his lips, reaching out his hand. "Please, just let me give you a glimpse. These memories will seem familiar."
"I don't want those memories! I want my memories! I want-" I couldn't finish, I just shouted in rage. I didn't even really know what I wanted.
I wanted this to be some big joke. Some ruse to throw me off. But it wasn't.
Nikandreos tried to reason with me. "They are your memories. All of them. Even the ones from before I created you. They belong to us both." He gently thrust his hand. "Take hold and I'll show you just a glimpse."
I hesitated.
"You want to see how you were created? What drove me to create you? You can see for yourself."
Slowly, I clasped palms and gripped tight. As soon as the skin brushed, his image changed from grown man to boy in an instant, standing in the sun behind a small house, dirt on his face, sweat on his clothes. I was fine with it for just a second, because I knew it must be from his past. But it freaked me out when his form switched to me.
I yanked my hand away. "What the hell?"
Nikandreos stared at me, "Familiar, isn't it?"
I looked at him like he was an alien. "I wasn't there."
"In a way, you were."
He still had his hand out. "Grab my hand again."
"Quit switching the picture then." I demanded, "I know you're doing it to mess with me."
"I'm not doing it." He argued, "You see what your mind wants you to see."
I didn't fully believe it, but I was a little curious to see more. So I grabbed his hand again.
Like before, the scene shifted back to the past. I saw a series of events, from his birth inside a dimly lit hut to his childhood. Most days were spent in the sun, working with his father, always some tool in hand.
I heard his voice in my head as I watched. "I grew up a poor farmer, in a small village. My father taught me everything I needed to know to survive. Sound familiar?"
Not really. I thought. Sure, small town checked out, but I wasn't a farmer. And my dad didn't teach me everything, Colter did. Which...I guess is like a father figure, and now knowing that I didn't actually have a father, technically, sort of changed that view.
A few more visions played. Nikandreos and a small girl he befriended at a young age, then abruptly depicting her death. She wasn't bloody, just pale.
"The girl I liked fell with an illness. A death I couldn't stop. Sound familiar?"
Stop saying that.
Flash forward a few years. He's now a teenager. Taller, tanner, well-shaped, with harder, more determined eyes. He stood on the shore of a beach, standing next to dozens of soldiers wearing Greek armor. Nikandreos hadn't put his helmet on yet, and it was scary how similar we looked. Same eye color, same facial structure, hell, even the same nose size.
He slid his helmet on and roared a charge, alongside his comrades, charging the water, and slowly revealed to me...a legion of ships.
"Joined the military and learned to fight. I became an exceptional warrior. I never liked to fight, but I knew that it had to be done. It is the way the world works, and I quickly learned that too."
And he killed. Boy did he. He ran with such speed, he outpaced all of his fellow soldiers, arrows flew past, and he ran up to the boat, catching what looked like a jumping bandit in mid-air with his sword, gutting him.
Nikandreos wasn't the leader, but it was clear he should be. He fought with precision and ferocity, each strike never missing, but always remaining true, and hitting the areas unprotected by armor. It was amazing that even here, as a regular mortal, he was able to register such movements and areas, even in the pressure of battle.
Several more battles played out in similar fashion. With Nikandreos slaying a dozen enemies each time, coming out unscathed almost every time, save for a few small scars.
"At that point, I didn't question it. It was a job. I didn't care who I was fighting for, or what that even meant. It didn't really matter. I was good at it."
At the end of the montage, it stilled on a rather quiet event. Nikandreos walking away from his camp, and everyone's line of vision to piss. Just as he finished, four opposing soldiers jumped out of the bushes to ambush him.
I watched as they took him off guard, immediately slicing his hand that went to draw the sword, hitting his middle and ring finger, slicing them off. Nikandreos howled in pain, distracting him from doing anything. One of the guys knocked him to the ground, stabbed him just below his chest, towards the right lung.
When that happened, I felt a jolt of pain shoot up my body, starting from the same area he was stabbed in. It felt so real, like it had happened to me.
But that all faded quickly, I only got a taste of what it was actually like. Nikandreos still had the sword sticking out of his gut. Which he looked at, and grabbed with his good hand, yanking it out and swiping it at one of the bastard's throats, cleaving it open and shooting blood everywhere.
By that time, his fellow soldiers had noticed what was going on, probably from the scream, and came running over to help him. They managed to kill them all before finishing Nikandreos off.
"I was lucky not to die. It's funny how when that close to death, it gives you a new appreciation for life, especially those you took."
In the next vision, something freaky happened. I was taken from my little ghost perch and shoved into Nikandreos's body, looking at a new battlefield from his point of view, as if I were really there.
I had complete control over what I could do, but it still played out like a recorded memory. Which is the weirdest damn thing ever, to be able to move and look around, even if you weren't there.
But...I was there, according to him.
And this memory, it felt like Deja vu. As I started to see more and more of them, the more familiar they got. Thoughts I hadn't forced to the surface in years.
The opposing army came at us, with me in the forefront. I did what I could to fight, cutting down enemies left and right, with a bit of hesitance. It wasn't my fight. Hell, this didn't even belong in my time period! I don't know the guys I'm next to, or running towards!
But at the same time...I did. I knew these guys better than anyone. I'd sat at campfires with them, gotten drunk with them, laughed and told stories with them. Watched several of them die...
In a flash, as each friendly face blurred in my vision, I instantly knew their stories. I knew their names, their wives names, their kids' names, like information overload on a computer. It all came to me at once.
I wanted out. I wanted to just push myself out of this shit, out of this body that isn't mine, and go back to the real world. As cruel as it is, I wanted to go back. At least there I was Talon. My own person, with my own memories that I made. Not someone with amnesia, for the first time seeing who he really is.
And that's a perfect analogy. Amnesia. These memories had been taken from me, and now that they're back, they make me feel giddy inside. Like they were from yesterday.
But they're not! I wasn't fucking here!
I was there on the Cursed Island when I fought with Malachi and Sera. The other Incendiaries. I was there when we fought the Big Four in Scandinavia. I was there when we all fought Atlas. Same with Tartarus. I was there.
Not here.
"We were. You were here. Why else would you know every move on instinct?"
This is a replay. A memory.
"It's a memory that you experienced. You know it's true."
A man to my right, his shouts got closer. I turned around and grabbed his arm, flipping him to the ground, my sword leveled at his throat. I flinched to strike him, when he started begging for his life.
I deduced he was speaking broken Greek, by the way his lips were moving. An enemy that barely knew the language, but he knew the words please don't kill me.
It came to me as English, and I hesitated. I saw all the bodies I'd piled up, with me at the top. With Nikandreos at the top. Us.
There were many. Suddenly it didn't seem like the honorable thing to do anymore. Maybe I'd enjoyed it too much, and maybe I've been taking everything for granted.
Upon my hesitation, a fellow soldier marched up to me. "What the fuck? Kill him!"
When I saw his face, I remembered him. Thales. A seasoned warrior, one of our best. Thirty-nine years old, no wife, no kids. Deadly accurate with a spear.
He didn't waste any time. Once he knew I wasn't gonna kill this guy, he took his own sword and drove it through the man's neck. Then looked at me with disappointment, and confusion.
"It was then on, that I changed my view on things. I started to appreciate the life of a human more. Even the bad ones."
Flash forward again. A much more peaceful scene. Nikandreos sits on the edge of a house, back in a small village, like the one he grew up in. No, it was the very same. I knew this, because I recognized home.
Overlooking a field of crops, he held a baby in his arms. Wrapped in white clothing. The vision forces me in his body again, my eyes are his eyes, and I have a front row seat at the view of this baby's face.
It's just a tiny thing. Eyes closed, asleep, not a care in the world. Something makes me lean down to kiss it's forehead.
Then I hear a door creak open behind me, and a pair of arms rest on my shoulder, hair meets my jaw. I turn to meet her, and it's a beautiful woman with curly hair, eyes sparkling at me.
I smile at her.
I remember her. The years spent, they all come back in a single frame, cramming its way into my mind. She was...my wife.
It scared me how happy I felt at seeing her again. A woman I'd never met or seen up until now. "That's...our wife."
I even said our. Not good.
Nikandreos's voice was light, but somber. "Chrysanthe."
"Like the-"
"Chrysanthemum flower, yes." He finished. "And our baby boy." His tone darkened, showing the most emotion I'd heard out of him yet. Pure hatred.
"He didn't even see a year."
"What happened?"
"You're about to see." He caught himself and growled. "Or rather, you're about to remember."
The happy memory changed into something far more ominous. Nikandreos stood in front of an eating horse he'd just fed, surrounded by other people. It looked like he was standing in the middle of town.
Then boom, as soon as the scene could settle, I was thrown into his body again. Well, I guess our body at this point.
It bothers me how quickly the terms are changing. From his to ours, from vision to memory, it's all becoming too close and personal for my taste.
Something in my peripheral caught my eye. I stood at a point where I could see a desert beyond the village, and in it, was something coming hot towards us.
It looked like a giant UFO upon first glance, but with a better look, it clearly resembled a gathering of water. As in, a big ass gathering of water, shaped like a cloud, moving as a single entity, staying intact. In my mind, it was being controlled, but to these people, it was probably the weirdest thing they'd ever seen in their life.
That's when it hit me. This was when the gods attacked.
Everyone knew what was going on, and it quickly turned to panic once the storm clouds gathered. Right above the village, the entire sky went gray, lightning strobing inside of them, inciting thunder to follow.
The water was Poseidon, and the storm was Zeus. This specific attack was from the big boys.
"This was at a time when mortals became rebellious. Many of them decided they didn't need the gods. And it turns out...most gods like to be needed."
I watched in horror as a single lightning bolt left the clouds and hit the ground, incinerating half a dozen people to blood and burning flesh. I recoiled, the smell hitting me in a putrid wave, making me gag.
Then the electricity began to rain down, targeting every man, woman, and child. It didn't matter. The bolts had no prejudice or mercy, it hit everyone and killed them instantly, not one attack missing it's shot.
I started to run away, looking over my shoulder several times at the oncoming tsunami. The word hardly described the size of the water mountain. It had to be at least three hundred feet tall, and once released, I knew it would finish off any lucky survivors.
Once it reached the edge of the village, Poseidon, wherever he was, dropped it. It toppled over, making a horrible sound as the waves crashed against each other, each one louder than one of Matt's cannons.
The water hit all at once, just as I managed to jump behind a horse. Upon impact, the horse slammed into me, the poor thing took the brunt of the hit, but I still went flying.
Crashing back into the water, I plunged under. I knew how to swim, but that shit was useless here. You could've been Michael Phelps, and it wouldn't have done jack squat. The current was too powerful, it jerked me around house to house, the ground, back above water, and then back in, completely at its mercy.
I had no idea how I managed to stay conscious. Maybe it was the years of battle awareness I'd learned, but with my head above the water, I noticed a crumbling house with a piece of brick perfectly shaped to grab onto.
Rushing past with the current, I latched onto the brick, catching myself.
It was damn hard to keep grip, what with the entire ocean pushing against me. But again, my trained strength kept me in one place, long enough to see that the water was leveling out, its pressure destroyed the village walls, and now the water was being let loose onto the desert.
Down it went, the pressure getting lighter and the water level descending. The storm clouds that had gathered were fading. It seemed the worst was over.
Eventually, I found solid ground on the ruined house, enough to stand on and assess my condition. Though I hadn't felt the pain at first, probably due to adrenaline, it was starting to sink in.
None of my limbs had been torn off, but I suffered a bunch of severe scrapes and cuts. Clothes torn from my shoulder down to my knees, each tatter revealing deep, red marks on my skin from where I bashed into the buildings.
My head slowly turned to see my house across town, and there it was. Torn to nothing but a pile of brick. The animals were gone, no doubt incinerated by Zeus's wrath.
But my family. Were they okay?
In the back of my mind, I already knew the answer. This is a memory, it already happened.
Still, something compelled me to try. The water stood knee high now. I jumped down from where I stood into the water and waded through it with all my strength just to reach them. People I never even thought I knew. People I only remembered moments ago, but in reality...I'd known them all my life. And never forgot them.
Finally, I made it to the crumbled house, throwing aside brick after brick until I found both of their bodies, lying dead. The baby sat in her arms.
I desperately touched its neck to read a pulse...there wasn't one.
Even though previously, I would've considered these people strangers, knowing what I know now, I felt the same pain, the same sting all over again. It dug like a knife at my heart, twisting and shanking me with its pierce tip.
Blue skies returned; the sun shone down on the wake of death. The bodies had all been burned away, save for those that died from the water, leaving the town with no survivors.
Except me.
A horse's trots could be heard in the distance...getting closer. At first, I figured it was the gods themselves on horseback, coming to make sure the job had been done. But when I listened closer, I didn't hear any other footsteps. Must be a single rider.
I didn't dare act on any impulse of attacking the rider. I plopped down next to my dead family and pretended to share their fate, eyes sideways, in perfect view of the middle of town. If the rider came through, I could see who it was.
I waited patiently. He appeared on the back of a weird looking horse, unlike any I'd ever seen. It wasn't brown, spotted, or even black...it had blood red fur, a matching mane draped over its back to boot.
Its rider was a buff, bulky looking man, clad in blood-soaked armor, twin swords strapped to his waist. As he passed drowned bodies, he'd reach down with his sword and chop their heads off, little red sparks coming off of his sword with each swipe. I only knew one Olympian that had a red shade of aura. Ares, god of war.
It really shocked me at how crazy they were going with these attacks, on this village specifically. Maybe a hundred or so people, just a little farming village, nothing major at all. Yet Zeus, Poseidon, and Ares all come to obliderate it.
Watching them kill these innocent people just going about their day sparked a fire of rage in me. Nikandreos's feelings in the memory didn't need to stoke that either, I felt it anyway. How could they do this?
I knew exactly why. They're jealous, and they love the attention mortals give them. Take that all away...they get whiney.
Ares paid no attention to me. He only rode through the middle of town, finishing maybe five people off, even though they were already dead. He disappeared in a burst of red, leaving me alone.
"That's how it began." Nikandreos said.
The town faded, and I reappeared in a desert, never leaving the body I got shoved in. I walked in the blazing sun, hard on my back. My skin had been peeling, I felt exhausted, tired, hungry, thirsty, and just downright shitty, like I'd been doing this for days. No direction. No purpose. Nothing to keep me going.
My breathing was slow and short, eyes blurry, stomach queasy...all bad combinations.
Finally, I fell to the sand, consciousness fading. It wasn't long before I felt a hand on my shoulder, the press both burned my skin, but invigorated me, clearing all of the blurriness away, and giving me the tiniest bit of spark to stand up.
When I did, I saw a woman standing before me. Not sure if Nikandreos knew what she looked like, so I'd attribute me knowing it's Hera to my own memories.
And it was. She looked no younger here than she did when I saw her. A motherly woman in her forties, black hair, white dress, and calculating eyes. She helped me stand up.
"You've been through much." She noted.
"Wh-Who are you?" It came out raspy.
"Who do you think?"
"You're...one of them."
She nodded, satisfied. "All you need to know is the power I can give you. I can make you the ultimate warrior, strong enough to enact your revenge."
"But...if you're one of them, why would you do that?"
She narrowed her eyes. "Why question me? Why not just accept the opportunity?"
"I don't trust you."
She actually smirked. "You're smart." Next thing I know, she's snapping her fingers, summoning a bucket of water from thin air like a magician. Before she can even hand it to me, I'm snatching it out of her hand and guzzling the whole thing down.
And it's amazing. The coolness down my throat after days of next to nothing is just about the best feeling in the world.
"I'm Hera, Queen of Olympus, Goddess of Marriage, among other things. My fellow Olympians have taken to killing off mortals lately, since they decided to stop worshipping us."
Eventually, I had to come up for air, and gasped it in deep. "Well maybe they don't need you anymore."
She chuckled. "You'll always need us." Then she raised her index finger, "But we'll always need you too. It goes both ways."
"So what? You're the only one with a clear head?"
"Not the only one. But one of few to see reason, and the reason you lot were created to begin with."
"And that is?"
"To balance us out." She answered, as if it were simple. It provided no real explanation, and Nikandreos didn't get it at the time, like I don't reliving the memory. "It's a matter of nature's law. The nature of the universe."
I just stared at her.
She waved a dismissive hand, "Complicated stuff. No matter. The point is, I need a champion to put them in their place. You seem to be worthy, what with your noble cause and all."
Nikandreos saw through that. "Doesn't your husband cheat on you all the time? Are you sure this isn't your path to vengeance as well?"
Her smirk only deepened. "You're clever. Well, I won't lie, it would be nice to see someone stand over Zeus in victory. But really, I know what's at stake here. I see the big picture. They're clouded by their hurt feelings."
I drank the last of the water. "Why not choose another champion? I'm sure there are plenty of unfortunate souls to do your bidding."
She crossed her arms casually and shook her head. "Not really. There haven't been many survivors. Any that have do so through sheer luck, or sheer skill. I think the latter applies to you, Nikandreos." She moved her hands around and circled me like this was just a normal conversation, not a tempting to take godhood. "And it's not really my bidding. Think about it. You can become a beacon for humanity. No, a representative. The representative. Show them the heart that a mortal possesses, with a smidge of godly strength behind it."
"A smidge?"
"I'll make you a god."
The temptation washed over me, and I became very interested. In Nikandreos's mind, or our mind, rather, even if Hera seemed sketchy, the idea sounded awesome.
But hesitation was still there. "Become one of you? Doesn't that defeat the purpose?"
"Oh don't say 'one of you' like that. We're not all that bad."
"Please." I practically spat.
"Okay, we can be a bit testy. But really, the others have just lost their way. You can put them back on the right path, and to do that, you need more power."
Slowly, I nodded, and threw down the bucket. "Okay. Make me a god."
"Not skeptical anymore?"
I looked her in the eye. "If it means preventing what happened to my village happening anywhere else...I will do it."
She grinned, with a hint of mischief. "Say no more."
Scene change.
I wasn't pulled or moved. Instead, the land around me shifted to a grassy battlefield on a rainy, gloom day. Judging by the sea of bodies and the river of blood, I rode up after the battle had taken place.
Across the hill, stood the red horse and its rider, exactly as I saw them before. Where there's war, Ares is in the midst.
The godliness took full effect as I rode through the river of blood and up Ares's hill. Every sense had been heightened down to the molecule, at certain points, if I squinted my eyes, time slowed down, so precise, to the point where I could see each raindrop coming from the war god's chin.
Below his helmet, I saw him smirk. Ares stood up on the back of his horse, brandishing his twin blades. As a god, and as a warrior, I could anticipate his next move. He was about to jump off and attack me. A risky move, but if you're the war god, you can pull off some crazy shit.
He leapt at me, just as I predicted. Steering the horse to the left just in time, I managed to dodge the brunt of the blade.
The horse ran past him, my cue to jump off. We locked eyes, and without running, forced our blades against each other.
A single clash, Ares's skill prevailed, with millennia of experience under his belt, he was able to disarm me easily. The sword spun out of my hand and ended up stabbing the dirt next to me.
That's when Nikandreos's godly power emerged. Golden light surrounded his fist, and he smashed it into the ground, creating a shockwave that sent Ares flying backwards.
He hadn't known about that. That I was even a god. It was a small opening that I needed to take full advantage of.
And I did. Everything played out exactly how I wanted to. What I could imagine, happened, all with the push of my will. I ran towards Ares, putting my hand out and summoning my sword back to me with telekinesis. Once gripped, my golden aura spread from my skin to the sword itself.
I lunged at the war god and stabbed him. The aura allowed me to pierce armor and all, right through his chest.
Ichor fell from his mouth, his eyes wide with shock. I couldn't fight down the smirk on my face, it felt good to do that.
Yanking the sword from his chest, it allowed Ares to fall on his back. Wasting no time, I swung the golden sword down on his neck, slicing the head off completely, just like he did to those villagers.
"I went on a rampage." Nikandreos said in my head. "After that kill, I knew it could be done. The fates told me so."
The fates?
"After I killed Ares, they came to me in the dead of night, and showed me a prophecy in which I would kill all the gods...but lose my life in the process."
They nearly killed you. That makes sense.
"That's what I thought. But things took a different turn than I expected."
In the span of a single minute, I watched a series of events roll past my eyes like a slideshow. All of the gods Nikandreos fought and killed. From Apollo to Hermes, Aphrodite to Demeter, nobody was safe. And after each battle, he would always cut their head off, and add it to his belt, gathering their energy to help him in his fights. It only made it that much easier, and him that much stronger.
"As their strength continued to feed me, I trusted the Fates' prophecy less and less. How could I lose my own life when I'm this powerful? When I've nearly reached the top of the mountain? It made no sense to me." Nikandreos sighed, "That's why I felt no fear when I faced my final challenge. Zeus."
After he killed Poseidon and added his head to the collection. He stormed Olympus, slaughtering everything in sight, and wading his way through blood to the royal palace, where Zeus sat on his throne.
The only god there.
The scene played out before me. This time, interestingly enough, I didn't possess his body, or fight from a first person view. I got to watch this one in a wide frame.
Nikandreos destroyed the palace doors with a single punch, knocking them out of place. He walked through the now open doorway straight up to Zeus, who nonchalantly glared at him.
"So, you're the one who's been killing my family?" Zeus looked younger here. No beard, less wrinkles, and his white hair was about as short as Malachi's. This couldn't have taken place too long after he became king.
Zeus scoffed at Nikandreos. "You don't look like much."
Nikandreos wore the same armor that I saw him in here, in the present. Caked with the fresh ichor that had turned dry. Just from the way he looked at Zeus, he was completely confident, not an ounce of fear.
He showed Zeus his hip, and the heads of the other gods, save for Hera. "This family, you mean?"
I half-expected Zeus to get angry at the sight, but I remembered, he was a different guy here. Younger, cockier, and far more ruthless. He just threw his head back and laughed. "And you expect to add me to that collection, mortal?"
"An eye for an eye." Nikandreos smirked, "You killed my family, I killed yours. And now it's time for one of us to die."
Zeus's eyes fell back on the challenger, piqued with mild interest. He stood up from his lazy position, lightning crackled down his arm, forming the two-foot-long Master Bolt.
Zeus didn't say another word. He pitched the Bolt at Nikandreos faster than I could even see. I only saw the movement of his throw, and Nikandreos blocking the bolt with his golden sword.
He held it there for a few moments, while the bolt struggled against his blade. The other gods had been pretty easy for him to defeat, but I could tell Nikandreos was actually struggling here, just by the strain on his face. Zeus knew it too. He walked slowly towards his opponent, grinning devilishly.
"Come now, that can't be it!" He taunted. "Show me the heart a mortal has!"
Nikandreos used all his strength to force the bolt back towards Zeus, who caught it, and charged him.
They went to town, so fast that I could barely see anything that happened. Just two separate colors of aura darting back and forth across the palace, bringing it to ruins in the process. Blue and gold, they would bang into each other constantly, but I couldn't see a single silhouette or strike.
I was in awe. This was what it looked like when two gods fought. Two real gods. The kind of power that can't simply be reached normally. This shit is on another level.
It lasted forever, but simultaneously, it lasted no time at all. It ended with both combatants covered in ichor, wounds dealt from both sides, but Nikandreos remained on top, pinning Zeus to the floor with his sword leveled at his throat.
He'd won.
And he was about to stab the god king too, when he remembered. Both of us remembered Hera's words.
It's a matter of nature's law. The nature of the universe.
If he killed Zeus here...what would happen? He had no idea. For all he knew, the entire world would fall out of balance. It could shatter and crumble in on itself, killing everyone. Including the mortals he swore to protect.
That wasn't the entire picture though. This had mostly been about revenge. Revenge for his family. And here was the killer, the mind behind it all, beaten below him, just one stab away from being terminated.
But in the end...he didn't want to take the chance.
He growled at his own struggle, and let the sword fall limp in his hand. "I won't kill you."
Zeus raised an eyebrow, clearly confused.
"You gods hold this entire thing together. What that means to us mortals...it means that I can't jeopardize this world for them, no matter how badly I want to do this."
Zeus took a moment to process his words. He didn't gloat, he just nodded solemnly.
"You're a smart man." He stood up, groaning from his injuries. "You may have the might of many gods, but you embody a true mortal's spirit."
Nikandreos clearly didn't like the decision, but he stood still. Maybe he would feel better after taking the chance and just going through with it, but he doubted such a thing. All this death...it's done nothing to quell his emptiness.
"I will change my ways." Zeus said, "I'll stop harming the mortals." He laughed softly, "I never thought about the reason why they stopped worshipping us in the first place. Perhaps it was our fault to begin with."
Nikandreos took his belt off, the one that held all of the other gods' heads, and threw it on the ground for Zeus.
Then he walked away. "Moving forward, maybe you gods should start setting a better example. You know, that way you actually earn the worship you're getting."
They didn't say another word.
After that memory faded, I floated in darkness.
"I didn't want to give up my new godhood." Nikandreos said. "I figured if I kept it, I could keep the gods in check from time to time, if they ever went crazy again."
"Maybe a part of me liked the power. I don't know. Maybe a part of me wanted to get to know them, see what it's like up in the sky."
He continued, each sentence as monotone as the last.
"They didn't take it away forcefully. In fact, for several days, it wasn't even mentioned."
A new scene morphed in front of me. Nikandreos walked up the palace stairs, much like before, only this time, he wasn't hell bent on revenge. He did seem focused though.
At the top of the steps, Hera was waiting for him.
"There he is." She greeted. "You accomplished the mission."
"It didn't end the way I thought it would." He said. "Are they all back now?"
"Yes. You did quite a number, but Zeus was able to bring them all back." She gestured towards the palace with her hand, "Come. They're waiting for you."
Present Nikandreos spoke again. "I was called to Olympus because Zeus wanted to talk to me. Call it naivety, or stupidity, but I never sensed any ill will. Even after our battle. I thought things were settled."
He was ushered in through the palace doors, greeted by every single one of the Olympians, all sitting on their thrones.
Zeus was there. "Nikandreos. It's good to see you again."
Nikandreos nodded at him as he came up to stand before the thrones. Hera hurriedly rushed to her own chair.
The gods remained silent for several seconds, just glaring at Nikandreos.
"What's going on here?" He asked. "What did you want to discuss?"
Zeus sighed, almost as if he didn't want to do what he was about to. "You're a powerful warrior, Nikandreos. And you could be a useful asset. But...you pose too much of a threat."
"What?" He looked to Hera, who wouldn't meet his eyes.
He put the pieces together, guessing what was about to happen. They'd summoned him here like a pig for slaughter.
He pointed an enraged finger at her, "You! This was your idea in the first place! And now you're going along with this?!"
She sunk in her chair, looking over nervously at her husband. "I...I didn't-"
Zeus interrupted any babble about to come from her mouth. "I don't blame her for this. Or you, Nikandreos. It was a good thing, what happened. We needed to be put in check, and we were. We won't make the same mistake again."
Nikandreos scoffed, "Is that so? How do you know for sure?!"
Zeus's eyes steeled. "It won't happen again." He shifted in his seat, not looking so friendly anymore. "You know, your cause wasn't so noble either. You wanted blind revenge on us, all of us, even the ones that weren't against the mortals."
At that, Athena spoke up. "Like me. I was on Hera's side to begin with."
Nikandreos's face had turned red, "She never told me that! She never specified who to kill!"
"It's too much of a risk." Poseidon said. "It's already been decided."
"I have no say whatsoever?!" Nikandreos shouted, arms out next to him. "Can you not just revoke my godhood?"
Zeus shook his head, "Once you become a god, it can't be reverted any other way than death."
Nikandreos's fists were balled, entire body tense. It was completely unfair and unjust, the way they turned the tables on him. It didn't come from a place of intelligence; it came from pure fear. They were scared of him. What he could do to him.
For a few seconds, they just stared at each other. I could tell the gears were turning in his head on what to do, how to play this situation out. If he could even survive this.
It didn't last long at all. Before he knew it, before he could even try to run, all of the gods were standing up, igniting their auras.
They blasted him, all at once.
Beams of colorful light came from all directions and hit Nikandreos all over, engulfing him. It launched him out of the palace.
"The blast sent me halfway across the world." Nikandreos said, "That's how I ended up here."
The scene changed, and I saw Nikandreos crawling on the side of a mountain, in horrible shape. He couldn't even walk or stand straight. His entire body had been burned to a crisp from the blasts, his aura depleted, basically knocking on death's door.
He practically slithered up to the entrance of a cave, and crawled inside the darkness.
"Flash forward some millennia later, when I gathered some of my strength back...I received another prophecy from the fates, saying just about the same thing as the first time. They told me that I would die giving my life for humanity."
The first prophecy didn't even come true.
"In a way, it did. I didn't fully die after my battle with the gods, but I might as well have. I lost years and years of my actual life. Years I could've spent outside of that cave. I had to reform and gather my strength to even continue living."
"This prophecy was different. I thought about it for the longest time, and eventually came to the conclusion that one day, the world would need me again. Something horrible would happen, and I would be the only one able to stop it."
"I struggled with that for years. The idea of dying, even after all the suffering I'd been through. Stuck with an immortal soul, forbidden to live the life I wanted. I knew if I left, the gods would just hunt me down and kill me, but if I stayed...I would be miserable." He sighed. "I was already miserable."
"But then I found a loophole. I knew that gods could use their auras to create avatars...so I gave it a shot. Tearing off a piece of my energy and creating a projection was easy enough...but separating the painful memories to give this new 'me' a fresh start wasn't."
Another memory appeared, showing Nikandreos sitting cross legged in his cave, looking worse for wear, like he does now, crafting something in his hands, like a golden spider's web.
Eventually, that web turned into a little ball of energy. Nikandreos held it in between his palms, his eyes closed with concentration. Most of his energy seemed to be siphoning from his core into the ball.
Nikandreos took the nail of his thumb and cut his forehead with it, enough to draw blood. Then he gently pulled the little ball towards the cut. Once the blood touched the golden light, it transformed from just that...into a baby boy.
Me.
I was literally watching my 'birth.' How he created me. All of my life, I thought it was normal. I thought I had a mom and a dad, somewhere out there. I never would've guessed this weird shit, that I popped out into existence from a mixture of aura and some blood like a witch's potion.
Nikandreos pulled me away from his forehead and gazed at my sleeping form. I had skin, I had eyelids, hands, feet, even a belly button. You never would've been able to tell the difference.
The god closed his eyes and I disappeared from his gentle grip.
The memory changed again. This time, it shifted to a place I would always recognize. The rez. Specifically, master's doorstep.
I laid there in a bundle of cloth, not making a peep. Just sleeping soundly.
On cue, Master opened the door and found me lying there. At first, he reared his head back and curled his lip, probably wondering whose damn kid this was. But then he seemed to go under some trance. His body flinched, and he looked away from baby me towards the sky. After a few seconds, he nodded and picked me up.
What the hell was that?
"I spoke to him." Nikandreos said. "I told him to take care of you."
I'm sure it took way more convincing than that. I know the guy. He wouldn't just adopt a baby out of nowhere.
"I told him a bit more to the story. But it was ultimately his choice. I didn't trick him."
The final memory came next, but there was no shift. I just drifted through the door, phasing like a ghost, and saw something I never thought I'd see.
It was Master holding me in a rocking chair, feeding me milk. Before now, I never had such a memory, and never would've thought Master did such a thing. I always assumed, being a demigod and all, I never even drank milk. I was some anomaly that didn't even need all that stuff as a baby.
But here it was, right in front of me. Master had a tiny glint in his eyes, and I couldn't exactly make out what that was. It almost looked like...hope. Hope and happiness.
Then it ended.
The scene vanished and I was brought back to the present. Nikandreos had taken his hand away from our grip.
I gasped, not expecting the abrupt shift, the chill in reality's air. In a weird way, I wanted to go back to that specific memory, and just look at it a few seconds longer.
But I can't. I saw what I wanted to see, and now I'm back. Back with my racing thoughts.
It's hard to describe what I'm even feeling right now. Feels like I just watched a movie on someone else's life...only it's mine. It's fucking mine.
"And the rest...I'm sure you can put the pieces together."
I looked at him. There seemed be a sense of relief in the way he stood now, like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.
My face was slack. Mouth parted and eyes half lidded, just completely numb. "That was...a lot."
"Yes." He agreed. "I'm sure you have questions-"
"Why'd you choose him?" Was the first thing that came to mind. "Why Colter?"
He flinched, not expecting the question. But he relaxed, giving me an honest answer. "To be honest, it wasn't really about who raised us, but more about the location. I wanted it to be in a small community, made up of at least a few demigods, where everyone knows each other. Like my farming village. Jack Colter was just the icing on the cake. A good man, strong, tough, with much wisdom to teach us."
"Don't say us like that." I said, not really in a cold way, more of an exhausted reprimand. "You were a god, a warrior. Colter didn't have to teach you nothing."
"Not if I kept my old memories intact." He explained. "But that was never the point. I wanted to start over. Replay the game on a different difficulty."
"And stop comparing this shit to a game!" That time I snapped, pissed off at how insignificant this all seemed to him. "It's not a fucking game! It's my life your destroying here! Making it seem pointless!"
"None of it was pointless. None of it. It meant just as much to me as my previous life."
I thrust my finger at him, "You! You, you, you! You keep saying that! It's all about you, isn't it? None of it's about me! I'm nothing, right?!"
"That's not true, Talon. We're the same person. You have to understand what all of this means. Saying you or me is just incorrect. It's us. We are one. Always have been."
I wasn't listening. "So you just created me for the sole purpose of living your life again? Play by play?"
At that, Nikandreos looked at the ground, almost ashamed. "It was selfish, I know. Go ahead."
"No, seriously, I wanna know. You actually created me just so you could repeat your old life before you died to some prophecy?"
He nodded, "Yes."
I couldn't believe it. That's the whole reason I even exist. Because some god wanted to repeat his childhood. If I ever felt small in the universe before, I sure do now.
"It all checks out." I said. "You put me in a small town, just like the village you grew up in, under an old teacher, like your father, with a girl we were friends with that died young, like Mary for me, and that sick kid for you..." I shook my head. The pieces were right there. It all matched up. "You pulled the strings just to you could relive something that happened fucking thousands of years ago."
Nikandreos's lips tightened. "I know it was selfish and stupid. I know that. I wouldn't have done it in the first place had I known separating my memories from you would cause you to deviate."
"There you go again with that word. What the hell does that mean?"
He paused, and sighed, breaking the cycle of our little quick back and forth. "Life...can't be created magically. That's why we can't create a life form with our powers. Or at least, a true life form. Avatars are the closest things to a magical offspring that gods can get, but usually, they just turn out to be reflections of ourselves that we have complete control over. However...if you separate your own memories from the avatar...they can deviate. Which means to go off track."
"Is that what you meant when you said I became my own person?"
"Yes. With no previous memories to go off of, that means you create new ones to fill the void. And as you know, memories...experiences...they make us who we are. As time passed...I lost control over you."
"So you're saying at some point I took over? I became a separate being?"
"Basically, yes." He answered my next question before I could even ask. "It was when you were taken to the Cursed Island. That's the moment you deviated completely. Because that never happened to me. From there on...it was all you. I just had mild control and influence, which is why I was able to send you visions, speak to you, and give you power."
So that's why I was able to tap into it. Those times when I got crazy strong. Scaring Ouranos off in Scandinavia, shooting Malachi and Tartarus, it all made more sense now. I figured that was the case anyway, but I didn't know the connection ran this close.
"Do you have any more questions?" He asked soflty, afraid to set me off.
I didn't get mad. I genuinely just tried to think of things that had bugged me over the years. Things that didn't add up. "Did you name me Talon? Or did Colter?"
"I did." He answered, which kind of disappointed me. A small part of me wished it had been Colter. "I told him your name when I transported you to his doorstep."
"Why Talon? Why not Jeff or something?"
"I named you after Zeus, my strongest opponent. A snake of a god, but I respected his skill and might. I knew you would be the same way, so I called you Talon. Like the talons of an eagle, Zeus's animal symbol."
I nodded, then lifted up my shirt to show him my three tattoos. The boar on my arm, the five lines on my wrist, and Mary's name on my neck. "Where'd these come from? If I can't get hurt, how'd they end up on me?"
"I gave them to you. The boar and the lines to help you blend in on the Island, and Mary's name just because you wanted it."
"I get the lines and Mary, but why a boar?"
"To disguise you as a son of Ares." His answer came quick and smooth. "I didn't want the slavers to be suspicious of your heritage and target you for it."
Come to think of it, I remember those bastards classifying me as a son of Ares, and I just went along with it. Interesting to find out what really happened all these years later.
I put my shirt down. "Oh...makes sense."
Nikandreos looked like he wanted to put a hand on my shoulder, but decided against it. "I know all of this is jarring. And it's my fault that you're feeling this way. Believe me, I know it was horrible to make you believe a lie for all those years. But honestly...it wasn't a lie. You did have your own life."
"Bullshit. I'm not even a real demigod. I'm just a piece of you."
"That's technically true, yes, but what does it matter? I'm not lying when I say that you made most of the decisions and choices in your life. You made friends with Malachi and Sera, you decided to go back to the Island to help Matt and the others fight Ouranos, you decided to stay at Camp Half-Blood, and you gained real feelings for Amaterasu."
Amaterasu...I hadn't even thought of her this entire time. That's another fucking can of worms. Another lie I don't believe.
"How can I trust all of that?" I sounded helpless. Not mad. Like a confused child. "How can I know you're telling the truth? How do I know it wasn't all part of your puppet show? That you knew Malachi and Sera would be on that Island? Or that Matt and the others would be in Central Park that day? Or that you fell in love with Amaterasu, and some of that just boiled over onto me?"
"I never fell in love with her." He said. "We met when she felt my presence on this mountain. We became acquaintances, that's all."
"What's that favor she owes you then?"
"I met her after she took over her daughter's body. She kept my secret, and I kept hers. Nothing more. I sent her to bring you here because I trusted her. My influence had nothing to do with your feelings for her, or vice versa."
He sounded genuine, but I still didn't want to believe it. There was no way some goddess would feel that way about me, the rip-off carbon copy. There had to be more to the story. She knew about me being an avatar.
Nikandreos shook his head, "She doesn't. The only person I've ever told the truth to is you."
"You expect me to just believe that?"
He shrugged big, letting his arms flop to his side. "You don't have to. You can only believe what you feel in your heart, I guess. But it's the truth."
At that moment, I just wanted to sit down and bring my knees to my chest or curl up in a ball on the ground. Just to go to sleep for days on end and forget about all of this. "So that's it, then? I'm sort of my own person, that sort of made some choices in my life? That sort of meant something?"
He started to say something, but just breathed hard through his nose. He knew there was nothing he could say to make me feel better about this. It would just take time. Time to accept. And even then, I don't know if I can.
"I just got one more question." I said. "What's this new prophecy mean? We're both gonna die?"
"I thought the time had come when Kronos reemerged. But that was a part of Percy Jackson's destiny. Then not a year later, when Gaea returned, I thought it might be then. Turns out I was wrong about that too. That belonged to the Seven." He pointed towards the ground, "This however, Ouranos...that is our destiny. We have to stop him."
"By dying?"
"It's the only way. He'll become too powerful to deal with. The only way to stop him will be to overload his own energy with ours."
Overload his energy with ours? "How does that even work?"
"We give up our lifeforce to overwhelm his aura, erasing both in the process." He explained it like reporting a paper. He'd come to accept this long ago. "Neither of us will ever be able to reform. Our energies will be obliderated."
"That sounds like the dumbest fucking thing I've ever heard of. Why not just use Heavenly Diamond?"
Nikandreos growled in frustration, "You don't see the bigger picture here. It may not seem like it now, but the next time you see Ouranos, he will be stronger than you can even comprehend. Too fast to be stabbed by Heavenly Diamond, Talon. Too strong to even be scratched by one of Matt's attacks. The only way to kill him will be to sacrifice ourselves. With the way it will stand, I'm confident that my energy will be at least equal to his, even at the time of his highest power. Our lifeforces will cancel each other out, and we'll both die, permanently."
I narrowed my eyes. "And you've seen all this?"
He nodded firmly. "Yes. It is fate. You cannot change fate."
You can't change fate.
That sentence just doesn't apply to me. I hate that sentence.
"Nah, that's bullshit. You can change fate. How do you explain me deviating?"
"That's different. It was never written in fate for me to do what I did in creating you. This is a matter of a prophecy."
I laughed humorlessly. "So you can just pick and choose what's written in fate? That's stupid!"
"You'll see that it's the only way when the time comes. I know it's hard to understand, believe me, it took years to accept-"
"Oh, I'm sure it did!" I interrupted, beyond done with this entire conversation. "So that's it? That's all you got to tell me? I'm your avatar, and we're meant to kill ourselves?"
He just stared at me.
"All this time...everything was completely different from what I thought it was. Every last fucking thing!"
"I'm sorry, Talon. I truly am."
"Oh I'm sure you are!" I threw my hands down towards my sides, "Fuck this shit! I'm going back out there to help the others!"
Before I could move, Nikandreos reached out his hand. An invisible force gripped me tight by the waist and kept me still, unable to budge. Telekinesis.
"What are you doing?!" I shouted, "What the fuck are you doing?!"
"Eventually an avatar always comes back, and rejoins with its user." He said, "It's the last thing we must do before we go."
My eyes widened. "No...no! Get the hell away from me!"
"I hope one day you'll understand. It...was the only way."
"NO! Stop! Get the fuck away, dammit! I don't wanna do this!"
Nikandreos never stopped. He just closed his eyes, and started glowing gold, his entire body becoming a beacon of light.
Then he stepped into me, and I glowed the same color. A feeling of warmth was sent throughout my body, bright lights blinded me from anything on the outside, even my screams were muted. Now I could fully feel the energy of every living thing, fully remember what happened in the past. Nikandreos's memories.
We were becoming one.
As quick as it came, the bright light vanished, and so did Nikandreos. I looked down at my hands to see no change.
But on the inside...everything changed. I had my power back, completely, and even more so than before. Before, it had been a fraction of this, just a drop from the bucket. Now I could do whatever I wanted in the blink of an eye. My creation power had advanced to a different plane.
Without even having to concentrate, as soon as the idea of a mirror entered my mind, it appeared in my hand. Faster than a blink.
I grabbed onto it and shoved it in my face. I hadn't changed a bit. My sunglasses were still there, same hair color, same hair style, no facial hair, no bigger than before, hell, I even had on the same clothes.
It's like nothing had even happened. Like I never even talked to the guy.
But I did. Everything changed. Just like that, everything was turned upside down. And now he's a part of me. That's one hundred percent true. Just feeling the power inside of me is enough proof of that. I feel unstoppable.
And at the same time...so empty. So confused.
All these years...spent as something else. An avatar. Not a demigod.
The reality set in yet again, like a ton of bricks. My knees buckled, and I fell to them. The rest of my body followed, and in pathetic silence, I beat my fists uselessly against the glassy floor.
(000)
Yep. Like I said, a trippy chapter. It's tough to write because I have the big idea in my head, but I'm unsure how to get it across on a chapter without revealing too much, or it sounding wrong. There were a few drafts to this one, I'm not gonna lie, but this is how it turned out, and I'm pretty happy with it.
Anyway, maybe it's more cohesive than I think, and I'm just being paranoid. It'll probably be fine once I read it in couple of days!
Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for the next one!
Until Next Time.