I'm excited for this one.

Old Matt has been one of my favorites ever since book three. Hope you guys like him in this chapter, and how he ties into the story!

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.

7. I Get A New Sword

I feel like I say this a lot. But...this might not have been such a good idea.

Not hiding. No, hiding was pretty much our only option, given the circumstances. But I mean hiding in Old Matt's world, endangering his life, and his planet...even if said planet is a dying wasteland.

That's me, though. That's one of my many flaws. When things get tough, I start to get reckless and impulsive, and whatever feels comfortable, I sort of go with it. Like in this situation, I didn't want to pick some random universe, because Olympus knows what's going on in there. For all we know, the planet in the universe we might've chosen to hide in, could be run by a thousand copies of Ouranos. So I purposefully looked for one that I'd been to before. And when I felt Old Matt's aura...I made the choice.

Besides, maybe it isn't so bad. It's not like Old Matt is a pushover. Far from it. For those of you who don't know the guy, if you somehow forgot, which...well, he's a hard guy to forget, I'll explain briefly.

Old Matt is my counterpart from an alternate universe. In this universe, he lost the fight to Ouranos. Ouranos killed all of his, and technically my friends, leaving this Matt as the only survivor. Zeus died as well, and before he did, he gave this version of me godhood and his Master Bolt. From there on, for eons and millennia, my counterpart has fought Ouranos day in and day out, all because he refused to make some decision that cost the fate of the battle.

What that was, I've had my theories, but never a concrete answer.

Either way, that's him in a nutshell. He's a badass. Despite his horrible situation, I would love to be like this guy when I grow up. I know I always talk about how I'd never become a god, and I wouldn't, but man, it's tempting when looking at this version of me. He's built like a tank, and wields three Heavenly Diamond weapons. He possesses power that rivals even Zeus, and could definitely give the new, Adam Tree absorbed Ouranos some trouble.

Anyway, enough of that. Let's get back to what's happening.

Me falling to the ground.

I remained composed, holding myself up in the air and slowing my descent with telekinesis. As I dropped, I felt for my friends' auras, tracking them to the point just below me, about two hundred feet.

Even looking down, there they were, in the sand of the Earth, buried.

As soon as I touched down, I ran over to them, "Everyone alright?!"

Harper coughed up some sand and gave me a thumbs up, "Peachy!"

I helped her and the rest up, did a little head count in my head...finding that one person was missing. Talon.

"Anybody seen Talon?" I panicked, "Where is he?!"

"Relax." Amaterasu said. With a flick of her fingers, a mound of sand exploded, and Talon rose from it, against his will.

He'd seemingly passed out from being buried so deep, because when he hit the open air, he woke up in a frenzy, flailing his arms everywhere and screaming. Finally, once he saw us, he calmed down, but his breathing was still rapid.

He looked at all of us, blinking, "I...ain't dead, am I?"

"No, you're fine." Malachi said. "A little sand...everywhere, but fine."

I looked up at the sky, from the place we'd seemingly fallen, and looked back at Talon, bewildered. "How the hell aren't you dead from that fall?"

"The hell if I know. As soon as I hit the ground, I didn't feel a thing. Just a bunch of rattling." He began explaining, animated, with his hands out in front of him. "You know those damn plastic balls those people get in and run around on a pool?"

We all just stared at him.

At our lack of response, he felt the need to explain further. "C'mon guys, you've seen em' before. The bubble things. People bump into each other with em'. In the pool..."

"Are you done?" Harper said, annoyed. "Because if you aren't, please, keep going. Not like we have a super-powered psycho hunting us as we speak."

Talon just mockingly smiled at her, about to argue, but thankfully, Amaterasu interrupted, "I placed a barrier of aura around him before the fall. That's why he survived."

Talon looked at her in appreciation, "Ah, you saved my life yet again. Making me feel like a cowboy in distress here, darling."

"No flirting!" Harper shouted abruptly, "We need to move! That bastard could be here any second!"

Amaterasu nodded, "I hate to say it, but she's right. He may not be here now, but with his current abilities, he'll arrive in no time." She shook her head, "Frankly, we're out of our league here. Even together, we don't pose much of a threat."

"Strength has to bow to wisdom sometimes." Annabeth muttered, sounding like it wasn't even meant for our ears, but just hers.

Percy scoffed, "I'm not sure that applies here, Annabeth."

"It always applies, Percy." She protested. "Even here. We have some time to come up with a plan, so let's use it."

Sera's face scrunched up, "Where are we anyway?"

"Looks like Mars." Talon grumbled, and his face immediately changed upon processing what he just said, "Oh shit, don't tell me we're on another planet!"

Annabeth frowned at him, "If we were, you wouldn't be alive right now."

Amaterasu herself seemed a bit puzzled, "It's not another planet. It's Earth. Only...desolate. It's completely abandoned, all except..." She was putting the dots together, and I could pin point the moment she felt Old Matt's energy. "So that's why you chose this place."

I nodded, "Yeah. I've been here before."

Harper cocked her head, "What are you guys talking about?"

I ignored the question, knowing that soon she'd find out. "Malachi, you feel the energy in that direction, right?"

He followed my finger, pointing in the direction of Old Matt's location, about a thousand miles away. "Yes, it's enormous." He didn't comment on it being familiar. He must not be digging deep enough to guess who it was.

"Can you teleport us there?"

He seemed unsure, "I don't know, Matt. I've never been here before, and you know how my process works with this. Why can't you do it?"

I sighed, "I haven't had enough practice teleporting multiple people. And we all need to go in that direction. Can you just give it a shot, please?"

I knew it was a pretty big ask, considering Malachi can only perform a perfect teleportation to places he's been before, or can picture in his mind. This place was completely foreign to him. He'd have to base it off of feeling Old Matt's energy alone. Which was so abundant...I hoped that would make it a little easier.

After a second, he nodded. "I'll try. Everyone, get close. Put your arms around each other and form a circle."

We did, huddling up together with our arms around each other's shoulders.

It took only a second before the moment of truth. Malachi closed his eyes and tensed himself. The next thing I know, we're being warped through time.

My stomach turned and within a blink, we were standing in the exact same place. Or, that's how it appeared, since every part of this planet looks the same. But with one activation of aura sensing...you'd know that it had worked.

Old Matt's energy was right in front of us. And so was his house.

Well, "house" is a generous term. It looks more like Yoda's Hut from the Empire Strikes Back. Almost igloo shaped, with a orange mud color, and just tall enough to fit Old Matt. I recognized it on sight, but the others didn't. Which they shouldn't. The only other person I know who's seen this place is Zane. And he's got his own problems to worry about right now.

"A house...in the middle of the desert." Percy said, shrugging, "Yep, seems about as normal as anything else we come across."

I didn't respond to that. Instead, I walked forward slowly and carefully, not wanting to give Old Matt the wrong idea that we were intruders. Which is plausible, considering the only two beings that should exist on this planet are himself, and Ouranos.

"Alright guys, when you see him, don't freak out." The way I said it sounded a lot worse than I meant, and that elicited a reaction from Harper.

"Why would we freak out? What's going on, Matt?"

"You'll see in about five seconds."

In those five seconds, I reached the door and knocked on it. Almost instantly, thunderous footsteps could be heard inside the hut, and after a few, the door swung open, revealing the lower half of a giant frame of a man.

Old Matt bent down to look at us, firstly me, and furrowed his eyebrows. "Little Matt. I thought that was your energy. What the hell are you-" His words stopped once he saw my friends, and as I expected, it looked like his entire world had shattered. His face went slack with shock, his eyes wide as saucers.

"What the..." He whispered, "Y-You're..."

Harper's head bent forward in shock, and then she nodded, smart enough to already put the dots together, based on my past mentions of my counterpart. "Oh, that's why we'd freak out. Makes sense."

Upon seeing her, Old Matt pushed us aside to stand in front of her. The height difference between Harper and I was already a pretty wide gap, but with Old Matt being taller than myself, it looked like a giant standing in front of a dwarf.

Old Matt looked like he'd seen a ghost, and knowing his tragic past, I couldn't imagine how hard this must be for him. In this universe, Harper was killed right in front of him.

My Harper didn't know what to make of the gesture, but she didn't move or back away, she just stared up at him, a little cautious.

Old Matt reached out slowly, and gently cupped her face, as if she'd break upon contact. "You...I haven't seen you in millennia..." He shook his head, "It's been so long."

Harper didn't push his hand away, or even really say anything. She seemed to be at a loss for words. "Uh..."

Old Matt seemed to realize what he was doing, and pulled his hand away quickly, ducking his head from looking at Harper. "I-I'm sorry. It's just..." He turned to me, "What are you doing here? Why are your friends with you?"

I sighed, "Could we come inside? There's...a lot to explain."

Somehow, we managed to all fit in Old Matt's living room.

I remembered it being cramped the last time I was here with Zane. And that was just the two of us and Old Matt. Now, it's like an entire baseball team with the eight of us, and Old Matt filling the last position. He can be the pitcher.

Anyway, the others let me explain the whole thing. And that's what I did. I left out the stuff that had happened since I last saw him, since that was irrelevant, so I just told him the gist of the day. Which...come to think of it, everything that's happened, happened in the span of a single day. Crazy to think about.

When I finished, Old Matt just stared at the floor, an unreadable expression on his face.

"So let me get this straight...you're in the final battle with Ouranos, he threw you in the bridge world between universes, and you chose this place to hide. That right?"

"That's the summary, yeah."

"Well, you guys are in a hell of a situation, then."

I felt guilty. "Listen, I'm...really sorry about all of this. I just didn't know where else to go or what else to do."

He waved a dismissive hand, "Don't sweat it, kid. No hair off my back."

I shook my head, "No, it is. We barge in here, put you in danger, expect you to help us...it's totally uncalled for, and if you want us to leave, I understand."

"I never said that." He chuckled humorlessly, "Not like I have much else to do, anyway."

Harper was one of the people sitting at the table. She leaned forward, "You've been in this situation before, haven't you? Matt told me about this place, how you..." She trailed off, "Well, you know."

Old Matt didn't answer her. But he did stare, for a long time, intently. "Wow..."

Harper's eyebrows knitted themselves, "What is it?"

"I'm sorry. You guys have to understand...I haven't seen any of you in thousands of years. For the longest time, you've only existed in my memory. Any picture or record was burned away."

"I can't imagine." Malachi murmured, "I'm truly sorry."

"Everyone died?" Talon asked, "Like...even me? Even Zeus?"

"Especially you and Zeus." Old Matt answered, "And judging by your aura...things went very different in your universe." He turned to me, "You haven't had to make the decision yet, have you?"

An invisible lightbulb went off in my head. Oh! Now was my chance to ask him about the decision!

I pulled out a chair and sat down, "About that, while I have the chance, I want to ask you about that."

"Go ahead."

"The decision you had to make, the one...that cost you. Was that about Talon?"

He hesitated.

"I've had my suspicions, but..."

He didn't seem to be too keen on answering, for fear that it would probably mess something up. But finally, he decided to just come out with it. "Yes."

Talon and I exchanged a glance. "W-What was it?"

"I had a choice. Let Talon sacrifice himself to kill Ouranos and save us all...or try to save him and the world at the same time." He lowered his head, "I chose the latter. And that...didn't work. By not letting Talon do what he had to, I allowed Ouranos enough time to wipe everyone out."

Talon was having an existential crisis at this information, as was I. We both knew at that moment, that Talon had changed fate, literally, by doing what he did in Japan when he jumped in the way of the Kusanagi. Without Nikandreos, he had no way to sacrifice himself.

"So I changed fate?" Talon asked, incredulous.

"Yeah." Old Matt said, "Now, there will most likely be a new decision. What that is...I have no idea."

I cursed under my breath, "Why does there have to be one in the first place?"

"It's just how the Fates work, kid. Ways to handicap demigods, is my guess."

I tried to wrap my brain around the idea and think of what the new decision might be. But getting lost in my thoughts was the last thing we needed right now, as we didn't have much time. I quickly shook my mind away from the topic.

"Well, decision or no decision, we need to come up with a plan on how to stop him." Harper said, "Because so far, we've been getting our asses kicked."

"If that bastard's absorbed the Adam Tree, there's not much you can do to keep your asses from getting kicked. Except one thing." He lifted a finger in the air, about to deliver a rhetorical question. "What's the one thing that's been able to deal some permanent damage?"

Before we could answer, he pointed towards Harper's belt, "Heavenly Diamond. That's the only chance you have."

We all remained silent, Old Matt just stared expectantly, probably preparing for a different reaction.

"Yeah..." Talon said, finally, "We know."

Old Matt pursed his lips, "Well if you know, he'd be dead already. You need to focus your attacks with the sole purpose of getting that knife as close as you can to Ouranos. With enough hits, you'll bring his aura down enough to the point where you can face him normally, Heavenly Diamond or not."

I slumped, "You already know he's chaos resistant though. It's gonna take a lot more than a knife to do any real damage."

"Guess you're in luck." Old Matt turned around and promptly whipped out the three Heavenly Diamond weapons I'd always seen him with, holding the sword and the axe in one hand, and the labyrs in the other, presenting them to us. "Cause I've got three. And they're bigger."

I could hardly believe what I was hearing, "Wait- woah, what? You're gonna help us?"

"Of course I am."

I didn't ask why, but he could tell I wanted to, so he inhaled deep, prepared to explain himself.

"Look, believe it or not, I've been praying for something like this to happen for the longest time. I've...regretted that day for equal amount of time, and now that the opportunity's presented itself to change the course of history in another universe, you better believe I'm not letting it go. If I can help save your universe from a similar fate as this one, I'm gonna do it."

Thunder rumbled in the distance, loud enough for everyone to hear, and recognize its source. Old Matt looked to the side, past the walls and towards his enemy. "And you may not have to deal with just one Ouranos."

I got up from the table and shook my head, "No, the last thing I want is to risk any more lives. We already lost Sigurd and the rest of our friends from the other pantheons. I'm not going to let you die too. We just needed time to regroup and come up with a plan. We've done that. Now, we'll leave, and you'll never see us again."

Before I could flinch though, Old Matt had grabbed my arm. "You don't understand, kid. Now that you've come here and dropped all of this on me, I can't let you go. I can't sit by and do nothing knowing that you're all out there, potentially suffering the same fate I did. Like I said before...I've waited a long time to correct my mistakes."

"It's not like your counterpart is a pushover either." Percy suggested.

"Yes. He has an aura that can rival Zeus." Malachi backed it up.

"And we saw what happened to him, did we not?!" I said, raising my voice. I turned back to the alternate version of myself, "After all the suffering you've done, I just can't risk it. I can't risk you dying because of me. I've been through that before, and I don't want to again."

Old Matt's gaze softened. He placed the weapons carefully on the table and put a hand on my shoulder. "I know the feeling, kid. I know it ten-fold. Look around...aside from Ouranos, I'm the only one here. You don't think I've had to deal with that horrible guilt? It was my decision that literally cost billions of lives."

"That's not tru-"

"No." He interrupted, "It is. Don't say it's not. It is true. And I've had to live with that for thousands of years. Eating away at my soul, bit by bit, until it became empty." He sighed and shook his head, not in defeat, but almost tiredly. "I've been dead inside for a long time. The only times I've felt good about myself, in any way, has been helping you. Let me do this...please."

Reading his emotions, he was completely genuine. And why wouldn't he be? He had every reason to want this. But still, that nagging feeling inside of me was strong, telling me not to get him involved. At all costs, keep him away. Because if you don't, he'll die.

My mouth overtook that feeling.

"O-Of course," I said, "Of course I will. I understand."

He smiled at me, which didn't last too long. In the background, the same thunder roared, but in a different volume. This shook the ground, and reverberated through each of our sensing abilities. This wasn't the Ouranos from this world...it was the one from ours. He'd just busted through the bridge world and created a portal.

"I'm guessing that's your friend." Old Matt commented sarcastically.

Talon whipped his head around, looking confused. "Wait, he's here?!"

"That's what the noise seemed to be." Annabeth said, "What are we gonna do?"

"We confront him." Old Matt said, calmly, while picking up all three of his weapons. "Or them, depending on if the thorn in my side gets wind of this, which he probably will. All of you, stand beside me. If we fight, we act as a group. Try your best to get a shot in with the Heavenly Diamond." He sheathed the axe on his back, and handed the other two weapons to Amaterasu and myself. The sword to me, and the labrys to her. "Take these."

I looked at the sword with awe, "You're not serious."

"Dead serious. If I'm holding all three, that's less of a chance of getting more shots in." He pointed towards my face, "Game face, kid. Tighten your nerves."

It wasn't that I was scared of Ouranos, it was more so that I was scared of the thing in my hands. I've never been one for using, or even wielding Heavenly Diamond. There's just so much bad history between the material and I, that it feels wrong to even hold.

But extreme situations, require extreme measures. And our only shot at winning this thing, is with three extreme measures. Well, four if you count Harper's knife.

We all piled out of the hut and into the open, with Old Matt in front, gripping his axe tight. I shot Amaterasu a look, which she returned, not nearly as nervous as I was. Her look told me that she was completely fine with holding the most dangerous metal in existence. Which makes sense, she's a goddess after all. Even if she...I don't know, accidentally cuts herself, she won't be completely erased. I will be.

By the time we all lined up, Ouranos was out front, behind his battle line. He held his spear comfortably, standing in a wide, but shallow crater he'd formed when he landed, signature smirk on his face.

"You retreat to an alternate universe?" He taunted, "And to one of your counterparts, no less? You're that scared of me, Matthias?"

"Don't address him, scum." Old Matt barked, "You're on my property. You talk to me."

Ouranos raised his eyebrow with amusement, and scanned Old Matt up and down. "This...is the man you got your Master Bolt from. And Hendricks..." He smiled with delight once he figured it out, "...had the ability to travel between universes. You must've ended up here when the two of you fought. Now it makes sense."

Before I could refute or lie, Old Matt spoke up for me, "I gave him the Master Bolt, yeah. Heard he's been using it well too. Took out Atlas, helped stop your twisted fuck of a brother..."

Mentioning Tartarus was a sure way of pissing Ouranos off. His face tightened with annoyance, "Threw me for a bit of a loop, I'll admit. But that's all in the past. After all, it only ends once. Everything before that is just progress, including failures."

"Well, get used to one more. Your little tirade ends here."

Ouranos just chuckled, "I'm not stupid. I know what happened here. My counterpart won, right? You're the sole survivor."

It was Old Matt's turn to get tight faced. "A mistake I won't repeat. I'll kill you myself, and save the poor kids the struggle."

Ouranos clicked his tongue, "Ah, you're strong, sure, but Zeus was strong. Fighting me didn't turn out well for him either. If I have to kill two Matts in the same day, I'll be happy to do so."

Old Matt flinched, ready to charge him. But before he could think about it, something to our left shined in the sky. A sickly green light that twisted the clouds, on top of Mount Doom. I'd seen that mountain before, when I first got here. It was Ouranos's base of operations, where all the evil in the world swirled and gathered itself.

The other Ouranos was coming.

I squeezed Old Matt's arm, "Shit, shit! The other one's coming!"

"Stay calm and stay put." He growled.

His arm tensed up as he said it, hard as a rock. I could tell he was a little worried now, as were we. One Ouranos, we might be able to handle, but two...I'm not so sure.

We all watched in horror as a blue comet came raining down towards the sand, while the main Ouranos's expression was more akin to mild interest. He knew what it was, and even if he didn't, he had some idea. He could sense the massive energy about to enter the fray.

Ouranos two point O entered the battlefield in a burst of color and wind, appearing like he'd been there the whole time. Unlike our last encounter, I could see him clearly. Maybe it was due to my training, or some other reason, but I could actually see him now, and he looked exactly like the one bedside him. The main Ouranos. Whereas before, he was half-man and half storm cloud. More of an element than a person.

As soon as he faced us, he started laughing. "Why am I not surprised to see this?! Little Matt's back! And..." He froze when his eyes found my friends. What started as a curious look turned into a delighted smile, "...I don't believe it. I'm seeing a bunch of ghosts! I killed all of these freaks! Did you perform necromancy or something?"

Old Matt didn't say a word, he just glared at his enemy.

He caught main Ouranos's eye, and his smile grew bigger, "Wow, I've really stepped into something here! There's another me!"

Main Ouranos returned the expression and sentiment, "It's nice to know you were successful in this universe, my friend. But...it seems you have one more pest to deal with." Talking about Old Matt, "Maybe we can help each other, huh? You help me kill my prey, and I get you out of here. There's plenty of universes out there far more suitable than this one, after all."

Second Ouranos furrowed his eyebrows, a bit taken back by Ouranos's offer. As was I. Ouranos would never, ever, genuinely offer to work with somebody, except maybe his own brother, Tartarus the psycho. But then again...a counterpart of himself might be better than his brother, in his own eyes. They'd have the exact same mindset and goals.

All of us remained completely silent, watching as this world's Ouranos gave it some thought. Finally, he smiled again and nodded, "Deal. I could use a permanent break from this dump. And with two of us...we'd be unstoppable."

He looked toward Old Matt with even more invigoration than before, "Alright then, let's settle this once and for all!"

Old Matt clenched his hands around the axe, tight enough to show white in his knuckles. Every other eye was focused on the Ouranos from this world approaching us, ready to kill, but I looked past him at my Ouranos, and spotted something I didn't expect. He was creeping up behind the Ouranos in front of him, a harsh gleam in his eyes. I knew what that meant, but by the time it happened, it was too late to react or say anything.

My Ouranos swung his spear faster than light and chopped clean through his counterpart's neck. There was the blur of the movement, then the picture of Ouranos in his post-strike stance, his counterpart's eyes wide with shock, head still intact.

Then reality kicked in. The counterpart's head slid off his body, leaving nothing but a bloody neck stump, which quickly faltered and fell dead on the ground. Just like that, Old Matt's nemesis, the one that killed his friends, and all the humans on this planet, was dead. An effort that took millennia, accomplished in seconds, by none other than the exact same monster.

Old Matt himself couldn't believe it. None of us could. We gasped, and watched on, completely frozen. What the hell was he thinking? Did he trick him with his words, just so he could get him out of the picture?

Bending over him, Ouranos snarled down at his dead alternative, "There can only be one. Besides, I'd never team up with a failure like you."

The Heavenly Diamond's curse started taking affect, Alternate Ouranos's body disintegrated into green dust, and then it was gone forever, with the wind.

And now, we stood face to face, with our real threat, again.

(000)

Thanks for reading!

Until Next Time.