Jackson's POV
The more I take in the painted scenery in front of me, the more I begin to piece together a memory I considered dead and lost. As colours of flame, electricity and spiralling wind all weave around this woman, fuelled by none other than her emotions, her dreams...this was truthfully her last stand. And she's acknowledged that.
The world around her begins to crumble and disintegrate in her wake, releasing a pure violet energy like before that continues to fill the space around us like a thunderstorm. Her mouth opens, clearly vibrating the air with a distressing burst of transparent waves that begins to crumble the cave from above.
The organs from her stomach still twitching as they rebuild themselves with the help of Theta, each step she takes however, limping and slow. 'She's made a contract with him, I'm sure of that much...but what'. The thought continues to race through my mind until I feel a tap along my shoulder, instantly calming me as Irene comes face to face to me. Quieting my thoughts and pointing towards a blacked out cloud not too far from Morgan Le Fay.
An audible heart beat pulses, gusting out wind with each beat. I look around, noticing everyone hears it this time...not just me. As the sound all comes back to me, I notice Morgan Le Fay's keen eye beginning to focus more on that dark cloud. Beginning her advance towards it, I hear a woman scream amidst the boulders splashing into the lake, spilling over and tipping onto the land as if trying to wash us away. "Percy's in there!" Athena gasps while of breath.
By warning us, she also informed Morgan Le Fay, widening her eyes as she quickly drags her feet. "You're selecting!? Aren't you Percy!?" She yells while dragging her back leg.
Her attention swapping as I regather myself, throwing one leg in front of the other and speeding towards the cloud where Percy lies. "JACKSON!" She screams again, releasing a radiating wave that encompasses the floor around her. I stop in my tracks despite it spreading slowly, turning the surroundings to a mere black and white shade as if...resetting it?
"What do you mean by that!?" I ask, praying for a response.
"That man has 4 souls within him, do you think nature would truly continue to let that live!?" She laughs as a sharp snap brings her leg back into place, stepping closer and expanding the area where everything's turning to nothing more than dust. "It's never happened before because there's never been a new singularity!" She cheerfully smiles, holding her hand up to the sky as she begins to swirl the violet space.
"So what's going to happen!?" I panic, looking around for some type of solution, glancing from one person to another and hoping to see some sort of sign.
"They've got to choose, it can only be one!" She slams her hand onto the floor, breaking the terrain and causing it to spin like before. Blending the environment together with a coiling vortex with her as its centre and erupting flames from the cracks within, spitting back at me with each wrong step the more desperately I try to reach her and Percy.
Chris throws himself through the harsh environment, completely overpowering the elements as he punches his way through solids and heals through the electricity coating his body, her sudden field around her shatters like a bubble for some reason...allowing Chris to leap with an open maw that Morgan Le Fay catches with her sword. Forcing her to kneel onto the ground as Chris digs his nails into her flesh to hold her into place, shaking as he struggles to dig any further.
Adam tries to brute force through it after seeing Chris, tackling the flames only to be electrocuted by a thunderhead looming above him. Causing only more panic across Athena's movements as her sandy wolf dashes between the cracks in order to meet with Chris. Jumping with just barely enough time to react in between sudden movements of elements.
Athena forces herself to slow down as she drains the water from the surroundings, attempting to whip away what's left of the flames in her surroundings. Just as we all stop to acknowledge how close she's getting, the water suddenly wraps around her own body. Tying up her legs and forcing her into a bubble, dyed red with her own blood.
An ominous growl bellows from Chris as green light erupts from his mouth, showering her in flames and leave nothing more than a dark silhouette for me to follow. Her strength weakening as both of her knees fall to the floor, immediately halting the flames as she drops the sword in front of her. We both stare in disbelief, unsure of what's happening until a pure white flicker gleams through Chris' chest, wrapping a thin black thread around him like a needle that tosses him to the bubble with Athena, kicking them both out and back towards the sword.
Morgan Le Fay stands back up, rubbing her burnt flesh back to new as her open chest shows a broken rib, torn out by Theta and used as a method of desperation against Chris. "Next!?" Her eyes sparkle with animosity. Dragging her sword floor across the ground as she swings against the cloud that swarms Percy. Clanking and releasing a bolt of black lightning that beams past her face and skims some of her hair off.
'Jackson' A voice full of serenity pulls me from my once again racing thoughts, 'Jackson' again he calls. I hear it, that heart beat...the many of them. Someone who wants the truth, people who need me. I connect hands with Irene, finally understanding my role here.
"YOU AREN'T GETTING ANY CLOSER JACKSON!" All her attention focuses on me, swirling her sword in my direction as flames burst from it, barely skinning me as Irene forces me to dive to the floor. Her rib from earlier, tossed into the sky as a circle of blood forms around it. Dropping an illusive clone of herself that runs through the extreme terrain, ignoring the damage that it's suffering from the electricity and rubble sinking into her flesh.
"IRENE!" I yell in a panic as the clone gets closer to me, still holding Irene's hand as we both throw a punch to the simplistic mannequin of the woman. Feeling Irene fill me with strength right as we make contact with the body, immediately imploding its hollow body and causing blood to rain down briefly. 'Jackson' The voices get louder.
Morgan Le Fay's face expresses something of shock as if not understanding what went wrong, allowing us time to go further in. Inhaling a final breath to power myself through as we both dive for Percy's cloud. 'Jackson!' They continue to rely on me.
Two voices yell in unison, "JACKSON!" Just as a blade coated in molten rock comes swooping down. A piercing whistle cuts through the thundering wind, Oracion's sword, lodged within her throat and forcing her to cough out blood, stopping her for the mere seconds it delays her for. She doesn't have any more time to react as a hand sticks out from the cloud, allowing me to grab onto it.
-
A human, A wolf, A Lycan and a spectral figure of shadowy texture. His form pieced by the stars in the dark room, drawn together and given life as he smiles between the three...the Singularity? But...Eurynome showed us this... "There's three of you, but only one body. Who should it be?" His black spine teeth stick out from the jaw, pointing at each of them as if deciding a game.
Fenrir tries to speak, "I-" but it interrupts him.
"Weak, old...consistent." The figure rolls his eyes to the next, a wolf.
"It should not be me." Crest advises.
"Resilient, new...reserved." The singularity comments as if evaluating them.
Percy hesitantly answers, "I..." Unknowing what to say next.
"Lucky, new...weak." He evaluates again.
Looking around, I try to break free of the white walls boxing me in. "Calm down" Irene reassures me.
"They're selecting who gets to live next, how am I meant to be calm!?" I explain to her, but she ignores me and continue looking ahead, tracing her body I notice her fist...clenched with worry.
Percy begins to speak again, "I...choose...you?" He points to the singularity, originally making the other two look at him with concerned eyes until he explains.
"I'm too weak." He points to himself. "You're too weak." He points to Fenrir despite his growls, "We're too weak." He looks towards Crest.
The Singularity displaces a vision of the outside, realigning more stars within the dark room to produce light. Morgan Le Fay's desperation grows as she continues swinging at me, unable to even dent the clouds that have encased me. Her rage obvious by her shrieking as flames begin erupting from her mouth, burning away her skin and causing her to choke as if accidental but only adding to her frenzied state. "I can hear her...my sibling of the Singularities, cheering with excitement as she takes life...one by one. Something I haven't experienced in a very...very long time. Isn't that right?" He looks towards Fenrir with disappointment.
Fenrir looks down, refusing eye contact, "I can't beat her. Not like this." he admits, looking down at his hand, nails already dull and fur decaying as his very nature as a wolf begins to erase.
Percy back towards the Singularity, "I can't win." he says with a juxtaposed smile across his face.
"Anything you do, I do." Crest nudges against him.
My stomach sinks as the Singularity extends its hand out, waiting for them all. "I cannot be chosen, I am to choose. However, if this choice is something new...something full of anything. Then that can be done. Is that what you desire?" He explains.
Fenrir looks towards Percy with regret, meeting each others gaze as the three agree, "Yes."
"PERCY YOU CAN'T!" I try to scream, banging against the clear walls that block me from them.
"You will leave behind those you relate to, those you recognise, those you spent time with...those you love." He continues to explain.
Percy continues standing in front of me, never turning back as he looks ahead to the towering figure. "Yes." He simply complies, lifting his hand alongside the paw of Fenrir and Crest.
I bash against the wall with my blood covered hand, "PERCY! WHAT ABOUT ADAM!?"
Lathering the walls with blood as I smash my hand against it again, "ATHENA!?"
"ME!?" I scream with tears in my eyes, blurring my vision as they place their hands in his open palm.
Feeling Irene's hand takes mine in, we both lean back, bashing one last time that finally shatters the walls around us as I collapse to the floor in front of where I was. Caught off guard by actually breaking through it but nonetheless gathering myself back to my feet. "Percy...you can't. Choose yourself, please." I beg.
"Veritas, hold onto our hands." The Singularity demands.
"I refuse." I respond back to him.
"If you do not, then they will be devoured by my presence alone." He explains as Irene walks past me and instead, places her hand along with the others.
"Ire-" She interrupts me.
"Jackson...they won't back down. Give them this." She gestures toward them with her head, wiping away her own tears as her other hand pulls mine over, shining a bright iridescent light that begins to spark around us and onto the terrain.
Percy pokes me in the arm to get my attention, "You've helped me a lot Jackson, more than you know. Even now!" He smiles, "Without you...this would-I'd be...dea-d..." Reality slowly begins to hit him as a single tear runs down his face. "Continue watching over them for me, please?" He asks.
Allowing my own tears to fall once again, I nod in agreement. Satisfying the other two as they nod at me, "Goodbye Jackson." Crest's eyes glow blue as Fenrir's turns to gold...both speaking in unison when the light from my hand consumes them.
Percy's eyes gleam his heterochromatic Violet and Gold once more, "I'll still be here...I promise you. We'll see each other again." He smiles, breaking down into fragmented crystal that again, is absorbed into the light of my palm.
Gripping my hand tighter, I think about the source of all of this...Morgan Le Fay.
Me and Irene's words allign as we speak together, "Give them the strongest Ideal of succession." A thud of a singular heart beat pulses this time. "Give them the Truth to becoming the figure they need to be." The white light swarms with a black fuzziness as the Singularity puts his hand over bundle of luminosity.
"Become something new, become something whole, become something that has everything...become...me" He choses, devouring the light, throwing me and Irene out of that Astral plain world and back into reality where a burst sends Morgan Le Fay soaring through the air.
A grotesque crunch, something sounding more similar to the shifting of bones and guts...reorganising itself right within my grasp as the cloud is still formed.
Adam regains consciousness, "Jackson...what-did you do?" He weakly limps towards me.
"I-ha-" I try to answer him.
"Jackson..." He continues asking but the cloud suddenly erupts into a pillar that reaches the ceiling of the primordial space.
A deep rumble bellows through the spiralling colours, "WHAT DID YOU D-" Morgan Le Fay questions while still in the air, her figure moved as something kicks her into the wall above, even higher.
"FENRIR!?" She asks, "HAHA I'VE WAITED SO LONG FOR THIS!" She excitedly cheers while trying to force the shadowy figure off of her. Her happiness suddenly coming to a close as she begins to struggle a little too much for her liking, clearly distraught before stabbing the figure through the chest and barely managing to get it off of her. Causing them both to fall beside each other above the lake, "WELCOME TO MY FUCKING WORLD!" She screams, clapping her hands together as countless torrents of water hurl towards the unnamed creature but he bounces off them with ease, treating it like any other surface.
Something inside Morgan Le Fay's brain clicks as she pieces something unknown to us together..."HER!? WHY DO YOU HAVE HER GRACE!?" She yells. Blowing out air and freezing all the moving water, allowing her to stop the fall with her sword as she slides down it with urgency towards the ground.
She looks around frantically, not knowing where the shadowy figure went...in fact none of us know where he is until chippings of ice fall from above, his claws dug deep into the ice as he tears down the improvised construction. "PERCY!?" She questions again. His large mass suddenly recognised by the shadow dropping from above her, forcing her to rip the sword out of the ice, kicking off of it and rolling back onto the land...to where we are.
She stares for someone...anyone vulnerable...Adam. Recreating the terrain to build walls between us so she gets to him uncontested...and that she does. "AND NOW WHAT PERCY!?" She holds him by the throat as the walls crumble, her nails causing blood to fall down his body even as her grip gets tighter and tighter to the point of suffocation.
As the figure lands on the ice, it all instantly disperses into the lake in a large downpour of water. "I've got your little mate, now what!?" She holds the sword up to him, waiting for the shadow to emerge from the water and onto the land with us. The sheer quietness in the room pains me, filled by nothing more than Adam's sounds of suffocating and the dripping wet monstrosity that towers above us. She squints her eyes better as if trying to get a better look at him.
"Impossible..." She whispers, dropping Adam as energ-...no those are...spirits all concentrated enough to where even we can see them. "I thought before that your eyes were closed...those are your eyes. Those pitch black sockets...the stars drawn out along that ethereal material you call skin...I know what you are." The world around us all bends to her...and only her. The figure falls onto his arms, arching his body forward as if a wolf, ready to howl. She continues absorbing and condensing each and every fabric of matter around us, completely uncaring of any movement we make...her only focus is that amalgamation.
She tenses her entire body, bringing everything in with one immediate ear shattering boom "LIBERATE!" She chants. Sending it all at once as the figure pulls its jaw and head apart, splitting its own head right down the middle without any signs of blood or struggle.
The black spine teeth realigning as if to recreate its design, opening up like a blooming flower as the spikes of ice, rock, metal, water and thunder all crash into its mouth. Dissipating into dust just before actually coming in contact with its otherworldly flesh. We hold our ears tight at the nonstop crashing and blasting, desperately trying to avoid being injured from the collateral damage.
Everything stops all at once...bringing us a momentary peace. Large footsteps emitting from the cloud of dust and material begin to approach Morgan Le Fay as she stands still with her arms still held out in his direction. His head fixed and restored as he leans down just past her face and to her ear, "Your contract has expired". He hums before pressing his talon length claws into her stomach, ripping out the squirming black bundle of ink, lifting his head up and dropping it from above. Swallowing Theta whole.
"You-" She mutters. "You ate the spiri-ts" She coughs out blood, joining the pool that leaks from her intestines that lay sprawled along the floor.
He doesn't answer her, instead continuing to the edge of the water where he waits for her to die.
She looks around, boredom suddenly whipped across her face as she stares at the rest of us. "I was stron-ger...the stron-gest." She comments to herself. "Was-n't I?" She questions nobody in particular, forcing herself to get up as she ever so slowly walks towards the edge along with the shadowy cryptid creature. "But if I-los-t to you-then tha-t onl-y means...I'm we-aker...I coul-d of ha-d...more?" Her body kneels, slumping over and facing away from anyone but that man as if trying to send one last message.
Footsteps come up behind me, sending chills down my skin at the unexpected sensation, "...Jackson...where's Percy." Adam rests his hand on me, tightening it. I do nothing but point towards the figure who looks on towards me and Adam.
"She's gone now...bring him back" He squeezes my shoulder harder. Can't do anything but shake my head as he grabs me by the collar, lifting him up to meet my face. A tear from my cheek rolls down, hitting the floor as Adam's voice breaks, "Bring...him...back".
"Irene gave him an Ideal...I made it the truth. That is Percy. That is Crest. And that is also Fenrir. But it's also neither of them. The singularities wear the body of their choosing, Fenrir...Morgan Le Fay and Oracion...they're all choices. This is the form it has now chosen...by sacrificing the three." I explain with a raspy voice as he drops me. "I'm...sorry" I lay on the floor, apologising to him as he makes his way over to what was once the body of his mate. As I say my words, I look around for Irene...unable to see her.
Adam extends a hand out to the large figure but he steps back. Tilting his head to face the ceiling, causing it to crumble as if on command. "Adam...we have to go" Athena suggests.
But he ignores her, "Adam we have to go...please" Her face is flushed with red as she holds back her actual expression.
"Chris" The figure comments as Chris nods for a reply, grabbing Athena, Adam and then me.
"LET GO OF ME!" Adam bashes his fists against Chris' back as he carries us all out of the crumbling curse zone. His balance almost thrown off as the current beneath opens up, swallowing everything that falls in. "FUCKING LET GO OF ME CHRIS!" He continues to yell. "LET G-O" His punches lessen in strength as he eventually gives up, leaving him with nothing more to do than have one last glance back at the body of his best friend...and Percy's new incarnation. Sitting there, solemnly.
A peaceful murmur reaches our ears, briefly drowning out the falling debris and causing Chris' grip to tighten in regret. "Goodbye...everyone"