One week earlier...


    The ball went back and forth.


    "How is the house suiting you? I know I tried to make it match how it used to look." Jack asked, pulling his arm back and tossing the ball as hard as he could.


    Hope raised her hand and caught the baseball. Mr. Larison hadn''t held back in the throw, and she had to press her heels into the floor to stop herself from being flung back. They had only just started, and already the ball was covered in scratches, and part of it was peeling off from how intensely they threw it.


    "It''s fine, I guess." She shrugged. He had been referring to the incident with Polaron. The villain had shown up and destroyed most of her home, and it had been Mr. Larison who fixed it. She looked down at the ball, and her fingers dug tightly into it. She pulled her hand back and threw it right back at him as hard as she could. "I don''t want to talk about that, though! Why are we doing this exactly?"


    They were on the roof of Pantheon''s base. The others were away when Mr. Larison got the idea. He practically dragged her up with him after buying a new baseball. Because they were out of sight, he didn''t bother hiding his powers. He held his hand up, and his golden light shimmered out and formed a web that caught the ball. The force of it still managed to push him back a few inches, though.


    "What do you want to talk about, then?" Jack asked. His golden threading wrapped itself around the ball and began to move on its own, spinning it so fast that part of it caught fire. Then, all at once, the webbing vanished, and the baseball was launched like a rocket directly at her.


    "I don''t know what I want to talk about!" She said, frustrated. She slammed her hand out and used the thing she had learned from Wyvern to absorb the fire on the ball, putting it out and slowing it down, allowing her to easily catch it. Her ''training session,'' the one that ended with the Victorian appearing, had happened just two days ago. "I don''t know what I want to talk about or what I want to do. I- I just really don''t get it." She looked back down at the ball in her hand and thought about crushing it, but instead, she lazily tossed it to Mr. Larison, not bothering to use any powers. "I just don''t know what to do."


    Jack didn''t even need to use any powers to catch it this time. He held the ball and ran his fingers over the damage. "Do you remember what I first told you the day you decided to be a hero?"


    "I know what you said. I- I just never thought someone like Wish would ever appear. She was like the Emperor, wasn''t she... A Lord of Life who used their power for evil. Despite being as old as I am, she somehow beat me, crippled Money Tree for life, and might have killed Wasp Nest. It wasn''t supposed to go like this. I was supposed to find the Lord of Life and save my dad! Why didn''t anyone tell me the Lord of Life would be evil? Why didn''t you tell me any of this? What am I supposed to think, Mr. Larison? I want to trust you, but this is... I just don''t know what is happening anymore."


    Jack listened to her rambling before he nodded his head. "There was a game that involved a baseball I saw once. A lot of kids would play it with their parents where I grew up. When a child had a question and the adult had the answer, they would use a ball to keep track of who was allowed to speak. When the adult tossed the ball to the child, the child was allowed to ask a question. When the child tossed the ball to the adult, the adult was allowed to answer the question or ask a question of their own. The child could then answer the question or ask their own as well. It was due to this ruling that some questions would be deemed inappropriate, not ready to be answered, and skipped. I always thought the concept was nice. The world would be a lot better if we all took turns answering each other''s questions or asking someone a question of our own, don''t you think?"


    "Huh-" She barely had time to catch the ball that he threw. "Whoa! Were you aiming for my face!" She tossed it back at him just as hard.


    Jack waited for the ball to reach him before he caught it. "Yes."


    He tossed it back at her, and her eye twitched. "Do you think this is funny or something?"


    "Yes." He answered back once he had the ball again.


    She caught it once more, making it her turn again. She sighed and looked down at it, feeling her nerves calm down a bit. It was strangely soothing in a way. She never tossed a ball back and forth with her father, but she knew some kids would. Her dad was always the kind of guy who would take her to the library instead. A lot had happened recently. She had time traveled, found out she was a Lord, discovered she had a connection with the man she hated most in life, discovered that the Lord of Life was the girl she hated most in life, trained under Wyvern and Boy Genius for a single night, met the Victorian, and got rejected by the Victorian. It was almost calming in a way to not be dealing with any of it and just stand up on the roof, throwing the ball back and forth.


    "Did you do this with your dad?" She finally asked, tossing the ball back toward him.


    Jack didn''t answer right away this time. When he caught the ball, he stared down at it in silence for several seconds. "No... My dad and I didn''t really get along. I ended up running away from home around the time I turned twelve, after my mom died. My folks were just regular humans. Had no powers. They weren''t really good people, either. I guess it was around that time that I was adopted by my second dad. If I''m being honest, he wasn''t any better and was always too busy to do something like this." He chucked the ball back at her with an underhand throw.


    "I didn''t know you were adopted!" she said, catching the ball. “What else don''t I know about you, Mr. Larison?"


    "I dunno?" He shrugged as he caught the ball. "I used to be married." He shrugged.


    “You said you used to be married at one point, right? What was that like?” She had a hard time believing he could tolerate a person long enough to get engaged. Sometimes she wondered how he put up with that Nick guy, his roommate.


    Jack lazily shrugged as he tossed the ball up and down to himself for a bit. "I was a fresh adult once with no idea how the world truly worked. She randomly asked me out of the blue if I wanted to get married one day, and I figured I had nothing to lose. That would have been about fifteen years ago during the Emperor''s reign, so I guess I thought living life in the fast lane was cool. We never even went on a single date. Just got married on the spot and got a random pastor to make us official. Don''t even got a ring or anything like that."


    "Why did you never mention this person?"


    For a moment, he thought back to what Avalon had forced him to see: that calming beach with its waves, a child that never existed, a timeline that never was, the place where ''she'' rested waiting for him, the place he would someday end up at. "I don''t like talking about it."


    Hope closed her mouth as she stared at Mr. Larison. It was pretty clear what that meant—the state of this woman she had never heard of. Mr. Larison ''had'' been married.


    The red-haired man shook his head and tossed the ball back into the air. His leg came up, and he kicked it toward her. She decided to try and style it as well and clapped both her hands around the ball, using only her middle finger to catch it between her hands and stop it. "If you don''t mind me asking, back when you saved me from Wish, you told me what your name was. Do you remember?" The man nodded. "You said that your name was Alpha. That''s kind of a weird name, isn''t it? What''s up with that?" She took a deep breath and blew as hard as she could, shooting a small current of air into the ball and firing it out between her fingers like a makeshift railgun.


    Jack snorted as he processed her question and casually caught the ball. He gripped it and hummed. "That''s kind of a loaded question. I guess I''ll need to really break it down into who Alpha is and who I am, won''t I? Alpha wasn''t precisely my name. It was more of a code name, I guess. Like how Wish is called Wish or Sky is called Paragon. A Super name. It was given to me by the Emperor."


    "Whoa! Seriously? I knew you had a connection to him, but it was like that!"


    "Yeah." Jack nodded, looking down at the ball he held. "It was him. I don''t really remember the name my parents gave me. The Emperor started his army. Turned people into monsters. Most people lose themselves and forget who they used to be. I guess I''m no exception. A lot of my previous life was blurry at best. All the monsters needed new names and would turn to the Princess of Life. She was a child of a previous Lord of Life and the wife of the Emperor.”


    "The one that died and was brought back as something else, right..."


    "Yeah. That one. I was never given a name by her, though. The Emperor gave me a name. I was sort of one of the first people put onto the project, in a way. Alpha testing is what you do before beta testing. So, I was Alpha, the first of his experiments." He glanced back down at the ball and sighed. "I met Nier before I met the Emperor."


    "You make it sound like they''re different people."


    "To those who met the man, you''d think so as well. It wasn''t until the Beast appeared on Earth for the first time and wiped out everything Nier had that the man collapsed and turned to darkness. Maybe he could have still been saved, but no one ever reached for him. I guess the abyss swallowed him whole. I can still remember the day I first met him. It''s blurry, but I remember it as clear as day."


    He didn''t know how long it had been by now—twenty years, or maybe even thirty. It had been a city that was no longer on the map, turned to dust during the great attack. The weather was terrible—maybe hail or rain. It was all so blurry. What he did recall, though, was the name.


    Heavy bags rested under Nier''s eyes. The man''s shoulders were slumped, and his clothes were soaked down to the bone. The Lord stared past the glass of a store selling various different TVs. They were all on and played the same thing.


    "-the newest sidekick of the number one Hero has made her appearance! The one and only Ruby Admiral!" The image on the TV showed Full Monarch saving a city that was burning to the ground. Joining him in the air was a young child who flew alongside him and helped save the day with a smile on her face. Dressed in her red costume. The girl that would one day take up the mantle of the Victorian.


    Nier''s eyes were hollow and sunken as he stared at the screen in complete silence. "So instead of trying to permanently stop the Beast, this is what you''ve decided to do, Jackson. I see where your priorities lie."


    From a nearby alleyway, Nier heard the sound of a can being kicked. He turned his head and raised an eyebrow when he saw someone standing in front of him. The boy was dressed in baggy clothes and had shaggy red hair. He was shivering from the cold, but there was a look in his eyes. The same look Nier had seen in dozens of soldiers during the war with Lucifer so many years ago. People died so someone like this kid could live.


    One of the child''s arms was wrapped under the body of a small puppy. The animal was barking and growling as it glared at Nier. In the child''s other hand, he clutched an old, rusted switchblade. "E—Everything in your pockets," the child announced, and his stomach growled loudly. "Your wallet and everything. Now!"


    A large snort escaped Nier before the man totally lost it. He threw his head back and laughed, causing the child to step away.


    "I- I''m serious-"


    Nier crouched down and allowed the blade to stab into his chest. He ignored the gasps of the child or the puppy, which began to bite at his hand as he got too close. He grabbed the boy by his chin and stared into his eyes. "That''s a good look in your eyes. What''s your name?"


    "I—I don''t know." The boy grunted out and tried to thrash around, but Nier''s strength easily overpowered the child.


    "Well, Mr. No name. I''m really delighted I ran into you. Maybe this is fate. Nah. Nothing so cheap. Still..." Nier smiled as he stared at his reflection in the child''s eyes. He really did look so tired. "How would you like to help me save the world?"


    Jack shook his head as the blurry memory faded away. He quietly tossed the ball back and forth with Hope and rubbed his chin. "And the rest was history, I guess. I was adopted by Nier and soon after became the son of the Emperor once he finally snapped and went insane. After it all ended, I was given the name Jack by the number one hero. It''s kind of funny, in a way. I can''t honestly remember the name my mother gave me, yet the names given by the number one villain and number one hero seem to have stuck with me. Some nights, I wonder if maybe I could have stopped him myself. It keeps me up sometimes."


    "You were just a kid." Hope shook her head as she caught the ball he threw at her. "What did he mean by save the world, though?"


    Jack caught the ball and sighed once again. "Again. You need to remember that Nier wasn''t born evil. In a way, it was this world that changed him. He didn''t instantly snap when the Beast first came. There was a point where he made an effort to keep a hold of his sanity. He had a goal in mind. The Beast. It always targets areas that hold the most humans. It tends to ignore Supers unless they get in the way of its rampage. Nier''s goal was simple. Create a world of only Supers. Perfect Supers that could either evolve to the point of taking the Beast out or simply by existing would cause the Beast to avoid them. It wasn''t until he discovered his process of manufacturing Supers tends to drive them insane and mess with their heads that he truly became a villain. I guess that was the straw that finally broke him. Even I have some moments where I think I lost my mind."


    ''You tell her.'' The voice of Full Monarch just behind his ear caused Jack to let out yet another sigh.


    Hope frowned and caught the ball that Jack tossed at her. "I think I''m starting to get it. You were turned back into a human by Full Monarch during the final battle, right? At least that''s the story that you told the others."


    Jack caught the fastball special she threw at him with ease and toyed around with it in his hands. "The Emperor turned most people into monsters without a care in the world. He would place some of his cells into their bodies and let them go wild. If they were a human, then they would be turned into a Super. Most either exploded or turned into mindless beasts. A few, though, ended up like that Kevin kid. Keeping most of their sanity and becoming a brand-new Super. Most of the Supers he tried to change into monsters went insane. Only Fairy Queen and Golden God were able to keep most of their minds. The others became the giant monsters that roam around the Wasteland today. A lot of the monsters called themselves his sons or daughters. However, the Emperor only ever considered a few of his best creations worthy of that title. Hell Hound was one. She had been the corpse of his first daughter, who died. Sky was another. Grown from nothing; they weren''t like me or the others. They never had a life of their own before they were invented. One was meant to be a backup. A way for the Emperor''s legacy to live on if something ever happened to him or the Princess of Life. Then you have me."


    "I''m guessing you were one of those people given the title of his child?"


    "That''s what they called it. What I really was, though, was a weapon. The Emperor knew that his biggest obstacle was the child he raised all those years ago. If he wanted to win the war, he would need to get rid of Full Monarch—the only Super who could defeat the Beast all by himself. That''s where I came in. A random street urchin became the solution."


    "Full Monarch died fifteen years ago... Mr. Larison, were you..."


    "After the battle, I watched the life fade from his eyes. The number-one hero was dead. I almost couldn''t believe it. Of course, by then, the Emperor was also long gone. Maybe he died, or maybe he escaped. Not even I know. I was attacked from behind. A shard of metal rammed right through me. I would have been a dead man if not for Nick. Of course, the shard still won in the end. Poisoned my heart—a sliver of light with the express order to bring death on me. Anytime I try to use the energy my body naturally creates, it grows worse. It also stops the damage to my heart from being healed, and if pushed too far, I could blow up. I guess there is some silver lining, though. I absorb different forms of energy, and this light is no exception."


    "You''re a changed person now," Hope said, shaking her head. "We could tell the Victorian or something, and maybe she can take back the order and fix your heart?"


    Mr. Larison just shook his head. "Hatred that deep isn''t something that can be fixed with a few good actions and words. I''m alive and have fought through it, so it doesn''t really matter too much in the grand scheme of things." He tossed the ball back to her, giving her a sly smirk. "I think the only reason I''m actually alive is due to her cocky nature. She''s the kind of woman who would refuse to even entertain the possibility of me being alive. She''ll do everything to convince herself that it isn''t her power. That would mean admitting how badly she failed. In a way, she''s like myself. I''d also hate to lose."


    Hope frowned as she clutched the ball he threw at her. "Is there any way we could fix it?"


    "Maybe the Lord of Life could."


    Her heart sank at that. It all came back to her failure. Her fingers dug into the surface of the ball, leaving dents on it. She''d just need to get stronger. A lot stronger.


    "You okay?"


    "Huh?" She looked up when she heard Mr. Larison speak. She nodded her head. "Yeah. I''m fine." She tossed the ball back at him. It went back and forth a few more times as the two of them silently played.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    It was nice.


    ***


    Present Day...


    He wasn''t really sure why that memory went through his mind at that moment. Maybe because, at that moment, he felt like the ball.


    Battery hit the ground so hard that he bounced into the air, where he would then slam back down into the sand, only to bounce back up. He kept getting further and further away from the others, struggling to stop. Everything about the situation was wrong. Reality had changed and twisted to paint its own story.


    With a simple wave of her hand, Fairy Queen changed his friction and the properties of the ground, causing it to bend like a trampoline.


    Beams of golden light fired out of Battery''s fingertips, forming into large hooks that stabbed into the ground. He came to a sliding stop and nearly broke both his arms as the threading pulled to its max. He breathed heavily as he felt reality settle around him, and everything went back to normal.


    ''Think you can beat her?'' The voice asked him.


    "You shut up. I''m not in the mood to look crazy in front of her."


    Fairy Queen stood before him, walking slowly. Her skin was pale, and she always insisted on wearing very little clothing—just a few simple branches and plants covering her modest areas. She might have looked pretty if not for the look on her face—one of rage and disgust.


    "I honestly had been praying you died all those years ago." The woman hummed. "Then again, cockroaches are always good at escaping death."


    "That''s a little harsh..."


    Fairy Queen looked him up and down. "I always knew you were a traitor. You turned on your own master and bit the hand that fed you. Instead of doing your job like a good pet, you helped Full Monarch defeat the Emperor. Still, I never thought you would fall so low as to join the society that broke the world. Heroes are the reason the Beast still exists. They are the reason this planet is dying. They are the reason he lost his family. The reason we had to be made! You''re not just some traitorous runt; you''re an enemy who''s spitting in the face of everything he believed in!"


    "And what did he believe in?" Battery wiped the blood from his nose and mouth and ignored the pain in his chest. Golden energy crackled off of him, and he slammed his hand out. His entire palm was used, not just a finger, as he unleashed a massive golden beam of energy that burned so hot it transformed the sand around them into molten glass. "As far as I''m concerned, he was just as bad as the Beast!"


    Fairy Queen slapped the air, and reality twisted around her, the beam breaking like a river stream going around her form. She stalked forward, walking through the energy, and flicked her finger out. All at once, the energy died out as a small golf ball-sized hole was blasted through Battery''s stomach.


    Blood poured down the front of his chest, and he gasped but was forced to ignore the pain. He raised his arms up just in time to block a punch from the villain. His bones snapped and twisted as his limbs were turned the other way and shattered. She wasn''t holding back. Every blow, every attack—all of it was at her maximum force. One of the few people in the world who was ever able to go a few rounds with Full Monarch.


    Battery was shoved back from the force of the attack, with more blasts of reality smashing into him from all sides. His golden light grew stronger, reaching its peak, and his arms snapped back in place as he forcefully healed them. The energy began to charge up once more, and he skated forward across the ground, moving at his top speed. He was on Fairy Queen faster than she could react, and he rammed a fist directly into her face. His energy fired into her body, and he did his best to either fry her brain or at least damage her nervous system.


    Neither worked. The woman took the punch directly to her face like it was nothing and rammed her fingers into Battery''s stomach, impaling him on her hand. Blood poured down Battery''s chin, and she forcefully raised him up and threw her arm out, tossing him away and sending out another blast of reality. It slammed into Battery, and his limbs began to twist and distort, his neck nearly snapping as he was almost folded in two.


    His body struggled to heal and repair itself, snapping limbs back into place and plugging up holes, but it was quickly becoming a losing battle. As soon as his feet touched the ground once again, he held two of his fingers out and fired out his beams. The beams launched forward and separated into other beams, which then further separated. They wrapped Fairy Queen''s body tightly, and he formed a lasso around her. He spun his body, dragging her with him, and threw her directly into one of the many rays of sunlight that stabbed down.


    She was buried up to her waist in molten glass, and from above, fire poured down onto her as radiation bombed her cells. The golden lasso changed and formed a net of sorts over her, stopping her from flying out. She twitched her finger, and reality changed once again. Instead of molten glass, she now stood in cold water. A mirror appeared in the air above her and angled itself just right to bounce the harsh ray off of her and toward Battery.


    Battery dodged out of the way just in time, and Fairy Queen used that as her chance to escape. Her wings fully unfolded, and she shattered the energy around her. Then she flew up and out of the death ray. "Do you really think you can beat me in the sorry state you''re in? Besides Full Monarch''s daughter, there isn''t a Super alive who can match up to me now!"


    Her main power was illusion. However, through the concept of inversion, it allowed her to twist and alter her abilities. She was second only to the Victorian when it came to this. Her power to alter reality was one of the strongest powers, not falling under those of the Lords. She could attack you by twisting space itself to collapse in on you or even change matter temporarily into another form and alter its natural rules. She couldn''t affect people with her power, though. That was the trade-off. Whereas her illusions would target a person''s mind, her inverted power could only target the world. That wasn''t that bad, though. That just stopped her from transmuting someone into something else. She could still alter the space a person stood in and cause it to collapse in on itself, crushing her target.


    "I really have lost most of my power." Battery hummed. "In this state, I''m only around the level of Myth or Green Wolf. Guys like you and Golden God are simply far beyond the level of your normal baddies. Even most members of the Enforcers would struggle or lose. I used to be a freak of nature, like Boy Genius or the Victorian. Guess time has been cruel to me, though."


    "Aw. Is the poor little baby getting emotional?"


    "Do you know why you''re alive?" Battery asked.


    "Huh?"


    "After the battle with the Emperor, the Victorian went on a killing spree. She murdered almost every member of his army she could get her hands on. Only left a few of the kids alive, like your son, Polaron. Guys like Alien and the like, though, Demonica''s and Mars King''s parents, were fair game; she went out of her way to slaughter them. She even killed the Princess of Life."


    "You''re not one to speak. After all, your actions got Hell Hound killed!" Fairy Queen hissed out. "You brought death to us all and even killed your own lover."


    Battery ignored her remark and kept talking. "It was always odd, though, how she left you alive, right?" He folded his arms, looking her up and down. "Golden God is alive because he got away. As soon as it looked like the Organization lost, he ran with his tail tucked in between his legs and fled to space. "But you... You were thrown into Nightshade. It makes me wonder. You''ve always been tough. Most Supers can''t even get past your skin. Your durability was second only to Hell Hound or the Lords. The Victorian should be strong enough, though. Of course, like me, you can also heal. Repair your damaged body with wisps of reality. That was when it hit me." Battery looked down at his fist and clenched it slightly. "Nightshade exists to keep villains that are hard to keep dead locked up, or just as a means of throwing villains away without killing them. Most people don''t truly understand how disturbing a place it really is. The Branch doesn''t want it to come out that it''s basically a death pit where villains either rot or die instantly. You''re one of the ones that are hard to kill. So, it makes sense that you''d be thrown into the pit. Even so, what doesn''t make sense is the fact that the Victorian would seemingly be fine with that. Unless she wasn''t. When I hit you earlier, I didn''t actually touch you, did I?"


    "What are you trying to say?" Fairy Queen growled out.


    "You''ve gone out of your way to stop yourself from taking any damage. Even minor attacks that wouldn''t actually hurt you, you''ve blocked by forming a thin barrier of solid reality around your body, sort of like my own barrier. You''re doing everything to avoid taking damage. On top of that, though, you''re not over with Golden God. I found it odd how you didn''t just go kill Wish yourself. Also, you didn''t kill Ocean Empress or Poseidon. You tried, but the old you would have gotten the job done. The old you would have killed me in one attack. You guys went out of your way to heal Golden God and get him in working order, though. It''s pretty obvious when you think about it-"


    "Shut up!"


    Battery ignored her and pointed directly at her heart. "The Victorian didn''t just throw you in jail. Like me, you have a little present left behind. One that is blocking most of your power. You can''t heal your body as well as you can, or else the shard will dig deeper. She couldn''t kill you herself, so she left it behind. Your healing is better than mine, and you can heal most of the damage, but the pain is something you can''t stop, right? Blinding agony that courses through you. Even if it won''t kill you, it''s enough to stop you from going all out for fear of it hitting you again. You''re a wolf that''s been leashed and tamed, the same as me-"


    "I said shut up!"


    "That''s why you haven''t done anything about your son, right? Polaron''s death. You haven''t even thought about it because you know you''ll be filled with blinding rage and want to use your full power, but that pain has you shaking in your boots. I guess you were locked away, so you don''t actually know who killed Polaron, do you?" Battery threw his arms out. "I killed Mars King and Polaron." He lied. "I''m going to finish what the Victorian started!"


    "You''re dead, you fucking traitor!"


    Fairy Queen screamed out as loud as she could and threw her hands out. Reality broke and twisted, unleashing waves of destruction. Battery dodged past them with ease. They were massive in size but fired blindly out of rage. Even so, that still wasn''t the woman''s full power. She really was scared of feeling the biting pain of the shard in her heart and was forced to hold back. That was his win condition, though.


    Battery was on her in a single moment as he weaved through broken reality. Space twisted and changed, and color distorted as he reached her. Her barrier was strong. It was too strong for him to break through. He didn''t need to, though. He rammed his hand into her and focused all of his energy. It was the same as when Paragon was nearby. The shard wouldn''t let its host heal the damaged heart.


    Battery unleashed his energy as a wave of healing aura focused directly on the shard in her heart. Fairy Queen screamed out in pain as the healing took effect, and her chest began to glow. Battery rammed his hand forward and upped the power of his healing aura. Golden light seeped out of Fairy Queen''s chest, bright enough to rival the sun, and her flesh began to burn and break as the shard began to eat away at her. It was the same thing inside of him. The same curse he had. She was just like him.


    She tried to thrash out of his grasp, but he held onto her, golden chains wrapping around them both. He ignored the pain that coursed through him, and his scream matched hers as he pushed forward, ramming his hand through her and grabbing her heart. He used everything and, in a single instance, switched from healing to destruction. The shard in her chest was already breaking her to bits, and he just copied what it was doing, attacking the very atoms that made her up with his golden light.


    Fairy Queen''s screams died out, and her body broke away as Battery shoved his way through her. She began to change into golden dust. As he stepped past her, he breathed heavily and stared down at the small metal shard he held in his hand now. It hummed and burned—the same thing that was in his own heart. Fairy Queen was dead. Her body was reduced to less than ash.


    He did it. He saved the day.


    "Mr. Larison!" A voice cried out. He turned and saw Cinder quickly running toward him. She wasn''t alone. She was dragging Paragon over with her, and behind the two girls were the other members of Pantheon. "Are you okay?" She asked.


    "Yeah. I''m fine- Wait, what about you? What happened with Wish?" Battery asked.


    "We dealt with it." Myth called out. He walked forward and looked down at the shard that Battery held. "Is that it?"


    "Yeah." Battery nodded. "Fairy Queen''s dead."


    Myth nodded. "We beat Golden God. Cinder was also able to stop Wish for good. It looks like you were worried for nothing." Myth held his hand out to Battery. "You did good."


    Battery stared at the hand before silently taking it and shaking it. "Thanks..."


    "What''s with that pitiful thanks!" Whisper appeared next to him, suddenly leaning on his shoulder. "We couldn''t have done it without you, Battery!"


    "I wasn''t even there at the battle, though?"


    "Doesn''t matter!" Snowdawn called out, pointing at Battery. "I just thought, what would Battery do? And in that moment, I figured out how to beat my bad guy! They never stood a chance."


    "Just take the compliment," Paragon called out. Her arms were folded, and she stood next to Cinder, letting out a huff. "If it''s anything like my sister, they won''t stop until you take it," she said.


    Battery stared at her quietly for a moment. "And Wish is... really gone?"


    "Yeah." Paragon nodded. I don''t sense her. I think she''s gone for good." Paragon quietly looked down at the shard in his hands and took it suddenly. "This is the thing in your heart?" she asked, looking at it.


    "Yeah- Wait, aren''t you blind?"


    "Now that I''m looking at it closer, it really isn''t that strong. Maybe after beating Wish, I became stronger. My power feels different anyway. I think I could be the new Lord of Life even-"


    "Really? If that were the case, you should be able to maybe heal my heart then." Battery shrugged. “I''d rather not try it without being certain. Luckily, there is a way we can try it."


    "There is?" Snowdawn asked.


    "My dad!" Cinder said with wide eyes. "If Paragon can heal him, then that means when we killed Wish, she became the next Lord of Life!"


    "That''s right, kid." Battery couldn''t help the small smile that came onto his lips.


    "And if she can heal him, she can heal you?" Cinder let out a relieved sigh. "So, then it''s over, right? We actually won."


    "Yeah, I think so. It''s a little strange, but yeah, it''s a happy ending." Battery stared at the girl in silence. She had a large smile on her face. For a moment, she almost reminded him of... The image of the sandy beach came back to him. His wife and a child that never existed. A timeline that could never be. "Oh, shit, this a-"


    Blood splattered onto the ground as a hand rammed its way through his back and out of his gut. He practically vomited up blood and felt his eyes go wide. Pain coursed through, and everyone was gone. Team Pantheon wasn''t here anymore, and the sounds of fighting in the distance picked back up. They hadn''t actually finished their battles yet. Wish wasn''t dead yet. There was no happy ending. It had all been an illusion.


    Fairy Queen stood behind him, panting. Her eyes were filled with utter rage as she glared at him and twisted the hand she had rammed through him. Part of her body was burned, and some of her flesh had dropped off her body. The golden glow in her chest was slowly dying down.


    "You really almost got me there for a moment." She hissed through gritted teeth. "I was forced to actually drop my powers over reality and catch you in my illusion. Fuck you! You know I hate that worthless power, you scumbag!"


    Battery barely pulled himself off the hand and nearly collapsed. He clutched at his stomach, struggling to keep his guts inside his body. His healing power wasn''t good enough to fully restore organs. He whipped his body around and fired out a wave of his healing aura, but it bounced off of the girl.


    Fairy Queen rammed her fist into his face and slammed him headfirst back onto the sandy floor. She ground her knuckles into him and began to dig his head deeper into the earth. "That won''t ever work on me again, you little bastard. I''ve already figured out how to twist the reality of that power. It''ll never reach me again." Battery grunted as her fingers wrapped around his face, and she lifted him up. "Die."


    She smashed his head into the ground, then raised him up again. She smashed his head back down. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth-


    That ball came back to him for a moment. His head smashed into the ground, and suddenly he was back on the rooftops with Hope, tossing the ball back and forth. The sun was already setting. They had been there for a while now.


    Hope caught the ball and looked down at it. "Do... Do you think I can actually save my dad?" She asked quietly. "Be honest. Am I doing all of this for nothing?"


    Jack caught the ball that she threw back at him. He tried to think of an answer for a few moments. "Do you trust me?"


    She caught the ball and shrugged. "Should I not?"


    "Aren''t you mad at the secrets I''ve kept?"


    "I mean, to an extent, I guess I was a little annoyed." She shrugged. But you''ve told me now. I still kind of wish you mentioned the fact that I was a Lord from the very start. I get why you did it, though. Fifteen years is a long time to be by yourself." She looked back down at the ball in her hands after he tossed it to her. It was badly damaged by now and barely hanging on. "All that time with so many secrets. It''d be hard to ever talk to anyone the same way again."


    Jack caught the ball once more. "I think... I think that if you didn''t try to save your father, succeed or fail, you''d hate yourself for the rest of your life. That said, I''m here to do everything I can. I made a promise that I would help the Lord of the Sun out any way I could."


    "That''s why you''re doing all of this, right?" Hope sighed.


    "No."


    "Huh?"


    Jack tossed the ball back to her, and she caught it. "Even before I truly knew you were a Lord of the Sun, I think that you..." That beach was back. That timeline. Something that could have been. "You reminded me of someone."


    "You mean Full Monarch."


    "No. Someone that I wish could have been." He rubbed his neck awkwardly. It would have been nice, in another timeline where Super''s didn''t exist, to just go to the beach and relax. A future that could never exist in this world, a wife gone, and a child never born. "Never mind. I''m just rambling."


    Hope smiled and nodded. "Thanks, Mr. Larison."


    "What for?"


    "I was freaking out a bit earlier. I felt like the whole world was going to cave in on me. I guess... I don''t know, but this has been a lot of fun." She threw the ball one more time, but it finally gave out. It broke to bits and crumbled right as Jack caught it. He stared down at it in his hands in silence, watching it fall apart. "Aw! It''s over already!" Hope whined.


    "I can always get a new one." Jack shrugged.


    "So, we can do this again sometime?"


    "Sure, kid. As many times as you want." That was a lie, though. He honestly didn''t know if he''d be able to do this ever again. "Kid..."


    "Yeah?"


    "Nah. Never mind."


    "What is it? No more secrets!"


    Jack snorted. "I just wanted to say. I had fun."


    She smiled and looked at him. “I trust.” She said quietly. “I think… You’re a good person.”


    Battery''s eyes snapped open as his head slammed into the floor. Sand was feeling his lungs, and his vision was turning red. Fairy Queen''s fingers were clawing into his face, and her reality was forcing its way past his face, trying to blow his skull to bits.


    ‘Jack.’ Full Monarch’s voice came from above him. He couldn’t see the man, but he could feel the eyes.


    "Die. Die. Die. Die!" Her grip grew tighter, and blood covered his eyes, or maybe his eyes blew up. He honestly wasn''t sure anymore. "I''m going to kill you! Then I''m going to kill every member of that stupid team of yours! I won''t let a Lord of the Sun ever reach its full power ever again!" Her other hand grabbed at Battery''s throat and began to crush it as her reality twisted and bore down on him. "Die. Be gone, you traitor."


    "I- I won''t let you hurt them." Battery''s golden light began to flicker, and he gasped as he felt his body giving out. His heart was pounding like it was about to blow. He tried to grab at her, but he was quickly losing strength.


    ‘Get up Jack.’


    Fairy Queen''s hand was about to fully crush Battery''s head. Her lips twisted into a dark smirk, and she practically howled with joy. "This is it! This is where you-"


    ‘Stand up and fight, Jack!’


    Battery''s hand finally came up and managed to wrap itself around her face. She put up her barrier to keep herself safe from his golden light. It wasn''t the golden light that came out, though. Battery''s eyes lit up with a blue glow, and the lines along his costume shifted and changed. She felt reality itself cracking and burning as his fingers dug into her face, and, in a burst of bright blue, Battery blasted her off of him.


    ‘Don’t ever give up. Don’t ever stop fighting. Don’t let your story reach an end like that. Not with the life that I gave you. Fight. Save them all, Jack Larison.’


    Fairy Queen hit the floor and rolled across it. Her eyes stared up at Battery as he stood up, all his damage instantly repaired. Blue energy crackled all across his form. "Sorry, Nick. I''ll be burning through the last of my energy." His power. Not the Victorian''s light, but his own. This wasn''t solar energy that crackled around him. It was something else. A power that could distort and break through anything. The strength of a Giant swelled out. It went by many names. It was Creation and Destruction itself. He preferred to just call it Imaginary Energy. The ability to imprint his will upon the world in the desired shape he wanted.


    "A- Alpha." Fairy Queen scooted back as she stared up at Battery. The blue light was crackling and growing stronger. This wasn''t the hero Battery that she was looking at. It was the monster created by the Emperor. The Emperor''s son, the Emperor''s Giant, the tool of the Emperor, created to wipe out the Lord of the Sun. The enemy of Man.


    Alpha was back.


    And yet...


    Battery felt it in his heart—a pain unlike anything else. The golden light was seeping out—the power of the Victorian. It was melting a hole into his heart, turning itself into a mini-star, one able to destroy the entire universe that was his body. Death was crawling toward him before. Now, though, it was sprinting.


    "I''ve made my choice." Battery''s energy grew around his fingertips and expanded. The air above him took shape as energy was birthed into existence and formed into the fist of a Giant. Fairy Queen tried to block it, but it simply destroyed the reality she had twisted and broke through toward her. "I''ll die. But I''m taking you to hell with me."


    The Ruler of Giants had returned.