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The wind from his lungs was whistling past his ears. The blood from his heart stained the translucent fabric of his toga. The voice in his throat echoed silently into the darkness.
And then Scott was alive once more. In somewhat of a daze, he handed the tall Ferryman one of his obelisks, the cold metal biting into his hand as if it was sentient. He got into the boat, the dark waves underneath sloshing at the wooden sides, and sat down at the front. The Ferryman stood behind him, shadow looming, and began to row through the obsidian waters.
They reached the edge of the lake where light met death and Scott stood up, balancing easily on the shuddering boat, and stepped back into life.
A glance behind him. The Ferryman, boat, and lake were gone, replaced with the solid wall of a cliffside. It took Scott a moment to realize it was his cliffside. He propelled himself upward, landing gracefully on the soft grass, and didn’t look back as he made his way to his impromptu home.
The rest of the night trickled by. Scott sat, hunched over, on the edge of the cliff, legs dangling into the inky void below. Aeolus’ voice whispered grievances into his ears over and over again, the voice soon turning into the murky nothingness of the souls beneath the crashing, black waves of the lake he had crossed to return to the living. Every insult, every reprimand, every degradation felt like a hot iron was striking his skin despite his futile attempts to drown them out as the hours dragged on.
When the early light of morning spilled over the dead horizon ahead, Scott realized there was blood on his hands. He ignored it, ignored the familiar stinging that accompanied long nights with nothing to do but torment himself with his own mind.
The new day brought questions surfacing into Scott’s mind. Where was Nikos? Had Scott finally managed to put on a good show? What about Abolish, what did he think about this?
And, more selfishly, why hadn’t they shown up by then?
Scott didn’t really feel like moving. So he didn’t. He sat there as the sun rose high into the sky and was quickly blotted out by passing clouds, as the winds picked up and blew heavily against his back, as if attempting to push him from the edge of the cliff.
For a moment, he entertained the idea.
It was only for a moment.
That’s what he told himself.
And then a voice amidst the whistling in his ears.
“Scott?”
Scott didn’t glance back at Cleo. He didn’t move a muscle as she slowly walked up to him, her steps loud in the previous dead silence. She hesitated for a fraction of a second, and then sat down next to him, legs folded instead of dangling like his were.
For a moment, neither spoke.
Cleo’s voice shattered the fragile quiet between them. “Thanks for choosing my blessing.”
Scott didn’t look at her. His voice was rough from disuse. “It was either that or Shelby or Abolish. I can’t use Abolish’s weapon and Shelby’s abilities aren’t exactly helpful in a fight.”
“Well, thanks for choosing it anyway.”
“Sure.”
Silence.
“Can… I ask you a question?”
She didn’t miss a beat. “Yeah.”
“How was it?”
“How was what?”
“The fight.”
She paused for a moment. “Bloody.”
Scott sent her a sideways glance for the first time, and she met his eyes with her own sparkling green ones. “That’s not what I meant.”
“Then what did you mean?”
“Was it entertaining?”
Cleo frowned. “Entertaining?”
Scott nodded.
“I guess.” She considered this for a little bit. “I didn’t love watching you get beat up. Or watching you kill yourself at the end.”
“I didn’t kill myself; Nikos stabbed me,” Scott immediately snapped, his defenses raising at the challenge of his acting prowess. “Everyone saw it.”
Cleo’s eyes turned hard. “Nikos wouldn’t do something like that. Not after his attempts at getting a fair fight.”
“Well, he did.”
“No, he didn’t.”
Scott would consider himself pretty cool-headed. But apparently Cleo knew just how to get under his skin.
“Fuck off,” he snarled, a terrible vulnerability rining in his words.
“Okay.”
Cleo stood up, brushing herself off, and made to leave before sending Scott a glance over her shoulder. “Nikos and Abolish are at Abolish’s forge. If you want to say hi to the man who died for you.”
Scott stared after Cleo as she meandered away, his voice tangling deep inside his throat. What did she mean, ‘the man who died for him?’
Nikos or Abolish hadn’t died! Scott had!
What?
In a second, Scott was shooting to his feet and sprinting as fast as his wobbly legs would allow him to Abolish’s forge. He propelled himself through the air, fighting against the petulant wind as it attempted to prevent him from reaching the champions of Zeus and Hephestus.
He landed outside of the forge, knees nearly buckling from his overuse of his abilities in such a short span.
“Abolish? Nikos!?” he called, breathless with panic, running up to the door that led into Abolish’s home. He nearly smacked face first into none other than the man himself.
A bloody line cut deep into his face, starting at his cheekbone and ending just over the bridge of his nose. A bruise was nestling into his eye, splotches of sickly purple and green dulling his orange gaze.
For a moment, they just stared at one another.
And then Scott was on the ground, hand cupping his cheek from where Abolish’ fist had struck him. A strangled noise had escaped him upon impact and he fought to keep tears from rushing into his eyes. He stared up at Abolish, who was glaring disdainfully down at him.
No, wait, not disdainfully. There was anger there. A lot of anger.
His eyes were also wet. Tears bubbled at the edges of his eyes and his fiery orange gaze had become hazy and reflective.
“Fuck you.”
Scott stood up, hand still cradling the growing bruise on his face. “Fuck you!? You just punched me!”
“Yeah, I just punched you, dumbass! Because you’re an idiot!”
Abolish had just called him dumb twice in one sentence. For some reason, Scott couldn’t feel his defenses rising as they had done with Cleo.
Somebody appeared over Abolish’s shoulder.
Nikos.
With his deep brown eyes and long, dark hair. With the emboldened tattoos that stood out amongst his skin and his lips that were pressed into a surprisingly unreadable expression.
“Why is he holding his face?” He addressed this directly to Abolish, who merely crossed his arms and glared daggers at Scott.
“He fell.”
“He punched me!” Scott argued, pointing at Abolish with the hand not pressed against his face. “For no reason!”
A rumble of a laugh issued from Nikos’ throat and he turned away, disappearing further into Abolish’s forge. “For no reason. Now that’s funny, pretty one.”
Scott stared after him, ignoring the ‘told you’ look that Abolish gave him, and rushed after Nikos.
“Nikos!” he called, stepping into the taller man’s path. “Look, I’m sorry about the fight—!”
“Sorry?” Nikos stared at him, eyes wide and slightly wild. His fingers were curling into fists at his sides. Scott vaguely wondered if he, too, would punch him in the face.
Nikos didn’t punch him. Instead, he roughly shoved Scott aside and strode past him, leaving the champion of Aeolus rendered silent in his wake.
Scott grit his teeth and ran after Nikos, nearly running right into him as he sharply whipped around. His deep voice was a clear accusation. “You killed yourself."
“The fight was lasting way too long,” Scott exclaimed, not even willing to argue with Nikos about whether he had committed suicide or not. “I had to end it.”
“You tricked me.” There was a strange hurt curling in his voice.
Scott didn’t like it one bit.
Scott shook his head, taking one of Nikos’ hands in his own. “I wasn’t trying to hurt you. I just wanted it to be over.”
Nikos scoffed, pulling his hand free from Scott’s somewhat gently. “Oh, trust me, I was aware. You called that a fight?”
“I had no chance from the start! Everybody knew that!”
“That doesn’t mean you had to kill yourself.”
Abolish’s voice this time. Scott turned sharply on his heel, eyes narrowing at the champion of Hephaestus leaning against the wall behind Scott, arms crossed and brows raised.
He shrugged at Scott’s look, pushing off of the wall and walking past him to join Nikos. Scott noticed he was limping slightly, a slight wince appearing on his face whether he put pressure on his left leg. “I’m just saying. In the first fight, Nobody was at a clear disadvantage, he didn’t give up. Sausage and Owen were teammates too and had to fight. Owen won fair and square.”
“Did everyone notice?”
That seemed to give Abolish pause and he sent a quick glance at Nikos. “Notice?”
“That I ended the fight.”
“No,” Nikos said, voice gruff. “But they realized about as soon as Apo began chirping about it when the fight ended.”
Scott’s heart leaped to his throat. “...What do you mean?”
“Not important—”
“She was telling everyone how illegitimate the fight was. She claimed you two didn’t have the strength to kill each other. Essentially calling you both cowards.”
Nikos turned on Abolish, anger flashing violently in his perfect face. “That wasn’t yours to tell.”
Abolish glared up at Nikos unapologetically. “He was going to find out eventually.”
“Who died?”
The two of them immediately froze, then slowly glanced over at Scott, as if remembering he was still in the room. Abolish crossed his arms, orange gaze darting to the floor.
“Nikos,” he said, a barely detectable tone of guilt resonating in his voice.
“It is fine,” Nikos waved a hand, voice unwavering and self assured as always. “I would have taken the bird with me if it wasn’t for the child getting in my way.”
“You still died,” Abolish argued, but his voice lacked any sort of conviction. “Both of you did.”
“What, you feeling left out?” Scott asked, some of his old humor returning to him along with the fleeting feeling of familiarity.
“Yes, we can fix that very quickly,” Nikos agreed, a smile tugging at the edges of his lips.
Abolish glared at the both of them and Scott noticed the dried blood on his face had begun to flake.
“You should clean that,” he said, pointing airily to the cut.
Abolish raised a brow. “I’ll clean it when you explain to me why you killed yourself."
Scott threw his hands up in exasperation. “I honestly don’t know what else there is to explain! I was on the verge of collapse, there was no way that Nikos was going to be satisfied with my performance and feel he had a fair fight, so I ended it! It should have ended when that lightning hit me in the air, but you chose not to finish me off.” He pointed at Nikos, purposefully fueling his words with accusation.
“Why would I finish you off?” Nikos asked, genuine confusion flooding his voice. “You were not dead.”
“It would have been a mercy kill,” Abolish said, subconsciously rubbing a whitened scar on his arm. “You already defeated Scott multiple times. You could have killed him at any point and it would’ve been considered absolutely fair.”
Nikos frowned at Abolish. “Fair? There’s nothing fair about killing a man while he’s not on his feet.”
Abolish sighed. “Whatever.” He then turned to Scott and studied him for a moment, a slight admiration creeping into his eyes. “That violin was a hell of a pull, though.”
“Viola,” Scott corrected him sharply. “And, good, I was hoping it would be of some surprise to the audience. Can’t have everything in a show being too predictable.”
“Right… is that what you thought of it, then? Just another show?”
Scott tilted his head at Abolish, eyes darting back and forth between him and the champion of Zeus. “Do you not? I thought you were an entertainer just like me.”
“I guess.” Abolish scratched the back of his head, his usual calm, unbothered demeanor faltering every so slightly. “I’ve never lost, so I wouldn’t exactly know how to… well, put on a good show even if it didn’t end in victory.”
“Did I put on a good show?”
“No.”
This was Nikos, who Scott promptly ignored.
Abolish thought for a moment. “I’d say so. Much better than some of those other fights. Even if you did get your ass handed to you.”
He just always had to add that last part on, huh?
“I did not like that show.”
Again, Scott chose to ignore the champion of Zeus.
He began to turn away from the two, exhaustion suddenly digging its claws into his bones, fracturing them into nothing but jelly. “Well, I should get going. I didn’t get much beauty sleep last night, and I—”
“Scott.”
Scott blinked, swiveling back around to face Abolish and Nikos. Abolish was pointing towards his stomach.
Towards the small trail of smoke slowly encircling him.
No.
Not now—
Scott stumbled backwards but the smoke followed and suddenly he couldn’t breathe. He was drowning. There was this unfathomable pressure on his chest that restricted even the thought of inhalation—
“Scott!” Hands on him. They were warm. “Look at me!”
Somehow, Scott found it in himself to look into that fiery, orange gaze. “
“Don’t let her win.”
Somehow, with Abolish’s hands gripping his arms, the smallest bit of oxygen was allowed into his lungs as the world twisted out of existence and he was gone.
He refocused his eyes to purple. It was all purple.
Purple, and quite beautiful, but still very, very purple.
He was in some sort of arena with very tall, stone pillars encasing him into a large circular shape. He could very easily escape the arena through the large gaps between the pillars. His feet wouldn’t move. They were lead pipes that were sunken a foot into the cement he was standing on.
Apo’s voice.
“Welcome!”
It seemed there was no air in this dimension. None that would slip into his lungs, anyway.
“Scott! What a pleasant surprise!”
Scott yearned to scream that this wasn’t a surprise at all. Apo had purposefully chosen to kidnap him to her realm. He found he couldn’t speak without making the terrible, choking sound of a wounded animal.
“I’ve been waiting for this, you know. Sadly, I can only use this ability once in a while, so I’ve only been able to fight your two little boytoys.”
Scott detested her choice of words.
“Now, after that pitiful display I saw in the arena, I’m gonna fight you.” She then frowned at him, eyes dancing with an alarming amount of vindication in the soft, overhead light. “What? Cat got your tongue?”
Scott grit his teeth. He forced the words out through numb lips. It was painful. “Why me?”
Apo grinned at him. “I think we can both figure that one out. I’ll give you a hint, though.” She leaned in, putting a hand to one side of her mouth as if she was sharing some secret that the many others in this dimension couldn’t possibly know about. “You’re weak.”
Scott took a trembling step back.
Apo’s smile widened at this and she advanced forward, wings spread regal and beautiful in her wake. Her auburn hair fell down in slight, natural waves, her purple toga flowing as she walked.
“What? Don’t like hearing the truth? Your champion of Hephaestus was taunting me the whole time that he was in here. Think of this as payback.”
Scott swallowed. His throat was dry. His tongue stuck to the walls of his mouth.
Apo unsheathed a sword from her belt, taking another languid step towards Scott. “That was quite a performance, I must say.”
Scott forced a strangled demeanor of calm onto himself. “I’m glad you enjoyed it.”
“Not as much as I’m going to enjoy this.”
Apo lunged and Scott jumped back just in time so as to not get cut in half by her shining blade.
“Wait!” he cried, holding out his hands. “Why me in particular, though? I just fought in the arena and we don’t have that much bad blood!”
From what Abolish had said, there was a time limit on how long they could fight in this dimension. Now that Apo had swung at him, that time was waning. If Scott could get Apo to talk to him for a little longer, maybe he could get out of there without dying again.
Apo lowered her sword ever so slightly, staring quizzically at Scott, her head cocking to the side like a confused bird. “Don’t have that much bad blood? You kill Pyro!”
Scott blinked. “...What? I haven’t killed anyone!”
“No—You will! It’s in the future! Owen—Owen saw it.”
Her voice caught on the champion of Chronos’ name. Scott wondered why.
“Well, I promise that I won’t! You have my word!”
“Your word means nothing!” Apo snarled, brandishing her sword once more. “No one’s word means anything! All people do is lie!”
Scott frowned at her. “That’s not true.”
“Oh, yeah? You were betrayed too, weren’t you?”
Scott froze. His neck gave a sharp ache of familiar pain.
“You know how it feels.” Her voice was strangely vulnerable. “To be stabbed in the back.”
“That doesn’t mean everyone is bad.”
Apo grit her teeth. Anger flashed across her face. “Shut up!”
She darted towards him and he nearly attempted to propel himself away from the attack before remembering what Nikos and Abolish had said about the absence of their abilities. Instead, he ducked under her swing, the sharp edge of the sword nearly taking his head off.
He reached for the sword at his side then remembered he had left it at his home in his hurry to get to Abolish’s forge.
He had nothing to defend himself with but his words.
“Apo, listen!” he exclaimed, dancing out of her reach. “I don’t know what Owen saw, but it hasn’t happened yet! We can prevent it from happening, okay?”
That gave Apo a moment's hesitation. “How do I know you’ll keep your word?”
“I—I don’t know. You just have to trust me.”
“Trust?” Apo gave a short, humorless laugh. “The last time I trusted somebody I ended up bleeding out in the dirt.”
“What about Owen? You trust him enough to believe what he says about the future.”
Apo’s face took up that earlier fury once more. “You don’t get to talk about Owen.”
“I didn’t do anything to Owen either!”
“You didn’t. Abolish murdered him.”
Abolish… killed Owen. What???
“Abolish wouldn’t do that. He’s too cool headed.”
“Is that why he and the champion of Zeus attacked me? Is that why when Owen ran to my aid, he was stabbed through the heart?”
“You killed Nikos!”
“AFTER Abolish killed Owen! The only death tonight should have been yours, but instead you caused two more to join you.”
Scott stared at her incredulously. “You were the one mocking Nikos, were you not?”
“I was only preaching the truth! Here he is, gloating about how strong he was, and he couldn’t finish you off on his own!”
“He could have very easily killed me there!” Scott exclaimed, anger swirling in his chest. “He wanted a fair fight!”
“He wasn’t going to get a fair fight! Not with you in there!”
That hurt. Even if it was the truth.
“Well, maybe you shouldn’t have used your immunity token, then! Ever think about that? You and Nikos both wanted a fight. You could have had it, instead he fought me, and now you’re also fighting me! I’m not even involved in your guys’ beef!”
“They took something precious from me.” Apo’s voice was a low growl. Her eyes were haunting. “Now I’m taking something from them.”
Scott had the distinct feeling she wasn’t just speaking about Nikos and Abolish.
“Who took something from you?” he asked, praying that she wouldn’t attack him then and there.
She stared at him for a moment, gaze flashing. “Your people. The rich. They destroyed me. They destroyed my home, my friends, my life. Now I’m going to destroy all they love.”
It took Scott a moment to realize that ‘all they love’ was in reference to him. Oh.
In that moment, Apo rushed him, blade swinging. Scott was quick on his feet, sure, but not quick enough to avoid the sword careening towards his neck. He squeezed his eyes shut, hoping that Apo would make it quick.
When the blow never came, Scott opened his eyes. Apo stood there, the sharp edge of the blade grazing the skin. She grinned, her teeth sharp and lips thin. Her huge eyes were reflectionless and dark. She slashed the sword clear across his jugular.
Scott couldn’t breathe.
Blood was spilling from between his fingers as he clutched his neck. It found its way under his palms, over top his knuckles, streaming in rivulets down his wrists. It painted the floor in red. His skin, his clothes. It was all red.
He fell to his knees. They hit the stone floor, the bones shattering and crumbling to nothing but fine, alabaster dust. A pool of scarlet was growing beneath him. It reached out towards Apo’s feet, grappling with the shadows that were encroaching in on the edges of his vision.
His ears were filled with the sound of a dying animal. A wet gasp, a stuttered cough. Tears streamed down his face, intermixing with the blood at his throat.
He crumpled sideways. His head hit the concrete floor. Apo’s emotionless, dull eyes watched as all the blood his body contained stained the sacred ground of her dreamscape world.
And then Apo was gone.
Two familiar gazes were in her place. Fiery and orange. Deep and brown.
There were hands on him, rough and calloused. Warm.
Someone was shouting at him. Telling him what, he knew not.
Somebody else was speaking to him in a softer, yet firm voice. The one shouting didn’t really help. Scott chose to focus on the former.
He squinted through the tears still blurring his vision, the world hazy around him. Dimly, he was aware of that strangled choking sound he had heard earlier. When his throat was slit.
He realized then that he was still clutching at his neck where Apo had dragged her blade across. The blood still slipped through his fingers and dotted the floor beneath him, he was still dying. His lungs were still shriveled up and the oxygen that was meant for his chest was flooding from the hole in his throat out back into the world.
He could not breathe.
Nikos’ voice became known to him before Abolish’s. He was shouting at him to breathe. Really helpful, that one.
Abolish, on the other hand, had a warm grip on his shoulder, his other hand gently attempting to pry Scott’s own from his neck.
With difficulty, Scott let him, doing his best to relinquish his iron-clad hold on his own throat. Abolish took his hand off of Scott’s shoulder and took both of his hands into his own, grip tight but comforting.
Scott feared Nikos would have taken to shaking him until he started to breathe again if Abolish hadn’t shoved him out of the way with his shoulder and a few sharp words.
Abolish turned back to the champion of Aeolus, and the surprising gentleness of his voice nearly snapped Scott back into full awareness.
“Breathe with me, okay? Inhale, one, two, three. Exhale, one, two, three.”
It took Scott a while, but as Abolish repeated this phrase over and over again, his lungs found a discordant rhythm to follow.
Eventually he was breathing normally enough for Nikos’ taste.
“What did the bird do?”
His voice was a deep rumble of hatred. For the first time, Scott feared just a little for Apo.
He hesitated before responding. For some strange, odd reason, he felt a sort of… understanding towards Apo. They were similar to each other, in a way. That didn’t mean what she did was right.
“She killed me.”
“She slit your throat,” Abolish clarified, and Scott could clearly detect anger underneath his unbothered facade.
Scott nodded, unwilling to verbally admit to it. His hand came up to gingerly brush the scar that was not left from Apo, but from somebody very different. Someone from his past life. Someone with a grudge.
Maybe they weren’t so different after all.
That scared Scott to no end.
“Is that…” Abolish almost seemed nervous to ask. “How you ended up here?”
Again, Scott nodded.
“That’s it. The bird dies today,” Nikos announced, standing up and marching out of the room. Abolish made no move to stop him, his narrowed gaze trained on his back as he disappeared around the corner.
It was Scott who found himself stopping Nikos. Why? To protect Apo? To protect Nikos? He had no clue.
“Nikos!” he called, twisting around from where he had collapsed to the floor. “Stop!”
Scott feared that even his voice wouldn’t stop Nikos in his journey of revenge. Inexplicably, Nikos stopped where he was, and turned. He waited for Scott to speak, the rage suddenly wiped from his face.
“Just—don’t do anything too hasty, okay? You don’t want to die again.”
Nikos scoffed. “The bird could never hope to beat me in a one v one.”
“What if it’s not a one v one?” Scott stressed, getting unsteadily to his feet. His knees nearly bucked underneath him but Abolish was there, looping a strong arm around his waist.
“Then I win a two v one!”
“I know about Owen.”
That gave Nikos pause. His eyes traveled to Abolish, and Scott could feel the muscles in Abolish’ body go taut.
“Yeah, about that…” he muttered. “I don’t know what happened. I’m not supposed to kill outside of the arena. They—the Gods—don’t like that. I just—something new washed over me. Something different.”
“That, my friend, was anger!” Nikos explained, a triumphant lilt to his voice. “You killed Owen because you were angry.”
Abolish glared at Nikos. “I don’t kill because I’m angry. I kill to entertain inside of the arena.”
“Was the blind one inside of the arena?”
“...No.”
“Well, I think you have your answer.”
Abolish was about to shoot back a retort but Scott interrupted, not really keen to be in the middle of a shouting match between Nikos and Abolish. Not when the only thing keeping him upright was Abolish’s arm around his waist.
“Why don’t we talk about this tomorrow?” Scott asked, unable to keep the pleading tone of his voice. “Please?”
“The bird should die today, not tomorrow," Nikos argued, crossing his arms over his heavily tattooed chest.
“You can kill Apo any day. Just… not today. Okay?”
Again, inexplicably, Nikos relented, dropping his arms back down to his sides. “Fine. The bird dies tomorrow. But you, pretty one, need to get sleep.”
Scott blinked, then glanced at Abolish, who was begrudgingly nodding in agreement.
“I’m fine,” he argued, ignoring the exhaustion that turned his bones into lead. “I promise I’m fine.”
“You just died twice in very short succession to each other. I’m sorry, but I wouldn’t exactly call that fine,” Abolish noted, his voice back to its usual, bored tone. He then raised a brow, a slight amusement sparkling in his eyes. “And I’m the only thing keeping you up right now.”
“You are not.” He, in fact, was.
“Want to test it, then?”
“No.”
Abolish jutted his chin towards his own bed in the corner. “You can take mine. Nikos and I need to… discuss what we’re going to do moving forward.”
Scott’s eyes were growing heavy. He tried to object against taking Abolish’s bed, not when he was injured and probably needed it more than Scott, but fatigue ran its course and he was nearly sagging against Abolish at that point.
“Fine. This one time, okay?”
Abolish raised his brows. “Sure.”
He led Scott to the bed and gently set him down atop the warm sheets, face unreadable as he turned away and limped back to Nikos.
They both sent Scott one last glance before rounding the corner to discuss, or whatever they planned to do.
Scott worried they were going to go after Apo anyway.
Well, there was nothing he could do to stop them, really.
That was the last thought he had before he drifted off into nothingness.