Before the boy went anywhere on this day, he looked over his mantle at the crossed sword and staff, then a little higher, to the mask that hung over them. He recalled...how they'd gotten there.

The battlefield smoked. Strewn around what was once a verdant green field were the corpses of the Zerg and Rahkshi who had fallen in battle. There had once been many combatants here, but they had either been forced to leave or had left of their own volition. Now only the two of us remained.

I stood, watching Teridax intently. The massive Makuta held his bident in front of him and flaming sword at his side, armour scratched from the various combatants who had tried to slow him down. To be honest, I wasn’t much better.

What power I once had had been all but expended in seeing my allies safely off, hopefully to their own worlds. I couldn't be sure. But I wouldn't permit them to remain when I saw the depths to which he would willingly sink to in an attempt to get at me. The least I could do was see them away from him... What few remained alive, anyway.

The damnable robot looked smug, or as smug as a hunk of animate metal could. He could probably sense it, the lack of power I had. And he would have been right in any other circumstance. I would normally not stand a chance if we were relying on magic alone.

But there was one last thing I had to fall back on. I didn't just take lessons in how to wear the armor properly back on Earth. I got a few sword lessons as well. Mostly so I could know what not to do, but my time in Equestria had only showed me new techniques. And as Mr. Dresden would say, 'You're just as dead from a bullet as you are from a fireball.'

"Bet you think you've won," I commented as I reached for Eureka.

Teridax swung his bident up. “You know, I rather liked that your allies have the guts to attack me directly. Bravery is to be admired, but sometimes, it is foolhardy to continue.” He paused, before extending a hand, staying just out of sword range. “My allies were… interesting momentary diversions. You are the most important being to me. We should be allies, Auric.”

“As if I ever would ally with you.” I smiled then, pulling the staff form of Concordia out and adding it to my arsenal. More things to block with, the better. “We’re not just opposite sides of the coin, we’re more like Matter and Antimatter. We shouldn’t be anywhere near each other for the sake of everything around us.”

“You know, together we could rule everything. With your alchemy and my viruses, we could rewrite reality so that it conforms to our beliefs. We could make everything about the multiverse better.” Teridax offered, still standing far away. And to be honest, for all of one second, the offer was tempting.

And then reality crashed back down around me. The only way that sort of power share would end would be when we stood together over a dead, metal world, and he convinced me it was a good idea. “I think not,” I said before dropping into a combat stance. “There’s a reason we’re told the story of Icarus in school. Fly too high, you end up falling.”

Teridax shrugged. “If that’s how you feel about it, then I suppose I can’t convince you.” He paused. “I wasn’t lying when I said I loved you, but unfortunately, my plan will work regardless.” He pulled out a tiny, glowing heart. “This is comprised of fragments of the Tree of Harmony. With a little bit of work, I could use it to terraform the multiverse, establish myself as its ruler. Clean and simple.”

“Ah, one of those,” I mused. “I banished the last one to think like that to the Void, you know.”

“Really? I’m impressed by the mortal who could make something like that.” Teridax shrugged. “Regardless, I really should be pragmatic.” His hand glowed with orange energy. “You have no magic left. By all rights, I should just blast your head off your shoulders.”

“You’d be well within your rights to,” I pointed out. “But something tells me someone like you wouldn’t be satisfied with such a quick, clean death like that. You need to be better than me.”

Teridax paused. “...I know you’re playing me. But, you’re right.” The energy disappeared, and he raised his staff. “If I can’t destroy you in melee combat, then I don’t deserve to call myself the best.”

“I believe the term I’m looking for is ‘En guard,’” I rejoined before drawing my blade, the crystal of it shining in the daylight. Teridax brought his staff down overhead, and I quickly blocked with the staff he’d been so kind as to supply the metal for.

Teridax paused. “I love the work you’ve done with my gift. Incredible work. I don’t think I could do better.” He then responded by lashing out with a kick. My clothes/armor absorbed most of the damage behind it, but the force still knocked me back. I turned the fall into a roll and sent a command to Concordia, the metal shifting around to form a mirror of Eureka.

“There’s more than one trick left in my hat,” I replied as I crouched, low to the ground. “Overspecialize and you breed in weakness and all that.”

“Very true.” Teridax replied, pulling out the sword I’d seen him using. He cracked his neck, and another arm appeared to help hold his staff. He smirked. “Just because I want to beat you, doesn’t mean that I’m completely honourable. This is just a minor advantage.”

“I would say something about that, but you’d just turn it against me,” I replied before drawing myself up. “Though...who said this little duel of ours had anything to do with honor in the first place? I’m willing to take whatever I can get myself, I don’t see why you’d be any different.” A plan started to crystalize in my mind…

“Exactly. We’re more alike than you think. We would do anything to win. Those around us regard us as gods, or something worth dying for.” He swung his staff at me with the sword stabbing forwards. Something that Eureka blocked, barely. I could see the sparks fly!

“Admit it, those who followed you didn’t just do it out of gratitude. They saw you as something worth dying for. They fought me with the intention of fighting and probably dying for you. Isn’t that a mark of the divine, Auric? People throwing themselves to certain death for one person or an ideal?” Teridax taunted.

“And how the hell did that work out for Earth?” I snarked back before making to attack with Concordia. My working theory was that this was probably one of a few things that could scratch him.

Teridax blocked, definitely taken off-balance for a moment. He recovered, though, and raised his staff again. “Amazing attack!”

“I never truly sought to become that which I now am,” I replied as I took the chance to fall back a step and observe him for a moment. Better to go in with knowledge than without. “I had every faith that when I went to stop the Wise One, I would die. I live every day like it was a gift because I returned.”

Teridax actually seemed distracted. “You never asked… I never asked either.” Something about Teridax seemed off. Then he seemed to compose himself. “I don’t care. All I care about is ruling everything. I have to rule everything. Nobody else is competent enough.”

“Nobody is competent enough to rule everything!” I shot back. “Do you even know the enormity of that task?! There’s a reason there are multiple deities!” I took the chance in his slight hesitation to test Eureka against his metal: this would all go downhill if the crystal wasn’t strong enough to do what it needed to.

“You’re thinking like an organic. It’s flawed; marred by emotion and drive. And yes, I do know that it’s impossible. But I have to try. If one pushes hard enough, it will happen. It has to happen!” Teridax retorted, actually sounding angry for the first time we’d been fighting. He brought up his staff quickly, prepared for an attack. The blade glanced off the staff, but the sparks returned. So maybe?...I would need to score a hit on his body to be sure.

“Just because one can does not mean one should! Just because it is possible to create water that would render someone immortal, does not mean I should go into the business of producing it!” I brought both blades into the fray now, trying to distract him from my true aim as the dual threats were brought to bear.

“We are gods, Auric. Could and should are not questions that we should be asking. Whoever wins is the most worthy. And I am determined that it will be me. I refuse to leave the multiverse in the hands of somebody with such flawed organic thinking!” Teridax brought up his staff and sword to counter, the flaming blade meeting with Concordia. “Emotion and short-term goals are what are going to bring this multiverse down, Auric! That’s what I learned in Tartarus. Emotions cloud judgement. Short-term goals cloud perspective. That is reality, Auric.”

“I pity you for losing sight of the real foe, then,” I replied, drawing back to analyze what I’d seen of his blocking. Thanks to that whole extra arm thing, it was flawless. Maybe it’d be better to let him press an attack, if only to slip a hit in? I’d have to be sure of my guard, though. Concordia shifted back into the staff form as I thought about it, needing the extra reach the pole version would provide. “Emotions are the very base of what makes me human. The very thing that separates you from me. Without them, I might as well be you. And the real foe would still remain.”

Teridax simply glared. “Oh, and what foe is this? People not liking me? The multiverse ending? I don’t fear that. It is inevitable, and I might as well accept it.”

“You actually had it right there,” I commented. “Entropy is the real foe, the flaw the Multiverse was born with. All things will end. Everything will end. And it’s the one thing I would rather spend my time fighting. I’d rather spend time devising a way for life to continue after the death of the Multiverse, but you didn’t take the fucking hint!”

“So we both have impossible dreams then.” Teridax commented. I merely nodded once.

“But somebody kept coming for me, coming after me. So my research has been put off thanks to this whole bloody mess! If you would have only left me be…” That’s it, goad the giant robot, why don’t you.

Teridax glared at me. “You would have come after me eventually. Our goals are too different. As soon as you got wind you would have come after me eventually. Besides, I believe that destruction will allow something new to grow in the multiverses’ place.”

“I would have been content where I was, learning and researching. I would have been content leaving you where you were. The Multiverse has ways of dealing with those that get too big, too noisy. But you just kept coming for me.”

Teridax geared up for an attack. “We are UNIQUE, Auric. The unique get drawn to one another. Sooner or later, you would have sought me out.”

“Keep telling yourself that,” I snarked at him. “Whatever helps you go to sleep at night.”

“I don’t sleep. Sleeping is an organic flaw that I have excised from my being.” Teridax lunged forwards with his sword, and I brought Concordia around to block. Now if only he would use his staff as well, I could get a hit in and test my theory!

“You still act like an organic, even when you are a god. It’s unbecoming.” Teridax raised his staff up, and brought it down on my head. The world spun, but he’d left me an opening. One I exploited as well as I could with Eureka. Now we would see how metal would fare against whatever the hell crystal made up my sword.

Teridax grunted as the sword actually penetrated his armour. He looked down, and immediately backed up. “No. No, no, no, no, NO!” Green mist seemed to seep out of the cut. Teridax seemed off-balance, almost scared. “I can’t adapt to this. Why can’t I adapt to this?” He kept grasping at the cut, motions becoming more frantic as whatever he was trying just didn’t work.

“That would require you knowing the properties of my sword, something not even I really know,” I replied, the plan now ready. But I would be kind to him. I’d put on a show and let him think he was winning up until the end.

Teridad seemed to gather his composure. “I need a patch… need a patch… patch.” An idea struck him, and he tore off the bottom of his staff. Orange energy gathered, and he applied it crudely over the wound. That done, he turned to me. “Impressive. Very impressive.” He then attacked again, frantically swinging his staff and sword together, trying to overwhelm me. Teridax was scared, terrified even. This was when my plan came into play, though I didn’t even need to put on a show as it turned out. Eventually his sheer speed and frequency of his attacks tore Concordia from my grasp and sent it rolling away. Reduced to naught but my sword, I kept blocking and hoping that sooner rather than later, it wouldn’t be needed anymore…

Teridax seemed to be slowly calming down, but eventually, he made a mistake. He made the mistake of thinking that just because I wasn’t holding Concordia it was removed from play. The metal still listened to me, and I had given it a simple command.

Hold. And it listened with aplomb as it turned on the one to supply me with its metal. Teridax was charging forwards, sword raised above his head, when the metal that had once been the staff rose up around his legs and held them still.

“What the…” He stared at the metal holding him down, confused. Then, he seemed to realise. “More tricks, Auric? I suppose I should have-”

That was about when I shoved my sword past his guards and into his chest. His moment had been long enough, he had been close enough. I panted and fell back all the same afterwards. I didn’t need to give him more chances to swing at me. I doubted even having that huge chunk of crystal in his chest would really slow him down.

Teridax glanced down, then slowly pulled Eureka free. His staff dropped to the ground with his sword, as the green mist flowed freely. And that was when I spoke a simple phrase. One that had proved effective in healing a mare. And one that I would now weaponize.

“Intelligre te ipsum!” Or translated. ‘Understand thyself.’ And my sword flashed as it sought to obey its trigger word with the one now holding it.

Teridax shuddered. He then dropped Eureka and seemed to collapse. I knew better than to get anywhere near those under the effects of one of Eureka’s spells, though. They didn’t tend to react...gently, when all was said and done.

In the end, Teridax leant back. “I’ve lost. For the first time since I’ve gained Understanding, I have lost.” The rainbow-coloured heart he held in his hand was slowly crushed into pieces, whatever magic present in it disappearing.

“Losing is a part of life. I’ve had my losses as well. And I know that as I continue to live, I will continue to lose things close to me, dear to me.” I picked the sword up, seeing that it was now...dull, somehow. Lifeless. As though it had been a catalyst all this time, waiting for the moment it was needed. And that the moment had passed. “And it looks like I just suffered another one.”

Teridax actually laughed. “To win, one must Understand themselves, right? I have to admit, this feels… much calmer now.” Green mist floated out of the gap in his armour. He tapped the gap with a finger. “I can’t regenerate, magnetize, weld or adapt to this wound. My antidermis is just going to leak out and my consciousness will disperse. I’m going to die slowly, but at least it’s painless.”

“You brought this on yourself,” I said before putting the sword on the ground and kicking it over to him. “I would have left you be had you let me be. I would have never needed to do this. But you just couldn’t let me go.”

Teridax picked Eureka up, examining it intently. “I couldn’t. For four thousand years, I was imprisoned with the likes of Tirek. It was boring. Then, I saw you. A being who shared my unique perspective.” He glanced at me, with an impression of embarassment. “I fell in love with you. Odd. I discarded all organic problems, but I couldn’t get rid of love.”

“‘Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind,’” I quoted at him. “The eternal bard seems to have gotten it right.”

Teridax seemed to smirk. “Ah well. I’ve lost, and I feel at peace with myself. So, I never did give your wife a gift.” He pulled off his mask and tossed it to me. Even that little action caused more green mist to seep out of him. I picked the thing up carefully, ready to toss it aside at the first indication of foul play.

“And this is supposed to be?”

Teridax’s face underneath the mask didn’t even look humanoid. It was insectile, and smooth, curving metal. “My artifact of Understanding, the Kanohi Kraahkan. It grants the wearer control over shadows, fear and anger. And like your sword, it is virtually indestructible.”

“Mine probably was before it did...whatever it just did to you,” I gestured to the sword. “It’s...lost something now. I doubt it’d ever be the same again. And I suppose I owe you that much, to take something as a reminder.” I held the mask in one hand, still ready to toss it away should I feel as much as a tingle.

Teridax glared at the mask. “Kraahkan, this is your new master. You defend him. He’s stronger than you. Only attack those who threaten him.” That said, he seemed to relax. He weakly pointed a finger at the sword and staff. “Take them as well. You might like the sword. Obsidian, sharpened down to an atom. And if you want it, my lab and notes on forging protodermis are in my own dimension.”

“I know a guy, he’ll probably do it for the asking,” I quipped before gently placing the mask with the staff and sword. “I’ll probably be stuck here until my magic recovers enough for me to breach the walls and find my way home...if you want me to make it faster, I...probably could.” Memories of the NAT came to the surface, the four who’d begged to die.

Teridax shook his head. “I am patient. It will come. I am expiring, and my death will create something new.” He looked at me, eyes flickering. “Besides, a god chooses how he dies.” With the last of his strength, he gripped the wound, and pulled it apart. More green mist poured out of him. I didn’t even move to stop him. Everyone had that right.

“Farewell then, Teridax...but before you go? Auric is what those that don’t know me call me. I figure you should know my real name before you go to whatever waits for you.” I paused for a moment before filling in the blank. “Frank DeFontaine was what I used to be called.”

“... Matthew… Bates…” he supplied, before the light in his eyes winked out. The green mist- antidermis- remained for a while before the wind blew it away. I sighed softly, relieved that finally…

It was over.

Author's Notes:

It's fucking done. Finally.

One down, god knows how many to go.