As the Mages all gathered for Maddie’s birthday party, Life, Death, and Jason all made sure to tell the others that this was a ceasefire from Life and Death’s war and that there was to be no fighting whatsoever. They even made sure their second-in-commands were made aware or this fact.
Once everyone was gathered, Maddie smiled. “Welcome everyone!” she said happily. She passed around tea cups that would magically refill with each Mage’s preferred type of tea. “Please, talk amongst yourselves and just have fun!” she added.
Everyone laid the presents they had gotten for Maddie down on a table off to the side and began conversing with one another. Those that held significant grudges against another occasionally leveled glares at one another, but everything remained civil and, in general, everyone was just having a good time.
“Ok everyone!” Maddie said. “It’s time for cake!” Maddie brought in a cake with numbered candles, reading 128, and laid it on the table. After singing “Happy Birthday” to her, everyone lined up in an orderly fashion to get their piece.
“Well looky here, if it isn’t Julius’s little pet.” stated a voice from behind Sloane. She turned around to find Cliff right in her face. ”Do not refer to Emperor Caesar so casually.” Sloane said, narrowing her eyes. Cliff merely ignored her comment. “You know, I’m actually impressed that you’ve made it this long. Frauds normally get caught after a few years, but you’ve had your ruse going for, what is it, two millennia now?” Sloane growled. “I am no fraud.” she stated. “I am the rightful daughter of the Titan Terra.” “Yes, yes, that worn out old line.” Cliff said. “Too bad it’s not true in the slightest. You see, I really am the son of the God Baal, and I inherited my powers properly. You, however, have been lying to everyone. You are no daughter of Terra. You are a mortal, descended from mortals, and I will prove how mortal you are.”
With that, the Nature Mage flashed his sword at the Earth Mage. Sloane, in a moment of fury at the words he had spoken, and in an act of defense, tackled him to the ground beside the table. Cliff, however was not going to go down easy. He leveraged the weak spot in her center of balance and rolled so that he was on top, sending some tea cups to the floor and shattering them. The room went dead silent and all joy left, leaving a lingering sense of shock around everyone in the room.
Maddie watched one tea cup in particular and felt tears touch her eyes as it shattered. She grabbed a trash can and began scooping up the remainder of the tea cups. “It’s ok, it’s ok, it was an accident.” she said quietly. “It was an accident, it’s ok.” As she picked up the last piece of her grandmother’s tea cup she repeated, “it’s ok. It was an accident.” she hesitated before looking at the two fighting Mages. “Right?”
Without thinking or looking at Maddie, Cliff responded. “The only accident here was giving this filthy Roman powers.” Suddenly, all tension was replaced with fear and panic as Maddie’s heart broke and her mind snapped. Without even enough time to blink, Maddie had a sword through Cliff’s shoulder. She began laughing a madwoman’s laugh. Her normal happy smile transformed into a sick, sadistic one. She pulled the sword out of him and smiled as the wound refused to heal of its own accord.
Jason flinched and looked at Haruka. “You ready to do this again?” the Time Mage asked. Visions shook his head. “No, but we have to now.” Jason handed Visions a bright blue bo-staff. “You know what to do.” With that, Jason jumped towards Maddie. He took the sword from her, hoping to at least slow down her killing spree. Unfortunately, he got a small cut on his hand from the blade. It wasn’t enough to kill him outright, but it was enough that he knew he had to be careful now that his immortality was temporarily disabled.
Maddie began summoning teacups and sprouted tendrils of tea from her fingers. She lashed out at anyone nearby, but paid special attention to immobilize Sloane and Cliff, while also trying to take back her sword from Jason.
“Everyone, get out of here however you can! Teleportation, speed boosts, just plain running! Stay close in case you’re needed, but do not engage her unless necessary!” As Life spoke, however, a feeling of dread washed over her. Behind her stood a man whom she feared with her entire being. He plunged his knife down and Life braced herself for impact.
A metallic clang sounded. Life looked up to find Death standing between her and Madder, Death’s scythe having blocked the blade. “No.” Death growled. “I already have the torture you inflicted upon Life last time on my conscience, I will not allow you to do it again.”
“Ah, there you are, Madder!” Maddie said with a smile, nimbly dodging Chronos and Haruka’s attack as she spoke. “I was wondering when you were to show up.” Madder smirked at her. “Sorry for keeping you waiting, my dear, suppressing my other side takes time, and it is so much simpler when it’s just me and him.” Madder turned his attention back to Death, backing off before trying to stab him instead. “Fine, we’ll play it your way. First we kill you, then I torture Life.”
Death froze for a second as Madder finished speaking. Maddie wasn’t worried about Death, so if Madder was saying ‘we’... He dropped his scythe, grabbed Life and dove out of the way with her as someone else’s scythe swung over his head. “Very good, Death. So glad you remembered me, I’d have been disappointed if not.” Madeline spun her scythe before swinging it at Death again. “It’s going to be a real joy finally killing you for what you did to me and my son.” “Our son.” Death corrected. “And on accident.” he added. “Those details don’t matter. Not when we’re talking about you killing a five-day-old.”
Life tried to run. Maddie was preoccupied, Sloane managing to break free for a moment, landing a couple good hits before Maddie’s tea caught her again. Madder and Madeline should be no problem for Death, he had already defeated both of them before. As long as she didn’t get caught in the crossfire, everything would be fine. As she escaped, she bumped into someone. As she looked at him, she backed away, pain filling her as she saw the baby she had accidentally helped kill over 100 years ago, now a young man who was holding a black-bladed sword. “Maddox!? You too!?” “Hello, grandma.” He said. “Where are you running off to in such a hurry? You’re gonna miss all the fun.” He picked her up and threw her across the room away from the exit.
As Maddox grabbed a hold of Life, she looked around for other Mages, seeing if there was anyone around who may help. Out the corner of her eye, she saw the last of the Mages leaving, not having seen Maddox’s arrival. One Mage, however, shook free of her mother’s grasp and ran back in. As Life went flying, she heard the young Mage yelling. “FATHER!” Olipsia, the Obsession Mage, called. She ran over to Madder, past the others. She used her powers to summon Death the Kid’s hoverboard in order to avoid the chaos. She grabbed his knife arm and bent it behind his back. “Brent! I know you’re in there! Please, snap yourself out of it!”
Madder just laughed in Olipsia’s face. “Your father doesn’t exist anymore. Brent is gone.” He wrestled her to the ground swiftly. In the back, Aphrodite screamed at Madder and went to hit him for attacking their daughter. Maddox blocked her path and smiled at her wickedly. “Now, now, no interrupting father-daughter bonding time.” he said, holding his sword at the ready. “Get out of my way!” she screamed, using an unnatural amount of strength to move Maddox. As she pushed past him, he swung his sword at her leg, charging it with the full force of his death powers. Aphrodite collapsed. Life’s immortality spell was stronger than Maddox’s death spell, but it still caused an ungodly amount of pain. “I told you, you’re not interrupting them.” Once Aphrodite was incapacitated enough that Maddox was sure she wouldn’t be a problem, he moved on to fighting Life, wanting to make sure she didn’t leave as well.
“Mom!” Olipsia cried, struggling against Madder, but to no avail. He, however, continued as if nothing was going on. “I am not your father, and you will never meet him.” he smiled down at her. “I do, however, see the seed I planted within you. I think it’s time to wake my daughter up.”
Olipsia began to scream as voices began pounding inside her head. She winced in pain and struggled even harder, trying to free herself. “Stop! Get out of my head!” she cried. She wrenched herself free from Madder, gripping her head tightly and trying to flee. She didn’t get far before she collapsed on her own, just shy of where Maddox had downed Aphrodite.
“Oh please, madness isn’t that bad. It’s what we were born for, after all. All five of us.” Madder said. “You just need some guidance. You see that woman over there?” he pointed at Aphrodite, who was fighting through the pain to stand back up. She may have raised you, but you didn’t have a family, and it’s her fault. She couldn’t stick with one person, and she had a new toy every night. She’s also the one that caused me to snap so that I had to be killed. That doesn’t sound very motherly to me.”
As he spoke, Olipsia began to change in front of everyone. Her hair color shifted from the white and black scheme she had been using to brown, fading into pink at the ends. Her skin went from pale white to a rosy tan color. Her eyes morphed from bright yellow to deep red. This was her true form, something even most Mages hadn’t seen.
“There you go, we’re almost ready.” Madder whispered. “Think about how it felt to never have a real family. About how it’s all her fault that you never had a father figure. How does that make you feel.” “A-angry...” she whispered, starting to lose control. “Does it fill you with rage?” he asked. “Yes...” “Want to know the best way to let out that rage?” Olipsia shook her head, trying to regain control. “All you have to do is take this,” he put one of the fake guns she used in her Death the Kid cosplay in her hand, “point it right at her head,” he moved her hand so that it was aimed directly at her head. “No...” she whispered, her will failing. “And pull the trigger.” Olipsia froze for a moment, trying to stop herself from doing what he said. “somebody...help...” she whispered weakly. In that instant, her eyes clouded over with the silver film of insanity and she fired.
A loud bang and the sound of a body hitting the ground were heard and the non-mad Mages turned to look. It wasn’t Aphrodite on the ground, but rather Jason, his wound not sealing now that his immortality was disabled. He coughed up some blood. ”I guess it’s almost my time.” the Time Mage said, laughing at his joke a little. He sighed and closed his eyes, laying back as he looked into his future. ‘Just enough time to see if everything I set up pays off.’ he thought. “Well, that’s a shame.” Olipsia said. “As good as it feels to know I’m the one that put a Time Mage on his deathbed, it’s a real let down that my bullet didn’t go straight through my worthless tramp of a mother’s head. I guess I’ll just have to fix that next time.”
Everything moved in slow motion for Life. They had suddenly gone from fighting three insane Mages like they had thought would happen, to fighting five at once, two of which were still alive and at full power. She looked between the other Mages still present. Time was dying, Nature appeared to be long dead at this point, several wounds were visible across his body, and Maddie no longer seemed bothered with his body on the ground. Visions was holding his own against Maddie, but the Madness Mage wasn’t even focusing on him, but rather, after retrieving her sword from Jason’s dying hands, was about to begin carving up Sloane, who was now being held down by the tea tentacles and giant teaset pieces. Madeline and Death were clashing their blades against one another constantly, both just as skilled with their shared weapon of choice. Aphrodite was pleading with Olipsia to wake up as her daughter rose up and pointed the gun at her again, and Life had been trying and failing to disarm Maddox, barely dodging his attacks as she went.
“ENOUGH!” Life screamed. Everyone looked at her confused. She threw glowing green locks at Aphrodite, Jason, Haruka, Sloane, and Death. They fused with the Mages and, suddenly, everyone alive who didn’t receive a lock was gone.
Sloane took a moment to steady herself, then tried to join Life, but she couldn’t. “She’s locked me out of Olympus!” she said. She looked at Haruka. “Please, show us Life, we need to know how she’s doing.” Visions nodded and created a viewing portal.
Now that Life’s head was on straight, she had her talwar out and was able to block most of their attacks. Unfortunately, she kept getting hit from the left side.
“Why isn’t she blocking her left?” Sloane asked. “It’s almost like she can’t see that side.” Death held his tongue. If Life didn’t want even her best friend to know what was going on, he wouldn’t say now.
As Life took hit after hit, she began to learn the pattern of when they were hitting her left, only taking hits on rare occasions. Unfortunately, two of them were capable of blocking her healing and immortality, so she was falling behind in the long run. Even though she was holding her own, she couldn’t find an opportunity to attack, and she wasn’t certain she could do it if she found one. Eventually, the Madness Mages had enough and Madeline began chanting a spell. Life began to run as her vision went blurry, stumbling about, but knowing where she was headed. It was her house after all.
She was faster than the Madness Mages, but she was trapped here, too, until they were taken care of. She ran to her memory rooms, where she kept memoirs of all of the good times she had with the other Mages. She slipped into Death’s memory room and curled up in the corner. “If anyone can hear me... then I guess this is where the story ends for me. The madness has blinded my right eye, and I’ve always been completely blind in my left, so I can’t see anything.” she said softly. “Any minute now, they’ll be in here, and I’ll be dead. You’ll have to look for a new leader, and a new Life Mage. I can’t help with the Life Mage issue, but I suggest Death for our new leader. He was the one that was originally chosen for the position, after all.” She sighed, then jumped as Madeline used her scythe to hack open the door. “Death, if somehow you’re the one hearing this, I’m sending you my key. I leave the decision up to you. Save me, or claim my soul and take Olympus for yourself. Just, please, take care of the Madnesses, and see if you can’t save Maddie and Olipsia. They don’t deserve to lose their lives if we can figure out how to unsnap them.”
The five crazy Mages all surrounded Life, Madeline about to make the killing blow. Death grabbed the key and teleported to Life’s side, blocking the sword. His anger boiling over, his flesh melted off his bones, leaving only the grim reaper. In his anger, he didn’t even hesitate to use his death-bolts to dispatch Madder, Madeline and Maddox, making quick work of the three. He felt guilty. This was the third time he’d had to kill Madeline, and the second each for him killing Maddox and Madder.
Olipsia shot Death, but it went straight through him into the wall. He quickly used the handle of his scythe to knock out Maddie and Olipsia. He laid down the key to Olympus and, beside it, the key to the underworld. As he teleported to the underworld, he wrote a letter to Life. As the last wisps of smoke from his teleportation disappeared, he dropped the letter in her lap.
The madness magic gone, Life’s vision cleared just as he dropped the letter, and Visions destroyed the viewing portal. Jason smiled, seeing that Life and Death had taken care of the situation, just as he planned. “It worked...” he whispered. “Haruka, I’m passing on my powers to someone I think you’ll get along with. Please, do what you can to help him, he’s going to need time to adjust.” Haruka just nodded. Jason closed his eyes as he finally died, passing away content with what he did with his life.
Life opened the envelope and read what was inside.
Life,
I know I’ve screwed everything up, but it’s time for me to make everything right and end this. All I want now is for you to be happy, and I don’t care about the cost. Come meet me in the underworld by the River Styx when you’re done taking care of Maddie and Olipsia.
-Death
Life sniffled and smiled. ‘He wants to make me happy?’ she thought, ‘He finally wants to get back together!’ She looked down at the two unconscious Mages. She carried them each off to their respective memory rooms. She went to her bathroom and cleaned up a bit before heading to the underworld.
She wrapped her arms around herself as she walked down the steps to the underworld. This part of the underworld was cold, and damp, and dark, and Life didn’t like it, but she smiled the whole way because she knew that, at the end of the road, she would find Death.
When she reached him, she sat down on the ground beside him, looking over the glowing green river of lost souls. “Hey Life.” he said. “I’m sorry for all of the fighting and everything I’ve done to you. I know I can’t fix it, but I hope you can accept my apology.”
Life smiled. “Of course I accept it.” she said. “I mean, I haven’t been any kind of angel myself.”
Death nodded. “Thank you.” he said. “Life, I want you happy, and I’m the cause of all of your unhappiness. I’m... I’m ready to fix all of your problems. Whenever you’re ready, shove me into the river. When my powers resurface, do what I never could. Learn to control them, bring back everyone ever taken from you due to my powers.” He closed his eyes and waited.
Life stared at him dumbfounded for a good five minutes before shoving him backwards onto the ground. “How could you, Death!?” she cried, her eyes filling with tears. “You promised me happiness, and now you’re asking me to throw away the one source of it that I have left!?”
Death sighed and looked away. “Life, I’m replaceable. You already replaced me once before with Chronos.” He sighed softly. “Due to me and my inability to control my powers, you lost most of your friends, several of your children, including the one child you had with Chronos, and several of your other descendants, including the only grandchild you and Chronos had, before he could even experience what life was. I want to take away your pain and suffering. I want you to bring back everyone that was ever taken from you. Just kill me, take my powers, take the underworld, and live the rest of your life as the happy owner of both ‘everything’ and ‘everyone’.”
Life was furious now. “I. Don’t. Want. You. Dead.” she growled. “I don’t care about what I’ve lost! I don’t care about how much pain and suffering was in my past! All I want is you! Why can’t you get that through your thick skull?!” She laid herself on Death, crying into his shoulder. “Your powers are not your fault, you are a good person with a powerful ability that you can’t control. Nothing that you do on accident because of that is your fault.” She kissed him lightly on the cheek. “My heart has shattered a million times, but every time I pull it back together, all I can think about is you. I don’t want everyone, I don’t need everything, all I want, all I need, is you.” She paused to hug him. “If you go into that river, I will follow you. Please don’t make me do that.”
Death hugged Life tightly. “How... How can you forgive me so easily?” he asked. “I’ve ruined your life, how can you not hold a grudge against me? I hold a grudge against me, and I’m not even the one I ruined the life of.” “Because I love you. You may not love you, but I do, so I don’t care, just promise me you’ll never leave me.” “I promise.” Death pulled Life even closer and the two held each other for the rest of the night.
