Ten Thousand Years <Davesport>

Finale

2 weeks later.

"I AM TELLING YOU NOW YOU HAVE TO GO BEFORE YOU GET HURT..!" Jack's scream echoed in the broad walls of the palace's atrium. Dave could have sworn he heard pillars crack as sunny sparks flitted around Jack's body, whether the cracks were from the ongoing attack or Jack's desperate screams he didn't know but he knew he wasn't about to leave Jack a second time.

"YOU KNOW DAMN WELL I'M NOT GOING! I DON'T CARE IT I DIE I CAN'T DO THAT AGAIN!" Dave's yell was impossibly inferior to the power held by Jack's plight with him to leave.

"Listen, I didn't want to have to tell you this because I know it'll hurt. He's back, Henry is here and he's here for me. He will stop at nothing to get his revenge and that does mean killing you without mercy.." Jack was looking at the ground now in defeat, long flowing robes pooled somehow elegantly around his gold clad feet on the cold cracking marble floor a painful reminder of the fact that if they did not move now they could well die, that would mean utter erasure.

"Jack please we can help you fight! You have to trust us!" Dee chimed in from the back with tears in her eyes. She was no more happy about the potential loss they may be about to suffer through again.

Jack couldn't bring himself to say anything to his sister. None of his family or friends had a chance at surviving this but all four were headstrong people and likely wouldn't let up at all.

"Fine.. you may stay but don't attempt to engage in battle I will take care or that part, stay safe. I have to go to the front lines of this now, stay in the palace unless told otherwise." Jack straightened his back and took back on his strong unfaltering expressionless face in an attempt to keep from seeming weak. That was something Henry would prey on.

A chorus of "good luck"s and "we promise"s followed in his wake as he left through the tall doorway to the courtyard. Black sludge littered the ground and climbed the outer walls of the entryway and trees. Still keeping some of his dignity Jack spared a bit of power to keep his robes from dragging through and his shoes from being stained, in exchange for the benefits his body glowed brighter than normal, a goldish haze obscuring anyone else's view of his immediate surroundings. As he grew closer to the source the sludge became thicker and vegetation looked dead and decaying. Jack knew he was in for a fight.

The pinkish hues of the old man's decaying skin contrasted boldly with the poor state of the once proud land Jack had groomed meticulously in the long decades he'd spent as the one looking after it. All of his work gone to the damned. Beautifully blue-green grass was now black and brown, what was once lush and soft had turned stiff and fragile to the point where Jack's light steps crushed formerly silky blades of grass into mere dust.

"You look about as good as you did some five hundred years ago doctor." Jack attempted a sharp remark but appeared not to have landed correctly, still he did not falter, failing was not a viable option.

"Absolutely breathtaking yourself Light Caster" His empty, soulless voice echoed.

"What business do you have in my precious land that you have to destroy my work and petrify my people, scum?" Jack took another brave step towards Henry Miller, preparing to enter combat at any second.

"It's simple really, I want you. See we are two of a kind. We are soulless and bodiless. Mere consciousness floating in false forms. I want your alliance, together we can rule galaxies! We have no material existence to protect or fear losing." Henry turned to face Jack, sadistic smile adorning his face.

"..what.?"

*****

Dave paced back and for in the middle of the atrium. Cracked marble threatening to split more with each laboured step. He had only one thought on his mind and that was Jack. In the grand scheme of things Dave knew in this situation he was weak and hadn't a snowball's chance in hell to survive whatever fight would ensue with Jack and Henry. All Dave could do was sit up in the relatively safe haven that was the palace. He had to put all of his trust in Jack and brave whatever the aftermath of this could be, time refuses to stop for any circumstance. No one can resist. Time persists.