Zane Williams and The Gods of Olympus

Chapter 41

WARNING: Read Son of Hercules (On Fanfiction.net) before reading this. Otherwise, skip this entire arc.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters (except the OC's) Percy Jackson & The Olympians, Heroes Of Olympus, or Trials Of Apollo. All of that belongs to Rick Riordan.

(Matt's POV)

I stared up at the older, wiser, much more powerful version of myself, completely baffled. Of all the universes we had to crash in...

"Y-You..." I said shakily, unable to get any more words out.

He nodded, his face neutral and hard, "Yes. Me. Why are you back?" He raised his chin at Zane, "And what is he doing here?"

Zane stepped forward, a mix of emotions on his face, "How do you know my name?"

I interrupted, not thinking about how rude it was until after I practically shouted my words, "Is Luke here? Or...Kronos, whichever it is, it's an evil, massive aura that I'm sure you would've noticed-"

Old me held up a hand and looked to the sky. Thunder boomed in the distance, the yellow tint twisted, and the clouds began to gather dangerously, as if forming some kind of cyclone, a faint laughter could be heard. It was...evil, and familiar.

Old Matt glared, "We need to get away from here. He's close."

"He?" Zane said, looking around wildly trying to find the source of the danger. "Who's he? And how the hell do you know my name?!"

Old Matt shushed him when clouds began to light up, brighter and brighter. Our eyes drifted, up there in the collection of clouds, was a face, a face that wasn't there before. A mouth, a pair of eyes, and a nose formed from the darkness. It was grinning and laughing loudly, it's voice booming down from above.

"Stand back!" Old Matt said. The event happened within the matter of seconds. He pushed us both back on the ground, seemingly with his mind. He made no physical contact with us, yet I felt an invisible force wrap around my midsection and throw me several feet back in the sand. Same with Zane, he was flat on his back, eyes wide at being tossed like a sack of potatoes. It was clear he wasn't used to the move being done on him.

In the moment after, I saw why. The sky split open, and a coil of brilliant, blinding white light shot down, a never-ending tower of energy, as wide as the entire foreseeable circumference of sand, meaning there was light all around, covering everything. As it rained down, I felt my heart begin to beat faster, panic welled up in my chest. This was an attack? From Ouranos? My gods...a single bolt was enough to cover hundreds of miles of land? A single trace of it could evaporate us into dust, and there'd be nothing we could do about it.

Then there was Old Matt, standing there stoically, just watching the brightness fall down to the Earth, threatening to obliterate everything.

"GET DOWN!" I shouted, but it was no use, he didn't hear me. Or he didn't want to hear me.

But the unthinkable happened. I knew he was strong, and just assumed he had gone through this type of punishment before. But that bolt...that was unthinkable. The level of heat and power behind it, there was no way he could take that head on and not be hurt!

He raised his hand, and the shadow of a sword appeared in his grip. He pushed it up to the sky, as far as his arm would reach, and instead of the lightning hitting the sand, it began to thin and concentrate into the tip of the sword. Finally, with light speed, it was sucked into the sword. Instantly, all the light from the air disappeared and transferred to the sword. Small sparkles of electricity danced around it, and the sword itself glowed. I reached out, and under a heavy layer of chaotic energy, was the energy from the attack. He had literally caught the blast and put it inside of his sword. But how was that possible? The amount of speed and aura control it would take to do that...you'd have to practice for decades to perfect a move like that.