Days of Darkness: Awakening

Chapter 22: The Final Confrontation

Damien, seeing that they were ready, turned the fight around in an instant. "It's time to put an end to this," Damien stated calmly.

Just as the dimensions were about to collide, Damien drove Dante down from the edge of the wormhole into his machine and it exploded almost immediately causing a massive explosion, but half of the goal was finished. And that was to close Dante's portal above the city.

Damien got up from the wreckage and looked down at Dante who lay there barely clinging to life after the fall. "You don't deserve mercy..." He, then, picked Dante up with one hand and held him high into the sky. Using the other hand, Damien charged an energy blast of fire and electricity and shot Dante in the stomach, severely injuring him. "But I want you to remember this moment for the rest of your natural life. And the next time you try to come here or even think that you want to try to come here, I need you to think about this moment long and hard and remember the face of the man that took you down and truly understand that, if there is a next time, I won't be so merciful."

Dante, barely hanging on to life, agreed just as Damien knocked him out.

The thunderstorm started to subside as Damien stood contemplating what the future had in store. Would he stay and help the Pack rebuild? Would he leave for a while so that he could test the limits of his powers? What he knew was that the future, now, felt more promising for a change now that Dante had finally been defeated.

The rainfall helped to diminish the fire around them on the rooftop. Their battle left enormous amounts of damage in their wake. Ready to meet the others, Damien grabbed Dante's body and levitated above the carnage. He, then, flew around and searched the area for Cyris' body.

Finding him proved to be a difficult task, though. He used energy blasts to destroy most of the rubble to make it easier to navigate through. Just when he thought that he should give up, he found Cyris' body, lifted him with his free arm, threw him over his shoulder, and flew down to the ground.

As he landed, Damien was greeted with thunderous applause from all of the soldiers. Christian, Nadia, and Diamond ran to Damien to greet him. Everyone was beyond overjoyed at the fact that the war was finally over. Damien threw Dante to the ground and handed Cyris' body over to Diamond and the soldiers. Nadia embraced Damien tightly as everyone continued to cheer. It was a real cause for celebration as they could finally see peace in view.

Damien, then, raised his hand high in the air to request their silence. "Today is a cause for celebration. We've finally won this war. Dante has been defeated. But let's not forget those that sacrificed everything for us to get here. We've come a long way. Now, it's time for us to rebuild our lives. It's time we took back what's ours!"

Christian reached into his pocket and pulled out the remote to his wormhole device. "You guys ready to do this?" he asked.

Damien nodded in agreement. He, then, turned and looked at Nadia and kissed her. "What do you say we go find a beach and just get away for a while?"

Nadia smiled. "I'd love that... a lot," she said. "Look, there's something that I need to tell you. I'm pretty excited but absolutely terrified at the same time."

"Sure, what's up?" Damien asked.

Just as Nadia was about to speak...

"You fools. Do you really believe that because Damien beat me that this is all over?"

They all turned to face Dante as he stood up. "Do you think that this all started with me? No, no, no."

"Stay down, Dante," Damien told him boldly. "It's over. Don't you get it? You're finished."

"No, Damien. I'm just the beginning. And by not allowing me to complete my mission, you have just effectively doomed this entire planet along with every other known realm."

"What are saying, Dante?" Christian demanded.

"Do you need me to spell it out for you? Your world is now a target of the most powerful monstrosity known to the universe. My former master. And he's coming. There isn't anything or anyone here to stop him. Damien won't be enough."

"I beat you, Dante," Damien boasted. "I'm sure I can face whatever is coming."

Dante chuckled in pain as he held his side. "You know, son, you amuse me. So naive. Believe me, you will need every ounce of strength you can muster up to get the job done. This was my goal in coming here, Damien. To this dimension and this time, it was all to get you ready. I knew what you were capable of before you did."

"How?" Damien asked. "How could you?"

Dante reached up and removed his hood. He unlatched his mask from the sides and removed it before he held his head up and revealed his face. A quarter of his face was badly burned with heavy scar tissue. The grey stubble on his face shined in the headlights of the trucks.

No one could believe what they were seeing. Especially Damien, Nadia, Christian, and Diamond. The shock froze them where they were.

"How is it possible?" Christian asked.

"Your eyes aren't deceiving you," Dante said.

"You're me," Damien said hesitantly. "But you're older..."

"About twenty-four years older to be exact," Dante said. "I come from a dimension and future much different from this reality. A reality where everything is in ruins and humanity is nearly extinct."

"But you just tried to destroy all of us," Damien argued. "You destroyed families and ruined this Earth."

"Don't you get it? I didn't have another way. I needed you to awaken. I knew that I wouldn't be able to stop him or the destruction he would bring. I thought that maybe you would join me, and help me complete my mission – my life's work. It had to be you, Damien. It still does. But know this... This journey will tear you apart. Every fiber of your being will be tested in ways you never thought possible. You need to let go of all of this and be free from attachments because anyone close to you will be a distraction and a target. They will never be safe, they will never be truly free, and they will only hold you back."

Without hesitation, Damien stated. "I'll never do that, Dante. They're my family and family sticks together no matter what. I told you before that I sympathized with you and what happened with your family. I really do. But my family is my strength, not my weakness."

Dante grew hot with anger. Christian noticed the situation was about to get tense, so he started up the wormhole device right away directly behind Dante. He motioned for everyone to move back.

Dante started to charge up an energy blast. "If you won't do it, Damien, then I'll do it for you!"

He, then, fired the blast toward Nadia. She stood frozen as the blast came toward her. Damien quickly jumped in front of the blast and deflected it. In a last-ditch effort to rid everyone of Dante, Damien rushed toward him and tackled him into the wormhole. But the unexpected happened: Damien went through with him. And just as he fell through, Damien shot a blast of his own from the wormhole to the device, destroying it instantly and closing the portal behind him.

"NO!" Nadia cried out as she fell to her knees. She gripped Diamond's leg as she burst into tears. "Open the portal, Chris! Bring him back!" she shouted.

"I can't," Christian said. "He fried the system. It's toast."

Nadia stayed frozen, still clutching onto Diamond's leg. "How could he leave, Diamond? How could he leave us?"

Diamond knelt to embrace Nadia and give her comfort. "We'll find him. He'll come back to us. I promise."

Nadia wiped the tears from her eyes and looked up at Diamond. "No, you don't understand, Diamond. I'm pregnant. He doesn't know."

Christian and Diamond both held Nadia close offering her a measure of solace. But the fact remained that not only did they lose a mentor and leader in Cyris, but also, a friend, a brother, a lover, and a protector in Damien.