Fate/Claws Out

Normal POV

The air was thick with the scent of burning timber smoke rising like a shroud from the remnants of what had once been a bustling village. The earth trembled beneath every heavy footstep that Herakles took his massive figure towering over the ruined landscape his body rippling with raw unstoppable strength.

His eyes usually filled with a deep warmth and compassion were now void of recognition just the gleaming red of pure rage clouded by grief and madness. It had all happened so quickly. In a matter of hours, the village that had once been his home was reduced to ash, the lives of his wife and child snuffed out by merciless invaders.

Herakles had come home to find his world destroyed, and in his grief-stricken fury, he had unleashed a wrath that would make even the gods shudder. The ground cracked under his mighty blows as he smashed through the remnants of buildings, his voice a deafening roar that carried across the land "I will burn them all!" he bellowed with tears rolling down his cheeks.

His large hands clenched around the massive stone axe so tightly that they turned red while his usually calm and level-headed nature was gone replaced by a monstrous version of the man he once was.

James or Logan as he would be known in the future stood at the edge of the destruction watching his best friend's rampage with a sinking feeling in his chest. He had been sent by the gods themselves not to kill Herakles but to stop him before he destroyed everything in his path.Logan had been with him since the beginning through countless battles, victories, and losses.

He knew Herakles better than anyone and this wasn't the man who had stood by his side on the front lines this was a broken shell a beast that had lost everything. "Herakles!" Logan called out his voice steady but his eyes betraying a flicker of uncertainty.

He knew that calling his name was a risk but it was the only thing he could think to do "listen to me old friend! This isn't you!"Herakles didn't respond his gaze locked on the horizon as his hands clenched around the axe's handle veins bulging from his arms.

His face twisted in pain and rage every muscle in his body was coiled tight ready to unleash another devastating blow that destroy another home "they took her from me... they took my child... I will not stop until they feel my pain."Logan took a step forward his heart heavy with a mixture of sorrow and anger. He had lost his own loved ones before had seen the blood of friends and family spill across the battlefield but nothing had ever driven him to this kind of madness.

Herakles was consumed and Logan feared that if he didn't intervene soon there would be nothing left to save.

"Herc buddy I get it," James's voice softened trying to reach the man beneath the anger "I know what it feels like to lose everything I've lost my family too but this? This isn't the way you can't bring them back by destroying everything else. This rage... it's consuming you it's making you into something that you're not." Herakles eyes flickered for a moment the red in them softening ever so slightly. For a brief instant the man he had once been became visible beneath the fury but then like a switch his rage reignited fiercer than before.

He swung his axe in a wide arc smashing a nearby structure with a thunderous crash sending debris flying in all directions.

"I don't care what you say, James!" Herakles roared his voice breaking with grief "she took her! she took my wife! My child!" his chest heaved as his breath became ragged, tears mixing with the dust on his face "I will make all the gods pay for not doing anything!" he exclaimed charging at James.

James's eyes widen as he jumped to the left and in the next moment his adamantium claws came out from his knuckles with satisfying shink sound. Herakles turned towards James his reflection shown through his metal claws "damn it Herc stop this please," James begged again as he slipped into a basic pankration stance that Chiron had taught them.

Alas his words feel deaf as Herakles tried to strike him again with his stone axe but James instincts saved him once again as he jumped away. His claws gleamed in the firelight his muscles tensed and ready for the next strike. He circled around him keeping his distance knowing that facing Herakles head-on would be suicide. The beast before him was no longer a man his eyes now completely devoid of reason were wild with pain and rage.

With a roar Herakles swung again his movements erratic but full of unrelenting power. James ducked under the swing rolling to the side as the axe crashed into the stone ground sending shards flying in every direction.

Herakles undeterred wrenched the weapon from the earth and took a step forward swinging it in a brutal slash that threatened to cleave James in two. James leaped backward barely avoiding the edge of the axe he darted forward this time slicing at Herakles's exposed side but the blow only made the giant flinch before he retaliated, spinning with a vicious backhand that caught Logan off guard.

The sheer force of it sent James crashing into a broken column the impact rattling his bones making him groan in pain "fucking hell," he muttered. James pushed himself to his feet wiping the blood from his lip his eyes never leaving his friend. Herakles was trembling now, every muscle taut with fury, sweat and blood mingling with the dirt on his skin.

"I guess it's time to fight fire with fire," James said with a growl and mustered every bit of anger he had accumulated in his long life.

The loss of his parents of this life.

The loss of his many comrades.

The loss of the friends that he had to personally bury.

The faces of the people that killed them finally came up in his mind as he released a loud roar of his "ARAHHHHHHHHH!!!" with his cry released James charged at Herakles before leaping at him halfway through claws pointed directly at his torso. 

The claws plunged deep into the giant's chest the unbreakable metal sinking into flesh with a sickening crunch. Herakles let out a bellow of pain but it was not the sound of a man it was the roar of a beast that had nothing left to lose. 

Herakles gripped James's wrist with one hand his fingers like a vice and tossed him aside like a ragdoll. Logan crashed into a pile of rubble gasping for air as the force of the impact rattled his bones. For a moment the battlefield was silent save for the crackle of the flames and the groan of the earth under the weight of a broken man and a beast of destruction. James slowly rose to his feet while broken exposed bones began to heal back with a creepy crunch like sound.

"Herakles," he whispered, his voice laced with sorrow "I didn't want to do this but you've left me no choice."

Herakles's chest heaved with labored breaths blood poured from his wound staining the earth beneath him as his heart thundered in his chest. His hands gripped the axe tighter the veins in his neck bulging as the fury in him seemed to grow, swell with a force that threatened to tear him apart.

"You have to stop, Herakles," Logan growled out his voice low and steady yet edged with desperation "you have to...please or I will have to do something that I don't want to consider doing."

Herakles was to lost now as he raised his axe high and brought it back down towards James's head. James's body twisted to the side as he ducked under the swing the air itself seemed to split with the sheer force of Herakles's strike but James was already on the move. The moment his feet hit the ground he lunged forward his claws extended aiming for Herakles's throat.

The world seemed to move in slow motion again as the claws glowing with raw sharpened fury, found their mark they sliced through the air aiming directly for the heart of the beast. However Herakles's monstrous rage still burned within him with a final savage twist, he sidestepped the claws grazing his shoulder but missing their target.

He roared swinging the axe back with all his might desperate to finish the fight.James wasn't fast enough this time. The axe connected with a brutal blow to James's side knocking the wind out of him he stumbled back, clutching his cracked ribs but his vision blurred with rage and pain.

He could feel his breath coming in ragged gasps the weight of his injuries pulling him down even as they healed back but he still refused to back down now not while Herakles was still trapped in this fury. He forced himself upright blood dripping from his mouth, forehead, and torso his eyes met Herakles's once more and for the first time a spark of sanity flickered back in the demigod's gaze.

It was a brief moment but it was enough James saw the Herakles he had known the one who had stood beside him, laughed with him, drank with, and learned with.That Herakles was still there deep down inside all of the rage.

"I know you Herc," James growled through clenched teeth his voice filled with the last of his strength "and I'll save you I promise."

Then with everything he had left James dove forward again this time slashing through the air with his claws aimed directly at Herakles's heart. The last whisper of hope within him was that his friend might still hear the call beneath the madness might still remember the bonds that had once tied them together.

Herakles hesitated.

For a split second his grip on the axe faltered while gaze softened just barely as his wild eyes locked with Logan's. In that moment James saw a flash of the man he had fought beside someone who had known love, joy, kindness, and hope someone who wasn't lost to the flames of grief and rage. That fleeting moment was enough for James. With a roar James pressed forward pushing past his doubts and hesitations.

The claws pierced Herakles's chest once more and this time there was no resistance.

The world suddenly went still.

Herakles expression twisted into a final, sorrowful understanding look as he collapsed to his knees, his axe falling from his grip. He looked down at James with a smile of both regret, bitterness, and mourning "f-forgive me...James...for...give..m-me," Herakles gasped out before crumpling to the ground dead.

James cried for the loss of his best friend and rain began to pour down upon them both "oh Olympians if you are listening, please allow Herakles to live again allow him to be redeemed I beg of you all!" James begged to the God's.

There was deep rumble then white lightning struck blinding James for a moment but when he regained his sight, he saw the wounds on Herakles begin to heal while his chest began to rise up and down again.

James bowed his head thanking the Gods before tending to Herakles but once he was done with taking care of Herc he would begin his hunt for that wretched goddess....HERA!!

-End of Chapter Ten-

So in this version we see that it was James who killed Herakles only for him to be revived back by the Gods and from there he would go on to perform the twelve labors.

Meanwhile James/Logan would go on to pull of a Kratos and slay Hera for what she did to Herakles and his wife thus invoking the wrath of Zeus but James/Logan was able to trick him by stating with Hera dead Zeus could be with whoever he was pleased with thus Zeus did not kill him (not like he could).

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