Chapter 34: Brightest Day

Disclaimer: I own nothing

"One life is all we have and we live it as we believe in living it. But to sacrifice what you are and to live without belief, that is a fate more terrible than dying."

Joan of Arc

Chapter 34: "Brightest Day"

(Sunday-May 17, 2014)

(The musical theme for this chapter is: Demons by Starset)

The explosion of white and black forced both Phantom and Nekron back with blinding speed through the city. Both of them crashed through several buildings before coming to a stop. Almost immediately, the both of them threw off the rubble and charged at each other once more. The blazing comets of dark and light met in the middle of the mental mindscape. As soon as the two of them met, a large shockwave spread out and shook the entire city.

Phantom threw a punch at Nekron's head. The Reaper managed to block the strike and then grab Phantom's wrist before pulling the halfa forward to him. Nekron then tried to elbow Phantom in the head. Using the minimal amount of movement necessary, the half-ghost ducked under the blow and ripped his wrist free. Phantom then slipped behind Nekron and grabbed his foe around the torso. With a grunt, he then tossed Nekron backwards.

Before the Reaper could fly too far, he flipped over and stopped his momentum in mid-air. In a surge of darkness, Nekron summoned his scythe to the mindscape. Covering himself in a halo of black death energy, Nekron rushed forward to Phantom as he was turning to face the Reaper. With a battle shout, Nekron swung his weapon towards Phantom's side.

The deadly blow was stopped by two broad swords made of ice. As soon as the scythe made contact with the swords, the elemental weapons exploded out and covered Nekron in a massive sheet of ectoplasmic ice. Phantom then followed up by throwing a powerful side kick to the Nekron icicle. Before the kick could make contact, dark energy burst from the Reaper and shattered the layer of ice holding him still.

Phantom grunted out as the energy formed into a large skeletal hand and grabbed onto him. The hand raised him up into the air. He didn't let the hand do anything else, though. With a burst of energy, the halfa shattered the energy hand to free himself. He then forced himself forward through the darkness to the Reaper once more. The half-ghost used one final burst of white energy to dispel the cloud of darkness hiding Nekron from his vision.

Letting loose a loud roar, Phantom swung a wild hook punch at Nekron's head. Phantom's punch was stopped when Nekron caught it in his free hand causing energy to surge out from both of them and shake the mental landscape once more. The Reaper used his other hand to swing his scythe at the half-ghost. This attack was stopped in a similar fashion as Phantom's previous punch. The scythe's momentum was halted when Phantom caught the weapon by the shaft and held it in place. This caused yet another surge of energy that caused the city to tremble.

Both of the ghosts snarled and pushed at each other. After a few seconds of a standstill, they slammed their foreheads together. Angry eyes met once more. Fierce white met deep black. Their energy blasted off their forms and joined them in their mental pushing contest. The energy washed over two halves of the city and began to push against their opposing sides. As this happened, the raging sun above them struggled as well. Black and white struggled for dominance of the energy core. For a while, it was at a standstill, but like always, life tended to grow tired as more time passed.

Nekron quickly recovered from the surprise damage he received from Spirit and Dusk. He could only look on in shock at the sight before him. White Lanterns? He knew that the Life Entity planned to use Phantom as the Catalyst to empower everyone with a power equivalent to the Ascended Ectoplasm, but this was not what he was expecting. Of course, he didn't really think about it much when he managed to possess Phantom's body. Oh well. It didn't matter. He had already shown that the Life Entity couldn't hurt him.

Thus, when all the White Lanterns pointed their rings at him, he just sneered. A massive blast of white energy flew towards him. He just stood in a relaxed position and prepared to absorb the beam of energy. To his complete shock, though, he couldn't absorb the wave of energy. With his guard lowered, Nekron was sent flying away by the flowing white beam.

After a few seconds of being flung through the air, Nekron sent out a surge of his own energy to dismiss the attack. Once he was freed, Nekron hissed as he felt the pain from receiving the powerful blow. He was covered in small burns. The force of the attack forced him way from the island. He now floated above the ocean looking over to the previous battlefield.

Why couldn't he absorb the attack? Was it because Phantom was fighting back inside his mind? That had to be it. Phantom now had complete control over the life energy. That was why the Life Entity was able to spread out its powers to the fighters and why he couldn't absorb the white energy. Damn it! He wasn't expecting this! For the first time since his defeat at the hands of the Ghost King's court, Nekron was injured and on the defensive.

Blinks of white in the distance revealed that the fighters were following after him. What was worse, it seemed that White Lantern rings had found their way to the downed members of the Justice League, Amorpho, and a young boy that Nekron remembered living in Dakota City. Damn…he had to calm down. He beat all of them once. Even with the power of the Life Entity behind them, Nekron knew that he could beat them again.

The Reaper was preparing to deal with the approaching army. Before he could build up any injury, he felt a fist ram into his stomach. This was followed up with several more fists and blows ramming into him from several different directions. Nekron noticed that a white blur was rushing around him. Kid Flash had obviously made his way to Nekron first. The younger speedster was quickly aided by the Flash. Both speedsters attacked Nekron at speeds that no normal person could possibly hope to follow.

Gritting his teeth to endure the pain, Nekron pushed out a mist of energy in an attempt to slow the speedsters down a bit. Before they could be effected by the dark mist, the speedsters rushed away. There was another reason for that, though. As soon as they moved far enough, a giant filled their places. Colossus rushed to Nekron. His arms, while not completely healed by the White Power Ring, were enhanced by white brace constructions. This allowed him to smash his fists against the sides of Nekron's head and cover it with a concentrated shockwave.

Disoriented by the attack, Nekron shoved Colossus away with so much force that Colossus was sent skipping across the water despite not receiving any damage. Before the Reaper could clear his head, he was rocked by another blow to the stomach. This one felt a lot different than the previous one, though. It wasn't just fast or strong. No, it was an incredible combination of the two.

Nekron focused his eyes to see that it was Superman that had done the blow. With a look of righteous fury across his face, Superman hammered Nekron with blows. The Ghost of Death went to reach down to grab ahold of the Man of Steel. Before he could, though, Nekron's arms were pulled up as he was grabbed in a Nelson lock. A quick glance behind him revealed that Superboy, aided by the Lantern Ring, was floating up and holding the ghost while Superman nailed him with punches.

Sick of the pain, Nekron broke the hold and grabbed the Kryptonians and threw them away. Nekron wasn't given a chance to recover from the previous damage, though. Several concentrated balls of energy rammed into his back curtesy of Vision. While he was arching from the pain of the attack, Frostbite and Plasmius attacked him from both sides. Nekron was trapped between walls of ice and pure plasma.

Before he could free himself, Nekron was surrounded by the close range fighters that had previously attacked him as a group joined by Batman. A blur of blades and White Power Ring empowered attacks rammed into Nekron from all directions. The combination of the blows shattered Nekron's restraints and covered the Reaper in various wounds. Before their foe could even think about recovering, the fighters flew away with the aid of their rings.

With his temper flaring, Nekron looked up to exclaim his anger. He froze when he saw that he was surrounded by an army of White Lanterns all pointing their rings at him. With a combined roar, they all fired blasts of energy from their rings and into the Ghost of Death. In the end, though, despite all the minor damage that they managed to inflict, the only thing that the attacks truly managed to do was make Nekron's anger rise.

After a few seconds of struggling, both Nekron and Phantom were pushed back. The halfa was more affected by the break of the clash, though. He was pushed off balance and stumbled to try to regain his balance. Unfortunately, Nekron recovered far faster. The Reaper swung his scythe at Phantom's side. Said halfa managed to bring his arm up to create a shield of energy to block the attack. He did managed to stop the scythe from cutting him into two, but that left him vulnerable at his other side.

Nekron's foot rammed into Phantom's unprotected side. This knocked Phantom away and sent him crashing through a building. He soared through the structure like a rocket. By the time he made it to the other side, Phantom managed to right himself. When he landed, the half-ghost created an energy dome to shield himself for the inevitable follow-up attack.

His actions were soon justified as Nekron appeared in front of him in a blur. The Reaper held his deadly scythe in his mouth. Both of his arms were held out wide to either side of the dome shield. Dark energy flowed around Nekron's hands like concentrated bombs. In seconds, the two bombs exploded. Energy rained down on the dome. The shield held up for a few seconds before collapsing. Luckily, Phantom managed to get out of the way before he could receive more injuries than a few burns.

Nekron quickly chased after Phantom as the hero flew away. Having taken the weapon out of his mouth, he swung his scythe and sent out arcs of energy towards his foe. Phantom managed to dodge each arc which allowed the attacks to fly off and cut different buildings in half. As the rubble collapsed around him, Phantom suddenly dropped down and landed straight in the middle of the falling buildings. Blue light surged off of him and froze all of area around him including the falling concrete.

With a roar, Phantom then blasted off a huge wave of white energy. The ice and everything it held immediately shattered. Phantom then controlled the ice shards to attack the Reaper. Nekron was forced to stop and block all the sharp blades of ice that were trying to cut him into pieces. His degradation ability flared and stopped the flying ice shards.

Once he no longer had ice to use, Phantom tried to rush forward to attack Nekron directly. To his shock, though, he was met with another arc of dark energy from Nekron's scythe. Phantom was hit directly by the attack. The arc quickly exploded and left Phantom in a smoking crater. Before the smoke could begin to clear, Nekron jumped on top of Phantom and swung his scythe down at the ghoul's head. Luckily, Phantom managed to catch the blade of the weapon between his two palms to avoid getting cut. This was the only good thing about the situation, though, because Nekron was quickly over powering Phantom and inching the scythe closer to the halfa's chest.

"Did you really think that you could win?" Nekron mocked the young man, "Yes, you have power, but I am one of the first ghosts to ever exist. It took Pariah Dark and the seven ancient ghosts to beat me. You're just one little boy. I have more experience and battle knowledge in one pinky finger than you have in your entire body."

Phantom glared up at the Ghost of Death, "I've been the underdog in almost every fight I've ever been in, and I still win."

"But this is different. I'm stronger than all your previous enemies combined. And you're alone in this. No one is here to help you. Face the facts, Phantom, you aren't getting out of this fight alive!"

After a few seconds of being bombarded from all sides by the beams of white energy, Nekron had enough. From all the rings that covered his body, he fired out a curved burst of energy that danced around the beams and knocked the White Lanterns back. Once the attack from all directions finally stopped, Nekron began to move. He covered himself in a cocoon of his death energy. The cocoon then rocketed around the area.

Nekron's shell rammed into several of the White Lanterns like rapid speed pinball. Each blow sent the target flying. As the cocoon flew around, dark hands burst out and separated from the cocoon. The skeletal hands went to strike the enemies that Nekron neglected. This led to a near firework show in the middle of the ocean. All the White Lanterns tried to fight back, but the chaos and inexperience of using the White Power Ring led to difficulty keeping up with Nekron's wild attacks.

Once all the White Lanterns were knocked off balance, Nekron's cocoon stopped bouncing around the area. The cocoon slowed and began to unravel. The Reaper was soon free and was gathering energy to his scythe. He then rapidly swung his weapon wildly around him. Dark arcs of energy jumped off the blade of the weapon. The arcs flew in every direction and rammed into the White Lanterns with the force of a semi-truck. All the arcs continued to fly around and spin around to create a massive black cyclone.

The cyclone flung the White Lanterns around like ragdolls. At the center of the spinning energy was Nekron. He continued to swing his scythe around madly. Once he was satisfied with the damage that the dark storm had done, the Ghost of Death stopped moving his weapon and snapped his fingers. This caused the entire cyclone to explode out and send the White Lanterns flying.

Nekron sneered as he watched the dark smoke and energy fade, "Fools! You still can't win! It doesn't matter if you have the blessing of the Life Entity! Death always wins—"

The Reaper was cut short when a large tentacle burst from the sea below him. Aquaman was raised from the ocean by the head of and giant squid. The Atlantian was quickly joined by his fellow undersea fighters. Powered by the White Lantern rings on their fingers, the Atlantians flew up to Nekron to attack the Reaper while he defended himself from the giant squid's large tentacles. The Ghost of Death managed to defend himself and block all the blows. He was, however, forced to extend all of his limbs to stop the various attacks.

Seeing that Nekron's back was now exposed, Kaldur shouted out, "Now!"

Nekron's eyes widened as he saw Spirit and Dusk appear behind him. He hadn't noticed when the half-ghosts didn't appear in the army of White Lanterns attacking him. They must have planned this out with the Atlantians while the Ghost of Death was distracted. The Reaper quickly braced himself to endure the incoming attack. To his shock, the pain never came, though. Instead, the half-ghosts lunged at him and phased into him as if they were going to overshadow him.

Nekron's grin continued to grow wider as his scythe inched closer to the halfa on the ground. Despite Phantom flaring his energy constantly to push the Reaper off of him, Nekron did not budge. His own energy quickly began to smother the half-ghost's ectoplasm. The blade of scythe was now hovering right above Phantom's chest. The blade's tip touched the top of Phantom's skin and allowed a trickle of blood to ooze out of the small cut.

Just before Nekron could take the final plunge and take complete control of the mindscape once more, he was suddenly struck away by twin blows. The force of the attack made him skip away and crash through several vehicles that were more for just show than anything in Phantom's mind. Nekron finally came to a stop after several skips and landed straight on his back in the middle of broken cement. While the Reaper was recovering, one of Phantom's saviors held out a hand to the downed half-ghost.

"You looked like you could use some help," Spirit noted.

Phantom grabbed onto Spirit's hand and pulled himself up, "You have no idea."

Dusk forced down the relieved smile he had at seeing Phantom's face, "Sorry, but I don't think we have time for a proper reunion."

"You're right," Phantom eyed Nekron's form as the Reaper stood back up, "We got work to do."

"Work?" Spirit popped her knuckles, "This is gonna be a pleasure."

Once he was fully standing, Nekron glared down the street at them, "I realize my mistake now. I thought that Black Lanterns would be enough to deal with you two. I should have dealt with you myself. That's a mistake I'll fix right now."

The three half-ghosts were not intimidated by Nekron's words. They stood side-by-side in the center of the mindscape. Their eyes were as hard as steel. A stream of confidence rolled off of the three of them. Together, they could survive anything. Three different Haunting Auras flowed off of them and combined into one. Hope, Cheer, and Endurance all stood as one. For a split second, the images of the Endless flashed behind them.

A small noise sounded through the mindscape. That sound had been Nekron taking a step back. For the first time in his existence, Nekron had flinched in fear. The reason for that was very simple, though. Despite choking Life itself, he had never truly faced the will to live personified. The three beings brought that full attribute into existence, and that actually scared Nekron.

Nekron took deep breaths as the feeling of overshadow faded. He could feel Spirit's and Dusk's energy mixing in with his own. Damn it. They would ruin everything. His only chance was to pull them out. Dark energy surged his free hand. Nekron was about to reach into the ectoplasmic core in his chest when the Atlantians and giant squid attacked him once more.

Anger flared through his chest. Mere minutes ago, he had been a hair's breath away from completing his obsession. For some reason, though, he was getting pulled further away from that with each moment that passed in this battle. No more. He wasn't going to let them win.

Dark energy exploded off Nekron. Instead of pushing the Atlantians back, though, the energy spread across the entire area. It didn't attack any of the other fighters either, though. Instead, the energy hung in the air and created an extra gravity affect. Even with the White Power Rings, the extra weight slowed them down to the point that it was difficult to move.

Nekron was quick to take advantage. In a burst of speed that would have been hard to follow even if the heroes and ghosts weren't moving in slow motion, Nekron cut through all the Atlantians and giant squid with his scythe. In a spray of blood, all of his enemies fell into sea. With those enemies taken care of, Nekron turned his attention to the various other fighters across the area.

The Reaper's form blurred and disappeared. He reappeared in the middle of his many enemies. His scythe flashed. In seconds, several of the fighters were cut open by the weapon. The blade of the weapon easily cut through the protection that the White Lantern Ring provided. Like the Atlantians before them, they collapsed into the ocean below. Their rings were already working on healing them. With how deep the cuts were, though, the process would take a while.

Eventually, Nekron was stopped after cutting through dozens of the fighters. The three fastest fighters, Superman, Flash, and Kid Flash, managed to keep up with Nekron despite the extra weight around them. Even then, though, they struggled not to get cut down. Eventually, though, Nekron's impatience anger caused his aggression to grow even more to the point that he just unleashed a massive arc blast that sent all three of them flying.

With the real threats dealt with, Nekron turned his attention to the remaining fighters. They were all struggling to move, but it was a useless fight. With a bloodthirsty grin, he focused his energy into his weapon. The blade of his scythe extended to a massive length with an unbelievable sharpness. Nekron brought his weapon to the side and prepared to swing it across to all the fighters. Their eyes widened in fear as they realized that they were going to be cut into two.

Nekron retreated backwards at his top speeds. He held his scythe in both of his hands and was swinging it widely in a defensive manner. Each block stopped the precise swings and stabs that Spirit did with her Spectral Claws. Spirit's speed and intensity made it so that Nekron wasn't given a chance to counterattack. After a few more seconds of this, though, the Reaper of Death prepared to power through this situation with a surge of ectoplasm.

Right before he could do that, though, Phantom appeared behind him. Nekron was forced to spin and take a hand of his scythe to block the elbow flying at his head. Phantom didn't stop there, though. He continued to throw a barrage of strikes at Nekron. Spirit did the same from the other side with her Spectral Claws. Nekron was forced to divide his attention which allowed his foes to slip in more than a few blows that covered the Ghost of Death in more than a few bruises and cuts.

Before Nekron could plan anything to deal with them, Dusk rushed forward with his Burst Gauntlets ready. The youngest half-ghost rammed both of the Gauntlets into Nekron's stomach. In a blaze of white ectoplasm, Nekron was sent flying into the air. He didn't get too far because he used his scythe to destroy the surge of ectoplasm that was pushing him.

To his dismay, Phantom and Spirit had followed after him while he was sent flying away. The only upside for Nekron was the fact that both halfas were in front of him this time. Nekron thrusted his scythe forward to create a shield of darkness. Phantom's punch and Spirit's kick instantly shattered the shield with their enhanced powers. Their blows then continued forward to ram into the scythe's side.

In a surge of darkness, Nekron pushed them both away. Once he was finally given some breathing room, he noticed something about his scythe. The rapid attacks empowered with the white energy of life had chipped away at the Reaper's chosen weapon. Various cuts and dents covered the scythe. At this rate, it would break. He could fix it before that happened, though. One small burst of ectoplasm would…

Nekron was suddenly forced to raise scythe up to block Dusk's surprise attack. With the skill gained from a lifetime of training, Dusk expertly swung his Scribe Staff towards the Ghost of Death. Nekron managed to block all the blows, but the cracks on the scythe continued to grow. Oddly enough, Nekron didn't need to push Dusk back. The youngest half-ghost did that on his own. He placed his feet on the Reaper's chest and pushed himself away. Dusk flew away at breakneck speeds much to Nekron's surprise and confusion.

He wasn't given the chance to ponder on it, though. Phantom almost immediately took Dusk's place. He quickly grabbed onto the scythe. The hero then surged his energy. A massive burst of white energy blasted off of him and washed over his enemy. Nekron was quickly to push back with his own surge of energy. Once again, the energy of life and death met in a fight of dominance. This time, though, the damaged scythe was in the middle and suffering from it.

To Nekron's surprise, Phantom suddenly stopped pushing and ducked down. Nekron waivered mid-air. He quickly recovered just in time to raise his scythe to block Spirit's next attack. She spun around and sent a devastating kick down to the scythe. Her kick was accompanied by the arc of ectoplasm that cracked the scythe even more.

Once again, Nekron was surprised when Phantom reached up and pulled her away. They were out of Nekron's reach in seconds. Before Nekron could wonder why they would do this, he felt a massive surge of energy across the city. Turning, Nekron saw that Dusk had used his White Lantern Ring to enhance his Twilight Cannon. The weapon was now larger than the buildings around it.

"Oh shit!" Nekron's reaction was understandable.

"White Lantern Twilight Cannon...Stability: Set. Energy Level: 100%. Target: Acquired."

Nekron desperately brought his scythe up and poured all of his energy into it. He wasn't fast enough, though.

"White Lantern Twilight Cannon…FIRING!"

An entire half of the mental city was covered in a white explosion. Nekron's scythe shield couldn't possibly stop it. The weapon shattered and quickly disintegrated into dust. With nothing to protect him, Nekron was covered in tsunami of white life energy.

Nekron brought his weapon to the side and prepared to swing it across all the fighters. Their eyes widened in fear as they realized that they were going to be cut into two. Just as Nekron's attack was about to make contact with its first victim, the scythe shattered. The Reaper's eyes widened as his personal weapon turned to dust and floated away with the wind. It seemed that whatever happened in the mindscape influenced the real world fight. Damn, he had to turn his focus inward more if he had hope of winning this fight.

Despite their own surprise, the White Lanterns couldn't give up their chance to attack the Reaper while his guard was down. In a blur of white, three extremely heavy hitters rocketed toward the Ghost of Death. The revived Captain Atom was the first to make it to Nekron. As he flew towards his foe, Atom sent out a beam of radiation enhanced by the White Lantern Ring. Once he was close enough, Captain Atom stopped his beam and elbowed Nekron viciously across the face.

The force of the blow was so strong that Nekron actually was forced to do a few flips in the air. His mind was rattle so much by the force that he couldn't even comprehend how great the White Lantern's healing ability should be to empower the Captain's suit back to full power. Before Nekron could stop his flipping, Captain Marvel appeared in front of him.

Using the speed of Mercury, Captain Marvel hit Nekron with every type of attack that he could possibly throw. The Reaper was rocked by this combo. Before he could recover, Captain Marvel grabbed onto the ghost that was responsible for all their trouble and began to spin him around in a big circle. After a few seconds of rapid turning, the agent of Shazam tossed his enemy away and right into the hands of Damon Gray.

The new meta-human Cinderblock used one massive hand to keep a hold onto the Ghost of Death. He used that hand to repeatedly pull Nekron forward and back while using his other hand to strike the stunned Reaper. Each blow provided a satisfying crack that pleased everyone that suffered at the hands of Nekron.

The explosion of white ectoplasm that covered half of the mindscape was almost immediately snuffed out by a strange surge of darkness that washed over the city. All the Black Lantern rings that covered Nekron's body shined with a renewed focus. Once all the white explosion was suffocated, the dark energy combined to create a giant, black skeleton that stood so tall that it reached far above the buildings.

The giant skeleton immediately rushed forward through the rubble of the city. It reached Dusk and the Twilight Cannon in seconds. Before Dusk could react, the construction grabbed onto the weapon and pulled it into the air. It immediately tore the cannon into scrap. As the Matter Make faded away into nothingness, Dusk tried to retreat from the giant skeleton. He wasn't allowed to get far, though.

Dusk was forced to swerve and dodge as a giant, skeletal hand swatted at him. Before he could even do anything else, the hand swung at him again. In that instant, Dusk channeled a house fly and dodged around the hand once again. This continued several times until he was finally caught. Once Dusk was in its hands, the giant construction smashed the youngest halfa down repeatedly to the ground. Luckily the White Lantern Ring protected him, but he wasn't getting free any time soon.

While that was going on, Spirit and Phantom were pulled apart by a dark mist. Phantom was tossed away from the mist and through the rubble. Spirit, however, was kept in the center of the darkness. She couldn't see, but her Premonition was screaming at her. The intentions of dozens of warriors appeared all around her. She was forced to block and dodge more blows than she could process at once.

The female halfa struggled to fight through the construction warriors and out of the darkness. Unfortunately for her, she could not get out of the mist as it moved along with her. As such, she was stuck fighting the constructions. Like Dusk, she was hardly in danger, but there was little chance of her escaping the mist.

Phantom pushed himself up from the rubble. He looked around to see both Dusk and Spirit trapped in their own traps. It was easy to see that Nekron was trying to separate them. Before Phantom could move to help either of his adopted siblings, Nekron landed right in front of the hero and kicked him away.

A few skips later, Phantom turned and landed on his feet. Nekron was rushing toward him once more. Phantom knew that this situation was not in his favor. He saw a chance to stun Nekron, though. Shifting his legs into a deeper stance, Phantom took a deep breath and then unleashed his famed Ghostly Wail.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Nekron was immediately forced back by the physical soundwaves. He immediately covered his head and ears with his arms. While he protected himself, his rings glowed once more. A black mask appeared behind Phantom. The mask latched onto Phantom's head and face to muffle the wail. Nekron was quick to react to this. He rushed forward and grabbed onto the halfa's face.

The Reaper will quickly slammed Phantom onto the ground. The mask quickly disappeared, but Nekron's hold onto Phantom's face and jaw kept him from starting up his wail once more. Once again, Nekron had Phantom at his mercy.

"No siblings to save you this time!" Nekron covered his free fist in swirling darkness and punched downward at Phantom's head, "This is my mind now!"

With a roar, Nekron surged his energy and shoved Cinderblock away. As Damon was sent splashing into the ocean, Nekron grabbed at his head and tried to recover. With a lot of his attention focused inward, though, he was having trouble clearing his mind after those devastating blows. What was worse was the fact that none of the fighters were going to give him more time, especially because the previously injured White Lanterns were surely recovered at this point.

To gain more time, he covered himself in a large dark orb to shield himself from the White Lanterns. This managed to block the charging Wonder Woman and Nyx. The women bounced back and quickly recovered. They immediately pointed their power rings at the orb and unleashed a torrent of energy. The dozens of other White Lanterns quickly aided them. In seconds, the dark orb was bombarded from all angles by the white energy attacks.

Cracks immediately began to spread across the orb. In seconds, the shield shattered. Nekron was once again exposed to the open air and bombarded by the beams of energy. Every bit of recovery that Nekron managed to obtain was ruined as he was once more stunned. Eventually, he had enough of this. His rings surged and began to send out beams of their own to fight against the White Lantern attacks.

After a few seconds of this struggle, Nekron was suddenly pulled out of his attack. This was quite literal, actually. Troia had thrown her Lasso of Truth around the Reaper's Torso and pulled him off balance. She was quickly aided by Zatanna and Ace who used their abilities to trap the Ghost of Death further with a magical trap and mental force field respectively.

Nekron blinked as the other White Lanterns retreated. He would have questioned why they were doing such a thing, but the answer appeared before he could really process the question. Black Canary and Harriet Chin in her new Silver Banshee form appeared in front of him. Both women grabbed onto his trapped form.

The Ghost of Death's eyes went wide as he saw the two of them open their mouths. He would have braced himself, but he literally couldn't this time. As such, he was forced to float there as the women began to do their respective cries. Normally, each woman's individual wails were enough to deafen a person. As both their voices came out, though, they combined into something far more powerful.

Nekron twitched in agony as the sound waves combined and washed over him. Every nerve on his form screamed in pain. The combined traps that held him in place remained strong, though, so he could still not do anything to stop the attacks. Despite how much it hurt, though, Nekron did not suffer any permanent damage. Something, however, was ready to break.

To Nekron's shock, all of his Black Lantern Rings vibrated from the combined wails. Cracks formed all over the rings. In seconds, the rings shattered into tiny pieces and greatly weakened the Ghost of Death.

"No siblings to save you this time!" Nekron covered his free fist in swirling darkness and punched downward at Phantom's head, "This is my mind now!"

Before Nekron's fist could make contact with Phantom's head, the energy in his hand faded away. The Reaper hissed out in pain and stumbled back. His various rings quickly turned to dust causing all of his constructions to fade away. Before he could ponder the ramifications of what happened, Nekron was punched in the face by a recovered Phantom.

Phantom's hand grabbed onto Nekron's cloak to keep him from flying far away. He rapidly punched his captured foe before surging blue cryoplasm to the Ghost of Death to keep him from moving. Once Nekron was immobilized, Phantom got in close to unleash his Ghostly Wail onto his enemy once more. This caused the ice to immediately shatter as Nekron trembled in agony.

Nekron blacked out enough for a few seconds to pass without him noticing. After the wailing finally stopped, Nekron found himself under the rubble. He would have freed himself but a hand grabbed onto him and pulled him out of the broken concrete. Nekron was pulled up to see the face of Dusk. His vision was quickly blurred when the youngest halfa's forehead smashed into his nose.

Before Nekron's vision could recover, he was flipped over. As he soared through the air, he was kneed in the back of the head by Spirit. Nekron flipped over allowing Spirit to grab his legs. She then slammed Nekron unto the ground before tossing him to the side and into the waiting arms of Phantom. The hero quickly grabbed onto the Ghost of Death before the dark ghost could recover.

Nekron recovered enough to see Spirit and Dusk flying toward him while Phantom held him still. Those two were at fault for this. He had to get them out right now.

"NO MORE!"

Dark energy surged through the mindscape as Nekron's rage reached its speak. The Ghost of Death put all his focus on the two half-ghosts and grabbed onto them. For a split second, the entire mental city was covered in darkness as the younger half-ghosts were whisked away.

After a solid minute of being beaten down mercilessly by the White Lanterns, Nekron yelled out in outrage. A massive surge of ectoplasm burst off of him and pushed all the heroes and ghosts away. Once they were a good distance away, the Reaper did something that shocked his enemies. He raised a hand covered in darkness high into the air. Then, with defiant roar, he stabbed that hand into his own chest.

A mere second later, Nekron pulled Spirit out from his chest showing that he overcame her overshadowing. He quickly used his other hand to do the exact same thing with Dusk. Panting in exertion, Nekron glared hatefully at the half-ghost. He swiftly tossed them to the side like unwanted trash.

"ENOUGH!" Concentrated darkness covered Nekron like a rocket and sent him flying high into the sky, "I AM DONE WITH THIS!"

Before even the fastest of the White Lanterns could react, Nekron was quickly beyond their reach. Once he was almost outside of the Earth's atmosphere, Nekron stopped his ascent. The Reaper focused all that energy upward above him and concentrated it into a ball. He then pushed even more energy into the orb. It rapidly grew until it was the size of a city.

Nekron took a deep breath. All of his remaining energy had been pushed into this. It was time to finally complete his obsession. He might not be able to defeat the White Lanterns in a fair fight…he might not get to kill the Life Entity with his bare hands…but he would end everything with this. This attack would destroy the Earth in a single burst. The explosion that followed would kill everyone in range, including Nekron and the divided pieces of the Life Entity.

"Goodbye, Life," Black smoke left Nekron's mouth as he spoke. With a flick of the wrist, he sent the giant orb of death falling down to destroy all life in the universe once and for all, "It's time for the age of absolute death."

Far below Nekron, the White Lanterns could only look on in horror at the sight of the meteor of death falling down at them. Even the normal humans could feel the energy coming off the attack. The result of that thing hitting the Earth would mean game over. At the same time, though, none of them knew how to stop it.

A hushed silence fell over the crowd of White Lanterns. Many of them pondered what to do. Some of them just embraced each other in fear. One of those people was Vision. The logical ghost immediately realized that there was no way for them to stop the attack. It was an actually impossible act. There was no real logical way to react to it. As such, she did what her heart urged her to do. She gently reached out to grab onto her new husband and adopted children.

Plasmius's eyes turned to his new bride. He had never seen his wife so resigned before this moment. She had completely given up. At the same time, the younger halfas were still far too disoriented from being pulled out of their overshadowing to even comprehend what was happening. The oldest half-ghost quickly realized what his wife had noticed. This had to be the end. At the same time, with his wife and adopted children so close…he couldn't bring himself to give up.

To Vision's confusion, Plasmius pulled away. Combining his White Power Ring with his own ectoplasm, he sent out a beam that flew high into the sky and met the orb of death. It didn't slow Nekron's attack down even a little. Nevertheless, Plasmius continued to fire out his beam attack. Vision looked on in surprise. Her husband's actions were completely irrational. Wouldn't it be better to die in the arms of his loved ones instead of in a useless fight?

…No…That wasn't right. Giving up was never an option. Even in the face of death, they had to fight on against this threat. That was their family's dogma. If they had to die, they would die with pride and honor. Releasing the youngest halfas, Vision quickly copied her husband. She was immediately joined by the other ghouls be her side as well.

Soon, all the ghosts were following their lead. Then, the heroes pointed their rings skyward and sent out a beam of white energy. Not only that, the heroes with ranged powers fired those off as well. The attacks ranged from heat vision all the way to sound wave attacks. All the attacks flew skyward and met with the orb of death. Unfortunately, their desperate struggle did not stop the orb of death, but they did slow it down.

And that was all they needed.

Once Spirit and Dusk were gone, Nekron rammed the back of his head into Phantom's nose. The ghoul was forced to let go of his foe and stumble back. A follow up blow to the stomach sent Phantom flying back further. He bounced once in the rubble before flipping over and landing on his feet. Once more, they were alone in the mindscape. The only big difference this time was that the entire mental city was just a pile of rubble and the two ghosts were completely exhausted by their fight.

"You lose…you realize that right?" Nekron spoke out first, "No more people to help you."

"But they helped tire you out, though, didn't they?" Phantom argued, "They did their part. Now it's time to do mine."

Nekron chuckled, "Oh? Confident now, are we? So not only do you think that you can beat me…You think you can beat me on a time limit."

Phantom was somewhat aware of what was happening outside his mind, "It's not about thinking that I can beat you. It's more that I don't have any other option."

"There is one more…" Nekron grinned, "Die."

"That's not an option right now."

"So you won't die for them?"

"I'd die for them in a second. But I can't die right now. If I die, they die. They're the ones that always mattered…" Phantom's eyes hardened, "For them…for the people that matter to me, I'll sacrifice everything that I have. Body, soul, and spirit…None of that matters if I can't protect my family."

Nekron scoffed, "How touching."

"Laugh if you want, but I will beat you no matter what. For them."

"For them. Bah, that's all that ever comes out of your mouth it seems," Dark energy rolled off of Nekron, "But what would happen if they fought against you?"

To Phantom's shock, the image of Red Huntress appeared behind Nekron. A beam like the ghost hunter's old wrist cannon fired out and smashed into Phantom's shoulder and forced him to stumble back clutching at his new wound.

"When one of my shades die, I can't use them in the physical world anymore…" Hundreds of images appeared behind Nekron, "But they never truly leave me. This is my final card, Phantom. Top this."

In the blink of an eye, Phantom was overwhelmed by the various people from his past. Friends, family, and foes all began to beat him down. Within seconds, the already exhausted halfa was beaten down even further. Bruises, cuts, burns, and tears appeared all over his form. Nevertheless, he did not give up. He did not fade.

"It won't work…" Phantom whispered out, "They're with me. They've always been with me."

The shades stopped.

Nekron's eyes widened, "Huh?"

"My friends…my family…You can't use them against me anymore," Phantom's eyes flashed, "Even if they die, they never leave me. They're not yours, Nekron. They never were."

The shades all faded and then appeared behind Phantom as the halfa forced himself to his feet.

Nekron took a step back in fear.

"You mock me for doing everything for them, but there's a reason for that," All the shades disappeared in a blaze of energy that quickly covered Phantom's form, effectively healing and empowering him from all the fatigue and damage he received. In a blur, Phantom appeared in front of Nekron and punched the other ghost in the stomach. Nekron was forced to keel over in pain.

"My obsession is to protect them."

A punch across the face forced Nekron to stumble back.

"Since the beginning, they have always been the thing that kept me fighting."

Nekron tried to throw a punch of his own. Phantom quickly caught the fist in his own. He immediately broke the enemy's wrist and forced the ghost to his knees.

"They are the reason that I will not let you win!"

The Reaper trembled in fear as the forms of Death and the Life Entity appeared on either side of Phantom. They both placed a hand on the halfa's shoulder and pumped energy into the half-ghost. Phantom then channeled his energy into his right fist.

"They are the reason…" Phantom snarled down at Nekron's terrified form, "YOUR PLAN WAS DOOMED FROM THE START!"

Danny Phantom then punched Nekron the Reaper with all the force and energy that he had. A white light spread across the entire mindscape. All at once, everything that was Nekron was beaten back and suppressed. This was signified by the sun above, as the white life portions of the sun quickly smothered all the black death energy into nothingness.

The black orb of death inched closer and closer to the struggling White Lanterns. They all sent out every last drop of energy that they could to slow down their destruction. It was a losing battle, though. Nekron's attack was mere feet away from them. In seconds, they would be disintegrated. Still, none of them gave up. They continued to push against the orb of death in a desperate attempt to save everyone.

Just before the orb was about to make contact with them, it stopped. They looked on with relief as their beams finally pushed through the darkness. Slowly, the white energy spread through the orb and snuffed out the danger that was once Nekron's attack. Once the orb was glowing a beautiful white energy of life, they pushed the orb upward back up to its original creator.

Exhausted from his physical and mental battles, Nekron could do nothing as the orb sailed back up to him. The attack quickly made contact with him and covered him an explosion of white. The pure energy of life tore through his darkness and corruption and left him a screaming mess. Once the light finally died down, a burnt and beaten Nekron fell from the heavens.

Cheers erupted from the White Lanterns. They had done it. Together, they had overcome all the odds and defeated the most powerful—

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

Energy erupted from both the Reaper and the White Lanterns. In seconds, they were all covered in a swirling vortex of black and white energy. The torrent continued and swept all the White Lantern Rings from the heroes and ghost's fingers. As the rings flew off their fingers, the energy that had been keeping them conscious slipped away and allowed the fighters to slip into peaceful slumber. All the rings floated up to Nekron and combined to form the Life Entity. Once formed in the physical world once more, the Entity clapped its hands and surged its energy to cover everyone in a sea of white energy.

Phantom stood at the center of his mental city. The real Amity Park's center was far different than in his mind. His center had always been Fenton Works. Restored and strengthened back to peak form, Phantom looked over the city triumphantly. The blazing white sun above him shined a bright light over his city to celebrate his victory.

"Hehehehehe…" Nekron lay broken and beaten at Phantom's feet, "Well done, kid. It seems that the Life Entity and the Endless chose well."

"It seems so," Phantom looked down to his defeated foe, "But it wasn't me that beat you."

"Yeah, I know. It was them," Nekron snorted.

"You're damn right it was," Twin ice blades appeared in Phantom's hands.

Nekron looked away, "Go ahead. Finish me. Maybe the third time will be the charm."

Phantom stopped his motion of raising his swords, "Excuse me?"

"What? Do you think that killing me will get rid of me?" Nekron sneered, "Yeah, that worked real well the first time didn't it?"

Phantom lowered his swords as he realized the truth, "You can't die. Even if I destroy your physical from, your consciousness will still exist as long as people are alive and your obsession exists."

"You're damn right! Hehehehehe!" Nekron seemed pleased by the horror on Danny's face, "And I'll do even better next time. Another one thousand years. Just think what life will be like then. You sure as hell won't be around anymore."

"Yeah…I won't. The future generations will have to deal with you…again," Phantom clenched the swords in his hands tightly, "More people will die because of you. Hundreds…maybe thousands…"

"And there's nothing you can do about it," Nekron noted in glee, "You only got two option here, kid. Kill me and let me reform once you're long dead and gone…or try to restrain me in your mind. And I doubt I have to tell you the dangers of doing the later."

"No matter what…I can't stop you…"

"Nope. You can't kill the Ghost of Death."

Phantom thought about that for a second. He looked up to the blazing sun above him, "You can't kill him, but you can take away his obsession."

"Huh?"

"No ghost can exist without an obsession…an anchor," Phantom reasoned, "We have the same anchors…Life and Death…"

"What are you—Hey! What the hell are you doing?!" Nekron yelled out as the halfa rocketed into the air.

Phantom ignored the Reaper. Instead, he focused on his new target. He flew towards the sun at his top speeds. Memories of all his adventures flashed through his life. Years ago, he never would have imagined that his life would have been like this. Now, though, he couldn't imagine his life any other way.

With a battle roar, Phantom plunged his swords into the sun that represented his core. He pushed his consciousness into the core. The halfa felt everything that was his powers. It was so beautiful and good, but there was a taint in it. That taint was Nekron, and nothing of Nekron could be allowed to exist.

Using his complete control over his powers, Danny Phantom did the one thing that he had never done before this day. He just let it all go. The sun faded away into nothingness. A once swirling green sky shifted to a normal blue. What was once a perfect mix between a ghost and a human's mind was now completely missing anything paranormal. This was only further emphasized when both Danny Phantom and Nekron the Reaper faded away from the mindscape for the last time.

Danny Phantom's eyes flashed open. He now stood on the Sorcerer Initiative island once more. The unconscious members of his family and friends lie all across the land. They all had peaceful looks on their faces as the exhaustion of the event took its toll on them. All of them deserved to rest.

Suddenly, Phantom arched his back like he was in agonizing pain. The form of Nekron in his original body was violently thrown from his chest. Nekron tumbled across the ground before stopping on his stomach. Phantom continued to twitch in pain as the Life Entity and Death stepped out from his body as well.

The Entity turned to Phantom, "You did well, chosen. You have earned your rest, as I have earned mine. Farewell."

Death shook her head as the Life Entity faded away from their vision, "That thing has no sense of tact."

Phantom smiled, "Life doesn't have time for that."

"True. But the dead have all the time in the universe," Death looked to Phantom. She gave him a strange look of absolute pride and terrible heartbreak, "Danny…What you did…for everyone…for me…there are no words to describe my gratitude, but I just...I have grown to care for you."

Phantom smiled, "I'm not going anywhere."

"True, but it won't be the same. I'll miss…this…" Death stepped forward and hugged her avatar, "It was nice having someone to defend and appreciate my work. Goodbye, Danny. I'll miss you."

Phantom hugged the woman back before she too faded like the Life Entity, "And I will miss you…more than you can ever know."

Nekron coughed as he pushed himself to his knees, "What…What did you do? I feel so weak…"

"I thought about what you said before," Phantom explained, "I can't kill you, but I can erase you."

"Erase me?"

"Yeah," Phantom stepped forward until he was right in front of the kneeling Nekron, "You're obsessed with Death. But what happens when a ghost loses their obsession? They fade. So that's what I did. I took the thing most precious from you. I took your connection with Death away from you while we were still connected at our cores."

"But…if you got rid of my connection to Death…that would mean that you…"

"That's right. I gave up my connection to Life and Death. They were the real source of my powers, so…," Phantom's form began to change. His white hair grew darker by the second. Once neon green eyes shifted back to their original blue. His skin changed back to its original paleness as his clothes shifted from their normal color scheme to their reverse, just like his original hazmat suit had changed colors when he originally got his powers, "I gave up my powers to stop you once and for all."

"No…"

"Yes," Danny glared at Nekron, "Now go. Fade back into the nothingness where you came from. You'll never bother this universe again."

"But…But I don't understand! It doesn't make any sense!" Nekron shouted up at Danny, "You had the blessings of life and death since birth and the powers of a god at your fingertips to show it! Everything you were and worked for revolved around your powers! For you to give up your powers is like a ghost giving up everything! Your obsession! Your happiness! Everything that you were! Nobody would give that up!"

"Don't you know?" Danny's hard eyes showed no signs of deceit or regret. He stood tall and proud in the choice he made, for he had stood by his convictions until the very end.

"Know what?"

"I am nobody."

Danny said that with such seriousness that Nekron could barely believe it at first. Then, he thought about it for a second. The Reaper remembered everything he learned about Danny Phantom over the years. He remembered all the memories he took from Danny while their minds were linked. Everything finally clicked into place. Despite everything that Danny Phantom achieved, he still always believed that he was just some guy that was lucky enough to get superpowers, "HeheheheHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Danny didn't react when Nekron reached up and grabbed him by the shoulders. He just continued to look down at Nekron with hardened eyes as the Reaper shook with laughter. After a few minutes, Nekron's laughter died down. Just in time for his own form to fade away.

"Well, in the end, at least I fulfilled the desire to meet my own end. That's an upside. But you know…" Nekron met Danny's eyes once more, "If it had to be anyone that beat me, I'm glad it was you. Good job, kid. Good job."

With that said, Nekron the Reaper of Death faded away forever. He left nothing but Danny Fenton as the sole person left standing after the brutal event known as the Blackest Night. Surrounded by all his sleeping friends and family, Danny allowed a few tears to roll down his eyes. It was all finally over.