Title: When Eternity Lies in the Balance
Author: Tracy (AKA Jericho TGF)
Disclaimer: The story's mine - the characters
aren't. Neither is Sunnydale, LA, or...well,
heaven for that matter. I'm
time-sharing the Oracle's chamber, though - does that count?? Don't sue me. Please.
Spoilers: All of it - the whole kit and caboodle. Every single one of the 100 eps are fair game
here (If you haven't seen 'The Gift' yet you may not want to read this)
Distribution: I'm thinking yeah...as long as I know where
it's going beforehand and my name is on it.
Summery: Spike gets tapped by the Powers That Be to
restore the way things should be.
Problem is, Spike doesn’t work and play well with others. He is none too pleased with the PTB’s
suggestions, either. S/B eventually,
otherwise what's the point?
Rated:
R
Note: “italicized words” equal mind
speech.
Dedications: Kelly, I don’t have the words to tell you
what you mean to me. You are the
reason, and I thank you. Helen, Trish,
and Isabelle – you’ve all been staunchly supportive, and you deserve a
bucketful of gratitude for being patient with my many neurosis. Thanks.
Chapter One
In a
room with walls of marble and a floor of granite, two entities stood anxiously
by and stared into the dark pool of water at their feet. Images flashed in the reflecting surface and
the entities frowned as one as they watched the players struggle against their
fate. Despite their efforts, it was
soon over and the dimensional walls fell before the entities' speculative
gaze.
Hell,
all manner of Hell, had been released as it was foretold, though they had
observed the warriors’ futile battle to prevent such a thing from ever
happening. Nothing foretold ever failed
to come to pass, however, and such grave matters as an apocalypse were closely
monitored by the creatures whose job it was to maintain the balance between the
forces of dark and the forces of light, not just in the world they were
currently observing, but in all worlds and all dimensions.
All in
all, things were progressing nicely.
The
entities started to relax.
It had
been a close thing, a near disastrous thing, they thought. The girl, the Slayer as she was called, had almost
succeeded in preventing the walls from falling. One of the two entities frowned at the child's
unpredictability. There was no telling
with that one, she thought, and her companion - her brother - heard the words
in his head as if his sister had spoken them aloud.
“It
is that unpredictability that has kept her on our path,” he chided his sister
mentally. “Were it not for the
strength of her will and her, shall we say, stubborn personality, the foretold
would have been in jeopardy.”
A
mental grumble was the only reply and he chuckled.
“Come
now, sister, all is as it should be.
The walls are down. Soon they
will come back up and the balance will be maintained. The girl will continue on the road set for her and we will enjoy
the play as it unfolds before us.”
The
scene did continue to unfold before their discerning eyes. They watched as their tool, the Slayer,
tried to send The Key away from the opening portal. The Key turned, and they listened to her - for energy had been
transmuted to form as it was written - explain to the Slayer that she needed to
close the portal before more creatures could come through.
All was
as it should be. The Slayer will allow
the sacrifice, comprehending the duty set before her, and all will be in
balance.
So engrossed
were they in the scene before their eyes, the entities failed to notice the
slight rippling of waves in the Waters of Time and Space, the pool that
contained both the history and future of the eternal orders of the universe. Even had they noticed, there would have been
little time to react, and their powers insufficient to prevent the unseen
conflict, besides.
With no
warning, they watched in growing alarm as the Slayer turned, and as if in slow
motion, leapt off the two hundred foot high scaffolding and into the
dimensional portal. The response to
that action was not long in coming, and the entities shielded their eyes from
the flash of light that preceded the restoration of the walls between
dimensions.
The
entities were silent. They stared in
horrified fascination as the group of humans clustered around the body of their
fallen warrior.
It was
the sister who pulled herself together first.
Frantic to discover the affect of this unseen occurrence, she waved her
hand over the pool and brought future events into focus. Normally stoic and rigidly unemotional at
the things that they had seen over an eternity of watching and guiding, they
both gasped in surprise at the darkness and evil that was yet to be unleashed.
"This
is not good," said the brother.
His thoughts were in too much turmoil to attempt mind speech.
His
sister whirled on him, angry and irritated.
He winced slightly at the force of her mental reprimand.
“No. It is not.
She is as she was made.
Her...stubbornness, as you so graciously put it, has thrown off the
balance completely. This was
unforeseen. Do you see this?" She waved her hand quickly over
the watery images displayed at their feet. "None of this was supposed
to happen. Look at what she has done!”
The
world's light, the universe's light was quickly being extinguished before
them. It was a grim reality and they
knew they had to stop it. The brother
wasn't entirely sure what to do or what to think. By all accounts, the Slayer should have allowed The Key to
fulfill its destiny.
"It
was her sister, you fool." She
interrupted his thoughts, after reading them, of course, and spoke in a ragged
whisper. "She was not just human
form, she was made from the Slayer. She
was her sister. I warned you about
that."
The brother
winced at the reminder. It was true;
his sister had been against allowing the transformation to human form. He was never going to hear the end of it,
and there was an eternity yet to exist with her. A glance down at the future of carnage and despair made him
realize that an eternity spent watching this new reality would be unbearable
indeed, especially when combined with being tormented by his twin.
"We
will fix this," he said to her, trying to inflect a small degree of
confidence into his voice. "We can
still fix this."
The
sister glanced at her brother, a coldly impersonal look on her face. "No, brother. You have done enough. I
will fix this."
She
turned back the pages of time on the pool and reopened the chapter to the
current events. The friends of the
Slayer were still collected around her body and the entity reached out her
mental powers to weigh the heart, mind, and soul, of each of them. They were warriors, though not as effective
as the Slayer, and it was among them that she would find the one to assist
her. On her third scan she stopped,
tilting her head to listen to the thoughts of the one she was reading. A small smile teased the corners of her lips
and she stood back from the pool.
Glancing
at her brother, who had been watching her perform, she stretched out an arm and
pointed down at the creature displayed in the pools reflection.
"That
one. He is the one."
She
clapped her hands imperiously and was rewarded with a hasty reply to her
summons. One of the many assistants
that were at their beck and call appeared at her elbow.
She
pointed out the one she wanted and said, "Bring him to us. Now."
With
little more than a stir of cool air, the assistant was gone. The entities waited anxiously for his
return.
And for
the arrival of the vampire that would help them.