It's Five by Five

[ouyangdan]

Chapter 11 (Fall From My Hands)
Rating: T+
Word Count: 2,797
Characters: Anders, Finn, Saoirse, Kahrin, Carver, Anora.

Summary: I love time. There's so much of it, and yet, so little.





Artwork by the fantastically talented Yamisnuffles.

Finn stood in front of the alter of the Gateway for Lost Souls, which, incidentally, was beneath the Post Office, dumping some foul smelling powder into it. It tickled Anders' nose and made him want to sneeze. Sneezing, something he hadn't done for over two centuries, an annoying human reflex and yet something he found he enjoyed. The sensations that he had missed, so many of them, he tried to memorize.

"They are not going to be pleased with you visiting again, Anders. They are finicky and unpredictable. I must advise again against this." Finn gave him one last questioning look.

"I have to. I have to know what all of this means. You saw what happened to Saoirse. I've been in this game for too long. Things like that are going to keep coming at me, and she's going to get caught in the cross fire trying to help me. They will keep coming, and she will always try to help, and that makes me a liability." He shielded his eyes from the bright flash of light that flared from the archway as it opened, making the way for him to pass.

"Then get in, and get back." Finn rubbed a hand over his face as Anders jumped through the archway.

"What are you doing back here, Lower Being?" the man asked him, a deep frown pulling at his blue face, the gold lining his eyes crinkling. "We are not here to entertain your whims."

"Silence, brother, and let us hear him out," the woman held up an hand, silencing him. "What have you brought us, mortal?" She gave him a whimsical smile with a tilt of her head, making her tight ringlets bob and detracting slightly from the seriousness of the moment.

Anders held up an antique pocket watch. It had been a gift from Velanna when they passed through Switzerland. He's seen a man check it, and had indicated his appreciation of the time piece. Velanna had wasted no time in eating the owner and presenting Anders with it that same night.

The watch flew from his hand and into the woman's, and she looked at it with excitement often seen in children at Christmas. "I like time," she exclaimed happily. "There is so much of it, and yet so little. Your offering is acceptable."

"Say your piece then, Lower Being, and get out of here." The man crossed his arms, looking like the tragedy mask to his sister's pleasant smile.

"The demon who did this to me, she mentioned an exchange. A price?" Anders cut straight to the chase. "What is the price for my life?"

"It doesn't concern you any more, mortal." The man turned his back to Anders and walked towards the lit tunnel behind him. "You are not a Champion in this fight anymore. Go live your life."

"What about her? What's going to happen to her?" He demanded, and the woman looked up at him, her expression slightly bemused.

"The same thing that happens to all mortals. Just, in her case, sooner," she said airily. "It isn't your concern anymore. Her path is no longer your path."

An icy dread crept through Anders. "She'll die? But she's also just a mortal."

"It isn't for lower beings to understand. You accepted the offer of the demon. There is always a price for that. You've been in this world too long to think otherwise," the man's emotionless voice tore at Anders.

"I didn't accept anything, least of all anything that would take her life." He looked between the two Oracles angrily.

The woman shook her head. "You fought a demon, you won. Life goes on." She paced in front of him as if she were floating.

"But things are going to keep coming at her, at me, and I can't stop it." Anders raked his hands into his hair.

The man looked at him levelly, his cool eyes devoid of irises or pupils, yet Anders knew he was staring straight through him. "This is the way of things. Move aside and let the new Champion follow her path. Short though it may be."

Anders blinked with sudden understanding. "But, if she dies, then you'll lose two warriors for your cause. This demon has already left you down one. I'm no good to you like this. And she doesn't know about whatever this is. She isn't connected to the Powers That Be. I know you can make this right. Please."

"For now. There is little we can do about the rest. A life was the price." The woman shrugged almost helplessly.

Anders was quiet for what felt like half of an eternity, silently fuming. He'd lived long enough that after a while time slipped by and he didn't notice any more. A month could be minutes, and vice versa. He finally looked up at both of them. "Then take mine back. Take it back and let us keep fighting together."

The man splayed his hands out beside him and snorted. "This is about love. We do not meddle in such trivialities. We do not barter with lower beings. Be gone."

"Wait, brother." The woman held a hand up and silenced him again. "He is willing to give up his life, his mortality, every drop of potential happiness he has, in order to spare her an early death. Is that the way of it, mortal?" Her golden eyebrow raised over eyes that nearly danced with curiosity.

Swallowing hard once, Anders considered what she was asking. One day and he'd had exactly what he'd been wanting. It wasn't worth it, however, if her life was the cost. There could be no them if there was no her. He nodded once, firmly, his mind made up. "That's right. Her life for mine."

The woman turned to smile at her brother, dark curls springing about her head. "You see? He's not a lower being. He's still a Champion."

"What was done can not be undone, sister, and you know this."

Waving her hand, dismissing her brother, she nearly laughed. "That's not necessarily true."

The man's eyes shot wide, and he grumbled, "Temporal folds are not to indulge whims. They are dangerous and complicated."

"So there's a way?" Anders didn't dare become too hopeful, but he couldn't keep the eagerness from his voice.

"It is not to be taken lightly. You must be prepared to accept the consequences," she tilted her head at him. "Are you?"

Anders clutched at his hair. Was he ready to give up the thumping in his chest? Which is stronger when she's around. Was he ready to go back to an eternity of watching everyone around him wither and die? A mortal life without her in it is no life. Was he ready to accept the curse of Justice back into him? Sacrifices often need to be made.

"I am." He said it simply, but firmly. There was no turning back now.

"We swallow the day. Twenty-four hours from when the demon first attacked, we'll take it back to give you another chance." The woman looked at him intently, her colourless eyes staring through him as if reading him.

"So, everything we had, it will be …"

"It never happened. That is what we offer," the woman shrugged simply and turned, walking in a wide circle in front of the lit tunnel behind them.

"What's to stop everything from turning out the same?" he demanded. He hadn't been alive for over two centuries by being a fool.

"You." The woman Oracle stopped her pacing, running her fingers over the casing of the pocket watch. "You alone will carry the memories, and you must use them to your advantage." She paused and looked at him, suddenly grave. "Are you willing to carry that burden? By yourself?"

It meant that Saoirse had a chance at living longer. It meant they could keep fighting side-by-side. It meant that he would get to see what all this talk of "her path" was really about.

"I am," he said without hesitation.

He landed in a heap outside the Archway and at Finn's feet. "They wouldn't see you?" Finn looked startled.

"What are you talking about? I just got back."

"You just went in, just now, Anders." Finn ran a hand over his head.

"No, they saw me. I have my answers. We need to get back, now." Anders started walking for the tunnel that would lead back to the apartment, Finn on his heels.

"What did they say, Anders?" Finn had to nearly run to keep up.

Anders stopped and gave him a calm expression. There was no use in getting worked up over it. "It doesn't matter. It's taken care of."

Finn looked as if he might argue for a moment, cleaning his glasses on his shirt, then gave up and simply followed.

Anders found Saoirse pacing the kitchen of his apartment when the lift landed on the bottom floor and he pushed the gate aside.

"There you are!" she set down a bottle of pain killers and crossed the floor to him, placing hands on his elbows. Anders touched the bandage at the side of her head that Carver had taped on after raging at him for not keeping his sister safer. "What did they say? I'm guessing by the look on your face they didn't ask you to stay for tea and a chipper little pep talk."

Taking a deep breath, and trying to relish the way that breath felt, because it might be the last time he had the chance to think over it. "There was a price for my life. So I asked them to turn me back."

She blinked only once at him, taking a full step back. "You did what? Why?"

He moved towards her, needing to feel the contact of her warmth against him. "Because I know now, more than ever, how much I love you."

"No, no you didn't," she shook her head at him, looking almost disgusted.

"If I stay mortal, one of us is going to wind up dead," he gave her a hard and meaningful look, keeping his composure barely contained. "Maybe both of us. The demon exacted a price and-"

"She's dead. We killed her."

"There will be more, you know there will be more. Just because I've been released doesn't mean they will stop coming." He reached out for her and she backed away again.

"There will always be more of them, Anders. Ever since I came here things have attacked us, you, Bethany, Carver, me. We fight them."

"I can't fight them like this. You saw what happened. We almost died down there." He spoke softly, regret heavy in his voice.

"So, what? You took a day and weighed the pros and cons of being human, made a handy list, and decided that you preferred being Joe Superhero? She shook her head back and forth, as if she could toss the thought out with the motion.

"You know that's not it, Saoirse," he pulled her to him, feeling the warmth of her, smelling the way her hair smelled in his mortal nose, dulled by his human senses but still there and part of being alive. "How can we be together if the cost is your life, or the lives of others?"

She sagged against him, seemingly deflated. She knew he was right. Deep down she knew. "I understand." There was a pregnant pause before she asked, "So what happens now?"

"The Oracles swallow the day. They give it back so I can kill the demon before her blood turns me."

"What?" She pulled back and looked at him. "When?"

Anders looked up at the tall clock in the next room, easily visible from where they stood, embracing. "Another minute."

Saoirse pulled her head back and stared at him, her eyes starting to water. "That's not enough time!"

"If I'd had to wake up next to you, I wouldn't have been strong enough to do this. It had to be now." His voice hitched over the last words.

She leaned her head on his shoulder. "How am I supposed to just go back to the way things were, knowing what we had?"

"You won't," he answered quietly. "It will be like it never happened, and only I'll remember."

"But everything we did, what we felt?"

"It never happened."

She placed a hand over his heart and clenched her eyes. "But it did. It happened, Anders. I won't forget that. I felt your heart beating. I listened to it next to my ear. That's not something you forget. It happened. It did, all of it." She glanced back at the clock. "No, no, it's not enough time."

He kissed her hard and then held the back of her head in one hand. "Saoirse, I'm so sorry. Please."

"No. I won't forget. I promise I won't forget. I'll never forget this." She cried in heaving sobs and he held her to him, tears rolling down his face.

"Please, please, Saoirse." He hushed into her ear, his voice warbling.

"I'll never forget. I won't forget."

He kissed her forehead and held his lips there, memorizing the smoothness of her skin, the taste of her tears, as the whole room flashed bright.

Then he looked up.

"I came here because I was scared for you," Anora glared at him slightly.

Anders hesitated for a moment, his chest still, and the tears dried from his face. He stared at the floor for a beat before looking back at Anora, his face pained.

"No, you came here because you wanted vengeance. It isn't the same thing."

"Yes. You'd know all about that, wouldn't you?" She jutted her jaw and lower lip out in that way she had when she was pissed off.

"Did you come here to fight? Because this is getting a little old hat, Anora." Anders crossed his arms and gave her a look that read with almost no emotion.

"No, I came here because we-"

"There is no 'we', Anora," he interjected, softly. "Not anymore."

"Clearly. I come here, Kahrin is here, not in prison. You're protecting her. What are we playing at here?" she gave him another tight lipped smile.

"We are not playing at anything. This was the arrangement. We don't see one another. Remember?"

She turned and rounded on him from her pacing. "That was your decision. One you made without me.

You never even-"

This time, when the demon sprang up from the grate he shoved Anora out of the way and stepped forward, grabbing the horned beast by the head and twisting it violently, killing her before there was a chance for her to blast them into the wall with magic.

Anora blinked at him from the other side of the kitchen, visibly impressed. "That was quick."

Anders shrugged. "I've had time to study up on this kind of demon. You have to kill them quickly."

"Right." She gave him another hard look. "Well, then, we just go back to the plan, and I'll go back to my city, and you stay here in yours." She let herself into the lift and slammed the gate shut with a loud rattle. "Enjoy your new life, Anders. And don't come crying when Kahrin tries to kill you. Again."

Anders slumped and rested against the table for a few moments, then got up and put the teapot away.

"Carver if you're coming with us, you're going to need a blanket or an umbrella or something shady." Saoirse slung her purse over one shoulder and pulled her sunglasses back over her face, calling to him cheerily. "I don't what brother en flambe."

"Yeah, Liquid Lunch, you being dust is going to put a damper on what I have planned later." Kahrin gave him a swat across the ass as she and Saoirse followed Finn out the door.

Saoirse shot Kahrin a look that clearly said she didn't want to hear anymore. "We'll just meet you there, Carver, all right?" Saoirse said with a chipper lift to her voice and pulled the office door shut behind her, just glad for an excuse to avoid the aftermath of Hurricane Anora.