Oh my, no. It most certainly isn't supposed to be happening like _this_. I turn away for a mere moment, and the world goes to Hell. Well, Angel goes to Hell. But this is just as bad. Spike dusted, and Willow about to burn out herself and her friends out to get him back.
Strong willed child, that girl. Foolish, too! Why is it that we never find people who just listen to what we say? Yes, yes, we haven't actually ever talked to the girl, but she should still know better than this!
I look a little closer, shifting through the threads winding into the tangled knot that represents this situation. Willow's thread, it's bright shimmering green fading beneath my gaze. Spike's line, coarse and red, thick and dark with his years and actions. The Slayer, Angel, Cordelia, Xander... Drusilla and a Sidhri.
Well, this is certainly quite the mess! Seven individuals bound into prophecy, all about to be wiped out by one Sidhri. If even one of their threads are cut short before they have time to fill their destinies, things will unravel. Not completely, of course, but it will be enough to throw off our schedule for centuries!
To indulge a moment in mortal vulgarities -- fucking stupid Sidhri! Strange, that didn't do much. Mortals always seem to find such outbursts rather helpful. But no, the situation is still as dire as I recall.
At times like these, I always wonder whose bright idea it was to create _Sidhri_. Must have been their side, I'm sure that we would never have been so foolish to create a creature so very determined to destroy the fabric of prophecy.
The creatures are always attempting to disrupt the path of what-should-be, for our side as well as the other. But then, the other side doesn't rely on such intricate schedules and lifelines, relying instead on more generalized chaos. Over the eons, Sidhri have managed to wipe out much more of our instruments than theirs due to that very fact.
The world seems to ripple, and I look back towards the situation. Willow is drawing into energies that mortals should most assuredly not be tapping into! Her friends are barely hanging onto enough life energy to keep themselves alive. I can hear their hearts, weak and fluttering. Another moment of this, and the child will have done the Sidhri's work for it!
Even the Slayer and the vampire are suffering the effects of Willow's desperate actions. Their nature gives them a deeper well of strength, but that won't keep them alive much longer than the pure mortals.
I haven't been nudging these people together for centuries only to see almost all of them wiped out in one shot! Replacing them now would be next to impossible. That means that there is but one thing that can salvage this situation.
Namely, me.
I draw upon the power, and within an instant, I am standing in the middle of the scene I had been surveying at a safe remove. The air is crackling with energy, and even I feel a momentary twinge of concern for my safety. If the child doesn't stop soon, this area will be left as little more than a smoking crater.
I reach out towards the fallen Drusilla first. I cannot help Willow if the Sidhri still has a hold in this area. She is fighting him within her mind, a desperate, angry child striking out against an unmovable rock. The Sidhri shudders, unused to such fierce opposition. I lend my strength to hers, and the Sidhri crumbles with a wail. A doorway into her mind remains, and I know that the Sidhri can gain a hold on her again. There is no time to close that entry now, though.
I shift from Drusilla towards Willow, surprised to find Drusilla's presence at my side. Our energy melds with Willow's, our hands reaching with hers. We are one in our goal, bleeding into each other as we fight the death that has claimed Spike.
The dust that had been him shimmers, the fabric of time shuddering as we attempt to force that which we hold back into that which it was. The others are still with us, their energy far too caught up within this desperate gamble to be released. I feel one of their lifelines flicker and give way. None of us pause in our struggle.
Light flashes around us, and the world seems to stop for a long moment. And then, reality comes crashing down upon me. I am standing in the park, the trees and grass steaming slightly, bodies strewn about me. I am the only one still standing and conscious to see the result of our fight.
Where moments earlier only dust had been, Spike is now sprawled on the ground amongst his friends.
~End~