Date: Wed, 22 May 1996 15:45:36 -0400 From: Val Wirth Subject: A Perfect Union 1/1 SPOILER FOR LAST KNIGHT One thing, I've always loved about "Forever Knight" was the "What happened next?" quality, most of the episodes had. They alway left you wanting more. Well, I have never seen an episode that called out "What Happened Next?" more than Last Knight. By writing this, I hope, I can work through my case of LKPDS (Last Knight Post Depression Syndrome) and go back to writing stories from "my" FK universe - where LaCroix's monologues contain references to Snoopy; where Nick worries about going bald; where Tracy is Tracy; and where Natalie fantasizes about being a lap dancer. As always, I can be reached for comments at valworth@aol.com. If a man answers though, hang up. It's my husband and he thinks I'm doing the book keeping. A Perfect Union by Val Worth May, 1996 "Black you are and black you will remain." They were the words from some old, half forgotten NightCrawler monologue, but right now, they were burning a whole in Nick's brain. He had tried so hard to be the good guy.....to be the hero. And this is where it had gotten him. Nowhere. He hadn't been able to save Cohen or Schanke; he hadn't been able to save Tracy, and the one person he cared the most about, was now dead - at his hands. He had never meant to take too much, but once he started, he couldn't bring himself to stop. It wasn't so much the wonderfully sweet taste of fresh, human blood, as it was the sensation of finally being so close to Natalie. It was, as if a great void inside him had, at last, been filled. Nick had not wanted that feeling to ever end, but he noticed, too late, that his happiness and his pleasure had cost Natalie, her life. Natalie had loved and trusted him, and had died because of it. He knew he could never live with the pain of being separated from her, much less the guilt for having killed her. It was with almost, eager anticipation, that Nick waited for the blow from the stake that LaCroix was holding over him. He heard LaCroix cry out, "Damn you, Nicholas!" and then he felt a swift movement behind him. He braced himself for the pain, but the pain never came. Instead Nick heard a soft gasp, and then a deep moan. He turned around to see that LaCroix had thrust the stake not in him, but in his own chest. . Nick shouted, "No!", and made a mad dive to pull it out. LaCroix only pushed him away. "Why LaCroix? Why?" "I told you; it was time to go. But one more thing, please. A kiss before dying." LaCroix with his last bit of strength bent over the unmoving Natalie and planted a chaste kiss on her cold, blue lips. Then he fell down and did not move again. Nick stared at the bodies of his dead master and his dead love. They were both gone, and he was so very much alone. He glanced at the stake that was sticking out of LaCroix's chest, and for an instant, he thought of pulling it out, and stabbing himself with it. But deep down, he knew he would never really have the courage to do it. Nick was too afraid to live, and too afraid to die. He wasn't the hero anymore. He hadn't saved the girl,; he had killed the girl. He hadn't caught the bad guy; he was the bad guy. Just a murderer, and a coward, that's all he was now. All he really had ever been. The human emotions of sadness and loss overtook Nick, and for the first time in centuries, he did not try to run away from them. Nick wept. He wept for Natalie and for LaCroix. He cried the tears he should have cried for Schanke and Cohen, and for Tracy. He grieved for all the mortals he had loved and lost, for all who had come to know death after getting too close to him. And he grieved for his himself and his own soul, and for the fact, that some lessons are learned too late. Nick's grief was so great, that he did not notice that all the tears he cried were clear, mortal ones. He didn't even notice that one of the bodies in the room had begun to move. "Nick, Nick," Natalie called out. "You're alive. Oh my God, You're alive. But how? You had no heartbeat, no pulse." "LaCroix.....his kiss. It healed me." "Do you mean, he brought you across? That you are a vampire?" "No, Nick, I'm still mortal. LaCroix didn't bring me across; he brought me back." "But why? Why did he do it?" "You don't know, do you? It was the only way. The bond between you two, was too strong. You could never be mortal, or free, as long as he was alive. He gave up his life, so that you could have yours." "But why did he save you?" "So you would never have to know the loneliness that he knew. He wanted you to be happy." "But, Natalie how could you possibly know all this?" "Because, Nick, LaCroix isn't really dead. I mean, he is in the physical sense, but not in the spiritual one. LaCroix.... his thoughts, his feelings, his hopes, they are alive inside of me. I have all of his knowledge, and all of his pain." "Then you must know incredible darkness." "There is that. But there's love too, the love he had for Divia, the even greater love he had for you. You never knew that LaCroix loved you, more than he even loved his own daughter." "He loved me?" "Didn't he prove it just now. He made the ultimate sacrifice for you. He died so you could live." "It was LaCroix, after all." "What was LaCroix, Nick?" "LaCroix was the hero. Natalie, It's all so much to take in, so much to understand." "Some things don't need to be understood; they just need to be accepted. Sort of like the existence of vampires." Natalie smiled and Nick knew that the woman he had loved was still, very much there. "Nick, I do believe, before this unfortunate incident, you will confessing your undying love for me. And since we are both mortal now, why don't we go in the bedroom and be "mortal" together." "Natalie, I don't know if I ...." Natalie saw the look of uncertainty in Nick eyes. "LaCroix is in my heart, or my soul, whatever you want to call it, but believe me, the rest of me is all woman, all Natalie. Damn it, Nick, I have waited for this for six years. Don't you think that's long enough?" Nick scooped her up in his arms, and took her to the bedroom. And Natalie Lambert who had waited six years, did not have to wait a moment longer. *************************** "Is the caller there?" the softly female voice asked. "This blows chunks, man. How come they replaced the NightCrawler with just another lame chick? Me, and all my friends want him back. NightCrawler Rules." "I understand your sentiments, but believe me, I'm not just another lame chick. Oh, I'm anything but that. And I love you and all my children, and in time, you will all come to love me, just as you once loved the NightCrawler. "And speaking of the NightCrawler, I think, it is time we talked of good-byes and endings, of hellos and beginnings. I have heard it said that when God shuts a door, he always opens a window. We just never know what's going to fly in that window, do we? Would any of you, out there, like to tell me, what's flown in your windows, lately?" The woman's soft liquid voice poured through the still summer night. The voice was Natalie Lambert's, but the words themselves came from a perfect union between the Good Doctor, and something or more accurately, someone else. "Next caller, please. Hello. You're on the air with the Night Mistress, your new friend in the night."