Date: Thu, 30 May 1996 18:52:19 -0700
From: Kathy L <kathryn@U.ARIZONA.EDU>
Subject: Crossing Over (LK, HF Spoilers!)

Yes, folks, its yet another Last Knight continuation.  If you don't want
to be spoiled for Last Knight, bail out now!
 
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Okay, this little piece takes place right after the last scene from Last
Knight.  And it's my first posted fanfic, so go easy (please!). :)  My
undying thanks <g> to Bridget and Heather for encouraging me to put this on
the list.
 
Disclaimer:  Though they no longer need them, these wonderful characters
are the property of James Pariott & Co.  Luckily, they live on in our
hearts and in our fanfic.
 
*****
 
                 Crossing Over (A Last Knight Continuation)
 
                                by Kathy Lawson
 
 
     She was in a void.  No sound, no movement.  Nothing since the last
dying beats of her heart.  And then without warning was the light.  The
light her love had told her about.  She was in 'that place', on the brink
of passing through to another existence.  Strangely, the guardian of the
gate was not a hooded figure this time, but the figure of her grandmother.
Only she wasn't the stern and bitter woman she had been in life, but, a
loving, caring woman gazing at her with compassionate eyes, beckoning her
onward on her journey.
     She started forward then, happy and joyous, her faith in the
universe restored, the pain of her mortal existence momentarily
forgotten.  And then from somewhere else, she heard the call of another
voice, faint but oh, so insistent that it be heard.  And then she
realized there was something catastrophically wrong with this potential
paradise.  ~Nick, where is Nick?~ The voice from beyond called to her
again, telling her that she must return, she must forsake this place if
she wanted to be with her love yet again.  She knew who was calling her
back, surprised that someone she had thought of as an enemy would be
trying to help her now.
     She gazed once more at the figure of her grandmother, who now
wore a concerned but understanding look on her face.
     "You must choose, my dear."
     "Help me, Gram, I don't know what to do."
     "I cannot.  It is your choice.  It is *the* choice."
     She knew that the fate of her soul lay in the balance between
faith and love, grimacing at the irony that the two should be so
mutually exclusive at this particular moment.  Should she trust the
voice that was calling her back?  Was it a trap?  One last ploy to
separate her from the man she loved more than eternity?  No.  For
that figure had loved Nick just as much, maybe more, than she did, and
in spite of their constant disagreements over the centuries, the
bitter partings and the pain each caused the other, they had recently
bridged much of the chasms in their relationship.
     With a conscious thought, she willed herself away from that place
and back into her mortal life to see what awaited her.  No sensations
at first, then a voice, telling her to drink.  That if she didn't, she
would die and it would all be for naught.  A wrist at her mouth, pouring
a different kind of lifeblood back into her starving body, which
responded as if she had been in a desert for centuries.  After a time,
the intense hunger subsided and although she was still weak, she had
enough strength to open her eyes and look around.
     Nick was lying on the floor of the loft next to her, blood on his
shirt. She screamed his name and started to go to him as simultaneously
the world started to spin and the person who had called her back from
the brink gently restrained her and told her he was all right.  She lay
back on the floor until the dizziness passed and then sat up and looked
at the person who had just given her immortality.
     "Why?" she asked, incredulously.  "Why you, of all people?"
     "My dear Natalie," the voice said, with as much compassion as Nat
had ever heard. "In spite of Nicola's faith in you and in the God he
still believes in, he would *not* have joined you had you both gone
through with this little charade."
     All at once, it came back to her and she understood.  Images of
Nick, hooked up to a machine of death, the smoldering ashes of a house
where Nick told her he had *failed* to save the woman he had loved for
centuries.  His evasive answers when she had asked what happened.
     "You knew, didn't you?" Nat said, red tears running down her
face. "You knew this life, his struggle, wouldn't be enough in the end?"
     "Not until he brought me across for the second time.  Oh Natalie,"
Janette visibly shivered.  The physical display of fear caused Nat's
stomach to drop.  "There is no *light* for our kind.  The portal
does not beckon, it pulls...unmercifully, and the coldness coming from
that place..." She shivered again and looked away.
     "But why...me?  Why not just save Nick and be done with it?"
     Janette looked at her thoughtfully.
     "What choice did I have?  You are not the only one who cares for
him.  I could not save him from one hell only to bring him into another
when he found himself still alive and his love dead by his own hand."
     Nat reeled as she realized the enormity of the gulf Janette had
bridged between Nat and Nick by bringing her across.  One eternity was
lost to them yes, but there was still the other.  A high price to pay,
but worth the cost if it meant sharing the rest of her days with the man
willing to gamble his soul for the prize of her eternal love.  She
leaned over to Janette and took her hand.
     "Thank you." she whispered.  "Thank you more than you know."
 
***
 
Comments, criticisms, and virtual M&Ms to
kathryn@u.arizona.edu