Full permission is given to Mel to put on her archive if she wants it.
Anywhere else I can be bribed.  All you'll have to do is shake me a
bit until I come around after having fainted.

With Strange Aeons...  by Galatea Mason

Now for the boring junk.

Disclaimer:  Nope.  They still don't belong to me.  Rats.  I do this
not for money but to inflict my insanity on the masses.  Read at your
own risk, I don't pay for dental work or psychiatrists. Waves to my
best-est fav-o-rite e-buddy and Gibson... no ship lines in this one...
:-p
Spoilers:Yep.  It's the one where the meteor is threatening to end the
world +ACY- Nat asks to be brought across.  Also a general ref to the ep
where Nick was brought across and a super vague one to the one where
he had the Near Death Experience and saw his soul.  Whatever the
titles were on those ones, that's the spoiler.
My happy little notes:  First attempt at writing any kind of fanfic.
(Do you know when you run the word fanfic through the spell check it
suggests +ACI-fanatic+ACI- as the intended word?  He he+ACE-)  First attempt at
pretending to be brave and posting it.  Also, this is sort of assuming
that the soul isn't loosed from the body when a vamp is brought
across. Without further butterflies in my tummy, here's the story+ACE-

With Strange Aeons...

    Nat stood around tapping one foot on the floor impatiently and
listened to it echo in the spacious loft.  Where was he?  She sighed
and glanced at her watch, over an hour late.  She grinned wryly to
herself, knowing that he'd forgotten all about their appointment.
When he came in he'd have that deer-stuck-in-the-headlights look she
recognised all too well.  Gently she stroked the keys of the baby
grand in and let her eyes brush over Nick's latest painting.  It was
dark, like most of his works.  Then her eyes fell on a small cream
envelope.  Feeling less guilty than she knew she should she picked it
up pulling the letter out.  Immediately she recognised Nick's flowing
script on a beautiful stationary.

        Dear Natalie:
    Tonight you asked me to bring you over.  I cannot tell you what I
thought at that moment.  The beast in me relished the thought, the
thought of having your blood.  And another part of me shouted for me
to do as you asked, to bring you across, so that we could be together
always.  I could not bring you across, no matter how tempting it might
be.  When I said no, there was such hurt in your eyes, but that hurt
is less than it would be if I ever gave into the beast.  I want to
explain to you, to tell you as best I am able, why I could not.
Please, please don't think it is because I do not care for you.  I do
not think I could bear to have you hate me.
    Nat, when I was first brought across I knew I was changed.  When I
awoke, I felt it's presence all around me.  It suffocated me, holding
me in a vice unable to move.  It was as if I was being raped, only
thoroughly more terrifying.  It is odd, how many people claim to have
been terrified.  Yet how few truly understand what it is.  To be held
in the grip of Terror, to know it as a real and tangible being.  You
can always recognise a person who has truly known Terror, seen it in
all it's horrible glory... it's in their eyes.  They are haunted eyes,
and you never see the world in the same manner afterwards.  The terror
taints everything, it's reminder present in everything your eyes land
upon, the physical nature of an object is forever changed-- mutated if
you will after one has known evil.  Not merely in psychological
conception, but honestly changed in shape and form and meaning and a
hundred other little ways to subtle for the untouched to see.  The
mortals that walk this earth, the innocents as you are, they are
tender and have no comprehension of what evil is.  How can they truly
understand that which they have no point of reference?  They are blind
to it, evil could walk before them and they would not know it.  How
many of my kind do you think have walked the same streets as you or
ridden the same bus as you before you knew me?  Before you knew of us?
If it were to touch you though, you would know it.  In the deepest
region of your soul you would immediately recognise it and attempt to
flee.  By then, of course, it would be too late.
    I have heard people say that Hitler was evil, that he was the
devil himself.  Or that some serial killer or another was evil... a
demon incarnate.  How perfectly absurd this is you cannot know.  These
men are not evil, not purely anyway+ACE-  They are merely a weak
representation of the possibilities and sheer power of evil.  How
little these men understand the true nature of evil, of what it is, is
laughable+ACE-  That they claim these things only demonstrates their
ignorance, for these men are but the instruments- tools.  Do we blame
the hammer or screwdriver for a poorly built house?  Of course, not+ACE-
This is absurd.  Any man with a shred of common sense can tell you
that it is the people which hold the tools which would be held
responsible.  In the same way, these people have all the significance
and power of a single nail or screw, the greatest and cruellest among
them are only the smallest examples of what that power is.  And yet
people continue to cling to these beliefs, absurd and misguided as
they are.  Why? you ask.  Well, it is very simple, if they could wrap
their minds around the concept of evil, they would seize up and die.
Or they would go mad.  But I digress, I have sought only to show you
that you do not understand what I speak of, that you will not, and
that further, you cannot understand it.  You cannot comprehend it or
reconcile yourself with it.  Do not try, you will surely fail and
drive yourself quite insane in the process.  Rather, simply accept
that what I say is so, and that I speak it with the honesty of someone
who has known it intimately.  I have nothing to loose, nothing to
fear... for what could be done to me that has not already been done?
I have been to hell and back quite literally.  And that small taste
will haunt me and follow behind me like a hunter on the bounty for the
rest of my nights.  Do not understand, just listen and accept.
    When I awoke, this creature gripped my entire body and held me
fast.  I couldn't move to struggle for escape.  My mind raced and I
felt another presence, dark, cold, and omniscient.  It did not hold me
with mortal hands, but with every part of my body.  Every cell it
touched, even those organs in me.  It seeped in my lungs and in the
air, it was in my ears and I breathed it in and out my nose.  It held
not my body but my soul.  I felt it's thoughts, it's images, and while
a part of me recognised this being as foreign from myself, at the same
time I had not the ability to separate it from me and so in this way
we were joined as one.  Terror spread across my chest and through my
entire body, until I was sure it must be radiating from me and seeping
out my pores.  I could feel it's delight and malevolence at my fear.
It relished and exhaulted in my feelings of helplessness and my
recognition that this was something infinitely more powerful than
myself.  Images and thoughts that were not my own and made me disgust
pulsed through my head.  As I have said, my mind was racing, a battle
was being fought, even without my conscious decision to fight.
Thoughts and images flashed before me, so quickly I could not sort
them out and they seemed to meld into eachother and reflect unto one
another.  They clashed and fought, taking a life of their own.  They
battered and assaulted my bewildered and thick mind like violent waves
scourging the beach that was my mind.  I could vaguely see, even
through my terror that they were still with me.  I could feel this
beast touching me and holding me there.  My perception of this is much
less clear, certainly I felt it's presence more than I could see it.
It was dark, a dark beyond that of night or caves.  No, this was
infinitely different, it was like drowning in a sea of ink, the
complete and utter lack of any light at all.  It smothered and pressed
on me, as a hound would worry a hare.  I could see no features, nor
identify any specific body parts.  It was not solid, but seemed to
exist more as a cloud of black matter.  Yet I could feel it as solid
and sure as anything.  There was no head to speak of, no arms or
torso.  It had no need of such limitations.  It simply was.  Beyond
all understanding or description it existed.  And from the moment it
came into contact with my then sleeping and now waking form, I knew
it.  I knew it as surely as I would know you, or my childhood
playmates and friends.  I knew this thing.  And it was evil.
    Nat, this cannot even begin to describe it.  I know that you hold
the belief that my condition is physical and not of the supernatural,
but I cannot ignore what I felt.  What I still feel.  I could not
condemn you to this darkness for my pleasure.  Please understand this
Nat.  Please don't hate me for it.

Nick

    Tears threatened to spill over as her hand shook.  A thousand
thoughts ran through her mind.  Of course she didn't hate him... why
hadn't he told her this before... why hadn't +ACo-she+ACo- listened?  Suddenly
she whirled as Nick cleared his throat.
    +ACI-I wasn't going to  let you see that you know.  I was going to
throw it into the fire.+ACI-
    +ACI-Oh, Nick...+ACI- she reached for the words and failed.  +ACI-I am so
sorry.  I never would have...+ACI-
    +ACI-It's okay Nat.+ACI- he said pulling her into a hug and throwing the
paper into the fire with one swift movement.
    They stood there like that for moments before Nat broke the
silence.  +ACI-I'm not mad at you Nick.  And I don't hate you.  I know you
were only trying to do what you thought was best.+ACI-
    +ACI-Thank you Nat.  Thank you for seeing me and not leaving me.
Thank you for not giving up hope on me.+ACI-
    +ACI-That's what friends do, Nick.  They support eachother.+ACI-

THE END+ACE-
    Voila+ACE-  Enough sappy sugar to give you a tummy ache and a cavity
all in one sitting.  The phrase of inspiration:  +ACI-Non est mortuum quod
perpetuum manuet atque in saeculis miris et mors moriatur.+ACI-  It means:
+ACI-That which is not dead with the eternal may lie with strange aeons
even death may lie.  Don't know where it came from but it seemed kind
of appropriate.
+ACI-Your approval is neither required nor desired. But I will take your
acceptance.+ACI-  So if you want to E-mail me, my addy is remy+AEA-cac.net

I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it+ACE-  Cousin, NA
Addict, Valentine, X-Files Proud Shipper, B+ACY-A, TOS, TNG, DS9,
STVoyager, LFN and damn proud member of the KAG+ACE-