Chapter Text
Six Months Ago
The meteors were falling.
The being called William could feel them; they trembled along the surface of his mind, passed through his sense of self, one more scratch on the wall, one more cycle passing by. It was time, once again; the low thrum of the Amplifier was picking up, readying for broadcast once again. Nothing had changed.
He still had time.
Morbid curiosity pulled him to the void-within-void, to the bright blinding gold shell that hung amidst roiling black and simmering grey. It was as close as he dared to get to Her, until he could find a way to bring her back the name they had stripped away.
But he still had time. The cycle would go on, as it had.
The shell began to glow, light radiating out. She had stepped inside, the blaze would grow-
-what.
Black lines, crisp and clear, coiled along the edges of the Amplifier, coiled through it, stretched beyond time and space to form a glyph. A maze in infinite dimensions. The Labyrinth painted large over the prison walls.
No.
One of them, one of the Wardens, had stepped inside? That had happened only twice, since the cycle began, and each time, it had been too close, too near to disaster. Could they possibly have found the way? If this incarnation had figured it out...
...The glyph faded, and with it, the glow, the Amplifier giving a pulsing hum of confusion. It didn’t live, but it comprehended its purpose, it understood that there were rules, it didn’t like change. The Warden had left, but so had she.
William considered. Maybe he had less time than he thought. If one of the Wardens had ventured inside, then she might be close to the solution, and he could not allow her to find it, not until he’d found a way to save her.
The Amplifier began to glow again, pure gold, no disconcerting black lines. No Labyrinth. William almost relaxed- and then it shuddered, warped, that golden shell cracking. A spark of power arced over the surface, and William recognized the Gatekeeper, unmoored from his physical form.
That was new. They’d never tried to kill the Gatekeeper, before.
The Amplifier shuddered again, and William felt a chill of fear, much worse than before. Light was pouring out the cracks, but it wasn’t pure gold any longer. It was soft and shimmering silver, shot through with black void.
No. No. NO!
A Warden was bad enough, but this? She couldn’t have, she couldn’t have brought the two sides together. She couldn’t have found the way!
The Gatekeeper would know. His physical form may have been destroyed, but that only made it easier for William; with the Gatekeeper in the void, William could reach him. The Amplifier was twisting, pulling itself apart and falling inward, and the Gatekeeper was skipping over the surface, trying to patch it, trying to repair the damage.
William needed to know what had happened. Needed to know what they’d found.
A flicker of thought, of power, and he had the Gatekeeper pinned in place, bending his will on the carefully-constructed presence. The Gatekeeper struggled, unprepared for an attack, unprepared for someone who had been old even when the Gatekeeper was new to seize him.
:Who?: he demanded, the question thought and intention and will.
Images greeted him, a flood of information. Two men, and Her. Both men were tall, with angular faces and dark hair; one was clean-shaven, one was not, one light eyed, one dark. She was, as always, perfect- blonde, this time, sweet and sorrowful. William bore down with his thoughts, focusing on the clean-shaven man.
:Who?: he asked again.
:Nathan Wuornos.: An image of him, standing with an older man, grizzled and formidable. A man who cracked the earth, who shattered under pressure. The Gatekeeper knew him, had spoken with him over two cycles. Garland Wuornos- an ally, but not a Warden. The son had taken the mark, but was not of the blood. William relaxed, just slightly; if he was not of the blood, he was not a true threat, just an inconvenience. Still, he bore watching.
:Who?: he demanded once more, focusing on the dark-eyed man, the one who should not be there.
:Duke Crocker.: There were images there, as well, and clips of memory; Duke standing beside her, Duke standing beside Nathan Wuornos. A moment in time, the Gatekeeper talking to her, challenging her reliance on Duke; she defended him, fierce and loyal. Another moment, blurred and broken as the Gatekeeper’s form collapsed- Duke throwing himself forward to catch the other, to cradle him as he fell. There was a hint of smugness to the Gatekeeper’s thoughts, and a whisper of rage rose up in William.
This Crocker was weak, was soft. William had built that line to be stronger, had layered the corruption deep in their blood. If he could love her, he could destroy her, and William could not allow that to happen. Even if the other was not a Warden, there was still a real threat.
William was out of time. Finding a subtle solution was no longer an option. He had to wake her, had to return her name, before the Amplifier collapsed completely. Before there was any chance that those... inferiors could stumble onto the solution. Before there was any chance that they could take her away from him.
She was his. He would not lose her now.
Releasing the Gatekeeper, he drew himself together, and slipped through one of the cracks. Physical form wrapped itself around him as he moved, as he searched; he landed, heavy and solid, outside the replica of a cheap bar in Nowhere, USA. It was time to end this.