Work Text:
Clockwork stares at one of his screens. Two young boys are fighting. It will be a fight to the death. He closes his eyes when the killing blow is delivered. How he wishes that he could end their pain early. But there are paths that must be traversed, decisions that must be made, growth that must happen before these boys will see each other again.
They have very different paths, these two boys, yet the results will be the same. One dressed in red and green and yellow with a family he will grow to trust at his back, the other in monochrome with steadfast friends at his side.
He can see glimpses of their futures in other screens, all the different pathways branching out like the many limbs of a great yew tree. There will be joys and sorrows and tragedy, but they will make their way back to each other.
He wishes he could end their pain, but things must progress so that the future may be bright. Because if they were to meet again too early, or never to meet again at all, he can see only death and destruction and the End of all things in the screens that follow those paths.
He must hold strong, as he always has. It matters not that one of these boys will be like a son, that one of these precious children will rise to heights none has seen before with his brother at his side in the mortal plane. There has been a great imbalance in the Realms and with these boys, with these children, Clockwork can see the possibility for hope, for a future full of possibilities.
He twists his scepter a moment before the boy surges out of the Pit, already imbued with some of the effects of ectoplasm. He watches as the boy flees and when he collapses, Clockwork twists his scepter again and steps through the screen. He stares down at the young boy who will do great things. He takes him gently in his arms before stepping back through the screen and stepping through another. He emerges into another forest, and he places the boy down gently. He spares one last glance at the boy before going back through to the Long Now. Another twist of his scepter and time restarts.
The boy is in the right place now. Soon, he will be with whom he must in order to ensure a brighter future.
Clockwork turns his gaze back to the other boy. The child is sobbing quietly in his room. Clockwork’s core aches for him, for the terrible thing he was groomed to do. He will heal, but it will take much time, and many more terrible things will happen before then. He will do his best to guide the child’s path, as much as he can without gaining the Observants’ attention. They will not always be a problem, but for now he must work in the shadows.
He shall pay Nocturne a visit, request that they give the child pleasant dreams, and that they give the mother dreams that will encourage her to take her remaining son to his father sooner.
That is all Clockwork can do. Any more interference at this point and the Observants will come with orders that will only disrupt things. Clockwork can only sneer at their presumptuousness. They think they know the Path, but they are blinded to all the branching possibilities, to the twists and turns of Fate. They see only one way and not all the ways in which the future could shape itself.
He looks once more at the children. He has set them on their separate paths. Now it is time that they learn and grow into the roles Fate has set for them. For there must always be balance, and they will be the ones to bring it about.