AN:

Hey. I don't know if any one reading this is one of my very loyal followers from the Avatar verse but if you are, nice to see you again. If not, Hello. This is an idea that I've had in my head for a while. If you like it and want to see more, please let me know I'm not wasting my time. If not. well sorry for wasting yours. Although you could tell me where I went wrong and then maybe I can fix it. Hint. Well read and hopefully enjoy.

Author's Request: since you are reading this story, I will assume you like Prince Nuada. There is an online petition to make a movie about the prince's life, or to bring him back somehow. It's been there for some time now, but with this boost in Nuada fics, I shall assume the interest in him was renewed, so if you could go and view the awesome trailer and sign the petition and tell your friends to do it as well, would be just great! Here's the address, just remove the spaces:

w w w . petitiononline nuada / petition . html

One more thing. Any religious views or cultural norms that are mentioned ARE NOT MINE! The belong to the characters only. I have my own views that have no impact on the characters. I try very hard to make the characters well rounded. Please keep in mind this story has always taken place in an alternate universe that is close to ours but is not our world. This is a work of fiction, based on another artist's creation.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Ticking Clocks and Falling Sands

Prologue

This wasn't the way the world was supposed to be. It wasn't supposed to be falling down around their ears. Red hadn't even caused it! Damn it!

"Liz!" Hellboy yelled firing off another round at the nameless evil that followed, nipping at their heels. "Get in the circle!" He stripped off his khaki jacket as a tentacle tangled into its tails. One of the arms of muscle attempted to twine itself around his neck, Red caught it and squished it in his massive stone hand. "Ya mind!" The creature it was connected to squealed in pain. "I'm talking to my wife!" He turned his attention back to Liz, firing a shot or two over his shoulder. "Get the kids to safety!"

"Red! Get your big red butt across this damned line!" The brunette firestarter screamed hauling the two ten year olds who scarily enough were as good shots as their father was, with just about anything that was in their hands from spitballs to an AK-47 or the odd bazooka. And right now her daughter was throwing a live grenade in her father's direction while her son unloaded his automatic rifle into demon that was only going to keep being reborn and keep coming until they were dead. No this wasn't how these last ten years were supposed to go.

"Liz! Duck!" Hellboy yelled picking his son up by his tail and dragging him back to the relative safety of the circle, as six figures in bloodied and muddied white robes pulled themselves across the protective barrier. The sphere only worked on the supernatural, but something as simple as projectile weaponry passed through it with ease. "This had better work witch!" Red directed to the witch that was in charge. He may not be fond of her but she was the only one with a plan that had even a snowballs chance in hell of getting them through the night. Oh yeah life was great.

"We only get one shot at this!" The older woman yelled throwing off her robe as a demon spat a ball of fire onto the loose flowing material. "Let's make

it count!" She took a deep breath and held out her hands to the members of the coven beside her as they formed a circle within the protective sphere. Her vibrant green eyes slid shut as she began chanting, others repeating after her in a never ending circle before beginning again.

"Sands of time, reverse the days."

Two days ago Hellboy, Liz, the children and what was left of the BPRD that still liked them, and wasn't dead, were in hiding in the sewers. That was where the witches found them. There were twenty four at first. The leader had walked the others through the solid wall of their tunnel hideaway like it was only a veil of mist. He had automatically taken a shot which stopped less than six inches in front of the leader. She smiled, it was a normal reaction in these troubled times when evil roamed the earth. With a small twist of her fingers the bullet compressed and formed a small pentacle that she sent spinning off to land in his hand.

"We're friends. And if you want to see the sun rise in three days," She pulled two guns from the holsters on her hips and put them on the floor as a sign of good faith. "Normally I dislike disarming myself but if it gets my point across, fine." She took off her long overcoat like robe. "We," she gestured to her companions, "may have a way to set all things straight. So unless you want this," she waved her hands and a cloudy picture that Hellboy and Liz knew all too well floated above the ground, "I suggest we work together."

Hanging in the air before them sat Hellboy on a pile of rubble. His horns long and twisted like they were when he faced Rasputin all those years ago. Smoke and ash filled the blood red sky against which empty skeletons of forgotten buildings stood like bones of some giant creature from times long past. Liz and the kids were no where to be found, the only trace of them was the tears that scored his cheeks. Anung un Rama was a beast with a heart, but no one ever said what side he fought on. Or why.

"Who the hell are you?" Liz growled, moving in front of her children. Anger filled her veins as Hellboy's face clouded with grief. Loosing Liz and the kids were his worst nightmare.

The older woman smiled indulgently. "You have nothing to fear from us, Liz Sherman, wife and mate of the one called Hellboy, mother of two of the most powerful beings on this planet." Her smile fell on the two children as a fond remembrance tickled her ear in the form of a soft breeze that came from no where. "Please don't swear. It's bad for the chi. My name is Mara. I am both Romani, and a daughter of Eire. These are my friends. We may have a way to turn back time."

"And do what?" Red asked, mockery laid heavy in his tone.

"Have someone fix this," she motioned. The gesture taking in everything around them. "Fix everything. Fix what happened to cause all of this."

"Someone?" Hellboy snarled. "Let's say what ever your plan is, actually works. You're going to give the responsibility of saving the world to a nameless someone?"

Mara tossed her heavy braided hair over her shoulder. Grey strands streaked through her mane showing the years she tried to hide. Lines creased her face with what felt like eons of worry. "Not just someone. My daughter. Jada Kai Gry. She goes by Kai most of the time." Mara looked as if she just swallowed a lemon. Which was silly, no one had seen fresh fruit in nearly a year. "We plan to open a portal to send her a message. And then pray she can do enough to change our future."

"Send her a message?" Liz asked. Granted this sounded like yet another lesson in disaster so far, but hey, when you knew you only had days left if even that you ran every Hail Mary play you had left. "She isn't going through?"

"She died ten years ago. The night of the tooth fairies." Mara took a deep breath to steady her nerves, the same as she always did when her daughter was mentioned. "She died in an alley less than a block away from the auction house barely an hour before the auction began. I sent her there to be on the look out for objects that, let's put it this way, it would be better if they didn't land in the wrong hands. If this works she'll be alive and so will we."

"Why can't one of us go back and fix everything?" One of the remaining BPRD agents asked.

"Because our paths are already set. If we stepped through the portal nothing would change, all knowledge of this time and place would be lost. All we would experience was a wicked case of Deja Vu." She thought back to the times they tried it. Each a different way, each failing miserably. "The same people react the same ways creating the same circumstance that others react to the same way and it never stops. The only option left is to try someone new to change the circumstance, to react in a different way."

She went on to explain everything they had tried in the last ten years. Every option, every possibility. They had even sent someone to stop the muggers that caused Jada's death, only to have her die in the Tooth Fairy attack. But the death of the Elven prince and princess always followed, causing the unseen world to disappear. Slowly, painfully, with death and despair at the end of each and every road. The only option they hadn't tried in ten years, was to let Kai be the lynch pin all on her own. And maybe, just maybe, things would work out. With a lot of luck and prayers.

So two days later, here they were. On top of a ley line nexus putting their lives and hopes on the proverbial line to maybe change the past, and perhaps protect the future.

"Before the storms, and earth was set ablaze."

The wind began howling, trying to drown out the words. Hair whipped around peoples faces, and each in turn shut their eyes. Faces of those loved and lost returned to their minds giving them the will to continue. Abe, who died in an explosion. Jada, who died at a knife's point. Countless others without end who perished and didn't have to.

All because the world was thrown out of balance. Without the unseen realm to safe guard nature and good, evil swam through the world, from the molten center to the air above consuming everything in its path. It wasn't that humans were the source, only that with nothing to oppose them they opened the door. A door through which anger and greed, hatred and fear widened to allow the true evil to rule. And those last remaining few who attempted to oppose, to fight back, didn't have the strength to hold any sway over the tide. They died, or turned. Until there was nothing left.

And if they failed tonight, they all knew they may as well let the coming hell sweep them away. There would be nothing left to fight for.

"Reweave the cloth of fate, reveal the in-between."

A blast went off somewhere to the right and the group ducked, still joined at the hands, still chanting. Lending each one his power and inner strength to this cause, this moment.

"Nudge the one who can wars abate, both seen and unseen!"

Liz began blazing with blue fire as the portal opened with aching slowness, adding her own rage and fury to it's formation, acting like a shot of adrenaline to a over taxed heart.

"Save future, past, and present, with one twist of chance!"

Hellboy's horns elongated from his skull as the power of their act began humming within the circle. Grass sprouted at their feel and rubble rolled away as in this space time reversed, bound only by their presents and powered only by their will.

"May one heart relent, with one change in circumstance!"

Thunder clapped as the earth around them split in its fury. And then all seemed to stop and stare in amazement. Sounds of the rage outside dimmed then faded into silence. Time stopped and stood still at attention. Arrested by the raw energy and majesty of what was occurring. Then, as the moments silence broke and the earth began to turn once again, a blast hit the air. A sonic boom sounded and every one of the circle was thrown backward as a rush of wind forced them down passing through and into everything beyond the circle's boundary. Only to come rushing back a moment later with all the force of a typhoon.

I hope it worked. Mara thought as her mind went dark and the world faded into black.