His Haunting
Spoilers: All Seasons (Majorly Peter and The Day We Died).
Disclaimer: I own none of Fringe but everything but Olivia and Peter in this fic.
Author's Note: It kinda lines up with my First People's Storyline...not like most but generally. I like the idea that they said Peter never existed...not the Peter we knew so I combined them.
How does one civilization come to be as they are? How does one civilization save the future from the past? How does one man's legacy live in two different lifetimes? How does he destroy his entire civilization?
He woke in the infirmary, immediately his family was by his side...his mother, father and sister...the family he hadn't had on his mission. It felt abnormal because for those first few moments before remembering who and where he was...Corin of Atlantis was still Peter Bishop and he was still searching for his deceased yet very much alive wife. He had never existed in that lifetime because he existed long before her...long before the simple life he had lead, long before he had fallen in love with his mission...long before he could spend a lifetime with her.
His mission had been simple, create a fighter, a guardian who would help when the time of destruction came. Help guide her and mold her into the person she had become...his mission was never supposed to turn into something more, his mission was never supposed to be about more than molding her...he was never supposed to fall in love with his mission. Even back, he could still see her as he did...the hard ass partner he had spent two years with, the four month lover he had fallen so deeply in love with it pained him to think of life without her and the woman, his wife and partner who had been everything to him for fifteen years.
Corin is silent for most of the day, reeling over events as his memory slowly returns. His memories of his mission achieved for later viewing...he should have been glad to come home, to have completed the mission he was solely chosen for but he wanted nothing more than to return and be with her again...his Olivia, his everything.
"Brother," his sister, Lyra, sat beside him and smiled. "we have been wondering if you suffered a trauma on this mission...you are almost canatonic. Tell me what happened, what pains did you suffer?" She smiled, "come now, I'm your sister...you can tell me anything."
He looked at her, "only a mistake I can't leave behind, it haunts me even when they remove the memories."
"What could possibly be so horrible? Tell me about the guardian you were chosen to guide, we known nothing about her...only what the Oracle told us. Is she of great strength? Of great beauty and knowledge that she does not even know herself? What is her name and what age was she when you met?"
"Her name was Olivia Dunham, she was beautiful," he smiled and looked down. "Perfect and she didn't even known it...the way she became in those last few months, the happiness she had when she never had it before...the way her olive eyes would shine bright as she was saving the world she knew. Powerful, yes beyond imagining but she thought she was defected, nothing more than a victim of circumstance...believing no one when they said she was special." He looked away, "it was never supposed to be this way Lyra...she was never supposed to become more than a mission."
Lyra took Corin's hand, "if you remember that much detail than she was clearly more my brother. Did you find your heart taken in the middle of this?"
"Tell no one of what I say, no one Lyra." She nodded, squeezing his hand. "I want only to return to her, I'd rather live our descendants' lifespan of a few years than live our lifespan without her. My heart, the air I breathe...everything in my life has become her. The reality is that she won't exist for millions of years...she won't know me as she's already forgotten. I never told her I loved her, that is the pain most of all. I remember a lifetime that has now been changed, she will never hear those words from me."
"I am sorry Corin, I am sure with time she will fade and upon seeing Cora again you'll find happiness. She returns from the outlanding expedition later this evening...you'll see her and forget this one you think is everything."
Later that day he sat drawing when hands covered his eyes, "I have missed you my love."
He turned to see Cora, his betrothed, and she smiled at him but her eyes were brown and her hair black...the most beautiful woman among them that had been his intended bride held nothing to the woman he had been sent to guide. He could only see olive green eyes and blond strands like sunlight. "Cora, much occurred on the mission...I fear I must tell you now before it goes further but I'm breaking off our intended marriage. I am sorry but I cannot love you when I have found my heart in another."
"Corin, my love, that is the mission talking...given days you shall see that you are confused. Come," she took his hands and smiled, "let me welcome you home like you should be welcomed."
He dropped her hands, "enough Cora, I said that I was not going to let this go further...leave my quarters and I shall see you at the breaking."
"You do not mean that, Corin we have been betrothed since childhood...we have done everything together. You cannot say such things, we have always been together...since the day of our betrothal." She placed a hand on his cheek. "These past years, even as you undertook a year long stasis mission to span thirty years...I was there everyday. You are my only love."
"But you are not mine," he removed her hand and looked at her. "My love will not exist for millions of years...her name is Olivia and she's the guardian I was sent to guide. My mission wasn't to fall in love or even build anything but a friendship but fate had other ways...we met after I was replaced with the boy who died. We met again upon adulthood and I cannot go back...I left her and I cannot go back." He shook his head and sat down, "she is everything to me...I left her alone with the deadliest of people...those who she can't remember tortured her and harmed her. Yet I cannot go back...I betrayed the one I love."
Cora eyed him, "it was the guardian...perhaps its is merely attachment...given time you shall recover. Or perhaps it is best we wipe her from memory...I know joining again will allow that." She walked over, "let me help you forget her...let me make you remember us."
"I have already had my memory wiped Cora," he looked up at her, "they removed that lifetime and yet she remains. I still see her as vividly as if she was before me, I still feel her taking my hand. I still feel our joinings...nothing can compare. I am sorry for the honesty but Olivia is a part of me."
Two days later they stood before the Oracle of their society, Lyra beside Corin as well as their father Drayus. Cora's parents, Zera and Casinder stood beside her as they waited for the Oracle to speak.
"You wish to undo the joining you so faithfully proposed many years ago."
Cora shook her head, "I do not, Corin does...he wants to break us. He says his heart lies with another...that she is everything to him and I cannot compare to her. If that is so...his mind would not contain our mental bond anymore...proof needs to be given. If it is so, we will break but if not he must stand by his vow."
The Oracle looked at Corin and waved a hand, "come Corin of Atlantis, let me see you and find if what you say is true."
He bent down before her and her hands were placed on his temples, minutes later she removed her hands and Corin stood back. "I tell the truth and now you see it."
"I see far more than you can even seek to see." She sighed, "you are connected in time to the guardian as she is connected in time to you. Your hearts are joined as is the soul."
"Then you will break this impending marriage."
She looked at Cora, "there is much you cannot hope to understand Cora...fear not because you will find another but Corin cannot join with you."
"We were joined first, how can this guardian take my betrothed from me while he is in stasis...he was not physically joined with her...only that of his mind in another body." Cora eyed the Oracle, "tell me how she can?"
The Oracle shook her head, "I do not know, the bond has broken so be gone yet civil. One cannot change a destiny already set...given time Corin you shall live again but your connection to the guardian shall always be...it will fade yet she will always be your only companion."
Cora looked at Corin and left the room, tears down her face and her parents behind her. Corin looked at the Oracle. "I shall never return to her shall I?"
"One cannot say for sure but for now you are here. Corin you must live on, given time the pain will lessen but you cannot stay this way for the entirety of your life."
He shook his head, "I'd rather not live at all if I cannot live with her...I shall leave the Watcher's State to that of Scholar...preparing the future for what must be done. I must go, thank you Oracle for your guidance on the matter."
He left and Lyra looked at the Oracle, "all will be well eventually am I correct or is my brother doomed to feel lost?"
"He does not know of the truth, it is better that he never know that inside her womb grows a child who defies its own existence as it's father does not exist in that time yet it does...it shall be a miracle to the guardian. Unknown to how it came to be yet it does."
Lyra nodded, "what does she look like, the guardian?"
The Oracle placed a hand on a device and the image of a woman showed, blond hair and green eyes as she smiled and laughed. She looked into a mirror and there Corin stood with her in his arms, starring at her as she laughed, a smile on his face. He spoke and she nodded, leaning her head back before they kissed and the image faded.
Drayus sighed, "she is not as beautiful as Cora and she seems almost lost...however with Corin brightness shines around her."
Lyra sighed, "he was happy with her...I do not remember a moment he was as serene with Cora as he is with the guardian. Their hearts and souls entwined, together a part of each other. Will she remember?"
"Only upon her death and it shall pain her in her final moments."
"The guardian fades with the memories of her lover...a child, our forechild shall live and never know the truth." Drayus sighed, "however, Corin shall never forget...how is that fair?"
The Oracle looked at him, "fairness does not occur with fate...Corin served his purpose and the guardian served hers. They shall never reunite and one shall always remember while the other never shall...their only happiness in a reality that shall never be and a child between them that should never exist yet does. The ways of fate and destiny are never fair, they only make the lines in life that shall be fulfilled." She placed a hand up, "Corin must never know of his child...for if he does, he will no doubt attempt to return and bring down our civilization with it."
Many years later, two hundred in actuality, Lyra found her brother sealing away documents and sighed as she sat beside him.
"Brother, tell me...does the pain lessen or is it still as strong as the day you awoke many years ago?"
"How can you ask such things Lyra, you hear my screams and cries for her during the night. Nothing takes away the pain...nothing shall ever make her fade. I only wish I knew the life she would have but the Oracle forbids me from knowing. I just need to know she lives a life she deserves...one she is safe in. How can that harm me?"
Lyra looked at him, "because of what she holds in her...the Oracle forbid me from telling you but I cannot hold back any longer...I have for two centuries. When you left her, your love had a child within her...your child Corin. You shall have a child millions of years from now, one that will bring her happiness but she shall never remember you. Fate chose this for you, you are plagued with memories and she shall never remember."
"A child?" Lyra nodded, "why would she forbid me from knowing of my child...my son or daughter?"
"Because she said if you knew you'd bring down our entire civilization...Corin you must let this go, I told you but you must swear on your child's life that you shall never attempt to see the child or her again. Do not destroy what is here...I know you do not wish to live but think of your family here." She took his hand, "swear to me on the life of your child that you shall not."
He stood, "do not ask such a thing Lyra...I shall never swear on my child or Olivia. Go, leave...I need to think." He walked away and Lyra shook her head.
"I am the doom of our entire civilization...I shall always be the doom."
She left and knew within hours everything would be doomed because she told him. Lyra felt her brother's pain, he had never recovered from being pulled back and now a child would tear him apart forever. He would need to see the child he had with his beloved.
It was construed throughout history of how Atlantis fell but it would be a lonely man's attempt to go forward in time using the same device he was told to guide the guardian into using however he would perish before seeing his beloved or their child and the mighty civilization of the First People would fall. In the end, it was Fate who created the chaos and the death...for it chose to allow a man memories and take those of a woman away as well as allowing their child to live when it too should have perished.
A/N: Okay here is the kicker...there's one for Olivia too called Her Miracle that will be posted tomorrow. I hope you enjoyed this.
Also, for those of you who watch In Plain Sight...I have a crossover I'm going to be writing that you'll enjoy, it even incorporates Mary's upcoming pregnancy (Mary McCormack is pregnant and they plan to write it into the script).