Title: False Prophets
Rating: T
Summary: "In order to create balance, everything must be returned to where it belongs." But the answers are not always as simple as it seems.
Author's Note: I wrote this some time last year, so there are no spoilers for anything that has happened in season 3. Originally, I wasn't going to post it because this is just the result of a daily commute home from work but I figured, what the heck. Someone may actually enjoy my different take on a certain topic that has come up quite often recently.
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"In order to create balance, everything must be returned to where it belongs."
The words are still ringing in my ears. Everything, or everyone, must be returned to where they belong. But what happens with someone who doesn't really belong anywhere? That's the question we all have been pondering for months. It's what keeps me up at night, trying to find the answer to this one question... the only question that is left.
In the beginning, the answer to what the Observer had told us was simple. A child was taken from one universe, creating an imbalance not only in that other universe but also in ours. That child wasn't supposed to be alive here. He was supposed to grow up and live a life over there. Yet, he grew up here, on this side, living a life that wasn't supposed to be lived. Return this child to where he belongs. Balance will be restored and both universes can survive. It really sounded so simple.
Though we all knew that that was never going to happen. The child had returned to his home but he had come back, had chosen a life on this side. He had made a decision. This side had become his home, this was where he wanted to be. Balance had to be restored in another way, and he had vowed to find it.
But no matter how hard he tried, no matter how hard we all tried, we always came back to the same. In order for both universes to survive, everything must be returned to where it belongs. Balance will be restored and each side can heal. Our side slowly began to dissipate just like the other. We had to make one final decision – and then everything just went to hell.
What happens with someone who doesn't belong to either worlds? Or, what happens with someone who belongs to both? How do you return a child who is born from both worlds? Where do you return him to?
It was no longer simply about the child that had been taken so many years ago. Returning him to his home world would no longer fix the imbalance – because he has created a paradox. We have created a paradox. A child that is born into both worlds, belonging to this side as well as the other but then also not belonging anywhere either.
Every day that I look at my son, I am reminded that his mere existence is causing the destruction of two worlds. Because of him, balance can never be restored. Neither universe can be healed. Life over here is getting harder and harder. I don't even want to imagine what it looks like on the other side. I have seen what twenty years of falling apart have done over there.
And yet, when I look at my son, I could not love him any less. I could not imagine a life without him. Because it's not his fault. None of it is. I cannot blame him for something that none of us could have ever predicted – that a child eventually would lead to our destruction.
We're all still fighting. We're all still trying to find a way to fix all this. If we didn't, we'd have to admit that we have lost. And we're not ready for that yet. My son needs a future. This world needs a future. As long as we all believe in this, there's still one thing left. Hope.