Summary: He walks, and the ground trembles beneath his feet. Oneshot. Kali AU.
Warnings: Major AU for the Kali arc. Non-canon character death. Somewhat non-canon character insanity.
Disclaimer: I don't own Sanctuary. Nor do I own, know, or am associated with the brilliant minds that created such a wonderful show. I just like to play with their world.
OOOO
Atlas Shrugged
He walks, and the ground trembles beneath his feet. The streets are mostly empty; what people remain cower before him, or run and scream in fear. He ignores them all.
A cough wracks his frame, making him stop for a moment, though the tremble in the ground doesn't stop. He bends over double, slime and blood in his mouth, trying to clear his lungs. He doesn't have long, and her voice is in his head, full of anger and wrath, trying to draw him onward.
When his coughs stop, he has blood on his hands, and her anger pounds in his heart. It echoes in his own.
Once he can breathe again, strained though it may be, he straightens as much as he can and pushes forward, one step at a time.
He's dying, poison running through his veins, but he can hear her siren call, and there doesn't seem to be a good reason to deny it anymore.
XXXX
The helicopter goes down in a rush of flames. She shows him the vision in his mind, taking him there so he can see the flames, can hear the roar of the waves.
In the streets of Mumbai, he screams and falls to his knees as she shows him things he desperately doesn't want to see.
Then he sees, through her eyes, a body floating in the wreckage. A body with pale skin and dark hair and once-determined eyes that are now cold and blank.
Already fragile from the invasion on his mind and the poison in his veins, he gives in to her.
His sanity snaps.
XXXX
She is angry. He can feel it, a throbbing pulse in his blood that echoes in the ground under his feet. It's almost a familiar rhythm, something he could dance to.
He would dance to it, if his body weren't falling apart. The Macri's poison is draining him, tearing his organs apart one by one. He's frankly amazed that he'd been able to dance in the first place. He can't manage it again, no matter how he wants to. So he moves inexorably forward, one foot in front of the other, because she's calling him. He can't dance, so he'll go to her and worship her in flesh.
She's angry. Angry at Magnus, for not letting her sleep. Angry at Edward Forsythe, for waking her and using her. Angry at Wexford, for firing depth charges.
She's angry at him, for letting his Macri get stolen, but there is also forgiveness, so it's okay.
He's angry too. He's angry at Wexford, for shooting down the most important woman in his world. He's angry that the power-hungry lizard wouldn't listen to reason, that he shot down the one person who mattered most. The one person who'd always guided him through his life.
The one person he would have leapt of cliffs for. Kali had nothing on Magnus when she called.
But Magnus is gone.
Wexford is gone, too, washed away at his request, but the anger remains, pulsing a throbbing beat through his body. A beat he could almost dance to.
XXXX
He asks for revenge. While his body screams in the streets of Mumbai, he calls to her with his mind and asks for revenge. Asks her to wipe that ship out. Take out the ones who brought the helicopter down.
In return, she asks for a boon, and he doesn't even care anymore. He says yes without even knowing what he's agreeing to.
The waves begin to rise, sending the ship rocking back and forth. She shows him, lets him see the waves grow, lets him watch the crests get higher and higher. He sees people, tiny, tiny people, running about on the deck, calling out in fear, but he's angry and hurt and they don't matter. They let this happen.
Too late, he sees a small, familiar face, staring not up at the wave, but at the spider on the man-made island. Too late, he remembers Henry is on the ship as well.
He begs her to stop, but it's too late.
What remains of his mind is shredded as the ship is dragged down, down, down in a rush of flames and water.
XXXX
The beach is quiet when he gets there. He stares at the empty sand in bafflement, clutching his side, hacking feebly into one hand. He wonders if he got it wrong. Did she abandon him?
No, her call is strong in his mind. He can still hear her. When he closes his eyes, he can still feel her there, can hear the music in his blood, echoes in the sands beneath his feet.
In his peripherals, he sees brightly colored dancers whirl, but he can't join them. He can no longer call to her.
He crumbles to the ground, wondering if she left him after all.
Durga.
Her voice, soft and melodious, moves through his mind like a caress, and he lifts his head.
She lingers, a dark-haired beauty in blue, standing on the shore where rollicking waves meet land. Water sweeps around her, through her, but he doesn't pay attention to those inconsistencies. He knows it's all in his head.
That doesn't matter anymore.
She smiles, her hands folded serenely before her. Her eyes are black from rim to rim, and the last time he saw that, she was screaming in rage, punishing him for betraying him.
This time, he isn't afraid.
I come, durga, she soothes, and he can't help feeling reassured.
Another cough wracks him, and he spits blood onto the sand.
When he looks back, the vision is gone, but the waves before him are parting like the Red Sea, a massive bulk coming up from the depths. He stares, awestruck wonder in his eyes as the giant spider breaches the depths, setting steps on the beach.
He can't find it in him to be afraid, because it's still her. He can hear her song moving through his mind, intense with her proximity, and he wishes he could dance. Wishes he could show his joy.
Everything else is gone, but she is still here, and that means everything.
Durga, she murmurs, reaching out with one long arm, as thick around as a tree trunk. It comes at him, and she could easily squash him if she chose to.
Kali…
Her touch is feather-light on his head, gentle as a baby's breath. He can feel her smile as invisible dancers whirl around them both.
Durga.
There is healing in her touch, and he's not afraid.
XXXX
Kate supports him on one side, Ravi on the other, both of them dragging him through the streets. People run in fear, those that weren't washed away by the waves, and the ground trembles beneath their feet.
"Can you stop this?" Kate screams above the tsunami sirens. She glances at the sky, as though she can see the next wave coming.
His head lolls, and he asks his shoes a mumbled, "Why?"
She hears him anyway. She jerks all three of them to a stop, whirling to face him. He and Ravi both stumble as one half of his support vanishes, but she hasn't disappeared, just moved in front of him.
She crouches to see his glassy eyes and blank expression. She looks him right in the face and snaps, "Will, she's tearing the world apart. We need to stop her."
Again, he asks, "Why?"
Her face darkens, like she can't believe she's hearing him right. "Because it's the right thing to do!"
Slowly, he raises his head, looking at Kate but seeing flames in the water, bodies floating without trying to surface. "Magnus is gone," he tells her, his voice far away. "Henry's gone. It doesn't matter."
Emotions wash across her face; disbelief, anger, heartbreak, fear. Then she schools herself and takes a step back.
"That may be, but you and me, we're still here. And you have to stop the waves." She lifts her arm, and her gun is in her hands, pointed right at his head.
"Kate," Ravi warns, trying to reason.
She doesn't look at him. "Stop her, Will. Right now. Or I'll stop you."
He stares at her, feeling weary, not wanting to fight anymore. Not caring anymore. He knows what's going to happen, but it doesn't matter anymore.
Kali sees through his eyes, and she sends a wave through the ground. Protecting him, though he didn't ask for it.
He closes his eyes as the building beside them trembles, so he doesn't have to see the look on Kate's face.
There's a shudder in the earth and the sound of falling stone, and a short, cut-off cry.
Ravi throws him to the ground, rushing forward, calling for backup on his walkie.
He just sits there for a moment, before Kali's call becomes too much, and he struggles to his feet.
Ravi stares at him like he's a monster. "What did you do?"
"Nothing," he says, and it's the truth. Ravi doesn't look like he believes him.
He's not sure he believes himself.
"Where are you going?" Ravi cries, pausing in his efforts to scoop rubble away.
"She's calling me," he murmurs dreamily, eyes far away. Then they sharpen, looking at the Indian man. "Are you going to help me?"
Ravi looks down at the rubble at his feet. "No," he says, and his voice is harsh.
He just blinks, turns away. "Then don't get in my way."
He leaves Ravi behind, clawing at the rubble and frantically calling Kate's name.
This time, when reason flees, he doesn't bother holding on. He lets go, following Kali's call.
He leaves his friend buried under a building and a good man trying to help, and he's too far gone to care anymore.
XXXX
For the first time in twenty-four hours, he feels whole and new. He opens his eyes, and there isn't even a tickle in his throat. The blood on the sand, his shirt, his hands, says that the poison was very real, that he was dying just a few minutes ago. But he's not dying now. She took the Macri's poison away, made him whole once more.
He stares at her with reverence, and he wants to dance.
Come, durga, she says, extending one long spider-arm. Without hesitation, he crawls up and onto the furred appendage, and she brings her arm up, cradling him close to her belly like a baby.
Beside him, her other form appears, a beautiful vision in blue. She sits straight, proud, her gaze on the world in front of her.
Come, durga, she repeats, staring onward with black spider's eyes. A smile tugs at her lips. They will know my wrath.
He thinks about Henry and Kate, about Ravi. He thinks about Magnus, and almost asks her to stop.
Then he closes his eyes, and he doesn't think about anything. He lets her feelings wash over him, sweeping him up in a merciless tide, drowning whatever minor resistance he may have. Her anger pulses in his blood, and his fingers drum a quick tattoo on his thigh, to a tune he knows so well.
He's tired. He doesn't want to fight any more. So he takes her anger and makes it his own.
He sits up, cross-legged beside her, and follows her gaze, though he doubts he can see as far as she can.
She smiles, lifts her hand. Come, durga.
She asked a boon, when she destroyed Wexford's ship. She asked him to be her herald once more, Macri or no. She asked him to walk with her, to spread her fury until the fires of wrath had burned out. He said yes, and there's nothing stopping him anymore. Magnus is gone.
She is his goddess. He already gave himself to her. There's no reason to fight.
He reaches out to take her hand. The hand is illusion, a vision sent straight to his mind, but there is form there, furred and jointed like a spider's. He can't even be repulsed. It is still a part of her. The spider is her, his goddess, and all he can do is worship.
Yes, he breathes, a whisper in his mind. He can feel her smile, though her avatar is no longer beside him.
Good, she replies, caress his mind with her own. Then, eyes forward, she carries him onto land.
She walks, and the world trembles beneath her feet.
OOOO
So. Another small Kali-based story. Seriously, that arc was amazing. There's so freaking much I can do with it. Mostly AU, but AUs are awesome.
Title is borrowed from a book of the same name by Ayn Rand. The idea is that Atlas, a Greek Titan who holds the world on his shoulders, shrugs, and the world shakes in response. It seems to fit here very well. I don't own Atlas Shrugged either.
EDIT: Apparently Kali calls Will 'durga' not 'duga'. Blame poor audio quality and lack of captions on my TV for that one. I corrected it here.
I hope you enjoyed this. It's kind of dark-ish, but I really liked writing it. I hope you enjoyed reading it just as much.
~Until next time!