Epilogue-A Second Chance
(Okay, of course I couldn't leave the story on such a sad note-I'm not a sadist, you know!...Well, okay, I am a sadist-just don't tell anyone, LOL. I want to say also that the remainder of this story will be 'readers' choice'; that is to say that it'll be up to all of you whether I update this story, or end it on this chapter. More info at the end-for now, read on! The usual disclaimers apply-and I have to give Joss Whedon an honourable mention too, since I kind of 'borrowed' a line from the ANGEL episode, 'I Will Remember You'.)
When Elliot slowly opened his eyes, he knew right away that he wasn't in Hell.
Only, he didn't seem to be in Limbo, either.
For one, he was still wearing his uniform, and there was no recognisable trace of his demonic other-no pins, no leather, no pale skin.
And most importantly, no evil.
In fact, when he did open his eyes, he could see nothing but white. He seemed to be sitting in a room or space consisting entirely of white light.
"Hello, Elliot."
He jerked, surprised at the unexpected sound of the female voice, and looked up to find a beautiful woman staring down at him, smiling kindly. She was dressed completely in white; even her hair seemed to be white. Her skin was pale pink, and her eyes a gorgeous shade of cornflower blue.
Elliot had no idea who she was; as a matter of fact, right now, he was having trouble figuring out who he was. Not to mention where he was.
"W-Who are you?" He stammered, utterly confused, and the strange woman shook her head. "That doesn't matter." She replied. "Well, then, where am I?" He persisted, voice rising a little. "This...isn't Limbo, is it?" Again, a delicate shake of her head. "Not quite." She said simply. "And I know this can't be Hell." He continued, more quietly now. "Believe me, I'd know."
And suddenly, a thought occurred to him, an amazing incredible thought:
Oh, but it couldn't be-he didn't deserve it.
"Is this...Heaven?" He asked hesitantly, and the woman laughed, a lovely, melodious sound. "You ask a lot of questions, Captain Spenser." She murmured, then suddenly dropped to her knees beside him. Their eyes met for a brief moment, and then Elliot dropped his gaze. Not out of fear, but a sense of deference. Of respect.
This woman...wasn't really a woman. That much he knew.
"This isn't Heaven." She finally told him. "You don't belong there, Elliot." He sighed, unable to hide his disappointment. Of course, he'd known Heaven had no place for him. After the things he'd done, the decades he'd spent in Hell, how could he have allowed himself even the briefest moment of hope?
"So...what is this place?" He pressed. He couldn't help it; he needed to know. There was no reply from the woman for several moments, and Elliot thought she wouldn't answer at all, until she suddenly said, "We call it The Realm of Judgement, Elliot. A place where lost souls are delivered, for reward or punishment to be called upon them."
Elliot was now more confused than ever. With a frown, he said, "Judgement? But judgement was passed on me decades ago. When I opened that box."
Another smile crossed the woman's lips, and Elliot, not for the first time, noticed how breathtakingly beautiful she was. Of course, as a mortal man, he had always had an eye for a pretty face, but there was something... otherworldly about this woman. And obviously, no woman, human or otherwise, could compare to his beloved Nadine-and at the thought of her, Elliot felt tears prick at his eyes.
My darling, he thought sadly. Forgive me. I'm so sorry I had to leave you again.
His attention was diverted back to the woman, as she said, "Would it surprise you if I said that you were never meant to die when you did? That neither was Nadine? Unfortunately, the fate of all mortals cannot be controlled, Elliot. Things happen that are beyond our power. Sometimes we cannot act in time."
"Who exactly are 'we'?" Elliot enquired, his curiosity aroused now. And what did she mean when she said that he and Nadine were not supposed to die?
"It would take far too long to explain properly." The woman replied. "But I will say that humans are permitted to make their own choices, good or bad-and must suffer the consequences, whatever they may be. Your death was not part of the plan, however. Nor was Nadine's. But your desire was too strong, your path of self-destruction beyond any intervention. And Nadine...her becoming a vampire was also beyond our control. Which left your unborn son with no choice at all."
Elliot's eyes flew open, fresh pain gripping him. "Our...son?" He repeated tearfully, and when she nodded, he buried his face in his hands. "We could have had a son." He sobbed. Why was she telling him these things, reminding him of all he had lost?
He stared up at the woman when she touched his shoulder, and she continued, "You used to say God failed you, Elliot. But did it occur to you that perhaps you failed yourself? The war was not his fault-but the fault of the evil men who instigated it. Free will-it was free will that started the war. As it was free will that ultimately led you to the Lament Configuration-though it was not your will that opened it. And, most significantly, it was free will that has brought you here. You showed a lot of bravely, Elliot, in your endeavours to return yourself and the demon Xipe Totec, united once more, to Hell. And Nadine and her friend Saul showed a lot of bravery in helping you. As for Joanne Summerskill, her reward awaits. But it'll be decades before she claims it." A wry smile, and she added, "At least, I hope."
"Who are you, really?" Elliot had been humbled into silence by the woman's succinct, wise words, but now...he had to know what was going on here, why he wasn't in Hell, reunited forever with the demonic manifestation of his evil.
"Think of me as your judge and jury, Captain." She smiled. "And executioner?" Elliot joked weakly, and she chuckled. "Not quite." She replied. "As I told you, you're here to face judgement."
"And I told you," Elliot said impatiently. "That I've already faced judgement. I've spent almost seventy years in Hell-I think I'm beyond bloody judgement at this point!"
He hadn't meant to shout, but he was getting frustrated now, with all this enigmatic talk of judgement. "Forgive me." He said quietly. "I didn't mean to raise my voice, I just...why aren't I in Hell? That's where I was supposed to go-where we were supposed to go."
"Xipe Totec is in Hell." The woman told him. "And since he broke free of the box, and attempted to, as Nadine put it, 'take over the world', I imagine Leviathan will be none too pleased with him. But your human soul...when you opened the box, your soul went to Hell, and was beyond our reach. But when Kirsty Cotton released your soul and it went to Limbo, it became forfeit. Which is why, when you sent the demon to Hell, we brought your soul here."
Elliot suddenly felt incredibly nervous. "What are you going to do with me?" He asked, and she smiled. "Before we get to that, let me ask you a question." She said to him. "If you could go back, to before you opened the box, to before you met Nadine, even-would you do things differently?"
"I spent all that time in Limbo, thinking about Nadine," Elliot replied softly, expression anguished. "About how much I had hurt her, how I should never have left her. That I loved her so much." He raised his eye, staring the woman dead in the face, and added grimly, "To answer your question-what do you think?"
Her smile widened, and Elliot's unease grew in intensity. "That was the right answer, Captain." She told him. "I just hope you won't make us regret our decision." He frowned. "What decision?" He wasn't entirely sure he wanted to know the answer, quite frankly.
She didn't answer for a moment, turning her back on him, and looking into space, or at something he couldn't see. Finally, she replied musingly, "Temporal folds are not normally to indulge at the whims of lower beings."
That was it-Elliot's patience had officially run out, and he snapped, "What the Hell does that mean?" Another lengthy pause, and then she said, the tone of her voice conciliatory, "Forgive me, Elliot-of course, you don't understand. Our role, as far as humanity is concerned at least, is normally merely to observe, but sometime, just sometimes, in extenuating circumstances, we can act. We can create a temporal fold, Elliot-which means we can turn back time, send you back. Back to 1920-before the box, before Nadine. To give you a chance to put things right."
Elliot gaped at this extraordinary woman, his jaw dropping open. What was she talking about? He couldn't go back. There was no 'back' to go back to.
"That sounds wonderful." He said sarcastically. "Except for one tiny problem-I'm dead."
"Are you?" She said with a smile, then reached down to take Elliot's hand, and held it to his chest. At first, he hadn't the slightest idea what she was trying to do, and then, he gasped when he felt it:
His heart. His heart was beating.
"The soul is the only thing that matters, Elliot." She explained. "Once we have that, then we can easily restore the body. You're human. Alive. And we can send you back. The only question is, do you want to go back?"
Elliot didn't even have to think about it-not that he completely believed any of this was true, anyway. "Not without her." Was his firm reply. "And Nadine can't go back-she's a vampire."
"Not anymore." His head shot up at this unexpected remark, and she elaborated, "When you...left, Nadine waited for sunrise. She sacrificed herself, Elliot. After all, she had been dead for years." Off his stricken look, she added gently, "Don't you see? In doing what she did, Nadine also forfeited her soul. We've already sent her back. To New Delhi, India, September fourteenth, nineteen-twenty, to be exact. The first night you met."
Elliot's eyes flooded with tears, and they flowed down his face. "Nadine's...alive?" He scarcely dared to believe it, but he knew from extensive experience that far stranger things had happened. And could happen. "She's...waiting for me?"
"Ah." The woman sighed, then said hesitantly, "Not exactly. You see, well, there's a catch. Several, in fact." Off his curious stare, she continued, "First of all, just as no good deed goes unrewarded, no bad deed can go unpunished. If we send you back, it will be with every single memory intact. You will remember everything, Elliot. The box, your time in Hell, everything."
Elliot seemed to consider this, then nodded. "I think I can live with that." He told her. "What else?"
"As far as everybody else is concerned," she continued. "Your fellow soldiers, your superiors, your friends, you're still the self-destructive, hedonistic man you were first time around. It's up to you to prove everyone wrong. To prove you've changed."
"Alright." Elliot agreed, slowly beginning to realise that this was real, that he really was going back. Well, perhaps. "Is that it?"
The woman shook her head. "One more thing." She told him. "Nadine will have no memory of you. As far as she will be aware, it will be her first time ever laying eyes on you. She will have no recollection of the box, or the demon you became. When I said it was going to be your first meeting Elliot, I meant it. It's your chance to win her again, properly, without any of the pain and darkness your previous relationship entailed. It's your chance to make her fall in love with the man you've proved you can be."
Elliot was in a state of shock. From what he could ascertain, he was being given a second chance at life by some Higher Being or other, and so was Nadine. He was being sent back to his former life, to try to atone for his past sins-and win the heart of the woman he loved all over again in the process.
But...
"This is a test, isn't it?" He asked, smiling slightly. "And if I fail, I go right back to Hell-am I right?" "Absolutely not." The woman retorted. "You're getting the chance to live your life again, from that first moment you met Nadine. And when I say 'live', Elliot, I mean it. If you don't win Nadine, if you go down that same self-destructive path, then you still get to live out the rest of your life. However, you only get one chance. Remember that."
Elliot got unsteadily to his feet. This was so much to take in, the knowledge that he was being given an opportunity he felt he didn't really deserve, a chance to right the wrongs he had committed, particularly against Nadine. No box, no Hell. It seemed unreal-but he now believed it to be true.
"How do I go back?" He enquired finally, and she grimaced slightly. "Oh, this is where things get a little clichéd." She said, and even as she spoke, the space around them seemed to grow dark, and Elliot could see an ever-brightening glow in the near distance. She pointed to it. "The light at the end of the tunnel." She sighed. "They do love the big dramatics here. Just walk through the light Elliot, and you'll be back."
Elliot nodded. "Thank you...er..." He faltered, realizing that he didn't know her name-or if she even had a name. "Call me Themis." She told him, and he chuckled. "After the Greek goddess of divine justice, right?" He murmured, and she raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Not just a handsome face are you, Captain Spenser?" She quipped, and when he blushed slightly, she added, "Well, it's appropriate I think. Now get out of here, you've got a life to return to-and please don't mess this up."
"Goodbye, Themis-and thank you again." Impulsively, Elliot leaned over and kissed her cheek, and as he began to walk towards the light, back to his life, Themis murmured, "Goodbye, Elliot. And good luck."...
THE END...?
(Okay, this is where you wonderful readers come in-is the story over, or do you want me to continue Elliot's journey, as he adjusts to being human again and tries to woo Nadine? It's completely your choice-but for the moment, please R&R! Thank you. :-))