Listen and wait for
Echoes of angels who won't return
-Vertical Horizon
***
Will turned his head towards the car where Merriman still sat, clutching the steering wheel so that his knuckles turned white. He bowed mockingly in the old professor's direction.
/Hail and well-met, darix,/ he called in the Old Tongue. Only he and Merriman understood what he said. He had addressed Merriman as darix, a word having no real equivalent in English, meaning 'first teacher' - to an Old One, the first member of the Circle who would guide them through the awakening of their power.
That reminder of what they were to each other made the absolute, cold fury in Will's eyes as he stared at the white-haired man just the more horrible. The five teenagers stayed absolutely still as Merriman, his eyes fixed on Will's face, walked towards them.
"Will…" he said the name as how (though only Will knew this) he had once said Hawkin's name, sad and yearning. First and Last stared at each other, one's eyes dark and angry, the other's sad but just as dark.
The others watched as though from outside, as though through a window. They felt as if they had somehow, in that instant, become incorporeal - unable to affect the world that had come into existence around Will and Merriman.
/So, you've finally deigned to come away from Avalon-in-the-Mists, to mingle with us tellan?/ Will asked his former mentor, his light tone collapsing in around the edge of anger that had been so evident in it earlier and was made even more evident now. He still spoke in the Old Tongue, using Avalon's full (in Old Tongue) name and invoking the word tellan¸ which was a word more often used by the Dark rather than the Light. Strictly speaking, tellan meant 'those who dwell upon Earth' - it was also taken to mean 'those who are lower'.
Merriman forewent answering Will in the same Tongue, using English for his reply. "Will…you're not tellan. Not to me, not to anyone."
Will's only reply to that was a snort of derision.
"Watchman, what have you to report?" Merriman said finally, hoping that this formal reminder of Will's place in the Circle would help snap him out of…this, since visible concern didn't seem to be working.
Will folded his arms across his chest, half-slouching as he raised one eyebrow at the old man. "What have I to report?" he mimicked, shifting back into English. "For when, o First of the Circle?" he asked, using one of Merriman's titles as the hawk-faced man had used Will's. "This year, or last year? Which month? So much has happened since the Dark's come, it would take me days to say it all."
The others stared at him. "Years?" Simon said hoarsely. "The Dark's been on Earth for years?"
Will flicked a darkly-amused glance at the taller boy. "Well-done, Drew. So you can listen. Yes," he continued, turning back to face Merriman, "The Dark came two years ago, on the night of the winter solstice. They spread fast…so fast…" For a moment Will's half-angry, half-mocking expression fell to reveal despair and shell-shock. There was a hollow, empty look in his blue eyes that reminded them of the gentleness he used to have – only it was gentleness now wounded and bleeding. For a moment, only, it shaded his face; then it snapped back into full anger. "I tried to stop them…but I was alone! I was all alone! You didn't even leave me any of the Relics – you didn't even leave me the Signs."
Merriman listened to his young counterpart with pain, fighting the urge to wince at the accusation and betrayal in Will's tone. The Dark had been here for years? And Will had been the only one to fight them? No…no, it couldn't be true. He couldn't wrap his formidable mind around the concept. All the safeguards they'd so carefully discussed before leaving Will as the lone watcher of the light…they couldn't all have failed…
He jerked his memory back to the present, shaking his head. "Will…Will, I am so sorry…but we just didn't know…"
"You didn't know?" Will interrupted brusquely, speaking through gritted teeth. "You didn't know? Then look, o Merlion, Arthur's Lion, and know!" With those words, he opened a mind-to-mind link with his darix.
And so Merriman looked, and he saw…
***
…Will sitting up in bed, cold sweat breaking out all over his fifteen-year-old body as he felt the Dark's sense return to the world…
…long days of nearly splitting his head with the concentration, using his unique Watchman's powers (honed too sharp as the days went by) to pinpoint the Dark's location, knowing with growing certainty that for each manifestation of the Dark he found, each human he freed from the Dark's creeping influence, there were more who went unnoticed…
…using his powers to combat the Dark, jumping from place to place, all over the globe, finding that the Dark could no longer manipulate time but could also null his ability to do so…
…growing tired and pale and withdrawn with the constant war he waged…
…seeing bloodier and gorier things than ever before, as the Dark started to manifest themselves in ever more primal and primitive ways…
…his family growing worried about his seemingly baseless preoccupation and increasingly bad mood; and his friends growing distant as he spent less and less time with them, dedicating his life to waging a silent war...
...the endless calls to the Circle of the Light, calling upon every name of Power that he knew, and the day when he just stopped calling...
...darkness...
...crying into his pillow, on those lonely nights when his Old One side could not quite suppress the fifteen-year-old boy who was a soldier in battles too large for him alone and too subtle for anyone to help...
...blood and flames...
...gray storms and clouded skies...
...a house in ruins, stone licked black by burning...
...a voice screaming 'WHERE ARE YOU?!'
***
The mindlink terminated abruptly - like a wrenching, rather than the gentle disengagement Merriman was more used to - and he wasn't sure if he had torn free or (more likely, considering his current powerlessness) Will had thrown him out. He stared at the younger Old One with wide eyes, hands reaching out to the tree beside him for support as he staggered, overwhelmed by the visions.
"Gumerry!" cried Simon and Barney in unison. They leapt for their great-uncle - Simon, with his long legs, reached him first, and lent his back as support for Merriman who was, for once, looking his age. Jane and Bran stared at Will, wordlessly.
Will looked back at them just as silently.
Barney shattered the angry quiet as he yelled. "What did you do to Gumerry?"
Will answered, without looking at the younger boy, "I showed him what's happened on the Earth since he's left." He paused, just a beat, and let the slightest hint of malice steal into his singer's voice. "Just like he asked for."
Merriman regained his balance and shrugged off his grand-nephew's support. "I'm alright, Simon, Barney; no need to worry..." He paused and then directed his words to Will. "Will," he said again, quietly. "I am sorry." The words carried in them a depth of sympathy and understanding that had not been so complete before the mindlink. Further, they carried the invisible overtones of a subtle Old One communication - not quite the telepathy that had been Will's first formal taste of the power within him - but something similar to it, an added dimension to the words, an added dimension to show Merriman's true apology for circumstances being beyond his control, for not being there for his former student.
Will's back stiffened, and he looked as if for reply he was going to continue his angry yelling. And then suddenly he threw his head up, in a way that reminded Bran strongly of the way Cafall seemed to sniff storms coming. He fisted his hands and turned to stare into the south, away from them.
"What is it?" Bran asked his friend - for despite the less-than-average welcome Will had given them, that was how he thought of the dark-haired boy - but Will didn't act as if he heard. It was Merriman who answered, sounding strangely calm as even his reduced abilities flared at the advent.
"It's the Dark."
***
July 24 2002
AN: I just wanted to say thank you thank you thank you to everyone for their feedback. This is one of the nicest fandoms I've ever come across. Oh, and I'm sorry if you've emailed me and I haven't replied - I'm out of the country right now, and haven't had access to the Net as much as I'm used to.
So how'd you like the newest chapter? Notice that the opening quote is no longer from Creed (I was on a Creed kick when I wrote the last two parts) I know it's short, but I just had to end it there. ^_^ I love cliffhangers.
Next chapter: our first glimpse of the new facets of the Dark; and our first action sequence.
***
Revision completed October 5, 2003
Basically I fixed the structure of a bunch of sentences that were bothering me, took out certain things that didn't really correspond to the new plot I was planning... not much in this chapter, I'll be editing the later chapters more thoroughly.
I tried to cut down Will's 'I was ALONE' speech, and link his reasons more firmly to Merriman's guilt, and also put in reminders that he really did use to be the Will from the original series, and is not some totally new Cyberwolf character whom she inserted into the DiR world while stealing Will's name. Have I succeeded?