A/N: "Meant To Live" is copyright Switchfoot. BJ belongs to Tim Burton. This story works better if you listen to the track on loop while reading.
Fumbling his confidence
And wondering why the world has passed him by…
Hoping that he's bent for more than arguments
And failed attempts to fly, fly …
Darkness. Utter black. And Beetlejuice felt himself lost in it.
Suddenly he felt an awful ripping feeling at his very core. The pain was unbearable, but since he was inside himself, he couldn't open his mouth to scream in pain.
The pain tore open his chest and immediately he felt like he was swept up in energy that carried him on the razor edge of sanity. And then it was over.
He opened his eyes gingerly. And he was nothing but black…and white stripes, moving about in the void. That younger self's head, it was floating above the white stripes and suddenly the apparition had form, had a real shape in front of him.
And then he realized…he was looking at himself! Not just from another form of himself, but from without! He wasn't in his body anymore!
This was what Purgatory created, he remembered. No one but spirits could exist in Purgatory because of its very nature; its vacuum and the sheer strength of the void that tore apart all physical being into nothing more than the potential energy stored in its matter. And the potential energy was what the spirits were made of, given form by their own memories.
He recalled this all from some class he once took, probably the "Advanced Getting Acquainted with the Neitherworld" course Juno had forced him to take when he went to work for her again. Never had he dreamed he would be living it out!
We were meant to live for so much more.
Have we lost ourselves?
Somewhere we live inside,
Somewhere we live inside,
We were meant to live for so much more.
Have we lost ourselves?
Somewhere we live inside…
Beetlejuice looked at his body with amazement; unable to believe he was no longer connected to it. But he felt his material hand take the hand of his spiritual being and grasp it not tightly, but enough to have a grip in it. He recalled the way he had wiped Lydia's spirit's face; gently so as not to pass through it.
"Come on, Beetlejuice. You need to see this for it to have any effect," his other self said. At least, that was what Beetlejuice understood. Since there was nothing here for the sound to reverberate off of and bounce back, the body probably made no sound at all. But Beetlejuice understood it nonetheless.
They drifted for forever before his body stretched out a hand into space and traced the form of a circle. Amazingly, the circle lost some of the black color in it and actually lightened a shade! They went through and Beetlejuice reached out to touch the edge of the hole, only to feel a searing pain across his hand when he touched it.
Where are we? He asked.
"In another part of Purgatory. There are endless universes here; one for each soul banished to this place. Normally the spirits will never meet, but if you can cut a hole through the dimensions, it can happen. Now let's look for your precious Lydia; this is supposed to be her reality."
Beetlejuice looked around, almost praying they wouldn't find her for fear of what his other self would do to her. But eventually they caught sight of something pale and white floating off in the distance.
They flew over and Beetlejuice was released to hover stationary in the void. He watched as his body drifted to Lydia's form and touched her face.
He eyes opened all of a sudden, and with something close to joy she reached up to embrace him, not knowing the difference between her Beetlejuice and his other form.
This other form embraced her, but turned his head towards Beetlejuice's spirit and grinned demonically.
Bastard! Beetlejuice screamed. She doesn't know! Lydia, it's not me
But Lydia didn't seem to hear him. She was crying now, ecstatic that she had found him. And the body, while holding her close, traced another circle in the emptiness behind her.
What are you doing? Why are you opening another portal?
But the other self wasn't paying him any mind now; he was slowly tilting Lydia sideways so her "body" was perpendicular to his, and he moved just a bit so only her lower body was through the opening.
Dreaming about Providence
And whether mice or men have second tries…
Maybe we've been living with our eyes half open,
Maybe we're bent and broken, broken…
And it became horrifyingly clear to Beetlejuice in that second. His other self was going to close the window on Lydia. Her spirit, cut in half in two different dimensions, would immediately release all the potential energy she was made of, turning her into kinetic energy that would, in fact, dissipate and cease to be!
In short, Lydia was going "bye-bye".
No! Beetlejuice tried to go to her, but he had lost all his power to move! He was stuck, unable to break free of his position.
Slowly he watched the circle of lightened black begin to shrink in size, and he struggles to pull himself into motion. She's going to be undone! She's going to me undone and I have…to…move
Suddenly she shot forward with a blast, so quickly that he overshot and had to turn around. He felt his being weaken with every second he moved, but he didn't choose to notice.
Beetlejuice rammed into his body and sent the creature reeling through space. He grabbed Lydia's spirit and pulled it from the hole. He shook her frantically to wake her from her dreamlike state, but she wouldn't open her eyes.
Lydia! Lydia, wake up! I'm here! I'm not in that body! Lydia, oh God Lydia, wake up!
We were meant to live for so much more.
Have we lost ourselves?
Somewhere we live inside,
Somewhere we live inside,
We were meant to live for so much more.
Have we lost ourselves?
Somewhere we live inside…
Her eyes opened slightly and she looked at him. But her face showed no signs of recognition.
Lydia?
Who are you?
It's ME, babes! BJ! Ghost with the Most!
No, you're not. My Beetlejuice had green eyes and black stripes. He wasn't see through, like you.
That's right! The name! His mind almost snapped as he remembered.
That's right, Lydia! Say my name two more times! Two more times and we can go home!
Your name isn't Beetlejuice.
Yes! That's it! Just once more, babes, if you love life and if you love me like I know you do, say the word one more time
I already told you, your name isn't Beetlej-
But her word was cut short by Beetlejuice being attacked by his own body. The wild man his other side had become was raging at him, sending them spinning through the void, locked in combat.
We want more than this world's got to offer…
We want more than this world's got to offer…
We want more than the wars of our fathers…
And everything inside screams for second life, yeah…
"Don't you realize she could undo the entire Neitherworld? The entire afterlife!" his alter ego bellowed.
I don't care! Damn the afterlife! What good is it if she has to be undone for it to exist?
"Go back to the way it was, before her! You can forget her and go back, and all our problems would be over!"
One thing I learned about time in the last fifty years…Beetlejuice stated coldly as he saw they were approaching the first hole his other side had made. He turned his material body towards the edge of the hole and felt the impact when the body's chest touched the edge and exploded in pain.
It can stand still, but it can't move backwards. Suddenly he felt his spirit sucked into the body, and now he could feel that pain, could feel the burning, searing sensation of split atoms of nothingness against his bare skin through the torched jacket. He pushed himself away, scarring the palms of his hands.
He was moving towards Lydia now, away from the painful edge of the rift in space and towards her spirit, floating in space.
Her face brightened. Oh, I knew you'd come to get me…
Beetlejuice.
We were meant to live for so much more…
Have we lost ourselves?
We were meant to live for so much more…
Have we lost ourselves?
We were meant to live for so much more…
Have we lost ourselves?
We were meant to live…
We were meant to live…