A/N: Sorry, sorry, sorry. It's nice and long, though! Surprises! Read and review everyone, I wanna hear what everyone has to think.

Sweet holy mother of crap.

Melissan was just grinning. There were fallen solars, fallen everything backing her. Abyssal beholders. Spouts of godly power. I had bitten off considerably more than I could chew on. She knew she would win. But I was going to sell myself dearly. Balthazar stiffened beside me, settled into a fighting stance as Melissan stared us down.

"You managed to make it here...not quite all as I planned, but good enough."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Pawn of evil and all that. But I'm here to fix that."

"Oh, really? You and what army?"

We were in the void, me and Balthazar, talking smack to Melissan in preparation for a fight. Somehow, it seemed fairly ridiculous that we didn't attack one another on sight. I was ready, she was ready, when out of nowhere, rips in spaces started forming. It was just me and the monk, and we were way over our heads. I expected demons to come tearing out of the first rip I saw, Melissan's friends all coming to tear us to shreds. I was wrong. The first thing I saw coming through the rifts in space was considerably more unexpected. It was a battle standard.

A mailed fist on a backing of blue and white, fluttering in the pseudowind of my dead father's realm. Well, to be more specific, my dead father who happened to be a god. Melissan whipped around, spying the banner shoving its way through the rift. It was followed shortly by, of all things, Minsc. Draped in a bearskin, his armor shone. His roar was a distracting challenge to the arrayed monsters. Rushing around him were men in skins, screaming similarly. Frostreaver in hand, he looked across the field of battle at me. Our eyes met, and he nodded his respect before joining the assault. His men leapt at a fallen solar, hacking furiously in a struggle to seize the power node across from me.

"Maybe that army, Melissan."

That ugly son of a bitch, I told him to get gone, and what does he do? He gets help, comes back to drag my ass out of the fire again. Hell, he had even made me a banner. I guess that 'righteous fist of justice' comment really struck a chord with him, so he slapped it on a standard. I nodded, and he grinned and howled, Boo scuttling across his shoulder.

Well, I have to admit...I'm buying the man a beer.

Other rifts formed. The clatter of hooves was dim and distant as the enemy turned around to face the new threat. I was all but forgotten. A small formation of calvary was forming up, wheeling under the orders of a man in brassy armo...Keldorn. Beside him was Anomen on his own charger, and two standard bearers. One pennant bore the outline of a heart, and a motto...the other bore the same blue-and-white field as Minsc's, the same mailed fist. Anomen pointed at me with his lance, grinned. Went back to ordering the knights into a line, the cocky son of bitch. I owed those three more than I could say.

"The courage of one can change the destiny of many!" Keldorn boomed to his men, pointing at the banners. His words echoed throughout the small plane, audible to everyone. "That man has indeed embodied that virtue. In his hour of need, we are called to change his destiny!"

A hearty roar from the assembled knights, and battle orders were arranged. More portals opened. I stared around like I was eighteen again, just like the thing with little Albert. After all that's happened to me, some things are still a marvel. They charged to Minsc's aid, pushing off the enemy trying to recapture the power node. The fallen solar soon succumbed, and Minsc's men cheered. Knights and Rashemnians - people would would probably never have met - fought in my name. Humbles a man, y'know?

"Or that one," I murmured to myself. I was still too shocked for words. I was catching all the breaks.

There was Edwin, Imoen and Nalia...some of the others. Xan, of all people! A mess of robes coming through a rift near the first captured pillar of energy. Another portal spouted a mess of men in cloaks with bows. Coran, with another of those damn banners. Kivan and Valygar were beside him, urging more rangers through the portal. There must have been more than a hundred of my men there already, and more crowding in by the second. Then I spotted him. Duncan. Duncan, the drunk from Beregost. Duncan, the man who had tried to get into a fistfight with a bunch of armed adventurers. He was there in Taerom's finest, looking grim. I wondered how in the hell I could live with myself with these people, people who I barely knew, willing to die for my deeply abstracted cause.

Flights of arrows reached from Coran's ranks, striking Melissan's assembled horde. She brushed those bound for her from the sky, whipped around to face me.

"YOU!" she hissed, "how can this be?"

"Damned if I know."

I was being honest, at least. A portal opened near me, and spouted Viconia, Sarevok, and of all people, Aran Linvail. A flight of crossbow bolts flew past my ears, Shadow Thieves protecting their master. More people. Elves, Aerie at their lead. Aerie, the poor broken-hearted girl wouldn't leave me. She'd always try to find her way back to me, somehow. She didn't try to meet my eyes, but I knew. She couldn't leave me like that, despite everything.

Arrows. Bolts. Magic. Keldorn and Minsc trying to coordinate their ranks, trying to turn an ad-hoc assembly of warriors into an army. The mages tried to shield them, throw as much pain as they could at Melissan. It was awe-inspiring. Those who had traveled with me gravitated to the command role without a second thought. I kept staring until an abyssal fiend nearly took of my head, and still my mind was whirling in the distance.

Another series of portals opened. Kagain and Korgan, Yesslick behind them. Dwarf warriors leaped on an exceptionally large air elemental. Garrick and Haerdalis behind them, bodhran drum and lyre in hand. A wailing rose from their ranks, backed by the drum, stirring the heart. Hell, they had all the Five Flagons Players with them. Biff the Understudy, even. Tieflings. The support was amazing. It was looking like hundreds of people were coming through tears in the planes.

Meanwhile, Elven sergeants were organizing a defense of the second power node, raising banners. Green and grey, blue and white. I thought I saw Ellisime, but whoever was there was quickly hidden by more troops. Concealed with a spell, maybe. It was hard to keep track of a battlefield that was growing by the second.

Jaheira appeared at my side, my brother right behind her. I grinned. I should have known better than to push her away. A quick kiss, and back to the battle. Sarevok thumped me on the back, and Balthazar gave me a nod of recognition. He was a little impressed, I could tell. I think he came with me to die, not to see the Solar. Cernd. Mazzy. Viconia. They all formed around me, with Shadow Thieves and druids and Trademeet militia. There was just too much happening. Keldorn was charging to the aid of Branwen and her men, trying to take the final node. When did she get here? And who the hell were those guys?

We still had to deal with all kinds of unpleasantness, especially the kind right in front of me. I felt my heart swell, and my insides untwist themselves. I was ready.

Above the din of combat, above the wails and the beat of the drum, above the sounds of people loyal to me fighting and dying against all sorts of abominations, I tried to convince Melissan to surrender as we circled and appraised one another.

"Give in. You're outnumbered. Walk away."

"I am more powerful than you can IMAGINE! Do not think that I cannot call upon my own minions to ensure my godhood!"

Balthazar leapt at her, but a beholder twisted from her shadow, appeared. So, he kicked it in the eye. The BIG eye. From the shadows of the realm came others. The undead. Those that had been murdered by those trying to once again become the God of Murder. My brothers and sisters' victims. My own. Most prominent among them were Yaga-Shura and Draconis, Abizigal and Sendai. My impromptu army balked a second, then rallied to their banners. Rallied to my symbol.

My men were now fighting a desperate battle against Melissan and her minions. I was summoning as much Lathandrian wrath as possible, but it wasn't enough. Keldorn and Minsc rushed to form a charge, forming ranks once again. Mages bombarded Melissan's ranks, trying to cut through her spell defenses. Edwin did his best, but it was Xan who took lead, oddly enough. I could see him pointing out targets. Branwen, Yesslick, Aerie and others moved among the wounded. Aerie, my angel of mercy. Just seeing her made my heart hurt, but the pain of my fresher wounds made me get my head back on the game. Valygar and Coran linked up with the Elven ranks, formed a long line of archers.

Beside me, Jaheira rested a hand on my shoulder and pointed wordlessly. Sarevok was smashing aside whatever got in his way, while Balthazar single-mindedly drove towards Melissan. It struck me. Huge swings of his two-handed sword were clearing shadows and minions aside as he drove after the monk.

Morninglord, he's too far out. He's surrounded. Sarevok's trying to save him.

I tried to get the druids, get everyone to follow me in. I waved my arms, gestured. Jaheira all but knocked me upside the head and held me down. And then...Balthazar was gone. They dragged him down, hacked him to death. A burst of greenish energy flew from where he fell, back into the pool. Bastards. Sarevok watched him go, fell back. Nothing he could do. Nothing any of us could do except make Melissan pay.

It was stalemate- Yaga Shura, the reborn Irenicus and Bohdi and Abizigal were down, Draconis and Sendai badly wounded. Illesaera was organizing a counter attack, or trying to. Shadows and abominations followed her orders as best they could. Both sides panted and circled like two wounded dogs. Men who had only heard of me were dying out there, suffering out there for me. My friends had come through for me once again, maybe the very last time. Enough was enough. I raised my fist.

"To ME!"

I focused my god's strength internally, and then let it flow outwards. A furious wave of flame crashed down from above, immolating Sendai and Illesaera. The sky blackened under a final rain of arrows. Bolts of magic flared in the darkness, but I was lost to everything.

I didn't know what I was doing. I guess I was going to end things, kill off Melissan. I sort of went with the instinct. Not the Slayer instinct, the natural ones. To lead. To fight for good. To protect. Compassion. Mercy. Justice. In the end, the fight was lost on me as a whole. Melissan and I circled one another, judging one another. She had underestimated me once, and she wasn't about to do it again.

In the end, Melissan got tired. She had relied too much on the power from the Throne, and as my men captured more and more of its sources, I grew stronger, faster, while she grew weaker. In her final moments, she stared up at me with defiant eyes. One of her legs was broken, along with one of her arms. She looked up at me, and said, "Just end it." I did, with everyone looking on. We had won. She was the last to die, but it was over. The long journey was over. The battle raged for an hour, all told. Thirty-five souls perished for my cause. We ressurected as many as we could, but in the end, we still had fifteen families to break some bad news to.

I was halfway to a wounded dwarf when Solar, always with the poor timing of the divine, appeared. She placidly looked over the assembled horde as she spoke to me..

"So it is over, godling. You have finally fulfilled your destiny. Have you made your choice?"

I looked back over everyone. A bloodied Duncan stared at me, eyes wide. Then, he did the stupidest thing I've ever seen a man do. He took a knee, head blowed, and one fist crossed over his chest. Withing seconds, everyone who was able to gave that small salute and knelt.

"I've got a question or two for you, Solar."

"Go ahead, godling."

"Can I give my father's power to another god?"

"No."

"Can I spread it around?"

"No. Either take the power offered and ascend to godhood, or let your father's taint be destroyed forever."

I stood with my back to the Solar the entire time, looking over my friends. Aerie and Jaheira had tears in their eyes. Others simply knelt, awaiting the decision which would shape Faerun forever. I stared into green eyes, silent tears trickling down her face.

"Screw it. I don't want the power, Solar. I just want to be with my friends and my woman. Bring us to Beregost."

"So be it."

And, like that, a small army appeared in the center square of Beregost much to everyone's amazement. Battered, bloodied soldiers grumbled and slouched. Jaheira ran up to me, threw her arms around me. She pulled back a second, staring at her boots.

"Never in a million years would I have expected this. Never would I have expected to see the place or things or people...to have any of this happen. To watch a man give up godhood, much less for me. I suppose you were serious about what you said, weren't you?"

"Yes, Jaheira, I was. Enough of all this. Let's get a drink, plans can wait till morning."

Feldpost's was unbelievably crowded that night.