A/N: Sorry for the long wait on this story everyone, RL has been a bit busy as of late.
Thanks to my beta, Uroboros75.
Chapter Twenty-One: Mirror
"Peter," interjected another voice. "Don't do this."
Peter looked to the murky shadows behind Walternate to see his mother, timid and minute against the backdrop of the recent battle. She walked forward, past his father and stopped only feet from Peter. "Peter, listen to me," she said softly, her voice hushed by the rasp of the wind in the dark trees. "There are things here that are beyond our understanding, beyond our control." She reached out and gripped Peter's shoulders, and he let her because it had been so long since either of his mothers had reached for him that he welcomed the contact.
"But above all else," she continued, "you must not let the Olive branch fall."
Peter's eyes flicked to hers for a moment, and he knew the precise meaning of what she'd said; he knew that she had seen his and Olivia's reunion just moments ago. He wanted to run, but with the idle weapons of an army coiled like serpents at the edges of the arena, he had no choice but to remain.
"Go," she whispered. "Leave, now." She turned back to face Walternate, whose visage was stoic as ever. "Let them go, Walter," she said.
His face crunched into folds of rage, his lips quivering against the backlash of his own intentions as Peter watched his hands curl into hard fists at his side.
"You would let my son walk freely after what he has done here?" His voice was hard like a sharpened diamond, and Peter could feel it cutting roughly against the skin of his ear.
"My son has abandoned his own universe not once, but now twice. Yet you choose to let him go freely. Tell me, Elizabeth; why would you choose to allow such a thing?"
Her face fell from Peter's for an instant, and he feared that she had no such response that Walter was looking for. Then, with a heavy sigh she turned her shoulders to face him, her entire body following a moment later. "Because Peter deserves to live in the universe that he belongs to," she said.
"Ridiculous," the Secretary snapped. "He belongs here; that much is evident."
Elizabeth shook her head, the few curls of her dark hair caught up in the wind of her uncertainty. "No," she said. "He may have been born here, Walter; but he belongs Over There."
Walternate made no move to respond, his features grounded in furious concrete and his posture ripe with tension. Elizabeth strutted toward him and paused, leaving less than a foot between them. "Can't you see it, Walter? These people care about him; they've known him for more of their lives than we have. What could we possibly offer him here that would compensate for what he has there?"
Walternate's face twisted in wrath; Peter though for an instant that his features would crack from such contortions.
"What can we offer? What can we offer?" Walternate hissed, his eyes darkening with every word. "What Peter has here is reality, not some pompous fairytale cooked up by some fool deluded enough to think that he can defy the laws of science and be granted clemency!"
Peter felt a sting at those words, and he thought of Walter, who surely heard the harsh comment of his double. He reached out for Olivia's hand, and breathed a little more easily when he felt her nimble fingers curl around his hand; he would not let her out of his sight. If this was to be their end, Peter would not leave Olivia to face it alone; she deserved much more than mortal closure in the face of vipers.
"You think that our world is a fairytale?" a voice interjected, and Peter turned to see Walter, whose face was filled with its own concoction of discontent. Astrid stood by his side, her arms hooked around Walter's right; Peter wasn't sure if she was trying to comfort him or restrain him. Walter took a few more steps forward, Astrid following in his wake.
"Our world has had its own share of tragedies; there have been wars, genocides, terrorism, things that no one should ever wish upon another." He paused, and Peter could tell that he was formulating more words, but that they would be anything but easy to say. "I, for one, would never wish upon anyone the tragedy of losing a son, then a beloved wife."
Peter saw Elizabeth's expression cave slightly at the mention of Walter's deceased wife; he'd told her that his mother Over There had committed suicide. Walternate, on the other hand, looked less than compassionate; Peter thought that a statue would be more convincing at that moment.
"You were not the only one who lost a son," Walternate countered. "I lost a son that night, and for years, I never found a trace of him."
Walter's response was devoid of emotion, as smooth as a flat line. "Your son is still alive; mine is not."
"That still doesn't excuse you from the tragedies that you caused," he spat, his eyes focusing on Walter. "You knowingly crossed over, all the while in complete knowledge of the damage that you would cause to our universe."
"Be that as it may, I also crossed over knowing how to cure Peter. Those were the only preconceived motives I had that night!" Walter's protest didn't seem that convincing to Walternate, whose gaze remained a penetrating blend of sinister rage and melancholy.
Walter stood his ground next to Peter and Olivia, Astrid remaining by his side the entire time. "I only wanted him to live; my Peter was robbed of that."
"Do you think that I didn't want the same for my son?" Walternate snapped. "I wanted him to succeed, to have a life full of prosperity; but how can he have such a life when the universe is tearing itself apart?"
Olivia was the one who broke the heavy silence, her voice like feathers grazing over mercury. "He can," she whispered as she stepped from behind the shelter of Peter's form.
"Peter can have a life wherever he goes, because he's learned to adapt to the world as it changes around him." She looked back to Peter, their hands still entwined. "It doesn't matter which universe he's in because the fate of one world can't rest on the shoulders of one man; there has to be a way to save both worlds. But whatever it is, it isn't going to be like this."
A silence permeated the air when Olivia had finished speaking, and Peter couldn't be sure if it signaled a general agreement or was a portent of a coming storm.
Walternate's features fell into partial shadows then, and Peter felt a cold shiver beneath his skin as he watched a dark mirror of his father emerge from his features.
"How very naively put, Olivia," he said, his words blunt like the strike of a baton against skin. "But for every action, there is a reaction, and through that, consequence; one single action by Peter could spell the fate of this universe, and I will not allow chance to decide that fate for me."
His eyes grew even darker then, shaded with the paints of destiny's malice. "And as for you, I'm afraid that chance has already abandoned your hopes of escape." With that, a flurry of sirens screamed into the bushes as four more Fringe Division vehicles pulled up along the tree line. Peter pulled Olivia back and pushed her away from the battle zone as Astrid reached for Walter, they too running for cover. They ran past the now ruined car that had brought them to Central Park and instead made for the thick brush. When Peter glanced momentarily over his shoulder he felt his heart clench in his chest.
There stood Walternate in the middle of the clearing, with a gun poised in their direction, and all the fury and anger in the world couldn't compete with the expression that Peter saw on Walternate's face. He quickly shoved Olivia out of the line of fire and glanced back, watching as Walternate went to fire...
… and as Elizabeth shoved his hand away from their direction.
A crack from above made Peter duck as a rainfall of cinders danced over his head. After a moment of frightening silence he looked back to see Walternate and Elizabeth exchanging glances of mirroring anger. The field before him seemed to stretch out and confine them in their own defiant universe, where loyalty was optional and spontaneity a necessity. Peter took one last look at his mother and hoped with all the will that he could that nothing unfortunate would happen to her before dashing off into his own world of uncertainty.
Please review; there are only a few more chapters to go!