Pre-Edit Count – 1,420 Words

Song I listened to for this chapter: Closer to the Edge by 30 Seconds to Mars

Previously:

And they are slowly winning this war. Though none knows what will happen when it comes to a head.  They need to figure out what needs to be done to draw out Lucifer in the end.

Now:

The silent war, as his people are calling it, has been raging for a couple of years now.  The first part of the war had been them returning to Earth.  They issued the first attack then, taking out the Sanguinistas.  That had been one of Lucifer’s plans, to feed into the Governor’s plan of a Vamp Camp.  Jarvis and George had worked that one out later.

Since then they have been fighting a war that most of Earth is even aware of being in the middle of.  No weapons have been drawn on either side but they have come down to a stalemate.  They are countering the plans of Lucifer  but they have not made any strides in doing anything else.

Eric is sitting in his chair, chin in his hand, thinking about what is on the table now from Lucifer and Earth.  They have done everything to plan this carefully over the last years, and Earth is working really hard to recover.  The changes over the last year are incredible; he had thought it would take much longer than it has.

However, the human race can be fantastic and this is one of the times that they are showing it.  Some Supernatural races could take a page out of their books in fact of how they have rallied around the ideas they have been forced to accept and moved forward.  But then, money is a huge motivator.

But the problem of the Fae is still troubling.  They have withdrawn even more according to Warlow.  He has spent more time out and about trying to find them.  Claude, who is the representative of the Fae along with being Warlow’s informant, is suddenly unavailable to him along with his sisters.

This worries Warlow since he has been close to them all since they are relatives of the three of them.  In fact, they are the only living tie between Sookie and Warlow besides Eric himself.  He has cared for the cousins as though they were closer, and in fact admitted that he often gave them the affection that he felt for Eric and had to hide.

But there is so much missing here.  There has to be something else.  Frowning, Eric tries to place his finger on what he is missing.  There is something about the whole thing that keeps telling his mind that they have a chance.

Lifting an eyebrow as he shakes his head, Eric can’t think of what that can be.  They are going against one of the very gods that control them.  And in that, they are going against one of the Originals.  From what they can see, the very first one!  How can they win this?

And yet, something keeps persisting in his head that he already has the answer in front of him.

Frowning, Eric tries to think of something else that has bothered him for awhile in a hope that it will trigger whatever it is his mind is trying to tell him.

Why is it Warlow seems to be blind to Lucifer? Everything is being disrupted because Warlow had gotten curious and started changing the world.  All Lucifer had to do is stop Warlow at any time, including the rescue of Godric, and they wouldn’t be where they are now.  So why is it that he has not stopped him?

There is also Sookie and himself.  From what they have been told by Warlow and the others who had glimpses of the future, they would not be where they are now.  For that matter, the issues surrounding them would have eventually split the two of them apart, making them miserable.

In one future, he would have been basically a sex slave for a demented vampire called Appius.  Only once he had bored of him would he have the imaginary feeling of freedom.  In that future, Eric would have sold himself to keep Sookie safe from so many enemies.  He would have pushed her towards the Shifter as being the best bet.

Thank the gods that Warlow nicked that one in the bud by leading Godric to him as well as killing Appius that night. That one little change saved much heartbreak on that timeline!

But it seems the fates were not done with them yet.  On another timeline, he didn’t sacrifice himself but they still were kept apart through the machinations of Compton.  There would have been as much misery in that one, but again Warlow is the game changer there. He took them both and forced them to realize that they really do care for each other. Then they fell in love and the rest is that.

Then it seems as if that lightbulb that he had seen in the older cartoons went off.  Warlow!  That is the answer, the fact that he finally can put his finger on the question that has been bothering him.  Warlow is their game changer!

Feeling his excitement, Sookie pops into his study, “Eric?” She had been following some of his thoughts and had left to try to track down whatever is bothering him.  But she had the same feeling that they were missing something right underneath their very noses.

He looks to her, “Warlow!”

She frowns, trying to figure out what he means, but when he sends her his thoughts, she looks shocked then laughs. “You are right.  Everything started to go wrong with Lucifer’s plans when Warlow got involved.” Even if all those incidents had not been plans that Lucifer himself put into place, it is still what allowed them not to be here facing off with him.

Sending a call for his father, Eric surges to his feet. “This may be it, Sookie.  What we need to finish this mess. I am more than ready to take the next step to our future and not have this war hanging over our head.” He is tired of the anxiousness that overhangs their worlds and even their relationship.  If they can manage this right, they may actually defeat Lucifer.

Thinking about some information that Jarvis had given her recently, she nods.  “I wonder what it is about Warlow that makes him so hard for Lucifer to see.” She is curious because, like Eric said, stopping Warlow at any point would have prevented this from happening.

“I have no idea.  I thought I was handsome enough for any to see me.” He leans against the door, watching the two of them, curious as to what they wanted.

They both turn at the words and Sookie quickly sends to him their thoughts.  He frowns as he thinks through the implications. “But there is really nothing different about me.”

A voice comes out of the air, “Not so true, Son.”

They turn to the voice and out of the air steps the God Iteru, the one who had answered their request and set up protections to keep Lucifer from removing them all from the Home Worlds again. This time he doesn’t have the armor he had worn before, the great horns with the circle behind him.  His eyes are still a golden color with no pupil or really anything in them but that soft glow.

They bow to him and he chuckles as he waves his hand. “There is no need for that.  Unlike Lucifer, I need no recognition.”  He smirks, “But I think it is time to lay all the cards on the table. Eric has finally done the last thing that he had to before I could make myself seen and to tell you the truth. ” The being turns to the two Mates who are doing as they should to protect the Creator’s plan.

Looking over the two, he smiles kindly on them as he explains, “You two are the prophesied ones. Not only in this world but all through the universe you have been spoken of. Even your Earth has legends about your coming.  Biased since they can’t seem to think a woman can be as powerful as a man.  But there are there. You are the hope for all of creation.  Without you, the Universe would plod on in ennui, never really changing.”

He shakes his proud head, “That is not the plan.  The plan is that all the creatures that are out there will continue to evolve. To make the Gods over them become their equals.  Then to take those same gods with them as they continue to evolve and eventually meet with the Creator.  He has learned his lesson and is just patiently awaiting the time when you will come to meet him.  And you two are going to make this all happen.”  He laughs at the looks on their faces, “Not at once.  Maybe in a couple trillion years or so.”

He then lifts an eyebrow in a familiar way, “But for you to be those people, we had to mess with the timelines. Originally, Eric and Sookie had been amazing, but not what was needed to correct this fuck up.  In fact, the ending would have been much worse, with most of the world’s population of Vampires dead or dying. The Creator was most displeased. This did not fit in with his original plan.”

Iteru grins then, as he tells them in a sotto voice, “I was given the task to fix all that my younger brother had messed up.” Watching them take that in and internalize what he has said.  Once he is sure they are completely understanding, he continues to explain. “You see, the Creator gives us each a race to watch over closer than others, to help guide in the early years and to help keep it moving forward.”

Unable to stay still anymore, Iteru turns and starts moving around the room, looking at other devices laying around he continues to explain. “Except your race.  Lucifer was young, even though he was the older one of all of us, he was the first made God. Creator had created him to be a companion to him, and only later, realized that he had not grown in maturity all those millions and millions of years that they were together.  He had already assigned this race to me but asked me to watch over Lucifer, telling me that I will be the one to step in if needed. And then he told Lucifer this is his race. Leaving us.”

He finds a ball and starts to toss it in his hand. “See, you were one of the ones he had made specifically to do something.  He gave you these planets as your starting point and then wanted to see if he was right, and if you would be the ones to lead the rest to him.  He had looked in the future at the moment he made you and decided that you were the most likely to welcome the other races and get everyone to deal with each other.” He leans against a wall looking over them as he continues to toss the ball back and forth, “And for the most part, you did exactly what you were supposed to do.  You had such diversity in yourselves that you didn’t really see any difference between you and the other species.  You looked at what mattered — their souls and minds — and determined they were the same as you.”  He turns to them, “That moment made me so proud you are my people.”

Closing his eyes, he tells them, “Then I made a mistake.”  He opens them and they are stuck by how sad he is as he explains. “I had been distracted by dismantling another issue he had left and I didn’t catch what he did until it was too late.  So much loss of life!”  The pain of the lives lost effect overwhelms him and they feel the pain from it, but he reigns it in the last moment. “Sorry, since I was here from the beginning, I am connected in a way no one but the Creator is.” He explains to them all.  Then he thinks for a second how to tell this next part.

He looks over them, “To change what I had seen was happening from his revenge, I stepped in to make my contribution.  I had a son.”  He chuckles.  Seems to him that their family is one of self-sacrificing, since his son had done what he had to his own son. Though, he does hope this will be the end of it for his line. He is standing there casually, leaning against the wall, tossing the ball back and forth, waiting.

They look at each other, then to him. Their eyes widening, realizing as it all falls into place. “Yes, Warlow is outside Lucifer’s knowledge because he is my son.  Which protects your own son from much also.  And made him fitting to be Sookie’s mate.” He smiles at his family that he has watched over and cried tears of sorrow for when he had seen the alternate lines. Then those tears turn into tears of joy as his stone throw, sent from so long in the past, bore fruit and intercepted the lines making them jump to the happier outcomes.

The last part is going to be hard for them to take, but now there is no worry that they would cast her out. He looks at his niece as Iteru tells her, “You are the daughter of Lucifer.  He needed someone to love him, need him and so he had you.  You are the one who will change everything, but I needed to make sure you were stable. First, we needed you to be away from Lucifer, since, under his care, you were as bad as he is.  Then after I made that change, in the future that could have been, you would have been lost and so confused.  Hunted by so many, and so miserable. My niece would have settled for living her life, never happy.”  He smiles at her. “I couldn’t have it.  The one who so much rested upon deserved to be happy. So I made it possible for it to all end happily by tossing a wrench into the works.” He indicates her mate and his father. “I made them possible so that you would never be alone, that you will be loved for who you are, not what you are.”  But then he catches the ball he has been tossing as Iteru looks at her seriously. “Though I didn’t make them love you. I didn’t do anything but put them on the earth, and they found you to love themselves.”

He chuckles. “But that left us with a problem.  Lucifer is a child in many ways still.  He has no idea of what is possible or even what the grand plan was.  He listened to what he wanted to and ignored the rest of the plan.  He heard that the Fae was the ones that the Creator had designed to be the ones but disregarded the rest of the plan.  Not even what they would be the ones to do.”

Sighing, Iteru rubs his forehead. “Lucifer also needs certain things that he never knew were possible.  To put it bluntly, the Creator spoiled him.  And he regrets it like nothing you will ever imagine. So he has granted me the powers to fix this mess.  When I chose to do it this way, he had been so pleased that he also granted you special blessings, Sookie, my niece.” Iteru looks at her, the littlest one of them all.  The one that made his grandson a God beside her with their bonding.  The one that he will hand over the reins of his stewardship to.  And walk beside them after this forever more.

The three look at each other, having made note of him saying niece again. Watching them, Iteru laughs, starting to toss the ball some more. “No, you are not that closely related.  I call her my niece but each of the Originals are part of the species they are tied to, except Lucifer. As the first, before any race was made, there is nothing he is part of except the Creator, and now, by choice, Sookie.  I call him my little brother, but he is far from that idea in reality.  There is no issue, Sookie.” He has long watched over her, not able to do much for her, but try to make it obvious to Warlow what is going on.  Trusting his son to fix what he couldn’t.  The times they failed will haunt him.

Putting down the ball he had played with, Iteru walks forward, putting his hands on Sookie’s shoulders.  Looking down into her eyes, his own glowing with the pride he feels for this woman, “Sookie, you have been hidden from Lucifer’s sight all these long years.  Hidden so that you can grow and become your own person before meeting him.  In the past timelines, he has learned of you, but in this time, I have been diligent to keep the Creator’s mark hidden from him.  I didn’t want you to suffer because of him, and you would have.”  He smiles down at her, “You have to do nothing more than you have been doing to deal with him.  He made a mistake, making the weapon that will destroy him and make you a Goddess in your own right.  He did it out of the sheer need of wanting to make sure you could be by his side. He has done much right by you, but never for the right reasons. He loves you, but he doesn’t understand that love.” He kisses her on the forehead, sad that he had to tell her that her own father is the one who orchestrated so much of her misery. Looking down at her, “You are more than he ever has been or will be.  Sookie, you are what he should have been.  Never punish yourself for being better than your father.”  When she nods, tears falling from her eyes from the pure love coming from him, he smiles.

Then he turns and moves to Eric and Warlow.  Standing before them, he draws himself up to his full height in this form.  “You two are my proudest achievements.  Warlow, you gave up your only son to save the world. You knew you could never meet him until much later, but stood as close by as possible to give him every chance you could.   You sacrificed, and then sacrificed again.  The more surprising thing is that you continue to do so to save everything.”  He shakes his head in amazement. “ You even gave your son to Godric to be raised by him.”

He look over and grasping Eric’s arm as a warrior, he informs his grandson. “Eric, you are an amazing man.  You amaze me, even in the past when I saw your potential.  You had so many choices of what you could have done, and even the option you took was never a potential future. I love watching your mind work, and even though I was waiting for this epiphany to hit you, I was shaking my head at how you never gave up.”  He grins then. “You did worry me for a little bit. You have quite the appetite, my young one.  But you have done me proud, you listened to your human father and his wisdom was great.  Then you continued to learn from others, never forgetting it when you started to rule.”

However when he catches a stray thought from Eric, Iteru laughs. “No worries, Eric.  As part of my bloodline, you are as much a God as Sookie. As well that your soul mate bond wouldn’t allow you to be any less than equals. I made you be the High King and Queen since you alone have the ability to do as you are, gaining the love and loyalty of your people. Soon your people will have no need for me as I am now.  They will make the steps forward that I will be only too happy to take with them, as equals.  And you two are the ones who will make this happen.”

He sighs. This is the part he needs to tell them since his time is up. “But you are right Eric, it has come to the end of your idea. You can no longer do this silent war and get anywhere. You need to confront my brother.  Depending on what you do, you have a million to two chance of having the perfect ending to this.  However, you had a trillion to one originally to get where you are now, and you picked a choice that was more right in the end.  I trust you with my people, and, in fact, have given them into your keeping.” He squeezes Eric’s arm once more.

He backs away after blessing his son and grandson. “I will watch over you, but I cannot interfere anymore.  Good luck, and my blessing and love upon you both.” With that Iteru, the God of the Fae Race disappears.

Final count: 3,588

Fairfarren~