[Mortals] - Future Imperfect

[lslaw.livejournal.com]

On the 17th January 2009, I went to a party in Cambridge; a party that changed my life.

It was at that party that I met the woman who inspired me to abandon my PhD and go back to a career of care; the woman who became my wife and the mother of my child. Jayne Brookes, my love and my inspiration, whom I hurt, who forgave me, and who gave me the strength to face my own demons.

It was at that party that I met Timothy Sexton, whom I would later confront in the role of Mr Fantastic.

Since then, I've come face to face with ghosts and monsters. I've watched people stand up against forces far beyond them and triumph, and seen people sucked in by the promises of power and importance. I've seen the weak grow strong and the strong become weak; apathy give way to heroics and the good turn bad.

In the last year, things have been building to a conclusion, although not all of us were working to the same ends anymore. A month ago I set up an attempt to push a resolution and... I think we won.

The Fifth, the future, is grounded in the potential of humanity; in the potential of our daughter, Anastasia. It makes sense then that in closing the rift between worlds, we sacrificed magic. Time and again, we've seen that magic steals that potential, concentrating it into fewer hands, bending destiny to a single will. Timothy Sexton, the Kings, Catherine Benedict's father, and every other version of Timothy Sexton we've ever met; every one of them has sought to make the world answer to their version of what should be.

It's gone now, for better or worse.

Catherine and George are overjoyed. Catherine has found the peace that always eluded her before, and I hope that George can find his peace as well. I worry a little about the other Catherine, of course, but with a little help she should be able to find a place for herself.

I don't think that Anna ever really found the strength inside herself. She's still looking for something else, something beyond herself that will give her the strength. Can Eva save her? I can only hope so.

Mike and Emma have their plans and they have each other. Not like that, but she is his strength and he is hers.

Lewis... I honestly don't know. I don't know him very well; nor Matthew, for that matter.

And Eli... Eli will need my help. A lot of people are likely to need my help; someone who knows what was and is no longer there.

I'll be all right, of course; because people need me to be. Not just Eli and others like him, but Jayne and Anastasia, who need me to be a husband and a father; Mike and Emma, who will need old friends; Catherine II, who will need people who know who she is.

Is it enough to live for others? Perhaps not, but I spent long enough living only for myself. It was a cold, unrewarding life; I gain more helping others than helping myself.

Besides, this is our future; the future that we made: Humanity's potential as a unity; no man an island, no woman alone. It isn't perfect, but it's ours.

This is our future, and we face it together.