A Meeting With Fate

Bill couldn't do it, he couldn't gather the strength to go after his progeny Jessica, fearing the outcome of yet another meeting of what may occur. Feeling like a morsel of a human, constricted of air to his lungs as he responded to his body's desires to escape. He needed to escape, he couldn't stay in his home. Jessica hated him, he could feel Kiara doubt his every single motive that had led him to this point in his life, weak, defenseless. He was nothing more than a shell of the former vampire that he had become. He needed to escape and that is what he did.

Letting his feet carry him wherever they wanted to go, he did not care for the destination, he felt the need to let them carry him away from everything that he had worked to become, or would achieve to do. Feeling that it was a pipe dream of becoming what he knew he could be. He was weak, fragile mind, filled with self doubt on what he was. He had let everything inside him disappear, left with nothing more than a shell of what he once was, what he once believed what he once was.

But he was nothing

Without considering his destination, he allowed his feet to take him to an open field, a few miles outside of Bon Temps, on route to Shreveport, no one around for miles, and he welcomed the salvation of peace. Coming to a sudden halt, he scanned his surroundings, an aroma of the wild untamed night blooming flowers swirled around him in a mirage of vision, all of his untapped memories began pushing to the surface of his mind, memories that he had spent so long trying to block out were now unraveled in waves of sudden realization.


Bill collapsed to the ground, his mind flooded with each and every single thing that had mind had willingly blocked from his memory, now sparked his every emotion. His hand gripping the small vial that lay in his pocket, his ticket to salvation, a way out of this mortal coil that he had been condemned to. Everything would be so much simpler if he had the strength to do what was needed. He could feel something swirl around him, creating a mist of uncertainty.

Something was here.

*She hadn't been lax in her duties. Ever. The situation in Bon Temps had resonated in a pulsing schism that had echoed through the ether in such a way, her own soul had been disquieted by this anomaly.

It was rare, but it DID happen from time to time: Something unplanned, something so cataclysmic that it called to the Moirae like an insidious, seductive whisper.

Lilith. William.

It never should have happened that way.

But it had.

And the moment his lips touched that vial, the moment he'd swallowed it all down, she could feel the rip in the fabric of their Great Design. And took great care to find the source of distress and ...how did the mortals say?

Ah yes, apply a bandaid. Of sorts.

She'd warned Pamela and Eric. She'd told them she'd given Bill some of HER own blood to counteract the dark madness of the Blood Goddess, Lilith. But she wasn't sure it would keep...or hold.

It all depended on William.

Free will.

And now..

It was all falling apart again. Or..was it actually coming together? She knew the measure of the man, knew his heart and soul. There was such turmoil in him. He wanted to believe in something...anything.

Because he didn't believe in himself.

She tapped small fingers along the softly blue lit console in the Thread Room, her violet eyes scanning all the images of Bon Temps. Of Bill. Sookie. Jessica. Kiara. Quinn. Eric. Jason. Sam. Alcide. Pam. Colin. She'd tampered once.

Could she afford to do so again?

And what price would they ALL pay for her intervention?

Rising up, she smoothed down her peplos and told Nicodemus to power down as she flashed from Olympus to a tiny field outside of Bon Temps, keeping herself shielded from Bill.

But she watched him stiffen and knew he could sense her presence and slowly, very slowly, allowed herself to materialize into human form...*

Bill's body stiffened as he felt something eerie engulf him in a fatigue like state as something sparked around him, finding it a soothing presence, a presence that was trying to bury everything inside him into a locked room. But he felt himself fight against it unwillingly, another part of him that had once remained dormant was now unlocked and forcing to break free from the lock on his mind, his body. And without hesitation, he allowed it to take over him.

He welcomed it willingly into his heart and soul.

He wanted it.

As his eyes became unclouded as he gazed upon a figure that now stood before him, a vision of clarity of that had seemed familiar to him, but yet he could not place. But yet, he felt something inside him connect to this familiar figure of the woman he could not fully place. He caught the scent of something that made his mouth water, something that had captured his senses on all levels of a building hunger wishing, wanting, needing to be satisfied.

"What-What are you?" he questioned.

"You....don't remember me, do you?"

*Keeping her pace slow, she made her way to him, the slight breeze ruffling loose blonde tendrils of her thick hair. She drew up short, watching as myriad emotions crossed his handsome face. Hunger was predominant and she steeled herself. She couldn't give him any more of her blood. She'd taken a great risk before, and were she to do it a second time, it would create a bond. She couldn't have that. For many reasons, but the strongest one being it was a very....sexual thing. And while quite fond of this one male looking up at her in studied confusion, she had a mate and her bond was with him. But she could try to help William in other ways.

Try.

Biting her lower lip gently, she finally smiled cautiously, allowing him to see the tiny curve of her own fangs.

"My name is Clotho. And I'm....more like you than you realize. I'd like to help you, William."

Bill caught her scent mixed in with the gentle breeze that traveled through the dark night sky, sparking every sense that his body allowed to accept the welcoming aroma. His hands gripped into tight fists as he gazed upon her, his mind trying to set a place in time when he had come across such a creature, but failing to recognize such a being. Perhaps their last meeting locked away in another part of his mind that had failed to open and be unleashed through his mind.

Catching the sight of her slight curved fangs as his fingers traced the absent spot of where his own would appear as he felt the slight sharpness of his false facade of a human man, his own fangs hidden behind a false front as he always seemed to be.

"Clotho?.....Your name does not signify anything to me...You cannot help a condemned man. One that chooses not to be helped" he whispered lightly "The only one that can help me, lies safely in my grasp" he hissed.

*Tilting her head, she drew even closer, keeping her voice low and sweet*

"Why would you shun help? Especially when it is being offered with no thought of any favor returned? Why choose condemnation over freedom?"

Hunkering down at his side, her airy gown billowing like butterfly wings around her gently. "You are capable of many noble things, William. But for all your gifts, you seem to adhere to the painful chains of words and feelings past."

She had to stifle a low growl, she could literally smell blood...Lilith's. Scanning him again, she realized her choices were limited.

Free will.

Again.

Whose idea had THAT been?

Oh yes. Hers.*

Bill was struggling to keep everything in check, his hunger called out from a locked cage, anger and willing to set freed. He fought to try and will it down to the pits, but only this time it did not happen. There was only so much he could to keep it locked inside of him. The vial in his pocket calling out to him like a siren's call from the sea. Its angelic voice whispering in his ear to give in, the fight would no longer carry on and he would give in.

"Don't criticize what you can never understand....Jessica has disowned me as her Maker, the love of my life is walking down a path that i cannot follow. You have no right to offer me...What? Salvation? Freedom from fear? A life without death?" he snapped.

The angry beast which he called his former self, frantically searching for a way to be set free.

"You cannot save what does not want to be saved"

*she studied him for a very long time. Her violet eyes caught his dark ones, swirling with streaks of silver, then shards of white as she continued to think this though. She'd told Pamela...she'd told her..it was a one off. Although she had hopes that the power and light of her own blood would keep him firmly entrenched, she had harbored some suspicions that he may revert.

Worse still was the fact she could and WAS reading his mind during all this and knew he had another vial of Lilith's blood on him.

What do to? Take it by force?

She could do that. She was little, but fierce. William was powerful, male and endowed with dark gifts.

But she was a Goddess.

And one of Fate no less.

There was nothing for it, not now. She'd played her best hand months ago with him. And clearly her words fell on deaf ears.

He wanted this. He wanted to be free from the shackles of his own misgivings, his own lack of faith in the world around. In himself.

It was the noble ones that made the easiest prey for the Blood Gods, like Lilith. Sad, but true.

Standing back up slowly, she murmured under her breath, a bi tof work from the mortal writer, Matthew Stover.*

'The dark is generous, and it is patient. It is the dark that seeds cruelty into justice, that drips contempt into compassion, that poisons love with grains of doubt.The dark can be patient, because the slightest drop of rain will cause those seeds to sprout.

The rain will come, and the seeds will sprout, for the dark is the soil in which they grow, and it is the clouds above them, and it waits behind the star that gives them light.
The dark’s patience is infinite.
Eventually, even stars burn out.'

And once more her eyes met his. "Have your stars burned out, William?"

The longer her delicious scent clung around him, creating a thick mist of undying hunger. He could feel it spreading to every part of his immortal body, sprouting through his veins, creating a new life within him. He could feel his strength growing, more than he had ever felt before in his years as a vampire. He craved it to consume him, his shoulders straightened as he held his head high as he could feel it take over him. He felt a sudden release of tension consume him and take him to a new level of eternal existence, he felt like a weight had been lifted from his bearing shoulders.

Nothing mattered.

Not a Maker, nor a lover.

He was the King of Louisiana.

He could hear the one named Clotho recite words of some sort, but he did not pay attention to such words on one that claimed to save him from condemnation. Only he could be the one to set him free.

"Have your stars burned out, William?"

His body strong, stronger than ever thought possible, his hand grasped softly around the vial, gaining strength from the very connection that he had.

"My stars burned out long before this life...My time as a vampire is now abundant...I am the descendant of a God...She chose ME!" he barked.

Feeling this new sensation of anger, welcoming it. His new gained strength allowed him to unlock willing the beast within him as he stood tool.

"..I am the Chosen One"

*It was never about the destination....always the journey. And she knew how Bill Compton's would end.

but it was a long way off and he had many more trials and tribulations to go before he was done. Before he fully embraced HIS destiny.

This moment was a grain of sand in the desert of time.

"The brightest light casts the darkest shadow."

She watched him fidget, watched as the last vestiges of mercy and compassion bled from him. Watched as his own hoped for convictions fell apart and left him naked and vulnerable to the fallacy of Lilith's power.

She really ought to have let Atropos kill that bitch when they'd hand the chance and then none of THIS would be happening.

Spreading her hands wide in a gesture of supplication, she offered him one last chance. One last bit of hope.

"Throw it out, William. Resist this madness. Take my hand and let me help you. This is the last time I'll offer such. You are so much more than simply a Maker or a lover. Or a King."

She met his gaze. "You're William Compton. A son of destiny, a soldier of Fate. If you choose the darkness again...you will be going down a path that will consume you, change you and ultimately destroy you. It's not a rebirth, agriato."

She inched closer, already knowing this outcome, it whispered through her even as her heart beat a bit faster. "Don't do this, Bill. Just...take my hand?"

"Don't do this, Bill. Just...take my hand?"

Bill gazed down at her hand, her hand offering a solution to end his problems, but he knew that there was no problems to mind, he was not something that she could fix. He was once whole again. Everything, all of his troubles, worries seemed to disappear. He knew his ultimate goal, he was the ultimate goal.

"I spent so long, believing that i was damned. Damned from a life that i tried to achieve. A false life, a life that i was not worthy of. I have spent my entire life as a vampire apologizing, believing I was inherently wrong somehow, living in fear. Fear that God had forsaken me, that I was damned, but Lilith grants us freedom from fear" he growled.

He took one long lasting gaze down at her hand.

"That night....You came to me. Falsely guided me from my true path. The path to my salvation, your false promise of a better life was nothing more that a lie. Your blood is nothing more than an apple. The apple that led Adam to leave the sacred garden of Eden. The temptation to sway I from my truth destiny...You are the apple of temptation...And I have resisted....My true path awaits for me"

*She'd been called many things...but hardly "temptation". Sighing, she let her hand drop, holding her shoulders straight as the tremor of her Source born powers thrummed along her body. It skittered over her pale skin and lit it with a type of violet fire that flickered with each beat of her heart. Stepping back, she simply gave him a gentle, if vexed, smile and shrugged daintily*

"Then your path is set. But remember this...all who wander are NOT lost, William. You never were. You've always known your own soul. Its when you doubt THAT voice that you allow that darkness to fester. The dark is generous and it is patient and it always wins – but in the heart of its strength lies its weakness: one lone candle is enough to hold it back. Love is more than a candle. Love can ignite the stars.”

And with that cryptic statement, she gave him a soulful look, eyes sparking to pure white, eerie and gleaming in the night and then was gone from his sight, leaving him alone with nothing more than the lingering perfume of her heather scent. He was on his own. Free will.

The path was set.

His Fate was sealed.*