((continued from iftomorrow)) A New Destiny

[not_the_shell]

Walking, steps twisted and catlike, my body followed my feet while my mind raced in a feeble attempt to understand. To comprehend...

"Wesley."

He sat there on the ground, shrill noises emanating from within and seeping into crevices in the walls around us. Laughter. Laughter and... something else. Something other. Had the visitation from Fred

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[_fredless]

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.IT continuation!!!!! *watches with popcorn!!!!!!!

[prodigalwatcher]

"Wesley."

A word. A word that had a meaning, if only I could remember what it was.

I shook my head. Stupid, stupid man. It's your bloody name. You're Wesley. You're Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, and you may very well have lost your mind. Or, at the very least, you've misplaced it quite thoroughly. And yes, it was lost, it wasn't given away, traded or thrown out with the rubbish. I quite liked my mind; it was, perhaps the only part of me worthy of any kind of regard. I was quite attached to it.

"Wesley."The word came stronger now, louder. It shoved at me instead of merely nudging me out of my comfortable confusion. I was forced to turn in the direction of the sound. I squinted hard at what I saw, trying to reconcile the sight with the thought

[not_the_shell]

"It's my mind. I'll do with it as I please."

My hands left him, his body sagging to the floor as if the bones within held nothing. Perhaps that was true...

Stepping closer to him, I too lowered to the ground until he could no longer turn from me. A war was coming. A battle where we would both be required - Fred had said as much! - and I had a purpose. Whether they accepted me or not, I had a purpose. My hands would run with the blood of our foes and... and I would assist Wesley to return to this plane.

His mind would be needed, whole and sane.

"No, you will not," I informed him. "The vampires cannot think this through. They think of the slaughter and nothing else... but a good mind is required, Wesley. Yours."

"Leave me alone, Illyria. I'm finished. I'm... finished."

"You're finished being a simpering fool, that is true. But I'll not leave you alone to wallow in self-pity over a woman who returned to kiss you and speak of her love for you! That is more than most humans get in a lifetime, yet you got yours after hers was

[dark_wesley]

"No, you will not," I informed him. "The vampires cannot think this through. They think of the slaughter and nothing else... but a good mind is required, Wesley. Yours."It bubbled up out of my chest first as a chuckle. For the first few seconds I couldn't understand what it was that I found so damned funny. When the laughter kept coming, I felt myself shake with it

[not_the_shell]

"It's no good, Illyria. The pieces won't fit, not properly. I can't make them connect. I think the thought, but it won't go where I want it to go."

My head cocked slightly to the right as I considered this. He was mad, certainly, and not in the way most humans would think. No, his mind was shattered for some reason. Was it the spell? Willow? Fred?

Me?

"What she did... was a gift... but... but she couldn't do it again, couldn't make her stay. That's all I asked, but she couldn't make her stay! Why couldn't she stay?"

"Because the gift was not meant to last in physical form! The gift was one of peace of mind! She could not stay because she is dead, Wesley. Death claims us all, and it was her turn." I looked at my body...

Her Body

... and back at him. Was I a reminder still of his lost love? I shifted the pieces within myself until the clothes and voice were not my own anymore. Perhaps this was the only way to deal with Wesley now.

"Everyone is alone, Illyria. My final lesson.""It's Fred, silly," came her voice, beckoning,