This was it. Immortality was so close Christina could almost taste it. But the cost…Killing Atticus would be like killing a puppy, unpleasant but not enough to stop her, even if he was family.
But Ruby.
The heart of the caster was the price for eternal life, and while some would claim that she had no heart, she did even though she wished she didn’t, that she wouldn’t have to cut out Ruby’s heart for the spell to work but when the man had laughed at her at pointed to Ruby she knew. Tears were falling, streaming really, down her face. She tried willing them to stop but her body knew a truth she had yet to realize. “Stop this” “don’t make me chose” “Help me” those were the only thoughts running through her head at the time, and then something weird happened, something new.
A white light glowed beside her and a pale, tall and blond figure appeared from the light. “Mother?” Christina croaked out in a broken voice. She looked around to see everyone, even the man and the portal, frozen in place. Time had stopped. “No Christina this is just the corporal form most soothing to you” the figure answered. “What are you?” Christina asked, she didn’t feel threatened by the being and even if she did, she knew she wouldn’t stand a chance against it. “I have many names my dear, but you may know me as Clotho” the goddess replied with her mother’s kind and tender smile. “You are a fate” it wasn’t a question. “you are at a crossroads, and I am here to help you choose” “Why” it was genuine, why would a fate goddess trouble themselves with her. “Because you asked for help, and the universe listens” Christina had walked to Ruby’s frozen form and caressed her cheek, she was still warm. “How to I chose between my lives work, my purpose, and the love of my life” She asked the fate, but as she turned to face her she felt a tugging in her belly and was transported to her North side house.
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“Daddy?” she was awoken by a voice. She felt a weight on top of her and opened her eyes to find two brown eyes staring at her. “Daddy, Maddie had an accident” Said the young boy currently sitting on her belly.
“Where is your mommy” She heard herself asking the kid, her son.
There was no reply only a point with a tiny finger towards the master bathroom, from whence she heard the sound of vomiting.
“Well lets deal with Maddie then” She said, getting out of bed.
She realized as they passed the vanity that she was herself, Christina, and yet her son called her Daddy.
She wondered what that was about.
The boy, whose name she realized she did not know, led her to a room it seemed he shared with Maddie.
The girl was a bit lighter than her brother and her eyes were the same blue as Christina’s, genetically almost impossible she noted. The kids seemed to be the same age, twins around 4 or 5. She hadn’t spent much time around children and didn’t have a good grasp on ages.
On the wall over each bed was a beautifully made name tag, it looked to be bend in gold. “Madeline” one read “Theodore” read the other. So that was the boy’s name.
“Theo why don’t you go find your sister some dry clothes” She gently asked as she began to strip the bed.
The scene changed. They were in a hospital now.
She was pacing the waiting room floor, waiting with the other husbands. When a nurse came to get her, the walked into a different hallway on the way to the delivery room where a Doctor was waiting for them.
“How is she? How is the baby?” She asked, worry evident in her voice.
“Mr. Braithwhite your wife lost a lot of blood during labor and needed several transfusions. In the end we were forced to do a cesarean in order to save both her and baby” The doctor told her.
“Can I see her?” Christina insisted.
“She is being cleaned by the nurses at the moment before being taken for observation, but you have beautiful daughter whom you can see now”
The scene changed again. This time Christina almost blushed, she was male again and fulfilling her husbandly duties to Ruby who was moaning underneath her. Christina slowed her thrusts and made them deeper and harder, the way she knew Ruby loved. And it didn’t take long for her wife to fall apart in her arms.
After she pulled out she felt herself change back into Christina, but this was painless, like blinking.
“I love you” Ruby said as Christina rolled off of her.
“I love you too” Christina heard herself say, and it terrified her how easy it was to say.
Event after event was shown. Good and bad. She saw herself, well William really, killing a boy who had called Madeline the N word, before Ruby, before her kids she wouldn’t have cared. But this was something she couldn’t protect them from, no matter how rich or white or male she was.
She saw herself teaching as a Mythology professor at a university. Professor Braithwhite, it felt right.
She saw family vacations, she saw Valerie’s first steps and heard her first word.
She saw Ruby die and she felt the sorrow in her soul and the genuine wish to die with her.
She saw her grandkids and her own death.
And then in a blink she was back at the observatory with the fate and everything around them was still frozen.
“Do you want to see immortality?” The Fate asked.
Christina shook her head.
“It would mean watching Ruby, Maddie, Theo and Val die. Wouldn’t it”
“Immortality means outliving everyone yes, but you forget my dear, if you chose it that future will never come to be as you would have to kill her” The fate said, her mother’s voice spilling from her lips.
“Then I chose her, my love, my life”
The Fate nodded
“And you shall be rewarded for it”
A sensation, a flutter ran all over her body and she wondered what the fate had done.
“Wait, before you go…my true fate, what was I meant to choose?” She asked.
The fate smiled and as she fated, she spoke.
“Children and descendants are the only way to live forever Christina”
The mans laughter was the first thing she heard as time started again.
She saw Ruby’s confused look as to how she suddenly appeared in front of her, still holding the knife.
Christina placed a brief kiss on Ruby’s lips before casting a spell on her and the others, teleporting them to her house. It took a lot of energy and Christina realized with a small spark of joy the only Ruby would land inside of the house as the others couldn’t cross the estate boundary.
Now she had to deal with the man.
She screamed as flared like flames from her body, she had never felt such power, she had never had anything worth fighting for. It almost killed her, and it definitely killed the man and destroyed his portal.
She spent the last, the absolute last of her powers teleporting home. She landed on the grass in front of the gate.
The last thing she saw was Ruby running towards her.
When she woke up she was in immense pain, everything hurt, even the tips of her hair. But she felt a cold cloth laid on her forehead and a kiss place on her lips. “Hey, you’re safe” Ruby, she’d know her presence everywhere, spoke.
Christina slowly opened her eyes, she was in her own bed, but not her own body. She must have looked confused because Ruby spoke to calm her. “You have been changing back and forth between William and Christina for a few days now. You haven’t taken a potion and it just seems, I don’t know, natural” Christina smiled, so that was what the fate did to her, she gave up immortality for her family and got shapeshifting instead.
“Come here” Christina barely recognized the voice, she sounded weak. Ruby got under the covers with her and gently wrapped her in her arms. “you chose me” Ruby said it was a statement, but the question was clear why?
“I saw my future in your eyes” Christina replied, and that was the whole truth.