And Eternity

Fate paced.

The apocalypse. Earth's destruction, eradication of all humans, chaos, death... No matter what angle she approached the idea from, it didn't get any better. If anything, it only continued to worsen the longer she contemplated it. It is not Fate's place to seek to alter what shall come to pass. Was that not what she had been told when she had been placed into her office? She had obeyed every rule set before, met every single expectation, and overall, she had acted as the ideal Fate. Had there been temptations before now? Certainly, and she had overcome those temptations. This was too large though.

As her stride quickened, the woman known as Fate brought a hand to her mouth and sealed her lips around the side of her hand, jaw working as she gnawed none-too-gently on one of her thumb's joints. It didn't actually help her think in any capacity; it was just a nervous sort of habit that had carried with her from before she had become Fate. Whenever she was nervous about something or thinking hard on some issue, her hand always came away with a set of marks that remarkably resembled the shape of her teeth.

It is not Fate's place to seek to alter what shall come to pass. It is not Fate's place to seek to alter what shall come to pass. It is not Fate's place to seek to alter what shall come to pass. She repeated it as a sort of mantra in her mind as she continued to pace and chew, as if somehow thinking it enough would deter her mind from the path it was attempting to take. It was a poor distraction, however. She simply could not sit idly by, the knowledge weighing on her that she could have done something to stop the apocalypse.

Yes, there was still time to stop it. She only needed to find some way to stop all four of the Horsemen. Of course, there would be no talking to at least three of them. War was a pig who would sooner see her bleeding on the ground than talk to her. Pestilence thought about as much of her as he did of dirt. And Famine... well, she'd made it clear that she would love to see a new Fate in office. Death was the real mystery. No one person seemed to stay in Death's office for more than a century, though it was usually less. That could work to her advantage though. Perhaps Death could be persuaded to her side. No one else knew of Earth's impending doom yet, after all. If she was lucky, none of the other three had yet to seek out Death. She was rarely lucky, but it was still early yet. She simply needed to act quickly.

"Okay." Fate's pacing came to a sudden halt, crystalline blue eyes determined. Without allowing herself time to second-guess her impulsive decision, she summoned a portal to Purgatory and stepped into it. When she stepped out, she stood in what appeared to be a large foyer in a old, decrepit house. Cobwebs hung about, dust seemed to line nearly every surface, and the entire house looked old and, to be blunt, unpleasant. Purgatory was an unpleasant place though, full of countless terrible creatures.

"Death! Are you here?" Fate paused, then tried again, this time even louder. "Death!"

Death's eyes burst open to the sound of a shrill voice calling his name.

Welcome to Hell, he chuckled ironically.

He sat up in his rickety, creaky bed that was not gentle enough on him. He had been staying in this place for the last half a century, and he was still adjusting to the way his life was down here. The bed made him sore. The whole place was full of cobwebs that their inhabitants had abandoned long ago. Even the spiders didn't stick around long.

Death lazily swatted at the gnats that floated around his face and pushed his hair out of his ice blue eyes. He allowed himself a few more moments before he pushed himself out of his bed and stretched. Death considered himself to be quite tall, reaching a height of 6'4". He fondly remembered his time as a teenage boy, where girls found him handsome and other guys were intimidated by him. He wasn't scrawny, but he was very lean, he would have made an incredible wide receiver on a high school football team, but he never dared. His height gave him an unfair advantage, and it would have been an excuse for every guy on the team to just wail on him. No, Death stuck to himself during his human years.

He contemplated who could possibly be calling for him at this time of day. Did they not know the long, tireless hours he had spent taking logs of all the monsters in Purgatory last night? Time didn't exactly exist in Purgatory, but he still wore his watch from Earth to have something to ground him. It was technically 10:30 in the morning. He shook his messy hair and pulled the door open.

Death found himself looking down upon a girl, with curly brown hair that came to just her shoulders and a face that was not unpleasant to look at. She had a slender build, and gorgeous caramel skin. She was the kind of girl he would have pursued during his human years. He felt his signature smug grin take form on his lips, as he found himself asking, "can I help you?"

Fate was on the verge of going off to search the house when Death appeared at the top of the stairs, looking rumpled, as if he'd just rolled out of bed. She hadn't the slightest clue what time it actually was, but he didn't seem terribly upset at being woken, which she decided to take as a good sign. She climbed the rickety stairs, practically taking them two at a time, until she stood face to face with Death.

In this case, however, it was more as if she stood face to chest with him. At 5'4", she was slightly on the short side of normal, but it was definitely obvious that he was also extremely tall. He was also smirking at her, an expression that made him look somewhat conceited, though she could hardly imagine what he could be so pleased about. It also made her worry that he was just like the other three or they had gotten to him already.

Beating those worries back with a stick, Fate looked up at him, meeting his eyes. "I certainly hope so. Have you spoken Famine, Pestilence, or War? It might have been a couple of days ago, hours ago even, or it could have been when you first took office. And could you tell me what they wanted to talk to you about?"

Only after she had spoken did Fate realize how she probably seemed to Death, just barging in and demanding that he answer her questions. She drew back a step, both mentally and physically. "I'm sorry if I seemed rude. I am Fate, and these questions pertain to a subject that's of some importance to me. Before I say anything else though, I do need your answers." She sounded much less rushed and forceful this time around, for which she was glad. If he thought she was crazy, he wouldn't be nearly as willing to talk to her.

Fate was breaking a fairly important rule of her office though. Not only that... She was breaking that rule for something that could potentially be beyond her power to stop. For all she knew, Death was already in league with the other three, and stopping the four of them together would be next to impossible, even should she manage to find some form of help.

Death looked over the girl, Fate, again. He had no idea what she was talking about, but he wasn't going to let her think that. He figured he would enjoy this game of cat and mouse, if you could call it that. But why was she asking about War, Famine, and Pestilence? They all served his office, gave him something to do on a daily basis. War did his job every day, every where. Famine was working her way all across the poorer countries of the nation. Pestilence followed in both of their wakes, bringing disease everywhere he touched. Then it was just one quick stop and the humans were locked in Purgatory, the place Death liked to call home.

"What could my Horsemen possibly have to do with you?" he inquired, noticing that Fate was quite uncomfortable answering his questions. But Death was not one for jokes or riddles. If someone came to him demanding answers, he was going to find out why before he just let his guard down. And bringing up three of his Horsemen wasn't a subject to take lightly; why would Fate go messing around with such a thing? He could sense that she had big plans, and he would not just let her go around demanding answers in his own office. No, Fate was certainly up to something, and Death was going to figure it out.

He crossed his arms, staring at Fate with a hard look in his eyes. She said she would answer no questions until hers were answered. He figured he would make her squirm first. That was the easy way out. If she refused to answer his questions, then he would bring the big guns out. Fate had no idea the amount of torture creatures he had in Purgatory. Not that he wanted to harm her; Fate was a glorious sight to look upon. He would much rather get his answers the easy way. But when it came to messing with his Horsemen, Death would not hesitate to see anyone's demise.

Death referring to the other three Horsemen as "his" answered all that Fate needed to know. Whether they had spoken to him or not was of no consequence any longer. He considered them as his and himself as one of them. She should have known the the fact that he was a Horseman would sway his loyalty if nothing else, but she had held a foolish hope that it would be otherwise.

"Thank you for satisfying my curiosity. You have answered all that I need to know. I'm sorry for having interrupted your sleep... I'll let you get back to it," Fate said in lieu of answering his question, the wheels of her mind already moving past this bump. She shouldn't have held hope that she would somehow talk Death into helping her in any case, whether or not it would have made things easier.

So then, she was back to the beginning. She needed to stop the apocalypse and there were four immortal beings in her way of doing so. Her office's abilities would be useless in this endeavor, and she could not kill them. Only a human could do that, and then they would simply take over the office. She needed to see if anyone else could possibly help her. She considered Father Time a friend, so she suspected that she could count on his help should she ask it, but she wasn't entirely certain about Mother Nature. It seemed likely. Nature being her office, there was a lot for her to lose should the apocalypse come to pass.

It was a starting place, at the very least, which she desperately needed now that it seemed Death was no longer a viable ally.

Speaking of... Fate pulled herself from the whorling vortex of her thoughts and took a couple of small steps away from Death, deciding it was about time that she make good on her promise of letting him get back to his sleep. He looked tired, as if he needed it, and besides, being in Purgatory always made her skin crawl. Even if she spent hours more attempting to plan through her half-baked plan and deciding where to go from here, there were better places to do it.

Death noticed the steps away from him Fate took, and knew he was losing his opportunity to get answers. He covered the steps back she took in one long stride and was almost chest-to-ribs with her, and stared down at her, hard.

"Tell me what your business regarding the Horsemen is," he demanded. She was about one construed answer away from earning herself a treatment from Cerberus, the giant three headed dog that guarded the entrance to Purgatory. Death would not consider himself frightened, as he was, well, Death Himself. There was nothing that frightened him. But he would not deny the amount of concern he felt at the idea of the office of Fate running around and asking about his Horsemen that serviced him so nicely. It could have been a million different things, and each of the possibilities made him more worried than the last.

His Horsemen had never let him down. Sometimes even just the threat of them caused humans to go mad and take their own lives. Death felt a gratitude for them like he had never felt towards anything else. Famine was like a kid sister to him, she was always running around with hungry eyes, which is ironic to think about. She was so eager for the next thing she could do to service Death's office. He was almost entirely sure that she was doing it to impress him for whatever reason, but Death wasn't sure he could feel love the way Famine wanted him too. Sure, she was cute, with a little pixie cut and a button nose, but it was too strange for her and Death to be together. He was almost entirely sure he was going to spend the rest of his life alone.

War did some of the best work Death had ever seen. He was everywhere, making mortals fight over oil, money, food, you name it, War had it covered. He was selfish, not one that Death particularly got along with, but he did his job and he did it well. He never imagined War to be a very... enjoyable Horsemen, but it never bothered him. So long as his office was being served in one way or another, War could be as much of a barbarian as he wanted. And he certainly enjoyed being a barbarian.

Pestilence, however, was Death's favorite Horsemen. Almost kind, and most certainly agreeable, Pestilence wandered the whole Earth, leaving silent destruction everywhere he went. He followed in Famine's wake and gave disease to all the weak people. He was never far behind War, giving infections to nearly all of the injured soldiers, and on top of that, he was everywhere else where they weren't. Making the elderly mortals sick, giving babies cancer, Pestilence was everywhere, and there was no move too bold for him to make. Pestilence was always knocking on Death's door with a long list of mortals being summoned to Purgatory. Death was never disappointed in him.

He noticed that Fate still hadn't answered him. "What you're questioning might as well be forbidden, Fate," he warned her. "I suggest you tell me what your plan is, before I'm forced to resorting to.... drastic measures."

Scaring Fate off wasn't the answer to his questions. But Death was beginning to get desperate for answers. He knew how important it would be to not let his guard down. He turned inward, and took a deep breath, taking a step back from Fate to study her face at a better angle, making sure to display not even a hint of emotion in his blue eyes.

Before, Fate had been too lost in her own head, in her worries and planning, to give her undivided attention to Death, but when he stopped her from leaving and she met his cold gaze, she rectified that. Of course he wasn't going to just answer her questions and let her go. When she stopped and reexamined how she'd been behaving, she knew she'd acted suspiciously.

No, asking questions isn't forbidden, though what I plan on doing is, she thought, arms crossing over her chest as he stepped back. She had yet to say anything, and Death appeared to be getting antsy. Antsy enough to threaten her. Unfortunately, it wouldn't be the first time one of the other offices had threatened her, and she was sure it wouldn't be the last.

"There is no plan," Fate finally said after studying him for some time. She'd been too absorbed with her thoughts to really take notice before, but he was handsome, his appearance very much suited to his office. She had no doubt he could be charming if he so wished, though his expression was blank at the moment. "I didn't come here chasing after the other three's secrets. I simply wanted to know if any of them have spoken to you recently. There is nothing forbidden in that. What do you think I could possibly be up to in any case? I assure you, it would be much easier for one of them to hurt me than for me to hurt them."

She was trying to satisfy whatever curiosity he had without telling him anything. The last thing she needed was him going to the other Horsemen spouting something about how she was trying to stop them from causing the apocalypse. As of this moment, the only leverage she had against them was the element of surprise and the fact that she already knew what was coming, maybe even before they did, because of the office she held.

"You should also know that I'm not particularly scared of you or your threats," she added seriously as she met Death's gaze. "You may be Death, but you can't kill me any more than I could kill you. You also might want to step back a moment and consider what 'fate' means. Everything has a path called fate, and I alone have power over those paths."

Her office was limited in that Fate should not alter the paths, simply govern them, but others didn't know this. There had been one point when War had refused to leave her alone, always persistent, and he'd eventually resolved to threats. She had told him much the same thing as she had just told Death, except she had threatened to alter the fates so that war would vanish entirely. He hated her now, but he also left her alone. She could not threaten the same thing with Death, because even she could not stop people from dying of old age and such, but she did hope he was smart enough to take what she had said and realize the implication behind it.

Frankly, it was only the ignorance of the limitations set on her and her clever tongue that had kept Fate safe and untouched from the others thus far.

Death was no fool, he knew that Fate was lying to him about her lack of plans, but he could not see a valid reason to keep her in Purgatory and torture her for answers. He decided to let her leave, and he would get into contact immediately with the Horsemen, where they could brainstorm and figure out what she was up to. He stepped back into his rotting foyer and studied her.

"Leave this place. Unless you have business servicing my office, I don't want to see you on my doorstep again, asking me stupid questions about my own office." He slammed the door, which in turn rattled the windows of his haunted-house like mansion. Death immediately opened a portal to Purgatory, and called for the Horsemen once he was at the gates.

Famine arrived first, batting her big brown eyes at him and grinning. She was shortly followed by War, then Pestilence came in last. They were all silent, waiting for Death to begin speaking, but he was unsure of what to say. He looked around at his Horsemen and drew in a deep breath.

"I need to get to the bottom of something," he proclaimed. "Fate came to my doorstep today asking about the three of you. She told me she wasn't planning anything, but there is no reason for one office to go to another office and demand answers about something unless they are planning something, or unless they know something. I'm determined to find out what she knows, and what she's planning."

The room was silent. There was a faint dripping off the caverns behind him, and if you listened really close, you could hear the screams of the dead further into Purgatory. Death looked at his Horsemen, eager for answers. It was Pestilence who finally spoke up, in his deep, quiet, dignified voice.

"There's only one answer, Death," he began. "There is only one thing in the world that requires all four of us that Fate would be asking about. She knows of the Apocalypse."

As Death shut her out of his home, Fate couldn't help but think that their meeting could have gone better. But then again, it could have gone worse as well. Overall, she simply couldn't help but have a bad feeling about it. That was the exact reason why, as soon as the door slammed in her face, she created a portal and stepped through it.

She stepped out in the realm Time considered home. She stood in a clearing where a dilapidated tower stood, trees surrounding in a circle. It was all brick and seemed to lean somewhat... and it definitely did not appear safe. Fate knew from personal experience, however, that it was as sound as any house she'd been in. It didn't look it, but it was built to last.

"Time!" Fate yelled as she entered the tower and started up the stairs. "Time! Where are you?!" Halfway up, she nearly ran into him coming down to meet her. She grabbed him to avoid falling over, and he reciprocated. "There you are. I need you to come with me. Sorry, I can't stop to answer questions right this moment. I just need you to come with me, and I promise I'll give you answers soon."

"Am I going to regret this?" Time asked seriously, looking down at Fate with deep green eyes.

"You might. Are you going to come with me now?"

"Where are we going?" That question told Fate more than anything she had chosen the right person to go to first. She didn't really know Nature that well, and she doubted the other woman would have agreed to Fate's seemingly crazy requests nearly as easily. She might have even reacted similarly to Death. Fate often worked with Time though, and they had forged a friendship of sorts.

"Nature's," she told him, creating the portal, practically pushing him through before she followed.

Death stopped in his tracks. The Apocalypse. Of course. What else would Fate be trying to do? Did she even have the power to stop it? And why was she asking Death about it? Did she think he would help her? Did she not realize the benefits he would have from allowing the Apocalypse to happen? He looked over at the three people that stood in front of him.

"We need a plan to keep her from attempting to stop this," he said. "We can't afford to lose something so big. I'm taking suggestions starting now."

Death stood silent for a few moments, brainstorming and allowing his Horsemen to do the same. It was War that spoke up first.

"We infiltrate her," he suggested.

"Act as a double agent!" squealed Famine. "Get her to believe you're on her side, and then right at the end, take her prize away from her!"

"I have to admit, it's quite an impressive plan. We'll postpone the inevitable, to make her believe that she's stopped it. When she believes she has succeeded, we bring demise to all humans," Pestilence agreed.

Death mulled it over. It would mean spending time with Fate, but he wouldn't necessarily mind that. And at the end of the day, he could just report his findings to the Horsemen, and they could further develop this plan to make Fate believe that Death was on her side.

"Okay," Death agreed. "I'm in." He opened a portal to Fate's office; he didn't think she would be there, but he was going to wait for her to come back.



Nature was sitting cross legged in her forest home when Time and Fate came stumbling through. It was a beautiful, perfectly circular meadow surrounded by trees everywhere you looked. There were acres of wildflowers, and nearly every species of animal you could possibly imagine, all existing harmoniously in Nature's perfect little home. However, Arabella was her personal favorite. The white she-wolf almost never left Nature's side, except for to forage for food, and even that was only for a few hours. Being the office of Nature meant that she had the power to speak with animals and plants, and her and Arabella had formed quite a strong bond. The wolf was laying her head on Nature's lap when they came through the portal, and she perked her ears up and let out a low growl.

It's okay, Arabella, she communicated to her. These people mean us no harm.

She rose, the wolf rising with her as she smiled at her guests. "Welcome, Time, Fate. What can I do for you today?" Nature had never met Fate before, but she knew who she was. Time was an old friend of Nature's; they had worked together many centuries ago but have not been in contact for quite some time.

Nature touched two spots in front of her, and perfect little moss circles grew under her hands. She gestured to them with a slow sweep of her hands and smiled. "Sit, please. Would you like any refreshments? There's tea with honey, and I can probably send Akoto to bring some berries." Akoto was a rabbit, he knew of the best berry patches deep within the forest and was always willing to help Nature. Ever since she stopped Bora the bear from eating him, he had been deeply appreciative to her.

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