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What if the oracles granted Angel's request to restore Doyle to life - but only for one year?
Fan fiction based on the WB television series Angel.
All characters and situations from Angel are the property of 20th Century Fox, Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy et al. No ownership is claimed and no copyright infringement is intended.
Warning: This story will eventually include references to both M/M and M/F sex. If either one offends you, read no further.
Yes, this is an 'alternate universe' fic, beginning with the Angel episode "Parting Gifts."
"You can fold time. You've done it before. Bring him back."
"To what end? To nullify his noble death? To leave his atonement unfulfilled?"
"If it means he lives."
"He doesn't so that you may."
"You do so that others will."
"He's my friend."
"If that is so, then so shall it ever be." Then suddenly the female oracle's face seemed to soften slightly.
"The one you call your friend was of two natures, as you are." The female oracle inclined her head toward Angel. "He gave his life for you - "
"I know that."
"Silence, lower being," snapped the male oracle.
The female oracle went on as though she had not been interrupted. "That which had been been made one, was torn apart. He rejected his dual nature, but he could not live without both, demon and human."
"I don't understand."
She gave him a condescending smile. "No, you do not. Your friend died because the demon and the human within him were torn apart from one another. The device that he encountered separated the two. Such an experience is fatal, and permanent. We cannot restore what has been divided."
"You can turn back the clock. Surely restoring what has been divided is within your power."
"Foolish one, even such as we must follow the principles of order, lest chaos reign instead, in all the worlds. Tampering with reality is far more dangerous than you know. Already your memory of the day that we swallowed threatens to interfere with the proper course of time." The male oracle sounded like he would hit Angel if he could.
Angel wouldn't have minded hitting back.
"We cannot restore your friend as he was," the female oracle continued.
"You say, 'as he was.' Does that mean you could restore him in some other way?"
"Ah, you begin to understand." She looked pleased, in an indulgent way, as though a child or a pet had done something clever.
"In what way?"
"If your friend were to be returned, he would no longer be half-demon and half-human. He could return as a full demon, but the human would be dead. Or, he could return as a human, but then the demon within him will have died. Either way, a price must be paid."
"What price? If he were to return as a human, what price must be paid?"
"What do you think?" she challenged. "Think about it, lower being. He was of two natures, and will be reduced to only one."
"I'm not understanding yet why this is a bad thing."
She gestured impatiently, and the vase that he had brought with him as an offering floated in the air in front of them.
"Observe this pretty little thing. You see that it is whole. It has top and bottom and sides, and everything in its correct place." Then she gestured again, and the vase cracked in half. One half fell to the floor and shattered into tiny shards. Glancing at the floor, Angel saw that the fallen half had been ground almost to dust in an instant.
The other half of the vase remained, floating in midair.
"Although one half is destroyed and the other is not, what is left is not whole. It is missing part of itself."
"I get the concept," Angel said impatiently. "How does it apply to Doyle?"
"He too would be damaged, if we return him. He would not be whole. He might survive," and she shrugged indifferently, "perhaps one of your mortal years."
Angel stared at her. "You mean that if you bring him back, he'll only live a year?"
"That is what we told you, lower being," the male oracle interrupted, angrily. "We are not in the habit of repeating ourselves."
"Is that the only way he can come back?"
"It is the only way that we will send him back. There is a balance which must be maintained, a pattern to the universe. We can alter it only so much, and no more. Our responsibility is to the larger whole, not to a single part."
The words were out of his mouth before he let himself think too much about it, before he dared to think it through.
"Do it."
Year of Grace, Chapter One