Hey people! This is a brief little one-shot written by by boyfriend's older brother Aethon (villuhsmiley . livejournal . com) who recently began his first fic, this thing called "Fading Scars." He's new to this so cut him some slack, and yeah it reminded me a lot of Sylum Clan (BJ Jones's amazing creation) but he swears that he's never even heard of it. If you like this, check Aethon out on LJ or drop me a line or review or whatever.... He asks that you be honest and brutal with the reviews, so have at it! Um.... yeah that's basically it. Unless Aethon has anything else to add? No? Alright then. Get on with it! ~Callum!~
The puppy- a Siberian Husky, by the looks of him- looked terrified as he stared back up at Gibbs. His eyes were icy blue, his face was snow-white with black markings around his eyes, and the rest of his small body was black with tints of silver and grey as well. He was getting bigger- bigger than most pups that were his age- but he was still small for his breed. Gibbs, for the first time in a long time, was dumbfounded as he carefully picked the puppy up.
"Since when are you a dog, DiNozzo?" The pup growled softly and wriggled in Gibbs's hands. He looked down to the ground and then back to Gibbs with a pointed stare. The older man took the hint and set the pup back down. "I got an idea, Tony: how about you be a human again and fill me in on what's goin' on here, huh?" Tony seemed to scowl and dashed out of the room. He reappeared moments later, not wearing a shirt because his was still on the floor. Somehow, the rest of his clothes transformed along with him excluding the shirt. He picked the shirt up and slid it on.
"Don't call me a dog, Boss, 'cause I almost just bit your hand for that." Gibbs raised an eyebrow. "I'm not a dog. I'm a wolf. There's a difference there."
"You'd take the phrase 'bite me' way too seriously, wouldn't ya?" Tony rolled his eyes.
"Go on, Boss, make your jokes. Get it out of your system."
"It's no fun if you're expecting it, DiNozzo, now will you explain the dog thing?" Tony suppressed the urge to growl again.
"Wolf, Boss, I'm a wolf. It'll be a lot more obvious in about twenty years or so when I'm not a cub any more."
Tony was about to speak again when Gibbs exclaimed, "Twenty years?!"
"Yes," he sighed, suddenly looking tired, "twenty years. Now will you please just let me explain?" Gibbs gave him a silent stare. "Thanks. There's this thing I'm a part of, I was born into it. There's a lot you don't know about our world, Boss. Things you probably know once, but society tells you they aren't real and we are all okay with that. These things-"
"What, bullshit like unicorns?" This time, Tony did growl.
"No, Boss, unicorns do not exist. Unicorns- why are they called unicorns, anyway? Shouldn't they really be called unihorns? Anyway, these things, they aren't the way everybody sees them to be. For example, me: I'm a Wolf-shifter. Not a werewolf, because they are infected with a virus. I have this whole crazy genetic thing going on that nobody really understands. The thing that makes someone a shifter can be given to someone by trading some blood, but mostly Vampyres do that. Well, that's how it is for Wolf-shifters. I don't know about the Dragon-shifters or Tiger-shifters, or the other random shifter people. Vampyres are the same way, but you have to trade a hell of a lot of blood with one of them. 'Cause, ya know, you kind of have to die to become a Vampyre."
"You're kidding, right DiNozzo? Bloodsuckers are in the form of bats and leeches, not Vampyres. We should get you to the mad house…" Tony sighed, rolled his eyes, pulled his shirt of again, and transformed into the small pup- cub once more. After a moment, he became Tony again and redressed himself. "Better yet, get me there. Quick."
"Boss, I'm real, alright? And so are all the others in Dinkum: the shifters, the Centaurs, the Vampyres (that's with a y, by the way), the Elementals, all of us. We exist, just not the way you think we do." Tony paused now and waited for Gibbs to ask a question.
"Dinkum?"
"My clan, led by Silas and Shane Grey. No, they are not brothers, they are Soulkeepers and Vampyres. Silas is also a Dragon-shifter. Headquarters is in Chicago, but we have people all over the world."
"Soulkeepers?" Tony sighed again.
"When a Soul is created, it is split in half. The same Soul goes to two people, and each half is assigned a Soulmate. In theory, everyone that ever existed has two people that they are truly compatible with: their Soulkeeper and their Soulmate. That's why you were divorced three times, Boss, although I hate to bring it up and really with I would have not just said that."
"Keep explaining, DiNozzo."
"Sure thing. Anyway, your Soulkeeper is generally a lot like you; although you often express yourselves differently, you both want the same things. Occasionally, though, something happens like M- like Binx and Elijah. Binx is a Cat-shifter and Elijah is a Wolf-shifter like me. They're complete opposites, but they're Soulkeepers. Once in a while- maybe once in a million- your Soulkeeper also happens to be your Soulmate, like Shane and Silas." Gibbs nodded thoughtfully.
"Makes sense. But you said you'll be a cub for the next twenty years. How old do you get?"
"Average lifespan on a shifter, if they're born as one, is about four hundred years. It's a little different if you're turned into one. Vampyres will live forever so long as their two Life Crystals aren't separated. They're in the neck, one on top of the other, so the only way to kill one is to decapitate them. They burn from the inside out in about a nanosecond. It's actually kind of neat the first time you see it," he added with a shrug, "one second there's a Vampyre standing right there and the next… ashes…You look like you have another question, Boss."
"Yeah, just one for now. Who's the Cat?" Tony winced inwardly; the Cat-shifter was going to kill him. Or Elijah would.
"Binx. Thackeray Binx. He's old, like "Salem Witchcraft plus seventeen years" old. A trio of witches turned him into a shifter after they nearly killed his sister, Emily. She's a Krusnik now, Boss, and I'm going to go out on a limb and say you've never heard of them before. She's got black angel wings, blood-red eyes, drinks the blood of bad Vampyres, which is why some of the Laekin- that's the generic term for us- refer to the Krusnik as "Black Angels."
"Not what I meant, DiNozzo, you almost started to say someone else's name. Who is the Cat?" Gibbs growled. Tony ran a hand through his hair and suddenly looked very, very young but still too tired.
"It's Tim, Gibbs."
"McGee's a… a Laekin, did you call it? And he's gay, on top of that?"
"Yeah, Tim's a shifter. But… It's not that simple, Boss. Once a person meets their Soulkeeper- who is usually of the same gender, by the way- there's nothing they can do but stick with them. You could be the straightest man on the planet, but as soon as you see your Soulkeeper, there is literally no-one who can stop the need to be with them. There's no replacement." For an instant, just a brief second, there was a flash of recognition in Gibbs's eyes and then it disappeared again. Then again, Tony was probably imagining it. For every rule, there was an exception and the Boss-man always seemed to be it.
"Why are you telling me all this, Tony?" Yup, there it was: Boss-man had no fucking idea; there was no way in hell that he would ever believe it.
"You deserve to know about the people you have on your six. You have ties to Dinkum in more ways than one; they are going to back you if you need help. Besides, if you freaked I could always have Benedict wipe your memory from the past few hours," he added with a shrug. "So, here you have a choice. Very The Matrix, Boss, do you want the red pill or the blue one? Remember or forget?" Gibbs stared at him for a moment, his jaw practically on the floor.