North Dakota, March 19, 2007
Night was falling when they reached New Town. Dean had to leave his Impala at the Casino and took the truck that Maxine left for him so they could make it out to the country.
There wasn't even a sliver of the moon visible so soon after the new moon.
"What's with all the cars?" Sam asked as they neared Mason's house.
Dean's jaw clenched. Last time there had been this many cars there had been a party. "I don't know," he said, getting out of the truck and walking up to the house.
"You made good time," Maxine said, meeting him outside.
"Tell me what you know, and if you try any…"
"You're going to know a lot before the night is over," she assured him. "Please, come in. Warm up, I'll get you some coffee."
"We don't have time," Dean snapped. Maxine was a woman of intimidating size, but he was still bigger and was ready to drag her away from her family so he could demand the knowledge her and her wrinkly bitch of a grandmother had kept from them and Lady. But he stopped as someone appeared in the doorway. "What the hell are you doing here?"
Jo shifted on her feet, "I came to check on Lady, and they brought me out here."
"Get out of here," Dean ordered.
Jo narrowed her eyes on him, "No. Listen, Lady told me if I didn't hear from her after a new moon that I had to come here. I did that, and I'm not leaving until I see her." Jo looked at the ground, "She dead?"
"Pretty much, yeah," Dean said.
Jo wiped at moist eyes, "I was hoping Freddie swallowed her cell phone again, but…yeah, I think I knew that wasn't the case."
"Jo has a role to play," Maxine said gently. "We all do."
"No one has any role to play in your sick game!" Dean snapped. "Here is how things work from here on out. You tell me what you know, how to stop this thing. And then I stop it. And if there is any way to save Lady, you do it. And if you are lucky once this is over I won't torch this whole place to the ground! Understand?"
"Yes," Maxine said. "But you don't. Dean, you are exhausted, and in pain. Physical and more. Come in, sit down and rest. In time everything…"
Maxine went silent as Dean pulled out his pistol, "Lady trusted you. And Max. I don't trust you."
"Lady was family," Maxine said calmly. "You aren't going to hurt me, Dean. You need me."
"Like hell he does," Jo said, walking to stand between him and Sam. "You know where Lady hid the book?"
Dean glanced at her, "Why?"
"Because Lady didn't trust anyone but herself," Jo said. "At least she didn't trust anyone to hold all of the cards. She gave me her safe combination in case they wouldn't play ball if things didn't work out. But she never told me where it was. She said if anything ever happened to her she needed someone to destroy the book, but I'm willing to bet she has a ton of information she hasn't shared with anyone."
Dean shoved his pistol back into his waistband and smiled at Maxine, "Guess I don't need you. Come on, Jo."
There was barely a path plowed between Mason's house and Lady's trailer, just enough for her to get back and forth, but snow had been blown over the tracks and a few inches had been added since the last time anyone had been out there. Dean directed Jo to the room Lady worked in and showed her the safe hidden in the small crawlspace.
"Not a very original hiding place," Jo said as she got on her hands and knees.
"What is the combination?" Dean asked.
"Eighteen, two, eighty-one," Jo said.
Dean internally groaned. Lady knew a hundred rituals and curses by heart, but when it came to numbers she had a poor memory. She'd used her own birthday, not original at all but not something she could forget.
"There is a lot of stuff in here," Jo said, handing things to Dean as she pulled them out. The book was pretty useless, since translating it was beyond any of them. But Jo pulled out a cassette tape, the diamond she used to follow ley lines, a few crystals, some charms and a few notebooks. "That's all of it," she said, crawling back out. "This was the last thing in there."
Dean saw several large batteries in a plastic bag, and looked at the cassette tape. As was common in the trailer during the colder months there was no electricity, but he went into the bedroom and grabbed the old stereo on the dresser. "Six of those? Right?"
"Yeah," Jo said, handing them over.
They gathered in the small living room and looked through the notebooks as Dean shoved the batteries into the stereo. He checked that it had power and shoved the tape inside and pressed play.
Lady's voice began to play, "I really hope I can feed this tape to Freddie in a few months, but I'm not taking the chance. Jo, the notebooks hold all of my notes. Sorry for the crappy writing. Ways to stop Garrett, if I don't manage it, are there. Best chance is turning the ritual against him, but if that fails hammering an iron nail in his thumbs and toes should render him without his powers. Only thing is you have no chance of getting that close to him and staying alive. Sorry. Uh…shit." There was a short pause and it sounded like Lady had stopped recording and started again. "The ley lines on the reservation have been protected by Max since she set up residence there. She said something before she died that she's worried they are in danger. And I don't doubt that. She wants to protect her bloodline more than anything. Maxine and I haven't been able to summon her for help, at least not yet. But the answers are there, somewhere. I'm worried with Maxine being in charge now that the area may be suitable for an attack by Garrett. If anything happens to the Masons because of me I'll never forgive myself. Stopping Garrett might be a lost cause, but they need to be protected. I guess that's all I can really ask of you, try and get them out of the area if Garrett comes to take over the ley lines. I know when I ask you to do that and just run, you won't. So here is my best advice if Garrett is still alive. Call Bobby, he knows more than you. The Winchesters, too. And, uh, the national guard?" Lady let out a strange humorless laugh. "I've been trying my hand at making charms. I don't know if they work, yet. Won't know until I get to go toe-to-toe with Garrett. But they are with this tape. Two rubies. I did have four before Freddie got hungry and I haven't gotten them back yet. If you look close enough they've been…it doesn't matter how I made them. Just, uh, don't tell Bobby I was robbing jewelry stores again, he'll pop a blood vessel. All you have to do is put it around your neck and it, in theory, is supposed to keep you safe from black magic. That's in theory. The only thing I know for sure is that you won't get hurt from wearing it. And, uh, remember Malibu? The binding spell? Chances of getting it to work are slim but I came up with a new one. It's in the red notebook, the page is marked with a green piece of tape. The binding spell will only keep him defenseless for a few minutes, but blowing him apart might make it last a bit longer. If you get that far you can hammer nails in his thumbs and toes, it prevents him from leeching power from ley lines. After that, I'm still sketchy on how to keep him dead. If things don't go according to plan this is a back-up I hope no one has to use. Because as far as my plans go, this is a really bad one. And, heh, I've had some really bad ones. So, if you are listening to this I'm dead…I think that's the line I should have used at the beginning. You know the important stuff. Just, uh...heh, remember to dance, okay?" Lady let out a breath and the recording clicked off. For a long time they let the tape run into silence but the voice didn't return.
"What does she mean by remembering to dance?" Sam asked quietly.
Jo clenched her jaw and wiped at her eyes, "That's just what we said every time we went out together. If something happened to the other that we'd have a funeral pyre and dance." Jo sniffed slightly, "You sure she's...?"
"Yeah," Dean said quietly, taking the tape out of the stereo and putting it in his pocket. "But it isn't that simple. We have a much bigger problem than Garrett."
"What?" Jo asked.
"There is an actual pagan goddess on the loose," Bobby said. "And she's dancing in Lady's skin right now. Jo, I get you were her friend, but this is too dangerous. You need to get out of here."
Jo shook her head, "I can't."
"He's right. Lady didn't want anything to happen to you," Dean said.
"No, I mean I can't. Maxine won't let me leave. She has the whole area on lock-down. Anyone who tries gets stopped by her or spirits."
Dean and Sam exchanged a look. "We need to talk to Maxine," Sam said.
"Yeah, we do," Dean agreed.
Jo held out the two ruby charms to Dean. His jaw flexed, there wasn't enough for all of them. Lady sounded doubtful that they'd work, but she had been trying. He grabbed the precious gems and put them in his pocket before leading the way out of the trailer.
Maxine was calmly waiting for them outside of Mason's house when they returned. "Are you ready to listen?" She asked.
Dean angrily looked down the row of vehicles and tried to ignore the sounds of Mason's family inside the house. He locked his jaw as he glared back at Maxine.
"Maxine, we're here to help," Sam said gently. "We need to stop Garrett and The Goddess, but this is dangerous. You need to evacuate your family, and Jo."
"My family was raised to believe in spirits, they are here because they want to help and are just as valuable to protecting our territory as the spirits," Maxine said. "And Jo is here to help us."
"How is she going to help?" Bobby asked.
"Max can summon The Goddess here," Maxine said. "And Jo may be able to assist us. I don't know all the details myself, but I promise no harm will come to her. You have my word."
"Your word means shit!" Dean snarled.
"How can I help?" Jo asked, ignoring Dean.
"Max will explain," Maxine said. "Please, come with me."
They followed Maxine up the hill behind the house and to the tainted medicine wheel. Max's spirit was in the center. "We can summon The Goddess here," Maxine said. "When the witch defiled this circle she broke the protection. Before only spirits allowed into our territory were able to cross into it. Now it is capable of allowing all sorts of things into it. The lines of power it is on have held up for centuries, without being disrupted. And it has been used many times, the fabric here is very thin."
"Then why aren't ghosts spewing out of it?" Sam asked.
"Crossing over is still difficult," Maxine explained. "But if you are quiet you can hear them."
Sam put a heavy hand on Freddie's head to hush his low whimpers. It was quiet enough he could hear his own heartbeat, and then very distantly he heard whispers. Nothing he could make out, just hushed voices that could have just as easily been the wind.
"We are nearly ready." Max looked solemnly at the group of hunters, "Do not mourn for your friend, she has died bravely."
"She wouldn't be dead if it wasn't for you!" Bobby snapped.
"I know," Max said. "But you must understand what we are up against. The Goddess is ancient, as old as our race. Our only benefit is that she is weak, trapped within a mortal shell. She cannot die, or be killed. And will not allow herself to be bound within the lines of power again."
"Then why are we summoning her?" Dean asked.
"You should listen before you ask questions," Max said sharply. "Once, many years ago, my tribe held tens of thousands. I was younger than Maxine when The Goddess came to our lands. In the beginning she was curious. Our magic was different and new to her. In the beginning we were respectful of each other's power. But that respect did not remain. She was arrogant, believed her power was ultimate. That nothing could defeat her. She tried to sway our people to her, to worship her. We would not, and she tried to have us destroyed. She failed horribly."
"You killed this thing once?" Dean asked.
"Not kill," Max said. "But I was the one who destroyed her physical being and banished her to live within lines of power. Even now she is bound to them. But as her power grows she will find the strength to break free completely. When she was powerful she watched over the ley lines, they were used as a pathway to other realms including her own where she held an army of her slain warriors."
"Spirits?" Dean guessed.
"Yes," Max answered. "All powerful warriors that worshiped her greatly in their life went into her servitude at death. She put them into a spirit-realm, holding them until she needed them. They call her Freyja."
"Wait a second," Sam said. "You are saying you were alive when the Vikings landed in America?"
"I was here before they left," Max countered cryptically. "Freyja was an interesting being. Beautiful, even to our people. Charming. Arrogant, fearless, and even as she was being defeating she did not go down easily. She also was called by another name. Lady."
"What are you getting at?" Bobby asked.
"Do not misunderstand me. Lady is no reincarnation of a Goddess," Max said lazily. "It is just a coincidence she took a liking to the same nickname as the Goddess once had. Now you may not believe in destiny, but I have seen it. I have even changed it.
But when I found Lady, I saw no destiny. She was hit with powerful magic, raw and straight from The Goddess. She has had a part of The Goddess inside of her for nearly ten years. And because of it she is unpredictable and capable of power that is too dangerous to be unleashed. So I set out to give her a destiny."
"And you chose this?" Dean asked. "Let this thing wear her around as a Halloween costume?"
"This was not what I chose," Max said. "As I said, her path was unpredictable. Anarchic. I only foresaw this path when I met you, Dean Winchester." Dean's lips parted in surprise and his eyes widened in confusion. "I have chosen to give her a destiny to aid yours. And I did so because she asked me to help you."
"This doesn't help us!" Dean snapped.
"It will," Max said gently.
"No, it doesn't!" Dean argued. "You could have made sure this Goddess stayed locked up in the lines, asleep and being sucked dry."
"But I couldn't," Max answered. "My only mistake when dealing with the Goddess the past several hundred years was ignoring her. I had my family, we had found a safe and powerful place where I could watch over them. And I did so without leaving their side. Lady demanded my assistance for you, demanded that I see outside my own selfish means and my family to look into your future. When I did I could barely see past the foul evil that haunts you. But I also saw that the past few decades the ley lines have been weakening, shifting drastically. And it all started the night the demon you hunt first visited your family. Since then demons have been distorting the ley lines and crossroads, and they have corrupted the ley lines. I do not know if they do it on purpose, or if it is just a byproduct of their presence. But I knew if we did not find a new way to leash The Goddess, then she would become free. And if she was, her newest ally would be the demons you hunt." Max walked silently around the edges of the circle. "I did as Lady asked me."
"She never asked for this," Dean said.
"All she asked was to be able to help you," Max said. "And be able to destroy Garrett. I have given her both things at once."
"You sent her to her death," Dean corrected.
"Because of me The Goddess is freed on our own terms. Weak and vulnerable. Instead of at full strength with command of her army and with the aid of demons," Max countered. "I have seen the future several ways, Dean Winchester. Ask Lady what she would rather have. Her life at the cost of hundreds. Or sparing hundreds with her own sacrifice."
"You didn't give her a choice! You decided to play god!" Dean roared, stepping forward and stumbling back as he was hit with a psychic zap from the spirit.
"Careful, boy. I may be dead, but my bite is still much worse than my bark," Max warned. "What is done is done. We must summon The Goddess now."
"And do what?" Bobby asked.
"Quiet, you hear that?" Sam hissed. They all went quiet and there was the distant sound of dogs growling and barking. He looked around nervously and put a hand on Freddie's collar to keep track of the dog.
"What you hear is coming from the realm within the ley lines. The spirits who once served The Goddess have been corrupted into vicious fiends." Max said. "And they are near. This is why we must summon The Goddess now."
Jo let out an anxious breath, "What do we do then? How powerful is this thing?"
"Let me worry about that," Max said.
"We aren't ready for anything," Bobby argued. He looked at the Winchesters and Jo, "I want to take care of this as much as the next guy, but we don't really know what this thing is capable of. The little we do know is more than we can handle."
"It would take us a long time to explain how to stop this being," Maxine said to sooth Bobby's concerns. "We just don't have the time. If we do not stop her soon her power will grow drastically. And we won't have any way to stop her."
Bobby looked as if he was sucking on a lemon, "Let's do this. God save us, let's do this."
Dean checked his shotgun, not that it'd do much good. From his pocket he pulled out the rubies, and offered one to Jo. "Put that on," he ordered, and she did so. "Sam." He said.
"You need…" Sam began, knowing the second things got hairy he wouldn't be able to keep Dean from unleashing his grief and frustration in a storm of violence. Dean needed the protection more.
"You need to cover Jo," Dean said. "We try that binding spell on this thing, you keep her safe."
"I'm not leaving your side," Sam said, taking the ruby and handing it over to Bobby. "Cover Jo."
Bobby took the gem silently, and put it around his neck. "You two don't do anything stupid." He said, knowing they heard his words but weren't actually listening.
Maxine set a silver plate with drops of blood and other things in the center of the circle and stepped back as Max began calling to The Goddess.
Blue flames erupted from the center, and when they receded Lady was standing there. "You," The Goddess stared down at Max. She grinned slowly, "Still playing the old tricks? Summon me and bind me? It won't work this time."
"I know," Max said. "I do not hold the same power I had then. But neither do you."
"I do," The Goddess countered. Blue fire flickered from her eyes, "I've already protected myself from any binding ritual." Jo's whispered words came to a choking halt. "I've been very busy, Max, and there is much more I plan to do. Speak quickly."
"I have summoned you for a bargain," Max said. "You answered my call. I respectfully ask you to listen and ignore their presence."
"Listening," The Goddess said.
"My family is dying out," Max began. "I have stayed with them as long as I could, but now it is my granddaughter's turn to watch over them. She is young, weak, and will not have my guidance. Spare them. Punish me if you will, but spare them."
"No," The Goddess answered cruelly. "Every being that shares your blood will be mine. All those that stand against me will suffer. Like you made me suffer."
"You weren't meant to suffer," Max said. "I did not know that evil could invade the ley lines, your realm. Do you understand it has corrupted you?"
"I am not corrupted," The Goddess said. "I'm just very pissed off."
The temperature dropped farther and Dean pushed Jo between him and Sam as some of Max's spirits appeared around them to offer protection.
The Goddess chuckled, "You want to do this like that?" The Goddess knelt to the ground and touched the center of the circle, "My followers are longing for a chance to tear at something new."
There was a shudder in the ground as The Goddess willed her own bound spirits to cross over. Max crouched down, and then vanished into the ground leaving her family and the hunters to fend for themselves.
A/N - Thanks for the reviews!
