Author's Note: I own nothing.
8 Mystery
Jen arrived at Gwen's house the next day after school. Gwen had insisted she come over as soon as she could. She opened the door with her key and smiled at her uncle.
"Hey Uncle Frank! Thank you so much!" She hugged her uncle and he patted her on the back.
"We Tennyson's stick together." Jen grinned. Frank pointed upstairs. "Your cousin is in her fortress of solitude. She said to send you up when you got here." Jen nodded and waved as she raced up the stairs to her cousin's room. She knocked and entered after a moment. Gwen was sitting in a chalk drawn circle of complex sigils. In front of her floated a familiar book. It was bound in bright green leather with the familiar hourglass of the Plumbers embossed on the cover and was, as of yet, unopenable. Jen and Kai Green had discovered it and another book in the remains of a buried Forever Knight castle in the Nevada desert partially in the reservation on which Kai and her grandfather lived. The castle had been flooded when they took the books and seemed to have vanished completely into the sand and rock. The book lit up and Gwen swore as it dropped to the ground still closed with a magical clasp.
"Shit I was hoping that would work." Jen cleared her throat and Gwen looked up at her from her spot on the floor. The redhead stood and picked up the green book. "Oh good. I got a package from Kai last night." Jen raised an eyebrow. Gwen held up the other book they'd discovered at the castle. This one was bound in plain leather and undecorated save for the Forever Knight symbol embossed on the cover.
"They finished the translation?" Jen asked as Gwen handed her the book. Gwen nodded.
"Managed to get a tentative date off it too. Medieval era, some time between the eleven and twelve hundreds." Jen raised an eyebrow. Gwen handed her a field notebook with the translation in it. "It's a lot to work through but it's definitely a journal, of a knight named George." Jen flicked through the notebook, written in Kai's curling writing.
"Was that why you called me over?" Gwen shook her head.
"No, well not entirely. I had an idea. Turn into Stardust." Jen nodded setting down the books and flicking the Ultimatrix dial over to her Anodite form. Soon the shimmering greenish black form stood before her cousin. Gwen motioned for her to join her in the chalk drawn circle. Jen did so, her feet never quite touching the hardwood floor. "Now the sealing spell on the book is too strong for me alone but maybe the two of us could pull it off." But Jen wasn't paying attention to her cousin she was gazing, blank white eyes fixed on the book in her cousin's hand. Gwen frowned and waved her hand in Jen's line of vision. But her eyes didn't stray from the book. Gwen felt a tug and let go of the book as green energy wrapped around it. The book sailed into the chalk circle which began to glow. Gwen stared. She'd never seen this happen before. The seal on the book was glowing brighter too, with the same sort of energy that flowed off the unusually green Anodite. Jen touched the book with a single finger and screamed.
Flashes of images passed in front of Jen's eyes. A war torn field, thatched roofed houses set aflame, a partially destroyed castle that was strangely familiar, bodies littering cobblestone streets. The face of a man in his late thirties with blonde hair shockingly blue eyes and a beard. He wore a helmet and armor and swung a gleaming sword at a creature that radiated power. Bright red eyes that seemed to cut through her soul fixed on her and the beast hissed. A voice she knew all too well echoed in her mind.
'Trust no one!' She screamed.
Gwen acted fast. Snatching up the broom in the corner of her room she struck it through the chalk of the circle breaking the focusing spell and the lights dimmed the book dropped and Jen turned back into herself in a flash of green lights. She was trembling, staring wildly at the book on the ground in front of her which remained stubbornly closed. Gwen reached out to Jen and the brunette jumped and staggered away, a wild look in her eyes like she was seeing something else. She blinked and seemed to recognize that she was in her cousin's room. She blinked a few more times.
"What did you see?" Jen blinked at her again and shook her head.
"I…"
'Trust no one!' The words echoed in the brunette's mind again and she let out a breath.
"No idea." She lied rubbing her eyes to hide the telltale twitch. Gwen took her back downstairs for some tea. Jen remained tight lipped about whatever the book had shown her but refused to recreate the experiment. She left the green book with Gwen, eyeing it suspiciously as she took the regularly bound book and the translation Kai and Gregory had finished with her when she left. Neither of them noticed the small crack in the seal, minute and nearly invisible but most definitely there.
Jen sat down with Kai's handwritten notes and a mug of hot chocolate that night and began to read.
'This day marks the beginning of what I fear to be a war that will last beyond time itself. The beast is fierce and kills indiscriminately. I thought for a time I would be safe here, I had found love again, our child born of that love did not bare my curse. A new curse befell this family of mine. The curse of the dragon.' Jen frowned. There was a question mark scribbled in by the word 'dragon'. Written next to it was the word Dagon, with the annotation that in the original text the word never appeared as 'dragon' always as 'Dagon'.
'Maybe a spelling mistake?' Was written in the annotation in a cramped handwriting that must have been Gregory's. Jen frowned though and turned to her laptop, which thanks to Kevin, had an uplink to her files at Plumber base and the Xternet. She pulled up the photos and scans of the tapestries they'd managed to catalogue from the castle before it had gone underwater by some kind of spell trigger. She found the one she was looking for quickly.
It depicted a great black beast that looked very much like a dragon. Around his feet was a melee surrounding the two central figures of the piece. They were a man and a woman. The man was dressed in shining armor and the woman in a flowing gown of green with black trim. Her hair was long flowing brown, her skin pale, her eyes flooded green. Between them they held a gleaming sword. Jen stared at the sword, it looked just like the one from the vision the book had shown her. She frowned shaking her head and looked at the writing at the bottom of the tapestry. She frowned and pulled out her phone. She texted both Gregory and Kai.
'Video conference? Need to talk about the translation.' Her laptop beeped and she answered the call, this was from Gregory though Kai quickly conferenced in. It was dark in the back of both of their videos. Jen smacked herself in the forehead.
"Right time zones are a thing. Sorry we can do this tomorrow." Kai laughed.
"I'm free. I'm only a few hours from Gregory anyway. You good to talk about our little project Greg?" The blonde ex Forever Knight nodded.
"Of course. I'm at work but I can talk they don't mind. You had a question about the translation?" Jen grimaced.
"Not a question. Well sort of." She ran her hands through her hair. Kai raised an eyebrow.
"You doing ok? We heard your ID got blown all over the internet, bet you haven't had any private time since." Jen nodded.
"You'd be mostly right. But that's not why I called." She pulled up the file and sent the photo in the chat. "Remember this tapestry?" Both of them nodded. "The writing at the bottom, what did the knights tell you it was Gregory?" He frowned.
"The fae who gave the first Forever Knight the sword, that was his language. The knight saw him write it down after the dragon was defeated." Kai frowned.
"Running on confused here guys. Why is the tapestry important?" Jen held up her hand.
"I'm getting to that. We should catch Kai up on this legend of yours though." Gregory nodded and told the other girl all about the story of the dragon fighting against the first Forever Knight, the fae being gifting him with a sword of untold powers. Then the appearance of a changeling who healed him when the battle seemed lost. With her help the swords power came to life and the dragon was defeated but the changeling vanished upon its defeat. Kai raised her eyebrows.
"I'm still lost as to how these things match up." Jen nodded.
"The tapestry is from the story." Gregory nodded at her words. "But your 'fae being'? Not magical." Gregory frowned.
"How can you tell, Kai told me the other book is magically sealed, perhaps a leftover from the swordsmith." Jen shook her head.
"The writing is Galvan. A hyper intelligent alien race, the creator of the Omnitrix he's Galvan. I took a few lessons on written Galvan. Here's the kicker though, it says 'The Defeat of the Dagon'." Kai frowned.
"No chance you're mistranslating it?" Jen shook her head at Kai.
"I've looked it over three times. Both tapestries too, they both say Dagon not dragon. Ever heard that mentioned before Gregory?" The blonde frowned.
"No, every legend I've ever heard has always called the thing the first Knight defeated the dragon." He paused looking up away from his screen. "Hello George, were you looking for a specific book?" Jen frowned slightly Kai shrugged.
"One of the residents. He's always in the library." Kai grinned. "Sweet old guy, bit weird though." Gregory was talking again. Both girls fell silent.
"Finished already?" He laughed. "Oh well I'm talking to my friend Kai, the one who was here a few weeks ago? And my friend Jen." There was a muffled speaker and Gregory raised an eyebrow. "You want to say hello? Sure why not?" He turned the camera on his computer to face an old man. He was stooped with age and his long grey hair was braided out of his way, his beard neatly trimmed. He wore a pressed shirt and comfortable slacks. He had bright blue eyes that crinkled slightly as he grinned at them.
"Lovely to meet you ladies." His eyes seemed fixed on Jen though it was hard to tell over the webcam. "I simply wanted to return my library book to Gregory here." He handed over the book. Gregory frowned.
"You didn't want another one? You usually want the next in the series after you finish." The man nodded.
"No rush my dear boy. I'm not going anywhere for a while yet." Gregory pulled a book out from under the desk and handed it over. George's eyes twinkled slightly. "You had it waiting for me?" Gregory nodded.
"Of course you tend to finish them quickly." George's smile widened.
"This is why you're my favorite Gregory." He bowed to the webcam and winked at the girls. "Until we meet again Miss Tennyson." With that he walked away. George righted the camera. Kai was frowning.
"You never told him her last name." Gregory blinked as if just now realizing that. Jen shrugged.
"He's probably seen it on the news. Haven't you heard? I'm a one woman alien invasion." Kai laughed and Gregory nodded slightly.
"I suppose. But the translation?" Jen nodded.
"Definitely Dagon, not dragon. What that means I have no idea." Kai shrugged.
"Maybe a mistake?" Jen grimaced.
"Could be but unlikely. If the knight saw a Galvan write it… Galvan's have to be right about everything, mostly because they are. I get that there's always a margin for error but with Galvan's it's too small to allow things like typing errors." She ran her hands through her hair again. "But the knight who wrote the journal," She flipped it to the page in the original book "he wrote dagon too. It doesn't make much sense." She sighed.
"You look like you need sleep." Kai commented softly. She'd kept up with the news stories about Jen since they had begun and they had been pretty non stop. Gregory nodded.
"Indeed, perhaps a nap would help clear your mind. And you can one at this with a fresh mind later." Jen nodded slightly.
"That does sound good. Gwen's still trying to bust the seal on the other book, no luck yet. I'll search the Plumber database for the Dagon later. Thanks for listening guys." They both nodded and the call ended. Jen scooped up the books and deposited them in her room. She flopped down on her bed and kicked off her shoes. She was asleep in moments, dreaming of the knight from her vision and his startlingly blue eyes.
