A/N: So, uhh, hi?! Sorry this has taken me like FOREVERRR! But! I have finialy almost finished it. The reason? I got a writer's block on it when I couldn't figure out the next story. I've managed to get a plot (that I was lacking when I started it) sorted and hope to have something to post on it in a month or so. I am currently moving again in a couple of weeks so this may be the only one you will get for a bit. I hope you enjoy this rather long chapter.
Disclaimer: I don't own, I'm just borrowing for a bit of fun.
Talking to ghosts
Scotty watched as the three survivors walked away, seemingly joyous, followed by the three accompanying Hunters. He caught sight of Spock looking concerned at Jim's apparent gaiety, but he could see the signs of stress, despair and fear in their eyes. He was about to say something, but the man beat him.
"I do not understand. How can the Captain, Lt Winchester and Petty Officer Riley be laughing? Surely this is bringing back painful memories for all."
"Commander, this is hitting them harder than it looks. Jim's about to scream, Riley is on the verge of crying, and Sam," He didn't get to finish as Leon took over.
"Sam is a word away from turning catatonic. If she comes across the wrong ghost at the wrong time, she's going to go into shock." After that, he hurried on ahead to lend his support to his fiancé.
"It is all a bluff." Spock said, and Scotty could see understanding flash across his face, "A way of trying to bring about a sense of normalcy."
After pointing out the signs for the male Half-Vulcan, they followed along quietly. It was a half hour later that Scotty noticed the silence from the group ahead. Turning his attention from the unusual plant life around them, he noticed that Sam had again dropped to the ground; her hands over her head. He hurried toward them, only to stop as the hairs on the back of his neck stood up, something warning him not to continue. Jim, Spock and Riley were next to him, while the Hunters had continued on. Wondering what was happening, he heard her tell the Hunters to not cleanse the area. They were at the edge of what he could see to be a large garden, from the city plans he had seen, it was where Kodos had separated the population.
"No," her voice was strained, "They're not from the massacre. Only ten years ago."
Dean was kneeling next to his sister, fingertips touching hers, Leon on the other side. "Sis, how? I thought everyone else died when the city blew."
"I don't know. But whoever they are, their spirit's been bound. I don't think the city was destroyed, it was hidden." She was struggling to talk clearly, despite the calming abilities of Dean and Leon. He watched as she staggered to her feet and over to a red trunked tree on the street corner before collapsing again. Thinking that she was about to throw-up, he was surprised when she started to dig at the base of it. Dean and Janet helped until Sam uncovered a cloth bundle, throwing herself away as though it had burned her.
Scotty watched as she got a handle on whatever emotions she had picked up. She staggered back to the cloth as she pulled out a pair of black gloves and pulled them on. She gently dusted off the remaining dirt and lifted it on to clear ground. As she lifted it clear, the hairs on the back of his neck settled, and the bad feeling vanished. He looked on as she uncovered it, gasping with everyone else as she revealed what was in it.
It was a human skull, sitting on top of the rest of the skeleton. As she lifted the skull clear of the pile of sun bleached bones, the temperature dropped, and a scream rent the air. It was filled with pain, horror and fear. As everyone looked around, trying to figure out where it had come from, Spock spoke.
"Fascinating." He was looking at a woman who had appeared behind Jim, making him jump away in fright. She was reaching out to him. She was transparent with pale skin, blonde hair with streaks of red through it and had pale green or blue eyes. She was wearing a white shirt, over which was a charcoal grey jacket and matching skirt and black flat shoes. She was trying to speak, but couldn't, and Scotty guessed it had something to do with the blood that seemed to come out of her mouth.
Sam suddenly appeared and pulled the Commander away from her. The ghostly woman vanished, the air returning to its normal temperature.
"If you see a ghost, don't touch them. Call for one of us." She said as she returned to the bones. "Leon, help me lay these out." She started to pull the bones from the pile, something that he found sat badly with him.
"Shouldn't you leave her be, lassie?" He said, coming over to her. "The dead should be left in peace."
She looked up at him as she held a bone in her hand, her face showing what she thought of that statement along with her next words. "Did it look like she was in peace, Monty?" She pointed with the long bone in the direction of the ghost while she turned back to the pile as it slowly became a full skeleton. "She's not a peace, and whoever did this, didn't want her to be." She pushed aside a small pile of little bones and gingerly picked up two small cloth bags.
"Dean?!"
"Got it, sis." Scotty stepped back as the brother came over and took the bags that were no bigger than a money bag you get at a restaurant, placing it on the ground before opening it. Curiosity got the better of him, and it seemed the others as they all crowed around him.
"What is it?" Riley asked.
"Hex bags. They're used for all sorts of things, usually nasty. Sam, you may have to rethink gender, I've got a wedding ring that's way too big for a woman." He held it up, and Scotty could see an inscription on the inside of the plan gold band, but couldn't make out any of the words.
"What's in them?" She asked as she and Leon continued to lay out the bones. He called them out as he identified each item, Scotty felt ill at some of them. From what he could see of the faces of the Hunters, they were disgusted.
"All that makes for pretty powerful shielding and warning spells, Sam." John said, "I don't know of anyone on Earth who would play with those types of spells." He was kneeling next to Dean, looking at the items that had been bound in the cloth sacks tied with leather.
"None would," Sam said as she laid the last bone out, "Not even the nastiest of witches would. It's too volatile. We broke the warning spell simply by uncovering it."
"How can you tell?" Jim asked.
"As Hunters, we are slightly more sensitive to spells and such because we've worked around them so often. That's why we kept moving forward when we encountered the spell designed to keep people away. We can tell when we've broken one. For so much thought to make such a hex with that much shielding power, they should have thought that someone was going to break it eventually." Sam said as she stood, looking over the bones.
"Why would they, though. As far they know, there is no one on the planet aside from their own people. This was no doubt made to keep them away from it so they wouldn't break it if they changed their mind about staying." Janet said from Scotty's left.
Scotty was no expert, but he could guess that whoever it had been, they stood taller than Dean, the tallest of all of them.
"Male, roughly 6'5", 230lb. From the teeth, I'd guess between 25 and 30 years of age. The bones were cleaned before they were buried, so no way to determine when he was killed." Bones said as he looked them over, Scotty looked on as he knelt down and looked closer at the bones that made up the neck. "Looks like his throat was slashed." He pointed out the marks to Sam as she leaned closer to him.
"One bag was designed to keep people away from the bones. The other was designed to help power a third spell. For the warning spell to be broken so easily, the focus of the power wasn't making sure it wouldn't be disturbed," Sam started while Janet finished the thought.
"It was to uphold a shield." She looked up, back toward the city. "Shielding some part of the city that was blown up?"
"Oh my God!" Sam suddenly said, her face going pale. "He sacrificed all those people to jump start the shield. That would explain why we couldn't see parts of the city when we were at the outpost."
"He used a version of Cuthbert Sinclair's spell, only he used the power of the souls of the people he murdered instead of spells and items." Dean said, clearly catching onto what they were saying, disgust colouring his words.
"That would mean, Starfleet was right, Kodos may still be alive."
"And not doubt killing people that either don't reproduce, or don't match what he sees as the perfect human to keep the shield powered; it's the only explanation as to how this guy's only been dead a decade."
"JT?" Sam suddenly asked, causing Scotty to turn and look at his friend. He was still staring at the area the woman had been, his face pale. "You recognised her?"
Jim took several deep breaths before answering. "Yeah, she was one of my teachers. She was placed on the living side, and she wanted me to join her." He pulled a canteen from his belt and took several drinks. It was summer time, and it was starting to get warm. Everyone followed suite as they digested the new information.
"Kodos wanted you. Other than having blonde hair and blue eyes, what other reason would he have for wanting you?" Sam asked, concern in her voice.
"Even then I was a genius, top of every class, the best at strategy games." Jim slumped next to the bones, giving them a once over before turning away. "But my Aunt and Uncle and their children weren't, so when their names weren't called out and mine was, I stayed with them. We got separated in the rush to escape, and I didn't see them again after that day."
No one said anything for a moment, until "Think she'll talk?"
"Maybe him?" A hand gestured over the bones.
"Wouldn't hurt, they'll know what's been going on since we left."
"What about others? Think we can find them?"
"I'm more concerned with how he's found a way to power a shield by using ritual sacrifices. I thought the brothers and others destroyed anything relating to the Third Reich's spells."
"Do they know we're here? That the Captain is?"
"I'm more worried about you, Sam."
The Hunters talked over one another, making Scotty's head hurt as he didn't know what they were talking about. But at the mention of Sam, he looked toward her. He noticed the others doing the same.
"Why do we need to worry about Sam? They don't know of her, let alone would they want her." Jim asked.
"If they survived, the ones that shot you in the creek bed got a good look at me and my strength. Now news of you hadn't been widely circulated, and I was acting nothing like a Vulcan. Red Scar, Kodos' 2IC said that he was going to take me back and have me dissected." She looked pointedly at Dean, Scotty getting the sense that there was another deeper meaning to the reason.
"For now, I think we'd better ask him." John pointed back toward the tree, where a man in his mid-twenties and standing at over 6'5" was watching them. He was transparent, like the woman from before; he was also dressed in a similar outfit, slacks replacing the skirt. He had blonde hair and Scotty guessed that the eyes were brown.
"JT, he look familiar?" Sam asked, walking toward the spirit. He looked bewildered.
"Yeah, he was one of Kodos' bodyguards." Jim said, as he too walked toward the ghost. "Michael? Isn't it?"
The spirit turned toward him suddenly, as though seeing them for the first time. He went to speak, only for blood to pour from the slash in his throat. He looked anguished that he wouldn't be able to talk to them, until Sam held up her hand.
"Hold out your hand, and concentrate on what you want us to know." She placed her fingertips onto his, gasping in pain as she did. Jim, Leon and himself were about to pull her away when the other Hunters stepped between them.
"Leave her be, guys. It'll be over in a minute." Dean said, standing next to Sam, readying himself to catch her. "This is one of the ways she's been able to talk to ghosts for years. It's been quite handy, but it will leave her out of it for a while. JT," He looked at the Captain, using his nickname to get his attention, "Find a place to rest for the night, we're not going anywhere."
It was then that Scotty noticed that the area was tinged in red as the sun set. He turned to look at the setting sun, before hearing Jim move off. He and Spock followed the captain, who seemed to know where he was going. After walking a couple of hours, they encountered a stream, where Jim turned and followed it up. They soon came across a cave system, Jim finding the entrance quickly.
"You have been here before, Captain." Spock said as they followed him.
"Yeah, it was one of the first places Thea brought us to." Riley said as he looked around, taking a deep breath as memories no doubt came to the surface.
"Ry. This was where he led the soldiers to you." Scotty said, looking around the cave they had managed to squeeze into. It was as Sam had described it. What had taken a few exhausted and hunted kids a couple of days to reach, only took fit and healthy adults a few hours.
They set about clearing the sticks and nests that had been brought/blown in over the years until the sandy bottom was clear. They had just finished setting out a firepit when Sam and the other Hunters entered.
Leon stayed with Sam as Jim, Spock, Riley and Scotty had moved on ahead. Sam stayed connected to the ghost for close to half an hour, and when it finally disappeared, she collapsed into her brother's arms. He had moved forward to take her, only for him to lift her as easily as if she were a feather and carried her down the path; her hand slipping onto his face, fingers finding the Psi points.
"What's she doing?" He asked Dean, only to have John Mills answer. He stayed with the twins as they set things out. He watched as they poured salt and what they called lighter fluid over the bones before setting it alight. They watched for several minutes until the flames went down and once they were out, the Hunting twins buried them again.
"She's sorting through everything the ghost gave her." He answered as he and Janet put everything away. "Before John died, her father; he did what Dean's doing now, only they did it through the fingers. They're able to sort thru the memories faster with the Psi points now."
"How'd you know where Jim and the others went?" He asked as they followed a path that led them to a stream before they caught up with the pair. Sam was now on her feet, taking a drink from a canteen while Dean was digging in his backpack.
"Sam's story, the first cave system they used is up ahead." Dean said as he finally fished out what he had been looking for. "Found it. Did you have to pack it right at the bottom?"
"It wasn't, it was sitting on top, like I said. You rooting around like a pig is what shifted it to the bottom."
"Wasn't me."
"Was too."
"Wasn't."
They went back as forth like that for several minutes as they resettled their packs on their backs and started up the track again. Leon looked over at Sam, who caught him and winked. He smiled at the fact that she was still able to behave like that with her brother, despite the age gap between them. She had raised him herself after their father had died, so it would have been easy for her to be more of a mother figure to him. She opened the packet Dean had found and took out a couple of bite sized pieces, handing them to her brother before feeding herself.
Behind him, the twins chortled and shook their heads; it seemed this happened a lot. Leon had noticed that since the death of Max Deveraux, the twins had been taking on more, no doubt taking a more active role in Hunting. He looked back to his fiancé and her brother, just as she swatted him on the arm. While they were seemingly joking, he could see the anguish and effort in her eyes; whatever she had gotten from the ghost, was causing her discomfort.
It was a couple of hours later that they rounded a corner, and there in front of them, was a large series of bright orange boulders. Taking a moment to look at them, he quickly followed them as they entered what seemed like a very narrow crack. He bent as he entered the darkness, and within seconds was standing. The floor was covered in orange sand no doubt from the walls, the walls themselves had been made smooth by centuries of water running over them. The hole in the roof was close to 20 metres across, almost half the size of the cave. Through it, Leon could just make out the last of the light as it faded; the sky now filling with dots of light as the stars started to make their presence known.
The cave was warm, no doubt from the heat of the day, the walls and sandy floor kept the heat. Leon was glad. He had done his reading on the planet. After hot days, the nights cooled a lot, and he hated the cold. He followed the others and soon, they were seated around a fire, sipped hot tea and waited for their dinner. It was nothing fancy, just rehydrated food packs, but he was glad all the same. The day had been a trying one. Sam was still leaning against Dean, though her fingers were no longer resting on his face.
"I suggest you all sleep. We'll keep watch." John said, standing and making his way toward the roof. Leon watched as he reached up and grabbed the wall, before he hauled himself up and onto the staircase that had been carved out of the wall by flowing rainwater.
"What are you keeping watch for?" Scotty asked, stopping a moment as he shook out his bed roll.
"If Kodos is indeed alive, that means he will be monitoring the planet. He could very well know that we're here." Janet said as she sorted out her own sleeping bag. Once she had done that, she pulled the holdall that her brother had been carrying over to herself.
Leon had noticed that Dean and John each had a holdall as well as the standard backpack they each had that had their supplies. Dean and Sam joined her, and they started to pull things from the bags. Together, they started to put together something that looked similar to what they had found with the bones earlier in the day. They also muttered some words as they tied each bundle up and soon there were enough for each of them. He nodded when Sam asked if she could snip some of his hair to add to the small bundle. Having seen the three of them do it to the ones they now carried, he agreed. Leon took his from Sam as she handed it to him then set about sorting out her sleeping bag, laying it down before positioning herself on it and wriggling to make it comfy in the sand.
Janet called out and tossed one up to her brother before handing one to Jim and Scotty after gathering hair from them. He noticed Janet place Spock's into one of his pockets, informing him of the emotions some of the items carried. Dean did the same thing to Riley, and informed them all they had best carry them in a pocket
"What is the purpose of these bags?" Spock asked, eyeing the ones Janet handed to Scotty and Jim.
"Like Janet said, Kodos may know we're here. These will help hide us from the scanners. If we contact the Enterprise, we'll have to burn them so they can lock onto us for the same reason." Sam said from the depths of her sleeping bag, her voice slightly muffled.
Everyone nodded, before they sorted out their sleeping arrangements. The bed rolls were nothing more than a thin mattress with a bump for a pillow and a sheet, all in a (in Leon's opinion) horrendous shade of yellow. Once you laid on them, however, they accommodated for your weight, height, floor and weather conditions. Even with the Hunters on watch, Leon figured that they were in for a long night.
Leon woke when the light started to brighten the cave, even if the sun was a long way off from shining directly into it. He sat up and looked around. Many of the others were still asleep, though he could see the Hunters were already up. He got to his feet and made his way to the roof to have a look. As he pulled himself through the hole, he spotted them gathered together around Sam who seemed to be speaking to someone. He stayed where he was and listened. After a couple of minutes, they stood
"Sam, what happened?" Dean asked, as she stood.
"It's one of the kids that were killed at the tree, Jenna. We need to get the others." He watched as they stood and made their way back to the hole. Leon knew it would be useless to try and hide, so he helped Sam back down.
"Sam, everything ok?" He asked when he felt how cold she was.
"No, its not." She said as she looked for Jim. "JT." She said as she shook him awake. He and the others sat around the remains of the fire from last night as Janet got it going again.
"Thea, what's going on?" Leon nearly smirked at the tone, he sounded like a little boy. He sobered quickly as he realised that he no doubt had been having a dream of being here as a kid, and he was still trapped within it slightly.
"Jenna, she found us."
That woke him up, as it did Riley. "Wait, I though you said she was dead, that you'd been able to burn her?"
"She is, I wasn't able to salt her, which would have cleansed her enough for her to cross over. It only laid her to rest for a while. Because of that, she was able to leave the area. She heard we were here. She says hi."
"What did she want?" Riley asked.
"To warn us. Seems Kodos is still alive. Some of the other ghosts have told her that Kodos is still wanting you, JT." Sam said as she took the cup of tea handed to her by Janet along with a portion of breakfast; Spock and Scotty now also sitting up and taking the cups handed to them as well. Leon took his own as he watched Jim's reaction. He went slightly pale, and he noticed a sweat break out on his face. He put his cup down and pulled out a tri-corder. He went over and sat next to his friend. Running it over him, he noted that his heart rate was up, as was his breathing.
"I never asked, but I noticed that you went white whenever his name was brought up. I saw some of the scars. What happened JT?" Sam asked as she sat next to him.
"He would come into the classrooms and watch for a while. Every now and again, one of us would get called out to see him at his office. Most times they wouldn't be seen again, the parents and family told that they had been chosen for special training. Those that did come back, would be a little fuzzy on what happened. They never fully remembered what happened."
"You got called?" She asked. Leon, and the others stepped back from them, as Riley joined the pair.
"Yes." He swallowed, and he got the sense that he hadn't told anyone what had happened. "He, experimented on me. Pulled blood, spinal fluid, brain tissue, hair samples. Had me do a multitude of tests, mental, physical, …" he took a breath, "Emotional." He shuddered, but continued, Leon's constant badgering to talk finally paying off.
"He showed me black and white pictures, vids of people in rags. They were skin and bones, walking behind razor wire fences toward a building. Off to the side, they were burying lots of people in mass graves.*" He shuddered, "Kodos told me that they were inferior, that they were being cleansed from the Earth in the mid-20th century so as to not infect it further. He asked what I thought of that, asked if I would support what he was proposing."
"And what was that?" Sam asked tentatively. Leon could see she had placed a hand on the back of his, her face showing the torment he was feeling.
"A world where the superior ruled and the inferior were eradicated; the healthy survived while the ill and deformed were killed. He asked if I wished to join him in achieving that goal. That I had all the characteristics he wanted to continue. I was smart, healthy, strong. My physical looks were also what he wanted."
"You escaped." Sam said, no question, a simple statement.
"He didn't think he needed to lock me up, as I'd done nothing to warrant it. I just walked out the front gate."
"You gathered up your friends and hid."
"The fungus had already started to attack the plants. Since none of us had reason to ever go to the crops, we didn't know that they were fine. It was a week later when he called us all into the park. We had snuck into my home, but we were all rounded up with my Aunt and Uncle, and led to the park. There was a bunch of us kids shoved to the front. Many weren't there."
"They'd already been locked into the school and the air removed by then. By my guess, only an hour or so before I turned up."
"We were shoved to the front, so we all saw him, heard him clearly. Many of the adults were murmuring, so I doubt they would have been able to hear everything he said."
The group was silent after that, knowing from Sam's tale a few days before what had happened after that. Jim, Riley and Sam stood suddenly and left the cave, the others scrambling to hurry after them. They quickly rolled the beds up, gathered everything they had laid out and raced after the three survivors.
They caught up to them several metres down the path. Path was a bit of a stretch, it was nothing more than a game trail. Leon more than once brushed a branch out of his face as he followed the backs of the others. Jim was in the lead, Riley behind him with Sam bringing up the rear.
"Where are we going?" He called out to her, noting her surprise that they were with them. It seemed that they had forgotten they had company.
"The tree." Jim said from the front. "The ghosts there should have a better idea of what's going on than anywhere else."
"Why?" Scotty asked.
"Because I managed to get them to rest, if not cross over entirely. They will have been more likely to take notice of things as they weren't overcome with revenge. They were at peace somewhat after I returned and told them what was happening. At the time, they wanted nothing but revenge, but I'm hoping after seeing the survivors rescued, they calmed down. The ghost I was talking to earlier was from there."
"They, like Jenna, might know what's been going on." John said suddenly, understanding in his voice.
"Yes." Sam said as the continued on.
"Why don't we use the Enterprise to drop us there?" Scotty said, pulling out his comm. device. He tried to contact the Enterprise, but got nothing but static. He growled at that as they had been working fine the day before when they talked to the ship after landing.
"The sensors in the central building would have alerted him to our arrival. My guess is that Kodos would have tweaked the shield so that no one could escape after Starfleet rescued everybody. Not to mention, the bags we handed out. Remember, we have to burn them for Enterprise to lock onto us. Coming in isn't the problem, leaving will be." Sam said.
"But that wouldn't affect audio signals." Scotty said.
"It would if he's blocked them too. Kodos showed me the telecommunications array. He said that if he wanted, he could stop all signals from being sent within the shielded area. That's another reason we left the shield for the research station. It was outside the blocked area. If we need to contact the ship, it may be the only way. We'll just have to watch for Kodos' forces. They will know we're here by now, even if they can't use the sensors to find us."
The group looked at each other a moment before resigning themselves to several days of walking. What had taken a group of exhausted children several weeks to cross under the cover of darkness while avoiding the roving patrols, took only three days for the group. A map they had pulled up on the ship had shown the stream that had led them to the cave. It was joined by other water courses and turned into a deep ravine, one that Sam had had to go a long way around on her trek to the city. By crossing near the caves, they had saved a lot of travel time. The map was shaving days of the routes that she, JT and Riles had used to lead the others to the dead tree.
SN-ST-XOVER: Return to Tarsus IV
Kirk looked around in sadness. The fire that Sam had lit combined with twenty years had rendered most of the tree to nothing more than vine-covered mounds. All that remained was what had once been the top of the tree. The once bright blood-coloured tip was now charred at one end, with the rest stretching behind them in the palest of pinks. Before them, the clearing was now full of trees two decades old and many saplings, making it hard to make anything out.
Suddenly there were several ghosts in front of them, making them stop suddenly. He, Thea and Riles recognised them. Jenna, Mick, tiny Lil, Jay and Cricket. As he watched, the wounds they had suffered faded; the blood from Jenna's chest vanished with even the shirt repairing itself, Mick's head reformed from where it had been blown away, the other's wounds disappearing the same way.
"You got old." Jenna said, in her typical bluntness.
"Tends to happen when you grow up." He replied.
Silence played over the group for several minutes, with only the tinkling of the leaves and the whispered howl of the native birds to be heard. Silence that was broken when a twig snapped. The ghosts vanished as he and the other two spun to look in the direction of the sound, weapons drawn.
"Sorry." Scotty said, cringing at the noise he had made. Kirk realised that he had been trying to see what had made them stop.
He and the other two stepped into the clearing and made room for the others.
"Who are they?" Jenna asked as several branches lifted from the ground without anyone touching them. He looked shocked at first before remembering that ghosts could do that.
"Friends of ours who want to help." He said, introducing them.
"Hunters?" Lil asked. "Like you, Thea?"
"Not in the sense of food. We Hunt evil creatures that roam Earth so that they can't hurt others." Thea sat as she explained what they did in more detail, also telling them that they could finally lay them to rest.
Cricket had joined the other spirits on the ground, and soon the rest of the team were sitting around a fire that Jenna had created with the wood she had lifted. "Not before we tell you what we've discovered." He said as he sat.
"We spent several years here, getting use to everything. When we became strong enough to leave, we ventured out to try and find Kodos. We didn't believe that he was dead. It took a few years, but we got lucky. We saw him and several others come out of nowhere it seemed. Then, he ordered several people to hold one of them. He went behind them and slit his throat." Jenna started, before Jay joined in.
"They did something to the body before they walked away, and just left it there. When their spirit left and joined us, we found he couldn't walk more than a few metres from his body. We watched the area for a long time, keeping him company and after several months, they returned and piled the skeleton in a bag."
"He talked about trapping the soul and using the energy to power a barrier. He placed a bunch of herbs and other plants on the bones before they buried it."
Thea broke in at that point. "Did it sound like a spell?"
Lil piped up then. She may have been only three at the time of her death, but she had matured over the last twenty odd years. "Yeah, it did, and when he finished I thought I felt a breeze of warm air. He seemed angry after that though. He said it wasn't strong enough. He said that he couldn't use any more as there were no more at the time."
Jenna took up the tale again. "But over the years, he would do it again and again, sometimes killing several people at a time. When he did that, he would smile and say it worked. They formed a circle around the part of the city that had blown up." Jenna drew in the dirt and marked out the places they knew of that people had been buried. It was a remarkably detailed one of the city, mostly the areas that weren't destroyed. Looking it over, Kirk realised that within the circle was what had blown up.
"Every time they did the ritual, they would vanish after walking a few metres, like they went through a wall. We tried to follow, but the closer we got, the more scared we got." Cricket spoke, his voice shaking with the memories.
"The city looked destroyed, but we could hear things, they sounded like they were coming from below the ground." Jay pointed out the areas they had heard the sounds, the Enterprise crew figured that there were air vents in the area. He also said that he had tried to find a way in and had noticed a spot that the spell didn't seem so strong. It was to the south, near where the stone mines were, Jenna added it to the dirt map.
"We saw a ship arrive several years later. We thought maybe Starfleet had discovered something and was returning to look at the hidden area. Only, the ship vanished as it hovered above it." Jenna said, pointing out the direction the ship would arrive and leave by. It was on the side of the planet that was away from the others in the system.
"It wasn't the only one. At least twice a year, one would arrive."
"Supplies, perhaps." Jim posed.
"More 'perfect' people?" Leon asked.
They spoke for a while after that, telling the kids what they had been up to, as well as the revelation of what Thea was. Surprised, they asked question after question. When the afternoon sun lengthened the shadows, Thea asked if they were ready to go. The five looked at one another a moment, before nodding.
Kirk watched after they had told all they knew as Thea led Dean and the twins over to a mound. She and the others then piled wood onto it before pouring what he guessed to be salt on top. Janet then tipped a liquid over the pile before her brother tossed a flame onto it as well. It went up with a whoosh, causing them to step back. He turned back to his childhood friends. Jenna was holding Lil, both had blonde hair with the older girl's curls tied behind her head, Lil's going crazy like any three year old's would; Mick at her feet, his dark grey skin making his yellow eyes stand out. Jay and Cricket, brothers, were holding one another. They smiled, relief on their faces as they faded from sight with the rising moons.
The four paused for a moment to wipe tears from faces before they headed for a hill, Jim followed them as he realised that they were headed to the rocky out crop that Thea had used in the past. The others had remained silent for the last several hours, and he could hear some groans as they stood and followed.
"What was that all about?" Scotty asked as he came alongside him.
"Not sure, but it seemed that Kodos was using a spell."
"He was, we'll explain after we've eaten." Thea said from the front of the line, he had forgotten about her hearing.
They arrived at the hilltop just as the last of the light from the sun faded, replaced with the purple glow from the first of the moons. Talk was kept to only the barest of instructions as they set up for the night. He watched as the four Hunters walked the perimeter, dropping herb bundles and talking in an unusual language that he recognised as one they used for spells. While he didn't know what they were saying, he guessed it was something to help hide them as they had done it every night on their way here.
They ate in silence as they sat around the fire they had started to cook the food and heat water for coffee. They seemed comfortable doing it, even though they were using manual methods. Now he knew why they had said not to worry about food. The animals Dean and the twins had hunted throughout the trek making the most of the meal, while the leaves, berries and other fruit Thea had foraged made up desert. It was like they were kids again as they ate the blue pomegranate.
It was after they had eaten that they started to talk, but Kirk was a little lost as to what.
"He's using the souls to power the barrier."
"We guessed that much from the grave we found." John pulled the bags containing the items they had found with the male body from a pocket and placed them in front of them.
"Yeah, these aren't the sort of things that one just buries for the fun of it." Thea pulled a couple of the items and held them up for a closer inspection. Jim noticed that she was wearing her gloves again.
"But why does he need to strengthen it? Once he set it, he shouldn't have had to re-power it again."
"Unless … John, you have the PADD?" Thea asked and started to look through it quickly once it was handed over.
"What…?"
"Just an idea, but it would make sense." She didn't look up at her brother's question. "Think, what would disrupt a spell that powerful?"
"Since this world was uninhabited until humans came here, the spell language would have been in whatever language the first spell was cast." John stated.
"Unless someone else, when they explored it before settling on it, used a different one." Dean said
"Bingo!" Thea suddenly looked up. "Sh'ella Malstrome."
"That would do it." Dean said as he shuffled over to sit alongside his sister and looked at the PADD.
"Who is Sh'ella Malstrome?" Spock asked when the silence stretched. By then the PADD had found its way into the hands of the twins.
The Hunters looked up sharply, clearly having forgotten the audience they had. "Sorry, Sh'ella was a, well she wasn't a Hunter, but she did help us out. Turns out she was one of the first settlers here. We wondered what had happened to her when we hadn't heard from her in years." Sam said as Janet handed the device to the Commander. Her voice was sad, and Jim realised that she was most likely dead, taken out during the massacre.
"She was one of the best spellcasters, despite not being from Earth. Her planet still uses spell and incantations for some things, like protective charms. The language they use is the same as ours was in the fifth century; unlike Earth however, it is still their main language. There aren't too many witches that are on the side of good, but she was one. Chances are, when she first arrived here, she laid a protective charm to keep the exploration team safe." Dean spoke up as Jim looked at a female humanoid. She looked to be around forty years old with white hair and purple eyes. Her skin looked a mix of translucent and a sky blue. Instead of ears, she had thin antenna that poked through her hair and were about two inches in length.
"A charm, simply because of her abilities, would still be powerful enough to be disrupting Kodos's attempts." Janet added.
"If she used the Old Language, anything he said in Standard wouldn't be working. Though I'm surprised he's not using Old German. Because of the reason he was using the spells, it would have made them work better than Standard." Her sibling said, taking the PADD back and looking over it again.
"Not if he didn't think it would make a difference. Either that or he didn't know it. I'm betting it was the latter. If he thought that no one else had used spells here, he would have used the language he knew best, but because …" Thea started until Janet took over.
"Sh'ella was here years before him, she would have used the Old Language simply because it's the strongest when it comes to magic."
"So, her casting the spell in this Old Language, made anything Kodos did void?" Jim asked, trying to clarify what they were talking about.
"Not completely; any planet we find ourselves on, we cast a simple protective spell, using the Old Language. The first spell used on a planet where none had been cast before is the strongest and sets in place the language for all spells after that. The language is all but forgotten by everyone but us, and I doubt you'll even find anything to translate it in the system. Spells done in other languages would work to a degree, especially if used in an old language related to the caster or the reason for the spell and it is the first spell cast on a planet."
"But because Sh'ella used the Old language in a spell before anyone else cast something, it over-rides any other language." Jim finished, finally understanding.
"You got it, JT." Thea said.
The area filled with silence as they took time to understand what had been revealed. They were settling down for the night when they started to talk about what they would do the next day. It was another hour before they fell silent, a plan of a sort in place.
A/N: *I am referring of course to the genocide of the Jews by Hitler during WWII. It was the only thing I could think of that would come kinda close to what Kodos had done. I apologise if this upsets anyone, but it will be the only time I bring it up.