1450
Taijiya Cave
Fuedal Japan
The Lotis Priestess Midoriko ventured to the Taijiya Cave for the Final Battle.
"What was it you did to my beloved!" Midoriko demanded. "PAA-SA!"
"You want truth?" Khione said, lunging with knife like ice. "Why was your love so easily broken? Such a fragile, laughable trust you had in each other! He never doubted my disguise!"
"Despicable! ARE-GO!" Midoriko growled.
Spiritual chains bound the demonic priestess.
"KA-SHA!" Khione shattered the chains. "Your love was your undoing. Greatest Power? Don't make me laugh! SHA-NA!"
Midoriko collapsed.
"Do you have even strength to finish me like you promised?" Khione laughed coldly. "RA-JI-KA!"
No! She would not die to the word with which she destroyed her beloved. She didn't deserve it!
"UT-EI!" Midoriko screamed the counter-word.
Midoriko and Khione were both destroyed in the resulting explosion, bodies mummified in the cave.
Out of Midoriko's chest sprang the mummified fully formed Shikon-no-Tama.
Complete within were the souls of Midoriko and Khione.
The village leader obeyed Midoriko's order and disposed of the jewel in the Bone Eaters Well.
Over 500 years later, a baby girl was born with the jewel at her core. This girl was Kurai Singer.
Nov 2 1983
Lawrence, Kansas
Crickets chirped and a large deciduous tree with no leaves stood outside one of several suburban homes.
Inside a nursery a woman, Mary Winchester, wearing a white nightgown, carried a small child, her son Dean, into a dark room.
"Come on, let's say good night to your brother," Mary said, turning on the lights.
It was the nursery of a baby, Sam, who was lying in his crib and looking over at Mary and Dean. Mary set Dean down. Dean leaned over the side of the crib and kissed Sam on the forehead.
"'Night, Sam," Dean said.
Mary leaned over Sam as well. "Good night, love."
Mary brushed Sam's hair back and kissed his forehead.
"Hey, Dean," John said.
Dean turned.
John was in the doorway wearing a USMC T-shirt.
Dean rushed over to him. "Daddy!"
"Hey, buddy." John scooped Dean up. "So what do you think? You think Sammy's ready to toss around a football yet?"
Dean shook his head, laughing."No, Daddy."
John laughed " No."
Mary passed John and Dean on the way out of the room. "You got him?"
"I got him." John hugged Dean closer. "Sweet dreams, Sam." John carried Dean out of the room, flipping off the lights.
Sam watched them go, gurgling, then tried to reach his toes. The baseball-themed mobile above Sam's crib began to spin on its own while Sam watched. The transportation-themed clock on the wall ticked, ticked, stopped. The moon-shaped nightlight flickered.
xxx
In the Master Bedroom, lights flickered on and a baby monitor was sitting on a nightstand next to a photo of Mary and John. Strange noises came through the monitor. Mary, asleep in bed, stirred. She turned on the light on the nightstand.
"John?" Mary turned: she was alone. She got up.
Mary walked down the hall to Sam's nursery. A man, seen only in silhouette, stood over Sam's crib.
"John? Was he hungry?"
The man turned his head. "Shhh."
"All right." Mary headed back down the hallway.
The light by the stairs was flickering. Mary frowned and went to tap at it till the light steadies. "Hm."
More flickering light was coming from downstairs: Mary investigated. A war movie was on TV and John had fallen asleep watching it.
If John was here, Mary realized, then the man upstairs wasn't be John and must be a danger. She ran back upstairs.
"Sammy! Sammy!" Mary entered Sam's nursery and stopped short.
xxx
Upstairs, Mary screamed. John woke up.
"Mary?" John scrambled out of the chair.
"Mary!" John ran upstairs.
John burst through the closed door of the nursery.
"Mary."
The room was quiet and appeared empty except for Sam awake in his crib and John. John glanced around and pushed down the side of Sam's crib.
"Hey, Sammy. You okay?"
Something dark dripped next to Sam. John touched it. Two more drops landed on the back of John's hand. It looked like blood. John looked up. Mary was sprawled across the ceiling, the stomach of her nightgown red with blood, staring at John and struggling to breathe. John collapsed onto the floor, staring at Mary.
"No! Mary!"
Mary burst into flames. The fire spread over the ceiling. John stared, frozen. Sam wailed. John, reminded he was not alone, got up and scooped Sam out of his crib and rushed out of the room.
Dean was awake and came to investigate.
"Daddy!" Dean yelled.
John shoved Sam at Dean. "Take your brother outside as fast as you can and don't look back!"
Dean stared for a moment. His mother was gone. Emotions built up inside his tiny form and burst out, suddenly flames formed, catching the room on fire.
"NOW Dean go!" John didn't have time to wonder about what his son had just done, just had to protect both of them.
Dean turned and ran. The flames remained.
John turned back to the nursery. "Mary!"
The entire room was on fire. Mary herself could barely be seen. "No!"
Dean ran outside, holding Sam. "It's okay, Sammy."
Dean turned to look up at Sam's window, which was lit with gold. John ran outside, scooped up Dean and Sam, and carried them both away. "I gotcha."
Fire exploded out of Sam's nursery window.
The Lawrence fire department arrived. A firefighter got out of a fire truck and took over at the gauges for another firefighter.
"I got it. You go hold the line up."
The second firefighter goes to the back of the truck and took a hose from a third firefighter. That firefighter took the hose towards the house where a fourth firefighter was spraying through Sam's nursery window. A paramedic opened the back of an ambulance. A police officer waved some neighbors back. "Stay back. You have to stay back."
Across the street from the house, John and Dean sat on the hood of John's Impala, John holding Sam. John looked up at the remnants of the fire.
Dec 1, 1983
Kurai's first memory was of being held in the arms of her mother as she screamed and cried. Tears not of childbirth, but of loss.
"Don't do this!" Atsuko screamed.
Mana, her eldest sister, was holding spiritual chains binding their father, Bobby Singer. She looked up at Kaori, a question in her eyes.
"Mana." Kaori said. Kaori was the current head of the Hikari family, and Kurai's Grandmother. "There is no need for pity. Pity your mother if you must, for loving a hunter."
Mana held fast to the chains. Bobby, for his part, was struggling, but could not speak. "But he is my father. And hunters know a lot about magic and spells. Maybe he can help—"
"That is enough!" Kaori exclaimed. "We are lucky. You and your sisters were born magical, like the rest of us. But with a hunter's influence, you could end up harming the creatures you are meant to protect!"
Bobby fiercely struggled at this, but it was all for naught.
"I still don't understand, Grams." Mana said. "Why must I do this?"
"If you do not do as I say, Atsuko will be punished for her betrayal." Kaori said threateningly.
"What has mother done that is so bad?" Mana asked, looking at her father's panicked face.
"She mated with one of them." Kaori spat. "The enemy. She is lucky that she and her children are to be spared."
Kurai could hear every word. She wondered if her other sister, Reiko, age two, could hear them. She was just a baby, in her mothers arms, but she was aware of it all.
"What exactly is this man?" Mana asked.
"He is a hunter." Kaori said it as if it was a curse word. "He is probably planning to kill us all."
Bobby's eyes pleaded with his child, his mother-in-law, his wife.
Kurai remembered crying then. She didn't like the cruel words they were saying about her father. She wanted him back.
Atsuko didn't shush her. She screamed and cried as well. Other members of the Hikari family grabbed her and held her back, and shushed Kurai.
But still, Kurai could hear Mana's final words to her father, hushed so Kaori couldn't here.
"This spell will only last as long as Kaori, the current family head, lives. When she is dead, you will wake and remember us. Come back to us alive...And when you do, kill me first, would you? That will be all I can do to make this up to mother. I'm sorry."
And with those words, Mana held out her hand. A rune blazed upon it.
"SHI-NI!"
The rune hit Bobby in the face. His eyes went vacant as the memorie of his family disappeared. The chains shattered.
That was the last time Kurai could remember ever crying. After that, it seemed nothing would ever match her sorrow on that day.
February 28, 1986
Aoi Sora Camp
Hokkaido, Japan
"I love you," Atsuko Hikari held electric cables in her rubber gloved hands. She had just spoken to her daughter, Mana unsteadily ran and hid in the bushes.
Atsuko held out the cables, but the demon was upon her.
"Atsuko!" a shout rang out. Her angel, Sachiel, had come for her.
Electricity rippled through her form. She was gone.
Mana ran up the pier as the police zipped up her mother in a body bag. "Mommy? Mommy!"
Her eyes filled with tears.
Alone in the Hikari household, the infant Kuri cried for her mother.
In a flutter of wings, the angel Castiel appeared.
Castiel tilted his head, unsure of what to do. "Please…do not. I was sent by Sachiel…"
He lifted Kuri and held her in his arms. He touched her forehead, using his grace to calm her, then was overcome by a feeling of love. Spontaneously he started to sing to her.
The child quieted, and he put her to bed. "I will return when you have need of me."
July 4, 2001
Sioux Falls Airport
"Bobby you're home!" Sam rushed over to hug him.
"Sam you and Dean are together again. That's good to see." Bobby said. "Heard from your dad?"
Sam's silence was enough.
Three young women approached holding luggage. They were all clearly Japanese, but also looked a little like Bobby, appropriate as he was their father. They were all wearing kimonos, the elder one in a blue kimono with a wave pattern, the middle one in a red and white kimono with flower pattern, and the youngest in a purple kimono with an orchid partner.
The elder one, Mana, had short dark hair, pale caramel skin, and almond shaped ocean blue eyes. The middle sister, Kurai, had long dark hair, medium caramel skin, and a warrior's expression. She had bright blue eyes with a fleck of red. Reiko, had red hair and green eyes with a fleck of gold, and freckles.
Kurai ran and hugged Jimmy Novak, who had followed them to the airport.
"Jimmy!" Kurai said. "I've missed you so much!"
Jimmy hugged her. "It's great to see you!"
"Dean..." Reiko said. "You really are a hero like everyone says."
"You think so?" Dean grinned.
Kuri said, but rather than hug him, she made a strange gesture: fist clenched over her heart, and a bow. "Still a warrior."
They headed to the Impala.
Bobby laughed. "You are exactly like Atsuko, Kurai. Minus the liquor."
Kuri made a face. "Cmon I'm not like Mom."
"Now don't talk like that, Kuri." Bobby scolded. "Your mother wanted you to be trained in her power so that you wouldn't be consumed by it the way she was."
"Consumed, or cursed?" Kuri questioned.
There was a silence as they got in the Impala.
"So it hasn't gotten any better." Bobby said. "Don't worry. You're safe here. Your home."
July 31, 2001
Bobby's House
"It's so good to see you again." Kuri said. "How was Tokyo?"
"It was fast, loud, and smelly." Reiko said, wrinkling her nose. "So what's that you got there?"
"This is something of Grams'" Kuri said. "She gave it to me in her will. It's called the Grimoire."
Kuri opened the book. "I was reading it, and I realized it talks a lot about this legendary group. It calls them the Omamori. It refers to a large group, that defeats evil. But it refers to the women of the pack primarily. The eldest is a creature of water, and can move objects. The middle is a fox of the fae and can stop molecules. The youngest is a dragon of ice, and can see all things."
"What a beautiful story." Reiko said. "Yet somehow familiar."
She chuckled. "Fox of the Fae."
"There's an incantation here. It's supposed to awaken sleeping magic within." Kuri said. "Sounds like fun."
"Nunc audi verba,
de dominatione Amaymonis:
Secreta absconditus in nocte.
Seniorem De Deorum hic quae sunt iuris.
Magni operis Magia est quaesivit.
Nocte et in hora
Et ego invocabo Proprium.
Sed et potestatis ad Omamori!
Volumus potestas!
Da nobis virtutem!"
Kuri finished the incantation then looked around. No reaction.
"Well you tried." Reiko said.
Thunder sounded outside.
Reiko jumped, dropping her glass, and held out her hands.
The glass stopped! The air, the glass, the water in it...time had stopped.
"You stopped molecules!" Kuri said.
"You're not frozen!" Reiko said. "Thank goodness."
After a few minutes the cup began to fall again and Reiko caught it.
Kuri went and touched the book, particularly where it mentioned the Omamori.
"Hear now the words of the witches!" Kuri shouted.
Reiko took her hand. "The secrets we hid in the night!"
Xxx
Mana Hikawa was appraising a large, chained painting. She was at work in Esviel Museum as an Appraiser.
She wore a blue cheongsam top and black leather pants. Her dark blue jacket hid her skin condition—it was almost as if she had blue silver scales on her legs.
This totally gave her the creeps.
It was definitely priceless and belonged in a museum.
Suddenly there was a shudder and a man stepped out of the painting.
The man—if he was a man; he had wings—tossed his black and blonde hair behind him. He had violet eyes flecked with gold, and wore black edged in gold, and his wings were white with black tips.
"Why am I alive and whole again...after all this time?" He said. "And where is Tenshi?"
He walked over to Mana.
"You don't remember a thing, do you?" He said. "You don't recognize me, do you Hyuga?"
"GET AWAY!" Mana yelled with a fierce anger. "THE OLDEST OF GODS ARE INVOKED HERE!"
The large angelic artwork was blasted back into the panting as Mana turned and fled.
Xxx
Kiana Ofuda finished her college essay to get into Stanford.
Kiana had long blonde hair that was striped by her favorite dyes. She had dark blue eyes and tanned skin. She was also a pop idol called Sera Vee.
What had happened?
She'd had a nightmare, something about death, and an accident.
Light glowed around her as she wished to be far away.
"The...great...work...of...Magic...is...sought..." Kiana sobbed.
And then there she was, in front of a cottage in the woods where time stood still.
And then back again at home lying on the bed.
Xxx
Crowley stood outside the house.
He looked up into the house.
He shuddered.
The moon glowed in the heavens.
"In this Night and in this Hour." Crowley said.
Xxx
Sam Winchester looked up from his book.
How long had it been since he'd seen the Singer sisters.
He wondered what would happen now that it was all beginning
He sat the book down.
"I call upon the Ancient Power." Sam said.
Xxx
Castiel stood inside his home in the Chinatown district of San Francisco.
Castiel wore brown Chinese formal clothes.
He felt his grace returning and sand swirled around him.
"I see. So it is time." Castiel looked up to the heavens. "Finally."
He touched the pendant he wore containing the Shikon. The pendant he pledged to give to his beloved Kurai.
"I will protect you..." Castiel said. "I call upon the Ancient Power."
Xxx
Dean Winchester headed out of a diner towards his impala.
Then it struck him like a lightning bolt.
The call shot through him, and he forced himself to get into the impala.
Finally. After all these years, and he could see her again, Reiko. His girl.
Dean started the car and sped toward Bobby's House, wanting to great his girl at long last.
Dean smirked. "Bring your powers to the Omamori."
Xxx
All across the world, all of Team Free Will chanted.
"We want the Power. Give us the Power."