A/N: Hey guys, so here's the deal. As I continue to write this, specifically the beginning of this chapter, it hit me that this is majority original ideas with the help of a few of Supernatural's characters and previous plot lines (Michael, Lucifer, stuff like that) with these nonhuman creatures as they've made them in their universe. I'm no where near done with this story, there's still so much plot that's planned in my head that just has to wait for the right time to be written into this story, but I'm curious to know what you guys are thinking. I'm still getting follows and favorites (which I'm extremely grateful for, I love you all) and you all are still reading, but since this keeps getting further and further from a Supernatural centric story I'm just worried that some of you may be losing interest. Yes, this is still very much involving the Winchesters, but as the plot is focusing around the witch problem now they're no longer a major focus.
I guess I'm just worried that I'm putting some of you off by taking it so far away from them, I would LOVE feedback on what you think! Also, what do you think of all of these original characters? They won't be hanging around forever, most of them anyway, but for the plot as of right now they're all very needed.
Anyway, I'll stop rambling. Feedback on any of this would be much appreciated. Hopefully you enjoy this chapter! :)
When the sun rose the next day a handful of people were already awake in the castle, even though it was still in the early hours of the morning. Ana was far from full strength, but her power had forced her to wake up; it was humming through her body as if it was arming itself to protect her from harm. Which was weird enough, she'd had control of her magic for months now why all of the sudden was it trying to work without her. Connor must have been able to feel it because before Ana could say anything he was sitting up and giving her a questioning look. He opened his mouth as if he were about to say something but the sudden sound of someone barging into their room stopped him. Turning his attention to the witch that hadn't even bothered to knock, Connor scrunched his eyebrows together, "Fen, what the hell?"
"Something's wrong. I could feel it down the hall, it woke me out of a dead sleep." Fenrick responded, looking slightly crazed with wide eyes, a sever case of bedhead, and the wrinkled tee shirt and sweats he had been sleeping in.
Connor looked at Ana with worried eyes, he could feel her power acting out of sorts, but other than that she seemed fine. "You felt it down the hall?" he aimed the question at Fen as Anna sat up next to him.
The dark haired witch nodded, "I know, it's strange." he commented, easily picking up on the undertone of Connor's words. "Part of the reason I hurried here." Fen walked over to Ana's side of the bed, looking at the powerful witch that was just a year his junior. "This isn't a normal thing is it?" He aimed the question at both people in front of him.
"This hasn't happened since Gabriel took his grace back. I had some control of my power after that, but it's been months, almost a year since I haven't been able to control it." Ana answered, yawning as she felt the half renewed energy she had when she first woke up begin to dwindle. "I think that spell last night took a lot more out of me that it should have." she commented offhandedly. Slowly she lowered herself back into a laying position in the bed, fighting to keep her eyes open.
Connor and Fen shared a worried look, "You shouldn't be this drained still." Connor told her, waiting for Fen to step up and use the one specific power he held more control over than most witches did.
Fenrick's empathic abilities began to show when he was young; as a small boy he was able to understand emotions that not only he was experiencing, but those that the people around him were feeling. As he aged Fen was able to hone this ability, making it stronger and broadening it so that he could also do more than just sense the emotions. Moving so that he was standing next to Ana's side of the bed, he didn't wait for permission before he held his hands out toward her body. At first all he could sense was the woman's extreme exhaustion, it radiated through her body and seemed to be the problem that was hindering the control of her magic. Pushing further with his power he began to scan the essence of her spirit, it being where their magic resided, if something was wrong with her power itself he would find it there. Searching the surface of the purple light that was Ana's spirit Fen stopped when he found what the problem was; there was a spell wrapping itself around her soul, weakening it. The feeling that radiated off of the magic was tainted with such a dark evil that it made Fen jerk away from it, pulling his power back. "Dark magic." he told Connor, being able to feel that Ana was too far lost in the exhaustion to be able to help.
While Fenrick had been using his magic Connor had watched Ana's face as her eyes closed, no longer being able to fight with the weariness of her body. Now that those two words were out of his friends mouth he noticed that her breathing had gone from sleeping deep to extremely slow in mere moments. "The rogues?" Connor questioned frantically, if the magic was working as quickly as he had just witnessed they would have to race against it before it could do more damage to Ana than it already had.
Fenrick shook his head, "Darker than even they could accomplish alone. It's an old spell, something made by a witch, but the power surrounding it is darker. Demonic, even."
A long line of curses came out of Connor's mouth as he jumped off of the bed, moving toward a trunk he kept in the corner of his room. Opening it quickly, he moved things aside until he found a pouch made of golden thread. Snatching it up in his hand he jogged back to the bed, hopping up on the mattress and scooting until his knees were at his soulmates side. "Demons and witches, damn angels…" Connor muttered as he dug through the bag of talismans until he found the one he was looking for. Tossing the rest of them aside he held it in his hand, wrapping his fingers tightly around it before holding his fist high above Ana's body. Quickly glancing up at Fen, his friend too the signal and wrapped both of his hands around Connor's clenched fist and then Connor quickly placed his free hand on the other side of Fen's. The chant that Connor took up was something they had used before, one that would eradicate any evil from a person and with powerful witches like he and Fen it would hopefully work quickly.
The pair chanted together, focusing all of their power to rid the evil that tainted Ana's spirit and magic. They chanted for minutes on end, never pausing, but the evil wouldn't dissipate. Connor was about to growl in anger when three bodies hurried through the open door of his room. Glancing up long enough to see Valera, Dean, and Sam, he quickly looked back to Ana once he was sure they were safe. Valera's room was just on the other side of his own, she must have heard them chanting and come to see what was going on. Dean and Sam began to ask questions as Valera moved toward the bed, quickly instructing each of the men to stay back. She had no idea what was going on, but understanding what the two men chanting were doing was easy enough. Not pausing for a second, Val closed the space between herself and Ana, not caring about any personal boundaries as she straddled Ana's lower legs and placed one hand on top of the men's and one on the bottom, adding her power to theirs and taking up the chant with them.
Dean and Sam stood back, watching the witches stand and chant determinedly. They still had no idea what was going on, what had happened to Ana or how serious it was, but they both shared a fearful glance as the witches continued to work. Dean was beginning to panic, they had been chanting for what seemed like an hour, on top of however long Connor and Fenrick had been going before they had arrived, and it didn't seem that anything was happening. He was just about to start yelling for an explanation with Ana sucked in a deep breath and sat straight up. Stepping forward he watched as the three witches around her dropped hands and let out a relieved breath. "What the hell was that?" He demanded, looking at each of them, not really caring who answered him.
"That was some very strong dark magic with an extremely tight hold on your daughter's soul." Fen answered, offering Val a hand to help her up so that Ana could move. "There for a moment I wasn't sure we were going to be able to break it."
Valera nodded, watching as Connor checked on Ana, "Were you able to get a reading on the spell itself?" She questioned Fen, something that strong would have had to been cast while Ana was in the presence of the witch doing so.
"It was an old spell, in a language I don't think has been used by any witch in centuries. Also, I believe that whoever cast it was aided by a demon. It was too dark to just be a witch working dark magic, it felt tainted by Hell itself." He explained, glancing over his shoulder at the Winchester's. The moment the word 'demon' had come out of his mouth both men became tense, which wasn't surprising at all.
"So now not only are these rogue witches working with Gadreel they're working with demons too?" Dean's words were almost a growl, it seemed like every time they almost had their next step figured out something would change and they would have to rethink the whole situation over again.
Ana threw her legs over the side of the bed and stood up, "Jade. She's working with Gadreel, Gadreel is working with the rogues to get to us; it's not that large of a leap to think that whichever demons are working with the witches are under command from Jade and Gadreel."
"A spell like this would have either had to been cast in your presence or require a form of DNA for it to work as strongly as it did." Fen offered, knowing that Ana hadn't been around a rogue witch or a demon in at least twenty-four hours meant that the first option wasn't plausible.
Connor and Ana shared a look, both thinking the same thing. "I would have been able to sense if there were a rogue witch or a demon any where near me. I don't know how they would have been able to get my DNA, it's not like I have been much of anywhere but here or the bunker lately."
Everyone seemed to pause and contemplate how this would have been able to happen, the room falling into silence as their was no immediate answer in any of their minds. Sam was going over what he knew of witches, how their spells worked and the new knowledge he was gaining from being around these good witches he had no idea existed for the longest time. "What about a hex bag?" He glanced at Dean, remembering the amount of trouble they had with the objects in the past. "We've seen plenty of those in our time, could one do something like this?"
Valera thought about the possibility, "Maybe, that would still pose the question of how they got it on Ana's person and where it is now."
"So what we're saying is that we have a lot of if's and maybe's but no real leads. That somehow there was a spell put on my daughter without our knowing, but that would require some form of contact with the bastards on the other side of this fight and we don't know how that happened?" Dean sounded speculative, pausing as a thought struck him. "Could there be someone here playing both sides? That would make sense right? Someone acting like they're playing for our team, but really is just sticking around to help the other side get the upper hand?"
"No." three voices answered at the same time, all of the witches that knew the people in the castle with them certain about their answer. "These witches have been fighting at our side for centuries, none of them would have any reasoning to suddenly turn against us." Valera assured the hunters.
Fenrick nodded in agreement of Val's words, "If anyone held ill feelings toward us I would be able to sense it."
Dean was about to yell about the whole situation, feeling completely fed up with everything going on, but before he had the chance Ana began to speak. "We can figure out how later. Right now we need to focus on our next move. They obviously wanted me out of the game by trying to drain my energy like that." Her voice held a pissed off tone that Dean was beginning to call her 'screw this, I'm going to kick someone's ass' tone. He wondered momentarily if she got that from him. "They're delusional if they think I'm going to let something like that slide. We need to give them a show of force, scare them, then be prepared to launch our attack."
"A show of force?" Valera raised an eyebrow at the young witch, "Did you have something in mind?" The distance between themselves and the location of the rogues would make any spell difficult to cast, if they wanted it to be successful they would need a lot of power. Which meant getting most of the families to participate. Which meant getting agreement from the High Council and that would be hard to do with any spell or ritual that could possibly considered dark magic.
"I don't know." Ana shrugged, "Set their cabin on fire. Conjure a wild pack of boars to attack. Anything to distract them long enough for us to get a plan together and attack them before they have the chance to attack us. I'm done waiting for this to be over, it needs to be dealt with so we can focus on Gadreel."
Sam cleared his throat, "If all you want to do is distract them then I can think of one surefire way to make that happen." He looked at Ana, giving her a small smile since he knew that she would be more than thrilled with his idea. "Why don't we give Gabriel a call? He hasn't been able to pull many tricks lately and I'm sure he'd be willing to lend a hand."
Dean groaned at his brother's suggestion, but Ana returned her uncle's grin at the thought of her favorite archangel being able to help out by doing what he did best. "You're a genius!" she commended Sam, turning to give Connor a quick wink before she began to pray. "Gabriel, we could really use your expertise down here."
The sound of flapping wings filled the room, signalling the appearance of the archangel, but no one was prepared for the sight they were about to turn and see. "Kielbasa?" Gabriel questioned, donning the same outfit that he had in the "porn message" he had left the Winchesters, shining silver servers platter and all. Looking to Ana, he raised a suggestive eyebrow at her.
"Ew. No!" Her face scrunched up in disgust at the thought of what was being suggested. "Never. Just, ugh." Ana shook her head quickly to try and rid her mind of the image before her. "Trickster expertise."
Gabriel smirked and shrugged his shoulder, snapping his fingers to rid himself of the strange outfit and back into his normal clothes. "Well why didn't you say so in the first place? I'm always down for giving some poor suckers what they deserve."
Sam scoffed, remembering exactly how much Gabriel enjoyed messing with people. "Then you're going to love this. We need you to distract the rogue witches so we can figure out our next move without having to worry about them attacking Ana, again."
"Again?" Gabriel glanced at Ana, raising a curious eyebrow. "What have they done so far?"
"Oh, you know, the usual. An energy draining spell that could have killed her, maybe." Fen answered with a shrug and a yawn.
Dean's head snapped around to look at Fen so fast he was certain whiplash would set in shortly after his adrenaline rush died down, "Maybe?"
Valera nodded, "There's no telling how Ana's body would have reacted if it was held under that spell for a few more hours. Her system could have just shut down, functioning enough to keep her alive but not enough for her to be awake. Or she could have died."
"Damn witches." Dean swore, looking back to Gabriel. "You give them everything you've got, worse than anything you threw at me and Sam. By the time these guys are done doing whatever it is they're going to do, I want them to wish they had died."
Sam paused, his brother's words bringing a question to mind, "What will you guys do with them once we have them cornered? Murder doesn't really seem your style." If it were he or Dean making the plan there would be no other plan than putting those rogue witches in the ground. Dark witches were never something either of them could tolerate.
Connor sighed, "Sadly, murder is frowned upon, though I've been considering the option for a while now. No, they'll be bound in iron and stripped of their powers."
Each witch in the room seemed to involuntarily wince at the thought, "A life without magic is worse than death to any witch." Valera spoke, her tone almost mournful as a frown set on her lips. She felt a large, comforting hand on her shoulder and glanced up to see Sam giving her a small, sympathetic smile. Returning it, she sucked in a deep breath, "But it is what has to be done and these witches have done more than enough to warrant their punishment. All that there is to do now is gather those who are going to fight and make sure we have everything we need." Turning to look at the Winchester brothers, she paused a moment before chosing her next words carefully. "This fight could get… ugly. Two opposing sides of witches in battle has never turned out in anything less than horrific, it may be best-"
"Don't even say it." Ana cut Val off, knowing that the elder witches next words would just piss off her father. "They've gone up against witches before and they won't be alone. The only way we'd get them to stay here would be to spell them or physically lock them down anyway."
Valera shook her head, "Don't say I never tried to save you two." she gave each man a pointed look before turning to address the witches in the room. "We'll meet with the rest of the Council in the meeting room in fifteen minutes? Everyone can change out of their sleepwear." she offered, knowing that those she sat with would probably think them all crazy if they ran in there looking as they did now. "Also gives us each a few moments to think of different strategies. We're going to need options going into this battle."
Each of the younger witches nodded, Connor and Ana waiting for the others to file out of their room so they could change. Dean and Fen were the firsts to move, Dean watching his brother long enough to see a smitten look on his face as he stared at the witch that stood in front of him. Shaking his head the eldest Winchester left the room.
Sam was too busy thinking about the way Val could go from being a concerned friend to a witch in charge of those who looked to her for guidance in mere seconds to catch the first movements of her turning around to leave the room, but instead having to come to a stop right in front of him because he was in her way. "Uh, Sam? Don't you think we should get out of here so those two can get dressed?" she raised an eyebrow, confused by the look on the man's face.
"Right.. Yeah.. sorry.." Sam fumbled with his words before quickly turning around and heading out of the room. Once in the hallway he was able to see Dean walking down the left corridor and turned to follow him. Valera had woken him up when she'd felt Connor and Fen's magic working and had led him to get Dean before the three of them had entered Ana's room. He hoped that his brother had thought to get Sam a room of his own even though he had stayed with Val the night before, he could really use the space at the moment. "Hey!" Sam called just above a whisper as he jogged to catch up with Dean.
"Did you strike out already?" Dean teased as they came to the room he was staying in, "I was only gone like a minute and I missed you making a fool of yourself, didn't I?"
Sam stopped and glared at his brother as he opened the door in front of them, "Shut up." He scoffed and pushed Dean into the room, hoping that he'd thought to have someone find them some clean clothes or somehow gotten ahold of some of their own.
-A-
"Well that was strange." Valera commented with a tilt of her head, before she could think too hard on it she shook her head to regain her focus. "Fifteen minutes." She repeated to the couple over her shoulder before leaving the room and closing the door behind her.
Gabriel watched everyone leave the room before he turned to look at the two witches left, "You okay?" he asked Ana, wishing that he wasn't so busy trying to track down the angels that were assisting Gadreel so that he could be around to help protect her.
Ana smiled at the archangel and nodded, "I'll be even better when I can kick some rogue witch ass." she offered with a wink, knowing that Gabriel worried about her a lot. Between her dad, her uncle, her soulmate, and her own protective archangel there was little doubt in Ana's mind that a moment went by when someone wasn't worrying about her. It was a little sweet, but mostly pretty annoying. "Now go screw with some witches. Make it creative."
"I've got a few ideas that I've been waiting to use." Gabriel gave her a smirk that would scare those who were on his bad side, "This is going to be fun." The words hung in the air as he flew out of the room, ready to let out some pent up aggression on the witches that were helping his traitor of a brother screw around with those he cared about.
With the room finally empty Ana and Connor were able to relax a little, each one taking a moment to settle into the silence around them before moving. "Are you feeling alright?" Connor finally spoke, turning to look at his soulmate, both of his hands resting on the sides of her face.
Smiling up at him, Ana nodded slightly, "I feel great now that the spell is broken. I promise you that I'm alright." Stepping up onto the tips of her toes she kissed him softly, "Now we need to get changed otherwise we're going to be late meeting everyone else."
Taking a few seconds longer just to look at her, Connor slowly removed his hands from her face and turned to dig through his dresser for clean clothes. Ana had to teleport back to the bunker to get clean clothes, they hadn't planned to be staying at the castle anytime soon so she hadn't thought to leave anything there. She changed quickly and teleported back to see Connor place the talisman back in the bag that he had dug it out of before putting the bag itself back into the trunk. "Ready?" he questioned as he stood up and turned to face her. Taking in the jeans and black tee shirt Ana was wearing made everything finally sink in for him, they were about to go up against a large group of rogue witches with his pregnant girlfriend in the front line of battle. He knew that she purposefully wore clothes that she could easily move in should she have to physically fight off an attack. Maybe he had been wrong to promise that someday their lives would slow down, it didn't seem like they would ever get the chance to breath without worrying about one thing or another.
"Ready when you are." Ana told him, watching as his brows knit together in worry. "Let's go before that brain of yours gets you all worked up. We need to be clear headed to take on these rogues, so stop overthinking things."
"Says the queen of overthinking." Connor teased, moving toward her and taking her hand before leading her toward their bedroom door. She was right though and he knew it, before they left to fight against the rogue he would need to clear his head otherwise he could get himself or someone else hurt. "Would it be crazy to think that the rogues go without a fight and just let us bind them to take their magic away?"
Ana laughed, throwing her head back as they walked down the hall together, "Completely insane would be the better way to describe it. You know as well as I do that once they see us that they're going to attack. Not only because we're going to strip them of their magic, but because they're following Gadreel's orders which means they need us out of the way."
He sighed and shook his head, of course there would be a fight, he knew that there was little chance that they could avoid one, but he didn't want to risk anyone getting hurt. Especially Ana. Before he could think any longer on it they were entering the gathering hall to see almost everyone else already there.
Caoimhe walked to meet them before they could join the rest of the group, wanting to have a private conversation with the couple before they got onto the task of planning out their battle strategy. The elder witch had no doubt in her mind that this would turn into exactly that, a battle. "How are you feeling?" the question was meant for both of them, though she was more worried about Ana. The first thing Valera had done when she had joined the rest of the Council was inform them of the spell that had been cast on Ana.
"Ready to get this over with." Ana answered, more than ready to get started. The number of times she had been attacked by demons and angels within the time that she had met the paternal side of her family may have started to take a toll on her. A strange sort of bloodlust began to surface any time she thought about those who wanted to hurt those she loved and it was only growing stronger with each attack.
Connor glanced sideways at Ana before answering Caoimhe, "I'm great and she's doing better now that the spell is broken." he glanced around to take count of who all was there, "Are we just waiting on Sam and Dean?" The only people in the room were the Council members, Fenrick, and themselves. For it being so early and after the attack on Ana they all understood that it would be easier if they kept this discussion small before handing out instructions to the rest of the families.
"Not any longer." Caoimhe commented with a smile as the Winchester boys walked into the meeting hall and toward them. "Shall we?" she questioned, knowing that by acting quickly they may be able to get the upper hand in the fight. Motioning for the group to follow her toward the other side of the room they joined the others, forming a circle just in front of the long table that the Council sat at during more formal affairs. "The rogues have made their first move." She began, pulling the focus to the cause at hand.
"By attacking one of our own they have declared their stance against us and we cannot allow it to go any further." The shorter woman next to Caoimhe spoke up, her German accent as thick as her long blonde hair. Her eyes focused on Ana as she continued to speak, her sixty years of age not showing as she squared her shoulders, "We send our best to trap, bind, and strip these rogue witches of their power before they can cause greater damage to our coven. There is the risk that we may lose some of our own, but that risk is worth avoiding the destruction they could cause to the rest of us."
There was always a risk when going into a fight with powerful beings; be they demons, angels, or witches the possibility of casualties on their side was something no one was ignoring. The likelihood of greater damage being done to the members of their large coven was enough to outweigh the fear of losing some of their own to protect to rest and that knowledge hung heavy on the heads of those in the room, filling the space with a short silence.
A man cleared his throat across the circle, pulling the attention away from the thought of death. "Giselle is right. We may sacrifice, but we shall come ahead in the end. Those of us who are old enough, versed in both defensive and offensive magic, and in understanding of the power stripping ritual will be sent to fight. The rest will stay here and prepare to heal those that return." The elder man took in a deep breath at those words, somber with the knowledge that his one and only child would be part of the group to fight weighed on him.
"Tiberius." Niall spoke, placing a hand on his friend's shoulder to help calm him. They would each be sending someone into the battle that they cared deeply for, but this was the danger that they faced as the governing witches of their area. "All of the members of the Council will stay here, if by some chance our plan fails those remaining will be next to stand up."
Valera took a step forward, drawing attention to herself, "As a member of the Council I am in full understanding of our common actions during times like these, but I will not stand back while this battle is waged."
There was a shocked silence among the Council before Caoimhe spoke, "Valera, you are the last of your line. As heartless as it may sound, we need you to mother the next generation of Konstantinov witches. We cannot risk your life in the name of battle that can be fought by others."
"If this fight is not fought to the fullest there will be no Council for my children to be a part of." Valera plead, she refused to let her dwindling family line be the reason she wasn't in the middle of whatever was going to happen between their people and the rogue witches. "We need every witch we can spare and I am more than willing to be one of them." A few of the other Council members began to speak up in argument, but she quickly cut them off. "I'm going and that's final. Head count of the rest of those coming with us and those staying; by line."
"Anastasia Winchester of the Good line will stand to protect what is ours." Caoimhe spoke first, not at all pleased by how Valera had shut them all down, but she had just as much say in these decision as the rest of the Council members did.
"Connor Mohr will stand." Niall spoke up, shooting his nephew a proud, yet worried glance.
"Gavin, Dallis, and Nicholas Calhoun will stand. Iona and Fenrick will remain for aide." The second eldest female witch spoke for her family.
Next was the female witch that stood next to Caoimhe, "Emie Vonnegut will remain for aide."
"Kari Lillegard will stand. Marius will remain."
"Elliot and Riley Harlow will stand. Malakye will remain."
"Jacey and Philomena Stavros will stand. Andrea, Damien, and Daphne will remain."
"Elania will stand." Tiberius finished for those who had someone to account for. Each family would keep at least one heir in the protective boundary of their castle, while sending the others who were old enough to fight. The only reason his daughter, the only heir to their line after himself, was allowed to go was because of her extensive background with handling the ritual that stripped a witch of their powers and the need they had for it to be done correctly.
Valera gave Tiberius a long look before speaking, "I, Valera Konstantinov, will stand." Turning to look at Dean, she addressed him as the leader of the hunters who would be fighting alongside them. "Will all of your people be aiding in the fight?"
Dean thought on the question, taking a moment to process the words that had just gone around the circle of people he was standing with. "Sam, Charlie, and I will be fighting. Kellen doesn't have enough training to be ready for something like this, he can stay and help take care of those who return."
"Fifteen will stand in arms against the rogue witches. Seventeen will remain to tend to those who need healing when we return." Valera spoke the numbers, taking full control over the situation since she would be the one leading them to fight against the rogues. "We will collect the rest of our families and give them instructions. The archangel Gabriel is distracting the rogues and giving us this time to prepare. Let's make this quick so that he isn't doing so for long."
Side Note: Was all of that formality toward the end weird? It felt needed to me. They are a group of witches in "charge" of Europe's witch population, figured it called for some formal battle call or something. I don't know.
