Castle Walls

Chapter 9: Of Gods, Fire and Snakes

Now, now my good man, this is no time for making enemies.
Voltaire (1694-1778) , on his deathbed in response to a priest asking that he renounce Satan

The darkness of the room was like a blanket. It smothered him and covered his pale skin with its warm woven inkiness. Gohan was still reeling from the dream that had awoken him. The images only got stronger, and the messages grew more and more foreboding. He had a feeling the latest of the messages was not metaphorical like dreams were said to be.  This one had told him straight out that the events of this year were important to the plan for this world in the grand scheme of Creation, that and he was to be only an observer. Slowly the boy started to fall asleep again.

- - _- - - _ - -

He was in an expanse of pure white, not unlike the Room of Time and Spirit, yet it was nothing like that fabled room that was created to train the protectors of a battle weary world. No this was a room inside of an eleven-year-old boy's psyche. It was the stage of his dreams before the scenery was laid out by his neurons, before the cast was assembled from his memories and imagination, before the unconscious mind that directed the play of Morpheus' creation shouted "Action!". He stood waiting for the dream to start, wondering if it was to be a tragedy, or horror as usual, or maybe for once in his life he would have a happy fantasy play out.

A tall muscular man walked out of the void. He was so brown that he made Gohan look like a ghost. His tanned skin was covered with scars, odd twisting multicolored tattoos in seemingly ancient alien design, and a few piercings on his ears, nose, and one of his eyebrows.  He wore dark colored loose pants with a bright colored sash. His hair was down to his calves and made of so many colors that Gohan couldn't name an eighth of them if he tried. On his face was a small friendly smile that reminded Gohan of his Dad's and his eyes were worn and clouded with years of battle and death, something the young Sayajin could relate to. In the man's hand was a large golden broadsword that seemed to be made of crystal and ki.

"Hello, Son Gohan of Earth of the Grey Star Universe. I am your guide and guardian, the Grand Kai of the Nebula Quartet Universes." Said the man with a very pleasant smile and cheerful voice. Gohan swallowed, he had never actually met a Kai before, and this one was rather different and sort of scary compared to his father's stories. The Grand Kai was looking at him with a kind expression and didn't seem like he was to be feared, but the ki or lack of ki was scaring the child. To top it off he had no idea what the names of the universes meant to him or if they could help him in his quest to go home.

The Grand Kai was only a mere ten paces away, not far if the Grand Kai suddenly wanted to fight, but close enough to talk reasonably. The Grand Kai was now grinning, just like his father used to. It was really creepy.

"Well, it's nice to know I remind you of someone you love so dearly, but I'm creepy? I was going for the nice wandering samurai guy look." Said the Grand Kai with a laugh. Gohan raised an eyebrow, he was puzzled by that. The Grand Kai sighed, "Read minds, with being a god of four universes it helps."

"Oh." Well now Gohan understood a little bit more. So a Grand Kai probably ruled over the Kamis and the King Kais like the one that his father trained under before the battle with Vegeta.

"Yes, that is exactly how it is. You are a very clever boy, but learning the structure of the gods of the Purpose is not why I am here." Said the Grand Kai with a smile, that now reminded Gohan of his mother as she praised him for a test score. The Grand Kai was trying hard not to laugh at his thoughts or Gohan's thoughts, the boy couldn't tell which.

"Um. . . well, yes that would be a great deal of trouble, wouldn't it?" said the Grand Kai responding to Gohan's confusion laden thoughts. Gohan nodded.

"Yes sir. I'm afraid it is." Said the child.

"How do you want to solve your trouble?" asked the Grand Kai. Gohan looked at him and contemplated this for a few minutes.

"Could you not read my thoughts unless it is absolutely needed?" asked Gohan. The Grand Kai smiled and nodded.

"Of course I can. Is that what you want me to do?" asked the Grand Kai.

"Yes sir, that would be a great help." Said Gohan with a slight smile of his own. The Grand Kai nodded and closed his eyes for a second then opened them again.

"There, I blocked your mind from mine with a small failsafe as well. If you need me I'll know and be able to get into your mind safely. Is that better Gohan?" asked the Grand Kai. Gohan nodded. "Great. Now, you probably have a lot of questions for me."

"Yes sir, I do." Said Gohan.

"Well, fire away. We have all the time in the world here." Said the Grand Kai. Gohan nodded.

"I was wondering, you said you are my guide, right?" asked Gohan the Grand Kai nodded, "So was I meant to be pulled into this world?" The Grand Kai looked sorrowful at this.

"No, you were not meant to come into the Brown Star Universe at least until you were of the right age. However the Supreme Kai of the Sixteen Star Universes has seen fit to remove you to a world that was under his direct watch, and the rules are set up in such a way that this was the only choice. Luckily you are still in a universe that I preside over, and in the care of men and women that I trust completely. The Kai who rules over this universe is the East Kai, one of the four Kai your father will meet. She will not connect you to him, and will most likely ignore your presence." Said the Grand Kai. Gohan was silent as he mulled this over, it was an interesting turn of events. One that held a lot of questions that Gohan just knew he couldn't ask the Grand Kai just yet. It wasn't personal, it was just he didn't know enough to put the questions into words.

"Okay, so why are you my guide? Why am I so important that the one who is your boss would interfere in my life?" asked Gohan.

"Shrewd,  very clever." Said the Grand Kai with a smile, "Well, I am your guide because I wanted to be. That and our lives are intertwined so much so that you could say we are on the same thread of life. Your interests are mine, and your troubles are mine as well. You are important to the Supreme Kai for that reason, and there is the fact you and I are part of Purpose and are the leaders of last line of defense against Chaos' plans. Chaos, while disorganized and unpredictable as hell, has a need to drown out all Purpose. If Chaos disrupts the delicate balance of Creation. . . well, let's just say that you won't have to worry about getting home." The Grand Kai sighed, it was a very depressing thought.

"That is insane. How could I fight Chaos if I couldn't even fight Cell? I'm sorry but you have to have me mixed up with someone else." Said Gohan. The Grand Kai frowned.

"You are who I said you are. The Supreme Kai has been looking for you for twenty generations, he is not prone to making more than seven mistakes every thousand years and he filled his quota when he let me have free reign in choosing my Archangels." The Grand Kai was grinning now then his smile softened, "Not to mention, I live inside of you. I think I know who you are better than you do." The Grand Kai was smirking now. Again Gohan was overwhelmed by this new information that was so full of questions begging to be asked. It was beginning to give him a headache.

"Oh." Gohan was struggling now, not only with the information, but with the weight of staying in the blank stage of his dreams. It took a lot of mental concentration to even hold a body when the subconscious was not in control. The Grand Kai's face was growing blurry, Gohan was now using all of the energy he could find to stay standing.

"Gohan, are you okay?" asked the Grand Kai, who's voice was strained with worry.

"I, I can't focus. It hurts now." Said the boy trying to sound okay, but he knew his voice was soft and weak. Instantly the pain, the strain, the uncomfortable feelings vanished. Gohan opened his eyes, he and the Grand Kai were seated before a warm orange fire in rich ruby velvet wing backed chairs in a dark old fashioned parlor, complete with painted portraits of stuffy old men and women and lots of gold flecked things. The Grand Kai's sword was laying across a round table next to the large impressive doors. The sword and the two beings looked quite out of place. Gohan had to laugh at the sight.

"So you like it? It was the best I could do on such short notice." Said the Grand Kai who was grinning as well.

"Yes, this is a very nice place. How did you do that?"

"Well, I just told your mind to go to sleep. Then I took over, after all your subconscious needed to take a break. Right now it's just sorting through your day and logging your memories." Said the Grand Kai. Gohan nodded, he found it a great deal easer to understand the man now.

"Thank you sir." Said Gohan. The Grand Kai shrugged.

"No need to thank me or be so formal. Consider me just one of your friends."

"Okay. So should I still question you?" asked the boy.

"Do as you wish." Said the Grand Kai. With that he folded his hands across his chest and leaned back into the comfortable chair. Gohan fidgeted, trying to think of what he wanted to do. It was hard work, normally he was used to people telling him what to do, asking him questions, or dominating the conversation. But now he was put in charge and found he was very inept at it. The minutes passed and the Grand Kai seemed completely at ease in just sitting and doing little other than watching the fire burn. Gohan was soon entranced by the fire as well, it was very calming just gazing as the flames danced upon the logs and stones of the fireplace.

Gohan didn't even notice when he fell asleep.

- - _ - - - _ - - -

Gohan awoke in his green draped four poster bed. Yawning he looked at the other beds and saw that Geoffrey was waking Clyde, Keith was pulling on a dressing robe over his pajamas, and Davyn was laughing as Clyde started to shout obscenities and throw things at Geoffrey. Yawning, he ignored the normal morning routine of his roommates. Crawling to the end of his bed he grabbed his dressing robe and slippers.

"I hate mornings." Said Clyde as he regained some of his self-control and stopped trying to kill Geoffrey.

"But its Halloween!" exclaimed Davyn. He brushed his hair behind his ears and laughed as Geoffrey cursed when he stubbed his toe on a large textbook that was thrown and missed before.

"Oh, so it is! They have a huge feast and fun, right?" asked Clyde, Geoffrey nodded.

"Yeah, it's supposed to be the biggest of the year." Said the dark skinned boy who was still nursing his toe. Gohan was to out of it to join in the conversation, he was still pondering over his dream, or whatever he had last night. He instead went to the bathrooms and started to shower.

After ten minutes he felt Keith enter and start to shower as well and finish in his  notoriously quick fashion. In his mind Gohan started to countdown the seconds as Keith dried off.

"Four, three, two, one."

"What the hell!" Shouted a familiar voice. "GOHAN! You are so dead!" Gohan laughed as he turned off the water and wrapped up in  his robe. As he exited the shower he saw a very pissed Keith only instead of his dark and light colored hair was a mass of silver, black, and copper snakes twisting and hissing angrily at the Sayajin boy. Gohan grinned.

"So the Medusa Serum does that. Good to know." Quipped Gohan tossing his towel over his shoulder. His tail wriggled, showing his amusement. Over the past month he had grown increasingly sarcastic and found he was a natural at potions. Looking at his prey he saw that Keith's face was a mask of pure fury.

"How. Dare. You." said the boy stalking toward his tormenter. Gohan ducked out of the bathroom and was soon on his bed dressing. While Keith wasn't a threat physically, the boy was a wiz at charms, curses, and hexes. Gohan had no doubt that once Keith got control of his imitate reaction, that he  would be on the wrong end of a number of nasty hexes.

Gohan thought it over, it wasn't like he started the war. Keith fired the first spell of this prank war, even if it was an accident. Professor Snape had told both boys that as long as no lasting damage was done and they respected a few rules they could continue. After all it sharpened their skills and taught them how to be truly Slytherin in thinking. It wasn't uncommon here in Hogwarts, though it was usually a Slytherin-Gryffindor rivalry that started the wars.

But this one was started by a far more serious rivalry and was between roommates. It started from the Pureblood-Muggle Born conflict, Keith as most Pureblooded wizards was against the 'tainting' of the wizard world by Muggle-born witches and wizards. He deemed Gohan's family unworthy as soon as the Sayajin told his roommates about them, he told Gohan from the start that his friends were scum to him. As a result, Gohan had taken to defending his family's honor, his friends' worth, and proving the Pureblood wrong. It had become his second mission here, and was the stepping stone that lead to this war. But the last straw had been Keith blowing up Gohan's successfully transfigured bouncy ball. It had taken Gohan two days to turn that dull rock into a green and yellow swirled and naturally it had spiraled out from there.

As Gohan was knotting his green and black striped tie Keith walked in, looking very evil with even the snakes leering at him. Following was a very angry looking Professor Snape. Gohan immediately adopted his innocent face.

"Gohan, what did you do to him now?" asked the tall man glaring at him. Gohan sighed.

"It's just a simple Medusa Serum. You made me write that essay about it last week. I just had to make it, and finding a volunteer to test it was too easy. I figured you of all people would appreciate my efforts to master the art of potion making." Said Gohan sweetly. It was all a matter of finding the right praises and phrases to get out of the detentions that his head of house would try to dish out. Aster and Clyde had taught him that, just like Fred and George had taught him how to lay his traps out.

The teacher sighed, controlling this little fire was growing more and more difficult each day. The worst part was that both boys were following the rules and really only making each other miserable and no one else, so he couldn't really punish them.

"Organized chaos." Muttered Snape, running his hand through his long hair. He pulled out his wand and muttered a spell that would cancel out the potion. Keith's curls of snakes vanished and his spiked auburn and black hair reappeared. "Finish getting ready and go to breakfast. It's Halloween, please don't do anything more today." With that he left the room. As the door shut Keith whipped out his wand and hit Gohan with a Twenty Minute Freeze Spell.

"I think I can agree to a truce for the day now. Don't you think so?" Keith grinned evilly at his roommate. As soon as he was dressed he left Gohan frozen on his bed in the middle of pulling on his right sock for ten more minutes. As soon as Gohan was freed he rushed through the last touches of dressing and ran to the Great Hall. Passing Keith as he went to sit next to Aster he shot the boy a very cold glare that could have been stolen from the Prince of the Sayajins.

"So what happened this morning?" asked Aster, "All I saw was a very pissed Snape leaving and muttering how certain first year students were going to be the death of him." Alesia nodded.

"Yup, he looked super angry. I bet he's kicking himself for letting you two even start fighting." Said the second year girl as she took a bite of toast covered with strawberry jelly. Gohan heaped food upon his plate and started to eat. Both girls and the rest of his roommates knew if they wanted to know anything they had to wait for Gohan to eat his first helping of whatever meal they were at. As he finished he smiled.

"Well, he got a taste of what the Medusa Serum can do and then he froze me up for twenty minutes as I was pulling on my sock. We called a truce for the day to prevent Professor Snape  from doing anything drastic. Besides it's Halloween. I'd hate to see what he had planed otherwise." Gohan's friends sighed in relief. They were glad to see for once they would have a semi-civil day.

Note:  Okay, well how was that? I meant to make it longer but alas, my mother says I spend too much time on the computer. Thanks for the reviews. I don't have time to thank everyone but you know who you are and you all inspired me.

Go and read one of my new favorites- The Mirror of Maybe by Midnight Blue at  .  This is one of the greatest of the stories that I have found. Each chapter is at least twenty pages long and full of fun. I am not going to provide a summery but I suggest that everyone read it.

Also I'm starting to beta Blues' story Harry Potter and the Ancient Powers at . This is another great story and I would be recommending it no matter if I was betaing it or not. She has a great understanding of both Harry and Snape and their psyches. It delves into the question what would happen if the wizarding world found out what Harry's summers were like by watching a reality television-like program. It's post Goblet of Fire and very angsty. A must read for Harry Potter and/or Severus Snape fans.

You know the drill if you have read the other eight chapters…