Beetlejuice

Season 2: The Sleeper Saga

Episode 22: The Visionary

"What are you doing, Grimnak?" Merlin demanded of his brother. "You're not supposed to be able to open dragon's gates." "I can't, thank-you-very-much. This is called a 'Projection Gate', an ability I created not long before you imprisoned me. I can't step through it, but if I try..." Grimnak trailed off and closed his distance on the gateway. Once his hand touched through to the other side his eyes whitened completely and it looked as if something was being pulled out of him. Lydia and the others watched in shock as a massive blob of goo fell to the floor in Lydia's house. The goo then began quickly taking shape, his shape. And once it was done, an exact copy of Grimnak stood in front of her. He waltzed up to her tauntingly with a devilish smile on his face. "What do you think?" He asked her, staring into her widened eyes as if he was trying to read her very soul. "I can't leave outside of my own sight, and I have an entire, what is your measurement of time?" He turned his head upward to think, but only for a second, "Thirty minutes, that's right." He then leaned in to nearly touch Lydia's nose with his own, "So, if I were you, I'd run." Before he could do or say any more, Ben morphed back into Beetlejuice and came face to face with him, "Hello, name's Beetlejuice. But, more importantly, I've got some mail for you." He then reached into his right suit pocket yanked out a large burlap sack filled with blank letters and tossed it at Grimnak. Instinctively, The Black Mage caught the large sack and Beetlejuice was able to push the double back into the gate using his right foot. The moment the double backed into the gate it literally evaporated and the gate began to collapse. Grimnak himself was blown backward by an explosion on his side just as the walls of the gate lit with silver looking flames. The gate then simply burned like a piece of paper, sealing it back up. After they all settled down, Lydia tapped Beetlejuice on the left shoulder and asked him, "How did you know that sending him back into the portal would close it?" Beetlejuice answered her, "Honestly, I didn't but I figured that if I could send him back into the portal he'd at least have to create another doppelganger before pursuing us. My plan was to at least slow him down." Lydia then nodded in agreement and at his good fortune.

Back in the Neitherworld, Grimnak awoke with a start once the Projection Gate forced itself closed. He growled angrily at his new developments, "That Gate takes up too much of my mental and physical energy. I underestimated them, it seems. This is going to be more difficult than I thought." He then began to chuckle to himself, "This is going to be more fun than I thought."

Back in Lydia's house, the group did their best to haul Delia and Charles upstairs into the master bedroom of the house and put them comfortably in bed. "How long until your spell wears off again?" Lydia asked Merlin. "Four hours at the most." He answered. "Everyone is different." Just then, Delia began to stir like she was awakening from a long sleep. "I'll see you all at Beetlejuice's house." Merlin blurted out quickly and then headed downstairs as fast as he could. He got to the bottom of the staircase and waved his hands quickly and then vanished from sight. A few moments later the front door opened and shut by itself as if someone was exiting in a hurry. Lydia followed the old man and watched him as he vanished from sight and inevitably asked herself, "Did he just turn invisible?"

It took almost all of two hours for Lydia's parents to awaken, giving the girls and Ben plenty of time to clean up any evidence of other worldly beings and for the others to head over to the cabin for a strategy meeting with Merlin. Delia woke up first and apparently felt as if she had a hangover for just a few seconds. "Oh, what happened?" She asked groggily still feeling her consciousness return to her. Lydia stood by with a kind of sheepish grin on her face trying to think of a good excuse, "I don't know, you two just collapsed from exhaustion." She awkwardly blurted out. Delia looked at Lydia as if she may have been right and simply shrugged her shoulders. "I think I've been working too hard." She finally guessed referring to her work in her art studio. Charles then groaned and sat up in the same manner as Delia. Again, the sensation of a hangover faded quickly and simply left him slightly dizzy. "Oh, what happened?" He asked in the exact same manner as his wife. Lydia giggled lightly at the awkward little sentiment and asked with a smile, "Is it alright if I walk Ben home? I think that this birthday is about over." Indeed she was right, but there were more important matters to attend to. "Yah, honey, sure. Just hurry home, ok?" Charles said to her. Lydia smiled again and simply nodded her head to answer him.

On the way over to Ben's house, Lydia began to look down at the ground with a slight worry. "Looks like another dangerous adventure." She sighed. "It seems like it." Ben answered. "I promise that I'll do better as your guardian ghost, though." Lydia smiled at the sentiment and responded, "Thanks BJ." She began laughing again at the silly nickname as Ben groaned in mild frustration. "I really hate that nickname!" It was then not long till they entered the forest and were on their way to locating Ben's house. To keep their minds off of the impending battles, they began to talk about the things in their normal life. During the six months of peace, they did everything they could to get their lives as normal as possible. Lydia still dreamt about her mother, Bertha coped with her traumas by revising her Drakenfeld strategies, Prudence studied books on combat situations and even signed up for martial arts lessons to allow her to protect herself if trouble arises once more, Claire's life changed for the better as her parents spent much more time with her and she even began changing her reputation at school, Ben fit in to his surroundings like a charm and even joined the school baseball team just to keep himself busy for a time.

"Here we are." Ben stated as they reached the front door of the cabin. The two of them entered the wooden house and were greeted by the rest of their friends. Claire ran up and gave her friends a small greeting hug and led them in still happy of Lydia's birthday. "I think she's finally lost it." Ben whispered to Lydia only to get a swift kick in the shin from Claire who heard him. Ben gripped his injured leg and hopped around trying to balance on one leg and regretting his snide remark. Claire then stormed back to a chair to sit down. "You're an idiot." Lydia threw in.

Once Ben's little side show was over, they all sat down to listen to Merlin's tale once more, however, he still referred to his third brother as "The Sleeper". How come you haven't told us your third brother's name?" Prudence asked. Merlin looked kindly at the small girl and answered, "Because, I can't remember it." "Wait, you can remember the name of the brother that is trying to kill you, but you can't remember the name of the brother that lays dormant and defenseless somewhere?" Claire snapped at the old man. "As long as I don't' remember his name, I'll never recall his resting place. And in that, I'm protecting him." Merlin coldly stated back to her. "Why is that?" Lydia asked. Merlin turned back to the pale skinned girl and solemnly answered her, "Being my brother, Grimnak has partial access to my thoughts. The moment I remember The Sleeper's name, is the moment he is supposed to awaken, not a moment sooner." "So, in forgetting your brother except for any legends and rumors, you keep your brother safe from The Black Mage." Bertha repeated Merlin's earlier statement. The old man simply turned his gaze to her and nodded. "I'm sorry, I've gotten you all mixed up in my family problems." He then solemnly apologized. "If this is a family quarrel, I'd hate to see 'falling out'." Ben said under his breath to Lydia. She bumped her left elbow into his right ribs to silently tell him that his remark wasn't appropriate and insensitive. "So, why can't Grimnak use dragon's gates?" Claire asked remembering the short conversation and then freaky demonstration of The Black Mage's projection gate. "The dragon's gate is an ability of the dragons due to the original guardians of the spirit gate being dragons. We have a direct connection to the four worlds in order to maintain a delicate balance. It took almost all of my energy, but I did manage to sever Grimnak's connection to the spirit gate. Without that, he lost the ability to create and move through dragon's gates." Merlin answered. "And that inevitably stranded him on one world." Lydia surmised. Merlin nodded in confirmation and then added, "Are there any more questions?" Suddenly a dark and sinister voice asked from the front door, "Yes, how long does it take to recall family?"

The group then turned to the front door only to find the frame filled with Grimnak's projection gate and with another doppelganger already formed. Ben morphed into Beetlejuice in mid rush to try and shove the double back through the gate only to be stopped and find himself helplessly floating in place inches away from Grimnak's right hand. "Beetlejuice!" Lydia called to her guardian ghost in shock. "Gravity manipulation." Grimnak chuckled. He then motioned his hand as if he was tossing a stuffed doll to the side and Beetlejuice's form simply followed suit and was actually tossed aside and into the closest wall. Lydia felt the impact as he crashed into the wall and struggled to get up. "It feels like my body weighs a ton." Beetlejuice grunted while pushing as hard as he could to stand upright. Lydia could feel an enormous weight fall upon her own shoulders as Grimnak aimed his left hand to her. She was soon unable to keep herself from dropping to her knees and even struggled to support herself with her arms. The same exact thing began happening to the others as he increased the gravity around them to nearly crushing levels.

Suddenly, Lydia felt the anger once again boil over. The strange thing was that it was obviously not her own anger. Ten seconds later, her vision went black and another consciousness began taking over. Rage built up to uncontrollable levels in both Lydia and Beetlejuice and the same transformation began to occur from the final battle against Naria. The canine teeth lengthened and sharpened on both of them, Beetlejuice's fingernails both lengthened and sharpened while Lydia's formed into a kind of razor sharp claw. Both Beetlejuice's and Lydia's eyes changed color and became blood red and Beetlejuice's hair darkened to a flat reddish gray and even lengthened past his shoulders. To Grimnak's surprise, both of them began standing easily under his heightened gravity. Lydia hissing as if she was a snake and Beetlejuice growling like a wild beast, The Black Mage began to feel something he hadn't felt in a long time, fear.

Panicking, Grimnak increased the strength of his spell on the two but still they stood firm, gazing with extreme bloodlust at their prey. Beetlejuice was the first to lunge at The Black Mage with unimaginable speed, burying the nails of his right hand into the doppelganger's chest. Lydia followed suit ad dug the claws of her right hand into his left kidney. At the exact same time, as if they were in sync with each other, Lydia swiped her left claws through the doppelganger's stomach while Beetlejuice used his left hand to decapitate it. Rather than spurting blood, the double vanished in a black mist and the projection gate collapsed in the same manner as when the first double was pushed back in. With their first enemy destroyed, the two turned their attention back on their friends. Uncontrollable rage racing through them blinding them to any friend or foe they readied themselves to destroy everything and everyone until Merlin chanted words in his native language while aiming his palms at Lydia and Beetlejuice respectively. After a few seconds, they both slowly shifted back to their original forms and collapsed on the floor of the cabin, asleep. "What happened? Is that because of the pact?" Claire asked clearly frightened. Merlin simply watched the two sleep, bewildered and just as frightened, "I don't know. Even the wind won't tell me." He then whispered to Beetlejuice and Lydia as if he was trying to keep them from hearing him, "What are you?"

Lydia awoke from her slumber the next morning. Startled to see herself in her own bed, she recalled the events of last night up until Grimnak made her body feel like it weighed a literal ton, and then nothing. She was unable to piece any memories together to tell her how Grimnak was defeated. Just blackness as if she had passed out from her struggle. 'I don't even know how I got home.' She thought to herself after failing to remember what happened with the battle. 'Perhaps I'll ask Beetlejuice when I see him at school.' She stood up out of her bed and stretched her arms to release any stiffness from her body and made her way down stairs to greet her parents when she heard a third voice in conversation with them, a voice she didn't recognize. She crept slowly and as quietly as she could down the stairs to catch a glimpse of the person who owned the unfamiliar voice. What she saw was a tall thin woman with an even build and wearing a navy blue pin-striped business suit. Her long brown hair made her seem young but her voice made her seem extremely educated. As she spoke she had a sense of professionalism to her voice and at the same time concern for the subject. It was mid ranged for a woman her age and had a smooth serious tone to it as she spoke matter-of-fact to Lydia's parents. She overheard them discussing the details of her assault from Adrian some time ago and she began to feel uncomfortable listening to them talk about her behind her back.

Lydia concluded her trip down the stairs to find out exactly who her parents were talking to and the reasons why. However, the moment she entered the room Delia noticed her and called to her, "Lydia, you're awake. Come sit down and meet your lawyer for the trial next week." Lydia stopped in her tracks upon realization. "Trial? My 'lawyer'?" she asked in her surprise. "Yes, the trial against your assailant, Adrian Ruitman. He dislocated your shoulders on June the twenty first." The woman in the suit said to her. She stood up to greet Lydia with a hand shake, "Pleased to meet you Lydia. I'm Susan Meilin." She was certainly young, about somewhere in her mid twenties with bright brown eyes that almost seemed to gleam with gold mixed in. She kept a folder in her left arm while extending her right hand out for a proper greeting. "I'm sorry to arrive so late. I graduated Law School six months ago and picked up your case about three months ago. It looks like an open-shut case though. Were there witnesses to the event?" Lydia hesitantly shook the lady's hand thought to herself that she knew an ancient man with a very similar name. "Yes there were. Adrian's friends and my friend Ben." She then answered. "Good, you could need any one of them to testify against him." She responded. "All you have to do is remember as much as you can about the event and be able to present it in your testimony next week. Now, why don't you tell me about it?" Her eyes were intense but at the same time they were gentle and concerned toward her client. And so Lydia began to recount her story of the day Adrian dislocated her shoulders.

End of Season 2 Episode 2