Rated: M
Disclaimer: I don't own them, I just like writing about them
Chapter Twelve
A gust of wind swept through the frigid crypt, rustling the robes of the thirteen who waited patiently around the remains stretched out in offering. The flames of each black candle winked out one by one bringing total darkness. The blood had been spilled, the words had been spoken and the moon had finally reached it's highest point in the sky.
One crimson cowled figure raised his hands in entreaty, "The vessel has been prepared. The sacrfice has been offered and accepted. She has come."
And the Earth began to tremble.
ooXXoo
Later, when he had the opportunity, Sam would think back on these moments and wonder if perhaps someone had truly been on their side looking out for them this night.
He wished he could say he understood precisely what happened. One moment they were standing at the door and the next they were pulled into this place and the reality that he had always counted on shifted and would never be the same again.
Perhaps that's why he had been chosen for this, because there had to be any number of psychics that could do the things he could. Perhaps his entire life had been in preparation of this moment. Dean would roll his eyes in derision at any thoughts of fate or destiny, or some grand master plan. Yet, he had always been open to that possiblity. If there was evil in this world, there had to be some force of goodness to counter it, right?
Balance.
If there was tragedy, there had to be hope. If there was desperation, there had to be faith.
So maybe fighting the Demon that killed his parents had been in preparation of this moment. Because he had to find some way to make sense of the things he saw and the unspeakable horror of it all.
If the land had sickened him, then watching the sky, which had been the only beacon of light in this horrible place had been the signal that things were going to go bad, and really fast. He thought he had heard an explosion before, when they were ripped from that house and into this lifeless place and as he turned around to try to find the door, he was right.
It was gone.
"Faith!"
The woman he'd been slowly falling for whipped toward the sound of his voice, the same but somehow different. The softer edges of Faith, that smirk, those gentle eyes that he somehow knew held back a lot of pain, they had been stripped from her. This was the Slayer in the purest sense, a warrior who was destined to battle evil and had been given the strength and determination to do so.
"Sam, what's wrong?" Even that husky voice which had always been just this side of sex was a bit harder. Colder.
"The door," he pointed behind him, "It's gone!"
Jason, Cordelia and Kady must have heard him because they turned to gape at the nothing as well. Jason took an instinctive step forward only to be halted by his daughter's hand on his arm. "It's still there," Kady told them, "You have to trust that it's still there."
And that's when the ground began to quake.
Jason scooped Kady into his arms and grabbed Cordelia's hand as they struggled to make their way over to him. Sam watched in dismay as a crack began to form in the ground. It started as a mere line, dark and omnious, as it began to rip across the ground.
"Trouble's coming," Faith had closed the distance between them and now stood as a shield before him. She gave the tomahawks in her grip a quick twirl, her body sinking into a defensive stance. Tilting her head upward, he watched her scent the air, much as a predator would. "Coming fast."
Jason pushed Kady into his arms, "Protect her." he demanded before joining Faith.
That damned jagged crack shifted, knocking them all off unbalance for a second and they watched as dank smoke filtered up into the air. Gradually that crack widened and began to encircle them. When the ground stopped trembling there was a four foot crevice completely surrounding them.
"Look!" Cordelia pointed behind her and that's when he finally saw the door again.
Unfortunately it was on the other side of the gap.
And worse, ragged fingers began clawing into the ground, gradually revealing thin arms that were edged with long sharp spines trying to pull to the surface. "Company's coming!"
Sam had barely finished speak before Faith was charging forward with a bellow of fury. If that night on the pier, he thought she was fast. Here in this place, Faith was like the wind. The first swipes of those tomahawks made his stomach twist with nausea, as blackend limbs were severed.
Kady tucked her face into his neck, so she wouldn't see but he could feel her slender body tremble in shock. He waited for the sounds of agony only there were none. Merely the grunts of exertion as Faith cleaved her way through whatever the hell was coming up through the ground and that rolling thunder that began to grow in the distance.
"There's too many of them!" She shouted, "Sam you have to get over to the other side. Now!"
Cordelia started toward the edge where the door lay on the other side but Kady pinned him with opaque eyes and said, "Not yet! They're not here yet! We have to wait for Gabriel!"
"Just getting us close enough," he told her, watching Faith work. Unfortunately, whatever was coming out of this fissure wasn't satisfied with one entry and had begun climbing up behind them.
"Sam watch out," Kady shrieked in his ear, just as he grabbed Cordelia's arm to jerk her out of the way. He paused, drawing in a deep breath to focus and sent a wave of psychic energy forth tossing whatever was trying to scratch it's way to the surface back underground.
When he turned back around, he realized Faith hadn't been fast enough to prevent some of the things from coming up as he watched the demons slowly straighten. They were monstrous, creatures malformed and faceless, black as if all of their flesh had been roasted, and moved awkwardly but driven with one focus. Razor sharp talons curved from their fingers that reached toward Faith intent on her destruction.
Faith squatted, spun in a circle, the axes in her hands whipping forth in a fan like motion as she severed four of those things that had surrounded her in half at the waist. Noticing six more that would have been on her before she could retailiate, same sent forth a push, feeling his heart slam against his ribs as he realized this ability he had discovered was somehow amplified here in this place.
The demons were forced back, managing to take some others who had climbed free back down into the hole with them.
If he had been wondering where Jason was during all of this, the man stood absolutely still toward an edge of their little makeshift island his head tilted toward the sky. For whatever reason, the demons were avoiding him, they would climb out and almost cringe as they slithered away on the ground.
"What is he looking at?" Cordelia shouted, "Damn it, I could use my katana right about now. Sam, on the right!"
He turned away from the confusing sight, to find several of those faceless demons almost on them and pushed them back again. There were a few seconds of nothing, then more arms appeared. "These things are just going to keep coming. What the hell are they!"
"Allu," Kady's breathless voice sounded in his ear again. "Servants to Nahemah."
And a familiar shriek filled the air.
ooXXoo
If there was a time when she felt more useless, Cordelia honestly couldn't remember it. So here she stood in the middle of the biggest damned ambush she'd ever witnessed and all she had to defend herself with was what, her pretty dress? Her biting wit?
Faith was in her element, fighting off swarms of these damned Allu things but how long could she keep up at that pace. As it stood, she was covered with black oozing gook from flying limbs and decapitated demons. There were several raw slashes on her legs and arms from where those spiny things had scraped her. A really nasty wound in her shoulder where one had caught her from behind and stabbed her with a spine before she had practically cleaved the damn down the middle.
Sam was keeping the things off the three of them for the most part but she couldn't understand why Jason wasn't fighting. That is until she heard that terrible roar fill the air. Until then, he had merely stood there looking into the sky as if he saw something no one else could. She had been ready to go snatch that sword from his grip.
A gust of wind swept over them, knocking them all off balance briefly and where before there was nothing, a hideous batlike creature appeared. Kady screamed, tighteing her grip painfully around Sam's neck as his eyes widened in shock. He took an instinctive step back, shielding her with his free arm as all motion seemed to halt around them. She didn't need to here Sam's whisper to know that the Guardian of the Door was here.
"What the hell is that thing?" She asked in a choked whisper, not really expecting an answer, but unable to hold back the words anyway.
"Gabriel!"
Both her and Sam turned toward the direction Kady pointed in and sure enough climbing free were a pair of pale arms, dirty blond hair appeared first as a boy who looked to be around seven emerged. Another earpiercing shriek filled the air and the ground quaked as Nahemah's clawed feet stomped into the ground.
The demon took a step toward Gabriel, but Jason was already there, blocking her path. "Get the boy, Kady!"
Against Sam's grip, Kady struggled free and ran toward Gabriel, her gown a white glow whipping at her legs to flow behind her. Gabriel came to his feet, and they all fumbled again, as the ground shook under the force of a stomp from Nahemah. The demon was furious but wouldn't move forward because Jason had that sword ready.
When another pair of human arms appeared from the gorge, Kady pushed Gabriel behind her and caught the hand that reached up. Her slight body tilted back dangerously as she held on with both hand and tugged. Amazingly, she held firm, digging in her heels taking small stilted steps back as the form dragged itself free.
Frowning at the dark hair, Cordelia felt something shift in her chest. For one brief second she thought it might be Angel. There was just something about him that seemed familiar. He was covered with filth, just as Gabriel was, his clothes ragged and torn, with that shaggy hair concealing most of his face.
Nimbly he came to his feet, as movement around them commenced once again. He quickly removed that makeshift weapon from his back, putting Kady and Gabriel behind him to quickly kill several of the Allu that came at them.
Once again she was reminded of Angel. The way he moved, that speed and agility, the style. It was all Angel. Except this boy wasn't Angel. Couldn't be Angel, because all of her senses were telling her that he was human.
"Faith, get to the door!" Jason yelled as Nahemah, obviously tired of being held off and prepared to attack. "Get Kady and Gabriel to the damned door!"
ooXXoo
Of the thirteen who stood there was one who doubted. Concealed beneath a black robe was one who had been sickened by the death of the young woman and her unborn child, sacrificed so that this evil could be brought forth unto this world.
The scrolls had been consulted, the phrophets had given their decree, and in the beginning these doubts had not existed. It wasn't until that one text was discovered when the fears began. She of seven names was a plague on humanity, how could she possibly be controlled if the gods could not.
Was ridding Jason Morgan of this Earth worth the destruction she would cause?
Yet it was too late, for here in the darkened midst, evil stirred. It swirled through the room, silent death. This was hatred and malovence incarnate. The remains of the vessel stirred briefly on the slab of granite then gradually began to reanimate with life.
The features of the woman slowly reformed. A face of beauty, thick dark hair replaced the greyed strands were still attatched to the skull, a body curved and seductive jerked once and again as eyes snapped open with sudden awareness.
A shriek of agony filled the air.
ooXXoo
Kady prided herself on knowing when to listen to her father's instructions and knowing when she could convince him otherwise. She knew his moods well, for they were close, father and daughter, in a way that her mother could never understand. They trained together, laughed together, and Kady knew that together there was nothing they couldn't overcome.
Tonight was the first time she doubted.
The odds were against them. Faith battled back the Allu bravely, along with this new Champion who had risen. Together they cut a swath through the demons with an awe inspiring strenth of will. Both were bleeding from several cuts but it didn't stop them from fighting. Sam helped as best he could, keeping the neverending wave of Allu as minimal as possible and Cordelia was protecting Gabriel as best she could.
Only they were fighting a losing battle.
It was only when Nahemah was dead that the Allu would stop and the only person capable of destroying the Guardian of Door was her father.
But she didn't want him facing that monster. Not if it meant, she closed her eyes briefly feeling a shimmer of power fill the air, and her stomach clenched in despair.
There was a story her father told her once and it filled her mind in this chaotic moment making tears seep through eyes that were squeezed shut. Years ago, he had been traveling through Japan and had journeyed by boat to a small island to a village to stay with an old mentor. It was there in that village when he received a gift, or curse, he wasn't quite sure anymore.
When the Powers had brought him back from the peripherial of death, they had enhanced his senses, giving him the ability to detect demons and the strength to fight them. In his journeys for knowledge, her father had been gifted with many things from friends he had made along the way. Blessings from Tibetian monks, Protection from a powerful Wiccan but this gift, or curse, from this small village held a double edge.
For sealed within him was a powerful demon.
The kitsune healed him when he was injured, took the abilities the Powers had given him and magnified them. Yet those blessing came with consequences. The more her father relied on the kitsune, the more it bonded with him. Until one day, demon and man would merge into one.
He didn't quite know what would happen when that day arrived. He knew with complete certainty he would be unable to remain among normal society. For if people weren't ready to know about vampires and werewolves and other creatures that went bump in the night, they certainly wouldn't be able to accept this.
Those worries had been years away, but here in these Waste Lands, Kady knew anything could happen.
"Kady, it's time to go now," her father yelled back at her, even as he dodged one wicked swipe of talon from the fully emerged Succubus.
"But Daddy!"
"Don't argue with me," he roared, sweeping the sword forth and managing to rip through one of the succubus's wings. The monster released a squall of pain taking it's other wing and knocking him to the ground. She watched him roll through the dirt, instantly running to him. Only to be swept up into a pair of strong arms that were rushing in the opposite direction.
"NO!" She could hear the panting breaths coming from Faith as the grip around her stomach tightened so she couldn't break free. "Let me GO!"
"Come on kid, time to go home," she grunted, her driving steps taking her further away from her father. Helpless, she watched him deflect one large foot that would have crushed him into the ground. The clash of steel sounded in the air, as wind whipped across her face drying the tears on her cheeks.
"NO! DADDY!"
Kady felt Faith pick up speed briefly, amazingly, then there was one last step before a sense of weightlessness. Unimaginable heat burst across her face, and the blur of the legion of Allu that were climbing up from the crevice, then they were slamming into the ground, rolling with a groan of pain.
"Come on Sammy, let's do this!" Faith screamed back, even as she was scrambling to her feet.
Before Kady could rush back, Faith grabbed her arm, "Don't do that kid." The eyes Faith pinned her with were sympathetic but firm. "Your father needs you out of here, now. Look at that door, it's already closing. If you want to help, you get over there and help me keep it open."
Kady looked back to the melee in time to see Sam leaping across with Gabriel in his arms. As they struggled to their feet, Kady turned to Faith, nodded once and they both raced to the door.
She would trust that her father would do the right thing. She would pray that coming home was the right thing.
ooXXoo
In all of this death and chaos, Cordelia would never forget what happened when the succubus knocked Jason's sword from his hand.
The Allu were quickly outnumbering them, and the boy that reminded her of Angel was giving it everything he had, but with Faith and Sam gone on the other side for the door, and her weaponless, he was fighting a losing battle. "You have to get out of here," she shouted at him.
The helplessness she felt had never been more pointed than when he jumped in front of her before one of the Allu could impale her with one of those long spines on it's arm. He severed the limb, driving his makeshift sword into it's side and kicked it to the ground.
And for the first time their eyes met.
It stopped him in his tracks, his sword arm going limp as his mouth dropped open in awe. Despite the Allu approaching from behind, he took a halted step toward her his dark eyes wide and bright.
Angel's eyes.
"Mom?"
This couldn't be. The tremble shook through her body, brought a wave of tears to blur her eyes, "Connor?"
And she watched in horror as one of those spines gored him through the side. "NO!" She caught his falling body in her arms, his weight dragging them both to the ground. "No! No! No! Connor, Connor no!" Blood spurted up through the wound and it's thick pulsing spilling against her. Rage unlike she'd ever felt burned through her body. Not even when she lost Angel had she experienced this fury. The Powers could not be this cruel. They could not give her her son back after all these long years and then rip him away again.
"Not again," she wept against his cheek. She shielded his body, feeling the vicious swipes against her back as the sharp pines tore into her skin but unwilling to let any of these demons hurt her boy again. "Not again, please. You can't take him away from me. Not again."
ooXXoo
Jason thought he understood rage. He felt it when Sam had been killed. It had coursed through his blood, blinding him to everything but the red fury that demanded vengence. He felt it moments before, when he saw how completely surrounded they were and that Kady was in danger. It made him fight harder to give Faith an opening she needed to get his daughter back to the door like they had already planned.
Seeing Cordelia surrounded by the Allu, hearing her mournful sobs as she cradled that boy in her arms broke something in him. The uncertain feelings he had for her, that tremulous desire that had threatened to overwhelm him, bloomed, fired, into something brighter than he had ever known. The need to protect, to shield, burst to life but not just those instincts, so much more.
And far more dangerous.
From the moment he stood here in this Waste Land, the normal control he exerted on the seal had been shaky. Slippery. Proven by the way those demons had avoided him as they climbed out of the hole around them.
What had been hidden was revealed and the kitsune that resided within him had awakened.
The one thing he could be grateful for was the six tailed fox wasn't evil. Arrogant and demanding and always straining for freedom but not evil. Jason knew how important it was to keep his emotions controlled, to keep himself controlled. Normally he only used a portion of the kitsune's demonic energy to fight, it was a small acceptable risk.
Now he would have no choice but to fully merge with the fox if he expected to get himself and Cordelia out of this alive.
He had been relying on defense, since the Succubus knocked his sword away, his ring's effects were multiplied in this place, but he could only get in a few strikes back before he was forced to dodge another attack. When he finally relented and called upon the kitsune, he was jerked backward to the ground when she finally tasted the freedom he offered.
Fire burst into his chest, stabbing into his heart and sending his body into a fit of convulsions. Then power began to pour into his body, the likes of which he could barely comprehend. It was seductive this power, and precisely the reason his sensei had warned him against mergeing too often with his kitsune.
Jason's eyes snapped open at the piercing cry of the Succubus, to find his vision had sharpened, this time when he rolled out of the path of it's clawed foot, it was a mere blurr of motion. Instinct took him to the sword that lay on the ground and almost like magick it was in his grip again. This time when he leapt from the ground, it was to find himself several feet in the air.
Baring his teeth, to reveal the slightly pointed tip of fangs, he went at Nahemah with a ferocity that had the demon struggling. Sword met claw, scraping and grinding as the air filled with grunts of pain and mounting rage. They crashed to the ground, with him already running forward for another attack.
Just before the blinding white light surrounded him rendering him unconscious, he drove the sword into the demon's chest and split it in two.