Traveling

Summary: After witnessing something not quite possible, even for their line of work, Sam and Dean end up having to put up with a tag along until they can find out a way to send him back home. After all, how hard can it be to send twenty year old Cal Leandros back through a portal to his alternate universe without risking both worlds crashing in on each other? Demons to left of them, Auphe to the right… and one very pissed off Niko desperate to get his brother back.

Disclaimer: This is written completely in fun and no infringement is intended. I own neither Cal Leandros or anything associated with the series, nor do I own Supernatural.

Warning for bad language.

A/N:Hey guys! A quick update - curse of having a new idea on your mind. Anyway, first things first - I've been thinking, even though this story will be completely AU to both sets of brothers, it's probably still best to set a sort of timeline. So I'm gonna say season 2 Supernatural (as I wanna keep things relatively easy for me) and about towards the end of book 3, Madhouse, for Cal and co. But please forgive me if I slip as I have the memory of a goldfish at times. Secondly, I have come to the conclusion that trying to capture the 'essence' (for lack of a better word) of characters from TV is so different to characters from the written world... and it's still so damn scary.

This chapter is from Cal's POV. So yeah, scared doesn't quite cover how I feel at the moment.

Thank you guys so much for reading!

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Chapter 2

Virginia? Virginia?!? How the… No. That didn't matter. The how could wait and it would wait however long it took me to get back to Nik. Jesus. Fuck. Words didn't even cover it. Not even the bad kind. Because no matter how I looked at it, last I saw of Nik was on the other side of the gate. The other side which had been New York. Not Virginia. I mean, you've gotta be shitting me… Fucking Virginia? How far away was that from New York anyway? Too far. That's how far. Too damn far when we'd been in the middle of a goddamn Auphe attack. Yeah, yeah… so it had only been one Auphe, the same one that had brought me here, but that didn't mean there couldn't be more. Didn't mean there wouldn't be more.

"Goddamn it Cyrano…"

When that Auphe had come, I thought it was going to try and kill you Nik. But it was just playing with us. Like always. Always playing with us. With me. And I was stupid enough to slip through with it… to fall through the gate it created. Idiot. I could practically feel Niko swatting the back of my head for losing my footing so easily. I'd have even accepted the punishment of a ten block run if it meant I was there with him now. And I know I've already said but it does bear repeating – Virginia? Goddamn fucking Virginia?

It wasn't what I had expected. I have to admit that. I expected cold air biting at my skin, so thin that I could barely breathe, and dirt beneath my hands. A place so cold and terrifying that only the Auphe dared go there. Hell, or at least Auphe Hell – Tumulus that is. The place that the Auphe had stolen me away to for two years. Only it'd only been two days here on Earth. Two days, two years – it was too long either way. At least I had the easy part, I'd forgotten everything. Niko, he'd been waiting there outside a burned down trailer for two days – waiting for me. And when I did come back, we ran.

Kind of like what I was doing now. Running. Running as far away from that dead Auphe as I possibly could. It was only luck that I killed it, I know that. I'm cocky but I'm not stupid. Though Nik may disagree at times. But hand to hand combat with an Auphe? You'd be lucky to survive let alone actually kill the nightmare bastard. It would rip your heart out and devour it right in front of your dying eyes before you even managed to tap it with whatever pig stick you were trying to use on it.

Short sword and Desert Eagle still in my hands – I'd learned long ago to keep a good grip on my weapons – I turned into the first dark alley I saw and immediately started think gate. Probably one of the only gifts that wonderful homicidal maniac of a father had given me when he'd passed the Auphe genes onto me, with the kind help of Sophia of course. As long as there was gold involved, she didn't care what sort of monsters she slept with. But right now, if those Auphe genes were the only thing I had to get back to Niko, then I'd take it.

So I thought Auphe. I thought gate. And I thought home. Home where Niko was waiting for me.

I'd promised Niko no more gates, no more traveling. I'd gotten too good at it. It had become too easy, far too easy. But I had to get back to him. The gate however disagreed – or at least whatever part of me it was that created the gates. As this time… I got nothing. Not a goddamn thing. Not a tingle of a headache. Not a whisper of the darkness. No blood. No light. No fucking gate. Well that was different. Annoying as heck but certainly different.

After putting the gun back into its holster and sliding the sword out of sight I dug into my pocket and pulled out my cell, bringing up Nik's name. I had to keep thinking that he was okay, that no more Auphes had joined the party. So I pushed away the burning and terrifying lingering doubt and reminded myself that Nik was a Buddha-loving, ass-kicking ninja who could look after his ass a lot better than I could look after mine.

But you know what the wonderful thing about small towns is? You know what really is the icing on the cake to being dropped off in the middle of nowhere? I mean, besides the whole being unable to open a gate back home and probably having the cops on your ass quicker than you could say 'mother-fucking crap-hole of a town' – courtesy of those guys back at the park, no doubt, I just hoped they held off calling the sheriff long enough for me to get hidden and hidden well. But as I was saying – what really tops all that off is having no signal.

Like my night couldn't get any worse.

Anyone else would be wearing a hole in the carpet as they paced back and forth, panicking as they waited in hope for their brother to return. Not Nik though. He'd be sitting there is some crazy ass yoga style position, waiting with the patience of the great Ghandi and the cold fury of Genghis Khan. But it would tear him apart just as much as the next person, even if he didn't let it show. After all, I couldn't be the only one thinking that the gate led to Tumulus. Somehow, I had to let him know.

From my dark alley, I looked out across the street and at the diner facing me. There was a light on in the back where the kitchen probably was, but otherwise it was as empty and dark as the alley. A quick glance at my watch told me it would probably be a good few hours before the place opened up and the payphone inside became available if it was anything like the places in New York. But then a second and longer glance told me that my watch had stopped. It was bound to happen eventually. But the fact that it happened at a time like this, well shit… that's just how lucky I am.

But let's just say that sometimes the universe has a habit of balancing things out. I only had to wait an hour for the diner to open. And considering the day I was having so far, an hour wasn't all that bad. Not that it was a sign that my day was going to get any better. That would be too much to ask. Me, Cal Leandros, unlucky son of a bitch and then some. That was proven not ten minutes later when I tried to call Niko's number.

I thought at first that maybe I'd hit the wrong button, pressed the seven twice instead of just once. Maybe I hadn't been concentrating or maybe I hadn't read the number right – even though I'd known it by heart not one minute after he'd gotten it. But the second attempt was no better. A female voice on the other end telling me that the number does not exist. Not that the line was busy or anything like that. But that it doesn't exist. See what I mean about my luck?

'Course I blamed the payphone – which by the way, still ate my quarters even though I couldn't make my call – and dropped down into the booth beside it with an exhausted and weary huff. I checked my cell again just in case but the signal was still dead and the battery was threatening to join it. All good batteries go to heaven. All unlucky son's of bitches go to Virginia.

Nancy, the waitress whose smile and cheerfulness should have been illegal for this time of day, came over to offer me coffee – or something that was disguised as coffee, and if you added just enough sugar, nine or ten spoonfuls, you might be able to delude yourself into believing it was coffee. I took it all the same. The caffeine might help my two or three neurons spark just enough for me to form an idea or if I was lucky, which we've established I'm not, a relatively coherent plan.

When she asked if I wanted some food, I took the opportunity to bitch at her about the phone that refused to put my call through. Not once did that smile waver. It was scary. She must have had needles holding that thing in place 'cause when I bitch, I bitch… just ask Nik. So needless to say that when I stopped bitching and she informed me kindly that there was a payphone near the public library, I didn't order any food. Didn't want to risk her spitting in it, or dropping it on the floor several times before actually serving it to me.

I nursed the brown sludge for awhile – was half way through it before I saw the first few streaks of light from the morning sun creeping over the low buildings. And I was about four mouthfuls away from finishing it when I saw the two men from before climbing out of some old black car, bickering like a couple of old ladies. I froze. I shouldn't have. Niko would have kicked my ass for it. But in fairness I hadn't expected to see them again, or maybe it was just that I hoped I wouldn't. Humans were always so awkward when it came to monsters and non-humans.

I didn't stay frozen though. I'd been taught better than that. Wear the deer in the headlights expression for too long and you'll be joining that deer on some car roof as you roll along, waiting to be eaten. Throwing down a few bills on the counter, I left the sludge alone and slipped from the booth and all but ran from the diner. If they saw me as I headed in the opposite direction, well away from them, they didn't acknowledge me. And if they thought it was suspicious that I gained a little speed as I dashed back into the privacy of another dark alley, they didn't chase me or call out for me.

But as with most tedious things, they were the least of my worries. The oh-so familiar voice calling my name told me that much. Like an icy cold hiss on the air and the images of claws and needle teeth that came with it. I could practically feel it breathing down my neck, it's molten eyes solely on me as it hung in the darkness, sitting waiting on the fire escape for me to look up at it. "Caliban, cousin…" it's voice felt like broken glass inside my ears but I turned to face my monster all the same, Desert Eagle out and ready. "You're not supposed to be here."

Damn right I'm not supposed to be here. But here I am all the same. Not that my being here really mattered to the Auphe. It seemed more amused and curious by my presence than annoyed which meant the other Auphe hadn't expected me to go tumbling through with it.

"Poor, lost Caliban. How will you ever get home from here?" It didn't care. It was just mocking me. Enjoying my predicament. I could tell though, in it's cold gaze, it really didn't think I'd be able to make it back home. Traveling seemed to be out of the question, the gate from earlier being a failure. But I knew how to take the bus. I wasn't completely hopeless without my big brother holding my leash.

It probably would have said something else if its eyes hadn't flashed towards the end of the alley. I didn't need to look to see why. I'd heard the footsteps mere moment before. I'd also heard the familiar sound of guns being drawn but before they could be fired, the Auphe somersaulted backwards and into a gate. I just had to pray, to what I don't know as God is right up there with Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny on my list of things I don't believe in, that it wasn't headed to wherever Niko was.

My gun was lowered as I turned to face the men from before and they put theirs' back out of sight. It was the shorter of the two who spoke – short than the other guy at least, he was still a good inch or so taller than me.

"Anyone ever tell you, you've got trouble written all over you, kid?"

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