Disclaimer: Neither Jordan nor I own Supernatural.
A/N: So we finally finished this chap! We spent three days trying to finish it, actually, which really wasn't all THAT long, what with Jordan's school ending and me being an assistant in the fourth grade class at VBS…
Jordan: And now we are both freeeeee!
Me: Yes. And Jordan gets to be awesome in this chap. Bwahaha!
Jordan: My muse served me well tonight. And now I must send her to coerce you all into reviewing… -innocent grin-
Chapter Six – Trial by Fire
"Okay… so, to be clear. I'm supposed to stay here while the three of you fools go in there and kill a witch. With me not there. Staying here. Am I correct?"
Dean and Sam were silent, feeling that Lyn was probably the best person to handle her.
Lyn sighed. "Look, JJ… I know you don't like it. I wouldn't like it. But you cannot walk back into the building with the witch who turned you into a tiger for who knows what reason and which I personally do not want to find out. No, it won't be fun, but you'll live. Which is kind of the point of this whole excursion, really. And the fact remains that you can't protect yourself properly as a tiger, and if you go in there and get yourself killed, I will bring you back from the dead and freaking kill you myself. After I kill the witch. And before I kill myself. All of which will be on your head. So, we clear?"
Jordan growled and bared her teeth, but lay down anyway. "Fine! Thanks for the guilt trip… jerk…"
She glared up at Lyn and then rested her head on the seat in front of her, and Dean and Sam exchanged a glance that clearly said, 'Lyn has some mad skills!'
"Eurgh, and I thought this place was creepy before we knew these critters were the women who disappeared," Lyn said with a rather disgusted expression as she looked through the window. Then she froze and grabbed Sam's arm as he reached for the door handle.
"I just thought of something," she said, giving him a sideways look. "If killing the witch turns Jordan back, won't it change the others back, too? While they're stuck… in small cages… most of which no normal person could actually fit in…?"
Sam groaned and rolled his eyes. "Great… just great…"
"So… we have to get all of these… people out of these cages before we kill the witch, and stay undetected?" Dean asked, looking at Sam and Lyn.
Lyn bit her lip. "Well, either that or most of them get smushed… and/or crushed… and/or impaled with broken pieces of steel… so, yeah, basically."
"Right… Well, let's get going, shall we?"
Dean climbed through the window, followed closely by Lyn and Sam.
Lyn fished the nail file out of her pocket again and frowned at the nearest cage, a small one which contained a squirrel, and grimaced. "Yeah, that ain't gonna work…" A moment later, she pulled a bobby pin from the back of her hair and fitted it against the lock. "This'll do. Anyway, y'all have something to pick locks with?"
Dean pulled out three lock picks and smirked. "I think this might work better than a hair pin, huh?"
Sam grinned and grabbed a lock pick from Dean's hand, but Lyn promptly opened the cage door and turned around to smirk at them, twirling the bobby pin between her fingers. "You were saying…? Anyway, bobby pins are awesome. They serve more than one function and are less conspicuous."
She then returned the pin to her hair and snatched one of the lock picks from Dean before returning her attention to the next cage, this one containing a rather surly-looking bulldog.
"You know… it would be mildly amusing if not all of these critters were actually people…"
"Yeah, sure – if you call dying amusing," Dean said as he and Sam walked over to several cages containing dogs and cats and started to undo the locks.
"Oh, yeah, death by bulldog," Lyn muttered, rolling her eyes. "If you're worried about this little critter, Dean, I'd hate to see your face if you met Angel. Gorgeous black-and-tan pit bull I left back home. Weighs more than I do and could look you in the eyes if she stood on her hind legs."
"Psh… I'm talking about the fact that its attack would most likely alert this fugly son of a bitch to our arrival. That wouldn't be so awesome… would it? No… Psh, I can take on that bulldog…"
Dean rolled his eyes and unlocked his fourth cage. By now, the animals were all gathering in the middle of the room. Sam moved quickly to the last three cages and unlocked them all with ease.
"Okay… let's do this."
"And pray it works," Lyn added darkly. "I don't much fancy getting turned into a turtle or something and shoved in a cage…"
"Yeah," Dean and Sam agreed in unison. All three then looked at each other and started to walk forward. They crept through the house toward a distant sound, music. It seemed to be classical. Mozart.
Dean and Sam stood with their backs against the wall outside the room, and Lyn lingered a half step away, ritual paper in hand.
Sam looked questioningly at her and nodded his head in the witch's general direction. Lyn's gaze switched from Sam to the shadow on the wall. It didn't seem to be alerted to their presence… yet…
This Bobby had better know what he's talking about…
"Jineha tua due, leane tudue, paunte huan, yerti fantatchite, olinae retutate… Gertue jentige, laine olenua, qernua."
A piercing scream split the air, followed by an explosion which knocked all three hunters off their feet and down the stairs. After a series of crashes and thuds and the sliding of people across the floor, a dead silence fell. Lyn broke said silence with a cough and a half-suppressed groan, having had the air knocked out of her upon hitting the ground. She then raised her head and blinked twice to clear her vision.
"Okay… that… stung a little bit…" She shook her head and glanced around, trying to ignore the throbbing of her head and the fact that her back felt like it had been shredded. "Y'all two all right?"
"Ungh… that was painful… but yeah, I'm good," Dean mumbled.
"I'm good, too… I think…" Sam flipped over onto his back as he spoke, and there was silence again, as well as the smell of burning wood and flesh.
"Yeah… okay," Lyn said after a moment, lifting herself off the ground with a set jaw and a faint grimace. She then paused, wrinkling her brow at her right arm, which had been shaking under her weight, and found herself staring at a gash on the back of her upper arm and shoulder. "Hm. Well, that's nice." Shaking her head and fighting a sudden wave of dizziness that came with that action, she said more loudly, "All right, get up and get moving, the both of you. Unless I hit my head a lot harder than I thought and am now hallucinating, this place is on fire."
Sam got up, blood running down from a wound on his forehead, and pulled Dean to his feet before grabbing Lyn's hand and pulling her toward the door. Dean, however, yelled, "Get out of here and I'll be right behind you!"
"Dean, are you crazy!?" Lyn demanded. "We have to make sure those people get out!"
"Just go! Get them out! Dad's journal must have fallen when we fell, I have to find it!" Dean yelled, running up up the stairs again.
"Come on… He'll be fine, come on, we have to go!" Sam urged, pulling Lyn to the door. She finally gave in and went along with him. Sticking around wouldn't help anything, anyway, and it would only put Sam and the women who had been kidnapped in danger, too.
Dean finally reached the top of the stairs. "Shit… Where is it!?" The heat was almost unbearable, yet he ventured further. This book was all that was left of his father; it was everything he knew about hunting, every evil thing he ever came across. And, though he would never admit it to Sam, Lyn, or Jordan, it kept John alive for Dean – and, without it, he felt he might fall apart.
Sweat dripped down his face and neck as he came face-to-face with the flames. "Ah! Son of a –" Wood and flying embers fell on Dean's head, sending him down to his knees. Finally he spotted the journal, about ten feet away from where they had stood not ten minutes ago. He tried to stand, but couldn't, pain keeping him on his knees. He bit his lip and started to crawl toward the book, every agonizing inch bringing him closer and closer.
Sam ran to the window outside the room that had held all the animals, Lyn hot on his trail. To their relief, about a dozen very relieved and confused-looking women in rather nasty-looking clothing stood there in the middle of the room. Sam broke the window and put his coat into the empty pane.
"Climb through – hurry! The house is on fire!"
The women looked to the source of the sound and there were a couple of screams and gasps at his words, but they all quickly headed for the window, forming an impromptu line. After they had all climbed through, with the help of Sam and Lyn, they all started off at a run toward the Impala.
Again, Sam and Lyn were relieved to find that a very human Jordan stood there. The change of clothes they had brought had definitely been a good idea; at least she wasn't as filthy as the others. Jordan opened the door upon hearing their footsteps and looked relieved.
Whew, I was starting to – wait, where the hell is Dean!? "Where's Dean!? Sam! Lyn! Where is he!?"
"He's still inside," Sam said grimly. "Our dad's journal… we dropped it when we were knocked down the stairs, he went back for it –"
Before Sam could say anything else or Lyn could speak at all, Jordan took off running. Lyn whirled, looking frenzied, but Sam held her back, the flames reflecting in his eyes. "Lyn, no," he said in a voice that was hoarse but insistent. He wasn't going to lose her like this, and he couldn't take the chance that might happen. "Please, just stay here."
Jordan ran up the stairs, careful to avoid flying embers. "Dean! Dean! Can you hear me!?"
Her eyes scanned the hallway until they finally came to rest upon an unconscious Dean, and lying next to him, a leather-bound notebook.
"Shit!" Jordan took off, running toward him, dodging wood and sparks. She bit down on the leather clasp holding the notebook closed to carry it and keep her hands free, then grabbed Dean's arms and began pulling him backwards through the hallway and kicking debris out of the way as she went.
After what seemed like hours, they reached the top of the stairs. "Sorry, Dean… this is gonna suck…"
Jordan started to pull Dean down the stairs, his head thumping on every step. She winced as every thud and was glad to finally reach the bottom of the staircase.
Just then, Sam ran through the doorway and grabbed Dean from Jordan's grateful arms. He threw his brother over his shoulder with only a little grunting and started stumbling toward the car, Jordan right behind him with the journal clutched in her shaking hands.
Lyn turned toward the house again, a worried and almost panicked expression gracing her features, but this was quickly washed away by relief when she caught sight of the trio emerging from the burning building. She let out a breath she had been holding, closed her eyes for a second, and whispered, "Wado, Unelanvhi…"
When her eyes snapped open, they were much less frightened, but she was still speaking very quickly as she said, "I finally loaded everybody in my car and yours – they all fit, with room for us, but nobody's gonna be very comfortable. Come on, let's get out of here."
Sam pushed Dean into the back seat, on the laps of a few girls, who seemed more than happy to let him do so. Jordan squashed herself into the passenger seat of the Grand Am, Lyn already in the driver's seat. Sam then jumped behind the wheel of the Impala and they both sped off.