A/N: Sorry this update has taken so long! Thanks as always to TraSan.

The Forest

Chapter Two

The room was full of the sound of Dean's screams. Sam was kneeling beside his brother as Galen moved close enough to touch Dean.

"NO!" Rob shouted. "Galen you can't!"

"I have to help," the healer repeated. "Rob, let me." He reached out and laid his hands on Dean's head and chest. Galen groaned, and shifted, a moment later Sam watched as the healer was shoved away, like some unseen hand had grabbed him and pushed him away.

"Galen!" Rob said desperately.

Dean's screams increased and he started clawing at his chest where the red mark was seeping greenish-black fluid.

"Hang on, Dean," Sam said, wondering what they could do. Galen was unconscious, and Sam had no idea how to stop the poison. He briefly considered running down to the shop to get the herbs he'd researched.

"Galen?" Rob called.

"Help Dean," Sam heard the panic in his own voice. What can we do?

"I can't, Galen…"

"I saw you… With Galen and those spirits. You helped him, help Dean."

"You don't understand, I can't."

"I saw you," Sam growled.

"I can't, it only…" Rob said. "Okay, that's it, this isn't working," it sounded to Sam like Rob was talking to himself. Rob moved so he had one hand on Dean's chest and the other on the back of Dean's head. Sam watched as Rob's eyes closed, an instant later Dean's screams were silenced, his body going limp.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?" Sam shouted, full blown panic flaring in his chest.

"SAVED HIS LIFE," Rob shouted back with equal volume. Moving, he knelt beside the healer. "Galen?" he said gently, laying his hands on Galen's head and chest. "Dad!" Rob shouted. "Galen? Can you hear me?"

"What did you do to Dean?" Sam growled.

"I put him out," Rob snapped. "I can't heal something like that. Dad!" he called again.

"You did what?" Sam said. Each word came out a little calmer, a little more controlled.

"It's like a sedative," Rob growled back. "Galen? Can you hear me? Dad, I need you!"

"It's okay, Rob," a voice said softly, a figured shimmered into existence and put his hand on Rob's back. "Let me help." Out of the corner of his eye, Sam saw another spirit appear.

"Thanks, Dad," Rob said, lifting his hands away a minute later.

"What's going on?" Sam asked, his voice completely without emotion. Dean would freak if he heard that. "Save me from calm Sammy." Rob and the spirit he called Dad moved towards Dean. "No! Stay back."

"He needs help," Rob said.

"Stay back." The volume was increasing again.

"We're just trying to help," the other spirit said.

"Don't touch Dean." Sam moved so he was between the others and his brother's still form.

"We can't help unless…" Rob began.

"STAY BACK!"

"What are the rules about blood on the floor?" Galen said quietly. He struggled into a sitting position. "Thanks, Dad." Galen moved towards Dean. "Let me…"

"No!" Four voices shouted at once.

Galen looked at them all with a sigh. "Okay, so what's the plan then? I don't think Sam is going to let Rob…"

"No one," Sam growled.

"And I'm pretty sure that goes double for Rob and Dad," Galen continued. "So that leaves me."

"No one," Sam insisted.

"Your brother," Rob began. Galen out a hand on his arm. "Fine, whatever, let him die then."

"What?" Sam asked, panic quickly giving way to a soul-numbing fear.

"He's dying," Rob said bluntly.

"Let me," Galen said.

"No, Galen, you try and you're out, too. End of statement," Rob snapped at him.

"Think you can, Brat? Bring it on. I need to help Dean."

"Galen," the spirit said gently. "The poison is moving in you, too, if you try again, the thing will sense you and push you away."

"No, it didn't do that," Galen said softly. "I broke contact."

"You what?" Sam asked.

"I'm sorry, I had to, I'll be ready this time. I have to be careful, it…it sensed me through Dean. I think it understands."

"Understands what?" Rob said, his voice going up in a crescendo that Sam recognized all too well. It was Sam's own "What are you talking about, Dean? When this is over, I am going to kill you" tone.

"About the healing." Galen moved towards Dean.

"Stay back!" Sam growled again. It's probably good Dean's out, I'd get the mommy bear thing again. The memory of that talk suddenly playing in his head. "You know, Sammy, sometimes you are just like a mommy bear protecting its young. It's so cute." And Dean had ruffled his hair.

"Sam," Galen said, laying his hand on Sam's arm. Warmth flowed out from the touch, a sliver of white light calming his panic. "I won't hurt him, neither will my father. I need his help to block the reaction that made me stop the healing last time." He smiled at Sam. "My father, Paracelsus and uncle, Robert—Parry and Bobby respectively," he said, nodding at the two spirits.

The warmth flowing up his arm was beginning to calm the headache pounding behind Sam's eyes, the headache that had appeared when Dean had gone missing during the werewolf hunt. "Okay." He moved from in front of his brother.

"Thank you," Galen said, then put his hand on Dean's head and chest again. "Dad?" The spirit put his hand on Galen's back.

"If you kill yourself with this Galen, I'm not…Well, you know, so there." Rob said

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Brat," Galen said.

"And," Rob, continued, meeting Sam's eyes, "if something happens to Galen, I'll kill you."

"Same thing with Dean," Sam said, glaring back.

"Likewise for Parry," the other spirit, Bobby, said.

"So we understand each other," Rob said.

"Yeah, we do," Sam agreed.

"Yes," Bobby said.

"How many times do we have to cover the 'you break it you clean it up' thing, Rob?" Galen said, pulling his hands away. He started to fall, but Rob shifted so the healer could sag against him. "Dean's okay. Thanks, Brat."

"I won't kill you this time," Rob said with a smile

"Yeah," Sam said.

"Yes," Bobby added.

Rob looked at Sam, still smiling, the smile becoming a grin, then a laugh. Sam tried to resist the urge to smile back, but he couldn't help himself, he was laughing, relief flowing through him as Dean opened his eyes.

XXX

Galen walked slowly around the kitchen, his head was pounding, the ache in his chest had increased and his brother's ongoing "discussion" with Sam was beginning to wear. The two had been sniping at each other nearly non-stop since Dean had regained consciousness. Galen scrubbed a hand over his face, explaining the two elder Keepers was proving to be a bigger challenge that he thought it would be.

"So, your father and uncle just hang around?" Dean asked for the fifth time.

"No, well yes, they are here, but…" Galen sighed, wondering how to explain the intricacies of the Keeper legend to an outsider. "They both died…"

"That's why they're spirits," Dean snapped.

"Right, they died—saving me actually," Galen said softly, the bubbling guilt when he thought of their deaths welling in his chest.

Rob stopped his conversation with Sam for a moment and looked over. "Don't, Galen."

"Yeah." He nodded at Rob, then turned back to Dean. "They died, but they came back, Keepers can summon…"

"You summoned them back? Dude, do you have any idea how dangerous…"

"Not for us," Galen growled. "Sorry. Keepers are different."

"You said that before."

"Yeah, and I'm saying it again." Galen rubbed his head. Between the emotions flowing off Rob and this conversation with Dean, his headache was beginning to feel more like something gnawing its way out of his brain. "When Custodes Noctis die, we know we can be called back—to serve the way we once did, even though we're spirits at that point. Some of the physicality is lost, the ability to heal must be used through a living Keeper, but we serve nonetheless."

"Huh," Dean said with a frown.

Galen walked to the stove and stirred the soup he was making. It was for more than just nutrition, he added herbs for the poison that was slowing killing him and Dean, and then quietly contributed a spell to help the herbs keep them alive until they found a solution. He was covering the taste of the medicinal herbs he'd put in it with a broth.

"No, I think that translation if faulty, that's the problem with the web, sometimes idiots translate things," Rob said.

"This idiot is a professor at Cambridge," Sam replied in the same tone. It was more a teasing tone—or so Galen hoped.

"You don't think they hire idiots there?"

"I think they are less likely to hire idiots than a lot of places."

"Yeah, but look at this—this is clearly the plural form—but he has it translated as a singular."

"It's Old Norse, you just know that off the top of your head?" Sam asked.

"Yeah? You have a problem with that?"

"I am going to kill someone in a second," Dean grumbled from the kitchen table. "I don't care who, but violence is about to happen."

"Do you have a headache?" Galen said, setting a cup of the soup down in front of Dean.

"Headache?" Dean gave him with a funny look.

"Brain rats chewing their way out of your skull?" Galen sat across from him.

"Brain rats?" Dean grinned. "Yeah, that's the one. How do we exterminate the little bastards?"

"I'm trying to think of ways to do it without actually removing my head."

"You have brain rats, too?"

"Yeah. Try the soup."

"I don't want…"

"It'll help, trust me." Galen took a sip. "It's medicinal."

Dean sniffed it then took a cautious drink. "Not bad. Meaty. What?" he asked when Galen chuckled.

"No meat," Galen said with a smile.

"You're kidding?" Dean peered into the cup suspiciously. "No meat? Huh. It's good." He looked up and laughed. "Don't tell Sam I said something vegetarian was good, okay? I'd never hear the end of it."

"NO!" Rob slammed a book closed. "The Latin is wrong, it has to be." The wave of emotion from his brother hit Galen with enough force to ramp his headache another notch.

"There's nothing else available. We have to…"

"It's wrong, it has to be. We need to find the source."

"I'm not sure…"

"Gods damn it, Sam!" Rob nearly shouted.

"I know," Sam answered softly.

"That's not good," Galen said to Dean.

"Nope," Dean agreed.

"Rob? Sam? What's up?" Galen asked.

Rob sighed and walked to the table, Sam trailing behind him. "We're looking for a way to kill the worm."

"And?" Dean asked.

"And nothing, Dean," Sam said, frustration in his voice. "Nothing."

"We thought we were on to something, but the source petered out on us," Rob continued.

"Then we found a note in that text, and thought it might lead somewhere," Sam went on.

"So we followed that through the web and a few books."

"You know? That's really annoying," Dean said, looking from one to the other.

"It is," Galen agreed. "So? What did you find?"

"Nothing," they said at the same time, then looked surprised.

"Really annoying," Dean said.

"You found something," Galen said, knowing the truth without a touch, without the emotion flowing of his brother. "What?"

Rob shook his head and looked at Sam. "Nothing."

"Yeah," Sam said.

"Rob?" Galen frowned at his brother.

"Sam?" Dean's tone mirrored his.

"It's going to come for us, sooner rather than later. That's it isn't it?" Galen asked, Rob tried looking away. "And the two of you were going to go after it, weren't you?"

"WHAT?" Dean shouted then grabbed his head. "Okay, not doing that again. Sam? Is he right?"

"It's going to come after you and Galen," Sam said, looking at the bookshelf.

"Yep, they were, I can't believe it, they were," Dean's voice was full of aggravation, with a hint of panic. "They were going to ditch us and go after that thing."

"Why?" Galen asked Rob.

"You're vulnerable, Galen, the poison will light you up like a beacon."

"I know, but it will come for us here, too," Galen said gently, he could feel Rob's desperation prickling along his skin. "And if it comes into town, a lot of people will die. I can't let that happen."

"No, Galen, you can't."

"Can't let it happen?"

"No, you can't go," Rob said softly.

"Rob? What did you find?"

"It was in the Book of Solanus the Blessed."

"What?" Sam turned on him. "There was nothing there. I went through that too."

"No, you went through the idiot's translation. He dropped one whole passage."

"No, I looked at the Latin, too," Sam said.

"Yeah, I know, Sam, this isn't because of your research. The passage was the offset one in the daily devotion for February twenty-third, the one from the older book of hours."

"I noticed that, but it was in…"

"Anglo-Saxon. I know."

"And you read Angled saxophone?" Dean asked.

"Yeah, he does," Galen said. "What did you find?"

"It…" Rob swallowed. "Two words caught my eye, it's why I read the whole passage. Secan and weard." He walked to the bookcase, pulled a volume off the shelf, then carried it back to the table, opening it and pointing to the passage. "Here, see the words? Secan means seek, bring or sometimes attack and weard is…"

"Keeper," Galen said softly, looking at his brother.

Sam frowned. "You mean Keeper like Custodes Noctis?"

"Yeah," Rob said.

"Shit," Galen said, meeting his brother's eyes.

"There's more, Galen."

"Worse than looking for us? Or attacking?"

"Much worse, this word? It means living death."

"Living death?" Dean asked.

"Yeah," Rob answered.

"Shit."

To Be Continued

A/N II: If you are enjoying Galen and Rob—either here or in The Legacy, I want to mention the contest I am having for fic and artwork in the Custodes Noctis universe. Details are at muffymorrigan (dot) com. Winning story will become canon.