Episode Referenced: Season 1, Episode 15 - "Shadow"
Disclaimer: Not mine!
CHAPTER SEVEN: Sekou A (The Rescue)
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
June 10, 2006 (8:45pm)
The beer was warm, having been ignored for most of the night. The books spread around the motel room covered the second bed and most every other surface. Harry was standing next to the small table, intently reading the tome he had resting on top several other books. His phone started ringing and he absently took it from his pocket and opened the cell phone.
"Yeah?"
"Hey, Son, how's Wisconsin?"
Harry smiled, he couldn't' help himself. Even after ten years he had to smile every time Caleb called him 'Son'. "Hey Dad. The Grand ol' Badger State is good. Rocknose was right about that bookseller. You would not believe some of the old books that hag had! If I wasn't sure she was human I wouldn't have paid what I did for them. But man, Dad, Bobby's going to go apeshit when he sees this stuff."
His father was laughing at him. "Kinda like you are right now?"
"I am not going apeshit," Harry huffed indignantly. "I am appreciating ancient works that deserve being appreciated."
"Right," Caleb chuckled. "Did she have what you were looking for?"
"And then some!" Harry responded excitedly. "How a muggle ended up with an original Aramaic text on the basis of the Killing Curse, I'll never know!"
"So, were you right? Did it ever have another purpose?"
"Yes, and no," the wizard answered as he continued to flip through the pages. "What I've been able to translate of the text says that the curse as it is now has been bastardized over the centuries. The author never found any written recording of the originating spell, but it does mention a cabbalistic charm in Judaic mythology that is supposed to bring healing powers. Believe it or not, the spell was created around the time of Christ and was purportedly used to latch on to demonic energy and strip it from a body."
"Wait, you're saying the Avada Kedavra was meant to exorcise someone?"
"Think about it!" Harry knew he was gushing, but he couldn't help it. It was such a monumental discovery and if he could find the original spell... "The AK does absolutely nothing to the body. No one knows exactly what it does except that it makes a person dead. According to this book, the literal translation from the original Aramaic is 'let the thing be destroyed'. Tell me that don't sound like something someone would want for a demon inhabiting a loved one!"
"Harry, this is huge!" Caleb exclaimed. "If you can find that original spell-"
Harry chuckled. "I was thinking the same thing. Can you imagine: being able to expel a demon from its host without having to torture the person to get the damned thing to leave! I just don't know where to begin looking. I think I've tapped Rocknose of everything he can find me, but I might go back to the bookseller and see where she got these texts. It's flimsy, but it's a jumping off point."
"I'll keep my ear to the ground in case I hear of any more Aramaic texts that might have the information you're looking for. Harry, this is huge! But I did call for a reason."
Harry reluctantly closed up the tome and started tidying up the motel room. "Sure, what's up?"
"If I were to say I found a symbol, a curved 'Z' with a circle bisecting it, what would you tell me?"
With a frown, Harry stopped abruptly. "I would tell you to turn on all your lights and wait until morning then get the hell out of Dodge!"
"Yeah, that's what I thought." Caleb responded grimly.
"Where the hell are you, Dad, that you've come up against someone stupid enough to try controlling a Daeva?"
"Not me," the man assured his son. "I'm still in Boulder looking for that Demon Jim heard about. I got a call this afternoon from Dean. It looks like there were a couple of killings in Chicago that got the boys' attention and he found that symbol in the blood splatter of one of the victims."
"Shit," Harry grumbled, anger flaring up at the name. "And what, you want me to go bail them out?"
"You're still mad at them."
"Of course I am!" Harry snapped. "They don't give a shit about anyone else's feelings and let me - us think Dean was dead for nearly two months! Sam hadn't talked to me in three years! I think I have a right to be angry!"
"Yeah, you do," Caleb agreed. "But I know you, Harry. You wouldn't forgive yourself if they got hurt or worse when you could have helped them. It's just not in you."
"Fuck," Harry groaned and collapsed onto his bed, scrubbing his face with his free hand. "Why can't I hold a grudge like every other hunter out there?"
The response came with a wry chuckle. "Oh, you can hold a grudge - or do I need to remind you about Wandell?" Harry growled at the name and his father snorted once before continuing. "You're just not an asshole about it. I'm not asking you to forgive them, Harry. In fact I'd love nothing more than to watch you beat the shit out of both of them. All I'm asking is for you to be nearby in case they need some help."
The dark haired wizard sighed and sat up. "I can do that. I'll pack up here and check out. I can be in Chicago in two hours."
"Thanks, Harry. I'll see you next week at Bobby's, all right? Stay safe."
"Right. See you then, Dad. Stay safe."
The call disconnected and Harry heaved another frustrated sigh. He looked around at the books and frowned. With a casual wave of his hand they all closed and sorted themselves into neat piles. He shrank them with a quiet word and another wave of his hand had the now petite books floating through the room and into a single duffel.
Maybe it was time to tell his Dad his powers were growing again.
Chicago, Illinois
June 11, 2006 (02:00am)
Chicago was a big town. Trying to find two people in a city of more than two million was really asking a lot of anyone. Luckily for Harry, he knew the general area they would be. They had been investigating the strange deaths, the latest one was in a less pleasant area of the city, and once Harry had narrowed it down he was able to cast a detection spell. For some reason, he hadn't been able to get a lock on Dean and Harry didn't want to think about what that might have meant. Sam, however, he was able to track.
He found their car parked behind a large condemned building. It looked like it had been a warehouse of some kind at some point that had been in the process of being renovated into habitable lofts. It was vacant now, a lot of construction stuff still laying about the lower floors. He tried casting the locater spell again, and it indicated above him. He cast a Disillusionment Charm and kept his wand lose in his fist as he tried to find a way to the higher floors. Only an elevator shaft was accessible and from above Harry could hear faint voices.
As he climbed he strained his hearing to listen in on what was happening above.
"-your girlfriend? Is a bitch."
Harry had to smile at Dean's voice; grateful the bastard was still alive and pissed off at whoever this 'girlfriend' was.
"This, the whole thing," Sam was saying to someone in disbelief, "was a trap. Running into you at the bar, following you here, hearing what you had to say; It was all a set up, wasn't it?"
When a female voice laughed with amusement, Harry's skin crawled and he gritted his teeth.
"And that the victims were from Lawrence?" Sam continued.
"It doesn't mean anything." The woman said and Harry could hear the smugness oozing from her tongue. "It was just to draw you in, that's all."
Dean was right: she was a bitch.
"You killed those two people for nothing!" Same exclaimed and Harry had to wonder why it surprised the youngest Winchester. In their line of work, they'd seen worse.
"Baby," the woman purred condescendingly, "I've killed a lot more for a lot less."
"You trapped us," Dean interrupted her evil-villainess with a bored tone. "Good for you; it's Miller time! But why don't you kill us already?"
Halfway to the top, Harry wanted to strangle the blonde man himself. Seriously, don't piss off the psycho chick!
When she spoke again, it sounded like she wondered what he was thinking as well. "Not very quick on the uptake, are we? This trap isn't for you."
Harry stopped his ascent and held his breath. Had she discovered him? It was unlikely but, if she was the one controlling the Daevas, not entirely out of the realm of possibilities. Luckily for him, Sam figured it out.
"Dad. It's a trap for Dad."
He started climbing again. Someone laying a trap for John with his sons as bait? Now that Harry could believe. The asshole was the kind of guy to piss someone off enough to go to such extremes.
"Oh, sweetheart-"
Goddamn it Dean, don't antagonize her!
"- you're dumber than you look. Because, even if Dad was in town - which he is not - he wouldn't walk into something like this. He's too good."
Harry wouldn't be too sure about that. One thing he would give the Winchester patriarch, he was fanatically protective of his boys.
"He is pretty good," the woman admitted with a reluctant sigh, "I'll give you that. But, you see, he has one weakness.
Reaching to top of the elevator shaft, Harry braced himself against the wall and peered up over the ledge. He couldn't see Dean or the woman, but he could see Sam. The tall hunter was sitting on the floor with his back up against a concrete pillar. His hands were bound behind him and he was looking at something to his right. Dean, no doubt, who was most likely in a similar position.
"What's that?" Dean's voice came from the other side of the room, confirming Harry's theory.
As he shifted to an opening in the elevator gate, He could see Dean's arms bound together around a second pillar. He was lifting himself up out of the shaft when he caught a glimpse of the girl.
She was petite with a very short, very blonde, pixie cut. Her features were soft and elegant, all in all very attractive. But the way the words slithered from her lips showed Harry just how unattractive she really was.
"You," She was telling Dean from where she sat, straddling his thighs. "He lets his guard down around his boys, lets his emotions cloud his judgment. I happen to know he is in town. And he'll come and try to save you. And then the Daevas will kill everybody—nice and slow and messy."
During her evil-villainess spiel, Harry moved to hide behind some of the junk in the room. As he did, he was able to position himself to gain a better view of the captives. Neither was in too great of shape; both Winchester bleeding from various wounds that looked a hell of a lot like claw marks. The work of the Daevas, most likely.
"Well, I've got news for ya," Dean sneered at the woman. "It's going to take a lot more than some… shadow to kill him."
Harry looked around the room, looking for a way to distract the bitch so he could get his friends free. Nothing that would bring the attention to his presence and have her calling the Daevas down on him, just something that would buy him the time he needed.
"Oh, the Daevas are in the room here," Blondie mocked the trapped hunter. "They're invisible. Their shadows are just the only part you can see."
Harry aimed his wand at Sam's empty hands, invoking the incantation with barely a whisper, and was rewarded when the small silver blade appeared in Sam's palm. The hunter jerked at the sudden appearance but covered it quickly while his hands wrapped around the knife.
"Why are you doing this, Meg?" He demanded, his voice laced with irritation to mask his sudden spasm of movement. "What kind of deal you got worked out here, huh? And with whom?"
"I'm doing this for the same reasons you do what you do," The woman, Meg, snapped suddenly angry. "Loyalty. Love. Like the love you had for Mommy. And Jess."
Sam glared at her and snarled, "Go to hell."
"Baby, I'm already there." Meg was all seductive smiles as she slid off Dean's lap and Harry took that moment to conjure an identical knife in Dean's hand. He was impressed that the hunter didn't even flinch, just flicked the blade around and began working at the ropes binding him.
Harry moved again, looking for how the bitch controlled the shadow demons. As he searched he could hear her taunting Sam.
"Come on, Sam. There's no need to be nasty." Her voice was low, coy, and Harry's stomach rolled with disgust. "I think we both know how you really feel about me. You know, I saw you watching me; changing in my apartment. Turned you on, didn't it?
Harry wanted to gag.
And apparently, so did Dead. "Get a room, you two."
"I didn't mind." Meg said huskily, ignoring Dean. I liked that you were watching me. Come on, Sammy. You and I can still have a little dirty fun."
When the altar came into Harry's line of sight he considered sending an Expulso its way. Except if he did that she would lose control of the Daevas and, with Sam and Dean still vulnerable, he didn't like that plan. He needed to wait for the right moment.
"You want to have fun?" Sam said with an air of boredom. "Go ahead then. I'm a little tied up right now."
Harry cringed when he heard the clank of metal against concrete. Everything froze for an instant before Meg turned her gaze at Dean. Scowling, she got up off Sam's lap and stalked behind Dean's post. Harry cursed silently when she discovered the knife in Dean's hand and tossed it aside. When she came around to glare down at Dean, the hunter just gave as much of a shrug as his still bound hands would allow and chuckled guiltily.
Turning her back on him, she glided back over to Sam and positioned herself on his legs again. "Now, were you just trying to distract me while your brother cuts free?"
"No." Sam offered her a small smile. "No, that's because I have a knife of my own."
Before Meg could react, Sam had brought his hands around and grabbed on to her upper arms. The ropes still dangled from his wrists but that didn't stop him from slamming his forehead into the bridge of her nose. He bodily shoved her off of him, sending her sailing several feet before she came to a stop in a heap on the floor.
Seeing his chance, Harry aimed his wand at the altar. "Expulso!"
The black altar exploded in a shower of debris and suddenly there came an inhuman shriek from the Shadows. Human like shapes appeared out of the flickering black and descended on Meg. She screamed as unseen claws ripped in to her legs and dragged her across the floor. A second later she was sailing out the plate glass windows and falling to the street below.
Letting the Disillusionment fade, Harry walked over to the shattered window while Sam cut his brother free from his ropes. The dark haired hunter's face was grim as he was joined by the two Winchesters. Seven stories below, the blonde lay broken and unmoving. Her unseeing eyes stared back up at them.
"So," Sam said quietly. "I guess the Daevas didn't like being bossed around."
"Yeah," Dean agreed, "I guess not. Hey, Sam?"
"Hm?"
"Next time you want to get laid," Dean's eyes were still locked on the body below, "find a girl that's not so buckets-o'-crazy, huh?"
Harry gritted his teeth and turned away from the other hunters, pushing between them as he stalked back toward the elevator shaft. "You two are unbelievable!"
It took them several minutes to get back to the main floor, anxious to get away from the building before someone called the cops on the dead body that now resided on the sidewalk. The Winchesters followed him silently back to their car and Harry kept walking to where he had parked his Jeep a couple blocks over.
The brother's shared a look and Dean jumped forward to grab hold of Harry's arm. "Okay, enough! What's your problem?"
"My problem?!" Harry shook off his hold and glared at them both. "That girl just died! It doesn't matter that she was the bad guy! She's still dead! Is a little respect too much to ask from you two? For fuck's sake, she was someone's daughter!"
"You're right!" Sam held up his hands, placating. "You're right, Harry; we shouldn't have been so callous."
Harry huffed through his nose and started walking again, only to once more be grabbed by Dean's unforgiving grip. "Come one, Dude, talk to us!"
With a tired sigh, Harry gave up trying to leave and turned back to them. "You want me to talk? All right, fine. You dropped me, Dean. After how many conversations - over how many months after Sam stopped talking to the both of us - how could you just drop me like that? Just like that, out of the blue, and just like Sam." He looked over to the youngest hunter and Sam turned his head away. Harry snorted derisively. "And now the little shit won't even look me in the eye. Nice, Sam."
"You have to admit, Harry," Dean pointed out with a wry smirk, "last time you showed up you looked about ready to end us both."
"Yeah, well, I still might." Harry snarled only to shake his head and cross his arms defensively over his chest. "What do you want, Dean? I think, by now, I've learned where I rate as far as you goddamn Winchesters are concerned."
"I want to know what you're doing here." Dean said, running a hand over his hair nervously. "We haven't seen or heard from you in weeks, and now you're here saving our asses."
"I'm here because my Dad called me," Harry explained as calmly as he could. "I came because he told me you dumbasses were going after someone controlling a Daeva. Be lucky I did else you two would still be playing bait for John."
"Thank you, Harry." Sam said quietly, still not meeting his former friend's piercing gaze. "We owe you one."
Harry quirked an eyebrow and said, "Just one, Sam?"
Dean glanced between the two, frowning. "Okay, look. We need to hash this out. But not in the middle of the street with a dead body lying on the sidewalk a block over. Follow us back to the motel, Harry. Please."
Despite the other hunter's sincerity, Harry shook his head. "If that bitch was right, and John is in town, chances are he's going to show up at your motel room in the next couple of hours if he's not there all ready. You need to deal with that."
"He's right, Dean," Sam agreed, though Harry could see the relief on the younger man's face.
"Whatever," Harry huffed and started walking away.
Dean's hand on his arm stopped him again. "Harry, please."
"No Dean," Harry said with resignation. "I'm done, all right? Just... I'm done waiting for you two to remember that we use to be friends."
The mask of indifference fell over Dean's face but, in that brief instant before he closed himself off, Harry saw the devastation in his eyes.
"I'm still a Hunter," Harry told them. "You need some information or help on a Hunt; you know how to reach me. At least you use to."
Turning away from his former friends, Harry didn't look back as he successfully walked away this time. He disappeared down an alley and kept moving when he heard the roar of the Impala shatter the stillness of the night. He tried to pretend he didn't wince when the squealing of tires signaled their departure.
Really, it was better this way. Hunting was a dangerous profession and Danny had always told him it was risky developing attachments. Whether it was you or them, sooner or later one of you was saying goodbye permanently to the other.
'Save yourself a world of hurt, kid.' Elkin's had told him once. 'Don't let people get too close.'
Walking alone back to his Jeep he tried really hard to convince himself of that.
