Dawn – chpt 7
by: sifi.
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She saw the fist coming long before he raised his arm, she saw it coming as she had a thousand times before, it came when he leaned back, it came when he drew his arm back, it came as he gritted his teeth, and it came as he leaned forward, drawing that arm forward with him. His fingers grabbed the skin of his palm and curled tightly into it, the knuckles tightening to form a flesh and bone hammer and it was coming right for her head, again.
A quick internal assessment brought a flash of insight. There were no butterflies, there was no electrical buzzing, there was no shortness of breath or lack of clarity. The moment stopped around Janie Frank as her left came up to block and her right hand, held firm with her fingers curled back, jacked straight into his jaw.
She watched his head snap back around, a smile of satisfaction stretching her lips an instant before a spear of wood erupted through her breastbone.
"Took your time," he huffed with a wince as he worked his jaw.
"I didn't want to ruin your good time," Tamara patted his shoulder and frowned as the body of Janie Franks writhed on the ground, her eyes pure black and still somehow glowing with hatred.
"You exorcise this one Jack, you need the practice," she handed him the Rites of Exorcism and sat on the porch steps.
"Tam, you know I'm not..." he started to protest.
"You're Isaac's brother, you wanted this, I wanted you OUT of it remember?" she pointed out.
Slowly he nodded and began to read, to avenge his brother he'd learn the rites.
"I thought you said Bobby wanted one of them?" he asked motioning to the writhing demon possessed woman in the lime pentagram.
"We can't take the chance of transporting it across three states, it's too dangerous," she shook her head, "I'm sure we'll run across something... or one of the other hunters will, Bobby's hoping to get about ten of us together," she explained.
"Including those kids that opened the gate?" he asked.
"He swears it wasn't them, he swears the four of them were there to stop it," she defended once more.
"And you believe him?"
"I do," she nodded sadly, "We weren't there, Isaac and I were furious when we heard about what happened, and after everything, all the rumors about John Winchester's boys," she shook her head, "...to find that the gate had been opened and an army unleashed... we were irate and terrified, and like most other hunters, a bit hasty in our judgment," she shook her head.
"But?" Jack asked, he'd asked his sister in law on several occasions over the last year what exactly had happened and she'd frequently avoided or changed the subject entirely.
Tamara swallowed down the tears that wanted to come, "Bobby and Ellen have both sworn, on Isaac's name that those boys had nothing to do with opening that gate and letting those bastards out. I have to believe they wouldn't tarnish his name, not after being there and seeing..." she took a shaky breath and shook her head again, "No, Bobby wouldn't do that," she met her brother in law's searching eyes, "and neither would those boys," she motioned to the incapacitated demon, "Do you really think we should bring it?"
"We've got it," he shrugged placing a warm hand on her shoulder.
"Alright, go get that travel kennel we saw in the back yard, I'll get the rest ready," she clapped him on the arm and turned to the truck without so much as a glance at the barely cogent demon on the ground.
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'No! You gotta fight it... don't, please don't...can't breathe, stop... please Dean stop!'
It was virtually impossible, but somehow his big brother had him by the throat, holding him so high off the ground it was scary, he could feel his feet flailing in the dark damp night air, and Dean's arm bounce with the motion but his grip never faltered.
Something wanted him dead, something was scared of him and it was using his big brother to try and make him go away, "Please..." he choked feeling tears starting to come.
Something moved behind those alien eyes that gazed out from his brothers' face, and then he was flying, skidding on the ground, sticks and dirt and rocks scraping his skin, sliding down his 'big boy' pants and getting up under his t-shirt.
"Run Sammy! Run!" Dean's voice cracked even though his eyes weren't back to normal yet.
'Dean say 'run'... Sammy run,' he thought and felt his legs pumping beneath him, heedless of the sharp sticks and ground clutter that poked his little feet, 'I want MY Dean back!' his heart cried as he ran for all he was worth toward the building that looked so far away. The place where daddy was sleeping on the floor in their room after he got hit in the head with the door, 'daddy will bring my Dean... daddy will fix it!'
Big hard arms grabbed him and he screamed as the ground flew so much faster beneath them now.
"Shhh it's daddy, I gotcha sweetheart, I gotcha..."
Warm breath, low vibration against his back, and sharp tangy smells filled his little lungs bringing him warmth from the inside out.
Golden light wrapped around them as they entered their room in the building and those big hard arms wrapped tightly around him, squeezing him against the hitching, bobbing wall of daddy's chest.
"Sammy?"
The hands turned him around, holding him around the belly, leaving wet prints on his skin all the way through the material.
He looked into big, sad, watery brown eyes that made him want to cry, his hand petted the black bristles of daddy's beard and the other one went into his mouth as he kicked his feet and grunted.
"You okay Sam?" that trembly bristled face asked kneeling down at the couch and setting him on his feet on one of the mushy cushions.
"Wan' Dean," he mumbled around his hand.
Daddy's face got wet and he nodded, "I know baby I know... I'm gonna get your brother back I promise... but I need to look at you, make sure you're okay, okay?"
He nodded pulling up his t-shirt and looking down at some places that were hot and ouchie feeling, "Uh oh," he pointed to a cluster of scratches then frowned pulling a small stick out of his big boy pants.
"Is that all?" daddy asked peeking under the elastic, satisfied that the scratches were the worst of those owies, "How about here?" the big fingers touched his neck.
"Mm," he frowned pulling back and pushing the questing daddy-finger away from where it hurt.
"Can you breathe okay?" daddy frowned.
He nodded and daddy kissed his head, "Okay sweetheart I gotta go get Dean, I want you to go in your room and stay there till Pastor Jim or I get back okay?"
"Or Dee?" he asked feeling himself smile for the first time in it seemed forever that night.
Daddy didn't seem to be sure, but he smiled a little and nodded, "Or Dean. Your brother loves you Sammy," he said.
He nodded sliding off the couch and ran to the bedroom while daddy clanged around then went back outside.
He hooked his toes into the space under the mattress and pushed himself into Dean's bed then laid his head down on Dean's pillow. The smell of his brother filled him up and brought back the comfy warm feelings as he held it to his chest and face.
Somehow, in a way that had never NOT made sense, inside his body he could feel his brother; the one who made him pop-tarts and read him the fishy story, and made everything the way it was supposed to be, growing tired. There was something big and scared inside his Dean, something that shook with fear when it looked at him, and Dean was fighting it. Dean was fighting it for him.
Red walls shook thunderously and he was almost certain he'd felt his room sway.
Leaping out of bed he dashed across the warm stone mosaic toward a horrible cacophony of stone and metal clanging furiously, barely drowning out the shouts and cries that rose on the night air.
Carefully he crept to the balcony's edge and slowly rose enough to peer over the stony embankment. Far below, yet still halfway up the tower raged a melee. If he didn't know better he'd say that every single one of Anunnaki's workers seemed to be storming against the Gallas, the Palace guards. 'But that makes no sense,' he thought, 'Why would the Igigi be rebelling? And where is Anunnaki to turn them back?'
A clarion battle cry soared through the air on the back of a lion's roar and he peered over once more, 'Mother... she'll put an end to this nonsense, but where is father?'
The door to his chamber flew violently open, "Marduk!" a voice he knew well called into the room.
'A Galla? Father must be at battle as well, I should join them,' he turned from the balcony, his eyes peering into the churning yellow ones of the Master of the Gallas.
"There is trouble, your father has sent me to bring you to safety," he explained, "Dress quickly."
With haste he drew on his tunic, and sandals. He reached for his scabbard as the tower trembled once again, his footing coming loose on the stone floor, as he saw himself moving through a tunnel, the galla behind him:
Shadows flickered in the firelight, the sounds of battle still raging, but now above them as he was moved toward the cave riddled home of his mothers' lions where he was to shelter in safety until the battle was won.
"Why have they attacked? Where is Anunnaki to quell his people?" he asked of the galla.
"Anunnaki has not been found," the vulture headed guard answered.
"But why have they attacked? What purpose will this folly serve? There is no challenge to the King of the gods be they lesser or greater, he is the KING," he asked.
A faint call in a timbre that drew on his very bones rolled through the underground passage, and he turned, "Father..." he breathed, turning with a smile, seeing beyond and behind the enormous creature who now blocked his path.
"Father!" he called.
"Marduk... Run my son... NOW!" came the shouted warning.
He turned and fled as the galla reached for him, its enormous size a hindrance within the confines of the tunnel.
It turned in an attempt to wedge itself around to face the King of the Gods who charged through the passage, murderous fury twisting his features, his eyes blazing golden rage, his sword overhead, ready to sever the neck of anyone who would dare to conspire against him and his!
He turned, well out of reach of the creature now, and drew his own sword, though he knew better than to approach and jeopardize his fathers' position. He grimaced as the sword pierced through the base of the gallas' wings, driving the creature to its knees.
With a word of the ancient tongue, and a touch from his hand, the sword wrapped a coil of light around the incapacitated guard and Enki raised it to its feet, "You dare to jeopardize my SON! Be grateful you have your life Azazel!"
Careful to maintain his grip on the betrayer, the king of the Gods nodded to his child, "Your mother and the rest of the gallas have ended the battle, it is safe to return home my son."
Sam tossed his head to the side, sweat dripping freely down to soak the pillow, his breathing shallow and stuttered as the grunts and whimpers that slid from his throat seemed to catch and rend on their way out.
"Easy there little man, it's okay, it's okay..." Tom frowned watching the boys' brows furrow while he changed the cold cloth over his forehead and behind his neck, "It's all gonna be okay Sammy, I swear to God I'll do everything I can to make sure it's okay," the words got caught halfway out as he nodded and pressed his lips tightly together, I love you boy, I love you like my own and I won't let anything hurt you if I can help it.
"For the highest of crimes;" Enki stood before his once most trusted of all the guards, who stood locked within words and symbols of the greatest power painted in lambs blood on the floor of the Counsel chamber, "... the betrayal of your sacred duty to your king and his kin Azazel you shall be stripped of your rank and banished from this world for all eternity. You shall bear until the end of time, the shame of the most heinous crime that can be committed."
Within the enormous chamber sat all 50 of the Anunna, the first of the greater Gods created to serve the universe, and the entire complement of the tower guards, the gallas.
In a holding chamber below the column upon which the sacred symbol was painted; squirming and jockeying for position were the thousands of igigi, the lesser gods who'd tried to charge the Tower in the hopes of overthrowing the very king who ruled them all.
Across the expanse of the pit sat Anunnaki, victim of betrayal by the very lesser gods he was charged with ruling, and beside him sat Inanna, the King's woman; and their beloved son Marduk.
"Since his is the highest of crimes and was committed against me and mine, the punishment is mine to determine. Is there any being present who would disagree?"
"There was an even greater betrayal my king," Azazel spoke.
"The uprising could not have come to pass were it not for help from within your own line, it is you own brother who has sown the seeds of this happening."
A mighty roar of fury rose from the ranks of those squirming below, the igigi fled and pressed against the walls that held them as two greater beings than they, coiled also in golden light became visible.
"You are in no position Enlil, nor is your wife, to take any action that counters my command!" Enki roared furiously back, his rage enough to silence the entirety of the chambers.
He turned back to the galla before him, "You shall be condemned to the underworld then to serve for all eternity, while the other conspirators shall bear the curse of banishment," he turned his gaze to the counsel of the Anunna who leaned together then nodded their agreement to his terms.
The king turned with a smile and a wink for his son and woman, and a nod to his trusted but shaken Anunnaki.
As his father turned, somehow, within the bronze pillar of a man he could see another, 'Maybe it's the sight?' he wondered, delving through his father's warm liquid brown eyes and into the bright green ones deep inside. He cracked a faint smile with the realization that the rich chocolate coloring he'd seen all his life was stripped out of this pale man with strange gem-like eyes. 'Interesting... not ugly, but definitely curious...' he thought.
He nodded to his father as a shaft of dark gray, wielded by a suddenly freed Igigi burst through the chests of both his father and the human man inside.
Over their shoulder the igigi twisted the blade grinning maliciously at the young boy.
"FATHER!"
"DEAN!" Sam screamed breathlessly and bolted awake in the darkness of their hospital room.
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tbc.
Please R&R.
Thanks.
sifi.