Dawn – chpt 17.
by: sifi.
--
With the arrival of Ellen and Jo, their group was now complete, and it was time to get this meeting of hunters under way.
In the middle of the living room Dean stopped and stood looking down at Gary Nelson still tied up in his chair within the Key of Solomon. Sam stood on his brother's right looking into the man's eyes.
No one breathed as the eldest Winchester drew back his good right arm letting fly with a punch that popped the man's spine half way down his chest and turned his jaw purple before his head finished snapping back to center.
Without exception, everyone cringed.
Dean grasped the man's chin and watched his eyes wobble crazily through the room, trying to coordinate their movements so he could focus.
"You ever THINK about touching, hurting, or causing through ANY means harm to my brother again and you'll only be able to wish you were dead," he growled.
"Bring him," Dean ordered watching as Sam turned in front of him following Bobby through the kitchen, and knowing that Laura was behind him with Jo on her good right side.
Jack and Mercy grabbed Gary, one to an arm, with Ellen and Shep following behind with their guns trained on the man while Tom covered the rear as they moved through the house, the yard, and into the shed where the two demon possessed hosts were seated, each one bound within a separate devils trap, both of which were surrounded by a circle of salt and lime.
"Stay outside the outer ring please," Laura asked softly, stepping over the boundary as did Bobby who set two vials and a silver platter littered with Oak leaves on a table off to the side before stepping back across the outer perimeter.
"You're all here because Bobby asked it of you. Bobby asked you all to come because he believes that YOU are the ones that are capable of not only comprehending what's going to happen here this weekend, but also because he knows that what you'll see, you'll do your level best to explain to other hunters," Laura stood between the two demon possessed hosts, leaning heavily on them.
"Some of you might have heard some things about me..." she smiled at them each, those who knew her best understanding the sadness beneath it all, "None of it matters. This however, is your chance to make up your own mind. You've all heard what Dean and Sam have told you about the threat our universe faces... and I do mean UNIVERSE... not Earth, not our solar system, not the Milky Way Galaxy... every picture you've ever seen that Hubble has ever sent back... every ubiquitous galactic representation you've ever seen WILL CEASE TO EXIST if we can't stop this," As she spoke, around the construct the air began to shimmer and people, eighteen to twenty four inches tall began to appear, each one, male, female, standing at intervals, girded for battle, their eyes closed, their concentration obviously focused. Among the group as the veil thinned and the lines between realms blurred, expanding, the edges growing hazy until each of the wee warriors were clear to every hunter present.
"Holy shit they're real..." Gary breathed.
At the point closest to Sam, Dean, and Laura stood the one she called Mustard seed, his eyes red and glassy, his cheeks and beard shimmering as he silently watched, his eyes flitting between Bobby's, and the Winchester brothers and yet somehow unable to touch those of the one he loved the most.
"If you can't quite wrap your brain around it... the boys can introduce you to the multiverse concept..." she assured them all, "If we... if YOU fail... we might as well never have existed," she finished and swallowed hard.
For a long moment her gaze went somewhere far away, "It's reborn...I wish I could fight beside you one more time," she turned looking between Bobby, Dean and Sam.
Her breath shortened in her chest and throat, "You know what to do?" she asked Bobby who nodded. Glancing over the assembly of hunters she bit her lip and reminded them quietly, "Energy is the building block of everything... Please... no matter what happens, don't let yourselves give up. If it's at all possible, when the fight comes I'll be there..." she nodded watching Bobby light the silver platter full of green oak leaves on fire and set it at her feet, then hand her an athame of silver as the smoke enveloped her.
"The oak represents the strongest of Earths' children..." she explained then softly asked, "protect your servant..." she dipped the point of the blade into the vein of her left arm and drawing it upward by a couple inches let her blood run freely into the tray. Drops and streams lit orange-yellow with fire, she drew a lung full of the smoke, "Its essence is carried through the air... protect your servant."
She set the blade into her left hand but it refused to close around the hilt and fell to the ground.
"Stop this!"
"No!" Tamara and Jo yelled eyeing Sam, Bobby and Dean fiercely while Tom and Shep kept a gently restraining hand on each of them.
Dean stepped forward and picked up the ceremonial dagger as a sigh was heard from a few of the hunters.
To their surprise and to some, disbelief, he pressed the hilt to the palm of her hand, and with glassy eyes held it there until she started to angle the blade. He shook his head looking into her eyes, "I can't."
"Stop this..." Mercy half demanded but held her position.
Sam stepped forward and pressed the blade back into her hand, then covered it with Dean's hand, clamping the two together tightly while she pressed the point into the vein of her right arm and drew it upward an inch or so, letting the blood fall freely onto the smoking tray.
"What're you doing!" Mercy asked then looked at her uncle, "What the hell is he doing?"
Bobby shook his head.
"What has to be done," Shep muttered almost inaudibly.
When the blood began to flow, Sam stepped back with a gentle squeeze to his brothers' shoulder, for the moment, neither man was able to draw a full breath.
Laura breathed the smoke and opened the first vial, the one with the Angelica decoction, "Water is the first place that life came to be...Protect your servant..." she tipped it back and sank to the earth on her knees.
On either side of her the demon possessed hosts who had at first sat with scornful smiles on their faces now traded the looks for those of fear.
She reached for the second vial and unstoppered it, her eyes cast upward for a moment before breath caught in her throat as she looked from Dean to Sam and back again.
Dean's crystal green eyes held onto hers even though he was thinking about the last few minutes the three of them had alone in the bedroom, just a couple hours ago. Is there anything I could have said that would have changed her mind about this? he wondered.
On his lap he drew her tight to his chest, "You don't have to do this... we have enough life energy around here to seal this place for a year without anyone dying for it."
She smiled faintly, cradling his face gently in her hands, "Dean, it's about to re-emerge into our world... without the power that comes from a willing sacrifice..."
"I know I know... it'd be like trying to trip king kong with a shoe string," he nodded as Sam returned to the room and sat across from them again.
Laura looked at him pointedly, "Just make sure they understand what's at stake, they may be demons but they're a known quantity, if they won't stand beside us in this war then at least maybe they'll take up the cause themselves and go up against the igigi on their own... and if they WILL stand beside us..." she whispered.
Sam nodded, "I know, then they'll have the leader Yellow Eyes promised them after all."
Fear beat inside Deans heart so loudly he almost couldn't hear the hope behind it, the hope that maybe THIS was how it was all supposed to work anyway, that IF the baby he'd done his best to raise into the man he was proud to call his brother, was DESTINED to lead a demonic army, that maybe, just maybe it was against a common foe. 'Please let it be like this if it has to be at all...' he begged the universe.
"The others are ready..." Sam nodded and stood as Laura rose to her feet as well and embraced him hard.
She drew him down until their foreheads touched, "Whatever happens Sam, I have faith in you. And I love you," she swept his lips with hers then watched him straighten, meet eyes with his brother and nod before leaving them alone for a moment longer.
When the door closed she turned in Dean's arms pulling him as completely as possible against herself.
"You don't have to do this," he said again, "I don't want you to do this."
"I'm not capable of living like this and never letting myself see you or be near you again, and I can't live with the chance that I could ever hurt either of you, intentionally or not and it's only a matter of time before that happens... I'd rather be dead than to let that happen," she explained once more.
Wordlessly John's first born lowered his head and captured her lips between his for what they both knew may be the last time.
Dean stepped forward, stiffly lowering himself to her side and wrapped his hand around hers.
"Come back to me..." he said, not caring who might hear.
"If I can..." she nodded.
"Even if you can't..." he whispered, raising the vial to her lips.
"How can I stand here with you and not be moved by you?..." she breathed as he tilted the bitter brew down her throat, his good right hand behind her head, mist covering his eyes as her body spasmed, her muscles clenching , blood trailing lines from her mouth, nose, and eyes in the long moments after ingesting the fatal decoction.
Dean sat on his heels, the woman held to his chest as her last breath slipped from her lungs and her heart ceased its beat.
An explosive pulse of warmth raced outward from the shed, the walls rattled with its passage, the grasses waved, and at the far end of the yard a jagged stack of tires toppled over as the hunters, sidhe, and demons present watched its wake.
Moments later, in a full circle around the perimeter a band of amber light grew to almost blinding brightness before shooting straight upward in a transparent cylinder of color and illumination. In the span of another heart beat, the day returned to normal and all eyes turned back to the shed.
"Are they still inside Sam?" Tom asked as Dean moved to the male host Gary brought.
Sam nodded, "Yep, doesn't look like they can get out either..." he watched a group of four gray igigi sail nervously through the air, beating themselves futilely against the barrier just like they had against the one created by the salt line and palo santo seal at the hospital. He watched them swoop again, this time toward the captive hosts, only to batter themselves against each of the seals that kept the demons safe from predation. Soon, she's almost gone now, he thought uncertain if he was actually seeing the dark granules of the demon's 'body' starting to roll bit by bit out of the hole around the holy wood stake that was still protruding from the hosts' chest. "They're hungry Dean, and I think this one's dead."
"Are you guys talking about those... igigi... things?" Jo asked, examining the skies for the presence of anything dark gray and smudgy looking.
Bobby handed a jar to Sam.
Dean motioned to the female host. "Who here besides Sam, Bobby and me have actually ever seen a demon die?" he asked.
Ellen cleared her throat and smirked at Dean who had the sense to almost blush, "And Ellen," he added with a smile.
"I have," the male host snarked.
"I'm getting to you," Dean nodded as he met eyes with each of the other hunters, none of whom seemed to have ever witnessed this particular phenomenon.
Turning back to the male host, his eyes slid over Laura's body and he swallowed, "Can your kind see them?" he asked and before anyone realized what happened he had the colt pressed to the man's forehead.
"Yes! Yes we can see them," he answered quickly.
Sam opened the jar and stepped into the seal with the dead demon. Nodding at Bobby he slid it over the point of the stake, pressing the rim to her breastbone as the senior hunter slowly started to slide the shaft of wood from her body.
"Then you know how many of them there are," he urged.
"Yes, thousands of them," the host answered.
"Is it working Sam?" Dean asked over his shoulder.
"Believe it or not, I think it is... it's weird though, just kinda turning into this smoky film," he nodded.
"Good, get as much as you can," he nodded and returned their attention to the male host, "Now correct me if I'm wrong here... but to them... you guys are a delicacy, kind of caviar if you will," Dean continued.
The host nodded.
"Well there's no accounting for taste... but ...when they breech the gates, and you know they will," Dean smirked coldly, "you guys are pretty much an all you can eat buffet... s'at right?" he asked.
"Yeah," he nodded.
"And does any of your kind really believe that as long as those things are around that even in Hell you're safe?" he asked.
With obvious reluctance the host shook his head, "No."
"Does your kind know how to kill them?" Dean asked.
"I don't. As for any others, I don't know..." it admitted.
Dean turned toward the gathered hunters, "See... they feed on humans too, our weaknesses, our vice, doubts... anything that shadows the human soul, but we can live for decades while these things feed off of us, but when it comes to demons... they're pigs. Seems they just can't help themselves, they set in and can't stop chowing on you guys until you're all gone," he explained.
"Then why are we concerned about them at all if we can continue for decades... let them feast on the demons, do our jobs for us..." Jack pointed out.
Dean nodded, "Good point. That'd be great, I mean put a lot of us out of business so to speak, but it would be great if we didn't have to worry about demons anymore..." he drew back the hammer on the colt and raised it toward the hosts' head.
"Wait... Wait!" it scrambled trying to lean away from the infamous hunter and gun, "You think the world is a crap hole NOW? Just wait till those things have fed on your kind for a couple more decades! It'll be just as big a Hell as Hell is..." the demon inside the host spat, "they don't feed on your misery and make it go away... they feed on it and it grows, it spreads like a bacteria... vice, avarice, apathy, loathing, self destructive behavior, they LOVE it... they GROW it INSIDE you until there's nothing of your own humanity left... burning it out in the pit is merciful in comparison..." it explained.
"How do we get rid of these things?" Ellen asked.
"We have to get rid of the marauder first. It's using them as its ground troops..." Sam started to explain as he closed the lid on a jar full of sooty black-ish not quite smoke.
"Okay, just so you're all clear, and in case you need proof, step up to the line," Sam instructed watching as their fellow hunters made sure not to cross the seal, "We've all seen demons evacuate a host or exorcised from one. When the demon dies, the manifestation of its energy eventually dissipates, it's not something that can be found inside an autopsied body, there will be a slightly higher than normal amount of sulfur in the blood but no dead giveaways..."
Sam stuck his foot out almost ready to break the seal around the female and watched as all four of the gray igigi hovered, warty mottled tongues running over warped and pustulent looking bends in their malicious faces, I hate it when they get this close, he thought watching the darkened sockets that were their eyes follow the motion of his hand that held the jar. He moved it up toward them ready to swear he could almost see them salivating until he noticed something strange, and his eyes flicked to Dean's.
"Did you see that?" he asked.
"Look at the jar Sam..." Mercy motioned.
"Yeah," he nodded turning his attention to the host, "What's going on?"
"I don't know," he shook his head.
"What would happen if I just..." Sam motioned with his foot toward the seal around the man.
"Keep them away from me!" the male host leaned away from the female.
"Sam," Dean nodded as the smoke inside the jar actually seemed to cling to the glass at the point farthest away from the igigi.
The youngest Winchester nodded and toed a break in the seal around the woman, "You all can't see 'em but you can see what they do... keep your eyes on the..."
"What the hell?" Jack pointed to the woman. Strands of dark matter that makes up the demon's essence seemed to be drawn lazily through the air in several directions only to disappear in the middle of nothing. There was no propulsion of its own as there was in an exorcism or when a demon left its host, these bits were being drawn from the host and devoured before their eyes.
"Let me go! Let me out of here Winchester..." the male half demanded.
To his surprise it was Sam who leaned forward, looking the demon in the eyes, "You remind all your kind that Nergal is back, he and his troops will go right through you one by one, or in droves to get what he wants, and what he wants is to destroy what he can't have. You tell your kind, if they're not going to help us, they'd better stay out of our way, cause this..." he motioned to the female, "we don't really care, and the way they work, we'll out last your kind in the end. Get my point?" he asked.
The male nodded quickly, his eyes widening as the last bits of his fellow captive were fought over by the gleefully piggish faces. Their dark eyes turned to him, sensing the demon inside and a continuation of their feast.
"How do I get in touch with you when I have their answer?" it asked.
Dean held up a cell phone then stuck it into the hosts' jacket pocket.
"Don't call us, we'll call you. You've got forty eight hours to spread the word and have an answer," Sam nodded as Dean cut the ropes binding its body.
It stood toe to toe with Sam once it was free, sizing him up. Throughout the shed no one moved and very few even breathed as Sam swept his toe through the lines of the trap, "Make sure it's the right answer," he ordered.
Glancing around at the assembly of hunters the demon inside the male didn't know what unnerved it more, that corrupted lesser gods were getting ready to pounce, or that it may have to face Azazel's chosen again.
With a nod that was almost a faint bow, the assembly breathed again as the demon disappeared.
"You think he'll do it?" Tamara asked.
"I really don't care," Sam shrugged. "Even if he doesn't, and even if they don't... as long as they stay out of our way that's all that really matters," he sighed.
"How was he able to cross the barrier to leave when those things can't?" Jo asked.
"Because like it or not, the demons we know and loathe are indigenous to this plane of existence... the igigi and the marauder aren't, so while they can't get inside the barrier without being within a trap, once they're free of the trap itself, they are able to get out," Dean explained then turned toward Laura's body which lay within a circle of sidhe guards.
"And the others can't get in or out?" she asked.
"That's right," Sam nodded then looked at his brother, "How is she?"
"Still warm," he whispered meeting eyes with the one she called Mustard seed, "Will she be able to come back?" he asked well aware that they understood.
The diminutive warrior sniffed and shrugged then pressed the heel of his hand to Dean's forehead.
The last thing the elder brother heard was Sam's voice call out his name as the world seemed to open up, leaving him free falling.
--
"They're like us... some good, some bad, some ... apathetic... ALL igigi feed on demons, and should the necessity arise they will ALL also feed on humans and OUR weaknesses," he explained.
"Then what kind of a chance do you really think we stand Sam?" Gary asked rubbing the feeling back into his wrists before sandwiching a slice of roast into a roll.
The young hunter shook his head, "If we can't turn back or kill the marauder, not much, but it won't matter anyway," he looked around the table making contact with every set of eyes there, "Losing to this thing is NOT an option, once we win against the marauder we can worry about rousting its troops," his gaze slid to the couch where Dean lay still unconscious and with his own little cadre of sidhe guards, and on the floor beside him the warriors had carried in the body of the emissary as well.
"Singer I honestly thought you'd skipped out on us..." Gary shook his head in reference to the sidhe, "I still can't believe it..."
"Is she really dead Sam or is it some kind of coma or something?" Jo asked.
He shook his head with a sad frown, "S'not a coma."
"But it's possible she can come back right?" Tamara asked before Ellen could.
"Yeah, that's why they're guarding her body, keeping decomposition from starting in case she does come back," he explained.
"How long until you know?" Ellen asked.
"When the barrier goes down we'll know," Tom said softly, easily reading the distressed look on the youngest Winchester's face.
"So what can we expect from these igigi things... you said they're like people, they're not all after the same thing, are any of them going to be able to help us? or even want to?" Mercy asked.
Sam and pushed his plate aside, he wasn't going to be able to eat until Dean woke up. If anything happens to him... "We're hoping that without... the marauder to give them direction, that most of them will go back to following their original king, but we know some of them..." he stopped, his eyes moving over his big brother then over Laura's body, and finally over their friends, some of whom he'd known all his life, "Some of them..." he stopped and closed his eyes "won't."
--
tbc.
Please R&R.
Thanks.
sifi.