A/N: Sorry for the delay! Behold the final act of the Ahool Arc!

Benny's Boy

By Takarifan101

Chapter Five: The Flight of the Weirs

Erica drove the back of her hand across the Ahool's beak and when it stumbled backwards used her legs to send it over the opposite side of the capsule. She turned onto her stomach and looked into the void beyond. If she could see either Benny or Eric then maybe just maybe there would be a chance to save them. In the great dark canvass beyond the light created by the London Eye she saw nothing of either of her boys, only the impenetrable blackness of night.

She felt an Ahool land on her leg and before she could react another crashed against her back. In that moment she felt both the air, and fight go out of her. Without Pandora's Box, and Benny's magic there would be no end to the monsters that now made London their home.

"That's not it," thought Erica as she heard both Ethan and Sarah cry out in pain somewhere above her. She struggled to face the beast atop of her and felt a single tear roll down her cheek. "Without Benny there's no reason for me to fight."

The Ahool's tongue flicked out and she felt her skin crawl, of all the ways for her, an almost immortal vampire, to die the last thing she ever expected was death by a mutant bird. It reared back its head back ready to strike and stopped. The monster titled sideways and from behind Erica felt something warm against her skin. Against the creature's weight turned and stopped caught in a trance by the bright green glow. The orb of light moved through the night and when it became focused felt her body go slack.

Above Ethan, Sarah and even the Ahools themselves stopped to peer at the sudden green light.

As the cold night air rushed past Benny and he neared the ground below he felt a strange calm come over him. He thought of the day he had met Ethan, the moment when he had discovered his powers, the first kiss he and Erica had shared, and then finally of the day Eric has come into the world, an eternity of memories that passed in almost an instant.

He held Pandora's Box tightly in his hands, closed his eyes and from within the depths of his power found the spell necessary to activate it. If there was still one thing he could do it was give his friends and family a future worth fighting for.

"DAD!"

Benny opened his eyes and watched as his son jumped after him with his hand outstretched and his green eyes brighter than he had ever seen them before. He reached out and felt the boy's hands wrap around his own. Eric screamed in pain and Benny felt a strange surge of energy rush through him. A green light filled the air and he turned away from the sudden glow.

He felt his shoulder pulled upwards and cried out in agony from the sudden motion. He gripped the box tightly in his free arm and looked up. All discomfort from his body faded, and he struggled to say anything. At long last he managed:

"How?" His son seemed completely different. His face looked older, his eyes were completely void of any thought, and at the same time… he seemed almost at peace. Behind Eric Weir a pair of bright green wings similar to his tattoos bathed the night air in its unearthly glow. "You… you can fly?"

Eric said nothing his eyes focused on something far below them. Benny felt the strange elation of the wind against him and let out a laugh, what else could he do? Is seemed as thought the absurdness of the situation had given him temporary leave of his senses. He watched as the water of the river turned into the bridge itself and felt his son begin to descend. He dropped him gently on the ground before the wings vanished and he crashed to the cold cement ground.

"Do it now," yelled Eric in a voice that wasn't quiet his own. "Open the box!"

Benny nodded, held up Pandora's Box high, and summoned the word once more.

"Aperire."

The box whirred to life as all four corners of the top expanded outwards. He caught sight of a dark purple light within, and felt the wind pick up all around him. The cries of the Ahools filled the air one last time, as one by one they turned into white blurs only to streak across the sky and into their prison. For a single instant London's skies were filled with several lines of bright white light, and then all at once it was once again bathed in total darkness.

Pandora's Box closed. Benny fell to his knees and let out a strangled laugh. He looked up saw the sun rising, and then stumbled across the ground and into his son. He pulled the younger boy into a tight hug.

"I… I didn't know you could do that," whispered Benny when all other words failed him. He leaned backwards and saw the dark circles under the boy's eyes and held him tight. "That was incredible."

Eric said nothing and a moment later Erica crash landed on the ground next to them and stumbled forward. Benny watched his son flinch at her touch, it looked as though it was still going to take some time for him to warm up to her. The blonde whispered:

"Don't you ever do that again, either of you is that understood?" She took a deep breath and tried to gain her composure. "I thought I lost you, don't do that again ok? What was I going to tell your Grandma huh? Seesh, the things you do to worry me."

"Yes mom," said Benny and Eric simultaneously. She turned red, and wiped away the tears that began to form at the corner of her eyes. Sarah and Ethan landed before she could say anything else.

"Well I don't know about you guys," said Ethan with a yawn. He pointed to Big Ben and mumbled: "But I'm exhausted. Why don't we head back to our apartment and get some rest, I think that would do us all some good."

"And what about this?" asked Benny as he held up Pandora's Box. "We need to put it somewhere safe."

"We'll hold onto it for now," said Sarah as she looked up at the rising sun. "I have more questions than answers right now but we can save those for after we rested a bit."

As they made their way back to the apartment Benny noted the way his son stumbled every few feet and looked over at Erica who gave him a worried glance. Without a second thought he scooped up the small teenager and smiled.

"I've got you buddy."

"Are you sure?" whispered Eric already drifting off to sleep. "I don't-"

"It's ok," whispered Benny as he rubbed the boy's back. "That's what dads are for."

The group walked in content silence for the next few minutes and it was only until Sarah motioned to one of the buildings that Benny realized just how dazed and exhausted he really was.

"We're on the second floor," said Ethan. He opened the door and let them pass. They slowly climbed up the stairs and Sarah unlocked the apartment door and motioned for everyone to enter. "Welcome to our tiny home."

Benny looked around, it was sparse, almost empty to a point and before he could say anything he felt Eric moan. "Is there a place we can-"

"The door on the left," said Sarah as she stretched. "It's a two bedroom but Ethan and I share a room and we turned the other into a makeshift guest and office room. The sofa's a pull out too."

Benny nodded and lay Eric down in the guest room before returning the sofa. He was happy to find it was already set up, and lay down opposite of Erica.

"The wings?" asked the blonde without turning to him. "Are we going to talk about them?"

"If I had to guess I say they were formed from the tattoos on his back. If anyone could tell us about them it would be my Grandma."

"Tattoos?"

"Tomorrow," mumbled Benny. He yawned and felt the world go dark around him. "We'll... talk... tomorrow."

Before he fell asleep he smiled, he never thought he'd be so happy to be sleeping on a sofa again.

When Benny awoke it was to the smell of someone cooking. He peeked an eye open and sure enough saw Ethan moving about in the kitchen. Benny got to his feet, carefully moved around Erica and joined his friend.

"This is a nice place you've got here. How long were we out?"

"Thanks," said Ethan as he flipped the pancake. "Sarah and I are hardly here, we're usually at school or running errands for the vampire council. To be honest I'm used to functioning on less than two hours of sleep so the eighteen hours of sleep we just got wasn't at all unwelcome."

"Eighteen hours? Really?" He checked his cellphone. The previous day had come and passed and it was once again morning. "Is this the stuff you've been up to since you moved?"

"More or less. School during the day and every other night is dedicated to the supernatural forces in London. Well it was… I don't know what kind of effect the Ahools had on the city but I can tell you it's not going to be good."

"I sort of envy your life right now. What I wouldn't give to go back to fighting monsters like the good old days."

"Thanks, you know we would've invited you guys out here sooner but somebody made this huge deal about how he decided to retire from the supernatural side of his life and how he was just so much better for it."

Benny and Ethan looked at once another with a set of matching smiles and began to laugh.

Once everyone was awake they made the unanimous decision to head towards the London Vampire Council Room. Benny found himself unable to pull away from the surroundings and familiar scenes from the night before, including several small craters and the area the bus had crashed.

"We really left a trail of destruction behind," whispered Benny when they passed a building with the entirety of its windows broken. "Hasn't anyone ever question this, like at all?"

"Yeah well they have no idea how it happened," said Ethan with a sly grin. "So it's not like it matters anyways."

"What about the traffic cams?" Asked Erica as she pointed to one above a street light. "Didn't they catch your late night run through the city?"

"No the Ahool's screech messed with the functionality of them, and I took the liberty of hacking the systems and removing any and all footage of last night. No one knows what happened, and never will. Besides it helps when your girlfriend works on the paper and can pass off the main cause of this destruction as vandals."

"What about the London Coven?" asked Eric suddenly. "What will everyone do now that there aren't any vampires?"

"It's hard to say," began Ethan when they turned down an alley. "Something like this has never happened before. For starters they're probably going to send vampires from covens all over the world to fill the sudden gap here in London. In fact I got a call from Whitechapel a few hours ago, and the first group of international vampires should be arriving as soon as tomorrow. But for now Sarah and I will represent the London group, at least until someone else comes and takes over."

"Yay politics," said Sarah with a roll of her eyes. "It figures Anastasia was the first one to figure it out."

"Does this mean you'll come back to Whitechapel?" asked Benny. "Or at least visit for the Spirit Festival next week?"

Sarah and Ethan both looked surprised and at the same time answered: "We don't know."

"He's got a point," said Erica she stepped over a piece of trash. "With the Coven gone you really don't have any reason to stay here. Unless you found a lead on the cure you were looking for."

"No," said Sarah with a sigh. "The lead we found led us to a book that's been damaged beyond legibility. No magic could bring it back, but we were sure it had something to do with the origins of vampirism."

"Really?" asked Benny. He felt his heart sink and turned to look at his ex-girlfriend. Whatever she was thinking he couldn't tell. "Well at least it's better than nothing."

"Here we are," mumbled Ethan as he pressed a large unmarked door.

"We must be at least three miles from the hotel," observed Eric. He looked up at the sky and then around. "Maybe even more."

"Yeah we ran pretty fast last night," said Sarah. She stepped through first and smiled. "At least the Ahool smell is gone."

"Ugh," said Benny as he made a face. "It smells like the library."

"You should've been here last night dad," said Eric with a grin as he followed after them. "It was so much worse."

"Anyway quick rundown," said Ethan before he pointed to the glowing white ceiling above them. "This area had obviously been magic'd so no one but us supernaturals can enter. The ceiling reflects the sky above it and since it's daytime we have artificial light. The Council Room is just beyond that door, but that's not the real reason we're here."

He led them past the large auditorium and straight to the desk. "We have an opprotunity to investigate before the other vampires get here, something I don't think we'll have another chance to do. Keep an eye out for anything suspicious or out of the ordinary."

"That's like looking for a needle in a haystack babe," said Sarah with a grin as she sat at the center seat. "No what we need to focus on is why someone wanted Pandora's Box open."

"Is there anything valuable to steal?" asked Benny. "Or maybe they wanted to get the vampires out of the way."

"No not genocide," said Erica quietly. "Too many variables with no way of controlling the Ahools, especially if that person was supernatural. I'm betting it was probably more along the lines of theft."

"That doesn't narrow it down," said Ethan. He got up and motioned to the door beyond the desk. He placed his hand on it and watched as it pulsed. The door faded away to reveal rows upon rows of artifacts resting upon bright white shelves. "This is the London Vault, the world's largest collection of mythical and magical artifacts."

"Wait," said Sarah as she shot up. She began to pull apart the desk. Papers fell across the ground and she turned around with a fearful expression. "The Lexicon's gone."

"The Lexicon?" asked Benny. He turned to Erica, who shrugged. "What's that?"

"It's the complete list of every supernatural child and family in London," answered Sarah. She got on her keen and examined the underside of the table. "It updates itself depending on its location."

"In other words," whispered Ethan. "It's a map to any supernal being anywhere in the entire world."

The group stared at each other in silence, the open room suddenly seemed stifling. Someone had released the Ahools in here, had murdered the entire supernatural community of London, and now they had the Lexicon. Benny shivered.

"Do you think the point of the entire attack was to steal the Lexicon?" asked Erica. "It sounds like it could be more than dangerous in the wrong hands."

"It is…" mumbled Sarah. She got up and peered into the vault. "And who knows what else has been taken."

"I don't think the Ahools are natural," mumbled Eric suddenly from his spot across the room. The group turned to him and he flushed bright red. "What?"

"Why not?" Asked Ethan. Benny watched his friend approached the boy and smiled. E had that look in his eyes, the one that he got whenever he had stumbled onto a clue. "Why don't you think they're natural?"

"Well… when I lived with you and Aunt Sarah you taught me how to make deductions like in those Sherlock Holmes stories…. And I saw a few things that didn't seem right with everything."

"Go on."

"Well first is the warning in the Compendium, it was just that- a warning. There was nothing else in there on how to stop the Ahools. Since a Spellmaster made it it makes sense that this person who opened it needed to have powers and needed to know about the creatures that were inside. We don't have any definite proof but I think the box and the person have to be linked in someway."

"OK I can see how you'd come up with that connection."

"And biologically the don't make any sense either." Benny and Erica shared a look and motioned for their son to continue. "The Ahools were designed to look like owls without looking like them. Owls have eyelids, and they can function during the day, these things couldn't. In fact they couldn't stand bright light, and when you think about it they only ate supernatural beings. Which means they were feasting on them for a reason. How would these things come about without having some sort of beginning? You get what I'm saying?"

"I get it," said Ethan suddenly. "There would've been records, wars or battles or something with these things. Instead there was just one a warning in a book written by a Weir after they had been trapped. There's only one logical explanation then."

"They were created," said Erica. "These things were created and someone, probably this E. Icarus Weir, trapped them in the box because they were too dangerous. So dangerous he knew that if someone fond out about their powers they could potentially use them to destroy the supernatural world."

"We're making a lot of assumptions here," said Benny. "I agree with the idea that these things were made but how did they get the Lexicon without getting eaten? Or how did the Ahools survive in here with the artificial lights?"

"I dunno but we're going to have to check the vault," said Ethan. He pulled a large book from the inside of the door and placed it on the desk in front of them. "This is a complete list of everything that's inside the vault, we're going to have to run everything against it to see if all the artifact have been taken."

"That could take weeks," said Sarah as she thought it over. "We have until the day after tomorrow at the latest."

"Then we better get started," said Benny with a depressed sigh. "Geez so much for a vacation."

After three hours of straight work Benny found himself eating away at the lunch provided to him by Sarah. He watched as Erica tried to talk with their son, and sighed when he noticed the boy's slightly aloof attitude with her. A sudden thought occurred to him and he turned to Ethan.

"Hey I was wondering if you could do me a favor."

"Sure, what's up?" said Ethan when he looked up from the pages of the Vault Book.

"Could you use your telepathy and peer into Eric's mind? He can't remember what happened, or how he ended up in London but maybe you might-."

"Already on it." Ethan motioned for Eric to join them and gave the youngest Weir a smile. "Do you mind if I try and look inside your head and see if I can figure out what happened?"

"I guess," whispered Eric. He turned to Benny who nodded. "OK sure do your thing Uncle- I mean Ethan."

"Uncle works me. So what's the last thing you remember before you ended up here?"

"Well…." Eric closed his eyes. "Aunt Sarah was making something to eat in the kitchen, and you… you were out doing some errand for the day I think. After that it's a blur."

Ethan leaned forward and placed both hands on the side of the boy's head. He felt the familiar pull of a vision.

Always the same. Angel. Professor. Bomb. Found. Alec. Icarus. Eric. Death. The boy taking a sip of hot coco, the warmth of the sun as he ran outside playing with Benny. Something else… something in the shadows… Watching… always watching….

Ethan pulled back and struggled for a breath of air. Eric gave him a worried look and he waved his hand.

"Always happens, I just need to catch my breath for a moment." After a few second he mumbled: "I left my cellphone in the back vault do you mind grabbing for me? It's in the corner left on the opposite side of the G section."

Once he was sure the boy was out of hearing he said: "His memories are a mess. It was like he was a whole bunch of different people all at once."

"What do you mean a whole bunch of different people?" asked Benny.

"He was a different person for every name that he mentioned. And more than that… his memories are funny."

"Funny?" Questioned Erica. "Funny how?"

"There was nothing to them."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"OK here's an example think of the first time you and Benny remembered Eric." The nodded. "Now tell me about it."

Erica thought about it for a moment. "We were outside at the gardens. It was late out so it was cooler, and the air was full of the smell of roses."

"I was worried about being sweaty," mumbled Benny as he closed his eyes. "Because I hadn't showered and I had moved all that stuff around my house in the morning. And I remember feeling elated because it was the firs time seeing Erica in a while, I was definitely worried she'd pick up on my smell, oh and it was light breeze, not enough to be considered cold but-."

"See that's what I'm talking about. Those sense, those emotions, he doesn't have those. It's like look a picture, he was there, but he didn't experience it. I don't know how else to explain it."

"I just remembered something," said Benny as he reached into his back pocket and pulled out the small tarot card. "He also had this on him when he arrived."

"Wait," said Sarah as she suddenly got to her feet. "Hang on, I think I may have realized what else might have been taken."

Eric wandered through the vault and sighed, he knew they were talking about him. Why else would Ethan send him away so fast? As he paced along the aisles he came across a flute and smiled. He remembered his Aunt Della teaching him about this a while ago and when he was sure no one was looking he quickly stuffed it into his backpack. Maybe he could get some practice it when he got back home, show his dad he what he could really do.

Did he have a home? He didn't know anymore. The home he had come from… he didn't want to go back. Not that he didn't love his old Aunt Sarah and Uncle Ethan but… that was a world without his parents. He didn't want to back to a world without his parents, especially one without his dad.

He found Ethan's cellphone and frowned, before he could call out he heard the adults rush in.

"Did you find something?" asked Eric as he joined the on the other side of the vault.

"The Tarot Cards," said Sarah. She pulled down a small box and cursed. It was empty. "They took the One, Four, Eight, Ten and Twelve."

"Only five?"

"There were only five we had," said Ethan as he recalled the day they had come in. "They said gathering all thirteen of them would be dangerous so they sent them out amongst the other covens. But there was no zero card ever on any records…. That one is new."

Before Benny could respond his cell phone went off. "Hello?"

"Hey B-Dog," said the cheery voice on the other end. "How's your trip to London?"

"Rory? How did you know I was in London?"

"You know some snooping, some prying, and I when you weren't picking up at your apartment I called your Grandma and she told me you were visiting Ethan."

"Oh… well… what's up?"

"Listen I'm just going to get to the point- we need your help in Whitechapel."

"What? Why?"

"Because," said Rory as he peered at the large shadow like creature in front of him. "You wouldn't believe what I'm looking at."

A/N: Arc Two is now officially a go! I have no idea what the update schedule is looking like, so please enjoy! If you have any questions feel free to PM me!