Chapter Two

Winchester Castle

Duke of Winchester's Study

'Is this the only information that was sent from our contacts in Japan?' Henry, Duke of Winchester asks his cousin seated in front of his large antique desk, flipping through a file that was handed to him.

'At the moment, this is only a preliminary report sent by the organization's intelligence division. I am expecting a more detailed one within the hour. The initial contact with the demons has worried them, this is not the usual type of battles they have fought. It was only because of some prior training by Bobbie and me that they were even able to hold their own. Because of the slight increase in sightings in the past few weeks, that is the reason they are asking for additional training and to acquire appropriate weapons.' John stated as he looked at Bobbie seated on the left of him.

'The proposal that they are offering can only benefit us, since we have also been experiencing fights with creatures that we have never come across before, but they are well skilled in fighting. This 'treaty' that they are asking us to go into with them will also have some of their best coming here to train our people to fight these new creatures. We should seriously consider it.' Bobbie finished.

'Have you looked at this proposal, Drew. What do you think?' the Duke turned to the man that has been his right and left hand for many years and trusted his judgment throughout his entire life.

'Well, I believe your Grace that its something that as both John and Bobbie has stated can only benefit our people. These creatures are just not what we are use to encountering. We have seen many things in all the years that we have tried to keep our world in tact. Once everyone is here and we discuss it at length, make any changes that we deem necessary and is agreeable to the other party, we would need to move quickly.' Andrew Carlisle said strongly.

'Something bothers you, Drew?' the Duke stated knowingly.

'The fact that they are aware of the 'door' that exists here in England worries me. I did not think that many people would remember let along have knowledge of is very troubling. The fact that it even exists has been a closely held secret that is only known to a handful of people in every generation in this household and there is a reason for that. I do worry in the fact that they may have some record of it, because it would be necessary just for the mere fact that the 'doorway' leads to their ruler's world. It is the fact that, that information was not keep to just each succeeding leader and their organization's holder of records, but that it was past on to a party that now will try and use that knowledge to the detriment of not only their but our world as well.' Drew said out loud of his worry.

'Yes, I do understand what you mean. But, also the fact that our family holds or plays some significant role with the doorway is worrisome.' the Duke finished a pensive looked in his eyes. 'Which is the reason why I question the idea of sending Len to Japan. They do not know her importance to this whole situation and I don't think they need to know that right now, especially with the fact that we have no idea how the England 'doorway' was even discover.' the Duke said to the three men he considered brothers, a slight concern in his eyes.'

'We don't need to worry about that right now, Harry. I believe that no one is aware of Len's part in this whole thing with the exception of us and Len. It will not come out if we keep it that way.' John said trying to calm some of the uneasiness in his cousin.

'Why must it be Len that takes the lead. We could always send either Bobbie or yourself back.' the Duke stated.

Yes, we could but you as well as I know that we lack the finesse or diplomacy that is required in negotiation of this magnitude. These upcoming talks may very well lead to the treaty both their organization and we need to ensure a good outcome on both sides. It must be Len, because as your heir that is what she has been trained for, she is you just a more beautiful and refined version, of course.' John said laughingly.

Yeah give us a negotiation between us and a demon and well we'll just negotiated to death as usually. I don't think that is what is needed in this situation.' Bobbie said matter factually.'

Sighing and sitting back in his deep leather chair. 'It is times like this that I wish I was given a son' the Duke said.

Chuckling Andrew looked at him. 'Your Grace should hope that her ladyship never hears you say that or you will be given a front and center seat as to why she can handle this or any other situation that may come up in our fight. She has learned well, your Grace. She will conduct herself as she must and without fear of defeat. She does not know the concept of failure, in this, she is truly her father's daughter and heir.'

Smiling with eyes still closed. 'Yes, yes I do not doubt that she will. I just want to ensure that she is aware of everything and that she is protected beyond everything else.'

'She will be Harry. That's the reason why we are sending the best two hunters we have, well with the exception of us before you, of course.' John said trying to ease the tension in the room.

'Humph. That could be questionable after seeing those two just a little while ago. Though I think that is more your doing then theirs.' Drew said.

'Oh, a little dirt and smell would not hurt Harry. It's not like he hasn't experienced it himself once.' John smiled thinking of his two sons, pride filling his eyes. His sons who were considered in the demon hunting world as the 'Winchester Warriors', they had learned well and were feared by many demons. His sons would do whatever is necessary to protect their cousin. He knew this beyond a doubt. Not only because it would be their job, but most importantly because she was family, more a sister to them. That they had also supported each other throughout their entire life and that would not change because of a change in location.

'Yes, well that was a long time ago, John. I must say that as much as I am happy to leave the fight to people more qualified, I wish that my daughter was not the one about to lead them.'

'She will be fine, Harry. She comes from a long line of fighters and survivors. I have no doubt that she will succeed in the end of all of this.' John finished as they heard a knock and the door opening.

'Hello father. I hope I wasn't interrupting.' a voiced asked entering the room.

All four men turned to watch as a 25 year old woman walked into the room. They all could not help but think that there could not be a more beautiful woman in the world. She was barely 5'3 in height, with an athletic body, all knew that she even with her slight height she was a walking weapon, a force to be reckoned with. They could do nothing but admire her beautiful hair, a shade of deep black that seem to have a tinge of blue that ran down the length of back down to her knees, mostly straight that would have look severe except that throughout its thickness slight curls could be seen. Skin that was so exquisite in its porcelain look and feel. Her eyes were the thing that most people could not forget once they had seen it. It was a beautiful deep violet that spoke of her character and personality. And when she smiled people around her could not help but smile back and be very aware of her beauty.

'No, darling. I am glad that you could get here so quickly. I know how much you hate to leave an assignment before its completed, but if it wasn't important, I would not have requested that you return home.' her father answered as he looked behind his daughter. 'Where is Lily? I thought that she would have come with you, since I did ask that both of you come.'

'Oh, she will be here soon, father. When she found out that Dean would be here, said she needed to make a call before joining us.' she said.

'Call? Who in the world would Lily need to call before even greeting us.' her father asked.

Laughing softly. 'Lil said that she could not miss an opportunity to 'yank on Dean's chain' since its so rare that she sees him. Said that she just had too, had too let Valerie know that Dean was back and 'hint' on the fact that he was still interested in her.'

'Umm, Len sweetheart. I thought that Dean could not stand that Valerie 'witch' as he calls her since she tried tricking him into marrying her.' John asked his niece.

'Oh, Dean cannot stand her, Uncle John. Can't even stay in the same room with Valerie for more than 5 minutes before he says he need to shower and Lil knows this. She just loves watching Dean squirm because, I usually force him to be on his best behavior because I know that is so tempted to 'slap her silly' as he would say and I admit that I do tend to love watching him also. Oh, Uncle John..he really can't stand her.' Len laughed.

'Who can't stand who?' a voiced asked entering the room.

'Dean…Valerie' Len answered turning to watch her best friend enter the room. Most people seeing the woman together would know that they were related. Both women had long, dark black hair. But, where Len's reached her knees, Lily's reached below her waist. Both were the same height at 5'3, with athletic bodies that served them well when necessary. The only outstanding feature to the two women was that where Len's eyes were a deep, dark violet color. Lily's was a bright, light almost translucent blue that stood out against her dark hair and white skin.

'Oh, I cannot wait to irk Dean about her.' Lily laughingly said.

'You know, Lilybud. I think you get too much pleasure in tormenting my son.' John said with a smile.

'Oh, come on Uncle John, its really his fault. He makes it so easy to push his buttons. I mean was it really Len and my fault that Valerie ended up looking like she was some guy dressed like a woman. I mean he did tell us to fix him up with a girl that was 'built'. He just wasn't specific enough to let us know he mean her breast size and not her body type.' Lily laughed with Len remember the incident years ago between Dean, a blind date, finding out what she looked like and a pig sty with Sammy.

'I still think that Dean made Sam mad on purpose so that he would push him into that pig sty at the farm, so he could meet Valerie smelling like that. He was fine with the blind date until Sam let it slip she looked more like Ingrid the Swedish bodybuilder rather than Ingrid the Swedish swan.' Lily pouted.

Oh, let it go Lil. It's been over 8 years since that happened and every time you and Dean get together it never fails you both end up doing the 'let's punk' each other game. It is really not fun for Sam or I to try and play referee because either you or Dean or both of you end up getting us involved and it escalates to the point where one, two or all of us end up getting very dirty, smelly and aching for days.' Len complained.

'Geez, Len its not like it was my fault the last time. How was I too know that we were all running toward that smelly bog. If Dean was just a better loser then we wouldn't have ended up racing guys against girls.' Lily defended herself.

'Well, Lil what did you expect Dean or Sam to do, when you call them lazy, wimpy, sissy boys that hid behind their nanny because they couldn't take girls calling them crybabies and shouting that girls were stronger than boys and we would rule the world.' Len finished.

'Hey, it was Dean that forced us off the regular path. Is it my fault that Dean led us down the road that was being worked on and veered us off course just when we took the lead. Then when we both noticed the bog and tried to stop, it was Dean and Sam who couldn't stop in time and ended up hitting us toward the bog and we just reacted to save ourselves by grabbing onto them.' Lily stated strongly. 'You know, you would think that with all of their training, Dean and Sam could have stopped in time. We did.'

The four men in the room could not help but laugh remembering the accident that led to both girls along with Dean and Sam falling into the smelly bog that was usually kept off limits because it was dangerous and made all four of them smell for a few days despite the many showers they all took.

'As much as I enjoying reminiscing about Dean's past antics we need to get down to the business at hand. Has your father explained the situation with the 'doorway' for Japan's Soul Society and what that means to us here in England?' Drew asked Len turning the conversation to the serious matter at hand.

'Yes, a bit Uncle Drew. He did not go into details, said that he would explain more once Lil and I got here. Though, I think we have a grasp of the problem. Lil and I have ran into some of those strange white creatures ourselves, we fought them like we usually do but our usual approach wasn't working. If it wasn't for Uncle Bobbie suddenly showing up and taking care of it, I don't know what would have happened.' Len voiced out thinking back to the incident that happened a few days ago when Lil and her were out investigating a case and ran into those 'hollow' creatures. It was not something that Lil or her were prepared for, they fought them like they usually would demons and nothing they did was working, they were beginning to really worry when Uncle Bobbie came from nowhere and defeated it. She had to admit, after hearing from her uncles and her father what these creatures were she knew they would really need help.

'Good, so let us get into it and we'll tell you what needs to be done to fulfill our part of this bargain. We all know that if there is an increase of these 'hollows' presence, our people will really need their type of training.' her father told her as he picked up the files and called the women to him. 'Here is what I need you to do…' the Duke's voice trailed off.

Upstairs

Standing before the mirror, Dean looked at his image and straightened the tie that he wore, turning a bit to admire his reflection. 'Have to say, I make this suit look good.' he said with a smirk.

'Only you would compliment yourself, Dean.' Sam joked as he entered the room, Dean laughed looking at his brother through the mirror. Seeing that Sam was also dressed in a suit, dark blue in color, with a matching light blue shirt, dark blue vest and tie. His hair brushed back, not a strand out of place.

'Hey, just because you don't look as good as me Sammy is not a reason to be jealous. It's not my fault that I got all the dripping good looks in our family. I mean, what do you expect there could only be one handsome Winchester in the family and I'm it. Don't hate the man, hate the fate.' Dean turned laughing at Sam as he dusted off imaginary lint of the shoulder of his suit.

'Yes, well if I had to choose between being the homely son with the brains or the handsome son with no brains, I'll take homely any day.' Sam answered.

Admiring his image Dean didn't catch some of Sam's comments. 'Yeah, I am handsome ain't I..' he began to say before he caught on. 'Hey, are calling me an idiot? I'm not an idiot, may be a bit slow on the uptake when it comes to research, but I'm not completely brainless.'

'So you are admitting that you are a bit brainless though?' Sam asked.

Thinking about the question, Dean moved towards Sam, 'You trying to say that half the time I am?'

Laughing as he moved back 'You said it, not me.' Sam answered back as he put up his hand as if to ward off Dean. 'Hey, don't think about doing anything to muss me up, don't think Walter or Ben would….' Sam didn't finish his comment as Dean's door opened and the two men that Sam spoke about walked in.

'Master Dean, don't even THINK about attacking your brother. If I happen to see even one crease out of place on either you or Master Sam before I get you down to his Grace, I will be very, very upset with both of you.' Ben stated quietly as he watch the two brothers.

Backing off from his brother by the threatening voice. 'Ummm, of course Ben. Wouldn't even think about touching my brother.' Dean defended himself. 'So, Ben are we presentable enough to be brought into the presence of our uncle.' Dean asked looking at one of the many men he was use to seeing in his uncle's home. It wasn't unusual to see many ex-military men here, since his uncle's home was the headquarters of the British organization of demon hunters and has been for many centuries. Since the time of Edward the Elder around 889 AD, that it was first discovered that demons truly exist that Edward charged the Merchester family, as they were once known before changing it to Winchester around 1066, to be the 'protectors' of England from the demon world. The family was tasked to lead a 'secret' army in protection of the British realm from demon creatures that entered our world.

'Yes, his Grace is ready to see you in his study.' Ben answered moving towards the door knowing the boys would follow.

'Ben, did he say what he wanted to see us about?' Sam asked.

'It is not my place to speculate on what his Grace needs with his nephews only that if he wants them in his presence, it is my duty to ensure they are brought to him without delay and it is your duty to not keep him waiting.' Ben scolded them like he use to when he one on their training instructors.

'Sorry, Ben. Sam should have known not to question why or why not our uncle needs us.' Dean apologized to not offend one of his old teachers.

'It's alright, Master Dean. Shall we go. And just so you know boys, I must say you boys do clean up well. It is no wonder we always had so many of Lady Len's friends visit the palace when you were both here. You both did tend to make this entire place turn chaotic. Know wonder that they called you both the 'Winchester Wonders'. Ben stated as he walked out the door.

'Yeah, we do look good.' Dean strutted out. Not to encourage him anymore, which would not take much all Ben did was shake his head in affection.