All Along the Watchtower

Chapter 19- The Watcher

"Steve I would like you to meet Jessica."

"Hi," the small girl said as she swiped the stringy blonde hair from her wide blue eyes.

The bound man said nothing.

"Okay Steve, I brought Jess in to give you a little perspective."

Jess took out a notepad from her satchel and a pencil, laying them on the table as she sat down.

"Jess is something a bit different from us. We can use magic, make things float, kill people and generally do all kinds of nasty stuff. You should know considering you've had some nasty things done to you in the past hour or two. Jess is what we call a watcher, to put it bluntly, this pretty little Miss can see the future, well futures and wherever the future happens to be going at any particular moment right?" He glanced over at Jess.

"I see what can happen, based on the thoughts and probable actions of the people I am around. So yes I can see the possible future, which most of the time ends up being right. I'm pretty accurate compared to most. It's a lot of numbers and stuff." She finished with a pretty smile as she scratched away at her pad.

"Jess is going to show you a little bit of your future, well your future if you don't start answering some bloody questions anyway."

The bound man looked away defiantly as blood trickled his forehead. He would not break, he would not betray.

"Fair enough, Jessica if you please."

Jessica finished scribbling and raised her pad. It was simple stick figure at a table with two crosses for eyes. "Better start answering, 'cause with the mood he's in you've got about twenty minutes, give or take."

"Seriously?"

"I think he gets the point!" Jessica snapped and went back to scribbling.

"Whatever. Steve, I'm going to level with you, if you die in this small little room it's a hell of a lot of paperwork that really I can't be assed doing. So just tell us what your boss is up to, we'll modify your memory and we'll all end up happy. We might even give Jess a bonus."

"The money here is shit, I need it."

"See, the snarky little shit needs the money. Who wouldn't want to help out that pretty little face?"

"Fuck you."

"How do you even know words like that you're 12?"

"Fuck you sideways Captain, I'm 15 actually."

"Ignore the prissy little shit then…can we get on with this, just give me your name for a start."

The bound man grit his teeth, if he wanted a name he would get one. "My name is Alexander Selwyn."

Jessica snorted as she scribbled away.

"No, your name is Theodore Nott; you're the Junior Undersecretary of the Minister for Magic Rufus Scrimgeour. He also happens to be a Grand Knight of the Paradynian Order and as his bitch I'm fairly sure you know that. As I'm sure you can guess what I am."

"You're an Assassin." Theo said quietly.

"How very astute you are sunshine," with a sudden snick the blade strapped to the Captain's wrist snapped to attention, "and this you can guess is my hidden blade." He trailed a finger along the fine edge. "See I'm not as good with it as Russ but people have told me I'm pretty inventive!" A winning smile took to his face.

Jessica raised her pad again. It was another simple stick figure minus an arm. "I get paid to draw not watch this shit."

"Well maybe if you weren't so shit at drawing I'd pay you for just that!" The Captain snapped before turning back to his charge. "You can live without an arm, might take me a bit of time with this small blade and some pretty inventive obliviating-"

"-he'll die of a cardiac arrest about a minute and a half in…genetic problem the Doctor will say." Jessica was bored and tapped her pencil impatiently.

Theo's eyes widened.

"Ready to talk now? I don't really want to get blood everywhere…" The Captain said, getting up and walking around the table.

Jessica looked on with mildly hidden distain, she was a tool to threaten it would seem. The best watcher in three thousand miles being used to scare an administration worker into ratting out his boss's underhand activities, Jess just went back to her pad and her pencil scratched away as the Captain wrung out useless information. Jess supposed she couldn't complain, a thousand pounds an hour wasn't bad and the Assassins were pretty good at actually paying her. Some of her other employers weren't so generous.

"Jess you can go, send Russell in and I'll meet you up in my office in about half an hour." The Captain said as he produced his wand.

Pencil and pad were shoved into her bag quickly and she vacated the room, holding a wary eye over the wooden stick until gone. In her limited experience they could do amazing things but she never trusted them, she watched them do far too much to trust magic. The hallway was as bare and empty as the small room and she nudged the boy not much older than her from his seat as she passed and he went back in to join his Captain.

Jess kept to herself as she traversed the building, trying hard to avoid the crowds of children not much older or younger than she. It was hard to think that most of them could kill her in a hundred or so different ways. She knew where she was, roughly, but the sooner the English Captain gave her a portkey that sent her back to her apartment in New York the better after she collected her money.

A quick look into the future and she found the office with relative ease. Another jump into the future and the access code was easily bypassed, being a watcher made life incredibly easy at times. The view from the office was spectacular; a golden halo floated just above the window behind the desk and the sky was a relaxing blue. Her hand twitched.

Jess hated being around magic people. They were ridiculously easy to watch but a hundred times more unpredictable. Their future hinged on will, on the magic they could use…when and if they would use it, the power behind it. There where so many variables. It was almost maddening. They paid well but being around them was nerve racking, she wanted to go home to her silk sheets, to curl up in bed and forget about anyone's future for a few days.

His couch was comfortable, she'd give him that, so she grabbed a few of the pills in the small bottle in her bag, threw them back and lay down. He would be a few hours.

xxxxx

Half an hour turned into a few hours and by the time he got back to the office Harry was tired and blood stained. It wasn't a nice job but they got exactly what they wanted out of Theodore Nott and that was that. Pride in the job wasn't something he took and involving Jess was just a necessary evil, he wanted to see just what a watcher could do and she was bloody impressive. It was halfway like she was reading his mind; she could see the future, see it when it changed again and again dependant on his mood and actions.

As a watcher got older they could see further into the future. They also became more accurate in their predictions, not quite to the level of a true seer but comparable to an extent. What was special about Jess, according to the Master, was she at that level at such a young age. She watched people without thinking; she could hold a new-born baby and tell what they would name their children and what their children would name their children. She was toying with him; he knew that as soon as she started drawing stick figures. Jess knew he was testing her and decided to test him right back. It didn't take long to understand why she was the Operative's first port of call when it came to detecting new recruits for the Academy and why they paid her so well.

He was unsurprised when he opened his office door and found the petite teen sleeping on his couch. So far as he was aware Jess didn't go to school and had mostly raised herself, using her abilities to pay her way in the world and shouldering the responsibility of knowing just where the world was going.

An alarm went off and Jess got up calmly and flipped her phone over to turn it off.

"You're good," Harry admitted.

"I'm better than good, I'm fucking amazing actually. Now sit down."

"Sit down?"

"Sit," Jess muttered, grabbing her bottle of pills again. "And stop fucking thinking I've got a sore head!"

Harry sat down next to her, "So-"

"-shut up, just shut up!" Jess muttered.

Harry nodded to himself and turned his eyes on the pill bottle.

"They help with the migraines."

"Oxycodone? Pretty hard help."

"Addictive too, don't forget that."

"Drug addict at 15, classy."

"Murderer, classier."

Harry looked away, he wouldn't call himself a murderer but he'd left too many mothers without sons to deny it. "So," Harry said, "You want to go home? You passed if it's any consolation."

"I know I did," Jess sniped irritably.

"I should have figured that-"

"Yes, you fucking should have."

"Sorry, I guess."

"So you should-"

"-do you actually practice at being a sarcastic little bitch or does it just come natural?" Harry returned, tiring of placating the young girl.

"Fuck you," Jess stated coldly, "Fuck you, you have no idea what it's like to be me! Mr-I-Grew-Up-In-A-Mansion-and-Got-Everything-Handed-To-Me-On-A-Fucking-Plate!"

Harry's temper snapped to ice cold, "You know nothing about my life-"

"-I know everything about your life. I know every last thing, what you'll do, what you can do, the futures you've ripped and torn. The futures that spin on the end of that stick you like to wave about, the wooden one anyway. I know everything about you Captain; you're piss easy to watch. I don't even have to close my eyes or sketch it to remember." She got up, "Get up."

"What?"

"I said get up."

"Why?"

"I'm proving a point."

Harry got up and followed Jess to the lifts and along the walkways to the infirmary. They passed few, it was getting late and most of the students were in their dorms. Anyone else was probably in briefings or taking some well-earned R&R, things had gone a touch quiet on the mission front, if Harry didn't know any better he'd think the Dark Lord was getting second thoughts.

"What do you want in there?"

"You'll see."

They proceeded in silence, Harry was deep in thought. There wasn't a reason he should be or have to go to the infirmary, everyone was on base and accounted for, well everyone he was responsible for and cared about which amounted to some of the Reapers, Cho, Jack and Russ. What had she watched him do? Jess took a sharp turn and Harry's heart sank. He hadn't been to the Long-Stay Ward at the Academy for months, he made sure to visit whenever his time allowed after he came back but it tapered off as he trained his Talons more intensely and the mission roster seemed to fill his time until he hadn't been in months.

It was depressing to see the sterile white room was almost exactly as he had last saw it, the only difference being the flowers and child-made 'Get Well' card on a bedside table. The two beds lay side by side, one held an ethereal blonde beauty and the other a young man Harry knew too well. A brother fallen by the white, crater-like scar which dug a trench from his temple down to his neck. It was the remnant of a blasting curse which by all rights should have torn Boomer's head off but instead left him in his current state. Boomer was brain-dead but his body clung to the vestiges of life with a grip which never seemed to loosen, even after they turned the life support machines off.

The fetching blond girl with different, she still held higher-brain function according to Doctor Landry; it was a mystery why she never woke from her coma. Perhaps it was some form of magic induced-shock caused by losing her husband and the connection they shared or the after-effects of whatever curse almost killed her. She was trapped in whatever nightmares played behind those delicately lashed eyelids.

Boomer or Spencer Wyatt as his chart proffered, should be dead. Harry sometimes wished he was. Personally he would hate the indignity of lying waiting to die with a feeding tube connected to his belly, unable to open his eyes and acknowledge the world.

Jess put her bag on Boomer's bedside table and pulled out her pad and a switchblade.

Harry kept an eye on the small blade as Jess flipped through her pad, settled on a page, picked up the knife and looked directly at him.

"Promise you won't stop me, you have to trust me, I have to do this right and I can't watch to see what to do now I've changed things."

Bracing himself for what was to come; Harry wondered just what she was doing. He would spare Boomer the indignity but it wasn't his place to make the decision and he wouldn't let Jess make it either. He watched as Jess flipped open the knife and lifted Boomer's hand, "What the fuck-"

The small girl looked at him with a piercing blue stare that was anything but disarming, "trust me," she reiterated and pulled it along Boomer's palm. In seconds it was a crimson stain. Jess looked at it with a crinkled nose, she hated blood. Next she cut away the thin gown covering Boomer's torso.

It hurt to see how gaunt his friend had become. Once he was a powerful, athletically built young man, sculpted with lean muscle and an iron will. Boomer was now a shadow, a warning whispered among the older Apprentices who knew his story and those promoted to the ATC.

Jess slapped Boomer's bloody palm down on his chest and smeared it with blood; letting it fall away again she looked intently at her pad and began to draw with her finger like a four year old painter. The end result was several sigils he vaguely recognized but held no hope of deciphering; if Allie was around she'd probably have better luck. "What are you trying to do?"

"Why isn't this working?" Jess whispered to herself, she flipped through her pad frantically. A conclusion was quickly drawn. "Give me your hand."

Harry stretched his hand out to her and recoiled in shock as she slashed the switchblade over his palm. He grimaced and let out a breath. He let Jess guide his hand and touch Boomer's chest.

Nothing happened.

"Why isn't this working!" Jess stamped her foot in frustration and ripped at her pad, "I've saw you do this about twenty times, it should work!"

Harry lifted his hand from the blood and used his wand to clean up the mess. "Whatever you're trying to prove Jess, I can't bring people back from the dead-"

"-he's not dead, you're supposed to heal him!" Jess snapped at him.

Harry shook his head. "I wish I could do this Jess, I really wish I could but I can't, he's brain-dead. There's no spark to heal, if Boomer was still in there he would have woken up by now."

Jess didn't listen, "-maybe I'm doing this wrong-" a few pages flicked until she settled on one. "Maybe…"

Harry hissed in pain as she grabbed his hand, squeezing tightly so more blood slipped from the wound.

"Just wait," Jess muttered, as she finished again, "While the blood is still wet-"

Harry placed his bloody hand over the sigils and his eyes snapped shut.

xxxxx

When they opened all he could see was white. He recognized it, the last time he was with Aral. He was in purgatory, well part of him was. The warmth of his magic still flooded his veins so he knew he was still alive. At least Jess hadn't killed him.

The white light faded and Harry found himself in a dark clearing. The sky was pitch-black and the trees loomed hauntingly and two bright moons lit the night sky.

Harry turned quickly, surprised as a bush ruffled and flame took to his palm. Element in hand Harry turned to face the danger. A boy came bursting from the trees, running as his life depended on it. His eyes widened as he locked eyes with him, "Boomer?" Harry whispered. His friend was unshaven, his hair roughly cut and clothes tattered, the only familiar piece being was the worn leather combat jacket.

"No time-" Boomer breathed heavily, "-we have to move, before they catch us-"

"-who-"

"-we've not got time-" Boomer pulled Harry into a run.

They ran, they ran hard, harder than he ever had before. Boomer kept looking back, stopping only to fire a few shots over his shoulder into the trees. Harry was red in the face by the time they came to a rocky canyon wall. Boomer launched himself at the cliff, latching onto the face and climbing quickly, Harry followed at a slower rate, looking down when he saw shadows pooling at the bottom unnaturally.

Harry looked up as Boomer vaulted over a ledge and his hand came over the edge. Harry grabbed it and Boomer pulled him up roughly, he didn't bother to get up and collapsed back, breathing heavily. "What…the…hell?"

"Demons," Boomer breathed out, "the smoke, it's the way they get around and get in people. Don't trust anyone here."

"Even you?" Harry said.

Boomer shook his head. "They can't get in me, called me a Nephilim and chained me up…I managed to get out using my Element then I stole a few weapons and ran. It's been months, I just woke up here after being hit on the head."

Harry stopped short, Boomer didn't know?

"So you're dead again as well? Guess we're pretty fucked now." Boomer muttered to himself. "I mean how the hell did you manage that? Getting killed twice, purgatory's a bitch by the way, you should have skipped it."

Well that was an awkward conversation averted. "I'm still alive Boomer, a watcher called Jess-"

"Lil' Jess is still knocking about? Best damn watcher I ever met that girl, saw me months before I managed to save her, couldn't help her mum but."

Harry gave a small smile. "She's a snarky little shit who pops too many pills."

"She's a good kid under it all." Boomer assured, "she just has a lot of problems. Hope she's been doing good without me checking up on her."

"A thousand pounds an hour of good."

"She still gets paid better than us, that fucking figures." Boomer shook his head. "So how are you here?"

Harry shrugged. "I don't have a clue, she drew some symbols in my blood on you…put my hand on them…boom…me here. I don't have a clue how I get you out of here. She watched me do it and done it to prove a point but she didn't think that far ahead since I don't think she can watch us here. Whatever it did snapped me into a coma pretty similar to yours, I think."

"I'm in a coma?"

"You're brain-dead mate; I think that's why you're here. Otherwise you'd be sitting pretty on a cloud."

"A cloud sounds pretty good now." Boomer dusted himself off and got up, "c'mon, might as well take you to my place."

"You have a place here?"

He led Harry along the perilous edge until they came to a slim crack in the rock, Boomer shuffled inside, careful not to graze any of the razor sharp rock on his way around. "It's not exactly a penthouse in London but it's done me for the last few months." The rock eventually widened until they reached a wider tunnel they could walk in along and not shuffle. "Not long now, watch for the salt lines, they keep the smoke out. They might not be able to take me but it hurts like a bitch when they try."

Harry nodded, carefully stepping over any rock-salted earth. They eventually came to a small cave, lit by a smokeless torch. "Everlasting fire? Where the hell did you get that?"

"Stole it," Boomer stated, pulling out his single pistol, sliding out the mag and throwing it on a pile in the corner next to the wooden cot.

"How do you have a gun?"

"When people get sent here they have whatever they died with, I lost my hidden blade but managed to steal back most of my stuff over the last few months."

"What do you do for food?"

"Don't need to eat, that's how I figured out I wasn't alive anymore, then one of the demons that caught me was nice enough to tell me I was probably dead."

"Sounds like a charmer."

"Lilith is a fucking bitch and don't get me started on that Urthemniel guy, cold bastard, barely said a word and just kept sticking me with his favourite knife."

Harry raised an eyebrow, Urthemniel and Lilith? He certainly remembered those names. "No injuries?"

"You heal pretty quick here, almost instantly, hurts though." Boomer pulled a knife off his belt. "This little pig-sticker's the only thing that can do almost permanent damage to people, sends Demons back downstairs too. I stole it from Lilith."

"Any plan for getting out of here?"

"I thought you'd know, considering."

Harry wanted to punch something, from what he remembered Lilith and Urthemniel where two of Nathaniel's most powerful followers and getting through one of them to a potential escape would be nearly impossible. With the two of them involved it was probably suicide even if one couldn't die in the afterlife. Harry thought hard. "There must be a way Lilith and Urthemniel came from Hell to here, any ideas?"

Boomer sat on the wooden cot, "They use something called a Devil's Gate to summon other Demons from hell if you kill any, so I guess that's how they get about to. I think it's the only way in or out."

"No," Harry said quickly, he couldn't go back to hell. He'd never get back out again. "Urthemniel used to be an Angel, he can do things Lilith and the other Demons could only dream of. He's the only thing I can think of to help. If he can open a portal to Earth, you go all demon smoke and get back in your body and with any luck the spell or whatever Jess set will snap."

"Demon smoke?" Boomer said unsurely.

Harry shrugged. "You'll be back in your body and it'll be alive-ish. I don't know if you'll still have magic but you have your Element here you should be good, I think."

"I'll be like one of them?"

Harry shrugged again. "I don't know, I'm guessing here based on what I know. But we'll be lucky to get that far, it's not like Urthemniel will just do whatever I ask."

"So that's the plan?" Boomer asked, cleaning the intricately carved knife with a rag.

"If you call that a plan, have you got any idea why they're here?" Harry asked, so far as he was aware purgatory was massive, a well of unsorted souls which couldn't find peace or damnation. In other words purgatory contained power, not quite to the extent of Heaven or Hell but enough to put anyone who could harness it on a level field with an Archangel. It was unfocussed, raw power; maybe it was the back-up plan. If they failed to break the seals the Fallen would use the power of the souls trapped in purgatory to crack open Lucifer's cage, assuming they could harness them effectively. And that was a big assumption.

"I'd like to know how you know so much about them first." Boomer's gaze was hard and untrusting.

"I died."

"I figured that."

"And then the Angels brought me back."

"Figured that too, Lilith and Urthemniel told me a bit about them and what they could do."

"But for ten years between I was a prospective demon for Nathaniel, one of the Demon Lords of Hell, well pretty much the boss down there. Urthemniel and Lilith work for him, well Urthemniel does, Lilith is more Sataniel's bitch but she plays both sides. She only gives a shit for who can help her free Lucifer and hedges her bets with anyone who can help her with that; she doesn't give a fuck about anyone else."

"So she's our weak link?"

Harry nodded slowly, if you could call the First Demon weak in any respect. "We need something to hold over her."

Boomer raised the knife and it shone silver over the black etchings. "There's something about this." He ghosted a hand over the markings. "It was the first thing I grabbed and they went bat-shit crazy over it, they hunted me like there was no tomorrow until I crossed the river." Boomer almost shuddered in remembrance. "There's worse than Demons over that river. I had to come back, those things hunted me almost as hard, that was the first time I saw the light."

"The light?"

"I think it happens when someone comes here. After the light people just appear out in the forest. I figured eventually another one of us would get dropped and I'd be able to do something so I every time the light comes I go out and try to see whoever turns up." He looked away. "I've tried to save them. One, a blonde girl even showed me that salt trick to keep them out before they took her." He picked up an old lever-action rifle and rubbed at the scoured metal in remembrance. "I just want to get home Harry."

Harry recognized the desperate tinge to his voice; it was a tune he knew down to the last note. "I kinda want to get home too."

"I just want to get home and see her." He said quietly.

See her? Harry thought, he didn't want to say anything but last he checked Boomer didn't swing that way. "Who?"

"Sariel, AJ's sister. I just want to tell her-" Boomer paused in thought. "He jumped in front of an AK for me. He died for me and I wasted his sacrifice, I've had a lot of time to think about it and if I get out of here things won't be like that anymore. I'm going to make it up to her somehow, to the Master, to Kaden and Karen." Boomer looked up from the knife and a tear leaked from his eye, a crystal tear of hope. "I loved him and when he was gone I was lost, being here I've found a reason. I want to live; I want to live up to AJ's sacrifice and I'll fight for that."

xxxxx

Recon was boring. Recon was imperative.

Those where two statements Harry could live by as he and Boomer skirted the edges of the clearing, Lilith and Urthemniel's base of operations wasn't much to look at. A few ragged shacks around a cliff wall with a pair of double iron doors set in the rock. If Harry squinted he could almost read the markings on the wrought iron.

"That's it," Boomer whispered. "The shack on the far right is their torture Den and they keep anyone they haven't possessed in the other ones all penned up like cattle. There's not that many; most end up crossing the river running from them and don't come back. I don't know how to open the gate."

"We're not going through the gate," Harry muttered to himself. "We have to do things right, any idea where Urthemniel and Lilith hole up?"

Boomer shrugged. "She's been a blonde girl for the last month but she usually changes it up, Urthemniel's always been-"

"-tall, blonde, blue eyes and a giant ass scar along his mouth, only turns up when something important is happening."

"Pretty much, he hangs about with Lilith, barely even looks at the rest of them."

"He's an Angel, they've got nothing on him and Urthemniel hates them more than he hates us. We can use that."

"How?"

"We make sure he's not here when we make our move, we draw them all out and by the time he gets here he'll blow through most of them to get to us. Fucking idiot will do half the job for us."

"Can you take him?"

Harry shook his head. "I don't know, he won't have all his powers here but he's still an Angel and he's fought without them for a time on earth. We don't have to kill him, we just need to convince him that us being here isn't worth the trouble then he can send us back properly."

"What about Lilith?"

"We take her the fuck out if we can, she's a sadistic bitch who'll want to cause us as much shit as she can." Harry eyed the knife in Boomer's hand. "If I'm right that'll be able to shank Lilith pretty good."

But Harry wasn't all that confident he could get close in enough to do that. Maybe if he had his TACSAT, Russ and Jack fully loaded; a plethora of Intel to look over and time to plan the Op he'd be happy to swan in and shank Lilith without much thought. But all he had was a battered M9 with two and a half clips of ammunition, his hidden blade which was thankfully still strapped to his arm and Boomer's knife. The lever action shotgun, along with the few other firearms Boomer had acquired had run dry of ammunition.

In short they were underprepared and under-armed, Harry didn't like being underprepared or under-armed.

"We should get back to your place," Harry said, "get a plan together and get ready to move out."

Click- "-see that's going to be problem for us. Now turn…slowly."

Harry obliged, his hands raised clear of any weapons; his only ally was in a similar situation as a young teenage girl relived him of his M9 and the knife.

"Fuck," Boomer muttered.

"Yeah fuck little Spence," the demon sniggered as his eyes flickered to black, "we've got you now, not even the river will save you or your little friend."

"Fuck you."

It grinned, "Maybe later. Rope 'em boys," he said to two of his black eyed compatriots.

Harry saw the smoke curling behind them, as it receded, revealing more black eyed monsters. Like a second sight he could see the smoke which seemed to drift from their orifices. Out of almost twenty, two of the more burley variety stepped to secure him, the girl who disarmed Boomer wasn't that far away. Close enough that he could maybe incapacitate her and get the knife back. He needed that knife.

Seconds, all he had was seconds and he used them well. Luckily it was his un-bladed wrist the demon grabbed first. He remembered Boomers words well, heal quick but it still hurts like hell. Jamming a hidden blade through the eye would do worse than hurt even if the wound healed quickly.

That was exactly what Harry did, he turned before the demon had a true grip on his arm and with a snick his blade tore into being and stabbed through an eye socket and into brain matter. The demon dropped like a stone. Twisting quickly, a spinning kick took the other in the stomach and the blade entered the back of a skull. Crack! The bullet clipped his forehead as he turned away from it.

A crash and Boomer levelled the shooter. Two bodies down Harry turned for the girl and where sweet eyes should be where the black pits of a demon with an M9 in hand. Turning just in time, the next bullet whispered by and he turned behind a tree, hearing the shots ring and counting down.

Click.

Game over girl.

Harry dived out, traversing the distance between them easily and coming up with his blade out and shanked her beneath the jaw. Harry grasped Boomer's dagger quickly with the other hand but a hand wrapped around his blade wrist and Harry's eyes widened as the girl's eyes turned milky white.

"The rules are different with me honey, you should know that."

With his other hand around the dagger Harry punched it hard into the neck until there was more than just the tip showed at the other side.

"The rules are very different."

"Lil-"

The first punch was so strong staggered him. The second broke his nose. The third smashed teeth and the fourth straight laid him out.

xxxxx

Being strung up again didn't bring back to many fond memories, on the bright side, he wasn't choking on smog and his throat wasn't burning. He was completely healed too, well his teeth where in place and not packed down his throat by Lilith's vicious punches. The bitch could hit hard.

Harry wasn't awake more than a few minutes and a striking blonde came through the door of the ramshackle wooden building he was imprisoned within. His eyes narrowed as she grinned and the milky white obscured her eyes.

"You did some damage to my new meat suit honey," Lilith took a seat; "suppose, you were always a vengeful little soul weren't you."

"Well I was trying to kill you," Harry sniped.

Lilith pulled the dagger from the back of her belt, "With my own dagger? Honey, you should have recognized my handiwork," she moved to within inches of his face, gently resting the tip against his temple and she breathed deeply. "I always wanted you, one of our biggest catches but Nathaniel always sent his lapdog Urthemniel in to turn you. Maybe if he'd used someone with a little more finesse you'd still be on our side."

Harry smirked, looking her right in the milky white orbs. Almost seeing the human that lay behind them; seeing the girl trapped behind them and unable to control her own body. "Where's Bob? I'd rather talk to him, away and have a wank over daddy's cage you miserable little b-"

Lilith snarled and pulled the blade down hard against his face, carving a deep path down to his chin. "Don't speak about my father you disgusting abomination!" She warned, holding the blade threateningly to his eye.

"Abomination, what the fuck does that make you?"

"I'm the First! The First Evil, the First Demon to walk the fires and Earth, created from the loins of the Morning Star, the greatest Fallen." She twisted the knife into his cheek as he hissed in pain, "you are nothing compared to me whelp."

The blood drained down his face, it was warm and damp and the pain burned. It was a magical blade, the charms on it kept the wounds open in her hand it seemed. "Going to cut on me for slagging your poor daddy? Aww…little Lucy all locked up behind all those seals and the horrible bastards he claims for children have no clue how to break them. Fuck you, suck my fucking dick you disgusting excuse for a-" Harry sucked in a breath as the blade stuck in his shoulder.

The knife twisted in the wound, the satisfaction she felt was intoxicating. Feeling him tremble with pain and shudder as her warm breath touch his ear elated her mood. Make no mistake, Lilith hated him with every fibre of her damned being but there was very thin line between hate and lust in her mind. "You don't even know," she whispered to him, "it's wonderful, I get to tell you exactly who started all-"

"Enough!" A deep voice called.

Lilith turned her face to see the figure in the door, keeping close to Harry's side but giving him view of the hulking monster in the doorway. Harry knew the face and the bulky frame of Urthemniel, the only difference to his usual appearance was the tailored suit. If anything it made him look more Angel than Fallen. "Hey Bob, fancy meeting you here…"

"Shut up…Lilith come, we have matters to discuss."

Lilith pouted, planting a rough kiss to Harry's cheek. "I'll be back soon honey, I'll see if I can find a meat suit more to your liking, you like Asian don't you?"

Harry spat a blood at her feet and she turned on her heel. Thousands of years old and she had PMT by the bucket loads and suffered from worse mood-swings that a schizophrenic on speed. Harry hated to admit she was kinda hot, if a murderous sociopath could be classed as hot. If he was right, his wounds were not healing at all. Boomer was very wrong, the blood was still running a river down his neck and he'd be lucky to move his arm any with the state of his shoulder. But he had to get out. Testing the bindings he pulled gently, tight and strong and he couldn't feel his Element or his magic, undoubtedly Lilith's doing.

"-YOU CAN'T WE NEED HIM!"

Harry's head snapped to the door and Urthemniel's bulky form filled his view.

"Nathaniel proposes a deal-"

"NO-"

Urthemniel's hand stretched in Lilith's general direction, cutting off her voice as she grasped at her throat. "You will speak when spoken to Demon." He addressed Harry. "Abomination, the crude spell cast to bring you to this place between worlds will not be easily broken but can be without cost. However Nathaniel the Cunning is willing to allow the soul of your comrade to leave with you, he asks but for one soul in exchange, to keep the balance of the world."

"Nathaniel doesn't give a fuck about balance, why?"

"A soul may never leave this wretched place; one must be exchanged to satisfy the balance, a penance."

"Who?"

"A soul of Nathaniel's choosing."

"Stop fucking with me Bob; if Nathaniel is screwing me over I want to know."

"You are needed. You are central. The longer you stay in this place, the longer matters will go unresolved. Nathaniel asks a small price from you and presents a gift in turn; you would be wise to accept."

Harry knew he was right, having Boomer back would be a boon and he couldn't leave his friend to rot. He had gifted plenty of souls to Nathaniel, what was one more? "I have your word there is no trick in this?"

"My word should mean little to an oathbreaker."

Harry shrugged as he gazed into the soulless silver eyes. "You betrayed your own Father; don't lecture me on meaningless words."

"ENOUGH!" The calm façade dropped and finally Lilith's host let out a strangled cry as her neck cracked and twisted to the side horribly. "Accept; one soul as price."

Shaking himself Harry tried to clear his mind, it didn't make any sense. He was important in the plans of Heaven and Hell but Nathaniel was never one to give ground unless he was certain to claim it back in a timely fashion. The word of an Angel was binding to a point, words where all which kept the fragile truce of Hell's Kingdoms. Words kept the peace where anarchy should ideally reign. "I'm going to regret this but I accept."

"Done." Urthemniel muttered, moving forward with an outstretched palm.

"-no!" Harry snapped quickly. "I want to see my friend go first."

A click of fingers and a bright, all-encompassing light filled the shack before receding. "It is done."

The fat fingers grasped his hair and searing pain filled the space his scar used to be.

xxxxx

Harry's eyes snapped open almost instantly, his soul being shoved back into his body was not a pleasant experience. Urthemniel could have been touch gentler. His head was fucking killing him. A hand came up to his face and he winced, feeling the wet bandage on the side of his face.

He turned his eyes to the girl in the chair next to his bed; the lumpy old armchair looked like her favourite from the common room back at Hogwarts. He would have smiled if it didn't hurt so damn much. He must have hit his head when the spell forced his soul out. Sitting up he unclipped all the wires and pads connecting him to the machines at the bedside.

"You gave us all a scare." She said, looking at him from her comfy spot.

Harry smiled and paid the price as he hissed in pain and he cradled the aching wound.

"The shoulder was fixed easy enough but Dr Landry wasn't worried about the scarring there. So she stitched you up and wants to take a few days before fixing up your face properly." Cho got up and sat on the edge of the bed.

"You just like me all scarred up and rough."

Cho rubbed his hand. "I like you alive Harry, I love you alive."

Harry sighed, the girl had a point. "How long was I out?"

"A little over two days."

"Anything happen?"

Cho shook her head slowly, "A few Recon Ops, Jack and Russ have been keeping you company a lot. They're a touch lost without their Captain."

Harry smiled again but it was Cho's hand which cupped his cheek gently. "Help me up?"

Standing Cho took his arm gently and helped him to his feet, steadying him when he swayed slightly.

"You make a not bad nurse Chang," He quipped, leaning on her none too lightly.

She rolled her crimson tinted eyes. "Where do you want to go?"

"Boomer's room."

"Why?"

"Trust me."

Cho led him on the small jaunt to the long stay ward and into the calm double room. The window was open and it looked to be a beautiful day out in the grounds, the sun shining and the birds chirping.

"I'm okay," Harry said, moving a little better as Cho let go of his arm and he moved to Boomer's bedside. "Are you going to wake up sometime soon you lazy bastard?" Harry sniped with a grin; Cho was on the other side of the bed looking at him like he was mental. "C'mon," Harry gave him a light slap on the cheek, "don't make me walk all the way back and get my wand." Suddenly it was presented to him. The Holly and Phoenix feather wand, chipped and scraped, scratched and dented, he should look after it a bit better. It felt good to have it in hand again, feeling the instant connection of magic, "Rennervate."

Cho sucked in a breath as Boomer's eyes cracked open for the first time in years.

Harry laughed as Boomer's eyes found him; he took his friends hand and gripped it tight. "You're back mate, you're back."

"I'll get Doctor Landry." Cho said quickly, she dropped a lingering kiss on Harry's cheek and was off.

Boomer opened his mouth, trying to speak but Harry quieted him, "not yet."

"-blade-" Boomer croaked out before a fit of coughing stopped him.

His hand went to the bedside cabinet and opened the second drawer. Inside was the blade Boomer had lost. Harry lifted it out carefully but a slip of paper fell to the floor. He ignored it and laid the hidden blade on Boomer's chest before taking his hand and laying it on top.

Boomer gripped it as tightly as he could.

Before he knew it Harry was ushered back as Landry and her nurses took over the scene, seemingly stunned by the miraculous recovery of one of their most hopeless causes. Harry fell back into the chair next to the bed with Cho at his side.

"Do I even want to know?"

"Ask me again sometime," he whispered, laying a head against her shoulder and closing his eyes.

"Harry?" Cho asked; a curious tone to her voice. "Who's Jess?"

Eyes snapped open, "what?"

"This note-"

Harry ripped it from her hands and read the stained yellowed paper.

"You should be back by now. As soon as you read this you need to go home to Hollow Manor as soon as possible. For what it's worth, I'm sorry, I'm sorry but it had to be this way. I had no other choice, it will be hard for you to believe but things have to happen like this, it's the only way. Go home. Now.

Tell Spencer he owes me one.

I'm always watching,

Jess"