A/N~ Thanks so much for all the views, faves, follows and reviews. The story is now getting into a little more complicated section. Please read, enjoy and review. Especially review, it helps me write better. ~A

Sleep, Sword, Sap and other Medicines

Kenzi lay on the settee, still tired but after a power nap, she was strangely energized. Her skin was tingling and she felt her blood bubbling under her skin. For some reason she felt as if there was something she should be doing. She just couldn't figure out what it was. She had a sneaking suspicion that if Vex were here he would tell her she had a very noisy brain.

Hale suddenly snuffled slightly into her hair and his snoring stopped. To be replaced by a slight grumbling as he said, "What's up, li'l momma?" and Hale in an amused tone, "Those gears are turning so loud, they woke me up from a sound sleep."

When Kenzi only snorted in amusement he added, "Well that and the fact that you were too still. You being still for longer than two minutes is just plain creepy. So what are you thinking about so hard?" the Siren said with a tired chuckle as Kenzi took offense and swatted her friend in the arm

"Tell me what happened and I'll try to tell you what I'm thinking." said the Elder Shifter in a bargaining tone.

"I remember up until around the time my father and some of the other Council members came to test me." he wrinkled his nose in distaste at the memory, his father had been very excited about his son becoming the Ashe.

"Then I was supposed to be taken for the earth spirits to decide if I was acceptable to be the Ashe. If I was acceptable the earth itself would form an attachment with me." he shook his head slightly in frustration, "That's where it gets hazy."

"Okay what kind of testing we talking about here?" Kenzi asked, her brow wrinkling, "Oral, written, true-false, or multiple choice?"

He chuckled again, pulling the smaller woman close with a one-armed hug, "Think more the Awakening, with a lot less deadly and a lot more deadly dull." Hale looked off into the distance as he explained, "It's more like going into an illusion where you're given these scenarios of possible situations, you have to pick the best solution for the fae. It's mentally exhausting more than anything."

"But you remember all of that, right?" Kenzi asked as she suddenly sat up and turned to face the Siren.

The former cop nodded his agreement and said, "What are you getting at, Kenzi?"

"What about the attachment to the earth thing, what happened with that?" Kenzi asked curiously.

"Well that's also kind of a test. First, you have to meditate for a couple of hours and reach a certain level of harmony with the earth." Hales forehead wrinkled in concentration again. "A druid is there to make sure you have reached that level. Then they take you to make the attachment."

"So did you reach your proper level of Zen?" Kenzi said half jokingly, but her expression showed her concentration.

"I..I guess so," Hale said hesitantly, "I remember the Druid led me down some stairs to the dungeons below the compound. The members of the Council were following us, my father too. The Druid she led us to this large cell, it had a grotto in it, the cell door was standing open,.."

Kenzi saw her friend growing agitated and took his hand in her own in a soothing gesture before encouraging him to continue. Hale closed his eyes in concentration and continued, "She led us in and…something's wrong there should be guards but there aren't any. I can hear the Council members muttering amongst themselves behind me, Then the Druid turned and…"

Suddenly Hale cries out and clutches his forehead with his free hand, his face a grimace of pain, while his other hand has clutched Kenzi's in a bone crushing grip. Trick and Dyson came out of the shadows, to sit near his friends legs holding them securely while putting a comforting hand on his shoulder.

Trick quickly grabbed a cloth and poured liquids from three different bottles onto the cloth before placing it over Hale's face, "Breathe deeply," he admonished soothingly. The Siren did as he was told, he relaxed almost instantly and the expression of pain cleared from his face.

Trick kept the cloth over his face and soon his face smoothed into relaxation as he fell asleep. "What just happened?" Dyson whispered vehemently to the Blood King.

The smaller fae gave the sleeping Ashe a concerned look before indicating for the other two to follow him back upstairs to the pub. When the pair with Kenzi in tow were once again seated at the booth, Trick said, "I'm thinking that Hale has been under the influence of a Mesmer or someone with a Mesmer-like talent."

"Not Vex," Kenzi said instantly, defending their ally.

"No, not Vex," agreed Trick, "You heard Hale say the Druid was a female, I think that was our culprit or part of the lure, to catch the Council and the new Ashe."

"To what end though?" said Dyson thoughtfully, "Is this a move against the light fae, just the Council and the new Ashe, or is it maybe using them to get to Kenzi?"

"I have no idea, about who's behind it or what their goals are, but I will do my best to find out." said the pub owner thoughtfully. "We have another problem though," he reminded.

"Sturgis and the council are still under the influence of this thing whatever it is, and we don't know who else might be.?" said Kenzi a little fearfully. Dyson pulled out his cell phone and tried once again to contact Bo. Once again his call went straight to voicemail.

As he started to leave the succubus another message, the trio heard someone knocking on the front door of the pub insistently. When Trick went to answer Kenzi caught the bar keeps arm and said, "I'll get it."

She opens the door cautiously or tries to only to have a suitcase, Louis Vuitton of course, force its way through the small crack she was trying to peer through. Followed closely by the frenetic Val, who asks instantly, "Is he awake yet? Is he okay? Whatever hurt him I swear I'm gonna use my blade to take their temperature. Nobody hurts my brother. He's okay right? He better be okay. I'm going to kill him if he got himself hurt."

Seeing the gaping looks of the trio of fae in the otherwise empty pub, she gave them a look of exasperation as she said, "What?!"

XXXXXXXXX

Bo used a little of her influence on the assistant. Now acting very much the besotted puppy began to lead them through the halls of the light fae compound. He was working to avoid the guards as in his mind they were heading to the dungeons for a tryst.

They were avoiding the guards one because the dungeons were off limits especially for trysting and because he was still on duty and shouldn't be anywhere but at the clinic. To make up for the lack of romance as they walked by a table with a decorative flower arrangement on it, the fae healer snatched the flowers and presented them to Bo, dripping stems and all.

Bo gave him a weak smile and an even weaker "Thanks," which won her another goofy grin. Then he went back to leading them through the maze of the compound.

"I think you might have overdone it a bit Love." the Mesmer said softly with a heavy accent of amusement.

"So I'm a little rusty,, not like I've really had much reason to practice lately," she said as they reached the door that led down to the dungeon.

The healer, who insisted Bo call him Bob, led them down the steep steps carefully. Although, Vex and Bo didn't share the same level of connection as he and Lauren she could almost hear him in her head shouting something is wrong.

There were no guards, although she had never been here before she was quite sure there should be guards, No alarms were sounded, only the instinct that something was wrong, very wrong. Bob then turned back to the pair and stepping closer to Bo he said, "She's down there, third cage on the left."

Vex moved past Bo and her besotted follower to the door of the cell. He raised the window cover in the door, but all he could see were a pair of shoes. He cursed softly and called back to Bo, "They left her in the dark."

Bo hissed to herself in fury and tossed her lover the set of keys, they had found near the entrance to the dungeon area. Catching the keys the Mesmer rifles through them as he tries to get Lauren's attention.

After several minutes of cursing and frustration Vex finally found the right key and unlocked the door. Tucking the keys into a pocket he slid through the door of the cell and was on his knees beside the doctor.

He pulled her face around so that he could see that her eyes were squeezed shut and she was quietly whimpering. Her left eye was swollen and bruised as was her cheek, Lauren's lip was split and swollen.

There was blood on her shirt and her once pristine white lab coat was now dirty and covered in flecks of blood. Her wrists were shackled together and chained to the floor. He worked quickly to unchain her with the keys, talking to her almost constantly.

"It's alright love, we're here now. Lauren can you hear me, we're here now. Bo is just outside, you will be fine and whoever did this is gonna be my bitch." the Mesmer repeated over and over as once again he pawed through the keys. He finally found the right one und swiftly unlocked the cuffs around her wrists.

When he was done he nearly dropped the keys but slipped them into the deeper pockets of her lab coat as he lifted her into his arms and pulled her close to his body. Comfortingly he held her close burying his face in her hair as he carried her out of the cell.

He catalogued the smell of fear and pain and noted how raw her wrists looked. "She's alive," he told Bo as he kicked the cell door closed behind him. "Let's get out of here," then he looked up at his lover.

Lauren's assistant was crumpled on the floor at Bo's feet. He couldn't really tell from where he stood but if the odd angle of the fae's neck was any indication, the man was dead. Standing beside the succubus was hooded figure about her size and the woman was whispering something to Bo.

The woman removed her hand from their lovers arm and pulled a short sword out from under her robes and handed it to the succubus, then said in icy tones, "Kill them." With a slight swirl of her robes she went back out the dungeon door. Bo looked up at the pair without recognition, the cold blue of her gaze was dead as she raised the sword and headed toward them.

XXXXXXXXX

Bruce was growing increasingly concerned, Thor was starting to run a fever. The demi-god was so used to being healthy he was not handling being sick very well. Actually the huge blond was getting just a little whiny, but what concerned Bruce was the fact the godling was getting sick at all.

He thought it possible that the spider may have been able to poison his friend. Since as far as the doctor knew no one had ever dealt with a spider this size, it was quite possible the venom was even more potent, possibly even lethal.

Bruce's thoughts were interrupted by someone knocking on the door to his hotel room. He stood from the table he was using as a desk and went to the door. Peering through the peephole he was befuddled to find the cook from the Avengers favorite local pub standing there.

He opened the door to get rid of her as politely as possible only to have the woman squirm through an opening under his arm. "Where is he?" asked the woman, Annie, without preamble.

When Bruce answered with the very eloquently replied, "Huh?"

Anne shook her head looking at him she said in an exasperated tone, "The godling of course, I could practically hear his whining all the way back at the pub." she said and when Bruce still hadn't answered her after a moment she reminded, "Where is he?"

Still gape mouthed the scientist indicated the dividing door between the two rooms. The woman carrying a case that looked like a very, very old fashioned doctors case, walked to the door, and knocked.

When Steve opened the door, his mouth fell open at the sight of the cook. Annie didn't even speak to him but walked around him into the other room.

Annie was then faced by the other two men and the godling laying on the bed. Without a word to the two men who were actually able to stand, she went to stand by the bed and leaning over touched the younger gods forehead with the back of her hand.

Speaking to herself, she said, "Fever, dark circles under the eyes, show me your wounds, young one." she said in a no-nonsense tone. Annie could have no way of knowing but she had used the same tone as Thor's mother had used when he was younger and being stubborn.

The demi-god lifted his shirt to reveal bruising around his middle, a wound in his side that had a black crusty scab over a red angry wound. There were other scrapes and scratches but this was the wound she was most interested in.

Removing a very small vial from the case she carried, she opened the vial and poured two small, sparkling, golden beads into the palm of her hand. She then placed them into the palm of his hand and placed a glass of cold water into his other hand.

When Stark or Clint started to speak Annie shushed them, actually waved them off as she got started on cleaning his wound after he had taken the medicine. She removed a small roll from the case and spread it out on the foot of Thor's bed.

"Young gods today," she said distractedly, as she extracted a bottle of clear liquid that was flower scented followed by a very long probe or needle and a bundle of clean cloth. Turning to look over her shoulder she said a little waspishly, "Don't just stand there, make yourselves useful. You and you come turn him on the other side," she said indicating. Banner and Steve. "Fetch towels from the restroom," she said to Barton, as she gently probed the wound.

The full body flinch he made was making all of his friends grimace in sympathy. When everyone was where Annie wanted them. She took the bottle of liquid and poured it over the wounds. Although he didn't flinch, Tony did. He jumped away from the bed and bean making gagging and hacking noises as he rushed to the bathroom. The black scab dissolved almost instantly followed by a release of foul smelling green puss that poured down his abdomen onto the towel that had been shoved under his side to collect it. Then she did the same to his back and the same thing happened only this time something black wiggled out of the wound to follow the puss and poison onto the towel.

Before anyone else could do anything Bruce leapt forward with tweezers and collected the squirming thing. Annie said sharply, "Don't let it touch bare skin it will burrow in." She applied the clear liquid twice again to front and back wounds and a little more puss came out of each. She then took the towels and carefully rolled them so that the purulent liquid was on the inside and ordered Clint to burn them, immediately.

Then she took some more clean cloths and using the same scented liquid she cleaned his torso carefully of the blood and fluids that were still trickling from the wound sluggishly. When the area was clean she took another jar from her bag and a small brush.

With a slight smile she said, "This will tickle a bit, try not to wiggles too much if you don't mind little one." as she uncapped the jar which smelled a bit like Christmas; beeswax, evergreen, frankincense and myrrh. She dipped the brush into the thick substance in the jar and began brushing it along the wound.

"I have never been ticklish…" Thor began indignantly only to dissolve into giggles as the older woman continued to brush the sticky substance over the wound. They watched as she pulled the two sides of the wound together in places where the wound had separated more, applying the liquid more heavily there. When she was done the wounds on both sides were completely sealed shut.

Annie gave the bottle with the golden beads of medicine to Steve and said, "Two in the morning and two in the evening after he eats something. No bathing for the first twenty four hours," she said as she started to gather things up and put back in her bag. "Light meals for the first two or three days," then she looked up at the man she was talking about and amended, "well, relatively light."

"If he starts running a fever again or you notice there is a foul odor from the wound, come and get me from the Dahl." When Steve opened his mouth, Ennoi held up a finger to forestall him and said, "No you may not ask questions about how I knew he was in trouble, you may not ask what the materials I use are. Just know they are all natural and not harmful. Also Doctor I expect you to destroy that thing after you have examined it to your hearts content."

"But it could…" Bruce began, ever the scientist.

"It is a parasite doctor, one that could kill anyone it comes in contact with. The enzymes that beast secretes begins liquefying the tissue it comes in contact with. All tissue, basically destroying the victim from the inside out. Could you imagine what would happen if something like that began reproducing on its own and got out into the human population?"

As she let that image settle into the minds of the men in the room, "It would be like releasing the Black Plague all over again." she said as she slipped out the door of the makeshift clinic/hotel room they were standing in. The click of the door released the men from their spell, just as Thor let out a rafter rattling snore.