I'm Coming Home Chapter 51
Recap to Ch. 50:
Turning to face him, Anat walked closer to him and kissed him back, lulling him into a false sense of security. Whenever they pulled out of the kiss, Aaron looked at her with his dark eyes, and she smiled up at him carefully. Bringing her right hand up from being around his waist, she used the first two fingers on that hand tap him on the forehead, right between his eyes, gently. He closed his eyes, collapsing to the floor as if he had blacked out.
"I know you wanted to be there, but I cannot lead you to the slaughter. I will not." Leaning over she kissed him one last time as he lay sleeping in an angel induced coma of sorts.
Standing to leave the room, she stopped at the doorway before walking completely away, speaking to the universe and whoever or whatever might hear her…
"Watch over my sleeping babes. Please don't desert them now."
With that she turned and was gone. Hopefully by the time Aaron woke up this bloody battle would be over, their side the winners, and Aaron would be none the wiser.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~CM~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Anat made her way from the room she was currently sharing with Aaron to go up to the battlements to see what the others were up to. Upon arriving at said battlements, she sees Aphrodite and Medusa gloating over cups of coffee, albeit strong Middle-Eastern style coffee, but coffee none the less.
"Seriously? A coffee break? We have a battle at hand."
"Oh poo, you're always so stuffy. Sit. Have a cup of Joe. It might actually relax you." Medusa smiled up at her from her seat, shielding her eyes from the bright sun.
Aphrodite had busied herself making a cup for Anat while she and Medusa had been speaking.
"We don't have time for…"
Aphrodite waved the cup under Anat's nose, 'The best part of waking up is Vampire slut dust in your cup."
Medusa started laughing and spit out a mouthful of the concoction, 'You would have been dead if that had come through my nose."
Aphrodite merely winked and batted her eyes at her old friend, 'You love me…"
"That's not saying much, you are Aphrodite." Anat said as she took her cup from the woman. Taking a sip, 'This is good. I will have to remember the secret ingredient."
"Oh look. Vlad is back out…"
"Vladdy, you want some coffee? It might taste familiar to you." Anat said with a devious smile on her face.
Of course her old nemesis was completely pissed beyond all coherent thought and began shouting in an old Romanian dialect at her, practically spitting venom when he began his tirade.
"Top of the morning to you as well,' Medusa held up her cup, smiling, nodding her head as if to send a silent 'hello'.
Vlad gave the order for one of his men to fire in their direction, his aim squarely on Medusa. As the gun shot rang out, Anat raised her hand, catching the bullet, crumbling it in her hand and letting the wind carry away the remains.
"I'm drinking the 'high octane' stuff. You're gonna have to be better than that."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~CM~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As the women sat drinking their high-octane brew and taunting the devil across the strait from them in the next palace, they were constantly receiving updates on the enemy's position on the battlefield and in the ships.
After finishing their drinks, the women made their way down the stairs of the palace and out into the courtyard. The Sultan and some of his men were leaning over tables going over strategies.
Grabbing an apple, Anat walked over, taking a bite, 'So what do we have going on here?"
"Planning. You should try it sometime." The Sultan replied smugly.
"Alright. Fair enough." She smiled tossing the remainder of the apple over her shoulder. Wiping her hands on her pants legs and trying to get a piece of apple from between her teeth with her tongue, she walked over to the table shoving between two rather large members of the Crescent Guard.
"Spread out. I gotta get a good look at the lay out." She took a quick look at the maps and little figures on the table. "This just won't do…." She shook her head, clicking her tongue disapprovingly.
Then she turned away from the table, her hands to her sides before raising them slowly. Suddenly, the earth at their feet began to rise, and she swiped her right hand to the right…and so it went until she had rendered a scale 3-D version of part of the battlefield, complete with miniature representations of the warriors on both sides.
"Much better. Ok…' smacking her hands together, 'Give me 350 men there, plus another 250 on stand-by for reinforcements. I want to give Themistocles about 150 of our men to help flesh out his own navy. We will need archers every few feet along the battlements. Get those cannons lined up and ready to go. I want….' She rocked her head from side to side thinking…'I think I want 40 of the trebuchets, 15 of them facing the Rumelihisarı across the straight there. I want five of them facing the strait and the sea itself to back up the navy if they need it. I will need the other 20 out on the field. Tell Alexander and his men, well his elephants to shore up this area over here. It might be a weakness. The passage is narrow enough that the elephants will make maneuvering harder for the enemy. I want the Persians here and here." Anat pointed to areas that were to the left and right of the battlefield. "Send the Sarmatians right down the middle, to be flanked by the Immortals; my four friends will be leading them."
"We will need someone to protect Sophia…" The Sultan began.
"Yes. Take 150 of the Templars and 150 of the Crescent Guards; between them that should cover Sophia quite nicely….at least for the time being." She rubbed her chin as she paced around the mock-up of the battle field. She was thinking carefully.
It was during this time that Aaron had woken up and gone to find her.
"What's going on here?"
Anat looked up, 'I'm losing my touch apparently. You shouldn't be awake yet."
"You were going to do this without me…without the team?"
"It's better that way. You're safer if you are away from the battle…"
"No, we are with you. Whatever happens, happens."
"You are a stubborn man; but then we already knew that I suppose. Fine, I can't stop you." Anat shrugged her shoulders. "You've been to Afghanistan, out on the field…do you have any ideas you'd like to try?"
Aaron walked around the scale model of the battlefield, looking around it to see what he thought.
"Don't flank the Sarmatians with the Immortals. Send the Immortals in first. If they are as good as they say they are then we won't need the Sarmatians there. But, the Sarmatians can be used behind the Immortals, as a second line of defense. Two-hundred Crescent Guards and 200 Templars….you said Sophia was one of the most important points of the entire city. Where will the 'Travelers' be?"
"Good question my dear man. The travelers will be covering some of the thoroughfares of the city should we need to move around and cover various points of the city."
"There are only seven of them."
"How very astute of you. They each command 200 men each; so that makes what, 1400 archers and sharpshooters that we wouldn't have otherwise."
"Good to know."
"Indeed."
"So, 1400 men back the 'Travelers', about 2,000+ Crescent Guards…past and present, nearly as many Templars…making nearly 6,000 men total there, anywhere between 15,000-20,000 Immortals, a few hundred Sarmatian horsemen, Alexander and his elephants with maybe 1,500 men total….We still only have about 30,000 men on our side. And the enemy has nearly 100,000 that we know of."
"Don't be silly; they have more like 500,000…"
"Where are we going to get reinforcements?"
"Well you forget men like Selim and Kong, even Mac…we have faced worse odds together."
"Somehow, that doesn't make me feel any better."
"Selim commands nearly 5,000 of his own men alone…"
"We are still outnumbered nearly 20 to 1."
"And we have Aphrodite and Medusa…you totally overlooked Themistocles…he has around 2,000 men of his own." Anat turned and began walking back into the palace, patting one of the Sultan's men on the shoulders and handing him some papers to look over. Aaron turned to follow her…the soles of her shoes clicking on the stone floors. She had taken her armor off earlier and was now in a simple green Sari that was wrapped around her body in such a way as to hide the interesting parts, the ends flowing behind her.
"We are still severely outnumbered….."
As they entered the room that she had been heading to she came to a stop just shy of the absolute middle of the room….it was a large room, immaculate to say the least. As she stopped Aaron stopped with her standing to her left. Anat had a smile on her face.
"Did you hear me?"
"Of course I heard you."
"Well…"
"You forgot my people."
"Your people?"
At that moment the enormous double doors swung open, creaking with age and protest. Large beings began walking through the doors, six across, and the line of beings went on for quite some time as they paraded into the room and formed a semi-circle. As they filtered in, finally Aaron was able to see a familiar face. Michael stood before them flanked by Gabriel and Raphael.
"Michael, my friend….what is this?"
"We have done what we can."
"How many….?"
"Altogether…there are 200,000. Oh, and another 75,000 fallen. Our fallen members have been sent to strategic points around the city to offer reinforcement and line routes that we may need to take later."
Gabriel spoke up, 'This is but a shade of the army we were able to raise; many of the rest are already on the field receiving orders."
Turning to Aaron, Anat had a smile on her face that was almost smug, 'Feel better baby? The 30,000 men we had to begin with plus another 200,000 of my kind that have any rank whatsoever, and another 75,000 fallen angels. Now we have a little more than 300,000…not perfectly even odds, but we're better off now than we were less than five minutes ago."
"This is true…"
"Now, I am about to rain on your little parade." Turning to Gabriel and Michael, 'I need 1,000 of our kind…it doesn't matter if it is rank and file or the fallen ones…but 1,000 each sent to the following cities: Jerusalem, Paris, London, Rome, Alexandria….Alecta's home…you know the place…"
Michael gave her a lopsided smile, 'Basically any city that falls under your protection…"
"Ooh! Mt. Athos…."
"Women aren't even allowed there…"
"Very good my dear; but, I'm not just any woman."
"Touché.."
"As you wish m'lady," Gabriel had bowed slightly, as well as Michael to get started on the orders she had given. The other members of their ranks filed out and went to various areas of the battle field. Now, they had archers to spare, swordsmen, extra horsemen…they threw off their mantles and the wings that they had worn disappeared as if they were never there….a useful trick so they wouldn't be in the way until they were needed. Some of the archers took their places out in the field, some were along the battlements. Several hundred of them helped to man the cannons and took up weaponry of various sorts. It was odd to see such ancient beings holding modern firearms. And it was almost paradoxical; these beings…perfectly beautiful entities that you are used to reading about in most major religious texts, immaculate in every way…and they are standing there holding guns, arrows, all sorts of weaponry. The idea of a war was totally at odds with their physical appearance which gave off an air of peace and serenity.
As Hotch stood watching everything before him, he hadn't seemed to notice that Anat had left his side and was walking on ahead. He wasn't broken out of his day dream until he heard a cry go out. It must have been Bilal, her muezzin; the voice was strong and crisp. And, Hotch wishes he could understand what was being said, but it sounded foreign to him even though he knew a fair amount of Arabic. But, as it turns out Hotch didn't need to understand a word of it. As he looked around he saw everyone running. Civilians were running to take cover and the ones that were to stand and fight were getting into positions.
Anat was nowhere to be found, Hotch could only guess that she had gone to get her armor back on…she had taken it off earlier so she wouldn't get it damaged unnecessarily or wear herself out by having it on too long before battle. Thinking it was likely she had gone to redress for battle Hotch began racing through the halls, hoping he remembered the way to the armory. Along the way he managed to find the rest of the team, minus Garcia or Reid…they had already been smuggled to their safe places. Reid was still irritated about that. He was going to be kept in what they all referred to as the 'stash house' with Simon and the books, instead of being allowed to fight like everyone else. But after Anat's plea to him, Reid couldn't turn her down…there was just enough of Alecta and her charm left in Anat to wrap the boy around her finger. It seemed as though Hotch's teammates all had the same idea….it was time.
As they came into the armory they saw Anat getting her armor applied, and before long there were people helping to make sure they were properly outfitted as well.
Within less than fifteen minutes everyone had been taken care of and were heading out of the armory to see what was going on and take their places, but not before one last poignant remark by Anat, a bit of…irony didn't seem the right word, but it was the best that anyone could think of.
"Whoever said 'Eat, drink, and be merry; for tomorrow we die' I guarantee he had no clue what he was saying."
With that Anat walked out of the room, out of the palace, her helmet under her arm, ready it seemed for anything that came her way. In reality, she would never show it, but she was actually quite worried about how the war would go. Yes, they had the extra help from her kind pitching in to do what they could to ensure a positive outcome. But, she still had to figure out who was truly behind this. Yes, Dracula had taken the palace on the other side of the strait. Yes, he had a beef with her that went back nearly 600 years. But, for the nephilim to be brought into this…not even that monster had that sort of power. No. Dracula was somebody's puppet, albeit it damned good puppet. And there was what John the Baptist…well his head…had told her. Beware of the serpent. That still played on her mind. She knew of at least one that was going to cause her trouble. She had given it to Dracula when he was a boy. Back then it was just an egg that she had been holding onto, and he was a boy who was being held as a political hostage by the Ottomans to ensure that his father didn't break the treaty that he had agreed to. She had felt sorry for the child Dracula, she gave him a gift….an egg…telling him that it was special. No doubt that the bloody bastard he had grown into would find some way to bite her in the ass with that little gift. Other than that, she racked her brain to think of what else might be thrown at her. She had ideas, but nothing concrete.
As she stepped out onto the battlements, Anat knew that she had to put all of these things out of her mind for the moment and focus. As she made her way over to where one of the generals stood with a small group of warriors she asked what had prompted the cry from Bilal.
Her general simply nodded and pointed in the direction of the strait, out over where the water met the horizon, she could see shapes….she could see serpents, many of them.
"Damn! Where are they…scratch that, never mind."
"What are we going to do about this?" Hotch was at a loss, totally, he had not seen anything like this…of course this wasn't the weirdest thing he had encountered in the last few days.
"M'lady, they're attacking our ships; at this rate we will have no navy left and it won't take very long at all."
Knowing her man was right; she threw down her helmet and ran to the edge of the battlements.
"What are you doing?" Rossi grabbed her by the arm.
"I'm levelling the playing field. They brought theirs; it's time to show them mine."
With that Rossi let go of her arm and she turned back to business. After saying some words…ancient words that nobody knew the words to….she turned and stepped back from the edge a bit, smiling.
"What are you smiling about? In case you didn't notice, nothing happened?" Morgan was getting slightly worried.
"Yet." She was still smiling at Morgan when the sea began to churn and bubble. As one of the 'serpents' made a pass that was exceptionally close to the palace a long neck and massive head sprouted out of the sea without any notice at all and easily grabbed the flying creature in its jaws, jerking it about like a rag doll. Soon, that was all you could see, long necks with large heads springing out of the sea, grabbing at anything that flew within range.
"What…."
"The…"
"Hell?" JJ, Prentiss, and Will had to take turns getting the question out.
"Hydras. Seven headed hydras." Anat stated in a matter of fact tone. The head of one of the hydras that had taken it's spot close to the palace swung around to look at the group on the battlements. Some of them jumped back in shock. Anat stood there, and grabbed the chin of the creature and kissed it on the snout.
"Mama's baby. Go, get the bastards while you can." The creature made a grumbling noise as though it wanted to stay and sniff the new people. "There will be time for that later. Please, for mama?" Before disappearing back beneath the water the creature nudged her with his head, almost knocking her down and getting her all wet in the process. In a flash it had disappeared beneath the water to make its way back out into the strait and take care of business.
"Damn it. They're worse than a dog, slobbering all over everything."
"Anat, how many of those things do you have?" Hotch asked carefully.
"Two…three hundred…I think. I used to have more, but some don't make it you know….over the centuries. You lose some things, you lose a lot of the things, people, places that you care about the most." She shrugged as she turned around and looked to some of her fellow angels and demi-gods, prepared to give them marching…flying orders.
She instructed a total of 1500 of them to aid Themistocles and his men.
"Blot out the sun if you must. But, protect that navy with your lives. If you fail, you will face me." With that she turned and went back through the palace. Before leaving the battlements altogether she glanced over her shoulder and shot a look down to her friend with the pale horse; a quiet understanding passing between them as she turned away. Morgan looked over the edge of the battlements and saw the 'man' (whatever he was) getting the horses in order; the Sarmatians were getting into their lineup.
As she walked through the palace her BAU teammates followed her closely. Before exiting the palace, into the camp area, she turned to them, looking them over, thinking.
"Alec…Anat, what is it?"
"If any of you have any…doubts…If you think you might not want to go out there, this is the last chance to turn back. I would never think less of you. I would understand entirely. I've been through so many of these things. I've seen some of the most awful things…I've been the cause of a lot of it sometimes. If the battle doesn't wear you down, then think about after…when you look around at the faces of the dead. You see the guy that had been standing to your left, making a joke…a game out of seeing how many kills each of you make. You may even laugh about it; anything to keep your heads during battle. And after, you're looking at his still form, lying there…his eyes still open, his mouth hanging open, having died in shock that someone had actually been able to take him down. You may not have known him more than a few moments, but you were brothers…out there….And you stand there wondering what it was that allowed you to live and not him. I'm immortal…I'm 8,000 years old…and it still happens to me every time.
I know that Aaron has been to the Middle East, and seen some combat situations out there. I know Rossi and Morgan put in their time in the military…JJ had some experience out there as well. And Emily, you've been in all sorts of situations. But none of you have seen war on this scale. You haven't seen Hydras. You've learned that the Four Horsemen are very real. Some of you have seen things beneath the sea that no ordinary mortal has seen in centuries. I fear I have put you all in such danger, and none of you have any clue what you are getting into.
Say the word, and I can either have you placed in the stash house with Reid, or with Garcia and the children."
Hotch stepped forward, 'I'm with you."
"What about Jack? You're all he has left."
"If things go completely wrong out there today, I want him to know we did all we could. I want him to know we did our dead level best. I am not going to sit around and watch everything around me go to hell in hand-basket and not do something to try to stop it."
Anat looked at the others, they all nodded their agreement.
She nodded quietly before opening the door and stepping out of the large doors creaking to life, into the blinding light of the day….Stepping out to certain doom.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~CM~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Post AN: There's chapter 51. It has taken forever to get this chapter out. I haven't updated this story in sooooo long…no real reason, just had some hang-ups as far as just not feeling like writing, and went through a depressed day or two here or there….been reading fanfic to death trying to get back in the mood…have updated the Sherlock story I've been writing, but only a couple times….This was an odd cut off point for me, but hopefully I will be starting a new chapter soon enough and that chapter will make up for the sucky ending here. I hope there are still a few of you out there hanging in patiently….thanks for waiting so long.