"Hear my heartsbeat? Just focus on that." (Kimber Mac/Ten)

[kimber_mcleod]

with multiversebleed

Kimber’s mental shields had shut down the moment the seance had connected. She’d never actually been to one before so couldn’t anticipate the results, the maelstrom of residual psychic energy remaining in this small suburban Chicago house was overwhelming. A mad vortex of pain, confusion, and fear was grasping and tearing at her mind;

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[multiversebleed]

And there he was, sprawled, breathing hard into insubstantial lungs of his own, agonized.

Not unlike how he looked when finally severed from the creature on Midnight.

Or after he'd used himself as a lightning rod to energybend the gamma strike and meddle with Dalek Sec's attempt to emulate Frankenstein.

But after a moment, his eyes fluttered open, and his mouth wobbled into a grin.

"Remind me to put Morrigan on my Yuletide card list," he groaned good-naturedly.

He lifted a hand, prompting her to help pull him to a sitting up position.

Once she'd done so, perhaps interestingly, the still-glowing Castiel-print on his back had left a still-sizzling black burn on the floor of the room's astral-planar counterpart from where he'd lain there. The Doctor shook his head, trying to clear it, and glanced again at Kimber.

"Cheers, yeah?" he touched her cheek. "That's another one I owe you." And then he darted in to kiss her forehead.

Then he regarded the swirling storming mass of souls... subsiding somewhat, but still... testy.

"I don't know if we can do this all at once," he wondered. "As a gestalt, they may be more than we can chew. What if we... let one of them at a time inside your shields? Talk to them one-on-one, without the fears and gnashing passions of the others to whip them into a lather?"

He hesitated. "I'm a bit out of my depth, here, and coming from me that sounds... weird. Would that even work?"

[kimber_mcleod]

Relived he was well and back in the room, so to speak, she took a moment to reach out and feel the room. As she'd hoped, the spirits that retained sentience were separating and calming. The older ones, the ones who were now just fear and anger congealed into energy had retreated.

"I don't think that will be necessary now. I think the majority can be helped along." She glanced back at the dark cloud behind them. "Those few are going to be the problem. They have no intellect left, they're going to have to be pushed out, uprooted somehow."

She felt the ward around her neck glow warm and looked down. The symbols were glowing, pulsing golden light.

"What did Dean say this is again?"

[multiversebleed]

"He didn't, actually," The Doctor blinked as he played back the conversation in his head. "I asked him for a ward, that's what he gave me, but he didn't describe it. Just that it says... it's etched with the Enochian for 'Bad Wolf.'"

"Said he got it from Dani Colton, and she and I once encountered a haunted asylum that was... quite a bit like this. Maybe she got it in case she ran into that sort of thing again?"

The Doctor stepped forward and ran his fingers under the chain of the necklace, holding up the glowing pendant and gazing at it in puzzlement. "Could it be for more than just... keeping nasties out? Could it be the portable equivalent of a... magic circle? Keeping stuff out... or keeping stuff in?"

Staring for a moment, The Doctor glanced up at Kimber's luminous face, looking so very, very out of his element. "I... I don't know if that made sense? Did it make sense?"

[kimber_mcleod]

"Yes, actually. I can feel it burning in my mind. It's a repellent. As long as it is dormant it just keeps them out, but if it's used actively it can expel or expunge."

She took his hand in hers and looked into his eyes. "I need to reach back across and see if the boys know a dispersal spell that will work with this. I want you to talk to the ones who can still reason. Tell them how to move on." She smiled and stroked his cheek. "You can make them feel safe, you're ever so very good at that."

[multiversebleed]

"Okay."

He nodded, but he looked-- poleaxed-- he looked-- daunted.

"Blimey."

Stifling flashbacks to Elemental Shades and Howling Halls-- not to mention to the Reaper-Wraiths that had descended on the timeline when The Knell had stolen those TARDISes to try and unwrite the world-- he cleared his throat.

"I suppose. Normally when I deliver a rousing, rallying speech, people just-- end up dying for me. But, oh, this lot have already-- sorry, that's rude."

"Right, then. Ready when you are."

Facing off against the swirling, fragmented horde, he waited for Kim to do whatever she needed to do with her shields that he could contact them again. And when she had--

--he spoke.

"I can't begin to imagine what you've been through. Murder most foul. I've died so often, but never like that."

"But I am uniquely positioned to imagine what you're going through now. Death and agony, not-- wanting to go. And I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry. If I could bring you back, I would-- all anybody ever wants is another chance."

"But everybody knows that everybody dies, nobody knows that like me. Everything has its time, and everything ends."

"You've had-- if you'll pardon the paraphrase-- what everybody gets. You've had a lifetime."

"And now it's time for you to find out what's next. I can't tell you what that is, I'm a bit new to the topic."

"Where I come from-- where I came from-- there's a place people go when they pass, a sort of-- garden of ancestral memory-- where the living can still commune with those who have died, partake of their wisdom, learn from their mistakes. If I had to imagine a Heaven, it would be like that. Really, isn't that an afterlife we can all believe in?"

"A place where you'll be remembered, and where people can come to remember you. Not a death, but another state of living-- another state of being. You deserve that, if anyone does, not this clamoring clawing stagnation, not this howling in-between-- you deserve to go on."

"And I only-- pray-- that someday I can join you there."

"Because my Heaven's gone. But yours isn't."

"So go on. Go on go on go on. Live on in grace."

"I'll remember you. I'll make sure the world remembers you."

"Go on."

[kimber_mcleod]

The boys were sitting at the table watching the two statuesque forms on the floor. Dean was about to go get a beer out of the Impala when Kimber's eyelids started to flutter. Sam called out.

"Dean! Look!"

Dean changed course and knelt down in front of her, mindful not to touch her.

"Hey, Red, I'm here. I'm right here in front of you, come on." He noticed the ward she was wearing glowing lightly and wondered what the hell was going on over there. Dark circles were forming under her eyes which he figured meant her reserves were being used up faster than she could draw the grounding energy. He rolled his eyes and promised himself he would take it a bit easier on witches in the future, then got serious.

"Dammit, Rookie, come on! Talk to me!" He heard Sam start to rise and waved him back.

Kimber's eyelids fluttered again, more strenuously this time, revealing the briefest glimpses of whites. Her breathing increased slightly and her lips twitched.

"That's it, come on, right here."

Her voice came in shallow, airy phrases.

"Need help. Banishing spell...work with ward."

Sam was already consulting their notes and Dean was grinning.

"Atta girl." He kept an eye on her breathing, and occasionally her freckles, while Sammy got the spell together.

"How's she doing?" Sam called as he finished copying out the spell.

"So far so good. You about done?"

Sam brought the paper over, Latin phrases in his scholarly handwriting covering the quarter sheet. He handed it to Dean.

"You've made the connection, you'll have to read it to her."

Dean took the paper and sighed. He'd gotten much better at Latin than he used to be, but his pronunciation was still shaky to be relaying a spell second hand. When he looked back at Kimber, he felt a slight brushing sensation in his mind. His head spun back and forth looking around the room.

"WHAT THE HELL?!"

She spoke.

"It's me. Can see...spell in...your mind...if you...let me."

The two boys looked at each other, concern passing back and forth for a moment. Sam was the one who reasoned it should be safe, and made an 'I think it'll be fine' face and shrug at his brother. Dean's answering 'If it ain't I'm gonna kick your ass' face passed quickly as he set his mind to the task at hand.

"Ok, Red. How?"

"Focus. Keep it...in the...front of...your mind."

Dean brought the paper up and focused. Read the spell in his head over and over, stumbling only slightly as he felt the second presence enter his mind.

Kimber went still again, keeping the mental connection with Dean, she remanifested in the other dimension.

The roiling black mass of entities sensed her return and started toward her, red tints appearing as it moved. She clutched the ward with one hand and held the other out in front of her, establishing metaphysical and psychic buffers while she began to recite the spell.

Pushing the grounding energy, the energy from the ward, and her own mental energies behind the words she chanted loudly and clearly; willing the entities to disperse.

[multiversebleed]

The Doctor glanced up as Kim rematerialized in the nether-realm with him, and he'd almost never been gladder to see her in his life.

"I, erm," he hesitated, moving to her side, "got the crowd warmed up for you. I'm a good supporting act, ask anyone. Janis Joplin!"

Kim commenced her spell casting... worked her witchy workings...

...and The Doctor stood there, beside and behind her, watching the gestalt cluster of heartbroken and rancid souls trying to fester its way back to a brighter place.

He wanted to add his will, his own mental energies to Kim's own-- but Kim's were already considerable, and he wasn't sure how much his psychic transmissions would interfere with the shields and buffers she'd intricately woven about her. Instead, he provided as much moral support as he could muster... and if she needed more than good vibes, his hand was right there for her to grab.

As it was...

...as it was...

...the crowded cloud began to part...

...began to peel apart into tendrils and eddies, fragments and wisps...

...and a light began to swell up near the ceiling, a light only visible in that astral place...

...and the bits that came off of the cloud drew into it as though by some sweet and beautiful gravity. Something... beyond.

"Blimey," The Doctor mumbled.