A Psychic Will 'Verse spin-off
Title: Gods Among Abnormals (title may change)
Author: Ssauei’Ssui
Fandom: Sanctuary/Stargate: SG-1
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: death, war, dark, angst… it’s rated PG-13 and I wrote it. That should tell you a lot. Also, it’s set in my Psychic Will ‘verse (which needs a new name), so you might want to read those stories first. But as long as you can accept that Will is psychic, you should be fine.
Characters/Pairing: Bigfoot, Ashley, Magnus, slight Will/Henry, and the SG-1 team in future chapters
Summary: The Goa’uld invade the Earth of Sanctuary. Witness the aftermath.
Disclaimer: Nothing up my sleeves… Poof! A disclaimer appears!
Notes: Sanctuary is busy crossing over with every fandom in my head; this was just the first one that made it onto paper.
---
It’s been three years since the aliens invaded Earth. Those three years ago, even Will wouldn’t have believed such a thing was possible. Now he knows better.
The aliens-Goa’uld, they called themselves-thrived on Earth. The abundance of Abnormals around them meant that they had unlimited hosts with an endless selection of new abilities. More hosts were taken every day to serve in their armies, to be raised to replace their old system lords.
The Sanctuary had been their first target. They’d held out for days until Henry transformed, the stress and adrenaline triggering some primal instinct. Without him to hold up their security system, the Sanctuary fell in a matter of hours. Somehow the connection between Henry and Will had allowed Will to keep him calm until they could escape the Sanctuary, but they’d had to leave Ashley and Magnus behind. The Big Guy had helped Will to drag Henry out of the building, but no other patients had escaped.
Will didn’t know what had happened to them.
The first thing they did was find a place to stay. It took them a week, not counting the time they were cooped up in warehouse after warehouse until Henry shifted back. Eventually, though, they found a hotel that had been completely emptied by the invasion. The Goa’uld wouldn’t return for a while; they had time to devise an escape route before then.
Henry disabled the locks on the doors to all the rooms; there was no point in protecting themselves against threats that would be stopped by an electronic lock, and less point in respecting the privacy of people who were long gone. By unspoken agreement, they all took rooms on the third floor of the twelve-story hotel; low enough not to be the first targets for invaders in ships, high enough to hear if anyone came knocking at the front door.
The Big Guy took one room; Will knew before Henry said a word that they would stay in the same room. He was glad. He didn’t think he could handle being alone in a place that assaulted his senses with death and torture.
That first night, they each took one of the huge king-size beds. Henry woke up in the middle of the night, alerted by Will’s projected terror. He shook Will awake from a dream inspired by the memories leaking from the walls around him. Will stared at him for a long moment, eyes wide in a whitened face, then reached out and grabbed Henry, pulling him close.
Henry stayed rigid for a moment-Will could read his discomfort, and knew that as Henry, he wanted to push away the moment, the terrified, childlike figure reaching out to him for help. But as the only person in the world who understood Will’s awareness, the only one who’d ever had that mutual connection, he couldn’t bring himself to do it. So he reached out, a moment later, and returned the embrace, staying as calm as he could to allow Will’s awareness to reset.
They didn’t try staying in separate beds again.
---
The day after they found the hotel was also the day they learned that the Goa’uld had put out a search for Abnormals. They were promising safety to anyone who brought them a powerful Abnormal, although they weren’t using that word. They were calling them “humans with abilities outside the norm.” Close enough.
Will learned about the promise from Kavanagh, who’d had to abandon his family days before so that they wouldn’t be killed for “consorting with those who would subvert Goa’uld authority.” He read that Kavanagh didn’t believe the promise for a second, though he did believe that there were such people as the Goa’uld were looking for, and there were people who would turn them in for the reward the Goa’uld promised. That was a start.
Kavanagh joined them at the hotel, taking the room to the right of the Big Guy’s. Will couldn’t remember the first conversation at the hotel without smiling, even as bad as things were.
“So, are you two…?” Kavanagh left the question hanging. Will almost laughed. He was surprised to read the same reaction in Henry. He would have expected Henry to be indignant or at least shocked. But he found the question as predictable and amusing as Will did.
“No,” Will answered. “It’s… complicated.” He wasn’t ready to explain his awareness just yet. He wasn’t entirely sure Kavanagh wouldn’t flip out about having been Will’s focus for several years.
Kavanagh did a double-take when he met the Big Guy. Will had to give him credit that his end reaction was to look at the forensic psychiatrist and say, “Remind me never to ask why you believe the crazy stuff you do, all right?”
After Will made the introductions, they met in what had been the dining hall and began to fill in the newest arrival on everything-the Sanctuary, the Abnormals, and what little they knew of the Goa’uld.
It had been Kavanagh’s idea to create a band of Abnormals at the hotel. They would be protected, and with the various abilities represented, they could create a force to get the Goa’uld off of Earth. None of the others had even thought beyond survival.
“While we’re on the subject, Detective,” Henry said, “I should mention that you’re actually the only Normal here.” Kavanagh’s eyebrow rose.
“You look normal to me,” he said, but Will read the silent accusation thrown his way. He almost shrank back. It was almost as overwhelming having two of his foci in the same room as it would be to have a hotel full of Abnormals around him. He trained his awareness on Henry and tried to ignore Kavanagh, but it wasn’t enough.
“I’m not,” Henry answered, and explained briefly about his ‘better half’. “That’s why the Sanctuary’s gone,” he said softly. His guilt was overwhelming to Will, trained as his awareness was on him. “I changed and couldn’t keep security up.”
“It’s not your fault,” Will whispered, but even if Henry had heard him it wouldn’t have mattered.
Kavanagh looked to him. “And what about you?”
Will’s mouth tightened, but he explained, reluctantly, about his awareness. Kavanagh didn’t seem entirely surprised.
“I wouldn’t be the first person to say you know too much to be normal,” he commented when Will was done. “And I don’t think it’ll surprise you if I’ve heard people wonder-”
“If I had a crush on you, because I always paid so much attention to you,” Will nodded. “I know. I read it on you.”
“He does that,” Henry said. “Finish other people’s sentences, I mean.”
Kavanagh nodded, looking amused.
The folding men had been the first ones to join their cause, mainly because they were the first ones they found. Will thought wryly while they were moving in (which took much less time than it would take other groups, considering the folding men’s ability to move anywhere secretly in a matter of moments) that this probably wasn’t what Nomad had had in mind when he’d planned to reveal the existence of Abnormals to the world.
Next (completely by accident), Will found John Druitt, who told him that Ashley and Magnus had both been taken as hosts for new Goa’uld. Far from blaming Will, however, John implicitly understood what Will had done in prioritizing Henry’s life over theirs. He wanted to help them fight the Goa’uld.
Nicola Tesla, who they’d all thought dead, turned out to have recovered and been captured by the Cabal. He’d escaped-though as he told it, not without a little help from the Goa’uld themselves. The Goa’uld had attacked the Cabal to get the Abnormals they had hoarded. Twelve Cabal bases had fallen in the space of a day. Tesla and a handful of other powerful Abnormals had escaped the Goa’uld during the attacks. (Will almost regretted that the Goa’uld would never again underestimate vampire strength.) They had sought out the Sanctuaries, only to find them emptied and turned into Goa’uld temples. Tesla seemed to consider that the Goa’uld’s greatest crime of all.
Like John, however, Tesla wanted to help. Will could read that Tesla harbored more than a little resentment-bordering-on-anger towards Will and Henry, but he wanted to get Helen back, and if that meant shelving his grievances, he would.
Edward and Robbie found their way to the hotel soon after, a day before the Morrigan. The Goa’uld had attempted to control the three witches and lost what the girls guessed was about fifty Jaffa for their mistake.
All in all, there were at least two hundred Abnormals, including a few rescued Sanctuary patients, by the time it ended.
Kavanagh had gone on a ‘diplomatic mission’ to see if a clan of Valkyries would join them. He returned three days early, and Will immediately wished he hadn’t returned at all.
Will should have shot Kavanagh as soon as he saw him, but of all days, that was the first day he’d left his gun at the hotel since Kavanagh had gotten him one out of police storage. So they went back to the hotel, since Kavanagh already knew the way. Will silently thanked Henry for his extra measure of security as he signaled him of the danger.
If it had been Henry… well, if it had been Henry, Will wouldn’t have managed to say a thing, but if he had it would have been, “I didn’t think we’d be back so early,” smiling as he said it. Since it was Kavanagh, he asked Henry, “Any trouble while I was out?” He didn’t need anything more except a projection along the link between them.
Henry fielded the questions and debriefed Kavanagh while the Big Guy got the rest of the Abnormals out. The folding men took the vent system to the outside, where they each took a different path to what might be safety. The Morrigan used what flexible magic they had to make themselves invisible as they left through the front door. Edward and Robbie left with John; Tesla took whatever path caught his fancy.
Thirty seconds after Kavanagh got back, screams started from outside.
Kavanagh smiled.
Henry shot him.
Will screamed.
This time they didn’t even know what had happened to the Big Guy. Will and Henry might well be the only free Abnormals left on the planet. They hadn’t risked creating a force again. When they met an Abnormal who Will cleared as being human, not a Goa’uld spy (which was a rare occurrence by now), they taught them to act like a Normal and found them a temporary shelter. They didn’t bring any of them along. They didn’t stay in any one place more than a day at a time. Henry spent so much time transformed he learned to keep his mind.
So the next three years passed.
---
Will enters the warehouse through the coal cellar-basement below. He reads immediately that it puts Henry on edge, and somehow he can’t regret it.
“We need to leave,” he says.
Henry’s agitation shoots up. Now Will does regret it. His friend’s ‘better half’ is defensive and possessive, and they’ve moved around so much in the last week that it’s getting hard to keep Henry’s stress level low enough that he doesn’t have to take some of his (precious few) sedatives to keep it from taking over.
“What happened?” There’s a strained edge to Henry’s voice. They both need a doctor, but Magnus is gone.
“I was stopped by a Jaffa,” Will answers.
“That’s happened before.” Will can read what Henry wants him to say. He wants Will to say that he’s just being paranoid, that there’s no reason for them to leave, that this is just like every other time a Jaffa has stopped him and asked for identification.
Will shakes his head reluctantly. “They’ve stopped me because they’re doing routine security checks,” he says, “or because they don’t recognize me and people don’t move around anymore, or once because one of them saw I had a gun.” Henry shudders, Will right along with him.
Henry had had no warning before the door to their current residence was thrown open. Fortunately they were staying in an abandoned house at the time; a warehouse would have raised more questions than they could answer.
The Jaffa held Will up by his collar. Henry could see, in the moment between recognizing one of Diana’s soldiers and going down on his knees with his head down as humans were expected to do in the presence of Jaffa, that Will had been shot three times. Once in the shoulder, once in each leg. The Jaffa had obviously been pissed off.
“Your name.” It wasn’t a question; it was an order.
A year earlier, Henry would have lied. Now there was a Jaffa with his staff weapon less than two feet from Will’s neck. Will was his only family, his… pack? Mate? It didn’t matter. His other side’s protective instincts kicked in and he answered truthfully.
“Henry Foss,” he said.
“Your companion did not inform us of anyone else in this residence.”
There was a remark about how it was tough to talk when you were bleeding to death right on the tip of Henry’s tongue, but he held it back with not a little help from the other him. This time he did lie. Will was obsessive; he’d given them a laundry list of lies for every occasion.
“I didn’t know he was here. I was looking for a place to stay.” The second part was true, or it had been only a day ago.
“You are a trespasser.”
Shit. The Jaffa was young or ambitious or just plain mean and wanted to kill more than one person today. “I only meant to stay until I could meet the person who lived here. If they allowed it, I would stay; if not, I would leave.” Henry would have prayed, but seeing how their new captors were ancient gods, that wouldn’t have made much sense.
“He’s fine,” Will gasped. Henry wouldn’t have been able to hear him if he was human, but the Jaffa was closer. He could practically taste the soldier’s disappointment as Will said, “I’ve met him.”
When Henry chanced a look up, the Jaffa looked like a child who had just been told Santa wasn’t real. But his expression changed to a pleased smirk as he said, “Then you can care for him.” He threw Will to the ground, and Henry had to stop himself from lunging to catch him. That would have given the Jaffa an excuse (“He appeared to be attacking!”), and that was the last thing he wanted to do.
The Jaffa left after that. Henry breathed a sigh of relief and went over to Will.
“What the hell happened?”
Will coughed. “Saw… gun… shot…” Henry gritted his teeth, fighting an urge to slap himself over his stupidity. He needed to treat Will’s wounds first. Then he could ask questions.
It was almost certain that the Jaffa who had shot Will had gone to alert Diana’s First Prime. He (or she, considering the goddess in question), in turn, would send another Jaffa to finish the job. That Jaffa would shoot Henry as well for aiding a criminal.
They needed to leave.
“But this time,” Will finishes, “the Jaffa who stopped me was with a Hound.”
Will can read the panic his words induce in Henry. His eyes widen, his breathing rate shoots up, and Will can read the internal struggle between the human who wants to remain so and the protective, possessive Abnormal who wants to get them the hell away.
“Did they…?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t stick around to find out. Which is why we need to leave. They’ll have followed me.”
Henry nods and turns to shut down the laptop that’s become their entire database. Will wants to stop him, but they need the computer. They can’t afford to let it go until they have to. So he packs up what little else they have. Both their wardrobes fit in one small duffle; the first-aid kit they’ve managed to cobble together is the biggest thing in it. He fills their water bottles from the sink (miraculously still untainted and running) and exits to meet Henry.
The door crashes open.
Author: Ssauei’Ssui
Fandom: Sanctuary/Stargate: SG-1
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: death, war, dark, angst… it’s rated PG-13 and I wrote it. That should tell you a lot. Also, it’s set in my Psychic Will ‘verse (which needs a new name), so you might want to read those stories first. But as long as you can accept that Will is psychic, you should be fine.
Characters/Pairing: Bigfoot, Ashley, Magnus, slight Will/Henry, and the SG-1 team in future chapters
Summary: The Goa’uld invade the Earth of Sanctuary. Witness the aftermath.
Disclaimer: Nothing up my sleeves… Poof! A disclaimer appears!
Notes: Sanctuary is busy crossing over with every fandom in my head; this was just the first one that made it onto paper.
---
It’s been three years since the aliens invaded Earth. Those three years ago, even Will wouldn’t have believed such a thing was possible. Now he knows better.
The aliens-Goa’uld, they called themselves-thrived on Earth. The abundance of Abnormals around them meant that they had unlimited hosts with an endless selection of new abilities. More hosts were taken every day to serve in their armies, to be raised to replace their old system lords.
The Sanctuary had been their first target. They’d held out for days until Henry transformed, the stress and adrenaline triggering some primal instinct. Without him to hold up their security system, the Sanctuary fell in a matter of hours. Somehow the connection between Henry and Will had allowed Will to keep him calm until they could escape the Sanctuary, but they’d had to leave Ashley and Magnus behind. The Big Guy had helped Will to drag Henry out of the building, but no other patients had escaped.
Will didn’t know what had happened to them.
The first thing they did was find a place to stay. It took them a week, not counting the time they were cooped up in warehouse after warehouse until Henry shifted back. Eventually, though, they found a hotel that had been completely emptied by the invasion. The Goa’uld wouldn’t return for a while; they had time to devise an escape route before then.
Henry disabled the locks on the doors to all the rooms; there was no point in protecting themselves against threats that would be stopped by an electronic lock, and less point in respecting the privacy of people who were long gone. By unspoken agreement, they all took rooms on the third floor of the twelve-story hotel; low enough not to be the first targets for invaders in ships, high enough to hear if anyone came knocking at the front door.
The Big Guy took one room; Will knew before Henry said a word that they would stay in the same room. He was glad. He didn’t think he could handle being alone in a place that assaulted his senses with death and torture.
That first night, they each took one of the huge king-size beds. Henry woke up in the middle of the night, alerted by Will’s projected terror. He shook Will awake from a dream inspired by the memories leaking from the walls around him. Will stared at him for a long moment, eyes wide in a whitened face, then reached out and grabbed Henry, pulling him close.
Henry stayed rigid for a moment-Will could read his discomfort, and knew that as Henry, he wanted to push away the moment, the terrified, childlike figure reaching out to him for help. But as the only person in the world who understood Will’s awareness, the only one who’d ever had that mutual connection, he couldn’t bring himself to do it. So he reached out, a moment later, and returned the embrace, staying as calm as he could to allow Will’s awareness to reset.
They didn’t try staying in separate beds again.
---
The day after they found the hotel was also the day they learned that the Goa’uld had put out a search for Abnormals. They were promising safety to anyone who brought them a powerful Abnormal, although they weren’t using that word. They were calling them “humans with abilities outside the norm.” Close enough.
Will learned about the promise from Kavanagh, who’d had to abandon his family days before so that they wouldn’t be killed for “consorting with those who would subvert Goa’uld authority.” He read that Kavanagh didn’t believe the promise for a second, though he did believe that there were such people as the Goa’uld were looking for, and there were people who would turn them in for the reward the Goa’uld promised. That was a start.
Kavanagh joined them at the hotel, taking the room to the right of the Big Guy’s. Will couldn’t remember the first conversation at the hotel without smiling, even as bad as things were.
“So, are you two…?” Kavanagh left the question hanging. Will almost laughed. He was surprised to read the same reaction in Henry. He would have expected Henry to be indignant or at least shocked. But he found the question as predictable and amusing as Will did.
“No,” Will answered. “It’s… complicated.” He wasn’t ready to explain his awareness just yet. He wasn’t entirely sure Kavanagh wouldn’t flip out about having been Will’s focus for several years.
Kavanagh did a double-take when he met the Big Guy. Will had to give him credit that his end reaction was to look at the forensic psychiatrist and say, “Remind me never to ask why you believe the crazy stuff you do, all right?”
After Will made the introductions, they met in what had been the dining hall and began to fill in the newest arrival on everything-the Sanctuary, the Abnormals, and what little they knew of the Goa’uld.
It had been Kavanagh’s idea to create a band of Abnormals at the hotel. They would be protected, and with the various abilities represented, they could create a force to get the Goa’uld off of Earth. None of the others had even thought beyond survival.
“While we’re on the subject, Detective,” Henry said, “I should mention that you’re actually the only Normal here.” Kavanagh’s eyebrow rose.
“You look normal to me,” he said, but Will read the silent accusation thrown his way. He almost shrank back. It was almost as overwhelming having two of his foci in the same room as it would be to have a hotel full of Abnormals around him. He trained his awareness on Henry and tried to ignore Kavanagh, but it wasn’t enough.
“I’m not,” Henry answered, and explained briefly about his ‘better half’. “That’s why the Sanctuary’s gone,” he said softly. His guilt was overwhelming to Will, trained as his awareness was on him. “I changed and couldn’t keep security up.”
“It’s not your fault,” Will whispered, but even if Henry had heard him it wouldn’t have mattered.
Kavanagh looked to him. “And what about you?”
Will’s mouth tightened, but he explained, reluctantly, about his awareness. Kavanagh didn’t seem entirely surprised.
“I wouldn’t be the first person to say you know too much to be normal,” he commented when Will was done. “And I don’t think it’ll surprise you if I’ve heard people wonder-”
“If I had a crush on you, because I always paid so much attention to you,” Will nodded. “I know. I read it on you.”
“He does that,” Henry said. “Finish other people’s sentences, I mean.”
Kavanagh nodded, looking amused.
The folding men had been the first ones to join their cause, mainly because they were the first ones they found. Will thought wryly while they were moving in (which took much less time than it would take other groups, considering the folding men’s ability to move anywhere secretly in a matter of moments) that this probably wasn’t what Nomad had had in mind when he’d planned to reveal the existence of Abnormals to the world.
Next (completely by accident), Will found John Druitt, who told him that Ashley and Magnus had both been taken as hosts for new Goa’uld. Far from blaming Will, however, John implicitly understood what Will had done in prioritizing Henry’s life over theirs. He wanted to help them fight the Goa’uld.
Nicola Tesla, who they’d all thought dead, turned out to have recovered and been captured by the Cabal. He’d escaped-though as he told it, not without a little help from the Goa’uld themselves. The Goa’uld had attacked the Cabal to get the Abnormals they had hoarded. Twelve Cabal bases had fallen in the space of a day. Tesla and a handful of other powerful Abnormals had escaped the Goa’uld during the attacks. (Will almost regretted that the Goa’uld would never again underestimate vampire strength.) They had sought out the Sanctuaries, only to find them emptied and turned into Goa’uld temples. Tesla seemed to consider that the Goa’uld’s greatest crime of all.
Like John, however, Tesla wanted to help. Will could read that Tesla harbored more than a little resentment-bordering-on-anger towards Will and Henry, but he wanted to get Helen back, and if that meant shelving his grievances, he would.
Edward and Robbie found their way to the hotel soon after, a day before the Morrigan. The Goa’uld had attempted to control the three witches and lost what the girls guessed was about fifty Jaffa for their mistake.
All in all, there were at least two hundred Abnormals, including a few rescued Sanctuary patients, by the time it ended.
Kavanagh had gone on a ‘diplomatic mission’ to see if a clan of Valkyries would join them. He returned three days early, and Will immediately wished he hadn’t returned at all.
Will should have shot Kavanagh as soon as he saw him, but of all days, that was the first day he’d left his gun at the hotel since Kavanagh had gotten him one out of police storage. So they went back to the hotel, since Kavanagh already knew the way. Will silently thanked Henry for his extra measure of security as he signaled him of the danger.
If it had been Henry… well, if it had been Henry, Will wouldn’t have managed to say a thing, but if he had it would have been, “I didn’t think we’d be back so early,” smiling as he said it. Since it was Kavanagh, he asked Henry, “Any trouble while I was out?” He didn’t need anything more except a projection along the link between them.
Henry fielded the questions and debriefed Kavanagh while the Big Guy got the rest of the Abnormals out. The folding men took the vent system to the outside, where they each took a different path to what might be safety. The Morrigan used what flexible magic they had to make themselves invisible as they left through the front door. Edward and Robbie left with John; Tesla took whatever path caught his fancy.
Thirty seconds after Kavanagh got back, screams started from outside.
Kavanagh smiled.
Henry shot him.
Will screamed.
This time they didn’t even know what had happened to the Big Guy. Will and Henry might well be the only free Abnormals left on the planet. They hadn’t risked creating a force again. When they met an Abnormal who Will cleared as being human, not a Goa’uld spy (which was a rare occurrence by now), they taught them to act like a Normal and found them a temporary shelter. They didn’t bring any of them along. They didn’t stay in any one place more than a day at a time. Henry spent so much time transformed he learned to keep his mind.
So the next three years passed.
---
Will enters the warehouse through the coal cellar-basement below. He reads immediately that it puts Henry on edge, and somehow he can’t regret it.
“We need to leave,” he says.
Henry’s agitation shoots up. Now Will does regret it. His friend’s ‘better half’ is defensive and possessive, and they’ve moved around so much in the last week that it’s getting hard to keep Henry’s stress level low enough that he doesn’t have to take some of his (precious few) sedatives to keep it from taking over.
“What happened?” There’s a strained edge to Henry’s voice. They both need a doctor, but Magnus is gone.
“I was stopped by a Jaffa,” Will answers.
“That’s happened before.” Will can read what Henry wants him to say. He wants Will to say that he’s just being paranoid, that there’s no reason for them to leave, that this is just like every other time a Jaffa has stopped him and asked for identification.
Will shakes his head reluctantly. “They’ve stopped me because they’re doing routine security checks,” he says, “or because they don’t recognize me and people don’t move around anymore, or once because one of them saw I had a gun.” Henry shudders, Will right along with him.
Henry had had no warning before the door to their current residence was thrown open. Fortunately they were staying in an abandoned house at the time; a warehouse would have raised more questions than they could answer.
The Jaffa held Will up by his collar. Henry could see, in the moment between recognizing one of Diana’s soldiers and going down on his knees with his head down as humans were expected to do in the presence of Jaffa, that Will had been shot three times. Once in the shoulder, once in each leg. The Jaffa had obviously been pissed off.
“Your name.” It wasn’t a question; it was an order.
A year earlier, Henry would have lied. Now there was a Jaffa with his staff weapon less than two feet from Will’s neck. Will was his only family, his… pack? Mate? It didn’t matter. His other side’s protective instincts kicked in and he answered truthfully.
“Henry Foss,” he said.
“Your companion did not inform us of anyone else in this residence.”
There was a remark about how it was tough to talk when you were bleeding to death right on the tip of Henry’s tongue, but he held it back with not a little help from the other him. This time he did lie. Will was obsessive; he’d given them a laundry list of lies for every occasion.
“I didn’t know he was here. I was looking for a place to stay.” The second part was true, or it had been only a day ago.
“You are a trespasser.”
Shit. The Jaffa was young or ambitious or just plain mean and wanted to kill more than one person today. “I only meant to stay until I could meet the person who lived here. If they allowed it, I would stay; if not, I would leave.” Henry would have prayed, but seeing how their new captors were ancient gods, that wouldn’t have made much sense.
“He’s fine,” Will gasped. Henry wouldn’t have been able to hear him if he was human, but the Jaffa was closer. He could practically taste the soldier’s disappointment as Will said, “I’ve met him.”
When Henry chanced a look up, the Jaffa looked like a child who had just been told Santa wasn’t real. But his expression changed to a pleased smirk as he said, “Then you can care for him.” He threw Will to the ground, and Henry had to stop himself from lunging to catch him. That would have given the Jaffa an excuse (“He appeared to be attacking!”), and that was the last thing he wanted to do.
The Jaffa left after that. Henry breathed a sigh of relief and went over to Will.
“What the hell happened?”
Will coughed. “Saw… gun… shot…” Henry gritted his teeth, fighting an urge to slap himself over his stupidity. He needed to treat Will’s wounds first. Then he could ask questions.
It was almost certain that the Jaffa who had shot Will had gone to alert Diana’s First Prime. He (or she, considering the goddess in question), in turn, would send another Jaffa to finish the job. That Jaffa would shoot Henry as well for aiding a criminal.
They needed to leave.
“But this time,” Will finishes, “the Jaffa who stopped me was with a Hound.”
Will can read the panic his words induce in Henry. His eyes widen, his breathing rate shoots up, and Will can read the internal struggle between the human who wants to remain so and the protective, possessive Abnormal who wants to get them the hell away.
“Did they…?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t stick around to find out. Which is why we need to leave. They’ll have followed me.”
Henry nods and turns to shut down the laptop that’s become their entire database. Will wants to stop him, but they need the computer. They can’t afford to let it go until they have to. So he packs up what little else they have. Both their wardrobes fit in one small duffle; the first-aid kit they’ve managed to cobble together is the biggest thing in it. He fills their water bottles from the sink (miraculously still untainted and running) and exits to meet Henry.
The door crashes open.