Crusaders 3 1/7
A/N: And here we are again, finishing this particular trilogy of tales! This installment picks up threads from both of the previous stories; it was written for spnaubigbang and comes with two lovely covers by jbadgr (which you can see full-sized at her art post).
Many thanks, as always, to my champion beta jennytork! And thanks, too, to auntmo9 for prompting the bunny that turned into this little romp.
Word Count: 22,943 (plus notes)
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: Gen with background het: Dean of Winchester/Joanna de Harvelle, Dean Winchester/OFC, John/Mary, Sam/Jess
Warnings: Demons being demons
Summary: When Meg nearly gets the better of Gabriel and Castiel, Chronos decides to intervene, throwing two sets of nearly-identical brothers together into a race against time. They’re all determined that “what was” will remain “what shall never be”... but is Gabriel right that some things never change?
Crusaders 3: A Family Affair
By San Antonio Rose
Prologue
Chronos didn’t know why he was drawn to this particular location on this particular day. It felt like a whim, yet he had the niggling sense that the idea was not wholly his own. The place was deserted, though, so he couldn’t imagine why Atropos or some power still higher than the Fates would have sent him there...
... until the demon appeared.
She was wearing a college student, Meg Masters, and hummed a happy little tune as she set out the supplies she needed for her spell. The more she laid out, the clearer her purpose became, and the angrier Chronos grew.
Several leaps ago, he had just been pulled back to ancient times when he sensed the timeline shifting, and after he’d told Aeneas his future and taken his usual tribute, he and Atropos had had a long chat about the future that had been changed in AD 1148. Both of them knew enough about the timeline that had been to suspect that everyone but Lucifer was better off for the change, so they hadn’t tried to nudge history back onto the course certain factions thought it should have taken. But this demon was about to attempt that very thing, and while Chronos couldn’t be entirely sure what form Lucifer’s plan could take now, he was quite sure he wouldn’t survive whether it succeeded or failed. And he couldn’t leave his lovely Lila a widow before they were wed... not this time.
He started forward from the shadows-and suddenly found himself in Rome circa 44 BC, launching hip-hop epithets at a very startled Marc Antony.
After making some suitably vague noises about Egypt and collecting adequate tribute, Chronos sat back to think. Even with the amount of power he’d gained here, he couldn’t be certain that he could get back to AD 2005 in time to stop the demon; he might arrive too late to stop her, or he might arrive too early and be pulled away again. What he needed was some way to ensure a warning arrived in time for someone else to stop her.
“You’re looking thoughtful, Chronos,” Atropos observed as she walked up to him. “Anything I can help with?”
He sighed. “Maybe so.” And he told her what he’d seen.
She nodded slowly. “And you’re afraid Lucifer will find some way to make Sam Winchester his vessel even though it’s too late for his blood to be corrupted.”
“Exactly.”
She tapped her quill against her ledger for a moment, then smiled slowly. “What if he couldn’t be sure he had the right Samuel, son of John?”
He frowned. “I don’t think-” And then his eyes went wide as he caught her drift. “Oh. Oh, that is brilliant. That’s worthy of Loki.”
“Annnd I can tell you where they’ll beee....”
He grinned. “What would I owe you?”
“For this? Not a denarius.” She started flipping through the codex that currently served as her ledger and found the information he needed. “Just see to it that the plan stays derailed.”
“I think, for once, that’s a promise I can keep,” he replied before brushing a chaste kiss on her cheek and heading off to do what needed to be done.
Next
Many thanks, as always, to my champion beta jennytork! And thanks, too, to auntmo9 for prompting the bunny that turned into this little romp.
Word Count: 22,943 (plus notes)
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: Gen with background het: Dean of Winchester/Joanna de Harvelle, Dean Winchester/OFC, John/Mary, Sam/Jess
Warnings: Demons being demons
Summary: When Meg nearly gets the better of Gabriel and Castiel, Chronos decides to intervene, throwing two sets of nearly-identical brothers together into a race against time. They’re all determined that “what was” will remain “what shall never be”... but is Gabriel right that some things never change?
Crusaders 3: A Family Affair
By San Antonio Rose
Prologue
Chronos didn’t know why he was drawn to this particular location on this particular day. It felt like a whim, yet he had the niggling sense that the idea was not wholly his own. The place was deserted, though, so he couldn’t imagine why Atropos or some power still higher than the Fates would have sent him there...
... until the demon appeared.
She was wearing a college student, Meg Masters, and hummed a happy little tune as she set out the supplies she needed for her spell. The more she laid out, the clearer her purpose became, and the angrier Chronos grew.
Several leaps ago, he had just been pulled back to ancient times when he sensed the timeline shifting, and after he’d told Aeneas his future and taken his usual tribute, he and Atropos had had a long chat about the future that had been changed in AD 1148. Both of them knew enough about the timeline that had been to suspect that everyone but Lucifer was better off for the change, so they hadn’t tried to nudge history back onto the course certain factions thought it should have taken. But this demon was about to attempt that very thing, and while Chronos couldn’t be entirely sure what form Lucifer’s plan could take now, he was quite sure he wouldn’t survive whether it succeeded or failed. And he couldn’t leave his lovely Lila a widow before they were wed... not this time.
He started forward from the shadows-and suddenly found himself in Rome circa 44 BC, launching hip-hop epithets at a very startled Marc Antony.
After making some suitably vague noises about Egypt and collecting adequate tribute, Chronos sat back to think. Even with the amount of power he’d gained here, he couldn’t be certain that he could get back to AD 2005 in time to stop the demon; he might arrive too late to stop her, or he might arrive too early and be pulled away again. What he needed was some way to ensure a warning arrived in time for someone else to stop her.
“You’re looking thoughtful, Chronos,” Atropos observed as she walked up to him. “Anything I can help with?”
He sighed. “Maybe so.” And he told her what he’d seen.
She nodded slowly. “And you’re afraid Lucifer will find some way to make Sam Winchester his vessel even though it’s too late for his blood to be corrupted.”
“Exactly.”
She tapped her quill against her ledger for a moment, then smiled slowly. “What if he couldn’t be sure he had the right Samuel, son of John?”
He frowned. “I don’t think-” And then his eyes went wide as he caught her drift. “Oh. Oh, that is brilliant. That’s worthy of Loki.”
“Annnd I can tell you where they’ll beee....”
He grinned. “What would I owe you?”
“For this? Not a denarius.” She started flipping through the codex that currently served as her ledger and found the information he needed. “Just see to it that the plan stays derailed.”
“I think, for once, that’s a promise I can keep,” he replied before brushing a chaste kiss on her cheek and heading off to do what needed to be done.
Next