09x20 - Closet Chronicles - Part Three: Journeyed Deep
Episode number: 09x20 of Season 9 Fan Fiction (S9FF)
Title: Closet Chronicles
Subtitle: Journeyed Deep
Author: dracox-serdriel
Word Count: 1,681
Rating: R
Warnings: language, violence, angst
Dallas, Texas. Sam followed Dodge down the hallway of a moderately nice hotel.
"Yeah, thanks, Marie. Room 311. I'll check in later," she said before she hung up. Then she slipped a card from under the door of Room 311.
"Marie told me she checked the hex bag out of evidence and left it in her room," Dodge explained as she popped open the door.
Knolls, Utah. Castiel dragged Dean into some kind of closed-in area encircled by trees.
"Do we need to be out here with so much nature?" Dean asked.
"This is a natural energy nexus. It affords us a measure of protection."
Before Dean could protest the clear presence of ticks and flies, Cas summoned the First Phoenix.
Dallas, Texas. The forensics lab had separated the contents of the hex bag into little plastic containers with labels. Dodge laid it out in front of Sam.
"Charred metacarpal bone of an infant," Sam observed without reading the label. "Gold thread - "
"Gold?"
"Uh, an extinct herb. Meadowsweet. And - huh," Sam stared at the other cups. "The rest of this stuff is pretty run of the mill, except these three coins."
"Old," she said. "Marie told me as much."
"Ancient Celtic. Ancient Sumerian, maybe Akkadian. And Roman Cyrillic, fifteenth century."
"Did you take a class in coins?" she asked. "Or do you just collect them?"
Sam shook his head. "This is bad, Dodge. This is hardcore hex-work to the umpteenth degree. This Celtic coin? I've seen something like it before when a six-hundred year old witch attempted to raise Sam Hayes, a demon - "
"Origin of Halloween," Dodge cut him off. "I was in that bunker for a long time with nothing else to do but read, Sam. I can recite half the books on Latin in there."
Dodge could read Latin? For some reason Sam found her immediately more attractive.
"Right, sorry. Dean never remembers anything. Anyway, the witch who made this bag is combining eight kinds of witchcraft, Pagan lore, and from what I can see, even tapping into ancient deities for power. I mean, that's my best guess."
"So, besides 'bad', what else do you have?" she asked with a bit of an edge in her voice.
"Are there more pictures from the crime scenes I can look at?" Sam asked. "It will give me a better idea of what's going on."
Knolls, Utah. Kuravi appeared with fire spitting up to the sky. The word 'displeased' didn't quite cover her expression.
"What?" she jabbed by way of greeting.
"Benny Lafitte just uncovered another Word of God," Cas spoke stiffly. "I gather you had something to do with it."
Kuravi's eyes lit up. Dean thought it might be a sign of anger, but her voice remained level, even. "Yes," she replied. "Benny wishes to become human again. He's embarking on transformation by fire."
"What?" Dean asked. "I saw you 'heal' four vampires a few days ago, turn them back into humans. It took all of three seconds."
"They are human, but their souls still carry the weight of their acts as vampires. When they die, they will be judged as such," Kuravi explained. "A transformation by fire allows Benny's soul to be purged. To start again as human."
"What the hell does that have to do with the tablet?" Dean asked.
"I imagine there are several tasks Benny must complete," Cas said bluntly.
Kuravi nodded. "One of them is quest in the name of a cause. One that doesn't serve him."
"You knew where it was buried?" Castiel asked.
"I had some ideas where to look," she said evasively. "I thought you'd find it helpful."
"What do you know?" Castiel demanded. "About the skirmishes breaking out all over the world?"
When she didn't reply right away, Dean snapped. "You're a pacifist, fine. But that's not the same thing as being blind."
"I know that Lucifer's progress is being held in check by a force greater than his own," Kuravi said. "A force he never thought he'd have to face."
Cas spoke, "It's not Heaven."
"Purgatory has its own interests," she said. "Chatter and portents suggest that a powerful leader is getting cooperation, building an army."
"An army of Eer-moonan?" Dean asked.
"I haven't heard that name in a very long time," Kuravi said quietly. "But I imagine, yes, they would be among the ranks."
"Among the ranks?" Castiel caught her tone. "What else is 'among the ranks'?"
The First Phoenix hesitated. "Pretty much everything, as far as I can tell," she said. "Even humans."
"Cut the cryptic crap," Dean said. "Who's their leader?"
"If I knew that, I wouldn't be in hiding," Kuravi snapped back. "The last time I saw the forces of Purgatory cooperate with humanity was when Eve walked the Earth. And now Leviathan are alive again - "
Castiel bowed his head in shame.
" - it could easily be her. Or one of them."
Dallas, Texas. The photographs captured a fair amount of horror. Half a dozen crime scenes in four states, each was the product of a powerful assault on multiple witches simultaneously.
"Well?" Dodge asked again. Like clockwork she asked every four minutes.
"How many bodies were found at the local crime scene?" Sam asked.
"Five."
"Whoever's doing this is going after covens," Sam replied quickly. "I think this is like the case we just broke in Delaware. Witches from one faction going after another."
"Which means what?" she asked, her voice sharper than nails.
"Dodge, what's up?"
"This case."
"That's not what I mean. You're not really yourself."
"Let's be honest, Sam," she said bluntly, "you've only known me for a few months. You don't know what I'm 'really' like."
"For the past months I've known you, you've had more tact and patience," Sam replied as calmly as possible. "But in the past few days - "
"I know," she cut him off. "Sam, I'm a field agent. When I applied for medical leave due to an unknown neurological condition, it - it was like locking away most of my personality. And that was fine when I was having visions all the time and was too debilitated to notice but that's not happening anymore."
"I understand that," Sam said. "I did my research. I saw the work you did, how much of yourself you put into the job. I meant what I said, that we'd figure it out, stop the visions from hurting you, or maybe stop the visions all together."
"I don't think you do understand," she said. "I don't want you to get the wrong idea about me. Or us."
Those last two words felt like stabs to the stomach slicing up to his throat. Sam swallowed hard; all the passion and affection and friendship that blossomed between them in the past few weeks, was she trying to say that only happened because she couldn't work? That it would evaporate once she returned to the FBI?
Before he could articulate his thoughts, Dodge continued, "I don't want you to get the idea that I'm like Kevin. At that bunker reading and translating. That's not me. I should be working this case with Acevedo, not sulking in the shadows trying to figure it out before she gets killed. Visions or not, that's the truth, Sam."
Knolls, Utah. Disbelief filled the enclosure. Kuravi sidestepped questions like a sidewinding snake in the sands.
"A Leviathan?" Dean asked. "Working with other monsters?"
"The Children of Eve," Kuravi corrected.
"Nice try, but the last time the Levis tried to take over the world, they didn't play nice with others," Dean said.
"Things change," she said quietly. "I've already done too much."
"What do you mean?" Castiel asked. Dean was surprised at the level of honest curiosity in his voice.
"I am not a spy or a warrior," she said. "I am a healer. I am a Phoenix. I don't participate in wars, especially not supernatural ones, except to repair and to save."
"What exactly have you done so far?" Dean asked.
"The Tablet," she said. "It has been lost for a very long time. I helped retrieve it and handed it over to you. That is as good as picking a side."
"That doesn't count," Dean protested. "You've risked nothing - "
"I've risked everything," Kuravi replied. "It is not in my nature to sympathize with a cause. My only hope is that your cause remains free will and not vengeance."
Fire and ash - she was gone.
Dallas, Texas. Tension piled up in the hotel room.
"Right," Sam replied automatically. If he let himself spiral down the relationship road, he wasn't sure he'd be able to handle it. Goodbye was one thing; complete rejection was another. He decided to take the route of honesty. "Let's focus on this case now, and we can pick up this - the rest of what you said later."
Dodge saw her words had hit hard, and she hadn't meant them to. But she didn't know how to fix it, and given Sam an introductory course to her normal personality didn't seem plausible at the moment. Maybe he was right, they needed to stay on point.
"Okay," she agreed. "You think witches are targeting covens from an opposing faction?"
"That's what the evidence says."
"Do we have bodies from both sides, or is one side executing members of the other?"
Sam hadn't expected that question, but he quickly searched through the photographs to confirm. "The latter. Witches that gain their power through demonic forces have been killing off witches who draw on magic from Pagan deities and the like. That would explain why the hex bag contained so many coins from different traditions."
"You mean Akkadian, Celtic, and Roman - what was it?"
"Roman Cyrillic," Sam said. "The Celtic coin and Akkadian coin are both from a demonic tradition, they draw power from Hell. The Cyrillic coin and meadowsweet, they're usually used to call on the powers from demigods or deities... but here they're used as a shield. It's possible that the dead witches were powerless when they were slaughtered."
<<< Previous Part:
Part Two: Away from this Battlefield
Next Part: >>>
Part Four: Many Followed His Command
Primary Post: 09x20 Closet Chronicles
Primary Post: Season 9 Fan Fiction (S9FF)
Title: Closet Chronicles
Subtitle: Journeyed Deep
Author: dracox-serdriel
Word Count: 1,681
Rating: R
Warnings: language, violence, angst
Dallas, Texas. Sam followed Dodge down the hallway of a moderately nice hotel.
"Yeah, thanks, Marie. Room 311. I'll check in later," she said before she hung up. Then she slipped a card from under the door of Room 311.
"Marie told me she checked the hex bag out of evidence and left it in her room," Dodge explained as she popped open the door.
Knolls, Utah. Castiel dragged Dean into some kind of closed-in area encircled by trees.
"Do we need to be out here with so much nature?" Dean asked.
"This is a natural energy nexus. It affords us a measure of protection."
Before Dean could protest the clear presence of ticks and flies, Cas summoned the First Phoenix.
Dallas, Texas. The forensics lab had separated the contents of the hex bag into little plastic containers with labels. Dodge laid it out in front of Sam.
"Charred metacarpal bone of an infant," Sam observed without reading the label. "Gold thread - "
"Gold?"
"Uh, an extinct herb. Meadowsweet. And - huh," Sam stared at the other cups. "The rest of this stuff is pretty run of the mill, except these three coins."
"Old," she said. "Marie told me as much."
"Ancient Celtic. Ancient Sumerian, maybe Akkadian. And Roman Cyrillic, fifteenth century."
"Did you take a class in coins?" she asked. "Or do you just collect them?"
Sam shook his head. "This is bad, Dodge. This is hardcore hex-work to the umpteenth degree. This Celtic coin? I've seen something like it before when a six-hundred year old witch attempted to raise Sam Hayes, a demon - "
"Origin of Halloween," Dodge cut him off. "I was in that bunker for a long time with nothing else to do but read, Sam. I can recite half the books on Latin in there."
Dodge could read Latin? For some reason Sam found her immediately more attractive.
"Right, sorry. Dean never remembers anything. Anyway, the witch who made this bag is combining eight kinds of witchcraft, Pagan lore, and from what I can see, even tapping into ancient deities for power. I mean, that's my best guess."
"So, besides 'bad', what else do you have?" she asked with a bit of an edge in her voice.
"Are there more pictures from the crime scenes I can look at?" Sam asked. "It will give me a better idea of what's going on."
Knolls, Utah. Kuravi appeared with fire spitting up to the sky. The word 'displeased' didn't quite cover her expression.
"What?" she jabbed by way of greeting.
"Benny Lafitte just uncovered another Word of God," Cas spoke stiffly. "I gather you had something to do with it."
Kuravi's eyes lit up. Dean thought it might be a sign of anger, but her voice remained level, even. "Yes," she replied. "Benny wishes to become human again. He's embarking on transformation by fire."
"What?" Dean asked. "I saw you 'heal' four vampires a few days ago, turn them back into humans. It took all of three seconds."
"They are human, but their souls still carry the weight of their acts as vampires. When they die, they will be judged as such," Kuravi explained. "A transformation by fire allows Benny's soul to be purged. To start again as human."
"What the hell does that have to do with the tablet?" Dean asked.
"I imagine there are several tasks Benny must complete," Cas said bluntly.
Kuravi nodded. "One of them is quest in the name of a cause. One that doesn't serve him."
"You knew where it was buried?" Castiel asked.
"I had some ideas where to look," she said evasively. "I thought you'd find it helpful."
"What do you know?" Castiel demanded. "About the skirmishes breaking out all over the world?"
When she didn't reply right away, Dean snapped. "You're a pacifist, fine. But that's not the same thing as being blind."
"I know that Lucifer's progress is being held in check by a force greater than his own," Kuravi said. "A force he never thought he'd have to face."
Cas spoke, "It's not Heaven."
"Purgatory has its own interests," she said. "Chatter and portents suggest that a powerful leader is getting cooperation, building an army."
"An army of Eer-moonan?" Dean asked.
"I haven't heard that name in a very long time," Kuravi said quietly. "But I imagine, yes, they would be among the ranks."
"Among the ranks?" Castiel caught her tone. "What else is 'among the ranks'?"
The First Phoenix hesitated. "Pretty much everything, as far as I can tell," she said. "Even humans."
"Cut the cryptic crap," Dean said. "Who's their leader?"
"If I knew that, I wouldn't be in hiding," Kuravi snapped back. "The last time I saw the forces of Purgatory cooperate with humanity was when Eve walked the Earth. And now Leviathan are alive again - "
Castiel bowed his head in shame.
" - it could easily be her. Or one of them."
Dallas, Texas. The photographs captured a fair amount of horror. Half a dozen crime scenes in four states, each was the product of a powerful assault on multiple witches simultaneously.
"Well?" Dodge asked again. Like clockwork she asked every four minutes.
"How many bodies were found at the local crime scene?" Sam asked.
"Five."
"Whoever's doing this is going after covens," Sam replied quickly. "I think this is like the case we just broke in Delaware. Witches from one faction going after another."
"Which means what?" she asked, her voice sharper than nails.
"Dodge, what's up?"
"This case."
"That's not what I mean. You're not really yourself."
"Let's be honest, Sam," she said bluntly, "you've only known me for a few months. You don't know what I'm 'really' like."
"For the past months I've known you, you've had more tact and patience," Sam replied as calmly as possible. "But in the past few days - "
"I know," she cut him off. "Sam, I'm a field agent. When I applied for medical leave due to an unknown neurological condition, it - it was like locking away most of my personality. And that was fine when I was having visions all the time and was too debilitated to notice but that's not happening anymore."
"I understand that," Sam said. "I did my research. I saw the work you did, how much of yourself you put into the job. I meant what I said, that we'd figure it out, stop the visions from hurting you, or maybe stop the visions all together."
"I don't think you do understand," she said. "I don't want you to get the wrong idea about me. Or us."
Those last two words felt like stabs to the stomach slicing up to his throat. Sam swallowed hard; all the passion and affection and friendship that blossomed between them in the past few weeks, was she trying to say that only happened because she couldn't work? That it would evaporate once she returned to the FBI?
Before he could articulate his thoughts, Dodge continued, "I don't want you to get the idea that I'm like Kevin. At that bunker reading and translating. That's not me. I should be working this case with Acevedo, not sulking in the shadows trying to figure it out before she gets killed. Visions or not, that's the truth, Sam."
Knolls, Utah. Disbelief filled the enclosure. Kuravi sidestepped questions like a sidewinding snake in the sands.
"A Leviathan?" Dean asked. "Working with other monsters?"
"The Children of Eve," Kuravi corrected.
"Nice try, but the last time the Levis tried to take over the world, they didn't play nice with others," Dean said.
"Things change," she said quietly. "I've already done too much."
"What do you mean?" Castiel asked. Dean was surprised at the level of honest curiosity in his voice.
"I am not a spy or a warrior," she said. "I am a healer. I am a Phoenix. I don't participate in wars, especially not supernatural ones, except to repair and to save."
"What exactly have you done so far?" Dean asked.
"The Tablet," she said. "It has been lost for a very long time. I helped retrieve it and handed it over to you. That is as good as picking a side."
"That doesn't count," Dean protested. "You've risked nothing - "
"I've risked everything," Kuravi replied. "It is not in my nature to sympathize with a cause. My only hope is that your cause remains free will and not vengeance."
Fire and ash - she was gone.
Dallas, Texas. Tension piled up in the hotel room.
"Right," Sam replied automatically. If he let himself spiral down the relationship road, he wasn't sure he'd be able to handle it. Goodbye was one thing; complete rejection was another. He decided to take the route of honesty. "Let's focus on this case now, and we can pick up this - the rest of what you said later."
Dodge saw her words had hit hard, and she hadn't meant them to. But she didn't know how to fix it, and given Sam an introductory course to her normal personality didn't seem plausible at the moment. Maybe he was right, they needed to stay on point.
"Okay," she agreed. "You think witches are targeting covens from an opposing faction?"
"That's what the evidence says."
"Do we have bodies from both sides, or is one side executing members of the other?"
Sam hadn't expected that question, but he quickly searched through the photographs to confirm. "The latter. Witches that gain their power through demonic forces have been killing off witches who draw on magic from Pagan deities and the like. That would explain why the hex bag contained so many coins from different traditions."
"You mean Akkadian, Celtic, and Roman - what was it?"
"Roman Cyrillic," Sam said. "The Celtic coin and Akkadian coin are both from a demonic tradition, they draw power from Hell. The Cyrillic coin and meadowsweet, they're usually used to call on the powers from demigods or deities... but here they're used as a shield. It's possible that the dead witches were powerless when they were slaughtered."
<<< Previous Part:
Part Two: Away from this Battlefield
Next Part: >>>
Part Four: Many Followed His Command
Primary Post: 09x20 Closet Chronicles
Primary Post: Season 9 Fan Fiction (S9FF)