Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction / Fan Fiction ❯ In Omnia Paratus ❯ A Little Less Talk ( Chapter 11 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Anonymous / Mediaminer Reviewer(s):
 
hitomibishop: Thanks so much for your review! Ya know, I'm sorta surprised at the feedback I'm getting about this chapter…they're rather mixed, to say the least. But they're honest, at least! I like honest. And you made me feel a lot better, too, saying all that nice stuff. Oh, and as for your suggestion about Koenma—yes, I think I may put him in for a chapter. But he probably won't actually be IN Sunnydale. Don't worry, though—Dean WILL get to see him for what he is. grin
 
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AN: Okay, so I meant for this chapter to be long and involved and much less boring. I wanted it to cover a lot of material and put us a lot closer to the end. But…I accomplished none of that. I've hardly written at all this week and this is probably the last chance I'll get to have internet access for the next week or so, so I decided to just put the chapter up as is and screw the consequences. So, there is your explanation for the pathetic-ness of this chapter. And…that's it.
 
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Dean Winchester prided himself on being a very even-mined person. You had to be, when you lived so dangerously. He had always managed to keep his cool, even when his family or his own life were on the line.
 
He was now dangerously close to falling apart.
 
Sam had been in danger before, hundreds of times in the past twenty-two years. He had broken bones, he had had concussions, he had been hospitalized repeatedly in his short life.
 
This was somehow worse. In fact, Dean was sure that this, right now, was the worst thing that had ever happened, in the world. Sam was completely unresponsive to his brother, and everything else. He didn't move, he didn't blink, he didn't do anything at all, and Dean had no idea how to get him back to himself.
 
Still, the Winchester men hadn't been trained to harshly for nothing. Even if he was losing it inside, on the outside, he stayed calm. Such was the Winchester way.
 
XXX
 
“All right, let's get him back to the couch,” Dean said, and he was proud that his voice didn't shake. “I don't want to try to get him up the stairs.” He suited action to words, and leaned over to take one of Sam's arms. A smaller hand reached down and took the other, and when Dean looked up, he found that he still had room for surprise when he saw that it was Hiei helping him.
 
His certainty that the world was ending intensified as Hiei actually spoke to him, without any hint of scorn or sarcasm. “What is it you say…on three?”
 
Dean nodded, and a couple of seconds later the two of them heaved Sam up. To Dean's surprise, Sam was completely steady on his feet, and as Dean and Hiei started to half-carry him toward the living room, they found it unnecessary. Sam walked easily on his own.
 
He didn't seem to have a clue where he was going, though, so Dean took his arm again and steered him carefully toward the living room. For all the notice Sam took of him, though, Dean might as well have been invisible.
 
Once the youngest Winchester was settled on the couch—he lay there like some sort of life-sized doll—Dean carefully rebuilt and refortified all of his emotional walls, before turning to face the rest of the group.
 
They were all gathered in a knot in the corner of the room, looking from him to Sam like they were watching a tennis match. When he turned, they all snapped to attention and focused on him, a little guiltily.
 
He looked at them, and they looked at him, and Dean realized he had no idea what to say. Oh, he knew what he wanted to say, but this wasn't like when he and Sam and Dad all worked together. His thoughts had no meaning here—they had been working with each other, presumably for years, and none of them knew him. He couldn't expect his orders to be followed here.
 
“All right, as of now, we're dropping everything until we figure out what's happening to my brother.”
 
But apparently his mind and his mouth were in total disagreement, as usual.
 
“Of course.”
 
Dean's eyes snapped to the speaker, and he saw that Giles was still watching Sam, looking troubled.
 
“Looks like we're in for another sleepless night,” Buffy said, looking at her watch.
 
“As was your conception,” Willow replied.
 
Buffy sighed. “I'll go make some coffee.”
 
“As was your conception.”
 
Buffy rolled her eyes and left, and as she did, Giles said, “So I assume that the question, `Do you want to move in here?' would be rhetorical.”
 
Dean nodded firmly, and sat down in a chair across from the couch as Xander, Kurama and Hiei went to get the books. Meanwhile, Giles went and took the other chair, and looked at Sam. “This is undoubtedly the strangest thing I've ever seen. I've never heard of anything like it. Has anything like this ever happened to him before?”
 
Dean shook his head. “No. We've been through some weird things, but never like this.”
 
“Well, one thing is certain,” Willow said as the three guys came back in with their arms full. “Whatever's wrong with him, it's magical.”
 
“Yes, there is no medical condition like this that I know of,” Kurama said, taking a seat on the floor.
 
“And he's heard of them all,” Hiei added as he sat down next to Kurama and leaned back against the wall.
 
“Well, it was sort of obvious anyway,” Xander said. “Something this freaky can only be magical.”
 
“On behalf of all Wicca, hey!”
 
Dean looked over at Willow. “You're a witch?”
 
“No, a Wicca. It's different,” Tara replied. “I'm one, too.”
 
But by now, Dean was unable to muster up anything beyond a tiny bit of surprise. He just said. “Oh. Cool. So, it's magical. That's obvious. But if no one has ever seen it, how do we know what to do about it?”
 
“I have,” Angel said softly, and all eyes shifted to him.
 
“What're you talking about? Where've you seen this?” Cordelia asked.
 
“It happened to you,” Angel said simply. When Cordelia looked baffled, he went on to explain. “Remember that time a couple years ago when that thing worked mojo on you…”
 
“Don't say mojo.”
 
“And it put you in this constant vision and it went on for like a day. You screamed for a while but eventually you went quiet and looked just like that.”
 
“So what you're saying is that Sam's having one big vision?” Dean asked skeptically.
 
Angel shrugged. “I don't know. It sounds to me like your brother's visions are different than Cordy's. But the point is, Cordelia came out of it. Your brother will, too.”
 
Buffy came back in then. “Coffee's on the stove. Just get it when you want it. Please don't tell me we have to start again.”
 
Giles smiled at the unfeigned horror in her voice. “No. I don't think so. This time, we know what we're looking for. I think we should focus on the Black Chronicles for now—it details most known demonic spells and their history.”
 
And just like that, Dean found himself holding yet another book. The only difference was, this time he planned to throw himself into the research, heart and soul.
 
We're gonna help you, Sammy.
 
XXX
 
Somewhere Not In Sunnydale
 
The demon withdrew from the human's mind with a sigh of satisfaction. That had proved easier than expected. All humans were pathetic, of course, but the demon had thought he'd get some sort of fight. He always tended to forget how weak mere humans really were…
 
Still, this one did have power, more than the last one the demon had used…so long ago. Definitely more than the others he had discarded already.
 
With this one, he could achieve his goal at last.
 
The first stages were complete now. Samuel Winchester's mind was shut down, except for the useful parts. The demon had allowed the thing to keep its ability to walk, to hear, to see, and of course, to kill. But these things were totally under the demon's control, and of no threat.
 
Its ability to know others of its kind, to recognize them, to think for itself, to speak, all were taken away entirely. Those things were useless to the demon, after all.
 
Soon, the demon would prepare the full possession, and then…he could fulfill his mission.
 
There was, however, one small problem. It was only to be expected, and the demon had dealt with such problems before.
 
So, he left the human alone for a time, and turned his mind to how he would dispose of Samuel Winchester's friends…
 
XXX
 
Sunnydale, California
 
“Hey.”
 
Buffy turned so fast that the coffee she had in her hand nearly went flying across the room. With an undignified yelp, she fumbled with it and barely managed to set it down on the counter before it spilled. “God, Angel, why do you do that?”
 
Angel shrugged. “Thought you'd hear me.”
 
“You know you're the only one who can sneak up on me.”
 
Angel nodded, acknowledging the accuracy of this, and stepped further into the room. “So you're avoiding the work, huh?”
 
Buffy sighed, and resigned herself to the awkwardness that was always there when she and Angel talked. “Yeah. Well, you know I hate research. Plus I suck at it. Luckily I can pretty much make a living fetching the coffee. Want some?”
 
Angel shook his head. “So what do you think of all this?”
 
The sudden question caught Buffy off guard. “All what?”
 
“You know, about those Winchester guys, and those two demons.”
 
“Hey, how'd you know about that?”
 
“Vampire.”
 
“Right.”
 
“So…?” Angel asked, when Buffy didn't answer his question. “What do you think of them?”
 
“Why do you care?” Buffy snapped, a lot more harshly than she'd intended.
 
Angel, though, was unruffled. In fact, he smiled a little. “You hate Dean.”
 
“What? I do not hate him! He's here to help, he knows how to fight, he seems like a good brother…”
 
“You hate him a lot.”
 
Buffy sighed. “It's not completely obvious, is it?”
 
“It's pretty palpable, yeah. But if it's any help, you bug him too.”
 
“That's such a consolation. You have no idea. How do you know this, anyway?”
 
“Well, he's the only one I haven't seen you say a word to, and you keep glaring at him when you think no one's looking.
 
“I…”
 
“So what's the matter with him?”
 
Buffy shrugged. “Nothing big, I guess. It's just…he's so…he has no respect for…for any of us,” she finished somewhat lamely.
 
Angel fixed her with that creepy, penetrating gaze he was so fond of. “I think you're angry because you don't think he respects you enough.”
 
Buffy's face went red with anger, and a little surprise. Angel wasn't usually so harsh.
 
He must have realized that, too. “I'm sorry. That came out wrong. But…well, it's sort of true that you're used to having authority over your friends. Maybe the fact that Dean doesn't take orders from you as well as everyone else does is what's making you feel this way toward him. At least, subconsciously.”
 
“He's so arrogant, though!” Buffy burst out, as if the two tied directly together. “I mean, did you hear the way he was telling us to drop everything earlier?”
 
“Oh, come on, Buffy. The man is looking at maybe losing his brother. A little impatience is perfectly understandable.”
 
“We'll help Sam. We've solved bigger things than this before.”
 
“But he doesn't know that. And not everyone is going to have complete faith in you the second they meet you.”
 
“Look, what do you want from me?” Buffy asked angrily, barely remembering to keep her voice down. “You're not a part of my life anymore. You don't get to tell me how to live it.”
 
XXX
 
“Ooh, nice.”
 
“Shut up, she'll hear you!”
 
“Nah. I slipped some Kryptonite into the coffee pot, so we're good.”
 
“Quiet, Xander!”
 
“This is wrong, ya know.”
 
“Says the most intruding girl ever to grace Sunnydale High School.”
 
“You know, I was unaware that none of you had grown up yet. I thought graduating high school implied some sense of maturity.”
 
“Oh, come on, Giles, you know you're curious.”
 
“I most certainly am not.”
 
“So how long is this gonna go on?” Dean asked, barely looking up from his book.
 
Giles shrugged. “They're extraordinarily fascinated with Buffy's love life. They could be crouched there forever.”
 
“Shh!”
 
XXX
 
“So what are the odds that they're all eavesdropping on us?” Angel asked, after a few minutes of awkward silence.
 
“Willow and Tara and Xander will be. Probably Anya and Cordelia, too. Giles is too British. Kurama seemed too polite and I don't think Hiei does anything Kurama doesn't want him to do. And Dean doesn't care.”
 
Angel sighed heavily and said, “Well, they won't get anything more, because you're right, Buffy. I walked out on you, and I shouldn't pass judgment on your life, so…I won't. From now on it's strictly business between us. I promise.” He smiled reassuringly as Buffy and then turned to go back to the living room.
 
“Angel, wait.”
 
“No, it's all right, Buffy. Really. We should get back in there anyway.” Then he added, quietly, “I really missed you, by the way.” And then he was gone.
 
His steps had faded away before Buffy replied. “I missed you, too.”
 
XXX
 
Dean…was distracted. It wasn't exactly a new thing—he could seldom keep his mind on research in the best of times, mostly because he despised any kind of intellectual pursuit. But this time it was different. Dean wasn't distracted because he was bored—he was distracted because he was scared.
 
Fear wasn't a new feeling, either, but he had pushed it away, repressed it, for so long that he had forgotten what it felt like. Now he was remembering. Fear is a ceaseless gnawing in your gut. Fear is complete and utter nausea. Fear is never-ending “what if” questions that make you want to scream.
 
And most of all, fear is anger.
 
XXX
 
Dean was not used to being the one who turned up information. When he and Sam and John researched together, it was usually Sam who cracked the mystery, or sometimes John. Dean just wasn't very good at stuff like that. But maybe the fact that his brother's very existence might have been on the line was working for him, because it took barely an hour before he hit paydirt.
 
Half the group, including Buffy, Willow, Tara, Xander, and Anya, had begun to doze, but that was okay, because the one who really seemed to know things—and the one that Dean trusted even if he couldn't say why—was still doggedly going over his books.
 
“Hey, Giles, do you have…uh…” He checked the book he already had again. “Volume Seven of the Black Chronicles?”
 
Giles blinked slowly—he must have been more tired than he seemed—and checked the stack of books next to him. “Yes, here. Did you find something?”
 
“I might have…” Dean replied vaguely, thumbing through the pages—or trying to. He hadn't noticed before that his hands were trembling so badly that he could barely hold anything.
 
Finally, Giles held out a hand and took the book gently away from him. “Now, what are we looking for?”
 
Dean didn't bother hiding his relief as he went back and sat down again. His legs felt too shaky to hold him at the moment, anyway. “A Latin section, no title, but it describes Sam's…condition…perfectly.”
 
“You read Latin?”
 
“Since I was twelve, Jeeves.”
 
“Oh, wonderful, yet another delightful nickname. I've never felt so privileged. Okay, here.” Dean sensed Kurama looking over at them, and probably Hiei was too, and Angel and Cordelia came over to stand next to him, but his focus was entirely on Giles, who was reading silently.
 
“Well, you were right, Dean,” he said eventually. “These books are finally good for something. Not to say that they're ever useless, but I must admit that tonight they've been rather pointless…”
 
“Hitting the fast-forward button here, old man.”
 
So, Giles read the entire passage word for word, and for once, Dean actually paid attention.
 
The section was mostly about an incident that had occurred somewhere around the 12th century, when a woman—name unpronounceable—had apparently discovered that she had dreams—vision dreams. And aside from being considered sacrilegious and an excellent reason for some burnage at the stake, it was also enough to drive some people insane, `cause that chick was freakin' unhinged.

Jump ahead six or seven months. Crazy Lady is still having visions, to the shame of her family and the fury of the Church. No one could decide what to do with her. Her insistence that she wanted to be good, that she did not want the visions, that they simply wouldn't stop plaguing her, and the Church's practice of “tolerance”—it all added up to confusion/ So the Seer was simply confined to her family's estate, hidden from the world, and kept under meticulous, constant supervision.
 
It was soon after the decision was made that the Seer had another dream—and this one was apparently different from the others, because it was then that she began to “lose herself” as the book put it.
 
She became sort of half in the real world and half in her own. She barely ever spoke and as time passed she got paler, and lost weight, and became ever more distant.
 
Exactly three days after this began, the whole thing climaxed. The book called it a “seizure” for lack of a better word. And then it went on to recreate the entire scene from that night in the Summers kitchen, from Sam's collapse to his current state.
 
“So what do we do about it?” Dean demanded. “Does it continue the story?”
 
Giles simply sent him a quelling look and he fell silent. Then the middle-aged man cleared his throat a little and went on:
 
A small group of priests was sent to “heal” the Seer, and to guard her. They lugged their Bibles and their crosses and spent a day and a night in serious prayer time.
 
It all proved pointless. The next night, the Seer got up out of her bed and walked calmly out of her room, then out of her house, then off her property. Any attempts to restrain her proved futile, with people ending up dead, maimed, or unconscious with no idea of how it had happened. (Though someone must have managed to follow her, if it was all available for reading nine centuries later in Sunnydale, California.)
 
Well, anyway, the Seer headed for the cemetery of the primitive city she lived in. The story went that once there, she cleared it of stragglers and loiterers with a single command, and then she simply stood there, alone, as if waiting.
 
What she was waiting for became clear at midnight exactly. It was at that moment that a wall of complete, unfiltered, dark power sprang up around her. It began by enveloping her body…and then it spread.
 
By the next morning, the city and the surrounding countryside were a mere memory.
 
And of the Seer…nothing remained.
 
XXX
 
Giles closed the book, and silence ensued. Seriously, a group of twelve people has never been so silent. Then, suddenly, Dean said, “Demonic possession. Has to be. That's the only thing that could give the girl that much power, and cause her to slaughter an entire city.”
 
Willow had been quite busy making a card tower from a pack she'd found in a table drawer, and now she proceeded to knock the whole thing down as she spoke. “Well, it would have to be a demon of enormous power, to do it so easily, right, Giles?”
 
“Mm…” Giles said, hardly seeming to hear her.
 
“Okay, so let's go over this,” Angel said, beginning to pace slowly back and forth across the room. “Dean, when exactly did all this start?”
 
“Uh…when we met Hiei and those guys, I think. Two days ago.” God, was it really only two days…?
 
“And how did you come to meet them?”
 
“We headed for Japan a few days after Sam had a vision that we had to go find a…a demon—Hiei—in Tokyo.”
 
If Hiei was at all surprised that he had caused them all to meet, he was too careful to show it.
 
“And when you met him…what happened?”
 
So, Dean described it, though he had no idea what the point was.
 
“You said something earlier about Sam acting strange lately. When did that start?” Angel asked.
 
Dean thought back, trying to recall the last few days clearly. “I guess right after the vision. He had these headaches, but he didn't seem to realize he had them. I gave him meds, and he did take them, but he seemed so…distant. Confused, a lot of the time.”
 
“So, visions, speed, headaches, confusion, and he looked sick earlier. And now he's pretty much in a waking coma, and we're assuming it's possession. That's where we are, right?”
 
“…Good Lord.”
 
“Oh, no,” Willow said, closing her eyes. Dean jumped—he hadn't realized the others had woken up.
 
“What's up, Giles?” Tara asked.
 
Instead of replying, Giles got up out of his chair and went over to one of the book stacks. After a moment of rummaging, he stood up and began to flip rather frantically through the pages.
 
“Giles, what…?” Xander asked, looking a little apprehensive, as the Watcher finally found what he was looking for.
 
It didn't take very long for him to finish reading, luckily, and within ten minutes he'd closed the book with another murmur of “Good Lord…”
 
“Giles, speak!” Buffy commanded in clipped tones. “What's going on?”
 
“We've asked that question way too many times lately,” Dean muttered.
 
Giles turned back to them, and he looked, if possible, more serious than before. “I've been absolutely remiss,” he said quietly. “The answer to everything…I had it all along. I must've been through this book fifty times, but I only just remembered.”
 
“So tell us what's causing this, already!” Hiei snapped impatiently, apparently driven at last to an actual display of his feelings.
 
“Yes, I think I do. It is a possession, but not exactly a normal one.” Giles took off his glasses and wiped them furiously, then imitated Angel and began to pace, though there wasn't much space in the room at the moment. “Now, this demon has no name. Or, rather, it has too many to count,” he said, reminding Dean of some kind of professor. “It has existed for…millennia. So long that no one has ever been able to trace its exact origins. It has no corporeal form, and so its power lies in using others. Humans. It can harness the untapped power that exists in humans with…certain special abilities, and use that power to its own ends.”
 
“Which are…?” Buffy asked.
 
“Oh, the usual. World destruction. End to humanity. That sort of thing. And it achieves this through slow but complete possession of its chosen victim. It's been doing this since…well, for a very long time, obviously. And every time a possession happens, it goes exactly the same way…with one difference. It gains strength each time.”
 
“That sounds happy,” Anya chirped.
 
“Oh, yeah, sounds terrif,” Willow said. “And…dare I ask what happened last time?”
 
Giles didn't have to check his books that time. “The attack happened about four hundred years ago in a country called Daixong.”
 
“Um…weird name, never heard of it,” Dean said.
 
“You won't have. It no longer exists.”
 
“…Oh.”
 
“Yes. It wasn't a large country, but…well, you see my point. We could be in deep trouble here.”
 
“Okay. So,” Buffy said. “We need a game plan. Now what do we know?”
 
Cordelia answered that one. “Basically, we know when this is gonna happen—tomorrow—and we know where it's gonna happen—the cemetery, no surprise there—and we know a little of what's gonna happen—but we don't know details…stupid vague little history books…”
 
Dean spoke up then. “Is…is there any record of those possessed people coming out of it unscathed?” he asked quietly, voice carefully controlled.
 
No one answered for a moment. Then Kurama spoke, his voice very gentle…and very sad. “We'll find a way, Dean.”
 
Dean looked at him, and then at everyone else, and finally at Sam, who was staring at the ceiling, unblinking and unaware of anything going on around him, and everyone pretended not to notice when he took a quick swipe at his eyes. Then he sighed heavily and stood up. “I'm gonna need a beer. This coffee is not gonna cut it.”
 
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AN: Well? What'd ya think? If the stuff about the demon was kinda vague and blurred-like, I'm sorry. I couldn't really think of how to explain what was on my mind until it actually happens. But don't worry, it should become clear in the next chapter. The bad news: as of tomorrow morning at 7:00 I am deprived of internet access until around June 5. sigh But I'll work my butt off on the chapter while I'm gone! Promise!
 
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“Bottom line is, even if you see `em comin', you're not ready for the big moments. No one asks for their life to change, not really. But it does. So what are we? Helpless? Puppets? No. The big moments are gonna come, you can't help that. It's what you do afterwards that counts. That's when you find out who you are.” -Whistler, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
 
“Strength is great and Power strikes fear into heroes and villains alike, but someone who follows their heart, putting their loved ones first, damning the consequences, and even themselves in the process... Believe me, those people, they're worth payin' attention to.” -Whistler, Outside Humanity by Drake Roberts
 
“Knowledge is power…and….I think…we've only begun to understand ours.” -Kellen Knight-Mage, To Light a Candle
 
“From the eternal sea he rises,
Creating armies on either shore,
Turning man against his brother
Until man exists no more.”
-The Omen