#☽ . . . scene. ― swing into the swamp.

[lunaetics]

uche waved off sam's concern. "yeah, i'm good." that was, in truth, an overstatement. her hands were visibly shaking in her lap, and her heart was beating fast enough for the world to hear, it felt like. there was a very real chance that she would vibrate out of her skin and⎯⎯fall apart, maybe.

but it would pass, she told herself. she'd had a near death experience; the jitters would go away.

dean's phone rang, bringing her out of her thoughts.

he turned away from the group, bringing his phone to his ear. "yeah?"

"put me on speakerphone," a woman said on the other line, her voice calm to uche's ears.

"bossy," dean muttered. "don't even get a hi these days." he obediently tapped his screen. "you're on speaker. jo harvelle, this is everybody. everybody, jo."

"hi, jo," julia called.

"hi," jo replied kindly. "just⎯making sure i understand the facts of what you're saying here. you said masked figures emerged from the road and tried to attack an original. then they just disappeared. yes? did they leave any traces?"

lux glanced at julia, remembering what she'd mentioned earlier. "some kind of electric residue," lux said. "nothing else, though."

jo fell silent for a few seconds. "jo?" dean called, wondering if she'd walked away from the phone or something. "did you figure something out? bethy?"

"don't call me that," she said immediately. "yeah, i... i think i know what you're dealing with, but i don't understand why. an original? there's no reason for them to..."

"hey, fill us in," dean complained. "what're you talking about? what is it?"

"they're⎯humans."

ife frowned. "they were not human. humans cannot do what they did."

"these can. they're scient⎯" jo paused as the sound in the background of her phone picked up. "sorry, i'm at work. i think you were attacked by the dread doctors."

dean looked at sam in confusion, then at the others. "what the hell is that? i've never heard of that."

"neither have i," ife added.

julia and claire both shook their heads, and lux just shrugged.

"no, you wouldn't have," jo sighed. "they're from a scifi novel, but they popped up on the west coast a few years back. they're supposed to be dead, and they would never target any of you, so i don't understand why⎯⎯sorry, i don't know if i can explain all of this over the phone. is it alright if i meet you all somewhere once i leave the bar? i have some books i can bring. they should be able to explain things better than i can right now."

ajani let out a laugh that was closer to a sob and dropped to his knees at uche's first words when she regained consciousness, and eshe covered her mouth as she let out a sound somewhere between both as well.

"ife is right, little love; your bike is a thing, but you are an irreplaceable life." she knew uche was likely only joking to lighten the mood; surely she must be feeling even more alarm than the rest of her siblings combined at what had happened to her, at what could have happened to her. but with her injury so close to the forefront of eshe's mind and heart, it seemed only right to remind uche how very beloved she was.

ajani frowned as lux spoke; as usual, her observations were astute. he quickly realized, however, that indeed very many of them were unknown to one another. well, if there was anything that could bring people together, he supposed, it was a brush with danger; there was no need for any of them to be strangers any longer. and besides, after they had all come together to save his sister even without knowing her, he had no desire to be strangers to any of them any longer. they had come to his sister's aid; as far as he was concerned, he owed them the greatest of debts, one that could never be repaid.

lo smiled back at ife; she knew she had felt a strong connection to her immediately, and now she knew why. there was an immediate connection to any other werewolf, but it only made sense that she would feel so instantly drawn to the original werewolf, the first of her kind.

"claire, that is not all you are," castiel said defensively. eshe smiled; it was easy to see familial bonds, especially when they so clearly echoed her own.

"my name is castiel, and i am a cheribum." he added. he glanced over at lux again, offering her a small smile; he knew whispers were often seen as the natural enemy to his kind, but he had no desire to be her enemy. he had no desire to be anyone's enemy, and certainly not anyone present here.

"ajani. i am the original vampire."

"and my name is eshe. i'm the original witch."

"lo...lauren, but you can call me lo," lo said, holding up a hand in greeting. "i'm...well, not an original werewolf, but an alpha werewolf."

"and i'm annika. i'm a hunter, too."

"sam, also a hunter," sam introduced himself.

"is the friend you texted a hunter, too?" annika asked.

"yeah. her name is jo, she's actually why we're here in the first place. we were coming to meet with her, when..." he looked at uche, face lined with worry. "are you sure you're okay?"

"if you're all originals," lo asked, "then...what the hell were those things? how could anything be strong enough to harm an original?"

"that is exactly what i am wondering about," ajani admitted. "in all my years, i regret to say i have never encountered them before. were they familiar to any of you?"

"i have not," eshe shook her head. "but whatever they were, the tools they were using were not unknown to us. vervain, wolfsbane, sulfur, silver; all of those have been used to hunt the supernatural for generations."

"that's true," sam said, realization dawning. "they clearly weren't human, but they were using human tools to try to attack uche. they didn't use magic, or any other kind of supernatural power." he paused, wondering. "could any other type of supernatural power hurt you, though?"

"unless it comes from one of us," ajani said, gesturing to his siblings, "no, none that i know of."

[lunaetics]

ife waited, fists clenched, for her sister to speak. she was regaining consciousness, albeit slowly. though there must have still been some pain lingering in the wake of such an attack, uche's breathing was noticeably coming easier. she was fine; she would be fine. but ife's heart would not settle until uche opened her eyes.

then, miraculously, uche groaned and rolled onto her side, hiding her face in her sister's stomach. "my bike."

ife tried to scoff, but it sounded much more like a sob of relief. "your bike can be fixed or replaced, little one. your life cannot be bought off a shelf."

uche groaned again. for a few moments, she remained as she was. then she sat up and looked at those gathered around her. though most of these faces were unfamiliar to her, she could recall the moments on the road: the help that they had extended, buying time before her death. she'd blacked out, but⎯⎯well, she was here. so clearly they'd done something right. as much as it burned her to know that she'd been reduced to relying on people, she could not be ungrateful.

"...thank you," she said, looking around at them all. "i didn't mean to put any of your lives in danger. but i truly appreciate the risks that you all took to help me."

"don't mention it," dean said. while he enjoyed praise as much as the next person, being thanked for this didn't feel right at all. what kind of person could witness that attack and not step in?

ife grabbed uche's hand, bringing it to her lips and pressing a kiss against her knuckles. "do you have any idea what happened, uche? any clue who attacked you just now?"

uche pursed her lips. she remembered very little of what had happened to her, but she could recall⎯masks. figures in drab clothing. she shook her head. "i have no idea who they were. if i'd known that i was in danger, i wouldn't have brought it to you."

"that is exactly what you should do if you're in danger," ife insisted. "if anything is after you, our doors should be the firsts that you knock on."

"whoever they were, they were specific about the timing," lux pointed out. "i mean, if i were going to hunt one of you down, i'd do it when you were separated and had no way of knowing the others were in danger."

julia hummed. "you think they wanted to catch ajani's attention?"

"not just his⎯⎯all of the originals'," lux clarified. "they've been apart for, what, a hundred years since the last time they met? choosing to target uche when she's just made it into her brother's territory isn't something i'd do unless i wanted all four of you to know i was coming."

with pursed lips, dean pulled out his phone and shot a text to jo, asking when she was free to talk. he hated for their reunion to be anything less than a happy occasion, but the hugs and banter would have to wait, it seemed.

claire blinked. "wait, i'm sorry. originals? original what?"

"oh," ife said, blinking. "i suppose we should all introduce ourselves, shouldn't we? my name is ife⎯i'm the original werewolf."

claire blinked again, eyes growing wide. "original, as in... like, the first? the first ever?"

ife giggled, endeared by the girl's disbelief. "that is correct, yes." her eyes slid over to the blonde that had helped on the road and she winked. she could easily identify other werewolves, sense aside. there was just a feeling that she got when she was near them, an unspeakable bond that ran in their dna.

"i'm julia," the raven-haired woman said, putting on a kind smile for everyone. "i'm... i don't know what i am," she confessed. "but i am happy that you are all okay."

"lux," the other blonde said. "i'm not a human, not a werewolf, but a secret third thing."

julia elbowed her in the stomach.

the youngest of the originals smiled. "i'm uche, the original hybrid."

claire threw her arms up. "yeah, i'm claire, i guess," she said, as if it was all hopeless. "i'm a college dropout."

lux eyed her curiously. while claire didn't seem thrown off by the existence of the supernatural, she also didn't seem to realize that she fell into that category. cherubim were easy to spot, at least for lux, and claire gave off the same power as her father. she was just unaware of it, it seemed.

"dean," he finally said, pocketing his phone. "hunter."

closing her eyes, eshe focused all of her energy into healing her sister. before her eyes slipped shut, she saw ajani wrap his arms around ife, and she felt some relief in the fact that her siblings were here to comfort one another.

it had been all but a millennia since she had seen any one of her siblings in such a state; yet even now, she could remember the night ajani had died; the night she had brought him back. it had been her magic that had brought ife and ajani back, had created the lines that still carried on to this day, and it had been her magic that had helped uche become the hybrid she was today. it had been uche's own decision that night, but what had happened to her this time was anything but. eshe wondered if this was some cruel cosmic chain reaction; if the suffering the others had faced back then had chased uche down through the centuries, determined for it's blood even now. it was a foolish thought, she reasoned; based on belief in ancient myth and folklore. yet what were they, if not what myth and folklore were written about?

what else could it be, she worried, as she worked to heal her wounded sister. the nails slowly began to remove themselves, each hitting the floor of the courtyard with an awful, quiet clink, followed by an almost imperceptible sizzling sound as the wretched concoction they'd been doused in was exposed to the freshly saged air. what else on this earth could possibly be strong and skilled enough to nearly kill uche? what could possibly harm an original this way?

"be careful," castiel warned quietly, arm still around claire's shoulders, as the nails began to fall to the floor of the courtyard. he looked up at some of those present; the two siblings in one another's arms, then each of the blonde girls in turn. "they said there was wolfsbane, vervain, and sulfur coating the nails. it could hurt you, too, if you touch them."

sam looked over at him; he had been hunting for a long time; hell, he'd been raised in it until he'd run away to college, but even he hadn't quite clocked what everyone in this courtyard was. the same didn't seem to be true for this man, however; yet if he was aware of what everyone was, he seemed only concerned for their wellbeing. instead of asking questions he knew they all had, sam looked at dean and nodded.

"you're right," he agreed quietly. "we should call jo. she'll know what to do, or at least be able to help."

their words were a soft hum in the background, but eshe's focus was entirely on healing her hurting sister. once the tainted nails were out of her body, she turned her focus to healing the damage they had done within, as well as the damage done to uche's throat. uche's own body was fighting to heal itself as well; all eshe needed to do, once the poison was out, was help it along the way. the poisons evaporated into the air, and eshe blew at them the way one might blow away smoke from a candle, sending them scattering to the wind. opening her eyes, she watched as uche's wounds began to slowly stitch themselves together again, and she held her hands out now over her body, focusing on searching for any remaining poison, focusing on healing any remaining damage. the wound on her chest was deep, but once it was drained of vervain and wolfsbane and sulfer, it was quick to begin healing as well. the wind picked up around them as eshe healed her, and she smiled inwardly, knowing the elements were coming together to help her sister, too.

lo looked around as the wind picked up, then back at the powerful witch in awe. she'd known many powerful witches in her time, but none nearly this powerful. the damage that had been done to the woman who had been attacked had been terrible, yet already she was nearly entirely healed. as the witch lowered her hands, lo watched closely, intrigued, as she stroked the previously injured woman's hair.

"there we are. now, how are you feeling, my love?" eshe asked her sister gently.

[lunaetics]

claire pushed her father's shoulder. "what were you thinking? you could've been hurt!" no sooner than the words left her mouth did she throw her arms around him. her heart still raced with the fear that he could've been hurt for making for getting in the middle of that. she knew it'd been the right thing to do, but it had terrified her nonetheless to think of the danger that he'd put himself in.

before she could wrap her head around any of what had just happened, they were all somewhere else. the courtyard of a house far more extravagant than any she had ever been in. she looked around at everyone gathered here; they were all strangers to her, as far as she could tell. new orleans was huge, so it was not a surprise. still, she got the feeling that they were all linked together now. whatever they had witnessed had not been the end of it.

julia startled⎯"oh, jesus!" she swore, dropping the grape that she'd stolen from the table⎯at the sudden appearance of everyone. she rested a hand to her heart, trying to catch her breath. at her side, lux stared at one of the men, the one with his arms around the young girl. though julia couldn't fathom what lux's issue was, she nudged her. "manners," she chided.

lux nudged julia back, but obediently pulled her eyes away. she hadn't meant to be rude, but it was rare for people like her to be in the same space as cherubim. though she'd once sworn to ajani that she would not pick fights with the divine anymore, she still felt herself tense in preparation for a fight, if that was what it came to.

though, she could see, they had bigger problems than timeless feuds.

"is that your sister?" she asked, stepping closer to see the unconscious woman. lux could tell that she wasn't human; she radiated the same power that ajani and his other sisters did. the only clear difference was that her power was fading, right along with her life. "what did that to her?"

"not a clue," dean muttered. he looked to sam, then. "we should call jo. she might have an idea what we're dealing with." jo was the reason they were heading into the city in the first place; there were jobs here, sure, but their old friend had set roots here some years ago and they'd been eager to reconnect with her. now, more than ever, dean needed a bit of her knowledge on the current events of the supernatural world.

"it's gone," julia said after a few minutes, bringing lux's attention to her, as eshe continued to tend to uche. julia once again had her arms wrapped around herself, as if made uncomfortable by the very air around them. "whatever did this to her, it's not here anymore. i can't feel it. it's like it was never there in the first place."

"it's gone already?" claire asked. "how is that possible?"

julia shrugged. "i don't know. it appeared out of nowhere and it's gone just as quickly. all that's left is something... electric, almost. like lightning struck and now it's gone."

ife did not condemn any of them for speaking⎯heaven only knew they would have questions, as she herself did⎯but she could not focus on what they said, either. she could not look away from her sister. though uche's heart was picking up speed again and her wounds were starting to close, ife could not forget how she'd looked only minutes ago.

had she ever seen any of her siblings so weak and in pain? she remembered, suddenly, painfully, the night that ajani had attempted to hunt down the wolf that had bitten her. he'd died then, attempting to avenge her. it had been the worst night of ife's life and the worst trauma she could remember. she had lost many loved ones over the years, and that was not a pain that she could numb herself to. but nothing compared to the knowledge that her brother had once died for her.

the story of uche's transformation was not quite so tragic, because she, unlike the others, had asked to be made different. she did not want to grow old and allow her siblings to outlive her. so she'd asked eshe to make her something other, something that, too, would outlive this painful world. eshe had given uche a piece of all of them: ajani's blood and ife's venom and her own magic. uche was the product of all of the lessons eshe had learned and the reward for all that they had lived through. their sister, unharmed and as eternal as they were.

she had been made invincible. so how could she be lying here now, wounded and bleeding profusely?

what monster was strong enough and skilled enough to nearly kill a being that was almost as old as humanity itself?

"i am," ajani nodded, as lo and annika jogged across the street to join them. "thank you all, for helping my sister." he touched ife's shoulder soothingly. "come with us. she will need help, and if those things are still out there, we'll all be safer together."

castiel stood, now that the fight was over, and walked the few steps to the car door, opening it up and holding his arms out for his daughter. "claire, sweetheart, are you okay?" he asked her, feeling both relief that she was safe and a fresh wave of terror at the danger she had just been in. looking up at the others gathered, he nodded in agreement. if those beings had simply vanished, they could reappear at any moment, and the wounded motorcyclist may need more help, as well.

"that sounds like a good idea. but how...?"

before castiel could finish his sentence, ajani was kneeling down beside uche and whispering to her soothingly in their mother tongue before lifting her into his arms. "we'll be able to get her back quickly. eshe?"

"of course," eshe stepped forward; though ajani and ife would have been able to run far more quickly than any human could imagine, the running could potentially jostle uche, and cause her further pain. it would be fastest, and safest for all of them, if she were to transport them all at once. before castiel even fully realized what was happening, he found himself standing, rather suddenly, in the courtyard of a building. he looked around at the others, and eshe smiled gently.

"the car is outside, as is the motorcycle. i thought it best not to leave any trace behind. now," she said, turning to where ajani stood, holding uche. "let's lay her down. you said it was poison?" she asked, already beginning to gently remove the nails, mindful to be as careful as possible. "it's okay, baby," she told her sister softly. "we'll have you back on your feet in no time." she knew uche was ever the independent sibling, and, after all, being what they were, they had never had to fear for one another's safety, not really. seeing any one of her siblings like this shook eshe to her core, and she fought back her own tears as she tended to her sister.

"wolfsbane and vervain," sam said, "and sulfer, i think." whoever had planned this attack had cast a wide net, and it terrified him, to be honest; who would want to kill anyone or anything so badly that they would go to such lengths, to make sure to cover every single possible base, plan for any outcome?

ajani started, looking at sam, then at dean. "you're sure?" he asked, his voice shaking.

"yeah. why?" sam asked, eyes widening in concern. he had only just met ajani, but already it was startling for him to see him look frightened. there was an air about the man that conveyed strength and composure; seeing him rattled made sam feel rattled, too.

"we can talk more about it after she is alright, if you don't mind," ajani said, and sam's head dropped apologetically.

"of course. i didn't mean..."

"i know," ajani said, his voice kind. he did know that no harm had been meant; after the events that had just transpired, he imagined everyone had questions they couldn't answer, and perhaps together, they could piece together an answer. but he couldn't think of it, of anything else, until he knew his baby sister would be alright.

[lunaetics]

the joy that'd seemed unbreakable in ife only minutes before was nowhere to be found now. though she did not fully shift, there was something animalistic about her as she lunged at one of the figures. she was not prone to violence, but she wasn't unfamiliar with it, either; one did not live nearly as long as she had without shedding blood and getting her hands dirty.

it was not often that she had to fight for her siblings. uche, most of all, had always been stubbornly independent. while the elder three leaned into their bond and did not hesitate to depend on one another when they needed to, uche had tucked her chin into the air the day she learned how to walk and refused to be babied. ife could barely recall a time when she'd asked for help for anything. and being what they were, they'd never truly needed to fight for one another. they were all strong enough and impenetrable enough to handle their own messes.

but there wasn't a question in ife's mind about helping her now. even if uche didn't ask, and even if she complained about being babied later, there was not a cell in ife's body that could stay out of this fight. not when her little sister was barely clinging to life.

realizing that there was nothing he could do in this fight, dean tucked his gun away and made his way back to the biker, who'd passed out the moment the masked creatures looked away from her. as he kneeled down beside her, he instinctively looked at sam, first, to make sure that he was okay, then he looked towards the other man. he shot a glance towards the other people who'd gathered, then towards the car, where the young girl was thankfully still hidden in the backseat.

"any idea who this is?" dean asked the people around him, propping the biker against his chest. she clearly wasn't human, but between her enhanced speed and magic, there were too many possibilities as to what she could be. and he couldn't really help her if he didn't know what she was. he looked down at her and all of the nails embedded in her skin. he reached for one in her thigh and pried it out, wincing at the gross sound it made. it wasn't a standard nail, he could tell that just from looking at it. it was slightly larger than it should've been, and it was pure silver. in his experience, not many things were actually harmed by silver, but it was a traditional weapon. what was not so traditional was whatever coated the tip of each nail. he couldn't make out what it was, given that it'd already mixed with the biker's blood, but he had an idea.

on a whim, dean reached for the cord which now lay limp on the pavement. though it, too, was covered in the biker's blood, enough of it was untouched for him to make out the substance on it. he took a whiff of it and crinkled his nose. it wasn't a natural mix, but it was one that he'd had enough experience to identify.

"wolfsbane and vervain," he said, tugging the cord out of the girl's chest and tossing it towards the car. they could examine it later, if they made it out of this. "sulfur, too. weird fucking concoction, if you ask me."

"what happened to her?" dean jumped as one of the other women dropped to her knees before them. for all that she'd been deadly in battle, she had tears in her eyes now, looking at the girl in dean's arms. "what happened to my sister?"

oh. her sister. well, dean could understand that. "i don't know," he said, stomach rolling at the thought of sam being in such a state. "she was driving ahead of us, then the bike exploded. those things came out of nowhere." he looked around for the creatures or at least their bodies, but startled at the sight of... nothing. "where'd they go?"

"i don't know," the woman said, jaw clenching. "they disappeared. i think we wounded them, but they vanished before i could kill even one of them. uche..." her wet eyes landed on the gaping wound in her sister's neck, still dripping blood. though it was slowly stitching itself back together, it wasn't doing so at the rate it should have been. it was barely happening at all. "why isn't she healing?"

dean licked his lips. his head ached. he was confused, though it was hard to tell if that was because of him hitting his head or just how little sense this whole event made. "poison," he said, because he didn't know what else to call what they'd done to her. "the nails, that cord⎯⎯whatever those things were, they made damn sure she wasn't going to heal." he looked, then, at the last man who'd arrived, the one who'd broken the cord. "are you ajani? she was⎯she asked for you. she wanted us to find you if..."

it felt uncomfortably, startlingly clear that those things⎯whoever and whatever they were⎯planned on killing uche. it was divine luck that she hadn't been on this road alone when it'd happened. and god knew dean didn't have the ability to help her if the others hadn't been here, too.

a sob broke past ife's lips. "we need to move her. people have already noticed the commotion and we cannot heal her here. come with us," she implored to all of the strangers. "we can return to my brother's home and figure this out together."

"claire!" castiel moved to stand between the car and the creatures, his eyes darting to the wounded woman and the other two men in the road. before he could make a move or say anything else, a thin chord had shot from the wrist of one of the— men? creatures? he had no idea; he could not even begin to identify what they were, but whatever or whoever they might be, they were clearly powerful. the chord pierced the woman's chest, and castiel let out a cry of surprise, held back only by her magic. his eyes darted between her and the car again, silently praying that claire would stay there, but terrified to do anything to draw any more attention to her.

"hey!" one of the masked men turned at the shouted voice; lo stood across the street from them, fangs and claws bared. she'd seen the chord shoot out of one of their arms; she had no idea how they'd done it or even what they were, only that she wanted to keep them occupied before they could do anything else to her. she'd heard her ask for ajani, and could only hope annika had heard it too, and was on her way to do something about it, to find him. lo was too terrified to leave her; if she did, there was no telling where they would take her or what they would do to her before they could find her again. it wasn't a risk lo was willing to take.

ajani looked worriedly between the two young women. "an explosion?" he asked. he looked to his sisters, worry likely plain on his face. if uche was late, and if something dangerous was afoot, he feared for those odds immediately. even if a sister of his was not late, it would raise alarms to him that an explosion had taken place in his territory, and that something magical was attached to it.

"i will—" he began, but before he could finish his sentence, eshe spoke up.

"we will come with you, of course," she said. "come now, there's no time to waste."

despite the gravity of the situation, ajani had to smile at his sister's quick willingness to help. surely, some things never changed.

"you two stay here, alright? you'll be safe as long as you're inside these walls. wait for us to get back. promise?" he asked, looking to julia and lux in turn before turning to his sisters. with a nod, he took off far faster than a human eye could track; his sister's were close behind him, each in their own uniquely rapid manner.

ajani stopped short, only for a moment, when he came upon the scene; should he still have had blood that flowed, it would have run ice cold at what he beheld. as it was, thankfully, he did not; instead, he only surged forward again and grabbed hold of the chord tethering uche to the being and held it taught and tight, staring down the monsters before him. he closed his fist until the chord snapped, then yanked the chord, pulling the creature to him. he met it in the middle, fangs already bared, as eshe raced forwards towards them as well.

[lunaetics]

dean stared in horror as the figures approached, not quite knowing what to do.

from this position, he could tell very few things about them. they were all clothed in brown, drab clothing that looked like it'd come out of a science fiction novel. their faces were all covered in various types of masks, all unique form one another. if they didn't move so oddly, he'd think they were cosplayers of some sort. but they were clearly something else, and it made him wonder about the target they seemed to be hunting down.

there were too many unknown variables and something deeply unsettling about them. they clearly weren't human, if they were moving like that, but something about them paralyzed him. it wasn't a magical paralysis; it was true terror rooted in something he couldn't pinpoint that had his limbs stuck to his sides.

a cry broke through the air. "dad!" a girl cried out. dean's paralysis broke a second before the girl ran past him and he managed to catch her around the waist before she could step onto the scene. "let me go!" she yelled, trying to remove his arm from her so that she could reach the man on the road. "let me go, that's my dad!"

dean looked back towards the man on the road, kneeling down beside the unconscious biker. the figures on the side of the road were getting closer; they would reach the two in the center before dean did. "shit," he swore again before tucking the girl behind him and, with few other options, shot his gun towards one of the approaching figures.

in a way, it worked. the converging figures stopped and turned towards him, all at once, it seemed. that said, it was scarily apparent that the bullet hadn't done anything to the one that he'd shot. dean kept his gun raised as the figures stared.

then, without communicating, four of the six figures turned back to the people in the road; the remaining two started to approach the car. "get in the car," dean instructed the girl. "in the car, now!" with jerky movements, she hurried into the backseat of baby, bracing her hands against the seats and watching the scene from between them. dean stepped forward, putting distance between the kid and the masked figures. "you want some of this, you sons of bitches? come get it, then!"

he shot again and a strange thing happened. the bullet clearly hit. the figure jerked back as the bullet hit its shoulder, and its body glitched. when the image of it stabilized, it was unblemished. it continued its trek towards dean, undeterred.

it wasn't as though dean had never encountered anything impervious to bullets before; it was just that he almost always went into those confrontations with more information than he had now. he didn't know anything now.

no. he knew one thing: they were all out of time.

as the masked figures reached the two in the center of the road, the girl in the car screamed. then, in the blink of an eye, the two in the road weren't there anymore. dean swore, body jerking in surprise as they reappeared beside them, the wounded biker dropping to her knees with the man in her arms. whatever inhuman strength and speed she'd used to get them out of harm's way was clearly her last, and she leaned her weight on her palms, gasping for air.

"what is it?" dean asked anxiously, looking between the biker and the six figures coming for them. "what hurts, what is it?" it seemed like a stupid question, even to him, before the biker lifted her head. there, in her neck, was a large piece of glass that must've come from the windshield on her bike. the fact that she was moving at all with that in her throat was a miracle and definitive proof that she wasn't human. "fuck, okay, yeah. ready?" dean wrapped his hands around the shard of glass and winced as he pulled it out. for all that the edges threatened to slice his fingers, he couldn't imagine the damage they were doing to this girl's throat. when he dropped the glass to the road, the biker pitched forward, blood pouring out of her wound.

vision blurred, uche wrapped a gloved hand around her throat and tried to breathe through the wound for a moment, but there was no time.

gritting her teeth, she ripped off her helmet and chucked it aside. she stood up⎯⎯tried to, rather. the second she got to her feet, pain shot up from her legs and she crumpled to the floor again. it was agonizing, unlike anything she'd felt before. something was wrong; the nails that'd showered from the explosive must've been coated in something.

"any idea who these guys are?" the gruff man with the gun asked her. "or, uh, what they are?"

before uche could answer, she saw one of them lift a hand. drawing on her magic⎯not quite as strong as eshe's, but stronger than almost all other witches'⎯she swept her hand to the side. the men who'd helped her were moved out of the way, only a moment before a thin cord shot from the masked figure's hand and pierced uche's breast, just above her heart. the pain that had already taken root in her legs now blossomed form her chest as well, white hot and vicious.

for the first time since she was a child, uche feared for her life.

she met the eyes of the man who'd tried to tend to her when she was knocked unconscious. "go," she said, struggling to get the word out. whatever these creatures were, they had a clear target; uche would not suffer her siblings' disappointment if she let other people die along with her. "my⎯⎯my brother. ajani. find my brother."

"ajani!"

ife looked up as two unfamiliar women, a blonde and a raven-haired woman, appeared in the courtyard, their steps hurried. "friends of yours, brother?" she asked, smiling kindly at the two.

the dark-haired woman offered her a smile in return, but the blonde didn't look away from ajani at all. "i'm sorry⎯⎯we know today is important to you, but something is happening."

"something... wrong," the other woman said, wrapping her arms around herself. "darren told me that he heard an explosion, but i could feel it in the air. it wasn't human; it was something vile and awful. something is in this town that shouldn't be. i'm julia," she supplied for ife and eshe, trying for another smile. "and this is lux. we were out and⎯"

"the explosion happened in your territory, which is why we're telling you," lux said. "i don't know if it's another faction or something worse."

"i have missed you both so much as well," ajani said, soothed and invigorated all at once by the sound of their mother tongue. how many languages had they collectively seen rise only to watch them all but fade into obscurity again? how many left alive could have understood their words? it felt joyful to hear their native language, to speak it; it felt like a gift to carry the words their parents and grandparents had spoken with them still until this day. time could take it's toll, could wash away tekula shelek'o and bury it in the deserts, but they carried it, and their ancestry, with them across the entire modern world. there was a great deal of comfort, he thought, in that.

"and where on earth is uche?" he chuckled. "surely my directions were not so poor it would make it impossible to find this place?"

"we're looking for gravier street," sam said, eyeing the radio and debating whether or not to try to change it again. "then we'll want to take a left onto—" his words were cut off in a gasp as the motorcycle ahead of them exploded. he threw his hands up to protect his face as dean swerved, vaguely registering the sound of his head thumping against the side of the door and dean's own head likely being hit as well in the process of maneuvering to avoid the crash. by the time the tires had stopped screeching, sam was still gasping, and he looked out at the road ahead of them.

"yeah, i'm okay," he assured dean, looking at his brother, his brow furrowing in concern as he asked, "are you okay?" but dean was already up and getting out of the car, and sam followed after him, taking in the sight of the motorcyclist ahead of them. they were laying still on the road, and what sam at first thought was shrapnel from the crash looked more like nails...

as he stepped closer, he paused, looking up at the slowly moving forms that seemed to be approaching from the darkness.

"dean," he said tensely.

thirty seconds before the explosion, lo boudreaux was laughing so hard she nearly cried, relieved she had finished her beignets before she and annika had begun their walk, or she might very well have spat powdered sugar all over the street.

"he did not say that!" she laughed in cajun french, her heart singing at being able to speak it again. she'd grown up not far from here, deeper out in the bayou and halfway to baton rouge, with parents who spoke english and cajun french, and grandparents who only spoke the latter. it felt so good to be in the heat of louisiana again; to have powdered sugar on her lips and her grandma's language on her tongue.

"swear it!" annika answered back in kind, laughing as well. before she could say the next sentence, however, the explosion sounded. the two of them ducked, lo's eyes flashing vibrant, violent red immediately, as she looked around before she realized the explosion had come from a street over. annika was already up and running in the direction of the explosion, and lo followed her, mindful to keep a human pace should anyone happen to look out a window at the sound and see them running by.

the same could not be said, notably, for castiel, who was at the wounded driver's side, checking carefully for vitals, before looking up to take in his surroundings. he took in the two men getting out of the car first, scanning them for any injuries, then the two women rushing onto the scene, before—

—oh. oh, no.

[lunaetics]

ife grinned up at her brother, waving off his reassurances. "you could provide nothing but blood and i'd be happy just to be in the same space as you."

one would think that immortality made family bonds duller; who could stand to live with the same people for millennia? and perhaps there was some truth to that; ife wouldn't know. after a while, she and her siblings had all migrated away, finding themselves in separate corners of the globe. maybe they had never given themselves a chance to grow tired of each other, but she knew that each reunion was filled with euphoria. she couldn't imagine ever not feeling this much love for the only people who'd experienced time the same way she did.

before she could answer his question regarding her own wellbeing, eshe's voice reached them. ife whipped around to face her and shrieked, overjoyed, and ran to meet her halfway, catching her sister around the waist with a happy laugh. "as if you can talk! you look gorgeous. immortality suits you so well," she teased with a wink. "and i'm amazing! better," she told them both, "now that i'm with you two. it's been so long since i've been home."

she didn't necessarily mean new orleans. america was not home to her and it never would be; tekula shelek'o was long gone now and could never be replaced in her heart. but home, for her, would eternally be where her siblings were. she'd been so quick to respond to ajani's invitation for that very reason. distance could make the heart grow fonder all it wanted, but there would never be a home like the one that existed in the circle of her siblings' embrace.

"i've missed you both so terribly," she expressed in their mother tongue. as time changed, so did her lexicon; she spoke the way everyone around her did, most of the time. but when around her siblings, she couldn't help but revert to old ways; formal dialogue, forgotten tongues. "as happy as i've been in my travels, it's been so lonely without my family. and how've you been?" she asked eshe, taking her hand. "and where on earth is uche?" she clicked her tongue fondly, reaching for her phone to shoot off a text to their baby sister. heavens knew that she'd show up fashionably late to her own funeral, if she were ever to have one.

frankly, ife would be amazed and pleased if their sister showed up any time this week.

the demanding buzz of her phone in her jacket pocket dragged uche from her musings. with one hand holding the gas pump to her motorcycle, she checked the text from her sister. upon reading it, she couldn't help but roll her eyes, albeit fondly. she highly doubted her sisters had arrived too long ago; they were coming from much further away than she was. besides, she was less than an hour away. they should count themselves lucky that she was showing up today at all.

dismissing the text without a response, she tucked her phone back into her pocket and freed the nozzle from the gas tank. a moment later, she was back on the road, her helmet pulled down around her head to muffle the sounds of the bike against the road. music played from her earbuds, further drowning out the unpleasant cacophony of sounds that came from the world. there were probably traffic laws working against her here, but if there was any risk of crashing, she would detect it long before it actually happened. anyway, if something happened, it would hardly be her fault. she was a safe driver. if not cautious, then very attentive and turned into the world around her, especially when she was driving.

so it surprised her, several moments too late, that she hadn't noticed the device beneath her bike until three seconds before it exploded and sent her flying.

just one minute before the explosion, dean had swatted sam's hand away from the radio. "what did i say, sammy?" he demanded, voice gruff and firm. "no touching the radio. if you can't handle a good classic, don't get in the car." not that he'd given sam a choice in that, either. pulling sam from his new life and dragging him back into the thick of hunting had been an abrupt awakening and probably not his most gracious move, but it had been unavoidable. with their dad missing, dean couldn't handle looking for him by himself.

then they'd found john and they'd lost him again. dean hadn't been able to navigate that alone, either.

perhaps the kinder thing to do would be to take sam back where he'd been before and let him resume life, now that there was no john winchester to worry about. but dean kept finding reasons not to do that; another monster here, a mystery case there, a time loop in the middle of it all. new orleans was just another stop on the map, albeit one with fantastic beignets.

dean would have to let sam go at some point. he'd known that his entire life; he'd made sure of it, at one point. but now he had him again and he didn't know how to let go for a second time, so he would put it off until he could figure it out.

"when's my next turn anyway?" he asked, eyeing the path ahead of them. they'd been going down the same stretch for what felt like ages now. the road was empty, barring them and the motorcyclist ahead of them. it was a cool bike, dean had to admit. he wouldn't trade baby for all of the cars and bikes in the world, but this one was pretty attractive, all things considered.

dean was admiring the bike, his brows lifted in appreciation, when it exploded. "shit!" he cried out, his hands wrapping around the wheel and jerking to the left to avoid the damage. the tires screeched against the road and it skid in circles, and he feared for a paralyzing handful of seconds that they would hydroplane. and that was only one of his concerns, as debris sprayed from the bike and assaulted the car. dean ducked on instinct, his hands clenching the wheel for dear life as the windows splintered against the force of whatever was flying out at them.

then the car stopped spinning, wheels still safely on the ground but smoking against the pavement. dean shook in his seat and struggled to catch his breath, but snapped to attention immediately. "sammy?" he reached for his brother without missing a beat, his fingers pushing the hair from sam's face. "hey, look at me. you alright? you good?" when he was certain his brother wouldn't die within the next ten minutes, give or take, he looked out of the window towards the wreck.

the bike that he'd been admiring just seconds ago was now in pieces and flames, scattered along the ground. the rider, miraculously, was still in one piece, but her frame was motionless. when dean's vision stabilized (he had the feeling that he'd hit his head at some point, but he was too disoriented and panicked to even feel it), he could make out the sight of shrapnel embedded in dozens of places along her body. she was too far away from the car for him to make it out with any confidence, but oddly enough, he could swear that he saw nails sticking out of her skin.

dean had already opened his door, but he froze momentarily when he saw figures emerging from the trees on either side of the road. he worried, briefly, that he and sammy were going to have to fight for their lives just to get into new orleans. then he realized that the figures weren't paying his car any mind. they were heading, slowly, as if glitching through space, for the motionless rider.

"shit," he repeated, reaching beneath his seat for his gun and getting out of the car, knowing without saying anything that sam was doing the same.

"ife!" ajani spun around at once, arms spread wide open to catch his beloved sister as she ran to him. a few steps once she was in his arms brought them a safe distance from the table he had set, and he spun her around and around, laughing from the sheer joy that radiated from her, and that he felt by being able to hold her in his arms once more. oh, how he had missed his beautiful, joyful sister and all of the light she brought to the world, and to his life.

"i've been okay," he assured her, though of course he would show no sign if he'd been ill or injured, if that were even possible. but he had been well; still, he had never been better, he thought, than being with ife again, and knowing the rest of their siblings were close behind.

"the far more important question is, how have you been? are you well? and don't fret," he added, nodding towards the table. "i've got more than just blood for us here. in fact, i've been to some of the finest establishments in the city, trying to find things i think you will all enjoy," he laughed, hoping they would like the meals he had found, but excited at the prospect of finding other places they liked to eat, all at once.

before any more could be said, a delighted shout of, "ife! jani!" echoed off of the courtyard walls, and he turned as eshe ran into the courtyard, a radiant smile on her face. she crashed into her siblings, arms spread wide to wrap around them both, laughing joyously.

"now, tell me, how are you two even more beautiful than the last time i saw you? aren't we meant to be perpetually as we were? it hardly seems fair you keep getting more lovely," she teased, laughing happily. "how are you? how are you? tell me everything you've been up to!"

[lunaetics]

ife was the first to arrive, because of course she was.

the city had been on her map for years now; there was no way it couldn't be, given the magic that flowed from it, supernaturals aside. the vines that cascaded through the earth and sank into the depths of the water shared rumors of the music that drifted from the cracks in the sidewalk in new orleans, the enticing aroma of powdered pastries and unique coffee beans. even in haiti, there was a mysticism about the city and what lurked in its bayou, what colored its water and fed its residents. from all the way across the world, new orleans called to ife like a siren song.

it helped in no small part that her brother had fallen in love with it, too.

the trolley she took was charming to the point where she considered taking it a second time, just to experience the sights and allure of the ride once again. but she stepped off, more determined to reach her destination than to take another trip. if all went well, she'd have time to explore during her stay anyway, perhaps with ajani as a tour guide.

the skip to her step as she approached his home⎯or the address he'd given them, nonetheless⎯grew in eagerness until she was all but running towards the courtyard, following the scent of wax and flame, blood and home. and there was absolutely nothing to be done for the way her face broke into a smile at the sight of him. it felt, all at once, like it'd been too long since she'd last seen him. she didn't regret the time she'd spent in haiti, could never regret the love and culture that she'd experienced over the years.

but gods if she didn't miss her family.

"'jani!" she shrieked, breaking into a sprint to close the distance between them. she launched herself into his arms, careless of whether or not she crashed into anything on the way. (she didn't, luckily; the table and all of its treasures remained untouched by her eagerness, if only by a slim margin.) she felt happy tears spring to her ears as she held onto him, almost crippled by the joy of their reunion. she'd always been the most emotional of them, the one who dove headfirst into her feelings, so it was no surprise that she couldn't make it through this first meeting without bursting into tears. "i missed you. so much. how've you been? are you well?" she stepped out of his arms to look him up and down, as if to spot the miraculous wounds that could stick to an original vampire. finding nothing, she smiled up at him, her palms resting against his cheeks. "you've been okay, then?"

sink into the swamp | the originals

it was already hot in the crescent city; the heat was a familiar comfort, reminiscent of ancient locations and cities long-since crumbled into the sea that ajani had once called home. the humidity was less like a memory pressed between pages; he had lived in tropical climates before, certainly, but not in quite some time. but the combination of both felt oddly reassuring; the very atmosphere of this city situated below sea-level seemed a potion curated to be both mysterious and reassuring all at once, a perpetual intrigue brewed to draw in residents and tourists alike. the soft sounds of jazz music only added to the atmosphere, and whoever was playing the saxophone somewhere within a six-block radius, ajani thought, was as skilled a player as anyone, someone louis armstrong himself might have called up on stage. the air was scented sweet with magnolia blossoms and powdered sugar dusting freshly baked beignets, and laughter and revelry seemed to pour from the cracks beneath the doors in every building.

yes, ajani thought as he lit the candles at a long table in a courtyard. new orleans could become a home for his family.

the house was the first he had fallen in love with in the french quarter, and he had decorated it, to his recollection, with things he remembered his siblings enjoying, with books they had written to him about recently and in years past, with music and art they had told him about over long phone calls after midnight. the candles lit, ajani set a pitcher of blood at the center of the table and straightened a wine goblet, wanting everything to be just so. it had been a long while since the four of them had all been together, and he hoped they would want to stay a while. in truth, he would be more than happy to relocate; to a different house, a different part of the city, a different continent all together, if they could spend more time with one another once more. he had been missing his siblings terribly lately, more so than usual. their immortal and endless lives had allowed them to pursue so many of their passions, to chase so many adventures and explore so very many things; it was his hope that, if even for a short time, they might enjoy pursuing these passions together, they might explore a city together and make a home, if only for a century or two, before adventure called them away once again.