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High Noon - chapter 13.

by: sifi.

OOooOO

Slowly she pulled away as Sam pushed Dean back to his feet, the older man dazed and breathless from an overload of sensory input in his tenuous condition.

Inanna looked up into Sam's eyes, "Son," she smiled stroking his cheek then looked back to Dean, "You are a mess... and dying..." she frowned wrapping her arm around his waist and taking his weight unto herself before glancing at Imdugud, "Find a place for him to sit, he has healing that needs to be done," then to Ammit, Shep and Bobby, "Find that part of the cylinders the sword cut through."

She pressed her lips to Dean's once again, "You're poisoned... how?" she asked.

"The guardian... one of its spines caught him before it knew who we are." Sam explained.

She looked up, "Go find it and bring it back with you." She commanded.

"What?"

"The guardian, go find it and bring it back here, we need its help," she watched him glance at Dean whose breath hissed laboriously in and out of his chest.

Sam could hardly believe that a moment ago he'd been running like they were children again. He drew close to his big brother and saw him wince with almost every breath, "Dean?"

The older man nodded, "It knows who you are now... if you can coax it out of hiding it'll come. Use your 'caring and sharing' voice."

"Go Sam, fast! I can fix his arm but that won't save his life."

"We're already in the underworld Laura... pretty much..." he shook his head, for the moment not understanding the significance of their location.

"Exactly... Things exist and can be done here that can't be done on the other side of the veil... now get your ass in gear or my foot's goin' up it!" she ordered, the trembling in her voice giving away the level of her fear as Dean's knees unlocked and he sagged against her.

"Gone," Sam nodded paling at his brother's near collapse before jogging off down the tunnel with his torch held high.

"Bring him here," Imdugud raced back gingerly cradling his king's left side while the woman managed his right. Together they carried him, barely conscious to a boulder up against the wall.

"Found it!" Shep held up the spiral of bronze that had flown off when Nergal shrugged off the bindings from the sword.

"Excellent. Shep you and Ammit start unrolling that... but be careful, don't warp it or let it snap. Bobby get him some water?" Laura ordered then moved to Dean's side.

Bobby held a canteen to the boys' mouth. "Thanks..." he barely grunted, "too bad it's not whiskey."

"You'll really be wishing it was very soon," she warned unlashing the hard leather binding the sidhe had secured around his arm. "Son of a bitch!" she cursed as a saucepan's worth of blood poured out and with it a marquis shaped glut of red covered clay. Even in the darkness the yellow of the bones of his forearm were visible under and through the muscle, tendon and vascular tissues.

"Oh god I'm gonna throw up..." Dean groaned.

"No you're not..." she shook her head.

"Oh yes I am..." he countered swallowing hard as her finger came to the side of his head.

"Sleep." She commanded an instant before his head lolled to the side and his breathing evened out a little bit though the wheezing tightness was still more than a matter of concern.

"Bobby? Any of the flashlights working down here?" She asked.

He shook his head, "Not since we entered the tunnel."

"Oh this is gonna be ugly," she grimaced looking at the faces assembled around them both, "I can fix the arm, but..."

"You need to reduce the breaks," Shep nodded.

"How the hell are you gonna do that? We're not exactly equipped for..." Bobby started.

"Not exactly," she shook her head.

The senior hunter eyed her suspiciously, "What're you gonna do?"

"I can't do it alone... I'm gonna need some help here," she looked at Imdugud, "Did I ever thank you for your protection while I carried Marduk?"

The host shrugged, "It was my pleasure... any opportunity to thwart Lamashtu you know? And he would have been quite the feast for her."

"Ain't that the truth... goes by Lilith now... slippery bitch still has a hard-on for Sam," she smiled, "I'm going to need you to hold his arm taut."

"Can do," he nodded, "Well, provided we all survive this... if they ever face off, give me a call... I'd love to sink my claws into her and feast on her viscera."

"Laura? What the hell are you going to do?" Bobby asked, his voice giving away his anxiety.

"Consider it done," she nodded at the demi-god, then turned her attention back to Bobby, "Mmm... just... really don't ask..." she winced handing the defunct arm to the Assyrian, "Ammit when I get all the fragments out I'm going to need you to keep the tissues where they belong." With a nod the Egyptian unfolded from his host, his natural form, at close inspection nothing like anything any of them had ever seen.

She angled the arm, sliding her fingers under the meat of his muscle, along the track of the two forearm bones. A series of wet sucking, meaty tearing noises had Bobby and Shep turn sharply away as that spear-like tongue shot up through the flesh, its tip holding steady just beneath the skin of Dean's shoulder.

"Eeww..."

"Ungh...my god..."

"Uhh..." they groaned together then had to turn away as she followed the path of the devourer's tongue with her hand.

"I think I can do this without rupturing any of the veins or arteries... did you guys bring any sutures with you?" she asked grunting against the tightness of his musculature, the movement of her fingers inside the young man's skin nauseating to look at. "And get me something clean to lay the bone fragments on... Shep go clean off the clay." She turned her eyes to Bobby, "Get your belt off and make a tourniquet at his shoulder, just in case... but don't cinch it yet."

"Here... this is the best we got..." Shep slid the map made by the tablet's they'd reproduced at Bobby's onto the ground beside her then poured water over the clay and set it on the bronze too.

"Excellent," she gritted her teeth gently sliding the first fragment of bone from within his arm.

OOooOO

Sam turned his head to the side not at all sure what to make of the scene before him. They'd been so far outside the realm of normal for so long that he'd thought nothing could surprise him, he was wrong.

How are we ever going to live normally again? he wondered, taken aback by the idea that the life they'd lived before all this could now seem normal in any way. But it sure beat what he was seeing as he approached the bundle of friends and demons, with a rolling ball of eyes and spiny tentacles at his side as if it was some other worldly dog.

At the creature's approach Ajax whimpered and backed toward the safety of his pack while growling low, his lips pulling back from those gleaming white fangs.

"S'okay Ajax," he muttered and turned feeling the creature retreat until it was half behind him. With his eyebrow spocked high on his forehead and a look on his face that asked, 'Are you shittin' me?' he turned to the guardian, "It's okay, he won't hurt you." then signaled the dog to lay down where he was.

"What the hell...is...going on here..." he asked leaning forward over Laura's shoulder as she worked molding the grayish clay around bits of yellow that set his heart racing in his chest. "Is that..." he asked turning, disbelieving and looking at his big brother who leaned against the wall, his chest rising and falling rhythmically even if the sound was labored.

"It had to be done," Laura muttered then turned to face the creature beside the man who her first son had become, "You poisoned him... fix it!" she demanded pointing at Dean.

Sam couldn't help but notice the quantity of blood that gloved each of her arms stopping just a few inches below the shoulder guards of the leather armor she wore. Swallowing hard he crouched over the bronze she was using as a work table. His eye was caught by Ammit in his true form standing still as a statue with his black iron-like tongue sticking out of his mouth. Sam traced the line of the appendage with his vision noting that it disappeared under the hard leather that had been re-lashed to his brothers' arm.

"Uh..." he started then thought better of it when the crocodilian snout seemed to smile and the bony brow ridges wiggled up and down. "Nevermind... I can see you're ... occupied..."

Beside him the guardian spoke, "I serve the dragon and protect her from those who would do her harm... It is not for me to undo..."

"The dragon is DEAD! and So help me God while you were attacking MY HUSBAND AND SON and their Gallas you let the EXILED son of Enlil slip beyond your ever watchful gaze! Now either you will deliver the cure or I will..." she grasped the sword and swung it in a blurry series of figure 8's moving forward, forcing the creature to retreat, "slice every layer of flesh from your body until I have found the source of it myself... now... what's it gonna be?"

The mass of eyes flicked to Sam who shook his head, "Hell hath no fury man, seriously, you've never seen what she's capable of when she gets like this...it's ugly," he shrugged, "Besides... I want him cured, he's the father of my soul, and my brother... please," he asked crouching on Dean's good side, pressing his hand against the older mans' forehead. He leaned his head down next, placing his ear to his chest, "He's dying... do you really think Tiamat would have wanted the world she created sacrificed for your pride?"

If they didn't know better, and none of them really did, they all would have sworn the guardian seemed to sigh before gliding forward, a long spidery looking 'arm' with a fine glistening point at its tip unfolded from somewhere within the stalked eyes and quivering tentacles and angled toward the sleeping deity. It roamed up and down his torso, seeming to be searching for something then finding what it was looking for, hovered for a split second before bursting into his body just beside his breastbone, right over his heart.

Dean bolted upright, his eyes popped open as he screamed in agony grasping the appendage that sat partly inside his chest.

"Hold him!" Imdugud pressed himself to his king, his main concern to keep the arm still enough for Ammit to keep the place for his bones open.

"Enki..." Laura lurched forward as the spine withdrew in a violent spray of blood. Her hand slapped down over the wound and her eyes blazed murder as the guardian retreated back into the dark tunnels.

"Ina..." he breathed gasping as the blood pressing beneath her hand slowed first to a trickle then ceased altogether and his body settled once more in a semblance of rest. "What the hell just happened?" he asked, for the moment too preoccupied with the pain in his chest to scream about the pain of his boneless arm.

"You need to sleep so we can finish what we've begun," she urged peeking under her hand, relieved and almost disbelieving. The only sign of injury were those with the stitches she'd put in a genuine life ago after he escaped from Nergal's barbed wire wielding lackey.

Quickly his eyes scanned the room, taking in the same peculiar sites that had confounded Sam.

He swallowed hard and nodded looking quite a little green even in the darkness as she returned her finger to the side of his head, "Sleep." she directed with a kiss to his temple.

"Let's finish this," she held up his newly made humerus and looked at Ammit who blinked his assent. She took a moment to double check the shape and size and make sure she was going to be pushing the right end into the sleeve of flesh then took a breath, "Imdugud hold him steady, Shep, hold that lower arm taut, Bobby... keep the upper arm stable... Sam... take off the brace."

OOooOO

Once he returned to the outside he bellowed an inaudibly deep rumble meant to summon his troops while he waited. Turning his head to the right and then the left he inspected the wounds at the base of his wings. Hot blood trickled down his back where the line from that new sword had sliced through his stony flesh as easily as warm animal fat.

Gader'el you will pay dearly...though his skill IS still unsurpassed... So the smith is still alive, as are the devourer and pestilence. How many of the old ones are left? But Enki himself... he is fragile...his pain was delicious... and with his body already broken my task will be easier than I'd anticipated, even without a sword to use against him... he looked at the slanted cut on the roll of bronze in his clawed hand, it is not completely without use... all three of his mouths grinned coldly as he unrolled what was left of the portion of tablets in his possession, Ereshkegal will... well... I have no other choice but to make her do my will.

Slowly, shaking the broken and loosened obsidian feathers from his agonized wings he turned back toward Massacre Rocks and a different entryway into the Underworld as behind him on the highway a car skidded off the road, the disbelieving driver unable to regain control as the car pitched just a little too hard in the runoff ditch and tumbled to a stop behind him.

With a sinister grin on all three mouths he turned back toward the wreckage as the driver pulled himself free and stood staring as the twelve foot tall monster walked toward him. He chuckled to himself as wetness borne of terror spread in a dark pool along the front of the mans' pants.

"You'll do well enough," he placed his hand on the human's head, his talons clamping through his scalp and into his skull, "There is something you can do to serve me." He said and as blood began to run from the human's eyes, planted his will in the man's mind while feasting upon his life energy.

When he was through, the flesh at the base of his wings, though not completely healed was feeling better and had stopped bleeding, and the human servant was running along the ribbon of highway toward fulfillment of his task.

OOooOO

tbc.

Please review.

Thank You.

sifi

A/N - Lamashtu and Pazuzu (another name for Imdugud) were fierce enemies. Though Pazuzu was created to BE evil... and was often charged with creating famine and drought, storms and plagues of locust, he was often called upon by pregnant women as protection against Lamashtu, a demon/demi-goddess who possibly because she had no children of her own, preyed upon pregnant women, stealing the babies from their wombs, sucking on their bones and drinking their blood. Lamashtu was malicious and malevolent for her OWN causes and reasons, whereas most other deities, demi-gods and demons conducted their 'evil' at the direction of the Gods whom they served.

It is also interesting to note that in some cases Lamashtu through the ages has also been identified as Lilitu... later called Lilith. (but she doesn't really figure in my little warverse here so no need for concern... I just figured my fellow SPN addicts might find that wee bit of info... interesting).

High Noon - chpt 15.

by: sifi.

OOooOO

"Get him in the pool," Cernunnos directed, guiding Bobby and Shep to the edge, helping them maintain balance while they descended into the water supporting Dean between them.

"What's this gonna do?"

"It's a healing spring... it'll finish the job," the woodland god explained.

"Will it get rid of my arthritis?" Bobby snarked then looked at Shep, "What? Can't tell me you don't have a few aches and pains of your own..."

Reluctantly Shep nodded then looked questioningly at the horned deity.

"It'll ease your pains as well." He smiled.

Imdugud shook his head, a smile playing on his hosts' face, "Humans..."

"They really don't have a clue do they?" Ammit asked.

"If they did do you think they'd be so much fun?" Cernunnos asked guiding them away from the spring, "Come..."

"Hey! How long..." Shep called as the others started moving away.

"Until I come back," the woolly headed man returned before he and the two demons slipped into the nearby tree line.

"I wonder if this is how John the baptist felt..." Bobby grumbled looking back into Shep's eyes while they supported the unconscious eldest Winchester on his back between them.

"Soggy to his shorts?" Shep asked cocking an eyebrow, "Just be glad you're too old t'be mistaken fer 'im."

Bobby nodded then sighed, "This is weird... I don't know about you Shepard but all this has got me a little off balance..."

Shep rolled his eyes, "Oh well hell Bobby I wonder why? I mean just that two of the kids we watched grow up... one of 'em from diapers are supposed to be some kind of God's incarnate? I mean HELLO!"

"Course it explains why this one's got groupies all over the lower forty eight..." Bobby shrugged and chuckled, "Heh... the church of Dean... the first commandment'll be, 'Thou Shalt Debauch'."

Shep shook his head smiling knowingly, "You're a dirty old bastard," then seemed to sober a bit, "And somehow the other one's supposed to be some kind of a demonic Pied Piper? C'mon Sammy's about as evil as... Tommy!"

"Yeah well, it practically blows the back of my brain out... but apparently not all demons are evil..."

"Hey, you've seen those two in action," Shep nodded toward the trees indicating Imdugud and Ammit, "Why do you think they're really following our boys?"

"Mmm," Dean groaned at the same time his body bucked in the water.

"Dean?" they asked together.

"Mmnuh!" He bucked again his back bowed upward straining. His jaw clenched and his fists flailed. The woods trembled at the sound of his screams as the pain of physical torture and emotional agony poured out of him in a black river of unacknowledged torment turning the previously crystalline water into an inky mess.

OOooOO

At the same time the eldest Winchester began his cleansing throes; in the safety of Ereshkegal's throne room a thousand white hot agonies shot into the youngest of the boys while outside the walls a furious battle raged.

He effortlessly picked Inanna out of the melee, his eyes caressing every visible inch while his mind imagined every bit of flesh he could not see. This isn't right... I love her, I want...no... I can't...it's wrong... he told himself, and yet the taste of her kiss lingered like a mellow ambrosia in the back of his throat, the full flavor drawing on something deep within, she's my brothers'... my father's wife... the mother of my soul... he tried to remind himself, to force away or deny what had been aroused in him, but every effort to do so was a lifetime of fire and pain.

Ages folded fluidly backwards through the deepest origins of him. The body meant nothing. The heavy, salty, viscous matrix of his beginning churned; red, white, and waxy flesh toned, pulling and tearing, and un-making the man inside.

An underworld away he felt his father scream for the torments of his own cleansing and gasped in accompaniment. Each breath cut away the layers of un-learning that had bound his very nature so completely out of his reach for over three thousand years.

Ohgodohgodohgod... he thought the instant it all stopped.

A breath later he knew everything. In that breath he was everything; his father, his mother and the being yet to come.

I understand... he nodded and felt himself beam his delight into the amber colored eyes that smiled back.

He looked down at himself sheathed inside her and knew in this moment, just as certainly as he would be born to be Marduk, that he was also the essence of Enki, and the essence of Inanna. He was each of them in turn at this instant of perfection in which the separate being he would become was conceived.

He saw himself fill her and felt her rapture. He thrilled as Enki gave his seed to her. And as she captured the mouth of her king with absolute devotion and the surety of a goddess's possession, he burned with fire borne of their eternal love and began to form in her womb.

From within the melee Nergal froze, every one of his eyes fixing on the copper glow growing in strength and brightness from Ereshkegal's throne room.

For a moment everyone breathed.

Brilliant bands of orange-rose light pulsed through him as his body bent forward and held, one hand on each door of the gate.

Even from their position, a hundred yards or more away, all parties could see the writing illuminated on the backs of the doors, literally gliding over the stone; being drawn through his fingertips and into his body until the last character was gone from the tablets.

They stood transfixed by the sight of a God now fully awoken, and though it was for different reasons, each of them trembled as Marduk arose.

OOooOO

In the pool Dean's body gave a powerful buck before it folded and disappeared into the inky blackness, neither Shep nor Bobby able to keep his grip.

"Where'd he go!?" Shep snapped.

"I dunno!" Bobby shook his head.

They each drew a breath and dove in, searching blindly for the young man.

The hunters broke the surface, fear blazing on their faces as they shook their heads.

A split second later Bobby's eyes went wide, "What the ... hell..." he pointed to his left as Shep treaded to him and watched while the blackness simply started disappearing. A moment later, when they saw that eerie copper glow, they allowed themselves a sigh of relief.

OOooOO

Bobby's Place -

Ohmygodohmygodohmygod! He wanted to scream as he crossed the property line of Singer's Auto Salvage. But somehow he knew that if he did, and if he was found, the pain he was experiencing, that made him wonder if his skin was being flayed from his body, would pale in comparison. There was something inside him that had sunk its claws into his very soul and had driven him to this moment. It was the same something that forced him to the airport where the holes in his head slowed their pulsing, where the blood that wouldn't stop, had seemed to only do so because otherwise the mission would be compromised. It got him through the airport, through the flight from Utah to South Dakota, through the process of renting a car, and most importantly, through the process of purchasing the M 16 he had strapped over his back just like the one he'd wielded with savage, terrified recklessness in a foreign desert almost twenty years before.

As he moved through the front yard, to his right, along the side yard he could see men and women, and what looked like a cadre of midgets gathered around a tin roof shelter. From what he could tell, it appeared they were practicing with weapons, though exactly what kind they might be, he couldn't tell.

He crept to the front door, sweat filling his clothes, his heart racing, and his mind trapped in a time that really no longer mattered to the world, or those who held it in their hands.

Slowly he made his way into the house, making a bee-line for the stairs, up and up until he found the pull down for the attic steps.

Oooh my own little version of a clock tower yah? Though he was helpless to stop himself.

Just as he'd known there would be, he moved to the window that looked down into the salvage yard and wiped the trail of blood out of his eye, not surprised that it was flowing again.

If he thought about it, he was certain that the new and growing embryo of darkness in his head was actually pulsing with its own life, maybe even breathing through those holes. And though there wasn't much he was sure of at this point, there was something that told him that if he was successful here, then maybe the pain would stop.

He took a moment to make sure his position was optimal and that each and every one of them was within a short burst and easy sweep of his M16. He braced himself, leveled the gun on the window ledge and put his eye to the site.

OOooOO

Halfway to the fray Marduk stopped, his head cocked to the side and his gaze flicked far away for just a heartbeat, "Tommy," he breathed.

OOooOO

Enki stopped at the edge of the spring, his gaze distinctly elsewhere and his expression loose, "Gader'el!" he commanded.

OOooOO

Massacre Rocks, Utah -

Gader'el shivered and stopped in his tracks, the eyes of more than two dozen demon hosts seemed glued to him. His eyes popped wide as he turned to Marax, "Take over." He ordered as the sidhe warrior beside him opened the veil.

OOooOO

Bobby's Place -

Tommy lurched forward his hand slamming into his forehead with a shot of white hot pain that dragged behind it a terrifying vision of every one of the gathered hunters dead on the ground.

"Take cover!" he shouted as automatic gunfire split the quiet and bullets rained into the target area, tearing up the ground around and in a few cases through a couple of them.

A line of silver creased the air in the middle of the spray admitting the weapons smith.

Without thought Tommy rose, "Gader'el get DOWN!" he called then froze as the host turned toward him with his hand outstretched. At chest height, centimeters away, a high velocity round hovered in mid-flight.

"Holy shit," Tom breathed then watched astounded as the smith turned, seeming to follow the projectile's path up to the attic window.

With a wave of his hand the bullet sped back to where it came from, and the unmistakable sound of backfire left the yard in sudden silence.

"How? What... huh?" Tom muttered mystified as Gader'el frowned at the window.

"I am THE weapons master. There is no weapon that can be or will be that I cannot command," he smiled, "Nergal's tool is suffering. His body is still alive with the traitor's poison running through him."

"Thank you," Tom cocked his pistol and nodded, stopping and turning back in mid-dash to the back door, "Hey, how'd you know?"

"The kings are awake," he smiled.

OOooOO

Outside The Seventh Gate -

Marduk's gaze returned to the moment in a fraction of a second and he continued to move forward, his eyes blazing copper.

"You failed Nergal. Give up this quest, you can NOT succeed."

"I already have! One by one the universes have begun to fall and fragment. Even if you drive me back... this one will shatter soon enough!"

The deity shook his head, "You're wrong. Return to exile and I will spare your life."

"You are PATHETIC AND WEAK!" the exiled demi-god roared, its swarm of igigi descended on the gallas and battle goddesses. Swords, darts, and arrows flew, felling the smoky creatures in mid air, some of them dropping with billowy