New: "Aldebaran", J2, R Part 2
Dec. 6th, 2016 07:59 am![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
candygrammeTitle: Aldebaran
Artist:![[livejournal.com profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
expectative
Author:candygramme
Pairing: Jared/Jensen
Warning: Weirdness
~JARED~
The nights were the worst, of course. Jared dreaded the nights. They were cold, colder than a witch’s tit, as Chad kept telling him, but that wasn’t why he dreaded them.
His choice would have been to travel by night and sleep through the daytime, but that was made impossible by the ice-wyrms and, as they drew nearer their destination, the dragons. The wyrms slithered ceaselessly about, homing in on anything that moved and devouring it in their pathway. The nights were often disturbed by cries of agony or terror as some benighted creature was caught and devoured by the horrible beasts.
They were, as near as he could fathom it, a day out from their destination. They had stopped as the sun went down and had begun to spread the insulating blanket on the frozen ground, prior to climbing into their sleeping bags beneath the covers made from the chitinous carapaces of the rime-riders. Those covers were the only way for their small expedition to disguise their scent from the vile creatures that roamed the night, but for Jared, they represented the flimsiest protection from the horrors that roamed after dark.
As Jared slipped beneath the protective shell of his rime-rider coverlet, he began to prepare himself for sleep as he always did, praying to Telchur that he would make it to their destination without loss of life. Chad was on his left under his own carapace, and Jared could hear him snoring already. Sebastian had set himself up on his other side, and was chanting to Telchur himself as he got himself ready for sleep. Richard, who apparently didn’t need sleep, because he had elected once again to remain on watch, was prowling about their camp, watching for any marauding creatures that might attack them. The two female warriors, Sandra and Samantha, who had been chosen to accompany them by Richard, had elected to sleep together under the same cover, and were somewhere nearby.
His sleeping bag was thick and warm, its layers of insulation cocooned a warm, cosy interior, and Jared squirmed inside, grateful to be able to leave off his body armor and still stay warm.
Earlier, they had melted the ice and washed themselves, all modesty left behind as the urgency of their trek became paramount, but Jared hadn’t felt really clean since leaving Tenebros, and to escape the armor was a luxury even here in the wilderness.
We’re getting close.
The voice sounded almost as if the speaker was beside him in his shell. He sat up. “Who’s there?”
Did you hear something, Jake?
“Who’s Jake?” Jared looked about himself wildly. There was nobody visible, and Jared knew full well that there would be nobody outside of their small group stupid enough to be out in this Telchur-forsaken spot overnight. He shrugged himself back under the covers and lay down, composing himself for sleep. Hearing voices was about par for the course these days.
Warmth enveloped him. He was drowsy but not yet asleep, but his mind turned to a place he’d never seen, and people he didn’t know. In his mind’s eye, he saw a room that was unlike anything within his experience. There was a console at one end, and several chairs that partially obscured it. He could see a dark skinned man with a patch covering one eye in the background, drinking from a tall bottle with a straw, and then another, whose skin was as pale as the other’s was dark, with a dusting of little, golden dots across his nose.
I keep feel like I’m being watched.
I could watch you forever, Jared thought, and saw the other man jerk, looking around as if someone had spoken to him. “Interesting,” he said to himself, and then sleep took him, obliterating anything further.
~*~
Jared woke earlier than usual the following morning, to the sound of an ice-dragon sniffing around their camp. At one point he swore that the wretched thing stood on him as he lay curled under his covers. It seemed like forever when he finally heard it take to the air and fly off, its harsh, rasping cry signaling its intent to roost.
Studying his astrolabe and mentally calculating their position, he realized that they were almost at their destination. “We’ll be there in a couple of hours unless something nasty holds us up, he called to the others, who were busily packing their sleeping bags and covers onto the sled.
“Can’t be soon enough for me,” grumbled Chad, clapping his hands together to shake off the fresh snow that had fallen in the night. “I like my comforts, and this is really not what you’d call comfortable.”
“Oh, boo hoo,” snapped Sebastian, who was fighting to tie the equipment down onto the sled. “It’ll do you good. Make a man out of you.”
“Ooh!” Sandra, barely visible under the piles of equipment she was carrying, staggered up to the sled. “Will it make one out of me too? I always did want to be able to pee standing up.”
“Oh, just shut up!” Sebastian stuffed her load under the tarp that covered their things. “Let’s just get going.”
“Yeah,” grumbled Chad. “Dunno about you guys, but I can’t wait to see what’s at the other end of this wild goose chase.”
Finally packed away and ready to march, they set off towards their destination. It wasn’t long before Jared heard the voice from last night, even louder than it had been.
Another hour and we’ll be there. Jared wondered who he was, and where he was going, but he didn’t speak, because he needed his breath to stay upright on the rough, uneven ground of the ice field. He could see his destination now, or what he thought was his destination, a tall outcrop of rock that seemed clear of the ice and snow, rearing its dark form above the snowy plain.
“Come on! If we push we can be there in another hour.” The others all groaned, but quickened their pace, and the rocky monolith grew larger and larger as they approached it.
Who are you? Where are you going? This time, he saw ghostly shapes as he heard the words. Frowning, he blinked, attempting to clear his vision, wondering if the cold had affected it somehow.
“I’m Jared, and I’m going to the site of the prophecy. Who are you?”
Jensen, was the reply. Then a woman’s voice called out, Look out! and he heard no more.
~JENSEN~
“Look out!” yelled Katie.
The space in front of them suddenly shimmered and glowed, and before Jensen could attempt to turn them it engulfed them, ship and all. It seemed to Jensen that they were being drawn into a well composed of brilliant colors. It might have been days or only minutes that they spent being sucked into the whirling abyss of the anomaly. Katie crouched by her console, hands pressed over her ears as she whimpered. There was a swelling sound that rose higher and higher, but Jensen stood gazing at the viewscreen. He could see shapes in the flickering colors, a man wrapped in an insulated one piece suit that seemed molded to his well formed body. He wore a helmet that obscured his face, but Jensen craved the sight of him.
“What the hell?” Aldis was picking himself up from the floor, where he’d fallen when they were first dragged into the wormhole. “One minute it wasn’t even there, and the next minute it bit us.”
Traci had poked her head out of the engine room. “I knew there was something there. I wonder where it’s taking us.” She wandered over to peek at the nav console, but the readout made no sense. Numbers flew by without any apparent meaning, and she gave up to stand beside Jensen and watch their progress on the viewscreen.
Their newest crew member gazed in awe from the place where he was sitting. He seemed to be mesmerized by what was happening, but he was the first one to yell when they finally dropped out into space.
“What the fuck?” Jake was pointing, his finger shaking as he indicated the view on the viewscreen. “We’re back where we started!”
Indeed, they could see the shields in the brassy sky above them. Katie had stumbled to her feet, and she peered at the nav con. “Looks like we’re right over the pole,” she said, her voice scratchy.
The ship was losing altitude rapidly, and despite Jensen’s best efforts to pull her up, it continued to fall. “It’s like she’s got a will of her own,” he said. “Aldis, what’s wrong with her?”
“She’s running smoothly. Nothing wrong with the engine.” Aldis stuck his head out from the engine room, where he’d headed when he’d seen Jensen’s troubles.
“She’s coming down. Stand by.” Jensen was still attempting to steer, but the ship seemed to know where it was going, and it came to rest on a plain of glassy silicate, fused by the extreme heat of the sun. From the center - it might even have been the pole, protruded a tall, rocky monolith, flat topped and glittering from the inclusions in the rock.
“I guess we should go find out why we’re here.” That was Traci, and she was already moving to the hatch, intent on leaving the vessel and heading to the nearby monolith. “I read something about this in a very old book. Looks like we’re onto something after all. What did it say?”
“Wait!” Jensen was hurrying, grabbing his laser rifle, his portable shield and his helmet. “You can’t just go out there like that. Go and get yourself suited up.”
She pouted, but obediently went to the locker to find a thermal suit, while Jensen walked out onto the smooth, glassy surface. The heat was almost enough to send him back, and he felt the sweat start, dripping into his eyes. It was only a moment later when a dragon swooped in, obviously thinking he would make a better meal than the sand shrews and foxes that were all that lived in these desolate regions. He aimed his laser rifle and blasted the creature in the one part of the neck that made it vulnerable. It careened down to the ground, and Jensen went to make sure it was actually dead. While he was dealing with it, the others, all now clad in their heat resistant suits, emerged from the shelter of the ship.
“We need to find out why we’re here,” said Jensen.
“This monolith is sending out very similar signals to the anomaly,” announced Traci, consulting a gauge she had in her hand. “There seems to be some kind of feedback loop going on between the two. I’m trying to remember what that old book said. Try for the stars, but find your soul within the earth... something like that anyway.”
“Whatever.” Aldis emerged from the maw of the ship and looked around. “Still bloody hot, isn’t it?”
“Come on. Since we’ve been brought here, I guess we should find out why.” Jake was making for the monolith, beginning to walk around it, and Jensen followed, temporarily suspending his worry that they would be too late to act in any way that would benefit the people who were still expecting their help.
Up close, the monolith seemed to glow, radiating light from somewhere within its silicate interior. There were glowing silver veins, tiny, sparkling patches like gems and other areas that seemed to absorb the light entirely, presenting a black, velvety appearance that mirrored space itself.
“Wow.” Jensen raised his hand to run a gloved finger across one such patch and heard the same utterance inside his mind, spoken by that other whose thoughts he’d experienced earlier.
“Hey, come see this!” Jake was shouting from somewhere on the opposite side of the monolith, and Jensen took off running, hoping to make sure that Jake was okay.
“Jake! What the fuck? Why have you separated from the group?” He ran faster when there was no reply, and Aldis followed, both of them very aware of the dangers that lurked. It was further than it had looked, and as they rounded the jagged corner, Jensen could see a very dangerous situation unfolding in front of him. Jake was crouching with his back to the basalt of the monolith, and above him were two of the dragons, while drawing up towards him was a wyrm.
“Got your blaster?” Aldis was pulling his laser rifle off his back as he spoke, and without a further word he dropped to his knees and sighted, firing at the closest dragon and virtually severing its head from its shoulders. Jensen ran on, hoping to get close enough to take out the wyrm, since Jake seemed to be dealing with the second dragon.
He fired, fired again, watched as the wyrm shook off the effects of his attack and redoubled its attempts to get to Jake. Diamond teeth glittered in the shimmering heat. Jake finally succeeded in bringing the second dragon down, but the wyrm was close now, rearing above Jake, triangular head set to strike as Jensen sent one last blast from his laser rifle. It was too late. Jake fired too, scoring a shot deep in the creature’s gullet, and the wyrm shrieked and bent to impale him on its fangs even as it writhed in its death throes. Blood, rich and red, spattered the rock against which Jake was lying. All Jensen could do was watch, helpless as the wyrm’s poison did its work, leaving the two lying together in death.
Jensen was about to order them all back to the ship, when he caught sight of what must have been the thing Jake had been so excited about.
There was a perfectly symmetrical six pointed star carved into the face of the monolith, and unlike the basalt that surrounded it, the star was glowing red. “Aldis, look,” he said, and just at that moment he heard the voice again.
Chad, look!
~*~
~JARED~
“Chad, Look!”
Jared touched the face of the massive rock, and jerked his hand back as if he’d been bitten, fingertips tingling as if some electric current had passed through them.
“The damned thing bit me when I touched it.”
“Huh?” Chad reached out and poked at the spot where Jared had placed his fingers, then shrugged and laid his hand against it. “See, it likes me. I think it wants me to pet it.”
“Weird.” Reaching out to touch it again, the shock to Jared’s hand was even stronger this time, sending him staggering back and away from the rock and onto the ice.
Sebastian had rounded the pillar and was talking with Richard, who was a few steps behind him, when there was a deafening screech, and a dragon — most likely the dragon that they had eluded during the night — dropped like an arrow towards where Chad stood, prodding and stroking the rock in an attempt to make it treat him the way it had treated Jensen.
Jared scrambled backwards on his ass, yelling for Chad and fumbling for his blaster, which had fallen from its holster to land underneath him. He had hit the ground half on it, and his hip was at that very moment complaining about it. He rolled, grabbed for it, firing as he went. At the same time, Richard yelled out a warning, and Sebastian fired, searing rays emitting from his blaster.
Too late. Chad was turning, in the act of looking around to see what the yelling was all about, when the dragon hit. The combined fire was enough to boil the dragon’s icy blood, but the momentum of its dive continued, and the thing barreled into Chad, crushing him against the rock face, smearing the stony surface with blood and ichor in equal measure as the dragon, dead by now, collided with the man it had intended to devour.
Jared was never more grateful for the suit he wore. Spattered with the dragon’s juices, he knew that if it touched his skin it would eat through within seconds. It didn’t help his vision, however. There were liberal spatters across his visor, and he fumbled with smoking gloves to wipe it clean enough to see through the craters it left in the plexiglass..
It was Richard who came over to spray him clean with a canister of compressed air and help him to his feet as he looked at the place where Chad had died. There was no way to recover his friend’s body, because the dragon’s corrosive blood was already dissolving it, but the place against the cliff was covered in blood that was already crystallizing in the cold. He stumbled over to it, lifted a hand to touch.
“Awww, Chad,” he mumbled.
As his hand touched the rock, there was a sound that emanated from somewhere deep within the monolith and vibrated the earth around them. It was the kind of deep resonant tolling that made the teeth ache and rattled the earth around them. There were cracking sounds as icicles dropped and the ice field began to shatter. There were higher sounds, tinkling as the shards of ice began to raise up in a crazy dance that seemed to be a response to the noise.
Jared felt a tingle in his hand, and would have pulled it back, except that it seemed to be stuck, indeed, it seemed to be sinking into the rock. The others had all gathered around him by now, and Jared pulled, trying to step back. It seemed that resisting hastened the process, and Jared found that his entire arm was almost engulfed before he realized.
He still felt the pull, but could find no way of halting it. Sandy and Sam tried firing at the rock, but there was no discernible effect. As his head was slowly engulfed, Jared thought he heard Richard whisper, “The Prophecy.”
~JENSEN~
“The Prophecy.”
Jensen wasn’t quite sure where the voice was coming from. He looked around but could only see Aldis, who was anxiously scanning the skies in case of another attack. Traci and Katie were just rounding the monolith, and too far away to have spoken.
“I think this thing is playing tricks with my hearing,” he said, reaching to touch the glowing star. “Maybe this hunk of rock here somehow amplifies speech, and someone out there in the desert said something about a prophecy. Did you hear it?”
“I didn’t hear anything.” Aldis shook his head as he turned towards Jensen. And then, “Hold on, Jensen! Don’t—”
As Jensen’s fingertips met the shining motif in the rock, the glow from it intensified and flared, enveloping Jensen in brilliant light. There was a singing in his ears as if some high energy power source was beginning to overload. He felt weightless, unable to move as his body was first pulled back against the rock and then, much to his horror, into it.
There were cries in the distance, first Aldis’s, and then, as his faded, others. The fear he’d been feeling earlier faded as what was happening to him seemed not to be harmful. He felt as though he was floating in the light that surrounded him, and somehow he knew that he was the sun. He could feel the great anger possessing him even though it was not his own, the desire to burn everything there was. He drew a breath and tried to calm himself down.
“No. That isn’t right.” He thought of the battles his crew had faced against their rapacious sun, of Ty, whose bravery had saved their lives at the expense of his own. Of Katie, who would probably never marry the one she loved, and of Jake, who had died so senselessly. He recalled his guitar, wished for it right then and there, so he could play some of his favorite songs to show just how much beauty there was in the world and beyond. He thought of the beauty he found in space, the distant stars he might never visit, and the wonders of the one which he called home, and felt a faint regret and deep sadness replace the previous fury he had been sensing.
The light faded, slowly muting until he could open his eyes at last and look around.
He was lying on the floor in a cavern, or so it seemed. The remaining light was soft and did not appear to emanate from a particular source, it just was. The walls of the place where he now found himself were the same black, faintly gleaming rock that the monolith was made from. On one side was a wall of a different material. It too had an inner sheen, but it appeared to be translucent, something like the plexiglass modesty screens that were used to keep out prying eyes in showers and bed-spaces back at the barracks.
Shrugging, he sat up, methodically moving each separate part as he checked himself over to make sure nothing was injured or missing. For a while he worked in silence, then suddenly the voice he’d been hearing on and off for the last little while suddenly said, “What do you want from me?”
~JARED~
“What do you want from me?”
Pulled into the rock, Jared found himself flailing impotently, unable to fathom where his limbs were in the apparent void where he was suspended. There was darkness all around him, suffocating and unrelenting, and when he called out, he felt a great sadness press upon him, a futility of being that was so all consuming that he cried out wordlessly.
Time passed slowly, and Jared sank into a listless melancholy, at first unable to shake off the depression that threatened to devour him. It took all he had to resist the sense of aimless loss and push back. Whatever was pushing the feelings on him, they weren’t his. He was lively, active rather than lethargic. His whole life had been of finding joy in life. He imagined the excitement of battling the wyrms, of outwitting them and saving his people. He recalled the joy he felt when he exercised, feeling the smooth muscles work at his command and the way that the endorphins that bathed his muscles felt following a workout. He thought of his appreciation for the beauty of his dying world and his desperate desire to save it from the destruction that seemed so inevitable. He recalled love from his family and the way that music made him want to dance. He remembered sex and the pleasure of it.
The devastating numbness gradually eased and the faint beginnings of curiosity took their place. Slowly, a faint light began to radiate, growing stronger by degrees. Jared felt solid ground beneath him, and as he looked around himself he finally began to distinguish his whereabouts.
Hematite surrounded him, and to his right he could see a glowing wall that seemed to be made of ice in which granules of gold had been suspended. Pushing himself up to standing, he crossed the room to take a look at it.
“What is this? Am I a prisoner?”
He jumped back in surprise. His voice apparently had an echo — or maybe not. Peering through the icy wall, he could see movement.
He stepped back up close and squinted to try and make out who or what was on the other side of the barrier. It wasn’t possible to make out details, but it was plain that the presence on the other side of the wall was humanoid and that it was trying to see through the wall too. He lifted his hand, poked at the wall and there was a little flare of light. Frowning, he did it again and a further lightshow was his reward. After a few moments, he dropped his arm as the creature on the other side of the wall emulated him, creating what seemed to be multicolored sparks on his side.
“Let’s try this,” he murmured, stripping off one of his gloves. He raised his hand, unsure of what he was doing, and on the opposite side he could see the other mirroring his actions. As their palms came together on each side of the barrier, there was a dull booming sound as if a huge gong had been struck, and for a moment, the very rock beneath them trembled, then, with a loud crack, the barrier between the two of them split, shattered, flew apart in so many shards and gradually vanished, leaving the two of them frozen where they stood, palm pressed against palm.
Jared stared at the creature before him. He was human, that much was obvious, and he was beautiful, with wide green eyes, thickly fringed with dark lashes, and a nose that might once have been straight but which had apparently been broken somewhere down the line, because there was the slightest kink in it. His mouth, currently forming a shocked ‘o’, was lush, with candy-pink lips, full and plump. He wore a sand colored jumpsuit with many pockets and loops for equipment. As Jared stared in admiration, the vision spoke.
“What just happened?”
“I don’t know. I think it’s part of the prophecy.” Jared couldn’t take his eyes off the other man. “I’m Jared,” he added, extending his hand towards the other.
There was a brief tingling as the other took it. The gong like sound came again and both men shivered.
“I... Hi. I’m Jensen.” Jared still had hold of Jensen’s hand. It felt warm in his grasp, and as though it fit. He didn’t want to let it go. Jensen gazed down on where their hands were joined and blushed. “What are you doing here in this god-forsaken part of Calidor?”
“Calidor? What’s Calidor?” Jared frowned. “Until about half an hour ago I was standing in an ice field, looking up at a big piece of rock I found at the ass-end of Tenebros and wondering whether the rest of my crew were going to be able to make it back without any more casualties.”
“Calidor’s my world, and my team and I were trying to save it. Somehow we ended up here, too. I already lost my navigator, not that I need him to find my way home on my own world.” Jared squeezed the hand that he still held, then attempted to pull it away. It wasn’t happening. Try as he might to release Jensen, he couldn’t do it, in fact their hands seemed to be held together by some compulsion.
“That’s weird.” Jared muttered, slowly relaxing his muscles as he stopped fighting against the force that had them bound together.
“Tell me what hasn’t been weird about this whole thing.”Jensen said, smirking. “The one thing I’m getting from the experience is that we might as well do what it wants us to do, because there’s no point in fighting it.”
“We’re a part of the prophecy,” said Jared. “We’re supposed to bring the world back to life.”
~JENSEN~
“A prophecy?” Jensen thought back to the things that Traci had said during their flight to the anomaly. He didn’t think she’d mentioned a prophecy per se, but he hadn’t really been listening, so anxious had he been to find a way of rescuing his people. She’d been going on about something once they’d landed too. He wracked his brains, trying to remember it and decide whether it was something important.
“Yeah.” Jared fumbled a piece of paper from a pocket in his sleeve, spreading the folds open awkwardly with one hand. “A soldier will come to command the wards, anointing them with blood. He will break through the barrier and find the Golden One. When the two become one, the barriers will fall, the sun will be restored, and Tenebros will become Aurora. Then light and dark will join together to become whole once again.”
As he read, his voice took on a hollow quality, the sound of it reverberating around the chamber in which they stood, and by the time he was done both were well aware that something utterly beyond their knowledge was happening.
“So you and I...” Jensen’s voice was soft, but that same echo sounded at his words.
“I’m guessing that you’re the golden one,” said Jared, smiling.
“And if we become one, the worlds will be saved?” Jensen was shaking his head. “This sounds like really bad sci-fi. Think MST3K level bad, only we’re missing the robots, and they’re the ones that made the show fun.” He looked at Jared with pursed lips, an open appraisal in his eyes. For a long time he studied Jared’s lean form, but finally his expression softened, and he grinned. “I usually demand at least dinner and a movie before I put out.”
“I’ll owe you one, I promise.” Jared began to unlock the magnetic strips that secured his thermal suit, and Jensen’s eyes widened as his movements began to reveal the sinewy, whipcord muscles that lay like ropes on his broad shoulders, gradually exposing the man’s powerful chest. Jensen watched him, fascinated, and then began to emulate him.
His heart was beginning to pound, and he felt unaccountably nervous. He was not a small man by any means, but he felt unaccountably fragile next to this young, beautiful giant.
As Jared’s suit slowly came away from his body, Jensen held his breath, his eyes half closed as he watched, dry mouthed. His own suit unfastened with a single zipper that ran from neck to groin once the studs were popped open, and he loosened his cuffs in order to allow the fabric to slither to the ground, leaving him clad only in the shirt and cotton underwear he was wearing beneath it. The weapons followed, hitting the basalt with a clatter, and he bent to unfasten his boots so that he could step out of them.
As if their intentions had been understood, once they began to strip, their clasped hands came free again, and Jared, naked now, reached out the hand that had been held captive to run it down over Jensen’s chest as he struggled to get free of the heavy, magnetic soled boots. Jensen grinned. “They’re made for zero gravity,” he said. “Designed to hold me steady against the hull of my ship in cases where we lose the gravitron. They aren’t meant to be easy to take off.” He wobbled and almost fell as he tugged at one of the recalcitrant straps. Jared reached to steady him, and held him steady until finally the boots were off and so was the suit.
“And now...” Jared bent to heap up their clothing, making what he could of a soft pad on which the two of them could lie. “Guess we need to become one. I hope it doesn’t mean actually merging or anything. I kinda like my body the way it is. Not that you aren’t hot and all. It’s just...”
“God! Shut up!” Jensen tackled him back against the pile of fabric. “I get it, I do but there’s no other way we’re going to find out, so we might as well get to it. There doesn’t seem to be any way of getting out of here otherwise.”
He leaned forward for a tentative kiss, and his lips caught Jared’s. There followed a hot slide of tongues, mouths clinging as Jared melted against him. Jared laughed softly, but the sound was desperate, jarring, and Jensen could feel his muscles tense up under the smooth, pale skin.
“It’ll be okay,” whispered Jensen, reaching to pet the long, silky strands of his hair. “”We’re not going to die. That just doesn’t make sense in terms of a rebirth. Isn’t that what your prophecy is all about? Rebirth.”
“It didn’t work out so well for Chad,” muttered Jared, images of the dreadful moment when he realized that he would be too late to save his friend.
“I’m guessing that the prophecy needed a blood sacrifice. It took Jake too. I couldn’t save him.” Jensen kissed Jared again, a little more forcefully this time, his tongue first probing, then invading the hot, moist space behind Jared’s lips. He could feel Jared’s response in the way the other man’s cock was pressing against his belly, the way that it poured slick on him as he undulated against Jensen. Reaching down to cup Jared’s buttocks, he pulled Jared up against him, feeling his own desire beginning to swell. He was taken by surprise when Jared suddenly rolled the two of them over and claimed the upper hand.
Jensen’s gasp was swallowed as Jared cupped his face with both hands and began to lay biting kisses all over his face. To Jensen, the heat from Jared’s body felt even more blinding than the heat beyond the shields had been, and Jensen gave himself up to be consumed in it at last, arms clasping and clinging desperately to the body that was pressed so tightly against him.
Jared moaned, a sharp, needy moan, and Jensen knew exactly what was needed, raising his knees and wrapping his legs tightly around Jared’s slim hips. He could feel Jared’s cock, sliding, questing, seeking some place to claim. A swift wriggle of his hips, and Jensen managed to position it so that it was pressing against his opening, battering his cleft and sliding, forcing him open, its slick juices enabling it to push inside him.
He thought it hurt, but the pleasure of it was enough that he didn’t care. He felt stretched, burned by the invading flesh, and he gasped as Jared pushed deeper inside, dragging over something sensitive that shot sensation through him, sweet tingles that fizzed the length of his spine. He cried out and clung harder, his heels pressing Jared deeper inside until there wasn’t even a fraction of an inch that wasn’t encased in his body.
Neither of them noticed, so deeply entwined themselves, when vines pushed themselves free of the smooth basalt surface the two of them lay on and began to grow, curling around them, there in that place that had never seen daylight. Tendrils sought and found sensitive areas of their flesh, tickling at testicles that were tightening, drawing up as they made ready to burst their juices, insinuating themselves into any openings and orifices they found to deliver flickers of added pleasure to the lovemaking, teasing into the wet slit of Jensen’s cock and probing Jared’s ass even while they tightened around the two men, tying them tightly together.
As the two men writhed together, lost in sensation as they steadily approached their release, the ground began to shake, and the deep, bell-like sound filled the air again. There were other sounds, rustling, groaning, and creaking as the two sundered worlds began to rearrange themselves.
Jensen was the first to come, body tightening, muscles locking as the sweet explosion of sensation forced him to arch up, face contorted in pleasure as he spilled, jets of semen burst to spatter the length of his torso. One, two forceful, plunging thrusts later, Jared followed, his cock driven deep inside the slick channel as his own juices filled Jensen.
There was a sharp cracking sound, and the rock that surrounded them split, allowing a shaft of wildly fluctuating daylight to illuminate the two of them as they lay entwined. The rift in the rock and the subsequent quake had broken it into halves, creating a way through to the now open clearing in the center. From one side came Katie, shoving her way over the rubble that littered her path to reach where the two men lay. From the other side came Richard, who seemed a little less astonished at what had happened.
“Who the hell are you?” Katie was the first to reach the tangled mass of greenery that was all that could be seen of Jared and Jensen. Seeing the mass moving, she dropped to her knees and pulled out a knife to cut away the smothering greenery that shrouded them.
“Wait. Don’t cut it.” Richard knelt at the other side and began to unravel the vines carefully, disentangling them from the two bodies. “This first life is precious. It will set the tone for the world that has been made new.”
Frowning, Katie began to emulate him, and between the two of them they soon uncovered Jared and Jensen, who still lay clasped together, apparently now sleeping, their blissed-out faces telling their own tale.
Sebastian and Aldis were summoned to help carry their sleeping bodies out from the center of the rock formation and lay them down on the sled that had brought Jared’s equipment so far across the ice. The sun above them was slowly setting, although its appearance was still oscillating, first fierce, then dimming to almost nothing as each minute passed. It was fast approaching darkness as the two men were set down on a very changed landscape. The ice was melting fast, and tender green shoots of grass were beginning to show through. There was a fine drizzle in the air, and Katie stopped to raise her face up to this new and unfamiliar sensation. Traci, who had remained on the outside to watch for predators, rushed over to peer down at the two men. “They did it! They really did it.”
Jared had begun to stir, and he opened his eyes just as Jensen moaned and raised his head. “What happened?”
“I think the earth moved,” muttered Jared.
“You’re probably going to notice that it’s a little cooler than it was,” said Traci, gesturing to Jensen’s state of undress. Katie giggled and handed Jensen his clothes, pausing to purse her lips and whistle.
“I always wondered what you were packing,” she giggled. “Very nice. Who’s the other guy.”
Looking around at the assembled group that seemed much larger than the team he had traveled with, Jared blushed deep red and hastily began to pull on his own insulated suit. “I’m Jared,” he muttered, moving closer to Jensen.
Jensen was looking around himself in wonder. “We did it,” he said. “We restored the world.”
“And I found you,” said Jared sliding his hand around Jensen’s neck to pull him into a long, unhurried kiss.
“And so the worlds were made new and became one,” intoned Richard, causing everyone save the two lovers to look at him in confusion. “That’s what the prophecy said. The worlds will be made one, and it will be named Aurora.”
“”According to my calculations, the shift across the dimensions began when the monolith cracked and should be complete in 18 minutes.” Traci was looking at her hand held device as she spoke, and turned to Katie and Aldis with a smile. “Calidor will no longer be in danger, and the sun will bring life rather than death in its rays.”
“Calidor?” Sebastian looked up with a frown. “Our world is Tenebros.”
“Not any more.” Richard pointed to the melting ice, and to the greenery that was forcing its way through the rapidly dwindling ice. “This is a new world. Aurora.”
And indeed, up in the darkening sky, the green and silver curtains of an aurora unfolded themselves to hang above them as a blessing.
Artist:
expectativeAuthor:
candygrammePairing: Jared/Jensen
Warning: Weirdness
~JARED~
The nights were the worst, of course. Jared dreaded the nights. They were cold, colder than a witch’s tit, as Chad kept telling him, but that wasn’t why he dreaded them.
His choice would have been to travel by night and sleep through the daytime, but that was made impossible by the ice-wyrms and, as they drew nearer their destination, the dragons. The wyrms slithered ceaselessly about, homing in on anything that moved and devouring it in their pathway. The nights were often disturbed by cries of agony or terror as some benighted creature was caught and devoured by the horrible beasts.
They were, as near as he could fathom it, a day out from their destination. They had stopped as the sun went down and had begun to spread the insulating blanket on the frozen ground, prior to climbing into their sleeping bags beneath the covers made from the chitinous carapaces of the rime-riders. Those covers were the only way for their small expedition to disguise their scent from the vile creatures that roamed the night, but for Jared, they represented the flimsiest protection from the horrors that roamed after dark.
As Jared slipped beneath the protective shell of his rime-rider coverlet, he began to prepare himself for sleep as he always did, praying to Telchur that he would make it to their destination without loss of life. Chad was on his left under his own carapace, and Jared could hear him snoring already. Sebastian had set himself up on his other side, and was chanting to Telchur himself as he got himself ready for sleep. Richard, who apparently didn’t need sleep, because he had elected once again to remain on watch, was prowling about their camp, watching for any marauding creatures that might attack them. The two female warriors, Sandra and Samantha, who had been chosen to accompany them by Richard, had elected to sleep together under the same cover, and were somewhere nearby.
His sleeping bag was thick and warm, its layers of insulation cocooned a warm, cosy interior, and Jared squirmed inside, grateful to be able to leave off his body armor and still stay warm.
Earlier, they had melted the ice and washed themselves, all modesty left behind as the urgency of their trek became paramount, but Jared hadn’t felt really clean since leaving Tenebros, and to escape the armor was a luxury even here in the wilderness.
We’re getting close.
The voice sounded almost as if the speaker was beside him in his shell. He sat up. “Who’s there?”
Did you hear something, Jake?
“Who’s Jake?” Jared looked about himself wildly. There was nobody visible, and Jared knew full well that there would be nobody outside of their small group stupid enough to be out in this Telchur-forsaken spot overnight. He shrugged himself back under the covers and lay down, composing himself for sleep. Hearing voices was about par for the course these days.
Warmth enveloped him. He was drowsy but not yet asleep, but his mind turned to a place he’d never seen, and people he didn’t know. In his mind’s eye, he saw a room that was unlike anything within his experience. There was a console at one end, and several chairs that partially obscured it. He could see a dark skinned man with a patch covering one eye in the background, drinking from a tall bottle with a straw, and then another, whose skin was as pale as the other’s was dark, with a dusting of little, golden dots across his nose.
I keep feel like I’m being watched.
I could watch you forever, Jared thought, and saw the other man jerk, looking around as if someone had spoken to him. “Interesting,” he said to himself, and then sleep took him, obliterating anything further.
~*~
Jared woke earlier than usual the following morning, to the sound of an ice-dragon sniffing around their camp. At one point he swore that the wretched thing stood on him as he lay curled under his covers. It seemed like forever when he finally heard it take to the air and fly off, its harsh, rasping cry signaling its intent to roost.
Studying his astrolabe and mentally calculating their position, he realized that they were almost at their destination. “We’ll be there in a couple of hours unless something nasty holds us up, he called to the others, who were busily packing their sleeping bags and covers onto the sled.
“Can’t be soon enough for me,” grumbled Chad, clapping his hands together to shake off the fresh snow that had fallen in the night. “I like my comforts, and this is really not what you’d call comfortable.”
“Oh, boo hoo,” snapped Sebastian, who was fighting to tie the equipment down onto the sled. “It’ll do you good. Make a man out of you.”
“Ooh!” Sandra, barely visible under the piles of equipment she was carrying, staggered up to the sled. “Will it make one out of me too? I always did want to be able to pee standing up.”
“Oh, just shut up!” Sebastian stuffed her load under the tarp that covered their things. “Let’s just get going.”
“Yeah,” grumbled Chad. “Dunno about you guys, but I can’t wait to see what’s at the other end of this wild goose chase.”
Finally packed away and ready to march, they set off towards their destination. It wasn’t long before Jared heard the voice from last night, even louder than it had been.
Another hour and we’ll be there. Jared wondered who he was, and where he was going, but he didn’t speak, because he needed his breath to stay upright on the rough, uneven ground of the ice field. He could see his destination now, or what he thought was his destination, a tall outcrop of rock that seemed clear of the ice and snow, rearing its dark form above the snowy plain.
“Come on! If we push we can be there in another hour.” The others all groaned, but quickened their pace, and the rocky monolith grew larger and larger as they approached it.
Who are you? Where are you going? This time, he saw ghostly shapes as he heard the words. Frowning, he blinked, attempting to clear his vision, wondering if the cold had affected it somehow.
“I’m Jared, and I’m going to the site of the prophecy. Who are you?”
Jensen, was the reply. Then a woman’s voice called out, Look out! and he heard no more.
~JENSEN~
“Look out!” yelled Katie.
The space in front of them suddenly shimmered and glowed, and before Jensen could attempt to turn them it engulfed them, ship and all. It seemed to Jensen that they were being drawn into a well composed of brilliant colors. It might have been days or only minutes that they spent being sucked into the whirling abyss of the anomaly. Katie crouched by her console, hands pressed over her ears as she whimpered. There was a swelling sound that rose higher and higher, but Jensen stood gazing at the viewscreen. He could see shapes in the flickering colors, a man wrapped in an insulated one piece suit that seemed molded to his well formed body. He wore a helmet that obscured his face, but Jensen craved the sight of him.
“What the hell?” Aldis was picking himself up from the floor, where he’d fallen when they were first dragged into the wormhole. “One minute it wasn’t even there, and the next minute it bit us.”
Traci had poked her head out of the engine room. “I knew there was something there. I wonder where it’s taking us.” She wandered over to peek at the nav console, but the readout made no sense. Numbers flew by without any apparent meaning, and she gave up to stand beside Jensen and watch their progress on the viewscreen.
Their newest crew member gazed in awe from the place where he was sitting. He seemed to be mesmerized by what was happening, but he was the first one to yell when they finally dropped out into space.
“What the fuck?” Jake was pointing, his finger shaking as he indicated the view on the viewscreen. “We’re back where we started!”
Indeed, they could see the shields in the brassy sky above them. Katie had stumbled to her feet, and she peered at the nav con. “Looks like we’re right over the pole,” she said, her voice scratchy.
The ship was losing altitude rapidly, and despite Jensen’s best efforts to pull her up, it continued to fall. “It’s like she’s got a will of her own,” he said. “Aldis, what’s wrong with her?”
“She’s running smoothly. Nothing wrong with the engine.” Aldis stuck his head out from the engine room, where he’d headed when he’d seen Jensen’s troubles.
“She’s coming down. Stand by.” Jensen was still attempting to steer, but the ship seemed to know where it was going, and it came to rest on a plain of glassy silicate, fused by the extreme heat of the sun. From the center - it might even have been the pole, protruded a tall, rocky monolith, flat topped and glittering from the inclusions in the rock.
“I guess we should go find out why we’re here.” That was Traci, and she was already moving to the hatch, intent on leaving the vessel and heading to the nearby monolith. “I read something about this in a very old book. Looks like we’re onto something after all. What did it say?”
“Wait!” Jensen was hurrying, grabbing his laser rifle, his portable shield and his helmet. “You can’t just go out there like that. Go and get yourself suited up.”
She pouted, but obediently went to the locker to find a thermal suit, while Jensen walked out onto the smooth, glassy surface. The heat was almost enough to send him back, and he felt the sweat start, dripping into his eyes. It was only a moment later when a dragon swooped in, obviously thinking he would make a better meal than the sand shrews and foxes that were all that lived in these desolate regions. He aimed his laser rifle and blasted the creature in the one part of the neck that made it vulnerable. It careened down to the ground, and Jensen went to make sure it was actually dead. While he was dealing with it, the others, all now clad in their heat resistant suits, emerged from the shelter of the ship.
“We need to find out why we’re here,” said Jensen.
“This monolith is sending out very similar signals to the anomaly,” announced Traci, consulting a gauge she had in her hand. “There seems to be some kind of feedback loop going on between the two. I’m trying to remember what that old book said. Try for the stars, but find your soul within the earth... something like that anyway.”
“Whatever.” Aldis emerged from the maw of the ship and looked around. “Still bloody hot, isn’t it?”
“Come on. Since we’ve been brought here, I guess we should find out why.” Jake was making for the monolith, beginning to walk around it, and Jensen followed, temporarily suspending his worry that they would be too late to act in any way that would benefit the people who were still expecting their help.
Up close, the monolith seemed to glow, radiating light from somewhere within its silicate interior. There were glowing silver veins, tiny, sparkling patches like gems and other areas that seemed to absorb the light entirely, presenting a black, velvety appearance that mirrored space itself.
“Wow.” Jensen raised his hand to run a gloved finger across one such patch and heard the same utterance inside his mind, spoken by that other whose thoughts he’d experienced earlier.
“Hey, come see this!” Jake was shouting from somewhere on the opposite side of the monolith, and Jensen took off running, hoping to make sure that Jake was okay.
“Jake! What the fuck? Why have you separated from the group?” He ran faster when there was no reply, and Aldis followed, both of them very aware of the dangers that lurked. It was further than it had looked, and as they rounded the jagged corner, Jensen could see a very dangerous situation unfolding in front of him. Jake was crouching with his back to the basalt of the monolith, and above him were two of the dragons, while drawing up towards him was a wyrm.
“Got your blaster?” Aldis was pulling his laser rifle off his back as he spoke, and without a further word he dropped to his knees and sighted, firing at the closest dragon and virtually severing its head from its shoulders. Jensen ran on, hoping to get close enough to take out the wyrm, since Jake seemed to be dealing with the second dragon.
He fired, fired again, watched as the wyrm shook off the effects of his attack and redoubled its attempts to get to Jake. Diamond teeth glittered in the shimmering heat. Jake finally succeeded in bringing the second dragon down, but the wyrm was close now, rearing above Jake, triangular head set to strike as Jensen sent one last blast from his laser rifle. It was too late. Jake fired too, scoring a shot deep in the creature’s gullet, and the wyrm shrieked and bent to impale him on its fangs even as it writhed in its death throes. Blood, rich and red, spattered the rock against which Jake was lying. All Jensen could do was watch, helpless as the wyrm’s poison did its work, leaving the two lying together in death.
Jensen was about to order them all back to the ship, when he caught sight of what must have been the thing Jake had been so excited about.
There was a perfectly symmetrical six pointed star carved into the face of the monolith, and unlike the basalt that surrounded it, the star was glowing red. “Aldis, look,” he said, and just at that moment he heard the voice again.
Chad, look!
~*~
~JARED~
“Chad, Look!”
Jared touched the face of the massive rock, and jerked his hand back as if he’d been bitten, fingertips tingling as if some electric current had passed through them.
“The damned thing bit me when I touched it.”
“Huh?” Chad reached out and poked at the spot where Jared had placed his fingers, then shrugged and laid his hand against it. “See, it likes me. I think it wants me to pet it.”
“Weird.” Reaching out to touch it again, the shock to Jared’s hand was even stronger this time, sending him staggering back and away from the rock and onto the ice.
Sebastian had rounded the pillar and was talking with Richard, who was a few steps behind him, when there was a deafening screech, and a dragon — most likely the dragon that they had eluded during the night — dropped like an arrow towards where Chad stood, prodding and stroking the rock in an attempt to make it treat him the way it had treated Jensen.
Jared scrambled backwards on his ass, yelling for Chad and fumbling for his blaster, which had fallen from its holster to land underneath him. He had hit the ground half on it, and his hip was at that very moment complaining about it. He rolled, grabbed for it, firing as he went. At the same time, Richard yelled out a warning, and Sebastian fired, searing rays emitting from his blaster.
Too late. Chad was turning, in the act of looking around to see what the yelling was all about, when the dragon hit. The combined fire was enough to boil the dragon’s icy blood, but the momentum of its dive continued, and the thing barreled into Chad, crushing him against the rock face, smearing the stony surface with blood and ichor in equal measure as the dragon, dead by now, collided with the man it had intended to devour.
Jared was never more grateful for the suit he wore. Spattered with the dragon’s juices, he knew that if it touched his skin it would eat through within seconds. It didn’t help his vision, however. There were liberal spatters across his visor, and he fumbled with smoking gloves to wipe it clean enough to see through the craters it left in the plexiglass..
It was Richard who came over to spray him clean with a canister of compressed air and help him to his feet as he looked at the place where Chad had died. There was no way to recover his friend’s body, because the dragon’s corrosive blood was already dissolving it, but the place against the cliff was covered in blood that was already crystallizing in the cold. He stumbled over to it, lifted a hand to touch.
“Awww, Chad,” he mumbled.
As his hand touched the rock, there was a sound that emanated from somewhere deep within the monolith and vibrated the earth around them. It was the kind of deep resonant tolling that made the teeth ache and rattled the earth around them. There were cracking sounds as icicles dropped and the ice field began to shatter. There were higher sounds, tinkling as the shards of ice began to raise up in a crazy dance that seemed to be a response to the noise.
Jared felt a tingle in his hand, and would have pulled it back, except that it seemed to be stuck, indeed, it seemed to be sinking into the rock. The others had all gathered around him by now, and Jared pulled, trying to step back. It seemed that resisting hastened the process, and Jared found that his entire arm was almost engulfed before he realized.
He still felt the pull, but could find no way of halting it. Sandy and Sam tried firing at the rock, but there was no discernible effect. As his head was slowly engulfed, Jared thought he heard Richard whisper, “The Prophecy.”
~JENSEN~
“The Prophecy.”
Jensen wasn’t quite sure where the voice was coming from. He looked around but could only see Aldis, who was anxiously scanning the skies in case of another attack. Traci and Katie were just rounding the monolith, and too far away to have spoken.
“I think this thing is playing tricks with my hearing,” he said, reaching to touch the glowing star. “Maybe this hunk of rock here somehow amplifies speech, and someone out there in the desert said something about a prophecy. Did you hear it?”
“I didn’t hear anything.” Aldis shook his head as he turned towards Jensen. And then, “Hold on, Jensen! Don’t—”
As Jensen’s fingertips met the shining motif in the rock, the glow from it intensified and flared, enveloping Jensen in brilliant light. There was a singing in his ears as if some high energy power source was beginning to overload. He felt weightless, unable to move as his body was first pulled back against the rock and then, much to his horror, into it.
There were cries in the distance, first Aldis’s, and then, as his faded, others. The fear he’d been feeling earlier faded as what was happening to him seemed not to be harmful. He felt as though he was floating in the light that surrounded him, and somehow he knew that he was the sun. He could feel the great anger possessing him even though it was not his own, the desire to burn everything there was. He drew a breath and tried to calm himself down.
“No. That isn’t right.” He thought of the battles his crew had faced against their rapacious sun, of Ty, whose bravery had saved their lives at the expense of his own. Of Katie, who would probably never marry the one she loved, and of Jake, who had died so senselessly. He recalled his guitar, wished for it right then and there, so he could play some of his favorite songs to show just how much beauty there was in the world and beyond. He thought of the beauty he found in space, the distant stars he might never visit, and the wonders of the one which he called home, and felt a faint regret and deep sadness replace the previous fury he had been sensing.
The light faded, slowly muting until he could open his eyes at last and look around.
He was lying on the floor in a cavern, or so it seemed. The remaining light was soft and did not appear to emanate from a particular source, it just was. The walls of the place where he now found himself were the same black, faintly gleaming rock that the monolith was made from. On one side was a wall of a different material. It too had an inner sheen, but it appeared to be translucent, something like the plexiglass modesty screens that were used to keep out prying eyes in showers and bed-spaces back at the barracks.
Shrugging, he sat up, methodically moving each separate part as he checked himself over to make sure nothing was injured or missing. For a while he worked in silence, then suddenly the voice he’d been hearing on and off for the last little while suddenly said, “What do you want from me?”
~JARED~
“What do you want from me?”
Pulled into the rock, Jared found himself flailing impotently, unable to fathom where his limbs were in the apparent void where he was suspended. There was darkness all around him, suffocating and unrelenting, and when he called out, he felt a great sadness press upon him, a futility of being that was so all consuming that he cried out wordlessly.
Time passed slowly, and Jared sank into a listless melancholy, at first unable to shake off the depression that threatened to devour him. It took all he had to resist the sense of aimless loss and push back. Whatever was pushing the feelings on him, they weren’t his. He was lively, active rather than lethargic. His whole life had been of finding joy in life. He imagined the excitement of battling the wyrms, of outwitting them and saving his people. He recalled the joy he felt when he exercised, feeling the smooth muscles work at his command and the way that the endorphins that bathed his muscles felt following a workout. He thought of his appreciation for the beauty of his dying world and his desperate desire to save it from the destruction that seemed so inevitable. He recalled love from his family and the way that music made him want to dance. He remembered sex and the pleasure of it.
The devastating numbness gradually eased and the faint beginnings of curiosity took their place. Slowly, a faint light began to radiate, growing stronger by degrees. Jared felt solid ground beneath him, and as he looked around himself he finally began to distinguish his whereabouts.
Hematite surrounded him, and to his right he could see a glowing wall that seemed to be made of ice in which granules of gold had been suspended. Pushing himself up to standing, he crossed the room to take a look at it.
“What is this? Am I a prisoner?”
He jumped back in surprise. His voice apparently had an echo — or maybe not. Peering through the icy wall, he could see movement.
He stepped back up close and squinted to try and make out who or what was on the other side of the barrier. It wasn’t possible to make out details, but it was plain that the presence on the other side of the wall was humanoid and that it was trying to see through the wall too. He lifted his hand, poked at the wall and there was a little flare of light. Frowning, he did it again and a further lightshow was his reward. After a few moments, he dropped his arm as the creature on the other side of the wall emulated him, creating what seemed to be multicolored sparks on his side.
“Let’s try this,” he murmured, stripping off one of his gloves. He raised his hand, unsure of what he was doing, and on the opposite side he could see the other mirroring his actions. As their palms came together on each side of the barrier, there was a dull booming sound as if a huge gong had been struck, and for a moment, the very rock beneath them trembled, then, with a loud crack, the barrier between the two of them split, shattered, flew apart in so many shards and gradually vanished, leaving the two of them frozen where they stood, palm pressed against palm.
Jared stared at the creature before him. He was human, that much was obvious, and he was beautiful, with wide green eyes, thickly fringed with dark lashes, and a nose that might once have been straight but which had apparently been broken somewhere down the line, because there was the slightest kink in it. His mouth, currently forming a shocked ‘o’, was lush, with candy-pink lips, full and plump. He wore a sand colored jumpsuit with many pockets and loops for equipment. As Jared stared in admiration, the vision spoke.
“What just happened?”
“I don’t know. I think it’s part of the prophecy.” Jared couldn’t take his eyes off the other man. “I’m Jared,” he added, extending his hand towards the other.
There was a brief tingling as the other took it. The gong like sound came again and both men shivered.
“I... Hi. I’m Jensen.” Jared still had hold of Jensen’s hand. It felt warm in his grasp, and as though it fit. He didn’t want to let it go. Jensen gazed down on where their hands were joined and blushed. “What are you doing here in this god-forsaken part of Calidor?”
“Calidor? What’s Calidor?” Jared frowned. “Until about half an hour ago I was standing in an ice field, looking up at a big piece of rock I found at the ass-end of Tenebros and wondering whether the rest of my crew were going to be able to make it back without any more casualties.”
“Calidor’s my world, and my team and I were trying to save it. Somehow we ended up here, too. I already lost my navigator, not that I need him to find my way home on my own world.” Jared squeezed the hand that he still held, then attempted to pull it away. It wasn’t happening. Try as he might to release Jensen, he couldn’t do it, in fact their hands seemed to be held together by some compulsion.
“That’s weird.” Jared muttered, slowly relaxing his muscles as he stopped fighting against the force that had them bound together.
“Tell me what hasn’t been weird about this whole thing.”Jensen said, smirking. “The one thing I’m getting from the experience is that we might as well do what it wants us to do, because there’s no point in fighting it.”
“We’re a part of the prophecy,” said Jared. “We’re supposed to bring the world back to life.”
~JENSEN~
“A prophecy?” Jensen thought back to the things that Traci had said during their flight to the anomaly. He didn’t think she’d mentioned a prophecy per se, but he hadn’t really been listening, so anxious had he been to find a way of rescuing his people. She’d been going on about something once they’d landed too. He wracked his brains, trying to remember it and decide whether it was something important.
“Yeah.” Jared fumbled a piece of paper from a pocket in his sleeve, spreading the folds open awkwardly with one hand. “A soldier will come to command the wards, anointing them with blood. He will break through the barrier and find the Golden One. When the two become one, the barriers will fall, the sun will be restored, and Tenebros will become Aurora. Then light and dark will join together to become whole once again.”
As he read, his voice took on a hollow quality, the sound of it reverberating around the chamber in which they stood, and by the time he was done both were well aware that something utterly beyond their knowledge was happening.
“So you and I...” Jensen’s voice was soft, but that same echo sounded at his words.
“I’m guessing that you’re the golden one,” said Jared, smiling.
“And if we become one, the worlds will be saved?” Jensen was shaking his head. “This sounds like really bad sci-fi. Think MST3K level bad, only we’re missing the robots, and they’re the ones that made the show fun.” He looked at Jared with pursed lips, an open appraisal in his eyes. For a long time he studied Jared’s lean form, but finally his expression softened, and he grinned. “I usually demand at least dinner and a movie before I put out.”
“I’ll owe you one, I promise.” Jared began to unlock the magnetic strips that secured his thermal suit, and Jensen’s eyes widened as his movements began to reveal the sinewy, whipcord muscles that lay like ropes on his broad shoulders, gradually exposing the man’s powerful chest. Jensen watched him, fascinated, and then began to emulate him.
His heart was beginning to pound, and he felt unaccountably nervous. He was not a small man by any means, but he felt unaccountably fragile next to this young, beautiful giant.
As Jared’s suit slowly came away from his body, Jensen held his breath, his eyes half closed as he watched, dry mouthed. His own suit unfastened with a single zipper that ran from neck to groin once the studs were popped open, and he loosened his cuffs in order to allow the fabric to slither to the ground, leaving him clad only in the shirt and cotton underwear he was wearing beneath it. The weapons followed, hitting the basalt with a clatter, and he bent to unfasten his boots so that he could step out of them.
As if their intentions had been understood, once they began to strip, their clasped hands came free again, and Jared, naked now, reached out the hand that had been held captive to run it down over Jensen’s chest as he struggled to get free of the heavy, magnetic soled boots. Jensen grinned. “They’re made for zero gravity,” he said. “Designed to hold me steady against the hull of my ship in cases where we lose the gravitron. They aren’t meant to be easy to take off.” He wobbled and almost fell as he tugged at one of the recalcitrant straps. Jared reached to steady him, and held him steady until finally the boots were off and so was the suit.
“And now...” Jared bent to heap up their clothing, making what he could of a soft pad on which the two of them could lie. “Guess we need to become one. I hope it doesn’t mean actually merging or anything. I kinda like my body the way it is. Not that you aren’t hot and all. It’s just...”
“God! Shut up!” Jensen tackled him back against the pile of fabric. “I get it, I do but there’s no other way we’re going to find out, so we might as well get to it. There doesn’t seem to be any way of getting out of here otherwise.”
He leaned forward for a tentative kiss, and his lips caught Jared’s. There followed a hot slide of tongues, mouths clinging as Jared melted against him. Jared laughed softly, but the sound was desperate, jarring, and Jensen could feel his muscles tense up under the smooth, pale skin.
“It’ll be okay,” whispered Jensen, reaching to pet the long, silky strands of his hair. “”We’re not going to die. That just doesn’t make sense in terms of a rebirth. Isn’t that what your prophecy is all about? Rebirth.”
“It didn’t work out so well for Chad,” muttered Jared, images of the dreadful moment when he realized that he would be too late to save his friend.
“I’m guessing that the prophecy needed a blood sacrifice. It took Jake too. I couldn’t save him.” Jensen kissed Jared again, a little more forcefully this time, his tongue first probing, then invading the hot, moist space behind Jared’s lips. He could feel Jared’s response in the way the other man’s cock was pressing against his belly, the way that it poured slick on him as he undulated against Jensen. Reaching down to cup Jared’s buttocks, he pulled Jared up against him, feeling his own desire beginning to swell. He was taken by surprise when Jared suddenly rolled the two of them over and claimed the upper hand.
Jensen’s gasp was swallowed as Jared cupped his face with both hands and began to lay biting kisses all over his face. To Jensen, the heat from Jared’s body felt even more blinding than the heat beyond the shields had been, and Jensen gave himself up to be consumed in it at last, arms clasping and clinging desperately to the body that was pressed so tightly against him.
Jared moaned, a sharp, needy moan, and Jensen knew exactly what was needed, raising his knees and wrapping his legs tightly around Jared’s slim hips. He could feel Jared’s cock, sliding, questing, seeking some place to claim. A swift wriggle of his hips, and Jensen managed to position it so that it was pressing against his opening, battering his cleft and sliding, forcing him open, its slick juices enabling it to push inside him.
He thought it hurt, but the pleasure of it was enough that he didn’t care. He felt stretched, burned by the invading flesh, and he gasped as Jared pushed deeper inside, dragging over something sensitive that shot sensation through him, sweet tingles that fizzed the length of his spine. He cried out and clung harder, his heels pressing Jared deeper inside until there wasn’t even a fraction of an inch that wasn’t encased in his body.
Neither of them noticed, so deeply entwined themselves, when vines pushed themselves free of the smooth basalt surface the two of them lay on and began to grow, curling around them, there in that place that had never seen daylight. Tendrils sought and found sensitive areas of their flesh, tickling at testicles that were tightening, drawing up as they made ready to burst their juices, insinuating themselves into any openings and orifices they found to deliver flickers of added pleasure to the lovemaking, teasing into the wet slit of Jensen’s cock and probing Jared’s ass even while they tightened around the two men, tying them tightly together.
As the two men writhed together, lost in sensation as they steadily approached their release, the ground began to shake, and the deep, bell-like sound filled the air again. There were other sounds, rustling, groaning, and creaking as the two sundered worlds began to rearrange themselves.
Jensen was the first to come, body tightening, muscles locking as the sweet explosion of sensation forced him to arch up, face contorted in pleasure as he spilled, jets of semen burst to spatter the length of his torso. One, two forceful, plunging thrusts later, Jared followed, his cock driven deep inside the slick channel as his own juices filled Jensen.
There was a sharp cracking sound, and the rock that surrounded them split, allowing a shaft of wildly fluctuating daylight to illuminate the two of them as they lay entwined. The rift in the rock and the subsequent quake had broken it into halves, creating a way through to the now open clearing in the center. From one side came Katie, shoving her way over the rubble that littered her path to reach where the two men lay. From the other side came Richard, who seemed a little less astonished at what had happened.
“Who the hell are you?” Katie was the first to reach the tangled mass of greenery that was all that could be seen of Jared and Jensen. Seeing the mass moving, she dropped to her knees and pulled out a knife to cut away the smothering greenery that shrouded them.
“Wait. Don’t cut it.” Richard knelt at the other side and began to unravel the vines carefully, disentangling them from the two bodies. “This first life is precious. It will set the tone for the world that has been made new.”
Frowning, Katie began to emulate him, and between the two of them they soon uncovered Jared and Jensen, who still lay clasped together, apparently now sleeping, their blissed-out faces telling their own tale.
Sebastian and Aldis were summoned to help carry their sleeping bodies out from the center of the rock formation and lay them down on the sled that had brought Jared’s equipment so far across the ice. The sun above them was slowly setting, although its appearance was still oscillating, first fierce, then dimming to almost nothing as each minute passed. It was fast approaching darkness as the two men were set down on a very changed landscape. The ice was melting fast, and tender green shoots of grass were beginning to show through. There was a fine drizzle in the air, and Katie stopped to raise her face up to this new and unfamiliar sensation. Traci, who had remained on the outside to watch for predators, rushed over to peer down at the two men. “They did it! They really did it.”
Jared had begun to stir, and he opened his eyes just as Jensen moaned and raised his head. “What happened?”
“I think the earth moved,” muttered Jared.
“You’re probably going to notice that it’s a little cooler than it was,” said Traci, gesturing to Jensen’s state of undress. Katie giggled and handed Jensen his clothes, pausing to purse her lips and whistle.
“I always wondered what you were packing,” she giggled. “Very nice. Who’s the other guy.”
Looking around at the assembled group that seemed much larger than the team he had traveled with, Jared blushed deep red and hastily began to pull on his own insulated suit. “I’m Jared,” he muttered, moving closer to Jensen.
Jensen was looking around himself in wonder. “We did it,” he said. “We restored the world.”
“And I found you,” said Jared sliding his hand around Jensen’s neck to pull him into a long, unhurried kiss.
“And so the worlds were made new and became one,” intoned Richard, causing everyone save the two lovers to look at him in confusion. “That’s what the prophecy said. The worlds will be made one, and it will be named Aurora.”
“”According to my calculations, the shift across the dimensions began when the monolith cracked and should be complete in 18 minutes.” Traci was looking at her hand held device as she spoke, and turned to Katie and Aldis with a smile. “Calidor will no longer be in danger, and the sun will bring life rather than death in its rays.”
“Calidor?” Sebastian looked up with a frown. “Our world is Tenebros.”
“Not any more.” Richard pointed to the melting ice, and to the greenery that was forcing its way through the rapidly dwindling ice. “This is a new world. Aurora.”
And indeed, up in the darkening sky, the green and silver curtains of an aurora unfolded themselves to hang above them as a blessing.
