The Journal of a Connecticut Yankee Ch. 12

Author's Note:

So yeah, I'm still alive. Reports of my demise have been greatly under exaggerated. Me tripping off the curb and getting hit by an Alp driving a Smart Car? Really guys?

Anyway I'm back, I'm on pills, yay. This chapters 20k+ words, longest I've written. Wanna throw a big special thank you out to Moongrim for his collaboration in the scenes with Arawn and his not- brothers as well as for letting me use one of his main villains. Also want to say thank you to the lovely and amazing Miss K- for consoling me to write at my own pace and not rush things.

•••••••••••••••

continued...

"Whoa, whoa, hold up a minute!" I exclaimed as I held up my hands. Folding my fingers until just both my index fingers were up, I continued,

"First, let me say how freaking awesome it is to see all you guys, Tetris-"

"Tertius." He corrected with a slight cross expression.

"Right, sorry. Tertius, how are you? Aaaand...," I looked and pointed to the other two not-brothers. One was wearing blue mechanics coveralls while the other a deep maroon, high neck tunic of sorts.

"Quartus and Quintus? Looking suave as a usual!"

I did a quick head count, we were missing someone...

"Where the hell is my fanboy, Secundus?!"

Arawn and his not brothers all glanced at each other before Arawn himself answered slowly, "Secundus "survived" our demise and was reborn."

"Reborn?"

He nodded with a wry smile, "Yes, it seems that our destines are are more interwoven than even I could have imagined as you have already met the being he was reborn into."

"Who?" I frowned trying to guess. Oh god, please don't let it have been Devin. Please, don't let my shitty luck be THAT shitty!

"I believe you know him as Allen Belushi, the male Dragon."

My eyes bulged at his answer.

"Fucking serious?"

Everyone nodded.

"Holy shit," I breathed and sat back, my mind reeling. My fanboy did me one more solid by saving my ass on that cliff, who would have guessed?

"You seem confused." Arawn commented while Tertius, Quartus and Quintus each grabbed a chair and sat at the table.

"No... I guess more like stunned? I owe Allen my life for stopping me. I guess it's just shocking that we met after all that time had passed..."

"As I said before, Donnie, it would seem our destines are greatly intertwined." He remarked with a smile as he joined his not-brothers in picking at the food. Three more mugs of beer appeared suddenly for them.

Hopefully my boy was picking up the tab for all this, but then again, it was my dream, so probably I was.

"Okay," I sighed, "shocking revelation number four down, hopefully that's it for the night?"

"For tonight, yes."

Fucking fabulous.

"So how are we all doing this? Couple karate lessons from Tertius, maybe some other stuff from the rest of you guys and I'm good?"

Tertius choked and nearly spit out the beer he was drinking as I said that. While I patted him on the back, the rest look to Arawn in amusement.

"Not in that fashion, no. You shall spend two years with each of us as we teach you various methods of physical, mental and magical defense and offense. I would prefer more time than that, but we will have to make due. You shall be the last being that has the knowledge of the Annwyfn."

"Years?! Arawn! I got like a week, maybe two with my kids before I'm off to England. You're talking about eight years! That's not gonna fly!"

Everyone smiled at my near freak out making me think I missed out on an inside joke.

"Rest assured Donnie, the time span will be in the dream world, not in the waking one. Have you ever noticed how in some dreams, time lasts a very short while? And others, potentially longer than you have slept?" Quartus asked.

"Kinda... Yeah," I brought a hand up to my chin and squinted in consideration, "I know that date with Ilias should have taken more time than I was asleep for..."

"Exactly. As you sleep, I will be able to manipulate time in your dreams to allow us to train you. You will experience a full year in only eight hours."

If anyone else had said that to me, I would have called them bat shit crazy. But knowing the small amount of what I knew of Arawn and his not-brothers and of what they've done, they could say just about anything to me and I'd believe them.

"Mmm, that's some Dragon Ball Z, hyperbolic time chamber shit right there," I remarked reaching for my almost empty beer.

"Only without the limitations of entering it more than twice in a lifetime." Quartus interrupted with a smile. All of Arawn's not-brothers turned and looked at him silently.

"Oh do not judge me! I needed something to pass the time when I was on watch." he grumbled.

"So eight nights, huh? Are you guys sure you can pull this off?" I asked, ignoring Quartus ground breaking confession that he was a DBZ fan.

"The manipulation of a dream is easy enough. Telepathy, Telekinesis and Psychic aspects being a speciality of mine, I am sure." Quintus answered.

"Kinda curious, but who or what is it you guys are training me to take on? You said that I would die, who's going to kill me?"

"Do you remember the words uttered by Druella, the last time you saw her?" Arawn asked.

"She uttered a lot of words along with a slap to my face but yeah, why?"

"When you publicly announced that you were a member of the royal family and assisted the Maou in the merging of the two worlds, you set into motion a series of events and multitude of possibilities. There will be beings that will want to aggressively thank you, as well as others that will seek to exact revenge. Furthermore there will be those that will wish to take advantage of your stature and knowledge. All possibilities pose a deadly danger to you in one form or another." He answered.

"So exactly all sunshine and rainbows, huh?" I remarked dryly to everyone.

"No, which is why it is our intent to properly prepare you for the various situations you may encounter." said Tertius.

"And the fact that I have Winona, won't mean a thing?"

"In the old world, your firearm gave you a significant advantage over others. Currently, that advantage is now moot. Even with it, without our training and to use a euphemism, it would be equivalent to you going into battle with a water gun."

I winced internally. That bad huh?

"Alright, you guys sold me," I sighed, "so when do we start? Tonight?"

"We shall begin your instruction tomorrow night. For now, I believe we have darkened this reunion enough." Arawn remarked.

Looking to his not-brothers he smiled and raised his mug,

"To a successful indoctrination of Donnie, and a more pleasant future."

Tertius, Quartus and Quintus raised their own. Looking down, I saw that without my noticing, I had gotten a refill.

"To good friends, good drinks, good food, evening the the odds... and flipping Fate the bird!" I added.

Knocking our mugs into each other, we celebrated our plans to not only defy the powers that be, but also in keeping my ass alive.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••

July 7th.

"Donnie, breakfast." Called a voice with a few knocks on the door, stirring me from my sleep.

My eyes slowly opened, and I swore I could taste beer in my mouth along with the lingering headache of a hangover. Jesus, what a fucking dream. Was it a dream? I looked over to my side. Nothing. No green stone. I guess it was too much to expect something like that, being reunited with old friends, them helping me out. Just wasn't that lucky.

Pulling myself up, I let out a sigh as I cupped my face in my hands to massage out the drowsiness, and prepare for the day ahead. Standing, I heard the sound of something hitting the floor near my feet. Looking down, what did my eyes see? A round, emerald green stone. Bending down, I snatched it and held it up to the morning light.

It was real and it was fucking beautiful. The dream, the celebration, Quintus barfing cuz he chugged 5 mugs in a row on a dare, all of it. Just as Arawn promised. For the first time, in as long as I can remember, I felt the odds tilting to my favor. My boy... My boys were out there somewhere. Sure they were some Star Wars Force ghost whatevers, but they were out there and we had some mighty big plans to work on.

I felt an evil smile grow on my face. We were gonna fuck some shit up and throw up the biggest middle finger in the universe to Fate, the status quo, the Maou and to anyone else in our way. I no longer feared or stressed on what lay ahead. If my thoughts were right, this was gonna be one for the history books...

Throwing on my clothes, I made my way down to the dining room to find everyone there enjoying breakfast. Deanna and Vicky smiled warmly at me, Didi wished me a good morning and George simply ignored my presence. I sat down next to my grandaughter, whom was already wolfing down her food with a fork in one hand and phone in other.

I found out that it was a Saturday, much to my mild shock. Things were so crazy as of late, that I was just counting dates, not the days. The family had a tradition of eating breakfast together every weekend. It was something normal, wholesome and domestic. Something I really wasn't used to and not for the first time, did I question if this was a semblance of a life that I could go back to living.

Deanna brought out a plate laden with pancakes stacked high, dripping with syrup, bacon, eggs, sausage and toast. A true lumber jack meal.

"Try them," she urged quietly, "mother always tried to get the recipe right but she said she never could."

I cut a piece off from the large, stacked circle and took a bite. It was good, really good, but I could tell they weren't the same as mine. Close though.

"You both used sugar in the recipe, didn't you?" I asked as I took another bite.

She nodded as I swallowed and smiled knowingly.

"We didn't have sugar back then. Wasn't widely available unless you were in a city that sat on a good trade route. Try using honey."

Deannas mouth dropped open as I said that. I had to smile even wider at my revelation to her that there were no such things as supermarkets back in the day. The shock quickly changed to a glare as she peered over to a certain purple ponytailed girl sitting next to me.

"Vicky! What did I tell you about phones at the table! This is family time!"

"Maou, mom," she rolled her eye, "I'm almost done eating anyway. What's the big deal?"

"It's an hour out of the whole day where we spend time together and actually talk with each other. That's the big deal." She replied sternly.

Ah, Mamono with 21st century problems. I felt another smile grow on my face and a warm feeling flow throughout. The reservations in the pit of my stomach disappeared as I realized that I felt happy with these people. I felt safe. A true rarity in my life. Was it because I was in your house, Victoria? Was it because I was with our children?

"What the-"

Vicky all but slammed the phone's screen into her eye as she read aloud, "We're done. I'm breaking up with you and keep your new psycho cousin boyfriend the fuck away from me..."

I thought I told that dumb fuck that I wasn't her boyfriend. Oh well, maybe I ended up giving him more brain damage than he already had. I grumpily shoved another piece of pancake laden with syrup into my mouth while pondering if it would have been more merciful to have just killed him.

"New psycho cousin boyfriend...?" She asked confused, but then realization hit as out of the corner of my eye, I could see her head slowly turn. I felt more than saw her gaze burning a hole in me.

Fuck.

My chewing slowed, then stopped all together as every single eye at the table was upon us and the unasked question in the air.

My silence answered her.

"Oh my fucking Maou! You're such an asshole, Donnie!" She screamed as she pulled herself from the table and ran out of the room crying.

Did I feel guilty about interfering with Vicky's relationship? If I had to be honest with you, no. Call me an asshole, call me a dick, whatever. But in this instance, I'll take a page from our friends in The Order and be a little holier than thou on this occasion by saying it was for her own good.

I felt the table move once more as George got up and marched up to me with his fists balled up tightly.

"Was that your doing?" He asked, his voice harsh and full of emotion.

I carefully weighed my options. He was pissed that I made his little girl cry. I could get that. I really could. However getting my ass kicked by an angry incubus wasn't exactly on my morning schedule but I didn't want to fight him. Not here, not in Victoria's home with our kids watching. My only hope was that either Deanna or Didi would intervene before things got too bad. Incubi tended to be much stronger than normal humans and fighting him would only end up with me getting my ass kicked. Taking a breath, I turned in my seat to face him.

"Yes," I answered evenly, staring up at him, eye to eye. Devin was a scum bag. Trash. He didn't deserve Vicky and I had no remorse for what I did. I was willing to accept the consequences for my actions.

He started to breathe heavily, as his arms went wide with an expected punch. My eyes shut instinctively, it was an annoying habit of mine that I wished I could stop. However, instead of a bone breaking blow, I was enveloped in his arms as he started to sob.

"Thank you." He whispered hoarsely.

My eyes popped open to see a mass of red hair and to find myself in an uncomfortably firm squeeze.

"Uh..." I said in shock. Not sure of what I should do, I awkwardly brought up a hand and lightly patted him on the back.

"I hated him," he mumbled, "there were so many times I wanted to just beat him to hell, but I knew Vicky would never forgive me."

"He really wasn't a good man, we tried to talk some sense into her but she wouldn't listen." Deanna added while smiling at the interaction between us.

"He was a little prick, De." Didi muttered into her cup of coffee as she watched the scene. Somehow I got the feeling both my daughters were amused by it.

"If Donnie hadn't done whatever he did, I was probably going to call in a favor and get him arrested.

"Just uh, doing my part..." I said still patting George's back. This was getting very awkward, but I suppose it was better than what I had originally thought would happen.

Things seemed to change after that moment between George and myself. I was pretty sure he still didn't believe my story but at least he didn't hate my guts. I called it a win.

We finished our meal after deciding it was best to give Vicky some time. I helped clear the table as George went to mow the lawn and Didi to check in on Vicky.

"I was wondering if you had any pictures of Victoria or maybe some family photos?" I asked shyly to Deanna as I put the dishes in the sink. Even though they had a dishwasher, it seemed that she still preferred to hand wash.

"I do," she smiled brightly as she washed, "actually I was planning on showing you them afterwards."

We spent the afternoon looking at an old picture album. I learned that a few years after the Maou had opened the gateway to Earth, Victoria immigrated to Earth. She told Deanna and Didi that it was for a better life, that Earth had more opportunity and advancement than their world.

Wonder who gave her that idea?

"From Japan, She was able to get us visas to come to America. I remember her telling us that she wanted to go to Connecticut but then the immigration officer at the dock in San Francisco told her it was a bad idea. There was a lot of fear and mistrust of Mamono at the time, especially on the east coast. She said we would all be in danger if we went. I remember how sad she was. She really wanted to go there. At the time, I didn't know why." Deanna gave me a sad smile as another mystery of her family was finally solved that day and with a teary eye, she embraced me.

She couldn't get anything from the Royal Maki so she decided to take things into her own hands. Why Victoria? An idiot like me didn't deserve your love. Yet you took our daughters and went looking for me. A hundred years too early to boot. I didn't know whether to laugh or to cry at it all.

"So we ended up settling here. There were a lot of Mamono immigrants at the time, so it was much safer. Mother took odd jobs fixing farm equipment and repairing things. Eventually she started up her own business. It was hard at first, but we made it work. Made enough money to buy the house, live comfortably. She had the reputation of being one of the best mechanics in the area." Deanna finished proudly.

"H-How..." I stopped and took a second to compose myself, "How did she deal with her fear of being outside? She was an agoraphobe."

Deanna nodded with a knowing grin.

"She was able to get a calming medicine from a Hakutaku doctor friend of hers. It worked enough so she could travel, but what also helped was her treasured lucky hat," Deanna smiled as she pointed to it, "Whenever we would go out, she would wear it."

As I continued to look through the faded pictures, I saw an older Victoria. Wrinkles here and there where I remembered none. Flipping through the pages, she aged with every turn. That purple hair of hers greying ever so slightly. In all the ones that were taken outside, she wore a ragged baseball hat. My hat.

That hat. That god damn hat. I remember buying it on a whim at Walmart the day before the accident that somehow brought me to their world. The Connecticut Tigers, they were minor league baseball, kinda crappy, but I wanted to show a little local team spirit.

Then there was the day she went with me to help salvage what was left of my car, all those years ago. How she barely kept herself from freaking out. How her eye would dart around constantly and how she would jump at any little sound. I told her I could do it alone but being the stubborn woman she was, she still went with me. How I found it under some trash in the back seat and, in the spur of the moment, slapped it on her head. Her horn pierced through its top and in shock of the alien thing on her head, her nervousness faded. She never threw it away.

I added nostalgia to the hodgepodge of feelings that I was suppressing inside. After everything that was done, she was looking for me, she still loved me. She still loved me...

That evening we ate dinner together minus Vicky. George barbecued. Made pretty decent burgers. Deanna and Didi did their best, but my grandaughter still didn't want to come out of her room. You may ask; was I sorry now?

For putting her through that, yes. But not for my actions, if that makes any sense. The guy was trash and he didn't deserve her. Take it for whatever it's worth.

Afterwards, that night, as I laid down in bed, I took out the green stone that Arawn had somehow given me.

"See you soon guys." I whispered as I clutched onto it and closed my eyes.

•••••••••••••••••••

The first night.

I found myself in a grey padded room. The floor and walls were all covered with thick pillows, above was illuminated by bright light panels. For a brief, fearful moment, I thought I was back in the asylum but thankfully I saw Tertius in his white karate gi standing some feet away. Looking down, I saw myself dressed in the same manner but where my belt was white, his was black- but we're not just talking any kind of black, boys and girls. It was like a black hole, giving off no shine, no reflection, nothing. A true void- like the darkness between the stars. This guy didn't just write the book; he grew the fucking tree and chopped it down to make the paper to write the goddamn book.

"Welcome, Donnie," he bowed, "we will start our first phase in your training with combat basics..."

And thus it began, a years worth of training and instruction rolled into a single 8 hour night. From the most simple to the most advanced of moves, I learned. Time seemed to meld and flow together. Days, weeks, months, they had no meaning, it was surreal yet not. I didn't tire, nor grow hungry or thirsty and in that time, I learned punches, throws, kicks, and the like. Proper form and technique, even strategies.