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He couldn't believe it at first, but just the fact that Gabriel Sullivan had sought him out in a peaceful manner had made him sit down and listen to the man who looked so different from the last time they'd seen each other. This encounter was completely different from their last, very violent, meeting. He'd sat down, listening to the story the other man told him, and by the end of it he was shocked, refusing to believe it without evidence to back up the claim.
Gabriel had surprisingly agreed to the tests, and Gibbs had asked Ducky to do it in a discreet manner, as a personal favor. He didn't know how it was done without the other party's knowledge, but all Gibbs knew was that the results had come back in.
The moment he'd read them he'd torn out of the office and was on the first flight out of D.C., and now found himself in Smallville, Kansas, standing in front of the house of the man who'd kept the most important news Gibbs would have ever received a secret from him. He rang the doorbell again impatiently when it wasn't answered fast enough for him.
His eyes narrowed, frustration and anger plain on his face and body language.
Gibbs, cursing Gabe and Moira Sullivan in his head for having done this to him, wasn't ready for the door to be opened by a girl who had his mother's blonde hair and green eyes.
"Can I help you?" She asked, eyeing him curiously.
He could only stare at her, knowing, knowing that this was her.
This was his daughter.
She narrowed her eyes warily at him when he only stared, not answering.
Realizing that frightening her was not the way to do this, Gibbs cleared his throat and wondered desperately how to introduce himself. He couldn't exactly say "Hi, I'm your father" now, could he? In his brief, uncharacteristic moment of mental hysteria, he allowed his instincts to take over.
They'd never let him down before.
"I'm Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs. I'm here to see you."
Her eyes narrowed further. "How about showing some I.D., Special Agent Gibbs?"
He wanted to smirk at the smart answer, pulling out his badge and passing it to her.
She took it warily before inspecting it, looking up at him and down at the picture, over and over again before passing it back to him, never once moving from the doorway. "What does the head of D.C. NCIS's Major Crimes Response Team want to see me for? One, I haven't done any major crimes that needs such a personal response, and Two, I'm not part of the Navy, so you're a little out of your jurisdiction, buddy."
He blinked, not used to such a defiant tone directed towards him.
Those who worked with him feared him more than God, as it should be, and other than Abby's cheekiness once in a while he'd never really been faced with this before.
He'd faced terrorists and gunmen and assassination plots head on with a clear head, and yet this slip of a child had his mind blank and his reactions sluggish.
She deserved at least a slap up the back of her head for her attitude, but he doubted that would win him any points in her eyes.
The blonde snorted, shaking her head. "You know what, 'Special Agent'? Tell Lionel that if he wants to take me down, he's going to have to be a little more creative than this. I'm not stupid, he should have gotten the memo by now." She moved back, about to slam the door closed in his face.
Gibbs' eyes narrowed and his hand shot out, blocking the door and pushing his way in easily as he overpowered her efforts to shut him out. "You're being threatened?"
The girl eyed him warily, body tense, looking like she was ready to make a break for it.
Gibbs growled, frustrated and disgusted with himself as he ran his hand over his hair. He wasn't making a good first impression. He wasn't making a good first impression at all.
"Honey, it's okay." Gabriel's voice caused them both to look in his direction. His face was serious, pale and determined. "I know him. I asked him to come."
And all of a sudden the wariness melted out of her body and the girl relaxed. "Oh." She then grinned sheepishly. "Sorry about that, I-I can't really afford the commodity of being careless."
Gibbs was shocked stiff as he immediately recognized the same grin on countless of his childhood pictures.
"Thank you for coming, Leroy," Gabriel announced, voice tense.
"I didn't do it for you, Gabriel." Gibbs tore his gaze from his daughter and glared at the man who'd kept her existence hidden from him for seventeen years. "I came here for her."
"What's going on here, dad?" Chloe asked, wariness returning to her face. "Who is this guy?"
"Someone's threatening her?" Gibbs ignored her for a moment, pressing the issue with Gabriel. "Why didn't you tell me this when you came to see me in D.C.? Who's threatening her? Why?"
Gabe shared a look with Chloe.
"Answer me goddamit!" Fury and slight hysteria built inside of Gibbs.
He'd only had a family, a true family, once. But his wife and daughter Kelly had been taken away from him, killed by a drug runner, and after three more failed marriages Gibbs had surrendered himself to the belief that he would never have a family again.
And now that he'd found the daughter he'd never known he'd fathered during a brief affaire with Moira Sullivan, he knew without a doubt that he'd tear apart limb by limb anyone who threatened her.
He wasn't about to lose a child again.
Never again.
"Who the hell do you think you are to talk to my father like that in his home?" Chloe snapped, eyes furious, taking a menacing step towards Gibbs as if she truly thought she could take him on if she had to.
"Chloe, stop it, he has every right to be angry with me for not taking care of you." Gabe sighed, leaning against the wall.
"Right?" Chloe asked, looking at Gibbs in confusion before returning her gaze to Gabriel. "Why?"
Gabe Sullivan lowered his gaze, unable to look her in the eyes. "It's him, Chloe."
Silence reigned in the house.
Chloe turned to look at Gibbs, eyes wide in a mixture of horror, disbelief and fascination.
He tried not to squirm under the weight of her gaze.
"You shouldn't have come here." She finally spoke, surprising and hurting him with those words. The blonde then turned to Gabe with a frown. "Why did you call him? You know he can't help me."
"Chloe…" Gabe winced.
"No, dad, you know he can't help me." She persisted, going to the window and peeking discreetly through the curtains in a way that betrayed just how used to this she was. "This is way out of his jurisdiction and you know it." Chloe once again surprised Gibbs by giving Gabe the glare he himself was so well known to use on his subordinates. "What's he going to do when something happens? Arrest them?"
"That's a start," Gibbs growled, wondering why Gabe and Chloe both winced. "What?" He gave them both the glare that made grown men shake in their boots.
Gabe squirmed uncomfortably.
Chloe seemed completely unaffected. "Listen, Special Agent Gibbs, I appreciate you coming here and that you want to help me, but there are things in this world that you just can't put handcuffs on."
Gibbs opened his mouth to deny that, when suddenly there was a loud, insistent rapping on the wall next to Chloe. It was loud and violent and the whole wall shook with the force of the blows.
In a second Gibbs' gun was out of its hoister and trained towards the wall, safety off. "Chloe, come away from the-."
Chloe raised her hand in a silencing manner, eyes narrowed. "How many?" She seemed to ask it. There was one rap. "One? Okay, I can handle that." She took in a deep breath. "Corporeal?" Two raps. "Okay, I can deal with that as well."
Gibbs turned to Gabe, confused and suspicious and completely wary when the other man didn't seemed shocked at the fact that the girl was talking to a wall.
Chloe gazed out of the window again, and then her eyes went wide. "Dad…"
Gibbs' heart soared at the words, and yet shattered a little when he realized she was talking to Gabe.
The man hurried to her side and gasped. "Not Lana."
Gibbs frowned, going to the window and peering out. There was a pretty dark haired girl of asian descent standing on the lawn, grinning quite malevolently at the house.
"Chloeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee…" The girl stalked towards the front of the house. "Come out come out whereeeeeeeeeeever you areeeeeeee."
"Who is that?" Gibbs asked, gun trained on the girl, just in case.
"Lower that, Special Agent Gibbs, it won't do you any good and you'll only hurt Lana, not the thing wearing her meat!" Chloe hissed, hand reaching out rapidly and swatting the gun away.
Gibbs growled, eyes furious.
Did she not realize that there was some insane chick-?
"Chloe!" Those eyes outside bled black. "I can't get in. But I can hurt your little friend!" Her hands traveled down her own body. "But it'd be such a waste. She's kinda cute."
"Salt, dad, salt!" Chloe issued the barked command before going towards the front door.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Gibbs hissed, grabbing her hand and pulling her back. "Something's wrong with that girl out there and-!"
"If you don't let me go out there, Special Agent Gibbs, that girl is going to have a worse fate than death!" Chloe hissed, eyes narrowed and furious and somewhat frightening, although he'd never admit it to anyone, not even to himself. "I can help her. I will help her."
"You're not going out there." Gibbs didn't know what was going on, but something just wasn't right here.
The hair at the back of his head stood on end and there was this pressure in the air.
Not to mention that the feeling in his guts screamed that he may have found a predator that was more than he could handle…
…which was a little horrifying considering that the kid outside couldn't weigh more than 90 pounds soaking wet.
And what was with those eyes?
"I'm not letting you go." His eyes narrowed on his daughter.
How could she think that he'd let her go face that thing out there? Whatever it was? She was his daughter! He had to protect her!
He needed to protect her!
He'd finally found the reason to his still being alive! He couldn't lose her!
Not like this!
Not when he'd finally found her!
Not ever!
Those emotions must have somehow reached her because the anger in her face faded, as did the dangerous glint in her eyes, those green orbs turning shocked and tender.
The blonde gazed into his face, searchingly, nearly curiously, before clearing her throat and looking away. "You're not going to let me go out there."
Taking in a deep breath she looked passed him to Gabe and then motioned towards a picture by the window they'd been standing at.
The man seemed to understand what she meant, because he went towards it and pulled the frame from the wall, revealing an ancient symbol carved into the wall behind it.
Gibbs' eyes widened.
What exactly was going on here?
"You won't let me out," Chloe whispered, a little surprised and a little annoyed. "So I'm going to have to let her in."
With that, Gabe grabbed a knife that'd been taped to the back of the frame and dug a line through the symbol.
Suddenly the front door blasted open and the girl with the black eyes entered the house, sneering.
Gibbs trained his gun at her immediately.
"No!" Chloe surprised him with the fear in her voice before ramming her elbow harshly into his ribs.
Gibbs didn't have time to react before those black eyes trained on him, and with a wave of her hand, the asian girl somehow sent him flying into the wall. Seconds later Gabe went flying into the opposite wall.
Gibbs tried to break free of the invisible hold pinning him to the wall, but he couldn't move anything other than his head. "Don't you touch her!" He growled, struggling furiously with all of his might as the asian girl began to stalk his daughter.
"You know, Chloe, I don't know why you fight this." The girl sneered, approaching his daughter as the blonde cautiously backed up. "You did know what you were getting into when you made that deal with Lionel. You knew things like this could happen."
"No, I didn't." Chloe shook her head. "We were supposed to be helping people! Not doing what he really was doing! As soon as I realized I escaped at the first chance I got!"
Gibbs' eyes narrowed.
Deal?
What were they talking about?
"And he made the deal, not me!" Chloe hissed, eyes narrowed, continuing to back up until she was with her back pressed against the wall.
The black-eyed girl paused. "Does it matter, though? You got the reward."
"Reward?" Chloe looked furious and unafraid, making Gibbs scared for her yet so proud all the same. "He was going to make me his puppet!"
"I believe concubine is the term that was used in my days." The thing with the black eyes sneered.
And Gibbs saw red.
His gaze went to Gabe, who'd lowered his head in shame, and then went to Chloe, who'd gone pale and teary-eyed and was shaking, hugging herself tightly, all the fight gone out of her in seconds as she looked like she might throw up any second, or faint.
And that was when he realized what exactly had happened to his daughter before she'd managed to escape Lionel Luthor.
"You feel it, don't you?" The girl asked, taking another step towards Chloe. "You feel the rage, the anger, the humiliation of not being able to do anything to protect yourself for those two weeks. You feel the need to avenge yourself, to hurt him for what he did to you."
"Yes," she croaked, hugging herself tighter and looking away.
Gibbs felt himself breaking inside as he watched his daughter shattering before his eyes while knowing that once more he'd been unable to protect his own flesh and blood.
"We can help you." The black-eyed girl smiled, taking another step. "I can help you, can show you how. You can watch the life draining from his eyes and have the satisfaction of knowing you were the one who did it." She smirked. "You know you want to. You know you do."
"Yes," Chloe whispered, almost like in a trance.
"Chloe! Don't listen to her!" Gabe cried out and then began to gasp for air as the girl with the black eyes glared at him.
But Chloe seemed blind to anything around her, looking up at the girl. "I want to kill him. I want to tear the flesh from his bones and watch him bleed for what he did to me."
"I can help you do that." The brunette promised as she took another step. "All you have to do is take my hand."
Gibbs tried to call out to her, but his voice wouldn't come out.
The blonde looked at the hand outstretched towards her. "I want to," she admitted, eyes on the girl. "I want nothing more than to come with you and make him pay. But that would make me like him, wouldn't that? And if he dies, that'd leave me without a bond, wouldn't it?"
The black eyed girl flinched.
"It'd leave me open and available for the first person to bind me to them." Chloe's eyes narrowed. "And I will not be used a second time. Lionel Luthor tricked me the first time, and I won't be tricked again."
Those black eyes narrowed as she took a final step forwards. "Don't be a fool you ungrateful human meatsack!"
Gibbs suddenly felt the power give way, and he slid down to the ground along with Gabe, both unnoticed by the girls.
"Who's the fool?" Chloe suddenly grinned, and it was a little frightening. "The trusting human girl who let herself fall into a bastard's trap? Or the big, powerful being who let herself fall into a little ungrateful human meatsack's trap?"
Those black eyes widened, looking around her before following Chloe's gaze above her to a symbol painted on the ceiling. "No!" She gasped, looking frightened. "No!"
"Did you really think that I'd let you in here without a contingency plan?" Chloe taunted.
Gibbs' eyes widened as he watched the girl under the symbol begin to pound her fists against some sort of invisible barrier around her, unable to get out, looking terrified.
"Now, I'm going to give you a little message to tell your friends down below in the pit." Chloe stepped forwards, no longer the shivering girl she'd appeared to be seconds before. "Everyone who makes a deal with Lionel Luthor gets screwed over. I'm just a human kid, I had an excuse for falling for the act, you big and mighty ones didn't. And it's embarrassing that you need me to do him in for you."
The black eyes flared angrily. "You're going to regret this."
"I already regret everything."
And it was the pain in her voice that rendered Gibbs immobile.
"Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus omnis satanica potestas, omnis infernalis adversarii, omnis legio, omnis congregatio et secta diabolica." Chloe spoke, eyes narrowed and concentrated. "Ergo draco maledicte et omnis legio diabolica adjuramus te. Cessa decipere humanas creaturas, eisque aeternae Perditionis venenum propinare."
Gibbs was confused and he hated it.
He didn't understand what was going on, who or what the girl with the black eyes was, why the symbol above her seemed to trap her, or why those words spoken in what might be Latin seemed to be hurting her.
"You ungrateful bitch!" The girl screamed, body twitching violently. "We were offering you the world!"
"Not interested in the world," Chloe replied before continuing. "Vade, Satana, inventor et magister omnis fallaciae, hostis humanae salutis. Humiliare sub otenti manu dei, contremisce et effuge, invocato a nobis sancto et terribili nomine, quem inferi tremunt."
"You'll never be safe! You nor any of your loved ones!" The girl howled as if in the deepest of pains. "We'll peel the skin from your daddy's bones and make you watch as all those you love die before your eyes! Anyone you're close to will die because of you!"
"Ab insidiis diaboli, libera nos, Domine. Ut Ecclesiam tuam secura tibi facias libertate servire, te rogamus, audi nos. Ut inimicos sanctae Ecclesiae humiliare digneris, te rogamus, audi nos. Ut inimicos sanctae Ecclesiae te rogamus, audi nos." Chloe continued to chant, ignoring the screaming brunette. "Terribilis Deus de sanctuario suo. Deus Israhel ipse truderit virtutem et fortitudinem plebi Suae. Benedictus Deus. Gloria Patri!"
With a terrible, inhumane scream, the brunette threw her head back and a column of seemingly unending black smoke began to stream out of her mouth.
And then there was nothing but silence.
"What…" Gibbs stood shakily to his feet. "Was that?"
And that was how Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs was introduced to the world of the supernatural.
Hours later, Gibbs leaned against the door, silent, lost in thought. The girl, Lana, had shakily returned to her home safe and sound, pale and shivering with the memory of her possession and yet otherwise okay.
Upstairs he could hear Chloe and Gabe talking as they packed their bags.
He couldn't believe what he'd learnt in these last hours.
But mostly, mostly he couldn't believe what he'd learnt about what had been done to his own daughter.
Apparently Lionel Luthor had gotten to Chloe during an emotionally vulnerable time in her life, and he'd gained her trust, mentoring her, playing on her ever-growing need to know more, and he'd brought her into the world of the occult.
He'd taught her many of the old languages so they could read ancient scripts together, they'd fought off various monsters, and once he had her trust, he'd come to her with a proposition. There'd been a spell, he said, to make one a better hunter for the light. But the person needed to be pure and untouched.
A virgin.
Chloe hadn't doubted Lionel, already caught up in this fight and having seen all the evil in the world. She'd wanted to do anything to stop it. So she'd gone along with the ritual, with the spell that had done something she couldn't rightly understand, and through that link, Lionel could grow stronger.
He hadn't told her about the spilling of her blood, or the invocations, or the spiritual binding…or the fact that by the end of the ritual she couldn't be pure or untouched anymore.
She'd been his captive for two weeks after the ritual, two weeks Gabe said she still screamed in her sleep about every night. And then Chloe had managed to escape, and somehow, the link between her and Lionel was there, but weak. He couldn't control her, and it made him dangerous and furious.
"That's why I need you to take care of her. Why I need you to protect her from Lionel." Gabe had told Gibbs. "Because I can't."
Gibbs didn't know if he could take care of the blonde, and keep her safe from the demons and the monsters that he hadn't known existed until today, but he would give his all to make sure that she was never hurt again, and that Lionel Luthor paid for what he'd done to her.
"I'll be fine," Gabe assured Chloe as they descended the stairs, each carrying suitcases and bags with what they would take with them. "I'll be with Sam so you can contact me there."
"Okay." Chloe stopped at the bottom of the stairs and then hugged him tightly. "I love you, daddy."
Gibbs' heart twisted painfully as those words were given to another man.
"I love you too, sweetheart." Gabe whispered tearfully.
Chloe finally pulled away and turned towards Gibbs silently. He nodded and reached for two of her suitcases, leaving her with her backpack and computer case slung over each arm, turning and leading her to where his rental car was waiting for them.
The drive to the airport was silent, with Chloe leaning her forehead against the glass, and Gibbs sending her discreet glances now and again, proud that she wasn't crying, and yet pained by her sadness.
"I'm sorry I got you into this mess." Chloe finally broke the silence, sighing. "This isn't your battle."
"You're my daughter." And it was amazing to be able to say that. "I mightn't have been there for you while you grew up, but I would have if I'd known." He tried not to sound bitter and resentful. "I would have-I will take care of you."
She sidled a glance in his direction. "Can I call you Gibbs?"
He winced.
He would have preferred father.
"Yeah, sure." He nodded, keeping his face from betraying his feelings. It was usually so easy for him and yet this whole day had been a rollercoaster of emotions and his composure was shaky.
She continued to observe him in reflective silence. It unnerved him somewhat, wondering if he was passing whatever inspection she was putting him through.
"Is there something you want?" He finally asked, unable to take it any longer.
"I'm wondering when you're going to ask me what the spell was for," Chloe admitted, a little amused.
"Figured you'd tell me at your own pace," Gibbs admitted. And, to be completely honest, he didn't know how much more he could take in one day before snapping and going to kill Luthor in his own home in broad daylight.
"I don't have any freaky powers or owe allegiance to any demons or anything." Chloe still eyed him. "I'm just a walking, talking, wall of weird."
"Huh?" He asked, not getting the reference.
"The reason Lionel wants me, the demons want me, is because of this." She tapped her temple with a sigh.
"Your brain?" Gibbs made up a face, turning a right.
"Not figuratively speaking, but yeah, you could put it that way." Chloe nodded. "I'm the Adept."
He raised an eyebrow and waited for her to explain what the hell she was talking about.
"Well, kinda…" she sighed and took in a deep breath. "What I'm trying to say is that I have knowledge. I know things even the most knowledgeable person on earth, and in hell, won't. Like, for instance, how to kill an angel."
He snorted. "Angel."
She raised an eyebrow at him. "You can believe in demons but not angels?"
"Have you seen an angel before?" He questioned.
"Well, no…"
"Then you can't be sure they exist," Gibbs replied curtly. "I saw that demon. It was real. When I see some bastard with chicken wings growing out of their shoulder blades and shouting hosannas I'll get back to you on that one."
Chloe watched him in silence before surprising them both by giggling.
He smiled slightly at the sound, and had to admit he was mighty proud that he'd managed to get it out of her.
They continued on in more comfortable silence for a couple of minutes.
"So you're saying that your mind is the tree of knowledge of good and evil?" Gibbs finally asked once he'd had a while to mull over her earlier revelation, shooting her a look. "You know everything? How is that even possible?"
"Well, it's not like all the files are opened to easy accessing." Chloe apparently was talking in code, because Gibbs wasn't getting her. "I mean, I know I know somewhere deep down inside, but I don't exactly know everything I know… you know?"
He decided to remain silent on that one.
They drove into the airport parking lot and found a space, killing the ignition and looking at each other.
Gibbs looked at the face of his daughter and couldn't help the warmth and happiness that spread throughout his body. "You'll be okay," He told her, needing her to know. "I'll protect you, and you'll be safe."
She continued to watch him thoughtfully, as if considering his words.
"I'll warn you that I'm difficult. I like to have my own way and for my orders to be followed without question. I can be a very grumpy old man." Gibbs winced a little as he said this. "But I also want you to know that you are my daughter, and I will protect you with my life." He reached over hesitantly before resting his hand on hers. "Out of all of the things you have housed in that brain of yours, I want you to know without a doubt that you're going home."
Chloe's green orbs continued to assess him intently before she squeezed his hand and smiled. "I know."