Chapter Text
The plan is ill-conceived at best and suicidal at worst, but it’s a plan. And having it is enough for Quentin to feel reassured.
Hands flat on the map laid across the kitchen table, Quentin stares around it at the Legion, Nancy, and their spirit guardians. They look to him with faith, with trust, and Quentin hopes to the gods that he isn’t leading them to their deaths. He lets a slow breath leave his lips.
“Okay. Are we all clear on the plan?” He asks gravely.
Frank cracks a grin, tapping his baseball bat against his shoulder. “I’m so fucking ready.”
Susie sidles closer to Joey. “I-I think I’m ready. Yeah. I am.”
“Me too.” Joey adds, gently nudging Susie with his elbow.
Julie flexes her bandaged knuckles. “I was born ready.”
Nancy gives Quentin a serious nod. And with that, Quentin rights himself, adjusts the backpack slung over his shoulder, and pulls a black mask up over his mouth and nose. “Remember: anonymity is your friend. If any average person sees us, we’re gonna get nailed with a misdemeanor for something. Probably vandalism, since we’re gonna be making a lot of Wards.”
The four Legion members pull their own masks over their faces. A grinning face for Frank, a mute face for Julie, a colorful stitchwork pattern for Susie, and a skull bandanna for Joey. Nancy covers her face with a Ghostface mask, of all things.
“Alright. Frank and Julie, go to the North. Joey and Susie, the East. I’ll go West and Nancy will go South.” Quentin directs, using his finger to draw destinations on the city map laid out across the table. “Travel clockwise, drawing Wards and connecting them with charms until you reach the next person’s first Ward.”
Nancy tilts her head, fixing Quentin with a questioning look through the eye holes of her ghostface mask. “What exactly are we doing? I’ve never even attempted something this massive.”
Quentin raises his head. “We’re making a Gateway half the size of the city. We’re gonna snare the Entity.”
As Frank waits for Julie to finish injecting Joey and Susie with the remainder of Talbot’s elixir, a slight chill behind him lets him know Quentin’s approaching. He glances back over his shoulder just in time for Quentin to reach his side and stop there with his hands in his pockets.
“So this is it.” Frank chuckles, nudging Quentin with his shoulder.
Quentin, surprisingly, leans back against Frank’s side and lets his head fall on Frank’s shoulder. Letting out a sigh, he murmurs, “I hope we can do this.”
With a reassuring tone, Frank replies, “We can. I know you wouldn’t send us into something we couldn’t handle. What I am worried about is what you plan on doing yourself.”
“What do you mean?”
“The self-sacrificing hero bullshit.”
“Oh.” Quentin says distractedly, which definitely doesn’t make Frank feel better about his misgivings.
Frank pushes his mask up, revealing his face once again. “You won’t do anything to get yourself killed, will you?”
Quentin doesn’t reply. Frank’s heart sinks.
“Quen.”
Quentin pulls his own mask down with a sigh. “Frank, my life has been miserable from the start. From Krueger, to this spirit bullshit, to the Entity now? I’m so tired. Is it really so bad that I’d want to sacrifice myself to save the rest of you?”
“ Yes, ” Frank snaps, “because your life is going to be better after this. When the Entity is dead and gone, you’re gonna be free. No spirit in their right mind will bother you again. You’ll have a home here.”
Quentin’s troubled eyes fixate on the red sky again. But this time, there’s a calm and clarity to them that soothes Frank’s misgivings. “Hey, Frank?”
“Hm?”
Quentin turns to face him, expression soft and vulnerable. His fingers knot in the front of Frank’s jacket, and Quentin moves forward and up to press his lips to Frank’s. Frank sucks in a breath at the unexpected contact, his eyes flying wide open as Quentin slightly guides his chapped lips apart. Then Frank is gone, leaning into the kiss with a sigh and reaching up with one hand to card his fingers through Quentin’s wavy brown hair.
They remain like that for what could’ve either been an eternity or a heartbeat, but when Frank and Quentin separate, it’s like Frank has been reborn anew. Quentin’s face is adorably red, his blue eyes fixated very stubbornly on Frank’s jacket, and they only raise when Frank moves forward again and plants a feather-light kiss on Quentin’s forehead.
“That was…j-just in case we fuck this up.” Quentin mumbles awkwardly.
But Frank smiles, his fingers still gently brushing through the dreamwalker’s hair. “We won’t fuck this up. But when this is all done, I’m taking you out on a proper date. Dinner, a movie, some drinks and all that bullshit.”
A genuine smile spreads across Quentin’s face, and Frank is once again taken aback by just how pretty Quentin is when he smiles. “I’m holding you to that.”
“Frank! Are we going, or what??” Julie shouts from the end of the driveway. “We gotta do this before the sun sets!!”
“Yeah, I know!” He shouts back in return before turning to Quentin. “Promise me you won’t do anything stupid.”
Quentin huffs in amusement, a smile playing at his lips. He reaches out to tug Frank’s mask down over his face. “Alright, I promise.”
“Your fingers aren’t crossed, are they?” Frank teases.
Quentin rolls his eyes. “No, they aren’t. And I’m pretty good at keeping my promises.”
“Good.”
“Get going before I kick your ass, dickhead.” The dreamwalker laughs as Frank jogs down the driveway towards Julie. And while Frank does, he turns, backpedaling down the sidewalk, and flips Quentin the bird with both hands. He doesn’t see what Quentin does in return, because Julie is honking her car’s horn at him impatiently and he clambers into her little red Kia.
Once the door shuts and she turns the key in the ignition, she comments, “You two finally stopped dancing around each other, eh?”
“Guess so.” Frank replies, eyes fixated on the red and black sky.
“Honestly, I’m surprised he made the first move. You were always so…forward. Fearless.” Julie chuckles, her fingertips drumming on the steering wheel.
Shrugging in reply, Frank says, “I guess…well, this sounds bad to say, but…I guess I never loved any of those people the way I love Quentin.”
“You tell him that?”
“N-no…”
“Hm. Tell him when this is all over and done with. He deserves to hear it.” Julie murmurs in an uncharacteristically gentle tone.
The car slows, then turns right at a set of lazily-blinking traffic lights. The sun slides down the sky as they drive, and Frank fidgets nervously at the rapidly-approaching night. Julie reaches over and grabs her phone, unlocking the screen and checking the waypoint Quentin had put down for her in her maps app. She hums, tosses her phone back in the car’s console, and slows at the sight of an overpass ahead.
Julie pulls over under the overpass, turns the car off, and steps out in tandem with Frank. The two shoot each other an apprehensive glance before moving towards one of the shadow-shrouded support pillars with cans of spraypaint in their hands. It’s then that Frank takes out his phone and searches his camera roll for the sigil that Quentin had drawn for their reference on a sheet of paper. And once he finds it, he puts his phone on the ground against the support beam, between both Legion members.
As they begin spraying the sigil on the graffiti-marred concrete, a spirit’s voice echoes in Frank’s head. “Would you like me to talk with the spirits nearby? I can see if any will be willing to lend their help.”
Frank notices Izzan’s ghostly outline in his periphery. Drawing another stroke of the sigil, he replies, “I think that’s a good idea. Quentin needs all the help he can get. And so do we.”
Izzan dips his head. “ Alright. I’ll direct them Quentin’s way, if possible.”
“And I will stay here with you two,” Rasiel adds gently, “I can protect you both, should the need arise.”
“Cool. Anything that’ll help us kill this bitch quicker is a plus in my books.” Julie says brusquely, shaking her spraypaint can again.
It takes a total of two minutes for the pair of Legion members to finish drawing the sigil, which now hums with otherworldly energy that thrums eerily in Frank’s chest. He steps back, tossing the spray can in his backpack, and glances at Julie.
“Onto the next, yeah?”
SUNSET: 21:04
Quentin stares gravely down at the sunset table glaring back up at him from his phone screen.
The sun’s light always vanishes from the sky 30 minutes after sunset, and the second it does, the Entity will draw near enough to the First Plane to influence it. Quentin lets an anxious breath hiss through his teeth.
The taste of Frank’s mouth still lingers on his lips, and Quentin closes his eyes, reliving the kiss in his head over and over and over again. The warmth of Frank’s breath, the subtle mint taste…
…he wants to feel that again. God, he wants to kiss that stupid fucking Canadian again.
But he’s not sure if he’ll get to. After all, he’s sitting in an alley directly in front of a white chalk Ward, one swift line away from being finished, and he’s waiting for the Entity to approach. He glances down at his phone.
21:30
Four minutes.
The small thermos in his pocket hums with volatile energy, just barely containing the horrible liquid’s sickening aura within it. Even now, Quentin’s stomach still roils slightly in protest at the proximity.
Three minutes.
He withdraws Frank’s freshly-sharpened pocket knife from his backpack, bouncing it in his hand. The blade reflects the last of the sun’s dying light.
Two minutes.
Quentin pulls his mask up over his mouth and nose. His eyes glint with equal parts fear and determination.
One minute.
Hands shaking, Quentin rises to his feet and stands to face his adversary. As the clock ticks from 9:33 to 9:34, Quentin blinks.
One second, he"s alone. The next, spiderlike legs creep from the shadows, encroaching on Quentin’s position. And melting out of the shadows, shrouded in an ornate black and gold cloak and dress, is a seven foot tall goddess. Her eight black eyes lock onto Quentin with a predatory bloodlust, her clawed, ghoulish fingers twitching in anticipation.
She reminds Quentin of a viper; beautifully adorned in intricate patterns, yet terrifying and unpredictable.
She stalks closer, and at this distance, Quentin can make out the clicking of spider claws from deep within her gown whenever she walks. When she’s a few feet away from Quentin, she finally stops and watches him with a birdike tilt of her head.
Dreamwalker.
Quentin narrows his eyes.
You cannot be handing yourself over to me so easily. I have hunted you for too long for you to simply roll over and die.
“You’re right. I’m not handing myself over.” Quentin meets her eyes coldly, levelly. “I’m not a tool for you to use. I’m not letting you destroy my home. My family. My friends.”
The Entity hisses like water on a hot stove element, clearly amused. And how do you intend to stop me? To defend yourself?
Quentin glances down at the knife in his hand. As the Entity watches, he brings it to his forearm and slashes it open in a single swift movement. Her beady eyes glint with hunger.
With an unreadable look, Quentin meets her gaze. “You can drink my blood, and it’ll bring you to the First Plane. But if you do, you’ll be vulnerable for a few seconds. And in those moments, I’ll kill you.”
The Entity’s gaze betrays nothing. And you truly believe this will work?
“I do.” Quentin says.
She’d better believe this bluff…
She bares her teeth in a terrifying, too-wide grin. Show me your power then, Dreamwaker. Show me your fangs.
Before Quentin can react, the Entity has closed the gap between them. Her spidery fingers grab his arm tightly enough to hurt, and she wastes no time in moving to sink her teeth into Quentin’s skin. He winces, stifling a cry of pain, and uses his free hand to drop the knife and reach into his pocket for the chalk he’d brought with him.
He’s about to stealthily draw the last line of the sigil, when a howl of rage and pain echoes down the alley towards Quentin and the Entity.
“QUENTIIIIIINNN...”
Both dreamwalker and goddess turn their attention towards the horrific voice, and Quentin’s stomach sinks when he sees the mutated form of Danny Johnson barreling down the alley towards them. The Entity leaps back, leaving an anemic Quentin to flounder helplessly while Danny surges into him. His back is slammed against the brick wall behind him, and he gasps for air as his ribs crack from the impact.
The Entity is shrieking in delight, her form growing larger, less humanoid, more monstrous, from the effects of Quentin’s blood. But Quentin can’t do anything about it. His chalk was knocked from his hand, and it now lays on the ground a good ten feet away while he"s held against the wall by Danny Johnson.
Unable to do anything else, Quentin channels his energy into his mouth and bites Danny’s arm as hard as he can. The taste of blood, poison, and corrupted energy is enough to make Quentin want to puke, but he miraculously holds his nausea back and bites harder.
Danny howls in agony, recoiling and ripping his arm free of Quentin’s bite. But while Quentin had thought that this was a good idea in theory, the catastrophic punch to his face has him thinking otherwise. Quentin tastes blood, feels a tooth break, and hears his nose crack as Danny’s mutant fist drives itself into his face. But somehow, Quentin manages to stay conscious.
Even when Danny throws Quentin to the ground, his face a bloody mess, the dreamwalker shakily struggles to stand up. Once he’s on his feet, he glares daggers at Danny’s monstrous form and turns to face him.
Danny twitches uncontrollably, his hollow eyes emotionless, and the stench of rotting and burning flesh fills the air.
But Quentin is going to fight.
As the Entity grows into a many-legged gold and black spider beast, Quentin dodges past Danny’s fists and gradually works his way towards the chalk lying on the pavement. Danny’s claws catch his cracked ribs, reaming the flesh open, and Quentin momentarily sees stars, but he manages to retaliate with an energy-enhanced blow to Danny’s exposed guts. The squelch and accompanying shriek gives Quentin enough time to leap for the chalk, grab it, and make a mad dash for the Ward.
He makes the stroke easily, and the chalk glows white as a loud, keening hum fills the air.
The charms lining the alley and stretching away on both sides of Quentin also glow white, chiming like bells, and he almost gasps at the sudden surge of overpowering spiritual energy.
He can feel the Gateway activating, coming to life, rising from the depths of the Third Plane.
And as he turns to face Danny, he also becomes aware of the leagues of individual spirit auras rapidly approaching, led by none other than Izzan. Quentin whirls around in time to see Izzan appear on the roof of a building behind him, glowing against the red and black sky.
Moments later, pouring from the skies, the storm drains, the alleys…
…come more spirits than Quentin could ever count.
And they’re here to help him.
Frank and Julie speed down the road, the Kia’s tires screeching with every abrupt turn as they rocket towards where Quentin said he’d be confronting the Entity.
The second the Gateway had begun to light up, Julie had sprinted for the car alongside Frank and they’d both started to book it for Quentin’s location. And the closer they get, the more spirits the pair are starting to see. But they move with purpose, towards Quentin. Like something is leading them there.
Leaves and garbage in the gutters float a few inches above the ground, and Frank’s heart sinks when he sees a massive spider-like kaiju begin towering over the buildings surrounding Quentin’s location.
“ Fuck, something happened!” Frank shouts, panic raising his voice.
Julie grits her teeth, nails digging into the steering wheel. “Shut up and let me drive! The faster we get there, the faster we can save your boyfriend!”
It doesn’t take long for them to reach a place where they can access Quentin’s Gateway, and Frank is out of the car and sprinting down the alley before the car even stops. His heart pounds in his throat, like it’s trying to escape his chest, and his lungs burn as he runs faster, faster, faster, hoping, praying, that Quentin is alive.
The second he rounds the last corner and skids into an open area, Frank’s worst fears melt away. Because Quentin is alive. Bloody and battered, but alive.
Unfortunately, Danny Johnson is also there.
He’s grown several feet, towering over Quentin with a gaping, melted face, and his exposed abdomen pulses and leaks golden poison. And Quentin has the balls to lower himself into a fighting stance with his fists raised and a vicious look on his face. Frank almost wants to laugh at the absurdity of the situation, but he tightens his grip on the metal baseball bat in his hand and races to Quentin’s side.
“Miss me?” Frank quips, eyes fixated on Danny.
Quentin spits blood. “Took you long enough.”
“I’m here now, aren’t I?” Frank teases, twirling the baseball bat in a dramatic flourish, “Now let’s deal with this before the world ends, yeah?”
Frost glitters over Quentin’s fists and hair, and the dreamwalker lunges forward. Frank lets a savage grin spread across his face, rushing Danny at the same time.
And as they do, spirits cascade from the rooftops and shadows, rushing around Frank and Quentin like whitewater. They surge past both man and dreamwalker, attacking Danny. In spite of themselves, Frank and Quentin stop incredulously.
Danny screams, lashing out and fighting back against the spirits that continue piling on his hulking figure, but they just keep coming. Every spirit he throws off or shatters, is replaced by two more.
Izzan is there as well, biting down on Danny’s shoulder to rip a chunk of swollen, toxic flesh from it. As he spits the vile flesh on the ground, he jumps down to stand in front of Frank and Quentin. The fur on his neck and chest is stained gold from the poison, and it’s starting to burn his ethereal skin, but Izzan snaps, “ The Gateway is almost ready. The spirits have Danny taken care of, but we need to make sure the Entity doesn’t leave the circle.”
“Got it.” Frank says with a curt nod.
Quentin glances from Izzan and Frank, to the Entity as she begins lumbering closer on eight smoky, spider-like legs. Brow furrowing, he says, “She’s looking for me. She drank my blood already, which is allowing her to manifest in a partial form on the First Plane. If she kills and devours me, she’ll fully manifest and have her whole arsenal of godly power.”
“We will protect you,” Izzan promises, “I may not owe you a debt any longer, but you are a dear friend of mine.”
Frank glares up at the Entity, who seems to be approaching their location. “I won’t let her kill you. I promised you a date, and you being dead would throw a wrench in those plans.”
Quentin takes a deep breath. Then, he turns his attention nervously to Izzan. “Look…I know I said I wouldn’t do this again, but…will you Converge with me? I-I need more power than I can manage on my own, and-”
“ I’ll Converge with you. It’s the best way to keep you safe, after all. And we can work together.” Izzan says gently with a nod of his head.
Frank watches, curious about the whole thing, as Izzan and Quentin face one another. Quentin kneels, bringing his index finger to his forehead before touching it to Izzan’s. “Izzan, I grant you permission to Converge with me.”
Izzan dips his head. Then, he glows brilliant silver and envelops Quentin’s body in bright light.
When the light clears, Quentin is facing Frank. His eyes are now solid blue with a narrow pupil, almost feline in their appearance. Quentin’s hair goes almost completely silver-white, and his nails have sharpened into points. Fractals of ice and frost extend across the pavement, away from Quentin’s sneakers. He also stands an extra foot taller than Frank now, and Frank tries not to think about just how much he likes that.
Quentin-Izzan smiles at him, white fangs flashing between their lips, and they speak in the overlapping voices of both dreamwalker and spirit, “ We need you to stay here. Nothing can be allowed to disrupt that chalk ward.”
Frank tries not to feel too disappointed at being put on guard duty, knowing he’s more of a liability than anything else, and offers Quentin-Izzan a smile. “Got it.”
As Quentin-Izzan races away towards the Entity, Julie steps out of the shadows, panting. “You…run… so fucking fast… Frank…”
He turns to look at her. Her brow is wet with beads of sweat, and she’s doubled over with her hands on her knees. But her eyes are bright and determined, and Frank is glad she’s here by his side.
“So what are we up to?” Julie asks, her eyes flitting around at the sight of the glowing ward, debris floating above the ground within its radius.
“We gotta make sure Quen’s Gateway doesn’t fail.”
Julie narrows her eyes at the sight of Danny being swarmed by spirits down a nearby alley. “Thrilling. And what’s Quentin doing?”
Both Legion members glance ahead at the Entity darkly silhouetted against the red and black sky. Frank lets out a shaky breath, almost oblivious to the sounds of Joey, Susie, and Nancy approaching. “He’s keeping the Entity in one place while the Gateway activates.”
Quentin-Izzan skids to a halt in the middle of the Costco parking lot where the Entity currently stands.
And despite themself, Quentin-Izzan can’t help thinking that a Costco parking lot isn’t exactly the most cinematic place to be fighting a world-ending goddess in. But it’s inside the Gateway’s boundary, so they really shouldn’t be complaining.
The Entity notices Quentin-Izzan then, her massive, insect-like head swinging around to focus on the fused dreamwalker and spirit. She lowers her head, the pedipalps on her jaws clicking and twitching with anticipation.
You will not win this, Dreamwalker. Not even with your little spirit friend’s help.
“ Don’t count us out so quickly,” Quentin-Izzan says, reaching deep into themselves and tapping into the reservoir of spiritual energy Quentin never bothered to touch.
Ice creeps along Quentin-Izzan’s forearms, forming wicked ice spikes on their hands not unlike brass knuckles.
This is new, Izzan thinks.
Don’t ask. I’ll explain later, Quentin replies internally.
In a surge of absolutely stupid, naive energy, Quentin-Izzan throws a punch to the Entity’s face, snapping off one of her fangs and breaking a pedipalp. The Entity shrieks in pain, and Quentin-Izzan feels one of their eardrums burst.
You won’t live to regret that, Dreamwalker.
“Bold of you to assume we can die, ” Quentin-Izzan taunts, hopping on the balls of their feet.
The Entity swings a massive leg at Quentin-Izzan, but the Converged simply dodge-rolls easily out of range. The parking lot pavement shatters under the blow, however, and massive chunks of concrete are sent flying into the air like lego bricks.
Quentin-Izzan can feel the Gateway getting closer to activating, and they continue stalling for time. But the Entity’s rage is flaring, her movements growing faster and harder to dodge, and Quentin-Izzan is flagging.
Both spirit and dreamwalker are losing their coordination, having been Converged for almost five minutes. And they’re starting to forget things. Like what they’re doing, why they’re here, and what’s happening.
When Quentin-Izzan trips over their own feet and ends up on the ground, the Entity howls in delight.
Why am I…here?
The Entity raises one leg over Quentin-Izzan.
Why won’t I move?
The Entity’s leg plunges down, ready to crush Quentin-Izzan.
I promised I’d protect you.
In an instant, Izzan rips free of the Convergence, knocking a weak and delirious Quentin away from the point of impact. He rolls across the pavement like a ragdoll, trying his best to focus on the task at hand.
And when he does finally manage to regain his grasp on reality, he wishes he hadn’t.
The Entity has impaled Izzan directly through the abdomen, pinning the jackal spirit to the concrete. Silver blood pools on the pavement below him, and the spirit takes rattling, gurgling breaths. Quentin’s heart freezes in his chest.
No.
Izzan weakly raises his head to look at Quentin. His tail thumps twice.
“ Take care of Frank for me, Quentin Smith.”
NO.
Quentin opens his mouth to shout, to beg the Entity to let Izzan go, to scream in despair. He reaches out towards the spirit, his friend, as if he can do anything to save him. But the Entity twists her leg and Izzan shatters into countless glassy fragments that disappear into steam when they hit the ground.
“ IZZAN!!”