The Universe's Mixer

Though River more or less gave herself over to the agents who came to arrest her, her mind did not give her any peace.

Not on the ride to their facility.

Not when they processed her.

Not when they started to ask her questions, not when she kept silent.

Her thoughts were a jumbled mess she had no control of, even if she was struggling to remember Harry Dresden's lessons on how to be in control. And despite John Coffey's help, River sounded more like her old self than she had in quite some time.

The men had handcuffed her because she'd hit one of the agents, and River was not making any attempt to free herself from the cuffs. Her mind was racing, yet that destructive point where she saw only red had somehow been replaced with something like disbelief. No one had seen her. She knew this. There had been only her and the man and the tree.

No one had been there.

No one could have known.

It was not long before she began saying these things aloud, and also peppering her speech with things that no one would understand--except possibly Simon or Hannibal. She'd told them, with a very cold expression, to contact Dr. Hannibal Lecter when they'd asked if she had a lawyer, or if they should call her family.

They'd put her in a room with a big lock on the door, and men guarding it. She was free to pace and babble, which is what she was doing, boots hardly making any noise on the floor.

When she lapsed into Mandarin, River heard the man at the door ask if there was anyone in the building that spoke Chinese. She'd stopped pacing to glare.

She could escape, if she wanted to hurt a lot of people. But River did not want to do that, despite her anger, and despite how close she was to that line where she lost herself entirely.

A few agents came in, left food, told her Hannibal'd been called, a message left. When the door opened, River was never surprised.

Someone always had something to say. And it was a big building.

Castiel had been pondering the object in the sky which he could not reach out to, could not move to. It was odd to be restricted from someplace he was looking at, a discontenting feeling that he got whenever he was barred from a place, but usually it was just a building or a room with a seal on it. Something he could at least identify from outside. The object in the sky was posing a real mystery to the angel, and he didn't care for it very much.

He'd meant to return to the lake where he'd talked to Piotr, a new favorite thinking spot of his, when he felt a tremendous force take hold of him and he appeared... elsewhere. The angel's first instinct was to try to teleport again, to go where he was intended. But then he stopped himself, because where he was now was utterly unlike anyplace he'd gone before.

First of all it was a city, and not one of the dilapidated, ruin cities of the dead world he'd been on for a while, but instead a modern looking, enormous city. Secondly it was full to capacity, there were people everywhere. And third... it was different. Alive. Quite possibly the whatever had taken him from his intended journey and landed him here. The people were different too, even more so than the people of the dead world. They were duller, somehow, lacking the inner life most humans had. Most of them walked or drove by, altering course slightly to avoid the man that had just appeared on the curb of a busy street. Nobody looked at him directly, though, instead going on with their days as determinedly as most did in the bigger cities back on Castiel's original Earth.

The angel looked around, then cautiously tried to teleport back to die Festung, to find Dean or Sam. It didn't work, however, and he frowned. Had he been brought someplace else? Where the Winchesters brought here as well? There was no way to check unless they called for him; the protective wards on their ribcages hid them from him. But if they were suddenly brought someplace new chances were they'd call for the angel to see if he was here as well. Not out of concern, but in order to see what he knew of where they were.

Either way, it would seem that once more a being greater than Castiel had decided he should be elsewhere. Castiel was used to his life being governed by others greater than him, but at least when it was his brothers had told him he why and where to wherever they sent him away. He was getting uneasy with all of the silent pushing around that seemed to be going on.

Jesse had taken the advice given to him by the witch... or whatever she really was... to heart. He'd decided he'd had enough with the being tired, and figured that Zoe was also pretty through with it, and so he wasn't going to be tired anymore, unless it was at a time and place where it was okay to be. Falling asleep in the arms of his girl was okay, but falling asleep at her dinner table was not.

It still felt a bit wrong, to let go of that much more of his human origins, but in the end, it seemed that he either do it this way, or stop helping people. Since he didn't think he was ready to stop the latter, there wasn't really any argument left. He finally convinced himself that it didn't make him any less him, it made him a better him. A him that could do all the things that he wanted to do and not be troubled by it. Not have the bad side effects that were causing problems in his personal life.

He was wide awake and waiting for her. He'd cooked a meal in preparation, and this time didn't eat it before she'd shown up. He wasn't dosing on the couch, or gazing glassy eyed at the television. He was in the kitchen, fixing dinner when he heard her key in the door.

Jesse was taking a break from the routine he'd established for himself. There was something pretty important that he'd meant to do for a while now, and it had just sort of slipped his mind. Funny that it had, since it was a big thing, no small thing. But helping people constantly and falling asleep at dinner really took up a lot of time. But it had occurred to him this morning as he was getting dressed, and once he'd remembered, he was determined to have done with it.

Everything else on his mind was pushed aside. It wasn't that he didn't care about the recent happenings in his life, and his and Zoe's together, but making sure that certain things didn't happen again, well, that was a little more important for the greater good than his relationship snags.

He put some thought into it before setting out. Also thought more about it as he walked through the City. He supposed that there were multiple people here who could have pulled something like this off, trapping the City into the body of Thomas Townsend, and there was always a chance that there was somebody here he'd yet to meet. But the fact about the body trappings collided with something else he had dealt with, and it seemed to him to fit perfectly into a payback scheme. What was done to one, was done to the other.

Which meant that it could only be one person. He had helped her escape the male form that the City had stuck her in. She had more than enough power and knowledge to orchestrate such a complicated task. The will to do it, the motive to do it as well. When it came down to it, if she wasn't the one, he was going to be really surprised.

Jesse wasn't really looking forward to this. Her power rivaled his own. It could get potentially very nasty. He didn't want anybody to get hurt, especially not innocent bystanders, but he couldn't just not do this, either. She had put a lot of people in danger with what she'd done. He didn't know if she'd had a reverse for it, or had ever intended to even think about reversing it. But the food supply would have eventually dried up. He didn't think the City's ability to sustain the people it harbored would continue infinitely.

The best he could do was find a quiet spot on the far end of the park where nobody seemed to be.

"Hey." He said it to the air, his intention carried along with it. Jesse had a feeling that she'd be able to hear him, even if she didn't hear him. "We gotta talk."

Jesse had been very busy, still, and Zoe was doing her best. She'd never had a man who was a god type too, even if some thought otherwise. In order to keep from losing complete contact with the man, or kicking him out the next time he fell asleep during dinner, Zoe thought they could try something a little different - lunch in public. Jesse didn't care if he fell asleep in public exactly, but it might keep him awake enough to eat. She really wasn't sure, but she was trying.

In one of her more tailored suits, including the heels that made her legs even longer, she stood waiting near her favorite Chinese bun stand. She didn't pace. She just waited. Her hands at her side as she stared out into the street, her lips turning slowly from a line to a frown. She was going to have to eat, but she hadn't thought he'd get caught up in something.

She never considered herself one of those silly women who determined their worth by how much attention their men showed them, but she was certainly starting to feel...odd. She didn't like being mad at him because he was helping people; he was a big damn hero, possibly one of the biggest. But. There was always that gorram but.

Jesse was still overclocking himself. Only taking the one day off for the dinner with Dinah and Dean, the time spent since then had been continuing his deeds. Even with the City streets back on their regular routine, he felt like he was needed. Maybe it was because he'd already been doing it for so long, now everything felt kind of natural. It certainly wasn't because he'd changed his mind about responsibility.

What it all came down to in the end was that he was tired. Exhausted, really. He was back to falling asleep on Zoe. But the sleep wasn't the best. He woke up at odd hours and never seemed to reach that state of deep slumber that assured a really good rest. He was thinking too much about things, and never felt like the work was finished.

It was a growing problem, and he knew that he had to find a way to stop, or at the very least, cut back. The City was providing again. He'd made sure of that. Sending the City back the way it was supposed to be had been easy. All of it was easy, really. Just a toll on his energy. He wasn't so sure it should be so simple, any of it. Just making a decision and going with it.

Jesse was sitting in the park, half watching a game of soccer and half just thinking about these things.

There was calm in the bar. But not the kind of calm that says everybody is having a good time, and everyone is going to leave happy. It was the kind of peace that only comes before a big storm. Where every moment that goes by without words or laughter just makes everyone more tense. The only sounds that could be heard were the scraping of chairs across the floor and drinks being put down. The music in the background was loud, but it seemed to be faded out. As if it were a soundtrack being played over the top instead of coming from the jukebox.

People had been ill at ease lately. The City not moving, then suddenly starting again. The citizens were confused, they were ready to break.

All it took was one guy lightly bumping into another as he tried to get by, a drink spilling a small drop onto a shoe. Then the shouting match started. Soon, almost everyone in the bar was on their feet, taking sides, even if they had no personal quarrel. The noise became great, then. People turning to the person closest to them to start their own fight over more little slights that wouldn't have gotten more than a harsh look on any other day.

Nobody could have said later who did it. Who threw the first punch. But it happened.

Then, chaos.

( notes )

Jesse did the inviting. He was the only one - that Dinah and Dean knew of - who knew everyone who was to be involved in this. The invite also only really went out to Dinah directly. It felt awkward trying to contact Dean to ask him to come along. But he suggested to Dinah that she might want to bring him, since he was right there anyway.

Not knowing, of course, what had happened with the apartment.

He had not gone out to do any do-gooding, and made sure to be rested. Mostly because he didn't want to disappoint Zoe again, and partly because he really did believe that the three of them would draw on him if he fell asleep at the table. He didn't think that Dean would be nice about it, either. There would be no mostaches and goatees from Dean. It would be dicks pointed at his mouth and bad words scrawled across his forehead, and he wasn't sure that Zoe wouldn't be unamused enough to stop it.

They had cooked together, him and Zoe, for the dinner, and it was so easy with the give and take between them that everything was ready in no time. Like clockwork.

Now, all they had to do was wait.

The conference had given Thomas Townsend feelings. There wasn't any one feeling; there were so many, and he wanted very much not to feel many of them. He'd given answers; he'd set some minds at ease. He'd done what he'd set out to do; only he'd pissed off one of the more worrisome tenants. The Cowboy God was not at all happy, not even close. The Amazon hadn't exactly left pleased with him either. She could be trouble, too, if she were to hint something to the Cowboy God, yet she could also be useful. She'd kept the Cowboy God from causing trouble, hadn't she?

Thomas paced outside Beauty's home; it had been his home, and he had never thought he'd call one little building a home. He'd make it up to her somehow. He'd make her understand just how much she had meant to him, yet he wanted to protect her somehow too. He couldn't go to the Cowboy God for help, not that he thought that man would ever endanger such an innocent as Beauty.

With a determined set to his jaw, he headed out to find the damned - a word he'd heard before when people were determined, frustrated and so many other things - Cowboy God. He needed some assurances that Beauty would never get caught in their struggle. That was it. That was what he would do. Of course, he had nothing to bargain with, but he'd figure it out. He'd learned so much after all, hadn't he?

Zoe didn't say anything after she left the conference room; she hadn't even stayed to see if there was indeed an answer. She simply walked out. Perhaps she should have run, but she thought she'd give Jesse a little room to calm down. Just a little.

She caught up quickly though, for all the room she gave him. She didn't touch him until she was at his side, making sure he could see her. The Amazon took his hand, not slowing him down, not stopping him. She walked with him wherever he had thought to go; walking without stopping didn't exactly mean she wouldn't say anything.

"You asked more than one question." It was a small joke, and she was risking making him even angrier. "Don't think you're going to get your answer out here."

Dinah was doing the avoiding thing for the most part. Zee had tried to call and she'd sent a text telling her friend that she just needed some time and would call when she was ready. She didn't want to talk to her friends right now, but she did want to keep busy. Which meant that she'd been spending a lot of time working on getting the shop fixed up. She was currently sweeping up the glass and soon she would be installing the new windows that had just been delivered. Unlike the last time the shop had gotten trashed when the materials to fix it up had just magically appeared, Dinah had had to wait for everything to be delivered.

But it was here now, and working with her hands was exactly what she needed.

Working with her hands and... answers, really. She needed answers. She wanted to know what had happened to Jake. She needed to know if he had made it back home-even if she dreaded the confirmation of that news.

She knew how his story turned out. She knew that if he'd made it back home, he didn't have long before his death.

She knew all that.

But she still needed to know. Not knowing was driving her crazy.

Somewhere in the middle of sweeping up the last of the glass, it hit her. There might be someone in the City who could answer her questions. Someone who had shown up when they'd needed him most. She still didn't know if he was a god-or God, capital G, or just a guy with god-like abilities. She really didn't know what to believe in that.

She also didn't know how to get ahold of him, and she wasn't usually much for praying.

All the same, she did say a little prayer. She wasn't sure if she should say it silently or out loud. And she wasn't really sure if she was wasting her time or not.

"Um, Jesse. If you're out there, I could really use someone to talk to right now. I suppose if you are around, you're probably busy with more important things. Assuming you can hear me at all. But if you can hear me and you're not too busy... I could really use your help."

A tear slipped down her cheek as she admitted out loud that she needed help, but she just swiped at it and went back to sweeping. She didn't expect an answer, but she'd tried anyway.

Fred was grateful for Dinah, but she wasn't in the mood for pasta, even if it was heavenly or orgasmic. The brainy female didn't want anything to eat, which was odd for her perhaps. She didn't want to talk. She didn't want to do anything. Instead, she walked around the City, getting used to the stationary streets. Well, the streets had always been stationary, just not the same sort of stationary. The buildings weren't moving.

She roamed the City streets until dusk; it'd been a while since she felt like this. Actually she wasn't even sure what she felt. Going home she curled up in bed and waited for the sun to rise.

The next day, Fred got out of bed, got cleaned up, and got out of the house. She wasn't in the mood to be strong, but she didn't have much choice. The world wouldn't stop just for her. She really did need to figure out what the world had stopped though. Help to figure it out anyway.

What was she going to do about it? First, she was going to have her go to, and she thought doing it with someone she hoped would give her something to work with. If not that, he was good for a hug...she hoped.

It took her a while to get to the proper diner that served the best waffles. Using the diner's pay phone, she placed the call to her favorite Southern boy.

Jesse was doing his best to keep an eye on things in The City while it was so out of whack. He felt like he, as a being with power, was responsible for the safety and sanity of others during this time of fear and confusion. It probably wasn't his job, not really, but he couldn't help it. Years of being a preacher helped to guide him back into the role with little resistance.

The people of The City were very panicked. They had grown up in this place and were used to the way that things were. Or had been. They didn't know what to do with the buildings and streets being still. They seemed more lost as they tried to get from place to place than the average abductee did when they first encountered the movement. They moved about the streets in their shocked states, and some of them didn't even seem to be taking care of themselves.

So it felt only natural that Jesse should stop to peer into the church as he passed it and noticed that there were so many people there that they were spilling out onto the sidewalk. All of them were City born. All of them were trying to find answers to what was going on. He could hear and feel their pleas, most of them talking to the City itself, some of them imploring any god that could hear them.

He pushed his way up to the pulpit and got the crowd to settle down. When they were quiet and listening, Jesse Custer did something that he hadn't done in a very long time. He gave a sermon. And meant it.

The older Winchester had yet to tell anyone he was in the hospital. He didn't want to worry anyone. He also didn't want people messing with his phone. It was bad enough that they'd taken his gun, knives, multiple ids, and the phone to pack away where he couldn't get them. It wasn't that he could use them, which wasn't the point. They were packed away from him.

He rested on the hospital bed. He had a few other problems, not just the ruined hands, that had come from being thrown into a wall. He shifted on the bed, groaning to himself. He couldn't even press the button very well to ease the pain with a little chemical help. It was slight misery.

The hunter stared up at the ceiling. He was useless here, and he was going to be lucky to get for mobility back in his fingers the way they'd been crushed. He couldn't even protect himself much less help anyone else. These were the moments Dean hated himself the most; he hated that he pitied himself and that he could do nothing. He was just some poor slob who couldn't lift a finger, in this case literally, to even wipe the drool off his own jaw.

Well, there was one thing he could do in the past, but he didn't want to go that route here. He didn't even know if it was possible. He hadn't seen his own personal angel in days, weeks. The only other type he knew of who could hear prayers, maybe...

"So, look, this is probably as uncomfortable for me as it is you, but if you could see your way into giving a hand here." He shook his head at his own slip of the tongue. "I need help. Not asking you to prove yourself, just asking you to help." He looked at his hands, what he could see of them under the bandages anyway.

"I can't believe I may actually be praying to a guy who smokes and knows Batman." He just shook his head, giving a soft laugh at just how bad it had gotten. Dean knew he was going to have to get some flowers or something for Lois Lane; he laughed again thinking of how she'd probably just throw them out.

Jesse woke up with a start. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest, and he didn't know why. But something was wrong. Really, really wrong. He looked around, trying to see if he could spy fire or smoke, or something immediately near that would cause him to feel this way. But the apartment was clear. Zoe slumbered peacefully next to him. If she was still asleep, calm, then there was no danger within her apartment. She wasn't the type to sleep through a problem.

He was up and dressing as quickly as he could, looking out the windows of her bedroom. He could see nothing out there to cause panic. But he gathered the rest of his items and went to Zoe's side of the bed. He kissed her softly on the cheek and whispered that he had to go, but didn't bother to try to wake her. He felt like there was no time for it.

As he moved through the apartment, he finished dressing himself. There was a smoke in his mouth and lit up before he hit the elevator, and it was finished as the bell dinged for the lobby. The ride had felt like it took years, but he knew only minutes had gone by.

When he got outside, the wrongness settled on him further. Jesse looked and couldn't pinpoint it. Everything seemed fine. But there was something... what?

He began to walk, the destination of his own building in mind, ready to navigate the moving streets and shifting buildings, and that's when it dawned on him. None of that was happening. Everything was still. Everything was staying in one place.

Jesse stopped in the middle of the street, looking around him, more than a little confused.

Now that he and Zoe were officially an item (something that he was having a sort of hard time getting used to), Jesse wasn't exactly shy about showing up at her place, even when she wasn't there. Sometimes he had food waiting for her, and sometimes it was just him waiting for her, and food came around later.

Tonight he'd had food ready for her, but an hour after her usual return time, he'd started eating it. Then he started reading some really trashing romance novel that he found hidden not-so-neatly under her couch. At first he was only reading it so he could make fun of her for it later, then it got to the point that he couldn't put it down. Before he knew it, it was almost through the whole thing, and all of the dinner was gone.

On top of that, he discovered he'd also lit up a cigarette. It hadn't been too long ago, the thing was still half there. But he'd promised Zoe he wouldn't smoke in her place. In a panic, and not giving any consideration to the fact that with his powers he could just zap the smell away, Jesse was opening windows and spraying whatever he could find that smelled nice around her space when he heard the door open.

If there was one good thing about The City, Murphy thought, it was the fact that she didn't have to turn her official police reports into works of fiction, with made-up terrorist organizations, and gas line ruptures or mass hysteria and folle a deux to explain away the magic and the unexplained. She could just write down that there was a giant primate terrorizing The City. It made headlines of real, legitimate newspapers, not just the gossip rags. It was kind of refreshing.

On the other hand, with all the superheroes known to mankind to serve and protect, it was starting to make Murphy feel a little bit...out of place. Unnecessary. Sure, there was the day to day weirdness, but she was feeling a little disconnected again lately, and she knew she needed to do something about it. So, Wednesday, after her shift, she sent Jesse a quick message to see if he was free for coffee. Even if he wasn't able to join her, what better way to get over mid-week hump day than a shot of caffeine?

Zoe stared at herself in the mirror. She fixed her hair, then looked at her dress. It had been some time since she cared about someone and how she looked for said someone. She rarely bothered with dressing up; the dinner was already in the oven, remaining warm. It wasn't anything overly fancy, but it was actually something different. A stew with cornbread. It was something more suited to his upbringing perhaps. Yes, she'd taken the time to find out what he might have eaten before he came to the City.

The dress tight in just the right places, hung in others, cut just right to show exactly how female she was. Her hair had been straightened for a slightly different look. She was a woman tonight, and she partially wondered if he would even notice or care about the difference. There was some part of her that wanted to throw it all out and not worry about it.

For once Zoe Washburne was making a conscious effort to be something more. Or something different. Now she just had to wait for him to show up.

Jesse Custer. He wasn't that difficult to find, as he was in the book. Plus, Jennifer knew the exact address. Having a partner who was aware helped. Then again, finding someone was a police detective's job.

Detective Charlie Crews of the City Police watched the numbers change as the elevator went to the correct floor. He waited for the doors to open before he even bothered moving. It was an easily ambling walk as he made his way to the desired door. His movement was just as relaxed as his hand lifted to knock on the door. He absently thought about Jennifer and her cat; it'd been a while since he'd checked in on the alien tabby. He also needed to get fish for his own cat; she'd been so good lately.

Finally his knuckles rapped against the door. He unbuttoned his jacket to show the badge sitting at his waistband; it wasn't exactly a threat, just a reminder of who or what he was. Sometimes it gave him just the edge he wanted. He needed to know that this man was a good guy; he had to look after his partner after all.

Jesse didn't want Karrin going anywhere near the cause of the storm. He didn't really want anyone going near the cause of the storm. Were he a different man, he might have sent the cause of the storm the hell out of the City completely.

He had to let her know to keep herself safe. Admittedly, he cheated a little bit. He didn't take out his phone to send the message, didn't look up her number, didn't do any of the things that a normal human might do. He used his powers. He sent her a note right to her phone.

Karrin,

I don't want you fighting that thing we were discussing. It ain't the kind of thing that can be taken down simply. Please, keep everyone you think would go after it away.

-Jesse Custer