Heart's Desire - Chapter 20
Fandom: Supernatural
Title: Heart’s Desire
Chapter: 20/23
Rating: Teen and Up Audiences
Author's Notes: Thanks to VegasGranny and Ncsupnatfan for pre-reading.
Summary: Jack wants to help Sam after overhearing a nightmare which results in a rift being opened. Jessica is brought from a world in which Lilith was never killed and now she and the demons reign while they work to break Sam in Hell. Unable to leave her to that life and pain, Sam and his family go to her world to save it.
Chapter Twenty
Dean had quickly decided that he was going to play the role of Ruby’s guard during the curing, leaving John to move among his family, to spend time with them while he still could.
Though he didn’t have the exact same connection, or perhaps hatred was the word, for this version of Ruby as John, Dean, Sam, and Jess did, he felt the loathing towards her.
It was different for him as Ruby’s betrayal was years in the past for him. He’d killed her a long time ago and moved past it. The fact he was facing her again, seeing the face he loathed, was hard to swallow but possible.
When John and the other Dean were there, he could see how hard it was for them to not attack her, kill her even, when they looked into her eyes. To them, her betrayal was closer and more intense, as Dean had never truly trusted her but they had for years. She’d fought alongside them all the time Sam was gone, perhaps pretending she cared for him, too.
He wanted to shield them from that so he carried a chair into the room and sat down in the corner with a book on his lap that he wasn’t really reading but wanted to show he wasn’t upset by her presence.
She spoke sometimes, asking how he was there and where he’d come from, but it had mostly died down after the third dose of blood when its combined effects and the fact he showed himself unshakeable made her efforts to engage pointless.
He liked to imagine what she was feeling. Sam said Crowley suffered at the end as humanity lay heavier and heavier on him, and he was looking forward to that moment with her. He hoped that it would really hurt her when she saw the people she’d betrayed.
Sam said Crowley had asked him how he could find forgiveness for all the awful things he’d done. As Ruby’s had mostly been directed towards them, he thought it would be hard for her to face them at the very end, especially Sam when he came for the last moments of his father’s life.
The door in the file room that led into the dungeon creaked open and John and this world’s Dean came in.
“Time for another dose,” John said.
His voice was weaker than it had been before he’d left after the third dose. The effects of the trial were draining him. Dean hadn’t seen Sam through the last hours of the cure as he’d been with Castiel, unknowingly working towards the worst fate for the angels. He imagined Sam would have looked the same though, and it gave him a pang of guilt that he hadn’t been there to help him manage it.
If Sam had looked like this, moved with these careful movements as if each step hurt him, how had he faced Abaddon and lived?
His brother had even more strength than he’d given him credit for at the time.
Ruby narrowed her eyes at him, and Dean saw that same glint of something more that made him uneasy. He’d been prepared for an attack since this had started, they all had, but she made him more and more sure it was coming when she looked like that. They were prepared, they had Jack and he could beat anything, but if Lilith came…
He sucked in a breath. He had an idea.
The other Dean glanced at him and said, “Something on your mind?”
“Yeah,” Dean said. “Let your dad dose her up and we can talk.”
John and Dean eyed him for a moment and then nodded.
John went to the table and rolled up his left sleeve to expose the vein. His son handed him a syringe and needle and John patted the vein and fisted his hand to bring it to the surface. When he had a clear line of it showing, he inserted the needle and drew up the blood. Dean noticed his hand was shaking as he rolled down his sleeve and approached Ruby.
“This isn’t going to work, you know,” Ruby said calmly.
John shrugged, his expression unconcerned though his eyes were hard. “There’s no harm in trying.”
“You can’t cure a demon,” she said. “It’s a myth. No amount of blood is going to make a difference.”
Dean coughed a laugh. “I know for a fact that’s wrong since I was cured myself.”
All eyes snapped to him and John said, “You were a demon?”
Dean nodded. “I was. Things were very different for us where we were. The hits kept coming,” He turned to Ruby. “It will work though, and I know what will happen to you after. I think there’s something pretty special coming for you when you’re human, all kinds of pain, but I promise that’ll be nothing compared to what you’re going to do to yourself. You’ve got centuries of evil that’s going to haunt you.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “I wish I could stay to watch.”
“Got a hot date?” Ruby asked.
Dean grinned. “I’ve got something pretty good, yeah.”
John grabbed Ruby’s hair and yanked it to the side then jabbed the needle into her neck and depressed the plunger, sending his own blood rushing into her veins.
Ruby hissed between her teeth and winced then took a breath and became menacing and calm again. “How’s Sam?” she asked.
The other Dean strode forward and punched her jaw.
Her head rocked to the side but she laughed. “Hit a nerve?” she asked. “Is he feeling a little delicate maybe?”
“He’s fine,” John said.
“I really doubt it,” Ruby said. “I saw what they did to him down there. He was a wreck. He stopped begging around the first century and stopped talking altogether during the second.” She grinned. “I heard his last words were your names. Sounded like he hoping you’d come for him until the very end though. Apparently, he was always looking around like you were going to appear.”
The other Dean launched himself at her, his fists flying, and John got his arms around him and tried to drag him back. He didn’t have enough strength left though, so Dean rushed to help him and they dragged him back through the file room and into the hall where Dean’s Castiel was standing.
They released Dean and he pressed fisted hands to his temples and growled with frustration.
“You’ve got to stow it, Dean,” John said. “She wants the reaction. She’s got nothing left but words. Don’t give her what she wants.”
“I know,” he snapped in return.
Dean cleared his throat. “Look, we need to prepare in case there is an attack. I know we’ve got Jack to kill backup demons, but we can’t risk him against Lilith. Me and Sammy faced a Knight of Hell called Abaddon once and we couldn’t kill her either-not until we had the right weapon-so we trapped her instead.”
“We know Abaddon,” the other Dean said darkly.
“Lilith isn’t going to walk into a devil’s trap,” John said.
“No, neither was Abaddon, but we did it.” He pulled out the gun from the back of his pants and ejected the clip. “Devil’s trap bullets. Carve it into the base and it’ll lock her down. She won’t be able to move or smoke out. We get one in her and she can stand and watch as we finish this thing. She’ll be dragged back with the rest of those bastards.”
John raised an eyebrow and huffed a laugh. “I can’t believe we’ve never thought of that.”
Dean fixed his eyes on him. “I didn’t come up with it alone. It was Henry that helped me.”
John shook his head jerkily and looked at his son, “Dean, get whatever ammunition we’ve got left in the trunk. I want them all carved. Get Sam and Jess to help. If that bitch comes, I want to have the right bullets on her from all angles.”
His son nodded in return and strode off along the hall. John watched him go and then open the door to the file room again.
“You don’t have to come back,” Dean said. “We’ve got just under an hour until you’re needed again. Go help them with the bullets.”
John stared at him a moment and then turned and followed his son’s path along the hall. Dean took a breath and then went back into the dungeon.
xXx
Dean was sitting in the corner of the dungeon, turning pages of his book occasionally and pondering what was going on with Sam when he heard a distant thudding sound. He dropped his book and made for the door with Ruby’s amused voice making him stop and turn.
“I wonder who that could be.” She winked.
Dean was sure from her reaction that it was her expected rescue coming, and he hesitated a moment, torn between staying to guard and going to defend, before sprinting off along the hall, meeting Sam, Dean, Jess, John and the two angels in the library.
“They’re coming!” John said. “Ruby?”
“Still locked down,” Dean said as he grabbed the angel blades from the duffel on the table and threw them at John, Dean, Jess, and Sam. “Cas, go wait with Ruby. Kill anyone that comes for her; anyone but Lilith.” He slapped his gun into Castiel’s hand and said. “Shoot her if you see her.”
Castiel cast Jack a wary look before running in the direction Dean had come from.
Dean heard the thud again and recognized it as he’d heard it before. “They’re trying to get through the front door.”
“Can they?” John asked.
“I’m not sure,” Dean answered. “We got Crowley in, but he was still pretty much human when we did it. I’m not sure if the warding was effecting him then.”
“Asmodeus got in,” Jack said.
Dean sighed. “Yeah, and Lilith is up a level on him.”
“They can get in,” Jess stated, taking a step closer to Sam who was steely-eyed and angry.
There was another bang and Dean nudged Jack’s shoulder and said, “You ready, kid?”
Jack nodded and walked into the war room. They all followed him in and stopped at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at the door on the balcony that was shaking.
John shifted from foot to foot, his gun raised and ready, and Dean lifted his own to aim at the door as it flew open.
His finger pulled the trigger as soon as the figure entered, knowing anyone that could make it through that door was a threat, and around him, more guns were fired.
He gasped as he recognized the man the bullets had hit and quickly grabbed John’s arm as he made to walk forward and hissed, “It’s not him.”
Adam Milligan, John’s son and Dean’s half-brother, stood on the balcony, his jacket torn where the bullets had hit. He looked down at them with an amused expression. Entering around him were more grey-suited men and women, one of them Dean recognized and growled his name, “Zachariah,” at the same moment Jack spoke the name of the archangel that had possessed Adam. “Michael.”
“Michael!” John said, his voice still weak with illness but his shock clear with it.
Michael walked down the stairs towards them, and Sam, Jess, and their Dean moved forward to position themselves at John’s sides, their Castiel moving a little in front of them.
“Dean Winchester,” Michael said, his eyes on Dean’s other self. “I have been looking forward to meeting you for a long time.” His eyes moved to Dean himself and he smiled slightly, “And there’s the spare.”
Jack stepped forward and held up a hand, making Michael smirk and the other angels draw their blades.
Michael held up a hand and they stopped moving, their blades gripped but not raised. “He’s no threat,” he said. “He doesn’t have the strength.”
“I killed you once,” Jack said.
Michael frowned but went on in a serene voice, “Perhaps you did, but that was not really me. I have the full power of Heaven behind me. I hear you can’t say the same for him. Didn’t he come from another world?”
Dean froze. How had he known that? The only people that did were in this room and Sam and he would never tell them. No. Someone else was missing.
His other self had the same revelation at the same moment and he snarled “Hannah!”
Michael chuckled. “Yes. Hannah.”
“No,” Castiel said, his shock evident. “She wouldn’t.”
Michael smiled. “You don’t think so? You never saw the truth? Hannah was never yours, Castiel. She belonged to Heaven all this time. We needed to know what you were doing and when, and we needed to add some protection against the demons for Dean here. We couldn’t have him getting killed. None of us wanted the bother of putting together a vessel for the battle, wasting time that he could spend honing his skills to hold me.”
“Vessel?” Sam said. “Dean’s a vessel.”
Zachariah laughed. “I see you haven’t been given the full story by your counterparts. Yes, Sam, you and Dean are vessels for the final battle. You belong to Lucifer, and your brother to me.”
Jack’s eyes snapped to him and Dean could sense his barely repressed anger. “Do it, Jack,” he said. “Kill the bastard.”
Jack’s hand started to fist and the angels that were still poised on the balcony above leaped over the banister and landed on the floor below in front of them, blades now raised and ready to strike.
The other Dean stepped in front of his brother and Jess, their guns tossed away and blades held high.
Jack hesitated a moment, his eyes darting between the angels and Michael, and Dean saw his indecision. He wasn’t sure whether to attack or defend.
“Stick with Michael, Jack,” Dean said. “We’ve got the others.”
The angels spread their stance, their eyes flickering to Michael as Jack’s power began to glow shown in golden light that poured from his hand. It hit Michael, making him grunt and stagger back a step before he found his feet and sent his own blast of energy at Jack.
The angels and hunters moved at the same time, running forward and meeting with clashes of blades. Dean knew he had to concentrate on himself and his fight as to be distracted by the others would slow him down. Sam was safe wherever he was, Castiel was with Ruby, hopefully staying there, and Jack could protect himself. The others weren’t his priority.
He met Zachariah at the edge of the table and managed to get a cut into his right arm before Zachariah’s blade punctured his shoulder. The wound burned and his left arm became numb, but he pushed aside the weakness that swept through him, drawing on his long-earned reserves of strength for the fight, and struck out again.
All around him were grunts of pain, clashes of blades meeting, and worried voices calling to each other, but he ignored them all and concentrated on killing the angel he hated.
Zachariah seemed amused by his attacks, but Dean fixed on the fact he’d killed him once before and knew he could do it again. He slashed and jabbed, getting a lucky strike on the wrist on the hand holding his blade.
“How dare you?” Zachariah said, his tone shocked but still menacing.
“This isn’t the first time I’ve made you bleed,” Dean said. “And I’m going to enjoy it a lot more this time.”
There was a blast behind him that knocked him forward a few steps, and the high-pitched whine of an angel’s dying grace. Zachariah’s eyes fixed on a point over his shoulder and he said, “Beriah!” in obvious shock.
Dean used his moment of distraction to charge forward, the blade extended, and drive it into Zachariah’s throat. In his death throes, Zachariah’s blade slashed the side of Dean’s chest and he felt a rush of warmth flooding down his shirt to his pants. It made his head swim and legs weaken, but he forced himself to stay standing as he turned to take in the room.
There were three dead angels on the floor and John and Sam were facing off against another pair, the last left standing. Both of them wounded but in better shape than Jessica, Dean, Castiel that were clutching wounded stomachs and half lying on the floor. Jack and Michael were still locked in battle, throwing balls of energy at each other, but Dean thought Jack was winning. Michael looked unsteady whereas Jack was still standing strong.
Dean ran to the angel that Sam was facing and drove his blade into its back as Sam struck from the front. The angel was impaled on the two blades and stayed standing a moment before they withdrew them and it fell among its fellows, the ashes of its wings joining the others.
Sam rushed to Jessica’s side and dropped down beside her, his hands falling on the wound on her stomach, his voice reassuring her as he stared at his bleeding brother. Dean started towards the other Dean as John’s own opponent dropped with John’s blade in his heart, but his legs buckled and he dropped to his knees then fell forward and tried to roll onto his side. He shouted automatically for Castiel as Jack and Michael’s battle grew more violent and Michael staggered back a few steps.
“Do it, Jack,” he said, his voice weaker than he’d expected. “Kill him.”
Though Jack had obviously been trying already, Dean’s words seemed to reach something in him and he threw out both hands and a rush of golden light hit Michael in the chest, sending him sprawling back to land on the floor. Jack moved closer to him, pounding him with energy, and Michael writhed.
Dean heard voices around him, people giving and seeking reassurance, but his eyes were fixed on Jack and Michael as Jack pressed his hand to Michael’s forehead and the grace poured from his mouth as Michael lifted his blade and slashed at Jack’s throat. Though his intent had obviously been to kill, the cut was shallow and it wasn’t blood that spilled out.
“No!” Dean shouted.
Jack pressed a hand to the wound and it sealed, but the spilled grace was seeping down into Michael’s as they both merged and mixed.
With strength Dean didn’t know he could possess with the weight of his injuries and the trials weakening him, John staggered to them and snatched the blade from Michael’s hand. He lifted it in both hands, murmured an apology, and drove it into Michael’s chest over his heart.
Blinding light poured from him and John and Jack staggered back. Jack looked around as in a daze and then his eyes widened as he saw the injured people around him.
He rushed to Dean, his hand extended, and Dean tried to push it away. “Your grace.”
“I have enough,” Jack said,
“Do Jess,” Dean said.
“Shut up and stay still,” Jack snapped. His hand fell on Dean’s temple and Dean felt the rush of warmth and then a sting on his side and shoulder as the wounds knitted together.
“Jack,” Sam said desperately. “Help.”
Jack moved to Jessica and repeated the healing process then moved to the other Dean and healed him. Sam helped Jessica to her feet and John helped his other son up.
Dean himself rolled onto his knees and got up, his head seeming lighter than usual from the blood loss that no amount of grace could replenish.
“Jack, go check on Cas,” Dean said. “Make sure he’s okay. He didn’t come.”
“I can sense him,” Jack said. “He’s fine.”
“Then go find out why the hell he didn’t come.”
Jack jogged out of the room and Dean saw the other occupants embracing each other and checking the places where wounds had been.
As the other Dean pushed his father’s hands aside and growled, “I’m fine,” John stepped back and said, “I’m sorry.”
Dean had a feeling, from the way his eyes drifted to the corpse spread over the table, that he wasn’t talking to that son.
“Okay,” Dean said, clapping his hands together. “Sam, go get whatever sugar-loaded stuff you’ve got in the kitchen. The grace can’t fix the blood loss. Dean, Jess, you want to clean up?”
They both nodded and walked towards the bedrooms. Dean waited until they were gone and then grabbed John’s arm and turned him away from the table where he was staring with dark eyes.
“I know what you just did,” he said fervently, “and I know who you did it to. You had no choice.”
“You know about Adam?” John asked.
“Yeah. Me and Sammy found out years ago. Your family don’t need to know though.” He shook John’s arm when his expression became mulish. “You have a few hours left with them before you die. Don’t screw that up by letting them know what you did years ago and what happened after. If you were the same kind of dad to Adam that ours was, you did the best for him and the best for us by hiding it. Keep hiding it.”
John nodded and wiped a hand over his face. “Yeah. You’re right.”
Dean checked his watch. “You’ve not got that long until the next dose. Go clean yourself up. I’ll meet you in the dungeon.”
“Okay.” He walked away and then turned at the top of the small flight of stairs and said, “Thank you, Dean.”
Dean nodded in response and then turned back to the bodies spread around the room. They couldn’t leave them there. They needed to be burned or buried. Adam would be burned. He wasn’t a hunter, but he’d lost his life to the fight, and he deserved a hunter’s funeral.
He heard footsteps behind him and turned to see a stricken Castiel coming towards him. “Dean! I didn’t hear. The dungeon is warded. I thought it was just demons. I was just watching her! Jack said it was Michael. Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” Dean said. “I’m fine. Jack healed me up. But, Cas…” He frowned. “Michael wounded him and he lost some of Jack’s grace. He still had enough to heal, but I don’t know how much more.”
Castiel frowned. “But he could heal?”
“Yeah. What if it’s not enough to keep the balance? He could die.”
Castiel shook his head. “I don’t think so. If he could heal, he has a good amount left. That should maintain the balance.”
“And he’ll be able to get us home?” Dean asked.
“I… I don’t know,” Castiel said. “We would have to test it. But if he can’t, Billie will do it. She doesn’t want us here.”
Dean nodded, reassured by Castiel’s words. Billie would get them home. She had to. If she didn’t, Sam was going to be trapped in this world with the woman he loved and the version of himself that he’d lost her to.
Billie had to get them home.
Title: Heart’s Desire
Chapter: 20/23
Rating: Teen and Up Audiences
Author's Notes: Thanks to VegasGranny and Ncsupnatfan for pre-reading.
Summary: Jack wants to help Sam after overhearing a nightmare which results in a rift being opened. Jessica is brought from a world in which Lilith was never killed and now she and the demons reign while they work to break Sam in Hell. Unable to leave her to that life and pain, Sam and his family go to her world to save it.
Chapter Twenty
Dean had quickly decided that he was going to play the role of Ruby’s guard during the curing, leaving John to move among his family, to spend time with them while he still could.
Though he didn’t have the exact same connection, or perhaps hatred was the word, for this version of Ruby as John, Dean, Sam, and Jess did, he felt the loathing towards her.
It was different for him as Ruby’s betrayal was years in the past for him. He’d killed her a long time ago and moved past it. The fact he was facing her again, seeing the face he loathed, was hard to swallow but possible.
When John and the other Dean were there, he could see how hard it was for them to not attack her, kill her even, when they looked into her eyes. To them, her betrayal was closer and more intense, as Dean had never truly trusted her but they had for years. She’d fought alongside them all the time Sam was gone, perhaps pretending she cared for him, too.
He wanted to shield them from that so he carried a chair into the room and sat down in the corner with a book on his lap that he wasn’t really reading but wanted to show he wasn’t upset by her presence.
She spoke sometimes, asking how he was there and where he’d come from, but it had mostly died down after the third dose of blood when its combined effects and the fact he showed himself unshakeable made her efforts to engage pointless.
He liked to imagine what she was feeling. Sam said Crowley suffered at the end as humanity lay heavier and heavier on him, and he was looking forward to that moment with her. He hoped that it would really hurt her when she saw the people she’d betrayed.
Sam said Crowley had asked him how he could find forgiveness for all the awful things he’d done. As Ruby’s had mostly been directed towards them, he thought it would be hard for her to face them at the very end, especially Sam when he came for the last moments of his father’s life.
The door in the file room that led into the dungeon creaked open and John and this world’s Dean came in.
“Time for another dose,” John said.
His voice was weaker than it had been before he’d left after the third dose. The effects of the trial were draining him. Dean hadn’t seen Sam through the last hours of the cure as he’d been with Castiel, unknowingly working towards the worst fate for the angels. He imagined Sam would have looked the same though, and it gave him a pang of guilt that he hadn’t been there to help him manage it.
If Sam had looked like this, moved with these careful movements as if each step hurt him, how had he faced Abaddon and lived?
His brother had even more strength than he’d given him credit for at the time.
Ruby narrowed her eyes at him, and Dean saw that same glint of something more that made him uneasy. He’d been prepared for an attack since this had started, they all had, but she made him more and more sure it was coming when she looked like that. They were prepared, they had Jack and he could beat anything, but if Lilith came…
He sucked in a breath. He had an idea.
The other Dean glanced at him and said, “Something on your mind?”
“Yeah,” Dean said. “Let your dad dose her up and we can talk.”
John and Dean eyed him for a moment and then nodded.
John went to the table and rolled up his left sleeve to expose the vein. His son handed him a syringe and needle and John patted the vein and fisted his hand to bring it to the surface. When he had a clear line of it showing, he inserted the needle and drew up the blood. Dean noticed his hand was shaking as he rolled down his sleeve and approached Ruby.
“This isn’t going to work, you know,” Ruby said calmly.
John shrugged, his expression unconcerned though his eyes were hard. “There’s no harm in trying.”
“You can’t cure a demon,” she said. “It’s a myth. No amount of blood is going to make a difference.”
Dean coughed a laugh. “I know for a fact that’s wrong since I was cured myself.”
All eyes snapped to him and John said, “You were a demon?”
Dean nodded. “I was. Things were very different for us where we were. The hits kept coming,” He turned to Ruby. “It will work though, and I know what will happen to you after. I think there’s something pretty special coming for you when you’re human, all kinds of pain, but I promise that’ll be nothing compared to what you’re going to do to yourself. You’ve got centuries of evil that’s going to haunt you.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “I wish I could stay to watch.”
“Got a hot date?” Ruby asked.
Dean grinned. “I’ve got something pretty good, yeah.”
John grabbed Ruby’s hair and yanked it to the side then jabbed the needle into her neck and depressed the plunger, sending his own blood rushing into her veins.
Ruby hissed between her teeth and winced then took a breath and became menacing and calm again. “How’s Sam?” she asked.
The other Dean strode forward and punched her jaw.
Her head rocked to the side but she laughed. “Hit a nerve?” she asked. “Is he feeling a little delicate maybe?”
“He’s fine,” John said.
“I really doubt it,” Ruby said. “I saw what they did to him down there. He was a wreck. He stopped begging around the first century and stopped talking altogether during the second.” She grinned. “I heard his last words were your names. Sounded like he hoping you’d come for him until the very end though. Apparently, he was always looking around like you were going to appear.”
The other Dean launched himself at her, his fists flying, and John got his arms around him and tried to drag him back. He didn’t have enough strength left though, so Dean rushed to help him and they dragged him back through the file room and into the hall where Dean’s Castiel was standing.
They released Dean and he pressed fisted hands to his temples and growled with frustration.
“You’ve got to stow it, Dean,” John said. “She wants the reaction. She’s got nothing left but words. Don’t give her what she wants.”
“I know,” he snapped in return.
Dean cleared his throat. “Look, we need to prepare in case there is an attack. I know we’ve got Jack to kill backup demons, but we can’t risk him against Lilith. Me and Sammy faced a Knight of Hell called Abaddon once and we couldn’t kill her either-not until we had the right weapon-so we trapped her instead.”
“We know Abaddon,” the other Dean said darkly.
“Lilith isn’t going to walk into a devil’s trap,” John said.
“No, neither was Abaddon, but we did it.” He pulled out the gun from the back of his pants and ejected the clip. “Devil’s trap bullets. Carve it into the base and it’ll lock her down. She won’t be able to move or smoke out. We get one in her and she can stand and watch as we finish this thing. She’ll be dragged back with the rest of those bastards.”
John raised an eyebrow and huffed a laugh. “I can’t believe we’ve never thought of that.”
Dean fixed his eyes on him. “I didn’t come up with it alone. It was Henry that helped me.”
John shook his head jerkily and looked at his son, “Dean, get whatever ammunition we’ve got left in the trunk. I want them all carved. Get Sam and Jess to help. If that bitch comes, I want to have the right bullets on her from all angles.”
His son nodded in return and strode off along the hall. John watched him go and then open the door to the file room again.
“You don’t have to come back,” Dean said. “We’ve got just under an hour until you’re needed again. Go help them with the bullets.”
John stared at him a moment and then turned and followed his son’s path along the hall. Dean took a breath and then went back into the dungeon.
xXx
Dean was sitting in the corner of the dungeon, turning pages of his book occasionally and pondering what was going on with Sam when he heard a distant thudding sound. He dropped his book and made for the door with Ruby’s amused voice making him stop and turn.
“I wonder who that could be.” She winked.
Dean was sure from her reaction that it was her expected rescue coming, and he hesitated a moment, torn between staying to guard and going to defend, before sprinting off along the hall, meeting Sam, Dean, Jess, John and the two angels in the library.
“They’re coming!” John said. “Ruby?”
“Still locked down,” Dean said as he grabbed the angel blades from the duffel on the table and threw them at John, Dean, Jess, and Sam. “Cas, go wait with Ruby. Kill anyone that comes for her; anyone but Lilith.” He slapped his gun into Castiel’s hand and said. “Shoot her if you see her.”
Castiel cast Jack a wary look before running in the direction Dean had come from.
Dean heard the thud again and recognized it as he’d heard it before. “They’re trying to get through the front door.”
“Can they?” John asked.
“I’m not sure,” Dean answered. “We got Crowley in, but he was still pretty much human when we did it. I’m not sure if the warding was effecting him then.”
“Asmodeus got in,” Jack said.
Dean sighed. “Yeah, and Lilith is up a level on him.”
“They can get in,” Jess stated, taking a step closer to Sam who was steely-eyed and angry.
There was another bang and Dean nudged Jack’s shoulder and said, “You ready, kid?”
Jack nodded and walked into the war room. They all followed him in and stopped at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at the door on the balcony that was shaking.
John shifted from foot to foot, his gun raised and ready, and Dean lifted his own to aim at the door as it flew open.
His finger pulled the trigger as soon as the figure entered, knowing anyone that could make it through that door was a threat, and around him, more guns were fired.
He gasped as he recognized the man the bullets had hit and quickly grabbed John’s arm as he made to walk forward and hissed, “It’s not him.”
Adam Milligan, John’s son and Dean’s half-brother, stood on the balcony, his jacket torn where the bullets had hit. He looked down at them with an amused expression. Entering around him were more grey-suited men and women, one of them Dean recognized and growled his name, “Zachariah,” at the same moment Jack spoke the name of the archangel that had possessed Adam. “Michael.”
“Michael!” John said, his voice still weak with illness but his shock clear with it.
Michael walked down the stairs towards them, and Sam, Jess, and their Dean moved forward to position themselves at John’s sides, their Castiel moving a little in front of them.
“Dean Winchester,” Michael said, his eyes on Dean’s other self. “I have been looking forward to meeting you for a long time.” His eyes moved to Dean himself and he smiled slightly, “And there’s the spare.”
Jack stepped forward and held up a hand, making Michael smirk and the other angels draw their blades.
Michael held up a hand and they stopped moving, their blades gripped but not raised. “He’s no threat,” he said. “He doesn’t have the strength.”
“I killed you once,” Jack said.
Michael frowned but went on in a serene voice, “Perhaps you did, but that was not really me. I have the full power of Heaven behind me. I hear you can’t say the same for him. Didn’t he come from another world?”
Dean froze. How had he known that? The only people that did were in this room and Sam and he would never tell them. No. Someone else was missing.
His other self had the same revelation at the same moment and he snarled “Hannah!”
Michael chuckled. “Yes. Hannah.”
“No,” Castiel said, his shock evident. “She wouldn’t.”
Michael smiled. “You don’t think so? You never saw the truth? Hannah was never yours, Castiel. She belonged to Heaven all this time. We needed to know what you were doing and when, and we needed to add some protection against the demons for Dean here. We couldn’t have him getting killed. None of us wanted the bother of putting together a vessel for the battle, wasting time that he could spend honing his skills to hold me.”
“Vessel?” Sam said. “Dean’s a vessel.”
Zachariah laughed. “I see you haven’t been given the full story by your counterparts. Yes, Sam, you and Dean are vessels for the final battle. You belong to Lucifer, and your brother to me.”
Jack’s eyes snapped to him and Dean could sense his barely repressed anger. “Do it, Jack,” he said. “Kill the bastard.”
Jack’s hand started to fist and the angels that were still poised on the balcony above leaped over the banister and landed on the floor below in front of them, blades now raised and ready to strike.
The other Dean stepped in front of his brother and Jess, their guns tossed away and blades held high.
Jack hesitated a moment, his eyes darting between the angels and Michael, and Dean saw his indecision. He wasn’t sure whether to attack or defend.
“Stick with Michael, Jack,” Dean said. “We’ve got the others.”
The angels spread their stance, their eyes flickering to Michael as Jack’s power began to glow shown in golden light that poured from his hand. It hit Michael, making him grunt and stagger back a step before he found his feet and sent his own blast of energy at Jack.
The angels and hunters moved at the same time, running forward and meeting with clashes of blades. Dean knew he had to concentrate on himself and his fight as to be distracted by the others would slow him down. Sam was safe wherever he was, Castiel was with Ruby, hopefully staying there, and Jack could protect himself. The others weren’t his priority.
He met Zachariah at the edge of the table and managed to get a cut into his right arm before Zachariah’s blade punctured his shoulder. The wound burned and his left arm became numb, but he pushed aside the weakness that swept through him, drawing on his long-earned reserves of strength for the fight, and struck out again.
All around him were grunts of pain, clashes of blades meeting, and worried voices calling to each other, but he ignored them all and concentrated on killing the angel he hated.
Zachariah seemed amused by his attacks, but Dean fixed on the fact he’d killed him once before and knew he could do it again. He slashed and jabbed, getting a lucky strike on the wrist on the hand holding his blade.
“How dare you?” Zachariah said, his tone shocked but still menacing.
“This isn’t the first time I’ve made you bleed,” Dean said. “And I’m going to enjoy it a lot more this time.”
There was a blast behind him that knocked him forward a few steps, and the high-pitched whine of an angel’s dying grace. Zachariah’s eyes fixed on a point over his shoulder and he said, “Beriah!” in obvious shock.
Dean used his moment of distraction to charge forward, the blade extended, and drive it into Zachariah’s throat. In his death throes, Zachariah’s blade slashed the side of Dean’s chest and he felt a rush of warmth flooding down his shirt to his pants. It made his head swim and legs weaken, but he forced himself to stay standing as he turned to take in the room.
There were three dead angels on the floor and John and Sam were facing off against another pair, the last left standing. Both of them wounded but in better shape than Jessica, Dean, Castiel that were clutching wounded stomachs and half lying on the floor. Jack and Michael were still locked in battle, throwing balls of energy at each other, but Dean thought Jack was winning. Michael looked unsteady whereas Jack was still standing strong.
Dean ran to the angel that Sam was facing and drove his blade into its back as Sam struck from the front. The angel was impaled on the two blades and stayed standing a moment before they withdrew them and it fell among its fellows, the ashes of its wings joining the others.
Sam rushed to Jessica’s side and dropped down beside her, his hands falling on the wound on her stomach, his voice reassuring her as he stared at his bleeding brother. Dean started towards the other Dean as John’s own opponent dropped with John’s blade in his heart, but his legs buckled and he dropped to his knees then fell forward and tried to roll onto his side. He shouted automatically for Castiel as Jack and Michael’s battle grew more violent and Michael staggered back a few steps.
“Do it, Jack,” he said, his voice weaker than he’d expected. “Kill him.”
Though Jack had obviously been trying already, Dean’s words seemed to reach something in him and he threw out both hands and a rush of golden light hit Michael in the chest, sending him sprawling back to land on the floor. Jack moved closer to him, pounding him with energy, and Michael writhed.
Dean heard voices around him, people giving and seeking reassurance, but his eyes were fixed on Jack and Michael as Jack pressed his hand to Michael’s forehead and the grace poured from his mouth as Michael lifted his blade and slashed at Jack’s throat. Though his intent had obviously been to kill, the cut was shallow and it wasn’t blood that spilled out.
“No!” Dean shouted.
Jack pressed a hand to the wound and it sealed, but the spilled grace was seeping down into Michael’s as they both merged and mixed.
With strength Dean didn’t know he could possess with the weight of his injuries and the trials weakening him, John staggered to them and snatched the blade from Michael’s hand. He lifted it in both hands, murmured an apology, and drove it into Michael’s chest over his heart.
Blinding light poured from him and John and Jack staggered back. Jack looked around as in a daze and then his eyes widened as he saw the injured people around him.
He rushed to Dean, his hand extended, and Dean tried to push it away. “Your grace.”
“I have enough,” Jack said,
“Do Jess,” Dean said.
“Shut up and stay still,” Jack snapped. His hand fell on Dean’s temple and Dean felt the rush of warmth and then a sting on his side and shoulder as the wounds knitted together.
“Jack,” Sam said desperately. “Help.”
Jack moved to Jessica and repeated the healing process then moved to the other Dean and healed him. Sam helped Jessica to her feet and John helped his other son up.
Dean himself rolled onto his knees and got up, his head seeming lighter than usual from the blood loss that no amount of grace could replenish.
“Jack, go check on Cas,” Dean said. “Make sure he’s okay. He didn’t come.”
“I can sense him,” Jack said. “He’s fine.”
“Then go find out why the hell he didn’t come.”
Jack jogged out of the room and Dean saw the other occupants embracing each other and checking the places where wounds had been.
As the other Dean pushed his father’s hands aside and growled, “I’m fine,” John stepped back and said, “I’m sorry.”
Dean had a feeling, from the way his eyes drifted to the corpse spread over the table, that he wasn’t talking to that son.
“Okay,” Dean said, clapping his hands together. “Sam, go get whatever sugar-loaded stuff you’ve got in the kitchen. The grace can’t fix the blood loss. Dean, Jess, you want to clean up?”
They both nodded and walked towards the bedrooms. Dean waited until they were gone and then grabbed John’s arm and turned him away from the table where he was staring with dark eyes.
“I know what you just did,” he said fervently, “and I know who you did it to. You had no choice.”
“You know about Adam?” John asked.
“Yeah. Me and Sammy found out years ago. Your family don’t need to know though.” He shook John’s arm when his expression became mulish. “You have a few hours left with them before you die. Don’t screw that up by letting them know what you did years ago and what happened after. If you were the same kind of dad to Adam that ours was, you did the best for him and the best for us by hiding it. Keep hiding it.”
John nodded and wiped a hand over his face. “Yeah. You’re right.”
Dean checked his watch. “You’ve not got that long until the next dose. Go clean yourself up. I’ll meet you in the dungeon.”
“Okay.” He walked away and then turned at the top of the small flight of stairs and said, “Thank you, Dean.”
Dean nodded in response and then turned back to the bodies spread around the room. They couldn’t leave them there. They needed to be burned or buried. Adam would be burned. He wasn’t a hunter, but he’d lost his life to the fight, and he deserved a hunter’s funeral.
He heard footsteps behind him and turned to see a stricken Castiel coming towards him. “Dean! I didn’t hear. The dungeon is warded. I thought it was just demons. I was just watching her! Jack said it was Michael. Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” Dean said. “I’m fine. Jack healed me up. But, Cas…” He frowned. “Michael wounded him and he lost some of Jack’s grace. He still had enough to heal, but I don’t know how much more.”
Castiel frowned. “But he could heal?”
“Yeah. What if it’s not enough to keep the balance? He could die.”
Castiel shook his head. “I don’t think so. If he could heal, he has a good amount left. That should maintain the balance.”
“And he’ll be able to get us home?” Dean asked.
“I… I don’t know,” Castiel said. “We would have to test it. But if he can’t, Billie will do it. She doesn’t want us here.”
Dean nodded, reassured by Castiel’s words. Billie would get them home. She had to. If she didn’t, Sam was going to be trapped in this world with the woman he loved and the version of himself that he’d lost her to.
Billie had to get them home.