Day 50: Courtyard

[hasnomeaning]

Again, there were choices. After leaving the child and the animal, Rei had followed again. When prompted where she wanted to spend time, the pilot had no preference. If they wished her to do something, they would place it before her. If they left her with options, she would take the ones they did not want. So her response was minimal, and so the

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[thatmaskedchick]

Ruby looked up when she heard someone approaching. Enter the jolly green giant. She gave him a brief smile, partly out of force of habit, and finally sat at the bench, indicating that Sam might want to do the same. If they were going to have a long, serious talk they might as well be comfortable. “Yeah,” she said, a little distractedly. “Wound up in a ballroom that looked like it belonged in a Disney movie.” And yet, that didn’t seem quite as important as it had earlier. Sure, there was still the what the hell factor, but it was slightly less pressing than the possible visit by a Lilith clone.

Which Sam might want to know about. In fact, she could use it to her advantage; Lilith was one scary bitch and having the threat of her presence in this place looming over their heads might make give them some incentive to get the apocalypse show on the road. Having someone press the reset button on Dean’s memories by a couple of years had sort of put a damper on things. Sam was obsessed with saving him again, rather than avenging him.

“Lilith was here,” she said shortly. “Or, well, I think they wanted me to believe she was Lilith. Either way, it was a surprise I didn’t want.”

[allroadslead]

Sam brushed off a wet leaf stuck to the bench before sitting down. After everything he'd heard, a ballroom didn't seem that out there, but he'd barely had time to process even that much before Ruby sidelined him with-

He snapped his head up, startled. Did she just-did she say-? What?

"What?"

That couldn't be right. It had to be a trick. Didn't it? Why would Lilith be here? They'd already established that this wasn't the work of demons, and Sam couldn't imagine Lilith having anything to do with this place, certainly not as an indirect party.

Jesus, his head was gonna explode. "Ruby, that doesn't add up. You're sure it was her?"

Normally, he'd say Ruby would've been able to tell the difference between Lilith and a decoy, but the institute put a lot of those certainties up in the air. He wasn't sure of anything anymore. Except that they knew. About Lilith, that was. Whether she was real or a fake, it didn't matter. They knew. Not exactly a surprise, of course, but it unsettled him regardless, these things which were so personal to him ending up in the hands of...whoever. Some kind of whacked out puppet master, apparently.

He didn't like it, how far out of his hands this was. Everything to do with the deal and Lilith, the information should've been strictly his-and Ruby's-but now it suddenly wasn't, and he couldn't help getting the sense that Dean was going to find out sooner rather than later. He knew precisely how much worse it would be if Dean found out from a third party.

[thatmaskedchick]

“Not at all,” Ruby admitted. “And totally human, as far as I could tell. Just an evil, bossy little girl. Ringing any bells?” An evil, bossy little girl who had somehow been convinced that Ruby was her aunt. She had no idea where that fit into the grand scheme of thing, or if it even meant anything at all, but that wasn’t looking at the big picture, here. There were other questions that needed answering first. “I don’t know If I know whether she was Lilith or not. I think they wanted me to think she was. Don’t ask me why, because that bitch isn’t exactly the first person on my Christmas list, but I wound up in a ballroom last night. I’m not going to strain myself applying logic to this place.”

She stretched her neck, thinking. “That little girl isn’t the one holding Dean’s deal,” she pointed out, echoing what she was sure Sam was thinking. He had something of a one-track mind when it came to his brother, after all. The Winchesters were each others’ greatest weaknesses; one would always be worried about the other, pretty much no matter what. “But the whole thing still hit a little close to home.”

[allroadslead]

Oh. That explained it. And hell, Ruby's senses couldn't be that off, could they?

"Yeah, well-totally human, I think that pretty much answers the question unless Lilith's come up with some brand new demon-disguising method."

Close to home or not, it'd probably just end up another dead end. No, whoever that little girl was, it wasn't even close to what they were looking for. Had been looking for. Were they still? In the long run, Sam supposed they were, but these days, he barely had time to work out what was what, never mind devote his time to hunting down a demon.

Either way, it figured they'd be giving Ruby the run around, too.

He sighed and rubbed his temple. "Tell me what she said, then. I mean, did she hint about the deal or your stint in hell, anything like that?"

If there was any kind of pattern, it was that-the parallel links between what they knew and what they were supposed to believe, what they were told. He didn't know what it meant, but it was the only thing that kept appearing here and there, all over.

[thatmaskedchick]

And now came the question of how much to tell Sam. Ruby had a few options here; she could tell him the truth and just spin the hell out of it, or she could tell a bald-faced lie. Either way, he wouldn’t be able to tell. Still, it had to sound authentic, and she found that the truth was often good for that. Taken out of context, it wouldn’t actually mean anything. “Before or after she forced me to brush her dolly’s hair?” She started, looking just a little repulsed at the memory. “If it’s after, I’m going to have to assume you’re ‘Matt.’ She asked me what my plans are for you, but she wouldn’t elaborate. When I tried to get her to, a nurse said the visit was over and took her away.” She frowned. Now it was time to fabricate. Ruby had no idea what Rebecca’s plans for Matt were, but if they were taking her life and just putting a non-demonic spin on things, maybe ‘Aunt Becky’s’ heart was in a similar place, even if she probably wasn’t trying to raise the devil. “She was pretty damn insistent. What my plans are for you, I mean. The idea’s there, but the details are off. I really don’t think she wanted to hear that my plans include putting her back in the hole for good.

“Oh, and I’m her aunt. So apparently I’m Lucifer’s sister. Makes the whole demonic family tree a little more convoluted, but that’s good to know.”

[allroadslead]

Jesus. Okay.

What had Ruby been to him according to the institute? He couldn't quite remember. That day when they'd all reverted to their false identities, it came with memories, but not all of it. He wasn't sure about the details of his childhood, for instance, just the knowledge that there was nothing out of the ordinary about it. Or anything at all. The thing that stood out the most was Dean's attempted suicide and the death of...but that hadn't happened. Or it had, but not the way they said it did.

He remembered she'd helped him look for whatever it was that'd killed Dean. Whoever. But Lilith had never factored in. And he'd be damned if he knew what plans referred to. It had to be something, but either Ruby didn't know, either, or she wasn't telling him, or something in between. None of the options would surprise him, but it didn't matter. Their goals lined up. That was the point. Everything else...everything else was just exactly that.

He was about to ask her for more details, but he could see the nurses starting to poke their heads into the room. Dammit, they were really against people having any form of extended conversations, weren't they?

He flicked his gaze up, then back at Ruby. "All right, well, I'm gonna swing by tonight. I have something for you."