09x12 - Problem Child - Part Four: No Man's Land
Episode Number: 09x12 of Season 9 Fan Fiction (S9FF)
Title: Problem Child
Subtitle: No Man's Land
Author: dracox-serdriel
Word Count: 2,239
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: language, violence
Status: Complete. Feedback appreciated.
Dean and Cas rolled out in Sam's pickup truck.
"Where're we going?" Dean asked as soon as he got to the main road.
"You should of let me drive," Cas said. "You'll be disgruntled at my directions - "
"Cas!"
"Right," the angel replied. "Then get on the highway, heading north."
"What's the final destination?"
"A no man's land."
"Explain, Cas, explain."
"Atropos and Nona can be summoned separately anywhere, but together they need to be summoned in a no man's land, either natural or supernatural."
When he didn't elaborate further, Dean replied, "Which means?"
"There is one in the badlands of South Dakota," Cas said. "You can summon them there."
"But you'll be ready to help Kevin or Sammy if they need it?" Dean asked.
"Yes."
"You're sure."
"You're grating when you feel like you're not in control," Castiel commented.
"I'm worried," Dean said. "People I care about are in mortal danger, and I'm summoning two of three Fates - "
"Not in control," Cas said, "which, incidentally, is actually all the time. You're just acutely aware of it right now."
"Cas, did you just give me attitude?"
"If by attitude you mean I asserted a truth you didn't want to hear - "
"That's not what it means - "
"Then the answer is no, I did not give you attitude."
"You just did it again."
"Expressed an truth you didn't want to hear?"
"No - it's not what you say, Cas. Attitude is how you say it," Dean thought for a moment. "Here's a for-instance: you say no man's land as if it's an obvious, everyone-knows-it kinda thing." He added as much attitude as he could to his statement since he couldn't come up with anything better.
"You also asserted a truth, so is that part of this, uh, attitude?" Cas asked.
"No - " Dean gave up, "Ask Sam when he gets back."
"You need to turn left up here."
"This one?" Dean said slowing down.
"No, the next one - "
"Com'on..."
Kevin Tran picked up a book squirreled away behind several others on a shelf. It was a hunter's journal. He opened to the first page. It was Sam Winchester's hunter's journal.
"No way," he whispered to himself. Some of the pages had napkin notes pined to them; others had printed text stapled across them.
The first sections of the book, dated 2005 to 2007, were all hand-written, but every entry had the essence of age, a hindsight. Clearly Sam had transcribed his notes into entries for those years, but the proceeding years were tied together like a quilt.
He noticed a small note on the front page: SEE JOURNAL I FOR PRE-STANFORD YEARS. Apparently Sam's childhood and teen hunting was elsewhere.
Kevin flipped through 2007 and most of 2008, until he came to the entry on Dean's resurrection. Thinking this would be a good place to start, he began reading about the Apocalypse through Sam's eyes.
Kane took Sam deep into Purgatory. He felt the heat of bodies - or souls, perhaps - passing by him, as they rolled deeper and deeper until -
It stopped abruptly. They stood in an overcast field with gray butterflies here and there.
"Are we there?"
"Yes. Call when you're ready to leave," Kane said right before he vanished.
Sam moved towards the trees; he felt vulnerable out in the open. No sooner had he reached cover than a voice caught his ear.
"Sam."
"Lenore?" he said. "Is that you?"
She moved beyond her place in the bushes, and Sam's glasses revealed a cerulean glow emanating from her. Lenore had fed as a vampire on earth.
"What are you doing here?" she asked. "You can't be here. Not like this."
"I'm not here to cause trouble, I just - I kinda have a mission," Sam floundered. "I need to find an innocent soul."
She flinched. "You assume you can find one here?"
"My best bet," Sam replied. "Will you help me?"
Lenore glared at him, her pupils dilating. "I can't. I haven't been around human blood since - forever. Get away from me!"
Sam headed deeper into the trees.
"Not that way," she barked. "Go back into the field, opposite direction, keep going. There's an encampment there, maybe they can help you."
"I'm sorry," he said as he left. "Thank you, again, Lenore."
Dean pulled the truck over in the middle of nowhere South Dakota. The rocks of the badlands cast creepy, odd-shaped shadows across the basin.
"Here? Really? This place is a horror film waiting to happen," Dean said.
"You'll need to blend these and cast this over the mix," Cas instructed.
"When did you get so bossy?"
Cas tilted his head. "You asked me to - "
"Never mind."
"You seem unhappy," Cas observed.
"I'm - fine."
Dean busied himself setting up the summoning ritual. Cas grasped his shoulder to stop him mid-way. He asked, "What's wrong?"
"I'm not used to working alone, I guess," Dean said quietly.
"You're not alone."
"I'm doing this alone," he said. "Sam's doing his thing alone. Kev's gonna try to chat with God. And you're holding down the fort."
"This makes you upset?"
"I told him he'd have a real life," Dean began. When Cas made no response, he continued, "Sam, I mean. I said after we killed yellow eyes - Azazel, whatever the hell his name was - I said he could get his revenge and go back to his normal life. Well, didn't say it so much as - he knew."
Castiel still said nothing.
"You know I promise Kev the same thing," Dean continued. "After we shut the Gates of Hell, he could be a mathlete again. Instead he's spending his winter break trying to find God to resurrect an angel."
"He's happy," Cas pointed out. "They both are."
"They're making the best of what they've been stuck with."
"Isn't that what everyone does?"
Dean didn't respond. He went back to setting up the summoning ritual.
"What's the incantation?" he asked Cas.
Six hours. Hundreds of pages. Kevin felt sure he read a hundred years worth of history.
Two things bothered him about Sam's journal. One, the odd references to demon blood pissed him off and confused him. Two, there were two angels mentioned specifically by Sam in his journal that he should've brought up during their powwow.
The day was ending, and Kevin found himself restless. No one had called to check in, and he was bored. So Kevin decided he should do something now. Sam wrote about meeting an angel in Heaven who spoke to God, and that seemed like the guy to talk to. Joshua, that was his name.
Kevin bagged what he needed and headed out. He didn't go very far. He didn't want to take the Impala, and he didn't have his own car. He hitched into town to find a car service.
Purgatory seemed oddly quiet and empty. Maybe this section had fewer inhabitance, or maybe none of them dare approach a full-blooded human. Whatever the reason, it made the journey lonely and terrifying in a way Sam would have never predicted. He moved through the trees noiselessly, gripping tightly to the demon knife.
"What could you possibly be doing here?"
Sam spun around. A young man stood in front of him; his soul glowed orange.
"I'm Sam," he said, "and I was told there was an encampment in this direction."
"Jones," said the man. "Your information is correct, but that's not what I asked."
"I'm on a mission to set something right," Sam replied. "That encampment is my best bet."
"He's okay," said a female voice.
"He's human and he's alive," Jones protested.
"I know him," the voice repeated. She appeared suddenly, like she just popped into existence. "Sam, I like your glasses."
"Madison," he said. Her soul burned red.
"You shouldn't be here," she insisted.
"I know, I'm not trying to make trouble, but I need to - "
"Set something right," Jones mocked Sam. "So he says."
"You're here for someone?" Madison asked.
"An innocent soul."
Madison said something to Jones. He transformed into something and ran off on all fours.
"Jones is a little... wary of hunters," Madison explained. "It's nice to see you."
"And you," Sam said. "Madison, you don't know how much I was you were the one I've come for."
"But I'm not innocent, no one here is," she explained. "Our encampment is peaceful. That doesn't mean we're not monsters."
"There's no one?" Sam asked.
"No one in this direction," she said. "Your best bet is to head due South," she pointed for him. "But even there, I don't think you'll find anyone."
Sam wanted to take Madison out of here; it hadn't been her fault. She didn't know that she was a werewolf when she was alive.
"Look, you might not be the soul I'm looking for, but you don't belong here," Sam said. "Come with me."
"With you? Where?"
"I can pull souls out of here, let them go on to Heaven," Sam said. "You didn't know, and as soon as you realized you couldn't be cured, you asked me to stop you. You're a good person."
"You know that qualifies a lot of late-generation werewolves," Madison replied. "Why do I get special treatment?"
"Because you are a good person."
She considered it for a moment. "I want to go with you, but it sounds too good to be true."
"I've done it before. I pulled a soul out of Hell," Sam said, "It can be done. You just gotta trust me."
"You still need to find another soul, don't you?"
"Yeah, yeah I do."
"I'll escort you. It'll give me time to think."
"Sounds good," Sam replied. He headed due south with his new companion.
It took Dean four tries to cast the summoning spell correctly. Castiel waited over in the truck, putting several yards between the two.
"Tempting fate is one thing," Atropos said.
"Summoning two fates with your history," Nona continued, "that's suicide."
"We haven't met," Dean said to both of them. "I'm Dean."
"Atropos."
"Nona."
Atropos continued, "And we have met, actually."
"The fire bomb explosion," Dean remembered, "good times."
"I see you've still got an angel up your sleeve," Nona said, indicating Castiel. "Why isn't here out here with you?"
"This isn't about me or you - "
"Isn't it?" Atropos cut him off.
"This is about your sister, Lachesis."
"What about her?" Nona asked.
Dean swallowed hard. "You know she worked for Crowley, don't you?"
Atropos's hackles raised. "How dare you - "
"She kidnapped the Prophet and drugged him with some kind of venom," Dean interrupted her.
Atropos moved in on Dean, grabbing him by the collar and picking his feet up off the grown. "Where do you get off speaking about my sister like that?"
"Put him down, Atropos," Nona said. "He's right."
Dean's feet touched the ground again, but Atropos didn't loosen her grip on him.
She said to Nona, "That can't be right."
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you."
Atropos turned on Dean, "The only reason she'd do anything like that is because of you. We had a job. We worked hard, and then you and your brother and your pet angel destroyed everything."
"Yeah, about that - " Dean began, but his voice choked as Atropos lifted him off the ground.
Cas elbowed her away from his hunter. Atropos stumbled into Nona, who caught her gracefully.
"We didn't come here to fight," Castiel said.
"No?" Nona asked. "Just to chat about the most painful topic you could think of? Convince us it's not your fault?"
"We wanted to help you get Lachesis back," Dean rasped out.
"Dean Winchester, famous anti-Fate junkie wants to help us? Somehow I doubt that," Nona replied.
"Look, I don't know - " Dean began.
"What you did to piss us off?" Atropos cut him off again. "You rendered our existence completely useless. We've been reduced to almost nothing. And it's not just us, pet. It's pretty much everyone. The cupids - "
"Woah, wait," Dean barked. "You're fate, right? The three of you together are Fate. By definition, your existence creates meaning."
"Sounds nice on paper, but without a master plan, our job's arbitrary," Nona said.
"Well, I can't give you a master plan or any of that crap," Dean said. "But getting your sister back? That's something I can do."
"Then why don't you?" Atropos asked.
"Okay, sister, normally I gank the people who kidnap or injure the prophet, you understand?"
"So you want us to believe you're making a special exception?" Nona asked.
"No, killing her is out of my league," Dean admitted. "Cas can pull it off, sure, but I imagine that wouldn't sit well with either of you. Not so much charity as much as protecting my own ass."
"Like always," Atropos replied.
"I can get her here," Dean explained. "But the only thing that'll bring her back to her senses is talking to you two. And if that can't be done - "
"You'll get your angel buddy to kill her?" Nona asked.
"No," Dean said. "But it's only a matter of time before the ass-monkeys up in Heaven figure this out and put a price on her head. That's not one angel. That's dozens."
Atropos turned to her sister, "We don't need his help."
Nona replied, "Maybe we don't, but if it means getting Lachesis to come home..."
The two fates shared some sort of silent sister moment. Dean waited.
<<< Previous Part:
Part Three: Flick of the Knife
Next Part: >>>
Part Five: Make the Stand
Primary Post: 09x12 Problem Child
Primary Post: Season 9 Fan Fiction (S9FF)
Title: Problem Child
Subtitle: No Man's Land
Author: dracox-serdriel
Word Count: 2,239
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: language, violence
Status: Complete. Feedback appreciated.
Dean and Cas rolled out in Sam's pickup truck.
"Where're we going?" Dean asked as soon as he got to the main road.
"You should of let me drive," Cas said. "You'll be disgruntled at my directions - "
"Cas!"
"Right," the angel replied. "Then get on the highway, heading north."
"What's the final destination?"
"A no man's land."
"Explain, Cas, explain."
"Atropos and Nona can be summoned separately anywhere, but together they need to be summoned in a no man's land, either natural or supernatural."
When he didn't elaborate further, Dean replied, "Which means?"
"There is one in the badlands of South Dakota," Cas said. "You can summon them there."
"But you'll be ready to help Kevin or Sammy if they need it?" Dean asked.
"Yes."
"You're sure."
"You're grating when you feel like you're not in control," Castiel commented.
"I'm worried," Dean said. "People I care about are in mortal danger, and I'm summoning two of three Fates - "
"Not in control," Cas said, "which, incidentally, is actually all the time. You're just acutely aware of it right now."
"Cas, did you just give me attitude?"
"If by attitude you mean I asserted a truth you didn't want to hear - "
"That's not what it means - "
"Then the answer is no, I did not give you attitude."
"You just did it again."
"Expressed an truth you didn't want to hear?"
"No - it's not what you say, Cas. Attitude is how you say it," Dean thought for a moment. "Here's a for-instance: you say no man's land as if it's an obvious, everyone-knows-it kinda thing." He added as much attitude as he could to his statement since he couldn't come up with anything better.
"You also asserted a truth, so is that part of this, uh, attitude?" Cas asked.
"No - " Dean gave up, "Ask Sam when he gets back."
"You need to turn left up here."
"This one?" Dean said slowing down.
"No, the next one - "
"Com'on..."
Kevin Tran picked up a book squirreled away behind several others on a shelf. It was a hunter's journal. He opened to the first page. It was Sam Winchester's hunter's journal.
"No way," he whispered to himself. Some of the pages had napkin notes pined to them; others had printed text stapled across them.
The first sections of the book, dated 2005 to 2007, were all hand-written, but every entry had the essence of age, a hindsight. Clearly Sam had transcribed his notes into entries for those years, but the proceeding years were tied together like a quilt.
He noticed a small note on the front page: SEE JOURNAL I FOR PRE-STANFORD YEARS. Apparently Sam's childhood and teen hunting was elsewhere.
Kevin flipped through 2007 and most of 2008, until he came to the entry on Dean's resurrection. Thinking this would be a good place to start, he began reading about the Apocalypse through Sam's eyes.
Kane took Sam deep into Purgatory. He felt the heat of bodies - or souls, perhaps - passing by him, as they rolled deeper and deeper until -
It stopped abruptly. They stood in an overcast field with gray butterflies here and there.
"Are we there?"
"Yes. Call when you're ready to leave," Kane said right before he vanished.
Sam moved towards the trees; he felt vulnerable out in the open. No sooner had he reached cover than a voice caught his ear.
"Sam."
"Lenore?" he said. "Is that you?"
She moved beyond her place in the bushes, and Sam's glasses revealed a cerulean glow emanating from her. Lenore had fed as a vampire on earth.
"What are you doing here?" she asked. "You can't be here. Not like this."
"I'm not here to cause trouble, I just - I kinda have a mission," Sam floundered. "I need to find an innocent soul."
She flinched. "You assume you can find one here?"
"My best bet," Sam replied. "Will you help me?"
Lenore glared at him, her pupils dilating. "I can't. I haven't been around human blood since - forever. Get away from me!"
Sam headed deeper into the trees.
"Not that way," she barked. "Go back into the field, opposite direction, keep going. There's an encampment there, maybe they can help you."
"I'm sorry," he said as he left. "Thank you, again, Lenore."
Dean pulled the truck over in the middle of nowhere South Dakota. The rocks of the badlands cast creepy, odd-shaped shadows across the basin.
"Here? Really? This place is a horror film waiting to happen," Dean said.
"You'll need to blend these and cast this over the mix," Cas instructed.
"When did you get so bossy?"
Cas tilted his head. "You asked me to - "
"Never mind."
"You seem unhappy," Cas observed.
"I'm - fine."
Dean busied himself setting up the summoning ritual. Cas grasped his shoulder to stop him mid-way. He asked, "What's wrong?"
"I'm not used to working alone, I guess," Dean said quietly.
"You're not alone."
"I'm doing this alone," he said. "Sam's doing his thing alone. Kev's gonna try to chat with God. And you're holding down the fort."
"This makes you upset?"
"I told him he'd have a real life," Dean began. When Cas made no response, he continued, "Sam, I mean. I said after we killed yellow eyes - Azazel, whatever the hell his name was - I said he could get his revenge and go back to his normal life. Well, didn't say it so much as - he knew."
Castiel still said nothing.
"You know I promise Kev the same thing," Dean continued. "After we shut the Gates of Hell, he could be a mathlete again. Instead he's spending his winter break trying to find God to resurrect an angel."
"He's happy," Cas pointed out. "They both are."
"They're making the best of what they've been stuck with."
"Isn't that what everyone does?"
Dean didn't respond. He went back to setting up the summoning ritual.
"What's the incantation?" he asked Cas.
Six hours. Hundreds of pages. Kevin felt sure he read a hundred years worth of history.
Two things bothered him about Sam's journal. One, the odd references to demon blood pissed him off and confused him. Two, there were two angels mentioned specifically by Sam in his journal that he should've brought up during their powwow.
The day was ending, and Kevin found himself restless. No one had called to check in, and he was bored. So Kevin decided he should do something now. Sam wrote about meeting an angel in Heaven who spoke to God, and that seemed like the guy to talk to. Joshua, that was his name.
Kevin bagged what he needed and headed out. He didn't go very far. He didn't want to take the Impala, and he didn't have his own car. He hitched into town to find a car service.
Purgatory seemed oddly quiet and empty. Maybe this section had fewer inhabitance, or maybe none of them dare approach a full-blooded human. Whatever the reason, it made the journey lonely and terrifying in a way Sam would have never predicted. He moved through the trees noiselessly, gripping tightly to the demon knife.
"What could you possibly be doing here?"
Sam spun around. A young man stood in front of him; his soul glowed orange.
"I'm Sam," he said, "and I was told there was an encampment in this direction."
"Jones," said the man. "Your information is correct, but that's not what I asked."
"I'm on a mission to set something right," Sam replied. "That encampment is my best bet."
"He's okay," said a female voice.
"He's human and he's alive," Jones protested.
"I know him," the voice repeated. She appeared suddenly, like she just popped into existence. "Sam, I like your glasses."
"Madison," he said. Her soul burned red.
"You shouldn't be here," she insisted.
"I know, I'm not trying to make trouble, but I need to - "
"Set something right," Jones mocked Sam. "So he says."
"You're here for someone?" Madison asked.
"An innocent soul."
Madison said something to Jones. He transformed into something and ran off on all fours.
"Jones is a little... wary of hunters," Madison explained. "It's nice to see you."
"And you," Sam said. "Madison, you don't know how much I was you were the one I've come for."
"But I'm not innocent, no one here is," she explained. "Our encampment is peaceful. That doesn't mean we're not monsters."
"There's no one?" Sam asked.
"No one in this direction," she said. "Your best bet is to head due South," she pointed for him. "But even there, I don't think you'll find anyone."
Sam wanted to take Madison out of here; it hadn't been her fault. She didn't know that she was a werewolf when she was alive.
"Look, you might not be the soul I'm looking for, but you don't belong here," Sam said. "Come with me."
"With you? Where?"
"I can pull souls out of here, let them go on to Heaven," Sam said. "You didn't know, and as soon as you realized you couldn't be cured, you asked me to stop you. You're a good person."
"You know that qualifies a lot of late-generation werewolves," Madison replied. "Why do I get special treatment?"
"Because you are a good person."
She considered it for a moment. "I want to go with you, but it sounds too good to be true."
"I've done it before. I pulled a soul out of Hell," Sam said, "It can be done. You just gotta trust me."
"You still need to find another soul, don't you?"
"Yeah, yeah I do."
"I'll escort you. It'll give me time to think."
"Sounds good," Sam replied. He headed due south with his new companion.
It took Dean four tries to cast the summoning spell correctly. Castiel waited over in the truck, putting several yards between the two.
"Tempting fate is one thing," Atropos said.
"Summoning two fates with your history," Nona continued, "that's suicide."
"We haven't met," Dean said to both of them. "I'm Dean."
"Atropos."
"Nona."
Atropos continued, "And we have met, actually."
"The fire bomb explosion," Dean remembered, "good times."
"I see you've still got an angel up your sleeve," Nona said, indicating Castiel. "Why isn't here out here with you?"
"This isn't about me or you - "
"Isn't it?" Atropos cut him off.
"This is about your sister, Lachesis."
"What about her?" Nona asked.
Dean swallowed hard. "You know she worked for Crowley, don't you?"
Atropos's hackles raised. "How dare you - "
"She kidnapped the Prophet and drugged him with some kind of venom," Dean interrupted her.
Atropos moved in on Dean, grabbing him by the collar and picking his feet up off the grown. "Where do you get off speaking about my sister like that?"
"Put him down, Atropos," Nona said. "He's right."
Dean's feet touched the ground again, but Atropos didn't loosen her grip on him.
She said to Nona, "That can't be right."
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you."
Atropos turned on Dean, "The only reason she'd do anything like that is because of you. We had a job. We worked hard, and then you and your brother and your pet angel destroyed everything."
"Yeah, about that - " Dean began, but his voice choked as Atropos lifted him off the ground.
Cas elbowed her away from his hunter. Atropos stumbled into Nona, who caught her gracefully.
"We didn't come here to fight," Castiel said.
"No?" Nona asked. "Just to chat about the most painful topic you could think of? Convince us it's not your fault?"
"We wanted to help you get Lachesis back," Dean rasped out.
"Dean Winchester, famous anti-Fate junkie wants to help us? Somehow I doubt that," Nona replied.
"Look, I don't know - " Dean began.
"What you did to piss us off?" Atropos cut him off again. "You rendered our existence completely useless. We've been reduced to almost nothing. And it's not just us, pet. It's pretty much everyone. The cupids - "
"Woah, wait," Dean barked. "You're fate, right? The three of you together are Fate. By definition, your existence creates meaning."
"Sounds nice on paper, but without a master plan, our job's arbitrary," Nona said.
"Well, I can't give you a master plan or any of that crap," Dean said. "But getting your sister back? That's something I can do."
"Then why don't you?" Atropos asked.
"Okay, sister, normally I gank the people who kidnap or injure the prophet, you understand?"
"So you want us to believe you're making a special exception?" Nona asked.
"No, killing her is out of my league," Dean admitted. "Cas can pull it off, sure, but I imagine that wouldn't sit well with either of you. Not so much charity as much as protecting my own ass."
"Like always," Atropos replied.
"I can get her here," Dean explained. "But the only thing that'll bring her back to her senses is talking to you two. And if that can't be done - "
"You'll get your angel buddy to kill her?" Nona asked.
"No," Dean said. "But it's only a matter of time before the ass-monkeys up in Heaven figure this out and put a price on her head. That's not one angel. That's dozens."
Atropos turned to her sister, "We don't need his help."
Nona replied, "Maybe we don't, but if it means getting Lachesis to come home..."
The two fates shared some sort of silent sister moment. Dean waited.
<<< Previous Part:
Part Three: Flick of the Knife
Next Part: >>>
Part Five: Make the Stand
Primary Post: 09x12 Problem Child
Primary Post: Season 9 Fan Fiction (S9FF)