Title: King’s Gambit
Author: Zara_Zee
Beta: Unbeta’d because
9Tiptoes hasn’t seen the finale yet…
Total Words: 625
Genre(s): Episode 9.23 coda.
Rating: PG-13. Gen.
Disclaimer: Not mine. Just playing in the sandbox
Spoilers: **Major spoilers for 9.23**
Summary: Crowley really hadn’t known; not really. But he’d suspected and he’d plotted and he’d hoped.
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Everybody breaks in Hell.
Crowley frowns. Well. Everybody except that sodding John Winchester.
It may take a week; it may take a month; it may take a year. It may take forty years. But everybody (else) breaks eventually. And once they’ve peeled their battered, broken souls off the rack and started putting other souls up there, well, then it’s just a matter of time. Demonhood is guaranteed.
Crowley frowns. Unless straight-laced, trenchcoat-wearing angels come and drag their pretty little asses back up top-side again.
The point is (and there is a point) that Dean Winchester’s soul had already been well on its way to Demonhood, his first time in the pit. All that slicing and dicing had left a scar.
He’d accepted the Mark willingly-with very little manipulation, if Crowley is honest. And then he’d picked up the First Blade, and it had been all faster pussy cat, kill, kill, kill.
Crowley really hadn’t known; not really. But he’d suspected and he’d plotted and he’d picked up spoilers for Metatron’s Epic Saga of A Misunderstood Angel’s Fall and Redemption as the New God from various angel-minions. And he’d hoped.
The King of Hell saunters across to where Dean Winchester’s blood is pooled beside the wall, on the cold concrete floor of a disused factory in Hobo-ville. He swipes a finger through it and licks. Not quite human; not quite demon. He picks up the Blade, fallen from Dean’s loose hand and abandoned by Sam in his rush to save his brother, and runs a hand across its teeth. Not a lot of bite, without the Mark.
A demon is strong. A Knight of Hell is stronger. A Knight of Hell with the Mark carved into his flesh and the First Blade in his hand is strongest.
If Crowley had Facebook and Hell was his lover, their relationship status would be ‘it’s complicated.’ He has followers and supporters. He also has rivals; upstarts with delusions of grandeur the lot of them. If he’s going to secure his throne, then Crowley needs strength right now. He needs the strongest.
The air around him shakes like a magnitude 5.0 earthquake and Crowley smiles wryly. Right on time. Winchesters. So predictable.
He’d never doubted Moose, not even for a second. Moose may look like an intelligent, logical, cool-headed, college-educated, Democrat-voting, all-American, middle class Joe, but underneath the façade, Sam is just as warped and dysfunctional as his big brother. He may have been able to convince himself; he may have been able to convince his brother (it’s not exactly hard to make Dean Winchester believe he’s not worth saving), but Moose has never fooled the King of Hell.
And just as well, because Crowley was relying on Sam summoning him to get him past all the warding and into the bunker.
He answers the summons. He doesn’t have to appear right next to the summoner. Dean’s room just down the hall is close enough.
Crowley hadn’t been sure; not really. But then Dean hadn’t eaten his burger. And he’d been stabbed with an angel-blade, by an angel powered up by the Word of God, and had taken fifteen minutes to die. The Mark hadn’t wanted to let go. It won’t let him go. And Dean’s soul is already primed for Demonhood.
Crowley puts the blade in Dean’s hand and calls his soul back to his body.
When Dean’s eyes open, inky-black, Crowley lets his own darken, for just a moment. He reaches out a hand and Dean takes it. Crowley’s heart soars. His very own First Blade-wielding Knight of Hell; he’s always wanted one.
King’s Gambit opening. Knight to F3. With Dean Winchester at his side, his throne is assured. Inside, Crowley is already howling at the moon.
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