Fic: Make All the Rain Explode - SPN/SG1
Title: Make All the Rain Explode
Fandom: Supernatural/Stargate SG-1
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: none
Spoilers: Fragile Balance for SG-1, none for SPN
Disclaimer: I own none of these characters, more's the pity.
Summary: Sam is taken to be the host for a goddess.
Author's Notes: Since it's been so long since I posted the last part of this fic, and since it's finished now, I decided to go ahead and post the entire fic together in one entry. And I'm already working on the sequel. *g*
The moment Sam returned to consciousness he knew that something was very wrong. He could feel his pulse pounding at his temples, curtesy of a blow to the back of the head, and even without opening his eyes he could tell that he was tied down, secured to some sort of stone table or altar at both his ankles and wrists. The rope around his wrists was tightly tied and his arms were spread wide enough that he couldn't get any leverage at all.
The stone was rough and cold against the skin of his face and bare chest, and the lack of his shirt and his position face-down on what with his luck was definitely an altar left Sam feeling very vulnerable. And worst of all, he didn't know if Dean had any idea where he was.
It was only when he heard the voices that he realized that he wasn't alone. There were at least two other people in the room with him, and he flinched when he felt a possessive hand stroke down the length of his spine.
"You will make an exquisite host for the goddess. She will be most pleased with you."
Another hand dropped to rest against the small of his back. "Yes, this one is simply perfect. She will enjoy bending his talents to her own use." The second voice was decidedly feminine, with a soft lilt that would have been attractive in other circumstances.
Sam tried to fight back a wave of panic when he realized just what his kidnappers were implying. Not only did they somehow know about his abilities, and he really didn't want to consider just how they knew, but they were also planning on giving him to what was probably some sort of demon to be used as a host.
"It is truly a shame that we could not find such a talented host that was also female for her, but she will find the novelty of a male host most intriguing." The woman stroked up his back to rest her hand in his hair and began petting him, ignoring his shudders of disgust and seemingly not caring at all that he was conscious. "And the host for her consort is also quite amazing, if somewhat young."
If not for the comment about the other host being young Sam would have thought that they were talking about Dean. The fact that they weren't was a good sign, since it meant that Dean was still out there somewhere, more than likely frantically looking for him. Sam adamantly refused to consider any other option.
Sam could hear the man walking slowly around him, his incredibly intense gaze sending cold shivers down Sam's spine. "The true shame is that the goddess and her consort cannot use these hosts to procreate. A host with the gifts of both would be truly remarkable."
That really didn't sound good and Sam shifted on the altar, trying and failing to find any slack at all in his bindings. He was well and truly trapped, with no way that he could see to get himself free.
"Oh, fuck."
The words were hissed quietly, and Sam was only barely able to hear them coming from somewhere to his left. He managed to turn his head, and came face to face with the young man who was obviously meant to be the other host. He looked to be about eighteen, with brown eyes that were wide with a mixture of terror and fury. He was also in the exact same position as Sam: tied down to a stone altar wearing only a pair of pants.
Suddenly the brown eyes went even wider as the boy started to hyperventilate. And before Sam could even start to wonder just what had made him even more terrified, something long and slimy was placed on his back and started wriggling.
Sam had absolutely no clue just what the thing was, but it filled him with an icy terror nonetheless. He tried to thrash, ignoring the way the ropes cut into his wrists, but he was tied down so tightly that he couldn't manage to fling the thing off. And then it was too late.
The thing had reached the back of his neck and before Sam could even think of trying to shake it off it opened its mouth and a set of very small, very sharp teeth bit into the skin of his neck. Then it was burrowing inside him.
The pain was overpowering as the snake thing invaded Sam's body, and he was only distantly aware of the fact that he was screaming. Another scream soon joined his, and with the small part of his mind not focused solely on the pain Sam guessed that another snake thing was burrowing inside his fellow captive.
After a long moment the pain shifted. Instead of the agony caused by the snake thing chewing its way through the back of his neck, Sam could feel an increasingly painful pressure as whatever it was tried to take control of his body. Then the pressure coalesced into a sharp spear that the snake thing used to violently shove its way into Sam's mind.
Sam could no longer even feel his own body as he writhed on the altar, all of his attention and energy focused on trying to keep the demon from violating his mind, trying to keep it from rifling though everything that made Sam who he was. A battle that he was slowly losing.
He was pulled back to an awareness of his body when someone began hurriedly untying his right hand. He just barely managed to open one eye and almost immediately recognized the jacket in front of his nose as Dean's. Dean was trying to free him, which meant that Dean didn't know that the snake demon was already inside him.
With the very last bit of his strength Sam forced himself to speak, to warn Dean. And just as the third word passed his lips, the demon pushed past his final defenses and took control.
"It's in me."
Sam was screaming, even though he knew it was only in his head. Thousands of years worth of blood and violence and pure self-serving evil was seemingly poured into his head, everything that the snake demon had ever done flashing behind his eyes as though it had been Sam doing them. And Sam was completely unable to look away, no matter how desperately he wanted to.
Eventually, after what felt like an eternity, Sam started to hear something in the background, as if it was coming from very far away. And when he felt the snake demon flinch at the sound, he strained his ears in an attempt to figure out just what the sound was. It took a level of concentration that he wasn't sure that he could manage at the moment, but after a great deal of effort he could finally identify the sound.
It was Dean, reciting a Latin exorcism in a voice that was tight with fear but still never faltered, not even for an instant.
The longer Dean continued the more Sam could feel the snake fighting, raging at Dean with Sam's mouth in a futile attempt to make Dean stop. And it seemed like Dean could tell somehow, because his voice slowly grew stronger and the fear began to leech out of it. Sam wanted to smile, wanted to tell Dean to keep going but he settled for pushing at the snake demon with his mind, trying to force it out.
And eventually the snake demon began to scream in his head, its death throes sending Sam into convulsions so violent that only the fact that he was still partially tied to the altar kept him from flinging himself to the floor. Then as suddenly as they started the convulsions stopped, leaving Sam exhausted and sore but blessedly free of the almost slimy presence in his mind.
For a long time he just let himself lay still on the cool stone and breathe, lips curling up in a small, tired smile when he felt Dean's fingers in his hair.
"You okay there, Sammy? That whatever the hell it was gone now?"
Sam didn't even bother trying to nod. "Yeah, it's dead." He grimaced at the sound of his own voice, raspy and broken as if he had been swallowing shards of glass. "What about...?"
"Your buddy over there on the other altar?" Dean's fingers kept moving absently through Sam's sweat-soaked hair as if he needed the physical connection to prove that Sam was actually still there. "He's breathing, and it looks like the exorcism worked on him, too."
"It did."
The voice was hoarse and sounded as rough as Sam's voice had, threaded through with equal parts pain and relief.
Sam felt Dean pat him gently on the back of the head before he moved down and began untying Sam's feet while talking to the boy. "You got a name, kid?"
There was a rusty and painful-sounding chuckle before the boy finally answered. "Jack."
* * *
Despite how weak Sam and Jack were it didn't take Dean very long to get them both untied and into the Impala, Sam slumped in the passenger seat while Jack was stretched out in the back. Once Dean was fairly certain that they were both as comfortable as they were going to get while still in the car he headed straight for the nearest motel, or at least the nearest motel that wasn't the one he and Sam had been staying at. Just in case the demon-worshipping freaks had friends.
Getting Sam and Jack into the motel room was somewhat more difficult than getting them into the Impala, mainly due to the fact that both of them were only semi-conscious and not really in control of their bodies. But he eventually managed to get them into the room and face down on one of the beds so that he could check out the wounds on their necks.
He grimaced at the ragged edges to the wound that was still sluggishly oozing blood, reaching for one of the damp towels he had set aside to clean off the blood. Once it was clean the entry wound for whatever the thing had been didn't look quite as bad, and Dean was fairly certain that stitches wouldn't be necessary.
He had just finished securing the bandage to the back of Jack's neck when he heard Sam begin to stir. "Hey, Sammy. How you feeling?"
Sam groaned, eyes fluttering for a moment before snapping open. One hand shot out, gripping Dean's wrist tightly and pulling him closer.
"Dean, I can still feel it."
Dean tried to jerk back, only Sam's grip on his wrist keeping him from moving. "What the hell, Sam? I thought you said the thing was gone."
Sam clenched his eyes shut, his grip on Dean even tighter. "It is, but it downloaded everything it knew, everything it ever did, into my head before it died. Thousands of years worth of pure evil, and it's all in my head and I can't get it out."
Well that was better than Sam still being actually possessed, but only barely. "It stuck all that in your head? Why the fuck would it do that?"
Sam shook his head, eyes still tightly shut. "I don't know, Dean, but it did. I can see it all like I was there, and I can't make it stop."
Dean bit back a series of violent curses, then wedged himself onto the bed next to Sam and pulled his brother into his arms, tucking Sam's head under his chin. He might not be comfortable with touchy-feely things like Sam, but at the moment it was Sam that mattered. And if he was really honest with himself, he needed a bit of reassurance, too.
They simply sat there for a long moment, then pulled away slightly when they heard Jack groan. "Why did it have to be snakes? I hate snakes. I thought I was through dealing with snakes, but no. I'm just minding my own business and I wind up with one in my head. Fucking snakes."
"You know what that damn thing was?"
Jack looked over at Dean, obviously trying to decide just what to tell them. "Yeah, I do. They're seriously bad news with delusions of godhood. And we've had next to no luck getting them back out of people." He paused. "How the hell did you get the snake out of me, anyway?"
Dean shrugged. "Latin exorcism. A bit stereotypical, I know, but it works wonders on all sorts of evil things."
Jack blinked slowly at Dean as if he couldn't quite believe what he was hearing. "A Latin exorcism? You just stood there and recited some gibberish in Latin and killed the snake?"
"Yeah, basically, though it's not exactly gibberish. Random words wouldn't get you anything."
Jack just blinked again before throwing his head back and laughing, though the longer he laughed the stronger the edge of hysteria was.
"For cryin' out loud! All this time, everything we tried, and what we really needed was a priest."
Dean frowned, still absently rubbing Sam's back. "Who's this we, kid?"
"Classified."
Dean's frown intensified. "You look awfully young to be flinging around words like 'classified', kid."
Jack sighed, running a shaky hand through his hair. "Look, the only reason I can tell you anything at all is because he had a snake in his head, too. That means he already knows some of this."
By this point Dean was outright glaring. "Some of this what?"
"The snake thing was an alien, as in from outer space, called a Goa'uld. And I'd really appreciate it if you'd stop calling me kid. I may not look it, but I'm older than you are."
"Aliens?!" Dean was just taking a deep breath in order to start telling the kid exactly what he thought of the whole crazy alien idea when Sam tugged on his shirt.
"He's telling the truth, Dean. I can remember commanding spaceships and taking over entire planets." Sam shuddered. "And I'd really rather not."
"But aliens?" It wasn't that Dean doubted Sam, not really anyway, but aliens were seriously weird, even for them.
Jack flopped back onto the bed, throwing one arm over his eyes. "Look, I shouldn't be telling you any of this, but you need to know what happened to your buddy. And I might need you to explain to some other people just how you got the snake out without killing us."
Dean blanched. "Without killing you? You mean these snake demons usually kill the people they jump into?"
"No, they almost always kill the host when anyone tries to get them out. And they're not demons; they're aliens." Jack started to laugh quietly. "My life is way too weird. It's even weirder than the original's."
Sam frowned, pulling away from Dean to glance over at Jack. "The original?"
Jack stared at them for a moment, then shrugged tiredly. "Yeah, the original. I'm a clone. I've got all of his memories but I'm a lot younger."
Dean couldn't help but think that it was sort of sad that Jack's claim to be a clone was actually the one thing he didn't have a problem believing. Though it did lead to a rather interesting question. "Is the other you going to be looking for you?"
Jack snorted, expression a mixture of bitterness and depression. "Nope. I'm starting to think that they've just forgotten about me. After all, they've still got the old me."
That made absolutely no sense to Dean. Sure, the time they'd had an extra Sam around it had been temporary, but it would never have occurred to either Dean or John that just because they had one Sam that they could abandon the other one. The whole idea was just unthinkable.
"Look, the two of you were just exorcised, and I was looking for Sammy for hours before I found you two. Let's all try to get some sleep, and we'll deal with the whole snake aliens and clones thing in the morning."
Jack just waved a hand at Dean in affirmation before he rolled over onto his side and pulled his pillow over his head.
Dean turned back to Sam. "You want me to help you get in the other bed, Sammy?"
Sam thought for a moment, then slowly nodded. "Yeah. Thanks, Dean."
A long moment later Sam was safely deposited on the other bed and almost asleep. Once he was sure that Sam would be all right Dean collapsed in the nearby chair and scrubbed his hands over his face. He'd saved Sam and Jack, but things were getting even more complicated.
And Dean wasn't sure that he was going to be able to keep up and keep Sam safe.
* * *
Dean was still sitting in the motel room chair just staring at the two figures in the beds when Sam began to moan in his sleep. Before Dean could even consider waking him up he began to thrash, tangling himself up in the sheets which made the thrashing even more violent. Dean jumped out of the chair, intending to wake Sam but he didn't make it over to the side of the bed in time to keep Sam from throwing himself onto the floor and very nearly hitting his head on the corner of the nightstand.
"Easy, Sam. You're safe. Calm down." It took a bit of doing, but Dean managed to get himself wedged in the corner with Sam huddled on the floor in front of him and leaning back against his chest. Dean grimaced when Sam's only reaction was to tuck his head in under Dean's chin, tears falling quietly onto Dean's shirt.
Dean kept one hand moving slowly over Sam's back, waiting as patiently as he could for Sam to calm down enough to tell him what the nightmare had been about. Under other circumstances he would have just left it alone, but considering just how bad the nightmare must have been he was afraid that letting Sam keep quiet would just make things worse.
"It was horrible, Dean."
Dean was absently aware of Jack opening his eyes and propping himself up slightly, but almost all of his attention was focused on Sam. "Can you tell me what the nightmare was about, Sammy?"
It was a sign of just how shaken Sam was that he didn't protest the nickname. "It was one of the snake's memories. She was leading an army, and they completely razed the village. They killed everyone they saw: men, women and children. Blood was splashing all across her face, and she just laughed. She was slaughtering innocent people, and she got off on it."
If the rest of the memories that snake thing had stuck in Sam's head were anything like that one, neither Sam nor Dean would be getting much sleep for a long time. Dean glanced at Jack over the edge of the bed. "You sure those things are aliens, 'cause that sounds like a demon to me."
"They're aliens who came to Earth and took over the identities of local gods. I even ran into one who claimed to be the devil who had his own hell planet." Jack paused. "Okay, so that was the old me, but still. My guess is the snake that was in Sam was one of the ones who decided to be death gods or war gods or something."
Dean glanced back down at Sam who was still trembling slightly in his arms. "Sammy? I don't suppose you got a name with all that other shit, did you? Might help us figure out what we're dealing with here."
"Enyo." Sam shuddered, but raised his head to look at Dean. "Her name was Enyo. She was the Greek goddess of horror, going to battle covered in blood along with her brother Ares, and his sons Phobos and Deimos: the gods of war, fear and dread. She was called the 'Waster of Cities' and loved nothing more than destroying entire towns."
For a moment all Dean could do was blink. "You got all that from the snake thing?"
Sam shook his head then tucked himself back under Dean's chin. "Some I got from the snake. Most of it I got from a mythology class at Stanford."
Dean couldn't help a snort of laughter at that. "You are such a geek, Sammy. You have any idea what she was doing here?"
"I don't think she had an actual plan or anything. She just found out about my abilities somehow and decided that if she took me as a host she could go on a bloody rampage."
Jack suddenly sat up with a wince of pain. "Abilities? Are we talking 'moving things with your mind' abilities, 'seeing things before they happen' abilities, or what?"
Sam jerked his head up, pulling away from Dean's grip slightly. "You've heard about this kind of thing before? Is that what they meant about your gifts, that you can do it, too? Or were they talking about your being a clone?"
Jack grimaced, running a shaky hand through his hair. "I have no idea how they would have found out about the clone thing. In fact, besides the two of you, there are less than ten people on the entire planet who know I even exist." He sighed. "As for the other stuff, one of the Goa'uld experimented on Cassie, messed with her DNA so that she could control magnetic fields and make things move that way."
Dean's voice was tight and he had already tightened his hold on Sam. "And the visions? What do you know about those?"
"The same snake who experimented on Cassie did the same thing to Jonas. The doc said the visions were a symptom of a tumor in his brain that would have killed him if she hadn't removed it." Jack flopped back onto the bed and flung his arm over his eyes. "All because some self-important snake wanted to make a better host."
Sam's voice was haunted when he finally spoke. "That's why she wanted me. Because I have the kind of abilities that they'd been trying to create."
Dean frowned, mind running furiously. "That's not the part that's worrying me, Sammy. I mean, the bitch snake is dead. What I want to know is how the fuck did she find out about you in the first place? I mean, you haven't even had these abilities that long."
Sam went completely still. "You don't think she had some sort of connection to the Demon, do you? Or maybe not even him, but some other demon?"
Dean shook his head automatically. "I doubt it. Besides, isn't that the kind of thing you'd have gotten from her along with all that other stuff?"
Sam was still frowning, but some of the tension had gone out of him. "You may be right. That still doesn't tell us how she found out about me, or Jack for that matter. If only ten people know about him, how'd she know he was special too? It just doesn't make any sense, Dean."
"I know, Sammy. I know." Dean sighed, grimacing when he shifted and realized that his legs were asleep. "Let's get you back up in bed before my legs fall off and try to get a little more sleep. Maybe things will make more sense later."
Jack snorted as he rolled over to face the wall. "I doubt it. I've got to agree about the getting more sleep part, though. More sleep is always a winning plan in my book."
Dean chuckled quietly. "You heard him, Sam. We'll figure all of this out in the morning. Or at the very least, we'll try really hard to figure it out."
"All right, all right. You've convinced me." Sam pushed himself up and tumbled onto the bed, being careful not to step on Dean.
For his part, Dean just stayed on the floor for a while, waiting for the feeling to come back into his legs and watching Sam try to sleep.
* * *
Dean hadn't managed to get to sleep after Sam's nightmare, not that he'd really tried, which was why he was still awake when Jack apparently decided that it was his turn. Though Jack's nightmare seemed to take a different turn.
The first sign that anything was wrong was when Jack had gone incredibly still, so still that it almost looked like he wasn't even breathing. Then all of his muscles went tense, his jaw clenched and he started muttering under his breath in what Dean thought might be Arabic.
Dean grimaced. He'd seen enough of his father's nightmares to be able to recognize the same thing in Jack, and instinct told him that he should deal with Jack's the same way. He pushed himself up, made his way carefully over to Jack's bed and reached out to jiggle one of Jack's feet, keeping himself out of arm's reach.
"Wake up, dude. And try not to accidentally kill me or anything, okay?"
Jack jerked up in bed, body poised for a fight. He bit back a scream, eyes darting around the room looking for the threat. Then, after a long moment, he shuddered and visibly tried to pull himself back under control, flashing Dean a small grateful nod. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and leaned forward, running a hand through his sweaty hair.
"You know, I've always kind of wondered. When you've had so much really nasty stuff happen to you in your life, how does your subconscious decide what you're going to have nightmares about on any given night?"
Jack's voice was even and mildly curious, but Dean could sense an undercurrent of tension and pain in the words. So he shrugged, and in the same mild tone of voice answered. "Who knows? Maybe the nightmares draw straws or flip a coin. Personally, I'd go for a game of rock-paper-scissors myself."
"Dude, you always lose at rock-paper-scissors."
At the sound of Sam's voice Dean and Jack both turned to look at the other bed where Sam was slowly pushing himself up and scrubbing a hand over his face. "Sammy, I do not always lose at rock-paper-scissors. I'm just lulling you into a false sense of security, and when you least expect it I'm gonna kick your ass."
Sam snorted. "You just keep telling yourself that, Dean." He turned to Jack, expression sympathetic. "You want to talk about it, Jack?"
Jack shook his head, jaw clenched and eyes hard. "Let's just say that I've got enough nightmare fodder for about five people, before the snake ended up in my head, and leave it at that."
Sam and Dean shared a look, then nodded. "Sounds good to me, man." Dean stretched, his arms over his head and back popping as he twisted around. "So, what were you doing when the snake people grabbed you, anyway?"
Jack grimaced. "A whole lot of nothing, actually. I'd finally had enough of waiting for old me's friends to remember that I existed and decided to just get the hell out of Dodge. I didn't really have any plans after that, though."
Dean frowned, the reminder that Jack's so-called friends had for all intents and purposes abandoned him still not sitting well. But after another glance and unspoken conversation with Sam he went ahead and did what he'd been wanting to do ever since Jack had admitted what he was.
"Well, since you don't seem to have anything else going on, how about sticking with us for a while? You seem like a decent enough guy and I bet you could be really useful on a hunt. And if nothing else, you know more about these snake things than we do, and Sam could use some help dealing with the whole snake possession thing."
Sam picked up right where Dean had left off. "Besides, we still don't know what abilities you have that they wanted, or how they knew that you had them. It would be safer if we all stuck together, at least for a little while."
What neither Sam nor Dean said was that they had the feeling that Jack would fairly quickly become an integral part of the Winchester team if he stayed, and once he did he would be stuck with them permanently. Neither of them was particularly keen on picking up strays, but they both agreed that Jack was an exception.
After a long moment, Jack finally shrugged. "Why not? Like you said, it's not like I've got anything else to do right now...or at all, actually. But would you mind giving me a copy of that exorcism so I can e-mail it to old me? I don't know that they'll believe me about it. Hell, I almost don't believe it and I was there, but they need to know about it."
Dean nodded. "Yeah, sure thing." He paused. "I know you said that they sort of left you behind and all, but they're not gonna try and track you down now, are they?"
Jack's grin could only be described as evil. "They can try, but I've still got some tricks up my sleeve."
"Cool. Then we can hole up here for another night and head out the next morning. That'll give us time to either look for a new hunt or try to find some trace of Dad." Decision made, Dean pushed himself slowly to his feet and flopped face first onto Sam's bed. "Now, I'm going to try to get some sleep."
* * *
Colonel Jack O'Neill was almost afraid to open the e-mail sitting so innocently in his inbox, but he knew himself well enough to know that his clone wouldn't have contacted him if it wasn't really important. Though once he'd read through the e-mail twice, he had to admit that maybe he didn't know nearly as much as he thought he did.
'Old Guy,
I know you'd be perfectly content to continue pretending that I don't exist, but I've run across information that you and the rest of the team need to know. I've found a solution to that snake problem you've been having, and I've attached everything you need to this e-mail. Give it to Daniel, and tell him that no, I'm not kidding. This really works, and I've got first-hand experience to prove it. And yes, that does mean what it sounds like it means, but I'm fine now.
In case you didn't already know and actually care, I've left Colorado. Don't bother trying to find me. You've got your thing, and now I have mine and that's how it should stay. Watch out for the others, because I'd hate to have to come back just to kick your ass. And I would, too.
So long, old guy.
Jack'
The End, for now anyway
Fandom: Supernatural/Stargate SG-1
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: none
Spoilers: Fragile Balance for SG-1, none for SPN
Disclaimer: I own none of these characters, more's the pity.
Summary: Sam is taken to be the host for a goddess.
Author's Notes: Since it's been so long since I posted the last part of this fic, and since it's finished now, I decided to go ahead and post the entire fic together in one entry. And I'm already working on the sequel. *g*
The moment Sam returned to consciousness he knew that something was very wrong. He could feel his pulse pounding at his temples, curtesy of a blow to the back of the head, and even without opening his eyes he could tell that he was tied down, secured to some sort of stone table or altar at both his ankles and wrists. The rope around his wrists was tightly tied and his arms were spread wide enough that he couldn't get any leverage at all.
The stone was rough and cold against the skin of his face and bare chest, and the lack of his shirt and his position face-down on what with his luck was definitely an altar left Sam feeling very vulnerable. And worst of all, he didn't know if Dean had any idea where he was.
It was only when he heard the voices that he realized that he wasn't alone. There were at least two other people in the room with him, and he flinched when he felt a possessive hand stroke down the length of his spine.
"You will make an exquisite host for the goddess. She will be most pleased with you."
Another hand dropped to rest against the small of his back. "Yes, this one is simply perfect. She will enjoy bending his talents to her own use." The second voice was decidedly feminine, with a soft lilt that would have been attractive in other circumstances.
Sam tried to fight back a wave of panic when he realized just what his kidnappers were implying. Not only did they somehow know about his abilities, and he really didn't want to consider just how they knew, but they were also planning on giving him to what was probably some sort of demon to be used as a host.
"It is truly a shame that we could not find such a talented host that was also female for her, but she will find the novelty of a male host most intriguing." The woman stroked up his back to rest her hand in his hair and began petting him, ignoring his shudders of disgust and seemingly not caring at all that he was conscious. "And the host for her consort is also quite amazing, if somewhat young."
If not for the comment about the other host being young Sam would have thought that they were talking about Dean. The fact that they weren't was a good sign, since it meant that Dean was still out there somewhere, more than likely frantically looking for him. Sam adamantly refused to consider any other option.
Sam could hear the man walking slowly around him, his incredibly intense gaze sending cold shivers down Sam's spine. "The true shame is that the goddess and her consort cannot use these hosts to procreate. A host with the gifts of both would be truly remarkable."
That really didn't sound good and Sam shifted on the altar, trying and failing to find any slack at all in his bindings. He was well and truly trapped, with no way that he could see to get himself free.
"Oh, fuck."
The words were hissed quietly, and Sam was only barely able to hear them coming from somewhere to his left. He managed to turn his head, and came face to face with the young man who was obviously meant to be the other host. He looked to be about eighteen, with brown eyes that were wide with a mixture of terror and fury. He was also in the exact same position as Sam: tied down to a stone altar wearing only a pair of pants.
Suddenly the brown eyes went even wider as the boy started to hyperventilate. And before Sam could even start to wonder just what had made him even more terrified, something long and slimy was placed on his back and started wriggling.
Sam had absolutely no clue just what the thing was, but it filled him with an icy terror nonetheless. He tried to thrash, ignoring the way the ropes cut into his wrists, but he was tied down so tightly that he couldn't manage to fling the thing off. And then it was too late.
The thing had reached the back of his neck and before Sam could even think of trying to shake it off it opened its mouth and a set of very small, very sharp teeth bit into the skin of his neck. Then it was burrowing inside him.
The pain was overpowering as the snake thing invaded Sam's body, and he was only distantly aware of the fact that he was screaming. Another scream soon joined his, and with the small part of his mind not focused solely on the pain Sam guessed that another snake thing was burrowing inside his fellow captive.
After a long moment the pain shifted. Instead of the agony caused by the snake thing chewing its way through the back of his neck, Sam could feel an increasingly painful pressure as whatever it was tried to take control of his body. Then the pressure coalesced into a sharp spear that the snake thing used to violently shove its way into Sam's mind.
Sam could no longer even feel his own body as he writhed on the altar, all of his attention and energy focused on trying to keep the demon from violating his mind, trying to keep it from rifling though everything that made Sam who he was. A battle that he was slowly losing.
He was pulled back to an awareness of his body when someone began hurriedly untying his right hand. He just barely managed to open one eye and almost immediately recognized the jacket in front of his nose as Dean's. Dean was trying to free him, which meant that Dean didn't know that the snake demon was already inside him.
With the very last bit of his strength Sam forced himself to speak, to warn Dean. And just as the third word passed his lips, the demon pushed past his final defenses and took control.
"It's in me."
Sam was screaming, even though he knew it was only in his head. Thousands of years worth of blood and violence and pure self-serving evil was seemingly poured into his head, everything that the snake demon had ever done flashing behind his eyes as though it had been Sam doing them. And Sam was completely unable to look away, no matter how desperately he wanted to.
Eventually, after what felt like an eternity, Sam started to hear something in the background, as if it was coming from very far away. And when he felt the snake demon flinch at the sound, he strained his ears in an attempt to figure out just what the sound was. It took a level of concentration that he wasn't sure that he could manage at the moment, but after a great deal of effort he could finally identify the sound.
It was Dean, reciting a Latin exorcism in a voice that was tight with fear but still never faltered, not even for an instant.
The longer Dean continued the more Sam could feel the snake fighting, raging at Dean with Sam's mouth in a futile attempt to make Dean stop. And it seemed like Dean could tell somehow, because his voice slowly grew stronger and the fear began to leech out of it. Sam wanted to smile, wanted to tell Dean to keep going but he settled for pushing at the snake demon with his mind, trying to force it out.
And eventually the snake demon began to scream in his head, its death throes sending Sam into convulsions so violent that only the fact that he was still partially tied to the altar kept him from flinging himself to the floor. Then as suddenly as they started the convulsions stopped, leaving Sam exhausted and sore but blessedly free of the almost slimy presence in his mind.
For a long time he just let himself lay still on the cool stone and breathe, lips curling up in a small, tired smile when he felt Dean's fingers in his hair.
"You okay there, Sammy? That whatever the hell it was gone now?"
Sam didn't even bother trying to nod. "Yeah, it's dead." He grimaced at the sound of his own voice, raspy and broken as if he had been swallowing shards of glass. "What about...?"
"Your buddy over there on the other altar?" Dean's fingers kept moving absently through Sam's sweat-soaked hair as if he needed the physical connection to prove that Sam was actually still there. "He's breathing, and it looks like the exorcism worked on him, too."
"It did."
The voice was hoarse and sounded as rough as Sam's voice had, threaded through with equal parts pain and relief.
Sam felt Dean pat him gently on the back of the head before he moved down and began untying Sam's feet while talking to the boy. "You got a name, kid?"
There was a rusty and painful-sounding chuckle before the boy finally answered. "Jack."
* * *
Despite how weak Sam and Jack were it didn't take Dean very long to get them both untied and into the Impala, Sam slumped in the passenger seat while Jack was stretched out in the back. Once Dean was fairly certain that they were both as comfortable as they were going to get while still in the car he headed straight for the nearest motel, or at least the nearest motel that wasn't the one he and Sam had been staying at. Just in case the demon-worshipping freaks had friends.
Getting Sam and Jack into the motel room was somewhat more difficult than getting them into the Impala, mainly due to the fact that both of them were only semi-conscious and not really in control of their bodies. But he eventually managed to get them into the room and face down on one of the beds so that he could check out the wounds on their necks.
He grimaced at the ragged edges to the wound that was still sluggishly oozing blood, reaching for one of the damp towels he had set aside to clean off the blood. Once it was clean the entry wound for whatever the thing had been didn't look quite as bad, and Dean was fairly certain that stitches wouldn't be necessary.
He had just finished securing the bandage to the back of Jack's neck when he heard Sam begin to stir. "Hey, Sammy. How you feeling?"
Sam groaned, eyes fluttering for a moment before snapping open. One hand shot out, gripping Dean's wrist tightly and pulling him closer.
"Dean, I can still feel it."
Dean tried to jerk back, only Sam's grip on his wrist keeping him from moving. "What the hell, Sam? I thought you said the thing was gone."
Sam clenched his eyes shut, his grip on Dean even tighter. "It is, but it downloaded everything it knew, everything it ever did, into my head before it died. Thousands of years worth of pure evil, and it's all in my head and I can't get it out."
Well that was better than Sam still being actually possessed, but only barely. "It stuck all that in your head? Why the fuck would it do that?"
Sam shook his head, eyes still tightly shut. "I don't know, Dean, but it did. I can see it all like I was there, and I can't make it stop."
Dean bit back a series of violent curses, then wedged himself onto the bed next to Sam and pulled his brother into his arms, tucking Sam's head under his chin. He might not be comfortable with touchy-feely things like Sam, but at the moment it was Sam that mattered. And if he was really honest with himself, he needed a bit of reassurance, too.
They simply sat there for a long moment, then pulled away slightly when they heard Jack groan. "Why did it have to be snakes? I hate snakes. I thought I was through dealing with snakes, but no. I'm just minding my own business and I wind up with one in my head. Fucking snakes."
"You know what that damn thing was?"
Jack looked over at Dean, obviously trying to decide just what to tell them. "Yeah, I do. They're seriously bad news with delusions of godhood. And we've had next to no luck getting them back out of people." He paused. "How the hell did you get the snake out of me, anyway?"
Dean shrugged. "Latin exorcism. A bit stereotypical, I know, but it works wonders on all sorts of evil things."
Jack blinked slowly at Dean as if he couldn't quite believe what he was hearing. "A Latin exorcism? You just stood there and recited some gibberish in Latin and killed the snake?"
"Yeah, basically, though it's not exactly gibberish. Random words wouldn't get you anything."
Jack just blinked again before throwing his head back and laughing, though the longer he laughed the stronger the edge of hysteria was.
"For cryin' out loud! All this time, everything we tried, and what we really needed was a priest."
Dean frowned, still absently rubbing Sam's back. "Who's this we, kid?"
"Classified."
Dean's frown intensified. "You look awfully young to be flinging around words like 'classified', kid."
Jack sighed, running a shaky hand through his hair. "Look, the only reason I can tell you anything at all is because he had a snake in his head, too. That means he already knows some of this."
By this point Dean was outright glaring. "Some of this what?"
"The snake thing was an alien, as in from outer space, called a Goa'uld. And I'd really appreciate it if you'd stop calling me kid. I may not look it, but I'm older than you are."
"Aliens?!" Dean was just taking a deep breath in order to start telling the kid exactly what he thought of the whole crazy alien idea when Sam tugged on his shirt.
"He's telling the truth, Dean. I can remember commanding spaceships and taking over entire planets." Sam shuddered. "And I'd really rather not."
"But aliens?" It wasn't that Dean doubted Sam, not really anyway, but aliens were seriously weird, even for them.
Jack flopped back onto the bed, throwing one arm over his eyes. "Look, I shouldn't be telling you any of this, but you need to know what happened to your buddy. And I might need you to explain to some other people just how you got the snake out without killing us."
Dean blanched. "Without killing you? You mean these snake demons usually kill the people they jump into?"
"No, they almost always kill the host when anyone tries to get them out. And they're not demons; they're aliens." Jack started to laugh quietly. "My life is way too weird. It's even weirder than the original's."
Sam frowned, pulling away from Dean to glance over at Jack. "The original?"
Jack stared at them for a moment, then shrugged tiredly. "Yeah, the original. I'm a clone. I've got all of his memories but I'm a lot younger."
Dean couldn't help but think that it was sort of sad that Jack's claim to be a clone was actually the one thing he didn't have a problem believing. Though it did lead to a rather interesting question. "Is the other you going to be looking for you?"
Jack snorted, expression a mixture of bitterness and depression. "Nope. I'm starting to think that they've just forgotten about me. After all, they've still got the old me."
That made absolutely no sense to Dean. Sure, the time they'd had an extra Sam around it had been temporary, but it would never have occurred to either Dean or John that just because they had one Sam that they could abandon the other one. The whole idea was just unthinkable.
"Look, the two of you were just exorcised, and I was looking for Sammy for hours before I found you two. Let's all try to get some sleep, and we'll deal with the whole snake aliens and clones thing in the morning."
Jack just waved a hand at Dean in affirmation before he rolled over onto his side and pulled his pillow over his head.
Dean turned back to Sam. "You want me to help you get in the other bed, Sammy?"
Sam thought for a moment, then slowly nodded. "Yeah. Thanks, Dean."
A long moment later Sam was safely deposited on the other bed and almost asleep. Once he was sure that Sam would be all right Dean collapsed in the nearby chair and scrubbed his hands over his face. He'd saved Sam and Jack, but things were getting even more complicated.
And Dean wasn't sure that he was going to be able to keep up and keep Sam safe.
* * *
Dean was still sitting in the motel room chair just staring at the two figures in the beds when Sam began to moan in his sleep. Before Dean could even consider waking him up he began to thrash, tangling himself up in the sheets which made the thrashing even more violent. Dean jumped out of the chair, intending to wake Sam but he didn't make it over to the side of the bed in time to keep Sam from throwing himself onto the floor and very nearly hitting his head on the corner of the nightstand.
"Easy, Sam. You're safe. Calm down." It took a bit of doing, but Dean managed to get himself wedged in the corner with Sam huddled on the floor in front of him and leaning back against his chest. Dean grimaced when Sam's only reaction was to tuck his head in under Dean's chin, tears falling quietly onto Dean's shirt.
Dean kept one hand moving slowly over Sam's back, waiting as patiently as he could for Sam to calm down enough to tell him what the nightmare had been about. Under other circumstances he would have just left it alone, but considering just how bad the nightmare must have been he was afraid that letting Sam keep quiet would just make things worse.
"It was horrible, Dean."
Dean was absently aware of Jack opening his eyes and propping himself up slightly, but almost all of his attention was focused on Sam. "Can you tell me what the nightmare was about, Sammy?"
It was a sign of just how shaken Sam was that he didn't protest the nickname. "It was one of the snake's memories. She was leading an army, and they completely razed the village. They killed everyone they saw: men, women and children. Blood was splashing all across her face, and she just laughed. She was slaughtering innocent people, and she got off on it."
If the rest of the memories that snake thing had stuck in Sam's head were anything like that one, neither Sam nor Dean would be getting much sleep for a long time. Dean glanced at Jack over the edge of the bed. "You sure those things are aliens, 'cause that sounds like a demon to me."
"They're aliens who came to Earth and took over the identities of local gods. I even ran into one who claimed to be the devil who had his own hell planet." Jack paused. "Okay, so that was the old me, but still. My guess is the snake that was in Sam was one of the ones who decided to be death gods or war gods or something."
Dean glanced back down at Sam who was still trembling slightly in his arms. "Sammy? I don't suppose you got a name with all that other shit, did you? Might help us figure out what we're dealing with here."
"Enyo." Sam shuddered, but raised his head to look at Dean. "Her name was Enyo. She was the Greek goddess of horror, going to battle covered in blood along with her brother Ares, and his sons Phobos and Deimos: the gods of war, fear and dread. She was called the 'Waster of Cities' and loved nothing more than destroying entire towns."
For a moment all Dean could do was blink. "You got all that from the snake thing?"
Sam shook his head then tucked himself back under Dean's chin. "Some I got from the snake. Most of it I got from a mythology class at Stanford."
Dean couldn't help a snort of laughter at that. "You are such a geek, Sammy. You have any idea what she was doing here?"
"I don't think she had an actual plan or anything. She just found out about my abilities somehow and decided that if she took me as a host she could go on a bloody rampage."
Jack suddenly sat up with a wince of pain. "Abilities? Are we talking 'moving things with your mind' abilities, 'seeing things before they happen' abilities, or what?"
Sam jerked his head up, pulling away from Dean's grip slightly. "You've heard about this kind of thing before? Is that what they meant about your gifts, that you can do it, too? Or were they talking about your being a clone?"
Jack grimaced, running a shaky hand through his hair. "I have no idea how they would have found out about the clone thing. In fact, besides the two of you, there are less than ten people on the entire planet who know I even exist." He sighed. "As for the other stuff, one of the Goa'uld experimented on Cassie, messed with her DNA so that she could control magnetic fields and make things move that way."
Dean's voice was tight and he had already tightened his hold on Sam. "And the visions? What do you know about those?"
"The same snake who experimented on Cassie did the same thing to Jonas. The doc said the visions were a symptom of a tumor in his brain that would have killed him if she hadn't removed it." Jack flopped back onto the bed and flung his arm over his eyes. "All because some self-important snake wanted to make a better host."
Sam's voice was haunted when he finally spoke. "That's why she wanted me. Because I have the kind of abilities that they'd been trying to create."
Dean frowned, mind running furiously. "That's not the part that's worrying me, Sammy. I mean, the bitch snake is dead. What I want to know is how the fuck did she find out about you in the first place? I mean, you haven't even had these abilities that long."
Sam went completely still. "You don't think she had some sort of connection to the Demon, do you? Or maybe not even him, but some other demon?"
Dean shook his head automatically. "I doubt it. Besides, isn't that the kind of thing you'd have gotten from her along with all that other stuff?"
Sam was still frowning, but some of the tension had gone out of him. "You may be right. That still doesn't tell us how she found out about me, or Jack for that matter. If only ten people know about him, how'd she know he was special too? It just doesn't make any sense, Dean."
"I know, Sammy. I know." Dean sighed, grimacing when he shifted and realized that his legs were asleep. "Let's get you back up in bed before my legs fall off and try to get a little more sleep. Maybe things will make more sense later."
Jack snorted as he rolled over to face the wall. "I doubt it. I've got to agree about the getting more sleep part, though. More sleep is always a winning plan in my book."
Dean chuckled quietly. "You heard him, Sam. We'll figure all of this out in the morning. Or at the very least, we'll try really hard to figure it out."
"All right, all right. You've convinced me." Sam pushed himself up and tumbled onto the bed, being careful not to step on Dean.
For his part, Dean just stayed on the floor for a while, waiting for the feeling to come back into his legs and watching Sam try to sleep.
* * *
Dean hadn't managed to get to sleep after Sam's nightmare, not that he'd really tried, which was why he was still awake when Jack apparently decided that it was his turn. Though Jack's nightmare seemed to take a different turn.
The first sign that anything was wrong was when Jack had gone incredibly still, so still that it almost looked like he wasn't even breathing. Then all of his muscles went tense, his jaw clenched and he started muttering under his breath in what Dean thought might be Arabic.
Dean grimaced. He'd seen enough of his father's nightmares to be able to recognize the same thing in Jack, and instinct told him that he should deal with Jack's the same way. He pushed himself up, made his way carefully over to Jack's bed and reached out to jiggle one of Jack's feet, keeping himself out of arm's reach.
"Wake up, dude. And try not to accidentally kill me or anything, okay?"
Jack jerked up in bed, body poised for a fight. He bit back a scream, eyes darting around the room looking for the threat. Then, after a long moment, he shuddered and visibly tried to pull himself back under control, flashing Dean a small grateful nod. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and leaned forward, running a hand through his sweaty hair.
"You know, I've always kind of wondered. When you've had so much really nasty stuff happen to you in your life, how does your subconscious decide what you're going to have nightmares about on any given night?"
Jack's voice was even and mildly curious, but Dean could sense an undercurrent of tension and pain in the words. So he shrugged, and in the same mild tone of voice answered. "Who knows? Maybe the nightmares draw straws or flip a coin. Personally, I'd go for a game of rock-paper-scissors myself."
"Dude, you always lose at rock-paper-scissors."
At the sound of Sam's voice Dean and Jack both turned to look at the other bed where Sam was slowly pushing himself up and scrubbing a hand over his face. "Sammy, I do not always lose at rock-paper-scissors. I'm just lulling you into a false sense of security, and when you least expect it I'm gonna kick your ass."
Sam snorted. "You just keep telling yourself that, Dean." He turned to Jack, expression sympathetic. "You want to talk about it, Jack?"
Jack shook his head, jaw clenched and eyes hard. "Let's just say that I've got enough nightmare fodder for about five people, before the snake ended up in my head, and leave it at that."
Sam and Dean shared a look, then nodded. "Sounds good to me, man." Dean stretched, his arms over his head and back popping as he twisted around. "So, what were you doing when the snake people grabbed you, anyway?"
Jack grimaced. "A whole lot of nothing, actually. I'd finally had enough of waiting for old me's friends to remember that I existed and decided to just get the hell out of Dodge. I didn't really have any plans after that, though."
Dean frowned, the reminder that Jack's so-called friends had for all intents and purposes abandoned him still not sitting well. But after another glance and unspoken conversation with Sam he went ahead and did what he'd been wanting to do ever since Jack had admitted what he was.
"Well, since you don't seem to have anything else going on, how about sticking with us for a while? You seem like a decent enough guy and I bet you could be really useful on a hunt. And if nothing else, you know more about these snake things than we do, and Sam could use some help dealing with the whole snake possession thing."
Sam picked up right where Dean had left off. "Besides, we still don't know what abilities you have that they wanted, or how they knew that you had them. It would be safer if we all stuck together, at least for a little while."
What neither Sam nor Dean said was that they had the feeling that Jack would fairly quickly become an integral part of the Winchester team if he stayed, and once he did he would be stuck with them permanently. Neither of them was particularly keen on picking up strays, but they both agreed that Jack was an exception.
After a long moment, Jack finally shrugged. "Why not? Like you said, it's not like I've got anything else to do right now...or at all, actually. But would you mind giving me a copy of that exorcism so I can e-mail it to old me? I don't know that they'll believe me about it. Hell, I almost don't believe it and I was there, but they need to know about it."
Dean nodded. "Yeah, sure thing." He paused. "I know you said that they sort of left you behind and all, but they're not gonna try and track you down now, are they?"
Jack's grin could only be described as evil. "They can try, but I've still got some tricks up my sleeve."
"Cool. Then we can hole up here for another night and head out the next morning. That'll give us time to either look for a new hunt or try to find some trace of Dad." Decision made, Dean pushed himself slowly to his feet and flopped face first onto Sam's bed. "Now, I'm going to try to get some sleep."
* * *
Colonel Jack O'Neill was almost afraid to open the e-mail sitting so innocently in his inbox, but he knew himself well enough to know that his clone wouldn't have contacted him if it wasn't really important. Though once he'd read through the e-mail twice, he had to admit that maybe he didn't know nearly as much as he thought he did.
'Old Guy,
I know you'd be perfectly content to continue pretending that I don't exist, but I've run across information that you and the rest of the team need to know. I've found a solution to that snake problem you've been having, and I've attached everything you need to this e-mail. Give it to Daniel, and tell him that no, I'm not kidding. This really works, and I've got first-hand experience to prove it. And yes, that does mean what it sounds like it means, but I'm fine now.
In case you didn't already know and actually care, I've left Colorado. Don't bother trying to find me. You've got your thing, and now I have mine and that's how it should stay. Watch out for the others, because I'd hate to have to come back just to kick your ass. And I would, too.
So long, old guy.
Jack'
The End, for now anyway