Fic - Deals with Devils
Title: Deals with Devils
Characters/Pairings: Dean, Nathan, Elle, Sam, Claire
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: None
Spoiler alert: None
Word Count: 1,962
Summary: Instead of arresting Dean and Sam after an incident, Nathan hires them as part of his own little hit squad.
“Sounds like you’re nuts,” Dean said, trying to remain calm despite his anger. He still wasn’t sure how he’d ended up here talking to this asshole while his brother fought for his life somewhere in this goddamn facility.
“I could say the same for you.” Senator Petrelli’s tone was flat.
“Superpowers.” Dean hoped the senator wouldn’t take offense to Dean’s oh-so-obviously thinking the senator was crazier than Axl Rose after a night with some needles, booze, and roadies.
“Angels.” Senator Petrelli returned.
Dean inclined his head and shrugged. Give the man a point.
Senator Petrelli continued, his voice wry. “But you and your brother. You hunt this stuff. Monsters that go bump in the night.”
“Well. We don’t have superpowers, but we do the best we can.” His words were modest, but his tone was sarcastic.
The senator almost smirked. “And you do this for a living.”
“What there is of it.”
“So you’ve got experience.”
“Enough to know you’re about to hire us.” Us. Not just Dean. Because Sammy was alive and going to be fine, damn it.
Senator Petrelli watched him over steepled fingers. “Yes,” he said at last. “You’ve got experience with dangerous things, and I need someone to help me here. Someone off the books.”
Dean hoped that meant they were still getting paid.
“You’ll still get paid. But there’s one problem. Around here, we have a rule. One of us, one of them. Since you and your brother don’t have abilities, you’ll have to be paired up with people who do.”
“Sammy and I are partners,” Dean interjected quickly. Firmly.
“Then you two will just have some help.”
Dean scowled at him. He didn’t mind getting paid - he sure as hell didn’t mind getting paid - but he wasn’t sold on the idea of working with Magneto.
There was a knock at the door, and he turned when he heard a female voice say, “You wanted to see me, Nathan?” Dean eyed the woman - a short blonde wearing clothes were tight enough and revealing enough Dean was confident he could guess where she bought her bra.
“Elle.” Dean could hear the amusement in the senator’s voice, as if Nathan knew Dean’s thoughts. “This is your ‘One of them.’”
Dean gave Elle an appreciative look and then turned back to Nathan with a grin. “On the other hand, superpowers ain’t so bad.”
* * *
It turned out Elle was the worst partner he could have asked for. She couldn’t sit still, and when she got bored, she played with electricity. Actually played with electricity. Turned out she could generate it and string it between her fingers. It had been scary and fascinating at first, and then a spark got too close to the radio and it just got scary.
As for Sam and the other girl the senator had assigned them, they were too busy making puppy eyes at each other in the back seat to be of any use.
“Stop that,” Dean snapped, not for the first time. She was like a child.
Sam glared at him in the rearview. “Dean, we-”
“He was talking to me, Smallballs.”
Dean glared at Elle, glaring harder when her only response was a mere smile. “No one makes fun of my brother’s balls but me.”
“Sure you don’t want to rephrase that?”
Dean frowned. “And stop trying to short out my damn car.”
Elle watched him and very slowly reached to touch the Impala’s dashboard. Dean glowered, and as soon as her finger sparked, grabbed her wrist. She laughed and settled back in her seat.
Dean grumbled.
In the back seat, the other one cleared her throat. “Do we even have a plan for how we’re going to do this?”
Elle studied her nails. “Find her. Kill her. It isn’t rocket science, Claire.” Claire, right. Cute enough, but too much of a kid, in Dean’s book. Too innocent. Right up Sam’s alley.
“She can cause illusions, Elle. What if we-”
“We shoot her. The end.” She might not have all her marbles, but Dean had to appreciate her methods.
Claire leaned back and huffed. “If you keep this up, I’ll tell them what you looked like when Nathan found you.”
They rode the rest of the way in blissful silence.
* * *
“Why are we so sure she’s here again?” Sam wiped his hands on his jeans, looking around uncomfortably.
Elle sighed and rolled her eyes. She was the only one of them who looked like they belonged, from her coifed hair to her tight blue evening gown to her heels. If Dean hadn’t known what government employees were paid, he might have believed all her jewelry was really gold. The rest of them just looked like they were playing dress-up. “It’s the newest, fanciest hotel on the Strip. If she’s in this country, this is where she’ll be.”
“Split up,” Dean directed. “Keep in touch. You spot her, you call for back-up.” He glanced at them. “Everybody loaded up?” At their nods, he offered his arm to Elle. Sam did the same with Claire, and they parted ways.
Dean wandered with Elle, both of them walking at a leisurely pace as they scanned the casino. Elle, it turned out, had known the target years ago at some place called the Company, and had instructed them to look for a woman trying too hard to be beautiful and sexy. Claire had kicked Dean under the table before he could point out that Elle had just described herself.
Elle paused, then walked with purpose toward another room. The sign above the door announced it to be the Garden of Eden.
“No,” Dean said flatly. “You want romance, you wait in line with all the other chicks.”
Elle made a face. “She wouldn’t be playing slots, you idiot. She’d be somewhere she could be admired.”
Dean frowned but stopped fighting her. Through the doors, they found a path through jungle foliage and fountains and ponds tucked away, their water lit with a variety of colors. Elle cursed at the humidity and batted her hair out of her eyes. Dean smirked. He blinked as they turned and found a group of men in suits surrounding-
He hastily backed up, pulling Elle with him. “Did she see you?” he hissed, digging his phone out of his pocket and texting Sam.
“I don’t know! I didn’t get the chance to see her, though. Are you sure it was her?”
Before Dean could tell her about the men catering to a woman who was looking way to sexy for his own good, he heard a voice behind them. “Aw, Elle. Still as incompetent as ever.”
Elle froze, then turned and threw a punch at the girl with her black hair in a pixie cut and dark doe eyes. Elle’s fist went straight through, and the illusion cocked its head at her. Dean saw that the men seemed to be scattering, none of them taking any notice of the trio at all. It was as if- as if they blended in with the foliage, he realized darkly. They were in an illusion. He wondered if they could even hear him. But so long as they were leaving, he wasn’t going to complain.
“No wonder you sucked as an agent.”
Dean pulled Elle back before she could attack the girl and wrapped an arm around her to keep her close. “Sam and Claire are on their way. But we need to- DAMN IT!” One of the men that had been surrounding the woman stopped on his way out and pulled an old-fashioned machine gun from beneath his coat. Dean shoved Elle behind a tree and leapt after her.
“Idiot!” she snapped as the woman laughed behind them. “It’s an illusion!” She pushed herself up, balls of electricity bursting to life in her hands. “COME ON!” she shouted. “STOP HIDING BEHIND EDEN!”
The woman appeared behind her, still in the same form, but now with a large hole on one side of her head. Dean could see the bullet’s entrance hole on the other side of the skull. He was beside her in a second, a gun pressed to her head. “Drop the act, sister.” He held still as Elle threw a bolt at her, only for the bolt to go straight through. He fell back, landing stunned on the ground.
“DEAN!” Sam rushed to his side, too late to catch him. “Dean! You okay?”
Dean squeezed his eyes shut and blinked, trying to clear his vision. He forced himself to sit up. “Yeah. Damn it, Elle. The crap was that?”
“How was I to know that she wasn’t there?” Elle demanded, turning around and peering into the shadows.
“Could someone please tell me how we’re supposed to shoot someone we can’t see?” Claire glanced between them and the foliage, her gun surprisingly steady.
“Look for something that-” Elle grunted as something hit her, knocking her into the brush.
“Elle!” Claire aimed at the bushes. For a second, Dean thought she wouldn’t shoot, but then she started firing into the brush.
He was up in seconds, half-stumbling at first and then rushing with more confidence. “Are you crazy?” He pushed her arms down. “You could kill her!”
“Not likely,” Claire answered grimly. Her eyes went wide as a bloodied Elle emerged from behind a bush. “Elle? Elle!” She rushed forward, catching Elle before she fell. “Elle? Sam, get my purse. I need the-”
Elle coughed weakly. “Sorry. I couldn’t get her...”
Dean frowned and held up a hand to stop Sam. “I got this.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a syringe the senator had given him. He watched Elle as he stabbed her in the arm and pushed the anesthetic into her arm.
Sam stood, trying to figure out what was going on. “Dean?”
He waited until she was still and then hurried into the plants again. “Elle seem like the sort to apologize to you?” He spotted an arm and dragged shoved a branch out of the way. “Sam? See security around?” She was breathing, but it looked like the special had smacked her face into one of the trees a couple times.
“No. This place has the worst security ever.”
“Hate this place,” Dean muttered. Gently, he tugged Elle out of the brush and scooped her up. “We need a hospital.”
Claire dropped the other Elle and hurried to get her purse. “Bring her over here.” Hoping she had a first aid kit, Dean did as she directed, frowning as she plunged a syringe into her arm.
“Whoa whoa whoa, you can’t do that.” Blood spread disease. Did she not know that?
Claire ignored him and shoved the needle into Elle’s arm. “You should have seen her after Dad found her in the hospital. Burns all over.” They both watched as Elle’s bruises faded and her cuts disappeared. After a couple seconds, she opened her eyes. “That’s my ability,” Claire said, sounding faintly smug.
“Damn fine ability,” Dean commended her. He reached to help Elle sit up.
She beat him to it, knocking his hand out of the way. “Where the fuck is that bitch? She got dirt on my dress!”
* * *
Nathan watched her where she lay, drugged and unconscious. His little team of special hunters were off getting him another treat, doing the work he couldn’t get away to do himself. He couldn’t wait to see what they brought him
“Candice. It’s been a while. I was disappointed the last time. You did such a great job convincing me you were dead. Hanging on by a thread... You, Elle. Too many loose ends.” He held out a finger, and as he dragged it through the air, a line of blood appeared on the woman’s forehead. “Let’s fix that.”
Characters/Pairings: Dean, Nathan, Elle, Sam, Claire
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: None
Spoiler alert: None
Word Count: 1,962
Summary: Instead of arresting Dean and Sam after an incident, Nathan hires them as part of his own little hit squad.
“Sounds like you’re nuts,” Dean said, trying to remain calm despite his anger. He still wasn’t sure how he’d ended up here talking to this asshole while his brother fought for his life somewhere in this goddamn facility.
“I could say the same for you.” Senator Petrelli’s tone was flat.
“Superpowers.” Dean hoped the senator wouldn’t take offense to Dean’s oh-so-obviously thinking the senator was crazier than Axl Rose after a night with some needles, booze, and roadies.
“Angels.” Senator Petrelli returned.
Dean inclined his head and shrugged. Give the man a point.
Senator Petrelli continued, his voice wry. “But you and your brother. You hunt this stuff. Monsters that go bump in the night.”
“Well. We don’t have superpowers, but we do the best we can.” His words were modest, but his tone was sarcastic.
The senator almost smirked. “And you do this for a living.”
“What there is of it.”
“So you’ve got experience.”
“Enough to know you’re about to hire us.” Us. Not just Dean. Because Sammy was alive and going to be fine, damn it.
Senator Petrelli watched him over steepled fingers. “Yes,” he said at last. “You’ve got experience with dangerous things, and I need someone to help me here. Someone off the books.”
Dean hoped that meant they were still getting paid.
“You’ll still get paid. But there’s one problem. Around here, we have a rule. One of us, one of them. Since you and your brother don’t have abilities, you’ll have to be paired up with people who do.”
“Sammy and I are partners,” Dean interjected quickly. Firmly.
“Then you two will just have some help.”
Dean scowled at him. He didn’t mind getting paid - he sure as hell didn’t mind getting paid - but he wasn’t sold on the idea of working with Magneto.
There was a knock at the door, and he turned when he heard a female voice say, “You wanted to see me, Nathan?” Dean eyed the woman - a short blonde wearing clothes were tight enough and revealing enough Dean was confident he could guess where she bought her bra.
“Elle.” Dean could hear the amusement in the senator’s voice, as if Nathan knew Dean’s thoughts. “This is your ‘One of them.’”
Dean gave Elle an appreciative look and then turned back to Nathan with a grin. “On the other hand, superpowers ain’t so bad.”
* * *
It turned out Elle was the worst partner he could have asked for. She couldn’t sit still, and when she got bored, she played with electricity. Actually played with electricity. Turned out she could generate it and string it between her fingers. It had been scary and fascinating at first, and then a spark got too close to the radio and it just got scary.
As for Sam and the other girl the senator had assigned them, they were too busy making puppy eyes at each other in the back seat to be of any use.
“Stop that,” Dean snapped, not for the first time. She was like a child.
Sam glared at him in the rearview. “Dean, we-”
“He was talking to me, Smallballs.”
Dean glared at Elle, glaring harder when her only response was a mere smile. “No one makes fun of my brother’s balls but me.”
“Sure you don’t want to rephrase that?”
Dean frowned. “And stop trying to short out my damn car.”
Elle watched him and very slowly reached to touch the Impala’s dashboard. Dean glowered, and as soon as her finger sparked, grabbed her wrist. She laughed and settled back in her seat.
Dean grumbled.
In the back seat, the other one cleared her throat. “Do we even have a plan for how we’re going to do this?”
Elle studied her nails. “Find her. Kill her. It isn’t rocket science, Claire.” Claire, right. Cute enough, but too much of a kid, in Dean’s book. Too innocent. Right up Sam’s alley.
“She can cause illusions, Elle. What if we-”
“We shoot her. The end.” She might not have all her marbles, but Dean had to appreciate her methods.
Claire leaned back and huffed. “If you keep this up, I’ll tell them what you looked like when Nathan found you.”
They rode the rest of the way in blissful silence.
* * *
“Why are we so sure she’s here again?” Sam wiped his hands on his jeans, looking around uncomfortably.
Elle sighed and rolled her eyes. She was the only one of them who looked like they belonged, from her coifed hair to her tight blue evening gown to her heels. If Dean hadn’t known what government employees were paid, he might have believed all her jewelry was really gold. The rest of them just looked like they were playing dress-up. “It’s the newest, fanciest hotel on the Strip. If she’s in this country, this is where she’ll be.”
“Split up,” Dean directed. “Keep in touch. You spot her, you call for back-up.” He glanced at them. “Everybody loaded up?” At their nods, he offered his arm to Elle. Sam did the same with Claire, and they parted ways.
Dean wandered with Elle, both of them walking at a leisurely pace as they scanned the casino. Elle, it turned out, had known the target years ago at some place called the Company, and had instructed them to look for a woman trying too hard to be beautiful and sexy. Claire had kicked Dean under the table before he could point out that Elle had just described herself.
Elle paused, then walked with purpose toward another room. The sign above the door announced it to be the Garden of Eden.
“No,” Dean said flatly. “You want romance, you wait in line with all the other chicks.”
Elle made a face. “She wouldn’t be playing slots, you idiot. She’d be somewhere she could be admired.”
Dean frowned but stopped fighting her. Through the doors, they found a path through jungle foliage and fountains and ponds tucked away, their water lit with a variety of colors. Elle cursed at the humidity and batted her hair out of her eyes. Dean smirked. He blinked as they turned and found a group of men in suits surrounding-
He hastily backed up, pulling Elle with him. “Did she see you?” he hissed, digging his phone out of his pocket and texting Sam.
“I don’t know! I didn’t get the chance to see her, though. Are you sure it was her?”
Before Dean could tell her about the men catering to a woman who was looking way to sexy for his own good, he heard a voice behind them. “Aw, Elle. Still as incompetent as ever.”
Elle froze, then turned and threw a punch at the girl with her black hair in a pixie cut and dark doe eyes. Elle’s fist went straight through, and the illusion cocked its head at her. Dean saw that the men seemed to be scattering, none of them taking any notice of the trio at all. It was as if- as if they blended in with the foliage, he realized darkly. They were in an illusion. He wondered if they could even hear him. But so long as they were leaving, he wasn’t going to complain.
“No wonder you sucked as an agent.”
Dean pulled Elle back before she could attack the girl and wrapped an arm around her to keep her close. “Sam and Claire are on their way. But we need to- DAMN IT!” One of the men that had been surrounding the woman stopped on his way out and pulled an old-fashioned machine gun from beneath his coat. Dean shoved Elle behind a tree and leapt after her.
“Idiot!” she snapped as the woman laughed behind them. “It’s an illusion!” She pushed herself up, balls of electricity bursting to life in her hands. “COME ON!” she shouted. “STOP HIDING BEHIND EDEN!”
The woman appeared behind her, still in the same form, but now with a large hole on one side of her head. Dean could see the bullet’s entrance hole on the other side of the skull. He was beside her in a second, a gun pressed to her head. “Drop the act, sister.” He held still as Elle threw a bolt at her, only for the bolt to go straight through. He fell back, landing stunned on the ground.
“DEAN!” Sam rushed to his side, too late to catch him. “Dean! You okay?”
Dean squeezed his eyes shut and blinked, trying to clear his vision. He forced himself to sit up. “Yeah. Damn it, Elle. The crap was that?”
“How was I to know that she wasn’t there?” Elle demanded, turning around and peering into the shadows.
“Could someone please tell me how we’re supposed to shoot someone we can’t see?” Claire glanced between them and the foliage, her gun surprisingly steady.
“Look for something that-” Elle grunted as something hit her, knocking her into the brush.
“Elle!” Claire aimed at the bushes. For a second, Dean thought she wouldn’t shoot, but then she started firing into the brush.
He was up in seconds, half-stumbling at first and then rushing with more confidence. “Are you crazy?” He pushed her arms down. “You could kill her!”
“Not likely,” Claire answered grimly. Her eyes went wide as a bloodied Elle emerged from behind a bush. “Elle? Elle!” She rushed forward, catching Elle before she fell. “Elle? Sam, get my purse. I need the-”
Elle coughed weakly. “Sorry. I couldn’t get her...”
Dean frowned and held up a hand to stop Sam. “I got this.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a syringe the senator had given him. He watched Elle as he stabbed her in the arm and pushed the anesthetic into her arm.
Sam stood, trying to figure out what was going on. “Dean?”
He waited until she was still and then hurried into the plants again. “Elle seem like the sort to apologize to you?” He spotted an arm and dragged shoved a branch out of the way. “Sam? See security around?” She was breathing, but it looked like the special had smacked her face into one of the trees a couple times.
“No. This place has the worst security ever.”
“Hate this place,” Dean muttered. Gently, he tugged Elle out of the brush and scooped her up. “We need a hospital.”
Claire dropped the other Elle and hurried to get her purse. “Bring her over here.” Hoping she had a first aid kit, Dean did as she directed, frowning as she plunged a syringe into her arm.
“Whoa whoa whoa, you can’t do that.” Blood spread disease. Did she not know that?
Claire ignored him and shoved the needle into Elle’s arm. “You should have seen her after Dad found her in the hospital. Burns all over.” They both watched as Elle’s bruises faded and her cuts disappeared. After a couple seconds, she opened her eyes. “That’s my ability,” Claire said, sounding faintly smug.
“Damn fine ability,” Dean commended her. He reached to help Elle sit up.
She beat him to it, knocking his hand out of the way. “Where the fuck is that bitch? She got dirt on my dress!”
* * *
Nathan watched her where she lay, drugged and unconscious. His little team of special hunters were off getting him another treat, doing the work he couldn’t get away to do himself. He couldn’t wait to see what they brought him
“Candice. It’s been a while. I was disappointed the last time. You did such a great job convincing me you were dead. Hanging on by a thread... You, Elle. Too many loose ends.” He held out a finger, and as he dragged it through the air, a line of blood appeared on the woman’s forehead. “Let’s fix that.”