Alone
A Supernatural Fanfic
Summary: Alternate ending to 7x13. Dean helps Emma escape, but life isn't easy for the young Amazonian on the run from her tribe. She can run from her family, hide from the Leviathan who discover her Winchester origin, and even ditch the monsters she comes into contact with. But can she fight the darkness within herself? Before long, it all catches up to her and throws the Winchesters into the fight of their life…again.
Chapter One—You're My Father
Emma looked up at the man who shared her DNA, knowing he was just as likely to slash her throat as he was to offer a helping hand. He was a hunter and she was Amazonian. In his eyes, she was a monster, daughter or not. She hoped he wouldn't see the situation as that black and white. Dean was her last chance. If he didn't help her, she'd be forced to return to her tribe and the coldhearted women in it. More than anything, she wanted to be free of them.
He stood by the window, peaking out the curtain as if he was looking for someone. Probably the brother her tribe had warned her about. Dean turned to look at her, a skeptical expression narrowing his eyes and making his lips frown.
"You look exhausted," he said, eyeing her as he crossed the room. He'd been doing that since he let her inside, moving around, like he couldn't sit still for more than a minute. Or didn't trust her enough to be relaxed.
"And starving," she said, and that drew a look of sympathy from him. "It's been a tough sweet sixteen."
He sighed and crossed his arms over his chest.
"You believe me?"
He didn't speak, but gave a slight nod instead.
"You'll help me?"
He looked so stern, so uncaring, but then, Emma was used to that. "If you really want help."
"I don't want it." She stood up to face him and crossed her arms to match his stance. "I need it. I need to know how to hide from my tribe. I need to get away from them."
"Alright," he said. He grabbed his jacket from the chair, put it on and took his keys out of his pocket. "Let's go."
She grabbed her pink suitcase, wheeling it behind her as she followed him out to a beat up red car. Nervousness swirled in her gut as she slid into the seat and fastened the seatbelt.
"Here's what we're going to do. You're gonna catch the Greyhound and take it to Seattle." He spoke quickly, in a matter of fact tone that showed his reluctance to help her. "I'll meet you there in a few days with some things you'll need. In the glove box, there's an old flip-phone. Take that with you. Keep it on at all times, okay? Call me if you hit any snags."
Emma followed orders, the way she'd been conditioned to do during her few days of being alive. Taking the cell phone out and putting it in her jacket pocket. Fixing her gaze out the window, watching the street signs and the cars pass by as he continued, "Nobody should call that number, but if they do, don't answer it. And if they catch up to you…the wonder women or whatever—"
"My tribe," she said without looking at him. "You can say it. The tribe of freaks who raised me. If they catch up to me, I'm dead."
"Maybe."
"There's no maybe. Leaving is a betrayal. The ultimate treason. The last girl who tried to leave…well, they made her an example to the rest of us." She shivered at the thought.
Through her peripheral vision, heightened from her heritage, she saw him glance at her with a look of dread. "What do you mean?"
"You don't want to know." Or rather, she didn't want to talk about it, didn't even want to think about it, but she couldn't stop now. The memories bubbled to the surface, taking her back to that day when Nadia—the brunette leader of the tribe—lined the girls in training up against a wall in the ceremony room. The soldiers-to-be were dressed in white nightgowns, each one standing blond and tall, as if they were mirror images of each other. No diversity, no choice, no free will. From day one, it'd been clear to Emma that her life was not her own. She followed orders, or she was punished. And on that day in the ceremony room, what Nadia did only further engraved the threat.
Standing in the middle of the room, Nadia explained to the girls that one of them had betrayed the tribe by trying to run away, and that if anyone else had the idea to do so, this was what to expect. With that, she stepped aside and two other women pulled a girl, hands bound in front of her, stripped completely naked except for a black sack over her head, into the room. They forced the crying girl to her knees in front of everybody, and showed no emotion while doing it. Yanking the bag off her head, they called the girl a disgrace. Said she wasn't strong enough, good enough, to be an Amazon. Then Nadia pulled out her bronzed tribal sword and looked the girl in the eyes as she chopped off her head.
Blood splattered everywhere and the severed head landed on the floor with a sickening thunk. Emma winced and squeezed her eyes shut, struggling no to cry. That was when she knew she needed to leave, and began to plot her escape.
"Earth to Emma." Dean snapped his fingers in front of Emma's face and she flinched as the noise jerked her back to the present. The dark memories, the feelings that came with them, fought for control of her attention as she tried to focus on him.
"You were like…a million miles away." He watched her with a look that made her wonder if he could tell she was hurting. She wondered what it was like for him, to have a monster for a daughter. Did he care about her? Just because he didn't kill her and helped her escape didn't mean he'd do more than that, or care beyond that point.
"Sorry," she said. "Did you say something?"
"I said we're at the bus station."
"Right. Okay." She pushed open the car door and stepped out, taking in the view. People were lined up outside of a ticket booth to the right, and to the left more people sat on benches or piled into buses.
Raw nerves rolled in her stomach and a panicky feeling fluttered in her heart. What would happen when she stepped onto the bus? After that?
The tribe was all she'd ever known. She'd never been allowed into a grocery store, let alone set free into the world by herself. The thought of it was so scary, so breathtaking, that she almost ran straight home to her mother, to Nadia. To the rest of the killers.
Dean walked to the back of the car, opened the trunk and motioned her over. "These are the basics I think no one should live without." He started to pile items into a worn out duffel bag. "Holy water, some rock salt. You use this stuff to—"
"I know."
He glanced at her, raising an eyebrow. "You know?"
"Yeah…it's an Amazon thing. My parents' skills are…immediately installed in my brain after conception. It's part of the aging process." It was true; part of what made the Amazons so powerful was their preternatural skills. Emma could fight with the brutality and cunning of an ancient warrior, and the resourcefulness and confidence of a modern-day monster hunter.
Squinting, he looked like he was trying to make sense of what she'd said. "That's too weird to think about." He picked up a knife and tossed it into the bag, along with an EMF reader and a thick, old book. "Anyway, keep this stuff with you just in case. Like I said, I'll meet you in Seattle as soon as I can get away from Sam. If your family catches up to you, don't try to fight them. Just run. Get some place safe and then call me."
"How are you going to help from states away?"
"You'd be surprised how fast I can drive." He zipped up the bag and handed it to her. "Wait here. I'm going to get you a ticket."
With that, he shut the trunk and joined the line by the ticket booth. Emma waited nervously by the car. This wasn't what she'd been expecting. A fraction of her had hoped Dean…her father…would want to take care of her. Maybe even take her on the road with him. Instead, he was sticking her on a bus alone.
Part of her believed she'd never see him after this. That he'd ditch her and then she'd really be on her own. But that was fine with her. After all, she'd been raised as a man-hater. The tribe never needed men for anything other than reproduction. And since she had no intention to reproduce soon, she didn't need a man for anything.
"Alright, here's the ticket. Your bus gets to Seattle in two days. I'll be at the station, waiting for you." Dean handed her a bus ticket and a bottle of soda, a bag of chips and a candy bar from the vending machines next to the booth.
"Thanks," she whispered as she opened the duffel bag and let him drop the items inside. "For everything."
He nodded and slid his hands into his pockets. "I can't be any plainer than this. If you kill one human, even one, the deal's off. I'll turn you back over to the tribe myself, and that's if another hunter doesn't gank you first. We clear?"
"Don't worry." She slung the bag over her shoulder and grabbed the handle of her suitcase. "I have no interest in murder. Just freedom."
"Good." He opened his mouth to say something, and then closed it again without a word. Circling around her, he walked over to the driver's side door. "I'll be in touch."
She nodded, keeping her gaze straight ahead—and away from him—as she started toward her bus, determined not to look back, determined not to let herself need anybody, or want anybody.
"Emma," he called suddenly, prompting her to stop. Taking a deep breath to brace herself against her emotions, she turned to look at him. He held eye contact with her in a gaze that was shockingly…fatherly. "Be careful."
Again, she nodded without saying a word and turned away from him. Walking toward the bus, she willed herself not to feel the loss, the pain that poked at her heart and made her lungs feel like they were full of needles. It needed to stop—she needed to get control of herself and she needed to do it soon. A woman ruled by her emotions was useless. That's what Nadia had always said. And besides, she needed to be strong, stronger than her tribe had hoped she'd be, if she wanted to survive.
Keeping that in mind, the determination to survive, she stepped onto the Greyhound bus and didn't look back.
"You let her go." Breathing heavy, his face flushed in anger, Sam paced across the hotel room with his hands on his hips. "I can't believe you let her go!"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Don't even try to deny it! On my way back from the professor's office, I saw you stick some teenage girl on a bus. You're telling me it wasn't Emma?" He stopped pacing and dropped his hands to his sides, then brought one up and raked it through his hair. "I get it's hard for you. Especially since she's your…I mean, technically your daughter. But we kill monsters. That's how it works."
"This wasn't about killing monsters. This was about getting a kid out of a bad situation. Remember how we used to save people? That's what I was doing. And I just thought that since we haven't been able to save anybody lately, it might be a good thing to do."
"You were saving a monster, not a kid, Dean."
Dean clenched his jaw to keep his anger in check. All the times Sam had chosen a monster or a demon over him, and now his brother wanted to give a lecture? If anybody had a earned a freebie, it was Dean. "You don't know the things they did to her. Brainwashed her into some kind of mindless soldier. Except for some reason, she's a little less mindless than the rest of them. She wanted out man, I could tell. What was I supposed to do when she asked for my help? Stick a bullet in her chest?"
Falling silent, Sam shook his head, walked over to the refrigerator and took out two bottles of beer. He handed one to Dean and then leaned against the dinette table, popped open his drink and took a swig.
Dean dropped to sit on the bed, pushing a box of Bobby's books out of his way. "You can be mad at me all you want, but what's done is done."
"What if she hurts someone? What if she doesn't have a choice? We don't know much about the Amazons. We don't know if they have to kill for survival, or if they like to do it for kicks. Hell, we're not even sure how to kill them. And you just…let her go."
"Sam…"
"You should have taken her with us." Sam pulled out a chair and sat down, resting his elbows on his knees. "We should keep an eye on her, monitor her abilities, her instincts. And besides, if she becomes evil…if she struggles with that the way I did…"
Dean shook his head, raising his hand. "Don't go there."
"Dean, let me finish." Sam looked down at the floor, and then glanced over to the corner of the room in a way that made Dean wonder if he was hallucinating right now. Was Lucifer whispering in Sam's ear? "If she struggles with that as much as I did, then she's going to need all the help she can get. And if she has even one small part of her that's you, in spite of all her conditioning, it's worth protecting."
Just like that, Dean's faith in his brother was restored. It was a flash of the old Sammy, optimistic and compassionate Sammy, who liked to believe the best about people. For the first time in awhile, Dean allowed a smile to curve his lips, let it make him feel a little better. Made the loss of Bobby and Cass hurt a little less.
"First things first. We need to get her some fake IDs." Dean sat down at the computer, opened it and started typing. "Some weapons wouldn't hurt, since we're walking billboards for danger."
"We need a picture for the IDs."
Dean turned the computer and showed Sam the picture of Emma he'd e-mailed from his phone. "I took it when she zoned out."
Sam smirked. "Good thinking. I'll get started. How are we going to find her?"
"I'm meeting her in Seattle in two days."
"How do you know she'll be there? That she won't run off during one of the pit-stops?"
"Doesn't matter," Dean replied. "I gave her a cell with the GPS turned on."
Emma stirred in her seat just outside Seattle. After two days on the bus, she felt suffocated and cramped. Looking out the window as headlights sped by on the dark interstate highway helped.
Suddenly, the bus veered off the highway and down an exit ramp. Emma didn't understand why they were getting off the highway. They'd just stopped at a bus station ten minutes ago to switch drivers and pick up more passengers. She sat up straight, looking over the head of a single mom hushing a child to try to see what was going on. The bus pulled over on the edge of the road and parked.
A chorus of protests resounded from the people on the bus, but all sound faded out when the bus driver stood and turned to face the passengers.
Nadia.
Emma watched in horror, her heart pounding as the callous brunette moved in on her with a calculating look in her eyes, like a lioness closing in on her prey.
Sneak Peak
Chapter Two—You're Dead to Me
Emma bolted. Jumping up, running for the back exit at the rear of the bus. Just as she reached it, more Amazons stepped into her path. Each of the women grabbed her arms, yanking her to face Nadia and holding her in place.
The tension between them made the bus fall silent, watching on the edge of their seats as Nadia approached a dread-filled Emma. "I knew you'd betray us." Nadia's voice was cold, her eyes filled with disgust. "I could see it in you. The humanity. You're weak."
"I'd rather be weak than be like you," Emma said, her voice quivering. "Kill me if you want, because if that's my only other option, I'll take it."
"Kill you?" Nadia chuckled, crossing her arms over her chest. "Why would we want to kill you when we can teach you a lesson instead? You want to be in the world? Want to know what it means to be human? We'll show you. Because one thing you'll learn in this world, Emma, is that some things are far worse than death."
A sinister smile on her lips, Nadia stepped aside and screamed, "Attack!"
Strong, powerful women jumped up from their seats. Amazons, warriors hidden in plain sight, wielded their weapons and began to slash and obliterate the defenseless humans. Screams echoed in the bus, horrible sounds that clawed into Emma's ears. If she survived, she knew those sounds would haunt her forever.