Hey guys! Short summary: Sam and Dean battle a bad guy and each other, they argue about Sam's extracurriculars, and generally have scars to show for it in the end. Protective/Angsty Dean and Powerful, but confused Sam....I guess?

Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural.

Rated: T for language and violence.

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Face Off

They were hunters. Violence came with the job description. Fear didn't.

Since they were young, their father had taught the boys to hunt villains without question. Without fear. They could meticulously formulate a plan of action, but when it came down to it, the monsters never followed the route of predictability. No. What mattered was the strike. Often times, the predators would become the prey. The boys would turn a dark corner in some abandoned alley only to meet with a seething red-eyed demon that was all too happy to introduce them to terror.

The boys were human after all.

But lately, the hunters had created a dark reputation. Their hunting skills, along with their blades, had sharpened. Their determination was matched only by the speed and ferocity with which they slaughtered the things that went bump in the night.

Their kills were colder. Their hesitations – fewer.

But fear, however, had gripped each brother's gun like skeletal, white hands and forced their sites in a new direction.

And now they stood, facing off, guns pointed at each other just waiting for the next move.

"Who the hell are you?!" Dean shouted behind the barrel of his own gun, still pointed at Sam who mirrored him.

"Same question for you!" Sam replied, his vision locked on his brother.

It had all happened so fast. Just minutes before, the shapeshifter had pulled a gun. He could clearly see the two boys aiming right back at him from behind the abandoned house's shutters, the window slightly raised to make room for their own weapons. The shapeshifter aimed and fired for the one on the left.

Sam saw the shot coming from a mile away.

As the bullet raced towards his eyes, Dean reacted without thought and shot the shapeshifter square in the chest just as the monster's own bullet tapped against the glass where Sam's forehead rested.

The glass didn't so much as crack.

The bleeding shapeshifter's body still convulsed from the bullet wound in his chest not twenty feet away from them. Gasping for his last breath, he should have felt true terror as these two humans had bested him. But now seeing them standing off against each other, he only knew confusion upon death's hold.

"Why did you shoot him?! We weren't even sure that was a real shapeshifter!" Sam cried, gun still raised. "He could've just been some human nut-job!"

"He went for my brother," Dean retorted, eyes narrowing behind his site, "and I'm not sure that's you."

"Yeah, well Dean wouldn't kill somebody he thought might be human!" Sam said, validating his own need for his raised weapon.

Silence surrounded their terror. The house creaked and the only movement came from the dust that fell slowly along the blades of light through shutter blinds. Each brother's chest rose and fell at the same speed, and their stances, right foot firmly cemented behind their left, mimicked each other exactly. The barrels of their guns along with their own eyes remain locked on their reflections.

Through unspoken communication, the boys made a decision.

"One," Dean said.

"Two," Sam replied.

"Three!" they shouted together as their guns fell to their sides, hands still gripping their hilts in case the need rose again.

"You could have told me," Dean said accusingly.

"Told you what?" Sam questioned, his eyes scanning Dean's for clues.

"Oh, I don't know, Sammy," Dean replied, "that I shouldn't get spooked when you pull another 'I'm not a demon, but I got all their tricks' move on me, again!"

Sam's eyebrows went up, realization slowly crawling across his face.

"I-I don't know what you m— " Sam denied.

"Don't you give me that. Don't you give me another lie," Dean shot back, his pointed finger punctuating his intensity. "Last I checked, we weren't hiding behind bulletproof glass, Sam!"

"Dean, I--"

"Dean, nothing" the older hunter continued, his anger still on the rise. "Just tell me now. Just tell me," Dean said, now gripping the front of his brother's shirt in his fist. "What else can you do?"

Sam looked down with shock at how aggressively his brother had grabbed him, like he was some sort of monster.

"Let me go, Dean," Sam said, softly.

"Hell, no, I'm not going to let you go," Dean strengthened his hold on his brother, but not before catching a glimmer of light in his younger sibling's eyes.

"Let me go," Sam said, stronger now.

"Forget about th— " Dean was about to reply, when suddenly he felt his grip loosening around Sam's shirt. His face went cold as he watched his own hand, with a mind of its own, releasing the fabric between each finger, cringing back in what looked like fear, and falling to his side – obedient, calm, and waiting further instruction.

"That," is all Sam said.

Dean's mouth dropped as he stepped away from what he thought was his younger brother.

"No, what the hell, what the f***ing hell," Dean said more to himself than the looming figure before him.

Dean instinctively raised his gun, again, immediately forgetting that whatever stood before him could easily disarm him.

"Dean, put the gun down," Sam pleaded. He didn't want to make Dean do anything. But his brother had asked what he could do, and he'd finally shown him. However right now, Sam decided, he didn't want to scare him again.

"No," Dean said, behind a gun that acted more like a security blanket than a weapon. "No, this is too much, Sam." Dean shook his head slowly, denying what he had seen.

What he had felt.

Controlling demons, exorcizing them, that was one thing. But stopping bullets mid-air? Controlling humans? Shit, controlling his own brother?

"This is wrong!" Dean shouted. His teeth grit against each other as a thousand thoughts swarmed through him.

"You asked what I could do. I'm showing you, Dean," Sam replied, his barriers torn. "I don't want to keep secrets from you. Not anymore."

"No secrets? Yeah?" Dean said sarcastically, cocking his head to the side.

"Yes!" Sam insisted.

"Oh, okay," Dean said, still angry and dropping his gun in a feigned show of ease. "Since we're being so open with each other, how about you tell me about your plans?"

"Huh?" Sam asked, genuinely confused.

"Your plans to take over the world? You know, for when you give into all this. It kind of goes with the f***ing cliché!"

Dean meant for his words to hurt. He wanted Sam to feel what he felt, and he had wanted to use the only thing from an older brother's arsenal that could sting without punches.

Through the pools now forming in his eyes, Dean saw Sam's image waver. Or maybe Sam actually was shaking.

"You think I don't know that? You think I'm not worried about my supposed dark fate every single day?!" Sam's voice quivered with his image.

Sam raised a pointed finger at a standing mirror in the hallway next to them, eyes still locked on Dean. "You think that I'm completely unaware that THIS…" Sam took a breath, and in an instant, the mirror in front of his outstretched arm shattered violently. He let his eyes fall from Dean as he surrendered, "…doesn't come with a price?"

Dean flinched at the sight of his shaking brother, a need to protect now outweighing his need to fight.

"Geez, Sammy," is all Dean could say, questions pouring through him. When had Sam become so strong? Was this what he was doing every night with Ruby?

"Well," Dean came to an easy solution. "Just stop. Whatever made you think that you had to start practicing with Ruby, just know that you don't have to."

"Really, Dean? Just stop? That's your answer?"

"It sure as hell ain't a question!" Dean replied. "We've been hunting for years without anything but what dad taught us. So why change now?"

Sam stepped back out of sheer shock. "Because Lilith is breaking the seals to the apocalypse and a little rock salt and matchsticks aren't going to stop her!" Sam barked, exasperated. "We need to use everything we got!"

As if on cue, the musty old house rattled and shook in reply.

The battles for the day, it seemed, were not finished.

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So what do you think? I have some more of this story written, and if you want to see what happens, let me know! As usual for me, this isn't going to be an epic story, probably a few chapters. And I promise we'll have some more action for those of you wanting to know what all that rumbling is. Trust me, it ain't an earthquake! :)