I'm Not Abel

Summary: Sam wasn't going to let this keep happening to his brother. Not this time. Set vaguely in mid-season 10. Written for a prompt over on the PreviouslyTV Supernatural board fanfiction thread – use / feature a word starting with A in a 500 word or less story. (I might've gone over a word or three, but got it close).

Author's notes: This one's for everyone over at the PreviouslyTV Supernatural board, and especially to Mick Lady. Thanks, you guys, for encouraging me to write in this fandom again.

This story is written from the perspective that Sam is not aware of the version of the story that Cain told Dean, but only the more traditional ones generally held.

Disclaimer: Supernatural and all of its characters are not mine. I hope the powers that be won't mind me playing with them for a bit.

The now too familiar images of brother striking down brother glowing from the computer screen blurred a bit, and Sam rubbed his tired eyes, attempting to clear his vision. It didn't really help. No matter what site he visited, no matter what the artistic style of the paintings or drawings used to illustrate the content, it was pretty much all the same damn thing. His latest round of research wasn't accomplishing anything but frustration. Sam knew one thing though: their story wasn't going to turn out the same. Dean wasn't going to be Cain, and Sam… well he wasn't Abel.

First of all, Sam knew he wasn't the obedient son. And he certainly wasn't God's favorite. If destiny was to be believed, he was only favored in the same way that Lucifer once was the favored of the angels. Except in Sam's case, even the angels who still admired Lucifer generally looked on Sam with contempt, tolerated only as long as he played his role. Sam had been chosen, but chosen to be Lucifer's vessel. Chosen to be killed by his brother. Chosen to be a heartbreaking burden on Dean. And if that's what was supposed to happen here, too, if that was even one of the things that Dean was afraid of and trying to bury in bravado… well Sam wouldn't let that happen. Once was enough. Why was the world intent on creating situations where Dean had to worry that he might have to kill his brother? It was obvious Dean would be broken by that. Everything that had happened with the trials and Gadreel had proved that well enough. So what sadistic jerk would set up even the possibility of such a thing again? And there was no way Dean wouldn't have thought of the possibility.

Wasn't going to happen. Sam wouldn't let it. No matter what he had to do, Dean wasn't going to go through the burden of thinking he might end up killing his brother. Again. Sam would find a way to take that mark off and erase all the implications it carried. If it meant the earth would burn a bit, so be it. And no one could accuse him of not knowing what that meant. Sam knew all too well what it meant to burn. He'd done it already to atone for his mistakes and to save the world, but as Dean had once said, it still seemed that somehow or another, the world was intent on throwing itself off a cliff anyway. Fine then. They'd both suffered enough, and Sam wouldn't let Dean suffer any more. His brother didn't deserve it. He wouldn't be Cain. And Sam, he wouldn't be Abel. Not then, and not this time either. And if Sam had to do something more drastic, step things up a bit, then so be it.

That decided, Sam turned off the computer. Dean was right. More research wasn't going to help. It was time for action, and heaven help anyone or anything that stood in Sam's way.