Plan B
A sequel to Aftermath
Dean and Sam sat for a moment in peaceful silence, a peace that they hadn't shared for months. Dean knew that they would never be the brothers they were when Dean would force Sam to eat peas, show him how to shoot a gun, not even the brothers they were when their father had died, but that was okay. It took Dean almost losing Sam to a scheming demon to realize that those days of brotherhood were gone, that he couldn't expect either of them to stay still in time. His time in Hell had changed him, time away from Sam had changed Sam. They weren't those brothers anymore and would never be them again. There was no sugar coating that and Dean was ready to accept that. He had been telling the truth when he had told Cas that he would take Sam, as is. He would and gladly because Sam was with him. They were together again and that's all that counted.
"Dean, what I did –"
"What we BOTH did, Sammy. It took two to make an Apocalypse –"
"But I killed Lillith and -"
"And I broke the first seal, starting the whole thing. Sam, we were both duped. We were led here. I'm not saying that we didn't have choices, we did and we made them, but it was all based on intell that were lies to start with."
"Saving me, making that deal, going to Hell in the first place, those weren't lies, nobody told you to do those things. That was your choice –"
"A choice I'd make again in a heartbeat."
"Yeh and that brings it back to me, Dean. If you'd just –"
"What? Left you dead?"
"Yeh, then Lucifer –"
"Stop it, Sam! This circular argument of yours is getting us nowhere."
Sam gave him a strange look.
"What? I DO read, Sam. Anyway, stop trying to tie loose ends that conveniently come down to you being better left dead."
Sam bowed his head.
"Ruby said that Yellow Eyes and Lillith, they worked to get me here, to get me to do what I did. That it was always going to be me, that it had to be me."
"That it was your destiny? Is that what you're saying?"
Sam just shrugged his shoulders.
"Sam, you're right. I made the choice to bring you back, not Yellow Eyes, not Lillith, not Ruby, not some cosmic prophecy, so if you're planning to go somewhere with this, it better include the bottom line and that is, I couldn't let you die. Me. I just couldn't. Nothing was controlling me to bring you back except maybe selfishness. I needed you back. If you really believe that by staying dead we could have avoided all this, then there's only one person to blame for that and that's me and I still wouldn't take it back."
Sam listened to Dean's words, saw the raw sincerity in his brother's eyes and softened.
"Only thing you did wrong was not believing in yourself, for believing in a demon bitch who fed you the words that should have come from me, for needing me to trust you when you should have just trusted yourself. That's not being evil, Sam, that's being human. You were just being what I've always known you were all along, you were just acting like any human being would. I drove you away instead of watching your back and that's why we're here."
Sam looked at Dean and didn't see the soul eating guilt that had possessed Dean when their dad had died or when he had come back from Hell. Sam only saw clarity and he wondered how he could have missed it before, how he could have misread his brother's caution with weakness. Sam saw Dean owning up to his choices and he decided that it was about time he did the same thing.
"You were watching my back, I was just too full of myself to see it. You've never stopped watching my back."
"Doesn't matter anymore, Sam. None of it. We made our choices, can't go back and change them. All that does matter is that we're good and not just the usual Winchester-sweep-under-the-rug good."
Sam smiled with understanding.
"We're good, Dean."
"Okay, then let's go downstairs and figure out a Plan B."
"Plan B?"
"Yeh, I hope there is one.
Dean and Sam left their room and walked down the stairs. They found Bobby pouring over books. Castiel and Anna were missing.
"Where did the angels-on-our-shoulders go?" Dean asked.
Bobby, without looking up, said, "Don't ask me. Mumbled something about warning more of their buddies and poof. I was too busy going blind reading."
"Find anything?" Sam asked.
"Nothing yet," Bobby said as he rubbed his eyes and pushed away from the book he had been reading. "You boys all right?"
"Yeh, yeh, we're good, Bobby," Sam said.
Bobby looked at them both askance.
"For real this time, Bobby," Dean assured.
"Good. About time."
Dean sat down on a nearby couch.
"I don't like sitting around waiting to be picked off. Do we even have a Plan B?"
"Plan B?" Bobby scoffed. "I haven't got a clue what a Plan B would look like."
"Well, guess all that destiny crap they've been dishing out is probably out the window." Dean said.
"Why would you think that?" Bobby asked.
"Because Zacariah counted on Cas to follow his orders like his personal lap dog. He counted on keeping me in line, but I didn't tow it. We're exactly where Cas said we would be. We've become the hunted."
Bobby heaved a sigh, no argument to give.
"We've returned," Castiel announced as everyone turned.
"Well, thanks for the warning this time," Bobby joked. "Find out anything?"
"We contacted more of our brethren. They will be waiting and ready when the time comes," Castiel said.
"What's that mean?" Dean asked.
"That when you face Lucifer, we will be ready to fight Zacariah and those he has converted."
Dean nodded his head.
"This is your Plan B?" He said sarcastically.
"For now. We have no way of knowing what Lucifer will do. Lillith and Ruby, his allies, are both dead," Castiel said.
"What about Yellow Eyes?" Sam asked remembering what he had read in the paper and what had led him to the convent. In looking back, that was probably planned by Ruby too.
"Sam, I killed him back at the Devil's Gate," Dean reminded.
"Did you?"
"What do you mean?" Dean asked skeptically.
"I think he's still alive," Sam said.
"What?" Bobby said. "How do you know that?"
"There was a story in the local paper about the convent. It was about a priest disemboweling 8 nuns back in 1972. He said that someone named Azazel made him do it. That's why I went there to find Lillith," Sam said then scoffed. "Ruby probably set me up with that too."
"So it's probably bogus, Sam. He slaughtered those nuns in 1972. I killed him."
Sam took in a breath, he wasn't sure how his next words would be taken, but he was over keeping secrets.
"I don't know for sure, but I think I felt something back at the convent. I ignored it because I was hell bent on killing Lillith, but it was there. It isn't something I can put my finger on, but I think he was there."
Everyone looked at Sam warily, but not Dean. He was worried, but not distrustful. He would never be that way towards Sam again. No matter what, he would take his brother on face value, as is, like he told Castiel.
"So you think Yellow Eyes might be Lucifer's right hand?" Dean asked.
"Yeh, something in the way Ruby told me about Azazel and Lillith and what they had to do to get me here. Like it or not, I still have his blood inside me, that didn't die with him so it would make sense that I'd know if he were back."
"So we didn't kill him," Dean said, his voice filled with disappointment. "He just wanted us to believe that we did so that he could carry out his little plan, raising Lucifer was his plan all along, his end game."
Sam nodded.
"And why it had to be me to do it. Yellow Eyes feeding me his blood was just insurance. I'm not saying that it was my destiny because I know I made the choices leading to this, Ruby yanking my chain all the way, but I think doing that was like putting a homing beacon on me so that a demon like Ruby could zero in. And I didn't disappoint," Sam scoffed again.
Dean got up from the couch and walked over to Sam.
"You weren't the only one," Dean said as he looked over at Castiel. "I bought into the whole deal too. We both got conned pretty damn well, but it doesn't change what's happening now. Doesn't matter if Yellow Eyes is back in the game. It still doesn't change the fact that we have to figure out a way to bring down Lucifer."
Dean walked over to Castiel and Anna.
"Do either of you know how I'm supposed to put Lucifer back in his cage?"
"No, only that when the time came, you would have all you need," Castiel said.
"Which, at best, was yet another lie and at worse, and I'd say we're there right now, all bets are off and we're on our own for…disobeying," Dean scoffed. "Meaning we have to figure it out all on our own…and for the record, if it's me who has to bring this monster down, I'd rather we not do trial and error."
Castiel and Anna remained silent, but shared a common respect for Dean's ability to assess the situation.
Suddenly they all heard laughter. It was filled with mocking and a touch of triumph. They all turned around trying to locate its source, but Sam stiffened, feeling something cold drip down into his spine and, if possible, into his soul. Dean noticed.
"Sam, what is it?"
"He's here," Sam said as dread filled his body.
They all kept scanning the room. Dean and Bobby tried honing in using all of their skills, their hunting instincts taking over. Another peal of laughter then filled the room.
"Show yourself, you bastard!" Dean yelled defiantly.
"Dean, still polite as ever."
"Oh, I'll teach you some manners all right," Dean said angrily.
"I'm sure you could given all that experience you got in Hell," Azazel taunted.
Dean just let jibe roll off his back.
"Wish I could oblige, but it's not time yet."
"Not time for what?" Dean demanded.
"To teach you all a lesson," said Azazel, menace in his voice. "Sammy, you exceeded all my expectations. I knew you could do it. Throw in a girl who's willing to massage that ego of yours and maybe more and you'd be putty."
"Shut up!" Sam protested back, but not feeling the conviction behind it, after all, it wasn't like Azazel wasn't telling the truth.
"So this was your plan all along. Get your buddy Lucifer out?" Dean deflected.
"Well, that was my plan for Sammy. You, you just came in handy. Thanks for breaking in Hell, Dean, knew you didn't have it in you."
Dean shook his head, smiled with gritted teeth. The realization still stung a little, not so much for him, but for everyone else in the room with him, especially Sam. He wouldn't let the knowledge destroy him. What was done was done. He had found a way to get past it and destiny or not, he was determined to keep on moving forward and to focus on finishing what he had started.
"I'll end this, you son of a bitch and I'll end you once and for all."
Azazel laughed again.
"Again with the laughing, all this funny to you?" Dean taunted back.
"Yeh, it kind of is. Listening to empty threats does that to me."
"I'm going to be so glad to get my hands on you."
"You failed at getting rid of me before, what makes you think you can do it now? If it's possible, you're weaker and more pathetic than you were then. Least then, you had something to offer in Hell, now, you're just another tick that can be squashed."
"Colorful," Dean commented with a sneer. "It doesn't change a thing. I will kill you."
Silence then filled the room again.
Dean took in a breath. A part of him felt like he had failed. Killing Yellow Eyes at the Devil's Gate had felt like he had finally ended a chapter in their lives, had won the revenge their father had pursued all their lives, had given their mother rest, but knowing he hadn't, that all it had done was play into the long term agenda of getting Sam to free Lucifer, that maybe it might have opened up yet another chapter he'd have to close, he felt a moment of defeat.
"Hey, Dean, we'll get him, the both of us this time," Sam said, placing his hand on Dean's shoulder.
Dean looked into Sam's eyes, seeing the brother he valued more than anything and the fleeting feeling of failure left him. He didn't see vengeance in Sam's eyes, just the same need as he had, that they do whatever awaits them together.
FIN. Thinking about the next sequel. It'll be a bit trickier to write and might take longer. Hope you enjoyed this one.