Historian's Note:
This story takes place during the third season of "Supernatural".

Author's Note:
Wow, first story posted and I am left with nothing to say. I've had writers block for several months now so this is a real breakthrough.
Thanks for checking out this story and I do hope you will enjoy reading it just as much I have enjoyed writing it—more so I hope. I tend to get rather frustrated when I write because nothing ever seems good enough.
I should be thanking Christopher Golden; his serial Buffverse novels "The Lost Slayer" were what inspired this story.

THE DAY THE HERO DIED, AGAIN
Written by Maniae

Changing the past can have deadly consequences…
Dean's year is up. Sam's lost without his brother, although he is furious with Ruby for not being able to keep her promise. To get Sam to talk to her again, Ruby tells him that the only way to get Dean back will be to revisit the day the deal was made and undo the outcome. But changing the past can have catastrophic results, as Sam will soon begin to find out.

CHAPTER 1

Dean's one year was up.
Sam sat cross-legged on the floor of the Motel room. The colt had been tossed aside, uselessly. The young man stared teary eyed at his older brother's lifeless body. Sam could not move, and he couldn't breathe. Every part of him wanted to throw up, and some part of him even wanted to take that gun and blow his own brains out. How could he carry on living without Dean? Sam felt consumed with guilt; he had not been able to keep his promise for Dean. Sam had not been able to save his only brother, and the only family he had left for that matter, from a deadly fate.

The young man had known this day was coming for the last year, but he had not fully accepted nor dealt with what would happen once they came to collect Dean's soul—until now.

Sam was furious with himself for not being able to stop the death. Dean had died a little over an hour ago, but he had died the way Sam thought he would have. No demon had come to collect his soul, but then again that could've had to do with the fact that Sam had shot that bitch at the crossroads, Dean had just dropped dead. Sam had figured that if demons would have come then at least he could have been able to fight them off with the colt. But now clearly that was not the case.

Dean had dropped to floor, but he had not died instantly. His older brother had suffered for at least twenty minutes before his heart had finally stopped beating. Sam had watched in horror as his brother had suffered. He remembered Dean begging him, at some stages, to shoot him. But Sam had not been able to waste his own brother, even if it would have prevented Dean from feeling the agony of dying slowly. Guilt and angst filled his insides, it entangled themselves around his intestines, and it left Sam with a heavy and nauseous feeling.

Sam slammed the floor with a heavy fist. "Damn it!" he cried. His temper had begun to rise, and it had slowly begun to override his sorrow. He was furious, furious with himself for not helping Dean. To think the one thing I could have done to help him was to put the guy out of his misery, Sam thought. And I hadn't even been able to do that, let alone find a way to break the deal. Sam felt helpless, lost, and more alone than he had even been before in his life. He had no one; no family, no friends. A demonic war was coming too, and now he would have to fight it on his own. No, Sam thought as a sudden thought occurred to him. I still have someone left.

"RUBY," Sam shouted. The demon Ruby wasn't in the motel room. Sam wasn't even sure she was in the country, but he did know that the female demon had a habit of showing up vicariously out of nowhere. "Come on show your face, bitch!"

"Whoa." Sam heard a female voice say. He turned around and came face to face with an attractive young female with a thick mane of blonde hair: Ruby.

Ruby stood in the middle of the room. Her arms were crossed firmly against her chest, and her facial features were pulled into a scowling expression. She arched an eyebrow. "Now, with that kind of attitude I was expecting Dean," she said sarcastically. The female demon's face softened, clearly after she had realized it was Sam. "Where is he anyway? It's unnatural to see you without him. You're like the Bonnie to his Clyde."

Sam did not return the same friendly smile that Ruby had. Instead Sam continued to look grim and furious. He pointed towards Dean's motionless body. He would rather skip the "hellos" and get straight to the point. Ruby was not his friend, nor would she ever be. "I don't think my brother is the talking mood."

Ruby's eyes followed Sam's index finger. When she found Dean's body, lying in a pool of his own blood, she had dropped her grin and Sam hoped her cocky attitude along with it. "Oh, I see," she said. She tore her eyes away from Dean's corpse to Sam who was gapping at her.

"Oh I see?" Sam repeated, angrily. The young man had stood up. He faced Ruby, and just like her, his arms were crossed. "That's all you have to say?"

Ruby glared at him. "What else do you want me to say?" she demanded. "I'm sorry? I'm not. Honestly, were you expecting your brother to just die peacefully and painlessly in his sleep?"

"I was expecting you to feel more sympathy than your showing," Sam answered through clenched teeth.

"What? You really thought I'd come all the way out here just to hug, and then lend you my sympathetic ear? I'm not made that way Sam."

"Clearly," Sam scoffed. He tried not to look towards Dean's body; it would only make him soften. Instead he continued to stare angrily at Ruby. The intense fury in the pit of his stomach allowed the grief over Dean's sudden death to be placed aside. At that moment Sam would have rather felt any emotion than misery. "So you're telling me that your kind isn't able to feel compassion, or any other emotion for that matter?"

"That's the general gist of it," Ruby retorted. "We're emotionless creatures with no substance. I would have thought that after all your years of hunting demons you would have at least been aware of that by now." "I don't feel compassion toward your brother's death because it was his fault it happened. No one put a gun to his skull and forced him to play 'let's make a deal'. He was well aware of what he was doing, and he knew of the consequences."

"You promised Ruby," Sam said. His voice had not been full of anger, like it had been only minutes before, but instead it had held hints of desperation. He wanted Ruby's help. Correction, he needed her help.

Ruby's expression softened. Her gaze had shifted to the floor. She too seemed to be attempting to avoid Dean's body; perhaps the reason behind this being guilt or sadness. Ruby had always been a difficult person to read, but maybe that was because she wasn't exactly a person. She was demon, but she was still the most decent demon Sam had ever met—even if she did have her moments where Sam just wanted nothing more than to waste her.

"I'm sorry Sam," Ruby said. "But I cannot help your brother. I only promised you that so you would talk to me, and we've been through this all before. There is no way to break an unbreakable demonic contract. I'm living proof of that."

Sam eyed her for a few minutes. He wasn't mad at her, not really. It would be easy to pin the whole thing on her, but truth was it wasn't her fault. She had only been trying to help. She had restored the colt for them. So far Ruby seemed fairly decent…for a demon. Still Sam had no idea what her true intentions were, because she was still a demon after all and she had lied to him about helping Dean just so that she could get her own way. But that's what demons are, Sam thought. They're all the same: they're all selfish.
"Is there anything we can do? I don't care if it's just getting his soul to move on. I would sleep better at night knowing my brother's humanity isn't being burned to ashes in hell."

Ruby arched an eyebrow. "Rather selfish of you to say that, don't ya think?" she said, candidly. "I mean here you are trying to blind-sight me into thinking that it's Dean you're trying to help."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sam insisted. His sweaty hand gripped tightly around the colt. He eyed the female demon angrily.

Ruby sighed. "It doesn't matter Sam. Dean's soul is going to rot for eternity in hell for the deal he made. Who knows maybe he'll be one of those lucky few that manage to escape the fiery pit that is hell. But he'll be different; he won't remember who you are or who he is. He'll become the thing that he used to…"

"SHUT UP!" Sam shouted. His voice had risen and so had his temper. "Don't say that about Dean, not you. He'll never become a demon, because he won't be in hell long enough. There has to be a way. I don't give a damn how. There has to be a way to save my big brother."

Ruby stared at him for several moments. She didn't say anything aloud but it appeared to Sam that she was deep in her own thoughts. She kept her arms crossed, and despite Sam holding the colt in his hand, she had not backed away.
"There is something that can is done, but I'm not going to suggest it."

"Why the hell not?" Sam demanded. "If there's a way Dean can be saved then I want in on it."

"It's suicide Sam. Well not literally, but it may as well be."

"I don't care," Sam replied, bluntly. He glanced towards Dean's corpse. His brother looked peacefully, despite the way he had died. If it wasn't for the puddle of blood he was lying in Sam would have merely assumed that the guy was sleeping. Part of Sam thought that Dean would just suddenly spring awake. He imagined that his brother would one of his usual some smart ass comments, and then later he would make fun of Sam for worrying so much. But Dean didn't wake up, because he wasn't sleeping. A tear escaped from one of Sam's eyes. It trickled down his cheek, and then finally stained his skin. He had to help his brother, just like Dean had done for Sam when he had died a year previously. Well not the deal part.
Sam finally took his attention away from hid brother corpse. He turned to Ruby once again. The young man's facial expression morphed from saddened to grave. "I don't care if it's suicide. The way I see it: I would rather die knowing that I tried to help rather than wasting away up here knowing that I could have done something."

Ruby looked defeated, or perhaps she was growing bored of arguing. Either way she had tossed in her white flag. "Fine, but I'm telling you if you die, or one of your other precious loved ones die, don't even try to blame it on me again. Not only will I tell you 'I told you so' but the black eyes will come out and so will everything else that comes along with it."

Sam sighed. He tried not to appear as depressed as he felt. "I have no loved ones left."