Supernatural: No Rest for the Wicked
A/N: Welcome back to the season finale of Season Three of Supernatural! There will be an one-shot after this story is done, but that won't be a while yet. Anyhow, the Winchesters are running out of time, and they're going to be going after Lilith finally. Since we've never really seen the Hell Hounds, I'm taking a guess of what they look like, and the closest I can get are the scary dogs from The Hunger Games (the movie version not the book version).
Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Supernatural or Criminal Minds; I just own the characters that I happen to create.
CHAPTER ONE: ELEVENTH HOUR
"Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time?"
Lamentations 5:20
She ran through the woods, stumbling over hidden rocks and roots, fleeing from the loud growls and barks of the hellhounds. She turned a corner in the trail, gasping and crying, and then slammed to a halt, eyes wide with fear.
One of the hellhounds, a snarling creature that was built like a cross between a wolf and a hyena with a very human-like face, had managed to cut in front of her, and it as now blocking her way. After several seconds, she turned and ran, and the hellhound gave chase.
She glanced behind her and tripped on a rock, causing her to tumble across the ground, and landed on her back hard; gasping, she attempted to sit up, but the hellhound pounced and she screamed.
"Agh!" Liz woke up, screaming and promptly fell off the couch, taking several books and a pile of papers with her to the floor. "Ow."
"Liz!"
Emily, JJ, and Penelope ran over and helped the trembling woman up and into a nearby chair. It'd been close to three weeks since they'd learned that Bela had given Lilith the Colt in an attempt to get out of her own deal, and that Dean's name was also on the contract.
Now they only had a few days left and it was becoming obvious that the Winchester twins were starting to see things that weren't there. Bobby had found them a cabin and the BAU had made it clear to their superiors that they weren't coming back in until they'd helped the Winchesters, and Kevin Lynch was sticking around, too. Strauss hadn't liked it, at least not until Sam convinced her over the phone that it was a good idea.
"You ok, Liz?" Penelope asked, noting the dark circles under her friend's eyes and held her hand while JJ went to get some water.
"No," Liz moaned, "I'm freakin' out."
Emily and Penelope exchanged uneasy looks, wondering how much longer Liz would be able to hold on before her and Dean's time was up.
Just as JJ came back with the water, Dean woke with a start, having fallen asleep at the table where he'd been reading up on hellhounds with the hope of finding a way to either kill them, or at least hold them off.
"You ok, Dean?" JJ asked.
"Uh, yeah," Dean lied after blinking a few times, and stared blankly at a page that had creepy pictures of the pit bulls of doom.
The women weren't convinced and then Sam entered, having heard Liz's scream and sensed the sudden change in his siblings' emotions.
"Dig up anything good?" he asked and got a chorus of "no's" in response.
"Nothin' good," Dean added, clearing his throat.
"Well, Bobby has," Sam announced. "Finally."
"Yeah?" Liz asked.
Sam nodded. "Yeah. A way to find Lilith."
"Oh," said Dean. "With just uh-" he then checked his watch "thirty hours to go." He then smiled, getting a silly idea. "Hey, why don't we just make a TJ-run, yeah?" he suggested. "You know…some senoritas, cervzas uh – we could…" he frowned. "What's Spanish for "donkey show"?"
Liz groaned and threw a crumbled paper ball at her twin's head while Emily, Penelope, and JJ laughed, and Sam snickered while Dean scowled.
"So, if we do save you both…let's never do that."
"Yeah," Dean mumbled, staring at the book again, and Liz looked away, silently sipping the water.
Sam rolled his eyes and sat down in a chair next to his brother, while Emily and Penelope actually picked up Liz's chair, surprising her, and carried it over to the table while JJ followed, amused.
"Hey, guys," he began and then sighed. "Look, we're cuttin' it close," he admitted, "I know. But we're gonna get this done. I don't care what it takes, Dean, Liz. Neither of you are going to hell. I'm not gonna let it happen." And his siblings looked at him. "I swear," he vowed. "Everything's gonna be ok."
Dean and Liz exchanged a look, taking it all in, and then looked back at their little brother, Emily, JJ, and Penelope, and froze for a moment. The quartet's faces were suddenly distorted, flinging to the sides at a rapid pace before returning to normal.
"Yeah, ok," Dean agreed, not revealing that they had another hallucination, and Liz agreed, too. God, things were getting really bad with the hallucinations.
The next morning, the group were gathered around a medium-sized table, which had a map of the states on it, and they were all clutching coffee mugs. Bobby, however, was sitting up a strange wooden contraption: it had three wooden "legs" coming out of a glass ball at the top and there was a metal piece going around the ball with symbols on it. Further down the legs there was a bigger piece of metal, and hanging from the ball was a pointy pendulum device.
"So you need a name," Bobby told them, "that's the whole kit and caboodle. With the right name, right ritual ain't nothin' you can't suss out."
"Like the town Lilith's in?" Sam suggested.
Bobby grinned. "Kid, when I get done, we'll know the street." He then pushed the pendulum so that it started winging and he began chanting in Latin.
The group watched the pendulum as it swung over the map, searching, and then suddenly it stopped, pointing at a spot on the map. They all peered at the map and Bobby found the location's name.
"New Harmony, Indiana," he read, "we have a winner."
"Alright," Sam pushed the pendulum away and looked at those gathered, "let's go."
"Wo-wo-wo-wo, hold on," Dean said quickly. "Let's all shut up, Tex."
Sam raised his eyebrows. "What's the problem?"
"What's the problem?" Dean repeated. "Come on, where do I begin? I mean, first of all, we don't even know if Lilith holds our deal. We're goin' off Bela's intel? Now when that bitch breathes, the air comes out crooked, ok. Second, even if we could get to Lilith we have no way to gank her and third, isn't this the same Lilith that wants your giant head on a pike? Should I continue?"
"Ain't you just bringin' down the house," Bobby said sarcastically.
Dean beamed. "Yeah, well it's a gift." And then winced when Liz elbowed his side hard.
"Dean, grow up," Liz snapped. "I admit that you made a few valid points, without the Colt we can't kill Lilith, and it's likely that she'll be protected by a lot of demons. However, we're runnin' out of time, and there's one other weapon we know of that we can use on Lilith."
"Wait, you want to summon Ruby?" Dean asked, alarmed. "Seriously?"
Liz nodded. "Unfortunately, yes. We need that knife," she explained, "and she'll confirm whether Lilith is there and what kind of security she'll have."
"But can she be trusted?" Rossi asked. "She was helpful in Utah, but she's still a demon."
"I don't know," Liz admitted, "but Lilith clearly wants her dead, too, since she's been helping us this whole time, and she did save my life with that awful potion when we were dealin' with those witches."
"Those are valid points," Hotch agreed, "and our options are limited."
Dean couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Hello! She's a demon! And for all we know, she works for Lilith! And can we even be sure that the knife will work on a demon as powerful as Lilith?"
"Dean," Morgan said seriously, "I know that you're worried 'cause of how every deal involvin' demons end badly, but Liz's right…we need that knife, and we don't have a lot of time left."
"Let's take a vote," Reid suggested. "All in favor of asking Ruby for help, raise your hands." And everyone, except Dean, raised their hands. "Oppose?"
Dean scowled. "Fine. But if we all die, I'll be pissed." And he stormed back to the research-covered table.
Sam sighed. "I'll go get the items needed to do the summoning." And he left the room. The BAU, Liz, and Bobby exchanged looks before leaving, too. They had a job to do.
An half-hour later, Sam was in the basement and had drawn a triangle with symbols in every point. He knelt down and placed candles outside every point before placing a bowl filled with a green dry substance in the middle of a circle.
He lit the candles, picked up an old book, and began chanting. "Ad construgendum ad ligandum eos paritar Et socvendum." He jumped when there was a loud noise, prompting him to look around, finding nothing, and then he sighed and resumed reading aloud. "Et ad congregantum eos coram me."
Sam then struck a match, watched the flame for a moment, and then tossed it into the bowl. The contents ignited and a flame flared up for a moment, and then died down before going completely out. He shut the book, stood up, and slowly turned to look behind him when the floor creaked.
But there was nothing there.
"You know," Ruby remarked, "phones work, too."
Startled, Sam turned and found Ruby leaning against the doorway, and she smiled at him.
"Hey, Sam," she said. "How's tricks?"
Sam frowned. "How do you get around so fast?" he asked.
"I got the Super Bowl jetpack," Ruby joked, and walked toward him. "So. You called?"
"Did you know?" Sam asked abruptly.
Ruby was confused, unsure of what he meant. "Uh – gonna need a tiny bit more."
"About Liz's deal," Sam snapped. "That this whole time Dean's name was on it, too."
Ruby flushed and sighed. "Yes, I did."
"And…what?" Sam asked angrily. "You didn't think that was important? That I'm gonna lose them both?!"
"You weren't ready," Ruby admitted.
"For what?" Sam asked.
Ruby sighed. "When I first got topside, I spent the first week gettin' use to the modern world, prying the location of my knife form a low-level jerk, and I checked around to see how many of the rumors goin' around were true," she explained, "and one of the rumors was that Azazel had Dean's name placed on Elizabeth's contract. Turns out it was true and it also turns out that Azazel left some standin' orders for Lilith to make sure that your brother and sister end up downstairs on time."
Sam was floored by this news, not only did Lilith want him strung up like a Christmas turkey, but she also was trying to do the one thing that Azazel had wanted to happen… Dean in hell.
"Why didn't you mention this sooner?" he asked.
Ruby rolled her eyes. "If I had told you, you three yahoos would've just charged after her half-cocked and Lilith would've peeled the meat off your pretty, pretty faces."
"Well, we're ready now," Sam declared, "and I want your knife."
Ruby eyed him closely for several seconds, and then walked slowly around him. "You're right about one thing," she commented, "you are ready, and now's the time, too. Lilith's guard down."
"Is that so?" Sam asked, turning to keep the blonde demon in sight.
Ruby nodded. "She's on shore-leave…a little R&R."
"What the hell does that mean?" Sam asked.
"Trust me, you don't want to know," Ruby advised. "You didn't loose those hex bags I gave you?"
"We've got 'em," Sam confirmed.
"Good," Ruby said, relieved. "Then she won't sense you're coming."
Sam faced her. "So you'll give us the knife?"
Ruby shook her head. "No."
This surprised Sam. "But you just said-" he began.
"You wanna charge in with one pigsticker?" Ruby interrupted. "It's a waste of a true-blue window. Like gettin' Hitler with that exploding briefcase? Forget it."
Sam frowned. "Ok, then how?"
"Lilith's scared of what you can do," Ruby explained, "and you can do so much more when you have the right motivation, and when you-"
"Drink demon blood?" Liz suggested coldly, stepping out of the shadows to Sam's right, and the BAU, with the exception of Penelope and Kevin, also appeared, and they were effectively surrounding the demon. "You really want to juice up my brother again?"
"If it means savin' you and Dean, then yes," Ruby confirmed.
"Not gonna happen," Morgan declared. "Not after the last time, and never again."
Ruby scoffed. "What? You truly think you can defeat a demon like Lilith with just the knife? It won't work."
"Says you," said Dean, surprising them by appearing next to Liz, "but you ain't givin' Sam anymore demon blood, you understand me? Over our dead bodies."
Ruby snorted at the warning. "Well, you're right about that."
"What you are goin' to do is give me that knife," Dean continued. "And then you can just go crawl back into whatever slop you came from and never bother any of us again. Are we clear?"
Ruby scowled. "Your brother is carryin' a bomb inside him, and we'd be stupid not to use it."
"No," Hotch said simply. "The risks are too great to use demon blood again."
"Please give us the knife," Rossi requested. "You've been helpful, Ruby, but this is the way it has to be, and we don't have time to argue."
Ruby looked at them all with disbelief. "Are you listenin' to yourselves? The knife alone won't be enough to kill Lilith, while Sam can."
"Fine, we'll do it the hard way," Liz said, nodding at Reid, who lit a match and tossed it on the floor.
Instantly a burst of flames lighted up, surprising Ruby, and when the flames died out, she found herself standing in the middle of a Devil's trap. "Oh, you b-"
"Be nice," Emily scolded and collected the knife, handing it to Liz.
Scowling, Ruby turned to Sam, who was looking guilty. "After everything I've done for you…this is how you repay me?"
"Sorry," Sam mumbled.
"Let's go," Dean said, and they headed for the staircase.
"Wait!" Ruby yelped, alarmed. "You're just gonna leave me here?"
No one answered and they didn't look back when she began screaming threats and bucket loads of swearwords at their retreating backs.
Back upstairs, Penelope and Kevin had managed to narrow down the New Harmony area to a single neighborhood that'd been having strange weather patterns within the last few days.
While they did this, the Winchesters and the remaining feds worked on loading every weapon they had with salt rounds, iron rounds, and holy water; while they did this, Sam kept glancing toward the door that led to the basement, and it was obvious that he was feeling guilty for tricking Ruby.
"We're just gonna let Ruby rot down there?" he finally asked.
"That's the idea," Dean responded and winced when both Liz and Emily swatted him on the arms. "Hey!"
"We're not leavin' Ruby down there forever," Liz scolded, tucking the knife into the back of her belt. "Once Lilith's dead, you can release her, Sam, and give her back her knife."
This didn't lessen Sam's guilt, but it was better then nothing. "Okay."
"Ruby said that Lilith is on shore-leave," Morgan said thoughtfully, "so what does a demon do for fun?"
"Somehow I get the feeling that it's not a good thing," Rossi remarked.
New Harmony, ID…
In a nice-looking neighborhood, an ice cream truck drove by with a cheerful song playing from the speakers. An elderly man named Tom Wepram, left his house and he walked down the walkway to the mailbox, where his neighbor Pat Fremont greeted him.
"Hey, Pat," said Tom, retrieving the mail.
"Tom," Pat responded, collecting his own mail.
"How's that granddaughter of yours?" Tom asked.
Pat hesitated for a moment before he answered. "Home sick, poor thing," he responded with a smile. "Darn bug that's going around now."
"Aw, that's too bad," said Tom, sad to hear that. "Well, you give her a big old hug from me and Jody."
"You bet," Pat promised and shook his hand for a moment. "Take it easy, Tom." And he left.
"You too, Pat," Tom responded and looked down at his hand, there was a folded piece of paper on it, and he opened it. His eyes widened and he glanced up at Pat's retreating form before looking back at the paper that had "Help us" written on it.
Pat entered the house and locked the front door, he stood there for a moment, taking several deep breaths, and then headed toward the kitchen, stepping over the body of his late wife, Whitney, which was covered with bugs.
In the kitchen, he found his son, Barney, and his daughter-in-law, Heather, setting things up for a party. Heather was putting blue/white icing on a cake, and both of them were terrified.
"Where is she?" Pat asked quietly, setting the mail on the counter and was hoping that Tom would heed his written request for help.
"Upstairs," Heather answered, trembling, "playing with Freckles."
Pat glanced uneasily toward the rooms above before voicing his thoughts. "We just sit here, we're dead."
"She'll hear you," Barney hissed, his eyes wide with warning. Almost overnight, his daughter, Tina, had gone from being a wonderful little girl and turned into an evil, cold-blooded killer that'd killed Whitney that first night, and now they were on their fifth day of being held prisoner in their own home. 'Don't' do anything stupid, dad. Please don't die like mom, please.'
"It's her or us," Pat countered, unable to take much more of this.
Heather whimpered. "It's my baby girl," she protested.
"Not anymore," Pat retorted. "There's something inside her."
Just then, there were the sounds of footsteps running down the stairs. She was coming.
"Shut your mouth," Barney ordered. "She's coming."
They all turned as a little girl with long blonde hair and blue eyes entered, wearing a pink/white dress that was covered with blood and what looked like to be bits of fur, but she didn't seem to notice.
"What were you guys talking about?" 'Tina' asked.
"Just how much we love you," Pat answered promptly.
"What…wha?" Heather stammered. "What happened to your dress?"
'Tina' looked down at her dress and seemed surprise to find blood on it. "Oh, Freckles was mean to me."
'She killed the cat?' Heather felt ill and not knowing what to say, turned to Pat, who just hung his head. Steeling herself, she turned back to 'Tina', and weakly smiled. "That's… that's nice, dear."
'Tina' smiled and turned to Barney. "Daddy, will you push me on the swing?" she asked sweetly.
"Oh…sure honey," Barney stammered and walked over to her. "But do you want to change first?" he suggested. "I mean…you don't want the neighbors to see…all that blood."
'Tina' glanced at her dress and then looked back at her dad, smiling. "Oh, you're so smart," she declared and hugged him tightly, getting blood all over his shirt and pants. "I love you, daddy."
Barney returned the hug and looked helplessly at his wife and his father, and saw that they were feeling helpless and scared, too. "I love you, too," he responded, and got an idea. "Hey, sweetie?" he asked. "You think…after a while…do you think you could…" and he glanced at his wife, and she shook her head, scared. "Let us go?"
'Tina' frowned, backed away, and looked at him coldly. "Why?"
"I uh…I don't know," Barney admitted, regretting his choice of words.
Heather's breathing grew faster, terrified of what was going to happen to her husband.
"Don't you wanna be here?" 'Tina' asked, pouting. "Don't you love me?"
"Well, sure I do!" Barney exclaimed, sweating slightly. 'Please let me live!'
"We all do, honey," Heather added. "We all love you so much."
"Don't be mean to me, daddy," 'Tina' warned, her expression cold. "Like Freckles or what's-her-name…that mean old babysitter."
Barney's eyes widened with fear, glanced quickly at his wife, and then looked back down at her. "I'm sorry," he apologized.
'Tina' stared at him for several seconds and then smiled brightly. "That's ok, silly," she said warmly. "Now let's go and play." and she skipped out of the kitchen. Barney let out the breath he'd been holding, exchanged uneasy looks with his wife and his father, and then he left, too.
A/N: And I'll leave you all on that creepy note. R&R everyone!