NEW TWISTS ON FAMILIAR THEMES
It was as if four years apart had never happened. Sam and Dean fell back into their easy banter and routines.
Only the tension was missing. Their banter was now truly that - banter.
It was amazing how being a single person part of the time put things into perspective.
They checked into a motel and were setting up for the night when Sam's phone rang. Dean happened to be nearest it, and he checked the number. "It's from California."
Frowning, Sam took the phone and answered it. "Hello? ... Yes, this is Sam Winchester." His eyes widened. "Yes, Mister Welch...I understand...No - no." He met Dean's eyes. "No, sir. I don't believe I will be returning. I've decided to rejoin the family business."
Dean grinned, and Sam found himself returning it.
"Well, Mister Welch, my family runs a hunting-related business." He chuckled. "Nuisance creatures, mostly."
Dean was chuckling now - the brat was telling the truth!Sam smiled, and it showed in his voice. "Thank you, Mister Welch." He ended the call and sighed. "That was who I had that interview with. The one I missed."
"Trying to talk you back to school?"
Sam nodded. "I told him no."
"I heard." Dean leaned forward a little. "You're sure about this? School was so important to you-"
Sam smiled gently. "I was trying to figure out who I am - apart from Dad. And apart from you."
Dean nodded slowly.
"But, Dean - now I know who I am. I don't need to figure it out anymore."
"Who are you, then?"
"I'm Castor - the one who left and returned. You're Pollux - the one who would die for his brother." Sam grinned broadly.
So did Dean, instantly recognising the names from lore and myth. "And together-"
"Gemini," they finished in unison.
"So," Dean asked. "You're...happy?"
"I am... I really am. I miss Jess like crazy - I wanna kill what killed her - and I wanna find Dad. But this?" He mimed snapping the fingers of his left hand - the trigger that would transform them. "I'm happy with this."
Dean sighed. "I was really worried about that. I mean, you didn't really have a choice in the matter."
"Well, neither did you, Dean!" Sam pointed out. "Our first transformation was forced on both of us!"
"I don't mind it now, though," Dean said. "It's kind of..."
"Yeah," Sam nodded slowly. "It is." He suddenly laughed, flinging his long arms out to the sides. "It's just - I don't know what's gotten into me, man! I just feel - lighter, somehow! Like all of the angry and the-the-the bad inside me's just gone!""That's because it is," Dean blurted, grinning.
"What?"
Dean nodded at him. "There was something in your blood - like, like leukemia or something. When we've been Gemini - I took care of it. Burned it away."
Sam's eyes were huge. "Dude," he whispered, his voice stunned. "If it was leukemia - Dean, you probably saved my life!"
"When we were Gemini this morning, I checked. It's all gone. Whatever it was. Like it was never there to begin with."
Sam beamed at him.
"Hey - you fire up our machines and let me shower." Dean stood up.
"Will do." Sam set up both laptops - he had gotten his out of the Palo Alto apartment with his clothing - and picked up their father's journal, opening it.
Minutes later, he was leaning into the bathroom. "Hey!"
"What?" Dean called over the shower.
"Did you read the first entry in Dad's journal?"
Dean stuck his head out of the shower, squinting against the water streaming down his face. "No - Dad told me it was about the night Mom died and I really didn't want to remember that. Why?"
Sam took a shaky breath. "What do you remember?"
"Hold up." Dean retreated back into the shower and finished rinsing off. The shower turned off, and Dean's hand groped for the towel. Sam handed it to him. "Thanks." Muffled by the towel as he dried his face and hair, Dean said, "I remember the fire. You crying. Dad putting you in my arms and yelling for me to take care of you." He opened the curtain, finishing tying the towel around his hips as he stepped out. "Not much else. Just that Mom was suddenly not there."
"Mom died just like Jess," Sam reported. "Dad's journal has precise details of how Mom died. She died like Jess. Down to the laceration in her belly. Jess didn't even own those clothes she died in. She'd been dressed that way on purpose."
Dean's eyes widened. "You mean that killed Mom-"
"-killed Jess, too," they finished in unison.
"Holy shit," Dean roared. "We're on the same hunt Dad is!"
Sam nodded. "So let's finish up this hunt he's sent us on and find him.
SPN GEMINI SPN
It was painful to both Winchesters that the arrogant guide didn't listen to them at all and ended up blundering right into the path of the Wendigo.
They salted his body and promised when this was over, Gemini would burn it.
The plan was for Sam to be bait – more of him to capture and thus more appeal for the flesh-eater – and Dean to keep their tagalongs safe. Then, when they were all safe, they'd open up with the flares they'd brought.
Unfortunately, things didn't go quite as planned. They had forgotten how smart the once-human Wendigo was and it had gotten the drop on Dean and the girl, Hayley.
One of the side-effects of their new existence was that even apart, Sam and Dean had an instinctual knowledge of where the other was at any given time. Sam tapped into that and tracked Dean down, finding him deep in an old mine-shaft and clawed half to hell.
Because Dean was already bleeding, he took the flares and headed into the tunnels once Sam let him down. He figured the Wendigo would track his blood and give Sam time to get Hayley and her brothers out.
He was wrong. The Wendigo herded Sam and the others to a dead end. Then it toyed with them, approaching them slowly, to instill a maximum of fear in them that would taste so good in their blood.
There was no way out.
"Guys, Hayley," Sam said, his voice firm and cold. "No matter what you see..." They all flinched as the Wendigo growled. "We are human and we will get you out, understand?"
"Of course, we understand," Hayley gasped. "But how are you gonna-"
Sam held up his left hand.
And snapped his fingers.
There was a flare of light, and Sam had changed. He was smaller, his hair had become red and the voice that roared out of him was suddenly Dean's. "Oh, you have got to be kiddin' me! Okay, let's do this!"
Both hands raised to shoulder-height. The Wendigo roared its confusion and rage – why wasn't this one afraid?
The man's wrists pulsed. Fire suddenly poured from both hands and the Wendigo was enveloped. Encapsulated.
Consumed.
The man turned and Hayley gasped. "Dean?"
"Yeah, sort'a," the man said with a small smile. "Like this, though? I'm Gemini. Duck down."
The three did, and Gemini raised his hand. There was another blast of fire and the wood that held them in the mine was no longer a problem. "Get out of here," Gemini said. "I've gotta find the guide's body and burn it. I promised."
And later, before they spoke to the police and the paramedics, Hayley thanked both of them and gave them the siblings' word that they would not reveal who Gemini was.
It wasn't until they were back on the road – Sam behind the wheel – that both brothers realised that Dean's wounds were suddenly non-existent.
SPN GEMINI SPN
As if to remind them that every power had its limitations, the brothers' next case took place around a lake.
Water was the one thing that Gemini's fire powers was helpless against.
It was their own detection abilities and blind luck that helped them to close the case with a minimum of life lost.
Before they left Lake Manitoc, however, Gemini took a very delighted little boy for the ride of his life.
SPN GEMINI SPN
Fate threw them another curveball three weeks later. Not only was it impossible to be Gemini on the airplane they had to prevent crashing, but the demon they were exorcising battered them both and taunted Sam about Jess's death.
Sam stopped in the exorcism and locked hazel eyes to blackened ones. "Jess didn't burn," he said calmly, and saw the demon falter, stuttering to a stop as Sam took apart its lie with three small words.
Sam's lips curled in a small but genuine – if feral – smile and he calmly finished the exorcism as the demon quaked and cursed – and was forced back to hell.
The plane landed safely and the brothers got off with everyone else. They walked outside the terminal and into a shadowy area.
There was the snap of fingers, and Gemini soared eastward, heading back to Pennsylvania.
Thought you hated to fly, Sam gently teased.
Dean snorted. "Nah, not anymore. Just hate to fly in a plane."
Where you have no control over it. I get it.
"Yeah...figured you would." There was a pause, then he went on, "Sammy... I'm glad you're sleepin' better now."
There was a long silence, then Sam admitted, Yeah, so am I. Like I said – everything feels better now. After you burned out that whatever-it-was in my blood, things just seem so much more hopeful. I still have nightmares, but it doesn't feel like they're going to drown me anymore.
"Good. That's- that's good." Dean smiled as the ground flowed swiftly beneath them. "Hey, wonder how fast we're going. Wonder how fast we can go."
A few moments later, they found to their combined disappointment that they could not get close to the sound barrier. No supersonic for Gemini, Sam grumbled.
They eventually touched down and separated, walking in step back to the main office.
A half hour later, they came out, tired and shaken, and sat on the trunk of the Impala. Dean turned his phone over and over in his hands, then looked up at Sam. "You think he was telling the truth?"
"One way to find out," Sam said.
Nodding, Dean dialed their father's number. He leaned over so Sam could hear it as well.
They both heard their father's new message. "This is John Winchester. I can't be reached. If you need help, call my son Dean. 555-372-3525. He can help."
Dean closed the phone and the brothers just looked at each other for a few moments. Then Sam's jaw worked and he shook his head, going to the passenger side and sliding in, closing the door with perhaps a bit more force than necessary.
Dean followed a second later and just sat behind the wheel for a moment.
Sam looked over at him. "It's like I don't exist."
"He doesn't know we're together, that's all," Dean sighed, his shoulders round with exhaustion.
Sam sighed and rested his head on the back of the seat. "I hope that's all it is. I hope he's still not hating me."
Dean turned to face him, and Sam braced himself for the excuses, the defence of their father.
Instead, Dean said quietly, "He never should have told you not to come back."
Sam gaped at him. "...what happened to 'no chick-flick moments'?"
Dean smirked. "What affects one now affects both, remember? Sometimes you need one. I get that now." He turned the car on and pointed it down the road.
They drove in silence for awhile, each in their own thoughts.
"I'm in the mood for pizza."
They glanced quickly at each other, then burst out laughing.
That had been in perfect unison.
SPN GEMINI SPN
It took the brothers half an hour to scrub the dried blood off their faces after they melted Bloody Mary's mirrors to slag.
They no longer kept secrets from each other – what they had become made that difficult, if not impossible. That was not what the murderous spirit had tapped into to make their eyes bleed.
But both their eyes had bled – profusely.
After all, Gemini was one hell of a huge secret to keep.
SPN GEMINI SPN
The shapeshifter that had stolen Dean's form didn't get very far in his plans.
Once more, Sam had tracked Dean down to the beast's lair and set him free.
It was Gemini who glided through the window of Rebecca's house and interrupted a tender moment between 'Dean' and Rebecca. Rebecca jumped away and Gemini's nose wrinkled in a way that had chills sliding down her spine.
In that moment, the red-haired man with the red-yellow eyes had looked chillingly like her friend Sam.
"Dude," the hovering man growled, "you've gotta be kiddin' me."
'Dean' suddenly produced a knife – already stained with blood. Gemini's hand flashed forward. Fire blasted from it and the knife went skittering across the room.
'Dean' cried out, gripping his wrist. He looked wild-eyed at Gemini, then bolted.
"Rebecca, call the police. Tell them a mugger broke in and you splashed him with acid." Gemini was already gliding after the fake Dean. "That knife will have the DNA of all this man's victims on it – and your brother will be free!"
Then he was gone.
Rebecca did as she was told. The police arrived less than ten minutes later.
They found the knife – with nobody's prints that were in the system on it. Rebecca gave a description of Gemini to the police as the mugger – and the police found a body behind her house, partially-dissolved as if by acid. A silver arrow pinned it to the ground.
The face was as she'd described it, but the hair was the wrong colour.
Nevertheless, they filed 'John Doe' away as their murderer and Rebecca's brother Zach was freed.
SPN GEMINI SPN
The first phone call came a couple of weeks later. Dean was in the shower and Sam was asleep. Dean had considerately set his phone on vibrate, but neither heard it.
When Dean emerged, dressed, he saw the icon on his phone that told him he had a voicemail. He played it, then woke Sam. "Listen to this," he said without preamble. He put the phone on speaker, then started the message over.
"Dean – it's Dad. I'm assuming your brother is with you, so I'm going to just come out and say this. I've been noticing something very strange happening wherever I've noticed you boys have been. There have been strange reports of what I believe to be a fire elemental – and it's usually where you are or have just been. Boys – be careful. These things are bad news, and if one has latched onto you... Well, I'll find out how to kill it and I'll let you know. An Elemental is nothing you want to mess with. I'll be in touch."
The canned voice came on and asked if they would like to delete the message.
Neither one heard it. Sam and Dean sat facing each other on the bed, their eyes huge and locked onto each other.
"Dad..." Sam choked out.
Dean swallowed hard. "...he's..." was all he could get out.
"Oh, G-d," Sam groaned, then they finished in unison.
"Dad's hunting us!"
Neither brother got much sleep that night. Knowing their own father was hunting them – not knowing it was them – kept them both awake and haunted.
Finally, Gemini had to fly to clear their heads. It seemed to work.
But fright still had them curled like pups in one queen bed to rest.
SPN GEMINI SPN
Their father threatened to become the elephant in the room. It didn't, however, as the short time the brothers had been Gemini had taught them how to do something the Winchesters had never been good at before.
Now, they knew how to talk things out. For miles and miles, the radio played low as the brothers hashed out what to tell their father, what to do about him, from every angle they could think of.
They came to the conclusion that they simply could not let their father know they were Gemini. They had to keep Gemini as far away from him as possible.
And if that meant giving up their search for him – so be it.
Now that Sam knew – exactly - how much family meant to Dean, he knew just what that admission had cost his older brother. They stopped for refueling – both for them and the Impala – and Sam suddenly realised something. "He left you, didn't he?"
Dean didn't even try to pretend he didn't understand. "Yeah," he quietly confessed, staring at his coffee. "About a year after you did. Just woke up one morning and found a note. Nothing but a damned note saying I was competent enough to hunt on my own, now."
Sam groaned in miserable comprehension.
Dean took a drink and sighed, meeting Sam's eyes. "What we've become – Sammy, he can't know."
"For our safety and his peace of mind," Sam agreed. "He doesn't need to get obsessed about Gemini as well as what killed Mom and Jess."
Dean suddenly smirked. "You're hoping he'll lead us right to it."
"Aren't you?" Sam smiled in return.
"Hell, yeah," Dean chuckled. "This is one fight-"
"—we won't be shut out of," they finished together.
SPN GEMINI SPN
For the brothers, Gemini was fun. It was a chance to feel powerful. To make a difference in a way nobody else could.
In Iowa, on a case involving some urban legends come to gruesome life, another side of being Gemini was suddenly thrown into stark light.
Being Gemini was routine on salt-and-burns now. And they were him when they burned the body of the spirit they had figured had latched onto Lori Sorenson and her father.
But the spirit kept coming. Finding that the maniac's silver hook had been melted down and was more than likely the focal point, they melted down all the silver articles in the church and parsonage in the church's furnace.
But still, the spirit kept coming. It finally was physically attacking Sam and Lori in her father's church. In the attack, Lori's sweater fell open and Sam saw it. "Your necklace...is it silver?"
At her nod, he reached out and snapped it off her neck, lunging away from her. The spirit turned to follow him, and Sam shifted the necklace into his right hand as the fingers of his left hand snapped.
It only took mere seconds for Sam to fill Dean in once they were Gemini. Gemini flung the necklace into the air and fired a steady stream of fire at it.
When the necklace hit the ground mere seconds later, it was melted slag. And the spirit was gone.
Gemini turned his attention to Lori, who was still crumpled against the wall. He smiled and reached a hand out to her. "You're okay, now. You're safe. He's gone."
"Stay away from me!" she begged, her eyes huge. "Don't touch me! What are you?"
Gemini recoiled. "I..."
But it was too late. Lori had gained her feet and fled, looking back over her shoulder as if she expected Gemini to burn her.
Gemini stood there, in the middle of the church, staring after her with huge red-gold eyes. "What the hell..." he breathed.
Dean...I-I... I think she was afraid of us!
"I never dreamed...all this and I never thought anyone would ever be afraid of us."
It preyed heavily on their minds. So much so that they figured out how to answer Lori's frightened inquiry.
By the time they had had to use their fire powers to fend off an invasion of bugs terrorising a family in Colorado, the answer came easily to their lips – and was meant with all their heart.
Gemini watched the swarm vanish into the lightening dawn, breathing slightly hard with the exertion of having to have used his powers for hours on end.
He turned to find the family staring at him with mixed emotions clear on their faces and in their eyes. At last, it was the father who breathed out, "What are you?"
"I'm a friend," Gemini replied without hesitation. "And I'm only here to help."
SPN GEMINI SPN
"You have one unheard message."
"Dean, it's Dad. Look, I don't know why I suddenly can't reach you, but I'm starting to have a pretty good idea. I'll bet this Fire Elemental that seems to have latched itself onto you boys has something to do with this. I don't know how to dispatch it yet, but I'll figure it out and give you a call. I just... I need to know you two are okay. That's all."
SPN GEMINI SPN
"You have one unheard message."
"We're fine, Dad. Me and Sammy, we're doin' better than we did even before he left for school."
"Hi, Dad! We're okay!"
"Sammy says hi. And hey, you're on the wrong track with this Fire Elemental business. He's not a spirit or anything supernatural. Trust us on this, okay? See you around, Dad."
"...dammit, boys. This thing has messed with your heads..."
END