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Author's Chapter Notes:

There is a lot of dialogue in this and it is mainly all Dean so I've put Ruby's in italics just so that it stands out more and makes reading it easier. Can't get to to space the way I want so I hope it is still ok.

My brain's take on how we've got to were we are, probably not how Mr K is going to explain it but I hope you think my theory fits! Who is Ruby...this is what I came up with!!

Enter at your own risk *laughs madly* (Dean and I are both going crazy I think)

A bitch by any other name?

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Ruby lifted her head and tried to free her arms from the chains that bound her. "Where am I?"

Castiel lifted his head. "This is where we brought Alastair."

"You're going to torture me? Why? What can I tell you?"

"Oh, we don't want to torture you." Dean stepped out of the shadows of the room. "I just want you to confirm something for me before I kill you."

"What too scared to come after me by yourself." Ruby sneered at him. "Not looking too good there Dean, looks like Alastair managed to break you again then."

"Nice, try and kick a guy when he's down." Dean pointed a finger at her as he circled the devil's trap. "Gotta be some perk to having friends in high places, besides why get your own hands dirty when you don't have to, eh Ruby?"

"Sam is going to kill you for this!"

"Maybe…maybe not, I don't really give a rat's ass. After what I did what does it matter anyway…we're all going to Hell Ruby, sooner or later."

"Sam can stop it."

Dean stopped pacing.

"You know I think you're right about that. I mean after you juiced him up, he had no problem frying Alastair."

Ruby gave him a look and he walked up in front of her.

"Oh do you think I don't know what your doing with my brother. His demon blood is what's given him his powers and he seems to be able to step up a level every time that he's been with you.

So…either you're a really good lay or…......"

….......he ran his hand along the pale scars on her arm….......

"…....he's making withdrawals at the demon blood bank."

Dean raised his hand and tightened it around her neck. "Just how stupid to you actually think I am?"

"Do you really want me to answer that?" Ruby smiled coldly at him.

Dean let go and stepped back.

"So have you told Sam that he can stop the apocalypse? Kill Lillith and it'll all be over…....."

….....Dean turned to Castiel….......

".....…'cos he's told me that's my job." Ruby laughed at him.

"You! Look at you….you're a mess. You couldn't even hold out in the pit what makes you think that you could stop the apocalypse…which by the way…nice job in starting in the first place."

Dean walked over and ran his hand over his face, stopping at the edge of the trap to speak. "I was lying in the hospital going over a few things and something struck me. You so desperately wanted to stop Lillith right? So why wait until I had made my deal to come get Sam? Why not before? To busy with something else?"

Ruby chuckled. "Where are you going with this?"

"Azazel wanted my brother to be his chosen one. The others….they were just back up. He wanted the son of a hunter, my mother, to destroy everything that the hunters has fought to protect."

Dean tilted his head at her. "He does love his irony."

"Azazel and Sam, to rule Hell together." He walked back over to her. "You see Azazel didn't want Hell to rise and overrun the world, he liked things the way they were and then along came Lillith with her 'raise Lucifer' election pledge and suddenly he wasn't favour of the month anymore. How am I doing so far?"

"Interesting fantasy." Ruby flexed her muscles trying to see if there was any give in the chains.

Dean caught her and smiled.

"I did the trap this time sweetheart…and fixed the plumbing. You…aren't going anywhere."

She scowled at him. "So you were saying?"

"So, Azazel needs Sam to step up to the mark but how do you push a Winchester into doing something he doesn't want to? Easy…you go after his family. That night in the cabin…he was going to kill Dad and I in front of Sam, use that turn him. He failed though, Dad fought him to save me and then Sam almost killed him….so he ran, but not very far."

"Is this history lesson going somewhere?" Ruby yawned and Dean chuckled softly.

"Oh, I'm getting there. So he squashes the Impala and us with it, lucky that Sam is driving wasn't it…least hurt….furthest away from the impact?

Here's were it all goes to shit though.

Dad offered himself and the Colt up for me and Azazel just couldn't resist.

Hell he knew what that would do to me, he knew that it would crush me. He was right, it made me reckless and he thought all he had to do was sit back and wait for me to get myself killed and then he'd get Sam.

It didn't happen thought and then Lillith went after Dad in Hell and his plans really where in the crapper now. If Lillith broke Dad it was open season, first seal goes and he might not be able to stop her, so he had to change tact. He needed Dad out of Hell. Only way to do that was to open the Devil's Gate. I mean he had the Colt all he needed was someone to do it for him."

"This would make a great bedtime story."

"Wouldn't it? Where was I oh yeah…so he set up his little pissing contest between the chosen children but although he wants Sam to win he knows that Sam will never open the Devil's Gate so he has to let someone else get the jump on him…and that's where Jake comes in.

Jake was always supposed to kill Sam.

Sam was always supposed to die.

So the plan…rolling along nicely; but the best laid plans always have a fly in the ointment.

Azazel's was me.

I can't handle Sam's death….I go to the crossroads, but Azazel is too busy with getting Jake to the gate and freeing Dad that he does realise what I'm doing until it's too late. Lillith makes the deal 'cos hell Dad isn't breaking anytime soon and even world domination has a timescale, doesn't it?

Lillith gives me the year 'cos that give her time to still try and work Dad over enough for him to cave but she doesn't know that Azazel is gonna steal him out from under her nose."

Dean paused for a moment and looked at Castiel.

"That was something that I was always curious about…even with the Gate open, how did Dad make it out?

I went there and I realised that there was no way he just escaped on his own….he had to have had help. Hell's not just a place that you walk out of is it now Ruby. We both know that. Took an angel to get me out.

So I figure the only way Dad gets out is if someone let him out, and it sure wasn't Lillith so it had to be Azazel.

He get his inside man to free Dad, and then gets Jake and takes him to open the Gate to let Dad out under the ploy of freeing the demons to wreck havoc…a little bonus for him.

Here comes the rub though and that damned fly again.

I brought Sam back and we figured out the game plan…well as far as in opening the Gate goes.

He knows by this point about my deal so he sends Jake in and he waits until the Gate opens to go in and get Sam and finish me…see the Colt kills you….it doesn't just send you back to Hell.

It obliterates you.

So if it all goes to plan; Dad's gone from Hell, I'm dead and Sam is all alone and thirsty for vengeance having seen his brother just killed by the demon.

Win, Win, Win.

Wouldn't you know though that a plan that involves the Winchester's just would go the way you want it? Instead of going straight upstairs, Dad stops to save me and this time Azazel's really screwed…'cos I've got the Colt and from that range…no way I'm going to miss.

Ding dong the demon's dead.

Dynasty over.

I shot him, I shot his son and I sent his daughter downstairs.

Go Team Winchester!"

Ruby glared at him. "Fascinating but what's this got to do with me?"

"Oh I'm getting there. See Dad, not the only one to escape out the gate.

You got out too.

Then suddenly Sam has this helpful little pet demon that just itching to save his brother from the pit if only he'll give into the dark side.

And there's that fly in the ointment again.

I wouldn't let you turn my brother to save me…not even when there was no hope. You really needed me to be saved though didn't you….'cos your just like him. You want it all. You don't want Lucifer to rise 'cos you hate Hell…not that I blame you for that one. So little Ruby has to string Sam along until I die but heck….plan's screwed again 'cos Lillith sends you back before she does me and now Sam is all alone and on the verge of self destructing, hunting Lillith down…kill or be killed. Me, I'm a little ticking time bomb downstairs too.

So what's a girl too do?

Ruby pulls out her 'get out of hell' free card and appears back at Sam's side but he doesn't want you there….so you play him until he does. He'll help you go after Lillith and if he gets killed in the process…you'll still be queen bitch so what does it matter?

And there's the fly again.

I'm still in Hell and you don't know how to get me out.

No inside man this time.

So you send the enemy a little heads up. You let the angels know Lillith's plan and you know that they'll come after me. They have to come after me.

The plan works.

And there's…."

"…the damned fly again. You weren't supposed to break before they got to you. You always were a pain in my ass." Ruby's eyes flicked to black.

"Thought that was my brother?"

"Cute."

"I try. Anyway…now you're really screwed. You've still not got Sam ready to face Lillith and now big brother is back and you're scared that Sammy won't want to play with you anymore."

"Yeah but lucky for me, Sammy doesn't need Dean anymore, there isn't anything left that you can give him, I'm the only one that can give him what he needs. We are all fighting on the same side here, we all want to stop the apocalypse."

"I don't."

Both Castiel and Ruby turned their heads to look at him.

"I just want to save my brother."

Dean walked over to the table and raised Ruby's knife. He walked back over to her, placing the blade against her neck, his eyes cold and empty as he looked at her.

"What are you doing? Sam needs me! He needs to be able to fight Lillith."

"I'm doing what my brother wanted me to do, I'm cutting the head off the snake…only it wasn't this snake that he wanted me to kill. Besides, there's plenty of other scanks around that my brother can get his kick from if he has too, I'm sure that it doesn't have to be you."

He forced the blade into the flesh at the side of her neck. "Just one thing before I do this."

He pulled his head back to look her in the eye.

"What name do you want me to call you…..........

.............Ruby….............

…...............or Meg."

He smiled as her eyes turned yellow.

"Meg it is then." And he pulled the blade across her throat.

Chapter End Notes:

Well??

Thanks for reading Mary x