T for themes of violence and swearing on the level of the show. Spoilers for the first five seasons of SPN, but especially the third and fifth. All rights go to their respective owners.
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Aftermath
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Midnight comes; it is May 15, 2012. Samantha Winchester has spent six weeks as the last free human on Earth.
The night is hot and damp in the middle of a non-descript field somewhere in Minnesota, the stars shine brighter than they have in decades and she concentrates on the sound of the cicadas nearby to block out the dying rattle of the last pagan goddess of the world, bleeding to death on the ground. Sam's hands, covered in grime and blood are pressed tightly against Hel's side, more for the human's peace of mind than out of any hope for the Lady of the infraworld. The wound is deep, made with an angel's blade and by the time they reach her, she is too far gone to be healed.
Loki watches. There was a time when he would have been able to save his daughter in all but blood with a snap of his fingers, but his Fall has been hard and fast ever since the promised Fight between his brothers, ever since he refused to answer his elder brother's call for the lost angels after his victory (a farce if there ever was one, and all of the Fallen and all of Lucifer's followers knew it, just as Michael knew they would oppose him. It was all for his own self-satisfaction, to kill without regrets).
Hel stills. Sam hasn't moved since their escape.
Gabriel watches. For all that he is just a shadow of what he once was, once upon a time he was much: one of the first-born, an archangel, one of the most powerful beings in existence. He knows that he has enough grace left to perform one last miracle, and he knows just as Hel knew that it can't be wasted here, in this closed world that after tonight will be locked in everlasting peace. And there will be peace. The creatures are long gone; they were the first to fight and the first to die. Barely organized, by far too full of themselves and too blinded of their opponents' true power they never posed a real threat. There were whispers near the end, rituals calling for their Mother, but by then it was too late. Every last vampire, werewolf and shifter had been obliterated along with any other resident of the night.
Bobby is only one of the hunters who get caught in the crossfire. The Impala is totaled in a way Dean might have begrudgingly appreciated, in a high speed chase from angelic goons looking for the Abomination and Sam never knew enough to fix that kind of damage. She does manage to save the army man in the ashtray, which joins the amulet in her pocket.
The demons were much more successful in their resistance; they were stronger than the monsters and believed enough in the strength of numbers to pose a problem to the angels. However, they had lost not only their leader but also every high ranking demon that might have been able and willing to step up in the face of war against Heaven; they self-destructed in a matter of months, only a few surviving locked in the depths of Hell left to lick their wounds.
Crowley is the one to come to Sam, asking for a swift death. Sam obliges, using the last bullet of the Colt; she never gets around making more.
Life had settled down for the remaining humans, a pitiful billion after Armageddon and the mass turnings and the possessions. The world was silent at night, almost beautiful when they had to camp out at night by the side of the road because motels had become too dangerous now that a stranger in town was a novelty. But most times they just broke into one of the abandoned apartments, raid the kitchen of non-perishables and stayed awake with the family pictures, the teddy bears gathering dust, the newspaper left behind months ago and the stifling proof of the price humanity had paid without knowing it.
Adam grows antsy, some days he seems to be barely holding on and Sam can't comfort him now that she is all too aware she doesn't have a get-out-of-jail free card anymore if she decides to put a gun in her mouth.
Sam and Michael met only once, when the latter came after Cas. The fallen angels were at once the least problematic and the most terrifying of the garrison's concerns. As things were the handful of angels turned demons were powerful and bloodthirsty, but eventually fell to Michael's strategies. The very few that like Castiel had chosen to withdraw into anonymity amongst the humans were powerless but possessed a drive and an instinct for survival that might have drawn others to their way of living.
Samantha was alone in the 42 towers storage warehouse when Michael arrived and despite knowing with every fiber of her being that this was not the man who had raised her an eternity ago her brain kept betraying her, a constant hum of Dean, Dean, Dean that froze her in place as the first blow sent her sprawling against the opposite wall and for one second she felt the overwhelming relief of everything finally being over. Then Adam was there, throwing a Molotov cocktail of holy oil at the archangel and half-dragging, half-carrying her out of the warehouse before reinforcements came back, swearing up a storm all the way. Sam could tell he was terrified, but those were the most caring words she had heard in a long while, and that made her smile under the spectacular bruise she already felt forming on her face. They met with Cas about an hour later, he apologized in that grave voice of his for not being there and for one night, they managed to fool themselves into thinking that all was well.
A few days later Castiel leaves and never comes back. The amulet is gone too, but his blade is near the couch he commandeered last night. Sam is not surprised, has seen it coming for months but she still gets drunk, smashes all the bottles in the house and cries herself to sleep. It's the last time she will cry.
The Pagan gods had been fighting and dying since the beginning of the hostilities; it was only by chance that Sam and Adam stumbled upon a group of them, led by Loki and Hades and it was pure dumb luck that put the older hunter in the best position to kill their foe before he finished off the tan brunette on the ground, Isis, as she introduced herself later. Half of them wanted to kill the humans anyway but Loki vouched for them and their team of two became a team of ten. The attacks increased because no matter how hard they try, supernatural beings were never meant to be inconspicuous, but it was undeniably easier to get away too.
'Can I still go to Heaven?' are Adam's last words. He is not a warrior, has never been, but he is still a Winchester and he has tried, for the sake of a half-sister that he maybe sort of loves and that maybe sort of loves him back. 'Of course', Sam replies, like it is the single best fate she could ever imagine for any of them and Adam smiles and lets go.
By the end, they aren't so much fights as a systematic removal of the last rebels still standing, picked one by one. Persephone and Hades are found by Raphael when they are lured away from the rest and at least manage to rot his vessel before dying side by side. Isis tries to answer a distress call from Quetzalcoatl's little group and is trapped in Seth's stolen chest for eternity. Fenrir goes missing and his corpse is found three days later, strung like a scarecrow at the edge of a forest in Washington. Though until then the angels have been ruthless in their pursuit; there is only one who would be so needlessly cruel in his victory. Not even two days later, Sam buries Cas' blade in Zachariah's throat up to the hilt while Jormungard holds him down. No one begrudges either of them their need for revenge.
Tonight Gabriel will burn and he will die, the last pagan and the last Fallen and the last rebel, together with the last dregs of team Free Will 2.0 that has crashed even more spectacularly than its predecessor. It is the end of a run that has lasted eons, and it will end on his terms, a last in-your-face to what is left of his family. He thinks that maybe he should feel some pride for that.
The blood flow has completely stopped. Sam still isn't moving.
He has time for one last moment of pity, for the woman who has been praying for her death for years and even now is the only one who won't be allowed the mercy of oblivion. But good or evil, Samantha has carried the hopes of so many beings throughout her life; it is fitting that hope is what takes her from this doomed world. Gabriel watches as the darkness encroaches and her figure blurs, and wishes he could say it was hers as well as his own.
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Midnight comes; it is May 15, 2008. Samuel Winchester has just become the last Winchester-Campbell on Earth.
And then he isn't.
