Prologue
Fire was the one recurring thing in the Winchesters lives. The brothers knew the crackle of the flames and the smell of the smoke all too well. Whether or not it was one of their loved ones being roasted like a kebab or just a simple salt and burn, their lives always ended up in smoke. And here Dean was again laying in the rubble and ashes of what could have been. Except for once it wasn't him that has lost it all in another inferno. The promise of life and future for all these families had been so bright, so passionate. It had all been for nothing. It was strangely empowering to have been the one who had ended it.
He finally reached into his jeans to dig one of his numerous phones out. Judging by the size it was probably his second or third one. He scrolled down the seemingly never-ending list of females names until he found the number he needed. He hit the button and waited for the familiar raspy voice at the end of the line. " Oh hello squirrel, this was so unexpected. Did you have a nice trip?" Crowley cooed sarcastically. "Well if you mean the jobs done then yeah the trip was frigging fantastic" Dean retorted obviously not hiding his displeasure at having to work with Crowley." So then do tell, how was it? Did you feel the power?" He inquired with some sort of pleasure at asking this." Yeah, I guess so. It was..." Dean paused momentarily to find the particular word to describe the feeling he had letting that fire rage on, the feeling of the fire when it started crackling on the ceiling."Swell" he replied as a predatorial grin snaked its way on to his face. "Well then you better make your way out of the neighbourhood before the big scary fire-fighters come" Crowley insisted through the speaker."Yeah, yeah I understand. I was a human not an idiot" Dean replied. "Well that is debatable, Mr Winchester. And another thing aren't you taking things a little quick. I firmly recall that you were only human three days ago" Crowley drawled."Things change and so do people" Dean uttered sharply as if spending time on an explanation pained him. " Oh yes, you are a prime example of that. Anyways I need to give you your next name so to speak" Crowley said, his voice swelling with glee at the word name. Dean found this particularly odd that Crowley should find pleasure in assigning Dean another person to destroy but decided to continue the conversation, for whatever it was it certainly must be important to make the demon grin. It was a new experience being Crowley's hit man but everything had been a new experience since Metatron had jammed that stupid blade into his ribs. Once this was over he would surely get his revenge on that prick of a writer but for now he had work to do. " So then, spit it out. Who do I have to barbecue next?" Dean asked. Crowley paused then continued in a gloating tone as if his whole life had led up to this point. "Samuel Winchester."
Chapter 1
First of all, everything happened very gently and slowly. First Sam could feel his eyes peel open and everything was right in the world for a moment then realization set in. Dean was dead. Dean was dead and he was never coming back. He wanted to get drunk again, to pass out and not remember that moment. It was the slurp of flesh as Metatron jammed the goddamned blade into Dean that Sam remembered most. The look on his face. Sam had never seen Dean look so innocent as if he was four years old again. As if all of the horror and terror of their lives hadn't happened. As if he still had mom and everything was safe and happy. As if nothing had ruined his chances of a normal life with a white picket fence. It was all Sam's fault. If he hadn't been born, if he didn't have had that fight with Dean, if he had stopped Dean from getting that mark...The Guilt was consuming him and drink was the only thing that could numb the pain. He had lied to Dean about being okay with him dying. He was only trying to break out of the cycle of pain and death of their family and look what it had cost him. Sam had tried so hard to break that chain, so that he could finally have a normal life but it was all in vain. All of it was so swiftly snatched away from him. The pain of seeing his big brother, his idol, his hero being wrenched away into death again. It was all too much. And that bastard Crowley hadn't shown his face when Sam had tried to summon him. It was his only shot of reclaiming his brother and that coward Crowley never even granted Sam that. Sam expressed his displeasure at having to hoist himself off of the floor with a deep guttural sound. It seemed as if he had just passed out from too much whiskey and suddenly Sam felt that whiskey as his eyes finally came into focus. "Shit, this place is a complete mess." Sam spoke aloud before realizing all too bitterly that there was no one to speak too but himself and then the pain set in again. If only Crowley had gave him a chance to switch places, to see his brother one more time breathing and walking again, cracking his stupid jokes and trying to make Sam smile. It would be worth going to hell for.
Instead he dragged himself to the kitchen to see if there was anything of nutritional value in the bunker. He properly found out that all he could have to eat was a salad, which by Sam's standards was pretty mediocre. But half of way through munching that salad he recognized the fact that no one was teasing him about being a girl and eating a salad or that he could have at least picked nice rabbit food, it was strange to be missing these things. "Maybe I should check on Dean's body and finally put him to rest" he thought and that's when he remembered. Cas didn't know what had happened. He didn't know if Dean was dead or anything else that had happened. He was going to have to tell Cas that Dean was dead. With a heavy heart Sam rushed out of the kitchen and into the library where we had carefully placed his phone on one of the mahogany desks after chucking it across the room in a fit of rage and sorrow. "Why Dean?!" Sam had screeched at the time of the phone throwing. It was all too much. He placed it into his palm and glanced at his missed messages. They were all from Cas. He had said that they had captured Metatron and the writer was now residing in Heavens jail. "At least something good has come out of Deans death" Sam sighed wishing with every fiber of his being that he would wake up and hear "Heat Of The Moment". Anything was better than this. Sam finally plucked up the courage to dial the number and hear the angels voice burst down the line. "I'm so sorry Sam, I was waiting for you to call" the angel choked out in his usual deep voice."Wait, you know?" Sam responded in shock. Who else knew that Dean had passed? And then it hit him like a lorry going at full speed. "Metatron" Sam whispered down the line almost certainly knowing what the answer would be. "I'm afraid so" Cas muttered and only then Sam knew how much this had affected the angel. He could hear the broken tone in Castiel's voice and could hear the mumbling of the words. This is not how an angel speaks, not an angel like Cas. " I'd really appreciate it if you came and helped me with the um, matter of the corpse " Sam managed to stutter out feeling undeniably damaged by the fact that he already was talking like dean wasn't here. "I'll be there as soon as I can" Cas sadly admitted. The line ringed dead in Sam's hand as he lay the phone back onto the table and that is when he glanced up.
That figure, that man, how? Dean was standing in the bunkers doorway with a smirk on his freckle dusted face and arms open wide. "De-Dean?" stammered out in surprise. This was simply impossible, he had laid Dean's broken body onto his bed with his own two hands and now he was up walking? This was unimaginable. "But how? Are you really there or have I had too much to drink?" Sam asked dumbfounded. " No little brother, I am really here but you're gonna wish I wasn't" Dean beamed as Sam took in the smile that was across Dean's face. This wasn't Deans regular smile or any other type of smile Sam had seen plastered across his brothers face. This was the assassins weapon of choice, the butchers favourite knife, the predators teeth about to snap shut on Sam's legs. "You're not Dean" Sam accused, fear holding in his eyes and burning at his core. "Nah you're not right on that one Stanford boy, 100% Winchester number one standing right in front of ya" Dean sneered grin becoming wider by the minute. "No my brothers not like this, not ever.." Sam retorted still shocked by the elder Winchester's behaviour. And that's when the eyes flashed, turning from bright emerald-green to those empty black pits staring right at Sam. "Hey wouldn't you know it, I don't need sunglasses any more" Dean smirked as he flicked them back to their natural green apple shade. " You motherfucking bastard, get out of my brother right now!" snapped Sam changing from grieving brother to the hunter that those bitches knew and feared. " Language Sammy! Manners get you everywhere and I'm not in your brother, I am your brother. New and improved" the demon countered not giving Sam anything but a childish grin.
"Fine then you sick twisted little shit, I'll send you back to hell myself" Sam announced before launching straight into an exorcism. "Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus, omnis satanica potestas.." Sam paused to see what kind of effect It had on the son of a bitch that was possessing his brothers corpse. Nothing not even a flinch. Sam huffed then started it back up again determined to get the demon out of Dean, "omnis incursio infernalis adversarii, omnis legio, omnis congregatio et secta diabolica" He stated finishing triumphantly hoping that this would get that disguising creature out of his brother. Again there was nothing. "But h-how?" sputtered Sam almost silently. " I told you Sammy, I am Dean" answered the demon. " The mark held on to me even after Metatron's blade had done its damage". "No this must be some sort of nightmare or something, my brother would rather die than become one of the things that he hated all of his life, the thing that killed our mom, the thing that killed Jess the one girl who had actually made me happy and most of all the thing that killed our dad. Even though he was a dick at times he still taught me and my brother nearly everything we know. You wanna know how I know this? He told me himself!" Sam spat violently. "Boo hoo Sammy, my heart bleeds for ya but sadly I gotta do what I came here to do" confessed Dean. Swiftly Sam felt his body being slammed against the brick wall of the bunker. "Please Dean, if you're in there you don't need to do this.." Sam cried with tears forming in his eyes. "Please..". "Sorry little brother, I do. Bosses orders but I am gonna miss you. Just little you miss that fly when you swat it " grinned dean with no humanity or mercy in his eyes anymore. "Dean, please. You're my big brother and I need you. This isn't you. Fight this.." Sam begged as tears ran down his face. " Fires gone out of this fight Sammy, so to speak. All I'm gonna do is let you have one more bonding session with little Jessy" howled Dean with a murderous glint in his eye. Sam could taste the salty tears as they reached his mouth as he started ascending the wall. Soon we would be on the ceiling experiencing what too many of his family members have experienced "Dean...I'm Sorry" he babbled looking straight into his brothers eyes. He felt the flames start dancing around his body as he was stuck in the middle of the bunkers ceiling. He felt the pain start bubbling around his body as the flames licked his body. "Dean..." Sam choked out as thick smoke clouded the room. "Goodnight Sammy" Dean called out from somewhere bellow him as the whole room faded to black.
