Half my life
Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies – Aristotle
Chapter 1 – My soul and my soul alone
Dean was being consumed by the mark of Cain more and more and Sam could feel him slip through the cracks even though he was trying everything possible to stop it. There wasn't a lore he hadn't read, there wasn't a book in the Men of Letter's bunker he hadn't researched, and there wasn't a rumor he hadn't followed. There wasn't anybody who knew better than Sam that his brother's fate was inevitable. It was just a question of how devastating that fate would be.
And still he didn't give up. He continued his fruitless search from the first ray of sunshine in the morning until long after the black carpet covered the sky at night. He would find a way. Never again would he lose his brother to the supernatural. And if he was good at something, it was research.
After days and nights buried in books and papers, heading out to question celestial beings, psychics, witches, demons, university professors, priests, and even occultists, he finally had a clue he could follow.
It took Sam hours to reach the small wooden cottage deep inside the mountains, deserted and miles away from civilization. But here he was and he wouldn't go away until he found something that could save his brother.
"Who are you?" A gruff voice echoed from behind.
Sam spun around to see the man he had been looking for these last couple of weeks and he wasn't sure whether to feel relieved, nervous or, frankly, afraid. After all he was currently facing the Father of Murder, Cain.
"My name is Sam Winchester," he introduced himself, steeling himself for whatever this situation was going to unfold into.
"Winchester?" Cain looked him up suspiciously.
"I am Dean Winchester's brother."
Recognition was evident on Cain's face. The name of Dean Winchester was all that needed to be said for him to know what the stranger was here for.
"You came here to ask me to remove the mark."
"Can you do it?"
"I told him the mark came with a great burden. He should have listened."
"He did it to kill Abbadon. It was the only way."
"Oh, I know about my knight and how out of line she had become. So I gave Dean the mark, but everything comes with a price and whether he can pay it is not my responsibility."
"You have to do something! It is tearing him apart! He became a demon! And even though he's cured now I can see how the mark affects him, how it slowly swallows him! Soon nothing will be left of my brother and I can't let that happen!"
Cain regarded him closely, deliberating Sam's words.
"Told you, not my responsibility," he finally responded and turned his back on Sam.
"Why are you not helping him?! If you can remove the damn mark, why wouldn't you?! He will lose himself soon enough. I can feel him snap any time now... And then, what exactly do you think Dean will turn into?! He will become another Knight of Hell. He will become another Abbadon! That's what you want?! You'll just live here and ignore it just like you did before?! You have the chance to make things right now... I'm asking you- no I am begging you, save my brother. He's everything I got, everything I ever had... He doesn't deserve this. I've never been half the brother he has always been for me. Always sacrificing himself for me... Just this one time, let me make things right! Let me protect him!"
Cain could not deny Sam's words were honest, nor the love he held for his brother. He knew something about protecting your own brother. To what extent you were willing to go; for all the wrong reasons and for the few good ones. That same determination was emitting from every fiber of Sam's being now.
"It's too late."
"What?"
"I can make the mark disappear, but with it disappear all effects the mark holds on your brother," Cain explained. "Every effect."
"I don't understand," Sam stuttered, a terrible gut-wrenching feeling overcoming him suddenly.
"To have become a demon in such a short amount of time must mean he died. The mark turned him into a demon prematurely, because his host body expired. By turning him into a demon he could keep his host alive. Removing the mark means consequently removing that effect. Without it your brother turns back to the way he was without the mark's interference."
"Dead," Sam concluded forlornly.
"Yes."
Sam shook his head, not wanting to believe it. He finally found Cain! He finally found a way to remove the mark! Only to be told that it was useless?!
"I'm sorry, son."
"If I find a way to keep my brother alive, will you remove the mark?"
"There is no way-"
"If I find a way, will you remove the mark?!"
The man watched the desperation burst out of Sam and he knew everything he could give him now is that tiny hope to hold onto. Even if he knew it was useless.
"I will," he promised.
"Good... good, because I will find a way. I will find a way," Sam said more to himself. He couldn't let his brother die. He would do anything to prevent that.