Until The End
A/N: Here we go again, another new story, but since the show really seems to be heading towards the End!verse at the moment, I wanted to write something like this and get Dean and Cas on good terms with each other again, even if it's in horrible circumstances. Set sometime after season eight, assuming Sam does manage to close the Gates of Hell. Will get more Destiel-heavy later on.
Updated A/N 16/05/13: Well, in light of the events of the S8 finale, the plot for this has become somewhat obsolete. That said, I do still think that what I intend for the later chapters will fit with the circumstances portrayed in "The End", regardless of the specific events that led up to it. I am now slightly regretting posting this so soon before the finale, as I ought to have anticipated I could write something that would contradict it, and if I'd waited it would have given new fuel for formulating and developing a canon-compliant plot over the summer hiatus. So, it may be that I will completely rewrite and possibly repost these first few chapters separately based on a scenario leading on from the finale, and not contradicting it. However, as Zachariah said, I guess, whatever details I change, they will always end up here. I still intend for the Destiel plot later on to be exactly the same, and that is what I want my main focus of this story to be.
Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural. I'm just borrowing the characters to have a bit of fun.
Chapter One - Ground Zero
This couldn't be happening. That was the thought running through Dean's mind as he watched the events unfolding before him, his horror growing even as he was still half hoping this was just another nightmare. It was something like this that had haunted him, causing him to wake sweating in the middle of the night as he was plagued by nightmares he doubted he would ever truly be free from. Even though they'd succeeded in closing the Gates of Hell, there'd always been that doubt - that fear - nagging at the back of his mind that it wouldn't be enough. That nothing would ever be enough. No matter what they did, no matter what enemies they conquered or what obstacles they overcame, there would always be one more waiting round the corner.
Or, an old one rising up again to take them from behind.
A fierce rumbling sound filled the air, punctuated by a harsh cracking noise as Dean and Sam watched the pit opening before them. The ground trembled, and the brothers found themselves having to scramble away as the earth beneath them shook and dropped into a slope declining towards the growing crevasse. Sam reached solid ground first, and grabbed hold of his brother's jacket to stop him falling as the fractured concrete gave way beneath him. The floor crumbled away into the gaping pit just as Sam pulled Dean onto the ledge that remained, but they now found themselves cornered up against the bunker's wall with a gaping void in front of them.
An intense burst of heat blasted out from the aperture to meet them. Looking down, they both could see the reddish light at the bottom, and the distant sounds of shrieks and howls were drifting up from the depths.
Dean stared down at it in horror, then back up at the figure on the opposite edge of the abyss. "What did you do?!"
The black haired girl smirked back, her pretty features twisted by the pure evil in her expression. "I didn't do anything," she taunted back. "This was all your doing. You slammed the Gates of Hell shut. Didn't anyone warn you it would be like shutting off the relief valve on a nuclear reactor? Of course the cracks were going to start to show sooner or later."
His worst fears confirmed, Dean stared down again, as he and Sam looked into the bowels of Hell.
Opposite them, the witch laughed gleefully. "Hell can't contain all the evil in this world. You slam the gates, the walls will rupture eventually. And now that's happened, I guess I've got you two to thank for getting me front row tickets to the main event. This is gonna be so awesome."
Dean looked back up at her in disbelief. "Are you fucking psycho? You want to unleash hordes of demons on the world?"
She just shrugged. "Honey, I don't really care. I just wanna be able to practise black magic without knowing Hell's waiting for me, and now, having legions of demons on the loose sounds like it'll be pretty fun."
Dean glared at her. "You know, to say you're human, you are one evil bitch."
She rolled her eyes at him, but then Sam said apprehensively, "Wait, what did you mean by 'main event'?"
"You'll see," she teased, a sinister smile playing on her lips.
Sam and Dean barely had chance to exchange worried glances before an earsplitting roar filled the air, and a gigantic figure made of smoke and flame and light emerged from the chasm. Its sudden appearance sent a shockwave through the air, and the brothers were lifted off their feet and slammed against the wall before falling to the narrow strip of ground that remained.
Sam tried to pick himself up, momentarily stunned by the shock of the impact, but as he tried to look at the figure that had emerged, he found it hurt his eyes. The light behind the smoke was blinding, but Sam thought he could make out the vague shape of wings as he took squinting glances at it.
Then, a deep voice penetrated the droning noise filling the air. "Hello, Sammy! Did you miss me?"
At the sound, Sam felt a chill go through him right to the core. "No..." he muttered, not wanting to believe it, but then he heard the witch, Kal, shouting out manically again.
"Looks like the Cage got broken. That's what you get for trying to fuck around with Hell!"
Pure terror gripped Sam as he stared into the flames. Through the smoke, the figure behind it was becoming clearer, and Sam began to distinguish the shadowy features of a face he knew all too well.
Sam stared into the fire, and Lucifer stared back.