A/N: Well here it is! As promised! Everyone enjoy and again, I hope that this story inspires more of you writer-types to take up this pairing and write more of it! :)
Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural or Harry Potter. Sod off.
Warnings: Slash, Dub-con, Violence. More will be added as goes.
Chapter One...Those In The Business of Souls
My Earth was not what I had expected. I had prepared myself for fire and brimstone, given that the apocalypse was supposedly nigh and all. Maybe even a futuristic, shiny metal world that featured in Dudley's old telly programs. My playful demeanor took on a somber shade when I realized that this world was greatly the same. This Earth was no poorer for my absence. The world had continued on without me in it. It was a sobering realization. Silly, really, since I knew that in this time, I would have been gone hardly any time at all and a whole ocean away from my homeland, at that. Even still, I suppose even Death held on to silly thoughts sometimes.
America was different. People drove on the wrong side of the road, the air was all wrong, even the magic flowed differently here. There were only two wizarding communities stateside, one in Salem and another in far off Washington state. For everything in between it was as if the magical world here had never left the wild west. It was held together by individual bands and groups and muggles called hunters were the acting sheriffs. Somehow, it all managed to work rather well. Everyone got their little piece of the freedom pie with as few civilian casualties as possible and it was all hunky dory at the end of the day. That is, until the God Squad had to go and throw a wrench in the entire endeavor. When sibling rivalry took on apocalyptic proportions, it was probably timefor a wee bitof family counselling.
"So what's you're game this time, dearest?" Death asked from his relaxed perch in the maroon chaise the hotel had undoubtedly gotten wholesale from some poor desperate sod. I swear, tacky colors were standard issue in hotel rooms. That had to be a rule somewhere. Thou shalt not have colors pleasing to thyne eye. Thou shalt not have comfortably sized bathrooms. Really, it was criminal. I retrieved a neatly rolled piece of paper from my pocket at his inquiry, sliding onto the hideously floral bed comforter with nary a wince.
"Foods! I made a list of all the different foods you must try while we're on this world. Just because you don't need to eat doesn't mean you can't enjoy it. After all, it's one of life's greatest pleasures so why can't it be Death's too?"
It was a game we played together. For each new world we visited, I made a list of things for my stoic lover to enjoy. Last time, it had been roller coasters and even though I knew he was just seeing all of the ways he could claim our fellow riders, Death still went and seemed to enjoy himself. I know I had. He chuckled at my little play on words and I grinned, passing over the list, watching him skim it with amusement.
"Edible underwear?" My mischievous smirk would have put a Trickster to shame.
"We can do that one together. I've always wanted to try those on for size."
Death stood suddenly from his seat, a tall column seemingly researching for the heavens. Black eyes looked down at me, scorching and endless. The Resurrection Stone pulsed like a living thing on its chain around my neck, an exciting collision of sensations all at once. Like a tap that runs so hot it feels cold at first touch. The wand had been absorbed into my core long ago but nonetheless, vibrated my entire consciousness at its companion's call. The sensory overload forced a strangled moan from deep within my throat. I didn't know when my eyes had closed but suddenly, I was looking through Death's own eyes, gazing down on myself as he slid into place over me. I was flushed, my dark waist length hair spread out over the sheets like a shroud around pale, pale flesh. Magic shone beneath skin like some far away moon pressed into human form, a sight few had the opportunity to see. My emerald eyes had darkened from their impossible green to an unearthly black, colorless asthe night sky. The were Death's eyes staring out of my visage, a visual proof of our bond. We were one consciousness, one will in two separate beings. Powerful apart but godlike together. After all, one day, even God would die and we would be there to reap Him when the time came. My vision became my own once more and suddenly my beloved was looming over me as unshakable and steady as he had been since time had taken its first infant breaths.
"There's no time like the present, Master."
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This whole Apocalypse business could go suck a stone, I decided rather quickly. There we were, enjoying a nice box of Italian petite fours in a tiny cafe in Trieste and living the good unlife, when the feeling of wrongness pervaded our collective senses. As if without warning, my senses had become backwards, trying to turn themselves inside out within me. My eyes slid over to seek out my lover's with a grim gaze. Something had just gone arse over tit and no doubt we would be left to clean up the bloody bodyparts afterwards. A tanned, dredlocked teen plopped down into the seat across from Death suddenly, a with the thievery I'd only come to expect from a particular Trickster, swiped the last little cake right off my plate. His arrival had me so stunned that it took me a full moment of staring to begin to rage.
"God-!"
"Now, now, don't use my name in vain, Little Death. You're going to wear it out." His vivid, cerulean eyes were sparkling with amusement as he moaned in delight around my pilfered treat.
God? Now this was an unexpected surprise. God was apparently vacationing in Italy wearing a rather de classe street urchin suit. His long khaki board shorts were torn at the knees from falls and his elbows were scraped and bruised, his white tshirt bearing the unmistakable stain of a dirty romp in the scenerey. All in all, he looked like a kid who had escaped his mother to go tree climbing and rock hopping. And he apparently liked stolen cake. I suppose Gabriel didn't fall far from the tree, after all. I levelled him with a glare that could have stripped paint, pointedly ignoring Death's amusement at my side. He slipped an arm around my waist in a silent show of support and all I could do was lean into it. Good to know that I had his backing if I decided to go to Heavenly war over the treat.
"Like Father, like Trickster, then?" Sue me if my voice was a little shy of reverent and heavy on the sulking. The diety only seemed to find my annoyance endearing anyways if his grin was anything to go by.
"Without a doubt. But I'm not here about Gabriel today."
"You're here about Lucifer." Death interjected stoicly, cutting his last petite four in half and giving me one of the pieces.
Sharing his last tiny cake? Now that was love. No one knew affection like tall, dark and Reaper-y next to me. God's smiling face fell into sadness. Without any notice at all, he looked all at once like the kid he was wearing. A kid whose puppy just got run over by the ice cream man.
"Sadly...I am. The Winchesters are on their way to destroy Lucifer's First and release him from the cage. We have only minutes. My own firstborns have just murdered the Angel, Castiel, the Winchester's guardian, rather brutally, if I do say so myself. The point is that when Lucifer is released he will kill the hunters but those same humans are the only ones who may put him back in time out. I would like for you to resurrect the Winchesters and Castiel, if you would. I'm sure you can see how necessary they are to this whole process. I can resurrect their bodies on my own but souls of the dead are your department, I'm afraid."
Ahh, so God needed his favorite knights put back into play. This tasted awfully lot like a favor and a favor from God was nothing to be sneezed at. Death hummed, his thumb tracing a circle on my hip where it rested fondly. Intrigue filtered in from his side of the connection and I allowed him to take up the conversation, simply taking a moment to enjoy the feel of him pressed against my side. Warm and inviting.
"And what does Death care for the paltry rivalries between Angels? All creatures come and go, Creator. Even you." His voice was as smooth as smoke. Dangerous. Seductive.
The dirty deity sighed, his voice downtrodden and miserable.
"You never let me forget it. It is in your best interest to aid the Winchesters and I think you know it. When Lucifer begins his campaign for the end, he will summon the Horseman and you. He will force you to be involved regardless of your wishes. He will drag you and Harry into his war." My beloved gave no outward indication that those words had affected him but his side of our shared connection, I felt his mind go still as the grave before a burning, righteous fury melted away that frozen resolve. His facial expression remain unmoved but feeling his true internal raging made the facade even more impressive. Let no one say that Death was not protective of his Master. He was quick to defend and a jealous lover but not unpleasantly so, "You will do what you do, Death, I know that. But even you must see that theirs deaths are premature, if anything, and if I know anything it's that your precious Balance is everything to you."
Oh, ouch. God could play dirty, apparently. If anything got Death by the short and curlies, other than me, of course, it was imbalance. The Balance had to be maintained, that was our entire purpose, after all. The Winchesters and their pet Angel's deaths were premature in accordance to the Balance. Castiel's death was where this overwhelming sense of pervading wrongness echoed from. The Balance had to be corrected, no matter how much I wanted to let them stew in their own stupidity.
I grimaced and caved in for him, "Damn. Let's do it, love." I received a dark look from my companion in response. He didn't want to admit it in front of God but we both knew how this conversation was going to end. He simply didn't want to lose face, "C'mon now. We'll do it," My emerald eyes narrowed in on God with a frown, recalling my love's internal war irritably, "But not for free. You will owe us a favor later. Otherwise, I'm content as a cucumber to leave your moronic Angels to their own Fates. This is just one world, one tiny blip in the vast expanse of all of the worlds we patrol. Earth will be no great loss in the grand scheme, I assure you." My voice was a hiss, the trees and foliage in the landscape nearby suddenly wilting and leaning under the force of my stirring power. I didn't appreciate some God coming and making my lover and servant feel so tangled up inside. That was my job. Okay, so perhaps I was more jealous than Death was. No one upset him under my watch.
Sea blue orbs looked at me knowingly but he did not resist my demands, "We both know that isn't how you really feel, Harry. You love this world and it's people, your people, no matter how little they deserve it. However, I will concede to owing you a favor once the boys are resurrected but we must go now. Lillith's lifeblood spills even now. We are out of time for discussion."
I hummed in acknowledgment and with a crack like a whip, we were all gone.
We arrived just in time to see Lucifer escape the spinning vortex in a flash of light, the Winchester brothers burning up in the flash. Bodies disintegrated before my eyes, the bloody portal moaning like the gaping maw of some great beast. The escaping devil rushed by in a wave of intent and as he passed, my eyes caught his own golden gaze for a millimeter of a second. Before it began, he was gone and Death stood with the hunters' souls in hand. I shrugged off the sight of Lucifer's escape and took the souls gently in hand, cradling them together as if they were orbs of glass. As if they were prophecies lining a shelf, fragile and made of glass thin as the skin of a bubble.
"Go to the library and fetch the Angel Castiel's soul. Return him to his vessel." Death took my direction with a nod of agreement, a light smile of approval in the shadows of his face. For a moment, God and I were alone with the souls of the two fated to defeat the devil, end the end, so to speak. For a small moment in time, I fought the urge to crush those souls in my hands just to spite all of Destiny and Fate. Like a small child with a bird's egg, unfeeling and sadistically curious. I glanced up at God and sneered as he remained invisible to all but my own eyes. Forever hiding from his own creations, allowing his children to flounder without their father, alone. Children needed boundaries and at times, a firm hand. God, it seemed, in the twenty-first century, had become just as placid and unwilling to take responsibility as the humans he professed to adore. Pathetic. "I will return the hunters to their bodies but after that...I'm in the business of souls and afters. This is the jurisdiction of the living. We will be keeping watch, though."
God winced at my evident disdain but nodded in gratitude. I wasn't willing to admit it, but he was right. Lucifer would force our hand, force us to get involved eventually. Wasn't it better to take a preemptive measure against him and take precautionary methods on our own time rather than his? Death and I would discuss it. For now, I had a resurrection to see to.