The Prestige

Chapter 3

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For Phx.

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Sam flinched when the light came on above him, shining through the glass and blinding him momentarily. Muffled voices came to him through the tube, followed by a strange noise that sounded like clapping and cheering.

Another spotlight clanked on to his right, and he turned his head sharply, nearly throttling himself in the process. His brother stood under the light, tall and proud, green gaze glinting furiously, sun shades balanced on the tip of his nose.

Sam couldn't hear what was being said but he sure could guess, and he didn't like it one bit. There was no way the magician would let Dean waltz over and release Sam from the case just like that. Something else was going on here but he couldn't figure it out.

A memory of rope and something heavy being whisked away to the ceiling came back to him, and Sam suddenly knew.

Traps.

Dean had to defeat the booby traps before freeing Sam.

He had to warn Dean.

He struggled against the metal collar, desperate to get his brother's attention, ignoring the burn in his lungs as the band pressed against his windpipe, choking him.

Dean…

He yanked uselessly on his wrists, the harsh metal cutting deep until he felt the warmth of his own blood pooling under his fingers. It didn't matter. It didn't hurt. Not compared to...

He had to warn his brother. He tried rocking his body in the forlorn hope of knocking the damn case to the floor and smashing the glass, but no matter how violently he threw himself against his bonds, the case remained rock steady.

Gasping for air around his gag, Sam sent a panicked glance over at his brother again, to find Dean relaxed and confident, eyes boring into his, almost smiling. Sam understood the silent command and gave a small nod. He had to calm down. There was nothing else he could do now, the rest was up to Dean, and Sam trusted his big brother with his life.

Do or die time, right?

More muffled voices came down Sam's breathing tube and he realised his brother and Raymondo were involved in some kind of discussion, but before he could get a grasp of what was going on, Dean cast one last reassuring smile at Sam, stepped out of the spotlight and melted into the shadows.

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Dean found himself acknowledging, sadly not for the first time since entering the room, that this had to be the most stupid plan any evil mastermind had ever come up with.

Ever. In the entire world.

Not even a Bond villain would resort to something this tacky.

Dean revised that statement immediately when an image of Sean Connery, strapped to table, with a laser beam cutting its way towards the Bond family jewels came stomping to mind.

Not even a Bond villain would resort to something quite so tacky.

He shook his head and grinned before sidestepping a spotlight that came on suddenly. Dean shrunk back again, wrapping the shadows around him like a protective cloak.

A squeaky floorboard had him leaping back further just as the trap door fell downwards with a loud thud!

Dean blinked as the new circumstances caught up with him. The floor was no longer brick, but wooden, and he hadn't even realised when that changed.

He took a deep breath.

That was too close.

No sooner had he thought it than another one nearly took him out, but this time the door shot outwards revealing a high tension cross bow, loaded and ready to fire.

So ready, in fact, that Dean barely had time to duck and move. And thank God he did move, because ducking wasn't enough. The arrow left the bow with a soft twang, ricocheted off the brick ceiling and thunked into the wooden floor right where Dean's foot had been a second ago.

How the hell's he doin' that?

Standing perfectly still, Dean breathed silently through his mouth for a few long moments, letting the magician think he'd been hit.

"Oh don't play games, you silly boy. Just get on with it! Our adoring public demand action!" Raymondo called out, all cocky and smug.

Clearly that hadn't worked.

"You're one to talk about games, you sick sonovabitch!" Dean growled, practically baring his teeth.

"Now, now. Sticks and stones, and all that!" the magician retorted. "Oh and, er, thanks for letting me know exactly where you are, Dean. That's a real help."

Shit!

"And your brother will have to pay a penalty for that little out burst." The bastard chuckled. "Just for my titillation, you understand."

God no!! Dean's eyes snapped straight to the case just as a loud snick and a clunk echoed around the room. Dean could see Sam trying to search him out in the darkness, could see the panicked look in his eyes deepen into real fear as a slow glugging noise had him glancing at his breathing tube.

Water spilled out cutting off Sam's air and drenching the poor kid right in the nose. Sam appeared to cough and splutter then turned his face away. The water sped up, splashing its way round Sam's tank as the first gallon bottle emptied.

"Sammy!"

Judging by the way his little brother was shivering violently, and the condensation that immediately clung to the glass, Dean would have to guess the water was freezing cold.

"That's what happens when you let your temper get the better of you," Raymondo droned on, sounding bored. Then he tutted, condescendingly. "You'll never make it in this business if you don't learn some patience!"

Dean bit his tongue, swallowing a sarcastic reply. Oh, he'd learned all right. Any backchat or insults, and Sammy would pay the price.

His heart pounded with fear when he glanced back at the tank to find his brother panting through his nose against the cold and the water tinged a terrible pink, a testimony to his earlier struggles and damaged wrists.

Dean ducked his head and took some calming breaths; now was so not the time to lose his cool. He would run this guy's stupid gauntlet, set Sammy free, then, finally, and with the biggest smile on his face, he'd pull Raymondo's guts out his ass.

Casting an apologetic smile at his shivering brother, Dean carried on with the challenge.

The next surprise at least gave him more of a warning. The sharp swish of metal sliced the air behind him, and he dropped flat to the floor. He swore he could feel the hairs on his scalp parting in the small breeze, as the axe swung once more like a pendulum, and with impeccable timing, Dean leapt up and out of range. Another spotlight flickered to life before his feet even hit the ground.

He huffed out a relieved breath and took a pace forward.

One step closer. Hold on, Sammy.

Loud clapping from Raymondo's direction had Dean rolling his eyes.

"Oh, bravo dear chap! I must say you really are very good!"

"Fuck off, asshole," Dean muttered under his breath, which turned out to be a big mistake for Sam.

"Heard that! Whoops, here we go…" the magician replied in a sing-song voice. "You really should watch your language, and be careful! The acoustics in this room really are rather shocking."

Another loud glugging noise started up and Dean watched in despair as Sam turned his head away from the breathing tube again, and clenched his eyes shut.

"Oh God Sammy, I'm so sorry," Dean watched the kid's struggles helplessly. "You always said my big mouth would get you in trouble some day."

By the time a second bottle was empty, the water level nearly covered Sam's arms and long legs. The kid's shivering stepped up a notch, and Dean worried about hypothermia setting in if he didn't get his little brother out of there soon.

Like he hasn't got enough to deal with.

But something else was also worrying. Sure, the tank was long enough to accommodate Sam's tall frame, but ten gallons of water was, quite literally, overkill. No way was that amount of water needed to fill the tank, and Dean couldn't help feeling that was significant somehow.

There was no more time to ponder it. He wasn't far from his brother, but he had the sneaky suspicion no matter what route he took, a booby trap awaited him.

Fuck it! Dean decided then and there to draw a straight line from A to B, and charged towards the platform.

Heavy sandbags dropped from the ceiling, crashing into the floor and raising large clouds of dust as some split open. Dean, though taken by surprise, dodged them successfully and kept on running. More and more sandbags dropped, and in between each one Dean could hear the mad magician laughing at him.

He was just about to leap up on to the platform, so near yet so far from Sam, when another sandbag dropped down and smashed into his shoulder, damn near dislocating the limb.

"Godammit!" Dean bit back a scream and clutched his shoulder.

"Oh dear!" and somehow Dean knew Raymondo's exclamation had nothing to do with his injury. "Blasphemy? Really Dean?"

That terrible glugging noise made Dean unclench his teeth for a moment, his jaw dropping open when more water gushed its way into Sam's prison.

Once the third bottle emptied, the waterline was now half covering the tube. Another gallon of water and Sam's air would be cut off, leaving him with a dwindling supply which would soon be used up. As it was, the water was half covering Sam's ears and framing his chin, but still leaving his nose and gagged mouth free. No longer able to turn his head to the side, Sam kept facing upwards, but his scared eyes continually sought his brother's, brows pinched in worry seeing the pain on Dean's face.

Dean nodded and grinned weakly, trying to reassure him. Breathing through the pain was easier said than done, but he forced himself to do it. To do it for Sam.

Limping onwards, he was rewarded by one last sandbag that again narrowly missed his head, and the next moment he was gazing down at his kid brother's frightened face through the glass, grimacing at the sight of blue tinged lips and goose bumps on exposed skin.

Placing a hand against the glass, just by Sam's right one, Dean smiled and nodded.

I'm gonna get you out. Stay with me bro he mouthed.

Sam blinked and replied with a shaky nod of his own, appearing to smile in spite of the cloth tied round his mouth.

"So, here we are, at what you might call an impasse," Raymondo suddenly hissed right by Dean's ear.

What the fuck?! How did he move so fast?

"What are you going to do now, Dean? That tank is now air tight, Sam's trapped… so come on. How are you going to do it?"

Oh Christ. Dean suppressed a sigh and resisted the strong temptation to punch the bastard. Instead, he turned to the magician with one eyebrow raised.

"Can I ask you a question?" he kept it light and casual, well aware that Sam was sliding into hypothermia, but the more he could find out the better. Something wasn't right here.

Raymondo shrugged. "Ask away."

"Why all this?" Dean swept his good arm around, indicating the room and all its hidden death traps. "Why so elaborate? Why not just kill us and get it over with? I mean, I don't buy all that crap about keeping us as your assistants. Draining us?" he shook his head, hiding a wince at the pull on his shoulder. "Nah. If you had us marked as hunters right from the get go, the smart thing would've been to take us out there and then. So, I ask again. Why?"

Raymondo smirked, more than a little amused, eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "You really want to know?"

"Yep," Dean replied, trying to quell the urge to strangle the guy.

"Sure? You're not going to like it."

"Go… er… goshdarnit!" Dean amended at the last moment, and glared ferociously at the magician.

Raymondo leaned in conspiratorially, and whispered the words that had Dean completely losing his cool.

"It was much more fun this way... don't you think?"

"YOU…" Dean roared.

Loud gurgling cut him off. Dean swung round in time to see Sam trying desperately to arch his neck but the collar kept him immobile as more water thundered into the tank. When the water sloshed around and eventually settled down, Sam was spluttering through his nose, the only part of him now above the waterline.

Dean stared down at the kid through the glass, even as Raymondo spoke quietly.

"You see, I knew the good times couldn't last forever, that one day people like you might come after me, so I had to be prepared. Killing you boys, which I fully intend to, by the way, won't be enough. I'll be hunted by your kind, possibly even killed as they search for you. But I won't go down without a fight, Dean. The Great Raymondo must take his final bow in style."

Dean looked down as a fire axe was nudged into his good hand.

"So who's it going to be, Dean? Me? Or your brother?" The magician smiled.

Dean stared at the madman. He really doesn't care if he lives or dies.

More to the point, he didn't care if Sam lived or died.

With a wide swing, and with careful aim, Dean made a decision.

The wrong one as it turned out.

The axe bounced off the bottom of the glass case right by Sam's feet, leaving nothing more than a surface chip.

Oh shit!

The fifth gallon bottle began to empty, albeit much more slowly now that Sam's tank was already nearly full.

"Sammy!" Dean swung the axe again, ignoring the searing pain in his shoulder, and struck, the damn thing once again bouncing off the surface. "Oh God, I fucked up! I'm so sorry, I fucked up!"

Sam took once last deep breath before the water crept up covering his nose completely. Dean carried on swinging, desperate, heart breaking, gouging the surface chip deeper. He watched his brother trying so hard to hold on, his gaze soft and trusting even under the water, and gathered strength from it.

With one final roar, Dean brought the axe down on the glass, but to no avail.

The case remained intact, and the light was fading from Sam's eyes.

Something wasn't right here…

Ten gallons. But it only took five to fill it.

This was all a fucking riddle!

But it told him what he needed to do.

"No…" Dean panted and shook his head, angrily. "NO! I'm not losing him!" He turned back to the magician. "I'm not losing him to a crazy piece of shit like you!"

Raymondo smiled, almost sadly. "I think you just did."

And with that, Dean dropped the axe, drew back his arm, and clocked the bastard one on the chin. The magician went down like one of his sandbags, out cold before he hit the floor.

The five remaining tanks let go their contents, sloshing into the tubes, running together into the main pipe. Continuing its journey, the gurgling water hit the contents of the tank, and a sheer... unnatural force pushed outwards against the glass. The glass, already weakened a little by the fire axe, began to crack under the building pressure, until something had to give.

With a deafening rush of water, and the harsh crunch of breaking glass, the tank obliterated.

Dean slid along with the current, grasping at something to hold on to. When the flood subsided, the older brother found himself a good ten feet across the room, the fire axe on one side of him, and the unconscious magician on the other.

Dean stumbled to his feet and staggered over to the still form of his kid brother lying on the now exposed bench.

"Sam?" he panted out, fingers reaching and searching for a pulse. "Sammy?"

His brother was so cold.

But his heart was beating.

Dean ripped the gag down from Sam's mouth and shoved his ear right up close.

Not a breath was taken, nor expired.

"Dammit Sam!"

Fortunately, Sam's restraints weren't padlocked, just bolted into place, so Dean very quickly had him free and positioned for resuscitation.

"Ok, Sammy," Dean whispered, tilting the kid's head back and pinching off his nose. "S'show time, little bro."

The furious ache in Dean's shoulder refused to let up and if anything grew worse, but wimping out wasn't an option.

He took a breath... and blew.

"C'mon kid! Fight!"

Another...

"Doncha do this to me, Sam!"

Another...

It took six rescue breaths before Sam was spluttering and coughing up great lungfuls of water, his back arching weakly, head rolling helplessly against the bench.

"That's it, Sam, just take it easy and breathe." Dean grinned down at him when the kid finally cracked open his eyes. "Hey! You find Nemo in there? Sure took you long enough to come back, dude."

Sam gave him a tired smile in return but that was about all he could manage for the moment. His panting soon gave way to shivering, reminding Dean of the dangers of hypothermia.

"Here," he shrugged quickly out of his leather jacket. "Can you sit up? It's a little damp after Niagara burst its banks but it's better than nothin'."

Sam nodded weakly, but needed assistance. Dean gently tugged him up off the bench and into a sitting position, Sam's long legs danging over the edge, and wrapped the jacket round his shoulders.

"Th-thanks, Dean," he whispered.

Dean smirked, rubbing the kid's arms to ease some warmth back into him.

"Ya know something'?"

"Huh?" Sam blinked, staring over Dean's shoulders into the distance.

"I think I hate magicians almost as much as you hate clowns, dude."

"Uhuh," came the soft reply.

Dean shrugged, not aware of the danger, and certainly not noticing the strange melancholy look on Sam's face.

"C'mon, let's get you back to the motel and into some dry clothes… hey! What the hell Sam?" Dean cried out.

Quick as lightning, Sam had reached round and grabbed his brother's Taurus from the waistband of his jeans. The muzzle was now pointing at Dean's chest, though the hand holding it was by no means steady.

"Dean…" Sam gasped, eyes still fixed over Dean's shoulder.

Dean turned his body halfway round to find the magician back on his feet and staring into Sam's eyes. The fire axe, however, hovered menacingly a few feet in front, its blade aimed at Dean.

"Ah. It seems the youngster is so responsive I only have to think," the magician winked at Sam, but directed his comment at Dean. "Watch this. It's a neat trick."

What Dean heard next lead to a later conversation that came back to haunt him many times over the years.

"Sam," Raymondo called in a stern voice. "Stop breathing."

But Sam just stared back at him, still very much breathing.

Dean's head swivelled between the two men, whilst Raymondo appeared to be getting agitated.

"Sam! I said STOP BREATHING!"

Sam, still shivering with the cold, suddenly pushed his brother roughly down to the floor, leaving the magician well and truly in his sights.

Dean watched in stunned amazement as the standoff played out.

"S-sorry," Sam managed a jerky shrug, trying to keep his hand steady, but he was just so cold. "I g-guess it d-doesn't w-work on m-me anym-more."

With a loud angry roar, the magician TK'd the axe into a forward spin, the blade flashing evilly in the spotlights, aiming for right between Sam's eyes.

At that same moment Sam fired twice, both rounds hitting their mark.

The axe missed by virtue of Dean's hand grabbing a hold of Sam's sodden shirt front, and yanking the kid clear.

The magician collapsed in a heap, gasping for breath at first, then slowly subsiding, his body slumped, awkward and still.

The brothers, however, didn't really notice. They were too busy staring in shock at the quivering axe; its blade buried half an inch into the bench, right between them.

"Uh…" Dean swallowed. "So... human, then."

"Uhuh," Sam responded, blinking hard.

Dean recovered a little first, and glanced over at his brother, alarmed when he still saw the blue tinge to his lips, the uncontrollable shakes wracking his body and figured it wasn't all down to shock.

"Hey, Sammy?" he spoke softly, still not sure Sam was with him, and touched the hand still holding the Taurus. "You can let go now, kiddo. C'mon. Give me the gun."

Sam turned his gaze downwards to their hands and swallowed, hard.

"I-I k-killed him," he whispered, brokenly.

Dean's heart took a pounding when that soul piercing gaze lifted again, his brother begging him to say it hadn't happened, that Sam hadn't just killed a human.

"C'mon. Let's get outta here, and we'll talk about it later, ok?" Dean repeated and searched his face for some sign the kid was listening. "Sammy?"

Sam's horrified face nearly crumpled just then, but with a show of strength that had Dean silently applauding him, he stiffened his resolve, lifted his chin and nodded.

It would have made a more impressive sight had the kid not been shaking like a leaf in a storm.

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Author's notes:

So... that was a little intense eh? A little LimpSam with ProtectiveDean, plus both brothers get to play hero and save each other. Just the way it should be in my view.

Let me know what you think eh?

Final chapter up soon.

Cheers my darlings.

Kind regards,

ST xxx