Sam and Dean Winchester are characters from Supernatural which belong to Eric Kripke and the CW, not me. This story is written for my own entertainment, not to make money.

A/N If you want to know why Dean glows and broadcasts sex appeal and how Sam can change into a Sphinx you will have to go read "Sons of the Morning". No need to read Sons to understand this story if you just go with it. More fun if you read "Sons" first.

Walt and Roy Get What They Deserve

Chapter 3

The Sphinx Comes Out to Play

Stanza III

This is the dead land

This is the Cactus land

Here the stone images

Are raised, here they receive

The supplication of a dead man's hand

Under the twinkle of a fading star

Is it like this

In death's other kingdom

Waking alone

At the hour when we are

Trembling with tenderness

Lips that would kiss

Form prayers to broken stone.

The Hollow Men by T. S. Eliot, 1925

Sam leaned against the Impala's passenger door, watching the vehicles pulling out of Elroy's lot.

The wheels crushed gravel, turned and spun, puffs of dust left behind. The dust rose in clouds that the wind pulled across the lot then shredded into glittering flags and blew away. As the sound of the motors died away the silence of the open prairie leaked in, battling with the tinny juke box music leaking out the bar door.

Sam stood, relaxed, his ankles crossed and one hand playing with a piece of rock, tossing it and catching it again, over and over.

"What you got there, Sam?" Dean asked, walking over and catching the rock on one of its downward arcs.

"Travertine," Sam replied, "a piece of travertine rock from a place called Plitvice Lakes in Croatia. I sent my Sphinx form there last night to get it."

Dean looked at what he had in his hand. It was hard and looked a little like creamy marble with brown striations but there was nothing particularly odd about it.

"Well, Sam, it's a nice piece of rock, but why would you go half way around the world for it?"

Sam put out his hand for the rock. When Dean dropped it into his palm Sam took hold of his hand and pulled Dean into his body. Sam twisted his brother and Dean found himself with his back against Sam's chest, held in a single armed embrace.

"What's up, Sam?" Dean watched Sam's right hand starting to toss the rock up and down again, "You want to let me go?"

"No," Sam replied. "You're warm and you left yourself glowing again. Shut up and let me feel you against me. I'm not made of stone. How do you think I can drive around with you all day, live with you, sleep at night an arm's reach away and not be affected by your gift?"

"It really hadn't occurred to me," Dean answered but he made no effort to move. It was warm against Sam and the Nebraska night had fallen a long time ago along with the temperature. He was also lying. He had been thinking about his effect on his brother.

Other than the light spilling out of the bar's windows there was nothing to see. They could have been on the ocean. The wind rustled the dry grasses of the plains. Overhead the stars cut through the night sky, clear and sharp and pure.

It was so clear and clean you could tell the delicate colors of the stars, clear white, some red and some shades of gold. Blue stars were more difficult to see but they were there too. When the wind moved a twinkling would pass over the face of the sky. The horizon was far from them. No hills restricted their sight and the prairie went on forever.

They stood together in the dark silence, waiting for their prey. They knew that Hunters became prey almost as often as they were hunters. This was the life that all these men had chosen.

"So what's so special about this Lakes place, Sam?"

"Plitvice Lakes National Park in Croatia on the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina; it's where Walt and Roy's spirits are going to spend the next couple of thousand years before they go to hell." Sam rubbed the travertine. "I needed a connection to the past there and this rock is 10,000 years old. I have a plan."

Den closed his eyes. "Sam, can you reach in the window and grab my blanket for me?" He felt the fabric being pressed into his arms.

Dean wrapped the blanket around them as well as he could. "You want to tell me what the plan is?"

"The Sphinx is going to judge them and execute them. It's kind of his job. After wards they are going to be treated to their own private hell. That's all I want to say now. Just don't interfere. Don't approach me when I am the Sphinx. I don't want you to get hurt."

"Tell me about this place you are taking them, Sam. Why should it be hell's doorstep?"

"That's actually funny." Sam replied. "For centuries the area has been known as Hortus Diabolus, the Devil's Garden."

"There is a long narrow valley there that maybe at one time had a regular river running along the bottom. This river though emerged from underground, limestone, geothermally heated caverns. When the river exited the caverns its' waters were supersaturated and alkaline."

"Outside the cavern, due to lower temperature and decreased atmospheric content, the pH rose dramatically causing the precipitation of carbonate substances. The spray from these waters fell on mosses and algae along the river and dried, creating the basis for travertine formation."

"Over decades travertine dams formed and the river was broken into a series of lakes, naturally dammed from each other. Water travels from one lake to the next over waterfalls. Each lake is lower than the one before. The whole water formation lasts about four to five miles and loses elevation of about four hundred feet from one end to the other."

"The lakes appear to float above each other and they each one can be a different color depending on plant growth at each location and leached minerals from the mountains. They can be colored from azure to green, grey or blue. They appear to sit on pedestals and the whole thing has been called the Land of the Floating Lakes. It is one of the most alien looking living landscapes on earth."

"Currently there are 16 lakes but within written history there have been up to twenty. It is a living landscape and things change."

"We are sending Walt and Roy's spirits there why?" Dean asked.

"I'll tell you after the Sphinx is done. Look, they're starting to turn out the lights. They'll throw Walt and Roy out soon."

"What do you want me to do?" asked Dean.

"I want you to distract them. Go stand on the south side of the door and glow, brother, glow. I want them to be looking at you, not me."

"Wrap yourself up in your blanket and when they come out I want you to basically flash them. I know they are going to come with their guns out and I don't want to get shot. Understand?" Sam asked.

"All clear, little brother. Oh, look, I can see the bastards at the window. They know we're here."

They could see someone's head poking up over the sill of one of the high narrow windows. Then there was another one. Laughter floated out the door.

"What the hell are they laughing about?"

Sam snorted. "I can hear them. They think we're cuddling. They're building up their courage to come out and challenge a couple of homos."

"Assholes. What, gay guys can't have guns? Is that it? Idiots." Dean sounded completely disgusted. "A fine example of how to get yourself killed by your own prejudices."

The last lights went out and they saw Elsie unlock the door and waved Walt and Roy out. As they stood on the front steps she closed the door and disappeared.

Dean moved into position and turned up his glow. "Hey assholes, over here!"

He saw them raise their guns and he threw himself to the side. Behind them appeared a huge black beast with out stretched wings. The wings crashed down and they both fell into the gravel lot.

Sam was in full Sphinx mode. He was long and dark and his wings were fully extended. Dean swore he saw a tail swing wrathfully around like a whip.

Next Walt and Roy were trying to crawl away. Where ever their guns had gone they couldn't find them now. Dean moved swiftly to find the weapons and protect Sam. He took a second look and thought that Sam could most likely protect himself but he was going to help all he could.

Sam fell on the back of one of the men and sank fangs into the back of the guys' neck. Dean realized it was Walt when he saw Roy get up and run like hell, screaming all the way. Where he thought he was going to go on the flat featureless plain Dean had no idea.

Dean heard the most horrible noise and realized that the Sphinx was biting all the way through Walt's neck while standing on the man's back and kneading its claws into his skin. Dean heard a wet crunch, a suddenly choked off scream and a noise like heavy fabric ripping.

The Sphinx rose. It had Walt's head and spine in its mouth. The grizzly sight was outlined against the rising moon as the Sphinx threw back its head and shook the bloody prize. Dean saw the spine flipping around and blood splashing on the Sphinx's face.

The Sphinx turned and ran past him, evidently going after Roy. It threw the bloody trophy at Dean's feet. For some reason it surprised Dean to hear his brother's voice say "Wrap that up. I'm going to need it."

Walt's dead eyes gaze up at Dean from his severed head. He looked away and saw the Sphinx in full pursuit of the rapidly disappearing Roy. The speed of the giant cat was unnerving. Roy was dead meat.

Dean heard a gasp and turned to find that they were being watched by Elsie and the two Riddley brothers. Elsie had a hand over her mouth and one Riddley had his hands on the top of his head. The other brother was pacing around in a circle.

Just then there was a scream carried on the wind. Dean knew the Sphinx had run Roy down and would be back with another trophy in a minute.

Dean turned and walked to the small group of people. "You did not see anything. You will not say anything to anyone. If I hear this story out in the world I'll come back and bring my pretty kitty with me. Understand?"

They stood stunned by not only what they had seen but by his words.

"Go, go back inside before it comes back. You don't want to be here with it." Dean was not going to call the Sphinx Sam in front of these people.

They turned away and pushed each other along. Elsie had the front door key in her hand and was steady enough to get it in the keyhole. The three of them tumbled into the bar and closed and relocked the door.

Elsie turned and looked at the Riddley brothers. "I told you you didn't want to know. Well now you know."

Ron went behind the bar to pour drinks. Elsie and Paul followed and sat down. "What the hell was that?" Ron asked.

"That," said Elsie holding up her glass. "That was the Winchesters."