Supernatural: Phantom Traveler

A/N: I know that it's been a while, folks, but I've been busy with both school and work lately.

Like my little sister, Yami Faeire, My internet connection can also be flakey at times, but also I'd love to get some reviews about how I'm doing, too.

Read, review, and enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Supernatural. I just own any and all characters that I just happen create.

CHAPTER THREE: FEAR OF FLYING

Sam couldn't tell who was more terrified: Dean was clutching the armrests with both hands, while Liz was almost clutching at him. Both were wide-eyed and perspiring slightly as the plane's pilot waited for the go-ahead so he could maneuver the plane onto the strip and take off.

"Just try to relax," Sam finally suggested.

"Just try to shut up," Dean hissed through clenched teeth, and Sam laughed, bemused by the way they were acting. As the plane started down the runway, both Dean and Liz tightened their seatbelts and leaned their heads against the back of their seats. Liz closed her eyes tightly for one moment only to snap them open again.

"That's even worse," she mumbled. "Don't close your eyes, seriously." Sam bit his lip, trying to keep his laughter from bubbling out again. It wasn't like he wasn't scared of anything himself, so if he wanted to avoid retaliation in the form of clown jokes and spontaneous trips to McDonald's, then he was better off staying quiet.

Liz had started clutching a silver cross in one hand about the moment the plane started taking off, and she hadn't let it go since. Meanwhile, Dean was humming, trying to relax, and Sam leaned in a little to hear what he was humming.

"Are you humming Metallica?" he asked, surprised.

"It calms me down," Dean snapped.

"Look, guys, I get that you're both nervous, all right?" Sam assured his siblings. "But you both have got to stay focused."

"Okay," Dean agreed and Liz nodded, tightening her grip on her necklace.

"I mean, we've got thirty-two minutes and counting to track this thing down, or whoever it's possessing, anyway, and perform a full-on exorcism," Sam whispered.

"Yeah, on a crowded plane, that's gonna be easy," Dean said sarcastically.

"Yeah, it'll be real fun," Liz grumbled.

"Just take it one step at a time, all right?" Sam suggested. "Now, who is it possessing?"

"Well, it's usually gonna be somebody with some sort of weakness, you know," Dean explained, "a chink in the armor that the demon can worm through somebody with an addiction or some sort of emotional distress."

"Well, this is Amanda's first flight after the crash," Sam remarked. "If I were her, I'd be pretty messed up."

Dean nodded. "Mm-hmm." And a flight attendant passed them. "Excuse me. Are you Amanda?" he asked.

"No, I'm not," said the flight attendant.

"Oh, my mistake," Dean said sheepishly.

The flight attendant gave him a bemused smile. "Mm-hmm." And she walked away. Embarrassed, Dean turned and saw Amanda at the back of the plane, near the restrooms. "All right, well, that's got to be Amanda back there," he hissed to Sam. "So… I'll go talk to her and, uh, I'll get a read on her mental state."

"What if she's already possessed?" Sam asked.

"There's ways to test that," Dean said, reached into his bag and pulled out a battered plastic bottle of water. "I brought holy water." And Sam took the bottle from him.

"No, I think we can go more subtle," Sam protested. "If she's possessed, she'll flinch at the name of God."

"Oh. Nice," Dean said sarcastically, and he moved to get up.

"Hey," Sam said, and Dean stopped moving.

"What?" he asked.

"Say it in Latin," Sam told him.

Dean rolled his eyes. "I know." And he started walking away.

"Hey!" Sam hissed.

Dean turned around and glared. "What?"

"In Latin, it's 'Cristo'," Sam said.

"Dude, I know, I'm not an idiot!" Dean growled, and he walked away.

"Sam, leave Dean alone," Liz snapped when it looked like he was about to call Dean back again. "This isn't helping my own nerves," she added, closing her eyes for a moment as she tried to stay calm.

At the back of the plane, Amanda was setting up glasses on a cart, and Dean walked over to talk to her.

"Hi," he said pleasantly.

"Hi. Can I help you with something?" Amanda asked.

"Oh, no. I'm just a bit of an uneasy flier," Dean admitted since it was true. "It makes me feel better to walk around a little bit."

Amanda smiled. "Well, it happens to the best of us."

"Of course, you being a stewardess, I guess flying comes easy to you," Dean joked, and she laughed.

"Oh, you'd be surprised," she said.

"Really? You're a nervous flier?" Dean asked, fringing surprise.

Amanda shrugged. "Yeah, maybe little bit."

"How is it that, being a stewardess, you're scared to fly?" Dean asked, impressed.

"Kind of a long story," Amanda said.

Dean nodded. "Right. Sorry for asking."

"It's okay," Amanda assured him.

"You ever consider other employment?" Dean asked suddenly.

"No. Look, everybody's scared of something," said Amanda. "I just, uh… I'm not gonna let it hold me back."

Dean was very impressed now. "Huh."

Amanda nodded. "So…" She trailed off and went back to stacking cups.

"Cristo," Dean muttered under his breath.

"I'm sorry, did you say something?" Amanda asked, her eyes perfectly normal, and Dean laughed nervously.

"Cristo?" he asked awkwardly.

Amanda was confused and her eyes were still normal. "I- I didn't — what?"

"Nothing. Never mind," Dean said, waving it off, and went back to his seat, leaving Amanda confused.

"Okay."

Dean returned to the front of the plane and sat down next to Liz and Sam. "All right, well, she's got to be the most well adjusted person on the planet," he muttered.

"You said 'Cristo'?" Sam asked.

Dean nodded. "Yeah."

"And?" Sam pressed.

"There's no demon in her," Dean answered. "There's no demon getting in her."

Sam sighed, disappointed. "So, if it's on the plane, it can be anyone… anywhere."

Just then, the plane began to rumble and shake. "Come on! That can't be normal!" Dean protested and Liz whimpered.

"Hey, hey, it's just a little turbulence," Sam reassured them.

"Sam, this plane is going to crash, okay?" Dean hissed angrily so that no one could hear him. "So quit treatin' me like I'm friggin' four!"

"Not helping, Dean," Liz moaned.

"You need to calm down," Sam insisted. "And you're scaring Liz."

"Well, I'm sorry, I can't!" Dean snapped.

"Dean!" Liz hissed.

Sam sighed and kept talking calmly. "Yes, you can."

"Dude, stow the touchy-feely, self-help yoga crap, it's not helping!" Dean protested.

"Listen, if you or Liz are going to panic, you both are wide open to demonic possession," Sam pointed out, "so you both need to calm yourselves down right now." Dean and Liz paused before letting out a long breath each. "Good." He then opened their father's journal. "Now, I found an exorcism in here that I think is gonna work, the ritual Romano."

"What do we have to do?" Dean asked.

"It's two parts," Sam explained. "The first part expels the demon from the victim's body. It makes it manifest, which actually makes it more powerful."

"More powerful?" Dean and Liz both asked, worried again.

Sam nodded. "Yeah."

"How?" Dean asked, concerned.

"Well, it doesn't need to possess someone anymore," Sam admitted. "It can just wreak havoc on its own."

"Oh, and why is that a good thing?" Dean hissed.

"Well, because the second part sends the bastard back to hell," Sam said with a small shrug.

"Okay, now that makes sense," said Liz, feeling a bit better.

Dean nodded. "First thing's first, we've gotta find it."

A few minutes later, Dean was walking up and down the aisles of the plane with the EMF meter in his hand; he walked by each passenger as they looked at him curiously. Nobody seemed to be possessed. Suddenly, both Liz and Sam came up behind him and Sam slapped him on the back in a good old brotherly fashion.

Dean jumped and glared at them. "Oh! Don't do that!" he hissed.

"Anything?" Sam asked.

"No, nothin'," Dean answered. "How much time we got?"

Sam checked his watch. "Fifteen minutes," he answered. "Maybe we missed somebody."

"Maybe the thing's just not on the plane," Dean said hopefully and Liz rolled her eyes.

"You really believe that?" Sam asked, skeptical.

Dean nodded. "Well, I will if you will."

Sam gave him a knowing look, and suddenly, the EMF meter began to beep frantically. The co-pilot of the plane came out of the restroom and smiled at them; Sam noticed how both Dean and Liz were staring at the co-pilot intently.

"What? What is it?"

"Cristo," Dean said to the co-pilot, and before going back into the cockpit, the co-pilot turned to them. His eyes were completely black, and Dean, Liz, and Sam all stared in awe as the co-pilot turned away from them.

"Okay, we've found the demon."

"Now what?" Liz asked.

"We…" Dean swallowed. "We tell Amanda, get her to help us get to him. C'mon."

The three Winchesters started to head towards the back of the plane, which was closed off by a curtain.

"She's not gonna believe this," Sam protested.

"Twelve minutes, dude," Dean reminded him, and they entered the curtained part of the plane, where Amanda was standing.

"Oh, hi," Amanda said, smiling. "Flight's not too bumpy for you, I hope."

"Actually, that's kind of what we need to talk to you about," Dean said while Sam closed the curtain.

"Um, okay. What can I do for you?" Amanda asked, uncertain.

Dean sighed, exchanging a look with Liz. "All right, this is gonna sound nuts, but we just don't have time for the whole 'The truth is out there' speech right now."

"We know you were on Flight 2485," Sam said.

"Who are you guys?" Amanda asked, suspicious.

"We've spoken to some of the other survivors," Sam explained. "We know something brought down that plane, and it wasn't mechanical failure."

"And we need your help because we need to stop it from happening again, here, now," Liz added.

Amanda became nervous and had the look of a frightened skeptic. "I- I'm sorry, I'm very busy." And she tried to leave, but Dean stopped her.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a second. I'm not gonna hurt you, okay?" he said reassuringly. "But listen to me, the pilot from 2485, Chuck Lambert? He's dead."

"Wait, what? Chuck is dead?" Amanda was clearly shocked by the news.

"He died in a plane crash," Dean explained. "Now, that's two plane crashes in two months. That doesn't strike you as strange?"

"Look, there was something wrong with 2485," Sam said quickly. "Now, maybe you sensed it, and maybe you didn't, but there's something wrong with this flight, too."

Dean nodded. "Amanda, you have to believe us," he requested and they watched her expectantly.

Amanda sighed, and was scared of what she was about to tell them. "On… on 2485, there was this man. He… had these eyes."

Sam nodded. "Yes, that's exactly what we're talking about."

"But I don't understand. What are you asking me to do?" Amanda asked.

"Get the co-pilot," Dean requested. "We need you to bring him back here."

"And the sooner the better," Liz added.

"Why? What does he have to do with anything?" Amanda asked, confused.

"Don't have time to explain. We just need to talk to him, okay?" Dean begged.

Amanda became frustrated. "But how am I supposed to go into the cockpit and get the co-pilot?" she wondered.

"Whatever it takes," said Sam. "Do whatever it takes. Tell him there's something broken back here. Whatever will get him out of that cockpit."

"Do you know that I could lose my job if —" Amanda began to protest.

"You're gonna lose a lot more than that if you don't help us out," Dean interrupted.

After a moment, Amanda sighed. "Okay." And she left the area. Dean, Liz, and Sam watched through the curtain as she knocked on the door of the cockpit. The co-pilot came out, and after a few moments of talking, he and Amanda began walking towards the back of the plane. Dean took out the holy water and Sam pulled out their father's journal in preparation. As soon as the co-pilot entered the area, Dean and Liz both punched him and threw him down on the floor, and Dean covered the co-pilot's mouth with a piece of duct tape.

"What are you doing?" Amanda asked, shocked. "You said you were just gonna talk to him!"

Dean nodded. "We are gonna talk to him," he said lightly.

"Just… not in the way you probably expected," Liz amended.

The co-pilot thrashed wildly as Sam covered him in holy water, and steam began to rise from his clothing and skin as though the water had burned the man, only there were no marks on his skin. Sam knew that it was hurting the demon inside, though.

"Oh, my God, what's wrong with him?" Amanda asked, shocked.

"We need you calm," Sam instructed. "We need you outside the curtain. Don't let anybody in, okay? Can you do that?" When she didn't move or say anything, Sam moved closer. "Amanda?"

"Okay. Okay," Amanda said, panicking, and she left the area and stood outside the curtain.

"Hurry up, Sam," Dean grunted as the co-pilot tried to throw both him and Liz off. "I don't know how much longer we can hold him."

"Hurry!" Liz hissed, shoving the cross into the co-pilot's face and burning the skin on his cheek.

Sam began speaking in Latin, and the co-pilot continued to wrestle with Dean and Liz. Suddenly, the demon became stronger; he knocked the bottle of water out of Sam's hands and threw all three Winchesters against the walls. Sam grabbed the journal and continued reading. The co-pilot ripped the duct tape off his mouth and grabbed Sam's shirt.

"I know what happened to your girlfriend!" the demon hissed and Sam stuttered into silence, shocked. The journal slipped from his numb fingers and clattered to the floor. "She must have died screaming! Even now, she's burning!"

"No," Sam whispered.

Dean and Liz both tried to pull the possessed man away from their little brother and back to the ground, but Sam didn't move. "Sam!" Dean shouted.

"Sam, focus!" Liz cried, struggling to pull the man off Sam.

Pulling himself together, Sam pushed the man away, picked up the journal and continued to speak in Latin. A moment later, he put the journal down and helped Dean and Liz keep the co-pilot on the floor. "I got him!" he shouted.

The co-pilot began screaming, kicked the journal into the aisle of the plane, and he opened his mouth and the demon left his body in a haze of black mist, which seeped into the air vent; the co-pilot laid on the floor, motionless. He had completely passed out.

"Where'd it go?" Sam asked, looking around.

"It's in the plane," Dean answered. "Hurry up, we've got to finish it."

Sam got up to retrieve the journal from the front of the plane when, suddenly, the plane began to go into a dive. Dean and Liz were thrown against a wall, screaming, and the passengers began panicking. In the midst of all the chaos, Sam was able to reach the journal.

"Got it!" he shouted; kneeling in the middle of the aisle, he opened the journal to the exorcism and began screaming in Latin. The plane continued to dive, and both Dean and Liz tried to move but they were once again thrown up against a wall. Liz grabbed Dean's arm tightly and buried her face against his jacket, silently begging Sam to finish the exorcism before it was too late.

Papers and other objects were flying everywhere as Sam finished the final words of the exorcism, and the demon was forced to leave the plane, this time not a mist, but a burbling black smoke that seemed to be writhing in pain. Sam stared out the nearest window, watching as the smoke was consumed from the inside out by dark flames and crackling streaks of electricity before it was gone.

The plane suddenly stopped crashing, and everyone began to calm down as the plane traveled smoothly through the air again. Sam stood up, breathing heavily, and both Dean and Liz came out from behind the curtain and they stared over at Sam. They had saved the plane and its passengers, but Sam looked away from his siblings and shut his eyes tightly, thoughts consumed by the demon's words to him. Jess…

A/N: Talk about a wild ride. R&R everyone!