Chapter Ten.
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When Dean saw his Baby in all her black shining glory, he understood that his time in Purgatory was really over.
She was his home, his and Sam's.
She was where they had grown up, played, eaten, slept, argued, tended their wounds and sat on her hood to watch the stars on warm summer nights. Just the sight of her sleek lines soothed his soul and boosted his courage.
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He looked over her roof to his brother who had come to stand at the passenger door and he smiled, the smile of a man who had overcome everything that humans, angels, demons or monsters had thrown at him and survived.
Sam was his brother, yet more, a kindred spirit like himself, who had survived the same things that he had, who understood and cared for him as no other person did, and who completed and complimented him just as he completed and complimented Sam.
They were brothers and a team.
It was, and always would be him and Sam against the world, until their last moment on this green and blue Earth.
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He didn't have to put his feelings into words, they hung silent in the air between them.
Instead what he did say was simple and to the point.
"Come on Sam, I'm starving. Let's go get some food and head for Rufus' cabin."
"You're lucky no-one stole the Impala 'cause that's where I left all my cash and credit cards, otherwise you wouldn't have gotten to bite down on a burger tonight, unless you stole one," Sam teased.
"Well my Baby's still here as is your cash Sammy and I haven't eaten anything for five Purgatory years, so let's go get them greasy calories."
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Sam rolled his eyes.
He had gotten his brother back; and tonight Dean could eat as many burgers as he liked. Sam wasn't going to bitch about healthy food, well not until tomorrow anyway! He was just so happy to have Dean back.
The brothers ditched the stolen car behind the Impala, stocked up with food at the nearest diner and headed to the cabin.
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Dean cranked up the music, as he feasted his eyes on his burger, and sighed with orgasmic delight as he sunk his teeth into the first bite.
"You know, Dean, I'm feeling rather uncomfortable here, If you and that burger want to get a room...?" Sam smiled fondly at his brother's pleasure.
"No way, Sammy! I've just got my Baby back after so long, my teeth sunk into a delicious burger and my broody little brother by my side; all I want to do now is drive until we get there!"
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Sam switched on the old TV set in the cabin.
"C'mere Dean," he called.
Dean joined him in front of the set as the announcer spoke of the explosion of a gas storage plant in a secluded country area. The explosion was so strong that the shock-waves imitated an earthquake and the sky was lit up brighter than the sun.
The brothers exchanged glances.
This time the proverbial Winchester bad luck had lost its way and they had received some good luck instead.
Dean just gave an ironical grunt as he met Sam's astonished eyes.
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"Come on Sammy! Time for bed. This is a day to mark on the calendar, the day the Winchester luck turned!"
Sam huffed as he switched off and threw himself down on the bed.
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The being appeared in front of them, solid yet at the same time translucent, shimmering like some futuristic hologram, surrounded by a white dream-like mist.
"Finally we meet," it said.
"I am pleased my children. You have demonstrated all the best characteristics of Mankind, love, care, sacrifice, and martyrdom and through it all your souls have remained pure and untainted, becoming stronger after each difficulty.
You were both forged in Heaven as vessels for angels even if...," he glanced over at Sam, " ...even if one of the angels took the wrong path, his vessel is not to blame.
I have praised you enough, now I have business to discuss. I have a task for you, an important one that only you, Dean, the most indomitable and courageous of my soldiers and you Samuel, brother, companion-in–arms and warrior-scribe can carry out.
You must search for the thirteen tablets bearing the Words of God.
When you have found all of them, Samuel must decipher the text and once done you will perform the ritual which is written on the thirteenth slab, to close not only the Gates of Hell, but those of all three realms, Heaven and Purgatory too.
When it is done, no creature will be able to meddle in the affairs of Earth again, and Man will either grow or fall on his own merits. Only the souls of the dead will be able to pass through the veil on their journey to the after-life.
Angels have caused no less damage to Humanity than demons, and so it is fitting that they too be confined to Heaven as the demons to Hell and the monsters to their eternal hunt in Purgatory."
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The Winchesters looked on, unable to utter a word, as the being seemed to smile although his lips didn't move.
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"My child," he addressed Dean, "your brother has been remiss in giving you back something that is yours so I will do it for him."
Dean looked down as the Amulet appeared in his hand.
"Wear it always; it is necessary for your quest. It will not function for anyone else, not even for angels, only for you; its true master.
Go now my children and continue down the road that was destined for you."
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Dean finally managed to find his voice. "But there is already a search for God's words," he declared confused.
"My child, that is what you might call...a diversion; a ruse to keep the attention of the supernatural away from the true quest.
The youth and his mother have their own destiny to follow."
"But how can we find these tablets," Dean asked bewildered. "We have no idea where to start."
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"What you hold in your hand was forged in Heaven and it will indicate the way. Have faith my warriors, you have never failed me in the past, neither will you in the future."
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"Who are you?" Sam blurted out.
"One of my children gave you an answer once, Samuel, which I will make my own. It went something like this "That's for me to know and for you to find out!"
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Dean woke up with a start, his body covered in sweat, the dream he had just experienced reverberating in his head. It had seemed so real.
He glanced quickly over at the other bed where Sam was beginning to stir.
"Dean," his brother's soft voice called."I've just had the weirdest dream ever. It seemed so real."
Sam voiced the very words that had just been in his own mind.
"Clowns or midgets?" Dean said, giving his standard reply, but truthfully he was still disoriented by his dream.
Sam didn't send out a bitchface, which meant that whatever his brother had dreamt had affected Sam as much as his own had done.
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"Okay, " he smirked. "I'll tell you mine if you'll tell me yours."
"I dunno," Sam began. "There was this strange guy doing a lot of talking, calling us warriors and giving us a mission to….. to close the gates…."
"….. of Heaven, Hell and Purgatory." Dean interrupted, finishing off his brother's words."Then he sorta shimmered like a hologram."
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Sam looked at him confused. "Is it possible that we've had the same dream, Dean?"
"Seems like it dude, although I'd say it was more like a vision than a dream."
"Yeah," Sam agreed. "But minus the migraines, thank God," he said, remembering the crippling headaches that he had suffered.
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"If we really did have identical dreams, then you know what he said about the quest and about a certain object that we would need. You do know what I'm referring to, Sammy?"
Sam's cheeks suffused with a pinkish hue, as he got Dean's meaning, and he realised that at least that part of the dream was true.
"Dean, I…," Sam began.
Dean held up a hand. "You don't have to say anything Sam. I was a real dick that day."
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Sam just nodded and went to take a small paper-wrapped packet from his duffle and held it out to Dean. His brother took it eagerly, ripping away the paper and cupping it in his hand.
He knew it was impossible but somehow the little metallic object seemed to let out a purr, as if happy to be back where it belonged.
He placed it round his neck and its presence made him feel better, stronger, happier. Better than a placebo, he thought to himself ironically!
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His and Sam's eyes met, but no more explanations were necessary.
Sam had given and Dean had taken. They were good.
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"Harrumph, " Dean coughed, defusing the emotion-filled moment.
"That part of the vision was true anyway. I wonder if anything else was?" But Dean found himself talking to thin air as Sam had already gone to boot up his lap-top.
"Sorry, Dean, but I want to get the dream written up before we forget all the details," Sam explained.
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Dean contemplated his little brother and thought how well the words of the dream-man fitted him.
"Brother, companion-in–arms and warrior-scribe." Yup, that was his Sammy all right.
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XXX TBC XXX.