After Dean had tested Cas in all possible ways and wondered why he didn't have a test that would tell if he was an angel, they headed to Oregon.
"Do you have a weapon that will work on a dragon?" Cas asked.
Dean pulled out t the weapon he got in Purgatory. "This will work on anything except angels and demons."
"Handy."
SSS
Sam found a sharp rock and was rubbing his ropes against it to cut them. Unfortunately he was cutting his wrists at the same time. He wasn't sure what good this was going to do. He couldn't see anything. But, he couldn't just sit here waiting for the dragon to come back and kill him. Or just sit here and starve to death when the dragon didn't come back.
SSS
"What exactly is the plan?" the dragon asked. "If you want to kill Sam in front of Dean, why did you have me stash him in a cave?"
"Dean will go in the cave to save Sam. He'll have a flashlight or something. But, either way, when you breathe fire on his brother, Dean will see it. He'll smell Sam's burning flesh. He'll hear his screams."
"OK, then, what's with the skin change?"
"Back up plan, just in case."
SSS
"Man there are a lot of cliffs and beaches in Oregon," Dean complained two days later.
"Well, there aren't any caves at this one, at least. We can move on," Castiel said.
"What if we don't find him? What if they lied to us? Maybe instead of being in a cave in Oregon, he's in a swamp in Florida."
"We just have to keep looking," Cas said.
"I know." Dean's one rule was to never give up on Sammy. He'd never done it before, he certainly wasn't going to start now.
SSS
Sam had been crawling for what seemed like forever. He had to feel his way along the wall. He had gone down a couple of dead ends. The only bright spot, symbolically, was that he had found some fresh, running water. He had been about to give up, but the water had given him strength. It was wearing off, though. He didn't know how much further he could go. He could be really close to the mouth or far away.
SSS
"I really hadn't expected Dean to take this long. Maybe you should go bring Sam some food," the shifter said the dragon.
"What's the difference? If Dean finds him and he's already dead, he'll blame himself for not finding him fast enough. That will be good enough."
"NO!" the shifter shouted. "He has to see Sam die. I've replayed my death scene a thousand times, and each time I've changed the ending to Sam dying before his brother's eyes. You're not going to rob me of that."
"Well, if this all happens in the cave and you're out here, you're not going to see it anyway."
"You'll take me in with you."
"Whatever. I'll go feed him."
The dragon changed form and flew into the cave. He stopped short when he had only gone 100 yards and Sam was crawling towards the exit.
Sam heard the flapping of wings and tried to press himself against the cave wall.
The dragon wasn't sure what he should do. He couldn't see in here in his human form, but the hostage had to be tied up again. He had gotten too close to getting out. He swooped down and grabbed Sam in his talons.
As the approached the mouth of the cave, Sam closed his eyes against the light. He felt himself being dropped to the ground a couple of seconds later. Luckily, it wasn't a long drop. He slowly opened his eyes and came face to face with himself.
"What did you bring him out for?"
"He came untied," the dragon answered, once he had changed form again.
They heard a car in the distance. "Crap, that's them," the shifter said. "We don't have time to get back in the cave. Circle around and provide cover." He grabbed a knife and put it to Sam's throat. "Come on. Get behind these rocks." He didn't wait for compliance, but shoved him where he wanted him.
Dean saw the dragon overhead. "This must be the right place."
"Let's get out."
They got out of the car and ran towards the cave. There was no outrunning a dragon, anyway, and Dean was going to do his best to achieve his objective of saving Sam. According to the shifter, he was in a cave.
The dragon breathed fire about five feet from Dean. He wasn't sure why he cared, but the shifter would be mad at him if he killed him. He realized that there was no such limitations on the angel, though. He swooped down so that he could rake at him with his claws. Sometimes the fire was just too fast for his liking.
Dean saw that the dragon was going to go after Cas. He waited until the dragon's belly was directly above him and thrust his weapon into the air. It found its mark. The dragon glided about a dozen feet and crashed to the ground.
"Show time," the shifter whispered to Sam when he had witnessed the dragon's demise. He couldn't believe how stupid that dragon was. Like he was going to let anyone else be in charge of Dean's misery. He grabbed Sam up, and tackled him off the rocks. They began fighting. Dean wouldn't know who was who, until it was too late. This was the mistake he had made the first time. He should have changed into Sam's skin, so Dean wouldn't be able to kill so fast. Confusion was a shifter's best weapon and he had squandered it last time.
Dean saw two Sam's fighting. Obviously one of them was the shifter, but how would he know which one. He started running towards them. Distance couldn't be helping the situation.
"Sammy!" he yelled as he drew his gun—filled with silver bullets, of course.
Two heads turned toward him. "Stop fighting and separate," he yelled.
The real Sam would trust him. The shifter would continue to fight. Or, if the shifter obeyed to, he could do a quick silver test. Either way, he would know for sure.
Sam sighed in relief. His brother seemed to be more in control of his emotions than the last time he had seen him. He knew exactly what Dean was doing, so he tried to disengage with the shifter and roll in the opposite direction.
The shifter also knew what Dean was doing. He had anticipated this. When Sam tried to roll away, the shifter grabbed him back, while retrieving his knife from his pocket. He placed the knife to Sam's throat. "You really think it would be that easy?"
"You kill him, you're dead next. You really want that." It was so eerie to threaten someone who looked exactly like Sam. You'd think after all these years of demon possessions and shapeshifters, he would be used to such things.
"That's where you're wrong," the shifter said and started backing up towards the cliff.
"There's nowhere to go," Dean pointed out, confused.
"Falling won't kill me, Dean. Not unless I fall on a silver knife."
Dean's eyes widened. The shifter was going to go over the cliff with Sam and walk away.
"That's the look I was waiting for. And it will look even better that last millisecond before we go over."
Dean tried looking for an opening. But it had to be a heart shot. Sam was being held too tightly to throw the shifter off. The shifter knew all their moves.
Sam was trying to pull the shifter's arm off. But, he knew it was useless. This was a hold their dad had taught them. Unless your attacker was significantly weaker than you, there was no escape. Yet, suddenly, Sam felt a slackening of pressure. He wondered if they were at the edge and starting to go down. But, he still felt his feet solidly behind him. He pushed forward and heard two gunshots.
He turned back to see the shifter falling back onto Cas. That explained it. Cas had snuck up behind the shifter and pulled him off of him. "Thanks," Sam whispered.
"Sam, are you OK?" Dean asked as he ran forward to join his brother and friend.
"Yeah. Are you? You're not going to drug me again, are you?"
"No. I'm sorry about that. I was just afraid of being alone. You were going to leave me for a normal life."
"Did you really free all of Purgatory?"
"Yeah. Not my best move."
"Well, the good news, is that since you dropped your arms early, once all the monsters were out, the door closed above them," Cas said.
"What exactly does that mean?" Sam asked.
"It means that when a monster is killed, it will be stuck down there again. It can't climb back out."
"Great. So, I have to go kill a million monsters, now?" Dean asked.
"No." Sam said.
"What do you mean no?" Dean asked. If geek boy knew of some spell, that would be great.
"We have to go kill a million monsters. When one of us makes a mess, we both clean it up. Right?"
"Are you sure? I know you wanted that normal life."
Sam laughed humorlessly. "I doubt anyone will have a normal life with all these monsters roaming around."
"Well, then," Cas said. "We have work to do."
The End