The Amazons—three of them, if you counted Emma—stood facing one another warily, swords drawn. Sam and Dean were even more suspicious, ready to charge in at any moment and rescue the teenager from the warrior women. The dark-skinned, imposing leader spoke too quietly for the brothers to make out the words, but her tone was clearly questioning. Emma's replies were just as quiet, but her voice was confident, her gestures emphatic.
Another question, another response from Emma, with the teenager pointing back toward Dean this time, and the blonde Amazon lunged forward, eyes flaring and face twisted in anger. The leader barked a command, her sword flashing up to parry the other Amazon's blade, but Dean had already charged in, his femur-handled blade poised to deliver a vicious attack.
Sam joined them, keeping a watchful eye on the tall Amazon, his own machete gripped in his hand. She barked an order in Greek, and the blonde handed over her sword, hilt first, balancing the blade along her forearm in the same archaic gesture Sam recalled Emma using the night she'd given her sword to Dean… The night she'd failed to complete her initiation and kill him.
"My apologies for this brash and disruptive sister," the leader said, sheathing the blonde's blade at her belt. Her solemn expression lightened and she looked almost amused as she surveyed the two brothers, still poised to defend Emma if necessary. "The little one tells me she decided to reject our tribe. I am surprised you did not kill her yourselves, seeing as the Winchester family is well-known for the number of souls you've sent to Purgatory."
"He wanted to kill me," Emma offered, indicating Sam with a jerk of her chin.
Sam shrugged. "Still do, every now and then," he quipped, his tone dry.
"My sister, here, believes death might have been a better fate for her than to be in thrall to a lowly human male—"
"Keep talking death, sweetheart, and I'll show you what a lowly human can do." Dean brandished his weapon.
"My dad is not lowly," Emma argued fiercely. "He's a hero! He saved the world from the Leviathans. That's how he got stuck here in the first place. You might not care about the humans, but the Levis were killing all the monsters on earth, too. My dad saved the tribe!"
"Not on purpose," Dean muttered.
"Shut up, Dean," Sam suggested.
The tall, dignified Amazon looked contemplative. "The Leviathans did manage to escape Purgatory, during the Time of Great Confusion," she murmured.
Sam could only imagine that having one's soul sucked out of its final resting place and carried around inside a megalomaniacal angel would be confusing, and he nodded agreement. "My brother is the one that sent them back."
"So he is an exceptional human," she said. "Still, you threw yourself on the mercy of a male, relied on his protection—"
"Only until my training was complete," Emma argued, "because I knew otherwise the tribe would kill me. I can take care of myself, now," she said, lifting her chin defiantly.
Sam and the leader shared a wry look over the teenager's head. "Trained to be a hunter, not a daughter of the tribe," she scoffed lightly. "Still, your case does seem to be exceptional. Walk with me, mikri adelphi,and speak for yourself, if you truly can."
Dean let out a low growl and took a step forward, Sam hard on his heels. Emma opened her mouth to protest, but the leader gave a wave of her hand and the blonde Amazon dropped to her knees in front of Dean.
"A hostage for Emma's safe return," the leader said negligently.
Once again the brothers were left to fidget and strain their ears as the mismatched pair walked a short distance away. They spoke, the leader calm, Emma animated, as the older woman gestured to the forest ahead. Dean dealt with his frustration by looming over the sullen, stoic Amazon, his blade poised above her bent neck. Sam simply folded his arms and waited, scanning the trees for the possibility of an attack from some totally unrelated monster. It was never a good idea to get too distracted in Purgatory. He turned abruptly at the sound of Dean's voice.
"Hey. What's she doing? Emma Jo?"
Sam caught a glimpse of Emma on tiptoe before the teen stepped back from the much taller Amazon leader.
"Did she just kiss her? Son of a bitch," Dean exploded, "she made a deal... Hey!" he called out, "she doesn't speak for us!"
"They're Amazons, not crossroads demons," Sam argued, but Emma came bounding back across the clearing, her expression a mixture of pride and apprehension.
"It's a good deal, Dad. And I had to speak for all of us," she explained hurriedly. "Mother Amani won't negotiate with men."
"What's the deal?" Sam asked shrewdly, motioning for Dean to hear Emma out. If they didn't like it, he reasoned, they'd just be back where they started… Though with the advantage of a hostage.
"An alliance," Emma said. "A temporary alliance, to benefit both sides. There's a nest of vampires up ahead, on the way to the portal. There's like, eight or nine of them. We team up with the Amazons against the vamps, and in return we get safe passage almost all the way to the portal."
Sam watched the blonde as the leader walked back to join them. The blonde inclined her head in agreement. "It is a good deal," she said. "I will honor it." She stood swiftly and gave Emma a chaste peck on the lips, then turned to share a far more lingering kiss with the leader.
Dean looked deeply disturbed by the exchange. "I'm not kissing any crazy man-killers," he said. "That ship has sailed."
"Oh, gross, Dad." Emma shook her head.
"The treaty has been made," the leader, Amani, intoned. "If either of you males violate it, we will hold Emma accountable."
Sam looked at Dean and shrugged. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend?" he suggested. Neither would admit it in front of the Amazons, but fighting the warrior women wasn't an option either relished, not with Emma involved. Besides, Sam thought philosophically, if they had to face a big nest of vamps, two more skilled fighters wouldn't hurt.
Dean looked resigned. "We've had worse allies."
The fragile alliance could easily agree on one thing: it would be suicidally reckless to engage the vampires in the dark. They'd settled down for the night in a shallow cave, little more than a cleft at the base of a rocky cliff, but a spot the five of them could easily defend.
The blonde Amazon, Eleni, had taught Emma a game that seemed to combine the rules of mumbledypeg and a nameless hand-slapping game Sam vaguely remembered from the elementary school playgrounds of his childhood. From what Sam could tell, it was violent, childish, stupid, and, predictably, Dean was winning. The three continued playing long after it was too dark to even see if their knives had hit the makeshift target.
Beside him, Amani chuckled as the sound of a slap rang out in the darkness, accompanied by a grumble from Dean, who had apparently lost a round to Eleni. "Our kind reach physical maturity quickly," she mused quietly, "but the mind and emotions require more nurturing that sometimes, I fear, the tribe fails to provide."
"What happens to the girls who don't pass their initiations?" Sam meant young Amazon girls who arrived in Purgatory, killed, he assumed, by their own fathers in self-defense, or by the tribe in retaliation for their failure.
"Most of us feel they have already served a harsh enough punishment," Amani replied. "They suffer no more here than any other member of the tribe."
Sam nodded, though he doubted Amani could see the gesture in the dark of Purgatory's moonless night. Emma's eventual fate, an eternity in Purgatory, had been weighing heavily on his mind. Dean's too, he was sure. At least she wouldn't be rejected by the Amazons, he thought, but that thought was cold comfort.
"Did you have a daughter?" he couldn't resist asking Amani.
"I never conceived...Though not for lack of trying."
"I'm sorry," Sam murmured, feeling awkward.
"You shouldn't be," she pointed out dryly. "If I had had a daughter, she would have been the death of at least one of your kind."
Sam laughed incredulously, liking the warrior woman in spite of himself.
"I have no regrets," Amani went on. "I generally found the mating duty enjoyable," she added in a low tone, "as long as I was paired with a tall, good-looking man." Sam startled as he felt her hand brush his thigh, and the Amazon leader let out another soft, throaty chuckle. "Not interested, Sam?"
"Er...Thanks, but no thanks, Amani." If Dean caught wind of this, he thought ruefully, he'd never let him live it down.
The wan light of dawn found Emma and Eleni leaning against one another, asleep. None of them ever seemed to tire, but the constant threat of attack led to mental fatigue. Sam thought he might have dozed off himself for a few moments. Amani chuckled at the sight and Dean just shook his head.
"You're being pretty diplomatic with the crazy man-killers," Sam murmured softly as they took stock of their weapons, giving the two youngest members of the party a few more minutes of peace.
Dean shrugged. "I don't mind trying to get along, for Emma's sake. Like Amani said, these crazy man-killers are dead; an eternity here in monster heaven is probably punishment enough."
Sam's eyebrows rose. "That's lenient. You really think that?"
"What am I supposed to do, Sam? My kid is one of them." Dean nudged Eleni none too gently with his boot, indicating the conversation was over. "Come on, Sleeping Beauty. Rise and shine. We've got vampires to gank."
Author's note: Many thanks to RHatch89, Nyx Ro, Spacemonkey52, nani'anela, steelcandy, Angels are Watching Over You, CommChatter, Olivia Crane, elliefrog, whack sparrow, Sage of wind Dragons, CatastrophicCarnival, nmrls, StarTrail, Pinklove21, new21writer, and Loving-The-Originals for the reviews! I do appreciate them so much and always take your questions, comments, and concrit into account. Thank you so much for the support and I hope you are all having a lovely summer (...or winter if you happen to live in the southern hemisphere.)