*
Castiel stares after Bobby and Sam, his eyes unreadable. He lifts his face heavenward, listens and nods, "Yes, Father, you were right. It seems they are heroes."
He turns with a sigh and follows them into battle.
*
There's movement everywhere, dark, shadowy figures that are barely visible through all the acrid smoke.
Sam can't see behind or in front of him. A shout to Bobby echos back at him, forlorn in its loneliness. His eyes burning, watering from the thick brimstone, he squints, seeing the figures writhing and twisting, like they're moving to a dark and twisted dance.
It's the angels. They're flying everywhere, some grappling with demons in hand to hand combat, others using holy weapons, impaling the evil with staffs and swords, still others using their hands to smite the demons down, burning the evil essence out of the meat suits. As far as his eye can see, he sees them, engaged in a horrific battle, fighting to the death.
A demon rushes towards him, his black eyes shining evilly and Sam puts out his hand, stopping the thing in its tracks.
Sam's eyes glitter as he gathers his power around him, sending out a giant push towards the entity, causing it to retch and heave, black smoke coughing out into the night. He reaches out towards the demon entity, squeezing it in his hands and burning it up.
Someone walks slowly out of the night towards him, a shadow that stops just before the smoke clears, a few feet in front of him.
"Hello, grumpy." A voice, trying to be human, drawls at him. Sam puts out his hand towards the voice and Pamela Barnes walks forward, "I'm afraid that's not going to work on me, Sam."
Sam holds out his hand, staring at her with cold eyes, "Excuse me if I don't believe you." and focuses his mind, pulling the force from every part of his brain and shoving it forward, towards the entity with a huge PUSH.
Pamela throws back her head as the energy hits her body, surrounding her with an amber aura that glows in the dim light. She puts out her hands, holding them claw-like, gripping the amber light and throwing it away from her, back towards Sam.
Suddenly, a searing pain slashes through Sam's brain, blinding him with shooting stars and fireworks that burst behind his eyes. He screams in agony, gripping his skull and falling to his knees, his ears filled with the roar of blood rushing through his brain, his mind ripping apart, coming undone and he can do nothing but rock back and forth, cradling his shrieking head.
Precious seconds pass and Sam's body is rigid, trembling as if with seizure, and then-
The pain is gone as if it never was and he can see again. He feels the blood dripping from his nose and realizes he's bitten his tongue almost clean through. A low hum in his head start to build, intensifying as the deep layers of his mind swirl upward, coming together, building into a force that simmers just under the surface.
Slowly, Sam gets to his feet and turns to the False Prophet, who's grinning at him wickedly, knowing how badly she's hurt him. She shakes her head, "That was too easy, Sam."
He wipes the blood from his nose slowly, staring back at Pamela with vague eyes, his brain befuddled and slow.
From the corner of his eye, Sam sees a demon coming towards him fast and a surge of adrenaline shoots through his body. Without conscious thought, Sam flexes his mind, the force leaping up in him huge and frightening and the demon drops like a stone, the black smoke leaking out of its mouth.
The grin is wiped from the Liar's face in an instant, replaced with shock, surprise and a deep fear. She takes two steps back and Sam advances on her. Pamela suddenly turns tail and runs back towards Lucifer, giving one terrified glance over her shoulder as she goes.
Shit, did that just happen? Where the hell did that come from? All he did was look at that demon and then...
Confused, Sam rubs his forehead but there's no pain anymore, not even a twinge. If anything, he feels better than ever, stronger, more alive. Even now, Sam feels the intense energy working in his brain and he's changing, evolving, his power growing tenfold, then twenty until it's a bonfire inside of him. It slithers around in his brain, whispering to him, struggling to come to the surface and show its face to all. He grits his teeth against it, trying to push it down and deny its existence, even as he clings desperately to his own humanity.
His body shakes with effort to keep the dark at bay. He won't let it come forward. He can't!
All around him, the war rages on, angels flying around, wings snapping, smiting demons as quickly as they can, touching foreheads and pulling the evilness out of the meat suits by force. As Sam watches, demons are overpowering the holy warriors, because of the sheer number of evil beings. They're too many of them and not enough angels and the good guys are losing, losing badly and they need a leader to tell them to fall back, regroup and get a better game plan.
Gripped by a clarity he has never felt before, Sam knows what he must do. With a tired sigh, he stops fighting against himself and his own destiny. He lets his mental walls fall down, crumbling into pieces as the new powers gleefully burst through.
Sam lets himself Become.
Once loose, the power runs rampant through his mind, swirling into and onto itself, calling into the farthest reaches of his brain, pulling every tendril, every fiber of power towards the center, becoming huge and pulsing, filling his head and his body with a force that glows around him, a glimmer that vibrates like a second skin.
He pulls himself up to his full height and begins to walk through the fray, arms outstretched, staring straight ahead. As he moves, he pushes his power through his hands, fingers shimmering with the force of it and he barely needs to touch them, just needs to brush them with his fingertips and every demon he touches drops like a rock, hitting the ground heavy, smoky tendrils escaping from their noses and mouths, burning up with the aura coming from Sam's hands.
Sam sees Dean up ahead, standing next to Lucifer and Pamela, who's pointing at him through the smoke. They watch as he advances, taking down every demon he passes, leaving only silence in his wake, until he comes to stand in front of them. The demons, the ones still ahead of him, still living, rush to hide behind their Father, cowering under His wing of protection.
Behind Sam, the angels come, gathering around him, whispering among themselves, saying not a word but Sam can hear them talking to each other in his mind. He holds up a hand to quiet them and they fall silent, waiting for a sign to take action.
*
Bobby lost sight of Sam as soon as he rounded the corner of the church, the dense, black smoke making it impossible to see two feet in front of him. Pushing back his hat, Bobby crouches, running low to the ground, hugging close to the trees until he can see what's coming. He blinks and rubs his eyes, the heavy smoke making them blurry with tears, and sees a car in the parking lot that looks like the Impala. He moves closer and sure enough, it's Dean's car.
He crawls to it and eases open the door, popping the trunk, quickly going through the contents, grabbing items that are small and easy to carry, holy water, guns, talismans and then, with a triumphant cry, the demon knife which he quickly pockets, slamming the trunk shut.
He sees the girl grinning at him over the trunk as soon as he shuts it, standing there with black eyes shining. She throws herself forward and he barely gets the knife out in time, shoving it through her stomach and pulling up, gutting her. Sparks shoot from the wound and her meat suit collapses onto the knife. Bobby pulls it out and lets her fall, wiping it on his pants, moving quickly.
It's harder to hit a moving target.
Bobby helplessly watches the angels all around, fighting and losing, being overpowered, their own weapons turned back onto themselves, and they're dying horribly, painfully, screaming in agony as they are taken down by the tide of demons surrounding them. He sees a crowd of demons circle around one of the holy beings, and hears the horrible screaming as it's being torn apart by the evil entities surrounding it. He runs to help, swinging the knife in low, stabbing the nearest demon, dispatching it quickly and slashes at the next one.
The others surround him and now he's the one who's in trouble because it's three on one and Bobby can't stab them quick enough. They're taking him down and son of a bitch if this is the way he's going out, it's way too early in the game to matter to anyone, and he's swinging wildly, kicking his legs but they heft him up off the ground and start to carry him away.
Suddenly, the angel he saved is a blur, touching two demons at once, the power in her hands mighty and quick and the evil ones stiffen, the black eyes burning out with white light and they fall, dropping Bobby heavily to the ground. He rolls away fast, jumping up and burying his knife into the third one's heart, sparks flying and body jerking, finally falling, lifeless, to the pavement.
Panting, he turns to face the angel, a woman with large eyes and long flowing hair, etheral and beautiful, her glow of glory surrounding her, sending a warmth over him like he has never felt before.
Anna smiles and reaches up to touch Bobby's cheek, holding his face for a moment before mouthing a 'Thank you' and turning to fly back into the battle.
Bobby watches her, still basking in her warm glow, smiling without knowing why. Behind him, he hears something big happening, some sort of commotion that's sending the demons around him running scared, scurrying towards Lucifer like rats in the sewer smelling fresh meat. What the hell?
Bobby can't think of anything powerful enough to be frightening to a demon because it seems they're not even scared of the angels now that their Father has risen. One of the evil sons of bitches runs by Bobby, turning to look behind him and Bobby grabs him, stabbing him in the heart without much thought, dropping the meat suit to the pavement before turning to look in the direction they're all running from.
What he sees has his jaw dropping on the floor.
It's Sam, arms outstretched, fingers splayed, walking with a steady pace towards Lucifer and as he moves, demons are dropping dead all around him. Sam's body is glowing, shimmering and his eyes...there's something wrong with his eyes. They're not demon eyes but they're piercing, glittering, shining with power.
Sam walks by him without even seeing, looking straight ahead at Dean, Pamela and Lucifer, striding towards them with purpose, with intention. Sam comes to a halt in front of the Unholy Trinity and dead silence fills the night. The angels are following Sam and the demons are hiding behind Lucifer and the war is at a standstill.
*
Bobby walks up next to Sam to stand by his side. Sam flicks his glance sideways and catches Bobby's, nodding at him to stay his ground. Castiel flies up to stand shoulder to shoulder with Sam and Uriel appears at Bobby's left. As one, they move forward, advancing on the Trinity until they are but a mere few feet away.
Lucifer starts to move forward but Dean puts out a hand, "Father, this one is mine."
With a smile, Lucifer drops back and Pamela steps forward, next to Dean. Face to face, they stand, waiting for the other side to make the first move.
Uriel stares at Pamela, hate and repulsion in his eyes. Pamela gloats at him, "Do I make you sick, Angel? Or do you secretly want to be like me? I don't have to try to avoid temptation, holy one, I am temptation! Bow down before me and show me the respect I deserve!"
"I will never bow to such a vomitous mass such as you! I will send you back to the bowels of hell and you'll scream for God's mercy."
Pamela leans forward, baring her teeth at Uriel and snarls, "I said bow down!" and raises her hand towards the angel who staggers, struggling with an unseen weight on his shoulders and falls onto his knees, face twisted in rage at the manipulation of his body.
The psychic comes towards Uriel, moving to tower over him where he kneels before her and the angel grips his chest, choking and gasping as his heart is squeezed in an invisible vise. He starts to turn blue, eyes and tongue bulging out and his body is twitching, gasping for air and he's starting to lose consciousness.
Pamela is ripped backwards suddenly, thrown onto the pavement with a sickening thud.
Bobby helps Uriel up, the angel taking in great whoops of air.
Pamela staggers to her feet, her face bloody, nose broken and glares hatefully at Sam, "You'll regret that, Sam!"
Sam's eyes burn into hers as he reaches out to her, fingers outstretched, power humming in his hands. Pamela's body jerks as the force of it hits her and Sam pulls as hard as he can, straining with the effort. Her body dances as if electrified and the amber eyes staring back at Sam start to fade and then the color comes back into them, the Liar fighting desperately to stay inside the host. Soon, the eyes fade and don't come back and Sam is winning the fight, pulling the False Prophet out...
Suddenly, something hits Sam's face hard, snapping his head to one side and breaking his eye contact with the Evil Seer. She collapses to the ground, exhausted, the amber eyes blazing back. This round Sam has lost.
Sam slowly turns his head back to the front, his eyes full of hate, meeting the malicious stare of the AntiChrist, who shakes his finger at him with an evil smile, making a 'tsk, tsk' sound with his mouth, "I'm afraid I can't let you do that."
Dean waves his hand and Sam is hit hard with an invisible force, knocking the wind out of him but Sam doesn't go down, locking his legs underneath him so he can stand his ground against the assault. Frustrated that he can't get Sam to fall, Dean scowls at his brother, gritting his teeth on the words, "You will go down, Sammy. Just a matter of time..."
Sam nods to Bobby, motioning to the angels to help him, "Take care of her." pointing to the False Prophet.
He turns his attention back to the thing that inhabits his brother, "I'll deal with this one. And by the way, asshole? My name is Sam."
*