Author's Chapter Notes:

Hi

Thanks for the reviews folks, I'm glad that you are enjoying this little strange tale. and I apologise profusely for the lack of responses but there have been so many school hols and birthdays lately that I'm hardly at the PC.

Sorry about the cliffie, to make it up to you...I've let evil muse loose!! *smiles apologetically* :)

Ruby is playing good cop, bad cop here all by herself!! Don't you wonder which one she'll end up??

Hope you enjoy this. Mary x

Black King and Black Queen Attack

Robert moved closer to Dean as he felt the hunter tense beside him.

"What's wrong?"

"He's here, Ellicott and something else…Alastair's close by." Dean turned to Robert with the panic showing in his eyes. "He's done something….changed things somehow." Dean stopped talking and let his head drop to his chest. He let out a small half-cry and Robert watched in horror as the fingers marks that he'd helped heal only minutes before started to appear again.

"Why can't I see Ellicott?" He lifted Dean's head and closed his own hand over the marks again, felt the pain spike though his own body.

"Don't….know." Dean could hear the doctor's chuckle next to his ear, feel the fingers digging into his scalp. The pain jolted through him and he bit back the cry.

"Enjoying that Dean?"

Both men looked up at the sound of Alastair's voice and Robert watched as the others slid away for the moment, back into the shadows, hiding from Hell's chief torturer.

It was Robert that saw the form slumped at Alastair's feet first. "Sam?" He wanted to check on the younger Winchester but knew that he was the only thing keeping Dean's pain at an almost tolerable level. If he let go he might loose Dean completely. As it was he felt Dean stir beside him at the mention of his brother's name.

"What did you do to him?" Dean's voice sounded broken. "If you've touched my brother, I'll kill you myself." There was menace in Dean's tone but there was no force behind the words as he struggled to fight the attentions of the good doctor.

Alastair laughed. "You can't even stand Dean, besides it would be a lot easier for me to kill both of you at the moment…I mean the gang's all here so who's minding the bodies back in the motel?" He paused for a moment. "Oh, must be Ruby. Do you think if I gave her a choice between her skin and yours that she fall on the sword? She's my ace in the hole, so unpredictable…you gotta love her."

Dean snorted. "Not really."

"Oh I forgot, you and Ruby…you two don't play well together." He kicked Sam and smiled at the groan it elicited. "Don't like sharing your toy." He knelt down and pulled Sam up into a sitting position. "Wakey, wakey, Sammy boy…welcome to your brother's nightmare."

Sam put a hand down to support himself, pushed up and looked round, trying to get a grip on were he was and what was happening. He looked across and saw Robert and Dean sitting a few feet away. He tried to move towards them but Alastair stopped him and turned to Robert.

"Now if I'm not mistaken you had a little trick you were going to use Sam for. You keep Dean here while Sammy exorcises his little playmates back to hell." Alastair turned to the group and they stepped forward as if he'd called them. "Let's see how that works."

Alastair sat on a chair that until a few minutes before hadn't been there and folded his arms. "Oh I forgot." He raised his hand and flicked it at Dean causing him to groan again. Robert watched as the finger marks on Dean's head faded again. "The good doctor's on a break, but he'll be back and if you haven't finished your little show by them I may just let him finish Dean."

Alastair clapped his hands. "Let the games commence."

Robert let go of Dean and stood, carefully walking over to Sam and then dragging him back over beside him. Dean turned to his brother, eyes full of concern. "You ok? Did he hurt you?"

"I'm fine. You look like shit by the way." The manner that the line was thrown at him made Dean half smile, reassured slightly that his brother was unharmed…for now at least.

Robert stood and addressed the others, trying to ignore Alastair and the bored expression on his face. "Who's first?"

There was a moments hesitation and then Carrie stepped forward. "I'll go first."

Robert acknowledged her and faced Sam. "I'll need you to hold onto her while I break Dean away. Whatever you do, don't push until I'm ready or we'll all end up downstairs." He sat down between the brothers and took Dean's hand.

"Sam, give me your hand." Sam obliged. "Can you split Dean from the crowd, just a little and then link him and I together."

"I'll try." Sam sighed, squeezed Robert's hand and sought out his brother in the jumble in his head. He was aware of Robert's presence the whole time as he latched onto his brother and led him to the other man. Robert felt like a weight holding his brother down in Sam's head and Sam supposed that's what he was. Dean's anchor for the moment.

Once he was sure that Robert had a grip on Dean he let both of them go and turned to Carrie.

"What do I do?" She stepped forward, again, closing the gap.

"Just relax, and don't fight me."

She nodded and Sam raised his hand in the air and tenuously caught her. "Tell me when." He spoke to Robert.

Robert focused on Dean, mentally pulling him closer to him. "Now."

Sam pushed and Robert felt the tug as Carrie involuntarily struggled against the pull.

Sam opened his eyes and saw the figure in front of him fade and then form again. "Don't fight me…please."

Fear flashed briefly in Carrie's eyes and then she relaxed completely and Sam had her. There was a small flash of light and she was gone.

Sam had been expecting smoke but then he realised that none of these bodies were actually bodies; he was exorcising these people from Dean's mind, from his soul, not from a corporeal form.

Alastair clapped his hands in glee. "That was awesome." Somehow his brother's favourite word didn't sound right spoken in the smug tones. "A little waver but you did not drop the ball Sam. I'm impressed."

Robert squeezed Sam's hand and brought his attention back to him. "Keep it moving."

Sam nodded. "Who's next?"

One by one they stepped up and one by one Sam sent them back until there were only two remaining. Alastair stopped John as he stepped forward for his turn.

"You'll need to wait. I think the other should go first don't you? I mean I have a guest star in the wings to meet you all and I've kept it waiting. Where are my manners?" Alastair stood and walked over to Sam. "How much do you love your brother?"

"What?" Sam couldn't keep the confused look off his face, the change of subject flooring him for a second.

"It's an easy question Sam. I mean was there ever anyone on this earth that you cared more for than him?"

Robert felt Dean tense beside him and a little spike of fear shot through him.

Dean's fear.

"I don't know what you mean. He's my brother, I love him more than anything."

"Re..ally?" Alastair pulled the word out. "Well I've got someone for you to exorcise back to Hell that's attached to your brother, someone that he tortured down there more than once." Alastair knelt down. "In fact, I loved watching him with this one…it gave me chills."

"Don't." Dean voice was barely audible.

Alastair turned to Dean with the meanest smile that Sam though he had even seen. "Don't what Dean?" He crawled over Robert and put his face so close to Dean's that they were almost touching.

Dean turned away slightly. "Don't do this."

"I take it you know who our guest is. That's kinda spoiled my fun Dean." He sat back on his heels and spoke back to Sam. "You know what a witness is Sam don't you?"

Dean caught his sleeve. "Please." He lowered his head. "I go back, anything…just don't do this."

"I know what a witness is." Sam drew Alastair's attention back to him. "We did a spell, sent them all back to where they came from."

Alastair's smile almost split his face. "Not all of them…Lillith gave me one, long before she did the spell to raise the others, she let me keep it…as a pet. I let your brother torture it. It's here, now, waiting for you to send it back, to free your brother."

"Don't." Dean's voice had a desperate edge to it.

Robert felt him slip a little from his grasp, almost as if he wanted to go. "Dean, stay with me." He closed his eyes and concentrated on Dean's presence trying to block out the feelings that were invading him from the elder brother.

The figure moved in front of them, it's head cloaked. Dean groaned out a no and Alastair laughed. "A witness is someone that died a supernatural death. Someone that went before their time." Alastair moved closer to Sam. "Are you ready to send this one back to Hell Sam? Are you ready to save your brother?"

Sam frowned. "Are you changing the rules again?"

Alastair waved his hand in the air. "A little side game, before you choose between Dean and Ruby."

Sam sighed and nodded, reaching out to catch the soul that wavered in front of him only to pause at the feeling of familiarity that washed over him. He knew this person…or at least he had know it. He cast a glance at Dean but his brother couldn't look at him. That alone made the fear crawl into Sam's bones.

Alastair lent back into Dean. "How much do you hate me right now? I can feel it. It's intoxicating. Your brother's going to hate you for what you did as much as you hate me for showing him. How does that make you feel?"

Robert pushed the demon away, worry filling him as his hold on Dean slipped again. "Sam, careful."

Sam stood and walked towards the figure, listening as his brother quietly pleaded for him not to look and then pleaded for him to forgive him. Sam still had the soul locked in his mind, had it teetering on the edge of this place and the pit. He stopped in front of it and turned back to Dean again. "Who is it? Do you want to tell me or do I have to look?"

Dean looked up and caught Sam's eye, pain and shame filling Dean's own. "Don't."

Dean turned to Robert. "Stop this…take him back. I'll stay, just take him back."

Robert turned to him and asked the question even as Sam lifted back the hood and cried out. "Who is it?"

The brother's spoke in unison.

"Jessica."

----

Ruby struggled back through the haze in her head. She crawled over to the bed and leant against it, slowly turning her head to take in the motel room. Alastair was gone, Sam was lying still on the floor at her feet. Dean and Robert were unconscious on the beds. This was her chance.

She pushed herself to her feet and stared at Dean. She knew that all it would take to save herself was to finish him. Alastair didn't want her dead or in Hell, she was useful. She had Sam's ear, when she spoke, he listened. A demon with a hold on the only living person that could destroy her kind. She had power of her own because of it. They weren't afraid of her but they weren't knocking down doors to try and kill her anymore either.

She liked that. She wanted to keep that.

The duffle was lying on the table and she walked over and rummaged through it, pulling out Dean's gun and his hunting knife. She slide the sheath off of the knife and slowly ran her fingers along the edge of the blade.

She turned to the bed, walked over beside Dean and sat down next to him. "Without you there's nothing to stop me…you know that. Sam was lost without you and I picked up the pieces…I saved him." She stroked the knife blade down Dean's arm. "I think I deserve a reward for that at least. I mean without me…you would have could back to nothing but a body. Sam's mine now, and it's going to stay that way."

Standing, she turned the knife over in her hand. "I'm not going back Dean, I going to finish this and Sam's going to help me. I helped him get over loosing you once….I can help him again."

She raised the knife.