The TARDIS was amazing.
When Sam flipped switches and hit buttons and pulled levers and even banged on a little gong, it was all from the knowledge the Doctor had given him; once he started, it was automatic. Which was lucky, because this stuff had to be done way too fast for him to have thought about it. He understood why it usually took six people to pilot something like this.
But once he'd set the coordinates, the TARDIS took over. He pulled the final lever, shouting for Rose and Dean to hold on, and he knew that she had it from there. He gripped the edge of the console, glancing out of the corner of his eye at Dean, who looked grim as he hung tight to the railing but otherwise was holding it together pretty well.
The TARDIS stilled after a while, and Sam ran to the screens to see where they were. He held his breath as the screens flickered for a moment, then came on. He released it in a rush as he saw that their location's coordinates matched the ones the Doctor had put in his mind. They were there. They'd made it.
He put a hand on the console, felt the pulsating of the heart of the TARDIS, and whispered, "Thank you."
Dean stood up unsteadily, bracing himself against the rail and using it to guide him to the console. "So did we make it?" he asked, his voice low and gravelly. Sam knew that his brother was nauseated, and did everything in his power to keep the little grin off of his face. It almost worked. It didn't escape Dean's notice, and he scowled. "Yeah, laugh it up, Fuzzball."
"We made it," Sam replied. "We're at the Shadow Proclamation. Nobody can get into the TARDIS without a key, right, Rose?"
"Right," she said, and Sam noticed how pale she was. She was keeping it together, though, which he was grateful for. He'd need her.
"Good. Because we need to get on the same page." He took a breath to steady himself, and to calm the thousand swirling thoughts in his mind. He had to work to focus them on the few he needed to convey to Rose and Dean. He wondered for a moment if this was what it was like to be the Doctor—always having to go slower than his mind tried to take him.
"Hey Sammy." Sam looked up at Dean, who was less green than before. "Before we start the pow-wow. Wanna tell me what happened?"
Sam was surprised to realize that he did. He really did. He wanted to tell Dean everything. The way the Doctor looked, the way the TARDIS sang, the way he could feel his hands flying over the console like he was born in front of one. But like usual, they didn't have time. "I can't explain it, Dean," he said, and he heard the wondering tone in his own voice, "but the Doctor...dropped some knowledge in my brain. Wholesale. Suddenly I knew how to fly the TARDIS and I know what we need to do to get everybody out of this thing alive. Everybody," he repeated, looking at Rose pointedly. She nodded, shoving a stray lock of blonde hair behind her ear in an almost violent manner.
When he turned back to Dean, his brother was watching him with a look precisely halfway between awe and anxiety. "And you're okay?" was the only thing he said.
Sam nodded, smiling. "I'm fine, Dean. I'm better than okay. Whatever he did...it was right. But we can talk about it more later. Right now, we need to get this plan straight. First things first: we're at the Shadow Proclamation, and as much as this is our only choice, we are not safe here. That Crowley guy said that one of his demons possessed a justice here, and that the wanted call that was sent out for you and me, Dean, was real. So we're actually, really wanted by the court. The Doctor believes that whatever demon possessed the justice is still here in that justice, making sure that everything goes according to their plan."
"And if it's not?" Dean asked.
Sam hesitated. "Then we improvise. But he was pretty sure about that. Okay. So he's got a couple of people he knows in the Shadow Proclamation who owe him favors. We need to find one of them, the Doctor said that the Shadow Architect would be the best choice, and explain what's going on."
"Woah, hold on." Dean held up his hands, staring at Sam like he'd grown a second head. "We're just supposed to go up to some alien and explain that one of his co-workers has been possessed by a demon? He's just gonna buy that?"
"She," Sam corrected, "and...yeah." He shared a glance with Rose, who looked very sympathetic.
Dean noticed. "What? What was that look?" He looked at Rose, then at Sam. "What?"
Sam lowered his eyes. "Dean, this is...what the Doctor told Dad he'd never tell us." He saw Dean brace himself, and shut his eyes as he said, "It's demons, Dean. They're not...it's not what we thought. They're aliens. All of them. Werewolves, ghosts, demons, wraiths...they can all be explained. It's not some spiritual thing. Demons came from a planet that was destroyed in a war the Doctor fought in, shacked up on Earth and wormed their way into all of our cultures' lore." He looked up at his brother, who had paled. "Dad didn't want us to know because...I mean, demons, that's clear-cut, you know? But if they're another species..." He faltered, and added softly, "Shades of gray."
Dean took a deep, unsteady breath, and ran a hand over his face. "So everything we thought, everything Dad taught us..."
"...still applies," Rose interrupted. Both brothers turned to her, startled. She looked hesitant to go on, but when neither one said anything, she continued. "I mean, doesn't it? The work you did, you still saved innocent people, all the things your dad taught you work, right? Salting the rooms and silver knives and holy water. Just because they're alien doesn't mean they're any less awful. I've seen some pretty awful aliens, with the Doctor. He's had to kill them sometimes, too. I mean, set him in front of a Dalek and he goes berserk. And the demons, they sided with the Daleks during the Time War. There's still bad in the world. And there's still good." She looked at them pointedly. "Hold it together, boys."
Sam nodded, a little stunned, and said, "Point being, the Shadow Architect will believe us, at least that demons exist and that there's the possibility for possession. You okay, Dean?"
His brother shrugged, then nodded. "Sure," he lied. "Keep going."
Sam didn't argue. Not now. As long as Dean could keep it together, they could deal with this later. And if his brother could do anything, it was keep it together under impossible circumstances. "So we find the Shadow Architect, try to keep from getting arrested, drop the Doctor's name. We find the possessed justice and exorcise him. Or her. Parasitism is against the law according to the Shadow Proclamation, so not only will the charges be dropped against us, but the demons will be held accountable for possessing the justice. Then the Shadow Proclamation will help us spring the Doctor from Hell." He paused. "That might be among the weirdest collections of sentences I've ever said."
"And that's saying something," Dean said. Sam grinned appreciatively at him, and Dean returned the smile, if weaker.
"Let me do the talking," Sam said. "The Doctor put the things I need to say in my head. Apparently there's an...etiquette. And we can get in pretty bad trouble if we don't follow it. So I'll handle it."
Dean and Rose both nodded, and Dean said, "So what do we do?"
"Rose knows more about aliens than either of us," Sam replied, "so if we run into something that the Doctor didn't prepare me for she's our best bet. And you...won't stay here, and I know that, so you should probably do like the Doctor said: stay close, stay calm, stay quiet, and look penitent. Also we have to leave our guns here...we have to make it look like we're not here for trouble."
There was some hurt, some anger in the look that Dean gave him, but there was nothing else he could have said. There was nothing Dean could do to help them right now, but there's no way he would have agreed to stay in the TARDIS. Really, his brother was a liability, and taking him along was a risk that Sam could only hope won't bite them in the ass. Dean's world was just thrown out of alignment, and now they were in a situation like they'd never been in before. They had to keep cool heads. And a cool head was not among Dean's strong suits. "Fine," he said shortly. "Can we get this over with?"
Sam wanted to apologize, but he couldn't. So he just nodded and led them out of the TARDIS.
He cracked the door open and stuck his head out to have a look at their surroundings. But as soon as he did, he realized that they were in trouble.
The sound of guns being cocked was the first thing he noticed, and his eyes widened as he saw seven Judoon standing in front of the TARDIS. A pale, thin woman was standing in the middle of them, white-skinned and white-haired and red-eyed. Other than her unusual coloring, she looked human. Sam raised his hands slowly and stepped out, followed by Rose and Dean. Rose closed the door to the TARDIS and put her hands up immediately, and Dean acquiesced only after a particularly dirty look from Sam, and then only reluctantly.
"Article Fifteen," the woman said crisply. "Identify yourselves."
"Sam and Dean Winchester, and Rose Tyler," Sam said cautiously. "Of Earth. We're—"
"So kind to turn yourselves in," the woman said. "It saves us the trouble of finding you on that backwater planet of yours. Cuff the males."
"Wait!" Sam cried as the Judoon moved to comply. "Wait, please. We need to speak to the Shadow Architect."
The woman raised a barely-visible eyebrow delicately, and a small smile played at the corners of her lips. "Well, it's your lucky day," she said. "I am the Shadow Architect."
Sam faltered, swallowing hard. "Um. Okay. We're with the Doctor. There's been a misunderstanding, manipulation. He sent us here. He's in trouble."
The Shadow Architect walked the few steps that separated her from Sam, looking up at him. "The Doctor," she said quietly, "is not the only one in trouble here, Sam Winchester."
Her eyes flashed black.
Sam staggered back a step. "It's you," he said hoarsely. He felt strong hands grab his wrists and cuff him. He tried to struggle, but it was pointless. He could see as they cuffed Dean that the cuffs were strung together with some kind of energy field. He wasn't breaking out of that.
"Cuff the girl, too, as an accomplice," the Shadow Architect said, and the Judoon obeyed. Rose didn't put up a fight, but glanced around the hallway they had landed in with sharp eyes. Sam hoped to God she noticed something he'd missed. He looked away from her when the Shadow Architect continued, "As I said, good of you to turn yourselves in. We'll expedite this process, sentence you quickly, seeing as the evidence is so clear-cut. We'll have you before a justice post-haste."
The Judoon shoved the three of them forward as the Shadow Architect led them down the hallway. "You won't get away with this," Sam said, feeling stupid and clichéd even as he spoke. "They'll notice something's wrong. These aren't a bunch of blind humans. They're aliens. Like you."
The Shadow Architect's red eyes flicked over to him for a second. "Been reading up on some history," she said lightly. "The Doctor, I suppose. And no, you're right. The Shadow Proclamation is not full of stupid humans. It's full of stupid non-humans." She smiled, and Sam felt ill. "Your people aren't special one way or the other, Sam. They're not the bright burning center of the universe as they'd like to think, but they're not some cesspool of idiocy and degradation. They're quite average. And as the word implies, so are most other races. Once the Time Lords were gone, there weren't any races left here that aren't as easily fooled as your average human." She glanced at him again, and the malevolent light in her eyes belied her sympathetic smile. "So I'm afraid you can't count on your Time Lord friend's allies here to bail you out. You've been framed, my sweet, fair and square." She turned to Dean. "Or rather, big brother has."
Dean, and for this Sam thanked any deities who might be listening, said nothing. He scowled, but he said nothing.
The hall they walked down began to grow more crowded, and Sam watched with wide eyes as a huge variety of aliens stopped to stare at them. He could feel his heart begin to race, and he knew Dean's would be doing the same. His whole life had trained him that when you saw something that looked like what he was seeing, it was fight or flight. He wasn't allowed to do either.
They passed a tall female, reptilian but humanoid, accompanied by a petite human girl. The reptile woman held up a hand, and the Shadow Architect stopped. The woman looked at Dean, and then Sam, up and down, her blue eyes appraising. "These are the Winchesters," she said, her voice a cultured mezzo. It was not a question.
"They are, Justice," the Shadow Architect replied. "I am taking them to their holding cell until they are to stand trial."
The justice held her hand out, and her human assistant handed her what looked like a tablet computer. The woman traced an intricate set of strokes on the tablet, and nodded briskly. "Architect, do they have counsel?" she asked.
"No, Justice," the Shadow Architect said.
"Very well. I will see them on my docket," she said with an air of impenetrable authority. "Have them ready within the hour."
The Shadow Architect smiled, and there was nothing about that smile that Sam liked. "Of course, Justice," she said. The justice inclined her head, and walked away briskly, followed by her assistant.
The Shadow Architect nodded to the Judoon, and they shoved the Winchesters and Rose forward, continuing to their holding cells. Rose walked up right behind Sam. "That's bad," she whispered. "That justice is a Silurian. They hate humans. We have to be very careful."
Sam nodded. He glanced at his brother, who was glowering down at the floor in front of his feet, making it a point to ignore the aliens that surrounded them. Dean's shoulders were tight, his hands balled into fists. Sam said a silent prayer that his brother would be able to behave himself in court.
They were shoved onto a bench at the end of the hallway. Sam looked around, confused, but when the Judoon backed away from them, bars of the same energy field used in their cuffs rose from the floor to meet the ceiling, creating a cell. Oh.
"You should prepare yourselves," the Shadow Architect said, with that awful smile on her face. "Perhaps the Doctor's bitch knows, but for the benefit of you boys, Silurians aren't known for their love of humans. I don't think I could have planned this better." She leaned in as close to the bars as she could get. "I suppose you could spend this time finding peace with your maker."
Dean leaned forward, and Sam tried to grab his wrist but realized that they were both still cuffed. "Yeah, I guess we could," he said, baring his teeth in something that was not really a smile. "We'll just sit here and have a chat with Christo."
The Architect flinched and sucked in a breath through her teeth. "You little bastard," she hissed. "I'll flay your skin from your—"
Suddenly she remembered where she was, and looked around to see a few of the aliens milling around looking at her strangely. She calmed herself, and turned back to glare at Dean. "Enjoy your pathetic defiance while you can, human," she said, her voice smooth as silk. "You'll be Hell's so fast, you'll get whiplash." She turned on her heel and stormed away, leaving the three of them alone.
Sam let out a breath he'd barely realized he was holding. "Well," he said, slowly, "this wasn't part of the plan."
"That Crowley dick lied to the Doctor," Dean said. "He said it was a justice that his demon possessed. The Doc couldn't have known it was the Architect chick. What a surprise: a lying demon." Dean leaned heavily against the wall. "So now we're really screwed."
Rose bit her lip. "Maybe we can get to someone in court, someone who knows the Doctor," she said. "Obviously that's why they chose the Shadow Architect, because they knew she knows the Doctor. But he's got loads of friends here, or at least people who owe him favors. There's got to be somebody we can turn to."
"Yeah," Sam said, not because he believed it, but because it didn't help to say anything else. That was the only out he could see, the only way that they could get Rose back to Earth, save the Doctor from Hell, and get himself and Dean back to America to figure a way out of Dean's deal. Because from what the Architect had said, if they got sentenced here, Dean was still headed to Hell. And that was something Sam would not let happen.
"Okay," he said, "we just need to mount a good defense. I mean, it wasn't like we knew. And maybe ignorance of the law is not an excuse for breaking it, but it should soften the penalties."
"You're talking like we're at a human court," Dean said. "Who the hell knows how this place works?"
"The Doctor works with them," Rose interjected. "I can't imagine that the Doctor would help them if they were—"
"You know what?" Dean interrupted, and Rose frowned. "I don't care if the Doctor trusts them. Because demons have taken over the honchos, so I don't think it matters that the Doctor is all buddy-buddy with them. And we're set to appear in front of a judge who hates humans for whatever reason. I think we're pretty screwed, and I don't really give a crap about the Doctor's opinion. He's not here."
"Right, no, he's in Hell to save us," Rose returned heatedly. "If you've forgotten. And maybe you don't know, but he feels pain just like we do. He's just a lot more resilient. So what I want to do is get an ally and get out of here, so we can go back and rescue him. Because you don't want to live on an Earth without the Doctor, let me tell you that. You haven't any idea how many times he's saved the planet."
"Yeah, well, in case you haven't noticed, that's our line of business, too," Dean spat. "So sorry, but I'm not extra worried about breaking the Doctor out of jail. I'm more worried about getting us out of here."
"You would be," Rose shot back. "I don't even know why the Doctor bothered—"
"Guys!" Sam cried, and they fell silent. "This is really not helping. We don't need to be at each others' throats right now. We need to be figuring out a game plan."
"Thought the Doc uploaded those into your brain," Dean snarked.
Sam counted to ten in his head. "Right. That was before we knew that the Shadow Architect was the one that Crowley's demon possessed. So now we need to come up with a new strategy."
"Make a break for it when they take us out of here and see if we can hitch a ride back to Earth," Dean suggested. "Or, take out the courtroom with our nonexistent weapons in a blaze of glory. Or, roll with the punches and figure it out as we go along. Like usual."
Sam had been getting ready to argue with Dean's flippancy, but he realized at the end that Dean was right. They didn't have a plan. The Doctor's plan had gone wrong. So they might as well do what they were good at, which was improvisation. "Okay," he said. "Yeah. The Doctor put enough info in my head that I can figure out how to defend us, how to not piss off that justice any more than we already have. We'll just...figure it out."
He glanced at Rose. Dean, obviously, was on board with the plan since it was his, but he wasn't sure how Rose would take the seat-of-the-pants option. But she was nodding, and shrugged. "Honestly, I don't know why the Doctor even bothered giving you a plan," she said. "His plans never work anyway. At least not the ones he sets out with."
"So we're okay?" Sam asked. He looked at his Companions.
Woah.
His companions. Lowercase c.
Dean took a deep breath and let it out slowly, but Sam knew that was his weird way of saying yes, we're okay. Rose bit her lip and smiled unsteadily. "Sure," she said. "We're okay. We'll be fine."
"Hope those years of pre-law pay off," Dean said.
Sam laughed anxiously. "Right?" He was going to continue, but the sound of heels on marble floors, accompanied by heavy boots, told them that the Shadow Architect was returning with the Judoon.
"It has not been an hour," Dean said angrily when the Architect appeared in front of their cell.
"The esteemed justice said within the hour," the Architect replied with a smirk. The Judoon disabled the cell bars and grabbed each of them by the arm. "I hope you've prepared your defense."
"We're ready," Sam said quickly, before Dean could make another smart remark. The Architect glanced at him askance, her eyes narrow, but didn't respond to him.
As they walked down the hall to the court room, it occurred to Sam that while he wasn't the world's most honest person, he hoped he wasn't lying.