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Alice jumped into action. Using her wooden plank, she jumped forward, thwacking the girl with it. "Get off of him!" She shrieked, hitting the girl hard enough to knock her off Sam. She then stepped closer to the girl, getting between her and the rest of the group. She pointed the wooden board at her. "Stay back!" she demanded.
The girl tilted her head at a very awkward angle, and let out an odd, hissing noise. "Acheri" Sam muttered quietly, eyeing the lower ranking demon with trepidation, his hands twitching for a weapon that was not there. Suddenly, a loud 'thud' was heard, and both Alice and Sam looked back to see Ava on the ground, her neck bent at an odd angle. "She was controlling it! Whatever it was, Ava was making it try to kill you!" Jake said, backing up a bit when both hunters turned to look at him. Sam immediately turned back to the Acheri, but it had vanished when Ava had died. "I... haven't been entirely honest." Jake admitted. "Yellow Eyes talked to me, told me what to do. He said we were all supposed to fight to the death, a last-man-standing type of deal. I want to make it out alive. I have a family waiting for me." The young man looked legitimately regretful, before settling into a fighting stance. "I'll make it quick, I promise."
Alice stared, wide-eyed at Jake. She glanced at Sam, before setting her eyes on Jake. "Nobody has to die. Just... Think about this. It's two against one. Not the best odds for you. Super strength or not, we've dealt with worse. If we work together, we can make it out of here just... We just have to think about this." She said, holding her hands up in the defensive. "Please. Don't do this." Her eyes flickered around the open space, trying to find something they could use to defend themselves with if he did attack, or at the very least, an escape route. She focused hard, trying to come up with a plan, but nothing seemed to stand out. She wished she hadn't been stupid enough to have the others in a separate town. It wouldn't have taken so long for them to get to her. Yellow Eyes would be dead, and none of them would be caught up in this mess.
Damian's vision was starting to go black, and not because of his eyes. Yellow Eyes had finally tired of beating him, had already move on from burning, and was now (loudly) debating with himself whether he should finish off Damian now or not. The high ranking demon suddenly brightened, a malicious smile crossing his face, as he snapped his fingers with a grin. "Of course! How very fitting." Then, louder, he called out, "Come here, boys! Come to daddy!" Damian felt what little blood was left within him rush away from the remains of his face as he paled in fear. Three hellhounds suddenly stood right behind Azazel, growling and snarling viciously, though they refrained from attacking without the demon's command. "Fitting indeed. The death that should have been yours will bring you to the Pit for certain this time. And when I complete my part of the Plan, I shall return to hell and have an eternity to make you beg for the mercy of death for siding with that hunter over your own kind."
Damian was unable to shudder, as most of his muscles had ceased to respond, but then, just before Azazel gave the command to 'kill', Damian heard Alice's voice. She was not speaking to him, that much was obvious, but her words gave him pause. "Nobody has to die..." her voice faded out for a moment, and then he heard, "Please, don't do this." Somehow, Damian found the strength to lift his head an inch or so, and just as Azazel broke the devil's trap that had been holding Damian as Yellow Eyes beat him, to let the hellhounds at him, the gravely wounded demon grinned a bloody and toothless smile, and snapped, vanishing.
He reappeared at Alice's side, collapsing to the ground almost instantly, but he couldn't stop. Not now. Not when he was so close to saving her. The demon barely managed to make out someone's voice crying out "No, wait!" but he knew he was out of time. Reaching out, he managed to grasp Alice's ankle, and with the very last vestiges of his strength, he got them out of there.
Alice barely registered what had happened. The familiar snap of black surrounded her before the light came back, opening up to a meadow. Deep green grass and flowers surrounded them, with walls of trees around them. She looked down at Damian, beaten and bloody on the ground at her feet. "Damian!" She exclaimed, falling to her knees beside him. Her hands hovered over his injuries, unsure what to do. "Oh, Damian..." She whispered sadly seeing the state of him. She pulled off the sweater over her arms, tearing off strips and chunks to sop up blood, and use as make-shift bandages. "Don't move, just lie still. Save your strength." She said. She wasn't happy about leaving Sam behind, especially seeing as he was now alone with Jake... Gosh she hoped he didn't die. But, she couldn't worry about it right at that moment. "What happened to you?" She whispered sadly.
The demon had lost consciousness upon arrival at one of his safe 'houses', but he stirred when he felt someone touching him. "Please, no more. Please." he whimpered, despite knowing that not only were his pleas in vain, but also likely to further amuse and egg on the demon tormenting him. However, the hands that touched him were gentle, and seemed to be... binding his wounds? Why? Did Azazel hope to keep him alive longer still, to prolong his amusement? Time passed and he faded in and out of consciousness. He felt himself beginning to heal, but he could tell that even with his accelerated healing as a demon, it would take time. He thought he could see his hunter's face hovering above him, looking worried, but Damian knew that it could only be his imagination, his mind succumbing to the torture, or perhaps even another trick of Azazel's. He couldn't help but whisper though, as the apparition became blurrier and faded, "Alice… please be safe... I'm so sorry I failed you..." before blacking out once again.
After awhile of working on his wounds, Alice had brought Damian into a nearby cabin. The door had been open, and the area clear. So, after laying him on a bed, she found a large bowl and put some warm water in it, grabbing some more cloths to continue cleaning and wrapping his wounds. When he started waking up a little, she stopped, holding his hand, being as gentle as she could. What he said broke her heart. Even though he fell unconscious immediately after, she spoke to him. "You didn't fail me." She whispered her voice soft. "You saved me... Again. I'm okay, I'm safe. I'm right here with you." She brushed his hair out of his face, then used a cloth with cool water to wipe the sweat and blood from his face. She continued on with cleaning and wrapping. Once everything was covered and cleaned, she just sat beside him, gently holding his hand. She softly hummed a quiet song, softly running her thumb over the back of his hand, hoping to soothe him as much as she could.
Damian heard humming, and it brought to mind old memories just out of reach. Memories of loved ones, people he had cared deeply for and would have died for. Did die for. Wait, no, for the blizzard had found him first. But... Gentle fingers stroked the back of one of his hands, and the demon rolled his head to the side, grimacing in pain as he woke slowly. Blinking several times, he managed to make out a woman sitting beside him. He felt warm, clean, and comfortable aside from the lingering pain still coursing through him. Focusing his eyes, he realized who sat by him, and he instantly tried to sit up. "Alice!" Wavering, astonished at his own weakness, the demon levered himself to sit back against the headboard of the bed in his favorite safe house, and he took a moment to wonder how they had gotten there. The last thing he remembered was being beaten nigh to death by Azazel, and then waking here. "Alice... what happened? Are you alright? Where's Yellow Eyes?"
Alice gently placed her hands on his chest when he tried to sit up, guiding him to lay back. "It's okay, we're safe. Relax, you're very weak. I'm fine." She said softly. "As for Yellow Eyes... I don't know. You were the one who brought us here." She said gently. "This was incredibly reckless seeing how weak you are." She added, giving him a soft smile all the same. "You appeared out of nowhere, grabbed my ankle, and we teleported. We ended up in a meadow not far from here." She gave him a sad look. "What happened to you?"
"What? This?" he asked, looking down at his mangled and broken body. "Nah lass, this is nothing. You shoulda seen me a couple years back in Budapest. Now that, that was worthy of concern." Damian tried for a grin, but it came out as more of a pained grimace, and he did not fight the human when she urged him to lie back down. "Yellow Eyes can be a mean old bugger when he wants to, and it would seem he wanted to. He decided to take a few pieces outta me, that's all. I will live; do not look so worried lass!" The demon closed his eyes for a moment, fighting another wave of pain, and focused. "What happened in Cold Oak? I'm fairly certain that I managed to get Dean in, but Azazel, Yellow Eyes' name by the way, caught me when I tried to come find Sam as well. Was he there?"
Alice let out a small breath. "Well, when Azazel showed up in the motel room... Well... He started out by breaking down the walls. The fell flat around me. He walked in. When I called to you, I tried to stall as long as I could. I managed to get out some things from him; I don't exactly understand what he meant though." She said. "Something about when I was a baby. Something about me being a late bloomer. Next thing I know, I wake up in a building. But I wasn't alone. I um... I found Sam, and he got attacked by a lower level demon, can't remember what they're called but... It was being controlled by a girl named Ava. A psychic. They all had some sort of ability. Sam was there too... Sam's still there." She looked down at her hands, feeling just a little guilty. "It's some sick sort of Hunger Games set up. Last-person-standing fight to the death bull crap. Jake he... He fell for it. So did Ava. I was trying to convince him to reconsider, that if we worked together, rather than against each other, maybe we could find our way out. That's when you appeared and pulled me here." She explained. "We have to do something. There has to be something."
"An Acheri, most likely. Looked like a little girl?" Damian murmured absent-mindedly. Then, suddenly, the rest of the hunter's words registered. "That was the stand-off? Yellow Eyes' death match? He placed you as part of it?" Damian demanded, trying again to sit up, only to collapse back once again, choking on his own blood for a moment. He grimaced, spit it out to the side, and lay back, calming. "He said that you were one of them? The Special Children?"
As soon as he'd tried to sit up, Alice's hands were back on his chest, soothing him again. "He um... He mentioned about something flowing through my veins... Something my parent's didn't tell me." She didn't like her reaction to her telling him this. She let out a slow, shaky breath. "Which doesn't sound good. At all." She could feel fear welling up in her chest again and let out a weak laugh, shaking her head. It just never seemed to end.
Damian did not fight against the human's hands, which startled him in and of itself. Anyone else who dared to lay hands upon him in such a manner would have already been writing in pain on the floor, regardless of his own state of health at the time. But with Alice, it did not feel like a threat or command, and it was clear she was not trying to control him against his will, but only wishing to offer comfort and help. He shook off the thoughts, focusing instead on the human before him. "I-may know a bit about this. Please do not be angry with me for it, but I can't tell you everything. Not right now. It would be too great a risk, to you, and to me. This much I can tell you. There have been many children over the past several years, yourself and Sam included, whom Azazel took a... special interest in. He... ah..." the demon hesitated, but sensed that the human would not let him get away with half answers here. "He went to each of the children when they were 6 months old, and... fed them his own blood."
Alice listened intently to what he had to say. As soon as the last sentence came out of his mouth, she felt nauseous. "He..." She closed her eyes, pushing down the instinct to be sick. "And because of that, each of the children has certain abilities." She continued for him. "But for what gain? Why do this to us? What's the point if he's just going to have us kill each other?" She started to think about her own 'abilities'. As she'd thought earlier, she always had impeccable intuition. Her judge of character was almost always right, and her gut always led her in the right direction. But could that really be considered as some sort of demon-blood-induced ability? She shook her head slightly, letting out a heavy sigh. "And if I'm one of these children... What's my ability? There isn't anything about me that's particularly extraordinary. I'm not saying that to down on myself, it's true. There were some there who had visions of the future, or super strength. All of them my age, or even younger."
Damian dropped his gaze, visions of Alice dying by Sam's hand flashing in his mind. "I really don't know for certain, lass. It was always meant to be Sam who won that fight, because both he and Dean have destinies tied to the fate of this very world. If one of the others had lived, I do not doubt that certain... other forces would have taken a hand. I don't understand Azazel's reasoning. At one point, he spoke of having one of his special children becoming some sort of Prince of hell, and another time of that same child leading armies of demons, but to be honest, I never thought them more than ramblings. There is a much greater, much older Plan in place, of which I can tell you little, but it would by far supersede anything that Yellow Eyes had planned." The demon trailed off, freezing up as he felt another of his bones snap back into place. He suppressed a moan of agony, doing his best to hide his pain from the human as his body stubbornly continued to slowly heal itself. "As for you, I do not know, Alice. You have never had visions, or dreams of what was to come that came true? Never noticed anything fundamentally different about you that set you apart? Aside from the abilities that come naturally with hunting for long periods of time, of course."
Alice thought about what he said. Mostly about how if more than one survived that other forces would finish the job. Naturally, she thought of herself. She was supposed to be there... But she wasn't. What did that mean for her? But those were all questions she could ask later. For now, she let out a soft sigh. "I don't know, I guess I've always had really good instincts. Like... With people, I've always been a good judge of character. Or typically during a hunt, I might start off looking into one thing, but despite evidence pointing towards it, I'll have a feeling that it's something else. Usually I'm right. That sort of thing." She said. "Now that I think of it... I was ready when Azazel showed up. Just a moment before, I had been lying on the bed at the motel. Suddenly I felt that something was up, so I took my dagger and holy water and stood up against the wall. A moment later is when he showed up. I'd always seen that sort of stuff as coincidental... But I guess it could be something..."
Damian nodded in consideration. "Aye, it certainly could be. I have never heard of any other humans with so acute a sense of intuition and forewarning. You mentioned that Yellow Eyes said you were a late bloomer... Perhaps these abilities will be increased with time? To the point of power that some of the others reached?" They exchanged thoughtful glances, and then Damian relaxed back against the bed again with a sigh, most of his energy still entirely depleted. "I'm being a terrible host..." he muttered ruefully, grinning weakly at the hunter."You should try to get some rest as well, lass. I doubt the Winchesters will, strictly speaking, need backup, but they could no doubt make use of it nonetheless." He became very serious very quickly, looking directly into Alice's eyes. "It is essential that neither of them dies. If they do, they will set into motion forces that are so far beyond my ability to escape that it frightens me. To your kind, they are mere legends, for it has been an age since one of their ranks has set foot upon your earth, but they soon will again, should one of the Winchesters fall." The blatant fear in his eyes was different than that which had shone through every time he had spoken of fear of the Winchesters or Azazel. This was a much more instinctive, primal fear, laid into his very core as what the demon within recognized as a much more powerful, ancient enemy. He felt his strength waning yet again, and began to succumb, murmuring, "I will heal as quickly as I am able. Then we must save the Winchesters. At any cost."
Alice nodded gently, absorbing what he'd said. She could see the exhaustion setting in. "It's okay. Rest." she said softly, pulling a blanket over him. "The more energy you spend on talking, the less gets put towards healing." Once again she smoothed his hair out of his face. "Don't worry about me; I'll get rested up too. Just lay back, relax, and get some sleep. I'll wake you if anything happens." She promised, giving him a soft smile.
"Shouldn't, here. I made the wards myself. Even the Big Bad himself wouldn't be able to get in here without making quite a racket..." he muttered, as he drifted into a deep, healing sleep.