Author's Chapter Notes:

Hello, next update, hope you like.

Ruby shows her true colours – or does she? Sam makes a choice...but is it the right one?

Ok you are going to hate me more than some people hate Ruby for this chapter, I do very, very bad things in it! I will fix things though, promise! *evil laugh*

Queen - Black or White?

Ruby stilled for a moment and turned and looked again at the form that was slumped on the floor, the knife still raised, poised above his brother. Sam stirred slightly in his imposed coma and a little flash of image assaulted her of him lying broken in similar position in a similar motel room. The only thing that was missing now, was the bottle that had been an ever present then. She felt the knife waver in her hand as she looked between them.

"Shit!" She thrust the knife sideways, imbedding it in the wall just above Dean's head. "Damn it to Hell. You Winchester's will be the death of me. Again." She snorted and lent down over Dean, fisting his shirt in her hands and pulling the limp form up to her. "Damn you to Hell. Why did you have to come back?" She looked back over to Sam and then returned her glaze to the elder Winchester. "It's a good job that I love him more than I hate you, but this isn't a reprieve, think of it more as a stay of execution. I haven't survived this long by being nice."

Dropping Dean back on the bed she walked over and knelt beside Sam. "How did I let you get so far in…you weren't meant to get that far in." She checked through Sam's pockets and pulled out his phone, flicking it open and dialing from the recent calls list. She sat back against the bottom of the bed and drummed her fingers on the floor impatiently as she waited for the call to connect. The voice that greeted her from the other end was gruff.

"It's not Sam, it's Ruby….never mind that….your boys are in trouble, we all are….I need you to text me the ritual you used." She waited until the cursing had stopped from the other end. "I don't care what you think of me if you don't do this you'll lose them both this time…is that what you want?" Ruby almost smiled at the ill grace with which the elder hunter caved. It always comes down to love against trust doesn't it? She explained what she needed.

Ruby lent back with a sigh as she finished the call and looked down at Sam.

She stroked Sam's hair gently. "We are all so screwed. Alastair's going to take us all down just for the sheer hell of it and I should leave…I really should."

She smiled as Sam's phone beeped and she read the summoning ritual and what she would need to work it. "This time Mr. High and Mighty, I not going to let you say no, not it you want to keep your golden boy here. She turned and slapped Dean's foot and then let her head fall back and rest on the end of the bed behind her, closing her eyes as she did. "How did I end up so screwed that only an angel can help me?"

----

Sam pulled his hand back as if the figure in front of him had burned him. He found he couldn't move, he just stared at the face in front of him trying to get his head round what Alastair had just thrown at him. Jessica was in Hell…and Dean had tortured her.

"I fixed her face for you wasn't that nice of me? I left the rest though, thought you'd like to see first hand what Dean had done to her."

Alastair's voice cut through the haze and Sam finally got his body to response to his commands and moved forward, gently brushing her hair back off of her face.

"Jessica?" He couldn't believe it. He couldn't believe that the face that still haunted his dreams was right there, her skin on her face soft under his touch. She opened her eyes and he dropped his hand again at the blank, empty stare of the eyes that looked at him. He realised that 'his' Jessica was gone from the soul that he could still feel held in his embrace, just as she was gone from the conjured form in front of him. Hell had ripped her from it, left this echo of her in its place…Hell and his brother.

Sam turned to find Dean behind him, Robert supporting him. He felt the anger built inside him and he tried not to unleash it all on his brother. "How could you? It was Jessica, you knew what she means to me." Sam stepped forward and put his hand under his brother's chin, lifting his head up to make him look him in the eye.

Dean's walls were down for just for the moment that it took for them to lock eyes and Sam got a brief glimpse at the real torment that was raging inside his brother before he regained a little control and threw them up again. "Please…don't hate me, let me go but don't hate me." Dean closed his eyes and waited for his brother's anger to send him back to where he felt he deserved to be.

It didn't come which scared him more.

"I don't hate you….I could never hate you." The anger was still bubbling inside Sam but he kept it from his brother. "I just don't like you very much at the moment…that's all."

He let his hand drop and his brother's head fell forward.

Robert tightened his grip as he felt Dean weaken. "It's not his fault…you can't blame him for this."

Sam turned back to Jessica and John stepped forward. "Unless you've been there you can't imagine what it's like, what they do to you…you'd give anything, do anything to make it stop."

Sam looked at him. "I know…I think my brother has proved that." He stepped forward and gripped Jessica lightly, pulling her into his arms and sighing as he did. The smell of her perfume…the one that he'd bought for her filled his head and he felt the tears come. Alastair stepped forward, so close he was almost touching them. "She can't say goodbye Sam or I love you, Dean didn't like it when she screamed, although he could never quite manage to take her eyes…not like he did with the others."

Sam turned to him with cold, expressionless eyes. "You did this, not my brother." Sam channeled his anger at Alastair and almost smiled as the demon took a small step back before recovering.

Alastair's smile was cruel when he looked at him. "No, Sam actually you did this. Demon killed Jessica because of you, and then you got yourself killed so Dean had to sell his soul for you…and then you couldn't save him and so he ended up downstairs…with her. She's a witness but she's in Hell, because of you. Dean and her both ended up in Hell for one reason and one reason only. They loved you. It all leads back to you Sam, all the people that you love…they all suffer and burn because of you." He smiled again as Sam recoiled from the words he spoke.

"That's not true." Dean brought their attention back to him. "We all suffered because mom made a deal to save dad. Sam's a victim of that as much as, if not more than, the rest of us. Don't you lay this at his feet. It's not his fault. He didn't ask for the demon blood, he didn't ask for me to do what I did. So why don't you just finish the game and let my brother go…if it's me that you want, just take me."

"Now, now Dean, always so ready to jump into the fire for your family. Where's the fun in that for me? A willing victim spoils the game for me, it just won't do. Do you know how much fun we had watching the torment that your brother was going through because he couldn't save you from Hell? No? It was exquisite. Think then how much worse that'll be if he picks you to go there instead of the bitch?" He turned to Sam. "You know that you've got to pick your brother right? Without Ruby you can't defeat Lillith and that's all you really care about now isn't it?" He turned back to Dean. "You can want to go that's fine with me, but don't hide behind the martyr's cloth Dean. You want to go back because you liked it there. You finally found something you were good at, somewhere you felt you belonged. Didn't you?"

"That's not true."

"No? You didn't love finally having someone tell you that you were good at what you did? You didn't love the praise, the admiration that I had for your work? You didn't love how much the others either feared you or worshipped the ground that you walked on?"

"Stop it."

"That wasn't a no Dean."

Robert felt something run through Dean, an emotion that was too fleeting for him to get a hold on but he could feel the revulsion that Alastair's words caused in Dean and he realised that his hold on him was slipping once again. He realised that a little bit of Dean really did want to just give up and go back.

"Sam." He hoped he would hear the warning in his voice. "We need to finish this now. I can't hold him much longer."

John stepped forward and pulled Jessica from Sam's grip. "Do it. You can put us both back and then get your brother out of here."

Sam looked at Jessica again.

"Do it." John urged him on. "Sam!"

"I'm sorry." He held his hand up and tightened the grip that he had on her, feeling John join her as he did. Sam turned quickly to Robert. "Have you got him?"

"Yes."

Sam closed his eyes and pushed. He felt the slight resistance and then it was gone….they were gone. Sam opened his eyes back up and stared into the cold, unamused eyes of Alastair. "I really thought you'd have had more trouble with that. You're getting more like your brother everyday Sam do you know that? I mean that as a compliment you know." Alastair strode over and pulled Dean from Robert's grasp, the other man finally overcome with his exertions. "Now, Sam I believe you have a choice to make." He looked at Robert. "I don't think that we need you here for this." He touched his head and Robert screamed as his figure disappeared from in front of them.

"What did you do?" Sam started forward but Alastair stopped him with a hand.

"He's fine, I can't send him to Hell…he doesn't have a ticket….not yet anyway. Now where were we…ah yes, a choice…. Dean or Ruby?" Sam dropped his head for a moment and stood as if he was listening to someone, then he looked up and stared at his brother with solemn eyes.

"I'm sorry."

He watched the fear and then the resignation pass across Dean's face. "This isn't what it looks like. I don't hate you."

Dean nodded slightly. I bet it is a little. He pushed the thought away.

Sam turned to Alastair again. "Your right. I need Ruby to defeat Lillith." He smiled apologetically at his brother.

"So…I choose my brother. You can send Dean back to Hell."

Alastair stood for a moment, frozen to the spot and then he chuckled loudly. "Did you hear that Dean. You sold your soul to us for him and he wouldn't pick you over the demon bitch? Now that's gotta hurt." He gripped Dean's head in his hand. "Oh, it does too, I can feel all that delicious pain in there Dean. But guess what?" He tightened the grip on Dean's head. "This is going to hurt, much, much more."

Sam felt his brother's scream of agony fill his head and then he was opening his eyes to Ruby's concerned face. He was on the motel room floor. She smiled softly at him.

"Thank you."

Ruby helped him to stand and then stepped back as he sat on the bed next to Dean. He touched his brother's face and almost recoiled at the coldness of his skin. He knew that Robert was glaring at him but he couldn't take his eyes of the form of his brother lying on the motel bed.

He covered his mouth with his hand to stifle the sob that was building inside. "I'm sorry." He brushed Dean's hair and then he stood, needing suddenly to vomit. Robert stopped him before he could get past him.

"What did you just do?"

"What I had to. It had to be him, I couldn't pick Ruby."

"You chose her over your own flesh and blood?"

"No. I couldn't pick Ruby because I need her and we have no way of getting her back this time."

"So what. You don't need Dean? Or do you have a way of getting Dean back?"

Ruby stepped between them. "No. We don't have a way. There's only one thing that can pull a soul out of Hell…except Alastair that is." She turned to the man that had been standing quietly in the shadows of the room and then turned back to Robert. Ruby motioned towards him.

"He has a way. I don't believe you two have met."

Robert looked up and for a moment he could have sworn that the rustle he had heard hadn't just been the man's raincoat.

"My name is Castiel."

"Robert." He took the pro-offered hand and he felt the wave of righteousness that flow from the being in front of him.

The angel turned to Ruby and smiled. "And I believe I told you already that I couldn't help. I told you that my orders forbid it."

Sam turned and caught Ruby's arm. "You told me you'd summoned him." His grip tightened. "Just before I picked you I heard you." He pointed to his head. "In here. You told me he would help." He shook her by the shoulders and then grabbed her face, almost screaming at her. "What did you just make me do!?"

Her smile made his blood run cold. "What you had to."

Chapter End Notes:

Well I have to say it firstly - not a deathfic!

Right that's that out the way.

Oh, Sammy....what did you just do?

So will Castiel bend, and will Ruby survive duping Sam? Or doesn't she know something he doesn't? Watch this space.

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