AN: Thanks for the reviews! Angeleye, intothenothing, and Magical Faery, your support makes my little author heart beat faster and my muse eact moe quickly. And, zanita, I miss you. Comments and suggestions are always welcome.
Disclaimer: I own nothing except for Rose.
Sam and Dean were on Bobby's back stoop when they heard the scream. Without even looking at each other, they took off running in that direction.
They rounded a pile of junked cars and found their sister surrounded by demons. One of them, possessing a tall man with a football player's body and buzzcut red hair, was holding her off the ground by her throat, her feet kicking at the air while she clawed at the hands holding her.
Three of the other four, two men and one woman, turned to face the Winchester men, while the last one just continued to watch Rose being strangled.
Dean launched himself at the one attacking his sister, catching him in a rugby tackle and bringing him to the ground. He let go of Rose who rolled away and lay gasping, trying to clear the black spots from her vision.
Dean felt himself getting pulled up by the collar and tossed against a rusty car by the last demon, the one who had been content to watch Rose die. The demon was wearing someone in a janitor's uniform, a tall man, skinny as a rail, middle aged, with white eyes instead of black.
"Hello, Dean," he said in a voice like nails on a chalkboard though a sinus infection, hands holding Dean in place with an iron grip. "Did you miss me?" He stopped Dean from answering by punching him in the mouth.
Out of the corner of his eye, Dean saw three demons circling Sam, while the one that had tried to squeeze the life out of Rose came back, attempting to finish the job. She was ready this time, on her feet in time to block the fist. Muttering a Latin incantation, she pulled her body into a fighting stance.
His attention was forcibly drawn back to the white-eyed demon when a second punch landed on his face. "What's the matter, Dean? Don't you recognize me?"
"You all look the same to me," he replied through the blood filling his mouth.
"That hurts, Dean. We were so close..." The demon banged Dean's head against the car. "In Hell."
"Alastair," Dean mumbled, suddenly cold down to his bones. Memories of razors and taunts came flooding back, the most painful ones not directed at him.
"Bingo."
Rose exorcised her demon and turned to see which brother needed her more. Dean was getting pummeled, but Sam was surrounded and way outnumbered. She took a step toward him then realized why the demons weren't already attacking him-they couldn't.
Sam was standing with his feet set in a wide stance and his hand up, palm out. He was concentrating. Blood started to drip from his nose but he never broke focus. Rose felt a wave of power around her that was strong enough to make her head hurt. Some part of her recognized it as Sam and some part of her cringed away from the power screaming EVIL in her mind.
This internal conflict literally paralyzed her and she could only watch as Sam made a fist in the air and pulled his hand down sharply. Black smoke poured from the mouths of the meatsuits. Rose could feel that Sam wasn't exorcising the demons.
He was killing them.
The same part of her that had cringed away earlier was trying to run. She actually took a step back, but then the sounds of bone breaking and Dean grunting in pain helped her refocus.
Sam held his hand out again and made a sweeping motion with it, frowning when nothing happened.
Alastair must have felt something because he let go of Dean, who slumped to the ground, blood streaming from an obviously broken nose. Rose ran over to him and held his face in her hand, trying to see how bad the damage was.
"Not strong enough for that yet, Sammy," the white-eyed demon said. "You're gonna have to bone up before you take me on." He made the same motion that Sam had, except that Sam went spinning into tower of cars.
Alastair turned to Rose. She flinched away from the demon she could see under the skin. She didn't move far, but Dean could feel it.
He struggled to his feet. "Stay away from her, you sonofabitch!" He spat, holding onto his sister's shoulder. "Don't you touch her."
Alastair laughed and flung Dean several feet away. "Well, little girl," he said conversationally, coming closer. "I'm not sure why you wanted to come back here. I hate this Arctic hole, but, then again," he pulled an old fashioned straight razor from his pocket. "Hell was never as fun for you." Rose could see that she was trapped and refused to back away. "I can see it now, what lies underneath that teenage angst. It's disgustingly bright and shiny. No toy is fun until it gets a little...used." He looked over at Dean and laughed again. "How is it that you can still look at your brother? You know what I got him to do. What stains his soul now."
Rose felt something snap within her, some sort of energy surge. Anger and something else. Rage wasn't the only fuel making her strong, and she closed the distance between herself and the demon. She instinctively put her hand on his forehead, pushing that energy forward. There was a glimmer of light, and images, dark and terrible images, started flying past her eyes too quick to understand.
Alastair let out a bloodcurdling screech and shoved her, hard.
Just as he was closing in on her again, a bolt of lightning came out nowhere and, with a gurgle, Alastair was gone.
Rose wasn't even singed.
"What the hell?" Dean asked as Sam helped him to stand and walk over to Rose.
"Guess again," Castiel said, appearing in front of them, looking amused. "Now do you understand why Rose needs to come with me?"
"What's going on?" Rose demanded to know, stepping away from the angel's outstretched hand.
"I told you," Castiel said calmly, hand falling to his side. "Lilith is-"
"That's not what I mean," Rose interrupted. "What's going on with me? With my powers? They've been the same for years and now, I mean, not only can I not control them, I don't even know what they are right now."
She expected him to either tell her or deny knowing. She wasn't expected for him to look her straight in the eye and say, "I can't explain that right now."
That made her angry. "Then go, just go. I can't trust you when you won't even tell me what going on with my own powers."
Castiel almost looked hurt. "I understand your frustration. But I have my orders. Heaven says that there are things you can't know."
"Yeah, well, I understand that it's easier to just be a hammer of Heaven then a person." She regretted that term the moment she used it, but she just kept going. "But this is my life we're talking about, my head."
"I am sorry," he said sincerely before vanishing.
"I swear," Dean said, pushing away from Sam to hold his own weight. "We need to make that guy wear a bell." He looked around at the bodies. "I seriously hate demons."
Rose was finally getting her shower and her brothers were in the middle of telling Bobby why they were all beat to shit and why there were four bodies in his backyard when they heard a crash and a scream coming from upstairs.
All three men rushed up to the spare room/library to see Rose on the floor in her panties and Sam's massive t-shirt, head cradled in her hands. "Make it stop," she pleaded, tears streaming down her face.
They couldn't see the images swirling through her brain, the millions of pictures going off like flash photography in her skull. But they could see the way her skin was splitting open and healing itself and the light that was starting to emanate from the cracks.
Her brothers were afraid to touch her, afraid to touch that raw skin and make it worse, but they couldn't stay away from her, getting as near as they could.
She looked up at them, her eyes unnaturally bright."Help me. Dean, Sammy, I can't, please, make it stop. Help me." Then her eyes rolled back in her head and she collapsed into Sam's arms, unconscious and shivering.
