Author's Notes

HI folks, thanks again for the great reviews, only three more chapters including this one to go.

Glad you are enjoying. Sorry this story is cliffhanger central!

Sam has to get Dean back, but how and who will help him?

White plans an attack

Sam let her go and staggered back against the bed, slumping almost at his brother's feet.

"What have I done?"

He slipped off the bed and curled up into a ball on the floor, rocking back and forward. Ruby knelt in front of him. He lifted his head and glared at her. "Don't you touch me."

Tilting his head to the side, he watched as she raised her hand to her throat, the cold stirring inside him and he smiled as she began to choke.

"Don't." Ruby dropped her head down and forced the words out. "We can…still sort this." She coughed and a little bit of black smoke passed her lips.

"Looks like I finally managed that last bit of cold, hard rage that you couldn't get me to find." He pushed harder and then faltered as he felt her push back, felt her struggle against him. "I could send you down to look for him right now….and you know it."

She felt the binding link on her arm burn as Sam increased the pressure and she would have smiled if it hadn't been her neck on the line, if he was strong enough to break the binding link them she knew she could be in real trouble here.

Ruby pushed again and recovered slightly, raising her head up and grinning at him. "Don't think so Sam, not yet anyway, besides you send me down I'll make sure that he never gets back out."

She held up her hand and coughed another little bit of black smoke, the grin failing as the balance swung back in Sam's favour again, her voice and tact changing to softness and persuasiveness. "Please Sam; I'll get him out, just give me time."

Sam pushed her away, this time with his hands. "Why should I? I give you time and Dean is down there getting tortured while I do." The hurt sounded in his voice. "You tricked me, I trusted you."

Before she could reply Robert gave a loud groan and staggered back, Castiel stepping forward and gripping his arm as he did, stopping him from falling completely. "Sam. Whatever your friend here has got cooked up you better make it work, and quickly."

Sam lifted his head to Robert. "Why?"

"I lost him….I can't feel him anymore. I don't understand." Robert's voice had a little edge of panic in it and the group in the room watched as he closed his eyes, obviously struggling to connect again with the elder Winchester. Silence filled the room for a long moment until it was finally Robert that broke it again, disbelief in his voice as he spoke.

"He's shut me out."

He glared at Sam as he opened his eyes. "Damn you…you did this. I told him I'd help, I told him I'd fix this." He pulled free of the angel's hands and rounded on Sam. "Like I said, so like your father, blinkered to the hurt that you cause your family in the name of revenge."

"It's not like that, Lillith hurt Dean too."

Robert smiled coldly. "Yet I don't see him putting you in front of his need for a little payback, even when Alastair was putting the blame on you he was still trying to defend you, make you believe that it's not all your fault. Well this time…it is. So fix it!"

Sam stood and faced the other man. "I will, I promise."

"Really? Without him…."…Robert gestured to Castiel…. "…just how are you going to do that?"

"I…I'll find someway."

Robert snorted. "Well you'd better hurry before there's nothing left to save." He walked over and sat down on the bed next to Dean, taking his hand and turning his back on the rest of the small group in the room.

Sam sighed a deep, heartfelt sigh. He'd screwed up, this time he truly and utterly screwed up and Dean was paying for it again. He couldn't let that happen. Not again. Sam stood slowly and walked over to the angel.

"Can I talk with you…please?" Castiel paused and for a minute Sam thought that he was going to refuse but then the other man gracefully bowed his head and gestured to the door. Sam walked out and over to the Impala. He turned and sat on the hood, unconsciously running his hands over the cool metal almost as if taking some strength and comfort from the reassuring presence of his brother's car.

He gathered his thoughts and looked up meeting Castiel's eyes. "I need you to bring him back for me. Please. I'll do anything, beg if I have to. Just please help me…help him." Sam dropped his eyes back to floor. "I don't know why I did it, why I listened to her…but I trusted her, you know, she saved me and I trusted her." He let his voice tail off into almost nothing as he finished the sentence. "She betrayed me."

"Just as you did to him…he trusted you to help him too Sam, he needed you to help him, and now you just expect me to clear the mess up just as you always expected him to do before me."

Sam's eyes were pleading when they looked up again. "You saved him before; you need him for something…why won't you help him now?"

"My orders…"

Sam didn't let him finish, his voice loud as he interrupted. "Screw your orders." He sounded so like his brother as he said it, it made him pause and drop his voice down. "Dean doesn't deserve to be there, he never did…if anything it should be me, I'm the one that has evil inside me…not him."

Castiel sighed quietly. "Then why did you send him back, does your revenge against Lillith mean that much to you that you would willing sacrifice Dean to get it?"

Sam didn't answer.

Castiel walked over and sat next to Sam on the car hood. "I pulled your brother from the pit because God commanded it, but that was a one time only deal…my orders after that are very specific."

Sam turned his head slightly. "So what are your orders now. What is more important than saving my brother?"

"Besides saving the world?" Sam thought that Castiel was going to laugh at him. "Dean didn't tell you, did he?"

"Tell me what?"

"I have other things to attend to for him." Castiel's glance upward left Sam in no doubt who 'him' was. "God's main orders though were to follow his orders."

Sam looked confused. "But his orders where to save Dean from the pit."

Castiel smiled as if Sam was a small child that didn't get how the world worked. "No…not to follow God's orders… to follow Dean's orders. I have to come if he calls me."

"What?"

"God sent me to rescue him and then to help him in anyway that he asked."

"So help him then." Sam was almost to the point of exasperation; no wonder talking to the angels seemed to drain Dean so much.

"I can't. He hasn't asked. I am to follow Dean's orders. I can't help now unless Dean orders me to…and he can't do that…."

Light finally dawned on Sam's brain. "…because I sent him to Hell."

Sam ran his fingers through his hair and quelled the urge to scream.

Then he stopped.

"Robert!"

He stood up and headed back into the motel room.

----

He was cold.

The air all around him was frigid and he hugged into himself to try and keep what little warmth he had left inside him. There was no light where he was and the silence around him was so complete you could almost hear it.

The only true sounds were in his head, the hitch of his breath, the boom of his heartbeat.

Sam had picked Ruby over him, he knew what Dean had gone through before down here and he'd still let him be taken. He swore that he would save him from Alastair sending him here and yet he had sealed the deal himself. He was abandoned and alone. Dean felt the shakes starting again. He wouldn't cry, he scolded himself. Not down here. Not were they could see him.

The light startled him and he lifted his arm to shield his eyes as it drew brighter and wider. The heat slowly started to seep through him and he groaned as the stench assaulted his senses. He hated that smell, the smell of decay and burning flesh, and the way that it had haunted him top-side as well, never fully letting him believe that he was free. Never letting him escape the fear that he would at some point open his eyes from sleep and the smell would be real again. This would be real again. Well he had and now it was.

A figure stepped forward in the light in front of him, a small child, her dress a pretty cream with a ribbon of blood red in her hair and a smile that was almost angelic in it's joy at seeing him…angelic if you didn't know what hid behind it. She stopped in front of him, almost hopping on the spot with delight and he shivered again as she said his name.

"Dean!" She closed the gap and lifted his face to hers. "It's so good to see you again. Did you miss me? I told you that you'd be back…just didn't think that it would be so soon." She did a little dance on the spot and he felt his heart drop at her next words. "I've got a little surprise for you."

He stole himself for what was coming next, closing his eyes almost in the hope that she would just be a figment of his imagination and that if he wished hard enough she'd just disappear. Her hands digging into the flesh on his face told him that that was not to be. "Open your eyes." The cold voice that made the demand brokered no disobedience.

He opened them.

The innocence was gone and in its place was a look that had no place on the face of such a small child. "You're been very naughty. First you left us without saying goodbye and then your brother spoiled Alastair's game, made him change the rules. You know that he doesn't like that. Alastair spent such a long time setting us the game, choosing just the right souls to torture you, to help push your brother to the edge and then you spoiled it." She tucked her hand under his chin again and pulled his head towards her, red flicking briefly through the eyes that stared into his. "You weren't supposed to talk to them Dean, they weren't suppose to end up taking your side."

Lillith shook her head and wagged her finger in his face. "Very, very naughty." She smiled at him again. "You know what happens down here if you disobey, if you don't play by the rules…don't you Dean?"

He nodded.

Alastair's punishments were cruel but Lillith's….Lillith's were vicious. Dean had suffered through them already. He didn't intend to do it again. He couldn't.

"They'll all have to be punished you know that, for helping you." Dean watched as the figures where brought before where he sat. "I'm going to torture them because of you and then if there is anything left…I'm going to make you finish it for them." She brushed her fingers through his hair. "Then we'll have to see about punishing that brother of yours and his little precious Ruby, a little revenge will be good for your soul Dean, just like before. Perhaps I'll let you teach them that the game has to be played properly. I mean where would we be without rules Dean. In chaos, that's where. What do you say Dean?"

She looked at him with the little girl innocence on her face again. "Of course, if you wanted to…I'd let you take their place." She waved at the souls in front of her.

"No." Dean tried to look down as he spoke but she wouldn't let him, instead she tapped her foot impatiently.

"Dean?"

He looked up and forced a smile onto his face. He knew how this game was played. "No… thank you."

"Nice to see that you at least have learnt your lesson down here Dean, so smart and pretty. We're going to have some fun."

He felt the tears finally slide down his cheeks as she turned back to the others.

---

Robert shook his head. "I've lost him, I told you that."

"I know but isn't there a way to reach him still, you said that you were connected, how can you just loose that?"

Robert looked at Dean's body and then back to Sam. "I didn't loose it as such. He's blocking me somehow. I can still feel a bit of what he's feeling but I can't reach him like I did before, he won't let me."

Sam looked shocked. "He won't let you? Why would he do that?"

"Perhaps he doesn't want anyone to see what he is going through, what they are making him do." Castiel moved closer and put a hand on Sam's shoulder. "Perhaps he is ashamed."

"Why do I get the feeling that you know more than you are letting on?" Sam brushed the hand away.

"I saw what he did the last time he was down there….it wasn't pretty and it haunts him." Castiel stepped over to Robert. "You still have a connection with him of sorts?" Robert nodded. "Then we can reach him." Castiel turned to Sam. "You can reach him."

"I can?"

"Idiot!" Robert slapped his head and grabbed Sam's hand. "Of course." He pulled Sam down beside him. "Remember I told you that your gift works both ways? You can get me or yourself in. Or both."

Castiel spoke. "If you can get him to listen to you, you can tell him to ask me for my help, if he does then I can pull him free. I can pull you all free."

Sam sighed, if only it was that easy, just get Dean to listen to him. "And if he doesn't?"

"Then there isn't anything else we can do."