A/N: I know I updated a week later than I promised, but I did make sure to write you guys a longer chapter to make up for it! This is the final chapter – well, there's an epilogue to tie up everything, but other than that, the story is finished! Thank you all again for your support. I appreciate each and every one of you! Now, without further ado, I present the final battle. Peace out girl scouts!

-LovingTheSPNLife

Dean F's POV

Dean Forrester sighed; it was another boring day at Doosey's market. Instead of inventory or stacking items, he had bagboy duty. He didn't mind bagging groceries, but some days he wished he could go play football or softball with his buddies instead. But, Dean reminded himself, he needed the money.

At the checkout counter he stood behind appeared a girl his age with straight, raven black hair that fell to her shoulders. Black rimmed glasses sat over her almond chocolate brown eyes. The girl, Dean's age, smiled and set a basket of fruits and vegetables in front of her.

"Hey, Lane," Dean greeted. He began scanning her items. "What's all the food for?"

"My aunt is coming over and she loves fruit so my mom had me pick some up before dinner tonight," Lane answered.

"Do you want paper or plastic? And your total is $16.67."

Lane thought about it. "Let's go with paper." She dug out change from her pocket and counted it.

Dean bagged her items and handed her the bags. Lane traded him money and left. Dean glanced around the store; it was practically empty, which was odd since the sun was still up. A bell ringing drew his attention to the door. A gorgeous young woman in a Chilton uniform walked in. Her silky brown hair was slicked back in a ponytail and her ice-blue eyes darted around the store until they settled on him. He noticed her eyes looked puffy and red, as if she'd been crying.

"Rory, what's wrong?" Dean asked, moving from his position behind the counter.

Rory sniffled and wiped her eyes with her sleeve. "It's Jess; God he's such an idiot."

Dean wrapped an arm around Rory and led her to the back so they could talk privately. He moved a stack of Captain Crunch out of the way so they could sit down. "Rory, what happened? What did Jess do?"

"He said he had to leave; that something came up. When I asked him what it was, he snapped at me. He told me that if I didn't stop talking to him that we were done. I told him I didn't understand why he was doing this and then he said he never wanted to see me again and slammed shut his car door and drove off." Tears began spilling down her cheeks; Dean could feel her body shudder as she held in a sob.

"Hey, it's going to be okay," Dean said soothingly, rocking her gently back and forth. "I'm sorry he did that to you, Rory. I don't know why he would do such a thing to the sweetest person he could know, but it's whatever. You don't deserve a jerk like him."

Rory sniffled and looked into his honey brown eyes. "Why are you being so nice to me?"

Dean looked at her in confusion. "What do you mean?"

She sniffled and wiped her nose with the sleeve of her uniform. "You're just so nice to me. Especially after the way I treated you. You're sitting here listening to me cry about Jess, the guy that I left you for. How come you're so nice?"

Dean smiled a small smile as he answered, "Because I love you, Rory. I always have, and I always will."

She stared at him for a few seconds before her eyes wandered to his lips. She kissed him then, taking Dean by surprise. After the initial shock, Dean closed his eyes and melted into the kiss. He felt it was a long time coming; he'd hated breaking up with Rory and seeing her with Jess. His heart shattered into tinier pieces every time he saw Rory and Jess holding hands or kissing. This, well, this felt right to him.

When Dean parted from the kiss, he opened his eyes and smiled. His smile quickly fell, however, and his eyes widened in horror as he stumbled a few feet backward. He wiped his lips; he felt dirty looking at the sight in front of him.

An odd, alien creature sat in front of him. It resembled an octopus with its head and tentacles. Dean screamed as it raised a tentacle and swung at him. He dove to the side and ran out the door to seek some help in Doosey's Market. Only, when he ran through the door, he was no longer in Doosey's Market. Instead, he was in a forest of condensed trees, sun overhead. He felt hot, as if he were standing in an oven.

There is no escape, said a voice behind him. It sounded like boiling water, Dean thought.

He slowly turned around to face the creature that was going to end his life.

Sam, Dean W's, and Jess's POV

"I hate going on a hunt in broad daylight," Dean muttered, lowering the radio of the Impala as the three hunters drove to Doosey's to rescue Sam's look-alike. "Sam, how are we going to explain to people why there are two Dean Forresters?" Dean shot a sidelong glance at his brother.

Dean wished they had the night on their side; that would mean less people would be out and about, which meant less of a chance they would be caught. Dean knew nothing bad would happen if the brothers were spotted – they did have the cover story of Dean being Sam's cousin – the people that spotted them would probably only chat with them. But wasting time talking when they could rescue Dean Forrester was not what Dean wanted.

"It didn't seem like too many people were at the store, Dean," Sam said defensively, recalling his vision. He understood Dean's concern, but Sam knew that saving Dean Forrester was worth the risk. Sam had to save as many people as he could; it was his job. "And if people do see two of us, so what? After we save the kid, we kill the Illithid. Once that oversized fish is dead, we can hightail it out of here."

Dean sighed; he wished it would go over as simply as that. "Unless you somehow know what kills the Illithid, then I'm -"

"I do."

Dean paused. "What?" He looked at Sam in confusion. Was his brother referring to what he thought he was referring to?

"I do know how to kill the Illithid. Pierce it in the heart with anything and poof, it's gone," Sam answered. Dean may not have thought killing this thing would be easy, but Sam knew it was, especially with the Impala's arsenal at the hunters' disposal.

"How do you know that that'll work?" Jess piped up from the backseat. Jess hadn't been expecting Sam to know how to kill that damn creature either. "Your vision?" Jess was still unsure how he felt about Sam having visions. Yes, Jess knew that Sam's vision, in this case, was helping Dean Forrester, but it wasn't natural. And, Jess thought, if Sam has visions, what other abilities could he be hiding? What other abilities could manifest?

Sam shook his head in response to Jess's question. "No, from my dream, actually. I guess the Illithid was talking to the guy in my dream and he mentioned how anything that pierces its heart kills it."

Jess looked at Sam warily. "And you trust that man?"

"Based on the Illithid's freaked expression, yeah, I do." Sure, Sam hadn't exactly seen the Illithid's expression, but he could guess what it looked like based upon what Jessica had told him. And he trusted what Jessica had to say; why would his subconscious lie to him?

"Which way do I turn, Jess?" Dean interrupted, staring at the fork in the road.

"Go left," Jess replied.

Five minutes later and the hunters arrived at Doosey's. Dean parked the Impala across the street and popped the trunk. The three hunters dug through the contents of the Impala quickly – they were not sure of how much time they had. Sam's visions usually gave them a good amount of warning, but lately they seemed to happen a minute before the incident occurred.

Sam grabbed out two knives and a pistol, Dean chose a sawed-off shotgun; he already had knives tucked into his boots, and Jess grabbed out a pistol, no knives; he had the knife his father had given to him as a birthday present one year. Once the hunters selected their weapons, Dean slammed the trunk shut.

They ran into Doosey's Market; Sam was in the lead since he knew where the Illithid had taken Dean Forrester. Sam led Jess and his brother to the back storage room and out the back exit. He turned right, where the dumpsters were. Between the recycling can and the trashcan were the Illithid and Dean Forrester, just as Sam had seen.

"Get off of him," Sam commanded, raising his gun at the Illithid. Jess and Dean were by his side in a second; their weapons raised as well.

"You're outmatched," Dean said with a smirk. He wanted to shoot the Illithid so badly; he was pissed at it for messing with his mind and invading Sam's dream. The only reason his finger didn't pull the trigger was because the Illithid was on top of Dean Forrester; he couldn't risk the kid getting hurt.

I know you won't shoot, the Illithid spoke, its voice invading the heads of the hunters. You wouldn't dare risk harming this human boy, would you? The Illithid laughed at the boys' shocked faces. Now that I've been in your mind, Sam, I can read it.

Sam swallowed. "Step away from the kid," Sam said forcefully, refusing to allow the Illithid to worm its way into his head any more than it already had.

The Illithid stood up to face the hunters, picking up Dean Forrester with it to use as a shield. What are you going to do now? The Illithid taunted. I may not be able to touch you, Sam, but I can do whatever I want to him.

Sam reacted to this with anger; he dove at the Illithid and knocked the creature and Dean down.

The Illithid released its hold on Dean when it hit the ground; it had not been expecting Sam to attack.

Sam pinned the Illithid to the ground and raised his gun to shoot it. The Illithid knocked the gun out of Sam's hands and wrapped its tentacles around his wrists.

If either of you move, the Illithd began, its gaze flickering to Dean and Jess, I will kill him.

"You can't kill him," Dean said, remembering that Sam had mentioned the man making a threat to the creature, "or you'll be killed."

Try me.

But Dean didn't want to risk Sam; it was his job to protect his brother. Dean remained frozen, unsure of what to do.

Drop your weapons.

"Dean, just shoot it!" Sam said, wiggling around in hopes of breaking out of the Illithid's hold.

Dean felt torn. He wanted to listen to his little brother and shoot the damn thing, but Dean couldn't risk accidentally shooting Sam or risk the Illithid harming him. Dean wasn't sure how afraid the Illithid really was of the Yellow Eyed Demon – he hadn't been in Sam's head at the time to see for sure. With a sigh of defeat, Dean realized he didn't have much of a choice; he lowered his gun and set it on the ground.

You too, Jess. And both of you be sure to kick the guns to the side.

Jess reluctantly set his gun down and kicked it away from him. He felt they were making a big mistake. The Illithid was beginning to have the upper hand, and it could do anything now that the hunters didn't have their guns in hand.

Sam could barely stand watching his brother drop his shotgun in surrender, nor could he stand watching the Illithid's octopus face warp together in a cruel smile that said the Illithid knew it was in control now. Sam did the only thing he could think of: he bit into the Illithid's tentacle. He wanted to throw up as soon as he did; the tentacle smelled of rotten fish and tasted like a mix of slime and trout with a hint of blue cheese and salt. The worst part, Sam thought, was the crunching sound as he bit into the Illithid's armor.

The Illithid released its grip on Sam for a split second, giving him time to draw out one of the knives from his jacket pocket. He struck the Illithid's heart as its tentacles reached towards him once more. They stopped in mid-air as soon as Sam plunged the knife into the Illithid's heart. The tentacles fell to the side as Sam watched the Illithid's fish eyes glaze over.

He sat back, breathing heavily. Finally, it was over.

Sam heard a groan and turned to the left of him. Dean was stirring into consciousness. The boy sat up and looked around, blinking his eyes. His gaze settled on the Illithid's dead body and he tensed up. "What the hell?" His gaze then traveled to Sam and his eyes widened. "I must be dreaming," he concluded, closing his eyes.

"You aren't dreaming, Dean," Jess said as Dean opened his eyes again. The boy turned to Jess, a confused expression on his face. Jess groaned on the inside; he should've known they would encounter this problem.

"What the hell is going on, Jess?" Dean demanded, eyes bouncing off each of the hunters.

"Well, for starters, Forrester, we just saved your ass. Be grateful you didn't die in your sleep this afternoon," Jess said, voice thick with anger. Now that the immediate threat was over and since Rory wasn't there, Jess could act however rude he wanted to Dean. Just because Rory thought he was nice a nice guy and remained friends with him didn't mean that Jess had to befriend him.

"Please, you can't even save your grades in school, how the hell do you want me to believe that you could save me?" Dean Forrester's tone matched Jess's. Dean understood why Jess acted so malicious towards him; he was jealous. Dean knew Jess realized that he and Rory were friends, and he knew that Jess was afraid that Rory would come crawling back to him, just as she had in his dream.

Jess chuckled. It was loud, meant to show Dean that Jess couldn't care less about what he believed. "The proof is right there." Jess pointed at the Illithid's dead body.

Dean Forrester's brown eyes peered at the placid body of the Illithid. "That thing was in my dream, what's it doing here in real life?"

"It entered your mind," Sam answered, drawing Dean's attention. "That's how it kills you. You die in the dream, you die in real life."

Dean's eyes narrowed at Sam. "Why do you look so much like me?" Dean wasn't sure if this was another dream. He thought it had to be a dream, how could there be somebody else out there who looked exactly like him?

Sam chuckled, wondering the same thing as well. "Well, considering that I'm older you look like me. Anyway, that I don't know. I do know that it is freaky."

"You can say that again."

"Well I hate to interrupt the meeting of the doppelgangers," Dean interjected, "but Sam, we gotta go. We killed the Illithid, we're done."

"Yeah," Jess agreed, "you should probably head out before anyone sees the two of you together." Jess glanced between Sam and Dean Forrester.

Sam nodded. He helped his lookalike stand and shook his hand. "Nice meeting you, by the way."

"You too," Dean answered, eyes still studying Sam. Sam didn't blame him for the curiosity and weariness; Sam felt the same way.

Sam turned to his brother and said, "Let's roll."

A/N: And we're done! So, what did you guys think of the conclusion? Did you like it? Did you hate it? Let me know. I will write the epilogue and post it in the next couple of weeks, so be sure to look for it! As for a sequel, I'm going to wait some time and decide if I feel like writing one or not. But be on the lookout for that just in case. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and I'm looking forward to writing the next and final one for y'all. I hope you all had a great January and I hope your February is even better. I love you all, peace out girl scouts!

-LovingTheSPNLife