Author's Note: This chapter is for carocali, for sending me my lucky REVIEW NUMBER 100! That's right people, 100 reviews! You are so awesome. Thank you, and this chapter is for you all as well.

Chapter 25: Redemption

They didn't go through the door, pausing before entering the room, and Dune looked up at his father.

"So, it's in there?" he asked the taller figure beside him, and his father nodded.

"The key is kept in there, yes, Dune."

"And it's our job to guard it?"

Dune's father shook his head. "Not our job, son. Our duty. Our life. We guard this key with every breath, and if we can't, then we make sure someone else gives their life to guard it. If it ever comes to that, that person should feel privileged."

"What is it?" Dune asked, too young to know.

"It's a key, in a sense. A very powerful object. It gives us our longevity, our powers. But it's also our demise. Our death, as a race, is tied in with the death of that key. Some say we were made from the key, but somehow I think the key was made from us. We are protected from its persuasions, so it cannot alter how we think, or act, but many believe that the moment that the last of us die, that key will die as well. Or that the moment the key dies, we will."

Even as young as he was, Dune understood that the key had a life, of sorts, of its own. It also never occurred to either father or son that the race could cull itself and stop the possibility of the Ending.

"What is it a key to?" Dune asked, looking through the door.

"The End of the World. Literally."

"Why is there an End of the World?" Dune demanded, without accusation. He knew there was one, or assumed it, had no reason to disbelieve his father. It was similar to a human asking, Why is there a God? Curiosity.

"Because there was a Beginning," Dune's father answered simply. "Everything in life is about balance, Dune. Good and Evil, right and wrong, up and down, karma, yin and yang. So when the universe was Begun, it created its End as well, and stored it away. Only one can be used at a time, and since Beginning came first, Ending waits."

Dune nodded. "What is the Ending?"

"No one's sure, really. Everyone just knows we guard it, and that releasing it would mean the death of everything."

"Is there anyway to stop the End if someone does release it?" the younger creature asked.

"Better to hope no one ever manages to do it, Dune," the father told his son. "Sure, if you kill the person possessed by the End, the End should stop. But possessed by that energy, you are, according to legend, practically invulnerable. You heal instantly. Understand, Dune, that once possessed, the person cannot control themselves. They can only watch as the World Ends about them."

Dune nodded. "Person, though. One of our kind could never be possessed by the End?"

His father shook his head. "If it was released, the End could try. But our magic can hold it back, if you try. Battle it, I suppose. It can't harm another who is possessed by the End, but it can stop us from being the Ender."

Dune nodded, unaware that in the future it would be the only thing that did stop him from being the Ender.

"Uncle Dean!"

Dune flinched as Jess yelled it, as Dean's back arched with the stress of becoming undone, as Sam, oh God as the Sam that he and his kind had created brought that terrible power down to bear on his own flesh and blood.

Time seemed to slow down, or maybe Sam was just taking his time now that the danger had passed, now that he had destroyed the demons. Either way, Dean's own undoing seemed to be far more drawn out.

Dune couldn't move from the wall. From his position, he could see everything. Could see that Dean was refusing to fight back against his brother. Could see, hear, Jess and Cal screaming out for their uncle, closer to him than their own father, unable to watch him die, yet unable to make themselves move from the fear, the terror that Dune himself felt searing his bones, turning his legs to jelly.

Everyone talked about the end of the world, about how one day, someday, the world was going to… most of the time they meant change. One day, the world was going to change so much that they could only call it the end.

Now though, the End, the real End of the World was here, and the idea of everything Ending, of Nothing greeting them all and their minds just… stopping, of there being absolutely nothing… it was far more terrifying then the thought of hell on Earth, of incredible change.

"Uncle Dean!" Jess screamed again, and as if responding, Dean himself screamed, the pain of his undoing too much. Nothing was showing on the surface, but Dune, his senses far more than human, knew the Corruption infesting Sam was being vicious and tearing Dean apart from the inside out. And he knew, could sense Sam fighting, struggling, dying as he murdered his brother, but he had absolutely no hope of beating it. It was the End of the World.

Dune tore his eyes from the two in the middle of the black stone cave and looked over to the kids where they huddled against the wall, holding each other, holding each other back, afraid to let loose of the other in case the world decided to rip apart at that one instant and they died alone.

But they weren't looking at each other. They too, stared at the centre, fear uppermost in their eyes, watching their family literally tear itself apart. And Dune found himself staring down, down, into their souls, or hearts, or whatever it was that so broke and shone through their eyes.

It was fear, and sadness, and regret, and longing, and horror, and love, and nearly every other emotion any human being had ever felt. Dune felt a surge of envy, that they could feel anything other than terror, when he had no one who he could hold as he was unmade. No one to wish he could save, no one to miss, no one to cry for, or love. He had nothing that those two siblings had, and he wished he could.

But he was the last one, the Last of his kind, and he had failed in his duty. He had failed to protect the key, to stop the End, and to save mankind.

And, somehow worse, he had failed to save the Winchesters.

The cave began to shake as Sam's power grew, and with it, Dean began screaming non-stop, his back arching until it should have snapped, Sam's hand never moving from his brother's chest. Dune covered his ears with his hands, knees suddenly like jelly and unable to hold the rest of him up. The shaking became worse as the whole world rebelled uselessly at its Unmaking. And still Jess and Cal held each other, two children lost in a storm of death and emotion.

Still watching them, it was a moment before Dune realized he had gotten to his feet and was marching to the centre of the room.

It was an act that made him more human than most men and women he had met in his entire, long lifetime. Determination surged through his veins, replacing terror, and he knew he had to do this. With human thoughts and emotions ravaging his mind, Dune didn't give his plan a second thought. He was the Last, and in all honesty, that meant he had nothing to lose. The Winchesters had everything to gain.

These thoughts whirling through his head, Dune paused beside the two brothers on their knees, reached out for that magic within himself, and opened now pure golden eyes.

His hand tightened on Dean's shoulder, and the man flinched, breaking his screaming to look up with feverish eyes and a tear-stained face. Dune refused to see it, gripping hard. With a wordless roar, he lifted Dean and threw him across the cave, no easy task. He had to all but tear Dean away from Sam's hand, as if they were one. But he managed, somehow, and he followed Dean's flight, watching him fall near his niece and nephew. The kids helped him get up as Dune turned back to Sam.

He jumped to find those volcanic eyes at the same level as his own, especially when he hadn't heard Sam stand. The cave shaking harder yet, Sam turned those angry orbs to the one who had disrupted him.

Dune refused to flinch as the same hand that had been killing Dean reached up to grab his cheek, and he saw some part of Sam, a part without morals or conscience, shine through with a manic look, retribution promised for what Dune's people had done to him. Dune almost let the Corruption kill him. Almost.

Instead, he turned to face Sam completely, taking Dean's spot and ignoring everything but that power inside Sam. Then, lifting his arm, he reached for it with a brutal, guilty force.

Even Sam's cracked eyes went wide as he hunched over, dropping his hand from Dune's cheek, gagging, gasping, looking down. Down, down to where Dune's arm disappeared into his chest.

Dune grimaced, wishing he could think of some other way. Instead he shoved further, searching, ignoring the growing cracks in Sam's eyes, the brightening Corruption. Just focusing on reaching, reaching for that power deep inside Sam, reaching out to take a hold. He was almost there, and both he and Corruption knew it. It lashed out.

He felt the power sear his hand and screamed, even as his fingers closed over it, the power solid as he grabbed it. It seared him, and he screamed, and Sam screamed, his back arching, arms flailing, eyes flashing deep gold, covering the black as the power fought back while it was still inside its human host. It fought, and blood began dripping from Sam's nose, from his ears and eyes, signs of the struggle within. Like the golden Corruption before it, the blood ran in sinuous lines down his face and neck, onto his chest.

Dune ignored it, his whole arm shaking with the struggle of keep a hold on the golden power within Sam, with the struggle to keep going. He felt it burning his hand, felt the edges of it digging deep, until his own blood ran, and still he kept a hold, just intent on maintaining that grip for the moment, just so he could hold on when he…

With a roar that was half a scream, he yanked his arm back, and like an explosion erupted between them, both Sam and Dune flew backwards to hit opposite walls of the cave.

Dean finally got to his feet as Sam slumped unconscious to the ground, eyes closed. He stumbled forwards a few steps, staggering, light-headed, anxious… he waited, just waited, praying.

Sam took a huge breath, though never waking, and Dean took one with him. He was alive, oh God he was alive, somehow. He didn't know how his brother had survived whatever it was Dune had done, and to be frank, he didn't really care. He wiped away the tears that had soaked his cheeks, unashamed at having been so terrified, and almost couldn't believe that the world wasn't Ending.

A ragged choke behind him suggested it wasn't over.

Dean spun as the small cry seemed to echo about the cave, and he gasped with horror as he took Dune in. He stepped forward enough to grab Jess by her arm, and drag both her and her brother away, before moving back to stand in front of the still unconscious Sam.

"Dune, what did you do?" he demanded in a hoarse whisper.

In his hand, Dune held the Corruption that had been in Sam, the one Dune had ripped from the hunter's chest. It glowed like the sun in his fist, a bright ball of golden light, so beautiful, in the flesh if you will, that Dean found himself almost ready to accept oblivion if he could just taste the sweetness of that Ending that Dune held. He refused to take a step forward though, eyes growing wider, pupils dilating at the sight, feeling the hands of his niece and nephew clutched unabashedly around his arms. He wasn't about to abandon them again.

Tearing his eyes away from the orb, and the chain of the key swinging from it, Dean looked up into Dune's golden eyes. And heaved with relief once more as he found only Dune, and not Corruption.

"Dune?" he asked again, his question all the more complex for its simplicity. He was asking what the creature had done, why, how, and knew those questions could never be answered completely. Dune shook his head, fear and relief clashing.

"I don't think I had a choice," he told Dean, gazing once at the two kids. "I couldn't just let Sam destroy everything, not after everything my kind put him through…"

Dune flickered, actually flickered, and Dean flinched, jolting back half a step, pushing Jess and Cal. The creature looked down at himself, as if trying to soak in every last detail, before looking back up at Dean.

"I'm sorry," he told them as the glow began to grow, travelling up his arm in an expanding ball of light. "I'm sorry I tried to use you. I thought I was going to save mankind by manipulating you. Instead, you, all of you… you saved mankind by manipulating me."

The glow covered his entire arm now, and Dune flickered once more, like a ghost already, struggling to remain a part of this world. Dean watched in morbid fascination, shaking his head. "Dune, what the hell is going on?" he asked, his voice sounding empty as the glow brightened.

"It's trying to take me, and I won't let it. I won't let it any further than my skin," the creature explained, his voice hollow as well. As if from a distance. The golden light covered his chest and began moving down, picking up speed. He flickered again.

"I would never have even considered this if it weren't for you. I would have watched the world die…" And his voice carried away into a guilty whisper. Dune flickered once more, and when he flickered back, the glow covered every single inch of him, a man shaped creature made of sun. Dean squinted, his arms still being held, but somehow, the intensely bright golden light, still singing for his soul, didn't hurt. Didn't sear, didn't burn, just shone ever brighter and sung ever lower.

And then Dean finally realized, just as Dune raised a hand in farewell, the echoes of tears dripping in all their hearts, noiseless, pure emotion. Just as Dune sung out a silent good bye, a silent thank you, Dean realized.

Dune was dying.

"No!" he shouted, surprising even himself by leaping forward, tearing his arms free. But he was too late.

With a painless scream, Dune's head flung back, and he imploded, shrinking down, and pulling himself in, until he was a speck of light in the centre of the cave. It happened so fast Dean was still feeling the traces of fingers on his upper arms when the tiny, minute, crying speck of golden light screamed once more, and rolled out.

Again it happened fast, and the disc-like explosion knocked the three standing Winchester's off their feet, carrying them back against the black wall of the spherical cave to land in a heap at the bottom.

And Dune was gone forever.

They would have grieved, despite all Dune had done to them and Sam, if they had had the time. As soon as the black spots disappeared from their eyes, the cave began to rumble once more, and this time, flakes of black stone fell. Dean got to his feet and looked up, jaw dropping as he watched cracks appear in the top of the sphere, high above.

"We need to get out of here," he muttered as Cal came to stand by him. Dean looked down at his nephew. "We need to leave, now."

He raced to where Sam lay slumped against the wall, pulling Cal with him. There, he pushed Jess away from where she was checking her father's vital signs, and carelessly slung his baby brother over his shoulders.

A sudden bang made them all fall, the shaking, unsteady footing not helping their already drained bodies. But they had moved just in time, as a large piece of black stone came crashing down to where they had been standing not twenty seconds ago.

Dean stared at the huge piece for a moment, just thanking anyone who was listening. Then he turned to Jess and Cal, who were apparently doing the same thing.

"Go," he told them, his voice croaking as he stood up. They barely heard him, shock finally settling in. Growling, he gave them a shove with his hips, his hands otherwise occupied with keeping Sam from falling.

"Go!" he shouted, and it finally managed to get through. Jumping, the kids started forward, dodging smaller shrapnel as it fell, as the whole cave began to collapse. Sensing the exit nearby, Jess lead the way, running through, hands above her head, Cal barely a step behind her.

Dean struggled under the unconscious weight of his brother, even if the younger man was malnourished. Dean was tired, and he was sore and at that moment he wanted nothing more than to lie down and sleep. But if he did that, both he and Sam would be crushed. As it was, with him staggering towards the exit, survival was looking slim.

"Come on, Uncle Dean!" Jess suddenly screamed, and Dean looked up to find both of them at the exit, the arched doorway that seemed to be filling with light. He groaned, pushing on, pushing as hard as his legs would let him, determined, hopeful, tired, sore, goddammit, why was it always left... up… to them!

With a roar he lunged forward, slamming into that wall of golden as the blackness of unconsciousness rushed up to meet him, and behind them, the cave, where the whole nightmare of the past twelve years had begun, collapsed into Oblivion.

Better it than the whole world.

Phew, they survived, thank God for that!