Author's note:

Thanks for reading guys, please remember to review for me ;)

Sorry for those who were expecting more Dean/Cas, I felt the opportunity was right to help the other two characters develop a little too. Hope no one minds. If you hate Jet just let me know and I'll try to focus on him less than I have.

Fallout: Part 6

Everything was moving so fast he couldn't see a thing, Sam tried to sit up, tried to move his limbs, speak, anything but none of his functions seemed to be listening. On top of that he couldn't stop the feeling of motion, like he was being dragged through space by his ankles. Air was difficult to catch at the speeds he was moving, or maybe it was the fact that his body wasn't working right that he couldn't get a breath. Regardless of what it was it was making him panic, at least for a few seconds before it all suddenly stopped.

Sam gasped for what he assumed was air when he finally felt his mind wake, eyes flying open to see nothing but darkness all around. Last he remembered he was speaking with Dean and then Jet had- no it wasn't Jet. Sam looked around again, trying to focus and finding that it was more difficult than normal. It was kind of like being disconnected from himself, and really he didn't want to find out if that was true. He squinted and tried again, and again but everything was still dark and blurry. Strange and messy he started to move; walking in nearly any random direction his legs would carry him. Things were getting a bit easier as he went, focus came to him and soon he could walk a straight line again. None of that mattered though because his eyes still weren't working right.

Then he realized it wasn't his vision that made things so foggy, it just was. Something wasn't right, though things rarely were. "Jet?" He called out but heard nothing in return. "Jet! It's Sam, are you there? Hello?" At the mention of his name he felt something, there was a loud thump, like a heart beating suddenly but then it stopped again. The noise had been so loud, like he was standing inside of a drum when someone hit it. "JET! Answer me!"

And just then a sudden crash to his left caught his attention, he wanted to think it was in response to him but he couldn't really be certain, not until he investigated. Sam turned to look and saw a light in the near distance, there was movement wherever that light was and he had no intention of ignoring it. He booked it across the dark space, trying to not think about where he was or the strange sounds he'd been hearing since he arrived. "Jet?" Sam called out again as soon as he reached the lit area, his eyes widening when he saw he'd stumbled into a kitchen. It looked older, like it was something from almost 20 years ago. A family was sitting down to dinner, a very small dinner considering it was made for three people. The mother smiled crookedly at her son and passed the food to her husband, a pointed gesture that showed no love.

Sam felt his stomach twist and he wanted to walk away. He knew where he was; he knew what was happening he'd heard it before. Dean had once mentioned something about Jet a long time ago that Sam had chosen to forget.

The boy had his back turned to Sam but he didn't need to see the face to know the shaggy brown hair. "Jet?" Sam asked softly but he hadn't been heard by anyone in the room. The boy shifted a little, his hand coming to his stomach to try and stop the gurgling sound it made but the noise bothered his father.

"Quiet, boy!" He hollered and slurred enough to indicate how much he'd had to drink, if the bottle at his side hadn't been enough. Sam tried to move into the room to stop what he could only imagine was coming as the father shouted his ranting nothings into the kid's face. He took several steps forward before he realized that he wasn't getting any closer, the child and his family were the same distance away they had been a moment before. Sam furrowed his brow and tried to lurch forward to at least get the boy away but still nothing, "Come here! Get out of there, come here!" He shouted, trying to be louder the father but he could barely hear himself. "Jet! JET it's Sam!" The room pulsed with the mention of his name, again the sound of a heartbeat thundered overhead but no more than once.

His attempts did nothing, though. The scene played out as it was meant to. Sam cringed when the bottle crashed on the table next to the boy's empty plate. "You know the rules, we eat first!" The man screamed.

Instead of speaking the boy only nodded his head and hung it to try and show he was no threat, it wasn't a conscious decision but that was why he'd done it. Sam knew that too, he remembered Jet's words once when he'd asked about it.

"Why do you always get into people's faces?"

"You mean why do I pick fights?"

"No, I mean literally, when something happens and you crank your head up. Is it a pride thing?"

"Sort of, I guess. I dunno, mostly it's to show them that I'm a threat. Like a warning, if they choose to mess with me I'm not going to just sit there."

"You really think like that?"

"All the time, kiddo."

Sam had been sick at the time, during the first month or so he'd been in bed for a while and Dean had asked Jet to watch him. The exchange hadn't been all that important, Sam was just asking questions but now he couldn't seem to get it out of his head. It hurt to watch the boy try to shy away, try to hide in his own skin. It hurt more to know who the boy was.

"Jet." Sam covered his mouth as he realized he couldn't do anything. He wanted to look away as the man beat down on his child for what he could only imagine was a normal occurrence then. He wanted to cover his eyes from the sight, his ears to save himself from hearing the boy's screaming and crying, but he didn't. Instead he remained still and watched with the same horrified expression. "This isn't really happening…" He said quietly, "This is something else. It's just a memory. It's not real."

"It's real enough." The familiar voice sounded behind him and Sam spun to see the Jet he knew, arms folded over his chest and leaning against the doorframe.

Sam took a shaky breath as he let the other man's presence sink in. He was really standing there; whatever was happening in that kitchen didn't change the man that was standing right behind him. Sam quickly wiped his eyes and hurried to his side, "Jet! Are you okay?" He moved directly in front of Jet in a way that mostly blocked the view of the fading scene behind him, "What's happening?"

"Void thing, I'm guessing." Jet smiled at him, Sam's chosen position not a mystery to either of them though neither chose to openly address it. "Dean here with you?"

"No, that thing pulled me inside."

Jet's face grew a little pale and he dropped his arms uselessly, "Fuck… I'm sorry, Sam. I tried to-"

"We didn't hear a lot of what you tried to say," Sam tried to hush him before he could get anywhere close to sorry for himself. "It's not your fault. What matters though is that Dean did see me go, so he'll be here any time now."

"Where's Cas?"

"We don't know. We're assuming he's just further out and is taking a while to get here, or so the other Castiel said. And also, if it makes you feel any better, that Cas shot the guy beating you up."

Jet scoffed out a bit of a laugh, looking away a little embarrassed. "You saw that, huh?"

Sam nodded, smiling at him, "Kind of a cheap way to do it, too. Tie you up so you can't hit back? I mean it's not really losing-"

"Who said anything about losing? I didn't lose anything!" Jet was immediately defensive but in a joking way, mostly.

"Come on, let's see if we can find a way out." Sam tried to keep it light hearted though he could tell by Jet's following expression that it wasn't going to be that easy.

"I don't think we'll have to…" Jet's response was softly spoken and even a little shaky. Sam was about to ask what he meant when he realized that the darkness floating around them was starting to close in.

"Is… is this stuff sentient?" He managed to ask as he watched it take shape around Jet's right leg and arm. It was creeping its way up his body and Sam didn't know what he was thinking but he grabbed onto Jet's left arm and held it tightly. "Jet, can you shake it off?"

Jet was hesitant to attempt it but he did all the same, which he found out was as bad an idea as he'd thought when the darkness around him started to pull. "What the fuck!?" His first reaction was cursing but fear jumped in next when that beady-eyed face emerged near to his.

Sam held tighter and pulled back, his heart starting to beat erratically. He had no idea what that face was, what the monster was or how to do anything about it. All he knew was that he was not letting go of Jet. "Don't let it take you!" He growled out as he strained against the opposing force. It was starting to tug periodically but harsh, making a little progress with each random pull. Sam grit his teeth as he tried to drag Jet further away in the opposite direction but he wasn't making any kind of ground. He looked up to see that Jet was literally just standing there, staring into the thing's face as it loomed in closer to his. Sam could see the panic in Jet's eyes and felt it in his limbs as he tried to yank him backward; it wasn't comforting in any sort of way. "JET! Come on! Jet look at me!" His friend didn't reply, move, or anything of the kind. 'Is he paralyzed? Hypnotized? What's going on?'

The creature looked Sam's way for a second, as if saying 'you're helpless,' right before it truly started to take Jet with it. And in the following few seconds Sam couldn't discern exactly how fast they were moving but it felt faster than when he'd ever ridden in the Impala.

Jet squeaked out another panicked sound and Sam wished he could do something more than cling for dear life but that's all either of them were able to do. Jet jerkily tried to pull away from the monster hauling him through what Sam assumed were corridors of his mind, "Sam…" he groaned out the name as if it physically hurt to do so. "I… can't…"

"I've got you," Sam tried to reassure him but Jet shook his head.

"Let go."

"Not a chance in hell."

The movement slowed down and Sam started to see different things pass them by, little bits and pieces of Jet's life just open to be viewed. It was so strange to see his friend so young, Sam remembered Jet as being so much older, mostly because Jet was Dean's friend. Being four years his senior probably had something to do with it, but still, Jet always seemed old to him. And yet all he could see now was a kid, a scrappy, loud-mouthed, under appreciated kid. But of course that kid grew up with each scene they witnessed, picking fights on the playground, picking a fight with Dean, playing with Dean, going through school with Dean, visiting Dean and finally meeting Sam. The moment he saw his face there was that strange sound again, this time muffled and distant.

"Are you seeing all this?" Sam asked softly, still clinging to Jet's side as they travelled across his mind.

"Yeah… scaring the shit out of me." Jet answered, his voice much less pained this time.

"Is that thing hurting you?"

The amount of silence that followed told Sam the truth but he knew the answer Jet would always give, "Nah, it's ok."

The speed they were moving at was more comfortable now, though still pretty fast. He wondered where they were in Jet's head, or if it was so much his head as it was his mind, or his soul. And yet as much as all of that seemed to matter, none of it really did. He had no control over it. Sam crawled a little higher on Jet and wrapped his arms around the other's torso, it was a better hold and he was less likely to take off one of Jet's limbs by accident. The silence was starting to get to him as the scenes faded in and out of view. "What's scaring you?"

"Doesn't your life flash before your eyes before you die?" Jet answered more easily than Sam thought, and even though it was a question to his question, it was also an answer.

"Yeah, they say that happens… But I'm seeing it too, I think it's something else." Sam tried to sound reassuring and the only way he knew that Jet knew it too was the way Jet held onto him. Jet hadn't tried to hold onto him because he didn't want to drag Sam down with him, but now his arm was wrapped around Sam's upper body, hand digging into his side a little. It was probably more comforting than a real response could have been.

But he had been wrong before.

"Thank you." Jet closed his eyes and whispered.

Sam smiled, though a little sadly, "I do what I can."

"You always have."

It was the strangest exchange the two of them could remember ever having. They'd had moments where something important happened between them, but most of the time it was something that one of them hadn't been aware the other knew about. Like the times Sam had pretended to stay asleep when Jet visited, but Jet never knew that. Now they were both aware of it, that something meaningful had been shared, and neither knew what to do with that information, or if they were supposed to do anything at all.

And while most people would remain quiet about it and never really bring it up, Sam couldn't help but push his luck. "I can hear your heart beating."

"Weird, this isn't really my body." Jet muttered, his usual attempt at trying to cheapen a moment with a joke.

Sam smiled, glad that no matter what was happening, whether they were about to be dragged to their deaths or something more emotional, Jet was still Jet. "No, I mean every time my name is mentioned or my face shows up in your memories."

He was expecting a sarcastic remark, another joke, anything really. But instead there was silence for a long time as the memories faded with the last one.

"Dean's too much of a mutton-head for it to go that smoothly." Jet's voice had echoed as the image faded, the very last thing was the sound of Sam's laughter.

"Yeah, probably."

Jet smiled a little, this time hearing what Sam was talking about. The heart beat echoing around them every now and then had gotten louder with each scene that passed and now it was almost like a crash of thunder. "Yeah, I hear it too."

Sam furrowed his brow and looked up at Jet but didn't get a return glance; the older male's eyes were still closed. He wanted to say something about it but the creature holding onto Jet made a loud and frightening cackling kind of sound. Their pace halted abruptly for a brief moment before they were hurdled toward a room ahead.

Jet immediately pinched Sam's side as hard as he could, "Ow!" Sam yelped out first, flinching inward and loosening his grip in the process. He realized far too late that Jet had done it on purpose. Sam was thrown off at a side angle, hitting the edge of the wall before the next room opened up and tumbling to the ground there. Jet on the other hand was flung the rest of the way in.

"Jet!" Sam could hear himself screaming before he even realized why he had. The hall opened into a giant chasm of a room, the dark substance swirling in a thick mass of a whirlpool in the center. Sam could see other ledges from other parts of Jet's mind far across from his own. They were so distant from they looked tiny, the doorways looked to be about two inches tall from his position though he knew they were as big as the one he was standing in. The walls were covered in the black mass, moving and shifting with that beady-eyed face fazing in and out all over the place.

The size of the room didn't scare him, the monster floating around wasn't as big of a deal, it was the fact that Jet was somewhere in the middle that made him call out his name. "Jet! Jet!" The movement and rushing of matter all around the room made it so loud that he wasn't sure his voice was making it far enough for Jet to ever hear him, even if he was okay somehow.

Then he heard it; "Sam!" Jet sounded like he was close.

"Jet? Jet where are you?" Sam hurried to the edge and looked down, seeing the steep slope of the wall below leading to the whirlpool. At first he didn't see anything but as another wave of black substance ebbed and dwindled he could see Jet trying to climb up the bank. The flow of the thick crud was clearly slowing him down and making it more difficult, but Jet wasn't gone.

"I see you! I'm gonna come get you!" He called out as he started to climb down from the ledge.

"NO! Stay there!" Jet demanded before he got another face full of the vile fluid, again he vanished to Sam's gaze as it poured over his body and covered him entirely. It was so much that Sam was worried it'd wash him away, but it didn't. Jet coughed and spat a little as he continued toward him, "I'm going to try and get to you, you wait there until Dean comes!"

"Jet, no I-"

"SAM! For the love of god just listen to me!" That was the first time Sam had truly heard anger in Jet's voice and it was enough to make him listen.

"As soon as he gets here I'm getting you out of there."

"Fine, just wait for Dean." Jet spat again and continued to struggle along, knowing full well he'd have to continue to shout at Sam the whole time to make sure the idiot wouldn't just dive in.

Sam chewed on the inside of his cheek as he watched, his heart beating rapidly and his arms feeling useless at his sides. He'd only been able to watch as the boy at that kitchen table was beaten, and now he was being forced to stand there while he watched one of his best friends struggle to safety. Everything in him screamed at him to do something, so he did. "I'll see if I can find something to pull you in!" He shouted before turning to run back down the corridor behind him.

"SAM! Goddamn it!"

THE UGLY DUCKLING FANS

I have been making the Ugly Duckling fic into a comic. There are 3 pages done and you can find them on my deviantART/tumblr (link in my profile) so please take a look see and let me know what you think! Okay I'm done promoting myself now ;)