Summary: After the car accident, Blaire discovers things about herself that really begin to frighten her, but on their quest to stop the yellow-eyed demon, the Winchesters realise they have to be stronger than ever before. Please R&R.
Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural or its characters. I only own Blaire Winchester. I don't own some of the lines used either.
A/N: I would like to thank everyone who has read/favourited/alerted/reviewed this story. It's such a relief to know that at least somebody enjoys it and the character. We're finally at the end of the second story and I will be moving onto the third instalment shortly! I can't wait to get started and I hope more and more of you come to enjoy it as it progresses! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I hope you enjoy this final chapter, and the next story The Paths We Tread: GoingUnder will be up as soon as possible!
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The Paths We Tread: Facing Our Truth
Chapter Thirty-Four
"Well, I found something." Bobby said as the group were reunited to go over his findings, "But I'm not sure what the Hell it means."
Sam, who looked gravely concerned, asked the obvious question. From the moment Sam had gone missing, Blaire's stomach had been in knots, and she felt so, so sick she could've spewed up in front of the whole group.
"What is it?" Sam asked.
Everyone could now sense the younger Winchester's suspicions, and Dean's heart broke because he knew that Bobby certainly wanted to know the truth, and so did Blaire. Sam would also, no doubt find out because Blaire would make sure that he did. She always said that whatever one of them knew, the rest should know too.
"Demonic omens." Bobby replied, "Like a friggin' tidal wave. Cattle deaths, lightning storms. They've sky rocketed from out of nowhere. Here..."
He turned a map around and circled Wyoming with his finger, and the others moved to get a closer look. The news was just going from bad to worse. Whatever was going to happen was massive, and to be frank, the Winchesters had no idea whether or not they were prepared for it.
"Except for one place." Bobby continued, "Southern Wyoming."
"Wyoming?" Dean asked.
"Yeah." Bobby replied, "That one area's totally clean. Spotless. It's almost as if..."
"As if it's being surrounded." Blaire finished, "Do you know why?"
It was surprising how calm everyone was given the circumstances. Bobby had done pretty good to say he'd done all this research by himself. This was a really big mess, yet nobody seemed too panicked. To be honest, panicking in this situation was no good, and there was a big chance that a lot of hunters who they needed the help of were dead, so keeping a cool head was the only way that they could get through it with any chance of coming out okay.
"No, and by this point, my eyes are swimming." The older hunter finished, "Sam, would you take a look? Maybe you can catch something that I couldn't."
"Yeah, sure." Sam replied.
"Come on, you two." Bobby said to the others, "I got some more books in the truck. Help me lug 'em in."
"Yeah." Dean said as he and Blaire followed the older man.
Passing her little brother, Blaire rubbed his shoulder gently, giving him her best reassuring smile. The group got into the graveyard of cars, and Bobby strode ahead, clearly very angry. Blaire had to run slightly to catch up with them, but Bobby spun around on Dean and the young woman got ready to intervene.
"You stupid ass! What did you do?" Bobby asked, grabbing Dean's jacket when he didn't answer, "WHAT DID YOU DO?"
Blaire, who had never seen Bobby react like this, took his shoulders gently to steady him and pull him away from her brother, stepping in between them.
"Hey, take it easy, Bobby." She said as calmly as possible despite her fearful trembling, "Please?"
"You made a deal." Bobby breathed, "For Sam didn't you...How long they give you?"
"Bobby..." Dean began, watching his sister out of the corner of his eye as her hand went to cover her mouth.
"How long?" Bobby asked again, furious with the older Winchester.
"No, Dean...Dean, you didn't..." Blaire breathed, tears spilling from the corners of her tired, dulled eyes.
"One year." Dean replied, clearly getting emotional himself.
Blaire let out an anguished sob as she clutched at her hair, turning away from her brother and crying into her hands. As if losing one brother wasn't enough, now she was going to lose her other instead? No way. Her life just seemed to stop as the time limit got stuck in her head. One year...One year was all she had left with the boy who raised her? How dare he just give himself up? Even if it was for Sam, they should've just gotten on with it and made their peace with the fact that their brother was dead.
"Damn it, Dean." Bobby said, obviously disappointed in Dean.
"Which is why we gotta find this yellow-eyed son of a bitch." Dean told him, "That's why I'm gonna kill him myself. I mean, I got nothing to lose now, right?"
"How fucking dare you?" Blaire cried, launching herself at her brother as she started to punch his chest, "Why would you even say that?"
She let go of him and rested her hand on her hip, running a hand through her hair as she tried to dry her eyes. Bobby sighed and began to rub her back softly.
"What is it with you Winchesters, huh?" Bobby asked, "You, your dad...You're both just itching to throw yourself down the pit. Why is it the Winchester women who are the only ones with any sense?"
"That's my point." Dean said, "Dad brought me back, Bobby. I'm not even supposed to be here. At least this way something good can come out of it, you know?"
"How is this good?" Bobby asked, indicating Blaire and how upset she was.
"At least my life can mean something."
"What, and it didn't before?" Blaire asked tiredly, "You raised me...and Sam. You mean the world to us. You mean the world to Dad which is why he brought you back, so don't ever throw that in our faces again. It's an insult to his memory."
"I couldn't let Sam die, Bobby..." Dean breathed as he started to break, "I couldn't...He's my brother."
"How is your brother gonna feel when he knows you're going to hell?" Bobby asked, completely devastated, "How'd you feel when you knew your dad went for you?"
"You can't tell him." Dean said, "You take a shot at me, whatever you gotta do. Please, don't tell him. And you can't either."
He looked to Blaire at that point who looked at her brother like he was insane. He wasn't expecting her to actually hide this from Sam, was he?
"You're crazy." She told him, "He's part of this family! If I know, he's gotta know too!"
A rattling drove them out of their state, as all three hurried and crouched behind a car. A shadow that approached caused them to run out, and then they caught sight of Ellen. God, she was alive.
"Ellen!" Blaire cried, "Oh, thank God!"
With that she swept the older woman into a tight hug and held her close, stroking her hair and crying into her shoulder. Everything was just a giant mess, and she just needed a mother's love to get her through. Holding onto every last bit of hope she had, she took the comfort from Ellen's arms and tried to offer her comfort back.
"Bobby, is this really necessary?" Ellen asked as the older hunter slid a glass of Holy water over to her.
"It's just a belt of Holy water." Bobby said quietly, "It shouldn't hurt you."
Ellen took it down with no reaction, and she placed the glass on the table, looking at the others as she spoke.
"Whiskey, now...If you don't mind." She said, sliding the glass back over to Bobby.
Dean and Sam sat by the table, as Blaire did, with Bobby's hand rubbing soothing circles over her back. She was still shaking from the shock of everything, and vomited after returning to the house. Dean had also revealed that the 'spirits' of their parents that Blaire was seeing had in fact been illusions that old Yellow-Eyes had been setting on her from the start. That was according to the demon he'd dealt with, yet apparently her abilities were real. Some of the abilities, like the exorcism she performed on Sam, of course stayed out of their conversation. Dean was yet again, hiding things from his sister. Her reaction had been very contained and controlled, but Dean and Bobby were certain that one more piece of bad news would send her over the edge.
"What happened, Ellen?" Dean asked, "How'd you get out?"
"I wasn't supposed to." Ellen replied, "I was supposed to be in there with everybody else."
She let out a huff that was so venomous and bitter it made the room fill with the same feeling.
"But we ran out pretzels...of all things." The older woman continued, "It was just dumb luck."
Bobby slid a glass of whiskey across to her and she took the whole lot down. He slid a glass to Blaire who did the same and sent her glass back for more. She listened as Ellen began to talk about Ash and hid her face in her arms, which caused Ellen to spare her a glance.
"Anyway, that's when Ash called...Panic in his voice." She began, "He told me to look in the safe, then the call cut out. By the time I got back, the flames were sky high. Everyone was dead. I couldn't have been gone more than fifteen minutes."
"Sorry, Ellen." Dean whispered, choked up.
"A lot of good people died in there." She said solemnly, "And I got to live. Lucky me."
"You mentioned a safe, Ellen?" Blaire asked, speaking tiredly and looking tearful.
"A hidden safe that we keep in the basement." She replied as the others all looked across at Blaire.
"Demons get what was in it?" Bobby asked, earning a shake of the head from Ellen.
"No." She answered, passing a map across the table for the others to look at.
"Wyoming?" Dean asked, "What does this mean?"
"I don't believe it." Bobby said as he looked through a book, catching the attention of everyone who went to approach him to see what he'd found.
Ellen, who'd been talking with Blaire, was relieved to see the young hunter looking a little better. They needed her on top form for what they needed to do. It was very hard for her, the whole situation, and knowing she couldn't tell Sam what was going to happen to Dean was absolute torture.
"Each of these X's is an abandoned frontier church, all mid nineteenth century." Bobby explained, pointing to the x marks on the map, "And all of them built by Samuel Colt."
"Samuel Colt...The demon-killing, gun-making Samuel Colt?" Dean asked.
"Yep." Bobby replied, "And there's more. He built private railway lines connecting church to church. That just happen to lay out like this."
He connected the lines to form a star. Blaire stopped breathing as she stared at the map.
"Oh, my God..." She breathed, "It's a Devil's trap...Isn't it?"
"Yeah." Bobby replied.
"A hundred square mile Devil's trap." Sam said.
The whole group took in the news without any idea as to how to react. This seemed to be good news, but there'd be a catch somewhere because there always was. Blaire, Dean and Bobby had found that to be a very hard lesson to learn, but one they'd learned all the same.
"That's brilliant." Dean said, running his hand over his mouth, "Iron lines, demons can't cross."
"I never heard of anything that massive." Ellen confessed.
"No-one has." Bobby said, confirming her statement.
"After all these years, none of the lines are broken?" Dean asked, "It still works?"
"Definitely." Sam said.
"How do you know?" Dean asked sceptically.
"All those omens Bobby found." Sam said.
"Southern Wyoming was clean." Blaire added, "It makes perfect sense. Demons couldn't go there."
"They must be circling and can't get in." Sam told them.
"Yeah...Well, they're trying." Bobby said.
"Why?" Ellen asked, "What's inside?"
"That's what I've been looking for." Dean spoke up, "And there's nothing...except an old cowboy cemetery right in the middle."
"Why, what's so important about a cemetery?" Sam asked, "What's Colt trying to protect?"
"Well...Unless..." Blaire began, cutting herself off as she thought.
"Unless what?" Bobby asked.
"What if Colt wasn't trying to keep demons out?" Blaire asked, "What if he was trying to keep something in?"
That idea made a lot of sense. A devil's trap around a large cemetery, cemeteries that demons were trying to access? That didn't seem like a plan for protection of something. It seemed like a plan of protection from something. And that something was what worried everyone. What the hell was being kept locked up inside.
"Well...That's a comforting thought." Ellen said.
"Could they do it, Bobby?" Sam asked, "Could they get inside?"
"This thing's so powerful..." Bobby explained, "You'd practically need an A-bomb to destroy it. No way a full blood demon gets across."
"No...But I know who could." Sam said darkly, which began to worry the others greatly, especially Blaire and Dean, because both believed they knew exactly who Sam was talking about.
Jake.
The night air was growing incredibly cold which caused everyone to feel a chill as they stood in their hiding places in the cemetery.
Being amongst the dead wasn't very appealing to anyone but when Blaire could feel many of the spirits wandering around her, it made things feel a lot more uncomfortable. Jake's shadow passed the group in their hiding places and they began to quietly advance behind him. The urge to kill the little shit was almost too much to control for all of them.
"Howdy, Jake." Sam said, causing Jake to spin and lay his eyes on the group advancing on him.
Two more men, and two women, all armed, all looking like they were ready to kick some serious ass. Blaire wanted nothing more than to rip the crap out of him because of the pain he'd caused their family, and what he'd done to Sam.
"Oh, you...You were dead." Jake said, "I killed you."
"Yeah?" Sam asked, "Well next time, finish the job."
"I did." Jake spat, which made dread fill Bobby, Dean and Blaire, "I cut clean through your spinal cord, man... You can't be alive."
Sam shot a look towards his siblings, and Bobby, who all looked nervously between them. Blaire closed her eyes and swallowed, looking back at Jake.
"You a tough guy all of a sudden?" Jake asked, "What are you gonna do?"
"Oh, you don't wanna know." Blaire snapped, "You don't even wanna imagine what any of us are gonna do to you, sunshine."
"Kill me?" Jake asked.
"It's a thought." Sam snarled.
"More like a lifetime wish." Blaire added.
Jake began to laugh and looked towards Ellen, eyes flashing yellow. Blaire's stomach tightened into a big, nasty knot because she knew that Jake wasn't Jake anymore. She felt a surge inside her like she had when Sam was possessed and alarm bells began to ring because she didn't know what was happening.
"Hey, lady. Put that gun to your head." Jake said, and Ellen, despite her struggling did as he commanded, "See, that Ava girl was right. Once you give into it, there's all sorts of new Jedi mind tricks you can learn."
"Shoot him." Ellen said, clearly very, very scared.
"Everybody put your guns down." Jake commanded again, "Except you sweetheart."
Everyone did as he wanted and Jake inserted what looked like the Colt into the lock on the door he was facing, and while Dean and Bobby disarmed Ellen, Sam shot Jake in the shoulder, watching him smugly as he fell to the floor. The others watched a new look wash over Sam's face, like he'd enjoyed what he just did and they each got chills down their spine. They stopped as they watched the door lock finally break.
"Oh, no..." Bobby breathed.
"Bobby, what is it?" Ellen asked.
"It's Hell." Bobby said, and as Dean grabbed the Colt, the hunter yelled again, "Take cover!"
Everyone moved except Blaire who stood there with what appeared to be black eyes. Jet black. Dean and Sam yelled at her, as Bobby did, and eventually Dean ran around and grabbed her to pull her behind the same tombstone he was hiding behind. She began to mutter in Latin as her eyes became even darker, while hundreds of demons flew freely from the open doors in one horrendous crescendo.
"What the hell just happened?" Dean yelled as he held his bumbling baby sister closer.
"That's a damn Devil's gate!" Elle told him, "A door to Hell! Come on! We gotta shut that gate!"
Unbeknownst to them, one of the iron rail lines had been broken, and the yellow-eyed demon was on their trail. Dean stood up, leaving Blaire sat on the floor, and as he realised that the demon was behind him he turned with the Colt, only to have it ripped from his grasp and into the hands of the demon.
Blaire watched her family being hurt before her and with whatever strength she could muster, she stood up, closing her eyes and willing herself to believe. To believe harder than she ever had in her entire life. If John's spirit wasn't real, he had to still be in Hell, and if the gate had been opened, maybe he'd gotten out.
"Come on, Papa...Show me you're real." She breathed, "Let me know you're real!"
All of a sudden, as Dean was backed into a corner, bleeding, a shape formed behind the demon and everyone was shocked to see that it was none other than John. In that one moment, Blaire's belief was restored. John had the demon in his grip while the body lay on the ground, but in no time he was thrown away, and all Blaire felt was that power surge and she flew on top of the body with a hand to it's forehead, this time with no sound other than screams of hot white pain that flew down her spine. Blood began to drip from her nose and then the corners of her eyes became bloody, but it gave Dean just enough time to get the strength up to shoot the demon. She had to let go because of the consciousness leaving her and she was thrown to the side, flimsy like a ragdoll.
As the demon approached Dean, he took the shot. The demon was dying and the sight was a sweet relief. Ellen, Sam and Bobby all got the door shut, and turned to see none other than John standing before them. He turned to Blaire who lay still on the floor and he carefully took her into his arms and helped her to stand. She felt herself being embraced and as sobs began to hurl through her body she gripped onto her father, allowing him to help her over to Dean. He passed her across as though he was passing on a valuable treasure, and with looks of pride and relief being passed between father and his children, the other Winchesters began to cry. With that, John disappeared. It had just been nice to see their father again. Each one of the siblings had wanted him to stay forever. They'd wanted him back to help them fix their mess but he couldn't stay. And it broke their hearts.
They contemplated all that had happened. Each had a word with the demon to tell him that they'd avenged their mom. That finally they'd done what they had, all of it for her. And for their dad. And for Sam. But arriving back at the car, Sam questioned Jake's reaction to him being alive, which really brought on another horrible feeling that something was about to go very wrong. Dean had checked to make sure Blaire was okay. Her eyes were fine, her body was fine. But this time she knew what had happened. Considering what was about to come out, everyone knew that the conversation about Blaire would be waiting until another time.
"What happened? After I was stabbed?" Sam asked.
"I already told you everything." Dean replied.
"Not everything." Sam said, "Did I die?"
"Oh, come on..." Dean let out a huff of laughter and smiled.
Blaire boiled up with anger. She couldn't believe him. She decided that Dean was going to continue to dance around the subject, so she came to the conclusion that both brothers would get angry at her, but she didn't care. Enough was enough with the lies.
"Did you sell your soul for me like Dad did for you?" Sam asked.
"He did." Blaire said, "He has one year. You can both be pissed at me all you want, but it's time we all started to tell each other the truth, you know?"
Sam began to cry. Dean got upset. Begged Sam not to be mad at him. But Sam turned on Blaire too, and that really pissed Dean off.
"I made her promise not to tell you." Dean explained, "She's been put under so much pressure already, and it was a very wrong and cruel thing to do, but I didn't want you to know."
After more exchanged words, it was settled that the group were going to try and stop this deal. That Blaire and Sam, for once, were going to save Dean's ass. They shared a loving embrace. All of them, with Blaire in the middle and squashed between the strong arms of her brothers, and they shed their tears and made peace with the fact that they had another mission. They made peace with the fact that they'd all lied to each other and been lied to, and in a few moments of quiet, they all forgave one another for everything.
"Well..." Ellen began as she and Bobby approached, "Yellow-Eyed demon might be dead, but a lot more got through that gate."
"How many do you think?" Sam asked.
"A hundred...Maybe two hundred. It's an army." Dean replied.
"He's unleashed an army." Blaire said.
"Hope to hell you three are ready." Bobby told them, "Because the war's just begun."
"Well then..." Dean said, smiling at his siblings, "We got work to do."
-The End-
Hope you enjoyed!
Thanks for reading!
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