Chapter 55
Duel
Dean paced around the room. "Well shit, if Crowley got 'er, then she could be anywhere now."
Sam was overcome with anxiety and rage but he took a deep breath, trying to fight through it and find some logic.
The office had been locked from the inside.
Why?
He held his head in his hands, closing his eyes and thinking hard.
Did Crowley lock it? He wouldn't have any motivation for doing so.
Which means Cassie did.
It had been intentional.
Okay, so she locked herself inside. But why?
It came to him easily. To protect herself.
But not from Crowley, she'd barricaded herself from Sabine and Ikaros. That had to be the case, since they;d had no knowledge of who broke into the office.
That could only mean that Cassie summoned Crowley. She was wearing an anti-possession and soul-masking necklace, so the only way Crowley would be able to find her is if she'd told him where she was.
And suddenly all of the pieces fell into place in his head.
She wanted to perform the awakening spell.
She had been short with him on the phone because she didn't want Sam to try and stop her.
And she needed Crowley because he had experience in performing spells and reading Enochian.
As frustrated and yet elated Sam felt at figuring out Cassie's plan, he was still overcome with dread.
Knowing what had conspired meant nothing if he couldn't figure out where she was now.
Sam suddenly glanced up to see Dean talking to Sabine. He was deep in thought, so he hadn't heard of any of the dialogue, but he caught a few head nods and mouth movement.
He tuned in.
"So if there was a five-minute span of time, and Cassie had to get out of here fast, what's the first place that would come to mind to bolt to?"
Sam bit his lip in thought. "The bunker?"
Dean shook his head. "She wouldn't risk taking Crowley there."
Sam suddenly realized the location. It struck his subconscious like lightning and without another word he bolted out of the shop at a full sprint, running towards Platt Drive.
"Sam!" Castiel called after him but Sam was already across the parking lot.
How could he have been so blind? The answer had been staring him right in the face.
They were in Sanford after all, there was only one place that could come to mind for Cassie.
I'm coming.
For a moment Cassie was simply adrift, floating in the semi-thick and murky darkness of her subconscious. But gradually the more she blinked the more came into focus.
There was a floor beneath her feet, mimicking the surface of a giant mirror that stretched on for miles.
A blonde woman moved slowly underneath the mirror as if she were underwater. Her eyes were closed and the strands of her hair framed the space around her like a wreath.
Then suddenly the woman glowed and materialized onto the surface of the mirror.
Cassie knew what she had to do.
But that didn't make this any easier.
Sarah opened her eyes, and upon seeing Cassie crossed her arms and glared. "So much for making peace with your enemies, huh?"
Cassie didn't have a word to say in reply.
"This kind of sucks a bit." Sarah pulled a blade out of her back pocket.
Cassie stiffened. Shit, when the hell did she get that?!
But then she remembered.
Sarah had clung to the blade pointed at her back when she was behind bars in Cassie's subconscious, and when Cassie had dematerialized the cell…
The blade had too.
Sarah took it.
It was the only thing Cassie was focusing on now.
"You seemed to really care about what happened to me, and now you're forcing me to commit murder."
She pulled Suan Ywe Gou out of her back pocket, clinging to it.
It was funny. She was going tor reclaim her Angel grace with a human weapon and fight against an Angel blade wielded by a human soul.
"And it's just so hypocritical…I mean, you want to be strong enough to protect lives, yet here you are, ready to take one to accomplish that. You're such a bitch."
Sarah was taller than Cassie and broader, but Cassie had the advantage of speed and training since her body mass was lower.
"It'll be weird to have control of my body. I mean, being a twenty-two year old with a tenth-grade education isn't gonna be a walk in the park, but ya know...I'm sure Sam and Dean will be more than happy to –
Cassie gave a cry of outrage and lunged for Sarah, blade in hand but was blocked with Sarah's boot and kicked backwards from her stomach.
Dammit. She had the sensation like she couldn't breathe, but she had to tell herself it was all in her head.
Throughout the match, she started to feel a hot pulsing from her core.
Her grace. It was trying to awaken.
It poked and prodded at her insides, encouraging her to get back up.
She stumbled but got back to a standing position.
I let my emotions get the better of me. Making me strike first.
Do not be the one to strike first.
Cassie breathed hard, and she couldn't keep her hands steady. But she was strong.
She could not be beaten by Sarah.
Sarah bit her lip, as if fighting like this aroused her. "You're bound to lose. Doesn't it go against your programming to harm any living thing? I mean, the Winchesters call you a hunter and you haven't even killed anything." Sarah laughed.
"Not yet," Cassie growled. She raised a leg up as if to kick her.
Sarah blocked it with her hand but failed to notice Cassie raising her right arm to strike.
She cut a dash in Sarah's face.
"AAHHH!" She let out a shriek and clutched at her face, then growled at Cassie. "You bitch!"
Cassie held back a grin of satisfaction.
The battle wasn't anywhere near won, and Cassie already felt weak.
"I told you not to fight me," Sarah gritted her teeth, slashing the Angel blade in her hand back and forth, causing Cassie to have to leap and jump backwards to avoid the blows. "I! Told! You! I! Wouldn't! Hold! BACK!"
Cassie cried out when Sarah's blade finally made contact with her skin, knicking her collar bone.
But instead of letting the hot blood trickling down her chest cause her to panic, she used it as ammunition. "You're right, I don't want to kill you. But I don't have a choice."
"Bullshit," Sarah spat. "There's always a choice. And people will always make the choice that benefits them."
Cassie jumped backwards again when Sarah aimed at Cassie's thigh. "This isn't about me! I need to be alive and strong for Sam, for Dean - "
" – Don't feed me any of that selfless-servant-of-god crap." Sarah's eyes narrowed. "You know this isn't about them. You can convince them that your intentions are pure but not me. We share the same body, you moron. I know everything. You can't fool me."
Something inside Cassie suddenly snapped, and decided to be very selfish.
When she glanced back up to meet Sarah's gaze, the blonde flinched and gasped.
There was something in Cassie that hadn't been there before.
"You're right," her voice was dark and deadly as she stalked towards Sarah, refusing to back down. "I want to see the look on Metatron's face when I stab my blade through his heart." Her crystal blue eyes were ice. "I want to avenge my family's deaths."
Sarah found herself taking small steps backwards.
"I want to feel the rush of satisfaction I get at proving him wrong." Cassie raised her blade, readying herself to strike. "And I want everyone to stop worrying about babysitting me and leaving me behind on hunts and missions. I will make it through this awakening, stronger than ever, and be ready to kick the ass of any anyone who stands in my way!"
Cassie leaped into the air, using gravity as the driving force to plunge her blade into Sarah's heart.
Sam kicked down the door of Cassie's, house, rushing up the stairs.
His heart fell into is stomach at the sight that lied before him.
Cassie was covered in blood, resting on her bed, back down.
Her delicate wrist had been bandaged and left hanging off the side of the bed.
So it's already started.
Sam had so many emotions.
Betrayal, Fear, Worry.
She'd kept this from him. Consulted the help of a demon, ignored his phone calls, and ran off to Sanford without saying a word.
But he understood her intentions.
She wanted to make herself strong enough to protect him.
When he'd been her age, he'd done something similar in seeking Ruby's blood.
Sam took her hand in his, stroking the inside of her wrist with his thumb.
What if her grace awakened and her memories returned? Would she feel the same about him that she always has, or would it change? Would she remember him at all? What if she lost?
Somehow, even though a million feelings were coursing through him at once, doubt was not among them.
No matter what happened, he did not doubt her.
One way or another, she'd be the one to open her eyes and see him.
And the first thing he was going to do was kiss her until she couldn't breathe.
Dean, Castiel, and Gadreel had followed close behind him, entering the room not long after Sam had sat down in a chair next to Cassie.
"What do we do now?" Dean wondered aloud. He glanced at Cas and flinched.
His eyes were wide and open but dead.
Dean knew what he was feeling.
The pit of sorrow in his stomach at potentially losing his sister.
And at the same time the aching hope that he'd get her back.
Gadreel stepped forward to take a closer look but Sam immediately stiffened, only a few moments from baring his teeth.
The reaction wasn't warranted but he couldn't help it.
"I can tell you what going on if you let me read her consciousness," he explained neutrally.
Sam huffed, but nodded, shifting his weight ever so slightly to the right so Gadreel had room to reach.
He pressed a finger to her temple.
His jaw tightened. "She's fighting Sarah. And fighting hard."
"Who's winning?" Dean was the only one who had the courage to ask.
"Both parties have taken a beating and they are equally matched in resilience. It's hard to s – " he froze and swallowed.
There was silence.
"What?" Sam growled, his sanity hindering with each passing second Cassie wasn't awake and in his arms.
"She's…" Gadreel wasn't sure how to describe the ferocious murderess he was staring at that no one else could see.
"She's what?!" Sam couldn't take it anymore. "Cassie, please!" He pushed Gadreel out of the way and clung to her shoulders, tears flowing freely now. "Cassie, wake up," he whispered. "P-please…I don't care if you can protect me or not, I just want you back…"
A jolt shot through Cassie's body and her eyelashes fluttered.
He didn't dare breathe.
"Cassie?"
The voice struck her with such a pang of familiarity that it sent her reeling back.
Her blade had reached its mark.
But to her horror, it was not Sarah's heart she had struck.
"C-Cassie, i-i-it's m-m-me," Sam choked out with a guttural sound, coughing up blood.
Her worst nightmare had come true.
"NO!" She cried.
No. This had to be a dream. She was sure the person she had aimed for was Sarah.
Just moments before, they'd been fighting.
She stroked Sam's face, looking into his wonderful brown eyes that weren't really brown. The light was fading from them as blood dripped down his chin, and she felt her own vitality fading along with it.
She started to sob. "Sam, no…" she croaked, sobbing.
Cassie, please!
Cassie's eyes widened. Wait, what?
She listened hard.
The voice came again.
Cassie, wake up! Please…I don't care if you can protect me or not, I just want you back…
Back?
She looked down at the floor.
And saw Sarah's reflection underneath Sam.
Shit.
"Ugh!" She once again lost her ability to breathe.
Something sharp and cold had dug into her stomach, and she fumbled her fingers around trying to find the source.
A cool blade handle made contact with her finger tips.
And suddenly Sam's sobs morphed into laughs, and the laughs just continued and grew louder and more boisterous.
It made her sick to her stomach.
It was his laugh, coming out of her, because she'd been stabbed.
That hurt worse than the blade.
Her hands were getting covered in the hot, gushing substance.
She recognized the coppery smell and taste that was starting to build up behind her throat.
"Ya know, it's a good thing I live here, and share this mind with you." Sarah continued to strut around Cassie's body slowly as Sam. "You've memorized every curve, line and form that makes up Sam Winchester. It was easy for me to alter myself to look like him. Pretty neat trick huh?"
This wasn't happening. This couldn't be happening.
But Cassie could no longer support her weight and she was crumbling to the ground, staring at her reflection in the floor. All of these actions accompanied losing a battle.
Stained in red, bruised, and beaten.
This outcome was supposed to be an impossibility.
Yet here she was, lying on her side, dying slowly.
"I knew you and I were evenly matched in all aspects, so if I was going to beat you I had to take advantage of your one weakness. Your love for Sam."
No, he's not my weakness. He's my purpose. My strength. My love for him is what makes me strong.
Cassie screamed in agony when Sarah-Sam grabbed her Suan Ywe Gou and stabbed it into Cassie's thigh, pinning her to the now shattering mirror.
Sarah coughed up more blood, turning back into Sarah.
Suddenly another mirror appeared.
The kind that stood up and was for dancing in front of. It had a beautiful silver frame that wound around its face like ocean waves.
"You may have gotten me, but only one of us is gonna make it through that mirror," Sarah coughed.
She stumbled over to it, slowly making progress as she made her way across the floor.
Cassie felt darkness swirling at the edges of her vision.
But if she let herself fall asleep, she'd never wake up.
The excruciating pains in her stomach and thigh were fading to dull aches, and she found she couldn't even muster the strength to lift her arm.
I have to, she told herself.
But she couldn't.
Sarah lifted one foot into the face of the mirror…"Say hi to Dad for me."
And everything in Cassie's vision went black.
Sam watched as Cassie opened her eyes and groaned as if she were in pain.
He finally sighed a breath of relief.
She glanced at him, biting her lip, and then at her wrist.
It stung from being cut.
She was dizzy but smells were reaching her nose.
The metallic stench of blood, the weird lilac sickly sweet smell of the oil that coated her body, the smell of the impala coming off the boys, and the soap Sam always used.
All reminders that she was alive, and in control.
She immediately leaned up and kissed Sam gently, weakly.
Sam kissed back, nuzzling her forehead, not caring that their whole family plus Gadreel were in the same room as them.
He pulled away to look at her face.
And froze when the eyes that stared back at him were brown, not blue.
"Nice to finally meet you all," She croaked weakly. "I'm Sarah."
Sam stared for a solid three seconds at the woman before him.
Then he lunged for her throat.
