The Winchester Sister Tales: The Story
Chapter 23: A Shot on the Devil
"Not today, Satan." - Bianca Del Rio
"Hello?" someone over the intercom asked.
A young woman is standing outside in a black evening dress of the mansion, looking seductive. "Hello. My car broke down. I- I need some help."
"I'll be down in a minute." the person replied.
Jo Harvelle turns around to wait, a smirk on her face. All was going according to plan so far. The gates swung open and two men dressed in suits began to approach her.
"Evening pretty lady, get yourself on in here." The first man said.
Jo looked to them, rather hesitantly. "I just need to make a call."
"You don't need to call anyone, baby." The man glanced back at his partner behind him. Both guys were looking at here with lust and something else. "We're the only help you're ever going to get."
Jo smiled nervously. "You know what, I think I should wait by my car." She turned to go, but the man grabbed her shoulder, his eyes going black.
"We said, get your ass in here." demanded the demon.
Jo shook him loose and flattened him. Just as she began to run, the second man goes for her, but is suddenly stabbed through the neck with a knife. Jayne smiles, looking to her as the body falls to the ground. "Demons, they never learn." She throws the knife to Jo, gesturing to the demon behind her getting back up.
Jo catches it and ends up stabbing him without looking behind her. "Yeah, they never do." Both girls exchanged a smile and chuckle.
"Good work, girls." Dean said, handing Jo a bag.
She pulls out a pair of wire cutters and grins. "Okay, shall we?"
The electricity suddenly cut out in the mansion, alerting the owner. He got up from his chair where he had been watching a film and looked annoyed. Turning, he noticed the two other Winchester brothers approaching him.
"It's Crowley, right?" Sam asked.
The demon sighed. "So. The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew finally found me. Took you long enough."
Sam holds the demon knife in his hand and Adam holds a shotgun. Crowley looks to see Jayne and Dean coming into the room right after them. Just as he goes to approach them, he stops in his tracks at the sight of a crumpled up rug. Lifting it up, he sees the Devil's trap drawn on the bottom of the rug.
"Do you have any idea how much this rug cost?" Crowley exclaimed, making them raise an eyebrow. Some of his minions come into the room, disarming the siblings and pinning them. The crossroads demon pulls out the colt. "This is it, right? This is what it's all about."
Aiming the gun at Dean, the siblings felt themselves go cold before he adjusts his aim and shoots his own men, releasing them. "We need to talk. Privately."
Crowley leads them into another room as the confused siblings try to figure out what was going on.
"What the hell is this?" Dean asked.
"Do you know how deep I could have buried this thing?" the demon said, waving a hand to shut the doors behind them. "There's no reason you or anyone should know this even exists, except that I told you."
"You told us?" Adam raised an eyebrow.
"Rumors, innuendo, sent out on the grapevine."
Sam huffed. "Why? Why tell us anything?"
Aiming the gun once again at Dean, this time they didn't flinch. "I want you to take this thing to Lucifer and empty it into his face."
Dean didn't trust it, there had to be a catch. "Uh-huh, okay, and why exactly would you want the devil dead?"
"It's called—" Crowley put the gun down, the serious expression on his face changing as he looked for the words. "Survival. Well, I forgot you two at best are functioning morons—" He looked to Adam. "And you must be the new brother so you're out of the equation...Slayer!" Jayne's eyes went wide. "Of course it would be up to you, prophecy and all."
She looked to the gun, gulping before holding out her hand to take it. Dean stopped her. "Whoa, who knows if it can even kill him? This could be a trap."
Crowley was losing his patience and rolled his eyes. "Lucifer isn't a demon, remember? He's an angel. An angel famous for his hatred of humankind. To him, you're just filthy bags of pus. If that's the way he feels about you, what can he think about us?"
"But he created you?" Jayne asked, not understanding what the demon just said. It must be wrong.
"To him, we're just servants. Cannon fodder. If Lucifer manages to exterminate humankind, we're next. So, help me, huh? Let's all go back to simpler, better times, back to when we could all follow our natures. I'm in sales, dammit! So what do you say if I give you this thing, and you go kill the devil?"
Crowley holds out the gun again and Jayne takes it.
"Great." Sam said, not excited about this at all.
"I knew you would do it." the demon grinned at the slayer.
"Uh...You wouldn't happen to know where the devil is, by chance, would you?" Adam asked, looking at the gun curiously. After all, he had never seen such a thing.
"Thursday, birdies tell me, there's an appointment in Carthage, Missouri." He had no idea where Lucifer was, it was obvious at this point.
Dean rolls his eyes, sarcastically asking, "Oh, uh, excuse me for asking, but aren't you kind of signing your own death warrant? I mean, what happens to you if we go up against the devil and lose?"
"Number one, he's going to wipe us all out anyway. Two, after you leave here, I go on an extended vacation to all points nowhere. And three, how about you don't miss, okay! Morons!" the demon yelled at the top of his lungs, causing them all to look wide eyed at each other. Crowley disappeared, making them realize now was the time to depart.
Five full shot glasses in a row next to a row of three upside-down shot glasses, a gap, and a full shot glass. Another glass is placed upside-down in the gap. Jo drinks from a beer bottle. Ellen drains the fifth and puts it back upside-down.
"All-right, big boy." Ellen said to the angel, offering the glasses.
Castiel sighed. "Well." He drank all five in a row as everyone in the room watched in anticipation. He looked to them all. "I think i'm starting to feel something."
The two Harvelle's cheer and Ash pats his back with Adam giving the angel a high five. Sam and Dean sat at opposite sides of Bobby's desk chugging beer bottles. Sitting on the stairs, Gabriel and Jayne watched with amusement.
"Awww, Cassie got his first alcohol buzz." remarked the archangel, proud of his little brother.
"Are angels actually capable of getting drunk?" Jayne asked, always the curious type.
"Lower-tier angels, yes, but it takes A LOT!"
"What about archangels?"
Gabriel raised an eyebrow, playful smirk on his face. "We've only been dating for a week now and you're already looking to get me drunk? Kinky."
She shoved him playfully. "No, sheesh. I'm just curious, you know me- I have a thing for angels." Jayne said, winking and chuckling. He was helping her start to feel comfortable coming out of her shell and flirting with him. For a few days there the slayer was so shy and embarrassed to even kiss him in public.
A whole playful exchange to begin between the two. Dean looked above at them, mouth stopped over his beer as he glared. He was still having trouble accepting their relationship- the problem was mostly Gabriel. "What?" Sam asked, following his brothers eyesight to see the archangel and their little sister were now sharing a small kiss.
"Just leave them be." He said, turning around and trying to get Dean to do the same. In fact, both brothers still weren't entirely comfortable with it.
"Why couldn't she just get a normal boyfriend?" Dean said, shaking his head.
Sam knew the answer. "Because she grew up with us."
Dean sighed. Of course, nothing in either of their lives would be normal, not even relationships. Getting up from his chair, he went into the kitchen and stopped seeing the view that greeted him; Jo was rummaging through the fridge, her rear end was prominent. She turned around, shocked to see Dean right there.
"Hey." he said, gathering himself.
"Hey."
"So, dangerous mission tomorrow. Guess it's time to eat, drink, and, you know, make merry." At this point his was trying to break ice, making conversation. He liked Jo, but knew not to make a move on her otherwise Ellen would rip his head off. So it resulted in him being awkward with her.
The blonde chuckled. "Are you giving me the last-night-on-earth speech?"
"What?"
"What?"
"No." They both laughed. "If I was, would, uh, would that work?"
Jo begins to lean in for a kiss, just a little bit apart from his lips before stopping. Dean leaned in, but was stopped by her speaking. "No. Sweetheart, if this is our last night on earth, then I'm going to spend it with a little thing I call self-respect." She laughed before leaving him standing there dumbfounded.
When he found his words, he spoke again. "If you're into that kind of thing."
"Everybody get in here! It's time for the lineup. Usual suspects in the corner." Bobby yelled, getting everyone's attention. They all gathered in the front room.
"Oh come on, Bobby. Nobody wants their picture taken." Ellen said.
"Hear, hear." Sam agreed.
Gabriel retorted, putting an arm around Jayne. "Are you kidding? This face is gorgeous and needs to be captured...same with mine." This caused everyone to chuckle except Dean.
Bobby finishes fiddling with the camera he sat upon a tripod. The hunter who was now confined to a wheelchair moved it back to look at everyone who started getting into position. "Anyway, I'm gonna need something to remember your sorry asses by."
"Ha! Always good to have an optimist around."
"Bobby's right. Tomorrow we hunt the devil. This is our last night on earth." Castiel said, standing tall and proud.
The smiles slowly dropped from everyone's face, even Gabriel's who looked to Jayne while the rest looked ahead at the camera. He knew what he would be getting himself into now helping them face up against his brother, and he was going to keep her safe. The camera flashed, taking the picture.
Carthage was an empty mess, a sure sign that the apocalypse was around and the devil walked into town. Driving in on the impala with the others following behind in another car, it was no surprise when no one could get a phone signal.
"You getting a signal?"
"No, nothing. Nice and spooky." Dean replied.
He waved the other car up past him. Ellen was driving with Jo shotgun and Ash and Castiel in the backseat.
"Place seem a little empty to you?" Ellen asked.
"We're gonna go check out the PD. You guys stay here, see if you can find anybody."
The gang split up in their teams. Jayne noticed Gabriel was dead silent next to her and Adam. "You okay?"
The archangel nodded. "Yeah, just trying to keep my presence secret." He could sense Lucifer was near and didn't want to alert him. He wasn't ready for a showdown with his big bro just yet.
Getting out of the car, Jayne stopped in her tracks noticing all the men standing in the middle of the deserted street. She walked up towards them, but Gabriel stopped her.
Adam noticed and asked. "What is it?"
"Reapers, a whole lot of em." Gabriel explained, looking to the old men in suits who were standing around, attention fixed to something in the distance.
Jayne got chills down her back, looking between the archangel and reapers. "Why are they all gathered here?" She almost didn't want to know the answer.
"Bets on something to do with my big bro, and something catastrophic he is going to do soon."
On the opposite side of town, Castiel had noticed the same thing informing Ellen, Jo and Ash. He departed from them as he went to investigate it.
Castiel walked a good distance towards a reaper who just ignored him. However, the angel's attention was caught by a reaper inside the building who turns away from the window of an upper building, making him go to check it out. He appears inside the building at the window and goes down a corridor into another room.
"Hello, brother." A voice says before Castiel is engulfed by a bright, white light.
Gabriel's eyes widen sensing what has just happened. "Crap."
"What is it?" Jayne asked.
Before he could tell her, the Harvelle gang returned in their car. "Station's empty." Dean informed them.
"So's everything else." Jo replied.
"Have you seen Cas?" Ellen asked.
"What? He was with you." Sam replied, wide eyed and realizing the angel didn't come back with them.
Ellen shook her head. "Nope, he went after the reapers."
The brothers looked to Jayne and Gabriel, the slayer who smiled at them nervously knowing she forgot to tell Sam and Dean. "Yeah, there are a whole buttload of reapers currently standing around us right now."
"Would have been best to know that detail sooner." Dean retorted, causing the archangel to narrow his eyes at him.
In a dark room with the only source of light being from a fireplace, Castiel was standing in the center of a ring of fire. Looking up, he finally notices the other person in the room curiously watching him from the shadows.
"Lucifer." the angel said, already knowing who it was.
"So I take it you're here with the Winchesters...and was that my brother with the slayer?" he asked, almost sounding amused. "I'm surprised to see Gabriel taking his job seriously for once."
"I came alone." Castiel said, glaring at him.
"Loyalty. Such a nice quality to see in this day and age. Castiel, right? Castiel, I'm told you came here in an automobile."
"Yes."
"What was that like?"
Castiel was taken off guard, finding it weird that the highly feared, terrible devil was asking him such a question. All his training and the stories about how Lucifer was didn't prepare him for this.
"Um- slow, confining." he answered.
Stepping out from the shadows, the angel was finally able to get a good look at the vessel currently containing the archangel. The body seemed to be deteriorating slowly, not able to contain his grace. He had burns across his face and was that some skin starting to come off? "What a peculiar thing you are." he said, raising an eyebrow while looking Castiel over.
"What's wrong with your vessel?" He asked.
"Yes. Um. Nick is wearing a bit thin, I'm afraid. He can't contain me forever, so—"
"You—" Castiel went to charge at him, but was stopped by the fire keeping him contained in the circle. Oh, he must be enjoying this. "You are not taking Sam Winchester. I won't let you."
"Castiel. I don't understand why you're fighting me, of all the angels." Lucifer said, laughing.
"You really have to ask?"
The archangel rolled his eyes, not understanding why he couldn't see the obvious. He would have to explain it then."I rebelled, I was cast out. You rebelled, you were cast out. Almost all of heaven wants to see me dead, and if they succeed, guess what? You're their new public enemy number one. We're on the same side, like it or not, so why not just serve your own best interests? Which in this case just happen to be mine?"
"I'll die first!" Castiel exclaimed.
Lucifer sighed. "I suppose you will."
"You think, uh, you think Lucifer got him?" Sam asked Gabriel as the gang loaded up with shotguns were walking down the empty street.
"No doubt about it. I can feel his presence here." replied the archangel. His expression suddenly changed, feeling another presence.
"There you are."
Everyone quickly turned to see it was Meg the demon from before. She was the reason Bobby ended up in a wheelchair. Everyone began pointing their weapons at her except for Gabriel and Jayne who had their eyes on the things around her that no one else could see.
"Meg." Sam said, narrowing his eyes.
"Oh, so this is her." Adam replied, looking to the demon curiously.
"Shouldn't have come here." She smiled smugly.
Dean chuckled. "Hell, I could say the same thing for you." He aims the Colt at her.
"Guys...we got trouble." Jayne said, blue eyes still stuck on the others around the demon. The splash of a puddle nearby her feet got their attention as the sounds of barking and growling were heard. The others noticed the couple looking by Meg's feet.
"Hellhounds."
"Yeah, Dean. Your favorite. Come on, boys, slayer. My father wants to see you."
Gabriel finally spoke up, taking a step forward, which instincly made Meg just back. After all, archangels were to be feared by demons, regardless if they had Hellhounds around or not. They could snap their finger and that would be it, demons didn't have that ability. "Woah, hold up she-devil. They aren't going to see my brother, tell Luci thank you for the offer, but we'll take a rain check."
Meg seemed to find her nerve and challenged him. "Your call. You can make this easy or you can make it really, really hard." She eyed Jayne, causing the slayer to feel chills go down her spine. Just what was she planning?
Dean looked back to Ellen, sharing an unspoken message between each other as she nodded. "When have you known us to ever make anything easy?" Dean said, catching her attention.
Meg shakes her head. Dean shifts his aim and fires to where Jayne and Gabriel were looking; blood spurts from the hellhound next to Meg's feet.
"RUN!" Sam shouted.
They all take off, but Jo looked back to see Dean get tackled on the ground by a hellhound. "Dean!"
"Jo, stay back!"
The blonde begins firing her gun in Dean's direction, trying to aim for a creature she couldn't even see. Jayne noticed another one coming for her side. "NO, JO BESIDE YOU!" She screamed, aiming her gun at the creature which suddenly turned to dust before her eyes. In fact, all the hellhounds just disappeared.
Feeling the weight off his chest, Dean looked to Jo wondering what happened before she held a hand out for him to take. All eyes turned to Gabriel who smiled, his fingers still up in snapping position. "Whew, that was a close one! One second more and you would have become dog chow." He frowned.
"T-Thanks Gabriel." Jo said, catching her breath.
He waved it off. "Eh, nothing to it. I did warn her to take a rain check."
"Let's get going while we still got a chance." Dean told everyone.
It took sometime, but they ended up coming across a field right when sunset began to take place. Sneaking through bushes, they found a dozen of men standing in the middle of the field. Their attention was clearly on something out of sight, but Gabriel knew what it was, he could feel it.
He started to get tense.
"Guess we know what happened to some of the townspeople." Ash said, pointing out the guys.
They all spot Lucifer up ahead busy digging a hole and tense up. "Last words?" Sam asked everyone.
"I think I'm good." Dean replied.
"Same." Adam said.
Everyone else was too scared to speak or didn't even know what to say. Here they were, about to face the devil himself who was clearly too occupied with what he was doing to even pay any attention to them.
"Here goes nothing." Jayne breathed in, making her way forward despite shaky legs.
"HEY!" Sam yelled, approaching Lucifer and readying a shotgun. He dropped his shovel and turned to face him. "You wanted to see me?"
"Oh, Sam, you don't need that gun here. You know I'd never hurt you. Not really."
"Yeah? Well, I'd hurt you." Dean said, aiming the colt point-blank at him. "So suck it." He fired the gun, causing Lucifer to collapse. None of the men did anything, standing perfectly still. Everyone watches his corpse for a minute, except Gabriel who gave a look that indicated they had fucked up, he even started to facepalm.
Lucifer inhaled and shifted his position. "Owwww..." He began to stand up, everyone looking terrified. "Where did you get that? Gabriel, did you help them with this too? I thought I taught you better than that."
The archangel gulped at having his brother's attention. The other punched Dean who flew back into a tree. Everyone stood still, frozen in their tracks. "Now, I suggest the rest of you stay still and watch the show or you'll end up like Dean, maybe worse." He chuckled before looking to Sam. "You and I need to have a word."
Gabriel looked to Jayne and in a blink they were suddenly back standing right outside the Impala with the others. Sam and Dean were the only ones not there.
"Why did you do that?" asked Jayne frantically. "Lucifer- he's gonna take Sammy!"
Gabriel held a finger up. "Shhh, I'll be back."
One minute he was gone and the next, he arrived with Sam, Dean and strange of all, Castiel. "Cas- where were you?" Ellen asked, wondering where the angel had gotten to.
"Lucifer, he kidnapped me, but I broke free. I was on my way to help you guys, but I saw Gabriel helping out."
"What was Lucifer doing exactly?" Adam asked, wondering why the devil was digging a hole and all those men were standing around.
"A ritual." Sam replied, looking grim. "He was raising Death."
Jayne gasped. "That explains why all the reapers were standing around."
"Big daddy reaper is returning." Ellen said.
Back at Bobby's, the gang sat around the fireplace as the tv news talked of death everywhere along with severe weather changes. Everyone was grim and on edge, knowing they hadn't won this battle and things had just gotten worse. They were one step further now.
"I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth." Jayne said, quoting a verse from the Bible.
She huddled into Gabriel as he put his arms around her. They could both use some comfort after the events of today, knowing what their next challenge would bring; face Death himself and get his ring.
Author's note: Plot twist, Jo survives! You're welcome!
So the next chapter is going to be an exciting one, let me tell you. We are only 2 chapters away from the whole Pagan god hotel thing and oh boy...so much is going to happen in between then. We are getting more info about Jayne, her parents, and how they all relate to Virgin Mary, Gabriel and Gabriel's unidentified vessel he is currently using. Now, just because Jo was saved this chapter doesn't mean that heartbreak isn't coming soon...like VERY soon.
I'll let you all guess around on that. Let me know what you thought. Reviews let me know how I'm doing and motivate me to write fast, honestly, it's the golden truth! See you in the next chapter.