A/N: Hey y'all! I know this was supposed to be posted last night but all the days have been blurring together and I forgot. My bad! Anyway, here is the chapter for episode 11x01, Out of the Darkness, Into the Fire. Not my favourite season premiere, and this chapter kinda bridges the gap between the end of season 10 and the beginning of season 11, but I hope you all enjoy!
Thanks to bagelcat1 (x2), Colby's girl, Guest, and shadowhuntingdauntlessdemigod for the reviews. To the Guest commenter, there was an update for 10x22, called Fire. However, upon going back through the chapters I screwed up the numbering for the episodes back in Chapter 216. There are two chapters in a row labeled as being tags for episode 10x20, which is why the numbering is off and it looks like there's a chapter missing. Sorry for the confusion and I'll be going back to fix it ASAP. Thanks for letting me know!
Disclaimer: Nothing recognizable belongs to me.
Show Me the Light
Sam and Dean had been brothers for years. Now, that may sound like a stupid statement to make, considering they were technically brothers from the very second Sammy was conceived, but Sam and Dean knew the difference between being biological brothers and being brothers.
Biological brothers had certain similarities. Some had the same hair colour, others had the same eye colour. Maybe the shape of their noses or their lips were the same. Maybe they grew to be the same height, or maybe they had the same mannerisms. Sometimes, they had the same last name. Maybe they looked more like Dad, or more like Mom, or maybe they both took after a grandparent or an aunt or uncle. Normally, you could see some sort of family resemblance.
Brothers were different. Brothers had each other's backs. Brothers fought for each other as much as they fought against each other. Brothers were willing to go to Hell and back for each other, not because of some sense of family duty or responsibility, but because that was their brother who was in trouble, and they sure weren't about to let their brother be in trouble alone.
Now, sure, they had been biological brothers since the second Sam had been conceived and yeah, Dean felt that connection grow to something that biology couldn't explain very early on, while Sam was still nestled safely within his mother. But that didn't mean they had been brothers their whole lives.
For a short while after Sam ran away to Flagstaff, Sam had been relegated back to bio brother status. In an effort to protect himself, Dean pulled away but it couldn't stay that way for long. Eventually, Dean resorted back to his typical overprotective, brother/father/mother role and Sam was content.
College was a whole different bag of rocks. Sam didn't want an overprotective family rolled into one older brother. He wanted freedom. Freedom to choose who he wanted to be, how he wanted to be known, and what he wanted to do with his life. For two years, Dean held on. He would visit when he could, leave Sam little gifts that he picked up in interesting places or whatever money he could spare from that night's pool hustle. He tried to feed and fan the flame of that bond, until Sam dumped cold water on it that night in a Seattle hospital. For two years, they were barely even biological brothers. At least those guys would talk on the phone every couple of weeks, or text, or send emails. Between Sam and Dean, there was radio silence.
It wasn't until Dean jimmied open a locked window on a college campus in California, snuck in, got tackled, roadtripped with his little brother, and pulled the kid out of another burning building that they actually started talking again. However, it wasn't until Sam was staring down at his brother's unconscious body, hearing a doctor talk about subdural hematomas and thinking about the terror that had gripped his very soul at the thought of losing Dean, that Sam realized just how important that bond is. He had even said it: "We were just starting to be brothers again." He knew what it meant then to be Dean's brother, and exactly what it would mean to lose that bond.
When Dean went to Hell, he went insane and turned into a dark version of himself that he barely recognized.
When Dean went to Purgatory, Sam tried to shove everything down and pretend he was okay, but he couldn't deny that gaping hole inside of him where his brother's love and guidance used to reside.
When Dean turned into a demon, Sam panicked. He didn't know what to do or who to turn to. He fought like hell to find his brother and bring him back, but oftentimes it felt like a losing battle, especially since Dean didn't seem to want to be saved.
After a lifetime of losing his brother, with only a few precious good moments in between, Sam couldn't let that happen again. That's why he went behind Dean's back and used the Book of the Damned to save him. It cost him nearly everything, it did cost Charlie everything, but Dean was alive, sans Mark, for the first time in nearly two years. Everything was back to normal.
Then red lightning started striking the Earth, black smoke poured out of earthen crevices, and the ground began to shake.
Sam looked over at Dean, who looked both pissed and scared. "What did Death call this?
"The Darkness."
The very name sounded ominous, but nothing compared to the names Lucifer and Michael in Sam's book, so he figured they could handle it. He could handle anything as long as Dean was with him and not dead, or tortured, or lost, or demonic.
Dean grabbed Sam's shoulder and started pushing him off the porch. "Get in the car."
"Yeah," Sam sucked in a breath. Of course, he had thought about the consequences of ridding Dean of the Mark, but he had been so dead set on saving Dean that they hadn't mattered. Looking around at the Armaggedon happening around them, Sam knew that whatever was coming, it was gonna be bad. "Let's go, let's go!" he shouted, grabbing Dean by the wrist and running with him to the car.
Dean slammed the Impala into reverse and gunned the engine, but the back tire got stuck in a massive pothole, leaving the tires spinning in midair.
Sam turned his attention to the front windshield and gasped. The black cloud, the Darkness, was getting closer by the second. He tapped Dean on the arm and called his name, pointing to the mass of demonic air rushing towards them.
"Dean!" Sam cried out, flinching back in his seat as the mass hit the Impala.
"Hold on!" Dean shouted over the roar, grasping tightly to Sam's sleeve.
Next thing Sam knew, that pressure was gone. Dean was gone. And the last thought he had before he blacked out was that he had failed his brother. Again.
A/N: Hope you all enjoyed. Please leave a review if you are so inclined. Stay safe!
