Panicking, Grace did the only thing she could think of. She reached up, putting her fingers on the man's temples and summoning all of the magic she could. His expression immediately softened, his eyes glazing over. "What is this place?" she demanded to know. "Who are you?"
"My name is Pax. My mother runs the pool hall. You need to get out of here before you run out of luck. She won't kill you, but you won't make it far without luck," he spoke, his eyes totally blank. "You need to get out of here. You need to get out of here before you can't leave."
"Hmm, alright. You're going to forget this, stand in the woodshed for five minutes, and then go back inside." She let him go, the man swapping places with her. Shutting the door on him, Grace took off for the parking lot. Dean was coming back from the car, so she waved him down. "Hey, are you still up?"
"I'm winning, but now the car won't start. Something's got to be wrong with this place. I should've gotten a lot of our luck back by now."
Taking the keys from him, Grace led him back to the car so she could throw her supplies in the trunk. "I know. The spells went fine, but this kind of magic… I don't know if it's from a witch or what, but it's ancient. And powerful," she explained as they made their way back. "Either a powerful witch or a goddess. Where's Sam?"
"Inside, chatting up the bartender." They stopped at the door, Dean giving her a kiss. "I'm starting to think the only luck I've got left - I'm lucky you haven't packed up and left because of how crazy this all is."
"Don't worry, I wouldn't have it any other way." It was the small moments like this that let them forget what they were facing every time they went out on a hunt. Even if it was just for a fraction of a second, they didn't have to worry about Chuck, about all of their bad luck, about the inevitable confrontation that. might end the world. She took his hand, both of them walking in to find Sam.
Sam was at the bar, the two of them joining him as he outlined what he'd discovered. "I think it's Fortuna." He held up one of the coins that they had been using to transfer luck. "The Roman goddess of luck. She's skimming off the top, though. Dean should've won thirty games' worth of luck, but… some of it is missing. Everyone in here should have more luck than they do, especially the people who keep winning."
The two brothers exchanged a look, knowing what had to happen. They were going to need to take on the goddess herself if they ever wanted to win back the luck that they had lost. As Pax wandered back in, they lunged for him, Fortuna interrupting almost immediately. Grace mumbled a few words of Latin under her breath as they made a deal with her - she would play them for their luck, but also, "The lives of everyone here."
"Hmm, no." The goddess crossed her arms, unimpressed with Sam's bartering skills. "You play for your lives only. And to make it interesting, the girl's too. You brought her into this mess, you can try to get her out of it."
Dean looked to Grace, who simply nodded. With her approval, Sam stepped forward, placing a coin above the pool table. The entire pool hall settled in to watch. It wasn't often that Fortuna herself took on a challenge like this. Grace and Dean stood against the wall, everyone giving them a clear line of sight but keeping them far enough away from the table.
Sam was holding his own until he missed a tricky shot and shattered his confidence. Grace reached for Dean's hand, both of them trying to steady each other. If they lost, there was no way they were going to make it back to the bunker, let alone out of town. The last time someone had lost all of his luck there, he'd been hit by a truck a few minutes after he left. "Don't curse me, girl," Fortuna scoffed, turning to look at Grace. Grace hadn't done anything, but she'd been thinking about it. She knew she could shift the table slightly, do something that would give Sam an edge over the literal goddess of luck.
Her heart dropped again as the entire pool hall stared at her. "What?"
"I know what you are, you little witch. People like you have been trying to tap into the power of people like me for millennia." Fortuna turned back to her game, lining up another shot. "We were all created to take the blame for the bad things that happened to people, sometimes the bad things that people like you did. He wanted someone to blame when you lot weren't so lucky, when he wanted to write it that way and blame someone who wasn't him. So he created us, one for every culture. The Greeks had Tyche, the Celts had Cerridwen, ancient China had seven of us. I - you got me talking." She crossed her arms as Sam sunk the eight ball. "Well done. And well done, little witch."
They could have taken their luck and been fine. They could have left, but Fortuna could tell that something was weighing on Sam. "What do you say we make it interesting? You're going to fight God. That's the stuff of heroes, so you're going to need the luck of heroes. I can help you. Another game, double or nothing."
Instinctively, he looked to Dean and Grace. "It's up to you," Dean told him. "I think we should go, but she has a point. If we're fighting Chuck, we need all the luck we can get. Your choice, Sammy."
"If I win, everyone here gets to leave with us," Sam proposed.
"What is with you and these losers?" the goddess scoffed at his offer. "They're nothing. They don't matter."
Grace let go of Dean's hand, stepping into the middle of their discussion. "Yes they do. Everyone matters. Even if we're not main characters. You're not a main character yourself, not any more. You said it yourself. You were created for a purpose. The Romans had you when they needed help. But how many people still believe? Clearly not enough, if you have to set up shop in the middle of nowhere and skim luck off of people. You're skating by, just like we are, except we don't cheat people out of what they've played for, not when it comes to something like this. Do it, Sam."
Earning a glare from the goddess, Grace moved back to where she and Dean had been standing along the wall. Dean put an arm around her waist, the two of them settling in to watch the next game. It wouldn't last long, thought. Fortuna sunk every ball in one go, Sam staring in horror. "You challenged the goddess of luck in her own joint. What did you think was gonna happen?"
Before Sam could apologize, Grace stopped the goddess. She knew what had to be done. If the boys were going to fight Chuck, and this was all they had left, it was time for some drastic measures. She could work on a spell later, but they needed to make it back to the bunker in one piece. "Give them mine. They need it more than I do. I'll take the bare minimum. Give them whatever I've got left."
"Gracie, no -"
She wheeled around to look at her husband, ignoring the look on his face. "Dean, I have to. You and Sam are the ones who are going to fight Chuck, and you know it. This'll at least let you stand a chance against him. What if he's waiting for us when we get home? We actually have to make it home."
"Alright." Fortuna stepped in before Dean could say any more. She took Grace's hand, a green glow surrounding them. The coins the boys held glowed green, Grace left with a little bit of luck. They hadn't received much more, but at least it was something. "I'd be careful if I were you. Now go on, it's time for you to leave."
As the three of them stood by the car, trying to figure out how far they could make it on what little money they had left, the doors to the pool hall opened. One by one, everyone made their way outside, some of them staring into the sun for the first time in weeks. "What -"
"She shut it down," the bartender explained, squinting in the bright light that she had nearly forgotten about after her years inside. "She shut it down and let us go. She also said you need to make him play your game. You can't play into his."
The boys dug their coins out of their pockets, watching them glow a brighter green than ever. "We've got our luck and more," Sam smiled, handing his coin over to Grace. At her touch, the glow faded. "Wait, why do you only have a normal amount? I thought she gave us our luck back."
"Try mine," Dean frowned, handing her his coin.
No such luck. It glowed normally, like Sam's had in her hands. She passed the coin back, the three of them watching it glow brighter as Dean held it again. "I'm a normal human," Grace explained. "You guys are the heroes. Not me. Remember how I was written? It was always you two."
"Gracie," Dean sighed, "of course you're a hero."
She crossed her arms, insisting that, "I am, but not a Hercules kind of hero. I'm me. I might be a Winchester, but it's always going to be the two of you that are Chuck's heroes. I don't need any more luck. You're the ones who really need it. Now let's go home. Cas is - he thinks Jack's back, and I want to get a head start on that mess."
