Set in 15x09, The Trap, while Dean and Cas roam Purgatory for Leviathan blossom, Sam confronts God, who is bound to him by the bullet wound they share. As Chuck tries to make him lose hope, to give up, using any means necessary, Sam suddenly finds a way to turn the tables. Using the watch Chuck provided along with their connection, Sam takes matters into his own hands and changes the future God has set out for them.
Chapter 1: You don't fool me
Standing there, watching Dean tell his future self to give up was definitely skewy at best, so Sam yelled for Chuck to come forth. He was showing him this future where Dean, of all people, told him enough was enough. "You're just showing me this so I'd give up. So I lose hope."
"I'm just a messenger, Sam. I'm sharing my omnitions with you." Chuck said. It was clearly a lie. A world overrun with monsters was a story already told, and a wasteland left behind for the Apocalypse World angels to deal with. Besides, Dean would never be the one to tell him to stop.
"No, the Dean I know, the Dean that raised me, would never give up, no matter how bad things got." Sam countered, watching the future Dean turn and walk away. Lies, they were all lies.
"Well, he does. He will. This is the truth, Sam. This is what comes next." Chuck said, and still Sam didn't believe him. "See for yourself. You're holding the watch."
So Sam did. He saw Bobby and Jody coming to take down the vampirized versions of them and that was the final straw. That was clearly bullshit. Both of them knew how to cure a newly turned vampire and even if they didn't have a chance to do it for themselves, if they were force-fed blood and turned full fledged vampires, there was no way they would hurt Bobby and Jody, no matter what. They would get a handle on themselves and probably try and make this whole thing work somehow. Like Leanore did.
Squeezing the watch in his hand, Sam felt his anger rise up to the surface. Thinking about summoning Chuck again, just to spit in his face and tell him to go screw himself, Sam felt him through their connection, like a tingle in his shoulder that carried the bullet wound. It was painful, but just beyond, there was this odd sensation, like something more was out there. If Sam could only reach, push through the pain and grab a hold if it…
Searing pain made him fall to his knees, gasping for air. The watch along with his hand hit the ground as Sam tried to hold himself from falling to his face, the front glass cracking and the tiniest shard of it embedding in his hand, making him hiss. He turned it to take a look and felt it rest heavily on his palm, watching it tick without the needle moving at all. One look around showed that everything stood still, frozen in time.
Bobby was just about to slice his future self's neck and Dean just threw a random hunter out the window and was about to go after Jody, and no, Sam wasn't buying it. There had to be a different way.
"See for yourself. You're holding the watch." Chuck's words echoed in his head and Sam glanced down at the watch in his hand. If he could fast forward and see this ridiculous future Chuck wanted to show him, could he rewind and see the past too, possibly even alter it? No, he couldn't influence the past, the angels told them was back then, when they first entered the scene. Dean going back and meeting mom was a perfect example, because no matter what he did, they always ended up the same.
This shoulder gave a warning throb, as if it was cautioning him, and Sam could feel the immense power that lay just beyond that painful threshold. His connection to the maker himself.
Sam gasped and his eyes went wide as an idea wiggled itself in his mind, something so simple that just might work. Angels, humans, they couldn't change what was set in stone, but God could. Or at least someone with a fragment of His power. If he could just reach and grasp it, he could use it to rewrite their story, to rewrite it all, not just for them, but for others too.
For their Bobby, for little Owen, for Claire and Amelia, and all the rest they couldn't save. For Jess, Mom, Dad and all the others that died so Chuck could keep on with the drama. Heck, maybe even for those who were considered the bad guys, just because Chuck wrote it as such.
Their story was already screwed up, and at this point, they didn't have anything left to lose, so why not give this a shot? Why not try and go back and alter things to their benefit?
What's the worst that could happen?
Sam found himself standing outside on a dirt road of a street that was deserted, in the middle of the night. The whole town in it's western glory, was abandoned, buildings falling apart, rusty metal, rotten wood and mud as far as the eye could see. But it felt… Familiar. Like he had been here before.
Suddenly, a burning sensation cut through his hand and he glanced down at it, just as the pain intensified, only to see the watch merging into the skin of his hand. The bullet in his shoulder gave a harsh throb, making Sam hiss, but it soon settled, and he couldn't feel Chuck close anymore. God wasn't watching.
Sam took a deep breath and focused on what he needed to do next. He had to find out where he was and when too, and see what he could change, see if he could even influence the past or just observe it. A glance down revealed he was still in his old body, his old, blood spattered flannel shirt and jeans, and without anything else. No phone, no weapon, nothing. Okay, this would take some work.
Suddenly he heard some commotion and hurried off, just in time to see a very familiar scene play out. No wonder he thought he knew this place. Cold Oak, a ghost town where Azazel brought them for a fight to the death. A place he died for the very first time. And moreso, he was apparently in that time as well.
Thirteen years ago, he decided to spare the life of one Jake Tully, which cost him not only his life, but Dean's too, and ultimately turned out to be the very first step in the apocalyptic events that followed. He watched his younger self throw and receive a few good punches before sending Jake down to the ground. He saw the moment his younger version glanced at the knife and the piece of wood on the ground and stupidly took the plank instead to knock Jake to the ground.
As younger Sam turned to walk away, Dean's voice echoing from a few feet away, the older Sam saw Jake get back to his feet and reach for the knife and without much thought, he shoved him away, picked up the knife himself and plunged it into the man's gut, cutting him open. Jake looked at him with eyes wide and filled with disbelief and confusion before dropping dead to the ground.
Not everyone could be saved.
"...the hell?" He heard younger Dean's voice at the same time Bobby, their Bobby, cocked his shotgun and he turned towards them, huffing a laugh at their baffled expressions. Yeah, back then, demon's were "above their payroll" as Dean once said. In Sam's current time, they were just a small nuisance.
"Um. Hi." He said raising his hands in a non threatening way, huffing a laugh at this whole situation.
"You tell us you're from the future, boy and I'm calling bullshit!" Bobby warned and Sam sobbed out a laugh, looking at the man with tears in his eyes. The apocalypse world Bobby was very much like their Bobby, but this one… This one was more of a father to them then John sometimes, and just as protective too.
"God, I missed you!" Sam said and he could see the moment the old hunter realized it really was an aged version of the kid who was standing right next to him. Just one look and he knew. Like only a true father could.
"What are you doing here?" Bobby asked, and Sam and Dean let him take a lead on this, either still processing or just trusting him to ask the right questions.
"Changing a few things." He replied and saw his other self glance down at Jake's body. He knew just what he was thinking, the kid couldn't believe he would just stab a guy like that, especially someone who didn't know what he was drawn into. "He was going to kill us. This is the day we died." He said to the kid, hoping to make him understand why he had to do it.
"You seem pretty alive to me." Dean snarked, pissy and trigger happy as he was back then.
"Only cuz you dumb ass though it would be a good idea to sell your soul." Sam countered, making Dean frown at him.
"You did what?!" Bobby suddenly yelled and Dean looked at him with wide eyes, then tried to speak up and explain something he hadn't really done yet, but all he managed was a few cut off sounds before he gave up.
"I can tell you more, but we need to get outta here now. It's not safe and if Azazel comes…" Sam, the older one, tried, but was interrupted.
"Who?!" Dean asked at the exact same time Azazel made an appearance, as if he was summoned by Sam's words.
"Well, isn't this an interesting turn of events?" The yellow-eyed demon said as he appeared, Sam, Dean and Bobby turned to him, looking on alert and ready for whatever he would do, but older Sam knew they couldn't really do much. He was a sleazebag, but luckily, Sam had dealt with worse of his kind.
"You wanted your champion, you got him." Sam said, inching slowly to the others and trying to come between them and the demon, despite knowing that wouldn't do much should Azazel decide they had to die. But he was just a pawn, one small demon compared to the big picture.
"Only by default. Using one's future self to win wasn't part of the fight."
"Oh, and like you demons play fair?" Sam had no idea what to do here, because he needed to maintain the trust of the others, but he also needed to sooth Azazel, at least until he got his hands on a Colt, or something just as powerful (archangel blade, Michael's spear, angel killing bullets, first blade - his brain catalogued).
Azazel huffed a laugh and narrowed his eyes at Sam, looking, searching. "What does your future hold, my boy?" And that was it, wasn't it? Sam was supposed to be Azazel's golden boy and lead the armies of hell to Earth. And not even Azazel knew about who he really was, did he?
"It holds a certain archangel. One trapped down there. The one I set free." He said and heard Bobby gasp, because of course he would know who he is talking about.
"Oh, is that so?" Azazel asked, curious and certainly interested.
"Yes."
"And how exactly do you set him free?"
"You know how. Only I know another way too. One that doesn't involve breaking the last seal or any of them for that matter." Sam tried. If he could just talk Azazel into leaving them alone for now, he could find something to kill him and move on to the next one.
"And you're willing to share?" Azazel.asked with a smirk. Of course he knew Sam wouldn't share, besides, even if he did, they couldn't do it without him. Not just because he was the vessel, but because they couldn't open the Men of Letters magical vault that contained the codex without an actual Man of Letters (preferably two). "You are not so naive anymore, are you, Sam?" Azazel said, shaking his head. "But you are now willing to go much further for the ones you care about, don't you?"
"What… what do you mean?"
"I mean - you will get me that key to the cage and in exchange… I will return your brother's soul." He said, making Sam pause. What did that mean? Dean hadn't sold his soul because the younger version of himself was still alive, so what was he… He paled the moment he heard them - long, bone freezing howls, distant into the night.
"No. No, you can't…"
"Haven't you learned? I am a Prince of Hell, I can do anything." Azazel said as the vicious growling came closer, echoing into the dead of night. Before he knew it, Dean was thrown to the ground, his jacket and shirt ripped to shreds while he tried to defend himself against an invisible enemy. Younger Sam tried to help, but Bobby stopped him and pulled him away, despite him screaming and kicking and older Sam?
All he could do was stand there and helplessly watch as his brother was torn to pieces before his eyes yet again. His throat closed up on him as he watched Dean reach for him, beg for him to help, but he couldn't make his legs move.
He failed. He went back in time to stop these things from happening and all he managed to do was set them in motion faster. Behind him, Azazel laughed.
"One week, Sam. You get one week to bring me the key, or your brother learns all about how souls are treated down in the pit."
A/N: I do wish to point out this younger/older version thing would only last for one more chapter and then we will have one Sam and we will get to see his interesting journey through the history of Supernatural. Hope you like surprises.