Story Name: Pivot Point
Pen Name: ElenaRoan
Disclaimer: Don't own any of them, written purely for enjoyment.
Warnings:
Summary: What if Anna decided to derail the apocalypse by intervening to help rather than trying to make the brothers never having existed.
Timeline: Season 5
Note: I'm Australian and I can't bring myself to use USA spelling, sorry.
Chapter 102: Wrap Up
[At the same time as Chapter 20 of Tales from Pivot Point]
Neither of them felt comfortable about leaving after they'd dropped the couple off near the police station, Sam going one step further in saying he sensed they needed to stay. So stay they did. They ended up in the diner in the afternoon more as a sanity defence than needing coffee, especially in contrast to the last couple of days and the constant movement of the previous weeks staying in one spot even for a short while felt off.
"Anything else I can get you?" The waitress asked as she slid their coffees onto the table at the booth they'd claimed.
Sam hesitated for a moment before speaking, "actually, could you get us a vanilla latte also?"
"Sure." She made a note and bustled off.
"Who are we expecting?" Dean asked as he helped himself to his coffee.
"No clue."
"Okey-dokey."
The eldest brother almost wasn't surprised when barely 5 minutes later, the youngest member of Team Seven came through the door and almost instantly spotted them in the back corner. He only gave the barest of hesitations before heading over to them and sliding onto one of the benches.
"Didn't think you'd still be here." JD commented.
"Wanted to make sure the belief that it would chase them didn't affect the governing stories. Enough belief that it would might influence it even if it's not part of the stories meditated on." Sam explained as the waitress headed back with the coffee he'd requested. He signalled for JD to go silent as she entered hearing range.
"Vanilla latte." She stated as she slid it onto the table, "anything else?"
"We're good, thank you." Dean told her with his signature charm. Sam was almost surprised she didn't roll her eyes at his big brother.
Instead, she actually smiled and replied, "well, let me know if you need anything else."
"How did you know I was coming? And what my preferred coffee is, for that matter?" The young agent asked once she'd left.
"Sam." Dean told him, with an eye roll at his little brother for his benefit. Sam kerbed his impulse to call him a jerk as JD shook his head in mild amusement.
"Also stuck around in case the police drop the ball on helping Tina and Michael. They mess it up; we'll just have to handle it Hunter style." Dean continued as the agent helped himself to the coffee.
"They won't. We'll make sure of it." JD was quick to assure them, though the very fact they were present was reassurance on that front. It wasn't until they'd decided to drop the couple off at the police station and hope that the officials would handle it properly that Sam had realised he probably should have mentioned them to Chris, "they said you rescued them from an actual attack?"
Sam nodded in confirmation, "they'd asked for a 'blessing' on their relationship in the service that morning and got a negative response."
"That's a pretty creepy thing anyway, even without the whole die if you don't abide by it thing." Dean added, and Sam wholeheartedly agreed with the statement. Love was love, and leaders, religious or otherwise, should just keep their noses out of it as far as he was concerned.
"We'd spent the day analysing the stories and were trying to figure out how to actually deal with the tulpa when we heard their screams." Sam explained further.
"SAM spent most of the day analysing. I twiddled my thumbs and kept watch." Dean corrected almost pedantically, "when we got there, the damn thing was towering over them. Must have interrupted it since it dispersed, and we just got them off the street and inside what protections we had before it could come back. They were still freaked, so we decided to get them out of town before continuing the discussion with them. That's how they got here."
"What did you do to interrupt it? Josiah said there's nothing in the stories that should have allowed for that; in fact, you intervening should have made it include you as a target." JD asked.
Dean frowned at the information, then sent a questioning look at his brother; that information was news to him. Sam, for his part, didn't have to think long to recall what had happened. He just hadn't thought it was that major an event.
"I gave it a mental wallop." Sam explained with a shrug, "just wanted to stun it long enough for us to get them away from it. Guess it had never had to deal with actual opposition before since it fled. And didn't try again before we left town. I'm guessing it just didn't have any guidelines for how to deal with it."
"Huh… okay." JD replied and sipped at his coffee in silence for a few moments, "where are you staying?"
"Motel near the highway out." Dean told him, it was a conversation they'd had immediately after dropping the couple off that morning. Although they'd have stayed even without Sam's sense that they were needed, "we'll try to stick around until everything is sorted. If we have to drop everything and run, we'll shoot you a message."
"We're getting sat phones temporarily for the assignment; I'll make sure to drop you a line with the numbers in case." JD told them. It was a surprising relief to know that the team had taken steps to deal with one of the more annoying problems with the town. They nodded their understanding.
"That reminds me, how did you hide your phones so thoroughly it's like there's a Romulan cloaking device on them?" JD asked with genuine curiosity on his face.
Both of them looked at him in confusion for a moment, then the penny dropped for Sam, and he chuckled.
"Tried to run a trace, did you?"
"When we weren't sure whether you were in trouble or not." JD confirmed, "that's seriously impressive."
"Necessity is the mother of invention." Sam explained, "about… what… a year or so ago, some massive demon sieges came after us. Up until then, they'd been convinced they'd had a plan in place to drag Dean to hell and break one of the end capper seals. When the non-existent deal didn't come due, they pulled out all the stops trying to find us so they could kill me and get Dean to make a deal. Since demons aren't shy of hopping in anyone, even law enforcement, I took steps to hide us from location that way. And also, since we've sometimes had to use a form of tracing to locate each other or other Hunters, made it so we could find each other if we needed to."
"That is some impressive coding." The young agent sounded almost awed and given he was the team's tech expert that was saying something.
Sam shrugged a little embarrassed at the open admiration; it had never occurred to him that it might be considered unusual, "had a couple of weeks warning to prepare. The apocalypse happening if I failed was quite the motivator."
JD shook his head in apparent incredulousness.
"I'll send you a copy, just don't use it against us." Sam offered.
The young agent's face lit up, "are you kidding me? That would be amazing. And definitely wouldn't use it against you; Chris and Vin would kill me first."
His earnestness drew a laugh out of both of them.
He finished off his coffee with some reluctance, "well… I guess I'd better get the coffees for the others before Vin hunts me down for his caffeine fix."
"is it even possible to get coffee strong enough for his taste from a diner?" Sam asked with an amused chuckle; their cousin's like of extremely strong coffee was now well known.
"Triple shot." JD answered with a grin before heading over to the counter to complete the order they'd interrupted, heading out the door a few minutes later with the coffees for the rest of the team.
"Sounds like they've set up here." Dean commented as the young agent disappeared, "I was kinda expecting they'd do most of their staging in Denver before heading out this way."
"Me too. But I'm glad they're here, if for no other reason than they can make sure Tina and Michael don't fall through the cracks." Sam agreed.
They finished up their own coffees and headed back towards their room.
"You were going to tell me about belting the tulpa at some point?" Dean asked once they were in the impala.
"It didn't occur to me that it was particularly odd." Sam replied self-consciously, wincing as his big brother sent a glare in his direction, "sorry."
Dean sighed after a moment's annoyed silence, "just… tell me next time, will ya? Just because you don't think it's anything special doesn't mean it is."
Sam nodded silently, though he doubted he'd actually remember the next time it happened. He'd certainly tried telling himself to remember that sort of stuff before; he had no clue whether it could bite his brother in the butt, after all, but he kept forgetting.
They'd barely got inside their room again when Sam's phone lit up, and he chuckled when he saw the id for Vin. He answered and switched to speaker.
"Hey, Vin."
"Hey, Sam."
Dean raised an eyebrow at the phone, "hiya, Vin. We just got done chatting to JD."
The sniper chuckled from the other end of the phone, "he mentioned. Once he mentioned you'd stunned the tulpa, Chris said he'd like you to come along when we head to the town if you were okay with it."
"Of course." Sam agreed immediately.
"Just let us know when you want to roll." Dean added.
"I'll let Chris know. Thanks."
"No problem. I should have thought of it myself." Sam replied, and their cousin rang off.
"That why you felt we needed to stay? Or part of it at least?" Dean asked as his brother stowed the phone again. Sam nodded after a moment's thought, "alrighty then!"
Sam almost laughed at the enthusiastic response; his big brother never dealt well with inactivity. Still, it was a long few hours before they received a message that they were headed out within half an hour. It was easy to relocate to a car park near the police station and slot into the procession of cars as the team went past.
"I never thought we'd come back." Sam commented as they pulled in next to the rest of the cars as they all parked a block away from the church. There was a crowd gathered around that building, but he couldn't recall any mentions of an event or gathering when they'd been there on the weekend.
"Me either." Dean replied before getting out and joining the team.
"Any idea what that's about?" Chris asked them with a gesture at the crowd as they approached. They both shook their heads.
"There was only the weekly services, and that access would be granted if someone wanted entry mentioned either by people or in the stories." Sam added, "can see Father Jorgenson there, though. The one in the fancy robes."
"Okay. You two aren't here officially. I want you to hang back with Josiah and Ezra; if the tulpa moves, I want you to stun it like you did before." Chris told them, and they nodded their understanding, "Buck, Vin, Nathan. With me. Let's arrest the bastard."
It was kinda surreal to see the four members of the team head in and them staying behind.
"That is just weird." Dean commented quietly.
"Regular law enforcement work?" Josiah asked, amusement in his tone.
"Watching someone else head into a potentially hot situation and us not being right there too."
The profiler chuckled.
They watched as the man known as Father Jorgenson had cuffs fastened on him, and after a few exchanges that the distance meant they couldn't hear, Buck and Nathan escorted the pretend holy man away from the church and crowd. The morning remained quiet, and Sam frowned.
"It would be noticeable, right?" Josiah asked.
They both nodded.
"Subtle it wasn't." Sam elaborated.
Jorgenson planted his feet and glared at the two of them when he got close, "you! I should have figured you would be involved! Too bad the Bogal didn't register you as a threat the moment you arrived!"
Dean bristled, but Sam spoke before he could say anything, "you have the right to remain silent, sir; I suggest you use it."
"Threats won't get you anywhere." Buck put in as between him and Nathan they nearly pulled him off his feet when he refused to start walking when they began moving towards the van again.
"Nicely said." Ezra complimented once the man was shut-in.
"Figured you didn't need any complications with getting him to trial." Sam explained, "how are you going to explain us if he brings it up?"
"Undercover operation. If he then proceeds to argue that the Bogal would have known even if he didn't, it'll be seen as him trying to set the groundwork for an insanity plea."
They returned their attentions to the church as the crowd started to disperse. Once the last of the townspeople had filtered off, the rest of the team came back over.
"Did I miss it turning up and you belting it?" Chris asked as he came up.
"It didn't show." Sam answered after shaking his head, "and yeah… that's weird. It should have because you 'took action' against the leader."
Chris gave him a vaguely disconcerted look for a silent moment before continuing, "well… whatever the reason… we told them we'd get the doors open tomorrow when the team from the shelter gets here. Figured that was the best way to actually get them in one place. The non-action of the tulpa wasn't enough to do more than slightly shake that belief, though."
"The kids at least think it's just a temporary hiatus." Vin put in, "one of them commented as they were leaving that quote when the wrath returns all who question will face it end quote."
"There is a need for a suitably dramatic end to the tulpa's sway over their lives." Ezra stated in his cultured voice that sometimes made Sam wonder if he could choose what accent he used, "otherwise, they'll continue living in absolute terror. It would be more reassuring if we knew exactly why it didn't react and if it will stay away. Might it be prudent to try relocating the citizens?"
"The younger ones may jump at the chance, especially once they really understand the pack of lies that were fed them. Tina and Michael aren't likely to return even with the option." Josiah replied, "the older ones, they're more likely to not wish to move even though they'll have seen all ends of the deception and will truly understand the extent once it's made clear."
"I'm guessing crowbarring the door open and toppling the symbol wouldn't be the 'suitably dramatic' moment you recommend, Ez?" Vin asked.
"If anything, that scenario would reinforce the belief." Ezra replied. Sam thought that was understating the problem, "best would be if the door is crowbarred open and it's already destroyed, preferably by some means that can't be immediately explained."
They both shared a glance; it really didn't take either of them much to get what he was hinting at, even if the eldest brother still found his habit of using fancy words and tying a bow on top as just obscuring the meaning most of the time.
"So… needs to be done before the door is opened tomorrow and when no one will notice. So tonight, once everyone has gone to bed. And since you can't force the door, as that'll leave obvious damage, you'll need us." Dean commented. Ezra and Josiah nodded their agreement.
"The rest of us will do shifts patrolling around, so no one thinks it odd that you've stayed back." Chris ordered, and both of them nearly gave him a double-take; the way they operated was a lot more structured than they did or could. The rest of the agents didn't even blink and separated out into shifts that accounted for the travel time to and from Guilwater in short order.
The remainder of the team scattered to their various assignments, leaving the brothers with Ezra and Josiah as the night became still. They settled into their respective cars and waited as the hours passed slowly.
"Now that's interesting." Josiah's voice broke the stillness.
"What?" Sam asked as he looked over at him.
Josiah handed the book he'd been reading to him through the two respective vehicle's windows. He glanced at it and pulled a face as he realised he didn't know what language it was, let alone what it said, then handed it back.
"So, another language expert in our life. Which one this time?" Sam replied, half wondering if he'd ever get the time to learn one himself. He doubted it.
"Tibetan." Josiah replied with a rumbling laugh, "obscure diary from a Tibetan monk that mentions tulpas. Wasn't expecting any new information."
"But you found some?" Sam asked curiously.
The profiler gestured at the book, "translating roughly, it speaks about creating a 'servant' when a young untrained 'mentally active' initiate came close and says they had to start over."
"Mentally active?" Dean asked, looking past Sam at the agent, "psychic?"
"That would be my guess. Tulpas would never have become a thing if having thoughts and feelings or imagination could destabilise it; even the best at meditation don't quiet their minds completely." Josiah confirmed.
"What happened to the initiate?" Sam asked with a frown, that didn't sound particularly hopeful for the young monk.
"This account is several centuries old, Sam. He's long dead no matter how they responded." Josiah replied with a puzzled frown before he flicked through the following few pages, "he was sent to a different monastery so they wouldn't have to near imprison him to keep his presence from destabilising in-progress and established 'servants'."
Dean looked gratefully at the agent; his brother's big heart could latch onto things like that all too easily regardless of the time factor.
"Okay. So what does that mean for us?" Sam asked, reassured that the long-dead initiate hadn't been punished simply for what they were.
"If an untrained psychic could destabilise a forming and even an established tulpa, what could possibly the most powerful psychic to ever live do actively belting one?" Josiah suggested.
Dean thought it over for a moment before laughing as what had happened became apparent, "congratulations, Sammy, you actually managed to kill a tulpa."
"That would be a viable explanation." Ezra agreed, "so now the question isn't so much how to make the tulpa stay dormant as to how to break the belief cycle."
"That is why we're sitting on our arses in the middle of the night." Dean commented, "and since it looks like the locals have all but rolled up the sidewalks, how about we get to it?"
"Good a time as any." Josiah agreed.
Sam almost chuckled at how enthusiastic Dean got out of the car, happy to finally be active. They headed over to the church, arriving Sam simply wrapped some telekinesis around the door and opened it up.
"Even though I know it's you doing it, that's still spooky." Dean half commented, half complained.
Sam didn't bother to roll his eyes at his brother, instead examining the door itself.
"No electronics." He commented, "he really did decide to make the tulpa the only way into this building."
"Faking it could have been seen as not having sufficient faith, which may have been deadly with the tulpa." Josiah replied reasonably.
Entering and going over to the tulpa symbol was almost anticlimactic, even if the symbol itself appeared to have been made golden calf style from melted down jewellery or something along those lines. As a symbol of the oppression of the townspeople, it couldn't have been more blatant to Sam's eyes.
"How are we going to do this?" His brother wasn't spending any time on contemplation, he noted.
"First things first." Sam decided. He wasn't sure whether it would be helpful or not, but he wanted that symbol down. A small application of his telekinesis had the wooden stand broken and it slamming to the floor almost satisfyingly. It wouldn't be enough, he knew, but for now, it filled that need.
"Warning would have been nice." Dean complained, sending a halfhearted glare in his direction.
"Makes faultless sense. Toppled then destroyed." Ezra agreed, and Sam found himself surprisingly relieved the agent agreed, even if he could see the symbolism now, "just how we achieve the destruction is the question, though. You able to melt things, Sam?"
"Never tried." He answered after a moment's thought. Intriguing idea and would definitely fill the 'destroyed by a means not immediately apparent' criteria that Ezra had specified. If he could pull it off, which he had no idea if he could.
"He has popped some scary high fevers doing stuff, though. Doesn't that indicate he should be able to? Waste heat and all that?" Dean put in.
"Not exactly fevers, Dean." Sam protested almost on automatic, "It wasn't like there was an infection or anything."
"Fever is only defined as above a specific temperature." Dean retorted, half amused and half annoyed.
"How about you stop arguing and try?" Josiah interrupted the ribbing between them, "doubt a fire would get hot enough to melt even the jewellery metals in this lot without burning down the building, and that would leave evidence of accelerant even if we avoided that."
Sam gave him an amused grin, the dynamic between him and his brother could be a little disconcerting, before looking at the symbol and focusing on it. He wasn't really sure what he was going to do, or even if it would work, but heat was just the rate at which atoms and molecules moved, so theoretically, if he put energy in, it should change. Theoretically. He certainly didn't kid himself about being able to affect atoms directly. Even if he could, there'd be millions upon billions just in the symbol. For a long moment, he just focused on the metal, then all of his energy seemed to run out of him in a rush, his legs barely managing to keep him standing.
"Dean…" he managed, barely. He wasn't even sure it was audible. So he was incredibly relieved when the reassuring bulk of his brother was beside him abruptly and taking his weight.
"Whoa… stay with me, Sammy." He barely made out Dean's words, more registered them after the fact. Another solid body joined them on the other side of him from his brother, Josiah, he realised after a slow moment of thought.
"I'm okay…" he tried to reassure them.
"Sure you are. That's why we're having to hold you up." His brother retorted, and he tried to get his legs to resume their regular operation. It didn't work.
"Back to the car." He heard Dean order and stopped paying further attention since it was apparent his brother was talking to the agents with them. Instead, he focused on helping them walk him out of the building and over to the car as much as he could.
"I'm okay…" he tried to reassure them again once he was in the car and no longer in danger of falling over.
"Sure." His brother retorted with amusement from somewhere in the back seat, he evidently found what he was looking for because a moment later a small bottle was shoved into his hand, and Dean ordered, "drink."
Sam did and pulled a face at the sickly sweet taste of the contents, "yuck."
"Yeah… well… next time, eat more." Dean scolded from beside him, "how are you feeling?"
"Sleepy." He replied after a moment's thought; he felt much better than he had just moments before.
"We're not needed here anymore, right?" Dean was addressing the agents again, and Sam pulled his attention to them. He wanted to ask if it had worked, but he could see the church door was closed again, so there was nothing they could do even if it hadn't done a thing.
"Pretty sure we're done. Not getting back in there without a crowbar anyway, so no reason for any of us to stick around." Josiah answered, and Sam barely kept from pulling a face at himself. If he hadn't worn himself out, he'd be able to get them back in.
"Let us know how this ends?" Dean asked.
"Of course. And keep us updated…" Josiah agreed immediately before gesturing at Sam, the expression on his face suggesting the big agent felt guilty over what had happened.
"Yeah. But as reactions go, this is pretty light. Looks mostly like he's used up his energy reserves." Dean replied in agreement and reassurance; he'd seen the expression too. Then he hopped in the driver's side and started up the impala, beginning the slow trip back to their room.
Sam looked down at the bottle still in his hand as the agents disappeared from view and frowned at the writing, "what did you do, raid a hospital supply?"
"What?" Dean glanced at him and saw what he was looking at, "oh, that. No, hospitals just stick a needle in. Doc Tosahwi suggested it; it's a rescue used for ultra-low blood sugar with diabetics. Since we're not always going to be somewhere where we can mix stuff up, he suggested it as something that we could keep on hand for if and when you use up all your energy doing something."
"Oh." Sam frowned at the bottle again, remembering that he had no idea if the exercise had even done anything except worry everyone unnecessarily.
"Hey, no big deal. We know it works, now, so that's something."
"Yeah." Sam agreed before looking out into the darkness.
Dean switched on some music, and that's how the rest of the trip passed. He was actually somewhat surprised that his brother wasn't asleep by the time they pulled into the car park out the front of their room. That Sam hadn't fallen asleep didn't discourage him from ushering him into the bed furthest from the door, so he could sleep, only waiting until his brother had dropped off before retreating to his own bed and going to sleep himself.
They woke later than usual in the morning and were having breakfast when Josiah knocked on the door.
"How did it go?" Dean asked as he let the agent in.
"Far better than we hoped. Ezra kept what had happened last night from everyone, so the surprise of seeing the symbol's condition was genuine. That's something that can't easily be faked. The organisations we got to help are all sorting out everything at the moment."
"So it actually worked?" Sam asked.
Josiah nodded, "whatever explanation they finally come up with for the condition of the symbol, that first impact of seeing it destroyed inexplicably is going to stick with them."
"Destroyed? So it didn't just fizzle out then."
Dean paused and looked at his brother, "you didn't know?"
"It was an incredible sight to see." Josiah put in as Sam shook his head, "left Ezra speechless, which I've never seen before. But that metal liquefied nicely. Then reformed on the floor in a puddle without so much as a scorch mark. We were just worried about you with how much it took out of you."
"I'm okay."
"Yeah… you said that last night too. While we had to hold you up."
Dean hid a smile at the big agent scolding his brother; Sam had a habit of trying to reassure people around him despite his actual condition. And it never seemed to sink in that it wasn't anywhere close to reassuring.
"I was going to be okay, and I'm okay now." Sam replied stubbornly, and Dean rolled his eyes.
"If we hadn't been there, you wouldn't have been." He pointed out, "and next time we're going to try something new, you're carb-loading like a swimmer beforehand."
Sam sighed and gave him a look.
"Don't look at me like that."
Josiah's rumbling laugh interrupted any reply Sam could make.
"What?" They asked together.
"I swear, it's like watching Buck and JD goof around. You're always like this, aren't you?"
Sam shrugged, "unless there's danger, I guess so."
"One way to break the tension, particularly with the stress you two are under." Josiah agreed with another chuckle, "what are you planning on doing now?"
"We were going to head out later today unless we're needed." Dean replied, "did you need us?"
Josiah shook his head, "just wanted to let you know how the opening of the door went and check on Sam."
"Well… as you can see, I'm fine."
Dean rolled his eyes at his little brother, "don't mind Sam, he's been grumpy since we got back. Guess I know why now. Though if he'd just mentioned he didn't know the outcome, I'd have been happy to tell him."
"We wouldn't have just left if you hadn't managed to destroy it; just toppling it wouldn't have broken the belief like we needed." Josiah put in gently, "yeah… we'd have got you to help, but we'd have stayed to sort something that would hopefully work rather than lock ourselves out."
Sam sighed as he realised he should have thought of that himself.
"Don't fret; no one ever fires on full cylinders when they're teetering on the verge of collapse." Dean put in.
Josiah chuckled, "I'll let the others know you're planning on heading out."
"Call if you need us."
The big agent nodded before leaving.
—
Author's note: I know it's been a while since I posted, I was in hospital for a time and still recovering. I haven't abandoned this story, I have things planned for years, story-wise, in the future. Just life gets in the way. My energy mightn't be where I'd like it to be, but I'm still writing.
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