MIAKODA


Fury and fear tasted similar.

Miakoda stood by the bookcases in Bobby's living room, fuming as Dean stood across from Sam, defending his case. He stank. Like a week-old corpse and mothballs with grief and remorse. She'd woken that morning due to the feeling of the Pack Bond between them snapping.

Bobby and Sam had her on the floor in a panic attack. Had she reacted the same with Evdokiya? When her old Pack had snapped away like strings being cut?

Then, after what felt like hours, the Pack Bond had snapped into place again. Like nothing had ever happened. Miakoda had lain shaken on the ground for a half-hour before she had managed to not only settle herself but also pull her Wolf back under control before she went hunting the eldest Winchester down.

Bobby watched from the sofa as the brothers fought it out in the middle of the room. Part of Miakoda wanted to get as far away from Dean, from his scent, as possible. It brought up bad memories, not only of the Fire but of the Prison, of smelling the bodies of victims, whether they were Creatures or Humans to feed them. The smell of Death was, unfortunately, one that Miakoda had burned into her synapses and it would remain there. He was Death-touched, and Miakoda knew instinctively that that scent wouldn't be leaving until he'd fulfilled the wager

"I heard Cas and Crowley when they said it would either kill me or turn me to jello, Dean! I heard enough!" Sam felt of frustration, of anger and of irritation from where he stood across from Dean. Did he even care anymore?

"Death said he could put up a wall," Dean explained, earnestly.

"A wall?"

"Yes, yes, a wall –that – that you wouldn't remember Hell."

"Really?" Sam didn't sound convinced. Miakoda had her misconceptions as well. A wall could mean a temporary solution but for someone who, like Sam, was a curious person in general, who potentially couldn't remember the past year, the wall would crumble.

She came back to the conversation when Sam burst forth in anger. Or as angry as Sam could get when he didn't have the emotional battery in him "Exactly Dean! It's my life! It's my life, it's my soul. And it sure as hell ain't your head that's gonna explode when this whole scheme of yours goes sideways!"

Sensing the fight that was about to reoccur, Bobby got up to defuse it. "Just curious. I presume Death's not doing this out of the goodness of his heart." He looked at Dean as he stepped towards them. "So what's your half of the deal?"

Dean, she realised silently with a bit of humour to it, looked as though he had just been caught doing something he shouldn't have as he said nothing.

Bobby's head tipped towards him, and there was a hint of a warning in his words. "I'm sorry. I didn't get that."

Dean sighed reluctantly but caved under Bobby's glare. "I have to wear the ring for a day."

"Why the hell would he want you to do that?"

"To show Dean how difficult his job is," Miakoda said quietly as the three contemplated over why.

Sam had begun to step away, to leave the room when Dean spoke up, wariness in his tone. "Where you going?"

"Look," Sam sighed again, turning to them. Miakoda listened to his heart. "I hear you, all right? O just need a minute to wrap my head around it, all right?"

Lie.

Miakoda waited till he was out of earshot before turning to the humans in the room. "He's lying."

"He's gone to get Death's ring from the yard."

"Oh," Miakoda's nose scrunched up when she remembered the warmed-up version the scent of Death from the other day, "Is that what that is? I just thought that a rat or something had died and had started decomposition."

They looked at her before Bobby spoke, curious. "The ring smells?"

Miakoda tipped her head to Dean, "He does too now. Like a week-old corpse, mothballs, grief and remorse."

Dean's face scrunched up as he knew what two of them smelt like and they made their way into the yard. Miakoda took point, sniffing the quickest way to the ring box from where it sat in the ground. "Wait. Those last two are emotions though."

"Chemo-signals. That and your heart are natural lie detectors. Even if you are a professional at it."

As she was in the lead, she didn't see the awkward looks that Bobby and Dean shared between themselves.

"It's over here." Miakoda stood atop of it and Dean couldn't help but think that she looked a bit like one of those police sniffer dogs. Her claws made quick work of the gravel and dirt and she chucked the box of the smelly ring up to Dean who caught it. Covering it again, she could hear Sam's gait coming and ushered the two away from the direction he was coming in.

Dean took a silver ring with a flat, white square stone in it. It was chunkier than Miakoda thought it would be, she thought it would be like a signet ring. On the band, there was a slight design of filigree and it looked like the metal had been twisted around the stone to create a border. For a ring of a Horseman, Death, in particular, it was rather simple.

She said nothing of the tremor in his hand as he clenched it around it.

He stepped into sight of Sam, who stood over the small hole that he had dug, worriedly. "Looking for this?" he held up the ring in his fingers.

Sam tried to shake the shock off but he wasn't as good at it as he thought he was, even without his Soul. "Just taking a walk."

"Sam," Dean said, slightly amused, stepping towards his brother, tucking the ring back into his pocket. "I'm your brother. I'm not gonna let you get hurt. I know what I'm doing here."

Sam stared at him, questions in his eyes a series of worrying wrinkles between his brows. He may not have had his soul but Miakoda could smell the worry and mistrust that he had going through his system. Her Wolf paced back and forth in her ribs, wanting to give them both reassurance but knew that this had to be between the two of them.

"What if you're wrong?"

"I won't let it go wrong." Dean fired back quickly, firm still in his decision and his faith in his choice.

Sam, who had his hands in his pockets, took his stare off his brother and thought on it, fidgeting slightly. "Fine."

"Fine?" Dean echoed dubiously. She couldn't see his expression from behind them but thought he might have had his eyebrows raised. "So, you're-"

"So, I'm trusting you here. Barely."

"You sure?" Dean asked again, wanting to make sure that Sam was, in fact, on board with this.

"You're the one with the compass, right? Just don't mess it up."

"I won't."

Even though Dean had technically gotten Sam's consent in going through with the plan of putting Death's ring on for a day, there was something off about Sam's gaze. And Dean knew it. As he turned his back on his little brother, the acceptance on his face dropped like a brick and, as he walked passed Bobby, locking eyes with Miakoda, he muttered quietly. "Watch him."

She gave him a minute nod in return.


Stepping into the house after both Bobby and Sam, Miakoda couldn't help but watch Sam a little closely. Her Wolf shifted onto alert at the taste of the tension in the air.

"So," Sam drawled, turning to stand in the middle of the kitchen, "is this the part where you pull a gun on me and lock me in the panic room?"

Bobby hesitated a second. "Do I have to?"

Sam gave a bit of a sarcastic smile. "No. I guess Dean's got to do what he's got to do."

Miakoda and Bobby watched as he walked off into the house. They traded a look between them. "Guess we all do, kid."

The Pack Bond that connected both her and Dean together stretched and went muted at once and instinct had her head snapping in the direction as to where she'd seen him disappeared off to. Knowing that he would be back in 24 hours settled her but not by much.

"You have a panic room?" she asked to distract herself, pulling her eyes away from the direction Dean had been in, staring across to Bobby who had been watching her.

"Built it in a weekend." He drawled, stepping towards for a drink. "Solid iron door, soaked in salt that locks from the door. Angel, demon and ghost proof and there are a few devil's traps in there too."

"Are all Hunters as paranoid as you or is that just an aftermath of knowing the Winchesters?" Miakoda sassed, raising an eyebrow at him as they made their way into the living room. Bobby sat at his desk and she absently dragged a gentle finger over the back of a few of the book spines on one of the side tables.

"No. That comes with the territory." She had that glint in her eye that Sam would get when he found a good book. "Dean mentioned you lectured at Harvard?"

"Ancient Civilisations and Folklore was my main one but I consult occasionally for museums about various archaeological things." Miakoda nodded slowly, cocking her head to read the title of one of them. Her eyebrows went up when she read 'Aleister Crowley' in worn gold on the red leather cover. "This is an Aleister Crowley."

"Ain't that a little late for your tastes?" Bobby asked after waving for her to go ahead and check it out.

Miakoda sat down on the sofa, carefully opening the leather cover. The pages were darkened by age and the smell of ink was prevalent. "Maybe but Crowley's depiction of magick, and how it can cross over through religion and mythology is a viable source even if someone does focus on the BC rather than the AD. You'd be surprised how much stuff like this is the same in the previous centuries."

The creak of the Impala door entered her ears and Miakoda turned the page gently. "Sam just left by the way. Smelt determined."

Bobby just sighed heavily. "I swear those boys…"

"Have you read Richard Boulton's A Compleat History of Magick, Sorcery, and Witchcraft?"

He thought about it. "I don't think so but I've heard of it."

Miakoda looked towards him. "I have a copy of it in my library back at the house. I was going to ask Vincent – he's a friend in the know – if he could send a few things down, I can ask if he can put it in there as well. It's an interesting read, especially when you live in Massachusetts."

The two sat in silence for a while, both reading their respective books. Miakoda got up at one point to grab her laptop and charger from her room, hit with a wave of inspiration for the paper she'd been working on before she was 'napped and began to takes notes from the book beside her.

"How did you even meet those boys?" Bobby asked after a while and Miakoda smiled a little.

"The Witch that was a Pastor?" recognition sparked in his gaze and she nodded. "They came to one of my lectures – it was on Mesopotamia – and asked me to translate a few of the symbols. Though," Miakoda looked around at the books around them both, "I don't know why they didn't just ask you."

"Even I don't know everything." Bobby sassed her back. "And this was before Hell."

"Yeah. One of my students was one of the victims – or well, two nearly were – so they came back a few times to ask a few questions. After the near Apocalypse, Dean came to the House."

"He said you were the one that talked sense into him."

She shrugged a little self-conscious. "I think he just didn't want to be seen as so raw as he was in front of Lisa and Ben. He seemed alright when he left a month later. Why do I have a feeling that Sam will have done something stupid?"

"Because he will have," Bobby stated, slightly irritated. "Be on your guard. He ain't got the limits he does when he has his soul."

She nodded. "He drew a devil's trap with his blood in the prison. It's like he doesn't have nerve endings. I wouldn't be surprised if he did something to scar him too much to be able to take his soul back."

With that hanging over their heads, they settled back as much as they could. Soon, Miakoda could hear the purr of the Impala pulling into the salvage yard and looked over to Bobby. "He's back. And he lit something?"

"God damn it, boy…" Bobby sighed heavily and got up to meet Sam in the kitchen. Miakoda stayed where she was. Anticipation and adrenalin were making Sam's heartrate race in his chest.

"Bobby…" Miakoda warned, "be careful."

"I know what I'm doing, girlie." Bobby stood in the eaves, sending a look back to her as Sam came into the house. "Make sure you be careful with that."

Dean's Bond flared with anger and denial and Miakoda rolled her shoulders as her Wolf prowled and pressed against her ribs. Only a few more hours left.

There was a clink of metal being picked up and she bolted for the kitchen, grasping Sam's arm in her hand, eyes red. "Don't even think about it."

Seeing as she had surprised him, Bobby used the bat that was propped up inside of the fridge to knock him out. Miakoda caught him, grunting under the dead weight.

"May have been born at night, boy, but it wasn't last night." He turned and Sam suddenly came to consciousness as Miakoda went to put him onto the chair. She growled as he thrashed in her hold.

"Bobby!" she gritted as she tried to keep the 6'4 soulless Winchester, pinned to the ground. Deciding to put the Wolf into it, Miakoda let her Beta shift come through and soon Sam was struggling against her hold.

"Grab his wrists!" Bobby barked and when she went to get them, Sam used the shift in her weight to throw her to the ground. He took the wrench and swung. He got her in the jaw. Spitting black blood onto the tiles, Miakoda growled. She kicked his knee out from under him and pinned him to the floor on his stomach. Wrenching his hands back, Miakoda put her weight down on his legs as Bobby quickly hogtied his hands. "You got him."

She nodded through the snapped jaw and hauled Sam up. "I have to do this, Bobby!"

"Like hell!" Bobby snapped and opened the door to a cupboard? Seeing the jab of his head, Miakoda shoved Sam in and slammed the door shut, bracing herself against the door as he began to throw all of his maybe 200 plus pounds of muscle against. Bobby pressed a button and she flinched when she heard something snap as Sam landed on hard concrete.

Feeling her jaw come back together, Miakoda looked to Bobby. "Trap door?"

"Leads to the panic room." He groused and soon there was banging on the door. He growled a sighed and made his way to the door that led down to the basement.

"Reinforced steel core, titanium kick plate," Bobby called through the door. "Get comfy. You want to explain what this is about?"

"I just, uh…" Miakoda heard slight grunting as Sam sat on the stairs. "I have to do this, Bobby."

"Says who?"

Sam sighed, and Miakoda could hear the anger in his tone. "If Dean shoves that soul back in me, think how bad that could really be. I can't let it happen, Bobby. I mean, it's not like I want to kill you. You've been nothing but good to me."

Bobby looked between the door and Miakoda. "So…what, demon deal or something?"

It clicked for her. "If Sam kills you, it could scar who Sam was as a person when he had a soul, means that maybe the soul would be rejected."

"Like you said before." He called down to Sam after that bit of information. "You're making a mistake, Sam."

"I'm trying to survive!" Sam yelled.

"Dean's got a way to make it safe." Miakoda didn't even have to have super-hearing to hear the trepidation in his words. He didn't believe it any more than Sam did.

She heard a scoff from in the panic room. "Oh yeah, what, some wall inside my head that maybe stays up? Come on."

"If it works-"

"Yeah, what if it doesn't? Dean doesn't care about me. He—he just cares about his little brother, Sammy, burning in Hell. He'll kill me to get that other guy back."

"You know what's truly terrifying?" Miakoda spoke up for the first time in the argument. "You right now."

Bobby sighed, running a hand down his face as he held the sawed-off with one hand. "You're not in your right head, Sam. You're not giving us much choice here."

There was a slight screech of metal on the concrete wall and a grunt as Sam must have gotten up.

"Is there a way out of there?" Miakoda asked quickly, hearing him move up something.

"The vent. Sam?" Bobby called through the door. "Balls!"

He opened the door and Miakoda slipped in first, knowing that she could subdue the taller Winchester for long enough for Bobby to potentially knock him out till Dean got back. There were instruments of various kinds on the walls along with a very heavy looking cell door with a lock on the door and a little window that could be closed from the outside.

"Ain't nobody killin' me in my house but me." He stepped up to the door, opening the latch of the door. Miakoda couldn't hear a heartbeat and headed for the stairs again. "I don't want to blow your legs out, boy, but I will."

Miakoda let her senses come to the front as she strained to hear Sam, smell him in the air. She heard him over near the shed and crept slowly over towards it. Ducking from a breeze, unnatural, coming from behind, she used her momentum to elbow Sam into the solar plexus. Burning licked across her arm as he sliced her with a silver knife.

Growling threateningly, she knew that she had to wait for him to make an opening. If Miakoda went too quickly, that knife would soon find a resting place within her chest and that would not be a good thing. He lunged with it and she locked his arm in place over her head, planting her feet – bare from having to take her shoes and socks off – into the gravel, letting her claws give her more stability.

The shotgun going off close by caused she jolted in shock and Sam used that split second to swing down, connecting with her temple hard.

Fuck.


Miakoda woke with her hands chained behind her back and the scent of wolfsbane was prevalent. She could feel it burning against her hands from where Sam had woven it through the ropes and chains and growled in pain. Bobby was tied to a chair and was watching as Sam sharpened a knife in his hands. Regardless of the burning in her hands, Miakoda struggled to get him.

She couldn't get to him in this form but maybe…

Sam and Bobby both watched as Miakoda's bones started to snap and resharpen before she managed to slip the bonds on her front paws. Sam found himself wrestling a 100lb plus wolf as she felt Dean make his way quickly to the shed. Even though the yelp as he drove the knife through Miakoda's side, she fought to keep him away from Bobby. She knew, that after everything, Sam wouldn't forgive himself if he came to with his soul and found his father figure dead by his hand.

She crouched protectively in front of Bobby, hackles giving her another three to four inches of bulk as she bared her teeth in warning. Sam went to move when a hand grasped the knifed hand. Their eyes connected.

"Hi, Sam. I'm back." Using the very same knife, Dean knocked him out. Hard.

Miakoda led the way back to the house because her clothes had been shredded from her gaining two extra legs and a tail. Dean noticed the darker patch on her side and the way she seemed to hedge away from both of them as they dragged Sam back into the panic room. Dean went as far as cuffing him to the bed frame.

What had he done?


Miakoda came down from her room, healed but still tender from both the wolfsbane and silver to the side and arm. She was dressed in leggings and a Harvard sweatshirt, looking worn. The smell of a hot dog with other fried food, along with beer, corpse, freshly turned dirt and flowers came to her as she landed on the main floor. She stood in the eaves between the living room and the kitchen, unsure of what to do.

There was a man but Miakoda could sense the power coming off of him. He was very thin, almost skeletal in appearance, slicked-back hair and wore a dark topcoat over a dark suit from what she could see from behind. The fried food, hot dogs and beer made sense as he sat with a half-eaten hot dog in front of him. He felt ancient, older than Elias for certain.

"Please, sit, Doctor."

She warily slipped across from him and dark eyes locked onto her. So this was Death. Miakoda supposed that a man, calm, cool and nearly detached seemed to fit. He had all of Time to collect everyone, he didn't need to strive for a specific atmosphere to receive what he wanted. He'd gather the souls in time.

"Death." Miakoda nodded her head slightly, swallowing the grunt that threatened to reveal her weakness to the Horseman.

"I will say this, Doctor," he perused her face. "I did not expect to see you within the home of Robert Singer. And surrounded by the Winchesters."

Miakoda thought on what to say to him. "They could've killed me in the Prison." She said quietly, worn and weary herself. "Maybe they should have. But they didn't and I owe them a debt."

It was quiet between them. Death spoke again, his tone slightly regretful. "I did not relish in taking your Pack, Alpha Hart."

She flinched but gave a nod. "I know that the Wolves would've gone to Purgatory. I wished that they hadn't; they were good people but us Creatures don't belong to either Heaven or Hell so we go to Limbo."

"Unfortunately yes." He nodded slowly. "I do not relish in the fact that a mere child of 6 is subjugated to the horrors of Purgatory for the rest of Time but I do not choose where they go. I only collect when their time comes."

"I'd sometimes sit awake at night," Miakoda confessed, consumed by her grief once more as if it were recent, that she didn't realise Dean was in the hallway beside the kitchen listening, "wondering why I wasn't collected as well. I thought about letting them win, give them the satisfaction of wiping the Skidi Pack from North America…"

"Even I know, Doctor," Death said quietly, his words holding meaning, "that your involvement in this World has not run its course as of yet."

She didn't know what to do with that knowledge. A boot hit the wood floors and Miakoda turned to see Dean in the doorway, looking worn himself, and distraught. She nodded her head silently, towards Death and got up, changing spots with Dean, leaving him there with a grounding squeeze to his bicep.

Bobby looked older than he was as he stood propped against one of the walls beside the stairs. His hat was still on his head that was true, but the shadows under his eyes were stark and he looked as though he just wanted to sleep for years.

"Death's upstairs." Miakoda gave him, sliding down onto the cold concrete. "He doesn't smell as bad as the ring does. I don't know why. But I think this whole thing was meant to be a lesson for Dean, to not take the fact that he and Sam were brought back to life for granted. Mind you, s'pretty fucked up way of doing it though."

Bobby grunted. "You're tellin' me."

"Bobby!" Dean's voice came from above and Miakoda shot up as he came barrelling down the stairs. "Open the door."

"What happened?" Miakoda and Bobby chorused, confused about his reaction.

"Now!"

Bobby pulled the door open to find Sam, still cuffed to the bed, but thrashing in his restraints, shouting at Death. The Horseman calmly set his cane down between Sam's arm and his side on the mattress and put an old fashioned doctor's bag upon the bed as well.

"Don't!" Sam bellowed, looking like he was about to rip open Death's throat with his teeth.

Death sat beside Sam on the bed and Miakoda squinted at the bright that the shone from within the bag. Sam was panting in his restraints. Death ordered softly, "Now, Sam, I'm going to put up a barrier inside your mind."

"No, don't touch me." He shook his head minutely, sweat already beginning to bead across his forehead.

"It might feel a little…itchy. Do me a favour," he leant a little over him on the bed, as if to tell him a secret. "don't scratch the wall. Trust me – you're not going to like what happens."

Sam's eyes turned towards Dean in the doorway, frustration instead of fear in his scent. "Please. Don't do this."

Miakoda took Dean's hidden hand and didn't say a word as he immediately squeezed the shit out of it. It would heal before he noticed anyway. They watched as Death pulled Sam's soul, no bigger than maybe a softball in size out of the bag. He began to lower it towards Sam's chest.

"No, no! You don't know! You don't know what'll happen to me! Dean, please! No. No. No."

Dean's hand clenched around Miakoda's hand as Sam threw his head back in pain as Death pressed his hand threw his chest, screaming all the while. He succumbed to the pain, going limp in unconsciousness. She moved between Dean, Bobby and Death, leeched the lingering pain out of Sam so that he would sleep a little easier.

Death gave them cordial nods before vanishing.

Now they just had to see what the aftermath would be.


Will say this isn't my favourite episode so it may be a little mish-mashed. I've found that with the episodes where Sam and Dean are split that the chapters are shorter. I'm trying (keyword) to not make it that she immediately beats the crap out them in terms of her Wolf strength, hence the fights in this not being 'oh Koda will obviously win', she can deal some damage when she wants to, trust me.

Another thing, Monsters is at nearly 1,700 views, what the fuck? Thank you lot some much for this. Currently, in terms of SPN's story I'm writing ...And Then There Were None and yes, there is Drama. I'm trying to stay ahead of the curve but with Uni starting back, this Tuesday (instead of the first week in March like I thought because I'm a bellend) I don't know what the outcome will be. I might stick with the once-a-fortnight post, if all goes well.

Enjoy,

K x