Song Remains the Same
Chapter 103 / Sister Sister
"One thing I've learnt about humans: you can't judge their strength by the size of their actions,
but by the devotion of an act, no matter how small."
- Dianna Hardy
A Few Moments Ago
Alex became cognizant slowly, her hearing the first sense to return. There were blurred male voices speaking nearby and she remembered looking for apples for that Emily girl last before...
Wait, what happened?
As consciousness grew, she began to feel a dull pain in her head which quickly became a splitting headache that was threatening to tear her skull in half. She groaned and tried to move a hand to press it against her forehead, then found her arms were stuck to her sides and would not move. She tried to open her mouth and found her lips sealed in place. Immediately, her breathing quickened in alarm from the knowledge that something was very wrong. As her eyes opened and the world tilted sickeningly, Alex realized she wasn't laying down like she'd thought. Completely disoriented, she realized that she was sitting up on an all-white couch and her arms were duct-taped to her sides, her ankles were bound the same way, and her mouth was taped shut too as her head lolled onto her shoulder.
Slowly, she lifted her head with a sore neck and saw that she was definitely no longer in the drab motel room she'd been in before. Now, she was in some bright and sleekly appointed office space with modern art pieces dotting the white and gray interior. Her heart began to beat faster and faster. Nearby the sources of the two male voices lounged in expensive looking chairs and when she saw the men, she recognized them and withered immediately.
"Ah! Look who's finally up!" Dick Roman boomed, grinning at her with sly eyes. "Sleeping beauty."
Crowley turned slightly to glance at her over his shoulder. He held a glass tumbler of some dark amber liquid and he smiled slightly at her and raised the glass. "Hello darling," he said. "You look breathtaking as always." His sarcastic smirk and lazy air of entitlement made her skin crawl with foreboding. "But you'll have to just hang on a tic. The big boys are in a business meeting." He turned back to Dick.
"Anyway, back to the arrangement," the Leviathan said, leaning forward intently. "America's ours, Canada's yours. Your sales team stays off my turf—period. That's not up for negotiation. We need America. They're so… fat." The way he said that word was stomach-turning, like he was salivating at the thought.
"And in exchange?" the King of Hell asked. He sounded cautious. "I do what?"
Dick reached into his immaculately tailored suit pocket with a flourish and produced a small glass vial of thick red blood. "Here we have the blood of one sadly unimpressive demon in New Jersey," Dick said, a wicked smile playing on his mouth. "All I ask is that you give it to Frick and Frack, tell them it's yours, stand back, and let them come to me." He handed the vial to Crowley and then glanced at Alex. "As soon as they find out what I have of theirs, they're set to come running, and with no time to double-check the blood's authenticity… well, let's just say it ends badly for the boys while I'm sitting pretty."
There was a long pause and Crowley eyed the vial of blood for a moment. "I can't deny I long to see those two digested once and for all…" he admitted in a murmur. Behind Crowley, unable to do anything but stiffen and clench her fists, Alex watched while praying to god Crowley wouldn't do this. Sam and Dean would walk right into a trap and Dick would obliterate them. "You have a deal," Crowley murmured, and Alex was terrified as he pocketed the vial. "I suppose you want it in writing?"
"I don't kiss on the mouth," Dick said through a devilish little smile.
"Good news for Miss Winchester, I suppose," Crowley said silkily, wiggling his eyebrows just once. "Well, never fear. I just so happen to have a standard rider…" he fished around inside his suit jacket and produced an ancient-looking parchment scroll, "right here." With a graceful flick of the wrist, the scroll unfurled down and onto the floor. It was probably about six or seven feet long all in all and Dick looked positively unenthused at the length document. "I do so like this part," Crowley commented softly, a playful gleam in his eye. "Don't you? One might call the fine print torture. I prefer to call it foreplay." His sinful smile grew, and Dick returned the smile in kind.
The next two hours were spent in total silence on Alex's part as she sat there on the white leather couch bound and gagged; forced to listen to the Leviathan and the demon go back and forth over little technical details of the contract deal they were entering into together. If nothing else, she paid close attention in the hopes she would be able to escape and foil their dastardly plans somehow. At one point, Dick came over to Alex and sat beside her and put an arm around her casually like they were a couple and played with the ends of her hair while she sat there stiffly, trying to lean away from him. Crowley made a comment about how the Leviathan was embarrassing himself and Dick got up and left Alex alone for the remainder of the time.
Dick's office had a solid glass wall that looked out to an adjacent hallway, and from time to time, people who Alex could only assume were other Leviathan stopped and gawked at her. Sometimes one at a time, and sometimes a few stopped and stared curiously or even longingly at her. The more time that passed, the more desperate Alex was to escape, but there was no conceivable way out of her current confines. Finally, the negotiations between Dick and Crowley seemed to be drawing to a close. When at last they were ready to sign and did sign, they stood and shook hands then Crowley straightened his suit smartly after he pocketed the scroll. "Well. Guess I'm off to go bait the boys. They've been summoning me for the past ten minutes or so, actually. Should be fun." He glanced over at Alex then at Dick, reading between the lines. "I'll leave you two to yourselves. Remember to establish a safe word, kids." And with that, the demon was gone.
Funny. Alex never would have thought she'd see the day when she had wanted Crowley to stay and not leave. But he was gone, and she was left completely alone with the last creature she wanted to be alone with.
"Whew, was that hellish or what?" Dick asked jauntily, coming over to Alex and turning the chair that was nearest her around so he could sit in it across from her. He clasped his hands and leaned over his knees, his eyes wandering her hungrily as she sat there facing him powerlessly. "You know, I've been waiting for this day a long time," he said in his smooth, ominous tone. An abrupt grin cracked his face. "You sure are hard to get a handle on, kiddo!" He patted her knee and squeezed, seeming to find her attempts to not look afraid cute. "Now, I know what you're thinking. What a handsome guy! I know. I'm irresistible. But try, all right?" He winked and stood up, sauntered behind the couch languidly and letting his hand skim the back of the couch. "Gosh, last time we were in the same room together I was wearing the angel and in serious competition for the driver's seat," he commented thoughtfully. "Now I have you all to myself." He bent down to whisper into her ear from behind. "I think they're jealous, don't you?" She looked at the glass wall where several Leviathan had gathered and were watching her curiously. In the very back, a very short, small one lurked. Zip. Alex's veins boiled with hatred and betryal as she realized he must have something to do with this. And then her rage was forgotten in favor of repulsion as Dick's lips brushed her ear and his tone turned seductive. "I could just eat you up…" he whispered, then inhaled her scent deeply, making her grimace and crane away from him as panic set in.
He chuckled and stood away, circling back around to stand in front of the couch. His hands were in his pockets and he stood in a casual stance, looking at her fondly for a minute or two before he sauntered over to his desk and took a wicked looking knife up off the polished glass surface. He looked at the sharp tip of it thoughtfully as he made his way back over to her.
Oh my god he's gonna cut me into pieces and eat me for dinner.
He sat down across from her again and reached down, pulling her feet into his lap. She tried to pull them away and he didn't let her. "You know, one of the bimbos the real Roman used to screw? She liked to call him D," he said, then took the knife and began to cut her feet off. And then she realized he wasn't cutting her feet off, he was sawing the duct tape, freeing her ankles from behind stuck together. One of his hands rested on her ankle, then slowly skimmed up her shin, her knee, her thigh. His bedroom voice and eyes made her squirm backward into the couch. "Come on, Lexyloo. Just admit it. You want the D." He grinned, eyes crinkling at her and he reached for her face. She jerked away from his hand, but his fingers found what they were looking for—the strip of tape keeping her from speaking. He ripped it off thoughtlessly and pain screamed at the action, but Alex remained totally silent and hid her reaction, just staring back at him in defiance. Dick smiled at her lengthily, eyes observing her lustily, then he stood and pulled her up to stand too. Her arms were still taped to her sides and he stood so that her calves pushed into the couch. The effect was the feeling of being trapped.
"What's so special about you, huh?" he asked, his eyes questioning and amused all at once. "All I see are a hundred and twenty pounds of insecurity and drug addiction. But that angel, he sure had the hots for you didn't he? So much in fact that I do too. Whether I want to or not. I'm your biggest fan." He paused, lowering his chin. When Alex made no reply, only clenched her jaw tighter, Dick wiggled his eyebrows up once. "You always this silent, or are we doing a throwback to your younger years?" She had never wanted to stab anyone as much as she wanted to stab him, and her obvious anger made Dick laugh. "Aw gosh, she doesn't wanna talk to me. My feelings are hurt." He stepped a little closer, uncomfortably so, and his hand pulled her close at the waist. He was incredibly strong. "It's okay," he murmured against the side of her face as she valiantly tried to bend away from him. "I think what we're gonna do doesn't involve much talking…" his hand went lower, past the small of her back and to somewhere much less appropriate, and when she made a sound of disgust and protest, he laughed and let go of her. She almost fell backwards onto the couch because of how hard she'd been struggling his grip and the sudden release he'd given. "But that'll have to come later, 'cause first I have to kill your brothers. They've caused so many issues for me like you wouldn't believe," he said ruefully, then abruptly hollered. "Susan!"
One of the Leviathans who had been standing outside the room and watching entered at a brisk pace. She was an Asian woman dressed in business attire and wearing a bluetooth headset. Dick pushed Alex toward her like she was some commodity he didn't want at the moment. "Put her with the kid until the suite's ready," he said, then paused. "Oh, and…" he reached over and plucked a hair out of Alex's head, startling her with the action and the sharp little needle of pain. He smiled at the dark strand he now held between a thumb and a forefinger. "We wanna be ready for the boys when they come," he said, mystifying and horrifying Alex at once. What are you going to do to my brothers?
Susan's icy hand closed around Alex's forearm. "Yes sir." She began to steer Alex out of the office and down the hall. When Alex passed Zip, who tried to hide himself behind other Leviathan, she lunged uselessly, then gave him the death stare of a lifetime.
Susan escorted Alex down several hallways and then all but tossed her into an internal office with no windows—another male Leviathan stood guard outside of it and exchanged a cryptic glance with Susan as he opened the door to let her in. "Wait here," Susan said, then left, the door locking behind her. Arms still taped to her sides thanks to plenty of duct tape, Alex body-slammed the door and kicked it in frustration and made a screeching sound of helpless, frustrated rage.
"…A-Alex?" a timid, shocked voice asked, and Alex turned, startled, searching for the source of the tiny voice. She found it quickly.
Hiding under the desk was a slight Asian boy with shaggy hair and petrified features. He was peeking up and out at her with an expression that said he barely believe what was happening. Alex's mouth dropped open. "Kevin!? W-what are you doing here?!"
He crawled out from under the desk. He looked exhausted and shaken up and he was wearing the same outfit she'd seen him in a couple days ago. "T-the Leviathans got me, they killed the angels and made me translate the tablet for them," he explained in a shaky voice. "I-I tried to say no, but they said they'd kill my mom. I'm sorry, I didn't want to translate it but I couldn't let them hurt her!" He swallowed and his huge eyes were hopeful. "Are you here to save me?"
Alex's face fell at his question. "Yeah, that's why I'm taped up like a friggin' mummy."
Kevin faltered. "Should I… the tape?" he asked hesitantly. At the look on her face, he realized yes, yes he should, and began to peel it off in layers and tear at it as best he could. After a bit of a struggle, Alex was freed and immediately rushed to the desk in the room. She opened and closed the drawers in a frenzied search for some kind of weapon or lock pick. All the drawers were empty or had only paper in them. Alex yanked the landline phone off the hook and listened, desperate to call her brothers and warn them, but there was no dial tone at the end of the line. She muttered a swear word and tossed the phone down.
"I already looked," Kevin said dourly. "There's nothing we can use and no way out. It's hopeless."
Hopeless? Alex took quick inventory of the small office, looking around at it in detail for the first time. She slowly began to gain some semblance of hope. There was a flat screen TV on the wall, a VCR, DVD player, an Xbox, a couch, a chrome sphere statuette thing on a solid-wood console, a potted plant, some pens at the desk… Alex frowned to herself, realizing this was almost too good to be true.
"Nothing we can use?" she repeated, realizing that they could probably use everything. "Dude, this room's like an arsenal. How stupid are they?" She began to formulate a plan in her mind on the fly and as such, her tone got intense. "All right, Kevin. We're getting the hell out of here."
Kevin's face paled. "How? T-the door's locked and there's a guy standing guard."
"Yeah, and you and me are gonna take him down," Alex said, picking up the sphere statue thing and testing its weight, her mind preoccupied with how to pull this off with what they had in the room.
"M-me?" Kevin squeaked, turning red in alarm. "But, I don't know how to fight!"
Alex shot him a serious look. "Then I hope you're a quick learner." She nodded at the game console by the TV. "Now get me that Xbox controller and make it snappy."
A lone Leviathan in the visage of a male stood outside of the room where the prophet and the Winchester girl were being held. Everything was quiet and fine. And then without warning, a cry that the Leviathan recognized as Alex's voice: "Ahh! Help me!"
Without thinking twice, the guard rushed in, throwing the locked door open. He ran in by about two steps, only thinking to help the girl as his angelically brainwashed instincts compelled him to do. Instead of finding the girl, he found a seemingly-empty office—then there was a cry of rage made by a cracking teenage voice.
The prophet jumped up from where he'd been crouched behind the desk and clobbered the Leviathan in the face as hard as he could with the metal statue, stunning him. Kevin swung and hit so hard that he fell down onto the ground after miscalculating. At the same moment, Alex, who had waited behind the door, lunged out and looped the Xbox cord around the Leviathan's neck and with one end of the cord in either hand, she yanked the cord into a circle as tight as humanly possible, planting a foot onto the Leviathan's back to get more leverage as she strained with every ounce of power she possessed. "Pull!" she shouted through clenched teeth, and Kevin grabbed the Leviathan's feet, pulled the Leviathan one way as hard as he could as Alex pulled the other way, closing the cord tighter and tighter. Leviathans were strong, but their human forms weren't invincible. After all, their insides were liquid goo. You could probably decapitate one with a spatula if you hit hard enough. And with that principle in mind, Alex hoped for the best and got it, too. As she and Kevin pulled with combined strength and the cord squeezed tighter and tighter, it became inevitable. The Leviathan's head popped off when Alex gave one final devastating yank. The head went flying and hit the ground near Kevin's shoulder even as the body fell sideways.
"Aah!" Kevin cried out, quickly squirming away from the head. Black goo oozed out and the prophet's face bore witness to how disgusting he found the entire thing. "Oh gross…" he muttered, face frozen in an expression of utter revulsion. He clenched his hands to his torso protectively.
Already pulling him up, Alex had no time to be disgusted. "Come on," she urged intensely, pulling him along with her. Seconds mattered in situations like this. She paused them at the doorway, looking left and right before she nodded to their right, indicating they move and move fast. They hurried quietly down the hallway and made it to a corner. Holding up a finger, Alex slowed and then crept the last couple of feet and peeked around the corner to see if it was clear. What she saw there made her heart stand still.
About ten Leviathan were in that hallway up ahead, and they were all perfect copies of Alex. They wore what she was wearing right then and stood the way she stood, had her voice too. One of them seemed to be in charge. "Now, the brothers will be here soon, so make sure to spread yourselves out well and use this disguise to your advantage." The leading Leviathan cracked a grin at one of the others and patted her on the face. "Alex, we sure are good looking huh?" There were a few chuckles, all in her voice, and Alex shrank back, wide-eyed. What the actual hell is going on here?
Alex turned around, about to tell Kevin they needed to air-vent this bitch—and then almost fell over in shock. Kevin was held firmly in place by a Leviathan that looked exactly like Alex, and there was another Alex clone beside that one. The one that stood behind Kevin had a hand clamped over his mouth. He was breathing hard and heavy, terrified.
"Hey, good looking," that Leviathan greeted Alex teasingly.
The other one sauntered forward and Alex heard her own voice make the next threat as a real pistol came out. "Try and escape again… and we kill the kid," she said, then held the muzzle to the side of his head and whispered, "Boom," making Kevin jump and shake and whimper as he shut his eyes in fright. Both of the Leviathans laughed at his reaction as the real Alex kicked herself for not going left instead of right. Grinding her teeth together and hating this impossible situation, Alex stared daggers at her doppelgangers.
The Leviathan with a gun grabbed Alex by the arm with bone-crushing strength and with the threat of Kevin's demise in mind, she did not resist. "You're coming with me," the Leviathan said, and began to pull her along. "The suite's ready."
Kevin was dragged the opposite direction—he looked at her silently, pleadingly, but she could do nothing. She couldn't risk them killing him over a stupid move. Alex was taken to the top level of the building via elevator and thrown into a fancy apartment-looking suite with a bedroom visible off the main room and a huge pop-art style painting of Alex's own face across the wall of the living room. Chilled, she stared, but not so much as when the Leviathan who was her total twin went over to a closet and plucked out a white dress exactly like the one Destroyer had made her wear. "Wear this. Dick wants you to look like you did in the good old days." There was a wink, and then Alex was locked inside the suite by herself holding the dress that she'd worn during her worst nightmare.
Meanwhile
Outside the SucroCorp Perimeter
He squinted through binoculars at the multi-story building that was SucroCorp. It was an expensive and beautiful business building with an all-glass front that showed pristine offices. The place looked pleasant enough to the uninformed passerby. But Sam Winchester knew it was one of the most dangerous places in the world. He lowered the binoculars and looked over at his brother, who stood beside him. "Nothing. No extra guards, no lookouts—if they're expecting us, they want us to walk in without a problem."
"That's what I don't like," Dean muttered, frowning hard at the building with his arms crossed.
They stood on a hilltop of a city park that was half a mile or so away from SucroCorp—that way they wouldn't be spotted. But it appeared like no one was looking for them. Like the messenger Leviathan had said: they were expected.
"So what, we try and sneak in? Or go in guns blazing? Walk in and hit up the receptionist?" Sam asked doubtfully. "What's the right plan of action here?"
"Best thing would be to poof right into the middle of the dead center of the Death Star, might buy us some time," Dean muttered, then turned slightly and looked across his shoulder. "You said it was warded against angels, right Cas?" Dean asked.
Silent with his hands in his pockets and a terse look on his face, the absent-minded angel nodded. He stood slightly behind at to the side of the brothers. "That's correct. I can't get in there or even see anything right now."
The brothers exchanged a brief, tense glance. The unpredictable angel had alternated between being helpful and being a time-wasting roadblock as Sam and Dean made the weapon and prepared for this last minute whirlwind rescue mission. It was sad, honestly, because in the past Castiel would have been the first one knocking down the gates to get to Alex back. And now he was hesitant, skittish, and unsure about helping at all. Even for the woman he loved more than anyone else. Sam guessed he couldn't totally blame him for being afraid of failing again, but come on. This wasn't just anyone Dick had gotten his hands on. He looked into the binoculars again and scanned the parking lot of SucroCorp again for anything that might give them some insight into the Leviathans plans, some idea of what approach to take. And then he saw a young Latina woman in a pink maid's uniform getting out of a beat up old pickup truck. In her hand she held a machete, but that wasn't the most shocking part. Sam recognized her.
"Dean, Dean—!" Sam exclaimed in a voice made breathless by surprise. "That's the maid! The maid from our motel!"
"What?"
Sam shoved the binoculars at his brother, who took them and looked, then seemed to get it when he saw the machete. "Wait, you don't think—"
Yes. Sam did think. When they had gotten back to the motel room and Alex claimed the flask was just gone, they'd thought that Emily girl took it or something. And now… Sam realized it was much worse. That maid in the parking lot was ghost-possessed, and not just by any ghost. "It's Bobby," Sam said in a hard, grim voice. He had worried about this, he had known something like this was bound to happen, but it was absolutely terrifying and horrifying that it had. "Cas, get him now before he gets that woman killed," he commanded, and Cas complied without missing a beat.
Half a mile off, the maid came up short when a man in a trench coat appeared in front of her and touched her on the shoulder. The next instant, a gust of wind came with the appearance of Cas with Bobby in tow. "What the blazes…?" The maid's face registered surprise at the interruption and she looked around angrily, realizing what had happened. "Hey! No—no, I was almost there, you idjits ain't gonna stop me from taking care of business!" It was strange to hear Bobby's vocal cadence and verbiage out of a female mouth, but it was even stranger when she shoved Cas away from herself with a furious expression and charged forward, straight back at SucroCorp with the machete flashing at her side.
Sam, who was closer, got in the way and stopped Bobby with two hands on either of the maid's arms. "Bobby, stop, what are you doing?!" he asked in a voice high-pitched with concern.
There was a shout of rage and Sam went flying sideways when Bobby grabbed and threw him sideways into a nearby telephone pole. When Sam landed in a disoriented heap after hitting his head, the maid stood over him with clenched fists and frost crawled across the ground and outward from where she stood as anger burned bitter cold. "You better back off 'less you're gonna help me, boys!" Bobby thundered using the maid's voice. Apparently too angry to think straight, he began to bear down on Sam with murder in his eyes.
"Whoa whoa whoa!" Dean exclaimed, jumping into Bobby's path and holding a hand out as he got between his brother and his uncle's vengeful spirit. "Calm down! We're on the same team here, Bobby! Snap out of it!"
The maid's face faltered and her eyes cleared, the frost on the ground began to thaw. Slight surprise and then embarrassment showed. "S-sorry, kid. I got carried away," he apologized, then looked at Sam in veiled worry. "Keep forgetting my own strength. You all right?"
"Y-yeah," Sam said. Cas helped Sam up and touched him on the head, healing him and taking away the gash he'd sustained in his cheek from a protruding nail in the telephone pole.
Dean tried to be calm and reasonable, but he was visibly shaken. "Bobby, come on, let this lady go before you get her killed or before you kill with her!"
Immediately, there was defiance. "No. Not before things are set right." The maid's face looked frenzied, her eyes were wild. "Look, I drove all day and night after those Leviathan bastards swooped in and took Alex and I ain't fixin' to stop until she's outta there and the dick named Dick who killed me's dead, y'hear?"
Dean was grim. "No, yeah, we kinda have the same basic plan, Bobby."
"Come on," Sam appealed cautiously and carefully. "Bobby, use your head. This maid has nothing to do with any of this and you take her in there, she's likely to get killed."
That earned a reluctant glance, but Bobby made no reply. Dean's tone became heavily warning in nature. "Don't make us pull you outta her, Bobby," he said, because they would. He held out a hand and made a 'give it here' motion at the maid. "Gimme the flask." She stared at him grudgingly and Dean's tone turned nearly threatening. "Bobby…"
There was an eye roll. "Fine," the maid's voice said, and she reached into her cardigan pocket and pulled out the familiar flask. She handed it over to Dean and sighed regretfully. "Well, it was fun while it lasted, Marta." And then Bobby's ghost stepped out of the maid and her face went terrified as he did. She staggered back, wide-eyed and breathless, staring at the three men and the ghost in sheer horror.
"Oh my god! Where am I? What's… what's happening? Who are you people?!"
Cas volunteered without being asked or told. "I'll take her back to her motel," he said, and stepped up to her grimly. She shrank away from him, but not in time. He touched her shoulder and they disappeared. He reappeared alone two seconds later. "It's done," he said.
"Thanks, Cas," Dean said. He was obviously relieved the angel was there even if a few screws were loose.
Bobby's ghostly image was pale in color and had a look of general anger about him that wasn't what the brothers were familiar with, he looked mostly like himself otherwise. Definitely pissy and annoyed to have been stopped like he had. "Well now that I'm good'n incorporeal, what's you jackasses' plan to get the girl and gank Dick?" He set a stern warning upon them. "And don't even think of leaving my ass behind this time. I mean it."
"We need to get inside so we can start this surprise party the right way, but we can't get inside without drawing attention unless Cas zaps us in under the radar," Dean supplied heavily.
"But it's warded against angels," Sam added grimly. "So that's not really an option."
"Wait, I think I have an idea," Cas said, and everyone looked at him expectantly. "We can find a house big enough for all of us and move in together. That would be nice, I think." At the crestfallen faces he got from the boys, Cas looked like his memory was jogged. "Oh, and my idea about today is… um, Bobby." He looked at the ghost curiously. "Could you perhaps go inside and break the angel wards? Then I could transport us all inside without detection."
Sam and Dean exchanged a brief look that conveyed slightly-impressed surprise. Bobby nodded. "Yeah. I got it, but you'll have to get me closer to the building to do that." He nodded at Dean. "Me meaning the flask." His eyes narrowed cautiously as he looked at Dean hard. "You won't take me off the playing field once you boys are inside?"
Dean shook his head no. "You'll be in my pocket nice and safe." He pointed at Bobby warningly. "But just remember who the enemies are, Bobby. No more throwing the good guys around, capiche?"
Bobby rolled his eyes at Dean. "Just shut up, I'll be fine." The ghost looked at Cas. "Well? We gonna break these ward things or what?" Cas nodded and took the flask from Dean's offering hand then disappeared. Bobby's ghost flickered out in tandem, leaving the brothers alone for the moment.
They looked at SucroCorp for a couple seconds, then Dean folded his arms and with a deep frown on his face, he let out a tense sigh through his nose. Then he looked at Sam sidelong. "You think I got enough time to make a phone call?" he asked, voice curiously distressed.
Sam balked. A phone call? He gave his brother a crazy look. "Now? What could be so important you need to call someone on the phone right now?"
Dean hesitated to answer then looked off ahead of himself with an unreadable expression. "You might be surprised."
Sam waited expectantly. "…I'm all ears."
"I just… this might get hairy," Dean reflected somberly, playing his cards close to the chest and telling Sam nothing specific. "Maybe we won't walk out, you know?"
Sam frowned. "Dean, we'll walk out."
There was a brief, hooded sidelong glance. "Yeah, well if I don't…"
Sam, ever the insightful one, narrowed his eyes. "This got something to do with Jamie?"
Dean laughed nervously, a soft breathy sound because Sam knew him so well. "Yeah, so, awkward story. Uh… so about a month ago—"
Abruptly, Castiel reappeared with the flask, interrupting the conversation that had been about to take place. "We're in," he said, and handed the flask to Dean then abruptly clapped a hand onto either of the brother's shoulders. "Did you boys know if all the blood vessels in your body were laid end to end, they would reach about sixty thousand miles?" At the confused silence he received, Cas's voice lowered. "Let's go."
The three men disappeared out of thin air and then reappeared in the belly of the proverbial beast.
Alex used a corkscrew wine bottle opener in a desperate attempt to pick the lock that was keeping her in Dick's fancy suite. She'd already ripped the dress up with her bare hands and torn down the painting of her face in an act of panicked rebellion. The corkscrew wasn't working and she was getting really agitated and began to kick the door at its weakest point, right near the knob. It wouldn't budge. "Come on!" she screamed, kicking again for good measure.
"That's not gonna work," came a dejected voice from behind her. Alex whirled to see a young man with curly hair and a sad, plain face. Withering a little and realizing she had no weapon to slice his smarmy head off, Alex grabbed the nearest thing—a glass vase with roses in it off the door side table—and launched it at him. He didn't duck or even attempt to. The vase hit him on the side of the face and shattered on impact. He didn't react at all even as his cut-open skin slowly seeped back together or as his hair dripped water down across his tormented face. "I thought I wanted you here," he said softly, sadly, staring at her with inscrutable eyes. "I thought I wanted you to be hurt and betrayed like I was and I thought I wouldn't care what they did with you but… heh," he scratched his ear and looked away in uncomfortable regret, "turns out I was mildly mislead in that regard." Zip hesitated then looked at her with a very uncertain, embarrassed expression. "I… I think I may have overdone it."
"…Overdone it?" Alex repeated incredulously. She began to breathe harder as he came a couple steps closer. Last time she'd seen him, he had done some pretty substantial damage not only to her but to her family and her angel. "Just leave me alone!"
"Alex, I'm sorry," he pleaded, and tried to reach out to touch her arm.
"Don't touch me!" she insisted thunderously, sliding sideways on the wall to avoid his touch. "Don't you get it?! I don't want you around me! Ever! At all! The end!"
Zip let out a defeated breath and seemed too tired to try appealing to her further. He rubbed a hand against his forehead briefly before he gestured with it uselessly. "Just… just shut up and let me rescue you, will you?"
Not what she'd been expecting to hear, and it caused her to falter. "…What?"
Zip didn't stand there and make obsessive romantic pleas or deranged claims about love and what was owed him. "I changed my mind, okay?" He shook his head and clenched his jaw, appearing to be a little uncertain about how to convey himself to her. "Whatever. I'm not gonna let him do whatever the hell he's planning to do to you, okay? I know that much. And besides that—listen to me, my species is about to decimate the entire human population of this country."
Alex stared at him hard and untrusting. "You think I don't know that already?"
"Well, I've been finding out a whole lot today now that they're letting me around and…" he swallowed, full of discomfort at her needle stare. "I don't want it to happen, all right?" Zip asked, then looked at her plainly. "I'm drawing a line in the sand and standing on a side. So just tell me what to do and how to help and I'll do it."
Totally suspicious of him, not trusting him for the slightest second, Alex eyed him carefully. "…Why? What's your angle?"
He shrugged and made a face, looking down at his beat up Converse shoes. "My angle is… I dunno. It's the right thing to do?" He looked up and gave her a tight, self-conscious smile. "Sorry, I... I'm just new at all this."
Alex looked the Leviathan up and down dubiously. She didn't know, but this might be her only chance to get out of here. Her main priority was currently to warn her brothers so they didn't walk straight into a deathtrap. So… she was desperate. "You really are insane, you know that?" she asked, because if he was for real, he was kind of nuts. Maybe she attracted a type, huh?
A rueful little smile crooked Zip's mouth up to the side and the way he looked at her was affectionate and bittersweet. "Yeah, well. I've been called worse." He nodded at the door and got businesslike. "Come on. I know the way out."
Alex halted him before he opened the door. "One condition. You gotta get my buddy Kevin out of here too."
Zip's eyes narrowed as he thought. "The prophet kid? Yeah. I saw him earlier. Okay. I know where he is. I'll get him and then—"
"Oh no," Alex cut him off with no shortage of sass. "I'm going with you."
Zip looked like he should have known that would be her response. "So stubborn," he sighed, then easily ripped the door off its hinges and gestured for her to go right ahead.
"Yeah right. After you," Alex said lowly, not trusting him for one freaking second and not caring if he knew or not.
"Alrighty then," he said, flustered and slightly indignant.
Meanwhile, Sam, Dean, and Cas had just ported into the security room of SucroCorp. A few black-and-white monitors showed cycling feeds of the place. And sitting in vague boredom watching the feeds, turning around to look at them in confusion…
"…Alex?" Dean asked, then was abruptly seized by the throat. "Not Alex!" he wheezed just before he was thrown into a wall where a shelf of VHS tapes stood.
The tapes went clattering all over the floor even as Dean groaned and the Leviathan copy of his sister turned on Sam, who had a look of utter dread. His sister bore down on him and Sam didn't do a damn thing, only shrank back—and then the Leviathan impostor went flying sideways invisibly where she crashed the opposite wall. "Good one Bobby," Dean managed tightly through a groan. The Leviathan got up onto all fours and seethed, again headed for Sam. Black liquid ran out of her nostrils, and she looked like she was really gonna murder him.
"Oh no, ah, sorry—!" Sam said, wincing and grimacing as he clenched his machete tighter and braced himself. The reason why? Well, let's just say he was having some issues with chopping the head off someone who looked like his sister. But he did it anyway at the last second and made a sound of surprise and disgust as the head went rolling. Cas stood nearby, his expression a copy of Sam's. "W-why was…?" Sam asked, then froze, catching better sight of the monitor console. "Holy shit. Dean. Come look at this." On the multiple security-feed screens, they could see that there were multiple Alexs and Dicks wandering SucroCorp. In fact, most figures on the monitor were either Alex or Dick.
"Son of a bitch…" Dean breathed, a 'why?' on the tip of his tongue.
"It's very clever," Cas observed grimly. "Meant to confuse and disorient you in any attempts to kill the real Dick Roman or rescue your actual sister." He shook his head once, appropriately distressed.
"…Well how are we supposed to know which one's the real Alex?!" Dean asked in rising frustration, turning on Cas. "And which one's the real Dick?!"
Cas's answer was calm and immediate. "Me," he said sensibly. "I can see who is human and who is Leviathan, and more than that I'll be able to tell who the true Original is."
Dean shook a finger at Cas as a tiny smile grew. "See, I knew we brought you along for a reason." He looked back at the monitor where several copies of his sister went about their business. His smile faded. "I'll give him one thing, that son of a bitch is smart," he muttered, shaking his head as his eyebrows worked into a stressed expression. "And super twisted." He glanced over at the Leviathan body nearby that looked like his sister.
"Oh no, I don't think so. They're horrible copies," Cas said sort of blankly.
Sam looked at Cas oddly. "...They look just like her."
"Yes, well, I can see things you can't, Sam," the angel said, then grew suddenly regretful, dropping the dreamy look on his face. It was like he'd suddenly realized what was going on, like it suddenly resounded with him and hit him, the weight of what was happening. Mildly sickened as it sank in, his face fell. "None of this would be happening if it weren't for me," he said, backing up a step as he looked down to the floor and his eyebrows pushed in toward each other. "I'm sorry, it just—I just don't feel capable of facing what I've done…" he was beginning to back out, and it was obvious.
Dean resisted letting out a sigh of aggravation. He tried to cajole even through anger that he felt immediately. "Cas. Buddy. Come on."
"No, I—I think I should go, I should just let you two—well, three—handle this." Castiel's face, which was that of a late-thirties man, showed a childlike fear and the effect was odd. "I'll just make things worse," he said, and his voice shook with true fear.
In what could have been a scene out of Dean's teenage years when he'd had to reassure and support both his brother and sister in their times of doubt and fear, Dean counseled Cas with tough love. "Look at me," he commanded gruffly. "Now listen. You're gonna stick in this with us. You're gonna face what you did and kick it in the ass, all right? Because I'll be damned if my sister is in love with a headcase and a coward. Are you a coward, Cas?" He let the question hang and the angel's pained expression showed inner conflict. "Buddy, running away from a problem ain't ever gonna solve it, you hear me? Now we are taking down Dick Roman today and you're gonna be part of that. In fact, you'll thank me for holding you to the fire when you help button up what you started in the first place."
Cas searched Dean's eyes. He was not confident. "Are—are you sure?"
"Yes. Now quit waffling around and get with the program. This is time sensitive, Cas. Christ."
Cas tilted his head to the side in somber thought. "I like waffles."
Dean let out a noisy sigh. Was that really the only takeaway the guy got from what he'd just said? Cas was just a few marbles short of a set and there was no getting around that fact. Tiredly, Dean gestured at his brother as he pinched the bridge of his own nose. "Sam, go find Kevin. Me and Space Case'll go find Waldo."
"I thought we were looking for Alex and Dick Roman," Cas said, confused.
Sam gave Dean a sympathetic little smile. "On it." He cracked open the door, peeked around, then slipped out.
"You see the real deal on any of these screens?" Dean asked, and motioned for Cas to scan the security feeds.
"No, I don't," he said after a minute. "She… she must be frightened to be here." His voice wavered as his emotions got the best of him.
"Come on, Beautiful Mind, look close," Dean prompted, because crazy-Cas might miss a detail. He didn't know.
At the 'Beautiful Mind' reference, Cas looked at Dean with a touched expression. "Thank you, Dean. That's a kind compliment."
Oh my god. "Focus, Brainiac," Dean said in short patience, then remembered Cas had another one-up when it came to the search for the actual Alex. "Wait. Can't you soul-sense her or whatever?"
Cas's eyes wandered the screens unseeingly, and his conflicted emotions were very clear. "I know she's nearby, but I can't tell exactly where." He looked down, guilt-ridden and sick. "…Why did I leave her side, Dean? Well, it's because I was hurt and confused and it was an emotionally impulsive decision on my part. She wouldn't have been taken if I hadn't gone to the flowers and the bees." He looked at the oldest Winchester with a face like he might cry. "You're right, Dean. Running away from a problem won't solve it." His voice was a bare, afraid whisper. "It's… it's very difficult to have free will."
Dean clapped Cas on the shoulder hard, trying to help the guy rustle up some bravado. "Yeah well, in the end it's worth it," he muttered, his focus on things like ganking the big bad and saving his sister. And, of course, the thought of Jamie and if she was pregnant with his child or not. Either way, he wanted to get to her like now. Dean led the way out of the room, a man on a mission. "Now come on. Let's get Dick."
After going through a maze of upstairs hallways and rooms, Zip and Alex got off of the elevator. A long, empty hallway stretched out in front of them. Recognizing this area of the building and pretty sure she knew the exit, Alex cast a sidelong look at Zip, who was unaware of her plans.
"Okay, so Kevin should be—" he started, but never finished. As they walked by a glass-top table, Alex seized what might be her only opportunity and in a sudden burst of movement and adrenaline, she smash-dropped her bent elbow into the center of the table, breaking the glass and giving herself a bad bruise in the process. It didn't matter. She saw what she needed: a huge shard had broken off. Even as she snatched it up, cutting her hand in the process, Zip looked at her, innocent and confused at her actions. "What are you—"
She whirled with the piece of glass and a sickening slicing sound cut the air as Alex used the oversized shard to behead Zip. He fell backwards with a dull thud and she shook hard and stared down at him with a sick stomach. His head hadn't completely severed from his neck and shocked eyes stared up at her. With a clenching chest, Alex looked down at the one who'd been her friend through those awful months at Sunny Meadows and she regretted it but didn't know what else to do. Backing away slowly, overcome with self-horror even though she thought it was the right thing to do, she shook her head over and over. "Sorry, Zip, but I just can't take any chances on you anymore," she whispered, dropping the piece of glass and fleeing the scene, heading toward where she remembered being held with Kevin.
She rounded a corner and ran straight into a huge, hard shape and fell backwards onto her butt. She stared up in shock at the familiar giant in front of her. "Sam?!" And then she found herself with a faceful of soapy water and she sputtered in surprise. "Pffbt…!" Blinking against the stinging in her eyes, she grimaced at the taste in her mouth. "Bleugh!"
Sam dropped the plastic bucket he'd been holding as his face registered complete relief when the borax did nothing. "Oh my god, it's you!" he said, and yanked her to her feet and promptly crushed her in a hug that left her barely able to breathe.
"Mffbttt, Sam!"
"Sorry, sorry," he apologized, winded and worried but relieved as he let go of her. Alex then saw how Kevin hovered nervously behind her brother, holding a machete she recognized as Sam's.
"Y-you found Kevin!" she said, starting to smile because suddenly things were beginning to look up. Breathless, she looked around for her other brother. "Where's Dean?"
"With Cas, somewhere in here looking for Dick," Sam said.
"Cas is here?" Alex asked, her stomach plummeting. This was dangerous for him, especially in his current mindset.
"Well, when he found out you were here…" Sam said, then gave her a tight smile.
"Guys, the lab," Kevin said urgently, looking around frantically like he thought they'd be discovered any second.
"The lab?" Alex asked, looking at her brother for explanation.
"Yeah, I'll explain on the way," Sam said, urgent and focused. "But, basically, we gotta blow it up. Now come on and stay close."
One floor down from where Sam and Alex had just found each other, Cas nodded after he peered around a corner at another copy of Dick. "That's him, Dean."
Eyebrows rising up, Dean blinked a couple times. "You're sure?" he asked, heart rate picking up slightly.
The angel nodded, grim. "Yes. One hundred percent."
Well then, showtime. Dean nodded tersely a couple times and the plan he and Sam had formulated back in the motel went through his mind again. Only, Dean was suddenly compelled to make a last-minute change. "Okay. All right." He reached into his jacket, into his right-hand pocket where the real weapon they'd forged was stashed. In his left-hand pocket, a dummy that was going to serve as the distraction. Dean drew in a deep breath—this was a big deal and he almost didn't do it—but then he held out the real weapon to Cas and waited.
The angel was utterly shocked. "What—what are you doing?"
"You heard the plan, right?" Dean asked. "Understood it?"
Faltering with eyes that went from the bone to Dean over and over again, Cas confirmed that he had. "Yes, but—I, I don't understand."
Dean gave the angel a look of the utmost meaning. "This is me giving you a chance to prove yourself and make it right," he said, and Cas's face showed more confounded surprise. "I think you need that." Dean made it crystal clear: "But Cas, you have got to do this and do it right. Can you?"
Cas was very affected by the gesture that Dean was showing him and he nodded and took the bone, growing touched to the point of teary-eyed crap. "Yes. I can do it, Dean," he said, then unexpectedly clasped a hand to Dean behind his neck, gripping tightly and smiling at Dean through his emotional state. "Thank you. Thank you so much."
Dean made a face, pulling away from the touch. "Eugh, stop," he complained uncomfortably. "Else I'm gonna think you're gay."
Cas paused, confused at the negative tone. "...What would be negative about that? Honestly Dean, sometimes I think you are too hetero-normative for your own good."
Dean withered and made a sour face. "Hetero-wha...? Just shut up, dude." He unsheathed his machete and drew in a deep breath. "Let's do this."
In the lab, Dick and his lab technician assistant had their backs turned to the angel and the hunter. Dick had a little creamer cup in hand and was admiring it. "You know, I think this might end up the slickest little genocide in history," he commented, and the smirk on his voice was audible.
"Thank you, sir," his assistant said, busy and distracted by packing creamers into boxes. He didn't even hear Dean and Cas sneak up on him.
"Just sayin'. I smell 'promotion.'" Dick gulped down the little cup of creamer and once he'd finished, he let loose a hiss of satisfaction. Dean chose that moment to behead the assistant in one smooth stroke. Dick turned around with a mystified frown on his face as he spotted his dead assistant and the puddle of black that was oozing out of him. "Little abrupt... but okay..."
Dean sheathed his machete slowly, giving Dick the death stare. But the Leviathan was beginning to smile as he eyed Cas. "Well! Look who came to visit! Castiel. Good to see you again." He leaned closer with his head, like he was being furtive. "Thanks for the ride into paradise and the introduction to the hot babe." He winked.
Castiel visibly bristled, falling prey to the button-pushing. "Where is she?"
"In my bed right about now, sweetcheeks," Dick replied, enjoying Cas's distress. "Waiting for the D."
"Okay you can just shut up now," Dean growled, and pulled out the ploy bone slowly. Beside him, Cas was standing stiffly as his inner rage clearly grew. Just stay cool, Cas. Stay cool.
Dick feigned surprise as he saw the weapon. "Oh, good on you! Pulling that together. A-plus!"
Dean raised his eyebrows and played Dick's game. "Oh, you don't think this'll work, do you? You trust that demon?"
"Do you?" Dick countered, smiling voraciously. "You sure I'm even me, Dean?"
"No," Dean replied steadily. "But he is."
Dick's eyes slid to Castiel, whose face was devastating and promised destruction. "You shouldn't be here," the angel growled, and to Dean, he sounded like himself in that moment. "I'm going to make sure you go back to the place I pulled you out of."
There was a low, lazy chuckle. "Oh, are you, loverboy. You sure this isn't just a desperate attempt to prove yourself? 'Cause take it from me, you never can. The little lady's moved onto bigger and better. And sorry, but I don't have a return to sender option."
Dean pulled a smirk and clenched the bone tighter. "Today you do," he growled, then took a small, sliding step forward.
Darkening, Dick grew hostile and his eyes flickered to the bone in the slightest show of nervousness. "This meeting's over," he said icily, then let his eyes slink to Cas. Apparently he couldn't find it within himself to resist antagonizing the angel. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go bang the angel's wife's brains out and then eat her for dinner."
Wrong thing to say. Castiel snapped and lunged at Dick in a rage. He was grabbed easily and then flung back into the wall behind himself. Dean used the distraction Cas had created to lung forward and stab the bone into Dick's chest as the Leviathan turned back around—and Dean didn't need to summon motivation either, he was seeing absolute red. No one was gonna hurt his sister anymore. She'd been through enough goddamn pain for a lifetime. Dean twisted the bone, savoring Dick's shouted gasp of pain and surprise. Dean let go and stepped back when the bone was good and buried, and Dick realized nothing had happened to him and gained back his confidence and slowly pulled the bone out. It was slimy with black goo and Dick took it in both hands and broke it in half, thinking he'd won.
"Did you really think you could bone me?" he asked.
"Honestly?" Dean asked frostily. Behind Dick, Cas had gotten to his feet silently and had drawn out the real weapon. "Yes." A look of confusion passed of the Leviathan's face even as Cas yanked Dick's head back and plunged the jagged blood-soaked bone sideways into his neck. Dick went prone and began to scream, a gargling noise. "Surprise, motherfucker," Dean growled. Furious, Dick writhed in place and his face transformed into a huge gaping mouth that took up his entire head—long pointed teeth lined the dark abyss and a forked tongue protruded, slithering around wildly for a second.
At that same moment, Sam and Alex and Kevin burst into the lab, wide-eyed and coming to a stop just inside the door as they realized what they had just come across.
Dick's face returned to a human appearance. Black oozed out of his nostrils, and an inexplicably triumphant gleam rested in his eyes. And that was when Dean realized he couldn't move whatsoever. His feet were stuck in place. "C-Cas, why can't I move?" he asked in a weak voice.
Cas didn't reply. He was looking at Alex, and clearly he was stuck in place just like Dean was. She seemed to recognize the look in his eye and without a thought for herself, she moved forward to try and help. "No!" Cas said, his startlingly loud voice making her stop in her tracks. "Get back!"
Waves of dark, electric energy began to pulsate from Dick's body in time with a thumping, accelerating heartbeat that shook the entire room, and with each speeding beat, an ominous energy buzzed, making the air crackle and fizz. Alex hadn't moved—in fact, she was looking between her brother and the angel with crazy eyes, like she was going to attempt to rush over to either of them.
"Get back," Cas insisted, his wild eyes on Alex. His voice rose and rose in desperation like he knew what was coming. "Get back! Alex, get away!" A jarring, ghoulish smile spread across Dick's face and he began to laugh as the heartbeat sped up faster and faster.
Sam lunged forward and snatched his sister back hard at the last minute, throwing her at Kevin. Anticipating what was about to happen, he flung an arm up to cover his face and protect Kevin and Alex even as the heartbeat stopped and left the room in total, unnatural silence. The air thinned and the air pressure dropped right before Dick exploded in a shower of ink-black ooze.
Stunned completely, Sam turned around, arm still hovering shelteringly over Kevin and Alex. They saw it at the same time.
Dick was gone.
And so were Dean and Cas.
The only thing left was Bobby's flask, which had fallen to the floor.