A/N: Let's do a case, shall we? Just a reminder, the place and the murder that supposedly happened were taken originally from the show, and the case is the same, though I made some alterations to some details and the outcome.

Chapter 9: Not so funny now, when the tables turn

Dean POV:

Dean's head was a little fuzzy, but he contributed to the fact that he moved through both time and space. By the looks of Sam, he was further back in the past, in that time before Lucifer was released. That was time. And as for space - well… He seemed to be in his younger body, but the alarming thing was that there wasn't another presence in his head, no Dean Jr. Shit! If Dean was here, there was a chance little Dean was in the future.

Dean let out a grunt and shook his head. Dean Jr, he'll call him Dean Jr, not little Dean. LIttle Dean was just fine and present and not so little, God damn it! Moving on!

When was he? If he remembered correctly, this should be circa 2009, that was about the time Doucheriah plucked him from and dropped him in the Croatoan infested 2014. So why did that trucker/semi-naked girls calendar say it was 2007? Where the fuck was he anywhay?

His head was slowly starting to pound harder and harder, and he thought he heard Cas say he needed to go back before the angel dashed out the door. A small inkling reminded him that this wasn't Cas, this wasn't his friend, no, this was Castiel, with a stick up his ass and his allegiance still residing in Heaven. He must have ran off to report or to… How did he use to say it? Receive revelation? Ugh…

"Dean…" Sam spoke softly, and when Dean turned to look at him, he had that guilty look in his eyes. What did the kid do now? "I'm so sorry, Dean, I should have… I should have told you…" Oh, right. They were in that stage, when they both thought they knew better than the other, when they didn't trust each other and tell each other stuff. Shit. HIs head hurt.

What was Sam doing in this time? What were they arguing about? With Castiel here, Dean was past his Hell period and the pending apocalypse was dangling over their heads, and Sam was… He was… oh, shit! He was sneaking around with Ruby, drinking the bitch's blood, fuck!

"Yeah, you should have!" Dean threw back, getting up from the couch and stammering to his feet. SAm reached to help him, but Dean yanked his arm away before Sam could touch him.

"Dean…"

"Don't Dean me!" The older hunter was too tired to have this discussion, his headache not letting him think straight. What was it about time travel again? Don't alter the past, might make You disappear? Erase himself from existence? No, that was Marty and the Enchantment under the sea dance, and Johnny B. Goode. This wasn't a movie, this was real life.

Or was it?

Dean shook his head again to disperse the metaphysical thoughts and the existential crisis Chuck bestowed upon them when he told them they were meant for his entertainment purposes and nothing more.

Fuck it. He tried to change the past before, with that whole Anna debacle, and the angels swooped in and erased everyone's memories, but if they came this time, he would be ready. Fuck 'em all. Dean walked to the fridge and took a beer, uncapped it and took a long swing, letting his eyes fall on the familiar kitchen. Oh, yeah… Bobby's house. Shit. He missed the old coot. Where was he anyway?

"Look, I know things have been a little wonky between us lately…" Sam tried again but Dean pff-ed him off.

"Wonkey? Is that what you call it? You lied to me, you kept things from me. How the fuck did you think I was gonna react?!" Dean shouted back, not sure why he felt so pissed. Maybe his anger had to do with Sam's stupidity at this time, the kid really should have known better than to trust a demon. At least he had the decency to look guilty.

"I am sorry. I didn't want to hide anything from you, but I… I didn't think you'd understand. I didn't think you would trust me anymore." Was the kid for real? Of course Dean would have understood - the kid needed some resemblance of control after all the shit that happened to him with Jess and dad and Dean dying and his inability to stop any of it from happening. But that didn't mean he should get high on demon blood, damn it!

"Oh, I understand alright. I understand more than you think! But that doesn't mean I am gonna let this go on." Dean replied and Sam frowned, looking confused.

"Let what go on?"

"Any of this! I am locking you in Bobby's basement right now and…"

"Whoa! Dean, no, I'm still me. I'm still your brother…"

"I know that! But I can't let you keep doing this! You need to free yourself from that shit that is clouding your judgement, dude! That thing is corrupting you! So I am locking you up down there until you expel it all" Dean argued and Sam's confused look turned even more baffled.

"Dean? What are you talking about?"

"What do you mean what am I… What are you talking about?!"

"I am talking about the memories."

"What memories?"

"From the other Sam."

"What other Sam?" Now Dean was the one that was confused. Did he forget about something? There wasn't anything else happening in this time frame, right? Sam was dragged around by Ruby that led to him killing Lilith and setting Lucifer free. Dean would be damned if let it happen, screw the butterfly effect.

But what other Sam?

"Dean, don't you remember? The Sam that came from the future and saved me from Jake?"

"Wait? You… You didn't die?" Dean asked and Sam's frown deepened.

"What do you mean I didn't die?" Yeah, Dean screwed up there, if Sam really didn't die, then how did Dean know he was supposed to? Guess the cat's out of the bag. Dean let his hand drag across his face, feeling incredibly tired by all of this. Man, when will he catch a break? "Dean?"

"Alright, listen, I, um…"

"How old are you?" Sam suddenly asked, the bright kid connecting the dots fast.

"Shit I lost count… Um… Fourty?" Dean replied with a cringe, but before he could look up to see Sam's reaction, he had all air knocked out of him when the kin practically ran into him and hugged him tight. His frame was smaller then in the future, but this younger Sam was still big and strong and heavy!

"Fuck am I glad to see you!" Sam said and … wait, what?

"What?"

"2019." Sam said and Dean visibly relaxed. Shit, this was Sam, his Sam, his only 4 years younger brother, not the ten years younger version. Wait, no, twelve years? Sixteen? Fuck, this was counfusing.

"What the fuck happened?" Dean asked after they parted with a brotherly pat on the back.

"Chuck found us. He… He isn't whole, so he is having some trouble writing the story." Sam said and lowered his collar to point to the wound in his shoulder. "I guess I am tapping into him, into his power. He found me and tried to show me the future where we… Where we give up and then become monsters ourselves and… I didn't buy it. And then I thought about what it would be like if I could just go back and redo some things, and… Suddenly I was back here. Well, not here, but in Cold Oaks."

"Oh, shit." Dean said, picking up another beer from the fridge and handing it to Sam.

"Yeah. But I was still the older me. I killed Jake before he could kill the younger me. Then Azazel turned up and took the younger you down to hell." Sam said with an oops face. Dean just motioned for him to go on.

"Well, I immediately summoned Crowley to get me down to hell, got him hooked up on blessed blood, and when I was down there, I killed Azazel, threatened Lilith, saved dad, but I couldn't find you. Turned out Cas pulled you out." Oh, so some things don't change. Huh. Back when he met Michael in the Anna fiasco, the archangel told him that they couldn't change the past, no matter how much they tried.

But Sam changed a lot of things, didn't he? He brought Crowley into the picture a lot sooner, he killed Azazel, he saved dad, some of those things they did together in the original timeline. So maybe Sam was really tapping into Chuck's power. Question was - was it a good thing or a bad thing?

"Wait… Then what were you sorry about? Why were you apologizing?" It occurred to Dean there was more to it.

"At one point Chuck tried to stop me by taking out the younger Sam, and I intervened and we merged." Sam pointed to himself, to the younger body he now sported. "That was before I got down to hell, and when I finally found you back here, alive and well, I... I didn't tell you I was the older version." Yeah, Dean figured his younger self wouldn't like that, he wouldn't have trusted Sam. It was a good call.

"But lemme guess, I found out anyway, right?"

"Right. We found a lead on Chuck - or rather a lead on a prophet who wrote the supernatural books." Sam said with a pointed look "... and you heard more than you should have. You stormed out and… I guess Zachariah found you somehow. Cas said he pulled you out of a future that never happened."

"Yeah, the 2014 Croatoan future. Boy was that fun. One second I am in Purgatory and then I am stumbling into camp Chitaqua, and all I can think about was Chuck and his damn toilet paper." Sam gave him an amused look and they both smiled at each other.

"I think… I think we erased our future." Sam said after a few moments, looking uncertain and maybe a bit sad. Dean took a second to contemplate it, then nodded in agreement.

"We are still us. And if you could really alter things, then maybe - we could make our own future?" Dean offered and Sam smiled so brightly up at him, only a hint of tears in his eyes and fuck it! Dean hugged him again. The kid probably thought he erased Dean or some shit.

"Yeah. Yeah, we could do that."

"Well, ain't that some heartwarming bullcrap of a sight?" Bobby's voice was filled with amusement though he tried to make it seem like he was annoyed.

"Bobby!!!" Dean shouted and slammed into the old man, hugging the shit out of him and making him grunt.

"I ain't no squishy toy, boy, now, let me down!" Bobby yelled.

"No, you're too heavy for that." Dean counter as he stepped back, then smiled at the old grunt. "I missed you."

"Well, no need to miss me now that I'm here." Bobby said, and pushed past Dean to get to his own fridge. Dean smiled at him, figuring the old man knew what was up. "I just got a call from a buddy of mine, he caught word of a murder in Wellington, Ohio."

"A case, Bobby? Really?"

"I know you guys have a lot on your plate right now, but considering how much you know, I was thinking maybe you could just give a hint, or a way to deal with whatever it is. Cuz it sure had me stumped." He said and both boys just stared at him, waiting for Bobby to continue. The old hunter seemed embarrassed, either by his lack of knowledge or he just felt silly saying it.

"A man was killed… By the Incredible Hulk." He said and both Dean and Sam frowned, it sounded familiar, though neither could quite grasp why.

"I was thinking of a ghost, or a tulpa, but there are no indications…"

"Fuck! The Goddamn NutCracker!" Sam suddenly yelled and Dean winced, remembering the Japanese game show. "Imana kill him, Dean!" Sam shouted as he got to his feet and dashed out of the room towards his bedroom, probably to get ready for the road trip.

"Guess we're taking the case." Dean answered to Bobby's confused gaze with a shrug.

"I don't get it, you met the guy a few times after the warehouse in Ohio, and not once were you this pissed at him." Dean commented as they entered Wellington city limits

"Yeah, well, back then, I was in awe, cuz you know… He turned out to be a freaking archangel, and then later, I was too busy and…"

"And he could still snap his fingers and you'd get hit in the nuts or turned into a car…" Dean continued, revealing Sam's insecurities.

"... or he could get you shot again…" Sam's voice was small and vulnerable. Dean never gave it much thought, but now he realized that must have been hard on the kid back then. Gabriel seemingly put Dean's life in Sam's hands as the younger hunter had to play surgeon, and after not being able to keep anyone around him alive, Sam must have been terrified. Suddenly, Dean felt like shooting the wannabe trickster - it wouldn't hurt him, but it would make them feel better.

Suddenly a green-purple '77 Dodge rushed past them, it was one of those old police cars probably sold in an auction and turned into a mockery by some joker. "Who does this guy think he is, Jack Napier?" Dean said, and rolled his eyes when Sam gave him a confused look.

"Jack Napier? You know? Joker's alterego in Batman?"

As soon as those words were out of Dean's mouth, their entire world turned upside down. The impala's anterior began to morph while Dean felt a strange combination of latex and leather form all over his body, and before he knew it, he was in a Batman suit, driving a Batmobile and chasing Joker's car with Sammy in the back seat dressed as Robin.

"Fucking hell! That motherfucker is going down! Nobody messes with my baby!" The batmobile was actually quite fast and pretty soon they were gaining on him, Joker's panicked face hilarious in the side mirror, though logically the older hunter knew he shouldn't be able to see him from that distance. Dean's driving skills were impeccable as he dodged the smoke bombs and small missiles, yet he felt a strange buzz as Sam's hand clasped over his shoulder. Hell yeah, he was giving them a divine boost, and Dean pressed the gas pedal, making the batmobile roar.

Joker's car's movements became uncoordinated and flaky, Dean was quick to catch up. But before he could reach him and push the car off the road, the Jokermobile crashed into a building, smashing through the glass windows of the lobby. Sam and Dean parked in front, but as soon as they got out of the car, they noticed they were back in their regular clothes. Glancing back at his baby, Dean noticed she too was back to her regular self. Good.

Movement caught their eyes as a purple blur with a mop of green hair dashed out of the smashed car and up to a side staircase. Naturally, they ran after him.

Balloon animals popped out of nowhere but the second Sam yelled after the joker, screaming for him to "Stop!" each and every balloon popped and pathetically started drifting down to the ground. Before a single one could even land, Sam and Dean were dashing up another staircase following the purple suit.

For only a second, Dean thought he saw real panic in those hazel eyes as they met from across a long hall, but the damn trickster was out of sight before he could be sure. Continuing their chase, they rushed towards the door Gabriel disappeared behind, only to be slowed down by maple syrup that was all of a sudden up to their ankles.

"Fucking son of a bitch!" Dean paused, feeling as the words should have come from his lips and not Sam's, and when he turned to face his brother, he could see him red with rage. Sure, Gabriel's tricks were annoying, but they hurt a lot less then he remembered and Dean didn't quite feel as angry as Sam. "Agh! When I get my hands on that…" Sam trailed off, flicking his hand and making the syrup part like the freaking Red sea. Sam rushed past him before he could say anything.

Up another floor, Sam and Dean came through a door that led them into a fancy living room/bar - the entire thing made of glass, even the walls. There, behind the bar, they were met with a tall guy in green robes and golden horns on his head. "May I help you, gentlemen?"

Oh, shit. That was Loki, like the real Marvel Loki Laufeyson, brother of Thor and the trickster god. Holy shit! I mean, of course Dean wasn't buying it, but damn the guy looked cool. And wasn't this the Avenger's tower?

"Gabriel!" Sam's voice boomed in the large empty space, so loud and terrifying, even Dean flinched. He could hear Loki or Gabriel gasp then see him bolt out the door.

"Sam!" He tried calling after his brother, but to no avail, the kid was already out the door, following Gabriel. Something wasn't right here. Like in Scooby Do, the three ran through multiple doors, actually gaining on him. Sam reached, grabbing the end of Loki's cape and yanking him back. Gabriel stumbled, a choking sound leaving his throat, but he managed to unclasp the cape and run off. This was getting serious.

Passing through one steel door, they entered an Avenger's scene, one where Thor placed his hammer on the coffee table and every Avenger tried to lift it, but they were all "unworthy". Well, all except Steve, who managed to move it one tiniest bit. Fake Loki ran past them. Sam was on his tail and passing by, he nonchalantly picked up Thor's freaking hammer and threw the damn thing at Gabriel, but his aim was off and he managed to smash a computer a few inches to Gabriel's left. The archangel turned, dropping his disguise and leaving nothing but utter fear in his eyes.

Needless to say, the Avengers were gobsmacked. Dean flashed them a wide apologetic smile as he ran after Gabriel and his brother.

Three doors down, Dean stumbled after Sam in a room filled with small animals. There were little chickens, kittens, puppies, piglets, hamsters and mice, bunnies, heck even possums, chipmunks, a baby koala or two. Sam seemed completely stunned, looking all around, confused, but Dean's eyes were drawn to a little platypus in the corner of the room.

Dean slowly made his way towards him, then crouched down to offer his hand. The big eyes gave so much fear it was heartbreaking. "Hey there buddy… Not gonna hurt you… Look, I got a Twitter bar…"

"Dean, platypi don't eat…" Sam started, but went silent when the platypus leaned in as if it was sniffing the offered bar or Dean, then took a bite, climbing into Dean's hand. The hunter felt weird picking up the animal, but felt as though Gabriel needed reassurance and comfort.

"Yeah, they don't eat chocolate, I know." Dean's words were laced with sarcasm as he raised his eyes to meet Sam's. Very calmly, he asked "What the fuck is wrong with you?"

His brother seemed genuinely startled, not just by Dean's words, but also by his own actions.

"I… I don't know."