Chapter 16: A matter of life and death
Dean really, really didn't like teleportations. He liked it less than flying. At least when he was trapped in a tin can thousands of miles in the air, he was whole. Teleportations required for all his molecules to be separated in order to travel through space at ten times the speed of light. He didn't like to be disassembled. Not after what he's been through in Hell.
Still, he knew he had to suck it up, because there were bigger problems than his little constipation issues, like the world coming to an end, or the entire United States being frozen in time. Or the best fact yet! - Cas thought that if they teleported back there, the time would simply jolt back to its track.
Dean did not appreciate his options.
Still, Cas sounded convincing, and he kept asking Sam what he thought, and for a split second Dean got the idea that Cas was actually trying to lead Sam into making it happen just like that. Which was, yeah, kinda logical when he thought about it. If anyone can make shit happen right now, it would be Sam.
Not that Dean liked that much, but beggars can't be choosers, right?
Right.
Dean hated this.
"Our people should come too, you are going to need all the help you can get." Dr. Hess suggested, but what she really meant was that they were going to need monitoring. Dean stifled a laugh. As if she could control anything with most of her organisation wiped out by the alpha vamp and his children.
Across the room, Dean met Sam's eyes and just shrugged, leaving it for him to decide. Dean didn't really trust any of them, Tony especially, but it wouldn't hurt to keep an eye on them. Sam seemed to pick all that up from Dean's glance. Good. They still had it.
"They're just side characters, most likely to die if they stay involved." Sam commented, more for their benefit than for any other purpose. People just die around them, it was as sure of a thing as a sunrise. Thought with Sam being able to control the actual sun…
How the fuck do they get themselves into shit like this?
"Ketch can come. The man's like a cat, with his extra lives." Dean replied, smirking when Ketch's eyes went wide with the statement.
"I want to come along as well." Mick added, but before Dean or Sam could say anything about it, Dr. Hess butted in.
"No, I need you here Mr. Davies. Best if Lady Bevill…"
"Absolutely not." Dean interrupted. "The bitch definitely stays behind." He glanced at Sam who nodded. Technically, they didn't need any of them, but Ketch was good with guns and leaving Mick behind just didn't seem right. It was Sam who finally concluded the argument, his words like carvings on a stone.
"We take Ketch and Davies. Dr. Hess, stand down. Tony… Go home to your kid."
And then, fuck. The thing Dean hated the most. Teleportation. Jack must be powering up, he was able to carry more people without direct contact. Or was it really Jack?
Where the fuck were they, anyway?
The place seemed a bit familiar. A farm. Cornfield. A barn and a house up ahead. A tractor to their left.
"Where are we?" Jack asked, and yeah, that answered that. He didn't zap them out of merry old England. But Ketch was there and so was Mick, whoever brought them there knew who to take and who to leave behind. The two Brits seemed a bit surprised, but clearly way above their league, so they remained quiet and just observed.
"It doesn't seem familiar. " Cas said, and huh. Sam didn't seem to know the place either, but he was still looking around, his eyes searching. So far, it seemed that only Dean knew the place, but for the life of him, he couldn't remember why. Or when. Or how. Not until Crowley popped up.
"What do you got?" Sam asked him, but Dean already knew. Seeing the demon here seemed to have cleared his memory, adding what was missing to complete the whole picture. Because of course… Dean was here with Crowley before.
"I have spent years searching for him. Never would have looked in a place like this." Crowley vaguely replied.
"Who?" Sam demanded.
"A knight of hell. The Father of murder." Crowley said, as if he was offering both an explanation and a warning. Dean rolled his eyes. The demon sometimes forgot they knew shit, more stuff then he did.
"Cain." Dean quipped, turning towards Sam as if he was enlightening him with this information.
"Figured." Sam replied, and of course. After all, it was him that teleported them here, going after the source of the blast, the source of where the darkness originated. "Let's check it out, maybe he's still there, maybe he can tell us what…"
"There's not a single soul in there." Crowley interrupted, but flinched when his eyes met Sam's, as if he was a child that knew he'd done something wrong. Never interrupt your adults. Sam just scoffed, then turned to walk inside. Dean followed and so did the rest.
For a split second, just before they entered the house, Dean thought he caught a glimpse of a shadow, of a pale figure enveloped in dark tones. A woman, familiar, but his eyes couldn't focus enough to really see her face. It was more of a feeling than anything else, and Dean disregarded it in favour of finding out what happened inside.
Cain's 100 ft living room was crowned with Sam and Dean and Cas and Jack and Crowley and Ketch and Mick, but none wanted to be left behind, everyone wanted to see what happened. Still, when it became clear that the blast started in the kitchen, Sam was the one to motion for everyone to stay behind as he stepped closer.
Yeah, as if Dean was gonna let that happen.
Despite the clear 'order' to stay back, Dean moved forward, and much to Sam's displeasure, he stepped past him and entered the kitchen. God power or not, Sam was still his baby brother. And besides, if anyone knew anything about the mark, about Cain and the darkness, it would be Dean.
Out of all the things he expected to find, he didn't however think he would find Amara, lying down on the ground, bloodied and hurt. Dying.
"No a single soul, my ass." Dean shouted as he rushed towards her, lifting her head and setting it into his lap. Though he had to agree, Amara wasn't human so she technically didn't have a soul. Not that it mattered now.
"What happened?" He asked the darkness as if the two were years long friends. Amara just stared at him, a bit confused, her lips parting, nothing but blood tickling out. Her left hand was clutching onto her stomach, onto a big gash that was bleeding, too normal, too human for it to be a simple wound. She blinked up at Dean a few times, as if she was trying to get a read on him, to understand, because yeah… She did not know him. He didn't carry her, her darkness hadn't rested next to his soul, not in this timeline.
But there must have been an echo of it from before, because it seemed like Amara somehow managed to see it. She reached toward his face with her right hand and cupped his cheek, leaving a mark of blood all over his face. "You know me."
"I do. I know you." He replied and it wasn't just a simple thing, like two people being acquaint. It was much deeper, intimate, personal.
"What happened?" Sam repeated Dean's questions, drawing Amara's eyes towards him. Her eyes searched until they found what they were looking for.
"Oh. I see now. That is why he needed me. That is why he…" She spoke, making so little sense. A coughing fit cut her off, and her body expelled more blood before she managed to take a breath.
"My brother set me free. I thought… I thought he wanted to reconcile, I thought he wanted… I was wrong." She said.
"He did this to you? How is that… He can't kill you. He can't exist without you." Sam tried to find logic, working by the rules that everything must fall under. Rules that can only be written and rewritten by God himself.
"Light can't exist without the darkness. But his light… It's almost all gone. He had just enough to take my darkness. So yes, he can kill me, now. He doesn't need me anymore. He never did. I was always… Just in the way."
"Can we do something?" Dean tried, he really, genuinely wanted to help her. She didn't deserve to be treated like this. In return, Amara just smiled at him kindly, and let her eyes slip close for a moment.
"You could, if you wanted to. But I don't want you to. I wish to rest. I wish to be at peace. I wish to sleep." She said, looking back up at Dean, still smiling. Something in his chest ached, but he understood. She was ready to go. Her fight was over and she just wanted to be laid to rest.
Dean looked up at Sam, he wanted to nod, to tell him that it was the right thing to do, to let her go, but his attention was drawn to that same shadow he saw outside. The shadow was in the room with them, standing behind Sam, not to close, but it still felt unnerving. Amara's hand slipped from Dean's cheek, and her eyes slipped closed again, but Dean didn't notice, his eyes glued to the shadow.
"What are you looking at?" Sam asked, frowning at him. He turned and looked, then turned back to Dean, obviously not seeing the shadow that was right there.
"You can't see it?" Dean asked, and as soon as he did, the shadow moved, taking a step back, but still lingering there. Dean tried to focus, but it was so blurry, as if there was something wrong with his eyes. He could almost feel the shadow's uncertainty, as if it knew it was invisible to others and was surprised Dean could see it. And why couldn't he? Why couldn't Sam?
All the while, there was a murmur from the living room as the others were curious of what was happening and finally, Cas stepped in, if for nothing else then to ease the crowd. Or to get away from Crowley. But once he came in, his eyes fell upon the shadow as well, and Dean knew he could see it too. He was clearly confused as his eyes fell back upon Dean, then down to Amara on the floor and finally back upon the shadow.
"You can see it, right? What is it?" Dean asked and Cas's eyes snapped back at him, now even more confused as to how Dean could know someone was there.
"A reaper, cloaked." He said, then seemed to remember something before he spoke again. "Tessa." He added, knowing that both Sam and Dean met her before. The shadow moved, almost as if it stopped it's feet in anger for being revealed.
"Who are you here for?" Cas asked and Dean could swear he could visualize her crossing her arms over her chest and pouting. "Tessa." There was an edge of warning in Cas's voice now, as he repeated the question. "Who are you here for?"
After a moment, the unfocused pale face slipped down towards Amara, and suddenly something shifted and Dean could see her clearly. In fact, it seemed that Sam could see her now too.
"I am here for her." She replied, still standing to the side, arms over her chest. She was wearing black jeans and a black top and a black leather jacket and her pale face was rounded by her long black hair. She was just as cool as Dean remembered her.
"She has no soul for you to collect." Castiel said, and there was a question buried there too.
"She doesn't have to have a soul for me to take her to her final resting place." Tessa replied.
"And where is that exactly?" Sam asked, but Tessa wouldn't answer. To Dean, the answer was obvious.
"The empty." He said. "She wants to rest, she wants to sleep. So you are here to take her to the empty, right?" Dean said, and Tessa's distrusting eyes fell upon him, curious and confused as to how he could know that, how he could know she was there in the first place. Dean figured it was either because he knew her, or posed as Death for a day. He learned a long time ago that fractions of powers that possessed him always lingered, pieces left behind. Darkness, Death, Angelic grace, Demonic filth, even a bit of magic under which influence he fell a few times too many.
"Who sent you?" Sam asked, but it was such a redundant question, at least to Dean. Who else could send a reaper to do a job? Who other than Death? Sam seemed to realize this too, because Tessa just gave him a look that said it all. "Great. Now we have Billie to deal with too." He said and Tessa frowned, but didn't say a word. Instead she turned to Dean and took a few steps closer. Dean glanced at her before he let his eyes fall down upon Amara, her limp body sprawled across the floor, but her head still in his lap. He knew he had to let her go.
Raising her head towards the reaper, Dean took in a breath and nodded and Tessa gave him a small, tight smile as she reached to touch Amara. Just before the two of them vanished, Tessa met his gaze once more and whispered to him, silently, so that no one else heard.
"You know how this ends."
And then she was gone before Dean could even ask what she meant. Still, the feeling lingered, like he did in fact know how this ends, but there it was something unreachable yet, something buried deep, something… He needed to remember.
A/N:Okay, who saw this coming? Are you guys confused? Anyone got any idea what Dean needed to remember?
It will be revealed soon, only a few more chapters to go.
Happy New Year everyone