Title: Sequestration
Author: moonfairyhime
Rating: M, language
Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural .
Summary: The future isn't tomorrow, it's today, and this future isn't what anyone had expected. Humans stand between Vatic and Shade. Both brothers walk the path they believe is correct, but who knows what is right and wrong anymore?
Feedback: I'd really appreciate it.
"Does Sammy get visions that horrible often?" Dean asked, lifting his still sleeping brother a little bit higher. Before leaving the warehouse, Eric helped put Sam on Dean's back as Dean positively refused to allow Eric to carry his little brother. However, Dean did allow Eric to hold Sam's place on Dean's back with Eric's Gift. Dean refused to use a fireman's carry and figured this way okay as Eric wasn't actually touching his little brother.
"He prefers Sam, you know," Eric said and then blithely ignored Dean as he mocked Eric's sentence, "And the answer to your question is no. Shade must be planning something big if the vision caused Sam not only to collapse, but to completely drain him like this. At least he didn't have a panic attack."
"Panic attack?" Dean asked, turning his head to look at the sleeping brother on his back.
Eric nodded. "Some of the stuff he sees is… grotesque, for lack of a better word. When Sam first began to receive premonitions on a grander scale, he started to lose himself in-between when he was awake, asleep, or in the throes of a vision. It took a lot of training for him to realize when he's awake and when he's not. The panic attacks seem to be triggered after a particularly bad vision, when he can't tell if he's made it out of the vision safely or if he's still witnessing things."
"You took care of Sam, when Below came Above, didn't you?" Dean asked and continued on when Eric nodded. "Thank you. I still think you're a rotten bastard and a Vatic dog, but thanks for taking care of Sammy. He always used to forget the important things, like when it was time to eat or even to sleep. He used to love to read…"
"Oh, he still does. I know not many books survive here on Earth, but some of the psychics who knew that the end was near managed to save some of the books. We've written books also, but it's hard to circulate them because we have no printing press. I'm not sure what you've heard about Vatic, but it's not much more civilized than up here. We have huts and clean running water and we grow a lot of things."
Dean's eyes narrowed and stared at Eric for a moment. "Wait a minute… Are you telling me that some people knew the end was coming and that Below would come Above?"
Sam grumbled. "Only the most powerful seers knew, Dean, and most of them chose to die right after they had the premonition instead of trying to salvage Earth. There was no way to save Earth, Below was going to come Above one way or another."
"So many humans could have been saved, Sammy." Dean's angry tone contrasted the way he carefully stood still as Sam got off his back. "Did you know?"
"Know what, Dean?"
"Don't play games with me, Sam. Did you know that Below would come Above?"
The smile on Sam's face was far too old and far too wise for Dean's liking. "I knew since I was born that Below would come Above."
"You never told anyone." It was more of a statement than a question and Sam could tell that Dean was pissed off.
"Dean, you know that sky used to be blue. You know your name and your birth date. The fact I knew the world would one day end was just like you knowing that two comes after one. I never questioned it. I thought it was something that everyone knew. Eric, how far are we from our rendezvous point?"
"We should be almost there, Sam. I'd say in another ten minutes or so, we'll meet up with Conner and his group before heading home."
Sam shivered, even though the day was warm. "That's good, something doesn't feel right here."
"Bad feeling or good feeling?" Eric asked and Dean was surprised to see Eric tense.
"Eric, I can't tell… this area just feels off." Sam said, shrugging off Dean's look of surprise.
Any psychic who could sense things would feel off walking over that ground. Two years and a month ago, the fog that covered the Earth emanated from that point. The demons had been tired of hiding below the Earth and now wanted their revenge for centuries of banishment spells and exorcisms. The fog was something that took millennia to develop. The demons had to figure out the right amount of ingredients to put in to their mixture. They wanted to kill millions, if not billions of people, yet they wanted some to stay alive. It's no fun to take over a world and not have anything left to play with and destroy in slow, painful ways.
So, after perfecting the fog, the demons waited. They watched as humans became stupid, content, unassuming, and lazy. They watched as true stories became legends that became myths that became things to scare little children. They grinned maliciously as humans lost their superstitious nature and became creatures of logic and reason. They waited until hunters became all but extinct, and when no one was prepared for it, they struck.
So-called terrorists have nothing on demons. Terrorists only have a few short years to perfect their work. Demons have millennia.
They met Conner at the rendezvous point. Conner was a tall man in his late twenties with hard brown eyes and a shaved head. He didn't take shit from anyone and he gave better than he got. The only trick to Conner was that you had to watch out for his temper. He was the leader of a younger sect of Vatic. Vatic was divided by two sects: the older psychics who knew that Below would come Above and had formed Vatic and the younger psychics who either knew about the end or had been rescued by the seers of the older sect. While the older sect of Vatic made the rules, the younger sect was the one who normally carried out the orders. Conner's Gift was pyrokinesis, which helped people stay on the good side of his rather short temper.
"Sam, who the hell is this?" Conner asked, pointing an accusing figure at Dean.
"Don't take the tone of voice with Sam," Dean growled out. Sam was shocked for a minute; they had been apart for almost six years and yet Dean had reverted into big brother mode in less than a half hour.
"Conner, this is my big brother Dean. He's coming with us to Vatic." Sam said.
Conner looked over Dean and walked away. Sam nodded at Dean, "It's okay, Dean, you can come."
"I was planning on it anyway, Sammy. You get into too much trouble on your own," Dean said, ruffling Sam's hair like he was five again. "What's his deal?"
Conner turned around and the dead shrubbery next to Dean's feet caught fire. "Don't mess with me, Dean Winchester. I set things ablaze with my mind. You may be Sam's older brother, but you are not like us. You have no right to question me."
"Dude, I can kill things with my mind," Dean said.
Eric poked Sam's shoulder. "Are you sure that idiot is your brother?"
"I'm sure. Conner, you'll have to arrange a meeting with the Elder for me. I had a vision."
"If you three are ready to go, I want to go home to Vatic," Conner said, "And Sam? If your brother falls behind or gets lost, it'll be on you. You better explain the rules to him, also."
The rules of Vatic are simple for humans; if you come in of your own free will, you can leave of your own free will. Humans know to stay out of the psychics' way and to stay in their own part of Vatic. While it's not complete segregation, it does keep them separated for the most part. The humans aren't allowed to fight or attempt to hurt, maim, or kill any of the psychics. And if a human brings a demon into Vatic, may heaven have mercy upon his or her soul because no one in Vatic will.
The rules of Vatic for the psychics, however, are a little bit more complicated.
It spoke of Sam's status in Vatic that Dean was allowed to live with him and Eric. Dean, however, was more than a little confused as to why he was placed with them.
"It's because Sam is one of the best, if not the best, of the young seers," Eric grinned, "Besides, he's also one of the best bounty hunters we have."
"You're a bounty hunter?"
Sam nodded, "It's why I'm allowed to activate the charm to destroy a necklace. Whenever we get a rogue, I'm one of the ones sent to deal with it."
Dean nodded, seemingly filing away that info for future reference. "Are you the only seer here, Sam?"
"No, there are more of us. I'm not the only one."
Conner walked into the hut. "Sam, the Elder is ready to meet with you and discuss the vision you had."
Eric stood up and nodded. "Want me to go with you, Sam?"
"No, I'll be fine. Give Dean a tour of Vatic or amuse him somehow." Sam said as he walked out the door.
Dean glared at Eric. "I'm glad you took care of him while I couldn't, but I'm back. I can take care of Sammy."
"Can you really? Can you deal with his visions, when he wakes up trying to claw out his eyes? How about when he's in the middle of a panic attack and can't breathe? You weren't the one here when Sam was being trained; I was."
"But I'm back now and I'm not leaving Sam again. It'll take a little while to get used to it, but I'll be able to handle the visions and whatnot. Besides, he used to get panic attacks when he was younger and I helped him through all of them," Dean said, still glaring at Eric.
"You helped him so well that they returned."
"A new form of stress was induced."
Eric looked impressed. "You've read about panic attacks?"
"When Sammy first starting have trouble breathing at random times, I was a bit worried about him. When he started have trouble breathing, getting dizzy, and then blacking out due to lack of air, I took him to a doctor." Dean said, "Doctor told me about Sam's panic attacks and treated Sam with some light medication and taught me how to walk him through a panic attack. He also gave me a few pamphlets to read on it so I'd be well-informed if more symptoms started to arise again. Surprisingly enough, I can read."
"I never said you couldn't," Eric said, the look on his face was grudging acceptance. "Sam suggested I give you a tour. Let's go."
Although most of Sam's visions were important to Vatic, this one was vital to its very existence. In two day's time, Vlad would be marching and he'd be marching towards Vatic and he was bringing along some friends. Although his army was small, Sam was able to point out many of the more powerful demons contained within the ranks of the army. The preparations to defend Vatic began as soon as Sam told the Elder the vision. Some began to set up high-energy wards to kill many of the lesser demons while others began to get the humans well hidden in the tunnels.
Dean watched as Vatic became ready to defend itself, his eyes unreadable. He would frown every time a person asked his brother where the placement of a ward should be and Dean refused to be placed in the tunnels with the other humans, safety precaution or not. Dean could tell something about the entire set-up was bothering Sam, but Sam didn't want to talk about whatever it was.
It took Dean six years to find his little brother, and for the time being, he refused to be apart from him for more than six hours. Dean was right, after all: Sam tended to get in to more trouble when Dean wasn't around.
A few hours before Sam guessed that Shade would be attacking, Sam and Eric were packing weapons for the battle as Dean watched. Eric and Sam kept saying two or three word sentences to each other before laughing lightly, and Dean was almost ready to kill Eric for the person that Sam had become. As Eric walked out the door, Dean called Sam back into the hut. Dean grinned in grim satisfaction as Sam waved Eric ahead.
"What's up, Dean?" Sam asked, finally noticing the dour look on his brother's face.
"Nothing much."
"Try lying to someone who doesn't have surface telepathy and they may believe you."
"Is that the only way you can tell if I'm lying or not, Sammy, is by your surface telepathy? There once was a time you knew what I was thinking and that was without using any of your Gifts." Dean's voice probably could have frozen molten lava in Death Valley in the middle of a heat wave in August.
"Dean, what is going on with you? Is this about Eric?" Sam smiled gently and a bit condescendingly. "Dean, he'd never take your place. He lost his little brother before Below came Above and I knew I couldn't contact you until it was over."
Dean, who was momentarily reassured by Sam's words, frowned. "And who told you that you couldn't talk to me? Your Elder of Vatic?"
"He said it was too dangerous." Sam's voice lacked the confidence he had a moment ago, but he frowned. "What's going on, Dean?"
"I've realized something in the two days I've been here, watching people consult with you to put this ward here or there and seeing both older and younger psychics bugging you every fifteen minutes, asking you if you had a vision recently. You've lost even more weight, Sammy. You weren't at breakfast this morning and I know you didn't eat lunch of dinner yesterday. I don't think you've slept more than three hours since I've been here. I heard you lay down the other night, but an hour later, someone was here, knocking on the door. I didn't see you until lunch the next day. At lunch, you had enough time to eat a roll before you had were grabbed by another psychic."
"What did you realize, Dean?"
"I realized what you are to them, Sammy. You're a fucking tool. You're something that Vatic uses when it's needed, and when it's not needed, they keep it quietly put away. Only you're better than that, because when you're not needed to be hunting down rogue psychics, you're having dreams that tell the fucking future! You tell them what they need to know without them even telling you to do anything!" Dean glared at his little brother.
"Are you done yet, Dean?"
"No, I'm not. I want to know where the Sam went that didn't mind being called 'Sammy'. I want to know where the Sam went that didn't take an order from anybody, even his own father, if it didn't sit right with him. I want to know where the Sam went who wasn't afraid to speak his mind. I want to know where my Sammy is, the brother who trusted me without a shadow a doubt and believed in honesty above everything else."
"He's dead, Dean. He was fatally wounded when he saw his girlfriend die, and he died the night he saw his father die." Sam looked up at Dean, his eyes flashing in a warning that Dean wouldn't heed. "Do not call me a tool, Dean. After all, for years you were the perfect soldier to Dad. How am I any different from you?"
"Because you're Sammy! You're empathic, not someone who is so calm and collected. Man, you used to believe in something with your heart first and then your head, not the other way around. I don't want you to be me or Dad or Eric, I want you to be Sammy." Dean sighed, running his fingers through his hair. "I just want you to be Sammy, hell, Sam if you want to be. I don't want you to be the Vatic's prized possession, I want you to be my little brother."
Sam glared defiantly at Dean. "What if I want to be Vatic's tool? They respect me and they love me."
"Sam, if you didn't have visions or be able to sense shit, they'd drop you faster than I'd drop an ugly girl. They respect you because you're useful and there's not a damn soul here but Eric and me who actually love you for Sammy, not Vision Boy."
Sam opened his mouth to reply before shutting it with an audible snap. When he said nothing for a minute, Dean carefully shook his brother who didn't respond. "Sammy. Sam. Wake up!"
Sam suddenly snapped out of whatever had its hold on him and he was breathing heavy, trying to force words out at the same time as trying to breathe air in. Dean's eyes widened, realizing that if Sam kept up what he was doing, he was going to trigger a panic attack. "Easy, Sammy. Deep, easy breaths. Whatever it is can wait until you breathe again."
Sam felt the surge of panic begin to recede and he grimly smiled as Dean continued to coach him on how to breathe. "Dean, this battle. It's a set-up. Vatic wants Vlad to kill us."
The younger psychics are merely a tool. The older sect allows them to be impetuous, but that trait is only good at certain times. When they are following orders, impetuousness is a good thing: the difference between a dead rogue and a dead Vatic. However, the younger members of Vatic had been getting more and more attention lately from the humans and the older sect, especially the Elder, did not want this. They had the power, dammit, and if enough humans supported the younger sect, it would be easy to pull off a coup. And if the visions that some of the older seers had seen were to come true, the older sect was in deep shit.
The younger sect was more popular; they were friendly with the humans, no longer seeing the need to keep the humans as separated from them as they once did. The humans had been talking lately; maybe trying to bring the younger sect into full power; take them from the position of enforcing the rules to creating them. They also knew that the younger sect was beginning to become annoyed with some of the rules.
And the older sect would do anything to keep their power, even murdering those who only two years ago they sought to protect.
Dean didn't quite understand why Sam insisted on going to the battle even though he knew it was a trap. Sam tried to explain to Dean the same time as he tried to extract a promise to stay put. Dean didn't seem too happy, but Sam finally got him to swear on the Impala to stay in the hut. Sam ran to catch up with Eric, swearing on the pain of being called Vision Boy for the rest of his life that nothing was going to happen to his surrogate big brother. Eric, Dean, and Sam were going to have a peaceful life in Vatic, disregarding the fact that Sam's latest vision told him that Vatic was a lying piece of shit.
Sam caught up with Eric just as he was leaving through the gates. "Eric, we need to talk."
"Not right now, Sam. We have to defeat Vlad and his army," Eric said, and for the first time Sam pondered if Dean was right. What if he and Eric were just tools?
"Eric, I had a vision. We need to talk," Sam said, but Conner just glared at them.
"Eric, Sam, is there a reason you're behind the rest of us? Get a move on." Conner said, jogging to catch up with the front of the miniature army.
If this had been a Napoleonic battle, then Vatic would of lined up on one side of the field outside the gate and Shade on the other and they would have continued to maim, hurt, and otherwise kill each other until someone was left standing and he could run back to his side and that side could declare themselves the winner. However, this is not a Napoleonic battle so when Vlad was suddenly in front of Sam, Eric reacted by pushing Vlad back a step or two away from Sam.
"I told you, Sam Winchester, you will fall to the dark side. Your powers are far too great to allow you to play with Vatic," Vlad said, sneering as he was forced back another step by Eric's assault. "And you, Telekinesis Boy, you could come too."
Sam grabbed his long knife and stabbed into a free spot on Vlad. "I told you Vlad, I'm not joining Shade."
"But you have doubts about Vatic, Sam Winchester." Vlad said, smiling as he created a fireball and threw it at Eric, who easily reflected the fireball back to Vlad.
Sam's eyes flashed and he found himself wishing his Gifts were more physical then mental. "I will never join Shade, Vlad. Get that through your thick skull."
"Then our games here are done." Vlad said, before pulling his sword off his back. Vlad shimmered once before disappearing.
"Well, shit," Eric said frowning. "What the hell can he do again Sam?"
"…"
"He's your damn demon, not mine."
"Teleport short distances and turn invisible." Sam said, frowning. "Speaking of which, he's to your left."
Eric moved just as a sword cut through where he was standing. Eric grinned at Sam and they both tensed.
"Sam, Eric! Why the hell are you two not up here?" Conner's bellow could be heard for miles away and the nanosecond distraction it was for Sam and Eric was all that Vlad needed.
Vlad easily snuck up on Eric during that moment of distraction and grinned as he turned visible again, carefully placing his sword in front of Eric's neck. "Hello, Telekinesis Boy."
Sam turned to face Eric and paled. "Vlad, don't."
"Come with me, Sam Winchester." Vlad said. "Maybe I won't kill him."
"Sam, don't do it. Vatic needs you," Eric said.
"Eric…" Sam said, trying to formulate any plan that would have any chance of working.
"Tick, tock. Too slow," Vlad said, placing the sword closer to Eric's neck.
Sam nodded, seemingly coming up with a plan. Sam gripped his long knife tighter and ran towards Vlad. The first step that Sam took resorted in Vlad neatly slicing Eric's neck and by Sam's second step, Eric's body was lying in the grass. Sam's sixth step found Vlad's sword in his right arm and Sam's seventh step resulted in Sam's long knife in Vlad's stomach as Sam said a prayer in Latin. Sam dropped to his knees as Vlad disintegrated, before Sam crawled over to Eric.
"Eric, I'm sorry." Sam said softly.
"Don't be sorry, Sam." Eric said softly. "You have Dean and Vatic. You'll be fine. Stay safe."
Sam watched as Eric's necklace cracked in half before Sam laid his clock on Eric's body. Sam then stood up, eyes hard. He had work to do.
Sam came in to the Elder's room still bleeding from a battle that was still going on. When the Elder heard what Sam knew, he smiled condescendingly and told Sam that if he had a vision of Vlad saying this, then Vlad was lying. Why, Vatic would never allow the younger sect to walk into a battle like this. The older sect would never allow their precious fledglings to be maimed and killed like this. Why, the older sect saved their lives only two years ago, so why oh why would they now have them killed after all the hard work of saving their lives and properly training them. Sam was quietly chastised for believing such a lie could be true before the Elder shooed him away like a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar right before dinner. Sam was then told to either go back to his hut or to the MedHut as the Elder had reports that needed his attention Sam walked out quietly, not believing or disbelieving what the Elder had told him.
It was a commendation to how good the mental shields of the Elder were and how exhausted Sam was that Sam never picked up on the lies that the Elder was telling.
