Chapter 17: The Battle

I didn't even know if I wanted to find this thing anymore. Sure, I wanted the world to be safe and all, but there was a part in me that selfishly wanted to forget about it and let it be. I couldn't be taken away from Dean.

I still hadn't started the car again, I just looked over at Dean who had his head resting on the back of the seat with his eyes jammed shut.

'Nothing is ever going to just let us be are they?' He had asked just seconds ago.

It wasn't like him to surrender like this, but I couldn't blame him.

"Dean…" I whispered. "Look at me…" I asked softly. He sighed and turned to face me. His eyes were written with something I had never seen before. Some sort of fear, anger, confusion and selfishness I had never thought could all come together in his personality.

"I am not going to let them take me anywhere. I don't care what I have to do, but I won't let it happen." I said, trying to convince myself as well as him.

"You know I know I made that promise never to let anything happen to you, but it doesn't seem like I have any control over trying to keep you safe. And to be honest, neither do you. No one does. That's why this is so damn scary." He said honestly.

And he was right. Up against these evil powers we could at least kind of control what happened by being prepared and by being the good guys. But up against good powers, how could we even fight them with out being considered evil ourselves.

This was bull. And I hated it. I sighed and got out of the car. I slammed the door and leaned against the hood, taking in the cool night air. I heard his door open and he walked over to me.

"Just once I would like to be told that I get some kind of reward for doing the right thing. Other then having to risk my life and everyone else's lives that I cared about. For once I would like to get what I want with out having to trade something else for it!" I said harshly. My face was stone cold, but there were tears falling down my face. "I just want my life."

"I know how you feel." He said sadly. He pulled me tightly into his arms and I welcomed it.

We stayed outside for about an hour just holding each other and talking. Neither of us wanted to find these demons anymore, but we knew we had to. So with major hesitation, we got back in the car and headed towards our unwanted destiny.

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'Come on, one more dream…' I said to myself as I tried to fall asleep. I needed to talk to my dad again. I needed answers.

Finally, I drifted off into sleep, and I was in luck.

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"You needed to see me?" My dad asked.

"Yeah I did. Dad there has to be some way out of this. I am not going to give up Dean, or my life! Don't you want that for me? You know normalcy and all that? Something everyone should have a little piece of in their life?" I rambled. My dad sighed and put his hand on my shoulder.

"Annie, the only way out would be to give your powers up. And the only way you can do that is by giving them to someone else." He said.

"How do I do that?" I asked.

"Do you really want someone else to suffer from this same fate? I mean if it is as bad as you claim it to be then do you really want to wish it upon someone else?" He asked.

"I don't care about anyone else!" I screamed. "For once, can't I be selfish? Can't I want something and get it with out consequence? I refuse to let my life be ruined because some freaking all high and mighty want-to-be thinks that I have some amazing power that needs to be contained and trained! I refuse to let them take love away from me!"

I was screaming at the top of my lungs and crying enough tears to fill a river.

"I can't lose him..." I whispered. "I already lost mom, and you and now my adoptive dad is about to die of a brain tumor and I can't even spend this time with him because I am to busy hunting down these damn demons and all the other evil crap and I am tired of it! I am not going to let Dean be taken away from me to!"

"I wish I knew some other way to help…" He said sadly before fading away.

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The car ride was filled with a sad silence for the rest of the trip. Dean and I hardly ate, Sam and Gabi had heard everything and were trying to help, but nothing could change the fact that everything we had worked so hard to achieve was going to be the biggest disappointment of our lives.

"Do we have a lead yet?" I asked Sam.

"Yeah, Washington, gang members, doing things even out of character for them." He said.

So we went to Washington. We found the place where they had been spotted most recently and went to check it out.

"Wait… what if we can't burn these things fast enough? They are going to need people to possess and I don't think we want that to be us." Gabi pointed out.

"What about a devil's trap?" I asked.

"A spirit or demon can't get in something that is marked with it, but why would that help?" Dean replied.

"What if we drew one on ourselves? Then they wouldn't be able to possess us. Then if we put a pentagram around this place, once they get in it they would be powerless and we can get this done quick and easy." I stated.

"Kind of like with Meg…" Sam said. I had heard this story, and it was a long one. But they had gotten out and won, that was all that mattered.

"K, let's do it." Dean said.

We found permanent markers and like seventh graders, we drew on ourselves. Then we surrounded the place in an invisible pentagram.

How did we do that? Well, with flammable liquid. Once they stepped inside we would throw in a match, the pentagram would set on light flames, not high ones, but just enough to make it visible, then we would do the whole exorcism thing, the demons would be released, Sam and Dean would get the people out, and then we would kill the demons.

It sounded simple, and hopefully it would be.

We hid out in the car a couple of feet away from the area and out of site and waited until they got back. It was about an hour before anyone showed up.

We quietly snuck out of the car. Sam pulled out the EMF and it got a reading almost instantly. This was it. I took a deep breath while Dean and Sam walked to where they were.

It was four people. One girl and three guys, hopefully these demons hadn't done any damage to their bodies. It would really suck to have to go through this all and then have innocent people die.

The guys didn't get much of a chance to do anything. They were kind of thrown back into a wall by the demons.

"Shit… Gabi go…" I muttered. We picked up our stuff and ran over to them.

"Oh there's more of you…" One of the demons said. Then it looked at me, took a deep breath and smiled. "Annie, we have been waiting for you."

"Really? Well what a coincidence because we have been looking for you for a while now. You aren't any easy thing to track down." I snarled.

"Beautiful and sarcastic. Not to mention a witch. It is kind of a shame that we have to kill you." He said. I rolled my eyes.

"Cut the drama and suspense thing ok? This isn't a freaking movie. But since you brought up the whole death thing, I feel inclined to let you know that I am not the one who will be dying here tonight." I told him. He looked taken back.

"Oh really? Because see even though I really want your power, I want to kill your husband even more then I want to kill you… but I can't do that until you're dead." He told me.

"Why do you want to kill Dean? He can't give you anything to gain once he dies." I stated.

"No, but it will be great pay back since he killed some of my best ally's and friends. Same for his brother, I would like the father to, but I will just take what I can get right now." He said. I smirked and rolled my eyes again. Then I pulled a match out of my pocket and threw it into the fluid.

"Sorry buddy, no one is dying here today… except for you and your friends over there." I said as the pentagram lit up. His eyes showed fear, but he was playing it off.

"Just because I don't have power doesn't mean I don't have strength." He said. He did some weird motion with his hand and in an instant one of his friends had me pinned to a wall with their hand clutching my throat.

"Gabi… get Sam up!" I choked. Sam was the only one who was really good with the whole Latin thing. She did so and did it quietly. None of the other demons seemed to notice since they were all so intent on watching me struggle.

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(Gabi's POV)

This was so not cool. Luckily they had kind of shoved me aside and forgot about my presence. I got to Sam quickly and got him to get up.

"Sam! The thing… now!" I demanded quietly. It took him a second to fix his gaze and realize what was going on. When he did, he took no hesitation in grabbing the book and standing up.

"Get Dean up, we are going to need all of us." He told me. I nodded and started to poke at Dean's shoulder.

"Hurry…" I heard Annie choke out. Sam sped up the process. Man this was a long process.

"Dean… Dean its Gabi wake up!" I whispered once he started to stir.

"Where's Annie?" He asked groggily.

"In trouble, like always. But we will get out of it. I just need you to wake up. This is going to take all of us." I told him.

"Trouble?" He said, shooting up like a rocket. He looked over and saw the demon clutching her throat. I saw the anger rise in his face.

But the demon was struggling and losing strength as Sam went on chanting. This must have given Dean some kind of momentum because he ran over and pushed the demon off of Annie.

So much for our invisibility.

Annie collapsed on the ground and started coughing. She was weak, but like that stopped her. She crawled over and got the matches and lighter fluid from the bag. She handed me a few matches as well.

"Get ready." She said with her voice all scratchy. I nodded and suddenly felt some sort of pain rushing through my entire body.

I screamed and was pushed back by some invisible force.

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(Annie's POV)

"Gabi!" I screamed… well attempted to scream. Something had gotten her, something invisible and powerful enough to break through the chant and symbol that was surrounding us.

Sam almost stopped chanting and turned to us.

"Sam you have to keep going!" Dean yelled. Without taking his eyes off of Gabi, he continued the chant.

"Gabi… can you hear me?" I asked. She was wrenching in pain. Her eyes were jammed shut and her body was tense. Then I saw it.

It hadn't been a demonic force that had hurt Gabi, or anything of that kind of evil. It was a human, a human who was staring at us from out of the circle.

They had shot Gabi.

"Dean, stay with her." I demanded as I got up to walk over the heated coal and to the teenager with a gun. He was shaking and held it up right and in my direction.

"Shoot me." I told him. "Go ahead, just do it."

His eyes were wide. He couldn't have been more then seventeen years old and only carrying a gun because he needed protection in this neighborhood.

"You… you all were hurting them." He said quietly. I rolled my eyes and quickly knocked the gun out of his hand.

"No, they were hurting us. They are god damned demons!" I tried to yell, but when a demon possessed guy who is twice your size pins you up against a wall by your throat, it kind of takes a strain on you vocal chords.

The kids eyes got wider. "Are you serious?" He asked.

"Yes I'm serious! And you just shot my cousin!" I felt the anger mix with sadness at that point.

"You are the good guys…" He said quietly.

"Yeah we are…" I said, much more softly. "Look just get out of here." I ordered.

"But… but I shot…" He tried to say regretfully.

"Just go!" I demanded. He looked at me with tears in his eyes.

"I'm so sorry…" He whispered before running off. I fought back my pain and went back in.

Sam was almost done. The demons were obviously weakening and in just a few more seconds they would be out of the humans. When it finally happened, their clouds were even weak, so torching them was no problem.

"Gabi… Gabi you need to stay awake.." I whispered to her.

Sam had rushed over and gently picked her up.

"What happened?" He asked worriedly.

"Some confused vigilante shot her…" I said quietly. She was struggling and I couldn't stand it. Neither could Sam.

"Gabi… its me…" Sam whispered to her. Her breaths were short and quick.

She slowly opened her eyes to look at him and once she did, all the tears that she had shut in fell down her face.

"I told you so…" She said. We couldn't tell if it was a joke or if she was being serious. But after she said it she lost consciousness and we couldn't hear her breathing.