I really wanted this to be the last chapter, but this week has been oh so hectic and I've got a new puppy (well, found a puppy, and I spent the week trying to figure out if anyone misplaced her and wanted her back. Turns out they don't. So I started working on ways to get her adopted, before I realize that my cats had accepted her and I thought hey, why shouldn't I keep her?). Point is, I was rather busy, so I decided to split the last chapter in two, with the conclusion coming next week (really, this time). Hope you guys don't mind.

Chapter 12

A hiisi brought Lempo the news of Piru's death. It was how Lempo knew he could act now. He had been lenient on Dean so far, thinking that, if the Winchesters were out of Tuonela and Sam had so carelessly broken faith with him, he could at least make the most of things and use the two to get rid of Piru. He had expected them to lock him up again, but, apparently, they had not wanted to take any chances. Piru was dead. Truly dead this time.

Lempo allowed himself a moment of regret. For many years, Piru had been a friend – as much as those like them could have friends, of course. He had certainly been an ally, much more stable than Luohi. And now they were both dead, and Lempo was the only one left.

He laughed at that. It did not matter. He had plenty of things to keep him busy. He would take control of Tuonela completely. Now that Piru was gone, any resistance would be crushed quickly. But first, he would get rid of the pesky Winchesters. And he would start with Dean – just because he needed to teach Sam a lesson about what happened when you bailed on your deals. He had warned Sam, after all.

xxXXxxx

The return to consciousness was a muddled, painful process for Dean. Even before opening his eyes he became aware of how sore he was and how much his head was pounding. There was a heaviness in his limbs he was not familiar with and a bitter taste in his mouth. If he did not know any better, he would have said he was dying. Which he probably was, he thought, remembering the events that had got him to this place. No doubt his death was very much Lempo's endgame. Still, Lempo was the type who enjoyed playing with his food before moving in for the kill.

Dean finally managed to push his heavy eyelids to open. They were back at Helmi's and he was lying in his bed, with Tuu-tiiki the cat snoring next to him. Sam was sitting in a chair, his head bowed. At first, Dean thought he was asleep, then he noticed the way Sam's hands were clenching and unclenching. He cleared his throat.

"That bad, huh?" he asked, trying for levity.

Sam's head snapped up at the sound of Dean's voice. His eyes sought his brother's face, frowning slightly at what he saw there. Dean hastened to reassure him.

"I'm good, Sammy. Really."

Sam swallowed harshly.

"No you're not."

Dean shrugged, admitting defeat.

"No, I'm not. But I'm not out of commission, either."

Sam did not look too convinced, but he let that slide.

"What happened?" Dean asked. "Last thing I remember, we were still at Ole's. I don't remember getting here."

Sam's face darkened and Dean realized it was the wrong thing to ask. Whatever had gone down, the memories were still too fresh for Sam.

"You wouldn't," Sam said darkly. "You collapsed. I couldn't get you to wake up. And then you…" he paused and drew a deep breath as if the words he was saying were causing him physical pain. "You started seizing. And it went on and on and Cas and I tried to hold you down but you just wouldn't stop. And when you did stop…you stopped breathing too. I think you died – or, close to it. We had to perform CPR on you….It took a while to bring you back."

That explained the sore ribs. And the devastation on Sam's face.

"And then?"

Sam ran a hand through his hair.

"Then we couldn't wake you. So we brought you here. Heidi looked you up. Said you were physically fine and that the only thing we could do was monitor you and see what happens."

"Huh," Dean said, taking all this in. "Didn't Cas try to heal me with his Angel mojo?"

Sam nodded curtly.

"He did try. He probably managed to get you a little better. But this is beyond what he knows. This is a power that's different from Cas – older than him."

Lempo, Dean thought darkly. Lempo who was now the only player on the other side. Lempo who was about to become more powerful than ever considering Sam and Dean had eliminated the competition for him.

"We really need to do something about this guy."

Sam nodded.

"We're working on it. Feel up to joining the others? They're worried about you."

Den actually was not feeling up to much, but admitting to that would have worried Sam. Besides, if there was a strategy session in progress, Dean wanted to be in on it.

"Lead the way," he told Sam. "I'm looking forward to ending this."

xxxxXXxxx

Dean followed Sam into Helmi's living room where the others were gathered. Ole was there too, Dean noticed with a scowl. He himself would have cut ties with him now that Piru was taken care of. He wondered how Sam and Cas had gotten Ole to come with them in the first place. The last thing he remembered was Ole firmly declaring he wanted nothing more to do with them.

As soon as the two brothers walked in, whatever conversation the others were involved in ceased abruptly. Dean felt their gaze on him, assessing and somewhat sympathetic and he bristled. He had always hated to be on the receiving end of pity and he could not stand concern even from Sam.

"Hey, come on guys, don't write me off. I'm not dead yet. Unless of course Helmi feels sorry for me and wants to provide some special comfort. In this case, I'm totally dying."

Helmi rolled her eyes.

"Oh, you'll be dying alright. Only it won't be Lempo that kills you, if you keep this up."

Dean smirked. The tension was more or less diffused now. They could focus on something other than him. He pointed to Ole.

"What the hell's he still doing here? Shouldn't we cut our losses?"

"Oh, believe me, Dean, I had nothing to do with this," Ole snapped.

"Summoning gods can be tricky," Ketch explained. "Summoning people out of Tuonela, more so. We are, for a lack of a better word, amateurs. Ole is a shaman – well, trained as a shaman at least. He's all we've got."

"Cheers," Dean muttered. "So, you want to summon Lempo? Like we did with Piru?"

Sam shook his head biting his lips. Dean felt his blood pressure rising. So Sammy had come up with one of those plans.

"You might as well tell me," he said, resigned. "I know the kind of stuff you come up with."

"We were thinking of summoning Mielikki first," Sam admitted.

"Why?" Dean asked uncompromisingly. "Do you think she'll be able to kill Lempo? Or even willing to do so? Sam, she had a fling with the guy!"

"Actually," Castiel intervened. "We were not planning to kill Lempo. We do not know if there is a way. With Piru, we had the sword and the reindeer blood, but with Lempo, we do not know. Lempo is more powerful than Piru. He might be immune to that. There was the Colt, of course. That could have killed him, but…"

Dean nodded quickly.

"But that's off the table. right. So – what's our move?"

"We were thinking of trapping him," Sam told him.

Dean shook his head.

"Trapping him? That might not work forever. I mean, we did that to Piru in Gatlinburg and it took less than a year for someone to release him."

"There is no one left who would want to free Lempo," Castiel pointed out. "His most trusted allies are both dead."

"As for the hiidet," Ole put in, "They were never meant to serve. When Lempo is out of the picture they will simply revert to what they were before he and Luohi came. They will go back to causing mischief and scaring tourists out camping in the woods. They'll be practically harmless."

It sounded neat and tidy. Dean had never liked plans that sounded too neat and tidy. All they did was show him that the people who had made them had overlooked all the many ways the plans could go wrong.

"What if someone else frees him?" he asked. "Some kid who's into pagan stuff or…maybe even someone by accident? Or – I don't know one of the British Men of Letters looking for a way to get the glory of their organization back?"

"I'll be the first to admit my former organization has its dark sides, Dean," Ketch said. "But none of them would ally themselves with a monster, especially not one like Lempo. Trust me, Lempo is one of the things they would hunt and kill without hesitation."

"Besides," Castiel added, "This will not be like Piru. We do not intend to trap him in a house. You are right. Houses are tricky. Anyone can stumble on them and they cannot be watched all the time. No, we have come up with a better way."

Elias placed a golden locket on the table. Dean frowned at it, then at Elias.

"You want to trap Lempo in there? How?"

"The British Men of Letters have come up with a spell or magic object for almost everything, Dean," Ketch explained. "This little trinket happened to be in my private collection. I…liberated it from my organization years ago."

Dean rolled his eyes.

"Of course you did. So, this was designed to trap Lempo."

"It was designed as a trap, yes," Ketch confirmed. "Not for Lempo specifically, but it should work on him."

"Should?" Sam asked. "An hour ago you said it would definitely work."

Ketch took a deep breath as if he was trying very hard not to hit Sam with one of his scathing retorts – or shoot him where he stood.

"No, Sam, I actually said it has a good chance of working. Now, I know you Yanks have turned the Queen's English into something completely unrecognizable, but I would think even one of you would know that a good chance has never meant it will definitely work."

"Look, it is a risk," Helmi intervened. "But it's the only solution we've got. We should take it. It's for your own good, Dean."

That was something Dean actually agreed with. The Lempo problem had to be solved and fast. He did not know how much longer he could pretend he was alright.

"Do we even know that whatever he's doing to me will stop once he's all tucked in?" he asked, just to cover all the basis.

"It should," Castiel said. "We have painted signs on the locket to neutralize his power. We used plenty of things – including angel blood which I was happy to donate. Trust us, Dean, we are all fairly certain it will work."

A good chance. Should. Fairly certain. Dean had the impression they were all grasping at straws and clinging to hope. He knew Sam would rather die – and had, many times – than give up on him, though. He knew Cas thought the same. Apparently, the others had been roped in. who knew codependent tendencies could be contagious? he thought wryly.

"You've been pretty busy while I was out."

"We were plenty motivated," Sam told him.

Their eyes met and for an instant, it was just the two of them. Then, Dean looked away, self-conscious.

"Right," he said. "Let's get Mielikki back, then. Maybe she'll see rescuing her as a service to her and won't bill us this time."

xxxXXXXxxx

The ritual to summon Mielikki was long and complicated. By the end of it, Ole looked about to collapse on the spot.

"Did it work?" Sam asked worriedly.

There was no sign of Mielikki anywhere, even though Ole had finished the ritual.

"Are you sure you did everything right?" Dean asked. "Or are you deliberately trying to scam us again?"

Ole scowled.

"Why would I? The first time, I tricked you because of Piru. And Piru is dead. I'm on your side, Dean. You gave me no choice in this, remember?"

"He did everything right," Ketch confirmed.

"The why isn't Mielikki here?" Sam challenged.

"Maybe we can't get her out of Tuonela," Helmi suggested. "She was a prisoner there, wasn't she?"

"Piru's prisoner, yes," Sam said. "And Piru is dead. She should be able to free herself."

The door to the room opened and Mielikki walked in. She looked disheveled and shaken, as if her stay in Piru's dungeons had not been pleasant for her. She nodded to Sam and Dean.

"I was certain you two had something to do with this," she said. "Thank you."

"Oh, don't thank us yet," Dean said. "You might not like what we want from you."

"I was sure you did not rescue me purely out of the goodness of your heart, Dean Winchester," Mielikki said. "I know you don't like me. You think I used your brother."

"You did use my brother," Dean said uncompromisingly. "You took advantage of him while he was at his most vulnerable and made a deal with him. That's not something I forgive people for."

Sam cleared his throat.

"Dean," he said warningly.

Mielikki spared Sam a small smile, as if she was amused that he was interfering on her behalf. She walked further into the room and stop until she was in front of Elias. She looked him up and down, her expression unreadable. Elias looked away, clearly uncomfortable with the uncalled for scrutiny.

"Uh…it's an honor to meet you," he said.

Something flashed in Mielikki's eyes.

"I'm sure," she said flatly.

She turned back to Sam and Dean.

"I assume this is about Lempo."

"Who else?" Dean said.

"We want to make sure he doesn't bother anyone ever again," Castiel announced.

"You cannot kill him, you know," Mielikki said. "And I can't, either."

"Can't or won't?" Dean asked belligerently.

"Both, actually," Mielikki admitted.

"Well, the good news is that we don't want to kill him," Elias said. "We want to trap him."

Mielikki looked thoughtful.

"That might work," she said. "Of course, he won't go without a fight."

"We figured as much," Sam said. "We'll give as good as we get, but it might not be enough. However, with you on our side…"

"Unless you're squeamish about that, too," Dean said bluntly.

Mielikki met his gaze.

"I am, actually. But you are right about one thing. Lempo is not who he was long ago. And I don't think he can be that Lempo again. This is for the best – maybe for him as well."

"You'll help, then?" Helmi asked.

Mielikki nodded.

"I suppose I will. But we have to do it now."

The others were rather taken aback by her urgency, especially since she had seemed so reluctant initially.

"We were actually hoping for later," Ketch said. "We wanted to iron some things out first. Make sure the plan can't fail, you know."

But Mielikki shook her head. She went to stand beside Dean.

"It has to be now. Because otherwise, Dean Winchester has only an hour left to live."

To be continued. Thanks for reading (and for the patience of waiting another week ;) )