Chapter 3
Earth 17
Her friends had been gone for five whole minutes. Syd expected them to go two minutes at most, especially with Ryker's exceeding low attention span. When she'd come back from changing into her spare overalls and they weren't there laughing, saying "Dude, we got you so friggin good! Ha HA!" she tried to lure them out using the old "C'mon, the pizzas' getting cold" tactic. When that didn't work, she decided to just ignore them until they gave up, but the silence was very unsettling.
By this point, Syd was a pinch worried and beyond annoyed. She stormed into the back room where everyone had gone, but ended up in the middle of a dark, quiet street.
"What the hell…" She turned in a slow circle. She was standing in the middle of a four-way-stop, and all around her were suburban houses lit by moonlight and street lamps. Crap not the suburbs, she thought. But seriously, what the hell?
As she looked around, not recognizing her surroundings, she spotted a very familiar and brilliant car sitting by the curb of a worn out and cracked sidewalk.
"Babe?" Syd slowly approached her car and reached into her pocket looking for her keys.
She found them and unlocked the driver's side door, her phone sat in the center of the seat. Sydney knew this was a dream. Her car was wrecked. And she was just in her shop. Did I pass out? Shit, Joey'll beat my ass if he finds me sleeping on the job.
Syd tried to wake herself up by pinching her arm, hard. Hard enough to draw blood, yet she was still on the strange road standing next to her very unwrecked car. She climbed inside and shut the door behind her. Okay, I've just been teleported… somewhere. This is impossible. Unless I just found the multiverse portal, this is all one very detailed and very lucid dream.
"Okay, what would Kade do first when popping into a strange world in the middle of the night?" She wavered on this for a moment. "Stop talking to herself, first of all. Then, do something stupid. Wait, that's me. She'd get her priorities straight." Syd looked at her phone, decided it's worth a shot, then dialed Kade's number.
Earth 3
Kade didn't realize she had her phone in her pocket until it started vibrating.
She'd woken up to the sound of the ringtone and it took her a while to place the noise.
She tried to wriggle her hands out of the cuffs but ended up making them bleed from the cuts on her wrists. She looked around at the two demons standing like soldiers next to her.
"Hey, dipshit," She said to the one on her left. He didn't blink. She managed to reach over and kick his leg. "Be a doll and answer my phone," He ignored her. "It's in my front pocket, but don't feel awkward, I've banged uglier things than you." He glanced at her but then went back to soldier-mode. Kade sighed and sang along to the ringtone she set for Syd.
SYD! Shit, she's gonna kill me for ignoring her.
Kade was distracted from her thoughts by Asmodeus, who was walking towards her, wiping blood from his hands with a clean white cloth.
Unless I die here and now.
Syd gave up after the third call. She couldn't remember the last time Kade had missed a phone call. If ever. I could try Max… He's the most reliable and probably wouldn't take one look at the caller ID and hang up. Ryker and Addison had done this on multiple occasions.
He answered after the fourth ring. Syd could barely hear his voice over the ruckus in the background, from what she could hear, it was mostly Ryker.
"Syd! Are you in the shop? How does your phone work across worlds?"
There's a muffled "SYD?!" from Ryker and Addison.
"Uh, no," Syd told Max. "I'm not in the shop. I went to look for you losers in the back room and ended up in the middle of the friggin suburbs."
Then it hit Syd like a ton of bricks. Kade always - ALWAYS - picks up her phone. And she's here too, right?
Ryker stole the phone from Max. "Yeah! That happened to us too but we popped out in a warehouse and SAM was there and Dean was dying but we helped! Aaaand now we're hanging out in the BUNKER! Can you believe that? I AM DRINKING SODA, Sam wouldn't give us beer, IN THE LITERAL MEN OF LETTERS BUNK-" Max, after some muffled fighting, took his phone back.
"Good Chuck, sorry for your ear,"
"Woah woah woah, back up," Ryker's ramblings finally registered in Syd's brain. "Sam? As in Sam Winchester?"
Max hesitated, "Yeah…"
"Are you guys-" Syd couldn't comprehend what she was hearing. "You're drunk, aren't you?"
Max ignored the question, "Do you have a car?"
"Yeah, it's so weird, Babe is here too. Completely untouched. Hey Max? Is Kade with you?" Syd hesitantly asked, dreading the answer.
"No, did she come too? I haven't seen her." Syd's mind was racing now, and deep-seated worry came bubbling to the surface. "Okay, meet us at the BlueBird diner in Lebanon, Kansas at…" Max trailed off, interrupting her from her thoughts. Syd jumped when he yelled. "HEY SAM? WHAT'S A GOOD TIME TO MEET OUR FRIEND AT THE DINER?"
"There's more of you?" A distant, oddly familiar voice responded. He cursed quietly, but loud enough for Syd to hear. "Tomorrow. Noon." She finally placed the voice.
"That- That's the actual Sam Winchester…"
"I know! It's crazy, right?"
It's impossible, Syd thought, I've been looking for the portal for years, it's been in the back room this whole time?
Her and Kade have searched, not only their hometown when they were teens, but Boston too, for the multiverse portal. It's always been their belief that when an idea is created, such as Marvel, or Supernatural, in this case, that world actually exists somewhere in the universe.
And there's a portal to every one somewhere on Earth, they just happen to find one of the most important ones
"SYD!" Max's voice echoed through the phone. How long was she in her head?
"Yeah, Sorry got distracted." Syd rubbed her hand over her face and looked out the window of her car to see it had started raining.
"You okay?"
"Yeah, I'm gonna try Kade again and if not I'll just try and track her phone."
"Okay, good luck." There was a loud crash on Max's end of the phone, Syd heard Addison screaming intangible things at Ryker while Sam's laughter echoed through the background.
"I have a feeling you're gonna need it more than me," Syd chuckled "Bye."
Syd dialed Kade's number again. Come on pick up. Please.
Asmodeus stopped mid-slice, a smile sprouted across his horribly white teeth. Kade used his distraction as a chance to catch her breath. She didn't know when the tears had come, but it was somewhere in between the seventh and eighth cut. She was gasping for air now, not caring why Asmodeaus had stopped his little slice and dice. Her throat was sore from the screams.
"Well," Asmodeus looked at the demons. "You numbskulls were supposed to search her." He switched his attention to Kade. "But I guess I have to do everything myself."
Asmodeus snapped and both demons screamed and turned to dust. Kade's eyes widened in fear as she finally realises why he stopped her torture.
She squirmed against her chains as he reached towards her front pocket.
"What's the matter? That smartass mouth wear off already?" She tried to protest as he reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone. Syd was calling again. "Hm…" Asmodeus read the caller ID, answered, and put it on speaker.
"Kade?" Syd's voice seemed drastically out of place in this hell hole. "Kade, you there?"
Asmodeus gestured for Kade to answer. "Hey-" Her voice was small and weak, she cleared her throat. "Hey, Syd."
"Where the hell are you? I've been calling non-stop!" Syd was obviously freaking out. Kade swallowed hard and squeezed her eyes shut, holding back tears.
"S- sorry, my phone died. I had to find a cord."
"Okay, apology accepted. But where are you?" Kade could tell in her voice she knew something was wrong.
Kade suddenly had an idea. It was a long shot, but worth the risk.
"Just chilling in a motel. This is one funky town, ain't it?" She prayed Syd had remembered the Winchester's code words like she did. There was a long pause before Syd answered, giving Kade a wisp of hope to hang on to. Finally, Syd laughed. Kade could tell it was forced but to the untrained ear it sounded genuine.
"Yeah, tell me about it. Hey, do you have any idea how to get this stain out of my car's passenger seat?"
Now it was Kade who forced a laugh. "Let me guess, Ryker?"
"Yeah, maybe I'll make her clean it."
"That'll teach her a lesson." Kade raised her eyebrows at Asmodeus, who mouthed End it. She nodded and cleared her throat again. "Hey, I've got to go, room service… I'll catch you later?"
Syd hesitated. "Yep, for sure. See you soon. Bye."
"Bye." Kade's voice had quieted to a hushed whisper. Asmodeus hung up, and, just like that, her only hope is gone.
Sydney had tracked her phone the second Kade answered, but when she said funky town, Syd got ten times more worried. So she played it off cool, hoping to not alert her captors. She went for her and Kade's oldest trick in the book. I have a stain. Now if she says Ryker then it's super bad and she needs help. If she says Addison, it's bad but tolerable. And if she says Max, then she can handle it.
Kade was somewhere near Fall River, Massachusetts. Syd recognized this location. Isn't that where Crowley's throne was, because he hated hell?
Syd left from Erie, Pennsylvania and started driving to Massachusetts.
Dean woke up about ten minutes after Syd called. It was almost 2:00 a.m. and the red-bulls were finally wearing off. Sam forced Max, Addison, and Ryker to stay up for questioning with huge cups of black coffee.
"Ryker! Get down!" Max grabbed a book and was ready to throw.
"Never. This is my home. This is my Kingdom. So bow down you peasant, bow!" Ryker said while T posing on the table in the library of the bunker.
"What the hell?" An all too familiar voice rang out.
"Welcome to the land of the living, Dean." Sam threw Dean a beer as he walked in, holding his head and grimacing with every step.
Ryker jumped off of the table in awe. "Are you real?" Ryker said as she walked up to poke him in the face.
"Don't." Dean said before she can succeed while giving her a death glare, causing Ryker to take a step back with her hands up.
"Who the hell are you?" Dean looked to Addison, who was eating a corn dog across from Sam.
Addison shrugged and looked at Ryker. Ryker shrugged as well and pointed to Max who rolled his eyes.
"We're from another world." Max deadpanned.
"What, like Mars?" Dean asked sarcastically.
"No, we're-" Max was interrupted by Ryker taking a step closer to Dean.
"-We're from Saturn!" Ryker bowed while Dean raised an eyebrow in question towards Sam.
"No, we're human." Max glared at Ryker who was pouting. "We're just from an alternate universe, where you are in… a TV show."
"Not again, " Dean said and walked out.
Sam closed his book and stood up. "Okay, I need answers." he put the book away and sat back down. Dean walked back in with some leftover pie and sat next to Sam.
"Who is Sydney and Kade and why did you invite them here?" Sam asked while folding his hands in front of him.
"Well," Addison inhaled deeply. "Kade and Sydney are our friends who came through the same portal as us but at different times so they probably ended up in different places. Kade's missing and alone and not picking up her phone so Syd is out looking for her, and we are waiting for a call back to see if Syd got a hold of Kade. Also, random fact, we based our friend group off of you guys. Oh My Chuck I need a drink." Addison said in one breath then walked into the kitchen while Ryker followed. Sam and Dean exchanged confused looks.
"Oh, great, there's more of them," Dean looked at Sam.
"You guys based your friend group off of us?" Sam asked Max, being the only one left.
"Yeah. We did." Max scratched the back of his neck, feeling embarrassed.
"Well?" Dean asked, slightly intrigued and annoyed at the same time.
"Right." Max dropped his hand and took a seat. "I'm, Cas. Ryker is Balthazar. Addison is-"
"Who?" Dean interrupted.
"Oh right. Dean, this is Max. Brunette is Addison and blonde is Ryker." Sam introduced.
"Right? Let me guess Addison is me?" Dean asked thinking that there was no one actually close to him.
"No way. Addison is Garth, by far." Max corrected. "Kade is Gabriel, but slightly less of a dick." He caught Addison and Ryker shaking their heads at the last statement and sent them a glare. "And lastly, Syd..." Max trailed off.
"She is?" Sam tried to pry.
"No one." Max finished, not wanting to tell them right away, knowing Dean would object.
"Oka-" Sam got interrupted when Renegade by Styx started playing.
Max picked up his phone and put it on speaker. "Syd? Did you get a hold of her?"
"Yeah, and, it's not good." Syd turned off her car engine.
"What do you mean by 'not good?'" Max asked, a little panicked.
"I mean, she gave me a Funky Town, so I checked with a Stain, and she said Ryker." Syd explained.
"You know the code?" Dean asked, recognizing 'Funky town'.
"You do realize I don't understand your code, right?" Max clarified, frowning when Sam and Dean stood up.
"She has a gun to her head." Dean clarified.
"Yes, thank you, Dean, so I asked how bad it was, hence the stain, then she said 'Ryker' meaning the situation is horrible and she's probably being tortured at this exact moment and she can't get out on her own. So, I tracked her phone." Syd said, exasperated.
"And?" Max, Sam, and Dean all said simultaneously.
"Wow, so I'm on speaker?" Syd asked.
"Yes, now what about Kade." Max urgently replied.
"Such a prude. Okay she's being held in… drum roll please."
"Where?!"
"In Crowley's little throne house, the Needham asylum in Massachusetts, and going by the date, Asmodeus and Gabriel are in there too."
"Gabriel's dead." Sam said to the phone.
"Or is he?" Syd said in a weird voice that was supposed to sound mysterious.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Sam sounded genuinely worried, nobody could miss the hope in his voice.
"Remember how we said you're a TV show in our world?" Addison asked, walking into the room with a bowl of cereal spiked with vodka. "We know who's alive, who's dead, and who's going to die. Well, right now I'm guessing we're somewhere in season 11." She noticed the Winchester's confused looks. "Amara and Casifer, right?"
"CASIFER!" Ryker screamed, coming in behind her with a full cup of coffee, Sam took it immediately, making her pout.
"Who the hell is 'Casifer'?" Dean questioned.
"Satan's in your boyfriend! Satan's in your boyfriend!" Ryker started singing to Dean in a teasing voice.
"I'm sorry, what?" He asked Max. "Translate please."
"Lucifer possessing Cas," Addison told him. "The fandom calls him Casifer."
"The fandom?" Sam and Dean said simultaneously.
"Guys focus!" Syd screamed through the phone, "Life or death situation here! I need backup, all I've got is my gun and my wits."
"We're on our way," Max said to Syd as Dean and Sam left to get their jackets. "Syd, we're coming to help."
"Son of a bitch!" Syd said urgently. Dean laughed and smiled at Sam for a second, Sam smirked and shook his head.
"What's happening?" Max asked.
"Demons are out and not happy. I got to go." Syd grabbed the shotgun she kept in the backseat and cocked it.
"Wait for backup." Dean said into the phone.
"Please." Syd scoffed. "You can't drive halfway across the country in half an hour. And besides, if you do make it, I could already be dead." Syd stubbornly said.
Sam, Dean, Max, and Addison all protested.
"Got to go." There was a gunshot and Syd's end went silent.
"Dean's got a doppelganger," Sam joked. No one laughed.
"I'm going to ask this one more time. Who are you?" Asmodeus said, bringing the knife to Kade's face. She didn't even feel the pain anymore, Just wait it out until Syd gets here, she kept telling herself, Distract Asmodeus from Gabe, stall for Syd. She had dozens of cuts and bruises, what's a couple more?
"Paris Hilton." Kade answered with a serious tone.
Asmodeus dragged the knife down Kade's cheek, followed by a line of blood. "Who are you?!"
"Bite me." Kade challenged. He threw a fist into Kade's face, causing her mouth to fill up with blood. She spit it on his perfectly white dress shoes, splattering them with blood. He punched her again.
The familiar sound of an engine rung through the hall and into the chamber.
Kade chuckled, still looking down. "You're dead." She breathed, looking up slowly to meet Asmodeus's eyes.
His eyes widened as he looked around frantically. With one quick movement he lodged his knife in Kade's left thigh, straight through her tattered jeans, and covered her mouth when she screamed.
"You may think that," He whispered into her ear. "But not even the all-powerful Gabriel could kill me. He tried, and look where that got him." He gestured to the cage, where Gabriel layed, breathing fast and shallow, shaking with every breath.
There was a yell from outside the door. Asmodeus whipped towards the door, yanking the knife from Kade's thigh. She yelled in agony, breathing hard and cursing his name.
Asmodeus walked slowly to the door, knife poised and ready to attack. Something heavy slammed against the old double wooden doors with a grunt, then it went silent. Kade couldn't hear a thing except the breathing of her favorite fictional character in the cage next to her. Thirty seconds pass and nothing moves.
Suddenly, a bullet came straight through the door with a shattering boom and lodged itself in Asmodeus's chest. He looked down at the blood sprouting on his pressed white suit and laughed.
"Well," He chuckled and straightened his suit. "My vessel was alive." He looked to Kade. "But now, thanks to your 'backup' his kids are fatherless." He tried to walk to her, but his feet didn't move. "What in the…"
"Did I miss the fun?" The door swung open, knocked Asmodeus to the ground, and in walked Sydney, stepping over an unconscious demon, pistol in hand.
"Jesus, Syd," Kade addressed her, trying to slow her shallow breathing, with no such luck. "What took so long?" Syd ran over to her. She dropped her head, unable to hold it up.
"Hey," Syd's heart rate rose at the sight of Kade's leg wound, and the firelight reflecting off the pool of blood forming beneath it. "Hey," She said again, holding Kade's head up. "You're gonna be fine…" She trailed off, distracted by the immense array of cuts, slashes, and bruises on Kade's arms, legs, face and neck. Her once sky blue long-sleeved-tee was stained with blood. Her arms hung limply from the chains falling from the ceiling.
Syd struggled with the locks for a moment, trying to block out the profanities and threats from Asmodeus.
"One of the demons has the key," Kade panted. "I think... you killed him... in your badassery." Syd chuckled lightly, nodded and quickly searched the demons in the hallway. She found the key ring in the pocket of the biggest demon, Thank God he's unconscious, she thought, and rushed back into the room.
"Got 'em," she said, unlocking Kade's cuffs. "Okay, let's get out of here before the next wave of assholes come. Can you walk?" Kade managed to give her a scowl and gestured loosely towards the deep gash in her right thigh.
"Does it look like I can walk?" And sure enough, she couldn't stand up on her own without falling over, let alone walk. Syd pulled Kade's right arm over her shoulder and started pulling her along. "Wait!" Kade protested. "Wait, we've got to save Gabriel!"
"Right," Syd had almost forgotten about Gabriel, caught up in saving her best friend. "Where is he?"
Kade waved her right arm towards the iron bars on the opposite side of the room. Syd set her down as gently as possible and half-ran to the lock, having to search through several keys before finding the correct one. She opened the door and looked inside the cave. Her eyes traveled over the walls until she settled on Gabriel, whimpering against her stare.
Oh my God, she realised, This isn't fictional, he actually went through three years of torture.
"Hey," she said softly, yet he flinched at the sound of her voice, shielding his face with his arms. "Hey, I'm here to help. I'm going to get you out of here. It's okay." He whimpered again but lowered his arms slightly, so Syd could see the fear in his hazel eyes. "I won't hurt you," she tried. "I promise. Nobody's going to hurt you." She braved a step closer, Gabriel flinched again and made a noise that sounded eerily close to 'please'. It almost made Syd cry.
"Kade," She yelled into the main room. "Kade, he won't trust me."
"Let me try," She faintly heard in response. Syd slowly backed out of the cell. She helped Kade limp into the tiny room and crouch in the doorway. "Gabe," She whispered, Syd could see beads of sweat pooling on her forehead. "Hey, remember me?" The tiniest hint of recognition flashed across Gabriel's eyes and he lowered his hands a fragment more. "Yeah, I tackled Asmo-douchebag, you saw that, right?"
"You tackled Asm-" Syd started.
"And tried to stab him with a syringe, but shut up," Kade cut her off and focused on Gabriel. She shifted her body to gesture to Syd, grimacing in pain with every movement. "This is my friend," His eyes snapped to Syd, then back to Kade. "Her name is Syd, and she's gonna help us."
There was a distant yell and the sound of footsteps pounding closer.
"Listen," She continued, somehow keeping her motherly tone. "If we don't get you out of here, Asmodeus is going to keep torturing you, and I can't stand by and let that happen." Her voice broke halfway through the sentence. "Please, you have to trust me and Syd, because she's our getaway at the moment." Kade reached her hand towards Gabriel, wincing again at the movement. He eyed it suspiciously. "Come on, Gabe, I won't hurt you." She coaxed.
Hesitantly, he offered a shaky hand and placed it gingerly in Kade's. She smiled warmly and tried to stand, only to fall to the ground, barely conscious.
"Kade!" Syd was at her side in an instant, and, to her surprise, so was Gabriel.
"I- I'm fine," Kade mumbled, eyes closed. She tried to push herself into a sitting position. "I'm good, trust me. Just get Gabe out of here."
"Fat chance," Syd said, draping Kade's left arm over her shoulder and pulling her up. The footsteps were echoing through the room now.
Tooclosetooclosetooclosetooclose
Syd struggled to stay calm as she dragged Kade out of the cage and towards the back door.
"Sydney," Kade groaned. Syd stopped short, Kade only called her Sydney when she was dead serious. "You… You can't take us both."
"Watch me." Syd kept walking. Through the door, she thought, we made it outside. The moonlight reflected off Syd's car. Twenty more feet, she counted.
Kade struggled against Syd's arms, trying to get her to stop. "Save. Gabriel." Kade said through clenched teeth. Syd sat her down on the curb right outside the abandoned asylum
"I'm gonna leave this here with you, got it?" Syd handed Kade her pistol. "If you see anything move, shoot it, okay?" Kade nodded weakly, breathing fast and shallow, and Syd ran back into the building with her shotgun. Leaving Kade under the stars.
Syd was running in when she heard footsteps headed in her direction. She turned the corner to see a demon holding an angel blade. Oh, he has a knife, sweet. Syd ran at him and slid under the swing of the blade. She stood up behind him and kicked him in the back as hard as she could, causing the demon to stumble a single step forward.
"Man, are you a brick wall or something?" Syd breathed out as the demon charged to stab her. Syd kicked his knife out of his hands and arched her back so his arm could glide right over her. She caught the knife and swung her arm back, hearing a bone crack and then a scream. Signaling she had stabbed him right in the spine.
She pulled the knife from his back with a squelch, and continued walking towards the cage. Syd rounded the corner to see Gabriel against the back wall, wide eyed and terrified, curled in a ball, covering his face. Syd hurried over and crouched beside him.
"Gabriel?" He flinched. "It's me, Sydney." His eyes dug into Syd's. She heard the demons banging on the main door and both their heads snapped towards the noise. "Gabe, come on, I'll take you to Sam," His head swung back to her at the mention of Sam. "Yeah, Sam, let's go see Sam." He nodded ever so slightly. Syd pulled his arm slowly over her shoulder and pulled Gabriel to his feet.
They stumbled into the corridor leading to the back door and stepped over the body of the demon Syd had killed. A loud gunshot rang through the air from outside.
"Kade." Syd mumbled under her breath. A pang in her heart hit as she thought of losing her best friend. They reached the doors and Syd swung them open.
The moonlight reflected off a pool of blood on the sidewalk and Syd's breath hitched. As her eyes adjusted, she realized that the blood was leaking from a demon, and Kade was exactly where Syd left her.
"Kade, you good?" Kade lifted a limp hand and signaled a thumbs up.
"Peachy," She breathed, and passed out.
Syd dragged Kade into the backseat, triple checking her pulse before helping Gabriel into the passenger seat. She drove to the nearest pharmacy for some painkillers, bandages, and a do-it-yourself stitching kit.
She found a backroad, parked, and found a flashlight. She stitched up Kade's leg wound and saw her twitch every time Syd pushed the needle through. She blessed the medical courses she'd taken in highschool and thanked God that Kade wasn't fully awake.
"Okay, Gabe," She said, taking her swiss-army knife from her back pocket. His eyes went wide and he cowered against the center console. "No, no it's okay," He didn't take his eyes off of the knife. Syd gestured to her lips with the knife and pointed back to Gabriel. He seemed to understand. He nodded and slowly relaxed, leaning forward.
She cut the thread binding his lips one by one. She backed up when she was done and put the knife back into her pocket.
"There ya go," Syd said, smiling at him. "Good as new." He reached his hand to his mouth and touched his lips, then looked back to Syd and gave her a fraction of a smile himself. She was struck for the hundredth time with how similar his smile was to Kade's.
"Now that's what I want to see," Syd said and climbed behind the steering wheel. She glanced at her dashboard clock, 3:48 a.m. She turned to Kade in the backseat, chest rising and falling very slightly, then to Gabriel in the passenger seat, knees to his chest and rocking back and forth.
"I could make it to the Bunker by 6:00," She whispered to herself and turned to the road, gripping the steering wheel, switching gears, and carefully pulling out of the parking lot and onto the dark highway.