Yay, new chapter! Sorry it took a bit longer to finish than I thought... I kinda slept through sunday... oops, lol. You guys have asked for some kind of attack from big bad... and well, it's coming... might be in this chapter, maybe in the next... you'll just have to read to find out. But I can tell ya right now... shit's startin to come together and it's only going to get more crazy from this point on. Again, thanks mcmanusbaby90, Ty3, IHeartJensen and now Tonya for the kind words/suggestions; you guys add fuel to the fire. So for ALL my lovelies... more chapters!

love. CS

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As Nadia walked slyly from the group of hunters and psychics, she subconsciously rubbed at her right shoulder. Up til that moment, the only visible signs of weariness or weakness the boys had seen were how she was physically affected by the idea of Emily being either hurt, lost, in danger, or dead. The boys exchanged nervous glances, and then turned to both Missouri and Emily demanding explanation.

"What?" Emily asked after enduring a few minutes of their scrutinizing inspection, she was clearly irked by their looks; having never been comfortable with being watched.

"What's the deal with her shoulder?" Sam gave Emily a curious glance, noting how she clung tighter to the leather journal in her grip as the words came tumbling from his mouth. She waited a moment or two, collecting her thoughts before she opened up to say anything.

"She was ten… at the time…"

FLASHBACK

A nine year old Emily Coltier had been sitting idly on Pastor Jim's front porch, she'd been there for hours, not moving, not speaking, not taking any of the food or drink that their priest uncle had offered her in her time at that single spot. As memory served, her ass had gone numb hours before and it annoyed her terribly, but not knowing where her sister was annoyed her even more. So her physical pains were pushed away to make room for pains of the heart.

"She'll show up, Emmy," Jim had said, more to convince himself than her, "Nadia is more than capable of taking care of herself… even in the more drastic situations she puts herself in." Nadia had disappeared five days earlier, saying that she was going to go make sure that the monster they'd heard was in the area wasn't scoping out the church grounds… saying she'd be right back, it would take five minutes…tops. But she didn't come back that day.

Suddenly, as silence began to fill the void between the cleric and the young girl once again, Emily caught sight of movement out in the cemetery. Grabbing her uncles pant leg, she urged him to accompany her out there while picking up the sawed off shotgun tucked tightly behind her feet, nodding his approval to the child, he activated the flashlight between her and the pillar where the porch railing began. They gotten as far as 40 feet into the cemetery when Emily cried out, having sharper senses than Jim and an indescribably acute sense of vision, which only the sisters shared, "DIDI!"

Ripping her hand from Jim's grasp, she ran with all her strength fueling the movement in her heels into the darkness; leaving their uncle standing there, blinking dumbly, holding a flashlight in front of him thinking just as dumbly, that it would be enough to light Emily's way. On the other end of the group of plots, Emily collapsed in her sisters arms; not taking the time to pay any attention to the strange man beside her, though, she took plenty of time to notice the sores and gashes littering her shoulder blades. Had Nadia not been in so much pain, she would have laughed at how silly her kid sister looked at the moment; she'd never seen her look so confused in her life. "DiDi… w-what happened?"

She later discovered that she'd run into the mysterious guy, who looked like some old and scrappy voodoo priest, in the woods… seconds later they had been separated and ambushed by an Erlking, the creature they had feared was lurking in the forest of the church grounds. From what Nadia had been saying the man… who turned out to be old Jebidia, had rushed in just as Erlking was beginning to harm the young girl, he'd only gotten as far as propping the young huntress up by the ropes binding her wrists and had been beating and scratching mercilessly at the girls back, as some sort of twisted pre-consumption torture. He'd clawed and punched at little Nadia, time after time; she never screamed, having it on good authority that he was the only one of his kind anywhere near her and her small family… so long as it wasn't her little Emmy in her place, the pain of the claws and blows wouldn't bother her, not yet anyway. Her mind had become weary from pushing the pain aside, her vision began to blur as well, she was more then ready to turn around and kick the crap out of the nasty little Erlking, but her feet felt like they were made of lead and were keeping her legs from making any bit of movement.

That's when Jebidia appeared, whispering some form of foreign chants, the creature was screaming as a result. In a freak kick of adrenaline, she lifted both her feet and knocked the creature in the head so forcefully that its head quite literally exploded when it made impact with the large stone behind it. And that's the exact condition in which little Emily found her sister and the old man.

Afterwards, the old man was invited to stay at the rectory for as long as he wanted out of Emily and Jim's gratitude for saving the young huntress. He'd personally over seen Nadia's recovery, with the aid of his own personal herbs and voodoo spells; listening and laughing mirthfully at the animated stories the girls were more than happy to share with him about past hunts and monsters they'd encountered in the young lives, they'd even shared the story of their parents death. When she was fully healed, he offered her a source of ultimate protection from the entity that destroyed their family… needless to say, the girls agreed.

In the time since, they had all believed that he'd given Nadia two Devil's Traps to cover up most of the scars on her shoulders as well as to alleviate a grand majority of the pain she knew would always be present from the malicious beating she'd received. For years, she'd been thankful for the ink in her skin, no one had ever been able to pick up on the faint scars underneath, no one had questioned her; she never had a reason to be self-conscious or nervous about the torture marks that remained, and Jebidia had become a very dear friend and contributor of information and supplies.

END OF FLASHBACK

"…Wow." Sam managed as comprehension slow set in.

"Yea… and it explains the whole story behind this Jebidia guy, too. So her shoulders… they're her Achilles Heel? Dangerous information to be dealing out Emily," the huntress shot him a challenging/surprised look as he chided her, "What if somehow that stuff falls into the wrong hands? I don't want to admit it any more than you do, but… what if…"

"No, she trusts you guys; a hard thing to win, believe me… but if she can trust someone, I know I can trust that person as well." The way her words rang out in the confines of the humble kitchen more than signified to the boys that, that particular discussion was over.

"Right, well, whatever you girls feel most comfortable with… speaking of Nadia… she's making one long assed phone call…" Dean could feel Emily's glare as he stood, she'd never seen anyone brush off her verbal explosions with such ease… this Dean-guy was alright. "If you guys don't mind… I'm going to go check on the girl; excuse me, ladies."

Sam's irritated cough caused his brother to roll his eyes, "… Samantha." He added rigidly as he exited the room.

---

Even as Dean entered the room, he could feel steely eyes turn towards him; eyes that soften greatly when he maneuvered himself through the door completely. He didn't even really need to look for the lump of clothing, flesh and blood red hair… it was slumped against the wall a foot or two away from the door. Her voice was sweet as usual, but there was an uncharacteristic sense of hopelessness, of pain unspoken, "…Hey you."

"Hey," he cooed after quickly shutting the door behind him as quietly as he could and swooped down to be eye level with her, he could tell by the ragged puffiness and red irritated coloring of her eyes that she'd been crying. Pulling her close, Dean let her bury her face in the crook of his neck, allowing his one hand to run freely through the blood tinted strands of hair while his other hand kept her steady, "hey… what's wrong?"

The feel of hot tears ran down his chest, having just missed his shirt, sent a feeling of fire trailing after them, leaving behind the tiny hairs standing straight up in a half-way aroused state; all these things going hand in hand with a single sniffle, like she couldn't possibly allow herself more than that. "I… don't think I'm ready to talk about it just yet, there are some things I still need to figure out for myself… but…"

"When you're ready to talk about them, I'll be right there ready to listen… ok?" he chuckled lightly when she nodded and stiffly, wiped at her face; there was a childlike element to it that he just couldn't describe, "Okay… this your room?" another nod, "Cool room, I really dig the weapons display… dork that he is, Sam would probably appreciate that library you've got going on over there."

She giggled softly as he pointed to her bookshelves, Sam had been rather impressed. "How'd the call with Jebidia go?"

Clearing her throat, she straightened her posture, erasing most traces that she'd been showing any form of human emotion; it almost scared Dean how quickly she could go from being a normal human being with emotional reactions and chick-flick moments to a near robotic warrior of light, the arch-nemesis of demons and anything else slightly evil. "It went well, he'll be here sometime Tuesday… until then, I'd say our best bet is just staying here, sitting tight, letting you boys heal as much as you can; we all need to prepare ourselves for the worst, you know… war isn't just casualties in our line of business, Big Bad and his associates will be playing every card they've got. They'll be looking for ways to weaken us, break us even; we can't let them." She sounded more like she was going through a weapon inventory list than laying harsh reality out on the line, "Dean, there's something I need to show you, tell you about…"

Getting up from her spot next to the door, she opened up her closet doors; unveiling the dual black squares and tugged at the little black strings at the top of said squares. "…we know you and Sam have the Colt… I hope this will be enough to help you a bit with using it…"

---

Sam and Emily had been sitting quietly at the kitchen table since Dean had left, Missouri—being the buzzing ball of energy the woman was in the kitchen—had jumped at the moment of silence as an opportunity to get dinner started. Sam kicked quietly at his own shoe, studying the patterns in the wood of the table, whilst Emily was deeply concentrated with having her nose buried in her uncle's journal once more. "So… that's your uncle—I mean, Pastor Jim's journal?"

Em arched an eyebrow as if she hadn't even really been listening, bobbling her head slowly she replied in a soft, quick grunt. Then her head shot up faster than a speeding bullet…Wait a minute… did he just ask what I…

"Nadia told me… actually, I saw a picture of you guys with him as kids." He replied with a grin, the Emily's expression of shock eliciting a chuckle from her fellow hunter.

"Oh…" came the haunting whisper.

"Can I ask you something?" Shoot "Do you know about…"

"Our family's little curse…? Yea, I know, not the greatest news I've ever gotten… but hey, I drew the short straw so to speak, right?" Sam thought he'd been unsettled by Nadia's acceptance of her kid sister's fate… Emily's calm reaction left him feeling as if he were naked in the middle of a college football field with the stands crowded.

"…and you're okay with it? Don't you want there to be a way out of it… some loophole that allows you to live through all this?" He was awarded a small comfort when he watched her body stiffen as his words collided with her thoughts, wanting desperately to release a cry of victory at the inner conflict he witnessed in her. Emily sat silently for a minute or two, scanning her mind for an answer as her eyes flicked left to right while she stared at the table between them like it was possessed.

"Growing up in our family… living forever was always a fairy tale to me, just like all the stories Dia would tell me every night until I fell asleep. We always knew that we'd never reach old age…" her voice broke and her eyes watered, but she kept her quivering chin high, the conviction she felt stood strong, "but we were never afraid of our fate; we never cowered. So when she found out a few days ago that I'm not going to make it out of this… it must have been the first time I've seen her truly afraid since our parents died. But I wasn't and I refuse to be, DiDi and I always said that the saddest death was one of a life unlived," she swallowed hard, glaring at her hands momentarily before continuing, "so… I would have reason for fear, I would be right to panic if I had never run… if I had never taken it upon myself to wander and reveal the world to myself all on my own. I know, Nadia would rather it be her in my place; but honestly… she's the gifted one, she's the one who's just recently found her first love, possibly her only love!" her last sentiment confused Sam a little bit, something which he couldn't even begin to attempt hiding.

"…W-what… you lost me on that last… thing…" huffing in frustration, Emily glared at Sammy like he'd just been badmouthing her sister.

"Oh come on, Sammy… you're smarter than that! The way they look at each other? The way they react to every single move the other makes? Not to mention Missouri gave him a good wallop or two with her wooden spoon daring him to ever do her wrong! She actually used that thing!" Sam threw a shocked and surprised look at Missouri, the readers only reaction was a quick grin and an innocent shrug. "Nadia's never been in love… she throws too much of herself into her work for that stuff. Not to mention these…" Emily exclaimed heatedly as she plopped her uncles journal down in front of him, pointing at one paragraph in one particular entry, then pointing to a piece of paper that had a single piece of tape binding it to the journal's blank page. "Read them."

"It was a warning, Nadia, 15 years before hand. It goes as followed: when the time comes, of the two heiresses, one will die and the last will take her place as the love and living armory to the rightful owner of her family's gun. Together, they are the light's last hope…" he recited in a slightly monotone voice.

"And the second one…" The girl demanded.

"The awaited holy one has come… She has found them, and it… together they will destroy It; they, the lights only hope… it has begun…ok, cryptic; what the hell does it mean and where did they come from?" Emily was actually flabbergasted for a moment, what the hell… really?

"The first one… Nadia had been screaming it when she had her first vision at Jim's. She screamed the other one when we were arriving in Lawrence a few days ago while having the same exact vision… Nadia said that revisiting a vision 15 years after the last time it hits is virtually impossible; and no, the screams weren't in English."

"What language was it?"

"Ancient Aztec…" the huntress deadpanned before running a weary hand coarsely down her face, "Nahuatl to be exact, pretty much a dead language. I dunno, I guess our Aztec ancestors preprogrammed these messages into our family somehow. But they only give me more reason… to accept the inevitable. Of the two heiresses—that's Nadia and me, we're the only ones left in our family… one will die…the last will take her place as the love and living armory of the rightful owner of her family's gun—now, since you and me ain't going at it… that leaves my sister and Dean; only we can make more bullets for the Colt, which makes us a living armory of sorts. And since the gun is the only thing that can kill Big Bad… that makes you guys the lights last hope. Missouri… didn't you say this one went to college!"

Missouri chuckled and nodded from the stove where she was cooking up spaghetti sauce from scratch. Sam rolled his eyes and glared in reply to the jab at his intelligence. "This is why I've accepted death, Sam; this is why I'm getting pissed about my sister trying to keep me from harms way. The longer she keeps it up… I know what she's up to, she's trying to find a way around all this…" once cold and agitated, her tone had quieted to a soft, almost childlike one, "and I appreciate it, ya know? She's always done what she could to protect me; always felt it was her lot in life to always watch out for me… but this? No, this is one thing she can't fix; and avoiding it is only going to make it worse for her."

"I know how you feel on that one… mostly, anyway. But, how is she the 'holy one'?" he asked, his hands crept towards the edges of the journal's pages; more than likely in attempt to read some of the other things Jim had written about the girls. Before he even knew what he was doing, Emily—with her eyes still locked with Sam's—slapped her hand over the book and dragged it away from him.

"What else could an ancient Aztec call a gifted girl who's a demon huntress, a lost daughter of the Aztec's, and the heiress to a weapon that can destroy any evil? I certainly can't think of a better way to describe her, can you?" he shook his head. "Didn't think so… are we done with the whole stop-accepting-your-eventual-demise talk, too?"

Sighing as he ran a hand through his shaggy hair, Sam shook his head once more, "Yea, I guess; I mean, it's sad, even for our line of work… but it happens to all of us at some point."

Emily laughed quietly, under her breath, and then found it time for a change of subject, "Hey Missouri… need any help with dinner?"

---

After a quiet and semi-uneventful dinner, both girls helped Missouri clean up in the kitchen while Sam and Dean unpacked their things and readied themselves for well deserved sleep; it had been a long and… interesting day for everybody. While Nadia and Emily finished up on helping with Missouri, something they had insisted on doing, the brothers sat in Sam's room, which was the room next to Emily's, discussing the shocking news they'd both individually received from Nadia concerning the Colt. An hour later, both girls popped in to Sam's room to say their goodnights and make sure they were all set in and such.

But when they found the boys, all their things were still set just inside the door and they both seemed a little concerned. "What's up guys… you look a little perturbed." Both had a mischievous grin on their faces in reaction to the brothers' obvious discomfort.

"There's only one bed… and I ain't sleeping with his gangly ass!" Dean exclaimed in a tone which was a bit more high pitched than usual, something which made both the girls giggle.

"Well… of course there's only one bed in here, this is Sam's room; the second guest room is in the attic…" the elder sister explained, as Emily exploded in laughter while she watched her sister calmly explain sleeping situations.

"Unless Dean, of course, you don't mind the couch in the parlor… near Missouri's wooden spoon?" She couldn't help the impending return of her afflicting giggles as Sam caught the meaning behind the question and began laughing uncontrollably himself.

Dean's face flushed to a deep red in reaction when his brother found the moment to be perfect for chiming in, "She finally got you with that, huh? What'd you do this time to deserve 'the spoon'?"

"None. Of. Your. Goddamn. Business. Sammy!" he seethed before returning his glare to the two young women at the door, almost surprised to see that only the younger one was laughing heatedly; Nadia seemed almost as embarrassed as he was. "Lead the way to the attic." Offering a sheepish grin, Nadia bounced her head and took one step outside of the room… but not before grabbing her sister's arm and all but throwing her out of the room.

"G'night, Emmy." She spat vehemently, before returning to her flushed and embarrassed demeanor when Dean stepped out of his brother's room. "Sorry 'bout that… younger siblings, what a pain, huh?" the huntress fell silent once more when she received a brief apologetic smirk from the brother, and offered a quick 'watch your head' as she tugged at the dirtied white cord hanging from the ceiling as a ladder all but collapsed down to their feet. After showing him the roomy attic, she disappeared to her own quarters; leaving Dean to his own thoughts and nighttime preparations.

---

A couple of hours had passed and Dean lay awake in his bed pondering the days events and what trials and tribulations tomorrow could possibly bring when he heard—or thought he heard—the floor squeak gently on the opposite side of the room from the door; his body tensed a bit as he grasped the knife hidden beneath his pillow… nothing. But before he went back to trying fruitlessly to sleep, something clasped onto both of his wrists, cutting off any possibility of defending himself. Panic began to set in as he felt the mattress sink beside him from the added weight of something unseen; all left him when he felt the distinct pressure of a feminine leg run lightly over the blanket and boxer covered half of his body. Someone was sitting on him, someone had snuck into his room without him ever noticing… what bothered him, was how? "What the—"

"Calm down… it's just me." Nadia, the one person he was hoping it wouldn't be; she'd left him hanging on a proverbial whim earlier when Missouri and Emily had returned from the store… he'd been able to control himself and his desires then, he wasn't too sure he could do it again.

"How'd you get up here?"

"Secret entrance in my room."

"Really?"

"Yea…" at this point she'd let go of his hands and dismounted him, save for one leg which she kept curled over his; the rest of her had snuggled closely to his right side, right arm draped over his chest. "There's a door behind my closet."

"Oh… can I ask—" it took a lot for him not to squirm from how her hair tickled his chest.

"Why I'm up here…? No… I couldn't sleep, and couldn't help but notice that you were having the same problem." Fear, there was an obvious amount of fear in her voice; even an amateur hunter could have picked up on it.

"What's the matter?" Nothing… "Nadia…" Ok, I'm scared…I hate waiting. "Waiting for what?"

"You know…"

"It's a hard thing to wait around for, huh?" Yea, it's driving me nuts: the waiting, the wondering… how's it going to happen, where, at whose hands…at whose slip-up? He was about to say something when he heard the low sniffle, the feel of hot tears at the nape of his neck.

"I'm afraid it'll be my slip-up that gets her killed… that I'll get distracted and it'll be that little thing the…" he can tell she detests thinking about, even more then she does in talking about it.

"Nadia, it won't be your fault… and as far as we're concerned, it won't happen. Sam and I are going to do everything…"

"But what if everything you can do isn't enough? What if you can't do anything to help us? I can feel it in my bones… something's going to go south… and I'm going to lose the one thing I was able to save from the fires of our parents' death…"…and I'll be damned to wonder alone for the rest of my life, trying to hunt down and destroy the thing that brought my loved ones to ruin…

"Don't talk, or think like that… ever again, Nadia." He said as he turned himself over to where he was now laying on top of her, more or less forcing her to look him straight in the eye. It was difficult for both of them to keep the contact from breaking: Dean knew that in order to get through to her, he had to keep contact with the scared and hopeless dark orbs, which were already tearing up with streams of guilt running away from the pained eyes; while Nadia couldn't look away from the determined, sharp hazel eyes tearing their way into her heart and soul in search for the tiniest shred of hope within her. "Even if anything happens to your sister… you think Sammy and me are going to let you waste away alone and meander the back roads of this country knee deep in guilt? No way; we've known you one friggin' day, and you've already become…"

Before he could even form his next words, she'd looped her arms around his neck and pulled him down into a tight hug; one which he knew was all she had to show her thanks, the sob that followed the initial presentation of the embrace solidified that fact to Dean. Rolling back to where he'd been a moment ago, he returned the embrace, letting her know that she'd never be alone again… no matter what it took. Smoothing the blood red hair away from her face he realized, in his solace, she'd fallen into a light and—for once—relaxed slumber.

They laid in each others arms like that for the rest of the night, peacefully anticipating what the next day would bring.

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A/N: The way I've been seeing it in my mind, at the top of the stairs first thing you see is the door to Nadia's room, then Emily's, then the first guest room—which turns out to be Sam's—and at the end of the hall, there's a linen closet followed by the last room; Missouri's…BUT, the sizing of the first two rooms is drastically different than the spacing between the two from the aspect of viewing the hallway. As you guys can guess, it's because of the secret stairway Nadia has that connects her room to the attic, which is the local of guest bedrooms number 2… a room where our other favorite Winchester will be residing. Hmm… a lot of opportunity for sneaking about, yes? Just a little side note for ya; warning, though, next chapter is pretty crazy... just be ready to go "WHAT THE HELL!" Hehe, enjoy and review as you see fit. Later!