The four of them were seated around an upturned wooden box, which upon Sam had placed his Colt.
"Your brother? Really?" Deacon said quietly.
"Wasn't he dead?" Gabriel put in.
Sam nodded grimly. "He was. This new demon, she pulled him back. I don't know why, but she took his soul out of Hell. Dean made some sort of deal with her and now he's going about with her army. He's their captain or whatever."
"Good going, genius. Now whatever little soldier spawn he's leading is going to come after us."
"Okay, so my judgement was a bit faulty at the time." Sam said curtly.
"A bit faulty? What do we do with him now? He's going to wake up sooner or later, and then he wont be quite so easy to hold."
"Thank you, Captain Obvious." Deacon shot at Gabriel. "What's the deal with this new demon, then?"
Sam seemed more at ease as soon as the subject was changed from his brother. "She's calling herself the Mother among her followers, but her name is Lilith."
"Hm." Deacon said. "That's not surprising. For hundreds of years Lilith has been associated with Night Demons and witchcraft. Supposedly she was banished years ago."
"Banished to where?" Jo asked.
"How should I know?"
"Anyway," Sam cut in. "From what I've been told, she's gathering the souls of each person that was ever sent to Hell and bringing them back as some sort of drone army. The Damned."
"But I'm sure we would have noticed if she had started attacking people." Deacon said. "Someone would have heard something."
Sam shook his head. "She wants to conquer Hell first."
That time no one replied.
"She's not going to declare all-out war on us yet because she thinks we might kill a lot of us ourselves first."
"Then she can just step in and take over." Gabriel said grimly.
"She's got these drones out doing whatever she tells them, and then she has all these other creatures she's managed to capture or enthral doing whatever. Dean tried to kill me. Twice. I don't know why. I don't know what any of the other things are doing for her for certain, except that some of them are hunting hunters."
"What are you talking about?"
"Remember three months ago? All those people suddenly up and vanished. And we couldn't find any records on them?" Jo asked. Deacon reluctantly nodded.
"Not just three months ago. People are still disappearing, leaving no more behind than a parking ticket." He said. "Me and Carmen are poking around a little bit to see if we can find anything."
"You've teamed up with Carmen Lorenzo?"
"Jo, let the man finish." Gabriel said impatiently.
"We strongly suspect that all those people that vanished were hunters."
"It would explain the lack of records."
"I could have told you that." Deacon folded his arms.
"Right. If that wasn't coincidence enough, there was something else linking all the disappearances. The word 'Ragnarok' was left behind at each abduction site. At first I thought it might have something to do with Norse mythology, but as I investigated further away from the area where it all started, the word began to change."
"The word changed?"
"Sometimes it was 'End', 'Apocalypse, 'Armageddon', and so forth. Even some in Chinese and Latin."
"Sounds like this demon chic wants everyone, no matter where we're from, to know that we're all going to die." Deacon said in an offhand manner. "Giving us a sporting chance. Seeing what we're going to do about it."
"There's a problem." Sam said.
"Only one problem?"
"The only way we can take her down is to create an army ourselves, an army of hunters. And that's easier said than done, considering how fifteen minutes ago we were all about ready to go for each other's throats. And that's with only four of us."
"Imagine four hundred, or thousand, or however many hunters in the world. That close for God knows how long? We'd kill each other." Jo said.
"We made a start here, though."
"What?"
"Instead of killing each other we put the guns away to reach some semblance of an accord." Deacon said. "That's the first step, right? Putting away the weapons and talking."
"Please don't tell me you're getting suckered in by all this teamwork rot." Gabriel scoffed. "A hunter works best alone."
"Do you know Ellen Harvelle's place?" Gabriel shook his head. "Then you probably know Danny Moriarty, Luthor Richards or Megan Locke instead. They all run places where a hunter can grab a drink, a bed or some information. They've been in this gig for longer than most of us here have been alive and they'll tell you that a hunter is at his most powerful when he's got people to back him up."
"Yeah, but they're another generation, huh? They did things differently back then."
Jo rolled her eyes. "We wouldn't be here having this conversation if it wasn't for people like them."
"And just because things were done differently back then doesn't mean they were any better or worse than here, now. But we've got to stop fighting ourselves and start fighting the enemy."
"What do you propose?"
Sam picked his Colt up off the box. He studied the way it fit so snugly into his hand, made for him only. It was almost amazing that a device so small could create so much damage to those around it.
"Sam?"
"Choose how you want to die." He said. "We're going to war."
Although they were only four, it was a start.
And a day later four became five, with the arrival of the sultry Carmen Lorenzo in their midst. She swept their hidey-hole with those blue-grey eyes, before cataloguing each of the other hunters, silently evaluating them in turn.
She turned to Sam. "Good to see you again."
"Carmen," He greeted with a nod of his head.
Then Jo remembered something from when they had gone back to Nebraska. "Hey, I never asked before, but why were you calling her when we went to the Roadhouse?"
"Hasn't Sam told you yet?" Carmen gave a dangerous little smile, showing too many teeth.
Jo narrowed her eyes. "Told me what?" Please tell me you're not dating her. You can do so much better.
Sam looked awkward, and Jo thought she'd hit the nail on the head. Then it slowly came out. "A long time ago I was getting really serious about a girl. But she had some… nocturnal activities that were a danger to other people. She asked me to kill her."
"Nocturnal activities?" Gabriel echoed. "What sort of nocturnal activities?"
Sam and Carmen exchanged uncomfortable looks. "Nothing you need to know." Sam said shortly. "Carmen's…"
"She was my best friend." Carmen said. "And I was determined to find whoever killed her. Eventually I got to Sam."
"And also found a voodoo smuggling ring at the same time-"
"-Which we busted up-"
"-And burned to the ground."
"Sounds like one hell of a party," Deacon remarked.
"I understood why he did what he did to her. They were both too self-sacrificing for their own good."
"Hardly anyone ever caught me before, so I asked Carmen how she did it. She didn't want to tell me, so I put her in touch with Danny Moriarty who owns a pub not far from here."
"And I've been working there ever since, giving Sam a nudge in the right direction when he calls."
"Oh."
"Our kind of pub."
"So, you're not going to try and shoot us or anything?" Deacon asked.
"Why would I want to do that?"
"'Cause that's basically what the lot of us did before we became the Fantastic Four." Gabriel said. "Damn near pulled the trigger on all of them."
"Guess it's more like the Fabulous Five now." Deacon remarked. "If you're in."
"Are you?" Sam turned to her.
Carmen's steely complexion didn't flicker.
"Who would I be to say no to all these puppy-dog eyes?" She asked seriously.
Jo laughed.
Sam smiled. "Ladies and gentlemen, the army has started recruiting."
From the start of life
To my dying day
In the dark of night
And the burning light of day
It's a bloody fight
But I can't walk away
I'm prime for the front line.
Long Disclaimer and Author's Note following:
The opening lyrics of Unholy War belong to Alice Cooper, and all associated with him.
I don't own anything out of the Supernatural universe.
I do own Gabriel, Deacon, Carmen, Cerberus and the Mother.
Lilith supposedly existed(exists) and seems interchangeable with Night Demon or Storm Demon. She was also held responsible for spreading disease among young children.
The evil ghosts that spring from the blood of a murder victim are allegedly real. Villagers would nail an iron spike in the blood spatter so nothing could come out to haunt them.
These stories started in that time where it wasn't clear whether Supernatural would get a third season, so all of this will become AU later on. There will be at least one more story to round things out, possibly more depending on if anyone wants to see what happens next.
They put Sam and Jo together as partners seven years in a future where Sam wasn't able to save Dean at the end of one year. Hypothetically. And I'm surprised at how many people don't like Jo. We haven't seen enough of her for her character to be fully rounded out yet, that's all. And Dean…
As you've probably guessed, he's only evil for now.
Once again, thanks to all that reviewed and all that read without reviewing.
Next time:
HUNTED
Sam and Jo have gone recruiting after being given the impossible task of creating an army, but have a small problem. No one will believe them about Lilith and the danger she brings.
Meanwhile, way back in Minnesota, Deacon and Gabriel are keeping an eye on the recently awake Dean. But when he doesn't try to escape, they know there's something wrong. Is the new demon going to attack them from within?
With Lilith's Clan poised to attack, Dean planning away his solitude, monsters slaughtering lone hunters and lesser creatures running away from the devastation, do Sam's small band of followers stand a chance?
On the bright side, Bobby's back. And he has company.