Title: Resurrection: Revisited [1/?]
Author: alakewood
Warnings: Spoilers for AHBL and No Rest for the Wicked.
Rating: PG
Word Count: ~760
Summary: I've never been content with how this story ended and it's taken me a while to convince my muse to return to it. Picking up shortly after where we left off, we find Sam going back to the cemetery, where he encounters Eligor.
Disclaimer: As always, I own nothing.
oxoxo
Smoke from some unseen fire made his eyes water and, combined with the stench of sulfur, made his lungs burn. Made his chest feel heavy. A hollow thudding began somewhere behind him, quietly at first but quickly grew louder. Sam was almost certain he was dreaming when the half-skeletal horse trotted through the smoke, towering above him, a dark-suited knight on its back.
But this wasn't a dream – Sam had returned to Resurrection Cemetery to face the demon that had attempted to strike a deal with his brother. He was standing just outside a police-taper barrier that had been erected a few yards beyond the granite marker where he'd found Dean days earlier, earth crumbled away to reveal a deep pit, Dean's bloody handprint contrasting starkly with the pale stone.
The horse snorted, tearing Sam away from his thoughts and back to the present. He raised his eyes to the demon's face, partially hidden by the visor of his helmet. "Samuel Winchester," his guttural voice said, sounding almost pleased.
"I thought...I thought Dean had...sent you back?" Sam didn't like the way his voice wavered, hinting at the fear constricting his chest like the thick smoke that swirled about him like fog.
"I forgot how silly humans can be. Did you really think it would be that easy to get rid of me?" Eligor laughed, a low, gravelly sound. "I'm a Duke of Hell, boy. These small-time binding rituals don't work on demons like me. Remember Azazel? Our power is too immense to be bound by simple spells and blood-letting."
"But you disappeared."
"Just a little trick. Let your brother believe he'd been successful at containing me. But you, Samuel, you didn't trust your fate – or your brother's – to some quick and careless translation done by a machine. I knew you'd return, and here you are."
"I'm not making any deals with you."
Eligor chuckled again, the sound like boulders grinding together. "Then why did you come back, boy? You can't send me back to Hell. Your brother opened the portal. Only he can close it. But I'm not going anywhere until I get what I came for."
"I won't do it." His voice wavered again. "I can't."
"Come on, Sam. How much time does Dean have left? Five months? Four? You think you're going to find a deal as good as this one, you're wrong. I'm your last hope, boy. Face it, you turn this down, you'll be the one sealing your brother's fate."
That was a low blow, harsh but true. There didn't seem to another way, didn't seem to be time to find another way. "So, if I agree to this...what happens to Dean? You void the deal and he ends up dead anyway?"
Eligor shrugged, making the iron plates of his darkly burnished armor shriek. "Eventually. And probably at your hand. But at least he'll have a fighting chance. Of course, the alternative is declining my offer and allowing him to be torn to pieces by hellhounds. It's up to you, Samuel."
"What happens to me?"
Eligor sighed, like distant thunder, low and rumbling, and Sam could imagine the demon rolling his eyes as though he were enduring the burdensome questions of a child. "You will become what you've always been destined to be: commander of Azazel's army. After you have fully accepted your duty and have been thoroughly trained, you will command me as well."
"I will command you?" Sam echoed disbelievingly.
"And my sixty legions."
"Command you against what?"
"We will rise up from our infernal dungeon and lay siege to humanity, taking this world for our own. You will lead us in battle against the armies of Heaven and we will prevail."
Sam's stomach dropped, twisted. There was no way he could do it, no way he could go against everything he believed and become the thing he'd spent his whole life trying to kill.
"All I need is your word, Samuel. No blood, no ritual, no sacrifice. Just your word."
"I...I need to..."
"What? Discuss this with your brother?" the demon questioned, almost sounding amused.
"Yes. I can't just- just leave him. He needs to know-"
"He needs to know nothing."
"If I agree to this, it needs to be on my terms."
"Very well. I shall await you here. You have twenty-four hours."
Sam watched as the demon and his steed shimmered darkly, then dissipated with the smoke.
