5 pm

With a gun at his back, John Winchester walked deeper into jungle. He was barely conscious of what was happening to him. Taking stock, John assessed his situation. His men were dead. His commanding officer is some sort of demon and the possibility of seeing Mary and the baby were pretty slim. Even worse, his best friend was dead, killed by his own hand. He would never forgive himself for what happen to Dean. His best friend deserved a better fate. Feeling his anger build, John was determined to find his way out of the situation. Behind him, he could hear Hathaway chuckling.

"Your anger comes off of you in waves." said an amused Hathaway. "That's good."

"What the hell you do want from me?" snapped an angry John.

Hathaway now laughed openly. "I told you I was looking for a worthy adversary."

John stopped still. He was not going to move anymore. If Hathaway was going to kill him, he had better go ahead and do it here. John Winchester was not about to be set up for some battle he had no chance of winning. He turned and faced Hathaway with a face that was resolute.

"Go ahead and kill me." said John. "I'm not going to let you use me."

Hathaway's amusement turned to anger. His eyes glowed yellow. He pointed the gun at John and gestured for him to move.

"Move it, Winchester" snarled Hathaway "or you are a dead man."

It was John's turn to laugh and he did so loudly. "You're going to kill me anyway, so why not do it here?"

For a moment, time seemed to stop. Hathaway simply stared at John without any emotion. Then before John could react, Hathaway charged him. The men tussled on the ground with John getting the upper hand and shoving his knife into Hathaway's body.

Hathaway started laughing.

"Common weapons can't kill me Johnny" said Hathaway. "Haven't you figured that out by now?"

Pulling the knife from his body, Hathaway looked at it with amusement and threw it away. John watched him warily. Hathaway was right; he could not be killed by conventional weapons. Despite all of his training as a Marine, John was not prepared to take on a demon. He was going to have to think his way through it. Getting up, he looked at Hathaway. How the hell do you kill a demon?

As he and Hathaway circled each other, it suddenly occurred to John that if there was evil in the world, then there had to be good. John was never a religious person, although he was raised Catholic. His parents forced him to go to Sunday school and John remembered several prayers that he learned from the nuns, including a prayer of protection against demons. John had always laughed his way through it never taking them seriously. Who, thought John grimly, that he was getting trained to deal with a situation like this?

Remembering his prayer of protection, John began to recite it. Upon hearing it, Hathaway began to recoil, then sneer at John. Finally, the black smoke began to leave Hathaway's body. Hathaway managed to stop shaking and then fixated on John.

"This isn't over Winchester" sneered John "I'm coming after you and your family."

John picked up his gun and aimed it at Hathaway's head. "You're not touching my family."

Hathaway laughed as his face began to contort. "Your wife and your boys will be in hell, and I'll leave you alive to suffer."

John took careful aim and shot Hathaway through the head. This time, the black smoke left Hathaway's body and went back into the forest. Looking at the body of his former commanding officer, John knew that this was the beginning of something much bigger than himself. He still didn't know what the demon meant by worthy adversary, but he knew that he would have to guard himself and his family from whatever was to come.