All right. Anybody else thinking that we need to know what's going on here? Time to get some answers!

Chapter 4

Between How It Is And How It Should Be

"Oh, so now you believe me?"

Sam stepped closer, suddenly unable to breathe, unable to think, unable to do anything but stare at the brother he thought he'd lost. "You're kinda a hypocrite," he managed.

"Excuse me?"

Sammy shrugged, his strength slowly returning. He dropped the remote back onto the scratched wooden table and returned his knife to its designated place at his side. "Well, yeah. You sell your soul so you won't have to be alone, but in doing so you leave me all alone and you won't let me save you. You say that possession is a fate worse than death when that is clearly not your body-"

"I can explain that," Dean defended.

"I'd love you hear your excuse." He smiled, letting himself relax completely. He was sure of it now, could feel it in his heart, in his soul. If this thing wasn't Dean, if it was lying, he would know. He had sixth sense about those things now.

"It's a long story. You might want to take a seat."

Sam plopped down on the bed beside his brother, apparently closer than Dean had anticipated, by the look on his stolen face. "What?"

"Nothing. Just been a while since we last cuddled." He smirked. "So, anyway, this kid…"

"How old is he?"

"'Bout nineteen."

"How old was he?"

"Fourteen."

Sam stood up. "Fourteen? You hijacked a teenager?"

Dean shook his head. "There were extenuating circumstances. When the Gate opened up again five years ago, I kinda let myself out, hopped into the first guy I could find. I told his family he was going on a business trip for a couple of days and drove to the closest city. I found a doctor at a childrens' hospital-"

"You were trolling for kids?"

The demon cocked an eyebrow. "Now you're making me sound like Michael Jackson. It wasn't like that. I had a plan. I used the doctor to find a kid. This kid, obviously. He'd been in a car accident when he was twelve. Hit by a drunk driver. Tyler here had been brain-dead ever since, folks playing God and keeping him alive like he was some sort of Frankenstein's monster."

"So…?"

"So the lights were on, but nobody was home. Hell, the lights weren't even supposed to be on."

"So, what, you just hopped right in and hit the road?"

Dean nodded. "Pretty much. Had the pretty doctor cover for me."

"She trusted a demon?"

"Different times, Sammy. The war'd been raging for a while, and some people were starting to take notice. She just happened to be one. Guess she figured out I was a good guy."

Sam sat back down, looking at his brother with hard eyes. "So it's just you in there?"

"Kid's long gone, yeah."

"And you're really…?"

He smiled, a sad smile, so small that Sam barely even saw it. "A demon? More or less. I'm a newbie. Too weak to do anything worthwhile by most standards."

"You read my mind."

"And I burst a blood vessel in the kid's brain. Not that it matters."

Sammy shook his head and let out a small chuckle, the first since his brother's death. "What happened, Dean? Everything's so… different. I mean, there's gotta be a reason for it."

"Like I said, long story. Remember how killing that yellow-eyed son of a bitch left the door open for Lily to step up and try her hand at killing you?"

"Yeah," Sam said, a ghost of a smile forming across his face as he turned back to his brother, "why?"

"Well, when you killed her, you left it open for something even worse to step up. I mean, we're talking something smart and expertly trained and totally indifferent to everyone and everything."

"And it opened the Gate?"

"Well, it tried its hand at hunting first. Went after anything and anyone that might stand in its way. A lot of god people were lost. And this thing had some pretty deep ties to Hell. It didn't want to, so it decided to break 'em."

"How'd it do that?"

"It built up an army. Any demon that would follow it. The ones that didn't got themselves killed. And it went after more hunters, a few civilians. It killed Ben's mom when he was about fifteen. Killed Ellen and Bobby. Killed Tamara. And that guy Creedy that tried to kill you in Black rock. Got 'em all."

Sam shook his head. "That doesn't make sense. If it was trying to break away from Hell-"

"It didn't break away. It broke in. Opened up a Gate and marched right in. Started recruiting. It killed a lot of demons that day, but it beefed up its army so much that nothing could stop it."

"And that's when you got out?"

Dean nodded. "Yep. Five years ago, I barely snuck by. I saw the thing, though, and it scared me. It was so cold, so different than I'd thought. I mean, we heard rumors, in the pit, about what was going on up top, but I never imagined…"

"So this thing breaks out an army of demons, how does that help it?"

"It doesn't. It kinda lost its purpose. Forgot what it was going into Hell for. Power corrupts, and this thing got a lot of it fast. It just took over from there. Really hostile. Some people died. Most were possessed. It's a brave new world out there, with demons walking around like they own the place."

Sam sighed, looking back down at his hands. "What about you? You seem fine."

Dean just shrugged. "Twenty years in the pit isn't enough to forget who you are. And I slipped by. Black eyes are like a get-outta-jail-free card now. A few of us are trying to fight it, but it's just not enough."

"What if I fought it?" He looked back up at his brother. "What if I go back and-"

Dean shook his head. "Not gonna work. It destroyed everything that could destroy it. No Colt. No knife. No time travel."

"But what if we found a way? I could go back and kill it in the past, stop this from happening."

"I don't think you want to do that."

"Why not? Dean, this isn't a future, this is Hell on Earth. If I can stop it-"

"You can't kill it."

"Sure I can. Just tell me what it is, and where to find it. I can stop this from ever happening. I can save the world. Dean, I can kill it."

"No, Sam. You can't."

"Why not?"

Dean sighed, dropping his gaze to the floor. "Because it's you."