Life is complicated.
It twists and it turns like a roller coaster racing down a track toward some distant fate. Just when you think you have everything figured out, the ground drops out from under you and you plunge downward again. Sam Winchester knew all about plunges.
Dean…why don't we have a Mom—
If you go out that door you can never come back, never—
I love you…I love you so much, Jess—
I'm a freak—some kind of connection with the yellow eyed demon—
Dad's dead—in Hell—what could you possibly say to make it better Sam—
Dean, you're reckless—over and over again. I can't lose you too. Don't shut me out—please—
Save Sam, kill Sam—I wish to God he'd never opened his mouth! You have to promise me—
Tick-tock. One year—that's it, that's all, no more time. No solution. How could you, Dean—
Life is complicated.
Sam was tired of plunging down that track. He wanted off. He wanted to climb back up to the top and start over again. He wanted a second chance at a normal life—where everyone he knew didn't die because of him. Where he could talk about ordinary things like the weather and think of ghosts, vampires, and demons as fictional creatures in television programs.
But that was impossible. It was too late, far too late. His normal life was gone along with all the dreams that had slipped like glittering stars between his fingers.
Patch me up, Mom. Patch me up, Dad. Patch me up, Jess.
No.
No more clinging to the past.
It was time to let go of all the pain and fear that had weighed him down for so many years. It was time to embrace his future, no matter how uncertain it looked.
Sam Winchester stepped forward, his black eyes focused on the lead demon that was battling his brother and a few of the hellhounds. Dean was tiring, and Sam knew that at any second he might make a fatal mistake.
The other demons were too busy fighting the hellhounds to notice as Sam slowly made his way across the floor. Their leader had his back to him, snarling as he threw the hellhounds into a wall and turned triumphantly to Dean. "End of the road, boy!" he exclaimed with a maniacal gleam in his eyes. He swung his knife down, the blade pointed straight towards Dean's heart—
Dean vanished, and the sharp blade sliced through the air where he had been standing.
The demon blinked, momentarily stunned. "What—" he trailed off and then turned around slowly, realizing what had happened. His gaze locked on Sam's. "You."
Dean reappeared right beside his brother, and Sam reached out a hand to steady him before he could fall face forward onto the floor.
"S-sam?" Dean questioned shakily, disoriented. He blinked his eyes hard to try to clear his vision. "What…what just happened?"
"I stopped you from becoming swiss cheese." Sam said, shrugging, keeping his eyes locked on the demon.
Dean shook his head to clear his spinning mind and then instinctively looked up at Sam to see if he was hurt at all. "Yeah, well, next time warn me before you pull a Houdini and use me as a prop."
The demon scowled at Sam. "There won't be a next time." He spat fiercely.
Sam shrugged and smiled faintly at the demon. He knew that he should be worried—after all, he was about to go up against an experienced demon—but for the first time in his life, standing in a room full of demons and hellhounds, he wasn't scared. "Dean, get behind me." He said authoritatively.
Dean blinked. His eyes narrowed in protest—there was no way that he was letting his little brother fight this freak by himself. He looked up at Sam and opened his mouth to say no—they were in this mess together, after all—but one glance at his brother stopped him. Sam was staring at the demon, his head held high, matching the intensity of its gaze. He looked calm, confident. There wasn't a shed of doubt or fear in his brother's black eyes. Dean exhaled slowly as the realization hit him: this wasn't his fight…it was Sam's.
For the first time in his life he stepped back, his shoulder brushing against Sam's as he moved. "Be careful, Sammy." He said softly.
The demon grinned. "Don't worry Sammy," he spat mockingly, "After you're dead I'll take great care of your brother."
Sam cocked his head to the side, studying the demon with a bemused expression. "If you try to kill me you're going to lose." He said matter-of-factly, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "You're much weaker than Lilith…and she's dead. Just surrender now."
The demon snarled. "Lilith was weak. I can defeat you easily." He boasted, and without another word he thrust his hands out.
Sam felt power slam into his body—hard—but he was prepared this time and blocked it before it could do any damage. In the back of his mind he was aware that all of the other demons had quieted and were staring towards them—watching, waiting.
The demon let out a howl of rage and attacked him again with a larger burst of energy, but Sam anticipated the attack and responded with a wave of enormous energy of his own. The two blasts met in the middle with an explosion of light and sound and then ricocheted off and blasted a hole in the nearest wall.
Sam laughed. "Ready to surrender?"
The demon snarled. "Ready to die?" he spat, shaking in anger. He waved his arm and a heavy bookcase shot towards Sam.
Sam raised his hand at the last moment and the bookcase froze, suspended in the air inches away from him. He lowered his arm and the bookcase dropped harmlessly to the floor. "You can't beat me." He said simply. "Your powers are nothing but parlor tricks compared to mine."
The demon thrust his hands into the air in one final desperate attempt. White-hot flames shot out of his fingertips, surrounding the brothers with unbearable heat and smoke. Sam stopped the flames inches away from his skin—he could feel Dean pressing up against his back. There was no escape, certain death pressed in on them from all sides.
Sam smiled.
The demon watched with satisfaction as the flames enveloped his challenger and continued to grow, filling half the room with a flaming inferno. He wasn't taking any chances this time. Beads of sweat rolled down his face from the insufferable heat, but he didn't bother to wipe them away—he relished it. This was his creation, his power—how dare the boy question his ability? How dare he demean him in front of all his followers?
He turned toward his fellow demons, the flames casting ghostly shadows across his face. "Let's go." He said simply, "We have work to do."
He moved to walk away, but something caught his eye—the flames were receding. He watched in surprise as the flames quickly vanished, gone in the blink of an eye. Sam and Dean were left standing close together, unhurt, surrounded by the charred remains of what had been the little girl's bedroom. Sam's eyes were shut, his hands clutched into tight fists at his side.
"Impossible." The demon breathed. "Where did the fire go?"
Sam opened his eyes.
The demon took an involuntary step back. "Holy shit." he muttered in disbelief.
Sam's eyes were flaming pinpoints of red and orange light. He held out one hand, palm up, and concentrated, and a large ball of raging flames appeared floating inches above his hand. "Into me." He said simply, answering the demon's question.
No one moved. No one even breathed. Every demon in the room kept its eyes glued on Sam in anticipation, waiting to see what he would do.
Sam's fiery eyes bore into the lead demon's, flames dancing above his open palm. "Surrender. Now." He said, his voice cold and commanding. It wasn't a request.
The demon looked at Sam with a strange glint in his eye. He smiled slightly, knowing when he was beaten. "Never." He said firmly.
Sam nodded, and then with one swift motion he hurled the fireball straight at the demon. It cut through his chest like butter, killing him instantly, and left behind a sizzling hole in his flesh. The body fell lifelessly to the floor and lay still. Nothing else happened—no black cloud erupted out of the host's mouth, no sign occurred to show that the demon had escaped.
It hadn't. The demon had ceased to exist.
Sam stared at the body for a moment and then held one hand out towards it. After a few seconds the hole in the man's chest began closing and repairing itself and the melted side of his face began healing rapidly. Tissue regenerated and blood began flowing again. Sam kept this up for a few more seconds and then lowered his hand back to side, finished.
The man bolted upright with a gasp. "W-what—" he stared around wildly, his gaze darting rapidly from the people with horrible black eyes to the growling beasts with sharp claws and teeth dripping with hot saliva. His eyes finally settled on the man with the flaming eyes standing only feet away from him. He whimpered.
Sam winced. "It's okay, you're safe—"
The man leapt up and bolted out the door, screaming at the top of his lungs.
"People these days..." Ruby groaned. "Ungrateful jerks."
Sam turned in surprise and watched her slowly climb to her feet. "Are you okay?"
She glared at him. "Peachy, Sam. Just freakin' peachy." She glanced over at the other side of the room. "This isn't over yet."
Sam turned. All the other demons were staring directly at him, their black eyes wide open and staring. The hellhounds were standing at their feet, growling deep in their throats.
Sam stood his ground and stared back at the demons fearlessly, ready for anything. He waited, blood pounding through his veins in anticipation. He had never felt so alive, so elated.
This was what he had been doing his whole life—fighting demons, saving people. Embracing his powers didn't make him evil, and it didn't alter what he believed in. It made him whole, complete. He had rejected that part of him for so long, held back out of raw fear of what he might become, that he had never even considered that his powers wouldn't consume him and turn him evil.
His character was too strong, too full of good, to be altered so completely.
He was the same person he'd always been, he was still Sam—just stronger.
"This could get ugly." Ruby muttered, warily eyeing the demons as she waited for them to strike.
Seconds slowly crawled by...
Then, one by one, the demons dropped to their knees on the ground before Sam, averting their eyes from his gaze in complete submission.
Sam's eyes narrowed and his mouth fell open slightly as he realized what was happening—the demons all saw him as their new leader now that he had proved his superiority. He expelled his breath, slightly shocked. Of all the things he had expected the demons to do, this wasn't one of them.
"Oh…my…God." Ruby murmured, astonished.
Sam concentrated on breathing. The entire demon population was at his disposal, not just the demons in the room, and they were all waiting for his command. The implications of that were just too massive for Sam to comprehend, and for a moment he was terrified.
This was exactly what his father had feared.
Sam's mind went blank. He didn't know what to do—
A strong hand grasped his shoulder and gave it a small squeeze. Dean. Sam turned his head slowly, afraid of what he might see in his brother's gaze.
"Sam." Dean said softly, sensing his brother's reluctance. "Sammy, look at me."
Sam met his gaze, searching for any scrap of fear, horror, or disgust in his eyes. If he saw a hint of any one of those things from his big brother…from Dean…from the only person that had always supported and stood by him…
Dean inwardly winced when Sam finally looked at him—not because of his flaming eyes, but because his brother looked like a wounded puppy dog waiting to be kicked. Sam was terrified. Dean knew his brother better than anyone else in the world, and he understood what was going through his mind—the doubts, the insecurities. He once again cursed his father's final words and obvious lack of faith. "Sammy…" he began softly.
Sam tensed, waiting.
Dean paused, and then gave him a trademark smirk. "Dude…you're such a show-off."
Sam let out the breath he had been holding as the corners of his mouth turned upward slightly. Somehow Dean always knew exactly what he needed to hear.
Sensing that he had said the right thing, Dean gave Sam an encouraging smile and squeezed his shoulder once more before letting go.
Sam turned back to the demons, his confidence restored. They hadn't moved at all, and were still waiting for him to speak. He stepped toward them, eyes flashing. "Look at me and pay attention." He snapped commandingly.
Every eye in the room snapped instantly to his, their gazes unwavering and absolute. In the back of his mind Sam could feel the gazes of all the other demons outside—and everywhere else—all focused on him.
Absolute power.
Sam felt a shiver travel up his spine. He could command them to do anything and they would do it willingly and without question—anything.
His eyes narrowed as he studied them all. "I could rip you all apart without even trying." he said coldly, "Remember that. There's nowhere you can go that I can't find you."
Ruby stared. Sam's voice—it was so cold, so eerie. It was the kind of voice that you couldn't help but obey, the kind of voice that you didn't dare disappoint. She wanted to look away, but her eyes were fixated on him, mesmerized.
"You will hang on my every word. You will do everything I command." Sam said darkly, pacing back and forth in between the demons. "I was always meant to be your leader. There will be no more mistakes, no more errors. I have plans for you. All of you."
The demons remained silent, waiting.
Sam glared at them, his eyes flashing dangerously. "Of course, I have to assume that some of you plan to oppose me…foolishly. Nothing can destroy me." He paused, and then frowned. "And for all who may have such foolish thoughts..." he trailed off, and then without warning a jet of fire hurled out of his hands, incinerating one of the demons a quarter of a second.
No one moved.
"Let that stand as a warning." Sam finished darkly. He glanced around cruelly, his fiery gaze meeting the gaze of each demon around him. "Listen carefully as I give orders…I will not repeat myself."
The demons' gazes seemed to intensify and the tension in the room had reached a peak. Ruby guessed that if someone had so much as coughed something would have exploded.
"I want you all to go to Hell and stay there until I personally call you back." Sam said authoritatively, his voice firm and clear. "My plans for you are for a future date…one that I have set and none of you need to know about. I will provide you with the remaining details when necessary, and only then." He paused, and his fiery eyes narrowed dangerously. "If any of you come back to Earth before I call you—and jeopardize the success of all that I have planned…" he trailed off. "I will not be forgiving. Do you understand?"
"Yes." The demons all said firmly, their black eyes determined and obedient.
"Then go." Sam said. "I will summon you when it is time."
The result was instantaneous—the hellhounds growled and then vanished in the blink of an eye, and black clouds expelled out of all the hosts as the demons complied with Sam's orders. He stood amongst them all, surrounded by blackness and corruption, until the giant mass poured out the broken window and was gone. The bodies of the abandoned hosts all slumped back onto the floor, unconscious but alive.
Sam looked back at Dean and Ruby, who were both staring at him with mirrored expressions of disbelief and shock. He grinned. "How was that?"
Dean shook his head, a small smile spreading across his face as he realized what his brother had just done. "Damn, Sammy…that…that was..." he trailed off, searching for a word to express his astonishment. "Incredible."
Sam's smile widened.
Ruby ran a hand over her face and raised her eyebrows. "Incredible?" she muttered, "More like frightening as hell."
Sam smirked. "And you said I was only as scary as a teddy bear…"
Thanks for reading! The next chapter is going to be the last, and it will wrap up all the loose ends (what happened to Bobby, what happens now that Sam's all-powerful, etc). I look forward to posting it, but until then…
PLEASE REVIEW!!