Chapter 13

Dean could still Hear Sam in the back of his mind...the voice flickering in and out as if some phantom sound of desperation and pain...he couldn't stir...couldn't make his brain send the message to move to his body...couldn't even force his heavy lids open as his chest fought to rise and fall against the waning strength that remained.

"Dean " There was an intense pounding against something solid nearby as the screaming continued.

He always had truly believed that his life would flash before his eyes should he die...but all he could see today was Alturoc on that damned roof top...the whole of the world dying...feeling Malachi ripped from his body on the return trip...watching the plane explode in the night sky as the tears threatened to spill...and then something else...something he hadn't seen before...noticed that night.

"Oh God." Dean's lips parted a moment from his position on the floor but the words in his head only managed to come out in a puff of breath that seemed to shimmer in the dimly lit room...it floated upward in a spiraling halo of growing brilliance as Dean was locked into the vision of the explosion. He finally understood the strength of the gods that they had harbored...Two weakened brilliant lights had escaped that plane. Why hadn't he noticed that before? Had he been in too much of a state of shock...his body too far in the throws of the magic...too sick...to hurt... Alturoc's true intentions were becoming clear now...so painstakingly clear.

Inan had died that night in whatever God awful magic Alturoc used in the sending...and Malachi had been used to destroy the plane but the forces in effect weren't enough to destroy Danisheyal and Malachi completely...something had remained... as the playback from the his return kept going Dean suddenly saw both shimmering remnants slam into his own body right before he tumbled to the ground unconscious.

They must have been in as bad a shape as he was at the time from the magic...but by god he had both brother's inside him. "Jesus." Dean actually got the word out as his eyes slowly opened. He could feel the power building around him...swirling inside him...rushing in frantic waves as the fractured beings inside him worked to save their host. To keep themselves alive as much as him.

Dean couldn't control the magic...the forces at work now...he could only lay there...feeling helpless to stop whatever it was they were about to do.

Sam slammed his hand against the barrier so long and hard that it was bleeding as the tears were soaking into the base of his neck - into the T- shirt there...sobs racking his body...and then Dean moved...actually said something, though the word was lost to Sam.

Sam's whispered 'Dean' couldn't possibly be heard by his brother. Sam gasped falling backwards to his backside as a shimmer of a breath was torn from Dean's body now arching back breakingly heavenward as what looked like a silent scream took hold of his brother. "Dean " Sam screamed again forcing himself forward against the barrier - god what were they doing to him.

That's when Sam notice the fear sweep through one of the guards...and the attendants that had been cutting on Gabriel were turning to look now...dropping the knife...

Dean's silent scream was mirrored out loud a second later as everyone man standing inside the barrier grasped at their chest and hit their knees. The screams tore through the room in an agonizing crescendo of horror as their souls were ripped simultaneously from each of them cutting off that unison cry of pain and death in one instant as all the life force began to flow into Dean.

"Get this thing down " Sam was screaming at Nessa and she was already on the move running for the door fear showing on what should have been an emotionless face. Suddenly though Sam couldn't managed to catch his breath and his hand went instinctively to his chest...as he heard Nessa cry out and fall into the door frame also clutching at her breast - panting for breath.

"Dean " Sam managed to scream out one last time before his voice was completely lost to the drain on his strength...the pain flowing through him...from him...spiraling away from him. The barrier before him shimmered and then flickered showing itself before it began to crack like breaking glass. The spider web cracks began to consume the whole of the wall until all at once it gave one last flickering groan before bursting into a brilliant flash of light. Sam saw the power through blurring vision flow into his brother as well.

Sam was clawing his way to Dean now...feeling his own life slowly seeping away as he tried to get to the falling body. "Dean." Sam grunted out not sure what in the hell was happening...not sure he wanted to know. The guards were dead...the attendants gone...Gabriel was even lifeless now eyes staring blankly... "Dean." It was a mantra of fear and hope all at once.

Sam was moving on pure will as he finally sank to lay on his stomach next to Dean. Still he could see the even rise and fall of Dean's chest. He took in the healed cuts that had been set in deep into Dean's forearms...could see the wounds from the days past were gone...and Dean was opening his eyes...blinking rapidly before Sam felt the rest of his own strength wane and he collapsed there next to him managing a slight smile before his body gave into the blackness.

Dean opened his eyes feeling the strong iron that had bound him to the posts fall away from his wrists in a creaking broken clank. He sat up easily expecting the pain and fever to give him a fight against it, but when none was offered he looked around in confusion to the bodies on the floor.

It took him a moment o even notice that one of them was Sam...that Nessa was also out in the doorway. "Oh God...god - Sam? " Dean scrambled to Sam on his knees and gently prodded his neck feeling for a pulse. When the weak response pulsed against his fingers Dean felt a sigh escape him as he closed his eyes trying like hell to remember what had just happened. It was like some crazy blur of power...upon power...upon power hitting him like bolts of electricity.

Dean got to his feet and began to check on the people closest to him...to feel for pulses...he started getting more and more worried as all the remaining men including Gabriel in the circle were lacking one...Dean turned to look at Nessa and went at a run to her. "Come on...come on...be alive." Fingers were shaking now as they prodded her neck and he came back at another gasp of relief that she was alive. "What the..." Dean's voice mirrored the fear trembling through his body as he looked to the stairwell before him and he didn't hear anything...not even the flutter of muffled that life that should have been coming from above.

Dean rose to his feet his gaze locked on the dark corridor that led upward as fear turned to agonizing terror....the color draining from his face...he looked back to Sam and decided against leaving his brother here before checking it out.

It was on his way back to get Sam that the memory hit him in a jolt of understanding. Dean looked to his forearms seeing the lack of wounds and then frantically swept a hand under his shirt...god...oh god...he was pulling it over his head for a better look tearing at the gauze and tape feeling staples and thread falling from healed wounds - the scars from it all still visible and tender under his fingers. "God...no..." Dean's tear streaked vision danced over the dead and unconscious as he spun around in a circle realization sinking in deep.

Malachi was still inside him...and Danisheyal...in some form...and they had just killed 14 people to save him...to heal him...There was no telling what was wrong with everyone else but if he had done this...if had...God...oh God ...no... Dean forced himself to look at Gabriel as he wiped at the tears still falling...felt the sob tear through his chest. No...and Sam...Dean closed his eyes and wiped his hand down his face as he forced the numbing shock away to take care of his brother. He moved to him and carefully pulled him into his arms - angled him over his shoulder and made his way past Ness stepping over her body to get to the stairs. He could come back for her...do something...he just had to find Bobby - Ambre...tell someone something...make sure he kept Sam and Ambre safe..

Dean could feel his mind folding in on itself as he tightened his jaw willing himself to just keep moving - to get some help - to not think about it. What he had just done...what was still inside him...the new addition. No he wasn't thinking about it...wasn't going to let himself...

Dean stepped into the blackened corridor and felt the gasp hitch in his throat as he almost dropped Sam feeling his own knees growing weak. It was so quiet...so quiet. He forced himself onward and onward through the twists and turned until the got to the main corridor. Dean's eyes widened as he slowly began to set Sam down unable to take the weight...

Frantic and sobbing Dean ran into the bodies slumped against the walls as he checked for pulse after pulse. He was on the thirtieth person having found a few more dead now...hearts weak...but most were still alive... "Bobby." Dean was still crying - the shock winding deep as he began scrambling over bodies to find Bobby - to find Ambre.

Half an hour later in the dead silence of the deathly compound he had found them...alive save for Ben...but those that had lived hadn't woken yet... none of them...and there were so many more dead then he originally thought...Dean silently made his way up the hidden stairways to the world above to the building that served as cover for the compound...more tears came as he saw secretaries slumped over their desks in the simple office building...he kept going...walking past cubicle after cubicle...numb...unable to process the thoughts that should have been racing through his mind. He was on the roof long before he even let the strength of his will wane enough to take his legs out from under him...to let him fall to his knees in the center of the gravelly flat rooftop.

Broken and sobbing he poured out his guilt in waves of agony as hands fell to the gravel there too and his stomach revolted forcing heaves of nothingness to gag on - to put a break in the tears. They were inside him...and had killed 34 people to heal him...knocked out an entire compound of people...just to save him...God...he was responsible for that...wether he could control it or not...it was him...Alturoc be damned...damn him...this was supposed to be fixed...this was supposed to be just the two of them...the fight of the century and Dean had two gods piggy backing him.

The sliver of anger cut through the pain...cut in deep and gave him just a fraction of a second of relief. Just a fraction, but it was enough...enough for him to pound a fist into the roof top near shattering the bones in his hand as the sobs took him again.

He had given up a world of pain for another world of agony and now his promise seemed to be lost in sacrifice made for sacrifice and just how wrong one man could be. There was no telling how long he sat there as the sun dipped low in the sky and he still heard no movement from below though he had long sense stopped listening for it. Dean sat in a numb - shock induced recompense of sorrow as the last of tears were shed...unable to force more though the pain hadn't lessened. He watched with unseeing eyes as the sun slipped below the horizon casting the world of unsuspecting victims into a twilight dream scape of horrors.

Sam woke with a jerk and heard the rustle and groans of bodies moving...slowly...painstakingly getting to their feet. Sam felt like his head was in a vise as he clumsily got to his feet using the wall to help support him. Nessa moved past him looking ready to kill as she stepped over those that had yet to waken.

He had barely gotten his bearings when a loud ringing started through out the compound like some sort of alarm. He heard Nessa curse in front of him as she broke into a run. "Get your asses up We're under attack " Nessa screamed at the Magus.