Chapter Three

Dean went out to the Impala and removed all the weapons they had and bought them into Gus' cabin. "Alright this is practically everything we have. We have all the other stuff as well…"

"You won't be needing any of that. This is 'old style' war, boys"

Dean grinned "Old style war…with future demons. Paradox anyone?"

"Gus, if they don't know about this place, then how the hell are we supposed to have this…. showdown" asked Sam.

"Gunfight at the OK Coral" quipped Dean with a grin.

Gus laughed "More like…." he reached over to his book case and opened a hidden drawer and pulled them out "Sword fight" he had to laugh at the look of enthusiasm on Dean's face when he saw the swords.

"Oh yeah, pass that baby over!"

"Aaah, Gus? They have guns. Big, scary, blow your head off guns. Those are swords…" said Sam incredulously.

"Sammy, don't be raining on my parade, dude" he took one of the swords from Gus and pulled it from its scabbard, his grin almost splitting his face. He looked at Gus "This is more like it!" he swung the sword in an arc.

"Whoa, Dean!" Gus laughed "We'll go outside in a minute and you can play with her all you like…"

"Gus, again with the guns versus swords issue. They're taking pot shots at us with what could only be sniper rifles! What are we supposed to do? Deflect the damn bullets with the swords?"

Dean looked at Gus "Superman here's just pissed cause I made him leave his cape in the car"

"Dean!"

Dean laughed: "Settle down, Sammy. Gus wouldn't give us swords if they weren't necessary" he looked at Gus "Right?"

Gus nodded "You boys need to understand who you're fighting. These aren't your do-random-evil type demons. These are highly trained, military-style demons. They work on a code. At the moment they're out to assassinate you both…"

"Awesome" deadpanned Sam.

Dean turned to Gus "Ignore her, it's that time of the month"

"For fuck's sake, Dean! Can you take this even a little seriously? We're being hunted by a hit squad that won't stop til either they're dead or WE are and Gus here wants us to go at 'em with swords! Swords, dude! And stop swinging that thing!"

Dean laughed softly "You gotta learn to chill out a little, Sam. Yeah, some big nasties are on our asses but when have they not been? " he grinned at his younger brother "And now I get to use a big-ass sword on the bastards"

"Sam, listen to me. I'm sure you and Dean are expert riflemen but these demons are specialists. If you take them on, you'll lose. I guarantee it."

"Hey! We…"

"Shut up, Dean. You and Sam are going to challenge them….don't look at me like that. Your Dad and I discussed this. So you both listen and you listen well!" he stared hard at them "Like I said, they work on a code, you challenge them to a sword fight, they have to accept. Your Dad said you were both natural's with the sword so that's what you're gonna use"

"And how the hell are we supposed to challenge these assholes?" asked Sam, shaking his head at Gus.

"You asked me earlier why they didn't know about this place? Cause if they did Sam, I'd be dead already and you boys would be seriously screwed" he sighed "How do you think they know where you've been? Cause they can track you through your credit-cards or hunts that you've done. They can just go back to where you were and track you from there. So we're gonna use that against them. Lure them in and then cut the fucker's heads off"

Dean grinned "I'm starting to like you, Gus"

"Yeah, I'm all aquiver" Gus tossed Sam the other sword "You start with one, then move up to two. Go outside and practice. I've gotta go into town and get supplies"

Sam and Dean followed Gus outside. The man got awkwardly into the firebird, reversed and sped out of the property. Dean looked at Sam and grinned "I feel like some ransacking" and they headed back into the cabin.

They searched for twenty minutes and found nothing except some old photos of Gus with their father, the two of them in uniform, hamming it up for the camera…. and a lot of scribblings about time. How it worked, how it could possibly work and how it didn't damn well work at all. The man was obsessed. He also had an awesome array of weaponry. Dean had damn near had an orgasm when he found it and Sam was sure the man had just gone up a few notches on Dean's 'he's alright' scale.

They put everything back exactly as they'd found it and Sam reluctantly followed Dean outside. Sam was nowhere near as happy as Dean was to be using a sword. Swords were an intimate weapon. You had to get up close and personal to use them, you looked into the eyes of the one you were killing. It had to mark you.

They walked to an open piece of ground and faced each other.

"Oh come on, Sammy! Don't tell me having that baby in your hand doesn't give you some kind of pleasure?"

Sam had to smile "It's been awhile…"

Dean grinned at his younger brother "Well it's not like you haven't had your hand on something that looks …."

Sam struck at Dean with the sword and laughed "Shut the fuck up, dude"

"Sammy, that's a sword in your hand, not your dick" he grinned "use it properly" and he baited his brother, taunting him as he circled him, getting him used to the feel of the weapon again and making sure his little brother would be ready when the time came.

Gus came back an hour later, he leaned against the car and watched them. He could see they were out of practice but he could also see what John had meant when he'd told them they were naturals. They slowed down when they saw him watching. He pushed himself off the car "Get back to it. You've got two days" and he walked into the cabin.

Gus called them in three hours later. They were sore and sweaty but they were both grinning like kids on Christmas morning. "You eat, we'll go over some plans and then you go back out and train. You're good. You need to be better"

"Stop gushing, you're making me blush" said Dean with a smile.

Gus smiled "Somehow Dean, I don't think you'd quite know how to do that. Now eat" he pointed to the table and they sat down.

Dean was shovelling food into his mouth at break-neck speed as Sam looked on, appalled. He kicked his brother under the table "Dude!"

Dean looked up from the plate of food in front of him "What?"

Sam just shook his head "So, Gus. How are we gonna do this?"

Dean grinned "The pointy end goes into the bad guy, Sammy"

"Really. I was just gonna beat 'em to death with the handle" he turned to Gus "Well?"

"There's a piece of land not far from here. Your Dad bought it so that when the time came you'd have somewhere to fight them"

"What defences do we need to put into place?" asked Dean as he continued to shovel the food into his mouth.

"Defences? Have you listened to anything I've said? This is an old-fashioned sword fight. Once the challenge is in place, there are no tricks. From either side. If you resort to that to that it's an automatic forfeit"

"Which means?"

"We die, Sammy"

"This is messing with my head. They're demons! They use tricks, deceit all the time, its damn well built into their DNA!"

"They're military, Sam. I know you don't understand it, but they won't resort to trickery"

Dean finished his food, leaned back in his chair, rubbed at his stomach and burped loudly "Good stuff, Gus. Thanks" he picked up his beer "So, how many are we talking about?"

"Standard eight man…or I should say, demon squad"

"So eight against two" Dean grinned "They're outnumbered"

Sam put his fork down, he'd lost what little appetite he had "I still don't understand how we get them to that property. I mean their whole objective is to kill us, assassinate us, as you so nicely put it. So tell me, how the hell are we gonna challenge them without getting a bullet to the brain?"

Gus sighed, he understood the boy's frustration. This had been messing with his head for a long time but after twenty-odd years of trying to figure this out, he'd come to realise that as much as time-travelling was an advantage, it was also a disadvantage "We're gonna use their so-called advantage against them. They want to mess with time? Well we'll mess with their ability to use it"

Sam sighed "Why do I feel a paradox coming on?"

Gus laughed "Because there's a paradox coming on" he got up, grabbed more beers, sat back down and passed them out "I've always found that alcohol tends to help with the understanding of this" he smiled "but that could just be the alcoholic in me" he put his elbows on the table and leaned forward "Alright, listen up. I told you, you had two days" they nodded.

"Is that when you're going to set this up?" asked Dean.

Gus smiled, Dean was about to be shocked out of his ever-lovin' pants "Not me, son" he took an envelope from his jacket pocket and flicked it to Dean "You"

Dean picked up the envelope, it had Gus' name and address on it in his writing. He opened it and pulled out a photo…a photo of him, Sam and Gus…leaning against the Impala, beers in hand, swords across their backs. He turned it over and written on the back in his scrawl was 'Swordfight at the OK Coral' and a date, two days from now. He stared at the back of the photo for a long time.

"Dude, what is it?"

Dean passed the photo to Sam who looked at it, turned it over and then picked up his beer and drank almost all of it. "Okay, my weird-shit-o-meter just went into overdrive" he looked at Gus "How is this possible?"

"I'm not sure….but I'm guessing that this is the second time we're doing this"

"Second time?" Sam drank the rest of his beer, went to the fridge and came back with three more "We haven't done it the first freakin' time!"

"Obviously we have, Sammy. How else could I have sent the photo?" he looked at Gus "Why are we doing this again?"

"I don't know" he saw the looks on their faces "Look, I don't claim to have all the answers, all I know is that, that" he pointed to the photo "means that you've been here before. Something must have happened the first time that meant you had …have to do it again"

"Again? We haven't done it the first fucking time!" Sam stood and started to pace "This…I…shit!"

"Settle down, Sammy"

"Settle down? Settle down? Are you fucking serious?" he slammed the photo down on the table in front of Dean "We've NEVER had this photo taken and yet here it is, large as fucking life! How is that possible, Dean?"

"Sam. I understand this is messing with your head, but you gotta let that go and concentrate on the job at hand. You not only need to get physically prepared you need to be mentally prepared. You can't make a mistake out there. One lapse in concentration and it's all over"

Sam looked at Gus then at Dean. He grabbed his beer and stormed outside. Dean sighed, picked up his beer and went to follow his brother.

"Dean"

He turned back to Gus and he was holding out a piece of paper. Dean took it from him and read it. He finally looked at Gus "Is this why?"

Gus nodded "You go out there and you make sure he's ready. I'm guessing this is the only chance you're going to get to make sure it doesn't turn out that way again"

To be continued...