Broken Wings
CHAPTER 3:
Sam and Bobby packed up the Impala with all of the weaponry they had at their disposal in the hopes that something would work. Dean helped them, but knew that nothing in their arsenal could defeat Lillith. The only chance they had was Dean and he wasn't even sure what kind of weapon he had that could destroy her. Still, something in him kept telling him that he had what was needed and that all he would have to do was tap into it. He felt a sense of irony that two years ago he had told Sam that he shouldn't tap into his powers with Ruby's help and yet here he was knowing he had a power waiting to be utilized. The only difference was that Dean felt the power inside of him and he knew with a certainty that he shouldn't have that he would be able to control it. He knew that when the time was right, he'd know what to do.
Dean felt a stab of pain hit him square in the chest and it made him waver. Bobby noticed it and held him steady.
"What's wrong, Dean?"
"I feel her. It's like she's sending me a message."
"What kind of message?"
"That she'll strike at the very heart of me."
Bobby looked at him, concerned.
"What does that mean?'
"I can only guess that she'll try to get to Sam, but something in me tells me she won't. She's trying to scare me off."
"Can she read you like you're doing with her?"
"No, much as I hate to say it, it's like I'm attuned to her. I still have the demon-sight and I'll be able to spot her, but I won't have to. She's going to make a show of just revealing herself. It's a cat and mouse game with her. In a way, she's still a little girl."
Another punch of pain hit him and Dean groaned. He leaned against the trunk lid and Bobby braced him with a gentle and reassuring grip.
"Are you sure you want to do this tonight?"
"There isn't a choice, Bobby. She's going to kill every person in that town unless I show up. I can't let that happen."
Bobby looked at him and marveled at how easily Dean's decisions were made when it came to saving innocent people. He never gave it a second thought. He knew that a part of Dean must be tired of putting everyone else before himself and yet, he didn't hesitate. He knew what needed to be done and his conviction to get it done was unfailing.
"I'll be okay," Dean insisted as he straightened up.
Sam walked up to them and heard what Dean had said.
"What? Is there something wrong? Are you okay, Dean?"
"I'm good, Sam. Lillith is just letting me know she's waiting for me with her version of a punch to the chest. She hits like a girl so I'll be fine. Let's get going."
Sam gazed Bobby's way and all Bobby could give him was a worried expression. They climbed into the car and drove off, Sam at the wheel, as he had been for the last two years. That Dean would let Sam drive the car at all now that he was back, to not fight to take possession of his beloved Impala back, scared Sam. Dean had never surrendered driving the car unless he was physically unable. When he looked over at him, Dean had a faraway look on his face again, as if he was somewhere else.
"It's yours now, Sammy," Dean said suddenly.
"What?"
"The car. She's yours."
Sam took in a breath. He wasn't sure he'd ever get used to Dean's new empathic ability.
"Dean, no, I was just taking care of it."
"Yeh, for two years and you did a great job. She's purring like a well-oiled kitten," Dean said with a weak smile. "She's your car now."
Sam swallowed hard. He felt as if Dean was "willing" his car to him and it was something he had never wanted. He had always convinced himself that he was just the car's caretaker until they got Dean back.
"Only until we defeat Lillith," Sam insisted.
Dean just smiled and gazed back out his side window. The silent answer made Sam swallow hard again and he felt as if he couldn't get air into his lungs.
They drove slowly into the town. They watched all the townspeople exit their shops, apartments and homes then line up along the street and in front of them. Sam's heart began to race.
"Looks like we're getting ambushed," Sam commented at the only conclusion he could make as they were slowly being surrounded by the possessed townspeople, but just as he started to apply the brakes, the line of people in front of them, parted, split into two sides like an eerie human gate.
"What's going on?" Sam asked, more to himself than to Bobby and Dean.
Dean had an eerie smile on his face.
"She's been expecting us and is letting us pass through her guards. It's her welcoming committee."
"I don't like this one bit," Bobby said.
"Can't imagine why you would, but for now, we have to play by her rules," Dean said, his eyes darting around the area, carefully assessing everything in the town.
Sam had nothing to say, no argument to throw at Dean that would convince him that they were making a huge mistake. It wouldn't change anything. It wouldn't change Dean's mind about what he knew he had to do, even though none of them knew what that was. Sam just continued to drive through the town, blank, black-eyed stares watched their progress, but none made any overtures towards them. They were as obedient as toy soldiers lined up in neat rows, until they were given orders to move behind the car. As they passed by them, the human gate that had opened and "welcomed" them, turned into a mob, blocking any easy path out of there except to plow through the mass of possessed humanity, killing any that didn't get out of their way.
At the other end of the town, a house sat waiting. Though it was large and looked almost majestic, for the three of them, it might as well have been a haunted house for all the chill and dread it brought driving up to it.
It was beautifully appointed with columns and architectural detail that under other circumstances might have been appreciated by historians. A set of steps led up to an opulent front door made of solid carved wood with a stained glass header. Light from the inside of the house filtered through the glass, casting a spotlight onto the steps. Had it not been for what they were there for, facing what was probably the ultimate evil, short of the Devil himself, it might have been a great place for a party. Instead, it would likely be destroyed in a battle waged to save humanity.
Sam stopped the car. The front door of the house swung open ominously seemingly with no one behind it.
"Guess it's show time," Dean said, again, the sarcasm cold and empty.
He exited the car, as did Bobby and Sam. He walked up the steps, unarmed. Sam had Dean's shotgun filled with salt rounds in his hands and Bobby had Ruby's knife. They knew that both were likely to be useless against Lillith, but figured they could, at least, defend themselves for as long as they could from the townspeople if all went south quickly. To go down fighting if it came to that, just as Dean had said to Sam two years ago.
Dean walked into the foyer, marble floors covered the entrance and a crystal chandelier loomed large overhead, glittering in the light. Dean felt a sharp pain hit him and struggled to fight it off.
"She's coming," He announced to Sam and Bobby.
At the top of a grand stairway, a woman dressed in a white gown started walking down. The hem of her dress was cascading down the steps with her. Dean knew she was Lillith.
"Well, Dean, back again. How many times does that make this? Coming back from the dead, I mean."
"I've lost count," Dean said back. "Wouldn't happen to know why I'm back this time, would you?"
"You know very well why you're here."
"To take you down," Dean said matter of factly.
The woman giggled like a little girl and it made Sam cringe, remembering when she had possessed Ruby, talking like a little girl, but having nothing about her that was girlish, let alone innocent.
"If you can, but frankly, I think whoever hedged their bets with you, got some really bad gambling advice."
Dean could only watch as Lillith scaled down the stairs then joined them on the landing.
"You were puppy chow once, what makes you think you can defeat me now?"
"Call it a hunch," Dean said, his face betraying a grimace.
"You feel it, don't you?" Lillith taunted as she walked up to Dean and placed her hand on his chest.
Dean looked at her, stolid and determined to give her nothing. She then fisted her hand and Dean couldn't help, but clench, still, he kept his eyes fixed to hers, barely wavering.
"Your heart. It's been the core of who you are, your strength lies there, but so does your weakness. Haven't you figured that out yet? For every near death or real death you have gone through, it has been at that core."
Dean didn't answer. Lillith then turned to face Sam.
"And we all know who's your weakness, now, don't we? Your kryptonite."
She starts walking Sam's way.
"Leave him alone," Dean said, his voice icy with the threat. "This is between you and me."
"Oh, I beg to differ. There are prizes to be won in this game. I always get what I want when there are prizes," Lillith taunted.
"You can't have him. He beat you the last time."
"Yes, true. I underestimated him, but I don't need to lift a finger to win my prize," Lillith giggled as she turned on her heel and faced Dean again. "All I need to do is take away, yet again, and for good this time, his weakness, the one thing he values over everything."
Lillith went back to Dean and lifted her hand. She placed it on Dean's left shoulder and pushed him down to his knees, seemingly without effort.
"You," she finished and giggled again.
Sam started to move towards them.
"No! Sam, don't. It's okay. I'm okay," Dean insisted through his pain. "Trust me."
Sam froze in place, remembering his promise that once in the town, they would do things Dean's way, but struggling to keep that promise.
Once Dean knew that Sam was listening to him, he turned his attentions back to Lillith.
"Sam won't be your prize, Lillith. I won't let it happen. Sam won't let it happen."
"Don't be so sure. Remember what Meg said, the right flame and Sam will become a human blow torch, scorching the land with his fury and he won't have you to cry to anymore."
Dean then started laughing and he didn't know why. It was a frightening laugh, filled with a touch of madness and though Sam couldn't explain it, he felt there was also a sense of relief in it, as if it had been pent up all this time and finally given release.
"What are you laughing at?" Lillith whined, just as puzzled by the reaction as everyone else was. "This isn't funny. Why are you finding all this funny? I could wipe all of you, this whole town into oblivion. Are you trying to test me?"
"Oh, no, don't want to do that, do we?" Dean said, still laughing in between his words. "Otherwise, the big bad little girl is going to send us all to a fiery pit. Let's tremble at her feet."
Sam and Bobby looked at each other quizzically wondering if Dean had finally gone mad, but Sam somehow knew that this was all part of Dean's plan. Still, the logic behind it was lost on him as much as it was lost on Bobby.
"What is wrong with you?" Lillith asked angrily, finding Dean's laughter completely baffling and infuriating.
"Nothing, nothing at all, or maybe I've just gone stark raving cuckoo. Who knows? What I do know is that you are one hell of a spoiled little brat who has to have her way or kill to get it. I don't know who spawned you, but they didn't punish you enough. Now it's up to me to super nanny you back to reality."
Dean then stood up, lifting Lillith's arm effortlessly up with him, her power over him gone. Sam and Bobby watched Dean overcome Lillith's power in awe. Dean's face contorted into a frightening self-satisfied expression. Sam was worried, but again, for reasons he didn't know, he felt that despite what he was seeing, Dean was still Dean, that he had complete control over everything that was happening to him.
"Stay away!" Lillith cried in her little girl way.
"Awww…I'm hurt. Don't you want to play with me anymore?" Dean taunted.
Dean felt a surge of power fill him. It was both dizzying and frightening. Along with it came the return of a feeling he thought he had lost when he had come back. Something inside of him was changing again, but the evolution was more than just about his newfound powers. It was also about something more elemental, basic, and completely unrelated to them. From the moment he had returned, he had felt empty, like a puzzle with a missing piece, not all together whole, but still him. He had felt the loss and had accepted it like someone would have accepted the loss of a limb, even feeling his own kind of phantom pain coming from that loss. But now, along with the surge of power, he felt another surge, just as strong, but he wasn't afraid of it. It was reassuring, comforting, and familiar. As ethereal as it was, he felt his old self returning to him, but without the painful baggage he had carried back with it. The feelings that he had retained upon coming back, the memories, the training, the love for Sam merged again with the love of living he had possessed before, the joy of being with family, both blood related and those bonded by shared experience. He smiled and turned back to Lillith.
"What are you smiling at?" Lillith yelled petulantly.
"I got my groove back, bitch and you're going to Hell," Dean said, the smile never leaving him.
Sam and Bobby heard his threat to Lillith and couldn't help, but smile too. They didn't know how or why, but the old Dean was back. He was whole again.
Dean took a hold of the hand she had placed on his shoulder and gripped the wrist tightly.
"Ow, you're hurting me!" Lillith cried out.
Her eyes changed into the complete white scleras that differentiated her from her black-eyed disciples. Dean saw the change, but seemed completely unconcerned.
"Batting those pearly whites in your eyes doesn't scare me," Dean taunted again. "What is it they say? Don't shoot until you see the whites of their eyes?"
His own eyes then shaded into a platinum silver that took on a metallic sheen, giving his eyes a mischievous, yet unnerving sparkle. Sam and Bobby could only watch helplessly as they were shocked by what they were seeing. Dean then began reciting the Latin that was such an integral part of a hunter's arsenal. Lillith squirmed, trying to escape Dean's grip, but to no avail. Further into the recitation, she began to scream then twitched and morphed just as other demons before her had when faced with their descent into Hell, but instead of allowing her black mist essence to disintegrate as others had, Dean shockingly kissed her, sealing her mouth with his. There was nothing romantic or erotic about the action. Dean was capturing Lillith's essence and sealing it into his body.
Sam watched in horror.
"NO!!" He screamed. "DON'T!!"
He tried to leap in, but a force field bounced him back and he fell back to the ground. Sam tried to rise again, but Bobby stopped him.
"Let me go, Bobby! I have to stop him! I have to get through to him and stop him!" Sam vehemently insisted.
"You can't, Sam. There's a field around them and Dean's in a fugue state," Bobby explained.
"What? What are you talking about?" Sam yelled.
"He's lost to us, at least for now. He's capturing Lillith's essence and bottling it into his body."
"I can see that and I have to stop him! He'll become possessed or even worse. It could kill him. She could kill him inside."
Bobby looked at Sam gravely and wordlessly, no argument to give him. Sam's eyes went wide with the realization and he broke free from him.
"DEAN!! NO!! DON'T DO THIS!! NOT AGAIN!!" Sam screamed at the top of his lungs, his body shaking from impending tears. "PLEASE STOP!!"
Sam then collapsed to the floor, tears freely flowing down his cheeks.
"Please stop…" He said, his voice barely audible, no longer trying to be heard.
Dean released the kiss and let Lillith's host fall unconscious to the floor. He looked over at Sam, seeing his shattered little brother and closed his eyes.
"Trust me…" Dean transported through his thoughts.
Sam, at first, wasn't sure what he had heard and gazed up. He saw Dean open his eyes, smile at him and heard it again.
"Sam, trust me…" Dean said again without moving his lips, performing a terrifying ventriloquist act for Sam.
He then watched as Dean gave him one more look before he opened his mouth and expelled Lillith's essence back out, but instead of disappearing into the ethers like dust in the wind, her fate seemingly condemned to be Hell bound, her black mist began to crumble into something none of them had ever seen before. It scattered to the floor like a fine powder. It attempted to merge as if trying to solidify into something only to crumble again. It then flashed blood red, oozed to the floor again and flowed like blood only more viscous. It then vanished, leaving the floor unstained.
Dean watched as her essence disintegrated then fell to the floor unconscious as well. Sam ran over immediately, no force field to stop him this time and took him into his arms.
"Dean? Dean?" Sam called.
Dean then awoke taking in a large gulp of air as if resuscitated from drowning. Sam could only smile with relief and hugged him. He then felt Dean struggling.
"Sam? Sam? I can't breathe here," Dean's muffled voice said.
Sam released him and stared at him. Dean looked ashen and tired, no doubt a result from going toe-to-toe with Lillith and enduring capturing her essence inside of him, but there was something else…something off about Dean's expression. He had a look of complete confusion. He scanned his surroundings and nothing resonated as familiar. Sam became worried as Bobby joined them.
"Dean? Are you okay?" Sam finally asked.
"Well, yeh, other than you trying to suffocate me, I'm fine, but…" Dean trailed off, his forehead still crinkled and his body still in pain as he trembled and moaned. "Where are we?"
"Don't you remember?" Sam asked.
"Remember what?"
"What's the last thing you do remember, Dean?" Bobby asked.
Dean paused for a minute.
"You and me heading to Cold Oak to get Sam."
oooo
Dean's words shocked both of them into silence. Dean noticed and became worried.
"What? What is it?"
"Dean, let's get out of here first and Sam and I will explain everything when we get back to my place," Bobby said quickly, queuing Sam to play along with him for now.
They lifted Dean up to his feet only to have him lose consciousness immediately. They were grateful that they would have time to strategize about the next step. As they placed Dean carefully into the Impala, Sam looked around and had noticed that all the townspeople had collapsed, the demons in them expelled when Lillith was destroyed. Some were slowly awakening so they hurried to get back to Bobby's.
Once there, they put Dean back into the same room, an eerie déjà vu hit them both. Once they knew that Dean would be out for a while, they went into the living room, Sam pacing.
"Will you please sit down? You're making me seasick," Bobby teased.
"How can I when Dean…" Sam said.
"I know, but we have to figure out what to do next. We can't just ignore that he's lost two years that he can't remember."
"Yeh, I know," Sam said as he finally sat down in a nearby chair. "What are we going to tell him?"
"Well, it seems to me that it's obvious."
"Really? Well, please clue me in," Sam said sarcastically.
"Whoever or whatever brought him back, erased his memory of the last two years so that he wouldn't remember you dying, his making the deal and most important his time in Hell. In my book, it's a blessing."
Sam looked at Bobby and allowed himself a smile, "Yeh, I guess you're right, but how are we going to explain how he lost two years?"
"That's what you and have to suss out now before he wakes up. As far as I'm concerned, I'm willing to spare him any details of you dying and him making the deal and going to Hell. The rest we can be honest about. We can tell him that after he got conked on the head at the Devil's Gate, he got amnesia and has had it for the past two years. We can say that when we took on this current job, he got hurt and his memories came back. The details of the last two years, we'll deal with."
Sam smiled at Bobby's plan and was grateful for his clear headed thinking. He had become like a father to them both. Sam knew that he couldn't have made it without him for the last two years.
"Okay, Bobby," Sam said with a smile then felt the emotions coming back. "I wish I knew who did this."
Bobby looked back at Sam and smiled.
"Truth be told, Sam. I really don't care or want to know. Dean's here, back with us, the same Dean he was before everything happened and though I'm not a religious or betting man, I'm willing to take what's happened on faith. That it was meant to be. I've seen my share of strange and awful and as far as that goes, this is one of the best things that has ever happened in my lifetime as a hunter. I'll take it, no questions asked."
Sam nodded, "Me too."
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FIN. Hope you liked the ending. I felt Dean deserved a clean slate, knowing he probably won't get one in Season 4. Thanks for your reviews and for reading.
