Chapter Eight: Argue, Argue, Argue

Nietzsche said the bravest thing a man can do is to gather his loved ones around him and take his own life before time and disease have a chance to lay him waste. If one cannot live ferociously ... why live? The only real question is should we wait until life has proven to us how disappointing it is? Or should we cheerfully charge toward whatever awaits us on the other side of death? Presuming it cannot be worse than this. If one studies the rich and successful one cannot help recognizing their path leads not to happiness. With apologies to those who will miss me, wouldn't you rather see me free-falling among the stars than chained to a life which only invokes my disdain, or even worse - my apathy

-Witchblade, The Series

Rock Springs, Colorado

The 1967 Chevy Impala came to a halt on a bridge just a few miles outside of Rock Springs, Colorado. The air surrounding both the car and its passengers was quiet. There were no birdcalls, no rustling in the foliage, even the breeze seemed to have fled. Below the shallow, rocky river made no sound as it flowed over the rocks. The world was deadly still. Silent. The bridge itself had been wrenched in two. The Impala stopping just as the road came to an end. A mass of twisting metal reached out on either side of the railing. Below it lay the remains of the concrete byway. The broken piece crushed inward, creating a slide down into the low ravine.

Car doors slammed as Dean, Sam, and Gail stepped out into the sunshine. Overhead the sky was clear with only a few puffy white clouds drifting across it. Besides the battered bridge and the silence, it was a lovely day. Arms crossed over her chest, Gail looked first from Dean's face and then back at Sam. The younger Winchester moved up to stand beside her, looking out across the river and towards the mesh of trees that hid the town from view. Rock Springs was remote, miles away from any major city and nested deep within the mountainous regions of the Colorado Rockies. Gail moved to lean against the hood of the Impala as Dean kicked a loose piece of concrete over the edge.

"This is the only road in or out." He said.

Across from him, Sam lifted up his cell phone to check the area. "No signal."

Calmly, he switched it off and glanced back over his shoulder at Gail. Her face was impassive, her arms crossed over her chest. He noticed the dark bags beneath her eyes. She wasn't watching either of them. He wondered why he felt nothing now. Last night, he'd found her incredibly attractive, like she was the only one he could ever imagine being with. Now, nothing. He supposed she was pretty, in a dreamy sort of way. In the light, he noticed what he hadn't see before. Her jeans were stained with huge splotches around her knees and up her thighs. They hung loosely around her hips, like she'd been wearing them for a long time. The blue, scoop neck tank top she was wearing was rumpled and there were spots of dirt around where it ended at her waist. Her brown jacket was a bit too large for her and dwarfed her already small body. She looks road weary, like she's been traveling for a while.

He compared her attire to his own level of mess and found it similar. He too was wearing yesterday's green button down shirt and light brown jacket over loose fitting jeans. He was just as sure that there were heavy circles under his eyes, having slept the night in the car. His neck was sore and his back muscles hurt from sitting for so long. His dark brown hair was oily and stayed off his face without any effort. If his hair was clean it would have hung over his forehead and he would have had to fight with it, to keep it out of his eyes. He preferred it like this. Sam wasn't necessarily clean but he was battle ready. He just hoped that Gail was the same.

"Rufus was right," Dean said after another minute, breaking Sam out of his reverie. He realized that Gail was looking at him, a single eyebrow raised. Flushing, he looked away. "Demons have got this place locked down tight."

Gail looked away from Sam, her dark eyes scanning the trees and the road. Her gaze was thoughtful. Sucking in her lower lip, she chewed on it as she leaned against the car. To Sam, she didn't even seem to be looking at the image across the broken bridge, but beyond it and he was surprised that she wasn't contributing to the conversation. Why wasn't she being her normal, irritating self? Did she feel something dangerous lurking on the horizon? Something neither he nor his brother could sense?

When she continued to say nothing, Sam shook his head and stared out at the mess of pine trees. Their thick trunks blocked most of the view, except for the swath cut out by the road. Sam wondered if it was possible to see the sky when one was beneath the dense cover of branches. He hated the feeling of sap in his hair. Dismayed with the new understanding that they'd be traveling the rest of the way on foot, he groaned. Sighing loudly, he shifted his hands into his pockets. "Looks like we're hiking in."

Feeling his brother's pain and sharing it, Dean said. "And the hits just keep on coming." Turning away, the older Winchester was trying to forget about the very strange girl who was standing just behind him to his left. Personally, he hoped that she would continue to not contribute. Gail was very vocal and she wasn't at all shy about voicing her opinions. He knew it was only a matter of time before she started mocking him again. He was just hoping that she could keep a leash on her tongue for the entire time they were in Rock Springs. Dean was sure he probably wouldn't be that lucky.

"Why are we here?" Gail's crisp voice cut through the moment of silence and Dean felt his back stiffen.

He wasn't that lucky.

Both Dean and Sam glanced at her, startled. Of all the questions they'd been expecting, this wasn't it.

"What?" Sam asked. He was staring down at her, his six-foot height towering over her five foot three frame. His soft brown eyes were wide with surprise.

"Son of a bitch!" Dean growled at the same time. Why couldn't she just leave him in peace? Better yet, why couldn't she just leave? "Are you a moron?"

"No," Gail said. Placidly, she zipped up her coat and stuffed her hands deep into the pockets of her jacket. Her nostrils quivered for a slow moment as the end of her nose became a faint red. Then she sneezed. Loudly. Jerking up, her eyes jumped from one face to the other. "I'm asking why we're here."

"Are you cold?" Sam asked. He'd noticed that the mountain air was a bit chilly, but he was so layered in his own clothing that it didn't really bother him. Sam didn't really get cold, not unless it was really cold. He watched, even more surprised as she shook her head. But, her behavior suggests that she is actually cold or sick or both. Did she think he'd think less of her if she didn't act tough? Or was it something else? But Dean was talking over him before he could even ask.

"Did you fall down?" Dean asked. His voice was snide and filled with false sympathy. "Hit your head? Or is your short term memory just that bad?" He didn't like Gail and their conversation the night before had done little to improve his first impressions. "We're here to help Rufus and stop demons."

"Yes," Gail sighed. "I'd already gathered the motive for what we were doing back at the hospital, Dingo." She leaned back against the hood of the car, her lips twisting into a crooked smile. "I am, contrary to popular opinion, not stupid. It's the connection I'm failing to understand. How this fits in with your mission."

"Rufus is a hunter," Sam explained, his voice patient. "He's helped us out in the past."

"He's a friend of Bobby's and he needs help." Dean added, stiffly. "Plus, sugar cakes, we owe him."

"But helping a friend of Bobby's is not your mission." Gail said. Tilting her head to the side, she gazed at them with large liquid brown eyes. Tucking a loose strand of hair back behind her ear, she frowned. "Stopping this apocalypse is. You guys were so hot to kill the Devil back at the hospital. This," she lifted a finger and pointed down the road. "Doesn't get you anywhere near your goal. Don't you want to save the world?"

"We are going to stop the apocalypse." Dean snapped.

"We do." Sam said at the same time. He glanced at Dean as his brother rolled his eyes and stomped away. Sam watched his brother disappear behind the Impala and listed to the click as he unlocked the trunk. A pang had struck his heart as she questioned his commitment. The guild that had been hounding him sine Ruby had revealed her endgame, had tricked him into opening the last seal, came spilling out of it's cage. Sam knew that he and Dean had to fix what they'd broken. They had to save the world. Sam just wasn't sure how they were supposed to do it.

Gail's eyebrows rose mockingly as she looked at him. "You say that," she said. "But you and Dean seem to be taking as many detours as humanly possible. For instance," she snapped her fingers. "Being here gets you no closer to Lucifer. No closer to saving the human race." Gail looked up at the sky, her eyes wistful. She pursed her lips in thought. "Well, humanity is already fucked and enough has changed for it to be on its way to extinction. There's no helping that. If we didn't kill you, you'd just kill each other."

"That's—"

"You do realize that you've only got a small window right?" Gail asked, leaning forward and peering up at him. Silently, she brushed the strands that hand escaped her ears back into place with slim fingers. "I mean, for god's sake! Look how far it's already gone downhill. You're no closer to Lucifer and there's not a lot of time left before the change is irreversible, not that I care whether or not it's reversed, but you seem to. So, why are you wasting it here?"

Behind them, Dean slammed the trunk shut. Stalking around the back and down past the back seat and passenger side of the Impala, he glared at Gail as he thrust Sam's gear and shotgun into his hands. "First off," he growled. "We're not leaving Rufus to die. You might be heartless enough for that, you probably wouldn't see anything wrong with killing your own mother if given the chance."

He didn't wait to see Gail's entire body stiffen, her mouth tightening into a thin line and her eyes growing hard. But Sam saw her shoulders tense. He'd never seen that before. What the hell happened with her family? The thought struck Sam as odd and he realized that they'd never asked Gail where she'd come from or what happened to her family. But from the way her gaze had become a death glare, Sam was sure that whatever it was, it wasn't sunshine and happiness. But what with Gail is?

"That's the way it is, so live with it. Secondly," he growled. "We have no idea where Lucifer is. Thirdly, we have no way to kill him. The Colt was stolen and Sam's fancy knife is only good at the demon killing. So, unless you, oh great freakazoid, have any suggestions on how we do that, we're flying blind." Dean turned toward her, slinging his bag over his shoulder. His handsome face had become a scowling back, his finger twitching on the trigger of his shotgun. "And until we find something, we're gonna kill each and every demonic son of a bitch we come across and we're gonna save as many people as we can!" He stared down into her eyes, ignoring the coldness there. He wasn't going to let her push him around. Wasn't going to let her change his course. He'd already decided on what it was that they would do and by god, they were going to do it! "We're gonna start by finding Rufus and killing these demons. If you've got a problem with that, I don't care! Sit down and shut up!"

Dean barely even noticed that he was flying through the air, and then his back landed on hard concrete. His jaw hurt. It was a gasping sort of pain, but he didn't think it was broken. The shock of being on the ground, on his back kept him in place for a moment. His entire back felt like one massive bruise and it was throbbing. His tailbone hurt. Then it hit him. He wasn't holding his gun. Scrambling, he started to get to his feet. The hard, rubber sole of a shoe slammed down onto his chest, heel digging into his solar plexus and against the fragile mass of bone and cartilage that kept his lungs from collapsing. Looking up into Gail's cold, hard eyes, Dean felt the urge to grab the foot and slam her into the side of the Impala. He didn't see Sam anywhere above him. He started to move his hands and her heel sunk in further, making him stop. He remembered what she'd said in the car. She had no moral compunction against killing him. He forced his hands to lie still.

"First off," Gail began. Her voice had become sardonic as she imitated his tonal inflections and pattern of speech. "I'll talk however I want, whenever I want, and I was being pragmatic not cruel. It's a method of thinking that you should consider adopting, by the way." She tossed her milk chocolate colored brown hair back over her shoulder and snorted. "Secondly, I never suggested actually killing the Devil. That would be pointless. Killing Lucifer is like cutting off the head of a million headed hydra, another one will just take his place, if the head itself doesn't grow back, anyway." Her mouth became an even thinner line, almost disappearing into her face. "Thirdly, killing every demon, monster, or supernatural creature you come across will only slow you down, not get you closer to your goal. And like I said, Dingo, you don't have much time to waste." Dean gasped as her heel dug in further. Why wasn't Sam saying anything? Why wasn't he pointing his gun at her? Why wasn't he forcing her to let Dean up? "As cathartic as I'm sure that is for you. Can you sacrifice hundreds to save billions?" She shook her head. "Somehow, I doubt it."

"Freak!" Dean spat. "The only monster here is you!"

"I am pragmatic, Dean, like Mace. Mace can see more than just the lives in front of him, er," she paused, seeming like a young woman again. "Her. It. Whatever. He knows what costs to stop the world from ending, he's seen it happen, and even done it himself. You don't have that kind of perspective. So, why are you throwing away my thoughtfully given advice?" She shook her head. "Never mind. Fourthly," she held up four fingers. "Stop calling your little hellspawn demons, it's going to give them delusions of grandeur. Well, no, I'm sure they believe they are. But Hell is not just one place, it is made up of many places. I guess your little friends just wound up in a dimension where nothing existed except them and created their own beliefs. It happens. Now, they're being let loose in here and being used as cannon fodder by the higher ups. Sad, I suppose, but they're probably all going to die anyway, so I don't feel that sorry for them."

"You're lying!" Dean snarled. "Anna! An angel, she said—"

"Yes, let's trust what an angels says. They are such upright, moral creatures. So innocent, so wonderful, standing for truth, justice and so on." Gail rolled her eyes. "That old lie is so saccharine that it makes me want to vomit."

"She became human! She wouldn't lie!"

"Oh, well, that makes it all better doesn't it. She gave up her life to become a human. All that means is that she was like me, Dean. She was born into this world instead of skinriding. Probably betrayed her orders to do it too. I'm sure they others have killed her by now. Rogue angels don't last long once they've been found. But you're making a mistake thinking she was ever human. She wasn't."

"I'll trust what I know." Dean growled. "I'm not gonna let you mess with my head."

"You slept with her." Gail's eyebrows rose. "Wow, you really are pathetic. Demons are fallen angels, end of story. Aside from the greater demons, which are their own species of nastiness, anything else that claims to be one is suffering from pretensions." She lifted her foot a little, letting Dean breathe easier. "Oh, and you do know that all angels are programmed male right?" She leaned down lower. "That means that sleeping with her, would be like sleeping with me if Mace was in charge. Not much difference. Lastly, before I let you up, was that flight as glorious as it looked?"

Dean spat. Chuckling, Gail lifted off her foot and turned away from him, walking down the line of the car and towards the edge of the bridge. Getting up, Dean brushed himself off and picked up the fallen firearm. He thought about pointing it at her back and shooting, but saw Sam's small shake of his head. Disappointed, Dean lowered the weapon. He didn't want to take Gail without Sam to back him up. Feeling another wave of betrayal, that his brother was once again choosing some supernatural monster over his own family, Dean cradled the weapon in the crook of his arm. Pride stinging, he glared at the small woman's back and yelled. "I can't imagine anyone ever wanting to sleep with you!"

Gail glanced back at him and shrugged. "You'd be surprised. Probably, really surprised." Her smile grew wicked and then she shook her head. "But that's okay, since I can't have sex anyway." Dean watched his brother open his mouth, feeling the question that was resting on his tongue, the desire to know why she said that. Dean wanted to know why his brother would want that information. "It's not something we're going to discuss, Sam." She said. "What I will point out is that River Pass has absolutely no strategic or tactical advantage to the war you've been fighting." She pursed her lips and smiled, exposing pearly white teeth. They were well shaped and had obviously been corrected by braces at least once, if not more times during her life. It was another sign, that despite her grungy appearance, the girl had come from a well-to-do family. The kind of normal childhood that Sam and Dean had no experience with and even if they had, they couldn't remember. "Fighting and losing."

"I won't sacrifice my friends for the sake of winning a war!" Dean yelled.

Gail's eyes became hooded in their sockets and grew calculating. Silently, she tipped her head to the side and then shook it. "That," she began in her best Yoda impression, voice coming from deep in her throat and emerging as groaning croak. It wasn't very good, destructive to the ears and a travesty to the original interpretation done in Star Wars. Honestly, it was the sort of impression that never should have graced the light of day, so bad was it. But Gail kept going, enjoying the irritation on Dean's face as a purple mark blossomed under his jaw. "Is why you fail."

Without any more words, she saluted to Sam, stepped back and disappeared over the edge.

Sam watched her fall, slow, and land lightly on the rocky bed of the shallow stream. Water coursed around her ankles as she glanced up at him and stuck out her tongue. "See you on the other side!" She called and then turned, walking through the stream and disappearing up the incline into the trees.

"You know," he said after a moment, as his brother considered how they were going to get down. "She had a point."

"Don't tell me you're already falling under the sway of another supernatural bitch, Sammy!" Dean growled, taking a seat and putting his legs out over the edge, testing the concrete slide.

"I'm not!" Sam snapped, stung. "I just said she had a point. We don't have much time."

"You want to leave Rufus to die, Sammy? Is that how it is?"

"No!"

"Then stop listening to her lies and come on!" Dean knew what was best. Gail couldn't be trusted and he wouldn't let her get her claws into Sam. He wouldn't let another monster use his brother. Dean glanced up at Sam. He couldn't trust Sam to do what was right either. Clearly, his brother hadn't learned his lesson. "Besides Sammy, she hit me!"

"You deserved that too." Sam muttered.

Using his boot, he pushed his brother forward and down the slide. Watching Dean hit the water with a yelp, Sam sighed.

"Sammy!" Dean yelled, indignant as his butt landed in the water.

He'd probably just earned two black marks by sticking up for Gail. Not that she needs my help. But Sam didn't like the way his brother called her a freak. Sure, she wasn't the nicest person and clearly didn't care whether they lived or died. She was only here because the angels told her to be and Sam knew she'd only follow their instructions to the letter. She wouldn't go farther. But, oddly enough, Sam found her to be refreshingly honest. He felt the comparison to Ruby was unfair. Gail continued to go on about how useless they were but that was where it ended. Unlike the angels and the demons, she didn't seem to feel that they were very important. Hell, she barely knew who they were. Sure, he didn't like her much but… It's nice to see someone else give Dean back all the crap he deals out. Sam hadn't even realized it until he'd watched his brother fly. All his guilt kept him from talking back to Dean, but his brother's attitude was wearing him thin. Looking out, he saw Gail step out onto the road on the other side. She was peering down at the wet Dean with a delighted grin. It would be nice to know more about her. Sam thought. They hadn't talked much, but Sam wondered how Gail would react to him. She'll probably blame me for breaking the world. Everyone else did. Still, Sam didn't like his brother calling her a freak.

"The days just keep getting weirder." He muttered and slid down the slide.

A/N: It's short I know and could probably use a beta. Anyway, here's a new chapter, hope you enjoy. I've been a little slow on the inspiration lately, but I'm sure it'll pick up. Warning to all readers: swearing at violence will exponentially increase in the later chapters, especially when Mace really revs up. Serious adult themes, so if you're squeamish, just see how it goes. I'm sorry that it's taken me so long to update on this site, like I said, this story is going to get very violent, so... yeah.

Also, the lack of reviews has been off putting, so if you want more review please.