Wind blew through the open windows of the Impala as it rumbled down the highway, Zeppelin blasting from the speakers. Dean drove steadily, hands wrapped tightly around the steering wheel, occasionally glancing at his brother sitting silently beside him. Sammy was staring out the window, lost in thought. They were on their way to start the second trial; after dressing and climbing out of the shower together, Dean and Cas had gathered the others. Team Free Will had sat down in the kitchen of the bunker to discuss the trial. They had named the soul they wanted freed from Hell without a seconds hesitation: their brother, Adam.
Adam who had been pulled into a battle he wasn't meant to fight. Adam who had been in the cage with two pissed off archangels for countless centuries. Dean's stomach twisted with the thought. They had failed their brother horribly, but they were going to set things right. That's why they were on their way to Stull Cemetery; all their research said it would be easiest to pull Adam from the place the cage was last opened. They had no idea what kind of condition his soul would be in when they got it, but it was going to Heaven where it belonged. Anything was better than him staying in the cage.
Dean glanced back and caught Cas' gaze in the rearview mirror. Sapphire eyes crinkled at the corners in a reassuring smile. Cas knew how reluctant to return to the cemetery he and his brother were. Last time they were there, Sam had saved the world with the sheer force of his will and the love in his heart. Sam had sacrificed himself and saved the world, but he had left his brother. Dean had sat on his knees for hours after, silent tears streaming down his cheeks, staring at the ground as if he were hoping it would split open and the universe would eject his brother from the pit… but nothing had happened. Sam was gone. Bobby and Cas had sat at his side, offering what comfort they could, but he was inconsolable.
Dean struggled not to let the memory overtake him. He tensed, muscles strung tight as if in preparation for a fight when he felt a gentle pressure on his shoulder. He looked over to see Castiel's face next to his own, eyes closed peacefully; his angel had leaned forward and rested his chin on his shoulder, offering comfort with his closeness. Dean relaxed and leaned his head into the touch, absorbing the comfort like a balm. Those times were behind them. Sam was sitting right next to him, alive and well. He had Cas. He had Kevin and Crowley. He was surrounded by family and friends. Everything would be okay. He steeled himself as he drove under the arch that marked the entrance of the boneyard.
Dean threw the car in park and they all got out, the doors creaking loudly as they slammed shut. Everyone was silent as the breeze blew softly around them, rustling their hair. Sam looked around the lot and then back to the car shining in the sunlight. He reached out and touched its glimmering frame softly, reaching in the open window to touch the army man crammed in the ashtray; he looked as if remembering something terrible and beautiful.
Dean broke the silence. "Well, let's do this." Sam gave the car one last pat and Team Free Will walked as one to the place where the earth had split open and swallowed his brothers. Castiel twined his fingers with Dean's, offering him support. The hunter returned the gentle pressure and smiled softly at his angel. Sam took a deep breath and spoke, "Death."
They all looked around, but nothing happened. "Let me try," said Cas calmly. He closed his eyes, thinking for a moment and said, "TELOC NOSTOAH OI OLANI."
The wind began to whip around them. "What did you say?" asked Dean.
"I called him with his true name in Enochian," said Cas with a small smile.
Dean glowed with pride; his angel was a genius. "You rang?" The wind died abruptly and Death stood before them.
"It's time for the second trial," said Crowley. He stood tall and proud, refusing to let the burden he was carrying bow him over.
Death tilted his head to the side, amused. "Am I to assume, judging by our location, that we are jail breaking your brother Adam from the cage?"
"Damn straight," Dean said, challenge in his voice, daring the horseman to disagree. Death narrowed his eyes at the hunter's tone, but said, "Very well." He swept forward, suit jacket billowing behind him. They watched attentively as the horseman dropped to his knees in the grass and placed both palms on the ground. He closed his eyes, face screwed up in concentration as he began to glow, illuminated in golden light. All at once the light flickered out. He pulled his hands back from the dirt, eyes flying open, his usually straight face breaking, betraying his surprise. Dean's heart dropped into his stomach; something was wrong.
"What is it?" asked Dean.
"Your brother is gone."
Dean's mouth gaped open. "What the hell do you mean gone?" said Sam.
"Adam is no longer in the cage. Someone else pulled him out."
"How is that possible?" shouted Dean angrily, "What could have done that? Angels? What the fuck has that kind of mojo? Why would they do that?"
"Do you know who did it?" asked Cas urgently.
"Yes," acknowledged Death.
"Then who was it?" Crowley's face was tight with tension, but he asked the question steadily, silencing a cough.
"Let me show you what happened here." Death beckoned Sam and Dean forward, directing them to stand in front of him. He looked to each of them and said, "Close your eyes and hold still." When they obliged, they each felt a hand pressing to their foreheads. The darkness behind their eyelids pulsed before they felt the world spin out from under their feet. When they opened their eyes, they were watching a scene play out before them as if it were a movie.
A curvy, redheaded woman kneeled in the dirt of the cemetery, leather biker's jacket hanging open. "Father," She spoke softly, almost reverently.
"My child," Lucifer spoke, his words snaking through the air, making Dean's skin crawl. Sam flinched and automatically moved closer to his brother as if to hide behind him; Dean took a step in front of him, shielding him with his body. She shivered at the sound his voice. The temperature in the graveyard dropped rapidly; the plants around her began to wilt and freeze and a layer of ice covered the headstones.
"The Winchesters have undertaken the trials. I need help. What am I to do?"
Sam and Dean started. Who was she? How did she know what they were doing?
Lucifer spoke again. "I have chosen another Knight to join your ranks"
Another knight? Shit, this must be Abaddon in a new vessel. The Devil continued, "He still needs to be pushed over the brink, but when it is done he will hunt the Winchesters down. He will hunt them as relentlessly as an attack dog that scents blood."
Abaddon cocked her head, eyes flashing black. "Who father?"
A laugh echoed from the cage. Sam grasped his left hand in his right and brutally pressed his thumb into the fading scar there, shaking. The laugh echoed around them and brought back the ghost of a thousand others in Sam's head. Dean reached out and touched him, reassuring him that is wasn't real, that he was here for him. He didn't let go until he stopped shaking.
Abaddon threw her head back and laughed, the loud peals mixing with her master's in a cacophonous symphony. "Yes father," she said. She stood swiftly and backed up a few steps. Slim arms rose over her head as she began to chant. "CHRISTEOS NIA-COD OI EMETGIS NIDALI LIT M NIIS AR HAMI NOSTOAH AS OL MICMA!"
The ground began to shake; the earth split open, wind sucking inside of it, a portal ripped in the fabric of the universe. A body was ejected from it and the wound in the earth stitched itself back together again. Abaddon walked to the huddled, shaking figure on the ground. Dean's heart sank when the moonlight hit his face; it was Adam. He was barely recognizable. His clothes were torn off, and what little skin remained was covered in cuts and burns and bruises. The rest was flayed muscle and raw nerves visible as they never should be. The fingers and toes that hadn't been cut off were bent at odd angles. Both legs and arms were broken in multiple places, bones sticking from his flesh sickeningly. His intestines spilled from a ragged gash in in stomach, his broken ribs sticking out from his shredded torso. Adam's breaths were short and shallow; he was barely alive.
Sam and Dean started for him at the same time, but Death stopped them. "This is already over, it's just an echo. You can't help him. You need to watch."
They both settled reluctantly to witness the scene unfolding before them. Abaddon knelt before Adam. One of his eyes hung out of the socket, holding on by a nerve. He managed to open the other a sliver, the blue iris barely visible and look at the person above him. His voice came out quiet and broken, strained with the ghost of a thousand screams. "A-are you an….an angel?"
Abaddon reached for him slowly, caressing his hair. "Guess again." Her eyes flashed black; the hand that had been gentle before curled into a fist and collided with his face. The already shattered bone crunched sickeningly and he screamed, a torn, pathetic sound, raw with terror and pain, as fresh blood flooded from the gash.
"Adam," Abaddon spoke almost lovingly, "Do you want this to stop?"
"YES!" He screamed it, long and drawn out, sobbing on the end.
"I can make it stop, Adam, you just have to do what I say. Can you do that, lover?"
"YES!" He screamed it again. Dean felt like he was going to be sick. How could they have left him to suffer like this? Sam let out a choked noise beside him, and Dean reached out to him automatically.
"Swear it," whispered the demon.
"I SWEAR IT, I SWEAR, I SWEAR, PLEASE DON'T HURT ME ANYMORE! PLEASE, I'LL DO ANYTHING, PLEASE," Adam was pleading.
Abaddon bowed her head. "Very well. Open your mouth." Adam did as he was told, shivering and sobbing. The demon stood above him and ran a sharp, red fingernail down the flesh of her wrist, drawing blood. She held her bleeding wrist over his mouth and began to chant. "OL DONASDOGAMATASTOS TORZV OL BOOAPIS MAD."
Blood began to run steadily from the wound into the mouth of the broken boy below her, glowing with sickly power. Adam's body began to change. His bones retracted back into newly growing flesh. His dangling eye pulled back into the socket with a sickening squelch. His body rose from the ground, floating and spinning as he was healed.
Abaddon jerked her wrist away and cradled it to her chest; she looked drained and on the verge of collapse. Adam floated back to the ground feet first and stood with his back to them all, completely naked in the moonlight; there wasn't a mark on his body.
"Face me," she said softly. Adam turned around with almost militant precision, eyes still closed. "Look at me," she demanded. Their brother's eyes sprang open' they were black. "What are you?" asked Abaddon.
"A Knight of Hell," said Adam, his voice low and menacing.
"And whom do you serve?"
"Lucifer," he said obediently, "What are my orders?"
"You will hunt and kill the men who left you to rot. You will hurt them with whatever means you have at your disposal. You will make them suffer as you suffered. Tell me, lover, what is your mission?"
Adam's eyes flashed from black to their familiar blue. "Kill Sam and Dean Winchester."
The world around them began to swirl and pulse until they were once again back in their own bodies. They fell to their knees at the same time. "Oh, God," Dean choked. Castiel was at his side in a second as Crowley rushed to help Sam to his feet.
"Dean, what happened? What is it?"
Dean's head was bowed as he spoke. "It was Abaddon. She pulled Adam out and… she made him into a Knight of Hell. She knows about the trials and she ordered him to stop us."
Cas paled and pulled Dean to him, holding him close. "It's not your fault Dean. It's going to be okay." Dean's frame shuddered under his touch. Cas kissed his eyelids, his nose, his mouth, trying to convey comfort with his touch. Crowley was talking to Sam quietly, trying to console him. Dean took a deep, steadying breath and did what he did best; he locked it away to think about later. He rose to his feet, Cas by his side and walked to his brother. Death was standing nearby, watching the scene before him play out silently.
"Sammy," Dean reached for his brother and pulled him to his feet, "We can't do this now. We have to do the second trial. We have to finish them, and fast. Before Adam catches up to us."
Sam was still shaking. Dean pulled him down for a hug. "Let it go, brother. We'll fix it later. We gotta do this now. I need you to hold it together for me. Can you do that?"
Sam returned his hug. When they let go, he took a deep breath and got a hold of himself. "Okay," he said. "Okay, so who are we saving now that Adam is out of reach?"
Dean thought for a moment. "Where is our Dad?"
Death closed his eyes for a moment, focusing, looking for his soul. "Hell," he answered.
"Alright," said Dean, "that's who we're getting."
They all nodded in agreement when Dean's cell phone began to ring. He fished it out of the pocket and looked at the caller ID; it was blocked. He flipped the cell phone open and answered. "Hello?"
"Hey, Dean,did you miss me?" His stomach churned; it was Adam.
"What, no answer for your long lost little brother? That's okay; I don't need you to talk. I just need you to listen."
"Dean, who is it?" asked Sam.
"Adam," he mouthed.
The others stared as his brother continued. "1119 North Eldon Avenue, Conway Springs, Kansas. Go now. It's no trap, but you aren't going to like what you find there. Not one bit. And this is just a taste of what's coming your way. See you later, bro." The line went dead and Dean slowly lowered the phone from his ear.
"We have to go. We have to go right now."
"What's happening?" asked Sam alarmed now.
"He gave me an address. Said we wouldn't like what we found. But people might be hurt or trapped because of us. We have to go." Cas and Crowley nodded their agreement. Dean turned to Death. "When this is taken care of, can you still take us into Hell?"
Death nodded his consent. "I can manage that. Go, do what you must." With a swish of his coat, the horseman vanished. Team Free Will ran for the car, climbed in, and peeled out of the graveyard. Sam pulled a map of Kansas out of the glove compartment and opened it. "We're 200 miles out. Once we're on the I-35 S, it's a straight shot all the way to Conway Springs. I think we worked a job there or something. It sounds familiar"
Dean put the pedal to the metal and tore down the highway.
Dean pulled outside of the familiar house, and checked the address against what Adam had told him on the phone. He realized why it sounded familiar to Sam. "No," he said, "oh God, no."
"Dean?" Sam looked scared.
It was Krissy, Aiden, and Josephine's house; the three kids who's families had been murdered to make them hunters. The kids who had banded together, created a family.
"Oh no," said Sam in barely a whisper. There was a new sign driven into the ground of the front yard that read, Krissy's Daycare Service, ages 1-10 welcome. "Dean, they started a fucking daycare. They have kids."
No one said another word. They got out of the car and opened the trunk, gearing up before running up the drive; the door was locked. Dean knocked, but no one answered; he kicked the door down without a second thought. Blood covered every surface. The walls, the ceiling, the carpet and hardwood, the family photos on the walls. Dean squeezed his eyes shut for a second; he didn't want to see this. He knew what he would find here, and he didn't know if he could take it. He felt Cas' hand squeezing his shoulder reassuringly. Their eyes met, and his angel gave him a small nod, like he was telling him he could do this, that it was going to be okay. He took a deep breath before making himself walk into the living room.
Josephine was tied to a chair, he throat slit so deep her head was almost severed her shoulders. Krissy lay on the floor, her beautiful brown eyes open, seeing nothing. Blood was smeared on the pale skin of her cheek, every inch of skin on her arms and legs covered in deep cuts. She had been tortured. Aiden lay on top of her, as if he had died shielding her with his body. The fire poker was sticking out of his back and was buried deeply enough to skewer both him and the girl beneath him. There was a video tape that bore the message WATCH ME, on a nearby table.
They crossed as one to the bodies. Castiel untied Josephine and Sam and Dean went to Aiden and Krissy; they had died with their hands intertwined, Aiden's face buried in Krissy's dark hair. Dean was barely holding it together. They pulled the poker from the bodies and lay them side by side. After a moment of thought, Castiel leaned down and interlocked their fingers once more, smoothing the bloodstained hair from the young girls face before covering them with a sheet.
Crowley scooped up the tape and crossed to the outdated VCR. In order to play it, he had to eject a copy of Lilo and Stitch. He pushed play; the screen went black for a second and then cut to a home video of Krissy and Josephine talking about the new daycare. Apparently it was just a cover; they had been sheltering kids whose parents were killed by something supernatural. They had ten children with them; three babies and seven young ones. The video cut to a new scene and the timestamp changed to today's date. Aiden and Krissy were joking around with Josephine filming them, the table crowded with kids eating lunch.
"You know you like me," said Aiden with a smile.
"No I don't, shut up," she said punching him lightly on the shoulder.
The lights began to flicker. Their heads all snapped up as the house began to shake. They sprang into action, camera forgotten on the coffee table, but still rolling; they pulled a handle and revealed a hidden panic room in the back of the linen closet. "Jamie, listen to me," Krissy said to the oldest boy. His red hair stuck up in all directions. He couldn't be more than ten. "You go in here, lock the door, and you don't open it for anyone but us, you understand?" He nodded and she put him inside, ushering the others in; some of the older children holding the babies. Krissy, Aiden, and Josephine all grabbed shotguns and waited. The front door flew open and Adam walked in. They pumped him full of rock salt, but he just waved an arm and sent them all crashing into the walls, helpless.
"Hiya," he said smiling.
"What do you want?" Aiden spat.
"Want?" He laughed, "I don't want anything except for your lives. It's your lucky day. You kids get to help me hurt Sam and Dean Winchester."
"Whatever," said Krissy defiantly, "We're not telling you jack shit. If you're gonna kill us, get it over with."
"Oh, sweetheart, I'm not going to let you die for a long time. Tell me, you ever see Star Wars?"
"What's that got to do with anything?" asked Josephine.
"I always loved Anakin Skywalker," he said cheerfully. He walked over to the arsenal they had left out and picked up the biggest gun they had, loading it. "See, I always thought I was like him; Dark Side and all of that. So that's what I'm about to do. I'm about to go Skywallker." He crossed to Krissy, grabbed her by the face and blew a stream of smoke into her mouth. "Show me what you saw." They both froze for a moment while Adam absorbed her memories. When it was over he smiled.
"Ah, Jamie's in charge of guarding the door?" he said. Krissy opened her mouth to scream, but Adam moved his fingers in a cut motion and her voice was silenced. All of them were trying to shout, voices held at bay by Adam's power as he crossed with the weapon to the closet. When Adam opened his mouth to speak, Krissy's voice came out; he could mimic her perfectly. "Jamie, let me in sweetie." He backed away from the door and waited for the child to open the door. Jamie pushed it open wide and Adam opened fire. The three teens on the wall were screaming silently, struggling against invisible bonds, tears streaming down their faces as Adam blew away child after child. When he emptied the clip, he put in another and fired every bullet into the small bodies.
When they were all dead, he turned his attention back to the teens, starting with Josephine. He gave them their voices back so he could listen to their screams. He tied her to a chair and slit her throat. Krissy screamed for her friend over and over.
"You son of a bitch!" she screamed.
Adam turned back to her and began cutting every inch of exposed skin on her body.
"That's my mother you're talking about," he said, laughing before turning to Aiden. The boy slid from the wall and was being forced across the room when he saw an opening. He slung a hidden container of holy water into Adam's face. While he was burning, Krissy slid down the wall and Aiden pulled them flush together, face to face, trying to guide her.
"Come on, we gotta g-" He was cut off. Adam had risen, grabbed the poker from the fireplace and rammed it through Aiden's body and into Krissy's. They swayed and fell, Aiden on top. He reached a bloody hand up and touched her face, accidentally smearing blood on her cheek and he stroked the pale skin. "S-so….beautiful," he whispered.
"You know Aiden, she choked out, "always liked you. Was stupid. Now we're o-out of t-time."
He kissed her softly as the light left her eyes before collapsing himself. Adam laughed and danced around the room before beginning to paint the walls with the blood of the dead children. When he noticed the camera, he smiled into it. "Sam, Dean. I told you that you wouldn't like what you found here. I'm not going to kill people you saved. I'm going to kill everyone you ever loved, and that list is short. And you know what? There is nothing you can do to stop me. This is my revenge for leaving me in Hell. And when I'm done with them, you're next." He stopped and looked at his watch. "Well, look at the time. Bye guys."
The camera cut out and Dean stepped back, trying to keep it together, but he couldn't. He swiped the nearest lamp off of a table; it shattered against the wall with a crash. He over turned the table next, ripping a leg off with his bare hands, not feeling the splintered wood that pierced his hands as he smashed it like a baseball bat into the wall, again and again. The world was spinning like a top around him. There was a terrible noise over the ringing in his ears; he couldn't figure out where it was coming from until he felt gentle hands take the table leg from him. The awful noise was him; he was screaming. The hands clutched at his face. He recognized those hands, but he couldn't think. Not now. He heard a shaky voice say, "Cas, get him out of here," and then the familiar hands were leading him away, away from the carnage and blood. Blood that was on his hands. The world was lurching around him. His fault. This was his fault. The ground rushed up to meet his face and then there was nothing.