Dawn – chpt 21.
by: sifi.
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"Sam... C'mon Sammy don't do this little brother please..." he choked, pressing gently down on the young man's chest with his left arm while trying to cradle his head in his right.
Sweat soaked the younger brother, his jaw clenched, teeth snapping together, the veins of his neck and face stood out in sharp relief and air stuttered into and out of him like a misfiring engine. Dean watched as Sam's hands flailed, one of them picking at his back pocket until his wallet slid out onto the floor. A second later he drew a smoother breath, his eyes rolling down just a little and his seizing seemed to take a break.
"Sammy?" Dean breathed cupping the young mans' face a split second before an alto scream tore the air and his chest bowed backward once more. This time though, as he did, a drop of blood seeped up from under his shirt high on the left side of his chest.
"DEAN!" he screamed arching backward, "God... Dean! Help me!" he cried.
Dean's eyes filled and his fingers clawed at Sam's shirt where the tiny drop was spreading with horrific speed.
No! No, no, no, not again, I won't lose you again..."Sam talk t'me!" he urged tearing through the fabric, popping the buttons.
He clasped his fingers around the neck of his little brothers' t-shirt and gave a sharp tug, tearing through the base of the 'v' so he could see what was going on, why he was bleeding.
"Dean?" Shep asked as he and Tom burst into the room.
"Oh God... Sam? Sammy? C'mon little man..." Tom dropped to his knees at the head of the bed, his hand stroking Sam's dripping hair off his face, watching as were Dean and Shep an impossibility happening.
On the palm sized area of his chest, where he and Dean both had the same protective seals tattooed not long after Sam had been possessed by the Meg demon, it was as if a sharp blade had incised the skin around it and the edges were starting to peel.
"Dean... please..." Sam whimpered, his hand flailed grasping at his brothers' naked chest, his fingers brushed the ink and smoke arose at the contact.
"What the hell..." Shep uttered as behind them the doorway filled up with hunters.
"Please..." Sam gasped turning oily yellow eyes on his big brother.
"Sammy..." Dean's blood turned to ice and he found he could barely breathe as those eyes looked into him.
"Alright out, everybody get out!" Shep leaped to his feet turning the hunters away before any of them could see anything.
"Dean sent for me!" Mercy pushed back.
"OUT!" the nearly panicked man pushed them all from the room before slamming the door shut and throwing the lock.
"Holy shit Dean... what the hell's going on? What the hell does this mean?" he asked breathlessly, his eyes bulging wide with fear.
"S'okay Sammy, come on little man you can fight this okay? Fight it for us Sam, it's gonna be okay, we're gonna take care of you..." Tommy continued to soothe in a trembling voice while stroking the boys' hair from his face even as tears dripped from his chin.
A second later the knob turned and Bobby walked in, almost turned back by a visibly frightened Shep.
"What's goin' on?" he asked closing and re-locking the door.
"Father!" Sam cried, twisting himself on the bed while his hand reached out toward Dean.
"Holy mother of God Dean... what the hell?" Bobby asked stunned cold by the sight of Sam's eyes. Wasn't bad enough when they went black a couple years ago, what the hell's goin' on? Dean KILLED that yellow eyed bastard! and How the hell's it inside the ward let alone the boy! he frowned eyeing the curling edges around the seal that should have never allowed him to be possessed again in the first place.
Deep in the heart of the oily yellow center a brightness seemed to flicker, and the edges of the flap of skin that held the tattoo started to smolder.
"No... no, no, no, NOOOOO!" he screamed straining against the hands of their friends that would have held him down.
"Sam..." Dean whispered helplessly just before he took flight as did Tom, Shep, and Bobby, all four of them slammed into walls, held hard and firm as Sam turned Azazel's eyes on them.
Sam's body sat up at the edge of the bed panting, his hand pressed down on the mutilated skin of his chest, seeming to want to keep the protective symbol exactly where it was, it's presence perhaps acting in the same manner as a binding link, keeping whatever bit of his essence that he'd seeded Sam with, firmly rooted inside.
"No!" A different voice barked from Sam's mouth while his fingertips curled under the edge of the cut and his eyes shifted again, glowing copper, "Your part is done here! Leave him!" came a voice layered over Sam's that something deep inside Dean recognized.
His jaw dropped as two entities fought for dominion within his brother.
When once again those yellow eyes lingered longer than the copper color, and their gaze turned to him, his fear and fury could no longer be held back, "Don't you touch him! So help me God GET OUT OF HIM!"
The yellow seemed to almost lock into place as Sam's mouth twisted in a cruel smile, "NO! I'm the one who can protect him, haven't I always? Haven't I always taken care of our Sammy?" Sam's body stalked across the room, his blood covered hand grasped his big brother by the chin, "My good right hand Dean, you'll sit right beside me..."
"He's MINE!" Dean hollered enough to fill his entire body with quaking fury before he gained control of himself, "Get out of my brother you yellow eyed son of a bitch! I KILLED YOU!" he hissed through clenched teeth.
"Hah!" he spat, "...held back by nothing more than a shadow...how's daddy's little blunt instrument? Still workin' through those issues huh?" he leaned in, closely, "I watched you kill your girlfriend... that took bigger balls than I thought you had... nice job by the way..."
"Get out of my brother and go straight back to hell you son of a bitch," Dean snarled.
"Now is that any way to talk to your once and future king?" he sneered pressing one hand over Dean's ink while his other drew out Sam's pocket knife and opened it up.
"What the hell... oh no you don't c'mon Sammy fight this son of a bitch!" he ground as the gleaming edge was brought up against his skin while the voices of their friends shouted protestations that were sure to have been heard outside the bedroom door. Why aren't they busting it down? Why aren't they coming, they gotta know something's waaaaaay wrong... he wondered watching the blade sink into the first layers of the flesh of his chest.
"Sammy! Don't you let it do this!" he ground his teeth, his good arm slowly starting to peel away from the wall as his brothers' eyes flickered momentarily copper then blue-green for a long heartbeat that bent his features in pain. "C'mon Sam fight it!" Dean urged while he slid down the wall onto his own feet, as did the other three men in the room, and his hand grasped his baby brother at the neck and shoulder.
On the floor of the room in a shadow a small figure shimmered in, his face betraying the full extent of his distress. An instant later he was gone and Dean hoped he was the only one to have seen him.
"Dean, I can't..." Sam leaned forward, exhausted, dripping wet and barely able to stand with the knife hanging limply from his hand as his big brother drew him in.
"Yes you can! YES you CAN Sam!" he pushed himself away from the wall and grasped his baby by the face, "You can do this... you don't need his protection anymore! You don't... you have to make it go, PUSH it out!"
"I won't let him!" the yellow eyes were back again, "Sam has a job to do and I'm going to damn well see that he does it! YOU"RE the one we don't need anymore!" he sneered as Dean shot across the room and through the window landing somewhere outside with a frighteningly final sounding 'whump'.
"Dean!" Sam cried, his eyes flashing copper once again as his fingers poked and pried and tore at the flap of flesh on his chest bathing the room in screams and his hand and arm in blood as he pulled and worked the patch of skin from his body.
"Dean..." he panted falling to his knees with a gaping circular wound over his chest. His breath came shaky as his eyes flared copper and their friends were finally, fully released from the wall watching as a billow of demon dust was forced from the haven of his body.
He knew the others couldn't see it but he was filled with warm relief when the igigi descended playing cat and mouse with the last bit of Azazel as it tried to escape them and eventually lost.
"Go get Dean I'll stay here with him," Tom directed grasping the boy to his chest, pressing Sam's shirts to the gaping wound as he hefted him onto the bed.
"No... Dean, oh God..." Sam shoved Tom's hand away and tried to push himself to his feet.
"What the hell happened?" Ellen, Mercy and Jo were already nearing the door as Sam lurched out into the living room with Tom holding him up.
"Mercy get outside Dean went through the window," Tom ordered, then turned his questioning gaze on the other two women, as Bobby's niece did as directed. "None of you heard any of that?"
"All we heard was glass shatter... guess it was the window..." Ellen wrapped her arm around Sam's other side while Jo dashed out the back to see if she could be of help, "Sam what did you do honey? Where's all this blood coming from?" she asked as he stumbled almost out of their grip.
"Set him down..." Tom nodded to one of the chairs.
"Alright little man, I hafta take a look here alright?" he crouched in front of the dazed Sam.
"Dean..." he nodded barely able to lift his head but as he did his gaze rose, his eyes blazed luminous copper and as Tom pulled back the layers of cloth from his chest steeling himself for the sight of a palm sized patch of skin missing, he felt the wind sucked out of him.
Beneath the blood Sam's chest was almost pristine, marred only by the presence of the protective seal Tom had just watched him tear from his body, and the remnants of the bullet hole.
"Oh my God Tom... what's goin' on?" Ellen barely breathed as Sam's glowing almost orange colored gaze fell on her. Haltingly, her hand reached out to cradle his face.
"I'm not sure you'd believe me if I told you," Tom muttered.
"Try me," she breathed as outside voices came through the back door, the sound of a woman crying chief among them.
"Dean..." Sam winced before his face softened.
"Well I'm not entirely sure but I think the boy just embraced his past," Tom nodded as Sam's eyes returned to their normal blue-green before sliding closed as his body slid from the chair, coming to rest on the floor, sandwiched between Tom and Ellen.
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"Oh my God... Dean? Dean? Come on boy talk t'me..." Shep's breath hitched, his tear filled eyes meeting Bobby's already overflowing ones.
"No, no... no no no please..." he breathed watching the line of blood slide from the young man's mouth, across his cheek to pool onto the ground, his hands clamped around the hollow end of a chunk of pipe he'd landed on that now ran through his torso.
"Dean?" Shep breathed shakily, kneeling at his side, his hands cradling the young hunters' face, his green eyes just as clear and crystalline as they'd been when he first met the kid over twenty years ago.
"Sh...p," he breathed then cast his glance to Bobby and smiled, "Sza...am..."
Both men knew exactly what he wanted and nodded as Mercy, and Jo burst out into the back yard.
"We will... you just hold on there boy, don't you dare go anywhere..." Bobby threatened.
"Holy hell..." Mercy breathed, finally having a chance to take in the damage she'd felt beneath his t-shirt.
"Szzam..." Dean breathed, his lips curling faintly upward as his right hand clamped around the pipe and before anyone realized what he was doing, or was even capable of doing, he cast the chunk of metal aside and lay bleeding.
"No! Damnit!" Mercy cursed placing her hands on either side of the gaping hole, grateful that for whatever reason he was dressed only in boxers, "You stupid son of a bitch what'd you do that for!? You're not supposed to take something out!..." tears flowed down her face, "You moron! Somebody fucking call 911!" She looked around as Dean's hand fell to hers and their eyes met, "You stupid idiot Dean..." she leaned forward, even as his hand cupped her cheek and held her back.
Bobby, Shep and Jo watched as he touched the woman's face. Her concentration was focused on his wound so she didn't see the faint glowing begin in the back depths of his pupils, and she didn't see the pink of copper light burst through to overtake the green, but the others did.
"Mmm... szzon... k'ng..." he sighed with a faint smile before his eyes closed and his head fell to the side.
--
Dean's stride slowed to half on the grassy plain and his face betrayed his confusion.
"What is it? What's wrong?" she asked.
"Oh God... Oh GOD!..." he breathed sharply and bent over grasping his knees. The last time he'd felt this kind of panic was when that bitch had his car towed.
"Dean?"
"Sam... it's Sammy... oh God he's possessed... Yellow eyes is IN him!" he breathed, clutching at his chest, his eyes pleading.
Of course there's part of him in Sam, he opened the channels for his gifts... she thought for a moment, confused as to why this would bother him NOW, Wait... wait...
"Wait what did you say? Sam's possessed? That's not possible Dean and you know it..." but even as she denied the possibility her voice trailed off.
"Yes," he nodded meeting her eyes, "It's possible..."
"Yeah," she agreed, "It's part of him... if it's been,"
"Dormant," Dean nodded, "Sam was fi..." he waved his hand, "Marduk... was..." he stopped again, "Whoever he is now..."
"He's Sam sweetie, he's your Sam," she stroked his face gently, her expression twisted with empathy.
"How did you die Dean?" she asked.
"I don't..." he shook his head, "I'm not..." he winced feeling horrible cutting slashing sensations all over his body just before a sharp breathtaking cramp stabbed through him and he felt crushed to the ground. He sucked a gasping breath, "I gotta..." he turned in a circle, "The Sumerland...Ana... No," he shook his head looking around, something in his expression almost desperate.
"Dean?" she whispered noting the change in his stance, his carriage, "Enki," she breathed.
He turned to her, beaming a brilliant and doting smile as he strode to her and cupped her cheek while examining her dress, "You have not yet passed through the seventh gate? Good. I must find the tablets... which way is the gate woman? I must seek the dragon," he barely glanced at her as his gaze swept the changing plain around them.
Gone were the verdant greens, the ocean view, the copious flowerbeds, all replaced with molten orange limned black scales of earth.
"Ahh the gate..." he directed, walking with her beside him to the doors, each made of two panels filled with friezes that told the stories of the beginnings of the heavens and earth; of the birth of the gods, and mankind. It's been a long time since I've seen these gates, and what a tale they tell.
Laura froze, disturbed. There were no gallas at this post and yet the doors were opening, I can't go in there, I can't let those gates close behind me, Dean? Enki? Please don't... she stopped and sighed, resigned, make this all in vain...he needs the tablets of destiny, of course! she smacked her palm to her forehead, To banish a God he needs the tablet of destinies FOR THE GODS...Man am I stupid! she shook her head.
As she turned to face him, two pair of rough clawed hands yanked the skirt from her hips, tossing her off balance. She landed on her stomach only to feel their claws sink into her body as they drew her over the threshold and as the gates closed, her eyes fixed on the one thing she could look at forever, the man she loved.
Until those gates closed, and the fires of the underworld erupted on this side of them, barring all from any possibility of escape, she felt no pain, when he was gone from her sight, she wept in agony.
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THE END.
Please R&R.
Thank You.
sifi.