Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural.
Author's Note: This is part five of the series Skies on Fire.
Death, it smelled of death. All around, in every corner, in every nook and cranny, the odor of festering flesh reeked and wafted and hung in the air. He inhaled deeply, savoring the taste with his heightened senses. It was his favorite fragrance.
He opened his black eyes and slowly cast his gaze around the gathered assembly. They were nothing compared to him yet they were necessary. The first stage rested upon their shoulders. He would save his energy for the grand finale.
"You have your orders," he hissed. They didn't need to be told twice. They feared him and disappeared from his presence before he had time to blink.
He smirked at their absurdity. They were weak creatures and would be the first casualties of war. None would mourn them. They were easy to replace.
A new aroma tickled his nostrils. He frowned. He had difficulty identifying the smell. It was not death, it was not pain, it was not anger. It more substantial than anything he had previously known. It was... angelic.
He seethed and roared and the ground beneath his feet began to rock. The tremors intensified until the very walls of the cavern shook and vomited russet brown soil. The other side had done something, a big something, and he felt the balance tip in their favor.
His orders were simple: stay low until the predetermined time. But the gloves were off now. Those damn angels were playing a dangerous game and he would ensure that they lost. At all costs.
Sam was speechless. Not only were his future son and daughter standing in front of him, but they had just revealed the identity of their mother, the demon he'd been sleeping with for the past several months. He glanced at Ruby, who was equally shocked. Dean looked like he couldn't decide between thumping his baby brother on the back for a job well done or throttling him. Sam figured either outcome would be appropriate.
Before a proper reunion could be held, Jessica had a job to complete. "Sorry to just barge in on you like this but we need to talk to Mary here." Jessica wrapped a hand around her cousin's wrist and tugged. "Nice to see you guys." She tugged harder, forcing Mary to stumble forward and follow the youngest Winchesters down the sidewalk.
The brothers and Ruby were left in silence outside their motel room. Sam's mind was working overload to the point that it was blank. He had kids. And they were here, in their past and his present. And they were half-demon. How the hell did that happen? A brief image of rolling around in bed with Ruby flashed before his eyes. He knew how it could happen he just didn't know demons could even have children. If he had, he would have thought twice about using a condom.
"So you knock up the demon bitch?" Dean snorted. "God, Sammy, are you really that stupid?"
Sam shot his brother a death glare. "At least I know who the mother of my future children is." He tightened his grasp on Ruby's hand. "Course, I didn't know we even could conceive," he said pointedly at Ruby. She shrugged. "It's been known to happen, it's just rare. We don't need a breeding program when we have willing souls," she said.
That shut Dean up. He stalked back to the room, shoulders hunched. Sam moved to follow but Ruby stopped him. "He needs space," she explained. Sam nodded reluctantly and leaned against the wall. He stared at Ruby. She didn't appreciate the scrutiny. "What?"
"You haven't said anything," Sam commented. "Our kids just showed up on the doorstep and you didn't even acknowledge them."
Ruby crossed her arms. "They didn't give me a chance. They just ran off."
"Yeah, what was that about?" Sam scratched his chin. It was an odd situation. Well, more odd than it should have been. Why had Mary, John, and Jessica ditched them like that? What "job" did they need to complete? Whatever it was, he was sure they would need help, his and Dean's and Ruby's help. That's what family was for, after all. He sighed. "Guess we'll just have to wait and find out when they come back." He didn't add if they came back.
He hadn't surfaced in centuries. An exact count was unattainable and unimportant. He was revered in the proper circles, feared by the weakest weaklings, and respected by all creatures beneath him. His power was mythical and boasted unimaginable possibilities. Earth was little more than a nuisance to him; he never desired to frequent with the humans like so many of his brothers and sisters.
But today, for the first time in recorded history, he inhaled fresh air. Car exhaust and cigarette smoke greeted his olfactory senses. This was similar to home and he felt comfortable in this world.
He kicked out his left foot. The fool whose body he inhabited was athletic, captain of the varsity cross-country team. He remembered seeing the trophies in the boy's room. The foot crashed to the ground and he found it could bear his weight. He tried the right foot. It too worked as it was supposed to, ligaments and muscles and bone interacting with one another to facilitate movement. He grinned. He liked movement. Perhaps his siblings had the right idea.
A glass panel gleamed from the building next to him. It was a large window, glittering under the streetlamps and reflecting the colorful images that were projected on the sleek black boxes on display. One box showed a bombed out mosque in the Middle East. He recognized the location. He had given the order just days earlier. On another box, funny little words scrolled beneath a bespectacled man who spoke rapidly. The words, which were English type, mentioned something about an Amber Alert. A little girl had gone missing from her house, presumably by her estranged father who was embroiled in a custody battle with the girl's mother.
He laughed at the images. He saw disease in Africa, flooding in Middle America, drug lords in Colombia. It thrilled him to witness such human violence and malevolence. No wonder so many went to Hell. It must remind them of home, he thought.
The soft wind carried voices to his ear. One, a female, young by the sound of the pitch, mentioned something about dying in the past. He was intrigued. They must be the disturbance he felt. He tracked it to this very location and- his eyes blazed. He smelled an angel.
He noiselessly followed the voices to three similar looking teenagers. The brunette girl was shaking her head in disbelief while the blond chatted away, allowing no one else the chance to speak.
"We watched you disappear with Dad and Uncle Dean and I just knew we had to follow you here and warn you because we can't lose you, Mary, we just can't!" the blond girl was saying. She paused for breath and quickly continued. "So John and I looked through all the books in Dad's study and found nothing and we can't use our powers, though we thought about it, let me tell you-"
The brunette boy coughed and interrupted. "You thought about using our powers, I put my foot down."
The girl rolled her eyes. "Whatever, John, we all know you're a goody-two shoes, don't make it worse for yourself." The brunette girl chuckled at this. The boy glared at them both.
What was this about powers? What kind of powers did they have that they didn't want to use? He sniffed again. Yes, he definitely smelled angel. It was the brunette girl, she reeked of it. But the other two, they were different. They were demonic.
His eyes flashed. Why were demons associating with that thing? Those two would be executed for treason, that was fact. Then something else caught his attention. The blond demon called the brunette angel "cousin." There was genuine concern in her silky voice. What the hell was going on?
Mary gripped her cousin's hand. "I know you are only doing what you think is right, and I thank you for your concern, but you're risking everything by being here."
"And you're not?" Jessica snorted. They had gone to all that trouble to warn Mary about her possible impending death and she was reprimanding them for giving a damn!
"I am here on orders-"
"So are we," John retorted. His young face was furrowed in resentment and annoyance. "Uriel sent us back here so we could warn you about Jessica's vision."
Mary raised an eyebrow. She knew as well as anybody Uriel's opinion of her cousins and their parents. She also knew there was no way in hell he would help them unless the situation was serious. And serious for Uriel usually had something to do with her well-being. It took all her willpower to not roll her eyes. Uriel's idea of Mary's well-being tended to be biased. He only tolerated her because she was necessary, because she was a good soldier. He wouldn't have gone to the trouble of assisting her half-demon cousins if she wasn't useful. "Look," Mary sighed. "I appreciate this, I really do, and I'm sorry you guys had to go to Uriel for help and I really am glad to see you, it's just..." She faltered. She didn't know how they would react if she voiced her fears. Finally she built up courage and said, "Your vision is only a fraction of the problem at hand. Something is happening, something that didn't occur in our pasts and Castiel and I think it may have something to do with me, and now you, being here."
Jessica gasped. "Castiel really is alive?" She noticed Mary's amazement. "Uriel told us. And we saw his body disappear. It was weird, which considering who we are and what we do is not something I say on a regular basis."
"He's very much alive. They resurrected him and sent him to me. Not sure what they means, but I'm not complaining," Mary grinned. Jessica wiggled her eyebrows. "Didn't realize angels were that good in bed," she giggled. Mary whacked her cousin on the arm with a grunt. John grimaced at the visual image that popped into his head.
"We should get back before the folks worry," John said. The girls nodded. "They're Winchesters, worrying comes with the territory," Mary said.
He barely contained his fury. It all made sense now, the demon children who called the angel "cousin." They shirked from their powers because they had been raised to fear what they were, raised by the same lousy human who feared his own abilities and the traitor who shared his bed. And the other girl, who purity radiated from the sinful meat-suit of the lowly creatures prized above all others. She could only be the daughter of the eldest brother, the one who was chosen among millions to be saved from the pit, the one for whom the other side lay great, yet unknown, plans.
He watched the three hunters round the corner opposite of his location and he followed. He had a hunch they would lead him to his quarry, for he had a plan. Destroying these pathetic excuses for demons would never ensure victory, not when he knew from their conversation, from the pain and fear he smelt on their skin, that his kind had won and these brats would change that. No, he could not let the angels win.
The kids joined a couple loitering outside a motel room. He grinned. Identifying his quarry, even at this great distance, was no difficulty. He would kill the sires and eliminate the threat in one swift action.
Sam heard footsteps and turned around. John, Jessica, and Mary were heading up the sidewalk and back to their parents. John smiled and shoved his hands in his pockets. "Sorry about that, we just had to discuss logistics."
"Logistics?" All three children looked at Ruby. This was the first time she'd spoken to them since John and Jessica had arrived. She appeared less dazed than when they'd dropped the bombshell but John could tell she was still wary of them. She'd spent several weeks with Mary and he suspected his mother continued to have reservations regarding his cousin, too.
John figured since he'd brought it up he should explain. "Us being in the past could pose some problems and we needed to assess the risks, as well as discern what Mary already told you. We can't tell you everything about the future, you know. Some things can't be changed and there are some things we just don't want changed."
Sam could agree with his son's logic. For one so young, John was pretty smart. Sam figured that had something to do with the face that he'd grown up not just in a war zone but as a soldier. He had a difficult time swallowing that information. He wasn't sure he wanted his son raised in this life. He had to smile at that thought. His son. And standing beside the brunette boy was his daughter, looking almost giddy. Now he knew how Dean felt when Mary first showed up in their lives.
"Where's Dad?" Mary inquired. Sam jerked his head towards the motel room. "You can see him if you want but I don't know if he'll be communicative. Ruby said something that reminded him of Hell and he just shut down," Sam explained.
Mary nodded. John watched her glide into the room, the wood door creaking on its rusty hinges. If anyone could get through to Dean, it was Mary. She understood better than anyone what Dean had gone through. John had to blink several times to stop from crying. Normally, he was very skilled at forgetting Mary's one-year kidnapping. But then times like this, when he was forcibly reminded of what she had to endure, he could barely handle it.
"So..." Jessica scuffed the ground with her shoe. John knew what she was thinking- awkward. They hadn't seen their parents in eight years and Sam and Ruby were never really around before then anyway. Not that John or his sister resented their parents. They were fighting a war to protect their kids and change the world for better. He admired them, he loved them, he respected them. He just didn't know them.
Jessica looked into the faces of her parents. They, too, seemed at a loss for words. John thought he might broach a conversation, not something difficult or convoluted, but just anything to break the silence. "How long have you two been together?" he asked. Might as well talk about them, that was a subject they could discourse upon. Besides, that information would help John and Jessica know when they were.
"About eight months," Sam said. He smiled at Ruby and took her hand in his. She smiled back.
John did the math in his head. "So this is 2009 then? Well that's just..." He glanced at his sister with wide eyes and a "this-could-be-a-problem" expression. "...peachy," he finished.
"Don't you love walking around when you haven't even been born?" Jessica emphasized the last three words solely for her brother's benefit. Sam and Ruby were oblivious to the hidden meanings behind this exchange.
"You guys gonna-" Sam began, intending to invite his children to join their past family. He wasn't sure why they were in the past or if they would even stay with the family or even how long they intended to stay, but he hoped they would accept. He wanted to get to know them and he saw in their eyes that they wanted to get to know their parents too.
But Sam didn't get a chance to ask because right at that moment a scrawny kid, with blond tufts of hair and a letterman jacket that was several sizes too big, vaulted into the middle of their little group and knocked them all to the ground.
"What the hell is your problem kid?" Sam shouted. It never occured to him to wonder how the gangly teen could send four people slamming into the sidewalk.
John groaned and looked up in time to see a blurry figure slam its tennis shoe on his throat. He choked and flailed and then everything went black.
He eyed the unconscious boy and gave one more quick thrust to his throat, just to make sure he stayed down. Then he turned his sights on the female demon behind him. She struggled to her feet, eyes pure black. He laughed. Her attempt to look menacing was more than pathetic, it was tasteless. He flicked his hand and sent her across the parking lot.
It felt brilliant to use his powers once again. Only in corporeal form could he conduct such force. He hadn't gotten his hands dirty in centuries and had long ago forgotten the feeling of taking life into his own hands, the intoxicating power of holding life and death in the balance.
Now the teenage girl and her future father were on their feet. He opted to go for a more physical approach and balled his hands into fists. The girl was down in a single punch, blood streaming from her broken nose. He heard a reassuring snap as her neck fell back and her body slumped to the ground.
"Son of a bitch!" The tall man yelled and lunged.
He easily tossed the human into the wall of the motel building. A croaked gasp caught his attention. The boy was coming to. He had to act fast, he couldn't spend all night toying with the family. He crossed the parking lot and grabbed the female by her hair. Her eyes were human again and hinted at confusion. She didn't recognize him. He wasn't sure if he should feel offended. Perhaps she was simply too young to know him. Maybe that's why she turned traitor and fraternized with the humans. She must have retained some of her humanity.
He said nothing, it would have been too cliche. He merely placed a hand on her forehead and closed his eyes and opened his ears to drink in the sounds of her screams.
Author's Note: Thanks for all the reviews for this series! For EnglishLass and Spuffyshipper, who seem most interested in Mary's parentage, I can promise that all will be revealed in Part Seven, Rocking All the Way.