And now, the climax and conclusion!! Sorry, I worked on this on a laptop on a roadtrip...so if it seems disjointed or doesn't make sense, let me know! As always, I'm looking for tips, advice to make me write words gooder.
:)
Then: Lilith returned and had honed her skills. When we last left, Lilith had Sam under total control and was telling him to shoot Dean.
***************************************
Two weeks later…
"Allow me to introduce myself," Lilith stormed into the diner, her reflection seen in the blackened pupils of her captive audience.
Despite the closed windows and doors, a chilling breeze cascaded along the rumors in the air and stirred her listeners. Fifty of them stared at the vile princess, now donning a sunflower sundress, her jelly slippers squeaking along the porcelain tiles.
"What you've heard is true," Lilith continued proudly. "The Winchesters are," and pausing for dramatic effect, fluttering an eyelash, she said, "ten feet under. And now I'm giving you the privilege to follow me. To take back hell. To give hell. And to pretty much do whatever the hell I want."
She smiled as brightly as the sun that tore through the diner.
A heavy-set man whose shirt just about burst at the buttons bravely stood up. Cocking one eyebrow up above his blackened eyes, he asked the question on everyone's mind: "How did you do it?"
Lilith bit her lip and looked up to the ceiling that was plastered with Elvis posters, Coca-Cola signs, and an endless array of 50's memorabilia that the owner probably thought would add flair to his restaurant. With an Etruscan smile, intoxicatingly smug, Lilith reminisced on her greatest achievement.
The memory made her warm inside, like a dream filled with gumdrops, rainbows, pitchforks, and fire.
There Sam stood. The desert air, hot and sticky, assailed her senses. The older hunter lay pathetic on the grass with a face petrified, shivering, and crying.
"Please, no, please, no," Dean had begged.
Lilith had clapped her hands, tossing her head back and wishing, just wishing, she could hold this moment forever. Licking her lips, she gave the final push to her most prized possession – Sam.
"Do it, Sam. Kill Dean. Now," Lilith demanded. Oh how Sam fought. How he trembled. His knuckles were whiter than his face. To Lilith's increasing joy, a small drop of blood had started to formulate beneath his nose. He was struggling so much. So beautifully! Just like she had imagined.
So perfectly, a bolt of lightning streaked across the sky, stimulating the senses and increasing the tension. At that very moment, her slave with his absent eyes seared himself shut and a shot rang out. The only eyes left open were hers to behold the heavenly vision: a treasure of crimson blood like rose petals fell from Dean's heart in offering to Lilth's rule.
Squealing, jumping, swirling, unable to keep in her joy, Lilith rose to give the shivering hunter one last hug.
"Oh, you did it! You killed that Deanie Weenie!" Embracing Sam's leg, she looked up slowly like a precious moment ceramic doll, adoring her big brother.
"And now it's your turn." So perfect. So clear. He fell. And again, Lilith smiled.
The demons within the diner looked on at their new ruler with awe. The time had come. With the Winchesters truly defeated, the last seals could be broken and Lucifer would rise to an already crumbling world. Today, they would join on the side that wins. Today, they would destroy the innocents. The children would go first, lured by one of their own. How sweet it all would be.
These demons were Lilith's true followers. The lucky. The chosen. And they would follow and serve her until the end.
"So it is true, then?" the same bloated man asked.
Raising one thumb up, the blond-headed child responded, "You got it, dude." Instantly, the bloated demon that had been so brave to ask a question toppled over his red-vinyl chair, his own eyes bleeding onto the floor below him. Within seconds, his body had convulsed and found a grave on the floor beneath him.
Looking pleased with herself, Lilith ended, "And that's what will happen to anyone that defies me. Any questions?"
Hands locked behind her back, Lilith paced the room, waiting for silence.
"Good. Time to play!" She shot her hands into the air when a crackle of light and sound crashed through the barriers of the diner's walls.
It was unlike anything she had heard before. She felt the attention from her demon audience falter, now looking at the skies outside their windows. Blue. Crystal clear. Again.
Lilith's heart skipped a beat at nature's cry, and she jumped. From excitement? Yes, that was it.
"Now," Lilith felt her lips form the words, her mind forced to forget about the minor disturbance. "What shall we do first?"
Another loud crash resounded through her ears, bringing Lilith to her knees this time. The rest of the demons, not as heavily affected by the sound, watched their new ruler fall so curiously at what was mere thunder.
"What the hell is that?!" Lilith stammered, angrily. And why did it hurt her ears so much?
Another member of her audience, feeling a glint of bravery and hunger, stood out from behind the cash register. The demon straightened the apron on its meat suit and found the nerve to speak, "You…are…hurt?"
Lilith spun her eyes and glared at the insolent woman before her and spit out, "I'm FINE." With a clench of her fist, Lilith sent the waitress flying across the room. The body crashed through plates and finally fell into a satisfying crunch of broken bones and twisted necks. Determined not to lose her power over her first disciples from a mere tumble, Lilith immediately shot up.
"You won't speak unless SPOKEN TO!" Lilith screamed. The diner's windows shattered and sliced into the skins of half her audience, as she intended. Lilith had been a demon far too long to know that one small mistake, one vulnerability or show of weakness, would bring hell onto the poor demon that was too stupid to figure out the rules.
De-ruffling her dress, Lilith stood once more at the center of attention, before a trembling, if not confused, audience of black eyes.
"I tell you when to speak. I tell you when to breath. I tell you when to – " Hiccup.
Lilith stopped cold. What was happening? She continued.
"I tell you when to die. I tell you when to eat. You belong to –" Hiccup.
A muffled giggle from the back corner brought Lilith into a rage. He stomach churned at the idea that perhaps the skin she had chosen maintained too many childish weaknesses with which to lead an army.
"Who laughed?!" Lilith realized that she was losing what she prized most from her minions.
Fear.
A rustling of feet and heavier breathing made Lilith all too aware of the looseness around her.
She was losing their fear.
A demon to her left, dressed in work slacks and grey business coat, coughed casually, muttering something under his breath.
Were they mocking her? The audacity, the boldness, the stupidity.
Lilith flew over to the business man's table, hopping onto its imitation granite top. Looming over the all-too comfortable demon, she didn't blink as she seared her own white eyes into those opposite hers.
"What did you say?" Her voice never wavered.
"Nothing, my queen…" the man stuttered in a show of fear, though something seemed off. Forced, even. "Nothing imp-important…just…"
She examined the dark clouds that peered back at her. Yes, something was indeed off. Something familiar stared back at her. Bringing her face closer to his, Lilith ignored the quiet rumbling that seemed to echo from the ground beneath her. The human heart, long dead inside her, would have lurched. The skin that battled her demon essence rose into tiny pinpricks. Mere inches away, Lilith could now smell the man before her, if only she would breathe him in.
"Just what?" Lilith said in an ancient voice.
The demon businessman, turned his head ever so slightly and craned his neck so that his lips graced Lilith's delicate ear.
"Just…"
Without a thought, Lilith's entire body suddenly fell into an uncontrollable hunger for this moment. Feral-like, she pressed her ear against the man's soft lips, straining to hear words that were barely a whisper. She ignored the pounding behind her eyes. She ignored the flames in her stomach. She pushed all signs of pain that had erupted within her as a result of this overwhelming need, as if all that mattered were the words that would fall like drugs from this demon's lips, soothing her once and for all and bringing her to everlasting peace.
He sighed. "Time to play."
Stealthily, an invisible hand closed its icy grip around Lilith's eyes, shredding the wool that had been placed over them, tearing away with claw-like fingers at the false images that were so delicately placed there.
Lilith's mouth twisted in horror as she fell to all fours, petrified at the black eyed demon that still sat before her.
"You," she coughed. A crushing realization set upon the demon that would be queen. A memory that had once been so sweet, twisted in her mouth and exchanged its nature to something like bile rising her throat as flashes of new memories ripped through her cerebrum.
Yes, there Sam stood. It was all too clear. That memory did not change.
The desert air. That pathetic Dean, wrenching beneath her kneeling disposition. Yes, yes, Lilith thought, her small form now crawling along the diner's checker-patterned floor. "Do it Sam. Kill Dean," her own saccharine voice echoed through her mind.
"Now!" She commanded the looming figure before her, gun violently shaking as the blood fell to Sam's lips.
It was all perfect. So clear. So bright.
So bright?
Before Lilith had a chance to think, lightning struck her vision and the scenery changed. No longer was she staring up at her shivering slave with a pistol, a weakened Winchester.
Now, she could only see Dean, whose expression screamed up to her through her mind.
Standing before the dying hunter, Lilith saw Dean through a new pair of eyes. She felt her own right hand gripping the cold steel of a gun. Her teeth grit against each other, fighting back the invisible force that was compelling her to shoot, driving her to kill.
Could it be? Was she watching Dean through Sam's eyes at those last moments? It couldn't be!
Dean's watery eyes reached out and into her, like only a brother could, and with look filled with both terror and realization, Dean silently communicated a single message that Lilith didn't, understand:
"Use it. Use everything we got."
Another flash, but this time it came from the fluorescent lights above a now stirring diner. The demons around Lilith watched the strange display of their ruler that looked less like a queen and more like a child each passing moment, writhe and tear at a nightmare apparent only to her.
Sniveling and gagging upon the cold wet floor, Lilith finally tore herself from the vision. She blinked the tears away and beheld the new horrors within her mind.
Her chest rose and fell, though it didn't need oxygen.
"What the fuck, what the fuck?" the child growled, voice deep and hollow.
The black-eyed demons began circling their weakened queen, lead by the demon in slacks and the grey business coat. Fiddling with his cufflinks, the tall demon grinned. The fluorescent lights flickered once more and Lilith was again transported to that day two weeks ago.
"Kill him, now!" Lilith screamed again, still looking down and kneeling over Dean's body, waiting for his death. Dean had refused to return her gaze, staring past her only to see the hellish visage of his brother with what had once been terror.
Now, Lilith saw in Dean's face a new emotion that washed over him so quickly she almost missed it. Breaking free from his paralysis, Dean's eyes widened and immediately shut again in a manner awaiting explosion. When Lilith looked up, Sam was no longer trembling.
"What are you doing? Shoot h--" Lilith began, but stopped suddenly as she saw Sam's face. Once hidden in the shadows by the setting sun behind him, a new light now rested in his blue eyes.
"No," Sam said coolly, pulling the gun back so that it rested against his shoulder, pointing the sky. He let his vision follow the barrel upwards, as well, allowing his head to fall back and take in a deep breath.
"No? No?!" Lilith cried, a petulant child who was unaccustomed to defiance.
However, Sam could barely hear her. Lilith's demands echoed somewhere along the sands of the desert, but with a single look from his brother, the world was now opening up in a new way to him. The damns inside him were breaking, rivers of raw energy and power raced through him without limitation. If he wasn't careful, he could drown in their dark depths, but taking another breath, he slowed the raging waters. Easing the firing synapses in his mind, Sam fought to hold himself back, ready to reignite them at any given time.
It was greed that had overtaken the others, an inability to control it all, but true control meant sacrifice. Dean had taught him that all too well. Dean had sacrificed himself, defied is own fears, and finally given up the control.
He had accepted Sam for who he was. A hunter like him. Like Dean.
Dean!
The world snapped back into focus, reality forming around Sam's will as he battled to keep the electric currents from searing him just beneath his skin.
"Gah, you bitch!" Dean roared, who was currently at Lilith's mercy. She had decided to do the deed herself. Her tiny fingers were splayed across his forehead and were releasing unimaginable pain into his body. Whatever she was doing to him coupled with the pain that the gunshot wound caused, and Dean bled onto the red stained grass.
That was all Sam needed to see before his hand instinctively shot up and sent Lilith flying backwards, crashing furiously against the mailbox across the yard. Despite his pain, Dean looked up at his little brother in disbelief.
Did Sammy just do that?
Sam had to fight against the pressures inside of him that hungered to push Lilith farther. If he had let his walls down, Sam knew, with a mere though he could have sent Lilith into a neighboring county.
"Dean!" Sam shouted, forgetting the demon and running over to his brother's side. Horror filled Sam's face as he examined the bullet wound on Dean's shoulder. "Oh God, Dean, you'll be okay, we'll get you some help."
Dean grimaced in pain as Sam hoisted him up into a seated position.
"Sam, wait," Dean mumbled.
"We'll get you to a hospital. It will be fine," Sam said, ignoring him, avoiding eye-contact.
"Sam, would you just look at me. Sam," Dean struggled against his brother's efforts, who was now slinging his arms across his shoulders.
Sam was purposefully pretending not to hear his big brother, purposefully wanting to avoid whatever questions he might have, whatever visions he wanted to see.
"Sam WAIT!" Dean's voice boomed.
Sam froze, finally locking eyes with his big brother, afraid for what Dean might see. Afraid for what Dean might think.
The look on Dean's face said it all. When Sam finally raised his eyes into Dean's own, if only for a split second, the emotion was clear: Awe.
Before Sam could say anything, Dean quickly shut him up.
"Dude," Dean said, attempting ease despite the pain, "cool trick."
Sam breathed a sigh of relief. No freakboy. No evil mojo. No mention of Yellow Eyes. When staring down Sam's gun, Dean had meant it.
"Shit, Dean," Sam said, smiling, "forget about it. Hospital. Now. Demon. Now." Sam didn't want to waste anymore time. Lilith was probably waking from her unconscious state and the bitch probably wasn't going to go skipping off into the sunset without a fight.
Before Sam could turn his predatory blue eyes back on Lilith, Dean placed a firm grip on his brother's shoulder.
"Wait, Sam," Dean said.
"What?"
"Don't kill the bitch," Dean stated.
"What?!" Sam shouted, nearly dropping Dean as they both struggled to stand.
"I have a plan. Trust me. Hospital first," he continued, hand braced against his injury.
Another flash and the lighting in the entire diner went out. Sparks of electricity illuminated black-eyed patrons at ghostly intervals, lending to the ominous air about them.
Lilith had finally stopped jerking on the floor, a miniature creature amidst the fanged wolfish creatures that continued to circle her.
"Tricks…tricks…" she seethed, ranting crazily. She whipped her head about, trying to find the mysterious man in slacks, but he, like the memories, were fading fast.
"All of this…illusion… tricks!" she salivated onto the floor. The demons closed in on her, wolves preparing to perpetuate their survival by eliminating the weak. Lilith had faltered in her rise to power. She had clearly lost her mind. And now was the time to weed her out.
And as they closed in, Lilith covered her ears to block out the voice in her head.
Someone's been a bad girl, a fatherly voice echoed inside of her head. Do you need a time out?
"Get out of my head!" Lilith hissed. "Games! All games!"
Slowly, Lilith raised her head to the entrance of the diner where two silhouettes stared back at her. She could vaguely make out each of their faces, but they were clearly staring straight down at her. Could nobody else see them?
The older hunter cupped his hand around the taller hunter's ear, whispering something inaudible into it. Lips curled into a sneer, the taller one spoke the words that only Lilith could hear.
"Play time's over."
*************
The hunters pulled out of the diner's driveway, looking back only to see if the rising smoke and flames would be a danger to the desert around them.
Shivering and rocking in the backseat of the Impala, a shattered demon sat, eyes blank and mumbling something incoherent.
"You think she'll be okay?" Dean asked.
Sam looked behind him at the blond little girl whose eyes were as white as her face.
"Yeah, she'll be fine, till she leads us to the next demon haunt," Sam replied. "Hey, good plan, by the way."
"Thanks," Dean said, throwing on a pair of sunglasses. "But something tells me you're having a little too much fun torturing our little hellion."
"What? Like she doesn't deserve it?"
Dean pursed his lips and nodded in agreement, taking one last look into his rear-view at the silent puppet, whose face was stolen and now forever used to bring the prey to the predators like so much bait.
Truly, the Winchesters had known fear, but they knew how to hunt, by using everything they got.
END.
So was it what you expected? Did it make sense? All reviews appreciated! I worked hard to make it different. But I know...duh...it's me, I'm kind of obsessed with the dark Sam stuff...:)