A/N: Who's hyped for season 12 on Wednesday? I can't wait! Quick reminder, this story will be completely AU as of the moment season 12 airs, although it kind of is already considering the Merlin aspect to it. Thanks to LilQueen101, Reading-Stories-Only and Sakura Lisel for your reviews! I hope I answered your question properly, Sakura Lisel. I'm glad you're all enjoying this story as much as I'm enjoying writing it!

Chapter 5

Dean was shocked by how awful his brother looked. It wasn't as if he'd been expecting Sam to be at his fighting weight but he hadn't even dreamed of anything like this. The thin t-shirt he was wearing offered little protection against the freezing cold and it had so many tears that it was more of a rag. A very bloody rag. It hung loosely off Sam's frame and Dean thought that, if he got close enough, he'd be able to count the other man's ribs. Sam's head was bowed as he slumped in the old wooden chair, the tight bonds the only thing keeping him in it. His long, straggly hair hung in his face, so Dean couldn't see the damage there, but he could guess that it was just as bad, if not worse. He looked at Mary, whose horrified expression matched his own, and the two of them rushed forward.

He landed on his knees in front of Sam and handed a paperclip to Mary, who got to work on the too-tight handcuffs. Dean took Sam's face in his hands, wincing at how gaunt he looked, and quickly examined his injuries. The bloody lacerations and burns looked a lot worse close up and a sickly yellow bruise was covering his face under the left eye. Dean swallowed and tapped Sam's cheek in an attempt to wake him up.

"Sam? Sammy? Come on, man, I need you to wake up. We gotta get out of here." Sam began to stir and Dean loosened his grip a little. "Sammy?"

Sam's eyelids cracked open and he took in Dean's face hovering in front of him. "D'n?" Hope flickered in Sam's eyes for a brief second before dying quickly away. He shook his head and let it fall onto his chest. "No," he mumbled. "Dean's dead. 'M dreaming."

Dean felt his heart breaking in two as he realised - of course, Sam still thought he'd died defeating Amara. He attempted a smile as he rapidly helped Mary cut away the rope across his brother's chest, catching Sam before he could fall.

"Yeah, you wish little brother. Come on." He brought Sam's left arm across his shoulders and heaved the younger man to his feet as Mary rushed round to take the other. They'd done this far too many times for Dean not to notice how much lighter Sam seemed now, and not just because he now had someone to help him with his giant of a brother. What had they been feeding him? Had they been feeding him? Dean tightened his grip and nodded determinedly at Mary. Time to put this place in their rear-view mirror.

Of course, everything chose that particular moment to go amazingly wrong. They were Winchesters, after all; they couldn't so much as take a leak without the world threatening to explode on them. Why should a simple rescue mission be any different?

Two women strode into the room, guns in hand. The blonde one - Toni, Dean guessed - in front smiled widely.

"Well well well. We were wondering when you were going to show your face Dean," she told him, still with that infuriating smirk on her face. "Did you really think you'd be able to waltz in here without any of us noticing? Put your brother down and hands in the air. You too," she said, gesturing towards Mary.

"Get away from my boys," Mary quietly threatened.

"Your boys?" Toni asked in confusion. After a minute realisation started to dawn on her and she grinned widely. "Well. I ask for two Winchesters, I get three. I really ought to thank you. You know, we all honestly believed you were dead, unlike Dean here. Then again, you lot have an annoying habit of not staying that way. Now, drop the prisoner and put your hands in the air." She levelled her gun at Dean's chest. "Don't make me ask a third time."

Dean rolled his eyes. "We both know you're not going to pull that trigger."

She laughed. "Funny, Sam said the exact same thing. I think you'll find I'm extremely willing to fire and next time I won't be so generous in where I aim."

Dean started and glanced back at Sam, noticing for the first time the inflamed bullet wound on his leg. "Bitch!"

She tutted. "Language, Dean. Do as I ask and no one gets hurt." She paused. "Yet."

Dean exchanged a glance with Mary and sighed. Understanding passed between the two and they slowly lowered Sam to the floor where he slumped against a pillar. They raised their hands in the air in surrender.

Toni smiled. "Very good." She motioned to the woman behind her to detain them and Dean found himself being dragged to the corner of the room with a surprisingly strong grip. The brunette roughly yanked his arms above his head and cuffed them to a pair of shackles hanging from the ceiling, taking extra care to pinch his skin slightly as she slammed them closed. He silently prayed that she wouldn't notice the lock pick kit in his pocket - not that it would do him much good - but, alas, she found it and removed it, along with all the other weapons he'd stashed on his person.

Toni had kept her gun trained on Mary whilst Dean was being locked up to make sure he didn't try to fight back. He watched helplessly as the other woman stalked back across the room - kicking Sam viciously on the way - and grabbed his mother's shoulder. Mary swung round at the touch and delivered a quick punch to the woman's face before wrenching her shoulder out of her grip and dropping to the floor. As she did so, a loud bang echoed across the room and the brunette woman staggered back in shock.

Toni had fired a split second too late and the bullet hit her subordinate in the chest. Blood bloomed across the woman's shirt, creating a large, dark stain, and she crumpled to the ground, dead. Mary rushed forward and knocked the gun out of Toni's hand. The British woman's face was ashen and she gaped in shock at the bloody corpse on the floor in front of her, barely reacting when Mary attacked her. The gun skittered into a dark corner and Mary pulled out her own weapon and levelled it at Toni, clicking the safety off. She was breathing heavily, but her hands were steady and she was every inch the hunter she used to be.

"Release my boys," she said slowly, her voice containing a dangerous edge. "And no one else gets hurt."

"Someone always gets hurt when they're around you for too long," Toni spat back. All the sadistic amusement had left her and venomous hate twisted her features. "I'll let you go this time but, mark my words, we won't be as forgiving next time. Now that you're all together I can finally rid this world of you for good. We found you once, we can do so again." With that, Toni threw a spare set of keys over to Mary and slunk back into the shadows. Mary quickly retrieved the other woman's gun before heading over to Dean and unlocking him. Dean rubbed his wrists and sent a poisonous glare Toni's way, before returning his attention back to his injured little brother.

Sam had managed to regain some semblance of consciousness and was vainly trying to push himself up into a sitting position. Each breath rattled in his chest and the old bullet wound from his first encounter with the Men of Letters was sending spikes of pain through his body. He hadn't been able to get a good look at it yet but he was experienced enough with wounds that he was pretty sure he had an infection. Just another thing to add to the ever growing list of complaints he'd compiled, the most recent being - why did he have to hurt in a dream? Which this definitely was.

He'd been stupid enough to hope someone had come to rescue him when he heard Dean's voice next to him. Stupid because Dean was dead and suffering eternity in The Empty. This just had to be another one of the nightmares he'd had ever since being brought here - when they allowed him to sleep, that was. The dream was fuzzy; he'd heard a loud bang, which wasn't kind on his already throbbing head, and now something was grasping him under his arms and talking rapidly in his ears. He was too tired to work out what the person was saying or fight back against the unknown force; he only managed to catch random words.

"Sammy - come on - out - Mom - quick."

Another voice joined in with the first, this one sounding much more feminine and softer than the other, which was remarkably like Dean's. "Sweetie - got you - careful."

Then they were moving and he let out a sigh of relief as cool air washed over him. His headache eased slightly and he gazed with half-moon eyes up at the two people he was supported between. This further confirmed he was dreaming because the man on his left was definitely Dean and the woman on his right looked suspiciously like his mother as she was in the few photos he had of her. Even if Dean had somehow miraculously survived his encounter with Amara - which he hadn't - his mother had been dead for 33 years and she wasn't ever coming back. A tear slipped down his cheek and his eyes drifted closed as the dream faded.

Merlin shot upright in bed. Freya's voice echoed in his head, repeating one sentence over and over.

They are coming.

Something told him that she didn't just mean Arthur and the people from his dreams. Whatever it was that was writhing in the darkness was close to breaking free from the prison that had been holding it and Merlin knew the horror that would be unleashed upon the world would have global consequences.

He calmed his racing heart and glanced out of the window. Dawn was just breaking and it cast beautiful shades of red and orange across the sky. With a wry smile, Merlin remembered an old saying Gaius had once told him.

Red sky at night, shepherd's delight. Red sky in the morning, shepherd's warning.

The saying was used to predict the weather. Although generally inaccurate, Merlin had a horrible sense of foreboding that it would come true today, come rain or shine. He quickly got dressed in a blue shirt and black jeans with a red scarf around his neck. He grabbed his leather jacket from the trunk under his bed and pulled on his buckled boots before heading out the door. The Lake of Avalon glittered in the distance and he could just spot the obelisk rising proudly from the island at its centre. Despite his ill feeling, Merlin felt a smile creep up his face. Today, no matter how events turned out, he would see Arthur again. Today was a good day.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Sorry for the lack of Merlin, but there will be a lot more in future chapters because they are going to meet soon, I promise. Let me know what you think and I'll update next week! Bye!