Idea…so what would have happened if Osiris had taken Dean's tongue in episode 'Defending your Life' From Season 7.

Supernatural does not belong to me, although I wish it did. I am simply playing Kirpke's sandbox for a bit. All rights and ownership are the property of Kripke and the CW network. I am not making any money from this; it is for my own personal pleasure.

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Not Slash. Some bad language throughout. You've been warned.

Chapter 8

The Mind's Eye

Sam heard his brother's voice and felt the heel of Dean's boot press painfully into his back, holding him to the ground. "Dean?" He said quietly. Sam knew better than to startle his brother, that was a good way to wind up permanently dead…by accident of course…but still dead. And one of the things that had stuck with him after the last time he'd used the Dream-root was that if you died inside the dream…you died for real. Sam felt the boot lift marginally and the weight shifted slightly to the left… "Sammy?" A gravelly voice that Sam had never been so grateful to hear as he was at that exact moment. He felt a relieved sob burst from his chest as emotion rushed through his system and exploded from his lips. "Yeah…Dean." He managed around the onslaught of emotions. The pressure was instantly gone from his lower back and an arm was grasping his shoulder and rolling him over exposing his chest to Dean's probing fingers. He was obviously looking for injuries, that was what Dean did. Every time that he thought Sam might be injured he would roll him over and search Sam's body for anything that his little brother might be hiding from him.

"Sam…what the hell are you doing here?" Dean asked as he gently pulled his not-so-little brother to his feet, Sam's breath shuddering through his body as he tried to gain some semblance of self-control. Dean's fingers were clenching his shoulders and his forest green eyes were searching Sam's blue-green gaze for answers...and lies.

"I had to come Dean." He said quietly dropping his blurry eyes, unable to meet his brother's intense scrutiny any longer. Sam found his gaze shifting around the garage…it was just as he remembered it…and yet there was something so disturbingly off about the place...something prevented Sam from really believing that this was Bobby's and he couldn't quite accept that they were really safe. He knew that the root would affect his mind within the dream and that there was a high probability that Dean didn't even know that this was all inside his head. The weirdness would make total sense to Dean, but look incredibly off to Sam.

"Why Sam?" Dean looked genuinely puzzled as he shifted from his right foot to his left foot and tilted his head to the side in an attempt to reason the answer out of his cryptic little brother.

Sam shook his head. "What do you remember Dean?" He asked as he brought his attention back to Dean's face. Part of what was wrong was how Dean was dressed…Dean only ever wore t-shirts, levis, and over-shirts. But here, in this place, he was wearing a pair of plaid shorts and a creepy button down shirt with a bow-tie…the attire made absolutely no sense to Sam and looked seriously ridiculous on his usually 'oh so cool' older brother.

Dean's eyebrow's shot up into his hairline and he tried to smile as memories floated aimlessly through his mind…but he couldn't connect them. There was no reasonable explanation for where he was or why he couldn't remember how he had gotten there in the first place. He looked down and pulled his eyebrows together as he struggled with memories that were on the tip of his tongue…but it was like trying to grab water, just as he thought he had them. They would slip through his fingers into a puddle on the floor and he would frantically try to gather them together again…only to fail once again. But the one memory that he would never forget was Sam…his responsibility…his baby brother…Sammy.

"I remember you Sam. But that's about it." Dean finally said through clenched teeth. He was so frustrated that he wanted desperately to hit something…not Sam. But any other object was fair game.

Sam inhaled in disbelief as he shook his head and shifted his hands to pull them through his long hair in irritation. "Dean you made a deal with an Egyptian God…that's why you're here." His brother looked at him as though Sam had lost his mind.

"What the hell are you talking about Sam?" Incredulous green eyes bored into him.

Sam bit his lip, trying to think of the best way to address the lack of knowledge and memories with his less than overly analytical older brother. "You had your tongue and your ability to speak taken by this God…and you were searching for way to get them back. Apparently he found you and made a deal…you texted me. But by the time I arrived…you were already gone."

Dean snorted, "I'm not gone Sammy. Hell, I'm right here in front of you." That was just like his brother...make a joke when his life is on the line. Son of a bitch...

Sam was just getting ready to tell Dean the rest of the story, when the whole scene shifted. Suddenly he was back in the warehouse where he and Dean had been tracking the 'con-worm on steroids'. Dean was leading the way through the duty warehouse and suddenly he wasn't Dean anymore. His gun came up instantly as he started talking to someone that Sam couldn't see…but then again he didn't need to. He knew whose death this was…Gwen Campbell's. 'Oh God…Dean…' Sam thought as the anguish Dean felt at the death of that woman was nearly palpable in the air between them. He watched with a rising horror as Dean suddenly slumped to the ground…his lower body twitching as a bullet wound appeared from nowhere in his lower abdomen. The blood gushed from the wound and he groaned in pain as Sam was instantly kneeling next to him, cradling his dying brother in his arms…God this all feels so familiar…just like with the trickster. Sam struggled to remain coherent as he held his brother and tried to soothe him with words that he wasn't even thinking about…just saying out loud.

"Dean…this wasn't your fault. Gwen didn't die because of you. She was killed by that monster…the one that Eve created. You couldn't have saved her and you couldn't have known." Sam whispered as Dean's glassy and pain filled eyes finally flickered up to meet his.

Dean's blood covered fingers shot out and traced Sam's jawline, his eyes filling with tears as he nodded slightly. "I should've been able to resist it Sam…it never should have taken control like that." Dean muttered as his voice cracked and became weaker as the blood continued to flow through Sam's fingers and mixing with the dirt on the floor beneath them.

"No Dean…her death was collateral damage. It wasn't your fault. " Sam tried to convince his brother of his innocence in their cousins death…finally he saw something shift in Dean's eyes an acceptance that maybe it hadn't been his fault after all. Maybe he was like one of those people that they…what was it that they did?

Dean stared at Sam as he felt his body going weaker with the blood loss. He knew that he didn't have long left…and that there was something that he needed to say to Sam. But for the life of him…or the death…he though ironically…he couldn't remember what it was. His breathing starting to rattle in his chest, his father had always called it 'death rattles'…huh…since when had he started to remember his father? Wait when had he forgotten his father? He heard Sam talking to him, trying to tell him something…what was it?... Oh yeah. That he wasn't at fault…his mind wrapped around that one thought and he found that maybe he wasn't actually responsible for Gwen's death. His eyes started to frantically search for his brothers face…finally settling on it as his lower body lost all feeling and he was floating in a warm pool of something…he wasn't sure what. "Didn't mean…to…Sammy…." He whispered as his last breath rattled through his system. Dean's eyelids fluttered shut and his head listed to the side and suddenly he was gone...no like literally gone...disappeared.

Sam shot to his feet and frantically threw his eyes around the room, searching for his brother's body. "Dean!" He called the strain in his voice evident as his scream echoed off the surrounding walls. He was spinning in circles, his hair flying out around his head making him look more than a little crazy…and maybe he was.

"Sam…" Osiris's voice penetrated his fractured thoughts and grounded him as he stopped suddenly and reached out for the wall to steady himself as the dizziness receded. "You shouldn't be here Sam. This was your brother's trial." The God's voice was thick with reproof as he narrowed his eyes in disappointment at Sam. Sam's eyes were drawn to the landscape…they weren't in the warehouse anymore. The view was now of mountain's shifting into an endless blue ocean with no actual transition from one to the other...and it was making Sam a little nauseous.

"What are you doing to my brother you son of bitch?" He managed as he squeezed his eyes shut and felt his knees buckled beneath him as he simultaneously dropped painfully to the unforgiving ground. His hands flew to his head as the pain ratcheted through his mind and settled painfully at the base of his neck.

"Now Sam…is that anyway to talk to a God?" Osiris asked as he strolled around Sam, circling him until he was back in front of the youngest Winchester. "Very well. What is it that you want to know?"

Sam struggled to form a coherent sentence, eventually landing on… "How do I save my brother?"

Osiris inhaled deeply and looked at Sam with sadness and pity. "You cannot save your brother Samuel…only he can save himself."

"It's Sam…and what does that even mean asshole?" he managed around the receding pain in his head. Sam was still kneeling and the landscape was still collidescoping as the colors were rapidly shifting from light to dark and back again. Sam felt the pain increase, tendrils of electricity shot through his head pulsing behind his eyes and he involuntarily cried out as he fell forward, the palms of his hands shredding on the sharp rocks beneath him.

"Careful how you talk to me Sam. I am a God and you…are nothing in here." Osiris turned from Sam and pulled in a deep breath, like a parent trying to steady their patience with a petulant child. "I'll tell you what Sam…Dean is just getting ready to experience another death…if and I do mean if you can convince him beyond all doubt that it was not his fault…not only will I let you go. But I will return your brother to you…whole and with his voice intact."

Sam felt the power gather within him as he pushed himself back to his feet, taking control of the dream world that was Dean's head. He turned and looked the God in the eyes, "Do I have your word?" Sam asked as he rubbed the blood from his hands onto his pants and shifted his weight, unconsciously preparing to 'attack' should it be necessary.

Osiris smiled and lifted one eyebrow in question at Sam's preparation. "No need for that Sam. You have my word. If you can convince Dean that this next death was not his fault…that it simply happened and is part of a larger picture that you are both a part of…then I will return him."

Sam watched the man for anything that would indicate that he was being lied to. He saw nothing. There were no tell-tale signs that Osiris was trying to trick him. "How do I find him?"

Osiris smiled. "Don't worry Sam. When the time is right, you'll know." Suddenly he was gone and Sam was left standing in world that was bending in on itself. Rainbows of light were reflecting from pools of water that weren't even really there. Classic rock and roll was playing softly from the fluffy white clouds, was that...Metallica?...that were moving lazily above his head. Sam's eyes were drawn to the constant movement of the land around him. He heard a rumble in the distance that sounded suspiciously like the engine of the Impala and he could swear that he was smelling…what the fuck…leather? What the hell is this Dean? He asked himself. Sam spun around and looked off in the distance and noticed that his older brother was standing on the edge of a lake…a lake filled with….Holy Shit! Is that blood? Only my brother…

TBC…

Author's Note: Dean's salvation lies in his acceptance of the past. Which death will be the one that can set Dean free? The next chapter will explain all that and I will try and get that up quickly. Thanks for reading.

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