Chapter Thirteen
Special thanks to Abigael Ryan for the idea of bringing Angel in, and to House1Nocturne and tranland for their idea as well. The three of you helped me come up with a plot that will help this story go on for quite a few more chapters and where I will end it, also. Thanks so much!
"What's 'really bad news'?" asked Xander. "What does that mean?"
"Alistair is the grand master of torture in the pit," Dean explained, leaving out the personal side of things. At their blank stares, he added, "Hell."
Anya glanced over at the funeral home with trepidation. "Well, that can't be good."
Dean stared over at her. "Gee, ya think?"
"So, we're talking demon?" clarified Buffy. "Your kind?"
"Yeah, the black-smoke-possessing kind," Dean told her.
"Come on, enough chit chat," Sam told them. "They could have killed the first reaper already."
They immediately set off across the street for the building, easing through the front doors. Sam silently slipped a salt gun out of the duffel he had brought from the Summers house while Dean pulled out the demon knife. Buffy followed closely behind the brothers while keeping her gang behind her as back-up, knowing the two hunters knew more about this area of the supernatural than they did.
They checked each room as they came to it, but it wasn't until they came to the back room that they saw Dean and Sam freeze, edging back behind the wall in the hallway. Buffy tapped Dean's shoulder, understanding that this was not the time to make noise. Dean looked over at her and held up one finger, telling her that there was only one demon in the room.
Buffy frowned and shook her head at him, hoping he got the message that one demon just sounded too easy, almost like a trap. Dean nodded his head in agreement and motioned for her and the others to stay there. Dean looked back over at Sam and shared a nod before Sam turned the corner, aiming into the room and firing off a shot.
Someone in the room yelled as they were hit with the rock salt, and Sam charged into the room, Dean following right behind him. Buffy held out her hand to keep the others back, listening for her moment. The fight sounds grew a little louder and quicker as the battle escalated before there were suddenly too many footsteps in the other room, telling her the demons laying in wait had joined them.
"Now," Buffy told her friends.
Buffy charged into the room, finding Sam and Dean grappling with five demons as two reapers lay on the floor inside a symbol drawn underneath them. Buffy targeted the closest one, aiming a kick to the head. They struggled with the demons for all of five seconds before Buffy found herself flying towards the wall and pinned there by some force. She quickly looked around to find Sam, Dean and all the others in the same predicament. The only ones still in the center of the room around the two reapers were the demons and a red-headed witch.
"Willow!" Buffy called out, seeing her friend had been knocked unconscious sometime during the charge and lay on the floor near the reapers.
A tall, arrogant-looking guy walked into the room, the obvious source of the apparent telekinesis holding them to the walls.
"Hello, boys," said the man with a heavy lisp and slightly nasal voice. His eyes turned pure white. "Find the place okay?"
"Alistair," Dean growled out, glaring at him.
"Dean," Alistair shot back at him, eyes returning to normal. His gaze swept over to Buffy and her friends. "And company. I had no clue you were so connected. How fortuitous that your paths should cross. After all, your destinies are more entwined than you realize."
"Oh, God, you're not gonna lecture us, are you?" said Dean. "Why don't you just get to your little seal?"
"All in good time," said Alistair. "Moon's not quite in the right spot yet, so I thought we might have a little chat."
"Spare me the pain," Dean muttered.
"Wasn't there, didn't do that," Alistair shot at him. "But then, you already know that, don't you? I'm sure you've had plenty of visits from me in your nightmares lately."
Buffy frowned in confusion, wondering why this demon specifically would haunt Dean's nightmares.
"Poor, broken little Dean," Alistair voiced with mock sympathy. "You were just so weak. I do confess myself disappointed. You had such promise."
Buffy's frown deepened, trying to figure out what this demon was talking about.
Alistair caught her frown and looked over at her. "What, he didn't tell you? I'm surprised you hadn't connected the dots. What do you think happened to him in hell? Puppies and rainbows?"
Buffy's eyes widened as she realized why Dean's face had darkened in the alley when he had said Alistair's name. "You tortured him."
"And Miss Summers wins the grand prize," said Alistair as he paced in her direction. "But that's not even my favorite part." He turned his gait towards Dean, edging closer to him. "You have no idea how bad it really was, Dean, what you really did for us."
Dean frowned, not really sure what he was getting at.
"Oh, the whole bloody thing, Dean," said Alistair with an air of delight. He seemed to revel in the fact that he was telling him this. "The reason Lillith wanted you there in the first place. Every night, the same offer, remember?"
Dean's eyes shot over to Buffy and the others before quickly returning to Alistair. He really did not want Buffy to find out about what he'd done in hell like this.
Well, at least Sammy already knows, Dean thought.
"And finally, you said, 'Sign me up,'" Alistair gloated. "Oh, the first time you picked up my razor, the first time you sliced into that weeping bitch…"
Dean felt Buffy's shocked and accusing eyes on him from across the room.
"That was the first seal," said Alistair.
It took a moment for Alistair's words to sink in, but once they did, Dean's heart froze in his chest. No…it can't be true…
After all the horror he had already caused in hell, it couldn't have been him that brought it all right here to earth.
"You're lying," Dean gritted out between clenched teeth.
Alistair stared at him. "'And it is written that the first seal shall be broken when a righteous man sheds blood in hell. As he breaks, so shall it break.'"
Dean's heart broke out of the frozen chokehold and plummeted straight down his throat. Oh, my God…It's true…
"We had to break the first seal before any of the others; only way to get the dominos to fall, right?" said Alistair, pacing back behind the reapers in the middle of the room. "Top of the one at the front of the line…"
Dean looked down at the floor, unable to stomach seeing the demon that had caused him to do all that.
"When we win—when we bring on the apocalypse and burn this earth down—we'll owe it all to you…Dean Winchester," Alistair gloated, savoring Dean's name as though it were a delicious candy.
And doesn't that thought creep me out, Dean thought.
Alistair shrugged with a vague air of disinterest. "Although, we did almost owe it to Angel."
"Angel?" Dean and Buffy said at the exact same time, although for different reasons.
Dean had no clue who Angel was. Did Alistair mean to says the angels, or was Angel someone important? Buffy, on the other hand, was completely puzzled as to what Angel had to do with this demon and the end of the world.
Alistair chose to aim his answer at Dean first. "She didn't tell you about her first boyfriend? Wow, a lot of love and trust in this room. I guess it would be hard to tell a hunter you'd dated a vampire."
Dean looked over at Buffy with an incredulous look. "Vampire?"
Buffy looked at him, her eyes pleading with him to understand. "He was good. He had a soul."
"Which made him the perfect candidate," Alistair went on.
God, is he ever gonna shut up? Dean thought.
"A man atoning for all the evil his alter ego committed?" said Alistair. "Now, that's a righteous man if I ever saw one."
"Oh, please," grumbled Spike in annoyance.
Alistair flicked his hand, and Spike coughed up a lungful of blood.
"Did I say it was your turn to talk?" said Alistair. He looked back at Buffy, walking towards her. "I had Angel on my rack for a hundred years, but…he never did crack." His tone grew angry and infuriated at the next sentence. "And then he found the escape hatch. I was not a happy demon that day."
"There's an escape hatch in hell?" asked Dean.
Alistair shrugged as he edged closer to Buffy. "It seems God doesn't like things being where they don't belong. He put a portal in purgatory if a human ever got trapped there with all the other monsters, and there's one in hell for the monsters that get pulled in somehow. Apparently, hell was only ever meant for damned souls. And Angel found it." A wicked smile stretched across his face. "But not before I'd left my mark." He leered at Buffy, practically in her face. "You recall the outcome of that, don't you?"
Buffy did remember: Angel had returned from hell a complete wreck, unable to keep the monster in him at bay anymore. And perhaps he had even let it: escaping inside of himself to get away from the memories and pain of what he had been through at Alistair's hands.
"Well, we'd lost our prize pig," said Alistair, easing out of Buffy's face. "So, I turned my attention…" he turned his head towards Dean, favoring him with another evil smirk, "to your daddy."
Dean glared at Alistair, fearing that this topic would come up. John had, after all, sold his soul to save Dean and gone to hell. He had just hoped the demon who had tortured him hadn't done the same to his father.
"What better example of a righteous man than the best hunter out there?" said Alistair, walking towards Dean. "I had your pop on my rack for close to a century. John Winchester made quite a name for himself. A hundred years. After each session, I'd make him the same offer I made you; I'd put down my blade if he picked one up."
Buffy's eyes softened as she stared at Dean. So, he'd only turned to torture because they said they would stop.
She realized that Dean wasn't some monster; he just couldn't take the pain anymore.
"But he said 'nein,' each and every time," said Alistair. "I couldn't break him, pulled out all the stops. But, John, he was made of something unique, the stuff of heroes." He sighed suddenly, turning away from Dean and heading back to the middle of the room. "And then came Dean. Ah, Dean Winchester. I thought I was up against it again. So, I threw Plan B into action. I needed a contingency plan, should you prove just as stubborn as your father."
Buffy glanced down at Willow on the floor, searching for signs of life. Willow was starting to move a little, seemingly waking up. Buffy just hoped Alistair didn't notice. If Willow could get conscious enough, she could get the demons away long enough for Buffy and the others to take care of them.
Alistair looked over at Buffy, who quickly returned her glance to him and away from Willow. "If the seals couldn't be broken, I needed someone to tear down the barriers between my world and yours. I would watch as the world tore itself apart at the seams, ultimately breaking the lock on Lucifer's cage. But then again, Buffy already knows that story."
Buffy frowned. "I do?"
Alistair rolled his eyes. "No wonder your kind needs Watchers to do your thinking for you. Who do you think released Glory in the first place?"
Buffy froze as realization flooded over her. "So…this past year, protecting Dawn, my death—it was all for nothing?"
"Oh, no, not nothing," said Alistair. "That swan dive of yours was quite entertaining."
Buffy glared at him, hardly able to believe that this demon had set Glory upon her and her family when Dean had ended up breaking his precious seal anyway. The whole thing had been completely pointless.
"Oh, buck up, kiddo," said Alistair. "After all, if it wasn't for Glory, you never would've had a sister, now, would ya? All depends on how you look at it. But I needn't have worried, 'cause Daddy's little girl…" he grinned over at Dean, "he broke. He broke in thirty. Ah, just not the man your daddy wanted you to be, huh, Dean?"
"You needed that many back-up plans?" said Dean. "Sounds like you're compensating for something."
Alistair stared at him for a second before slowly stepping towards him. "Every being in creation knows the Winchesters' penchant for screwing with the plan. Of course I had that many back-up plans." He stopped in front of Dean, leaning into his face. "And what do you know? It worked."
Dean had turned his head away from Alistair, grimacing at the proximity, and he suddenly spotted Willow on the floor, staring at him.
Keep him distracted, Willow's voice came in his head. I'll get you free.
On my signal, Dean thought back at her, giving an imperceptible nod.
Dean looked back at Alistair, staring him straight in the eye. "Well, I bet there's one thing you didn't count on."
"Oh, yeah?" said Alistair, easing away from Dean as he pulled a wicked-looking scythe out of his pocket. "What's that, Dean?"
Dean sent a smirk his way as Willow raised her hand.
"Solvo!" whispered Willow, her hand stretched towards Dean.
Dean brought his fist forward, slamming it into Alistair's nose with as much of his newfound strength that he could. Alistair flew backwards, hitting the wall on the opposite side of the room.
Alistair stared with wide eyes at Dean, unable to figure out how he'd done that. "How…"
Dean stepped away from the wall, freed from Alistair's grip by Willow's spell. "You're looking at the newest recruit to the Slayer initiative."
Alistair's eyes narrowed in suspicion, and he almost hissed out his next word. "Angels…"
"Actually, you kinda have yourself to thank for that," Dean told him.
Alistair looked genuinely confused rather than overconfident for the first time that night.
"If you hadn't released Glory and ultimately forced Buffy to sacrifice herself, I wouldn't have gotten her powers when she died," Dean gloated with a smirk.
Alistair's face fell as he realized that he had, indeed, helped lead to Dean being stronger.
"And now, I'm gonna use 'em to kick your ass," Dean growled at him, eager to pay him back for all the pain he'd caused him in hell.