* Sorry for not updating, I needed to fucking emotionally revitalize before I could finish this chapter. Yeah, full AU type fic now that we know what happens with the MOC. Read and review.

Crowley groaned. Sitting up, he cracked his neck back into place, sighing heavily

"Always happy to bleed for the Winchesters... Always happy to have my bloody neck broken for the Winchesters," he mumbled to himself, "By a Winchester."

Standing, he heard shouting upstairs and hazarded a guess it might be the devils themselves. Figuratively, of course.

Heading down the hallway, he rounded a corner, and stopped abruptly. His eyes traveled upward where he discovered a neatly painted devil's trap on the ceiling.

More commotion from upstairs.

Crowley sighed again, eyes hanging on the paint overhead.

"Bollocks."

"What's the plan, then, Sammy?" Dean asked, smugly, "You gonna keep me chained up in this doorway forever?

Sam turned away from Dean. Any grip he had on his emotions was quickly deteriorating. Tears were collecting in his eyes when he faced Dean again

"Let it go, Dean. For god's sake, let it go. Drop the blade." He said, his voice breaking.

Dean laughed. A dark, twisted laugh Sam wish he'd never heard.

"Oh no, not this time. No, I finally found it. I couldn't drown my pain. I couldn't bury it. But I can slaughter it. I can carve and stab and fillet my pain away and damn, does it feel good!"

"You'd really kill me for a rush? Fleeting moment of power? You'd kill your brother-"

"We're not brothers! You decided that! Not me!" Dean exploded, the cuff trembling violently around his wrist.

"Okay! I was overreacting, I'm sorry, you know-"

"STOP LYING, YOU MEANT IT!"

Sam swallowed his next planned excuse. He had been right to be mad at Dean. However he had been wrong to use Dean's worst insecurity against him. The belief that he didn't mean as much to his family as they meant to him.

"Okay... Alright, yeah, I meant it." Sam began slowly, "But it's not that I wouldn't save you. Hell, I'm trying to save you right now! But putting an angel in you? No."

Dean laughed hollowly. He looked down at his feet.

"Well, Sam..." Sam's heart skipped a beat as he heard all the reason and emotion and human in Dean's voice slip away.

Dean looked up and Sam had a distant idea that he might scream, cry, or vomit because the black in Dean's eyes was being drowned out by yellow.

"I'm not trying to kill you just for kicks, y'know. I've been working on a little something of myself."

Dean ripped the chain connecting his wrist to the cuff latched on the pipe. The metal snapped and Sam stepped back a few steps

"Azazel?" Sam demanded, almost hopefully.

"Oh, much worse." The broken cuffed fist collided with Sam's face, and the demon who it belonged to corrected him, "Dean."

Crowley muttered an incantation under his breath, staring up at the ceiling hoping the beams might break through as he was trying to instruct them to.

The door opened over in the next room and Crowley turned his attention to the newcomer.

Upon seeing who it was Crowley sighed, knowing that if Lucifer himself showed up it wouldn't affect the outcome of the battle of the codependents. The Winchesters never had a great track record for playing their roles, regardless of who was assigning them.

"Castiel." Crowley said pleasantly, "Here to watch Cain and Abel, the sculpted facial features edition?"

"Where are they?" Cas demanded.

"DEAN! Stop, you can fight this!" Sam yelled upstairs.

"I'd imagine up there. You gonna let me out?"

"Can you control Dean?"

"I can try."

Sam wiped the blood from his nose and looked up into the yellow eyes of what was once his brother. Still was his brother

"Dean, you don't need this! You've been saving my ass since I was six months old, don't stop now!"

"I'm saving you from this shitty life!" Dean yelled back, gripping the Blade in his fist.

"Too late! You kill me now, who knows where I'm going! It was my hand that killed Kevin, I could be going to Hell for that!"

Dean was practically foaming at the mouth with the seething rage present in his eyes and the trembling in his hand.

"Killing me will only make you feel better until you need to kill someone else, and you're not a monster, Dean."

Dean didn't even seem to acknowledge the words, he just started forward pulling back the Blade, ready to plunge it into Sam's chest.

"I'm not gonna leave you!" Sam yelled, "You're not alone. You've never been alone. And I'm not going anywhere."

Dean hesitated, slowing as he moved the Blade closer to Sam. He stopped. Blinked the green back into his eyes. Blinked it out.

Not going anywhere. Of course it was a lie. And Dean wanted it to be, somewhat. He wanted Sam to be happy and have a life and he could never do that hunting with Dean forever.

Dean lowered the Blade.

"Sammy?" Dean began slowly, "You're my brother. And I love you. I just want you to know that, okay?"

"Yeah, of course, man, I love you too." Sam said, sounding uncertain and a little scared, "Are you with me?"

Dean smiled sadly, put his hand on Sam's shoulder, "I'll always be with you."

Crowley and Castiel were outside the door just in time.

Maintaining that sad smile, Dean took the Blade and stabbed himself through the heart.