Chapter 12: Summoning Some Answers

AN1: Hey, here it is again! Is it weird that the more and more of these chapters I write, the less excited I am? Not because I don't LOVE writing this story, cause I totally do, but because the more I post the closer to the end it is. :( I know I know, you totally want to see this thing wrapped up all nice and pretty, I've been in your shoes many times before, it's just a little bitter sweet is all. Anyways… ON TO THE STORY! Enjoy and don't forget to R&R!

-GNS-

It turns out that the summoning ritual was pretty simple. First you char an olive branch, crush it up, and mix it in a chalice with lamb's blood. Second, light five, white candles, and arrange them around the chalice. Finally, it requires the blood of one who wishes to be forgiven. A quick slash to my own palm does the trick. The spell itself is pretty straight forward, as well. Just say it while letting my blood drip into the mixture.

"Ad ueniam adulescentiae meae invocabo te. Invocavi filia Iovis pincerna deorum. Veni, Hebe enim credam in te." The Latin rolls smoothly off my tongue. I wrap a spare cloth around my and look up quickly to see if it worked.

The room was in darkness, Dean and Dad were a few feet away from the table I was standing behind. The candle light casting odd shadows across their patient faces. There wasn't a sound, not even a breath. The next thing I noticed was how still they were, neither one blinking. I noticed how the flame in front of me stopped flickering. It was almost as if time had stilled and only I wasn't suspended in it.

"Sam Winchester. Why do you call upon me, boy?" I turn quickly toward the voice.

Hebe is covered by shadow where she stands in the corner. The light of the candles barely reach her face. Even in the dark I can tell that she is beautiful. She is wearing a long, flowing dress that reaches the floor, and her toes peak out at the bottom, revealing golden sandals. Her thick, black hair is tied back in twin braids, and her piercing eyes bore into me.

"What is wrong with them?" I ask instead, nodding towards John and Dean. Her brow furrows as if she doesn't understand why I would ask such a thing.

"Time has slowed down so that I could reveal myself to you. I am eternal youth, time to me has no meaning. I have simply pulled you from it, so that we may speak," Hebe answers calmly, explaining it to me slowly, as if I were a child. Her voice is sweet, and smooth like honey. "Why have you called me to this place?" She turns her head to look around at her surroundings.

"I believe that you have put me in this time," I explain, "I'd like to go home, if that's alright with you."

Hebe tilts her head and steps away from the shadows. "Have I not given what was requested? Have I not supplied you with 'the way things were', and given you forgiveness for your wrong doings?" She looks genuinely curious.

I shake my head, firmly. "I never asked to be sent back here. I never wanted to be sent here."

"And what about your brother?" She begins, "Where do you think he wants you to be? It seems to me that your new found youth is a blessing to him." I'm imagining a little me with my brother's hand wrapped around his. I can see my bright smile matching Dean's, a smile I haven't seen in—forever. I'm suddenly doubting myself.

"I don't know what you're talking about." I deny, breaking my gaze away from hers.

"But don't you? You must know how pathetic you are, how much of a disgrace you are." Her words are like knives and I squeeze my eyes shut.

"No."

"Oh?" Hebe's lips tilt into a small smirk. Her eyes twinkling with something close to amusement. "Then why haven't you told your brother, here, who you really are?" She drifted across the room, before stroking the back of her hand gently down Dean's jaw. I want to tell her not to touch him. I want to scream at her to get her hands off of him, but I don't move. "What is it that's keeping you from admitting the truth to him? If you aren't a pitiful, broken man, what is there keeping you from telling him?"

I drop my head in shame. She's right isn't she? The whole reason that I've been avoiding telling them, was that they'd be ashamed of me.

"You are." She decides. "You are a sad excuse for a human being, and you're afraid of what he'll think when he finds out that this is what his little brother turns into. You're afraid of what will happen when he realizes this thing in front of him is his pride and joy."

"What I am makes no difference." I tell her, glaring. "Not to me, not to Dean, not to anybody. It's never made any difference."

"Not to you, for that is all you are. You cannot change, no matter how desperately you wish to. But to your brother—Given the choice between the child and you, I believe you know who he would choose. Hmmm." Hebe grins wickedly at me.

"Why did you do this?" I demand, stepping out from behind the table, "'Cause I know it wasn't just so that you could belittle me. Why would you send me all the way here, use all of that power, just to tell me how pitiful I am? You could have done that on any other Tuesday, trip through time or not."

"You still don't get it!" She laughs, crossing over to me. Hebe's eyes gazing into my own until she is only mere inches away. "I'm trying to teach you a lesson." Suddenly her entire demeanor softens. "I am the Goddess of forgiveness, Sam. I am only trying to help you and your brother see what you both are so blind to." She's so close now that I can feel her breath on my skin.

"What would that be?" I wonder.

"It wouldn't be a lesson if I told you, Sam. You'll just have to figure it out for yourself. I'm sure you're smart enough."

"How do I get back?" I whisper dejectedly.

"You learn, Sam." Her voice echoes against the walls of the small room. Hebe's gone now, and the space in front of me is empty.

The candles flicker out and the room remains silent. Distantly I can hear the sound of my own, and my family's quiet breathing. She is gone and I'm left standing, staring into the darkness hoping that maybe things could be simple for once. The air in front of me lends no answers, though. My blood is rushing to my ears almost as fast as I can feel time speeding up, and my knees go weak. I feel myself begin to sink to the floor.

"No you don't," The words seem far off and I'm being dragged upwards. Up up up. The room is spinning around me before everything fades to black.

-GNS-

AN2: Another chapter down! The Latin was basically just something I wrote into Google Translate, so if you really want to know what it means just do that. The basics are just "I call upon you… yada yada yada" Nothing special, I'm sorry that I'm not very creative. :( Anyways, I hope you liked the chapter and would love it if you commented! Thanks so much to all of you who did on the last chapter including: BonanzaRocks, Ryla, catlover2976, and Eruthiawen Luin.