September 10, 2009
The thing about surprises that everyone hates is that they're unexpected. But that's also the thing they love about them. It's a love-hate relationship, surprises and people. So when a hand shot out of the ground next to a tent in the middle of the woods, the couple wasn't very happy to see a dead girl break through the ground.
"Oh my god," the man said with wide eyes as he clutched his girlfriend. "The zombie apocalypse. It's starting." With heavy breaths and wobbly legs, the green-eyed girl managed to stand up straight. She looked around her before her gaze settled upon the shaking couple behind the fire.
"There is no zombie apocalypse," she told them, catching her breath. She felt a slight breeze and glanced down to see that she had no clothing upon her. She looked back up at the couple. "Do you happen to have any clothing I may use?" The woman nodded, pointing shakily to a duffel bag next to the tent. The redhead gave them a grateful smile and dug through it before she found an outfit. She pulled on the undergarments, shocked that she had figured them out herself, before pulling on the black skinny jeans and dark crop top.
"T-there's some boots, t-too," the woman stuttered, nodding towards a pair of black knee high high heeled boots sitting outside the door of the tent. The redhead pulled them on quickly.
"Thank you," she told the couple before turning around and walking off into the woods in search for a certain person.
"Kid? You alright?" Bobby Singer asked Sam Winchester with worry. Sam turned to face Bobby, shaking his head.
"No, actually. Bobby, this is all my fault. I'm sorry." Dean sighed, shaking his head.
"Sam..."
"Lilith didn't break the final seal. Lilith was the final seal," Sam told Bobby, ignoring his brother.
"Sam, stop it," Dean ordered. Sam, once again, ignored his brother.
"I killed her, and I set Lucifer free." Bobby's eyes widened and opened his mouth to reply when there was a knock at the motel door. Sam and Dean both groaned. They had already had a surprise visit from Becky. They didn't feel like having another uninvited guest. As Dean opened the door, Sam and Bobby started to go at it. Sam, obviously regretting his mistake, wasn't surprised when Bobby went off on him. It was something any normal person would do. But they weren't normal. They hunted the supernatural. That was as far from normal as anyone could get. Sam shoved past Dean and out the door after announcing that he was going to go to the nearest church and read some lore that could help them.
A young woman stepped to the side, watching as Sam stalked off, before looking back up at Dean. "What do you want, lady?" Dean asked, clearly not happy seeing another stranger on his doorstep, especially since she was covered in dirt head to toe. She gulped.
"Are you Sam Winchester?"
"Try Dean. Now do you need something or are you just gonna waste my time?" The redhead looked down as she stuffed a crumpled piece of paper into her pocket.
"He told me that I could find you here," she said. Both Bobby and Dean furrowed their eyebrows in confusion.
"'He' who?" Bobby questioned, now standing behind Dean as he studied the girl. She cleared her throat.
"My father. My name is Libby. I want to help you." Dean and Bobby exchanged confused glances, wondering who the hell Libby could be. "Before I tell you who I am, you have to promise me something."
"Depends on what it is," Dean said warily, his hand travelling to the demon knife in his jacket. Libby eyed it.
"That won't kill me. I'm sorry to disappoint you. All I need is your help to stop him."
"Stop who? Girl, are you an escapee from a mental asylum?" Bobby asked her. She frowned, offended that he could even think that of her. Libby's mother had once warned her that the world may not be as kind to her as she deserved. Libby thought she was lying since everything she had seen was good. She wasn't exposed to any evil until her eighteenth birthday thousands of years ago. She was granted a fate she didn't deserve, but understood that it was a precaution. So she complied.
"I need you to help me stop Lucifer. Please. I know that Sam Winchester freed him. I need your help locking him back up. I can't do it alone. I-I'm not enough. No matter what I do, it will never be enough," Libby rambled in distress. She ran a hand through her matted hair, dirt falling to the ground.
"You look like Hell," Dean told her. She chuckled slightly.
"Yeah, about that..." Dean stepped aside so that she could come in, closing the door behind them. "I haven't walked Earth since I was eighteen. That was a couple thousand years ago." Dean's eyes widened and Bobby coughed.
"Are you an angel?" Bobby asked. Libby sighed, shaking her head.
"I'm not sure exactly what I am. My mother was an angel and my father was an Archangel. What does that make me?" she inquired, looking between the two men in hope that they knew.
"Uh...dangerous," Dean said slowly. Libby's lips fell into a frown again. "Why do you look like you just came back from the dead?"
"I just got let out of Hell and I don't know why," she admitted. Bobby pulled a gun from his waistband and Dean held up the demon knife. "Please, I mean no harm," she cried out, hands out in front of her body in defense.
"You're a demon," Dean said. She shook her head. "Then what are you? No angel would be locked away in Hell." Bobby nudged Dean.
"Dean, she said she was just freed from Hell," Bobby said. Dean nodded.
"Yeah, I heard. Why do you think I'm pointing a demon-killing knife at her and you're pointing a gun at her face?" Dean snapped. Bobby rolled his eyes, shocked at how stupid and clueless Dean could be.
"No, you idjit!"
"What's an 'idjit'?" Libby questioned. Bobby ignored her and Dean just gave her an 'are you serious' look.
"Guess who else just escaped Hell thanks to your brother?" Bobby replied. Dean glanced back over at Libby with wide eyes. This time her eyes widened.
"I'm not him, I swear!" she shrieked. "I'm not Lucifer, I'm just his daughter." The gun fell from Bobby's grasp in shock. Libby watched the gun tumble to the carpeted motel room floor, cringing at the slight echo the impact made throughout the room. Dean ran towards her, ready to stab her with the blade, when she grabbed his arm and threw him on the bed. The knife fell out of his hands and Libby reached her hand out, an invisible force bringing the blade into her grasp. "I don't want to hurt you. I want to help you. My father needs to be stopped and you're the only ones who can help me."
"Why would you want to lock away your father?" Bobby sneered, reaching for another weapon. Libby flicked her hand and Bobby flew against the wall, stuck to the moldy wallpaper.
"Stop trying to hurt me and I can explain. You're making me mad and I don't like being mad. It just makes me like him," she pleaded. Dean and Bobby exchanged glances, nodding.
"You got five minutes before my brother busts back in here and kills you," Dean said. Libby breathed a sigh of relief and nodded, letting Bobby fall back to the ground gently. Bobby eyed her warily, wondering why the Daughter of the Devil was so gentle.
"Thank you." Dean just nodded. Bobby didn't make a move. "I was...conceived before evil was created. All I knew was purity and good for the first eighteen years of my life. My mother raised me among the humans. My father didn't like the idea of me growing up with the humans. He wanted me to rule them, to control them like pets. When he started to rebel, God locked him away as the lore states. But to take precaution, on my eighteenth birthday I was locked away in Hell with him. Raised as a human and never seeing anything worse than someone playfully pushing another, I didn't know what to do in Hell. My father...he was very persistent on getting me to go over to his side. He wanted me to try and bring Hell on Earth," Libby explained. She sighed, clutching her red hair in her hands.
"For thousands of years he talked non-stop of his plans of revenge against God. It was never ending! He would tell me about the six hundred and sixty six seals that locked him away and how only sixty six needed to be broken to free him. It took a lot to never give in to what he wanted me to do. He was always pulled the 'I'm your father and you have to do as I say' card, but I knew better. Both God and Nadia warned me about him." Dean raised his eyebrows in shock and impression.
"You spoke to God?" he asked. Libby frowned.
"You haven't?" Dean shook his head as if it were obvious. "But He said that He would speak to the humans to guide them."
"Newsflash, Copper Top. God's gone. He left quite a while ago." All hope drained from Libby's face and her posture seemed to slump slightly in disappointment. It's like everything that made her happy had been ripped from her life.
"He locked you away with your father. Why are you upset that He's gone?" Bobby asked her. She glanced over at the Hunter, heartbroken.
"He said he'd be there for me when I got out. For all of us. He promised me," she whispered. Dean and Bobby realized that the girl before them wasn't a threat, but an ally. Her reaction to the news of God's whereabouts had proved it. Libby sucked in a deep breath, forcing the tears back and regaining her perfect posture. She had managed to keep herself together despite hearing some of the worst news she could ever imagine. "I, uh, I managed to resist my father's temptations and hold onto the hope that one day my mother or somebody would rescue me. But when I saw the bright light that pulled both my father and I out, I knew something was wrong. That wasn't an angel there to rescue me. No angel would pull my father out with me. Someone had broken the sixty sixth seal," Libby finished. Dean and Bobby exchanged glances.
"That's why you need to find Sam. To get your revenge and lock away your father," Dean said in realization, finally understand the point of Libby's arrival. Libby nodded. "Well, you're not gettin' it. He's my brother and he made a mistake."
"Dean, I understand the importance of family, I do. But what he did-"
"Wasn't his fault. He didn't choose this life and he doesn't deserve to get killed over it!" Dean yelled. Libby tilted her head to the side, squinting her eyes at him.
"And you think I chose to be locked up with my father? Dean, I wanted nothing to do with him, but I did it for the greater good. It was my job to keep him in there and your brother just ruined it. My time down there was meaningless. Do you understand that?" Dean nodded.
"Yeah, I understand." Libby shook her head.
"No, I don't think you do. If you understood then we wouldn't be having this argument right now. Dean, my whole life was taken from me because of an assumption that God made. How would you like it if you were locked away for thousands of years for something that wasn't your fault? Dean, I've been through Hell, literally, and I'm still trying to do the right thing. You gotta let me do it," Libby told him, her voice pleading him to let her do what she needed to do. What she was meant to do.
"He's my brother, Libby, and I'm not letting you kill him. I don't care if you're Lucifer's daughter. Hell, you could be God Himself. You're not killing Sam." Bobby didn't say anything, he just watched. Libby walked over to one of the beds and sat down on the edge of it, crossing her arms over her chest. "What are you doing?"
"Waiting."
"For?"
"Sam to get back. I'd like to speak with him. I promise I won't kill him or hurt him." Dean reluctantly agreed despite the bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.
An hour later Bobby and Dean sat at the table in the motel room, reading up on lore. Libby hadn't moved at all. "I never would have guessed that your daddy was right," Bobby suddenly said.
"About what?" Dean asked, still reading the book in front of him.
"About your brother." Dean's eyes looked up from the book before his head turned to Bobby. "What John said-you save Sam or you kill him. Maybe..."
"Maybe what?" Dean questioned, eyeing Bobby. Libby glanced over from her place on the bed, watching the two men in curiosity.
"Maybe we shouldn't have tried so hard to save him."
"Bobby."
"He ended the world, Dean. And you and I weren't strong enough to stop him proper. That's on us. I'm just saying, your dad was right." Libby concluded that Dean didn't seem to like what Bobby was telling him. But then realization hit Dean.
"Dad," he said, looking over to the duffel bag. Libby watched, confused. Dean got up and dug through the duffel bag before pulling out a ziplock bag of cards. "It's got to be in here somewhere." Dean opened the bag and started to go through the cards.
"What does?" Libby asked, finally speaking.
"Here," Dean announced, pulling a small card from the plastic bag. Dean chuckled. "I don't believe it. Don't believe it." Dean walked over to Bobby, Bobby meeting him halfway. Libby tried to peer over Dean's shoulder from where she sat, but she wasn't close enough. She knew better than to pry. It wasn't right.
"The hell is it?" Libby cringed at the mention of her old home. She had a feeling that she'd hear the world a lot in the upcoming months.
"It's a card for my dad's lockup in Upstate New York. Read it." Dean handed the small card to Bobby.
"Castle Storage, forty-two Rover Hill," Bobby read, confused.
"Castle on a hill of forty-two dogs." Bobby thought for a moment.
"So you think your dad had the Michael sword all this time?" Bobby asked. Libby's eyes widened and she shot up from her seat, walking over and snatching the card from Dean. Dean paid no attention to it. Libby knew that Michael's Sword was the one thing that could take down her father. It's what she was sent to look for. Dean shook his head.
"I don't know. I'm not sure what else Chuck could have meant." Bobby nodded, looking to the ground.
"Yeah. Okay. It's good enough for me." It was too late when Libby realized what Bobby was. She hadn't been able to sense the demon at first until he decided to expose himself. He decked Dean, sending him through the wooden railing in the room. Demon Bobby set his eyes on Libby, who stared at him with fear. "Your daddy is gonna love me for bringing you in, Libby. But first..." Demon Bobby averted his gaze back to Dean before walking over and grabbing him by the shoulders, kicking him into the wall. Demon Bobby advanced towards Dean, his eyes turning black.
"Oh my gosh," Libby whispered, unsure of what to do. She had only encountered demons in Hell, but they were under strict orders not to harm her. No demon dared to test Lucifer's commands. His daughter was off limits and every soul in Hell knew it the moment they entered damnation. She was never taught how to defend herself against them or how to kill them. Her eyes landed on the knife that she had left on the bed. She snatched it, ready to stab Demon Bobby, when he flung his arm out. The knife slipped from Libby's grasp as she was flung into the wall with a scream.
"You know it's a damn good thing that your daddy never taught you how to fight," he told her. She whimpered as he advanced, trying to look everywhere but into his coal black eyes.
"You're not allowed to kill me," she hissed. Demon Bobby chuckled, clicking his tongue.
"You know what I love about commands? You can always find loopholes in them. He told us not to hurt you. He never said we can't kill you. I just have to kill you quickly, much to my dismay. You're in our way, Elizabeth, and we can't have that. I'm sure your daddy will understand," Demon Bobby told her. The door to the motel room flung open, revealing two demons.
"I always knew you were a big, dumb, slow, dim pain in the ass, Dean." The female demon looked over her shoulder, smirking at the demon knife that Libby had dropped. "But I never dreamed you were so V.I.P.," the female demon said as Demon Bobby held Dean by the shirt. Libby watched, struggling to remove herself from the wall. She picked up the blade, twirling it in her hand before pointing it at Dean. "I mean, you're gonna ice the devil? You?" She chuckled, glancing over at Libby. "With the help of his perfect little daughter who doesn't even have the heart to kill a fly? If I had known that, I'd have ripped your pretty, pretty face off ages ago." She dragged the blade down his cheek.
"Ruby," Dean growled. The demon's grin fell from her face.
"Try again. Go back further." Dean stared at her, confused for a moment, before it hit him.
"Meg?" She smiled again.
"Hi. These are the days of miracle and wonder, Dean. Our father's among us. You know we're all dreaming again for this first time since we were human? It's Heaven on Earth. Or Hell." Meg stood there for a moment in thought. "We really owe your brother a fruit basket."
"My god, you like the sound of your voice," Dean said, tired of hearing Meg babble.
"But you on the other hand," Meg continued to babble. "You're the only bump in the road. So every demon-every single one-is just dying for a piece of you." Dean smirked, chuckling.
"Get in line."
"Oh, I'm in the front of the line, baby," Meg told him. "Let's ride," she whispered, grabbing his cheeks and kissing him. Dean grunted, cringing at the feel of the demon's lips on his. Libby watched in disgust.
"What is that? Peanut butter?" Dean asked, still disgusted. They all heard a thump behind them as Libby fell to the floor with a scream. Meg just stared at her, eyebrow raised.
"I'm going to kill you," Libby snarled, pulling a small blade from waistband. Meg just laughed.
"Like I said, Princess; you don't even have the heart to kill a fly." Libby knew that deep down Meg was right. It was how she was raised. But she hoped that God would give her a pass since it would be a demon she was killing. Meg granted her attention back to the hunter. "You know, your surrogate daddy's still awake, screaming in there," she taunted as she looked at Demon Bobby. She placed the demon knife in Bobby's hand. "And I want him to know how it feels slicing the life out of you." Demon Bobby held the knife to Dean's throat.
"Bobby..." Dean struggled against Demon Bobby as they backed up to the wall. Libby started to advance towards them when Meg looked over to her, smirking.
"I'd stay where you are, sweet pea, unless you want to be killed." Libby went to pick up her foot to attack Meg, but she was stuck. It's as if her feet were glued to the floor. "For Lucifer's biological daughter you're one weak bitch."
"I wasn't raised a heartless killer. I was raised to protect mankind from creatures like you and my father." Meg's eyes turned black.
"Well, guess what? You're a demon, too, Libby Lu." Libby shook her head in denial. She could never be one. She was too pure. But unfortunately for her, she had no control in what her father did. "Like it or not, you're one of us. I can teach you our ways. How to survive. How to truly live."
"I'd rather die than become one of you," Libby spat at Meg. Meg's fists clenched at her sides and she scowled at the redhead.
"Bobby!" Dean yelled, attempting to pry Demon Bobby's arms off of him. "No!"
"Now!" Meg ordered, getting impatient. Bobby looked back at Dean, raising the knife behind him to plunge it into Dean's chest. Dean held his hand out as reflex, attempting to stop incoming death. Suddenly the black in Bobby's eyes retreated, going back to their normal green. Bobby fought for control over his body, yelling out as he directed the blade into his stomach. Libby screamed out, rushing over to the older man. Red flashed throughout Bobby's body as the demon died. Libby was both relieved and worried. The demon was dead, but Bobby could be next. As Bobby fell to the ground, Dean lunged for Meg and landed a punch to her jaw. The second knocking her to the ground.
The male demon kneed Dean into the wall, Dean falling to the ground just as the motel room door opened to reveal Sam. Sam's eyes widened and he yelled out a, "No!" after seeing Bobby lying on the floor with a circle of blood seeping through his clothes. Before he could get any further he was decked in the face by one of the demons, sent flying back into the wall. Meg got up.
"Heya, Sammy," she greeted. "You miss me? 'Cause I sure missed you." Sam's eyes widened even more.
"Meg?" he questioned. He went to punch her when she ducked, landing a blow to Sam's torso that sent him doubling over in pain. She kneed him in the crotch as the male demon kicked Dean who laid on the ground. Libby found herself able to move and advanced towards the demon that Dean was struggling to fight against. Dean knocked the demon onto his back just as Libby pulled the blade from Bobby's stomach, plunging it into the demon. She watched as the life of the demon's soul drained from the vessel before falling to her knees. A few drops of blood had splattered onto her hands and for the first time ever, it wasn't hers.
She stared at her hands, suddenly oblivious to everything going on around her. She had just killed something. It was a demon and deserved to die, but she had killed it. She had broken the one promise she was meant to keep. Dean snatched the knife from the demon's vessel and started to walk towards Meg. Meg backed up in fear before she retreated from the body, the black smoke leaving the vessel's mouth and escaping through the ceiling. The vessel collapsed to the ground.
"Need some help here!" Dean shouted out as the brothers rushed Bobby into the ER, Libby following behind.
"What happened?" a nurse demanded, rushing over to the men.
"He was stabbed," Dean replied. The nurse turned around frantically.
"Can we get a gurney?" she called out as two doctors pushed a gurney towards the men and Libby. They rolled Bobby onto the gurney, Dean assuring Bobby that everything was going to be okay. Dean believed it, but Libby didn't. She had seen plenty of evil in her life, and Bobby's current situation was the outcome of most of it. Sam and Dean started to follow as the doctors rushed the gurney away. The nurse stopped the brothers.
"Just wait here."
"No, no, we-we can't just leave him!" Sam argued, pointing in the direction that the gurney had disappeared to.
"Just don't move," the nurse told him. "I've got questions." She walked off somewhere else, unknown to the boys. It's not like they cared where she went. Sam ran a hand through his hair. Libby didn't dare utter a word.
"Sammy, we gotta go," Dean told his little brother. Sam shook his head.
"No. No way, Dean."
"The demons heard where the sword is. We gotta get to it before they do, if we're not too late already," Dean replied, trying to knock some sense into his brother. Libby nodded.
"Dean's right, Sam." Sam stared at her in confusion, not noticing Libby until now. He hadn't even noticed her in the Impala riding in the backseat to make sure Bobby was okay.
"Come on!" Dean finished. Sam reluctantly left and Libby followed, the three of them rushing out to the Impala.
Libby clutched onto the seat, closing her eyes in attempt to ignore the bile threatening to escape her throat. "How fast are we going?" she asked breathlessly.
"Not fast enough," Dean told her, already flooring it but wishing the car would go faster.
"Oh, gosh," Libby whispered. "I'm gonna be damned to Hell. I deserve it this time. Oh my gosh. My mom is so gonna kill me." Sam listened to her in confusion but decided not to address it at the moment. "I'm so sorry, Mom. I had no choice. I-I had no choice. The demon was going to kill them." Sam turned a bit in his seat to see Libby's head down and her hands folded. She was praying.
After arriving at the storage unit, the Winchester brothers opened the trunk of the Impala to reveal their armory. Libby's eyes widened at the sight of all the weapons. The boys loaded up two handguns. "What am I gonna use?" Libby questioned. Dean shook his head.
"Nothing. You're gonna stay here and keep watch," he told her as he started to walk towards his father's designated lockup. Libby stared at him with wide eyes for a second before jogging to catch up with him. She struggled to keep up with the long strides of the Winchesters' legs.
"But every demon and angel are out hunting me. You can't just leave me to die!" she argued. "I can be of some help. I mean I did just help save your asses back in the motel room."
"Yeah, after proving how much we don't need you. You're not willing to kill, Libby, and that isn't an option. You're too good. Go become a Nun or something. Hunting isn't made for you," Dean told her. She stopped following them, deciding to just obey Dean's orders and keep watch. She bit her lip in anticipation, glancing around nervously for any signs of demons. She was on high alert, able to sense any demon approaching Castle Storage.
After a few minutes of waiting, Libby grew bored and decided to find the brothers. She instantly regretted her decision when she saw the angels confronting the Winchesters in the storage unit. "Oh no," she whispered. The doors slid closed behind her and she spun around, pounding on the door. Zachariah smirked.
"Well, well, well. Look what we have here." Libby turned around slowly, pressing herself against the steel door. "Looks like Sammy Winchester pulled you out of Hell, too."
"I'm no threat to you, Zachariah. I'm here to help," Libby told him. Sam glanced between the two, still unsure of who Libby really was.
"I told Michael that we didn't need you, and he told God. But God didn't listen. No, he believes that even after thousands of years locked up in Hell with your daddy that you could still be good." Libby gulped, nodding.
"I-I am. I want Lucifer dead as much as you do, if not more," she replied. Zachariah just laughed.
"Why would you want to kill Lucifer? He's your father." Sam's eyes widened as he stared at Libby. The girl that had helped saved his life was the daughter of the universe's greatest antagonist.
"I'm nothing like him!"
"No one goes to Hell willingly," Zachariah said. She shook her head.
"No, but I knew that it was the only way. Someone had to try and keep him down there until he learned his lesson. He never learned it, though, did he? It's not my fault. I can't control my father, but he can't control me either. I was down there for thousands of years and I never gave in to anything. You have to believe me," Libby cried. Her heartbeat quickened and her chest heaved up and down with every rushed breath. Zachariah snapped his fingers and Libby was out like a light. Collapsing to the ground between the dead demon vessels, all Libby saw was darkness.
Libby awoke to the hum of the Impala's engine. She sat up, clutching her head. "You're alive. I thought that son of a bitch killed you," Dean said, staring at the redhead in the rearview mirror. She looked around the Impala, groggy and confused.
"Uh, no. I can't be killed that easily. Where's Sam?" Dean's grip on the steering wheel tightened, his knuckles turning white. Libby frowned. "Did you leave him?" Dean sighed.
"He's at the hospital with Bobby. I just need some time away from him. What he did, Libby...it isn't something I can just forgive and forget." She nodded, suddenly appearing in the front seat next to Dean. Dean jumped slightly.
"Sorry," Libby muttered. Dean just kept his eyes on the road. "And I understand where you're coming from. I can't kill him."
"What made you change your mind?" Dean asked, glancing at Libby out of the corner of his green eyes. She shrugged.
"Meg was right; I wouldn't have the heart to kill Sam even if I needed to. I was raised pure, but everyone assumes the worst of me because of my father." Libby looked over to Dean. "Do you believe it?"
"That you're like your father?" Libby nodded. "Libby, everyone's got a dark side to them. No one is completely innocent. You proved that point today. But innocence doesn't always mean good. By killing that demon you saved us."
"I know, but I killed the vessel, too. That was an innocent human, Dean. He didn't deserve that." Dean just shrugged.
"If he was truly innocent then he's in Heaven right now. I'm sure that after being a back seat driver in his own body, he wouldn't mind being sent to Heaven. He'd have to deal with seeing himself kill who knows how many people." Libby sighed.
"I guess you're right," she admitted. "But I still feel guilty." Dean patted her thigh, grabbing it lightly in comfort.
"Why don't we go get a drink? Take our minds off of everything for a bit?" Libby furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.
"Like water?"
"Stronger?"
"Wine?" Dean chuckled.
"You're just too innocent, Libby. We need to change that." Libby gulped, her eyes looking back to the road. She wondered just what Dean would make her do.