Title: Armageddon

Rating: T

Warnings: Major spoilers for "Utopia", "The Sound of Drums" and "Last of the Time Lords"; violence; mild language; allusions to rape (but I promise nothing explicit or graphic)

A/N: First thank you all so much for the reviews on last chapter! I appreciate your input and you taking the time to let me know your thoughts! You guys are awesome.

I know this is a day late (just a day!) but I had so much going on yesterday that I didn't get this finished in time. I think I'm going to have to move the update day from Tuesdays to Wednesdays. I've got a LOT going on Tuesdays which makes finishing chapters and posting difficult. I've got three classes, I don't get home 'til around 4 PM, then I usually have homework, helping babysit three little girls ages 5, 6 and 7, helping THEM with homework, then SPN and Faceoff also come on that night (and truthfully I only barely manage to stay awake long enough to watch the second airing of Faceoff…) So, yeah. Tuesdays are kind of hectic. Moving the day to Wednesday would make it easier for me. I have relatively little to do then…

But enough rambling. Thank you for the reviews again and thanks to all the new favorites and welcome to the new followers!

Hope you enjoy the chapter! Please don't forget to review!

Armageddon:

Part III: The Year of Hell

Chapter Thirty-Seven

When Reid saw the imposing profile of the Valiant looming before them, his gut clenched. He pressed back into the leather seat on the air ship and felt the cuffs dig into his wrists. When he had escaped he had hoped he would never have to see that ship again.

The guards were rough when they hauled him out of the ship and onto the landing bay. He grimaced as strong hands gripped his biceps harder than necessary. His feet dragged against the floor and he mentally calculated his chances of breaking free and getting into the air ship before he was forced back into a living nightmare. He'd never make it though and he wasn't willing to take a suicidal dive over the edge just to free himself. Not yet, at least.

Watching the twists and turns as the guards carried him deeper inside, Reid realized that he was being brought to the main conference room and his chest tingled with fear. He'd hoped to be thrown in the cells, but he knew the Master would be eager to have him back onboard. He wouldn't let him have it easy after all that had happened.

The temperature inside the room was colder than Reid had expected, though not the frigid temperatures that would have suggested the Master was in a foul mood. Of course, he was probably delighted that he had recaptured Reid, so there was no need for further torment.

The first thing Reid saw when he was pushed through the heavy double doors was the Doctor. He was chained against the far wall as he always had been, his small little bed of blankets lying on the cold floor under the make-shift hut. He looked worse up close than he had in the Master's broadcasts and guilt stabbed through Reid.

The Doctor had the saddest expression on his face when he saw the young profiler. His eyes were dark with pain and he was far too thin. The suit he wore was loose on him and his cheeks were gaunt. His skin looked sallow, especially in the dim light. Though at least Reid didn't spot any visible cuts or bruises. The Master tended to focus more heavily on mentally and emotionally torturing the Doctor.

On the stage, where President Winters had been killed so many months ago, the Master sat in his enormous throne. Lucy was at his side, pale and blank-faced as ever. Her hands were clenched tightly into fists and she looked sickly in a way that made Reid worry for her health.

"I'm so glad you could rejoin us, Spencer!" the Master beamed at him with that familiar, manic smile. "I was beginning to get bored with all these other playthings."

His eyes gleamed and he hopped up from the chair, bouncing on the balls of his feet as he landed. He stared at Reid for a long time before he dismissed the guards and stalked toward him, that grin still in place. Like a shark, he circled the young man slowly. His shoots clipped against the floors. As he came to stand directly behind Reid, he stopped and Reid held his breath, keeping his eyes on the Doctor, who was watching him.

When the Master reached out and put his hands on Reid's shoulders, leaning in close so that his breath was right in his ear, the Doctor tensed and leaned forward.

"Don't!"

The Master laughed and glanced briefly at his old friend and then turned back to Reid. "I've missed you," he said. "You're much more fun to play with than those others…"

He leaned back, but kept his hands on Reid's shoulders.

"Now," he said, "Where shall we begin? We've got a lot of catching up to do, after all…"

~/.\~

"He was what?" Gibbs frowned as Dean tried to explain what had happened to Sam when they were out testing the weapon.

Frustrated, Dean clenched his eyes shut, "He was kidnapped by a demon," he said again. "I don't know why or which demon, but I've got to find him."

He was already filling his worn out duffle bag with salt-packed shells and shotguns; weapons that would be next to useless against a Toclafane or a human, but that did demons pretty good damage. He checked the flask of holy water stuck in the side pocket.

"What are you doing?" McGee asked, moving over to watch him with a frown.

"What I just said," Dean snapped. "I'm going after my brother. Look, I'll walk most of the way until I find a car, so you guys don't have to worry about me exposing you, alright?"

Rufus leaned forward, "You're going to bail out when we're in the middle of this?"

"I'm not bailing," Dean said. "And besides, you've got plenty of help. I can't leave Sam. You guys just – you keep doing your stuff, alright? I can take care of this alone."

Grace shook her head, "But you don't have to do it alone," she said. "If you'd just take a second to explain what's going on, we could help, Dean. That's what we're here for. We're helping each other."

Huffing angrily, Dean dropped the ammunition in his hands. "I can't just sit here and explain it. The longer I stand around talking, the longer Sam's out there alone. I gotta go."

Garth stepped forward and put a hand on Dean's shoulder as he turned to zip the bag shut.

"You don't have to go," he said. "This isn't just about you, Dean. If the demons are out there doing something, we need to know. What's going on?"

Dean's voice cracked. "I don't know," he said. "I wish I knew, alright, but I don't. All I know is that they've had their eye on Sam for a while. My dad told me to watch out for him; that's my job. They're planning something big and I need to find him before it happens."

"Why do they want Sam?" Abby asked.

Dean bit his lip and shrugged.

Adam frowned, "Is it because of those visions?"

"Visions?" Shawn asked, eyeing him curiously then. "Like psychic visions?"

"I don't know," Dean said. "We don't know. It's just something that started happening. We think it's connected to the Yellow Eyed Demon somehow…"

Rufus stared at him flatly, "Your brother has visions connected to a demon and you didn't mention it?"

"No," Dean said. "I know how hunters think, Rufus, I'm not stupid. I start tellin' people that my little brother has some freaky demon connection and they start thinking he's some sort of supernatural threat. We'd have hunters after us within a week."

He turned back to his duffle bag, zipping it up angrily and slinging it over his shoulder. His pistol was shoved into the band of his jeans and he had a knife inside his boot for good measure.

"Maybe you should stop for a second," Garcia said. "We could help."

"No, look," Dean shook his head quickly, already half turned toward the exit. "You guys have more important things to do. Fight the Master, kill those psychotic Pokémon balls, alright? Sam and me'll be back soon."

He slammed his way out of the room. As soon as the door closed behind him he felt an odd sense of loneliness. He hadn't been without someone for several months. It felt weird to have no one around, not even Sam. He stopped the thoughts before they got far though. He'd spent plenty of time alone in the past. He didn't need anyone around.

Just as he started off in a random direction, he heard the door open again and turned to see Adam rushing out behind him, tugging a coat on.

"Dean, wait!"

"No," Dean shook his head immediately. "You're not coming with me, Kid. It's out of the question."

Adam frowned and straightened up to his full height, which was surprisingly not that much shorter than Dean's.

"I'm not a kid, Dean," he said. "I'm seventeen. And look, I know that I wasn't raised in this – this world like you and Sam were, but Sam's my brother too. I want to help you find him."

Dean started to argue, but Adam kept going, his eyes hard and steady.

"We don't know each other very well, but we're family, Dean. Sam said that means something to you… Doesn't it?"

Shoulders sagging, Dean stared at Adam. For the first time since he'd met the kid, he really saw it. He saw Sam and his dad glaring at him from Adam's blue eyes. Adam's jaw was set and he held his chin high. It slowly dawned on Dean that maybe Adam really was a Winchester. He had the same look Sam had had on his face the day he'd told them he was going to college. No amount of John's swearing and threatening had been able to stop Sam then and Dean doubted he'd be able to talk Adam out of following him.

Feeling like he was going to regret this decision, Dean sighed. "Fine," he said. "You can come, but you do everything I say, got it? If I tell you to fall back, you fall back. If I tell you to duck, you duck. If I tell you to run –"

"I run," Adam finished, nodding. "I get it, Dean."

"Right," Dean nodded, still frowning at his half-brother. "You know how to shoot a rifle, right?"

"Sam taught me," Adam said.

"Good, you'll need it." Dean turned and waved for Adam to follow him. His gut was tight. He couldn't believe he was doing this. Going after a demon with an inexperienced kid as his only backup. If his dad could see him now, he'd probably kill him. But he had to save Sam. No matter what.

~/.\~

Tosh immediately went to the computer when they arrived back at their hideout.

"So that's really all we're doing?" Ianto asked, taking a seat across from her and frowning. She looked up at him with a sad expression and nodded.

"What else can we do?" she asked. "Jake was having nightmares about some demon and then he disappears. The only ones who might know what's going on are the hunters in America. We ask them first. Maybe we can try to find Gabriel or Castiel to talk to if they can't help…"

The monitor fired to life and she started typing as fast as her fingers could move. "If we what we can do to help, we need to know what happened to him."

"They are our best option," Sherlock said. "As ridiculous as it might seem, they're the experts on all things supernatural and whatever took Jake was clearly not natural. At least not any sort of natural that I have experience with."

John sat down next to Tosh, watching her send the message.

"What are we even supposed to say? 'Can you tell us why our friend vanished with no trace?'?" He frowned and shook his head. "This is weird. This is really weird."

"We give them all the facts," Sherlock said, leaning over to read what Tosh was writing. It was all in code, of course, but they all knew the code and his eyes sped across the screen quickly.

"Tell them about his nightmares and the demon with yellow eyes," he said, frowning.

"I know, Sherlock," Tosh said.

"And the sulfur we found when he vanished."

"Sherlock, I know."

"And don't forget to mention his unusual strength. That may very well be a factor in this all, as it was the most extraordinary thing about him."

"Sherlock, I think she's got it," John said, glancing up at the taller man. "Let's leave it to her."

Sherlock didn't reply, but he watched Tosh type, continuing to read over her shoulder. She sent the message and sat back, running her hand through her hair. They sat in silence, staring at the computer and waiting. It was several minutes before they heard the beep alerting them to a new message.

Her brows knitted together as she read.

"They said he was probably taken by a demon," she said quietly. "Apparently Sam Winchester was just taken a few hours ago as well. They said he had some sort of connection to a yellow eyed demon too…"

"Perhaps that explains why he had that dream about Sam's death," Sherlock mused.

Tosh nodded, "They want to know if Jake had visions… Apparently Sam did."

"He said the nightmares happened before," Ianto said. "That's a yes, right?"

Tosh nodded, typing furiously as she sent the message. The computer beeped against almost instantly.

"Oh, no…"

"What?"

"The demon… They don't know what it wants, but if it took both of them then that means it wanted something from them. They said that Sam's brothers are looking for him, but they have no way of knowing where the demon took them or why. They could be anywhere."

"There's got to be some way of finding demons," John said. "They know about this stuff, don't they?"

Tosh nodded, "They said there are signs we can try to look for… Animal mutilations, lightening storms, suspicious deaths… It won't be easy to track any of that with the way things are now."

"The storms would be the easiest one," Sherlock pointed out.

"True," Tosh nodded, chewing her lip. "They're looking into that on their end as well, but if the demon took Jake and Sam then…"

"Then demons are capable of teleportation," Sherlock said. "They could quite literally be anywhere on the planet. Perhaps even off the planet… We may never find them."

"We have to look though," John insisted. "We can't just let Jake go."

The computer beeped again and Tosh turned her attention to the message.

"They said they're trying to contact Martha and see if she's heard anything from the angels. They might be able to help tracking down the demon."

John relaxed a little in his chair, "That's good at least. If anything could find a demon, it would be an angel, right?"

~/.\~

Sam screamed as the knife twisted deep into his side, buried up the hilt. Alistair was grinning at him with blood spatter on his face. Sam was covered in a sheen of grime and sweat and blood that seemed to sink down into his very soul. He was sure that he had ever hurt as much as he did at that moment.

"Can you feel that, Sammy?" Alistair smiled at him, wiggling the blade just a little bit and sending new jolts of pain coursing through his body. Sam gritted his teeth against another scream. "Can you feel the blade tickling your lungs? It's right there. Just one tiny push and you'll have a popped air bag. You want to see it, Sammy?"

Mustering up all the anger he could, Sam lifted his eyes to Alistair's face.

"My. Name. Is. Sam." He grunted.

"Not what big brother calls you, Sammy," Alistair said. His voice was soft and even. He didn't sound angry or happy or really anything, despite the gleam in his eyes. He sounded downright bored.

Sam shut his eyes and shook his head. His hair was thick with sweat and plastered against his forehead. He could hardly see anything anyway and just when the pain started to ebb away, Alistair would find something new to use.

Alistair sighed, "Come on, Sam, you're supposed to be a Winchester, aren't you? Be a man. You want this to end, you do what has to be done. I don't want to be here; you don't want to be here… I've already explained this twice."

Sam's chest heaved and he shook his head tiredly. "Do whatever you want to me," he said. "I'm not killing someone for you."

Alistair draped and arm along the back of the chair, "Oh, it's not for me, Sammy," he said. "It's for you. If you don't kill him, he'll kill you. I know people. I've spent centuries in Hell watching them break. They all break, Sammy. Either you kill Jake, or Jake kills you. Now who do you think's stronger?"

Sam tasted blood in his mouth and spit. It landed near Alistair's shoes and the demon sighed.

"You have far too much faith in humanity, Sam. You've got to let that go if you want to survive in this world."

~/.\~

"Have a nice break, Jake?" Alistair appeared beside the chair Jake was strapped to. The young man jumped and twisted in his bindings. He was bloodied and bruised already – his left eye nearly swollen shut, two broken fingers and a leaking wound on his right leg that had dripped down to the floor.

Jake said nothing and Alistair sighed heavily. These two were impossible. What kind of moron would sit there and be tortured just to protect someone they didn't even know? If he had had it his way, he would've just shoved the two in a room and told them to fight to death, but no. Azazel had to pick the two people who had morals.

The stench of sweat and blood and urine and humanity was burning Alistair's nose and he was sick of it. He wanted the fire and the heat and hopelessness of Hell, not this poor imitation.

He fondled the shining tools and turned his back to Jake, trying to think of some way to push him into deciding to fight Sam. If he could get one of them to break, the other would surely fight for their survival then and then Azazel would have his champion and Alistair could go home.

"Sammy isn't holding up so well, Jake," Alistair said tiredly. He still sounded bored with it all. "If I were you, I'd take him out while I have the chance. I don't think he can take it much longer."

Jake shook his head stubbornly. "I'm not a murderer,"

Alistair turned to face him, holding a long, twisted screw in one hand thoughtfully. "Sam is," he said. "I could tell you stories about the Winchesters, Jake. They're killers. They would give your bad dreams nightmares. Trust me, you don't want to know what these men are capable of."

Jake's eyes blazed and he shook his head again. "All I need to know is that you're a monster, and I'm not."

Alistair sighed. The stubborn innocence of youth was an annoying hindrance.

"Alright," he said. "I guess we're back to square one."

The screw touched Jake's kneecap and Jake watched with wide, horrified as Alistair started pushing and twisting it in. The sound of screams and the smell of blood only slightly alleviated Alistair's homesickness.

~/.\~

After an hour, Reid forgot that the images in his head weren't real. He had been able to remind himself, at first, that they were all just projections that the Master had thrown into his head. But image after image of his teammates dying, his mother begging him to save him, even his father, screaming at him that this was all his fault… He couldn't remember what reality was any longer.

He didn't break, though, and the Master was getting frustrated. No matter what the nightmarish scene he forced upon Reid, the young man would not reveal who he had been hiding with or where they were.

When the Master finally gave up, he left with Lucy trailing behind him. He had a horrifying intent on his face and Reid almost wanted to beg him to come back so that he could at least stop whatever the Master was planning to do to his wife. He didn't, however, exhausted and shaking and too terrified to speak.

He slumped limply against the wall beside the Doctor and didn't notice at first when the Time Lord moved closer to him. He jumped when the Doctor put a hand on his shoulder and then he smiled and turned toward him.

"Does it… Is it wrong to tell you that I missed you?" Reid asked softly, staring at him with a faint frown.

The Doctor smiled, "A bit, yeah. Not like I'm living in some luxury home at the moment."

Reid laughed, but it felt forced and wrong. He pressed his lips together and then surged forward without thought, hugging the Doctor. That didn't feel wrong at all and he smiled again, pulling away.

"I was with Sarah Jane Smith," he whispered. "She's worried about you."

The Doctor's eyes lit up, "Sarah Jane! She found you then; that's good."

"She's fighting," Reid nodded.

"'Course she is," the Doctor said. "Good ole Sarah Jane… She'd never let the Master win without a fight."

His eyes crinkled and Reid realized it had been a very, very long time since he'd seen the Doctor genuinely happy.

"She misses you," he told him. "So does K-9."

The Doctor's eyes were practically glittering. Reid leaned against the wall again and started to talk in a quiet voice about some of the things that had happened since he'd been gone. About how well Martha's family was doing, about Martha, and about Sarah Jane and K-9 and Luke.

The Doctor listened intently and for a moment, Reid could pretend his hands weren't still shaking from the Master's torture and that he wasn't dreading the nightmares he would have when he fell asleep. For a moment, he felt content.

~/.\~

In Heaven, Balthazar was standing at his post, alone. Castiel was somewhere below with Gabriel and Uriel. And that meant that he was the only one watching Sam Winchester and Jake Talley be tortured by the demon Alistair. He was the only one who saw Dean Winchester and Adam Milligan run off on some blind hunt for their brother.

He didn't care, not really, but he knew this was big. This was something that they needed to prevent at all costs because if Alistair could break Sam Winchester then they were one step closer to whatever their plans for the boy were. But some part of him knew that he would get the same response they had been getting from Zachariah. They were not to interfere and Michael was too busy to be bothered.

Too busy indeed. More like too busy plotting. Whatever they were doing, it wasn't their job. Balthazar wouldn't mind having a day off every now and then, but something was brewing and they all knew it and pretended they didn't.

He stared down at the two young men being tortured and at Sam's brothers. At the people outside of London worrying about Jake. He didn't know where Castiel and the others were while they were below, hiding from the prying eyes of the other angels.

"Hell," he swore and paced away before finally making his mind up. He had to do something. It was dangerous and stupid and ridiculous and didn't even care, but he couldn't just stand there and watch.

"I am so going to regret this…"

~/.\~

A/N: Yay Balthazar! Finally.

So, yeah, reminder that updates are going to be every Wednesday or every other Wednesday from now on. That should make thing easier on me.

Also, anyone see the new SPN? Damn it, I'm starting to miss when things hurt less. Like when Sam let Lucifer out of the Cage and Dean was all angsty and they weren't speaking. That was less painful.

On the plus side: Garth! Garth makes me happy. And now we know he's not dead. And I firmly believe he's gonna have little werewolf babies and I shall be happy.

But anyway. Hope you guys enjoyed! Please, please don't forget to review! Your thoughts are very appreciated guys!