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: I know this is ridiculously late. A lot has been going on. First my grandmother showed up for an unexpected visit and I spent three days taking care of my baby cousin, then I had to help my mom take care of her friends' little kids, there was a Fall Festival (two, actually…), and I had a term paper that was in serious need of attention, then two exams. Then I got somewhat sidetracked by another project that sort of snuck up on me. Plus, this chapter was long and difficult. Things with Sam's deal are coming to a head and it was a bit complicated to get everything worked out. Sorry!

As usual, thanks so much to the reviewers and readers! You guys are great!

Armageddon:

Part III: The Year of Hell

Chapter Fifty-Four

After the hazardous apartment building that Tony and the others had been staying in, Martha decided that the rundown house was probably a step up. Studying the place, she thought it resembled haunted houses in scary movies. Appropriate, considering what Sam and Dean Winchester said they did for a living.

Shifting her pack on her back, she knocked on the door, smiling when it was opened by a young man she recognized vaguely.

"Adam, right?" she asked uncertainly.

"Right," he nodded. "Come on in. But, uh… just to warn you, Sam and Dean have been going at it for days."

Martha blinked, frowning. "What are they fighting about?" she asked. She'd gotten the impression that the brothers were on shaky terms, especially since Dean had made his deal earlier in the year, but they seemed close. Then again, she remembered fighting with Tish and Leo often as well. Siblings didn't always need a reason to fight with each other.

Adam glanced over at her anxiously. "Sam made a deal with a demon to get Dean more time," he said. "Dean's not happy."

Martha frowned, picking up her pace. She didn't know much about all of this demon stuff that the brothers were into, but she knew enough to know that making a deal with a demon was a bad idea.

Adam led her toward the kitchen where they found Dean sitting there, sulking, apparently. He was glaring down at a map, tapping a chewed up pen in his hand absently. He looked up when he heard them entering and nodded at her.

"Good, you're here. We need to start going over the plan for tonight."

"What's this I hear about Sam making a new deal?" she demanded, raising a brow.

Dean's face darkened and he turned away from her, scowling. "Ask him, he's the one who made the stupid decision."

"Because your original decision to sell your soul wasn't stupid," Martha said, taking a seat across from him.

"No, it wasn't," Dean snapped. "It was… that was totally different."

"I'm not really seeing a difference," Martha said. "Just an apparent family resemblance."

Dean muttered something under his breath and went back to studying his map.

"I don't know why either of you did it in the first place," Martha sighed. "Even for your brother. I've told you already—if everything goes the way that the Doctor thinks, this will all be reversed. Sam would still be alive anyway and your soul would be intact."

Adam took a seat between them and frowned. "Do you think if it does work that the demon deals will be reversed too?"

"I dunno…" Martha frowned. "I'm not sure how those things really work, but it seems to me that if everything gets reversed then most of these deals wouldn't even have ever occurred in the first place so…"

"So maybe?"

She nodded.

"Maybe," Dean said. "If. That's what you keep saying. You're pretty sure, but there's no way to give us a guarantee. That's why I did it," Grudgingly, he looked over Martha's head toward what she assumed was the living room. "That's why Sam did it."

"I trust the Doctor's plan to work," Martha insisted. "If you could focus on that instead of jumping at the chance to sacrifice yourselves for a maybe, then perhaps none of you would even be in this mess."

Dean made a face at her, shaking his head. "I don't know the Doctor. I don't trust people I don't know. You say he's some big hero who can pull of miracles and that's great, but it was my brother's life on the line and it's my job to protect him so I did what I had to."

"And yet when I do the same thing, I'm an idiot," Sam muttered darkly, coming up behind Martha. He rested a hand on the back of her chair and fixed his gaze on his brother.

"Face it, Dean, your reasons are exactly the same as my reasons,"

"No, see, at least when I made my deal I knew what I was selling. You—you just decided to make some vague agreement to do you don't know what for a demon!"

Sam made a face at him and shook his head. "Stupid or not, it kept you alive, didn't it?"

"Yeah, but we don't even know the cost!"

"I'm not just going to let you drop dead, Dean!" Sam snapped. "I had no choice!"

"You had plenty of choices!" Dean snarled. "You just decided to do the single most stupid thing you possibly could!"

"And you didn't?!"

"Boys!" Martha yelled over them, standing up and putting her hands on her hips. They fell into a tense silence, glaring at each other and she moved between them, frowning.

"As wonderful as it is listening to two grown men argue like children, we don't really have time for this."

Sam and Dean didn't say anything for a moment and then Dean finally slumped down in his seat. "She's right. We've got to talk about tonight and get ready. Martha's running out of time." His eyes fixed on his brother and he frowned. "We'll just have to deal with this whenever it becomes an issue…"

Sam huffed, but nodded and pulled up a rickety stool, taking a seat across from Adam. "Right. So, tonight Dean's going to take you into the camp for protection. Toclafane have been pretty dense around here these last few days and the Master upped the number of patrols…"

~/.\~

Dean left with Martha just after sundown, leaving Sam and Adam alone in the old house. Sam immediately went to one of the two upstairs rooms that he'd claimed as his own. Adam had taken the other one while Dean took the downstairs bedroom to avoid them both. Sam sank onto the creaky mattress and rubbed his hands over his face.

He knew Martha and Dean and Adam were all right—he'd done a stupid thing. Odds were that the Doctor's plan would bring Dean back if he died. But Sam didn't want to take the chance when dealing with his brother's life. Dean would sell his soul for Sam—why couldn't he see that it was okay that Sam was willing to do that for him? Why didn't he think he could handle it, but it totally fine for Dean to be reckless and take stupid risks?

"You seem stressed, Moose,"

Sam jumped to his feet, automatically reaching for his gun when he heard Crowley's voice. He glared at the demon who was smirking at him from the doorway.

"Bad time?"

"What do you want?" Sam snarled, sitting back down on the bed; there was nothing he could do to Crowley and Crowley held his brother's soul in his hands so even if he could, he wouldn't have tried.

"It's time I collected on that deal we made," Crowley said. "My bosses were pretty specific about what they wanted. They're aware of your little plan to set things right again and frankly, they're not fans."

Sam narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "What do you expect me to do about that? I'm onboard with the plan. I'm helping them. You can't seriously expect me to try and stop them!?"

Crowley cocked an eyebrow at him. "Well, you did say anything, if I recall…"

Sam crossed his arms, glaring at him.

"Besides, I'm really not asking that much… All I want is for you to make one little phone call."

Sam blinked. "Phone call?"

"The Master's got quite a price on Miss Jones's head. Just put in an anonymous call letting him know where she is and—"

"No!" Sam cut him off, shaking his head. "You're insane. There's no way I'm going to turn Martha in!"

"We had a deal, Moosey," Crowley said, still smiling. "Your brother gets more time and you do whatever I ask. This is what I'm asking."

"I'm not doing that!"

"Well then I guess Big Brother rots," Crowley shrugged, lifting his hand and preparing to snap his fingers.

"Wait!" Sam reached toward him, wide-eyed and bit his lip. He couldn't betray Martha. There was no way that he could do that. It could ruin the future for everyone. But… he couldn't let Dean die. Not after all that Dean had done for him. He was his brother.

He remembered what Martha had said, about the Doctor's plan and reversing everything. It might work. Hell, it probably would. But what if it didn't? What if something else happened that stopped Martha from getting back to London? What if the Master figured out their plans and stopped them? What if he killed the Doctor before it was time? He couldn't take that kind of chance either.

Crowley watched him, eyes bright. "I'm waiting," he said impatiently. "I do have other things to be doing, Moose. Let's get this over with, shall we? What'll it be? Martha Jones or your brother's soul?"

He stared at Crowley for a long moment, mind racing, trying to figure out the pros and cons. Neither option was appealing to him, but if he said no and didn't turn Martha in then there was still hope for the rest of the world and probably even Dean… but Dean would still die and still be in Hell. His gut twisted at the thought.

Maybe… maybe he could still have both. He suddenly realized that all Crowley had asked him to do was call and tip the Master off. He could do that… and then get Martha out of there as fast as possible. Then, Dean still lived and Martha was still free to do what she needed to do to get the Doctor's plan in place. It could work. Swallowing heavily, Sam decided that it would work. He would make it work.

"Well?" Crowley demanded. "Have you made your choice yet? I haven't got all day."

"I'll do it," Sam said. The words came out as a whisper and his gut knotted up with guilt, but he couldn't take the chance of losing his brother. He could salvage this whole mess and everything would be fine.

Crowley's eyes gleamed. "Good, then make the call and hurry it up."

~/.\~

Ianto's leg was healing slowly, but steadily. He was still slow on the move, but he was moving at least. Tosh kept glancing back at every so often with worried eyes, but he was always there, giving her a smile and assuring her that he was fine.

"We're almost there, Tosh," Ianto said. "Stop worrying so much. We're fine."

He could see Tosh trying to relax herself, but her shoulders were still tense and he knew she was still feeling guilty about Jack and the Joneses being captured again. It had been a mistake as far as Ianto was concerned, but Tosh's mistake all the same and she couldn't stop the nagging guilt even as they pressed forward toward the safe house.

"I see it!" she suddenly crouched down behind a tree and waved for Ianto to hurry. It was a little house, empty looking with faded yellow paint and two busted windows on the second floor. There had been a fence at some point, but most it was falling down and dismantled. There weren't many houses this far out in the countryside—the nearest home was about half a mile away and just as vacant as the one in front of them.

Ianto was thirty seconds behind Tosh and came around to her other side, peering around the tree to get a better look at the place.

"Do you think they're still inside?" he asked, squinting at it. "Looks empty…"

"I dunno," Tosh said. "I don't see any tracks from soldiers and most of this damage looks old… It doesn't look like they were attacked."

"They might have moved on already though, after hearing about Jack,"

Tosh nodded. "Let's get a closer look, shall we?"

They crept toward the house and the tension in Tosh's shoulders seemed to double from where Ianto was standing. They were in full view of whoever might be in the house. They'd just have to hope that it was their friends and not the Master's men.

Instead of keeping up her habit of looking back at Ianto, Tosh moved more quickly than he could, probably anticipating any danger and wanting to keep Ianto as safe as possible. It was oddly comforting, but pointless, really.

Before they reached the door, it opened up and Tosh and Ianto came to a stop, raising their weapons. Ianto's leg was protesting all of the movement, aching painfully at having so much pressure put on it for such a long time. He fought the urge to reach down and massage the pain away.

A second later, a little robotic dog came out the door, lights blinking and tail wagging.

Ianto grinned and lowered his weapon along with Tosh as Sarah Jane and Kate followed K-9 out of the door, smiling at them.

"We were beginning to think you weren't going to show," Kate called as she and Sarah Jane made their way down the walkway to help Ianto into the house.

"Got a bit held up," Tosh said, gesturing toward Ianto's leg. "Sorry."

"The important thing is that you made it safely," Sarah Jane said. "Come on, let's get inside."

~/.\~

"Have you been inside before?" Martha asked, glancing over at Dean as they dropped down from the chain-link fence that surrounded the property. Dean had cut away a section of the barbed wire that protected the top so that they could climb over safely.

He shook his head. "We've got close, but we haven't been able to risk a trip in," he said. "Didn't want to put the men on high alert until you got here. We got the map from the network. McGee and Abby found us a pretty detailed map. That should get us in and our pretty easily."

Martha nodded. "Right. Lead the way." She waved for him to go ahead and they started making their way down the narrow alleys toward the center of the camp where all of the workers were currently having their evening meal and getting ready to turn in for the night.

It was a long, narrow building, with small windows near the top. Dean held his finger up to his lips and gripped his gun in one hand, pulling himself up slightly to look inside the building.

"No guards inside," he whispered. "But I don't know when they patrol in here. Lights out is usually right after dinner in these camps. We'll have to be quick. Come on, let's go around back."

It was dark, the lights illuminating the camp were all facing toward the front and it left the back in shadows. It was almost eerie as she and Dean made their way around to the far side of the building. There was one door back there, a heavy steel thing that was locked.

"Damn it," Dean muttered and knelt down, fiddling with something in his pocket.

Martha watched as he picked the lock. It took nearly half a minute and Dean swore his way through the entire process. She grinned at him as the lock clicked out of place and he swung the door open.

"Very talented," she said, her eyes sparkling. He smirked at her then, shrugging.

"Well, I do my best," he said.

Martha just smiled and led the way inside. They were in a garbage room, apparently. Several industrial sized trash cans and one small plastic dumpster filled the large space. Martha made her way around them with Dean right behind her. They came out of a short hall and into a large dining hall filled with about sixty or seventy people.

They didn't notice the new arrivals at first, but before Dean could yell over the buzz of voices another, very familiar, voice called out and Dean spun toward it with wide eyes.

"Dean Winchester!" Ellen was already up and on her way toward him, a bright smile on her face. "You are a sight for sore eyes!"

Martha watched as the older woman hugged Dean tightly and Dean's entire demeanor softened a bit as he returned the embrace.

"Ellen! I thought you were still out West! It's good to see you!"

"Dean!" Jo suddenly joined her mother and Dean grinned down at her, hugging her before turning to face Martha.

"Martha Jones, this is Ellen and Jo Harvelle," he said. "Old friends of mine."

~/.\~

Martha had finished explaining the Doctor's plan and they were just about ready to leave when the door from the garbage disposal room suddenly flew open and Sam stood there, wide-eyed and clutching at his gun. Adam was with him, though Sam didn't look to happy about that.

He spotted Martha and Dean immediately and hurried toward them.

"We need to get out of here, quick," Sam said. "The Master knows you're here."

Martha felt panic jolt up her spine and she was on her feet before Sam could even finish his sentence.

"What—how?!"

"It's a long story," Sam shifted his eyes down for a moment. "Just come on. We've got to hurry."

They didn't really have time for questions, so Dean gathered his weapons and he and Sam hurried to get Martha out of there was quickly as possible, Adam right behind them.

"Wait, hold up," Ellen and Jo hurried after them. "If the Master knows she's here you boys are gonna run into trouble sooner rather than later. You're gonna need help."

Dean hesitated, but Sam immediately threw a weapon to her and nodded.

"We need to move fast," he said. "He wants her alive so that'll help up some, but I don't think they'll hesitate to kill us if they can so we need to get out here."

Everything happened very quickly after that. Martha's heart was racing in her chest. She should have been used to the fear, to the adrenaline pumping through her and the sheer panic of knowing that she was in serious danger, but it was so close to being over. Even with all the setbacks, all the bad news and people getting hurt or dying… She had let herself hope. Maybe a little too much.

They raced back out the way that they'd entered and she was grateful for several of the workers hurrying to cover up anything about her presence, but a spike of guilt and worry hit her as she wondered what would happen to these people if she got away. Would the Master punish them for her being here?

She was apparently not moving fast enough for Sam's liking as he grabbed her arm and started tugging her faster. She was barely able to keep from stumbling as she tried to keep up with his long strides, but he didn't seem to notice.

The fence where they'd climbed over came into view and Martha started to think that maybe they would get clear and be able to make it back before the Master's men caught up to them, but then she heard a voice ring out in the night.

"Over here! I've got something!"

And then there was a blast of laser light as Toclafane descended on them and the sound of running feet as the Master's men approached.

"Go, go, go!" Dean yelled, pushing against her back. Ellen, Jo and Sam kept Martha and Adam ahead of them and Sam pushed them closer toward the fence.

"Adam, get her back to the house! Hurry!" Sam yelled. "We'll try to hold them off here!"

Adam just nodded and Martha spared one last anxious glance behind her before starting to climb the fence. Bullets were being mixed in with the lasers and Martha could barely think over the noise. A laser came dangerously close to hitting her and she screamed before she realized what she was doing. There was a blast and the fence shook and she looked down to see Adam covering her with one of the large weapons that they'd made to fight Toclafane.

She was suddenly struck by how young he looked and still so fierce. He was just a kid and he was protecting her. She turned forward again and climbed as fast as she could, dropping down quickly and waiting to catch Adam as he stumbled a bit when he landed.

He looked back and Sam and Dean and the others worriedly. They were retreating toward the fence and Dean was arguing with Sam, trying to get him to climb over while still trying to hold the men and Toclafane back. Jo was on the ground, Martha couldn't tell if she was breathing or not, but Ellen's eyes kept tracking back to the blond woman. She took her eyes off the fighting for a second too long and a bullet caught her in the shoulder. She dropped the gun she was holding and soldiers practically fell on her and Jo. Sam and Dean couldn't shoot them fast enough and finally they were forced to climb the fence, covering themselves as they moved.

"Get out of here!" Sam yelled at Martha and Adam before they made it over. Biting her lip, Martha grabbed Adam's arm and they took off running. Her chest ached and guilt and terror welled up inside of her, but she knew that she still had a job to do and she couldn't just stand there and give up.

Two heavy thuds behind them signaled Sam and Dean jumping from the fence and they caught up with them quickly, still firing behind them as the soldiers climbed over and the Toclafane advanced.

"You have to go!" Sam was suddenly right by her side and she looked up at him with wide eyes.

"What do you think I'm doing?!" she demanded, breathlessly.

"No," Sam shook his head, taking his eyes off of her long enough to fire a shot behind him. "I mean it. Now." His eyes went to the Vortex Manipulator on her wrist and she bit her lip.

"We'll hold them off, alright, you just get out of here."

Martha started to protest, but he was right. It was the quickest way to get her out of there safely. She brought it to her wrist, pressing buttons as quickly as she could. It was dark and the running was not helping her to see what she was doing anyway.

"I can take people with me if you could—" she didn't get to finish her sentence when Sam stumbled and yelled, a bullet to the leg nearly making him fall entirely. Dean caught him and kept helping him run. Adam was on his other side immediately.

"We're gonna make for cover and give them the run around," Dean said. "Just get the hell out of here, alright?"

Biting her lip, Martha nodded and pressed the button on the Vortex Manipulator, squeezing her eyes shut and bracing herself against the ripping sensation of being yanked through the vortex.

~/.\~

It took them nearly an hour, but they managed to lose the men and knock down most of the Toclafane. They took as circuitous a route as they dared back to the safe house, Dean and Adam half-carrying Sam the entire way. Sam didn't say much and Adam was just as quiet. Dean wasn't sure what to make of it as he dug the bullet from his brother's leg and patched him up.

"How the hell did they even know she was here?" he muttered, finishing up the last of the stitches. "We've been careful, damn it!"

Sam just made a non-committal shrug and pushed himself up.

"Hey, hey, whoa," Dean tried to push him back down. "Where do you think you're going? You need to stay off that leg."

"I'm fine," Sam shoved him away and headed toward the stairs. "I just wanna go upstairs, alright?"

Dean narrowed his eyes at Sam's defensiveness, but Sam couldn't bring himself to care. Adam would tell him about what had happened soon enough and then Dean would be even more pissed at him than he already was.

Not that he blamed him. Sam squeezed his eyes shut as he finally managed to hobble into his room. He deserved it. He made a stupid decision, but it had worked. Martha was still safe and Dean was still alive and that was what he'd wanted. His gut churned though. He thought about Ellen and Jo—he had no idea if they were alive, but he was sure that if they were they wouldn't be for long after helping them. God, he'd had no idea they were in the camp…

He probably would've made the same reckless call either way and no matter what their blood was on his hands now. He felt like screaming, like banging his head against a wall. It was his fault and he knew that. He deserved a lot worse than Dean chewing him out and maybe punching him. He deserved a lot worse than a gunshot wound to the leg.

"Bravo, Sammy,"

Sam grunted and didn't open his eyes, throwing the nearest thing he could reach in the direction of Crowley's voice.

"So angry," Crowley said. "I'd have thought you would be happy. Saved your brothers, saved little Miss Jones. Very smart of you, catching that loophole in our bargain…"

Sam frowned and opened his eyes to glare at the demon.

Crowley just smirked at him.

"Of course, you have to wonder… why would the King of the Crossroads ever leave such an obvious loophole for some half-witted hunter to take advantage of?"

Before Sam could even begin to process what he'd said, Crowley vanished, leaving him along, tired and in pain, with nothing but his guilt for company.

~/.\~

A/N: I still hate action scenes and I feel like this one really sucked. A lot. Ugh. And hey look, Ellen and Jo got a five second cameo and then died! I figured I should at least give them something even it was just a sucky death scene. Sam needed more guilt, after all. He made a very stupid decision.

I struggled so hard with this and whether or not it was in-character for Sam. He and Dean do so many stupid, reckless things for each other that it feels plausible, but I'm still not sure. At least Martha got away.

One more chapter for Part III, guys. One. More. Chapter. I will finally, finally be able to move on to Part IV. I swear, there were times that I never thought I'd get there. Hopefully I will be able to get the next chapter up within two weeks instead three…

Anyway, HAPPY HALLOWEEN!