It turned out that some things had changed.

But not many.

And some of the changes were for the better.

But not all.

The campaign that Dean had helped to start was still holding true: the sorry plight of the omega's in that world had at least gained a lot of recognition. There was overall, almost national, condemnation for the way that they had been forced to live, and hide, for just about the majority of their lives, and not only from unscrupulous men and women such as Mr Manolli who wanted them as barely conscious sex slaves but from the majority of the rest of the human race who simply thought of them as…

… Lesser.

Every week somewhere there was a Protest March in support for all omega's, male or female: everyone had the right to be treated as equal. (But it hadn't happened yet.)

There had been calls (hotly debated in the Senate) for instant gaol sentences for anyone who was found to giving hassle to a mated omega for sexual favours or who made them generally fearful as they went about their lives.

There had been calls for all omega's to be allowed to get an education (to a minimum of High School standard)… and in the last year a law had actually been passed to make said school attendance mandatory.

The schools then had put upon them the duty to ensure the safety of any on school premises and had almost instantly set up omi-friendly-only classes, with the students involved being escorted in groups by carefully selected (and hopefully trustworthy) 'buddies' to and from the drop-off points and between the lessons. Should any parent/guardian be found to be ignoring this new rule and hiding their child, or keeping them from going to school, then the omega would be instantly removed from their care as unfit parents .

(Unfortunately, unmated omega's were still considered fair game though and as always there was a (still so far legal) race, and bragging rights, for an Alpha to forcefully mate one: even if house doors or windows got smashed, guardians got injured, or an omega got caught out on their own, or occasionally were unlucky enough to find themselves alone with a not very well vetted (parental to teacher bribe involved…?) so-called 'trusted' buddy. So there was still a relatively high proportion of omegas or possible omegas that weren't even known to exist let alone be part of the system, and that was how their families were going to keep them, law enforcement be damned, and that didn't look like changing anytime soon.

If an un-mated omega happened to be outside during their Heat (or start of it), then it was still universally considered that they were a Slut with a capital 'S' and 'asking for it'.)

There had been calls for all Companies and Government Departments to have to have a certain percentage of omegas working for them: it hadn't been passed by Law yet, but there were already subsidies being put in place to encourage this. (Although there was an increasing amount of the rest of the Population, both Betas and a group who called themselves Alpha Supremacists, who saw this as forcibly taking away work from them and so had begun to also protest weekly against the 'pandering to those who were created by Nature to be unable to do the jobs' because omegas 'weren't physically or mentally capable of understanding anything intellectual and should be kept barefooted in the kitchen and bedroom where they belong', and which had resulted in more than a few clashes between the two groups should they happen to be protesting at the same Town Halls at the same time.)

The less well-hidden sex houses had been raided and destroyed: even police officers and judges who might have been previously highly bribed to ignore their presence had decided that it was safer, given the side of the public anger at such places, to be seen to be upholding the laws that should have prohibited them…

Although omega's were still going missing, even mated ones… especially mated ones…

Here Samuel paused.

He took a deep breath.

He had already told Dean most of the before-mentioned things during their night-talks together, but he hadn't wanted to tell him… this.

Dean was soooo not going to like this.

But he knew that he couldn't hide this from his beautiful mate: Dean had to know…

"For the first… probably couple of years… it was good. Things were going in the right direction. Dad was working hard giving interviews and attending meetings and being introduced to politicians, and he coached mom with what to say, although mom was nervous about it… in fact, he was hardly able to speak to the cameras, he was so nervous… and we of course had to fake an arm cast for him, because it was you who broke your arm and not him, but at least we had Grandpa Bobby's help for that…"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa… you mean Bobby's still alive in your world? I thought… well, I…" Dean fell silent and stared at his hands momentarily. He had been so close to seeing the man, even though he wasn't really the man, but still… and he hadn't even known...

"Yes, of course," Samuel responded but then stopped. "Oh. Oh. He's not… here. I hadn't…" He also ceased from talking a moment but instead reached to cover his mate's fingers with his own and squeezed them tightly before continuing: "That's the best thing really to come out of all this. Well… besides you of course, and Evie… and all the changes at home..."

"We get it." Sam told him kindly. Although the younger Winchester didn't realise that his face also gave his heartache at the thought of their surrogate dad and… perhaps, just perhaps…

"Anyway." Samuel blustered on. "Mom. He was determined to go and see him when he came back. After his Heat had ended, I mean. Mom's really changed since he came here, you know." He informed Sam. "He'll argue with dad… I mean… he'll stand his ground. He won't just give in and do what dad says… not at home. And he was determined to go and see Grandpa Bobby. Said that dad should never have tried to forget where they both came from and he was going to see Bobby. Or. Else.

Anyway, with everything that had happened, dad actually agreed, and we all went to Sioux Falls to meet Grandpa… who is great! Just brilliant!" Samuel said excitedly.

"Mom and dad told him the truth, all of it, and he was just… Great!

Somehow he helped mom create a fake arm cast, and helped with everything. He even gave dad a slap around the head for not bringing us to see him! And we stayed there until mom had Cassie. It was a safe place. Mom felt safe. For once." Now Samuel couldn't help himself from snivelling a little. "Bobby's been our rock ever since you left, Dean." Johnny nodded frantically in agreement, tears trickling openly down his cheeks as more recent memories came to the forefront. Castiel handed him a tissue to dab his eyes with.

"Erm… Cassie?" Sam felt he was missing something.

"The other Dean had another child once he got back." It was Dean who supplied the answer. "I thought I told you? I suppose, since he was off his suppressants cos of being here, it was bound to happen. Anyway, she's a couple of weeks younger than Evie here…"

"And they named her Cassie?"

"Mom chose it." Samuel smiled and glanced at Castiel. "I suppose at least he had the name of his soul-mate now, even though he openly told us that he hopes to Our Lady that he never meets him in our world. Despite everything, he loves dad with all his heart and would never want to hurt him…

Oh no." As both Sam and the Angel grimaced and reddened a little. "Not what you did. You kept mom alive in this world. Kept him well enough to get back before his Heat got too much. He could well have died from it if not. Dad knows that. Even if he might be a little bit jealous, he knows that. And he's grateful that he didn't lose mom. He really is. He didn't even argue about my new little sister's name…

The young man sighed. "Once I knew that my beautiful Dean had also had a daughter, our daughter, it made every moment with Cassie more poignant: watching her walk and talk and grow… I just wanted to be there to watch our own…"

"I'm sorry, Samuel."

The young man held his mate's hand even tighter in response. "It wasn't your doing, or your choice. And I'm here now.

Anyway.

When mom was ready, we went back to our house, and he joined dad on some of the interviews and the meetings, or tried to anyway, and for the first couple of years it was hectic, and stressful, but good. The omega movement was making good progress. Amazing progress.

And then… it started to change…"

"What happened?" Sam was also affected by the emotion both the young men were now showing. Evie laid her head against her daddy-Samuel's arm and he unconsciously moved to put it around her and draw her closer while at the same time gripping both of Dean's hands so tightly with his free one for support that the older man was biting his tongue to try not to give away the pain.

He would never had interrupted his mate no matter what: Dean had always had the awful feeling that his mate had been keeping something from him during their talks, but, separated as they had been by a dimension… or even perhaps dimensions… he had also known that he could do nothing about… whatever it was.

Now though. Samuel was here. And his green eyes were swimming in sadness.

And Dean needed to hear it all.

Even if he didn't want to.

"There had always been a lot of social media supporting you: tiktoks; facebooks; Threads; Z, which is the new Twitter…." On seeing Dean's blank stare. "People stating how right you were. And how strong. And how terrible society was to omegas. It became a trend in itself to support it…

But then, after about two years in… then it started to change.

The Alpha Supremacists began to rise in notoriety. Plus, several beta… Incel groups, dad calls them… betas… males mostly… making accusations against both Alphas and omegas that they both act better than the betas and look down upon them…

That's the omegas as well, they reckon! How did one of their videos put it…? That betas are sneered at as having 'lost the genetic lottery', so action must be taken against the so-called Suppressors by any means to level the playing field! Absolute bulls…"

"Samuel." Castiel interrupted sternly. "Little ears are listening!"

"Sorry" The young man apologised, and hugged his daughter even tighter. "Anyway, their websites starting attracting attention and they began making 'anti-omi' video clips. Insulting you. Insulting mom. Insulting all omegas and saying that they deserved the way they had been treated: even probably liked it because they would have done something about it by now if they didn't…."

It was his turn to wince as Dean's hands tightened around his in anger, but the elder man said nothing. He just waited for Samuel to continue:

"They say things about Alpha's as well. To be honest, a lot of them are true! There's a lot of Alpha assholes out there!" Cas began to reprimand him again but Sam held up his hand and blocked him. Evie sensibly decided not to repeat the new word she had just learnt from daddy-Samuel… not right at that moment anyway.

Samuel gnawed at his bottom lip momentarily: "They certainly proved that!" He snorted a little in anger: "Dad says that they're such idiots that they don't realise they're killing themselves as well!"

"What do you mean?" The abrupt, clipped tone of Dean's voice made everyone else jump momentarily. Sam's heart sunk: when his brother's sounded that deep and angry, it usually meant the foretelling of something really bad or really stupid or both about to happen.

"Betas can't birth Alphas." Samuel all but spat the words out. "Or omegas. Betas of whatever sex can only breed betas! And Alphas for all their boasting can't breed with Alphas. Not got the equipment.

The ratio of Alphas in the population hit below twenty percent for the first time ever last year. Omegas aren't even ten percent, although nobody actually knows how many there might really be hiding behind locked doors. These idiots go on about Supremacy, and with every omega they take out, they're reducing the supply of possible future moms to be for their own… and they're so stupid they can't even see it!"

"So only an omega can give birth to an Alpha or omega…?" Sam began, but was interrupted by Dean who had immediately picked up on the other words that Samuel had just said:

"Take. Out?"

This time, everyone shivered at the anger in his voice. Johnny physically moved around the table to squeeze in next to him: Dean released one of his hands from the death grip that they had been in to put his arm protectively around the young omega, but he never once took his stare off his mate.

Samuel met his eyes straight on momentarily, but then the young Alpha looked down at the table as he began to finally say what he was dreading to explain.

"There were videos. More than one. And then copied…

Omegas still go missing. Some obviously still for the sex-houses but…

Some were shown in the videos."

There was an ominous silence in the kitchen momentarily. Samuel steeled himself and looked up to meet Dean's eyes again. For probably the first time since meeting him, Sam was suddenly struck by how much younger the Alpha really was than his brother… soul mates or not… and how much the young man was looking to his mate for strength and support.

"You have no idea how much impact you made. Taking on those Alphas who broke in, Dean. That was soooo… Historical. I'm not overemphasising that. That was History. Made right there. You fought and killed Alphas! On your own. That was…"

"It was all that anyone could talk about." Johnny suddenly broke in. "All that everyone wanted to talk about. That's why when mom got back and realised, he insisted on going to Grandpa's. To get out of the way. He hates the thought of attention, you know that! Well… you don't, Dean." He hastily clarified. "You've never actually met him.

But mom hates attention. He's always had too much of it. And to suddenly be wanted for interviews and to talk about… something that he didn't actually do, and to be asked about scars that he didn't actually have…

Well, mom wanted out of there.

So we went to Grandpa Bobby's, leaving dad to do the interviews and the talking until he was ready. Although he's never really been ready. But he wants to support dad. And he doesn't… didn't… want to let you down, with everything you started…" He paused.

There was a hesitant silence.

"What happened next?" Dean prompted, but his tone used with the boy sounded a lot calmer than it had been just a moment ago. "C'mon Johnny, just tell me. I already know I'm not going to like it. So let's get it over with."

The boy sighed and looked across the table to his big brother. Who sat a little straighter to be able to keep Evie pressed against his side whilst reaching to hold Dean's right hand with both of his and grasp them tightly. His eyes never wavered from his mate's as he spoke:

"They began to attack the omegas."

This time Samuel didn't wince as his fingers were once again accidently crushed from sudden fury. But Dean didn't speak. He had to hear this.

"Some of the videos, clips, whatever… porn, some of it. Nasty porn, but that was nothing new. What was new, was the violence.

An omega had stood up to an Alpha. More than one Alpha and come out on top. So suddenly… over time… these…. people…" The tone of Samuel's voice gave away his anger. And his disgust.

"These people… they would try to incite the omega to violence. To fight back. So they could prove that they were the 'better'. They were the 'Masters'.

So they would beat. Hurt. Violate. Anything for a reaction. Some omegas were obviously still in the sex-houses. Some still obviously drugged.

But others were being taken. And their children. Anything was threatened. Just to get a reaction that they could record and show around the world to prove that they could beat an omega! That they were the stronger ones!"

"Anything?" Sam was hesitant to ask. He himself was feeling sick at where his imagination was taking him. God knows what his brother would be thinking!

"It got bad." Samuel kept his gaze directed on his mate's face, green staring into green, but answered simply enough. "There were… life-changing injuries to omegas and their families. There were even some deaths. A lot of it filmed and documented deliberately as proof of heroism by Alphas and betas against a dangerous foe who could and would have never been able to hurt them. It almost seemed to become a... rite of passage in some of the… more uncivilised parts of the country, let's put it that way, for a while… it was horrible. And terrifying.

And mom…"

"He was a target." It wasn't a question. Dean stared at Samuel who stared back, clutching onto his mate as if now for a life-line, even though his fingers were turning white.

"He was the main target." His mate emphasised. "Who didn't want to beat the omega that had single-handedly taken out more than a half-dozen Alphas?"

There was a momentary silence in the room. Sam glanced anxiously at his elder brother just in time to see a single tear trickle down his left cheek. But then Samuel was carrying on talking:

"But then things then took a turn.

We'd long since moved out of the house where it all happened by then. Dad had been staying there while coming up at weekends to Grandpa Bobby's, but even he didn't like to be there after… well, everything that happened that day…

So we'd rented a house a few blocks down instead once Cassie was old enough to bring back, and mom didn't have to pretend that he had a stab wound or a broken arm anymore…

And luckily mom never liked going outside much anyway. And neither did the rest of us after…

Well, we just didn't.

So we all did what we had to, we went to school, and mom went with dad to do his meetings and his talks and then we all came back to this new place and none of us mentioned to anyone that we had moved, not even Mary-Anne wanted to let anyone know. Just in case Mr Manolli had friends…

So luckily we weren't in our old house. Not for nearly two years. It was the summer before I went to College, when the police told us about the first vandalism: windows were broken; threats and… challenges… were daubed all over the front calling for mom to come out and face whoever it was…

…To prove that he had done what the legends were saying that he had done…

And then it gradually got worse for a while. So much that it was on the local news about the groups congregating. All the people living around there were very nervous, that these people would try to get information out of them, and of course they didn't know anything anyway…

And then someone in the Hospital released your medical charts. Showing that you weren't… erm… I mean… because you were changed into an omega rather than being born…"

"He means that you aren't the same as all the rest." Johnny interrupted, somewhat amused at his elder brother's reddening cheeks. "That you're different from all the other omegas, physically, and that made you better. Stronger."

"We don't know where the leak came from." Samuel hurried on to try and overcome his embarrassment. "Medical records should be completely confidential, and that caused nearly as much consternation as the fact that you… mom… was…"

"Different." Dean finished for him.

"Different how?" Castiel beat Sam to asking what they both were wondering about.

The elder Winchester snorted a little and couldn't help himself, despite the seriousness of the situation: "Well, if you two had ever gotten lucky enough to see me naked, you'd have realised that I'm built slightly different from my counterpart. I still got all the working parts I started with."

"But they never will." Samuel also couldn't help himself.

Dean momentarily smirked at his anxious mate: "Nah, babe. Only ever been you since that first night."

Johnny made a slight gagging noise, and grinned as Dean raised one eyebrow at him. "Anyway. There was a huge enquiry launched, trying to find out who released your information. As if that mattered! Mom said it was probably Our Lady and I believe him.

Dad was frantic. Because if someone at the local clinic had come forward with mom's information and it was found to be different from yours…"

"But this is where Grandpa Bobby was so amazing." Samuel spoke over the top of his little brother. "The instant the news broke, he drove all the way from Sioux Falls and somehow he had concocted a story, with 'proof', that you're twins."

"We're what now?"

"You and mom. You're twins. At least, that's what he told everyone. Both omegas, but one slightly… different. Dad mated the normal one and took him to live with him obviously, and Bobby had kept the other hidden with him all the time. No one knew he… 'you'… existed. Which of course is quite common. He'd even created photos of you side by side together as pups! Your dad, two elder identical siblings and our dad! He must have been thinking of it for ages before and working all the details out ready."

"So 'you' lived out your life in solitude with him," Johnny broke back in. "getting strong because you're slightly different, and helping him with the cars and learning things, but not allowed to see the outside world because it wasn't safe. Until 'you' exploded from resentment from having to pretend not to exist, and you missed your brother, because of course you were twins so you were close and you hadn't seen him for years, so you told Grandpa to go to hell and came down to see mom and us, and then got confused by Mr Manolli for him, and it was 'you' who fought off the Alphas, and now you've gone off somewhere, who knows where…"

"And that certainly eased the tension." The Alpha explained. "because the powers-that-be, and all these groups now had a 'reason' why an omega was able to do something that no omega had ever done, and so it wasn't that all omegas could do it. Only this one abnormal one…"

Samuel fell silent, aware that this wasn't exactly complementary.

But Dean nodded, deep in thought: "So…" he finally began. "Is your mom alright? Is he safe now? Are you all safe now? And. Where does that leave the omegas?"

There was a silence. The two younger brothers in the room exchanged uneasy glances with each other.

"Well…" Johnny started.

"To be honest." Samuel was hesitant. "It's put it all back to the beginning. There's no longer violence directed to omegas because they were never 'capable' of fighting against it anyway. It was all just a lie as far as they're concerned. Just propaganda created around this one freak who wasn't a true omega… Sorry. That's what they're calling you," to his mate.

"And just because he… you… were capable of doing that and learning, and probably wouldn't be any use for breeding anyway as any pups would definitely be retarded mutants anyway, so there's no point in even bothering to even educate the rest of them because they're all just…"

"As useless as we've always been." Johnny finished. His sadness and upset was tangible in the room. The hearts of everybody else broke at his tone, especially at his next words:

"We're back to being just what we always were. Completely… useless… omegas.