[AU] two worlds, a lot of demons, and a new set of problems

[gavemea_45]

It's still hard to believe it's over; that the yellow-eyed demonic bastard they'd spent their whole lives hunting is finally dead.

Sam figures it'll sink in eventually. Given everything else -- right now he's still pretty numb.

He's also desperately tired, but that doesn't matter. There's something he needs to do, and he can't afford to delay.

He waits until they've settled in for the night, and then waits still longer. Once Dean's been asleep for half an hour, Sam picks up his messenger bag -- already stuffed with books and his computer -- and heads straight for the bar.

He orders black coffee and snags a table with a good view of both doors and the stairs, then pulls out the first of the old texts and starts to search through it.

There's work to do.

Comments

[gavemea_45]

Sam digs in the kit and comes up with an EMF meter, which he activates and starts tuning while Dean stares at Waverly.

"You have seventy-seven revenants here?"

[totalitarstupetballs]

"It's the curse," she explains. "The seventy-seven revenants were outlaws killed by Wyatt Earp. The curse brings them back as revenants. If an heir doesn't manage to kill all seventy-seven again with Peacemaker before they die, then when the next heir comes of age all the previous revenants that were killed resurrect again. And again, until the curse is broken."

[gavemea_45]

"Jesus," Dean breathes. "Sam, how long ago--?"

"Four or five generations, I think. A long time to go through the cursed version of Groundhog Day." Sam gives the meter a final check and carries it over to the piano, where he starts with scanning the skull.

[totalitarstupetballs]

"Wynonna's the fifth heir," Waverly tells them, before her mouth presses. "Sixth, I guess. If you count Willa."

[gavemea_45]

Dean glances at Sam, who says, succinctly, "Older sister. There was an attack. She--"

That's as far as he gets before the EMF meter starts to wail, and Sam jerks back from the skull like it's burned him.

[totalitarstupetballs]

Waverly's head turns, and she comes over to peer at the skull, the EMF shrieking nearby.

"I knew there was something fishy about that skull!"

[gavemea_45]

"I'll say," Dean drawls. He comes to join Sam, who hastily switches the meter to silent and gives the skull a closer look. "I didn't find any marks on it," he says. "But there's something, no question."

"Better check the piano," his brother advises. "In case we need to burn it too."

[totalitarstupetballs]

Waverly turns a disbelieving stare on him. "You're not burning this skull. Or the piano!"

[gavemea_45]

"What Dean means to say," Sam hastily interjects, "is that if these bones turn out to be something bad, salting and burning them's a pretty sure way to deal with the problem."

[totalitarstupetballs]

She gives Dean a wary glance and reaches out for the skull, opting to keep it in her hand and away from him. "Well, you can check the piano," she tells him. "But I'm pretty sure it's just a piano."

[gavemea_45]

"Why don't I make a quick circuit of the room," Sam suggests. "Waverly, where else do you think your uncle might have hidden other bones?"

[totalitarstupetballs]

She looks around the saloon and shrugs. "Maybe in the basement?" she hazards.

"If not here... they could be at the homestead. Although that wasn't the safest place to be for a long time."

[gavemea_45]

"Is it now?" Dean wants to know. "Sounds to me like there isn't a lot you'd call 'safe' around here, with that many revenants running around."

Sam busies himself with scanning the piano - no reaction - and begins quartering the room.

[totalitarstupetballs]

"It is now. From revenants, anyway."

She thinks of digging up the talisman; of being convinced to bury it in the first place. "The homestead's built on ammolite. The revenants can't come onto it."

[gavemea_45]

That gets both their attention. "Ammolite?" Sam asks. "What's that?"

[totalitarstupetballs]

"Oh, it's really cool."

Waverly gestures out the window, inviting them to look out over the plains that lead to the jagged lines of the Rocky Mountains. "It's a biogenic gemstone. Meaning it's created from a life form," she explains, when Dean looks blank. "Like amber or pearls. Only this is made from ammonite shells."

She glances from one to the other of them, beaming. "You know, fossilized cephalopods. Well, mostly Placenticeras meeki. But this is one of the only places in the world where you find deposits of it this large."

Waverly grins, delighted. "Pretty cool, huh? Anyway, some Indigenous legends say it has supernatural properties."

[gavemea_45]

"Oh my god, she's just like you," Dean mutters, after a long second or two to absorb that. "If you were a girl, that is."

Sam gives Dean a flat stare and turns back to Waverly with real interest. "That is cool," he assures her. "What kind of supernatural properties? Protection, I guess, to start?"

[totalitarstupetballs]

"Well, it varies," she says, addressing Sam after giving Dean a small, bemused frown. "Protection, yeah, but supposedly it also strengthens your connections to ancestors and helps provide spiritual clarity and good luck. There are some accounts of people using ammolite to connect with past lives, through meditation."

[gavemea_45]

Dean rolls his eyes but stays silent, listening, as Sam presses, "And your place is built on it? What does it do to the revenants, act as a barrier, have some other effect or what?"

[totalitarstupetballs]

"They literally can't even step on the land," she says. "It's like there's an invisible wall. When we got rid of the talisman that had let them onto the land before, one of them just got flung off the property like someone had him in a slingshot."

[gavemea_45]

Dean snorts. "I'd love to see that."

"Me too," Sam agrees. "Just revenants? Not demons?"

[totalitarstupetballs]

"Yeah," Waverly says, a laugh in her voice. "It was hilarious."

She shakes her head at Sam. "That, I don't know. I only know for sure about the revenants."

[gavemea_45]

"What about other haunts or ghosts? Any idea?" Dean asks. Sam grins ruefully at Waverly. "I hope it's okay that we're picking your brain like this, but in turn I promise you can ask us anything you want to know about how things work where we're from. Maybe we'll find stuff that can help."

[totalitarstupetballs]

Waverly crosses her arms and gestures with one hand. "It's fine, but I don't see what it has to do with the problem at hand," she points out, tipping her head toward the skull. "Can we maybe focus on my dead friend, first?"

[gavemea_45]

"It depends a little on what kind of supernatural resonance Yorick's exhibiting," Sam explains. "So, like, if it's something that could be affected by this ammolite, then there might not be bones on the homestead. It narrows down the search area."

"Could just cart him out there and find out if he gets to play slingshot," Dean points out.