[AU] dark gonna catch me here
Feb. 8th, 2023 05:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Not two seconds after the door closed, Dean started demanding answers. Sam explained pretty much everything, although he glossed over the part where Wynonna'd threatened to shoot him, and for the most part Dean took it pretty well.
Until he made the suggestion of bringing Wynonna - and Peacemaker - to a crossroads and forcing the demon there to give up Dean's contract.
By the time the fight's over, Sam's certain of two things. First, that Dean's not willing to listen to reason because he doesn't want to risk Sam. And second, that he's not going to let his brother go to hell.
He makes sure Dean thinks he's asleep first, and waits until he hears his brother start snoring... then waits another half hour to make sure. Once he's certain Dean's not faking, Sam sneaks out and borrows the Impala.
There's a crossroads three miles north, an isolated one with an abandoned gas station nearby that he can use to get to the bar.
It'll do.
Until he made the suggestion of bringing Wynonna - and Peacemaker - to a crossroads and forcing the demon there to give up Dean's contract.
By the time the fight's over, Sam's certain of two things. First, that Dean's not willing to listen to reason because he doesn't want to risk Sam. And second, that he's not going to let his brother go to hell.
He makes sure Dean thinks he's asleep first, and waits until he hears his brother start snoring... then waits another half hour to make sure. Once he's certain Dean's not faking, Sam sneaks out and borrows the Impala.
There's a crossroads three miles north, an isolated one with an abandoned gas station nearby that he can use to get to the bar.
It'll do.
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Date: 2023-02-10 12:41 am (UTC)"What's so funny?" Sam demands. The demon shrugs. "Listen, Sam, I'm just a saleswoman. I got a boss like everybody. That's who holds the contract, not me. And honey, my boss really wants Dean's soul. Your brother's not going anywhere but hell."
He can feel the blood drain from his face at the confidence in her voice. "You're bluffing."
She has to be. Doesn't she?
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Date: 2023-02-10 12:43 am (UTC)"Then I guess we don't need you either way," Wynonna mutters, but she holds off on shifting her finger to the trigger. For now.
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Date: 2023-02-10 12:50 am (UTC)She shrugs again, deliberately drawing attention to her figure. "No one as cuddly as me, I can tell you that."
"Who is it?" The question cracks through the air like a whip, edged with all the agony and desperation he's feeling. For a second as it hangs there between them, Sam could almost swear he sees a flicker of sympathy in the demon's eyes. She drops her insouciant attitude and shakes her head.
"I can't tell you. I'm sorry, Sam, I really am. But you're going to have to accept that there's no way out. Not this time."
Ice chills his blood, even as his voice hardens. "Then I guess we don't need you."
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Date: 2023-02-10 12:56 am (UTC)"I'd tell you to make your peace," she says, as the gun's muzzle begins to glow, orange and molten. The demon's eyes narrow, then widen, as strange sigils illuminate along the barrel like they've been seared into it. "But I don't think that's going to be an option for you."
The crack of Peacemaker's shot breaks through the air like thunder, and a tiny hole appears in the demon's head. She shudders, light flaring through her skin, then falls back. No portal to the pit opens up, flames licking at her feet to drag her to Hell – she just drops. A thin plume of smoke rises from her forehead.
The silence around them feels almost like a scream.
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Date: 2023-02-10 01:06 am (UTC)Sam stares down at the body in grim silence, shoving his guilt away. They'd had to be sure. He'd had to be sure. She was probably damaged enough not to live through it anyway, the same way Meg had been, and half of the people the Sins had possessed. Probably.
After a second or two longer, he glances at Wynonna. "I've got salt and gasoline in the car." Low and a little unsteady, but determined. "You can wait there while I take care of the body."
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Date: 2023-02-10 01:09 am (UTC)There's no way of knowing if the woman she'd killed was bad, or good, or dying, or begging to be released. A dull knot tightens in the pit of her stomach, but she shakes her head. "I'll help."
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Date: 2023-02-10 01:16 am (UTC)Not waiting for an answer, he crouches down to pick up the dead woman's body.
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Date: 2023-02-10 01:19 am (UTC)The trunk opens with a creak, and she braces it with one hand while retrieving first the gas, then the bag of salt. Closing and locking it back up again, she hauls both to the spot where Sam's waiting.
She doesn't ask if the woman could have been saved. What good would it do either of them for him to answer?
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Date: 2023-02-10 01:29 am (UTC)Sam lays her down carefully on the concrete pad, arranging her arms and legs with as much dignity as possible and sweeping his hand down over her eyes to make sure they're all the way closed. He doesn't even know for sure what color they were when not red. Brown, he thinks, but he doesn't check.
He nods thanks to Wynonna when she reaches him and takes the salt first. It scatters over the body like a strange snowfall.
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Date: 2023-02-10 01:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-02-10 02:04 am (UTC)Sam sets the can down and reaches into his pocket for matches. The scent of sulfur wisps through the air as he strikes one alight with a scratchy hiss, and is gone in the next second as Sam drops the match onto the makeshift pyre.
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Date: 2023-02-10 02:08 am (UTC)In the end, they'll all burn. No Heaven waits at the end of the line for the heir. Of that much, she's certain.
Finally, after the fire's caught enough to almost hide the thing it's burning, she opens her mouth. "What she said."
Wynonna glances at Sam. "About the deal. Think it's true?"
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Date: 2023-02-10 02:13 am (UTC)Sam takes a shuddering breath and blows it out in a harsh rush. "There's got to be a way. I'm just gonna have to look harder to find it."
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Date: 2023-02-10 02:16 am (UTC)She pushes more certainty into it than she feels. "Even demonic... middle management, or whatever her boss is. Hey."
Wynonna looks over at him, her brows drawn together but her eyes clear. "We'll help. Me and Waves. However we can. Okay?"
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Date: 2023-02-10 02:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-02-10 02:28 am (UTC)When he first told her about this, she'd thought about it only in terms of what she'd do, if Waverly were in trouble. How far she'd go to save her sister.
She'd never thought – what if there were some benefit to her being out of the picture? The screw-up. The psycho. The one who never should have been the heir. The black sheep.
Any one of the revs could toss the same damn argument at Waverly's head as the demon had at Sam tonight. And they wouldn't be totally wrong. "Thanks."
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Date: 2023-02-10 02:34 am (UTC)"I need you to know," he says, abruptly. "What she said. Dean's not like that. Okay? He's not."
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Date: 2023-02-10 02:37 am (UTC)There's a heavy weight of certainty behind the words. "Because I am like that. And Waverly wouldn't stop at anything to save me anyway."
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Date: 2023-02-10 02:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-02-10 02:46 am (UTC)Low, as she looks back down into the flames. "You don't know the worst things I've done."
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Date: 2023-02-10 02:50 am (UTC)Each word is steady and absolutely certain. "That's the kind of person you are, Wynonna."
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Date: 2023-02-10 02:52 am (UTC)She smacks the back of her hand against his chest, uncomfortable with his sincerity. "It's not like I had big plans tonight, anyway."
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Date: 2023-02-10 03:12 am (UTC)"Uh-huh. Be that as it may, I'm buying when we get back to the bar."
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Date: 2023-02-10 03:18 am (UTC)She looks back down at the fire. By now, the body inside is more a suggestion of a person than anything else. "Sorry, lady," she murmurs. "Nothing personal."
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Date: 2023-02-10 03:29 am (UTC)"I wonder who the demon thought you were. That was just weird."
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