Adult-FanFiction.org : Television / Streaming

Hunting Humanity IX	By : greenwizard11 Category: Supernatural > Slash - Male/Male Views: 1362 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Supernatural universe. No monetary gain is coming from this story.

Chapter List
- 18
- 19
Nothing was said as they took Charlie's body into the woods and started building her funeral pyre. As they watched her burn Sam got a little choked up. “Charlie. We're gonna miss you. You were the best. And I'm so sorry-”

“Shut up,” Dean growled. “You got her killed, you don't get to apologize.”

“For the millionth time, I was trying to help you.”

“I didn't need help. I told you to leave it alone.”

“What were we supposed to do, just watch you die?”

“The mark isn't gonna kill me.”

“That's the problem,” Liam spoke up. “As much as I hated keeping a secret from you, I hate what you'll become if we don't do anything more. You were pissed when we didn't try harder to find you in purgatory, and now you're pissed that we're trying to save you. You, me, Sam, all we have for the most part is each other.”

“We had a shot-” Sam started again.

“Yeah you had a shot. Charlie's dead. Nice shot,” Dean snapped at him.

“You think I'm ever gonna forgive myself for that?”

“You wanna know what I think? I think it should be you up there, not her. This thing, with Cas, and the book, ends now. Shut it down before somebody else gets hurt. You understand me?”

Sam took a deep breath as he tried to digest everything. “And what about you?”

“Oh, I'm gonna find whoever did this. And I'm gonna rip apart everything and everyone that they ever loved. And then I'm gonna tear out their heart.”

“Is that you talking or the mark?”

“Does it matter?” Dean said as he walked away.

Liam turned to Sam. “What do we do now?”

Sam just shook his head. “I don't really know. Maybe I should call it all off. Maybe it isn't the way to go.”

“Okay, let's do that then, much as I hate to.”

“No, you stay here. Maybe try to calm Dean down a little bit. You can do that, I can't.”

Liam walked back to the bunker to try and do just that, but Dean was already gone. “Great,” the blond sighed as he looked around the empty building. “All by myself.”

Almost a full day went by with no sign of either brother. Then the door was kicked in. “Hello? Anybody here?” a man's voice called out. “Alright then. Take whatever looks interesting, and burn the rest.”

Liam silently moved to investigate. The one that seemed to be in charge was the same man they had brought to the bunker to get information from. He had two others with him, though one of them appeared to be a teenager who didn't want to be there. “One of me, three of them. I've faced worse.”

He hung back a little and watched as they ransacked the place. They started making a pile of everything they didn't want in the library. The teenager seemed very interested in all the books, and the man in charge was chiding him when the third headed in with more stuff. Liam jumped him, jamming a knife into the back of his neck to cut his spine. He was dead almost instantly, falling forward into the room.

The other two men looked over and Liam revealed himself. “So somebody is home,” the leader looked very smug. “The freaky short blond. Anyone else fixing to come out of the woodwork?”

“Maybe. Maybe not. But I don't need anyone else.”

“Really? Well, you have to touch me to kill me, and I don't plan on letting that happen. I've got some new upgrades.”

“So have I,” Liam said as a ball of purple light appeared in his hand and he hurled it at the intruder. The light entered his chest and he screamed in agony before collapsing to the ground.

“Please don't hurt me,” the teenager begged, truly fearful.

“Well, looks like you're finishing my work for me,” Dean's voice came from behind Liam. “But you missed one.”

“Please,” the boy was shaking. “Okay, I hate my family! See, look!” He pulled up his shirt to reveal no scars. “No stitches! I'm not like them, I promise.”

Dean took a few steps forward. “Oh, you are like them. There's bad in you. It's in your blood. Now you can deny it and you can run from it all you want, but that bad will always win.”

“He's just a kid,” Liam tried to reason with Dean even though he didn't think it would do much good. “I've been watching him. The other two kept yelling at him because he wasn't doing what he was supposed to. You don't have to do this.”

“Yeah, I do.” Dean raised his gun and shot the kid in the head.

Liam had tried to grab his arm in time, but was thrown to the floor for his trouble. The blond took a few deep breaths, holding the wrist that was hurt from the fall. Then just as Dean started to walk away the blond sprang to his feet and punched him hard in the face.

Dean hit back, but his arm was grabbed and twisted around behind him. He stomped on Liam's foot and elbowed him in the chest, only to get an upper cut right back, knocking him off his balance. The two beat each other bloody until Castiel entered the room. “Dean!” Castiel called out. Liam was distracted by that just long enough for Dean to grab him and fling him against a bookcase. His head hit the edge, and he fell to the ground unconscious and bleeding. “What have you done?” the angel was horrified.

Dean turned to face him. “I took down a monster. Because that's what I do. And I'll continue to do that until-”

“Until you become the monster,” Castiel finished the sentence. “And it looks like you have. You just did the one thing you swore you would never do again.”

“You can leave now, Cas,” Dean growled.

“No, I can't. Because I'm your friend.”

“Really? Well let me ask you something. Do you screw over all your friends?”

“Sam and I were trying to cure you! We still are!”

“Like hell.”

“We can read the book now.”

“Oh so what? So you might find a spell that might take this crap off my arm? But even if you do, what's it gonna cost? Because magic like that does not come free. No, it comes with a price that you pay in blood. So thanks, but I'm good.”

Dean tried to leave again, but Castiel grabbed his shoulder. “No! You're not. Maybe you could fight the mark for years. Maybe centuries, like Cain did. But you cannot fight it forever. And when you finally turn, and you will turn, everyone you know, everyone you love, they could be long dead. Everyone except me. I'm the one who will have to watch you murder the world. So if there's even a small chance that we can save you, I won't let you walk out of this room.”

“Oh you think you have a choice.”

“I think the mark is changing you. The Dean Winchester I know would never have murdered that kid. Only a few days ago you were afraid of hurting the person you love most.”

“Yeah well, that Dean's always been kind of a dick. And for the record, Liam hit me first.”

Dean tried to leave again and Castiel stopped him a second time. “Dean. I don't wanna have to hurt you.”

“I don't think that's gonna be a problem.” Dean hit the angel hard, and kept hitting him while Castiel never fought back. Then he grabbed the angel blade from Castiel's coat and paused a moment.

“No, Dean. Please,” Castiel pleaded as he coughed up a little blood.

Dean stabbed the book next to Castiel's head and got up to walk away. “You three stay the hell away from me. Next time I won't miss.”

Two days later Castiel approached Sam while he was making some special bullets. “Anything?” the angel asked.

“He's not picking up his phone,” Sam answered. “LoJack on the Impala has clearly been disabled, so a big heaping scoop of nothing there. Liam is broken, he won't get out of bed. We need Rowena to hold up her end of the bargain.”

“If she removes the mark using 'The Book of the Damned', what of the consequences?”

“Which are what?” Sam looked up at his friend.

“Dean said-”

“Dean guessed! Cas, what are we supposed to do, huh? Just sit on our asses, do nothing?”

“No. We find Dean.”

“And then what? The only thing that stopped Cain was death. Do you want to kill Dean? Because I don't. And the only way I know how to save my brother is to cure the mark. And, yes, I know there will be consequences, but not you, not Dean, not anybody can tell me what those consequences are. So I'm not gonna let my brother destroy himself on a guess. We save Dean.”

Later that evening Sam entered Liam's room and sat on the edge of the bed. The blond was curled up, staring off into space with tear stains on his cheek. Sam placed a hand on his side. “Liam, I really need you to get up.”

“Why?” Liam asked softly without looking at his friend.

Sam ran his other hand through his hair with a sigh. “Damn it, I know this is hard. How do you think I feel? But Rowena has figured out the spell, and I got a lead on where Dean is. He stole a case from another hunter in Nebraska.”

Liam rolled over onto his back. “And what good will chasing after him do? We've spent over a year of our lives chasing after him. We saved him from being a demon only to have him slip again. Until the spell is done it's a lost cause. And the ingredients are probably very hard to come by.”

Sam shook his head. “I know you're stronger than this. You're stronger than me, and I haven't given up. Please, I need you. You're all I have right now, so find it in you to go shower and eat so we can chase after him again.”

Liam was quiet as he thought it over. “For you,” he said as he sat up. “I know Dean can't really help it, and I'm sure if this works he'll apologize out the ass, but I'm a little fed up at the moment.”

Sam moved his hand to the blond's shoulder and gave it a little squeeze. “I know, but thank you.”

“You weren't able to kill Crowley, so how did you get Rowena to do the spell?”

“Nothing gets by you, does it. She wanted her freedom and the codex.”

“Are you really that nuts? She's a very evil witch who could do a lot of damage with that codex. It was locked away in the manner that it was for a reason. And when this whole mess started you told me that you'd never let her keep it.”

“Yeah, well, things change. Liam, he's my brother. For most of my life he was all that I had. And all the times that I got myself into a mess and he saved me... I owe it to him to do everything in my power. Just like when Dean was afraid that there would be consequences to using the spell, I say we'll deal with all of that later.”

The information Sam had gotten led them to a crime scene. They dressed up in their suits and walked by a girl being checked out in an ambulance. “He just let him die,” the distressed girl mumbled over and over again.

They walked into the cabin. There were two decapitated bodies, very likely vampires, and a man who had been stabbed in the chest. Liam guessed by the look on Sam's face that the man who still had his head was their hunter friend who had tipped Sam off about Dean. “Agents, maybe you two can tell me what in the hell is going on here,” the sheriff said as he stood beside them. “The way the girl outside tells it is one of your boys came in hot, got his partner killed, then went some kind of samurai on that son of a bitch over there. I knew that boy.”

“Not as well as you think you did,” Liam mumbled and Sam elbowed him.

“What was that?” the sheriff looked over at him.

“Nothing,” Liam answered quickly. “Uh, this is definitely a problem that we're going to have to deal with in-house.”

They went back to the car and Sam let out a deep sigh. “This is bad.”

“You think?” Liam was sarcastic. “Sam, this is why I didn't wanna get out of bed. He's gone again. It's just gonna be rinse and repeat, and I can't deal with that.”

“Liam, we're close to a solution. Cas is working on getting the spell done. We just gotta find Dean. He's probably still around here somewhere.”

They drove around checking out motels until they found the Impala sitting in a parking lot. They got out and Sam found out which room he was in. They knocked on the door, and when there was no answer after a minute Sam opened the door and peeked in. Dean was not there. They walked in to find the entire room completely trashed. Everything that wasn't nailed down was in pieces on the floor.

“Definitely out of control,” Liam commented as he looked around.

“There must be some of the real him left,” Sam chose to remain optimistic as he found the car keys and a note on the bed. The note read 'she's all yours'.

“He knew you'd find it, and he's about as optimistic as I am.”

“Yeah, well, I'm asking you to not give up just yet. If-”

“I know, the spell. I want things to work out too, there just isn't much of my sanity left.”

Sam's phone started ringing and when he looked to see who it was, it was Dean. Sam answered it quickly. “Dean.”

“I gave it a shot, Sammy,” Dean's voice was pained.

“Listen to me, whatever you're doing, whatever you've done, please...”

“Hell, I even worked a case. I gave everything I had to beat this thing down.”

“We saw.”

“Well, then, you saw what I did.”

“No, that wasn't you.”

“Sure as hell felt like me. Brother, I'm done. I yet again did what I was most afraid of doing, and then I... Grab a pen. It's time to say goodbye.”

Sam wrote down the address Dean wanted them to meet him at. “This is good,” Sam said after Dean hung up. “Now we know where is, and if I can just talk some sense into him...”

“Do you hear yourself?” Liam didn't know if he should laugh or cry. “Even when he was completely himself, when has he ever really listened to either of us?”

“Why does everyone want to just give up?” Sam was a little angry.

“Sam, some battles you just can't win.”

“I can't just walk away. I can't believe that you can.”

“You think this is easy for me?” Liam shouted with a tear welling up in his eye.

“I didn't... Let's just go and give it one last shot.”

They drove out to an abandoned diner without another word. When they walked in they found Dean, and Death was with him. “Hey,” Dean greeted them.

“Whatever you are thinking of doing, don't,” Sam was worried. “There is another way. You don't need to go with him. You don't need to die!”

Dean put his hands in his pockets. “Funny you say that. Truth is, when I left, I thought the only way out was my death. Well, I was wrong, Sam. It's yours.”

“This is insane!” Liam shouted. “I won't let you do this.”

Just then the blond went flying back against the wall, pinned by an invisible force. “You don't have a choice,” Death spoke to him. “Deep down you know that. Deep down you're the good soldier who knows when you can't win.”

“He's gonna send me somewhere where I won't hurt anyone else,” Dean explained.

“He's gonna send you into outer space?” Sam was confused.

“No, well, he didn't say outer space.”

“This is madness, Dean!”

“Far from it, I'm afraid,” Death interjected.

“No one's asking you,” Sam snapped.

“Hear him out,” Dean insisted.

“Our conundrum is simple, Sam,” Death began to explain. “Your brother cannot be killed, and the mark cannot be destroyed, not without inciting a far greater evil than any of us have ever known.”

“What evil?” Sam asked.

“The Darkness,” Dean answered.

“What the hell is that?”

“Well, what does it sound like? Does it sound like a good thing?”

“Even if I remove Dean from the playing field, we're still left with you, loyal, dogged Sam, who I suspect will never rest until he sets his brother free,” Death stepped closer to Sam. “Will never rest until his brother is free of the mark, which simply cannot happen, lest the Darkness be set free.”

“You traded my life,” Sam felt betrayed.

Dean looked him in the eye. “I'm willing to live with this thing forever, as long as I know that I and it will never hurt another living thing.”

Sam shook his head. “This isn't you. This doesn't make any sense.”

“No, it makes perfect sense if you stop thinking about yourself for one damn minute!”

“It's for the greater good,” Death pointed out. “Once you consider that, this makes all the sense in the world.”

“Remember when we were in that church, making Crowley human, about to close the Gates of Hell?” Dean reminded his brother. “Well, you sure as hell were ready to die for the greater good then.”

“Yeah, and, Dean, you pulled me back.”

“I was wrong. You were right, Sam. You knew that this world would be better without us in it.”

“You're twisting my words here, Dean.”

“Why? Because we track evil and kill it? The family business? Is that it? Look at the tape, Sam. Evil tracks us. And it nukes everything in our vicinity, our family, our friends. It's time we put a proper name to what we really are and we deal with it.”

“That's the Darkness talking, Dean,” Liam tried to reach him. “You need to separate yourself from it and really think about this.”

Death moved to stand in front of the blond. “Don't make me regret letting you live.”

“You're trying to take away the two people that matter to me most, don't think what you're doing is a kindness.”

“We are not evil,” Sam tried to reason with his brother. “We're far from perfect, but we are good. Liam is right. That thing on your arm is evil, but not you, not me, not him.”

Dean started pacing. “I let Rudy die. How was that not evil? I know what I am, Sam. But who were you when you drove that man to sell his soul... Or when you bullied Charlie into getting herself killed? And to what end? To remove the mark no matter what the consequences? Sam, how is that not evil? I have this thing on my arm, and you're willing to let the Darkness into the world.”

“You were also willing to summon death to make sure you could never do any more harm. You summoned me because you knew I would do anything to protect you. That's not evil, Dean. That's not an evil man. That is a good man crying to be heard, searching for some other way.”

Dean looked down at his feet for a moment. “No, there is no other way, Sam. I'm sorry.” Sam punched Dean in the face, and Dean seemed pleased. “Good. Fight.”

The two of them traded punches for a few minutes before Sam ended up crouched on the ground holding his hand up. “That's enough. You will never hear me say that you, the real you, is anything but good.” He turned to spit blood on the ground while Dean rolled his eyes. “But you're right. Before you hurt anyone else, you have to be stopped at any cost. I understand.” He got onto his knees with tears threatening to spill. “Do it.”

Death handed Dean a large scythe. “Do me the honor.”

Dean grabbed the scythe and took a moment to ready himself. “Close your eyes,” he asked his brother. Sam just sat there trying not to break down. “Sammy, close your eyes.”

“Wait, take these,” Sam reached into his pocket and pulled out some old pictures. “And one day, when you find your way back, let these be your guide. And they can help you remember what it was to be good;what it was to love.”

Dean looked down at the pictures of him as a child with their mother. Baby Sam was in one of them. “It's for family you must proceed, Dean,” Death urged him on when hesitation was sensed. “To be what you are, to become what you've become is a stain on their memory. Do it, or I will.”

“Forgive me,” Dean mumbled as he swung the scythe. He missed Sam completely and hit Death in the chest. Everyone just stared as Death turned to a pile of ash on the ground.

Liam fell to the floor and picked himself up. Dean reached to help Sam to his feet as well. “You two okay?”

“I'll live,” Sam answered.

“I am nowhere near okay,” Liam huffed.

“I think I just killed death,” Dean was surprised at himself.

Suddenly there was a loud shriek on the air and a bolt of red lightning shot through the roof to Dean's arm. There was a flash of light and then the mark started fading away until it was gone. “The spell,” Liam mumbled as he stared at Dean's arm along with the other two men.

“Dean, this is good,” Sam was happy. “The mark is off your arm and nothing crazy happened. You get your baby back,” Sam held out the keys.

Dean took them. “Yeah, I'm sure everything's perfectly fine.” He didn't seem so convinced. He walked over to Liam. “You still talking to me?”

“Haven't decided yet. I know it wasn't really you who... But...”

“I understand.” Dean looked upset but he wasn't going to argue.

They all looked out the window when they heard a loud crackling sound. The sky was red and lightning started striking the ground all around them. “What did Death call this?” Sam asked.

“The Darkness,” Dean answered as a black cloud started heading straight for them. “Get in the car!”

They ran out as fast as they could, and Dean tried to drive away, but a back tire got stuck in a hole. He tried to get out, but it was no use. “Hold on,” Liam grabbed them both from the backseat as the cloud enveloped them.
- 18
- 19
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Hunting Humanity IX