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phantismaFandom: Supernatural (Keeper!Verse)
Title: Hunter Becoming Hunted, Part 3 of ? (Part One, Part Two)
Characters/Pairing: Sam/Dean, Dana, John
Word Count: 2481
Rating: PG-13,for violence to a minor, vague recollections of childhood abuse
Summary: Dana, Sam and Dean are on the run and separated.
A/Ns & Warnings: No real warnings. Part of the Keeper!Verse. Anger and angst and stuff...bad guys wanting to do bad things.
Dana had never been so cold. Her shoes were soaked through, and the wind blew through her coat. Her hands were red and shaking, though some of that was fear. It was dark and she felt her way along the road more with her powers than her eyes.
Something was still following her, but it seemed to be harmless, at least compared to whatever had her father and Sam trapped in the cabin. For the hundredth time in the last two hours, Dana pulled her phone out of her pocket. She fumbled it with cold fingers before she got it open.
There was a signal. It was weak, but it was there. She stopped dead in her tracks and pushed the button to call her grandfather. It rang three times and the voice on the other end was sleepy. “Papa? It’s Dana. I need you.”
She could feel him wake up. “Dana? Where are you?”
“Sam’s cabin…well they are…they told me to leave, gave me the signal.” She bit her lip. “There’s trouble and Sam and Dad are trapped and I’m cold and you’ll never get here in time.”
“Calm down Dana.” She could hear him moving around. “Tell me where the regroup spot is.”
“A gas station, I’m not there yet.”
“Okay, listen. Get to the station. Find some way to keep warm. I probably won’t get there before morning. Use your head, stay out of sight.”
“I can’t feel Sam, Papa…he…we had a fight and now he’s gone…and I don’t know if they’re okay.”
“Don’t dwell on it Dana. Get moving. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
Dean felt Sam moving around and dragged himself up out of sleep. “Sam?”
“Nothing’s changed Dean. Sleep.”
Dean sat up. “No, it’s your turn. I’ll keep watch.” He yawned as he sat up. Sam handed him a cup of coffee as he got to his feet. “Anything happening?”
“They haven’t found a way in…yet.”
“You think they will?”
“Peter’s good. I think we need to consider that he might.”
Dean sipped at the coffee and nodded. “Okay…worst case?”
Sam shook his head. “You don’t want to know worst case. Trust me on this.”
“Sam…I think it’s a little late for you to be protecting me here.”
“Best case is Dana makes good time, doesn’t get caught, gets help and gets back here before they get in.” He didn’t look at Dean. “I think we both know that won’t happen. Worst case…Peter’s little wizard out there breaks through and they storm us. We’re pretty out numbered, but have the small surprise of my abilities on our side. They were repressed when I knew Peter. Still, he’s got a small army of very bad things on his side. He’ll probably grab you, both to punish me and to try to control Dana. Things would get very bad, very quickly.”
Dean made a face and moved over to the window. He knew what was left unsaid in Sam’s worst case. It hung there in the air between them. These men were puppets on the strings of a pretty ugly class of demons, who thrived on physical torture and rape to control and punish.
He was worried for Dana, alone in the dark and cold. Sam was right, she was resourceful, but even so…she was also just thirteen…and age was no protection with this bunch.
If he was honest, he was worried about Sam too. He was pale, still shaking. He hadn’t been the same since the fight with Dana, since he severed the connection that had held them together since Dana was six months old. Dean had no doubt that Sam loved him, but his love for Dana was unsurpassed by anything in his life. Without it, Sam wouldn’t be the man he’d become.
“We could try to bargain…” Sam looked out the window, then shook his head. “Except we don’t even have the one thing he’s looking for.”
“He doesn’t know that.” Dean said. “We could…bluff…maybe let them in…and get past them…”
Sam shook his head. “Peter would see through it. As I said, he’s good.”
“Then we wait?”
Sam shrugged. “For now.”
“Rest. I’ll wake you if anything changes.”
According to her cell phone it was close to midnight. The gas station was dark and empty. The little post office lobby was unlocked though, and while it wasn’t warm by any means, it was a respite from the wind and the snow that had started falling right after she had called her Papa. She tucked herself in under the table, opening her jacket to wrap around her wet legs as she curled herself up as small as she could to try to keep warm.
She’d lost track of whatever was following her when she’d thrown herself clear of the road to avoid the truck coming her way. It was possible the trucker could have helped…but the chances of there being more demons in the vicinity had scared her. It didn’t help that she wasn’t feeling like herself, between the cold and the lack of Sam’s presence…not to mention the fear.
But the tumble down the snow covered embankment had left her soaked to the skin and she knew she had to get warm or risk hypothermia. She wasn’t sure exactly what that was, but she knew it wasn’t good. So she brought her legs in close to her body and wrapped her coat around them and tried to conserve body heat while she thought warm thoughts.
John Winchester broke every speed limit between him and his granddaughter, slowing down only when the mountain road became treacherous with snow. He’d never been more grateful for four-wheel drive. The clock on the dash read 2:15 am, hours since he’d talked to her. He crested a rise and saw a cabin ahead, a dark car that could be the Impala in front of it. He’d slow down, but didn’t want to cause suspicion, and Dana needed him. Only a few miles. He trusted that his boys knew what they were doing when they’d sent her to the back up plan and followed it himself.
When he finally pulled up in front of the gas station, his heart was pounding. He couldn’t see her anywhere. He left the truck running, the heat on, and grabbed the blanket from behind the seat. The falling snow had filled in any footprints she might have made. He scanned the area, looking for where she might go to hide and get warm. His eyes fell on the tiny post office. The lobby light was on. He tromped through the snow and pushed the door open. “Dana?” He called it out softly, moving into the small space.
He found her under the table, asleep and shivering. “Dana.” She woke as he touched her, her eyes growing wide.
“P-pap-p-pa?”
“Come here, girl.” He put the blanket around her and drew her to him. “Your frozen. Let’s get you into the truck.”
He carried her shaking form to the truck and put her on the seat, tucking the blanket around her and making sure the heat vents were aimed at her before closing the door and climbing in beside her. Once he had the door shut, he reached on the floor for the thermos he’d brought. “It’s cocoa. Help warm you up.” He poured some into the thermos lid and held it to her lips. “There you go. Drink up.” Her shivering worsened after a few sips. “We need to get you warm. I think there’s a hotel up the road.”
“N-no. S-s-sam.”
“I drove by on my way here, Dana. They seem to be okay. We have to get you warm first. Warm and safe. Then we can worry about Sam and your father.”
Dana looked like she wanted to argue, but all that came from her was chattering, so John considered the argument won and set them down the hill toward the motel he’d looked up before he left the hunt he’d been on when she called.
Sam watched the truck from the window. A few minutes later he turned to Dean. “Dana’s safe. Dad just picked her up.”
“How do you know?” Dean asked, looking up from the explosive he was working with.
“His truck just drove by. He should have reached her by now.”
Dean stood and went to check out the back window. “So we give him enough time to get her secure in a room somewhere, then we go.”
Sam nodded. “You sure about this plan?”
Dean snorted. “I haven’t been sure of anything since Dad called me from the hospital, Sam. I’m not accustomed to being on the receiving end of a hunt.”
“If the car doesn’t start…”
“She’ll start.” Dean set the explosive device on the table. “All we need is a timer.”
“There’s some twine in the weapons bag.” Sam said, looking back at him from the window. “He’s close to breaking the first line. If I drop them all when he does, we should have the time we need.”
Dean just nodded, feeding the end of the twine into the bottle with the chemicals and setting it up. “This will go up fairly quickly.”
“Okay.” Sam crossed to a spot between the beds and pressed on a floorboard near the bigger bed. A small hatch opened in the floor. He dropped down their duffle bags and the weapons bag while Dean laid out the twine. Sam dropped into the hole, ducking under and crawling away toward the front of the cabin. He could see the feet of their visitor, pacing in front of the wards. Dean’s legs dropped down and he hovered there, waiting for Sam’s signal.
When Sam kicked the back of his leg, Dean lit the twine on fire, watching it for a minute to be sure it took before ducking and pulling the trap door closed. He moved toward Sam, and felt the wards give way.
Sam held the illusions of three bodies asleep in the beds above them as Peter and his crew raced into the cabin and he and Sam burst from hiding, diving into the car. The Impala roared to life and Peter appeared at the door to the cabin as they pulled out of the driveway. Three seconds later, the cabin lit up like daylight as the chemicals exploded and set anything left standing ablaze.
One more hunter out of their hair.
John carried Dana into the motel room, kicking the door closed and taking her straight into the bathroom, where he started the shower.
“D-door. S-salt. Coming.” Dana stuttered out as he tried to help her get out of her wet clothes.
“In a minute.”
“Coming. N-now.” Dana shook from head to toe, but pushed him away. “Now.”
John nodded and stood back. “Yeah…okay.” He had to go back to the truck for the bag of supplies, and didn’t like leaving her, even with only feet between them. He grabbed the bags and headed back to the room, scouring the area as he closed the door and drew a thick line of salt in front of it. He did the two windows and splashed holy water over the door. By the time he got back to the bathroom, Dana’s clothes lay in a pile on the floor and she was behind the shower curtain.
“You okay?”
“Yeah, Papa…getting warm.”
“Good. I’ll be out here.”
He paced while she warmed herself in the shower. His first duty was to her safety, he’d promised Dean that years and years ago. If it ever came down to a choice, he was to choose Dana. It didn’t sit well with him though, not knowing his boys were in trouble…not knowing there was more trouble still heading their way.
When Dana emerged from the bathroom, wrapped in towels and followed by a plume of steam, she looked scared, but the color was back in her skin. She let him wrap a blanket from one of the beds around her and huddle into it.
“It followed me…don’t know what…it’s out there.”
“Dean!”
“Yeah, I see it.” Dean swerved around the buck standing dead center in the middle of the icy road and swerved nearly off the embankment before he righted the car. The Impala was not exactly built for driving in this kind of weather. “Anything behind us?”
“Yeah. Drive.”
“Any signal yet?”
Sam checked his phone and cursed. “No.”
“Is that?” Dean slammed on the brakes and turned the car into the motel parking lot. “Dad’s truck.” He pulled in next to it and killed the engine, and Sam was out of the car before he was.
Dean yelled out, “Dad, open up,” and turned to reach for Sam, stopping cold as Sam sagged against the car. “Sam?”
Sam started to laugh…a cold, unearthly sound as he straightened, his eyes black as the night. “Sammy isn’t home right now, Dean.”
“Dad!” The door to the motel room opened, but Sam held out his hand and Dean started toward him, his feet dragging in the gravel. “Sam,…come on man…you don’t want to do this.”
As his hand closed around Dean’s throat, Sam smiled. Something in his expression reminded Dean of the Sam he’d met in Palo Alto all those years before. Those dark eyes left Dean’s as he lifted him off the ground. “Send out the girl, and you can have your boy.”
Dean could see his father out of the corner of his eye. “Don’t you do it Dad. You keep her safe.”
“Shut up, Dean.” Sam’s mammoth hand closed harder around Dean’s neck. “Unlike those idiots at the cabin, I’ve been trailing her…I know she’s in there. I want her.”
Dana slipped under John’s arm, and he grabbed her. “I’m right here. It was you following me?”
Sam inclined his head. “You may call me Andras. I have come to call you to your destiny child. Give yourself to me freely and your father and uncle may live unharmed.”
Dana shook her head. “Let my father go, and I’ll consider it.”
The smile on Sam’s face turned Dean’s stomach. “You are very little to try to barter with one as old as I, child. Let me be very clear. I will take you by force and deliver you to the one with a price on your head if you do not offer yourself to me first.”
“Dana, don’t listen to him. Go inside.” Dean gurgled as the hand tightened again.
“I will kill you, Dean Winchester…do not tempt me further.”
Dean closed both hands around Sam’s wrists and tried to loosen his grip, but his vision was blurring and he was losing his battle to retain consciousness. “Sammy…I know you’re in there somewhere. Fight…” his voice faded as the darkness claimed him, his last sight that of his daughter fighting against his father, trying to come to him.
Title: Hunter Becoming Hunted, Part 3 of ? (Part One, Part Two)
Characters/Pairing: Sam/Dean, Dana, John
Word Count: 2481
Rating: PG-13,for violence to a minor, vague recollections of childhood abuse
Summary: Dana, Sam and Dean are on the run and separated.
A/Ns & Warnings: No real warnings. Part of the Keeper!Verse. Anger and angst and stuff...bad guys wanting to do bad things.
Dana had never been so cold. Her shoes were soaked through, and the wind blew through her coat. Her hands were red and shaking, though some of that was fear. It was dark and she felt her way along the road more with her powers than her eyes.
Something was still following her, but it seemed to be harmless, at least compared to whatever had her father and Sam trapped in the cabin. For the hundredth time in the last two hours, Dana pulled her phone out of her pocket. She fumbled it with cold fingers before she got it open.
There was a signal. It was weak, but it was there. She stopped dead in her tracks and pushed the button to call her grandfather. It rang three times and the voice on the other end was sleepy. “Papa? It’s Dana. I need you.”
She could feel him wake up. “Dana? Where are you?”
“Sam’s cabin…well they are…they told me to leave, gave me the signal.” She bit her lip. “There’s trouble and Sam and Dad are trapped and I’m cold and you’ll never get here in time.”
“Calm down Dana.” She could hear him moving around. “Tell me where the regroup spot is.”
“A gas station, I’m not there yet.”
“Okay, listen. Get to the station. Find some way to keep warm. I probably won’t get there before morning. Use your head, stay out of sight.”
“I can’t feel Sam, Papa…he…we had a fight and now he’s gone…and I don’t know if they’re okay.”
“Don’t dwell on it Dana. Get moving. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
Dean felt Sam moving around and dragged himself up out of sleep. “Sam?”
“Nothing’s changed Dean. Sleep.”
Dean sat up. “No, it’s your turn. I’ll keep watch.” He yawned as he sat up. Sam handed him a cup of coffee as he got to his feet. “Anything happening?”
“They haven’t found a way in…yet.”
“You think they will?”
“Peter’s good. I think we need to consider that he might.”
Dean sipped at the coffee and nodded. “Okay…worst case?”
Sam shook his head. “You don’t want to know worst case. Trust me on this.”
“Sam…I think it’s a little late for you to be protecting me here.”
“Best case is Dana makes good time, doesn’t get caught, gets help and gets back here before they get in.” He didn’t look at Dean. “I think we both know that won’t happen. Worst case…Peter’s little wizard out there breaks through and they storm us. We’re pretty out numbered, but have the small surprise of my abilities on our side. They were repressed when I knew Peter. Still, he’s got a small army of very bad things on his side. He’ll probably grab you, both to punish me and to try to control Dana. Things would get very bad, very quickly.”
Dean made a face and moved over to the window. He knew what was left unsaid in Sam’s worst case. It hung there in the air between them. These men were puppets on the strings of a pretty ugly class of demons, who thrived on physical torture and rape to control and punish.
He was worried for Dana, alone in the dark and cold. Sam was right, she was resourceful, but even so…she was also just thirteen…and age was no protection with this bunch.
If he was honest, he was worried about Sam too. He was pale, still shaking. He hadn’t been the same since the fight with Dana, since he severed the connection that had held them together since Dana was six months old. Dean had no doubt that Sam loved him, but his love for Dana was unsurpassed by anything in his life. Without it, Sam wouldn’t be the man he’d become.
“We could try to bargain…” Sam looked out the window, then shook his head. “Except we don’t even have the one thing he’s looking for.”
“He doesn’t know that.” Dean said. “We could…bluff…maybe let them in…and get past them…”
Sam shook his head. “Peter would see through it. As I said, he’s good.”
“Then we wait?”
Sam shrugged. “For now.”
“Rest. I’ll wake you if anything changes.”
According to her cell phone it was close to midnight. The gas station was dark and empty. The little post office lobby was unlocked though, and while it wasn’t warm by any means, it was a respite from the wind and the snow that had started falling right after she had called her Papa. She tucked herself in under the table, opening her jacket to wrap around her wet legs as she curled herself up as small as she could to try to keep warm.
She’d lost track of whatever was following her when she’d thrown herself clear of the road to avoid the truck coming her way. It was possible the trucker could have helped…but the chances of there being more demons in the vicinity had scared her. It didn’t help that she wasn’t feeling like herself, between the cold and the lack of Sam’s presence…not to mention the fear.
But the tumble down the snow covered embankment had left her soaked to the skin and she knew she had to get warm or risk hypothermia. She wasn’t sure exactly what that was, but she knew it wasn’t good. So she brought her legs in close to her body and wrapped her coat around them and tried to conserve body heat while she thought warm thoughts.
John Winchester broke every speed limit between him and his granddaughter, slowing down only when the mountain road became treacherous with snow. He’d never been more grateful for four-wheel drive. The clock on the dash read 2:15 am, hours since he’d talked to her. He crested a rise and saw a cabin ahead, a dark car that could be the Impala in front of it. He’d slow down, but didn’t want to cause suspicion, and Dana needed him. Only a few miles. He trusted that his boys knew what they were doing when they’d sent her to the back up plan and followed it himself.
When he finally pulled up in front of the gas station, his heart was pounding. He couldn’t see her anywhere. He left the truck running, the heat on, and grabbed the blanket from behind the seat. The falling snow had filled in any footprints she might have made. He scanned the area, looking for where she might go to hide and get warm. His eyes fell on the tiny post office. The lobby light was on. He tromped through the snow and pushed the door open. “Dana?” He called it out softly, moving into the small space.
He found her under the table, asleep and shivering. “Dana.” She woke as he touched her, her eyes growing wide.
“P-pap-p-pa?”
“Come here, girl.” He put the blanket around her and drew her to him. “Your frozen. Let’s get you into the truck.”
He carried her shaking form to the truck and put her on the seat, tucking the blanket around her and making sure the heat vents were aimed at her before closing the door and climbing in beside her. Once he had the door shut, he reached on the floor for the thermos he’d brought. “It’s cocoa. Help warm you up.” He poured some into the thermos lid and held it to her lips. “There you go. Drink up.” Her shivering worsened after a few sips. “We need to get you warm. I think there’s a hotel up the road.”
“N-no. S-s-sam.”
“I drove by on my way here, Dana. They seem to be okay. We have to get you warm first. Warm and safe. Then we can worry about Sam and your father.”
Dana looked like she wanted to argue, but all that came from her was chattering, so John considered the argument won and set them down the hill toward the motel he’d looked up before he left the hunt he’d been on when she called.
Sam watched the truck from the window. A few minutes later he turned to Dean. “Dana’s safe. Dad just picked her up.”
“How do you know?” Dean asked, looking up from the explosive he was working with.
“His truck just drove by. He should have reached her by now.”
Dean stood and went to check out the back window. “So we give him enough time to get her secure in a room somewhere, then we go.”
Sam nodded. “You sure about this plan?”
Dean snorted. “I haven’t been sure of anything since Dad called me from the hospital, Sam. I’m not accustomed to being on the receiving end of a hunt.”
“If the car doesn’t start…”
“She’ll start.” Dean set the explosive device on the table. “All we need is a timer.”
“There’s some twine in the weapons bag.” Sam said, looking back at him from the window. “He’s close to breaking the first line. If I drop them all when he does, we should have the time we need.”
Dean just nodded, feeding the end of the twine into the bottle with the chemicals and setting it up. “This will go up fairly quickly.”
“Okay.” Sam crossed to a spot between the beds and pressed on a floorboard near the bigger bed. A small hatch opened in the floor. He dropped down their duffle bags and the weapons bag while Dean laid out the twine. Sam dropped into the hole, ducking under and crawling away toward the front of the cabin. He could see the feet of their visitor, pacing in front of the wards. Dean’s legs dropped down and he hovered there, waiting for Sam’s signal.
When Sam kicked the back of his leg, Dean lit the twine on fire, watching it for a minute to be sure it took before ducking and pulling the trap door closed. He moved toward Sam, and felt the wards give way.
Sam held the illusions of three bodies asleep in the beds above them as Peter and his crew raced into the cabin and he and Sam burst from hiding, diving into the car. The Impala roared to life and Peter appeared at the door to the cabin as they pulled out of the driveway. Three seconds later, the cabin lit up like daylight as the chemicals exploded and set anything left standing ablaze.
One more hunter out of their hair.
John carried Dana into the motel room, kicking the door closed and taking her straight into the bathroom, where he started the shower.
“D-door. S-salt. Coming.” Dana stuttered out as he tried to help her get out of her wet clothes.
“In a minute.”
“Coming. N-now.” Dana shook from head to toe, but pushed him away. “Now.”
John nodded and stood back. “Yeah…okay.” He had to go back to the truck for the bag of supplies, and didn’t like leaving her, even with only feet between them. He grabbed the bags and headed back to the room, scouring the area as he closed the door and drew a thick line of salt in front of it. He did the two windows and splashed holy water over the door. By the time he got back to the bathroom, Dana’s clothes lay in a pile on the floor and she was behind the shower curtain.
“You okay?”
“Yeah, Papa…getting warm.”
“Good. I’ll be out here.”
He paced while she warmed herself in the shower. His first duty was to her safety, he’d promised Dean that years and years ago. If it ever came down to a choice, he was to choose Dana. It didn’t sit well with him though, not knowing his boys were in trouble…not knowing there was more trouble still heading their way.
When Dana emerged from the bathroom, wrapped in towels and followed by a plume of steam, she looked scared, but the color was back in her skin. She let him wrap a blanket from one of the beds around her and huddle into it.
“It followed me…don’t know what…it’s out there.”
“Dean!”
“Yeah, I see it.” Dean swerved around the buck standing dead center in the middle of the icy road and swerved nearly off the embankment before he righted the car. The Impala was not exactly built for driving in this kind of weather. “Anything behind us?”
“Yeah. Drive.”
“Any signal yet?”
Sam checked his phone and cursed. “No.”
“Is that?” Dean slammed on the brakes and turned the car into the motel parking lot. “Dad’s truck.” He pulled in next to it and killed the engine, and Sam was out of the car before he was.
Dean yelled out, “Dad, open up,” and turned to reach for Sam, stopping cold as Sam sagged against the car. “Sam?”
Sam started to laugh…a cold, unearthly sound as he straightened, his eyes black as the night. “Sammy isn’t home right now, Dean.”
“Dad!” The door to the motel room opened, but Sam held out his hand and Dean started toward him, his feet dragging in the gravel. “Sam,…come on man…you don’t want to do this.”
As his hand closed around Dean’s throat, Sam smiled. Something in his expression reminded Dean of the Sam he’d met in Palo Alto all those years before. Those dark eyes left Dean’s as he lifted him off the ground. “Send out the girl, and you can have your boy.”
Dean could see his father out of the corner of his eye. “Don’t you do it Dad. You keep her safe.”
“Shut up, Dean.” Sam’s mammoth hand closed harder around Dean’s neck. “Unlike those idiots at the cabin, I’ve been trailing her…I know she’s in there. I want her.”
Dana slipped under John’s arm, and he grabbed her. “I’m right here. It was you following me?”
Sam inclined his head. “You may call me Andras. I have come to call you to your destiny child. Give yourself to me freely and your father and uncle may live unharmed.”
Dana shook her head. “Let my father go, and I’ll consider it.”
The smile on Sam’s face turned Dean’s stomach. “You are very little to try to barter with one as old as I, child. Let me be very clear. I will take you by force and deliver you to the one with a price on your head if you do not offer yourself to me first.”
“Dana, don’t listen to him. Go inside.” Dean gurgled as the hand tightened again.
“I will kill you, Dean Winchester…do not tempt me further.”
Dean closed both hands around Sam’s wrists and tried to loosen his grip, but his vision was blurring and he was losing his battle to retain consciousness. “Sammy…I know you’re in there somewhere. Fight…” his voice faded as the darkness claimed him, his last sight that of his daughter fighting against his father, trying to come to him.
