chicago ♔ subscribe me not to darkness

[principal]

♬ To Darkness - Mumford and Sons

WHO || Buffy Summers, Sam Winchester, Robin Wood [closed]
WHAT || Buffy accompanies Sam to Chicago, seeking answers about Dean's past... and the fate of the version of Sam from this world
WHERE || Chicago, USA
WHEN || Late-October [back-dated]
HOW || Actionspam

Sam Winchester has not a very easy time of this world.  

Most of the reasons for which, it seems, can be traced back to the fact that there was another Sam Winchester native to this dimension.  One who somehow managed to alienate his brother Dean to the point where he almost murdered Sam on sight, and it's been a very slow, uphill battle ever since to get Dean to say more than two non-hostile words in a row to him.

An uphill battle that's going too slowly for Sam's taste.  

Upon googling his own name and doing some research in hunter circles, he learned more and more disturbing facts - including the fact that he and Dean from this world were held responsible for the deaths of Jo & Ellen Harvelle, and Bobby Singer.  Distraught by what he'd learned, he shared the facts with his new friend, Buffy, who agreed to travel with him to Chicago tracing down one of the only leads they have on finding out more about what happened, since Dean doesn't seem inclined to share.

And so off they go to Chicago - home to some of Buffy's own demons - to check out the Hunter's bar run by Robin Wood.

Comments

[familybusiness]

[He nods.]

We can both start at the beginning.

[He has some...other shit to let her in on too, yay.]

[nothingsodivine]

[Des picks up halfway through the first ring.]

That was fast.

[slay]

Yeah, it's called turning on a TV. [ She glances sideways at Sam like thanks for that btw. ] Maybe you should try it next time you feel the crushing panic of not hearing from your popstar bestie.

[nothingsodivine]

[well.] I was still right about it not bein' Iscariot.

[He'll take a small victories and there's a pause as he does turn on the hotel TV and flip through channels until he finds the one indicated.] Huh. Look at that. You think the pointy-eared bastard woulda called.

[but they were sorta... fighting a war and waited until the last minute to call him. maybe he doesn't love them anymore. : (] Crisis averted. Guess you'll be headin' to Japan now.

[slay]

Why would I do that?

[ Oh is she going to have this conversation with Des right in front of Sam? This will be awkward. At least it's not on speaker. ]

I may not be a signal-reading master, but even I can get the message when someone disconnects their phone. He's out.

[nothingsodivine]

Or he forgot to renew his international service plan. You're really gonna give up on him that easily?

[There's a moment's pause.] Not a phone conversation. I can see that face you're making from here. How'd it go with Winchester anyway?

[slay]

[ She rolls her eyes. His dismissal preempts any attempt to defend herself against the phrase giving up. And she lets it because he's right. ]

Also not a phone conversation. I'll tell you about it when I get home. Keep an eye on E! in case this concert goes the way of the last one. Even if he is out, I'd like to know our guy comes home from this one safe.

[nothingsodivine]

Lookin' at the security detail, I don't think that's gonna be a problem.

[He sighs.] All right. See you when you get in.

[slay]

When planning your lecture-y yet inspirational monologue, shoot for under 3 minutes. My attention span's gonna be short from all the airplane time. [ She hangs up the call, pocketing it and looking over at Sam. ] Sorry.

[familybusiness]

It's fine.

[He gets it. Rafael, famous popsinger, is important to them. He's certainly not holding it against her for wanting to make sure he was safe.]

[slay]

Anyway.

[ She backtracks. ]

According to Robin, the story goes that the Winchesters here came out of Kansas. John, your dad, could see demons too. So when one killed your mother, he … got treated to all the gory details. [ She presses her lips together, shaking her head. ] Sorry. Bad opener, but I figured starting at the beginning would be best.

[familybusiness]

[His lips press together.]

That's all...familiar enough. [He clears his throat.] The demon killed my Mom in my nursery the day I turned six months old. He pinned her to the ceiling, and there was a fire. [A beat.] I'm not the only kid it happened to.

[slay]

I didn't hear anything about others. But I did hear that after you tried to get out of the hunting business, the same thing happened to your girlfriend. And then your dad. And …

Well, you get the idea. Big ugly swath of death following you two around like that dirt cloud around Linus. Made people wanna keep their distance.

Eventually, it got Dean, too.

[familybusiness]

Yeah, I went to college. I took the LSATs right before my Dad disappeared. Dean wanted me to help find him, and I got sucked back into the life.

This isn't new, though. Death follows hunters, it's why I wanted to get out, try and live a normal life.

[It was hard though, particularly when you had as much baggage as a Winchester.]

I never would have been able to get out for good, though. I started having visions. Premonitions. I started seeing people die before it happened.

[He pauses though, his brain catching up with Buffy's words.]

Wait, Dean actually died?

[slay]

Not just died.

[ Sorry, Sam. Like most things in your life, It Gets Worse. ]

It was too bad for any cleric to bring him back. He was buried. Yet somehow, months later, out of nowhere, stories started cropping up that an angel had brought him back.

[familybusiness]

[The expression on Sam's face goes rigid. Honestly, he's still not used to the whole cleric rezzing thing, so hearing he died and having it confirmed is enough to have a very visible effect on his demeanour.

He swallows back a dry lump in his throat, his eyes hard and cold, and he feels as if something icy has wrapped around his heart and started to squeeze.

And here he thought he was the one who had probably died. It was one of those hazy memories that he couldn't keep a hold of, but he could have sworn....]

An angel?

[He's starting to make a few connections in here, tying to things Gayl told him. ]

[slay]

Went by Castiel, dressed like he was homeless. [ She waves it off. ] Anyway, this angel starts throwing around stuff about redeeming humanity and some great quest that Dean has to withstand for the good of all. Your brother, egomaniac that he is, buys into it. Decides he has to save everybody.

[familybusiness]

[He nods in understanding. It seems to match what he's been told, though he got a slightly different point of view.

Haha, slightly.]

Except he has no idea what he's got himself into. The way I heard it, he didn't understand anything. Was more likely to make things worse than better, and get himself metaphorically torn to shreds in the process.

[Oh look, now he's getting angry. Hearing about Dean dying and then having something like this forced on him will do that.]

But why would an angel do something like that?

[slay]

They wouldn't.

[ She shakes her head, pushing open the door to the hotel lobby and holding it for him. ]

And it gets worse. Whatever Dean was going through? Hell didn't like it. That's probably what made things worse—Hell retaliating. They started killing off his friends, his family. Those hunters you talked about? Probably them, too. Even the angel died, though I can't begin to imagine how.

In the end, he even lost you.

[familybusiness]

[Sam isn't sure he believes that. He wouldn't go so far as to do what he did if he thought Dean would make it through.

But he has no proof either way. Not yet.]

Demons killed Jo and Ellen. [Or dragged them off and did whatever demons did here.] Something called Iscariot killed Bobby.

[But he doesn't know what that is. Not yet.]

I gave myself to Hell willingly, I know. I gave up my humanity, and I did it on purpose.

[So he's been told.]

And I did it to save Dean. To get him to stop what he was doing.

[He believes it. He has to. He has to trust that there was some reason that he'd choose that route, that he'd go that far.

That's the only choice he can think of that would make any sense at all.]

[slay]

I can tell you more about Iscariot, but don't think it's going to make you feel better. Jo and Ellen were probably luckier.

[ Ugly truth. Demons are less scary than Catholics. ]

Gave up your humanity. What does that even mean? How could that save Dean?

[familybusiness]

The why matters more than the who.

[Yeah, but why would Catholics kill someone who was probably on Dean's side, considering he'd apparently sided with Heaven???]

The way it sounds, the only thing he had left near the end of all of this was me, and even that was tenuous. After he...lost me, after he thought I betrayed him, he had nothing left to fight for.

[He looks a little...sick, honestly.]

It made him give up. He quit.

[slay]

[ I DON'T KNOW, WHY WOULD THE CATHOLICS KILL THE SLAYER. ]

You couldn't have known he'd do that. That can't be why Sam did what he did: it's a huge risk to take. Selling himself out to Hell in hopes that Dean just gives up? I mean, have you met the guy? This woman, she didn't tell you anything about what exactly Hell did to you?

[familybusiness]

I know exactly what Dean would do. Because I know what that would have done to me, if I'd been the one to lose Dean.

[Buffy, you don't know these brothers.]

If I'd already watched him die once? I would have done anything to prevent him paying anything close to that price again.

[He shakes his head.]

We didn't have time for details. I didn't want you worrying when I didn't come back right away.

[slay]

Well, if she's coming to London with us, I'd like to hear some of those.

[ Not touching the rest tbh because y'all are codependent as fuck. ]

Something isn't adding up. If Dean just quit, what got Sam killed? How did he know about it? [ They're not question she suspects Sam's girlfriend can answer. They're the kinds of things that need to come from Dean: someone who was definitely really there. ] Am I the only one who feels like we just bought a book with the last chapter ripped out?