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]

[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?

[familybusiness]

Nothing got him killed, Buffy.

[At least not as far as he knows.]

He's still out there. Why do you think Dean tried to kill me the moment he saw me? Why do you think he immediately asked who sent me?

[slay]

According to Robin, he sure is. And frankly, if I saw my sibling who'd sold themselves off to be Satan's buttmonkey suddenly back from the dead? I'd probably freak out like that, too. [ She holds her hands up. ] Not that he was in the right. I'm just saying.

[familybusiness]

[He scoffs.]

What, you think Robin was there? He's a bartender, Buffy. A hunter, but still a bartender. Most of the info he gets is probably gossip. And people believe what they want to believe.

Even if he got this information from Dean himself, if Dean thought there was any way to save me? He would have told anyone else I was dead so that they wouldn't come after me. Hell, maybe even if he thought he couldn't. Besides, I have a feeling that whatever I became wasn't something you could kill just like that.

[Even if killing him were the right thing to do. They never seemed to do what they were supposed to when it came to each other.

Looking at you, Dad.

Finally, he shrugs his shoulders.]

Most of this is still conjecture until I talk to Dean. But I have a feeling we have most of the story, at least.

[slay]

You do remember the part where I talked about the death of an angel, right?

[ Just to be clear. She hits the call button for the elevator. ]

I don't know, Sam. Maybe he's alive, maybe he's not. But personally, I'm hoping for doornail. I've had enough of baddies wearing my friends' faces for … Well, ever.

[familybusiness]

For all we know I did that too.

[Now he's just being cynical. Or realistic. Who fucking knows at this point.]

Believe me, I'm hoping the same thing. I'd just...rather expect the worst and be pleasantly surprised at this point.

[slay]

Hard to argue with that.

[ Hadn't she done exactly the same with Des like 15 mins ago? Into the elevator. Inside, she taps her foot on the floor awkwardly, drums her fingers on the railing after hitting the button for their floor. Hum dum dum. She raises one hand and scratches her neck, then just comes out with it. ]

Robin knew me.

[familybusiness]

[It takes him a minute but he finally...gets what she means (wisdom 15).]

You mean like...from before? He came through the Veil?

[slay]

That's exactly what I mean. We're from the same world.

[ She turns to look up at Sam, haplessly searching for some kind of advice on how to even cope with that. ]

What are the chances of that? Like one in a zillion, right? I mean, it's not like he's the only one. There are Knights who did, too, but … Of all the hunter bars in the world.

[familybusiness]

Given what we do, the kinds of people we generally run into, and how we were doing similar things before ever coming here? It's probably a lot higher chance than we think.

[But he gets it.]

Hey, at least he wasn't born here, and you'd gone darkside?

[Too soon?]

[slay]

No, it's worse.

[ For a minute, she seems deathly serious. Then, as the elevator dings for their floor and comes to a stop, she raises her eyebrows and tightens her lips into a smile before explaining. ]

We went on a date.

[ and out of the elevator she goes. ]

[familybusiness]

[His eyebrows raise.]

Oh. Let me guess. You...didn't remember him.

[He follows her out, a wry smile on his face.]

Awkward.

[Which is funnier considering...the same thing happened to Sam. Only it wasn't awkward. At all.]

[slay]

I came to this world with nothing but a name, Sam. Everything I know about myself, I've had to learn the hard way. Some occasions have been harder than others.

And then suddenly, out of nowhere, someone pops up who knows me and it's like … Do I really wanna open that can of worms?

[familybusiness]

I don't know, Buff.

[He sure did just truncate her name. Yup.]

If I weren't trying to repair a relationship with my brother, would I have hunted down this bar and tried to put together the puzzle pieces of a life that wasn't mine? I don't really know. Maybe I still would have, or maybe I would have just lived here never knowing there was anything to know.

[He gives her a halfway smile.]

I can't tell you what to do. The only thing that can is your gut.

[slay]

[ She hardly notices, because the nickname feels fairly natural. :') ]

My gut says to trust him.

[ Probably because he had this unerring faith in her and was super frank and upfront and isn't that a nice change of pace? Most of her time in Chicago is colored by a web of deception (or, at times, a literal web). ]

I just don't know if ... I don't want hearing about everything that happened there to change me. I like me. And what if I was completely different? I mean, there's this whole other life that I lived that I know next to nothing about, and I could ask him, and I could probably get some real answers. But ... [ Shaking her head, she looks up at him. ] I don't know. You tell me. Is it worth knowing?

[familybusiness]

I'm not sure if I'm the best case to judge that against.

[But he'll try, anyway.]

I think knowing what I know about my life has made...all this easier to swallow. It's bad, and it's terrible, but so has the rest of my entire life. Having those memories...it made learning all of this...well, you know.

[He pulls some of his hair away from his face.]

I don't think knowing who you used to be or getting to know the people you don't remember will change you. Maybe it'll affect you in the future, but there are always things that are going to do that. If you trust him, then who better to try it out with, right?