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damned_institute2011-02-10 04:19 am
autophoenix.livejournal.com) wrote in damned_institute2011-02-10 04:19 am
Entry tags:
- claire bennet,
- japan,
- l,
- peter petrelli,
- prussia,
- ruby,
- s.t.,
- sam winchester,
- shinji,
- spock,
- sylar
NIGHT 54: M21-30 HALLWAY
[ from here ]
It took her a moment when she turned down the men's hallway to skim the area with her flashlight. This was the part where she got confused, the muscle memory not really carrying her the whole way. He'd given her directions once, but that felt like a lifetime ago now that she actually needed to put them into practice without Bella attached to her hip. Being alone made it harder, for some reason. She hoped Bella was having more luck than she was at getting to … wherever.
On her left, the single door of the bathroom that she suspected was the same as the women's facilities, and on her right four hallways. Peter's was … she scrutinized. Second in from the door? It sounded about right. If her room was F34 and it was the closest to the door, 24 should be one row further in. So, she hung a right and headed down the hallway.
Her flashlight beam checked the numbers on the doors as she headed down. 30 … 29 … the numbers were counting downwards, which was a good sign that this was the right hallway to get her to M24.
[ bumping intosylar peter ]
It took her a moment when she turned down the men's hallway to skim the area with her flashlight. This was the part where she got confused, the muscle memory not really carrying her the whole way. He'd given her directions once, but that felt like a lifetime ago now that she actually needed to put them into practice without Bella attached to her hip. Being alone made it harder, for some reason. She hoped Bella was having more luck than she was at getting to … wherever.
On her left, the single door of the bathroom that she suspected was the same as the women's facilities, and on her right four hallways. Peter's was … she scrutinized. Second in from the door? It sounded about right. If her room was F34 and it was the closest to the door, 24 should be one row further in. So, she hung a right and headed down the hallway.
Her flashlight beam checked the numbers on the doors as she headed down. 30 … 29 … the numbers were counting downwards, which was a good sign that this was the right hallway to get her to M24.
[ bumping into
no subject
"Pretty sure I'd consider getting force-choked out a blessing right about now." There was a some bitterness in the words. Not that she necessarily ever wanted to experience that, but she didn't like this cloistered feeling she had in the reanimated corpse she'd inhabited either. It was chilling to be seriously trapped and rooted somewhere like that when she'd had a failsafe escape route as long as there was no salt in the area for hundreds of years before.
Right. Persuading Sam. It was a delicate enough art to begin with, she didn't need to let herself get sidetracked by self pity.
"It's not all gone, though, Sammy. Coma girl never woulda been able to do what I got up to last night." Not without help, anyway. The pipe was firmly secured to the wall and she'd wrestled it off with relative ease. Sam might consider it an average day, but for a girl as tiny as the brunette? Not so much in the everyday department. It was enough to convince her that it wasn't all sucked away.
"And you and I both know that pulling demons ain't all you can do." She shifted her gaze to him sternly. Holding up her hand, she began to count off on fingers as she listed the possibilities. "Premonitions, super strength, mind control, telekinesis." Enthusiasm hopped up into her voice. It was only the start of the list and the possibilities were already racking up. "Not to mention Scott Carey's little electrical trick. You could do it all, Sam!" It almost sounded like she was praising him. Worshipping, even. But her tone quickly darkened to something hard and grim.
"But you're not gonna get there by sittin' around and wishing." The way her eyebrows knitted together and her lips tightened into a firm line had her looking like a teacher scolding him for not keeping up with his studies. But that was honestly more or less what it came down to -- he had to pick up the slack. The institute wasn't gonna make it anywhere close to easy for 'em, but they could do it. Together. "You want to get Dean outta here and rescue these people, you know what you have to do. You know what it's gonna take."
Her expression softened a little and she pushed up away from the desk, approaching him with slow, purposeful steps. Brow creasing, her expression became sympathetic, softening her eyes.
"I'll be here for you every step of the way. You're not gonna have to do it alone, but you're our only shot, Sammy."
no subject
For a brief moment, Sam felt like he was being oddly paranoid and he wasn't sure where all of his concerns were even coming from. It was just, these past few weeks, it felt like everything could go wrong way too easily.
He shook his head, dismissing his earlier concern. "He won't mind talking to you. Just tell him you're a friend of mine."
Peter seemed just as okay with talking to strangers about his abilities (or at least mentioning that he had them), but his roommate would probably be willing to delve into it a little more detail if he knew that Ruby was a friend. Friend. Talk about an oversimplification of their relationship. But it was the easiest one to give. A part of him wondered if he should be asking Peter instead, but Ruby was right: he didn't know as much about his abilities which was partially his fault. He hadn't wanted to know. As if he could bury it all and make it go away. It was ridiculous, he knew. He should get over it.
"A few people I've spoken to couldn't do it, either," he went on. Or, well, conversed with on the board, anyway. Awhile ago, but still. He frowned, thinking. He hadn't considered the technology here since then. "It's weird—the system doesn't even look that advanced, but the entire thing was on lockdown. Couldn't even start to locate a back door. Ditto for one of the doctor's computers. But, uh—see what you can do, I guess. It's worth a look."
He wasn't hopeful, but he wasn't going to be pessimistic about it. If she could find someone willing to do it, who could break through further than he had—well, they could use the help, that was for sure. As good as he was with this stuff, it wasn't his area of expertise. He'd picked it up because it was a handy skill, and because his brother barely had the patience to sit still for ten seconds, never mind for a couple of hours in front of a screen.
Besides, there was something to be said for being able to hack into his brother's Busty Asian Beauties account every time Dean froze his laptop up.
Sam propped a foot up against the closet door, but otherwise let Ruby talk without interrupting. He needed the time to think, anyway, so the longer he had before he needed to give her some kind of answer, the better. She wasn't saying anything he hadn't already thought about, but having it laid flat out in front of him like that made it just that much more tangible. That much more like something he had to make a decision on.
He leaned his head back. God. A part of him knew there was no point in going halfway, that he might as well go for it and not do it at all, and the idea of not doing it at all wasn't an option given what was going on. This wasn't about Lilith anymore, it wasn't even about him. It was about Dean—which both did and didn't make taking that step harder. He knew full well what his brother wanted him to be, but Dean didn't really know him, did he?
"It's not all gone for me, either," he began. "I can reach for it, it just—takes more out of me." He bit his lip. "Look, I know, okay? Just—give me some time. A day or two. Dean already thinks I'm up to something. I can't have him getting any more suspicious than he already is."
Shit, that was as good as an agreement, wasn't it? Better than a maybe. What was he even thinking? He needed more time, but he knew Ruby would say they didn't have more time, and she would be right. They didn't. Though there was no guarantee this would work—and if it didn't, they could stop. If it did...if it did, then he might actually be able to do something for Dean. Lelouch had been proof enough that not all of the patients with abilities were like Peter or Wally. Throw in the monsters, the angels—he couldn't really justify sitting on this any longer when he had a choice not to.
He looked at her. "You really think it's gonna work well enough to be any use, even in here."
no subject
But that paranoia, that worry, was greatly outweighed by the way the weight in her gut lifted at the fact that he was more or less agreeing to what she was trying to coax him into. It was obvious by stress in his demeanor -- leaning his head back, biting his lip -- that he was starting to feel cornered, though. Had she taken it too far? She hesitated some, combing her eyes over him and trying to quickly assess the situation. If she pushed too hard, she'd blow the whole thing.
That didn't mean she was going to let him off the hook that easily though. A day or two would turn into three or four or however long he wanted to let his guilt over Dean delay it. Inevitably, probably. So she let her sympathetic look harden a little.
"You really think it won't?" She shook her head. "Figured by now you'd give yourself a little more credit than that." The distance sufficiently closed, she shifted her weight for a minute, eyes prying for indicators of where the line was here. Then she reached up and placed a comforting hand on the side of his cheek, a supportive if grim smile on her lips. "How many times do I have to tell you you're it? What you can do, what Yellow-Eyes gave you, it's incredible, Sam, and even a fraction of it's gonna be more than what most of these mooks can do. With a little luck, once we get you trained up, it'll be more than enough.
"But, Sam." She paused purposefully, her expression shifting. It was still reassuring in all the right ways, but there was something more solid to it. More urgent. "I'm not gonna tell you not to think on it, but time's not exactly something we're busting at the seams with here." It was hard to make the concessions between what she wanted to say, which was something more along the lines of 'Sure, Sam, take your time, not like we don't have an eternity to get this done and then get back to the war we're still fighting back home. Stop and smell the roses while you're at it, too, why don'tcha?' and what would actually behoove her to tell him. She was getting better with the patience thing -- Sam had taught her how to really use it. One more thing she'd have to thank him for when it was all over.
"And, call me crazy, but I don't see time doing a whole lot to change the situation here. What are you gonna do? Poll the audience, try and talk it over in code with your brother? You're either on board or you're not." All right, so maybe it would've gotten her some points to compromise a little bit more, but compromise wasn't gonna win them any wars, it wasn't gonna knock out any sadistic scientists and it sure as hell wasn't gonna pack away any apocalypses. So maybe the patience thing hadn't quite reached its peak yet.
"This isn't the kind of thing you can just turn on, and we've got a lot of ground to cover. With the way this Aguilar guy's heading things, I'm not sure we're gonna have the wiggle room we've got now to actually cover it. We need to work fast; we don't have time to sit around shooting the breeze."
no subject
Still, he knew that was less a justification, more an excuse. He'd run into plenty of patients here who had enough fragments of their powers remaining to put it to use. The kid from his second night, Wally, Lelouch...He wasn't so sure if it would be enough to really break them out, like Ruby seemed so certain it would be, but it would be something. A pistol and a couple of knives weren't gonna cut it with most of the things running around here. If he could stop getting slowed down by every little supernatural creature that came his way, they might actually make some damn progress.
He frowned down at her, though he didn't pull away from her touch. He knew what she was doing—over four months together, and this wasn't exactly the first time she'd brought this up with him—but it'd stopped mattering awhile ago, after he'd decided not to turn her down. He supposed it was one more thing that separated her from Dean. Sam had been collecting those distinctions from day one. There was a part of him that knew if he wasn't careful, he'd forget.
His thoughts drifted briefly back to what Castiel said again about Dean. He was tempted to say something to Ruby—but what was there to say? True or not, whatever happened, he couldn't see himself relying on another entity to do the rescuing. This Dean, this version of Dean, was here, and Sam wasn't leaving him behind. The angels had nothing to do with it.
Or did they?
Dammit.
After a second, he sighed. "Yeah, you're right. We can't just turn it on, so there's no point in rushing into it tonight if everything's gonna flip by tomorrow because of this Eagle crap and keep us from going any further. Seriously, Ruby. One more night, that's all I'm saying. See what the hell this military takeover deal is going to do to the institute. I want the time with Dean. And God knows I need the time to figure out what I'm even going to tell him if he starts asking." He eyed her for a moment. "It wouldn't hurt if you took that time to be friends with him, either."
If Dean thought Sam liked her...He wouldn't trust her, but he'd be all right with her. As far as Dean was concerned, she was just another hunter, anyway. Just a girl, like Jo. That would make it easier. And Christ, was he really working an angle on Dean now, too?
As if he hadn't done it before. He knew he had, sometimes without even thinking, until months later when he looked back and realized that Dean had only done something because Sam had asked, specifically. But he'd never done it like this. To sneak around with a demon, doing the very thing Dean had asked him not to. But they were over three weeks in and Sam was no closer to busting them out of here or saving Dean. And that wasn't even counting the rest of the people who were still trapped her.
He'd never been good with dealing with feeling useless for long, had he.
no subject
"You're gonna get all the time with Dean you could ask for if we can actually pull this Shawshank Redemption off," she makes a small turn on her heels, rolling her eyes in tandem with the movement and walking back towards his desk. This was going a whole lot of nowhere tonight. "But, fine. Have it your way." He always did, after all. She turned back towards him and began to lay it out. Time to gear up that unwavering obedience.
"We spend a day, figure out what General Mao's up to and what we're in for 'cause of it, and I'll work on trying to become Dean's new BFF." Wasn't that just the kind of day she would look forward to. Playing hunter girlfriend for Dean might be a little easier if he wasn't pulling the black-eyed skank card every two seconds, but that didn't make her like him many more. And her feelings on the subject were clear in the look on her face -- the grim, thinly pulled line of her lips, the raised eyebrows, and the way she seemed to be in a constant state of a begrudging shrug.
"I'm not making any promises on that one. Not that I don't want to bury the hatchet before it can get sharpened and all, but your brother didn't like me the first time. I don't see the second going any better just because he doesn't have all the facts." But she was conceding. She was going to do it -- for Sam, if not just to make her life easier. He didn't need to further convince her, but she felt the need to lay down her pessimism anyway. "Speaking of which … if I'm gonna drop in and start getting cuddly, you should probably fill me in on what you've been telling him. Anything and everything, I mean specifics. We can't afford to be singing a different tune."
There were parts to the story that she already knew, of course. The host of personas she'd accrued since waking up in Landel's wasn't easy to juggle, but she could manage. There was Kristen Alighieri, the supposed nutjob who'd gotten locked up in this place for one reason or another -- probably thought she'd been possessed by demons, Ruby imagined. Then there was Ruby, hunter, friend who'd worked with Sam a coupla times and one hundred percent, bonafide, breathing human. That one was probably even funnier, but hey, if Dean bought it … and all of that was piled on top of the real deal.
The real Ruby that couldn't seem to keep separated the two halves she'd already cleaved herself into. Sympathetic, snarky sidekick in Team Prevent the Coming Apocalypse who cared about Sam and really wanted to help him, and the one who was trying to bring it on and played him like a fiddle. Those two had already bled over to a certain degree, it was unsettling to consider if the other two might throw themselves into the blender as well. She'd always imagined she'd be better at this.
Her eyes softened as she watched him, considering this, and her lips turned downwards into a despondent frown. Maybe there was some credence to not shitting where you slept after all.
no subject
So here they were, then. It wasn't that he couldn't back out at the last minute, but Sam knew himself better than that and in some ways, he had a feeling Ruby did, too. He didn't say yes unless he meant it. If he'd been uncertain enough to walk away, he never would've let Ruby negotiate him down this far in the first place.
Honestly, he wasn't even sure what that extra night was gonna do except give him an illusion of some kind of peace of mind. But...maybe that was it. As ridiculous as it sounded, he could use the temporary downtime, even knowing it wouldn't last.
Right. Anyways. Dean. Fortunately, Ruby and Dean hadn't crossed paths that much and the few times they had, only once or twice had they had the chance to even talk a whole lot. It made coordinating this simpler, but at the same time, was it that good of an idea to have them become...BFFs, as Ruby had decided to call it? Sam preferred acquaintances. Either way, he knew it made logical sense in theory. If they were gonna do this, he couldn't keep taking off with Ruby without Dean wanting to know who this chick was. They might as well cut to the chase and have Ruby get to know Dean before his brother started asking after it. It'd be less suspicious.
In practice, though, Sam couldn't say he was any more at ease with the idea than Ruby was. Still.
He shifted, the closet creaking a little on its hinges behind him. The outline of the gun dug into his back, but he ignored it. "There's not much," he said. "You two barely met. As far as he's aware, we never knew each other outside of here. He knows you're a hunter and that you specialize in the occult, which should cover why you might know more about hexes than most. And he knows you're not the first version of you. You gave your surname as Jackson, but he's not gonna blink if you turn up with a new one." Most hunters were being generous when they gave out their real first name. Last names were a luxury.
Sam shook his head, as if wrapping up his thoughts. "That's about it."
He returned his eyes to her, realizing her expression had changed. He studied her for a moment with a sort of cautious curiosity, but he didn't ask, mostly 'cause, where did he start? He did, however, concede, "Look, I know you're not exactly thrilled with Dean and I know he's not the easiest guy to get along with. I promise I'll try and get him to behave around you, too, all right?"
Nothing changed, he guessed. He'd always been playing mediator between the two of them. He still remembered keeping Dean from putting a bullet in her. At least it wouldn't go that far this time as long as the part about her being a demon stayed under the table.
no subject
She knew how hunters operated and she knew how to act like one. Luckily, it was more or less like a demon - distrusting and arrogant. They all were. With that self-righteous saving people stick up their asses. Give a guy a knife and a "monster" and they'd all think they were heroes. Kinda ridiculous. Giving a slow nod, she leaned back against the wall beside the door, arms crossing over her chest as she processed the info.
"All right. Easy enough to remember," that was good news. "And don't get me wrong, I'm not your brother's biggest fan. Honestly, I could do without him." That was a big risk to take, telling the guy who thought his brother was still dead that she didn't give a damn about it. But, they could 'save him' here and she was gonna do everything she could to help him, so that should even it out some.
"But he's your brother, and I know what that means to you." Obedient as always. "I'm gonna do whatever I can to get him out of here with us and I know getting along's gonna help that along. Trust me, Sam, I'll play nice. Believe iet or not, I do know how." Believe it or not. That was a little laughable, and she made sure that the quirk of her lips and one eyebrow implied it. Sam knew all about how nice she could play.
She hesitated, considering one interesting thing about the story they'd apparently spun together and Sam's debriefing. "How's he know I'm version 2.0?" Thinking about it kinda stung -- as though it wasn't bad enough having her memories on the fritz and yanked from her skull by the good doctor, she had to admit to it aloud and sacrifice all that pride. It was worse that Dean knew, to be honest.
She'd done a lot of work to keep anybody from catching on, with the exception of a select few like Sam and Roxas who were on the need-to-know list, and acted like she'd been around the whole time. In a place as populated as Landel's, that was easy, and sure, it had gotten her info, but it might have been easier if she wasn't worried about all of her tale being copacetic with Sam's. Truthfully, they should have had this talk sooner, but there hadn't really been time between weapon-hunting with Roxas and the nurses constantly lurking while the lights were on. Still.
"Not that I'm complaining, but I didn't really think you'd include "Ruby's back all memory-free" when telling him about your day at crazy school."
no subject
Sam acknowledged what she said with a slight nod, but he let any further discussion of it drop. He knew how she felt about Dean and frankly, he didn't begrudge her. He didn't like it, but it wasn't like he'd ever expected any different. She was a demon and Dean hadn't once given her the time of day, not even long enough for Sam to get some damn answers out of her barely thirty hours before the clock was going to strike midnight. So...yeah, he couldn't say he wanted them to be the best of friends. She was agreeing to help him get his brother out and she was willing to be civil. That was about the most he could ask for.
He moved around her to perch on the edge of the desk. "It came up. He saw me beeline for you and he wanted to know why since, uh, something happened the night before. Something I needed to talk to him about before you showed. Actually," he added with some hesitation, "I wanted to tell you that, too. "There was this—incident across the institute, something preying on the subconscious. Anyway, the short of it is, he...knows I have demon blood. As of yesterday afternoon. I had to give him something." He frowned, more at himself than at Ruby. "And he's dealing, so it won't be a problem."
He couldn't quite tell how Ruby would take this news, but what was done was done and honestly, the confession had gotten Dean off his back for the first time in...weeks, it felt like. And Sam had to admit, it made him breathe easier to know that Dean was okay with that giant bombshell. He knew it didn't change anything; there was still a crapload of stuff he hadn't told his brother. But a part of him felt a little less guilty, anyway.
Besides, as far as confessions went, that had been the most practical option. There was no way he could tell Dean about willingly using his powers, and he was glad his shadow hadn't gone down that road. At least the demon blood was something he couldn't help.
"Anyway, at least one patient's known Dean before he even remembers being here, as well, so he's not gonna hold you being version 2.0 against you. Someone might've tampered with him, too."
Or Dean, entirely. Dean as a whole? How many were there, if this altverse stuff was happening? The thought of there being alternate copies of Dean somewhere out there, throughout the various threads of time, was crazy, but it was all too possible.
Had this been in the journal he'd given Ruby, by the way? He could've sworn he'd written it down, but at this point, there was way too much information to keep track of that he'd let himself be more disorganized than he normally would've. It hadn't been necessary to record every little thing down, anyway, until Ruby came back and needed catching up. The journal was more to keep some semblance of order to what was going on, keep him busy when he needed to be kept busy; it wasn't really about him being worried he'd forget. He'd always had a good memory.
Plus, the details of this place weren't things you could forget that easily.
no subject
There was a chance whatever had gotten in her and made her attack Sam had wiped her clean, or there was a chance Landel had brought her in for a personal reboot conditioning session. Either way, it made her wonder what else had happened to her and if there was still something wrong inside. Considering how fritzy her radar had been, she wouldn't be surprised if the vessel-lock had kept her from noticing something else hanky.
But, everything else Sam said made sense. Throw big brother a bone so he didn't go chasing after the whole damn dinner table. It'd keep him busy, keep him at bay, and make Sam feel a little better about all the lies if he could open up about some small things. Sure, she could tell he wasn't wholly happy about it -- whether that was because of how Dean was looking at him (she'd seen enough of the judgey look to know how it stung) or because he wanted to home run with the honesty, she couldn't say. But he'd deal, he was a trooper, and it seemed to ease some of that by reminding him a.) what Dean would think of it and remind him why this something to hide, and b.) let him feel like less of a secretive asshole.
"All right." she didn't seem too bothered, giving a nod of confirmation and understanding. When she realized it might seem a little weird that she was so on board the communication with Dean train, she sighed and began to explain. "Look, it wasn't exactly like we were dealing with him being in the dark," she nearly said back home, but Sam's edition of back home was dean-free, so she treaded cautiously and adjusted her words seamlessly, "before he went downstairs. He knew what Azazel did to you, right? So, he's just caught up a little bit."
It seemed like the obvious solution to her and honestly she was kind of impressed that Sam had been able to work it up on his own like that. She needed to give him more credit in that department. He wasn't just a soldier, he was a strategist, and that was part of why she was so attached.
"He doesn't know it's mine," the demon blood. The word was messy. Talking about it was messy. Ruby liked to avoid it at all costs because calling it what it was would make Sam squirm, she knew that much. Hell, sometimes she thought the idea made her squirm. There was something akin to searching for confirmation, though. God damn him if he had seriously thrown that out there. "And he doesn't know what we're doing," it came out more confidently. "That's the important part. Compared to what we could be dealing with? I'd say we're at crisis level orange. I'm not worrying about it, and neither should you. Dean's not a problem."
A smile worked its way onto her features. The fond, proud kind that Sam always warranted from her, mixed with reassurances that he wasn't alone in this and that he had her there to support him. Support him like Dean never would -- never could -- and back him. No matter what his choices were.
"You did good, Sam."
no subject
He bit back a sigh. Never mind.
His gaze traveled back to Ruby. He didn't return her smile, but he relaxed slightly. It wasn't that he looked to her for reassurance—the thought of that was...it felt wrong, even to him, even after all this time—but he couldn't deny that it put him at ease, knowing that he at least had her to fall back on. Because while he could handle this alone, he knew, too, that having someone at your back wasn't something to turn down.
Not that Dean wasn't there, as well. He knew his brother would always back him when it came down to it. But it was...different, that was all.
He nodded, pausing for a moment to consider if there was anything else he needed to bring it up. The conversation felt pretty much done—he'd agreed to what she wanted. Beyond that, there wasn't a lot in terms of strategy aside from keep Dean from finding out and God knew he already had that part down.
So what else was there...all that angel crap, maybe? Though he had to admit, he wanted to leave that alone for now. Too frigging complicated and messy. He wasn't sure what to make of it yet, even now, and he'd always preferred to sort a situation out for himself before he brought it up as a topic of conversation. Growing up in a household with Dean and Dad had taught him the importance of figuring out exactly where he stood—or at least where he wanted to stand—before tangling himself in a damn yelling match about it.
Oh, right. She had mentioned running into a creature last night. From the way she termed it, it was apparently an oversized gorilla. Sam had seen oversized cats, but he'd yet to run into any oversized apes. Just imagining it made him feel crazy. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn't that important, but he wanted to know regardless. He didn't like having blank spots of information when he could fill them in.
"What was that thing you ran into last night, anyway? You said...King Kong?"
He really, really hoped that that was just an analogy.
no subject
His mention of King Kong brought back the memories of the night before in the kitchen with Roxas and she nodded, still not regretting her choice of words to vaguely describe it on the bulletin despite the fact that, judging by Sam's curiosity, he probably was taking her pretty literally. Pushing back her brief interest in what the kid was up to tonight, she got to working on explaining herself.
"Not life-sized; I mean, it wasn't exactly stomping New York City into rubble, but pretty damn close. I don't spend a lot of time in African jungles hanging around gorillas, but this one was larger than your average bear and seemed more interested in longpig than bananas." All sarcasm aside, that wasn't really the scariest part. The humor seemed to drop out of her expression and it grew something between grim and exasperated. She didn't like admitting to getting her ass kicked six ways from Sunday by an animal. But, they weren't exactly talking about Bambi here.
"I'm no vet, but I got the thing between the ribs with that knife and it didn't even flinch. It's skin was pretty tough to get through, too." She gave a nod over to where the spare kitchen knife was lying around. Sure, it wasn't made for any real fighting, but given the length alone, she had to have punctured a lung -- if it played by normal rules, that was. But it didn't hesitate in the slightest and just continued to fling her and Roxas around like rag dolls.
There was also the part about Roxas summoning up the weirdest sword she could never imagine, doing shit all with it, and the two of them getting knocked out cold, but it was probably better for her pride that she kept that to herself unless Sam got to prying.
no subject
Actually, that...description was pretty average for the monsters that infested the institute from what he could tell. That snake, for instance, where a bullet and a knife from Dean had barely slowed it down. Only Gabriel (Sylar, he kept having to correct) had managed to fry it.
After seeing that one room upstairs, during that crazy night with Peter, Sam knew now where they came from, but it was still really weird to think about just because he wasn't used to looking at in terms of something straight out of science fiction. Myth and urban legends, he got. Some psycho piecing together animal experiments just felt a bit out there, as illogical as he knew that was.
He frowned in thought. "And then the night just ended?"
She hadn't said how she'd killed the thing, so that must've been what'd happened. It'd saved his life a couple of times. He still couldn't forget when Dean had nearly slit his throat. God. Yeah, that had been insanely lucky timing. Or, he guessed luck maybe wasn't the right way to put it. The blackouts were far too convenient for it to ever be an accident. What was bizarre was that several of the patients had died—the number had to be around five or six, possibly more now—which could mean only one of two things: either there was a slip up in whatever system was keeping most of them alive, or the institute had some kind of criteria about who got ganked. Given that they had the ability to bring people back, the latter seemed more likely.
Unsettling as hell, though.
/SHORTEST TAG AFTER AN ETERNITY OF WAITING I'M SO SORRY
"No. And then it flung me across the room like a rag doll and I blacked out. Considering I didn't get torn apart, though, I'm guessin' something like that happened pretty quick." Well, technically, it had taken Roxas it out first. Technically. But as far as she was concerned, he wasn't the critical part to the story and Sam would be better off not hearing about how she was playing babysitter and making friends with Charlie Bucket.
"What about you? Didn't exactly expect a "better than usual" update on check-in. So, you gonna let me in on how you spent your time creepin' around or should I start guessing?"
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Seeing how Castiel's first priority had simply been to get away from Gabriel, he hadn't put much thought into where to go next. Part of that was because it was obvious. Having seen Dean and Gabriel already, Sam was the only one left. He realized that it might be fruitless to visit the younger Winchester, and yet he still had hope that he would be able to get through to Sam where he had seemingly failed with Dean.
Perhaps, if Sam wasn't distracted by a girl the way Dean had been--
That, however, did not turn out to be the case. He landed in a room again, removing his hand from Orihara as usual -- and yet the sight he took in with the aid of his flashlight was more or less the last thing that Castiel could have expected.
Ruby, who had gotten Sam addicted to demon blood and led them all to the cataclysmic end point of releasing Lucifer, was standing there and speaking with Sam like she hadn't died nearly a year ago on that fateful night. It was true that Castiel had not been present for her death, but Dean had told him about it later -- about how he'd plunged a demon-killing knife right between her vessel's ribs.
Both of them seemed far too comfortable with the situation, which was hard for Castiel to reconcile as he stood there, Orihara forgotten for at least the moment, and stared the human and demon down. He felt his small amount of Grace repelling against Ruby's presence and his whole body had tensed without him realizing it.
He needed to tell Sam that he was practically lying with the devil by conversing with Ruby, needed to stop her from spinning her webs of lies, needed to somehow prevent this from falling completely out of control again. He could think about why Ruby was alive later.
And so he advanced on her, not certain of what he was going to do and yet propelled by anger. "You."
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And there was Castiel's voice again: "You're not taking Sam Winchester. I won't let you."
"Castiel," was the man's reply as he started walking around the fire. "I don't understand why you're fighting me... of a—"
And then it was gone. Izaya forced his focus to their new location, where it seemed Castiel once again had stopped to visit acquaintances. He couldn't help but stare for a moment at the man in the room—a man that he recognized from earlier, but whom he'd never seen in person before now.
If Castiel had come to say hello to him, though, that obviously wasn't on his mind now. He was advancing on the girl instead with an accusatory-sounding "You."
He'd stayed quiet last time as he'd still been reeling, but he had more clarity now than before. Curiosity over the situation prompted him to ask, "Something wrong, Castiel?"
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So he sure as hell hadn't expected the freaking angel to just materialize out of nowhere like some David Copperfield trick, along with some guy who looked more confused than not.
Jesus, what—
He started off the desk, drawing his gun without even thinking. (Threatening angels with bullets, great. This was his life now.) He moved forward to step in front of Ruby, as automatic as it'd been his brother instead. As ambivalent he might've felt towards her sometimes, he'd made his alliances a long time ago. Watching her back had stopped being something he had to think about when it came down to it. If Castiel had just walked up to them like a normal person, it would've been different, but sheer surprise of the situation threw every instinct he had on the defensive.
Besides, judging from Castiel's immediate reaction, the guy didn't look that interested in diplomacy at the moment.
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And then it hit her. The stench of the angel -- Castiel, the guy had called him? -- his Grace was overpowering. Her eyes flashed dark, pupils dilating until they had encapsulated the entirety of her eyes in that inky darkness, reflecting a certain kind of hollow darkness within. Immediately, she raised a hand, waving it back towards Sam and stepping between him and the intruders.
How stupid was she right now? Putting herself between him and an angel. But whatever they were here for, it couldn't possibly be good news and as much as she wanted to hold onto that self preservation, there was something in Sam that was a whole lot more important to be preserved.
"Sam, get back," she barked. A surprising thing happened then, something she hadn't intended. A power thrumming through her veins, concentrating in the hand that was thrown out in Sam's direction. And a force, strong and invisible, moved out from that point as she flung her hand backwards to keep him back, hurling Sam into the wall behind him, above his bed.
Oops.
It was enough to distract her from the angel and the seething rage that was filling her at the sheer sight of him. She looked backwards, a little frantic and discombobulated, worried at the sound of crashing that accompanied his fall.
Immediately she hurled a glare that was meant to distract from her own failure at Castiel and his nameless but equally guilty companion.
"A lot of things are wrong with Castiel. Crashing into rooms unannounced is just the tip of the friggen iceberg." She seethed. It was mostly directed at Castiel, though it was in unsolicited response to his companion's question and generally addressed him.
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Even though Castiel was well aware that the bullets could hurt him as much as any human now -- the night he'd tried to make it to the chapel with the Doctor had proved that rather clearly -- he stared at the weapon like it was a toy instead of a killing device. The truth was that Sam was the furthest thing from his mind right now, even if he was the reason that he'd come here in the first place.
No, his gaze quickly returned to Ruby, expecting an explanation. She didn't back down from facing him, even forcing Sam out of the way. And yet the way she did so was completely unnecessary and entirely too predictable for a demon.
That act of violence against someone he'd come to see as a friend (even if that feeling clearly wasn't returned at the moment) was enough to spur him into further action. Castiel lunged forward with two quick steps and seized Ruby by her arm. She could still use telekinesis; that was something he would need to file away and address later.
Instead, he pulled her close, staring her right in her blackened eyes. "How did you get here? What are you doing here?" His tone was stiff and demanding, Orihara's question and Sam's state after he'd hit the wall forgotten for the moment.
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And then the man—Sam, she'd called him? Was it the same Sam that he'd 'heard' mentioned a moment ago?... He'd gone flying away almost like he'd been thrown, and then the woman started throwing accusations about Castiel's character. It was a personal history, then, and one that Izaya would stay out of.
He removed himself from beside Castiel, heading for where Sam had fallen instead—partly to see how he was after that and partly to keep out of the couple's issues in case it put him in the line of fire. Their spat was interesting, but right now the questions of what had happened to Sam? and how had that even happened? were foremost on his mind.