The Shadow and the Coal (SPN, dark AU, S8+)
Title: The Shadow and the Coal
Author: brosedshield
Disclaimer:Don't own, don't profit, not even interpreting in the spirit anymore
Characters/Pairing: Sam, Dean
Warnings: the mighty fall, and the Winchesters never die (not so sure that’s a good thing)
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 429
Spoilers: overview of S1-7, beginnings of 8; no details, future AU
Summary: There are the monsters in the dark of a future world, and their name is Winchester
Beta Credit: Nope. Nada. Zilch
Author notes: I’m a girl who likes to see how the curve could go. I don’t want to know the ending, per se, but I like to have a feel for what to expect, whether I should brace myself for sorrow or joy, stock tissues or champagne. Granted, there have only been two episodes of Season 8 so far, but I can no longer see the redemption arc so I’m headcanoning the opposite. This dark little AU implies the history of how the Winchesters became almost everything they used to fear.
They are called the Shadow and the Coal, though damaged men remember their true names. Mothers speak of them in hushed tones, naught but a warning to their children that they must run from the monsters who prey on monsters, the unstoppable force that has yet to find an object immoveable enough.
Reapers have died coming for them, Horsemen have fled them, demon kings have burned, angels have been cast down. Death himself has refused to take them, Hell cannot hold them, Purgatory fell to them, Heaven was not enough.
Men die around them. The Shadow has killed his lovers, the Coal has stripped away everything they were. Mothers, Fathers, brothers, grandparents: dead. Prophets, princes, gods, angels, demons: dead. Friends, allies, enemies, family, and those who have said the name too loudly: dead, dead as bones that can’t be burned because they are dust and the souls with them.
The Coal was a man once. Brave and strong, protective and good. He died for his brother and learned the art of pain at a master’s hand. He rose again to see his brother fall. He died and honed his soul like a blade until it was slim as a stiletto, sharp enough to cut. He rose and found the Shadow again. He bathes in the blood of their enemies: real, imagined, and doomed.
The Shadow had a choice once. He ran and was found. Fought the good fight and fell. Made a choice, saved the world and came back broken. He spoke to the devil, went mad from the words and still stood strong beside his brother at the end of the world, always choosing that love that burned less brightly year by year, because from that choice he could never step away.
He ran and was found and became the Coal’s shadow, partner, servant, follower, hollow and defined by the light, while the Coal burned bright enough to blind the world (or burn it).
They ended the world twice and it kept spinning. They buried everyone who ever called them kin. Of all the kingdoms in all the worlds that have defied them, only Death’s still stands, and he has refused to take them for these thousand years and counting. Thus they live and walk and rule and slaughter wherever they go, beast and beauty alike, monster and innocent, each year less human, each year less kind, until the day God wakes from his eon-long sleep and can lay them down.
Even then, you never know. The Coal and the Shadow have killed angels and devils, demons and gods, children, innocents and monsters. Maybe not even the Creator will be enough to slow the Winchesters down.
Author: brosedshield
Disclaimer:Don't own, don't profit, not even interpreting in the spirit anymore
Characters/Pairing: Sam, Dean
Warnings: the mighty fall, and the Winchesters never die (not so sure that’s a good thing)
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 429
Spoilers: overview of S1-7, beginnings of 8; no details, future AU
Summary: There are the monsters in the dark of a future world, and their name is Winchester
Beta Credit: Nope. Nada. Zilch
Author notes: I’m a girl who likes to see how the curve could go. I don’t want to know the ending, per se, but I like to have a feel for what to expect, whether I should brace myself for sorrow or joy, stock tissues or champagne. Granted, there have only been two episodes of Season 8 so far, but I can no longer see the redemption arc so I’m headcanoning the opposite. This dark little AU implies the history of how the Winchesters became almost everything they used to fear.
They are called the Shadow and the Coal, though damaged men remember their true names. Mothers speak of them in hushed tones, naught but a warning to their children that they must run from the monsters who prey on monsters, the unstoppable force that has yet to find an object immoveable enough.
Reapers have died coming for them, Horsemen have fled them, demon kings have burned, angels have been cast down. Death himself has refused to take them, Hell cannot hold them, Purgatory fell to them, Heaven was not enough.
Men die around them. The Shadow has killed his lovers, the Coal has stripped away everything they were. Mothers, Fathers, brothers, grandparents: dead. Prophets, princes, gods, angels, demons: dead. Friends, allies, enemies, family, and those who have said the name too loudly: dead, dead as bones that can’t be burned because they are dust and the souls with them.
The Coal was a man once. Brave and strong, protective and good. He died for his brother and learned the art of pain at a master’s hand. He rose again to see his brother fall. He died and honed his soul like a blade until it was slim as a stiletto, sharp enough to cut. He rose and found the Shadow again. He bathes in the blood of their enemies: real, imagined, and doomed.
The Shadow had a choice once. He ran and was found. Fought the good fight and fell. Made a choice, saved the world and came back broken. He spoke to the devil, went mad from the words and still stood strong beside his brother at the end of the world, always choosing that love that burned less brightly year by year, because from that choice he could never step away.
He ran and was found and became the Coal’s shadow, partner, servant, follower, hollow and defined by the light, while the Coal burned bright enough to blind the world (or burn it).
They ended the world twice and it kept spinning. They buried everyone who ever called them kin. Of all the kingdoms in all the worlds that have defied them, only Death’s still stands, and he has refused to take them for these thousand years and counting. Thus they live and walk and rule and slaughter wherever they go, beast and beauty alike, monster and innocent, each year less human, each year less kind, until the day God wakes from his eon-long sleep and can lay them down.
Even then, you never know. The Coal and the Shadow have killed angels and devils, demons and gods, children, innocents and monsters. Maybe not even the Creator will be enough to slow the Winchesters down.