Ara Pacis, for howsockgothappy
Title: Ara Pacis
Author: brutti_ma_buoni
Recipient: howsockgothappy
Rating: PG13
Wordcount: ~2,700
Warnings: brief horror
Author's Notes: Given four great prompts to work with, ended up using three of them. Thanks for the inspiration! (The title means Altar of Peace btw - specifically from this altar in Rome, where Augustus and his family are shown making sacrifices for the greater good.)
Setting season seven AU from The Slice Girls
Summary: The universe - or something - isn’t happy that Emma survived, and so did Dean. The Winchester family are trying to deal with that, in among adjusting to the whole new family dynamic. Suddenly, Leviathan are very much not at the top of the Winchester danger agenda.
"So…." And Dean isn't trying for suspense with the long pause here, he's really aiming to steady his voice so that the bubbling terror and laughter inside doesn't show. "Would we say that's a T-Rex, Sammy?" It's not quite hysteria, but it's not exactly the calm dude in full control of the situation that Dean would prefer to appear.
Though, let's face it, a T-Rex outside is a big reason why voices may be squeakier than usual.
Sam's mouth opens. And opens. "Uhuh." Swallow. "Looks like." He keeps on looking up. In a way, there's a joy in seeing his Sasquatch kid bro outgunned for once. Except, you know, for the imminent thunderlizard death thing.
Dean gives Sam props for not screaming. But internally, he's pretty damn sure they're all screaming.
Except maybe Emma. She seems… okay?
Dean's kid is weird. It's possible that growing to adolescence in the space of a day and a half and being on a mission to kill her own dad wasn't the best preparation for normality (though Dean's also prepared to admit that she may be more normal than any kid raised Winchester-style would have been). She's peeking from the window, grinning. "Hey! He's feisty."
"Get back!" Dean shouts. He has no clue how well dinosaurs can smell, they may already be on its radar, but there's no goddamned sense in dancing around in its eyeline inviting being bitten in half by a freaking overgrown lizard. Emma rolls her eyes, pouty. Dammit. If the universe had to give Dean a freakishly speedy-grown daughter, he’d seriously have preferred someone he could protect, not some mini-Amazon with no sense of danger.
He thinks back to the week before, with the ghoul family and Emma nearly getting eaten, starting with the ears, and the remembered gut-roil briefly distracts him from imminent dino-death. The memory of Emma tearing its damn head off doesn’t suck, though. His kid. Yeah. Dad would approve, for sure.
*
The thing is, the Dinopocalypse may be slightly Dean's fault. Well, Dean's and Emma's. And the Amazons'. And maybe a little bit Sam's. Though Sam would have willingly seen Emma dead, and apparently the universe needed either Dean or Emma dead, so that would have worked out okay. Except not for Emma. And not really for Dean.
The other thing is, Dean kind of likes having a daughter.
It's not quite unexpected, not after Ben, but if asked in advance, Dean would have expected to not completely love having a kid hung around his neck. Especially not an out of the blue one that grew to late adolescence in three days and then came to kill him.
But. Well. Dean talked her down then, and that kind of makes Emma his responsibility. More so, he thinks, than the unwitting spilling of DNA that started her at her momma's behest. She warned him that the universe wouldn't take kindly to an Amazon with a dad, and apparently, she was right.
The dinosaurs are a surprise, true. But they're the fourth definite thing that the universe has thrown at the Winchester family to try to end them on this account, and they've survived so far.
Which is a really fucking dumb thing for a hunter to think, and the massive claw crashing through the ceiling just goes to prove that much.
*
It's the rear leg of the T-Rex, demolishing buildings inadvertently as it stalks the ground, so they don't die right now. But, still not good.
There's running, and shouting, and then remembering they're trying not to attract attention and running much more quietly, but eventually they find a storm cellar about twenty houses along and hole up there for a while.
Think, Dean. Think.
"So, I'm thinking-" he said, and Sam and Emma give identical disbelieving snorts (which a) hurtful and b) seriously? Now, they find a moment of bonding?). "I'm thinking this ain't natural."
Again with the snorting.
"Like, there's no way in hell there's some kind of automatic universe trigger like this, right? Like: Amazon lives, father lives, the winged horses don’t kill'em, hey presto T-Rex! That's just… dumb."
The snorting stops, before Dean has to kill either of his family. They actually look - both look - like he may have a point.
He keeps talking, keeps momentum, and the thought that's just ahead of him. "Which means… Someone's doing this. Or- No, something. Like an angel or- Hey, Sammy? There's a goddess in this, right?"
Sam nods, "Harmonia. Mother of the Amazons. Emma's mom's group was really devoted to her, used her symbol and-"
"Yahtzee," says Dean. "Pissed off goddess. That's got to be worth investigating, right?"
*
Some kind of armed unit takes down the T-Rex eventually, and shows no interest in Winchester family affairs, which is always a welcome outcome. They don't have to quit town in a hurry. There's time to reunite with Sam's laptop and contacts and shit, and even seven hours of time to sleep before anyone is likely to send them any news.
Which they do.
It's a little awkward, nowadays, with three of them. And a little familiar, like when Dad was alive, and getting rooms with three beds didn't work out nine times out of ten and no one had cash for more than one room. Emma in one bed now, where Dad used to be, spreading out luxuriously. Sam and Dean furiously trying to remember how the hell their teen selves managed to sleep in one bed.
(Having a daughter has some side-effects Dean really didn't think about. But hell, there's a goddess on their tail, and this is no time for fussing. Though he thinks, at nine a.m. when he should still be asleep but is being suffocated in Sam's giant hairy armpit, that this is one side-effect they need to find a fix for just as soon as the apocalyptic goddess thing is over.)
*
Sacrifices to raise Harmonia are kind of bloodily unpleasant, it turns out. Also? Long. Which makes a kind of sense. If a goddess is all about balance and correctness, making a big shouty mess louder'n all the other hollering humans takes time.
By the third day of messing with roadkill, Dean is pretty damn pissed at everything. He squats on the porch of their rental, grimly awaiting Emma's call to take his next turn. Sam returns from the burger run, and drops down alongside him.
"So…." Sam says it slow, drawn-out, considering. "You think you did the right thing, still?" Meaning Emma. Meaning letting her live.
And it's not anything Sam hasn't said or implied before, or that shouldn't be at least discussed in a fix like this, but this time, it catches Dean raw. "What? What, Sammy? You've lived with Emma for months now, you still want to kill her? She's family, man. Do you even get what that means?"
He's breathing hard, on his feet without knowing how, and upset enough at having let that much out that he feels like there could be more to come, by hand or by voice, that this could break Dean and Sam apart a little more, because no fucking way is Dean sacrificing his daughter. Or himself. Too much of that, these days. Not today.
Sam looks furious in return. "She's not really your kid. You know that. Just some DNA you gave for the Amazons' project, and nobody asked you to look after her. She's barely, remotely family; she's born to be a monster. We kill monsters. So just how much does she have to do before she loses that family protection thing? Does she have to raise Lucifer from the Pit before you turn her out, tell her she's a worthless piece of vampire bloodsucking shit and you're done trying to save her? Is that it?"
That brings Dean up short, in bewilderment. Sam's rage is hot, specific, boiling out at Dean and he doesn't understand it. "What in hell are you talking about?"
Sam goes to slug him, and Dean's rage is honestly draining because he just doesn't get how they got to here from there and where Sam's head is. But Sam is serious, punching hard, and Dean's struggling to duck or block them all, till suddenly there's another hand holding back Sam's fist and Emma's cool voice is saying, "Guys? I need two free hands for the goddess, please? If either of you boys can spare the time."
Sheer embarrassment at being caught brawling is plenty for Dean, and even Sam looks cooler, a little abashed. All three of them coalesce at Harmonia's altar, gutting a fox, a squirrel and a pregnant raccoon, and Dean's feeling confused and queasy while Sam's rage festers around them. At least the atmosphere may get the goddess's attention.
They complete the phase, and the very second they've finished the chant, Sam says, "You forgot, didn't you? You actually forgot the message you left me. I mean, I know, Lucifer rising and midair airplane and whatever, Apocalypse. But, man, I will never forget what you said."
Neither will Dean. Not ever. What he doesn’t get is why Sam's so angry. "I meant it," he starts, and Sam's rage swells to fill the room. "You're family. I don't tell you to leave. I don't give up on you."
"But you did," says Sam, and there's a stalemated pause. "You told me so."
Then a little shuffle, and Emma's voice comes coolly across the dark room of sacrifice. "So, Dean said one thing and Sam heard something else? Seems like you two need some couples' counselling."
"Or," says a fourth voice, from the darkness, "You might consider that Lucifer's minions have dominion over many things, and that voicemail is hardly likely to be a challenge to them."
There's a little explosion of breath from Sam, and Dean briefly thinks there's something important going down in his little brother's brain, but the more immediate point is that someone just spoke to them and there should be no one here.
She's beautiful. Tall and coolly-blonde, with the kind of perfectly-falling white dress that only supermodels and goddesses can maintain. There are no winged horses or dinosaurs. The roadkill stink has vanished, and the altar is once more the unstained block they brought here.
"Well," she says, brow raised. "You got my attention. What do you want?"
"Uh," says Dean, "I- We- I don't want to kill my kid."
"Then let her kill you," says the woman, or let's be honest, the goddess. (Hi Harmonia. They raised her after all that.) "It brings balance. I like balance, and order. Clarity." She has a beautiful voice, but there's a chill to it that Dean dislikes. Plus, the message in her words isn't exactly warming.
"Why?" says Emma, and her voice is beautiful too. Clear, challenging, take no prisoners, keeping the goddess's eyes on her, in centre stage. "Why does a man have to die so that a woman can live? Or a woman for a man? Why can't fathers have daughters? I don't want to kill my dad."
She never called him that before. Dean struggles with a sudden lump in his throat. I don't want to kill my dad. That's actually almost sweet, at least by the standards of this family.
Harmonia scowls. "Both, then." Her hands lift.
"Or neither," comes a voice from the shadows behind her in turn. It makes Dean jump, even though this was the plan. He hadn't expected Sam to come through, not after all that just went on in that fool boy's overeducated excuse for a brain. But there's the noose around Harmonia's neck, soaked in vampire blood and used to off three innocent men on three different gallows (and wasn't that a bitch to track down on the shadow market?). It's holding her, the way its chaos should.
Sam speaks in her ear. "Now, you just gave me a gift whose value I think you know. But I'll kill you if I have to, because these guys? They're my family. And you don't give up on your family." He gives the noose a jerk, and Harmonia's lovely face contorts, her dress hitching and catching as her feet leave the ground. Balance and harmony are leaving this place. Sam hisses, "Free them. No more revenge. No more fucking dinosaurs. You want balance? How about you let a father bring up his daughter and butt out of our family life?"
Sam is pretty damned impressive when he's angry. Being angry on Dean's behalf, better still. It isn't totally surprising when the goddess listens (and arguably also not only because she's trapped and half dead). After a moment, she holds up a hand. Sam loosens the knot, a fraction, and Harmonia's newly roughened voice croaks. "Your point is made. Your request is under consideration. Perhaps an exception, this once-"
Which is… problematic. Dean is 100% not onside with the slaughtering of deities, on account of deities often coming with brother and sister deities who will seek vengeance and whatever other, bad for Winchesters, things they can come up with.
But he also took that T-Rex kind of personally, and-
“Kill her,” says Emma. It’s quite calm - a lot calmer than Dean feels - and it is very, very certain. Dean watches Sam’s face. He’d do it, it’s clear. But he’s not certain. Like Dean, he knows consequences.
Harmonia is breathing - surprisingly - harsh and loud in the quiet of their mock sanctuary. She doesn’t try to talk. That alone inclines Dean towards mercy and deal-making.
“Emma-“ he starts. Even his tone has Sam slackening that tight grip just a little. Sam knows what’s in Dean’s brain, like always.
Emma talks right over him. “You don’t know. You don’t know what they’re like.” She says it with calm. “You don’t know how many men they killed. For millennia. For her. How it makes them feel happy, and right, because she tells them it is. They’ll never stop, not while she’s protecting them, supporting them. Ordering them. Never. I-“ For the first time, she sounds uncertain. “I ate a guy. Part of a guy. It’s what they do to us. When we’re old enough. So we can never pretend that we’re clean again.” She pauses again. “You don’t know what it’s like to be one of the Amazons. To be born just to kill your father, and then-“
As Emma speaks, her voice is rising, tightening, more little-girl, less terrifying killer. Dean’s gut tightens right along with it. Somebody hurt his daughter. A lot. And now she wants it to not happen to other girls. He gets it, but-
But Sam catches Emma’s eye, nods. Even as Dean says, “No-“ the noose tightens and the goddess’s hands are scrabbling at her neck, her feet leaving the floor, her eyes bulging and tongue protruding. And then her head, thumping then rolling on the floor, leaving Sam unbloodied, propping up the goddess’s body, staring down into the seared stump of her neck. Chaos is a powerful thing, used on a goddess of harmony.
There’s a very long moment of silence. Sam’s breath sounds rough in the quiet. Dean can’t find a thing to say. This is bad.
Then Emma says, “Thank you, Sam.”
She really means it. Sam almost smiles, nods again, as he lets Harmonia’s corpse slump to the floor. “Yeah. Well, she pissed you off. And you’re family. So that’s not okay with me.”
One dead goddess equals one more major headache. Like, migraine-bad. Dean knows this. But he can also feel that his family just took a huge step towards actually being a family. Not just Sam and Emma, but whatever the voicemail thing was - and there’s a conversation looming about that, for sure - something that was wrong between him and Sam has been fixed. By the goddess they just offed, sure. But hell, it’s an improvement.
Which is why Dean’s voice isn’t quite verging on hysteria this time either, as he says, “Okay team! Motel! Research! We just pissed off the Olympian deities, and probably all the Amazons in the world too. Defenses! Protection spells! Allies! It’s research time!”
Not one word of which should be making him sound pleased. But it’s better. Something just got better. It’s been too damn long since Dean felt that. And if something also got dramatically worse? He's good at that part.
*
Author: brutti_ma_buoni
Recipient: howsockgothappy
Rating: PG13
Wordcount: ~2,700
Warnings: brief horror
Author's Notes: Given four great prompts to work with, ended up using three of them. Thanks for the inspiration! (The title means Altar of Peace btw - specifically from this altar in Rome, where Augustus and his family are shown making sacrifices for the greater good.)
Setting season seven AU from The Slice Girls
Summary: The universe - or something - isn’t happy that Emma survived, and so did Dean. The Winchester family are trying to deal with that, in among adjusting to the whole new family dynamic. Suddenly, Leviathan are very much not at the top of the Winchester danger agenda.
"So…." And Dean isn't trying for suspense with the long pause here, he's really aiming to steady his voice so that the bubbling terror and laughter inside doesn't show. "Would we say that's a T-Rex, Sammy?" It's not quite hysteria, but it's not exactly the calm dude in full control of the situation that Dean would prefer to appear.
Though, let's face it, a T-Rex outside is a big reason why voices may be squeakier than usual.
Sam's mouth opens. And opens. "Uhuh." Swallow. "Looks like." He keeps on looking up. In a way, there's a joy in seeing his Sasquatch kid bro outgunned for once. Except, you know, for the imminent thunderlizard death thing.
Dean gives Sam props for not screaming. But internally, he's pretty damn sure they're all screaming.
Except maybe Emma. She seems… okay?
Dean's kid is weird. It's possible that growing to adolescence in the space of a day and a half and being on a mission to kill her own dad wasn't the best preparation for normality (though Dean's also prepared to admit that she may be more normal than any kid raised Winchester-style would have been). She's peeking from the window, grinning. "Hey! He's feisty."
"Get back!" Dean shouts. He has no clue how well dinosaurs can smell, they may already be on its radar, but there's no goddamned sense in dancing around in its eyeline inviting being bitten in half by a freaking overgrown lizard. Emma rolls her eyes, pouty. Dammit. If the universe had to give Dean a freakishly speedy-grown daughter, he’d seriously have preferred someone he could protect, not some mini-Amazon with no sense of danger.
He thinks back to the week before, with the ghoul family and Emma nearly getting eaten, starting with the ears, and the remembered gut-roil briefly distracts him from imminent dino-death. The memory of Emma tearing its damn head off doesn’t suck, though. His kid. Yeah. Dad would approve, for sure.
*
The thing is, the Dinopocalypse may be slightly Dean's fault. Well, Dean's and Emma's. And the Amazons'. And maybe a little bit Sam's. Though Sam would have willingly seen Emma dead, and apparently the universe needed either Dean or Emma dead, so that would have worked out okay. Except not for Emma. And not really for Dean.
The other thing is, Dean kind of likes having a daughter.
It's not quite unexpected, not after Ben, but if asked in advance, Dean would have expected to not completely love having a kid hung around his neck. Especially not an out of the blue one that grew to late adolescence in three days and then came to kill him.
But. Well. Dean talked her down then, and that kind of makes Emma his responsibility. More so, he thinks, than the unwitting spilling of DNA that started her at her momma's behest. She warned him that the universe wouldn't take kindly to an Amazon with a dad, and apparently, she was right.
The dinosaurs are a surprise, true. But they're the fourth definite thing that the universe has thrown at the Winchester family to try to end them on this account, and they've survived so far.
Which is a really fucking dumb thing for a hunter to think, and the massive claw crashing through the ceiling just goes to prove that much.
*
It's the rear leg of the T-Rex, demolishing buildings inadvertently as it stalks the ground, so they don't die right now. But, still not good.
There's running, and shouting, and then remembering they're trying not to attract attention and running much more quietly, but eventually they find a storm cellar about twenty houses along and hole up there for a while.
Think, Dean. Think.
"So, I'm thinking-" he said, and Sam and Emma give identical disbelieving snorts (which a) hurtful and b) seriously? Now, they find a moment of bonding?). "I'm thinking this ain't natural."
Again with the snorting.
"Like, there's no way in hell there's some kind of automatic universe trigger like this, right? Like: Amazon lives, father lives, the winged horses don’t kill'em, hey presto T-Rex! That's just… dumb."
The snorting stops, before Dean has to kill either of his family. They actually look - both look - like he may have a point.
He keeps talking, keeps momentum, and the thought that's just ahead of him. "Which means… Someone's doing this. Or- No, something. Like an angel or- Hey, Sammy? There's a goddess in this, right?"
Sam nods, "Harmonia. Mother of the Amazons. Emma's mom's group was really devoted to her, used her symbol and-"
"Yahtzee," says Dean. "Pissed off goddess. That's got to be worth investigating, right?"
*
Some kind of armed unit takes down the T-Rex eventually, and shows no interest in Winchester family affairs, which is always a welcome outcome. They don't have to quit town in a hurry. There's time to reunite with Sam's laptop and contacts and shit, and even seven hours of time to sleep before anyone is likely to send them any news.
Which they do.
It's a little awkward, nowadays, with three of them. And a little familiar, like when Dad was alive, and getting rooms with three beds didn't work out nine times out of ten and no one had cash for more than one room. Emma in one bed now, where Dad used to be, spreading out luxuriously. Sam and Dean furiously trying to remember how the hell their teen selves managed to sleep in one bed.
(Having a daughter has some side-effects Dean really didn't think about. But hell, there's a goddess on their tail, and this is no time for fussing. Though he thinks, at nine a.m. when he should still be asleep but is being suffocated in Sam's giant hairy armpit, that this is one side-effect they need to find a fix for just as soon as the apocalyptic goddess thing is over.)
*
Sacrifices to raise Harmonia are kind of bloodily unpleasant, it turns out. Also? Long. Which makes a kind of sense. If a goddess is all about balance and correctness, making a big shouty mess louder'n all the other hollering humans takes time.
By the third day of messing with roadkill, Dean is pretty damn pissed at everything. He squats on the porch of their rental, grimly awaiting Emma's call to take his next turn. Sam returns from the burger run, and drops down alongside him.
"So…." Sam says it slow, drawn-out, considering. "You think you did the right thing, still?" Meaning Emma. Meaning letting her live.
And it's not anything Sam hasn't said or implied before, or that shouldn't be at least discussed in a fix like this, but this time, it catches Dean raw. "What? What, Sammy? You've lived with Emma for months now, you still want to kill her? She's family, man. Do you even get what that means?"
He's breathing hard, on his feet without knowing how, and upset enough at having let that much out that he feels like there could be more to come, by hand or by voice, that this could break Dean and Sam apart a little more, because no fucking way is Dean sacrificing his daughter. Or himself. Too much of that, these days. Not today.
Sam looks furious in return. "She's not really your kid. You know that. Just some DNA you gave for the Amazons' project, and nobody asked you to look after her. She's barely, remotely family; she's born to be a monster. We kill monsters. So just how much does she have to do before she loses that family protection thing? Does she have to raise Lucifer from the Pit before you turn her out, tell her she's a worthless piece of vampire bloodsucking shit and you're done trying to save her? Is that it?"
That brings Dean up short, in bewilderment. Sam's rage is hot, specific, boiling out at Dean and he doesn't understand it. "What in hell are you talking about?"
Sam goes to slug him, and Dean's rage is honestly draining because he just doesn't get how they got to here from there and where Sam's head is. But Sam is serious, punching hard, and Dean's struggling to duck or block them all, till suddenly there's another hand holding back Sam's fist and Emma's cool voice is saying, "Guys? I need two free hands for the goddess, please? If either of you boys can spare the time."
Sheer embarrassment at being caught brawling is plenty for Dean, and even Sam looks cooler, a little abashed. All three of them coalesce at Harmonia's altar, gutting a fox, a squirrel and a pregnant raccoon, and Dean's feeling confused and queasy while Sam's rage festers around them. At least the atmosphere may get the goddess's attention.
They complete the phase, and the very second they've finished the chant, Sam says, "You forgot, didn't you? You actually forgot the message you left me. I mean, I know, Lucifer rising and midair airplane and whatever, Apocalypse. But, man, I will never forget what you said."
Neither will Dean. Not ever. What he doesn’t get is why Sam's so angry. "I meant it," he starts, and Sam's rage swells to fill the room. "You're family. I don't tell you to leave. I don't give up on you."
"But you did," says Sam, and there's a stalemated pause. "You told me so."
Then a little shuffle, and Emma's voice comes coolly across the dark room of sacrifice. "So, Dean said one thing and Sam heard something else? Seems like you two need some couples' counselling."
"Or," says a fourth voice, from the darkness, "You might consider that Lucifer's minions have dominion over many things, and that voicemail is hardly likely to be a challenge to them."
There's a little explosion of breath from Sam, and Dean briefly thinks there's something important going down in his little brother's brain, but the more immediate point is that someone just spoke to them and there should be no one here.
She's beautiful. Tall and coolly-blonde, with the kind of perfectly-falling white dress that only supermodels and goddesses can maintain. There are no winged horses or dinosaurs. The roadkill stink has vanished, and the altar is once more the unstained block they brought here.
"Well," she says, brow raised. "You got my attention. What do you want?"
"Uh," says Dean, "I- We- I don't want to kill my kid."
"Then let her kill you," says the woman, or let's be honest, the goddess. (Hi Harmonia. They raised her after all that.) "It brings balance. I like balance, and order. Clarity." She has a beautiful voice, but there's a chill to it that Dean dislikes. Plus, the message in her words isn't exactly warming.
"Why?" says Emma, and her voice is beautiful too. Clear, challenging, take no prisoners, keeping the goddess's eyes on her, in centre stage. "Why does a man have to die so that a woman can live? Or a woman for a man? Why can't fathers have daughters? I don't want to kill my dad."
She never called him that before. Dean struggles with a sudden lump in his throat. I don't want to kill my dad. That's actually almost sweet, at least by the standards of this family.
Harmonia scowls. "Both, then." Her hands lift.
"Or neither," comes a voice from the shadows behind her in turn. It makes Dean jump, even though this was the plan. He hadn't expected Sam to come through, not after all that just went on in that fool boy's overeducated excuse for a brain. But there's the noose around Harmonia's neck, soaked in vampire blood and used to off three innocent men on three different gallows (and wasn't that a bitch to track down on the shadow market?). It's holding her, the way its chaos should.
Sam speaks in her ear. "Now, you just gave me a gift whose value I think you know. But I'll kill you if I have to, because these guys? They're my family. And you don't give up on your family." He gives the noose a jerk, and Harmonia's lovely face contorts, her dress hitching and catching as her feet leave the ground. Balance and harmony are leaving this place. Sam hisses, "Free them. No more revenge. No more fucking dinosaurs. You want balance? How about you let a father bring up his daughter and butt out of our family life?"
Sam is pretty damned impressive when he's angry. Being angry on Dean's behalf, better still. It isn't totally surprising when the goddess listens (and arguably also not only because she's trapped and half dead). After a moment, she holds up a hand. Sam loosens the knot, a fraction, and Harmonia's newly roughened voice croaks. "Your point is made. Your request is under consideration. Perhaps an exception, this once-"
Which is… problematic. Dean is 100% not onside with the slaughtering of deities, on account of deities often coming with brother and sister deities who will seek vengeance and whatever other, bad for Winchesters, things they can come up with.
But he also took that T-Rex kind of personally, and-
“Kill her,” says Emma. It’s quite calm - a lot calmer than Dean feels - and it is very, very certain. Dean watches Sam’s face. He’d do it, it’s clear. But he’s not certain. Like Dean, he knows consequences.
Harmonia is breathing - surprisingly - harsh and loud in the quiet of their mock sanctuary. She doesn’t try to talk. That alone inclines Dean towards mercy and deal-making.
“Emma-“ he starts. Even his tone has Sam slackening that tight grip just a little. Sam knows what’s in Dean’s brain, like always.
Emma talks right over him. “You don’t know. You don’t know what they’re like.” She says it with calm. “You don’t know how many men they killed. For millennia. For her. How it makes them feel happy, and right, because she tells them it is. They’ll never stop, not while she’s protecting them, supporting them. Ordering them. Never. I-“ For the first time, she sounds uncertain. “I ate a guy. Part of a guy. It’s what they do to us. When we’re old enough. So we can never pretend that we’re clean again.” She pauses again. “You don’t know what it’s like to be one of the Amazons. To be born just to kill your father, and then-“
As Emma speaks, her voice is rising, tightening, more little-girl, less terrifying killer. Dean’s gut tightens right along with it. Somebody hurt his daughter. A lot. And now she wants it to not happen to other girls. He gets it, but-
But Sam catches Emma’s eye, nods. Even as Dean says, “No-“ the noose tightens and the goddess’s hands are scrabbling at her neck, her feet leaving the floor, her eyes bulging and tongue protruding. And then her head, thumping then rolling on the floor, leaving Sam unbloodied, propping up the goddess’s body, staring down into the seared stump of her neck. Chaos is a powerful thing, used on a goddess of harmony.
There’s a very long moment of silence. Sam’s breath sounds rough in the quiet. Dean can’t find a thing to say. This is bad.
Then Emma says, “Thank you, Sam.”
She really means it. Sam almost smiles, nods again, as he lets Harmonia’s corpse slump to the floor. “Yeah. Well, she pissed you off. And you’re family. So that’s not okay with me.”
One dead goddess equals one more major headache. Like, migraine-bad. Dean knows this. But he can also feel that his family just took a huge step towards actually being a family. Not just Sam and Emma, but whatever the voicemail thing was - and there’s a conversation looming about that, for sure - something that was wrong between him and Sam has been fixed. By the goddess they just offed, sure. But hell, it’s an improvement.
Which is why Dean’s voice isn’t quite verging on hysteria this time either, as he says, “Okay team! Motel! Research! We just pissed off the Olympian deities, and probably all the Amazons in the world too. Defenses! Protection spells! Allies! It’s research time!”
Not one word of which should be making him sound pleased. But it’s better. Something just got better. It’s been too damn long since Dean felt that. And if something also got dramatically worse? He's good at that part.
*