Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Piper

Piper gazed across the table at her girlfriend, Shel. She had streaks of red in her short, dark hair and her rhinestone nose stud shone among her freckles. Her green eyes twinkled as she laughed.

Piper took a sip of her apple juice. They were in a bar, taking a break from the responsibilities of a normal mortal life. She had her knife strapped to her hip, of course, but she was hoping that maybe today she wouldn't have to use it. After all, the war with Gaia had finished over a year ago and Apollo had just been reinstated to Olympus. There were much less monster attacks now.

Just then, the door to the bar opened and a group of five... things walked in. Their faces were horrible, flickering between human and something that looked like it came from Tartarus. Pipers smile died. Shel noticed and glanced behind her.

"What is it?" She asked quietly. 

"I'm not sure," Piper murmured. Her eyes followed the things to a table on the other side of the bar, beside two men who looked to be in their twenties. "I'm sure its nothing." The things sat down and ordered a drink. Piper looked back and Shel and smiled. 

"So we're good?" Shel asked.

"Yeah." Piper replied. They seemed harmless. 'I'll keep an eye on them just in case,' she thought to herself.

She continued her conversation with Shel, looking over at the five things every now and then. The bar got more and more crowded as the night went on, and they still seemed perfectly harmless. 

Three apple juices and a beer later, the five things stood up, perfectly in sync. Four of them turned towards the two men beside them and jumped at them, knocking them from their chairs and pinning them to the ground. The people at the tables around them leapt up and backed away, shouting for the bouncers. 

‘Shit’ Piper thought. She leapt from her seat and shouldered her way through the crowd, whipping out her dagger as she went. 

Thing number five, who seemed to be the leader of the group, pulled out a knife and glared down at the two men. They were struggling against the other four things pinning them down, trying to get out of their grip, but failing miserably. Everyone else in the bar was panicking, running every which way trying to get out, but all the doors seemed to be locked. The barmen and bouncers were shouting at people to stay calm, trying to be heard over the screaming of the customers.

Piper jostled through the crowd, standing on more than a few people's feet trying to reach the two men. She was almost there, she just hoped that she would get there fast enough. 

The fifth thing with the knife smiled as he stalked over to the taller of the two men and kneeled down beside him.

"I've waited a long time for this, Sam Winchester," it hissed, speaking in Greek. It raised the knife over the mans head just as Piper burst through the crowd and drove her knife into it's back. 

The thing screamed and Piper flinched. It was a horrible sound, it really did come straight from hell. Then something that Piper didn't really know what to make of happened. The gold dust that monsters usually turn into when they're killed seemed to appear, but instead of the monster being gone, it seemed to just... fade into a human.

She was pulled out of her thoughts by the sounds of a scuffle on the floor. She looked down and saw that the two men had taken advantage of the things confusion and managed to escape their hold. One of the things then turned to attack Piper, swiping at her with a knife it had pulled out of nowhere. She dodged to the side and then drove her knife into its stomach. She felt another one come up behind her and whirled around to slit its throat. The men were holding off the other two but didn't seem to be able to kill them. Piper made quick work of them.

She stepped back, breathing heavily, and looked warily at the two men in front of her. They stared back at her in shock, along with the rest of the bar. All the screaming had stopped, and no one was moving.  

"Who are you?" She asked. She hated the feeling of every pair of eyes in the building being trained on her, but she was used to it by now.

The shorter guy out of the two stepped forward. "Dean Winchester." He said slowly. "This is my brother Sam." He gestured at the guy beside him. "Now who are you?"

"Why did those things want to kill you?" Piper asked, ignoring Dean's question. 

"How did you know how to kill them?" Dean countered.

"I stabbed them with a knife," Piper said in the best 'duh' voice she could manage. "It wasn't that hard."

A voice from behind her spoke softly. "Yeah, uh... I think there are murderers here..." She turned to see a young woman holding a phone to her ear, her hand shaking. 'Fuck."   The last thing she needed was to be in trouble with the police, again. She turned towards the crowd, ignoring the questions from Dean and Sam.

"Mortals!" She said, projecting her charmspeak out across the bar. "You will leave this bar and return to your homes. Come tomorrow morning, you will forget that any of this ever happened." She winced, not exactly comfortable with wiping the memories of a pub full of mortals, but it was better than having them live the rest of their lives thinking they had witnessed a murder.

All their eyes glazed over and they quickly and silently left the bar, leaving just her, Sam, Dean and Shel. Piper didn't know when the doors were unlocked, but she was glad they were. They didn't need anything else to go wrong tonight.

Shel walked over to the other three as the bar emptied. She had tried to follow Piper as soon as the fight started, but had been held back by the crowd.

"You okay?" She murmured. Piper nodded, half smiling.

"Are you?" She asked. Shel gave her the same response.

Piper turned back to Sam and Dean who were kneeling down beside the five bodies, checking for their pulses. They glanced over at each other and then up at Piper. 

"Well?" She asked. "Are they okay?"

"Uhh... surprisingly, yes," Sam answered. "It's like... your knife killed the demon, but passed straight through the person." He shook his head. "I don't understand it."

Piper worried her lip between her teeth. 'Demon?' She thought back to how the bodies seemed fine after she stabbed them, even though it had looked like they had turned to dust. Maybe that had something to do with it. She glanced around and then looked back at Sam. She didn't know why, but she felt like she could trust him. And even if she couldn't, she knew she'd win in a fight if that's what it came to.

"We need to talk." She looked at him expectantly.

"Uh, okay." Sam said. He stood up and looked over at Dean. "Let's bring them to Bobby's."

Dean raised his eyebrows. "Seriously? We don't even know their names, and did you see what she just did?" He said, looking at Sam like he was going mad.

"Excuse me, you'd be dead meat if I wasn't here." Piper cut in. "Besides, don't you wanna know how I killed them?" She said, gesturing at the demons. She decided to ignore the fact that she wasn't exactly sure what had happened herself. 

"Names first," Dean demanded. "And an explanation," he added. 

Piper rolled her eyes and sighed. "I'm Piper, and this is my girlfriend, Shel." She gestured to the girl beside her and glared at Sam and Dean as if daring them to question her.

Dean raised his eyebrows. "You two are together?"

Piper drew her shoulders back defensively and opened her mouth to speak but Sam cut in. "That's great!" he said. "And it's definitely not our problem right now," he continued with a glance at Dean. "Now, let's bring them to Bobby's."

They stared at each other for a minute, having a silent argument.

"Fine," Dean sighed. "but I pick the music."

Chapter Text

Piper

“Alright,” Sam said. “Let’s go.” He and Dean went to walk out of the pub, presumably to their car. 

“Um, I kinda need a minute,” Piper said. She was not going gods knows where with two random guys and no idea what she was doing. She may not rely on plans quite as much as Annabeth, but she wasn’t dumb.

“What do you mean you ‘need a minute’?” Dean narrowed his eyes at her. “A minute to do what?”

“To use the ladies room,” she replied, narrowing her eyes right back at him. He raised his hands in defeat, still wary of her. Which, fair enough. She’d be a bit concerned if they mindlessly trusted her straight away.

She turned on her heel and went to the bathrooms, Shel stepping up beside her. 

“What are you doing?” Shel whispered. “Do you trust them?”

Piper glanced over at her. “Absolutely not. I’m IM’ing Annabeth. She’ll probably know something.” Shel nodded in response. 

They reached the bathrooms and Piper stood before a sink near the window. Reaching forward to turn on the tap, she dug her hand into her pocket and pulled out a drachma. “Oh Iris, Goddess of the rainbow, accept my offering,” she muttered. “Show me Annabeth Chase, New Rome University.” She tossed the coin through the mist and watched as her friend appeared.

“Hey Piper, Shel.” Annabeth said. Her smile was infectious.

“Hi Annabeth.” Piper replied.

Annabeth frowned, noticing Piper’s expression. “What’s up?”

“You wouldn’t know anything about demons, would you?” Piper asked hesitantly.

“Demons?” Annabeth’s frown deepened. “Like… hell, demons?”

Piper shrugged. “Haven’t a clue.”

“Right… ‘What happened? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, but I met these two guys, Sam and Dean, I think?” She glanced over at Shel.

“Sam and Dean Winchester,” Shel supplied, running a hand through her hair.

“Winchester?” Annabeth smiled again. “Oh my gods. There’s a file on them in the big house somewhere.” She glanced in that direction, wanting to check right then and there. “It only really mentions John, though.” She continued. 

“Okay- wait. You’ve heard of them?” Piper asked. 

Annabeth glanced back distractedly, humming in confirmation. “Lemme check.” She raised her hand to swipe through the mist.

“No, wait!” Piper said hurriedly. “I’m going with them to some guy called Bobby’s house. It would be really helpful if you were there, you actually know what’s going on.”

Annabeth lowered her hand. “Right, sorry. Who’s Bobby?”

“I don’t know.”

Annabeth raised her eyebrows. “You’re  letting two strangers bring you to another stranger's house, on your own?”

Piper hesitated before replying. “It does sound kinda dumb when you put it like that, but that’s why I called you!”

Annabeth let out a sigh before replying. “Okay, let me check the file, and then I’ll get Guido to bring me to meet you, okay?”

“You don’t know where the house is, how are you gonna get there?” Piper asked.

“I’ll figure something out,” Annabeth said, waving her off. 

“Okay,” she replied, sighing. “I’ll see you soon.”

“Don’t kill anyone without me,” Annabeth said, and waved her hand through the mist.

Piper dragged a hand down her face and turned to Shel. “One night. Just one! That’s all I ask.”

Shel laughed and reached a hand up to rest on Piper's cheek. Piper leaned into the touch, her frustration dimming. “One of these days,” Shel murmured.

〜〜〜

Dean and Sam were leaning against the wall, whispering to each other in hushed tones, when Piper and Shel walked out. Piper clapped her hands together as they walked over, finding just a little bit of joy in the way the two grown men jumped.

Dean glared at her, and she raised an eyebrow. Sam stepped forward.“Are you ready?” He asked, breaking off the staring contest between Piper and Dean. 

Whenever you are,” Piper replied.

“We’ve been ready for the last ten minutes,” Dean muttered, pushing off the wall.

“Well who’s waiting on who now?” Piper said with a grin, following Sam to the door.

He narrowed his eyes at her, again . Clearly, that was his favorite expression. 

They reached the car, Sam turning around to Dean for the keys. It was a nice car, Piper supposed. Two years ago, she probably would’ve stolen it.

“This is Baby,” Dean said. “If you hurt her, I will kill you. That is not a joke.”

Piper turned her head to see if he was serious. The look on his face said he was. Great. “You’re in love with your car?” Piper asked, trying to hide a smile. That earned her another glare. Yay. 

She reached out and opened the car door - maybe with a bit more force than strictly necessary. She slid in, Shel stepping in behind her.

“So,” Piper said, breaking the silence. “Where does this ‘Bobby’ guy live?”

“None of your business,” Dean replied shortly, turning the radio on.

“Okay…” Piper muttered. “Someone’s angry.”

Shel covered her mouth with her hand to hide her laugh. Piper leaned her head back against the headrest, closing her eyes. She was glad Shel was here, it was about the only thing keeping her sane. All she wanted was one night off, but instead she got dragged into another gods damn pantheon.

She felt a hand on her arm and looked across the seat to see Shel looking back at her, concern in her eyes. 

“You okay?” She asked quietly. Piper nodded in response, smiling softly. Shel bit her lip, not believing Piper but not wanting to push her, especially now.

“Alright, we’re here,” Dean said gruffly. 

“Great!” Piper said, smiling reassuringly at Shel as she stepped out of the Impala. 

She cast her eyes around the yard they were parked in. She’d never seen so many cars in one place before. Her thoughts went immediately to Leo. He would have a field day fixing them all up. She then looked past all the cars, to the ivy covered house towering over them.

She and Shel followed the brothers through the maze of cars to the door. Sam pushed it open and stepped inside.

“Bobby?” Sam called into the house.

“What?” A voice yelled back. 

Dean moved past Sam and walked into the house. “We brought guests,” he called. “Figured you might want to meet them.”

Piper heard a few bangs from above them before loud footsteps tramped down the stairs. A gruff, unpleasant looking man came into view. He wore a cap and a plaid jacket, and he glared at Piper and Shel before turning to Sam and Dean.

“What have you two idjits gotten yourselves into now?” He asked, as he walked to the kitchen, the brothers barely two steps behind him.

Piper and Shel followed behind until they reached a dimly lit room, shelves of books on every wall. A small desk was in the middle of the room, also covered in books. A small bed was shoved into one corner and a rocking chair sat under a lamp at the back.

Bobby sat in the chair behind the desk, Sam and Dean took the bed, and Piper and Shel stood awkwardly against the wall just inside the door.

“So tell me,” Bobby began, leaning toward the brothers and clasping his hands together. “Where’d ye pull these two out of?” He nodded at Piper and Shel.

Sam sat forward and began to tell Bobby exactly what had happened. He had a freakishly good memory. Piper was quite amazed. 

He went through everything, from sitting down for a beer, being tackled by five guys sitting beside them, getting their asses saved by Piper, and eventually deciding to bring everyone here. Dean cut in every now and then, mostly stating how he absolutely did not get his ass saved, he would have managed perfectly fine. Piper laughed at that.

Bobby listened to the story with a frown. Piper wondered if his face was able to do anything else. Once Sam had finished, everyone sat silently, waiting to see what the resident wise old man had to say about their situation.

Finally, he turned to Piper. “You a hunter?” He asked.

“Uh… yes?” Piper replied hesitantly. Annabeth needed to hurry up. Piper didn’t have a clue what she was doing.

“Hm.” Bobby stared at her intently. She felt like she was getting her soul read, and she didn’t like it one bit.

“Okay, listen,” Piper said. “I told one of my friends everything that happened, she’s on her way here, so can we maybe keep the interrogational looks at a minimum until she gets here?”

“You have a friend coming?” Sam asked.

“Yup,” Piper replied, popping the ‘p’.

“What?” Dean stood up angrily. “We barely even know who you are, now you’re calling in back-up?!”

“Hey, listen!” Piper put her hands up in surrender. “She knows a lot more about this kind of stuff than I do, okay? She can explain everything better too.”

Dean clenched his fists, about to say something else, but Sam put a hand on his arm and pulled him back down to sitting. They glared at each other, having a silent argument, but ultimately Sam won. That seemed to be the usual outcome of their silent arguments.

“When is your friend coming?” Bobby asked accusingly, glaring at Piper. Maybe that really was the only thing these people knew how to do. 

“Uh…” Piper trailed off, not knowing how to answer. Fortunately, she didn’t have to, as the next thing she knew, glass was flying everywhere, and the window was smashed to pieces by a body flying through it.

Chapter Text

Piper

The room descended into chaos. No one knew what had just happened. Piper rushed to the middle of the room where the body had landed, recognising the blond ponytail and the bright orange t-shirt she knew so well. She knelt down beside her friend, looking between her and the window in a panic.

“Annabeth?” She asked frantically. “What happened?” Annabeth pushed up onto her elbow, trying to avoid the broken glass covering the floor.

However, Piper didn’t get to hear her answer, because she suddenly got a face full of salt and a lovely little shower of a liquid she hoped was water.

“Gah!” She yelled, falling backward, trying to get the salt out of her mouth and eyes. She vaguely noticed Annabeth jumping backward, keeping low, her dagger held out in front of her.

Shel was still in the corner of the room, crouched down with an arm in front of her head. Bobby was standing over Piper and Annabeth, a tub of salt in one hand and a bottle of holy water in the other. Dean and Sam were standing shoulder to shoulder, Dean with a gun trained on Annabeth, Sam aiming his at the window. 

Everyone was breathing heavily, and the room was still and silent as everyone tried to figure out what the hell had just happened.

Sam was the first to lower his weapon, staring in shock at the girl who had just launched through the window. “Annabeth?!” he asked incredulously. Piper glanced at him in confusion. How would he know Annabeth? That made no sense.

“Sam!” Annabeth replied, breaking into a smile. She kept her dagger up in front of her, but her stance relaxed almost fully.

Dean looked between the two of them, not even trying to hide his suspicion. “You know her?” He demanded, looking at Sam, still not lowering his gun.

“Yeah, she was a good friend of Jess for a while, about two years ago.” Sam replied. “We all used to study together.”

Piper raised her eyebrows at that. Who was Jess? And about two years ago… that would have been a bit before she, Jason and Leo went to camp. Around the time of the War against Kronos for Annabeth. She looked at her friend questioningly.

“You used to study together?” Dean said disbelievingly. “She’s like - twenty years old!”

“Please stop talking about me like I’m not here.” Annabeth was glaring at Dean, her hand tightening around her dagger.

Dean shrank back slightly, shocked at the intensity of the glare. Annabeth really can be terrifying when she wants to be.

“Okay,” Bobby cut in exasperatedly. “Why don’t we all sit down and get to know each other, nice and peaceful.” He stomped over to the kitchen, getting a beer before sitting down at the table. He looked back at everyone in the other room. “Well? “I don’t got all day. Let’s go!” He barked.

Annabeth looked at Sam and raised her eyebrows in question. He sighed and nodded, walking over to the table alongside Dean.

Piper glanced at Annabeth, saw her following Sam and Dean, and warily stepped in behind her. Shel pushed off the wall and bumped Piper’s shoulder.

“How are you doing?” Piper asked. She felt terrible about dragging Shel into this. When they first started dating, Piper made a promise to herself that Shel would never have to really see this side of the world, even if she knew about it, but now she was smack in the middle of it.

“I’m good,” She replied quietly, but her voice was trembling. “A bit… y’know. Confused. About… everything.”

Piper slung an arm over Shel’s shoulders, pulling her in tight to her side. “Me too, to be honest,” she murmured, pressing a kiss to her girlfriend’s temple.

They reached the table and sat down side by side, right across from Sam and Dean. Annabeth was at the head of the table beside Shel, and Bobby was across from her, at the other head. Annabeth put her knife down in front of her, resting her hand on the table beside it. The three men glanced from the knife to the owner, their eyes wary. Piper sighed internally. As helpful as Annabeth was, she was starting to see the flaws in bringing her in to an already hostile environment.

Oh well. At least now she knew there was no chance of being overpowered, no matter what Bobby might have added to the Winchesters.

“So,” Dean started, turning his glare from Piper to Annabeth. “How do you know Sammy?”

“As you would know if you were listening like, thirty seconds ago, we met through Jess.” She glared right back at him, neither of them faltering.

“Oh for god’s sake,” Sam muttered. “Can you two please stop?” He looked from Dean to Annabeth, pleading for one of them to look away. 

“I will if he does,” Annabeth replied.

“Funny,” Dean said. “I was about to say the same thing.”

Annabeth smiled sarcastically at him. Piper sighed and Sam rolled his eyes.

“Annabeth,” Piper pleaded. “For the love of Zeus, just stop.”

Annabeth blinked and glanced over at Piper apologetically. “Right. Sorry,” She said. Dean huffed and looked away, wanting to believe he won but knowing better.

“So,” Bobby leaned forward. “Now that you two have got whatever that was out of the way, we can get to the part where you-” He nodded at Annabeth. “-tell us where the hell you came from.” 

Annabeth smiled. “Funny story actually. I flew in on Guido – my horse – but when he was about ten metres out, it was like he was stopped in the air. So he bucked me off and flew away, and I flew through your window.” She gestured behind her to the mess of glass on the floor of the other room. “Sorry about that,” she added as an afterthought.

Dean ran a hand through his hair as Sam said the only thing one could say after that. “You flew in on a horse and got thrown ten metres through a window? Are you okay?” 

“Oh, yeah, I’m fine,” Annabeth replied. “And he’s a Pegasus, not a horse. My bad.” Her hand went to her necklace as she fingered the coral pendant she got from Percy.

“Right…” Sam said slowly.

“Okay, whatever,” Dean cut in. “You owe us an explanation.” He was looking at Piper now.

“Um…” Piper said cleverly. She really had a way with words. Honestly though, she had no idea what to say, or where to start. She saw something inhuman, so she stabbed it with a knife. That didn’t really need an explanation. She glanced at Annabeth, silently begging her for help.

“First of all, what were those things?” Annabeth asked.

Dean barely spared her a glance, about to wave her off to continue interrogating Piper, but Sam cut in.

“They were demons,” he said.

Annabeth stared at him for a few seconds, then took a deep breath. “Demons. From the belief of Christianity?” Her hands were clasped in front of her.

Sam nodded. “I know this is hard to believe, but everything you’ve heard about, God, the Angels, they’re all real.” His brow was creased, like he didn’t think Annabeth would believe him. “You might think I sound crazy, but-”

“Oh, no, I have no problem believing all this,” Annabeth cut in, stopping Sam in his tracks.

“You… don’t?” Sam asked, confused.

“Of course not. I am a bit annoyed though, I have to say.”

Dean laughed at that. “Aren’t we all.”

“So you’ve heard of all this before?” Bobby asked. 

“Kind of,” Annabeth replied. “More so the Greek stuff.”

“‘The Greek stuff’,” Dean repeated. Annabeth nodded. “Right…”

“Okay, then that brings us back to the original question. How did you kill them?” Sam asked. “What kind of knife did you have?”

Piper pulled out Katoptris and laid it on the table. “Ta-da,” she said.

Sam reached across the table to pick it up. “May I?” He asked. Piper raised her eyebrows. He certainly had manners – a lot more than his brother, anyway. She nodded in response to his outstretched hand.

Sam picked it up and angled it towards the light, trying to see if there was anything special about it. He looked at the blade for a few seconds before sucking in a breath. He dropped the knife on the table with a clatter. His face had gone white.

“Sammy?” Dean grabbed his shoulder, searching his face to see what was wrong. Sam looked at him, his breath shaking. Dean whipped his head around to glare at Piper. “What the hell was that?” He turned around again and picked up the knife before she could answer.

“Don’t!” Sam pulled the knife out of his grip and slid it along the table, back to Piper. She gingerly picked it up and slid it back into its sheath. It hadn't shown her anything that bad in a long time, so she had half forgotten what it was like.

“Sorry,” she said. 

“What did you see?” Annabeth was leaning forward, her eyes full of curiosity.

“None of your damn business!” Dean snapped.

“Dean, it's okay,” Sam said. His face was still pale, but his breathing was back under control. He looked at Annabeth. “Does that show the truth?” Clearly he didn’t trust Piper enough to ask her.

Annabeth nodded. “Kind of.” Sam furrowed his brow in confusion. “It shows parts,” she elaborated. “It’s supposed to scare you, make you fear the future. Whatever you saw will happen, but it won’t be as bad as it seems.” 

Sam nodded hesitantly, still confused. “So say I saw someone do something that may or may not cause the apocalypse…”

Annabeth raised her eyebrows. “Um, we’ve never exactly seen that before.” She narrowed her eyes, trying to figure out what Sam meant. “I mean, sometimes the apocalypse has to start and there’s nothing anyone can do about it, so…”

“What?” Dean stared at her incredulously. “That’s bullshit.” 

“I don’t know, Dean,” Sam said. “We’ve heard that how many times by now? Maybe it’s true.” 

“Seriously? So, what? You’re just gonna invite the devil in, let him do whatever he wants with you?”

“No, of course not.” Sam sighed. “I don’t know, Dean.”

“Okay, wait. Back up,” Annabeth cut in. “What?” The brothers looked over at her in surprise, like they forgot she was there. 

Bobby sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. “Why don’t we pick somewhere to start and go from there, instead of all yapping over each other like a bunch of toddlers?” He gestured towards Sam. “Tell us what you saw.”

Sam swallowed and glanced at Dean before starting to talk. “Right. Okay.” He glanced at Dean again.

“Just spit it out, Sammy.”

“I said yes to Lucifer,” he said, now refusing to look at Dean.

“What?” Dean leaned back in his chair. “Why?”

Sam shrugged. “No idea.” 

Everyone was silent as they processed the information. Piper glanced at Shel, then to Annabeth. Her brow was creased, and her eyes were narrowed at Sam. Piper could almost see the cogs turning in her head.

“Wait, so you saying yes to Lucifer – the Devil – will start the Christian apocalypse?” Sam nodded. “How? What are you saying yes to?”

“Being his vessel,” Sam replied quietly.

Annabeth raised her eyebrows. “His vessel.” She paused, thinking over her next words. “So he needs a vessel to fight?” Sam nodded again. 

“Fight who?” Piper cut in. 

Dean clenched his jaw. “Michael,” he replied.

“Who?” Piper asked.

“The Archangel,” Annabeth said slowly. “His brother.” She looked at Dean, the realisation dawning on her face. The vessels have to be brothers too.”

An eerie silence settled over the room. Shel slipped her trembling hand into Piper’s under the table. Piper gave her a gentle squeeze, trying to silently reassure her, kicking herself for bringing Shel along.

“How do you know about all this?” Sam asked quietly, directing his gaze towards Annabeth. 

She shrugged, her eyes dark. “Evil ancient beings need vessels to come and take over the world.” She picked up her knife and turned it in her hand, staring intently at the blade. “That’s the way it goes.” Her eyes were unfocused, the muscles in her jaw tensed.

Dean’s constant glare softened slightly. “You’ve had experience?” His voice was gruff.

“You could say that…” Annabeth's voice trailed off, before she cleared her throat and tightened her hand on her knife. Her eyes met Sam’s. “John and Mary are your parents. Correct?”

Sam blinked. “Uh, yeah. Why?”

“You know them?” Dean asked.

“It explains why the two of you were chosen as the vessels.” She stood up abruptly. “Where’s your bathroom?” She asked Bobby.

“Excuse me?” His hand drifted towards his gun. Sam reached a hand out to stop him and nodded towards the hallway.

“Second door on the right.”

“Thanks.”

Annabeth

She stood in front of the mirror, hands clenched on the sink. She turned on the cold tap, letting it wash over her hands before splashing it on her face. ‘Get over yourself,’ she thought forcefully, staring at herself in the mirror. Over two years ago - two years since she lost one of her best friends.

Really though, it was long before that. She lost Luke the day he let Kronos in. It was solidified when he poisoned Thalia’s tree. But that day on Olympus, when Percy gave Luke the knife…

She shuddered, remembering what he said, the look in his eyes. She reached down and splashed her face again. Taking a deep breath, she pushed herself off the sink and stood up straight. She couldn’t let this happen to Sam. The study sessions with him and Jess had been the only semblance of normalcy over the course of the war.

Steeling herself, she opened the door and walked back out to the kitchen, sitting back down beside Shel. Dean and Bobby both raised an eyebrow, looking for an explanation.
“So,” she started, pretending she couldn’t see them. “Tell me about these demons.”