Title: It's a Slow Fade

Rating: PG-13

Word Count: 3894

Beta: monicawoe

Disclaimer: I am sad to say that these characters are not mine. I hope you enjoy regardless

Warning: Demons, the Boy King, and all that's associated with.

Summary: Dean, as a demon, and Sam, as the Boy King and mouthpiece of the Lord of Demons, are no longer the same. But there are some things they won't do, and some things they'll do to ensure that the destruction of the world will never happen. Not that they'll have trouble taking over the world- they just don't want to destroy it. And the best way to remember humanity is to have a human they care about with them.

Notes: Written for jalu2 as part of the AntiChristmas Fic Exchange over at sammessiah. The prompt was Demon blood turns Sam into a demon and Hell turns Dean into a demon. They attempt to keep each other safe and themself sane. It's not always that easy, especially now their morals are entirely skewed. This was a fun one, and I hope you enjoy it.

There was no one left alive who had known the old world. The last person born before the Boy King had taken over had died yesterday, at the age of one hundred and two. She had been barely three weeks old when it had happened, and she had never remembered it of course, but she had experienced it.

The Boy King came to her funeral. Most of the people there had never seen the Boy King in person, though everyone recognized him. He was quiet, and never said a word, but when the funeral was done he gently placed a small flower on the grave and there was a small flash of light.

He turned and left without a word.

And now, there were no humans left who had known the old world.

The stories remained, of course, but few people believed them anymore. Most thought they were just that- stories. Nice ones, but pure fantasy.

Yet, the stories persisted. Some told of life before the Boy King had appeared. Some were of the Boy King himself, or the demon that was clearly his most trusted advisor.

And some were about the people who had known about the supernatural before the world changed.

There were a lot of stories about those men and women. Hunters, they had called themselves, hunters of ghosts and monsters- and demons.

Most of the stories said that they had all been killed when the Boy King rose to power. Others said that the King had taken the time to save a few- a few who he promptly dumped into Hell until they were demons, after which he brought them back up to serve him. And there were a few stories that said there was still one hunter left alive. A hunter kept alive and human by the Boy King. The identity of that hunter was different in every story. Some said that it was a friend, or a girl friend. Others said that it was the Boy King's brother he was keeping alive. The hunter's name might be Ellen, or Jo, or Dean, or Rufus, or one of a half dozen others. It was said that, even as evil as the Boy King was, he still loved some people, and he was unwilling to lose them. That was why a number of demons were said to have once been his own human friends.

Those last rumors were true. There was a hunter still alive and human. That hunter was kept alive and human by the Boy King. The Boy King did care about this hunter, more than almost anyone would believe.

But none of the rumors had ever gotten his name or his relationship with the Boy King right.

And today, the Boy King and his most trusted advisor were entering his rooms.

The hunter was kept in a very luxurious set of rooms in the palace, safe from anyone who might want to hurt him. As he turned from his place at the window, the hunter sighed. "Sam, Dean," he said quietly.

Sam Winchester, the Boy King, smiled as his brother, the demon Dean Winchester, smirked.

"Hi, Bobby," Dean said.

One hundred and three years earlier

Sam Winchester looked around the warehouse he had chosen for his meeting with Ruby. "What took so long?" he asked Ruby, the demon who thought she was helping him, as she appeared.

"Oh, forgive me, I was on the other side of the country, looking up a ritual that might let you pull a soul out of Hell, so if we lose that lead to get Dean out, it's on you."

Sam smirked. "Thanks for that," he said. "But, turns out, I don't need it."

She faltered. "What?" she asked.

"I'm back, Ruby," Dean Winchester said, stepping around the crates and stopping next to Sam.

Sam smirked. "I got him out without your help."

"But he had mine," Dean added. He stared at Ruby for a moment before blinking. When he opened his eyes, they were white.

Sam smirked as Ruby's own eyes widened.

"Turns out, Ruby, that I'm not the only one in the family who's special," Sam said.

"How- I don't- It takes millennia to gain enough power to have white eyes!" Ruby said.

Dean shrugged. "Unless you kill a demon who's already white-eyed. Alastair is gone," Dean said. "He pissed me off one too many times and I killed him."

"You killed him?"

Sam nodded. "He learned quickly, after that. He reached out to me in a dream."

"But that's impossible. If he was still in Hell..."

"Blood connection, Ruby," Dean said, sounding bored. "We're brothers, same mother and father. It was child's play to enter his dreams, even from Hell."

"That's where you've been these past few weeks," Ruby said.

"Did you think thought I was on another bender?" Sam asked as he glanced at his brother. "Well... I was, in a way."

"What do you mean?" she asked.

Sam just smirked at her. "I found a spell to repair Dean's body, and summoned him. Then he..."

"...I finished what Azazel started, and you pushed along," Dean finished.

Sam blinked. When he opened his eyes, the world was different, tinted gold and everything shone with power. Ruby, weaker than Dean, but stronger than the humans on the roads outside, gasped and took a step back.

Then she dropped to her knees. "My king," she said, sounding awed.

Sam moved in front of her, Dean following a step behind. "What did you call me?"

"You are my king," she said as she raised her head, her black eyes staring at him. "Lord of demons, the Boy King of Hell. I didn't know, my lord, that you were truly the one. I hoped, but you..."

"I see," Sam said. "And you were training me for this?"

Ruby nodded. Sam narrowed his eyes, but she was telling the truth. "I am one of the demons who has been searching for the Boy King for centuries. We've found potential candidates before, but none have taken up the mantle None of them had the power."

Sam glanced at Dean, who nodded. Sam stepped back, and Dean reached out and forced Ruby to look at him. "If you're trying to trick us..." Dean warned.

Ruby shook her head hard. "No, I would never..."

"You have in the past," Dean said. "You told Sam you could help him keep me out of Hell."

"That was before he was the Boy King," she said, voice shaking. "But now..." she looked over at Sam again, awe and respect clear in her voice. "Now, I can't lie to him. He's my king."

Dean nodded. He glanced back at Sam who also nodded.

Sam stepped forward and pulled her up. "Now... how do deal with you?" he mused. "I know you can't lie to me anymore- but I need to figure out what to do with you."

Ruby watched him with wide eyes, like a mouse watching a cat.

He nodded to himself. "Come back in a week. Tell no one who I am," he ordered. She vanished immediately, and both brothers relaxed. Sam blinked away his other vision and the golden eyes that came with it, while Dean leaned against a nearby crate.

"Did that work?" Dean asked.

"Well, we didn't kill her," Sam replied. "And she was telling the truth. She just wants to help me."

"Her 'Boy King'" Dean added.

Sam shrugged. "It's a title," he said. "And, if I'm some sort of king, maybe I can get the demons under control."

Dean snickered. "That'll be fun to watch."

"And we'll still be saving people, like Dad would have wanted."

Dean frowned. "I doubt Dad would have wanted this," he gesture up at his eyes, which were still white.

Sam sighed. "Yeah, true. But if we can be demons, and still do good..."

"Let's see what mayhem we can create," Dean said.

Laughing and jostling each other, the brothers left the warehouse and headed for their motel room. They had plans to make.

Bobby Singer frowned, eyeing the sky as he arrived in Yankton. It was clear right now, but the weather reports had been bizarre. Thunder and lightning out of cloudless sky, a cold front that wouldn't let up, frogs everywhere, and an increase in random violence told him that it was demons. Either a lot of them, or one seriously powerful one.

There wasn't enough mayhem for it to be a group of demons, so it had to be the latter.

That scared Bobby, and he wasn't afraid to admit it. He didn't think it was Lilith- that demon didn't create omens- but the last time a demon strong enough to set off these omens like these on their own was running around, John Winchester had died, Sam Winchester had died, dozens of hunters had died, and in the end, it had taken the Colt to destroy it.

Still, he was a hunter, and he would find out what had happened.

He found a motel not too far from where the worst of it seemed to be, and got a room.

Bobby wasn't sure where the demon was, but he was going to find it, and then he was going to do what hunters do best- kill it.

Sam leaned back against the booth as they waited for the wings. Dean was drinking from his beer. "I missed this," Dean admitted.

"Beer?"

"Sitting in a dive bar, just relaxing, with beer, and wings on the way. You and me, no plans, no hunts, and maybe some pool later on."

Sam smiled. "It's nice," he admitted. "I've been on the go since... I don't know when."

"Harmony," Dean said quietly. "Or Cold Oak. Maybe even all the way back to Palo Alto"

Sam nodded. "Yeah," he said quietly.

Dean sighed. "It worked out, Sammy," he pointed out. "You're the strongest being on Earth, and I'm..."

"The one being I'd trust more than anything," Sam finished.

Dean smirked at him. "Because you know me."

"Because you sacrificed your soul- your humanity- for me," Sam corrected. "And because I know you'd do it again."

Dean didn't even pretend to deny it.

The brothers sat at the table in silence for a while, watching the humans around them. Finally, Dean smirked and jerked his head toward the pool tables. "Want to play a game or two?" he asked.

Sam grinned. "Bring it."

Bobby tracked down the epicenter of the omens- a five block area near the seedier side of town. There were a large number of warehouse nearby, along with a few bars, another seedy motel, and, quite luckily, no homes.

He'd start with the warehouses. It wasn't likely that the demon would be in the motel, and the bars had too many witnesses, even if he could figure which ones were the demons.

Ruby paused in the shadows outside the local motel. She eyed one particular room as she waited.

She could feel the power in that room. She still couldn't believe it. After all this time, the Boy King had finally risen! And he had been a hunter, too.

It was almost enough to make her wonder what he was going to do.

She shook her head. She'd find out eventually. It had been a week, and she needed to return to find out if her liege had any other orders for her.

She stepped out of the shadows and knocked on the door.

Dean was the one who opened the door. He eyed her for a moment before letting her in.

She glanced around the room, but it didn't look like they had set up something to torture her with, so maybe they weren't angry.

"So," Sam said from where he sat at the small table. "You said I was the Boy King. What does that mean?"

Ruby nodded. So they were getting right down to the brass tacks, then.

"The Boy King- you have to understand, Sam, I never really, truly believed the stories. But the Boy King, he's our ruler, Lucifer's voice among us."

Sam jerked at that. "What does that mean?" he asked.

"You command us- all demons. You are far more powerful than we are. You speak for Lucifer, and he speaks through you."

"What?" Dean snapped out. "Are you saying my brother is possessed by Lucifer?"

Ruby shook her head. "No, no," she said. "Lucifer is out creator, our god, but he is not..." she paused. "Lucifer created the first demons- Lilith, then Cain, then others. He was imprisoned for his deed, but in the thousands of years since, he has escaped. He cannot come before us, because we are demons and despite everything, he is still an archangel. So he told Lilith and his first children about the Boy King, and how one day he would come and be Lucifer's mouthpiece. He would bring Lucifer back to us, or as close as we could come to having our creator back with us."

Sam sighed. "That does explain a few things," he said.

Dean glanced sharply at his brother. "Sammy?" he asked.

Sam smiled slightly. "I've just been noticing feelings I couldn't explain. If I'm connected to the creator of demons, it makes sense."

Dean scowled. "I'm not sure..."

"It will be fine, Dean," Sam said. There was a strange note in his voice. "Have faith."

Ruby couldn't help but react to the tone. She barely kept herself from dropping to her knees.

Dean, she could see, was similarly affected. The older Winchester nodded shortly, swallowing hard.

It was Lucifer, speaking through his chosen vessel.

Sam's eyes went golden as he watched the two demons in the room. "I will be here for my children, now," he said.

After a moment, he shook his head and though his eyes stayed gold, it was clearly just Sam. He smiled at them. "We have plans to make," he said. "My other half has told me what we need to do."

Dean took a deep breath. "What's that, Sammy?"

"Take over the world."

"What? Sammy, we can't take over the world!"

Sam sighed and shook his head. "Yes, we can, Dean," he said.

"Ok, let me rephrase- we shouldn't take over the world!"

"Why not?"

Ruby didn't move as the Boy King and a demon vastly more powerful than her began arguing. She didn't dare get between them, not when they were clearly both passionate about their opinions.

In the end, Dean won, but only barely. Ruby very carefully didn't grin, because she knew that soon, Dean wouldn't fight their creator's plans.

Dean deliberately ignored the man who was following him, practically daring the man to attack. He needed to hurt something, and this excuse for humanity would do nicely. Plus, they needed him for the ritual.

Heading for the darkest spot, Dean continued to meander down the street, where the man would feel confident enough to attack him. He was probably thinking Dean was an easy target for a quick mugging.

Almost as soon as Dean was in the shadows, the man rushed him. Dean grinned as he flicked his hand and the man went flying into a wall.

Dean laughed shortly, before turning to face the man. He let the man clamber to his feet, then forced him against the wall again. This time, he held him there.

The man looked terrified as Dean sauntered closer. Dean got nice and close, and then made sure to look the man in the eyes as Dean allowed his own to go white.

"You picked the wrong guy to mug, scum," Dean said. "And I'm going to enjoy this. You're the last one we need."

He dragged the man away from the wall, holding him up with one hand. "Here's the thing. You can come quietly, and I won't hurt you now, or you can struggle, and I'll break both your legs. Understand?"

The man opened his mouth.

Dean brought a finger to his lips. "But don't say anything, I don't want to hear your voice."

The man nodded frantically.

Dean dragged him away. He never noticed the other man following them.

Bobby bit his lip as he followed the demon and the demon's captive. There was nothing else the creature could be. The fact that it was using Dean's form told him it was a monster. The white eyes told him it was a demon.

It looks so much like Dean, but Dean was dead and in Hell. This demon was just using his form.

Bobby would have no trouble killing it. And then... he would give Dean the hunter's funeral he should gotten in the first place. Sam had refused, but Bobby couldn't truly blame him.

This time, though, since he couldn't find Sam, he'd do his duty to Dean.

As the demon dragged the man to a warehouse, Bobby stayed in the shadows.

Once the demon and his victim were inside, Bobby slipped in silently through the unlocked back door. There were least four beings moving around, preparing to do something. He absently wondered what sort of ritual they were doing, but it didn't matter. Saving the man, and exorcizing the demon that had stolen Dean's body did. He wished he could kill it, but he'd settle for sending it to Hell for a few years.

He carefully made his way around the large boxes in the building. A second before he turned another corner, he heard the quiet scrape of a footstep behind him. He turned, shotgun already coming up, but it was too late. An unfamiliar demon threw its hand up and Bobby flew through the air to land on his back in the center of a large cleared area.

Dazed, Bobby stared up at the ceiling for a second, before he violently shook his head and collected himself enough to sit up. As he moved his right arm, he winced. He'd broken it when he hit the ground.

Bobby scrambled to his feet as demons approached him. "No," he whispered as he saw the tallest. "Sam, no."

Sam smiled at him. "Hi Bobby," he said.

"Don't pretend you're Sam," Bobby snarled.

Sam glanced at the demon standing next to him. "You might want to cover your ears, Dean," he said.

"Dean" did so and Sam turned to look at Bobby. "I'm not possessed, Bobby," he said. "Christo."

He tapped "Dean's" shoulder and the demon uncovered his ears.

"And neither is Dean," Sam continued. "That's Dean in there, Bobby."

"No, it's not," Bobby said. "Dean... he's trapped in Hell."

Sam shook his head. "He turned, and then he helped me get him out. Then he just helped me."

Dean's eyes turned white. "Sammy has quite a destiny, and I helped him reach it, Bobby," Dean said.

Bobby turned back to look at Sam. Sam's eyes turned a brilliant golden yellow.

Bobby's gaze darted around the room. He was trapped with at least five demons, one of whom was possessing Dean Winchester's body and had convinced Sam Winchester that he was actually Dean. His gun arm was broken and he knew he was going to die. He took a step back, toward the door.

Sam reached out and gently touched his shoulder. "We're not going to hurt you, Bobby," Sam said. "You don't have to be afraid."

"You turned, Sam," Bobby said stiffly. "And you really believe this demons is-"

"He is, Bobby, I know it."

"I am," Dean said as he approached Bobby.

Bobby backpedaled, startled.

Yellow and white eyes widened before flipping to hazel and green. Bobby glared at them both as Sam gently held out his hand. "Bobby, you don't need to be scared of us," he said

"Sam, you're commanding demons!"

"That's how I can make sure you're safe, Bobby," Sam replied.

"You're like a second father to us," Dean added. "That's why we want to protect you."

"What about everyone else?" Bobby demanded.

Sam snorted. "You mean everyone who believed Gordon Walker over me? The people who tried to hunt me? Or do you mean the people who blamed Dean and me for everything creatures did?" Sam dismissed it with a wave. "Let them deal with it themselves."

He frowned. "There are a handful I want with me. They'll be off limits, like you."

Dean sighed. "Not like Bobby, Sam, you know that."

Sam sighed. "Yeah, not quite like Bobby. But they won't be treated like the sheep out there."

"Sheep?" Bobby asked incredulously. "People aren't sheep, Sam."

"They're nothing more than that," Sam scoffed. "They'll do anything they're told."

Bobby shook his head. "I can't let you do this, Sam," he said.

Sam laughed. "Even if you weren't hurt, Bobby, you wouldn't have a choice."

Bobby watched as Sam nodded his head, and then everything went dark.

Dean caught Bobby as the man collapsed. He and another demon tied him to a chair in the center of the room. "You sure we should do this?" Dean asked.

"It'll keep him safe," Sam replied.

"Yeah, Sammy, I just..."

"As long as he's alive, we can keep the world safe, Dean," Sam said. "He'll help keep us grounded in what we need to do."

"He'll hate it."

"He'll be alive to hate it," Sam said. "And that's the important thing."

Dean nodded. He turned to one of the demons watching them work. "Bring the sacrifice," he ordered.

The demon left, returning a second later with the guy who tried to mug Dean earlier. He was the perfect sacrifice to use for this ritual, because he was approximately the same age as Bobby. His life would be given up to save Bobby, and in a real way, save the world.

Dean knew that Sam had made a bargain with Lucifer. As long as someone who knew Sam was human, he wouldn't push for Sam to destroy humanity. He did want Sam to take over the world, which Sam had agreed to do. But he wouldn't have to destroy the world the way Lucifer wanted to do.

Sam, being the smart and devious man that he was, had found a loophole- a way to keep someone human, and alive, for a long time. Dean was sure Bobby would understand, once they explained it to him.

Better a world ruled by Sam, than no world at all.

Dean smiled. Actually, he was sure that if Sam ruled the world, it would be a better place than it was now.

Sam smiled as he sat in his office. He and Dean had finished their battle plans. Humanity couldn't hope to hold out against the army of Hell, not for long.

Sam leaned back and closed his eyes. With a thought, he reached out to his other half. Lucifer was always in the back of his mind, ready to talk.

He, the Boy King, and Lucifer, the Lord of Demons, were only rarely at odds. They were part of each other, and nothing would change that.

That didn't mean that Lucifer wasn't annoying right now. Sam smirked. He liked Earth. Even if Lucifer didn't like humanity, he had to remember that his voice to the world had once been human, and had grown to like all that humanity could offer.

Lucifer radiated resigned acceptance and amusement.

The world was theirs for the taking.

Final note: The title of this story was taken from a song of the same name by Casting Crowns. It's a great Christian song, but not to everyone's taste.