Author's note:

Before I take this any further I positively MUST, MUST thank first and foremost my two exceptional betas – Nevermore, and the Beloved Beist... without these two ladies behind me... without their constant encouragement... (and they'll attest I think... some of the chapters in this fic have gone through more rewrites than ALL the other chapters in ALL my other fics combined) this fic might've been left, quite sloppily for dead a long time ago! Their gentle encouragements made finishing this in a satisfactory fashion possible. And for everyone else who has been so kind and generous in their support, reviews and encouragement also... when you've reached the end... understand... if not for you... this wouldn't have come... and most certainly... not the way it did.

On that note... I hope you enjoy this final installment of Darkfalling... and I hope you'll let me know what you've thought about it.

I'll say it now... Thank you for coming out to play... and I hope you've enjoyed the ride.

sifi.

Now... let's get this under way shall we?

Darkfalling – chpt 17.

by: sifi.

--

"Don't be an ass Sam... siddown..." Dean held his brother still and guided him into the chair Laura slid behind him.

Breathless Sam sat, grateful his jeans were baggy enough to hide his coltishly shaking legs while he steadied his hands by gripping the arm rests.

"You guys are gonna drive me nuts with all this... coddling..." he shook his head.

"Deal with it dude," Dean said simply, taking control of the chair from Laura who smiled softly but held her tongue. "...you were minutes away from having a hole drilled into that thick skull of yours to take the pressure off that freaky blob you call a brain..."

"Yeah... not the only one..." Sam snarked holding up his hand and craning his neck to look back at women he was certain was responsible for his and Dean's rapid healing, "Did we say thanks by the way?" he asked.

"You did... and I told you I didn't do it... as much as I wanted to sweetie..." she sighed, leaned over and kissed his temple, "I never made it out of CT under my own power..."

He nodded, "No I know that... but I mean since then... and not that I'm not grateful but you really need to stop and let yourself rest..." he admonished.

She smiled and stroked his hair off his furrowed brow noting how well his bruises were fading. The gash on his temple was almost healed as were the majority of his cuts and scrapes, the lash marks from the whip were fading quickly and she'd rarely been more grateful for the ability to influence, except in the instances of John and Dean's welfare.

What neither man could prove was that during the night, usually once Dean brought her back into bed she turned her attention to him, urging his body to heal more quickly than average as well. She knew he would never ask it of her but so subtle was the work that she hoped he didn't realize it was the product of her influence.

"I will..." she smiled softly, the gray sacks under her eyes brightened a bit as she glanced at the older brother and shook her head.

While Louisa Fernandez put the boys through their paces in Physical Therapy Laura usually wandered up to the cafeteria for coffee and a donut. Today she found herself a small alcove that gave her an unobstructed view of the hallway and stood deep within its recesses, waiting for that man in the navy blue scrubs who'd been shadowing her and the boys for the last few days.

Right on schedule... she smirked to herself confirming that it was indeed Jeremy Stebbins, and that she wasn't imagining things.

Once he reached her position she grasped him quickly, struggling to keep him subdued as she breathed into his ear, "You don't want to fight me," and guided him into the bathroom where she locked the door and released him.

"Why are you here?" she asked.

"I'm here to make sure Sam and Dean recover," he answered.

"Did the yellow eyed demon come to you that night?" she asked feeling him struggle not to answer, struggling against the questions he was certain were coming.

"Yes..." he ground out, drops of sweat sliding down his temples, ringing his neck.

"You're the one who started Sam healing..." she surmised and could tell by the ferocity with which he began to grind his teeth she was on the right track, "Why!?" she demanded.

"He told me to..." he choked.

"Why? What does he want with Sam?" she grasped him by the shirtfront and pinned him against the wall.

Jeremy shook his head, "I don't know... he just wants them HIS way..." his breath started coming short.

"Them?!" she demanded raising her hand, her finger moving toward his temple, the words, "Show me EVERYTHING," spilling out of her mouth at the same moment. Her mind filled with light, and sound and dark bits; moments that had happened in the last six days, since Jeremy disappeared from his home. Oh God no! she thought feeling his body heave a breath, watching his head fall back and wanting, but unable to cover her ears from the scream that coursed out of him as a horrendous stream of living dark dust burst from him to disappear out through the ventilation system to God only knew where.

Her scream twined around his as her mind seemed to twist and buckle, cramping in a way she'd never experienced before while the world jumbled, torn to shreds, his memories and those of whatever demon had been inhabiting him that she'd also managed to grab hold of before it escaped.

"Hey you okay in there?" a voice called while a fist banged on the door.

Jeremy rocked back, his eyes boring accusingly into hers, his hands reaching around her throat as she gasped clutching her head in her hands groaning from the sensation of a thousand awls being pressed into her brain all at once.

"Just saw a rat..." Jeremy grinned taking full advantage of Laura's weakened state.

He met her eyes and saw a cold smile spread across her mouth, a prickling started in the back of his brain, like an anchor dragging a river bottom and his grip on her throat loosened. Without the demon inside him, the ability to influence or 'push' was one he could scarcely dream of. Laura felt this, coughed and took a shaky breath, "You never have been, nor will you ever be anything other than an orderly. Your existence will never be anything other than ordinary," she grinned rising to her feet, "And that rat will haunt you till the day you die..." she shook her head and left the bathroom, weaving her way dizzily to the cafeteria to wait for her boys.

--

"I can't move..." Laura sighed contentedly slouched in the chair, her feet up on Dean's lap. She took one look at the restaurant debris layering the table and shook her head, "Nope... can't move..."

"Stuffed..." he agreed huffing out a lungful of air.

"A nap sounds real good right about now..." Sam added leaning back grinning with his arms behind his head.

"Mmm I can think of something better..." Dean snarked cocking his eyebrow questioningly at Laura.

"Well then you guys need to get a different room cause I ain't movin'..." Sam sighed.

Dean rolled his head back and let the chuckles roll out of him, "You really told him a non-existent rat was going to haunt him till the day he dies?" he asked.

Laura blushed, "He pissed me off... but to find out he was actually possessed..."

"Well that does explain why I had a vision in the middle of everything..." Sam sighed, "... but I still don't get it? Why actively take the step to use him to heal me instead of just possessing me? I mean Meg's body was pretty much dead...kept barely alive by the demon that was in her right?"

"I don't know..." Laura shook her head.

"Course it does fit with that whole 'corrupt them' theory you've got going...I don't mind telling you guys... I hope to hell you're wrong..." he motioned to her, "...but I kinda hope you're not too..."

"It could give you leverage somehow," Dean nodded eyeing Sam.

Thank God... Laura smiled closing her eyes and breathing that much easier with the faint shimmer of Sam's returning hope, Wonder what they'd think if I told them I think they're looking for the wrong pattern... she chewed her lip a bit, ever since Max Miller, and the boys finding out that he and Andy Gallagher both lost their mother's to nursery fires just like Sam had they'd been operating on the assumption that the "Chosen" children had nursery fires. And that they were all born in 1982...hmm. Yeah... but so far they've met a couple who didn't...that guy Webber didn't have a nursery fire... and neither did that chick Ava... so... what if the ones who DID have a fire are the ones who DON'T FIT the pattern? she asked herself for the bazillionth time, wondering what they'd think if she brought it up.

"...and you still haven't found a way to kill or exorcise those Igigi?" Dean asked bringing her mind back to the moment.

I really should bring it up... maybe once we get to Bobbys', then we can see what he thinks about it too.

"Nope."

"Uh, uh..." she and Sam answered together.

"Oh! Hey! I remember what I forgot... there's different color ones... I don't know if it means anything or if it makes any difference in the long run or anything but..." Sam shrugged leaning his head forward again, though he remained comfortably reclined.

"That's what you were starting to say before? Alex only saw gray ones... ones that feed on our weaknesses..." Dean nodded, "So... you're thinking that maybe some of these other colored ones might not be evil?"

"That's what I'm thinkin'... I mean... what if they're like... like people y'know? Some are good, some bad, most just wanting to go about their lives?" Sam shrugged and stretched over a precariously placed half full container of cobb salad, reaching for a beer on the far side of the table.

For a moment, as his fingertips found purchase on the grooved cap of the bottle all three of them were silent, waiting to see if he'd knock the salad over or succeed without incident.

Even after he had the bottle open and had taken a couple swallows, their eyes still went to the salad container, wondering if it was just waiting for the right moment to fall. With a wry smile Laura leaned forward and moved it to a more secure position breaking the anticipatory tension in the room.

"It probably would've fallen in the middle of the night and someone would get shot..." she shrugged.

"Mmm been there done that... Thanks Sam..." Dean smirked raising his beer bottle to his little brother who blushed furiously.

"My pleasure..." the younger hunter tossed back lightly making them all chuckle.

"So what are you guys gonna do?" Laura asked.

"You guys?"

"You guys?" the brothers chimed together.

She shrugged, "Hey I got places to go, evil to fight."

"I thought the plan was for all of us to go to Bobby's... where the wards are still in place... till we can figure out exactly what we're dealing with... what this impending pocky-clipse is all about... and now what if anything we can do about these Igigi?" Dean questioned.

"Hmm Thunderdome... excellent movie..." she grinned and looked at Sam who sat with the bottle between his fingers, deep in thought.

"What cha got cookin' up there Sam?" she asked rubbing his forearm gently, trying to bring him out of wherever his mind had taken him. By the look on his face, not really a happy place either.

He smiled tightly looking from Dean to Laura then swigged his beer, "Nothing really... just...wondering what the hell they thought they were doing... did they have any idea? Was Alana acting under any kind of influence from the yellow eyed demon? Or did that come after? And whatever they summoned... whatever it was that they wanted to free... they did it, it's out there with the rest of those things..." he sighed and shrugged, ...and it's my fault... you guys'll never believe it... and I know you're trying to get me to not believe it... but they used ME as a conduit, they used ME to cause you the pain that made that THING strong enough to let them out...

Laura squeezed his arm gently, "From what I got from them... Jeremy included... I don't think Big Bad or his kin got involved with anything until the night the door opened."

"You mean the night I opened it..." he corrected.

"Aw come on Sam! Give yourself a break will ya? You act like this is all your fault... what did you ASK to be taken hostage and used in some frakked up wannabeblackmagic ceremony to draw out some ancient people even THEY didn't know how to control or contain? Jeez man... it's NOT your fault!" Dean insisted leaning forward for another beer.

Sam rolled his head on his neck, "You're right... both of you... but it doesn't change that I'm still responsible... if I didn't have this... THING... they couldn't have used me now could they have?" he insisted.

"No, they would've used someone else... most likely someone who isn't nearly as smart or strong as you are who'd most likely be dead right now, then we'd be stuck cleaning up the mess as usual... and there'd be deaths added to the mix," Dean surmised.

"So okay, no dead bodies..."

Except Alana but you boys don't know about her yet do you? Laura thought listening to them and trying to stay out of it.

"...and we... well I made the mess that WE get stuck cleaning up... and who says we'd be the ones cleaning it up at all if it was someone else and I didn't have this THING... seriously Dean you think I wasn't BORN for this?"

"Aw man don't start that destiny crap again... I told you, YOU make your own destiny, there is NOTHING that's set in stone..." Dean challenged.

"Let's ask the expert..." Sam pointed to Laura who shook her head.

"Uh uh... no freakin' way am I getting into the middle of an argument with you boys... forget it..." she grasped another beer and moved to the foot of the bed with the laptop in hand.

"Come on..."

"Come on..." they practically whined.

"Dude!" Dean scowled.

"It's not my fault..." Sam shrugged.

"You guys have heard my theory... other than that I got nuthin'... I DON'T know... cause believe me if I did... I'd tell you..." she stopped sharply and looked between them both, "I believe in choice."

"Why?" Sam asked sitting back with his beer in hand.

"What's the difference between a sinner and a saint?" she asked quickly adding, "...and believe me I know you're only human... but get the point... it's about what you choose to do with the power you have..." she held up her hands to demonstrate balance, "Are you a Good Witch or a Bad Witch?" she asked in a startling falsetto.

"Wha... I'm not a witch at all..." he nodded playing the part.

"And yet... in the end..." she smirked as he smiled. She looked between the men, "Okay you guys go back to your fight... I'll just sit over here and be entertained."

"Had to use Dorothy huh?" Sam smiled sheepishly.

"You would've preferred Harry and Voldemort?" she asked.

"Let's see ...your hair IS always kinda messy... true you don't wear glasses... but you are kinda gangly..." Dean jibed.

Sam opened his mouth, held up his finger and shook his head as Dean spocked an eyebrow expectantly, "Nevermind, it's too easy..." Sam teased.

--

Two dots of yellow-copper flickered in the night watching the motel room across the street.

As evening gave way to the deep of night he turned his ephemeral head looking into the coffee colored eyes of the incognito deity beside him. "Do you see them?" he asked in reference to the swirling mass of dark gray beings that had coalesced above the motel room of the three hunters. Their diving and swarming into and back out of the room was almost a dance of darkness as they helped themselves in turn to the buffet inside.

"No, but I feel the growing cold...my humans...they're so vulnerable..."

"Yes, especially in sleep when their fears aren't so easily quelled."

"Why are there so many of them?" Cernunnos asked.

"They were drawn here to feast on the pain."

"Is there nothing we can do?"

Anunnaki nodded his head, "There's only one thing I can do," he sighed opening his hand to reveal a group of darting lights. He motioned to the motel with a nod of his head and the lights zipped off.

The two entities stood side by side in silence as the faintest gray flickered in the night, strobing with impossible speed so that the sky above the room appeared almost pre-dawn as the greedy, starving gray Igigi were one by one forced from this world.

"Will they be able to handle them all?" the God of Fertility and rebirth asked.

"No... more will come, day in and day out until there are none left and all have returned to exile or been usurped to a side..."

"How long will that be?"

"How many eons exist in a universe my old friend?" the King of the Igigi asked, "Have you started with them yet?" he asked.

"No..." Cernunnos shook his head, "there's more at stake than most know... the other hunters, the demons, most of them don't know the full measure of what's coming..."

"Does HE?" the Ancient Babylonian asked.

"When the sidhe world fell... I'm fairly certain even HE felt it... I think that's why he saved Sam's life, and would have saved Dean's as well if Laura hadn't got there before his spawn," he grimaced.

"The effort may have been wasted..." Anunnaki winced, "Feel the boy..."

--

Inside the motel room Sam sat in his bed, elbows on his knees, swilling back another beer in one hand, his gun in the other. Thoughts, doubts, and despair running riot in his head, I brought this out... it doesn't matter what they say... they don't understand, they didn't feel the hunger of those things... I'd give everything to be able to clean this up... this mess I created... everything that's mine to give... he amended the thought with a glance at Dean and Laura curled together, sleeping soundly, They shouldn't have to pay for my failings. He took the last swallow of that bottle and opened another drawing down the brew quickly, thirstily, Max had the right idea... yeah it'll be a mess... and if there's a way to clean it up... to send those things back... they'll find it...but I can't be used to do more damage... it's not fair to them... to anyone...I don't think even Clarence could justify all the pain my existence has brought... tears rolled down his cheeks as he drew another long slug on the bottle, his eyes came to rest on the smoke black of his .9mm.

Yeah... Max had the right idea... his breath hitched in his throat. Nodding to himself and tilting his head back he couldn't see the half dozen mottled and warped dark gray figures that hovered scooping his fears, recriminations, and doubts into their hungry maws, sowing the seeds of more as they did so.

It'll be fast...she'll help him through it... he nodded setting down the bottle, flipping the safety off and pulling back the slide.

--

end.

Please R&R

Thanks.

sifi