This is a disclaimer.

AN: So, a while back, I started writing this long and convoluted AU about John and Mary Winchester, how and why they met and what happened then. This is... not quite that story. I was happily typing up the sixth chapter when I went back to look over the first one, and suddenly found myself gripped by a need to rework it and Make It All Better.

This is that story. I haven't deleted the originals, because I'm too lazy, but I probably should. Either way, I hope you enjoy the 'definite version' more than the last one. And chapter six is... on it's way. Don't rush me, I'm getting there.

Ares and Artemis

You know what he Chose them for, do you not? He had not been very interested in most of them before his little game began. There were too many, and he can bend almost anyone to his will, no matter what kind of person they are. Nevertheless, there were two Azazel was pleasantly surprised by and particularly pleased with. He was a warrior already; she held all the knowledge of her mother's family – the family who had come so close to destroying him over a hundred years ago.

They met in Cold Oak. Azazel's playground, some called it. They defeated the other Chosen sent there with them, killed in self-defense until they were the only ones left.

But this, as it soon became obvious, was Azazel's great mistake, pitting them against each other so soon, so early in his game. For the Warrior was but recently returned from another war, far to the east, and he had grown weary of killing. And she had been able, in the months since her gifts had developed, to glean some knowledge of what Azazel intended with this game of his.

It was no more than hunter's rumours and half-forgotten stories, but it was enough.

She told the Warrior what she had learned. And he replied that he would not fight her, that he would kill only in self-defense. He suggested they find a way to escape, to destroy Azazel instead.

She told him that during her search for the source of her gifts, she'd heard whispers of an ancient amulet, a Key made to be the focus point of a spell that could bind a demon's powers, and trap him for eternity.

They left Cold Oak together, using their gifts to escape Azazel's spawn that he sent after them. Turning their power on him who had given it to them in the first place.

For many months they traveled, searching for this fabled amulet, following false leads and legends, chasing hunters and seers who were rumoured to have knowledge of the amulet, destroying many other creatures along the way. They found a friend in a vampire hunter who gave them refuge after they saved his life not long after leaving Cold Oak, and an old comrade of the Warrior's often aided them in their search.

She taught him all she knew; he taught her how to fight, making a true Huntress out of the lorekeeper her parents had raised her to be.

Along the way, they fell in love.

At last, they found the amulet. Returning to Cold Oak, they summoned Azazel to his playground and imprisoned him.

Then they buried the amulet, hiding it deep in the foundations of the town, surrounding it with the most powerful protection spells they knew.

After that, the Huntress and her Warrior disappeared. Though they believed they were now safe, they never returned to the homes they had abandoned after taking on their quest. They had been gone too long, letting their families think them dead in order to protect them. With Azazel's binding, their abilities had waned, and now they built themselves a new life, avoiding the shadows and dangers of the old, and settled down to raise their child, already growing in his mother's womb at the time of their confrontation with Azazel.

But Azazel's spawn are numerous, and powerful, and some few are even loyal to their begetter.

One of these, his most trusted daughter, freed him.

Enraged, he discovered where they'd gone, his favourites, fallen now from his grace. And what he found there made him rub his hands in glee, for the Huntress had but recently conceived a second child by her Warrior. Immediately Azazel abandoned his original plan for bloody revenge and set about Choosing a new generation, of which the Huntress' unborn child would be a part.

But this time, he was in a hurry, and that made him clumsy, and incautious. Thrice he was nearly discovered before the child he truly wanted was old enough to be Chosen.

And even on the night of the boy's sixmonth birthday, he made a mistake, for the Huntress found him, standing over her son's crib.

Azazel killed her.

The Warrior was able to save his son from the burning ruins of their house, giving the baby into the keeping of his elder brother. Grief-stricken, he consulted a Seer, questioned her about the thing that had murdered his wife. Her words only strengthened the suspicions he had not wanted to give credence to.

Azazel was free once more.

Still, the Warrior returned to Cold Oak to make absolutely certain of his guess. He found the amulet removed from its hiding place, the protection surrounding it destroyed, it's magic almost wholly gone.

The Warrior knew that if Azazel should ever be able to win either boy over, then his bright, laughing, beautiful sons would be as good as dead, only their bodies remaining to do Azazel's bidding, their souls long gone. He did not know exactly how or even if his firstborn entered into Azazel's plans, but even as babes the bond between the two boys was strong, almost visible to those with the second sight. He had not needed theSeer to tell him that they would only stand - or fall - together.

And so he gave the amulet to his firstborn, to protect him from Azazel's spawn, and trusted that their begetter's plans for his secondborn would stop them attacking the boy - for now.

He began to train the boys, and himself. He knew well that without the Huntress' help so long ago, he would not have survived Cold Oak the first time.

He was determined that their sons should be better prepared, better able to defend themselves. Discovering all he could about Azazel was no easy matter, and it took years, but he would not repeat his past mistake, and make do with half-forgotten legends whose incompleteness would be his death as they had been his wife's.

Time went on, the younger boy's twenty-second year drawing closer, and the Warrior began to feel the beginnings of panic, for twenty-two was the age at which he and the Huntress had been taken to Cold Oak, and he still had not found a way to destroy Azazel. He abandoned all other pursuits and set out to find what he needed to keep his sons alive and safe.

But in the meantime, Azazel decided to take matters into his own hands, for nothing brought him greater pleasure than making the sons of his onetime favourites suffer for their parent's sins against him. And so, as the younger son's gifts began to develop, Azazel killed his lover, forcing the brothers to start searching for their father, looking for answers themselves, for the Warrior, ever fearing for their safety, had not told them of his past - nor their mother's.

Now I believe, Dean and Samuel Winchester, that you know the rest of the story, no? Do I take it then that your curiosity is now satisfied? Then let me return.