Title: Soul Echo

Genre: Suspense/Hurt/Comfort

Characters: Dean Winchester, Real!Ruby

Couples: Duby

Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural, any of the characters, or any song used within the story.

Soul Echo

by freakiinruby

[Chapter One: This isn't leading nowhere.]

Days before you came
Freezing cold and empty
Towns that change their name
And a horn of plenty

- Placebo; Days before you came

Pain. Everything, she feels, is pain. In her bones, her head, her heart, her soul. She still lies on the cold stone, trying to be able to breathe again. She wishes, someone would hold out their hand te help her up, but she knows, that's never going to happen. In her entire life, no one has ever been there to catch her before falling, and no one has ever been there to put her to her feet once she was down again. And she's been around on earth for a while. She is used to it. She is used, to feeling the pain of the fall, used to ignoring it and pulling herself up again. She's become tougher. She still is becoming tougher with every day. Sometimes, she's afraid she will turn into a cold hard bitch like the others one day.

Ruby stands up, ignoring her aching body, like always. She can feel the warm, almost boiling blood run down the back of her head. Run? No, it doesn't run down, it crawls. She scratches her head, as if she has to remember something, but she doesn't know what.

She looks in the mirror in front of her, and if she would be one of those girls who care about always looking perfect, she'd be shamed to death now. Her hair, filthy, glued with dried blood. Her skin, with deep scratches and grey mud all over it. Her eyes, with dark rings, blood-shot.

Every thing still hurts. Thousands of scratches, all over her, and they all hurt.

She presses together her eyes, frowning. She remembers, this time, she's not alone. There's Sam and Dean, standing there, watching her. They're the last thing she needs right now.

"You go." she commands. "I'll clean up this mess here."

Dean drags his brother away, but then they both turn around again.

"Go!" She says, this time louder, her yes flashing black. She knows her eyes freak them out. If she was in their position, she would get the chills looking at eyes that color, too. They step out of the door. She pulls her knife out of the dead body, which now is just human, nothing of the demon is left. She pulls the body over to the other human's, with the snapped neck. After burning all the corpses, she starts with whiping away all the blood, and fixing the wall. A few hours later, it looks like a terrible accident had just burned the house down.

She leaves it as it is, she has other things to do, you know. Like talking to Dean. Pushing him, in the right direction, the direction, that could save him and his brother from hell. Because she already knows, what they're going to start when just one of them gets there.

She stands there, in the shadows, waiting for him. She knows he will come. She watches him, watches him wonder, where the demon, the reason for the flashing light, could stand.

"Ruby." He states. She knows what he's thinking right now. She can't read his thoughts, but his eyes. Not very often she's seen eyes like that. Eyes that tell lifetime stories, eyes that make people stare. The kind of eyes, you stop in the middle of the street to stare at, then get run over by a car. One look, and sometimes, you feel like you've known that person for your whole life. Know what he's thinking. He's thinking about how she saved him today.

She knows how impossible it seems to him, a demon helping him survive.

"So the devil may care after all, is that what I'm supposed to believe?" He asks, harshly, but his eyes are soft.

Abyzou aka Casey. She told him about her sick 'religion'. What a bitch. "I don't believe in the devil."

"Aw. So you're not a fellow member of that cult?"

Ruby sighs, opens her mouth to swear, but instead, she sets her jaw again.

Surprised of not getting the bitchy response he expected, Dean continues. "So let me get this straight, you were human once, you died, you went to hell, you became a... "

"Yeah." She cuts off.

Silence. Ruby doesn't see anything to talk about anymore, so she turns to leave.

"How long ago?" Asks Dean.

She doesn't turn around, but doesn't stop their conversation, either. "Back when the plague was big."

"So all of them? Every damn demon? They were all human once?"

"Everyone I've ever met." Her eyes flicker to the floor.

"Then why do they act like evil maniacs?"

Maybe humans aren't as brilliant as you think. "Most of them have forgotten what it means. That's what happens when you go to hell Dean. That's what hell is, forgetting what you are." Her blue-green eyes turn sad. Without noticing she let Dean make a little crack in her shell.

"Philosophy lessons from a demon, I'll pass, thanks." Dean cracked her shell? Oh, please. This is getting pathetic.

"Its not philosophy, it's not a metaphor. There's a real fire in the pit, agonies you can't even imagine."

"No, I saw Hellraise, I get the gist."

Ruby smirks at the thought. "Actually, they got that pretty close, except for all the custom leather."

Dean's smaragd eyes turn thoughtfull, while Ruby turns back to him.

Her tone of voice now changes, there's no more scoffing in it. "The answer is yes, by the way."

"Huh? I'm sorry?" He says, inpatiently.

Ruby hates speaking about hell, but to her, in a way, it's getting back on Dean. "Yes, the same thing will happen to you. It might take centuries, but sooner or later hell will burn away your humanity. Every hell bound soul, every one turns into something else. Turns you into us, so yeah, yeah you can count on it."

"There's no way of saving me from the pit is there."

She doesn't reply, he takes it as a no. Oh, naive little Dean Winchester. If only you knew. Knew, what you two are. To the believers. "Then why'd you tell Sam you could?" Dean nags.

She looks for an excuse. He's not ready, by far, to be told the truth. And, like always, the lie easily slips over her lips. "So he would talk to me, you Winchesters can be pretty bigoted. I needed something to help him get passed the-"

"The demon thing? It's pretty hard to get passed.

Now she wants to yell at him, hit him... if only he knew. She's afraid of it to burst out of her. Instead, she shoves in another bitchy comment. "Look at you, tryin' to be all stoic. My god it's heartbreaking."

Then Dean asks the one question, she doesn't have a fitting excuse for. Damn. "Why are you telling me all this?"

She has to choose the truth as answer, because there's no other option. "Because I need your damn asses out of hell."

"Why's that then?"

"If just one of you lands there, you're gonna start the final war. The war, we can't win." She shakes her head.

"How do you know that?"

She shakes her head again. "Why am I even talking to you?" She murmurs, more to herself than him. Then she turns and walks away again.

"Ruby!" He calls. "Why do you want us to win?"

Slowly, she turns around. She's totally surprised. It was the last thing she had expected. "Isn't it obvious? I'm not like them, I-I don't know why, I wish I was, but I'm not. I remember what it's like." Suddenly, Dean notices, how beautiful she is. Sure, the thing he calls 'hot' he's seen in her before, but beauty? He's worrying about himself.

"What what's like?" He finally asks.

She gulps, her eyes flicker off the floor, her gaze meeting his. "Being human."

He looks down, lost in his thoughts of hell, demons all that disgusting stuff, and when he looks up again, Ruby has disappeared. "How can stand the pain?" He whispers, knowing himself, that he won't ever get an answer.