:::::::::::::::::::::

The brothers' eyes shared the misery of a catastrophic defeat.

This time the Winchesters' best efforts hadn't been enough to save the world.

As the two men studied the incredible desolation which stretched out on all sides as far as the horizon, a blossoming awareness crept in. Perhaps the Earth was never meant to be saved, and Sam and Dean's efforts had merely procrastinated events, giving the Earth an extension of life, like a death-bound patient kept alive only by the help of a machine, one which sooner or later would be switched off.

At the end of the day, they hadn't been able to do anything to stave off the catastrophe. Not even the sum of their combined knowledge of the supernatural, their experience, their undoubted abilities nor sheer will-power had been able to avoid the Apocalypse the second time around.

Some years before, Castiel had tried to take over Heaven by opening the gates to Purgatory, and for his foolhardiness became infested by the Leviathans.

He hadn't succeeded then but like the Apocalypse, Castiel's destiny was only on hold. It too came full circle when he allowed Lucifer to use him as a vessel after Rowena cast a spell to bring him temporarily from the Cage.

:

But even siblings who superficially hate each other, remain brothers, and wearing Cass as his meat-suit, Lucifer opened the Cage and allowed Michael go free.

There were none of those pesky problems with meat-suits this time round. Michael still had Adam at his disposal and Castiel's beefed-up meat-suit did the job just fine for Lucifer.

As it seems nostalgia affects angels too, even Stull Cemetery got its second lease of life, the celestial beings choosing to go another round of the prize-fight in the same place.

What was different though, was the outcome of the bout.

The players were evenly matched, with neither managing to get the upper hand and while both lay drained and exhausted among the cracked and broken tombstones of the cemetery, they reached a pact.

They'd share what was left of the Earth. They even signed a contract in angelic grace, just to make it official.

Each would rule their own kingdom, Michael-Heaven and Lucifer-Hell, leaving the other the fuck alone.

The post-apocalyptic Earth would be their playground and the small number of humans who remained kept for slaves or amusement. Of them, only a select few would be allowed to reproduce, in order to keep the strain alive.

Man had been defeated but they still remained God's creation and if the Father ever showed up, the two archangels preferred keeping some around. Just in case Dad got pissed!

:

The desolation which encircled the two brothers was numbing to behold. The once towering skyscrapers and suburbs of Chicago were now a grey, putrid, smoking wasteland, with the rest of the world in a similar state. Nothing had been saved. The bunker too was a mass of smouldering ruins.

It had been among the first buildings to receive attention from Lucifer/Cass.

The siblings had barely managed to make it out before the destruction.

Dean's voice echoed bleakly in the silence of the wasteland. 'We lost, Sammy.' His eyes met the weary ones of his brother. 'We tried our best and it wasn't good enough-nowhere near. '

Sam was as distraught as Dean, but the man standing at his side needed to be comforted, encouraged, buoyed up. And for the younger Winchester, Dean would always come first, before himself, before anything.

Yeah, the world was in shambles, humanity all but exterminated, but as Dean had said, they'd done their best. It just hadn't been enough.

'There's nothing more we could have done, Dean,' Sam replied in the soothing voice which always calmed his sibling's anguish. 'We did our best, as you say but we're only two humans against the might of Heaven and Hell. I know you'd have given your life to save Earth but that wouldn't have helped. Nothing could.'

Dean's smile was wistful and ironic at the same time. 'It's not as if we haven't given our lives before, Sammy. And it's NEVER helped! All we've suffered in the past was always going to be for nothing. We were never going to be able to stop the Apocalypse. I can see that now.

It was just a question of time. The angels would have kept on trying until they got what they wanted.'

'What are we going to do now, Dean? We've managed to avoid being captured, but it can't last forever. Lucifer and Michael are hunting us down.'

Dean rubbed at his forehead, his shoulders slumped in defeat. 'I don't know, Sammy. If your big brain has any ideas, this is the time to parade them out.'

Sam turned to lean on the roof of the Impala as he'd done innumerable times before, the feel of the cool steel seeping through his worn sleeves giving him comfort.

Dean and the Impala, the two polar stars in his life from as far back as he could remember.

The car, though as beaten and bruised as its occupants, still miraculously ran, thanks to the spit and glue repairs Dean managed to come up with.

Nevertheless she, like them, had reached the end. There was nothing more to give.

Laying his head on his hands, Sam let out a lingering exhale. 'Our options are pretty limited, Dean. Essentially, we've got nowhere to run. Even if we put a gun to our heads, we end up in Heaven or Hell and I'm guessing fun is NOT what we're going to find.'

Dean scuffed at the dry, cracked terrain with the worn toe of his boot. 'Then we don't die,' he said. 'The first thing they'll do is separate us and that's worse than anything else they could come up with. I'm not going anywhere without you, Sammy.'

For a moment, Sam remained silent, then with a huff declared. 'I'm guessing the dying thing is kinda inevitable, Dean. It's not as if we're Superman- -as long as we don't run into Kryptonite we live forever!'

'Dude, if I wasn't already depressed before, you put the cap on it.'

Sam allowed himself a fluttering smile. As long as he had Dean by his side, there were always going to be options. Even if at the moment, he couldn't imagine a single one.

'We can't stay out here in the open for much longer, Dean. We're going to have to find somewhere to hide out.'

'I'd like to know where. There's hardly anything left standing. We gotta look for a service station. Even if it's in ruins we might be able to siphon out some gas from the underground tanks. My baby's special but even she can't run on air.'

Like two strangers on what was now similar to some alien planet, they needed a temporary shelter before having to grapple with the problem of life, death and eternity as they'd had to do since they were children; and just as when they were children, they cleaved to each other, drawn together by the threads of fate, destiny, and a love that went beyond all.

Lucifer and Michael might have risen, taken over Earth and devastated it for their own childish spite and pleasure, but none of that could diminish Sam and Dean's bond. Verily it could move mountains and one defeat, however huge, didn't mean the war was lost.

:

Sam folded his lanky body into the passenger seat, while Dean took his place behind the wheel.

As they drove, the landscape racing by the windows remained the same grey desolation.

'Why would the angels have wanted this?' Sam murmured sadly. 'Why lay waste to the Earth? What advantage does it bring them?'

Dean huffed. 'They're bullies. Childish, evil bullies. They never needed nor wanted humankind and now they've had their way.'

'There's a gas station up ahead,' Sam pointed out excitedly. 'If we find enough, I know where we can hole up for a while. That is if it's still there.'

Dean raised an inquisitive eyebrow. 'You gonna share or what?'

'You'll know when we arrive.'

:

When they drew into what had been Bobby Singer's Salvage Yard, incredibly enough,there were a few piles of cars still standing, though the burnt remains of what had once been Bobby's house blended in well with this new world's panorama.

''We gonna hide in one of those rust buckets?' Dean asked with sarcasm, turning his gaze on his brother.

'No, in what's underneath,' Sam replied. 'I'm guessing the panic room's still there. If we dig, we should be able to get access to the door through what's left of the cellar.

The garage where Bobby kept his utensils is still standing. We can hide the Impala inside.'

'I don't know, Sammy. Even if we do get into the panic room, we can't stay there forever. '

'Until we come up with a plan, I don't see why not. It's warded against everything. Check out the shovels, dude. We got some digging to do.'

The Impala safely tucked away out of sight in the ramshackle garage, the brothers got to work and to their satisfaction, they found the basement still accessible. After lowering themselves down, they managed to open the panic room door.

'This room brings back bad memories,' Dean said with a shiver, as he stepped inside.

'Yeah,' Sam agreed, recalling the days spent here, undergoing detox from the demon blood. 'But we can't dwell on them. We've got bigger things to worry about now. I wonder if there's any supplies still around,' he added. 'Bobby used to store the basics in those little cupboards over there.'

'I doubt there's anything edible,' Dean sighed.

He couldn't remember the last time he'd had a burger, or anything vaguely resembling fresh. But he wasn't grumbling too much. Even the gas station snacks and candy were better than starving to death.

Sam pulled out some uninspiring, past-their-sell-by-date bottles of water and power bars that had seen better days. But the medical stuff, cotton-wool, disinfectant and unopened bandages could still be useful.

'No hamburger and fries hidden away, I'm guessing,' Dean grumbled.

'Fraid not.'

:

The two camp beds which were the circular room's only sleeping arrangements were dusty and uninviting but to Dean no luxurious four-poster could've looked better. He pushed the two beds together in the middle of the floor, before throwing himself down on one side, still fully dressed

'I'm beat, Sam. You must be too. Get over here. It's freezing. I need your body heat to warm me up.'

Sam rolled his eyes, but he complied more than enthusiastically. They'd always been close. Too close many would say, but neither he nor Dean gave a fuck about anyone's opinion.

As soon as he lay down, Dean spooned himself around his brother.

'You had a good idea, Sammy. At least for tonight, we can rest secure that no angel will be interrupting our beauty sleep.'

:

'Dean,' Sam said, turning to face his brother.

'What, dude? Shut up and go to sleep. And keep your bony knees to yourself,' Dean muttered, snuggling into his sibling. The panic room might act as a temporary haven but it was freezing cold, the metal walls leaching out every bit of body warmth in the room.

'You remember that universe we got sent to, where we had counterparts who were actors.'

'That universe where you were married to Ruby?'

Although it was pitch black in the room, Dean knew his sibling was proffering a bitch-face.

'You never gonna let me live that down?' Sam growled.

Dean gave a chuckle. 'This is the first time I've mentioned it!'

'No, it isn't,' Sam whined.

'It is, man. Must be your imagination playing up!'

'Pfft,' Sam huffed. 'Anyhow, I was thinking we might find a way back to that world. If I remember, the supernatural doesn't exist there. It could be a place we'd be safe.'

:

Wide awake by now, Dean stared at him, an incredulous expression on his face. 'You want to abandon this world to its fate. Wow! Never thought I'd hear you say that.'

Sam lowered his eyes. 'Dean we've got to face facts. We tried everything to stop the Apocalypse but nothing worked. What more can we do? At least there we'd be safe, you'd be safe, Dean.

I…. don't want to see you suffer. I couldn't take it. I'm done, Dee, empty, wiped out. Then it's not like we couldn't regroup and come back if we wanted to.

It's just you and me now Dean. As I said before, we can't even die in peace.'

:

Dean's snort told Sam just what he thought of that idea, but he understood where his sibling was coming from. The blood in his veins turned to ice at the vision of his baby brother being torn apart by the vengeful angels.

Sam had never gotten over his time in the Cage, a slave to Lucifer's every perversion. He couldn't wish that on his brother again.

'I get it Sam, I do,. But even if I was on-board with your idea, the angels sent us to that other reality. We wouldn't begin to know how to get there on our own. You, little brother are a veritable font of warmth, but it's freezing in here,' Dean declared, changing the subject. 'There's no way we can set up camp in this icebox of a mouse-hole.'

Stretching out his hand, Sam laid the back of it against Dean's cheek. It was cold as ice. He pulled his brother as close as humanly possible and tucked the thin blankets around them both. 'Hey,' Dean grumbled, 'what's with the hug fest.'

'You're freezing and we've gotta keep warm, heat ourselves up before our brains congeal from the cold. We need to keep them up and running or we're lost.'

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Luckily enough, there were drums of gasoline in the lean-to garage where the Impala had passed the night. Incredibly, they'd not exploded when the house had caught fire.

'Finally, we get lucky,' Dean said, examining the unexpected treasure trove of liqid gold, his breath a white spray in the cold morning air.

'Sammy. Is it just me or is the temperature dropping more and more?'

'No, it's not just you, Dean. Now that the fires cause by the explosions are fizzling out, it looks as if the smoke and debris are set to block the sun's rays. '

He frowned. 'It could be temporary or maybe we're in for a nuclear winter.'

'Awesome. We're starved, hunted, have no place to hide and now we're gonna freeze too. I wonder if the equatorial regions will remain warmer.'

'Does it matter?' Sam replied. 'There's no way we can ever get there. If the Impala hits one more rut in the road, we're done.'

Dean rubbed at the back of his neck. He didn't want to admit it, didn't want to say anything derogatory about his Baby, but Sam was right. Before long they'd be left on foot.

'You know, that idea of yours about moving our asses to that other universe is getting more and more tempting by the minute.'

Sam's gaze raked over him. 'You serious?'

A shrug was all he got from his sibling as Dean got with the chore of filling the Impala's tank and any other liquid-holding objects he could find. Even an extra beer bottle of gas could mean the difference between life and death in this alien new world they found themselves.

:

He turned to glance at his brother, but Sam had disappeared. Dean's instincts were honed to the sharpest where Sam was concerned. His gut told him his brother wasn't in danger, though just the fact that Sam was out of sight left him anxious and scared.

Without him, he'd have gone insane. He needed his sibling more than food or water, and Dean knew it was the same for Sam.

For some weird reason Lisa came to mind. He hadn't thought about her in years, so when her image pasted itself on his irises, the memories came flooding back. Of how he'd tried to fit in, be a husband and father, respect his promise to Sam

In a way he'd been successful for nearly a year, at least to the outward world.

He'd become if not a dad, then a father figure to Ben, and he kid had become attached to him.

Dean recalled with a feeling of guilt how he'd repaid that affect; it had become as nothing when Sam turned up so unexpectedly, completely obliterating the life of suburbia.

But it was Lisa's words which had penetrated deeply into Dean's soul, unforgotten because they were true. 'The minute Sam walked through that door, I knew. It was over. You two have the most unhealthy, tangled-up, crazy thing I've ever seen.'

So it had been, and so it still was.

:

Dean's heart, soul and body belonged to his little brother. He knew he'd never feel for anyone else what he felt for Sam. It was more than love…it had spawned a sentiment which no mere words could describe. It was exclusive, his and Sam's, theirs alone, to be shared with no one.

Dean was jealous of that sentiment, possessive of its uniqueness, protective of its oneness.

Swiping a hand across his face as if to eliminate all past memories, he got back to the job in hand, and on what the fuck they were going to do. The Winchesters had never enjoyed peace while alive and now to them, death was forbidden too. At least if they didn't want to end up in Lucifer and Michael's clutches.

TBC