Reality Crisis

Sam had promised Fred that he would talk to someone but first he needed to talk to the Constantine and Zatanna. He vowed to do that the next day. For now, he just wanted to sleep.

He had a somewhat odd relationship with sleep at the moment. A lot of the time he just avoided it because the nightmares were continuing to get worse. Some nights he was able to sleep without them, particularly when Fred was around. But there were nights when he didn't want to take that chance.

Tonight, however, he was exhausted and hoped that he would have an uneventful night's sleep.

Unfortunately for Sam, that wasn't in the cards.


Sam sat up in bed. Fred was still next to him, but they weren't alone in the room. Lucifer sat in a chair nearby, simply smirking at them. Before Sam could do or say anything, flames sprang up from the bed, engulfing the blankets and engulfing Fred.

"Fred!" Sam shouted, trying to put out the fire. Trying, in vain, to do something to help her.

Lucifer's laughter filled his ears even as the flames in the room rose higher. They danced around Sam, never merciful enough to put him out of his misery but hot and licking at his skin.

"Did you really think you escaped?" Lucifer asked with a shake of his head and a chuckle. "You're in the box, Sam. No one leaves the box. Don't you think Death has better things to do than to stroll inside and rescue you?"

Dinah didn't have much time to wallow about the break-up since her days were filled now with assisting in the clean-up efforts around the city. She didn't want to know what the wilds would look like, but she supposed that a small party of people could fan out the clean-up efforts after die Festung was clean.

She was also a little worried about Bruce. He'd left her a note that he was going back to the cave to explore and set things up some more. She knew that he preferred working alone, but she also knew that the world outside the walls of die Festung was brutal.

All the same, she was needed within the city walls so she didn't set out to try to find him. Not just yet. She had kept an eye out for Clark because she would most likely ask Clark to check up on Bruce. Even if it would annoy the Batman, Dinah would rather set her mind at ease. Besides, she had to ask Clark for help in getting rid of the dragon carcass within the cave as well.

For now, she hadn't seen Clark so she was simply keeping busy. Her mind didn't have that much time to wander, which was probably a good thing since there were a lot of less than pleasant things for her mind to dwell on if she'd let on.

Currently, she was making her way back to the apartment building after a long day. She thought she heard a noise down one of the alleys, but she wasn't quite sure. Maybe it was nothing, but just in case she stopped to listen to see if she heard it again.

This was it. The big moment, the final hurrah. Tony grit his teeth as he and Jarvis pushed the suit to its limits for the turn, barely managing to turn the missile in time before it hit Stark Tower. The scraping of the Iron Man chest piece on the wall of his own building being one of the only things between it and a full nuclear strike was unnerving on a level he'd never be able to express in words. But then they were clear of it, and there was nothing ahead but the portal into space.

He braced himself, not able to look at the picture of Pepper that displayed as Jarvis tried to reach her. There was no time to say anything now anyway, and he was worried that looking at her would make his ability to send himself on a suicide mission obsolete. He was really quite selfish, after all, and these aliens were ugly enough to be running towards without a picture of his girl making him want to stay.

The passing through the portal was immediate and almost anti-climatic, but the wave of relief that he'd gotten the nuke through and aimed towards the ship before it went off was quite pleasant. It was just too bad that the natural high was dampened as the power of his suit ran out. He blinked as the power went out, then grunted softly as it started to draw power from core keeping him alive. Jarvis was supposed to prevent that from happening, but he was out of the computer's control here in the middle of space.

He stared out into the alien landscape, at the explosion brought on by the nuke, then closed his eyes. It was over, all over. But the Avengers would close the portal and defeat any remaining Chitauri, and hey, Manhattan wasn't nuked. That was something. It was quite impressive, actually.

They'd let Pepper know he'd done that, and maybe she'd be impressed too. She wasn't often by him anymore, she'd known him too long and had taken care of too many of his messes. He had no doubt that the rest of the world would recognize his amazing sacrifice, but he was always less certain about his girlfriend. He figured she'd be happy, though, if she didn't try to leave him again for making her worry about his life. Or, to be more accurate, if she didn't curse his memory for actually getting himself killed.

As his consciousness slipped out a smile almost tugged at his lips, thinking about how mad she'd be this time. And then there was no thought at all, or feeling.

The Iron Man fell through the portal just as it closed, but never re-entered Manhattan's airspace. Instead it tumbled, lifeless, striking an old building and puncturing a hole through the ceiling and two floors before making an impact in the ground just inside the walls of dieFestung. Tony never knew he made it back through the portal, much less that the portal hadn't taken him home.

Murphy didn't like the idea of Harry storming into Magneto's colony to talk to him. It wasn't that she liked or even trusted the man who appeared to currently hold Molly's trust, but she didn't like the idea of Harry's temper getting mixed up in the situation. As far as she was concerned, if Molly was with the metal-manipulating mutant by choice, there wasn't a lot they could do about the situation.

All the same, she wasn't going to let him go into that without her. She hoped to be able to keep him from flying into overprotective neanderthal mode. She also didn't trust the company that was attending the summit with Magneto and Molly. She didn't necessarily dislike Zatanna, the female mystic, but she didn't trust her and she wasn't sure she liked Constantine at all. She certainly didn't trust him.

She was glad to have Carlos along, but he was from the same dark future that Molly was from which was extremely unnerving.

With all that was going on, Murphy was glad to have the sword strapped to her back. She knew, as with the last time she'd been here, that it was a risk to bring it in. She also trusted the holy sword to remain within her power.

Perhaps there was a reason that she'd been granted the Sword of Faith after all.

She had been to the colony before, so she led the others to it and stopped just outside it, waiting for Harry's lead once they had reached their destination.

The guy that had pulled out half a building to toss at Zee was loose on the streets, and someone had sprung him. They had a suspect, but John wanted to be sure on the who before they went after the escapee. Apparently there were more practitioners here and Zee hadn't known. One of them was missing someone, and only someone well versed in magic could have dismissed those bindings John had put on the guy.

John had the lead since he was working the locator to track down the other mystic, and Zee followed him with her eyes burning holes in his back. She was still pretty miffed with him over the whole Batman argument so was silent. For the most part.

"You know this Batman isn't the same one from our Gotham. You don't know that he'd do the same things."

Zee hated it when she and John fought. Somehow she always ended feeling like she was the one at fault. It frustrated and upset her. Bruce had been a long time friend of hers and she was grateful for the opportunity to perhaps be friends with him again. It was a chance to eliminate the wrong she'd done to him not that long ago in her memory. John felt that Zee was just setting herself up again. It went downhill from there.

She wasn't avoiding John exactly, but she wasn't exactly inviting attention either. She spoke when spoken to, but limited any other conversation that didn't have anything to do with their argument. She wasn't going to budge this time.

It was like the magnetic field had turned inside out and picked him up in a storm. The only thing he could think of was that it was an attack against him and he lashed out as best he could with his powers. Nothing he did seemed to matter and despite feeling like an hour to him it was probably only a fraction of a second before he slammed into the ground with all the breath knocked out of him.

Erik was on his feet in a flash anticipating the attack to continue.

Nothing happened.

He relaxed fractionally as he looked around him and found that he was in some sort of city but it didn't look like anyone lived here. Or if they did they didn't take care of the place.

This wasn't where he was supposed to be.

Someone was playing with his mind even with his helmet. And that person was going to pay.

Dinah was back to sleeping in her quarters in die Festung. The bed was more comfortable than a sleeping bag in a tent, but it was strange to go back to sleeping alone after spending a few nights cuddled up to someone.

It was better this way though, in light of what Dean had most likely overheard and not bothered to talk to her about. She still didn't know what that meant and she wasn't exactly eager to find out what was going on there.

So she wasn't avoiding, but she was giving space. That was the better thing to do with Sam being awake anyway.

She was currently doing her shopping-stopping in at some of the little food stands that lined the main drag of town. She had planned to check in on Zatanna and John today to see if they were doing okay after what they'd done for Sam. But first she nodded to stock her kitchen. She was starving and the food in die Festung wasn't great, but it was a lot better than what had been offered within the camp.

The talk Bruce had with Dinah to break his curse had left him in a lighter, if more thoughtful, mood. He'd thought himself into the wrong place mentally since he'd been here. It happened. Bruce was well aware he tended to internalize and think on the same issue round and round in his head.

Internalizing and coming to terms with an ugly truth. It took him longer than most people to work his way through that kind of problem. When it came to linear thinking or even linear with short leaps of logic to come to a conclusion he was very good. When it came to having to deal with something in regards to him personally that's when the train went off the tracks sometimes.

Since he got here he'd been thinking and reacting as if it was still Gotham. The people here weren't like the ones in Gotham. They were trained and knew what they were doing so treating them like the faceless people to be taken care of wasn't the way he should be doing things.

Now that he was seeing the problem he was still internalizing it. But at least he was starting to make more progress than before.

It was easier to think this way when he was doing something or building something so Bruce had taken the bat blades he had made to test their balance. There was a set of marked areas he'd setup as targets outside the gates to practice on. A sharp flick of his hand and a blade embedded itself in a target close to the X he'd drawn.

It had been days since Sam had gone to John and Zatanna for help. His memories had trickled out through the holes that John had punched in his head. Sometimes slowly, sometimes rapidly. He never woke, but he was still waging a war. His mind was fighting to assimilate all of the trauma that had been walled up.

There were memories of being soulless. Of killing without the blink of an eye. Of letting Dean get bitten by a vampire.

There were memories of fire and brimstone and torment.

Memories of Lucifer taunting him. Of Lucifer creating the illusion of being safe, of being rescued. Only to tear it all down and start the torment all over again.

There were a lot of things that were almost instantly shoved to the back of his memories. They were still there, but his mind was already working at trying to naturally repress them.

There was enough that it might have overwhelmed him if it had been let down all at once. It might still overwhelm him, but Sam had reasons to fight. And he had John there, guiding him. Always guiding him. He could feel Zatanna's presence too. She was less visible, but she was still on the outskirts of the memories, a calming presence trying to help him find his way home.

Finally, the last of the memories trickled through and the wall was no more.

Sam shook violently and then his eyes flew open. He gasped for breath, noting as he did that his throat was parched, and his stomach was churning. He didn't instantly know where he was or even if this wasn't just another memory.

Or worse, another of Lucifer's tricks. That fear was there. It might be there for awhile now.

The damn ROUSes were either smarter than they looked, or they were being directed. Eventually the trio were standing outside the forest. He was actually considering going back in, but thought better of it at the moment when he saw the snouts peeking from the edge of the forest, as if to remind them that the woods were not so sweet and innocently empty. Eventually the trio had to give up on the forest, and Dean could finally go see his brother. Maybe beat some sense into him before he did something stupid.

"We'll come back. We won't just leave him in there." Dean had told Dinah, promising that they'd return for the Superkid. He didn't want her to stay behind, or try to go into the forest alone. She might have had her curse lifted, but who knew what the fairy would do to Dinah on another trip. He didn't like the idea that she could be surrounded by those overgrown rats either.

Taking the lead, Dean got them back to Jackson's camp. He had been this way before with Sam walking Fred back. He honestly didn't think he'd be coming back to get his brother this way. Maybe coming back for the blowout the Fred chick had invited Sam to, if it could really be considered a blowout, but not to keep his brother from committing one extremely stupid acct, no matter how much the Sasquatch thought it was for the good of everyone involved. Dean honestly wondered if Sam could handle what was on the other side of the wall. Dean had a hard enough time with his own hellacious experience, and he'd been dealing with demons only, not two archangels, even though one was fallen.

"Okay, Cas. Where is he?" He looked to the angel to take them where they needed to go.

Dean was a tree.

A tree.

Sam was pretty sure this was one of the weirdest things they'd ever faced.

He hated leaving his brother behind in the forest, but the fairy had been pretty clear about what needed to be done to fix things. Sam supposed that at least now he wouldn't have to argue with Dean about whether or not to let Constantine help him with the wall.

He was nervous, and there was a small part of him that hoped to see Fred before he ventured down a course that could lead to insanity or death. But there was yet another part of him that thought it wouldn't be fair to her, and there was really no time to waste.

So he only halfway kept an eye out for the brainy female when he wandered into Jackson's camp set-up. He'd checked in with one of the perimeter guards and gotten clearance to go in and general directions toward where he might find Constantine, and now he was on his way.

He was nervous, of course. But this at least had more of a chance of success than the plan to take control from Lucifer and jump into the pit. At least with this, he wasn't guaranteed either a lifetime of being Lucifer's meat suit or eternal torment. There was at least a small chance of coming out of this on the other side okay. That was... something, he supposed.

Castiel staggered slightly. The jump through time with the Winchesters had taken more than strength than he'd exerted in... centuries. After the brothers set him up in the hotel room he'd rolled onto his side, coughing up a bit more blood before he fell into a long sleep.

Sometime later he woke, and felt... empty. Without truly understanding why, he knew the Winchesters were gone. Somewhen else. The outcast angel pulled himself up and off the cheap bed, touching his face and feeling the dried blood there. He was feeling better, but still not nearly powerful enough to bring all three of them back. They must have gotten home some other way.

One more jump. Castiel stood and put a hand against the wall to steady himself, closing his eyes and willing himself back to the boys. It was... less than instantaneous, and even as he started the blink-of-an-eye journey he knew he'd overdone it. His insides felt like they were ripping to shreds, searing like holy fire pouring down his throat and exploding around the heart of his vessel.

( And then it was cool again. )

Fred sat around the fire, staring into it. They'd been traveling for sometime, and she still wasn't sure where they were going. Or, she hadn't been until someone mentioned a library. Jackson had said nothing about any sort of library. Sure, Fred could have guessed there was one; what technology she'd seen suggested there had to be some sort of collection of knowledge. She was even happy to know that the collection had been in many formats, though the best to use currently was in bound book form. What bothered her was that no one had said anything until they were practically there. It was as if people just seemed to know.

She'd asked to be allowed to go with the new couple that she'd found with Sam. There were a few others going, but Jackson seemed more interested in other information. He wasn't one to be bothered by the chosen and the prophecy much. The camp had a few of the "prophet" types, but none who actually knew the Prophecy with a capital p. Just men and women who saw through to other worlds. They seemed just as special as the chosen in Jackson's camp. Everyone was the same, more or less.

So, there she was, standing before some great ruin of a building. It looked and felt like a library without even stepping into it. She was reminded of the scene from Logan's Run in which Logan met his first old person. She wondered if there would be some old fellow inside with too many cats. Now all they had to do was find the one room, right?

"This shouldn't take long." She started up the stairs to head into the buildling.

They'd been given their orientation by Jackson and shown to their tent. Zee smirked when she saw it and glanced at John after their guide left them to their own devices.

"Cozy." She smirked. Even though she was used to living in a huge, gothic mansion like Shadowcrest the humble quarters didn't bother her. (Okay maybe a week without a real shower and a razor might get to her, but no way was she giving John that kind of ammunition!)

There were more new people in the camp. Four in one day. This was quite a busy day, Jackson reflected. He wasn't unhappy that Fred had brought new people into the camp. In fact, he would offer protection to any who were willing to work to earn their keep.

However, he worried about the safety of the chosen few. He knew full well what was going on in New Troy and he didn't trust Belia's agenda regarding the interdimensional visitors either. He would offer them protection as long as he could, but he feared that his small band of travelers wouldn't be enough for Dr. Lucius' or Ms. Ohorek's forces or for any of the other forces at work that might want to get to them.

All the same, he was ever the stoic leader, hiding his worry behind a calm expression as he settled into the tent used for meetings and waited to meet with the two newest arrivals.

Fred left Sam to his guarding post; she was intent on showing the couple to the leader of the nomads. Jackson was a good guy, a very good guy. He didn't seem to mind how odd the Texan was, and he seemed okay with her going out only to bring back another person to work withing the camp. She had to hope that the new couple would be useful, or that they would be on their way if they didn't fit.

"Jackson will probably want to ask you where you'd like to be." The brainy Texan smiled. "Then again, I'm kinda everywhere. People are always everywhere. There are a few people who do the same thing over and over, but I'm not one of them. I like doing all sorts of things." Yes, this was who she was. She did like talking.

Whether or not both of them were following was...well, she hoped they were both tagging along.

They were arguing.

Big shock right?

John was supposed to show up and of course he didn't show up on time. The problem was he didn't even show up on 'John time' as Zee liked to call it. In fact he was kind of in the wrong side of the day which made her have to sit around waiting on him.

So she was irritated, he was defensive...it was all pretty normal until the world kind of hiccuped around them and tossed them to the floor. Only this floor had dirt and leaves and a great bloody stick jabbing him in the ribs.

"You know luv, normally I wouldn't complain about how you're touchin' me but can you let me up?" He'd had his usual luck to fall under her so he had her boobs pushed up against his back but that stick was a definite mood killer.