Sioux Falls, South Dakota -- 1995
The darkness inside me was growing.
At twelve, I was getting better at hiding it, at pretending I was just another hunter's kid with some psychic tendencies. But watching Dean practice with blessed weapons in Bobby's yard, I could feel that empty darkness pulse with something ancient and terrible.
Knowledge from my past life didn't help. The show had never exactly mentioned how it felt to be Lucifer's true vessel. How the space inside you felt like a black hole, waiting to be filled with morning star light.
"Sam?" Dean's voice pulled me from my thoughts. "You okay? Sky's getting dark again."
I forced the storm clouds back, a trick I'd been practicing. "I'm fine. Just thinking."
Dean studied me with increasingly knowing eyes. At sixteen, he was changing too, though he didn't understand how.
I watched him handle the blessed silver knife, the metal gleaming unnaturally bright in his grip. The show never showed this either – how Michael's vessel would resonate with sacred things long before angels entered the picture.
"Bobby's got some new books on weather phenomena," Dean said carefully. "If you want to-"
"I said I'm fine."
The darkness inside me shifted restlessly, and overhead, thunder rolled. Dean's hand went to his cross – a gesture he'd started doing unconsciously whenever my moods turned dark. The sacred symbol seemed to glow faintly against his chest.
My brother: the righteous man. Heaven's sword.
And he had no idea.
Bobby's library had become both sanctuary and torture. Every book on angel lore made that darkness stir. Every mention of Lucifer sent phantom cold through my bones.
Knowledge was power, but it was also dangerous – especially when you had to pretend you were learning things for the first time.
"Found anything interesting?" Bobby's gruff voice carried from his desk.
"Just researching protection symbols," I answered, carefully angling the book away. In truth, I was studying Enochian sigils – things I shouldn't know about yet, but might need later.
Dean came in from practice, and suddenly the room felt different. Sacred, almost. I'd started noticing how spaces changed around him, how blessed objects seemed to reach for him like lost children finding their father.
The darkness inside me recoiled from his presence, even as something else yearned toward it. Brother to brother. Vessel to vessel. A cosmic echo of a war that hadn't started yet.
"Dad called," Dean announced. "Got a case nearby. Possible vengeful spirit."
I closed my book, hiding my relief. Ghosts were simple. Ghosts didn't make the darkness writhe or the sky darken. Ghosts didn't recognize what Dean and I were meant to be.
Usually.
"When do we leave?"
"Tomorrow morning." Dean's hand went to his cross again as thunder rolled outside. "You sure you're okay, Sammy? You've been... different lately."
If you only knew, I thought. If you could see what was growing inside both of us.
"Just tired," I lied, and watched storm clouds gather over Bobby's yard.
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That night, I added to my hidden journal, writing in a code I'd developed:
"Dean's changes accelerating. Blessed weapons respond to him more each day. Churches recognize him somehow. Need to research Michael's vessels before angels arrive - any lore about preparation signs?
The darkness grows. Harder to control weather reactions. Bobby noticed cross inverting during episodes. Need better control.
Timeline to watch:
Stanford (6 years away - 2001)
Dad's disappearance (10 years - 2005)
Dean's deal (12 years - 2007)
Seals breaking (13 years - 2008)
L's rise (13+ years - 2008/2009)
Need to prepare. Everything starts with Stanford. Can't let Dean and Dad fall apart like in the show."
A noise made me quickly hide the journal. Dean stood in the doorway, silhouetted by hallway light that seemed to cling to him unnaturally.
"Another nightmare coming?" he asked. He'd gotten good at predicting them by watching the sky.
"Maybe." I didn't tell him that my nightmares weren't normal. That sometimes I dreamed of a cage so deep it made the world shudder. That sometimes I heard wings and felt the morning star's light reaching for that darkness inside me.
Dean sat on the edge of my bed, and immediately the air felt clearer. Sacred. The darkness in me quieted, though it never fully slept.
"You know you can tell me anything, right?" His cross gleamed faintly in the dim light. "Whatever's happening with you..."
I almost laughed. Tell him what? That we were bred to be vessels for warring archangels? That his growing affinity for blessed things was just the start?
That the darkness in me was shaped exactly like the Devil himself?
"I know, Dean." Another lie to add to my collection. Ironic that in my past life I hated lies so much that I never did. "Just growing pains."
He nodded, but his eyes held questions.
"Try to sleep," he said finally. "Big hunt tomorrow."
As he left, I caught his reflection in Bobby's window. For just a moment, the light bent around him like wings.
I turned away, adding one more note to my journal before hiding it:
"Dean suspects something. Getting harder to hide. The darkness wants out.
But I won't let it win.
I won't let any of it happen.
Not like it was supposed to."
Outside, thunder rolled across clear skies, and somewhere deep inside me, that vessel-shaped darkness pulsed like a second heartbeat.
Waiting.
Growing.
Hungry for morning star's light.
But I wasn't Sam Winchester from the show. I had knowledge he didn't have. Preparation he never got.
And maybe, just maybe, that would be enough to change destiny itself.
The darkness stirred again, and I forced it down, watching Dean's cross glow faintly in the night.
Brother to brother.
Vessel to vessel.
A cosmic war waiting to begin.
But not yet.
Not ever, if I could help it.
Thunder rolled one final time, and I began to plan.
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(Author note: Hello everyone! I hope you all enjoyed the chapter!
Tell me, how do you find the dynamic shown between Sam and Dean now that their natures are more awake?
Do please tell.
Do please comment and review if you haven't, it motivates me to write more, the more I interact with you guys.
Well, I hope to see you all later,
Bye!)