esoteric ↯ dean winchester x reader

xxix.

Dean walked into the barn with Cain. Cain is still inside the Devil's Trap.

"Hello, Dean." Cain perked up a bit, Dean didn't respond. Cain became impatient with the teasing, "At a loss for words, my son? Allow me. This is the part where you tell me it's not too late and I can lay down arms, abandon my mission. And most importantly that: We don't have to fight."

"I'll spare us the formalities." Dean walked toward the devil's trap, "You're past talking down. Cain, you're fully mental."

"Oh, I prefer to think I've finally gotten clear." Cain walks around the Devil's Trap, trying to keep equal to Dean, "When I made my bargain with Lucifer, killed Abel, I released a stain upon the earth, a stain deeper and far more lasting than mere precedence."

"Your bloodline's tainted, so you say." Dean repeated what you had told him.

"So I know." Cain corrected him, and stopped walking. "Not all killers are my descendants, and not all my descendants are killers, but enough are, enough for me to know that extinguishing them is the least I owe this world. Can you honestly tell me that humanity's not better off with fewer Tommy's and fewer Leon's... Fewer you's?"

"And what about the kid?" Dean looked for a loophole.

"He could go either way. I prefer to be thorough." Cain said, giving Dean dead eyes, Dean stood on the edge of the trap, "How's it feel, Dean, to be holding the Blade again?"

"It feels like a means to an end." Dean said, raising it from his side and looking at it, then steps into the trap.

"Then do it." Cain said, low and serious.

Dean makes several attempts to stab Cain with the blade. Cain evades them all and throws Dean to the ground. Dean gets up and tries again, and again Cain throws him to the ground. Dean punches Cain and as he swings the blade up and Cain grabs his wrist. They are both struggling to control the blade.

"That seems a bit weaker than I would expect from you with the Blade." Cain looks Dean in the eyes, snarling, "I think you can do better."

Dean can, he has what Cain doesn't. Dean has people who care about him, you that makes what he's doing worth it. Who paint a light at the end of his tunnel. He punches Cain in the face.

"Unless..." Cain continued, but Dean was relentless, punching him again and again. "You're holding back."

Dean lunges at Cain and Cain grabs both his hands. They remain in that grip, struggling for the blade. Cain's face was all Dean could see.

"What is it, Dean? Do you think if you hold back just enough, you won't succumb, that you'll leave this fight the same as you entered?!" Cain yelled, throwing Dean to the ground, "Look to my example, boy! There is no resisting the Mark or the Blade. There is only remission and relapse!"

Dean rolled over, painfully feeling the sting in his knees. Cain punches Dean savagely.

"You told me that this day would come." Dean spat back, "You told me that I would have to kill you."

"Is that so?" Cain held out his hand and flung Dean across the barn and through a window, "I'm afraid you've misunderstood my intentions here, Dean. When your pet found my burial site, I thought about ending her and swatting her like a fly."

"You wouldn't be able to-" Dean grunted, trying to protect you even now.

"But then I thought about you." Cain continied as Dean got back up, "Your biggest weakness, the thing I noticed the moment I met you, your courage, your reckless bravado. I let her go, knowing that she would report back to you, knowing you would bring into battle the one thing that can kill me, the one thing I truly want."

Cain holds out his hand and the First Blade flies out of Dean's hand slides along the ground and into the Devil's Trap. Cain stops it with his boot and picks it up.

"Oh, it's been too long. That old feeling makes me wonder how I ever had the strength to resist." Cain practically moaned. Dean runs to attack Cain. Cain grabbed him by the throat and throws him to the ground, "This may be hard to believe, in light of what I'm about to do to you, but I care about you, Dean. I truly do. But I know I'm doing you a favor. I'm saving you."

"Saving me from what?" Dean asked, Cain got on top of him.

"From your fate." Cain cocked his head. "Has it never occurred to you? Have you never mused upon the fact that you're living my life in reverse? My story began when I killed my brother, and that's where your story inevitably will end."

"No. Never." Dean argued.

"It's called the Mark of Cain for a reason!" Cain yelled, "First ... first, you'd kill Crowley. There'd be some strange, mixed feelings on that one, but you'd have your reason. You'd get it done, no remorse." He said, scaring Dean with every letter, "And then you'd kill the angel, Castiel. Now, that one ... that I suspect would hurt something awful."

"No!" Dean refused, Cain lunged forward.

"I'm not even at the best part!" Cain shook his head, "Next will be your pet, (Y/N). You won't kill her. But she'll be taken from you, another man. Another angel, whatever way it happens she'll die or leave you.-"

"She's not my pet, you son of a bitch." Dean fought back, but Cain continued over it. Acting as though Dean never spoke at all.

"And boy that'll eat you up inside. It'll feel as though as you're dead yourself. You'll kill just so you can feel something again. And it'll drive you to commit what would become the murder you'd never survive," Cain lunges to the ground and grabs Dean by the shoulder. As Cain is talking, Dean sees his knife tucked under his coat, "the one that would finally turn you into as much of a savage as it did me."

"No." Dean rejected the thought.

"Your brother, Sam. The only thing standing between you and that destiny is this Blade. You're welcome, my son." Cain raises his hand to plunge the First Blade into Dean. Dean grabs Cain's knife from his belt and cuts off Cain's hand that is holding the First Blade. Blood spurts from his wrist. Cain falls over, grabbing his wrist. Dean gets up and grabs both blades as Cain gets to his knees.

"What's the matter?" Cain asked, holding onto his wrists, waiting for the fatal blow.

"Tell me I don't have to do this." Dean begged, he wanted to hear that he was good. That he could beat this. If Cain could stop, so could he. He wouldn't have to lose everyone. "Tell me that you'll stop. Tell me that you can stop!"

"I will never stop." Cain uttered, tears threatening his eyes. Dean walks behind Cain as Cain lowers his head. He raises his arm up and plunges the First Blade into Cain. Thunder shaking the whole barn, Dean had won.

~

Dean walked slowly down the stairs to where You, Sam, Castiel and Crowley are waiting. He was bloody, bruised, and exhausted. You wanted to run to him, but he said to prepare for whatever comes out.

"Dean?" You muttered, it sucked all the air out of the room.

"Dean, the Blade." Crowley said, holding his hand out. Dean looks at the blade, walks toward Crowley and then hands the blade to you.

"You lied to me." Crowley whined.

"It's not the first time today." Dean shook his head, "Cain's list ... you weren't on it."

Crowley vanished. You looked at the blade, what were you going to do with it? Dean collapsed onto Sam, he holds him up.

"Hey, hey, hey. You did it. Dean, you did it." Sam comforted him, keeping him steady, Dean looked at you, devastated over Sam's shoulder. His eyes expressing whatever he couldn't. Then you didn't care, you'd do whatever you needed to for him.