Prophecy -- Chapter 21

Disclaimer:  The TV shows Dark Angel and Supernatural, all of the characters that appeared on them, and everything else that has to do with the shows belong to their respective owners, not to me.  No money is being made off of this fic.  I only own the original characters (Dylan/X6-175, etc.).

“I wish Biggs could have come with us,” Dean commented as he and Sam drove east.  “We could use all the help that we can get.”

“He’s a ghost, Dean.  You know that he can’t leave the city,” Sam reminded him.  “Believe me, I wish that he could have come along, too.  We’ll do the best that we can without him.”  Sam paused.  “Plus, there is Dylan.  He could very well swing things around in our favor.”

Dean briefly glanced over at Sam before returning his gaze to the road.  “Are you okay, Sam?”

“Sure, I’m fine.”  Sam heard Dean snort in apparent disbelief and sighed.  “Dean, I’ll be fine.  Honest.  We’ve been in some pretty sketchy situations before and I’ve been fine then.  I’ll be okay this time, too.  Don’t worry about it.”

“Oh yeah, I won’t worry about it,” Dean said sarcastically.  “What’s there to worry about?  Me and my transgenic clone are apparently going to die at the hands of some dickhead with a superiority complex.  Just another day at the office.  Oh, and have I mentioned—“

“I get the idea.”  Sam cut his brother off before Dean could finish that line of thought.  “But I will be fine.  I promise.”

“Uh-huh.”  I’ll believe it when I see it, Sammy.

“I will, Dean,” Sam insisted.  He took a deep breath.  “Let’s quit arguing about it.  Whether or not I’ll be okay doesn’t matter because we’ll stop both you and Alec from being killed.  End of story.”  He sighed and turned to look out the window.

Dean nodded and took one more quick glance at his younger brother.  I really hope that you’re right, Sam.

“You beat us here,” Alec noted as he and Dylan arrived at their rendezvous site to find Logan already there.  “And with ten minutes to spare.”  He turned to Dylan and lowered his voice so that the other transgenic would be the only other person who could hear him.  “Do you think that he was hoping that Max would have decided to come along with us?”

Dylan tried to repress his laughter.  “I don’t know.”

“Hello, Alec,” Logan said.  “I guess this is Dylan?”

“Yep,” Alec confirmed.  “Logan, Dylan.  Dylan, Logan.”

“Pleased to meet you,” Dylan said politely.

“Nice to meet you, too.”  Logan smiled, though it was clearly strained.  “We should be getting going soon.”

“Don’t worry, Logan, we’ll get going soon,” Alec assured the older man.  “We’ve got plenty of time before we need to get out on the road.  Do we need to get out there sooner?  Is something wrong?”

Logan shook his head.  “No, at least nothing that I’m certain of.  I called my contact about five minutes ago and he said that he was going to be running a couple of minutes late and I should go there anyway and wait for him.  It shouldn’t be that big of a deal, except that in the four years that I’ve known and dealt with him, he’s never been late for a meeting before.”

“I see,” Alec said.  He and Dylan exchanged concerned looks.  “Dylan and I will make sure that the area’s secure when we arrive.”  The X5 grinned and patted Logan on the shoulder.  “Don’t worry, Logan.  The professionals will take care of it.”

“Good to know,” Logan remarked.

“I know that you’re still angry about Max breaking up with you, but Alec had nothing to do with it,” Dylan spoke up after seeing the uncomfortable expression on Logan’s face.  “I’m not trying to be nosy or anything like that, but from what I’ve heard, Alec had nothing to do with what happened.  You shouldn’t have any reason to give him those weird looks or be borderline hostile to him.  We all need to work together if we want this to go off without a hitch.”  He turned towards Alec.  “That does mean you, too.  Don’t bait Logan.”  Dylan lowered his voice so that Logan wouldn’t hear him.  “Much.”

Alec nodded and successfully held back his grin.  “Got it, Dylan.  I’ll behave like a good little boy.”

“I’m not sure that I agree with you, but I’ll try my best,” Logan promised.  “You’re pretty mature for your age, Dylan.”

“I guess it comes with the territory,” Dylan commented.  “I was the commanding officer of my unit back at Manticore.  You kind of have to learn to be mature when you’re in that situation.”

“And on that note, shall we go?” Alec asked.  The other two men nodded and they went off.

“Here we are,” Dean said as he pulled the Impala to the side of a quiet street.  “Lovely Novelty, Washington.”  He turned the engine off, reached for his pistol, and tucked it into the waistband of his jeans.  Dean glanced up and saw the look that Sam was giving him.  “What?  Just because we know that Alec and Dylan will be there to hopefully save the day is no reason for me to go in there completely half-assed.”

“I wasn’t thinking that, Dean,” Sam insisted, accepting the pistol that Dean handed to him and hiding it in the same way that his brother did before opening the car door.  “I was…never mind.”

Dean managed a smile.  “It’ll be okay, Sammy.”  He opened the driver’s side door and got out of the car, his smile widening as he slammed the door shut.  “We’ve managed to kick your visions in the ass more times than we haven’t.  We can pull it off again.”

“I hope you’re right,” Sam agreed.

“Sammy, Sammy, Sammy.  Haven’t you been paying attention for the past thirty-seven years?  I’m always right.”  Dean grinned.  “Now, what do you say we take a look around this one-horse town, huh?”

“Okay,” Sam said, laughing.

“Last stop,” Dylan commented as he parked the van in a vacant lot in Novelty.  He undid his seat belt and turned to face Alec and Logan.  “We’re a couple of blocks from the site of the meeting, but we still have plenty of time before we have to be there and that’s not even taking into account the revised arrival time of your contact, Logan.  We’re in good shape.”  He quickly ducked down to retrieve a gun from the bag on the floor near the driver’s seat so that Logan wouldn’t be able to see his sudden attack of nerves.  Good shape until Ames White shows up, anyway.  Oh, damn.

“Don’t forget your toys with you, boys,” Alec said in a sing-song voice as the grabbed three earpieces and passed two of them to Logan and Dylan before putting his own in.  “Everybody set?”

“Yeah, I’m good to go,” Dylan confirmed as he jammed some spare clips into a pocket.  He followed Alec and Logan out of the van, but hesitated as he started to follow them towards the meeting site.

“Wait over here for a moment, Logan, we’ll be right there,” Alec ordered.  He walked back over to Dylan.  “Are you okay, Dylan?”

“I’ll be fine,” Dylan told him.  “Really.”

“But…”

Dylan was silent for several long moments.  “What if it’s you?” he finally said.  “I’m still not sure about that.  Alec, I don’t want you to die.”

“If it makes you feel better, I don’t want to die either,” Alec remarked.  “Dylan, you’ll be there and that’s going to make the difference.  And if it’s not me that you saw getting gunned down, then we’ve got another advantage.  I’ve got faith in you.  We’ll pull this off.  Nobody will die.  I promise.”

“Don’t make promises that you can’t keep,” Dylan warned.

Alec grinned.  “Then I’ll just have to keep this promise, won’t I?”

Dylan shook his head as he followed Alec and Logan.  “I really don’t know what to do with you, Alec.”  When they reached a point near the site, Dylan carefully scanned the area for any signs of a threat.  “I’m not picking up anything.  All I can hear and see are ordinaries and there aren’t too many of those around.  If White’s in the area, he’s keeping himself pretty well hidden.”

“Great, he figured out how to use his brain,” Alec muttered.  “Okay, I’ll cross the street and take position there.  Dylan, stay on this side of the street.  Logan, I guess all you’ve got to do is wait for your contact to show up.  Gentlemen, good luck.”  He nodded and walked over to his position.

“Well, this is boring,” Dean commented.

Sam mentally sighed.  He’s worse than a three-year-old sometimes.  “There’s not much that we can do right now, Dean.”  He looked up and froze.  “Damn.”

“Sam?”

“This is it,” Sam said softly.  “I recognize this intersection.”

“Crap.”  Dean was silent for several long moments.  “Well, maybe we can find out if anybody matching Alec’s, Dylan’s, Cale’s, or White’s descriptions has been seen in the area recently.”

“I’ll do that,” Sam offered.  “The convenience store over there looks open.”

“Grab me a bottle of Coke and some M & M’s while you’re at it?” Dean asked, laughing when Sam flipped him off.  He sighed when his brother disappeared into the store and turned and walked into the street, lost in thought.

I wish those damn visions went away for good after the demon was killed.  Every time he has one of those things, it wears on him.  He can bear it pretty well by now, but it’s still hard for him to some degree.  If only there was something that I could do.  He snorted.  Yeah, right, Dean.  You’ve been wondering about that one for years.  Want to know what the answer is now?  It’s the same as it was when Sam first starting getting The Shining: not a damn thing.  Dean looked over and saw another man on the street and frowned.  Is that…I think that might be Logan Cale.  He does fit the description that Biggs gave.  They stood there looking at each other until Dean started to grow annoyed at the look on Logan’s face.  For hell’s sake, Biggs said he doesn’t like my clone very much, but is that any excuse for him to give me that look?

“Excuse me?” Logan finally said.  “Do you…?”  He let his sentence trail off.  Dean opened his mouth to speak, but then he saw the man approaching them and his blood went cold.

Oh, God.  Sam, Alec, Dylan…  Dean held his breath.  Come through for me.  Come on!

“What the hell?”  The blood drained from Logan’s face as he saw White walk towards him and Dean.  “Oh my God, I’ve got to…”

“…do nothing.”

Alec sucked in a breath when he saw Dean approach Logan.  Holy shit, that’s me!  Well, me in twenty years.  Actually…who the flying fuck is that guy?!  He shook his head.  Damn, no wonder Dylan couldn’t tell if it was me or not.  He looks like I do.  He moves the same way.  I’ll be damned if that’s not the same look that I gave those jerks in Unit 5 behind their backs more times than I can count!  Alec took a deep breath and tried to contain his shock.  You can worry about who our mystery guest is later.  You have a job to do.

“Excuse me?  Do you…?”  Alec watched Logan as the ordinary paled at the sight of Ames White’s approach.  “What the hell?  Oh my God, I’ve got to…”

“…do nothing,” White finished calmly.  He stepped towards Logan.

Alec’s eyes narrowed as he moved.  If you can’t do something, I will.

Dean’s eyes narrowed when White shoved Logan backwards with enough force to send the bespectacled man skidding down the road by a few feet.  Evil?  Check.  Bastard?  Check.  Sam have a vision about him killing?  Check.  Good enough for me.  He made a move towards White that would have easily taken a normal man down, but the Familiar kicked Dean back with little apparent effort.  The older Winchester grunted as he picked himself up, only to find the barrel of White’s gun staring him in the face.  He started to move as he saw White’s finger tighten on the trigger and heard the bang as the gun went off, but didn’t feel the bullet slam into his chest.  Rather, he felt a large weight slam against his side, knocking him to the ground.  He glanced up and didn’t know whether to feel relieved or shocked when he saw his own face above him.

Sam paused when he heard the sounds of a scuffle and rushed outside.  He raced over to where he’d left Dean and his jaw dropped in shock when he saw White pull a gun on his older brother, only for a blur to knock Dean down.  No!  It’s happening!  No…

“Damn,” Alec gasped.

“494.  You always show up when you’re not wanted.”  White raised his gun again and Sam instinctively started to walk towards them.

“No!”

Dylan skidded to a stop and sucked in a breath as he saw Alec tackling Dean.  Oh God, that guy…thank goodness for Alec!  He frowned and reached for his gun when White approached Alec and Dean, but the X6’s eyes suddenly widened when something else appeared in his field of vision.  Holy shit, this can’t be real!

Dean winced when he heard Sam’s voice.  Damnit, Sammy, get out of here!  You’re gonna get yourself killed and it won’t help either me or Alec!  Go!  He watched in horror as White turned to see to new intruder and raised his gun towards Sam.  The Familiar’s finger reached for the trigger when he suddenly jerked forward.  Dean, Sam, and White looked over to see Dylan standing on the opposite side of the sidewalk as Sam, a smoking pistol in his hand.  White nearly snarled, switched his gun to his good hand, and turned to shoot Dylan, but jerked again when Alec, who’d managed to grab his gun by then, shot him in the other shoulder.  White stepped towards the X5, which was all the distraction that Dylan needed to blur forward and knock White out.

“Thanks, Dylan,” Alec grunted as he picked himself up off the ground.  “Good work.”

“What…what the hell is going on here?” Logan demanded.

“It’s kind of obvious, Sherlock,” Alec remarked.  “We need to get out of here before Mr. Sunshine comes to.”

“Our car is just around the corner,” Sam spoke up.

“We’ll take it, then,” Alec decided.  He turned towards a still-shocked Dylan.  “Dylan?  Grab Logan.  Let’s leave this place.”  Dylan shook himself out of it long enough to nod, haul Logan up off the street, and follow Dean, Sam, and Alec as they all ran over to where the Impala was parked.

“First-Aid kit’s underneath my seat,” Dean said as he turned the engine on and pulled away.

“I got it,” Dylan told them.  He somehow managed to lean down and retrieve the kit.

Alec looked at his friend with concern.  “Are you okay. Dylan?”

“Are you?” Dylan countered as he opened the kit and started to go through the supplies to retrieve what he needed.  “Aside from the shoulder, I mean.”

“Get back to me later for a definite answer,” Alec replied.  “But I hope I’ll be okay eventually.  What about you?”

“I don’t know,” Dylan said softly.  He took a deep breath before he got to his task.  The X6 worked efficiently, but while his hands  cleaned up and dressed Alec’s bullet wound, his eyes kept drifting over to the front passenger seat, over to Sam Winchester’s face…which was identical to his own.

TBC