#death the forth horseman dean winchester | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

glygriffe · 1 year

Text

Dead-end job: A rock and a hard place

Characters - Billie (Reaper), Death, Lucifer

Summary - Behind the scene of 5 x 15 Dead men don't wear plaid: Death and his right-hand reaper, Billie, negotiate the rising of the deads in Sioux Falls.

Word Count - 3 236

Warnings - None really, zombies mentioned

A note - Most recent installation in my Dead-end job Series (the working relationship of Death and Billie thru Supernatural) on AO3.

Chapter 1: Lucifer's Plan

« I think I've come up with a great plan to help Sam say yes », said Lucifer.

« I thought you were already certain he would say yes. »

Death raised an eyebrow making the statement. He didn't want to show his exasperation at the bratty child of God's antics; the eyebrow was a compromise to stop himself from rolling his eyes.

« Yes, yes, but I want to speed things a bit », answered Lucifer, making a swirling gesture with his indexes. Then, with a swiping movement up and down his vessel's body: « Good ol' Nick here is like a suit that is too tight. I'm eager to get my true vessel as fast as possible. »

Death took in the skin problems that Lucifer's vessel was exhibiting. He knew that the archangel drank the blood of, on average, 10 demons a week to keep his vessel (barely) strong enough to contain his essence. That was not that much, considering he had access to Hell. But, maybe Hell was not as well stocked in demons as the horseman thought.

It usually took a hundred years of torture, more or less, to twist a soul into black smoke in Hell. Princes and knights of that particular kingdom were sometimes speeding up the process by putting the soul in limbo, where time moved differently, and assigning their best men on a case, like it happened with the soul of one Dean Winchester, not so long ago. If the state of Lucifer's vessel was any indication, the limbo-torture fast track was not fast enough.

Judging by the poor condition of the cavern they were using to have their meeting, maybe the death of the demon Azazel had left Hell in disarray when Lucifer had finally broken out of his cage. Maybe too many demons escaped top-side when the Devil's gates opened in Wyoming. Maybe Lucifer was killing too many of his minions just for fun. Or to bind me to him, forcing me rise to this plane of existence and to walk the earth, thought the horseman, somewhat bitterly.

« Why are you telling me about Sam Winchester? Don't you have a plethora of demons and other worshipers to act as sounding boards? »

Lucifer's eyes went deadly and he tugged violently at the bounding spell, making Death lose his balance. Apparently, his exasperation was showing more than he thought, after all, and the fallen archangel was not please. To make matters worse, he could almost feel Billie harrumphed, just out of sight, which it did not help him keep his aloofness or his dignity.

Thankfully for the horseman ego, Lucifer's attention-span was short; he let go of his traction on Death's leash, and was already rubbing his hands together and pacing back and forth as he thought of the next step in his scheme.

« Since it would be much easier to get Sam to see my point if his support system was weaker – Ruby could attest to the veracity of that if she was still alive –, I think I'll send you to Sioux Fall to kill that salty crippled old hunter. I'm told that without their father figure, the boys could be at each other's throat, as they were under Ruby's influence. Maybe you could maim Michael's vessel while you're at it. Two birds, one rock kind of deal. »

Death stared at the fallen archangel. Maiming a vessel was not against his Prime directive of maintaining cosmic balance, even if he didn't like to intervene in that way. But he found the Winchester brothers fascinating, notwithstanding God's almost obsessive interest in them. Watching them more closely since the rise of Lucifer in Ilchester, Maryland, he could almost understand the divine obsession with them and he wasn't thrill at the idea of desecrated one of them. Not to mention the fact that it was repulsive to stoop to brutalizing a human to begin with.

A few moments passed in complete silence, during which Lucifer seemed to lose some of his composure.

In the shadows, Billie could feel Lucifer's uneasiness and the horseman contempt filling the space between them. She found a good amount of pleasure at seeing the Archangel backtrack a little.

« Nah. You're right. It would be more fun to beat Michael in the Apocalypse if he is at full power. Forget the Dean thing. Getting Bobby Singer out of the picture will be enough. »

She could almost see the snake squirming to emerge from the fallen archangel and rig the game in his favor, even as his words claimed otherwise. She also could feel quite distinctly that her boss wanted nothing to do with the part of the plan about Bobby Singer, either.

He did not say it out loud, though; he was taciturn by nature and the reaper thought he would do a lot to avoid having to plea with the Devil. That would be demeaning, for sure.

She still could not believe Death had not been able prevent the bounding spell. Even she had seen it coming for a long time before it happened. Wasn't he a cosmic entity as old as God himself? Now, he didn't have much choice in the matter. He was Lucifer's servant, to put it bluntly. Billie would never had let that happen to her, if she had his powers and standing.

Not that Billie herself had any standing, in the grand scheme of things. But she had a little freedom and she wanted to use it to keep the balance in the universe, as Death did. She chose to be here, to assist her boss if he needed anything. She didn't have to be in Lucifer's presence; not like Death had to be while the Light Bringer kept him on such a short leash, literally. But it was interesting to observe him while keeping out of sight. A reaper with ambition, as she was, could learn a lot in the presence of archangels. And Lucifer was the only one she had access to.

Billie receded even more in the shadows to observe, cloaking her presence behind the powerful aura of the Pale horseman. The archangel was not paying any attention to her. His mind had already changed track, his body pacing again the rocky floor, unease completely forgotten.

« I want you to show some showmanship while getting rid of Signer. I'm bored. I need entertainment. Kill the whole town for some flair. You can sort of replicate what I did in Carthage; I won't slap you with copyrights », he added with a smile. He even winked at Death while saying this, and both the horseman and the reaper recoiled a little, involuntarily.

« And make sure to kill Singer in front of Sam, for more pathos; it is the details that reveal a job well done. »

The reaper listened to her boss remind the archangel about the natural order of things that needs to be preserved in the way souls depart this Earth, even in the mist of an Apocalypse. She smiled; he was doing a good job of getting out of the task without outright refusing it. It was easy to tell he was successful by the way Lucifer paced the floor in a different rhythm, looking more and more like a spoiled child about to throw a tantrum. She admired Death's persuasion skills and strict values at that moment.

« Then what CAN you do? », roared the archangel, his modicum amount of patience down right exhausted. « I thought you were the most powerful horseman, but maybe I should send for Pestilence instead; he seems to have a better understanding of my needs. »

Hearing such a lack of respect made Billie's blood boil, even if she doesn't have technically a body here. She calmed herself down when she realized that Lucifer might discover her if she let her emotions get the better of her, and THAT would not be a great thing for her.

After a couple of minutes of looking around the cavern as if he missed something (Billie's presence, in that case), Lucifer stopped fidgeting around and slapped his hand merrily on his thigh. Billie almost got whiplash from the fast change in his humor. « Oh! I know: you will rise the undead! That is the perfect apocalypse scenario, and since we are talking bodies, not ensouled people, there won't be any of that 'souls leaving in the natural order' nonsense. »

« Very well », conceded Death after a beat. He could feel Billie shake her head, but she didn't understand that this new scenario was a small victory.

Since Death took an interest in the Winchester brothers, he knew that when they fought monsters, they won more often then they lose. In this new zombie scenario, Bobby Singer would have a better chance to live until the moment the Fates have chosen to cut his thread. And Death was fairly sure he could get one of the zombies to give a message to Bobby that may thwart the plan of the impudent that enslaved him. Or he could even go himself (and grab some chislic while in South Dakota). The message should by cryptic, though, to avoid drawing Lucifer's attention unnecessary on his intervention.

///

Later, when made aware of the plan, Billie mumbled under her breath that he should not intervene at all: « The natural order should not be tampered with, you taught me that. But if you are forced to do so, do it as little as possible. And that means no message that could influence a life or death situation in one way or the other. The zombie mess will be bad enough. »

Death refrained from rolling his eyes again. Sometimes, Billie could be as tiresome as Lucifer.

Chapter 2

#spn fanfic #Death (supernatural)#billie the reaper #supernatural fanfiction #spn gen fic #gen fanfic

2 notes · View notes