41. Battle of the "Heroes"

"Dean," I whisper through red lips.

"Well there he is," says the older Styne, smirking. "I hope you brought marshmallows."

"Been looking for you," says Dean gruffly.

"Oh yeah? Why is that? Oh wait. You're not still sore about um, what's her name?"

"Charlie. Her name was Charlie."

"Yeah, well. Chuckie, she got what she deserved. I got to wonder...Who do you believe killed her? Me, or your so-called ally over here?" He points the angel blade in my direction. "I mean, the thought has to have crossed your mind once. Your demon friend...she let her die. Question is: who's more of the villain? Me or her?"

"You. A-always you," I rasp.

"Says a fellow monster."

"Shut up," says Dean.

"Straight to it, then. I respect that. See, you got lucky before. This time, I'm sporting some new upgrades. See, my old man—"

"Your old man's dead. They're all dead. So you can save me the speech on the three hearts, the two spleens, the seven nipples, for the ladies...or the fellas, I don't judge. But even with all that, you still only have one brain."

"So?"

Before anyone can comprehend it, Dean draws a gun and shoots the Styne square in the forehead. The body drops, and the younger Styne is now on the verge of tears. I rise, feeling slight burning, and retrieve my blade from the corpse. The kid looks at me. End him. Dean killed two of the three. Take this one.

"No, no, no, no, no, don't!" the kid pleas. "Don't!"

"Why not? You're one of them," says Dean.

"No. No, I'm not! Okay, I hate my family! See, look!" The kid pulls up his shirt. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be looking at. "No stitches! I'm not like them, I promise."

"Oh, you are like them. There's bad in you. It's in your blood. Now you can deny it and you can run from it all you want, but that bad...will always win."

The kid is shaking his head, tears glistening. "I'll do anything you want. Okay, please. You don't need to do this. Please. Stay away from me!"

"Hey," I say softly. "I'm not the one you need to be afraid of here."

"S-stay away!"

"Is it the eyes, kid?" I revert them back to their original color. "Listen, he's not gonna hurt you."

"The hell I'm not," Dean snarls.

"Dean," I say warningly.

"Jo, back away from the kid."

I put myself even further between Dean and the kid. "No."

"He's got bad blood, Jo. He's a monster."

"He hasn't done anything! Look at him! He's not one of them!" Come on, Dean. Back off. Let me take the twerp and finish him in my own way. Catch on and see that, you dumbass.

"Not yet. Bloodlines catch up in the end. He'll be just like them. I'm not asking again. Get out of the way."

I step forward. "Make. Me."

"Don't tempt me."

"You're not killing him, Dean. We can help him. Take him in. Isn't that what you and Sam have done before? Think about Kevin, a-and those people you've taken in—"

"They're all gone, Jo. They're friends. He is part of the family that killed Charlie."

"Dean." I've got my hands out. "Put the gun down."

"Let me do this."

"No. This isn't you talking, it's the Mark. The Dean Winchester I know would try and help this kid!"

"Josette—"

"This isn't you. You need to snap out of this and think." My body shakes.

"S-she's right," the kid says in a shaky voice behind me. "Y-you don't have to do this."

Dean contemplates it for a long minute, using the hand that holds the gun to scratch the side of his head. I'm prepared to throttle Dean. He needs to let me end this kid myself.

"Yeah," says Dean quietly. "I do."

I lunge as Dean shoots. The bullet catches me in the shoulder, and I fall at Dean's feet. Before I can react, I hear one more shot go off. I'm screaming as the boy falls like a downed tree to the floor. I grab at my wounded shoulder.

"You...you fucking asshole," I whisper lethally as I stagger to my feet. "You didn't have to do that!"

"I did, Jo."

I look back at the boy with the bullet in his forehead. "Are you happy now, huh?" I retort to my older brother. "You murdered the Styne bloodline. Congratulations, Dean. You beat me to the thing that I wanted to do! You could've at least let me take the kid and kill him in my own way! You could've at least let me tag along so this wouldn't have happened! I would bring Charlie out to celebrate, but, oh wait, I can't."

"Don't talk about her like that."

"What did murdering the Stynes accomplish? She's not coming back, Dean! Did the Mark tell you to wipe out an entire bloodline, hmm?"

"You need to back off."

"No, I don't."

"What was your reasoning for killing the Stynes, then, Jo, huh? Explain that one to me."

"They're menaces that needed to die."

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you wanted them dead to cover your tracks."

I roll my eyes. "He was feeding you bullshit, Dean. I didn't kill Charlie."

"I don't know, Jo. It's hard to believe what you do anymore." He sighs. "I was hoping this day would never come."

"What day?"

"When I'd have to put down my own little sister. But I'm not sure that you're even her anymore. All I see when I look at you is a demon."

"You wanna know what I see when I look at you now? An asshole." I crack my neck. "You want to fight, Dean? Let's go. One last round. You want to kill me? Go ahead and do your damn best!"

Dean charges, and I hit him with the angel blade across the face. I snarl, flashing my black eyes to him. The hype in my veins fuels me, and I don't feel like using any demonic power here. I want to win this with strength alone. He doesn't believe in me anymore, fine. I'll give him a reason to fear me.

Dean hits the weak points on me, my injuries. Even as a demon, there's only so much pain I can tolerate. I cry out, refusing to give up the blade.

"You know, I'll bet he's telling the truth," Dean grunts as we circle each other. I make sure to keep away from the bodies. "You did kill her."

I roll my neck. "Believe whatever the fuck you want, Dean. I don't care."

"Oh, you're gonna care when I gank you." He charges, knocking me onto my back by tackling me at my waist. Using the angel blade, I swipe to keep him away from me. When he knocks the blade out of my hand and out of my reach, that's when I start to get worried. The change in my brother...I'm looking at the Mark of Cain more than Dean Winchester.

Dean holds my blade above my head. I pant, blood gurgling in my mouth.

"Do it," I hiss, cackling. "The world knows you want to." Dean hesitates above me. I scream louder. "Go on, do it!" I look my brother dead in his soulless eyes. "End me, Dean. If you don't want the cure, and if you never get it, you won't care anyway. Sam and Cas, this might be the thing that breaks them away from you. The Mark will be your only friend."

"You always got in the way," he murmurs. "Always rebelled. No wonder Dad hated you."

"You think bringing up daddy issues is gonna hurt my feelings?" I mock pout. "I've lost a lot of emotion with the transition. Can't say it's a bad thing, it shields me from low blows like this. What would Mom and Dad think, huh, if they saw this? Their children fighting?"

"They wouldn't see you as their daughter. You'd be just another monster. To them, their daughter would be dead."

"I guess she has been since she escaped Hell." So weird to refer to myself in the third person.

"You said you could handle it. We were stupid to think you could. Stupid to think that we could go along with it. And you know what? Sam doesn't trust you either."

"How can you speak for him?"

"I can see it. He knows you killed her too. He was smart in holding his reserves about you when you came back. And Cas...well, Cas hasn't trusted you since you crawled out of Hell. Instead of doing good, you've driven us away."

"You don't know that!" My voice warbles. "And, really? You want to talk about driving people away?"

"We tried this, and it didn't work."

"I guess not." I grunt. "Not the first time a Winchester has done something stupid."

"Yours takes the cake. You're not Josette Winchester; you're a creature of the night that people like me hunt for a living."

"Then cut the monologue and gank me already, asshole!" I hiss. "It's not nice to play with your food!"

Dean snorts. "Give in to a demon's demand? Good news for you, sis, I'm in a merciful mood." He clambers off me. "Get up!" Wiping the blood off my mouth, I rise. "I'm giving you an once-in-a-lifetime get-out-of-jail-free pass. You walk out that door, you don't come back. The next time I see you, you're going back to Hell and staying in that hole you came out of."

I smirk, chuckling. "Okay, then. I guess the next time I see you, I'll make sure to end you."

"Sweetheart, you kill me, I come back with my own pair of black eyes."

"Then we'll really have a good title match." Feeling stiff and defeated, I slink around Dean, feeling my truck keys in my pocket.

I stumble up the stairs and out into the cool night. I climb into my truck, beating my palms against the steering wheel. I left my angel blade in Dean's hands! Oh well. Looks like you're disappearing, Jo.

A reluctant thought comes to mind, and it makes me grimace. I pull out my phone and dial a number.

"Well, well," croons the velvet tone, "so soon?"

"Shut up," I bark. "Where are you?"

"Decided to believe me, did you?"

"Where are you?"

"All right, all right, calm down. Where are you?"

"That's private."

"Like asking me for my address isn't violating my privacy?"

"I need a place to lie low and lick my wounds."

"I'm not a hospital."

"Just tell me where you are."

"I tell you what. I'll text you the address and we'll go from there."

I sniff. "Fair enough."

"See you when you get here."

I end the call, setting my phone momentarily down on my thigh. I look at the Impala, how it's a symbol of the enemy now. Dean Winchester, my older brother, doesn't trust me. Wants me dead.

Well, the feeling is mutual. It's just not the time to have the title fight.

If Dean's right about Sam and Cas—even though I don't want to believe it—then they're dead to me too.

My phone pings, and I put the address into the GPS. I rev my truck and tear down the road. I swear I might've seen Cas's car pass by me, but for all I know I'm seeing things.

I don't look back.

**I just love the title of this one, because really, while our Winchesters may be heroes, they sure as hell aren't right now. And the song that's in this chapter kind of helped that. I just pictured this epic battle with that music.

And this was a long time coming, you guys, for Jo to duke it out with Dean like this. From the moment I saw it in my head, I wanted it to happen. And it has, in all its horrible glory.

If y'all got scared for Jo's life, that Dean would've killed her, I'm not sorry for giving you heart attacks. 

Anyway, there's one chapter left, and then the author's note.**