Then and now, a tale of two hunters.

[Dean Winchester]

It had probably only been a few hours driving but Dean was pretty sure he had no idea where the hell he was. The one bad thing about being in a desert was the lack of street signs and marker points, the lack of a proper road probably wasn't helping him much either. Dean silently wondered who he would have to talk to about fixing this. The toll it was taking on his car was getting more and more apparent with every mile he drove. The once shiny coat was dull and covered in sand, and there were scratches everywhere. The sun beating down on it like an unforgiving ass wasn't improving things either. He was going to have to find a garage at some point, if not build one himself. The random idea of building his own garage made Dean smile the first genuine smile he had since arriving here.

He was going to cut out his own piece of this land, he was going to make it his. There would be beer, burgers, and a hell of a lot more beer! Then all you do is add in a garage for him to tinker with his car and all was set. Heaven on the Earth, or the dunes. Though the thought of him finding his own heaven made him laugh. A demon in paradise, huh? Sure, that was totally going to happen.

First things first though, Dean had to take care of this damn Reaper. She had gotten the upper hand on him and he had barely survived that little encounter. It took summoning up all his demonic being and manifesting itself in some strange new power to get his ass out of that particular frying pan. That had stunned him more then the fact that there was a Reaper here. Everything he knew about Demons from his hunting days told him they really should not be able to do what he did. Apparently all the old rules where out the window, he would have to learn it all again as he went.

Dean shook his head in a vain attempt to clear all the random crap out of it, he had a mission. He needed to hunt this bitch down and kill her. All he knew was that she had left town, so he had as well.

How is that working out for you, Squirrel? The thought had entered his head uninvited and Dean could have sworn it was Crowley's voice he had heard. Here you are around, driving around aimlessly? And for what, petty Revenge? Then you end up getting lost on top of it! I thought you would have been better then that now! Once a Winchester, always a Winchester I guess. No helping some folks.

God, even imaginary Crowley was an ass.

Dean was about to admit that maybe the voice in his head was right, which normally would have sounded strange even for him, but then he caught sight of something that brightened his spirits a bit. There was smoke rising off in the distance, not much though so it might be a cooking fire. If this was the case then that meant people. It was the best chance he had of picking the reapers trail he had at the moment, the only alternative being to continue driving aimlessly. Though looking at his fuel gauge he wasn't sure how well that would work. There didn't seem to be a Seven Eleven anywhere in sight for him to gas up at. That settled matters for him and he headed off in the direction of the smoke.

After a few minutes of driving Dean got close enough to see that there was indeed a small cooking fire nestled under an out crop of rocks, something like you would see in the Lion King. There were two people huddled near it and one further away in a look out position as far as he could tell. The lookout was armed with a rifle but he couldn't make out what the other two by the fire had, odds are they had weapons as well. With one hand visibly on the top of the steering wheel and the other hanging out the opened driver side window he slowed down and headed towards the look out. The last thing he needed was to spook them and have his car soak up a bunch of bullets.

As he pulled up he noticed that the lookout was not only female but a brunette as well. Dean thought that maybe for once things were looking up for him until her voice cut his train of thought short.

”Keep moving.” was all she said to Dean, barely even glancing at him. He hadn't even gotten the chance to flirt first before being rejected. Well, so much for that. The direct route it was.

'That's the plan, as soon as you answer a few simple questions.” Dean looked her straight in the eye, as serious as he could be. “I'm looking for someone, she's dangerous and wouldn't bat an eye at ending you and your friends here. All you have to do is...” Sadly he did not get to finish his sentence before the barrel of the look outs rifle was pointed in his face.

”Look Sweetheart, I don't care. We see tons of people come through here. Some of them leave, some don't. You're cute so I will let you go, don't make me change my mind!” Did she just call him Sweetheart? Really?! Cute comment aside Dean just glared at her before putting the Impala into reverse and backing up and then turning it around to head back the way he had just came. As he did so he could have sworn he heard her speak again. Something along the lines of 'That's what I thought', or some bullshit like that.

Dean drove off in a hurry, but not for the reasons that the woman had thought. As soon as he judged he was far enough away to pick up enough speed he spun the Impala around quickly, kicking up a huge cloud of sand as he did, and then sped right at the lookout. Dean was guessing he had caught her off guard as she barely had time to raise her rifle before he heard the sound of her impacting against the front of his car, smashing into the windshield and then rolling over the roof. That sound was music to his ears. Slamming on the brakes he cut the ignition and then got out of the car, eyes all black and first blade in hand.

He marched over to the broken body that lay beside his car and leaned down next to her. her blood shot eyes looking up at him as she struggled to breath, though it looked like she was trying to say something. Dean spoke instead.

“Sorry Sweetheart, that was not the answer I was looking for.” Dean jammed the first blade right into her throat and laughed as his victims eyes went wide, then for extra effect his twisted the blade as laughed louder and the blood sprayed everywhere. He pulled the knife out and watched as the blood bubbled from her throat as she made gurgled sounds while trying to speak. He was about to say something highly inappropriate but the sound of gun fire and the headlight nearest to him exploding cut that short.

Standing up he saw the other two that had been beside the fire, one armed with another rifle and the other with a rather large knife. The two of them seemed taken aback by the site of Dean. It was either all the blood, the donkey jaw bone knife, or possible his black eyes. Seeing the one with the knife make the sign of the cross Dean was guessing it was potentially all three.

“Two against one? This hardly seems fair for you.” Dean had started to move around the car as he spoke but stopped as he caught something out of the corner of his eye. There was something moving around the rocks. Slowly that one thing turned into two, then three, and then more and more. People where coming out of the shadows, all of them armed with something. Very few had fire arms though as most seemed to have either blades or blunt instruments, though by very few it seemed like there were only two with actual guns. The rifle in the hands of the dude by the fire and a rather old looking pistol.
In the end Dean counted about seven in total including the ones by the fire.

Dean dove behind the Impala as both of the folks with guns fired, some shot hit the side of his car, the other his arm. If he hadn't moved when he had that one would have hit him in the chest.

”Well shit.”