Demons, Demigods and Hunters (Percy Jackson/Supernatural)

Chapter 44

Anna

"What the hell?" Dean muttered. They'd pulled up to the smoking remains of what Bobby had gruffly called the Roadhouse. Anna leapt out of the car with Bobby and Dean hot on her heels. She hurried towards the charred ruins, her hands automatically fluttering towards her weapons. She tapped each one, cataloging her resources in a familiar routine as she walked up to the burned remains of what clearly used to be a well visited stop over point. Stepping carefully through the ashes, she dragged out Eleos from her sheath. If this was a monster attack it could still be in there. Or there could be survivors if, like most buildings in the midwest, it had an underground storm shelter that had been safe from the flames.

Dean followed her, watching as she moved methodically across the burned expanse, the hem of her chiton gathering shoot and dust, turning the light fabric black and grey.

"Oh, my God." Bobby was surveying the damage, horror apparent in his tone. Dean marched across the destroyed building, mechanic in his survey of the destruction.

"You see Ellen?" He asked stiffly. Bobby shook his head, also switching to business mode.

"No, no Ash, either." The old hunter responded. Anna looked back at them both from across the ruins. All she'd found were bodies, or what was left of them. She shook her head sadly.

"No survivors." She said shortly, trying not to vomit. The smoke and the stench of burned flesh clogged her throat, dragging her memories back to the wars, to battles fought and more specifically that one horrible failed quest with Cory Westins.

"Oh, Ash, damn it!" Dean had found a broken watch. Anna assumed it belonged to this Ash he was looking for. She sighed, feeling a small upwelling of grief for a man she'd never met. But this was what war looked like. Blood and death and casualties that you can't prevent, that you can't even try to prevent. Accepting the costs hurts, but forcing oneself to swallow it down and march on anyways. She was under no illusions now. Anna was waging a one demigod war against the creatures of the veil, both camps fighting only in the smaller skirmishes, while she made alliances with one of the greater threats to her and her family; mortal hunters.

"This is..." She couldn't find the words. No matter who died, no matter how hardened a soldier, scenes like this would still find a way to strike home. Anna had practice pushing down the horror, processing the pain quickly, assimilating the tragedy of war. Dean on the other hand... Anna studied him as he stomped out from the rubble towards the car. He was angry, on the surface, but when Anna kept looking she saw all the little cues she'd learned, they shared a different message. One that was infinitely more worrying.

Dean was afraid.

"What the hell did Ash know? We've got no way of knowing where Ellen is. Or if she's even alive. We've got no clue what Ash was gonna tell us. Now, how the hell are we gonna find Sam?" He ranted. He was not processing well. Anna decided to try something new. She walked up to Dean and grabbed his shoulder roughly, pulling him away from the gruesome scene. Anna had comforted Sam before, but never Dean. Not really. Not in a moment like this.

"We'll find him." She insisted. She made it an order, something Dean (unfortunately) understood better than reassurance. Dean looked at her blankly for a moment before he doubled over.

"Dean? Dean?" Anna called to him softly. She recognized that look. Sam had worn it one too many times around them both for her not to recognize it. Bobby was standing next to them.

"What was that?" Bobby asked. Dean looked confused.

"I don't know. A headache?" He offered. Bobby cocked an eyebrow while Anna scoffed at her friend's stupidity.

"You get headaches like that a lot?" Dean shook his head, taking Anna's hand. She was so surprised, that she let him.

"No. Must be the stress. I could have sworn I saw something." Anna rolled her eyes again.

"Like a vision?" She prompts sarcastically. He needs to figure it out for himself, this is a quest after all. These things happen to people for a reason. Dean glared at her.

"What? No!" Anna kept her eyes trained on him, one eyebrow raised. He looked angry again, but true anger this time. Not fear parading as something else.

"Come on, I'm not some psychic." Anna scoffed at him, but a moment later he fell to his knees crying out again. She silently cursed the fates for making him so thick headed. Anna dropped down next to him, wrapping her arms tightly around Dean's broad shoulders.

"Dean? Dean! Are you with me?" She asked as he seemed to come back to himself. The hunter nodded.

"Yeah, I think so. I saw Sam." He looked at them. "I saw him." Bobby kneeled down next to them.

"It was a vision." Anna rolled her eyes.

'Of course it was a vision dumbass.' She thought affectionately. Dean kept going on about the vision, without telling them what he saw. Which is the important part.

"Yeah. I don't know how, but yeah. Whew. That was about as fun as getting kicked in the jewels."

"What did you see?" Anna prompted him.

"Uh... There was a bell." He muttered, concentrating.

"What kind of bell?" She asked, trying to help him fill in the big picture.

"Like a big bell with some kind of engraving on it, I don't know."

"Engraving?" Dean nodded as he started to get up.

"Yeah." Now Bobby got involved, helping Dean up.

"Was it a tree? Like an oak tree?" Dean nodded and leaned on Anna a little, his arm draped over her shoulders, while she supported his waist.

"Yeah, exactly." Anna felt her face drain of all its' blood. Bobby's did too.

"I know where Sam is." They said at the same time.