CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Elena's looking at the ground as Alistair groans in pain. Nyx's gaze is fixed on the ceiling and her jaw is clenched tight.

Dean walks over to the table and sets the syringe down. "Let me know if you want some more." He says as he turns back to face Alistair. "There's plenty left."

"Go directly to hell." Alistair says, his voice strained. "Do not pass go. Do not collect two hundred dollars."

"When exactly is the part where we become useful?" Elena looks at Nyx. "I've never used these abilities, but I do want him to shut the hell up."

"Are you looking for a lesson?" Nyx questions as she turns her head to her. "I don't know how this crap works."

"Oh... There's that little pig poker. I wondered where it went." Alistair says, looking at the knife in Dean's hand as he pours holy water over it. "Do you really think this is gonna fix you? Give you closure? Oh, that is...sad." He says as Dean moves toward him. "That's really sad. Sad, sad." He groans as Dean slowly pushes the knife into him. "I...carved you into a n-new animal, Dean. There is no...going back."

"Maybe you're right." Dean tells him. "But now it's my turn to carve." He says as he twists the knife. "Who's behind the murders? I want the demon's name."

Neither of the twins watch as Dean cuts him in other places. Eventually Alistair laughs, and they look up. Dean's only inches from him, holding his head up with one hand, the bloodied knife still in the other.

"Well, it's your professionalism that I respect." Alistair says, and then Dean walks away from him. The demon spits out blood.

Dean throws holy water in his face, and he screams as he looks up. Some of it got in his mouth, and Alistair gargles up blood. "Who's murdering the angels?" Dean asks again.

Alistair continues to scream as Dean splashes even more holy water in his face. The demon keeps spitting out more and more blood.

"Just not getting deep enough." Alistair says. "Well, you lack the resources. Reality is just... I don't know, too concrete up here."

Elena watches Alistair, focusing on him. Her sister can't, not the way that she is. Nyx sees how much this is hurting Dean, the effect that it's having on him. He hates it — the torture. It's bringing back too many painful memories from his time in hell. Things that he wants so desperately to forget.

"Honestly, Dean..." He continues as Dean pours salt into a container. "You have no idea how bad it really was...and what you really did for us."

"Shut up."

"The whole bloody thing, Dean. The reason Lilith wanted you there in the first place."

"Okay, then I'll just make you shut up." He grabs Alistair's face under his chin and makes him look up. He then pours salt into his mouth and he screams, but they soon become muffled by all of the salt.

He coughs, and Elena looks down as all of the salt comes back out, but now it's coated in his blood. He gags and gasps, and Dean just looks at him.

"S-sorry. Something caught in my throat. I think it's my throat." Alistair chokes out.

"Well, strap in." Dean tells him. "'Cause I'm just starting to have fun."

"You know..." He starts up again as Dean walks away from him. "It was supposed to be your father. He was supposed to bring it on." He says as Dean pours more holy water from the large container into the smaller one. "But in the end, it was you."

"Bring what on?" He asks, continuing with what he's doing.

"Every night, the same offer, remember?" He asks, and the twins look at each other. Both wondering when their damn Wonder Twin abilities would kick in. "Same as your father. And finally you said, sign me up. Oh, the first time you picked up my razor... The first time you sliced into that weeping bitch... That was the first seal." He says, and the twins' heads both snap in his direction as Dean walks over to him.

"You're lying." Dean says, his knife in his hand. It's coated in holy water and salt.

"And it is written that the first seal shall be broken when a righteous man sheds blood in hell." Alistair recites. "As he breaks, so shall it break."

Both twins stand up straight when they see the pain on Dean's face as he turns away from the demon. They're no longer leaning against the wall or looking to each other.

"We had to break the first seal before any others. Only way to get the dominoes to fall right. Topple the one at the front of the line."

Elena's hands ball up into fists as she looks from Dean to Alistair. Nyx is watching Dean, but he won't meet her gaze. He's too ashamed to look her in the eyes.

"When we win... When we bring on the apocalypse and burn this Earth down... We'll owe it all to you... Dean Winchester."

Alistair starts groaning, and Nyx looks back at him. He looks at the twins as he a chuckle erupts from him.

"Looks like your girlfriend's getting the hang of her special powers." He looks at Nyx. "You must be Nycole."

Nyx smirks. "You've heard of me — that's sweet." Nyx says as she steps forward. "But what you're feeling right now, that's not me... And if you think she's bad, just wait until I get a handle on it."

"You know, now that I think about it," Elena starts. "Stefan said it stemmed from your emotions, right? Now, you've only used it through fear, but... Anger, hatred — those seem to do the job just fine." She says, still glaring at Alistair.

"You hate me?" Alistair questions as he squirms. "After everything you heard that he did?"

"It tends to piss me off when people hurt my family." She tells him. "And I just listened to you describe what you did to Dean in hell."

"You should really see our list of friends if you think that Dean's bad." Nyx says as she walks over to Dean, but her gaze is on Alistair. "The used-to-be Ripper of Monterey, and the self-proclaimed reformed serial killer." She takes the knife from him. "Even our father tortured vampires. Some people might argue that they deserved it, but... I just don't see it that way myself. Elena?"

"Not exactly." She agrees. "Do you remember when Ric killed Caroline's dad, and then he tried to kill Meredith?"

"Mm. Or when Bonnie tried to kill you after you tried to kill her?"

"And let's not forget when Caroline killed twelve witches and completed the expression triangle." The younger girl says. "That totaled it out to, what, thirty-six people dead for one spell."

"If you want to paint Dean, of all people, as a monster to me, you're gonna have to try a lot harder than that." Nyx says, now standing directly in front of Alistair. She looks down at the knife in her hand and smiles as she looks back up at him. "You know, I think I am getting the hang of this ability thing."

"Yeah?" Elena asks. "Do tell." She walks up beside her sister.

"See, I imagine what it felt like the first time I used it. The heat that built up at the center of my body." She's focusing on Alistair. "And then it slowly spread. Do you feel that?" She asks as she looks up at him, and he groans.

"You know, I think he does." She says.

"It started right about..." Nyx plunges the blade into his abdomen, and he groans in pain once again. "...here, wouldn't you say?"

"That looks about right." Her sister nods.

Alistair looks between the two of them. "You're just as twisted as your little boyfriend." He says, and Nyx smirks.

"Oh, honey... You have no idea who I am...or what I'm capable of." She twists the blade, and he screams out in pain again.

"I read a lot of Dad's research from when he was at Whitmore." Elena says as she walks over to the table. Dean hasn't turned, but he's listening to everything that they're saying. "I know you were on the Other Side then, but how much of it did you see?"

"I can do you one better." Nyx tells her. "I was in the prison world with nothing to do on a few occasions. So, I broke into Whitmore house — there was nobody to live there, so there was no one to keep me out. I read all of their research. And they did some pretty nasty things to those vampires. And our father was one of them." She scoffs as she picks up the same syringe Dean used.

The twins turn back to Alistair, but he's now standing right in front of them. He has the knife that Nyx had left in his stomach.

"You should talk to your plumber about the pipes." He swings the knife.

"Nyx!" Elena yells as she moves forward, and the knife goes into her stomach instead.

Dean pulls Nyx back and pushes her behind him. Alistair then goes after him.

"Son of a bitch." Nyx mutters as she pulls up her shirt and looks at her stomach. She feels like she's been stabbed, but there's nothing there. No knife, nothing. "Elena."

Nyx runs to her sister, and they try to keep the bleeding to a minimum. They hear Dean as he grunts each time Alistair hits him, and they both want to help him. Elena obviously can't, and Nyx keeps thinking about the fact that Jo just told her that she's pregnant.

Alistair lifts Dean by his throat and pins him against the pentagram that he'd been chained to. He then lifts him off of his feet, and Nyx clenches her teeth. "You've got a lot to learn, boy, so I'll see you back in class, bright and early, Monday morning."

"Yeah, I don't think so." Nyx says, and he turns to look at her.

She reaches up and grabs his head on either side of his face. Alistair starts screaming as his skin burns under her touch. He drops Dean, who falls to the ground, gasping for air. Alistair swings his hand, and his fist catches Nyx's face. She falls to the floor, and then Cas goes after Alistair.

Nyx hears their fight, and she hears Alistair saying something, but it's not in English, and she doesn't really care. She crawls across the floor to get to Dean and starts to panic when she sees that he's having a hard time breathing.

She only looks up when she hears Sam questioning Alistair. He's using his ability to pin the demon to the wall. Alistair tells him that he has no idea who's killing the angels, and he tells a pretty convincing story too.

"Dean." Nyx tries to get him to wake up, but it's no use. He's still breathing, and his heart's still beating, so she's holding out hope that he'll be okay in the end.

Alistair tells Sam to send him back to hell, but it's his reply that gets the twins to look at him, both confused and a little scared. "I'm stronger than that now. Now, I can kill." Sam tells the demon, and then he does just that.