Dear Readers,

I am so sorry for the year long lack of updates but due to illness and so many other obstacles I was unable to do much of anything. My health has not improved by much and due to not being able to work had to move from our home. Which when you are ill is so unbelievably hard.

We had no wi-fi for nearly seven months so that didn't help either. I have been in and out of the hospital taking so many meds I might as well own a pharmacy.

I lack motivation to do anything but try to keep breathing until my kids are all old enough to take care of themselves.

Finding out that Supernatural would be ending next year was more devastating than I expected. I love that Jensen, Jared, and Misha will move on to do other projects and be with their families but I still can't help but feel a tad bit betrayed. I mean they had just said that they would do the show as long as people kept watching then bam it's ending. So anyway...

I promised I would finish this story because I hate nothing more than getting into a story just to realize it was never completed. I don't want to do that to readers.

I need motivation. Something to light that fire to want to write again. So I'm begging. If people want this story completed please tell me in pms or in the reviews.

I need to hear from more than just one person though so those 30,000 plus people who have read this. Some of you give me a go for it or just let it go or whatever words you want to toss my way. Please refrain from being toxic. I don't expect 30, 000 messages but enough to feel the need to continue.

Some, if not all, of you have probably completely given up on this story. Time got away from me.

After all this time I'm posting another chapter. It will either be TBC or The End. It all depends on you.

Thank you.

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Warning for major character death. Slightly graphic death of another if you have that unique technicolor imagination.

Just remember it is Supernatural after all.

Many thanks to Ladysunshine6, Disneyfan101, and Lloyd10000. I'm sorry I let you down.

ONCE IN A DEATH TIME

EARLIER

Arandi sat on a tree trunk. Middle of nowhere and running out of options quick, fast, and in a hurry. She had been lucky enough to find a shirt hanging from a tree branch that had probably been left behind from a picnic or the like.

It was clean and still smelled as if had been freshly washed. She had used that to staunch the blood flow but she was feeling worse by the second. Her body was always low on blood so this wasn't helping her at all. She knew she shouldn't even be standing. Getting shot so close to her heart was a big deal but her will to find and help Dean trumped it all.

'Xena Warrior Princess', Dean would have teased. Even as he freaked out over her being shot. She could picture his incredible green eyes glimmering with worry and just as much fury.

She knew there was no way that he was handling the fact that it had been his very brother that had shot her, very well. And what had he done to Dean?

"Ava, of all times that we need you to see. It is now." Arandi whispered to the wind.

Everything suddenly stilled. A whine starting low and strong.

Arandi stood slowly sensing that she was no longer alone. She could see nothing but trees, flowers, grass. The river left long behind.

She turned slowly. Something was behind her and whatever it was, was fast.

She never finished the turn before she felt the world tilt and she was falling.

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Jade had been pacing the motel room like mad. Uncertain what to do as she waited for the reinforcements that she had called once she had been unable to get a hold of her sister and Dean for hours. Her parents and Dean's were still hours away and she was climbing the walls.

Feeling helpless, useless, and utterly pissed off.

She nearly jumped out of her skin when her phone rang. She answered quickly praying it was Sam, Dean, or Arandi. Maybe God calling to tell her her life would finally be normal from this day forth.

"Jade! Go now to the outskirts of the town you're in, to the east. Hurry! Tall sunflowers. She holding on for Dean. I don't know where I am. I woke up in the middle of nowhere. Again. I'll find my way there as soon as I can. I'm driving some old farm truck. Hopefully I won't get arrested before I get to you." Ava hung up before Jade could utter one word.

What the fuck? Ava usually got visions days in advance why like this now? When they were smack dab in the middle of the situation already. Why hadn't her parents told her that Ava was missing? Did they even know?

Arandi without Dean was not good and what the hell was the deal with the sunflowers?

Jade had rushed out the door, hot wired a car from a closed repair shop and followed the directions Ava had given her. Once she spotted the tall sunflowers she pulled over and rushed towards them wondering how long she would have to search because the sunflowers went on for acres.

The answer came to her in the form of a flock of birds, flying in circles over a certain area.

"Not today, you little monsters." Jade huffed and started running.

Sure enough Arandi lay unconscious in the middle of flattened patch of sunflowers. It looked as if she dropped on them from on high.

Jade prayed that that was not the case.

"Arandi!" She called, dropping to her knees beside her too pale sister. "Arandi, what happened? Oh, God, you've been shot. Arandi, wake up, who shot you? Where's Dean?"

Arandi sat up faster than Jade expected. She landed on her ass, cussing up storm.

"Jade? Where are we?"

"About ten miles from the motel. Where is Dean?"

"I don't know. Sam called in distress and we went to find him by the river. It ended up being an ambush. I was shot and fell into the river. I woke up hours later and I don't know how far from the point of origin." She stood, swaying precariously.

"What happened to Sam? What did they do to him for him to set you up like that?" Jade stood as well arm outstretched ready to catch her sister.

Arandi winced. From her own pain and the one she was about to inflict on her little sister. "Before I went over the edge I saw the shooter."

Jade looked at her expectantly.

"It was Sam, Jade. Sam shot me and he was smiling."

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Back at the motel, after a quick stop, Jade did her best to patch her sister up feeling a million emotions going through her. She wasn't going to cry, be a blubbering mess. Her sister needed her, her husband, her brother in law. She was the only one in one piece. Although her sanity was on the verge of making a grand exit.

Sam, her husband. Gentle giant (he would hate to know she thought that) , loving son (on most days for mom anyway), loyal brother (Tuesdays and the occasional Sunday, sue her she needed the levity) , had shot her sister and left her for dead. It wasn't him. I couldn't be her Sam. Some monster, too many to name in her frame of mind, but not Sam.

Arandi had been sure it was him in appearance. She was injured badly and refused to go to the hospital until she found Dean.

"What is the deal with the sunflowers?" She asked as she checked the blood she was transfusing into her sister, that she had stealthly grabbed from a hospital with an amazing supply.

She could have used her own blood but Arandi had refused to let her since it would weaken Jade and it was a sure thing that things were going to get way worse before they got better.

Jade had no idea, although grateful, how Arandi was even moving.

It seemed as if her husband had gone dark, just like he feared. He had asked Dean to kill him if that ever happened but everyone knew that Dean would never do such a thing.

Or would he since Sam had shot Arandi and he had definitely been aiming for the heart. Not just trying to wound her. It had been very near a kill shot and still could be if her sister didn't get medical aide soon.

"I don't know." Arandi replied.

Jade had already forgotten that she had asked a question.

"One minute I was in the middle of nowhere wondering why Ava hadn't one upped this one and the next minute I'm waking up to your beautiful face."

"The park by the river is over thirty miles away if not more. On a healthy day you could have run it in hours but like this no way."

"I think I would remember that." Arandi huffed. The pain radiating through her.

Jade cringed. "Even though the bullet went straight through it still did a lot of damage."

"You don't have to tell me that. I don't know how I'm not having more trouble breathing. The bullet had to have at least nicked a lung."

"You take amazing care of yourself so that has a lot to do with it and your hundred mile stubborn streak doesn't hurt either."

Arandi rolled her eyes. "Gets me where I need to be."

"So the sunflowers?"

"We'll figure that out later. Right now a couple of pints of blood, a quick patch, and..." Arandi pulled off her shirt painfully. "I need you to help me with this."

"Your tattoo? Now?"

"If the lines are reconnected they should revive and trust me, Dean will know that I'm alive for sure because if I know my husband it's eating him alive."

"Ok then, let's inflict more pain. Why not?"

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As soon as the lines connected Arandi felt the burn and energy as the tattoo powered up. It then settled back to normal. Well at least Dean was within three hundred miles. If only the tattoo could tell her which direction to head.

Jade's phone rang. She answered quickly.

Ava again practically hyperventalating. "GPS now! And please hurry!"

The line went dead.

Jade instantly started the trace. "Thirty miles in the opposite direction of where you were shot."

"Let's go."

"Arandi, the first bag isn't even done yet. You need at least another one."

"We don't have time, Jade, both our husband's lives are on the line."

Jade stared at her sister. She was right but her life was on the line too. Only she also knew that Arandi wouldn't stop no matter how bad things were for herself. Not until Dean was by her side would she give.

"Let's go."

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Dean didn't flinch as the gun clicked but nothing happened. He was concentrating hard and so was Sam. One of them had stopped the gun from firing or it had been the most perfect time for the gun to malfuction.

Walker kept pulling the trigger but still nothing but a click. He struck Sam across the face with it in frustration. Sam gasped but it only proved to piss him off and Dean could feel the power push forward.

Walker rushed towards Dean, pulling a large hunting knife and holding it to Dean's throat. "You see what he is and you still want to protect him."

The fact that Walker thought he wasn't a monster showed how dillusional he was. Not to mention the fact that he thought threating either Winchester was a safe bet. Also, Dean blamed no one but Walker for what had happened to Arandi.

So he pushed to. It was nothing as powerful as he was feeling off of Sam but the knife pulled back away from his skin as Walker struggled to keep the knife in place.

"Cassidy!"

She came rushing forward and Sam turned his head to glare at her. She stopped suddenly as if running into a wall. His ropes fell away and he stood up.

Dean saw a flash of motion outside, relief filling him.

"Leave her for Arandi." Dean said as his own ropes slipped away and he stood up. He head butted Walker and gave a slight nod to his brother. Fighting the urge to throw up, pass out, and everything else.

"You're the devil!"

"No, I'm Sam Winchester and I'm going to make sure that you do meet the devil today.

Dean felt the instant the power was gone. Sam was going to do it all on his own. He could, he had been trained to handle himself more than well and with his size he would dominate.

Walker was not a small man but he didn't stand a chance. Not when he played so dirty a pig would be jealous.

Walker came at Sam in a low shoulder tackle sending them both crashing into a wall.

Cassidy came at Dean but he only stood smiling at her.

"Afraid to fight a chick."

"No, but I'd rather see my wife kick your ass."

"That would be neat trick."

"Abracadabra bitch." Arandi growled suddenly just there as she could do so beautifully. "Just call me Houdini."

Dean's heart fluttered. Seeing her in all her glory and beautifully alive just made him love her even more. If that was even possible.

"All clear." Jade called out from a doorway.

Whoever had been outside was no longer a problem.

Cassidy took a fighting stance while Arandi only stood tall with her arms crossed.

"Houdini's dead just like you're gonna be in a minute. You're barely standing and I'm a black belt in five forms of martial arts and self defense."

Arandi lowered her arms. "I don't have to stand long and I only have two black belts."

Cassidy grinned.

"But I am a master in five forms including Dim Mak." Arandi grinned back in such a way Dean felt chilled.

Cassidy chuckled. "Dim mak is a fairy tale that doesn't exist. No one has even mentioned it since Bruce Lee died."

Arandi tilted her head. Her blue eyes gleaming with deadly intent. Injured or not she was lethal.

"I guess you don't have anything to worry about then." She said calmly. In a blink of an eye her hand shot forward like a claw striking Cassidy in the chest above her heart.

Cassidy started to laugh and moved to attack Arandi ready to wipe the floor with her but she realized that she couldn't move.

Arandi had kicked her ass without even trying and apparently dim mak was alive and well, which she would no longer be in minutes if the rumors were true and all signs were pointing in that direction.

"You got a little something there." Arandi motion with her head.

Cassidy felt something hot rushing up her throat dribbling down her chin. She choked it back her chest burning hotter and hotter. Her heart in a vice.

Behind them Sam and Walker were going to toe to toe. Vicious punches, cracking walls, broken furniture..

Sam only grew more furious. He was done with his family being put in these ridiculously dangerous situations because some nut case couldn't get his life together. His obsession with Sam going dark was bewildering. There were worse monsters out there and if Walker refused to get that then he needed to be ended because he was one of those monsters now.

Yeah, Sam had just bunched himself up with the monsters but he would deal with that later. Maybe. It was a lot to carry.

He wasn't going to use his powers. No matter how they made him feel. Walker was nothing and he couldn't take Sam no matter how hard he tried. Seeing Arandi alive and his wife right behind her had made him whoop with joy internally but he still had shit to handle.

Walker came at him again and Sam reached out closing his fingers in a vice grip around his throat.

If Dean could do it then so could he. He wanted to be the fucking chosen one then he was pulling on his big boy pants. He pulled back with a gutteral growl. Hot blood covered his hand and ran down his arm, joining the blood already there. His own, his brother's.

Walker grabbed for his neck. Trying to cover the huge hole in his throat as he stumbled backwards.

He stared at Sam's hand. The chunk of throat, wind pipe, and voice box having been ripped from him like pulling apart cotton candy. He couldn't breathe. Wet slick sounds were all that would come from him and death was right there. Front row tickets and chalk one up for a death that doesn't happen everyday.

He looked at Sam's face. He had lost. He was supposed to be the hero. He was supposed end the Winchesters but they had ended him and he knew he would be seeing Meg again soon. And she was going to be pissed.

He fell hard. The last thing he saw was Cassidy wide eyed, blood running down her chin. He should have left her where she was and let her live out her life. Funny how regrets hit you when you could no longer do a damn thing about them. Everything faded away. The last thing he heard was Dean saying. "You should have known that this wouldn't end your way."

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Cassidy turned her eyes sideways and watched with a sickening feeling as Sam ripped Walker's throat away with such ease. The look of satisfaction that filled his hazel cat like eyes and Dean's remark of how things would end brought it all home at once.

She didn't want to die. Her life hadn't been that bad. Half the crap that had happened to her was because she refused to follow rules and was always instigating things to get her way.

It had been her fault that her family had been killed. Throwing a fit because she didn't get what she wanted. She had practically invited the vampires into her home although in her defense she didn't know what they were. They had conned her.

She just wanted to scare her parents. Teach them a lesson. Instead they had ended up dead along with her three siblings while she hid like the coward she really was.

That was where all the training had come in. So no one would fuck with her and just leave her alone and think she was some sort of badass.

Attention seeker.

She had all the attention she could handle now as she stared into cold silver blue eyes. The eyes of killer, no mercy was coming her way. None.

She had crossed a line by miles and she was going to die painfully for her efforts. With Arandi having done nothing but lift her hand once.

She had heard many stories about Arandi Remington Winchester but she had never believed anyone could be that lethal, that badass, that beyond no fucks given when it came to harming her man. Her family.

And they belonged to one another. There was no doubt of that. No matter what was said about not being objects to own. It sang from them like a melody of what was right in the universe when they were together. Soul mates to the grandest level. Infinite, fiery, dazzling.

She finally fell back. Pain like nothing she had ever felt. Choking on her own blood and Arandi crouched down beside her.

Cassidy was getting what she deserved and she knew it. She should have just gone to therapy and taken a vacation instead of listening to Walker.

It was just the attention thing again. When she had heard Sam's name mentioned she had jumped. Sam had ignored her after all when she had been an attention seeking grieving preteen. No one ignored her.

It was funny how things seemed so petty when you were about to die. Her heart skipped painfully.

Arandi tilted her head as she looked at her. "I know you heard the rumors. You should have taken them seriously. You fucked with the wrong family, you sided with a lunatic and now you'll be with him forever. I have always been a killer... you...you took away the guilt. And I will never forgive you for that."

Tears streamed down the side of Cassidy's face. She would take it all back if she could. Her heart skipped again. She really hadn't thought it would end like this. Her heart began to skip again and shuttered to a stop and she was gone.

Arandi stared at her a few seconds longer. Her lifeless eyes staring back. Dean cleared his throat. "You're a master in seven forms."

"Yeah, well I don't like to brag." She said as she stood slowly leaning into a wall heavily. She loved this man for trying to make something so unbelievably heavy, light.

They met each other hugging one another as best they could with relief. Pain be damned.

Sam stared at the remains of their captors and grabbed a rag wiping his hands free of blood and hugged his own wife.

He didn't quite remember that things were still in dire straits. Not until Arandi fell to her knees and Dean followed.

He had shot her and Dean while he was possessed and he was no fluke when it came to hitting a target. His heart was in his throat. He didn't have time to dwell on anything other than saving his family even though he had been the one who had nearly destoyed them.

He had to do something. "We to have get them to a hospital."

"Where are the keys to the Impala?" Jade asked. The scene before them rolling off of her way too easily. As if her husband ripped out throats on a daily basis. Or maybe it was just that sanity thing again.

"One of them has to have them. Didn't you bring a car?"

"Yeah but we didn't exactly have time to stop and gas up and it was stolen of course."

"I left the truck too far back. We have to find those keys." Ava suddenly popped in from a door way. Gun in hand looking totally different than when they had left her. "We need to hurry."

The ones able to stand each took a body and began to search.

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Somehow they ended up lying on the floor facing each other. Dean was lying on his good arm. His bad arm outstretched before him, Arandi holding his hand gently. Her touch would never bring him pain. Except maybe this time because he wasn't the only one dying.

There would be no universe where her dying wouldn't bring him agony beyond words. Even when he would be following so closely.

Was it selfish of him to want to die first? Though it would bring her just as much pain? Being completely in love wasn't always puppies and rainbows with sparkling smiley hearts. True love brought its share of pain along with the happiness and anyone who said different was a big fat lying liar that lied.

When someone truely loved was sick, hurt, upset. It meant pain.

And at the moment the pain was there and not just the physical. Though that was no picnic. Now on the floor energy swept away worrying friend and siblings rummaging through dead people's pockets frantically, Dean wondered if he should tell them there was no point in them rushing.

Unless paramedics were three blocks away with tons of blood and other suppliments, they would never make it to the hospital. Not alive anyway and it would take Bobby and Johnny and a handful of others to clean up that mess paperwise.

Not that they had worry about that. The cleanup was going to be hard enough. Sam was going to need everyone to get past what had happened. What he done though he hadn't been behind the wheel. How he had killed Walker had been epic and Dean wished their was a video of it.

"They were recording this fucking horror show." Ava called out in disbelief.

Dean would have chuckled but he didn't have the energy for it. He wanted to look into Arandi's eyes until he couldn't see anymore. He also had to make things way worse for Sam and Jade.

"Sammy." He said though it didn't come out loud enough to be heard Sam still stopped and looked over at him.

The look on Sam's face was etched in so much pain and regret.

"No, no, Dean, you have to hold on." Sam kneeled beside him touching him.

Dean shook his head slowly. It was all he could do to try to lighten his brother's load.

Sam's face suddenly changed at the same time that Jade triumphantly jingled the keys. "I know what to do!" He said as he jumped to his feet, grabbed the keys, and rushed towards the Impala.

"Arandi, please hold on." Jade called out as she followed Sam.

Good, they'd be busy trying to find a way to save them when they took their final breath.

Arandi's cold trembling hand cupped his face gently. Her eyes full of tears but a gentle smile on her beautiful face. Her adoration shining through even now.

"Together to the end, my love." She whispered.

"Now that's my real dying wish." He replied.

"I'll be waiting." She pushed out using the last of her strength to lift her head and kiss him on the lips. "I love you." She breathed across his mouth. "Yesterday, today, always."

"Arandi, please..." He begged.

Her hand slipped from his face as her head dropped, her eyes remained on his even as he watched the life leave them. Watched the last tear slide down the side of her face.

There was so much that had been left unsaid. Undone. It all flashed in his mind.

He sucked in a gasping breath needing to scream out his grief even though he was seconds away from following her. Her loss was a pain he would never survive otherwise.

He heard Ava's gasp of dismay and her calling to Sam and Jade. His chest ached, his heart beat fast and then skipped.

Everyone was going to be grieving but Sam was going to be devastated.

He coughed and didn't bother trying to breath. A single tear slid from his eye. He didn't blink. Looking at the love of his life.

"I love you too, my love. Yesterday, today, always."

His vision began to tunnel. A small breath pushed from his lips and he went to meet his love.

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TBC or The End?