Chapter 7
They all watched breathlessly, as the masked figure slowly got to their feet, annoyingly slow, like they were enjoying torturing them.
“Bastard.” Dean muttered under his breath, as his eyes never left the figure. Anxious to see what’s under that fucking mask.
“Remove your mask.” Steve ordered in a firm voice, as he stared coldly at their prisoner. “This is the least you could do, after almost killing us. You should know that everyone in this building wants you dead. So, I suggest you cooperate. This will be much less painful if you do.”
The figure watched Steve unflinchingly from behind the reinforced glass for a few tense seconds, before they turned towards Dean for some reason.
Then slowly, so slowly, they raised their arm towards the side of the mask and pressed it.
The mask disappeared from their face, and everyone in the room froze. Unable to believe or understand what was looking back at them with a very cold, emotionless expression.
“Oh, God.” Natasha murmured in shock, taken completely off guard.
Dean didn’t blame her. Mainly because he himself couldn’t believe what he was looking at. No one could.
Because he was looking at his own brother’s face.
The man staring at them inside the glass cell, was none other than Sam Winchester himself, with a very uncharacteristic cold expression on his face.
“Hello, Brother.” He said in a cold, mocking voice, as he stared straight at Dean.
***
“I am not going anywhere, boy.”
Bobby repeated for the tenth time, as he stared stubbornly at the youngest Winchester.
They were all in the communal room, which thankfully remained intact from the attack.
Fury and all the SHIELD agents had left immediately after the fight to trace the attackers and find exactly who they were. Erik, Hank and Clint were in the Med Bay, so Bruce could deal with their injuries. The Metal Binder still didn’t wake up from his hit.
Raven, Charlie, Jody and Pepper were still next to each other on one of the couches as they watched the exchange, Angel sitting anxiously by their feet. Thor, Bucky, Rhodey and Sam Wilson were on another couch, looking worn with their suits ripped and disheveled from the fight, but couldn’t bring themselves to care about that at the moment.
Castiel and Sam were trying to convince Bobby to go with Jody, Pepper and Angel into a safe place. That wasn’t going very well.
“Bobby, please, we will be able to handle this on our own. We still don’t know what we are dealing with and we need you safe and away from this.” Sam tried again as he got a little desperate.
He was tired. So tired. Not only from the fight. It’s from the fact that apparently the universe wasn’t going to let him be happy for even a day.
He really, really wanted to get married tomorrow. He wanted to marry Natasha. He wanted his brother’s surely embarrassing best man’s speech. He wanted to go to their honeymoon. He wanted to tell Tony what his role in the wedding was and see his reaction to it.
He wanted to have what Dean, Tony and Erik had. A marriage. A happy marriage that even during the hard times, it remained strong and unshakable.
He wanted that with Natasha. He wants everything with her.
And the universe wasn’t letting him.
So, he was really, really not in the right state of mind to deal with Bobby’s stubbornness at the moment.
“I am not a damn damsel in distress, boy. I can handle anything and I am not leaving you alone in this.” The old hunter insisted stubbornly.
“We are not alone, Bobby.” Castiel stated in a gentle voice, trying to get their father figure to understand. “You shouldn’t be worried. We have all the help we can ask for. We only need you to be safe.”
“Yes, but-“
“Guys?” Tony’s voice sounded around the room, cutting off Bobby’s ranting. They all straightened up at the seriousness in his voice. “You need to see this.”
A holoscreen then appeared in front of them, showing them what was happening in the dungeon at the moment.
Their eyes widened as they landed on the prisoner’s very familiar face.
They gawked as they trailed their eyes between the Sam on the screen and the Sam standing in the room with them right then. Not able to understand what’s happening.
“What the hell?!” Bucky exclaimed, as he and the others shot up to their feet.
“Why is there two of you?!” Pepper asked in confusion as she stared at Sam.
They were all more confused by the seemingly disinterested looks on Sam and Castiel’s faces at the whole scene, as they just stared at the screen in attention.
“Why are you two not affected by this?” Thor asked in confusion, watching their strange expressions.
“Honestly? Nothing really surprises me anymore.” Castiel just shrugged with a tired look on his face. “I expect anything by now. Besides, I kind of had my suspicions. Not many people are that tall with that build really.”
“And an army just crashed my Wedding’s rehearsal dinner.” Sam added with a tired sigh and a defeated look on his face. “I mean, if a Titan burst from one of the Tower’s floors, or aliens appeared from the bathroom, I won’t be really surprised.”
“You poor bastard.” Raven murmured as she and everyone else winced.
“Do you think he is from the future or something?” Wilson asked carefully, not wanting to sound like an idiot apparently.
“No, if it was, I would have known.” Castiel shook his head firmly. “I know Sam’s soul anywhere. I would have recognized it if this doppelganger came from our future, but this one’s soul, it felt familiar but different in so many ways that I didn’t recognized it.”
“Wait, so you mean-“
“He is from another universe.” Sam confirmed as he exchanged a look with Castiel, glad that they both had the same thought.
Everyone’s eyes widened at that.
“The Mirror World?” Charlie murmured carefully, unable to comprehend all this.
“No, our doppelgangers from the Mirror World can’t stay too long in our world, nor they could have their full strength like that, you all know that well.” Castiel shook his head at the question.
“This Sam came from another universe entirely. A completely different one from ours.” Sam announced, as he focused on the screen to watch the exchange between his doppelganger and their friends.
***
“Who are you?” Steve asked firmly, eyes trained on the prisoned man. Dean was glad that the Captain could still keep a level headed mind, facing that twist of events.
Dean and everyone else in the room? Not so much. They just kept standing their like idiots, trying to figure out how such a cold, cruel expression could be on that face they knew so well.
“I am Sam Winchester. In my world, they call me Prometheus.” The prisoned Sam answered coldly, no ounce of emotion on his face.
“Your world?” Tony repeated with wide eyes. “Are you saying you are from an alternate universe?”
“Yes.” He answered curtly without adding anything.
The five of them exchanged startled looks, they didn’t really expect him to be so blunt.
“Why did you come to our world?” Natasha asked sternly, seeming to finally get a hold of herself and join the interrogation. “What do you want? Why did you attack us?”
“Our world got a little boring and crowded.” The doppelganger stated with a mocking smile playing at the corner of his mouth. “We found a way to jump through different universes and we will conquer them all. Just like we conquered ours. Every universe will be ruled by the Fatherland!”
“Who is ‘we’? Who were the masked ones that came with you?” Charles was the one to ask that.
The doppelganger glanced coldly at him, like he was offended of the way Charles addressed his comrades.
“That’s my king and his generals. The one that will destroy you all!” he answered with sudden viciousness in his voice, that had them startled from its intensity. They couldn’t even believe that it was coming from that familiar face.
“What the hell happened to you?” Dean blurted out, unable to keep the question back anymore. “How did you become this? This can’t be you!”
The doppelganger turned sharply towards Dean, a vicious look in his eyes, filled with hatred that Dean never thought he will see in those eyes.
It shook him a little, even when he already knew that this wasn’t actually his brother.
“You don’t know me.” The doppelganger hissed at him in pure hatred. Seeming to snap at Dean’s words. “You are not my brother in this world. You are nothing compared to him! A fading, weak copy of him!” he slammed a fist against the glass, as he glared at Dean. “You had it easy! We didn’t! Since our bitch of a mother died, our psychopath of a father raised us to be just like him! We didn’t go to school. We didn’t live a single normal day. Just trained everyday mercilessly to be cold, bloodied killers, that don’t care about anything except bringing down anyone that came in our way. Human, monster we didn’t care. Everyone that comes in our way, death is their only fate. There is no other choice! We never had!”
Dean felt a cold shiver run through his body at the cruelty and viciousness in the doppelganger’s voice. He could feel that the others were also startled by it.
Sure, Dean and Sam’s lives here weren’t easy, but no matter what their father did, he wasn’t a psychopath like the doppelganger’s. He did a lot of wrong things, but he didn’t turn them into cold, bloodied killers. He just made them hunters. That’s a totally different thing.
“You have a choice now.” Dean found himself saying as he took a step closer to the cell, ignoring the warning looks the others were giving him. “In here, your version is a good man. The best there is. I believe that you still can be that. You can have a completely different life here. You can be whatever you want. Just fight with us and tell us where the king and his generals are.”
“He will kill me if I talk. He will kill everyone I love.” A sudden compassionate look appeared on the prisoner’s face, that had the others confused at its sudden appearance.
“I will not let that happen.” Dean said firmly, feeling like he was really starting to get through this copy of his brother in front of him. “I will stop him.”
“Do you think you can do that?” the Other Sam asked carefully, as he leaned with both his hands against the glass to look at Dean.
“I promise you that I can do that.” Dean confirmed confidently, as he took another step forward.
The doppelganger looked down for a few seconds, before an ugly smirk took over his face as he looked up again to stare at Dean with mocking eyes.
“Then you really are a special kind of idiot.” He growled in a deep voice, the smirk firmly on his face.
Dean startled as he stumbled back at the sudden change, he felt Tony’s hand on his shoulder, steadying him.
“Your naivety would be charming, if your weakness wasn’t so pathetic.” The doppelganger continued in a cruel, harsh voice; eyes trained on Dean.
“Is this how it is in your world? Everybody swayed by sentiment? Is everyone here really so weak?” he shook his head with a scoff. “The king will change that. The weak will be eliminated. Your entire world will be enslaved. But you, you-“ he pointed at Dean with a crazy cruel look in his eyes. “-You won’t be around to witness it. He is going to feel your skull crack under the weight of his boot. Everyone you care about, everyone you love, they are going to die horribly right in front of your eyes, in ways that would even give monsters nightmares, without you being able to lift a finger to help them.”
He let out a loud laugh, as he stepped away from the glass, watching the grim looks they were giving him.
“I really wish that I could live to see it, but no one get what they want.” He grinned, before reaching inside his mouth.
“No! Tony, open the cell!” Steve screamed suddenly, as he immediately understood what he was about to do. “He has a fucking suicide pill in his mouth!”
“Don’t! Sam, don’t! Wait!” “Stop!” Dean and Natasha shouted, as the doppelganger crushed the pill that was between his teeth into his mouth.
Tony opened the door fast, as the tall body crumpled to the floor. White foam gushing out of his mouth, before they even reached him.
Charles kneeled to check his pulse, but they knew the answer anyway.
He killed himself out of loyalty to his king.
They stood there, staring at each other, not knowing what to do next.