Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Sam groaned as he felt the warm sunlight streaming in through the window. He rolled on to his back just as heard his brother’s heavy footsteps thundering up the stairs. Dean threw the door open, a big smile plastered on his face. His right hand was holding something and it was hidden behind his back.

“Guess what I’ve got, Sammy.” He said as he flopped himself down on to the edge of his bed, causing it to creak from his weight.

“Wha-?” Sam mumbled, barely audibly. He opened his eyes to just slits and muttered “It’s Sam.”

“Whatever.” Dean replied, rolling his eyes.

He yanked the bed cover off, smirking as Sam sat up and gave him one of his infamous bitchfaces.

“Here.” The blonde said as he shoved the mystery object in to Sam’s hands. Sam raked a hand through his hair so he could take a better look. His lips parted slightly, instantly recognizing what it was.

“Oh my god. How d’you get it? I swear the release date isn’t for ages.”

“Go on say it, you have an awesome brother.”

Sam sighed but couldn’t help but smile. He couldn’t believe that they actually had the game. Supernatural brand new and it was all anyone was talking about at school. “I have an awesome brother.” He responded, deciding to humor him. “Seriously though, how d’you get it?”

Dean’s smile only grew wider at the question. “Charlie owed me a favour and managed to sign us up as Beta testers. Dude, come on, hurry up and take your hour long shower so we can play already.”

Sam shoved his shoulder playfully and climbed out of bed. He yawned, watching as Dean left the room at lightning speed to set up the game. He shook his head slightly and let out a small chuckle as he pushed the bathroom door open and took a cold shower because Dean had taken all the hot water already.

When he trudged downstairs, his chocolate locks smelling of the watermelon shampoo his brother hated so much, Sam glanced down at Dean who was kneeling in front of the TV. Dean turned around and chucked his brother a pair of weird looking goggles.

“Seriously?” he asked, raising an eyebrow as he glanced down at them distastefully.

“Dead serious. It’s an online virtual reality game, Sam. This is legit. Put the damn things on, you’ll see.”

“I’m gonna look stupid with ‘em on.”

“You look stupid anyway, Sammy.” Dean teased, receiving a deadly glare from his brother.

Dean put his goggles on and posed, making sure to give Sam an exaggerated pout. “Chicks dig gamers.” He joked.

At that, Sam laughed lightly and pulled on his own goggles. “This game better be worth it.”

“Oh come on, y’know it will.”

Dean turned the game on and gasped as the scenery changed from their living room to the inside of a bar. He glanced around, looking for his brother and grinned as he spotted Sam standing beside him. He looked down at himself; stunned to see that his outfit had changed from his star trek t-shirt and tracksuits to a grey shirt, leather jacket and old jeans. Sam was wearing a red plaid shirt. No change there, he thought to himself, a small smile playing on his lips.

“This is awesome!” Dean said, a little louder than needed. A few seconds later though, he gasped as he felt cool metal pressing against his exposed neck. He stole a glance to Sammy who was now being given a headlock from a guy with a mullet. What the fuck? Who even had those these days? “Hey You leave my brother alone.” He growled.

“Ooh, thinks he’s a tough guy.” A female voice from behind him snickered. “Who’re you guys anyways? We ain’t seen you two before. Hey, Ash, I think these guys are just noobies.”

“Yeah, take a look at their wrists Jo, they’ve both got 3 lives and they don’t exactly look like they know what they’re doin’.” Mullet guy replied.

Dean looked at his wrist where he saw what appeared to be a watch but in the middle it had a single digit which apparently was an indication of how many lives he had left. “Yeah, we’re new, so what? You guys beta testers too?”

Jo slowly lowered the gun she’d had aimed at Dean’s head and spun him around. “No kiddin’. I’m Jo, this is Ash.” She said, pointing her thumb at the other who had now released Sam as well. As the youngest Winchester rubbed his neck, Jo added “There’s no way your brother’s 18, he shouldn’t be here.”

“I’m Dean, that’s Sammy.” Dean replied, eyeing her warily. Damn she was hot but she was still holding a gun and even though it wasn’t real, there was no way he was going to flirt with her just yet, he didn’t want to risk getting shot. “Hey, c’mon, the guy’s 16, so what? No one pays attention to those rules anyway.”

“Well, it’s your lookout.” Jo answered sadly. “I wouldn’t want anyone I know playin’ this game, s’pecially a youngster like ‘im.”

“Why not? It’s just a game, jeez…relax why don’t ya?”

There were always people who took the games too seriously and they usually got on his nerves. The others seemed to know what they were doing though, so he decided was going to stick with both of them for the time being.

Jo gave him a weird look and turned her gaze on to Ash who just shrugged in response.

“Jo, we better get goin’. The next hauntin’ starts in five and we don’t wanna miss out again.” Ash warned.

The blonde huntress gave him a small nod and indicated for the two noobies to follow. “You can come with, show us what you got but if you mess this up for both of us, you won’t live to regret it.”

Instead of finding her annoying, Dean felt quite the opposite about her, she had spunk and he loved girls who acted tough like that…plus she loved video games, bonus! “Trust me, we’ve got this sorted, right Sammy?” he said, receiving a nod and a smile from his younger brother. “Damn right.”

Chapter Text

“I can’t see a damn thing.” Dean grumbled.

The two Winchester brothers had been following the other two gamers for a little over five minutes now and were both given a crappy salt gun each. It wasn’t much but it would have to do for now. They’d climbed down a trap door that was behind the bar that led to a dank basement and Dean was sure he was standing in somebody's piss.

“Oh God, what's that smell?”

“You. Now, would you quit complainin’ princess and shut up? If the spirits get our attention, we’re screwed.” Jo whispered back, but it didn’t come out as harsh as she’d intended it to sound. She really hoped she wasn’t getting a soft spot for Dean. Okay, he was kind of cute but it was a hell of a lot more important to get out of this damn game alive and there was a good chance that he and his brother weren’t going to make it that far. At that thought, she grimaced and looked at them sadly.

 The basement wasn’t just any basement. It was a maze as well with all sorts of hidden traps to catch you out. When they reached the entrance, Dean noticed a large electronic score board hanging over them and read it with mild interest.

Cas - 25

Gabriel – 11

Ruby – 9

Bela – 5

Ed – 1

Harry – 0

Corbett - DEFEATED

 Apparently, it had already started but they still had a couple more minutes until closing time.

“Right, we’re gonna need to split in to two groups. Dean, you can come with me and Ash, you can take care of Sam.” Jo instructed, beckoning the eldest Winchester over.

“Hey, I don’t need lookin’ after, I’m not a kid.” Sam grumbled but no one gave him much attention.

Dean grinned from ear to ear and winked at Sam. “Tough luck, Sammy. Can’t blame me for my good looks and charm.”

Jo rolled her eyes and yanked Dean by the collar, pulling him closer. “You wish. Right, we’re gonna need to get 10 kills each and find a way to the centre of the maze to get to level two.  Mind the traps and for god sake, don’t die.”

“Sounds easy enough.” Dean replied with a cocky grin.

“Let’s hope you’re as skilled in gaming as you are arrogant.” Jo retorted, taking a few steps in to the maze and turning left.

“Hey, wait up!” Dean called as he chased after her, leaving Ash and Sam by themselves.

Sam didn’t want to seem like a coward but he stuck closely beside Ash, feeling anxious because his brother wasn’t near. He’d always relied on Dean to keep him safe and trusting someone else with that task was harder than he’d originally thought.

They’d turned right instead of left and soon came across a trail of skittles on the damp ground.

“Hey, are those-?” Sam mumbled, his voice trailing off as he knelt down beside them.

Ash nodded and frowned. “Gabriel.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

“Only one person gets to defeat el Jefe, Sam. Everyone’s against each other, it’s mental.”

“Oh.”

“C’mon, we can’t stay in the same place for too long.”

 “’Kay.” Sam replied, picking himself up off the ground, just in time to yelp as a spirit appeared in front of him. It’s face was pale and contorted horrifically.  He stood there frozen, too shocked to pull the trigger. Luckily for him, Ash shot the ghost straight through the head.

“HEADSHOT!” declared a computerized voice coming from the gadget on Ash’s wrist.

“You okay?” Ash asked, looking at the other worriedly. Sam nodded meekly and mumbled a quiet apology and thanks.

“S’alright, I got pretty spooked the first time I saw ‘em too.”

“Dean were you checkin’ me out?” Jo teased,  raising an eyebrow.

“What? Pfft…no.” he said, averting his gaze, just in time to notice a spirit looming out of the shadows. He aimed and fired causing it to dissipate.

“MONSTER KILL.” announced Dean’s wrist gadget.

“Not bad, nice one.”

“What can I say? I’m a natural.”

“Wait till you see me.” Jo said with a grin.

“Sure…I’m lookin’ forward to it.” Dean replied, returning the grin.

They made their way through the maze again in silence, keeping a careful eye out for any spirits. Jo however, was so engrossed in the task that she completely forgot about the traps. She stepped on to an elevated tile and screamed as it gave way.

Dean instinctively reached out and prayed to God that he’d managed to grab a hold of her in time.

He sighed with relief as his hand grasped her own sweaty one.

 “Fuck.” He cursed under his breath as sunk down on to his knees, letting go of his gun which clattered down on to the hard floor.

Jo whimpered as her hand began to slip out of his grip from the sweat. Her eyes locked on to her wrist gadget, taunting her that she only had one life left. She choked back a sob and said “D-Dean, I can’t…I’m slippin’.”

“Oh no, you don’t, I’ve gotcha.” Dean mumbled, grunting from the effort of trying to pull her up. He grabbed her hand again, now with both hands and hauled her up. He collapsed backwards from the effort and landed on his back. He stared up at the dank ceiling as he tried to catch his breath.

Jo lay beside him, taking her own shaky breaths. She couldn’t believe how close she’d been to dying. Jo turned her head so she was facing Dean and gave him a watery smile.

“Thank you. No one else would have done that for me.” She whispered, leaning in to place a small, soft kiss on his cheek.

Dean frowned at her comment and replied “I’m sure they would’ve, Jo. I just did what anyone else would have done.”. He smiled at the small kiss and pressed his lips against her forehead.

“No, you don’t understand, only one person gets to kill the boss. Most people would’ve been glad if the other had made a rookie mistake like that.”

 “Well, I’m not like that…I don’t betray my friends.”

“I’m your friend?”

“Yeah, ‘course you are, Jo. I don’t think Sammy and I would’ve come anywhere near this far if it weren’t for you.”

“Thanks.” She replied as she stood up and offered Dean her hand.

 “Ash! Look out!” Sam yelled as the other walked in to a trip wire that was near invisible.

Ash glanced down and when he noticed what had just happened, he quickly ducked just in case, copying Sam’s movements.

When they thought the coast was clear, they both stood up slowly and looked around confused. “Somethin’ should’ve hap-“ Ash muttered, his voice trailing off as three spirits appeared. “Well, shit.”

Sam took aim and fired, hitting a spirit in the shoulder, not enough for it to dissipate though. He fired again, hitting it square in the chest.

Ash was struggling though as he was being swamped by two more of them. He reloaded his salt gun and fired again, missing entirely because the spirit now had his neck tight in its grip.

The spirit squeezed, suffocating him. He gargled and feebly attempted to swat away the spirit but he couldn’t breathe. He just couldn’t. Dammit. Dammit, DAMMIT! He’d promised Jo he’d look after the kid but now he was dying, he was done for, never coming back. I’m sorry, Jo. I’m rootin’ for you, show 'em what you can do, he thought to himself, hoping that somehow she could read his thoughts. I'm sorry.

He faintly whispered Jo’s name before his eyes rolled in to the back of his head and the number on his wrist gadget turned to 0.

“No!” Sam yelled desperately but it was too late.

“ASH HAS BEEN DEFEATED.” The computerized voice announced before his image flickered and he disappeared completely.

“Ash! Ash, please don’t leave me here on my own! Please, Ash!” he begged, too distracted from the events to notice a spirit had appeared behind him. It yanked him backwards, flinging him in to the wall, causing him to yelp out in pain as his head came in to contact with the wall.  

He couldn’t see what was happening because of the shooting pain in his head but he could hear the distinct sound of the computerized voice.

“HEADSHOT!”

“HEADSHOT!”

“MONSTER KILL!”

Sam glanced up weakly and noticed there was another gamer standing over him with shaggy bronze hair and warm, golden eyes. He held a bag of skittles in onehand and had a big smile plastered on his face. “Hey there, kiddo.”

Chapter Text

“Is that guy wearin’ a trench coat?” Dean muttered in disbelief as they walked over to him.

It turned out that the guy was talking to someone else but he’d been blocking her from their view.

The girl looked no more than 19 and she had light brown hair that cascaded past her shoulders in full ringlets. Her hazel eyes looked over at them judgingly.

God, why are the gamer girls here so damn hot, he thought to himself.

"Smokin' hot." he mumbled.

"Did you say somethin'?" Jo asked.

"Huh? What? No."

As soon as Cas heard the others approaching he pressed a small blue button on his wrist gadget and just before he vanished, he responded “Technically, it’s an overcoat.”

“Who the hell was that guy?” Dean asked the girl.

“None of your business, darling.” Bela replied, a small smile playing on her lips as she leaned against the wall, apparently unfazed by their sudden appearance. Her English accent stood out against their strong American accent, making it obvious.

“Hey, are you from the UK, ‘cause I thought the game was only available in America at the moment?” Jo interrupted.

“My daddy helped create the game, so naturally, I was given the game weeks before anyone else.”

“Didn’t your Dad know about the glitch?”

Bela swallowed hard and averted her gaze for a moment.

 “No.” she answered harshly after a small pause, glaring at Jo.

The truth was, she didn’t know. Had her father willingly offered her the game so she’d be trapped here with everyone else? She wouldn’t be surprised if he had. To be honest, she had beenpretty shocked that he’d let her play the game in the first place.

Jo noticed the hesitation but didn’t bring it up.

Dean looked between them confused. Glitch? He’d have to ask them about it later. He hadn’t known there’d been one.

“Anyway, I’m Jo and this is Dean.”

“Yes, I’ve heard all about him. I wanted to ask him a favour.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“I have something of value to you. For 100 coins, it’s yours.”

“What is it?” Dean asked, suddenly curious.

Bela pressed her thumb against the yellow button on her wrist gadget and spoke aloud “1 life.”

A golden ring appeared in her left hand and she held it up for them to see.

“Is that-?” Jo muttered, her eyes wide.

“Mhmm. Attach this on to your wrist gadget and you gain one extra life.”

“I don’t think I’ve got any coins, let alone that many.” Dean replied.

“Oh, you do, all new players get 100 coins to start off with but I also want you to help me get to level 2.”

“I’ve got 3 lives though, why would I need an extra life?”

“You’ll need it, trust me.”

At her comment, he frowned slightly then gave Jo a look as if it say ‘Should I make the deal?’ . She nodded eagerly.  It was strange how quickly he’d started to trust and depend on Jo.

“Fine. It’s a deal.”

“Fantastic.” Bela said with sickly smile as she grabbed hold of Dean’s hand and pressed both their yellow buttons at the same time. “1 life for 100 coins.” She announced loudly, causing the transaction to be made.

Dean smiled to himself, tucking the gold ring in to his jacket’s pocket for safe keeping. He didn’t want to use it just yet.

“You’re Gabriel?” Sam asked, still dazed after being knocked in the head.

He offered the kid his hand and pulled him up on to his feet. “Yeah, that’s me. You must be Sammy.”

“It’s Sam. How d’you know anyway?” he replied with a scowl.

Gabriel just waggled his eyebrows and popped another Skittle in his mouth.

“Fine, don’t tell me…thanks by the way.”

 “No problem, kiddo. What’re you doin’ all the way out here by yourself anyway?”

“I wasn’t…I…I was with Ash, he was defeated. It was my all my fault. I should’ve paid more attention. D’you think he’ll respawn anytime soon?”

Gabriel dropped the Skittles he had in his hand back in to the packet and looked down at him sadly. “No, no I don’t think so, kiddo.”

“Why?”

“Didn’t anyone tell you ‘bout the glitch?”

“What glitch?”

“You can’t log off until you’ve defeated the final boss and when you die here…you die there, in the real world.”

“What? No…” Sam replied, shaking his head as he took a few tentative steps backwards. “You’re lyin’.”

He reached for his wrist gadget and pressed the button on the side to log off but nothing happened. His heart started to beat painfully against his chest as he repeatedly punched the button.

“No, no, no.”

“Hey, it’s okay, relax.”

“How is this in anyway okay? I suck at this stupid game and…and…” he said, choking back a sob. “I killed ‘im. I killed Ash.”

Gabriel brushed the kid’s floppy brown hair out of his face and tilted his chin up. “Hey, look at me.”

Sam obediently looked up in to his amber eyes and sniffed.

“It wasn’t your fault, people die here all the time, kid. Y’know what? I’m gonna promise I’ll get you out of this in one piece, okay? I swear on…I swear on the last Skittle.” He grinned, showing Sam the near empty packet that contained just one tiny red one.

Sam couldn’t help but let out a small laugh. He wiped his eyes and nodded. “Okay.”

Dean ducked and cursed under his breath as a chunk of rock whistled past his ear.

“Spirits!” Bela yelled, making sure to cover her ears from the screeching and wailing.

Jo cocked her gun and fired, the salt shell flying straight through two spirits’ heads.

“DOUBLE HEADSHOT!”

Her lips parted slightly, stunned. “Oh my God! Did you see that? Did you? I totally owned those spirits!”

“I’m a lil’ busy at the moment, Jo!” Dean retorted. He fired his own gun, hitting one straight through the stomach.

Bela yelped as a spirit yanked her backwards with a bunch of her hair. She dug in to her pocket where she kept a small bag of salt and chucked it, covering it’s face in the burning substance. She smoothed down her shirt as the spirit vanished in to thin air and swallowed two green tablets.

“+50 AGILITY.” The computerized voice announced.

She did a back flip, dodging another ghost’s attack, then punched it in the face with her right hand where she wore her consecrated iron ring.

Dean stood there gaping at her, eyes wide. Bela smirked at his reaction. “Didn’t think I’d join the fight empty handed, did you?”

He rolled his eyes and turned just in time to fire the last spirit that had its arms wrapped around Jo, in the face.  

As it dissipated, a shiny golden door appeared in the wall beside him.

“The hell? Was that there before?” he asked, turning to face the other two who looked just as clueless and bewildered as he did.

Dean took a few hesitant steps closer and placed his hand on the door handle before pushing it open. Bright, intense light filled the maze before dying down to a dull glow.

All three of them peered inside before stepping in one by one, staring at the contents, stunned.

Chapter Text

"Holy crap...we've found the bonus level!" Jo exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear.

The room was painful to look at as there was so much gold and it was so damn bright. There were crates filled with potions, weapons hanging from the walls and coins spread along the path. The three of them took a tentative step forward.

"You think it's filled with traps?" Dean asked curiously, eyeing the room warily.

"Most likely. They wouldn't give it to us all for free, would they?" Bela answered.

Jo shook her head. "Prob'ly not. Best be careful."

Dean dared to take the first step. Then the next, and the next. "We can learn from tryin', I guess. Let's go crazy and claim all this shit." he grinned. "We can take a path each. Bela, you can go to the left, Jo to the right and I'll take the middle one."

The girls looked at each other, raising an eyebrow at his arrogance but supposed he was right. It was as good a plan as any. 

"Good luck." Dean said with a wink.

Bela carefully made her way through the left path. There hadn't been any trouble yet and she'd managed to collect 50 gold coins already but it wasn't until she made it one third of the way across that she noticed that a gaping hole had appeared in the way. Crap. It looked only just out of her reach. She swallowed hard and was glad she'd taken the agility pill earlier as it hadn't worn off yet. She had roughly one minute remaining. She took a couple of steps back and leaped. She yelped and only just managed to grab on to the ledge. "Oh God." she mumbled under her breath. Her fingers were straining from the force of holding her up. She took three deep breaths and attempted successfully to pull herself up. "Close one." Bela mumbled. Two thirds of the way left...

Dean however had been making it through the middle easily. He supposed it was because he had more strength than the other two. Working out was one of his favorite hobbies at home...it made him feel powerful. He'd already found a machete to replace his crappy salt gun and a vitality tablet to give him more strength, plus several gold coins. He was just a couple of paces away from the end of the path when he heard Bela yelp. He lost his concentration and stepped on an elevated tile. "Shi--" he exclaimed, but was cut off short as a swinging axe dropped from the ceiling, severing his head, killing him instantly. He flopped to the floor in a pool of his own deep dark blood...

Jo swiftly made it through, not daring to take extra risks to get more special items. She ended up with just some gold but it was good enough for her, she couldn't afford to put her only life in danger. Jo made it to the end of the path safely and walked through the golden exit door, waiting for the others to arrive on the other side of the door. She wondered why it was taking them so long and hoped to God they were okay. The time waiting for them though gave her time to think about Ash and how he was doing. Hopefully, Sam was alright too. He seemed like a nice kid. Dammit...she couldn't think like that. If either Ash or her were to win the game, it would mean they'd have to eliminate them in the end. Emotional attachments were not an option.

Bela shrieked as she saw the axe swinging down, violently killing her newest ally. "Sucks to be you." she mumbled, taking extra care as to where she was stepping, trying to ignore what had just happened to Dean. The sight of the blood would have made her sick to the stomach...not that she was going to admit that to anyone any time soon. She hummed Mozart's Symphony No. 40 in G minor as a means of concentration whilst she gracefully dodged the traps. The music piece was something she was quite fond of playing at home when she was practicing playing the piano. Not that she'd be doing that again. Bela sighed. It was just then that she came across a small chest, she picked the lock with her hair pin and grinned when she saw what was inside. It was a consecrated iron knife. Perfect, she'd been looking for a weapon for a long time and this would do just the trick. She held on to it tightly and made her way to the golden exit, stepping right through it to meet Jo. 

"Ah, you're here already."

"Where's Dean?"

Bela dragged her slender finger across her throat and giggled. 

"Is that funny to you?"

"A little."

"Well, I don't mean to upset you but he has two other lives."

"All I can say is if he's not here in thirty seconds, I'm leaving. I'm not going to sacrifice myself for him." she grumbled, folding her arms impatiently. 

"Boo-hoo. We wouldn't want that would we?"

Dean coughed, waking up startled. "Holy crap..." he muttered under his breath, then added "That hurt like a bitch." while rubbing his neck checking for any signs of the damage done by the axe. There was none. Glancing down at his wrist gadget, he saw that he only had two lives left now. "Great. Level one and I've already only got two left. Pfft. I hope Sammy's doin' better than me.". Dean picked himself up off the ground and brushed himself off. Slow and steady wins the race. Let's do this again. He took the path carefully and slowly and finally reached the end. "I'm free!" he yelled, just because he could as he stepped through the exit.

"Well, hello ladies. Did you miss me?"

"Not particularly." Bela commented bluntly.

"You look like death." Jo teased, trying to make light of the conversation.

"Oh, very funny...and I was just going to compliment you on your great beauty, Joanna."