Because I just wrote
Persistence of Memory (crossover with Doctor Who, dealing with both the Deal, and Martha's actions during the Year that Never Was), I went looking for other fics that address Dean's deal with the Crossroads Demon. Only five eps until his time is up; now is a good time to get your Alternate Realities in place, if they do something horrible to him. So I present four of my faves: different ways of trying to save Dean.
Strange's Country by
concernedlilyRating: R
Author's Summary:
Sam stopped focusing on ways to free Dean from the deal and started looking for ways to get him out of hell two months before he was due to arrive there.Long, plotty, crossover with "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell", but so mildly that you don't need to have read or even heard of that book for it to work. Sam POV, but everything in it is informed by Dean, and the descriptions are awesome, as is the new magic Sam studies in trying to save Dean. Great stuff.
Cast Stones at Dragons by
apocalypsosRating: PG-13
Author's Summary:
It’s been a decade since Dean’s year was up.Spare, short, but intense, with Sam still working on the solution long past the deadline, in a way that is unique and original.
Like a Wheel by
mayachainRating: R
Author's Summary:
The hellhounds have dragged Dean off to hell, and either Sam is going insane with grief or the car he just inherited is trying to persuade him to follow.God, the imagery on this just
kills me. And since I adore Impala-fic, this was incredibly welcome. The ending like iced-tea after an awful, hot day.
Under Darkening Skies by RivkaT.
Rating: R
Author's first paragraph:
It went to shit in Waterloo, Iowa. They'd just iced a demon who'd possessed a college professor and had been inducing his students to cheat, steal, and even murder, so that went okay. But when they were on the way out of town, they ran into a roadblock. It looked like a sobriety checkpoint—college town, right?—but no sooner had they stopped, ready to give the sheriff's deputies smiles and fake IDs, than they were swarmed with black-suited SWAT guys and ordered out of the car.Crossover with
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, post-Chosen. I have issues with some of it, but other parts ring true; and most of my issues are lingering BtVS issues (I still can't like Willow), not SPN. Sam and Dean are drafted for one last job, and Dean figures it's better to go out with a bang (so to speak). And yet one *more* way to deal with the Deal, that isn't like the others.
Read 'em and brace yourself for the end of Season 3.