BIG BANG 2009: MASTER POST (SAM/DEAN, NC-17)

[arysteia]

Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four Part Five
Art by Killa
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Title: Dead Yet Again
Author: arysteia
Beta: extraonions
Artist: killabeez
Pairing: Sam/Dean
Rating: NC-17

Summary: Sam and Dean Winchester are at odds while dealing with a seemingly routine haunted mansion. As usual, nothing is what it seems, and nothing goes according to plan. Before long Sam is experiencing strange dreams of another life. A life where he and Dean had a very different relationship. A life that shattered when Sam Menzies-Hall brutally murdered his lover. Or maybe the truth is not so simple. Is there really such a thing as past lives? Is the notion any crazier than anything else they've had to deal with? Is Sam finally just cracking up? Or is there some other force at work? Who really killed Dean Paterson? And what impact will the revelations have on Sam's relationship with Dean today?

Author's Notes: Inspired by Supernatural (Eric Kripke, CW, 2005-9) and Dead Again (Kenneth Branagh, Paramount, 1991). Characters and scenarios used with love, for fun, and not for profit.

I can't encourage you strongly enough to go and savour the wonderful pieces killabeez made for me to illustrate this story. Please leave feedback for her at her journal. I was tiny parts daunted, massive parts excited when she selected my story – I remembered her work in various other fandoms from my very earliest days online – and she excelled my hopes and expectations, and was an absolute pleasure to collaborate with.

I also want to thank my beta, extraonions, who stepped in at short notice to ensure Sam and Dean travelled the highways and byways of the USA, instead of downtown NZ. She also slew many archaic turns of phrase on my part. I remain unsure if these are kiwi-isms, or if I just have a bizarrely elevated/dated way of speaking. I blame a childhood love of historical novels. She did try to correct my spelling too, but I overruled her there and stuck with the Queen's English. It's been my policy as long as I've been online, and I'm too set in my ways to change now.