ｒａｖｅｎｈｏｌｍ

         Not that she could criticize him for that.

        She shook all thoughts of the boys and their stupid antic out of her head, focused more on the task at hand. No point in thinking about the Winchester’s idiocy when there was work to be done. She could give them a good solid punch later. For right now, she had zombies to take her pent up aggression out on.

        “Winchesters aren’t as loyal as some. Soon as you’re out of sight you’re out of mind. I’ve danced to that tune already. Telling the tale of it is just compelling. I’ll share it with you another time though. Something tells me our friends here won’t be as fond of hearing about the boys as you and I will.” She gestured with the angel blade towards the headcrabs.

        “Well, this looks like all sorts of fun.” She was bouncing a bit, the pre-fight adrenaline pumping her up. “And your bosses sound peachy in the extreme. If we have time we’ll take a side trip and teach them that we Meg’s aren’t to be messed with.” She cast a sidelong wink at her double, smiling on the outside but inwardly wondering.

        These bosses, who were they? It took a lot to control Meg, either of them. They did things out of loyalty, not out of subservience. What kind of bosses could take control of her mind? Oh, Meg dear had a lot of ‘splainin to do. Lots of campfire stories to tell. The two of them had some catching up to do. So, zombies, then girl talk. Didn’t sound like a bad night to her.

           Meg was impressed by the other’s skill. Sure she didn’t have her black soul, but she certainly had that demonic fire inside of her. It wasn’t every day you saw a human fight like that no matter what kind of mechanical bits she had floating around inside. ‘Impressive’ didn’t quite cover it. Astounding or incredibly sexy would be more accurate.The two, painted similarly in the blood of enemies slain couldn’t have looked more alike.

          There were some things that didn’t change from Meg to Meg.

     Incidentally, that was also one of the last moments she spent with them before the Combine made a nasty comeback. They didn't take rebellions very lightly, especially when the rebels were once working for their side.

     That was all over and done with, though. The Winchester brothers, and Meg's former bosses were no longer part of the story -- not for the time being, at least. What mattered at the current moment was survival, namely slashing and shooting the way through a crowd of ravenous headcrab hosts.

     Kicking down a zombie that had approached, and nearly grasped her, Meg turned her head to face the duplicate, a smirk present on her face as she shot out the necrotic below her boot,

               "So glad to hear that you're enjoying yourself," the almost-human remarked, "There's nothing like a good killing-session to brighten the mood of everything."

     It satisfied her killer tendencies. All of that brainwashing and assassin training couldn't be put to waste, after all. Meg couldn't quite recall ever having sympathy for the zombies, even long before her road to what could be vaguely seen as 'redemption'.

     The evening's small crowd of Ravenholm inhabitants was decreasing fortunately quickly, The sooner they were disposed of, the sooner they could move along. Meg had to admit that she really looked forward to getting out of the terrible place. Trekking out of Ravenholm and into the surrounding world would prove difficult, but certainly worth it in the end,

     Amazing. That was one word for it. Amazing Meg had managed to survive her hundreds of years in Hell. Amazing that despite every moment of her torture by Alastair being ingrained into her mind, she was still mostly sane. Amazing that despite her fierce loyalties to Lucifer and his cause, she managed to team up with his brother after her god had vanished. Amazing that she had fallen in love with that brother of her god and had been willing to die for him.

     Amazing.

     The noises were getting closer, louder and rhythm-less. Meg twirled the angel blade around in her hand. The adrenaline rush that quickly proceeded a battle was rushing through her veins, setting her blood on fire. Her eyes flickered to black, an instinct that was hard to repress. It was natural to reveal their soul’s true state in anticipation of possible death. Often times it was even a warning to those stupid enough to oppose demonic forces.

     “So, the Winchesters?” She attempted to keep the whole moody light despite the sound of pounding limbs against a distant barricade. “You got those idiots here too? Not that I should criticize. I’m supposed to be allies with them. Died for them even. Too bad they’re not here. They’d adore slicing up some headcrabs as you call them.

     “Speaking of which you’ll have to tell me about these old bosses of yours later. After we get past these.” She gestured towards the stumbling bodies which had just entered their line of sight. “Aim for those, am I right?” It was sort of sickening to see the strange parasites stuck to the once human bodies. Reminded Meg a bit of the way she was a demonic parasite inside this meaty host in a way she didn’t like. “Let’s get this over with.” She growled, moving forward to the closest one.

    The angel blade, despite being a world removed from whatever power source gave it the ability to kill so well, began taking down the zombies well. It sliced straight through the disgusting pumpkin like critters, leaving her covered in their juices. She ignored the slime, moving on to take on the next ones, dropping them one at a time.

     Even so, in spite of the automatic measures her body had taken for increased combat, she still kept a good hold on the social aspect of this encounter; after all, she had acquired quite an interesting new teammate.

        "Oh, they sure would. Those boys have a real habit of killing things. 'Guess I'd have to call them allies too, seeing as they've saved my ass a couple of times, and we're both going against the same thing -- mutually assured destruction, so to speak. Haven't heard from them in months, though; not even a single postcard sent toward this zombie-infested wonderland. Honestly, I'm just wounded by that."

      She gave an exaggerated pouting face before adding to her previous statement, "You lived to tell the tail of dying for them, though. That's got to be a good story."

     Even so, she couldn't help but wonder if the Winchesters and their friend had ruined the otherworldly Meg's life as well. Meg never really intended on rebelling against her military loyalty; it was all due to helping Castiel 'n friends that she'd gotten caught in the first place. Who would've known that the Combine responded so badly to disobeying regulations -- their torturous interrogations couldn't possibly be more damaging.

        "Oh, I can tell you a good, long story about my old bosses. Maybe, when I'm done, you'll have learned to hate 'em as much as I do."

     The zombies drew in as she spoke, and their arrival alerted the ex-assassin to attack. It was a small group of necrotics -- all standard behavior, standard headcrab hosts. It wouldn't be too much trouble to take down, with a little combined effort.

                   "Heads, that's right."

     It was the most sure-fire way to take them down. The former soldier fired at one of the beasts, bullets ripping clean through its head and the creature atop. She fought alongside the other, occasionally directing a curious little glance to the swordlike weapon the demon held. With little time passed, the streets of the ghost-town were painted by multitudes of blood,

         So she was squishy looking on the outside but completely different on the inside. Just like good old demon Meg. This was no mere copy of Meg’s current meat suit, it was actually her, her demonic personality and all. Interesting. She was doing well in this world, better than Meg had been doing in her own. She wasn’t dead yet and technically the demon had died twice. And had opportunity to visit Hell and beyond.

         Not that this place seemed much better.

         ”Hell is one of the worst of places but there are plenty more. Hell just burns your soul black. Eventually it starts to show.” She allowed her eyes to flick to black for a moment before they regained their normal human guise. “You really want a show, you should visit Purgatory sometime.”

           This place almost seemed like some mirror of her recent escapade in the wild forest. Insane monsters coming to eat your brains and toss away the corpse. Lots of running, lots of fighting and not much else. Although here, she had an angel to watch over her. Or at least, someone who was an angel in another universe.

           ”You had me at zombies.” Meg admitted, grinning a bit. “So how did you end up in some back water old mining town fighting off zombies by yourself? Surely you didn’t start out this way. Your friends all get turned into headcrabs? Or you just trying to find a way back?”

          “Well let’s get him something to swoon over then. My life had been anything but a walk in the park from the moment I first saw the light of day. Been killed a few times, exorcised, tortured, run for years. Trust me, this’ll be nothing new.”

     Pssh. If only the damned things could recognize her (formerly) high military status. They'd respect her then, oh they would. It was a shame that they were completely mindless.

     Meg listened carefully to the other's description of Hell -- sounded like a terrible place. The former assassin had often heard chatter about it, though she never bothered looking into it. Didn't want to think about where she would go when death finally snuck up on her. The look in her own eyes quickly became one of fascination when the other's eyes changed drastically, setting into a darkened hue,

         "Consider me impressed. Demon-me's about the last person I'd expect to meet -- got to say, that's kind of amazing."

     Perhaps a human would become frightened at the idea of meeting a demon. Meg, on the other hand, was not a human, nor had she any fear. If anything, her instinctive curiosity of the outside world left her a bit amazed. Being controlled by a humanity-despising empire for twenty years had that effect on her.

        "Friends? Nah, the people were like this when I got here. I don't have much of any friends -- unless you count those idiot Winchester boys. I used to be part of a serious organization until I met them -- made the poor mistake of helping 'em out of a sticky situation and got exiled -- Ravenholm's about the farthest I could get from my old bosses."

        "-- Guess that means we'll be getting closer to them once we start this unexpected journey. Castiel and his pals are far outside of Ravenholm, and far closer to danger. It'll be worth the trip, granted we survive --"

     Her speech was cut off by a low, raspy whimpering in the near distance. And there it was. How could she forget? Meg was quick to prepare her gun,

        So this was some sort of Hunger Games version of her? Future-y and fighting for some hopeless cause against a greater power? Well, it did sound like fun. And if there was one thing Meg knew how to do in this ‘verse or any other, it was how to fight for her cause.

        “That makes two fighters. Stole the name Meg Masters from an old meat suit. Azazel’s daughter, proud servant of my god Lucifer and fearsome demon. What’d’ya mean by sentient member?”

        Aliens? Bit out of Meg’s depth. She already had to deal with one crap-tastic world and now she had been hurtled into another? Fan-freaking-tastic. She would skin that fluffy winged Clarence the next time she saw him. In the meantime, it seemed she and her ‘ganger’ would be fighting off buckets of her ‘headcrabs’. Fun.

        “You got aliens and zombies here? Forgive me if I jump ship at the next port. How’d they get that way anyways? You guys gone and broken their heads?”

        So her feather brained unicorn had made it over. Or he had a ganger of his own. But he was here. If her Clarence would be able to fix onto anyone if this ‘verse, it would be his alternate self. Meg made a mental note to get to him as soon as possible.

          “Fits my description. He around? Need to talk to him about a bit of a personal matter. You wouldn’t mind seeing him again, would ya?”

     Mostly microchip implants; vision enhancements, and combat-related aides. All requirements of being an Assassin for the Combine; the ones who'd trained her, and the ones she was now hellbent on getting rid of. 

     She was heavily amused by the other woman's introduction of herself. Seemed to be some sort of alternate version of her, which was weird, though not entirely unheard of. Standing out the most was the fact that she presented herself as a demon.

        "Well, that's uncanny. Never thought I'd be meeting me from Hell."

     She'd read about the underworld from the books she had stolen; both worship and any sort of literature was outlawed by the Combine, though it never ended her curiosity. Never thought demons would be real, though.

      "Aliens, zombies, and a few other creepy little things. How they got to Earth is a hell of a long story -- how they're in Ravenholm alone is a shorter one; old mining town got hit with a headcrab infestation, most people fell victim to that. Headcrabs turn people into mindless, living corpses. Bundles of fun."

     Meg snickered at the idea of visiting Castiel with this replica of hers, "He'd probably freak out if he saw the both of us, or fall in love -- maybe a little of both."

                          “Ravenholm?—-“  The younger Winchester remained in his stance.

Where the hell am I? He questioned himself quietly, simultaeniously looking Meg over. No major damage. The usual cuts and scrapes.

   Meg perked an eyebrow at the tall one's remark. Distressed, she observed, as well as visibly disgruntled. His statement could have indicated that he wasn't... from the area, so to speak.

       "Last time I checked, Meg was my birthname. Do what you want with that information, handsome."          An empty, sarcastic flirtation was followed by taking a few steps closer,                      "'Suppose by that logic, you're not my Sam, either."

             Her statement was cut off by a shrill, inhuman wail sounded afar.                      Oh, she would never get a break from them, would she?

        Meg was quick to check her own weapon, making sure it had sufficient ammunition. Unfortunately, it was a little bit less than sufficient, seeing as she was still in need of making a better supply run. That could wait, though; the current situation was a bit too dire to scour for spare bullets.

   She could see them drawing closer -- the fiendish creatures that could no longer be classified human, their heads covered by the large parasites -- a group of three or four.    The ex-assassin aimed her pistol, pulling the trigger in the zombies' direction and managing to take out one of them.

                "Nah, I think we can handle this, for sure."

   As Meg spoke, the small group did seem to grow in size, a few more necrotics joining in.

 " -- On second thought, maybe not. How's the idea of running sound to you?"