On Borrowed Time

18. Imposter

PART TWO: BREAKOUT

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: IMPOSTER

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TEAM WINCHESTER, STARLING , USA

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Dean was on the phone in a heartbeat, waiting for Charlie to pick up. He was greeted by a slightly groggy voice - not sleep groggy but exhausted groggy, not at all the voice of someone who had latched onto a valuable piece of information. "What's up bro?" she inquired and he frowned, listening to the should of air whooshing by the speaker.

"Charlie, where are you?" he asked cautiously, the sound just all too familiar - the car?

"I'm almost to the bunker, another hour or two tops!" she declared and he answered Sam's curious stare with a shrug.

"Why do we need a lightening generator?"

The other end was silent, minus the wind of what he had concluded was the window of the car down. He could make out now the soft music in the background and the subtle slap of windshield wipers. Windows down in the rain? She was practically asleep behind the wheel, he had seen and used enough of those tactics to know he was right.

"Listen, you're tired you can explain the details in the morning-"

"A lightening generator like bzzzzz," she made a nasal sound before shouting in his ear, "zap?" A sinking feeling overcame him as he glanced over to Barry and the Arrow clan.

"Yeah, like zappy-zappy why did you tell Barry to bring it to us?"

The other end went silent again and any small ounce of playfulness that had been in her voice disappeared. "Dean, I didn't tell Barry anything - I don't even have his number," his stomach dropped to his feet and he slowly turned on the group and made his way over to them.

"Thanks," he said distractedly into the phone, ending the call without so much as a goodbye. "Where's your phone Barry?" he asked, his mind struggling to wrap around what Charlie had just told him.

"What?"

"Your phone, where's your phone? Charlie said she never called you!" he frowned and hastily dug his phone out of his pocket and handed it over.

Dean searched the screen quickly, fumbling for a moment over the phone so different from his own before finally reaching the recent calls. Cisco, Joe, Iris, Charlie- he stabbed her name in concentration and pulled out his own phone again to compare. His own phone read Charlie - 555-391-6670 and as he selected to see the info on the other phone he felt his expression change as he read the contact: Charlie -737- 737- 4663.

"What?" Barry demanded, craning his heck to see the screens and when he did his shoulders visibly slumped. Dean calmly closed the contacts and put his phone to sleep before handing it back to him and shoving his own phone into his pocket.

"It wasn't Charlie," he finally said and Felicity's eyes went wide as she stepped closer to them. The way her expression turned to panic at the mention of something not appearing as it was made his chest tighten. He knew he'd have to talk to her, he was sure now what the episode earlier had been - Felicity was starting to hallucinate on a hellish scale.

"So who was it?" Sam asked but Dean just shrugged.

"It's not a number I recognize- 737 area code," and Sam rubbed at the stubble on his chin - or more like beard Dean noted for the first time, having not really paid it much attention before. His brother certainly looked the part of Sasquatch now, not only in size.

"Isn't that Texas?" Oliver finally piped up and everyone turned to stare at him. Dean opened his mouth to say something snappy and then closed it, Queen was right and he decided he didn't need to know just how it was the man knew.

Felicity answered by jumping on her computer and no doubt searching it up - she frowned at the screen. "From what I can see of the Texas areas telecommunications database that phone number hasn't been in service for... ever. There's no record of it here," she stated, with a disappointed pout beginning to cover her features.

"So is it someone trying to trick us, or trying to help us?" Barry finally asked, assuming himself part of the team once more. Dean resisted the urge to tell him to go home and butt out, he was aware of the whole situation after all, not to mention his speed could come in handy at some point.

"Let's not act on anything yet, we focus on one thing at a time - we need to find out more about the Underworld," he concluded, taking the lead naturally. No one argued him otherwise, and he rubbed a hand over his face and cast a tired look around the circle. "But first, let's get some sleep - there's nothing so important it can't wait until tomorrow."

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Tomorrow found the early riser Sam Winchester passing coffees around the circle as he sipped on a green smoothie. Dean stared at his brother in disbelief and slight mortification as Sam took another huge gulp of the green sludge. Felicity and Barry however, leaned in and asked him what was in it - Felicity even managed to convince him to share a sip. Dean gagged at the mere thought of what it might taste like.

They sat in the local library, Oliver looking around like he had never been there a day in his life - despite the fact his family seemed to own a branch of it. "I can't say this was ever a place you could find me - not here, not any school I was at - probably why I was kicked out so much," he mused as Felicity just rolled her eyes and shook her head.

The stack of books that sat in the middle of them all was monstrous, having searched for every Greek mythology book the library had. They would be here forever, he decided then and there and sighed as he grabbed a book off of the stack and let it drop on the desktop with a resounding thud.

'Kronos swallowed his children, afraid that they would one day usurp him as he had done his own father. After breaking free of Kronos...' Dean could already feel himself beginning to nod off, this mythology stuff was just too absurd. Titans that ate their children? Fauns? And please god let Demi-gods not exist, the angels were enough of a pain in his ass to have any more to deal with.

He was thirty minutes in when he crossed an interesting line, or what he thought might be one before reading on, only to find it explained Roman myths as well. He huffed and began to hum Metallica under his breath, drumming his fingers on the desktop to the beat in his head. Until Sam ended it with a pointed glare which he promptly returned and hummed louder before Felicity stomped on his toes with her point heels.

He hissed at the sudden pain in his foot and glared at her. "Quiet, it's a library!" she murmured, leaning back into her seat again.

"I should stomp on your toes and see just how much you like those satin finished fake shoes -" he grumbled under his breath and both Sam and Oliver looked at him with a mix of amusement and utter confusion. Felicity slouched lower in her seat and tucked her feet under her seat before hiding behind the book she was reading.

It was six hours later before Barry finally straightened from his slouched position and began to take an interest in his reading material. "What you got there speedy?" Dean asked in a flat, bored tone acknowledging the massive tome flattened out before him.

"I- I think I know why we need the lightening generator," he finally sputtered, looking up to meet Dean's eyes- a wary expression on his face. "The only way in is by death- a soul to be brought across the River Styx," and he was hoping that wasn't going to be their only answer.

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A/N - I feel like this chapter is really short but let me know what you think anyways!