Trust Doesn’t Rust
by Morgan Briarwood is a crossover between Supernatural and Jennifer's Body, starting early in the fifth season of Supernatural and shortly after the film, as the currently-separated Dean and Sam find themselves each investigating the events of the Devil’s Kettle murders, Dean tracking the girl that killed Low Shoulder while Sam meets and befriends Needy to help her deal with what happened to her.
Trust Doesn’t Rust contains examples of:
- Alas, Poor Villain: Disregarded; once Dean learns about Low Shoulder’s demon deal, he feels that the murder is justified as they didn’t even have the nerve to offer up their own souls for a deal.
- Ambiguously Bi: Downplayed; Jennifer and Needy’s bond is defined as a sisterly one without the explicitly sexual elements used in the film, and Sam is briefly ‘attracted’ to Dean due to Dean using a sigil to turn Jennifer’s powers against her that basically turned Dean into an incubus.
- Ascended Extra: Arguably applies to the demon possessing Jennifer; initially just a crossroads demon exploring a new opportunity, she returns to act as Lucifer’s agent in his latest campaign against the Winchesters.
- Big Damn Heroes: A relatively minor example; Castiel doesn’t arrive in time to stop Needy making a deal with Lucifer, but he does arrive in time to get Needy and Jennifer to a hospital after Lucifer kills the demon possessing Jennifer while leaving Jennifer so badly injured that she probably would have died without immediate medical attention.
- Birds of a Feather: Sam and Needy swiftly form a bond due to their unconventional demonic heritage, and Dean later expresses an understanding of why Needy sold her soul for Jennifer based on when he did the same thing to save Sam.
- Bittersweet Ending: Jennifer has been saved, but she and Needy will have to remain on the run as there is no way for them to go home, and Needy may be condemned to go to Hell in ten years after she made a deal with Lucifer, although Sam expresses hope that the deal can be negated if he can kill Lucifer and stop the Apocalypse.
- Curbstomp Battle: Dean deduces Low Shoulder's killer was supernatural because the condition of their bodies reveals the fight was way too onesided for a single assailant going up against five men, even if those men were drunk.
- Deal with the Devil: When confronted by Lucifer, Needy makes a deal with him to save Jennifer’s life.
- Death Seeker: It is all but explicitly stated that Needy became this, with Sam later acknowledging that her attempt to ‘attack’ him was so pitiful compared to what she did to Low Shoulder that it only makes sense if she was trying to get him to kill her.
- Dreadful Musician: Aside from finding them morally repugnant for their disgusting crime, Dean finds Low Shoulder to have been pretentious edge lords with awful music.
- Exact Words: Lucifer and Needy each try to exploit this in their deal, with Lucifer guaranteeing that Jennifer will live without specifying the condition she’ll be in and Needy insisting that Lucifer guarantees she gets ten years after making the deal, without getting any further guarantees about what kind of life she’ll live.
- Evil Smells Bad: The room where Low Shoulder was brutally killed smells bad to Dean, and not just because of the blood and gore.Dean could handle a gory crime scene but this room smelled foul enough without adding fresh corpse to the mix. It wasn’t only the smell of blood and shit: there was spilled beer, cigarette smoke and marijuana, sex and stale sweat.
- Fallen Angel: Sam awkwardly discusses Castiel’s ambiguous current status with Needy to clarify why Castiel isn’t at full power, although Sam is uncertain if this means Castiel is just part angel or something else.
- Greater-Scope Villain: While Dean, Sam and Needy are trying to stop the demon-Jennifer, Lucifer appears as part of his efforts to convince Sam to be his vessel, forcing Needy to make a deal with him to save Jennifer.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Basically applies to Needy; despite Sam’s warnings about the dangers of demon deals, she made a deal with Lucifer, not only hoping to save Jennifer, but also in the hope that her guarantee of ten years will prevent Lucifer actually triggering the Apocalypse for another decade as that would kill her in the process.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Dean muses that Low Shoulder fell victim to this, considering that Needy only killed them due to the powers she obtained from her confrontation with Jennifer after Low Shoulder’s flawed ritual.
- I Don't Like the Sound of That Place: Dean is unnerved at the name of ‘Devil’s Kettle’, but is soon assured that it doesn’t have any supernatural activity about it beyond those events relating to Low Shoulder and Jennifer’s transformation.
- Imperfect Ritual: As well as the obvious example of Low Shoulder sacrificing Jennifer, Sam later tells Needy that stabbing Jennifer in the heart wouldn’t have killed the demon for good but just immobilised it at best.
- It Makes Sense in Context: When Lucifer shows Needy some of Dean and Sam’s past actions, such as when Sam killed a woman and drank her blood, Sam later tells her that there is a context to it that affirms that he and Dean aren’t evil.
- It's All My Fault: Needy fits in rather well with the Winchesters, considering that she blames herself for Jennifer’s death despite the fact that she couldn’t have predicted what was going to happen.
- Jackass Genie: Lucifer acts as one in his deal with Needy, as he lets Jennifer live after the demon is banished from her but left her in such a bad condition that she probably would have died in a few moments if Castiel hadn’t arrived in time to get her to hospital.
- Literal Maneater: Acknowledged, but once Jennifer’s demon is exorcised, she muses that she may go vegan due to the disturbing memories of the demon eating people.
- Loophole Abuse: Defied; according to Bobby’s research, while Low Shoulder sacrificing Jennifer rather than making a traditional deal meant that they wouldn’t go to Hell once the usual ten years were up, they would still go to Hell when they died for killing someone like that in the first place.
- Nigh-Invulnerability: When the possessed Jennifer is walking around after being stabbed in the heart, it’s clear that this applies.
- Odd Friendship: Jennifer and Needy’s friendship might have had its rough patches, but they genuinely care for each other, to the point that Needy sells her soul to Lucifer to save Jennifer, Jennifer later describing Needy as her sister.
- Psychic Link: Needy and Jennifer’s apparent link is discussed; while unsure how it happened, Sam soon affirms that Needy is linked to Jennifer rather than the demon as Needy feels it when Jennifer is stabbed but had no reaction to the demon being hit by holy water.
- Sequel Hook: No sign that the author plans to write one, but when the fic ends with Needy and Jennifer on the run after Needy made a deal with Lucifer that will see her go to Hell in ten years, it’s not impossible to assume that the Winchesters may be able to get Needy out of the deal after some of the subsequent events in canon, such as Abaddon destroying Crowley’s deals or Lucifer’s death.
- Sherlock Scan: After studying the crime scene where Low Shoulder was killed, Dean quickly confirms that the supernatural is involved as no normal killer could kill five people on their own before any of the victims had time to move.
- Trauma Conga Line: After hearing about Sam's life, Needy realizes that despite all she's endured, she's had it pretty easy.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Low Shoulder, thanks to good social media and their own seemingly noble acts during the fire they started, are remembered as noble souls and martyrs. Dean sees right through them, since genuinely good people don't boast about their heroism.
