Fic - Crossing the Rubicon
Title: Crossing the Rubicon - Part One
Author: Lady Eternal
Rating: NC-17
Pairings: Dean/Castiel, Sam/Gabriel
Word Count: 2,014 - this part
Spoilers: If you’ve watched all of Season Five, none. Specific spoilers for episode 5x18.
Warnings: possible abuse of expository devices, rough sex, angst, canon minor character death, OMCs
Disclaimer: If I owned Supernatural, certain events would NEVER have happened and there would be unabashed pr0n. I own little more than a tabby that gets destructive when he feels ignored and am only playing with this world for my own amusement and the free entertainment of others.
Author’s Note: Angelic Mates ‘verse version of Point of No Return. This fic has been circling around my WiP folder for a while, and it’s finally where I want it. Thanks for that in no short supply go to my beta, secondplatypus, who is an unconquerable soul. Hope you all enjoy.
Feedback is adored, so if you like the fic, please comment! And the more details the better; I love knowing what people like about my work.
Music: Running Up That Hill - Placebo
Forget Me - BT
Life After You - Daughtry
I’d Come For You - Nickelback
If I Never Knew You - Jon Secada & Shanice
~ooooOOOoooo~
The ripple rolled through the fabric of reality. Both angels felt it, jerking their attention away from their respective searches.
Gabriel…
*Go see what it is; I’ll get our mates to safety.*
Following the disturbance, Castiel reached a clearing not unlike the space where Sam had buried Dean. Deadfall was all around him, the air so still that nothing seemed to be alive save Castiel himself.
A flicker-warning. Castiel spun, sword drawn and sweeping up towards the body before him as it scalloped, point driving towards the abdomen…
Until it was blocked effortlessly by a vambraced forearm. Castiel drew back fast, wary, focused on his opponent.
“Castiel!”
Startlement laced in the voice, a tidal rush that triggered memory almost buried after centuries of separate missions for God. “Abariel?” He turned, looked closer at the angel he had engaged. “Gamaliel?”
“Father help, Castiel.” Abariel rushed forward as Castiel sheathed his sword, clasping Castiel’s hands. “It’s been ages… and you can imagine what’s being said.”
“The price on your pinions is actually rather flattering, brother,” Gamaliel commented dryly, his own daggers remaining drawn. “You’ve rather impressively irritated Michael by mating his vessel.”
“I swear, some of the profanity he used can only have come from listening to the humans he governs.” Abariel released him, stepping back. Periwinkle eyes scanned their surroundings. “We’re being watched… how many, I don’t know… but they don’t want us near whatever’s about to rise.”
“Whoever,” Mal corrected. “Abbi, hurry.”
“Help me, Castiel.” The earth was starting to bulge and shift. Abariel knelt, dragging at the dirt with his slender hands. Castiel joined him a moment later; he could hear the muffled shouts, feel the terror coming off the newly-revived human in waves.
We’re here, Abariel thought at their rescuee. Calm flowed from him like a river into the earth, taking the edge off the desperation coming from the human whose fingers were just barely visible. Don’t give up… we’ve got you…
Castiel plunged one hand through the alluvial soil, grasping the wrist, was standing and hauling the human out of the ground… registering the wide-eyed, gasping disorientation on his face…
A scream split the sky: rage and pain and shock exploding like a bomb blast. Abbi was crying Mal’s name as Castiel turned.
Blood ran freely from Gamaliel’s right wing, a long gash torn through the thin membrane beneath the red-gold feathers by a celestial blade.
“Hide him,” Castiel snarled. The young human was shoved at Abariel as Castiel drew, sliding into the fray as Gamaliel folded his wings in and staved off his attackers. Barely noticing the flash as the human was hidden from angelic senses by Abariel, Castiel drew off one of the angels and fought at Gamaliel’s back, shielding the already-damaged wing from further injury.
The fight was short and ugly; the attacking angels were dead within minutes, and Gamaliel staggered as grace and blood gushed through matted feathers. “The boy?”
“Sleeping. I’ve sealed his dreams.” Abariel’s voice shook. “Mal?”
“Not yet.” Emerald-green eyes dilated in pain. “We need to get out of here.”
Castiel shouldered Gamaliel’s arm, his expression furiously grim. “Follow me,” he instructed Abariel shortly, vanishing with Gamaliel to the only safe place they had.
* * *
Dean! Tell Gabriel to re-key the wards, now. I’m bringing wounded.
Dean’s eyes widened as he relayed the message to Gabriel. “Who would Cas trust to bring here, wounded or not?”
“Only two people I can think of.” Gabriel stretched out, opening the wards to his seraphim as they followed Castiel into Bobby’s house.
Pandemonium ensued. Abariel unburdening the human he carried into Dean’s startled arms. Gabriel catching the scent of blood, demanding answers even as Castiel was getting Gamaliel into a comfortable position and examining the wound. Sam staring at the unconscious youth Dean supported, his hazel eyes wide and his mouth hanging open. Bobby watching the entire circus with nothing short of active dismay.
“Who did this?” Gabriel insisted again, focused on the rapidly-closing gash through Mal’s wing.
“They were Zachariel’s,” Abariel replied, periwinkle eyes still wide as he moved to sit beside his mate. “They were waiting for the boy to claw his way out of the ground.”
“I’m fine,” Mal protested. The fingers of his right hand laced into Abariel’s left, squeezing reassuringly. His skin was pale from loss of grace and blood, every freckle standing out sharply across his face. “Be good as new in a minute. Bastard surprised me, is all.” His eyes flickered to Dean and Sam, who were settling the mortal in question onto the window seat. Dean looked like he’d taken a death blow, and Sam was cleansing the dirt and decaying wood from the young man’s face with a damp cloth, a haunted expression on his face. “Why the boy’s so important to them, I don’t know. But they were shielding; they didn’t want us knowing their numbers.”
“You can be replaced.”
Castiel and Gabriel’s heads shot up as Dean’s memory of Uriel’s cryptic remark thundered darkly across the bond. Sam looked at his brother, understanding and deep fear carving dark holes in his heart. Castiel fought the urge to move to Dean’s side immediately, focusing on healing Gamaliel’s wing completely first. “Beloved?”
“He’s our brother,” Dean told the angels. His voice throbbed with pain and guilt and grief. “Dad’s kid with some nurse he had a fling with.”
“We didn’t find out he even existed until a pair of ghouls trying to get revenge on Dad killed him and called us while impersonating him and his mother,” Sam continued. “He never knew us.”
“But he’s your father’s child?” Gabriel’s question was sharp, his eyes flashing amber fire.
“Why else would Michael be interested in him?” Dean snapped. “I wouldn’t say yes willing and now he can’t even force it since Cas and I are mated. The sonuvabitch had Adam put back together from ashes and stuffed his soul back in his meat so he can wear the dumb kid, and who the Hell knows what Michael or Zachariah or anybody else told him before they made him claw his way out of a shallow grave!”
The room fell silent. As soon as it was fully healed, Castiel relinquished Gamaliel’s wing and stood. Gazing steadily at his mate for a moment, he crossed the room to Dean’s side and placed his right hand over the brand on Dean’s left shoulder. Dean’s face crumpled for half a moment as guilt poured out of him. “I didn’t know this was even considered as a back-up plan, Dean. Uriel must have known because of his status; if I had known, I would have warned you.”
“I know, Cas.” Dean’s weight leaned into Cas’ touch, right hand coming up to cover Castiel’s. “Don’t make it right, though. Dad never wanted the kid involved with this stuff, the way Sammy and I had to be.”
Bobby cleared his throat. “How long ‘til the angelic sleep whammy wears off?”
“At least until morning,” Abariel advised softly. “Between resurrection and clawing out of the ground and the sigils I etched into his ribs, he’ll need the rest.” He hadn’t let go of Gamaliel’s hand, his cormorant wings folded back but flicking with anxiety.
“And just who are you two?” Bobby demanded.
Gabriel sighed. “Not exactly the way I wanted to make introductions, but… guys, meet Abariel and Gamaliel; these two are my wingmen, so to speak. Flew by my side since they were made, and there are no angels I trust more than them.” He flashed an almost rueful half-smile at Castiel, who looked unfazed by the statement. “Abbi… Mal… meet Robert Singer: Winchester aide-de-camp and resident paternal figure…”
Unsure of how to react, Bobby nodded to them. Abariel smiled warmly, Mal nodding back with a solemn gaze.
“Dean Winchester, Castiel’s mate…”
“I’ve been itching to spar with you for two years, brother,” Gamaliel advised, a warrior’s grin tugging across his mouth. “You’ve got a reputation upstairs.”
“Anytime,” Dean replied with a gamine grin of his own. The prospect of testing his mettle against an angel when it wasn’t life-or-death intrigued him.
“Later, boys,” Gabriel admonished. He then took a soft breath, his fingers reaching out to tangle with Sam’s. “And this is Sam.”
Sam felt his heart flip over at the love throbbing in Gabriel’s voice, the note that sounded almost proud to be introducing him to these seraphim… like Sam was something more than the Boy With the Demon Blood That Set Lucifer Free… Emerald and periwinkle eyes both swung to meet his, full and warm and strangely infinite, and Sam suddenly had no idea what to say. “Umm… hi.”
Abariel loosed his mate’s hand, smile turning somehow solemn. Before anyone could react, Gamaliel rose, daggers pulled free of their sheaths and held reversed in his hands, the blades flat against his inner forearms. With the fluid grace of a mountain cat, Gamaliel stepped into a deep, cross-vambraced bow before Sam, his newly mended wings flaring up in perfect arches, gleaming red-gold in the morning light.
“My blades are your shield,” he said, his voice threaded with something older than the stars. “My wings yours to direct. Do you require aught, but speak my name, and all in my power will be at your bidding.”
Abariel stepped up beside his made, a short sword in his slender hand as he also bowed, dark rainbows dancing from his green-black wings. “Be it a sword as your champion or a moment of calm in the gathering dark, you have but to call, and I am yours to command.”
Gabriel was practically glowing, obviously pleased beyond words. Sam just stared, wide-eyed and uncertain of precisely what to do. It was Dean who broke the silence this time. “Dude… did they just swear fealty to you?”
“I… think so?” Sam shook himself. “Thank you… I guess?”
Mal straightened with a smile and caught Sam in a bear hug. “Formalities, brother… you mated a Prince of Heaven; there are a few perks.”
“Besides his stamina,” Abariel added with a sly wink at their archangel.
Sam blushed scarlet as the angels traded places, Abariel hugging him fiercely, and Dean snorted. “The Hell, man? How’d you get picked for all the legions of followers without having to say yes to being a prom dress?”
“I’ll trade you,” Sam snapped as he was released, suddenly peevish over the implication in Dean’s words. “I’ll be the reason Dad went to Hell and the Righteous Man that broke the First Seal, and you can be the Boy King that was manipulated for four years into setting Lucifer free… and the reason Mom got killed.”
Dean’s mouth compressed into a thin line of tight pain, regretting the uncensored statement. He could feel Sam’s guilt rip across the bond, unsure of how to respond to it. Always before, these fights had dissolved into silence and avoidance until something exploded and they had no choice but to deal with it. Now, with the bonds, there was no escaping the other’s emotions, no delaying attendance on the other’s reactions.
Something soothing, like the cool lap of calm ocean waves, washed through the room. Sam glanced at Abariel, whose darkened periwinkle eyes were gentle even as pinpricks of grace sparkled in their depths, though his thoughts were directed at Gabriel. They’re what I always thought angels would be like.
*They haven’t lost what they were made to be,* Gabriel responded, quiet even in the vaults of Sam’s mind. *Not all angels were made to be soldiers, Sam… not that many of them remember that with Michael gearing for the war of all wars.*
There was a flicker of pain from his mate, a flash of not-quite-hurt. Sam suddenly couldn’t breathe, feeling closed in, trapped by too much coming at him too fast. “I’m gonna take Adam upstairs. We can’t leave him on the window seat all day.”
“I’ll help.” Castiel stepped forward and lifted Adam’s legs while Sam got a firm grip under Adam’s shoulders. Cas then flew them up to the guest room without a word.
Go To Part Two
Author: Lady Eternal
Rating: NC-17
Pairings: Dean/Castiel, Sam/Gabriel
Word Count: 2,014 - this part
Spoilers: If you’ve watched all of Season Five, none. Specific spoilers for episode 5x18.
Warnings: possible abuse of expository devices, rough sex, angst, canon minor character death, OMCs
Disclaimer: If I owned Supernatural, certain events would NEVER have happened and there would be unabashed pr0n. I own little more than a tabby that gets destructive when he feels ignored and am only playing with this world for my own amusement and the free entertainment of others.
Author’s Note: Angelic Mates ‘verse version of Point of No Return. This fic has been circling around my WiP folder for a while, and it’s finally where I want it. Thanks for that in no short supply go to my beta, secondplatypus, who is an unconquerable soul. Hope you all enjoy.
Feedback is adored, so if you like the fic, please comment! And the more details the better; I love knowing what people like about my work.
Music: Running Up That Hill - Placebo
Forget Me - BT
Life After You - Daughtry
I’d Come For You - Nickelback
If I Never Knew You - Jon Secada & Shanice
~ooooOOOoooo~
The ripple rolled through the fabric of reality. Both angels felt it, jerking their attention away from their respective searches.
Gabriel…
*Go see what it is; I’ll get our mates to safety.*
Following the disturbance, Castiel reached a clearing not unlike the space where Sam had buried Dean. Deadfall was all around him, the air so still that nothing seemed to be alive save Castiel himself.
A flicker-warning. Castiel spun, sword drawn and sweeping up towards the body before him as it scalloped, point driving towards the abdomen…
Until it was blocked effortlessly by a vambraced forearm. Castiel drew back fast, wary, focused on his opponent.
“Castiel!”
Startlement laced in the voice, a tidal rush that triggered memory almost buried after centuries of separate missions for God. “Abariel?” He turned, looked closer at the angel he had engaged. “Gamaliel?”
“Father help, Castiel.” Abariel rushed forward as Castiel sheathed his sword, clasping Castiel’s hands. “It’s been ages… and you can imagine what’s being said.”
“The price on your pinions is actually rather flattering, brother,” Gamaliel commented dryly, his own daggers remaining drawn. “You’ve rather impressively irritated Michael by mating his vessel.”
“I swear, some of the profanity he used can only have come from listening to the humans he governs.” Abariel released him, stepping back. Periwinkle eyes scanned their surroundings. “We’re being watched… how many, I don’t know… but they don’t want us near whatever’s about to rise.”
“Whoever,” Mal corrected. “Abbi, hurry.”
“Help me, Castiel.” The earth was starting to bulge and shift. Abariel knelt, dragging at the dirt with his slender hands. Castiel joined him a moment later; he could hear the muffled shouts, feel the terror coming off the newly-revived human in waves.
We’re here, Abariel thought at their rescuee. Calm flowed from him like a river into the earth, taking the edge off the desperation coming from the human whose fingers were just barely visible. Don’t give up… we’ve got you…
Castiel plunged one hand through the alluvial soil, grasping the wrist, was standing and hauling the human out of the ground… registering the wide-eyed, gasping disorientation on his face…
A scream split the sky: rage and pain and shock exploding like a bomb blast. Abbi was crying Mal’s name as Castiel turned.
Blood ran freely from Gamaliel’s right wing, a long gash torn through the thin membrane beneath the red-gold feathers by a celestial blade.
“Hide him,” Castiel snarled. The young human was shoved at Abariel as Castiel drew, sliding into the fray as Gamaliel folded his wings in and staved off his attackers. Barely noticing the flash as the human was hidden from angelic senses by Abariel, Castiel drew off one of the angels and fought at Gamaliel’s back, shielding the already-damaged wing from further injury.
The fight was short and ugly; the attacking angels were dead within minutes, and Gamaliel staggered as grace and blood gushed through matted feathers. “The boy?”
“Sleeping. I’ve sealed his dreams.” Abariel’s voice shook. “Mal?”
“Not yet.” Emerald-green eyes dilated in pain. “We need to get out of here.”
Castiel shouldered Gamaliel’s arm, his expression furiously grim. “Follow me,” he instructed Abariel shortly, vanishing with Gamaliel to the only safe place they had.
* * *
Dean! Tell Gabriel to re-key the wards, now. I’m bringing wounded.
Dean’s eyes widened as he relayed the message to Gabriel. “Who would Cas trust to bring here, wounded or not?”
“Only two people I can think of.” Gabriel stretched out, opening the wards to his seraphim as they followed Castiel into Bobby’s house.
Pandemonium ensued. Abariel unburdening the human he carried into Dean’s startled arms. Gabriel catching the scent of blood, demanding answers even as Castiel was getting Gamaliel into a comfortable position and examining the wound. Sam staring at the unconscious youth Dean supported, his hazel eyes wide and his mouth hanging open. Bobby watching the entire circus with nothing short of active dismay.
“Who did this?” Gabriel insisted again, focused on the rapidly-closing gash through Mal’s wing.
“They were Zachariel’s,” Abariel replied, periwinkle eyes still wide as he moved to sit beside his mate. “They were waiting for the boy to claw his way out of the ground.”
“I’m fine,” Mal protested. The fingers of his right hand laced into Abariel’s left, squeezing reassuringly. His skin was pale from loss of grace and blood, every freckle standing out sharply across his face. “Be good as new in a minute. Bastard surprised me, is all.” His eyes flickered to Dean and Sam, who were settling the mortal in question onto the window seat. Dean looked like he’d taken a death blow, and Sam was cleansing the dirt and decaying wood from the young man’s face with a damp cloth, a haunted expression on his face. “Why the boy’s so important to them, I don’t know. But they were shielding; they didn’t want us knowing their numbers.”
“You can be replaced.”
Castiel and Gabriel’s heads shot up as Dean’s memory of Uriel’s cryptic remark thundered darkly across the bond. Sam looked at his brother, understanding and deep fear carving dark holes in his heart. Castiel fought the urge to move to Dean’s side immediately, focusing on healing Gamaliel’s wing completely first. “Beloved?”
“He’s our brother,” Dean told the angels. His voice throbbed with pain and guilt and grief. “Dad’s kid with some nurse he had a fling with.”
“We didn’t find out he even existed until a pair of ghouls trying to get revenge on Dad killed him and called us while impersonating him and his mother,” Sam continued. “He never knew us.”
“But he’s your father’s child?” Gabriel’s question was sharp, his eyes flashing amber fire.
“Why else would Michael be interested in him?” Dean snapped. “I wouldn’t say yes willing and now he can’t even force it since Cas and I are mated. The sonuvabitch had Adam put back together from ashes and stuffed his soul back in his meat so he can wear the dumb kid, and who the Hell knows what Michael or Zachariah or anybody else told him before they made him claw his way out of a shallow grave!”
The room fell silent. As soon as it was fully healed, Castiel relinquished Gamaliel’s wing and stood. Gazing steadily at his mate for a moment, he crossed the room to Dean’s side and placed his right hand over the brand on Dean’s left shoulder. Dean’s face crumpled for half a moment as guilt poured out of him. “I didn’t know this was even considered as a back-up plan, Dean. Uriel must have known because of his status; if I had known, I would have warned you.”
“I know, Cas.” Dean’s weight leaned into Cas’ touch, right hand coming up to cover Castiel’s. “Don’t make it right, though. Dad never wanted the kid involved with this stuff, the way Sammy and I had to be.”
Bobby cleared his throat. “How long ‘til the angelic sleep whammy wears off?”
“At least until morning,” Abariel advised softly. “Between resurrection and clawing out of the ground and the sigils I etched into his ribs, he’ll need the rest.” He hadn’t let go of Gamaliel’s hand, his cormorant wings folded back but flicking with anxiety.
“And just who are you two?” Bobby demanded.
Gabriel sighed. “Not exactly the way I wanted to make introductions, but… guys, meet Abariel and Gamaliel; these two are my wingmen, so to speak. Flew by my side since they were made, and there are no angels I trust more than them.” He flashed an almost rueful half-smile at Castiel, who looked unfazed by the statement. “Abbi… Mal… meet Robert Singer: Winchester aide-de-camp and resident paternal figure…”
Unsure of how to react, Bobby nodded to them. Abariel smiled warmly, Mal nodding back with a solemn gaze.
“Dean Winchester, Castiel’s mate…”
“I’ve been itching to spar with you for two years, brother,” Gamaliel advised, a warrior’s grin tugging across his mouth. “You’ve got a reputation upstairs.”
“Anytime,” Dean replied with a gamine grin of his own. The prospect of testing his mettle against an angel when it wasn’t life-or-death intrigued him.
“Later, boys,” Gabriel admonished. He then took a soft breath, his fingers reaching out to tangle with Sam’s. “And this is Sam.”
Sam felt his heart flip over at the love throbbing in Gabriel’s voice, the note that sounded almost proud to be introducing him to these seraphim… like Sam was something more than the Boy With the Demon Blood That Set Lucifer Free… Emerald and periwinkle eyes both swung to meet his, full and warm and strangely infinite, and Sam suddenly had no idea what to say. “Umm… hi.”
Abariel loosed his mate’s hand, smile turning somehow solemn. Before anyone could react, Gamaliel rose, daggers pulled free of their sheaths and held reversed in his hands, the blades flat against his inner forearms. With the fluid grace of a mountain cat, Gamaliel stepped into a deep, cross-vambraced bow before Sam, his newly mended wings flaring up in perfect arches, gleaming red-gold in the morning light.
“My blades are your shield,” he said, his voice threaded with something older than the stars. “My wings yours to direct. Do you require aught, but speak my name, and all in my power will be at your bidding.”
Abariel stepped up beside his made, a short sword in his slender hand as he also bowed, dark rainbows dancing from his green-black wings. “Be it a sword as your champion or a moment of calm in the gathering dark, you have but to call, and I am yours to command.”
Gabriel was practically glowing, obviously pleased beyond words. Sam just stared, wide-eyed and uncertain of precisely what to do. It was Dean who broke the silence this time. “Dude… did they just swear fealty to you?”
“I… think so?” Sam shook himself. “Thank you… I guess?”
Mal straightened with a smile and caught Sam in a bear hug. “Formalities, brother… you mated a Prince of Heaven; there are a few perks.”
“Besides his stamina,” Abariel added with a sly wink at their archangel.
Sam blushed scarlet as the angels traded places, Abariel hugging him fiercely, and Dean snorted. “The Hell, man? How’d you get picked for all the legions of followers without having to say yes to being a prom dress?”
“I’ll trade you,” Sam snapped as he was released, suddenly peevish over the implication in Dean’s words. “I’ll be the reason Dad went to Hell and the Righteous Man that broke the First Seal, and you can be the Boy King that was manipulated for four years into setting Lucifer free… and the reason Mom got killed.”
Dean’s mouth compressed into a thin line of tight pain, regretting the uncensored statement. He could feel Sam’s guilt rip across the bond, unsure of how to respond to it. Always before, these fights had dissolved into silence and avoidance until something exploded and they had no choice but to deal with it. Now, with the bonds, there was no escaping the other’s emotions, no delaying attendance on the other’s reactions.
Something soothing, like the cool lap of calm ocean waves, washed through the room. Sam glanced at Abariel, whose darkened periwinkle eyes were gentle even as pinpricks of grace sparkled in their depths, though his thoughts were directed at Gabriel. They’re what I always thought angels would be like.
*They haven’t lost what they were made to be,* Gabriel responded, quiet even in the vaults of Sam’s mind. *Not all angels were made to be soldiers, Sam… not that many of them remember that with Michael gearing for the war of all wars.*
There was a flicker of pain from his mate, a flash of not-quite-hurt. Sam suddenly couldn’t breathe, feeling closed in, trapped by too much coming at him too fast. “I’m gonna take Adam upstairs. We can’t leave him on the window seat all day.”
“I’ll help.” Castiel stepped forward and lifted Adam’s legs while Sam got a firm grip under Adam’s shoulders. Cas then flew them up to the guest room without a word.
Go To Part Two