DCBB Black Glass pt.18
Part 17
“So Lucifer was using Cas all along?” Sam asked, frowning in disgust.
“Those are my suspicions, yes.” Gabriel nodded, keeping a wary eye on the river stretched in front of them. “He planned on Cas settling down in River Rock, becoming accustomed to its peoples, and maybe finding a woman there as well.”
“He doesn’t know my brother,” Sam snorted, entertained by the mere thought of Cas finding another besides Dean. It was impossible.
“Indeed,” Gabriel grinned, “and thanks to that Lucifer is now at a loss.”
“What was his plan in the first place?” Sam asked.
“Perhaps he meant to leave River Rock to take over the Empire. Undoubtedly he planned on Cas killing Michael, leaving the Empire without a ruler.”
“But Cas would be the successor…” Sam said.
“Not if Lucifer could convince him to leave, or, worse yet, he would kill him.”
“How? Cas is so strong now.” Sam gasped, remembering how Cas lifted the barrel of rice without breaking a sweat, a barrel that required the strength of two men.
“From what I could see in his tattoos, Lucifer designed Cas to be weaker than him. I can imagine the entire time since his re-creation that Cas has remained submissive to Lucifer, out of no action of his own, just a base feeling of weakness.”
“This is insane,” Sam scoffed.
“So even if Cas wanted to kill Lucifer, if he ever discovered his plans, he wouldn’t be able to. The Other inside of him would hold him back out of self-preservation.” Gabriel continued, ignoring Sam’s incredulity.
“Everything that Cas has done, everything he has become, was all part of Lucifer’s twisted ambitions for power?” Sam whispered. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that. He was upset for Cas, first and foremost. He had cut off his wings! His precious wings that Sam knew he prided himself for. Every time Dean would clean them Cas would practically radiate pleasure, it was infectious, and now they were gone. He was alien now, strange and horrifying and it was all Lucifer’s fault. Sam knew Cas didn’t want power, and if he killed Michael he wouldn’t do anything about it. He would run.
“So where is Lucifer now?” Sam asked, suddenly realizing how vulnerable they were out in the open as they were. If Lucifer was loose, and feeling particularly scorned, he would have no difficulties with killing them.
“Oh, he’s around,” Gabriel replied, surreptitiously glancing around the canyon walls, “but he won’t hurt us. That one’s harmless now. The Others of River Rock will keep him tethered. There must always be a host in the village.”
“You know an awful lot about this,” Sam said, a question in his voice. Gabriel smirked and winked.
“A magician never reveals his secrets.”
Sam rolled his eyes and relaxed against the side of the boat, checking on Girl where she lay curled against his side. She still hadn’t woken up yet, and it had been hours.
“Don’t worry about that,” Gabriel said. “Once we find Cas and Dean she’ll wake up.”
“Find them? How can you be so sure that they’ve already left the Basilica?”
“Again, Sam, I never reveal my secrets.”
“Fine, where are they then?”
“They’re pretty close, actually, a few hours away? They’re on foot though, so we’ll reach them first if we don’t run into any…problems.”
Sam swallowed and left it at that.
After the sun went down and the moon painted the rock walls white they turned off the engine and allowed the boat to drift. It was slower going, but it would conserve energy. The river wouldn’t steer them wrong, Gabriel had said, and Sam hadn’t the energy to argue with him again. He wasn’t aware they were being watched till the morning hours, before the sun arose completely and the sky was a patchy gray color. It was just light enough for Sam to make out a shape above the canyon walls, following them at a cautious distance. He looked around for Gabriel, just noticing that they had come to a stop as well.
“I’m here, Sam.” Gabriel whispered, placing a hand on his shoulder. Girl was snoring softly and twitching in her sleep.
“It’s Lucifer, isn’t it?” Sam asked. Gabriel nodded. He moved to the back of the boat, switching on the motor to the lowest setting and Sam flinched at how loud the machine was in the silence of the tentative dawn.
“We just need to keep our heads down and keep going,” Gabriel whispered. “We’re close to them, they can help us, we just need to last till we can get to them.”
Sam nodded and unconsciously put himself between Girl and the canyon wall. If anything happened to Girl, Cas would kill him, kin or not.
Cas and Dean had been walking for what seemed like an age. He knew the amount of walking they did would have taken much longer, but the very ground seemed to shift under his feet, and miles flew by in minutes. Cas’s tattoos blazed neon in the sun, brighter the closer they came to River Rock. The river narrowed, the sun burned high in the sky, and he jumped into the river just for the sheer relief of water against his burnt flesh. Cas smiled indulgently at him as he ducked under, wetting his whole head, finally washing away the smears of the soldiers’ blood left on his face. He staggered out of the water and grinned Cas’s way, flicking water at him and the man hissed in annoyance, waiting till Dean was nearly out of the water before shoving him back in with a cackle. Dean screamed and gurgled when he swallowed water and surfaced with a kick.
“Cas, you fucking…” Dean growled, grinning like an idiot, but he stopped short when Cas was staring down river, eyes wide and lips a tight line.
“Dean,” he murmured, voice low but every bit as menacing as a roar. Dean scampered out of the water, tugging on his drooping slave tunic. He looked with Cas down the shore and heard the humming before he actually saw the boat. He took a jerky step forward but Cas held him back, planting a firm hand against his chest. He shook his head and planted one foot on the shore, the other in the water and pushed. Dean couldn’t explain it. It was beautiful and horrifying and Dean recoiled at the wrongness of it. The water bulged around Cas’s ankle, then up to his knee and up the side of his body. Dean held his breath when an Empire powerboat careened by, he heard a shout of his name by a familiar voice, and then the water erupted from Cas’s outstretched hand, boiling, and Dean could feel the heat roil against his face. He was too close and yet he couldn’t bring himself to back away.
The water struck the sides of the canyon, steaming and fogging the entire stretch of the river, and Dean thought he saw something fall from the top of the canyon.
“Get back.” Dean heard Cas say, but it was as if he were shouting from a great distance, and it wasn’t his voice at all. His muscles loosened, and he staggered away, falling to the ground. Someone yelled his name-not Cas-and he moved his head, sluggish. He barely made out the fuzzy outline of someone’s face and then large hands grasped his upper arms, pulling him away from Cas. He cried out and tried to break free, tried to make his way back to Cas.
“He’s too close,” Dean heard someone shout near his ear, “Dean’s being influenced by the Other’s power, he’ll snap out of it when we get him away.”
“Oh god…oh god Dean, please come back to me!”
Dean stirred, fighting the nausea and the overwhelming numbness in his head to look behind him, to see.
“Sammy…?”
“That’s right, oh my god, I’m here Dean, I’m here.” Sam, his brother, sobbed against his neck.
“Sammy,” Dean whimpered, grabbing at his brother’s hands, catching air half the time but Sam laughed breathily and took his hands himself.
“It’s good to see you again.” Sam whispered in his ear and Dean cried, he cried and finally managed to turn around to bury his face in Sam’s neck, holding on and he never wanted to let go. He heard sounds behind him that sounded suspiciously like screams and the shrieking of animals. Dean didn’t want to hear it; he didn’t want to know what was happening behind him, what Cas was doing to…whatever it was back there.
Sam pulled him to his feet and held him around his chest. Dean was boneless and so scared that it was all a dream. That everything that had happened in the past few days was one of the drugged, feverish nightmares he would suffer through back in the Empire, held tight against Michael’s chest. It was infuriating, and he felt powerless when he couldn’t even support himself as Sam dragged him away, towards the idling power boat. Sam lifted him, like he weighed nothing-though he was sure he gained weight during his captivity-and set him down in the safety of the boat. He glanced to his side when Sam pulled a scratchy blanket around his shoulders and saw a child sized lump in the corner. He nearly sobbed when he realized it was Girl, and he struggled to pull himself across to her. Sam noticed, and helped him cross the boat. Dean sighed and wrapped himself around his daughter, his real daughter, his Girl. He closed his eyes and wound his fingers through her matted hair, dark as Lisa’s. He huffed a laugh and wondered how Cas ever allowed it to grow so long.
He remembered Cas had said she was like him. He grinned when he imagined it. He imagined her fire, of course. She would take after her mother, perhaps. Her tongue would be sharp. He felt her wiry little muscles, bunched in a dream, and he imagined her in the wilderness with them, more than capable of taking care of herself. He saw that she had the remains of a wolf skin cape wrapped around her waist; a memento from colder days. He felt the sharp edges of a blade poke against his thigh. It wasn’t sharp enough to cut, but he imagined her in the forest hunting game with her father, her real father. She smelled like wood smoke and salt, but soon she would smell like snow, mountain air, and the heavy scent of animal blood that never seemed to wash away.
They would be home soon, Dean thought with a smile. The nightmare was over.
After Cas felt that Dean was safe, he didn’t hold anything back. He shot jet after jet of boiling water at Lucifer, relishing in his surprised shouts of pain.
The Other inside of him had informed him of Lucifer’s plan merely days ago, but it was long enough to prepare, in the scant hours in which Dean slept he practiced in the river water, listening to the Other’s instructions.
Lucifer is a being of fire, it had whispered to him, and sadly he has used it against us time and time again to keep us pliant, but no more.
Its voice echoed in his head, full of dark promises.
We will use his element against him, it said, fight fire with fire.
The boiling water was Cas’s idea, seeing as whenever he tried to touch fire, like Lucifer could, he recoiled from it before he was even inches away. The Other had hissed and proclaimed it a horrid idea, scratching at the walls of Cas’s head and Cas had screamed for it to shut up. It had quieted after Cas warmed the water to a pleasant temperature. He thought about it for about a second before he heated up the temperature to nearly intolerable levels, heat that would have killed a lesser man, and the Other had uncurled inside his head with a pleased purr.
This idea, I like it. It said, taking control of his body for mere seconds to roll about in the roiling water. Cas suppressed a chuckle and easily took back his body. When the Other first joined with him he was afraid it would take complete control, erasing his existence all together, but that wasn’t the case at all. It was more like a feline with a temper that would rather spend hours in the water than on land.
It was a soothing presence rather than invasive. Lucifer had built it up to be some sort of savage entity of nature that would burn away his brain to use his body as a tool for destruction.
Cas approached Lucifer’s body, scowling down at him. His face and upper arms were reddened and irritated from the boiling water. He stirred only slightly when Cas kicked his side out of spite.
“Thought he could kill me?” Cas snarled.
No one can kill us, sweet Castiel, the Other purred. Especially not this vermin.
Cas hummed and kneeled down, hefting Lucifer up and over his shoulder like a sack of grain. For all his posturing, it seemed Lucifer was just weak, perhaps weak from the very beginning. Once Cas came along in his life he saw an opportunity, and he seized it. But it was Lucifer’s own fault that he underestimated Cas’s will power. Fool.
He walked to the boat on the shore, glancing once at Gabriel before he leaned over Dean, jostling him awake.
“Keep the blanket on, Dean, I have to use your tunic for restraints.”
Dean nodded blearily, fumbling beneath the blanket to untie his clothing. He was glad to be rid of it, even though he would be naked beneath the blanket. Sam started to protest and Cas shot him a look.
“I won’t kill him,” Cas said as he wound Dean’s former clothing around Lucifer’s arms, using the remainder to tie his legs as well. “I won’t become him.”
Good, beautiful Castiel…the Other crooned. Now let us be rid of him.
“Is it over? Can it really be over?” Sam wondered aloud, coming to stand next to him.
“There is still so much to be done,” Gabriel sighed. “There is the matter of your succession, of Michael’s death.”
“There is another in the Basilica, Gabriel. His name is Uriel, his heart is true. Make it so that he assumes the throne in my stead.” Cas answered.
“Are you sure?” Sam stepped forward, touching his shoulder.
“I want no part in that place ever again, neither does Dean.” Cas murmured, looking over at his mate who seemed to be fighting slumber, liquid green eyes lidded but ever watchful on Lucifer’s bound form. “I won’t ever make him go back, and I will never leave him again. No, we’re going home.”
“Well then, if you are sure, I know the man,” Gabriel nodded, eyes solemn, “he will rule well, and make sure that his successor is as just and good as he is.”
“Good.” Cas replied, glancing at Lucifer’s bound, unconscious body in the boat.
“Papa?” Girl blinked awake, uncurling from Dean’s side. She screamed and bucked away, kicking Dean in the stomach. “You’re not my papa!”
“Girl, calm down, I am here.” Cas shouted, coming over to grab her arm.
“But who is that papa?! Why is Lucifer all tied up? Where are we?” She shouted. Cas didn’t even have the energy to assuage her fears. He laughed instead and kneeled down next to Dean.
“Girl, this is Dean.”
She stopped struggling and stared, dumbstruck.
“Dean? You mean…the Dean? The Dean from your star walks? The Dean whose name I can’t say all the time?” She asked, blinking rapidly in excitement as she turned to stare at him. Dean pulled the blanket tighter around his shoulders, but smiled all the same.
“Wow, you’re pretty! You’re just like I imagined! Papa used to talk in his sleep about you, about your eyes that look like gems and the brown spots on your cheeks. I have those spots too, see?” She clambered up onto Dean’s lap and thrust her face close to his, pointing to the smattering of freckles over her little button of a nose.
“Well I think you’re prettier,” Dean said, poking her nose with a grin. She giggled and sat more heavily onto his lap, content for the moment. He sighed and rested his forehead against hers. Cas couldn’t stop smiling at the sight. Girl had accepted him, and while she didn’t yet know how close they actually were, it was enough for him.
Cas reached for Girl, who took his hand and stepped onto the shore with Dean close behind, and he kicked the boat back into the river.
“It will return to River Rock,” Cas said in explanation with a smirk. “He won’t be able to leave, the Other in him will make sure of it.”
Gabriel laughed softly and watched with them as the boat disappeared around the river bend.
“Where will you go after you set the Empire straight?” Sam asked Gabriel, and Cas could see the reluctance in his face, in his closeness to Gabriel.
“Wherever he goes, you should go.” Dean answered instead. Sam and Gabriel both turned to look at the other. “He could learn so much from you. Sam is a scholar, not a fighter.”
“And as much as you deny it, Gabriel, I know you have grown fond of him.” Cas added. Sam hunched his shoulders and Cas watched, fascinated, as his cheeks reddened ever so slightly. Gabriel laughed and he slapped an arm around Sam’s shoulders, though Sam had to stoop for him to do so.
“I’d love to take him with me.” Gabriel finally agreed, wiping tears from his eyes from laughing so hard. “If that’s okay with you, Sam.”
Sam laughed, but he stroked a thumb over Dean’s cheekbone, lips trembling.
“I just got you back,” he said, pulling his brother into a crushing hug.
“But you know where we’ll be, where we’re going.” Dean said, pulling his arms free of the blanket to hold Sam as well, uncaring if the blanket slid down or not.
“You’re going back to the lake house? But they burned it down with…with our mother still inside. I’m sorry Dean, she didn’t make it.” Sam sniffed, pulling away before he wouldn’t be able to let go again. Dean frowned for a moment, turning to look glance at Cas, who merely nodded.
“Then we’ll rebuild it.” Dean nodded, clenching his fists at his sides. Cas knew that Dean had loved their mother, no matter how much she had soured towards him in her later years. News of her death had shaken him.
“You know I’ve always been good with my hands,” Dean continued with a wiggle of his eyebrows and a decent attempt of a smile on his lips. Sam laughed and punched him in the shoulder.
It was so easy he almost couldn’t believe it, didn’t want to at first, but it was actually over. The whole nightmare that started all those years ago in the snow was finished.
“So Lucifer was using Cas all along?” Sam asked, frowning in disgust.
“Those are my suspicions, yes.” Gabriel nodded, keeping a wary eye on the river stretched in front of them. “He planned on Cas settling down in River Rock, becoming accustomed to its peoples, and maybe finding a woman there as well.”
“He doesn’t know my brother,” Sam snorted, entertained by the mere thought of Cas finding another besides Dean. It was impossible.
“Indeed,” Gabriel grinned, “and thanks to that Lucifer is now at a loss.”
“What was his plan in the first place?” Sam asked.
“Perhaps he meant to leave River Rock to take over the Empire. Undoubtedly he planned on Cas killing Michael, leaving the Empire without a ruler.”
“But Cas would be the successor…” Sam said.
“Not if Lucifer could convince him to leave, or, worse yet, he would kill him.”
“How? Cas is so strong now.” Sam gasped, remembering how Cas lifted the barrel of rice without breaking a sweat, a barrel that required the strength of two men.
“From what I could see in his tattoos, Lucifer designed Cas to be weaker than him. I can imagine the entire time since his re-creation that Cas has remained submissive to Lucifer, out of no action of his own, just a base feeling of weakness.”
“This is insane,” Sam scoffed.
“So even if Cas wanted to kill Lucifer, if he ever discovered his plans, he wouldn’t be able to. The Other inside of him would hold him back out of self-preservation.” Gabriel continued, ignoring Sam’s incredulity.
“Everything that Cas has done, everything he has become, was all part of Lucifer’s twisted ambitions for power?” Sam whispered. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that. He was upset for Cas, first and foremost. He had cut off his wings! His precious wings that Sam knew he prided himself for. Every time Dean would clean them Cas would practically radiate pleasure, it was infectious, and now they were gone. He was alien now, strange and horrifying and it was all Lucifer’s fault. Sam knew Cas didn’t want power, and if he killed Michael he wouldn’t do anything about it. He would run.
“So where is Lucifer now?” Sam asked, suddenly realizing how vulnerable they were out in the open as they were. If Lucifer was loose, and feeling particularly scorned, he would have no difficulties with killing them.
“Oh, he’s around,” Gabriel replied, surreptitiously glancing around the canyon walls, “but he won’t hurt us. That one’s harmless now. The Others of River Rock will keep him tethered. There must always be a host in the village.”
“You know an awful lot about this,” Sam said, a question in his voice. Gabriel smirked and winked.
“A magician never reveals his secrets.”
Sam rolled his eyes and relaxed against the side of the boat, checking on Girl where she lay curled against his side. She still hadn’t woken up yet, and it had been hours.
“Don’t worry about that,” Gabriel said. “Once we find Cas and Dean she’ll wake up.”
“Find them? How can you be so sure that they’ve already left the Basilica?”
“Again, Sam, I never reveal my secrets.”
“Fine, where are they then?”
“They’re pretty close, actually, a few hours away? They’re on foot though, so we’ll reach them first if we don’t run into any…problems.”
Sam swallowed and left it at that.
After the sun went down and the moon painted the rock walls white they turned off the engine and allowed the boat to drift. It was slower going, but it would conserve energy. The river wouldn’t steer them wrong, Gabriel had said, and Sam hadn’t the energy to argue with him again. He wasn’t aware they were being watched till the morning hours, before the sun arose completely and the sky was a patchy gray color. It was just light enough for Sam to make out a shape above the canyon walls, following them at a cautious distance. He looked around for Gabriel, just noticing that they had come to a stop as well.
“I’m here, Sam.” Gabriel whispered, placing a hand on his shoulder. Girl was snoring softly and twitching in her sleep.
“It’s Lucifer, isn’t it?” Sam asked. Gabriel nodded. He moved to the back of the boat, switching on the motor to the lowest setting and Sam flinched at how loud the machine was in the silence of the tentative dawn.
“We just need to keep our heads down and keep going,” Gabriel whispered. “We’re close to them, they can help us, we just need to last till we can get to them.”
Sam nodded and unconsciously put himself between Girl and the canyon wall. If anything happened to Girl, Cas would kill him, kin or not.
Cas and Dean had been walking for what seemed like an age. He knew the amount of walking they did would have taken much longer, but the very ground seemed to shift under his feet, and miles flew by in minutes. Cas’s tattoos blazed neon in the sun, brighter the closer they came to River Rock. The river narrowed, the sun burned high in the sky, and he jumped into the river just for the sheer relief of water against his burnt flesh. Cas smiled indulgently at him as he ducked under, wetting his whole head, finally washing away the smears of the soldiers’ blood left on his face. He staggered out of the water and grinned Cas’s way, flicking water at him and the man hissed in annoyance, waiting till Dean was nearly out of the water before shoving him back in with a cackle. Dean screamed and gurgled when he swallowed water and surfaced with a kick.
“Cas, you fucking…” Dean growled, grinning like an idiot, but he stopped short when Cas was staring down river, eyes wide and lips a tight line.
“Dean,” he murmured, voice low but every bit as menacing as a roar. Dean scampered out of the water, tugging on his drooping slave tunic. He looked with Cas down the shore and heard the humming before he actually saw the boat. He took a jerky step forward but Cas held him back, planting a firm hand against his chest. He shook his head and planted one foot on the shore, the other in the water and pushed. Dean couldn’t explain it. It was beautiful and horrifying and Dean recoiled at the wrongness of it. The water bulged around Cas’s ankle, then up to his knee and up the side of his body. Dean held his breath when an Empire powerboat careened by, he heard a shout of his name by a familiar voice, and then the water erupted from Cas’s outstretched hand, boiling, and Dean could feel the heat roil against his face. He was too close and yet he couldn’t bring himself to back away.
The water struck the sides of the canyon, steaming and fogging the entire stretch of the river, and Dean thought he saw something fall from the top of the canyon.
“Get back.” Dean heard Cas say, but it was as if he were shouting from a great distance, and it wasn’t his voice at all. His muscles loosened, and he staggered away, falling to the ground. Someone yelled his name-not Cas-and he moved his head, sluggish. He barely made out the fuzzy outline of someone’s face and then large hands grasped his upper arms, pulling him away from Cas. He cried out and tried to break free, tried to make his way back to Cas.
“He’s too close,” Dean heard someone shout near his ear, “Dean’s being influenced by the Other’s power, he’ll snap out of it when we get him away.”
“Oh god…oh god Dean, please come back to me!”
Dean stirred, fighting the nausea and the overwhelming numbness in his head to look behind him, to see.
“Sammy…?”
“That’s right, oh my god, I’m here Dean, I’m here.” Sam, his brother, sobbed against his neck.
“Sammy,” Dean whimpered, grabbing at his brother’s hands, catching air half the time but Sam laughed breathily and took his hands himself.
“It’s good to see you again.” Sam whispered in his ear and Dean cried, he cried and finally managed to turn around to bury his face in Sam’s neck, holding on and he never wanted to let go. He heard sounds behind him that sounded suspiciously like screams and the shrieking of animals. Dean didn’t want to hear it; he didn’t want to know what was happening behind him, what Cas was doing to…whatever it was back there.
Sam pulled him to his feet and held him around his chest. Dean was boneless and so scared that it was all a dream. That everything that had happened in the past few days was one of the drugged, feverish nightmares he would suffer through back in the Empire, held tight against Michael’s chest. It was infuriating, and he felt powerless when he couldn’t even support himself as Sam dragged him away, towards the idling power boat. Sam lifted him, like he weighed nothing-though he was sure he gained weight during his captivity-and set him down in the safety of the boat. He glanced to his side when Sam pulled a scratchy blanket around his shoulders and saw a child sized lump in the corner. He nearly sobbed when he realized it was Girl, and he struggled to pull himself across to her. Sam noticed, and helped him cross the boat. Dean sighed and wrapped himself around his daughter, his real daughter, his Girl. He closed his eyes and wound his fingers through her matted hair, dark as Lisa’s. He huffed a laugh and wondered how Cas ever allowed it to grow so long.
He remembered Cas had said she was like him. He grinned when he imagined it. He imagined her fire, of course. She would take after her mother, perhaps. Her tongue would be sharp. He felt her wiry little muscles, bunched in a dream, and he imagined her in the wilderness with them, more than capable of taking care of herself. He saw that she had the remains of a wolf skin cape wrapped around her waist; a memento from colder days. He felt the sharp edges of a blade poke against his thigh. It wasn’t sharp enough to cut, but he imagined her in the forest hunting game with her father, her real father. She smelled like wood smoke and salt, but soon she would smell like snow, mountain air, and the heavy scent of animal blood that never seemed to wash away.
They would be home soon, Dean thought with a smile. The nightmare was over.
After Cas felt that Dean was safe, he didn’t hold anything back. He shot jet after jet of boiling water at Lucifer, relishing in his surprised shouts of pain.
The Other inside of him had informed him of Lucifer’s plan merely days ago, but it was long enough to prepare, in the scant hours in which Dean slept he practiced in the river water, listening to the Other’s instructions.
Lucifer is a being of fire, it had whispered to him, and sadly he has used it against us time and time again to keep us pliant, but no more.
Its voice echoed in his head, full of dark promises.
We will use his element against him, it said, fight fire with fire.
The boiling water was Cas’s idea, seeing as whenever he tried to touch fire, like Lucifer could, he recoiled from it before he was even inches away. The Other had hissed and proclaimed it a horrid idea, scratching at the walls of Cas’s head and Cas had screamed for it to shut up. It had quieted after Cas warmed the water to a pleasant temperature. He thought about it for about a second before he heated up the temperature to nearly intolerable levels, heat that would have killed a lesser man, and the Other had uncurled inside his head with a pleased purr.
This idea, I like it. It said, taking control of his body for mere seconds to roll about in the roiling water. Cas suppressed a chuckle and easily took back his body. When the Other first joined with him he was afraid it would take complete control, erasing his existence all together, but that wasn’t the case at all. It was more like a feline with a temper that would rather spend hours in the water than on land.
It was a soothing presence rather than invasive. Lucifer had built it up to be some sort of savage entity of nature that would burn away his brain to use his body as a tool for destruction.
Cas approached Lucifer’s body, scowling down at him. His face and upper arms were reddened and irritated from the boiling water. He stirred only slightly when Cas kicked his side out of spite.
“Thought he could kill me?” Cas snarled.
No one can kill us, sweet Castiel, the Other purred. Especially not this vermin.
Cas hummed and kneeled down, hefting Lucifer up and over his shoulder like a sack of grain. For all his posturing, it seemed Lucifer was just weak, perhaps weak from the very beginning. Once Cas came along in his life he saw an opportunity, and he seized it. But it was Lucifer’s own fault that he underestimated Cas’s will power. Fool.
He walked to the boat on the shore, glancing once at Gabriel before he leaned over Dean, jostling him awake.
“Keep the blanket on, Dean, I have to use your tunic for restraints.”
Dean nodded blearily, fumbling beneath the blanket to untie his clothing. He was glad to be rid of it, even though he would be naked beneath the blanket. Sam started to protest and Cas shot him a look.
“I won’t kill him,” Cas said as he wound Dean’s former clothing around Lucifer’s arms, using the remainder to tie his legs as well. “I won’t become him.”
Good, beautiful Castiel…the Other crooned. Now let us be rid of him.
“Is it over? Can it really be over?” Sam wondered aloud, coming to stand next to him.
“There is still so much to be done,” Gabriel sighed. “There is the matter of your succession, of Michael’s death.”
“There is another in the Basilica, Gabriel. His name is Uriel, his heart is true. Make it so that he assumes the throne in my stead.” Cas answered.
“Are you sure?” Sam stepped forward, touching his shoulder.
“I want no part in that place ever again, neither does Dean.” Cas murmured, looking over at his mate who seemed to be fighting slumber, liquid green eyes lidded but ever watchful on Lucifer’s bound form. “I won’t ever make him go back, and I will never leave him again. No, we’re going home.”
“Well then, if you are sure, I know the man,” Gabriel nodded, eyes solemn, “he will rule well, and make sure that his successor is as just and good as he is.”
“Good.” Cas replied, glancing at Lucifer’s bound, unconscious body in the boat.
“Papa?” Girl blinked awake, uncurling from Dean’s side. She screamed and bucked away, kicking Dean in the stomach. “You’re not my papa!”
“Girl, calm down, I am here.” Cas shouted, coming over to grab her arm.
“But who is that papa?! Why is Lucifer all tied up? Where are we?” She shouted. Cas didn’t even have the energy to assuage her fears. He laughed instead and kneeled down next to Dean.
“Girl, this is Dean.”
She stopped struggling and stared, dumbstruck.
“Dean? You mean…the Dean? The Dean from your star walks? The Dean whose name I can’t say all the time?” She asked, blinking rapidly in excitement as she turned to stare at him. Dean pulled the blanket tighter around his shoulders, but smiled all the same.
“Wow, you’re pretty! You’re just like I imagined! Papa used to talk in his sleep about you, about your eyes that look like gems and the brown spots on your cheeks. I have those spots too, see?” She clambered up onto Dean’s lap and thrust her face close to his, pointing to the smattering of freckles over her little button of a nose.
“Well I think you’re prettier,” Dean said, poking her nose with a grin. She giggled and sat more heavily onto his lap, content for the moment. He sighed and rested his forehead against hers. Cas couldn’t stop smiling at the sight. Girl had accepted him, and while she didn’t yet know how close they actually were, it was enough for him.
Cas reached for Girl, who took his hand and stepped onto the shore with Dean close behind, and he kicked the boat back into the river.
“It will return to River Rock,” Cas said in explanation with a smirk. “He won’t be able to leave, the Other in him will make sure of it.”
Gabriel laughed softly and watched with them as the boat disappeared around the river bend.
“Where will you go after you set the Empire straight?” Sam asked Gabriel, and Cas could see the reluctance in his face, in his closeness to Gabriel.
“Wherever he goes, you should go.” Dean answered instead. Sam and Gabriel both turned to look at the other. “He could learn so much from you. Sam is a scholar, not a fighter.”
“And as much as you deny it, Gabriel, I know you have grown fond of him.” Cas added. Sam hunched his shoulders and Cas watched, fascinated, as his cheeks reddened ever so slightly. Gabriel laughed and he slapped an arm around Sam’s shoulders, though Sam had to stoop for him to do so.
“I’d love to take him with me.” Gabriel finally agreed, wiping tears from his eyes from laughing so hard. “If that’s okay with you, Sam.”
Sam laughed, but he stroked a thumb over Dean’s cheekbone, lips trembling.
“I just got you back,” he said, pulling his brother into a crushing hug.
“But you know where we’ll be, where we’re going.” Dean said, pulling his arms free of the blanket to hold Sam as well, uncaring if the blanket slid down or not.
“You’re going back to the lake house? But they burned it down with…with our mother still inside. I’m sorry Dean, she didn’t make it.” Sam sniffed, pulling away before he wouldn’t be able to let go again. Dean frowned for a moment, turning to look glance at Cas, who merely nodded.
“Then we’ll rebuild it.” Dean nodded, clenching his fists at his sides. Cas knew that Dean had loved their mother, no matter how much she had soured towards him in her later years. News of her death had shaken him.
“You know I’ve always been good with my hands,” Dean continued with a wiggle of his eyebrows and a decent attempt of a smile on his lips. Sam laughed and punched him in the shoulder.
It was so easy he almost couldn’t believe it, didn’t want to at first, but it was actually over. The whole nightmare that started all those years ago in the snow was finished.