Fic: Shards
Title: Shards
Author: brightly_lit
Crossover: Supernatural/Princess Tutu
Rating: PG for a teeny bit of iffy language
Genre: um ... literary crack!fic? Your guess is as good as mine. Also, teen!chesters, evil!sam, soulless!sam, angst, light romance, high school/boarding school, mystery, hurt/comfort, fairy tale, gen
Characters: Castiel/Princess Tutu-Duck, Sam/Mytho, Dean/Fakir, Ruby/Rue, Bobby/Mr. Cat, Gabriel/Pikae, Balthazar/Liliae, God-Chuck/Drosselmeyer
Word Count: ~10,600
Summary: Sam has lost his soul, and it's up to the angel Castiel to collect the shards and return them to him without letting anyone know what Cas really is ... but Sam's girlfriend Rueby and his brother Dean stand in Cas's way ....
A fairy-tale-esque retelling of how Sam's shattered soul/mind got put back together, based on the plot of Princess Tutu.
Notes:
There is absolutely nothing normal about this fic (just like there's nothing normal about Princess Tutu), but hey, death to normalcy!
And if a show named Princess Tutu sounds lame to you, give it a chance! It is actually awesome. Needless to say, since I am probably just about the only fan of both shows on the planet, readers will be people who like one of these shows who will give this fic a chance.
Princess Tutu and Supernatural are two of my favorite shows ever in the history of the world. Once I started noticing the similarities between the two shows in terms of plot, theme, and character, I couldn't resist writing this rather psychedelic fic. (Many thanks to septembers_coda for helping me flesh out which characters and plotlines corresponded on each show.) Nonetheless, the differences have prevented me from having to include many, if any, spoilers for either show. Because both shows are so wonderful and similar, I have to recommend each to fans of the other, if Supernatural fans can tolerate ballet and Tutu fans can tolerate horror, weaponry, and lots and lots of dick jokes.
There's no particularly deep reason why Cas is a girl here. Castiel in angel form is genderless, and Princess Tutu/Duck is a girl, so it just made sense. It ended up working well for the story; plus, it's hilarious casting Gabriel and Balthazar as petty teenage girls. ;-)
Wanna try Tutu? Here you go: http://www.hulu.com/princess-tutu
Wanna try Supernatural? It's not hard to find. Maybe someone will even be kind enough to leave a link in the comments ....
The angel Castiel sat, as s/he often did, watching the goings-on in the world below, particularly in the cursed town of Gold Crown Town, where fairy tales came true, people occasionally turned into animals, and nothing was quite as it seemed. Beautiful Sam Winchester in particular had caught his/her eye--once a handsome young teenager, now a handsome young moose. He and his older brother Dean had come to town with their father to try to lift the curse. Instead, all three had been caught under Gold Crown Town’s spell. Nonetheless, it was not that different from the world the Winchesters knew before, where prophecies came true, people turned into monsters and demons, and no one was quite as they seemed.
Their father had run off with some wicked step-mother or other, abandoning Sam and Dean in the forest just outside town, where they had forgotten their lives as hunters and now attended a boarding school there. The brothers had a tragic past, and an even more tragic future waiting for them. It was painful, and beautiful, and bewildering. All Castiel knew was that God had something special planned for them. Castiel wished s/he could be part of it, but s/he had spent eons only watching, unable to participate in these strange, fascinating, exciting human lives.
Then the lord was there, saying his/her name. “Hey, Cas,” said the lord in his awkward way, appearing as a short, slight, unassuming-looking man. “So, uh ... I get that you got feels for the human thing, am I right?” Castiel squinted at him, confused by the way he spoke. “So here’s the deal: one thing led to another, and, well, Sam--or as I think of him, Mytho--kinda lost his soul. It’s down there, it’s just in pieces, and humans don’t have the power to collect the shards of his soul and put them back in him. If you want the job, you’ve got it, only ... you know, there’s some rules.”
Castiel perked up immediately and bowed his/her head. “Yes, father! I would like that very much. I’ll do anything! I will certainly do my very best to follow the rules you give me; just tell me what they are!”
“’Kay, well, first of all, I’m getting a vibe from you ... you know, for Sam, but ixnay on the ovelay, ’cos the human/angel thing--” He drew his finger across his neck. “Not a good idea. Plus, you and Sam--not in the cards, capiche?” Castiel’s eyes darted around as s/he tried to fathom this great, divine idiom that was beyond his/her comprehension. “Also, you know our policy on divine intervention--it’s not that it doesn’t happen, it’s just that we try to keep it on the down-low, so no angel stuff--halos, wings, all of it. I’ll make you look human and everything, and you’ve gotta live like a human, so no praying for revelation or assistance or anything--you’ve got to do this on your own. Got it? If you pray--even if you just say my name--your wings will appear, and with the screwy stuff going on in that town, you’ll probably turn into a duck or something. If you turn into an angel--or whatever--again, just find some water and it’ll turn you back into a human ... but try not to let it happen, ’cos if you mess up bad enough, your cover’s blown and my story’s screwed and Sam and Dean are stuck like this, forever.” His father looked sad. He was very committed to the story he was writing about Sam and Dean; it was basically the most important story ever told in the history of the universe. Castiel was honored to have been chosen for such an important task, though nervous.
“Yes, father. Really? I ... get to be human?”
The lord looked at him/her, a funny, sad little smile on his face. “Yeah, buddy, but it ain’t all fun and games, even though it might look like it from here. Just sayin’. This is probably the hardest job I’m handing out right now, really tough going, and you don’t have to do it if you don’t want. I could probably get Raphael, maybe Zachariah ....”
“No, father! Please. Let me do it. I very much want it. Very much.”
The lord smiled that same smile again, and patted Castiel’s shoulder. “Okay, then, my child. Have fun, and remember: you’re there to save Sam, not to ... fill him with divine inspiration, if ya know what I’m saying. I’m not sure what’ll happen if you tell him you love him, but I have reason to believe you would explode in a burst of light and that ... that would probably be the end of you. Don’t let that happen, okay, Cas? I’m pretty attached to you. And hey, while you’re down there, could you figure out what’s going on in that town? I mean, seriously, what the hell? Weird.” He shook his head.
“Yes, father, I’ll do my best,” Castiel whispered, and that was the last time he saw the face of God.
Cas walked to class with her roommates, Pikaebriel and Liliathazar--Pikae and Liliae for short. “Do you suppose Sam’ll be in class today?” Pikae asked eagerly. Pikae’s hair was more red-hued, while Liliae’s was more blond.
“If so, I’m sure Cas will probably trip over the doorsill and land face-down in his lap again like last week--do you remember that, Pikae? I just love when Cas does stuff like that--it’s so cute!” She noogied Cas, as Pikae also cooed over what a doofus she was, which comprised 90% of their conversation--Cas and her foolish behavior. It was wonderful having friends!
“Cas tripped over your foot, Liliae--and she only landed in Sam’s lap because you gave her a push,” Pikae corrected.
“And then Mr. Bobcat got her in trouble for it!” Liliae remembered with glee. “Cas turned all red and stuttered lame excuses and fell over a chair, and Sam saw the whole thing. It was adorable! There’s nothing better than seeing Cas humiliated, except seeing her humiliated in front of Sam!”
They arrived at the classroom door then, and Pikae whispered excitedly to Cas, “There’s your boyfriend, Cas! Go get ’im!”
On cue, Liliae kicked Cas’s butt so that she stumbled in Sam’s direction, which would have been fine, except that--unused to her human body--she stumbled also over the feet and books of every student in her path and finally fell. She was going to hit her head on the desk right next to Sam’s--but then Sam reached out and caught her, breaking her fall and saving her from a lot of pain. Their eyes met. Sam’s seemed vacant, but still, full of an inexpressible sadness. Even without a soul, Sam still saved her. He was kind, all the way down beyond his soul to his bones. “Hey,” Sam said. “Cas, right?”
Cas stood up, brushed herself off, and nodded eagerly. “Thank you for your rescue, Sam Winchester.”
Sam shrugged. “No problem.”
Cas sat down in her desk, just behind Sam, and gazed at the beautiful young moose, at his long ears twisting lazily, one toward Mr. Bobcat as he taught, one flicking back to catch Pikae and Liliae’s whispered conversation. A folded-up piece of paper sailed past Cas’s head, launched by Liliae, to land on Sam’s desk, where he picked it up in his thorny hooves and read it. He turned his shaggy, dark-brown head to gaze at Cas. “You wanted to tell me you’re in love with me?” he asked, with interest but without feeling.
Cas turned red and muttered incomprehensibly. She was an angel; she could not lie ... but then again, the last thing she wanted was to explode in a burst of light, stranding Sam and Dean here and ruining heaven’s plans for them. She heard Pikae and Lilliae’s titters of delight.
“Miss Cas, is there a problem?” Mr. Bobcat suddenly hissed from the front of the room.
“N--no,” Cas stuttered. “No, sir. Sorry.”
Mr. Bobcat’s tufted ears flicked irritably outside his trucker cap, his eyes intent, then he turned back to the blackboard and started writing again, jabbing the chalk against it and dotting his ‘i’s hard. “Idjits,” he muttered.
Sam’s eyes returned to the front of the room, having no interest, it seems, in Cas’s great revelation. Cas didn’t explode in a blast of light. Phew! God had implied Cas herself would have to be the one confess her love before that would happen, but Cas hadn’t known before she became human that one’s friends might also eagerly do things that could cause one to explode. Being human was entirely different from what she had expected--much harder, more frightening and inexplicable, its joys small and nebulous but somehow cumulatively adding up to much more than what they seemed to be on the surface. She gazed longingly at Sam’s short, shaggy mane and thought of that sad look in his eyes. He must miss his soul terribly. Cas would have to get to work.
She found the first shard of his soul in the graveyard, wandering among the gravestones like a ghost. No one else would have known it belonged to Sam, because it looked like a handsome young man, but Cas recognized him from when she would gaze upon him and his brother, before they arrived in Gold Crown Town. Cas approached it hesitantly. “Are you one of the shards of Sam Winchester’s soul?” she asked it.
“Yes,” it replied.
“What part of him are you?”
“I’m the good part.”
Cas was bewildered. How could the lord love someone who was part evil? “There’s a bad part of Sam Winchester?”
“There will be.”
Cas hesitated. To introduce evil into Sam Winchester ... but her father had been specific about her task. Well, Cas figured, no harm in putting the good part back in him, at least. She would just see how it went with the next pieces of him. Still ... how to return this part of him to Sam? It was late. Surely Sam would already be in his dorm room by now, and he lived on the third floor of the boys’ dorm; Cas would never be allowed inside at this time of night. She could not reveal her identity ... but God must have chosen an angel for this task for a reason. There was no one to see her right now. Cas whispered her father’s name and felt her wings and halo appear. She put her arms around the shard and took flight, carrying it back to Sam Winchester.
Cas found him in his dorm room with his roommate, Dean. Dean was a senior and Sam was a freshman. Cas alit on the stone ledge outside their bedroom window. She couldn’t reveal that she was an angel, but how could someone have come to their third-story window except by flying? Sam had little enough interest in such things, but Cas knew she must at least hide it from Dean, so she waited there and listened until Dean left the room or went to sleep.
“God, you give me the creeps,” Dean muttered to his brother.
“Sorry,” said Sam.
“What’s wrong with you, anyway? I swear you weren’t always like this.”
“So ... moosey?”
“Nah, you were always a moose. I mean this thing, where you don’t feel anything or care about anything. What the hell, dude? I get that you’re not that into Rueby, but don’t you even care about me, your own brother?”
“Not really.”
“Gah, Sam! And you even say it out loud like it’s no big deal?? I’m tellin’ you, there’s something wrong with you.”
“Sorry,” said Sam.
“And another thing--where’s Dad? We have to find Dad.”
“Dad’s gone, Dean.”
“I know, but ... he wouldn’t just abandon us, would he? Something about that doesn’t sit right, either, and I tell you, I’m gonna figure out what’s going on.”
“He put us in a school and then he left, just like he always does.”
“Yeah, but then he always comes back. Doesn’t he?”
“I don’t know, Dean.”
“You don’t remember?”
“I don’t remember anything.”
“What the hell is wrong with you? You’re freakin’ useless. I can always count on you, right? To help me figure out what the hell’s going on and fix it?” Dean shook his head, dumping out the contents of his backpack onto a desk. “Dumbass.”
Cas gasped softly on the ledge, pressing close against the building above the ledge, remaining as quiet as she could, so the few students still passing through the square below wouldn’t look up and see her there, her giant wings spread out along the walls beside her, halo gleaming in the moonlight. Why was Dean so cruel to his brother? And beautiful Sam just sat there and took it, never making any effort to defend himself or even find someone who would treat him kindly. Perhaps it was the lack of his soul that caused this. Cas felt renewed determination to restore all the pieces of Sam’s soul. Then he wouldn’t suffer at the hands of his family like this.
As luck would have it, at that moment, Dean muttered something about “punishing the toilet” and wandered out of the room to the shared bathrooms. Delirious with anxiety and excitement, Cas stepped through the open window into the room. Sam glanced over at her from where he sat at his desk, doing homework. “Oh, hey,” he said, and went back to his books.
“Hello, Sam,” said Cas, releasing the soul shard she held. “I have something for you.”
“Oh, yeah? What is it?”
“It’s a ... a piece of the soul that you lost. The good part,” she added, in case Sam took some convincing, but as with everything else, he showed no preference about this, simply submitting to what anyone asked of him.
Sam looked vaguely impressed, taking in the sight of the soul shard, which seemed eager to return to its home in Sam. “Cool, thanks.”
The shard stepped up to Sam, said inexplicably, “Don’t scratch the wall,” and melded into him. When Cas beheld him after the shard was once more a part of him, she could swear Sam looked a little less moosey.
Dean burst through the door just then, chortling, “Trust me, you don’t want to go in there for a while.”
“Oh, my God!” Cas cried, and leaped out the window, feeling her wings and halo become mortifyingly visible as she did. She flew down into the bushes below the window, hoping she got away before Dean was able to identify who or what she was.
Dean ran to the window and craned his head out of it. “What the hell was that?!” Dean demanded of Sam.
“It was Cas,” Sam said, and Cas cringed.
“What’s a Cas?!”
“She’s a girl in my class. She’s friends with--you know those freshman girls I used to hate, Pikae and Liliae.”
“There’s a third one now? Great. The monster with three heads.”
“She does seem just like them in some way.”
“And she just jumps out the window?! What is she, a bird or something?”
“Maybe. Hey, Dean, what do you think of me?”
Dean turned around abruptly then, stunned. “What? You haven’t asked me anything like that since you started acting weird.”
“Yeah, Cas gave me back a piece of my soul. ‘Don’t scratch the wall,’ it said. Do you have any idea what that means?”
“Well, aren’t you suddenly curious George.” Dean leaned back out the window, looking around suspiciously. He peered intently into the bush where Cas hid, and Cas cringed, but Dean didn’t seem to notice anything amiss, and withdrew back into the room. “Why was some chick from your class giving you back a piece of your soul?”
“I dunno. I guess I lost it.”
“You LOST your SOUL?? What the-- How did that happen??”
“I think it happened when I met Rueby, but I can’t really remember.”
“And that’s another thing! Stay away from Rueby! How many times do I have to tell you she’s bad news?! Look, I’ve got the solution to all our problems: don’t talk to anyone and just do what I tell you. And--don’t talk to this ‘Cas’ until I figure out what’s going on. Maybe she says she’s doing you good and she’s actually making you worse. So don’t do anything! Things are bad enough as they are. Do as I say and stop asking questions I can’t answer.”
“You can answer when I ask how you think of me.”
“I don’t want to answer that.”
“Well then, what do I think of you?”
“I dunno, but you better love me, because I’m your brother, and I work my ass off taking care of you and all you do is complain, so shut it! I’ve taken enough of your crap for one night.”
Dean stuck his head out the window one last time, peered around suspiciously, then slammed it closed and locked it.
When she was sure no one was around, Cas crawled out of the bush, catching her halo on it and having to extricate herself from it. Her wings dragging forlornly behind her, she dipped into the fountain in the middle of the common area, which turned her human again, and then she headed back to her own dorm room.
The next day in the cafeteria, Cas--awkward and clumsy as ever--ran right into Dean. First he arighted her helpfully, then, holding her shoulders as he seemed to recognize her, he stared intently into her face. “Wait a minute--what’s your name?” he barked.
Cas hedged and stuttered. Sam had already told him the name of the person who gave him back the soul shard. Her only hope of keeping her secret was not to tell Dean who she was. Just then, Liliae appeared at her shoulder. “This is Cas!” she cooed, so very helpfully. “Isn’t she cute?”
“What were you doing in my room last night?” he demanded abruptly.
Liliae made a sound of joy and dashed back to watch the blowout from a safe distance, as most of the students in the cafeteria did--you didn’t mess with Dean Winchester.
Cas didn’t manage to come out with anything comprehensible before he huffed, “Stay away from my brother!,” turned, and stalked away.
“Or what?” Pikae called eagerly, watching with Liliae.
“Or else,” Dean growled menacingly, and strode out.
Cas managed to find another soul shard that night, roaming the halls of the science building. “What part of Sam Winchester are you?” she asked it.
She couldn’t help fearing it would announce it was the evil part, as she looked on its cool, calculating expression, but then it said, “I’m the smart one.”
Relieved, she took it in her arms and flew it back to Sam, who stood at his window alone in his room, gazing over the common area, wearing only a billowy white shirt. He seemed to go around like that a lot. Sam’s expression lightened and grew more focused as the soul shard stepped back inside him, then he looked down at himself. “Why am I not wearing any pants?!”
Cas gazed on his beautiful visage. With each new soul shard she collected, she loved him more. It was all she could do to resist telling him her feelings. Why this cruel, terrible rule? Sam should know how wonderful and lovely he was, how good and noble, how deserving of all good things, when Cas knew he had such hardship before him. Maybe ... maybe if she just whispered it, no one would know, and it would be all right. She stepped up to him. He helpfully leaned down so she could put her lips next to his furry ear.
She and Sam heard the key in the lock at the same moment, and looked toward the door. Cas dashed for the window and dove out it, whispering her father’s name just in time to sprout wings before she hit the ground. She hid in the bush below their window once again to listen.
“Hey!” said Dean. “I thought I told you to keep the window shut and locked!”
“I, uh ... I ... needed some fresh air,” said Sam, calcalating.
Dean sounded stunned and disbelieving. “Wh--what did you say?”
“I mean, uh ... I forgot.”
“You’re lying?! You’re sitting here lying to me?? You haven’t lied ... since ....” It took him less than a second to put it all together. “That chick returned another part of your soul to you, didn’t she!”
“Well ... yeah,” Sam admitted reluctantly.
Cas could hear Dean race to the window to look out again. “There it is again!” he shouted, pointing. “That thing, shining in the bushes! I’m going down there, and I bet I know what I’ll find,” he hissed, ignoring Sam’s protests.
Cas’s breath quickened. This was the thing that absolutely must not happen! Sam and Dean’s lives were at stake! There was no one in the square. She might be able to get to the fountain in time to turn human again before Dean got there, but she definitely wouldn’t have time to get back to her room. Still, it was far better than getting caught red-handed and gleaming-haloed. She ran for the fountain, took a great leap, and splashed into it just as the entrance to the boys’ dorm flew open. She was trying to climb out the other side, soggy clothes bogging her down, when Dean raced to her side. His eyes narrowed, seeing who it was.
“It’s you!” he said, grimly victorious and utterly unsurprised.
“Tee hee!” said Cas.
“’Tee hee’ nothing! What do you think you’re doing out here in the fountain in the middle of the freakin’ night?!”
“Oh, just ... taking a dip!” Cas exclaimed gaily, trying to act as girlish and carefree as her friends, though it didn’t come naturally to her.
Dean’s eyes passed sharply over the fountain. “So you’re some kind of monster who needs water to change back into human form,” he guessed shrewdly.
“I’m not a monster!” Cas protested.
“A glowing, gleaming, evil monster. What do you want with my brother!”
“N--nothing,” Cas lied anxiously, watching Dean’s fists ball up.
“I don’t beat up chicks, but I don’t hesitate to beat up monsters, so if you don’t stay the hell away from my brother, you’re gonna wish you never crawled out of purgatory or wherever you came from, ’cos I’m sending you right back there.”
Cas shrank from the cruel gleam in Dean’s eye. He meant every word he said.
“I’m just a girl!” Cas cried, falling out of the fountain unceremoniously, scrambling to her feet, then heading back to the girls’ dorm at a run.
“Don’t think the wet t-shirt contest is gonna change my mind!” Dean called meanly after her. Cas glanced down, gasped, and covered her chest with her hands as she ran. Disaster! Dean had come very close to figuring out what she was. She had narrowly escaped being seen in angel form, by him or someone else. She had even almost told Sam the very thing she was forbidden from telling him. And Dean had seen way more than he should have! Boy, humans had it rough. She wasn’t sure she could do this, but if she didn’t, who would? The lord had entrusted this task to her. No matter what happened or how badly she humiliated herself, she must forge ahead and not falter. Sam’s salvation ... and even mean old Dean’s ... was all up to her.
“Where are you going?” Liliae asked shrilly as Cas tried to leave their room. “Are you going to stalk Sam Winchester again? You really do love him! That’s so cute!”
“Stalking’s illegal,” Pikae informed her bluntly. “So try not to let anyone know you’re doing it.”
“Especially his brother Dean!” Liliae cooed. “He’ll kick your ass! Which do you think is cuter, Pikae: Sam or Dean? We already know Cas’s vote.”
“I’ve always been a Dean girl, but Sam’s looking hotter lately; I don’t know what it is. He’s a little less shaggy or something.”
“His long hair is the best!” Liliae protested.
“Short hair!” Pikae retorted.
“Long!”
“Short!”
Cas slipped quickly out the door while they were otherwise occupied with their argument. Okay, so maybe she was kind of stalking Sam Winchester. Kind of every day, you might say ... morning, afternoon, between classes, after dinner, listening in the bushes to his conversations with his mean brother, who had only gotten meaner since Sam got back some parts of his soul, constantly making fun of the questions he now asked him; for with the return of the good part of his soul, it seems he’d developed curiosity. Maybe the good part of his soul made him even weaker to Dean’s harassment. Maybe Cas didn’t have to return the evil piece of his soul, but maybe there was a strong part out there that would make him able to stand up to his brother. Cas would have to find it. But first, maybe a tiny bit of stalking, just so she knew where Sam could be found once she did find another piece of his soul ....
Cas found him where she often did, sitting under a tree with Rueby, staring vacantly up at the sky, his long shaggy limbs stretched out on the grassy slope, while Rueby studied and told him what to do.
“Say you love me,” she told him.
“I love you,” he said.
“Say you’ll be with me forever,” she said.
“I’ll be with you forever,” he said.
“Say you’ll do whatever I say,” she said.
“Dean said I have to do whatever he says.”
Her eyes flared. “Screw Dean and the moose he rode in on. You do what I say, not what that bitch says.”
“Actually, I’m the bitch,” Sam informed her. “He’s the jerk.”
“He’s more than a jerk,” she muttered venomously. “I can think of all kinds of words to describe--”
“What do you think of me?” Sam asked her suddenly, and she looked at him sharply.
“What?” she hissed disbelievingly.
“We’ve been hanging out all this time, and suddenly I realized, I have no idea what I think of you, whether I love you, or even like you. Can’t really tell what you think of me, either. Do you really love me? Or are you just using me?”
“What in hell’s name made you start wanting to know stuff like that??” She was livid.
“Cas gave me back a piece of my soul, and--”
“’CAS’? Who’s Cas??”
“She’s a girl, in my class.”
“Who! Where! Where did she come from!”
“I dunno; she just appeared at my window one night and said she had something to give me--”
“’Appeared’? Like, appeared appeared, or flew? I guess I know what she must be either way .... I’m gonna have to tell my father about this,” she said broodingly. Just then, she looked up at where Cas hid in a thicket. She couldn’t see her--surely, she couldn’t--but she could swear she knew she was there. A cruel smile twisted her mouth as her eyes seemed to meet Cas’s. Uh-oh. Cas slipped out the other side of the thicket and went in search of the next piece of Sam’s soul.
She found it in a dark, dusty corner of the school library, feverishly reading A Catcher in the Rye, and knelt down beside it. It only hunkered harder over its book. “Are you a piece of Sam Winchester’s soul?” she whispered to it.
“Yes,” it said sullenly. Cas noticed the acne dotting its forehead and its long, gangly limbs.
“Which part are you?” she asked it gently, since it seemed to suffer from a kind of pain known to nearly every teen-aged human being. Humans ... they suffered from the dangerous journey through the birth canal, they suffered from the bewilderment of toddlerhood, they suffered the agony of puberty. Poor humans ... they suffered.
“I’m the part that remembers,” it said, and turned its back to her.
The part that remembers! That couldn’t be evil. “Come with me, Sam,” Cas said to it kindly. “I’ll take you home.” Home--yes, that’s where this piece of Sam wanted to go, more desperately than anything else. It came with her eagerly, trying to hide its eagerness behind a thin veneer of cool.
They walked hand in hand back to where Cas had left Sam with Rueby. To her relief, Cas saw that Sam was now alone. She stepped toward him--only to have the shard of Sam’s soul ripped out of her arms by Rueby! “Get lost, junkless,” she hissed victoriously to Cas. “You’re too late--Sam’s already evil.”
“You’re wrong,” Cas told her vehemently. “He’s good, all the way down to his bones. Nothing you did could change that.”
“Let’s find out, huh?” she said, and suddenly she disappeared, stealing away with the piece of Sam’s soul, already so saddened and damaged. It reached desperately for Cas ... but then it was gone.
“NO!” cried Cas, and tried to follow, only to soon realize the place Rueby had taken it was protected by angel-proofing sigils past which she could not go. She wandered sadly back to where Sam still lay on the hillside, and sat down next to him. She couldn’t tell him she loved him, she couldn’t restore his soul ... she couldn’t do anything. She felt small and useless. God probably should have had Zachariah do it. “I’m sorry, Sam,” she said sorrowfully.
Sam shrugged peaceably, unconcerned. “Whatever.”
Cas lingered just outside the place Rueby had escaped to and was ready for her when she emerged the next day with her hostage. The fight went much more easily than Cas had expected, considering she remained human through it, following the rules, and she managed to wrest back the piece of Sam’s soul from her.
She hurried to find Sam so that she could get the shard safely in him before Rueby found them again. She caught Sam as he stepped out of the shower when there was no one else there with them in the boys’ bathroom. Sam didn’t look surprised to see a girl in the boys’ bathroom ... but then again, he never looked surprised, mostly soulless as he was. Water dripped from his ears and his tail. “I have another shard of your soul for you!” Cas told him eagerly. “It’s the part that remembers!”
The teenaged soul shard ran to Sam and embraced him tightly, as he used to embrace Dean, or their father. It began to merge with him, and Cas was happy that he’d gotten it away from Rueby back to Sam, excitedly watching as Sam started looking now even more human ... until Sam started screaming. He clutched the place where the soul shard had entered his body, writhing in agony. “I remember!” he was shouting. “Oh, God, I remember!”
Dean burst through the door. “What the hell?!” His eyes fixed on Cas. “You! What are you trying to do to my brother?!”
“I--I’m trying to return another piece of his soul--but something’s wrong!”
Rueby appeared in the doorway then, too, looking smug. “I let my father have at it. It’s been soaked in demon blood. Good luck getting that out.”
“Hey, this is the guys’ bathroom, Rueby--get out!” Dean hissed irritably.
“What about Cas?” Rueby demanded.
“Cas is hot; she can stay.”
“I’m hot!”
“Hot but evil.”
“Don’t you want me to finish telling you what I’ve done to the shard?”
“I think I get the picture. Demon blood, yada-yada ....”
“He’ll crave demon blood from now on! He’s part evil! In case you hadn’t figured that out.”
Cas clutched her face. Oh, no! This was what the first shard--which was evidently psychic--meant when it said there would be evil in Sam one day! Cas knew no part of Sam was originally evil, but Rueby ... Rueby and the other demons had put evil where there had been only innocence. Cas fell to her knees and wept. She wished desperately that her father had chosen another angel for the job. This human life was too hard.
Continued here.
Author: brightly_lit
Crossover: Supernatural/Princess Tutu
Rating: PG for a teeny bit of iffy language
Genre: um ... literary crack!fic? Your guess is as good as mine. Also, teen!chesters, evil!sam, soulless!sam, angst, light romance, high school/boarding school, mystery, hurt/comfort, fairy tale, gen
Characters: Castiel/Princess Tutu-Duck, Sam/Mytho, Dean/Fakir, Ruby/Rue, Bobby/Mr. Cat, Gabriel/Pikae, Balthazar/Liliae, God-Chuck/Drosselmeyer
Word Count: ~10,600
Summary: Sam has lost his soul, and it's up to the angel Castiel to collect the shards and return them to him without letting anyone know what Cas really is ... but Sam's girlfriend Rueby and his brother Dean stand in Cas's way ....
A fairy-tale-esque retelling of how Sam's shattered soul/mind got put back together, based on the plot of Princess Tutu.
Notes:
There is absolutely nothing normal about this fic (just like there's nothing normal about Princess Tutu), but hey, death to normalcy!
And if a show named Princess Tutu sounds lame to you, give it a chance! It is actually awesome. Needless to say, since I am probably just about the only fan of both shows on the planet, readers will be people who like one of these shows who will give this fic a chance.
Princess Tutu and Supernatural are two of my favorite shows ever in the history of the world. Once I started noticing the similarities between the two shows in terms of plot, theme, and character, I couldn't resist writing this rather psychedelic fic. (Many thanks to septembers_coda for helping me flesh out which characters and plotlines corresponded on each show.) Nonetheless, the differences have prevented me from having to include many, if any, spoilers for either show. Because both shows are so wonderful and similar, I have to recommend each to fans of the other, if Supernatural fans can tolerate ballet and Tutu fans can tolerate horror, weaponry, and lots and lots of dick jokes.
There's no particularly deep reason why Cas is a girl here. Castiel in angel form is genderless, and Princess Tutu/Duck is a girl, so it just made sense. It ended up working well for the story; plus, it's hilarious casting Gabriel and Balthazar as petty teenage girls. ;-)
Wanna try Tutu? Here you go: http://www.hulu.com/princess-tutu
Wanna try Supernatural? It's not hard to find. Maybe someone will even be kind enough to leave a link in the comments ....
The angel Castiel sat, as s/he often did, watching the goings-on in the world below, particularly in the cursed town of Gold Crown Town, where fairy tales came true, people occasionally turned into animals, and nothing was quite as it seemed. Beautiful Sam Winchester in particular had caught his/her eye--once a handsome young teenager, now a handsome young moose. He and his older brother Dean had come to town with their father to try to lift the curse. Instead, all three had been caught under Gold Crown Town’s spell. Nonetheless, it was not that different from the world the Winchesters knew before, where prophecies came true, people turned into monsters and demons, and no one was quite as they seemed.
Their father had run off with some wicked step-mother or other, abandoning Sam and Dean in the forest just outside town, where they had forgotten their lives as hunters and now attended a boarding school there. The brothers had a tragic past, and an even more tragic future waiting for them. It was painful, and beautiful, and bewildering. All Castiel knew was that God had something special planned for them. Castiel wished s/he could be part of it, but s/he had spent eons only watching, unable to participate in these strange, fascinating, exciting human lives.
Then the lord was there, saying his/her name. “Hey, Cas,” said the lord in his awkward way, appearing as a short, slight, unassuming-looking man. “So, uh ... I get that you got feels for the human thing, am I right?” Castiel squinted at him, confused by the way he spoke. “So here’s the deal: one thing led to another, and, well, Sam--or as I think of him, Mytho--kinda lost his soul. It’s down there, it’s just in pieces, and humans don’t have the power to collect the shards of his soul and put them back in him. If you want the job, you’ve got it, only ... you know, there’s some rules.”
Castiel perked up immediately and bowed his/her head. “Yes, father! I would like that very much. I’ll do anything! I will certainly do my very best to follow the rules you give me; just tell me what they are!”
“’Kay, well, first of all, I’m getting a vibe from you ... you know, for Sam, but ixnay on the ovelay, ’cos the human/angel thing--” He drew his finger across his neck. “Not a good idea. Plus, you and Sam--not in the cards, capiche?” Castiel’s eyes darted around as s/he tried to fathom this great, divine idiom that was beyond his/her comprehension. “Also, you know our policy on divine intervention--it’s not that it doesn’t happen, it’s just that we try to keep it on the down-low, so no angel stuff--halos, wings, all of it. I’ll make you look human and everything, and you’ve gotta live like a human, so no praying for revelation or assistance or anything--you’ve got to do this on your own. Got it? If you pray--even if you just say my name--your wings will appear, and with the screwy stuff going on in that town, you’ll probably turn into a duck or something. If you turn into an angel--or whatever--again, just find some water and it’ll turn you back into a human ... but try not to let it happen, ’cos if you mess up bad enough, your cover’s blown and my story’s screwed and Sam and Dean are stuck like this, forever.” His father looked sad. He was very committed to the story he was writing about Sam and Dean; it was basically the most important story ever told in the history of the universe. Castiel was honored to have been chosen for such an important task, though nervous.
“Yes, father. Really? I ... get to be human?”
The lord looked at him/her, a funny, sad little smile on his face. “Yeah, buddy, but it ain’t all fun and games, even though it might look like it from here. Just sayin’. This is probably the hardest job I’m handing out right now, really tough going, and you don’t have to do it if you don’t want. I could probably get Raphael, maybe Zachariah ....”
“No, father! Please. Let me do it. I very much want it. Very much.”
The lord smiled that same smile again, and patted Castiel’s shoulder. “Okay, then, my child. Have fun, and remember: you’re there to save Sam, not to ... fill him with divine inspiration, if ya know what I’m saying. I’m not sure what’ll happen if you tell him you love him, but I have reason to believe you would explode in a burst of light and that ... that would probably be the end of you. Don’t let that happen, okay, Cas? I’m pretty attached to you. And hey, while you’re down there, could you figure out what’s going on in that town? I mean, seriously, what the hell? Weird.” He shook his head.
“Yes, father, I’ll do my best,” Castiel whispered, and that was the last time he saw the face of God.
Cas walked to class with her roommates, Pikaebriel and Liliathazar--Pikae and Liliae for short. “Do you suppose Sam’ll be in class today?” Pikae asked eagerly. Pikae’s hair was more red-hued, while Liliae’s was more blond.
“If so, I’m sure Cas will probably trip over the doorsill and land face-down in his lap again like last week--do you remember that, Pikae? I just love when Cas does stuff like that--it’s so cute!” She noogied Cas, as Pikae also cooed over what a doofus she was, which comprised 90% of their conversation--Cas and her foolish behavior. It was wonderful having friends!
“Cas tripped over your foot, Liliae--and she only landed in Sam’s lap because you gave her a push,” Pikae corrected.
“And then Mr. Bobcat got her in trouble for it!” Liliae remembered with glee. “Cas turned all red and stuttered lame excuses and fell over a chair, and Sam saw the whole thing. It was adorable! There’s nothing better than seeing Cas humiliated, except seeing her humiliated in front of Sam!”
They arrived at the classroom door then, and Pikae whispered excitedly to Cas, “There’s your boyfriend, Cas! Go get ’im!”
On cue, Liliae kicked Cas’s butt so that she stumbled in Sam’s direction, which would have been fine, except that--unused to her human body--she stumbled also over the feet and books of every student in her path and finally fell. She was going to hit her head on the desk right next to Sam’s--but then Sam reached out and caught her, breaking her fall and saving her from a lot of pain. Their eyes met. Sam’s seemed vacant, but still, full of an inexpressible sadness. Even without a soul, Sam still saved her. He was kind, all the way down beyond his soul to his bones. “Hey,” Sam said. “Cas, right?”
Cas stood up, brushed herself off, and nodded eagerly. “Thank you for your rescue, Sam Winchester.”
Sam shrugged. “No problem.”
Cas sat down in her desk, just behind Sam, and gazed at the beautiful young moose, at his long ears twisting lazily, one toward Mr. Bobcat as he taught, one flicking back to catch Pikae and Liliae’s whispered conversation. A folded-up piece of paper sailed past Cas’s head, launched by Liliae, to land on Sam’s desk, where he picked it up in his thorny hooves and read it. He turned his shaggy, dark-brown head to gaze at Cas. “You wanted to tell me you’re in love with me?” he asked, with interest but without feeling.
Cas turned red and muttered incomprehensibly. She was an angel; she could not lie ... but then again, the last thing she wanted was to explode in a burst of light, stranding Sam and Dean here and ruining heaven’s plans for them. She heard Pikae and Lilliae’s titters of delight.
“Miss Cas, is there a problem?” Mr. Bobcat suddenly hissed from the front of the room.
“N--no,” Cas stuttered. “No, sir. Sorry.”
Mr. Bobcat’s tufted ears flicked irritably outside his trucker cap, his eyes intent, then he turned back to the blackboard and started writing again, jabbing the chalk against it and dotting his ‘i’s hard. “Idjits,” he muttered.
Sam’s eyes returned to the front of the room, having no interest, it seems, in Cas’s great revelation. Cas didn’t explode in a blast of light. Phew! God had implied Cas herself would have to be the one confess her love before that would happen, but Cas hadn’t known before she became human that one’s friends might also eagerly do things that could cause one to explode. Being human was entirely different from what she had expected--much harder, more frightening and inexplicable, its joys small and nebulous but somehow cumulatively adding up to much more than what they seemed to be on the surface. She gazed longingly at Sam’s short, shaggy mane and thought of that sad look in his eyes. He must miss his soul terribly. Cas would have to get to work.
She found the first shard of his soul in the graveyard, wandering among the gravestones like a ghost. No one else would have known it belonged to Sam, because it looked like a handsome young man, but Cas recognized him from when she would gaze upon him and his brother, before they arrived in Gold Crown Town. Cas approached it hesitantly. “Are you one of the shards of Sam Winchester’s soul?” she asked it.
“Yes,” it replied.
“What part of him are you?”
“I’m the good part.”
Cas was bewildered. How could the lord love someone who was part evil? “There’s a bad part of Sam Winchester?”
“There will be.”
Cas hesitated. To introduce evil into Sam Winchester ... but her father had been specific about her task. Well, Cas figured, no harm in putting the good part back in him, at least. She would just see how it went with the next pieces of him. Still ... how to return this part of him to Sam? It was late. Surely Sam would already be in his dorm room by now, and he lived on the third floor of the boys’ dorm; Cas would never be allowed inside at this time of night. She could not reveal her identity ... but God must have chosen an angel for this task for a reason. There was no one to see her right now. Cas whispered her father’s name and felt her wings and halo appear. She put her arms around the shard and took flight, carrying it back to Sam Winchester.
Cas found him in his dorm room with his roommate, Dean. Dean was a senior and Sam was a freshman. Cas alit on the stone ledge outside their bedroom window. She couldn’t reveal that she was an angel, but how could someone have come to their third-story window except by flying? Sam had little enough interest in such things, but Cas knew she must at least hide it from Dean, so she waited there and listened until Dean left the room or went to sleep.
“God, you give me the creeps,” Dean muttered to his brother.
“Sorry,” said Sam.
“What’s wrong with you, anyway? I swear you weren’t always like this.”
“So ... moosey?”
“Nah, you were always a moose. I mean this thing, where you don’t feel anything or care about anything. What the hell, dude? I get that you’re not that into Rueby, but don’t you even care about me, your own brother?”
“Not really.”
“Gah, Sam! And you even say it out loud like it’s no big deal?? I’m tellin’ you, there’s something wrong with you.”
“Sorry,” said Sam.
“And another thing--where’s Dad? We have to find Dad.”
“Dad’s gone, Dean.”
“I know, but ... he wouldn’t just abandon us, would he? Something about that doesn’t sit right, either, and I tell you, I’m gonna figure out what’s going on.”
“He put us in a school and then he left, just like he always does.”
“Yeah, but then he always comes back. Doesn’t he?”
“I don’t know, Dean.”
“You don’t remember?”
“I don’t remember anything.”
“What the hell is wrong with you? You’re freakin’ useless. I can always count on you, right? To help me figure out what the hell’s going on and fix it?” Dean shook his head, dumping out the contents of his backpack onto a desk. “Dumbass.”
Cas gasped softly on the ledge, pressing close against the building above the ledge, remaining as quiet as she could, so the few students still passing through the square below wouldn’t look up and see her there, her giant wings spread out along the walls beside her, halo gleaming in the moonlight. Why was Dean so cruel to his brother? And beautiful Sam just sat there and took it, never making any effort to defend himself or even find someone who would treat him kindly. Perhaps it was the lack of his soul that caused this. Cas felt renewed determination to restore all the pieces of Sam’s soul. Then he wouldn’t suffer at the hands of his family like this.
As luck would have it, at that moment, Dean muttered something about “punishing the toilet” and wandered out of the room to the shared bathrooms. Delirious with anxiety and excitement, Cas stepped through the open window into the room. Sam glanced over at her from where he sat at his desk, doing homework. “Oh, hey,” he said, and went back to his books.
“Hello, Sam,” said Cas, releasing the soul shard she held. “I have something for you.”
“Oh, yeah? What is it?”
“It’s a ... a piece of the soul that you lost. The good part,” she added, in case Sam took some convincing, but as with everything else, he showed no preference about this, simply submitting to what anyone asked of him.
Sam looked vaguely impressed, taking in the sight of the soul shard, which seemed eager to return to its home in Sam. “Cool, thanks.”
The shard stepped up to Sam, said inexplicably, “Don’t scratch the wall,” and melded into him. When Cas beheld him after the shard was once more a part of him, she could swear Sam looked a little less moosey.
Dean burst through the door just then, chortling, “Trust me, you don’t want to go in there for a while.”
“Oh, my God!” Cas cried, and leaped out the window, feeling her wings and halo become mortifyingly visible as she did. She flew down into the bushes below the window, hoping she got away before Dean was able to identify who or what she was.
Dean ran to the window and craned his head out of it. “What the hell was that?!” Dean demanded of Sam.
“It was Cas,” Sam said, and Cas cringed.
“What’s a Cas?!”
“She’s a girl in my class. She’s friends with--you know those freshman girls I used to hate, Pikae and Liliae.”
“There’s a third one now? Great. The monster with three heads.”
“She does seem just like them in some way.”
“And she just jumps out the window?! What is she, a bird or something?”
“Maybe. Hey, Dean, what do you think of me?”
Dean turned around abruptly then, stunned. “What? You haven’t asked me anything like that since you started acting weird.”
“Yeah, Cas gave me back a piece of my soul. ‘Don’t scratch the wall,’ it said. Do you have any idea what that means?”
“Well, aren’t you suddenly curious George.” Dean leaned back out the window, looking around suspiciously. He peered intently into the bush where Cas hid, and Cas cringed, but Dean didn’t seem to notice anything amiss, and withdrew back into the room. “Why was some chick from your class giving you back a piece of your soul?”
“I dunno. I guess I lost it.”
“You LOST your SOUL?? What the-- How did that happen??”
“I think it happened when I met Rueby, but I can’t really remember.”
“And that’s another thing! Stay away from Rueby! How many times do I have to tell you she’s bad news?! Look, I’ve got the solution to all our problems: don’t talk to anyone and just do what I tell you. And--don’t talk to this ‘Cas’ until I figure out what’s going on. Maybe she says she’s doing you good and she’s actually making you worse. So don’t do anything! Things are bad enough as they are. Do as I say and stop asking questions I can’t answer.”
“You can answer when I ask how you think of me.”
“I don’t want to answer that.”
“Well then, what do I think of you?”
“I dunno, but you better love me, because I’m your brother, and I work my ass off taking care of you and all you do is complain, so shut it! I’ve taken enough of your crap for one night.”
Dean stuck his head out the window one last time, peered around suspiciously, then slammed it closed and locked it.
When she was sure no one was around, Cas crawled out of the bush, catching her halo on it and having to extricate herself from it. Her wings dragging forlornly behind her, she dipped into the fountain in the middle of the common area, which turned her human again, and then she headed back to her own dorm room.
The next day in the cafeteria, Cas--awkward and clumsy as ever--ran right into Dean. First he arighted her helpfully, then, holding her shoulders as he seemed to recognize her, he stared intently into her face. “Wait a minute--what’s your name?” he barked.
Cas hedged and stuttered. Sam had already told him the name of the person who gave him back the soul shard. Her only hope of keeping her secret was not to tell Dean who she was. Just then, Liliae appeared at her shoulder. “This is Cas!” she cooed, so very helpfully. “Isn’t she cute?”
“What were you doing in my room last night?” he demanded abruptly.
Liliae made a sound of joy and dashed back to watch the blowout from a safe distance, as most of the students in the cafeteria did--you didn’t mess with Dean Winchester.
Cas didn’t manage to come out with anything comprehensible before he huffed, “Stay away from my brother!,” turned, and stalked away.
“Or what?” Pikae called eagerly, watching with Liliae.
“Or else,” Dean growled menacingly, and strode out.
Cas managed to find another soul shard that night, roaming the halls of the science building. “What part of Sam Winchester are you?” she asked it.
She couldn’t help fearing it would announce it was the evil part, as she looked on its cool, calculating expression, but then it said, “I’m the smart one.”
Relieved, she took it in her arms and flew it back to Sam, who stood at his window alone in his room, gazing over the common area, wearing only a billowy white shirt. He seemed to go around like that a lot. Sam’s expression lightened and grew more focused as the soul shard stepped back inside him, then he looked down at himself. “Why am I not wearing any pants?!”
Cas gazed on his beautiful visage. With each new soul shard she collected, she loved him more. It was all she could do to resist telling him her feelings. Why this cruel, terrible rule? Sam should know how wonderful and lovely he was, how good and noble, how deserving of all good things, when Cas knew he had such hardship before him. Maybe ... maybe if she just whispered it, no one would know, and it would be all right. She stepped up to him. He helpfully leaned down so she could put her lips next to his furry ear.
She and Sam heard the key in the lock at the same moment, and looked toward the door. Cas dashed for the window and dove out it, whispering her father’s name just in time to sprout wings before she hit the ground. She hid in the bush below their window once again to listen.
“Hey!” said Dean. “I thought I told you to keep the window shut and locked!”
“I, uh ... I ... needed some fresh air,” said Sam, calcalating.
Dean sounded stunned and disbelieving. “Wh--what did you say?”
“I mean, uh ... I forgot.”
“You’re lying?! You’re sitting here lying to me?? You haven’t lied ... since ....” It took him less than a second to put it all together. “That chick returned another part of your soul to you, didn’t she!”
“Well ... yeah,” Sam admitted reluctantly.
Cas could hear Dean race to the window to look out again. “There it is again!” he shouted, pointing. “That thing, shining in the bushes! I’m going down there, and I bet I know what I’ll find,” he hissed, ignoring Sam’s protests.
Cas’s breath quickened. This was the thing that absolutely must not happen! Sam and Dean’s lives were at stake! There was no one in the square. She might be able to get to the fountain in time to turn human again before Dean got there, but she definitely wouldn’t have time to get back to her room. Still, it was far better than getting caught red-handed and gleaming-haloed. She ran for the fountain, took a great leap, and splashed into it just as the entrance to the boys’ dorm flew open. She was trying to climb out the other side, soggy clothes bogging her down, when Dean raced to her side. His eyes narrowed, seeing who it was.
“It’s you!” he said, grimly victorious and utterly unsurprised.
“Tee hee!” said Cas.
“’Tee hee’ nothing! What do you think you’re doing out here in the fountain in the middle of the freakin’ night?!”
“Oh, just ... taking a dip!” Cas exclaimed gaily, trying to act as girlish and carefree as her friends, though it didn’t come naturally to her.
Dean’s eyes passed sharply over the fountain. “So you’re some kind of monster who needs water to change back into human form,” he guessed shrewdly.
“I’m not a monster!” Cas protested.
“A glowing, gleaming, evil monster. What do you want with my brother!”
“N--nothing,” Cas lied anxiously, watching Dean’s fists ball up.
“I don’t beat up chicks, but I don’t hesitate to beat up monsters, so if you don’t stay the hell away from my brother, you’re gonna wish you never crawled out of purgatory or wherever you came from, ’cos I’m sending you right back there.”
Cas shrank from the cruel gleam in Dean’s eye. He meant every word he said.
“I’m just a girl!” Cas cried, falling out of the fountain unceremoniously, scrambling to her feet, then heading back to the girls’ dorm at a run.
“Don’t think the wet t-shirt contest is gonna change my mind!” Dean called meanly after her. Cas glanced down, gasped, and covered her chest with her hands as she ran. Disaster! Dean had come very close to figuring out what she was. She had narrowly escaped being seen in angel form, by him or someone else. She had even almost told Sam the very thing she was forbidden from telling him. And Dean had seen way more than he should have! Boy, humans had it rough. She wasn’t sure she could do this, but if she didn’t, who would? The lord had entrusted this task to her. No matter what happened or how badly she humiliated herself, she must forge ahead and not falter. Sam’s salvation ... and even mean old Dean’s ... was all up to her.
“Where are you going?” Liliae asked shrilly as Cas tried to leave their room. “Are you going to stalk Sam Winchester again? You really do love him! That’s so cute!”
“Stalking’s illegal,” Pikae informed her bluntly. “So try not to let anyone know you’re doing it.”
“Especially his brother Dean!” Liliae cooed. “He’ll kick your ass! Which do you think is cuter, Pikae: Sam or Dean? We already know Cas’s vote.”
“I’ve always been a Dean girl, but Sam’s looking hotter lately; I don’t know what it is. He’s a little less shaggy or something.”
“His long hair is the best!” Liliae protested.
“Short hair!” Pikae retorted.
“Long!”
“Short!”
Cas slipped quickly out the door while they were otherwise occupied with their argument. Okay, so maybe she was kind of stalking Sam Winchester. Kind of every day, you might say ... morning, afternoon, between classes, after dinner, listening in the bushes to his conversations with his mean brother, who had only gotten meaner since Sam got back some parts of his soul, constantly making fun of the questions he now asked him; for with the return of the good part of his soul, it seems he’d developed curiosity. Maybe the good part of his soul made him even weaker to Dean’s harassment. Maybe Cas didn’t have to return the evil piece of his soul, but maybe there was a strong part out there that would make him able to stand up to his brother. Cas would have to find it. But first, maybe a tiny bit of stalking, just so she knew where Sam could be found once she did find another piece of his soul ....
Cas found him where she often did, sitting under a tree with Rueby, staring vacantly up at the sky, his long shaggy limbs stretched out on the grassy slope, while Rueby studied and told him what to do.
“Say you love me,” she told him.
“I love you,” he said.
“Say you’ll be with me forever,” she said.
“I’ll be with you forever,” he said.
“Say you’ll do whatever I say,” she said.
“Dean said I have to do whatever he says.”
Her eyes flared. “Screw Dean and the moose he rode in on. You do what I say, not what that bitch says.”
“Actually, I’m the bitch,” Sam informed her. “He’s the jerk.”
“He’s more than a jerk,” she muttered venomously. “I can think of all kinds of words to describe--”
“What do you think of me?” Sam asked her suddenly, and she looked at him sharply.
“What?” she hissed disbelievingly.
“We’ve been hanging out all this time, and suddenly I realized, I have no idea what I think of you, whether I love you, or even like you. Can’t really tell what you think of me, either. Do you really love me? Or are you just using me?”
“What in hell’s name made you start wanting to know stuff like that??” She was livid.
“Cas gave me back a piece of my soul, and--”
“’CAS’? Who’s Cas??”
“She’s a girl, in my class.”
“Who! Where! Where did she come from!”
“I dunno; she just appeared at my window one night and said she had something to give me--”
“’Appeared’? Like, appeared appeared, or flew? I guess I know what she must be either way .... I’m gonna have to tell my father about this,” she said broodingly. Just then, she looked up at where Cas hid in a thicket. She couldn’t see her--surely, she couldn’t--but she could swear she knew she was there. A cruel smile twisted her mouth as her eyes seemed to meet Cas’s. Uh-oh. Cas slipped out the other side of the thicket and went in search of the next piece of Sam’s soul.
She found it in a dark, dusty corner of the school library, feverishly reading A Catcher in the Rye, and knelt down beside it. It only hunkered harder over its book. “Are you a piece of Sam Winchester’s soul?” she whispered to it.
“Yes,” it said sullenly. Cas noticed the acne dotting its forehead and its long, gangly limbs.
“Which part are you?” she asked it gently, since it seemed to suffer from a kind of pain known to nearly every teen-aged human being. Humans ... they suffered from the dangerous journey through the birth canal, they suffered from the bewilderment of toddlerhood, they suffered the agony of puberty. Poor humans ... they suffered.
“I’m the part that remembers,” it said, and turned its back to her.
The part that remembers! That couldn’t be evil. “Come with me, Sam,” Cas said to it kindly. “I’ll take you home.” Home--yes, that’s where this piece of Sam wanted to go, more desperately than anything else. It came with her eagerly, trying to hide its eagerness behind a thin veneer of cool.
They walked hand in hand back to where Cas had left Sam with Rueby. To her relief, Cas saw that Sam was now alone. She stepped toward him--only to have the shard of Sam’s soul ripped out of her arms by Rueby! “Get lost, junkless,” she hissed victoriously to Cas. “You’re too late--Sam’s already evil.”
“You’re wrong,” Cas told her vehemently. “He’s good, all the way down to his bones. Nothing you did could change that.”
“Let’s find out, huh?” she said, and suddenly she disappeared, stealing away with the piece of Sam’s soul, already so saddened and damaged. It reached desperately for Cas ... but then it was gone.
“NO!” cried Cas, and tried to follow, only to soon realize the place Rueby had taken it was protected by angel-proofing sigils past which she could not go. She wandered sadly back to where Sam still lay on the hillside, and sat down next to him. She couldn’t tell him she loved him, she couldn’t restore his soul ... she couldn’t do anything. She felt small and useless. God probably should have had Zachariah do it. “I’m sorry, Sam,” she said sorrowfully.
Sam shrugged peaceably, unconcerned. “Whatever.”
Cas lingered just outside the place Rueby had escaped to and was ready for her when she emerged the next day with her hostage. The fight went much more easily than Cas had expected, considering she remained human through it, following the rules, and she managed to wrest back the piece of Sam’s soul from her.
She hurried to find Sam so that she could get the shard safely in him before Rueby found them again. She caught Sam as he stepped out of the shower when there was no one else there with them in the boys’ bathroom. Sam didn’t look surprised to see a girl in the boys’ bathroom ... but then again, he never looked surprised, mostly soulless as he was. Water dripped from his ears and his tail. “I have another shard of your soul for you!” Cas told him eagerly. “It’s the part that remembers!”
The teenaged soul shard ran to Sam and embraced him tightly, as he used to embrace Dean, or their father. It began to merge with him, and Cas was happy that he’d gotten it away from Rueby back to Sam, excitedly watching as Sam started looking now even more human ... until Sam started screaming. He clutched the place where the soul shard had entered his body, writhing in agony. “I remember!” he was shouting. “Oh, God, I remember!”
Dean burst through the door. “What the hell?!” His eyes fixed on Cas. “You! What are you trying to do to my brother?!”
“I--I’m trying to return another piece of his soul--but something’s wrong!”
Rueby appeared in the doorway then, too, looking smug. “I let my father have at it. It’s been soaked in demon blood. Good luck getting that out.”
“Hey, this is the guys’ bathroom, Rueby--get out!” Dean hissed irritably.
“What about Cas?” Rueby demanded.
“Cas is hot; she can stay.”
“I’m hot!”
“Hot but evil.”
“Don’t you want me to finish telling you what I’ve done to the shard?”
“I think I get the picture. Demon blood, yada-yada ....”
“He’ll crave demon blood from now on! He’s part evil! In case you hadn’t figured that out.”
Cas clutched her face. Oh, no! This was what the first shard--which was evidently psychic--meant when it said there would be evil in Sam one day! Cas knew no part of Sam was originally evil, but Rueby ... Rueby and the other demons had put evil where there had been only innocence. Cas fell to her knees and wept. She wished desperately that her father had chosen another angel for the job. This human life was too hard.
Continued here.