Dean/Cas Big Bang - I Do(not) Want to Set the World on Fire 9/10
Part 1: Worldly Acclaim (I've Lost All) | Part 2: I'm Dreaming of (the Goal) | Part 3: Admission (and with Your) | Part 4: Believe (me) | Part 5: Flame (Just Want to Start) | Part 6: Be the One (You Love) | Part 7: World (on Fire) | Part 8: Jazzy Interlude |
Sam sighs as he stretches a bit. If there’s one good thing about the Wasteland, it’s that he can stretch out a bit, actually stand up fully instead of slouching like he had to when they lived in the Vault.
The thought makes him look up a bit, at the sky that was partly obscured by the remains of an old home. He’d liked it there, before coming out the Wastes. It’d been…clean. Uncomplicated, or so he thought before he woke with Dad telling him they had to leave. It was a bit more complicated when he got back and learned more about what was going on in them, why they were the way they were.
“The Vaults were never made to save anyone,” Sam mutters, his arms going down as Jake looks over at him. Jake Tully, one of the ‘special’ people, who’s strong and loyal to a damned fault and dislikes the Enclave and the ones who created him as much as all of them do.
“What’s that?”
“Thinking,” Sam said, “remembering. Any luck?”
Jake shrugs and goes to take a seat. “We’re getting there. Ruby says we’re almost there. And Meg seems to agree.”
Sam lets out a breath again, seeing Jess stir from the chair she’s resting in. Jess followed him out of the Vault, after he’d returned. He’s not surprised that she seems ready to head back down and check on Dean, but he’s a bit worried about what’s going on and how close they are.
Dad had gotten him out of the Vault after Sam had first shown some of his powers in front of a family member. Thinking back at it, if it’d been anyone, Sam would’ve wanted Dean to know about it, but the night after, before Sam could tell him, Dad had taken him out of the Vault.
Things had gotten bad after that, bad enough that Sam had left Dad right after he tried to kill Jake. It was why they were working together, why Sam had been working to figure out what the hell was going on with Dean.
Sam hadn’t known Dean left until he’d gone back in, and it was a few days after going back into the Vault, after convincing the Overseer to turn over rule to Amata and let the door to be open and to keep relationships with Megaton and a few other areas. The Enclave would try to get in, and they had to be ready to defend themselves.
Jess had followed Sam out, and despite a rocky start with Ruby, the two were now something like friends. Sam had left and given them an ultimatum, to either figure things out or for him to leave them both. He didn’t want to pick either, loving them both in his own ways, and didn’t know what happened between them, only that they now trusted each other in a way.
Sam headed down to the area where a few others were working. Meg and a small group of others were getting closer, as Jake said, and it worked to take his mind off what he’d found out about Dean.
Meg and Ruby, along with a few others, had all but revolted against the ‘plan’, whatever it was, after learning the end-result was another attempt at mass extinction, this one for humanity. They didn’t really understand all that was going on, or why Sam was so drawn to this place, save that he thinks he hears someone sobbing, crying out for help.
“Any changes?” he asks when he looks into the downstairs room, checking on Dean. Andy, one of the twins who also joined them, and the one who was more prone to ‘good’ psychic powers over his brother, Ansem (who had decided to make some heads explode in Paradise Falls after one of them mezzed and collared Andy), shook his head sadly.
“It’s still just…well, it’s bad either way. He’s thinking about going back somewhere, of giving up. Someone else is trying to get to him, but I can’t really read if it’s to get him to stay put or get him to come to the…church-thing.”
That was a thing about what happened that so confused and angered Sam. Dean had been just…it hurt to think of how badly Dean had been mentally used, and Sam only could get some response. But that had been yesterday. Overnight, Dean was beginning to take a turn for the worse.
The closer they got to the thing that called to Sam, the worse Dean got. Yet the closer they got to the thing, the more they figured out. Ruby was sure that the ‘plan’ involved this, and so was both excited and wary of it. Meg was a bit ambivalent about the whole thing, viewing it as just an exercise in attempted free will. She’d also pointed out that esoteric debates were not in high demand right now - humanity was focused on surviving and living, meaning thoughts about social contracts and the like would have to wait a few hundred or so years.
Sam is sure that she has a point, though. He chose, freely, to not follow Dad’s plan, and ended up here anyway. He doesn’t know if that means he has free will or not. He’d like to think he does, even with how things are going, or at least that everything will be up to him.
“What about the other connection, or the…scar?” Sam hated that thing, the red handprint brand that all but claimed Dean as the property of someone, that said the person or thing influencing him now would return to find him.
“Still there,” Andy muttered, “attempting to get to him, but it’s having only a bit more luck.” Andy shrugged. “I think it knows about the net-thing in the sky. It’s not the one that made it, but it knows about it.”
Sam nods, taking that in, and says, “I’m going to see if I can…get in contact or something…with the thing in the prison. I’ll be back.”
Andy nods as Sam heads further into the tunnel, frowning at the metal-stone work that they’ve exposed. It’s tough, tough enough to withstand the nuclear blast and the resulting fallout, as well as thick enough to hold something that all but bleeds power and ice. Sam thinks of the coolness of the Vault, or how it’s said to be when there’s snow or densely packed ice. He thinks of space, of how it’s supposed to be so cold they made up a new name for the cold, about how you go further up and lose air and heat.
The thoughts on cold seem to alert the thing inside, and Sam feels a tentative touch to the wall, where his hand is. “who are you? What are you?”
Sam tries to think, to think of himself in cold, to focus on that instead of cold in general. He thinks a name along with it, wondering if it gets through.
“…are you real? I…you can’t be, can you? Everything is evil outside, everything died. Everything’s fire.”
Sam thinks back, of what he saw in the Vault and it’s air conditioning, of the coldness and loneliness he felt, the first few nights outside in the Wastes, of the cold looks of the men at the Enclave bases, of the cool gazes that Ruby and Jess sent each other, of a fixed Nuka-Cola machine and the ice on a bottle as it popped out and he shared it, pulling in a surprised breath at the cold. The thing inside eats up the ideas/images/memories greedily, and says, “I…you’re real, you are. I’m not dreaming it up. Please…please let me out. Let me out.”
Sam thinks a very specific memory now, of when Dean was reading a story from an old, beat-up book about a genie that had to be tricked into giving wishes, because before, it wanted to kill the person who helped him out.
“You think I will be like the genie.”
Sam recalls that part of the story, of asking Dean what would make something so angry. Dean said that sometimes, being trapped made you think and want to be grateful, but other times, it could make you angry. The being seems to give a mental shake of his head.
“I…I don’t know what I am. My brother put me here, because he hated that I wanted to leave, and…” there’s a small blast of cold. “in this place, I can’t feel anything. I can’t see or hear, or even touch my skin to know I’m still alive. I might only be energy.”
Sam thinks about the men, about the plan, and the thing seems to…blink, or at least know what he’s talking about.
“I think I know what’s going on. Please, let me help.”
Sam ends up thinking of Dean, and the weird mark, as the being says, “I know what that means.” Sam prompts him, the thing seeming uneasy before saying, “It’s a Mark. It allows one of us to manipulate the body, mind, and soul of a being more easily. He’s ill due to someone else manipulating him, and possibly the distance. You have one of us coming after him. Please…let me out.”
“I’d rethink that,” a new voice said, causing Sam to turn and pull out his gun before a familiar face smirked at him. “Hey there, Sammy boy. Mind if Loki and his bro have a little chat?”
--
Castiel feels unwelcome in the place he once called home. He can hear the Gates opening to let out the Garrison, and he silently prays that they listen to him, or that they haven’t been altered even more. He is uncertain of Naomi’s ultimate agenda now, and hopes she is on his side, at least in this.
It also doesn’t help that Dean and he are both ill, or that Castiel can now feel cold creeping into the connection with Dean. It signaled how close Dean was to the Cage, how close to escape Lucifer was. Castiel didn’t know if that was a good or bad thing, and hoped that Lucifer wouldn’t harm Dean or anyone else when he broke free.
He relaxes a bit as his Garrison arrives, but not so much that he isn’t still aware of his surroundings. He doesn’t know what has occurred in the few days since he left, nor what had occurred after he’d told them to return to Heaven and explain that he’d found the Righteous One.
Castiel tries to focus on his Garrison, on his brothers and sisters, and not on the ruins of their battles that he is now privy to. He thinks of it as an innocence lost, or perhaps simply realizing that what he’d been seeing was not the way things were. That after a life entrapped, he now understood, to some extent, what was really in the Wastes.
Uriel and Rachel are the first to approach, looking worried, with Balthazar and Samandiriel not far behind. “Castiel, you returned. What happened?” Uriel asks, stopping just outside of Castiel’s reach. Castiel, at first, isn’t sure why, until he sees Naomi there.
Naomi doesn’t leave Heaven. Her appearance here frightens him, but is also something he’s willing to listen to. He’s able to run if he must, and knows they won’t follow him, but…
Naomi kneels beside him, her eyes determined. “Show me.”
“Why?” he asks, anger coming up. She’d hurt them, made them forget the bodies of their fallen here.
“Because the Watchers at the Gate will always be the ones who leave, or who bring about change,” she answers him, “and because Michael doesn’t deserve the Righteous One.”
So she can see them, and what he heard was not an illusion. He slowly reaches forward and touches her forehead.
She witnesses his first meeting with Dean, who is ready to fight until he dies. She sees him recovering. She sees Charlie and Moira, happy in the town that should be doomed. She sees Simms and his attempt to keep order, his wish to only keep this one place safe. He sees the house, and Dean’s fears that slowly leave as Castiel kisses him. She sees Kevin and Agatha, and the two violins that were saved from a destroyed Vault. She sees what Gabriel’s work broke in him, and his old life. She sees Anna’s attack, the Brotherhood’s determination, and the few bits of the Enclave, a computer called Eden and a man called Autumn, who are willing to help.
Naomi slowly pulls away, looking back as the Gates open. She stands, and tells the others, “Take Castiel and go.”
“But-“ Inias protests, but she shakes her head.
“Michael is no longer following Father’s plan. He will keep you here. Gabriel is rebelling in a way that will cause more harm. And Lucifer is almost released. He may or may not be a threat. Either way, you are needed here, not inside the Gates. Go. I will follow if I can.”
Balthazar moves first, Rachel behind him, as they help Castiel up. The touches mean they now see what he did, and both blink at the new information. But they don’t have time, and Castiel shows them where they can go before everyone flies, the net trying to stop them but fraying as they arrive near the Cage, luckily outside of the view of few people nearby. Castiel shivers, feeling the chill from Lucifer’s Cage and power, as well as the sharp light from Gabriel’s own power. Castiel hadn’t realized he was here, and hoped that he’d be able to make it into the base and out with Dean, and without Gabriel noticing.
“Cassie,” Balthazar says, surprising Uriel and the others, “you’re not seriously going to go in there?”
“I need to get Dean,” Castiel says, fear gripping him. Naomi may have sent them away from Heaven, but they still only had second-hand knowledge. That would color their judgment, not only of Dean but of everyone else, “I’m afraid of what Gabriel or Dean’s brother might do.” Castiel only had Dean’s memories of Sam, and knew that made it biased. Despite Dean’s assurances and belief that his father and brother wouldn’t harm him, Castiel is not so sure. If anything, Sam and John Winchester’s actions have only worked to harm Dean all the more, and are now threatening the rest of the Wasteland.
“At least let us help,” Balthazar argued back, the others nodding as Castiel shook his head again. “Castiel!”
“Gabriel is there, and Lucifer. I don’t want you to die, just to distract them. I can’t…I can’t let you die like that.” The thought makes Castiel even more ill then he already is. “Please, Balthazar. I’ve come this far. You can take the others somewhere safe, until I get back.”
Balthazar is silent before saying, “Uriel, head back to near the Gates, check on Naomi. Rachel, show them the safe areas, get them to head over. I’ll wait here,” Balthazar glared at Castiel, “you need someone here, even if it’s just one of us. And I’m not leaving.”
Rachel heads over to the others as Castiel finally nods, and prepares to go in after Dean.
--
Andy’s shout brought Sam running, gun ready as he got to the room where they put Dean, hoping for him to recover. Loki’s words still rang in his ears, the talk about what was going on with Dean, what power Lucifer would need after being held and weakened. Sam’s whole being screamed for him to not do it, to not try anything, but Loki’s talk about how bad Dean’s condition is, how he’ll never recover…
The man inside the room has dark hair and bright blue eyes, and is holding Dean so his hand perfectly covers the mark on Dean’s shoulder. Andy is on the floor, and Sam raises the gun to aim for the man’s head. It’s hard to aim, the way the man is holding Dean, to have a clear shot, but Sam is determined. He already lost his brother once, to his own arrogance and his father’s implication that everything would be alright. He can’t lose him again, not now.
“Let him go,” Sam growls out, hearing Ruby and Jess coming down, along with the others. He knows he’s blocking the way, but at the same time, he’s angry and afraid for Dean. He has to protect his brother, like Dean protected him from so much.
The thing (it has to be a thing, has to be like Loki and Lucifer instead of a normal person) stares Sam down as Sam gets further in, moving over Andy so the others could pull him to safety while Sam kept his eyes trained on the thing. He glares back at Sam, tightening his grip on Dean and the arm, causing Dean to stir in its arms, then turning away from Sam and towards the thing.
Sam gets the gun ready as Ansem get there, moving Andy out while Jess and Ruby move to stand next to Sam, Ruby with a blade and Jess with a shotgun, though she lowers it when she sees the danger to Dean.
“Let him go,” Sam says again, anger making his voice tight and fear coursing through him. They couldn’t lose Dean!
The thing stiffened before he and Dean disappeared, Sam cursing as he looked around the empty room. Jess checked on Andy while Ruby ran outside, Sam remaining in the room and looking at where his brother had disappeared from, anger and disbelief churning within him. That the thing had gotten to Dean, had managed to get his brother to turn to it instead of Sam, makes his blood boil at the same time he feels useless.
Jake comes up to him as he leaves the room, trying to calm himself down. “Loki’s gone.”
Sam resisted the urge to curse as he said, “So’s Dean. Something got him.”
“Some...thing?”
“It got in without any of us noticing and put Andy out without any visible wounds. Then it disappeared in front of my eyes, with Dean. And its hand fit the mark on Dean’s shoulder.”
Jake cursed for Sam, a long string that seemed to fit the situation perfectly. “So now what?”
Sam needed to get Dean back and keep him safe. The best weapon for that was the one behind a few feet of iced stone and metal.
Part 10: You (No Other Will Do)
Sam sighs as he stretches a bit. If there’s one good thing about the Wasteland, it’s that he can stretch out a bit, actually stand up fully instead of slouching like he had to when they lived in the Vault.
The thought makes him look up a bit, at the sky that was partly obscured by the remains of an old home. He’d liked it there, before coming out the Wastes. It’d been…clean. Uncomplicated, or so he thought before he woke with Dad telling him they had to leave. It was a bit more complicated when he got back and learned more about what was going on in them, why they were the way they were.
“The Vaults were never made to save anyone,” Sam mutters, his arms going down as Jake looks over at him. Jake Tully, one of the ‘special’ people, who’s strong and loyal to a damned fault and dislikes the Enclave and the ones who created him as much as all of them do.
“What’s that?”
“Thinking,” Sam said, “remembering. Any luck?”
Jake shrugs and goes to take a seat. “We’re getting there. Ruby says we’re almost there. And Meg seems to agree.”
Sam lets out a breath again, seeing Jess stir from the chair she’s resting in. Jess followed him out of the Vault, after he’d returned. He’s not surprised that she seems ready to head back down and check on Dean, but he’s a bit worried about what’s going on and how close they are.
Dad had gotten him out of the Vault after Sam had first shown some of his powers in front of a family member. Thinking back at it, if it’d been anyone, Sam would’ve wanted Dean to know about it, but the night after, before Sam could tell him, Dad had taken him out of the Vault.
Things had gotten bad after that, bad enough that Sam had left Dad right after he tried to kill Jake. It was why they were working together, why Sam had been working to figure out what the hell was going on with Dean.
Sam hadn’t known Dean left until he’d gone back in, and it was a few days after going back into the Vault, after convincing the Overseer to turn over rule to Amata and let the door to be open and to keep relationships with Megaton and a few other areas. The Enclave would try to get in, and they had to be ready to defend themselves.
Jess had followed Sam out, and despite a rocky start with Ruby, the two were now something like friends. Sam had left and given them an ultimatum, to either figure things out or for him to leave them both. He didn’t want to pick either, loving them both in his own ways, and didn’t know what happened between them, only that they now trusted each other in a way.
Sam headed down to the area where a few others were working. Meg and a small group of others were getting closer, as Jake said, and it worked to take his mind off what he’d found out about Dean.
Meg and Ruby, along with a few others, had all but revolted against the ‘plan’, whatever it was, after learning the end-result was another attempt at mass extinction, this one for humanity. They didn’t really understand all that was going on, or why Sam was so drawn to this place, save that he thinks he hears someone sobbing, crying out for help.
“Any changes?” he asks when he looks into the downstairs room, checking on Dean. Andy, one of the twins who also joined them, and the one who was more prone to ‘good’ psychic powers over his brother, Ansem (who had decided to make some heads explode in Paradise Falls after one of them mezzed and collared Andy), shook his head sadly.
“It’s still just…well, it’s bad either way. He’s thinking about going back somewhere, of giving up. Someone else is trying to get to him, but I can’t really read if it’s to get him to stay put or get him to come to the…church-thing.”
That was a thing about what happened that so confused and angered Sam. Dean had been just…it hurt to think of how badly Dean had been mentally used, and Sam only could get some response. But that had been yesterday. Overnight, Dean was beginning to take a turn for the worse.
The closer they got to the thing that called to Sam, the worse Dean got. Yet the closer they got to the thing, the more they figured out. Ruby was sure that the ‘plan’ involved this, and so was both excited and wary of it. Meg was a bit ambivalent about the whole thing, viewing it as just an exercise in attempted free will. She’d also pointed out that esoteric debates were not in high demand right now - humanity was focused on surviving and living, meaning thoughts about social contracts and the like would have to wait a few hundred or so years.
Sam is sure that she has a point, though. He chose, freely, to not follow Dad’s plan, and ended up here anyway. He doesn’t know if that means he has free will or not. He’d like to think he does, even with how things are going, or at least that everything will be up to him.
“What about the other connection, or the…scar?” Sam hated that thing, the red handprint brand that all but claimed Dean as the property of someone, that said the person or thing influencing him now would return to find him.
“Still there,” Andy muttered, “attempting to get to him, but it’s having only a bit more luck.” Andy shrugged. “I think it knows about the net-thing in the sky. It’s not the one that made it, but it knows about it.”
Sam nods, taking that in, and says, “I’m going to see if I can…get in contact or something…with the thing in the prison. I’ll be back.”
Andy nods as Sam heads further into the tunnel, frowning at the metal-stone work that they’ve exposed. It’s tough, tough enough to withstand the nuclear blast and the resulting fallout, as well as thick enough to hold something that all but bleeds power and ice. Sam thinks of the coolness of the Vault, or how it’s said to be when there’s snow or densely packed ice. He thinks of space, of how it’s supposed to be so cold they made up a new name for the cold, about how you go further up and lose air and heat.
The thoughts on cold seem to alert the thing inside, and Sam feels a tentative touch to the wall, where his hand is. “who are you? What are you?”
Sam tries to think, to think of himself in cold, to focus on that instead of cold in general. He thinks a name along with it, wondering if it gets through.
“…are you real? I…you can’t be, can you? Everything is evil outside, everything died. Everything’s fire.”
Sam thinks back, of what he saw in the Vault and it’s air conditioning, of the coldness and loneliness he felt, the first few nights outside in the Wastes, of the cold looks of the men at the Enclave bases, of the cool gazes that Ruby and Jess sent each other, of a fixed Nuka-Cola machine and the ice on a bottle as it popped out and he shared it, pulling in a surprised breath at the cold. The thing inside eats up the ideas/images/memories greedily, and says, “I…you’re real, you are. I’m not dreaming it up. Please…please let me out. Let me out.”
Sam thinks a very specific memory now, of when Dean was reading a story from an old, beat-up book about a genie that had to be tricked into giving wishes, because before, it wanted to kill the person who helped him out.
“You think I will be like the genie.”
Sam recalls that part of the story, of asking Dean what would make something so angry. Dean said that sometimes, being trapped made you think and want to be grateful, but other times, it could make you angry. The being seems to give a mental shake of his head.
“I…I don’t know what I am. My brother put me here, because he hated that I wanted to leave, and…” there’s a small blast of cold. “in this place, I can’t feel anything. I can’t see or hear, or even touch my skin to know I’m still alive. I might only be energy.”
Sam thinks about the men, about the plan, and the thing seems to…blink, or at least know what he’s talking about.
“I think I know what’s going on. Please, let me help.”
Sam ends up thinking of Dean, and the weird mark, as the being says, “I know what that means.” Sam prompts him, the thing seeming uneasy before saying, “It’s a Mark. It allows one of us to manipulate the body, mind, and soul of a being more easily. He’s ill due to someone else manipulating him, and possibly the distance. You have one of us coming after him. Please…let me out.”
“I’d rethink that,” a new voice said, causing Sam to turn and pull out his gun before a familiar face smirked at him. “Hey there, Sammy boy. Mind if Loki and his bro have a little chat?”
--
Castiel feels unwelcome in the place he once called home. He can hear the Gates opening to let out the Garrison, and he silently prays that they listen to him, or that they haven’t been altered even more. He is uncertain of Naomi’s ultimate agenda now, and hopes she is on his side, at least in this.
It also doesn’t help that Dean and he are both ill, or that Castiel can now feel cold creeping into the connection with Dean. It signaled how close Dean was to the Cage, how close to escape Lucifer was. Castiel didn’t know if that was a good or bad thing, and hoped that Lucifer wouldn’t harm Dean or anyone else when he broke free.
He relaxes a bit as his Garrison arrives, but not so much that he isn’t still aware of his surroundings. He doesn’t know what has occurred in the few days since he left, nor what had occurred after he’d told them to return to Heaven and explain that he’d found the Righteous One.
Castiel tries to focus on his Garrison, on his brothers and sisters, and not on the ruins of their battles that he is now privy to. He thinks of it as an innocence lost, or perhaps simply realizing that what he’d been seeing was not the way things were. That after a life entrapped, he now understood, to some extent, what was really in the Wastes.
Uriel and Rachel are the first to approach, looking worried, with Balthazar and Samandiriel not far behind. “Castiel, you returned. What happened?” Uriel asks, stopping just outside of Castiel’s reach. Castiel, at first, isn’t sure why, until he sees Naomi there.
Naomi doesn’t leave Heaven. Her appearance here frightens him, but is also something he’s willing to listen to. He’s able to run if he must, and knows they won’t follow him, but…
Naomi kneels beside him, her eyes determined. “Show me.”
“Why?” he asks, anger coming up. She’d hurt them, made them forget the bodies of their fallen here.
“Because the Watchers at the Gate will always be the ones who leave, or who bring about change,” she answers him, “and because Michael doesn’t deserve the Righteous One.”
So she can see them, and what he heard was not an illusion. He slowly reaches forward and touches her forehead.
She witnesses his first meeting with Dean, who is ready to fight until he dies. She sees him recovering. She sees Charlie and Moira, happy in the town that should be doomed. She sees Simms and his attempt to keep order, his wish to only keep this one place safe. He sees the house, and Dean’s fears that slowly leave as Castiel kisses him. She sees Kevin and Agatha, and the two violins that were saved from a destroyed Vault. She sees what Gabriel’s work broke in him, and his old life. She sees Anna’s attack, the Brotherhood’s determination, and the few bits of the Enclave, a computer called Eden and a man called Autumn, who are willing to help.
Naomi slowly pulls away, looking back as the Gates open. She stands, and tells the others, “Take Castiel and go.”
“But-“ Inias protests, but she shakes her head.
“Michael is no longer following Father’s plan. He will keep you here. Gabriel is rebelling in a way that will cause more harm. And Lucifer is almost released. He may or may not be a threat. Either way, you are needed here, not inside the Gates. Go. I will follow if I can.”
Balthazar moves first, Rachel behind him, as they help Castiel up. The touches mean they now see what he did, and both blink at the new information. But they don’t have time, and Castiel shows them where they can go before everyone flies, the net trying to stop them but fraying as they arrive near the Cage, luckily outside of the view of few people nearby. Castiel shivers, feeling the chill from Lucifer’s Cage and power, as well as the sharp light from Gabriel’s own power. Castiel hadn’t realized he was here, and hoped that he’d be able to make it into the base and out with Dean, and without Gabriel noticing.
“Cassie,” Balthazar says, surprising Uriel and the others, “you’re not seriously going to go in there?”
“I need to get Dean,” Castiel says, fear gripping him. Naomi may have sent them away from Heaven, but they still only had second-hand knowledge. That would color their judgment, not only of Dean but of everyone else, “I’m afraid of what Gabriel or Dean’s brother might do.” Castiel only had Dean’s memories of Sam, and knew that made it biased. Despite Dean’s assurances and belief that his father and brother wouldn’t harm him, Castiel is not so sure. If anything, Sam and John Winchester’s actions have only worked to harm Dean all the more, and are now threatening the rest of the Wasteland.
“At least let us help,” Balthazar argued back, the others nodding as Castiel shook his head again. “Castiel!”
“Gabriel is there, and Lucifer. I don’t want you to die, just to distract them. I can’t…I can’t let you die like that.” The thought makes Castiel even more ill then he already is. “Please, Balthazar. I’ve come this far. You can take the others somewhere safe, until I get back.”
Balthazar is silent before saying, “Uriel, head back to near the Gates, check on Naomi. Rachel, show them the safe areas, get them to head over. I’ll wait here,” Balthazar glared at Castiel, “you need someone here, even if it’s just one of us. And I’m not leaving.”
Rachel heads over to the others as Castiel finally nods, and prepares to go in after Dean.
--
Andy’s shout brought Sam running, gun ready as he got to the room where they put Dean, hoping for him to recover. Loki’s words still rang in his ears, the talk about what was going on with Dean, what power Lucifer would need after being held and weakened. Sam’s whole being screamed for him to not do it, to not try anything, but Loki’s talk about how bad Dean’s condition is, how he’ll never recover…
The man inside the room has dark hair and bright blue eyes, and is holding Dean so his hand perfectly covers the mark on Dean’s shoulder. Andy is on the floor, and Sam raises the gun to aim for the man’s head. It’s hard to aim, the way the man is holding Dean, to have a clear shot, but Sam is determined. He already lost his brother once, to his own arrogance and his father’s implication that everything would be alright. He can’t lose him again, not now.
“Let him go,” Sam growls out, hearing Ruby and Jess coming down, along with the others. He knows he’s blocking the way, but at the same time, he’s angry and afraid for Dean. He has to protect his brother, like Dean protected him from so much.
The thing (it has to be a thing, has to be like Loki and Lucifer instead of a normal person) stares Sam down as Sam gets further in, moving over Andy so the others could pull him to safety while Sam kept his eyes trained on the thing. He glares back at Sam, tightening his grip on Dean and the arm, causing Dean to stir in its arms, then turning away from Sam and towards the thing.
Sam gets the gun ready as Ansem get there, moving Andy out while Jess and Ruby move to stand next to Sam, Ruby with a blade and Jess with a shotgun, though she lowers it when she sees the danger to Dean.
“Let him go,” Sam says again, anger making his voice tight and fear coursing through him. They couldn’t lose Dean!
The thing stiffened before he and Dean disappeared, Sam cursing as he looked around the empty room. Jess checked on Andy while Ruby ran outside, Sam remaining in the room and looking at where his brother had disappeared from, anger and disbelief churning within him. That the thing had gotten to Dean, had managed to get his brother to turn to it instead of Sam, makes his blood boil at the same time he feels useless.
Jake comes up to him as he leaves the room, trying to calm himself down. “Loki’s gone.”
Sam resisted the urge to curse as he said, “So’s Dean. Something got him.”
“Some...thing?”
“It got in without any of us noticing and put Andy out without any visible wounds. Then it disappeared in front of my eyes, with Dean. And its hand fit the mark on Dean’s shoulder.”
Jake cursed for Sam, a long string that seemed to fit the situation perfectly. “So now what?”
Sam needed to get Dean back and keep him safe. The best weapon for that was the one behind a few feet of iced stone and metal.
Part 10: You (No Other Will Do)