Dean/Cas Big Bang 2016: Sky's the Limit Part 1

[felicia_angel]

Title: Sky's the Limit
Fandom/Genre: Supernatural/Persona 4 (game and animation)
Pairing(s):Dean/Cas, minor Sam/Jess
Rating:PG-13/R
Word Count: 40,685
Warnings: past child abuse, referenced mental abuse, referenced misogyny, referenced harassment, mental issues, self-esteem issues, minor characters death
Summary: In a small town, strange happenings begin again after a long, 14-year lull. With the arrival of Castiel Novak, and the sudden addition of powers he never realized he might have, can he and the others he save from a tragic end figure out the reason behind the murders?


The sound outside was like a car driving through smoke, or some sort of a traveling thing moving - an elevator, or a train car. But the noise of the trip was muted, and the whole room was bathed in blue-white light. At the end of the room was seated a woman, bathed in white light and in a gray suit, her hair tied back in a severe bun. Next to her was a man with a beard, his hair brown and messy, looking out of place with his ruffled suit. With him was a huge book bound in blue, white, and black, with what appeared to be a face bisected to have a white half, and a black half.
“Welcome to the Velvet Room,” the woman said, a smile on her face, “It seems you have the most unusual destiny lying before you...”
-Dean sighs as he headed towards school, frowning when he sees someone walking alone, his dark hair messy and looking like he just got out of bed, and the uniform one like either the private school full of weirdos, or the charter one that Sammy wanted to go to. He had to be new, and Dean raced a little so he could catch up with him. “Hey, you ok? Not lost?”
“No,” the other young man’s voice was gravelly and deep, but also sounds annoyed. Dean has to guess it was the rain - they were having some really abnormal storms that resulted in rain and fog. Dean smiles a bit as the other teen sighs, nodding. “Yes. Forgive me, I have a...bit of a headache.”
“No worries. I’m Dean. Our schools are the same way. You’re heading to that charter, right...Inaba or whatever it is?”
“I am, yes.” He glances at Dean and his faded jeans, too-big leather jacket, and bright smile under the umbrella as it began to rain instead of just threaten it. The other teen moves to join him briefly, opening up his own umbrella before stepping away. Dean was caught with how blue the other teen’s eyes were before the other teen said, “Castiel.”
“Huh?”
“My name is Castiel. Yours is Dean.”


Dean smiles again at that, the two walking side-by-side in a sort of odd pairing as the rain begins to fall a bit heavier now. “Well, it’s nice to meet you, Cas. I don’t really know anyone that goes to the school, but I’ve heard most of the people there are pretty nice.”
“My cousin Hannah goes there, and my uncle Michael believes the charter to be the best choice, as it offers the widest range of classes and extracurricular activities. He apparently is...upset...that I’m only here for a year before I have to start college.”
“You got one in particular you want to head to?”
“I have a lot of choices,” Castiel tells him, “but I haven’t decided yet.” He glances at Dean as they reach the intersection. “Thank you for walking with me. Even though it’s a small town, it can take some getting used to.”
Dean snorts, shrugging, “I wouldn’t know, since I lived here my whole life. It’s small, but it’s got it’s perks.” He waves to Castiel. “I’ll see you tomorrow, then, Cas.”
“Castiel.”
Dean ignores him as he heads to school, doing his best to ignore the rain as it continues to pour down on the town. Cas seemed nice, and different from the others like that Gabe guy at the new superstore. At least now, Charlie and Jo would have someone normal to hang out with.
Dean ducks down the alleyway right before the high school, changing into his work clothing, before he races to his job. The small talk might make him a minute or two later than his normal routine, but Dean’ll take the hit if it means having a good conversation. Besides, no harm in pretending he actually goes to school, right?
-It had gotten really foggy, the type that rolled in and covered all of the town to the point where driving might be a hassle. She wasn’t thinking about that - her work at Junes meant that she had to get out of class early, but luckily the private school allowed for her to leave, unlike the public school or that charter one. She was normally the only one out at this time of day, but in front of her, someone was standing, looking upwards, and that prompts her to look up as well.
One of the houses had an old-school, huge antenna built into it. Normally, on sunny or foggy days, that was one good place to look up at and walk by, figure out where you were going. Today, though...there was a figure on the antenna, twisted and looking like some sort of a jigsaw puzzle of a person, the pieces having fallen from the sky onto the antenna. She feels himself shake as she looked at it, trapped at the sight of a body lying like someone had tossed it onto the antenna from somewhere far above them.
She came out of it when she heard someone talking, saying where they were and that there was a dead body. That got her to look up, seeing the other person racing off, the phone dangling down from the cradle as she walked over, hearing the voice on the other end trying to get more information.
“Yes...yes, I’m Jessica Moore...there’s a body...”
-The body of the announcer Ashley Frank was found earlier today in fog-shrouded Lawrence. As you may remember, Ms. Frank was on leave after conflicting reports about alleged sexual misconduct with one of the mayor’s right-hand men, Christian Campbell. Mr. Campbell’s wife, Arlene, is pursuing damages against the tv station and Ms. Frank’s estate for slander. Later today, we’ll have our exclusive interview with the young woman who found the body.
And now, the weather...
-“I can’t believe you did that to her DVD,” Meg said as she hands Gabriel the bag of ice to put over the bruise he’d gotten from crashing his bike and the rather well-placed kick that one of their friends, a red-headed girl named Charlie, for the destruction of something she’d let him borrow. They were at Biggersons, the superstore with a small restaurant to the side, and Castiel was eating a fry as he listened to the two talk. Gabriel had somewhat ‘adopted’ Castiel as a fellow ‘refugee’ from the city after the introduction by Hannah. He also was treating Castiel to lunch after being pulled him out of the garbage can Gabriel had fallen into while attempting to ride a bike full-speed downhill. The sound of the gears probably meant it was not in the best of shape, and Castiel suspected this was more a bribe then out of gratitude.
“I’m more amazed she had that DVD,” Gabriel mutters, “and you just came over to laugh at the manager’s idiot son.”
“I can neither confirm nor deny those horrible, horrible allegations.”
“Which is a ‘yes’,” the dark-skinned employee, Kali, said with a grin as she came over to check on Gabriel as well, “and also that you need to take some responsibility for your actions. You’d think a manager’s son would at least know how to keep people happy.”
“What makes you think I don’t?” Gabriel said with a leer as Kali’s face turned to a glare, “I’m not the ‘manager’ type, and either way, that’s what you’re for, no matter what Hannah says. So go forth, and conquer, while I sit here and enjoy the fruits of your labor.”
Castiel wasn’t surprised when that earned Gabriel a smack upside the head, Meg sitting back and letting out as sigh as she looked over at a young man talking to someone nearby, getting their attention at his worried and barely-hushed tones as she left, looking upset. “Huh, it’s Sammy and Jess.”
That got Gabriel to start to sit up, Kali grabbing the back of his shirt with a glare as he let out a sigh. “Oh, come on, the kid can’t take a joke and he’s so full of himself! Lemme have some fun!”
“You’ve got a strange definition of ‘fun’,” Meg points out as Castiel watches the two younger teens, wondering what it was that Gabriel was planning to do and what it was about these two that got him so interested. He finally spoke up as he saw Sammy lean in, as if concerned, and speak quietly to the blond teen before she started to pack up her things, as if to leave.
“I’m not sure you want to get hurt again so soon, Gabriel.”
Gabriel let out a snort but relaxes as Kali lets him go, walking off as he glances at the two. “Traitors.”
Meg looks at him before saying, “My own dislike of those two aside, something is obviously going down, so I’m staying out of this.”
Gabriel snorts. “She’s a smart girl, her family runs a successful store here, what’s her deal? Besides bad choice in friends.”
Castiel glance at Meg, noting the odd, pained look on her face as she refuses to answer, instead looking down and away from them. He wonders what that history was, but doesn’t want to ask.
Gabriel changes the subject pretty quickly.  “Ok, fine, you two ever hear of the Midnight Channel?”
“What’s that?” Meg asks, obviously curious.
“It’s just something fun,” Gabriel says with a smirk, “you wait until midnight when it’s raining and sit in front of a television when it’s off. You’re supposed to see your soulmate in the tv. Neat, huh? Ah, if only I could see dear Kali...”
“That...wait, you haven’t tried it yet?”
Castiel smiles a bit at Gabriel’s look before he huffs out, “Look, just try it tonight! It’s raining, and what do you have to lose? Besides, someone said that they were apparently soulmates with that lady from the news, the one who decided to try to sex it up with a Campbell?”
“You don’t know the whole story on that one,” Meg points out, her mood souring again almost instantly, “and I resent your attempt to slut-shame a dead woman.”
That brought Gabriel up short. “Wait...when did this happen?”
The two frown at him, Castiel answering, “Yesterday afternoon, someone found her body. It was all over the news, and the school was talking about it all day.”
Gabriel looks confused before Castiel adds, “The name wasn’t mentioned until a little while ago, but it was heavily implied who it was.”
Gabriel still let out a sigh. “Great. Now with a murder, what am I supposed to do?”
“I’m beginning to wonder why we’re even friends,” Meg mutters, and Castiel found himself agreeing.
-When Sam gets home, Dad was still out on the job, and the whole house is a mess. Sam lets out a frustrated sigh, wishing that he wasn’t the only one here who did work, instead noticing the sleeping pile of dirty clothing on the couch, signaling where Dean had gone to sleep this time and how useless he was at doing simple freakin’ chores.
Sam moves to do his few designated chores, making sure everything was ok and dragging in the now-wet (again) laundry from outside as it started to rain. He briefly considered dumping it on Dean, since it was his job to do the laundry this week, but instead put them up to dry and went upstairs to study. He’d remind Dean of his issues next time, and besides, he didn’t need to get the clothing dirty from the oil and muck Dean always brought in and never cleaned up himself.
The sound of someone coming in, and Dad’s yell of “DAMNIT, DEAN!” prompts Sam to put on his headphones and hunch over his work. He hopes that whatever had happened with Jess, she was ok. She seemed so upset earlier, and he’d seen a few glimpses of that ‘interview’ with the person who found the body...that was probably Jess. But that just meant that something bad might happen, and she hadn’t told him. Probably because of his reputation, or at least his family reputation.
Sam hated that. It wasn’t his fault that Dad and Dean gave them a bad reputation, or that Dean especially seemed particularly focused on not cleaning up their freakin’ acts.
When the sounds from downstairs threatened to reach through his headphones, Sam turned the volume up, grateful for his grades so he could push through, get a scholarship, and get as far away from this nowhere town. He couldn’t wait to leave, and bring Jess with him.
-Castiel wonders what he was doing as he sat, looking at the small, old analog tv that Jody had put in the spare room. It got the same cable as downstairs, and he supposes most of it was because Jody Mills understood the need for everyone in the house to have privacy. Considering that the deputy was currently raising a girl with troubled past, Castiel isn’t surprised that each room has enough entertainment stuff to keep someone occupied, if they weren’t focused on school work. He isn’t quite getting along with the other resident - Alex doesn’t talk to strangers - but so long as he isn’t bothering her, she doesn’t bother him.
The sound of rain pattering against the window as he looks at the black tv screen is a balm on the near-constant, low-grade headache he’s had since he arrived in Lawrence. At least he had something to do, though he also wondered about what Gabriel’s purpose was in telling them such a silly urban legend. Gabriel doesn’t seem to be the type of person to tell such a legend when he could instead make everyone look like a fool.
Castiel lets out a sigh as the seconds tick by, nothing coming up on the TV as it started to get towards midnight. He got up, walking towards the small day bed in the corner of the room before the TV suddenly on, static making the image of a familiar woman, her hair long and blond, hard to make out. He sees her looking confused before she bent over something. The static thickened before the scene shifted, the picture looking like it was in an old VCR when the tracking wasn’t quite working as unseen things attacks the woman, causing her to writhe in pain. As the screen began to go black again, Castiel’s headache suddenly morphed from the low-grade one to a full on migraine, like something was trying burst out of his head.
I am thou, thou art I...
Thou art the one who opens the door. Open thine eyes and see the truth!
Castiel bit back a scream of pain as it reached it’s peak, seeing a nervous-looking man writing in a book, and a woman in a business suit, sitting calming, in what looked like the back of a moving limo bathed in white and blue light. She looks at him with a small smile, one of business, and like everything was falling into place. Before her was a stack of cards, and when she put a hand over them, they flew out to various places before him. Two turn over, revealing themselves.
“The Tower in the upright position - a terrible catastrophe will befall where you go-”
The woman with long, curling dark hair and a hidden face under a ballcap walks up with a smile, offering a job and shaking his hand before the headache started, a low-level pounding that he couldn’t seem to get rid of no matter what. “Just give it some thought. You don’t want to be bored, do you?”
You wish to learn the truth then? The voice was strange, and he couldn’t place it, but it frightens him, Try to catch it.
Walking back home and seeing a pair of women chatting, one saying quietly, “I heard it was hanging from the antenna...”
“The Moon, in an upright position, representing mystery. It seems...” the business-suited woman intoned gravely, without turning over the other cards, “that you will encounter a misfortune at your destination, and a great mystery will be imposed upon you.”
There was a sound of thunder outside, a popping sound like lightbulbs breaking, and Castiel reaches out to the screen, something telling him he had to, that it would make sense, that the woman he’d seen was in pain, that he had to save her and...
-“You ok?” Dean asks when he sees Castiel during the walk towards school the next day, the other teen looking concerned as Castiel trudges to school in the mist and light rain, holding out his umbrella for Castiel to walk under. Castiel had forgotten his own that day, partly due to the continued headache, not to mention sleeping in after whatever had happened last night. It had resulted in Castiel having to rush just to get to where he was now. The rain didn’t help his headache anymore than the company did, though the company was far more welcome.
“I had a hard time going to sleep,” Castiel mutters, not about to tell someone that the only thing that kept him from falling into a TV last night was the fact that it was smaller than he was. Or that pulling himself out had sent him backwards and into a low desk, which had resulted in even more of a headache and a bruise on the back of his head to go with it.
“You too? I dunno why, but last night man...” Dean shakes his head in sympathy “I think it’s the rain and stuff. It’s been getting bad in the last few months. Never been bad enough to cause that fog we got a few days ago.”
“Hopefully it won’t get too bad,” Castiel says, the two walking and Castiel looking distastefully at the distance between  himself and the school, the rain still dropping down enough to soak anything without cover. He heard the other teen sigh before there was a light nudge at his arm. “Here, take it.”
Castiel glances at the offered umbrella handle in surprise. “You’ll get a cold.”
“I’ll be fine,” Dean told him with a shrug, “I don’t really need it.”
Castiel slowly takes the offered umbrella as Dean ducks out, the rain - more a rather persistent mist that had rather large but consistent raindrops, falling down on him. “Besides, you had a rough night.”
Castiel looks at him, noting the dark circles under his eyes before he points out, “So did you.”
“I just had a lot of work to do,” Dean says with a shrug as his hair slowly plastered itself against his head, the rain turning it darker than its usual dark blond, “and either way, you’re the best thing that’s happened here in a long time.”
Castiel blinks at that as Dean gives him a smile, turning and waving, “Besides, I can always get the umbrella back tomorrow, right?”
“R-right.”
“Ok then. I mean, unless you wanna meet up somewhere tomorrow? I know a good place to get some food.”
Castiel blinks again, tilting his head and looking at Dean curiously before he says, “That would be nice.”
Dean’s smile grew then, turning almost into something that was a genuine smile, and it felt like the world was a bit brighter, despite the rain. Castiel couldn’t help but smile as well, and finally shifts so the umbrella went up a bit. “I’ll return this when we meet again.”
“Deal.”
-Castiel regrets telling Gabriel the moment after the other teen starts speculating and determines that they had to go to Junes to see if it was a dream or real. He also had to somewhat regret that Kali had sent Meg to watch over them again. He almost wished Hannah wasn’t so busy with her work, or he might have snuck out with her instead of being dragged back to Biggersons.
“Oh come on, I’m not gonna steal anything,” Gabriel protests when she’d follows them to the electronics department, watching them with her arms folded and an angry look on her face.
“No, you’re just going to give a discount to your friends because you think that the manager’s son gets a free pass on everything,” Meg points out, “So of course I’m going to see what you’re doing with Clarence here.”
“Castiel.”
“Whatever, Clarence,” Meg says as they glance at the huge TV, smiling at him before she saw the price tag and blinks.
“Is that...holy hell, no wonder Kali sent me here. I wouldn’t put it past Gabe to steal one of these so he could sell it.”
“HEY, I don’t have to take this,” Gabriel says, sounding indignant as Castiel moves forward, not wanting to do this but also feeling that he should at least do something, show them...something. Something, like last night, pulls him towards the tv and he listens as Gabriel tells Meg, “Besides, you shouldn’t be here, Masters, you chickened out. I bet you didn’t even watch it last night.”
She let an annoyed sound as Castiel approaches and reaches out his hand to the enormous screen. “You got to be...”
Castiel’s hand goes into the screen, everyone suddenly going quiet before Meg and Gabriel start to talk over each other. Neither sound particularly happy or calm, and Castiel isn’t surprised. He’s frozen by the fact that this wasn’t a dream, this really works, and what that means for everything else.
“H-holy-.”“Y-you’re...how the hell, Clarence?”“SHIT, CUSTOMERS!”
Before Castiel could pull his hand out, he felt someone, then another one, hit him and he stumbles, falling forward and in, hearing Gabriel and Meg let out angry and surprised yelps before they fall forward as well, all three going into the TV. The fall is scary, everyone tumbling down and twisting before Castiel hits something hard, but with enough give to allow him to tumble a bit before he heard two other bodies hit nearby. Castiel tries to look around and see them, but the fog that surrounds them is thick, almost a sickly yellow color, and he barely managed to even see the wood his hands are pushing down on. He doesn’t see the pattern either - the huge target of black and red, with multiple white outlines like the ones made by police around dead bodies - and instead groans before saying, “Is everyone ok?”
“Oh...I think my butts cracked...” Gabriel’s pained voice comes from his left side, and he barely sees the sitting figure in the fog.
“That’s nothing new,” Meg gripes from his right, close enough to actually see. She looks like she was trying to get her body to not hurt as much as it did. Castiel moves slowly to help Meg up as he sees the outline of Gabriel slowly rise to his left.
“Remind me to smack Kali for ‘suggesting’ I do something like this,” Meg mutters as she stands, the dark-haired teen giving him a brief smile for the help. Finally standing and looking around, everyone pauses to take in the strange thing they see through the thick, yellow fog.
“The hell are we, a movie studio?” Meg wonders, frowning at the bare outlines of metal scaffolding that the fog shrouds as easily as everything else, a few dimmed spotlight doing nothing to clear the fog.
“Well, we’re not in Biggersons, I doubt we’re anywhere that we can get back from, unless one of us brought wings, and I can’t see shit. I think we’re allowed one dumb question when it looks like a fog-shrouded movie studio!” Gabriel sounds less like himself and more like he’s barely able to keep it together, about to scream or go into hysterics at the drop of a pin.
“Chill,” Meg says coldly, though Castiel is close enough to see her shivering, “we’re not getting back if you start yelling at us when this was your idea.” Everyone quiets, Castiel having to admit the atmosphere and strange pushing sensation, the sense of wrongness, is probably making them irritable, not just their situation. Castiel takes in a breath and shakes his head, trying to clear it.
“I would think there’s a way out, instead of this being some sort of oubliette with one entrance.”
“What now?” Meg asks as Gabriel began muttering darkly to himself.
“It’s a place people throw things they don’t want,” Castiel says, “one entrance, no exit.”
“Um...I hate to break up our worse-case scenario party,” Gabriel interrupts, getting them all to look into the fog where he points, “but...what’s that?”
Something was walking towards them, eyes shining in the dense fog, what looked like triangular wolf or dog ears barely visible, and the sound of something like claws clicking on the ground near them. Even through the thick fog, they know it’s at least as tall as they are, and it sounds dangerous.
The trio turns and runs, no one really looking at where they were going as they followed the fastest one - in this case, Gabriel - up some walkways and out, going around until exhaustion makes them all stop, panting near a door with a black and red spiral doorway, only...
“This looks like my apartment building,” Meg mutters as she glances around, testing a door but frowning when it remains firmly shut, more like a part of a wall than a door. “But...what the hell is this place?”
“I’m more worried about whatever the hell was behind us,” Gabriel pants, “Please tell me it’s gone, or if it isn’t, that it’s not gonna eat us.”
Meg continues testing the doors instead of answering, Gabriel joining her as Castiel looks around. In the distance, the sky was different, almost the same dizzying, red-black swirl color, and if anything, the dark sense he’d gotten in the place they’d run from is even heavier here.
“Jackpot!” Gabriel says as he opens up the door with the swirl on it, the group quickly spilling in before everyone comes to a stuttering halt. The inside was not an exit, but looks more like a hotel room of some sort, Meg letting out a frustrated growl before they took in the rest of the room.
In the middle of the room, hanging from a low light, was what looked like a scarf, tied in a noose, with a knocked over chair under it. All around them were posters and photos, defaced and ruined, and more words scrawled over the walls, many of them the type of things you saw on shows where people read ‘mean tweets’ to female announcers. Gabriel winces as he sees some of the written bits, glancing back at Meg and Castiel.
“What the hell is this?” Meg asks, sounding far from her normal, cocky self and suddenly allowing her fear to take hold.
“Me and my big mouth,” Gabriel mutters, swallowing and frowning at one of the posters that was badly defaced. “I know that poster...damn, where did I see it?”
“We got a dead end,” Meg says, turning towards the only door in or out, “Let’s get the hell out of here and keep looking. I’m not staying here longer than I have to.”
“Agreed,” Castiel says, moving to lightly touch Gabriel’s shoulder, noticing how frightened he seems, “we need to leave, Gabriel. You didn’t know this was a dead end.”
Gabriel swallows and nods in agreement, the group starting to head out just as the air suddenly felt clogging, like smoke from a fire. Castiel blinks when he nearly runs into a thing near them, tail tucked between its legs and looking around as if afraid of something. It looked like a stuffed dog or wolf of some sort, colored a sort of light brown color with black stripe markings on it’s fur, wearing a pair of baggy pants, and with familiar green eyes that Castiel couldn’t place, the fearful thing blinking at them when he saw them as everyone froze.
Gabriel finally speaks up, asking, “What the hell are you?” in a tone that demanded answers.
The dog/wolf thing whimpers and glances back at them, as if seeing them for the first time before it suddenly got upset, fur standing up as it snarls, “You shouldn’t be asking me that question, you idiots! What are you doing outside of your den? Don’t you know the Shadows here are freakin’ out of their minds?”
“What are you talking about?” Meg asks, sounding frightened as the wolf-thing looks around frantically. It finally shoves something into Castiel’s hands - a pair of dark-rimmed glasses - before turning to run off.
“Put these on and get out of here! I don’t have time to answer dumbass questions!”
“Hey!” Meg starts as the thing ran, the sound of its claws clicking on the ground getting Gabriel to say, “Wait, then he was...”
Castiel looks at the glasses, opening them up and holding them to his face. He blinks in surprise as he realized the fog was gone, or at least lightened, as was the headache he’d had even before coming in here. It was like what he’d heard about from friends, about wearing the wrong prescription glasses even for a moment. Nearby, he saw something...emerging, a blob of black that slowly grew a face before it plopped onto the ground with a sudden, sickening ‘thunk’.
“What was that?” Gabriel asks as Castiel pushes the glasses onto his face, turning to the others.
“Follow me. We need to get out of here.”
They don’t argue, at least, and the group now follows after him, Meg close while Gabriel picks up the rear, apparently trusting where the others ran and jumped. Both stay close enough to see the person ahead of them, but far enough that they won’t slam into each other if one stopped suddenly. Castiel glances around quickly before choosing to head towards the open area and back the way they’d come, out through what started as a street and turned into a sort of scaffolding.
Apparently, the open area was the wrong way to go. Five of the dark blobs appeared all at once, splitting apart and twisting in the air, turning into strange, flying monsters that came after them with opened mouths, blunt teeth, and hanging, drooling tongues.
I am thou, thou art I
Meg was up against his back, Gabriel was attempting to throw a punch at one of the monsters as it swooped, falling over when it hit him instead, and Castiel felt...something was inside of him, demanding to be let out, pounding against his head.
I have to protect them. I will protect them. I have to get them out of here! For all that happened, they’re my friends and...
“I’ll return this when we meet again.” A warm smile that lit up the green eyes, even in the dampness and cold fog. “Deal.”
DEAN...I want to protect Dean too. Everyone. I can protect everyone.
“Per...so...na!”
Something pushes from his hand - a card with something familiar on it, and from it came a sudden, blue light that surrounds him. He lets out a yell - of triumph, of sudden anger, he’s not sure - and above him, something new appeared, dark with glowing, blue eyes, armed with a long pole arm with a crow’s beak edge on the tip. The being is clad in silver armor, with keys appearing around his belt, white and black wings sprouting from its back and head, the face hidden the ones on the side that would be it’s ears. Some part of Castiel only knew this was his, his Persona, his other self, and it was made manifest by his desire to protect his new friends and others around them. It was his, because he was ready to stop hiding who he really was.
The monsters, Shadows, attack the new being, and the Persona swung its polearm as Castiel breathed hard, feeling more and more like himself. Why had he been hiding his true self all this time? Why had he thought he should be less of himself?
We weren’t in a situation like this before. Now...now I can protect them, like I always protect people. I can be myself, I can show the reason I will protect people no matter what.
Something hit his Persona, causing Castiel to gasp before he glares at the offending Shadow. He growls out the name of the massive being that had appeared over him, solidifying their bond and feeling something like electricity was rising around him.
“Quirinus!”
The weapon came down in a turning arc, taking out two more of the monsters, the other thrown into one that was going after Meg as Castiel held out a hand, feeling the gathering static start to solidify, working to throw off the oppressive atmosphere or be directed at an attacker. Quirinus swung the polearm again, this time the build up went out as lightning, hitting the remaining two and leaving the area clear as everyone looked at him as he drew in, then let out, a long breath. He smiles when he sees them, his eyesight clear and the atmosphere having seemed to lighten with the dispersing of the Shadows.
They were ok. They were safe, and that was all he needed.
Quirinus settles behind him, wrapping its wings around the group once before it disappears, a small, turning card appearing in front of Castiel as he reached out to take it. On it was a man walking forward, a sack over his back, and a number “0” on the bottom. The card is blue and black, with white outlines, and it reminds Castiel of something he can’t quite place.


“What the hell was that!?” Gabriel’s yell brings Castiel back as the card disappeared, sending a glow into his hand and then through him. “I mean...I...you just....WHAT THE HELL, MAN?!?”
Meg lets out a sigh, obviously not about to listen to explanations that Castiel didn’t have at the moment.
“We’ll talk about it after we get away from here. It’s great he can freakin’ summon something to kick all of the ass, but I don’t want to see what happens if we have more of them after us.”
Castiel could already see more of the dark spots forming, and he nods. He feels fine now, but there’s no telling how much abuse he can actually take, especially if the pain transfers from his Persona to him during battles. “Let’s go. We’ll talk later.” Even if most of those questions would be met with an ‘I have no idea’.
-They reach the main area and find the dog-thing, who blinks at their appearance and seems very confused. “You’re ok. How the-.”
“Do you know how to get us out of here?” Castiel interrupts, asking as gently as he could. He knows, or at least can guess, that the others were probably feeling as achy as he did in the heavy atmosphere. Leaving was the priority right now - everything else could wait. “Our...den...is not here.”
“No shit,” the dog-thing growls out, letting out a breath before tapping its paw on the floor. Behind Castiel, three stacked TVs, looking like the old analog ones, pop into sudden existence. They were taller than any of them, and not quite in a straight line.
Gabriel frowns, the group crowding to look at them. “Wait, how are we going to get out of here with just...hey, what are you doing you...wait,...OW, quit it you-.”
With a sudden squeeze, and a feeling of vertigo and like they were being tossed upward instead of falling down, the group suddenly finds themselves sprawled on the floor of Junes. Luckily, no one has seen them land in the undignified heap.
They all slowly get untangled and stand, Castiel removing the glasses and rubbing his temple. They all are up and somewhat stable when Gabriel points, nearly bowling Castiel over as he shouts. “THERE!”
“What?” Meg asks, obviously spooked as Gabriel motions again, directing them to where he was pointing.
“I was right! I’d seen that poster before. There...the campaign poster.”
The group look at the poster, all feeling the same shiver run up their spines at the sight of it. Instead of defaced, they could now see the campaign poster for Christian Campbell, proudly proclaiming he would keep family values in Lawrence. His arm was around his wife’s waist as they looked off into some unknown but apparently wholesome future.
Castiel recalls that both faces has been destroyed, but Christian Campbell’s had been so badly defaced that it was torn and almost too hard to actually pinpoint until they saw the poster here, so soon after their trip into the weird world inside of the tv.
“But...wait, he was under investigation for that scandal, right?” Meg asks, confused.
“Yeah, but-.” Gabriel stops, turning pale. “The lady died...and they didn’t know why...do you all think...that room and place...?”
Silence fell between the trio before Gabriel let out a breath, shaking his head. “We can’t know, and I’m not about to think about it. It was stupid to have tried that whole thing. I’m going home, and I’m going to put the past few hours out of my mind. This is too damned crazy.”
Meg lets out her own sigh, shaking her head at him before saying, “As much as I hate to say it, I agree. What are we gonna say about this?”
“I’d rather we figure this out on our own...but I also just want to rest.” Castiel felt tired, in a way that wasn’t just sleepy, but just drained. “It can’t be connected to the murders, could it?”
-There was a body hanging from the telephone pole as the fog started to clear. Gabriel stops the moment he sees it, his eyes disbelieving as he remembers what he’d seen that night. He couldn’t stop his mind from going straight to the room, the noose, and the monsters that had come after them, or the feel of the tongue that had touched his arm right before that thing Castiel summoned had skewered it.
The body of Jessica Moore is hanging upside down, her legs caught in the rungs and mess of electrical wires on the top of the telephone pole. However, unlike on the tv, there was no sign of the pain or suffering she’d gone through before appearing here. He glances around, hoping for a glimpse or sign of something, anything, to tell him who the killer was, but all he heard were sirens from the police that he’d called the moment he’d caught a glimpse of it. Now, he wished he hadn’t run out the moment the channel went dark, the moment he’d seen her screaming as the Shadows ripped into her back...
He doesn’t see the other teen in the fog, or the shadow of a man who put a hand on his shoulder and pulled him further into the pre-dawn darkness. He certainly doesn’t see the red light of a camera go dead as the fog begins to lift.