Dean/Cas Big Bang 2016: Sky's the Limit Part 6
Dean knows that staying in the hospital isn’t gonna keep him safe, not as the weather reports shows the front moving in and the unnatural weather hinting at days and nights of rain. Dean hates the rain, hates it enough that if he can find a way to get out of the hospital before the first rainy night starts, he’ll be happy. With Dad still at large, the rain only makes things more dangerous for Dean to stay in one place.
Sam hasn’t come by to visit after the first day, but Cas had, at Dean’s shaky nod and long thought, had brought in Meg. The two had had a long talk, one that left Dean feeling emotionally wrecked, but at the end, they were better. Not friends again, but Meg and he were at least on speaking terms. It makes Dean wish he could speak to Sam, explain things, see what he needed to make things right between them…
Except that last time Dean had tried that, Sam had told him to stop being friends with Meg. Dad had made him go to work more than he’d been able to go to school. He’d basically had to do all the chores that week, and work, and just remain with Sam until Sam had been convinced that Dean cared only for him. If he does that now, if he allows Sam to demand whatever he wanted so Dean can have him back again,that might mean he loses Meg again, and he’ll have to give up Cas…it could mean that Dad’ll come back, and he’ll forget again during rainy nights.
He can’t do that, though. He can’t give up that freedom again, not when Cas is…not when…
“Dean,” Cas’ voice brings in back to the present, getting Dean to look up at him as the other teen arrives. He looks worried about Dean, but gives him a smile as he arrives in. Dean swallows when he sees the umbrella, getting him to look outside.
“It should clear up by later tonight,” Cas said, “but I also had to take the bus here. Uncle Michael and the others are busy.”
Busy looking for Dad. Busy getting the case together, without Dean, because all Dad has to do is say it, and touch him, and Dean will…he’ll…
“Dean?”
“Sorry,” Dean mutters, “Just…worried…everything that’s going on…”
Cas’ hand moves to Dean, the two linking fingers as Dean swallowed. He can’t tell anyone, and he has to hope that the rain and Dad stays away. It’s hard at times to focus, and other times, he wonders if them finding out, if all that’s going on, will simply end everything.
Cas keeps him here, keeps him present, even in the rain, and Dean leans towards him. Cas allows Dean to lean against him and be propped up, but beyond that they haven’t done much. Dean wants to do more, and Cas said he likes Dean, so Dean hopes that if he does try to kiss him, he won’t be pushed away. Dean’s not sure he can take it, with everything else that’s going on.
It’s selfish for him to think that Cas wants him, but Dean feels like he should be selfish at this point. That doing what his father and brother had claimed was selfish of him is fine, because who’s around to care? Sam wouldn’t care about this, and even if he did, Sam was smart. He’d get it after a bit, and when he did, hopefully Cas would welcome him in.
“Dean?” Cas asks softly, getting Dean to slowly move away, looking over at Cas, a warm feeling spreading through him as Cas looked at him, blue eyes bright and full of emotion, of care for Dean alone, that he’s not surprised when Cas closes the distance, slowly, giving Dean enough time to move away or protest if he wants as well. Dean sees no reason to protest, though. He can’t. He wants this, like he hasn’t wanted anything for years.
Cas’ lips are chapped, but it’s so nice against Dean’s own lips, and he shifts to deepen it the moment he can. The solid feel of Cas’ hand in his, of the chapped lips against Dean’s, is enough to make Dean forget how selfish he is being, about his uncertain future, and about the rain outside.
-“This makes no sense,” Meg mutters, “I mean, Adler was a damned asshole, but he never appeared on the Midnight Channel.”
“It’s likely a copycat killer,” Gabriel says, agreeing with Meg, as the group meets at the back room. Castiel was focused on Dean, and with the new death, it put the group on edge. Enough that Cassie wanted to make sure everyone he’d gotten to know was safe. “I don’t understand the reason for it, though.”
Hannah comes up, looking at them as she shows the website open on her laptop. “I think we found something.”
“Queen of the Moons?” Meg asks, looking at Hannah curiously before glancing at Gabriel, then back to Hannah, “Wait, isn’t that the anonymous-style lady who did the dump on the tv station?” That had been the talk for the last few days, not just among the police who had obtained the original files, but among everyone else who now viewed were starting to get angry at Walker’s actions. “How would that help us? I mean, yeah, they have access to videos and things that from the first two murders, but would that help us with finding the killer?”
“She might not, but she did leave something here for us,” Hannah points out, getting both of the others to look over at her as she points to another part of the article, “There was a string of murders that happened fourteen years ago, but I never found a lot of information on them. Wasn’t really my thing until…” she motioned to the group. “When I looked it up again, got the name of the woman who works at the Roadhouse.” That got Meg to wrinkle her nose - the place was a well-known dive bar nearing the outskirts of town, and not known for keeping the best people. It had gotten more popular since the convention center was built, mostly as a bar nearest to that and one that was fine with ‘silly’ people going in, but it was also one place that had a reputation for not checking IDs, as well as having the actual muscle of the place being the daughter and mother duo who could and would shoot you if you didn’t leave when told to. Unless it was the daughter - Jo Harville was also known as the ‘weird girl with the knives’ at the public school.
Gabriel looks curious before he asks, “Do you think we should go and check with them?”
“It’s worth a shot,” Hannah points out, “and if anything, maybe we can get a better idea of what’s going on.”
-Castiel frowned as he looked at the tv, hearing the rain outside and seeing the static, thicker now than before. He sees one person on the screen, short enough to be a bit younger than Castiel and the others, and a flickering image that reminds him Tramp, or another, familiar outline of Dean interlaced with the smaller outline, and something else in the background. It confuses him to no end, and he watches as the static ends before shaking his head, feeling odd, like something was starting to pound inside of it again, as it had before their first time he’d seen the Midnight Channel. He lets out a quiet moan as he tries to focus, hearing something downstairs as he tries to stay up. He finds himself shaking as he tries to stays upright, his vision blurring as he starts to stand, hearing his phone ringing which only doubles his migraine. He can’t even manage to get to the phone, instead falling back on the couch as the static suddenly blares to life again, and he has to bite back a scream at the redoubling of his headache.
On the screen is a dark figure, with a high collar like those old Dracula and vampire horror films, with red blood dripping down from the mouth. It speaks softly, but it’s enough for Castiel to start panting and gasping as it does.
“found you…”
A sudden, deep fear surfaces in Castiel, overriding the headache, and he manages to grab something and throw it at the TV. The folded blanket flies and hits it, obscuring the television screen, as the static disappears, but his headache does not. Another round of ringing from his phone does little to lighten his mood as he finally answers it.
“What happened, Cassie?” Gabriel asks the moment he answers, “You sound horrible. Did you see-“
“I saw the Channel…I saw something else as well. I don’t know what.” Castiel does his best to not groan as he rubs his head, trying to clear it. He’s worried about what that…thing…was on the channel, and his fear of what it ‘finding’ him meant. “I think that Sam is being targeted, but the other one....”
“Other one? I only saw one thing, but it was…weird.” Gabriel let out a huff of frustration. “Do you think this one time--?”
“We are not letting someone get kidnapped just because you think they need an attitude check, Gabriel.”
“It did wonders for me…”
“We’re still not letting someone get kidnapped for that reason.”
“Well, we could--.”
“They’d end up helping us and having their own Persona, Gabriel. Meaning they’d be part of the team.”
Silence on the other line before there was a harsh curse. “Ok, so keep Sam Winchester safe, because I’m not working with him.” There was a bit of silence before Gabriel asks, sounding worried and serious, “What happened really, Cas?”
Castiel started to say, but something held his tongue, making his headache even worse, the ringing in his ears getting to where he could hardly hear Gabriel’s concerned voice calling his name over the line.
“Nevermind,” Castiel finally said, “we’ll talk later.”
He hung up before Gabriel could argue, managing to stagger over to his bed and fall down, face-first, into the mattress. He could barely move to go and get medicine for a headache, and some part of him hated the way it was going, like something was trying to pull him to it-
If I get hurt, who will help keep the pack together for Tramp? Who will help Dean? I won’t. I won’t go! You can’t make me!
He feels a sudden, odd surge, like the time his Persona came forward, and barely manages to scream into his pillow before darkness overtakes him.
-“damn,” the voice mutters in the darkness, clenching its fist in anger, “he will need to get them here, then. Only then can we finally have power over that one. But that will be fine. Two powerful ones, and the world will be ours.”
-The only news the town was talking about was the disappearance of Gordon Walker from a locked room at the police station. It had freaked everyone out, and more news about Walker - the mysterious circumstances of his sister’s death, his help from the Campbells - only served to make Gabriel all the more antsy about what was going on. Not to mention that Castiel was now looking like death warmed over, and Dean wasn’t too far behind. The two had apparently come down with some sort of summer cold, and it had been enough to get Alex and her two friends, Claire and Krissy, to put off dealing with the elders and stay in and watch over them. Gabriel had to admit, attempting to get past those three would require stronger people than him.
He left that to Meg.
Who am I kidding, they’ll form an evil pack of evilness and teenage female hormones. That was probably the worse idea I’ve had, and I was an online sexist asshole bully.
Hannah had that same look after he was done talking to Meg. “You really want her to watch over them?”
“I could’ve called Kali.”
Hannah gave him a look that said that would, in no way, make this worse, but Gabriel let out a sigh as he knocked on the door to the Roadhouse. “Look, we find out what we need to find out, get out, and hope that whatever the hell is going on, it doesn’t explode in our faces.”
Before Hannah could complain, the door opened to reveal an older woman with light blond hair and a harried look on her face, glaring at them both. Her eyes had dark circles under them, and despite the glare, she seemed to soften after a moment.
“What can I do for you two?”
Hannah shifted as Gabriel looked at her, curious, before finally saying, “We wanted to talk to you about something that happened years ago. We think it might have to do with the murders.”
She looked at him for a long time before nodding, letting them in as she says, “I know about it, but I wasn’t part of the thing. I can’t tell ya much.”
Gabriel and Hannah exchanged looks before Hannah looks back and gives out her best smile, saying, “Whatever you can tell us will help out.”
The woman nodded as they walked over to the bar and she poured them a tall glass of water each. “You two must’ve seen it. The Midnight Channel started up a few weeks ago…” she glances at Gabriel before saying, “I saw you on it.”
Gabriel went pale as Hannah asked, “What is it?”
Ellen Harvelle-Singer let out a sigh, pouring herself a stiff whiskey before downing it in one go, finally saying, “It’s a warning of sorts, and a way to kill people. One family used it until the person who got their enemies in there died herself.”
Hannah swallows at that, her throat dry, as Gabriel looked between them. “Wait, what do you mean?”
Ellen glances at him before saying, “Fourteen years ago, Mary Winchester was the last person to die on the Midnight Channel, and it didn’t appear again until that reporter, Frank, disappeared and died.” She lets out a sigh before pouring herself another drink. “But this new thing is bad.”
“What do you mean?” Hannah asks, afraid for what she might say.
“Mary Winchester died the night after there were two people who were on the Midnight Channel. We never knew what happened to them, only that she disappeared and was presumed dead due to a house fire. The Campbells tried to hide things, but after that…” she shakes her head, “it’s falling apart now. If its showing Sam and Dean and another, it’s gonna all get out soon.”
Hannah and Gabriel shared a look, both remembering their Shadows, the oppressive atmosphere, and both realizing what she might be talking about.
“It...can’t come into our world...can it?”
Ellen looked at Gabriel, who’d whispered his question, before she says, “More people are watchin’ the Midnight Channel. More people are hiding themselves to try and protect themselves. Don’t matter if you make them face their fears, there’s still a Shadow from someone, and whoever is behind things now, they want them to expand out.”
-Sam looks over the text on his phone, wondering what he should do. Last night was the first time he’d watched the Midnight Channel, and he was almost glad he had. If that was what they were doing, if that was what Dad had texted about...then he had to act. He had to say something.
His mind whirled as he thought on what he knew, on what Dad had told him, on what he’d seen on Charlie’s computer by accident, and what he’d overheard from Hannah. Dad was doing his best to try to keep people safe, and somehow, Hannah and the others were doing something to hurt them. If the Midnight Channel was showing their ransom, then that meant that all they had to do was keep the person safe.
Safe meant something weird, something that Dad hadn’t fully explained, except to say that DEAN and Mom were the only two who could do it. The main point was that they’d save people. They’d save Charlie from whatever Hannah and the others were planning, from being hurt like Jess had been hurt and...and…
Sam swallows as he looks back down at the unsent text. It was a time and place, the one that he was ready to set up with Dean so they could talk. If he did this, then they could get Charlie and she’d be safe. If he did this, she wouldn’t be hurt. Dad had pointed out the obvious - all the bad things had happened when that Castiel guy had come in. He was setting this up, playing everyone, because that way, he could ‘pretend’ to be the hero.
Dad hadn’t seen the pattern until Gabriel, but Castiel had managed to get to him first, make him silent over it all. Some part of Sam wanted to say ‘good’, to have hoped that Gabriel had stayed stuck in whatever hellscape he’d been thrown into, the one that had killed Jess…
No. Castiel had done that. He’d somehow thrown her into wherever she’d been, and then he’d silenced Gabriel, or tried to. When that hadn’t worked, he’d somehow gotten him to be quiet here now. Sam wondered if he’d also set up so that Dean had been hurt too. Dean had managed to keep this place safe for years, since the last asshole had killed Mom, but now Castiel was leading him on, doing something to make it so Dean couldn’t realize what was happening.
The whole thing was what got Sam to pause, because he’d read the book Charlie had given him about abuse. He remembered how afraid Dean had been of Dad, started to remember all the different ways that Dean had shrunk away or tried other things. He remembered that Dean had stopped going to school because Dad made him, because Dad had ordered it. If Sam hadn’t...hadn’t ordered him...to stop seeing Meg, maybe she’d be helping them out, instead of being on the wrong side.
But is Dad telling the truth? He said nothing about what happened with Dean, nothing about what happened with his partner or even with Walker. I know that Chief Aquinas is related to Castiel, but they don’t even live in the same part of town, and the Chief was nice.
He hadn’t yelled at Sam, or demanded answers, or done anything beyond speak to him, explain what was going on, and when Sam showed he was ready, he’d even shown him what happened at the shop. Dad had walked away while Dean bled. Dad hadn’t talked to Sam about that, hadn’t justified his actions. He’d just told Sam that he needed him.
Sam was shaking, torn and confused as he looked at the information, at the text. If Dad was wrong about this, was he wrong about everything else?
“Sam,” Dad had said, “that boy, the one who took Dean, he’s the one who killed Jess. It’s because of him that Jess is dead.”
Dean was happy with Castiel. Dean was doing things that were good...wasn’t he?
Sam wonders about that. If Castiel had everyone else fooled, then he might have Dean fooled as well. And...and Sam wouldn’t get the information unless his family was together again. He wouldn’t know that everyone was safe and sound until then. Dean being away from him, not talking to him, not even trying to apologize for scaring him, for all that he’s done?
That’s not his Dean. That’s the Dean that Castiel was creating for his own needs.
I want my brother back, is what Sam thinks as he hits ‘Send’.
-They only go into the TV World after Castiel has recovered, the fear and headache building enough that he suggests a trip to check on Tramp, though part of it was also to see if what he’d seen the last few nights on the Midnight Channel had any merit. The moment they get in, Tramp runs up to hug Castiel, his tail between his legs and his whole body vibrating with fear as the group look at the dog-thing, then back out into the darkened area around Tramp’s ‘den’.
“SHIT,” Gabriel said, “Why didn’t we see it?”
“We all saw something different, but we thought that the thing was changing, after what Ellen said,” Hannah pointed out as Meg let out an annoyed huff.
“Does it matter? We’re here to make sure it doesn’t keep up, whatever it is.” Castiel has a sneaking suspicion that she’s here because whatever it was had resulted in Castiel getting sick, not to mention the return of his headaches. It makes him worried over what is beyond there, and he slowly pets Tramp as the dog-tiger hybrid lets go and, after looking at the group, says weakly, “I can take you there, but it’s getting scary here. I’d rather be out with you all then in here.”
Gabriel came up and gave Tramp’s ear a soft tweak. “Trust me, it’s getting scary out there too. The two worlds are getting too caught up with each other. We gotta break that.”
The group nodded as one, Tramp’s tail coming out a bit but still low, afraid. “Please. I just want things to go back to normal and safe.” He let out a whimper as they started forward, but their presence seemed to calm him enough that he let out a nod and directed them to the area with the new Shadow.
It was dark, the fog thicker and clogging, weighing down as they walked. He can hear the others worried as they walk forward, Castiel feeling the return of the migraine as he follows Tramp deeper into the place.
It’s not far in, oddly enough, and when they get there, the only sign of the person who created the Shadow is a prone, silent figure on the floor. When the Shadow turns, everyone takes a step back, Castiel swallowing as he sees it. The eyes aren’t black like before, but rimmed red, with the same red blood pouring down his mouth as before. The Shadow, more like a vampire of some sort than a Shadow, grins widely when he sees the group, its eyes focused squarely on Castiel as the darkness began to flow around it.
“Found you again. Perfect.” Castiel barely hears the other let out yells for him as the monster starts to fly over, Tramp growling menacingly before there’s a sudden, horrible whimper as he’s hit.
I will protect everyone…
Quirinus’ blade hits the Shadow hard, nearly slicing it in half as it’s sent away, Castiel’s hand clenched into a fist as he glares down the still-standing Shadow. He can still hear the others, now calling on their own Personas to fight, can see that Tramp is up and not as badly hurt as the whine had suggested, but that doesn’t stop the burning anger in his mind, doesn’t stop the same anger he always feels.
These are his friends. Tramp is possibly linked to Dean, to someone he cares deeply for, possibly loves in a way that he hasn’t before, and this monster attacked them, scared them, and he would not allow it to touch them again.
He can hear the others yelling at him about something, and he doesn’t realizing how narrow his field of vision is, how angry he’s gotten, until he’s being held up by the throat, looking down at the growling, dark-eyed Gordon Walker. The reporter looks murderous as he holds Castiel up, the Shadow laughing as it begins to attack the others, managing to get in hard, deep hits as Gordon holds Castiel still, his Persona attempting to attack the Shadow but failing as Castiel kicked and clawed at the man holding him.
“Gotcha. I got one of ya, and all we need is the other, and we’re good,” Walker drawled, his eyes blank and his voice nearly devoid of emotion, “We get that, and we’ll finally get what we want. Best story for the news - the death of three stupid kids, and me with their murderer.”
Castiel let out a growl, still fighting as the hand tightened more, Gordon’s blank eyes seeming to spark with something else - something dangerous. He can hear the others rallying, hear them trying to beat back the Shadow, defeat it, and he barely manages a weakened kick at Gordon, who seems as deranged and dangerous as his Shadow, before Tramp suddenly tackles them both, knocking Gordon to the ground.
There’s a female wail, a scream as terrifying as a banshee’s, before the Shadow lets out its own wail right as Meg shouts out for her Persona. Castiel can see Gabriel and Hannah with their Personas, struggling to stand and looking around, as his own throws two keys to them. Between where it and the other two are, a sudden triangle forms, creating a barrier of light and trapping in the screaming Shadow as it tries to escape, and showing off something else. It wasn’t all shadow - there was something on it, a mark of some sort, and Castiel moved enough to look at the pinned Gordon before he found the answering mark on him.
The light began to grow brighter and brighter, the Shadow letting out more and more of a scream that felt like the migraine when he’d first heard Quirinus, when he’d seen Jessica Moore on the TV but was unable to save her, and Castiel turns, holding out his hand as Gordon struggles, demanding he stop and think, don’t you realize what this’ll do for you, the fame and-
“Janus Quirinus!” Castiel calls out instead as his Persona once more changed, spreading it’s wings wide as the glaive became more like a spear, Hannah’s and Gabriel’s Persona locking arms as what appeared to be a doorway opened. Out of it rushed Meg’s Persona, gripping onto the arm with the symbol and pulling at it. The Shadow screamed out as Gordon kept speaking, something popping out of the Shadow as Meg’s Persona threw it through the doorway. The light disappeared just before all of them hit it, the odd, round, blood-red item shattering under their attack.
Near them, the Shadow changed from being the dark, vampiric form to the same size and image as Gordon, looking at him as he continued to demand more from Castiel, Gordon’s lack of acknowledgement of it having the thing disappear as the group slowly moved, trying to figure out what to do about the babbling man.
“If we take him back our way, Dad’s gonna have a fit,” Gabriel muttered as they looked at him. Castiel doubts that anything Gordon sees at this moment will really be related to the others, and instead he rubs at his throat before saying, “I think we’ll be fine.”
Gabriel lets out a sigh as he glances over at Tramp, who looks a bit worse for wear, and who seems to see the downed Gordon as less of a threat. Considering he hadn’t even focused on the group, it was highly likely that ignoring your Shadow or whatever else happened to him was basically a ‘bad’ side effect. “Yeah, I’m not taxing our mascot.”
“He’s not our mascot!” Hannah said, slapping Gabriel upside the head, “he’s our teammate!”
“That’s what a mascot is! A teammate! Geez.”
Tramp’s tail lazily moves, content like a cat over the constant swish it normally was, and the group manages to get Gordon towards the main ‘den’ as Castiel hangs back, looking over Tramp to ensure the dog-tiger is alright, noting how its eyes were the same beautiful green that Dean’s were, but it was…different. Almost child-like, and its own shade, rather than the same, which only made Castiel wonder how they were connected. Was Tramp Dean’s Shadow, awakened and wanting to protect people in a way that he couldn’t?
“Are you ok?” Tramp asks, looking at Castiel worriedly as they approached the area, seeing that Hannah had gone out first to check and now they were pushing Gordon through, Meg and Gabriel following as Castiel says, “I’m sorry.”
“Why?”
“I become protective of many things, very quickly. I tend to get upset if they are hurt, and…I shouldn’t have lost it.”
Tramp looks over at him, worried, before saying, “That was whatever that thing was omitting, Cas. It’s not your--.” He pauses, his eyes wide suddenly as Castiel looks at him, confused and suddenly afraid as everything around them begins to shake, as if there was an approaching earthquake. Tramp looked over at Castiel as he reached to grab the dog-tiger, pulling him along and towards the exit he’d given them and left up for as long as they needed it. The whole of their staging base shook, but the moment they got there, the area stabilized. He could hear the others yelling for them as Tramp panted, looking like he was about to fall over, before glancing up at Castiel, the fear still evident in his eyes.
“Run…hurry.”
“But--.”
Tramp shoved, and hard, and Castiel tumbled out and into Biggersons as he saw a part of the screen crack before the migraine suddenly returned with a vengeance, getting Castiel to let out a cry of pain as his friends moved to try to help him, Gordon forgotten as pain shot through his head and body, though it didn’t overcome the sense of failure at having failed to get Tramp out, as well as the fear for what was happening on the other side.