Dean/Cas Big Bang 2016: Sky's the Limit Part 8 (Finale)
The further they get into the thick fog that Castiel can guess is where John really is, the more it feels truly like the fog that they’d first encountered. Dean seems fine after a bit, not leaning as much on Castiel as they got further in.
“Dean,” Castiel speaks up as they walk further in, “are you doing alright?”
“Don’t really got a lot to do but focus,” Dean says, “I’m used to working through exhaustion, through all the bad stuff. I know Dad didn’t mean for me to fight him like this, I know it. But this is…things just worked against him.” He let out a sigh. “Dad was a bastard about it. He threw all of that on me, and just acted like I had to take on his stuff instead. I get Sam being pulled into it - he saw me as just his big brother, as just someone to take care of after a bit. But that doesn’t mean I’m not gonna take what Dad taught me and use it against him.”
Dean looks only a bit tired, and Castiel is quiet before saying, “You don’t have to do that…to take this all in. You needn’t take all of that onto you. You can lean on others.”
Dean chuckles a bit, looking over at Cas as the Shadow who’d once been Tramp looks back at them before going back to continue the hunt. Dean leans a bit more on Cas as they go. “Ok. It might take me a while to figure this out, you know.”
“Considering I get very protective of others, I’m sure we’ll figure this out.”
Dean let out a low laugh as they continue forward, stopping as they hear John Winchester’s voice once more speak up, sounding off around them, closer than even before. “You’re being a bad boy, Dean. You’re supposed to act on what’s most important. Do it. Stay, and remember what is important.”
Dean looks like he’s almost stopped by what was said, shuddering as Castiel keeps a hold on him, holding him up as Dean’s Persona lets out another, deep growl. At that, Dean manages to weakly mutter, “Fuck you, old man. You threw away what was important, and demand I keep that while you can ignore it? Not happening. I’m acting on what’s important, on family, family that doesn’t go back on their word.”
Castiel can feel the atmosphere pressing down on them more and more, his Persona shaking it’s feathers and spreading the wings before encompassing them both around some of the lower ones, taking away some of the pressure. Dean swallows, looking at Castiel, before nodding as the two continued forward.
-“What are you thinking you’re doing? Do you believe you can outrun me, like you tried to outrun your past, your reputation? I’m guessing that you think being friends with that kid just erases your past.”
“It doesn’t,” Meg says as she pauses, looking before spotting the man, or his Shadow. Unlike the others, its eyes are lamplight yellow, glowing in the dark, and she draws in a final breath before saying, “Nothing erases the past. It’s how you deal with it, how you learn from it. Not like you,” her Persona came down on the yellow-eyed Shadow, the Shadow barely jumping back as Meg continues, “What did you learn?”
“All I have to do is kill someone, and there’s news. News means power, means more information that can be changed. All it takes is one missing, lying bitch, and threats are taken seriously while you show what people want to see - the whores that cry out whenever their tries at getting attention fail.”
Her Persona, Atalanta, managed a hit as Meg rushed in, grabbing a pipe from nearby and swinging it hard at the Shadow. “No offense, bastard, but how your sons turned out half as good as they did, I’ll never fuckin’ know.”
-“So the trickster who can’t take on any responsibility thinks he can protect something?” the voice from the tvs scoffed as Gabriel ripped off a piece of taffy and chewed, looking at them all slowly as they continued, “You could barely control your staff, let alone anything else. And the moment you got any sort of authority, you ran.”
“Well, when I ran, I gave it to someone who could manage,” Gabriel said with a smile as roots began to grow around one of the other, large tvs in the area, “and she did a great job. I know I ran, and I acknowledge I did some stupid shit. But at least after that, I made sure that whoever got put in charge was better than me. And she is…so, Mr. Running from His Problems, what’s your excuse?”
The Shadow had to jump out as his Persona, Puck, used its horns to throw the Shadow as Gabriel tossed in the rest of the taffy and smirked. “You didn’t even do that for your own kids, let alone your job. How about you stop throwing stones in your glass house there, Johnny boy?”
-“Little girl who thinks she can protect everyone,” the voice says around them as Hannah and Sam keep moving forward, her Persona’s smoke taking over more and more of the fog and starting to make things clear up as Sam looked over and around, as if attempting to find the location of the voice that echoed all around them. “Little boy who thinks he knows everything. I did everything I could for you, and this is how you repay my care? I made sure you were safe!”
“No, you didn’t,” Sam ground out as his Persona paused, head turning quickly and pointing as Hannah’s Persona, Mary Magdalene, threw the censor and clapping her hands, as if in prayer. The moment it clapped, the smoke that had been building up ignited, burning through the area as Sam’s own Persona had what looked like the snakes on its caduceus leapt forward, hissing as they managed to grab hold of the yellow-eyed version of his father. “Dean kept me safe. You didn’t do anything.”
“And I think I can protect who I can,” Hannah yelled out as the fire caught, managing to not burn the other Persona as the bowl reappeared in her hand, the water being thrown to create burning steam as well. “I’ll do all I can to protect those I love, including asking for help when I need it!”
-The Shadow above John Winchester was similar to the one that had been in front of Dean - an antithesis of Castiel’s own, horns sprouting out and circling around its head and face, torn bird and bat wings straining to open up against chains as bloodied, skinny hands curled around a short sword that glistened like false, tarnished silver. John looked at Dean with a look of deep disappointment as they approached, Dean’s own Persona letting out the same deep growl that it had before when he’d been speaking.
“Now what the hell are you doing here with him, Dean? What the hell is your idea of family, of keeping everyone safe? You think that just because some stupid kid tells you it’s alright, you can go behind your family? Is that what you wanted all this time?”
“Yes,” Dean says as Castiel’s Persona goes after the demonic Shadow that his father commanded, getting his father to look at him in surprise and anger. “You’re not ideal family. You only ever treated me like a blunt instrument after mom died. You didn’t care about the pain you caused. You…” Dean’s Persona growled as it went to go and help Castiel in fighting the monster as Dean yells at his father, “You were an obsessed bastard who dumped your own crap on me! You couldn’t protect us, you couldn’t look after Sammy, you’re the one who couldn’t save Mom!” Dean rushed forward, under the fighting Personas before he manages to slug his father. “I didn’t deserve to be used like you used me! I didn’t deserve any of the shit you and Sam put on me, and I don’t deserve you as a father!”
Castiel found himself falling back as the fight with the Personas became more and more divided from Dean, his worry getting him to call out, “Dean!” as he watched the two Winchesters fight, Dean’s anger over what had happened to him and the others. He can almost hear the others calling out from wherever they are, can hear his friends and others as the Shadows try to assert themselves. It’s odd, because he can feel them, like threads creating a huge tapestry behind him. It feels odd, to be so aware of all of them, of how he’s helped, of all he’s done, and seeing how John Winchester’s belief. It’s so odd, to realize they have to break this down, but at the same time, he can see why he has to.
He can feel the keys, all of them, now heat up as he looks at the fight, feeling the push-back, and at Dean, fighting with his father. Castiel can feel his family and friends, all those who helped him, and all he can think is the same thing he’d thought when he’d gotten the Persona. He sees the twisted Persona that John commands start to prepare for an attack, attempting to reach out and grab Dean’s Persona, attempting to once more put a leash on it.
Dean’s Persona changed as John decked Dean, sending him back as he looks down and lets out a sigh, glaring back at his father as John shouts, “You ungrateful bastard. You dare attack your family?!”
“Sam’s my family,” Dean says as the Persona grows, turning into a hairy man who grabs his father’s Persona in what looks like a wrestling move, holding it still, “Cas and the others, they’re my family. Family doesn’t end in blood, and it doesn’t start there either. Family cares about you, not what you can do for them!” Castiel’s own Persona began to glow, a blinding white and blue light that seemed to catch the fog in all the ways that you didn’t want it, jumping so many times that it seemed to create the threads that Castiel felt, the ones that now were wrapping around him and Dean, “Family has your back, and are there for you through the good and bad. You were never there. You were nowhere for us, and you just used me to try to get your own stuff. You’re a selfish bastard, and you’re not family!”
I want to protect them all. Everyone, but most especially Dean, and I am not afraid to admit that. I want them all safe, and I want him sane, and that means…
His Persona changes as well, the wings spread wide and glowing brightly, as the sound of wind and thunder echoes throughout the area, a long sword sparking with electricity now in its hand as Castiel calls out the new name that flows through him, hearing the others calling out their new Personas as well. Dean lands a final punch on his father as he calls out, “Enkidu!” and the hairy, wrestling beast-like Persona lets out a cry and throwing the demonic Persona like a wrestler throwing the opponent at the ropes. Castiel calls out his own Persona, watching as the lightning-wrapped sword plunges into it. “Qaphsiel!”
A bolt falls down, striking it as John Winchester lets out a yell, and then, the oppressive atmosphere starting to lift as Castiel and Dean let out panting breaths, Dean looking at his unconscious father and then back to Dean. His father had gotten in a few good hits, bloodying Dean’s lips and managing to get a hit that opened up a cut on Dean’s forehead, but his eyes are free of much of the pain that Castiel had been seeing in the last few weeks, and he gives Castiel the same smile he had when Castiel asked him out to eat. Castiel manages to return it, looking up as he sees that their Personas are still there, and some part of him wants to say this isn’t over, that something else is going on.
Instead, he hears the sound of someone in low heels approaching. He and Dean turn, Castiel blinking as he sees that it’s instead three women, not one. The low heels was that of Naomi, the woman who’d spoken to him in that odd Velvet room. Next to her are two women - one with long, flowing dark hair who reminds Castiel of the gas station attendant that he’d spoken to when he first arrived, and the second is a woman with feathered blond hair in a white nightgown of some sort, who looks at Dean with sadness and longing.
“Mom?”
“Oh Dean…I’m so sorry.”
Naomi looked at Castiel, giving him a smile as she said, “You’ve done well. The catastrophes that were ahead were averted, and the mysteries have been solved. You and the ones you saved have done well.”
Castiel looks at her and the other woman. “Did I? Or did you simply need someone to clean up the mess?”
The dark haired woman doesn’t appear upset with his accusation as Naomi tells him, “Amara did what needed to be done, to ensure that someone would stop the events going on here and heal the ones who would be attacked here. You must understand, Castiel, it was up to you what happened. You chose to make these links and create the tapestry that resulted in what we have now - a way for everyone to heal instead of the status quo continuing forward. Isn’t that worth being used to ‘clean up’ a mess like this one?” she motioned to the unconscious John Winchester and the frozen Dean, looking at the woman identified as his mother with longing.
Castiel doesn’t argue, instead crossing his arms and saying, “So, now what?”
“Your work is done, and what was created can protect the place that we live in. If such things happen again, you’ll know. But in the meantime, your life is now your own.” She gave Castiel a smile that actually worked as one, and motioned to the Personas. All of them suddenly appeared, as did many of the half-formed Shadows. Amara looked at them and held out her hand, all of them approaching her happily as they disappeared, though now Dean’s Persona, once more looking like his younger self, but with the ears that he’d had as Tramp. He looks at Amara, then back to Mary before Mary smiled, kneeling down and opening up her arms. Amara, when he looked at her, spoke easily. “You’re not a Shadow anymore. Go and be with Mary and the others.”
Tramp, or the younger Dean, raced and hugged Mary close, Dean swallowing as he slowly approached, Mary looking up and pulling him in for a hug as well. Everyone’s Persona had changed to look like themselves, glowing white instead of the dark that Castiel had seen, and he watches as his own approaches, also looking like himself, but with huge wings that it wraps around everyone before disappearing as well. Naomi looks over at them once more before saying to Castiel, “I look forward to seeing how the rest of your life plays out, Castiel. Enjoy.”
-It’s a clear day as Castiel packs up, compared to the rain that had come since his arrival at Lawrence, but he enjoys that more than the rain that had gotten him so worried. The last rainy night, before snow started instead, had resulted in everyone who’d ever watched the Midnight Channel staying up for the last night.
There had been no static, no showing of whatever might have happened. Castiel assumed that was a good thing, that it means the ones they’d seen were happy, or at least going elsewhere.
The year after they’d ‘captured’ John Winchester had been weird, and full of a great deal of drama and upset. At the same time, Castiel has to admit he’s glad for how everything has gone overly well. Though Sam had not quite grown to trust him, he still was good with Hannah, at least. Gabriel and Meg still were not every excited about seeing Sam whenever they have meet-ups, either to study or talk about all that happened. Sam is mostly there to try to talk to Dean, or to get help with his homework and plans for the future.
Castiel let out a sigh as he looked around his now-cleared room. His family had kept up on their mission, while Castiel had found a good school to go to. His scores from the final was good enough that he could go anywhere he wanted, and the one he wanted was perfect for what he planned.
Well, what he and Dean planned.
Castiel walked down and looked over at the black car, the only thing that Dean had saved from his father, and the young man standing up and leaning on the top. In the back is a combination of his and Dean’s items, as well as Dean’s acceptance letter to a community college, near the same school that Castiel is going to. Dean doesn’t believe he can go to a regular college, but Castiel thinks that after a bit, he’ll be able to see that he is fine. Still, Castiel also admits that college isn’t for everyone, and he’ll be happy if Dean is.
“Hey,” Dean says with a smile when he sees him, getting Castiel to smile back at him. “Ready to go?”
“If you are,” Castiel says, knowing that some might argue this was a bad idea. At the same time, Castiel has to admit, having known the various sides of Dean over this year, he supposes that they can last for a lot longer than others. He smiles as he walks over and opens up the passenger side, Dean opening up the driver’s side. Sam wasn’t coming with them, but that was something that Dean had set as a boundary. Sam needed to live on his own, and Dean couldn’t care for him at the moment. Sam seemed fine with that, now focusing on his own life and his own goals. Castiel was glad that Sam had accepted this, and that Dean felt comfortable enough leaving him with Jody to care for him.
“I’m ready,” Dean tells him with a smile as they get into the Impala, the doors closing as the car starts and they drive out of town, heading out to their new life.
-Chuck cleaned up the Velvet Room, picking up his book with the pages showing the links and connections that had been created in the latest person who’d been chosen to deal with a catastrophe beyond their understanding. He smiles as he opens the book, looking through the others that had connected with Castiel, and blinks as he gets to the end, looking at two photos before he smiles again.
“I didn’t realize you were such a romantic at heart,” he mutters, touching the two images. One is inside the tv, showing the remade Shadow world, with Amara and Mary watching over the light-filled Personas and the darkened Shadows as they race around, Tramp standing between them and smiling up at them, still looking like the young boy he’d gone into the TV, but with a swishing, tiger tail and triangular dog ears. To the other side, smiling as his much-taller brother graduated, was Dean. On his finger was a silver ring, mirroring that of the other man with the two Winchesters, his dark hair messy still, and a smile on his face.
Chuck closed the book and looked back down at the table, noting the three-card spread that still had the two cards, signaling mysteries and calamity, turned over. He shifted the last, seeing it barely, before he smiled again.
“Couldn’t ask for a better ending.”
Chuck disappeared, the card shifting enough to turn over, revealing a woman watching as she looked around, the final number of the Arcana on the bottom, and the simple words “The World” underneath.
“Dean,” Castiel speaks up as they walk further in, “are you doing alright?”
“Don’t really got a lot to do but focus,” Dean says, “I’m used to working through exhaustion, through all the bad stuff. I know Dad didn’t mean for me to fight him like this, I know it. But this is…things just worked against him.” He let out a sigh. “Dad was a bastard about it. He threw all of that on me, and just acted like I had to take on his stuff instead. I get Sam being pulled into it - he saw me as just his big brother, as just someone to take care of after a bit. But that doesn’t mean I’m not gonna take what Dad taught me and use it against him.”
Dean looks only a bit tired, and Castiel is quiet before saying, “You don’t have to do that…to take this all in. You needn’t take all of that onto you. You can lean on others.”
Dean chuckles a bit, looking over at Cas as the Shadow who’d once been Tramp looks back at them before going back to continue the hunt. Dean leans a bit more on Cas as they go. “Ok. It might take me a while to figure this out, you know.”
“Considering I get very protective of others, I’m sure we’ll figure this out.”
Dean let out a low laugh as they continue forward, stopping as they hear John Winchester’s voice once more speak up, sounding off around them, closer than even before. “You’re being a bad boy, Dean. You’re supposed to act on what’s most important. Do it. Stay, and remember what is important.”
Dean looks like he’s almost stopped by what was said, shuddering as Castiel keeps a hold on him, holding him up as Dean’s Persona lets out another, deep growl. At that, Dean manages to weakly mutter, “Fuck you, old man. You threw away what was important, and demand I keep that while you can ignore it? Not happening. I’m acting on what’s important, on family, family that doesn’t go back on their word.”
Castiel can feel the atmosphere pressing down on them more and more, his Persona shaking it’s feathers and spreading the wings before encompassing them both around some of the lower ones, taking away some of the pressure. Dean swallows, looking at Castiel, before nodding as the two continued forward.
-“What are you thinking you’re doing? Do you believe you can outrun me, like you tried to outrun your past, your reputation? I’m guessing that you think being friends with that kid just erases your past.”
“It doesn’t,” Meg says as she pauses, looking before spotting the man, or his Shadow. Unlike the others, its eyes are lamplight yellow, glowing in the dark, and she draws in a final breath before saying, “Nothing erases the past. It’s how you deal with it, how you learn from it. Not like you,” her Persona came down on the yellow-eyed Shadow, the Shadow barely jumping back as Meg continues, “What did you learn?”
“All I have to do is kill someone, and there’s news. News means power, means more information that can be changed. All it takes is one missing, lying bitch, and threats are taken seriously while you show what people want to see - the whores that cry out whenever their tries at getting attention fail.”
Her Persona, Atalanta, managed a hit as Meg rushed in, grabbing a pipe from nearby and swinging it hard at the Shadow. “No offense, bastard, but how your sons turned out half as good as they did, I’ll never fuckin’ know.”
-“So the trickster who can’t take on any responsibility thinks he can protect something?” the voice from the tvs scoffed as Gabriel ripped off a piece of taffy and chewed, looking at them all slowly as they continued, “You could barely control your staff, let alone anything else. And the moment you got any sort of authority, you ran.”
“Well, when I ran, I gave it to someone who could manage,” Gabriel said with a smile as roots began to grow around one of the other, large tvs in the area, “and she did a great job. I know I ran, and I acknowledge I did some stupid shit. But at least after that, I made sure that whoever got put in charge was better than me. And she is…so, Mr. Running from His Problems, what’s your excuse?”
The Shadow had to jump out as his Persona, Puck, used its horns to throw the Shadow as Gabriel tossed in the rest of the taffy and smirked. “You didn’t even do that for your own kids, let alone your job. How about you stop throwing stones in your glass house there, Johnny boy?”
-“Little girl who thinks she can protect everyone,” the voice says around them as Hannah and Sam keep moving forward, her Persona’s smoke taking over more and more of the fog and starting to make things clear up as Sam looked over and around, as if attempting to find the location of the voice that echoed all around them. “Little boy who thinks he knows everything. I did everything I could for you, and this is how you repay my care? I made sure you were safe!”
“No, you didn’t,” Sam ground out as his Persona paused, head turning quickly and pointing as Hannah’s Persona, Mary Magdalene, threw the censor and clapping her hands, as if in prayer. The moment it clapped, the smoke that had been building up ignited, burning through the area as Sam’s own Persona had what looked like the snakes on its caduceus leapt forward, hissing as they managed to grab hold of the yellow-eyed version of his father. “Dean kept me safe. You didn’t do anything.”
“And I think I can protect who I can,” Hannah yelled out as the fire caught, managing to not burn the other Persona as the bowl reappeared in her hand, the water being thrown to create burning steam as well. “I’ll do all I can to protect those I love, including asking for help when I need it!”
-The Shadow above John Winchester was similar to the one that had been in front of Dean - an antithesis of Castiel’s own, horns sprouting out and circling around its head and face, torn bird and bat wings straining to open up against chains as bloodied, skinny hands curled around a short sword that glistened like false, tarnished silver. John looked at Dean with a look of deep disappointment as they approached, Dean’s own Persona letting out the same deep growl that it had before when he’d been speaking.
“Now what the hell are you doing here with him, Dean? What the hell is your idea of family, of keeping everyone safe? You think that just because some stupid kid tells you it’s alright, you can go behind your family? Is that what you wanted all this time?”
“Yes,” Dean says as Castiel’s Persona goes after the demonic Shadow that his father commanded, getting his father to look at him in surprise and anger. “You’re not ideal family. You only ever treated me like a blunt instrument after mom died. You didn’t care about the pain you caused. You…” Dean’s Persona growled as it went to go and help Castiel in fighting the monster as Dean yells at his father, “You were an obsessed bastard who dumped your own crap on me! You couldn’t protect us, you couldn’t look after Sammy, you’re the one who couldn’t save Mom!” Dean rushed forward, under the fighting Personas before he manages to slug his father. “I didn’t deserve to be used like you used me! I didn’t deserve any of the shit you and Sam put on me, and I don’t deserve you as a father!”
Castiel found himself falling back as the fight with the Personas became more and more divided from Dean, his worry getting him to call out, “Dean!” as he watched the two Winchesters fight, Dean’s anger over what had happened to him and the others. He can almost hear the others calling out from wherever they are, can hear his friends and others as the Shadows try to assert themselves. It’s odd, because he can feel them, like threads creating a huge tapestry behind him. It feels odd, to be so aware of all of them, of how he’s helped, of all he’s done, and seeing how John Winchester’s belief. It’s so odd, to realize they have to break this down, but at the same time, he can see why he has to.
He can feel the keys, all of them, now heat up as he looks at the fight, feeling the push-back, and at Dean, fighting with his father. Castiel can feel his family and friends, all those who helped him, and all he can think is the same thing he’d thought when he’d gotten the Persona. He sees the twisted Persona that John commands start to prepare for an attack, attempting to reach out and grab Dean’s Persona, attempting to once more put a leash on it.
Dean’s Persona changed as John decked Dean, sending him back as he looks down and lets out a sigh, glaring back at his father as John shouts, “You ungrateful bastard. You dare attack your family?!”
“Sam’s my family,” Dean says as the Persona grows, turning into a hairy man who grabs his father’s Persona in what looks like a wrestling move, holding it still, “Cas and the others, they’re my family. Family doesn’t end in blood, and it doesn’t start there either. Family cares about you, not what you can do for them!” Castiel’s own Persona began to glow, a blinding white and blue light that seemed to catch the fog in all the ways that you didn’t want it, jumping so many times that it seemed to create the threads that Castiel felt, the ones that now were wrapping around him and Dean, “Family has your back, and are there for you through the good and bad. You were never there. You were nowhere for us, and you just used me to try to get your own stuff. You’re a selfish bastard, and you’re not family!”
I want to protect them all. Everyone, but most especially Dean, and I am not afraid to admit that. I want them all safe, and I want him sane, and that means…
His Persona changes as well, the wings spread wide and glowing brightly, as the sound of wind and thunder echoes throughout the area, a long sword sparking with electricity now in its hand as Castiel calls out the new name that flows through him, hearing the others calling out their new Personas as well. Dean lands a final punch on his father as he calls out, “Enkidu!” and the hairy, wrestling beast-like Persona lets out a cry and throwing the demonic Persona like a wrestler throwing the opponent at the ropes. Castiel calls out his own Persona, watching as the lightning-wrapped sword plunges into it. “Qaphsiel!”
A bolt falls down, striking it as John Winchester lets out a yell, and then, the oppressive atmosphere starting to lift as Castiel and Dean let out panting breaths, Dean looking at his unconscious father and then back to Dean. His father had gotten in a few good hits, bloodying Dean’s lips and managing to get a hit that opened up a cut on Dean’s forehead, but his eyes are free of much of the pain that Castiel had been seeing in the last few weeks, and he gives Castiel the same smile he had when Castiel asked him out to eat. Castiel manages to return it, looking up as he sees that their Personas are still there, and some part of him wants to say this isn’t over, that something else is going on.
Instead, he hears the sound of someone in low heels approaching. He and Dean turn, Castiel blinking as he sees that it’s instead three women, not one. The low heels was that of Naomi, the woman who’d spoken to him in that odd Velvet room. Next to her are two women - one with long, flowing dark hair who reminds Castiel of the gas station attendant that he’d spoken to when he first arrived, and the second is a woman with feathered blond hair in a white nightgown of some sort, who looks at Dean with sadness and longing.
“Mom?”
“Oh Dean…I’m so sorry.”
Naomi looked at Castiel, giving him a smile as she said, “You’ve done well. The catastrophes that were ahead were averted, and the mysteries have been solved. You and the ones you saved have done well.”
Castiel looks at her and the other woman. “Did I? Or did you simply need someone to clean up the mess?”
The dark haired woman doesn’t appear upset with his accusation as Naomi tells him, “Amara did what needed to be done, to ensure that someone would stop the events going on here and heal the ones who would be attacked here. You must understand, Castiel, it was up to you what happened. You chose to make these links and create the tapestry that resulted in what we have now - a way for everyone to heal instead of the status quo continuing forward. Isn’t that worth being used to ‘clean up’ a mess like this one?” she motioned to the unconscious John Winchester and the frozen Dean, looking at the woman identified as his mother with longing.
Castiel doesn’t argue, instead crossing his arms and saying, “So, now what?”
“Your work is done, and what was created can protect the place that we live in. If such things happen again, you’ll know. But in the meantime, your life is now your own.” She gave Castiel a smile that actually worked as one, and motioned to the Personas. All of them suddenly appeared, as did many of the half-formed Shadows. Amara looked at them and held out her hand, all of them approaching her happily as they disappeared, though now Dean’s Persona, once more looking like his younger self, but with the ears that he’d had as Tramp. He looks at Amara, then back to Mary before Mary smiled, kneeling down and opening up her arms. Amara, when he looked at her, spoke easily. “You’re not a Shadow anymore. Go and be with Mary and the others.”
Tramp, or the younger Dean, raced and hugged Mary close, Dean swallowing as he slowly approached, Mary looking up and pulling him in for a hug as well. Everyone’s Persona had changed to look like themselves, glowing white instead of the dark that Castiel had seen, and he watches as his own approaches, also looking like himself, but with huge wings that it wraps around everyone before disappearing as well. Naomi looks over at them once more before saying to Castiel, “I look forward to seeing how the rest of your life plays out, Castiel. Enjoy.”
-It’s a clear day as Castiel packs up, compared to the rain that had come since his arrival at Lawrence, but he enjoys that more than the rain that had gotten him so worried. The last rainy night, before snow started instead, had resulted in everyone who’d ever watched the Midnight Channel staying up for the last night.
There had been no static, no showing of whatever might have happened. Castiel assumed that was a good thing, that it means the ones they’d seen were happy, or at least going elsewhere.
The year after they’d ‘captured’ John Winchester had been weird, and full of a great deal of drama and upset. At the same time, Castiel has to admit he’s glad for how everything has gone overly well. Though Sam had not quite grown to trust him, he still was good with Hannah, at least. Gabriel and Meg still were not every excited about seeing Sam whenever they have meet-ups, either to study or talk about all that happened. Sam is mostly there to try to talk to Dean, or to get help with his homework and plans for the future.
Castiel let out a sigh as he looked around his now-cleared room. His family had kept up on their mission, while Castiel had found a good school to go to. His scores from the final was good enough that he could go anywhere he wanted, and the one he wanted was perfect for what he planned.
Well, what he and Dean planned.
Castiel walked down and looked over at the black car, the only thing that Dean had saved from his father, and the young man standing up and leaning on the top. In the back is a combination of his and Dean’s items, as well as Dean’s acceptance letter to a community college, near the same school that Castiel is going to. Dean doesn’t believe he can go to a regular college, but Castiel thinks that after a bit, he’ll be able to see that he is fine. Still, Castiel also admits that college isn’t for everyone, and he’ll be happy if Dean is.
“Hey,” Dean says with a smile when he sees him, getting Castiel to smile back at him. “Ready to go?”
“If you are,” Castiel says, knowing that some might argue this was a bad idea. At the same time, Castiel has to admit, having known the various sides of Dean over this year, he supposes that they can last for a lot longer than others. He smiles as he walks over and opens up the passenger side, Dean opening up the driver’s side. Sam wasn’t coming with them, but that was something that Dean had set as a boundary. Sam needed to live on his own, and Dean couldn’t care for him at the moment. Sam seemed fine with that, now focusing on his own life and his own goals. Castiel was glad that Sam had accepted this, and that Dean felt comfortable enough leaving him with Jody to care for him.
“I’m ready,” Dean tells him with a smile as they get into the Impala, the doors closing as the car starts and they drive out of town, heading out to their new life.
-Chuck cleaned up the Velvet Room, picking up his book with the pages showing the links and connections that had been created in the latest person who’d been chosen to deal with a catastrophe beyond their understanding. He smiles as he opens the book, looking through the others that had connected with Castiel, and blinks as he gets to the end, looking at two photos before he smiles again.
“I didn’t realize you were such a romantic at heart,” he mutters, touching the two images. One is inside the tv, showing the remade Shadow world, with Amara and Mary watching over the light-filled Personas and the darkened Shadows as they race around, Tramp standing between them and smiling up at them, still looking like the young boy he’d gone into the TV, but with a swishing, tiger tail and triangular dog ears. To the other side, smiling as his much-taller brother graduated, was Dean. On his finger was a silver ring, mirroring that of the other man with the two Winchesters, his dark hair messy still, and a smile on his face.
Chuck closed the book and looked back down at the table, noting the three-card spread that still had the two cards, signaling mysteries and calamity, turned over. He shifted the last, seeing it barely, before he smiled again.
“Couldn’t ask for a better ending.”
Chuck disappeared, the card shifting enough to turn over, revealing a woman watching as she looked around, the final number of the Arcana on the bottom, and the simple words “The World” underneath.