Fanfic: Band on the Run (8/?)
Title: Band on the Run (8/?)
Author: mysticallight6
Characters: Dean, Sam, Cas, Meg & OCs later No pairings
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Family
Rating: T
Summary: Post 7x17 AU After a long hunt, the brothers manage a stop at the
hospital where they'd left Castiel to visit. There, they discover that Meg is
missing and Cas was transfered to a more secure facility. What will they go
through to get their friend back?
Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural. Others do and I am making absolutely no money for having written this.
How about that finale? I honestly loved it! Now the long wait to October begins.
Here's the next chapter of the story. I hope you all enjoy it.
Dean and Cas are finally going to talk. Revelations abound.
Dean lightly tapped the side of his fallen friend's face hoping it would be enough to rouse him from his deep slumber. After the stress filled night before, the brothers and Meg had foregone sleep in order to watch the angel for any signs of distress. So far, he hadn't moved as much as an inch. Dean also wasn't above begging at this point either.
"Cas? Cas, man - time to wake up. We can go out, find some more pancakes or suits or…something."
"Still not up?" Sam asked, reentering the room, having taken his shower and getting a fresh set of clothes.
"Still lost to the world," Dean said while sighing.
"Take a break. Frankly, you kind of look like crap," Sam said, trying to convince Dean to leave the room.
"Nah - you and Meg get some food and bring me back something. I'll stick with Cas for a bit longer," Dean said, readjusting the sheet he had pulled up to Castiel's neck in case the angel got cold. If he ever did get cold.
"You sure?"
Dean pulled a watered down version of what Sam knew his brother called a 'bitchface'. Saying nothing else Sam walked out of the room and after a moment Meg, who was sitting by the window reading, followed giving Dean a salute as she went. Dean sighed in relief before looking down at his maligned friend.
"What's going on in that head of yours, man?"
Castiel was in his favorite garden once again, his back against the big oak tree in the center. He looked down to see himself once again wearing his suit and trench coat rather than Dean's leftover clothes. The flowers were in bloom; birds were singing. Everything appeared to be calm and beautiful around him like always.
Crunching grass announced that someone was approaching him from behind and suddenly the tree Castiel leaned on caught fire! The burning pain to his back and wings caused him to jerk away and stand and there stood Lucifer though not as Castiel had ever seen before now. Castiel looked into the eyes…of himself.
"Hello, Castiel," Lucifer intoned with his voice.
"You are not supposed to be here Lucifer," Castiel murmured. The scenery suddenly began to dim, clouds appearing in the sky.
Lucifer smirked as he ran his hands all over the front of his new body."And yet here I am - in my favorite form yet."
"Cas, come on man. Wake up!"
Lucifer chuckled softly as he looked up to the sky. "Your toy wants you walking and talking, Castiel," he said, looking down into Castiel's eyes and tilting his head to the side, "Shouldn't we be a good pet and oblige?"
Dean stepped out of the bathroom after relieving himself and saw Castiel's body shifting under the sheets. The angel's eyes slowly opened and he took in a deep breath.
"Cas, you alive?"
Castiel muttered something Dean didn't recognize as he attempted to sit up by himself. Dean was immediately by Castiel's side, helping lift him up so his back leaned against the headboard. The angel frantically eyed the room searching for something and his eyes finally stopped dead on the man before him. Castiel let out a sound somewhere between a moan and a whimper and Dean knew that whatever the angel saw couldn't possibly be anything good.
"Cas, tell me what you're seeing. Cas!"
"Tell me what you're seeing," Lucifer, as Nick, said from the edge of the bed.
Castiel brought his hands to the top of his head and threw himself under his sheets and pillow.
"Cas, what's wrong?" Dean asked frantically.
"Get out! Get out! Get out!" Cas shouted back, equally frantic.
"Castiel, you need to calm down. Lucifer isn't here."
"Yes he is. He always is."
"No," Dean said, grabbing the smaller man's shoulders and lifting him to a sitting position, "it's just you and me in here Cas. ."
"Just you and me - my favorite last words!" Lucifer off to the side said while clapping.
"Open your eyes for me, Cas. Come on." Dean hated begging. But, if someone you knew to have always been strong was breaking down more and more as the days went by, you would do anything (anything!) to see them as their old self again.
Slowly Castiel's eyes opened and Dean was pleased to see the blue eyes of the angel searching him, making entirely sure of what (or whom) was near his side.
"Castiel, who am I?" Dean asked, letting go.
It took the angel several seconds but eventually he muttered a low, "Dean. Dean Winchester."
"How sure are you?" Dean asked.
Castiel's breathing became just a bit easier. "I'm sure...enough. Thank you for bringing me back. Again."
"Cas just what are you seeing during these little…episodes?" Dean whispered.
"I'd rather not..." the angel said while swallowing.
"Cas, we had a whole year of you lying and it really won't hurt you to say. Tell me the truth Cas. Please - you owe me that much, at least."
Castiel stared into Dean's eyes, mentally preparing himself for what he was about to say. "Do you remember the conversation we had the first time we trapped Raphael in a circle of holy fire?"
Dean was surprised that the conversation was going to start there. "Yeah...no. Sorry."
Castiel nodded, expecting that and continued. "Once you say yes to an angel there is always a direct link to its vessel."
"Yeah, now I remember - he was gonna fry you before you…," Dean said trailing off. He held up a hand and motioned with it in the air while thinking fast. "Wait, fast forwarding a little here - there's always a connection to the vessel no matter what."
"Correct."
"And now the winged dick is still talking to you because now you've made it so he's connected to you instead of Sam?"
Castiel nodded and was about to put his hand down on top of Dean's but stopped himself at the last second and instead put it against his neck and squeezed. He then continued.
"Lucifer comes to me wearing the faces of those whom I've wronged. Balthazar. Rachel. You, Sam and Bobby. My-myself."
"He came looking like you?"
"Before I woke up, it was...unnerving speaking with my mirror image."
"Why'd he look like you though?" Dean asked curiously.
"Well," Castiel said, licking his lips and steeling himself. "I have fallen so very far from my initial mission and…"
He twitched. Castiel took in a deep breath, his eyes moving to the side and Dean knew he was close to losing him again.
"Cas, focus!"
Castiel's eyes found Dean's again and now they were pained and so very scared.
"It's so much harder than I first imagined, Dean. He's always right there, off to the side. He watches me and...and then there's my grace."
"You mentioned something about your grace. Spill."
Castiel groaned and looked around the room but was unable to see any glass of liquid to...
"Tell me about the grace thing, Cas."
"Oh right."
"You're so dense brother," Lucifer said, reappearing on Castiel's other side.
Castiel turned to look at him but Dean grabbed his face and forced him back. The words tumbled out of the angel's mouth before he could stop them.
"Lucifer's link within my mind plus the Cage's power has begun to taint my grace in a way such that the Cage's Evil is leaking through - in me. My grace is becoming tarnished and dark and...Dean, I physically hurt. All over."
Dean frowned and closed his eyes. "Scale of one to ten - how painful?"
"I…I don't think I have a number to properly quantify how it's making me feel."
"Why didn't you tell me any of this before - we could've helped you already!"
"We didn't…we didn't part friends, Dean." Castiel hunched forward and Dean caught him as the angel's body began to shake again.
"Cas, what is? What's wrong?"
Castiel moaned before looking up to the ceiling and letting out a loud, inhuman screech making the windows both attached to the room and in a four block radius explode. He collapsed backwards, his eyes still wide open and when Dean looked into them they were changed. The whites of his eyes were still white, but the pupil and iris were a murky blue, swimming and giving off an iridescent glow. Sort of like...like...
"The Yellow Eyed Demon," Dean whispered fearfully.
No - what the hell was happening to Cas? He couldn't be. Was he seriously turning into…a supercharged demon?
The sound of their truck pulling up in the parking lot made Dean look up just in time to see Sam and Meg coming towards the doorway. They took in the broken window and stepped over the broken glass while walking through the door.
"Dean, what's going on?" Sam asked, putting down a greasy bag.
Dean rubbed his hands together and sighed. He shook his head and shakily said, "Sam, we've gotta talk."
Thanks very much for reading. Leave a review and let me know what you think.