flashforward } { and if you feel like you can't go on, in the light you will find the road
If Dean wasn’t used to the idea of the world ending, it might have surprised him when the Kandorians took over. Instead, his reaction fell more along the lines of well, shit, what else is new?
He really wasn’t looking to fight another Apocalypse, let alone two at the same time, but it was looking like he wasn’t having much of a choice. Upside of the Kandorians asserting themselves as the dominant race, however, is that they had a cure for Croatoan before it could decimate what was left of the humans. The downside? The red sun was awesome for vampires.
But then again, that’s what Dean had Slayers for.
They were holed up in what was left of the Hyperion Hotel, the five of them-Dean, Faith, Buffy, Cas, and Angel. They had contacts, other factions in other towns, with people they could count on, who were keeping the vampire population down to a minimum, but there was still only so much they could do. They needed to get rid of this red sun-which involved taking on the Kandorians, and that was something that just wasn’t in their wheelhouse. It was aliens, for Christ’s sake. So for the time being they were hiding out until they came up with a plan B.
That plan B happened to come in the form of a resistance movement, with a side of vampires.
Dean and Cas had been bouncing around from city to city ever since the invasion started, until they finally met up with Buffy and Faith and crashed at the Hyperion. There used to be more of them, but between the vampires, the demons, and the Kandorians, their numbers dwindled slowly. They did their best to save who they could, and mourned those they couldn’t.
There were days when Dean still expected Dawn to bound down the stairs and throw her latest theory out at him, all sunshine and smiles despite everything else going on around them, but those were getting few and farther between. For Buffy, he was pretty sure they never really stopped.
Just like he never stopped seeing Sam.
It was rounding the first anniversary of the Kandorians taking over, when Faith burst into the lobby of the hotel, dragging some huge muscled guy behind her, like a little girl hauling around a giant teddy bear she won at the fair. She dropped him down in the middle of the floor in front of Dean and Cas, looking rather smug at herself, and crossed her arms in front of her chest.
“We got something.”
The guy’s name was Eliot Spencer. He was a resistance fighter, or at least they determined that after an extensive battery of tests to make sure he wasn’t a demon or shapeshifter first. He reminded Angel of a guy he used to know, so they weren’t taking any chances. To the guy’s credit, beyond constantly looking like he wanted to punch Dean in the face, he took most of the poking and prodding pretty well. They verified he was human, agreed not to kill him, and then they got down to business.
“Ground zero of this whole mess is Metropolis,” he explained, gesturing to the map in front of them. “That’s where Zod set up his tower that’s doing what it’s doing to the sun.”
“So it’s not some kind of freaky alien power,” Dean clarified. “It’s an actual machine.”
“It’s a tower,” Eliot replied, pointing out it’s location on the map. “From what my team could find, he teamed up with a major corporation to get the funding and painted it as a new way to go green-the tower would absorb solar energy, and manufacture it into a more efficient output.”
“But I’m guessing that that was pretty much a cover and Zod’s plan was to do this whole red sun thing all along,” Buffy sighed. “Who’d they team up with?”
Eliot looked up with an amused eyebrow raise before smirking. “Luthor Corp.”
“Why am I not surprised?” Dean ran a hand over his face.
“Friends of yours?” Eliot asked, and Dean waved a hand.
“I had a bad experience. It’s not important.” It was also a lifetime ago, and he didn’t want to get into it with a guy he barely knew. “What about this tower-if it’s the bad news why doesn’t the resistance just take it out?”
“We can’t get close enough. The Kandorians have made it a restricted zone-they kill anyone who tries to get inside.”
“So you need someone who can get inside without tripping the alarm.” There was a plan forming. “Someone who’s strong enough to take on the Kandorians, and destroy the tower on their own.”
Faith, Cas, and Buffy all had their eyes on him. They knew who Dean was, and the power he had, and they probably knew what he was thinking. Eliot glanced between them warily, trying to figure out what was going on.
“It take it that means you have an idea?” he asked.
“One, and it’s a hail mary, but it’s worth a shot.” He pushed up from the map, glancing down at his watch and throwing on his jacket. “Let’s get loaded up. I want to be on the road in sixty.”
“What are you thinking?” Faith asked, none of them moving from the table until Dean answered the question. He settled the jacket on his shoulders, looking back at them with a sigh before responding.
He sighed. “I’m not thinking anything. Beyond the fact that you-” His eyes tracked to where Eliot was standing, and he smirked. “-are going to take me to your leader.”
***
The drive to Metropolis was a slow one. Angel chose to stay behind in LA, help protect and handle the refugees there, while Dean rounded up as many able bodies as he could without endangering the Hyperion. Faith and Eliot were in a separate part of the caravan-Dean trusted her to keep an eye on him and get violent if needed, but keep him alive enough to get him on the chief’s good side. Cas spent most of the ride passed out in the back seat, and Buffy-
Well, Buffy didn’t do much talking about anything really. There was a time where he wouldn’t be able to get her to shut up, but that was a long time ago. Dean had learned that pushing would only get him a punch in the face, so he kept his mouth shut. Just kept calm and kept driving.
The resistance itself wasn’t exactly in Metropolis. They moved around a lot, with a lot of tricks to keep the Kandorians from tracking their movements. Once they were close enough, Eliot redirected them to Denver, where they came upon a run down compound. It looked abandoned. Dean knew better. The pulled their cars to a stop and were met at the gate by a group of black-clad, ninja looking people. Dean and Buffy glanced at each other for a moment, before he sighed.
“Let’s meet the locals.”
The rest of the caravan piled out of the cars, and the tall blond in the front-their leader, Dean was assuming-stepped forward, crossbow in his hand. “This is private property. You guys probably want to climb back in your car and just keep on going.”
“We’re just here to return something we found,” Faith said, shoving Eliot forward and into the tall guy’s line of vision. The man frowned, reaching for the dagger on his belt, and while Dean went for his gun, and both girls went for their own weapons. Eliot turned, holding up a hand on both sides, before turning back to the blond.
“They’re not Kandorian, Queen.”
“Can’t be too careful, Spencer,” ‘Queen’ replied, before removing the sheath on the knife he was holding. The knife glowed bright green, but all it made Dean and company do is look confused. After a moment, he slid the knife back into its sheath, and slipped it back onto his belt. “I’m Oliver Queen. There a reason you kidnapped one of our members and brought him back to us?”
“They’re here to see Watchtower,” Eliot explained, and Oliver stiffened even more, if it were possible.
“And who are you exactly?”
“Well,” Buffy began. “I don’t know if all of us are that important, but he’s Dean Winchester.” Her thumb jerked back over her shoulder to where Dean was standing, and he gave them a thin smirk before waving.
“Hi. How ya doin’?”
The look on Eliot and Oliver’s faces made it clear that Dean showing up was like an answered prayer. Oliver moved to the gate to unlock it and let them through. “Come on in. I’ll take you to the boss.”
“See?” Dean said with a grin. “Easy as pie.”
***
“Jason Teague?”
Okay, maybe it wasn’t as easy as he thought. If it was, he wouldn’t be standing face to face with Chloe Sullivan right about now. At first, Dean was too stunned to even comment, just stood there staring at her until Cas’s voice behind him snapped him out of it.
“Jason Teague is not his name. I believe that is one of Dean’s many-”
“Okay, let’s not get into that. Chloe. Hi. Long time no see.”
Chloe just continued to look stunned, before shaking her head and giving him a look. “I think we should get into it, ‘Dean.’ What the hell is going on?”
“Yeah, Dean,” Buffy smirked, crossing her arms in front of her chest. “What the hell is going on?”
He ran a hand over his face before sighing. “Okay. My name isn’t Jason Teague. I was-” Damn, he really didn’t have a good lie to this one. “-I was in witness protection.”
Chloe didn’t buy it for a second. “Witness protection.”
“Self … imposed witness protection, but still.”
She still wasn’t impressed. “You better come up with something better than that before-”
“Jason?”
At that voice Dean froze, completely. He took a breath for a moment, before turning around and meeting Lana’s eyes with his own. “Lana. Hey.”
“Oh, this is gonna be good,” Faith said as she moved closer to Buffy. “You want to explain that ‘witness protection’ to her too, Deano?”
“What?”
Lana looked confused. Dean didn’t blame her. He grit his teeth, and glared back at Faith. “Damnit, Faith.”
Neither girl looked like they were going to give him any slack on this one, and Lana wasn’t pleased either. When he turned to look at her again, she was glaring, with her arms crossed in front of her chest.
“What the hell is going on?”
“I-I can explain,” he said with a sigh, before glancing around. “Can … we do it somewhere without the peanut gallery?”
She paused for a moment, before nodding, and tipping her head to the side to lead him out of the room. Dean wasn’t expecting to make it out alive.
***
There was anger. There was yelling. There was a small smidge of violence. But in the end, they both decided they had bigger concerns to worry about. End of the world and all. Sure, Lana was angry with him for a while, but at the end of the day-she was Lana, and he was still him, and she never managed to stay mad at him for long. In reality, the only thing that he had lied to her about was his name-and his job, but that was a given for his profession. A name was something that they could get past, especially when they were both fighting a common enemy.
And if it happened to be more than just fighting alongside each other and they fell back into old patterns, then Dean wasn’t exactly one to complain. There was something about Lana that he had missed more than he could possibly say. Having it in his life again, even if it was just because the world was ending, was worth it.
It was a few months of fending off the preternatural and staying on the move before Chloe stormed in one night, shaking them both awake and telling them that they had to move. They had just gotten word from one of their inside sources that some of their people were in trouble. They were moving, and they were moving now.
Twelve hours later, they got to Smallville, rescued Lois and Clark, lost their inside source, and confused more people with the fact that no, his name wasn’t Jason, and yes, they’ve been over this. Get with the program. Not long after, they were back at headquarters, trying to come up with a plan to stop Zod once and for all.
And Lois? She traveled through time.
“We need to get that Legion ring back,” Clark said, hands planted down on the table. “If we do, we can send Lois back, and she can warn everyone and fix this.”
Dean knew that Clark was upset. He’d just lost his girl to Chloe’s itchy trigger finger, and there was no coming back from that one, but he wasn’t so sure that confronting Zod head on to try and get the ring back was the way to do it. True, the tower needed to be destroyed, but that didn’t necessarily mean that humans had to be the ones to do it. He was quiet for a moment, before speaking up.
“What if we didn’t need the ring to send Lois back?”
All eyes turned on him, including Castiel’s, but Cas looked less happy than the rest of them. “I do not think this is wise idea, Dean.”
“It’s the only idea we’ve got, Cas. And it’s better than going up against Zod.”
“There’s no guarantee that he won’t kill you on sight.”
“How about you guys let the rest of us in on the little secret?” Chloe asked, raising an eyebrow as the rest of them waited for them to fill in the blanks. Dean and Cas glanced at each other for a moment, and Cas opened his mouth before Dean could respond.
“Dean plans on contacting Lucifer.”
“What?!”
“Wow, Cas. That was almost in stereo,” Dean rolled his eyes.
“You want to bring in the Devil to help us?” Chloe said, and the skepticism in her voice was all too clear.
“He’s not what you think,” Buffy filled in for him, and glaring at Dean. “He is very real, and this is a very stupid plan.”
“He wants the Kandorians gone just as much as we do, he can teleport, and angels have the power of time travel. He’s actually the best weapon we got. And if I’m the one asking, I stand more of a chance than anyone else.”
Cas sighed next to him. “That … he does have a point with. But I will be going with him.”
“And I’m going too.”
Dean’s eyes snapped to Chloe and he gave her a look. “That is a stupid plan.”
“If he’s going to help, I want him to know who he’s helping.” She paused. “And I want to make sure you’re not completely nuts.”
Dean sighed. He should have seen this one coming, but he knew there was no way of talking her out of it. “Alrighty then. Let’s go call my brother.”
They all stared at him for a moment. “I thought we were going to talk to Lucifer?” Chloe frowned.
Then Lois whispered. “I thought you said that Sam was dead?”
“Slight exaggeration,” Dean replied, before fixing Chloe with a look, and turning to leave. “C’mon, let’s get this over with.”
***
“I have to say, Dean. This is unexpected.”
The rain pounded against the outside of the shack they had summoned Lucifer in, lightening flashing occasionally in the windows. Dean didn’t care, however. He was too busy not to attach Sam to the face that Lucifer was wearing. It helped that they didn’t dress the same-a white pressed suit, and his hair slicked back away from his face-it wasn’t Sam like. But that didn’t make it any less Sam, because he knew his brother was in there, clawing to try and make his way to the surface, and there was nothing Dean could do to help him. It was his fault that they were there in the first place, after all. Lucifer took a step forward, one hand coming up with a hand resting under Chloe’s chin.
“And with such attractive company.”
If it had been any other person, he was sure that Chloe would have jerked away, but Lucifer had a way of having you make no sudden moves. Mouthing off wasn’t advisable to someone who could make you spontaneously combust. She did look away, though, not wanting to give him any more than he already had.
“I want to make a deal.”
His eyes picked up, and he turned back to Dean, but he didn’t move his hand from Chloe’s chin. It was a threat, and he knew it. A subtle one, but a threat nonetheless. Dean made any stupid moves, and he would snap Chloe’s neck, and Dean knew it.
“A deal with the Devil. How ... quaint.” He let Chloe’s chin go, before starting to make his way around her, his hand trailing against her shoulder. “And what exactly is this deal of yours?”
“You give me what I want, you get what you want.”
“Elaborate.”
“The Kandorians are a problem. They’re effecting your timetable, and they’re enslaving the human race-isn’t that supposed to be your job?”
“No, Dean. The annihilation of the human race is my job. But you know that.”
“How about this-you help us out with the Kandorians, and I say yes.” Dean could have sworn that he saw Lucifer’s eyes light up at the suggestion. He’s been itching for the final battle since he jumped Sam’s meat, and Dean knew it. It took everything he had not to flinch, not to break the silence and lose the con, but he did, staring down the Devil until he blinked.
“You say yes before I do this for you. Put Michael in a position where he and I can fight the Kandorians side by side, and I will do as you ask.”
“Say yes?” Chloe was confused. “Say yes to what?”
“To be Michael’s vessel. Michael can’t come to the party without my consent.”
“Do we have a deal, Dean? Are you going to be my brother’s date to the prom?”
Cas was flashing him a look that said that this was a bad idea, and Dean knew that it was. But he had a plan-maybe not a particularly good one, but it was a plan, and hopefully, in the end, things would pan out.
“Not gonna make me kiss you, are you?” he snapped, raising an eyebrow. Lucifer smirked, his hand landing on Chloe’s shoulder.
“You have until tomorrow. Don’t disappoint me, Dean.” He paused, then leaned forward to whisper in her ear. “It’s been a pleasure, Miss Sullivan.” And before she could respond, he was gone.
It took Chloe a moment to regain herself, but when she did, she didn’t leave much room for leeway. She took a breath, straightened up, and fixed Dean with a look that probably could have killed if he wasn’t careful.
“Explain,” she snapped as she stalked her way closer. “Now.”
***
When Dean dreamed, he remembered the way the world used to be. A yellow sun, green plants, people going about their daily lives as though nothing had happened. There were no Kandorians, no demons, no angels. Only the people who lived in the world, day in and day out. He didn’t pick specific people, people he wanted to see or people he missed more than anything. They were just people, the people the planet was made for, the people he did his job for.
The people he was going to have to sacrifice if they wanted to win this war.
It made him sick to his stomach to do it, but Dean didn’t think they had much of a choice left. Lucifer had Sam. There was no getting him out of Sam. No angelic exorcism, no trapping him in holy oil. Add to it the fact that the angels were the only ones who could stop the Kandorians. And in order to fight them, Michael needed a vessel. He had tried to contact Michael, tried to get him to come down to hear Dean’s terms, but he had failed. Michael was gone. That plan was in the crapper.
He didn’t tell anyone that, though. He still let them have hope, let them have faith that he could convince Lucifer to still follow through, even without Michael. They needed to have faith in something, and Dean was willing to be that for the time being. This was going to be Custer’s last stand, but with twice the bloodshed, and Dean did the best he could to keep morale up and not treat it like that. He smiled, he laughed, he spent the night with his girl, and when he fell asleep next to her, he dreamed.
He knew within a second that it wasn’t going to be an ordinary dream when he saw the person in it.
“Hello, Dean.”
To Michael’s credit, he knew how to go for emotional impact. Turning around to find your long-dead father standing there was enough to make any guy stand up and pay attention. But Dean wasn’t in the mood for emotional pandering. He didn’t want to make a deal with a guy wearing his father’s skin.
“Dude, you picked the wrong face,” he said with a glower as he looked away. Michael didn’t move, didn’t even blink, just watched him carefully.
“I thought it would be appropriate,” he said, looking down at himself. “Considering that your father’s blood is where your ability to be my vessel comes from.”
“You thought wrong. Pick another face.”
There was a soft noise, like the rustle of wings, and when he turned again, he was facing Dawn, and his mood didn’t improve by much. She was another person who was long gone and never coming back, and he didn’t want t be reminded of that fact either, but she was better than the alternative. Relatively speaking.
“Will this suffice?”
“Yeah,” Dean sighed. “I guess it’ll do.”
She moved to sit next to him on the park bench, her eyes wandering out into the landscape of his dream. She was quiet for a moment, before turning back to him again. “You wished to speak with me.”
He nodded slowly, unsure as to how to put the words out there, but eventually just spitting it out. “I want to make a deal.”
“I’m not a demon, Dean. I don’t provide magic fixes in exchange for your soul.”
“What about my body?”
Michael’s eyes snapped back to attention on him again. “You intend to say yes.”
“I do. But I have some conditions first.” Dean’s hand came up before Michael could interrupt. “Look, you’ll get what you want. You can wear me to the prom, and have your Apocalypse-it’s not like there’s much left of the planet anyway. I just want to make sure that the people who have fought for this won’t just get wiped out in the aftermath.”
Michael stiffened, and wasn’t pleased with the conditions being placed upon him, but he nodded. “Fine. What are your conditions?”
“First, which I know you’re going to love, you help the resistance take out the Kandorians. I’m pretty sure you were planning on doing that anyway, but I want you to do it on my timetable. You work with your brother. You take out Zod and his army first. And then you deal with Lucifer.”
If an angel could roll his eyes, he could swear that that was what Michael was doing right then. Maybe it was his mind projecting because he was wearing Dawn’s face, but it amused him that he was getting on the archangel’s case that much. “I assume that isn’t the only concern.”
“No. The people that have helped me the most are going to be right at the epicenter of this, and I don’t want anything to happen to them. You and your brothers-you’re planning on restarting the planet. I want them to be in it. And I want Castiel restored to what he was, reinstated in the garrison-not killed.”
“You don’t trust me. You have no reason to believe that I’ll actually do it. You are only truly doing that to dissuade your own guilt.”
He was right. Dean figured that Michael was like all the rest, and was just going to screw him as soon as he got what he wanted. But he needed at least to try. “Guess it’s a chance for you to prove me wrong, then.”
Michael was silent for a long time, clearly stumped by what Dean said, but eventually he nodded. “Make your list. I will see you in the morning.”
Dean snapped awake next to Lana, not feeling anywhere near rested, but he knew that he had too much to do to sleep.
***
“There you are.”
It was a few hours before Lana woke up and joined him in the main room, and he had pretty much finalized the list of people he wanted Michael to save. He looked up at her, and met her smile, folding the paper in his hands. He pushed up and made his way closer, wrapping his arms around her and leaning in close. He knew he didn’t have a whole lot of time, so he wanted to take advantage while he had it. He let his lips rest against the top of her head, just soaking in the silence until she spoke again.
“How long have you been out here?”
“Couple hours. There were some things I needed to take care of before the raid.”
“And getting a good night’s sleep wasn’t one of them?” She pulled back enough to look him in the eye, and he smirked a little, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. He could feel that it didn’t.
“My end of the plan, sleep doesn’t really matter much.” One hand came up, brushing against the side of her face lightly, before leaning in to kiss her. It was a kiss goodbye. He knew it, but he didn’t know if she could tell. He held it for as long as he could, before pulling back and flashing her a smile. “I still got a couple things to take care of here. Can you go see if they managed to rustle up some breakfast?”
“Not at all,” she said with a smile, before starting to back away. “I’ll be right back.”
She rounded the corner and disappeared, and the next thing Dean heard was the flutter of wings. He turned to see a familiar blond angel standing next to him. He was glad that he didn’t send Zachariah or Raphael. That wouldn’t have gone over well in the slightest. But this? This he could handle.
“Are you ready?” Seraphiel asked, placing her hand on his shoulder gently, and he nodded.
“As ready as I’m gonna be.”
“Do you give yourself over to be the vessel for Michael?”
He paused for a moment, swallowed down how wrong all of this felt, and nodded. “Yes.”
The word was barely out of his mouth before the whole house started to rattle. A bright white light streamed in the window of the room, and the light fixtures started to spark and explode above them. Dean started to close his eyes waiting for the feel of the angel pushing his consciousness to the side, when there was the thunder of footsteps coming from the front of the room.
“Dean!”
“No, Lana, don’t!”
His eyes snapped open to see Lana, Buffy and Oliver running into the room. Buffy had an arm around Lana, keeping her back and Oliver had a knife in his hand, unsure as to who he was supposed to be fighting, but nonetheless convinced that he should be fighting something. Dean couldn’t say anything, could barely hear anything over the roar of Michael in his ears, and that was why Seraphiel stepped forward, in front of him, and smiled.
“Be not afraid. He was destined for this.” A pause. “He chose this.”
With that, everything went white, and Dean was forced to close his eyes as to not blind himself. But eventually the light cleared, the room calmed, and Dean opened his eyes without even realizing he did it. There was this force against him, the even pressure and power of Michael’s consciousness pressed in alongside his own, and then the power.
Jimmy Novak once told him that being a vessel for an angel was like being chained to a comet. Maybe it was because it was Cas that was riding him, but Dean was starting to think that he understated it a little.
His shoulders rolled, seemingly by their own accord, his head tipped to the side, and he could feel the cartilage in his neck popping with the gesture. “Forgive me.” It was his voice, but there was something different to it. An echo that wasn’t his own. “It has been many centuries since I have taken a vessel.”
“ … Dean?” Lana’s face was full of confusion and fear, and Dean couldn’t say he blamed her. He wanted to reach out to her, but he knew he couldn’t. Michael’s eyes trained on her for a moment, and Dean could almost swear that he felt himself smiling.
“Not at this moment,” he said softly. “But you will see him again. There are just some things that need attending to.” His hand relaxed, and he looked down at the piece of paper in his hand before unfolding it. His eyes read over the names, and then he handed it to Seraphiel. “You have your orders.”
The other angel nodded, before disappearing from view. Michael then turned his eyes back to the three humans in front of him, and Lana and Oliver still looked like they had no idea what had just happened. Dean didn’t expect them to. This wasn’t part of their world. Not normally.
“I-I don’t understand.”
Michael started to respond, and Buffy held up a hand. “I’ll explain. You have a job to do.”
Michael nodded, and the world suddenly went black. Dean wasn’t sure what was happening, but there was a soft gentle press against his mind, and then the thunderous sound of Michael in his head.
I think it would be wise to sleep now, Dean. You may not like what you see.
For once, Dean didn’t try to fight it.
He really wasn’t looking to fight another Apocalypse, let alone two at the same time, but it was looking like he wasn’t having much of a choice. Upside of the Kandorians asserting themselves as the dominant race, however, is that they had a cure for Croatoan before it could decimate what was left of the humans. The downside? The red sun was awesome for vampires.
But then again, that’s what Dean had Slayers for.
They were holed up in what was left of the Hyperion Hotel, the five of them-Dean, Faith, Buffy, Cas, and Angel. They had contacts, other factions in other towns, with people they could count on, who were keeping the vampire population down to a minimum, but there was still only so much they could do. They needed to get rid of this red sun-which involved taking on the Kandorians, and that was something that just wasn’t in their wheelhouse. It was aliens, for Christ’s sake. So for the time being they were hiding out until they came up with a plan B.
That plan B happened to come in the form of a resistance movement, with a side of vampires.
Dean and Cas had been bouncing around from city to city ever since the invasion started, until they finally met up with Buffy and Faith and crashed at the Hyperion. There used to be more of them, but between the vampires, the demons, and the Kandorians, their numbers dwindled slowly. They did their best to save who they could, and mourned those they couldn’t.
There were days when Dean still expected Dawn to bound down the stairs and throw her latest theory out at him, all sunshine and smiles despite everything else going on around them, but those were getting few and farther between. For Buffy, he was pretty sure they never really stopped.
Just like he never stopped seeing Sam.
It was rounding the first anniversary of the Kandorians taking over, when Faith burst into the lobby of the hotel, dragging some huge muscled guy behind her, like a little girl hauling around a giant teddy bear she won at the fair. She dropped him down in the middle of the floor in front of Dean and Cas, looking rather smug at herself, and crossed her arms in front of her chest.
“We got something.”
The guy’s name was Eliot Spencer. He was a resistance fighter, or at least they determined that after an extensive battery of tests to make sure he wasn’t a demon or shapeshifter first. He reminded Angel of a guy he used to know, so they weren’t taking any chances. To the guy’s credit, beyond constantly looking like he wanted to punch Dean in the face, he took most of the poking and prodding pretty well. They verified he was human, agreed not to kill him, and then they got down to business.
“Ground zero of this whole mess is Metropolis,” he explained, gesturing to the map in front of them. “That’s where Zod set up his tower that’s doing what it’s doing to the sun.”
“So it’s not some kind of freaky alien power,” Dean clarified. “It’s an actual machine.”
“It’s a tower,” Eliot replied, pointing out it’s location on the map. “From what my team could find, he teamed up with a major corporation to get the funding and painted it as a new way to go green-the tower would absorb solar energy, and manufacture it into a more efficient output.”
“But I’m guessing that that was pretty much a cover and Zod’s plan was to do this whole red sun thing all along,” Buffy sighed. “Who’d they team up with?”
Eliot looked up with an amused eyebrow raise before smirking. “Luthor Corp.”
“Why am I not surprised?” Dean ran a hand over his face.
“Friends of yours?” Eliot asked, and Dean waved a hand.
“I had a bad experience. It’s not important.” It was also a lifetime ago, and he didn’t want to get into it with a guy he barely knew. “What about this tower-if it’s the bad news why doesn’t the resistance just take it out?”
“We can’t get close enough. The Kandorians have made it a restricted zone-they kill anyone who tries to get inside.”
“So you need someone who can get inside without tripping the alarm.” There was a plan forming. “Someone who’s strong enough to take on the Kandorians, and destroy the tower on their own.”
Faith, Cas, and Buffy all had their eyes on him. They knew who Dean was, and the power he had, and they probably knew what he was thinking. Eliot glanced between them warily, trying to figure out what was going on.
“It take it that means you have an idea?” he asked.
“One, and it’s a hail mary, but it’s worth a shot.” He pushed up from the map, glancing down at his watch and throwing on his jacket. “Let’s get loaded up. I want to be on the road in sixty.”
“What are you thinking?” Faith asked, none of them moving from the table until Dean answered the question. He settled the jacket on his shoulders, looking back at them with a sigh before responding.
He sighed. “I’m not thinking anything. Beyond the fact that you-” His eyes tracked to where Eliot was standing, and he smirked. “-are going to take me to your leader.”
***
The drive to Metropolis was a slow one. Angel chose to stay behind in LA, help protect and handle the refugees there, while Dean rounded up as many able bodies as he could without endangering the Hyperion. Faith and Eliot were in a separate part of the caravan-Dean trusted her to keep an eye on him and get violent if needed, but keep him alive enough to get him on the chief’s good side. Cas spent most of the ride passed out in the back seat, and Buffy-
Well, Buffy didn’t do much talking about anything really. There was a time where he wouldn’t be able to get her to shut up, but that was a long time ago. Dean had learned that pushing would only get him a punch in the face, so he kept his mouth shut. Just kept calm and kept driving.
The resistance itself wasn’t exactly in Metropolis. They moved around a lot, with a lot of tricks to keep the Kandorians from tracking their movements. Once they were close enough, Eliot redirected them to Denver, where they came upon a run down compound. It looked abandoned. Dean knew better. The pulled their cars to a stop and were met at the gate by a group of black-clad, ninja looking people. Dean and Buffy glanced at each other for a moment, before he sighed.
“Let’s meet the locals.”
The rest of the caravan piled out of the cars, and the tall blond in the front-their leader, Dean was assuming-stepped forward, crossbow in his hand. “This is private property. You guys probably want to climb back in your car and just keep on going.”
“We’re just here to return something we found,” Faith said, shoving Eliot forward and into the tall guy’s line of vision. The man frowned, reaching for the dagger on his belt, and while Dean went for his gun, and both girls went for their own weapons. Eliot turned, holding up a hand on both sides, before turning back to the blond.
“They’re not Kandorian, Queen.”
“Can’t be too careful, Spencer,” ‘Queen’ replied, before removing the sheath on the knife he was holding. The knife glowed bright green, but all it made Dean and company do is look confused. After a moment, he slid the knife back into its sheath, and slipped it back onto his belt. “I’m Oliver Queen. There a reason you kidnapped one of our members and brought him back to us?”
“They’re here to see Watchtower,” Eliot explained, and Oliver stiffened even more, if it were possible.
“And who are you exactly?”
“Well,” Buffy began. “I don’t know if all of us are that important, but he’s Dean Winchester.” Her thumb jerked back over her shoulder to where Dean was standing, and he gave them a thin smirk before waving.
“Hi. How ya doin’?”
The look on Eliot and Oliver’s faces made it clear that Dean showing up was like an answered prayer. Oliver moved to the gate to unlock it and let them through. “Come on in. I’ll take you to the boss.”
“See?” Dean said with a grin. “Easy as pie.”
***
“Jason Teague?”
Okay, maybe it wasn’t as easy as he thought. If it was, he wouldn’t be standing face to face with Chloe Sullivan right about now. At first, Dean was too stunned to even comment, just stood there staring at her until Cas’s voice behind him snapped him out of it.
“Jason Teague is not his name. I believe that is one of Dean’s many-”
“Okay, let’s not get into that. Chloe. Hi. Long time no see.”
Chloe just continued to look stunned, before shaking her head and giving him a look. “I think we should get into it, ‘Dean.’ What the hell is going on?”
“Yeah, Dean,” Buffy smirked, crossing her arms in front of her chest. “What the hell is going on?”
He ran a hand over his face before sighing. “Okay. My name isn’t Jason Teague. I was-” Damn, he really didn’t have a good lie to this one. “-I was in witness protection.”
Chloe didn’t buy it for a second. “Witness protection.”
“Self … imposed witness protection, but still.”
She still wasn’t impressed. “You better come up with something better than that before-”
“Jason?”
At that voice Dean froze, completely. He took a breath for a moment, before turning around and meeting Lana’s eyes with his own. “Lana. Hey.”
“Oh, this is gonna be good,” Faith said as she moved closer to Buffy. “You want to explain that ‘witness protection’ to her too, Deano?”
“What?”
Lana looked confused. Dean didn’t blame her. He grit his teeth, and glared back at Faith. “Damnit, Faith.”
Neither girl looked like they were going to give him any slack on this one, and Lana wasn’t pleased either. When he turned to look at her again, she was glaring, with her arms crossed in front of her chest.
“What the hell is going on?”
“I-I can explain,” he said with a sigh, before glancing around. “Can … we do it somewhere without the peanut gallery?”
She paused for a moment, before nodding, and tipping her head to the side to lead him out of the room. Dean wasn’t expecting to make it out alive.
***
There was anger. There was yelling. There was a small smidge of violence. But in the end, they both decided they had bigger concerns to worry about. End of the world and all. Sure, Lana was angry with him for a while, but at the end of the day-she was Lana, and he was still him, and she never managed to stay mad at him for long. In reality, the only thing that he had lied to her about was his name-and his job, but that was a given for his profession. A name was something that they could get past, especially when they were both fighting a common enemy.
And if it happened to be more than just fighting alongside each other and they fell back into old patterns, then Dean wasn’t exactly one to complain. There was something about Lana that he had missed more than he could possibly say. Having it in his life again, even if it was just because the world was ending, was worth it.
It was a few months of fending off the preternatural and staying on the move before Chloe stormed in one night, shaking them both awake and telling them that they had to move. They had just gotten word from one of their inside sources that some of their people were in trouble. They were moving, and they were moving now.
Twelve hours later, they got to Smallville, rescued Lois and Clark, lost their inside source, and confused more people with the fact that no, his name wasn’t Jason, and yes, they’ve been over this. Get with the program. Not long after, they were back at headquarters, trying to come up with a plan to stop Zod once and for all.
And Lois? She traveled through time.
“We need to get that Legion ring back,” Clark said, hands planted down on the table. “If we do, we can send Lois back, and she can warn everyone and fix this.”
Dean knew that Clark was upset. He’d just lost his girl to Chloe’s itchy trigger finger, and there was no coming back from that one, but he wasn’t so sure that confronting Zod head on to try and get the ring back was the way to do it. True, the tower needed to be destroyed, but that didn’t necessarily mean that humans had to be the ones to do it. He was quiet for a moment, before speaking up.
“What if we didn’t need the ring to send Lois back?”
All eyes turned on him, including Castiel’s, but Cas looked less happy than the rest of them. “I do not think this is wise idea, Dean.”
“It’s the only idea we’ve got, Cas. And it’s better than going up against Zod.”
“There’s no guarantee that he won’t kill you on sight.”
“How about you guys let the rest of us in on the little secret?” Chloe asked, raising an eyebrow as the rest of them waited for them to fill in the blanks. Dean and Cas glanced at each other for a moment, and Cas opened his mouth before Dean could respond.
“Dean plans on contacting Lucifer.”
“What?!”
“Wow, Cas. That was almost in stereo,” Dean rolled his eyes.
“You want to bring in the Devil to help us?” Chloe said, and the skepticism in her voice was all too clear.
“He’s not what you think,” Buffy filled in for him, and glaring at Dean. “He is very real, and this is a very stupid plan.”
“He wants the Kandorians gone just as much as we do, he can teleport, and angels have the power of time travel. He’s actually the best weapon we got. And if I’m the one asking, I stand more of a chance than anyone else.”
Cas sighed next to him. “That … he does have a point with. But I will be going with him.”
“And I’m going too.”
Dean’s eyes snapped to Chloe and he gave her a look. “That is a stupid plan.”
“If he’s going to help, I want him to know who he’s helping.” She paused. “And I want to make sure you’re not completely nuts.”
Dean sighed. He should have seen this one coming, but he knew there was no way of talking her out of it. “Alrighty then. Let’s go call my brother.”
They all stared at him for a moment. “I thought we were going to talk to Lucifer?” Chloe frowned.
Then Lois whispered. “I thought you said that Sam was dead?”
“Slight exaggeration,” Dean replied, before fixing Chloe with a look, and turning to leave. “C’mon, let’s get this over with.”
***
“I have to say, Dean. This is unexpected.”
The rain pounded against the outside of the shack they had summoned Lucifer in, lightening flashing occasionally in the windows. Dean didn’t care, however. He was too busy not to attach Sam to the face that Lucifer was wearing. It helped that they didn’t dress the same-a white pressed suit, and his hair slicked back away from his face-it wasn’t Sam like. But that didn’t make it any less Sam, because he knew his brother was in there, clawing to try and make his way to the surface, and there was nothing Dean could do to help him. It was his fault that they were there in the first place, after all. Lucifer took a step forward, one hand coming up with a hand resting under Chloe’s chin.
“And with such attractive company.”
If it had been any other person, he was sure that Chloe would have jerked away, but Lucifer had a way of having you make no sudden moves. Mouthing off wasn’t advisable to someone who could make you spontaneously combust. She did look away, though, not wanting to give him any more than he already had.
“I want to make a deal.”
His eyes picked up, and he turned back to Dean, but he didn’t move his hand from Chloe’s chin. It was a threat, and he knew it. A subtle one, but a threat nonetheless. Dean made any stupid moves, and he would snap Chloe’s neck, and Dean knew it.
“A deal with the Devil. How ... quaint.” He let Chloe’s chin go, before starting to make his way around her, his hand trailing against her shoulder. “And what exactly is this deal of yours?”
“You give me what I want, you get what you want.”
“Elaborate.”
“The Kandorians are a problem. They’re effecting your timetable, and they’re enslaving the human race-isn’t that supposed to be your job?”
“No, Dean. The annihilation of the human race is my job. But you know that.”
“How about this-you help us out with the Kandorians, and I say yes.” Dean could have sworn that he saw Lucifer’s eyes light up at the suggestion. He’s been itching for the final battle since he jumped Sam’s meat, and Dean knew it. It took everything he had not to flinch, not to break the silence and lose the con, but he did, staring down the Devil until he blinked.
“You say yes before I do this for you. Put Michael in a position where he and I can fight the Kandorians side by side, and I will do as you ask.”
“Say yes?” Chloe was confused. “Say yes to what?”
“To be Michael’s vessel. Michael can’t come to the party without my consent.”
“Do we have a deal, Dean? Are you going to be my brother’s date to the prom?”
Cas was flashing him a look that said that this was a bad idea, and Dean knew that it was. But he had a plan-maybe not a particularly good one, but it was a plan, and hopefully, in the end, things would pan out.
“Not gonna make me kiss you, are you?” he snapped, raising an eyebrow. Lucifer smirked, his hand landing on Chloe’s shoulder.
“You have until tomorrow. Don’t disappoint me, Dean.” He paused, then leaned forward to whisper in her ear. “It’s been a pleasure, Miss Sullivan.” And before she could respond, he was gone.
It took Chloe a moment to regain herself, but when she did, she didn’t leave much room for leeway. She took a breath, straightened up, and fixed Dean with a look that probably could have killed if he wasn’t careful.
“Explain,” she snapped as she stalked her way closer. “Now.”
***
When Dean dreamed, he remembered the way the world used to be. A yellow sun, green plants, people going about their daily lives as though nothing had happened. There were no Kandorians, no demons, no angels. Only the people who lived in the world, day in and day out. He didn’t pick specific people, people he wanted to see or people he missed more than anything. They were just people, the people the planet was made for, the people he did his job for.
The people he was going to have to sacrifice if they wanted to win this war.
It made him sick to his stomach to do it, but Dean didn’t think they had much of a choice left. Lucifer had Sam. There was no getting him out of Sam. No angelic exorcism, no trapping him in holy oil. Add to it the fact that the angels were the only ones who could stop the Kandorians. And in order to fight them, Michael needed a vessel. He had tried to contact Michael, tried to get him to come down to hear Dean’s terms, but he had failed. Michael was gone. That plan was in the crapper.
He didn’t tell anyone that, though. He still let them have hope, let them have faith that he could convince Lucifer to still follow through, even without Michael. They needed to have faith in something, and Dean was willing to be that for the time being. This was going to be Custer’s last stand, but with twice the bloodshed, and Dean did the best he could to keep morale up and not treat it like that. He smiled, he laughed, he spent the night with his girl, and when he fell asleep next to her, he dreamed.
He knew within a second that it wasn’t going to be an ordinary dream when he saw the person in it.
“Hello, Dean.”
To Michael’s credit, he knew how to go for emotional impact. Turning around to find your long-dead father standing there was enough to make any guy stand up and pay attention. But Dean wasn’t in the mood for emotional pandering. He didn’t want to make a deal with a guy wearing his father’s skin.
“Dude, you picked the wrong face,” he said with a glower as he looked away. Michael didn’t move, didn’t even blink, just watched him carefully.
“I thought it would be appropriate,” he said, looking down at himself. “Considering that your father’s blood is where your ability to be my vessel comes from.”
“You thought wrong. Pick another face.”
There was a soft noise, like the rustle of wings, and when he turned again, he was facing Dawn, and his mood didn’t improve by much. She was another person who was long gone and never coming back, and he didn’t want t be reminded of that fact either, but she was better than the alternative. Relatively speaking.
“Will this suffice?”
“Yeah,” Dean sighed. “I guess it’ll do.”
She moved to sit next to him on the park bench, her eyes wandering out into the landscape of his dream. She was quiet for a moment, before turning back to him again. “You wished to speak with me.”
He nodded slowly, unsure as to how to put the words out there, but eventually just spitting it out. “I want to make a deal.”
“I’m not a demon, Dean. I don’t provide magic fixes in exchange for your soul.”
“What about my body?”
Michael’s eyes snapped back to attention on him again. “You intend to say yes.”
“I do. But I have some conditions first.” Dean’s hand came up before Michael could interrupt. “Look, you’ll get what you want. You can wear me to the prom, and have your Apocalypse-it’s not like there’s much left of the planet anyway. I just want to make sure that the people who have fought for this won’t just get wiped out in the aftermath.”
Michael stiffened, and wasn’t pleased with the conditions being placed upon him, but he nodded. “Fine. What are your conditions?”
“First, which I know you’re going to love, you help the resistance take out the Kandorians. I’m pretty sure you were planning on doing that anyway, but I want you to do it on my timetable. You work with your brother. You take out Zod and his army first. And then you deal with Lucifer.”
If an angel could roll his eyes, he could swear that that was what Michael was doing right then. Maybe it was his mind projecting because he was wearing Dawn’s face, but it amused him that he was getting on the archangel’s case that much. “I assume that isn’t the only concern.”
“No. The people that have helped me the most are going to be right at the epicenter of this, and I don’t want anything to happen to them. You and your brothers-you’re planning on restarting the planet. I want them to be in it. And I want Castiel restored to what he was, reinstated in the garrison-not killed.”
“You don’t trust me. You have no reason to believe that I’ll actually do it. You are only truly doing that to dissuade your own guilt.”
He was right. Dean figured that Michael was like all the rest, and was just going to screw him as soon as he got what he wanted. But he needed at least to try. “Guess it’s a chance for you to prove me wrong, then.”
Michael was silent for a long time, clearly stumped by what Dean said, but eventually he nodded. “Make your list. I will see you in the morning.”
Dean snapped awake next to Lana, not feeling anywhere near rested, but he knew that he had too much to do to sleep.
***
“There you are.”
It was a few hours before Lana woke up and joined him in the main room, and he had pretty much finalized the list of people he wanted Michael to save. He looked up at her, and met her smile, folding the paper in his hands. He pushed up and made his way closer, wrapping his arms around her and leaning in close. He knew he didn’t have a whole lot of time, so he wanted to take advantage while he had it. He let his lips rest against the top of her head, just soaking in the silence until she spoke again.
“How long have you been out here?”
“Couple hours. There were some things I needed to take care of before the raid.”
“And getting a good night’s sleep wasn’t one of them?” She pulled back enough to look him in the eye, and he smirked a little, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. He could feel that it didn’t.
“My end of the plan, sleep doesn’t really matter much.” One hand came up, brushing against the side of her face lightly, before leaning in to kiss her. It was a kiss goodbye. He knew it, but he didn’t know if she could tell. He held it for as long as he could, before pulling back and flashing her a smile. “I still got a couple things to take care of here. Can you go see if they managed to rustle up some breakfast?”
“Not at all,” she said with a smile, before starting to back away. “I’ll be right back.”
She rounded the corner and disappeared, and the next thing Dean heard was the flutter of wings. He turned to see a familiar blond angel standing next to him. He was glad that he didn’t send Zachariah or Raphael. That wouldn’t have gone over well in the slightest. But this? This he could handle.
“Are you ready?” Seraphiel asked, placing her hand on his shoulder gently, and he nodded.
“As ready as I’m gonna be.”
“Do you give yourself over to be the vessel for Michael?”
He paused for a moment, swallowed down how wrong all of this felt, and nodded. “Yes.”
The word was barely out of his mouth before the whole house started to rattle. A bright white light streamed in the window of the room, and the light fixtures started to spark and explode above them. Dean started to close his eyes waiting for the feel of the angel pushing his consciousness to the side, when there was the thunder of footsteps coming from the front of the room.
“Dean!”
“No, Lana, don’t!”
His eyes snapped open to see Lana, Buffy and Oliver running into the room. Buffy had an arm around Lana, keeping her back and Oliver had a knife in his hand, unsure as to who he was supposed to be fighting, but nonetheless convinced that he should be fighting something. Dean couldn’t say anything, could barely hear anything over the roar of Michael in his ears, and that was why Seraphiel stepped forward, in front of him, and smiled.
“Be not afraid. He was destined for this.” A pause. “He chose this.”
With that, everything went white, and Dean was forced to close his eyes as to not blind himself. But eventually the light cleared, the room calmed, and Dean opened his eyes without even realizing he did it. There was this force against him, the even pressure and power of Michael’s consciousness pressed in alongside his own, and then the power.
Jimmy Novak once told him that being a vessel for an angel was like being chained to a comet. Maybe it was because it was Cas that was riding him, but Dean was starting to think that he understated it a little.
His shoulders rolled, seemingly by their own accord, his head tipped to the side, and he could feel the cartilage in his neck popping with the gesture. “Forgive me.” It was his voice, but there was something different to it. An echo that wasn’t his own. “It has been many centuries since I have taken a vessel.”
“ … Dean?” Lana’s face was full of confusion and fear, and Dean couldn’t say he blamed her. He wanted to reach out to her, but he knew he couldn’t. Michael’s eyes trained on her for a moment, and Dean could almost swear that he felt himself smiling.
“Not at this moment,” he said softly. “But you will see him again. There are just some things that need attending to.” His hand relaxed, and he looked down at the piece of paper in his hand before unfolding it. His eyes read over the names, and then he handed it to Seraphiel. “You have your orders.”
The other angel nodded, before disappearing from view. Michael then turned his eyes back to the three humans in front of him, and Lana and Oliver still looked like they had no idea what had just happened. Dean didn’t expect them to. This wasn’t part of their world. Not normally.
“I-I don’t understand.”
Michael started to respond, and Buffy held up a hand. “I’ll explain. You have a job to do.”
Michael nodded, and the world suddenly went black. Dean wasn’t sure what was happening, but there was a soft gentle press against his mind, and then the thunderous sound of Michael in his head.
I think it would be wise to sleep now, Dean. You may not like what you see.
For once, Dean didn’t try to fight it.