Wire In A Fire, Last Chapter
Title: Wire In A Fire
Author: Unstoppablei
Pairings: Cas/OC
Chapters: 7/8
Rating: M, for language, drug use, sexual content, misery, zombies, and the end of the world
Notes/Spoilers: Companion piece to Of The World, set in the alternate universe of "The End." Canon: Thru the end of season 5. Fandom: This is part of my It's The End ''verse, with spoilers thru the end of Of The World.
Summary: Dean comes from the past to witness the devastation, and maybe -- just maybe -- this might change everything. Final chapter!
Link to Chapter 1 and the Master Chapter Post
Chapter 8: The Other Night I Dreamt Of Knives
It was cool cool, it was just all cool
Now it's over for me and it's over for you
The moment he touched down in their world, Eli sensed it.
It was like a breath of fresh air had blown through the stench of death and fire to rest lightly on her shoulder, and she knew, knew down to her very bones that this was what she had been waiting for all along. This is what she had glimpsed when her perception was still clouded. This was the end.
She smiled grimly, hand touching the always-cold collar around her neck. Maybe eternity wouldn't be as long as they thought.
"What are you smiling about, pet?"
Eli continued to stare out the window, one hand idly playing with her ridiculous, too-white hair. "Dean is coming," she said softly. Lucifer made a small noise in the back of his throat.
"Of course he is. Today is the day that I am going to kill him." He paused, and she could feel his eyes on the back of her head. "Or were you still holding out hope that that silly gun could actually kill me?"
She shook her head slightly. "No. I can see everything. Dean will die."
"Hm," he said, put-off by her strange, flat answers, but by that point he was used to it. It turned out that having an immensely powerful pet was not as gratifying as he thought it would be. Most of the time she just sat there peacefully, like listening to music no one else could hear. She didn't even protest that much when he had her wipe out cities or flatten towns. She just did it. Calmly, a little sadly, just waved her hand with a bored gesture and left him to gloat by himself. He wanted emotion, rebellion. He wanted something to break. He wanted to win.
"I'll see you tonight," he purred, touching her hair lightly, and was amused when she flinched, even if was for a fraction of a second. "To celebrate."
He disappeared with the softest flurry of wings.
Eli continued to stare out the window.
The truth was, even collared, her powers were vaster than he could have imagined, like she was connected to every atom running through the universe. The truth was, when he wasn't looking, when she appeared to be bored and servile, she was actually far away, watching the lives of those she loved but unable to interfere, waiting for the end.
She saw Castiel spiral into darkness, saw Dean lose the little pieces of his soul that he still had left. She was there the day that Jo hung herself in her closet. And she saw Chuck…
Well, she saw Chuck. And she knew, and she hated him for it.
But everything was different now. Everything could change. For the first time in a very long time, there was hope.
Eli waited.
When Dean first walked into his cabin, Castiel thought that all of the drugs had finally broken his mind. But his mostly-dead angel powers flared weakly to life to tell him that no, it was true: Dean had traveled through time. There was still hope.
Of course, Dean being the stubborn ass he was, there wasn't much of it.
"There is a different way things could have gone," Castiel insisted that night. They were in the car, speeding in the pre-dawn darkness toward Lucifer and what looked to be the final battle. "You can set things right, Dean. I know you can."
"Says the dude who just downed amphetamines to counteract absinthe," Dean muttered darkly.
Castiel shook his head, keeping his eyes on the road. "I'm still the same, underneath. Still your friend. And I am telling you, no, begging you, please, please say yes to Michael."
"Why are you saying this?" Dean demanded. "If I say yes, half the planet will get roasted. There has to be another way."
"Look around you, Dean. This is not fake. It is not a dream, or an illusion. This is your future. And while you're here for three days, we've been living it for five years." Castiel's voice was harsher and lower than it had been for a long time, his hands gripping the wheel until his knuckles turned white. "Do you want to know what your future is? We live without food, clean water, amenities. We watched California sink into the ocean, governments collapse. We've had to shoot our friends. We've lost everything we've ever loved, and we go to bed each night praying, praying that we don't wake up in the morning."
"Why do you have two rings around your neck?" Dean asked in a careful voice. Castiel swung on him, taking his eyes off of the road to glare at the younger hunter.
"Because I was married, and because the woman I loved is dead."
"I thought she was…"
"She's dead."
Dean fell silent, watching the burned houses and busted trees rush by them, the world the dim blue of when the sun is just beyond the horizon. "Why do they keep calling her a dog?"
Castiel squeezed his eyes shut for just a moment, his voice jagged and rough. "Because that's what you call something that wears a collar."
The sun rose in the distance, setting the smoggy sky on fire. The world exploded in reds and oranges and yellow, beautiful and sick. Castiel popped another pill, and waited for the end.
Lucifer finally got what he wanted from her. A rebellion. Something to break.
She was stronger than he thought. It was oddly touching, the way she ground her heels into the dirt and bore the pain, fists clenched, how she refused even as the collar peeled the skin away from her body in flaming chunks, punishing her for her disobedience. How she really seemed to believe that she could hold out indefinitely, powered by love alone. Yes, touching was a good word. And stupid. Stupid was a good word as well.
And the look on Castiel's face…well, that was just the icing on the cake. His anguish was almost too sweet, the sheer impotence of his situation, her fire reflected in those blue eyes. It felt like winning.
And then, oh, and then, the mortal angel pulled a hidden gun from the side of his leg and shot himself in the head, a clean, crisp shot that sent blood spraying outward like red paint across the grass. That was beautiful.
Her punishment ceased immediately. Eli looked down with relief at her skin, whole and unblemished, for one dazed moment of innocence before catching sight of his body splayed on the ground.
"Oh no," she whimpered, dropping to her knees as if all the muscles in her body had given out. She dragged herself to him, mud and blood seeping stickily into her white dress. "Oh, God, no…" She was even crying. He hadn't seen her cry in such a long time.
The living Dean, the one from the past, was watching the scene with such horror on his face it looked like he was about to be sick. Lucifer smiled widely.
"You see, Dean, I win," he said, his voice glutted with glee and triumph. Inside of his head, Sam started shouting, the first noise he had made in months, scratching his claws at the inside of their shared skull. Lucifer brutally shut him up. "No matter how the game is played, no matter what you change, in the end, I always get what I want. So, I win."
Everything was beautiful, so absolutely beautiful. His world. Soon to be cleansed and perfect. He would be God to a new race, and she would be broken, and his. Always his.
"Kill me," Eli's voice rang out. Lucifer jerked to look at her. She had pulled Castiel's head in her lap, stroking his hair with loving, tender fingers, her dress and hands drenched in blood. And she was staring at Dean. "Only an Archangel can. Dean, you can stop all of this. I have to die. It's the only way."
She was telling him secrets. That was not allowed. She was supposed to be broken. "Stop," Lucifer ordered.
"Kill me, Dean," she said in a firm, clear voice. Lucifer stepped forward, raising his hand, waiting for the moment the collar would sear her flesh.
There was a flash of light, and Dean was gone, leaving the two of them alone in the field. Eli bent her head over Castiel's body, raining soft, salty kisses on his face, and for a moment, just a brief, brief moment, Lucifer found himself strangely disconcerted by such love in the face of death.
It passed quickly. He rolled his shoulders, savoring the taste of victory in the air. "Well, I guess our Dean didn't succeed," he said cheerily. "We're still here."
Eli's shoulders were shaking, her face still lowered and covered by a curtain of hair. Then he realized what was happening and took a stumbling step back.
She wasn't crying. She was laughing.
"Not for long," Eli said, lifting her face to the sky. He shook his head frantically.
"No! This is my world! My world! My…"
Everything went white, and the future ceased to be.
The clock ticked back relentlessly, and for a brief moment Eli had the sense of falling through everything that had happened, through darkness punctuated by flashes of what could have been.
"Because I was married, and because the woman I loved is dead."
"D'ya ever think about what could have happened? Like, if my mom hadn't died, or if Dean had said yes, or Sam had said no. If life had just… kept on going, way it was supposed to."
"I promise you, we'll kill the devil."
"Goodbye, love. My angel. My one good thing left in this whole world. Goodbye."
"I just love you so much."
"And that makes you cry?"
"I know many a demon that would just love to sink their claws into good ol' Castiel."
"You've been draining your power helping me to heal. And you've been worrying about me, haven't you?"
"If it makes you feel any better, I plan to use that one bullet of mine as soon as I'm done."
"I had the same idea."
"Marry me, Eli."
"I feel like we took a wrong step somewhere. Like none of this was supposed to happen. Like when I close my eyes I can almost see another reality, another way things could have gone. The right way."
"Stupidest plan in the world. What is this, the Clark Kent school of disguise?"
"Until we figure things out, expect that anyone can betray us. Hell, if I were in their position, it's what I'd do."
"Nobody is handing anybody over to Lucifer!"
"The angels leaving did this?"
"It's gone. Most of it. The moment they left it was like watching water slip through my fingers."
"Fight him, Sam. Don't let this all be a mistake."
"I promise. I won't give up."
"Just wait. It's going to get much, much worse."
"I don't know if he's gonna come around, Sam."
"He will. We're brothers."
"I hope to God you're right."
And then…
Water was falling softly on her head. Eli blinked and looked around the tiny motel shower, her hands still partially soapy. She took a deep breath, inhaling steam and the scent of shampoo, and tried to clear her thoughts. What had just happened? It was like some hugely important thing had occurred, but it was slipping to the edge of her consciousness, and the harder she tried to grasp it the further it moved away, until it was just a fuzzy dark cloud of something.
She shook her head and continued rinsing her hair. Oh well. Probably nothing.
The bathroom door clicked open and Castiel stuck his head in. "Zachariah has Dean," he informed her gravely. "I am going to bring him here."
She pulled aside the shower curtain so that her wet face was visible. "Okay. Just…wait until the last minute, if you can. You never know when Zach's gonna let slip something important."
Castiel nodded, his eyes on the partially-opaque curtain. She grinned and motioned for him to come closer; when he was within arm's reach she grabbed his shirt with one wet hand and pulled him in for a kiss.
"Maybe when Dean's gone we can take another shower?" she murmured, grinning like an idiot. He kissed her again, tugging gently at her lower lip with his teeth.
"I'll get rid of him quickly."
When he was gone Eli returned to her shower, cranking up the water until it was near-scalding and rinsing the last of the shampoo out of her hair. For some reason the hot water seemed particularly glorious, like she hadn't felt it in a long time. Eyes closed, warm and comfortable, her lover off saving Dean from the clutches of a particularly nasty angel, Eli found herself singing, ever so softly, under her breath.
"Let's see how far we've come, let's see how far we've come."
It was like that song was important, once, but it didn't matter anymore.
Eli stepped out of the shower, and into reality.
The End