Unexpected Destinies Chapter 83
Title: Unexpected Destinies
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: up to and including Exile on Main St., AU from the end of season 5
Warnings: AU, slash
Word Count: 2,429
Summary: Dean and Michael explain angelic vessels to the Vatican.
PAST
"Crap," Dean muttered.
He'd just known that the whole possessed vessel thing was going to come back and bite him in the ass. Dean just hadn't expected it to happen here, in Europe. He'd thought himself safe over here as there was no one he knew that they might run into unlike back home as had already happened with Roy. It had been a foolish assumption apparently and damn but he really needed to do some background research into the Vatican and the power and reach of the Roman Catholic Church. Grudgingly he acknowledged that this would not have happened if Sam had been with them as his little brother would have gone nuts at the excuse to do some in-depth research into a topic that had as much lore, information and mysticism associated with it as this religion did.
"Well?" Clown guy demanded.
"It's... complicated," Dean replied lamely, suddenly hyperaware of exactly how many people were in the room.
Normally he didn't suffer from performance anxiety of any kind, but Dean knew that this was a bit different from the situations he normally found himself in. Not the least because the Vatican was such a powerful ally to have and they were clearly well connected. He briefly cursed Father Pieter-Jan but then made himself stop. The priest had probably felt so incredibly blessed and special to have met the archangel that he'd probably sent word back to Rome as soon as he'd been able to. And none of that would have been a problem if neither the priest nor someone else hadn't been such an excellent artist.
"Complicated? Is it really, Michael?" Anrig questioned, stepping closer.
Dean blinked in disbelief and shock. "Dude, you really think that I'm Michael?"
The look of doubt that crossed clown guy's face told Dean all that he needed to know. He clearly wasn't their idea of an angel, let alone the lofty Michael himself, but Father Pieter-Jan must have told them about what he'd witnessed as they weren't willing to let go of the idea entirely just yet. He nearly groaned as he realized that they were going to have to explain the whole vessel thing to everyone present here. He'd kinda hoped to avoid that as talking about vessels would inevitably lead to questions about who could host an angel and, he feared, it might eventually turn to talk about Lucifer's vessel and that was something he'd rather avoid altogether. The last thing they needed was some rogue vigilante to go after Sam thinking that he was saving the world from the devil himself by eliminating Lucifer's one true vessel.
No way was he letting someone like that go after his little brother, estranged or not.
"Dean told you the truth, I am Michael," the archangel declared firmly.
"Is this an exam?" the phone dude asked. "Do we need to pass to prove ourselves worthy?"
"No."
This time Dean did groan as he knew that Michael simply wasn't going to get through to them that way. "Okay, stop. Does she look like an angel to you?"
"No," clown guy replied, startled.
Dean could understand the man's surprise as at first glance it seemed like he'd completely switched his position around. "How about Raphael, did he look like an angel?"
There was a low murmur in the room now and Dean could sense the growing confusion and rising tension. Almost absently he picked up the subtle hand gesture clown guy made and the way his clown men responded, slowly moving either closer to himself and Michael or moving to protect the pope where the old man stood with his cardinals.
"Are you saying none of them- Michael, Raphael and Castiel- are really angels?" phone guy demanded, voice higher with something like fear now.
"Not at all," Dean countered quickly, not wanting to lose control of this situation. "Just ask Father Mancini if he's here somewhere."
"Here," a familiar voice called out and Dean turned to see him pushing his way towards them. "Dean right, Castiel is an angel. He had wings of shadow."
"He showed them to you?" Michael questioned in surprise.
"Yes."
"You should be honored, we do not show our wings to many."
Father Mancini's eyes opened wide at that statement and he looked close to passing out. Dean nearly stepped forwards to help but was beaten to it by Father Giordano who seemingly materialized out of thin air. The sudden appearance of familiar faces helped put him at ease and he wondered why they hadn't just had Father Giordano contact him this time like before. It would make things so much easier if he had a consistent point of contact and he'd have to see if he couldn't arrange for that to be the case. Surely neither Giordano nor Mancini would mind.
"They weren't wings of shadow," Dean corrected. "But rather the shadow of one of his pairs of wings."
"The shadow? Why the shadow?" clown guy demanded.
"Because the actual wings are part of Castiel's true form and that is something most humans can't bear to see."
"Wait, slow down," phone guy requested.
Surprised, Dean turned around and was startled to find that people seemed to be talking to each other behind the man. Or no, not talking, translating. Glancing around, he found that it was happening everywhere and even Father Mancini seemed unable to keep up on his own, relying instead on Father Giordano to keep him abreast of what was going on. This clearly wasn't going to work as they hadn't even gotten to the most difficult bits yet. He briefly considered trying to say it Latin but quickly dismissed the notion, not only was his Latin not nearly good enough, but he doubted that things like 'vessel' and 'true form' would translate well into such an archaic language. Which left only one other option.
"What language do most people present speak or at the very least understand to a reasonable degree?" Dean asked, glancing back at clown guy.
"Excuse me?" Anrig replied.
"What language? Is it Italian?"
"Most of us do speak Italian, yes. Why?"
It would be far easier to show them then to explain it so Dean turned instead to Michael. "Can you give me Italian? Like Cas gave me Enochian?"
"Yes. Would you like me to it here and now?"
"Please," Dean said as he stepped closer. "You've been awfully quiet, by the way."
"I thought it best not to interfere where I know so little," Michael replied.
"Dean?" Father Mancini called out.
"Just a moment," Dean responded. "This will make things much easier."
Michael had two fingers on his forehead but Dean didn't feel anything until their eyes met and he nodded once. Just like before, he felt like something was being poured into his mind and it made his brain feel like it was swelling. Having experienced it once before, he was prepared for the headache that slammed into him but he was also more willing to allow his mind to tune everything out as he knew how it all ended. When he came round again, he had the weirdest sense of deja vu as he found himself once again resting his head on an angel's shoulder while said angel had an arm wrapped around his waist. Only this time he was also aware of the wings cradling his body as well and the archangel in question was Michael rather than Castiel. Despite that, he allowed himself a moment to just catch his breath and reorient himself though he did start listening to what was going on around him.
"So these vessels allow you the interact with us without risking our health?"
The flow of the speech and the grammar of the question was so much smoother and better then he was used to hearing that it took Dean a moment to recognize Father Mancini as the speaker. It took him a few more seconds to realize that it had been spoken entirely in Italian. Damn but that was never going to get any less weird! Thanks to the Enochian he'd already gotten downloaded into his skull a few months ago, he'd gotten used to how this whole other language thing really worked, but it still felt odd. It was as if the Italian hadn't fully settled in yet in the same way that the Enochian had as it took him a bit longer to figure it out than the angelic language did.
"Yes, that is precisely it."
"And you were using Dean Winchester as your vessel when you went to see Father Pieter-Jan in Belgium for the blessing from the boy?"
That one was clown guy and Dean realized that Michael must have explained far more then he'd thought possible in such a short amount of time. The moment he started moving, the wings wrapped around him shifted and pulled back, allowing him to see the room around them. The other men, some of whom he recognized from before and some of whom he didn't, had all drawn closer and hung onto every word that the archangel was saying. He did notice, however, that while the pope and his cardinals had come forward a little, they were still further off. Were they waiting for the all clear from Anrig to make the final approach? It made logical sense now that he thought about it, especially if there had been doubts as to exactly who and what he was, but it still kinda surprised him that they were being this cautious when there were angels involved.
"Yes," Michael confirmed before turning his attention to him. "Dean? Are you feeling better?"
"Yeah, the headache's just about gone." Dean didn't need the collective intake of breath to know that he'd startled almost everyone around them. He'd made it more than clear during his previous visit that he didn't understand any Italian whatsoever, so to have him suddenly speaking in it had to be quite unexpected. "Thanks."
"It was my pleasure, Little One."
The use of the nickname in front of others who weren't related to either of them made Dean scowl. "Dude, not cool!"
Michael merely raised an eyebrow as Dean took a step back and that just made him scowl even more. Okay so there were clearly human characteristics and traits he didn't like to see the archangel pick up, or at least not if Michael intended to use them against him. That just wasn't fair, damnit.
"How? What?" phone guy questioned.
"Michael just downloaded Italian into my brain," Dean explained succinctly. "I figured it would make things easier then having to deal with multiple languages."
The information surprised them but it didn't seem to hold clown guy back for very long. Not that this caught Dean off-guard as he was quickly starting to view the man as some kind of federal agent equivalent only more versed in his world and all that went with it. It drew a reluctant sort of admiration from him even if Anrig's whole demeanor still annoyed him, but that probably had more to do with the fact that he was on the wrong end of it then anything else.
"Why were you using him as your vessel then and not now?" clown guy demanded.
"Because what we needed in Belgium was part of a Rite with very strict requirements and as my true vessel, Dean was the only one who could fulfill them," Michael replied.
"True vessel?"
"I am an archangel, there are almost none who can contain my full power and not be adversely affected by it. Dean is one of those rare few."
Oh great, now he was the center of attention yet again. Dean really wished that he could slink off to a dark corner just about now and leave everything to the archangel as Michael seemed to be doing a good job of it on his own and he really didn't like being the center of attention, not like this. When he was in control, then sure, bring it on, but not like this and not for these reasons. Freaking angels.
"Then why are you not in him now?" Anrig asked.
"Because Dean is so much more then a mere vessel," Michael responded before Dean could stop him. "Father clearly has more planned for him than simply housing me."
"Can we get on with things?" Dean inquired, hoping to change the topic of conversation before the archangel started blabbing his mouth off even more. And what had he been thinking letting Michael talk anyway, he should have known something like this would come up. "You called us here for a reason, right?"
"Is it normal for family members to both be vessels like Dean and his aunt here?" clown guy demanded.
Dean's head snapped around to stare at Anrig as his entire body tensed. "How the hell do you know that?"
"Excus-"
"How do you know who she is?"
The way clown guy's hand tightened on the folder he held would have gone unnoticed by most people, but not by Dean. He caught it and then his eyes snapped up to Anrig's face and he could tell that the man knew what he'd seen. He took a step forwards to demand that clown guy hand it over, but the guy stepped back at the same moment, clearly not intending to make things easy for him. There was a flutter of wings and then Michael stood right beside Anrig and the archangel had grabbed the folder from the man's grasp before clown guy even realized that the angel was there. Then Michael was beside him once more, handing him the folder.
"Thanks," Dean said, startled.
He hadn't expected the archangel to do that but he'd been the center of Castiel's attention often enough to no longer be freaked by how closely Michael must have been observing him to have caught his silent exchange with clown guy. Anrig sputtered a bit but then didn't quite seem to know what to do and he could kinda sympathize with the poor dude. After all, an archangel had just deprived him of what he'd intended to keep hidden, that had to smart, not to mention that the guy probably had no idea what to do next as he wouldn't want to go against Michael of all beings.
With a small smirk, Dean opened the folder and then froze in surprise. Staring straight back up at him was a small photo of himself clipped to what looked to be a fact sheet with his personal details.
Chapter 84
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: up to and including Exile on Main St., AU from the end of season 5
Warnings: AU, slash
Word Count: 2,429
Summary: Dean and Michael explain angelic vessels to the Vatican.
PAST
"Crap," Dean muttered.
He'd just known that the whole possessed vessel thing was going to come back and bite him in the ass. Dean just hadn't expected it to happen here, in Europe. He'd thought himself safe over here as there was no one he knew that they might run into unlike back home as had already happened with Roy. It had been a foolish assumption apparently and damn but he really needed to do some background research into the Vatican and the power and reach of the Roman Catholic Church. Grudgingly he acknowledged that this would not have happened if Sam had been with them as his little brother would have gone nuts at the excuse to do some in-depth research into a topic that had as much lore, information and mysticism associated with it as this religion did.
"Well?" Clown guy demanded.
"It's... complicated," Dean replied lamely, suddenly hyperaware of exactly how many people were in the room.
Normally he didn't suffer from performance anxiety of any kind, but Dean knew that this was a bit different from the situations he normally found himself in. Not the least because the Vatican was such a powerful ally to have and they were clearly well connected. He briefly cursed Father Pieter-Jan but then made himself stop. The priest had probably felt so incredibly blessed and special to have met the archangel that he'd probably sent word back to Rome as soon as he'd been able to. And none of that would have been a problem if neither the priest nor someone else hadn't been such an excellent artist.
"Complicated? Is it really, Michael?" Anrig questioned, stepping closer.
Dean blinked in disbelief and shock. "Dude, you really think that I'm Michael?"
The look of doubt that crossed clown guy's face told Dean all that he needed to know. He clearly wasn't their idea of an angel, let alone the lofty Michael himself, but Father Pieter-Jan must have told them about what he'd witnessed as they weren't willing to let go of the idea entirely just yet. He nearly groaned as he realized that they were going to have to explain the whole vessel thing to everyone present here. He'd kinda hoped to avoid that as talking about vessels would inevitably lead to questions about who could host an angel and, he feared, it might eventually turn to talk about Lucifer's vessel and that was something he'd rather avoid altogether. The last thing they needed was some rogue vigilante to go after Sam thinking that he was saving the world from the devil himself by eliminating Lucifer's one true vessel.
No way was he letting someone like that go after his little brother, estranged or not.
"Dean told you the truth, I am Michael," the archangel declared firmly.
"Is this an exam?" the phone dude asked. "Do we need to pass to prove ourselves worthy?"
"No."
This time Dean did groan as he knew that Michael simply wasn't going to get through to them that way. "Okay, stop. Does she look like an angel to you?"
"No," clown guy replied, startled.
Dean could understand the man's surprise as at first glance it seemed like he'd completely switched his position around. "How about Raphael, did he look like an angel?"
There was a low murmur in the room now and Dean could sense the growing confusion and rising tension. Almost absently he picked up the subtle hand gesture clown guy made and the way his clown men responded, slowly moving either closer to himself and Michael or moving to protect the pope where the old man stood with his cardinals.
"Are you saying none of them- Michael, Raphael and Castiel- are really angels?" phone guy demanded, voice higher with something like fear now.
"Not at all," Dean countered quickly, not wanting to lose control of this situation. "Just ask Father Mancini if he's here somewhere."
"Here," a familiar voice called out and Dean turned to see him pushing his way towards them. "Dean right, Castiel is an angel. He had wings of shadow."
"He showed them to you?" Michael questioned in surprise.
"Yes."
"You should be honored, we do not show our wings to many."
Father Mancini's eyes opened wide at that statement and he looked close to passing out. Dean nearly stepped forwards to help but was beaten to it by Father Giordano who seemingly materialized out of thin air. The sudden appearance of familiar faces helped put him at ease and he wondered why they hadn't just had Father Giordano contact him this time like before. It would make things so much easier if he had a consistent point of contact and he'd have to see if he couldn't arrange for that to be the case. Surely neither Giordano nor Mancini would mind.
"They weren't wings of shadow," Dean corrected. "But rather the shadow of one of his pairs of wings."
"The shadow? Why the shadow?" clown guy demanded.
"Because the actual wings are part of Castiel's true form and that is something most humans can't bear to see."
"Wait, slow down," phone guy requested.
Surprised, Dean turned around and was startled to find that people seemed to be talking to each other behind the man. Or no, not talking, translating. Glancing around, he found that it was happening everywhere and even Father Mancini seemed unable to keep up on his own, relying instead on Father Giordano to keep him abreast of what was going on. This clearly wasn't going to work as they hadn't even gotten to the most difficult bits yet. He briefly considered trying to say it Latin but quickly dismissed the notion, not only was his Latin not nearly good enough, but he doubted that things like 'vessel' and 'true form' would translate well into such an archaic language. Which left only one other option.
"What language do most people present speak or at the very least understand to a reasonable degree?" Dean asked, glancing back at clown guy.
"Excuse me?" Anrig replied.
"What language? Is it Italian?"
"Most of us do speak Italian, yes. Why?"
It would be far easier to show them then to explain it so Dean turned instead to Michael. "Can you give me Italian? Like Cas gave me Enochian?"
"Yes. Would you like me to it here and now?"
"Please," Dean said as he stepped closer. "You've been awfully quiet, by the way."
"I thought it best not to interfere where I know so little," Michael replied.
"Dean?" Father Mancini called out.
"Just a moment," Dean responded. "This will make things much easier."
Michael had two fingers on his forehead but Dean didn't feel anything until their eyes met and he nodded once. Just like before, he felt like something was being poured into his mind and it made his brain feel like it was swelling. Having experienced it once before, he was prepared for the headache that slammed into him but he was also more willing to allow his mind to tune everything out as he knew how it all ended. When he came round again, he had the weirdest sense of deja vu as he found himself once again resting his head on an angel's shoulder while said angel had an arm wrapped around his waist. Only this time he was also aware of the wings cradling his body as well and the archangel in question was Michael rather than Castiel. Despite that, he allowed himself a moment to just catch his breath and reorient himself though he did start listening to what was going on around him.
"So these vessels allow you the interact with us without risking our health?"
The flow of the speech and the grammar of the question was so much smoother and better then he was used to hearing that it took Dean a moment to recognize Father Mancini as the speaker. It took him a few more seconds to realize that it had been spoken entirely in Italian. Damn but that was never going to get any less weird! Thanks to the Enochian he'd already gotten downloaded into his skull a few months ago, he'd gotten used to how this whole other language thing really worked, but it still felt odd. It was as if the Italian hadn't fully settled in yet in the same way that the Enochian had as it took him a bit longer to figure it out than the angelic language did.
"Yes, that is precisely it."
"And you were using Dean Winchester as your vessel when you went to see Father Pieter-Jan in Belgium for the blessing from the boy?"
That one was clown guy and Dean realized that Michael must have explained far more then he'd thought possible in such a short amount of time. The moment he started moving, the wings wrapped around him shifted and pulled back, allowing him to see the room around them. The other men, some of whom he recognized from before and some of whom he didn't, had all drawn closer and hung onto every word that the archangel was saying. He did notice, however, that while the pope and his cardinals had come forward a little, they were still further off. Were they waiting for the all clear from Anrig to make the final approach? It made logical sense now that he thought about it, especially if there had been doubts as to exactly who and what he was, but it still kinda surprised him that they were being this cautious when there were angels involved.
"Yes," Michael confirmed before turning his attention to him. "Dean? Are you feeling better?"
"Yeah, the headache's just about gone." Dean didn't need the collective intake of breath to know that he'd startled almost everyone around them. He'd made it more than clear during his previous visit that he didn't understand any Italian whatsoever, so to have him suddenly speaking in it had to be quite unexpected. "Thanks."
"It was my pleasure, Little One."
The use of the nickname in front of others who weren't related to either of them made Dean scowl. "Dude, not cool!"
Michael merely raised an eyebrow as Dean took a step back and that just made him scowl even more. Okay so there were clearly human characteristics and traits he didn't like to see the archangel pick up, or at least not if Michael intended to use them against him. That just wasn't fair, damnit.
"How? What?" phone guy questioned.
"Michael just downloaded Italian into my brain," Dean explained succinctly. "I figured it would make things easier then having to deal with multiple languages."
The information surprised them but it didn't seem to hold clown guy back for very long. Not that this caught Dean off-guard as he was quickly starting to view the man as some kind of federal agent equivalent only more versed in his world and all that went with it. It drew a reluctant sort of admiration from him even if Anrig's whole demeanor still annoyed him, but that probably had more to do with the fact that he was on the wrong end of it then anything else.
"Why were you using him as your vessel then and not now?" clown guy demanded.
"Because what we needed in Belgium was part of a Rite with very strict requirements and as my true vessel, Dean was the only one who could fulfill them," Michael replied.
"True vessel?"
"I am an archangel, there are almost none who can contain my full power and not be adversely affected by it. Dean is one of those rare few."
Oh great, now he was the center of attention yet again. Dean really wished that he could slink off to a dark corner just about now and leave everything to the archangel as Michael seemed to be doing a good job of it on his own and he really didn't like being the center of attention, not like this. When he was in control, then sure, bring it on, but not like this and not for these reasons. Freaking angels.
"Then why are you not in him now?" Anrig asked.
"Because Dean is so much more then a mere vessel," Michael responded before Dean could stop him. "Father clearly has more planned for him than simply housing me."
"Can we get on with things?" Dean inquired, hoping to change the topic of conversation before the archangel started blabbing his mouth off even more. And what had he been thinking letting Michael talk anyway, he should have known something like this would come up. "You called us here for a reason, right?"
"Is it normal for family members to both be vessels like Dean and his aunt here?" clown guy demanded.
Dean's head snapped around to stare at Anrig as his entire body tensed. "How the hell do you know that?"
"Excus-"
"How do you know who she is?"
The way clown guy's hand tightened on the folder he held would have gone unnoticed by most people, but not by Dean. He caught it and then his eyes snapped up to Anrig's face and he could tell that the man knew what he'd seen. He took a step forwards to demand that clown guy hand it over, but the guy stepped back at the same moment, clearly not intending to make things easy for him. There was a flutter of wings and then Michael stood right beside Anrig and the archangel had grabbed the folder from the man's grasp before clown guy even realized that the angel was there. Then Michael was beside him once more, handing him the folder.
"Thanks," Dean said, startled.
He hadn't expected the archangel to do that but he'd been the center of Castiel's attention often enough to no longer be freaked by how closely Michael must have been observing him to have caught his silent exchange with clown guy. Anrig sputtered a bit but then didn't quite seem to know what to do and he could kinda sympathize with the poor dude. After all, an archangel had just deprived him of what he'd intended to keep hidden, that had to smart, not to mention that the guy probably had no idea what to do next as he wouldn't want to go against Michael of all beings.
With a small smirk, Dean opened the folder and then froze in surprise. Staring straight back up at him was a small photo of himself clipped to what looked to be a fact sheet with his personal details.
Chapter 84