In my mind, in my soul
Title: In my mind, in my soul (7/8)
Author:
scyllaya
Artist:
kraehi
Beta:
beatlemaniac9
Rating: NC-17
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Gabriel/Dean, (one-sided Castiel/Gabriel)
Warning(s): cursing, graphic violence (torture, blood), graphic sexual content (slash, non-con from the metaphysical kind, forced orgasm)
Spoiler(s): S6 finale (written before the season 7 Premier)
Word Count: ~ 21 700
Summary: Gabriel awakens at the side of a brother who is nothing like the angel he remembered. Castiel wants his loyalty, for him to become the one he can trust among all the betrayal he suffered. Dean wants to get the archangel out of the grasp of the new god and for him to help save his lost friend.
Author's Notes: Sending a very huge thank you for my artist
kraehi, as she did an amazing job! I cannot thank you enough for making this many and this quality art for my story. Only the text dividers were made by me. My deepest thank you goes for my beta
beatlemaniac9, you are awesomesauce and did an amazing job pointing out my Master Yoda style sentences. I thank my twitter followers in general for not blocking me when I rant and curse about my muse or writing in general. Haha.
Title is from: Paradise Lost - Mouth [You can listen to the song at the end of the fic]
Written for the 2011
debriel_mini
<<< Part 6 <<<
Part 7
Gabriel couldn't sleep of course. He couldn't actually rest, either, in the traditional sense of the word, but he managed to calm down and clear his mind while he listened how Dean's breathing evened out next to him. His troubled grace was soothed as he breathed in the man's scent. Maybe it was only just the mixture of soap, leather and gunpowder, but it was enough. The fact that he was allowed to lie down here next to him without any questions asked was a novelty Gabriel could appreciate. It was trust and comfort given to him by someone he surely didn't deserve it from.
A few minutes after Dean fell asleep he shifted in his position, instinctively pulling closer to the nearby body heat, to Gabriel. His hand slid down from Gabriel's neck to his back, so now he was actually embraced tightly. It was ignominiously girly to be held like this and he would deny it forever that he's actually enjoying it. And then again, he won't be able to enjoy it much longer.
He didn't quite understand how he could catch a glimpse of his little brother - if that was really what he saw - and he had no way of knowing how long would it take for the souls to take over again. It would be soon, he knew. Maybe he shouldn't have come here, maybe he should've gone as far away from the Winchesters as possible, but he didn't even think about where he was going he just let his wings take him and he ended up lying on Dean's bed. Sometimes he was over-thinking things, other times he listened to his gut; this was a case of the second one. Besides, this really was not such a bad place to spend his last hours at, especially not like this.
Then he felt it. How that powerful, burning presence approached. He sat up immediately which of course woke Dean up. The hunter was sitting even before he blinked the sleep out of his eyes. Before he could speak a word Gabriel sealed his lips to his in a hard, quick kiss. He pulled away just as fast as he leaned in. Dean was staring at him in confusion, but the archangel didn't have time to explain. He reached out with his power to the other parts of the house and yanked all three humans with himself outside to the yard. There was no reason to run, but there was no need to level the house down to nothing.
Dean stumbled as he found himself in a standing position. Both Sam and Bobby were dressed so they were obviously already awake, although Sam had a piece of toast in his hand, while Bobby held a coffee mug. Their stunned expression would've amused Gabriel greatly on an average day, but not right now.
Dean looked around swiftly, taking in his surroundings, the scrapyard barely lit by the slowly brightening sky, dawn was arriving, but the sun had yet to show up on the horizon. Dean then looked back at Gabriel with a confused expression on his face.
'Gabriel, what is--' there was no time for him to finish, because it all made sense the second Castiel appeared in a heavy whirlwind of power, rousing up the rust-powder and dust in the scrapyard. Again, all traces of the angel was gone. Just power, just the souls, nothing else.
'I am very disappointed in you, Gabriel,' he said in a dark tone.
'You're not the first one, believe me,' he replied. He wished he had more time to plan this, because right now he guessed he had like one percent chance to succeed and that was way shitty.
'Don't be foolish,' Castiel warned.
'Sorry,' Gabriel shrugged. He had no idea whether Dean standing there or just the complete hopelessness was what brought his confident cockiness back, but right now he felt like he would be able to laugh even if he was facing down good ol' uncle Death. Yeah, definitely Dean was to blame for this one.
'Do not force me to--'
'Oh, you arrogant dicks are so good at playing the martyrs,' Gabriel interrupted. 'I'm going to murder you in cold blood, Gabriel, but it's definitely your fault. I'm just the gracefully suffering victim.' He snorted. 'You know who the last one to feed me this bullshit was? Lucifer. You managed to grow an even bigger ego. Congratulations.'
Castiel's face darkened at being compared to the fallen archangel, the self-righteous were so predictable.
'I have given you, everything. And you're throwing it back to my face,' he said.
'Right... everything, but that tiny little thing, what was it called? Oh right, free will. Ring a bell?'
'I've run out of patience with you,' Castiel said without reacting to Gabriel's words. The archangel pointedly kept his gaze away from the humans, he was standing between them and Castiel and they didn't interrupt so far, which was good. Castiel was looking at him and he met his gaze head-on, nothing to lose now after all. 'Don't think I'll go as easy on you as I did with Raphael.'
'Yes, tearing angels apart to tiny pieces does get old after a while,' Gabriel replied, which of course angered Castiel further. He definitely expected more fear, but he won't get that this time. He looked at Gabriel for another moment before his gaze shifted away, looking at Dean.
'I think I’ll start with the one you were so eager to side with. It's something long over-due.'
Gabriel moved and stepped in-front of Dean, blocking the way.
'No,' he said.
'You think you can stop me?' Castiel asked.
'No, you can kill me easily, but I am still strong enough to make sure that you can only get to them through me,' he answered. Castiel's eyes narrowed.
'You're hardly an obstacle.'
'It's a matter of principle,' Gabriel said easily. Castiel's face darkened with anger and he made a step forward before stopping again, changing his mind.
'Principle,' he said, almost absentmindedly. 'Yes, or an example. A very good example for all to see, and I want Dean to enjoy his handy-work as well.'
Castiel didn't move closer, so there went that one percent, Gabriel had no chance to speak, to think, to do anything. There was only pain.
Gabriel screamed. Not only in his human voice, his entire being cried out in agony, ripping an unbearable sound through the air as the archangel fell to his knees. All windows and windshields shattered all around the junkyard as Sam, Dean and Bobby all jerked their hands up to their heads to try and protect their ears as much as they could from damage.
It ended after a few horribly long moments. Gabriel was breathing hard as he heavily leaned to his hand resting on the ground to keep himself up as much as he could. Dean saw as blood was dripping down to the dust, but he didn't see the angel's face to be able to tell where he was bleeding.
'Still stubborn?' Castiel asked in a mild tone. 'Didn't change your mind?'
'No,' Gabriel spat out between large gulps of air Dean wasn't sure he needed, but the way his body was trembling, maybe he needed it now. The next moment Gabriel's body tensed again and even if a pained sound escaped his lips, he managed to hold back his real voice. His fingers dig into the dirt, clenching painfully. Dean stared, feeling unbelievably powerless and horrified beyond words. Every second of agony he witnessed twisted his stomach painfully. Every pained sound felt like someone was piercing spikes in his heart. And the memory of moans breathed on his skin echoed in his head, but fading away, shattered by Gabriel's pain he couldn't turn his eyes away from.
The hold Castiel had on the archangel eased up again and Gabriel breathed out deeply, his body shaking a lot more and there was blood running down his chin, flowing from his nose and eyes and from all the blood he coughed up violently between shuddered breaths. Dean's fists were clenched so tightly that it hurt and he was sure that he would draw blood from his palm soon with his nails. His muscles were tense and everything in him was screaming to do something, anything! He couldn't just stand idly by watching Gabriel get tortured and killed like this.
'Why must you be like this?!' Castiel raised his voice. 'Why can't you just obey me?!'
'You know what?' Gabriel replied in a hoarse voice. 'Screw you, little brother.'
He wailed in agony the next moment and Dean moved without thinking.
'Stop it!' he yelled and rushed forward the few steps that separated him from Castiel, grabbing hold of his coat. Gabriel fell silent, wheezing and trying to stop the shudders in his body. Castiel closed his hand around Dean's wrist and pulled it off of his coat, gripping it tightly.
'Or what?' he asked.
'Just stop,' Dean repeated, he saw Gabriel from the corner of his eye and he just couldn't let this happen, he couldn't. 'He won't rebel, I won't rebel... just stop,' he asked. He heard some noise escaping Sam at that, but he couldn't listen to him now.
'Is that so?' Castiel asked, locking his cold blue eyes on Dean's face.
'Yes,' Dean breathed out, feeling too weak all of a sudden. 'No planning, no plotting, no nothing... just stop hurting him.'
Castiel hummed in a considering manner before he let go of Dean's wrist.
'Well, I think you know what you need to do,' he said, but Dean just looked at him. 'Bow down,' Cas told him.
'What?!' Castiel glanced away to Gabriel and the angel groaned loudly in pain immediately. 'No! Stop, stop it!' Dean yelled over Gabriel's pained cries.
'Bow down to me, your Lord,' Castiel repeated in an even tone, locking his eyes back on Dean.
Dean felt how the blood was rushing in his ears and how his fists clenched painfully. He could practically feel Sam's and Bobby's eyes on him, but he could only glance at Gabriel without moving. Looking at the archangel's pained and bloody face made him swallow hard as he took a step back from Castiel.
'Dean, no,' Gabriel choked out and more than anything it was what made him drop down to one knee. He wanted to look back at him, tell him that he just couldn't stand by and let this happen. He couldn't just sacrifice him like this. Maybe it made him weak, but he couldn't stand anymore and watch him bleed for them like this, for him. Let him die for nothing.
Gabriel looked with widened eyes as Dean got down on his knee and he just wanted to shake him and tell him no. Not to back down, not to bow down, not for him, not for his life, because it was not worth it. He was too stunned to speak, and among the pain aching inside of him, he felt warm. He felt loved, and it's been a very, very long time since he last felt that.
Then, like a tiny spark exploding into a whirlwind, he felt a light flare up somewhere deep withing him and he knew what he had to do.
'You know Castiel,' he started as he slowly managed to get up to his feet. 'I always felt guilty for leaving you little ones behind so suddenly, always wondered how much damage I caused by simply not being there.' He stopped next to Dean who was staring up at him, but Gabriel kept his eyes on Castiel who was only a step away from them. 'I think I'm gonna have to leave again,' he said. 'But this time I leave you a farewell gift.'
Castiel frowned at him slightly. Gabriel didn't waste a second; he reached out to him and fastened his hands upon the back of his skull, pulling them close to each other. He saw the sudden shock on Castiel's face, when he couldn't tear away from the archangel. Gabriel sealed his lips on his and everything was washed out by a brilliant, burning white light.
Dean covered his eyes immediately as the light appeared, turning away. He only dared to blink them open again when there was darkness behind his eyelids. Castiel and Gabriel were gone. Dean stood up from the ground and spun around himself to look everywhere. Sam and Bobby uncovered their eyes as well and they looked around with equally questioning looks. The scrapyard was covered in glass-shards and Dean's ears were still ringing from Gabriel's true voice. Then a hand was on his shoulder and he was turned around, suddenly facing Sam.
'What the hell was that?' his little brother asked.
'What the hell was what?' he asked.
'Bowing down!' Sam spelled it out.
'What? I should've just let him get killed right here in front of us?' Dean asked in return.
'No, but--'
'There's no “but”, Sam. I had to do something.'
'But you couldn't have meant it.' Dean fell silent at that. He himself wasn't sure, but he knew that he wanted to save Gabriel. Before Sam could force an answer out of him an enormous burst of light covered up the slowly brightening dawn-sky and all three of them whipped their heads in that direction. Clear white light, two sources, far away from them but it still looked like a gigantic outburst of light. Then it was gone the next second, the sky turning back to blue. Dean recognized the light all right, he remembered watching down on a very similar light from an airplane.
'Is that--' Sam started, but was interrupted by a new blast spreading in the sky further to their right now, but just as huge. Dean was almost sure he could feel the gush of wind on his face the outburst created. It was again gone in a second. Dean just stared at the sky with his heart beating heavily in his chest, not knowing what was happening, but sure that one of the lights was Gabriel and the other Cas. He found his muscles tensing again as his gaze roamed around.
The third explosion was bigger than the other two and spread out so widely and lit up the sky with so much light that Dean had to tear away his eyes from the sigh again for a moment. When he looked back he saw nothing but a shapeless form of clear light, shining brightly on the sky, too far away for his eyes to see anything from it at all. It shrunk abruptly, like it was being sucked back into a hole and it became nothing but a burning bright spot in the distance. Then it exploded and fell apart to million pieces in a blink. Bowls of light, like shooting stars or flaming comets flew in every direction, covering everything where eyes could see. There was no end to them, hundreds, thousand or even millions were falling down from the sky, flying across the sky above them.
'Holy Mother...' Bobby murmured as he looked around.
'Souls,' Dean said, because it just had to be, he couldn't think of anything else. It was raining souls from the sky. 'Like waterdrops,' he said, remembering Gabriel saying it. 'No more thunder.'
'Those aren’t souls,' Sam said, and Dean turned around following his brother's line of vision just in time to see how two blazing beams of light split the sky in half and rushed past right above their heads. A lot lower than the souls that were still just falling from the sky everywhere. The first hit the ground somewhere further away then the second a moment later, both with such tremendous impact that Dean felt the earth shake under his feet both times. A heavy gush of wind followed almost immediately, forcing them to shut their eyes and cover their faces as dust and dirt whizzed around them.
Dean coughed up the dust getting in his mouth and nose as he stared to the distance. The next thing he knew that his feet were moving him. He climbed on top of a rusty old ford to see and his breath almost caught in his throat. What he saw from this distance were two large burnt-out craters. He couldn't see what was inside of them, he could only guess, but the grass being blackened to ash all around them was a grim sight.
'Bobby, get your truck!' Dean turned back to the older hunter and he didn't have to ask twice. With the Impala he wouldn't be able to get there out to the field; well, almost the edge of the woods. Thank fuck they didn't crash into the town.
Both Sam and Dean got into the truck and they drove out of the Salvage Yard towards the craters. Dean was practically vibrating with tension; his mind was flooded with hundreds of questions, and hundreds of the worst things that could await them at the place of the impact.
When Dean jumped out of the car he noticed that the souls finally stopped falling down, but he didn't care about them anymore, he just ran to the edge of the first blackened crater, his boots and jeans getting dirty with burnt grass. He abruptly stopped when he caught sight of the tan overcoat and Castiel sitting - leaning on one arm - in the bottom of the hole. He was dirty and his clothes seemed scorched, but he was very much alive and moving. At the sound of Dean's steps he turned his head to look up.
'Dean,' he spoke out. Looking at his face, his eyes and hearing that one simple word was enough for the hunter to know, this was Castiel. He didn't spare more time on him, but started running towards the second crater that was further away. He was almost out of breath by the time he got there.
Unlike his little brother, Gabriel way lying in the bottom of the hole, completely motionless. Dean hurried down on the side, now getting the rest of his clothes dirty with ash and dust, having to put his hands down to get down without falling. He was on his knees right away. Gabriel was just as dirty as Castiel looked like and his clothes were also burnt in some places; hell, his jacket was even smoking a little and the blood was still there on his face where it ran down from his eyes and from his ears.
'Gabriel,' he called. Putting one hand on his collarbone the other on his cheek, but the angel's head just lolled to the other side from his hand without any sort of reaction. No movement, none at all. 'Gabriel!' he called a bit louder. He whipped his head up at the sound of hurried movement and he tensed for a second as Castiel practically stumbled down on the side or the crater very gracelessly and scrambled closer to them.
'Gabriel,' he breathed out. 'No, no, please, Gabriel...' he grabbed a hold of one of the archangel's hands and Dean's first instinct was to tell him not to touch him, but he bit his words back down. Castiel kept mumbling in a quiet tone. His face was possibly as terrified as Dean has ever seen it. 'Please, Gabriel... not you, please. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. Please don't go...'
'He's not breathing,' Dean said out loud the second he realized it. 'Isn't he supposed to breath?' Something was gripping his chest very tightly as the words left his mouth. Castiel reached out and put a hand on Gabriel's chest, but only for a moment.
'He's still here, the vessel is not empty,' he said.
Dean leaned closer, trying to hold the archangel's face in his hands; the skin was warm, but too still. 'Gabriel,' he said again. 'Open your eyes... don't you fucking dare to... you can't leave,' he finally said. 'You hear me you idiot angel? Don't you dare. Come on,' his voice quieted down at the end and he just kept looking down at him, eyes in search of any sort of reaction. He wasn't even sure he himself was breathing. Castiel fell silent too, but he didn't let go of Gabriel's hand, he was clutching it with both of his own.
Then after torturously long moments Gabriel finally inhaled a shallow breath, his chest rising up slightly.
'Gabriel,' Dean called again and this time the angel frowned and his eyes opened up slowly. His gaze seemed unfocused and foggy but he was looking up at him so Dean didn't fucking care.
'Oh shit, fucking finally,' he breathed out in relief.
'Hey,' Gabriel greeted. 'Worried?'
'This once. Maybe a little,' Dean answered. 'You just had to be the big damn hero, didn't you?' Gabriel managed a dim smile at that.
'Learned from the best,' he said.
'How did you pull this off?' Dean asked, because he had no idea what happened, but whatever it was, it worked. He just couldn't imagine how on Earth Gabriel did it, when Castiel was so obviously stronger than him.
'I had awesome back-up,' Gabriel replied and he finally glanced in the other direction noticing Castiel for the first time. Cas for his part, just stared back at Gabriel, still clutching his hand like some wide-eyed frightened animal, not daring to move.
'Stupid kid,' Gabriel murmured, then promptly passed out again.
>>> Epilogue >>>
Author:
scyllaya
Artist:
kraehi
Beta:
beatlemaniac9
Rating: NC-17
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Gabriel/Dean, (one-sided Castiel/Gabriel)
Warning(s): cursing, graphic violence (torture, blood), graphic sexual content (slash, non-con from the metaphysical kind, forced orgasm)
Spoiler(s): S6 finale (written before the season 7 Premier)
Word Count: ~ 21 700
Summary: Gabriel awakens at the side of a brother who is nothing like the angel he remembered. Castiel wants his loyalty, for him to become the one he can trust among all the betrayal he suffered. Dean wants to get the archangel out of the grasp of the new god and for him to help save his lost friend.
Author's Notes: Sending a very huge thank you for my artist
kraehi, as she did an amazing job! I cannot thank you enough for making this many and this quality art for my story. Only the text dividers were made by me. My deepest thank you goes for my beta
beatlemaniac9, you are awesomesauce and did an amazing job pointing out my Master Yoda style sentences. I thank my twitter followers in general for not blocking me when I rant and curse about my muse or writing in general. Haha.
Title is from: Paradise Lost - Mouth [You can listen to the song at the end of the fic]
Written for the 2011
debriel_mini
<<< Part 6 <<<
Part 7
Gabriel couldn't sleep of course. He couldn't actually rest, either, in the traditional sense of the word, but he managed to calm down and clear his mind while he listened how Dean's breathing evened out next to him. His troubled grace was soothed as he breathed in the man's scent. Maybe it was only just the mixture of soap, leather and gunpowder, but it was enough. The fact that he was allowed to lie down here next to him without any questions asked was a novelty Gabriel could appreciate. It was trust and comfort given to him by someone he surely didn't deserve it from.
A few minutes after Dean fell asleep he shifted in his position, instinctively pulling closer to the nearby body heat, to Gabriel. His hand slid down from Gabriel's neck to his back, so now he was actually embraced tightly. It was ignominiously girly to be held like this and he would deny it forever that he's actually enjoying it. And then again, he won't be able to enjoy it much longer.
He didn't quite understand how he could catch a glimpse of his little brother - if that was really what he saw - and he had no way of knowing how long would it take for the souls to take over again. It would be soon, he knew. Maybe he shouldn't have come here, maybe he should've gone as far away from the Winchesters as possible, but he didn't even think about where he was going he just let his wings take him and he ended up lying on Dean's bed. Sometimes he was over-thinking things, other times he listened to his gut; this was a case of the second one. Besides, this really was not such a bad place to spend his last hours at, especially not like this.
Then he felt it. How that powerful, burning presence approached. He sat up immediately which of course woke Dean up. The hunter was sitting even before he blinked the sleep out of his eyes. Before he could speak a word Gabriel sealed his lips to his in a hard, quick kiss. He pulled away just as fast as he leaned in. Dean was staring at him in confusion, but the archangel didn't have time to explain. He reached out with his power to the other parts of the house and yanked all three humans with himself outside to the yard. There was no reason to run, but there was no need to level the house down to nothing.
Dean stumbled as he found himself in a standing position. Both Sam and Bobby were dressed so they were obviously already awake, although Sam had a piece of toast in his hand, while Bobby held a coffee mug. Their stunned expression would've amused Gabriel greatly on an average day, but not right now.
Dean looked around swiftly, taking in his surroundings, the scrapyard barely lit by the slowly brightening sky, dawn was arriving, but the sun had yet to show up on the horizon. Dean then looked back at Gabriel with a confused expression on his face.
'Gabriel, what is--' there was no time for him to finish, because it all made sense the second Castiel appeared in a heavy whirlwind of power, rousing up the rust-powder and dust in the scrapyard. Again, all traces of the angel was gone. Just power, just the souls, nothing else.
'I am very disappointed in you, Gabriel,' he said in a dark tone.
'You're not the first one, believe me,' he replied. He wished he had more time to plan this, because right now he guessed he had like one percent chance to succeed and that was way shitty.
'Don't be foolish,' Castiel warned.
'Sorry,' Gabriel shrugged. He had no idea whether Dean standing there or just the complete hopelessness was what brought his confident cockiness back, but right now he felt like he would be able to laugh even if he was facing down good ol' uncle Death. Yeah, definitely Dean was to blame for this one.
'Do not force me to--'
'Oh, you arrogant dicks are so good at playing the martyrs,' Gabriel interrupted. 'I'm going to murder you in cold blood, Gabriel, but it's definitely your fault. I'm just the gracefully suffering victim.' He snorted. 'You know who the last one to feed me this bullshit was? Lucifer. You managed to grow an even bigger ego. Congratulations.'
Castiel's face darkened at being compared to the fallen archangel, the self-righteous were so predictable.
'I have given you, everything. And you're throwing it back to my face,' he said.
'Right... everything, but that tiny little thing, what was it called? Oh right, free will. Ring a bell?'
'I've run out of patience with you,' Castiel said without reacting to Gabriel's words. The archangel pointedly kept his gaze away from the humans, he was standing between them and Castiel and they didn't interrupt so far, which was good. Castiel was looking at him and he met his gaze head-on, nothing to lose now after all. 'Don't think I'll go as easy on you as I did with Raphael.'
'Yes, tearing angels apart to tiny pieces does get old after a while,' Gabriel replied, which of course angered Castiel further. He definitely expected more fear, but he won't get that this time. He looked at Gabriel for another moment before his gaze shifted away, looking at Dean.
'I think I’ll start with the one you were so eager to side with. It's something long over-due.'
Gabriel moved and stepped in-front of Dean, blocking the way.
'No,' he said.
'You think you can stop me?' Castiel asked.
'No, you can kill me easily, but I am still strong enough to make sure that you can only get to them through me,' he answered. Castiel's eyes narrowed.
'You're hardly an obstacle.'
'It's a matter of principle,' Gabriel said easily. Castiel's face darkened with anger and he made a step forward before stopping again, changing his mind.
'Principle,' he said, almost absentmindedly. 'Yes, or an example. A very good example for all to see, and I want Dean to enjoy his handy-work as well.'
Castiel didn't move closer, so there went that one percent, Gabriel had no chance to speak, to think, to do anything. There was only pain.
Gabriel screamed. Not only in his human voice, his entire being cried out in agony, ripping an unbearable sound through the air as the archangel fell to his knees. All windows and windshields shattered all around the junkyard as Sam, Dean and Bobby all jerked their hands up to their heads to try and protect their ears as much as they could from damage.
It ended after a few horribly long moments. Gabriel was breathing hard as he heavily leaned to his hand resting on the ground to keep himself up as much as he could. Dean saw as blood was dripping down to the dust, but he didn't see the angel's face to be able to tell where he was bleeding.
'Still stubborn?' Castiel asked in a mild tone. 'Didn't change your mind?'
'No,' Gabriel spat out between large gulps of air Dean wasn't sure he needed, but the way his body was trembling, maybe he needed it now. The next moment Gabriel's body tensed again and even if a pained sound escaped his lips, he managed to hold back his real voice. His fingers dig into the dirt, clenching painfully. Dean stared, feeling unbelievably powerless and horrified beyond words. Every second of agony he witnessed twisted his stomach painfully. Every pained sound felt like someone was piercing spikes in his heart. And the memory of moans breathed on his skin echoed in his head, but fading away, shattered by Gabriel's pain he couldn't turn his eyes away from.
The hold Castiel had on the archangel eased up again and Gabriel breathed out deeply, his body shaking a lot more and there was blood running down his chin, flowing from his nose and eyes and from all the blood he coughed up violently between shuddered breaths. Dean's fists were clenched so tightly that it hurt and he was sure that he would draw blood from his palm soon with his nails. His muscles were tense and everything in him was screaming to do something, anything! He couldn't just stand idly by watching Gabriel get tortured and killed like this.
'Why must you be like this?!' Castiel raised his voice. 'Why can't you just obey me?!'
'You know what?' Gabriel replied in a hoarse voice. 'Screw you, little brother.'
He wailed in agony the next moment and Dean moved without thinking.
'Stop it!' he yelled and rushed forward the few steps that separated him from Castiel, grabbing hold of his coat. Gabriel fell silent, wheezing and trying to stop the shudders in his body. Castiel closed his hand around Dean's wrist and pulled it off of his coat, gripping it tightly.
'Or what?' he asked.
'Just stop,' Dean repeated, he saw Gabriel from the corner of his eye and he just couldn't let this happen, he couldn't. 'He won't rebel, I won't rebel... just stop,' he asked. He heard some noise escaping Sam at that, but he couldn't listen to him now.
'Is that so?' Castiel asked, locking his cold blue eyes on Dean's face.
'Yes,' Dean breathed out, feeling too weak all of a sudden. 'No planning, no plotting, no nothing... just stop hurting him.'
Castiel hummed in a considering manner before he let go of Dean's wrist.
'Well, I think you know what you need to do,' he said, but Dean just looked at him. 'Bow down,' Cas told him.
'What?!' Castiel glanced away to Gabriel and the angel groaned loudly in pain immediately. 'No! Stop, stop it!' Dean yelled over Gabriel's pained cries.
'Bow down to me, your Lord,' Castiel repeated in an even tone, locking his eyes back on Dean.
Dean felt how the blood was rushing in his ears and how his fists clenched painfully. He could practically feel Sam's and Bobby's eyes on him, but he could only glance at Gabriel without moving. Looking at the archangel's pained and bloody face made him swallow hard as he took a step back from Castiel.
'Dean, no,' Gabriel choked out and more than anything it was what made him drop down to one knee. He wanted to look back at him, tell him that he just couldn't stand by and let this happen. He couldn't just sacrifice him like this. Maybe it made him weak, but he couldn't stand anymore and watch him bleed for them like this, for him. Let him die for nothing.
Gabriel looked with widened eyes as Dean got down on his knee and he just wanted to shake him and tell him no. Not to back down, not to bow down, not for him, not for his life, because it was not worth it. He was too stunned to speak, and among the pain aching inside of him, he felt warm. He felt loved, and it's been a very, very long time since he last felt that.
Then, like a tiny spark exploding into a whirlwind, he felt a light flare up somewhere deep withing him and he knew what he had to do.
'You know Castiel,' he started as he slowly managed to get up to his feet. 'I always felt guilty for leaving you little ones behind so suddenly, always wondered how much damage I caused by simply not being there.' He stopped next to Dean who was staring up at him, but Gabriel kept his eyes on Castiel who was only a step away from them. 'I think I'm gonna have to leave again,' he said. 'But this time I leave you a farewell gift.'
Castiel frowned at him slightly. Gabriel didn't waste a second; he reached out to him and fastened his hands upon the back of his skull, pulling them close to each other. He saw the sudden shock on Castiel's face, when he couldn't tear away from the archangel. Gabriel sealed his lips on his and everything was washed out by a brilliant, burning white light.
Dean covered his eyes immediately as the light appeared, turning away. He only dared to blink them open again when there was darkness behind his eyelids. Castiel and Gabriel were gone. Dean stood up from the ground and spun around himself to look everywhere. Sam and Bobby uncovered their eyes as well and they looked around with equally questioning looks. The scrapyard was covered in glass-shards and Dean's ears were still ringing from Gabriel's true voice. Then a hand was on his shoulder and he was turned around, suddenly facing Sam.
'What the hell was that?' his little brother asked.
'What the hell was what?' he asked.
'Bowing down!' Sam spelled it out.
'What? I should've just let him get killed right here in front of us?' Dean asked in return.
'No, but--'
'There's no “but”, Sam. I had to do something.'
'But you couldn't have meant it.' Dean fell silent at that. He himself wasn't sure, but he knew that he wanted to save Gabriel. Before Sam could force an answer out of him an enormous burst of light covered up the slowly brightening dawn-sky and all three of them whipped their heads in that direction. Clear white light, two sources, far away from them but it still looked like a gigantic outburst of light. Then it was gone the next second, the sky turning back to blue. Dean recognized the light all right, he remembered watching down on a very similar light from an airplane.
'Is that--' Sam started, but was interrupted by a new blast spreading in the sky further to their right now, but just as huge. Dean was almost sure he could feel the gush of wind on his face the outburst created. It was again gone in a second. Dean just stared at the sky with his heart beating heavily in his chest, not knowing what was happening, but sure that one of the lights was Gabriel and the other Cas. He found his muscles tensing again as his gaze roamed around.
The third explosion was bigger than the other two and spread out so widely and lit up the sky with so much light that Dean had to tear away his eyes from the sigh again for a moment. When he looked back he saw nothing but a shapeless form of clear light, shining brightly on the sky, too far away for his eyes to see anything from it at all. It shrunk abruptly, like it was being sucked back into a hole and it became nothing but a burning bright spot in the distance. Then it exploded and fell apart to million pieces in a blink. Bowls of light, like shooting stars or flaming comets flew in every direction, covering everything where eyes could see. There was no end to them, hundreds, thousand or even millions were falling down from the sky, flying across the sky above them.
'Holy Mother...' Bobby murmured as he looked around.
'Souls,' Dean said, because it just had to be, he couldn't think of anything else. It was raining souls from the sky. 'Like waterdrops,' he said, remembering Gabriel saying it. 'No more thunder.'
'Those aren’t souls,' Sam said, and Dean turned around following his brother's line of vision just in time to see how two blazing beams of light split the sky in half and rushed past right above their heads. A lot lower than the souls that were still just falling from the sky everywhere. The first hit the ground somewhere further away then the second a moment later, both with such tremendous impact that Dean felt the earth shake under his feet both times. A heavy gush of wind followed almost immediately, forcing them to shut their eyes and cover their faces as dust and dirt whizzed around them.
Dean coughed up the dust getting in his mouth and nose as he stared to the distance. The next thing he knew that his feet were moving him. He climbed on top of a rusty old ford to see and his breath almost caught in his throat. What he saw from this distance were two large burnt-out craters. He couldn't see what was inside of them, he could only guess, but the grass being blackened to ash all around them was a grim sight.
'Bobby, get your truck!' Dean turned back to the older hunter and he didn't have to ask twice. With the Impala he wouldn't be able to get there out to the field; well, almost the edge of the woods. Thank fuck they didn't crash into the town.
Both Sam and Dean got into the truck and they drove out of the Salvage Yard towards the craters. Dean was practically vibrating with tension; his mind was flooded with hundreds of questions, and hundreds of the worst things that could await them at the place of the impact.
When Dean jumped out of the car he noticed that the souls finally stopped falling down, but he didn't care about them anymore, he just ran to the edge of the first blackened crater, his boots and jeans getting dirty with burnt grass. He abruptly stopped when he caught sight of the tan overcoat and Castiel sitting - leaning on one arm - in the bottom of the hole. He was dirty and his clothes seemed scorched, but he was very much alive and moving. At the sound of Dean's steps he turned his head to look up.
'Dean,' he spoke out. Looking at his face, his eyes and hearing that one simple word was enough for the hunter to know, this was Castiel. He didn't spare more time on him, but started running towards the second crater that was further away. He was almost out of breath by the time he got there.
Unlike his little brother, Gabriel way lying in the bottom of the hole, completely motionless. Dean hurried down on the side, now getting the rest of his clothes dirty with ash and dust, having to put his hands down to get down without falling. He was on his knees right away. Gabriel was just as dirty as Castiel looked like and his clothes were also burnt in some places; hell, his jacket was even smoking a little and the blood was still there on his face where it ran down from his eyes and from his ears.
'Gabriel,' he called. Putting one hand on his collarbone the other on his cheek, but the angel's head just lolled to the other side from his hand without any sort of reaction. No movement, none at all. 'Gabriel!' he called a bit louder. He whipped his head up at the sound of hurried movement and he tensed for a second as Castiel practically stumbled down on the side or the crater very gracelessly and scrambled closer to them.
'Gabriel,' he breathed out. 'No, no, please, Gabriel...' he grabbed a hold of one of the archangel's hands and Dean's first instinct was to tell him not to touch him, but he bit his words back down. Castiel kept mumbling in a quiet tone. His face was possibly as terrified as Dean has ever seen it. 'Please, Gabriel... not you, please. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. Please don't go...'
'He's not breathing,' Dean said out loud the second he realized it. 'Isn't he supposed to breath?' Something was gripping his chest very tightly as the words left his mouth. Castiel reached out and put a hand on Gabriel's chest, but only for a moment.
'He's still here, the vessel is not empty,' he said.
Dean leaned closer, trying to hold the archangel's face in his hands; the skin was warm, but too still. 'Gabriel,' he said again. 'Open your eyes... don't you fucking dare to... you can't leave,' he finally said. 'You hear me you idiot angel? Don't you dare. Come on,' his voice quieted down at the end and he just kept looking down at him, eyes in search of any sort of reaction. He wasn't even sure he himself was breathing. Castiel fell silent too, but he didn't let go of Gabriel's hand, he was clutching it with both of his own.
Then after torturously long moments Gabriel finally inhaled a shallow breath, his chest rising up slightly.
'Gabriel,' Dean called again and this time the angel frowned and his eyes opened up slowly. His gaze seemed unfocused and foggy but he was looking up at him so Dean didn't fucking care.
'Oh shit, fucking finally,' he breathed out in relief.
'Hey,' Gabriel greeted. 'Worried?'
'This once. Maybe a little,' Dean answered. 'You just had to be the big damn hero, didn't you?' Gabriel managed a dim smile at that.
'Learned from the best,' he said.
'How did you pull this off?' Dean asked, because he had no idea what happened, but whatever it was, it worked. He just couldn't imagine how on Earth Gabriel did it, when Castiel was so obviously stronger than him.
'I had awesome back-up,' Gabriel replied and he finally glanced in the other direction noticing Castiel for the first time. Cas for his part, just stared back at Gabriel, still clutching his hand like some wide-eyed frightened animal, not daring to move.
'Stupid kid,' Gabriel murmured, then promptly passed out again.
>>> Epilogue >>>