Eternal, and Eternal I Endure (1/3)
Title: Eternal, and Eternal I Endure
Fandom/Genre: Supernatural / Fantasy
Pairing (s): Dean, Castiel: Pre-slash
Rating: pg-13 ish for language and torture
Word Count: 22,180
Warnings: Spoiler warning for most major plot points of the 5th season, especially the finale.
Notes: Title taken from Henry Francis Cary’s translation of Dante’s Inferno.
Thanks to deadwoodmt for being an awesome beta, and ramen_addict for her early work.
Also, acerbus_instar has done some amazing artwork.
(follow the teaser to some gorgeous artwork)
Summary: Takes place immediately following 5.22. In which there are loose ends to tie up, some archangel sized, and saving the world again is getting to be a habit. Dean and Castiel take a trip through a Dantean Hell as Dean learns to let go of some of those Hell-related traumas.
part i || part ii || part iii
*****
Sam didn’t notice the light flickering above his head as he stared at the house. He didn’t notice the slight breeze either. As he had never had Dean’s talent for recognizing the presence of angels, Sam didn’t realize Castiel was standing behind him until the angel actually spoke.
“Sam. How long have you been out?”
Sam whirled, nearly tripping, and took a moment to find the source of the voice.
“Cas?” From the little that Sam could remember from when he was fully possessed, he had a vague image in his head of a mortal Cas literally exploding. Had he been resurrected again?
“Sam. When did you get out?” Cas studied him intently, refusing to be distracted by his reeling.
Sam fumbled through his brain, but the last thing he could remember was falling into the pit with Michael-Adam, and then just darkness. Next thing he knew, he was on this street with a strong sense that Dean was somewhere close by.
With Sam’s non-answer, Cas seemed like he wanted to take a step forward but then paused, cocking his head at an angle that was a bit more severe than usual.
“Your sigils are gone, and you’re steeped in hellfire.” Cas stepped closer, still looking a little worried and puzzled.. “You really shouldn’t be here. Your presence may be having a negative effect on the environment right now.”
Sam kept quiet, something of a protest clawing its way through his sluggish brain. He wanted to turn back to Dean.
“Sam. You’re radiating hellfire. Your presence here may curse the land.” Castiel reached forward to grasp Sam’s elbow, and with a lurch, they were--
They were back in the cemetery in Lawrence. Sam’s head, already a bit fuzzy, swam away from him, and it took a great amount of willpower to sink to the ground instead of falling on his ass. The dizziness was fading by the time he noticed the other figure in the graveyard. It was a tall blond woman, pretty, with an air of formality about her. Sam was almost positive that she was an angel as well.
“I need to get Dean. Sofiel, keep guard.” Castiel disappeared without another glance at the other two. Sitting, Sam found his vision coming more into focus. He looked up at the angel with him, then followed her gaze back to the patch of Earth. It was the same patch of Earth that he remembered falling into.
As Sam stared at the ground, the air above where the hole had been slowly shimmered.
*****
It was near the end of dinner when the Dean’s phone buzzed. His hand was halfway in his pocket before he remembered that now, maybe it wasn’t going to be an emergency. The apocalypse had been averted. He shot Lisa an apologetic look and answered the call in the hallway anyway.
“Dean.” The curt greeting and the rough voice were still all too familiar.
“Cas? What the hell is this-”
“Sam’s back, and there’s a problem. I can meet you in the car.” The call cut off before Dead could get a word out, but he was already heading towards the living room, grabbing his jacket. Lisa followed him into the room to meet him, looking concerned.
“Dean? What’s going on?”
“I just got a call about my brother. There’s… been a huge emergency. I need to go see if he’s all right.” Dean had yet to tell Lisa much about anything yet, including why he was in town and why he seemed to be almost dead inside. Lisa had known not to push for details when she saw his expression, so mentioning Sam wouldn’t raise too many questions. She leaned up for a quick hug before seeing him to the door with a quiet murmur to “drive safely”.
Castiel was already in the Impala by the time Dean slid in. Neither of them said a word as Dean started the car and pealed down the driveway onto the road.
“Where is he? Where are we headed?” Dean was just taking the road that would lead to the highway, but he wasn’t sure where he was supposed to go after that.
“Lawrence. I brought him back there.” Castiel was curt, which wasn’t unusual, but his worried tone set Dean’s defenses on edge.
“Lawrence? Back in that cemetery?” It would be a bit of a drive back to Lawrence. Dean was speeding towards the highway, ready to just ask Cas to use his angel mojo to beam him out there when, suddenly, the entire Impala was at the entrance to the cemetery, materializing out of thin air and very nearly through part of the iron gate. Dean swore as he scrambled for the brakes.
Up ahead, in the middle of that small open field Dead had altogether too vivid memories of, stood a tall woman staring at the ground. A familiar figure sitting at her feet drew Dean’s eye.
As Dean scrambled for the door, Castiel grabbed for his shoulder, stilling him. “Dean. Sam is steeped in hellfire. He really shouldn’t have contact with anything for the time being.” Cas released Dean’s shoulder, allowing him to get out of the car.
Dean was halfway across the cemetery when Sam noticed him. Sam slowly stood, swaying a little, and both brothers remembered the angels’ warning about contact at the same time. Sam took a half step back as Dean stopped, both about a foot from each other. The silence lasted for about a minute.
“Sammy? Is that just you in there? How did you get out?” Dean’s voice was a bit hoarser than usual, and he fought the urge to ramble.
Sam was trying not to reach out to hug his brother, and wrapped his arms around himself instead.
“I don’t know.” He was quiet, answering both questions at once. Dean seemed to understand.
As the brothers searched for something to say, emotions still in a jumbled mess, something caught their attention. Noticing Dean shift his gaze, Sam slowly turned to the empty patch of ground.
The air shimmered again, and then suddenly, horrifyingly, the ground itself seemed to flicker and the entrance to the Horsemen’s trap emerged. Each flicker lasted only seconds, but neither the brothers nor the angels who had joined them turned their eyes away as it gradually tapered off.
With the slightest rumble in the ground, a figure blinked into existence with the pit, half the torso resting on the edge of the gaping hole. When the pit blinked back out, the body remained on solid ground; in another instant, Dean and Sam recognized their brother.
“Sam, drag him off that field.” Castiel’s voice broke the silence they had lapsed into, and Sam quickly moved forward to grasp his younger brother around the shoulders and pull him towards the others. The ground remained visibly solid.
As Sam approached with Adam’s body, the female angel (Dean couldn’t believe she was anything else) made a small sound and took the slightest step back. Dean dismissed her agitation.
Dean couldn’t quite feel the hellfire he had been warned of, but he followed Cas’s direction and stepped out of the way to avoid brushing against his brothers. If they actually had come from Hell, there was bound to be some sort of evil afoot.
Adam remained unconscious as Sam moved him a safe distance from where the pit had been. The flickering on the ground had ceased, but the air continued to shimmer for a while longer before fading away. Both angels continued to stare.
“Is that how you got out?” Dean asked quietly, strangely aware of the furrowed brows on both angels.
“I can’t remember.” Sam said, straightening up. “I just found myself standing on your street not knowing how I got there.” On the ground behind him, there was a soft murmur, and Adam twitched. He wasn’t regaining consciousness just yet, but he didn’t look quite so dead anymore.
“Cas? What’s going on? How are they getting out of the pit?” Castiel finally looked away from the ground to Dean.
“The Horsemen’s trap wasn’t meant to hold two. Michael and Lucifer are still fighting down there, and it’s damaging the integrity of the trap.”
Dean swallowed, mouth suddenly dry. “Does this mean they’re going to get out?”
Castiel’s gaze skittered towards the ground again. “Angels can’t escape from the trap without being released. They wouldn’t need vessels down in Hell, so when they emerged with their true forms, the trap must have thrown your brothers clear. But if Michael and Lucifer continue to fight, the trap will wreck the barrier between Hell and Earth. A gate to Hell would open here.”
Dean swore under his breath and turned his head as Sam walked up. Adam remained stretched out on the ground, looking as if he was sleeping peacefully.
“This was all supposed to be over. Lucifer goes to Hell, world saved, we’re done. What are we supposed to do now?” Sam sounded almost desperate as he turned towards the two angels, but was surprised when the look on Castiel’s face wasn’t as dark as he expected.
“We release Michael and reset the broken seals. It’ll freeze Lucifer back into place and keep him from using his prison to unleash Hell on Earth.” Castiel looked to the resigned faces of the two brothers, and his face relaxed. “If all goes well, our part in this will be over by the end of the night.”
“If you put everything back the way it was, can’t the demons just spring him again later?” Sam asked.
Castiel was doing that thing where he shook his head without actually moving it. “The seals will be modified so they’re more difficult to break. The demons won’t be able to do this again, even with the help of angels.”
The brothers experienced a sense of puzzled relief as Sofiel moved, speaking to Castiel in soft foreign whispers. It seemed as if she was reporting on the situation, and Castiel stood still as he listened. Dean had gotten used to reading Castiel’s demeanor, and his current posture didn’t seem to signal utter doom and destruction.
When Sofiel finally stepped away, Castiel took a glance skyward for a moment before turning back to the brothers. “We have a number of hours before cracks start forming in the barrier between Hell and Earth. It should allow us plenty of time to take care of the issue before hand.” He turned back to the other angel and gave a command in Enochian. She nodded to him and disappeared.
When Castiel turned back to the brothers, Dean was regarding him closely. “You march up to Heaven an outlaw, and now you’re giving orders? How long were you up there?.”
“It’s not a matter of time, Dean. Our Father has made His presence known and the council knows to feel properly chastised for allowing the situation to get so out of hand. I was promoted.” Castiel gestured to the space where the other angel had been standing just seconds before. “It helped that this time, I wasn’t the only one brought back from oblivion. Many of my brothers who were murdered by Zachariah or his agents were also returned to us. Sofiel and I used to belong to the same garrison. I had thought demons to be responsible for her death, unaware as I was of Uriel’s treachery.”
The brothers digested this information with a small measure of good will. That something was going well for someone they knew seemed foreign, but they were not going to begrudge their friend his fortune.
“Gabriel will be here shortly as well.” Sam startled at that.
“Gabriel too? But Zachariah’s not the one who--”
“Our Father seems to think he deserved it.” Cas didn’t sound entirely pleased about it.
“What? For trying to kill Lucifer and helping us?” Dean just sounded curious. The Archangel’s death had apparently gotten Dean to ease up on his mostly justifiable anger towards the former trickster.
“For finding his conviction.”
Castiel had a small amused smile on his face for a moment, then suddenly they were distracted by the quiet sound of groaning. Behind them, Adam stirred for a moment before opening his eyes.
His gaze was unfocused and his breathing shallow, but he shook his head and tried shifting up into a sitting position. He looked rather good for someone who had just come back from Hell. His face wasn’t quite as sunken as it had been right after the angels had resurrected him. From his dazed and questioning look, he didn’t seem as if he remembered much of what he had just escaped from.
The first person that swam into his line of sight was Sam, now crouched by his side. Dean was behind Sam’s shoulder, and the angel he had previously seen with Dean was next to him. He was no longer in that green room, trapped, and being blinded by archangel light.
There were brief flashes in his head. Almost like memories that weren’t his. There was Sam, but not really Sam rather the one who had worn his body. There was a flash of pain and fire and being burnt up into tiny pieces and thrown across space. And then there was that endless black hole, falling through darkness.
Looking around him, Adam recognized parts of the area from those flashes and decided they were leftover memories from Michael or whatever the hell had possessed him. He thought about getting to his feet, but his body ached in places he didn’t know could be sore, and he decided to just stay put. He remembered coughing up blood, and tried not to think about how his organs had felt like they had been on fire.
He looked up at his brothers. “Is it all over?” This didn’t seem like Hell, and didn’t feel anything like Heaven had. Adam remembered being dead and he hurt a little too much for that to be the case. Which probably meant he was back on Earth. Considering both brothers were there, something must have gone right.
Dean and Sam shared a glance for a moment, before Sam straightened up and shrugged. “For the most part it seems.” He jerked a finger back towards an area of field that Adam just somehow knew used to be the pit to Hell. “Apparently, there was a problem with trapping two angels down there. So we just need to spring one loose then lock everything back up. Then we’re done.”
Adam nodded along as if he understood, but his head was still pounding a bit and he really was sick of all the angel related crap that was being thrown at him.
“What about me then? I was supposed to get to meet my mother.”
It was Castiel who answered. “When Zachariah and his soldiers resurrected you, they brought you back to life for real. In regards to their promise, they were probably going to kill you in the green room themselves or have Michael burn you up. If you wanted to meet your mother now, someone would have to kill you.”
It was quiet as Adam processed this information, then he struggled to stand up.
“What am I supposed to do then? I can’t go back to my old life. My mother’s dead and I don’t have any relatives on her side to speak of. Besides, I’m, probably considered legally dead by now.”
He trailed off, not knowing if the emotion he was feeling was anger, frustration, or some strange selfish giddiness at actually being alive again, for real, after the ghouls had torn him apart. He could almost admit he was grateful when Dean took charge.
“All right. We’re going to tackle one problem at a time. First, we take care of the ‘Hell on Earth’ problem again. Should be run of the mill for us. Then we figure out the whole dead not dead issue.” He jabbed his finger at Castiel. “How do we go about doing this? Do we call up the Horsemen and get them to set Michael free? Where did those rings go, anyway?”
Castiel shook his head. “The trap may be opened and closed by the Horsemen’s power, but opening it up again by any method will release both Michael and Lucifer. However, when the trap was built by angels, it was built with a failsafe in case another angel was somehow trapped there as well.”
Castiel looked at Adam, then Dean. “A vessel of Michael must travel down to the base of the trap and grant Michael permission to use their mortal body as a conduit out of Hell. Michael would be freed of the trap by being drawn towards the body on Earth. This process can only be completed if another archangel grants permission for the process to take place.”
Dean turned to look at his youngest brother for a moment before turning back. “One of us is going to have to go down there? Into Hell?” Dean tried his hardest not to sound a little hysterical and thought he did a rather good job of it.
Sam quickly jumped in, sounding a little terrified. “What? How is that a good plan? You’ll be sending them to Hell.”
Cas shook his head to cut him off. “It won’t be alone. And not for any longer than it takes to reach Michael.” Castiel studied Adam for a moment before turning back to Dean and Sam. “It’ll have to be Dean. I know I can raise Dean’s soul from Hell, and it will take too long to find an angel that can do the same for Adam. I killed both the angels that seemed to be working to resurrect him for Michael.”
Dean stood stone still, not really allowing himself to feel much. Not acknowledging the panic that was threatening to rise. He remembered all too well the pain, blood, and torture, both endured and inflicted. If he went back there, what if he…”
He cut that train of thought off before it went anywhere and stomped down on the emotions. But Cas seemed to notice. Cas, staring at him like he could see into his soul and read his mind, cocked his head and said quietly, “It’ll be a long trip down, but most of it will not be the Hell you remember. You will not enter Hell in the same state you left it in.”
And just as Dean was about to respond, to tell Cas that he was fine and to stay the hell out of his head, there was a cough and Gabriel was sauntering through the cemetery, followed by half a dozen other angels. The larger group paid no heed to Castiel or the humans with him and instead fanned out across the field, forming something of a circle. They began chanting slowly in unison and it was a bit creepy to see.
Gabriel joined Castiel and the Winchesters. His smirk was wide, less sinister and sadistic than before when Sam and Dean had only known him as the Trickster.
“And if it isn’t my favorite brothers. Did you enjoy my parting video?” There was a joking leer in his voice, and he laughed when Sam made a face.
“So, down to business. I’m glad that the world is still here and I’m alive and all, but I could do without all these extra responsibilities.” Gabriel gave a shrug and a ‘I’m not having too much fun with this, but Dad just brought me back to life so who am I to complain?’ look.
“We’ll be getting ready here to set the last seal. Last one to break has to be the first one to go up. There are others around the world doing the rest. When Michael is released, we can start locking them.” Gabriel looked thoughtful for a moment. “Know any suitable demons for the last seal? Can’t have another Lilith working to set Luci free again. We might have to modify the seal a bit…” He trailed off, muttering to himself quietly.
Dean hesitated for a moment, then spoke up. “Well, there’s this demon. He helped us with the whole Horsemen issue. And he actually gave Bobby his soul back after a deal. Don’t know how trustworthy he is exactly, but he’ll do practically anything to save his own ass, and having Lucifer back is the last thing he’ll want.”
Dean didn’t want to harbor any sort of non-negative thoughts for Crowley. But the demon had kept his word and given Bobby his soul back. He’d even let Bobby keep the legs. He’d just dropped by the junkyard after Sam had gone down the hole, patted Bobby on the shoulder, and disappeared. No smart remarks, no ‘happy to create chaos’ grin, barely even looked at Dean. So Dean didn’t quite hate Crowley right now. Didn’t mean the demon was any less of a bastard.
Gabriel seemed interested. “Utterly self-serving and devious, I imagine. Well, at least he seems to be capable of independent thought if he realized supporting Lucifer wouldn’t be in his best interest. What’s his name?”
“Crowley. The crossroads demon.”
There was a pause, then a look of surprised recognition crossed Gabriel’s face. “Crowley? That one with the accent and the suits? For a demon, he’s got a great sense of humor.”
Gabriel turned to the angel that suddenly appeared by his side and quietly muttered something that Dean and Sam couldn’t make out. When Gabriel turned back to them, there was a grin on his face that he directed at Dean.
“So, we’re going to send you down to get Michael. Don’t worry Dean, he won’t be in your body for more than a minute. Joshua has a few messages to pass along and none of them sound pleasant. Big brother’s probably going to get grounded. Now, you two…” Gabriel looked at Sam then over at Adam who was looking decidedly lost in the situation unfurling around him.
“You seem to be the resurrected vessel. Zachariah broke a fair number of rules bringing you back to life.” He tsked, waggling a finger. “The council seems to be in disagreement over what is to be done with you. But, that decision can be made later. Right now, we need to set the seal. You two are going to be with me for this.”
He motioned towards Sam and Adam, winking to Castiel and Dean as he took a step back. “Little brother, you might want to avoid Michael as best you can for a while if what I heard about the holy fire is true.” Gabriel grinned, amused more than anything. “You know how wrathful he can get.”
Then he was stepping back and walking away, motioning for Sam and Adam to follow. Adam seemed slightly hesitant, but Sam smiled, and shrugged his soldiers in a ‘I’m not 100% sure of what’s going on either, but we should probably go along with this since it’s mostly likely for everyone’s benefit” kind of way, and Adam slowly followed Sam over onto the field.
Castiel led Dean over to the nearest tree. Dean was confused until Castiel pointed out that since it would just be Dean’s soul traveling and not his physical body, he would collapse if he was standing when Castiel pulled him out of his body. When Dean grumbled that he could just leave his body in the Impala, Cas mentioned that it might not be the best place to be when Michael emerged.
Dean gave in and settled down against a tree trunk, making sure it was propping him up. Then Cas reached down, settling a grip on Dean’s shoulder. Dean had just a moment to realize that Cas’s hand was directly over the handprint that had been seared into his flesh back when he was pulled from Hell. There was a jerking sensation and a sudden roar, and Dean’s body and soul separated.
*****
Dean opened his eyes to find himself in a dark cavern. He didn’t have too many memories of non-torturous sensations from the last time he had been just a soul, but at the moment, he didn’t feel too different than from ten minutes ago, when he had been standing up on Earth. There could have been some metaphysical confusion as to whether he actually had body parts to move and interact with considering he was just a soul, but that wasn’t something Dean was going to concern himself with. He had bled in this form for thirty years.
Before Dean could even notice that he was alone on the rock floor, there was a flash of blinding light from somewhere above his head. It quickly descended down to him. After the initial confusion, Dean thought it could have been some impossibly large figure shrinking down to a human sized shape.
It reminded Dean of the light that came with approaching archangels, of the blinding burst when angels got stabbed with those blades, and he realized that this must be Castiel’s true form. Remembering Pam’s burning eyes, he slammed his own shut. There was a flash somewhere in his memory. The light approaching wasn’t just archangel familiar, it was specifically familiar. He recognized that light because--
There were flashes of memory. Of Hell. Of pain and the feel of the darkness inside growing, and the rush of wind in his hair. Something was gripping him arm, and he was looking up, squinting into the light that was so utterly blinding after all those years in the dim glow of Hell, and he was flying upwards and…
Dean shook his head and pushed those memories from his mind then promptly denied he was remembering them at all. Subconsciously, he knew what he was recognizing, but acknowledging that would mean acknowledging the rest of the mess of Hell, and there was currently no alcohol around to help him deal with all that.
The light behind his eyelids remained almost blindingly bright, but Dean couldn’t feel his eyeballs burning or his head exploding. Besides, he’d already caught a full view of the figure shrouded in light and if his eyeballs were going to explode, they would have melted already.
He slowly cracked one eye open, and upon finding that further exposure wasn’t doing any harm, he blinked and opened both eyes to stare in amazement at a figure he instantly recognized as Cas even though it looked utterly foreign.
Dean supposed that the angel’s true form had to be the most awesome thing he had ever seen, in the literal and original sense of the word, but he couldn’t get his mind to actually grasp what he was seeing. The light from the angel seemed to fill every crevice of the cavern they were standing in, surrounding Dean in a blanket of light that pulsed with a soft warmth. Then, as Dean watched, everything began to dim, the glow being pulled back into the figure that stood at the center of it all. A distinct shape emerged, a familiar face, the one that used to belong to Jimmy Novak, swam into view.
As the last of the light disappeared, Dean got one last glimpse of wings, much larger than they had been that first night in the barn. Then, the area plunged into darkness.
It took a moment, but Dean quickly realized that while it was pitch black, he could still somehow see clearly. The walls of the place reached impossible heights, and Castiel, back in his vessel, was right in front of Dean, loosening his tie, which seemed to have tightened on the trip down to… wherever they were right now.
“I can see you? The real you I mean.” Dean felt like he needed to say something to break the resounding silence of the cave.
“It was your physical body that was having trouble comprehending my true form before. Souls have more immunity to angels. You have seen me once before in my true form and it caused you no harm then.”
Dean blinked, memories flashing again, and realized that he had remembered Cas’s true form before. He remembered the light, but he had though it to be something else. He had thought it was the sunlight hitting his face as he crawled out of his shallow grave.
Castiel walked towards the wall of the cave, stopping right in front of a large crack and chanted a phrase in Enochian. Then, to Dean, “Are you ready?”
“No” Dean wanted to say. “No” was what every ounce of his being wanted to scream. But his body was back on Earth and he probably didn’t weigh enough in his disembodied state to make much of a resistance if Cas wanted to drag him in. Also, Dean was not a coward. So he squared his shoulders, took a slow breath in through his nose, and tried to sound as casual as possible. “Sure. Let’s just do this.” He was pretty satisfied with how his voice didn’t seem to waver in the slightest.
Castiel placed his hand on the wall next to the crack, and it quickly grew, splitting open with a groan and rumbling the floor. The faintest amount of light split through the opened doorway.
“Some ground rules. We must make absolutely sure that we are never separated. It could take me far too long to find you again if demons drag you off.” Castiel was pulling something out from inside his coat as he spoke. A glint of metal clued Dean in that it was a blade, but as the angel pressed it into his hand, the strange feel of it reminded Dean of Ruby’s knife.
“This is one of the few weapons forged outside of Hell that have any effect on demons in their own realm. Do not to take it out unless you absolutely have to.”
Without waiting for Dean to respond, Castiel walked through the crack in the wall. Dean could still see him through the doorway, so he quickly stepped through. He wasn’t surprised when the wall rumbled closed behind him.
What did catch Dean off guard was the landscape around him. It was as if he was standing in a foggy field in the middle of the night. It was gloomy, a little dank, and the fog obscured everything from view. What the place wasn’t was Hellish. It was dead silent. No screams pierced the air, no demons laughed and shouted, no sound of whips and knives and other instruments of torture cutting through flesh. The place was a bit depressing, but it was far from what Dean had been expecting. He was confused.
“Cas? Where are we? Aren’t we supposed to be in Hell?” That part of his brain that had been screaming protests against walking into Hell of his own volition quieted down and helped take in the surroundings.
“We are in Hell. At the very top of a large realm that extends down far below us.” Cas swept his gaze across the ground until he seemed to find what it was he had been searching for. When he stepped forwards, the fog around his feet swirled and dissipated, revealing a stone path. “Surely you don’t imagine that all the souls that are sent here deserve the same punishments for the different sins that brought them their judgment.”
As Castiel led Dean along the path, the fog swirled around of them and dissipated along the route they were taking. “There are many souls that are deemed unfit to enter Heaven, but their crimes are not such that they warrant eternal torture. They are placed here to suffer gloom and desolation.”
For all the notions of Hell that Dean had, preconceived, observed, and justified, this new information somehow made sense. God and most of the powers that be in the universe seemed to be dicks. But the fact there was a small measure of fairness somewhere seemed to support the notion that all of existence wasn’t some sort of a chaotic wasteland.
Dean turned his focus on one of the other parts of Castiel’s words. “Wait. What do you mean levels?”
“You’ll see in just a moment.”
They were reaching the end of the path at their feet. The fog swirling around them revealed just enough to show a steep drop ahead as the path veered sharply to the left.
Instead of continuing directly on the path, Cas took a moment to bring Dean to the edge of the ground and let him peer down into what should have been the abyss.
Instead of the darkness or the roar of Hellfire that Dean was expecting, there was an actual expansive pit there. The open space corkscrewed downwards, allowing glimpses of various levels - some shrouded in a black smoke, some actually blazing brightly. Somewhere in the middle, towering walls rose up from the rock, as if they were sealing in everything that was below. Dean counted downwards, and there seemed to be nine levels, including the one they were standing on and the one at the very bottom of the vast pit. There were the sounds of tortured wails, but they were distant at the moment. There were other cries, not exactly ones of pain, but nevertheless anguished. At the very bottom of the hole, dimmed by distance, the lights of archangels seared through rock and smoke to cast the hole in a dim glow.
This was so entirely not what Dean had been expecting. His memories were hazed in torture and blood, countless demons and doomed souls. The fact that Hell was so…impressive in aspects that existed outside his own personal experiences gave him pause.
Eyeing the drop down to the bottom, which was obviously their destination, Dean turned to ask Castiel, “What did you say before about a long trip? Wouldn’t it be faster to just drop down the hole? Can you fly both us down with your wings?”
Cas shook his head. “The moment we step out into open air, we’d immediately be swarmed by demons, nephilim, and a sundry of other creatures that inhabit Hell. If I were to drop you in the ensuing battle, it could take far too long find you again. It was difficult enough back when they didn’t know we’d come looking for you. No, there is a path downwards that we will take. If we stay on it, we’ll be hidden from everything else down here.”
Then the angel turned away from the ledge and stepped off the path, heading towards the cliff wall that curved along up to the edge of the ledge. Dean took one last look down through the pit and followed Cas. There was another crack in the wall here, this one more obvious than the last, and there were stairs present. Dean noticed the faded etchings of sigils along the rock of the narrow passage.
“The passageway was created by angels. Back when Lucifer was first imprisoned in Hell, this path was created as a means to reach the floor of the pit quickly without having to fight through all the demons. The sigils are faded, but they should mask us for part of our journey. At the very least, they will be of help until we reach the city.”
Castiel led down the stairs. Once they had passed through most of the cliff wall, the path opened up for a few measures, and the sprawling distance of their journey was apparent for a moment.
Dean quietly swore under his breath. “Cas? How long is it going to take to get down there?”
Cas looked up at him from a few steps below and looked a bit apologetic. “It may take a couple days from our perspective. No more than a few hours will pass back up on Earth.”
Even in the dim light, Dean could still see Cas clearly. The angel wasn’t exactly glowing, but there was a diffuse light coming off him that made seeing his non-expressions altogether too easy.
Dean sighed and got on with following Cas down the dark stairway. While Dean couldn’t pinpoint too many noticeable differences in not having a body, every sensation felt slightly distant. He could barely feel the ground under his feet. There was minimal sensation of the effort it would normally take to walk down steep stairs. Dean sensed that there would be few stops on this trip down, even if it did take days. At least it looked like it would take a while to reach all the fire and tortured cried of the damned.
*****
Sam had watched Dean walk off with Castiel, momentarily confused when his brother stopped and sat down at the base of a tree. The reason had become clear when Castiel reached down towards Dean’s shoulder, then disappeared with a bright flash of light that was not customary to his quiet departures. Dean’s body slumped but stayed upright, supported by the tree. He looked like he was sleeping.
Turning back to Gabriel, Sam caught the former Trickster standing quietly, staring at the ground under his feet. It was where the hole to the pit had appeared earlier. The serious expression on Gabriel’s face seemed out of place when it wasn’t tinged with smugness.
Then, as if he sensed Sam watching, Gabriel quickly looked up and flashed a grin at Adam, who was looking decidedly confused but was keeping quiet. It was no surprise that he was out of his element. Prior to getting killed by the ghouls, he had been in the dark about all things supernatural. The day or so he had been resurrected for before becoming Michael’s vessel hadn’t been too conductive to anybody really sitting down with Adam and explaining the whole story other than trying to convince him that Zachariah was a dick. That point probably got through too late in the end.
Now, he was surrounded by angels, and the most he’d interacted with Cas was being carried while unconscious. It wouldn’t be surprising if Adam thought all angels were dicks. He looked like he felt out of place. Sam was feeling some sympathy, but before he could draw Adam’s attention away from the clusters of chanting angels, Gabriel was swooping over to them and slinging an arm over each of their shoulders. Considering the height difference between Sam and Gabriel, this looked like it should have been awkward, but it wasn’t.
“So,” Gabriel was saying, right into Sam’s ear. “Since you two have spent some time as vessels…”
Gabriel sniffed at them, causing Adam to draw away. Gabriel just continued. “…very recently, this should make it easier on us all. Once Dean pops my esteemed brother from the pit, we can set the locks and all go back to our regularly scheduled lives. Or, in my case, finding a way to sneak out again. Heaven is going to be even worse now with Michael and Raphael whining at each other about being grounded.” With that random statement, Gabriel swung his arm free from Sam’s shoulder to gently push Adam into a circle drawn on the ground with holy oil.
“Stand, sit, whatever, but you’re going to have to stay in that circle till the ritual’s over. Consider yourself lucky we don’t use blood like the demons are wont to do because we’d be knee deep in bloodless corpses.”
Gabriel pushed Sam into another similar circle just to the side of Adam’s little spot of ground. “Really, you don’t want to get any of the oil on you because you might go up in flames when we light it all. And try not to cross over the lines. It’ll just dampen its effectiveness.” Gabriel walked off without another word.
Sighing, Sam wondered if he’d ever get used to the strangeness of angels, if he ever needed to. There was enough room to sit down on the ground and stretch his legs a little. To his side, Adam was doing pretty much the same thing.
Sam hadn’t had enough experience with Adam, the real Adam, to really get to know what he was like, but he felt like the silence wasn’t just social awkwardness around angels. There was probably a whole lot of mental processing going on. If Adam was anything like Dean - and in the brief window Sam had known Adam before Michael decided to wear him, Adam seemed scarily too much like Dean - it probably meant that Adam was going to pull right into himself for awhile before exploding when everything boiled over the top.
In terms of situations, Sam felt like this was preferable to anything he had gone through with Dean. It wasn’t really about impending deaths, the end of the world, or sharp fraternal betrayal. This was probably more to do with returning from the dead, being thrust into an unfamiliar world, and knowing that his mother was still dead. But returning from the dead was much preferable to the other option. Adam could always choose to leave the supernatural world behind now that he had been granted something of a second chance, and his mother was at peace in Heaven. Even if Heaven seemed something of a boring cop out to the paradise that was promised by religion, he had it on Dean’s authority that it was a much better place to end up than Hell.
Dean had always mocked Sam for being a girl, for being in touch with his feelings. It didn’t fit with the Winchester way of repressing everything until madness set in. Well, people still tended to find Sam nicer than his brother.
Now was as good a time as any to attempt getting to know Adam. That day of trying to keep Dean from saying yes to Michael had been too tense for all of them. But seeing Adam look bewildered and tired and out of his depth sent a stirring of… something through Sam. Maybe it was brotherly affection. Maybe it was what Dean had grown up feeling.
Well, Sam wouldn’t ever get to really know his brother unless he reached out himself, because if Adam was as much like Dean as Sam suspected, it would be like waiting for a rock to make the first move. So, finding his ‘Dean, I’m actually enjoying your company right now so don’t ruin the mood by being a dick’ voice, Sam thought of ways to start up a conversation.
next
Fandom/Genre: Supernatural / Fantasy
Pairing (s): Dean, Castiel: Pre-slash
Rating: pg-13 ish for language and torture
Word Count: 22,180
Warnings: Spoiler warning for most major plot points of the 5th season, especially the finale.
Notes: Title taken from Henry Francis Cary’s translation of Dante’s Inferno.
Thanks to deadwoodmt for being an awesome beta, and ramen_addict for her early work.
Also, acerbus_instar has done some amazing artwork.
(follow the teaser to some gorgeous artwork)
Summary: Takes place immediately following 5.22. In which there are loose ends to tie up, some archangel sized, and saving the world again is getting to be a habit. Dean and Castiel take a trip through a Dantean Hell as Dean learns to let go of some of those Hell-related traumas.
part i || part ii || part iii
*****
Sam didn’t notice the light flickering above his head as he stared at the house. He didn’t notice the slight breeze either. As he had never had Dean’s talent for recognizing the presence of angels, Sam didn’t realize Castiel was standing behind him until the angel actually spoke.
“Sam. How long have you been out?”
Sam whirled, nearly tripping, and took a moment to find the source of the voice.
“Cas?” From the little that Sam could remember from when he was fully possessed, he had a vague image in his head of a mortal Cas literally exploding. Had he been resurrected again?
“Sam. When did you get out?” Cas studied him intently, refusing to be distracted by his reeling.
Sam fumbled through his brain, but the last thing he could remember was falling into the pit with Michael-Adam, and then just darkness. Next thing he knew, he was on this street with a strong sense that Dean was somewhere close by.
With Sam’s non-answer, Cas seemed like he wanted to take a step forward but then paused, cocking his head at an angle that was a bit more severe than usual.
“Your sigils are gone, and you’re steeped in hellfire.” Cas stepped closer, still looking a little worried and puzzled.. “You really shouldn’t be here. Your presence may be having a negative effect on the environment right now.”
Sam kept quiet, something of a protest clawing its way through his sluggish brain. He wanted to turn back to Dean.
“Sam. You’re radiating hellfire. Your presence here may curse the land.” Castiel reached forward to grasp Sam’s elbow, and with a lurch, they were--
They were back in the cemetery in Lawrence. Sam’s head, already a bit fuzzy, swam away from him, and it took a great amount of willpower to sink to the ground instead of falling on his ass. The dizziness was fading by the time he noticed the other figure in the graveyard. It was a tall blond woman, pretty, with an air of formality about her. Sam was almost positive that she was an angel as well.
“I need to get Dean. Sofiel, keep guard.” Castiel disappeared without another glance at the other two. Sitting, Sam found his vision coming more into focus. He looked up at the angel with him, then followed her gaze back to the patch of Earth. It was the same patch of Earth that he remembered falling into.
As Sam stared at the ground, the air above where the hole had been slowly shimmered.
*****
It was near the end of dinner when the Dean’s phone buzzed. His hand was halfway in his pocket before he remembered that now, maybe it wasn’t going to be an emergency. The apocalypse had been averted. He shot Lisa an apologetic look and answered the call in the hallway anyway.
“Dean.” The curt greeting and the rough voice were still all too familiar.
“Cas? What the hell is this-”
“Sam’s back, and there’s a problem. I can meet you in the car.” The call cut off before Dead could get a word out, but he was already heading towards the living room, grabbing his jacket. Lisa followed him into the room to meet him, looking concerned.
“Dean? What’s going on?”
“I just got a call about my brother. There’s… been a huge emergency. I need to go see if he’s all right.” Dean had yet to tell Lisa much about anything yet, including why he was in town and why he seemed to be almost dead inside. Lisa had known not to push for details when she saw his expression, so mentioning Sam wouldn’t raise too many questions. She leaned up for a quick hug before seeing him to the door with a quiet murmur to “drive safely”.
Castiel was already in the Impala by the time Dean slid in. Neither of them said a word as Dean started the car and pealed down the driveway onto the road.
“Where is he? Where are we headed?” Dean was just taking the road that would lead to the highway, but he wasn’t sure where he was supposed to go after that.
“Lawrence. I brought him back there.” Castiel was curt, which wasn’t unusual, but his worried tone set Dean’s defenses on edge.
“Lawrence? Back in that cemetery?” It would be a bit of a drive back to Lawrence. Dean was speeding towards the highway, ready to just ask Cas to use his angel mojo to beam him out there when, suddenly, the entire Impala was at the entrance to the cemetery, materializing out of thin air and very nearly through part of the iron gate. Dean swore as he scrambled for the brakes.
Up ahead, in the middle of that small open field Dead had altogether too vivid memories of, stood a tall woman staring at the ground. A familiar figure sitting at her feet drew Dean’s eye.
As Dean scrambled for the door, Castiel grabbed for his shoulder, stilling him. “Dean. Sam is steeped in hellfire. He really shouldn’t have contact with anything for the time being.” Cas released Dean’s shoulder, allowing him to get out of the car.
Dean was halfway across the cemetery when Sam noticed him. Sam slowly stood, swaying a little, and both brothers remembered the angels’ warning about contact at the same time. Sam took a half step back as Dean stopped, both about a foot from each other. The silence lasted for about a minute.
“Sammy? Is that just you in there? How did you get out?” Dean’s voice was a bit hoarser than usual, and he fought the urge to ramble.
Sam was trying not to reach out to hug his brother, and wrapped his arms around himself instead.
“I don’t know.” He was quiet, answering both questions at once. Dean seemed to understand.
As the brothers searched for something to say, emotions still in a jumbled mess, something caught their attention. Noticing Dean shift his gaze, Sam slowly turned to the empty patch of ground.
The air shimmered again, and then suddenly, horrifyingly, the ground itself seemed to flicker and the entrance to the Horsemen’s trap emerged. Each flicker lasted only seconds, but neither the brothers nor the angels who had joined them turned their eyes away as it gradually tapered off.
With the slightest rumble in the ground, a figure blinked into existence with the pit, half the torso resting on the edge of the gaping hole. When the pit blinked back out, the body remained on solid ground; in another instant, Dean and Sam recognized their brother.
“Sam, drag him off that field.” Castiel’s voice broke the silence they had lapsed into, and Sam quickly moved forward to grasp his younger brother around the shoulders and pull him towards the others. The ground remained visibly solid.
As Sam approached with Adam’s body, the female angel (Dean couldn’t believe she was anything else) made a small sound and took the slightest step back. Dean dismissed her agitation.
Dean couldn’t quite feel the hellfire he had been warned of, but he followed Cas’s direction and stepped out of the way to avoid brushing against his brothers. If they actually had come from Hell, there was bound to be some sort of evil afoot.
Adam remained unconscious as Sam moved him a safe distance from where the pit had been. The flickering on the ground had ceased, but the air continued to shimmer for a while longer before fading away. Both angels continued to stare.
“Is that how you got out?” Dean asked quietly, strangely aware of the furrowed brows on both angels.
“I can’t remember.” Sam said, straightening up. “I just found myself standing on your street not knowing how I got there.” On the ground behind him, there was a soft murmur, and Adam twitched. He wasn’t regaining consciousness just yet, but he didn’t look quite so dead anymore.
“Cas? What’s going on? How are they getting out of the pit?” Castiel finally looked away from the ground to Dean.
“The Horsemen’s trap wasn’t meant to hold two. Michael and Lucifer are still fighting down there, and it’s damaging the integrity of the trap.”
Dean swallowed, mouth suddenly dry. “Does this mean they’re going to get out?”
Castiel’s gaze skittered towards the ground again. “Angels can’t escape from the trap without being released. They wouldn’t need vessels down in Hell, so when they emerged with their true forms, the trap must have thrown your brothers clear. But if Michael and Lucifer continue to fight, the trap will wreck the barrier between Hell and Earth. A gate to Hell would open here.”
Dean swore under his breath and turned his head as Sam walked up. Adam remained stretched out on the ground, looking as if he was sleeping peacefully.
“This was all supposed to be over. Lucifer goes to Hell, world saved, we’re done. What are we supposed to do now?” Sam sounded almost desperate as he turned towards the two angels, but was surprised when the look on Castiel’s face wasn’t as dark as he expected.
“We release Michael and reset the broken seals. It’ll freeze Lucifer back into place and keep him from using his prison to unleash Hell on Earth.” Castiel looked to the resigned faces of the two brothers, and his face relaxed. “If all goes well, our part in this will be over by the end of the night.”
“If you put everything back the way it was, can’t the demons just spring him again later?” Sam asked.
Castiel was doing that thing where he shook his head without actually moving it. “The seals will be modified so they’re more difficult to break. The demons won’t be able to do this again, even with the help of angels.”
The brothers experienced a sense of puzzled relief as Sofiel moved, speaking to Castiel in soft foreign whispers. It seemed as if she was reporting on the situation, and Castiel stood still as he listened. Dean had gotten used to reading Castiel’s demeanor, and his current posture didn’t seem to signal utter doom and destruction.
When Sofiel finally stepped away, Castiel took a glance skyward for a moment before turning back to the brothers. “We have a number of hours before cracks start forming in the barrier between Hell and Earth. It should allow us plenty of time to take care of the issue before hand.” He turned back to the other angel and gave a command in Enochian. She nodded to him and disappeared.
When Castiel turned back to the brothers, Dean was regarding him closely. “You march up to Heaven an outlaw, and now you’re giving orders? How long were you up there?.”
“It’s not a matter of time, Dean. Our Father has made His presence known and the council knows to feel properly chastised for allowing the situation to get so out of hand. I was promoted.” Castiel gestured to the space where the other angel had been standing just seconds before. “It helped that this time, I wasn’t the only one brought back from oblivion. Many of my brothers who were murdered by Zachariah or his agents were also returned to us. Sofiel and I used to belong to the same garrison. I had thought demons to be responsible for her death, unaware as I was of Uriel’s treachery.”
The brothers digested this information with a small measure of good will. That something was going well for someone they knew seemed foreign, but they were not going to begrudge their friend his fortune.
“Gabriel will be here shortly as well.” Sam startled at that.
“Gabriel too? But Zachariah’s not the one who--”
“Our Father seems to think he deserved it.” Cas didn’t sound entirely pleased about it.
“What? For trying to kill Lucifer and helping us?” Dean just sounded curious. The Archangel’s death had apparently gotten Dean to ease up on his mostly justifiable anger towards the former trickster.
“For finding his conviction.”
Castiel had a small amused smile on his face for a moment, then suddenly they were distracted by the quiet sound of groaning. Behind them, Adam stirred for a moment before opening his eyes.
His gaze was unfocused and his breathing shallow, but he shook his head and tried shifting up into a sitting position. He looked rather good for someone who had just come back from Hell. His face wasn’t quite as sunken as it had been right after the angels had resurrected him. From his dazed and questioning look, he didn’t seem as if he remembered much of what he had just escaped from.
The first person that swam into his line of sight was Sam, now crouched by his side. Dean was behind Sam’s shoulder, and the angel he had previously seen with Dean was next to him. He was no longer in that green room, trapped, and being blinded by archangel light.
There were brief flashes in his head. Almost like memories that weren’t his. There was Sam, but not really Sam rather the one who had worn his body. There was a flash of pain and fire and being burnt up into tiny pieces and thrown across space. And then there was that endless black hole, falling through darkness.
Looking around him, Adam recognized parts of the area from those flashes and decided they were leftover memories from Michael or whatever the hell had possessed him. He thought about getting to his feet, but his body ached in places he didn’t know could be sore, and he decided to just stay put. He remembered coughing up blood, and tried not to think about how his organs had felt like they had been on fire.
He looked up at his brothers. “Is it all over?” This didn’t seem like Hell, and didn’t feel anything like Heaven had. Adam remembered being dead and he hurt a little too much for that to be the case. Which probably meant he was back on Earth. Considering both brothers were there, something must have gone right.
Dean and Sam shared a glance for a moment, before Sam straightened up and shrugged. “For the most part it seems.” He jerked a finger back towards an area of field that Adam just somehow knew used to be the pit to Hell. “Apparently, there was a problem with trapping two angels down there. So we just need to spring one loose then lock everything back up. Then we’re done.”
Adam nodded along as if he understood, but his head was still pounding a bit and he really was sick of all the angel related crap that was being thrown at him.
“What about me then? I was supposed to get to meet my mother.”
It was Castiel who answered. “When Zachariah and his soldiers resurrected you, they brought you back to life for real. In regards to their promise, they were probably going to kill you in the green room themselves or have Michael burn you up. If you wanted to meet your mother now, someone would have to kill you.”
It was quiet as Adam processed this information, then he struggled to stand up.
“What am I supposed to do then? I can’t go back to my old life. My mother’s dead and I don’t have any relatives on her side to speak of. Besides, I’m, probably considered legally dead by now.”
He trailed off, not knowing if the emotion he was feeling was anger, frustration, or some strange selfish giddiness at actually being alive again, for real, after the ghouls had torn him apart. He could almost admit he was grateful when Dean took charge.
“All right. We’re going to tackle one problem at a time. First, we take care of the ‘Hell on Earth’ problem again. Should be run of the mill for us. Then we figure out the whole dead not dead issue.” He jabbed his finger at Castiel. “How do we go about doing this? Do we call up the Horsemen and get them to set Michael free? Where did those rings go, anyway?”
Castiel shook his head. “The trap may be opened and closed by the Horsemen’s power, but opening it up again by any method will release both Michael and Lucifer. However, when the trap was built by angels, it was built with a failsafe in case another angel was somehow trapped there as well.”
Castiel looked at Adam, then Dean. “A vessel of Michael must travel down to the base of the trap and grant Michael permission to use their mortal body as a conduit out of Hell. Michael would be freed of the trap by being drawn towards the body on Earth. This process can only be completed if another archangel grants permission for the process to take place.”
Dean turned to look at his youngest brother for a moment before turning back. “One of us is going to have to go down there? Into Hell?” Dean tried his hardest not to sound a little hysterical and thought he did a rather good job of it.
Sam quickly jumped in, sounding a little terrified. “What? How is that a good plan? You’ll be sending them to Hell.”
Cas shook his head to cut him off. “It won’t be alone. And not for any longer than it takes to reach Michael.” Castiel studied Adam for a moment before turning back to Dean and Sam. “It’ll have to be Dean. I know I can raise Dean’s soul from Hell, and it will take too long to find an angel that can do the same for Adam. I killed both the angels that seemed to be working to resurrect him for Michael.”
Dean stood stone still, not really allowing himself to feel much. Not acknowledging the panic that was threatening to rise. He remembered all too well the pain, blood, and torture, both endured and inflicted. If he went back there, what if he…”
He cut that train of thought off before it went anywhere and stomped down on the emotions. But Cas seemed to notice. Cas, staring at him like he could see into his soul and read his mind, cocked his head and said quietly, “It’ll be a long trip down, but most of it will not be the Hell you remember. You will not enter Hell in the same state you left it in.”
And just as Dean was about to respond, to tell Cas that he was fine and to stay the hell out of his head, there was a cough and Gabriel was sauntering through the cemetery, followed by half a dozen other angels. The larger group paid no heed to Castiel or the humans with him and instead fanned out across the field, forming something of a circle. They began chanting slowly in unison and it was a bit creepy to see.
Gabriel joined Castiel and the Winchesters. His smirk was wide, less sinister and sadistic than before when Sam and Dean had only known him as the Trickster.
“And if it isn’t my favorite brothers. Did you enjoy my parting video?” There was a joking leer in his voice, and he laughed when Sam made a face.
“So, down to business. I’m glad that the world is still here and I’m alive and all, but I could do without all these extra responsibilities.” Gabriel gave a shrug and a ‘I’m not having too much fun with this, but Dad just brought me back to life so who am I to complain?’ look.
“We’ll be getting ready here to set the last seal. Last one to break has to be the first one to go up. There are others around the world doing the rest. When Michael is released, we can start locking them.” Gabriel looked thoughtful for a moment. “Know any suitable demons for the last seal? Can’t have another Lilith working to set Luci free again. We might have to modify the seal a bit…” He trailed off, muttering to himself quietly.
Dean hesitated for a moment, then spoke up. “Well, there’s this demon. He helped us with the whole Horsemen issue. And he actually gave Bobby his soul back after a deal. Don’t know how trustworthy he is exactly, but he’ll do practically anything to save his own ass, and having Lucifer back is the last thing he’ll want.”
Dean didn’t want to harbor any sort of non-negative thoughts for Crowley. But the demon had kept his word and given Bobby his soul back. He’d even let Bobby keep the legs. He’d just dropped by the junkyard after Sam had gone down the hole, patted Bobby on the shoulder, and disappeared. No smart remarks, no ‘happy to create chaos’ grin, barely even looked at Dean. So Dean didn’t quite hate Crowley right now. Didn’t mean the demon was any less of a bastard.
Gabriel seemed interested. “Utterly self-serving and devious, I imagine. Well, at least he seems to be capable of independent thought if he realized supporting Lucifer wouldn’t be in his best interest. What’s his name?”
“Crowley. The crossroads demon.”
There was a pause, then a look of surprised recognition crossed Gabriel’s face. “Crowley? That one with the accent and the suits? For a demon, he’s got a great sense of humor.”
Gabriel turned to the angel that suddenly appeared by his side and quietly muttered something that Dean and Sam couldn’t make out. When Gabriel turned back to them, there was a grin on his face that he directed at Dean.
“So, we’re going to send you down to get Michael. Don’t worry Dean, he won’t be in your body for more than a minute. Joshua has a few messages to pass along and none of them sound pleasant. Big brother’s probably going to get grounded. Now, you two…” Gabriel looked at Sam then over at Adam who was looking decidedly lost in the situation unfurling around him.
“You seem to be the resurrected vessel. Zachariah broke a fair number of rules bringing you back to life.” He tsked, waggling a finger. “The council seems to be in disagreement over what is to be done with you. But, that decision can be made later. Right now, we need to set the seal. You two are going to be with me for this.”
He motioned towards Sam and Adam, winking to Castiel and Dean as he took a step back. “Little brother, you might want to avoid Michael as best you can for a while if what I heard about the holy fire is true.” Gabriel grinned, amused more than anything. “You know how wrathful he can get.”
Then he was stepping back and walking away, motioning for Sam and Adam to follow. Adam seemed slightly hesitant, but Sam smiled, and shrugged his soldiers in a ‘I’m not 100% sure of what’s going on either, but we should probably go along with this since it’s mostly likely for everyone’s benefit” kind of way, and Adam slowly followed Sam over onto the field.
Castiel led Dean over to the nearest tree. Dean was confused until Castiel pointed out that since it would just be Dean’s soul traveling and not his physical body, he would collapse if he was standing when Castiel pulled him out of his body. When Dean grumbled that he could just leave his body in the Impala, Cas mentioned that it might not be the best place to be when Michael emerged.
Dean gave in and settled down against a tree trunk, making sure it was propping him up. Then Cas reached down, settling a grip on Dean’s shoulder. Dean had just a moment to realize that Cas’s hand was directly over the handprint that had been seared into his flesh back when he was pulled from Hell. There was a jerking sensation and a sudden roar, and Dean’s body and soul separated.
*****
Dean opened his eyes to find himself in a dark cavern. He didn’t have too many memories of non-torturous sensations from the last time he had been just a soul, but at the moment, he didn’t feel too different than from ten minutes ago, when he had been standing up on Earth. There could have been some metaphysical confusion as to whether he actually had body parts to move and interact with considering he was just a soul, but that wasn’t something Dean was going to concern himself with. He had bled in this form for thirty years.
Before Dean could even notice that he was alone on the rock floor, there was a flash of blinding light from somewhere above his head. It quickly descended down to him. After the initial confusion, Dean thought it could have been some impossibly large figure shrinking down to a human sized shape.
It reminded Dean of the light that came with approaching archangels, of the blinding burst when angels got stabbed with those blades, and he realized that this must be Castiel’s true form. Remembering Pam’s burning eyes, he slammed his own shut. There was a flash somewhere in his memory. The light approaching wasn’t just archangel familiar, it was specifically familiar. He recognized that light because--
There were flashes of memory. Of Hell. Of pain and the feel of the darkness inside growing, and the rush of wind in his hair. Something was gripping him arm, and he was looking up, squinting into the light that was so utterly blinding after all those years in the dim glow of Hell, and he was flying upwards and…
Dean shook his head and pushed those memories from his mind then promptly denied he was remembering them at all. Subconsciously, he knew what he was recognizing, but acknowledging that would mean acknowledging the rest of the mess of Hell, and there was currently no alcohol around to help him deal with all that.
The light behind his eyelids remained almost blindingly bright, but Dean couldn’t feel his eyeballs burning or his head exploding. Besides, he’d already caught a full view of the figure shrouded in light and if his eyeballs were going to explode, they would have melted already.
He slowly cracked one eye open, and upon finding that further exposure wasn’t doing any harm, he blinked and opened both eyes to stare in amazement at a figure he instantly recognized as Cas even though it looked utterly foreign.
Dean supposed that the angel’s true form had to be the most awesome thing he had ever seen, in the literal and original sense of the word, but he couldn’t get his mind to actually grasp what he was seeing. The light from the angel seemed to fill every crevice of the cavern they were standing in, surrounding Dean in a blanket of light that pulsed with a soft warmth. Then, as Dean watched, everything began to dim, the glow being pulled back into the figure that stood at the center of it all. A distinct shape emerged, a familiar face, the one that used to belong to Jimmy Novak, swam into view.
As the last of the light disappeared, Dean got one last glimpse of wings, much larger than they had been that first night in the barn. Then, the area plunged into darkness.
It took a moment, but Dean quickly realized that while it was pitch black, he could still somehow see clearly. The walls of the place reached impossible heights, and Castiel, back in his vessel, was right in front of Dean, loosening his tie, which seemed to have tightened on the trip down to… wherever they were right now.
“I can see you? The real you I mean.” Dean felt like he needed to say something to break the resounding silence of the cave.
“It was your physical body that was having trouble comprehending my true form before. Souls have more immunity to angels. You have seen me once before in my true form and it caused you no harm then.”
Dean blinked, memories flashing again, and realized that he had remembered Cas’s true form before. He remembered the light, but he had though it to be something else. He had thought it was the sunlight hitting his face as he crawled out of his shallow grave.
Castiel walked towards the wall of the cave, stopping right in front of a large crack and chanted a phrase in Enochian. Then, to Dean, “Are you ready?”
“No” Dean wanted to say. “No” was what every ounce of his being wanted to scream. But his body was back on Earth and he probably didn’t weigh enough in his disembodied state to make much of a resistance if Cas wanted to drag him in. Also, Dean was not a coward. So he squared his shoulders, took a slow breath in through his nose, and tried to sound as casual as possible. “Sure. Let’s just do this.” He was pretty satisfied with how his voice didn’t seem to waver in the slightest.
Castiel placed his hand on the wall next to the crack, and it quickly grew, splitting open with a groan and rumbling the floor. The faintest amount of light split through the opened doorway.
“Some ground rules. We must make absolutely sure that we are never separated. It could take me far too long to find you again if demons drag you off.” Castiel was pulling something out from inside his coat as he spoke. A glint of metal clued Dean in that it was a blade, but as the angel pressed it into his hand, the strange feel of it reminded Dean of Ruby’s knife.
“This is one of the few weapons forged outside of Hell that have any effect on demons in their own realm. Do not to take it out unless you absolutely have to.”
Without waiting for Dean to respond, Castiel walked through the crack in the wall. Dean could still see him through the doorway, so he quickly stepped through. He wasn’t surprised when the wall rumbled closed behind him.
What did catch Dean off guard was the landscape around him. It was as if he was standing in a foggy field in the middle of the night. It was gloomy, a little dank, and the fog obscured everything from view. What the place wasn’t was Hellish. It was dead silent. No screams pierced the air, no demons laughed and shouted, no sound of whips and knives and other instruments of torture cutting through flesh. The place was a bit depressing, but it was far from what Dean had been expecting. He was confused.
“Cas? Where are we? Aren’t we supposed to be in Hell?” That part of his brain that had been screaming protests against walking into Hell of his own volition quieted down and helped take in the surroundings.
“We are in Hell. At the very top of a large realm that extends down far below us.” Cas swept his gaze across the ground until he seemed to find what it was he had been searching for. When he stepped forwards, the fog around his feet swirled and dissipated, revealing a stone path. “Surely you don’t imagine that all the souls that are sent here deserve the same punishments for the different sins that brought them their judgment.”
As Castiel led Dean along the path, the fog swirled around of them and dissipated along the route they were taking. “There are many souls that are deemed unfit to enter Heaven, but their crimes are not such that they warrant eternal torture. They are placed here to suffer gloom and desolation.”
For all the notions of Hell that Dean had, preconceived, observed, and justified, this new information somehow made sense. God and most of the powers that be in the universe seemed to be dicks. But the fact there was a small measure of fairness somewhere seemed to support the notion that all of existence wasn’t some sort of a chaotic wasteland.
Dean turned his focus on one of the other parts of Castiel’s words. “Wait. What do you mean levels?”
“You’ll see in just a moment.”
They were reaching the end of the path at their feet. The fog swirling around them revealed just enough to show a steep drop ahead as the path veered sharply to the left.
Instead of continuing directly on the path, Cas took a moment to bring Dean to the edge of the ground and let him peer down into what should have been the abyss.
Instead of the darkness or the roar of Hellfire that Dean was expecting, there was an actual expansive pit there. The open space corkscrewed downwards, allowing glimpses of various levels - some shrouded in a black smoke, some actually blazing brightly. Somewhere in the middle, towering walls rose up from the rock, as if they were sealing in everything that was below. Dean counted downwards, and there seemed to be nine levels, including the one they were standing on and the one at the very bottom of the vast pit. There were the sounds of tortured wails, but they were distant at the moment. There were other cries, not exactly ones of pain, but nevertheless anguished. At the very bottom of the hole, dimmed by distance, the lights of archangels seared through rock and smoke to cast the hole in a dim glow.
This was so entirely not what Dean had been expecting. His memories were hazed in torture and blood, countless demons and doomed souls. The fact that Hell was so…impressive in aspects that existed outside his own personal experiences gave him pause.
Eyeing the drop down to the bottom, which was obviously their destination, Dean turned to ask Castiel, “What did you say before about a long trip? Wouldn’t it be faster to just drop down the hole? Can you fly both us down with your wings?”
Cas shook his head. “The moment we step out into open air, we’d immediately be swarmed by demons, nephilim, and a sundry of other creatures that inhabit Hell. If I were to drop you in the ensuing battle, it could take far too long find you again. It was difficult enough back when they didn’t know we’d come looking for you. No, there is a path downwards that we will take. If we stay on it, we’ll be hidden from everything else down here.”
Then the angel turned away from the ledge and stepped off the path, heading towards the cliff wall that curved along up to the edge of the ledge. Dean took one last look down through the pit and followed Cas. There was another crack in the wall here, this one more obvious than the last, and there were stairs present. Dean noticed the faded etchings of sigils along the rock of the narrow passage.
“The passageway was created by angels. Back when Lucifer was first imprisoned in Hell, this path was created as a means to reach the floor of the pit quickly without having to fight through all the demons. The sigils are faded, but they should mask us for part of our journey. At the very least, they will be of help until we reach the city.”
Castiel led down the stairs. Once they had passed through most of the cliff wall, the path opened up for a few measures, and the sprawling distance of their journey was apparent for a moment.
Dean quietly swore under his breath. “Cas? How long is it going to take to get down there?”
Cas looked up at him from a few steps below and looked a bit apologetic. “It may take a couple days from our perspective. No more than a few hours will pass back up on Earth.”
Even in the dim light, Dean could still see Cas clearly. The angel wasn’t exactly glowing, but there was a diffuse light coming off him that made seeing his non-expressions altogether too easy.
Dean sighed and got on with following Cas down the dark stairway. While Dean couldn’t pinpoint too many noticeable differences in not having a body, every sensation felt slightly distant. He could barely feel the ground under his feet. There was minimal sensation of the effort it would normally take to walk down steep stairs. Dean sensed that there would be few stops on this trip down, even if it did take days. At least it looked like it would take a while to reach all the fire and tortured cried of the damned.
*****
Sam had watched Dean walk off with Castiel, momentarily confused when his brother stopped and sat down at the base of a tree. The reason had become clear when Castiel reached down towards Dean’s shoulder, then disappeared with a bright flash of light that was not customary to his quiet departures. Dean’s body slumped but stayed upright, supported by the tree. He looked like he was sleeping.
Turning back to Gabriel, Sam caught the former Trickster standing quietly, staring at the ground under his feet. It was where the hole to the pit had appeared earlier. The serious expression on Gabriel’s face seemed out of place when it wasn’t tinged with smugness.
Then, as if he sensed Sam watching, Gabriel quickly looked up and flashed a grin at Adam, who was looking decidedly confused but was keeping quiet. It was no surprise that he was out of his element. Prior to getting killed by the ghouls, he had been in the dark about all things supernatural. The day or so he had been resurrected for before becoming Michael’s vessel hadn’t been too conductive to anybody really sitting down with Adam and explaining the whole story other than trying to convince him that Zachariah was a dick. That point probably got through too late in the end.
Now, he was surrounded by angels, and the most he’d interacted with Cas was being carried while unconscious. It wouldn’t be surprising if Adam thought all angels were dicks. He looked like he felt out of place. Sam was feeling some sympathy, but before he could draw Adam’s attention away from the clusters of chanting angels, Gabriel was swooping over to them and slinging an arm over each of their shoulders. Considering the height difference between Sam and Gabriel, this looked like it should have been awkward, but it wasn’t.
“So,” Gabriel was saying, right into Sam’s ear. “Since you two have spent some time as vessels…”
Gabriel sniffed at them, causing Adam to draw away. Gabriel just continued. “…very recently, this should make it easier on us all. Once Dean pops my esteemed brother from the pit, we can set the locks and all go back to our regularly scheduled lives. Or, in my case, finding a way to sneak out again. Heaven is going to be even worse now with Michael and Raphael whining at each other about being grounded.” With that random statement, Gabriel swung his arm free from Sam’s shoulder to gently push Adam into a circle drawn on the ground with holy oil.
“Stand, sit, whatever, but you’re going to have to stay in that circle till the ritual’s over. Consider yourself lucky we don’t use blood like the demons are wont to do because we’d be knee deep in bloodless corpses.”
Gabriel pushed Sam into another similar circle just to the side of Adam’s little spot of ground. “Really, you don’t want to get any of the oil on you because you might go up in flames when we light it all. And try not to cross over the lines. It’ll just dampen its effectiveness.” Gabriel walked off without another word.
Sighing, Sam wondered if he’d ever get used to the strangeness of angels, if he ever needed to. There was enough room to sit down on the ground and stretch his legs a little. To his side, Adam was doing pretty much the same thing.
Sam hadn’t had enough experience with Adam, the real Adam, to really get to know what he was like, but he felt like the silence wasn’t just social awkwardness around angels. There was probably a whole lot of mental processing going on. If Adam was anything like Dean - and in the brief window Sam had known Adam before Michael decided to wear him, Adam seemed scarily too much like Dean - it probably meant that Adam was going to pull right into himself for awhile before exploding when everything boiled over the top.
In terms of situations, Sam felt like this was preferable to anything he had gone through with Dean. It wasn’t really about impending deaths, the end of the world, or sharp fraternal betrayal. This was probably more to do with returning from the dead, being thrust into an unfamiliar world, and knowing that his mother was still dead. But returning from the dead was much preferable to the other option. Adam could always choose to leave the supernatural world behind now that he had been granted something of a second chance, and his mother was at peace in Heaven. Even if Heaven seemed something of a boring cop out to the paradise that was promised by religion, he had it on Dean’s authority that it was a much better place to end up than Hell.
Dean had always mocked Sam for being a girl, for being in touch with his feelings. It didn’t fit with the Winchester way of repressing everything until madness set in. Well, people still tended to find Sam nicer than his brother.
Now was as good a time as any to attempt getting to know Adam. That day of trying to keep Dean from saying yes to Michael had been too tense for all of them. But seeing Adam look bewildered and tired and out of his depth sent a stirring of… something through Sam. Maybe it was brotherly affection. Maybe it was what Dean had grown up feeling.
Well, Sam wouldn’t ever get to really know his brother unless he reached out himself, because if Adam was as much like Dean as Sam suspected, it would be like waiting for a rock to make the first move. So, finding his ‘Dean, I’m actually enjoying your company right now so don’t ruin the mood by being a dick’ voice, Sam thought of ways to start up a conversation.
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