[SPN] faith is a series of complications (12/16; eleventh act)
XI: eleventh act-we are all of us haunted and haunting.
Dean liked to consider himself as a pretty open-minded guy. Really, he did. While he certainly wasn’t going to go parading around and demand the legalization of gay rights anytime soon, at the same time he wasn’t one to judge a person’s sexuality. You simply loved whoever you loved, no matter if the other party’s a dude or a chick. If you really loved that other person, Dean didn’t exactly see how gender was going to be a problem. After all, what’s more important are the emotions, right?
-okay, so sure, he might be a bit of an old-fashioned romantic at heart. But hey, in a world like this, you gotta take what you can get. Even if he didn’t have it himself, it sure as heck didn’t mean that everybody else couldn’t. He and Sam didn’t stop the freaking Apocalypse just to have the entire world slip into depression, or something equally stupid. If the other dude or chick works for you, then that’s good. As long as you’re happy, then that’s the most important thing. But still, there really are some things in the world that Dean could do without knowing. Things like angel sex, for instance.
Don’t get him wrong, he was glad that Cas finally got some-although the fact that it came from Gabriel of all people was something that Dean couldn’t help but worry about a little. If they had been just two normal guys, he could have handled it; but two angel dudes? Shouldn’t there even be something against this? Not that Gabriel was the pinnacle of rule-following as far as Dean was aware, but still. Him… and Cas… getting down and dirty on the sheets…
Yeah, there were definitely things in this world that Dean did not need to imagine.
That still didn’t stop him from giving a dirty look to the archangel the next morning when he entered the kitchen, and in response the asshole only put on the smuggest look that Dean had ever seen on his face before speaking. “Gooood morning, Dean-o. I hope you slept well?”
“No thanks to you,” the hunter instantly snapped back, throwing a dirty look back at him, as Dean snagged two slices of bread from the counter and busied himself with making a sandwich.
He didn’t even need to look back to know that Gabriel was all but smirking at him now-the smug tone in the archangel’s voice was more than enough for him to decode the other’s expression. “What, you didn’t like Cas living it up a little?” He could feel the smile growing now, the bastard. Didn’t he have anything else better to do?
To Dean’s own credit, he did manage to keep his voice cool when he replied. “Not when I have to hear him getting it on with you.” Jesus, he had just been in the next room, too. Once he had the time, Dean really needed a bucket of brain bleach to properly scrub his mind clean after last night; there was really only so much blasphemy even he could handle. Angel on angel gay sex was definitely not one of them.
Once he had slapped his sandwich together, the hunter turned around, only to blanch at Gabriel’s coy expression, and Dean was glad that he hadn’t taken a bite from his food yet, because he would definitely have felt like puking it back out the moment the archangel started to flutter his eyelashes.
“Why, Dean,” the archangel started in the worst falsetto voice ever, and Dean felt like gagging now because what the fuck, Gabriel. “Could you possibly be… jealous?”
The hunter stared back blankly in response to that question-yeah, he was definitely glad that he hadn’t eaten his sandwich yet. “What the fuck?” Him, jealous? Seriously? Where the hell did Gabriel even get that from? Why the heck would he even be jealous?
Gabriel stared back in return for a few moments of his own, looking as if he hadn’t really expected that answer at all. He blinked once, and then twice before breaking his gaze and let out a low whistle. “Wow. I never knew that you could be this dense, Dean-o.”
Dean instantly scowled, not at all appreciative of Gabriel’s random observation. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Not my place to say,” the archangel returned easily, both of his hands raised in a mock gesture of surrender. “But hey, if you want details on how Cas is in bed, I’d be happy to give them-”
“Fuck no,” the words came out from Dean’s mouth even before he could register them, and the hunter instantly snapped his mouth back shut, before he could say anything else that he might regret later. Gabriel (the asshole that he is) only smiled back in a way that seemed far too telling for Dean’s taste, the archangel’s expression all but screaming ‘I know something that you don’t’ and yeah, Dean really didn’t like that. He gave Gabriel one last glare before turning around to storm out of the kitchen with his sandwich. Would have stormed out of the kitchen with his sandwich, if Cas hadn’t decided to randomly appear at the threshold between the kitchen and the living room.
Dean jumped back the moment Cas made his appearance, his entire body tensing up for a second, before relaxing once his mind could properly register the angel’s presence. He heard Gabriel attempting to hold back his laughter from somewhere behind him, and quickly scowled once again as he threw a half-glare at Cas. “You really need to warn people before you do that.”
Castiel tilted his head in response, looking back at Dean with his too-blue eyes and vaguely puffy lips and hair that most certainly looked like it had been messed up under Gabriel’s fingers, most likely while they-and he really needed to stop thinking about any possibilities of angel porn, this was getting far too fucking ridiculous.
Thankfully, the angel soon broke the moment with his reply. “I will keep that in mind for next time.”
“Good,” the hunter grunted back in a way that was a bit too quick for his own taste, and he knew that Cas noticed it too, because the angel was already starting to look at him with that inquiring frown on his face. In a matter of seconds, the questions were going to start coming-questions that Dean did not want to answer if he didn’t need to. Pointedly looking away from Castiel, Dean made a quick dart out of the kitchen with his sandwich and made a mental note to himself to get coffee later. As he brushed past Castiel and (almost) escaped to the living room, Gabriel’s singsong comment sprung up from behind him.
“Denial isn’t just a river in Egypt, Dean-o~”
Dean really wanted to punch the asshole now.
Fucking archangels.
After that incident Dean would have been happy to not see any angels at all for the rest of the day, but unfortunately he had to see them again right after breakfast when Loki made an appearance and promptly called everyone to the study (that is, once she had gone through Bobby’s tests and several rounds of holy water).
“Just because I’m the Trickster doesn’t mean that I’m a demon, you know,” the girl grumbled as she snapped herself dry, trying her best not to scowl.
Bobby only rolled his eyes in response, as he put his flasks back down. “You complain an awful lot for being the Trickster.”
Loki let out a snort. “I only complain when I get a flask of holy water in my face the moment I appear,” she mouthed back smartly, as one hand moved to idly push away the bangs that were covering her eyes. Green eyes blinked as she scanned around her, almost as if finally noticing the rest of the people who were all ready and waiting for her to get a move on.
Dean cleared his throat and shifted, crossing his arms over his chest and directed a glare at the Trickster. “If you’re done, I think we’d appreciate it if you actually started on what you came here for.”
The girl only returned the glare with her own unimpressed look. “Somebody got out on the wrong side of bed today, I think,” she drawled, purposely drawing out her words.
“Bite me,” Dean snapped back, scowling.
“If you two are done bickering like five-year-olds,” Bobby cut in then, sending glares to both Dean and Loki, with little regard to the fact that the girl could easily snap any of them out of existence should she choose to. “We have plans to discuss.”
Loki still didn’t look too impressed with Dean, but she relented at Bobby’s words and turned her attention back to the rest. Sweeping her eyes across the room, she eventually paused to land her gaze at Gabriel, and blinked at him for a few seconds before turning her gaze at Castiel, raising an eyebrow.
Now it was the archangel’s turn to roll his eyes. “Can we discuss that later?”
“I’m not saying anything,” the Trickster quickly went, gesturing with her hands. “But hey, I’d be happy to hear about details-”
“Are you two idjits done talking about angel sex?” Bobby snapped out once again as he sent out a glare to the two Tricksters, looking very unappreciative of how quickly they had all strayed from their original topic. “We haven’t got all day, you ladies.”
“No need to start snapping at me, old man,” Loki countered, putting her hands up once again as the girl took a step backwards from Bobby, as well as the crowd. “I get it.”
The elder hunter made a disbelieving sound in response, and gestured to the rest of the room with a hand. “Then get on with it already.”
Loki rolled her eyes once more, but made the wise decision of not saying anything else as the girl stepped forward, closer to the little impromptu gathering that they were having now. Tucking her hands into the pockets of the dark jeans she was currently wearing, the Trickster gave everyone another glance before promptly dropping the bombshell on all of them. “The guys have found Eve’s location.”
Now that was certainly news. Dean’s eyes instantly widened, and his mouth was already starting to open before Dean could even register the words. “What-”
The girl quickly cut him off with a wave of her hand. “I’m getting there,” she went pointedly, sending yet another unimpressed glance in response to the hunter’s own glare, before looking back at the rest again. “She’s in no definite place at the moment, as far as we can tell. She’s just moving around and sometimes trying to cook up some new monster or other, like the worm that Bobby ran into back at Ohio.” Loki paused then to give the elder hunter a passing nod, before continuing on. “So far, she hasn’t done anything else after that. But it’s only a matter of time before she does do something, so we’re going to strike first, before she can.”
Sam, of course, asked the inevitable question. “How are we going to do that?”
“Getting to that now,” the Trickster replied, smoothly moving on. “We don’t want to raise an alarm to Eve and waste our chances, so only a few of the pagans are tagging along with us. Fenrir, Jorman-”
“Jörmungandr,” Gabriel corrected helpfully.
Loki made a grimace. “I always get the name wrong. Jörmungandr-Midgar, as I like to call him-Hel…” the girl trailed off after that, frowning even more as she stopped to mentally tick off the rest of the names with her fingers. Soon enough, she proceeded to roll her eyes yet another time and finished up her words in a surge of dark amusement. “Basically, every one of Gabriel’s kids is going to hop along for the ride here.”
Dean didn’t get it, of course, but as he looked at Sam and Bobby (who were looking at each other with raised eyebrows) the same didn’t apply to them. Gabriel, on the other hand, seemed to be busy staring at the Trickster with disbelief written across his face. “All of them?” he asked out loud.
“Fenrir, Midgar-Jörmungandr, sorry-Hel and Sleipnir,” the girl confirmed, ticking off the names once more on her fingers. “Not all of them if you want to count Darcy-”
“Nari,” Gabriel corrected yet again, although he sounded much more stressed about it this time round.
“-but we all know how confusing that entire thing is anyway,” Loki finished with a sigh, pointedly ignoring Gabriel’s unamused look as she rubbed the back of her neck. “I really need to find out what the heck happened that night one day.”
The archangel snorted at that, rolling his eyes. “Of course you would want to know.”
Bobby decided to cut in once more. “If you ladies are done talking…” he started slowly, with intent.
“Sorry, sorry,” Loki quickly returned, attempting to placate the elder hunter with another gesture of her hand. Bobby, of course, was not so easily pacified, but settled down all the same after giving the Trickster another warning look.
“Stop beatin' around the bush and get to the point, kid,” he went, and really-only Bobby could call somebody like the Trickster 'kid' and get away with it.
Loki obviously was aware of this as well, and let out a snort of her own to illustrate her point before continuing on. “So Gabriel's kids are going to help us out with this. We're going to be setting up a trap to hold her in and stop her from escaping, and once they've got her down just shoot her point blank with the phoenix ash and voila! One dead Mother of All.”
Dean was not impressed with this plan. “You make it sound so easy,” he remarked, knowing that it'd most likely be the other way round. Since when was anything in his life easy? (Besides pie, but sometimes even that could be debatable.)
The girl only shrugged in response. “You've got Gabe's kids helping you out,” she pointed out in return, one eyebrow arching up. “How hard can it be?”
“Give me one reason why I should listen to you, human.”
Dean struggled to bite back a sigh as he looked back at the purple and crimson headed teenager scowling in front of him, wondering if all of Gabriel's kids were going to be this troublesome to deal with. “Loki-the Trickster-asked you to help us, so if you want to help just listen and do what I say. Got it?”
Fenrir narrowed his eyes. “We agreed to help, but we did not agree to take your orders like children.”
Jesus fucking Christ. Dean seriously wanted to punch something right the fuck now. Were all the pagan gods this fucking obnoxious? As if Kali and the others hadn't been bad enough back during the Apocalypse, now he had to deal with even more of them. The fact that they were Gabriel's kids only made things a hundred times worse. The archangel seriously had no sense of shame whatsoever. But for what it was worth, said shameless archangel in question was at least now attempting to salvage the situation the best that he could.
Gabriel raised his hands in a gesture of surrender, letting out the sigh that Dean was holding back himself before he spoke. “Dean knows best what to do here, Fen. Just... listen to him, alright? You don't need to follow him to the letter, but at least take his words as advice.”
Rather than listening to the archangel's words, the wolf-god now instantly rounded on his father, baring his teeth in a gesture of irritation as the teenager's dark eyes flashed. “You are no longer my father, Gabriel,” he snarled out, terse and very obviously ticked off. “You have no right to tell me anything at all, or instruct me on what to do.”
For a moment Dean could see something familiar-foreign flash across Gabriel's face when Fenrir said those words, but the archangel quickly schooled his expression and looked back at Fenrir with an expression so fake, that just about anybody could pick it apart, even Cas. “I may no longer be Loki,” he started quietly, but Dean could hear the edge of steel in his voice, a tone that Dean himself was well-acquainted with. “But I am still the one who sired you, Fenrir. You're still my kid.”
“You are not one of the pagans,” the wolf-god growled back, very clearly having not cared about anything that Gabriel had just said. “You have never been, and you will never be, angel.” Dean couldn't help but wonder for a moment if the daddy issues were hereditary; it sure seemed like that was the case to him, judging from how Fenrir was acting now. Did everybody he knows have an issue with their fathers?
To his credit, Gabriel managed to keep the blank expression on his face as he carefully looked back at Fenrir. “I may have never been a real pagan god,” he started quietly, “but I have always treated you all like my family. You are still my son.”
Fenrir snarled again. “You are not my father.”
Dean decided that it was time for him to step in before things got worse. “Alright, you two can keep at the family discussion later. Now we've got Eve to take down.” He glanced behind him, looking over his shoulder to pick out where Sam and the rest were. It was easy enough to spot the giant form of his brother, who was currently busy throwing darts and impressing the ladies. Bobby was at one of the tables blending in and playing poker. Cas, on the other hand...
The hunter looked back to see Fenrir glaring at Gabriel and the archangel pointedly ignoring said glare. Dean made a mental note to himself to get a drink after all this was done, as he reached over and nudged Gabriel to get his attention. “I'm heading over to Cas. You just... don't do anything stupid, alright?”
The archangel's response was to roll his eyes and snort. “Don't take me for a kid, Dean-o. Go and have fun with your boyfriend.”
“He's not-” Dean started, but stopped himself quickly before he could say something that he would quickly regret. Cas was most certainly not his boyfriend or anything like that, but he wasn't going to spoil Gabriel's mood even more. He may hate the guy for what he did, but even Dean knew better than to pick on him after being talked down by his own kid like that. Dean knew the experience well enough from his days of taking care of Sam. He'd let Gabriel have his way, at least this time.
“Don’t do anything stupid,” he hissed out instead, the words earning himself another exasperated eye roll from the archangel before Gabriel waved him off. Dean took that as his cue to leave; he grabbed his drink and slipped out from his seat, making his way towards Cas while still keeping an eye out for any disturbances in the crowd. Fenrir and the others might have managed to track Eve to this spot (or at least determined that she was going to appear here), but there was no telling when or how she might strike. All they could do for now was to keep their eyes peeled and wait for something to happen.
Until then, though, Dean supposed he should check to see how Cas was doing. The last few days seemed to have been especially exhausting on him, although now that Cas finally did get some, Dean did hope that it would have loosened the angel up a little. Judging from the stiff, awkward way that Cas was currently sitting however, the hunter had a feeling that it wasn’t the case at all.
Biting back a sigh, the hunter shuffled himself to the free seat beside Cas and promptly flopped himself onto it, speaking only after he had taken a swig of his drink. “Any sign of her yet, Cas?”
The angel turned his gaze towards Dean and shook his head. “Nothing so far, Dean,” he answered.
Dean let out a frustrated huff at the response, annoyed at the lack of action (or maybe the fact that he couldn't let off some much-needed steam). “We've been sitting around here for at least two hours already, man. She'd better show her freaking face soon.”
“The pagans are certain that she will come by here,” Cas added seriously, nodding as he said those words. “We will be ready when she does appear.”
Not quite the response he had been expecting (not that it had really been expected from Cas in the first place), but Dean could roll with that. “Damn right we will be.” Compared to the Apocalypse this wasn't as bad, plus this time they had help from the pagans as well-although that would have been much more useful back when they were going against Lucifer, but Dean wasn't going to start complaining. That was already over and done with.
Speaking of things being over and done with-Dean looked over at Cas once again, grinning slightly as he nudged the angel. “So, how was last night?”
Castiel looked at Dean again and blinked, looking somewhat lost for the moment. “Last night?” he echoed back, already starting to do that ridiculous but somehow still endearing head tilt of his.
-wait, no, not endearing. The hunter scowled and quickly banished those thoughts away from his head before they could grow any more. “Yeah, last night. The entire house practically heard you, man.” And also caused Sam to have the bitchiest bitchface he had ever seen on his brother ever. Not that Dean didn't understand where it came from, but seeing it on his brother like that was just hilarious.
The angel had another moment to blink blankly at Dean before he put two and two together, and once he had done so there was an instant tinge of red on Castiel's cheeks (which he did not find cute at all) and the angel ducked his head in a gesture of embarrassment. “I, ah... I apologize for that,” he mumbled out quietly. “I had no intention to...”
“Nah, Cas, it’s cool,” Dean returned with a smile that somehow felt forced in his psyche, reaching out to clap the angel comfortingly on the shoulder. “Not quite what I expected, but I guess doing it with Gabriel is better for you, all things considered.” After all, considering how the last sexual(-ish, because it had been just a kiss) thing that Dean knew he had done was with Meg...
Cas frowned at those words, somehow looking as if he wasn't buying it. “Why would performing sexual acts with Gabriel be better for me?”
Dean opened his mouth at that, only to pause for a good few seconds before he shut it right back and stared at the angel. “Why wouldn't it be?” he finally questioned. “I mean, you're an angel and he's an angel too. It just... makes sense, I guess.” Not to mention the fact that the archangel was probably the Kama fucking Sutra for angel porn, considering his long run as Loki and the fact that just about every angel he had seen looked like they never got some (minus Anna, but she wasn't even an angel when they met).
Seemingly not bothering to even give Dean an answer, Castiel instead glanced back down at the half-drunk mug of beer in his hand and stared at it for a good few moments. The hunter decided that maybe it was a good time for him to skedaddle before things got even more awkward. “Uh, I'll just...”
Before Dean could properly finish talking however, the angel cut in with a quiet but intent-sounding sigh of his name. “Dean.”
The hunter instantly fell silent.
Castiel looked up from his drink and stared at Dean in that unblinking, inhuman way of his. “We... angels aren't supposed to be fornicating at all, much less with each other.”
Jesus, who the hell even said 'fornicating' these days? Dean managed not to wince that much at the word at least, although he was also silently thankful for the fact that he hadn't been drinking his beer when Cas said that. He had no intention of choking when Eve could turn up at any moment.
“I, uh... sort of guessed that,” he eventually managed to say after a moment, wincing this time round because yeah, way to state the obvious there.
Cas closed his eyes at that. “Gabriel...” he started quietly, and Dean watched the grip that Cas had on his mug slowly tighten. “I have not told you this, but Gabriel-he had been my commander before he left.”
Now that had Dean doing a double take, surprised as he was to know about this. Of all the things to hear from Cas... “Seriously?” he questioned, not quite believing it. Sure, Gabriel was an archangel and all, but... “Wasn't Anna your boss?”
“She took over after Gabriel left Heaven,” the angel clarified, opening his eyes, and there was flash of pain in his eyes that was accompanied by a tone in his voice that Dean couldn't help but feel sorry for. “Gabriel was the original commander for the garrison I used to be in. He was...” Castiel trailed off, and the grip around his mug tightened even further, before he finished his words. “He was everything an archangel should be.”
Dean thought about the other archangels he had met, and found himself quite unable to conjure up a mental image of Gabriel being anything like Michael or Raphael. Lucifer was, of course, out of the question entirely. Eventually, all that the hunter could respond to that was a vague 'uh' that did nothing else but to make Cas sigh out his frustration.
“He’s not…” Castiel started again, voice quieter now. “He’s not like Raphael or Michael. He always encouraged us to do what we felt right when the situation called for it. I…” he paused then, letting out another sigh before admitting. “I didn’t really understand what he meant back then.” He paused again. “I don’t think a lot of us did.”
“I would be surprised if it had been any other way,” the hunter muttered in an undertone, recalling the various other angels he had met. Anna, Uriel, Zachariah…
…okay, so maybe he wasn’t really able to judge angels in general, considering his less than stellar track record with them. But it still had to count for something, one way or another.
Seemingly having not heard the man beside him, Castiel went on to elaborate for Dean. “I think Gabriel... he's never really put as much faith in God as the rest of us do. For him, it had been his brothers and us. He loved us as much as he could-more than any of us would have ever done then.” The hunter watched as the corner of Cas' lips quirked up into a small smile, the look on his face almost reminiscent. “I have always admired that about him.”
Huh. Who knew that Cas actually knew so much about the archangel? On one hand, Dean was faintly impressed that the angel had such thoughts on him. On the other hand... to hear so much about somebody else from Cas' mouth-Dean wasn't so sure what to feel about that. It wasn't as if he wanted to feel special or anything, but to hear Cas know somebody else so well, when the angel also knew so much about him already... the feeling just didn't sit right in his gut.
Still, this wasn't about him. Dean shook his head, quietly stashing away said feeling, right to the back of his mind, and struggled for a moment to find the correct words to respond with. “...I'm happy for you Cas. Really.” If Cas was happy about this, then more power to him, right? That should be how things go.
Castiel looked at him there and then, staring at him in his usual, unblinking manner that Dean could only find familiar (and perhaps in some ways, comforting), holding Cas' gaze in his own. As he looked at the angel the hunter saw something seemingly flashing across Cas' eyes, a foreign emotion that Dean couldn't instantly place. Just as soon as he saw that though, Cas broke his stare, turning his head away from the hunter and looking elsewhere.
“Dean,” he went after a pause, his voice quiet and low.
The moment seemed to hang in that instant, weighing heavy and thick in his mind. Dean gulped, pushing down the hard lump at the back of his throat as he blinked once and replied with equal quietness. “...yeah?”
Somehow still not daring to meet back his gaze, Castiel swallowed as well before he spoke up again. “Actually, I-”
A scream suddenly broke out from within the crowd.
Dean instantly whipped his head around towards the source of the noise, senses already starting to whir as he moved to stand up from his seat. In that same instant Sam burst out from the side, distress written on his face as he caught sight of Dean and quickly moved to his brother's side.
“It's Eve,” Sam breathed out.
The crowd was in chaos as the Winchesters plus Castiel hurried over to where the action was taking place. Pushing through the flocks of distressed, frightened people, Sam took the initiative to help out as much as he could to get the civilians out of the place as the battle took place. Leaving his brother to handle to crowd, Dean went on ahead with Cas to the stage at the front of the establishment.
The sight he got when he reached there was not a hopeful one.
On the stage stood Eve, looking exactly the same as on the video that Sam had run through back at Bobby's. Two people-one male, one female-flanked her, and even with their normal, human-like appearance, Dean was willing to bet that human was the last thing they were right now. There were other people on the ground as well-dead ones with their bodies split open and their guts strewn all over the place, along with the non-human ones that lumbered around with twisted expressions and blood dripping from their mouths and fingers. Didn't take a genius to figure out what exactly had happened here.
Dean ignored the presence of the Mother of All for the moment, instead using the chaotic mess of the crowd to hurry over to the front of the bar, where Gabriel had crumpled down to the ground. He crouched down when he got there, reaching out for the archangel and shaking him by his shoulder and hissed out. “Gabriel! Hey, Gabriel!”
The archangel groaned as he stirred at the name, his head lolling as Gabriel struggled to regain consciousness.
“Let me,” Cas went, already reaching out with two fingers and pressed the tips of them to the other's temple. Gabriel snapped right back to awareness in the next instant, eyes flying wide open and he gasped, chest heaving as the archangel involuntarily sucked in a lungful of air. Dean quickly moved to steady him, once Gabriel had been brought back to consciousness, holding the archangel by his shoulders as Gabriel slowly focused back on the world around him, and raised his head to instantly focus on Castiel.
“Cas,” he managed weakly, and Dean had to try not to think too much about the fact that it was the angel who Gabriel had addressed first. “Eve, she-”
“I know,” the angel quickly replied, giving the other a quick once-over, before he straightened himself back up and turned towards Dean. “Watch over Gabriel, Dean. I will deal with Eve.”
Dean opened his mouth to respond, but before he could say anything Cas had-Cas was looking as if he had constipation.
Gabriel spoke up before either of them had a chance to start asking. “Eve’s presence locks down on your powers, Cas. You can’t use your wings here.”
Hearing those words only caused Dean to swear in his head. Now that was going to complicate things. “So, what? Both of you are nerf’d now?”
“For Cas, yeah,” Gabriel replied for the angel, easing Dean’s hold on him as he straightened himself back up. “Me, not so much still, but I got ambushed. She must have sensed me… or not-sensed me. You get the picture.” The archangel paused for a moment then, a sudden wince crossed his face as he swiped fingers against his back and watched as they came back bloody. If that wasn’t a bad sign, then Dean didn’t know what was.
Not wanting to waste another moment, he turned the archangel around to check the extent of whatever damage that Gabriel had received. Fortunately, there wasn’t anything more than a few bad-looking scratches that would heal in time-still, it would be a good idea to wrap up the damage, at least to prevent any infections from happening. Glancing around, the hunter only took a moment to spot a towel hanging off from the edge of the bar and made a quick move to swipe it off, pressing the cloth against the wounds. The archangel hissed out loud when Dean pressed against his injury, and from the corner of his eyes he could see Castiel frowning at the reaction and generally looking worried at Gabriel’s current state.
The archangel must have noticed it as well, because he was already starting to move again, attempting to get back up on his feet as he tried to shoo Cas away with a wave of his hand. “I’m alright, bro. Go help out Gigantor and the rest of the family. Eve’s brought some serious muscle-heads with her.”
“Yeah, Cas,” Dean added, casting a glance at the ongoing battle that was happening up front; it was easy enough to see, now that the crowd was gone, and the fallen table in front of them did well enough to hide them from immediate sight. “I’ll take care of Gabriel here. Go and help Sammy.”
Castiel hardly looked convinced by either of their words, but thankfully he didn’t push the issue and only responded with a nod, before he turned and went over to join the battle.
Dean looked over to Gabriel once the angel had gone out of earshot. “Are you really alright?” he asked again.
Gabriel rolled his eyes in response. “I’m not as fragile as you make me out to be, Dean-o,” he sighed, somehow sounding slightly irritated. “Just leave me here and go help Cas; I’ll rejoin the fight as soon as I can.”
The words instantly caused Dean to frown, not at all assured by the archangel’s words. As much as he did still have a dislike for Gabriel, he was still Cas’ brother, and he wasn’t going to just dump the other like that and leave him at the mercy of whatever might jump here. It wasn’t as if the bar they were in now was particularly big; anything could get here easily, and if Gabriel was alone and still recovering…
As if having sensed his thoughts, Gabriel only snorted loudly before proceeding to wave him off as well. “Just go, Deano. I am still an archangel, y’know. I can take care of myself.”
There were many things that Dean could say in response to that-most of them not all that kind-but the hunter managed to keep his mouth shut, before he could come out with any witty reply, and only acknowledge the archangel with a small nod. He moved, getting up on his feet as one hand reached to grab the pistol tucked at the back of his jeans and pull it out, fingers deftly unlocking the weapon as he straightened himself properly and darted in to enter the fray.
He could tell his thoughts to Gabriel later, once Eve was dealt with, the hunter decided. Hopefully, there would be enough time then to give the archangel a proper talk on how to not make your brother worry to hell and back about you.
The battle was already well underway when Dean joined in, with both sides fiercely raging against each other. The hunter tightened the hold he had on his gun, sidestepping the corpses in his way as Dean hurried over to where his brother was currently tangling with a skinwalker.
“Sammy!” he shouted, alerting his brother, as well as the monster the younger Wincherster was fighting, to his presence. Sam instantly got the message, pushing back as he used his size against the skinwalker and managed to shove the transformed dog away from him. Dean instantly moved, lifting up his gun and firing it. The bullet hit straight and true, striking the skinwalker in its shoulder which elicited a loud yelp of surprise from the canine. Taking his cue, Sam made use of the skinwalker's distraction to lunge forward, silver knife flashing under the lights as he plunged the blade right through its heart.
A loud whine escaped from the canine as the blade went through, but the sound quickly faded as its life was snuffed out, and Sam grimaced as he pulled the knife out from the now-human body and wiped off the blood against the back of his jeans. Dean properly made his way to the other, glancing in mild surprise at the blade that his brother was holding. “Where did you get that?”
“Jörmungandr,” Sam went in reply, looking back at his brother with a concerned-looking frown. “Cas informed me on what happened. Gabriel okay?”
“Good enough, all things considered,” Dean answered, firing out another shot to drive back yet another skinwalker. “What do we have here?”
Sam's response was to let out a loud snort. “Well, for a start there're vampires, rugarus, shapeshifters, skinwalkers and djinns,” he started, pausing for a moment to cast a glance towards Eve. “I think she's also made something new as well, but I can't confirm that.”
As if things weren't bad enough as it was. Dean muttered a curse under his breath, shifting the hold on his gun. “So we're up against a smorgasbord of things that go bump in the night,” he hissed out, eying the large group of creatures still out for their blood. “Just fucking peachy.”
The monsters crowded closer around them, circling around as the Winchesters found themselves outmatched, a hundred to just the two of them. Five years ago, perhaps, Dean would have considered this as the worst case scenario-but after going through Heaven, Hell and the near-Apocalypse, somehow being surrounded by monsters didn’t seem as frightening as it should be. Still, he wasn’t going to assume that getting out of this would be easy; Cas and the pagans were busy with whatever else Eve had set on them, and Dean was pretty sure Gabriel wasn’t going to appear in the nick of time to save their asses, like what he did with Lucifer.
He took one step back, his back pressing against Sam’s as he swept his gaze across the line of monsters waiting for them. “Any smart ideas, Sammy?” he asked.
“I do have an idea,” Sam went in response, but it was hard to ignore the grim tone that edged into his voice. “It’s not really that smart though.”
Dean turned his head around and glanced at his brother. “What, are we going to just charge in and kamikaze our way over or something?”
Sam winced at his brother’s choice of words, but answered the question nevertheless. “Something like that. You over me with the gun, and I’ll charge through and get us to Cas.”
“With nothing but a knife?” Dean couldn’t help but question, eyes darting to the blade that Sam had in his hand.
The younger Winchester made a sound of confirmation. “Jörmungandr told me that this knife could kill any kind of monster. It hasn’t let me down yet.”
“What, and you want to test out that theory now?” Dean snapped back, irritation rolling in his voice. “No way, Sam.” He wasn’t going to let his brother play the sacrificing moron again. Lucifer had been fucking enough already.
“If you have any better ideas,” Sam stated with a hiss, “I’d be happy to hear it, Dean.”
And the fact was that Dean didn’t have an idea in this situation, which of course hardly did anything to help out in their predicament. He cursed yet again, more than pissed over just how screwed they were right now. He clenched his jaw, tensing as he readied his gun and finally hissed back at his brother, “Alright, fine.” He gave his surroundings a quick look as he said that, easily spotting Cas who was busy holding his ground closer to the front. The distance wasn’t too far, but the only problem was the wall of monsters separating them from the angel.
Sam let out a sound of acknowledgement once Dean gave his consent, inching around to the general direction of where Castiel was, and tightened his grip around the handle of the knife in his hand. “Okay,” he breathed out, voice just loud enough for Dean to hear. “On three.”
Dean nodded in response, falling silent soon after as he continued to look at the monsters. They were staying as still as he was, waiting for the moment to catch either of them off guard and then move in to strike. He could give them credit for that, at least, but it hardly made him feel any better. Pushing down the hard lump at the back of his throat, Dean forced himself to stay perfectly still, waiting for the right moment to start moving-and said moment should be coming right about now…
“Three!” he heard his brother shouting without warning, bolting in the opposite direction of where Cas was. The monsters instantly took the bait, all of them lunging forward towards Sam. Dean took his cue at once, raising his gun and pulling the trigger in quick succession as he emptied his magazine into as many of these assholes as he could manage, attempting to cut down their numbers in the middle of the confusion.
The plan worked, to an extent-a couple of them did get hit and found themselves flinching at the shot, and the distraction proved to be long enough for Sam to get close and deal the killing blow through their hearts or by decapitating them. The blade that Sam had seemed to be working well-enough; the blade sliced cleanly, and it looked like it didn’t take much effort on Sam’s part either; whenever he attacked, the knife went through anything easily, as if it was simply cutting through butter.
Dean quickly darted forward once the magazine in his gun ran empty, reloading as he moved and proceeded to resume shooting, giving his brother the cover fire he needed. The gunshots rang out loud and clear within the noise of the battle, the sound ringing in his ears as he trailed after Sam, following the path of bodies that the younger Winchester had left in his wake. To his left and right even more monsters were starting to converge around them, but Sam was using his big size and near-inhuman stamina to his advantage and managed to shake off the worst of them without even so much as a pause. So far, so good. If they could manage to keep this up for a bit longer, then it wouldn’t be a problem at all to get to Cas.
Just a bit more, he thought to himself, gritting his teeth as he finished up his second round of bullets and tried to reload again. Unfortunately, trying to reload when there are monsters surrounding you was never the best thing to do, and as Dean started to replace his magazine, a rugaru jumped out at him without warning, swiping with its paw with enough force that Dean fumbled and dropped his gun. It skidded across the floor, moving way too far out from his reach.
Sam (who had just managed to break out from the wall of monsters) heard the sound and quickly turned right around, eyes wide in fear and worry as he shouted out towards his brother. “Dean!”
“Just go, Sammy!” Dean roared back, doing his best to sidestep the attacks coming at him, as he tried to find a way out of this mess. He jumped and twisted around as a pair of skinwalkers dived at him, pulling out the silver penknife from his boot and slashing it at the next thing that attempted to lunge at him. Managing to land back safely on his feet, Dean looked around, eyes darting as he tried to find a way. Surely there had to be a way to get out of this properly.
The monsters were already regrouping and recovering, gearing up for another strike as Dean continued to try and battle his way out, looking for an exit when a big group of monsters moved in to attack and there was no way he could avoid all of them in one piece-
There was no warning, no call of his name when the angel blade suddenly appeared from one of the beast’s chest, and Dean stumbled back in surprise as the vampire could only gasp before suddenly crumbling into ash and dust in-between one blink and the next. The other beasts were all taken aback by the sudden interruption, caught unaware by the attack and had little time to recover before a familiar figure came up. He reached with one hand and pressed his palm against the back of a rugaru’s head, blue eyes impassively watching the flare of light that burst out from the beast’s eyes before it crumpled into a lifeless heap before Dean’s feet.
Dean took a moment to stare at the corpse before raising his gaze to look at Castiel who was busy pulling his blade out from the other corpse he had slain earlier. The angel raised his head when Dean stepped forward; straightening himself back up as Cas moved closer as well and promptly passed the bloodied angel sword to the hunter. “Here, have this.”
A moment passed as Dean stared at the blade in a mix of disbelief and uncertainty, not quite sure if he really should take it. He looked up at Cas, seeing the angel frown in irritation before practically pushing the blade into Dean’s own hand. “You are out of bullets. The sword can kill more than just demons and angels,” he said in explanation, making sure that the hunter was holding his sword properly before turning around. “Be sure to return it to me later,” he added on almost as an afterthought before he was going off again.
Dean stayed silent for a few moments after that, watching Castiel charging back to the battlefield before he gulped and nodded, shifting his grip on the blade so that it rested comfortably in his hand as he replied softly, loud enough that it was almost like a whispered promise, with only himself to bear witness to the words. “Don’t worry, Cas. I will.”
With Castiel’s blade in hand, going through the wave of monsters coming at him wasn’t as hard as it should have been. The angel blade struck straight and true with every swing and strike that Dean made, the monsters dropping like flies. In almost no time at all, the hunter broke through the last of the monsters and managed to get to where Eve stood waiting for them, the two creatures from still at her sides.
Sam moved over to Dean once the elder Winchester stumbled through, looking over his brother to ensure that he was alright and blinking in surprise at the weapon that was now in Dean’s hand. “Did Cas give you that?”
Dean took a moment to glance down at the sword, staring at it for a few moments before he turned his gaze onto Eve. “Yeah,” he answered, his voice quiet. “But I don’t think its going to work on Eve.”
The younger Winchester made a grimace at the response. “Jörmungandr’s blade didn’t work either,” he went, and Dean followed Sam’s unconscious flicker to stare at the half-melted blade lying at Eve’s feet. “I guess all we can use are the phoenix ashes.”
“Just peachy,” Dean mumbled under his breath in return as Eve finally moved her head and swept her gaze across them all as a small smile slowly crept across her face. Both Winchesters instantly tensed when they saw said smile, already expecting the worst from the expression that Eve now had. Castiel shuffled up from behind them as did Fenrir, Jörmungandr and Hel, all of them ready to counter anything that the Mother of All would throw out for round two.
Everybody got ready to retaliate when Eve started to take a step forward, but then both Sam and Dean paused when Eve took said step and they suddenly found themselves staring at the spitting image of their mother. Mary Winchester, who had died for them and because of them and forever doomed to a fate that she could never escape from.
The memory of that instantly made Dean’s temper flare, teeth gritting together as the elder Winchester cast the angriest look he could muster and threw it right at Eve’s face. “That’s it, bitch,” he snarled, green eyes blazing in anger. “You’re going down.”
Eve’s smile only grew wider in response. “I thought it would be the best fitting image to talk the two of you with. I am a mother, after all.” Her eyes flashed as she gazed across the six of them standing in the now thoroughly bloodied room. “All I wish to do is to protect my children.”
“You’ve got a funny way of showing it then, missy,” Dean retorted back to her, voice coming out loud and sharp.
“I only do what I must,” Eve returned, eyes narrowing. “Especially when the King of Hell is still out there killing my children-my firstborns.”
Dean could feel Sam’s surprise as well as his own. The King of Hell? But wasn’t that-
“Crowley?” Sam finished the question for him, frowning. “He’s dead. Cas killed him.”
The answer had Eve abruptly shifting her gaze towards the angel, eyes narrowing as she studied the angel glowering before her in great detail. Castiel stared back, unflinching, and after a few moments the smile on Eve’s face took a wicked curl at the corners of her lips, the expression on her face betraying the Mother of All’s amusement.
“Oh, Castiel,” she started, mirth tinged on every syllable. “You think that you’re going to be able to accomplish anything the way you are now? You foolish, foolish child.”
The Winchesters turned their heads towards Cas at that, and Dean could see the tenseness of the angel’s jaw, the way Castiel was clenching it together as he glared right back at Eve and growled his answer. “You have no right to tell me anything, Eve,” he snarled out, eyes flashing in rage.
The expression on Eve’s face only grew all the more wicked at the response she got, her lips twisting around into a mere parody of the smile she had just moments ago. “Is that so, Castiel?” she questioned, the triumphant tone in her voice unmistakable. “I’m a mother just the same way as your father is, boy. I see everything that my children do.” Her eyes gleamed there and then, a spark of something flashed briefly in them as Eve echoed herself. “Everything.”
Cas’ expression hardened even further at Eve’s words, but didn’t say anything else. Dean, on the other hand, only found himself questioning the meaning behind her words, and he turned towards the angel, asking, “Cas, just what is she talking about-”
Before Dean could finish the question though, he was suddenly interrupted with an all-too familiar flickering of the lights above them. He stopped speaking as the entire place started to shake, the very earth trembling as the winds howled from outside. Fenrir narrowed his eyes and sniffed the air, eyes widening as the wolf-god identified the scent and instantly whirled around, teeth barred into a low snarl.
“Demons,” he growled out lowly, and everybody in the room tensed at the word. “They’re coming.”
There was no time to prepare for them. As soon as Fenrir said those words the doors and windows all burst open, wood and glass shattering across the room as countless demons flooded the entire place in their thick, smoky forms. The group instantly scattered-Castiel ran off on his own as the pagans split out, while Dean and Sam backed away quickly in an attempt to distance themselves from the smoke as much as they could. The demons began to possess the numerous corpses littered across the floor and the stench of sulfur hung thickly in the air as the possessed corpses began to push themselves back to their feet, the smell pungent and nearly overwhelming.
Both Winchesters raised their respective weapons (Sam took out his spare gun) as the demons got up, ready to fight their way out if it went that way. With the smoke cleared they could see the pagans assuming their own stances as well. Cas, on the other hand, was still missing, and Gabriel was nowhere to be seen. Dean scowled, attempting to push down his worries and not doing a very good job of it. Were the two angels alright? Now in a three way battle like this, anything could happen-and it was clear that they were the underdogs in this confrontation. They needed to get out right this moment, before things could get worse.
Dean laid his finger on the trigger, ready to shoot the first bullet when an all-too familiar voice interrupted him. “There’s no need for such violence now, boys. I’m just here for a little chat.”
Five heads snapped back around to the front, and in spite of having been told about it earlier, both Dean and Sam failed to hide their surprise as their eyes widened to take in the familiar figure of Crowley, whole and alive and currently holding a pinned down Eve by her hair, the two creatures at her side already long dead and gone.
“Hello again, boys,” the demon went with a smirk. “It’s been a while since we last met.”
It only took Dean for a moment to reply with an appropriate answer. “You let her go right now, asshole,” he snarled, tightening his grip on Cas’ blade.
Crowley only scoffed in response, although he hardly sounded surprised at the response he had gotten. “And let you kill her? Please, I don’t like my valuables being shot.” He paused for a moment, glancing at Eve before adding on with a wry smile. “Especially not this one.”
Sam frowned at the choice of words. “Valuables?” he echoed, questioning. “What do you need Eve for?”
“Same thing I’ve always needed her for,” the demon replied simply, tilting his head. “I’m sure even morons like you should be able to figure out what I’m talking about.”
Rather than either of the Winchesters, it was Fenrir who answered the question, the wolf-god’s eyes flashing as he spoke in a low growl. “Purgatory,” he snarled out. “You plan to open it using Eve.”
“Nice to see somebody with an actual lick of sense,” Crowley went in response, amusement dripping from his voice as glanced over at Fenrir. “I suppose Gabriel’s brains had to go somewhere. Didn’t expect it to go to a mutt like you, however.”
Both Winchesters blinked at the mention of the archangel’s name, surprised to hear it coming from the demon’s lips; Fenrir on the other hand snarled at the thinly-veiled insult, teeth barring out as the wolf-god snapped back in return. “You watch where your mouth, demon, or I’ll tear it out from your face.”
Crowley rolled his eyes at the threat. “It’s always violence with you pagans,” he muttered, just loud enough for them to hear but proceeded to go on as if he hadn’t said anything at all. “There’s no need for threats here, boys. I’m merely here to discuss a little transaction.”
Dean had an immediate response to that. “We’re not going to work for you again, you sick son of a bitch,” he growled out, raising the angel blade in his hand. “We’re not going to help you open Purgatory.”
“Oh, you don’t need to worry about that,” Crowley waved it off, smiling. “I just hope for a little… cooperation.”
“No,” Dean answered instantly, eyes narrowing. “Now you either let her go, or I’m going to put this sword right through your non-existent heart.”
The demon merely raised an eyebrow, hardly looking ruffled by the threat. “Are you now?” he asked, bringing up his free hand and there was a sudden sound of growling echoing around the entire place. The unmistakable sound of scraping claws and gashing fangs rang in Dean’s ears, and he instantly tensed up, jaw clenching as he glared back at Crowley, who only smirked and spoke up again. “I believe I have your little merry band of thieves surrounded.”
“I believe you need to stand down now, Crowley,” a low and distinctly recognizable voice cut in from there. All heads now whipped around to face Castiel, who was glaring straight at the demon with a familiar-looking gun in his hand with Gabriel at his side, the archangel looking pretty worn out but trying not to show it.
Crowley took a moment to look at the gun before raising both eyebrows this time, and gave Cas a rather unimpressed look. “Really, Cas?” he went, “The Colt?”
Castiel made no verbal response to the comment, but he tightened the grip on the gun and continued to glare right at Crowley. Beside him, Gabriel attempted to straighten himself up properly, but the exhaustion was written clearly on his face.
Crowley, of course, took note of it instantly and ‘tsk’ed aloud. “I assume you had Gabriel’s help in getting the Colt and returning here,” he remarked idly, shaking his head after that. “Really, Cas. I thought that I had taught you better than that while we were still all chummy and helping out each other.”
The words sent a wave of dread rolling inside Dean’s gut, washing over him in a way that he could not be comfortable with at all as the hunter turned towards the angel, eyes widening ever so slightly. “Cas?” he asked, his voice nearly in a whisper, unable to believe the implications of Crowley’s words. Crowley… and Cas?
The angel didn’t meet Dean’s gaze and only kept to staring at Crowley, but he did speak up, answering the demon’s words with a growl. “Things have changed, Crowley. If you lay even one finger on the Winchesters, I will destroy you.”
“I’d like to see you try, darling,” the demon returned with a smirk. “But for now, I do have matters to attend to.” He tightened his hold on Eve to prove his point, and the Mother of All let out a tortured sound. “I’m quite sure that we’ll see each other again soon, though,” he added, glancing across the entire room and meeting each of their gazes and smirked a little more. “Until then, gentlemen.”
Castiel pulled the trigger and attempted to shoot Crowley with the Colt as soon as he said that, but the bullet hit nothing but solid brick as the King of Hell vanished along with Eve, as well the rest of the demons who had been with him.
The silence that followed after their departure told perhaps one too many things for Dean-and he didn’t like it at all.
← tenth act | twelfth act (part a) →
Dean liked to consider himself as a pretty open-minded guy. Really, he did. While he certainly wasn’t going to go parading around and demand the legalization of gay rights anytime soon, at the same time he wasn’t one to judge a person’s sexuality. You simply loved whoever you loved, no matter if the other party’s a dude or a chick. If you really loved that other person, Dean didn’t exactly see how gender was going to be a problem. After all, what’s more important are the emotions, right?
-okay, so sure, he might be a bit of an old-fashioned romantic at heart. But hey, in a world like this, you gotta take what you can get. Even if he didn’t have it himself, it sure as heck didn’t mean that everybody else couldn’t. He and Sam didn’t stop the freaking Apocalypse just to have the entire world slip into depression, or something equally stupid. If the other dude or chick works for you, then that’s good. As long as you’re happy, then that’s the most important thing. But still, there really are some things in the world that Dean could do without knowing. Things like angel sex, for instance.
Don’t get him wrong, he was glad that Cas finally got some-although the fact that it came from Gabriel of all people was something that Dean couldn’t help but worry about a little. If they had been just two normal guys, he could have handled it; but two angel dudes? Shouldn’t there even be something against this? Not that Gabriel was the pinnacle of rule-following as far as Dean was aware, but still. Him… and Cas… getting down and dirty on the sheets…
Yeah, there were definitely things in this world that Dean did not need to imagine.
That still didn’t stop him from giving a dirty look to the archangel the next morning when he entered the kitchen, and in response the asshole only put on the smuggest look that Dean had ever seen on his face before speaking. “Gooood morning, Dean-o. I hope you slept well?”
“No thanks to you,” the hunter instantly snapped back, throwing a dirty look back at him, as Dean snagged two slices of bread from the counter and busied himself with making a sandwich.
He didn’t even need to look back to know that Gabriel was all but smirking at him now-the smug tone in the archangel’s voice was more than enough for him to decode the other’s expression. “What, you didn’t like Cas living it up a little?” He could feel the smile growing now, the bastard. Didn’t he have anything else better to do?
To Dean’s own credit, he did manage to keep his voice cool when he replied. “Not when I have to hear him getting it on with you.” Jesus, he had just been in the next room, too. Once he had the time, Dean really needed a bucket of brain bleach to properly scrub his mind clean after last night; there was really only so much blasphemy even he could handle. Angel on angel gay sex was definitely not one of them.
Once he had slapped his sandwich together, the hunter turned around, only to blanch at Gabriel’s coy expression, and Dean was glad that he hadn’t taken a bite from his food yet, because he would definitely have felt like puking it back out the moment the archangel started to flutter his eyelashes.
“Why, Dean,” the archangel started in the worst falsetto voice ever, and Dean felt like gagging now because what the fuck, Gabriel. “Could you possibly be… jealous?”
The hunter stared back blankly in response to that question-yeah, he was definitely glad that he hadn’t eaten his sandwich yet. “What the fuck?” Him, jealous? Seriously? Where the hell did Gabriel even get that from? Why the heck would he even be jealous?
Gabriel stared back in return for a few moments of his own, looking as if he hadn’t really expected that answer at all. He blinked once, and then twice before breaking his gaze and let out a low whistle. “Wow. I never knew that you could be this dense, Dean-o.”
Dean instantly scowled, not at all appreciative of Gabriel’s random observation. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Not my place to say,” the archangel returned easily, both of his hands raised in a mock gesture of surrender. “But hey, if you want details on how Cas is in bed, I’d be happy to give them-”
“Fuck no,” the words came out from Dean’s mouth even before he could register them, and the hunter instantly snapped his mouth back shut, before he could say anything else that he might regret later. Gabriel (the asshole that he is) only smiled back in a way that seemed far too telling for Dean’s taste, the archangel’s expression all but screaming ‘I know something that you don’t’ and yeah, Dean really didn’t like that. He gave Gabriel one last glare before turning around to storm out of the kitchen with his sandwich. Would have stormed out of the kitchen with his sandwich, if Cas hadn’t decided to randomly appear at the threshold between the kitchen and the living room.
Dean jumped back the moment Cas made his appearance, his entire body tensing up for a second, before relaxing once his mind could properly register the angel’s presence. He heard Gabriel attempting to hold back his laughter from somewhere behind him, and quickly scowled once again as he threw a half-glare at Cas. “You really need to warn people before you do that.”
Castiel tilted his head in response, looking back at Dean with his too-blue eyes and vaguely puffy lips and hair that most certainly looked like it had been messed up under Gabriel’s fingers, most likely while they-and he really needed to stop thinking about any possibilities of angel porn, this was getting far too fucking ridiculous.
Thankfully, the angel soon broke the moment with his reply. “I will keep that in mind for next time.”
“Good,” the hunter grunted back in a way that was a bit too quick for his own taste, and he knew that Cas noticed it too, because the angel was already starting to look at him with that inquiring frown on his face. In a matter of seconds, the questions were going to start coming-questions that Dean did not want to answer if he didn’t need to. Pointedly looking away from Castiel, Dean made a quick dart out of the kitchen with his sandwich and made a mental note to himself to get coffee later. As he brushed past Castiel and (almost) escaped to the living room, Gabriel’s singsong comment sprung up from behind him.
“Denial isn’t just a river in Egypt, Dean-o~”
Dean really wanted to punch the asshole now.
Fucking archangels.
After that incident Dean would have been happy to not see any angels at all for the rest of the day, but unfortunately he had to see them again right after breakfast when Loki made an appearance and promptly called everyone to the study (that is, once she had gone through Bobby’s tests and several rounds of holy water).
“Just because I’m the Trickster doesn’t mean that I’m a demon, you know,” the girl grumbled as she snapped herself dry, trying her best not to scowl.
Bobby only rolled his eyes in response, as he put his flasks back down. “You complain an awful lot for being the Trickster.”
Loki let out a snort. “I only complain when I get a flask of holy water in my face the moment I appear,” she mouthed back smartly, as one hand moved to idly push away the bangs that were covering her eyes. Green eyes blinked as she scanned around her, almost as if finally noticing the rest of the people who were all ready and waiting for her to get a move on.
Dean cleared his throat and shifted, crossing his arms over his chest and directed a glare at the Trickster. “If you’re done, I think we’d appreciate it if you actually started on what you came here for.”
The girl only returned the glare with her own unimpressed look. “Somebody got out on the wrong side of bed today, I think,” she drawled, purposely drawing out her words.
“Bite me,” Dean snapped back, scowling.
“If you two are done bickering like five-year-olds,” Bobby cut in then, sending glares to both Dean and Loki, with little regard to the fact that the girl could easily snap any of them out of existence should she choose to. “We have plans to discuss.”
Loki still didn’t look too impressed with Dean, but she relented at Bobby’s words and turned her attention back to the rest. Sweeping her eyes across the room, she eventually paused to land her gaze at Gabriel, and blinked at him for a few seconds before turning her gaze at Castiel, raising an eyebrow.
Now it was the archangel’s turn to roll his eyes. “Can we discuss that later?”
“I’m not saying anything,” the Trickster quickly went, gesturing with her hands. “But hey, I’d be happy to hear about details-”
“Are you two idjits done talking about angel sex?” Bobby snapped out once again as he sent out a glare to the two Tricksters, looking very unappreciative of how quickly they had all strayed from their original topic. “We haven’t got all day, you ladies.”
“No need to start snapping at me, old man,” Loki countered, putting her hands up once again as the girl took a step backwards from Bobby, as well as the crowd. “I get it.”
The elder hunter made a disbelieving sound in response, and gestured to the rest of the room with a hand. “Then get on with it already.”
Loki rolled her eyes once more, but made the wise decision of not saying anything else as the girl stepped forward, closer to the little impromptu gathering that they were having now. Tucking her hands into the pockets of the dark jeans she was currently wearing, the Trickster gave everyone another glance before promptly dropping the bombshell on all of them. “The guys have found Eve’s location.”
Now that was certainly news. Dean’s eyes instantly widened, and his mouth was already starting to open before Dean could even register the words. “What-”
The girl quickly cut him off with a wave of her hand. “I’m getting there,” she went pointedly, sending yet another unimpressed glance in response to the hunter’s own glare, before looking back at the rest again. “She’s in no definite place at the moment, as far as we can tell. She’s just moving around and sometimes trying to cook up some new monster or other, like the worm that Bobby ran into back at Ohio.” Loki paused then to give the elder hunter a passing nod, before continuing on. “So far, she hasn’t done anything else after that. But it’s only a matter of time before she does do something, so we’re going to strike first, before she can.”
Sam, of course, asked the inevitable question. “How are we going to do that?”
“Getting to that now,” the Trickster replied, smoothly moving on. “We don’t want to raise an alarm to Eve and waste our chances, so only a few of the pagans are tagging along with us. Fenrir, Jorman-”
“Jörmungandr,” Gabriel corrected helpfully.
Loki made a grimace. “I always get the name wrong. Jörmungandr-Midgar, as I like to call him-Hel…” the girl trailed off after that, frowning even more as she stopped to mentally tick off the rest of the names with her fingers. Soon enough, she proceeded to roll her eyes yet another time and finished up her words in a surge of dark amusement. “Basically, every one of Gabriel’s kids is going to hop along for the ride here.”
Dean didn’t get it, of course, but as he looked at Sam and Bobby (who were looking at each other with raised eyebrows) the same didn’t apply to them. Gabriel, on the other hand, seemed to be busy staring at the Trickster with disbelief written across his face. “All of them?” he asked out loud.
“Fenrir, Midgar-Jörmungandr, sorry-Hel and Sleipnir,” the girl confirmed, ticking off the names once more on her fingers. “Not all of them if you want to count Darcy-”
“Nari,” Gabriel corrected yet again, although he sounded much more stressed about it this time round.
“-but we all know how confusing that entire thing is anyway,” Loki finished with a sigh, pointedly ignoring Gabriel’s unamused look as she rubbed the back of her neck. “I really need to find out what the heck happened that night one day.”
The archangel snorted at that, rolling his eyes. “Of course you would want to know.”
Bobby decided to cut in once more. “If you ladies are done talking…” he started slowly, with intent.
“Sorry, sorry,” Loki quickly returned, attempting to placate the elder hunter with another gesture of her hand. Bobby, of course, was not so easily pacified, but settled down all the same after giving the Trickster another warning look.
“Stop beatin' around the bush and get to the point, kid,” he went, and really-only Bobby could call somebody like the Trickster 'kid' and get away with it.
Loki obviously was aware of this as well, and let out a snort of her own to illustrate her point before continuing on. “So Gabriel's kids are going to help us out with this. We're going to be setting up a trap to hold her in and stop her from escaping, and once they've got her down just shoot her point blank with the phoenix ash and voila! One dead Mother of All.”
Dean was not impressed with this plan. “You make it sound so easy,” he remarked, knowing that it'd most likely be the other way round. Since when was anything in his life easy? (Besides pie, but sometimes even that could be debatable.)
The girl only shrugged in response. “You've got Gabe's kids helping you out,” she pointed out in return, one eyebrow arching up. “How hard can it be?”
“Give me one reason why I should listen to you, human.”
Dean struggled to bite back a sigh as he looked back at the purple and crimson headed teenager scowling in front of him, wondering if all of Gabriel's kids were going to be this troublesome to deal with. “Loki-the Trickster-asked you to help us, so if you want to help just listen and do what I say. Got it?”
Fenrir narrowed his eyes. “We agreed to help, but we did not agree to take your orders like children.”
Jesus fucking Christ. Dean seriously wanted to punch something right the fuck now. Were all the pagan gods this fucking obnoxious? As if Kali and the others hadn't been bad enough back during the Apocalypse, now he had to deal with even more of them. The fact that they were Gabriel's kids only made things a hundred times worse. The archangel seriously had no sense of shame whatsoever. But for what it was worth, said shameless archangel in question was at least now attempting to salvage the situation the best that he could.
Gabriel raised his hands in a gesture of surrender, letting out the sigh that Dean was holding back himself before he spoke. “Dean knows best what to do here, Fen. Just... listen to him, alright? You don't need to follow him to the letter, but at least take his words as advice.”
Rather than listening to the archangel's words, the wolf-god now instantly rounded on his father, baring his teeth in a gesture of irritation as the teenager's dark eyes flashed. “You are no longer my father, Gabriel,” he snarled out, terse and very obviously ticked off. “You have no right to tell me anything at all, or instruct me on what to do.”
For a moment Dean could see something familiar-foreign flash across Gabriel's face when Fenrir said those words, but the archangel quickly schooled his expression and looked back at Fenrir with an expression so fake, that just about anybody could pick it apart, even Cas. “I may no longer be Loki,” he started quietly, but Dean could hear the edge of steel in his voice, a tone that Dean himself was well-acquainted with. “But I am still the one who sired you, Fenrir. You're still my kid.”
“You are not one of the pagans,” the wolf-god growled back, very clearly having not cared about anything that Gabriel had just said. “You have never been, and you will never be, angel.” Dean couldn't help but wonder for a moment if the daddy issues were hereditary; it sure seemed like that was the case to him, judging from how Fenrir was acting now. Did everybody he knows have an issue with their fathers?
To his credit, Gabriel managed to keep the blank expression on his face as he carefully looked back at Fenrir. “I may have never been a real pagan god,” he started quietly, “but I have always treated you all like my family. You are still my son.”
Fenrir snarled again. “You are not my father.”
Dean decided that it was time for him to step in before things got worse. “Alright, you two can keep at the family discussion later. Now we've got Eve to take down.” He glanced behind him, looking over his shoulder to pick out where Sam and the rest were. It was easy enough to spot the giant form of his brother, who was currently busy throwing darts and impressing the ladies. Bobby was at one of the tables blending in and playing poker. Cas, on the other hand...
The hunter looked back to see Fenrir glaring at Gabriel and the archangel pointedly ignoring said glare. Dean made a mental note to himself to get a drink after all this was done, as he reached over and nudged Gabriel to get his attention. “I'm heading over to Cas. You just... don't do anything stupid, alright?”
The archangel's response was to roll his eyes and snort. “Don't take me for a kid, Dean-o. Go and have fun with your boyfriend.”
“He's not-” Dean started, but stopped himself quickly before he could say something that he would quickly regret. Cas was most certainly not his boyfriend or anything like that, but he wasn't going to spoil Gabriel's mood even more. He may hate the guy for what he did, but even Dean knew better than to pick on him after being talked down by his own kid like that. Dean knew the experience well enough from his days of taking care of Sam. He'd let Gabriel have his way, at least this time.
“Don’t do anything stupid,” he hissed out instead, the words earning himself another exasperated eye roll from the archangel before Gabriel waved him off. Dean took that as his cue to leave; he grabbed his drink and slipped out from his seat, making his way towards Cas while still keeping an eye out for any disturbances in the crowd. Fenrir and the others might have managed to track Eve to this spot (or at least determined that she was going to appear here), but there was no telling when or how she might strike. All they could do for now was to keep their eyes peeled and wait for something to happen.
Until then, though, Dean supposed he should check to see how Cas was doing. The last few days seemed to have been especially exhausting on him, although now that Cas finally did get some, Dean did hope that it would have loosened the angel up a little. Judging from the stiff, awkward way that Cas was currently sitting however, the hunter had a feeling that it wasn’t the case at all.
Biting back a sigh, the hunter shuffled himself to the free seat beside Cas and promptly flopped himself onto it, speaking only after he had taken a swig of his drink. “Any sign of her yet, Cas?”
The angel turned his gaze towards Dean and shook his head. “Nothing so far, Dean,” he answered.
Dean let out a frustrated huff at the response, annoyed at the lack of action (or maybe the fact that he couldn't let off some much-needed steam). “We've been sitting around here for at least two hours already, man. She'd better show her freaking face soon.”
“The pagans are certain that she will come by here,” Cas added seriously, nodding as he said those words. “We will be ready when she does appear.”
Not quite the response he had been expecting (not that it had really been expected from Cas in the first place), but Dean could roll with that. “Damn right we will be.” Compared to the Apocalypse this wasn't as bad, plus this time they had help from the pagans as well-although that would have been much more useful back when they were going against Lucifer, but Dean wasn't going to start complaining. That was already over and done with.
Speaking of things being over and done with-Dean looked over at Cas once again, grinning slightly as he nudged the angel. “So, how was last night?”
Castiel looked at Dean again and blinked, looking somewhat lost for the moment. “Last night?” he echoed back, already starting to do that ridiculous but somehow still endearing head tilt of his.
-wait, no, not endearing. The hunter scowled and quickly banished those thoughts away from his head before they could grow any more. “Yeah, last night. The entire house practically heard you, man.” And also caused Sam to have the bitchiest bitchface he had ever seen on his brother ever. Not that Dean didn't understand where it came from, but seeing it on his brother like that was just hilarious.
The angel had another moment to blink blankly at Dean before he put two and two together, and once he had done so there was an instant tinge of red on Castiel's cheeks (which he did not find cute at all) and the angel ducked his head in a gesture of embarrassment. “I, ah... I apologize for that,” he mumbled out quietly. “I had no intention to...”
“Nah, Cas, it’s cool,” Dean returned with a smile that somehow felt forced in his psyche, reaching out to clap the angel comfortingly on the shoulder. “Not quite what I expected, but I guess doing it with Gabriel is better for you, all things considered.” After all, considering how the last sexual(-ish, because it had been just a kiss) thing that Dean knew he had done was with Meg...
Cas frowned at those words, somehow looking as if he wasn't buying it. “Why would performing sexual acts with Gabriel be better for me?”
Dean opened his mouth at that, only to pause for a good few seconds before he shut it right back and stared at the angel. “Why wouldn't it be?” he finally questioned. “I mean, you're an angel and he's an angel too. It just... makes sense, I guess.” Not to mention the fact that the archangel was probably the Kama fucking Sutra for angel porn, considering his long run as Loki and the fact that just about every angel he had seen looked like they never got some (minus Anna, but she wasn't even an angel when they met).
Seemingly not bothering to even give Dean an answer, Castiel instead glanced back down at the half-drunk mug of beer in his hand and stared at it for a good few moments. The hunter decided that maybe it was a good time for him to skedaddle before things got even more awkward. “Uh, I'll just...”
Before Dean could properly finish talking however, the angel cut in with a quiet but intent-sounding sigh of his name. “Dean.”
The hunter instantly fell silent.
Castiel looked up from his drink and stared at Dean in that unblinking, inhuman way of his. “We... angels aren't supposed to be fornicating at all, much less with each other.”
Jesus, who the hell even said 'fornicating' these days? Dean managed not to wince that much at the word at least, although he was also silently thankful for the fact that he hadn't been drinking his beer when Cas said that. He had no intention of choking when Eve could turn up at any moment.
“I, uh... sort of guessed that,” he eventually managed to say after a moment, wincing this time round because yeah, way to state the obvious there.
Cas closed his eyes at that. “Gabriel...” he started quietly, and Dean watched the grip that Cas had on his mug slowly tighten. “I have not told you this, but Gabriel-he had been my commander before he left.”
Now that had Dean doing a double take, surprised as he was to know about this. Of all the things to hear from Cas... “Seriously?” he questioned, not quite believing it. Sure, Gabriel was an archangel and all, but... “Wasn't Anna your boss?”
“She took over after Gabriel left Heaven,” the angel clarified, opening his eyes, and there was flash of pain in his eyes that was accompanied by a tone in his voice that Dean couldn't help but feel sorry for. “Gabriel was the original commander for the garrison I used to be in. He was...” Castiel trailed off, and the grip around his mug tightened even further, before he finished his words. “He was everything an archangel should be.”
Dean thought about the other archangels he had met, and found himself quite unable to conjure up a mental image of Gabriel being anything like Michael or Raphael. Lucifer was, of course, out of the question entirely. Eventually, all that the hunter could respond to that was a vague 'uh' that did nothing else but to make Cas sigh out his frustration.
“He’s not…” Castiel started again, voice quieter now. “He’s not like Raphael or Michael. He always encouraged us to do what we felt right when the situation called for it. I…” he paused then, letting out another sigh before admitting. “I didn’t really understand what he meant back then.” He paused again. “I don’t think a lot of us did.”
“I would be surprised if it had been any other way,” the hunter muttered in an undertone, recalling the various other angels he had met. Anna, Uriel, Zachariah…
…okay, so maybe he wasn’t really able to judge angels in general, considering his less than stellar track record with them. But it still had to count for something, one way or another.
Seemingly having not heard the man beside him, Castiel went on to elaborate for Dean. “I think Gabriel... he's never really put as much faith in God as the rest of us do. For him, it had been his brothers and us. He loved us as much as he could-more than any of us would have ever done then.” The hunter watched as the corner of Cas' lips quirked up into a small smile, the look on his face almost reminiscent. “I have always admired that about him.”
Huh. Who knew that Cas actually knew so much about the archangel? On one hand, Dean was faintly impressed that the angel had such thoughts on him. On the other hand... to hear so much about somebody else from Cas' mouth-Dean wasn't so sure what to feel about that. It wasn't as if he wanted to feel special or anything, but to hear Cas know somebody else so well, when the angel also knew so much about him already... the feeling just didn't sit right in his gut.
Still, this wasn't about him. Dean shook his head, quietly stashing away said feeling, right to the back of his mind, and struggled for a moment to find the correct words to respond with. “...I'm happy for you Cas. Really.” If Cas was happy about this, then more power to him, right? That should be how things go.
Castiel looked at him there and then, staring at him in his usual, unblinking manner that Dean could only find familiar (and perhaps in some ways, comforting), holding Cas' gaze in his own. As he looked at the angel the hunter saw something seemingly flashing across Cas' eyes, a foreign emotion that Dean couldn't instantly place. Just as soon as he saw that though, Cas broke his stare, turning his head away from the hunter and looking elsewhere.
“Dean,” he went after a pause, his voice quiet and low.
The moment seemed to hang in that instant, weighing heavy and thick in his mind. Dean gulped, pushing down the hard lump at the back of his throat as he blinked once and replied with equal quietness. “...yeah?”
Somehow still not daring to meet back his gaze, Castiel swallowed as well before he spoke up again. “Actually, I-”
A scream suddenly broke out from within the crowd.
Dean instantly whipped his head around towards the source of the noise, senses already starting to whir as he moved to stand up from his seat. In that same instant Sam burst out from the side, distress written on his face as he caught sight of Dean and quickly moved to his brother's side.
“It's Eve,” Sam breathed out.
The crowd was in chaos as the Winchesters plus Castiel hurried over to where the action was taking place. Pushing through the flocks of distressed, frightened people, Sam took the initiative to help out as much as he could to get the civilians out of the place as the battle took place. Leaving his brother to handle to crowd, Dean went on ahead with Cas to the stage at the front of the establishment.
The sight he got when he reached there was not a hopeful one.
On the stage stood Eve, looking exactly the same as on the video that Sam had run through back at Bobby's. Two people-one male, one female-flanked her, and even with their normal, human-like appearance, Dean was willing to bet that human was the last thing they were right now. There were other people on the ground as well-dead ones with their bodies split open and their guts strewn all over the place, along with the non-human ones that lumbered around with twisted expressions and blood dripping from their mouths and fingers. Didn't take a genius to figure out what exactly had happened here.
Dean ignored the presence of the Mother of All for the moment, instead using the chaotic mess of the crowd to hurry over to the front of the bar, where Gabriel had crumpled down to the ground. He crouched down when he got there, reaching out for the archangel and shaking him by his shoulder and hissed out. “Gabriel! Hey, Gabriel!”
The archangel groaned as he stirred at the name, his head lolling as Gabriel struggled to regain consciousness.
“Let me,” Cas went, already reaching out with two fingers and pressed the tips of them to the other's temple. Gabriel snapped right back to awareness in the next instant, eyes flying wide open and he gasped, chest heaving as the archangel involuntarily sucked in a lungful of air. Dean quickly moved to steady him, once Gabriel had been brought back to consciousness, holding the archangel by his shoulders as Gabriel slowly focused back on the world around him, and raised his head to instantly focus on Castiel.
“Cas,” he managed weakly, and Dean had to try not to think too much about the fact that it was the angel who Gabriel had addressed first. “Eve, she-”
“I know,” the angel quickly replied, giving the other a quick once-over, before he straightened himself back up and turned towards Dean. “Watch over Gabriel, Dean. I will deal with Eve.”
Dean opened his mouth to respond, but before he could say anything Cas had-Cas was looking as if he had constipation.
Gabriel spoke up before either of them had a chance to start asking. “Eve’s presence locks down on your powers, Cas. You can’t use your wings here.”
Hearing those words only caused Dean to swear in his head. Now that was going to complicate things. “So, what? Both of you are nerf’d now?”
“For Cas, yeah,” Gabriel replied for the angel, easing Dean’s hold on him as he straightened himself back up. “Me, not so much still, but I got ambushed. She must have sensed me… or not-sensed me. You get the picture.” The archangel paused for a moment then, a sudden wince crossed his face as he swiped fingers against his back and watched as they came back bloody. If that wasn’t a bad sign, then Dean didn’t know what was.
Not wanting to waste another moment, he turned the archangel around to check the extent of whatever damage that Gabriel had received. Fortunately, there wasn’t anything more than a few bad-looking scratches that would heal in time-still, it would be a good idea to wrap up the damage, at least to prevent any infections from happening. Glancing around, the hunter only took a moment to spot a towel hanging off from the edge of the bar and made a quick move to swipe it off, pressing the cloth against the wounds. The archangel hissed out loud when Dean pressed against his injury, and from the corner of his eyes he could see Castiel frowning at the reaction and generally looking worried at Gabriel’s current state.
The archangel must have noticed it as well, because he was already starting to move again, attempting to get back up on his feet as he tried to shoo Cas away with a wave of his hand. “I’m alright, bro. Go help out Gigantor and the rest of the family. Eve’s brought some serious muscle-heads with her.”
“Yeah, Cas,” Dean added, casting a glance at the ongoing battle that was happening up front; it was easy enough to see, now that the crowd was gone, and the fallen table in front of them did well enough to hide them from immediate sight. “I’ll take care of Gabriel here. Go and help Sammy.”
Castiel hardly looked convinced by either of their words, but thankfully he didn’t push the issue and only responded with a nod, before he turned and went over to join the battle.
Dean looked over to Gabriel once the angel had gone out of earshot. “Are you really alright?” he asked again.
Gabriel rolled his eyes in response. “I’m not as fragile as you make me out to be, Dean-o,” he sighed, somehow sounding slightly irritated. “Just leave me here and go help Cas; I’ll rejoin the fight as soon as I can.”
The words instantly caused Dean to frown, not at all assured by the archangel’s words. As much as he did still have a dislike for Gabriel, he was still Cas’ brother, and he wasn’t going to just dump the other like that and leave him at the mercy of whatever might jump here. It wasn’t as if the bar they were in now was particularly big; anything could get here easily, and if Gabriel was alone and still recovering…
As if having sensed his thoughts, Gabriel only snorted loudly before proceeding to wave him off as well. “Just go, Deano. I am still an archangel, y’know. I can take care of myself.”
There were many things that Dean could say in response to that-most of them not all that kind-but the hunter managed to keep his mouth shut, before he could come out with any witty reply, and only acknowledge the archangel with a small nod. He moved, getting up on his feet as one hand reached to grab the pistol tucked at the back of his jeans and pull it out, fingers deftly unlocking the weapon as he straightened himself properly and darted in to enter the fray.
He could tell his thoughts to Gabriel later, once Eve was dealt with, the hunter decided. Hopefully, there would be enough time then to give the archangel a proper talk on how to not make your brother worry to hell and back about you.
The battle was already well underway when Dean joined in, with both sides fiercely raging against each other. The hunter tightened the hold he had on his gun, sidestepping the corpses in his way as Dean hurried over to where his brother was currently tangling with a skinwalker.
“Sammy!” he shouted, alerting his brother, as well as the monster the younger Wincherster was fighting, to his presence. Sam instantly got the message, pushing back as he used his size against the skinwalker and managed to shove the transformed dog away from him. Dean instantly moved, lifting up his gun and firing it. The bullet hit straight and true, striking the skinwalker in its shoulder which elicited a loud yelp of surprise from the canine. Taking his cue, Sam made use of the skinwalker's distraction to lunge forward, silver knife flashing under the lights as he plunged the blade right through its heart.
A loud whine escaped from the canine as the blade went through, but the sound quickly faded as its life was snuffed out, and Sam grimaced as he pulled the knife out from the now-human body and wiped off the blood against the back of his jeans. Dean properly made his way to the other, glancing in mild surprise at the blade that his brother was holding. “Where did you get that?”
“Jörmungandr,” Sam went in reply, looking back at his brother with a concerned-looking frown. “Cas informed me on what happened. Gabriel okay?”
“Good enough, all things considered,” Dean answered, firing out another shot to drive back yet another skinwalker. “What do we have here?”
Sam's response was to let out a loud snort. “Well, for a start there're vampires, rugarus, shapeshifters, skinwalkers and djinns,” he started, pausing for a moment to cast a glance towards Eve. “I think she's also made something new as well, but I can't confirm that.”
As if things weren't bad enough as it was. Dean muttered a curse under his breath, shifting the hold on his gun. “So we're up against a smorgasbord of things that go bump in the night,” he hissed out, eying the large group of creatures still out for their blood. “Just fucking peachy.”
The monsters crowded closer around them, circling around as the Winchesters found themselves outmatched, a hundred to just the two of them. Five years ago, perhaps, Dean would have considered this as the worst case scenario-but after going through Heaven, Hell and the near-Apocalypse, somehow being surrounded by monsters didn’t seem as frightening as it should be. Still, he wasn’t going to assume that getting out of this would be easy; Cas and the pagans were busy with whatever else Eve had set on them, and Dean was pretty sure Gabriel wasn’t going to appear in the nick of time to save their asses, like what he did with Lucifer.
He took one step back, his back pressing against Sam’s as he swept his gaze across the line of monsters waiting for them. “Any smart ideas, Sammy?” he asked.
“I do have an idea,” Sam went in response, but it was hard to ignore the grim tone that edged into his voice. “It’s not really that smart though.”
Dean turned his head around and glanced at his brother. “What, are we going to just charge in and kamikaze our way over or something?”
Sam winced at his brother’s choice of words, but answered the question nevertheless. “Something like that. You over me with the gun, and I’ll charge through and get us to Cas.”
“With nothing but a knife?” Dean couldn’t help but question, eyes darting to the blade that Sam had in his hand.
The younger Winchester made a sound of confirmation. “Jörmungandr told me that this knife could kill any kind of monster. It hasn’t let me down yet.”
“What, and you want to test out that theory now?” Dean snapped back, irritation rolling in his voice. “No way, Sam.” He wasn’t going to let his brother play the sacrificing moron again. Lucifer had been fucking enough already.
“If you have any better ideas,” Sam stated with a hiss, “I’d be happy to hear it, Dean.”
And the fact was that Dean didn’t have an idea in this situation, which of course hardly did anything to help out in their predicament. He cursed yet again, more than pissed over just how screwed they were right now. He clenched his jaw, tensing as he readied his gun and finally hissed back at his brother, “Alright, fine.” He gave his surroundings a quick look as he said that, easily spotting Cas who was busy holding his ground closer to the front. The distance wasn’t too far, but the only problem was the wall of monsters separating them from the angel.
Sam let out a sound of acknowledgement once Dean gave his consent, inching around to the general direction of where Castiel was, and tightened his grip around the handle of the knife in his hand. “Okay,” he breathed out, voice just loud enough for Dean to hear. “On three.”
Dean nodded in response, falling silent soon after as he continued to look at the monsters. They were staying as still as he was, waiting for the moment to catch either of them off guard and then move in to strike. He could give them credit for that, at least, but it hardly made him feel any better. Pushing down the hard lump at the back of his throat, Dean forced himself to stay perfectly still, waiting for the right moment to start moving-and said moment should be coming right about now…
“Three!” he heard his brother shouting without warning, bolting in the opposite direction of where Cas was. The monsters instantly took the bait, all of them lunging forward towards Sam. Dean took his cue at once, raising his gun and pulling the trigger in quick succession as he emptied his magazine into as many of these assholes as he could manage, attempting to cut down their numbers in the middle of the confusion.
The plan worked, to an extent-a couple of them did get hit and found themselves flinching at the shot, and the distraction proved to be long enough for Sam to get close and deal the killing blow through their hearts or by decapitating them. The blade that Sam had seemed to be working well-enough; the blade sliced cleanly, and it looked like it didn’t take much effort on Sam’s part either; whenever he attacked, the knife went through anything easily, as if it was simply cutting through butter.
Dean quickly darted forward once the magazine in his gun ran empty, reloading as he moved and proceeded to resume shooting, giving his brother the cover fire he needed. The gunshots rang out loud and clear within the noise of the battle, the sound ringing in his ears as he trailed after Sam, following the path of bodies that the younger Winchester had left in his wake. To his left and right even more monsters were starting to converge around them, but Sam was using his big size and near-inhuman stamina to his advantage and managed to shake off the worst of them without even so much as a pause. So far, so good. If they could manage to keep this up for a bit longer, then it wouldn’t be a problem at all to get to Cas.
Just a bit more, he thought to himself, gritting his teeth as he finished up his second round of bullets and tried to reload again. Unfortunately, trying to reload when there are monsters surrounding you was never the best thing to do, and as Dean started to replace his magazine, a rugaru jumped out at him without warning, swiping with its paw with enough force that Dean fumbled and dropped his gun. It skidded across the floor, moving way too far out from his reach.
Sam (who had just managed to break out from the wall of monsters) heard the sound and quickly turned right around, eyes wide in fear and worry as he shouted out towards his brother. “Dean!”
“Just go, Sammy!” Dean roared back, doing his best to sidestep the attacks coming at him, as he tried to find a way out of this mess. He jumped and twisted around as a pair of skinwalkers dived at him, pulling out the silver penknife from his boot and slashing it at the next thing that attempted to lunge at him. Managing to land back safely on his feet, Dean looked around, eyes darting as he tried to find a way. Surely there had to be a way to get out of this properly.
The monsters were already regrouping and recovering, gearing up for another strike as Dean continued to try and battle his way out, looking for an exit when a big group of monsters moved in to attack and there was no way he could avoid all of them in one piece-
There was no warning, no call of his name when the angel blade suddenly appeared from one of the beast’s chest, and Dean stumbled back in surprise as the vampire could only gasp before suddenly crumbling into ash and dust in-between one blink and the next. The other beasts were all taken aback by the sudden interruption, caught unaware by the attack and had little time to recover before a familiar figure came up. He reached with one hand and pressed his palm against the back of a rugaru’s head, blue eyes impassively watching the flare of light that burst out from the beast’s eyes before it crumpled into a lifeless heap before Dean’s feet.
Dean took a moment to stare at the corpse before raising his gaze to look at Castiel who was busy pulling his blade out from the other corpse he had slain earlier. The angel raised his head when Dean stepped forward; straightening himself back up as Cas moved closer as well and promptly passed the bloodied angel sword to the hunter. “Here, have this.”
A moment passed as Dean stared at the blade in a mix of disbelief and uncertainty, not quite sure if he really should take it. He looked up at Cas, seeing the angel frown in irritation before practically pushing the blade into Dean’s own hand. “You are out of bullets. The sword can kill more than just demons and angels,” he said in explanation, making sure that the hunter was holding his sword properly before turning around. “Be sure to return it to me later,” he added on almost as an afterthought before he was going off again.
Dean stayed silent for a few moments after that, watching Castiel charging back to the battlefield before he gulped and nodded, shifting his grip on the blade so that it rested comfortably in his hand as he replied softly, loud enough that it was almost like a whispered promise, with only himself to bear witness to the words. “Don’t worry, Cas. I will.”
With Castiel’s blade in hand, going through the wave of monsters coming at him wasn’t as hard as it should have been. The angel blade struck straight and true with every swing and strike that Dean made, the monsters dropping like flies. In almost no time at all, the hunter broke through the last of the monsters and managed to get to where Eve stood waiting for them, the two creatures from still at her sides.
Sam moved over to Dean once the elder Winchester stumbled through, looking over his brother to ensure that he was alright and blinking in surprise at the weapon that was now in Dean’s hand. “Did Cas give you that?”
Dean took a moment to glance down at the sword, staring at it for a few moments before he turned his gaze onto Eve. “Yeah,” he answered, his voice quiet. “But I don’t think its going to work on Eve.”
The younger Winchester made a grimace at the response. “Jörmungandr’s blade didn’t work either,” he went, and Dean followed Sam’s unconscious flicker to stare at the half-melted blade lying at Eve’s feet. “I guess all we can use are the phoenix ashes.”
“Just peachy,” Dean mumbled under his breath in return as Eve finally moved her head and swept her gaze across them all as a small smile slowly crept across her face. Both Winchesters instantly tensed when they saw said smile, already expecting the worst from the expression that Eve now had. Castiel shuffled up from behind them as did Fenrir, Jörmungandr and Hel, all of them ready to counter anything that the Mother of All would throw out for round two.
Everybody got ready to retaliate when Eve started to take a step forward, but then both Sam and Dean paused when Eve took said step and they suddenly found themselves staring at the spitting image of their mother. Mary Winchester, who had died for them and because of them and forever doomed to a fate that she could never escape from.
The memory of that instantly made Dean’s temper flare, teeth gritting together as the elder Winchester cast the angriest look he could muster and threw it right at Eve’s face. “That’s it, bitch,” he snarled, green eyes blazing in anger. “You’re going down.”
Eve’s smile only grew wider in response. “I thought it would be the best fitting image to talk the two of you with. I am a mother, after all.” Her eyes flashed as she gazed across the six of them standing in the now thoroughly bloodied room. “All I wish to do is to protect my children.”
“You’ve got a funny way of showing it then, missy,” Dean retorted back to her, voice coming out loud and sharp.
“I only do what I must,” Eve returned, eyes narrowing. “Especially when the King of Hell is still out there killing my children-my firstborns.”
Dean could feel Sam’s surprise as well as his own. The King of Hell? But wasn’t that-
“Crowley?” Sam finished the question for him, frowning. “He’s dead. Cas killed him.”
The answer had Eve abruptly shifting her gaze towards the angel, eyes narrowing as she studied the angel glowering before her in great detail. Castiel stared back, unflinching, and after a few moments the smile on Eve’s face took a wicked curl at the corners of her lips, the expression on her face betraying the Mother of All’s amusement.
“Oh, Castiel,” she started, mirth tinged on every syllable. “You think that you’re going to be able to accomplish anything the way you are now? You foolish, foolish child.”
The Winchesters turned their heads towards Cas at that, and Dean could see the tenseness of the angel’s jaw, the way Castiel was clenching it together as he glared right back at Eve and growled his answer. “You have no right to tell me anything, Eve,” he snarled out, eyes flashing in rage.
The expression on Eve’s face only grew all the more wicked at the response she got, her lips twisting around into a mere parody of the smile she had just moments ago. “Is that so, Castiel?” she questioned, the triumphant tone in her voice unmistakable. “I’m a mother just the same way as your father is, boy. I see everything that my children do.” Her eyes gleamed there and then, a spark of something flashed briefly in them as Eve echoed herself. “Everything.”
Cas’ expression hardened even further at Eve’s words, but didn’t say anything else. Dean, on the other hand, only found himself questioning the meaning behind her words, and he turned towards the angel, asking, “Cas, just what is she talking about-”
Before Dean could finish the question though, he was suddenly interrupted with an all-too familiar flickering of the lights above them. He stopped speaking as the entire place started to shake, the very earth trembling as the winds howled from outside. Fenrir narrowed his eyes and sniffed the air, eyes widening as the wolf-god identified the scent and instantly whirled around, teeth barred into a low snarl.
“Demons,” he growled out lowly, and everybody in the room tensed at the word. “They’re coming.”
There was no time to prepare for them. As soon as Fenrir said those words the doors and windows all burst open, wood and glass shattering across the room as countless demons flooded the entire place in their thick, smoky forms. The group instantly scattered-Castiel ran off on his own as the pagans split out, while Dean and Sam backed away quickly in an attempt to distance themselves from the smoke as much as they could. The demons began to possess the numerous corpses littered across the floor and the stench of sulfur hung thickly in the air as the possessed corpses began to push themselves back to their feet, the smell pungent and nearly overwhelming.
Both Winchesters raised their respective weapons (Sam took out his spare gun) as the demons got up, ready to fight their way out if it went that way. With the smoke cleared they could see the pagans assuming their own stances as well. Cas, on the other hand, was still missing, and Gabriel was nowhere to be seen. Dean scowled, attempting to push down his worries and not doing a very good job of it. Were the two angels alright? Now in a three way battle like this, anything could happen-and it was clear that they were the underdogs in this confrontation. They needed to get out right this moment, before things could get worse.
Dean laid his finger on the trigger, ready to shoot the first bullet when an all-too familiar voice interrupted him. “There’s no need for such violence now, boys. I’m just here for a little chat.”
Five heads snapped back around to the front, and in spite of having been told about it earlier, both Dean and Sam failed to hide their surprise as their eyes widened to take in the familiar figure of Crowley, whole and alive and currently holding a pinned down Eve by her hair, the two creatures at her side already long dead and gone.
“Hello again, boys,” the demon went with a smirk. “It’s been a while since we last met.”
It only took Dean for a moment to reply with an appropriate answer. “You let her go right now, asshole,” he snarled, tightening his grip on Cas’ blade.
Crowley only scoffed in response, although he hardly sounded surprised at the response he had gotten. “And let you kill her? Please, I don’t like my valuables being shot.” He paused for a moment, glancing at Eve before adding on with a wry smile. “Especially not this one.”
Sam frowned at the choice of words. “Valuables?” he echoed, questioning. “What do you need Eve for?”
“Same thing I’ve always needed her for,” the demon replied simply, tilting his head. “I’m sure even morons like you should be able to figure out what I’m talking about.”
Rather than either of the Winchesters, it was Fenrir who answered the question, the wolf-god’s eyes flashing as he spoke in a low growl. “Purgatory,” he snarled out. “You plan to open it using Eve.”
“Nice to see somebody with an actual lick of sense,” Crowley went in response, amusement dripping from his voice as glanced over at Fenrir. “I suppose Gabriel’s brains had to go somewhere. Didn’t expect it to go to a mutt like you, however.”
Both Winchesters blinked at the mention of the archangel’s name, surprised to hear it coming from the demon’s lips; Fenrir on the other hand snarled at the thinly-veiled insult, teeth barring out as the wolf-god snapped back in return. “You watch where your mouth, demon, or I’ll tear it out from your face.”
Crowley rolled his eyes at the threat. “It’s always violence with you pagans,” he muttered, just loud enough for them to hear but proceeded to go on as if he hadn’t said anything at all. “There’s no need for threats here, boys. I’m merely here to discuss a little transaction.”
Dean had an immediate response to that. “We’re not going to work for you again, you sick son of a bitch,” he growled out, raising the angel blade in his hand. “We’re not going to help you open Purgatory.”
“Oh, you don’t need to worry about that,” Crowley waved it off, smiling. “I just hope for a little… cooperation.”
“No,” Dean answered instantly, eyes narrowing. “Now you either let her go, or I’m going to put this sword right through your non-existent heart.”
The demon merely raised an eyebrow, hardly looking ruffled by the threat. “Are you now?” he asked, bringing up his free hand and there was a sudden sound of growling echoing around the entire place. The unmistakable sound of scraping claws and gashing fangs rang in Dean’s ears, and he instantly tensed up, jaw clenching as he glared back at Crowley, who only smirked and spoke up again. “I believe I have your little merry band of thieves surrounded.”
“I believe you need to stand down now, Crowley,” a low and distinctly recognizable voice cut in from there. All heads now whipped around to face Castiel, who was glaring straight at the demon with a familiar-looking gun in his hand with Gabriel at his side, the archangel looking pretty worn out but trying not to show it.
Crowley took a moment to look at the gun before raising both eyebrows this time, and gave Cas a rather unimpressed look. “Really, Cas?” he went, “The Colt?”
Castiel made no verbal response to the comment, but he tightened the grip on the gun and continued to glare right at Crowley. Beside him, Gabriel attempted to straighten himself up properly, but the exhaustion was written clearly on his face.
Crowley, of course, took note of it instantly and ‘tsk’ed aloud. “I assume you had Gabriel’s help in getting the Colt and returning here,” he remarked idly, shaking his head after that. “Really, Cas. I thought that I had taught you better than that while we were still all chummy and helping out each other.”
The words sent a wave of dread rolling inside Dean’s gut, washing over him in a way that he could not be comfortable with at all as the hunter turned towards the angel, eyes widening ever so slightly. “Cas?” he asked, his voice nearly in a whisper, unable to believe the implications of Crowley’s words. Crowley… and Cas?
The angel didn’t meet Dean’s gaze and only kept to staring at Crowley, but he did speak up, answering the demon’s words with a growl. “Things have changed, Crowley. If you lay even one finger on the Winchesters, I will destroy you.”
“I’d like to see you try, darling,” the demon returned with a smirk. “But for now, I do have matters to attend to.” He tightened his hold on Eve to prove his point, and the Mother of All let out a tortured sound. “I’m quite sure that we’ll see each other again soon, though,” he added, glancing across the entire room and meeting each of their gazes and smirked a little more. “Until then, gentlemen.”
Castiel pulled the trigger and attempted to shoot Crowley with the Colt as soon as he said that, but the bullet hit nothing but solid brick as the King of Hell vanished along with Eve, as well the rest of the demons who had been with him.
The silence that followed after their departure told perhaps one too many things for Dean-and he didn’t like it at all.
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