Unexpected Destinies Chapter 74
Title: Unexpected Destinies
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: up to and including Exile on Main St., AU from the end of season 5
Warnings: AU, slash
Word Count: 2,411
Summary: Michael and Dean return to Stull Cemetery where Dean sees an angel's true form for the first time.
PAST
As soon as they arrived at Stull Cemetery, Dean found himself nearly overwhelmed by memories both foreign and domestic, well, so to speak. It took him a few moments to realize that he was seeing events as Michael had seen them as well as how he'd seen them. The experience was disconcerting to say the least, especially as the two seemed to bleed over into each other and he could see the archangel in Adam even as he could see himself in a way that he never had before. Jesus, but somehow he'd managed to look a hell of a lot less terrified then he'd felt that day.
"Mike!" Dean cried out.
"Sorry."
Almost as quickly as it had begun, the parade of memories stopped. Dean felt himself relax a little and knew that he should be thankful for it as he doubted that he'd relax any further, not with what they were about to do or where they were. He couldn't believe that they were really back here again and were actually going to do this. Unbidden, the image of Sam falling into the cage along with Adam, Michael and Lucifer flashed before his eyes and he immediately felt the archangel stiffen alongside his soul.
"Sorry, sorry!" Dean exclaimed, feeling like a complete idiot.
Of course Michael would be a little touchy about that particular memory. Dean knew only all too well what it felt like to enter Hell and it hadn't been his intention to bring that up. It was just so mind boggling. To think that the last time he'd been here he'd never have even considered the possibility of saying yes to Michael and yet here he was now, playing vessel to that selfsame archangel.
"Father works in mysterious ways," Michael stated.
Dean merely snorted, not really wanting to get into that particular argument now of all times. Instead he tried to focus all of his attention on what they were about to do here and not let it stray to the one memory in particular that he never wanted to relive again. It was with a start that he realized that he'd been focusing so much on not thinking about that memory that the one about Sam's fate had wormed its way past his defenses. The realization caught him completely by surprise. It wasn't that he didn't think Castiel worth it, just that he'd feared his old habits would kick in and override his best intentions. He was infinitely pleased that they hadn't.
"How's the cage holding up?" Dean asked to distract himself.
"See for yourself, Little One."
Michael directed their gaze at the ground and suddenly Dean could see beyond it. It was the weirdest thing as he could still very much see the grass and dirt that were present, but now he could also see further down. Into Hell itself. The vision had him flinching instinctively in remembered pain and horror and he quickly found himself soothed by pulsing Grace. He sent a silent thanks and focused back on what he was now seeing. Beyond the familiar, bleak landscape of Hell there was more and all of it was Light. It took him a few moments to decipher what he was seeing, but when he did, his breath caught in his throat.
"Is that... is that his true form?" Dean demanded, stunned.
"Yes it is."
Inside a small cage made of Light, Intent and Will, there was Grace. Dean could do little more but stare in wonder and no little awe as he took in the sight. Despite all that Lucifer had done and become, his Grace was still a bright, shining thing, shifting and rippling, unconfined by a vessel of any sort. The details took a little longer to grasp as they were so different from what he was used to seeing, but they came to him slowly. The wings were the first thing to form in his eyes, perhaps because he was expecting them and was actively looking for them. Only now, instead of being feathered like he was used to, they were made up of pure Light and energy, more like Raphael's little display the first time he'd met the archangel, but even that was a far cry from what he was seeing now.
The rest took Dean a little long to grasp, probably because it wasn't quite what he was expecting it to be. Lucifer was still vaguely humanoid from the neck on down, but above the neck however...
"In Heaven I have six wings and four faces, one of which is a lion."
Zachariah's boastful words came back to Dean all of a sudden and the rest fell into place. Holy crap, but Lucifer had multiple faces! That's why he'd had so much trouble making out what he was seeing, the Devil's features were practically in constant motion, fluctuating from one form to the next with only the smallest of pauses in-between. He was vaguely aware the the rest of Lucifer seemed to shimmer with each transformation as well, but it remained pretty much as it was, not that he could really drag his eyes away from the fallen angel's faces. Just like Zachariah's words had implied, not all of the faces that crossed Lucifer's head were human, in fact only one seemed to be. The rest were animals, some were ones that he knew existed, while others were... something else. He wasn't even quite sure what.
"Is that-? Are you-?" Dean began haltingly, unable to form complete sentences. "Michael?"
"Is that normal?" Michael asked for him. "Yes. Our true forms are far more fluid then either your bodies or your souls, though the latter does possess the ability to shift and change even if most humans never learn that particular skill."
"Oh. How many faces do you guys have? Zach said four but I've seen more on Lucy here."
"It depends on the level of the angel, just like the number of wings is lesser for lesser angels. Zachariah had four, Castiel used to have just two, but now he has six like all archangels do."
Six? His lover had six faces in his true form? The knowledge sent Dean for a loop, especially considering that most of them didn't appear to be human. Well, at least that was the case with Lucifer and he assumed it would be for Castiel as well. Instead of trying to deal with that particular information just now, Dean focused instead on identifying the Devil's faces. The easiest to pick out were the eagle and fox and he didn't even really need to think much about why God might have chosen to give those to his second archangel. Another was some kind of snake and if that wasn't ironic, he didn't know what was. He just didn't know why they hadn't all seen Lucifer's rebellion coming with that as one of his faces. Surely after the whole Garden of Eden thing it should have been a warning sign?
The next face that Dean identified made him forget all about the snake. A monkey. After all of the derogatory monkey and mud monkey comments he'd heard from Uriel way back when, it turned out that the Devil himself had a monkey face! Or was that perhaps why it had become a derogatory comment in the first place for angels? Regardless of which way around it was, that was just too funny. He'd be willing to bet quite a bit that Lucifer wasn't very pleased even if it turned out that the insult had come after he fell.
"What's the sixth face?" Dean asked, unable to identify it.
It looked sort of... fishy. There really was no other way to describe it though it was most definitely not like any fish that he'd ever seen.
"Kraken."
"Those things are real?"
"All of your supposed mythical beings and creatures are real, Dean. I would have thought that you of all people would realize this."
"But- What about unicorns, fairies or dragons? Surely they're not real?"
"They all are. Raphael actually has a unicorn face."
"He- what?!"
Raphael, a unicorn? Dean's mind pretty much refused to process that, not to mention the rest. Unicorns, fairies and dragons were real? Of course, he'd once been as adamant that angels weren't real, so at least he had some experience dealing with that feeling, but still. Unicorns and fairies and dragons! And if his mind was determined to tack on an 'Oh my!' to that thought, he resolutely ignored it.
"It is a physical manifestation of his healing gift," Michael explained gently.
"Gift?"
"Many angels have particular gifts from Father, things they can do better then most other angels."
"Oh."
Somehow Dean was starting to get an information overload headache, which really wasn't fair considering that he wasn't even in control of his own meatsuit just now. Life really sucked sometimes and whoever claimed that the world was fair should be dragged out back and shot. That would teach them real quick.
"What are your faces?" Dean asked, morbidly curious.
"Like Lucifer, one of my faces is what you would call humanoid and like Zachariah, another is a lion."
"Does that happen often? Duplicate faces?"
"You must remember that there are many angels, Little One, each with at least one animal face, so yes, there is some duplication."
"That why Zach was so proud of his lion face, 'cause you have it too?"
"That is possible," Michael agreed. "He was often guilty of the sin of pride."
Dean snorted. "Trust me, Mike, that wasn't the only sin he was guilty of."
"Yes, so it was."
"And the other faces?"
"A bull, dragon, thunderbird and bat."
"A bat?" Dean questioned, startled.
"All of Father's creatures are precious, whether they are large or small."
"Yeah, I guess, just surprised me, is all."
And really, a bat? If it had been almost anyone else telling him that, Dean wouldn't have believed them, but not only did he know Michael wouldn't lie about this, but he could literally feel his pride of all of those forms. They were all him after all. He shook his head. This was going to take some getting used to. He'd never really given Zachariah's comment much thought before and now really wished that he had.
"Castiel's faces are-" Michael began.
"How about we leave that for later?" Dean quickly interrupted.
He really didn't think that he could handle thinking about that just now. It wasn't that Dean didn't want to know- it was about his lover after all- but just, well, it was about his lover. Yes, he'd always known that Castiel was an angel and that he wasn't human, that he had a true form that was radically different from how he appeared, wearing Jimmy Novak (and crap, that was something else he'd always tried not to think too closely on!), but there was a difference between knowing it and seeing it. Or seeing another angel's true form as was the case here. Plus then there was the whole animal thing.
His lover had animal faces.
No, Dean just wasn't able to deal with that right now. Not when they were about to perform a really powerful ritual, on the outcome of which hung so much. He'd deal with it later, preferably when he was alone.
"Very well, Little One."
Desperate to distract himself, Dean latched onto the odd wavering note in the archangel's voice. Now that he wasn't focused so completely on himself, he suddenly became aware of the raging conflict within Michael. It took him a moment to take stock of it- it was Grace after all and so very different from his own emotions, but he'd learned a lot about interpreting it already if he did say so himself- but when he recognized it, he felt the shock of familiarity rush through him. Michael really hadn't been kidding during their first meeting when he'd said that he didn't want to kill Lucifer. There was a maelstrom of love, anger, frustration, adoration, pain, resignation and more tearing away inside of the archangel and he was a bit afraid of being consumed by it all.
Dean's first reaction was to try and soothe Michael, to tell him that everything would be okay or that he didn't need to do what the archangel thought that he did, but he couldn't. The fact of the matter was that it really was that bad and Michael really did need to do something serious about it. At this point he didn't think that permanently locking Lucifer up where he'd undergo torment for the rest of eternity or anything even close to that was really going to make Michael feel any better about the fact that he wasn't required to actually kill his little brother anymore. Instead he did his best to reach out with understanding and solidarity. They were in this together now, along with Castiel and Raphael.
"Thank you," Michael replied after a moment.
"Is it always like that?" Dean asked after a few seconds of silence. "Do you guys constantly shift through faces like that?"
"No, Lucifer has lost control due to his rage."
"Rage?"
"He can see us just as easily as we can see him at the moment."
That startled Dean. "He can see out of Hell?"
"Only because I am looking in, otherwise he is completely cut off."
"Oh, great! So now he knows that I said yes."
"It is most likely one of the reasons why he is so furious."
"I thought he wanted me to give in to you, so that the two of you could have your grand fight."
"That was before, I doubt my brother would want to face me on such even terms now. Having been returned to his cage a second time will have altered his mood greatly."
"Oh that's just wonderful," Dean muttered. "So basically all we managed to do was piss him off?"
"No, you provided the opportunity for things to change, for us to meet properly and for the Rite of Contressa to be found."
Dean did have to concede those points to Michael. He took another good look down into the cage seeing as his archangel was still staring resolutely down at his brother and he shuddered. They really needed to find something more effective then merely preventing Lucifer from taking a vessel.
"Okay, how about we start the Rite now?" Dean suggested.
Chapter 75
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: up to and including Exile on Main St., AU from the end of season 5
Warnings: AU, slash
Word Count: 2,411
Summary: Michael and Dean return to Stull Cemetery where Dean sees an angel's true form for the first time.
PAST
As soon as they arrived at Stull Cemetery, Dean found himself nearly overwhelmed by memories both foreign and domestic, well, so to speak. It took him a few moments to realize that he was seeing events as Michael had seen them as well as how he'd seen them. The experience was disconcerting to say the least, especially as the two seemed to bleed over into each other and he could see the archangel in Adam even as he could see himself in a way that he never had before. Jesus, but somehow he'd managed to look a hell of a lot less terrified then he'd felt that day.
"Mike!" Dean cried out.
"Sorry."
Almost as quickly as it had begun, the parade of memories stopped. Dean felt himself relax a little and knew that he should be thankful for it as he doubted that he'd relax any further, not with what they were about to do or where they were. He couldn't believe that they were really back here again and were actually going to do this. Unbidden, the image of Sam falling into the cage along with Adam, Michael and Lucifer flashed before his eyes and he immediately felt the archangel stiffen alongside his soul.
"Sorry, sorry!" Dean exclaimed, feeling like a complete idiot.
Of course Michael would be a little touchy about that particular memory. Dean knew only all too well what it felt like to enter Hell and it hadn't been his intention to bring that up. It was just so mind boggling. To think that the last time he'd been here he'd never have even considered the possibility of saying yes to Michael and yet here he was now, playing vessel to that selfsame archangel.
"Father works in mysterious ways," Michael stated.
Dean merely snorted, not really wanting to get into that particular argument now of all times. Instead he tried to focus all of his attention on what they were about to do here and not let it stray to the one memory in particular that he never wanted to relive again. It was with a start that he realized that he'd been focusing so much on not thinking about that memory that the one about Sam's fate had wormed its way past his defenses. The realization caught him completely by surprise. It wasn't that he didn't think Castiel worth it, just that he'd feared his old habits would kick in and override his best intentions. He was infinitely pleased that they hadn't.
"How's the cage holding up?" Dean asked to distract himself.
"See for yourself, Little One."
Michael directed their gaze at the ground and suddenly Dean could see beyond it. It was the weirdest thing as he could still very much see the grass and dirt that were present, but now he could also see further down. Into Hell itself. The vision had him flinching instinctively in remembered pain and horror and he quickly found himself soothed by pulsing Grace. He sent a silent thanks and focused back on what he was now seeing. Beyond the familiar, bleak landscape of Hell there was more and all of it was Light. It took him a few moments to decipher what he was seeing, but when he did, his breath caught in his throat.
"Is that... is that his true form?" Dean demanded, stunned.
"Yes it is."
Inside a small cage made of Light, Intent and Will, there was Grace. Dean could do little more but stare in wonder and no little awe as he took in the sight. Despite all that Lucifer had done and become, his Grace was still a bright, shining thing, shifting and rippling, unconfined by a vessel of any sort. The details took a little longer to grasp as they were so different from what he was used to seeing, but they came to him slowly. The wings were the first thing to form in his eyes, perhaps because he was expecting them and was actively looking for them. Only now, instead of being feathered like he was used to, they were made up of pure Light and energy, more like Raphael's little display the first time he'd met the archangel, but even that was a far cry from what he was seeing now.
The rest took Dean a little long to grasp, probably because it wasn't quite what he was expecting it to be. Lucifer was still vaguely humanoid from the neck on down, but above the neck however...
"In Heaven I have six wings and four faces, one of which is a lion."
Zachariah's boastful words came back to Dean all of a sudden and the rest fell into place. Holy crap, but Lucifer had multiple faces! That's why he'd had so much trouble making out what he was seeing, the Devil's features were practically in constant motion, fluctuating from one form to the next with only the smallest of pauses in-between. He was vaguely aware the the rest of Lucifer seemed to shimmer with each transformation as well, but it remained pretty much as it was, not that he could really drag his eyes away from the fallen angel's faces. Just like Zachariah's words had implied, not all of the faces that crossed Lucifer's head were human, in fact only one seemed to be. The rest were animals, some were ones that he knew existed, while others were... something else. He wasn't even quite sure what.
"Is that-? Are you-?" Dean began haltingly, unable to form complete sentences. "Michael?"
"Is that normal?" Michael asked for him. "Yes. Our true forms are far more fluid then either your bodies or your souls, though the latter does possess the ability to shift and change even if most humans never learn that particular skill."
"Oh. How many faces do you guys have? Zach said four but I've seen more on Lucy here."
"It depends on the level of the angel, just like the number of wings is lesser for lesser angels. Zachariah had four, Castiel used to have just two, but now he has six like all archangels do."
Six? His lover had six faces in his true form? The knowledge sent Dean for a loop, especially considering that most of them didn't appear to be human. Well, at least that was the case with Lucifer and he assumed it would be for Castiel as well. Instead of trying to deal with that particular information just now, Dean focused instead on identifying the Devil's faces. The easiest to pick out were the eagle and fox and he didn't even really need to think much about why God might have chosen to give those to his second archangel. Another was some kind of snake and if that wasn't ironic, he didn't know what was. He just didn't know why they hadn't all seen Lucifer's rebellion coming with that as one of his faces. Surely after the whole Garden of Eden thing it should have been a warning sign?
The next face that Dean identified made him forget all about the snake. A monkey. After all of the derogatory monkey and mud monkey comments he'd heard from Uriel way back when, it turned out that the Devil himself had a monkey face! Or was that perhaps why it had become a derogatory comment in the first place for angels? Regardless of which way around it was, that was just too funny. He'd be willing to bet quite a bit that Lucifer wasn't very pleased even if it turned out that the insult had come after he fell.
"What's the sixth face?" Dean asked, unable to identify it.
It looked sort of... fishy. There really was no other way to describe it though it was most definitely not like any fish that he'd ever seen.
"Kraken."
"Those things are real?"
"All of your supposed mythical beings and creatures are real, Dean. I would have thought that you of all people would realize this."
"But- What about unicorns, fairies or dragons? Surely they're not real?"
"They all are. Raphael actually has a unicorn face."
"He- what?!"
Raphael, a unicorn? Dean's mind pretty much refused to process that, not to mention the rest. Unicorns, fairies and dragons were real? Of course, he'd once been as adamant that angels weren't real, so at least he had some experience dealing with that feeling, but still. Unicorns and fairies and dragons! And if his mind was determined to tack on an 'Oh my!' to that thought, he resolutely ignored it.
"It is a physical manifestation of his healing gift," Michael explained gently.
"Gift?"
"Many angels have particular gifts from Father, things they can do better then most other angels."
"Oh."
Somehow Dean was starting to get an information overload headache, which really wasn't fair considering that he wasn't even in control of his own meatsuit just now. Life really sucked sometimes and whoever claimed that the world was fair should be dragged out back and shot. That would teach them real quick.
"What are your faces?" Dean asked, morbidly curious.
"Like Lucifer, one of my faces is what you would call humanoid and like Zachariah, another is a lion."
"Does that happen often? Duplicate faces?"
"You must remember that there are many angels, Little One, each with at least one animal face, so yes, there is some duplication."
"That why Zach was so proud of his lion face, 'cause you have it too?"
"That is possible," Michael agreed. "He was often guilty of the sin of pride."
Dean snorted. "Trust me, Mike, that wasn't the only sin he was guilty of."
"Yes, so it was."
"And the other faces?"
"A bull, dragon, thunderbird and bat."
"A bat?" Dean questioned, startled.
"All of Father's creatures are precious, whether they are large or small."
"Yeah, I guess, just surprised me, is all."
And really, a bat? If it had been almost anyone else telling him that, Dean wouldn't have believed them, but not only did he know Michael wouldn't lie about this, but he could literally feel his pride of all of those forms. They were all him after all. He shook his head. This was going to take some getting used to. He'd never really given Zachariah's comment much thought before and now really wished that he had.
"Castiel's faces are-" Michael began.
"How about we leave that for later?" Dean quickly interrupted.
He really didn't think that he could handle thinking about that just now. It wasn't that Dean didn't want to know- it was about his lover after all- but just, well, it was about his lover. Yes, he'd always known that Castiel was an angel and that he wasn't human, that he had a true form that was radically different from how he appeared, wearing Jimmy Novak (and crap, that was something else he'd always tried not to think too closely on!), but there was a difference between knowing it and seeing it. Or seeing another angel's true form as was the case here. Plus then there was the whole animal thing.
His lover had animal faces.
No, Dean just wasn't able to deal with that right now. Not when they were about to perform a really powerful ritual, on the outcome of which hung so much. He'd deal with it later, preferably when he was alone.
"Very well, Little One."
Desperate to distract himself, Dean latched onto the odd wavering note in the archangel's voice. Now that he wasn't focused so completely on himself, he suddenly became aware of the raging conflict within Michael. It took him a moment to take stock of it- it was Grace after all and so very different from his own emotions, but he'd learned a lot about interpreting it already if he did say so himself- but when he recognized it, he felt the shock of familiarity rush through him. Michael really hadn't been kidding during their first meeting when he'd said that he didn't want to kill Lucifer. There was a maelstrom of love, anger, frustration, adoration, pain, resignation and more tearing away inside of the archangel and he was a bit afraid of being consumed by it all.
Dean's first reaction was to try and soothe Michael, to tell him that everything would be okay or that he didn't need to do what the archangel thought that he did, but he couldn't. The fact of the matter was that it really was that bad and Michael really did need to do something serious about it. At this point he didn't think that permanently locking Lucifer up where he'd undergo torment for the rest of eternity or anything even close to that was really going to make Michael feel any better about the fact that he wasn't required to actually kill his little brother anymore. Instead he did his best to reach out with understanding and solidarity. They were in this together now, along with Castiel and Raphael.
"Thank you," Michael replied after a moment.
"Is it always like that?" Dean asked after a few seconds of silence. "Do you guys constantly shift through faces like that?"
"No, Lucifer has lost control due to his rage."
"Rage?"
"He can see us just as easily as we can see him at the moment."
That startled Dean. "He can see out of Hell?"
"Only because I am looking in, otherwise he is completely cut off."
"Oh, great! So now he knows that I said yes."
"It is most likely one of the reasons why he is so furious."
"I thought he wanted me to give in to you, so that the two of you could have your grand fight."
"That was before, I doubt my brother would want to face me on such even terms now. Having been returned to his cage a second time will have altered his mood greatly."
"Oh that's just wonderful," Dean muttered. "So basically all we managed to do was piss him off?"
"No, you provided the opportunity for things to change, for us to meet properly and for the Rite of Contressa to be found."
Dean did have to concede those points to Michael. He took another good look down into the cage seeing as his archangel was still staring resolutely down at his brother and he shuddered. They really needed to find something more effective then merely preventing Lucifer from taking a vessel.
"Okay, how about we start the Rite now?" Dean suggested.
Chapter 75