Unexpected Destinies Chapter 128
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: 2,833
Summary: Dean makes his way back towards Castiel and the angels.
PAST
Dean's lungs were burning and it was becoming harder and harder to breathe properly.
Despite that, Dean pushed himself onwards. Ever since his fall a while back on some loose rocks, he'd started to get a sticky wet feeling deep within him and he was more than a little afraid that one of his broken ribs might have scratched or punctured one of his lungs. Which left him caught between a rock and hard place. On the one hand pushing himself relentlessly forwards and onwards would only aggravate his injury, but on the other hand to not do so might well mean that he would never reach the angels in time to be healed. So onwards and upwards he went, letting his fear for his lover and friend push him on.
It felt like he'd been climbing forever, but Dean was determined not to let that discourage him. Instead he focused on the fact that the passageway was still there and hadn't turned out to be a dead-end. And not only that, but it continued to slope steadily upwards, taking him in precisely the direction that he wanted to go. Inevitably, though, his thoughts began to wander and he couldn't help but wonder just how much further he had to climb. Exactly how far had he fallen down the abyss? It was a memory that already was horrible enough to make him shudder and he had the nasty suspicion that he'd never quite be able to enjoy the 'falling' sensation of roller coasters ever again. Not if they triggered thoughts of that particular fall.
Suddenly Dean became aware of noise coming from up ahead. It took him a moment to ascertain that it was actually the sounds of a battle and not just his ears playing tricks on him, but when he did it gave him an extra burst of energy. If he could hear them, then he just had to be close, even if it all sounded strangely muted.
"Nearly there, Cas, Mike," Dean said, on the off chance that either of his archangels could hear him.
He doubted it with all of the anti-angelic mojo floating about here, but Dean was damned if he wouldn't at the very least try. After all, Castiel had still been able to speak with Michael and Raphael before even if they were physically cut off from each other, so there was a slim chance and he'd take it if that meant reassuring the both of them. The words cost him though and he coughed, not looking down when something sticky and warm spattered onto the hand he'd automatically raised in front of his mouth. The coppery smell was all he needed to know to confirm his fears, not that it changed anything. He was still stuck in the same catch twenty-two as before and the only way out was to keep going so that he could get to someone who could heal him since they couldn't come to him.
Although the slope in the floor was lessening, Dean was surprised to find that the sounds of battle weren't getting any clearer. Louder, yes, most definitely, but not any clearer. It made him frown as he tried to figure it out but he couldn't. Then he turned a corner in the passageway (slowly just in case it brought him into the middle of a group of demons) to find a flat stretch of corridor ahead of him. The clashing of blades and the cries of battle were almost loud enough to be right beside him but they were all still strangely muffled, as if obscured somehow.
Dean slowed as he tried to figure it out and then realized that the sounds were slightly louder to his left. It was hard to tell as noise reflected off the walls of the passageway making it seem like it came from all around him, but a quick step closer to the wall confirmed his thoughts. The fighting was taking place on the other side of the wall and he was in some kind of hidden corridor. It made sense now that he thought about it. The chamber down below had obviously been constructed to hold great treasure and it fell to reason that the Teotihuacans (or whoever the hell they were anyway) would have concealed the passageways leading down to it. Which, of course, left him with a problem.
Just how on Earth was he going to get out of here?
The thought of following the corridor to its end held little appeal for Dean as he knew that it would dead-end somewhere with some kind of ancient mechanism that he'd need to figure out in order to open a doorway of some sort. And who knew how much further along that would be? He'd seen enough of the ancient city to know that the place was a veritable maze of corridors and passageways, even of the non-hidden variety! No way did he want to waste time navigating those, not in his current condition and not with his lover potentially fighting for his very life in the room next to him now. Castiel should not have to do that, shouldn't have to be in that kind of situation at all. His angel was supposed to be an immortal being that would live forever.
The thought of losing Castiel made Dean begin to feel his way along the wall, trying desperately to find any kind of hidden mechanism that might allow him to open a door right here. Instead of finding what he sought, his fingers stumbled across a series of holes in the wall. Upon closer inspection he discovered that they were actually peepholes of a sort, allowing him to look into the room beyond the stone wall. His view was severely restricted, but he was able to make out angels clashing with demons. There didn't seem to be nearly as many of the latter as before and he wondered if that was due to the fact that some had fled with the demon child or whether the angels had simply decimated the demon numbers. He could only assume that not all of the demons had fled as they saw this as an opportunity to gain an upper hand on their angelic rivals. Well, either that or the demon child hadn't bothered to inform them that she'd accomplished their mission, which was entirely possible as well. It wasn't like demons cared anymore about their own kind than they did about humans.
It was when a demon crashed into the wall right where he was looking that Dean realized the opportunity that he had here. Yes, he was still separated from the fighting itself, but he wasn't totally removed from it anymore. Not with his newest weapon. He smiled as he grabbed hold of his water gun and lined it up with a hole at chest height while he used one of the holes above it to catch a glimpse of the fighting. The moment he spotted a demon that he thought might be close enough, he fired, sending a thin jet of Holy water spouting out the other side. His first burst was off, just missing his target but the demon didn't notice his failed attempt so he corrected his aim and tried again. The startled scream told him that he'd found his target this time so he gave the demon a face full when it turned around to see where the unexpected attack had come from.
One of the nearby angels made use of the opportunity to spear the demon with her blade. Dean smiled wolfishly as she glanced curiously at the wall but he resisted the temptation to fire once more just to show her where he was. He didn't have nearly enough Holy water left to waste it needlessly. Besides, she was a warrior and would quickly figure it out for herself. This was proven when she seemed to deliberately throw her next opponent towards the wall and he made use of the opportunity provided to give that demon the same treatment as the first.
"Come on, give me more," Dean muttered as the angel threw the wall another speculative look before turning her attention back towards the battle going on all around her.
Whether or not she heard him or just decided to make use of the help, Dean didn't know, but she was purposefully maneuvering her opponents towards him, particularly if she was being attacked by more than one demon at a time. It made him feel a bit more helpful despite still being stuck behind a wall and he adjusted his position to keep up with her movements as the fighting pushed her first one way and then the other. Though his range of view was limited and most of his attention was focused on his new angelic partner, he wasn't completely oblivious to the demonic attention that their little routine was attracting. It was therefore that he reached down and grasped his shotgun with his free hand and cocked it so that it would be ready to use when he needed it.
That moment took longer to arrive than Dean had thought that it would, but he ducked and spun around when one of the demons who had been paying the closest attention vanished from his line of sight. His instincts were proven correct when it materialized a little behind him and to the right down the corridor. He greeted it with a salt round to the stomach before darting forwards with his knife, killing it before the demon had a chance to attack him.
"Oh, yeah, stuck behind a wall and still in the game!" Dean crowed. "You can't bench this Winchester that easily."
As if on cue another demon appeared in the passageway with him followed shortly by a third.
"Shit."
Years of training and instinct had Dean throwing the knife at the second demon even before he'd fully decided to do so before he tried to dart sideways away from the remaining demon. He wasn't quite fast enough and the edge of its psychic energy threw him backwards but at least he wasn't fully caught and pinned helplessly to the wall. He used the opportunity to spray widely with his water gun, causing the demon to hiss and scream in both anger and pain. He began rattling off an exorcism as he kept up with the Holy water and added a salt round for good measure when the demon tried to level a hand at him once more.
A cough interrupted him for just a second, but it was enough for the demon and Dean was sent sprawling backwards onto the passageway floor. The pain dazed him and when he looked up it was to find a seething black demonic mass hovering in the air right above his face. Realization dawned on him just as the demon surged forwards, attempting to enter his meatsuit and take over. Although his protective tattoo kicked in automatically and prevented the demon from possessing him, he could feel its dark, oily essence sliding across his skin and he had flashes of Hell when Alastair had done something similar, though with the intent of possessing him in a completely different way.
The bile rose within Dean, but so did the rage and he took great satisfaction from the inhuman cry the demon let out as it jerked back away from him as if burned.
"Angelic wing oil and essence, you bastard," Dean hissed before hitting it with a stream of Holy water.
The odd screaming continued and Dean took a dark pleasure from being able to make a incorporeal demon cry out. Instead of trying to reclaim its original host, the demon fled through the ceiling, abandoning the battle entirely. He could only hope that it was intercepted by one of the angels still trapped outside. Or at least he assumed that they were still stuck out there as there didn't seem to be a particular increase in the number of angels fighting in the room beyond the passageway wall.
The thought spurred Dean to his feet once more, biting back his own cry at the pain. He stepped back to the wall and glanced through one of the many peepholes. The angel that he'd been working with before seemed to have moved on as he couldn't immediately spot her. He frowned and moved a little down the passageway and choose another peephole. What he saw this time caused his breath to catch for there, caught in the middle of a gleaming circle of light, was an angel. He could recognize it for what it was instantly as it glowed, albeit weakly, with the light of its true form that seemed to be seeping through its vessel. For a moment he was sure that this was it and that his eyes would burn out of his skull, but then he realized that it had been far too long already and that it hardly even stung. At most it was like looking towards the sun on a cloudy day.
The fact that this wasn't entirely true for demons was proven when one of them was flung up against the glowing barrier and seemed to all but dissolve upon contact. Still, Dean knew that something must be up as otherwise the mere fact that an angel was partway out of its vessel would be enough to kill all of the demons in the immediate area and that just wasn't happening. What it would do to him he didn't have the first clue, not now that he'd been Michael's vessel and seemed to have picked up all kinds of strange angelic-like abilities. Not that he really wanted to test that, well not apart from with his lover as that would almost be worth it just to se-
Dean froze as he caught sight of a mixed white and gray wolf's head on the angel's true form. The poor angel had been whirling around inside the seemingly shrinking confinement much as Lucifer had in his cage, flitting between pure light and the more distinct shapes of the angel's true form, all with occasional flashes of the vessel underneath. He'd been feeling sorry for the poor bastard on an abstract level but now those feelings turned into a ball of ice in his gut as terror awoke inside of him.
A mixed white and gray wolf's head. Flashes of tan from the vessel. A multitude of black wings.
Castiel.
Even before the head of the wolf morphed into that of a fiery phoenix, Dean was absolutely sure that he was right. That was his lover trapped in there, hopelessly stuck from the looks of things and clearly in mortal peril. No way would Castiel be that frantic to get out if his angel wasn't fighting for his life.
"Cas!" Dean cried out, his free hand coming up to clutch at the wall as if it would somehow allow him to push through it. "Cas!"
Another demon smashed into the glowing barrier and dissolved into nothingness and Dean would have just ignored it but for the fact that it seemed that the other angels were deliberately using the barrier to aid them in their fight. He wanted to rage at them for being so callous when his lover was in such serious danger but then reason asserted itself and he knew that there was probably nothing that they could do. This was another one of those anti-angel barriers from before, or not. This time he was certain that he'd seen it right and hadn't just imagined it. The circle was getting smaller, pressing ever more closely in on Castiel and he didn't even want to think about what would happen to his angel if it continued to do so and constricted entirely.
"Cas!"
This was it. This was how those other angels had died, the ones that Castiel had mentioned earlier. The realization made Dean sick and he groaned, unable to stop himself from thinking about exactly what might happen to his lover if Castiel didn't manage to get out of there. And he wouldn't, no angel could get either out or in, which left only him and he was useless, stuck out here in some freaking secret passageway.
There just had to be a way into that room.
"Cas!"
Dean pounded the wall with a fist before he stepped back and kicked it as hard as he could. The pain made him curse violently and hobble back a few steps. He was not going to just stand by and watch someone else that he loved die. He wasn't, damnit! There just had to be something that he could do about it. There had to be! He'd tear down this wall with his bare hands if he had to.
He'd-
Dean's eyes widened in shock as he caught sight of one of the symbols etched into the passageway wall.
A.N.: I'd say this chapter was just in time to be a birthday present for Dean, but I don't think he'd see it that way :)
Chapter 129
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: up to and including Exile on Main St., AU from the end of season 5
Warnings: AU, slash
Word Count: 2,833
Summary: Dean makes his way back towards Castiel and the angels.
PAST
Dean's lungs were burning and it was becoming harder and harder to breathe properly.
Despite that, Dean pushed himself onwards. Ever since his fall a while back on some loose rocks, he'd started to get a sticky wet feeling deep within him and he was more than a little afraid that one of his broken ribs might have scratched or punctured one of his lungs. Which left him caught between a rock and hard place. On the one hand pushing himself relentlessly forwards and onwards would only aggravate his injury, but on the other hand to not do so might well mean that he would never reach the angels in time to be healed. So onwards and upwards he went, letting his fear for his lover and friend push him on.
It felt like he'd been climbing forever, but Dean was determined not to let that discourage him. Instead he focused on the fact that the passageway was still there and hadn't turned out to be a dead-end. And not only that, but it continued to slope steadily upwards, taking him in precisely the direction that he wanted to go. Inevitably, though, his thoughts began to wander and he couldn't help but wonder just how much further he had to climb. Exactly how far had he fallen down the abyss? It was a memory that already was horrible enough to make him shudder and he had the nasty suspicion that he'd never quite be able to enjoy the 'falling' sensation of roller coasters ever again. Not if they triggered thoughts of that particular fall.
Suddenly Dean became aware of noise coming from up ahead. It took him a moment to ascertain that it was actually the sounds of a battle and not just his ears playing tricks on him, but when he did it gave him an extra burst of energy. If he could hear them, then he just had to be close, even if it all sounded strangely muted.
"Nearly there, Cas, Mike," Dean said, on the off chance that either of his archangels could hear him.
He doubted it with all of the anti-angelic mojo floating about here, but Dean was damned if he wouldn't at the very least try. After all, Castiel had still been able to speak with Michael and Raphael before even if they were physically cut off from each other, so there was a slim chance and he'd take it if that meant reassuring the both of them. The words cost him though and he coughed, not looking down when something sticky and warm spattered onto the hand he'd automatically raised in front of his mouth. The coppery smell was all he needed to know to confirm his fears, not that it changed anything. He was still stuck in the same catch twenty-two as before and the only way out was to keep going so that he could get to someone who could heal him since they couldn't come to him.
Although the slope in the floor was lessening, Dean was surprised to find that the sounds of battle weren't getting any clearer. Louder, yes, most definitely, but not any clearer. It made him frown as he tried to figure it out but he couldn't. Then he turned a corner in the passageway (slowly just in case it brought him into the middle of a group of demons) to find a flat stretch of corridor ahead of him. The clashing of blades and the cries of battle were almost loud enough to be right beside him but they were all still strangely muffled, as if obscured somehow.
Dean slowed as he tried to figure it out and then realized that the sounds were slightly louder to his left. It was hard to tell as noise reflected off the walls of the passageway making it seem like it came from all around him, but a quick step closer to the wall confirmed his thoughts. The fighting was taking place on the other side of the wall and he was in some kind of hidden corridor. It made sense now that he thought about it. The chamber down below had obviously been constructed to hold great treasure and it fell to reason that the Teotihuacans (or whoever the hell they were anyway) would have concealed the passageways leading down to it. Which, of course, left him with a problem.
Just how on Earth was he going to get out of here?
The thought of following the corridor to its end held little appeal for Dean as he knew that it would dead-end somewhere with some kind of ancient mechanism that he'd need to figure out in order to open a doorway of some sort. And who knew how much further along that would be? He'd seen enough of the ancient city to know that the place was a veritable maze of corridors and passageways, even of the non-hidden variety! No way did he want to waste time navigating those, not in his current condition and not with his lover potentially fighting for his very life in the room next to him now. Castiel should not have to do that, shouldn't have to be in that kind of situation at all. His angel was supposed to be an immortal being that would live forever.
The thought of losing Castiel made Dean begin to feel his way along the wall, trying desperately to find any kind of hidden mechanism that might allow him to open a door right here. Instead of finding what he sought, his fingers stumbled across a series of holes in the wall. Upon closer inspection he discovered that they were actually peepholes of a sort, allowing him to look into the room beyond the stone wall. His view was severely restricted, but he was able to make out angels clashing with demons. There didn't seem to be nearly as many of the latter as before and he wondered if that was due to the fact that some had fled with the demon child or whether the angels had simply decimated the demon numbers. He could only assume that not all of the demons had fled as they saw this as an opportunity to gain an upper hand on their angelic rivals. Well, either that or the demon child hadn't bothered to inform them that she'd accomplished their mission, which was entirely possible as well. It wasn't like demons cared anymore about their own kind than they did about humans.
It was when a demon crashed into the wall right where he was looking that Dean realized the opportunity that he had here. Yes, he was still separated from the fighting itself, but he wasn't totally removed from it anymore. Not with his newest weapon. He smiled as he grabbed hold of his water gun and lined it up with a hole at chest height while he used one of the holes above it to catch a glimpse of the fighting. The moment he spotted a demon that he thought might be close enough, he fired, sending a thin jet of Holy water spouting out the other side. His first burst was off, just missing his target but the demon didn't notice his failed attempt so he corrected his aim and tried again. The startled scream told him that he'd found his target this time so he gave the demon a face full when it turned around to see where the unexpected attack had come from.
One of the nearby angels made use of the opportunity to spear the demon with her blade. Dean smiled wolfishly as she glanced curiously at the wall but he resisted the temptation to fire once more just to show her where he was. He didn't have nearly enough Holy water left to waste it needlessly. Besides, she was a warrior and would quickly figure it out for herself. This was proven when she seemed to deliberately throw her next opponent towards the wall and he made use of the opportunity provided to give that demon the same treatment as the first.
"Come on, give me more," Dean muttered as the angel threw the wall another speculative look before turning her attention back towards the battle going on all around her.
Whether or not she heard him or just decided to make use of the help, Dean didn't know, but she was purposefully maneuvering her opponents towards him, particularly if she was being attacked by more than one demon at a time. It made him feel a bit more helpful despite still being stuck behind a wall and he adjusted his position to keep up with her movements as the fighting pushed her first one way and then the other. Though his range of view was limited and most of his attention was focused on his new angelic partner, he wasn't completely oblivious to the demonic attention that their little routine was attracting. It was therefore that he reached down and grasped his shotgun with his free hand and cocked it so that it would be ready to use when he needed it.
That moment took longer to arrive than Dean had thought that it would, but he ducked and spun around when one of the demons who had been paying the closest attention vanished from his line of sight. His instincts were proven correct when it materialized a little behind him and to the right down the corridor. He greeted it with a salt round to the stomach before darting forwards with his knife, killing it before the demon had a chance to attack him.
"Oh, yeah, stuck behind a wall and still in the game!" Dean crowed. "You can't bench this Winchester that easily."
As if on cue another demon appeared in the passageway with him followed shortly by a third.
"Shit."
Years of training and instinct had Dean throwing the knife at the second demon even before he'd fully decided to do so before he tried to dart sideways away from the remaining demon. He wasn't quite fast enough and the edge of its psychic energy threw him backwards but at least he wasn't fully caught and pinned helplessly to the wall. He used the opportunity to spray widely with his water gun, causing the demon to hiss and scream in both anger and pain. He began rattling off an exorcism as he kept up with the Holy water and added a salt round for good measure when the demon tried to level a hand at him once more.
A cough interrupted him for just a second, but it was enough for the demon and Dean was sent sprawling backwards onto the passageway floor. The pain dazed him and when he looked up it was to find a seething black demonic mass hovering in the air right above his face. Realization dawned on him just as the demon surged forwards, attempting to enter his meatsuit and take over. Although his protective tattoo kicked in automatically and prevented the demon from possessing him, he could feel its dark, oily essence sliding across his skin and he had flashes of Hell when Alastair had done something similar, though with the intent of possessing him in a completely different way.
The bile rose within Dean, but so did the rage and he took great satisfaction from the inhuman cry the demon let out as it jerked back away from him as if burned.
"Angelic wing oil and essence, you bastard," Dean hissed before hitting it with a stream of Holy water.
The odd screaming continued and Dean took a dark pleasure from being able to make a incorporeal demon cry out. Instead of trying to reclaim its original host, the demon fled through the ceiling, abandoning the battle entirely. He could only hope that it was intercepted by one of the angels still trapped outside. Or at least he assumed that they were still stuck out there as there didn't seem to be a particular increase in the number of angels fighting in the room beyond the passageway wall.
The thought spurred Dean to his feet once more, biting back his own cry at the pain. He stepped back to the wall and glanced through one of the many peepholes. The angel that he'd been working with before seemed to have moved on as he couldn't immediately spot her. He frowned and moved a little down the passageway and choose another peephole. What he saw this time caused his breath to catch for there, caught in the middle of a gleaming circle of light, was an angel. He could recognize it for what it was instantly as it glowed, albeit weakly, with the light of its true form that seemed to be seeping through its vessel. For a moment he was sure that this was it and that his eyes would burn out of his skull, but then he realized that it had been far too long already and that it hardly even stung. At most it was like looking towards the sun on a cloudy day.
The fact that this wasn't entirely true for demons was proven when one of them was flung up against the glowing barrier and seemed to all but dissolve upon contact. Still, Dean knew that something must be up as otherwise the mere fact that an angel was partway out of its vessel would be enough to kill all of the demons in the immediate area and that just wasn't happening. What it would do to him he didn't have the first clue, not now that he'd been Michael's vessel and seemed to have picked up all kinds of strange angelic-like abilities. Not that he really wanted to test that, well not apart from with his lover as that would almost be worth it just to se-
Dean froze as he caught sight of a mixed white and gray wolf's head on the angel's true form. The poor angel had been whirling around inside the seemingly shrinking confinement much as Lucifer had in his cage, flitting between pure light and the more distinct shapes of the angel's true form, all with occasional flashes of the vessel underneath. He'd been feeling sorry for the poor bastard on an abstract level but now those feelings turned into a ball of ice in his gut as terror awoke inside of him.
A mixed white and gray wolf's head. Flashes of tan from the vessel. A multitude of black wings.
Castiel.
Even before the head of the wolf morphed into that of a fiery phoenix, Dean was absolutely sure that he was right. That was his lover trapped in there, hopelessly stuck from the looks of things and clearly in mortal peril. No way would Castiel be that frantic to get out if his angel wasn't fighting for his life.
"Cas!" Dean cried out, his free hand coming up to clutch at the wall as if it would somehow allow him to push through it. "Cas!"
Another demon smashed into the glowing barrier and dissolved into nothingness and Dean would have just ignored it but for the fact that it seemed that the other angels were deliberately using the barrier to aid them in their fight. He wanted to rage at them for being so callous when his lover was in such serious danger but then reason asserted itself and he knew that there was probably nothing that they could do. This was another one of those anti-angel barriers from before, or not. This time he was certain that he'd seen it right and hadn't just imagined it. The circle was getting smaller, pressing ever more closely in on Castiel and he didn't even want to think about what would happen to his angel if it continued to do so and constricted entirely.
"Cas!"
This was it. This was how those other angels had died, the ones that Castiel had mentioned earlier. The realization made Dean sick and he groaned, unable to stop himself from thinking about exactly what might happen to his lover if Castiel didn't manage to get out of there. And he wouldn't, no angel could get either out or in, which left only him and he was useless, stuck out here in some freaking secret passageway.
There just had to be a way into that room.
"Cas!"
Dean pounded the wall with a fist before he stepped back and kicked it as hard as he could. The pain made him curse violently and hobble back a few steps. He was not going to just stand by and watch someone else that he loved die. He wasn't, damnit! There just had to be something that he could do about it. There had to be! He'd tear down this wall with his bare hands if he had to.
He'd-
Dean's eyes widened in shock as he caught sight of one of the symbols etched into the passageway wall.
A.N.: I'd say this chapter was just in time to be a birthday present for Dean, but I don't think he'd see it that way :)
Chapter 129