SPN BigBang: Above and Below, Part 1
See masterpost for summary, rating and further information.
A single human soul is present when the boy king of Hell arrives in the great hall. He is being escorted by four angels and his hands are bound by chains, yet he doesn’t look like he is coming as a prisoner. He walks tall, proud, so that the four angels look like his followers rather than his guards. When he stops in front of the New God, he does not bow.
The soul remembers him from when they were both human and mortal: a shaggy-haired boy full of cynical pragmatism who no longer believed that the world had anything good to give. But he did give that day - he saved the wife of the man the soul used to be, and that’s what the soul remembers when it sees him now: the hair longer, the frame leaner, sporting a pair of large black wings on his back and chained in Heaven.
The demon steps in front of the New God unafraid and says, “I’m here. Now keep your side of the bargain.”
The New God gestures to the angels standing left of his throne and a door at the other end of the hall is opened, providing entry to another demon and his entourage of angels. This demon doesn’t have wings but he, too, is chained, and him the soul remembers as well.
While the boy king seems calm and composed, if far from pleased, the other demon radiates rage. He glares at the New God, then at the boy king. His brother. The soul remembers that, too.
“You’re a fucking moron, Sammy,” the demon says. “What were you thinking, coming here?”
“I was thinking there might be enough of the old Cas left in that,” the boy king nods towards the New God, “to honour his word. I was also thinking that he has no qualms about killing friends if he has no use for them, so what exactly was I supposed to do?”
“You know what they fuck you were supposed to fucking not do!”
The boy king seems irritated more than anything else. “Yeah, well, think again.”
“Are you quite done?” the New God interrupts their conversation. “Time is of the essence.” He turns to the wingless demon. “You know what to do. Leave now.”
The demon doesn’t leave yet. “What about Sam?” he asks. “You’re not going to hurt him, or you’re the one I’m hunting next!”
The New God isn’t impressed. “You cannot harm me, old friend. Do as I say or your brother will be hurt gravely.” He stands from his throne and gestures to his angels again. “Sam will remain in my custody until you have accomplished what I ask of you. He will be treated well as long as you obey, but he will be restrained all the time. He will be limited to one room and you have no right to see him until your work is done, at which point he will be handed back to you. Failure on your part will result in punishment to your brother to be administered in your presence. If you work well, I expect you to finish your mission in less than ten years.”
“Ten years?” his “old friend” spits out. “He won’t make ten years! Hell, he won’t make one!”
“You should get started, then.”
The demon growls and looks like he’s going to attack the New God despite the angels guarding him and the threat to his brother. The soul is reminded that he is indeed a creature of Hell now, no longer the noble human he used to be when they met.
“Dean!” Sam says harshly, and just with that, his brother snaps out of it.
There is a hard line around the boy king’s face when he turns to the New God. “You’re playing with fire, Cas.”
“I do not have to explain myself to you, demon,” the New God lets him know. “And now I’d appreciate you stopping to waste my time. I have important matters to attend to.”
Sam glares at him and makes a sound reminiscent of a snort. Then, as the New God moves to dissolve the gathering and have everyone go where they belong, he walks swiftly over to his brother and pulls him close, ignoring the guards who move to stop him. The lips of the two demons meet in a hard kiss that looks more like a declarance of war to everyone around them than a sign of affection.
The chains make it difficult, but Sam manages to fist his hands into Dean’s hair, and Dean, after a second of surprise, takes hold of the lapels of Sam’s shirt and pulls him even closer. Their tongues battle for dominance while an audible gasp goes through the hall. One angel whispers “Incest!” as if the word was equal to ‘genocide’, and another one hisses “Blasphemy!” as if those two, of all people, should care.
Eventually they break apart and, still holding each other so close their chests are almost touching, turn to look at the gathered angels and the New God with their black eyes.
Dean smirks. The look on Sam’s face is unreadable.
Then, before the angels can separate them, they let go and Sam returns to his own guards while Dean allows his to lead him outside. He is gone by the time one of the angels strikes Sam across the face with a harsh, punishing blow that makes him stumble.
Sam’s reaction is another snort. The soul doesn’t want to imagine what would have happened if Dean had seen it.
The New God is already gone. Without further comment, the boy king walks towards the exit of the hall and the cell that has been prepared for him, giving his guards no other choice but to follow.
*+*+*
The next time the human soul sees the boy king is what feels like one day later. The soul has been in heaven for long enough to know that time is very relative here, but also that it doesn’t matter as long as one has no connections to people on earth whose perception of time would differ. And the soul doesn’t. None it can return to.
The soul is sent to the boy king’s cell by the New God himself. This is the reason it was part of that gathering the day before: to do the job right, it has to be informed of what is going on.
The cell is located in what looks like the corridor of a very fancy hotel. The door looks like the door of a normal room, and the room behind looks like a normal room as well, except that it doesn’t have a window.
The door has no lock and no guards. The prisoner cannot leave. It’s simple as that.
There’s no bed either, although the soul doesn’t even realise it’s missing for a second. It’s actually quite fascinating: with the pleasant colours, the elegant wallpaper and charming little lamps providing soft yellow light the room appears quite luxurious at first sight. It’s only a moment after entry that it becomes obvious it’s lacking almost everything any room should have if someone was going to live in it. The bed is only one example. There seems to be a low, velvet couch at one wall and a small, high table at another, but once the eye had a moment to realise what it is seeing those turn out to be nothing more than pictures on the wall.
Basically, the room is empty.
The soul only really realises that when it wonders why the boy king is sitting on the floor. The demon doesn’t seem bothered by the lack or furniture, though. He seems comfortable enough, and the soul that has never been downstairs can only guess that a cell in Heaven is still better than a throne room in Hell.
The demon is sitting in the centre of the room which is basically the only place where his wings don’t get in the way. The room is just a little too narrow, the ceiling a little too low for him to fully flex them should he want to.
He looks up when the door opens, and after a second of confusion during which the soul thinks his identity will be mistaken, the other’s face lights up.
“Jimmy!” he says, sounding almost pleasantly surprised. “You’re the last one I expected to see here!”
“How do you know it’s me?” Usually, Castiel keeps his vessel’s appearance even in Heaven, and that hasn’t changed since he declared himself a god. Jimmy has gotten used to seeing his own face and the angels have never mistaken him for one of them, but Sam is no angel, and Jimmy is pretty sure he didn’t see him in the crowd when he arrived; too distracted handing himself over to captivity. And kissing his brother.
Sam shrugs. “You’re very obviously not Cas.”
That’s good enough. Sam is not an angel, but he’s the boy king of Hell, and that has to count for something after all.
“What are you doing here?” Sam moves to stand, but Jimmy sits down with him instead. “Shouldn’t you be in paradise by now? I thought this was all over for you.”
Jimmy shrugs. He remembers the promise of paradise and saying No quite clearly, but Sam had other problems at that time, he supposes. He doesn’t know for sure, because with dying and making sure his daughter didn’t have to ruin her life by carrying an unbalanced angel around, he had had other worries than Sam’s troubles.
“Angels need their vessels’ souls to anchor them in their bodies. So wherever Cas goes, I go.”
“Yeah, I know they do. It sucks. But what about now? I thought you’d get to enjoy your afterlife when he doesn’t need you.”
“I actually do, usually.” It isn’t so bad, even, because Jimmy’s soul is pretty far under whenever Cas goes to earth and he can just pretend those times are bad dreams from which he once again wakes in paradise. Most of the time, he can even forget that the wife and daughter he lives with are just products of Heaven. “But, well.” He offers a vague grimace. “Things changed.” And what he means is ‘Cas changed’.
“I guess they did.” Sam nods and shifts a little. Only the quite rattle of the thin chain draws Jimmy’s attention to his hands and only now does he notice Sam is still wearing the shackles around his wrists. The chain is long and doesn’t hinder him too much, but the fact remains that he is chained in an empty cell in Heaven.
He probably knows a thing or two about change as well.
Jimmy knows a bit about his story, sure, but he doesn’t know the details. Sam had been in hell with Lucifer and Michael, then he was brought back, but without his soul. Jimmy remembers some about Castiel’s intentions to save him, but the actual trip into Hell had happened without him. There was no reason for the angel to drag his vessel down there.
In the end, Death saved Sam’s soul and Sam was okay until something happened and the memories of the cage destroyed him. Jimmy isn’t even vaguely aware of this or anything that happened after, even though he knows Castiel was present for some of it. Sometimes it almost feels as if Castiel has made an effort to keep him ignorant out of shame.
Jimmy doesn’t know much about that time in general, but he does know it was difficult for his angel. He wishes he had been able to talk to Cas during that time, but the angel had shut him out completely. And now…
Sam, he realises, is looking at him with his slanted black eyes. He also realises that he’s sitting two feet away from one of the most powerful demons ever and isn’t afraid, as he probably should be.
It’s just. Sam just seems so harmless.
Well, maybe not harmless; nice is more like it. Like he could be dangerous but chooses not to be out of consideration.
He’s not quite what Jimmy expected. Jimmy isn’t even sure what he expected - he never knew the Winchesters that well - but it’s something darker, something more obviously evil. Not that he thinks Sam used to be evil, but he’s a demon now, the personification of sin. Hell corrupts and twists even good people, and Sam has to have done something to deserve going to Hell in the first place. Unless he did it to save the world once again; but somehow, Jimmy doesn’t believe that works more than once for every person.
Yet here he is, with black eyes and black wings, a prisoner in Heaven, looking a lot less frightening than the last time Jimmy has seen him, back when they were both alive.
There is a quite impressive bruise on his cheek where the angel hit him.
“I can’t imagine you came here just to say Hi,” he says, reminding Jimmy that he never answered his first question.
“I’ve been sent here,” he explains. “I’m supposed to keep an eye on you and see that you get everything you need.”
Sam laughs a surprised laugh at that and smiles, and for the first time Jimmy get the feeling that there is something ugly hidden beneath it. “That’s actually funny. Why you?”
“Castiel tru- Castiel used to trust me. And I’m not permanently stuck in my Heaven. That made me the obvious choice after he decided not to leave the job to an angel. He didn’t think you’d react positively to their attention.”
Sam laughs at that, though it lacks humour and turns into a coughing fit in the end. Jimmy frowns, concerned, because Sam looks nothing but healthy to him. The fit passes soon enough, though.
“So, if I need to get out of here, can you arrange that for me?”
“Don’t be silly,” Jimmy says tiredly. He’s not happy about his new position as prison warden.
Sam suddenly turns very serious. “You’re Castiel’s vessel,” he says. “You said yourself he trusted you. Can’t you try to talk some sense into him? I don’t know how much you saw of what happened, but you know he’s changed. We can’t reach him anymore - not even Dean.”
It seems absurd that a god, or even an angel, should listen to a demon, yet Sam seems to think that Castiel should. Jimmy knows that they used to be friends once, but that was before Sam and Dean decided to both go to hell and take over.
He does, however, agree that what’s going on right now is not the right way to go.
“He wouldn’t have been forced to hold you hostage if you’d agreed to help him,” he says regardless, feeling the need to defend his angel. “He needs your help! You can’t expect him to come at your beck and call but turn away when he needs you for a change and then complain if he gets pissed.”
“He never even asked,” Sam tells him. Jimmy was worried how he would react to the words even as he said them, but the boy king doesn’t seem to be offended by the critique. “He just assumed, like you, that we’d turn him down, so the first thing he did was kidnap Dean and summon me here. He decided we’d betrayed him before we even had a chance to do so.”
“So you would have helped him if he asked?”
Sam hesitates just long enough for disappointment and anger to well up in Jimmy. “I guess we would have, considering what’s at stake,” the demon finally says. “But I can’t tell for sure. Dean might have denied it just on the grounds of Cas being the one who requested it.”
“There you have it.” Jimmy gets up and moves to lean against the wall. He doesn’t know why he feels so betrayed on Castiel’s behalf when he feels betrayed by Cas himself.
Sam follows his movements with his unnatural, black eyes, but makes no move to stand himself. It dawns on Jimmy that with the wings the low ceiling would make standing uncomfortable at best, but he pays no attention to the realisation, because Sam’s talking again.
“Cas betrayed us,” he says, his voice a little sharper than before. “He’s the reason we’ve become what we are now. You think after all we went through, either of us was keen on returning to Hell?”
“So he threw you down himself?” Jimmy asks doubtfully. “Going down had nothing at all to do with your own faults? With engaging in sexual acts with your own brother, perhaps?” He doesn’t even know where that last one came from. It’s just something that’s been rubbing him in entirely the wrong way since he saw them kiss, and not chastely either.
“Engage in sexual acts,” Sam repeats and snorts. “Quite a nice sounding euphemism for fucking. You sound like a priest.”
“And you sound like a demon.”
Sam bares his teeth in something a little too predatory to be a smile. “Shocking, isn’t it? But if you absolutely have to know, we started that afterwards. Being a demon changes your perception of morality.”
“I bet,” Jimmy mutters darkly. Louder he adds, “And yet you think he should listen to you.”
“No, Jimmy. I think he should listen to you.”
“Well, he won’t,” the human soul reluctantly admits. “He won’t even hear me.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean Castiel isn’t there anymore.” Jimmy closes his eyes and suddenly doesn’t care he’s talking to a demon. He’s never talked about this with anyone before. “It’s… I see him. When he takes over. I always see him, for a second, in his real form.” He shudders, involuntarily, as the memory washes over him with both terror and unrivalled admiration. “You can’t imagine what it’s like.”
“I can actually,” Sam says, reminding Jimmy that he’s hosted an angel as well. Still, Jimmy doesn’t think Lucifer feels quite the same as his (once) pure and noble Castiel. “Go on.”
“He’s different now. Ever since he opened purgatory. He says he absorbed the souls inside but it looks more like they consumed him.” It’s not easy to find words to describe it; Jimmy has to resort to metaphors. “He used to be made of light, but now it’s like he’s entirely covered in shadows. And those shadows, they’re not Cas. Sometimes I see his light shine through - it almost feels like he’s reaching out to me and calling for help.” He shudders again, for different reasons this time. “Even if the Cas we knew could hear us beneath all that, he couldn’t do anything to help us. He can’t even help himself.”
Sam listens intensely but displays no sign of sympathy, just calculating interest. “So if we could get rid of those ‘shadows’, he’d be in control again?”
“I don’t think that’s going to work. I think they’ve merged too completely. It wasn’t a good picture to use.” Jimmy closes his eyes again and takes a shaking breath. He suddenly wonders if the New God who isn’t Castiel anymore is listening in to their conversation. There is no doubt that he can, just if he’s interested in them enough to bother.
“I guess it was good enough,” Sam says graciously.
“I just want you to understand, before you judge him, that it’s not Castiel who does all this. The Castiel you knew would never harm you - you know that, right?”
Sam just looks at him for a long moment, before shifting his attention to a piece of carpet. He doesn’t say anything.
Jimmy suspects demons just aren’t that big on forgiveness.
+*+*+
Jimmy doesn’t stay with Sam all the time. Every now and then the New God needs him to be his vessel on earth, and in between he often is allowed to return to his Heaven. And the nature of Heaven helps him to put all worries aside - even those about a nice angel turned evil god and a caged demon he has to return to.
It also makes his breaks seem very long, which helps to see his observance of Sam as a task on the side.
It doesn’t make it easier, though. Sam is nice and pleasant enough, but somehow that just makes it worse. He never blames Jimmy for his situation or asks him to help him escape. He never does anything that would get Jimmy in trouble, period, and he never attacks or even yells at him. In fact, he doesn’t act at all like Jimmy would expect a demon to act.
And so he successfully makes Jimmy feel horrible about himself every time he enters that cell and sees Sam sitting on the floor of that ridiculously elegant empty room.
It’s hard to tell how much time passes for Sam. Sometimes it looks like the demon hasn’t moved at all in the time Jimmy was gone, but other times he’s changed so much it’s frightening.
The first change Jimmy ever notices is the skin of Sam’s wrists; they turn red after a while and it gets worse until it look badly burned. He actually takes that observation to the New God, tells him what the shackles do to Sam. The New God only explains that Sam is a demon and the chains are holy, so of course they hurt him. The request to remove them since they are redundant isn’t even denied - it gets ignored, plain and simple.
Though it has to be painful, Sam never complains about it. Yet, stressed lines appear on his face and a haunted look in his eyes that worries Jimmy. Sam gets restless, shifting more, seemingly unable to find a position that’s comfortable. One day Jimmy comes in to find him crouching in the corner of his room, pressed against the wall, and stretching his wings out as far as he can. They still don’t unfold completely and when he notices Jimmy’s presence, Sam gives up with a sigh.
Jimmy thinks of long drives in a car without a chance to stretch his legs. It’s been so long since he experienced simple discomforts like that.
“I suppose your chambers in Hell have higher ceilings,” he says uneasily.
To his surprise, Sam shakes his head. “Not higher than this. But in Hell, I can summon the wings at will. This is the first time I’m stuck with them for so long. They’re not exactly practical unless you’re flying.”
Jimmy looks more closely at the wings. So far he has tried to ignore them, ridiculous at that seems. Somehow they seem like something a polite person doesn’t stare at, not to mention the fact that they make it damn impossible to ignore or forget Sam’s true nature.
Now he wants to look at them it almost takes effort, as if his eyes want to refuse taking in the sight. It drives him slightly crazy, but he looks closely anyway and sees strong, slender bones under fragile-looking black skin. Solid and real. It seems unbelievable that Sam can just make them appear and disappear as he needs them.
“How come you can’t put them away now?”
“They’re a stigma here.” Sam doesn’t say it like it’s obvious even though it is, and for that Jimmy is strangely grateful. “So everyone can see what I am - as if the black eyes weren’t enough.”
“I’ve never heard of a demon with wings before. Outside folklore, I mean.”
“Well,” Sam doesn’t look at him; the topic seemed to make him uncomfortable. “I’m special.”
*+*+*
The next time Jimmy sees him, Sam is lying on his back, his wings awkwardly cramped beneath him. He’s moving in unnatural, jerky motions, his back arched and his legs kicking at the rough carpet. It reminds Jimmy of a man having a seizure more than anything else.
When Sam doesn’t react to his voice, Jimmy runs out in search of someone who could help. He doesn’t find anyone - it seems like there’s no one in the world but him. Even the New God is nowhere to be found, and when Jimmy returns to the cell after running through empty corridors for what feels like hours, the door is locked and he can’t get inside.
The next thing he knows, he’s in his Heaven again. But this time it’s harder to forget that not everything is sunshine and roses.
When he next comes to see Sam, the door opens without hesitation and Sam is sitting on the floor as if nothing ever happened. Except the lines on his face are a little deeper and he’s sporting rug burns on his arms and elbows.
He’s also paler than before, but maybe he’s been pale for a while and Jimmy just didn’t notice it. He did, however, notice the dark rings around Sam’s eyes that seem to get darker every time he sees him.
When he asks Sam about that, the boy king only shrugs. “I’m a demon,” he says. “This is Heaven. It doesn’t mix well.”
“Is that what Dean meant when he said you wouldn’t last a year?” Actually, Jimmy doesn’t even know how long Sam has been here. He could tell how often he’s seen him, but that doesn’t mean anything in the end.
“Yes,” Sam confirms. “Cas is using it to put pressure on Dean.” Then he looks at the human soul directly for the first time that day and his black eyes resemble nothing so much as the eyes of a young dog. “Have you heard anything? About Dean?”
“No,” Jimmy has to admit. He shifts uncomfortably because he doesn’t like discussing Dean with his brother. Not after seeing what they do when they are alone. Or not alone at all. “But I know we would have heard if something had happened to him.” He doesn’t want to say, ‘He’s obviously doing well in his job because so far nothing has happened to you.’
But that, too, changes eventually.
+*+*+
The day it happens, Jimmy isn’t even told. He’s pulled out of his Heaven as usual and has made it halfway to the cell when he notices all the angels standing around, waiting. They don’t react to his presence, just stare in one direction. Motionless. Somehow, they remind Jimmy of birds.
It’s when he realises that they are all looking expectantly in the direction of Sam’s cell that he really starts to worry.
He doesn’t even know how he feels about Sam. The fact that he’s a demon and Jimmy used to be a good Christian is a bit of an obstacle that’s hard to overcome, even if he’s ignoring the incest thing. Something always feels a little off with Sam, no matter how peaceful and harmless he’s acting. There’s a sense of danger that’s just underneath the surface - but on the other hand, Jimmy never saw him do anything that would justify the mistrust, and in the end it’s almost impossible not to like the kid.
And now something is going on that he’s sure he isn’t going to like. Jimmy runs the last bit to the cell, but an angel holds him back before he reaches the door. It wears the form of a petite, elderly woman but there is no way he can get past her.
“Dean Winchester has been summoned to Heaven,” she explains. “He is to receive punishment for overstepping his boundaries and his brother has been summoned to the great hall to do his part.”
“Are you saying you’re going to torture him?” Jimmy fears he might be sounding slightly hysteric, but it’s hard not to be. Not when he can hear Sam now, yelling inside the cell; aggressive sounds that remind Jimmy of a frightened animal.
This isn’t going to end well.
This time, Sam doesn’t walk towards the hall as if he owned the place. This time he is dragged out kicking and screaming and none too gently. Jimmy can do nothing but follow along with the rest of the angels as four guards pull Sam towards the great hall by his chains.
Sam struggles all the way, yelling profanities Jimmy didn’t expect him to even know, and uses his wings to strike the angels around him until two of them grab them and hold them tight. The struggle visibly lessens afterwards, so Jimmy suspects that the wings are particularly sensitive and even the simple hold the angels have on them causes Sam pain.
He does look as if he’s in pain, in any case. But he also looks angry. Not scared, as Jimmy had suspected, but full of righteous fury.
Amazingly enough, Sam stops fighting his guards completely just before they reach the hall. They stop before the door, waiting for the New God to call for them, and Sam suddenly stands still, takes a few deep breaths and pulls himself together, his face carefully blank. When they are called inside Sam walks of his own accord, once again leading the procession; at that point Jimmy thinks he’s putting up a front for the New God, too proud to show any weakness.
No one stops the human soul from entering, so he does, even though he’s not sure he wants to see what happens next. Perhaps it’s the father in him, combined with Sam’s youth and the fact that he’s been placed in Jimmy’s care. Demon or not, he simply feels like he has to be there for the boy.
Perhaps, though, it’s also the man he used to be, the one who believed in the angels and still wants to see that belief justified even though he knows what cruelty and selfishness they are capable of. He still wants to go and see the proof that they are not actually going to torture a helpless kid. That Castiel won’t do it.
The same need also makes it nearly impossible to look.
The New God is sitting on his throne as always when he holds a gathering. He seems to enjoy it, this display of his superiority. Before him, at the foot of the few stairs leading up to the throne another angel is standing, waiting, looking down the hall with an expression of calm self-righteousness. Jimmy has seen him before, but he doesn’t remember his name.
When he follows the angel’s gaze he sees Dean Winchester at the other end of the hall. He, too, is in chains, and held tightly by two angels left and right. When Jimmy sees the tension of his body, like an animal ready to attack, he understands why.
Dean doesn’t notice Jimmy. He doesn’t notice anything except his brother when Sam enters the hall.
The boy king walks in calmly and stands facing his brother. They are far apart, almost the entire lengths of the hall, but seem to communicate with looks better than angels can with words. Dean is furious, very clearly ready to tear apart anyone who would try to hurt Sam, but Sam doesn’t seem concerned at all. He looks collected, almost relaxed, as if all this wasn’t more than a nuisance to him, and while Dean doesn’t exactly calm down, he seems to relax a little when he sees Sam, still in once piece and apparently not very bothered by this situation at all.
Jimmy understands then why Sam pulled himself together like that. He doesn’t even want to imagine how Dean would have reacted had he seen his brother but minutes before, struggling helplessly in the hold of his captors.
“The demon Dean Winchester has broken the agreement he made with me to ensure his brother’s safety,” the New God’s voice rings through the hall and all the angels that stand watching at the sidelines fall silent. “Not only has he failed to retrieve all of the weapons stolen by the traitor Balthazar, he has also with the intention to kill raised his blade against an angel who has sworn, and proven, loyalty to me. For this reason, it is Dameal’s right to administer the punishment for this trespass himself.”
Dameal’s expression doesn’t change as he steps closer to Sam and comes to stand before him. With calm, confident movements he takes hold of the demon’s short-sleeved, black shirt and rips it into pieces that fall to the floor. Then he fastens the chain between Sam’s wrists to a chain hanging from the incredibly high ceiling while two of the guards resume their hold on Sam’s wings that twitch as if they had a life of their own.
They are the only part of Sam that shows any sign of unwillingness.
Jimmy expected Dean to have something to say about that, but the other demon is silent; when Jimmy turns to look at him, Dean is watching his brother and the angel he tried to kill for whatever reason with a grim face and a stubbornly shut mouth.
“Dean,” the New God addresses him. “As by our agreement, your brother will receive the punishment in your stead. Since your attempt on his life failed, Dameal is forbidden to cause wounds that will maim Sam, and to keep you not too long from your mission, he agreed to be quick. Other than that, I left the choice of punishment to him. You can now, for your brother’s sake, beg for forgiveness and pray for Dameal’s undeserved mercy to be reflected in the level of suffering you willingly inflicted on this prince of Hell.”
“And you can go fuck yourself,” Sam very calmly says.
For a moment, the hall is silent. Jimmy hardly dares to breathe, and Dean, unexpectedly, doesn’t say anything at all. In the end, the New God says, “Very well. You had your chance,” and leaves Sam to the questionable mercy of the angel before him.
Jimmy doesn’t want to watch but he can’t look away. It doesn’t seem too bad, though, and he allows himself to feel careful relief when all Dameal does is lay his hand on Sam’s bare stomach. Jimmy sees the muscles twitch and Sam move back a little, but he doesn’t get far because of the chains and the angels holding him. His expression remains carefully blank and Jimmy holds his breath as he’s waiting for the angel to either start whatever it is he plans to do or withdraw his hand and speak of mercy.
For a long moment nothing happens. Dameal seems to be waiting for something, but Jimmy can’t tell what. Until he sees Sam twitch again, shifting in his restrains almost unwillingly. His breath is coming in short gasps now as if he was in pain, but Jimmy still needs a moment before he realised he actually is.
After that, it only takes a second for him to notice the smell of burned flesh.
He wants to say something, ask whatever is left of Castiel inside the New God to put a stop to this, but he can’t speak. No sound escapes him even though he tries.
Eventually, Sam gasps loudly and very obviously in pain. He bares his teeth and his face is white and covered in sweat, his eyes wide. A long groan escapes him. Finally, after what feels like hours, he screams.
Dameal listens to those screams for a long moment before he pulls back his hand. The chain forcing Sam’s hands above his head disappears as if it had never been there and when the angels holding his wings let him go, Sam falls to his knees and remains on the floor in a trembling, shivering heap, breathing hard.
“Learn your lesson,” is all the New God has to say about it. Jimmy finally overcomes his paralysis and turns around to look at Dean, but the demon is already being escorted outside by his guards and Jimmy never catches a glimpse of his face.
NEXT
A single human soul is present when the boy king of Hell arrives in the great hall. He is being escorted by four angels and his hands are bound by chains, yet he doesn’t look like he is coming as a prisoner. He walks tall, proud, so that the four angels look like his followers rather than his guards. When he stops in front of the New God, he does not bow.
The soul remembers him from when they were both human and mortal: a shaggy-haired boy full of cynical pragmatism who no longer believed that the world had anything good to give. But he did give that day - he saved the wife of the man the soul used to be, and that’s what the soul remembers when it sees him now: the hair longer, the frame leaner, sporting a pair of large black wings on his back and chained in Heaven.
The demon steps in front of the New God unafraid and says, “I’m here. Now keep your side of the bargain.”
The New God gestures to the angels standing left of his throne and a door at the other end of the hall is opened, providing entry to another demon and his entourage of angels. This demon doesn’t have wings but he, too, is chained, and him the soul remembers as well.
While the boy king seems calm and composed, if far from pleased, the other demon radiates rage. He glares at the New God, then at the boy king. His brother. The soul remembers that, too.
“You’re a fucking moron, Sammy,” the demon says. “What were you thinking, coming here?”
“I was thinking there might be enough of the old Cas left in that,” the boy king nods towards the New God, “to honour his word. I was also thinking that he has no qualms about killing friends if he has no use for them, so what exactly was I supposed to do?”
“You know what they fuck you were supposed to fucking not do!”
The boy king seems irritated more than anything else. “Yeah, well, think again.”
“Are you quite done?” the New God interrupts their conversation. “Time is of the essence.” He turns to the wingless demon. “You know what to do. Leave now.”
The demon doesn’t leave yet. “What about Sam?” he asks. “You’re not going to hurt him, or you’re the one I’m hunting next!”
The New God isn’t impressed. “You cannot harm me, old friend. Do as I say or your brother will be hurt gravely.” He stands from his throne and gestures to his angels again. “Sam will remain in my custody until you have accomplished what I ask of you. He will be treated well as long as you obey, but he will be restrained all the time. He will be limited to one room and you have no right to see him until your work is done, at which point he will be handed back to you. Failure on your part will result in punishment to your brother to be administered in your presence. If you work well, I expect you to finish your mission in less than ten years.”
“Ten years?” his “old friend” spits out. “He won’t make ten years! Hell, he won’t make one!”
“You should get started, then.”
The demon growls and looks like he’s going to attack the New God despite the angels guarding him and the threat to his brother. The soul is reminded that he is indeed a creature of Hell now, no longer the noble human he used to be when they met.
“Dean!” Sam says harshly, and just with that, his brother snaps out of it.
There is a hard line around the boy king’s face when he turns to the New God. “You’re playing with fire, Cas.”
“I do not have to explain myself to you, demon,” the New God lets him know. “And now I’d appreciate you stopping to waste my time. I have important matters to attend to.”
Sam glares at him and makes a sound reminiscent of a snort. Then, as the New God moves to dissolve the gathering and have everyone go where they belong, he walks swiftly over to his brother and pulls him close, ignoring the guards who move to stop him. The lips of the two demons meet in a hard kiss that looks more like a declarance of war to everyone around them than a sign of affection.
The chains make it difficult, but Sam manages to fist his hands into Dean’s hair, and Dean, after a second of surprise, takes hold of the lapels of Sam’s shirt and pulls him even closer. Their tongues battle for dominance while an audible gasp goes through the hall. One angel whispers “Incest!” as if the word was equal to ‘genocide’, and another one hisses “Blasphemy!” as if those two, of all people, should care.
Eventually they break apart and, still holding each other so close their chests are almost touching, turn to look at the gathered angels and the New God with their black eyes.
Dean smirks. The look on Sam’s face is unreadable.
Then, before the angels can separate them, they let go and Sam returns to his own guards while Dean allows his to lead him outside. He is gone by the time one of the angels strikes Sam across the face with a harsh, punishing blow that makes him stumble.
Sam’s reaction is another snort. The soul doesn’t want to imagine what would have happened if Dean had seen it.
The New God is already gone. Without further comment, the boy king walks towards the exit of the hall and the cell that has been prepared for him, giving his guards no other choice but to follow.
*+*+*
The next time the human soul sees the boy king is what feels like one day later. The soul has been in heaven for long enough to know that time is very relative here, but also that it doesn’t matter as long as one has no connections to people on earth whose perception of time would differ. And the soul doesn’t. None it can return to.
The soul is sent to the boy king’s cell by the New God himself. This is the reason it was part of that gathering the day before: to do the job right, it has to be informed of what is going on.
The cell is located in what looks like the corridor of a very fancy hotel. The door looks like the door of a normal room, and the room behind looks like a normal room as well, except that it doesn’t have a window.
The door has no lock and no guards. The prisoner cannot leave. It’s simple as that.
There’s no bed either, although the soul doesn’t even realise it’s missing for a second. It’s actually quite fascinating: with the pleasant colours, the elegant wallpaper and charming little lamps providing soft yellow light the room appears quite luxurious at first sight. It’s only a moment after entry that it becomes obvious it’s lacking almost everything any room should have if someone was going to live in it. The bed is only one example. There seems to be a low, velvet couch at one wall and a small, high table at another, but once the eye had a moment to realise what it is seeing those turn out to be nothing more than pictures on the wall.
Basically, the room is empty.
The soul only really realises that when it wonders why the boy king is sitting on the floor. The demon doesn’t seem bothered by the lack or furniture, though. He seems comfortable enough, and the soul that has never been downstairs can only guess that a cell in Heaven is still better than a throne room in Hell.
The demon is sitting in the centre of the room which is basically the only place where his wings don’t get in the way. The room is just a little too narrow, the ceiling a little too low for him to fully flex them should he want to.
He looks up when the door opens, and after a second of confusion during which the soul thinks his identity will be mistaken, the other’s face lights up.
“Jimmy!” he says, sounding almost pleasantly surprised. “You’re the last one I expected to see here!”
“How do you know it’s me?” Usually, Castiel keeps his vessel’s appearance even in Heaven, and that hasn’t changed since he declared himself a god. Jimmy has gotten used to seeing his own face and the angels have never mistaken him for one of them, but Sam is no angel, and Jimmy is pretty sure he didn’t see him in the crowd when he arrived; too distracted handing himself over to captivity. And kissing his brother.
Sam shrugs. “You’re very obviously not Cas.”
That’s good enough. Sam is not an angel, but he’s the boy king of Hell, and that has to count for something after all.
“What are you doing here?” Sam moves to stand, but Jimmy sits down with him instead. “Shouldn’t you be in paradise by now? I thought this was all over for you.”
Jimmy shrugs. He remembers the promise of paradise and saying No quite clearly, but Sam had other problems at that time, he supposes. He doesn’t know for sure, because with dying and making sure his daughter didn’t have to ruin her life by carrying an unbalanced angel around, he had had other worries than Sam’s troubles.
“Angels need their vessels’ souls to anchor them in their bodies. So wherever Cas goes, I go.”
“Yeah, I know they do. It sucks. But what about now? I thought you’d get to enjoy your afterlife when he doesn’t need you.”
“I actually do, usually.” It isn’t so bad, even, because Jimmy’s soul is pretty far under whenever Cas goes to earth and he can just pretend those times are bad dreams from which he once again wakes in paradise. Most of the time, he can even forget that the wife and daughter he lives with are just products of Heaven. “But, well.” He offers a vague grimace. “Things changed.” And what he means is ‘Cas changed’.
“I guess they did.” Sam nods and shifts a little. Only the quite rattle of the thin chain draws Jimmy’s attention to his hands and only now does he notice Sam is still wearing the shackles around his wrists. The chain is long and doesn’t hinder him too much, but the fact remains that he is chained in an empty cell in Heaven.
He probably knows a thing or two about change as well.
Jimmy knows a bit about his story, sure, but he doesn’t know the details. Sam had been in hell with Lucifer and Michael, then he was brought back, but without his soul. Jimmy remembers some about Castiel’s intentions to save him, but the actual trip into Hell had happened without him. There was no reason for the angel to drag his vessel down there.
In the end, Death saved Sam’s soul and Sam was okay until something happened and the memories of the cage destroyed him. Jimmy isn’t even vaguely aware of this or anything that happened after, even though he knows Castiel was present for some of it. Sometimes it almost feels as if Castiel has made an effort to keep him ignorant out of shame.
Jimmy doesn’t know much about that time in general, but he does know it was difficult for his angel. He wishes he had been able to talk to Cas during that time, but the angel had shut him out completely. And now…
Sam, he realises, is looking at him with his slanted black eyes. He also realises that he’s sitting two feet away from one of the most powerful demons ever and isn’t afraid, as he probably should be.
It’s just. Sam just seems so harmless.
Well, maybe not harmless; nice is more like it. Like he could be dangerous but chooses not to be out of consideration.
He’s not quite what Jimmy expected. Jimmy isn’t even sure what he expected - he never knew the Winchesters that well - but it’s something darker, something more obviously evil. Not that he thinks Sam used to be evil, but he’s a demon now, the personification of sin. Hell corrupts and twists even good people, and Sam has to have done something to deserve going to Hell in the first place. Unless he did it to save the world once again; but somehow, Jimmy doesn’t believe that works more than once for every person.
Yet here he is, with black eyes and black wings, a prisoner in Heaven, looking a lot less frightening than the last time Jimmy has seen him, back when they were both alive.
There is a quite impressive bruise on his cheek where the angel hit him.
“I can’t imagine you came here just to say Hi,” he says, reminding Jimmy that he never answered his first question.
“I’ve been sent here,” he explains. “I’m supposed to keep an eye on you and see that you get everything you need.”
Sam laughs a surprised laugh at that and smiles, and for the first time Jimmy get the feeling that there is something ugly hidden beneath it. “That’s actually funny. Why you?”
“Castiel tru- Castiel used to trust me. And I’m not permanently stuck in my Heaven. That made me the obvious choice after he decided not to leave the job to an angel. He didn’t think you’d react positively to their attention.”
Sam laughs at that, though it lacks humour and turns into a coughing fit in the end. Jimmy frowns, concerned, because Sam looks nothing but healthy to him. The fit passes soon enough, though.
“So, if I need to get out of here, can you arrange that for me?”
“Don’t be silly,” Jimmy says tiredly. He’s not happy about his new position as prison warden.
Sam suddenly turns very serious. “You’re Castiel’s vessel,” he says. “You said yourself he trusted you. Can’t you try to talk some sense into him? I don’t know how much you saw of what happened, but you know he’s changed. We can’t reach him anymore - not even Dean.”
It seems absurd that a god, or even an angel, should listen to a demon, yet Sam seems to think that Castiel should. Jimmy knows that they used to be friends once, but that was before Sam and Dean decided to both go to hell and take over.
He does, however, agree that what’s going on right now is not the right way to go.
“He wouldn’t have been forced to hold you hostage if you’d agreed to help him,” he says regardless, feeling the need to defend his angel. “He needs your help! You can’t expect him to come at your beck and call but turn away when he needs you for a change and then complain if he gets pissed.”
“He never even asked,” Sam tells him. Jimmy was worried how he would react to the words even as he said them, but the boy king doesn’t seem to be offended by the critique. “He just assumed, like you, that we’d turn him down, so the first thing he did was kidnap Dean and summon me here. He decided we’d betrayed him before we even had a chance to do so.”
“So you would have helped him if he asked?”
Sam hesitates just long enough for disappointment and anger to well up in Jimmy. “I guess we would have, considering what’s at stake,” the demon finally says. “But I can’t tell for sure. Dean might have denied it just on the grounds of Cas being the one who requested it.”
“There you have it.” Jimmy gets up and moves to lean against the wall. He doesn’t know why he feels so betrayed on Castiel’s behalf when he feels betrayed by Cas himself.
Sam follows his movements with his unnatural, black eyes, but makes no move to stand himself. It dawns on Jimmy that with the wings the low ceiling would make standing uncomfortable at best, but he pays no attention to the realisation, because Sam’s talking again.
“Cas betrayed us,” he says, his voice a little sharper than before. “He’s the reason we’ve become what we are now. You think after all we went through, either of us was keen on returning to Hell?”
“So he threw you down himself?” Jimmy asks doubtfully. “Going down had nothing at all to do with your own faults? With engaging in sexual acts with your own brother, perhaps?” He doesn’t even know where that last one came from. It’s just something that’s been rubbing him in entirely the wrong way since he saw them kiss, and not chastely either.
“Engage in sexual acts,” Sam repeats and snorts. “Quite a nice sounding euphemism for fucking. You sound like a priest.”
“And you sound like a demon.”
Sam bares his teeth in something a little too predatory to be a smile. “Shocking, isn’t it? But if you absolutely have to know, we started that afterwards. Being a demon changes your perception of morality.”
“I bet,” Jimmy mutters darkly. Louder he adds, “And yet you think he should listen to you.”
“No, Jimmy. I think he should listen to you.”
“Well, he won’t,” the human soul reluctantly admits. “He won’t even hear me.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean Castiel isn’t there anymore.” Jimmy closes his eyes and suddenly doesn’t care he’s talking to a demon. He’s never talked about this with anyone before. “It’s… I see him. When he takes over. I always see him, for a second, in his real form.” He shudders, involuntarily, as the memory washes over him with both terror and unrivalled admiration. “You can’t imagine what it’s like.”
“I can actually,” Sam says, reminding Jimmy that he’s hosted an angel as well. Still, Jimmy doesn’t think Lucifer feels quite the same as his (once) pure and noble Castiel. “Go on.”
“He’s different now. Ever since he opened purgatory. He says he absorbed the souls inside but it looks more like they consumed him.” It’s not easy to find words to describe it; Jimmy has to resort to metaphors. “He used to be made of light, but now it’s like he’s entirely covered in shadows. And those shadows, they’re not Cas. Sometimes I see his light shine through - it almost feels like he’s reaching out to me and calling for help.” He shudders again, for different reasons this time. “Even if the Cas we knew could hear us beneath all that, he couldn’t do anything to help us. He can’t even help himself.”
Sam listens intensely but displays no sign of sympathy, just calculating interest. “So if we could get rid of those ‘shadows’, he’d be in control again?”
“I don’t think that’s going to work. I think they’ve merged too completely. It wasn’t a good picture to use.” Jimmy closes his eyes again and takes a shaking breath. He suddenly wonders if the New God who isn’t Castiel anymore is listening in to their conversation. There is no doubt that he can, just if he’s interested in them enough to bother.
“I guess it was good enough,” Sam says graciously.
“I just want you to understand, before you judge him, that it’s not Castiel who does all this. The Castiel you knew would never harm you - you know that, right?”
Sam just looks at him for a long moment, before shifting his attention to a piece of carpet. He doesn’t say anything.
Jimmy suspects demons just aren’t that big on forgiveness.
+*+*+
Jimmy doesn’t stay with Sam all the time. Every now and then the New God needs him to be his vessel on earth, and in between he often is allowed to return to his Heaven. And the nature of Heaven helps him to put all worries aside - even those about a nice angel turned evil god and a caged demon he has to return to.
It also makes his breaks seem very long, which helps to see his observance of Sam as a task on the side.
It doesn’t make it easier, though. Sam is nice and pleasant enough, but somehow that just makes it worse. He never blames Jimmy for his situation or asks him to help him escape. He never does anything that would get Jimmy in trouble, period, and he never attacks or even yells at him. In fact, he doesn’t act at all like Jimmy would expect a demon to act.
And so he successfully makes Jimmy feel horrible about himself every time he enters that cell and sees Sam sitting on the floor of that ridiculously elegant empty room.
It’s hard to tell how much time passes for Sam. Sometimes it looks like the demon hasn’t moved at all in the time Jimmy was gone, but other times he’s changed so much it’s frightening.
The first change Jimmy ever notices is the skin of Sam’s wrists; they turn red after a while and it gets worse until it look badly burned. He actually takes that observation to the New God, tells him what the shackles do to Sam. The New God only explains that Sam is a demon and the chains are holy, so of course they hurt him. The request to remove them since they are redundant isn’t even denied - it gets ignored, plain and simple.
Though it has to be painful, Sam never complains about it. Yet, stressed lines appear on his face and a haunted look in his eyes that worries Jimmy. Sam gets restless, shifting more, seemingly unable to find a position that’s comfortable. One day Jimmy comes in to find him crouching in the corner of his room, pressed against the wall, and stretching his wings out as far as he can. They still don’t unfold completely and when he notices Jimmy’s presence, Sam gives up with a sigh.
Jimmy thinks of long drives in a car without a chance to stretch his legs. It’s been so long since he experienced simple discomforts like that.
“I suppose your chambers in Hell have higher ceilings,” he says uneasily.
To his surprise, Sam shakes his head. “Not higher than this. But in Hell, I can summon the wings at will. This is the first time I’m stuck with them for so long. They’re not exactly practical unless you’re flying.”
Jimmy looks more closely at the wings. So far he has tried to ignore them, ridiculous at that seems. Somehow they seem like something a polite person doesn’t stare at, not to mention the fact that they make it damn impossible to ignore or forget Sam’s true nature.
Now he wants to look at them it almost takes effort, as if his eyes want to refuse taking in the sight. It drives him slightly crazy, but he looks closely anyway and sees strong, slender bones under fragile-looking black skin. Solid and real. It seems unbelievable that Sam can just make them appear and disappear as he needs them.
“How come you can’t put them away now?”
“They’re a stigma here.” Sam doesn’t say it like it’s obvious even though it is, and for that Jimmy is strangely grateful. “So everyone can see what I am - as if the black eyes weren’t enough.”
“I’ve never heard of a demon with wings before. Outside folklore, I mean.”
“Well,” Sam doesn’t look at him; the topic seemed to make him uncomfortable. “I’m special.”
*+*+*
The next time Jimmy sees him, Sam is lying on his back, his wings awkwardly cramped beneath him. He’s moving in unnatural, jerky motions, his back arched and his legs kicking at the rough carpet. It reminds Jimmy of a man having a seizure more than anything else.
When Sam doesn’t react to his voice, Jimmy runs out in search of someone who could help. He doesn’t find anyone - it seems like there’s no one in the world but him. Even the New God is nowhere to be found, and when Jimmy returns to the cell after running through empty corridors for what feels like hours, the door is locked and he can’t get inside.
The next thing he knows, he’s in his Heaven again. But this time it’s harder to forget that not everything is sunshine and roses.
When he next comes to see Sam, the door opens without hesitation and Sam is sitting on the floor as if nothing ever happened. Except the lines on his face are a little deeper and he’s sporting rug burns on his arms and elbows.
He’s also paler than before, but maybe he’s been pale for a while and Jimmy just didn’t notice it. He did, however, notice the dark rings around Sam’s eyes that seem to get darker every time he sees him.
When he asks Sam about that, the boy king only shrugs. “I’m a demon,” he says. “This is Heaven. It doesn’t mix well.”
“Is that what Dean meant when he said you wouldn’t last a year?” Actually, Jimmy doesn’t even know how long Sam has been here. He could tell how often he’s seen him, but that doesn’t mean anything in the end.
“Yes,” Sam confirms. “Cas is using it to put pressure on Dean.” Then he looks at the human soul directly for the first time that day and his black eyes resemble nothing so much as the eyes of a young dog. “Have you heard anything? About Dean?”
“No,” Jimmy has to admit. He shifts uncomfortably because he doesn’t like discussing Dean with his brother. Not after seeing what they do when they are alone. Or not alone at all. “But I know we would have heard if something had happened to him.” He doesn’t want to say, ‘He’s obviously doing well in his job because so far nothing has happened to you.’
But that, too, changes eventually.
+*+*+
The day it happens, Jimmy isn’t even told. He’s pulled out of his Heaven as usual and has made it halfway to the cell when he notices all the angels standing around, waiting. They don’t react to his presence, just stare in one direction. Motionless. Somehow, they remind Jimmy of birds.
It’s when he realises that they are all looking expectantly in the direction of Sam’s cell that he really starts to worry.
He doesn’t even know how he feels about Sam. The fact that he’s a demon and Jimmy used to be a good Christian is a bit of an obstacle that’s hard to overcome, even if he’s ignoring the incest thing. Something always feels a little off with Sam, no matter how peaceful and harmless he’s acting. There’s a sense of danger that’s just underneath the surface - but on the other hand, Jimmy never saw him do anything that would justify the mistrust, and in the end it’s almost impossible not to like the kid.
And now something is going on that he’s sure he isn’t going to like. Jimmy runs the last bit to the cell, but an angel holds him back before he reaches the door. It wears the form of a petite, elderly woman but there is no way he can get past her.
“Dean Winchester has been summoned to Heaven,” she explains. “He is to receive punishment for overstepping his boundaries and his brother has been summoned to the great hall to do his part.”
“Are you saying you’re going to torture him?” Jimmy fears he might be sounding slightly hysteric, but it’s hard not to be. Not when he can hear Sam now, yelling inside the cell; aggressive sounds that remind Jimmy of a frightened animal.
This isn’t going to end well.
This time, Sam doesn’t walk towards the hall as if he owned the place. This time he is dragged out kicking and screaming and none too gently. Jimmy can do nothing but follow along with the rest of the angels as four guards pull Sam towards the great hall by his chains.
Sam struggles all the way, yelling profanities Jimmy didn’t expect him to even know, and uses his wings to strike the angels around him until two of them grab them and hold them tight. The struggle visibly lessens afterwards, so Jimmy suspects that the wings are particularly sensitive and even the simple hold the angels have on them causes Sam pain.
He does look as if he’s in pain, in any case. But he also looks angry. Not scared, as Jimmy had suspected, but full of righteous fury.
Amazingly enough, Sam stops fighting his guards completely just before they reach the hall. They stop before the door, waiting for the New God to call for them, and Sam suddenly stands still, takes a few deep breaths and pulls himself together, his face carefully blank. When they are called inside Sam walks of his own accord, once again leading the procession; at that point Jimmy thinks he’s putting up a front for the New God, too proud to show any weakness.
No one stops the human soul from entering, so he does, even though he’s not sure he wants to see what happens next. Perhaps it’s the father in him, combined with Sam’s youth and the fact that he’s been placed in Jimmy’s care. Demon or not, he simply feels like he has to be there for the boy.
Perhaps, though, it’s also the man he used to be, the one who believed in the angels and still wants to see that belief justified even though he knows what cruelty and selfishness they are capable of. He still wants to go and see the proof that they are not actually going to torture a helpless kid. That Castiel won’t do it.
The same need also makes it nearly impossible to look.
The New God is sitting on his throne as always when he holds a gathering. He seems to enjoy it, this display of his superiority. Before him, at the foot of the few stairs leading up to the throne another angel is standing, waiting, looking down the hall with an expression of calm self-righteousness. Jimmy has seen him before, but he doesn’t remember his name.
When he follows the angel’s gaze he sees Dean Winchester at the other end of the hall. He, too, is in chains, and held tightly by two angels left and right. When Jimmy sees the tension of his body, like an animal ready to attack, he understands why.
Dean doesn’t notice Jimmy. He doesn’t notice anything except his brother when Sam enters the hall.
The boy king walks in calmly and stands facing his brother. They are far apart, almost the entire lengths of the hall, but seem to communicate with looks better than angels can with words. Dean is furious, very clearly ready to tear apart anyone who would try to hurt Sam, but Sam doesn’t seem concerned at all. He looks collected, almost relaxed, as if all this wasn’t more than a nuisance to him, and while Dean doesn’t exactly calm down, he seems to relax a little when he sees Sam, still in once piece and apparently not very bothered by this situation at all.
Jimmy understands then why Sam pulled himself together like that. He doesn’t even want to imagine how Dean would have reacted had he seen his brother but minutes before, struggling helplessly in the hold of his captors.
“The demon Dean Winchester has broken the agreement he made with me to ensure his brother’s safety,” the New God’s voice rings through the hall and all the angels that stand watching at the sidelines fall silent. “Not only has he failed to retrieve all of the weapons stolen by the traitor Balthazar, he has also with the intention to kill raised his blade against an angel who has sworn, and proven, loyalty to me. For this reason, it is Dameal’s right to administer the punishment for this trespass himself.”
Dameal’s expression doesn’t change as he steps closer to Sam and comes to stand before him. With calm, confident movements he takes hold of the demon’s short-sleeved, black shirt and rips it into pieces that fall to the floor. Then he fastens the chain between Sam’s wrists to a chain hanging from the incredibly high ceiling while two of the guards resume their hold on Sam’s wings that twitch as if they had a life of their own.
They are the only part of Sam that shows any sign of unwillingness.
Jimmy expected Dean to have something to say about that, but the other demon is silent; when Jimmy turns to look at him, Dean is watching his brother and the angel he tried to kill for whatever reason with a grim face and a stubbornly shut mouth.
“Dean,” the New God addresses him. “As by our agreement, your brother will receive the punishment in your stead. Since your attempt on his life failed, Dameal is forbidden to cause wounds that will maim Sam, and to keep you not too long from your mission, he agreed to be quick. Other than that, I left the choice of punishment to him. You can now, for your brother’s sake, beg for forgiveness and pray for Dameal’s undeserved mercy to be reflected in the level of suffering you willingly inflicted on this prince of Hell.”
“And you can go fuck yourself,” Sam very calmly says.
For a moment, the hall is silent. Jimmy hardly dares to breathe, and Dean, unexpectedly, doesn’t say anything at all. In the end, the New God says, “Very well. You had your chance,” and leaves Sam to the questionable mercy of the angel before him.
Jimmy doesn’t want to watch but he can’t look away. It doesn’t seem too bad, though, and he allows himself to feel careful relief when all Dameal does is lay his hand on Sam’s bare stomach. Jimmy sees the muscles twitch and Sam move back a little, but he doesn’t get far because of the chains and the angels holding him. His expression remains carefully blank and Jimmy holds his breath as he’s waiting for the angel to either start whatever it is he plans to do or withdraw his hand and speak of mercy.
For a long moment nothing happens. Dameal seems to be waiting for something, but Jimmy can’t tell what. Until he sees Sam twitch again, shifting in his restrains almost unwillingly. His breath is coming in short gasps now as if he was in pain, but Jimmy still needs a moment before he realised he actually is.
After that, it only takes a second for him to notice the smell of burned flesh.
He wants to say something, ask whatever is left of Castiel inside the New God to put a stop to this, but he can’t speak. No sound escapes him even though he tries.
Eventually, Sam gasps loudly and very obviously in pain. He bares his teeth and his face is white and covered in sweat, his eyes wide. A long groan escapes him. Finally, after what feels like hours, he screams.
Dameal listens to those screams for a long moment before he pulls back his hand. The chain forcing Sam’s hands above his head disappears as if it had never been there and when the angels holding his wings let him go, Sam falls to his knees and remains on the floor in a trembling, shivering heap, breathing hard.
“Learn your lesson,” is all the New God has to say about it. Jimmy finally overcomes his paralysis and turns around to look at Dean, but the demon is already being escorted outside by his guards and Jimmy never catches a glimpse of his face.
NEXT