A/N: Written for week 19 of SPN Hiatus Creations on tumblr! Prompt: season 14 promos.

Also, woohoo! I made it to the last week! I wrote a fic for every prompt! I know most of you have just been randomly reading my stories for this project and not following along, but wow, I just had to celebrate this.

WARNING: Allusions to past suicide attempt.

"Michael needs to be stopped," Jack argued. He wasn't even sure why he needed to press that point. Didn't his father understand that? He supposed he didn't since he was the one who had pulled him aside and said they needed to talk about this.

But there wasn't much to it.

They kill Michael, they save the world.

"That means Dean dies, too?" Castiel asked, voice rough with a myriad of emotions Jack couldn't quite understand - being human had made it more difficult to read people. Everything was still so new to him in a way it hadn't been before.

"Then he dies!"

"Jack, Dean gave himself to Michael to save you!" Castiel explained, getting up from where he sat and going over to him. "Don't you get that?"

"I didn't ask him to!" Jack cried, mind drawing back to the abandoned church. "I had it handled!"

"No, you didn't."

"Yes, I did! Castiel, I-"

He abruptly stopped when his father put a hand on his shoulder, his touch firm and commanding. Jack wanted to pull away, but the look in Castiel's eyes told him not to.

"Jack, Sam told me what you were going to do. We would've lost you."

He did shrug away now, and he got up, brushing his way past Castiel, keeping his back towards him. There were tears in his eyes and he didn't know why, didn't want to have to figure out why.

"So?"

"Jack-"

Jack stepped forward, somehow sensing that Castiel was reaching out to him again.

"No, it doesn't matter, alright? Maybe… Maybe this world would be better off without me, and… and I was going to do something good. Sam would've been able to save us. I know he would've. I just had to follow Lucifer's orders. Sacrifice myself." He faced his father, wanting him to see the conviction on his face when he said his next words. "It was my. Choice. I'd die for any of you. I'd die to stop all of this. What use am I anyway? Wouldn't it be better, if I was gone, and Dean was still Dean?"

"Don't say that. You matter to us, Jack."

"Answer the question."

Castiel clenched his jaw and turned his head aside. "I do want him back. I miss him, and I'm scared about what he's going through. I don't just want to defeat Michael. I want to save him. But to have him over you? I would never be able to make that decision. I love you, too, Jack. We all do. Imagine how Sam would feel if you were gone."

"Sam would deal with it. Besides, he hasn't been talking to me."

"There are other things going on. He wants to spend more time with you. I know he does."

"No, he's right not to. Stopping Michael is more important. If we don't stop him, we could all die. And we stop him by killing him. There is no saving Dean. He made his choice. Now we have to make ours."

Any anger that Castiel had harbored faded, and he just looked at Jack with profound sadness.

"What happened to you?" his father asked.

"Michael did."

Jack didn't have much more to say here. He wouldn't be swayed, he couldn't. If he had a chance to stop the one being who was the reason for all his nightmares, and all the suffering of the people from Apocalypse World who had served under him, he would. He loved Dean, but Dean had known what was at stake. He would understand, and Castiel would have to learn.

There wasn't a way around this.

Michael had changed him into something that pained his father to look at, so Michael would die. Afterwards, his father might never look at him again, but that was the price of saving the world. He wasn't powerful like he was, not anymore, but by killing MIchael, by killing Dean, he could be. He could mean something. And the world would be free.