Chapter One - 2014

Lucifer's white suit glowed in the sunlight, and his eyes glowed even brighter as he surveyed Dean. But suddenly his gaze flicked past Dean to something behind him, and he had a different expression in his eyes entirely.

"Dean!" Human Cas's voice roared out behind him, and Dean turned away from the white haze of Lucifer's presence. Cas's eyes lit on Dean's future counterpart, lying dead on the ground behind Lucifer, and Dean's scalp prickled as he saw the look in Cas's eyes, even as Cas registered Dean's own living presence. Dean had heard the expression 'rage of angels' before, but to see it in Cas's face brought the saying to frightening reality. The look in Cas's eyes as he turned to Lucifer was pure murder as he charged. Dean's first instinct was to get out of the way, because no mortal man in their right mind would get in the middle of a fight between Lucifer and Castiel.

But then Dean remembered that Cas was only human, something Cas seemed to have forgotten momentarily. Dean threw himself at Cas and shouted, "No!"

Cas tried to side step Dean, but Dean was ready for him and their bodies crashed together, Cas struggling to get past Dean, his eyes wild.

Suddenly the light from behind him dimmed, and Dean spun around to see Lucifer gone.

"No!" cried Cas.

"Cas!" Dean loosed his grip on Cas as he realized that he had stopped struggling to get past him, but Cas turned his rage on Dean.

"Why did you stop me?" Cas screamed into Dean's face. "I could have-"

"You could have what? You're human, Cas! Fully human! What, where you going to take on Lucifer? The most powerful archangel of all?"

Cas staggered, and suddenly Dean felt slippery blood under his hands, and realized Cas was injured. Cas turned to him, looking confused, and said, "I could have delayed him to give you a chance to get away."

Dean shook his head. It was typical of Cas, to think of protecting Dean before his own safety. It was an admirable trait when Cas was an invulnerable angel – not so much in Cas's present state, when it became just downright dangerous, making him reckless.

Dean said, "You're hurt."

Cas looked wildly around them and said, "We need to get out of here, Dean. The others, you-" Cas didn't seem to be able to bring himself to look at Dean's dead body on the ground several yards from them, but Dean felt Cas shudder under his hands even as he pointedly didn't look in that direction, "-they're all gone. We need to get back to the trucks and get out of here."

"What happened, Cas? What happened here?"

"Lucifer got to him. He's dead. I tried… I couldn't…" Cas's eyes were dimming, and Dean realized that he needed to get him back to the compound for treatment, fast. Cas's body leaned harder against his, the ammunition belts empty, the handgun empty of a clip, the knives and fatigues soaked with blood. He sagged into Dean's grasp and was suddenly a dead weight, and Dean glanced around quickly, wondering where Lucifer had got to. Would the devil come back? Why had he left?

Several stray bullets whined and spat past them, narrowly missing. Dean bent over and grunted with effort as he hoisted Cas's heavy form onto his shoulders, then turned and ran as fast as he could through the rubble and the distant shouting, back to the trucks. On the way, he passed several more bodies. He almost stopped, but jogged on doggedly. Now was not the time to tend to the dead. Now the fight had become a battle to keep the living alive, and Cas was losing blood at an alarming rate. It was dripping down steadily over Dean's shoulder.

He found the truck that Cas had been in, opened the door and lowered Cas into the passenger seat. Dean leaned across him to see the ignition and swore as he realized the keys weren't in the vehicle. He patted Cas down, looking for keys. He found a set but it was huge; Cas seemed to have keys for everything, for all the trucks and probably the compound buildings too. He pushed Cas's legs into the truck and shut the door, then raced around to the driver's door and jumped in, fumbling through the set of keys. Finally he managed to find the right one, and started the truck. It roared into life and he backed at maximum speed out of the cul-de-sac and then did a quick turn and slammed the accelerator down. The gunfire had stopped, and he knew the battle had ended. But that meant the opposition would be free to pursue them, and he wanted to get away fast so he didn't give them a chance to trail him back to the compound.

Dean came to a relatively straight stretch of road and slapped Cas's cheek, a little too hard. Cas stirred and looked at him bleary-eyed. "Dean?"

"Stay with me, bud. You stay awake, you hear? We'll get you home."

"…am home." Cas muttered as his eyes closed again. Dean swore and pressed his foot harder onto the accelerator. It didn't budge, and he realized that he had already pressed it as hard as it would go against the metal floor.

Dean's mind was buzzing. Would Cas be all right? Why had Lucifer disappeared so suddenly? Why hadn't he killed Dean just as he had killed his future self? What were the angels doing? Would Dean ever get back to 2009, and if so when?