United We Stand
A sequel to When Love is the Only Answer
It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell.
-Buddha
Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid, one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory.
-Douglas MacArthur
I can be forced to live without happiness, but I will never consent to live without honor
- Pierre Corneille
Never knock on Death's door. Ring the bell and run away. Death really hates that.
-Matt Frewer aka Pestilence
Sam and Dean had decided to get some sleep. They were going to need it, but as much as Dean tried, he couldn't do it. Whether it was because of the transformation or just being hyped up, he didn't know, but he just couldn't rest. He turned to look at Sam on the other bed and smiled. It had been a long time since he had seen Sam at peace. It was good to see and it was a good feeling to know that they were united on the same front. They hadn't been for a long time.
Dean got up and quietly left the room. He got a beer from Bobby's fridge and sat on the couch.
"Are you boys ever gonna pay me for drinking my beer? The way you go through it, I'm gonna have to play the lotto," A comforting voice said behind Dean.
"Couldn't sleep either, huh?" Dean answered back.
Bobby rolled over to Dean.
"Sleep's overrated anyway."
Dean looked into the eyes of his father figure and felt his chest swell with pride.
"I know that look. You're about to get all girly on me, aren't you?" Bobby said.
"Humor me," Dean said with a widening grin as he fidgeted his beer bottle. "We might not come out of this alive and I'm feeling nostalgic."
"For what?" Bobby teased.
"For simpler days."
"Were there any?" Bobby said with a feigned puzzled expression.
Dean laughed then became introspective.
"Seriously, Bobby. I don't want to…well, you know, without telling you….without thanking you for all you've sacrificed for us. You could've walked away and –"
"You mean rolled away, don't you?"
Dean rolled his eyes.
"You know what I mean. Anyway, I just want you to know that if you wanted out now, there would be no hard feelings. Hell, I wish I could go with you," Dean looked into Bobby's eyes. "You've given enough, lost too much…"
"Am I getting a gold watch too?" Bobby teased, but his face betrayed his real feelings of pride for the young man in front of him. "You haven't seen nothing yet, son. I can pop a wheelie with the best of them."
Bobby then rolled up closer and looked straight into Dean's eyes.
"There is no way in hell that I'd leave either of you boys to face whatever comes next alone. I will keep shooting until I'm empty and not a moment before. I'd rather go down with the both of you than rot away into decrepitude in this chair. You hear me?"
Bobby's eyes began to fill, as was Dean's.
"Yeh, I heard you," Dean said, his voice quavering with emotion. "Thanks."
Bobby nodded.
"Now, see what you've gone and done? Can we PLEASE form some kind of strategy? I'd rather not get mowed down before we even get started."
Dean smiled, but it was stolen from his face by a grim look. He then stiffened.
"What? What is it, Dean?" Bobby asked, worried.
"Michael…" Dean said.
Then a visage of Michael appeared in front of them both, eerily looking like Dean, but without the substance. Bobby reached for a gun he had strapped to his chair, but Dean shook his head and Bobby relaxed, but stayed alert.
"Very good, Dean. Sounds like the transformation is complete. You're like me now."
"I'm never going to be like you," Dean said with disdain.
"Well, don't know if you got the memo, but too late, you already are. Someone up there must really like you," Michael said with a bitter tone, as he looked heavenward.
"Careful there, you're beginning to sound like your jealous bro, Lucifer."
"Don't you dare compare me to my traitor of a brother. I'm nothing like him."
"Riiight…whatever you say," Dean taunted. "What are you doing here? You gotta have it figured out that I'm not going to be your vessel."
"Yes, that's pretty crystal clear."
"Then what do you want?" Dean said menacingly.
"Just a word of warning. Don't get cocky just because you're one of us now. You can be destroyed too."
"Guess that goes both ways," Dean threatened back.
"You have no idea what you're getting yourself into."
"Maybe. Maybe not, but I've got something you'll never have."
"What's that?"
"People who have my back."
"If you're talking about your brother, I wouldn't count on him, if I were you."
"Well, good thing you're not me then."
"Sam's destiny lies with my brother."
"Oh, just like mine was to be your vessel? I think you're 0 for 2 there dude."
"You may think you can change destiny, but you can't, you won't. You're only taking a slight detour towards it."
"You keep thinking that," Dean said.
"See you later, Dean."
"Not before I see you first."
Michael then vanished.
"Tough talk," Bobby said.
"Who? Me or him?" Dean asked not expecting an answer.
Sam then walked in.
"You heard?"
"Yeh, I heard," Sam said, worry on his face, but there wasn't the usual uncertainty.
"You good?"
"Yeh, Dean, I'm good." Sam said proudly.
"Well, I'm glad that we're all hunky dory here, but you mind cluing me in on how we are going to win this?" Bobby asked.
"I don't know yet, but for some reason I'm not worried."
"Glad one of us isn't," Bobby said.
Dean felt another presence arriving, but had learned to recognize it long before he had become transformed. Dean wasn't willing to call himself an angel. Deep down he didn't feel he had honestly earned that title. He hadn't had a calling for it. He didn't know the "qualifications", but he knew that for him, this was just temporary. He viewed it more as a gift of weaponry, not an endowment of power to be abused. Though he had to admit the newfound ability to feel them when they were coming was a definite plus. No, in his mind, there was only one person who had truly earned the title of angel.
"Cas?" Dean said before Cas materialized.
Sam and Bobby were sufficiently impressed as Cas appeared.
"I see that Michael has paid a visit," Cas said.
"Yeh, sensing you guys coming is a perk, I gotta say," Dean teased. "Guess Michael had to throw in his 2 cents worth about how we're going to lose."
"It's what he didn't say that has me worried."
Dean felt the hairs at the back of his neck rise.
"What's that?"
"Now that you are no longer going to be his vessel, he's chosen another."
"What? Who?" Sam asked.
"Your brother Adam."
"That son of –" Dean began to swear.
"But Adam…" Sam started.
"…is dead, yes, I know," Cas said.
"He can raise the dead to become his vessel?" Bobby asked, realizing what an education he was getting about angels.
"He needs a Winchester and even a half Winchester will do to suit his purpose, to complete the prophecy."
"Damn it," Dean swore under his breath. "Adam doesn't deserve this. He deserves to be at peace."
"We salted and burned his body," Sam said.
"That only wards off demons, not angels."
Dean paced, his anxiety and concern were written in the muscles in his neck. Sam saw Dean's turmoil and wished that Dean didn't have to carry any more on his shoulders yet he knew that he would have it no other way.
"Dean, this isn't your fault," Sam said.
"Who's is it then?"
"Sam's right," Cas interjected. "Michael is treacherous, no better than his brother and his devotion to our Father, misguided at best. You can't control him or Lucifer. They will do whatever it will take to bring on the Apocalypse. It's their only mission."
Dean took in a breath and nodded.
"You're right. I haven't got the luxury to worry about things I can't control."
Sam heard Dean say the words, but knew that it would be difficult for him to compartmentalize his feelings for Adam. They might not have known him, but that didn't matter to Dean. Adam was family. Dean had always placed a priceless value on that and the responsibilities that came with it. That would never change no matter how much Dean transformed. Family was knitted into Dean's DNA.
"Is it too late? Does Michael already have him?"
"Search within yourself, Dean. You'll find the answer. I no longer have those kinds of answers and frankly, I barely have any powers left to me, but whatever I do possess, I will use to help you in any way that I can. It is you who will lead us and it will be an honor to go to battle with you."
Dean looked at Cas, then at Sam and Bobby. They all had determined expressions, as if to tell him that they were on board without saying it. It made Dean feel both secure and frightened at the same time. He didn't want to lose any of them, especially Sam. as collateral damage in a fight he felt was of his making because he refused to become Michael's vessel.
"Thanks, Cas, thanks to all of you. I just hope I won't let you down."
"You wont," Sam said with a confidence that filled Dean with pride.
"I may not have legs, but I'll give you all I got, kid," Bobby assured as well.
"Dean can change that," Cas interjected.
"What?" Dean asked.
"You have fully transformed. You have all the powers an angel possesses. You can give Bobby the ability to walk again."
Dean and Bobby exchanged shocked looks.
"How?"
"All it requires is a touch and imagining Bobby walking."
Dean was hesitant. He didn't want to give Bobby false hope only to fail him. Bobby saw the uncertainty and rolled over to him.
"Do it, son."
"But Bobby, what if I…"
"Then nothing's changed and we're no worse off for the trying, but if there's a chance I can be 100% to help you boys, I want to give it all we got. I believe in you, Dean."
Dean looked down at Bobby's face and felt that belief. It was the kind of fatherly belief that he wished he had gotten from his own father when they were kids, not when he was facing death from a deal he had made. He nodded and placed his hand on Bobby's forehead. He envisioned his trusted friend walking and felt a power surge through him, hot, searing and into Bobby. Bobby only flinched for a moment as he felt quick, hot needle pricks in both his legs. Dean then felt his own legs buckle from under him. When Bobby saw him fall, he glared at Cas as Sam headed to Dean's side.
"No! You didn't tell me this would hurt him."
"He will be fine. It's a momentary flash of empathy."
"English, damn it!" Bobby demanded.
"When we do healings, we receive an empathetic surge. Dean's legs gave way as a reaction to giving your legs the energy to be revitalized. As Dean becomes more skilled at it, he will barely register it, but he is also particularly empathic in general, especially towards those closest to him. You are like a father to him."
Bobby looked over at Dean and couldn't dispute their connection. It was a bond that could never be severed.
"Dean? You okay?" Sam asked.
"Yeh, yeh, I'm okay, just felt weak there for a second. Help me up."
Sam supported his big brother back onto his feet and Dean feel a rush of dizziness hit him, but his legs held up beneath him. Dean then looked over at Bobby, his heart pounding nervously in his chest, his hope soaring, but cautiously. Bobby took the look as his queue and decided to start small by trying to just move his feet. He didn't want to disappoint Dean. At first, he didn't know what to do. He had just taken for granted that everything worked without a second's thought. He then just wiggled his right foot and it responded as if it had never been still. He did the same with his left. Smiles were on everyone's faces as Bobby began to brace himself to lift himself out of the chair, but then he hesitated.
"What? What's wrong?" Dean asked, his hope fizzling a little.
"Nothing, it's just…could you boys help me up? I know I'm acting like a girl, but if I'm going to fall flat on my face, I'd rather you boys catch me so I don't look like a complete fool."
Sam and Dean smiled and placed themselves on either side of Bobby, each taking one arm, applying steady grips, but without aiding in any way. Bobby pushed himself out of his chair and stood for the first time in months. His legs felt strong beneath him so he nodded to each brother that they could let go. They both did slowly and Bobby remained standing, tall and stable, not a whisper of weakness in either leg that would have signaled having been idle or atrophied. Tears began to fill his eyes as he looked at each man then stayed fixed on Dean.
"Thanks," was all Bobby could say, but everything that could be said was written on his face.
"And some times you get to watch a good friend walk again," Dean said with a wide smile on his face and a sigh of relief.
It had harked back to what he had told Cas half-heartedly trying to cheer him up when they were fighting the Whore, that days like the one they were having at that moment made getting through the rough patches better, that they kept faith alive when you thought you had nothing left to give. Cas heard it and understood. He would be hard pressed to argue against the point at that moment. Despite his self-piteous behavior of late, he watched and couldn't help, but enjoy seeing three men cling to each other in a moment worthy of celebration with the kind of camaraderie that he wished he had shared with his fellow angel warriors. Both Anna and Uriel had turned into traitors of one sort or another. Other comrades-in-arms had died valiantly fighting to prevent the seals from being broken. So Cas allowed himself to revel in the small triumph he was witnessing. A burst of hope in a small victory, it was something he had never indulged in. Humans and their tender mercies were miraculous in their own right. These men had taught him much about how being united was more than just fighting for a singular cause, it was about fighting for each other.
Another sequel to come. Could be the final one. I keep finding reasons to keep going, but I hope to come to a finale soon. Thanks for your patience and hope you enjoyed the read.