a/n: As a brief note I'm working on another larger spn story where I try to adhere to some semblance of writing criteria. I swear I am capable of that. This nonsense was written alongside of it to let me mess with the angel whenever I wanted and focus on just that at the expense of plot and pacing. Such sacrifices I know! I never really intended it to be a post but it got so big I thought: 'eh, maybe someone will get a kick out of it.' I felt that was legitimate reasoning, but I've been wrong before.
Probably fits S8. Not tied to any arc, but just used as the general backdrop. The Winchester's hunt and Castiel pops in as he is prone to.
Chapter one
It had been a simple mistake really. Who knew a bit of silver alloy instead of solid silver would make such a difference? Usually this type of error just made the spell inert, but not this time. This time there had been an explosion…of sorts. It was hard to describe. Nothing in the dingy motel room had been damaged. Or further damaged, but still something had definitely exploded.
After a few minutes of going over words and ingredients it became clear the fault lay with the silver.
"Do you think we should try it again?"
"I don't know if we have time Sam, I say we go out and search the old fashion way then head them off while they are close."
A rustle of wings made them look across the wobbly table to where Castiel had appeared. He immediately took the bowl of half charred spell ingredients from Sam. "That was you?"
"Uh, hi Cas," Sam said startled.
"It's rude to grab Cas, and if you mean was it us that just wasted three days of work gathering materials for a useless spell, yeah, that was us." Castiel fixed them with look of disapproval. "What? Oh, like you've never had a spell go wrong?" Dean demanded.
His eyes narrowed. "What do you mean 'wrong'?"
"Wrong as in do you see any werewolves marked on this map?" Dean tapped the un-marked map spread over the table.
Castiel looked in confusion at the map.
"It was supposed to be a location spell specifically for them." Sam explained.
"Is this an angel feather?" Cas poked around in the bowl.
"Yes but apparently you also need a pure silver, not alloy silver-"Dean continued
"Is it one of mine?"
"I don't know, probably." Sam looked in the bowl.
"-coin. Who has that? Pirates?"
"This blood and hair?" Cas continued to prod through the goo. "Human?"
"Yeah Sam's and mine."
"Dean, there are plenty of ways to get a coin. I still think we should try it again."
"No!" Castiel looked up alarmed.
"No? Well how do you suggest we find them?"
"I don't know, but whatever you are hunting-"
"Werewolves, well, werewolf hybrids, we think."
"-will need to wait. This spell has caused bigger problems for all of us. It may not have done what you intended but it still did something."
"Like what?" Dean frowned, "I've never had a spell that did anything other than work or not work."
"It's true, what do you mean?"
"It apparently had the power to tear a hole in dimensional matter."
"We ripped a hole into another dimension?" Dean raised his eyebrows, "We'll have to write this one down. Maybe we didn't waste our time."
"What dimension exactly?" Sam asked carefully.
"Purgatory."
Dean groaned. "There seem to be exactly three dimensions around here, Heaven, Hell and Purgatory. Why is it never anything awesome?"
"Well they are the most adjacent. Currently anyway."
"Where was this spell when the Leviathan were around? Haven't we already dealt with all this opening purgatory crap?"
"This," Castiel put the bowl down on the table, "Is not a stable spell or specific to purgatory. It could have done anything, punctured any dimension, maybe it lets things in maybe it lets things out. Not to mention you seem to have invented it. Congratulations."
"How bad is it?" Sam asked.
"I'm not sure yet, we need to find the tear and make sure nothing can get out, and then find a way to reverse the spell to seal up the weakness."
"When you put it like that it sounds so simple. Do you have some insight on how to do any of that?"
Castiel paused, "We are not that far from the bunker and there should be texts there that can help. I'll go search for the exact location of the breach and meet you there once I've found it."
"Wait, wait, wait, you're putting us on research?" Dean scowled.
"I can travel faster than you can."
"That's true, but what if something escaped?"
"Sam's right, it's risky we don't know what this weak spot or tear can do. What if you need back up?"
"Then I'll come get you." He vanished from the room.
"Dammit Cas," Dean walked away from the table in annoyance. Abandoning a hunt always put him in a bad mood but the 'let's split up' method irritated him even more.
"He'll be fine most likely."
"Oh sure. Just like this spell would work 'most likely'."
"It was a poor translation." Sam said. "We followed it exactly as it was written, and it's gotta be a million to one shot that specific error would actually do something else."
"Well it did." Dean muttered. He lifted his hands in frustration. "This is all just perfect." He started shoving things into his bag.
"Cas will find the tear, and we'll find a way to fix it."
"But meanwhile those werewolf things are still loose and there is nothing I can do about it because we are stuck dealing with this!" He zipped up the duffle.
Sam tipped the spell bowl his direction with a finger, the burnt sludge slid slowly around inside it. They stared at the mesmerizing mess for a moment. Sam looked up first, "So, the bunker?"
Dean glared at him but grabbed his coat off the chair and headed out the door.
The trip was just as bad as Sam had anticipated, long, silent and tense. As soon as they arrived he beat a hasty retreat to the library leaving Dean to angrily unpack and re-pack for this new assignment. Staying out of his way was the best way to handle it.
When he was finished and settled at one of the tables for a few minutes Sam came over with an armful of books. His brother was good at research when he wanted to be, and Sam needed him to want to be.
"Here, these, are going to give us something to start with." He dropped them on the table.
Dean eyed the stack darkly before he resigned himself to the task and grabbed the top book. "What are we looking for?"
"I thought a basic spell reversal for something that's been opened, or how to create a lock or seal, and it couldn't hurt to keep in mind what we used in the original spell either." Sam pushed a blank tablet of paper and a pen across the table. Dean exhaled and picked up the pen.
They slipped into an easy silence as they read and leafed through the dusty texts for the next several hours. It was a quiet that Dean soon felt as acutely as Sam had the quiet car ride. There was just too much left undone to be sitting here.
The day faded and Dean spun the spell bowl Sam had placed on the table. He'd just about had it with this end of the job. He wondered how Cas's search was going. They had been at it for six hours and he'd only found one crappy piece of Latin that might work.
"Hey what about this," Sam pushed a book across the table.
"Finally," Dean slammed shut the book he'd been flipping through.
"But it's sort of good news bad news."
"Let's hear it."
"The good news is I think it will re-seal the tear but the bad news is it has to be the three of us since it sounds like 'any living parts' must be present."
"So? We were going to do it anyway." Dean quickly read through the spell.
"Yeah, but this implies that because of the ingredients, we might be bound to it."
"Crap. How exactly do you figure that we are the living parts ?"
"Well, my hair, your blood, Cas's feather. We are the living parts that opened it so, according to this; we have to be the living parts that close it. I'm not sure if it implies anything else."
"I'm sure we'll find out." He frowned at the page. "It says this is used for sealing 'spaces'. Is that too vague? Isn't there anything specifically on sealing a dimension?"
"I haven't found anything. This is going to be cobble together regardless, vague might be good? Basically we create an amulet to channel the spell," Sam said flipping through his notes, "and when you look at the requirements compared to what we used originally it lines up nicely."
Dean took the pad of paper Sam held out to him. "You think a piece of salt treated copper plating set with one of the wolf teeth we used in the first spell will work as the amulet?"
"That and the Latin spell you found used to seal – uh- what was it-?" he picked up the book, "-beasts from the depths' away. It's not like there is a specific reversal for this. I'm just following one that's similar and trying to think of logical substitutions."
"I feel like this is what got us into trouble in the first place," Dean shook his head, "but I don't have any other ideas." He exhaled. "Okay let's put this together and check in with Cas to see if he's got a location yet."
The amulet was fashioned out of an old strip of copper coated with salt and set with wolf's tooth which dean insisted they take the time to solder on properly. "I'm not having it fall apart just because we couldn't bother." He handed it to Sam when he was finished. While Dean called for Castiel to book it to the bunker, Sam turned it over in his hand; it wasn't bad work.
"You've found something?" Castiel appeared.
"Yeah, we think away to seal the tear back up. Or at least it's worth a shot." Sam pushed the book and the newly created amulet across the table to him.
"Any luck finding its whereabouts?" Dean asked as Castiel picked up the amulet.
"Some, but the spot keeps shifting along a fault I believe the spell created, however," he reached into the bowl of semi dried out spell on the table. "I believe we can track it with this."
"What the other tooth from the spell? How will that help?"
Castiel looked thoughtful at the text the amulet had been lying on, "It has some location powers in it, no doubt acquired from your original intention. It will react when near the tear."
"React how?"
"Did you expect the map to burn?"
"Yeah."
"I suspect it will darken." He put the amulet down and ran a finger along the line of Latin they had marked for the spell. "I like this."
"You think it will work? "Sam asked.
"It's as good idea as any."
"That is not an answer." Dean said pointedly.
"This is not a spell that has been cast before, but this fits well."
"Okay so you know the general location of the tear based on the 'fault' we created? Should we get going?"
"The fault is extensive and faceted. Let me get close and I'll call you, that way I can follow any movement before you arrive."
"Cas- " Dean was left speaking to empty space.
"I'm not waiting up for that call." Sam stretched. "If he wants to chase it down himself Dean, let him. We've been working for hours now."
"You'd just let him do that? How is that in anyway a good idea?"
"First, he's an angel. Second, he's Cas. Third, he didn't give us much of a choice, and forth, we need the sleep." Sam patted Dean on the shoulder as he left the room.
Dean stood there for a moment. "Stupid." He muttered before also turning in for the night.
Cas called in the early pre-dawn hours. Dean's phone buzzed on his nightstand. "Cas?"
"Dean. I have a location,"
"Great, come get us." Dean ran a hand over his face.
"I can't. It's on the move, but I think I understand the path. Head north towards Rapid City South Dakota."
"On our way." Dean was already halfway down the hall. He banged on Sam's door as he passed. "Let's go!" he shouted over his shoulder. He grabbed the bags he'd left by the foot of the staircase.
Sam appeared a moment later blinking. "Where's Cas?"
"Following the tear. He said to head north. Rapid City."
"South Dakota? That's eight hours away."
"He's keeping tabs on it until we get there." He shouldered his bag. "Grab the rest of that would you? We need to head out."
Sam picked up the bag and followed him through the door.
They drove straight through without stopping but did not hear again from Castiel. Dean even had Sam text him once. He got nothing back. Freakin' angels.
They booked a motel on the outskirts once they reached the city. It was good practice in case anyone started asking questions. "So, what, he calls us up here and we're just supposed to wait around on him?" Dean griped as they walked through town. Sam picked up the local paper from a vending newsstand. "Hey look at this, the top story is an earthquake that happened yesterday."
"Huh, you think that was us?"
"The time matches up and this isn't a high risk area so maybe?"
"Much damage?"
"Minor property, and a cattle stampede."
"Nice."
They walked around for the rest of the afternoon keeping an eye out for anything out of the ordinary and periodically attempting to contact Castiel.
"Come on let's head back to the motel." Sam said when Castiel failed to answer his phone yet again.
"Yeah, I'll drop you off then look around for somewhere to get dinner." Dean opened the car door.
"Don't go crazy if you go to a bar, just in case Cas calls."
Dean rolled his eyes but did not make any promises.
The sun was setting by the time Dean was on his way back from picking up dinner. Stopping at a bar, even if it had just been to spite Sam, hadn't improved his mood much.
"Dean," Castiel was suddenly in the passenger seat.
"Jesus Cas," he gritted out.
"Turn here."
"What? Why? Is this it? Is this where it pierced through?"
"In a manner of speaking,"
"Don't give me that crap. Did you or did you not find it? Also, are you allergic to answering a phone?"
"I'm not giving you 'crap'. I did find it, but then it moved. I don't see how it would possible to be allergic to an act. Phobic maybe." He considered.
"You- never mind."
"The whole thing is unstable, I'm doing my best to keep up with it." He stared at the dark tooth in his hand.
"How do you even read that?"
"It's difficult but I have it worked out now."
"So let's go get Sam and the amulet."
"Not yet. Something was trying to break through, just before it shifted, I could hear it scratching."
"What kind of something?"
"I'm not sure they have a name. Or if they do I don't know it. Red-eyed, long crossed snouts. Teeth."
Dean tensed, "Yeah I remember those. Specifically the teeth."
"I think maybe they are similar enough to the werewolf things you were attempting to locate with the spell that the weak spot it created may be calling them."
"We should get Sam."
"There's no time, if they are loose we need to go after them and destroy them. Now." He leveled a stare at him. "We have fought them before and this needs to be done quickly."
Dean stared back for a moment, than turned back to the road. "Dammit."
"Stop here."
Dean pulled over on a shoulder and Castiel headed off immediately into a field of tall grass.
"Cas, wait!" Dean said pulling an ax from the trunk. "Unbelievable," he muttered slamming it closed."Any sign of them?" he asked when he caught up to where Castiel had knelt.
"Yes," he said pulling aside some brush to reveal a disturbing paw-foot print. "Just one for now." He stood up and scanned the area. "This way."
They walked through the field following Castiel's sense.
"I thought you said these things weren't far." Dean glanced over his shoulder squinting through the growing darkness. The sun vanished below the horizon. He shivered. Déjà vu.
"They aren't." Castiel's pace slowed. Dean turned so he was able to watch the direction they had come from. This scenario felt terribly familiar. "Do you feel that?" Castiel asked quietly.
Dean wished he hadn't. A sickening chill and something else made the hair on his neck prickle. He nodded. Castiel stopped. His silver blade appeared in his hand.
An unearthly growl shook the ground, but nothing followed. The wind blew softly. They waited, still as stone. Dean glanced over at Castiel, who looked like he was calmly waiting for a bus, but Dean knew better now a days. This was the angel watching with more than his human form.
A pair of red eyes flashed through the tall grass.
Castiel had his blade ready. Dean raised the ax. The eyes vanished and Castiel began to run with Dean just behind.
Faster, and faster they ran through the tall weeds, bright silver under the moon. The fiery sunset was extinguished now by the dark horizon.
Castiel halted so suddenly that Dean nearly crashed into him. He turned a circle on the spot taking it all in, trying to see what the angel saw. His eyes didn't fail him for long. The enormous creature rose out of the grass. It looked a thousand times worse surrounded by this dimension. A jarring juxtaposition that did not in away belong. Dean raised his ax.
It lunged.
Dean struck it across the throat. The cry shook the ground and it crashed down towards him. A bright light flashed from behind him. Hot. It burned across his shoulder. When Dean opened his eyes the moon shone through the quietly waving grass, a shallow pit smoldered at his feet. He turned in time to see Castiel lower his hand.
What happened next was a blur.
The great spined back of a second creature rose behind Castiel, the scream that exploded from those elongated gnashing, twisted jaws, shook the air. Castiel turned a fraction of a second too late or perhaps the creature a fraction of a second faster knocking him backward with a swipe of its' wide paw. Dean saw the blade slip from his hand. He threw his ax and it imbedded in the thick hide. The creature stumbled. Castiel raised his hand and a light, not quite as bright as before, hit the beast. It roared, and angled its huge open jaw downward snapping viciously. Castiel scrambled out from under the attack but was still mostly unarmed. The beast noticed and pulled back its head to strike. It lunged downward but was met by the angel blade Dean jabbed upward into its skull as he stepped in front of Castiel.
It fell dead on its side. He waited. Every nerve alive, every noise amplified. Slowly the world returned to a more recognizable state. The moon dimmed, the breeze quieted and Dean looked over his shoulder.
Castiel looked up at him from where he half lay on the ground.
"Just like old times." Dean smiled wryly.
Castiel tried to say something but coughed instead. He was holding his side.
"Cas?" Dean asked.
Castiel slowly lifted his hand away from where he awkwardly held it against himself. A disturbing surge of blood ran down his leg, and even worse, blue light shone brightly from the gash.
Dean cursed.
a/n: So there's the start. More? Less? Keep going? Stop immediately why have you written this? These are all things I ask myself.