Bunker pack Ch.1
Here's another fic I'm putting together featuring the apocalypse universe. Some long-lost special characters from the past! Hope you like it. As usual, I own nothing. And also, as usual, I would love a beta or a co-writer for this if anyone's interested. Trigger warning; this will be a pretty dark story with mentions of various types of torture.
When Dean parked the impala in front of the massive stone structure almost completely obscured from view, he didn't know what to expect. From what he could see, it looked exactly like the bunker from Kansas, but the ominous forest it was buried in was nothing like the wide-open prairie they were used to, except for the fact that they were both located so far from civilization that getting to them was no easy feat.
"So just what was this anonymous tip you received, Sammy?" Dean asked as the two of them approached the entrance, their guns both at the ready. A thick misty fog hung in the air, and all around them were the brilliant orange, red, and yellow leaves of a forest in the midst of autumn. The thick smell of birch and pine permeated through the air.
"Just what it sounds like, Dean," Sam explained. "An anonymous tip. I've been making these bunkers. Apparently, the one in Kansas is connected to a network of men of letters bunkers that are scattered all over the world. Many are abandoned, like this one, and we hold the only keys that will open them. I found a few books that list some of their locations and they are all in remote areas like this."
"Great," Dean said with a smirk, as Sam inserted the key and opened the door. "I guess we found ourselves a whole lot of vacation spots."
"Yeah," Sam focused as they cautiously entered the compound, their guns ready for anything that might take them by surprise. After the incident with the other bunker in Jersey, neither of them were going to take any chances.
The interior of the bunker was just as Dean expected. It was identical to the one in Kansas in nearly every way. The brothers stood on the balcony level entrance overlooking the large main room which was lined with books, filing cabinets, and some antique chairs and conference tables. Even the furniture looked the same.
"I guess whoever built these things weren't going for originality," Dean commented as they descended into the main hall.
Just as they made it to the main hall, a slim figure stepped out from behind one of the bookcases on the rear wall. Dean recognized the red-haired woman and immediately lowered his gun.
"Charlie?" he murmured as the woman he'd come to know as a sister approached them, a grim look on her face. "You aren't our Charlie are you?"
"No, I'm not," she confirmed. Dean had only been back from the apocalypse world for a few weeks now, but he was still reeling from having encountered apocalypse world, Charlie Bradbury. Seeing her had brought back so many feelings of guilt and remorse over the way his Charlie had been so terrible butchered and how he and Sam had failed her in her time of need.
Now, suddenly, after so many years, she'd been thrust back into their lives, into his life anyway, since Sam hadn't seen her- until now.
"You're from the other world," Sam guessed, his tone of voice betraying his own feelings at seeing Charlie again. "The apocalypse world."
"How'd you get here?" Dean asked as they moved to stand in front of her. "How long have you been here?"
"We just arrived," Charlie explained. She wore a dark green jumpsuit, a belt across her waist bore an array of blades, pouches, and supplies. In many ways, she resembled the LAARP fantasy world character their Charlie had liked to roleplay as. But this was another woman altogether. This was a Charlie who was hardened to the harsh realities of the world she'd come from. The flirty, timid, geeky Charlie that they knew had been replaced by a cautious, grim version.
"We?" Sam asked as he and his brother gazed around, looking for any other inhabitants.
"My team and I," Charlie explained. "They're out surveying the area and laying out defenses."
"Defenses?" Dean questioned. Charlie motioned for the brothers to sit down at the wooden conference table and she sat across from them. "When I saw you, you said you didn't want to come to this world. That you and your friends needed to stay and fight."
"Yeah that was before we stole Michael's ingredients for opening the portal," Charlie pointed out with a shrug. "Some of the ingredients. Dean, we're here because you need our help."
"Help with what?" Dean started to see where this might be heading. He was just about to say as much when they were interrupted by a loud crash coming from somewhere in the back of the bunker.
The three of them were quickly on their feet; their weapons were swiftly drawn. Dean noted that Charlie had brandished a large angel blade as she faced the noise.
"Sam go check the perimeter outside," Dean ordered. Sam nodded and turned back for the entrance of the bunker while Dean and Charlie headed cautiously down the hall.
Another crash and a loud grunt came from one of the bedrooms. The bedroom that had they been in the Kansas bunker would be Dean's room. The door was left slightly ajar, and Dean swiftly kicked it the rest of the way opened and frowned at the sight.
Castiel was sprawled out on the floor while a brunette woman in a grey blazer coat threatened him with an angel blade. When the two of them both looked in their direction, Dean blinked. She was familiar. How could Dean have forgotten the little angel cult Castiel had found himself the leader of back in the Metatron days?
"Uh, Hannah, right?" Dean asked, lowering his weapon. The women frowned at the recognition of her name, but she quickly turned back to Castiel, eyes fixating on him as she moved back, letting him slowly get to her feet.
"Yes," she said timidly, not looking at Charlie or Dean, but focusing entirely on Castiel. Both angels looked as though they had just seen a ghost. And in Castiel's case, that might as well have been true since Hannah had been dead for almost three years.
"Hannah…" Castiel breathed, equally fixated on her. "How can…"
"She's with me," Charlie blurted out quickly to Castiel. Dean gave her a quizzical look, and she quickly corrected. "I mean… she's not with me, not like that. She's part of my team. She's kinda our angel. And you…"
"From the apocalypse world?" Castiel surmised, glancing at Dean who nodded in confirmation. Hannah nodded.
"There… was a Castiel in my world," she said softly before shyly fixing her gaze to the floor. "He's dead."
"That is unfortunate," Castiel replied as he moved over to stand with Dean. "And… awkward."
Dean thought he saw some kind of emotion flash through Castiel's blue eyes, but he couldn't quite tell. The angel didn't have an extensive range of emotions, and he often had difficulty expressing the ones he did feel. But there was definitely something there. Dean never knew how close Castiel and Hannah had gotten years ago when they worked together, Cas had often kept his excursions when he wasn't with the Winchesters a bit of a secret, though Dean had suspected they had gotten close.
"Did you secure the rest of the place?" Charlie asked Hannah as the four of them headed back to the main room. Dean noted that Sam hadn't returned yet and felt concerned, but concentrated on Charlie, as he suspected she wasn't paying a house call here.
"Yes," Hannah replied curtly as they all took a seat back at the wooden conference table. Dean noted that Hannah no longer made eye contact with Castiel, and in fact, seemed to be trying to avoid his attention, as she sat next to Charlie, almost in a defensive posture, scooting her seat as close to Charlie's as she could get it.
"How did you find us, Cas?" Dean asked as the angel sat next to him. Castiel shrugged.
"I monitored the movements of the impala on occasion," he explained. "I admit I did not expect to find another bunker, nor did I expect to find Charlie or… Hannah…" he spared a glance in the angel woman's direction, but Hannah kept her focus.
"Hannah's been part of my team for about nine years," Charlie explained. "Ever since we liberated her from a death camp."
"A what?" Dean blinked. He didn't like the sound of that and Hannah seemed to visibly flinch at the mention of it.
"It's not important right now," Charlie said, sensing Hannah's discomfort. "Let me get to the reason we're here."
"Yeah I've been waiting for that," Dean said as he glanced in the direction of the entrance, wondering what was taking Sam so long. "You said something about Michael and us needing your help. Care to explain?"
"Yeah, Michael is looking for a way to get into this world so he can do to you what he's done to us," Charlie explained. "He nearly succeeded until my resistance group, and I stole the ingredients he needed. We used them to get here and help you prepare. There's nothing from stopping him from gathering the ingredients again, Dean and it's only a matter of time."
Dean and Castiel exchanged grim glances. They both knew what this could mean. If Michael got to this world, he could wage the same kind of human exterminating war that Charlie had just come back from. Dean shuttered to think of the invasion. He looked at Charlie.
"So you just came to warn us?" he asked.
"Not just warn you, prepare you," Charlie replied. "My team and I have been fighting angels all of our lives. We know what to expect. So that's the mission. Prepare for the invasion."
"Got it," Dean said. Just as he said that he heard the door creak open behind him and glanced up at the balcony deck just as Sam emerged, hands up against his head. Dean frowned, then his eyes lit up as he saw the two women who were holding his brother at gunpoint.
"It's okay, he's with us," Charlie called up to them. Then he glanced at Dean. "Dean Winchester, Sam, Castiel, meet the rest of my team. Eileen Leahy and-"
"Jo," Dean murmured, gazing up at the blonde haired woman who lowered the weapon she had fixed on Sam. She shot him a harsh glare when he said her name, but he didn't care. "Jo Harvelle."