The Cost of Absolution
PenPatronus
Chapter 2 of 4
The Roads
All was silence, all was darkness. There was no pull of gravity or taste of air. Dean was adrift, hovering in empty, timeless space. He wondered if this was what it felt like to be an astronaut.
He wasn't sure if he was there for five minutes or five years but gradually, a dirt road materialized beneath his feet. He could see it by the light of a tiny moon that had appeared above him. A cloud passed over the Man in the Moon's face like a blindfold and when it blew aside, the light revealed a wooden pole with wooden signs sticking out of it like branches on a tree. They were shaped like arrows and each pointed in a different direction down a different dirt road.
"Well, I'll be damned," Dean said aloud. He was reminded of the signpost in the TV show, "M*A*S*H."
There were seven signs written in black:
1) Home
2) Heaven
3) Hell
4) Family
5) Pie
6) The Future
7) The Past
"Well this is just too damn convenient," Dean muttered. "A road that leads to pie is just too good to be true." Dean stared at the sign that said "Family," then tried to ignore it. "If I were Cass, where would I be?" he wondered.
"Hello again, Dean," said a female voice.
Dean whirled around and saw an angel with red hair.
"Anna," Dean whispered. "You can't be here."
Anna's pale face wrinkled with a lonely smile. Her wide brown eyes were sad. "Yet, here I am," she said simply.
Dean backed up until he was against the signpost. "What are you doing here?"
Anna shrugged. "You'll have to ask Castiel to find out for sure but I think I'm here to help you."
"So, you're a clue?"
Anna cocked both her hip and her chin. "I doubt it's as black and white as that. The mind – human, angel or otherwise – is more complicated. I don't think you're here to find out that Mr. Body was killed by Anna in the drawing room with the knife."
Dean looked up at the signs. "Do you know where he is, Anna? Do you know where Cass is?"
Anna joined him and stared up at the signs as well. "I was hoping you did. I want to find him, too, that's why I'm talking to you."
"There isn't a yellow brick road for us, Scarecrow," Dean muttered. "We'll just have to choose a path and take it. God forbid Cass send up any flares or freaking smoke signals for us."
Anna chuckled. "Yeah, you'd think there'd be a compass or something."
The color of Anna's eyes changed for a fraction of a moment. If Dean hadn't been looking straight at her he would have missed it. For a quick second, Anna's eyes turned to demon-black. Dean reached for his gun and realized that he wasn't armed.
Almost-Anna let out a sigh when she saw the look on his face. "Damnit," she said, "I got too excited."
Dean put some more distance between himself and her. "Ok, not Anna. What are you?" he demanded. "Who are you?"
Anna gave a smile that reminded Dean of Cass' grin when the Leviathans possessed him. "I was hoping that you would make this simple, Dorothy. It would have been so much easier if you'd just led me to Castiel. You see, we want to find him too. He's hiding from us too."
"You're one of them," Dean whispered. "You're a Leviathan."
Anna changed her eyes to black and flipped her red hair over her shoulder. "One of many in one form of many."
Suddenly a dark shadow dropped from the sky and tackled Anna to the ground. Joshua punched her in the face and yelled, "Dean – run!"
Dean took off without even looking at the signs to see which way he was going. The moon continued to provide light even as the road curved into a forest before Dean emerged in Lisa's backyard and found himself watching… himself.
He stumbled and stopped. "What the hell?" he gasped between wheezing breaths.
He was raking leaves. He was alone in Lisa's backyard and he was raking leaves. Dean remembered that day. Lisa had left to take Ben and his friends out for ice cream after school and Dean had gone looking for a chore to keep himself busy and his mind occupied. Anything was better than sitting on the couch, drinking and thinking about Sam.
He felt a presence behind him and turned to see a figure in a trench coat standing there watching his past self. "Cass!" he cried. "Wow – I can't believe I found you already. Cass, what the hell is going on?"
Castiel said nothing. He didn't acknowledge Dean at all, even when the Winchester tried to kick him in the shin. "I guess you're not the Cass I'm looking for," Dean concluded. "Dude, were you stalking me while I lived at Lisa's? Is this a memory of yours or something?"
Although Castiel didn't speak, Dean was suddenly able to hear his thoughts. It was a voiceover, like narration. Past-Cass was in trouble. Rafael was going to destroy him and he was powerless against his older brother. He needed help and had naturally come to Dean for it. But when Castiel saw Dean in his new life, doing something un-supernatural like raking leaves, his heart melted. He decided that Dean had – for lack of a better phrase – paid his dues. He'd saved the world. He'd lost his brother. He deserved to rest, to be happy. Castiel wanted his friend to be safe because he had suffered so much already. Besides, Dean probably wouldn't be able to help anyways. What kind of advice could a mere human offer that could defeat an archangel?
Crowley entered the scene then. Future Dean watched as Cass moved as if to protect Past Dean from the demon. He watched Cass admit his helplessness, watched Crowley tempt him, and watched Cass make a between-a-rock-and-a-hard-place decision to do anything to keep Lucifer locked in the cage.
To keep Dean and the world safe from another Apocalypse.
To Be Continued
