(A/N): Hey guys, Nexus here! Not a whole hell of a lot to say right now, However, my traffic graph shows that I have 40 hits of the story so far and only one review; worse, the one review is from a person I know IRL! Come on, guys, I'm begging you here. As I writer, I live off of reviews, and right now I HAVE ONE STALE CRACKER FOR FOOD AND THAT IS NO WAY FOR ME TO LIVE AND- *takes deep breath* Ok, ok, I'm cool, I'm cool... Ahem. Seriously, though, reviews are manna from heaven. More reviews= Happy Nexus= quicker updates. Can't argue with math. Anyway, here is Chapter 2!
Chapter Two
Guardian Angel
Dean sat on the edge of his brother's bed, gazing worriedly at the two figures before him. He had known that Sam had gotten his head knocked pretty hard, but he did't think it was bad enough to make him pass out. Sam had seemed fine on the drive back from Kansas City; maybe a little more woozy than usual, but nothing to worry about. All that had changed when Sam had suddenly dropped. Dean had been trained in basic first aid for a good portion of his life, and he know that delayed unconsciousness was never a good thing. It could mean a swelling brain, which usually led to brain damage. Being the overprotective big brother that he was, Dean immediately assumed the worst and called in the big guns: namely, he prayed to Cas.
Dean had felt kind of bad about immediately calling Cas in; ever since he had gotten his angel juju back (and subsequently kicked Gadreel out of Sam) he had been working toward getting Metatron out of Heaven. Dean knew that there wasn't anything more important than putting that dick-headed bookworm back in his place, but dammit, this was Sam we were talking about! Apparently Cas seemed to feel the same way. Dean had barely finished explaining when he heard the telltale sound of snapping fabric behind him, and turned to see an concerned-looking angel in a trench coat behind him.
The second Cas saw Sam, his eyes widened. After a quick greeting to Dean, he brushed past and smoothed Sam's hair out of his face, a look of intense worry upon his face.
"What happened to him, Dean?" Cas's low voice was interwoven with tones of urgency and fear, which did nothing to assuage Dean's fears.
"Uh, we were trying to gank the Alpha rugaru and Sammy got jumped. I was flaming two other ruguarus at the time, but I did hear it happen, and from the noise his head made when it hit the floor, he went down hard. How is he?" Cas ignored Dean's worried question and looked up, locking his intense blue eyes to Dean's forest green.
"It was only fighting rugarus? That was all you were doing before this happened?" The question caught Dean off guard.
"Yeah, other than that we just drove back here..." Cas grunted and turned back to Sam's unconscious form, an expression of concern etched on his lightly-stubbled face. Dean was starting to get annoyed with the angel. He leaned in, grabbed his shoulder and pulled him around, bringing the two to face each other, their faces only inches apart. Dean felt a familiar tingle in his stomach at Cas's close proximity, but he pushed it down; now was not the time. "Cas," he growled, "what is wrong with my brother?"
Cas held Dean's glare for a moment before turning away. "I've never seen anything like this before... Physically, Sam is fine. He did experience some blunt trauma to his head, but nothing that would cause him to fall unconscious. What caused him to pass out was something that I didn't think was possible..." Dean resisted the urge to shout at the lack of information that he was getting. Taking a deep breath, he forced himself to calm down.
"Cas, just tell me what the hell is wrong with my little brother!" Cas sighed, mentally preparing himself to answer Dean's question. "I didn't think that this was possible until now, but someone has managed to astrally project themselves into Sam's unconscious mindscape. The extra presence in his mind was enough to cause him to black out when the stress on his psyche became too much to handle." Dean stood with his mouth open for a moment, processing the information that he had just gotten. "You mean to tell me that someone is trying to remote-possess Sammy, and that made him pass out?! What the hell, Cas?! I thought these tattoos were supposed to keep that from happening!" Dean pulled down the collar of his shirt, displaying the pentagram inked just under his collarbone. Cas's eyes lingered on the tattoo for a minute before darting back upward to Dean's face.
"That is exactly what they are for, and they are doing an admirable job. However, your brother is not being possessed."
"THEN WHAT THE FU-" Castiel cut the hunter off mid-explosion. "The extra presence in Sam's mind is not seeking control, only connection. From what I can gather, Sam and the extra are communicating. This is not a possession, it's a lot more like a phone call." Dean managed to calm down a bit more at this explanation; his brother wasn't in danger. "well, what does this extra-" he made air quotes "- want with my brother? Who the hell is he?"
Cas sighed, rubbing his chin with his hand. "I tried to trace the astral trail the the extra left, but it proved to faint. I have no idea who did this, except for the fact that the presence is not malignant. As to what it wants, Sam will have to tell us when he wakes up." These words had no sooner crossed Cas's lips than Sam uttered a low groan and sat up in bed, squinting against the light. Dean was immediately at his brother's side.
"Sammy! You ok, man? You scared the crap outta me for a second there. What happened?" Sam looked up at his brother's worried yet relieved face, an expression of confusion crossing his own. "I'm not really sure... There were these fireflies, and a floating silver head... Someone wanted my help.. Does this make any sense?" Sam switched his confused stare from his equally-confused brother to Cas, whose brow was wrinkled in deep thought. "...Cas?"
Cas's eyes darted back and forth, showing how hard he was thinking. "It would have taken someone with an extraordinary amount of power to contact you like this, more than the average angel possesses. That leaves Knights of Hell and Archangels, but the presence meant no harm, it was actually benevolent... This doesn't make any sense." Cas looked up and addressed Sam directly. "Sam, can you remember anything else, anything at all?"
Sam shut his eyes, trying desperately to remember what had happened. "Not really, it's all pretty vague... I think the head was teenage, maybe 14 or 15.. That is about it.." Cas looked disappointed and even more confused at this. "WEll, that is still more information than I had before. I just don't see-"
"Wait, there is something," Sam interrupted. "I remember the head saying something about Crowley-" Dean snorted loudly, interrupting his younger brother. "Crowley. I should have known that smart-ass bastard was behind this! I think we need to go have a chat with-"
"You didn't let me finish, Dean," Sam said, a trifle annoyed at his older brother for interrupting him. "We need to ask Crowley something, something about a cambion, whatever that is." Dean lfrowned, trying to remember what a cambion was. He was sure that they had ganked one at one point or another; they had ganked at least one of damn near everything at some point, but for the life of him he could not remember dealing with a- what was it, candy-on? "Huh. The name rings a bell, but I can't think of where I've heard of it before. What about you, Cas...?" Dean trailed off as he turned to the trench-coated angel. There was something wrong.
Cas's normally calm but intense face had gone white as his shirt, and his dark blue eyes were wide with fear. It seemed like he had unconsciously unsheathed his seraph blade and was holding it with a slightly shaky white-knuckled grip. Dean felt worry for his friend blossom in his chest. "Cas? What's wrong? Do you know what a cambion is?"
Cas's eyes darted back and forth as he nervously licked his lips. " I have to go..." And with the sound of a flag in the wind, he was gone
(A/N) Dun dun duuuuuunnn! Well, there is chapter two written and published for you guys! I'd love to know what you are thinking about the story so far, and where you think it is going. Feel free to (read: IM BEGGING YOU TO) message me or review your opinions! Same deal holds, for every review I get from different people, I knock off a day before I publish next. Thanks!
~Nexus
