A/N: uhmm... heh... heh... so... achem... this is my apology chapter... :D yay? I am so terribly freaking sorry it has taken over a freaking year for me to give you chapter two O.O I have a million excellent excuses - my baby Blaze died; mom had a bad heart attack; I'm in college; I lost all my stories AGAIN... excellent excuses, but I am so very sorry. Life got in the way and it sucks and I'm sorry but yeah, here it is, finally chapter two.

I think these chapters are going to be short simply because since I lost this story, I am kind of re-learning it again as I write it, since I lost all my notes and everything :( So except shorter updates. And hopefully shorter delays, good god! SORRY!

If any of you are still following this, here is chapter two! It's basically filler, and more of a "forgive me" chapter than anything. heh... sorry! Give me a week or so to read over everything and attempt to make new notes, and then hopefully I can start writing this story in earnest :) Reviews really DO help motivate me and I can tell you right now, the 20+ reviews I got for the first chapter of this alone are what made me finally decide "hey, I think I will attempt this again". Had I not gotten such awesome reviews... there would be no update. Sad but true, so I do really, really, REALLY appreciate the reviews!

I don't like QUITTING on stories. So even if there is a horribly long wait, when inspiration strikes, I WILL update it. Reverberating Footsteps, Steady Now, Dragon's Blood... they will all be updated given the time, I assure you. My writing style has just changed, I'm not all that into Supernatural right now (because I'm so freaking far behind... I saw only about 4 random episodes of season 7, none of season 8, and none of season 9 so far, and I just hate being so far behind, heh. So that has something to do with not updating XD

I am also rewriting Green Eyes, very slowly. It's a choppy story at best, with a thousand plot holes and I know that, but I was young when I wrote it XD Years have passed, my writing style has changed a lot, and I'm just not the same person I was. So if I ever get around to getting serious about the rewrite, I might post it. Things will be different, I assure you, but also mostly the same. I just might add more scenes or take some out, I dunno ;)

ANYWAY thanks for bearing with me! And sorry this chapter is so freaking SHORT D: Like I said it is my "forgive me" chapter, an update for the sake of saying "hey I'm still here, see?" and all the rest of the chapters will probably be a lot shorter than usual. At least until I get back in the groove of things. Heh. Sorry again!

ANYWAY enough of that.

ONWARD!

Chapter Two

They traveled all the time.

There was little time to actually stop and do anything, let alone mourn the loss of one of their own. This took a toll on all of them, Castiel most of all, but Marcus was affected as well. He stuck his neck out for the departed Green Eye – risked everything to help him, because he was different. He wasn't like the others he'd hurt before him. He wasn't like the others he'd converted into White Eyes, the others he betrayed on Michael's orders.

Saving his own skin, every time. Better that they were injured with that horrible, violet blade than himself be hurt by it. No one ever cared as long as they weren't the ones being hurt by that blade. Except Dean.

He was the difference. The anomaly. The part of the equation that just didn't belong. He stuck his neck out, defied his own self-preservation instincts, and defended Marcus. Like he deserved defending. Like he hadn't just been some lowly Green Eye, like Dean was as well. Like he meant something, something more than a means to an end. Dean stood up for him, facing death himself for his actions, but he didn't care about the consequences.

So how could Marcus not help him? How could he not grow fond of the guy? Dean was a loyal Eye – a friend, even. Marcus couldn't recall the last time he actually had friends, but this group… this group was family to him, now. A better family than the White Eyes had ever been. It started with Dean, and led to these people. These Eyes he would have previously tossed aside to save his own skin, but that was not his life anymore, not since Dean intervened in a plan which had worked on so many before him.

In general, Eyes were selfish. Self-preservation was vital to survival, and was part of the reason Green Eyes were so hated. Marcus wasn't entirely sure why, but he knew that a long time ago, Green Eyes tried to take over everything. They almost succeeded, with their fire abilities, and their smoking. However, soon the Blue Eyes emerged victorious and turned everyone against the Green Eyes, even against the Hazel Eyes as well, for having Green Eye blood in them.

It all got so out of hand. Green Eyes were hunted and caged, treated like animals. They were kept in the Abyss, their home area. If they ventured out, it meant capture and almost certain death. The penalty for leaving, for breaking that vital law, was death. No mercy, because the Green Eyes of eons past didn't show mercy… so why should the Eyes do so now?

Marcus didn't like that this was the way the world worked, but it was, and there was little he could do about it. He'd traded his old life for a new one the minute he became a White Eye, chose a primary Eye of topaz, and started following Michael's orders.

In theory, Michael's plan made sense. Make everyone equal. If everyone was equal, there would be no war and no reason to fight. Any Eye could be made into a White Eye, and from that, any White Eye could change into any Eye. Marcus never bothered to learn the basics of changing, because he himself had just been happy to be a Topaz Eye instead of a lowly Green Eye. He could teleport. He wasn't hated. It was great.

The other White Eyes, though… a good many of them… they knew how to change their Eyes. They could easily hunt them down, and they had, before. It was what inevitably led to Dean's untimely death.

He respected Dean. He really did. Remembered when Dean almost gave up, remembered how he growled at him, because he couldn't give up… not after what he'd done for Marcus, what Marcus had done for him and the others…

It didn't matter now, though. The Green Eye was dead and buried, and had been for a little over two months now. They were still on the run and had little time to stop or mourn the loss of their fallen comrade. The White Eyes – and Blue Eyes and Gray Eyes – were still hunting them. Marcus feared what would happen if they found them again, because he could only imagine that the horrible knife would be involved.

Of course it would be. Michael wouldn't let any of them off easily. They would be tortured, and in the end, killed.

But death would not come soon enough, he knew.

In theory, he knew why they had to keep moving.

Explaining it to Castiel, however…

Well, that was another matter entirely.

Castiel sighed as he lay in bed, looking up at the ceiling. They were in yet another town which wasn't worth mentioning. They went through them too quickly to memorize them all, and it wasn't like there was any point remembering. Now when he was already losing more of his memory than he wanted to.

Losing more of Dean than he wanted to…

He closed his eyes. He was too exhausted for this right now. Sleep would be better, he knew, because while he had a lot of nightmares pertaining to when Dean died, at least it was better there than it was here.

When he was sleeping, Dean was there, in his dreams. Nightmares or dreams, he was there. Dying or alive, he was there.

But when Castiel woke up…

There was no Dean.

And there never would be again.

Waking up was the real nightmare.

A/N: And there's that. LIke I said, short, but it's an update, right? If any of you are still following this, that is O.o if you're not, I don't blame you, that was a stupidly long wait and I really am sorry :( Anyway, thanks for reading and please review!

~Muffy the Dough Slayer~