After an exhausting location spell from Rowena was actually finished on time, Cas had a destination; Detroit Michigan. Sam packed a bag full of things that specifically wouldn't harm Cas accidently just by being in the vicinity. The barely repaired Lance, angel killing bullets, two pairs of Enochian cuffs, a knife with Enochian written all over it, an archangel blade they picked up after Lucifer was defeated, and a few other trinkets the Men of Letters had lying around.
Cas stood at the bottom of the stairs and hugged Jack who looked up fearful.
"Everything will be fine, Jack."
"How can you be sure?" He begged but Cas didn't have a good answer.
Sam walked up with the arsonal bag and handed it to Cas. Sam decided to answer for Cas. "Because, I quote, 'Gay love can pierce through the veil of death and save the day.'" He spoke with such meaning.
"Wait. What? Who said that?" Cas' head tilted.
"Oh, um, remember the Ghostfacers? You met them, right?" Sam stammered.
"Nevermind." Cas rolled his eyes and turned to leave up the bunker stairs and out the heavy door.
"Good luck!" Jack called as the door shut.
"Alright, kiddo, let's get to work." Sam ordered.
It was a lonely several hours drive for Cas from the bunker up to Detroit. He truly hated the city itself. The only impressive buildings were abandoned and falling apart. The people were mostly dependant on various forms of drugs and the ones that weren't were stuck in this illusion that the city could be saved but in reality they just needed to save themselves. The city wasn't worth redemption. It's people could always be saved, yes, and seek redemption or atleast sobriety, not the city itself. Detroit was a lost cause. It was as if the entire state of Michigan had given up on it by entirely avoiding to upkeep the surrounding roads, infrastructure, police and fire departments. Cas knew most of the people were only surviving on government money and didn't have the money to pay any taxes, so everything went sideways as a result.
Cas also mulled over what he wanted to do to Michael for taking over Dean and breaking the deal he had witnessed but knew it all had to be swept under the rug in order to preserve Dean, and hopefully save him.
He prayed to Michael as he crossed over the state boundary line and the road became bumpy.
"I'm coming for you brother, so help me if Dean has been mistreated in any way, shape or form, you will be punished at my hand first."
Just then, Dean's voice spoke slowly and filled Cas' head. "Oh, I look forward to it, little one. I'm waiting for you."
Cas swerved, almost totally off the crappy road, with that reply. This version of Dean's voice had made his spine tingle in fear. He hated that feeling. He had forgotten he would have to face Dean while fighting Michael. It was the perfect storm built up against him but Cas was determined. He picked up the phone to call Sam.
"Hey, you there yet?" Sam skipped the normal pleasantries.
"Nearly. I just got into Michigan."
"So get this, remember how we found that Men of Letters procedure to get a demon to be less...demony? We tried it with Crowley?"
"Yes, partly. It was highly experimental, was it not?"
"Yeah, well, before demons, the same priest slash mad scientist wrote down his theory to remove any foreign abstract supernatural being from its host. It's just a matter of finding the right prayer to counter the being."
"Did it ever work with an angel? Which prayer do I use?" Cas asked.
"We don't know yet. But we do know that you need to bring Dean, I mean, Michael back to the bunker, weakened but, well obviously, alive."
"You want me to capture, arguably the strongest being on Earth, ALIVE? And keep him incapacitated while I drive all the way back home??" Cas rolled his eyes.
There was a pause on the other end. "You can try, right?" Sam changed tactics. "Listen, Cas, you're the only one who can do this. You know Dean better than he knows himself and you know your brother's strengths and weaknesses. It's you all the way. You got this. I'll start looking for a prayer, right now."
Cas sighed trying to come up with a potential plan on the fly that fit Sam's specifications.
"Fine. Just be ready. Soon." Cas ended the call and tossed his cell on the seat. After some thinking he came up with an idea, a possible traveling route that just might work. One that wouldn't involve nearly anything in the arsonal bag that had been so carefully packed. Cas would still have to find a way to overpower the archangel, if just for a moment.
The spell guided him to a neighborhood, that was beside a busy freeway, where every two out of three houses were boarded up and abandoned. The house that Rowena pointed to on the map was also boarded up and marked uninhabitable but Cas parked the truck anyway and circled around back, looking for any sign that Michael might be inside. Cas couldn't push back the feeling that he could sense him inside. He didn't physically find anything but chose to pry the boards from the back porch door and look inside anyway. Michael could have flown in easily.
Cas carefully checked a few rooms walking as stealthily as possible.
"In here!" Dean's uncharacteristic sultry voice called from the front room of the small home.
Cas, wide eyed and nervous, came into the room from the hallway and saw something he did not expect. The following scenario was perfect for Cas' plan and he had to stifle a sly smile. A million things could still go wrong but this was the answer.
"Greetings, little brother, Castiel!" Michael spoke using Dean's mouth. "Come! Come! I'm greatly in need of a drinking partner!"
"You trust me?" Cas was so afraid his feet felt like they couldn't move. Every word he spoke had to be carefully calculated while never do scripted that they would let on to his true plan.
"Well, no, but we both know there's absolutely nothing you can do to harm me. So why not sit down and chat for a bit before I have to pull your vessel's intestines up your throat?" His words were so carefree and yet were delivered in the most threatening tone possible. He sounded like a wild millennial who properly owned and managed a large estate with killer tigers that he had trained himself. Both positively sociable and yet uniquely and extremely brimming with powerful rage.
Cas found a seat on a dusty armchair across the room from the matching and equally filthy couch upon which Michael lounged in Dean's body. Between them was a coffee table that was covered in boxes filled with alcohol of various kinds. There must have been alcoholic spirits from all over the world and of all different ages. A bottle hung in his hand until he took a long slug of it and tossed it into the unlit fireplace. This brought to Cas' attention the significant amount of broken glass that was spilling out of the hearth. Things continued to fall in favor of his plan.
"I see you have discovered alcohol." Cas spoke with the least amount of emotion possible, much like when he first took Jimmy Novak as a vessel. His entire being needed to rip Michael apart but Dean came first. Dean always came first to Castiel. Even more than the brightest rage Cas had ever allowed himself to bear.
"Yes, alcohol, it was one of the great loves of Dean's life, was it not? I dare anyone who knew him to say otherwise. I thought I'd indulge that side of me a bit. Besides, there wasn't nearly enough liquor distilleries still up and running on my planet to satisfy my thirst." He finished another whole bottle, tossed it, and broke another open. "You see, little brother, I feel as if Lucifer cheated me in our deal. I feel, what's the term…jilted. Lucy knew my plan was to conquer the Earth for myself but with so little angels here I wouldn't have an army. That's my whole thing. Michael the Archangel, Leader of the Angelic Army of God! Half the point of ruling the world and cleansing it of all the filthy sin of humans was to enjoy it with my brothers and sisters, for their benefit. But alas, there just aren't enough of us left, so I thought I would just enjoy this world's offerings for a bit before I move onto Plan B." He finished with a devilish smile while grabbing yet another bottle, smashing the neck on the table and drinking it down, broken glass shards and all. He tossed it in the fireplace with the others and grabbed another bottle to break open and enjoy.
"I see. What is Plan B?"
"That's for me to figure out still and you to find out, little one. So far, step one, you'll be dead. Oooh! I remember when Father made you! You were absolutely adorable, little one! You still are, you know, Dean thinks so too." Cas looked up alarmed. "I've been all over this human's thoughts and you are up front and center, little one! But he doesn't think he's worth having you. And damn straight! A human should never reach for an angel in such a way. It's disgusting and filled with such depravity I can't stand being in this filthy sin tank of a vessel. However, he is the best, fits like a tailored glove and all that. Isn't that tragic though? He at least honestly believed he didn't deserve to be happy and he punished himself by not allowing himself to get too close to you! Isn't that hilarious!?! Oh the HUMANITY! The only thing that could make it worse was if YOU had felt the same way!" Michael began to laugh in a fashion Dean never would have dreamt of but then he stopped abruptly focusing on Castiel's forced poker face. "Oh my, oh dear!! You can't be serious?!? You FILTHY little whore, you. No wonder your wings are losing feathers faster than the pestilence spread in Egypt!"
"Michael, please stop." This is most definitely not the way Cas wanted to learn of Dean's true feelings. It broke his heart thinking of all the suffering Dean had let himself endure. How long had he felt this way? Cas had to keep hiding his eruptions of emotions as carefully as possible for his plan to work. He couldn't afford an actual fight.
So Michael continued on mocking and laughing.
"No way! I can't believe that Father's "righteous man" and his "most beloved angel" want to…want to...ahhhh! Hahahaha!" The archangel grew hysterical with laughter and clutched his stomach dropping the most recent sharp bottle to roll on the floor.
That was his opening.
Cas leapt up skillfully and simultaneously clapped on the two pairs of Enochian cuffs onto his drunken brother's wrists. The cuffs, together with his wild drunken stupor, were enough for Cas to gain the upper hand if only for one moment.
Cas held the archangel blade dangerously close to Michael's neck. It was right along Dean's Adam's apple. The archangel grinned though Dean's white teeth and struggled under Cas' close grasp from behind. The blade pressed into the skin leaving a visible red line followed by a touch of blue grace.
"I don't want to hurt Dean but I will use this if you do not comply." Cas threatened in the deepest voice he could muster.
"Bite me." He replied, again with the sultry voice and a suggestive grin that made Cas' skin crawl.
Michael took Cas' moment of disgust and used it to catch him off guard then threw him up and over his head. Then he finished the move by tackling an unbalanced Castiel and pinning him down easily against the creaky floor boards. Michael straddled Castiel's tiny waist, then while gripping Castiel's thick hair in his left first, he began to relay punch after punch onto his face with the other. Cas begged internally for the beating to end. He didn't want to die by Dean's physical hand. What if Dean eventually survived and had to live, knowing he beat his best friend to death? Cas tried to wiggle free or block the hits but Michael was ferocious and unforgiving.
That was until, after countless hits into it, Michael stopped right in the middle of a swing.
"C-Cas?"
Cas squinted through an already swollen left eye and past a bleeding, broken three times over, nose to see Dean's gentle face looking so afraid and lost. There were tears in the corners of his emerald eyes that pleaded for help and forgiveness.
"Dean?... Is it really you?" Cas breathed.
"Run, Cas! He's going to kill you. Get away from me!" Dean's true voice was so fragile, Cas knew it was him. Dean managed to stand up allowing Cas to get up off the floor and stagger to stand. Dean screamed and grabbed both sides of his head with the same bloody knuckles on his right hand that had just beaten Cas to a pulp. The pain of holding Michael back was growing fast and he fell forward into Cas' chest who immediately held him close and supported his weight.
"Hold on, Dean." Cas spoke gently into his ear that relayed a positive outcome to Dean before they both vanished from the tiny dilapidated home entirely.
Enjoying it??? I really like getting those little hearts on my stories…you know the 'favorite' hearts. Each one is like a cuddle from a tiny adorable kitten to me.