Chapter Seven

Author's note - Hey guys, so this is a lot later than I was hoping to get this chapter written and right now its past 3 in the morning so I apologise for any grammar/spelling mistakes that are bound to be in here. I'll edit them out when i dont feel like a zombie. =D Hope you enjoy!

Better off not knowing? What was that supposed to mean? Dean spins around to insist the angel explain himself only to have the gate slammed in his face by the guard.

Castiel is gone.

Dean sucks in a shuddering breath. It has been ten years; a whole decade since he and Sam were separated and he is still no closer to finding out where his brother is. Neither is he any closer to finding a way of escaping the colosseum so that he can go in search of him. Though after his chat with Metatron, it now seems like he won't be staying there for much longer anyway.

Instead he'll have to escape the clutches of the Supreme Ruler himself. Because that didn't sound impossible at all.

"Dean?" a familiar voice says softly, carrying him back to the present.

He turns to see Chuck stood several feet behind him, his face uncertain and eyes wider and more pained than Dean's ever seen them.

"Hey," he greets with a small smile. The single word seems entirely insufficient but he isn't sure what else to say.

Chuck makes a broken sound that is somewhere between a laugh and a sob and lurches forward, grabbing Dean in a tight hold and burrowing his face into the younger man's neck.

"I thought you were dead," he chokes out.

Dean feels his collar dampening with his friend's tears and he fights back the wetness in his own eyes. "You're not getting rid of me that easy," he quips.

Chuck rears back and takes a hold of Dean's face, turning it both ways. "But how?" he gapes. "I saw the footage. I saw you climb out of the rubble…you were burned…and bleeding…there was no way anyone could have survived that."

"I did."

"But you shouldn't have!"

Dean rolls his eyes. "Well, if you'd like, I can beg the masters to let me back into the labyrinth for a redo but honestly, I'm good with this outcome."

"Smartass," Chuck breathes, pulling him back in for another hug and Dean just grins and leans into the embrace.

When they finally pull apart, Dean realizes they have an audience. A lot of the other gladiators, both old and new, have gathered around and are staring at Dean with varying expressions of confusion, wonder and something else that looks suspiciously like anger, which Dean supposes he can understand. After all, he had literally been at death's door only a few hours ago and now here he is, walking and talking with not a mark on him.

If it had been anyone else, any other gladiator that had made a miraculous recovery from almost certain death, he would have been distrustful of them too. Still, the sudden shift in the atmosphere is more than a little disconcerting.

Many of the others whisper amongst themselves but Dean can't make out the words hidden underneath the hiss of their breaths and all of a sudden, he feels like a ten-year-old kid again, small, anxious and surrounded by men who don't want him there.

Chuck takes a hold of his arm. "Come on. I'm not too sure about this lot but there are a couple of people I know will be happy to see you."

Together they shoulder their way through the group of people until they reach their cell. Both of their blankets have been hung up in front of it; something that is only ever done when someone wants somewhere private to mourn the loss of a loved one…or if someone wants to spend some alone time with a loved one, but Dean doesn't think that the last option applies to the situation at hand.

Chuck pulls aside a blanket and ushers him inside, following him in but staying by the makeshift curtain, as if standing guard which, Dean realises, is quite possibly what he is doing.

Dean hopes it is an unnecessary precaution and that his friend is just being overly careful but he knows what disgruntled gladiators are capable of.

He puts that out of his mind for now as he glances around their small cell and finds himself looking at two very welcome faces.

The Avenger and Kevin are sat on Chuck's bed, huddled closely together. Both of them look bruised up and bone weary, and Avenger's left leg is heavily bandaged from her foot to just above her knee but considering everything they had been through today, Dean thinks they look damn good. They turn to stare at him as he enters and their eyes widen in shock.

"No way. Dean?" Kevin gasps.

"Sup, Kid," Dean grins.

Avenger goes several shades paler, all colour draining from her face and Dean turns to her in alarm. "Hey, you okay there? You look like you've just seen a ghost."

Avenger stares at him for a moment longer before quietly replying, "I'm still not sure I haven't."

"You're alive?" The way Kevin says it, voice full of utter disbelief, definitely makes it a question and Dean can't help a small huff of laughter.

"I guess so."

Kevin's face transforms from shocked to ecstatic in a second and before Dean even has the time to blink, the kid has leapt from the bed and thrown his arms around Dean's middle, squeezing tightly.

Dean freezes, unsure of how to react, before settling on awkwardly patting Kevin on the back in a 'there, there' kind of way.

"Yeah, it's good to see you too, kid," he grunts.

"I already told you, that's not my name." Kevin sniffs as he finally releases Dean and settles back onto the bed.

"But how?" Avenger asks, still staring at Dean like he is some sort of apparition. "How are you still alive?"

"That's what I'd like to know." Chuck adds from his place behind them. "Don't get me wrong, I'm glad you're back and that you're okay but like I said before, no one should have survived those wounds."

"And no one should have been able to come back from those wounds without so much as a scratch." Avenger added. "I saw you, Dean. You should be scarred for life. Disfigured even, but instead you're.…" she broke off and just waved a hand at him, at gesture which Dean took to mean 'as incredibly pretty as always'.

"So what happened?" Chuck finally asks.

Dean sighs heavily, knowing that his explanation will only bring up more questions but also knowing that everyone in the room needed to hear what he had to say. After all, they were all a part of this too.

"Metatron happened." Dean says simply before launching into his account of what had gone down in the med bay.

When he tells them of how the Supreme Ruler had healed him with his angel mojo, they are equal parts shocked and outraged that the angels had this power but didn't usually deign to use it on their human slaves.

Avenger seemed to take the news the hardest. "All the people they could have saved…" she spits angrily and Dean knows she's thinking of her brother. She shoots Dean a glare. "What makes you so special?"

Dean flinches under her unforgiving gaze, suddenly remembering why he avoided her in the past. "I – I asked him that too," he answers. "He told me he wanted me in his collection. He wants all of us in his collection."

Stunned silence meets his words until…

"What is that supposed to mean?" Chuck explodes. "What collection?"

Dean can tell that his friend's mind has shot someplace dark just like his had upon hearing the news for the first time. "His collection of Gladiators. He wants the best and apparently we fit the bill."

This seems to placate Chuck a little but both he and Avenger still look like they want to go and murder somebody.

"So do we have to leave?" Kevin asks quietly and looks absolutely crestfallen when Dean nods his head. "When?"

"We have a week."

A panicked look crosses briefly over the boy's face and Dean can't help wondering why he cares so much about where they lived. Whether it was this colosseum or another, their fates would remain the same.

"I'm too tired to listen to any more of this." Avenger growls, "I'm leaving."

She stands and goes to do just that but as she brushes past Dean, she hesitates. "I'm glad you're all right." She finally bites out through gritted teeth, but the words sound hard and sour to Dean, leaving him doubtful that she really means them.

"She's not really angry at you," Chuck assures him once she's gone, blanket swishing in her wake. "Even if she doesn't realise it yet."

Dean hopes Chuck's right. He may have only really known Avenger for the day but despite her usual terrifying demeanour, she was actually a pretty cool person. Headstrong, funny and tough; she was someone Dean would like to be able to call friend.

The three of them sit in silence for a while, before Chuck interrupts it with a snigger. "So Kevin here managed to earn himself a name."

"Really?" Dean's genuinely surprised. It usually takes several fights for the angels to name a gladiator. Kevin must have done something exceptional to have been named after only one.

Kevin's only response is to groan and hide is face in his hands but not before Dean spots the faint blush on his cheeks. The same blush that always appeared whenever Dean mentioned a certain word.

Suddenly, Dean wants to laugh too. "They named you 'The Virgin', didn't they?"

"No!" Kevin says quickly, face snapping back up and reddening even further. "Why do you have to keep bringing that up?"

Dean shrugs with a grin whilst Chuck shakes with silent laughter. "Just seemed like something the angels would do, that's all."

"Well you're not too far off," Chuck tells him. "From now on, our young friend here shall be known to the angel community as Dragon Bait."

Kevin hangs his head again and Dean can't help another chuckle at his expense. "Dragon Bait? Seriously? Well that's going to strike fear into the hearts of all those who hear of you."

Kevin shoots him a scathing look. "Like Wild Child is any better."

"Kid's got a point." Chuck agrees.

"The kid would have a point," Dean snarks back, suddenly and bizarrely grateful for Metatron's gift, if only so he can win this argument. "If the Supreme Ruler hadn't decided to change my name."

"Wait…what?"

"Metatron changed my name. I don't know, maybe it's because I'm going to be one of his fighter's now and he wanted me to have a cooler title or something."

"I didn't think they could do that. Just change a gladiator's name like that."

"Neither did I." Dean says. "Until today."

"Well, let's hear it then. This new name of yours."

Dean tells them and Chuck seems strangely impressed. "That's not actually half bad. It's better than your old name in any case."

Dean gives Kevin his best smug grin. "I rest my case."

The kid just rolls his eyes in return.