Do you guys like the recaps or are they kinda pointless? I personally prefer it when writers use them because I tend to forget the specific events of a fic I'm reading (because let's be honest, I read so many they kinda all blend together).
Please let me know! Any criticism (or compliments, if you can find any) are greatly appreciated.
RECAP:
"Dean Johnson." The shifter nodded, flashing Dean his own trademark smirk. If it weren't for the knife, Dean might have thought he was having a casual conversation with his clone.
"Just the man I was looking for."
The blade was finally taken away from his neck as the shifter started circling Dean like prey. He took the distraction to try to escape.
Castiel's injured hand was starting to develop a cold tingling sensation, and he distractedly noticed that he couldn't feel the ropes chafe on his wrist anymore. That was obviously the least of his worries, and as soon as he escaped it wouldn't even be classified as one.
Meanwhile, Dean's attention was focused like a laser beam on the impossibility in front of him. He decided to focus on one 'what' at a time.
"What are you?"
Not-Dean spread his arms as he shrunk into a peppy blonde girl, "I'm anything you want me to be."
Dean shifted his grip on the frying pan at the not-much-of-an-answer answer that only succeeded in raising more questions. The shifter came to stand menacingly in front of Dean with his (her?) back to Castiel. It would've been comical, if not for the obvious proof that he/she could definitely follow through on a threat.
"You okay, Cas?" Dean noticed the developing bruise growing under Cas' left eye, and the grimace of pain in his features.
"Fine." Cas grimaced. He was using all of the grace he could to burn through the ropes, focusing it on his wrists in an effort to make them hot enough to burn.
He was thankful that his hands were behind his back so Dean couldn't see the faint blue glow emanating from them. Not the best time to bring that up.
Understanding anything about the situation was hopeless, but Dean was still curious. "What do you want?"
The shifter changed into a smirking version of Castiel, clad in the plain grey t-shirt and jeans he was wearing. He canted his head to the side in typical Cas fashion, and the gravelly voice that came out completely juxtaposed that of the blonde.
"You," he said.
Dean blinked at the sudden transformation, eyes shifting between the bizarre impossibility standing in front of him and the strange but slightly less bizarre predicament his own Cas found himself in. His eyes flicked to his Cas, who mouthed to him to keep talking.
But he was finding it difficult to pay attention to the conversation when there were two Castiels in the room.
"Why- what do you want with me?" Dean stuttered.
He shrugged. "I could honestly care less about you. My employer-" the shifter paused, frowning in mild surprise.
"You didn't tell him, did you?" He scoffed, turning to ask Castiel.
Now, having taken on Castiel's form, the alpha shapeshifter was able to hear Cas' memories and thoughts. Thus, he could tell when Cas was preparing to attack him.
But it still didn't give him the advantage he needed.
The ropes lay in a heap at Castiel's feet as he stood, and the charred ends were still smoking from where Cas had burnt through them with his smothered grace. He moved forward, stepping menacingly over the strange symbols painted onto the floor. Instantly he felt the full weight of his grace come rushing back to him, although he failed to notice the faint blue glow his eyes acquired.
The shifter stepped back when he saw this, and lifted the blade.
Suddenly Castiel was gone. Disappeared. It happened in a split second, the moment that Cas disappeared, and he instantaneously reappeared behind the shifter. Neither man nor monster had been expecting it, not when Cas easily took the blade from the unsuspecting clone.
Dean watched in horrified realization as the shifter sharply turned towards the raised blade. He stepped forward to stop Castiel from killing the thing, but not in time.
The blade pierced up through Cas' head, under his chin, but it wasn't Cas. Those blue eyes that Dean knew too well flashed a bright grey, and Dean shuddered to see his lifeless body fall heavily to the floor after the knife was pulled out. The only comfort he took was that his Cas was still standing in front of him.
Even that was quickly smothered. Who was this Cas?
"I didn't think that would work," Cas muttered, but Dean could just barely hear him.
He repeated in a whisper, "Didn't think-?"
"Oh, so normally when you kill people, stabbing them through the head doesn't work?" He could feel himself getting slightly hysterical as he quickly started pacing the room, eyes never leaving the body on the floor.
"That wasn't exactly a person. . ." Cas supplied weakly. He cleaned the blade on the shapeshifter's jeans. The body at his feet changed one last time to its original appearance, the body of that ill-fated shapeshifter taking on the form of a sandy-haired, grey-eyed man in his early 30s.
Although age, in cases such as this, was always subjective.
Dean noticed the change, and although he looked slightly more at ease no longer seeing his best friend's body lying in the middle of his floor, he was still disturbed to say the least.
"What-" he faltered as he gripped his hair anxiously, "What was that, Cas? What are you? Who are you?" He had seen the way Castiel's eyes glowed blue, how he had inexplicably disappeared and reappeared instantly and, more concerning, seen the way he full-on stabbed someone in the face.
Cas tried to explain himself, but stopped short when he realized that he didn't even know where to begin.
Dean couldn't tear his eyes away from the body.
"Let's talk somewhere else," Cas suggested.
Confession time: this is nowhere near the direction I was going to take this in. Like, if this fic originally started out going left, it would've suddenly taken a sharp right around chapter 6.
I still don't know how I feel about that: it was originally going to be about the relationship with Cas and Dean if Dean's whole family died in the fire, how Dean's life would have changed, but it kinda transformed into something else. Cas wasn't originally going to be an actual angel, he wasn't going to know anything about the supernatural. I was going to bring the supernatural in at the end of the fic as a sort of thriller/cliffhanger, but that obviously didn't work out.
I might make another fic about the different ending this could have had, but we'll see. I'll let you guys know, and please let me know if you're interested.