Note: Just imagine the song, "Carry on My Wayward Son" for the first half of this chapter. There are potential spoilers up to the Season 10 mid-season finale.
The Road So Far
Dean kept on seeing glimpses of things. He heard snatches of words. Somehow, he knew that these were all things that led to where he, Sam, and Bobby had been sent. It looked like it went beyond that too.
Castiel stood in a circle of holy fire, looking hurt and trying desperately to explain, but no one listening.
"We can fix this!"
"It's not broken, Dean!"
Cas sitting on a bench with snow sprinkled on the ground, looking up and praying to an absent father for a sign.
Cas and Dean standing in Bobby's yard, a broken demon's trap on the ground. Cas was once more looking at Dean, his eyes pleading for understanding, but Dean turned away.
"Dean, I do everything that you ask. I always come when you call, and I am your friend. Still, despite your lack of faith in me, and now your threats, I just saved you, yet again. Has anyone but your closest kin ever done more for you?"
Dean, Sam, and Bobby standing in an alley when Castiel appears, reaches up, and touches Sam's head, causing him to collapse. Dean knew that the wall had been broken.
Sam unconscious in Bobby's panic room as Dean watches over him.
Castiel stabbing Balthazar in the back, his eyes practically dead. Dean knows that somehow Balthazar did something to make Cas even more alone.
Castiel standing apart from everyone as Crowley, Raphael, Bobby, and Dean stared at him in horror. He lit up, as a light seemed to fill him. Then with a snap of his fingers, Raphael exploded.
Dean pleading with him. There was no sign of Cas within his blue eyes.
"You're not my family, Dean. I have no family."
Sam stabbing Cas in the back with an angel blade, and Cas pulling it out without there being even a trace of blood on it.
"But the angel blade won't work, because I'm not an angel anymore. I'm your new God. A better one."
Castiel standing in a field surrounded by dead angels, their wings burned into the ground.
Sam looking around wildly, obviously hallucinating.
Castiel's face and body beginning to burn away as something tries to force itself out of his stomach.
Dean and Cas exchanging threats with Death right in the middle.
Cas waking up drenched in blood, an entire office of people slaughter.
Cas collapsing on the floor in Bobby's kitchen, trying to keep the souls inside.
The ceremony to open Purgatory being done once more, with Dean propping Cas up. Cas giving a final glance over his shoulder.
"I'm sorry, Dean."
Light exploding out of Cas before he fell to the floor. Was he dead?
Cas standing, then pushing him and Bobby away. He was jerking this way and that as he tried to fight off an enemy inside, but Dean knew that he was being killed before his eyes.
Cas's eyes black and dead, a maniacal grin crossing his face as black spread up the veins in his neck.
"Cas is - he's gone. He's dead. We run the show now."
Black dripping from Cas as he walked jerkily into a lake.
A trenchcoat floating in the water, the only remnant of Cas.
Sam and Dean shouting at each other at the edge of tears, and Dean gripping Sam's hand tight.
Bobby's house a smoking wreck.
Jo flickering into existence, a ghost, coming closer to Dean as if he were prey.
Bobby lying in a hospital bed with a bandage wrapped around his head, giving the Winchesters one final smile.
"Idjits."
Sam in a hospital looking like complete crap. He looked like he was at Death's door.
Castiel looking up at Dean from the bottom of some porch steps, not a hint of recognition in his eyes.
Cas looking sad and guilty, still not wearing the trenchcoat, as he smote a demon.
Dean handing Cas his trenchcoat back and Cas donning it like armor.
Fiery red lines snaking from Sam to Castiel and entering his eyes.
"It's better this way. I'll be fine."
Cas sitting on the hospital bed in scrubs, obviously not all there, with only Meg for company.
Bobby, a ghost, still trying to help the Winchesters.
Castiel back in the trenchcoat but still not there as he gave a childish grin, as he held up a game of Sorry, as he picked up scattered pieces when Dean knew he could put it away with a wave of his fingers.
"I don't fight anymore. I watch the bees."
Sam looking at Cas with pity and Cas not understanding what was going on.
"I know you never did anything but try to help. I realize that, Cas, and I'm grateful. We're all grateful. And we're gonna help you get better, okay? No matter what it takes."
"What do you mean 'better?'"
Some blonde angel yelling at Dean and trying to make him pay.
"When Castiel first laid a hand on you in Hell, he was lost!"
Despite not fighting anymore, Cas still stepping in and not defending himself as the angel rained down blows.
Dean and Sam reading a notebook, Cas standing to the side. The angel smiling as he brought forth a vial and filled it with his own blood.
"Well, you know me. Always happy to bleed for the Winchesters."
Dean and Cas in some sort of lab with Cas once more taking the fall for Dean. Dean stabbing a guy with a knowing grin and black exploding everywhere.
Dean running through some sort of forest. Dean later joining forces with a vampire. Cas sitting at the edge of a river, dirty and tired looking.
Dean making his way through a glowing portal and Cas pushing him into it, staying in that forest.
"I think…too much heart was always Castiel's problem."
Sam looking down at some woman, longing in his eyes, before turning and walking out the door.
Sam and Dean arguing, looking tense.
Cas showing up once more, looking just as dirty.
Cas back in his usual outfit, sitting across from Dean in a motel room, his eyes pained.
"Because if I see what Heaven's become – what I – what I made of it... I'm afraid I might kill myself."
Sam and Dean yelling at each other once more.
Castiel strapped to a chair as some woman, probably an angel, stuck a drill in his eye and he screamed.
Sam and Dean looking around the Bunker with wonder.
Sam's arm glowing as he coughed painfully.
Castiel surrounded by dead bodies that looked like Dean, his eyes empty.
Castiel beating Dean up in what looked like a crypt. It kept switching between the crypt and that white room with that angel, so there was the impression that Cas was being forced to do this.
"This isn't you. Cas, I know you're in there. I know you can hear me. Cas, it's me. We're family. We need you; I need you."
Castiel pausing and dropping the blade. Cas healing Dean. Cas leaving.
Sam getting worse and worse, and that glow getting stronger.
A short, middle-aged man that just gave off creepy vibes.
Cas laying in the middle of the road, bleeding out, as the Impala screeched to a stop.
The man, who must be Metatron, approaching Cas as he was buying groceries.
Sam injecting something into a chained Crowley.
Sam obviously in pain and Dean begging for him to stop what he was doing.
"Don't you dare think that there is anything, past or present, that I would put in front of you!"
Cas tied down to that same chair as Metatron cut his throat and stole his grace.
The angels all falling from Heaven.
Sam dying in a hospital bed until some angel shows up and Dean lets him possess Sam.
Cas huddled into a ball on the streets, so very human.
A woman seducing Cas and then later torturing and killing him.
The angel in Sam bringing Cas back to life.
Cas looking up at Dean with the saddest expression ever to grace the Earth as Dean chose Sam as always.
"You can't stay."
Cas working in a gas station with a proud smile.
The angel in Sam meeting with Metatron.
Cas chained up and tortured by angels, before cutting and consuming an angel's Grace, signing his death warrant.
Dean, Cas, and Crowley riding in the Pimpmobile.
Crowley torturing the angel in Sam's body.
Team Free Will going its separate ways.
"Well, maybe I would've liked the choice, at least."
An older man taking Dean by the arm, and red lines link them together as the Mark of Cain is bestowed.
"But you have to know with the mark comes a great burden. Some would call it a great cost."
"Yeah, well, spare me the warning label. You had me at 'kill the bitch.'"
Dean violently stabbing and then beating up a demon with a blade that looks like some kind of jawbone.
Angels asking Cas to punish Dean and him refusing.
"You gave us order, Castiel, and we gave you our trust. Don't lose it over one man."
The angels leaving Cas standing with the Winchesters.
"You really believe we three will be enough?"
"We always have been."
Metatron sinking an angel blade in Dean's heart.
Cas trying to hold back tears as he faced off with Metatron.
Dean's eyes opening to reveal nothing but black.
Crowley saving Cas's life on a whim.
Dean nearly killing Sam with a hammer, only being prevented by Cas restraining him. Blue Grace-filled eyes contrasted with black demon-eyes.
The black draining away from Dean's eyes and Dean giving a sheepish smile to the angel and his brother.
Dean talking to a school girl on what looked to be a stage filled with things from their lives as two people dressed like Dean and Cas stood way too close to each other and hugged.
"Although, we do explore the nature of Destiel in act two."
"Sorry, what?"
"Oh, it's just subtext! But, then again, you know, you can't spell subtext without... s-e-x."
Cas and Hannah kissing. Then Hannah leaving her vessel in a stream of white light, leaving Cas looking up.
Dean facing down some guy, and looking utterly resigned and defeated.
"Now the truth is... I'm past saving. I know how my story ends, it's at the edge of a blade or the barrel of a gun."
Cas looking all alone as he Googled Jimmy Novak.
Cas trying to help a familiar looking girl.
Dean and Cas sitting in a restaurant together. Cas looking slightly crushed as Dean makes him promise to kill him.
"If I do go dark side, you gotta take me out."
"What do you mean?"
"Knife me, smite me, throw me into the freakin' sun. Whatever. And don't let Sam get in the way, because he'll try. I can't go down that road again, man. I can't be that thing again."
Dean on his knees in the middle of a room, surrounded by dead bodies. Sam tapping his cheek, while Cas stared in horror and despair, shielding the girl.
Dean watched as these shards of events flew past him and he wondered what he could do.
"You still don't get it?"
Dean turned and saw Gabriel standing there.
Gabriel had a contemplative look on his face. "You know, the only one I was supposed to send was you. After all, you have the biggest influence on Castiel." He shrugged. "Still, I figured you could use the support and they have as much right to see how things turned out."
"Can I really stop it?" Dean asked.
Gabriel was quiet for a moment. "For them, no." He looked a bit sad. "For them, this has already happened. The moment you change things, due to my interference, they'll just become an alternate universe."
"So Cas…"
"Who knows, not everything is set in stone there." Gabriel summoned a sucker and popped it in his mouth. "Still, things in general just suck."
"So what can I do?" Dean asked, frustrated.
"I told you from the get-go what the lesson was, what you should do." Gabriel sighed and looked up. "Is it just me or do I always have to end up explaining the lesson because these morons can't figure it out themselves?" There was no response. "Fine." He huffed.
He gestured for Dean to sit down, and suddenly Dean found himself back at the Bunker at the library tables.
"Have you ever thought of actually listening?" Gabriel asked, sarcasm dripping from his voice.
"What do you mean?" Dean asked.
"You've thought it yourself the past few days." Gabriel put his feet up on the table and leaned back. "You never really take Cas and his problems seriously. Then, when he does something you don't like, you don't try to understand and push him away. I didn't really show you many of those, but there are, like, a ton of stuff like that."
"But…" Dean's brow furrowed in confusion. "That seems to be too easy."
"You prevented that other future you saw from happening by making a single phone call to Sam." Gabriel pointed out. "It's these simple, emotional things that are hard for you. That's why you need to be shown what happens when you don't do it."
Dean was quiet as he mulled things over. "And this way… Cas won't end up all alone?"
Gabriel gave him a serious look. "Dean-o, if you ever got up the courage to ever ask him to stay, no matter what the point in time, that's all it would take to make sure Cas doesn't end up alone."
Gabriel began to raise his hand to snap his fingers. But Dean gestured for him to stop.
"Will we remember this? I mean, I'm pretty sure we learned plenty of stuff we shouldn't know yet."
Gabriel blinked. "Wow, being smart for once." Dean snorted, about to protest, when Gabriel went on. "You may not remember everything. You'll have the gist of things and impressions of what you don't really need to know. More importantly, you'll remember the important lessons."
Before Dean could utter another word, the archangel snapped his fingers.
AN: Next chapter is the last. I originally titled this chapter "Shards of Time." Then I realized that I showed basically everything up until now, so I decided to go with "The Road So Far." I didn't include everything that I could have, but I thought I got the highlights and best plot points that lead to what we have now. Til next time.
