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14. Strength
For years, Castiel had always been certain that Dean was his strength. Dean was why he had rebelled against Heaven and fallen. It had been the thought of Dean that had driven Castiel through his war against Raphael. Dean had been the reason he'd returned the souls to Purgatory when nobody else could convince him. When regaining his memories after his second resurrection, the first flashbacks had been of Dean. Naomi may have been able to make him kill hundreds of fake Deans but the real one had penetrated the haze of brainwashing and brought him back to himself. He'd given up an army for Dean and had been crushed when Metatron had told him of Dean's death. And he had sacrificed his grace so that Dean could be rid of the accursed Mark of Cain. Time and time again, he had chosen Dean over everything else – even his own kin – and time and time again, he knew that he had made the right choice.
Dean was oblivious to just how much he meant to Castiel. But the ex-angel knew that if not for Dean, he would still be Heaven's bitch and blindly obeying orders instead of getting to spend the rest of his now dramatically shorter life (not that he cared, really – a few billion years of existence were more than enough and he'd go to Heaven upon death anyway) with the man he loved. Dean had saved him, showed him free will and what a blessing (and yet a curse) it could be, and Castiel would be eternally grateful.
Dean was his strength, the most precious thing in the world to him, and he would die before letting anybody harm a hair on Dean's head.