The Road So Far
K Hanna Korossy
"Once, there were two brothers."
"You don't have to—"
"Please, hear me out.
They lost their mother to a demon.
They lost their father to vengeance.
The older idolized his father.
The younger idolized the older.
Then they grew up, and the younger left for school.
The older stayed behind.
When the younger lost his beloved to a demon, he returned to his brother.
They hunted together, struggling.
The older was electrocuted, but the younger saved him, at the cost of another's life.
The older was attacked, but their father saved him, at the cost of his own life.
Then the younger was killed, but the older saved him, at the cost of his own soul.
He died repeatedly at an archangel's whim, but was resurrected each time.
Soon after, he was dragged into Hell for good.
But an angel brought him back out.
They hunted together, uneasy.
The younger broke the world in his anger over his brother.
He saved it eventually again, at the cost of himself.
They'd died before, gone to a mock Heaven, and returned.
But this time the younger went to Hell.
The angel saved him, too, but only brought back half a man.
His brother made a deal for the damaged other half.
They hunted together, relieved.
They lost their friend angel.
They lost the man who had been a father to them.
The younger brother lost his mind.
But he got it back, just in time to lose his brother.
The oldest went to Purgatory. The younger lost himself again.
Reuniting rescued them both.
They hunted together, hurting.
They found a home.
The younger, trying to atone for his mistakes, almost died.
The older, trying to save him, made a big mistake.
They hunted together, angry.
The oldest gained power, at the cost of himself.
He was killed, and reborn a demon.
The younger saved him, at the cost of their friend.
And at the risk of the world.
They hunted together, reeling.
The strangest alliance ever saved the world.
Their mother returned from the dead, then was taken again.
The devil had a child.
And it wasn't just their world in danger anymore, but many other worlds.
They took in the child. Rescued their mother. Saved as many as they could from the other places.
The younger died, and was brought back by his enemy.
An archangel stole the older brother.
He was rescued by the devil's son, at the eventual cost of their mother.
God—Chuck, the wannabe Almighty—'saved' them, at the cost of everything:
Their adopted son. Their allies. Their hero's protection. The angel.
They hunted together, despairing, determined.
They defeated the god, and found a good replacement.
They hunted together, at peace.
Then the older was killed by a vampire on a hunt.
He went to Heaven.
No one brought him back.
The younger hunted alone for a while, grieving.
He had to live the rest of his days without his brother."
The speaker sat back on the ledge, finished.
Jack, for he still thought of himself as Jack, blinked, also an unnecessary affect he still allowed himself. "Why did you tell me all this? You know I know the whole story." He didn't quite know everything—he wasn't GOD God—but he knew most everything he wanted to and especially about his friends. "Besides, that's not where it ends. Dean's already in Heaven. Sam will reunite with him there when it's time, and they'll be together eternally."
It was two a.m. in human time where they were, on a mountain somewhere in Switzerland's Alps. Not that temperature or darkness mattered for two celestial beings, but Jack had chosen where they'd meet this time, and it was…pretty.
"Yes," Castiel was answering, "but Sam is mourning deeply now, by himself. And Dean never had a chance to enjoy his earthly life." The angel, still in the suit and trench coat that were always part of his manifestation now, leaned in. "Look at everything they've gone through. Their whole story is about free will, loyalty, and sacrifice. Is this really how it ends? They always fought against what those more powerful fated for them, but, in the end, Dean died the way he'd always been told he would. They've endured what no other mortal has, sacrificed more than any other: don't they deserve more?"
Jack's face softened as he looked at his...father? Friend? Servant? "Free will comes with consequences. Otherwise it's not free will. Sam and Dean always knew that."
"Yes, but even my Father has intervened where He willed. That is also your...free will." Castiel gave him a wry smile.
"An eternity of joy eclipses even years of sorrow in an instant—"
"—and yet our Father put his children on the earth to live out their lives of sorrow and joy, pain and rewards," Castiel finished smoothly.
Jack paused. "And they're family."
Castiel conceded with a tip of the head. "And they're family." He didn't need to add that he and the Winchesters had raised Jack to believe that family always came first.
This was something Jack had wrestled with, too, when he'd seen Dean die. But one of the other lessons his mortal fathers had taught him was that circumventing the natural order was bad, and always created more problems than it solved. A resurrected Dean could descend into alcoholism, or cripple himself on a hunt, or co-dependently cling to his brother so tightly that Sam never married and had the son he was supposed to. There were a hundred ways Dean could go that would be worse than death. Jack could look ahead, of course, see what would happen at every branch of what if, but if anything, that would just make the decision harder.
However, it bothered Jack, too, as nothing else did anymore: Dean had fought so hard to escape the fate others had set for him, only to die exactly as he'd always expected and been predicted: young and bloody. How could that be the fitting end to his story? Perhaps in a world of chance, but not in one with a true Writer rather than a narcissistic hack. It was the reason Jack had brought back Castiel and Michael and Adam and all the others.
Jack nodded, path now clear. "I agree."
And in another time, in a dusty barn in Ohio, Dean Winchester opened his eyes.
The End