Author's Note
This one is super dialogue heavy, so sorry for that. I promise things will pick up once we get past this first episode and into the season proper. if I being totally honest with myself, this probably should have been part of the first chapter, but I was impatient so I split it in two. But hey, shorter chapters means more frequent updates so it's a win-win right?
Too Many Questions
When they pulled in front of Chuck's house the sun was just beginning to make its way across the sky.
Dean was already on edge as they approached the front door of the house. He could see the broken blinds through the front window. Dean swore he could feel the tension in the air skittering across his skin like static electricity. He scratched at his collar.
Sam tried the doorknob, and raised his eyebrows when it opened for him. He pushed open the door and entered the house, Dean followed cautiously behind him, still scratching around his neck. Dammit, he hadn't had the heebie jeebies like this since before Sammy could walk.
Inside the house was a mess, furniture broken and strewn about. There was blood all over the darkened hallways and Dean found himself shuddering every time they rounded a corner.
Something occurred to him, and he gave Sam a look that said "Give me a minute, I need to do something," before pulling out his pocket knife and slicing his hand to draw an angel banishing sigil on a sliding door. Dean slid the door and the sigil out of sight and nodded at Sam. Sam raised his eyebrows but turned to continue their search without any words.
Dean was just about to suggest that maybe Chuck hadn't made it even with an archangelic bodyguard, when something came flying at them from the right. Sam grunted and stumbled backwards.
"Jeez! Ow!"
"Sam!" Chuck had a plunger poised for attack, "You're ok!"
"Well, my head hurts" Sam grumbled
"No, I mean my last vision! You went, like, full on Vader. Your body temperature was 150, your heart rate was 200. Your eyes were black!"
Dean frowned when Sam looked away, but decided not to push it right then. "Where's Cas?" he asked instead.
Chuck suddenly looked sad, "He's dead. Or… gone. The archangel smote the crap out of him."
Dean felt denial rise in his gut. There was no way Cas was dead, "You're sure? I mean maybe he just vanished into the light or something" he asked. Chuck must not have seen right.
"Oh no. He, like, exploded" Chuck interrupted, "Like a water balloon of chunky soup!"
Dean's heart sank. That buzzing energy was back with a vengeance and this time it was more like a roar. Chuck was eyeing him oddly, he almost looked like he was about to say something, but then his attention turned to the ceiling and he looked afraid. Dean was about to ask what was wrong when he felt something in the air change and the itchy feeling ramped up a few notches.
"Oh no," Chuck said.
"Oh no? What's oh no?" Sam asked
"I can feel them." Chuck's voice was shaking
And then a voice that made Dean's blood boil and the buzzing snap angrily inside him came from behind them.
"Thought we'd find you here," said Zachariah. Dean turned to find him standing in front of the window flanked by two angelic lackeys.
Zachariah kicked at the fallen furniture, "Playtime's over Dean," he smirked, "Time to come with us."
"You son of a bitch!" Dean growled
"You're upset." the bastard had the audacity to look surprised.
"Yeah I'm upset. I'm upset you screwed with my message to Sam so you could jumpstart judgement day."
"Oh we let it happen, sure. Maybe even offered a little incentive, but we didn't force Sam to do anything. That was all him. Right Sammy?" Zachariah looked at Sam and oh, Dean was going to skewer him.
"But let's not quibble over who started what," Zachariah continued, "Say it was all our faults and move on. Because like it or not, it's Apocalypse now and we're on the same team again."
"Oh is that so?" Dean asked, he was losing his patience for this conversation.
"You wanna kill the Devil, we want you to kill the Devil. It's synergy." Zachariah looked far too self satisfied.
"Yeah, sounds great! Except that I wouldn't trust you if you were the last douche on earth, douche." Dean yanked the sliding door out behind him and Zachariah and his flunkies barely had time to react as he slammed his hand against the banishing sigil.
Light erupted throughout the room, drowning everything else out. Dean, however, hardly noticed as he was too busy having the wind knocked out of him. When the light faded the angels were gone and Dean was kneeling on the floor with a hand on his chest, gasping like he'd been punched in the gut. Sam was at his side in seconds, fussing like a girl.
"Dean! Are you ok?"
"I'm, ugh, I'm fine," Dean replied, pausing to haul himself to his feet, "Just got the wind knocked out of me. Must've done the spell wrong or something." Yeah, that would make sense. Sam didn't look convinced, but let it go without a fight. Chuck was looking at him oddly again and Dean felt like he was about to vibrate out of his damn skin.
"Alright well we can't stay here and wait for those dick monkeys to come back for us." Dean said into the awkward silence. He turned to Chuck, "You keep us posted, let us know if anything changes." Chuck just nodded. Dean decided that was good enough and moved to leave.
"Stay safe" he heard Sam say to Chuck before following Dean out to the car.
They found a motel a few hours from Chuck's place. Dean was unpacking in their room when Sam came in and tossed something at him.
"Hex bags," Sam said, "No way the angels will find us with those. Demons either."
"Where'd you get 'em?" Dean asked
"I made them," Sam replied hesitantly
Dean raised an eyebrow, "And you learned that from…"
"From Ruby" Sam said quietly
Dean didn't say anything. This was useful, and as pissed as he still was, he was trying not to make Sam feel bad about making a mistake. God knew they'd both made their fair share.
"By the way," Sam's voice pulled Dean out of his thoughts, "how are you doing? Are you feeling ok?"
"Shouldn't I be the one asking you that?" Dean replied
Sam gave him a look that said he knew what Dean was doing, and he wasn't going to be deterred.
"That banishing sigil looked like it did a number on you."
"I told you man, I'm fine. Just a jacked up spell that's all. I've only seen it like twice before. Let's just be glad it wasn't anything worse." Sam seemed to drop it for now. Dean hoped he'd forget about it, but knowing his brother it was a long shot. "Well anyway, it looks like we've got the mother of all hunts on our hands. What do you say we get to tracking down the Devil" because that wasn't an insane thing to say.
Sam huffed a laugh, "Yeah I'll get right on that."
That night Dean lay on the dingy motel bed and tried not to think about everything that had happened in the last 24 hours. He had told Sam that what happened with the banishing sigil was just bad spellwork. Dean wished he believed that himself, but he knew he'd done the sigil right. Not to mention the buzzing energy that had started in the church where all Hell broke loose and hadn't gone away since. It was currently buzzing a low steady thrum under Dean's skin that might have lulled him to sleep if his mind wasn't still twisting itself in knots. He might've asked Cas about it but Chuck had said…
Dean rolled onto his side and huffed angrily. He refused to think about that right now. Right now he had to focus on the literal Devil that was free to walk the earth and, more immediately, his need to sleep, something he hadn't had the chance to do in 48 hours at least. He forced himself to close his eyes. Eventually, he felt himself beginning to drift off, and he fell asleep listening to the steady rhythm of Sam's breathing.
