Cas landed like a meteor. An avenging angel. The wrath of God. He loomed, dominating the room so much that when Cas Singer appeared right behind him, embarrassed and exasperated, he looked about half of Cas' size. The light above them exploded. Castiel's eyes glowed like hellfire, sweeping first to Crowley, then Cassie, then Dean.
"What is this?" Thunder boomed, his voice reverberating, barely held within human decibel levels.
"I'm righting a wrong," Cassie said, pulling his attention from his stare down with Dean.
"It's not your wrong to right."
"We're helping you. Accept the assistance and be grateful." She held her own, her head held high, not shrinking back from the surges of angry power pulsing off Cas—pulses that made Dean's head swim.
"Cas." Dean reached for his sleeve, and Cas threw him off, spinning on him. The elbow that swept past his face would have knocked him unconscious except for his quick footwork as he reared back, as they glared at one another. Both enraged. Both betrayed.
Dean's heart pounded like he faced a monster, a predator. But this was Cas. And he knew Cas. And Cas wouldn't hurt...He wouldn't.
"Okay." Dean tried to sound soothing, his fight or flight instincts ripping against his ribs. "Okay. Let's just...just reevaluate."
"This is none of your concern."
"The apocalypse is my concern. You selling your soul is my concern." Even if he hadn't technically sold his soul, he had figuratively, and that was bad enough.
Cas snapped, "Since when?"
Dean startled like he'd been punched.
Cas growled. "Since when are my actions your business? Since when do you care when it doesn't affect you?"
Dean blinked, guilt and hurt washing over him in a wave. "Yeah. Alright. I haven't been real involved in your stuff lately."
Cas huffed. His breath hot against Dean's face like his grace was burning out of him, heating the room. Dean's calm wavered, the balance in his chest shifting from run to fight, and his center of gravity changing with it.
"But only because you didn't tell me about it. You gotta ask for help. I can't read your damned mind."
"I don't need your help."
"But you need Crowley's?!"
Cas squeezed his eyes closed, his forehead creased and pinched, his nostrils flaring as he took a strengthening breath. "I'm trying to keep you safe."
"Well, we're past that now. I'm in it. And guess what, asshole, I don't need you protecting me."
"You don't understand."
"Then why don't you fucking explain it to me? Shit, Cas! Haven't we learned from all of this that we do better when we're in it together? You don't have to do everything alone."
"I haven't had a choice."
"Seriously? You didn't have a choice to lie to us about getting Sam out of hell? You didn't have a choice faking Crowley's death? To work with him? I don't know if you've been paying attention the last few days, but there were a lot of choices you could have made and a lot of different ways this could have gone down."
Cas grabbed his own hair in a fist.
"And fine. You didn't have a choice then, but you do now. You're not alone. You've got us. You've got all these other grumpy assholes. We've all got your back, and you're acting like a child. You're stubborn and ungrateful and full of shit. You know that? Get your head out of your ass, open your eyes, and see that everyone here would go to hell and back for you. Dude, I went universe hopping with you for a slim chance to win your war. Girl Cas has been trying to protect you for days. Cassie kidnapped Crowley to break your contract and get you out of this mess. We're here for you."
Dean ignored everyone even as he gestured at them. Cassie, Cas Singer, and Vampire Cas trying to look small and invisible, Fake Dean tensed and serious, Crowley adjusting his tie like ha had no interest whatsoever in their domestic disputes.
The air had changed, less electrified with anger, but just as stifling, now with some sickening, anxious emotion that crept under Dean's skin and itched like crawling ants. Cas' confusion sizzled and his desperate struggle to cling to his decision and justify himself felt palpable. Dean could almost see it in the air.
"Dean." Cas' hair was wild, his fingers twitching at his side, his eyes pleading. "It may be the only way."
"And it might not! We've been working on girl Cas' plan for days. Don't give up on it before we've even tried it. And there's that time travel thing. And locking Raphael in a cage. Hell, instead of opening Purgatory and eating everyone there, we could just toss Raphael in and slam the door behind him. We've got options. Just not Crowley!"
"You've made deals with demons yourself."
"Yeah, and it was a dumb call! All these other crazy plans don't give power to a demon, who'd just as soon backstab you as look at you. He's manipulating you. You gotta see that. He got you to lie to me, and if you're lying about it, then part of you knows it's wrong. Don't pretend you don't."
"Of course I do. Do you think this is what I want? That I don't wish there was another way?"
"There is another way! Fuck! Get it through your skull that there is."
Cas grimaced, dragging his eyes away and hunching in on himself like he could physically dig into his dumb-ass decision.
Dean scraped both hands over his face. "You stubborn asshole," he muttered.
"I'm taking Crowley back to our universe," Cas announced. "He has no business here."
Dean blanched. "What—"
"It's true," Crowley said. "As entertaining as your quarrel is and as wonderful as your hospitality has been, I was in the middle of something. Thank you, Cassandra, for a lovely visit."
Cassie peeled herself from the background. "I have a thought," she said.
Cas gave her an unimpressed stare, his hackles rising again.
"We'll keep him here until we've attempted Castiel's ritual. If it fails you can continue with your ill-advised plans. If it succeeds, you will no longer need him."
And we'll kill him, went unsaid.
Cas narrowed his eyes.
Crowley held up a finger. "Now, I have an issue with that."
"Does it look like you're part of this conversation?" Dean snapped. "Shut the hell up."
Crowley hiked an eyebrow, his lips thinning with displeasure.
Cas hadn't responded, thinking it over for way longer than an offer like that really required. Dean started to worry Cas was plotting something new. How fast he could move to grab Crowley and bolt. If he could outrun Cassie, Cas Singer, and Vampire Cas. If he could take all three of them in a fight.
Cassie rolled her eyes. "I'll make this easier for you," she said. "He's my prisoner and you're not taking him until I release him into your custody."
Cas Singer shifted in a subtle movement until he stood firmly behind her, on her side, backing her up. Vampire Cas had done the same. None of their expressions had changed.
They had another angel stare down, more alien and charged than any that had come before. The moment stretched and Dean's breath stilled. Waiting. Waiting.
Please, Cas. Please, let it go.
Cas' surrender was an exhaled breath, the softest slump of his shoulders. And Dean thought his knees might buckle in relief. It was such a small victory. He was so tired.
Cas' eyes swung to Crowley, who glared.
Then Cas was looking at Dean. The blue of his eyes sorrow like an ocean.
Dean couldn't dig up forgiveness. He was nowhere close to that. Nowhere close to understanding. Not even anywhere close to anger. Just the numbness of something irrecoverably broken.
Cas' eyes closed. A moment later, he vanished.
The beat of his wings rang with finality.
Dean was never going to get Cas back.
He needed to get out of here.
He stomped up the stairs, followed at a distance by Fake Dean, and when he turned to give the guy an exhausted glare, he could recognize pity on his own face. That wanting to reach out, to soothe and nurture and reassure, and that hesitance because hugging and showing empathy wasn't really his thing. It wasn't. Not even in the messed up hugger universe.
Fake Dean shoved his hands in his jacket pockets and sighed, offering, "Want to get drunk?"
Yeah. He really, really did.