It feels similar to flying with Castiel.
It makes Dean feel sick.
It is nothing though compared to how he feels when he looks around.
They are all him. Hundreds of copies of himself and they litter the floor like ants as far as he can see. Like he is in a room with mirrored walls. But he is not.
They are all dead.
Cas drops the one he has just stabbed his angel blade through and turns to look at Dean with cold dead eyes. Dean feels his chest clench. What have they done to him? This is sick, is this what they are doing to him?
This can't be heaven. This is hell.
A woman in a suit turns to look at Dean. She seems surprised at first.
"Why are you here? " and then she sees the horse he is sitting on, "oh, I see."
"What have you done to Castiel? Who are you?"
"I am fixing him! He was so broken and I have saved him."
Castiel still just stares dumbly, looking a little puzzled as if something about the whole situation is not quite right. She looks at Castiel and then back at Dean and seems to come to some sort of decision.
"Castiel, you are ready, time to put your training to the test. Kill him."
Castiel looks up and starts walking between the bodies towards Dean and the horse.
"Shit," says Dean, he has no idea what to do, even what he can do, "can't you take us out of here horse?"
She has trapped me here. I cannot fly away.
"Pegasus, don't even think about leaving," calls out Naomi, "You could be an important asset for heaven"
"The Pegasus," starts Dean.
Hold on.
Dean can feel the horse gathering himself and he grabs his mane for a second time and Pegasus rears and leaps away as Castiel gets closer. Somehow he manages to canter nimbly away avoiding the bodies strewn across the floor. The angel moves faster though, appearing suddenly in front of them and Pegasus stops abruptly. Dean is not a rider and he loses his balance, falling down the horses shoulder and landing at Castiel's feet.
"Cas, it's me, it's the real me,"
Cas flings him away with one arm while he flicks his angel blade in his hand and strides towards him.
"She can't make you do this, we can get away, we can fix this somehow."
"Castiel, hurry up and kill him," demands Naomi.
Castiel's face loses it blank expression and now he looks tortured.
"Naomi I won't, let me go," Cas gasps, fighting whatever it was that was in his head. Fighting and losing.
He throws Dean against a pillar. "Dean I can't stop it!"
"Cas, I came here to get you," but before Dean can say anything else Cas grabs him again, bashing his head into the pillar. Dean almost loses consciousness and he leans back, sliding down and slumping onto the floor. He can't look at Cas, at the look of terror that flies across his face only be replaced by nothing.
Nothing.
"I need you"
Castiel leans over him, to punch him, to stab him, Dean doesn't know, he can't think as he fights off the dizziness.
Castiel's tie dangles down over him. Dean looks up and Cas looks lost, lost and alone. He reaches out and pulls Castiel closer catching him off guard until they are so very, very close.
"I'm not letting you go," and Dean feels his heart swell and it hurts so much so he kisses Castiel and everything he has no words for, everything he cannot, will not say, pours into it. Cas drops the angel blade, it clatters and Dean lets go.
"Castiel NO!" screams Naomi.
"Dean... I'm so sorry. " Castiel looks wrecked.
Dean hears Pegasus in his head.
Quick she has let me go. We must go while she is distracted.
"Come home" whispers Dean. Castiel reaches out an arm towards him and takes his hand.
"Your home is here Castiel!" Now it is Naomi's turn to sound desperate.
Castiel reaches out and heals Dean with a swipe of his fingers on his forehead. Dean thinks he must have heard the horse as well as before he knows it Cas has pulled him onto its back and they are gone.
The last thing he sees is Naomi standing in a sea of dead bodies, looking furious.
Then he feels Cas's arms around him.
They appear back in the park where they left. Sam is still in the car sleeping.
Cas dismounts and then helps Dean off Pegasus.
"Thank you for rescuing me," he says, not able to look Dean in the eye.
Dean doesn't really know what to say. He has the image of Cas holding his limp dead body burnt into his brain. And she made him do it hundreds of times. Thousands.
"Who was she?" he asks, because he is still unable to really talk about this and he doesn't know what to say. You kissed him Dean screams an internal voice.
"Naomi, she is an angel. She wanted me to... she may still want me to Dean," Cas says not able to hold eye contact for more than a few seconds "I'm not safe to be around."
"I don't care Cas, I'm not letting you go. Don't you understand?" Its too much and Dean can feel tears welling up in his eyes. Remind him.
This time Castiel kisses him back.
They drive back to the batcave after they wake up Sam. They tell him everything on the way. He is almost as horrified as Dean to hear about how the angels tried to control Cas. Dean asks Cas about Sam, but apparently even angels can't help him now.
Which means the knot in Dean's stomach is back. But right now Cas is coming home so maybe things might just end up okay. Maybe.
It's not until they are walking in the door that he realises there is a white horse following them.
"Oh no, you can't come with us" Dean says.
Why not?
"We don't have a stable"
"Is he really Pegasus?" Sam asks Cas.
"Yes, he belonged to Zeus who used him to carry his lightning bolts. You and Dean killed Zeus and so set him free."
"I can't see his wings though" says Dean.
"You can't see my wings either."
I can stay outside, in the forest.
"Come on Dean, he is a flying horse, could be useful" comments Sam.
"Why do I feel like the Batcave is being turned into a home for lost puppies?"
"Is your home a cave?" Cas tilts his head.
"Not even close Cas, come and see," says Dean as he opens the door "its awesome," and they follow him inside.
Pegasus, leaps away and disappears into the trees.