Chapter 3
Dean's shout echoed into the shadows. A figure slowly stepped out into the light, like blood seeping from a wound.
Michael twisted Adam's face into a menacing sneer as he approached the gate. "Oh look, brother," he murmured. "I get a visitor, too."
Dean's heart clenched at the sight of him, guilt over failing to save Adam washing over him. But he pushed it aside. If he succeeded, all would be set to rights.
The archangel peered through the gaps of the Cage, his eyes hungry like an apex predator's right before a kill.
Despite his fear and disgust, Dean stepped forward, yanking up his shirt sleeve. The Mark burned angrily on his flesh.
"Can you get this off?" Dean asked.
"Dean, what are you…" Sam began, taking a step toward his brother.
"Shut up, Sammy," Dean snarled. His words came out more viciously than he meant to, but the Mark was clamoring in his head and he was on the verge of losing control.
To his surprise – and certainly to Sam's – Sam's voice cut off mid-sentence. His mouth moved, trying to force out words, but his voice had been silenced. Sam stared at Dean in horror.
Dean swallowed, another wave of guilt heaping on top of him. When he'd seen Cain do the same silencing trick to Crowley, he'd thought it was funny. But to do it to Sam without even meaning to… All it did was prove further that the Mark needed to come off. Now.
The elder Winchester turned back to Michael, who was watching Sam struggle to speak with great amusement.
"How about it, Buttercup?" Dean pressed, sweat collecting on his brow. "Can you undo it?"
Michael smiled mirthlessly, then pressed himself against the metalwork to take a closer look at the Mark.
"Why yes, I believe I could," he purred.
"Thought so," Dean said. "If you take it off me, I'll jailbreak you."
Sam, still silenced, shook his head fervently, wide-eyed.
"Hey!" Lucifer growled, all snark gone, to be replaced by anger. "No one can remove that Mark but me. You're not leaving me here!"
"You shut up too. The grown-ups are talking," Michael said coolly, lazily waving a hand a this brother. Lucifer was thrown back against the wall and pinned there, grunting.
"As if I couldn't unravel your little curse, baby brother," Michael added. "You forget I'm bigger than you."
"D…De…an…" Sam choked, desperately trying to force his voice through. He grabbed his brother's shoulder, tried to make him look him in the eye.
Dean, ignoring his brother, turned around to face Crowley. "Do it."
The demon appeared by Sam's side. "You're sure?"
Dean nodded.
In a blink, Crowley had transported Sam to the far end of the room, next to the stairs. A thick shackle was fastened around Sam's wrist, chaining him to the wall, far out of reach of his brother.
Sam stared at the chain, then at Crowley. He gritted his teeth.
"W…Why?" he demanded, then coughed. The silencing was starting to fade.
Crowley shrugged. "Sorry, Moose," he said. "Gotta look out for my own, here. Can't let you free Lucifer, I'd be too high on his 'Kill First' list. Michael on the other hand, couldn't give a rat's ass about Hell."
"You son of a bitch!" Sam snarled, throwing his strength against the chain, but it was too thick. "Don't let him do this!"
"Squirrel made his own choice," Crowley replied heavily. "You forced his hand."
Sam growled in frustration, pulling harder against the chain. "Dean! DEAN!"
But across the room, Dean ignored his brother's cries. He was focused on the archangel eyeing him like a particularly juicy cut of meat.
"Say yes, and I'll remove it," Michael said.
"Remove it first," Dean shot back. "Then you get your ticket out."
"And how do I know you won't just leave me here after I do?"
"Consider this my official consent. You remove the Mark, permanently and completely, I say yes."
Michael laughed. "After all the crap you pulled the last time we did this little dance… Who would have guessed that you'd be the one crawling back to me?"
Dean waited, heart hammering against his ribs.
"I accept your terms," Michael said finally.
"NO!" Sam roared.
Dean nodded, then removed a small knife from his pocket. He drew the blade across his palm, barely wincing as the blood dripped out onto the floor.
He wiped his hand across the metal grate, and muttered the incantation. The spell's effects were invisible, but there was the feeling of a thin sheet of glass shattering between him and the prisoner. The Cage's defensive spells weren't dropped enough to allow either angel out, but it was enough to let something in.
Dean shoved his right hand through the hole. Michael's grip clamped around his wrist, quick as a viper's strike, and yanked him closer. Dean slammed against the Cage, his arm pulled through up to the shoulder.
Michael placed a hand over the Mark, and a bright light began glowing on his palm.
Dean fought to hold still as discomfort turned to pain, which in turn built into searing agony. He grunted, his flesh burning under Michael's touch.
"NO, DEAN!" Sam screamed, but his brother was deaf to his pleas.
The pain only grew more intense. Dean yelled, unable to hold it in any longer. If the angel hadn't been gripping him so tightly, he might have fallen to his knees. It felt as through Michael were burning through to the bone, leeching poison from his blood.
And then the pain vanished. Dean heaved in a huge breath of air, his knees weak. The murderous influence that had been present in the back of his mind for so long, too long, was finally gone.
And in its place grew a sickening chill of dread.
Dean looked into Michael's eyes. A fire burned in them, a twisted, menacing light. A high-pitched ringing sounded in his ears. It reverberated in his skull. He could feel what was coming.
The door into the antechamber slammed open above Sam's head. He twisted around to see Castiel, battered and nose bleeding.
"CAS, STOP HIM!" Sam bellowed.
Castiel's eyes flicked from Sam, then to Dean, gripped by Michael through the Cage's defenses. His face blanched with horror.
As Sam watched, Castiel disappeared and reappeared next to Dean, reaching out to grab his friend.
And then the whole chamber was engulfed in blinding white light.