A/N: I…I apologize to all of you as writing this part broke my heart a little. Fear not, things should get better for the boys from here (I hope) and I know some of you will be excited by the end of this chapter. ;) Sorry if this isn't my best but I'm a little tired tonight.
The instant Dean woke up he regretted it. Everything he owned hurt and even muscles he didn't realize he had were aching, eliciting a low groan from him as his body's complaints began to filter in one by one. His head was throbbing in a lovely tempo that would have put Metallica to shame and his throat was on fire. It took him a few minutes to realize it wasn't just a bad hangover. He cracked open his eyes but the view he was afforded was far from comforting and he heavily considered the option of just trying to will himself back into unconsciousness. The room was small and dim, broken up here and there with thick steel support beams that ran from floor to ceiling, and the air was stagnant, reeking of mildew in a way that was vaguely reminiscent of a sewer. Dean wished he didn't have that point of comparison. His life would have been far more charmed if he could've honestly said he didn't know what a sewer smelled like. He blinked through the pain until everything started to slide back into focus but when he tried to move, the reason for his discomfort became immediately apparent.
A thick chain had been bound tightly beneath Dean's chin and it was forcing his head up and back in a way that was distinctly uncomfortable. He peered out of the corner of his eye to find that his hands and arms were pinned in much the same manner, dull gray chains wrapping around them in a set of serpentine loops winding all the way up his arms and disappearing somewhere behind him. One of the steel support beams rested squarely against his spine and its length had been split by a cross bar to which his arms were bound. He couldn't see his legs but he could guess the same chains had been wrapped around them as well since his attempts to move them were also thwarted. "Why the hell don't I ever wake up in a four star hotel?" he grumbled hoarsely. He turned his eyes skyward and aimed his complaint toward the heavens. "Is that really so much to ask? Just ONCE can I be kidnapped by someone not intent on tying me up in their basement?" Dean grunted as he wriggled in vain, hoping to find some give in his restraints that would let him get free. He needed to find Sam, needed to know he was ok since the last image he had of his brother was the young man's limp body sprawled at the feet of the demon, and it gave fuel to his efforts to break loose. He paused however when he heard a soft familiar whine from somewhere just to his right.
Dean shifted as best he could to get a look in that direction and after a few minutes spent rubbing his throat even more raw against the chain he managed to get his head turned. What he saw made his stomach tighten into an unpleasant knot. Resting a few feet away on top of a decrepit old work bench was a small cage made of dark steel but it was what was in the cage that made Dean struggle all the more to get free. Castiel sat curled up against the cold bars, his tiny form wrapped up in a tight ball, and the hunter could see the angel's wings trembling even from that distance. "Cas," he managed to rasp out. The infant instantly perked up at the sound and turned to look at him. Blue eyes wide with fear stared out from between the bars for a moment before a tiny hand shot out in his direction in a desperate bid to close the gap between them.
The angel shifted and whimpered as he tried repeatedly to reach Dean, his hand grasping at nothing more than air as he struggled to grab hold of his caretaker. Dean's heart ached at the sight and he renewed his fight against the chains binding him. "It's ok, Cas," he said between bouts of struggling, "I'm right here. It's ok." His words didn't seem to be helping calm the angel though as Castiel only intensified his efforts, letting out small plaintive cries as he flattened his body against the bars and reached out with both hands. His tiny wings fluttered uselessly in a panicked staccato tapped out against the walls of his prison and Dean worried the infant might actually hurt himself if he didn't stop. After a few minutes though, the angel finally seemed to realize he wasn't going to be able to get to Dean and he settled for simply pressing himself tightly against the bars so that he was as close to the hunter as possible, his pale cheek scrunched up against the cold metal and his whole body curling back into a fetal position. The wings folded down and sealed themselves against his skin, the only points of bright light in the whole room.
Dean groaned in frustration but resisted saying anything else lest it cause Castiel to start flailing about again. He wasn't sure he could handle watching the angel struggle that way a second time though he stared longingly at where the infant was curled up, every fiber of his being wanting to go over there and comfort his friend. He was grateful at least that the child didn't appear to be injured and he wondered where Sam was since the room was devoid of anyone but the two of them. The warnings Crowley had given them played like a fresh recording in Dean's head and he knew without Castiel's influence Sam would be hard pressed to fight off the affects Legion would have on him. He would have to trust in his brother's strength to hold out until Dean could get loose though the thought occurred to him that it might be Sam who would have to rescue him since his efforts at getting free didn't seem to be yielding any results. He wasn't sure how long he'd been struggling, cussing, and insulting the parentage of every item in the room before his battle with the chains was interrupted but he stilled as he heard the door creak open.
The air was instantly permeated with the cloying scent of tilled earth and Dean made a sour face as it assaulted his senses. He heard Castiel shift nervously beside him and the infant let out a long quiet mewling sound as the demon entered the room. Legion ambled across the floor, closing the distance between him and Dean but he pulled up short just a few feet away and turned to look at Cas. Dean stiffened. "So you're Legion, huh?" he asked in a desperate bid to pull the monster's attentions away from the infant, "No offense pal, but you really might wanna try bathing now and then. Seriously. I can smell you from like a mile away." Legion turned slowly to look at him and Dean offered him a mocking smile. The demon shuffled closer and the scent of him wafted over the hunter causing him to cough and roll his head away as far as he could. "Jeez, I've heard of bad BO, dude, but DAMN." When Dean opened his eyes again it was to stare straight into the face of the monster and he quirked an eyebrow at it as he shrunk back. "Hey, whoa, little close there. You're cute and all but I don't usually kiss on the first date," he quipped.
Legion sneered at him but said nothing in response before wheeling back toward Castiel. Dean's attempts to keep the creature's attentions on himself had apparently failed and he felt the knot in his stomach tighten as the demon approached his young friend. He could hear the angel scoot to the opposite side of his cage now that the demon was between them and the wings started up their terrified fluttering again. "You stay the hell away from him," Dean said through clenched teeth but Legion didn't seem to even hear him as the monster knelt down to peer into the cage. The hunter wrenched on his restraints and battled to gain even an inch of leeway but he only succeeded in pulling something in his left shoulder and he let out an infuriated growl.
Castiel whimpered and scrambled to get as far from the demon as he could but the cage afforded him little room to move and it left him cowering in the back corner, his face turned away from the weight of Legion's stare. "Fascinating, isn't it?" the thing rejoiced in its multi-layered voice, "Such a human display of emotion. His vessel makes him weak." Legion let out a vile purr, the nails of one hand drawing across the top of the bars and causing a soft metallic scratching that sent chills down Dean's spine. "You make him weak." The demon glanced over his shoulder at where his prisoner was still struggling in vain. "He killed his brothers for you. Now he will die for it."
Dean felt a swell of guilt hit him full force though he wasn't certain if it was simply a side effect of Legion's presence or not. Still, he couldn't help thinking about how much Cas had risked for him, what he'd done for both of the Winchesters when he didn't have to, and it only made him feel worse that he wasn't able do anything to help the angel now. He hated feeling that helpless, hated knowing that once again someone he cared about was in trouble and he couldn't save them. His heart threatened to climb right out of his throat as he watched the infant coil into a tighter ball. NO. He wouldn't fail this time. He couldn't let this thing hurt his friend, not when Cas was depending on him. "The hell he will, you sunnuva bitch," Dean said with renewed ferocity, "cause Sam and I are gonna send you back to your boss in pieces. We're Winchesters. We wipe our ass with scarier things than you. See the problem with all you freaks is that you keep thinking you're better than us. And Sam and I, we're just gonna keep on proving you wrong. We've sent bigger, badder, and meaner things than you packin', pal, so bring it." The words were meant to rile his captor in the hope that he could at least buy Cas some time. He wasn't sure how much good it would do but every minute Legion was distracted by him was one more minute Sam had to come to the rescue.
The demon rose back to its full height and opened its mouth impossibly wide, emitting a cacophony of screeches and wails that echoed off the walls around them. Dean realized with horror that he'd heard that sound before during his time in Hell. It was the sound of the tormented souls of the damned lifted in a single chorus of pain and torment only this time it was laced with pure venomous hate and directed solely at him. He swallowed down his revulsion and waited for the inevitable blow he was sure would follow it but the voices simply died off one by one until a heavy silence fell upon the room like a pall, broken only by Dean's own ragged breathing. Castiel had gone utterly stiff and immobile at the sound of the scream but at least he was being ignored by the demon for the moment. Lucky him, Dean thought dryly as Legion took a few jerky steps in his direction. "You live only because your brother has spared you," it hissed at him. A foul laugh rattled up from its chest. "You live because the angel will die by his hand."
Dean snorted in disbelief and all but laughed in the thing's face. "Yeah. Good one. Sam isn't gonna kill Cas."
"You underestimate his love for you," Legion retorted. He turned back to Castiel's cage and scraped his fingers over the lock which rusted and fell away at his touch. The angel let out a frightened squeak as the demon's fingers closed over his arm and dragged him bodily from the tiny prison. Dean snarled and jerked against his chains, infuriated as he watched Legion lift the struggling child and pin him against his chest beneath one sinewy arm. Cas huffed out a few quick breaths as if he were about to cry and pushed in vain at the creature holding him but he went rigid as the demon cradled a gnarled hand around the back of his head. The long spindly fingers tangled in the angel's locks and he whimpered pitifully as Legion gently petted his hair.
"I'm gonna kill you slowly," Dean spat, his whole body trembling with impotent fury, "You won't be going back to Hell. I don't give a damn what the lore says. You're dead." Legion merely curled a lip at him in a mockery of a smile and turned his back. "You hear me?" he shouted at the demon's retreating form and as the door slid shut sealing him away from Castiel, Dean screamed in frustration. He all but sobbed as he yanked at the chains keeping him from pursuing his friend and he lost track of time as he pulled, writhed, and twisted in anguish, his mind replaying the infant angel's frightened cries over and over. He finally collapsed against the pillar at his back, drawing in ragged harsh breaths, and willed someone to help Cas even if it wasn't him. His silent prayer was interrupted by the door opening once more and he glared as he waited for his tormentor to return. The figure that stepped inside was far from who he expected though and he blinked a few times to make sure he wasn't losing his mind.
Hezrial carefully closed the door behind him and rushed across the room to Dean's side. He looked over the chains hurriedly and then ducked around somewhere behind the hunter and out of view. "Where the hell have you been?" Dean snapped, "What was all that 'marking' crap about if it takes you this freakin' long to find us? What, did you stop for dinner first?" Perhaps he should have been grateful but instead he only felt irritated that the angel had taken so long to locate them when he'd specifically inscribed their very ribs just to that purpose.
Hezrial's mellow voice wafted up from somewhere behind Dean's right shoulder accompanied by the rattle of chains as he worked to free the young man. "I did not realize you were all in danger until after my return. I found your room empty and recognized the signs of Legion. I would have arrived faster but the building you are in is marked by a great deal of sigils designed to weaken celestials. Strangely there were no warding ones so I was still able to get in but my powers are greatly dampened and I had to resort to subterfuge to find you."
The tightness around Dean's throat fell away and he coughed roughly as he gulped down lungfuls of air. The rest of the chains dropped in rapid succession and Dean stumbled away from the support beam as the last of them clattered to the floor. "Yeah, well that's just freakin' great. While you were out there playin' ninja, that bastard Legion took Cas." He didn't wait to hear the angel's rebuttal and instead bolted for the door. He had to find both Sam and Cas before it was too late. Something about the way Legion had talked about his brother, the way he inferred that Sam had been forced to choose between him and Cas, made him worry as to what extent the other young man would go to under the demon's influence. He didn't want to believe that Sam was capable of harming the tiny angel in their care but he'd watched his brother slaughter the demons in the warehouse with a rabid ferocity he had never thought possible and he couldn't entirely put the concern out of his mind about what affect the demon's close proximity might be having. Legion had taken Castiel none the less and Dean only hoped he wouldn't be too late to save him, regardless of who he needed to be saved from.
Hezrial tore down the hall after him, struggling to keep up with Dean's frantic pace as he rushed through long narrow hallways in his search. The structure they were being kept in appeared to have once been used as an underground storehouse for some long forgotten railway but it had fallen into disuse and murky puddles of standing water lay scattered about the dirt floors from where moisture had seeped in through the cracks in the ceiling. Dean splashed through them heedless as he ran, intent only on following the heady scent of soil back to its source. His momentum was halted when Hezrial latched onto his arm and yanked him to a stop. Dean almost turned and punched him but he hesitated at the look on the angel's face. "My brother is near," he said in a hushed whisper before tucking around Dean and heading for a set of double doors down a side hallway.
Dean turned back to where he had been heading originally but it was hard to follow the smell of soil since it seemed to permeate everything around them. He opted to trust Hezrial's feelings and followed the angel silently to the doors. He took up one side of the door the way he always would with Sam but his current companion apparently hadn't gotten the memo and certainly had no experience with how to enter a room safely because he cast Dean a quizzical look before simply tossing the doors wide open. Dean resisted the urge to slap a palm to his forehead. "Jackass," he muttered. He didn't have time to stop the angel before Hezrial strode purposefully into the room and when Dean heard the other angel gasp in shock, he braced himself for the worst and whipped around the door frame and into the room. His weapon lowered as he too caught sight of what had elicited such a reaction from his companion.
There, in the center of the room, trapped within a circle of flames, was a large metal frame in the shape of an odd star with seven points and bound hand and foot to that star was a single person. Blood spattered the remnants of the man's tattered clothes and his skin was a map of bruises and cuts that littered almost every inch of visible skin. As they entered, he managed to barely raise his head and cast them a weak but amused smile. "Well if it isn't the cavalry. Tell me at least one of you chuckleheads brought an extinguisher," Gabriel said with a grin.