Chapter 30
"Sam!" Castiel could hear Dean screaming. His voice was desperate, terrified, and every inch of Cas pushed for him to go to Dean. He wanted to help him and soothe him. Castiel strained to move his body but it was like stone.
"Dean…I'm sorry. I thought he was a monster…I didn't realize."
"Cas!" Dean's hands were on him and Castiel strained to open his eyes, "What did you do to him?"
"Dean. Calm down, I'll…I'll fix it but first we have to get out of here! That witch wants me dead!" Sounds of shouting and fighting were alive all around him.
"I'll carry him," Dean said, a tremor still in his voice. "Just…get everyone together. We have to move!" Cas could feel arms lifting him, and hear Dean straining to carry him. His wings couldn't help him this time. Even as Dean carried him, Castiel tried to break whatever bonds held him hostage. His mind was reeling. Sam had shot him! He was certain Sam had done it on purpose! Dean said it before and he was right: Sam was a horrible liar.
Dean carried Cas off of the ridge, but then some of the other hunters had to help him. They ran as fast as they could, picking off monsters that tried to interfere, but most of the creatures wanted to just get through them as they disbanded into the night. Sam did most of the damage, seeming none worse for the wear in spite of the spirit spearing he got from big black and nasty back there. Dean glanced at his brother, running beside him, and frowned.
"Ok, we need to stop!" Dean announced and the hunters slowed to a stop around him. They all panted to catch their breaths having been running for the past mile, and some of the hunters dropped heavy loads to the ground. Those friends and comrades that didn't make it.
"Burn them," Dean commanded, "give them a proper hunter's funeral." Dean's eyes didn't leave Sam. His younger brother seemed hardly winded from the run and stood a few paces away from the rest, head tilted to the side. Dean went to approach Sam, to have him undo whatever he did with Cas, but his eye caught one of the hunters lowering a small bundle and he paused.
"Wait," Dean called out and the hunter turned to face him. Dean went and pulled back the curly locks to look at Kim's face. Her eyes, looking blankly back at him, reminded him yet again of that hollow place inside him where all those he loved ended up going. Ellen, Jo, Bobby, Charlie, Dad…so many. Too many. Would Cas be next to add to the list? Dean closed Kim's eyes, and patted the hunter on his back; sending him off. He went to his brother.
"Dean," Sam breathed when Dean touched his shoulder.
"Fix him, Sam." Dean's voice was hard.
"Yes, Dean. I know, but there's things that you need to know first."
"Now, Sam!" Dean yelled, and Sam stared at his brother. He looked surprised, and just a bit hurt, but Dean had enough of the game that the two of them were playing. Dean tried to control his temper. He tried to be patient with Cas. He knew his brother, and yelling at him would only make Sam dig his heels in. But enough was enough! He hated that stupid Recurve and all its fucking arrows. "Look, I don't know what is going on with you two, but I can't keep carrying Cas all the way back to the car. You have to fix this. Please."
"Dean, you don't know what he is. You don't know what he's about-"
"I know all I need to know, Sam, and anything else that needs telling, Cas will tell me," Dean said flatly. His brother looked as though he wanted to say something more, but the words fell away and he just stared at Dean while concern worked at his jaw. After a moment, Sam relented. Dean knew he would. He had to. Because in spite of everything, he would always be Dean's little brother. Sam walked to where Castiel laid on the ground. Leaning over, he pulled at something Dean could not see, and Castiel immediately began to move again.
"Thank you," Dean said softly, and Sam nodded at him warily. In a sudden blur of movement, Castiel reached out into the air and Serrath's scepter appeared in his hand.
"No!" Sam said, grabbing Cas's arm.
"Effugio obscurum," Castiel chanted in Latin, and a sudden assault of black smoke bellowed out of the scepter. It tangled around Sam and Dean and swirled into the night until eventually all that remained was the after image against the sky.
"No!" Sam shouted. He grabbed at the scepter, and Castiel released it willingly to the brother. Dean watched as Sam studied the scepter. The last of the black smoke fell from its cracks and dissolved into the earth. "What did you do?" Sam asked softly. Castiel lowered his head, refusing to meet Sam's eye.
"Sam, that looked like a demon coming out of there," Dean said but Sam didn't acknowledge his brother. Instead he glared at Castiel. Bending over, he put the ball of the scepter under Cas's chin, forcing his head up to look into Sam's eyes.
"Castiel," he growled through his teeth, "what did you do, you useless pet?"
"Sam... wait a second..." said Dean uneasily. He took a step towards them, but didn't know what to do. What was going on between them? Why was Sam acting this way?
"What did you do?" Sam shouted and he swung the scepter back before bringing it full force against Castiel's skull. The angel collapsed under the assault, and the pain he was unable to ignore was sent in ripples to Dean's mind. Dean reached out to grab Sam, but his brother dropped the scepter and turned so quickly to shoot his Recurve that Dean hardly blinked let alone responded. His limbs went stiff and he instantly collapsed to the ground like Castiel had before. Except he could move his head, and he could still see. What he saw, he didn't understand. Staring up at Sam, Dean was overcome with disbelief. Not my brother. This is not my brother.
"Sam! …w-why are you doing this?" Dean cried out and when Sam met his eyes, Dean could see behind his anger that Sam was lost and confused inside.
Turning back to Castiel, Sam picked up the scepter once more. "Sam!" Dean called out again, but his brother didn't look back. He raised the scepter, and brought it down on Castiel's back. Cas rolled on his side, pulled himself into a ball, and lifted his head so that his eyes met with Deans. Sam hit him again. Whack!
"Sam, please…stop doing this," Dean pleaded as he stared at Castiel. Whack!
"Sam! Stop it! Don't hurt him!" He could feel Castiel's pain. His hurt and his determination not to lash out and hurt Sam back even though he easily could. Whack!
"Sam! Stop it! Stop it now!" Dean couldn't breathe. He was beside himself, and yet even now Cas was trying to send him images. Calming him, soothing him, assuring him that everything would be ok. Whack!
"He made me do this, Dean," Sam called over his shoulder and his voice was calm and steady. "This mutt of yours ruined everything!" He shouted the last word, biting at the syllables with spit and teeth. Whack!
"Sam…I don't understand. What happened? What was in that scepter?" Hot tears spilled over Dean's face and he strained to break free from whatever held him. If he could just reach his brother, get between the two of them and get him to stop hurting Cas…he just needed to make sense of everything that was happening.
"I am so sick of this, Dean!" Sam shouted and turned to look at his brother. Dean tried not to look at the blood sprayed across Sam's face. "It's always hunt or be hunted. Hunt or be hunted. Aren't you sick of it?" Sam turned back and swung a kick squarely into Castiel's ribs. "Then this…this fucking angel!" The scepter swung again, cracking against a bone in Castiel's shoulder. "What does he do? He betrays us again, Dean! Again!" Whack! Whack! Whack! The beating seemed to never end. The scepter, dented and tarnished, was unrelenting.
"Sammy, please! Can't we just talk about this! Stop hitting, him!"
"No, see that's the point, Dean. 'Cause for whatever reason, you are under some sort of angel love spell, and you won't listen to me. You won't see this thing for what he really is. This little shit-" Whack!
"The scepter was supposed to stop all of this. Stop the war!" Whack! Dean felt like he was going to lose it. His mind was spinning out of control. He felt so helpless. So useless.
"Stop the fighting!" Whack! Dean stared at Castiel's eyes; blue to green, always blue to green. His terror flooded his vision with tears.
Castiel! Castiel! Castiel!
"Give the world back to humanity!" Whack! Whack!
"Sam…" Castiel's voice was so small. Dean never felt so desperate to be near him. He thrashed against his restraints to try to get closer. To touch him. To hold him. To love him.
Sam paused and looked at the angel at his feet and his head tilted to the left. Listening. "Sam…" Castiel said again, and he slowly turned his head to look up at the younger brother.
"Castiel, something to say little angel?" Sam dropped the scepter, a horrid misshapen thing, and leaned in close to Castiel's face. "Say it then." Reaching up, Castiel clutched onto Sam's hair and pulled him closer. Sam shifted and struggled against him, but Castiel's eyes glowed with the fading light of his Grace, and he held firmly onto the hunter. Lifting his other hand, he drew a symbol on Sam's forehead with his blood. Sam shouted as the symbol hissed against his skin and Castiel released him to pull away.
Dean suddenly realized he was able to move and he scrambled to get to his feet. Running to where the two men laid, Dean paused. He looked towards his brother, laying on the ground clutching at his head, and he looked at Castiel, beaten and broken, looking up at him calmly. For the first time in his life, Dean felt torn between them.
"Castiel!" Sam said and rolled onto his side to get to his feet. "Cas…"
"Sam what is going on," Dean said and he bent to help Castiel sit up. Dean could hardly look at him with how beaten he was.
"I…I don't know, I…" Sam's eyes were wide and bewildered.
"It's the…Recurve," Castiel said weakly, getting to his feet, "it is affecting his mind." Dean looked at Sam and could see the confusion and disorientation on his brother's face. He had seen that so many times before in so many different people they were possessed. They didn't understand. That look that said 'This couldn't have happened to me'.
"I think it's more than that, Cas," Dean said coldly, and his eyes spoke the question to the man he loved. He could feel Castiel's emotions: worried, guarded, afraid, in love, but he could also tell that Cas was determined to protect Dean at any cost.
"Dean…we just need to get rid of the Recurve-" Cas offered weakly.
"What's in it?" Dean asked and he took a step away from both the angel and his brother. It seemed both of them were doing a fine job of keeping this a secret from him. All three of them eyed each other warily. Dean could see that Sam was somewhere else again. Listening to some voice no one else could hear. He gripped the Recurve tightly. "Is it a demon? Is that what was also in that scepter, Cas? Is that what you learned in my Dad's journal?"
"Dean, it's far worse than that," Cas said softly and Dean rounded on him.
"Then tell me! What made Sam beat you like this!"
"No one made me do anything," Sam said distantly, but he didn't sound nearly so convinced as he might want them to believe.
It's…an angel, Castiel said reluctantly in Dean's mind, no one must know of this Dean, if Heaven finds out they will execute my brother.
An angel? Are you fucking kidding me, Cas? Dean turned towards Sam again. His brother's eyes shifted back into focus and he looked at Dean.
"Who are you talking to, Sammy?"
"…what are you talking about, Dean?" Sam took a step back, uneasy.
"Look, just…give me the Recurve." Dean said moving towards his brother; holding out his hand. Sam's jaw tightened and he glared at Dean. A moment later he looked past Dean to Castiel.
"Dean, I didn't mean to hurt, Cas. My mind just kind of got stuck. But I'm okay now. Castiel…he kind of unstuck me when he touched me and I am fine. So can we just, forget all this happened? Dean? Cas?"
"Until when?" Dean said incredulously. He took another step, closing the distance between him and his brother, and lowered his voice so that none of the other hunters might overhear. "Until you start having new voices control your life the way Lucifer did? Until you are firing guns at nothing and confusing the people who want to help you for the people that want to hurt you? No. This ends now, Sam. Give me the Recurve and just walk away from it." Dean glared at his brother making it as clear as he could that there was no negotiating this. Sam stared back at him for a long time, but then finally shrugged and looked away.
"Fine," he said softly, "you want it you can have it. I am done with all of this." Sam lifted his arm to the side, and released the Recurve from his hand so that it fell to the earth with a solid thunk. Sam looked past Dean again to Castiel behind him.
"Protect him." He said to Cas in a gentle voice, and then he turned and walked into the night. Dean watched him for a moment, conflicted as to whether to let him go or call him back. He turned then, and was able to catch Castiel just as the angel fell forward to the earth. The fires were starting, and the hunter's funerals illuminated the night sky. Around them, hunters mourned the fallen and searched the night to protect the living from stray monsters. The fight was over, but Dean felt as though the war had just begun.
"Cas," he said softly and kissed the angels forehead. Castiel had not healed himself which made it clear to Dean just how little energy he had left. Dean opened his soul, desperate to help Cas replenish, but the angel was too weak to even respond to him. "Cas, come on. Don't do this now, buddy, you're stronger than this."
"Dean…just let me lie down for a moment," Castiel said weakly and Dean lowered them both to the ground. He propped Cas's head on his leg and Dean sat with him, smoothing back the angels hair, while Cas worked to re-gather his strength. Cas stared into the distance and after a moment Dean realized that Cas was staring at the Recurve still laying on the ground.
"Do you want to see that, Cas?" Dean asked and the angel nodded. He sat up weakly, and Dean got up to retrieve the Recurve for him. Touching the bow felt odd. It was much lighter than Dean thought it would be considering the way Sam always lugged it around, but it otherwise felt no different to him than any other piece of metal. It was hard to believe it was so powerful in his brother's hands.
When he turned back, Castiel appeared to heal himself and seemed in a much better state. Dean let out a sigh of relief. He handed the bow to Cas and then sat on the ground next to him once more. For a long time, Castiel just stared at the bow in amazement. His fingers traced over the finer points of the intricate carvings. His emotions swirled together and slowly all lesser thoughts fell away leaving only one pure awestruck emotion blaring on brain-Cas radio.
"Cas, what is it?" Dean asked nervously.
"It's…the Recurve." Castiel sounded as though the breath had been knocked out of him. "The angel that was once in it…he's gone."
End of Part 3