Jar of Hearts World: Part 3
Castiel sat quietly and watched the couple as they watched him, it was all very strange for them as they tried to decipher whether or not they thought he was real. "It's not a collective hallucination, we really are here." Castiel informed them for what felt like the thirtieth time.
"I know, I know," the other Cas tried to wave it off harmlessly, "I'm just… it's so weird to be looking at myself, I don't know what to say."
"Maybe more than nothing but nothing works for me too." Castiel was by far the most jaded of their group and speaking to people who were shocked with his presence was one of those things that just made him roll his eyes in every direction he could. He wasn't sure again why he stayed with them, instead of going to find Sam. It was probably because Sam might show up there on his own, but how often did good things happen that easily?
The couple exchanged a look and the priest sighed lightly. "I'm sorry," he spoke up again, "I've been doing this a long time and I tend to lose all ceremony with what I do."
"What do you do, exactly?" Dean furrowed his brow curiously, "You guys fall out of our closet and off our roof and look just like us, what are you here for?"
"To be fair Jet fell out of the closet and Dean fell off the roof, I came through just fine. And as per what we do, we fight monsters. Simply put, there are creatures invading different realities and we're on a mission to stop it."
"Where are they coming from?" Cas looked more excited than horrified.
"It's a place called the Void. It's everywhere but it's meant to be dormant, unmoving. Someone woke it up and the beings within started to spread out, if they were to succeed in devouring each dimension that'd be the end of us all. The entire universe that we know of would cease to exist and ultimately it'd belong to the beasts, not that it'd be sustained for very long." Castiel explained, unsure of whether or not the two listening really understood everything he'd been saying. "We're known as High Priests of the Faith."
"What's 'The Faith'?"
"Well you don't have much background knowledge of the worlds and the mainline that lies in between. I'm not even entirely sure of what 'The Faith' is but from what I've been told it's the final religion. All worlds and the gods and heavens that rule them are incorporated, all dimensions, realities, and timelines run on different versions of which gods are real and how things exist in relation to one another. It takes everything into the same universe and attempts to explain it. Within the Faith there are servants, the High Priests that work to balance the Mainline, which is a reality existing to hold all the realms together. When the worlds are unbalanced the Mainline is threatened and if the Mainline falls apart we're all dead like I explained."
"Is this Void place like The Faith's version of hell or something?" Dean asked next and Castiel shrugged in response.
"I suppose? It's not the same lore as the hell that the worlds know of, if that's what you mean." The priest took a sip of the coffee they'd made for him nearly an hour ago with some disdain for the coldness of it. Should've drank it faster. "In The Faith it's prophesied that when the Void wakes up so will all of the High Priests, and when the Void sleeps we'll be dormant along with it. I understand this to mean that we won't have any magic or powers to use once it's all over, not that we'll get sealed up too. But that's just a guess, I have no idea really."
"You haven't discussed this much with the others, have you?" Cas tilted his head just slightly and his priest counterpart had to chuckle at the motion. All of them seemed to do that at one point or another.
"No, I haven't. I suppose I'm a bit worried about it. We're all stressed out right now and I don't want to add a bunch of these philosophical questions. We can't answer them ourselves, all we can do is wait and see so why bother? It's inevitable; whatever happens at the end is out of our hands. My job will be completed once we stop the Void, that's all that the Faith really cares about."
"But your life doesn't get 'completed.'" Castiel argued furiously, "I don't like the way you talk about it. You love Dean, don't you?"
"I do." Cas eyed his mouthy self with some amusement but he'd learned not to take his alternate selves lightly. They had lived through their own lives and hurdles; they had things they could tell him.
"You're holding back. You love him but you don't say it often, you don't show him. You don't think it's worth it, that it might all end anyway, you'll get hurt somehow and you don't think you can handle the pain, whatever the reason I think it's just cowardice. Tell him. Every chance you get, tell him you love him."
"I do tell him…" Cas couldn't quite recall the most recent occurrence but he knew he'd done it.
"Do it more. You're looking to the future, you can't wait until you get the chance to settle down and just live with him but I have news for you, you're living with him right now. He's there with you, he cares about you, you spend all this time together but you waste it. You treat it like it's not worth anything, like it has to be in some house or you aren't 'together.'" Castiel leaned forward, his expression nothing short of viciously serious, "Every second with him matters."
"I know that." Priest Cas tried to argue but he felt his chest tighten.
"Then act like it. I could see it in your exchanges; I can hear it in how you talk. Dean means the world to you but he doesn't know that."
"He knows-"
"He's guessing. Give him something solid, some proof."
Castiel took a deep breath and tried to calm himself, he was getting angry and emotional over it and it was stupid. But how stupid? Was he the one that was being an idiot, ignoring the fact that this other him was right? He hadn't been warm enough toward Dean, he held onto Dean when he felt weak, when he needed someone but was that enough? They were busy, they had to fulfill their destined purposes but that was just an excuse. Too busy was bullshit. They were never too busy to goof off, were they?
"It's strange," he said after a moment of silence fell around them all over again. "I've lived for so long now and yet… it doesn't feel long enough when I'm with him. You're right, I… I need to fix it." He glanced up at his other self who was smiling again, "I don't get why you started ragging on my relationship though…"
"You two look like us and I didn't like the reflection I was seeing. Dean and I have finally made it," Cas explained and his husband took his hand firmly, "it's taken so much effort for both of us and we worked so hard, I just can't stand seeing someone care so little. And if it's Dean that isn't being cared for… well I doubly can't stomach it."
Priest Castiel sighed with a smile and nodded, "You two are quite the couple, I have to say. I've run into many pairs of Dean and Castiel's, but I think you two are the most in love that I've seen."
"Thank you," Dean was the first to take pride in it. "I think you and your partner have some potential though, just gotta work through some stuff."
"Pfft, some is putting it lightly. But thank you."
Dean and Jet walked quietly for a little while as they kept an eye out for Sam, the area was as normal as any other neighbourhood so it made looking for suspicious things a bit easier. Anything odd and out of place would, in their heads, lead straight to Sam, their group wasn't the epitome of natural happenings. As they walked together Jet had to take a second and watch Dean, at least until his friend looked at him and he had to turn away.
"What's up, man?" Dean asked so casually Jet nearly forgot that they were in the middle of something important.
"Nothing really, just surprised at how much you've changed." He smirked as he watched the road ahead of them, "All of us are so different aren't we? The time we've spent doing this hasn't been that long but it feels like forever."
"Almost dying a lot will do that." Dean shrugged and huffed out a laugh, "And to be honest I don't even know how Cas has been keeping track of how long he's been doing this. He says centuries but we jump into different worlds where time is al weird and different days have passed at different times. Hell, none of us even get tired like we should."
Jet scrunched up his face and looked back at Dean again, this time a more incredulous expression dawned on his face. "No shit?" He laughed and ran his hand through his hair, "Didn't even notice… why though?"
"I… I think it's the mainline and jumping through portals and shit, it does stuff to you. Like, at first I know we got tired and hungry but I haven't needed to stop in a long while. If we rarely need to sleep then I'm even more confused as to how long it's been."
"Well it's not just a priest thing because Sam and I haven't needed anything either. Remember the first time you told me about Cas? Creepy dude on a statue for days straight? We might get to that point too."
Dean pouted, "But I don't want to be a creepy dude on a statue."
Jet snorted and slapped him on the back, "You're an idiot. But at any rate we should ask Cas how long it's been, feels like a year already."
"After getting the other Dean's power I have memories of their time together, it's kind of faint but they're there. It kinda adds to the time thing so now I feel like I've been at this even longer than that."
"Maybe Cas won't know either then?"
"Nah," Dean waved it off, "Cas is good with this sort of thing, I don't think he'd get confused."
"Yeah." Jet trailed off as his mind managed to get away with him; his fingers tapped the side of his thigh anxiously until he had to say something. "Dean…"
"Yeah?"
"You, uh… do you trust me?"
Dean frowned and looked at his best friend curiously, Jet wasn't the type to doubt like that so the fact that he was made Dean nervous. "Of course I do." He stopped and caught Jet's arm to make him do the same. "Why would you even think you had to ask me that?"
Jet was quiet for a few seconds and Dean thought for sure that the time went by differently because those seconds felt like minutes. "After what we saw in Futurum I just had to ask."
"You mean that vision of us fighting?" Dean asked incredulously and Jet nodded, "Man, that wasn't you in there. Whatever was going on it wasn't you and that doesn't even matter because I won't let it happen."
Jet tried to pull away but Dean was far too strong and didn't want him going anywhere, "How the hell could you stop it?"
"I just will." Dean was so serious and determined; it'd been a long time since Jet had seen him that way. "Jet, that Futurum ball of crap is just a guess as to what we might end up doing, it's not a certain and one hundred percent accurate truth. You're my best friend, man. You've been saving my ass from shit since I met you, with actual fights, with financial shit, and especially with Sam you've been incredible. You're the toughest, most loyal guy I know and I know that you would never do that shit on purpose."
Jet half smiled at him, "Thanks man."
Dean was pleased with that; Jet didn't always show when something bothered him so it was a relief for the other male to bring his troubles to the table like that. "Anytime, dude." They caught one another's forearm and pulled the other guy in for a quick hug. Jet happened to look at the ground behind Dean as he opened his eyes from the embrace and wasn't sure what he was seeing. The ground started to bulge and break, and as it swelled Jet heard an odd rumbling beneath them.
"MOVE!" He shouted and practically threw himself and Dean to the ground. They sprawled out together and scrambled as the pavement beneath where they'd been standing burst open and a massive worm-like monster leapt out.
"Holy shit!" Dean cursed and rolled onto his back as his weapon morphed around his hand into a sawed-off shotgun. He didn't get the chance to stand up so he aimed as the worm gurgled out some kind of wet snarl; it turned toward them and lunged. Several shots were fired directly into where the thing's face should have been; all it had was a hole with a ring of protrusions around it that Dean didn't care to analyze at that moment.
As he fired it gargled all over again but it didn't slow down. Instead it crashed into them with all of its weight and momentum, it's mouth –Dean assumed the hole was its mouth- gnashing and attempting to swallow them up. Dean crammed one foot into the base of its 'jaw' and used his hand to hold up the roof of its mouth. His free hand was equipped with the sawed-off and he made quick use of it, Dean stuck the end into the monster's mouth and fired as many time as he could before it had to be cocked again. The beast shrieked and tried to back up, all kinds of ungodly noises coming from its hideous self.
Dean didn't intend on letting it go, he dropped the shotgun and started using all of his strength to pull that thing in half. It wasn't nearly as hard as the gigas had been and Dean soon found himself covered in worm guts. Unfortunately Jet hadn't been able to move for a short span of time after being half flattened so he too found himself in the same situation.
"Oh…" Jet groaned after a moment of silence passed, "This is disgusting." They were covered in a green slime and so many other things that Jet didn't want to even try to define them. "Oh god…"
Dean gagged and threw the worm's remains to the side, "I think I'm gonna throw up."
"Do it on that side." Jet growled and shoved him away.