Wild West World: Part 1

Dean looked around the moment he stepped out and felt his mouth tug up in a grin, "No way," he spun on his heel and took in the sights to really ground himself, "No way, no way, no way!" Giddy was a good word to describe him but it didn't do it justice, Dean Winchester was so past giddy he was practically a thirteen-year-old version of himself again screaming about how he wanted to be a cowboy.

"Holy shit, Jet would have loved this," He remarked unthinkingly to himself.

"WINCHESTER!"

Dean turned around to see a western town, not crazy big but it was enough to have a railroad track, but that wasn't what caught his attention. The people looked horrified to see him and that was never a good sign, "Uh," he barely uttered a sound before people scattered and a few drew their guns. "Whoa there, fellas. I'm not the guy you're looking for,"

"Right, and I'm sure you didn't steal that fancy coat, neither." One of the men spat tobacco to the ground and Dean couldn't help but grin at how cool it was that he was there to see it.

"I didn't actually it was given to me." Dean reached back and pulled out his stick just in case, "But you guys seem busy so I guess I'll take off then." He flashed them the Winchester smile, no one seemed impressed and so he decided to get a move on. Just as he started to walk away he heard shots fired, Dean flinched but none of them were aimed his way, in fact they were actually on the other side of the row of buildings next to him.

With the commotion of the people reacting to a fight breaking out Dean dashed around the first building only to be nearly run over by quite the impressive horse. It reared up and he stumbled back, just in time to see another rider bolting across the road, gun aimed back toward a small gathering of armed townsfolk. Dean's gaze snapped up to see who he'd almost been flattened by, what he saw brought on the growing familiarity of pain in his chest. He swallowed thickly and stood properly as the horse and rider steadied themselves, Jet glared at him for the brief moment they shared eye contact.

"Jet! Let's go!" The other cowboy was Sam, shouting from where he'd stalled to wait.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Jet's expression twisted into more confusion than pure rage, not that the anger disappeared though. "Come on, we gotta go." He reached down and instinctively Dean took his hand, finding himself on the back of a horse for the first time. He wrapped his arms around Jet to keep himself from falling and dug his fingers into Jet's shirt to hold on for dear life. It seemed fitting that he'd do this with Jet, though he expected his first horseback ride would be on his own horse and that it would be his Jet with him.

"What'd you guys do back there?" He asked in order to keep the 'clinging to his best friend' thing less weird, and earned an incredulous look from the rider.

"You kidding me? Did you get hit in the head or something?"

"Is that Dean?" Sam gawked as they caught up to him, his face a mixture of confusion and surprise. "Dean what are you doing here?"

"He was in the town back there for some goddamn reason." Jet spat and glowered over his shoulder, "And he doesn't know what's going on."

Sam furrowed his brow at his brother's doppelganger, "You feeling alright Dean?"

"Yeah I'm cool, but seriously what was up back there?"

"Chasing a shadow, like you're supposed to be doing." Jet replied, "Where'd you leave Cas? I thought we had a rendezvous point?" Dean didn't have an answer and when he saw the way Sam and Jet looked at one another he felt a little anxious for it.

"Well yeah, of course but- hey-!" He didn't get the chance to really lie his way around the issue; Jet stalled his horse and jerked Dean off the side like some kind of useless ragdoll. His knees hit the dirt and he tumbled along until the momentum his ride had built up eased out. Dean groaned and looked up in time to see Sam's boot come down on his chest and Jet's gun aimed to his temple.

"You possessed by it?" Sam snarled as he pulled his own weapon and angled it down.

"What? No, I'm not possessed!" Dean lifted his hands in surrender, "I'm as normal as I get."

"Bullshit," Jet knocked the side of the rifle against his head lightly, a warning tap more than anything.

"Okay wait, I'm not the same Dean. Yours is probably still with Cas doing whatever it is he's supposed to be doing." He explained calmly, the brief thought crossed his mind about how Castiel could have possibly gotten through so many worlds without having to explain himself every damn time. However he dismissed it, Cas hadn't had to tell someone that he was the other Castiel until he'd gone travelling with them. Hell, Cas was probably just as bad at explaining it as he was.

"You really are insane, aren't you?" Jet raised his eyebrows and exchanged another look with Sam who only shook his head.

"You're the ones talking about possession and chasing shadows, not me." Dean knew that if he did talk about everything that he'd been through this time around he might actually get shot, westerns weren't exactly the movies Dean watched for social tolerance.

"He's got a point," Jet was the first to relent, his eyes still on Sam who frowned even deeper at the comment.

"What, you want to just take him to the rendezvous point? It's too risky, Jet."

"How else do you suggest we figure out if he's lying or not? Look at him; he's not exactly dressed normally. I've never seen cloth like that."

Sam paused and looked down at Dean again, the priest's face lighting up with a grin, "Can you prove you're a different Dean without help?"

"I can prove I'm not from around here, if that's what you mean." Dean swallowed nervously but kept the smile on his face, he wouldn't ever be the type to say he was a fan of guns touching the side of his head. "I know where your shadow problems came from and I know how to fix it."

The two cowboys looked to one another skeptically, silent conversations passed between them and Dean wished he could figure out exactly what they were trying to communicate. Whatever it was it worked, Sam stepped off Dean's chest with a nod as Jet nudged him with the rifle again, "Get up, Winchester."

Dean pulled himself to his feet and looked between the two sheepishly, "So… you believe me?"

"It's worth the risk, besides we need to get to the rendezvous point and meet up with Cas." Sam pushed him toward his horse; "You're riding with me so Jet can keep an eye on you."

"Right," Dean glanced over at Jet again, an old familiar smirk on the other man's lips that amounted to nothing good in Dean's mind. "Well you'll see I'm not lying so I guess it's all I can ask for."

Castiel barely managed to orient himself in time to dodge out of the way of several galloping horses, there was gunfire and smoke but more importantly he heard the dramatic gasping of people. Cas looked up to see a small crowd of shocked faces, horror slowly sinking into their expressions.

"What in god's name…" A man muttered, his voice among the rising tide of terrified rambling.

He raised his hands to them slowly, "Don't be scared, it's not a big deal-"

"He's a witch!" Someone else shouted and Castiel cringed at the erupting response from the crowd turning mob.

"No, I'm not! I'm here to help with your otherworldly problems; I'm from another reality and-"

"Bullshit, Novak! We know who you are, filthy bandit!"

"Oh…" Cas trailed off and half smiled; his attention was paid to the people across from him but didn't let the slight gleam of a gun slip by his notice. "It was worth a shot, right?" Cas didn't waste time any further and dove to the ground just as the weapons fired his way. It was a swift roll and push off the ground to get himself behind the nearest building, Castiel pressed his back to the wall and exhaled heavily, relieved that he'd managed to move in time.

"Cas!" Dean's voice broke him out of his own thoughts and Cas looked up to see a horse speeding his way, "Hang on, I'll handle it!"

"Like hell you will," Castiel muttered under his breath and leapt onto the back of the cowboy's stallion, much to Dean's utter surprise. As they rode around the building again most of the mob had to scatter to save themselves the pain, the rest were launched several feet by a weaker spell Castiel uttered aloud.

"Holy shit," Dean gawked as he glanced over his shoulder, "What did you just do?"

"I'm a priest."

"Whoa, what?! Since when?"

Cas smirked at him, "I'll explain in a minute, just get us out of here." he dropped down behind Dean and held on as they sped out of dangerous territory.

As soon as they were safe Dean stopped Impala and hopped off to look at Cas better, "Where's your horse?"

"I don't have one," Cas slipped to the ground gracefully and stepped away from the majestic creature, "I'm not your Castiel, I'm a high priest of the Faith and-" He stopped when he saw the pistol in Dean's hands, the barrel pointed right at his head.

"Get the fuck out of him you goddamn shadow. I'll blow both your heads off if I have to." Dean warned, vicious anger in his tone.

Cas pursed his lips but didn't flinch at the weapon, "Okay two things, one; I'm not possessed. And two, no you wouldn't."

Dean's face twitched and he snarled but lowered the gun, "Then what are you doing?"

"Like I said I'm from another dimension," Cas explained again, still keeping track of the gun, "I'm here to fix this 'shadow' problem you seem to have. What do they look like? Ghosts or actual shadows?"

"Both?" Dean shrugged, still on edge but slowly holstering his pistol. "They look like men but with no detail whatsoever, like 3-dimensional shadows or something. These things take people over and they're not anything like they're supposed to be, they act different and weird until the shadow either leaves or gets pushed out."

"Spiritus," Cas sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, "How many, do you know?"

"There's one leader, it got into someone we know and hasn't left. It's got about ten followers, they jump around hosts but can't seem to stay like the first one did." Dean furrowed his brow and looked Cas over, "You really know this kind of stuff?"

"Yes, there's a long story to go with all of this but to summarize, there's something called the Void taking over the universe and my group is fighting back."

"Where is it? Are these spiritus things the soldiers or what?"

Cas shook his head, "Sort of, they're one of many kinds of creatures sneaking into the different worlds. We go in and take them down."

Dean frowned and folded his arms over his chest, "So you're not fighting this Void thing directly?"

"It doesn't work like that."

"Because?"

"As far as anyone is aware there is no source to the Void. I haven't come across anything that can just be killed and all of this stops, it's surrounding all worlds." Cas felt his mouth pulling tight in a sneer as he spoke; he was starting to get sick of saying the same thing over and over again. He felt like a broken record.

"How'd it start doing all this then? Something must've done it." Dean wasn't having any of his excuses, apparently.

"A seal was broken in a different timeline and ever since then all priests have been trying to find a way to end it."

"Can't you just… reseal it?"

"If I knew how, maybe."

Dean nodded slowly and tapped his foot with another shrug of his shoulders, "And the whole world depends on your success?"

"Yeah."

"Well," he smirked and scoffed softly, "We're all doomed."

"Shut up."