Author's Note:

Can you smell a finale? I can smell a finale. I want you guys to tell me what you think, should I kill anyone?

Mainline

"Dean!" A voice he recognized called out and the two brothers looked up to see Michael and Gabriel fast approaching. "What happened?" He wasn't demanding as much as he was hoping the one of the prophesied priests had an answer for him. "Why is the mainline falling apart like this?"

Dean shook his head and ran a hand through his hair, his other rested on Castiel's side as his partner lay still. "Ever heard of the King of the Void?" He asked solemnly and Michael had to share a look with Gabriel. Of course Gabriel went to Sam's side instead so his expression fell flat.

"No, I can't say that I have. They have a governing ruler?"

"Apparently yes. He didn't have a body before but someone fell into the Void so now he has one." Dean muttered, not entirely in the mood to explain but someone had to and he wasn't about to ask Sam to do it.

"Who fell into the Void?" Gabriel asked and looked at their group again, "Wait… that Jet guy fell didn't he?"

"Yes." Sam responded quietly.

Michael looked out at the horizon as more worlds fell to pieces in the distance, "I'm sorry for your loss," he decidedly didn't mention anything that crossed his mind. The insensitivities of 'you're the chosen ones, you have to get up and go out there' didn't sound too good even before uttered out loud.

"Thanks," Dean looked up at him sadly, "What's it like out there right now?"

"It's tough, almost impossible actually. Before only parts of the Void leaked through and that was by dumb luck on the monster's part usually. But now they have guidance and orders, we've fought legions of beasts even to just get back here." Michael looked down at Castiel's healing body, "I imagine you've been through the same."

"Pretty much."

They were quiet for a long moment, for some of it Dean thought he'd just outright tell Michael they failed. It didn't sound that good in his head but maybe it'd come across better if he said it. He ultimately decided not to but Dean kept the idea in his mind, "They're falling faster than we can save." Michael muttered as the echoes continued.

"Well when they fall they're just inside the Void, right?" Sam looked at them a little hopeful, "When we beat it won't they be salvageable?"

"Theoretically, assuming the people left inside haven't been devoured by the Void's inhabitants." Gabriel joined the conversation as he sat down beside Sam, "But if we're quick then we can save most of them."

Dean looked out into the distance; "Cas is going to be heartbroken when he wakes up."

"What happened to him?" Michael also joined them as they sat along the mainline.

"Jet impaled him." Sam replied dryly.

Dean frowned as he ran his hand along Cas' side again, "He's gotten a lot better, and the wound's almost completely gone already."

"You guys fought the king? What was it like? Did you kill it?" The amount of hope in Michael reminded Dean of Sam.

"He was strong, fast, and summons gigas for a laugh."

Michael fell silent again as Dean's words crushed whatever hope he'd had, "So, he got away?"

"Sort of, yeah. But most people would describe it more like we got away."

Michael sat quietly after that, he waited and watched their group as the despair seemed to take over. They were tired, they were betrayed and heartbroken and it all weighed heavily on them.

Gabriel offered Sam a lollipop, "Want one?"

Sam looked at it miserably glanced up at the honest expression of sympathy Gabriel wore. "Thanks," he took it without really thinking further than that, he held onto it and looked at the colours swirled around like a rainbow. "Why?" He finally asked, "Why would you give me candy?"

"Candy cheers me up," Gabriel shrugged and popped one into his mouth.

He smiled at the simplicity of that. "If it makes you happy just do it, huh?"

"Basically." Gabriel grinned back at him.

"I like it."

"Alright," Michael stood up again, "Gabriel and I are going to look ahead and see what's happening out there and if we can do anything about it. I'll report back if I can." He motioned to his partner to follow and started away, "Take care of yourselves."

"Thanks for stopping in," Dean smiled at him though a little disheartened, "Let me know what's up over there."

Michael nodded and took his leave; Gabriel waved at Sam and caught up to his partner.

Sam sighed and laid back, "We're complete failures, aren't we?"

"No, just gotta wait for Cas to get better and we'll kick some ass." Dean tried to sound determined but it wasn't exactly convincing to either of them.

"Then what? Just magically know how to fight Jet?"

"It's not Jet we're fighting," Dean glared at Sam, "Don't give up on him so easily. He's fighting inside there too, alright? It's not like the anima, Cas can't just jump into it and pull him out."

Sam rolled his eyes and looked away, "I know… I don't know what to do anymore, Dean."

Dean nodded and looked down at Cas, "Yeah… me neither."

Castiel flinched and finally opened his eyes, the familiarity of the mainline was a comfort but something felt more wrong than he'd noticed before. Cas sat up and realized that the Void was closer than it had ever been, the mainline lost so many worlds it was nearly a straight road to nowhere.

"Dean?" He asked hoarsely as his voice slowly returned to him. "Dean what happened? Where are you?"

"Calm down, I'm right here," Dean immediately moved into Cas' line of sight and ran a hand through his hair.

Castiel relaxed and closed his eyes, leaning into the touch. "I remember getting hurt, what happened after that?"

"Sam saved us, actually." Dean grinned and looked over at Sam who walked around to sit next to Cas too.

"I didn't, I just stalled him until one of you could move again."

Cas lifted his eyelids and watched Sam with a smile, "Thank you."

Sam's lips pulled up at the corners but not by much, "No problem, you guys have saved me countless times so I'm glad I could help."

"I can't believe it actually happened," Cas muttered as he let his eyes drift closed again. "Jet's gone…"

"That's not entirely true," Sam insisted hesitantly, "He talked to me – Jet, not the monster. He said to stay away but it was him. I don't know what to do yet but I think we can save him yet."

Cas bit his lip and looked at the hopeful expressions on his family's faces, "I don't know how his possession works, but I'll try my best."

"That being said," Dean looked down the mainline, "What now? The Void's winning."

"I saw…" Cas slowly pushed himself upright and shook his head free of fogginess. "We had nothing to go off of before but I think we might be able to beat it. I didn't know it had a king, what if that's the key?"

"Killing the Imperator closes the Void?" Dean mused and nodded, "Worth a shot, right? We should go after him."

Sam nodded, "We need a plan though, he kicked our asses last time."

"He's weaker if his concentration's broken up. If Jet keeps fighting inside of him it might work, but we'd be beating on Jet's body." Cas shook his head, "I can't think of a way we could get Jet out of there alive."

Sam grabbed the old journal again and started leafing through it, "Maybe something in here could tell us…"

"The other timeline didn't know about Imperator either, I don't think your other self could have written about it." Dean didn't want to burst his bubble but he didn't want to give Sam false hope either.

"Something might give me an idea, how did we beat the other monsters? Demoni possess people, Dean did you try knocking it out of him?" The younger Winchester couldn't help but look eager and trusting. He didn't want to believe that their only option was to kill his boyfriend, he refused to believe it.

"He was pretty quick but anything I did try didn't seem to have an effect on him."

Cas pursed his lips and pushed himself to his feet again, "Demoni aren't like the Imperator, he's a lot more like the spiritus we encountered recently. Now having said that we still need to realize that spiritus are a weak Void creature despite their sentience. The Imperator is intelligent but he's also strong, he won't be taken down as easy and I'd even venture to say removing him from a host is near impossible." He looked at Sam seriously, "But I think we need to try."

Sam nodded quickly, "So what else is there? What took something more than just a magic blast or a head shot?"

Dean shrugged, "The anima and domus I think."

"The domus and anima are also a similar species," Cas informed them, "If you recall we left the immediate reality to either one of the domus' makings, or into another person's head."

"That's it!" Sam lit up excitedly, "That's how we do it!"

Cas and Dean shared a look before addressing Sam again, "Are you suggesting we go inside Jet's head?" Cas ventured to ask.

"Yeah! But just two of us," Sam grinned and put the book away again, "Okay get this, Dean can probably expel the Imperator from Jet but it has to be weakened and distracted right? So he stays on the outside to face off against possessed Jet while Cas and I go inside his head. Once there Cas confronts the possessing spirit of the Imperator and fights him there to distract and weaken him."

Dean frowned, "Why do you have to go in too?"

"Because you and Cas won't be enough," Sam pressed on, "It'll be a good distraction but what we really need is for Jet to push him back. The Imperator was so focused on Jet when he started to surface last time; I think Dean could easily kick him out."

"You're going inside to find Jet," Castiel nodded as he understood, his gaze drifted over to Dean to see how his partner was taking the idea. He looked stuck on it; obviously putting Sam on the front line wasn't what he wanted to do.

"I don't' like," Dean shook his head in protest, "You're gonna get hurt Sam. Jet's head is probably the most dangerous place you could be."

"I think it's the best chance we have, Dean. Trust your brother."

Dean looked at Cas and realized his lover was dead serious. He chewed on the inside of his cheek and turned back toward Sam, his little brother's face as determined as he'd ever seen it before. "Alright," he conceded and nodded to Sam, "Let's give it a shot."

"Even if this doesn't stop the Void," Cas added, "it'll slow it back down. We need to take out the Imperator."

The three agreed and headed down the long road to find their next destination. It was hard to watch the scenery go by now, worlds collapsed into the Void, broken pathways and empty fires. As they walked they noticed others ahead, a group of people in long dark coats. Cas, Dean and Sam looked at one another but kept up their pace.

"Dean," John approached them from the crowd, Mary right on his heels, "Sam, boys are you alright?"

"We're alive," Dean smiled and gave his father a hug; it felt like forever already since they'd seen each other. "How are you guys? What's with the group?"

Mary went to hug Sam and Castiel nodded at Michael and Gabriel as the two walked over. "It's not looking good," Michael spoke dismally. "There are very few worlds left now, other than the ones we've already saved I've counted three. And these" he motioned to the people that stood before them, "are what's left of the High Priests."

"That's awful," Sam looked over at what he'd expected to be a much larger group of teams. "Did they fall into the Void with the worlds?"

"A lot of them did," Gabriel muttered solemnly, "But the ones that didn't died fighting against the organized monsters."

The other groups of priests looked their way and for the first time Cas really understood that what they did was part of a bigger picture. There had been other pairs running around having similar troubles and adventures all without his knowing. And many of them looked up to him, one of the prophecy.

"We have a plan," He called out to them, Cas didn't know what he was doing but he had to say something to them. "The Void's king has awoken and we're going to go in and stop him, but I think the creatures will be too much to handle at the same time." He looked across the span of faces and took a deep breath to steady himself.

"And who are you?" Someone yelled out passive aggressively.

"This is Castiel and Dean Winchester," Michael snapped at them, "They are the priests from In Somniantes and Aeterna, show them some respect."

"They're here."

"They're going to defeat the Void!"

Murmurs erupted and Cas felt immense elation at the sound of their joy, he looked at Dean who appeared stunned but no less in awe at the unfolding scene.

"Everyone please," Castiel shouted above them, attempting to regain some command, "I need anyone who can fight to come with us."

"That's what we're all here for, Cas." Gabriel jabbed him in the side and Castiel could only smile at that.

"We're right behind you," Mary placed a hand on Dean's shoulder and he swelled with pride.

"All of you," John assured Sam with the same gesture, his youngest nodded in reply.

The priests lined up like soldiers and faced Castiel and Dean like they were their commanders, Cas took Dean's hand and glanced at him tentatively. "There's one world we need to go into."

Dean turned back toward the others, "If you're with us then we need you to help us get to the Imperator, their king. He'll look like a regular guy, right now he's wearing jeans and a dark button up shirt."

"He's tall," Sam added and tried to keep emotion out of it, "Brown hair and eyes, darker complexion." He bit his lip and cut himself off there. 'He's beautiful, you can't miss him.'

"Lead the way, we'll watch your backs." Michael assured them.

"Good, I want you, Gabe, and my parents to stick with us. I have a feeling we'll need you once we get there." Dean smiled at him and looked to the world where the fire blazed the brightest, "Alright let's head out!"