-"My heart's racing trying to catch up to you, the light that you let off is gold."-

Jet's Mind

The crash of another heartbeat brought Sam back to reality and he realized he was just standing on a pathway. It looked like empty space was all around him other than the barely laid out floor, but it didn't feel empty at all. Jet's emotions, memories, thoughts, experiences, all of it surrounded him. Jet's entire being was in that space; Sam just had to find its core – Jet's heart and soul, the part that really put him together.

Jet would be in the strongest part of himself, his center, the place he felt safest. And somehow Sam thought that maybe it was him, that he was Jet's safe place.

Sam pushed on; he made his way through twists and turns, avoiding spaces that would trigger a memory. He was trespassing in someone's head; he had no idea if there'd be any repercussions from it but he couldn't let that stop him. The vibrations of Castiel's fight trembled around him; whatever was going on it was getting worse. It had gotten past the shallow mind and started to reach the inner parts of Jet, shaking his foundations.

Every now and then he did trigger something, a phrase Jet remembered or a moment in time that he tried to tuck away and it all started to seem like a pattern. He'd hear someone mention his name in passing and Jet's heartbeat would race.

One that he wasn't expecting took him by surprised and for a second Sam thought he'd been dispelled from Jet's head. He could see an overcast sky, buildings that looked far too old, and he could smell something rotten. Then he saw Dean.

"Jet!" Dean sounded concerned and Sam tried to look around, where was Jet? Why did Dean sound so worried? But his confusion was answered when Dean knelt as his side and gently lifted his head up, "Jet, man what happened?" He was young; they must've been in high school.

Sam blinked blearily and watched as Jet's head automatically angled down to look at himself, he was tattered and bruised. A soft laugh escaped him. Sam missed his voice. "I don't know?" Jet answered and dropped his head again, "Too many guys at once."

Dean smirked, "That's what she said?"

"Dude," Jet raised a hand and placed his index finger to Dean's lips to silence him, "No."

The two laughed and Dean helped pull Jet up to his feet, "Come on, I'll get you cleaned up. It's Sammy's birthday-" another heartbeat echoed, "you can't show up looking like a fucking hobo."

"Shut up, it's damn time he learned the truth about me," Jet scoffed proudly, "I'm like the hobo god."

Sam smiled and nodded as the memory faded, he remembered that birthday. He'd been so concerned that Dean wasn't going to show up for it because of how late he already was. Jet did look a little injured at the time; they apparently hid it well, at least well enough that Sam hadn't noticed.

As he walked on things really started to feel like a pattern; he was everywhere. Every phrase or sentence uttered Sam came up somehow. Every random image he stopped to look at he recognized just as much. Sam paused and looked around; he was in the part of Jet that was dedicated to him. Jet's heart echoed loudest in that space when Sam was mentioned and it only got louder as he moved on.

It made him smile even harder but the ache in his chest grew just as much; Jet kept a special place for him. Maybe subconsciously but it was there, Sam was standing in proof of it. He wiped at tears that started to form at the corners of his eyes and kept hunting for the real thing. He noticed there were some moments of Jet's life that were corrupted, taken over by parts of the Imperator and that presence only spread further.

He'd seen his own face, smiling down at Jet in that one world, the one they'd decided to have a picnic in. Jet was lying in the grass on a hill, the twig still clenched between his teeth as Sam approached him.

But then it almost looked as though it were burning slowly; Sam's face started to decay and fizzled out of definition. Jet's memory was warped, Sam went from smiling kindly, lovingly, to afraid and then he had no face at all. There were so many like that the deeper Sam went, and the further in he was the more he realized the heartbeat had changed. It no longer raced like a boy in love, it stuttered and skipped beats as fear gripped it tight.

Jet was scared, he was losing everything slowly and he was all alone in there. Sam couldn't take the thought.

"Jet!" he called out again and waited for an answer, listening as the area around him moved and changed. Nothing was happening other than that, everything looked vacant and the pathway had ended. It was just an empty space, a dead end and Sam couldn't figure out where else to go. Mentioning himself had brought on the heartbeat he'd been using as a guide, maybe that. It was still shaky and terrified but it was still the best way to find him. "I'm here, Jet. It's Sam, remember? You're not alone!" It thundered like an explosion around him and Sam had to try to cover his ears that time. The room around him shook and he lifted his head in hopes that maybe there'd be some clue. He couldn't tell where the heartbeat originated from, it sounded like it was all around him, like he was there. He was where the heart was meant to be. But nothing.

The floor altered his footing and he felt another rumble, Cas' fight was getting harder and he could only imagine Dean's. Just as he decided to try another path the surface beneath him started to crumble and sink, an attempt to swallow him whole. He tried to run but his feet were stuck, they wouldn't move and slowly he began to slip away.

"No!" He shouted and fought against it, "I'm so close! I can find him, just give me time!" He reached for anything but there was nothing for him to grasp. "JET!" Sam screamed as futility sunk in.

The world around him rippled like water as he passed through the floor and suddenly Sam saw nothing but light, it was beautiful. He stared in awe at the mind that lay out before him; he could see everything and nothing hid in dark corners like above. There was nothing around him that felt dark and angry, was this what it was supposed to be like? Jet's mind was encased in the Imperator, most of the good feelings were shoved away and only the parts that made him want to hide were left at the surface of his memory. It was sick but a good way to keep anyone away from where you wanted them. Just put up a defense made of their worst fears and things that hurt them most, almost guaranteed to work.

"Jet?" He called again and felt an immediate response. The area reverberated with suddenly life and he heard it. It was like someone was trying to speak but their words were stolen by the wind.

An echoing voice finally focused enough to say his name, "Sam?"

"Jet!" Sam looked around more excitedly, his feet on solid ground and eyes bright with the hope that he'd see him. Jet was nowhere in sight though, it was just the same empty space with the bright light and what looked like floating dust.

At first they were just strange particles around him, like a fluttering mist that had no real form until it compacted into one space. Jet phased into existence from the wave of light and separated matter, unable to keep a solid shape but otherwise still there, "Sam? What are you doing here?" His voice was as disconnected as his body, like he was talking through an old phone on speaker.

"I came to save you, it's going to be okay now." Sam could feel tears choking up his vision but kept it to himself, "You have to come with me, Jet." He moved to hug him but went almost right through, like Jet really had no physical body to touch. It made some sense but he remembered the anima, he remembered holding Jet's hand and knew that something had to be wrong. "What's happened? Why can't I touch you?"

Jet stared at him as the words registered, his expression tightened and he looked down, "I…" He furrowed his brow and stared at hands that barely formed long enough to be seen, "I'm not… I lost control."

Sam watched the thoughts filter through Jet's face, "You can get it back, you just need to fight."

"I'm not strong enough, Sam." Jet looked at him sadly but that calm smile came back to him, it almost made Sam cry again. "But it's really nice to see you."

"You're going to do more than just see me, I need your help. That monster that you let inside you, he's destroying everything." Sam felt anger welling up inside him as he watched someone he held in high regard give up, right in front of him. "Don't you dare quit on me, Jet."

"I told you to stay away for a reason, Sam." Jet shook his head and parts of the matter making up his shape dissolved, leaving sections of him to remain nothing but mist. Sometimes the definition was lost in his face and all Sam could see was the general outline, the colours he recognized as Jet's hair and skin. "Why didn't you listen?"

"Because I know why you did it, I know why you let the Imperator inside you." Sam insisted and reached to try and touch Jet's face as it formed again. Jet's eyes flicked back and forth between their focus on Sam's left or right, he breathed unsteadily and the bubble of calm started to fade.

"Why's that?"

"Because you were going to fight once you got what you wanted."

Jet scoffed at him and slipped from Sam's touch like the non-solid being he was, "Didn't you see what happened? Do you think I meant to send my fucking arm through Cas?"

Sam shook his head, "No of course you didn't, but you were fighting alone then. We're here now, we're all fighting for you and with you."

Something in his tone caught Jet's attention and the older brunet had to look at him again, really take in what he was saying. "Why? Why didn't they just kill me?"

"They want to save you." Sam smiled as the tears fell down his cheeks, he couldn't hold them back anymore as he watched the heart wrenched expression unfold on Jet's face. "I miss you, more than anything."

"Sam…" Jet went back to his side, this time trying harder to touch his boyfriend's cheek. "Don't cry."

"It hurts to think about you," he closed his eyes and leaned into the caress, "Sometimes I can't breathe."

"That's not healthy," Jet replied with a half smile.

"Neither is quitting when we need you."

"Hey,"

Sam looked up on instinct; Jet's tone sounded so familiar it brought his hopes out of the holes it'd been hiding in. Jet nodded as he grinned in that cocky know-it-all way he did. "Who said I'm quitting?"

The amount of joy in Sam's entire being couldn't have been measured and he threw his arms around Jet's shoulders. It didn't occur to him that he shouldn't have been able to hug Jet, but his partner held as much concentration in that one place to make it possible. As long as Sam never looked down to find Jet had probably been missing the lower half of his body during their contact, he never would've known the difference.

-"I can't shake this feeling, it fills the room. These chills didn't come from the cold."-

Angel Training World: Part 5

After doing everything he could to keep the Imperator away from Sam, Castiel's legs gave out and he fell to his knees, his chest heaving and his arms weak. Even adrenaline couldn't keep him standing anymore and for a second he thought he'd reached the end of his rope. But the Imperator couldn't get close, Cas realized as he looked up from his crumpled position. The Void's king had to focus on Dean again.

Outside Dean was putting up just as much of a fight except his new attack was an attempt to exorcise the monster. The Imperator couldn't ignore that, and with Castiel much less of a threat it could at least keep itself from being dispelled. Its arms were tied behind its back but that didn't make it harmless.

"You think it's that easy?" It spat and Dean was really getting tired of being spoken to that way. "Let's see how well you handle more than one Void dweller at a time."

Dean grinned wildly and nodded, "Go ahead, do your worst."

The Imperator's smug-ass face sneered in a way that said 'I will' without the actual words. However it fell moments after, nothing was coming to its aid.

"Can't get anyone to come to your party?" Dean taunted playfully.

"Goddamn priests," The Imperator snapped and attempted to summon again, this time however Dean didn't wait to see what would happen.

Castiel on the other hand struggled to pull himself to his feet; he could see the beast, unguarded and attention paid to the outside. At least until something inside let go, Cas felt a change around them almost instantly. It was a familiar presence, like Jet wasn't sleeping anymore. The high priest smiled and nodded to the empty space as it slowly filled up with a strength Cas was glad to feel, "Welcome back," he muttered.

The Imperator altered its attention again, this time focusing inwardly toward the area it knew it had shoved Jet into. It didn't hesitate to charge but again it didn't get far, Cas shot it in the back the moment it turned around. "Forgot about me already, huh?" He asked in an attempt to sound less tired, it might've made him sound worse though. His actions earned him that same impulsive shrieking and another attack launched his way. Castiel held tightly to his gun, 'Hurry up, Sam.'