Carmen's eyes shot down the moment Sam walked out of the tent. It was distracting. She caught a glimpse of his face, gaunt and slightly dazed. Her attention being averted had the spell the wind spell that Lilith was aiming at her, strike her unguarded body and threw her off the branch.
It wasn't that bad of a fall. A human might have broken a few bones. Carmen just felt a few aches and cricks as she rose to her feet. There were a few of the humans in the camp glowering her way, probably hoping she had died by the fall.
She flashed them all a dazzling smile before looking towards Sam and walking over. No sign of John. Where had he gone?
"Sam?" Carmen asked upon approach. "You all right? You sleepwalking?"
Sam did not answer. The closer she got, she realized how stupid her second question was. Sam's eyes were wide open and staring. Carmen caught a glimpse of black swirls moving inside his pupils and her own eyes widened as she caught his face between her hands.
"Sam? Sam? Sam, can you hear me?"
"I have to pray," Sam answered in a low voice, almost a whisper. "I have to pray."
"Pray?" Carmen shook him until his teeth rattled. "Sam, look at me. Look at me. Can you hear me?"
"Pray," said Sam.
"Sammy," said Carmen, shaking him harder. "Look at me!"
Lilith heard something that sounded remarkably like thunder, as high up as she was, she heard it before anyone else. Her eyes flew up just in time to watch as the subtle orange barrier that Dean had placed over the camp began to crack in several places.
"Carmen," She said out loud, even though the girl had fallen and was well out of range. She looked down below at her. "Carmen! The barrier is down! Can you hear me?! The barrier is down!"
"Lilith! Something's wrong with Sam!" Carmen shouted back.
"What? No! The barrier is down!" Lilith said yet again. "The magic barrier is down!"
But Carmen wasn't listening, she had her attention focused on Sam. And so she didn't look up to see Dante land, light as a feather on the same branch Lilith was on. It rocked only slightly. He crouched for half a minute before rising and standing level with Lilith. She was shocked to find him completely healed, both black wings curled on his back. Last time she had seen him, he was bleeding out, vanishing in a pathetic form...Now it looked like his power had tripled. She could feel emanating from him.
Involuntary, in the limited space, Lilith took a step back.
"Hello cutie," said Dante in a musical voice.
"Dante," Lilith greeted stiffly, all amusement gone from her face.
"Oh, don't be like that. We're old friends, you and I. Why, I remember when you were a pissant bitch back in the days of paradise. Always whining about your rights as a female who should not be forced to lie under man...Well, it looks like your situation is at least half improved, hm? Still under a man...demon. Whatever."
"I'm not your friend, Dante," Lilith snapped back. "You don't have any friends."
"Who needs friends. You people act like friends are the greatest aspect of life with your sunshine ways and your fucking rainbow cocks. Get out of my face with that," He was such a loose cannon. Almost without thinking, he grabbed Lilith's throat and lifted her up against the tree. His moods were all over the place and it was quite evident he had no control over them."You're demons. Start acting like you're the offspring of the most powerful Fallen."
Lilith glared at him, but she did not grab his hand. She simply let him hold her. It must have been painful, her veins becoming taut and strained on her neck. "Nothing sickens me more than being bred from disgusting Fallen...Like you."
"Not very nice, Lilith," Dante pretended to pout. "Let's get down to it, shall we? Where's the Winchester?"
"Winchester," She repeated. "We killed him a long time ago. Talked too much. He's dead."
"So are we all, but death doesn't stop the rest of you from making my life miserable," said Dante coldly.
"I don't know where he is,"
"Stop acting like a sewer rat," Dante snapped. "You were there, Lilith. You were there when paradise fell. It's the reason you're so enamored by an unworthy king. For you, quite literally the pretty face."
Lilith hissed under her breath. "You would do well to keep your mouth closed on matters you know very little of."
"Very well," Dante answered coolly. He threw her off the branch, sending her plummeting to the ground. She had no time to absorb the impact before Dante was upon her. Now Carmen finally drew her attention from Sam. She watched in horror as Dante stood over Lilith lying on her back with Dante above her, sword pressed to her throat.
"I'm not one for repetition," said Dante. "Or...hah...well...all things considered...maybe? You know what, doesn't matter. Tell me where John is. I much desire to speak to him."
"You better kill me, Dante," said Lilith slowly, raising her head. "Because that's what it's going to take get anything out of me."
"That is the worst comeback I have ever heard. You wouldn't be giving me anything when dead. You'd be dead. Nothing comes from that except immense satisfaction for me," said Dante. He slid his sword to rest against her cheek. "One more time. Where. Is. He?"
Carmen had released Sam, come forward and Dante's head shot up to meet her gaze evenly. He didn't move his sword from Lilith's face, but the implication was clear that he didn't want her getting any closer.
"Easy, your highness. I have business to attend to with the first demon. Steer clear of me and you can walk out of this alive," said Dante smoothly.
"You! What are you doing to Sam? Get away from her!" Carmen commanded, stepping closer.
"Is listening to directions not one of your many attributes?" said Dante exasperatedly. "Stay back."
Carmen stopped short, glaring at Dante with nothing short of pure hatred. "Don't hurt her."
" 'Don't hurt her'? Lilith's transgressions overwhelm everyone's here. Aside from Dean, she's the worst demon ever created...and she just so happens to be the first," said Dante, looking down at her. "How many have you created since your own creation? Five thousand? Six? How many lives had to die for you for you to maintain that insatiable appetite?"
Lilith smiled up at him. "I lost count a long time ago."
Dante returned her grin. "At least you'll die like Merrick. With a smile on that pretty face."
Her expression slowly fell. "No..."
Dante's smile grew wide and he raised his sword. Carmen got a glimpse of the gleam of his sword before he plunged it towards Lilith's head. She saw the explosion of blood and screamed. Despite herself, she rushed towards him. No sword. No weapon of any kind. A raw curling of Will as she used fire element. He saw her coming right at the last second, held up a free hand to block her spell.
And Carmen couldn't move. She was lifted off the ground as though invisible hands had caught her around the waist and brought her up a few inches off the ground. Her muscles felt strained and pulled, arms straight down her sides, legs slightly apart.
Dante had blood all over him. Most of it not his own. Lilith's...Probably Merrick's too...and maybe even Dean's. The barrier had gone down and that meant...Dean was probably dead...and she hadn't felt a damn thing to know that that was true.
There was a cut on Dante's forehead that had dried blood caked on it and a damp wrist where a little blood was still dripping off from his elbow but she liked seeing them. She liked that he had some kind of injury. If he could bleed, he could die. At least someone managed to injure him in some way on his way here.
"Just kill me too," Carmen spat.
"Carmen Matthews," said Dante musingly. "I went through some measures while working on the bend with Castiel to have you captured. But you managed to evade me. For someone so young, you're either incredibly gutsy or just lucky."
"I'd like to think I'm rather majestic at everything I've ever tried to do," said Carmen coolly.
"I like that attitude," Dante approved, and his mood shifted unexpectedly. "But killing you gives me nothing. Unless you can perchance tell me where dear...John...is?"
"I don't know anyone by that name," said Carmen.
"Yes, you do. You know him by John...and I know him by-" He broke off when the unmistakable sound of a rifle cocking behind him was heard. Dante kept his hand extended towards Carmen but his head tilted over his shoulder at the gathering of humans.
But at the head of them stood John, the one who held a sniper rifle inches away from Dante's head.
Carmen felt a rush of dread for the human. She hardly knew John, had snarked him a few times in the past since coming here. Maybe he had done something terrible in the past to warrant coming here. They all did. But she didn't want him to die. Dante would draw it out worse than he did Lilith. She knew little of the Shadowalker, but enough to know that his ego was way worse than Dean and hers combined. The audacity of John would push his wrath.
"Put her down," John commanded.
"She looks so much better this way," said Dante, turning back to Carmen and looking utterly unconcerned. His eyes raked down Carmen's body. "I have a very...very good view from here."
"Put her down. This is your only warning," said John, raising the rifle high.
"Ooh, jeez. I better listen, then," Dante mocked. He turned to face him in the limited space. "You think that bullet will kill me?"
"At this range, I don't need to be a great shot for that," John replied.
"Then fire," Dante leaned forward so that the end of the rifle touched his lips.
John narrowed his eyes. But he fired, the gun jerking upward as he did. The bullet cut through Dante's mouth and blasted half his cheek away where the metal and lead impacted his teeth and obliterated the gum tissue underneath. A part of his cheekbone was visible as though burned by the fire behind the bullet. And even though Dante was leaned back from it, his head snapped to the side towards Carmen where she saw the gory aftermath, his dark eye swivelled to meet hers and she saw what was left of his teeth show in a manic smile.
He lingered for a moment, and to her shock, he began to heal, skin knitting itself over the wound. She watched as there were several clicks and pops as his teeth began to reset and regrow, lips reforming over them leaving only a wet blood stain on his chin and mouth.
Dante slowly turned back to John, wiping the excess blood from his mouth and looking at him angelically.
"Shadowalker," said John slowly.
"Let's skip out on pretension, shall we?" Dante's eyes gleamed.
John's eyes tightened as he lowered his rifle just an inch. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Denying it doesn't make the old ways vanish," Dante side-stepped him, walked around while they were back to back, his eyes on the gathering of other humans. "Did you all not know? Does it come as a surprise that your leader, this perfect perfect idol you've been following is not one of you? That he was created by the hand of God himself, and not born through a filthy womb like you people?"
"I think this guy's officially lost it," Carmen looked down at John, who continued to look agitated.
Dante's eyes gleamed in her direction. "Cute, Carmen. Never doubt that ignorance is the reasoning behind all of you failing to one-up me."
Carmen continued to look at John, eyeing his strange expression. Like he would like nothing more than to shut Dante up with another shot to the face. But she answered Dante anyway. " One up you? You hide behind manipulations and lies, Dante. That's not winning. You're a sore loser with a bad attitude and a grudge. How about this? You get over it."
John closed his eyes. No answer to their banter. His hand went to his forehead where he rubbed his temple with his fingers.
Dante started to walk away from Carmen. His eyes locked onto Sam's lone form. He pointed his sword in Sam's direction. Carmen realized it wasn't sleepwalking...He was under a spell. Probably the same exact one Castiel had been under. Come to think of it, his eyes had dark shadows inside, like swirls when she was closer to him...just like Castiel.
She felt a rush of regret for her hateful thoughts on Castiel and tried to suppress it. Now wasn't the time.
"You. Pray," Was all Dante said.
Obediently, Sam's hands came together behind Carmen and he started whispering something to his hands in a clear voice. With Carmen's superior hearing, she could catch every word.
"O Lord, let my soul rise up to meet you...
as the day rises to meet the sun..."
John's body took an eerie white glow. He seemed to choke on something as Carmen watched, collapsing to his knees in front of her, clutching his chest as though in extreme pain. Carmen tried to move, tried to break the spell Dante had on her, but she couldn't. She couldn't move an inch towards him. Painfully, she was reminded of something that happened ten years ago when she watched Lucifer strangle Dean with his mind, made him nearly cough out his lungs.
"Sam!" Carmen called, struggling to see him over her shoulder. "Sam, wake up! Stop! Stop what you're doing! You're killing him!"
"Killing him," Dante scoffed. "Why would I kill him? I need him very much alive. These others though... "
His attention averted to the crowd of humans. Immediately a volley of bullets were fired in Dante's direction at point-blank range. Carmen braced herself for it, for the release of the spell Dante had on her and for the gory display she was about to witness.
But not one bullet touched Dante. They seemed to absolve into a shield of black lightning that Dante had around himself, shimmering once before dispersing. He picked one bullet off at eye level before it could vanish and eyed it with a smile. "Such a primitive weapon. Only man could invent something so crude. Mm. In the end, it proves about as useless as your kind as a whole when it comes to dispatching enemies, wouldn't you agree?"
Carmen didn't have to be attuned in Will or magic to sense the power that was coming from Dante. It wasn't Fallen power...It just couldn't be. If something that menacing existed in Fallen, Dean would have been dethroned by now and there would be a Fallen Angel ruler in Hell. What came from Dante was fueled by pure hate and what she could only describe as chaotic. The conscious need to destroy and kill...whether for amusement or just because you could. It was fundamentally what being a demon was all about...but maybe it was simply the fact that she was sired by Dean. And that Dean...really didn't do that. Not that she knew of.
She watched as Dante killed them, sent all of the bullets flying back like projectile missiles, twice in size back at them. She watched them all die. It all seemed surreal to her. He did it without a single thought on the matter. How could something like that exist, without mercy...without care? She watched as they fell in an explosion of black smoke, twisted into ugly, faceless creatures that she had come to know too well in her time here. And Dante had a smile on his face as they were absolved into him, joining his power. They were part of him now...and yet it felt like they had never existed at all.
"No!" John had screamed through his pain, reaching almost blindly for them. His hand extended, covered in blood that Dante was making him choke up. But it was too late. And Carmen was surprised he even had the strength to do it.
Dante felt nothing...nothing. Carmen saw it before... familiarly reflected a thousand times when she looked upon Castiel. The dead look...though his actions screamed for life, there was something dead inside this one. No one could be able to do that with a conscious mind for no reason. Maybe she was just ignorant of the world that she had been pulled into...Lucifer was a dick. As a rule, his Fallen were too.
Seeing it up close...was different then just knowing without having personal experience.
Dean was the one who she was made from. Whatever connected them together now, blood, DNA, life...who knew? It was his mind she shared, and that she replicated from. And maybe that's why it felt so wrong. She felt like he would never have done something like this. Oh, he'd have a laugh over Dante's corpse, probably. Over Lucifer's...but that was because that death would feel right...feel justified. And she knew it.
Too bad he was probably dead, eh?
Carmen craned her neck and felt like she was almost at the point of snapping her bone. But she had to do something. She tried to summon her Will...what little she had learned of controlling it. But Lilith was a very temporary teacher at best. Controlling her power was not part of the lesson one plan. And she doubted very seriously that utilizing a Jump to pounce on Dante would be very effective at stopping him. Her muscles strained from the effort. Her teeth clenched together tightly.
Dante seemed amused, watching her struggles while John gagged out his throat, a puddle of blood forming under him. It was sickening to watch. He wasn't going to last much longer. Sam remained stoic, continuing to pray, continuing to invoke something that caused it. But Sam was under some extension of Dante's power.
"Stop! Please!" She begged. "Stop doing this, please. You're going to kill John!"
"What a tragedy," Dante replied. And his outward appearance showed that he wasn't focused on anything. He could have been just very bored. His body was slanted with his hand leaning on a nearby wooden plank on one of John's tents.
Then John screamed. And there was nothing fake about it. It was a cry of real pain...and she wouldn't be surprised if the entire realm felt it. Because she certainly did, as if that pain was her own. Her own body seemed to tremble under Dante's spell...and she was surprised the vibrations hadn't cut off the spell altogether.
She looked away, couldn't stand to see someone getting ripped apart in front of her. Demon or not...Tainted spirit that had killed people...or not. Something slightly bright touched her closed eyelids. A light like bathing in the warm sun with your eyes closed. But there was no warmth...though she should have expected some soon in the form of blood splash when John surely exploded into chunky chicken soup.
But she opened her eyes...The first thing she saw was a huge being made of white light emerge from where John had been. She couldn't focus on him fully. It was like he was blurred, steady moving and leaving trails of white where he had been.
Carmen found she could look away from him, only because it hurt her eyes too much to try to focus. Look at Dante instead. She couldn't help a shiver of fear when she spotted his expression. So hungry...Like everything he wanted in the world had manifested right in front of him. The light touched his face and he looked eerily pale. She didn't know why she didn't see it before...but she could see black veins running down his cheeks and neck. That certainly wasn't there when she saw John shoot him in the face and he smiled at her in that creepy fashion...perhaps whatever he was doing to Sam, whatever he had changed John into...had effected him.
"There you are...my dear General," said Dante slowly, standing before the enormous white form as white wings extended, the biggest Carmen had ever seen, taking the entire width of the camp.
The being took form. Carmen could only see the back of his head, but it was John...it had to be. Except...bigger...with wings. But that was impossible. Those wings were unmistakably like angel's wings.
John was an angel.
The light began to fade and he wore armor colored gold of the strongest steel and a long red cape that attached at his shoulders made for confining wings that he made no effort to pull back.
John was only looking at Dante. Dante who drew something out his jacket. It gleamed in the subtle light. A sword hilt that had a small golden shard as a remnant of a blade. He held it in his hand before John, twirling it idly in his hands then bringing it up to eye level as though it were still in full form.
"I am not incorrect in assuming that this blade...This sword...still holds some power within it. It was quite a spell to recover this, Michael," said Dante. "Lucifer carried it with him down to the first circle to dispatch of Dean after killing you. But Castiel returned it to Heaven who placed it at the site of your death in that ruined city. Such a waste of great potential in this sword, I daresay. But it certainly did its duty in preventing demons from breaching Manhattan again."
Wait a second. Did Dante call him Michael?
As in Archangel Michael?
"Michael...," Carmen breathed, yet her voice sounded less than a whisper. And John somehow caught it. In one quick glance, he looked over his shoulder at her. And such power in that gaze. His eyes were still bright and green like Dean's...but there was none of that light, almost lazy squint that Dean had. Michael's face was perfected in every way, flawlessly smooth skin, full lips and slightly dark blonde hair a shade or two lighter than Dean's...and she who had seen Lucifer, the one regarded as the most beautiful...Well, let's just say the books were wrong when it came to that.
But he turned back to Dante and began to circle him like a lion preparing to pounce upon it's prey. Dante remained still, relatively calm. She had to give it to him. Michael terrified her in every possible way. It occurred to her that this was John...that he probably still remembered being John. But that didn't make it any less frightening. John hadn't exactly been her best friend as a human.
She felt something tingle as it touched her arm. And her eyes fell on Sam beside her. Quiet as a mouse he had crept up to try to free her. Their eyes met and he put a finger to his lips. His eyes widened on Michael for the briefest moment but he continued trying to help her. Dante had released the spell...or whatever control he had over him...but he hadn't released her...Maybe because between the two of them, he knew who'd try to run away.
Shows how much he knew about her.
Not that Dante would be paying much attention to them. He was still prattling on.
"And it still directs your power as long as you wield it correctly," said Dante, twirling the hilt again. He looked at Michael from the side, grinning. "Too bad you don't possess it at the moment, hm?"
Michael stopped just to Dante's right, going very still. He could have been a statue except he was still exuding a powerful white aura that revolved around him like a second skin.
"Don't worry, Michael. We'll play it like Aladdin. You grant me three wishes...and I'll give you back the sword. It'll probably restore itself in your hands, anyway," said Dante lightly. "So genie...for my first wish. I want you to give me that mortality spell that was cast upon you so long ago."
Carmen watched the two of them as Sam tried to budge Carmen. She wasn't able to be moved. If Dante was even remotely caring about what they were doing, he didn't cast a single look their way.
Finally Sam seemed to shock her with something again and she suppressed a very indignant "ouch!". He mouthed his apology and she hit the ground, feeling like the muscles in her legs had been pulled to the worst degree.
"Are you okay?" He asked in a hushed whisper.
"Are you?" She answered, evading the question and wincing when Sam helped her try to stand, collapsing back down to her knees when her legs failed her.
"I...I don't know...My head hurts...," He looked Michael's way. "That's him, isn't it...John?"
"Michael," Carmen corrected.
"I can't believe I summoned Michael," Sam ran a hand through his hair. "I can't believe he's Michael."
Michael remained still, but his eyes narrowed with pure hatred. Surely Michael was going to smite Dante where he stood for what he said? But Michael did nothing but raise his chin as though in slight defiance.
Dante, however curled his fist towards Michael and stream of black smoke poured out of Michael. It didn't look like an attack, for Michael didn't flinch. The black vapor was pulling something out of Michael, going into Dante. It couldn't be power. Carmen had sense enough to know that Dante wasn't any stronger than he was before...The black vapor stopped and Dante clutched the blackness in his hand, looking at the revolving fumes in his hand as though it was the greatest treasure he ever beheld.
"That was a freebie," Dante remarked. "Still got three...So, let's get cracking on making a Divine Circle, shall we?"
"What is your intention, Shadowalker?" Michael asked, speaking for the first time. It was accompanied with such a strange musical notation. Strange how maybe when Carmen was human, that's how she probably would assume angels sounded like when they spoke. He didn't sound like John, he didn't sound like Dean...He sounded slightly sad.
"My intention? Michael, don't you know by now? Haven't you known for years?" Dante looked affronted. "Come now, don't stall me. It doesn't work. Create the Divine Circle to the mortal realm. I command you."
Michael didn't move again, but the ground began to quake under his feet. Here came the smiting...well...maybe not. It wasn't just the ground that was shaking. It was everything. Even the sky seemed to tremble...and she didn't seem to think that was possible. It cracked, a fissure line right above them. How? Dante...or Michael was bending the fabric of existence...
But then again, this realm was never real. These trees. This camp...The caves. They were all just part of Hell itself. Everything was a lie. That was Hell embodied. Lies and pain everyone's worst nightmare. Except that they were in Dante's living nightmare for too long.
Light began to filter through the surface. Bright as the sun rising. Carmen and Sam covered their eyes but they found after a moment, they could see through it. It looked...It looked like an actual sky. Blue with an assortment of clouds. Even the air was changing with a slight breeze she had not once felt since they fell into this realm.
"Is that...Is that...home?" Sam asked.
"It's...," Carmen murmured. "It's...It can't be."
Now Dante chose to address them. "Nothing is impossible with an Archangel. Very good, Michael. I see you've not gone rusty in your old age. You still look exactly the same as I remember you all those years ago."
"Do not speak for Dominion. You are not Dominion. You are a fragment," Michael replied menacingly.
Carmen didn't know what he meant by that, but Dante seemed to go red in the face. "No. But I will be."
Michael's answering smile was not pleasant. "That's what you think, but there is no power you can ever have over me that will allow you to murder my son."
"Why not, you already abandoned him to the fate of a demon. Abandoning him to the fate of death is not so different," said Dante coolly.
Michael stepped towards him and Dante took a step back in unison, brandishing the hilt high.
"Ah ah ah, Michael. Not so quick to the trigger, all right?" He held up his other hand which contained that mysterious white substance Carmen saw him pull out of Michael before. "Let's test this out."
"Test what out?" Michael spat back venomously.
"This," said Dante simply. He turned his attention again to Sam. Carmen couldn't help but standing in front of him. She didn't want to be in his direct line of sight either, especially after what he did to Lilith...possibly Merrick and Dean too...Not when he held all the power.
He was smiling at them. Very dismissively, he waved his hand and Carmen was sent flying away, crashing into a nearby tent where it fell apart on top of her, crushing her underneath hard wooden planks. She began to black out, but she tried to fight it. The weight on her back was too much.
Dante smiled in Carmen's direction, approaching Sam who began to back away, his hands raised.
"Look, I don't know what you're trying to do...I don't know what your plan is...but please. I'm begging you. Don't hurt anyone else," Sam pleaded.
"It wouldn't be much of a plan if I promised to something like that," Dante paused, seeming to pretend to think on Sam's request.
"Shadowalker. Do not harm him," Michael warned.
"Shut your mouth, Michael," Dante replied irritably. "You're not in control here. I'm in control. "
"Please," Sam begged.
"You're so pathetic," Dante's eyes grew cold. "You...You are so weak. You're an insect. Always whining about something or the other. Look at you. Poor me. You and the King are not unlike one another. Always concerned about how it effects you and hiding behind false concern for others."
He placed Michael's hilt by his belt and grabbed Sam by the front of his shirt, pulling him close so that they were face to face. "I hate you. I hate what you are. I hate everything about you. Only a pure heart could call the Archangel to this realm. And a pure heart has no place on my chessboard."
Dante seemed to hit him. His hand flattened on Sam's chest as though he had forced something inside. The spell. There was a brief flash of black. Sam felt like his blood was boiling...He thought his skin was going to explode in fire...or that he was going to explode. Then he felt the heat recede, fade slowly into skin...colder than before. His hands went to his face and he touched. He didn't feel that different, but colder...He pulled down slightly on his cheeks. Sam looked around for Carmen. She'd be ideal to ask if he looked different.
Dante didn't give him time, he took a hold of Sam's arm and pulled him close so that they were inches apart.
"Dante! No!" Michael took another step towards him, but made no further closeness. "If you send him through the Circle while the spell is in effect, he'll be-"
"Only human," Dante finished, keeping his eyes on Sam. He extended his wings for flight. Not nearly as large or as impressive as Michael's. But his were dark as midnight, lacking the blood that fell from Castiel's. His too, seemed to unfurl with pride and power of the Archangel.
He took off, sending dust flying behind him as he spiraled towards the sky, Sam shouting for his life in his clutches.