Warnings: Mentions of past rape (Dean in Hell), my usual amount of violence.
Let's welcome the year of the Endverse with a new chapter.
Sorry for the time it took me to upload, but it's hard to write when you have the complete collection of the DVDs of LOTR Extended Edition as Christmas' gift. Anyway, here it is.
By the way, this episode was inspired by this post (castielpoops . tumblr post/55951036098). And the meaning behind the title is here (angelsarewatchingoveryoudean . tumblr post/71932662998/a-broken-hallelujah-sparks-of-the-tempest).
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Chapter 8
Sparks of the Tempest
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It was raining. The sound of the water pouring down hid the sound of her steps. She had gotten good at walking in silence. When she stepped inside the house, she left the rain behind. Her blonde hair was wet, the rainwater dripping from it falling onto her shoulders and her already wet clothes. A loud thunder outside shook the windows. Claire remained impassive.
Ishmael was taking a shower. Unlike his brothers and sisters he wasn't interested in vengeance. All he did was carrying on with the life his vessel had had. He had even felt sorry when he fell and felt his vessel's soul pass away. The life he was leading had made him lower his guard, so he didn't notice the wet patches next to the window of his bedroom.
He did notice though, when a knife was pressed to his neck.
Part of him, that part more close to his vessel, wanted to give in into panic, but a millenia of being a soldier of the Lord made him remain in calm.
"Who are you?" he asked, wanting to know who of his brothers or sisters was.
"I don't think you are in any position to ask questions," said a woman's voice.
"What do you want of me?" asked Ishmael.
"I thought I said you were not to ask questions?" said Claire pressing the knife harder against the fallen angel's neck. "Now, tell me your name," she demanded.
"Richard Brook," he answered.
"Your real name," Claire pressed the blade harder drawing out some drops of blood.
"Ismael," he whispered.
"Good," the girl said and slashed the man's neck.
She then carved a seven letters word in Ishmael's chest. When she was done, she took a wrinkled paper from her jacket. She grabbed a pen and searched on the written list the angel's name, and she crossed it. Several names were already crossed out but her eyes locked solely on the first name of the list.
"Castiel (The Winchesters)"
"Soon," declared Claire Novak in a whisper.
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"Oh, no," whispered Sam looking at his computer screen. "Crap!"
Dean looked curiously at his brother.
"What's the problem, Wade?" he asked.
"You're not going to like this," said Sam looking both at Dean and Cas. "There's been a murder in Pontiac, Illinois. Thirty year old caucasian single guy. He had one word written in his chest."
"What's weird with that?" Dean asked him.
"This," said the youngest hunter turning his laptop so both men could look at the newspaper image.
"Fuck," cursed Dean when he read the bloody "CASTIEL" written in the dead man's chest.
"Somebody wants to draw my attention," observed the fallen angel.
"No shit, Sherlock," retorted Dean.
"Well, they've got it," said Cas.
"Wait, you're not saying that we actually go there," said Sam perplexed.
"I'm not saying that," Cas corrected him. "What I'm implying is that I'll go."
"But- But it is obviously a trap!" complained Sam.
"Precisely," said Cas, "that's why I need to go on my own."
There was a moment of silence, until Dean couldn't hold it back anymore. He jerked forward the chair in front of him with a hard push.
"For God's sake, Cas," he shouted. "How many times do I have to say it? We're in this together or not at all."
"Dean..." started Cas.
"Don't Dean me," said the hunter angrily.
"Dean," Cas warned him, his voice getting dangerously low. "They, whoever they are, want me. I won't expose you again to something that's meant for me. Not again..." and the reasoning behind Cas' decision was crystal clear. It was why Cas was so broken. He wouldn't be able to go through it one more time, to see Dean hurt because of him. Not again, he wouldn't endure it.
"Cas..." whispered Dean. He stared at those blue eyes, and in them he found some of the answers he had been seeking before.
Sam coughed.
"Cas, I thought we had made it clearly before. You're family. So for better or for worse, you're stuck with us."
Cas stared at Sam, then back at Dean. He nodded.
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They had arrived at Pontiac in the morning. After having some breakfast, they had checked at a motel, room with three single beds, and they were getting dressed in their FBI suits.
Dean was already dressed and he was sitting by the table, reading different newspapers.
"So I thing I may have an idea of who is after you Cas," he said checking for a last time something on one of the newspapers.
"Who?" asked Sam coming out of the bathroom, holding his tie on one hand.
"Well, apart from the fact that there are several demonic omens, check this," Dean took one of the newspapers and started reading, "Mr. Jonathan Benetton has sadly passed away on the night of this past Thursday. The grieving event took place on a day of celebration for the Benetton family, being the tenth anniversary of the day that Mr. Benetton found petroleum in one of his farms," he read.
"Sounds like someone made a deal," said Sam.
"Exactly," said Dean, "and check the mourning daughter," Dean extended one of the newspapers towards Sam and Cas.
"She's possessed," commented Cas upon noticing the black eyes on the brunette girl's glare,
Dean smirked. "And I bet you fifty bucks that they're using Benetton's place as the demonic Avengers mansion."
"That was clever," said Sam with a mildly-surprised and pleased pride at how his brother had figured out everything.
"What can I say, I'm more than just a pretty face," beamed Dean, but he froze under Cas stare.
Sam did his best to ignore them both.
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They had showed the FBI badges to the police officer and it had been enough to convince him, and then they were looking at the dead guy's body that had carved Cas' name on his chest.
"That's how we found him," said the forensic doctor.
"Did you found anything unusual at the crime scene?" Dean asked her.
"Hadn't you guys read my report?" the woman asked back surprised.
"We had and it has been a very interesting lecture, yet we still prefer to hear it from your own mouth," answered Cas before Dean could say something.
Damn, Cas had gotten good at lying. Dean didn't know if it make him proud, sad or afraid.
"Well, he died chocking on his own blood when his neck was slashed," the forensics explained pointing at the guy's body. "The cuts on the subject's chest were made post-mortem."
"Any evidence as to who may have done this?" asked Dean.
"None," said the women, "we did found a couple of long blonde hairs, though. We ran the DNA tests but we found no matches. All we know is that it was a female. According to the neighbors the vic had no partner."
"Was there anything unusual about the body?" asked Sam.
The doctor shook her head. After she left, they searched on the corpse for those clues that only them knew how to find. But besides the big "CASTIEL" in the man's chest, there was nothing.
So an hour later they were in Robert Brook's house, the vic's place.
"Police report said that they found him here," pointed Sam at the bedroom's floor.
"There are not traces of sulfur," said Cas confused.
"So it was not demons or they finally learned how to be careful," contributed Dean.
Cas still looked confused, like there was something that he couldn't grasp.
"What is it?" asked Dean. "What's the matter?"
"Nothing," answered Cas a bit too quickly. "It just..." and staring at Dean right in the eyes, he whispered faintly, barely moving his lips, "I think we are being watched."
Dean went closer to Cas, more close than two normal friends would, and started fixing the man's tie.
"So what do you say, stay and fight?" said Dean, his lips unmoving.
"No, they'll be expecting it," answered Cas, "We should be using the element of surprise as much as we can."
"You mean going to their place and attacking them there?" Dean questioned him, Cas barely nodded. "They'll be expecting it too."
"Most probably," agreed Cas. "But at least we'll be better armed."
The hunter and the fallen angel exchanged one last look confirming their thoughts. Dean then looked at his brother to transmit him their plans. Sam understood.
If Dean's hand on Cas' collar stayed more than strictly necessary the ex-angel said nothing. And if Dean's thumb brushed Cas' neck more than once, well, no once could really blame him, could they?
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Because they were the Winchesters, they were set on a very-likely-suicide mission. Even when you're armed up to your teeth with holy water, salt and recorded exorcisms in your phone besides Ruby's knife and two angel blades, going into a house full with demons that most-likely-than-not are already expecting you, is pretty much a suicide mission. But then again, they were the Winchester and they had faced worse odds and come out of it alive. Well, not always alive, they had died several times, but, one way or the other, they had also been resurrected, so it still counts.
Something to say about this group of demons, at least they weren't in some abandoned factory. They were in a big mansion, the roofs and walls formed dozens of weird angles that talked about how much money to waste Benetton had had when he built it.
"It reminds me of Crowley," commented Sam.
"Yeah, well, good thing that's a finished chapter on our story," said Dean. "It's over."
Dean had been alone and scared when he killed Crowley. Alone because Cas was gone, dead for all he had known at the moment. Scared because the angels were falling and Sam was dying in his arms. He couldn't afford loose ends. When he had entered the church and faced Crowley with Ruby's knife in his hands, he had had a moment of doubt. The demon had looked at him with all too human eyes, and for a moment he had pitied him. But then he had remembered all he had done to them. He remembered what he had done to Bobby's soul, how he had killed Tommy, Jenny and Sarah, how he had poisoned Cas' ears, and he no longer had felt pity for him. He had killed Crowley by stabbing him in the neck.
"Yeah, it is," agreed Cas.
They had no troubles entering the grounds of the mansion. Which was bad news, because not guards on the outside meant that they were waiting for them on the inside. "There goes the element of surprise," thought Dean.
Just because things couldn't get any better for them, the giant double doors made a rusty sound when they opened them. The big hall had a dozen demons, the one in the middle, a big tall black guy, greeted them.
"Well, well, look who do we have here," he said coming some steps closer to them. "Since that body appeared with your little angel's name we'd been expecting you."
"I'm here then, so what do you want?" Cas confronted him.
"Oh, no, sweetie, we weren't the ones to call you here," explained the demon, "I must admit that when we heard about it, many wanted to flee, scared of what the Winchester could do to them. But you know what?" he asked, casting a seductive smile, "Claiming the lives and souls of the three man that stopped the Apocalypse? Dad is going to be happy."
"So that's it then," exclaimed Dean taking out his angel blade.
"On, no so fast, honey," said the demon, "we can have some fun first. Rumor says that you like it that way. I think you've been having to much angel meat," he cast a glance at Cas, "that you've forgotten what is like to have a demon lover. You need to remember," and coming way to close to Dean, he finished. "They said that you were one submissive little bitch."
And that was it. Dean drew out his blade, but before he could stab him, the demon raised his hand and sent the three hunters flying backwards. Their weapons flying out of their hands. Lying on the floor, Cas hid his right hand in the pocket of his loose pants and took out his cell phone.
He pressed play.
Cas' voice chanting an exorcism came out from the phone. The weakest demons started to scream, others started to attack Cas, but Sam and Dean who had been able to get back their weapons were fast in defending him. Among the confusion, the demon that had threatened to rape Dean escaped.
Taking out the salt from their bags, they covered all the doors and the windows, trapping inside the majority of the demons. They had to fight them off for a while until the exorcism ended playing. Black smoke filled the room and then all the meat suits fell to the floor. Save for a few that woke up and ran away, the majority of them were already dead.
"Here, Cas, take your blade," said Dean handing him the weapon.
The fallen angel had just grabbed his blade when a blonde girl came through the front door.
"You are here," she said.
"Great, another demon," said Dean getting ready with his blade.
"No, you idiot, she passed over the salt," Sam scolded him.
"Human?" Dean asked then confused.
"You don't recognize me?" the girl asked them, but she only looked at Cas. "Let me remind you, you were inside me once."
Cas searched inside his memories, and when realization hit him, something akin to fear and sadness crossed his features.
"Claire..." he whispered.
The girl smirked. Her smile was angry, was sad... was mad.
"Yes. You used my dad," she accused him," and when you were done with him, you used me. But you hadn't had enough! And then you took him back," her voice wavered between shouting angrily and being on the edge of breaking into a sob, "and you got him killed."
"I- I'm-" Cas begun to stutter, but he suddenly stopped himself midway. "How did you know that?"
"How did I-" Claire laughed. "Did you think when you left me that was it? I was hearing voices, I thought I was going insane," she laughed once more. Maybe I went insane. But I could hear them. Angels, talking inside my head. I heard about dad when they talked about how they killed you! I heard them talking about how you returned!" her voice had been getting higher and higher. She emitted a sob that she cut halfway when she begun screaming at the top of her lungs, "AND I HEARD THEM WHEN THEY KILLED MY MUM! WHEN THEY TORTURED ME AND LEFT ME FOR DEAD TRYING TO KNOW WHERE YOU WERE!"
"Claire, I'm-"
"DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE TO SAY THAT YOU'RE SORRY BECAUSE YOU HAVEN'T BEGUN TO BE!" she interrupted him, taking out a gun from between her clothes and aiming it at Cas.
"Hey, hey, slow down!" Dean placated her taking a step forward, trying to cover the fallen angel.
"Don't you worry Winchester, you're in for this too," Claire threatened him, "Oh, if I heard them talk," Claire aimed her gun at Sam when he attempted to move. "This is why you wanted my dad's body, Castiel? To do gross gay things with the Winchester?"
"Claire, I-" begun the fallen angel, but he was promptly interrupted by the girl.
"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! All you ever say are lies! You promised me that you were going to save mum! That everything was going to be fine! You promised me!"
Silence reigned the place, until Cas spoke faintly.
"You were the one to call me here. You killed-"
"Yes," Claire confirmed to him, "I was who killed Ishmael, and very other angel that I had the pleasure of finding," she paused. "And I am who kills you."
Her finger closed over the trigger of her gun. One of the doors suddenly busted open, making a loud thud, and a demon wearing gardener clothes appeared with a leaf blower disintegrating away the line of salt blocking his way. The sudden intrusion had startled Claire, making her give a little jump, enough to send the bulled intended for Cas into the wall behind.
"See, this is why it is so important to have the right personal," said the demon wearing the big black guy, appearing from behind the gardener demon. His eyes flickered black with pleasure before he uttered the order. "Onto them."
An army of fifteen demons entered the hall. Some were armed with knifes, others were bare handed -but still with superhuman strength.
Claire turned around and shot the closest demon.
"You can't kill demons with a gun," bawled out Dean.
"No," agreed the girl. "But you can buy time," she said while she holstered her gun and took out an angel blade that she had grabbed from one of the first angels that she had killed.
One demon got close to the girl and she was fast to stab him. Soon the demons were surrounding them all, and the three hunters were immersed into the fight. Dean avoided a demon and moved to cut through another's throat getting shoulder to shoulder with his brother.
"How many more demons do you think there are?" asked Sam.
"I don't know," answered Dean while he hold off a demon that was being very insisting on trying to choke him, "but Sargent Doakes went missing again," he said referring to what appeared to be the leader of the demons.
"What about Claire?" Sam asked while he stabbed the demon that was attacking Dean.
"One problem at the time, man," said Dean deflecting a blow to his head. The hunter looked at the girl who was fighting with great skill. "She seems to be doing well for now."
"That's what I'm worrying about," replied Sam taking advantage of his height and stabbing another demon. Both brothers exchanged a similar look.
Cas was holding off fine. He missed the days when he could just smite a demon but his skill with an angel blade had not been really affected by his Fall. So far he had done good, not a single scratch, so when he turned around, he was surprised to see a demon frozen midway into trying to stab him. More surprised he was when the demon fell dead to the floor, and he saw that it had been Claire who had saved him.
"Don't you dare," Claire warned him as soon as she detected the first traces of gratitude in Cas' eyes, "I'm doing this just so I can be the one to kill you."
And the venom in her words melted away the gratitude from Cas' eyes to replace it with pain and to add more weight into the forever growing stone of guilt in Cas' heart.
When the last demon standing fled the room in a column of black smoke, 'Sargent Doakes' came back in and stood in the middle of the room.
"Seems like when you want something done you have to do it yourself," he said and took out a gun. "Goodbye, sweetie."
Aiming at Claire, he shot. Cas whispered a faint "No," before stepping in, the bullet hitting him in the lower right, where his liver was. The impact should have sent him to the floor, but with his strength of will he managed to stay up. Dean's screams rang in his ears while he took several steps forward towards the demon.
The second shot hit him in his left lung, his heart luckily had been spared what bought him a few more minutes of life.
The third shot never came.
He had managed to take out the gun from the demon's hand and throw it away. His strength left him then and he fell.
With what resembled war cries, Sam and Dean charged forward. Sam took hold of the demon's arms while Dean stabbed him in the stomach. When he turned around, he found Claire crying kneeled next to Cas' figure.
She was not anymore Claire, the serial angel killer. She was Claire Novak, the seventeen year old girl who missed her dad. Seeing her father's body bleeding out in the floor had brought her back.
"Dad- I-"
"I- I made your father a promise," said Cas with whatever strength he had left, "I- I'm sorry I- failed you."
"No," cried Claire, "It's-" but what she was going to say was lost when Dean suddenly grabbed her by the front of her clothes.
"I hope you're happy now," growled Dean. "Now get the hell out of here," the hunter pushed her away and took her place next to Cas. He took him in his arms and stroked his cheek.
Claire looked at the love in Dean's eyes and she felt remorse. She then saw the different kind of love that Sam held in his eyes for Cas, and she understood.
All this time, she had been the monster.
She ran away with tears still coming down her face. She thought of Ishmael and all the other angels that had been doing nothing wrong when she killed them. They had been innocent but she hadn't cared. For years she had thought of Castiel as some kind of monster, fed by her hurt and her imagination. She had forgotten how when he had been inside her he hadn't felt evil.
She swore that from now on, she would only kill monsters. Monster like her.
Although she knew that no one was listening, she prayed for forgiveness.
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"Cas," whispered Dean, "Cas..."
"Dean, I-"
"Shh... Just stay with me, okay? Just stay with me," said Dean trying to control the shaking of his voice. He didn't even noticed the tears coming down his face.
"I- I'm s- sorry," said Cas. There was so many more things that he wanted to say, but words were taking too much effort. Yet, Dean understood the meaning of the silenced words. "I'm sorry for leaving you."
"Don't say that!" shouted the hunter. "You're going to be fine. You'll see," Dean hold him harder.
"Dean..." complained Cas, he was going to die and they both knew it.
Desperate for a solution, Dean raised his eyes to the ceiling and shouted.
"Eugenia! Eugenia, come here and save Cas! Come here at the Benetton mansion and heal him!" when silence met his words, he cursed, "Dammit, woman, this has to count as prayer! Come here and heal him or I swear I'll gank your sorry ass the next time I see you!"
But nothing happened.
Dean looked down at Cas and saw him half-gone. His faces was white, almost dead.
"Cas, no! Cas, come to me! Come to me, please! Cas!" he had taken his face in his hands but that had been a mistake because now the blood from Castiel's wound was now in the fallen angel's face, and that blood in his face was just wrong.
Cas blinked slowly.
"Dean..." he said and he meant goodbye. He tried to grab Dean's hand but he was too weak.
The hunter took notice of it and held his hand.
"Cas, stay with me!" he begged.
Cas exhaled one last time and whit his eyes fixed on Dean, he was gone.
"Cas, no! No, no, no, NO!" he cried and begged and clung hard to Cas body.
He looked at the ceiling once more, ignoring his brother's quiet sobs, and shouted once more. "Gabriel! I'm praying to you now! I'm at the Benetton mansion and you need to come and heal Cas! You need to bring him back!"
He had just finished shouting the last word, when he heard a flutter of wings behind his back.
"I'm here," announced Gabriel.
"Heal him," ordered Dean.
And if Gabriel said nothing was because he could see the trail of tears on the hunter's face. The archangel came next to Cas, he kneeled opposite to Dean, and put his whole hand on Cas' forehead. The blood disappeared and Cas gasped back to life.
"Dean, Dean..." he said faintly, "Gabriel?" he asked when his noticed his brother.
"Yes, and don't get used to me bringing you back from the dead, I have better things to do, you know?" joked Gabriel.
"Dean?" asked Cas still confused turning to the hunter.
The man touched the fallen angel's face all over, like making sure that he was really there with him, that he was really alive.
"Stupid son of a bitch!" he exclaimed when he was done checking him, and then, he enveloped him in his arms with a strong hug, "Don't you ever die again, you hear me?"
"I doubt that he can promise that now that he's busy being a Winchester," commented Gabriel, "So if you don't need me anymore I'll be going," he said getting up, "Dean-o, next time you give me an order to me like that, I'll kill you," he warned him with a dangerous smile. "Take care, bro!" the archangel did a small salute with two fingers to Cas. He took a few steps and stopped to look at Sam, "Smile, Sasquatch!"
A sound of wings, and he was gone.
"Don't you ever do that to me again!" said Dean one last time refocusing his attention on Cas while he helped the former angel to get up.
"Okay..." said faintly Cas. He noticed the track of tears in the hunter's face and he wanted to clean them. But then, he thought better of it, and dropped his hand.
"I'm glad that you're fine, Cas," said Sam hugging him.
"Thank you, Sam," Cas smiled weakly.
"Now let's get out of here," said Dean, pushing Cas to get him walking.
Sam observed how Dean didn't want to let go of Cas. How he found whatever excuse to touch him even if just a bit. He also noticed how Cas first words after returning to life had been Dean's name. He knew that meant that his brother was Cas' Heaven.
Sam asked for a God that didn't care for them that Dean and Cas could put their crap together so they could realize what they had before they ended up losing each other. But he knew for a fact that God was absent, so he would see it done himself. Maybe, if he did, he could fix what was broken inside his brother and his angel, even if just a bit.
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So...
First, I must admit that at the beginning our Team Free Will is too happy. Considering how broken they were at the end of last chapter, but I couldn't write them better. I don't know why, maybe because I also had in mind next chapter, that is when things get better for a while. There's a reason why the tags are similar to Endverse and no Endverse. I mean, I guess my fanfic is 75%/80% Endverse, and this is because Dean mainly has had a lot of character development specially in season 8, and I can't just ignore that. Mainly, that's the reason why next chapter has the consumation. Anyway, in the first Team Free Will scene, Dean kind of understands a bit what happens to Cas. It does not magically fix their relationship but well.
So I deviated a bit from the original post. I needed Claire's story to fit my plot and there are so many characters I can manage. I tried to give her this can of driven insane personality, but that at the end it was just this scared and scarred child. Honestly, I can't believe I ended up transforming Claire into the new Dexter.
Gabriel appearence was short. Maybe he would lingered longer if I hadn't been in such a rush to end the chapter. Anyway, I'm clinging to the fact that Gabriel cares about family.
When I was first making the character of 'Sargent Doakes', it was going to be a female villain with typical female villain personality. But then I had to many leader evil female characters, and then I thought, why female villains are always this one with this kind of seductive personality to the male hero, why not a male villain with the same personality. Then I realized I hadn't had any black characters. And this is set in USA not in Argentina were the population of black people is relatively very small. So for the sake of demographics, black characters. (I must admit that it is not that all my not-ethnic specified characters were necessary all white. My default pallete goes from white to several different tones of brown-ish, but I must admit that due to some inner still-there racism and because black people aren't that usual on Argentina. But I do have a lack of by default black characters in my stories, so I need to continue working on that.) So I made him big and all 'macho', but with the flirty personality of an stereotypical female villain, altough he ended up being more perverted than flirty but hey, not everyone is perfect. Then I had the Sargent Doakes reference. Finally a good popular reference. That of course, I almost end up with no way of including. (By the way, when Dean calls Sam as Wade is a Kim Possible reference).
Of course, the point of it was to lead up to the Cas gravelly injured and dying in Dean's arms. I wasn't planning for him actually dying but hey! this is Supernatural.
So no, this is not why the major character death tags are for. Also the non-con tags weren't for this chapter.
Anyway, hope you liked it, and that you stay because next chapter, it has *puts Sam's voice* the sex