Chapter 9 – Journey to the Center of Purgatory
The couple came to a stop at the bottom of the hill. Dean landed on top of Cas and looked down to see his long-lost love. The mask had fallen off while rolling down, so the hunter could clearly see those azure eyes he had longed for. He brought his hands up and cupped Castiel's cheeks, enjoying the feel of the stubble under his fingers.
Castiel was here, and he was alive.
"Are you injured?" Cas asked, a smile tugging at his lips. He looked up at Dean with all of the love and devotion that Dean had never felt he had deserved.
The hunter laughed. "Who cares? Jesus, Cas, you're alive!" He hugged Cas tight.
"I told you that I would return for you." Castiel returned the embrace.
Dean finally released him, and he just sat back and looked at him. A thought suddenly occurred to him. He punched Cas lightly on the shoulder as he also sat up. "What the hell was that up there? Were you trying to piss me off?"
Cas frowned at him. "I finally managed to return and I heard you were engaged to a beautiful princess." He looked away. "I wasn't happy, Dean."
"Well, I can guess that but still…" Dean failed for words as he could sense Cas's underlying anger and hurt. No one did passive aggressive like Cas could.
"Plus, it was Anna, a member of our royal family, of all people." Cas looked really disappointed.
"So she's the princess of our country. What's wrong with that?" He shrugged, but Cas gave him a deadpan look.
"Do you remember that war that started all of this?" Dean cringed at the thought. "It didn't start because Hell attacked us or anything like they said." Cas's face twisted slightly in disgust. "It started over a petty argument between Prince Michael and Hell's prince, Lucifer."
Dean found his mind was blank. He hadn't known that.
"How many people died due to their vanity?" Cas asked softly, looking off into the distance.
Dean's hands shook a little as he took Castiel's hands in his own. "I thought you were dead."
Castiel turned to him with a sad smile. "We share a profound bond, Dean. This is true love, and nothing can stop it. Even Death can only delay it."
Dean dropped his head into the crook of his love's neck, inhaling that scent that was almost forgotten. "I won't forget that again."
"You won't need to." With two fingers, Castiel tilted his head up and brought his lips forward for a passionate kiss.
Jimmy stopped reading for a moment and took a deep breath. "Claire, stop laughing." He said seriously.
Still, she couldn't help it. Claire lay on her bed, clutching her sides as giggles and chortles spilled from her lips. She rolled onto her side in attempt to stop laughing.
Jimmy finally looked up and shot her an annoyed look. "This isn't even one of the funny bits. It's romantic."
"That's why – " Claire gasped for breath as her laughs finally subsided. "That's why it's so funny. This is such a chick flick moment." Another giggle slipped through. "Oh, my God. If he knew about this, he would die." She sat up as a thought occurred to her, all laughter abruptly stopping. "Does he know about this?"
Jimmy sighed. "I don't know." He gave her another look. "Is this going to be your reaction to every romantic scene?"
She shrugged. For her, it was more the image of this taking place that was funny than the actual scene.
He sighed again and flipped a few pages. "Let's just go straight to the next action bit since your generation clearly has no idea what good romance is."
"Hey!" Claire responded, mildly offended.
Dean and Cas raced through the ravine towards the forest of ancient trees. They clutched each other's hand even as the pounding of horse hooves sounded behind them.
"The prince is too late." Cas stated, as they closed in on the forest that most would not dare to approach. "A few more steps and we'll be safe in Purgatory."
"Yeah, safe is not the word that comes to mind when you say, 'Purgatory.'" Dean replied, feeling chills go up his spine just looking at the place. "I'm pretty sure this isn't something we can survive."
"You're only saying that because no ever has." Cas reasoned. "You were the one who was always telling me to think more positively."
"Being totally insane is not thinking positively."
"We're together though." Castiel looked back and gave Dean a small smile. "We can do anything." He gave his hand an extra squeeze.
The hunter blinked at him in surprise. Then, he sighed. "By God, you're turning me into a sap." Thus, the two of them entered Purgatory side-by-side.
They could tell the difference right away. Despite the fact that there was plenty of daylight left, the moment they stepped foot in the forest, the light hushed into an odd twilight. Everything seemed to have a gray cast to it, with occasional flashes of dull green. Strange sounds and growls came from all around them, but they forged onward, ignoring the twinges of unease in their souls.
As they traveled further in, Dean looked around thoughtfully. "Hey, this isn't too bad." Cas threw him a confused look and his usual head tilt. "What? I'm not saying that we should build a summer home or anything, but the trees are nice enough."
Cas raised his eyebrows a bit and shrugged and they continued forward. As they pushed forward, the couple heard a thumping noise approaching them. They looked around nervously, and suddenly a spurt of fire appeared right next to Dean.
He yelped and jumped back, but not before his outer shirt caught on fire. Cas quickly helped the hunter yank it off and then they stomped on it until the flames were out.
They stood there panting as the collected themselves. Finally, Cas gently took Dean's arms and studied them for burns. "Are you all right?"
Dean nodded. "And you?" The pirate nodded. "Well, that was fun." He said sarcastically.
"Indeed." Castiel replied as they moved onward. "Purgatory certainly keeps you on your toes."
Before long, they encountered a corridor of vines blocking in their way. Cas drew his sword and took the lead to hack through them. As he did so, he spoke to try to encourage Dean. "This will soon be something that we can look back on and laugh." He grunted as he had to saw through a particularly thick vine. "Because the Angel's ship, Singed Wings, is anchored at the far end. And I, as you know," he looked back at Dean, "am the Avenging Angel."
"Yeah, I don't get that." Dean said, tossing the cut vines to the ground. "How is that possible when the Avenging Angel's been at large for twenty years, and you only disappeared five years ago?"
"Life takes humorous turns at times." Cas put down his sword for a moment as the familiar thumping sound came near and he drew Dean away from the flame spurt. He picked it up as they went forward. "You see, the story about saying 'please' was true." More vines blocked their path, but the pirate easily cut them down. "It intrigued the Angel, as did my devotion to you. Finally, he said, 'All right, Castiel. I've never had a valet, so we'll try it for tonight. I'll most likely kill you in the morning.'
"This continued for three years. 'Good night, Cassie; nice work. Sleep well for I'll most likely kill you in the morning.' It actually worked out quite well for me." Castiel paused so that way they could make their way over a log, ignoring Dean's raised eyebrow at the nickname. He continued once they were back on the ground. "I was learning even more about fighting than I did in the army and much more, anything anyone could teach me. The Angel and I actually became friends during that time. Then it happened."
Castiel paused as he squinted at a suspect part of the path in front of them, and carefully stepped around it. Dean followed his lead, but when he didn't start back up, the hunter felt the need to prompt him. "What happened?"
Cas blinked. "Oh. Well, the Angel had grown so rich he wanted to retire. So he took me to his cabin and revealed his secret. 'I am not the Avenging Angel,' he said." The pirate paused at Dean's look of surprise before continuing. "'My name is Balthazar. I inherited the ship from the previous Avenging Angel, just as you will inherit it from me. That man also was not the real Avenging Angel either, but a man named Hannah. The real Avenging Angel was named Joshua and he had been retired for fifteen years and living like a king in Turkey.'"
The next set of vines was easily moved out of the way like a curtain, so Cas sheathed his sword. "Then he explained that the name was important to inspire the necessary fear. No one would surrender to the Avenging Castiel. So we sailed ashore, got a new crew, and he stayed on for a while as first mate and established my identity as the Avenging Angel.
"Once the crew believed, he left and I've been the Angel ever since." Castiel stopped what he was doing and faced Dean, taking both of his hands. "Except now that we're together, I shall retire and hand the name over to someone else. Capisce?" His blue eyes stared into Dean's, showing his complete sincerity.
Dean smiled. "I capisce." He decided that he would take the lead now, as they were through the vines. However, the moment he put his foot down, he felt nothing to take his weight and promptly was sucked into the sandpit.
Castiel sprang into action. He cut one of the vines and grasped it in one hand as he dived after Dean. For a long moment, all was still. It was almost as if the entire world was holding its breath. In the distance, a howl echoed through the forest, but there were no other sounds.
Then a hand burst from the depths, climbing up the vine, and the sand fell back to reveal Cas clutching onto Dean with one hand while following the line of the vine with the other. He pulled them out and away from the lightning sand, and for a moment, they just lay there, wrapped up in each other, panting.
Dean groaned. "I am so sick of being the stupid damsel in distress." He grumbled.
"You're beautiful enough to be one." Cas pointed out helpfully. He frowned as he heard a growl, and he rose up a bit off the ground. In the corner of his eye, he caught sight of something large and black. He warily glanced around.
"That surprisingly doesn't make me feel better, Cas." Dean said as he rolled over to push himself up. "I'm getting the feeling that we're going to die here."
"Don't talk like that. We've survived a lot already." Castiel pulled himself to his feet and dusted himself off. He gave Dean a hand up, while still keeping a close watch. As the hunter brushed himself off, he drew his sword just in case. They carefully made their way forward. "After all, what are the three terrors of Purgatory? One, the flame spurt, which we can avoid since there's a popping noise before each one. Two, the lightning sand, but thanks to you, we know what that looks like and can avoid that too now."
"Uh, Cas." Dean stopped the pirate by placing his hand on the other's arm. "What about the Double H?"
"The Hell Hounds?" Cas asked to clarify. At Dean's nod, he said seriously, "I don't think those exist."
At that moment, with a howl and a growl, a Hell Hound burst out in front of them. It looked like a large, black dog, but its eyes were red and blood seemed to be caked into its matted fur.
The Hell Hound lunged at Cas, knocking him over. It aimed to bite his neck, but the pirate quickly blocked with his forearm. He grunted as its teeth ripped into him. The injury caused him to drop his sword, making it useless.
Meanwhile, Dean immediately acted. As the Hell Hound was biting Cas, he picked up a branch and gave the thing a good whack. It let go of the pirate, and instead turned its attention towards the hunter. He fended it off with the branch, but one hit broke it in two.
After being let go, Cas scrambled to his feet. When Dean began cursing over his broken weapon, he drew back the attention of the beast with a swift kick to its rear. The beast pounced on him once more, its claws raking across his shoulder. He ignored the pain though as Dean tried to find the sword so they could kill the Hell Hound. Still, as he struggled with it, he heard a familiar popping noise. Blocking out the hunter's cry of surprise, he rolled with the beast and landed just so the Hell Hound got caught in the flame spurt.
The Hell Hound cried in anguish. Castiel used the distraction to get away from it and as he did so, his hand fell upon his sword. Scooping it up, he stood and stabbed the beast three times until it fell over dead.
Both of them stood there panting for a moment. They exchanged a look that told each other that they never wanted to do that again. They straightened and went on their way, prepared for anything.
When they finally exited Purgatory, they were holding hands. Dean took a deep breath as even the air seemed sweeter outside of that forest.
"We did it." Castiel had a small, satisfied smirk on his face. His whole aura just exuded the sentiment that he had been right all along.
Dean chuckled. "Yeah, I guess that wasn't too terrible."
The two of them leant in to kiss, but just then, several men on horseback rode up towards them. Cas raised his sword and pulled Dean behind him as they quickly formed a half circle in front of them.
"Okay. Maybe I spoke too soon." Dean admitted.
AN: Wow. I didn't realize how long this one. I think it almost beats the Gabriel vs. Cas chapter. Still, I hope their reunion lives up to expectations. Still, I think it is kind of funny, because this entire movie really is one giant chick flick moment, so Dean would be appalled to be part of that. I'm glad you like it and I'll see you next time.