Deans eyes flew open as Castiel's hand landed hard on his shoulder, the angel's grip sending a jolt of both pain and reality down to his core.

"Are you alright?" The angel asked bluntly, his grace finally starting to overcome the last dose of toxin the Djin had given him. "Dean, are you alright?" He asked again, looking up as Sam and Jody came rushing into the small room.

"I've been better." He groaned, swearing under his breath as he tried to pull himself up into a sitting position.

"Easy, easy." Sam urged as he raced over and knelt down to help his older brother sit up.

"Hey Sammy." Dean whispered, closing his eyes for a moment as he leaned heavily against the wall behind him. "I've been looking everywhere for you, where the hell have you been?"

Sam couldn't help but let out a slight chuckle as he pulled a syringe of antidote from his pocket. "I could ask you the same thing." He started, reaching over for his older brother's arm.

Dean winced as he felt the prick of the needle pierce his skin. With the last few moments still flashing in the back of his head, he could still hear the sound of gunshots and feel the sharp blade in his tight grip. He knew none if it had happened but right up until the angel's hand had fallen on his shoulder, it had all felt so intense and real. "It wasn't just a regular Djin." He started, glancing over to catch Jody's eyes.

"Yeah, we figured that out." Sam was quick to reply, tossing the empty syringe aside. "Let me take a quick look at you."

"It was a rare one, a powerful Djin that creates chaos and then feeds off the resulting energy." Castiel explained as Jody searched his arm for a vein. "When it lay its hands on me, it paralyzed me; I couldn't fight back, I couldn't even move."

"I've dealt with some pretty messed up shit before but this, this was seriously messed up." Dean started, sucking in a quick breath as Sam lifted the bottom corner of his shirt to take a look at the bullet wound in his side. "The series of events this thing created, the memories it reached into then altered... it was so real and so simple that it was believable. I mean this thing focused on one thing and then it just snowballed from there and shit just got worse and worse."

"I wish I would have known this wasn't just a run-of-the mill Djin before I handed you guys the case." Jody admitted, watching as Sam examined a deep cut on his brother's cheek. "I'm so sorry you went through this"

"This isn't your fault Jody." Dean replied quietly, catching her eyes for a moment before she turned her attention back to the angel in front of her.

"Well you're not too worse for wear considering you were shot and then shoved off a second story platform." Sam said.

"Neither are you." Dean remarked quietly, wincing as he straightened out. "I heard you get shoved out that window."

"Yeah, well Cas helped me get over that."

"Here, maybe I can help alleviate some of your pain." Castiel started as he turned towards the other man, pausing as Dean put a hand up towards him.

"I know that Djin's toxin took its toll on you too." Dean started as he caught the angel's eyes. "Never mind healing me, you just focus on getting your strength back in case we run into more of these things on our way out of here. I'll live, I just need some time."

"C'mon, the sooner we get you out of here, the better." Sam said as he reached down for his brother as Jody gave Castiel a hand up. "Ready? This is probably going to hurt alot." He warned, carefully pulling the injured man up to his feet. Dean swore under his breath as Sam wrapped an arm around his waist to hold him up. "Are you good?" Though he got a nod in response, he knew Dean was fighting back the pain.

"Alrigh, it's this way back towards the stairs." Jody said, still clutching her blade as she led the way. With Castiel following closely, keeping one eye on the woman in front of him and the other on the men behind him, the small group slowly started to make their way back through the maze of tunnels to the pumping station that would bring them up to the factory overhead.

"So what exactly happened to you Dean?" Sam asked, curious to know just what his older brother had faced but almost afraid at the same time to find out. "What happened after it shot and shoved you over the edge?"

"I woke up locked in a basement cell." Dean started, sucking in a sharp breath as he stumbled in his steps and Sam tightened the grip around his waist to catch his balance. "A hunter working a case pretty much the same as ours had picked me up, said I had a run-in with a Djin he'd been tracking. I tried to convince him that I was a hunter but he kept telling me that all these things I remembered or thought I knew, weren't real and that I was losing my mind.

"So this Djin created a reality where you were the victim, and had another hunter pick you up?" Jody asked as she glanced over her shoulder at the pair.

"Like I said, this son of a bitch was smart." Dean replied, cringing as Sam adjusted the arm around his waist. "It wasn't just any hunter either, it was Bill Harvelle."

"Bill Harvelle? As in the Harvelle Roadhouse?" Sam asked, quick with the next question as Dean gave him a nod. "Where Ellen and Jo there?"

"Yeah, but they weren't hunters like we knew them." Dean replied, eyeing the large pumps that towered over them. "With Bill still around, they never got into the life."

"Where was Sam in all of this?" Castiel asked as he held the large door open for the pair. "I mean if this thing was creating negative energy to feed off of, Sam must surely have been a trigger."

Dean swore under his breath as they started up the stairs. Even with his younger brother's help, every step he took was painful. "Sam was already dead, that was the case Bill had been working when he picked me up." He replied, eying the top of the stairwell where Jody was waiting.

Reaching ground level, the group took a moment to study the dark factory ahead of them. Though there was no sign of movement among the idle machinery that littered the floor, they were still keeping a watchful eye for any more Djin that could be lurking in the darkness. They quickly made their way back towards the entrance, finally breathing a sigh of relief when they stepped out into the night.

"You guys go on and head out, I'm going to call this in and have dispatch send out another officer to keep an eye on the place." Jody said as they reached her truck and Impala. "I'll give the coroner a call in the morning."

"Are you sure?" Sam was quick to reply, leaning Dean against the Impala as he turned to face the woman "What are you going to call this in as?"

"I was going to go with family Cult." Jody replied, watching as Dean hunched over the trunk of the car and pointed out to Castiel which coat pocket his car keys were in. "You just make sure he gets taken care of." She continued as she reached up to Sam for a hug. "You need anything, anything at all, just give me a call."

"Will do." Sam replied, returning the hug. As Jody climbed behind the wheel of her truck, Castiel helped Dean into the backseat of the Impala and shut the door. "How are you holding up Cas?" He asked as the angel passed him the keys.

"I'll be fine." Castiel replied simply, glancing down through the window at the man curled up in the backseat. "But your brother's condition worries me." He said, making his way around the car to the passenger's side. "He struggles to keep the effects of the Mark of Cain at bay on a good day."

"I know." Sam admitted as he caught the angel's eyes, pausing for a moment before pulling his door open and climbing in behind the wheel. He leaned back to have a look at his brother as Castiel climbed into the passenger seat. Dean was curled up on the seat with both arms wrapped tightly around his ribs; his eyes were shut but the pain he was in was clearly visible on his face. "You still good? I don't want you drifting off to sleep when you might have a concussion."

"I'm just aces." Dean muttered, pulling one arm away from his midsection just long enough to give his younger brother a thumbs up. "Never been better."

"Yeah, I can tell." Sam replied as he turned in his seat and slid the key into the ignition. "Just hang in there." He said, pulling away from the old factory and turning back onto the main road. He glanced up into the rear view mirror as Dean pulled himself up into a slouched, sitting position. "You said the Djin altered a memory and twisted it into something so simple it was believable." Sam started, trying to keep his brother alert and conscious as they headed back towards the small town of Scythe. "We've been through so much, what exactly did it focus in on?"

"The night Mom died." Dean quietly replied, his eyes closing for a moment as the files he'd read flashed in the back of his head. "It went back to the night mom died and changed the outcome of the investigation that followed. The whole thing was messed up; Dad got sentenced to life for setting the fire they said killed her and we ended up shuffled through the foster care system until they split us up. You turned out alright, you were a cop but I never amounted to much of anything. We weren't hunters and we weren't really brothers anymore either." He paused as the words started to catch in the back of his throat. The life had been thrown into had been a nightmare compared to what he and his brother had faced growing up. "The only good thing about any of it, was that the Mark of Cain was gone. That entire chapter of my life never happened."

"Yeah along with many others." Sam was quick to point out, glancing up into the rear view mirror again to catch his older brother's eyes.

"I never went to Hell, Sammy." Dean started, his voice breaking up as he spoke. "I never tortured souls, never broke the first seal that jump started the Apocalypse, I never went to Purgatory, never..."

"You can't just focus on the negative things." Sam cut in, silencing the other man. "Our lives aren't perfect but you've saved a lot of people, Dean."

"It felt different without the Mark." Dean said, sucking in a painful breath as he tried to make himself comfortable. "I felt like myself again, and I was starting to forget what that felt like..."

"Don't worry about the Mark of Cain, we'll find a way to get rid of it." Sam said, his grip on the wheel tightening slightly. "We've faced all sorts of shit and this is no different, we'll find a way to deal with it. Just like we always do."

Dean couldn't help but let the smile creep up from the corner of his lips as he caught his brother's eyes in the rear view mirror. "That sounds like the kind of lie I tell you, when the truth is we're barely hanging on by a thread." He swallowed hard, finally truly admitting to himself that he couldn't see a way out of the situation he was in. "We have no clue how to deal with this thing."

"Sam is right." Castiel started, turning slightly to look at the man slouched in the back seat of the Impala. "You and your brother have faced worse and you've always managed to pull through one way or another. We won't stop looking for a way to rid you of the Mark; this burden isn't yours to carry alone."

Thanks for reading!
-Shugs