The four sat in separate rooms, each fidgeting in their own way. Dean drummed on the table, Sam averted eye contact and glanced around the room as if it were anything but boring. Castiel's leg shifted anxiously and bobbed up and down to try and shed some of his nervous energy, and Jet chewed at the inside of his cheek until his mother smacked his arm to get him to stop.

Three of them were ready to tell nearly the same story, Castiel on the other hand had a few more details than the others that he'd have to share.

"So…" Dean stopped tapping his fingers on the table and took another extended inhale, "Okay, so it started with me, my brother Sam, and our friend Jet. We all lived together, two of us going through college and Sam was almost done with high school."

"During the summer I worked for a guy, MacLeod." Jet told his officer, "He was loaded and paid me really well for the yard and house work I did for him. It's why I didn't mind that he was a bit of a creep, y'know?"

"MacLeod was always weird," Sam crinkled his nose at the thought, "Jet would go there every day, even on weekends if MacLeod called. His dress code for Jet was to be shirtless, it was so gross."

"Well MacLeod died," Dean knew some more details behind that but he kept those to himself. No sense in throwing Cas under the bus for anything that happened while he was under MacLeod's medication. "And for some reason he left everything he had to Jet."

"We were thinking it's probably because Jet was his favourite or something," Sam cringed a little harder, the look of disgust not getting any better. "I mean, that's what I was thinking anyway. If the other guys know why then they didn't tell me anything about it. Knowing what we know now, I guess maybe it's because MacLeod felt guilty?"

Jet looked at his mom and then back to the officer, "I still can't believe that money is mine, I mean really! The dude had a creepy crush on me or something but leaving me all that shit? I still don't get it." He looked down at the paper his officer scribbled on, "Oh and I don't have MacLeod's Will or anything, but it should be in there if you need proof."

Sam looked away thoughtfully, quiet for a few moments. "Jet might be a Tull but to us he's always been a Winchester, we're all pretty close. He didn't think twice about it, according to him all of us inherited that money and we were all going to move together."

"We found out that asshole didn't just own the house in town but also a mansion on the outskirts, west side." Dean traced on the table to emphasize just where he meant, it wasn't terribly informative. "Tons of land and all of it left to Jet; we decided we needed to investigate it immediately."

"It was beautiful," Jet's eyes lit up like he was seeing it for the first time again. "Going from a shitty apartment to a mansion was crazy. The entrance was huge, stairs to the other floors right there, a grand hall right in front of you. There were doors all over the place, I had no idea what to look at first and they didn't either. We split up."

"While I was checking out the bedrooms and Jet discovered our pool, Dean found something else." Sam furrowed his brow as he reached the darker detail. "It was a steel door, reinforced and made to look like the others."

Jet snickered, "This isn't really important, but Dean tried to break it down by running into it. Was pretty funny to watch."

"It looked exactly like the others," Dean recalled, his hand on his chin, "It was locked, luckily the keys we were given had the right one on it. Makes me wonder why it'd be on the set, I guess MacLeod didn't exactly see all this coming. Didn't get a chance to hide it or something."

"There was a huge lab down there," Sam continued with growing intensity, "The main area had a wall dedicated to monitors that were all switched off. There were computers and a lot of equipment, stuff we still don't really know about."

"My first instinct was to look at the centerpiece, it reminded me of control panels from old sci-fi movies." Dean spread his arms out, "It was this long and full of buttons, right in front of all the display screens. It was kinda hard not to push one right away."

"I expected Dean to push the first button," Jet furrowed his brow as he pictured it, "but it was Sam. He turned on all the monitors and it showed a bunch of cages and areas that we couldn't see at that point. We could tell that there were animals of some kind being kept in there, though."

"Then we saw that one of the things in those cages was human," Dean's gaze became more distant, "I can't remember now, but I think that might've been Cas… There was another door at the far end of the room, Sam figured that the cages were that way."

"I had to check it out," Sam shook his head helplessly, "We saw a person, how could I not?"

"Dean went right after him," Jet rolled his eyes, "Neither of them stuck around to watch the cameras longer than a few seconds. I saw the lights turning on and let me tell you, there were some ugly motherfuckers in there. Those things weren't friendly and some looked like they could kill you in a fucking second. Sam and Dean are both idiots."

"Right away there were glass cells on either side of the walkway, there were animals in the first ones so I kept moving." Sam recalled, "I remember going to the right at the first split, there were three directions."

"Sam got away from me and it was really dark in there. There was a fork in the path so I went straight ahead," Dean frowned, "I later figured out that Sam didn't go that way."

"That section of the basement was all cages and not really laid out very well," Jet added, "I don't think it was planned to become as big as it was."

"I learned that the right path led to a dead end," Sam stated simply, "Just a bunch of cages all the same, so I circled back and went to the left one instead. Same thing."

"It was scary as hell down there, I never would've gone if Sam weren't an idiot." Dean grumbled angrily, "There was another set of stairs going down even further, I don't really know how deep that basement was."

"Don't get me wrong, I love those two like family," Jet said slowly, his eyebrows raised as he nodded, "But they're the dumbest people I know. I still can't get over the fact that they both wandered around down there alone. The first time I was down there I got chills, man."

"Yeah it was creepy," Sam shrugged and leaned back, "But I wasn't all that worried. I mean I figured those things were all stuck in their cages that long, they weren't gonna get out anytime soon."

"Dean's the dumbest one of the two of them," Jet continued with a disapproving shake of his head. "He went ahead and fucking opened one of those things."

"It was the only one shaped like a dome, it was lit up and looked special. Even had the name 'Castiel' above the door." Dean's hands got a little twitchy and he drummed his fingers lightly on the table again. "I saw human legs sticking out of a hole of some kind, like a little cave or something. I felt sick but I couldn't just walk away from that, so I opened it."

"I'm glad Dean did it." Sam smiled, hoping to emphasize the good nature of that simple action. "A lot happened because he did, and he could've died, but I'm really happy he did it."

Dean was quiet again, his mouth tugged up in a curious smile, "Next thing I knew, I met Cas."

Castiel looked up at his assigned officer, a man who said his name was Victor Henriksen.

"Beginning, huh?" He spoke slowly as his mind was already leagues ahead of him. What counted as the beginning? What did he see as the start to all of the things that happened? He didn't really know but he decided to start talking all the same, if there were past events he needed to explain he'd have to jump around his timeline a little bit.

"As a teen I worked for a man named Fergus MacLeod, he hired me during the summers and some weekends. He was always a little off but never more than in a weird way. I thought him odd but I left it at that, he was pretty old and could've been going senile or something. I was taught not to think ill of the unwell."

Cas paused and watched his officer write, the man was quiet but seemed nice. He smiled a little nervously and Victor glanced up at him.

"It's okay, you can keep talking while I write." He reassured and Cas nodded.

"Right, sorry. I just- I don't know how this all works." He stumbled through the words and Henriksen raised a hand to try and calm him.

"Let me worry about that," his tone was gentler than it was at first, a small change but Cas still heard it. He looked at Victor for a few seconds and realized that animosity wasn't present at all in this man, at least not as far as Cas could tell.

"Okay," he finally sighed and attempted to relax in his chair, "Thank you."

Victor nodded and gestured for Cas to continue.

"MacLeod started getting weirder and for the most part I tried to excuse it one way or another. Michael and Charlie- uh, my brother and best friend- kept telling me that I should find new work, Charlie found it weirder than Mike. I didn't listen though, I barely had to work and still made more money than my brother did. I couldn't pass that up.

Victor glanced up at him, "How often did you work?"

"Every day for a few hours during the summer, and some weekends during the school year."

"And what did Michael do?"

"Worked full time at Biggerson's." Cas watched the little hint of Victor's understanding in his eyes, it sounded like a good deal. Too good to be true, as usual. "I graduated and summer started again, MacLeod wanted me to work for him and I was willing. I wanted to go to college so I needed quite a bit of money in that short amount of time. In the first week…" Cas stalled and felt a pit in his stomach growing.

Victor waited for him but Cas couldn't find the words. "You went missing during that time."

"I did." Cas nodded and took a long, slow breath. "He kidnapped me. MacLeod abducted me and I woke up in a place that looked medical but not sanctioned. They drugged me. A lot." He closed his eyes and tried to relax his rapid heartbeat.

"Who's 'they'?"

"I don't know, I don't remember. I was very drugged for majority of the time anyone was around me, they knew I'd try to leave. I remember there was more than just MacLeod, he spoke to people but I didn't see them when I was conscious." He knew he'd just started talking, he knew he could go into details about some of the experiments. But did he really have to? Was it important?

Just say what he thought was important. That's what Dean told him, that's what he needed to do. They could read about the experiments done, he didn't need to go into detail about it all.

"I don't know about all of the things they did, or if they abducted a lot of others. I know MacLeod was working on human-animal chimeras." He motioned back to his wings, "Hence these."

"Do they work?" Victor asked suddenly, sounded more like a curiosity than a serious question.

"They do," Cas smiled and moved them slowly, he didn't want to blow anything off the table. "I can fly with them, even carry another person with me while I go. MacLeod also enhanced my senses, I'm stronger than I should be, and… he cloned me."

"There are clones of you?"

"There are. They were tests a lot of the time, a check to see if I could be enhanced further. I can't remember what they were like before, but now they're like monsters. They've been starved, left alone for a long time with nothing but their thoughts…"

"So there are more of them, then."

"Yeah, most of them are dead now but there are a few left deep in the basement." Cas fidgeted and grabbed onto the hem of his shirt, "They're dangerous, so if anyone goes there they should be very careful."

"Are those the reason you and your friends were hurt?"

Cas wasn't surprised that they knew about the hospital visit, most people did since it was probably online. "They tore off Jet's arm and poisoned my boyfriend. I needed stitches. Charlie hit her head."

Henriksen nodded and jotted it down, Cas stayed quiet for a bit. "I'm sorry, this must be difficult for you."

"It is, but I'd like to get it done." Cas said determinedly, he could feel sweat beading on his forehead and he clenched his fists.

"It's alright to take a break, Castiel."

"I don't want to." He was stubborn, shaking his head. "I can't recall the parts where I was drugged, I don't know the details of the experiments, but I know what I felt. I know there were hand-made drugs given to me, they altered my memories and shut them down. I was like an animal that slowly grew the mind of a human infant. I learned things slowly, I understood things pieces at a time but only barely." He clenched his jaw next and inhaled sharply.

"I was in a cage. I was always in the same glass dome, it had a dirt floor in most of it and I had a small tunnel I could hide in. It was big enough to fit me and my wings, but still cozy and warm enough to sleep in. I was alone in there, my cage wasn't a vantage point. I couldn't see any others, no other cells were near mine. The only living things I saw were MacLeod and my own clones, and even then MacLeod didn't often show his face to me.

"It was my own face that I saw, over and over again. It attacked me with new weapons, new mutations. I had to kill it, again and again. I killed myself every week, sometimes more than once. I saw my own reflection and could tell that it was really me, I'm glad I could keep that much sorted."

Cas stared down at the table, he knew that his story was all over the place, he knew it didn't make a lot of sense and they'd need to go to the labs themselves to understand. But that didn't matter to him. It was how he remembered it, it was what came to mind when he tried to imagine what to say.

"Dean found me," he whispered after a few moments of silence. "I was alone for a long time. MacLeod was getting sick so he didn't work as often, I didn't go for any experiments in that time. I was alone with myself, me and my reflection and no food. I was going crazy but I was also at peace. Part of me was ready to die in there, but then the door opened. Dean let me out, he fed me and kept me safe." His voice cracked as he muttered the last few sentences, tears slipping down his cheeks. "If it weren't for them I'd be dead; my brother never would've known what happened to me, my best friend would look for me until she gave up or died trying… I owe them, I owe Dean my life."

The room fell silent again and Victor took that time to finish writing what he could. "I think we should take a break."

Cas finally agreed, a shallow nod to show it. "Can… someone be in here with me?"

Victor looked at what he had written down, he only took a moment to consider before responding. "Of course, anyone that's not already being questioned."

Cas thought about it for a second as Victor was getting up, "Can you get Charlie?"

"I will, rest for a little bit."

"Thank you." Cas leaned back and closed his eyes.