"So, you can't give me a name?"

It'd been some two hours maybe since they'd departed the city of Vela-Nova and Castle'd hardly spoken a word to the mysterious air-dropped boy. The few words they had exchanged told him he either didn't like Cash, or that he just didn't have very strong social skills. Seriously, he was like a zombie. That just meant Castiel would have to do his best to give the kid some kind of comfort in this unfamiliar situation.

"Sorry, I don't remember." Was all the boy could manage. Made Cash wonder if he really did get out of that nasty fall without any damage after all.

"Don't worry about it, kid. You'll get there. In the mean time, I can introduce myself. Th'name's Castiel, but you can call me Castle, or Cash." He said, moving to the on-board fridge.

The space was a bit tight, but still designed to be a live-in space: think a small RV or something along the lines. Similarly in that way, it was designed to extend when not in-flight to make more room, but well—we've been in-flight for a lot longer than the ship should be capable of. Right, it hadn't been able to sustain flight for any more than half and hour at best before, what changed?

"Y-yes, sir." The boy offered.

"Ah! Ah! Ah! None of that sir, shit. I'm only twenty-three, far from what I would call an old man." Castle scolded the boy, retrieving a bottle of Honey Jack and root beer from the fridge. Barq's because we're fuckin' civilized in this bitch.

"Then should you be calling me kid?" Even with a statement that should be expressed with some indignance, the boy showed no emotion in his words. It made Castle laugh.

"My bad, bruv. I suppose I should find something to call you, huh?"

There was no answer from the boy, so Castle simply poured himself a drink: a double of the Jack, followed by the whole can of root beer. He crossed back into the cockpit, checking the instruments with a bit of concern. He couldn't get the Falcon to fly for more than an hour in all of his time working on it—and never even at top speed like right now—so how was it that they've been flying for as long as they have? Looking out the window, Castiel took a swig from his glass. We broke the atmosphere even. What's giving the Falcon this power? Looking to the co-pilot's seat, he reflected on the case laying in the seat. That red mummy man, he left it to him and undoubtedly knew more about what was going on than he did. Taking the case back into the mini-lounge area, he slammed it onto the table which cause the blond-haired kid to jump.

"Sorry." Castiel offered before opening up the case for the first time.

He recoiled first, having been flashed with an aggressively strong light emitting from whatever was inside the case. Once his eyes adjusted, he checked its contents closer. For lack of a better word, it was a heart. It was a large translucent stone with a sheen that gave him the impression it was like some kind of precious stone or mineral, but through it he could see it was as if there were veins of some other much brighter material inside. It was in the shape of a heart, but not like any kind of anatomically correct heart. A heart you'd get from a kindergartener if you asked for a drawing. Still, not able to withstand the assault on his eyes, Castle shut the case.

"What was that?" His companion asked with the most emotion he'd shown since he dropped from the stars.

"I wouldn't be able to tell you, but it's powerful." Right, powerful.

What has him convinced that it is? Like it's got some kind of energy pulling off it that he could feel. Yeah, right. This isn't some anime. Cash had not a clue what it could be going to, but he would figure it out later. There was a slightly more pressing issue in his mind, their charted course: when the Falcon started, it loaded up Castle's most recent star chart. When he got the thing working, he'd planned to take it to the closest star and back just to see if his father's bedtime stories were worth anything. If not, that would've been fine, he would've come back the richest man on the planet from being the first person to get faster-than-light travel working. He hadn't even been the one to invent it, it was just an issue of—

"Excuse me, Mister Castle, sir?" His stowaway broke his train of thought for a moment,

"Just Castle is fine, bruv. What'd'you need?" Cash answered, not looking back from his instruments.

"Can I have one of those drinks?" Cash snapped his head up in confusion at that.

"What? No. What are you, like, fifteen?" He looked back to see the boy with what looked like was maybe the first emotion on his face ever: confusion. Castle couldn't help but sigh at that. Right, no memory. "Well, until I can get some ID, I consider you not legal. So no alcohol. Feel free to snag a can of root beer though."

Castiel rolled his chair back to his instruments again. I think I found where the energy from that heart is going. Looking at the diagnostics for the reactor, it had shut off some time ago. In fact, it had only been on for a few minutes. However, the drive was still getting energy input from somewhere: and a lot of it. They managed to break orbit with only 2% load? Looking at the star chart again, they were looking at a long journey, impossibly so: they couldn't hope to make it to the next star five lightyears away without running out of food or water. The Puncture Drive could get them there in five minutes, but it was untested. Castle didn't know how much energy it would take, and he didn't want to seal their fate in the case it didn't have enough juice from this mystery source. Of course, they were dead either way, so fuck it right?

"Hey, you might want to hold onto something back there, bruv." Cash didn't give him much time before hitting the button, of course.

"What?" Cash had to hold back a snicker from how immediately the kid got tossed down the booth after the Puncture Drive kicked them up to FTL speed.

The sight though, that was something. Watching the stars out the window ahead and their light crunch into an infinitely bright flash before streaking off into the distance as it faded into a red light that became no light at all, failing to reach their eyes now that they outpaced it. Castle sat there for a moment, not able to keep his eyes off.

"Woah." He was soon joined by the blond-haired kid in the cockpit, who gawked at the sight in astonishment. Right, that was pretty expressive. He had been starting to show a bit more of what could be considered emotions after opening up the case.

There you are.

Castiel's blood ran cold at the sound of a voice not his own reaching into his mind. His eyes snapping to the boy, the look on his face was the same. He turned to the vile presence he could feel encroach upon them from behind. From the engine room door, Castle could see a black fog seep from what was supposed to be its hermetically sealed frame before a set of claws tore through the door from its edge. Catching on the door's latch, the claws stopped instead opting to tear the door clean off of its hinges to reveal the assailant. It was kind of hard to tell, with the darkness like a shroud over them, but they were in a full suit of black armor their helmet adorned with what looked like horns.

"Nah, that's a fucking demon." Castle felt a weight over his left hand, and looking down he could see that his 'sword' had come to him once more.

Pulling it up from the left handed reverse-grip it had manifested in, Castle drew the blade into a higher stance than normal with his right arm crossed over to bring the blade parallel to his eye-line on the left side of his face. He stabilized the position with his left palm over the pommel. The stance was there, but still Castle didn't dare approach not wanting to risk creating an opening against a foe he knows nothing about. Especially not when he suddenly had a helpless bystander to defend. Before a move was made between them though, there was a jolt of the ship that tossed Castle onto his ass.

"Fuck!" He panicked, jumping to his feet and resetting his stance before— "Oh, you're gone." His blade disappeared in a flash of light, as if sensing it was no longer needed. "What is it with mystery men coming and going so fast today?"

"It could've been a woman." The kid piped up.

"That voice? A woman? Someone needs a better voice coach." Castle moved back to the instruments to check what happened to the ship. They'd reached the end of their FTL travel, that was the jolt just then. Unfortunately, whatever just stepped up on them decided to hit the engine room before the common room, and they were going down—

fast.

"Fuck, okay," Castle took the controls into his hands, turning off the auto-chart and spinning around to the boy. "You! Buckle up, now!" Who wisely complied.

On one hand, it was not only a relief that there was a planet where he had charted but it was proof that his father knew more than he let on. On the other hand, if Castiel didn't play this landing right they could die, and even then there was no knowing whether the planet was stable enough for them to live once the bay doors opened. There wasn't even enough time for measurements or probing or anything to verify if the atmosphere was breathable. Fuck, fuck, fuck this, fuck everything. Castle's mind raced as they broke said atmosphere, fire taking over much of the windows as the Falcon began to burn.

Good news, there were signs of civilization on this world. Bad news, they were heading for it a little faster than he wanted to. Scanning the terrain they were approaching, Cash cursed internally at the sight that they were coming down on a pretty big and no doubt densely populated city. But his eyes were drawn to a rather interesting outlier. A large tower, frighteningly large compared to the relatively low sky-line of the rest of the city. It was in a state of great disrepair, almost like ruins: the surrounding blocks of the city looked much the same. A random dead-spot that made for the perfect place to crash land. Whipping the yoke in the direction of the tower, he called.

"Alright, bruv. Brace yourself!"

"Damnit," He whispered under his breath, looking at the overdue bills spread across his desk. "How nice of the demons to take an off-season for me."

How did it always come down to this? Well, maybe at the end of the day it was for the best he didn't always have a job to do, it was proof that he was making the difference he wanted. But surely hell could spare a couple more demons for him to make rent, right? His eyes snapped up at the bell on his shop door ringing at the entrance of a customer.

"Devil May Cr—Oh, Morrison."

"Good to see you too, Danté," Morrison regarded him, a box of pizza in hand. "Thought I might get you a gift."

"You, give me a gift?" Danté scoffed at the idea. "And who's money bought me this gift?" Skeptical as he was though, his hand immediately dove into the box once it hit his desk.

"Your money," Morrison chuckled to himself. "The money comin' from this real gift I got you: a job."

Of course. At least he could count on Morrison to always be pushing the business, always at the tail end of a drought it was him to bring the cash back in. Even if Danté was the one doing the dirty work.

"Alright then, shoot."

"Mayor of Redgrave just called: claims something from space came down and crashed into the Temen-ni-gru only forty minutes ago, just behind the front gate. The front gate no one but you knows how to unlock."

"If they know only I can get in, they must know how much they should be paying me to do something like that."

"And they're offering plenty. You're comin' with me, 'cause if you don't—"

Morrison was interrupted by the lights shutting off. No doubt the electric company finally getting fed up of Danté's stalling.

"—well, I suppose you just found out."

"Castle! Castle! Wake up!"

It was a bit of a fade in, and he wouldn't be able to tell you exactly when his lucidity hit him but Castle knew he made it out alive. How long was I out?

"Castle! Come on, you can't have died already!" He just wished he could've had a little more sleep.

"Yeah, I hear you, bruv. Just—" He was interrupted by his own groan of pain coming up from the ground and to sitting up. "—just give me a second. I wasn't down too long was I?"

"Long enough for me to think you wouldn't make it. I went and looked around but we crashed somewhere pretty tight, I think we're trapped."

"How do you mean?" Cash started hoisting himself to his feet, offering a quiet 'thank you' to the boy who helped him get there. Once up, he went to lean on the common room table, his hand slipping from putting weight onto whatever was on the table rather than the table itself. Looking back into his hand, looks like the bottle of Jack made it out in one piece. That was nice.

"Here, I can show you." He said, taking the door out of the Falcon into his hand.

"Before we do—"

Castle opened up a drawer that was built into the booth seating, pulling out a black and white checkered satchel that he slipped the bottle of Jack into. He also retrieved the 'heart' from its case and placed it inside. Castle took a moment to catalogue some other miscellaneous essentials like MREs, and cash—as if it were going to be valid tender wherever they'd found themselves. Then he pushed it to the boy's chest as he joined him at the door.

"Alright, you're my Rucksack now."

"What? Why do I have to carry this?" It almost made Cash laugh, the way Rucksack was starting to pick up this 'emotion' thing. Maybe carrying this 'heart' will do him some good.

"Because I'm tired, I'm in pain, and because you never paid you admission fee for this ride." Castle slapped the wall of the Falcon for emphasis, before walking out the door and into the unknown.

"Part of me doubts this ride passed its safety inspections."

"Aye, how about you tell me what the fuck I'm lookin' at instead of ragging on my Rollercoaster Tycoon skills, huh?"

It was a bit of a tricky maneuver, coming down from the door to the Falcon and onto the ground what with the pile of rubble that hoisted them up some ten feet off. Careful not to step down at a super scuffed ankle-destroying angle, he danced from each individual rock down until he was on relatively flat, stable ground. It was a sloped hallway that seemed to go around a curve. The curve was tight enough for him not to have a sightline on much from just standing at the Falcon. The inner wall of the curve had a dull spiral pattern on it, but the sheen of its surface told him it was some kind of deactivated lighting mechanism.

"It's a circular room," Rucksack started, pointing to their right. "That way, bottomless pit," Then to their left, which he started to walk in the direction of with Castle following close. "And that way, there are two doors: the further one is—uhh—on fire."

"And the closer one?"

"Well." The boy stopped, pointing up for Castiel to see himself.

It was a large door. Suspiciously so. Twice his height at least. But he could see what Rucksack meant: mounted dead center was an almost comically large lock, and the door itself was close to frosted over. Fuckin—

"Well, it's either we get through this, or we take our chances trying to walk through whatever door to the fire plane over there."

"Fire plane?"

"It's a reference. What? You've never played Dungeons & Dragons before?" Then Castle looked back to see the look on Rucksack's face. "Right, dumb question." Castiel hopped onto the chains crossed against the door to get a decent angle on the lock before summoning the sword.

"What're you doing?" Rucksack seemed confused at the plan.

"It's a warded lock, or rather I'm almost positive a lock this old looking would be. And right here I've got a long ass hook I'm hoping will be able to sneak past all the wards."

As he said that though, he felt an energy pass through him. Through him and into his blade. The end point began to glow with a bright red light, the little circle of negative space cut like a keyhole in the hook shining like there was a force thrashing about inside and looking to be released. It was like it was begging to be thrust into the keyhole. Shut up in there, you giggly bitch. So he did it. Castiel plunged the blade into the keyhole, the light from his blade flushed out and into the air from inside the lock. Using the leverage of the handguard, he let his body weight force the blade counter-clockwise with a loud chunk from the lock.

"I-it worked!?" Rucksack exclaimed with astonishment.

"Ah fuck!" Cash let slip as his blade let him slip: dissipating with the lock like it had nothing else to exist for. "Agh... Shit. Ow. I need to get that under control."

Still, it was a pretty convenient thing he had: a veritable Skeleton Key of sorts. It was definitely magic, something that Castle was still having a small bit of trouble wrapping his head around. Manifesting and vanishing at mostly his beck and call, magically opening up a lock that's almost definitely since lost its key. A Kalashnikov original. Castiel's face darkened at the thought that he wouldn't be able to ask his dad what it all meant. What, I just have to figure this shit out all by myself? He was already doing a decent job of it, but still. It was the principal of the matter for him. But there was a violent roar that made Cash snap to.

"Wh-what was that!?"

"Human! You who have broken the seal have transgressed against the wishes of my master, who forbids the likes of you from this land."

At that, the doors Castiel had just unlocked were torn open the same as they saw before on the Falcon, but it was hard at first to tell what did it. But it was the ice! The ice flew off the doors and began to coalesce into a mass that transformed before their very eyes into a three headed dog. Castle just thanked his lucky stars that it decided to sprint off instead of mauling them on the spot.

"Okay." Cash huffed with a shaky anxiety from what just happened. How was it they were in constant danger almost every second of the past twenty-four hours? "Let's—Let's get the fuck out of here before that thing comes back, and with its master too!"

Turning to snatch up Rucksack, he'd gone catatonic or something. He had a thousand-yard stare that threw Castle off. It was like he was looking at that emotionless boy from earlier but there was something different.

"Rucksack! Wake up!" Castle snatched him up by the upper arm and shook him back into reality. "What's gotten into you, bruv!?"

"Ah, right. Sorry, Cash. I guess I just remember Cerberus looking differently."

"Rememb—What the fuck are you talking about!? Let's go!" Castle sprinted off, tugging Rucksack along behind him. "I don't know what kind of amnesiac backstory you've got, but I'm almost positive that fighting a three-headed dog is not part of it!"

Passing through a small yard of sorts, they broke off of the tower to find them selves back in a city. Well, city was a strong word. This place looked like trash, the buildings surrounding the tower, the roads between them, all the infrastructure was dilapidated and unserviced. There wasn't any evidence of a human presence in years. Each individual block was off kilter at varying degrees of sloping, and that made it a bit harder to get out of this deadzone than it should've been since they'd eventually come up on a the end of a downsloped block and the natural wall between them that formed at the fault line. There were plenty of workable footholds to get up to the top in the form of fallen buildings and tipped up cars, but it still made Castle's body ache.

"Castle, come on. Get up!" Castiel could feel his arm being tugged violently from where he'd flopped down in rest.

"No, I think I'm good. Dying here actually seems preferable." He huffed, trying to catch his breath. Even in the world of SSS, he wasn't known for having particularly high endurance. Only made worse by how beat up he was. "I think we can afford a little bit of a sitdown, surely."

"Yeah, it's not like anyone is chasing you." That was a new voice, which couldn't be good for either of them.

Shooting up from where he set himself down, Castiel summoned the Skeleton Key before settling into a tired half stance as he skimmed their surroundings in search of the voice in question. Looking up to the sky he found the source. Backlit by the moon, Cash swore this person was intentionally looking to make an entrance. The light washed out his features and made them difficult to discern at first, but he made note of not just the wide open red cloak that gave him a very similar silhouette to his own long red cardigan. He also didn't miss the incredibly large sword he carried. Well, large for what looked like a sword built for only one hand. It's hilt was constructed in the visage of a human skeleton from the torso up, it's jaw wide open and screaming. In his other hand was a firearm of a strange make. It looked similar to a millenia old restoration piece his father did at one point some years ago. The 1911, he called it? Still, this thing didn't seem 1:1. Namely, this was much bigger, frighteningly so. Castiel was pretty confident in going unmatched for his swordsmanship—no way this guy could be on Felix's level—but a fucking gun!? What was he supposed to do about that. His confidence only dropped further when their mystery assailant dropped off the three story building and to the ground, the only thing breaking being the asphalt beneath his feet as he landed.

That. That isn't human.

"Demons from space, can't say I've run into this yet. Still, you look far too human to be any kind of real alien." The white-haired man pointed an accusatory sword at them as he spoke.

Demons!? Is that what he thinks we are? We're humans, same as... him. Reassessing his thought to remind himself that this guy is doing hella not human shit, Castle did make an interesting note at his words. He certainly looked human, and knew what humans were. If they're in outer space, shouldn't their chances of running into another human be basically zero? Looking back to the blond-haired kid he had in tow, the fact that he was human too was certainly a point of interest. Snapping back to, Castiel regarded what seemed to be their hunter: the master that dog referred to, no doubt.

"Us, demons? After watching you take that drop, are you sure you aren't a demon?" Considering how everything was looking to play out, he supposed that a laugh was nothing unexpected.

"That's a good one, kid! If you're asking me that, then you certainly aren't from around here. So you claim to be human, I guess that I've met some pretty impressive humans before. In that case, tell me what you wanted from the Temen-ni-gru and how you got out."

"The Temen-what now? Rucksack, is that racist? That sounds racist." Cash asked his companion, who could only shrug in confusion.

"So you want to be funny? Suit yourself."

Maybe Castle should've kept his mouth shut, because it looked he just kicked the hornet's nest and he was about to get the stinger. The Stinger in question being a big-ass sword flying towards him in an impressively long-distance lounging thrust. For any normal person, that kind of offense would put them down in an instant. Even for Castle, that was an overwhelming speed for him to answer. He managed to just barely throw his blade up to intercept the thrust, deflecting it over his head. Unfortunately, that momentum carried the Skeleton Key over his head and behind him as well, and he would need an extra moment to prepare a retaliating slash. It wouldn't be an issue since that Stinger was so incredibly committal, the hunter would need a moment to recover. That is, if it weren't for the fucking gun. Son of a bitch. It was like slow motion, Castiel seeing the off-hand come up from his hip to line the muzzle up with his heart. His own off-hand coming down to meet it, he grabbed hold of the gun by the top of its slide and slid forward on his left leg to move in for a left-side Tetsuzanko. Only when his leg slid much farther forward than it should have did Castle realize his mistake. The hunter let go of his own gun, leaving it in Castiel's hand as he swept the overextended leg out from underneath him. It was once he was fully sideways a couple feet off the ground did Castle look up to see the sword he deflected upwards was finally descending upon him. Even just barely blocking the strike with his Skeleton Key, the force of it slammed him into the ground with a momentum that carried him several meters away where he smashed into the side of an abandoned sedan. The recoil caused his arms to flay out from the whiplash, sending his blade point-first into the building behind and the gun he'd snatched away straight up into the sky.

"Castle!" Rucksack shouted, rushing to Castiel's side.

Poor kid, so much was happening so fast, and this was all Castiel could manage in protecting him? What could he have done though, against a foe like this? That exchange was two seconds, and it very thoroughly established the dynamic between them. And as Rucksack could see, that was far from the peak of this hunter's strength. Before he could reach Castle, the hunter was already upon him, perched atop the car and looking down upon his prey. How—? Rucksack looked back to see where he definitely saw the hunter standing seconds before, unmoving. Had he teleported or something!?

"The Temen-ni-gru. The tower that seals the darkness. How did you open it!?" If the impatience in his voice wasn't clear, the way he caught his gun as it came down from his flight to press the muzzle into the top of Castle's head sent an irrefutable message. For good measure, he pulled a second gun on Rucksack near identical to the first.

Before either could answer, there was a quake that shook the ground with a foreboding magnitude. Its source was obvious. Looking down the length of the road they'd trekked from the tower in question, there was a deep fog of malicious darkness that began to leak from not just the main gate but all open orifices on the tower, of which there were many.

"And you didn't lock the door on your way out." There was a vitriol in the hunter's voice that made Castiel's blood run cold. Stowing his right handed gun, his forefinger and thumb came up to his mouth. The hunter pierced the air with a deafening whistle. "Cerberus!" He shouted, the devil dog leaping from parts unknown onto the dilapidated apartments overhead. He then snapped his fingers, to which an in-human minotaur adjacent monster descended onto the rooftop across from Cerberus. "Beowulf! Spread, we need to get this under control. Cerberus, you patrol the outer limits of the exclusion zone, make sure nothing gets to the public. Beowulf, you're on me. Once we get to the gate, I'm going in and you make sure anything that comes out gets turned to pulp."

"Which includes you, bastard seed." The one called Beowulf didn't seem too happy to be taking orders from the hunter, but the fact something so monstrous still did so communicated to Castle just how outmatched he was against this guy.

"Yeah, you can try," The hunter scoffed, before turning back to Castiel. "As for you," Cash's stomach dropped when he saw what looked like spider legs pull back from behind the hunter, from the elbow joint he retrieved a pike that glowed with a red energy that he used to run Castle through at the left shoulder. Something that elicited a pained shout from him. "You stay here, I'll be back for you," Before finally leaving, he regarded Rucksack; retrieving a rose from who knows where. "I wouldn't try touching that, if I were you. He'll live, but if you try to remove it—" He flicked the rose, all of its petals exploding off violently. "—you get the idea."

Finally, he left, demons in tow. Running to be at Castiel's side, Rucksack held his hands up as if to move in and do something but confused as to what he should do. Was there even any way for him to help?

"Ah! Fuck! Ah..." Castiel clutched the top end of his left pec, just next to where the pike had been plunged into him. Pulling the hand back just long enough to see how much blood had painted it, he hissed at the sight before returning the hand to where it was. "You gotta get out of here, bruv. He's trapped me, but not you. Don't be here when he gets back."

"I-I can't leave, I'm supposed to be the one carrying your stuff aren't I?"

They both flinched at the sound that went off behind them, a strange whooshing that drew their eye to its source. It was the shadows the moon had casted on the bleak streets and alleyways coalescing together into a pitch black pool of darkness.

"Dude, time for you to go!" Castle impatiently demanded of Rucksack, his Skeleton Key flashing back into his hand from where it had been launched. Unable to reach his left arm far enough out with the pike through his shoulder, he pointed his blade at the source of the darkness one-handed as it sprung up off the ground like a fountain that began to fill what looked like a cordoned off invisible space in the air. Like filling a glass vase.

"No! I'm not going! I don't—I don't know where I'd go anyway. You protected me, so—" Frantically looking around for something, Rucksack finally settled on snatching the Skeleton Key from out of Castiel's hands. "—I'll figure it out this time!"

"What the hell are you doing!?"

Both of them didn't dare continue bickering though, when the darkness seemed to have finished its coalescence into what looked like a large, black, elongated dome. Like a portal into a space beyond what they could imagine, and from that space emerged something neither of them expected. A woman. A woman with tanned skin, white hair, and golden eyes. Something that ticked a neuron in Castle's brain. She looks just like that motherfucker from dad's gala! She wore a face of what seemed like indifference, apathy, or maybe boredom. She sized up Rucksack with a cursory glance that seemed more interested in the sword he was carrying than anything else.

"That's not yours." Her voice was deep, with a velvety tone that washed over Cash's mind in a most satisfying way.

"What does it matter!? You're not coming any closer." He declared, threatening her with the end of the blade. But he must've felt something coming that Castle didn't, gasping at the sword in his hand. It caused some confusion in Castle for a split second before right in front of their very eyes, in a flash of light the Skeleton Key changed. Now taking the form of a one handed sword with a two-sided, golden handguard. And at the end of the blade what looked like the teeth of a warded lock's key, the negative space taking the shape of a crown.

"That though, is a different story."

"What the hell is that, bruv!? You been holding out on me?"

"Don't ask me, dude! I have no idea what this is!"

The woman raised her eyebrows at the exchange, whispering something to herself in apparent surprise before addressing Castiel.

"DiZ said you'd end up here, I didn't believe him. Let's get you out of here," On the approach, Rucksack stepped in-between them, mystery sword at the ready. "Stand down, soldier. I'm here to get you two out of this mess."

Walking around Rucksack, his sword vanishing and leaving him to stare at his hand in confusion. The woman knelt down to meet Castiel's gaze.

"What's your name, hm?"

"Kind of rude to ask for a name without offering your own, y'think?" It was a response that made the woman giggle a little at how defensive he was.

"I suppose I can't blame you for wanting to play it safe after what just happened to you," She playfully flicked the pike that had him pinned so helplessly like he was. "Call me Axia."

"Castiel." Was all he could manage through labored breaths.

"Well, Castiel," She stood from where she knelt, bringing her open-palmed hand to point fingers first at the pike. With a quick snapping motion, she closed her hand into a fist. "Stop!" She chanted.

Suddenly, Castiel's shoulder felt more stiff, the pike no longer rising and falling with his breath and its energy no longer flowing like the fire it was. When Axia said stop, it stopped.

"This might tickle a little," She continued her thought. "You're gonna have to help me get you up." It was something that made Castle breathe a bit more anxiously, recognizing what she was getting at.

"O-okay," Castle responded nervously. "On three then?"

"One." She started them off, locking eyes with him with an expression that he couldn't describe. Whatever it was, it helped him steel his resolve.

"Two." He nodded to himself, his face sharpening in anticipation.

"Three!" They both shouted together.

Her arms wrapped around his waist, Axia used her full body weight to pull up on Castle while he used both arms to push himself away from the car. The pike went fully through him, and he left it behind in the side of the car. Not without an incredible amount of pain from the taper of the pike widening out at the base, causing the hole in his shoulder to only get wider.

"God fucking damnit! Fuck!" Castle went right back to his knees from the pain.

"It's okay, you'll be okay. I have a way to help fix that up, but we have to go." Axia helped him up off the ground, supporting him as they walked back towards the dark portal.

"Come on, bruv," Castle clapped a hand over his partner's shoulder, snapping him out of the trance it looked like he put himself in. "Time to make our escape."

"R-right." Rucksack seemed to comply before doing a fast double take. "H-how did you get out of there? I thought that thing was supposed to—" He was interrupted by a loud explosion from behind them. Whatever spell Axia had put on the pike seemed to have worn off, letting it go off and take a huge chunk of the car out with it. "—explode."

Boy am I glad I wasn't stuck with that shit.

On the other side of the portal it was much, much nicer. A simple, homey apartment like you'd see on a sitcom, with an almost comically red couch in the center of the room. One that Castiel absolutely helped himself to by flopping onto it. If it weren't for the overwhelming pain he was in, he'd probably be down and out for the count. Even still, the threat of drifting off was absolutely there.

"Hey, don't go bleeding on my couch!"

"It's not gonna show through, it's fucking red."

"Bastard," Axia whispered through gritted teeth before turning to meet her other guest. "What about you kid? What's your name?"

"M-my name? I—uhh—" He gave a panicked look to Castle for assistance, to which he could only offer his 'the fuck you want me to do?'-face.

"Uh, R-Ru—" He still went for it, he was the king of spinning that shit, after all. "Rock—uh—Ros—hmm—Roxas." Axia narrowed her eyes at that, looking 'Roxas' dead in his eyes with an obvious skepticism.

"Your name is Roxas."

"Y-yes ma'am!" He flinched, almost shooting up as if he were at attention.

"At ease, bro," She teased. "Just call me Axia. He do this with you too?" She asked Castle.

"Unfortunately." Cash rolled over with a groan.

"Right, I said I was going to take care of that." She recalled, moving to Castiel's side on the couch. "Alright, scoot over, dumbass."

"Ow, ow! What the fuck?" Castle was forced over for her to sit beside him.

"Quit bitching, hold on a second," She hovered a hand over the shoulder in question before whispering to herself. "Heal." They still heard from her, as quiet as it was in the apartment.

There was a green glow that emanated from her hand for a moment before manifesting out of nowhere was a cluster of three bell-shaped flowers that started sprinkling a green mist over Castiel's shoulder.

"Oh, fuck." He whispered in relief, his body visually relaxing at the sensation. "That feels nice. Thank you, Axia." He placed his hand on hers for a moment.

"Nope! You call me ma'am," She stood up from the couch, turning away from him. Maybe it was the low lighting in this dark living room—the only light being the one adjacent kitchen light—but Castle could've sworn he saw her turn a shade pinker in the cheeks. "Ah, damnit. You got blood on my hand," She started walking towards the kitchen, commanding Roxas as she passed. "You, show me your keyblade."

"M-ma'am?"

"Axia." She deadpanned at his formality.

"R-right. I don't think I understand."

"The Keyblade, that fancy sword Castiel uses? You've got one now, don't you?" She continued from in the kitchen, the sound of her sink making her only slightly harder to hear.

"I guess I do now, don't I?" His hand coming out in front of him he summoned what Axia called his Keyblade.

"Did I cause that?" Castle looked up from where he lie, craning his neck to see around the healing magic that was still working its—well—magic.

"No, that was always his," Axia chimed in from the doorway connecting the kitchen and living room, digging through the freezer just besides for something. "You only reminded him he could."

"What is this Keyblade anyhow?" Roxas asked on behalf of him and Castiel.

"Let's think about answering that tomorrow," Axia tossed something at Castle, rather to Castle with an underhanded throw. He caught it as it went wide out right with his good arm. "Don't you want to take a break? You two've had a long night." She tossed another one to Roxas, who dropped the Keyblade trying to catch it. Thankfully it dissipated before it could clatter violently to the floor.

"Is this—" Castle read what seemed to be a little pint-sized cardboard carton. Ben & Jerry's: Half Baked. In big letters. "—ice cream?"

"What's ice cream?" Roxas innocently asked.

"You've gotta be fuckin' kidding me, bruv." Castiel said with exacerbation.

"Give the kid a break, amnesia is a bitch." Axia returned to the living room with a couple plastic spoons, flicking one of them into Castiel's eye.

"Fucking, ow!" He indignantly shouted, still taking the spoon and tearing the top off of his ice cream. "How do you know about his amnesia anyhow? We didn't say anything about it."

"Shut up and eat," She placed her spoon in her mouth to free up a hand, a hand she used to smack his shins in a way that made him instinctively pull his legs in long enough for her to take a seat where his legs had previously been blocking her off. Once she was on the couch though, she patted her lap as if to beckon his legs back over. Something Cash cautiously complied with. "You're gonna want a lot of sugar in your system here. That healing magic isn't free, and you're gonna want to replace what you're losing. Even still, once it's done you probably won't be able to move for the rest of the night. Roxas, over here, bud." She beckoned Roxas over to take his own spoon to eat with. When he did he simply sat down on the floor, using the couch as a backrest.

"Thank you, Axia."

"Of course," She said simply shoving her hand between the cushions for a moment, she fished out a remote for the TV against the wall in front of them. "Hope you're ready for the entertainment industry of another world."

That made the thought click into place for Castiel, he was in another world! Ice cream brands he didn't recognize, game shows by people he's never heard of, but also evils he's never met, and enemies he's yet to make. There was an anxiety behind it, but finding a moment like now where he was sitting and laughing with a couple of strangers gave him hope that he could keep finding moments like this.

"What was this guy's name, again? He's my favorite."

"That's Brennan Lee Mulligan, he's a fan favorite for sure." Axia seemed eager to share with them too. Like the ice cream he and Rox—

"Holy shit! Roxas! You really like ice cream, bruv!" Castiel couldn't help but shout in surprise when he peered down to see Roxas had finished his ice cream before he and Axia had even gotten half-way deep in their own.

"Uh—yeah, I guess. It's salty, but sweet."

"Oh yeah, you got the salted caramel almond, didn't you?" Axia asked, taking the empty carton from him and sleeving her own into it.

"What about you?" Castle asked.

"I've got a coffee flavor, wanna try?" She offered, stretching her spoon out in his direction. Instead of answering, he simply leaned forward to take it. It was a bit of a struggle to do so, what with the cure magic starting to show its wear on him.

"Damn! That shit is cash!" Castle wasn't ready for it to be so good. Even more than that, he wasn't ready to hear Roxas bust out laughing. Across the however many hours he'd known Roxas—even here watching the most hilarious gameshow Castle had ever seen—he hadn't heard anything that could even remotely resemble something like a laugh from him, and he could only imagine what possessed him in this moment.

"No, dude. You're Cash!" He managed to get out between breaths.

That was it? That's what broke him? Castiel and Axia locked eyes for a moment in what was complete silence between them before breaking out into an uncontrollable laughter themselves. Less because of the joke itself, and more because they couldn't fathom how Roxas managed to find that one so funny.

"Yeah, I guess I am!"