"You never did answer my question," Dean complained bitterly. "What's going to happen to Novak?"
Immediately following the interview, Dean had been given his uniform, ordered to dress, and then rushed into a waiting transport. At least he was out of the cuffs, but he was surrounded by armed guards. When absolutely none of the guards would so much as say hello to him, Dean had finally fallen asleep. When they'd arrived, it was well after sunrise. Dean had no idea where he was, he was tired, he was sore, and quite frankly he was scared. Scared for himself, because he had no idea what he was getting himself into. Scared for Novak, because what did they mean when they talked about how he would "lose quite a bit of himself?" He was brain dead. What more could he lose?
Now here was Col. Stephens, waiting impatiently for him at the base. Dean looked around. To a casual observer, the compound looked pretty routine. The building he'd been taken to was huge, obviously some sort of warehouse with a domed roof in the center. Dean, an expert now in the workings of base security, saw a location that screamed top secret. Armed guards were everywhere, checking everyone and everything, peeking around every corner, tight lipped and tight assed and regulation perfect. Novak would have fit right in here.
The thought of his friend brought a lump to his throat. He glared at Stephens, who was trying to hurry him inside. "I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what's going to happen to Novak."
"Private, if you're going to be a part of this project and see him again, then you'd better start learning how to follow orders now," Stephens warned, taking Dean's arm to physically bring him into the building. "Come on, we do not have a lot of time. Novak's already inside and the subject has been getting more and more restless. We only have until noon today. That's why we needed to use the two of you. You're the only viable candidates close enough to get here on time."
Dean found himself quickly pulled through a door and marched down a long corridor, passing through security checkpoint after security checkpoint and multiple doors just as big as the first. He was growing more and more alarmed. This place looked more like a high security prison than anything else. The walls were covered with metal. Armed guards were present around every corner. Security cameras monitored his every move.
Then a noise the likes of which he'd never heard came echoing down the metallic corridor. It sounded like the roar of a bear or a lion, but amplified until it made his ears ring. He froze, eyes bugging. "What the actual fuck was that?"
"That was the subject." Stephens pulled hard on Dean's arm to get him moving again, apparently under the impression that his answer explained everything. "They've already brought Novak in. Now we just need to get you in there."
"Get me in there with what? What's going on? Ok, stop!" Dean dug in his heels when another ear-shattering roar filled the hallways, followed by silence. A moment later, he heard an odd, crooning hum.
Stephens lit up like the sun. "It's working," he whispered excitedly. "That means Novak is in. Come on, it's your turn, hurry!"
Dean resisted, scowling as the colonel tried to pull him forward. "I'm not taking another step until you tell me what's going on."
"Then Novak dies. Yes," he continued, seeing Dean's expression, "this project is now in a critical phase. If you do not get in there and do your part, then Novak dies."
Dean sputtered. "Who the hell ARE you people?!"
"We're the good guys." Stephens started half-dragging Dean down the hall again. "Trust me, you do not want to meet the bad guys."
Heart pounding, Dean allowed himself to be pulled along. "Can you at least tell me what it is I'm supposed to do?"
"You'll have to reach out for your friend," Stephens explained. "Once you're in with the subject, you need to create an emotional link with Novak. Now that the subject has taken him as the joining partner, it will start looking for the guiding partner - you. Now I won't lie," the colonel continued. "This will likely be the most terrifying thing you've ever done in your life. But as long as you keep your cool, don't fight, and let it happen? You'll be primed for the most incredible experience of your life."
"Keep cool, don't fight and let it happen?" A howl rang out, sounding somehow longing. Dean eyed yet another door, this one sealed and made of solid metal with a complicated-looking lock. The howl had come from right behind it. Dean's heart pounded. "Ok, what the hell is this thing?"
"You're about to find out." Stephens made hurry up motions to the guards undoing the lock. "It's time to meet the big kahuna. Remember, while it's natural to be a bit freaked, you need to focus as much as you can on Novak." He shook his head. "Novak should have been the one here. He was exemplary at following orders, never lost his cool, always kept calm… He would have been ideal. At this point, I would have anticipated Novak would be focusing, maintaining his calm and setting up his objective in his head while you were the one in there getting swallowed…"
Dean held up his finger. "I'm sorry, did you say swallowed?!"
"Yes, swallowed, would you listen? The subject has already swallowed your friend. That took place out of your sight because we need you to focus. Novak has played his role in this. Now, if you want to save him, you need to play yours." He pointed at the door, excited eyes looking intently at Dean. "What is behind that door just swallowed your friend whole, Winchester. How does that make you feel?"
In answer, Dean hauled off and punched the colonel in the face. The guards shouted and immediately pointed their weapons at Dean, but the colonel, laughing from the floor, waved them off. "Perfect! That's perfect! Ok, get him inside."
Dean didn't get a chance to do any more than yell out before he was seized. The door opened just wide enough to accommodate him. The guards shoved him inside and slammed the heavy metal door behind him.
Dean sprawled, face down on a cold metal floor. He froze as something growled. The floor shook slightly with massive footsteps before a shadow blocked out the light overhead. Hot air suddenly buffeted him from above. Then Dean found himself sniffed by an impossibly huge nose that hovered over his back. Dean stopped breathing. Carefully raising his head, he looked ahead. He saw four gigantic scaly dark legs the size of tree trunks, ending with clawed paws that flexed slightly as the thing shifted its weight. A long, scaly spiked tail swayed a bit above the metal floor. The thing's body had a cream-colored scaly belly covered with horizontal scales not unlike the belly of a snake that also covered the underside of its tail.
What. The. Fuck?
The thing sniffed him again. By now Dean was shaking, feeling like a mouse trapped before a giant snake. He let out a small whimper of terror and dared to look up.
Hovering a few feet above him was a gigantic scaly head. Two golden reptilian eyes blinked down at him. A cold blue fire burned within those eyes, seeming almost expectant as it watched the tiny creature cowering on the floor. A spiny crest flared up behind its head, leading to a long, scaly neck with spikes similar to those on the tail. A set of massive black wings, surprisingly feathered despite all the scaly skin, were folded on its back. The thing's mouth opened slightly, revealing teeth as long as Dean's hand. A long forked tongue protruded a bit, seeming to taste the air as it gazed down at Dean.
Dean quickly crawled backward. He encountered the door and immediately sprang up to pound on it. "Let me out! There's a dragon in here!"
"Yes, there is." The voice was that of General Thompson, coming through speakers overhead that made Dean jump. "This subject is the principle part of Project Castiel. Your friend Novak was brought in here just before you and was swallowed whole. He's in there now, inside of that thing's neck."
"What?" Dean couldn't process what he was hearing.
"He's been swallowed," the general repeated. "That's him, the lump halfway down its throat. If you don't help him, he'll be gone forever." The general's voice became soothing. "Your friend is right there, Winchester, still alive, but not for much longer. He needs you. Won't you reach out for him?"
Reach out for him? How could Dean reach out for anyone when there was a literal fucking dragon about to eat him? But even as Dean thought this, he realized that the dragon was making no move to attack. It simply stood there, watching him expectantly, head cocked somewhat to study him through one massive eye.
Dean looked around. The room took up most of the space in the building, probably the size of a football field with a domed ceiling that arched high overhead to accommodate the dragon's height. Everything was covered with metal. He could see another door, smaller than the one he'd come through and leading into a human-sized cage that jutted slightly into the room. Toward the front of the room near Dean was the crushed remains of what looked like an ambulance gurney. At some point, the dragon had stepped on it, smashing the frame and flattening the metal.
An ambulance gurney. Novak.
Dean looked back at the dragon. It would have taken some doing, but he supposed the thing was big enough to swallow a grown man, especially if it could stretch its neck like a snake. As the thought came to him, Dean took a look at the thing's neck. He spotted a lump about halfway down the length of it. It was clearly a body, headfirst and halfway to the thing's stomach.
"You really did it, didn't you, you son of a bitch?" Dean told the dragon. "You actually swallowed him whole. Why? The guy had literally everything taken away from him. He actually wanted to be the one in here with you now, not me. I'm the screw up, the asshole who had everything handed to him and pissed it all away. I'm the one you're supposed to swallow, not him! Wait a minute." Dean pinched his lips together, his eyes on the shape of the swallowed man's body. "I'm supposed to reach out to you, aren't I, Novak? Yeah, that's right. That's what's supposed to bring you back. I guess this son of a bitch is supposed to heal you in its throat and then spit you out? They said I'd get to walk and talk with you again, so I guess that's it, right? So, I need to reach out to you. Right."
Swallowing hard, Dean forced his feet to move, daring to approach the dragon. Its massive head got in his way and Dean absently pushed it aside, moving beneath the neck so he was standing directly under the lump. "Hey, Novak?" he called up to it. "Jimmy, it's me, Dean Winchester. Um, hi. Yeah. So, you've been swallowed by a dragon. I guess the only way to make it puke you back out is for me to somehow reach you. I don't think it will work if I stick my finger down its throat because, you know, it's bigger than a truck and probably wouldn't feel it. So, I guess it's up to you." He peered up at the thing's neck. "Can you, I don't know, wiggle around or something in there?" He frowned, considering the lump. "Geez, how can you even breathe? You're headfirst down its throat, man. Does it have, like, an oxygen pocket in there? You're already braindead. Let's hope this doesn't make it worse." He grimaced. "Aw shit, I gotta hurry up, um…" Dean wracked his brain, trying to think of what to say. He shook his head in frustration. "You were right about me," he admitted. "I am a class one fuck-up. I have no idea what to say to you to get you to come back out of there. All they said was to reach out to you, but it's not like I can reach you, is it?" Dean reached his hands up toward it. The lump was several feet too high to reach even if he jumped. "You're way up there, man. If this bastard would lie down or something?"
Dean looked hopefully at the dragon. It had snaked its neck around so that its nose was now breathing hot air onto Dean's back. The glowing eyes were still studying him intently. No, it didn't look like the thing was going to lie down any time soon. Part of Dean was screaming about the sheer unmatched stupidity of turning his back on those massive jaws, but Dean forced it down. Novak needed him now. But how could a screw-up like him get something like this to do anything, much less heal and bring back his friend?
Frustrated, Dean was annoyed to realize he'd started crying yet again. "Look at me. I've turned into a damned baby," he groaned. "You know, I never cried once since I got shipped off to military school. Now it's waterworks at the drop of a hat." He wiped an arm irritably across his face and looked up at the lump. "You always were a stand-up guy, Jimmy. Until this past weekend, I never even thought about the fact that you always came in, even on your days off, to check up on me any time I was locked up. I think that's the biggest reason those other assholes like Walker always said I was your boyfriend. I don't think any of them even knew I was bi," he admitted. "I gotta admit, you're hella hot, but I never even thought about you like that. It's not like I would have had a chance with you anyway. I don't even know if you bat for my team. I know you were married." Dean rubbed at his neck, looking down. "Anyway, the point is, I think I was right when I said we were too busy being enemies to realize we could have been good friends. Although," he corrected, looking back at the lump, "you would have been a real drag to be around. I still can't believe you were getting shitfaced drunk on duty, and fucking Walker never even noticed! Too interested in going out back to bump uglies with that other MP chick he's been sniffing after, I guess. That was probably his booze in the desk, wasn't it? Sounds like him."
Dean shook his head. This wasn't working. He needed to focus on Novak, not Walker. He looked pleadingly up at the lump. "I don't know what to say to get you to come out of there," he moaned. "Listen, Jimmy, I need you to try, ok? I need you to come back out here so I can tell you how much I appreciate everything you did for me. You were always there to bust my ass, but at the same time? You were always the one to take care of me. You gave me those stupid sweats after I climbed the radio tower, and even an extra blanket so I didn't get cold. You made sure I got supper that other time when I borrowed the captain's new jeep and you all got bitched out for it. You always checked up on me. Even at the end, just before you shot yourself, you were worried about me. You told me not to do the same." Dean sobbed. "You were my friend, dammit, and I was just too stupid to know it!"
More tears. Dean decided he didn't care. Forgetting himself, he took a swing at the dragon's scaly chest, conveniently forgetting the fact that the thing had just swallowed his friend whole and would have little trouble munching him for dessert. "Spit him back out!" he ordered. "Let him go! Dammit, Novak, I need you. I'm sorry, ok? I'm sorry I was such a fuck-up, I'm sorry that I never saw what a good man you really were… I'm sorry for everything. I just need you to come back out. Please!"
A low, rumbling hum filled the air, making Dean's hair stand on end. Dean suddenly remembered exactly where he was and what he'd just punched in the chest. He turned to see the light in the dragon's eyes had become a blue blaze. It grew brighter and brighter until it blocked out all other light, the dragon's head moving closer, bringing one glowing orb until it was inches away from Dean's face. Dean found himself forced back against one of the dragon's legs. He slid down it to the floor, throwing up his arms and turning his face away to try to protect himself from the light. The humming intensified, so loud and deep Dean could feel his breastbone vibrate in his chest.
Just when he was about to start screaming, it suddenly stopped. The dragon's wings spread slightly, its head shot up. Dean looked up to see the muscles in the scaly neck stretching smoothly all the way up. Novak was gone. The dragon had swallowed him.
Dean screamed and attacked the dragon, kicking and punching anything he could reach. "You son of a bitch, you weren't supposed to eat him. You were supposed to heal him and spit him out! You killed him! I'll fucking kill you!"
The dragon took a step back and Dean followed, still wildly attacking. He only stopped when its rear suddenly dropped to the ground with a thud. The rest of it swayed, head waving in the air, eyes closed. Then the front legs seemed to give out. Dean jumped out of the way just before the dragon's massive body slammed onto the metal floor.
Dean backed as far away as he could. The dragon lay motionless on the floor. It gave a single long, drawn-out groan. "What?" Dean called. "Novak give you indigestion? Good!"
The thing grumbled. One eye blinked open before the head turned to rest on its chin. The eye, now a familiar shade of ocean blue that made Dean's heart ache, fixed on the tiny man in its room. "Who…?"
Dean frowned, looking around. The voice didn't seem to have come from any particular direction, but seemed oddly familiar. "Who said that?"
"Who…?" The dragon took a deep breath and let it back out again, hot air brushing past Dean as he cowered against the wall. "Who… you?"
Dean blinked. "Are you talking? Your mouth isn't moving, so you're either talking from your ass or… Wait, am I hearing you in my head?"
"Talk to it," the general's excited voice called from the hidden speakers. Obviously, they'd been watching him through some sort of closed circuit cameras. Looking around, Dean spotted the cameras mounted on the tops of the walls, just before the dome joined them. "Private Winchester, talk to it, that is a direct order!"
"Um, hi?" Dean waved half-heartedly at the dragon.
The thing shifted a bit, sliding its massive head along the metal floor closer to Dean. "Who you?"
"Who am I?" Dean echoed. "I'm PFT Dean Winchester."
"Dean." Something like a sigh came from the beast. "Hello, Dean."
That voice. Low, gravelly, incredibly sexy. He'd know that voice anywhere. Dean dared to take a step forward. "Novak?"
"Private, it is my honor to be the first to introduce you to Castiel Novak," the general's voice called proudly. "We'll just let you boys get acquainted for a little longer and then we'll bring you out to debrief you. I suspect Castiel won't be awake for much longer. From what we've gathered, this part exhausts them."
"Wait, what's going on?" Dean called, glaring up into the closest camera. "What happened to Novak?"
"That's him," the general said. "Keep talking to it, let it know you're there. It needs you right now until it falls asleep."
Dean turned back to the dragon. The thing already looked half asleep, its blue eye blinking sleepily at Dean. If it wasn't for the slit pupil, Dean would have thought he was looking at a gigantic human eyeball looking back at him. He could see the intelligence behind its tired gaze, just on the brink of unconsciousness. Dean sucked in his breath. It was true. This was Novak, looking out at him through the eyes of a dragon. "Um, hey," Dean called, daring to approach. "You look a little beat, big guy. It's ok, you know, if you want to take a snooze."
"Dean," came the sleepy rumble.
"Yeah, glad we got that straightened out." Dean shifted, looking uneasily over the dragon's massive form. "You, um, warm enough? I don't think there's a blanket big enough to cover you."
"Dean." The dragon almost seemed to be purring.
"Yeah, Dean, that's me, we've already established that." The eye was staring sleepily at him again. Dean felt almost naked under its gaze. "So Novak, this, um, this is quite the change you've done here. I really think you should just close your eyes and get some rest, let yourself, you know, adjust, let everything click into place." Dean moved his hands around, miming putting something together in the air. "Once you wake up, we'll talk some more. How's that sound?"
"Sound… good."
Dean smiled. "That's right, it sounds good." He patted the dragon's muzzle, seeing the eyelids slip into place. The dragon had a clear inner lid and a scaly outer lid. When both of them were closed, within seconds a loud, rumbling snore came from the dragon that made Dean chuckle. He gently stroked the scaly muzzle again. It felt smooth and cool. Dean ran his hand gently over the muzzle, moving up to the eye ridge where he gently scratched. Novak gave a soft purr, like a giant cat, before the snores resumed. Dean smiled. "Rest well, buddy," he said softly. "I'll find out what's really going on. Then I'll be back."
As if it still heard him, the dragon seemed to relax deeper into sleep.
Behind him, Dean heard the sound of the heavy door opening. "This way, Private," Col. Stephens called quietly. "Let it rest, and let's talk."
