The Path We Choose (19/20)
Monday, August 6th, 2012 09:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tenoko1Title: The Path We Choose
Author: Tenoko1
Rating: PG-13
Warning: Takes place after Season five with references through Season seven
Pairings: Dean/Castiel, Sam/Sarah
Disclaimer: Do not own
Summary: It’s the war to save the world. Angels, demons, and hunters are all forced to reconcile if any of them are to stand a chance of having a future. Why they all expect the Winchesters to lead them, Dean has no idea, but hunting things and saving people… well, that is the family business.
Notes: Comments are much love.
Podfic & Master Post
One l Two l Three l Four l Five l Six l Seven l Eight l Nine l Ten
Eleven l Twelve l Thirteen l Fourteen l Fifteen l Sixteen l Seventeen
Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Getting the wall in place wasn’t an instant thing either, and monsters really did continue pouring into their world through silvery portals, flashing with lightning. The angels felt the humans were too exposed out on the street, especially when a dragon-like monster opened it’s mouth and let loose a stream of power the tore through concrete, leaving a devastating path of destruction in a line down the center of the road.
If the thought of Michael and Lucifer fighting against each other in the last almost apocalypse had been terrifying, seeing the two of them work together to tag team some sons of bitches was something else altogether. Dean was just glad they were on their side this time around, and sent up a silent prayer that they never decided to join forces to destroy the world, because only God himself would be able to stop that from taking place.
The entire lot of angels dropped down in a vast circle around all the humans, making Sam and Dean’s gazes dashed around wildly for what was happening that they’d grounded themselves when roaring monsters will still diving bombing them from overhead. As one, the angels clapped their hands together in front of them, then dropped to place their palms on the ground, and in a flash, all the light seemed to be gone and Dean briefly wondered if he’d gone blind.
They were in a warehouse now though. Wide barn-like doors were open on both ends of it, which allowed their enemies in, but bottlenecked them so that their fighters could take out more easily. A horrific screech filled the air outside, the sound of air rushing past overhead and they knew the dragons and other flying beast were outraged at no longer being able to reach their quarry.
Anna was suddenly by Dean’s elbow, grabbing a very corporeal Lady in White by the face and causing her to explode to ash in a burst of holy light.
“We’ve closed ranks around this building. This is where we make our stand and hope they put up the wall in time,” she told him, ducking as he swung and decapitated a vampire. “The Reapers and demons are the first line of defense on the ground. My brothers in the air. We’ll try to keep as many of them back as possible.”
A beast from the other side lunged and it was Sam and Sarah that shot it down, the corpse losing momentum midair and crashing with a sick thud of dead weight. Out of ammunition, Sarah tossed the gun to the side and pulled her machete. No one was really bothering to reload, they just grabbed up fully loaded weapons and used them as they found them, because there wasn’t ever time to reload.
“Why are you here then?” demanded Dean, driving Ruby’s knife to the hilt into a lamia as it slithered with inhuman sped and attacked him. It’s tail lashed wildly, knocking Sam off his feet and sending a table flying. Dean’s hands were covered in blood of all different colors at this point. This thing bled green, but it was still as slick and sticky as the red stuff as he yanked his knife out and had to wipe his hands on the denim of his pants. “Shouldn’t you be out there?”
“We did not want to leave you without backup in things went south in here where we can’t see you,” she explained, jumping on the back of… something, taking it’s head in her hands and deftly snapped its neck, then rode it to the ground before she and Cas took on a beast that looked a mix between a cobra and a praying mantis. “If they need me, they’ll let me know. Besides, we wanted to be able to keep an eye on you.”
She and her brother wordlessly collaborated, Anna lashing out with a near invisible sword that pulsed with power, causing a spray of lacerations across the beast’s body while Cas pried the monster’s mouth open, folding it back on itself, then actually ripping the entire top of the head off and tossing it to the side.
“Without those things flying overhead, we’re good here,” shouted Dean, he and Sam working to gank another Lady in White, her face and hands contorted. Sam held her while Dean drove his knife in, and she collapsed into a pile of ash between them.
Anna actually seemed a little hesitant in replying, then clearly thought ‘To hell with it’ and said, “That’s not actually what we’re worried about.”
“End of the world and yet you have something else more pressing you’re worried about?” he demanded. He asked half sarcastically, after all, end of the world. Surviving should be their only concern. That was pretty much all Dean was worried about. Stay alive, keep Sam alive, keep Cas alive. Everyone else was on their own, as terrible as that sounded. Even Sarah, though Dean trusted Sam to keep her safe just as Sam was probably trusting Dean to watch out for Cas.
They all had their priorities.
“They’re worried we might take the opportunity to do away with you in the chaos of battle,” offered Crowley, appearing by his side, casually even, the bastard, as one of his hell hounds tore into another lamia.
Dean gave Anna a look. Half wanting to know if there was really a threat, the rest of him almost incredulous in the fact that they couldn’t put the distrust aside for one day to save all of their existences.
“Old habits die hard,” she said, jumping up and driving her sword through a chimera prepared to ambush them from the rafters.
Corpses threw themselves at Crowley; he splayed out a hand, sending them flying to crash into the wall before they began being ripped to shreds by things none of them could see. “Indeed they do,” he agreed. “It’s why I’m here, to make sure you don’t have an ace up your sleeves and abandon us here.”
“Oh my God,” exclaimed Dean irately. “Why is it not written in any of the lore than angels and demons act like such friggin’ children?” He shot of a salt round right over Cas’ shoulder, catching something with far too many teeth right in the face and allowing Cas time to whirl around and kill it. “If we can put aside how both angels and demons have dicked all of us over more than once, how we’ve been pawns to you, oh and how you’ve actually gotten us killed enough times I had to stop counting? You damn well better put aside your own grudges and play nice!”
Chuckling, Crowley tossed a demonic centipede onto it’s back with a motion of his hand and let his dog do the rest. “Giving lessons on trust are you now, Winchester?”
“Dude.” Dean shot him a cross look, wiping black ooze from the side of his face on his sleeve. “I slept under the same roof as Lucifer last night. And slept all night long. Trust is my new middle name.”
“If Luci were to ever kill you,” interjected Gabriel as he and Gabbie materialized in the middle of the battle. “You’ll be looking him in the eye when it happens.”
“Michael and Lucifer?” questioned Anna worriedly, glancing at the other angel.
The sandy haired man nodded, hands on skulls of enemies and reducing them to dust. “They’re fine. I retreated to safety. Gabbie’s only half-angel,” he explained tersely, causing Dean to look over at the panting, bleeding female. “And I’m not leaving her, even somewhere safer.”
Dean didn’t know how much blood was hers and how much wasn’t. She moved like she was as exhausted as they were, but not like pain inhibited her movements, so maybe the damage she had sustained was minimal. Anna didn’t argue, just nodded, daring now to move further away from Sam and Dean now that more angels were fighting from within the building.
If they all survived this, it would be interesting to see how they all moved on. Dean didn’t want to think they would all go back to being divided, that this comradery would be cast aside and they would all go back to being enemies as soon as the world was back in order, but Dean also couldn’t exactly imagine a world where they all got along either, at least, not with demons. They were what they were for a reason.
But maybe there was hope for a brighter future.
“Hey Sarah!” Dean yelled, knowing she was some distance behind him.
He heard her grunt, and glanced over to see her behead a giant blue serpent with all the fierce anger and skill it made him proud. “What?” she demanded.
“Sam wants to know, if we survive, if you’ll marry him when all of this is over,” he called back.
His little brother was breathing heavily, trying to catch his breath as he took down a zombie the size of a quarterback. “Dean!” he barked angrily, yet still deftly catching Ruby’s knife as Dean tossed it to him when the ogre picked him up and forced him down on a worktable.
Sam stabbed the zombie in the neck, ripping the blade out through the back and severing it’s spinal cord, causing its entire body to go completely slack and he had to use his feet to kick so much dead weight off of him.
“Yes,” she called back, fighting off a woman that had tackled her to the ground. A hell hound knocked the woman off the brunette and ripped out the banshee’s throat.
“What?” both brothers squawked in shock.
“I said I’ll marry you,” Sarah repeated, ducking as Anna threw her angel blade and impaled some sort of cougar-bat-scorpion chimera. “If we survive this,” she amended.
“If we survive this,” echoed Sam, pointing to her, “you and I need to talk.”
“If we survive this,” interjected Cas at Dean’s side. The hunter glanced at him, startled to find the angel looking haggard and exhausted, and mentally kicked himself when he remembered it was his fault, because Cas chose him and it had cost him. “I want a hot shower and lots of sleep.”
The hunter grinned at him. “Feathers, if we survive this, we’ll take a vacation and you can sleep as much as you want.”
Dean moved to fight closer to Castiel at that point. They were both exhausted, but perhaps tag teaming would make the work easier. For an angel who was not use to growing fatigued from what he probably considered a relatively short battle, he hoped he was able to ease some small part of the battle off of Cas’ shoulders, and that the angel wouldn’t regret his decision to weaken himself for the sake of one insignificant human with an indeterminably short lifespan.
Which suddenly looked a lot shorter as an explosion ripped through the air and the grounded shuddered violently beneath their feet. The roof of the building was ripped off like torn paper wrapping, a loud protest of shredding metal screeching painfully in Dean’s ears. Suddenly all the angels were standing with them, looking up in the same horror at the colossus looking down at them, inspecting the tiny humans like ants in a box.
It was some sort of dragon, but not the kind with scales, because it’s body was made of hard black plates that seemed to fit over each other, huge black horns protruding from it’s head, and a shaggy mane that fell across it’s forehead and down its back. The monsters that they had been fighting slunk away in terror in the face of this new beast, and their allies quickly joined them, demons, angels, reapers, hunters, and humans all staring up at this impossibly huge monstrosity bigger than the very building they’d been fighting in.
Dean swallowed thickly, knowing full well that this was it. This was their end. How the others would be able to destroy this thing even after the wall was in place, he had no idea, but it wouldn’t be the current team to bring it down.
The monster drew in a breath, then snorted through it’s nose, the sheer force of the air staggering them all back, causing hunters and humans to crouch and brace themselves, hands cupping painfully over their ears as it sucked in another breath, bowing up and roared and it was all the horrible sounds of the world rolled into one and Dean thought his ears would bleed and his head would explode and he might be sick all at once.
Someone was shouting orders, but he couldn’t make sense of it, was trying to open his eyes and get them to focus, to find Cas and Sam. They needed to at least try and escape, to regroup and plan. The city was big enough they could-
The monster roared again and Dean was oddly reminded of all the screams of Hell, of rotting, burned flesh, and torturous agony. It was Hell and death and being ripped apart at a molecular level all in one and no amount of cupping his ears spared him the pain of that sound. The roar ended and it left him gasping for air as though he had been drowning, reflectively fighting the hands that grabbed at him, that cupped his jaw and tilted his face up, that forced him to look up into eyes of blue.
Cas.
Without waiting for Dean to speak, Cas pressed his mouth hard against Dean’s in a kiss the hunter realized in an agonizing moment meant good-bye.
The angel pulled away to look at Dean. “Close your eyes and don’t open them again until it’s quiet.”
Dean looked around frantically and saw the angels all lined up, each of them with their wings out and ready to take to the air, and Dean knew why Cas told him to close his eyes. They were limited in their human guises.
His eyes dashed back to Castiel who only forced Dean’s head down as he stood as well, moving to go join his siblings.
Dean didn’t see what happened. He felt the power in the air though, felt how it was like everything condensed down and pressed in on him from all sides, and his head was reeling and the explosion that shook the ground like the earth was being ripped into made him desperate to know what was happening. He yelled for Sam, but his voice was drowned out by the chaos of battle, by noises so horrific and inhuman he couldn’t describe them, could barely hear them without feeling his blood must be boiling in his veins, his brain surely about to explode, and almost wished it would so that that would be the end of him, the end of this agonizing sound that went on forever, the world shaking so hard beneath him he waited for it to open up and swallow him whole.
Hands grabbed him, tried to get him to rise, to move, but he couldn’t. He didn’t even know who it was, but he resisted and kept his eyes clamped shut, just as Cas had told him, still fearing he would go blind from all the light that poured into his skull through closed lids.
“C’mon, Deano,” growled Meg impatiently. “I’m saving your life here.”
“Sam,” was all he told her.
“We’ve got him, too. We have everyone. Come on!” she ordered, pulling him to his feet, wrapping an arm around his waist and holding his arm around her shoulders as she half dragged him off.
He felt the change when they were no longer in the decimated building and out on the road they’d originally abandoned as being too exposed. More roaring and sounds of battle and explosions of power made Dean fumble, hands grabbing at him, holding him upright, voices all around him that he couldn’t understand.
The world seemed to drop out beneath his feet, the sound distorting so much Dean thought he blacked out. The sounds were still there, but not so much Dean thought his head would explode from the God awfulness of it. He heard someone retching. He heard groans of pain, someone was sobbing in agony.
“Dean, look at me,” Meg’s voice ordered.
He shook his head. “Cas said not to-“
“We’re inside an underground parking garage,” she interrupted. “You won’t be able to see them.”
He blinked his eyes open, finding pitch black eyes regarding him. The solid color of her eyes made it hard to decipher emotion, but her brows were furrowed and lips pressed together tightly.
“Can you see me?” she asked, voice carefully neutral. He frowned, trying to push himself up to a sitting position, realizing he was laying on the ground. Maybe he had passed out after all.
His gaze flicked around incomprehensibly. “Of course I can. Your eyes are showing.”
“They’re the only thing keeping my host from going blind,” she stated, heaving a sigh of relief. “You’re lucky then. Others didn’t hear the warning and didn’t get off so unscathed.”
He shoved himself to a sitting position, both of them staring at the ceiling distrustfully as the ground trembled and shook. He looked at the demon, then around at all the different faces. “Sam? Sarah?”
“They’re both fine,” Tessa assured him, coming to kneel by his side. She looked him over, eyes searching his face and then his body before coming back up to meet his gaze. “Are you sure you’re alright? How is you head? Any numbness or tingling limbs? Are any injuries suddenly not hurting anymore?”
“What?” he asked unintelligently.
She glanced off to the side, and Dean followed her gaze to a group of wounded warriors all being looked after by other Reapers. “If you’re dying, Dean, or even dead, I can’t reap you,” she explained, meeting his gaze again. He stared at her in slow horror. “We can’t reap any of them, there is no where for us to go with the souls right now because we’re as trapped as you are. We trying to keep them calm, to keep them from realizing they are going to die, that some of them are already dead, but that our inability to do our job is the reason they’re still aware. I’m asking you: do you belong over with the survivors or with those unable to die?”
The cries and sobs of the undying filled his ears and he shook his head. “I’m fine. I’m not injured. All of this blood isn’t mine.” He shoved to his feet and swayed, his knees threatening to buckle under him. Both females grabbed him, keeping him upright as his hands went to his head again. “God in Heaven, what on earth was that? That was worse than Cas trying to say ‘hello’.” He forced himself to stand under his own power, even as the ground shook mightily and they all looked up at the concrete above their heads distrustfully, wondering how long it would hold or if it would suddenly all cave in. He looked at Meg in bewilderment. “Why bring us here when it can come caving in any moment?”
“Would you rather be crushed instantly or to die with that noise boiling your blood from the inside until your brain eventually explodes?”
“I’d rather be crushed,” he said immediately.
She inclined her head. “You’re welcome.”
“Dean!” Sam called, moving over to him with Sarah in tow. Gabbie was with them, suddenly looking very afraid without her father. His little brother looked him over. “Are you alright?”
Dean nodded. “Yeah. You?”
“We’re fine,” his sibling assured him. “The demons and reapers got us out in time.”
The hunter’s green eyes flicked to the half archangel standing with them. “Thought you’d be kicking ass right along side your dad.”
Her gaze fell. “I’m not condensed down to human form. I’m only half angel. This is what I look like.” She swallowed. “I can’t help him.”
Nodding, Dean uncharacteristically reached out and pulled her to him in a hug, rubbing her back. He didn’t try to assure her, there was no point. There were no lies he could feed her, no hope he could really offer. He had no idea what would happen, and whatever optimism he’d felt the day before about them actually standing a decent shot at surviving, at winning, had been dashed the moment the entire roof of the warehouse had been ripped off like a child tearing into a bag of candy.
The ground shook again, harder, concrete cracking above their heads, thin veins spreading out. There was an explosion above ground and for one awful minute it was like all the air had been sucked out of the atmosphere, a horrible sensation that even had he been capable of drawing in a breath, there was nothing there to breathe.
Then the air came whooshing back around them, fresh and light and an alarmed expression passed over Tessa’s face.
“It’s down,” she gasped softly, before turning to the Reapers and yelling, “The field is down! Get them out of here! Now!”
The Reapers took that as an order to get all the humans out, reaching out to touch whoever they were nearest and the duo disappearing.
Meg was gripping Dean’s arm. “We need to get out of here. Now.” She looked Tessa and Gabbie. “Grab them.”
The females nodded and suddenly Dean found himself once again aboveground, coughing on the dust of demolished buildings and blinking in the too harsh light that glinted off the white and gray. The ground seemed to sway beneath his feet and he realized part of his disorientation came from his way of transport. Apparently, he was use to the angel express, but not so much demon teleportation.
Figures stood haggard and breathing heavily against the image of a half demolished building in front of them, the black behemoth’s limp body motionless. Dean shoved away from the demoness by his side, staggering forward to the angel who’s seemed to call to him like a siren, something he felt down to his very core, forever drawing them together, but even more so now.
The hunter grabbed him up just as Cas seemed to go out at the knees, Dean’s body the only thing keeping the angel from crumpling to his knees. He snaked an arm around the angel’s waist, wrapping Cas’ arm around his shoulders and looking at him in fear.
“Hey, hey, look at me. Talk to me, baby, I’m right here. Are you okay? Are you hurt? You did great, Cas. You hear me? You did great.”
The angel’s unfocused eyes struggled to find Dean’s, and it was mostly Dean keeping them both standing, Cas sagging heavily against him. “May I have that hot shower and nap now, please?”
A chuckle escaped Dean and he kissed the angel’s sweaty forehead. “Cas, you can have anything you want.”
The angel made a noise, but said nothing else. Dean turned them to regard all the other warriors, looking at the angels for reaffirmation.
“Is that it? Did we win? Is the world saved?”
The angels all looked tiredly at each other, for once, the worse for wear, before Michael opened his mouth and was cut off by the sound of the monstrosity rousing, enough strength left in its body to try and pull its body out of the rubble it was laying in, to stand and continue to fight.
Cas stiffened at Dean’s side and tried to pull away, but Dean refused to let him go. “It’s okay, Cas,” he assured him. “We’ll go together. You did your part.”
He wasn’t the only one to accept that they were about to die, that there was no strength left in any of the warriors to combat this force. Everyone seemed to relax with resignation. They were weary and they hurt and they would die with the satisfaction of knowing they’d done their part and that nothing else could get through to their side. They had succeeded.
Being able to take the long rest after such a feat wasn’t too bad. There were still so many things in this world and this life he wanted for himself and for Cas, but maybe Heaven wouldn’t be so bad either, if they let Dean in without a fuss anyway. Saving the world, again, call him arrogant, but he kinda thought himself entitled to Heaven at this point.
A strange, yet familiar chuckle sounded in his ears, a perfumed smelling breeze sweeping through their ranks.
“I thought I told you,” a voice said, a figure materializing midstep from a swirl of leaves and mist on the breeze, “to have faith, Dean.”
The elder Winchester stared in shock as God walked forward, looking incredibly small in front of the colossal beast and ruined structure. Michael and Lucifer both made a move to go stand with him, only to have their other siblings hold them back with a slight shake of their heads. They, of course, knew their father didn’t require their help, but that would never put a damper on their urge to protect him, either, to offer whatever aid they could with what little strength they had.
Dean watched as God made a simple gesture, an infuriatingly simple gesture, like he were swatting at a gnat that annoyed him, and the threat to all of them simply vanished. Gone.
Pivoting, the creator of everything seemed to meet Dean’s gaze, offering an almost smug smirk, and winked one ever-changing eye at him before vanishing from sight as well.
“Now,” croaked Cas, “the battle is over and won.” Then he promptly lost consciousness.
The damage reports and list of casualties could wait for Dean. His family was safe, all of his friends that had been revived to help fight in this battle were still alive, the world had been saved, and God himself had finally made an appearance even.
Dean thought all-in-all, it was most definitely worth Cas’ request for a hot shower and a long nap. In fact, he’d had to help the angel with the shower, but that was all it had been. Dean washed Cas’ hair for him, smiling when a sleepy murmur of pleasure escaped the angel and he leaned into the touch. They both took care to wash all the blood, muck, and grime from each other’s bodies before finally getting out of the hot stream of water. Cas angel mojo’ed them dry, they put on clean pajamas, and crawled into bed together, curling up on their sides with Dean’s arms wrapped around the angel’s waist, and they were both asleep almost instantly, content they were together with what looked like many more tomorrows before them.
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no subject
Date: 2012-08-06 06:45 pm (UTC)YAY! This was awesome! I was sitting on the edge of my seat trying not to have a heart attack...LOL! I love this!
Oh guess what? I found a beta for my story! *does happy dance*
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Date: 2012-08-06 06:52 pm (UTC)lol I wouldn't be too impressed. I don't get many comments. you were the only person to comment last chapter, and only you and Robynize commented the chapter before that. Only a couple of people ever comment each chapter, if that. *sigh* Apparently my story is not as much fun as I think it is, but cie la vie. I like it and I've enjoyed writing/recording it.
Cheerier note: I'm glad you enjoyed it! It's almost over, just one more chapter to go! AND YAY! BETA! So you'll be posting some of your own awesome soon, yes?
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Date: 2012-08-06 06:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-06 06:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-06 07:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-06 07:26 pm (UTC)