Fic: The Earth and Heaven to You (Part 10)

[dauntperplexity]

 

Part 10

As much as Dean hated to leave Castiel, he knew had to. He was a hero, and heroes lived for times like this.

He suspected that it was the moment that his dad was talking about the night before.

So Sam took the both of them to the Hunter plane. But even though Dean was on a mission to save his family, he never stopped thinking about Castiel. It was a lot harder for him to concentrate because he was so worried that by the time he was done saving his parents, that Castiel would be dead.

So he had to work fast.

LRLRLRLRLRLRLR

Sam landed them inside the gates of the Hunter plane. Dean looked around and took a moment to take in his settings. It looked like suburbia.

Once the initial shock wore off, he looked to his brother. “Where are we?”

“Inside the gate.”

“Okay, so where do we need to be?”

“I don’t know,” Sam whispered.

“Well, use your Hunter sense and find out where all the other Hunters are.”

Sam closed his eyes and let out a long breath. Not much after, Sam opened his eyes and looked at his brother. “They’re at our place.”

“Our place?”

“Where me and mom and dad stay. That’s where they have every Hunter.”

“How big is that place?” He thought about the numbers of Hunters there had to be and tried to imagine how they all fit into where Sam considered home.

“Dean,” Sam scolded. “Not the time.”

“So, what do we do? Are we walking there?”

“No, we might be spotted,” Sam said. He grabbed the front of Dean’s shirt and transported them to the front yard of what looked like a giant mansion.

“You guys live here?” Dean said incredulously.

“Dean, not the time,” he repeated.

Dean shook his head as if it would shake away his shock. “Sorry. This is just ridiculous.”

“We need to get inside.”

“Are we using the front door?”

Sam shook his head. He grabbed the front of Dean’s shirt and transported the both of them into the foyer of the house. He looked around and saw that there was no one in sight. “Mom? Dad?” he said.

Dean put his mouth over his brother’s mouth and pulled the both of them into a corner. “Sam, keep it low.” He waited for Sam to nod his head before he pulled it away. “Can you feel anybody?”

“No. Where is everybody?”

“I don’t know.”

“Do you think they’re okay?” He couldn’t hide the worry in his voice from his brother.

“They’ll be fine,” Dean said, trying to be as reassuring as he could. “They’re Hunters. And the Angels are probably doing something right now.”

“You’re lying.”

“I’m unsure. Not necessarily lying.”

It was enough to make Sam smile. He needed that moment of levity. “Thanks.”

“Come on. We have to move.”

“Yeah.”

The two of them walked down the hallway and into the open area of the house. It took a lot for Dean to not just want to stand and stare at everything surrounding him. The giant chandelier, the giant staircase, the giant empty vase, the giant rug. His family was loaded. “Holy—” he didn’t get a chance to finish when Sam grabbed onto his arm and pulled him with his Hunter strength.

“Sh… someone’s coming,” he whispered.

The two of them tucked into a dark corner when they heard the sound of approaching footsteps. They watched as Lucifer led a handful of Demons around the house. They were about to let them walk by, until Dean caught a glimpse of one specific Demon. “Bastard,” he whispered. He was ready to charge.

Sam grabbed onto his brother’s arm and held him. If he were Human, Dean would already be on Alastair pounding his face into the ground. “Dean, no,” he whispered.

“He’s the one who shot Cas.” His gaze was glued to Alastair. Even though he only caught a glimpse of him, he’d never forget it.

“We’ll get him when we take Lucifer down.”

“I can’t just…”

“You need to turn off whatever emotions you’re feeling right now. I know you’re hurting, but we have a mission to do. Right now. If we fail, then Cas dies.”

The last statement struck a chord. “Okay, Sammy. Okay.” He calmed down and went back to hide in the shadows.

The two of them waited until the Demons were out of sight and earshot. “Let’s find mom and dad,” Sam said.

“Do you know where they are?”

“My best guess would be to head in the direction that they just came from.”

The two of them watched and waited for the last Demon to leave the hallway. When they saw that the coast was clear, they ran. Sam took the lead being the one who could sense where the other Hunters were. He put a hand on each door they came across for a second before moving on to the next.

Dean followed behind without saying a word. He kept looking down the hall, keeping watch. “Sam, hurry up.”

“I’m trying, Dean.”

“Well, try harder.”

Sam jogged to the next door, then the next. He was about to move onto the next door, before he smiled. “Found them.” He reached for the doorknob and jostled it. “It’s locked.”

Dean pulled his lock picks out of his pocket and went to work on the door. In about a minute, he got the door open. “Let’s go,” he said, pushing the door in and putting the picks back in his pocket.

Sam ran into the room first and ran straight to a man and a woman who were handcuffed next to each other. “Mom? Dad?”

The man and woman looked up. “Sammy?” he said. “What are you doing here?”

“Saving you.” Sam pulled at the cuffs, but was unable to get them off. He looked at Dean who was standing in the doorway. “Dean, you need to pick these locks.” He knew that his brother was a lot quicker at picking than he was.

Dean walked over and started to work on the cuffs on the man’s hands. “Where is everyone else?”

“They’re all tied up everywhere around the plane,” the blonde haired woman said.

“They have all the Angels that they captured here too.”

“Michael’s here?” Sam asked.

“Yeah,” John answered. As he said that, the cuffs fell from his hands. He brought them forward and rubbed his fingers around to work the blood and feeling back into them. “They got him.”

“Okay,” Dean said, making his way back to his feet. “I’ll get him.”

“Dean,” John said, grabbing onto his son’s arm.

Sam walked over to them and pulled his dad’s hand off of Dean. “Dad, let him go,” he said. “Dean, go find Michael. I’ll unlock all of these guys.” He pulled out his own set lock picks.

“Dean,” John repeated.

“Dad,” Sam started, “the Demons have a trace on every Angel and Hunter on this plane. They can’t find a Human.”

“When did you get so smart?”

“When I was on Earth.”

John smirked and shook his head, proud of his son. He looked to his eldest. “Dean, they’re probably somewhere upstairs.”

“Seriously? Heaven is just upstairs?”

“No, the upstairs of this house,” John said. “Lucifer captured some of the Angels and brought them down to this plane.”

“That makes more sense,” Dean replied. “Okay, I’ll be back. Hopefully.” He glanced once more at the people who were his family before he turned to face the door.

“Dean,” John said.

“Yeah, yeah. Got it. Be careful and all that good stuff.”

John knew that there was nothing more that he could say to his son. “We’ll be there as soon as we free everyone.”

He looked down the hall for signs of Demons. When he didn’t see or hear anyone, he ran down it and to the staircase. He jogged up the stairs as quietly as he could. Looking down the hall, he was glad that there weren’t as many doors as the floor he was just on.

He chose a door at random and ran to it. He slowly opened it and saw there were a few winged creatures behind it. He tried to hide his smirk, but that didn’t go over so well. He knew that he was lucky.

There were at least two-dozen of them stuffed into the room. He looked around, trying to figure out which one was Michael. He came to the conclusion that he had to be the one in the back of the room that was lying on his side and bleeding from his head.

Dean walked over to the Angel. He put a hand on his shoulder and began shaking him. “Hey, wake up,” Dean whispered.

Slowly, the Angel opened his eyes. “What’s happening?”

“Are you Michael?”

“Yes,” he groaned. Dean helped to sit him up. “You’re Human,” he replied.

“Damnit, and here I though I was a superhero.”

Michael stared into Dean’s eyes. “You’re Dean Winchester,” he said when he realized who he was looking at.

“Turner,” Dean corrected. “But it’s an easy mistake to make.”

“What are you doing here?”

“Trying to free you.”

“How are you here?”

“I know, I’m breaking a ton of rules right now, but you can tear me a new one later. First I have to get these cuffs off of you.” He reached into his back pocket and pulled out his lock picks. “It’s a little weird than an Archangel like yourself can’t get out of some cuffs.”

“There’s sigils on them that leave us weak.”

Upon closer inspection, Dean saw little symbols that were carved all over the handcuffs. They looked familiar. He recognized them from the carvings on the Angel sword he took from Uriel. “So what do they mean?”

“It just takes away our strength. It hurts our grace. Makes us close to Human.”

“Well, that sucks.” He pushed Michael forward to give him easier access to the cuffs. He hoped they were as easy to unlock as the Hunter cuffs.

“Not the most ideal situation.”

“Well, now you have a Human helping you out. So, I’m not sure if irony is the right word to use right now.”

“Dean.”

It was as if he could hear the Angel roll his eyes. “Sorry.” He continued to try and unlock the cuffs. Then with the familiar sound of a click, the cuffs popped open. “Okay. So can you just rip the cuffs off your legs?”

“No,” Michael said bringing his hands to the front. “We have to unlock those too.”

“Demons, they just thought of everything, didn’t they?” He maneuvered himself to kneel at Michael’s ankles. It gave him the best angle to the lock. He stuck the picks back in and started to work. They were more difficult than the ones that bound the Angel’s wrists. There were a couple of times where he thought he had it, but he lost it at the last second. “Damnit,” he said after the fourth time.

“They’re returning,” Michael whispered.

And Dean began to panic, causing him to lose the lock again. “How close are they?” he asked trying to find it one more time.

“They are on the main floor downstairs.”

“Ah, that’s not enough time,” Dean said.

“You should hide,” Michael said.

He pulled the picks out of the lock and held them out to Michael. “Can you unlock these cuffs?”

“What are you going to do?”

Dean stood up and dusted off his pants. He checked his waistband and made sure that all of his weapons were still there. “I’m going to distract Lucifer.”

“Dean, I can’t let you do that.”

“Right, you don’t know me very well, do you? I don’t really take orders well. So, I’m going to distract the Demons, then you can swoop in and save the day. Hopefully before I get killed.” Dean stood up and ran to the door before Michael could protest.

He closed the door behind him and made his way down the stairs.

“Lucifer!” Dean shouted.

The Demons parted and he could see Lucifer standing in the middle of them. “What the Hell are you doing here?” he said, walking toward the Human.

“Stopping you.” He reached into his waistband and pulled out the Colt. The Colt that he learned could kill anything. He pointed it straight at Lucifer’s head and wondered if it could kill a Fallen-Angel.

Lucifer stopped his walk. “Where did you get that gun?”

“It belongs to me.”

“How?” Lucifer shouted. “Your weapons should be—”

“Alastair shot Cas,” Dean said, stopping Lucifer from trying to rationalize the situation.

Lucifer looked through his crowd of Demons. He glared at Alastair when he found him. “Is he all right?”

Dean glared at Lucifer. He couldn’t believe that the Demon had the to gall to ask about Castiel. “Why do you care?”

“Don’t think that you can even begin to understand me, Dean.” He was ready to lecture the Human.

“Good. Because I don’t want to.”

“Tell me why I shouldn’t kill you where you stand?”

“Because you can’t.”

“Why not?” He couldn’t believe the pride of the Human in front of him. He raised his hand, ready to snap his neck without even touching him.

“I’m the distraction.”

“For what?”

“Right about now, Michael should be free.”

“What?” Lucifer said, scared for a second before he hid it. “I’m calling your bluff, Human.”

“Do it. Kill me.”

“Really.”

“Yeah, or you should leave now. It’s just a suggestion”

“You think that I’m afraid of Michael?” Lucifer said with a laugh.

“Actually, I do.”

“Such pride,” Lucifer huffed.

“Smug. And I get to be.”

Lucifer cupped his hand and pushed back.

Dean didn’t know what was going on until he felt the invisible grip around his neck. He brought his hands up to loosen it, but he couldn’t fight something that wasn’t there. He felt himself slide back and hit a wall. Then he slowly rose above the ground, his feet not touching the floor.

He continued to struggle, but the more he did, the harder it became to breathe.

“How does it feel, Dean?” Lucifer said, walking forward. “You are the cause of all of this. Without you, none of this would have been possible. I have an opening for you in Hell if you want to go to the dark side.” He released his grip on Dean’s neck to let him speak.

“I’d rather die,” he hissed.

Lucifer shook his head, disappointed, but not surprised. “Foolish. At least in Hell, you would be able to see your precious Castiel. But now, he’s on Earth. Dying. And alone. But he deserves it.” Lucifer leaned in and put his lips to Dean’s ear. “And to think. You had him.”

“Bastard,” Dean said with a gasp.

“He really did care about you,” Lucifer said. “He loved you. Foolish, youngest. He was willing to go back on the rack so he didn’t have to hurt you.”

Dean looked at Lucifer and a tear fell down his cheek. What Lucifer was telling him was too much for him to handle. Castiel didn’t want to betray him.

“But just know that as soon as he dies, he’s back on the rack regardless. Until I feel the need to use him again.”

“Let him go, Lucifer.”

Dean and Lucifer both looked over the Demon’s shoulder and saw Michael standing with at least a dozen Angels behind him.

“Why would I do that, Michael?” Lucifer asked.

“He has nothing to do with this,” Michael replied. “He is none of your concern.”

“But he is, Michael,” Lucifer said. “This Human single-handedly ruined my overthrow.”

“Let him go,” Michael said, punctuating each word.

Lucifer looked back and forth between Michael and Dean. He saw the Angels surrounding his Demons. He knew that he had lost. He opened his hand and Dean dropped to the ground. “I know how to lose graciously,” Lucifer said. He spun around and held his arms open to his brother. “Can we catch up, brother?” he said.

“I suggest you leave.”

Lucifer looked back at Dean and smirked. “I’ll be seeing you soon, Dean. And if not you, then Cas.” He disappeared with a flap of his wings.

“Go after him,” Michael said to a few of his Angels. A little more than half of them vanished from the room. “Take them down to the cells,” he said the remainder of the Angels.

“Leave that one,” Dean said, pointing to the Demon in the middle.

The Angels looked among themselves to see if they were actually going to follow the orders of the Human. Michael nodded and they all vanished leaving the lone Demon with the Human.

Dean sauntered up to the Demon. He was able to look at the Demon up close. The one that shot Castiel. “What a good leader,” he hissed.

“Don’t you dare talk about Lucifer.”

“Lucifer. Who just abandoned you on a Hunter plane. You should have left when he did.”

“Why is that?” Alastair laughed.

“Because I’m going to kill you.”

“You? And how are you going to do that? Human,” he hissed.

Dean pulled the Angel sword out of his waistband. “Like this,” he replied, pointing up the ceiling.

Alastair’s eyes slowly trailed up. Then he saw the symbol on the ceiling. It was a Key of Solomon. “No!” he yelled. He tried to run at Dean, but was stopped as if he ran into an invisible barrier. “Let me out of here.”

“Why would I do such a thing?” Dean asked.

“You can’t kill me,” Alastair laughed. “That isn’t the Hunter… I mean Human… thing to do. You’ll never get your stripes if you kill me.”

“What if I don’t want it?” Dean’s voice had dropped a few octaves.

“Then what do you have in your life? You won’t be able to see your parents. And Castiel is dead. What more—”

Dean roared as he lunged forward with the sword at the mention of Castiel’s name. He tackled Alastair and they slid across the floor to the opposite end of the Key. Dean raised the sword and brought it down in the Demon’s shoulder.

Alastair let out a howl from the pain. “Take it out.”

“Fine,” Dean said. He quickly removed the sword, only to stab it down on into the opposite shoulder.

“Dean!” he heard someone yell. It sounded so far away. He turned around and saw his brother and father running toward him. “Stop.”

“No,” Dean said. He pulled the sword out once more and brought it down right above Alastair’s belly button. He pushed it hard enough that it went into the floor. He twisted the blade, causing the Demon to scream.

“Dean, stop.”

Dean felt more than one set of arms grab him and pull him off of the Demon. He fought against them, but he knew that it was losing battle. He finally relaxed and let himself be pulled out of the Key. He spun around and saw his father and brother looking at him, both with concerned looks on their faces.

He broke away from them and slid back into the Key.

Dean leaned over and put his mouth as close to Alastair’s ear as he could. “I know it won’t kill you,” he whispered. “But I can leave you here for all eternity, with no hope of escaping.” He stood up and wiped the sulfur off of him. “Have a nice existence.” He walked back to his brother and father. They both grabbed him and transported him out of the room.

“Dean, what the hell was that?” Sam asked.

“Is everyone free?” Dean asked, ignoring his brother’s question. He wanted the subject to change quickly.

“The Angels are rounding up all of the rest of the Demons that are still on these planes,” John answered. “And the Hunters have descended to Earth to clean up.” He walked over to Dean and clapped him on the shoulder. “Good job, Dean. The Hunters and Angels want to thank you.”

“I thought you said the Hunters were on Earth,” Sam said.

“Earth,” Dean whispered like an amnesiac who had just recovered all of his memories. “Cas. Sam, we have to get back down.”

“Okay,” Sam replied as he moved to stand next to his brother.

“Wait, what about—”

The brothers didn’t hear what John said as Sam brought them back to Earth.

Part 11