Chapter Text
Prologue
If he’d learned anything since Castiel dragged him out of Hell, it was that nothing was ever over. It never just ended. There was always something else to swoop in and destroy something or everything and it was always him and Sam, him and Bobby, or him and Cas having to clean up the mess. Team Free Will to the rescue or some shit. So really, he shouldn’t have been surprised when the Leviathan held onto Cas after the angel finally agreed to return the souls to Purgatory. In that moment, before Cas had shouted at them to run, before everything fell even farther apart, he’d felt relief. Maybe, just maybe, it was over.
Haha. Good one, Dean.
Still, if you don’t have hope, what have you got? Fat load of nothing, that’s what. So he’d dragged Cas’ coat out of the reservoir, hoping maybe somehow that angel wasn’t dead. He’d dragged Sam back out into hunting, chasing the Leviathan, hoping his shattered psyche would hold up, and he’d enlisted the help of Bobby, hoping the elder hunter would live to see this through to the end.
Again, good one, Dean.
Sammy was beyond broken, locked up behind padded white walls with a fancy new straight jacket to keep him warm. And Bobby… Bobby shouldn’t have gone out like that, bullet to the head from Dick fucking Roman, leviathan mega boss. He hadn’t even really gone out fighting. He’d gone out retreating with Dean and Sam. And then had to be laid up in the hospital, fightin’ for his life just so he could give them some numbers they’d barely been able to make sense of.
That was all past now, though. Dean only had the hope that Cas was alive left. The trench coat was tucked away in his duffle, washed and mended, and don’t you fucking judge. It moved with him from piece of shit car to piece of shit car, just in case that junkless douche bag decided to show his traitor face sometime soon. If he was even alive…
So yeah, Dean realized it didn’t make that much sense, dragging the jacket around, hoping Cas was alive—after all, he wasn’t so sure he wouldn’t break his fist on the angel’s face when he showed up again. Still, he knew the Cas he trusted was still in there somewhere. He’d seen it in the moments Cas had begged him to run before the Leviathan took him over. Didn’t mean Dean had forgiven him yet, but at least he was willing to try.
Not that he’d really get the chance. Dean Winchester was heading to his death. At least there wasn’t anyone left to miss him when he was gone.
Dean squared his shoulders and stared up at the bright and active Sucrocorp building. Somewhere inside they had the Prophet Kevin held hostage and, of course, Dean had convinced himself it was his fault. So now he was going up against Dick Roman, the Leviathan that killed Bobby and destroyed Cas, with nothing but a demon he didn’t trust and a fancy, blood-soaked bone. If he thought too much about it, he’d start to dwell on how bad an idea this probably was. After all, he didn’t actually trust Crowley had given him his own blood and not the blood of some lesser demon like Dick had made a deal for. And he didn’t even want to know how Meg had gotten her demonic little hands on angel blood. So yeah, there was no way this could go wrong. None at all.
Glancing at the brunette meat-suit Meg was wearing, he felt momentarily guilty that the girl she was wearing would probably die with him tonight, while Meg would just find some other poor sap to ride around. It is what it is, though. She was the only back-up he had left, shitty as that was. So he pushed that guilt to the back of his mind with the rest of the massive amounts of guilt he had stored there and jerked his head toward the building.
“Ready?”
Meg gave a light snort, as if it was a stupid question. “Whenever you are, o’ fearless leader.”
Dean cut her a sharp, tired glare, but started forward anyway. He hoped Sammy would forgive him for dying before fixing his busted melon. That is, if Sammy was ever sane again. It’s not like he’d chosen to stop the Leviathan over saving Sam, he’d just run out of options to help his brother. This was all he had left to do. All he could do. Saving the world by boning Dick Roman seemed small and unimportant in comparison to fixing his brother, but you take what you can get.
And, he decided as they drew closer to the entrance, and his probable death, if Cas was waiting wherever Dean ended up, he was gonna find him and bash his face in. Just for good measure.