Chapter 16
Castiel literally roamed the perimeter of the mansion sixteen times, searching for a way in, a loophole, a weakness in the warding, anything.
But whoever warded the mansion against him was good. Really good. Someone who clearly knew what they were doing.
A thousands of years old demons to be precise.
He still couldn’t believe that he didn’t make the connection early enough. Sure, they managed to hide away from him perfectly and he was too distracted and too scattered to notice anything off then, but still he should have paid more attention.
He shouldn’t have gotten out of the mansion in the first place, no matter how frustrating and harsh Dean was being. He shouldn’t have left his side for even a second.
Now, thanks to the very strong warding, he couldn’t feel Dean anymore in their bond and he had absolutely no idea what was happening inside right then. It was driving him insane.
His family was facing a grave danger inside and he couldn’t even be with them or help them.
When did things go so wrong?
After his seventeenth circling of the mansion, he was back to where he was and just stood in front of the closed doors, staring hard like they will magically open for him if he stared hard enough.
“Mr. Cas?” he looked down when he heard Jean’s hesitant voice. “You still can’t go inside?”
“No. No, I can’t.” he shook his head miserably, feeling completely and utterly helpless.
He was useless. If he couldn’t protect his family, then he was useless. There was no other way.
He should have stayed the fuck inside.
“So, there’s no hope for you to go inside?” she was nervous, looking scared even.
“What’s wrong?” He frowned in concern down at her and she hesitated for a few seconds.
“I-I am not sure of what I saw exactly, but when I tried to peek inside, I think I saw the professor and Mr. Steve with black eyes and evil smiles on their faces. Maybe I was just imagining it.” Jean shrugged nervously, as she looked up at him.
Castiel froze at her words and felt his breath caught in his chest.
They took over them. Way faster than he thought.
That left him with one choice only to go inside.
“Go tell all the kids to hide in their tents.” He told her firmly. “Don’t get out no matter what happen. Ignore everything you will hear and try to always cover your ears and eyes. You understand? Jean this is important.”
“Yes, yes, I understand. I will tell them.” she nodded enthusiastically, before rushing away to tell the kids his orders.
He trailed his eyes back towards the mansion, a new determined look on his face.
Dean was going to be so pissed at what he was about to do.
But it will be worth it, he thought as he pulled out his phone.
***
Dean, Tony and Thor were pounding down the corridor to where Erik and Charles’ room was.
“You really think Charles is possessed too?” Tony asked nervously, panic evident on his face from the thought.
“Well, we are about to find out.” Dean answered, as they rounded the corridor to reach the room.
Only to find an unconscious Erik on the floor, blood covering the side of his face.
“I think now we know where the possessed Captain went.” Thor commented grimly, as they rushed towards the passed out mutant.
“Erik? Erik! Come on, man, wake up.” Dean shook him a little, after checking his pulse to make sure he was alive.
“Magnets, really bad time to take a nap, you need to get up.” Tony shook him too hard from how frantic he was.
Erik groaned a little, before flinching awake to look at them with wide panicked eyes, then tried to stand up, completely ignoring his bleeding head.
“Woah, dude, take it easy, it’s okay.” Dean gripped his shoulders to make him slow down a little.
“No! No, Dean, it is not okay.” he exclaimed frantically, eyes wide and panicked. “Charles-Charles is possessed! A demon is currently inside my husband and another demon is inside one of my super human friends, who knocked my head against a wall! None of this is okay!”
“Alright, fine! It is not okay! But we need to deal with this without losing our heads! So calm the hell down!” Dean pretty much yelled at his face with all the frustration and panic he feels. “If you haven’t noticed, we are all on edge here! I have no idea where Cas is, I don’t even know if he is okay or not! Tony here, his husband almost choked him to death and right now, a powerful telepath is possessed, who is also our friend! Get your shit together, so we can deal with this fucking mess!”
Erik, Tony and Thor froze as they stared at him after his outburst. It must have been terrifying, if they looked so shaken like that.
Erik swallowed hard as he took a deep breath to calm his scattered nerves, then looked back up at Dean.
“What should we do?” he asked quietly, as much calm as he could muster.
“We need to gather the others and look for Cas.” he instructed, as he and Tony helped the mutant back to his feet. “He will know how we can deal with this. These aren’t like any demons I faced. The exorcism isn’t working on them, and obviously we can’t hurt them because that will hurt our friends trapped in their own bodies.”
“Why don’t you call him?” Erik asked in confusion.
“Phones and comms aren’t working anymore.” Dean frowned in displeasure at that. “The demons must have done something to make sure we can’t communicate with each other.”
“Can’t you call Cas through your bond thing?” Tony asked nervously, while checking the wound in Erik’s head.
“No, I can’t feel him anymore.” Dean muttered, as he looked away to hide how worried he was. “I noticed a while ago, but I thought he was blocking me on purpose from how pissed he is, but now I know something is wrong.”
“You think those creatures did something to him?” Thor questioned in worry.
“I don’t know! That’s why we need to find him.” Dean looked to be holding his composure as much as he could.
“Wait, you said the exorcism didn’t work? Then how the hell are we going to get them back?” Erik demanded in concern, as they started to run down the corridor.
“It’s going to be alright. When we find Cas he will be able to get the demons out of them without hurting them.” the hunter assured, while exhaling nervously.
“That’s of course, if we find him. Or if he is alive.” Erik muttered under his breath bitterly.
Dean stopped, then turned towards him fast to slam him against the wall hard.
“Dean!” Tony called out in panic, as he tried to pull him away from the mutant.
“He is alive! You hear me? I don’t know where he is, but he is alive! Don’t you dare to suggest anything else!” Dean growled in Erik’s face, ignoring Tony’s attempts at pulling him back.
“He would have been here and stopped all of this from ever happening, if you weren’t being an ungrateful asshole to him.” Erik growled back at him in anger.
Dean growled in rage and they both raised their fists at each other.
“Okay, that’s it, move away from each other right now!” Tony snapped loudly, as he and Thor pushed the two of them apart, then he stepped forward to stand between them. “There is no time for you to act like children! Pull yourselves together already! You!” he pointed at Erik accusingly. “Apologize to him and calm your fucking anger. And you.” he turned to Dean then. “Calm the fuck down!”
The two men glared down at the ground for a few seconds, before sagging in defeat.
“I am sorry.” Erik sighed tiredly, while leaning against the wall tiredly. “I am just worried. This is all new to me and-and it’s Charles. I just can’t-“
“I know.” Dean murmured with a shake of his head. “I forgot that all of this not really your area. This is pretty much my life. I am sorry too.”
“Castiel will be fine. These demons are not a match for him, isn’t that right?” Erik stated firmly, as he met Dean’s eyes.
“Right.” He nodded back at him with a grateful look.
“Ok, this is good. You are doing good.” Tony nodded in relief, as he glanced between the both of them. “Can we go and try to un possess our husbands now? Please?”
“Yeah, yeah, okay.” Dean’s shoulders dropped with a sigh. “Let’s find the others and tell them to gather in the main hall now.”
***
The blind demon inside Charles stood in the dark, as he used his vessel’s powers to see everything and everyone in the mansion without needing eyes.
He still could feel Xavier trying to struggle inside him. It was expected. He did know that the telepath was a fighter. That’s why it took him a little longer to take complete control over him. His brain fought against him hard, but he always knew how to break the feisty ones. It was one of his many gifts. To play with his victims’ weak spots until they break.
He felt a presence beside him, but he didn’t need eyes to know who is it.
“Brother.” He greeted with a smirk, as he felt his mute brother standing tall next to him in his new super soldier vessel. That body suited him actually. The cold was his brother’s special powers, so it was quite handy in breaking down Steve Rogers’ will to take over him. It wasn’t easy, the soldier fought viciously and relentlessly, but the cold will always be what breaks him down. “I see you are enjoying your new body. You didn’t need to roughen up the mutant so hard, that damned telepath keeps screaming in my head, since the moment he fell like a sack of potato. It’s quite annoying.”
He felt the smirk that played against his brother’s lips. Lucky bastard, the soldier was trapped in his head in the frozen part of his memories, so he wasn’t aware of what’s happing, unlike the telepath.
“The angel is being kept out?” he turned serious as he remembered the only problem in their situation. All the superheroes currently in the mansion were manageable. They all have weak spots he could manipulate and break. They are not trouble.
Except that damned angel. That angel will not stop, until he force them out of these bodies and burn them away. He had the power to do it without breaking a sweat. Even at his weakest moments.
They had to keep themselves hidden away, so he won’t notice their presence inside his friends. Thankfully, he was drove out of the mansion without them having to do it.
“That angel can’t get in at any possible chance, you hear me?” he turned to face his brother firmly. “If he stepped a foot inside, it will be over. Fight him if you had to, he won’t dare to hurt you in this body.”
His brother nodded at him without objecting.
“They are starting to gather in the main hall.” He reported, as he heard what was happening around the mansion. “Really nice of them to do our job for us.”
His brother stared at him silently for a few seconds, before projecting a thought at him. “What about brother?”
“Our brother will be here too.” He assured with a smirk. “We just need to prepare his vessel for him.”
***
“Okay, I think I get it. No, wait! No I don’t get it! Charles and Steve are demons?”
Charlie asked for probably the hundredth time, since Castiel called her to come meet him outside the mansion. For the first time ever, someone other than Dean managed to play roughly with his usual patience.
“Like I said for the past hundred times, I am not sure what is exactly happening inside, but that’s one of my suspicions, yes.” He sighed in frustration, as he seriously considered banging his head against the door, until it broke open from the sheer force of his frustration.
“I am sorry, you have to admit that all of this is hard to follow, since literally just yesterday we were in a tropical island on a vacation!” she exclaimed in frustration too, while pinching the bridge of her nose. “Seriously, Cas, when did things go so terrible? I was gone for one day! I come back to find my girlfriend and my family under demons’ siege and you locked out, because of powerful angel warding? Seriously?”
“You know our lives turn upside down very fast.” He sighed with a shake of his head.
“Not this fast! I mean, come on! Why life suck so much?”
“Are you going to help me or what?” he raised an impatient eyebrow at her.
“Yeah, yeah, of course. What do you want me to do?”
“I just need you to stay with the children and keep them away from this area at all costs. I mean it, you keep them away from here no matter what you see or hear.” He warned as he stared right at her eyes to show her how serious he was.
“Why? What are you going to do?” she asked in confusion.
“I will try to get inside the mansion.”
“But the mansion is warded.”
“That’s why the ‘try’ part in the sentence.”
“Cas, seriously, what are you going to do?”
“I will, hopefully, try to reach out to every ounce of power inside me, hopefully, it will be enough to ignite so I can, hopefully, burn through the warding.”
“That’s way too many hopefullys! Cas, that sounds dangerous! You might get-“
“I don’t have a choice, Charlie!” he exclaimed suddenly, his frustration and worry finally exploding. “Two of my closest friends might be trapped in their own bodies and our family is in danger because of it! Dean and Sam don’t know about those specific demons; I need to be inside! I need to go to them! I have to, Charlie.”
She looked at him silently for a few seconds, a sad look on her face, before she stepped forward to wrap her arms around him in a hug. He hugged her back tightly, as he tried to calm his erratic heart.
“I will keep the kids away from here.” She murmured against his shoulder, while tightening her arms around him. “Save our family, but please, don’t die doing it. We all want you alive. Not just Dean. Promise me.”
“I promise.” He whispered in her hair, before pulling away to meet her eyes. “I promise to do what I can to save them and stay alive.”
He hoped he could fulfill that promise.