![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
last01standingTitle:World Through Walls (2/6)
Rating: PG-13ish
Disclaimer: I can lay no claims on DA or SPN
SPOILERS: General DA, SPN though season four
Summary: Logan hasn't seen Dean since the shooting but their paths are about to collide again. (Sequel to World Behind Windows)
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
World Through Walls
TWO
Dean calms but only slightly, casting a weary eye at Max before looking back to Logan. “Where’s my brother?”
“Brother?” Max repeats. “Alec, this isn’t funny.”
“My name’s not Alec,” Dean growls in her direction. “Logan, where’s Sam? Is he all right? There was an explosion. There was a---“ He hesitates and suddenly the mask is back in place. “There was a hostile threat. I need to find him.”
“I have no idea where Sam is,” Logan says. “Calm down.”
“Calm down,” Dean says with a bark of hysterical laughter. “There was a thing and then there was an explosion and Sammy was shouting and then I was here...” He looks around as if truly noticing his surroundings. “I’m here and you’re here and you definitely know who I am.” He squeezes his eyes shut. “Dude, what year is it?”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Max groans.
“It’s 2022,” Logan says.
Dean sinks back against the hospital bed, looking momentarily skyward. “Of course it is.” He levels his gaze. “So is this body me of the future or am I borrowing some poor bastard’s meat suit.”
“His name is Alec,” Logan says.
“Son of a bitch,” Dean mumbles.
“Tell me about it.”
“Logan,” Max’s voice cut through the air, the intangible equivalent of grabbing him by the arm and forcibly steering him out of the room.
He knew this roll even better than the old one. “You going to be all right for a second.”
“I’m pretty freaking far from all right, but yeah, I’m good for a minute.”
Outside, Max is forced to lower her voice. There were a multitude of other transgenics around, all of them with enhanced hearing, all of them more than willing to eavesdrop if voices were raised because as Logan has found out, transgenics were more gossipy than teenage girls. “Logan, you’re going to tell me what’s going on.”
It’s an order. Logan blinks. He remembers briefly how the two of them used to be a team.
He does not enjoy taking orders.
“That’s not Alec,” he says simply.
“Of course it’s Alec! Who else could it be?”
“Dean Winchester,” Logan says evenly.
“Dean Winchester? Fine. Say I do believe that Alec has been body swapped with this Dean Winchester instead of faking a personality transplant in order to pull some prank. How the hell do you know him?”
Logan draws himself in. This is not something he has discussed with Max. In reality, this is not something he has discussed with anyone. It was too important. Too fantastic. “I met him before the shooting,” he lies. “I did have a life before you came along.”
Something like hurt flashes through her eyes and he regrets his words immediately but not to the point of taking them back. This is where they were now, lashing out because they could reach out. He squeezes his eyes shut. “I don’t really care if you believe me or not. I’m going to go talk to Dean.”
He leaves Max standing there in the chaos of Terminal City and turns back to Dean, shutting the door behind him. It is disconcerting to watch. Dean is a mass of jitters while Alec had been the picture of tranquility no matter the situation. “Been a while, huh, Logan,” Dean says. “Haven’t heard a word since you disappeared in a flash of white light.”
“Three years for me,” Logan says, folding his arms across his chest.
“I was starting to think I dreamed you,” Dean says. “Or that Sam made you up out of thin air. We found you—past you that is. Couldn’t believe you where the same guy.” He lets out a harsh snort of laughter. “Past you was kind of an asshole.”
“People change.”
“Been about three months for me. And let me tell you, they sure as hell felt like three years.”
“Tell me about it.”
They lapse into silence but it’s nothing like the uncomfortable silences he tends to share with Max. It’s something different, the two of them already easing back to their easy comrodery from their bizarre few months in 2009.
“So how do we fix this?” Logan finally asks.
“No idea,” Dean says. “Me and Sam did the body swap thing a few times when we were younger and let me tell you it’s annoying as hell to wake up and suddenly be yeti-sized but it’s never done the swap through time before.”
“How’d you fix it before?”
“Depended on what did it. Spells usually reset on their own. If it’s a demon, you gank it and you’re fine. Curses always have some hidden catch you have to trip. This time me and Sam were after a demon and something jumped us. There was a flash of light and then I woke up here. No idea which one it could have been.”
Logan settles back into the his wheelchair, settles in for the long haul. “And what happens to Alec?”
“The poor bastard who’s body I’m wearing?” He shrugs and Logan can see just how much the idea bothers him. “Back in 2009 with Sammy if I had to guess. Probably having the same conversation we’re having now. He inherited more than a few problems.”
“He’s not the only one.”
Dean shoots him a look. “The Devil just busted out of hell.”
“That’s a very big problem.”
“Obviously we did something to stop it,” Dean says. “Because while this place looks like shit it doesn’t exactly look like hell.”
“You’re in Terminal City. Alec was in an explosion. He was brought back here for medical treatment.”
“Guess I should be glad Alec shares my aversion to hospitals, huh?” Dean swings his arms back and forth and flexes his fingers. “Everything seems to be in working order though. I feel better than I have in years. Click in the shoulder’s gone. Ribs don’t hurt. I can’t remember the last time I didn’t feel like I’d just been run over by a truck.”
Logan laughs because he doesn’t know what else to do. Doesn’t know how else to explain Alec and Manticore, cloning and genetic engineering. They are from different worlds with different problems and different people. They have coexisted before and they will make it work again but they don’t quite fit together. They never have.
“So,” Dean says finally. “Research?”
“Yeah.”
Got to get Dean back so he can put the Devil back in Hell and save the world.
Sadly it is not the weirdest thing that has happened in the past three years.
***
They wind up back in Logan’s room with a dozen books spread across all available surfaces. Logan’s head hurts. There are demons of every sort, the seven deadly sins but nothing the can reach through time and swap two men who look identical but aren’t.
“Did you notice anything different about the demon?” Logan asks. “Anything about the eyes.”
“No.” Dean snaps his own book shut and grabs a new one. “I always hated this part of the job. This was always Sam’s gig.”
“I’m used to research,” Logan says, turning a page. “If there’s a way to get you back we’ll find it.”
Dean leans back in his chair, pointedly ignoring the heaps of research. “So you got shot, huh?”
The question comes abruptly but it’s not said with malice. It’s just a statement of how things are. “Yeah,” Logan says.
“That really sucks, man.”
Logan feels a rush of warmth at this man. It may have been the first time since the shooting someone had gotten it. Everyone else sees the chair before the person, focusing on the disability like it was something that defined him rather than something that just happened to him. “Yeah,” he says, just a little hoarsely. “Yeah, it really did.”
“All right.” Dean claps his hands together. “Awkward acknowledgement over. There’s only one thing outside of my little brother that I know can yank some poor sap out of his time and dump in another and that’s an angel.”
“An angel?”
“Don’t get your hopes too high, future boy. Every angel I’ve ever met has been a dick. Let’s get a move on, there’s some stuff I need to pick up if we’re going to do this.”
“What are we doing?”
“We’re summoning Castiel.”
“Castiel? We’re summoning an angel? Are you out of your mind? Do you know what sort of people hang out here?”
“Believe me, I’m no stranger to sinning.”
Logan is a little more worried about transgenics and people playing God.
“Besides,” Dean continues. “Cas is an old friend.”
“I thought all the angels you’ve met are dicks.”
Dean flashes him a smile. The kind of smile Logan has come to associate with 2009 and the Winchesters and the mess that had come with it. It was resignation and fearlessness tinged with desperation. Fighting blind and way over his head but still fighting. “Hey,” he says lightly. “Who says you can’t be friends with dicks? You’re friends with me.”
Logan shakes his head. “Guess you’re right. Let’s go summon an angel.”
***
Moving through Terminal City, Dean is a man on a wire. He keeps flinching every time he sees a nomilie and Logan hates himself for not stopping to explain before this all. “Nothing to worry about,” he says when Dean shoots yet another panicked look in his direction. “I’ll explain later.”
“Hey, Alec,” the half lizard is grinning at him, cigar hanging from his lip.
“Hey yourself,” grunts Dean.
His fingers curl into fists.
“Anyone in 20-12, Mole?” Logan asks.
“Free up.”
“You think you can make it stay that way.”
Mole scowls.
Logan sighs. “There’s a pack of cigars in it for you.”
“That’s what I call a deal, Cale. Room’s yours.”
“This place is really freaking weird,” Dean hisses to Logan. Three passing X-6s hear him.
It’s a relief when the get to room 20-12 and close the door behind them. It is a large room with thick walls and doors that lock from the inside, a room that typically functions as a panic room, a room where dozens of transgenics had huddled during the siege last year.
“What the hell is this place?”
Logan shut the door carefully behind them. “I think the best way to describe it is a refugee camp for transhumans.”
“And I say again, what the hell?”
“In the late nineties the government funded a campaign to genetically engineer the perfect soldier. They used DNA from various sources including animals. Some of the early mixes were less than perfect. Anyway, about two years ago, the facility was destroyed leaving the soldiers to scatter.”
“This is insane. You know this is insane, right?”
“You’re about to summon an angel to help you get back to the past.”
“Yeah, well at least I’m not friends with the creature from the black lagoon. You got any tentacles I should be aware of?”
“I’m human as the come, Dean. But you might want to get over some of these prejudices of yours because the guy who’s body you’re wearing is very much a transgenic.”
“Son of a bitch,” Dean hisses. “Please don’t tell me I look like I’m half bat. I need to get out of here. I’ve got a reputation to uphold.”
“What do we need to do the summoning?” Logan asks, moving toward the emergency supplies. “I think we’ve got more or—“
“Cas!” Dean howls, throwing his head back. “You son of a bitch. We had this talk, you’re supposed to freaking warn me before you bust out the DeLoreans.”
Logan is pretty sure that is not how you are supposed to go about summoning an angel.
“Damnit, Cas, I know you’re up there. Why don’t you get your lily white ass down here and tell us what the hell is going on.”
Then out of nowhere, there is a sound of something like fluttering wings and when Logan turns around there’s a man standing behind him. A man in a trench coat with a white shirt and a loose tie. He has dark hair, light eyes and a five-o’clock shadow.
“Cas, you’re a sight for sore eyes,” Dean says. “How about getting me out of this time and back where I belong.”
“I’m afraid things are not as simple as they seem.”
Dean leans back against the wall. “Of course they aren’t. Cas, come on, angels are the only bunch I know that can do the time warp at will. What gives?”
“It should be noted that angels are not the only beings who have within their power the ability to manipulate time. Fallen angels also command this power.”
“Great,” Dean says. “So Lucifer and his buddies decided it was time for me to stop in and say hey to future boy. Fine. I’m cool with that. But why? In what possible universe is this a good idea for anyone involved?”
“It is a commonly known fact in both heaven and hell that Dean Winchester is the only one capable of stopping Lucifer’s rise. Hell has simply used the opportunity to remove you from the equation.”
“I get that. But you can put me back, right?”
Castiel looks away but his expression does not change. “I cannot.”
“What?”
“Only the demon who created the warp has the ability to undo it. It is shielded from my eyes. But if this situation is not remedied I fear all will be lost.”
“What happened to Alec?” Logan cuts in sharply. “He didn’t just disappear, right?”
“The one called Alec now occupies the space that was once Dean’s.”
“So the have animal freak show has my body now. Super. How about Sam. Is he all right?”
Castiel’s fixes Dean with a stony glare. “At the point of the timeline’s interruption he is in good health but already the changes from this abomination’s plot are trickling through to this present. I will shield you both from these effects as long as I am able.”
“Hold on. Changes?” Logan says. “What do you mean, chan---“
But Castiel is gone in a flutter of wings.
***
Out of town for the weekend but there should be more soonish.
| 3 |
Rating: PG-13ish
Disclaimer: I can lay no claims on DA or SPN
SPOILERS: General DA, SPN though season four
Summary: Logan hasn't seen Dean since the shooting but their paths are about to collide again. (Sequel to World Behind Windows)
TWO
Dean calms but only slightly, casting a weary eye at Max before looking back to Logan. “Where’s my brother?”
“Brother?” Max repeats. “Alec, this isn’t funny.”
“My name’s not Alec,” Dean growls in her direction. “Logan, where’s Sam? Is he all right? There was an explosion. There was a---“ He hesitates and suddenly the mask is back in place. “There was a hostile threat. I need to find him.”
“I have no idea where Sam is,” Logan says. “Calm down.”
“Calm down,” Dean says with a bark of hysterical laughter. “There was a thing and then there was an explosion and Sammy was shouting and then I was here...” He looks around as if truly noticing his surroundings. “I’m here and you’re here and you definitely know who I am.” He squeezes his eyes shut. “Dude, what year is it?”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Max groans.
“It’s 2022,” Logan says.
Dean sinks back against the hospital bed, looking momentarily skyward. “Of course it is.” He levels his gaze. “So is this body me of the future or am I borrowing some poor bastard’s meat suit.”
“His name is Alec,” Logan says.
“Son of a bitch,” Dean mumbles.
“Tell me about it.”
“Logan,” Max’s voice cut through the air, the intangible equivalent of grabbing him by the arm and forcibly steering him out of the room.
He knew this roll even better than the old one. “You going to be all right for a second.”
“I’m pretty freaking far from all right, but yeah, I’m good for a minute.”
Outside, Max is forced to lower her voice. There were a multitude of other transgenics around, all of them with enhanced hearing, all of them more than willing to eavesdrop if voices were raised because as Logan has found out, transgenics were more gossipy than teenage girls. “Logan, you’re going to tell me what’s going on.”
It’s an order. Logan blinks. He remembers briefly how the two of them used to be a team.
He does not enjoy taking orders.
“That’s not Alec,” he says simply.
“Of course it’s Alec! Who else could it be?”
“Dean Winchester,” Logan says evenly.
“Dean Winchester? Fine. Say I do believe that Alec has been body swapped with this Dean Winchester instead of faking a personality transplant in order to pull some prank. How the hell do you know him?”
Logan draws himself in. This is not something he has discussed with Max. In reality, this is not something he has discussed with anyone. It was too important. Too fantastic. “I met him before the shooting,” he lies. “I did have a life before you came along.”
Something like hurt flashes through her eyes and he regrets his words immediately but not to the point of taking them back. This is where they were now, lashing out because they could reach out. He squeezes his eyes shut. “I don’t really care if you believe me or not. I’m going to go talk to Dean.”
He leaves Max standing there in the chaos of Terminal City and turns back to Dean, shutting the door behind him. It is disconcerting to watch. Dean is a mass of jitters while Alec had been the picture of tranquility no matter the situation. “Been a while, huh, Logan,” Dean says. “Haven’t heard a word since you disappeared in a flash of white light.”
“Three years for me,” Logan says, folding his arms across his chest.
“I was starting to think I dreamed you,” Dean says. “Or that Sam made you up out of thin air. We found you—past you that is. Couldn’t believe you where the same guy.” He lets out a harsh snort of laughter. “Past you was kind of an asshole.”
“People change.”
“Been about three months for me. And let me tell you, they sure as hell felt like three years.”
“Tell me about it.”
They lapse into silence but it’s nothing like the uncomfortable silences he tends to share with Max. It’s something different, the two of them already easing back to their easy comrodery from their bizarre few months in 2009.
“So how do we fix this?” Logan finally asks.
“No idea,” Dean says. “Me and Sam did the body swap thing a few times when we were younger and let me tell you it’s annoying as hell to wake up and suddenly be yeti-sized but it’s never done the swap through time before.”
“How’d you fix it before?”
“Depended on what did it. Spells usually reset on their own. If it’s a demon, you gank it and you’re fine. Curses always have some hidden catch you have to trip. This time me and Sam were after a demon and something jumped us. There was a flash of light and then I woke up here. No idea which one it could have been.”
Logan settles back into the his wheelchair, settles in for the long haul. “And what happens to Alec?”
“The poor bastard who’s body I’m wearing?” He shrugs and Logan can see just how much the idea bothers him. “Back in 2009 with Sammy if I had to guess. Probably having the same conversation we’re having now. He inherited more than a few problems.”
“He’s not the only one.”
Dean shoots him a look. “The Devil just busted out of hell.”
“That’s a very big problem.”
“Obviously we did something to stop it,” Dean says. “Because while this place looks like shit it doesn’t exactly look like hell.”
“You’re in Terminal City. Alec was in an explosion. He was brought back here for medical treatment.”
“Guess I should be glad Alec shares my aversion to hospitals, huh?” Dean swings his arms back and forth and flexes his fingers. “Everything seems to be in working order though. I feel better than I have in years. Click in the shoulder’s gone. Ribs don’t hurt. I can’t remember the last time I didn’t feel like I’d just been run over by a truck.”
Logan laughs because he doesn’t know what else to do. Doesn’t know how else to explain Alec and Manticore, cloning and genetic engineering. They are from different worlds with different problems and different people. They have coexisted before and they will make it work again but they don’t quite fit together. They never have.
“So,” Dean says finally. “Research?”
“Yeah.”
Got to get Dean back so he can put the Devil back in Hell and save the world.
Sadly it is not the weirdest thing that has happened in the past three years.
They wind up back in Logan’s room with a dozen books spread across all available surfaces. Logan’s head hurts. There are demons of every sort, the seven deadly sins but nothing the can reach through time and swap two men who look identical but aren’t.
“Did you notice anything different about the demon?” Logan asks. “Anything about the eyes.”
“No.” Dean snaps his own book shut and grabs a new one. “I always hated this part of the job. This was always Sam’s gig.”
“I’m used to research,” Logan says, turning a page. “If there’s a way to get you back we’ll find it.”
Dean leans back in his chair, pointedly ignoring the heaps of research. “So you got shot, huh?”
The question comes abruptly but it’s not said with malice. It’s just a statement of how things are. “Yeah,” Logan says.
“That really sucks, man.”
Logan feels a rush of warmth at this man. It may have been the first time since the shooting someone had gotten it. Everyone else sees the chair before the person, focusing on the disability like it was something that defined him rather than something that just happened to him. “Yeah,” he says, just a little hoarsely. “Yeah, it really did.”
“All right.” Dean claps his hands together. “Awkward acknowledgement over. There’s only one thing outside of my little brother that I know can yank some poor sap out of his time and dump in another and that’s an angel.”
“An angel?”
“Don’t get your hopes too high, future boy. Every angel I’ve ever met has been a dick. Let’s get a move on, there’s some stuff I need to pick up if we’re going to do this.”
“What are we doing?”
“We’re summoning Castiel.”
“Castiel? We’re summoning an angel? Are you out of your mind? Do you know what sort of people hang out here?”
“Believe me, I’m no stranger to sinning.”
Logan is a little more worried about transgenics and people playing God.
“Besides,” Dean continues. “Cas is an old friend.”
“I thought all the angels you’ve met are dicks.”
Dean flashes him a smile. The kind of smile Logan has come to associate with 2009 and the Winchesters and the mess that had come with it. It was resignation and fearlessness tinged with desperation. Fighting blind and way over his head but still fighting. “Hey,” he says lightly. “Who says you can’t be friends with dicks? You’re friends with me.”
Logan shakes his head. “Guess you’re right. Let’s go summon an angel.”
Moving through Terminal City, Dean is a man on a wire. He keeps flinching every time he sees a nomilie and Logan hates himself for not stopping to explain before this all. “Nothing to worry about,” he says when Dean shoots yet another panicked look in his direction. “I’ll explain later.”
“Hey, Alec,” the half lizard is grinning at him, cigar hanging from his lip.
“Hey yourself,” grunts Dean.
His fingers curl into fists.
“Anyone in 20-12, Mole?” Logan asks.
“Free up.”
“You think you can make it stay that way.”
Mole scowls.
Logan sighs. “There’s a pack of cigars in it for you.”
“That’s what I call a deal, Cale. Room’s yours.”
“This place is really freaking weird,” Dean hisses to Logan. Three passing X-6s hear him.
It’s a relief when the get to room 20-12 and close the door behind them. It is a large room with thick walls and doors that lock from the inside, a room that typically functions as a panic room, a room where dozens of transgenics had huddled during the siege last year.
“What the hell is this place?”
Logan shut the door carefully behind them. “I think the best way to describe it is a refugee camp for transhumans.”
“And I say again, what the hell?”
“In the late nineties the government funded a campaign to genetically engineer the perfect soldier. They used DNA from various sources including animals. Some of the early mixes were less than perfect. Anyway, about two years ago, the facility was destroyed leaving the soldiers to scatter.”
“This is insane. You know this is insane, right?”
“You’re about to summon an angel to help you get back to the past.”
“Yeah, well at least I’m not friends with the creature from the black lagoon. You got any tentacles I should be aware of?”
“I’m human as the come, Dean. But you might want to get over some of these prejudices of yours because the guy who’s body you’re wearing is very much a transgenic.”
“Son of a bitch,” Dean hisses. “Please don’t tell me I look like I’m half bat. I need to get out of here. I’ve got a reputation to uphold.”
“What do we need to do the summoning?” Logan asks, moving toward the emergency supplies. “I think we’ve got more or—“
“Cas!” Dean howls, throwing his head back. “You son of a bitch. We had this talk, you’re supposed to freaking warn me before you bust out the DeLoreans.”
Logan is pretty sure that is not how you are supposed to go about summoning an angel.
“Damnit, Cas, I know you’re up there. Why don’t you get your lily white ass down here and tell us what the hell is going on.”
Then out of nowhere, there is a sound of something like fluttering wings and when Logan turns around there’s a man standing behind him. A man in a trench coat with a white shirt and a loose tie. He has dark hair, light eyes and a five-o’clock shadow.
“Cas, you’re a sight for sore eyes,” Dean says. “How about getting me out of this time and back where I belong.”
“I’m afraid things are not as simple as they seem.”
Dean leans back against the wall. “Of course they aren’t. Cas, come on, angels are the only bunch I know that can do the time warp at will. What gives?”
“It should be noted that angels are not the only beings who have within their power the ability to manipulate time. Fallen angels also command this power.”
“Great,” Dean says. “So Lucifer and his buddies decided it was time for me to stop in and say hey to future boy. Fine. I’m cool with that. But why? In what possible universe is this a good idea for anyone involved?”
“It is a commonly known fact in both heaven and hell that Dean Winchester is the only one capable of stopping Lucifer’s rise. Hell has simply used the opportunity to remove you from the equation.”
“I get that. But you can put me back, right?”
Castiel looks away but his expression does not change. “I cannot.”
“What?”
“Only the demon who created the warp has the ability to undo it. It is shielded from my eyes. But if this situation is not remedied I fear all will be lost.”
“What happened to Alec?” Logan cuts in sharply. “He didn’t just disappear, right?”
“The one called Alec now occupies the space that was once Dean’s.”
“So the have animal freak show has my body now. Super. How about Sam. Is he all right?”
Castiel’s fixes Dean with a stony glare. “At the point of the timeline’s interruption he is in good health but already the changes from this abomination’s plot are trickling through to this present. I will shield you both from these effects as long as I am able.”
“Hold on. Changes?” Logan says. “What do you mean, chan---“
But Castiel is gone in a flutter of wings.
Out of town for the weekend but there should be more soonish.
| 3 |