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At first, there was darkness.
A beautiful thick darkness surrounding him like a blanket, close enough to make him feel cozy without giving him the feeling of being suffocated.
It was a feeling he couldn't describe with the word he knew. A feeling beyond everything humans could imagine with there tiny closed minds and even he, as an Angel of the Lord was speechless by the sensation of this endless night.
He couldn't even tell if he was sleeping, like the Empty had foreshadowed, or if he was awake and just floating somewhere between time and space.
He had to admit that it was a nice and peaceful feeling. The weight of the world that has nearly crushed him down, the guilt that has poisened his mind and the sorrow that has filled his soul had been gone and he never felt this peace before.
Second, there were memories
It began with a glimpse. A moment were the endless darkness, wasn't endless anymore. He wasn't conscious enough to realize, but he got aware of this moment, when this little shift went through his existence.
As fast as it came, it went away, like an echo of the past.
He wanted to drift back into the endless peace, when a voice pierced his mind.
“I love you, too”
A whisper, a shallow breath in the silent. He couldn't even say, if it really was a sound, or something else, something inside his head.
He blinked.
“Why aren't you sleeping?”
A voice similar to his own, with a hint more impatience in his timbre, that made him shudder.
“I don't know?” He answered honestly. He wasn't floating anymore, but resting on cold ground, feeling surprisingly familiar with this situation.
“We had a deal, Castiel” The voice was angry and when he looked up, he saw into his own face. The empty was angry, as much as its voice sounded.
“I know that and I fulfilled my part, letting you take me into the void.”
Castiel got up on his feet, a wave of nausea hitting his guts. He leaned forward, resting his pals on his thighs, taking a deep breath.
“However...you are awake...”
Castiel shrugged looking around the place. It looked like it had been the last time he was here. Black...pitch black. If he would feel the solid ground underneath his feet, he wouldn't be able to tell, if he still was floating.
“I ask again...why aren't you sleeping?”
The last word, was just a hiss.”
“And I answer again. I don't...” He paused. There it was again. This shift between space and time.
He felt a shiver, the hint of a familiar smell, the memory of something good he could grab by now.
“What was that?”
“You felt it, too?”
The Empty nodded turning around and shouted into the darkness, that he needs to sleep, but nothing answered.
“You are an Angel of the Lord, wasn't it your purpose to obey?”
“I was, but I stop obeying a long time ago. You should know that.”
The empty huffed, ruffeling his hair.
Again...
Castiel felt a sensation, the smell of leather and beer, the sudden taste of strong coffee on his tongue made him gag. The sound of footsteps on stonefloors and the rumbling of a car.
He had the feeling that he should know what was happening, but he could get it. Something, he was familiar with.
Third, there was a visitor
“Trust me, I want to sleep, I want to be in peace”, he reassured the Empty, but it just laughed, pointing with a finger against Castiel.
“You are lying? What is it, that keeps you awake?”
“It's me”
The Empty turned around to where the voice was coming from.
“A boy?”
Its gaze wandered over the young man that stood there only a few feed in front of him. A pale young lad in jeans, shirt and a worn out hoodie.
“Who are you, that you interfering my sleep?”
The young man lifted is hand to a greet, smirked to Castiel and afterwards to the Empty.
“I'm Jack.”
“Jack? So....”
Castiel found this boy familiar as well as the name.
“Jack”, he mumbled, searching in his brain for an answer
The empty crossed his arms in front of him, tapping nervously with one food on the ground.
“Jack... I suggest you turn around and move back to where ever you come from!”
“Oh, I will. But I am taking Castiel with me!”
“Really”
The Empty laughed and it sounded as if someone tore fabric apart.
Jack still smiled.
“Yes... I am God and I will take Castiel with me.”
His voice was still friendly, but Castiel realized the sharpnes in the tone of the boy.
Jack lifted his hand towards Castiel and a wave of memories, feelings and sensations was flooding his body, as if a dam was broken inside him.
He stumbled backwards, pressing his hands against his head.
“Jack.”
This time he knew.
“You are a boy and even if you are God, you have no powers here? I am the Empty, I am the ruler of the Nothing. I was here before everything and I will be here after everything has ended.”
“I know, cause I am God. I am Jack, the Son of Lucifer, I have the power of God, the Power of the Darkness the power of the Archangel Michael inside me... and last but not least. I am still a Winchester. I know, that I can't harm you, that's true. But as endless as I am, I can make your existence a freaking mess. No more sleep until eternity, no more new souls feeding this void. Time is relative to me.”
Castiel could hold back a smirk. It was the exact same way he had annoyed the Empty.
Jack wasn't his son by birth, but by heart.
“No more sleep, Empty... Trust me, Jack can be very stubborn. Just as me...you remember.”
The empty looked to Castiel, back to Jack and than back to Castiel, pondering his situation.
He would lose again, letting his most precious “guest” go, but the dark prospect of being awake until eternity...
“Fine... you won... but”, he grabbed Castiels tie, pulled him closer. “I want you and your Jack-God-Boy to never, ever step into my darkness.”