Chapter Text
Who knew that guilt could give you this much of a headache. Sam had been having a terrible migraine all day. Worry or guilt were the usual perpetrators of his headaches recently but this one seemed worse than the rest. Almost like the ones he used to… no that couldn’t be.
Sam let the hot water from the shower fall onto his face as it slowly fogged up the bathroom. He took refuge in the shower whenever the headaches got bad. He knew that Dean would notice otherwise and go all mother hen. Dean did not need to be worrying about Sam. He already had so much on his plate. Dean may no longer be a demon but Sam could tell that he was still battling with the mark. Every time he got angry or upset Sam would think that this was it. The moment when Dean would finally lose it but never completely did and that is what Sam was holding on to.
He stepped out of the shower. Still no relief from the headache but it had given him a moment to breathe. Sam wrapped a towel around his waist and walked over to the mirror. He wiped the condensation off with his hand and looked into it. His nose was bleeding. When did that start? Before he could turn and look for a tissue the headache got worse. It brought him to the ground as he clutched his head.
Then he wasn’t in the bathroom any more. Where the hell was he? It looked like a castle but everything was weirdly green. He heard footsteps and turned. A black haired woman with vivid green eyes walked towards him. She wore a long black cloak that draped off her shoulders. She was walking towards Sam but she didn’t see him. She was looking through him.
“I see you have let yourselves into my castle,” the woman frowned.
“Your castle? Last time I checked this belonged to the people of Emerald city not you, witch,” a voice hissed. A voice that Sam recognized. Charlie stood defiantly in front of an emerald throne.
“Oh, right and as soon as you defeat me you are going to put the wizard right back on that throne. He’s not who he says he is, Charlie,” The witch hissed.
“And I am supposed to believe you of all people? You’ve massacred villages,” Charlie spoke through gritted teeth.
“Wow, he really does have his hooks into you, doesn’t he?” she gave a sarcastic laugh, “too bad really. You are such a good warrior,” she sighed as Charlie charged at her with a silver blade in hand but with a flick of her hand she sent Charlie flying across the room.
“Charlie!” Sam screamed but of course she couldn’t hear him. She took hit after hit from the witch and Sam could do nothing to stop it.
“Sam!” Dean’s voice pulled him back out of the vision. He was on the floor in the bathroom again. Blood had continued to drip out of his nose and onto the floor. Dean was kneeling next to him. Sam sat straight up and gasped for air. He had forgotten how much the visions sucked. Visions. Where the hell did that come from? Why was he having them again? And why was it about Charlie?
“Charlie!” Sam finally put some of the pieces together. It didn’t matter why he was having the vision, what mattered was that Charlie was in trouble. He tried to stand but his legs gave out underneath him. Dean was there to catch him.
“Slow down. What just happened? I heard you fall and I came in here and you were on the floor,” Dean helped Sam regain his balance.
“I had a vision,” Sam panted.
“What?”
“Dean, Charlie is in trouble, we have to find a way to Oz,” Sam sprung into action. He grabbed his shirt and put it on.
“Hold on, you had a vision about Charlie?” Dean was trying to catch up.
“She was in Oz and she was fighting with a witch. She was losing the battle,” now fully dressed Sam led the way out of the bathroom. “I know that Dorothy took the key to Oz with her but there are other ways to get there,” Sam walked into the library with Dean in tow. He searched the shelves looking for one book in particular.
“Sam,”
“The men of letters had been obsessed with other worlds like Oz,” Sam ignored Dean and grabbed the book he was looking for. “They actually believed that there was a unique signature that each universe had. The closer the world was the easier it is to find that signature and hypothetically open up a door. It’s how the key was forged in the first place. Clyve dylan, a man of letters, found Oz’s signature and crossed worlds,” Sam flipped through the pages of the book.
“Sam,”
“We just have to figure out what Clyve did and repeat it and that is our ticket over to save Charlie,” Sam continued reading and flipping through the book.
“God Damnit Sam, look at me!” Dean snapped and Sam finally looked up at him. Blood was still smeared across Sam’s face and his hair was dripping wet, “you need to slow down, you are talking a mile a minute and I am still stuck on the vision thing. God Sam,” Dean grabbed tissue, “you still have blood on your face,” he handed it to Sam. He put down the book and took the tissue from Dean.
“Sorry,” He said quietly as he wiped the blood from his face.
“It’s okay, let's just start from the beginning,” Dean sat down and motioned for Sam to do the same.
Sam told Dean every detail of his vision, from the green eyed witch to Charlie’s bravery. Dean sat and listened until Sam was done. His concern began to grow for Charlie as well. The boys spent the next hour trying to figure out how to reopen the door to Oz. Dean stole worried glances at Sam but looked away when he did the same.
Cas eventually showed back up at the bunker. He walked into the library to the mess that Sam and Dean had made of it. There were at least twelve books open on different surfaces and men of letters files spread out across tables.
“Cas, what do you know about traveling to other worlds?” was the first thing Dean said to the angel. He loved the Winchesters dearly but sometimes they lived in a world of their own.
“Um, not a lot, it’s not something that angels have the ability to do. What are you doing?”
“Remember us telling you about our friend Charlie?” Sam looked up from a pile of papers he was sorting through.
“Yes, the girl who helped you with the leviathans and went to another world with a strange woman who was trapped in the bunker for half a century,” Cas unnecessarily clarified.
“Yeah, that’s the gist.” Dean chuckled. “She needs our help. Sam had a vision-”
“Sam had a vision? How is that possible? Sam are you okay?” Cas was immediately anxious, which was warranted because the last time Sam was having visions it was because of the demon blood in him.
“I am fine, Cas. Our number one worry right now is Charlie. We can ruminate over why I had a vision later,” Sam continued digging through the papers until he stopped dead in his tracks and stared down at one paper. “I’ve got it,” He breathed.
“What?” Cas and Dean both asked.
“The way to make another key,” Sam held out the paper with a smirk on his face. Dean moved to take the paper but Cas was the one who snatched it out of Sam’s hand.
“This is really powerful magic, Sam. it requires the use of one’s soul to tap into as an energy source. You know how dangerous that can be?” Cas frowned as he gave the paper to Dean.
“It seems like it was a common thing for the men of letter to do,” Sam argued
“The men of letters that practiced this kind of magic had to have trained for years to learn how to do it properly and you want to do this with no experience,” Cas was upset. He was beyond upset. When would the Winchesters learn not to be so reckless?
“There’s got to be a first for everything,” Sam gave a weak smile. He was usually the reasonable one and now all of the sudden he sounded like Dean. Speaking of Dean, he had been quiet throughout this entire exchange. He was now looking down at the paper. Cas hoped that Dean was going to back him up.
“Do you have any other ideas, Cas?” Dean shrugged.
“No, but can’t we search for another way?” Cas tried on last time but there was no getting through to either brother. They had a one track mind when it came to rescuing someone: their lives don’t matter as long as they are able to save the person.
“There isn’t another way,” Sam said.
“Fine but if there is even one sign of something going wrong I am stopping the whole thing,” Cas surrendered.
Finding the ingredients was relatively easy. All they were doing was opening a door. It took a lot more time to actually forge a key and they definitely didn’t have time on their side. Dean had agreed to let Sam complete the spell. With the mark of Cain there was no way of telling how the spell would turn out. Cas doing the spell was out of the question since it required a human soul.
Sam painted runes on a door in the hallway. It led to a storage closet but the hope was when he was done with the spell it would lead to Oz. Dean mixed the final ingredients as Cas watched nervously.
“Okay, you ready Sam?” Dean brought the bowl over to the door as Sam backed away inspecting his drawing.
“As I will ever be,” Sam laughed dryly. He took the paper from his pocket and began to recite the words for the spell. Once he reached the final sentence he took a match, lit it, and dropped it into the bowl set in front of the door. Flames shot up and the runes began to glow. Sam felt an odd pull in his chest as he reached for the door handle. The feeling slowly became painful as he opened the door. A bright light shone from behind the door. Sam was ready to pass out as he was consumed by the light. He felt someone grab him as darkness consumed his vision and his legs gave out from under him.
***
Dean stumbled into the ground as he followed Cas and Sam. He looked up from eating dirt to see that the three of them were in an open field in the middle of nowhere. The sun beat down on him. There was a large forest to the north and nothing but open fields to the south. It appeared as if they were still on earth. Nothing seemed magical about where they were but considering back home it was below zero outside one thing was for sure: they weren’t in Kansas anymore.
“Sammy?” Dean stood up and moved over to Cas who was holding up a passed out Sam. “Is he okay,”
“Yes, he will be. Opening the door took a lot of energy. This is just the way the human body reacts to exhaustion,” Cas laid Sam down on the ground.
“So are we in Oz?” Dean asked looking around for any tell tale sign the spell was a success.
“I am not sure, I can’t sense other worlds the same way I can sense our own but I do know for sure that we aren’t on our earth anymore,” Cas spoke as he tentatively checked on Sam. He touched his face and Sam moved and groaned in response.
“Hmm,” Sam’s eyes cracked open as he put his hand up to protect them from the sun.
“Oh and look at that, he lives,” Dean said as he crouched down next to his brother opposite of Cas.
“Did it work?” Sam sat up slowly and looked at the surroundings.
“I think so,” Dean answered but it sounded more like a question.
“You think so?” Sam sounded bewildered. Cas and Dean stood up and helped Sam do the same.
“Cas says we are not on earth anymore but I don’t see a yellow brick road so…”
“Didn’t Dorothy say that the book wasn’t completely accurate? Maybe Oz is a lot more like earth than we think,” Sam reasoned.
“Okay then Todo where to?” Dean asked.
“Why do I have to be the dog?”
“It’s the hair,”
“Okay that means that you’re the scarecrow,”
“Why?”
“If only you had a brain,”
***
The three headed for the forest hoping the story was right about the road going through it. The book’s descriptions were their only hope of finding charlie. After walking for about an hour Sam had stopped and thrown up three separate times. Cas mumbled something underneath his breath about listening to him but then went to Sam’s side every time he stopped.
Sam thought it was funny how his and Cas’s relationship had changed over the years. Castiel had been nothing but an asshole to him when they first met and then it gradually got better even though the angel still favored Dean. Then when Sam got back from hell without his soul Cas went right back to being an ass. There could be an endless philosophical debate about whether or not it was really Sam when he had no soul but he still had the memory and while it didn’t hurt soulless Sam, thinking about Cas treating him that way still made him sad. Now a few stories and tons of guilt later Cas and Sam seemed to be doing okay. Better than okay. The two had bonded over trying to remove the mark of Cain from Dean’s arm. They actually talked, not about monsters, but about real things like life and the books Sam was making Cas read. Sometimes while Dean slept the two would sit up and have debates about history and magic. For an angel that was charged with watching over the earth Cas really knew nothing about pop culture.
“Well, it’s not yellow but it is a road,” Dean pointed ahead at a brick road leading through the forest.
“I will take just about anything other than wandering through the forest aimlessly,” Sam pushed off the tree he was leaning against and followed Dean as he led the way to the road. He could tell that Cas was hovering ensuring that he was okay but he didn’t mind.
After a few more minutes of walking down the road all of the sudden there was a screeching noise above them. If Sam didn’t know any better he would’ve thought it was a wendigo. The brothers and the angel looked up at the sky.
“There is no way those are-”
“Flying monkeys,” Sam finished Dean’s sentence. One of the creatures swooped down and attempted to claw at Cas. The angel easily pushed away the monkey and Dean took out his gun and shot it. The creature screeched as the bullet wound sizzled. Dean aimed to get another shot off but it was too quick. The flying monkey raced away but the others of the flock continued the attack. One was instantly on Sam as the others went for Cas and Dean. Sam drew his gun and was able to get a clean shot through it’s head and the monkey dropped.
“Shoot it in the head!” He shouted to Dean as he continued fighting off the swarm. Cas’s angel blade seemed to be doing the trick against the things as well. When the flying monkeys realized that they were being killed off the rest of the army began to retreat but not before the one that was on Dean bit him.
“Son of a bitch!” Dean cupped his hand to his neck as Cas tore the feral creature off of him and stabbed it.
“Dean, you okay?” Sam re-holstered his gun and went to his brother’s side. He moved Dean’s hand away to see the bite. Luckily the monkey didn’t bite down hard enough to hit anything vital but it was still a pretty nasty bite.
“Here, let me,” Cas raised two fingers to heal Dean but the latter grabbed his hand and shook his head.
“No, Cas, don’t waste your already borrowed grace on me. I’ll be fine,” He said as he tried not to wince in pain.
“But it’s not wasting it, I am healing you,” Cas argued.
“Cas, he will be okay. Aren’t you always the one giving us crap about self sacrifice,” Sam raised an eyebrow at his friend knowing that would shut him up. Of course Sam would have rather had Cas heal Dean but his brother was right; Cas didn’t need to use any more grace than he needed to.
Sam took off his backpack as he motioned for Dean to sit down. As he took out the first aid kit Dean began to laugh. Sam and Cas looked at him, confused.
“I guess we know that we are in Oz,” Dean smirked.
“I would have taken not being sure over being attacked by those flying nightmares,” Sam couldn’t help but laugh too as he began to clean Dean’s wound.
“Those things are freaky little fuckers aren’t they?” Dean looked over at Cas who was inspecting one of the bodies.
“That is definitely one way to put it,” Cas smiled wryly.
“Ow, shit Sam that hurt!” Dean cursed at Sam as he pulled something out of the bite.
“Sorry, it left you a gift,” Sam held out a bloody broken tooth he pulled from Dean’s neck.
“Awesome,” Dean took the tooth and inspected it.
“You have a strange sense of awe,” Cas cocked his head as he looked at Dean’s fascination with the tooth.
“Hey you don’t think I am going to contract any type of disease from this do you,” Dean asked Sam ignoring the fun crusher.
“Suppose you could ask them.” Sam and Dean followed Cas’s gaze to a group of people standing and staring at them.
“Dean, Sam?”
“Dorothy?”