Hey everyone! So I wasn't actually planning on posting this story yet, but I got a ton of it written over the weekend so I thought, what the heck? The description is lame because I couldn't say everything I wanted to about this story, but essentially it is an AU of Season 11 kind of how I wish it had gone instead of what the writers chose to do :P And don't worry, there is lots of action and also a ton of feels and emotional bits and there will be a large focus on Cas' recovery and all that. Many things happen in the story. And as always, no slash.

I apologize for the shortness of the first chapter, but it's kind of just a scene setter, and the story picks up in the next one, promise :) Anyway, hope you enjoy this: please review if you have the time!

Thanks to Aini NuFire for helping me brainstorm and looking over the first couple chapters! Always appreciated! I hope you like the outcome of this story ;)

We Band of Brothers

A Supernatural Fanfic

Chapter One

Once More Unto the Breach

It had been one thing after another through this whole situation. First there was unleashing the Darkness to begin with and then everything that followed that on swift wings. Lucifer contacting Sam, going into hell to give the devil face time, Cas saying yes to being possessed by him…Dean was still trying to wrap his head around that one. Where had things gone so wrong between the three of them? And then finding all the various Hands of God, all of which had been a bust, doing nothing to stop Amara, and now she had Lucifer and Cas and was likely torturing them at that very minute.

This past week had just been a brand new hell in a long line of hells for Dean. He and Sam had been working non-stop trying to find out where Amara might be, but they had nothing. After she had taken Lucifer and Cas there wasn't a single trace of her. Dean had even tried calling out to her one day while Sam was out tracking down a lead to see if she would answer him when he was alone, but she was ignoring him too, and that made Dean almost more wary than he was about their weird connection to begin with.

Every night he drowned himself in too much liquor, replaying the scene over and over in his head of them trying to extract Lucifer from Cas' vessel. That whole situation sat badly with him like a festering wound that refused to heal. It was bad enough that they had failed to save Cas, but what was worse was knowing that Sam was actually okay with letting their angel sacrifice himself. Cas was pretty much the only family they had left, and Sam saying he was willing to give up on him, after nearly ruining the world by letting Amara free when he took the Mark off Dean's arm made the elder Winchester furious. There weren't a lot of times he really wanted to punch his little brother, but Dean had really wanted to slug some sense into Sam after hearing that. He knew that somewhere in there, despite protestations, Sam was still angry at Dean for stopping him closing the gates of hell. But that was no reason to let Cas die. And yeah, Sam had agreed with him after a while, but their original conversation still sat heavy in Dean's gut. Calling Cas' vessel "it", saying it was "Cas' choice"…no it would take Dean a long time to get over that.

And deep down Dean knew it was both their faults Cas had done this. If the angel was so desperate that he would let Lucifer catch a ride in his vessel just to be 'useful' or whatever, then that was a serious problem. And what made it worse was that Dean had known Cas was hurting, had seen it clearly in retrospect, but he hadn't paid any damn attention at the time, too busy trying to track down Amara and fix the problems he had helped cause. In his mind, he'd always thought of Cas as a brother, but he realized shamefully that he had so rarely ever treated him that way, and had certainly never made sure Cas knew that. If they got Cas back—when—he was determined to make sure the angel felt more welcome in their family, that he was a part of it. Make sure things like this didn't happen again. He only hoped he got that chance.

Dean looked at his phone, seeing it was well past midnight. Sam was already asleep, or at least holed up in his room, leaving his elder brother to drink himself into a stupor. Dean closed his eyes and tried to reach out to Amara again.

"Amara," he said. "If you can hear me…I want Cas back. You can have Lucifer, but give us Cas, he's just in the crossfire, he has no part in your family feud."

Nothing. Dean sighed and changed tactics. "Cas. Castiel, if you can hear me, I'm praying to you, man. I don't know if Lucifer is letting this get through, or if it even works like that, but I just want you to know that Sam and I will get you out of there. We haven't forgotten you, okay? Just…hang on, and don't give in to Lucifer. Don't just…sit there and fade away."

He buried his face in his hands, remembering Crowley's face after he had come back from possessing Lucifer. He'd said Lucifer's hold on Cas was too strong, but he hadn't really had a chance to say what that meant or what state Cas was in before he had beat a hasty retreat. Dean hoped there was actually some of Cas left after this. He knew well enough what Lucifer had done to Sam when he was still in his head. He wasn't even sure the "Cas" he had spoken to briefly during the exorcism had actually been Cas or if it was just Lucifer playing Cas again.

But thinking about it for the millionth time wasn't really going to fix anything. They would be on the case again tomorrow. Dean slowly stood and trudged off to his room, falling into bed. He closed his eyes, and dreamed of darkness.

Sam woke the next morning to the sounds of Dean already up and messing around in the kitchen. He rubbed sleep from his eyes and decided to take a shower before he confronted his brother. He knew Dean was still angry with him for what he had said about Cas. Sam was angry at himself. He wasn't sure what he had been thinking at the time, maybe he was just tired, maybe he was still furious at himself for being so weak that he had nearly destroyed the world—again—for his brother. And, actually, the world could still be destroyed because he tried to save his brother. In any case, he hadn't meant that he didn't care about what happened to Cas, he was just trying to snag any solution they had at the moment and had gotten ahead of himself. But he felt guilty for the fact that Crowley had actually been the first one to mention getting Cas out of Lucifer before they shoved the devil back in the cage. That was what was really sad. What kind of friends were they?

Sam sighed deeply as he threw off his clothes and stepped under the hot shower spray. He knew they needed to find something on where Amara was. Anything, even if it were a rumor. He planned on calling Crowley again today, though he was sure that if the King of Hell had heard anything, he probably would have let them know. He wanted Amara gone as much as they did.

Sam turned off the water and toweled dry, rubbing the steam from the mirror and deciding he could go another day without shaving. He dressed and braced himself for facing his brother. He was worried about Dean. He didn't know everything about his brother's connection with Amara, but he figured it was probably frustrating to Dean that he couldn't find her when they needed her. And frustrating was an understatement. Ever since they had found out that Cas had been possessed by Lucifer, Dean had been working non-stop, and it was even worse now that they knew the angel had done it willingly and that it seemed like he wasn't planning on surviving the fight if what Crowley told them was anything to go by. By all accounts Cas had given up, and if there was one thing Dean was not okay with, it was people he cared about giving up. That was like a mortal sin to Dean. Sam was all too aware of that.

Sam was also all too aware of what Lucifer was capable of. He was concerned that the archangel might have done something to Cas, broken him, made him compliant. But he was even more concerned that Lucifer hadn't done anything, and that Cas had simply given up of his own volition. That thought made him sick.

He sighed and tossed his towel onto the rack before he headed out to the kitchen.

When he got there he saw that Dean had skipped the coffee and went straight for the fifth of whisky.

"Don't say it's five o'clock somewhere," Sam deadpanned as he started making a pot of coffee. "You should at least eat some cereal."

"Thanks, mom, I'll remember that," Dean grunted.

Sam pressed his lips together, wanting to retort, but knowing it would do nothing to change the situation. "So, what are the plans for today?"

"Keep lookin'," Dean said. He got up and grabbed a bowl, throwing some cereal into it and pouring milk over it. Sam was somewhat surprised he had listened, but maybe Dean was just hungry. He motioned for him to leave the stuff out and poured two cups of coffee for them.

"I was actually thinking last night," Dean said around a spoonful of cereal. "You know when Crowley had that angel Samandriel and was torturing him for info, a bunch of weird crap started happening in the vicinity. Cas said that when an angel is in pain it can sometimes manifest in freaky stuff. I figure Amara has to be torturing Lucifer, and an archangel must have enough power to make some noticeable freaky crap happen, right?"

Sam nodded thoughtfully. "That's actually not a bad idea. What exactly are we looking for?"

"Anything unnatural—Samandriel caused a bush to explode into flames in some guy's face. We should check out news and weather reports for the whole country, we have no idea where Amara might have gone."

"Okay, sounds good."

Sam was glad to have some direction in their search. It always helped. A few hours later they were driving to a few of the spots where what could be termed 'freaky unnatural crap' was happening and snooped around for any sign of Amara or where she might be keeping Lucifer and Cas.

Unfortunately, after a day of that, they still hadn't uncovered anything and they headed back to the bunker, planning on going out again the day after to look at a few more sites.

"This is crap," Dean muttered as they came up from the bunker's garage, their duffle bags slung over their shoulders.

"It's a good idea, Dean, it just might take a while longer to find what we actually are looking for."

"Yeah, well, Cas might not have a while longer," Dean snapped as he threw his bag down on the map table. "And we still have nothing on how to gank the Darkness!"

"Hold on." Sam held up his hand, reaching for the gun at the back of his jeans. Dean was instantly on alert, his own weapon in his hand.

"What?" the elder Winchester asked.

"Heard something in the kitchen," Sam replied, starting toward the room.

"Don't think we have rats," Dean muttered as he followed his brother.

They entered the kitchen with their guns held ready, and were shocked to see a man with his back to them, rummaging through their refrigerator.

"Hey!" Dean yelled.

The man turned around, an open box of Lucky Charms in one hand and a pint of ice cream in the other. He was grinning. "Hey chuckleheads, what does a guy have to do a get a beer around here?"

Sam and Dean gaped at the intruder.

"Gabriel?!"