Fanfic / It's All in the Details

It's All in the Details by Colleen is a Supernatural fic.

It is based around the idea that Castiel's plea for assistance from God in "The Man Who Would Be King" was actually answered, with the aforementioned answer prompting Castiel to go back in time and try to fix things before they became hopeless.

As a result, Castiel 'takes over' before Dean can sell his soul to bring Sam back to life, with the presence of the mysterious 'Cas' significantly altering the Winchesters' lives from that point onwards even before they learn his true identity.

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It's All in the Details contains examples of:

• Adaptational Early Appearance: Castiel shows up at the end of Season Two (albeit the version of him that existed near the end of Season Six).
• All Your Powers Combined: A raid on Niveus is only possible with hunters and angels working together, as the demons running Niveus have erected anti-angelic wards but these wards were designed to be easily disabled in case Lucifer wanted to visit those facilities after he rose.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: When looking over Brady's list of accusations, Henriksen muses that he would expect rape and assault from a demon, but insider trading seems surprisingly tame.
• Ascended Extra:
  • Victor Henricksen not only survives what would have been his canonical death, but goes on to become a hunter and one of the few people outside of their 'family' that the Winchesters trust with Castiel's true identity (even if he still doesn't know about the time-travel angle and just believes Castiel's undercover as a pagan god on God's orders).
  • Arguably applies to Jimmy Novak; while he has technically appeared as Castiel's vessel throughout the show with only one appearance as himself, this story not only shows Castiel conversing with him, but Jimmy even takes over for a time after a confrontation with Naomi's angels forces Castiel to retreat into himself to heal.
  • While Bela Talbot still goes to Hell, Crowley takes her off the rack to basically act as his assistant as he initially wanted someone with insight into the Winchesters and subsequently recognises her talents.
• Becoming the Mask:
  • Thanks to Gabriel's efforts in creating a new background for Castiel he has a 'valid' identity as a pagan god, with the result that prayers to 'Kaseva' will actually summon Castiel (although he is not subject to the weaknesses of a pagan god).
  • Word of God explicitly states that Chuck is God (written before that was confirmed in the show), but most of the time He just acts like Chuck, only allowing his true self to slip through on a few moments.
• Better the Devil You Know: All-but-explicitly stated during Crowley's first confrontation with 'Kaseva', as Crowley is informed that Kaseva and his most trusted followers are aware of his ambitions to be the King of Hell and it is made clear that Crowley is being left alive only because they would rather he got the job than any of the alternatives.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Gabriel might be the 'nice' archangel, but he's still dangerous enough in a fight that Abaddon chose to flee when their initial confrontation went against her.
• Canon Welding: A minor example; Castiel's safehouse cabin is next door to a cabin used by Colonel Jack O'Neill (Stargate SG-1), but so far it appears that neither side will interact much beyond Jack believing that he has really weird neighbours.
• Cessation of Existence: It is suggested that this is the fate of anything shot by the Colt, such as Doc Benton.
• Claimed by the Supernatural: Castiel only realises when Loki/Gabriel brings up the issue that his actions in making a "deal" with Dean to save Sam's life, coupled with Castiel's new status as Kaseva, have essentially turned Dean into a paladin in Kaseva's name. This makes Dean a warrior for Kaseva, allowing him to grant "Kaseva" power by dedicating hunts to his god, and slightly increasing Dean's physical abilities; when he was briefly turned into a vampire, Castiel observed that Dean's enhanced physiology may even allow him to recover from the infection on his own, even if Castiel does the job himself to make it faster.
• Closest Thing We Got:
  • After the death of Lilith, the role of the last Seal is transferred to Anna as she has raw power tainted by her decision to fall and become human, but this is later 'transferred' to Abaddon after she follows Henry into the present due to her power as a Knight of Hell.
  • Castiel is briefly concerned that the demons will turn to Adam as a substitute for Dean to serve as the Righteous Man who will shed blood in Hell, but to date nobody else in Heaven or Hell (save for Crowley) appears to be aware of Adam's connection to the Winchesters.
• Commuting on a Bus: Essentially; to give himself a useful ally in investigating the Winchesters' continued survival, Crowley takes Bela Talbot off the rack and promotes her to become one of his immediate underlings in Hell.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: A few examples of these; Castiel may spend a fair amount of time operating undercover on Earth to create the impression he's still purely loyal to Heaven, but when he's allowed to assist the Winchesters in hunts, he easily tears through most of their demonic opposition, to the point that Lilith only kills Dean because Castiel was occupied fighting off her hellhounds, and Brady only survives Castiel saving Dean and Sam from a group of demons because the amount of energy needed to banish all demons present would have caused significant collateral damage.
• Deal with the Devil: The Winchesters spend the first few chapters believing that 'Cas' is a demon or a pagan god that made a deal with Dean to save Sam's life. Later, the Winchesters and their allies form a tentative 'alliance' with Crowley; they don't make an explicit deal with him, but they agree to support his plans to make himself the King of Hell as they recognise that he's the better candidate than any of Lucifer's followers.
• Death by Adaptation: Castiel kills Ruby during the siege of the police station, and Sam later kills Lilith with the Colt just as Dean's deal runs out, thus ruining any plans for a future Apocalypse until a new last Seal is created.
• Demoted to Extra:
  • The raising of Samhain was a significant hunt for the Winchesters as it was both a Seal and a very powerful demon, but while Samhain's status as a Seal still makes the hunt a particular threat, Crowley and the Winchesters prevent the necessary sacrifices and identify the witches before Samhain can rise.
  • Arguably applies to Alastair; he's still a potential threat, but he and Dean only meet directly once, and that encounter ends with Alastair being abducted by the angels, who end up killing him.
• Drama-Preserving Handicap: When Abaddon appears in the present, Castiel has been forced to retreat into his vessel to heal from Naomi's attack, so Jimmy is only able to let Castiel out long enough to trap Abaddon in a safehouse while he escapes with Dean, Sam and Henry, and has to keep him dormant for the next few weeks as the group work to re-establish the Men of Letters. On the other hand, Gabriel is able to do enough damage that Abaddon is forced to retreat to Hell rather than continue trying to catch the Winchesters, giving the Winchesters time to re-establish the Men of Letters and assess their new options.
• The Dreaded: Lucifer is so terrifying to most standard angels that Castiel sparks a panic in some of the lesser angels in his garrison just by mentioning his name even when none of the Seals have been broken in this timeline.
• Everyone Has Standards: Naomi's methods of 'conditioning' rogue angels are so extreme that even Zachariah is disturbed to see the angels she's conditioned once she's done with them.
• Exact Words: Castiel muses that he's not good at lying directly even after his personal development, so he often attempts to phrase his answers or explanations in a manner that expresses the truth but leaves enough gaps for others to make certain assumptions themselves.
• Fate Worse than Death: Seeing what Doc Benton has become on a spiritual level sends Bela into a screaming fit, Bela 'calming down' enough to confirm that she doesn't want to become like him even if Hell is her only alternative.
• Fish out of Temporal Water: Henry has to deal with this to varying degrees, but the Winchesters, Bobby and Jimmy each take their time to help him adapt.
• Groin Attack: When fighting Ruby, Castiel instinctively moves to protect himself from an attack she was about to inflict between his legs, with this distraction allowing Ruby to stab him with her knife (not that it does her much good).
• "Groundhog Day" Loop: The events of "Mystery Spot" are ended after only a few dozen loops when Castiel senses Dean's contract completing and resetting itself, prompting him to step in and encourage Loki to end the loop early with the threat that he will start using Loki's true name so that his older brother can hear it.
• Heel Realisation: Learning that the supernatural is real prompts Henricksen to evaluate more than his own beliefs about the Winchesters, acknowledging with hindsight that he was too fixated on them when tracking them to the point that he blamed them for crimes he should have realised they couldn't have committed.
• I Need a Freaking Drink:
  • After Castiel explains what would have happened in the original timeline, Dean and Sam spend the rest of the night drinking to deal with what they almost did.
  • Dean correctly anticipates that Anna will want one when she learns that she has become the last Seal on Lucifer's Cage following Lilith's death.
• Ignorant of Their Own Ignorance:
  • Ruby never learns that 'Cas' is immune to her knife until she tries to stab him with it, allowing Castiel to take the blade and use it to kill her.
  • Aside from Gabriel and Anna, no other angel is aware that Castiel has essentially been replaced by his future self.
• In Spite of a Nail: Even with the new history unfolding, Chuck is still writing about the original events in the gospels that get published, only writing what's really happening as an 'alternate' that he writes down when his new guardian angel isn't looking.
• Ironic Echo:
  • When Castiel goes to visit the version of Jimmy Novak that exists in the present, he allows Jimmy's consciousness to re-take control of their shared body, with the Jimmys greeting each other thus;
    Jimmy: Why are you wearing my trench coat?
    Vessel!Jimmy: Because I'm you, you idiot.
  • Later, when Castiel is talking to his other self (who has taken Claire Novak as a vessel);
    Clairestiel: Who are you, that you have taken her father?
    Castiel: I'm you… dumb butt.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Gabriel can still get on their nerves with some of his pranks, such as taking the Winchesters, Adam and Kate to the top of a mountain to demonstrate the existence of the supernatural, but at the same time he is the only other angel aware of Castiel’s trip back in time and helps provide extra angelic firepower when required.
• Killed Offscreen: An interesting variant of this; Adam’s roommate, Cooper Hayden, is identified by Castiel as a potential Prophet, with Word of God suggesting that Cooper died at some point prior to Crowley’s attempt to ‘collect’ the other Prophets in Season Eight to justify his absence.
• Kryptonite Factor: In a sense; where the Winchesters needed the First Blade to kill Abaddon in canon, here Gabriel’s insight establishes that an archangel could kill her, but he would need to stab her in the heart and then slit her throat with his archangel blade, so Abaddon escapes after he’s only wounded her in two different hosts.
• Magitek: Invoked; through an unspecified long process, Crowley has managed to arrange for his office in Hell to have phone and Internet access that can coordinate reasonably well with his operations on Earth.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Zachariah orders Castiel to send Dean back in time to witness Azazel's deal with Mary even when Castiel reveals that Dean already knows about the deal. As a result, Dean is able to change history so that Samuel and Deanna survived Azazel's attack, with Deanna still alive in the present day and Dean and Sam having had a happier childhood (Samuel died in the same fire that killed Mary), leaving Zachariah frustrated that he can't even legitimately get angry at Castiel for these changes when the other angel told him that wasn't a good idea.
  • Later on, believing that Alastair had become the new final Seal, Naomi and Zachariah abduct Alastair just as he is attacking Dean, but their efforts to complete a ritual that would fully restore the last Seal just cause Alastair to explode as the last Seal is actually Abaddon.
• Noodle Incident: Abaddon and Gabriel have some past history together, to the point that Abaddon recognises Gabriel immediately as the only being in existence who ever called her ‘toots’.
• Not So Extinct: After Henry survives his time in the future, he discovers that the Men of Letters bunker even contains plans for how to restart after abrupt dissolution and years of inactivity. This allows him to induct Bobby and his grandsons into the new Men of Letters, as well as making an offer to Rufus (although Rufus decides to remain an affiliated independent as he isn’t a joiner).
• Oh, Crap!: Happens to the Winchesters, Castiel, and even Anna in rapid succession; Dean and Sam are cornered by a whole corridor full of demons in a hospital when trying to protect the Miltons, and then Castiel unintentionally exposes Anna’s identity to the angels when responding to Dean’s call for help.
• Open Secret: As ‘Loki’ refers to Castiel as his brother, the Winchesters realises that he’s an angel rather than just a trickster, but he refuses to divulge his true identity until Chuck’s writings reveal the truth.
• Other Me Annoys Me: When Vessel!Jimmy and Castiel meet their past/alternate selves in this new timeline, they each immediately refer to their past selves as idiots.
• Refuge in Audacity: After the two Castiels merge, Castiel takes Dean to a club called Hell and ‘retrieves’ him from near the club’s toilets so that he can honestly report that he pulled Dean out of the pits of Hell, acknowledging that it’s ridiculous but it’s easier for him if he doesn’t have to lie that much.
• Relationship Upgrade: A platonic version of this occurs for Dean and Sam in their relationship with Adam; where they initially met the ghoul posing as Adam and then met him after he was resurrected when he had been ‘encouraged’ Zachariah to have a negative view of his brothers, here the Winchesters meet Adam long before the ghoul attack and become genuinely fond of him, which he reciprocates as he freely introduces them to his college roommate as his brothers.
• Rules Lawyer:
  • During the time he believed that ‘Cas’ was a pagan god who would essentially ‘eat’ Dean’s soul, Sam assumed that he could save Dean from his fate by making Dean immortal so that he couldn’t die in the first place.
  • Castiel muses that he drew up the contract for Dean’s soul based on his experience of contracts from when he worked with Crowley, allowing him to include a few loopholes that the Winchesters only realise later on were intended to benefit Dean and Sam, most notably a rule that Cas would bring Sam back to life if he died at any point in the year before Dean’s contract comes due.
• Separated at Birth: When Amelia Novak discovers Jimmy and Castiel in the same room, Castiel impulsively claims to be Jimmy’s long-lost twin brother, even though he himself acknowledges that it’s not a very good lie.
• Ship Tease: It is hinted that Jo Harvelle is attracted to Victor Henricksen and Rachel is subtly interested in Castiel, even if Castiel only sees her as a ‘sister’.
• Shout-Out:
  • At one point Chuck compares his habit of leaving the ‘true’ gospels (what’s actually happening as opposed to what happened before Cas’s time-travel) in a safety deposit box in a bank to the ‘tin dispatch box’ that Watson mentions in some of the Sherlock Holmes stories.
  • Learning that there can only be one Prophet active at a time prompts Dean to compare them to Slayers, although Castiel naturally doesn’t get the reference.
  • When Dean mentions time travel in police boxes as a possibility, Sam is surprised that his brother watches Doctor Who.
• Spared by the Adaptation:
  • Henricksen and everyone else involved in the siege of the police station survive the siege when Castiel warns them to leave before Lilith returns.
  • While the show would later establish that Jimmy has basically been dead since Castiel was blown apart, here Jimmy is shown to still be occasionally conscious within Castiel, to the point that he briefly takes control of their shared body after Castiel is weakened by Naomi’s angels.
  • Deanna Campbell lives into the present after Dean stops Azazel killing her and Samuel in 1973 (although Samuel dies in the fire that killed Mary).
  • Henry escapes Abaddon with Jimmy and his grandsons.
• Split Personality: Arguably applies to Castiel, as he spends some time communicating with the soul of his vessel, Jimmy Novak, even if Jimmy remains dormant in him most of the time; after meeting his past self, past-Castiel also joins them in Jimmy, with the older Castiel maintaining control and Jimmy’s soul essentially acting as a barrier so that the two Castiels could theoretically take on a separate existence at some future date without accidentally merging into each other.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Where Crowley was the more ‘dominant’ party in this dynamic with the Winchesters in the show, Castiel’s advance knowledge of Crowley’s ambitions mean that he is more often caught off-guard by the Winchesters, frustrated that he has to operate on their terms to prevent the Apocalypse and ensure his own rise to power.
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • Castiel confirms that God ‘promoted’ him when he brought Castiel back to life after Lucifer’s defeat, so that he is basically operating just a little bit below the level of an archangel.
  • Due to Castiel’s new dual nature as an angel and a pagan god, his bond with Dean has essentially turned Dean into his champion, giving Dean a degree of enhanced strength and resistance to other supernatural influences, to the point that he was briefly able to fight off Azazel’s power in 1973, and Castiel speculates that Dean would have recovered from being turned into a vampire on his own so long as he didn’t drink blood.
• Tragic Monster: After the events of “Family Remains”, Castiel comes to Dean so that Dean can vent his frustration at how humans can do something that monstrous, with Castiel recognising in turn that Dean doesn’t want to hear anything about God’s ‘mysterious ways’.
• Tricked Out Time: Referenced; where past attempts to change history with time travel in the show were thwarted because they tried to make one big change and hope for the best, Castiel takes steps to increase his own chances of success as he simply makes more gradual changes stemming from his original actions in the past, with most of the Winchesters’ non-apocalypse-themed hunts unfolding as they did before (although Cas does take steps to ensure someone else is available to deal with the Sandover Bridge & Iron Company haunting).
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • During the police station siege, Castiel points out to Sam that he was actually prepared to attempt a spell that would involve him killing an innocent woman and cutting out her heart based on the word of a demon, which prompts Sam to get over Ruby’s attempts to manipulate him.
  • When Dean and Sam learn that Travis was going to kill Michelle because she’s pregnant with Jack’s child, Dean informs Travis that they won’t be party to him killing an unborn baby and its innocent mother.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: Dean wasn’t keen on the idea of becoming immortal even before he saw how Bela reacted to seeing Doc Benton on a spiritual plane, concluding that it wasn’t worth becoming immortal if he becomes something that terrifying to one of the coldest women he’s ever met.
• Would Hurt a Child: While Travis claims he wouldn’t do this to justify him not killing Jack Montgomery when he was an infant, Dean informs him that it’s just as sick that he’s willing to kill Jack’s unborn baby while it’s still in the womb, particularly since doing that would also kill its completely human mother.