A/N: This fic is for WhiteWolfPrincess95, who wanted to see the guys get turned into dogs... she also wanted some creepy Lucifer, and some awesome Gabriel, so hopefully all of the above elements have been worked in to her satisfaction. =) This is an AU for season 5, starting sometime after Abandon All Hope but before Hammer of the Gods. No slash, just some family feels =)

I don't own the SPN characters. Shout out to Aini NuFire for her always fantastic beta work! For some seriously adorable kid!Cas feels, check out her story Watch Over Me!

Chapter 1

Dean was a trifle irked.

It was already ten in the morning and there was no sign of Sam. Getting up at the freakin' crack of dawn so they could hit the road as early as possible had been Sam's stupid idea in the first place. He'd wanted to put Eureka, Illinois behind them and keep looking for a way to ditch the archangels for good, so Dean had grudgingly agreed.

But he'd been the first one back from their celebratory night out… and Sam had never come back at all.

"I swear, if this is your idea of a joke," Dean muttered, pacing the dirty motel room as he dialed Sam's cell phone for the fifth time. He stepped over Sam's duffel crumpled on the floor, navigated around the bed that his brother hadn't slept in, and hoped he was just overreacting.

Three rings… five… ten… finally Sam's voicemail picked up, and Dean wanted to scream in frustration.

"Sam, where the hell are you?" he demanded into the phone as soon as it beeped. He turned, pacing back the other way, checking out the window almost by instinct as he did so. The dingy glass muted the cheerful sunlight outside but offered a clear view of the parking lot—no Sam. "What, you hook up last night after I left? Dude, this isn't cool! I don't care if you get some now and then. Hell, you should do it more often. But I dragged my ass in early because you wanted to get out, and now you're not here. Staying out all night is my bit. Call me back, right now."

Click.

Dean chucked the phone over to the bed, stormed over to the coffeepot sitting on the motel counter, then changed his mind and hurried back to pick the phone up again, in case Sam called back right away.

He knew he needed to chill out. After all, they'd cleared up their most recent shifter case in record time. Dean himself had met the cutest little firecracker at the bar—and oh, what a night—and Sam had surely done the same. There was no reason to believe a demon (or worse, Lucifer himself) had gotten to him.

Still, Dean couldn't help but check his phone one more time, then let his eyes fall on Sam's unpacked duffel; Sam never ignored his calls.

"Screw this." Dean snatched Sam's laptop off the faded white bedsheets and sat down. They'd needed to track each other down often enough that the website to locate a GPS was a bookmarked page that he could access easily. As long as Sam's phone was on, Dean would be able to find him. If the phone was off… well, the hunter hated to bother Cas, currently off on business of his own, but if it came down to it, he knew the angel would drop everything to come help.

Which was why Dean had no intention of asking unless he didn't have any other choice.

"Come on, come on…" Dean waited for the site to load, fingers drumming on the keyboard as his foot tapped out a matching rhythm. "Finally."

It was the work of a minute to punch in the necessary information, and then a map filled the screen, zooming in a layer at a time as it tracked Sam's GPS. Dean's eyes narrowed, leaning in, waiting for the final result. When it finished, he sat back with a sigh of relief and then an irritated growl.

"Still in town… Sam, I swear to god…"

The address wasn't even that far from the motel, Dean realized with a deeper glower. He'd gotten all worried for nothing; it looked like just a house, which meant Sam had hooked up the night before. Mentally swearing to kick his kid brother's ass, Dean snatched the car keys off the table and hurried for the Impala.

The drive was a short one. Less than ten minutes later, Dean was pulling up to the curb beside a small but nice looking house at the very end of a cul-de-sac. The hunter sat for a moment, appraising the place—just to be sure—but nothing jumped out at him as demonic or monster-ish. Just a house.

Grumbling under his breath, Dean honked the horn and glared at the door, waiting for his brother to come stumbling out with what had better be a good excuse.

"This chick better have been worth it," Dean snapped to the empty passenger seat, blowing the horn again when Sam didn't immediately appear. Other than a dog barking from somewhere inside, though, there was no movement or response.

Dean frowned. "Okay, you want to do this the hard way?" If Sam thought he wouldn't come right to the door and embarrass the hell out of him, he'd have to think again. Unbuckling, Dean got out of the Impala, storming up to the porch and mashing the doorbell. He heard the barking intensify from inside, but after two minutes of waiting, there was no other response.

"What the hell…" Dean banged on the door now, trying to ignore a growing knot of tension in his stomach. They must just be completely out of it after a really good night, that was all. Yeah. There was nothing to worry about.

Despite the fact that Sam was as light of a sleeper as Dean was, and couldn't possibly be snoozing through this.

"What the hell, did you go out for friggin' coffee?" Jerking out his lock-pick set, the hunter fiddled with the doorknob for a moment, then straightened with a satisfied smirk as the door swung open to let him in. "Sam!" he shouted to announce his presence, reaching a hand back to settle on the gun he kept tucked into his waistband—just in case. "Hey! You here?"

The only response was more barking and the sound of scratching on metal from somewhere inside. At least it sounded like the dog was penned, and probably it wasn't happy about an intruder, but that wasn't Dean's problem. Why wasn't the owner coming to see what was wrong? The hunter made his way through the front hall and into the living room, where a large wire kennel was set up in the corner.

A large, honey colored Golden Retriever was pressed against the kennel door, scrabbling like mad as it barked and whined non-stop. Dean gave it a look, then shook his head.

"Dogs," he muttered, before pausing; there, on the coffee table. That was Sam's phone sitting on the glass panel.

The hunter frowned, continuing on in search of the bedroom. Even for them, this was ridiculously invasive and Dean knew it… but a small voice in the back of his mind kept whispering that something had to be wrong. Sam should have appeared by now. Why was his phone here, if the young hunter himself wasn't? Sam didn't do things like this. He never had.

The house wasn't that big, though, and it took less than two minutes for Dean to irrefutably determine that he was, in fact, alone.

Maybe Sam had gone out for coffee… yeah. That was it. No need for Dean's heart to be pounding with multiplying anxiety. "Damn it!" he snapped, stepping back into the living room. "Sam, where the hell are you?"

There was a huff from the wire crate, and then the dog whined again. Dean turned to glare at the animal, then blinked when it suddenly raised one furry front paw.

"Does it look like I have any treats to give you?" Dean grumbled, spreading his arms. The dog lowered its paw and barked again, two short, deliberate barks. Despite his dislike for dogs, Dean couldn't help but snicker. "What is this, one for yes, two for no?"

One bark.

This time, Dean paused, a tingle in the back of his neck that he didn't at all enjoy. He and the dog stared at each other, and the animal was being far too intense about it.

"Don't suppose you've seen my brother, have you?" he asked, holding a hand up over his head to indicate Sam's height as he took a step closer to the cage. "Tall, dorky, pain in my ass?"

The dog barked once, but not before shooting Dean a look that the hunter would have sworn was a bitch-face, if that were even possible in a dog. It reminded him so much of Sam that he almost wondered-

Dean let out a sharp burst of laughter and shook his head to end that ridiculous train of thought.

"Nah," he decided. "There's no way. You know, for a second there, you kind of looked like Sammy."

And damn it all, if the dog didn't roll its friggin' eyes. With one more impatient bark, it raised a paw again, and that was all it took to send Dean lurching towards the kennel. He fell to his knees in front of the door, hands resting on the wire lid as he demanded,

"Sammy?"

The dog went nuts, booming woofs hurting Dean's ears as it—he—scrabbled at the wire door locking him in. Dean swore, jerking the latch of the pen free and throwing the door open, only to be bowled over by a massive golden form.

"What the hell happened?" Dean shouted, struggling to push the animal off of him. No, damn it, not 'the animal', his brother! "Sam! What happened? Is it a witch? I hate witches! Where is she? Dude, calm down!"

Not that he was being particularly calm himself! His brother was a dog. How did these things even happen to them!? Finally managing to get a clearly panicking Sam off of him, Dean jerked his cell phone out of his jeans' pocket. He hadn't wanted to bother Cas with this, but damn it!

"Dean." Cas's voice was distracted but he'd picked up after only two rings. "I got your message last night. The shifter is dead?"

"Yeah," Dean snapped, the case they'd just finished already driven from his mind by the more pressing problem. "Look, I know you're off trying to find Gabriel-"

"Dean, I've told you several times now that I appreciate the offer to help, but this is something I need to do-"

"-On your own, yeah, I got it, Cas. This isn't about that. I know you're busy but I think something's gone really wrong."

"Wrong?"

Even over the phone, Dean could hear Cas's concern; he could almost see the angel stopping in his tracks, prepared to drop everything—once again—in order to help them. Damn, he wished things hadn't resorted to that, but Sam was licking Dean's hand. This couldn't wait.

"Not like… you know, Lucifer wrong," the hunter assured his friend, pushing Sam's muzzle away and wiping his hand off on his jeans. "Look, we're at… um…" Scrabbling to find the bit of paper he'd written the address down on, Dean relayed the information to Cas. He'd barely finished when there was a feather-light flapping of wings, and the angel was there.

"Yes, I've found you," Cas said into the phone, voice solemn and expression intense.

Dean rolled his eyes. "Uh-huh," he grumbled, hanging up and stepping forward. "Cas, we got a problem."

The angel's gaze was already sweeping the living room with a prepared wariness, but he paused as his eyes lit on the Golden Retriever. Cas frowned and tilted his head.

"Why is Sam a dog?"

Padding closer to sniff the angel, Sam started whining again in obvious distress, while Dean felt his heart sink.

"You can tell it's him?"

"Of course," Cas answered, destroying Dean's last hope. He himself might have been wrong, and it could have been just a crazy coincidence after all, and this wasn't actually his brother in dog form. But if Cas said that it was, then it was.

"Well, this is just friggin' fantastic!" Dean snapped, turning his back and running a hand through his hair. "So, what, are we looking at a witch? Is this a spell? Some kind of curse? What?"

Sam barked, sounding frantic, as the angel listened and nodded.

"Hmm. He doesn't know. He just woke up like this."

Dean was about to make a smart remark about how Cas could possibly know that, then thought better of it. So the angel could understand animals. Why was he even surprised? "Fine, more important question: can you turn him back?"

"I can try," Cas replied, shifting as though about to reach for Sam, but a loud bang made them whirl around. In the doorway, a woman stood with hands on hips and an eyebrow arched. Sam's barking intensified, interspersed with whines and growls. Dean didn't need the angel's ability to talk to dogs to know that his brother was pointing out the culprit, and he'd drawn his gun before anyone else had time to move.

"Who the hell are you?" he demanded, the blonde's forehead directly in his crosshairs. She didn't seem frightened or surprised, merely turned her haughty look his way.

"I could ask you the same," she said. "This is my home, after all. You're the intruder."

Beside him, the angel straightened. "Ah… of course…" he said, exasperatingly calm given the situation.

"Of course what?" Dean snapped. "You know her?"

"We've never met in person, but yes," Cas explained with a shrug, as the woman began to smile. "This certainly explains a lot."

"Hello, angel," the woman greeted him, smirking. "I must admit, I thought it would take longer for you to show up. So you know who I am, do you?"

"I do… Circe."

The woman's smirk widened, obviously a confirmation, but Dean felt as lost as ever. Sam whimpered, taking a step back closer to his brother, which wasn't exactly a reassuring sign. The hunter narrowed his eyes. "That supposed to mean something to me?"

"She's a Greek goddess," Cas said, eyes not leaving the woman. Dean saw the angel's hand twitch as though about to draw his blade. "Well known for turning her lovers into animals."

Together, he and Dean looked down at Sam, who whined and ducked his head. Dean shook his head, snorting with impatience. "Damn it, you sure know how to pick 'em, Sammy. Alright, lady, turn him back. Now!"

"Oh, sorry, Dean. That's not going to happen."

"Dean," Cas murmured, tensing even more, but the hunter was already taking a step towards the goddess, and his face was turning dark.

"Oh, believe me, it's going to happen."

"Dean-"

"The question is," the hunter barreled on, ignoring Cas, "do you want to do it the easy way, or the hard way?"

For a moment, Circe just stared at Dean, chin tipping ever so slightly as she appraised him, and then she began to laugh. It was hardly the reaction that the hunter had been hoping for. He frowned, cocking his gun to show her that he meant business, even though he doubted a bullet would do much good against a goddess. It'd feel damn satisfying, though, and should give Cas enough time to fly over there and smite the hell out of her.

"You know," Circe said, still laughing, "I do believe the young lion is serious! Come now, little Lionheart. Did you honestly believe I wasn't prepared for the possibility of you showing up here? Or your ever faithful angel?"

What? Dean straightened slightly, glare deepening. "What the hell are you talking about? How did you..."

He trailed off then, eyes sliding over to Cas. The warrior angel was watching Circe, his own blue gaze tight and wary. "She knows who we are, Dean. This was a trap."

Well, that was just great. Dean's grip on his gun tightened, but Circe ignored him, snapping her fingers. "Come here, Sam."

"You really think he's going to listen to-" Dean broke off in mid-sentence as Sam bounded forward, the Golden Retriever coming to a stop beside Circe. The dog yelped as he sat down, sounding distinctly pained as he looked over his furry shoulder at Dean with pleading eyes. "What the- Sam! Get back here, damn it! Come here, boy!"

…had he just called his brother over like a dog?

"Sam, stay."

Sam didn't move. He yelped again, head ducking as his back rounded in obvious anxiety. Dean's jaw tightened as he realized that his brother wanted to come back towards him, but couldn't.

"He doesn't get a choice," Circe confirmed with a shrug. "He'll do anything I tell him to." She paused, smiled wider, then added, "Including jump in front of a train… or rip your throat out. He won't be able to stop."

There was a low growl now, slowly building into a snarl. Dean could see Sam's hackles rising as his lip curled to show his teeth, making it clear what he thought about Circe's words. Cas, however, hadn't said anything, and when Dean shot him a look, the angel met his eyes with a grim expression which silently confirmed what Circe was saying. Okay… this was bad.

"If you hurt him-" he started with a furious glare, but the goddess cut him off.

"I'd rather not, personally. Sam's way too adorable like this. Imagine my surprise when the infamous vessel of Lucifer walked into that bar last night. Oh, yes, I know all about it," Circe added, stony and cold as Cas made a sound of surprised displeasure. "The entire Pantheon does. And I have to tell you, I'm not thrilled. If those arrogant archangels think we're just going to sit by and let them have this world…"

She trailed off with a clear threat, snorting in dark amusement and shaking her head. Cas bristled, snapping,

"We're fighting the archangels, too! If you're trying to keep Sam away from Lucifer, rest assured, we're doing the same. You can release him. We won't allow the Apocalypse to happen."

"Hah. You think you can hold them off forever on your own?" Circe asked with a snort. "He'll give in eventually, I'm sure of it. That's why it was such a stroke of luck to find him. Originally, the plan was just to keep Sam out of the way so Lucifer couldn't use him, and that was that. But here's a hunter and an angel, and it's occurred to me how useful it could be to have some of those on the payroll. After all… you don't want anything happening to dear Sammy, right?"

"Why you-" Dean started, lurching forward in fury at the threat.

"Ah, ah…" Circe held her hand up, prepared to snap her fingers, and there was no way of knowing what order she might give Sam. Dean couldn't have reached his brother before she did, which made any move on his part a futile one. She had them by the balls, damn it all. As long as she had Sam, she had all three of them.

So, Dean froze, and the goddess smiled in chilly victory. "Now, that's more like it. So here's the deal. You two, Dean and Castiel, are going to work for me, and Sam here is going to stay by my side at all times as leverage, just in case you get any ideas. We're going to-"

"Cas," Dean prayed with all his might while Circe rambled on, hoping the angel could hear him, never sure how exactly this praying thing worked. "We need to get Sam out of here. She's holding all the cards, man. You've got to fly him out."

Cas's eyes flicked briefly towards him, a flash of reassurance in the bright blue. Dean took that to mean that he'd heard the prayer. The goddess was still going on—and she was nuts if she thought they would ever take orders from her—but Cas had crouched slightly in preparation to move. Dean kept his face as blank as possible, giving nothing away. Their angel was the fastest there had ever been; she'd never even see it coming.

Everything happened at once. Cas moved like lightning. Dean couldn't even follow the angel's track as he flew forward, grabbing Sam. There was a shriek, a hand falling on Dean's arm as Cas snagged him as well to fly him to safety, and then a flash of light.

Dean felt the swooping sensation in the pit of his stomach, the nauseating, disconcerting feel of flying via angel, but it only lasted for a second and ended with a streak of pain. It was like something else had grabbed hold of him, stopping him mid-flight, yanking him back in. Dean tried to yell, but no sound emerged; from somewhere nearby, Sam yelped in surprise, and then there was another flash.

The ground hit him hard. For a moment, Dean just stayed down, breathing hard. Slowly, he managed to pry his eyes open. That was when he realized that something had just gone very wrong…