The Universe's Mixer

Castiel had been pondering the object in the sky which he could not reach out to, could not move to. It was odd to be restricted from someplace he was looking at, a discontenting feeling that he got whenever he was barred from a place, but usually it was just a building or a room with a seal on it. Something he could at least identify from outside. The object in the sky was posing a real mystery to the angel, and he didn't care for it very much.

He'd meant to return to the lake where he'd talked to Piotr, a new favorite thinking spot of his, when he felt a tremendous force take hold of him and he appeared... elsewhere. The angel's first instinct was to try to teleport again, to go where he was intended. But then he stopped himself, because where he was now was utterly unlike anyplace he'd gone before.

First of all it was a city, and not one of the dilapidated, ruin cities of the dead world he'd been on for a while, but instead a modern looking, enormous city. Secondly it was full to capacity, there were people everywhere. And third... it was different. Alive. Quite possibly the whatever had taken him from his intended journey and landed him here. The people were different too, even more so than the people of the dead world. They were duller, somehow, lacking the inner life most humans had. Most of them walked or drove by, altering course slightly to avoid the man that had just appeared on the curb of a busy street. Nobody looked at him directly, though, instead going on with their days as determinedly as most did in the bigger cities back on Castiel's original Earth.

The angel looked around, then cautiously tried to teleport back to die Festung, to find Dean or Sam. It didn't work, however, and he frowned. Had he been brought someplace else? Where the Winchesters brought here as well? There was no way to check unless they called for him; the protective wards on their ribcages hid them from him. But if they were suddenly brought someplace new chances were they'd call for the angel to see if he was here as well. Not out of concern, but in order to see what he knew of where they were.

Either way, it would seem that once more a being greater than Castiel had decided he should be elsewhere. Castiel was used to his life being governed by others greater than him, but at least when it was his brothers had told him he why and where to wherever they sent him away. He was getting uneasy with all of the silent pushing around that seemed to be going on.

Being long lived doesn't mean you've seen and done it all. It just makes it more likely that you have come close. At least have seen more than most beings. The universe doesn't like to show all of its cards, especially the ones up its sleeves. Alternate realities, tributaries from the time stream and the like. It might be physically impossible for any one life form to have literally seen and done everything there is to do in the vast plane of existence. Captain Jack Harkness was no exception regardless of what his bravado might suggest, and he was getting mighty tired of the universe driving that point home.

One minute he was strolling down the broken down streets of die Festung on his way to a favorite pub, the next his world turned inside out, shunted sideways then spat him out of the tumble setting. How he hadn't come to consciousness on his ass wasn't something he was particularly concerned about. What was was where the hell was he now?

Looking around himself with a perplexed frown on his face he immediately assessed his surroundings. The buildings, cars, technology in the hands of people walking past him on the sidewalk all seemed to indicate Earth standard, late twentieth century, maybe early twenty first. From a time traveler's standpoint who didn't have a functioning vortex watch it was difficult to tell for certain. At least he assumed his watch still wasn't working. Jack flipped open the cover guard to check only to find that instead of the solid red light that indicated a full charge but a technical malfunction the read out was going haywire. Dates, times and charts were cycling randomly with no rhyme or reason. Great. It was more of a tease than before.

Jack closed the watch then let his arm fall as he looked around again. Everything looked Earth like, but he didn't recognize the city, and he knew he'd been to every city on the planet that could match this size. Which meant this could possibly be an alternate reality. One of those tributaries. If that were the case, then all he'd have to do is hang out, wait for the parking brake of the TARDIS to wheeze and whine its arrival then he could hitch a ride with the Doctor. The Time Lord didn't like tributaries in time. They tended to muck things up too much in the time vortex to the point of possibly blending with other tributaries. If that happened too often it got really messy. Meanwhile, he figure he could always wander and try to figure out where he was.

"Hopefully this isn't a probability that didn't believe in bars."

He wouldn't have been able to say what happened if he was asked. Quite frankly, he had no idea. One moment he was entering a hole in the wall in die Festung to sit down and nibble at food he had absolutely no interest in, pondering the blood of the woman he'd attacked and the curse she'd placed upon him, and the next, he was walking into a door.

Actually walking into it.

His head contacted the wood, and he looked around, confused. Lost. The smell was antiseptic. A smell he had become very familiar with. Bleach and ammonia to cover the scent of death and disease. The world he'd been living on did not have facilities such as these.

What's more, when he turned around, Aidan discovered that he was in blood storage. Surrounded by bags of the stuff. His instincts hit him quickly, and before he could stop himself, he was chewing through heavy plastic. When the cool blood hit his tongue, the pain that had been promised him ripped through his body. But he couldn't stop. He'd been without fresh supply for so long. The woman's had been strong, it had lasted him several days, but in the end, he'd drunk live. Live was always harder to quit. A stronger pull.

So he doubled over in pain, but pulled down several more bags with him to consume on the floor. Aidan pushed the plastic against his mouth to keep himself from crying out or screaming, but there was nothing to do to stop the tears that sprang to his eyes. It hurt so badly, yet at the same time, his system was happy with him. His hunger and need satisfied. It was enough that Aidan continued to drink despite the pain until he was ten bags down.

Able to relax some, he rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling, content to lay there forever. Until he heard voices. This caused a panic, and he was up in a hurry. Picking up the empty receptacles and full ones, shoving them into an emergency transport container until the thing was almost too full to close. He wiped his face with his shirt and used his jacket to cover it up.

Blood drunk, but still able to sense he'd be in a lot of trouble and with enough wits to get himself out of the hospital, Aidan pushed the door open and made a break for the waiting room. He wasn't questioned until he was to the front doors, and by then it was already too late. He had what he wanted and he was free.

Only then did he take time to wonder about the place he'd been put.

Dinah had spent most of her time in the postapocalyptic world recovering from her injuries. It was irritating to be sidelined like that, especially in a place that so clearly needed help. She had also spent quite a bit of the time trying to deal with the idea that she might not get back to the City.

She wasn't sure if she could keep losing people. First Jake and now Dean, Zatanna, Fred, Jennifer, and everyone else that she had come to care about in the City.

So when the Earth shook and she suddenly found her somewhere else again, it took Dinah's mind a few minutes to catch up. Once she saw the moving streets, she couldn't help but grin.

It was strange to think of the City as home, but it had become that over the last year and a half. And the apartment over Sherwood Florist had truly become a home lately.

Dinah turned and set off in search of that home, hoping to find her boyfriend right where she'd left him.

It was fortunate and a moment of relief when Ted discovered himself back in the City. He had had enough of the place he'd been put, and was ready to return to the oddness and moving streets. That he could handle. Apocalypse, he wasn't too gung ho for.

It was unfortunate that he returned without Jo by his side. No way of knowing if she was alright either, other than calling her number, leaving a message and sending a quick text right after. Which he did. Ted knew that in some places where call service didn't work, the short burst of a text would get through. If she wasn't in the City, maybe she could still get it. Of course, if she was back as well, hopefully she'd take it as worry and not him being some crazy stalker.

The only thing he could think to do immediately was to return to Charlie and the horse and the house. He'd learned that he had many things to tell his friend, and he wanted to see if Charlie had gone to the other place, too.

Ted found the door unlocked - as usual - and immediately headed up the stairs.