Fragmented Souls

There exist here and there, in the forgotten cracks of the world, tiny fragments of Dean’s soul. Six years later, when Sam comes back, he’s different and broken, and Dean understands. Broken things recognize broken things.The dynamic between the consciousness and the soul. The person who once used to be and the thing their spirit became when they refused to follow a reaper and cross over peacefully, the way Sam says he can "feel" his brother, even when Dean is dying in another room—because his soul is lingering nearby. Bobby's determination to return his soul from its mindmaze to his body just long enough to give a message to the people who matter most to him in the world. The soul is a tether, and the people whose souls we meet are bound to their soul and yet largely unaware of it until it goes missing or until it's all that's left.