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Crawling out of his own grave was probably the most unpleasant thing Castiel had ever done. Once he was out of the wooden coffin and then the mud and muck that kept increasing due to the copious rain pouring from the sky, he settled slumped against the headstone, unsure what to do. Mud sucked at his clothing and bare skin, threatening to pull him back down again. Thunder rumbled ominously above him and the rain continued on, oblivious to his predicament.
"You okay?" The sudden voice startled Castiel and his head jerked up to see a tall figure standing a few feet away. Rain had plastered the newcomer's floppy brown hair against his face and hazel eyes stared at Castiel with concern but not curiosity despite the fact that he was lying on top of a torn open grave and covered in muck.
"Yeah," he replied, letting out a soft sigh. "Where am I?"
"Just outside of Prescott, Michigan," the young man replied. "Not far from the Upper Peninsula." A while to Bobby's then, and if Castiel was lucky then Gabriel would actually be at the older hunter's house and not wandering around killing things in a suicidal rampage. His older brother had always insisted that it was his duty to protect Castiel and he couldn't have been dealing well with what Castiel knew he perceived as a failure.
"Can you-" His voice cracked, hoarse either from lack of use or all the screaming he'd done in Hell, and the young man handed over a water bottle. Castiel muttered a thank you a took a couple drinks before trying again. "Can you give me a ride into town?"
"I can," the young man said, offering Castiel a hand. He took it, not sure if he'd be able to stand up. "I'm Sam by the way."
"Castiel," he replied, allowing Sam to help him back to the truck. It was only once Sam had started driving that Castiel realized he didn't even know if Sam was human. He didn't have anything with him to test the young man besides his brain and there was only one thing he could test for that way. "Christo," he muttered and then scrambled for the door handle when Sam flinched, eyes turning inky demon black. Sam slammed on the brakes as Castiel lunged out the door and black eyes turned to him. "What do you want?" Castiel managed to get out, realizing how helpless he was at the moment, and Sam looked down. When he glanced back up the demon's eyes were a soft hazel.
"I'm just making sure you get back to where ever you are going safely," the demon said, sounding strangely sincere. "Because he left you in the middle of nowhere. Typical," was added in a tone so soft Castiel was sure he wasn't supposed to hear it. Castiel hesitated, considering his options. He could either let the demon take him into town and hope the creature didn't kill him or he could walk, if he could stay on his feet and hope something else didn't come along and kill him. Even now he could feel himself swaying with exhaustion, his newly revived body nowhere near as strong as it had been. "You can walk if you want," Sam spoke up suddenly, sounding resigned. "I'm not going to stop you." And somehow that simple statement made up Castiel's mind. He climbed back into the truck and shut the door firmly behind him. "Are you sure?" Sam questioned hesitantly and Castiel nodded resolutely. The rest of the drive to Prescott was silent. Castiel kept shooting glances at the demon, expecting him to do something, but the demon didn't so much as glance in his direction.
Sam stopped the truck on the main street of the town and Castiel climbed out, about to shut the door, and then paused and turned back. "Thank you Sam," he said and watched as the demon's eyes suddenly flared black and widened with shock. He shut the door and headed for an ancient phone booth, fumbling in his pockets for spare change. He wasn't surprised to find that his pockets were empty. He changed tracks, heading for the tiny local café instead. Maybe someone inside would let him use their phone.
"You have someone to take you away from here?" Sam called after him, stopping Castiel in the middle of the empty road.
"I think so," he managed uncertainly and Sam nodded but he didn't move the truck. Castiel turned back and walked into the café, bell tinkling dustily above him. "Hello?" he called uncertainly into the room but no one answered. Warily he walked across the room to the back wall where a phone hung. He picked it up and let out a relieved sigh when he heard the dial tone. He dialed Bobby Singer's number from memory. Bobby had always been like a second father to Castiel and his older brother Gabriel.
"Singer Salvage," Bobby's rough voice answered and Castiel had to take a moment to choke down unexpected tears.
"Hi Bobby," he said, his voice slightly choked still. "It's me."
"Me who?" Bobby demanded, voice sharp and wary.
"Castiel Novak," he answered and then froze as Bobby hung up on him. He dialed again, feeling a sudden warning prickle on his back. He tried to ignore the warning and listened instead to the phone ringing. That was a mistake. Something slammed into Castiel's back and he went flying into the wall with a choked cry of surprise. He tried to thrash upright, gasping when he saw the mouth of the goblin and smelled the stench of rotted meat on its breath. It lunged forward, close enough that Castiel could see the dried blood on its teeth, and was suddenly yanked back and thrown into the far wall. It yowled and Sam growled at it, a low animalistic sound that chilled Castiel to the bone. He stumbled to his feet and Sam turned slightly toward him, taking black eyes off the goblin for a moment.
"Get out of here," the demon ordered. "The keys are in the truck. Take it and go!"
"But what about you?" Castiel demanded even as Sam turned and growled at the goblin that had just been joined by another. Sam's head snapped around and for a moment Castiel was rewarded with another surprised look. Then he got a shockingly blinding smile.
"Don't worry. I can take care of myself. Now go!" Castiel went. He did look back once, in time to see several goblins lunge at the demon and take him down only to have Sam throw them off. Reassured that the demon could take care of itself, Castiel ran the rest of the way to the truck and didn't look back again.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Bobby Singer had seen a lot since he'd become a hunter. He'd watched his wife Karen die because he couldn't save her, seen monsters that belonged in nightmares, and helped raise the two Novak boys. However he could safely say he'd never seen anything like this. Twenty-six year old Castiel Novak, dead for four months because of a demon deal, was sitting at his kitchen table. It was the real Castiel, not a demon or revenant or shifter, Bobby had damn well made sure of that, but there was no explanation for how he was sitting there. Castiel had no explanation either, along with no memories from Hell. Now the two of them were sitting drinking coffee and waiting for Gabriel, two years Castiel's elder, to return from an errand he was running for Bobby.
"How is Gabriel?" Castiel asked after a long moment of silence. Silence was fairly standard around Castiel. The younger Novak had a tendency towards silence and self containment as his way of coping with the hunting lifestyle while Gabriel tended toward womanizing, drinking, and pretending nothing was wrong.
"He's still alive and kicking if that's what you're asking," Bobby said. "Drinking a lot but he's not on self destruct anymore. The first month I thought he was going to kill himself. He'd go out hunting drunk and come back covered in his own blood. It was all I could do put him back together and get him to rest until he was mostly healed. Then he came back early the second month one night stone cold sober and scared out of his mind. Said he was hunting a werewolf when the thing cornered him. He said he thought he was going to die when something threw the werewolf away. Gabriel claims it was a demon, even goes as far as to say it spoke to him though he won't specify what it said." Bobby paused and then stood, going for something stronger. "Whatever happened that night, it turned him around. He stopped digging through the obscure rituals, stopped trying to make demon deals, stopped drinking before hunting, stopped being suicidal. He's been working for me or with me mostly. Only other thing is that he keeps insisting you'd be back. I didn't believe him until now though."
The rumble of a coming vehicle silenced any more questions Castiel may have had and Bobby placed the unopened bottle of scotch on the counter before heading for the door. He knew if the situation was reversed he would have had to tell Gabriel not to do anything stupid but Castiel was more reserved than his impulsive older brother. Gabriel went through the usual tests without compliant but Bobby still kept him blocked at the door. "Something wrong?" the twenty-eight year old asked, face confused.
"I have news," Bobby said, struggling with how to word the truth. "About your brother." The older hunter wasn't prepared for the flash of hope and desperation that overwhelmed Gabriel's features for a long minute before the younger man got it under control.
"What is it?" Gabriel asked rapidly, hardly pausing for breath. "Is he out? What have you heard?"
"Come with me," Bobby said, careful to keep his tone and expression neutral. "And don't freak out, okay?" Gabriel's expression turned blank in an instant and the older Novak nodded, following Bobby into the kitchen. Then Gabriel froze.
"Cassie? Is that you?"
"I've asked you not to call me that," Castiel said flatly and Gabriel choked on air.
"Did you- Is it really-"
"I checked Gabe," Bobby reassured the younger hunter. "It's really him." Gabriel began to grin, lunging forward and snatching his younger brother up in a hug.
"Gabriel," Castiel complained as his brother spun him around and around in the air. "Put me down."
"Sorry Cassie," Gabriel all but chirped, placing his younger brother back into his seat. "I'm just ever so glad to have you back finally."
"Finally," Castiel asked, blue eyed gaze sharpening. "What do you mean finally?" Gabriel deflated at that, sinking down into Bobby's abandoned chair and allowing his gaze to rove around the kitchen, landing it squarely on the bottle of scotch.
"Mind pouring that Bobby?" he asked and the older hunter nodded, pulling out glasses. "I suppose Bobby already gave you a good idea of what I was like the first month when you were gone."
"He mentioned that you were suicidal," Castiel said flatly and Gabriel winced.
"Yeah. Anyways, I was hunting a werewolf. Maybe doing it a little drunk wasn't my best idea because somehow the thing cornered me. I thought I was going to die. Thought I was going to join you." Castiel winced at that as Bobby handed Gabriel his drink. The older Novak drank his shot in one swallow, eyes watering slightly at the burn. Castiel reached over tentatively placed a hand on his older brother's shoulder. Gabriel smiled weakly at his brother and continued. "Then this human tossed it off me, at least I thought it was a human at the time. Threw it and growled and scared it off. I thought I was dead then. And it turned around and had black eyes."
Gabriel paused, motioning for Bobby to refill his glass. Castiel tightened his grip momentarily on his older brother's shoulder as Bobby did what was indicated to him and Gabriel drank before continuing. "It said not to be afraid. That it wasn't here to hurt me. Then it said, and I quote, 'Castiel will come home soon.' Next thing I know I'm waking up stone cold sober in my car. Since then I've just been waiting for you to show up."
"I'm back now," Castiel said softly. "I don't know how but I am back."
"I think I know a way to find out," Bobby spoke up suddenly. "Pamela Barnes. She's an old friend of mine and a damn psychic. She might be able to get a reading and tell us what pulled Cas out of Hell. I'll call her and tell her to expect us. You two can catch up." Then Bobby stood and headed into the next room, taking the bottle with him.
"Hey!" Gabriel yelled halfheartedly. "Leave the scotch!"
"Not a chance!" Bobby yelled back and Gabriel huffed out a laugh before turning to look at his brother.
"So," he drawled. "How was Hell?"
"I, uh," Castiel stammered. "I don't remember anything."
"That's probably an accidental blessing," Gabriel said with a snort. "So, ready to find out who pulled you out? What we're up against?"
"More than ready," Castiel said darkly. "I don't like going in to something blind."
"Course you don't Cassie," Gabriel teased. "Now if you don't mind I'm going to get some sleep."
"Rest well," Castiel called awkwardly after his brother and watched Gabriel's retreating back. Four months left a hell of a gap to catch up on and Castiel wasn't sure he was up for the job.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Pamela Barnes was not what either Novak brother had expected. Having met Missouri Mossely, another powerful psychic, they expected someone prone to harsh swats on the back of the head. Instead they got a squealing woman who practically tackled Bobby with a hug and then ushered them inside the house. Pamela flirted shamelessly at Gabriel as she led them into a sitting room. "You hear anything?" Bobby asked her and she hummed under her breath.
"Well I Oujia'd my way through a dozen spirits. No one seems to know who broke your boy out or why," Pamela informed them, smiling suggestively at Gabriel. He smirked back at her halfheartedly, more of his attention fixed on his younger brother than the woman in front of him. Ordinarily he would be flirting like crazy with Pamela but he'd just gotten his little brother back from Hell and he wasn't entirely sure Castiel was stable.
"So what's next?" Bobby questioned.
"A seance I think," Pamela replied, turning to business for the moment. "See if we can see who did the deed."
"You're not gonna summon the damn thing here," Bobby snapped and Pamela looked taken aback.
"No!" she yelped. "I just want to sneak a peek at it. Like looking at it through a crystal ball without a crystal ball."
"Fine," Castiel said after a moment. Pamela nodded and pulled out a black tablecloth with a pentagram on it, spreading it across a center table. Then she turned and crouched next to a cabinet, revealing a tattoo that said Jesse Forever on her lower back.
"Who's Jesse?" Gabriel could help asking and Pamela smirked at him over her shoulder.
"Well it wasn't forever," she informed him.
"His loss," Gabriel said, wondering if Jesse had left because he couldn't handle psychic Pamela or whether he just couldn't handle Pamela.
"Might be your gain," Pamela said with a suggestive smile. Then she turned back to setting up the table. Minutes later they were all sitting around the table. "Now we need to all hold hands," Pamela told them. "And I need to touch something our mystery monster touched." Gabriel watched as Castiel hesitated a moment and then shed his trenchcoat and unbuttoned the business shirt he always wore to reveal a red raised hand print on the flesh of his left shoulder.
"Will this suffice?" he asked stiffly, the strict language pattern clearly telling his older brother that Castiel was uncomfortable with this whole situation.
"Y-yes," Pamela stammered, clearly uncomfortable with Cas's icy demeanor. She carefully placed her hand on the hand print and closed her eyes. The others followed suit and Pamela began to speak. "I invoke, conjure, and command you, appear unto me before this circle. I invoke, conjure, and command you, appear unto me before this circle. I invoke, conjure, and command you, appear unto me before this circle." Gabriel's eyes snapped open as Pamela's television crackled with static and the radio flipped on. "I invoke, conjure, and command..." She paused and Gabriel stared intently at her. "Dumah? No, sorry Dumah, I don't scare easy."
"Dumah?" Castiel asked, voice wary.
"Its name," Pamela explained, eyes still closed. "It's whispering to me, warning me to turn back." Then her face turned determined. "I conjure and command you, show me your face. I conjure and command you, show me your face. I conjure and command you, show me your face. I conjure and command you, show me your face." The table began to shake and Gabriel felt a wave of unease rush through him.
"Maybe we should stop," Bobby suggested, sounding almost as uneasy as Gabriel felt.
"I almost have it," Pamela snapped, voice stony. "I command you, shoe me your face! Show me your face now!" Then she screamed, eyes blazing with light, and fell backwards out of her chair, breaking the circle.
Bobby lunged to catch her, snapping "Call 9-1-1." Castiel bolted to do as he was bidden, leaving Gabriel to stare in horror at Pamela. Her eyes were gone, leaving only blackened holes behind.
Five miles away from Pamela's home a tall, brown haired figure sitting in an old rusting red Chevy truck stiffened and turned suddenly black eyes toward the field. Sam shoved the truck door open with a squeal of rusted metal and the demon stepped outside, shoes crunching on gravel. "Dumah?" he called hesitantly, taking a step away from the truck. His head turned slowly as he glanced around before warily looking up. Nothing. He took another step and found himself slammed hard against the side of the truck with an angel blade held to his throat.
"What are you doing here?" the angel snarled at him and Sam stared back calmly, allowing his eyes to fade back to hazel.
"Keeping an eye on your Righteous Man since you don't seem to be," he replied and the angel snarled again, pressing the blade close enough to draw blood.
"I do what Heaven commands me to," Dumah replied, voice deadly. "No more and no less." Then he vanished, leaving Sam alone leaning against the truck. Sam stayed there, staring absently up into the sky, until the phone in his pocket buzzed. Sighing he pulled it out and opened it.
"You'd best have good news for me," he informed the demon on the other side. Five miles away Castiel and Gabriel were watching with Bobby Singer as Pamela Barnes was driven away in an ambulance, armed only with a name and new uncertainty.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Gabriel didn't know what had dragged his brother out of Hell but it was powerful. He hadn't seen anything in all his years of hunting that could burn out a psychic's eyes. Now he and Castiel were standing outside Bobby's house on the back porch waiting for news of Pamela. His first instinct is to call Ruby but Ruby is a demon and he and Castiel don't get along very well. "So should we summon this Dumah?" he asked finally, trying to think of anything but Pamela with her eyes burned out of her sockets.
"Probably not," Castiel returned. "At least not yet."
"Agreed," Gabriel said firmly. "I'm grateful as all get out to have you back Cassie but I'm not so eager to meet your savior." Castiel barked out a sharp, almost broken, laugh and the door behind them squeaked open as Bobby came to the porch.
"Pam's stabilized," Bobby told them. "The doctors say she'll make it through. In the meantime I have a hunt for you two."
"Where at?" Cas questioned, sounding as eager to move on and forgot the horrible look of Pamela's empty eye sockets as Gabriel felt.
"A couple hours from here," Bobby said. "In a small town called Whitmore. There's a Woman in White lurking about there killing teenage boys."
"We're on it," Gabriel told him and in an hour they were driving for Whitmore.
The Woman in White was fairly easy to take care of. In life she had been Katherine Daniels but her husband had cheated on her with a younger woman and, unable to take the betrayal, she threw herself off the town's water tower. They salted and burned her remains. Then they ran into the demons. Ruby called Gabriel, insisting that there was a batch of Lilith's underlings in a barn. Gabriel didn't tell Cas that the tip was from Ruby so they went to check it out. There were demons there, three of them with inky black eyes. They were waiting for them. Gabriel would face Ruby's betrayal later when he wasn't being thrown into a wall.
A sudden blaze of light washed across his vision and the demon attacking Gabriel snarled, throwing him aside like he was a child's unwanted doll. There, standing in the entrance to the barn, was a man with blazing green eyes and blonde hair. "Get away from them," he snarled and the demons laughed as he stalked through the middle of them like he was parting the Red Sea. The demons reformed to face him, grinning brilliantly.
"Pretty little angel," one of them wearing a blonde woman in stilettos cooed. The other two laughed, almost rippling with excitement next to her. "And running low too."
"Who are you?" Gabriel heard Cas ask the stranger.
"I'm the one who gripped you tight and raised you from perdition," the man answered, never pausing as he stared at the demons. "I am an angel of the Lord."
"Dumah?" Gabriel mouthed at his younger brother and Castiel shrugged.
"You may call me Dean," the angel added.
"Going by a human name?" the blonde demon mocked. "Debasing yourself for a stupid meatsuit? How sad."
"Get behind me," Dean said and as they obeyed the demon laughed again.Dean stood in front of them, body tense as he glared at the three black eyed demons. Next to Castiel, Gabriel was shifting from foot to foot, ready for action. "Get out," Dean growled at them and the one in the lead laughed.
"Oh darling Dumah," she crooned, pulling the angel's true name out of nowhere." "You have no power to control us nor can you kill us all with your grace so depleted from fixing that one." Dean growled lowly, obviously preparing to fight, when the barn door flung up, revealing a figure silhouetted by moonlight.
"He may not be able to," a familiar dark voice said. "But I can." The demons spun only to be flung aside like useless ragdolls, leaving the woman standing in the middle. "Hello Meg. Miss me?"
"Oh Sammy darling," the demon cooed, backing away from the approaching figure. "I didn't know you were here." Her voice was nervous, an emotion that Castiel had never before associated with a demon.
"And if you're smart you never saw me," the figure growled, stepping into the beam of Gabriel's flashlight to reveal Sam's lithe frame, unmarred by the goblin attack. "You understand?" Meg nodded, gulping nervously as the other demon's stayed pinned against opposite walls. "Now run along like a good little girl." Meg bolted and Sam released the other two demons with a wicked grin. "You too." They bolted too and Sam turned back toward the two hunters and angel, expression calming. "Hello Castiel."
"Sam," he said, inclining his head slightly in greeting, and felt Gabriel stiffen in surprise next to him. Castiel had yet to mention Sam to his older brother, knowing that Gabriel would have completely freaked out over the thought of his little brother being around a demon for an extended period of time.
"Samael," Dean growled in front of them and in the cast of the moonlight Castiel watched as wing shadows spread across the room.
"Dumah," Sam greeted warily, eyes liquid black and body tensed for a fight.
"What are you doing here?" Dean demanded.
"Just checking up on the Righteous Man," Sam said simply. "And saving your ass."
"I didn't need saved," Dean growled and Sam backed up a step, large frame practically trembling with the need to flee.
"Fine then. I wasn't saving you." Sam was trying to sound calm but his voice wavered slightly and he was watching Dean's every moment, looking for any sign of attack.
"Thank you," Castiel cut in and both figures turned to stare at him; Dean in irritation and Sam with that look of surprise again.
"Yeah," Gabriel added, apparently relenting his surprised tension at Sam's look of shock. "Thanks."
"It was no trouble," Sam said softly and Dean snorted.
"What do you want?" the angel demanded. "You never do anything for free."
"You're saying I can't help my brother out of the goodness of my heart?" Sam asked, the sentence half jibe and half genuine hurt.
"I'm not your brother anymore Samael," Dean growled. "And you have no goodness left." Sam flinched, expression hurt, but Dean pressed on. "So get out what you want demon and get going before I give into temptation and smite you." At that Sam rose to his full height and the ground rumbled ominously around them.
"Don't presume to think you can tell me what to do after what you just said," Sam growled and this time it was Dean who flinched. Then Sam turned to Castiel, softening again. "If you ever need my assistance, Righteous Man, call my name and I will come." Then he turned to leave.
"Which name?" Castiel called and the demon paused, turning back with an apologetic smile.
"Samael is fine," Sam said and then turned and vanished.
The instant Sam was gone Dean whirled on Castiel, grabbing two fistfuls of his trench coat. "Promise me you will not, under any circumstance, call Samael. He's dangerous." The angel sounded a strange mixture of fear and determined fury
"I will not promise you," Castiel said calmly and Dean growled, releasing him and whirling on a heel, vanishing with the sounds of feathers. Castiel glanced at Gabriel, trying to read his older brother's reaction. On the surface Gabriel always seemed easy to read but he was just as capable of hiding his emotions as his younger sibling.
"To Bobby's house to research?" Gabriel asked with a smile that reached his amber eyes. Castiel smiled back and nodded. They had work to do.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
"So what have we found out?" Gabriel asked, shoving a dusty tome aside and glancing at his younger brother and surrogate father. "Just to summarize."
"Samael was possibly the archangel of death before he became a demon," Bobby said. "In religious texts he borders between good and evil in every entry."
"But he hasn't hurt any of us yet," Castiel cut in. "He had me helpless when I came back and didn't do anything and this time he saved our lives."
"Does that mean we're considering summoning him?" Gabriel asked, leaning back in his chair and placing his feet on the table only to quickly remove them when Bobby glared at him.
"Yes," Castiel agreed. "But not without the proper warding. If we set up devil's traps and take the correct precautions then summoning him should be no more dangerous than taking out a demon." Gabriel nodded in reluctant agreement.
"I have a barn out back, out of the way," Bobby spoke up suddenly. "You can use that so ya don't wreck my house."
"Thanks Bobby," Gabriel said as his younger brother made a beeline for the door. Bobby just grunted and Gabriel took that as his cue to head after his brother. They covered the barn with every form of protection known to hunters that would work against demons. Then they started the summoning. Castiel's voice was cold and sure as he recited the correct phrases and then all there was left to do was wait. They didn't have to wait long. A surprisingly polite knock on the door announced Sam's presence before the demon stepped inside.
"Castiel," he greeted cordially. "Gabriel." He seemed mostly unperturbed by the guns aimed at him. "How can I assist you?"
"You can step into the devil's trap," Gabriel said coldly. The demon may have just saved their asses but that didn't mean he had to like it.
He had expected the demon to protest or throw them aside but instead Samael simply stepped into the trap, whole stolen body suddenly slumping with a gasp. The demon panted for a moment and then straightened, hazel eyes liquid black now. "Now tell us," Gabriel demanded. "Why are you helping my brother?"
"I am helping your brother because no one should be left as uninformed as Castiel and yet still have the weight of the world placed on his shoulders," Samael explained calmly. "I helped you because you were, a still are, playing directly into the hands of demons and, as a by product, the angels that wish to bring about the apocalypse."
"The apocalypse?" Gabriel repeated. "You mean the Biblical one?"
"That's the basic idea," Sam replied. "A demon named Lilith, the same one that previously held Castiel's contract, is attempting to break sixty-six seals."
"And these seals are?" Castiel asked, taking a wary step to the edge of the devil's trap.
"Think of the seals as locks on a door," Samael said, meeting Castiel's eyes steadily. "There are over six hundred seals and if Lilith breaks sixty-six of them then Lucifer is freed from his cage to walk on the earth again."
"Lucifer," Gabriel said. "You mean the devil."
"Exactly," Sam agreed. "And we don't want Lucifer freed because then he and Michael will be having a punch out here on earth."
"So one more question," Gabriel said, stepping into Sam's personal space. "How do you know my brother?"
There was a long moment of silence and then Samael turned to look at Castiel. "You haven't told him yet?" Gabriel turned to look at Castiel and then tried not to flinch at his brother's icy stare.
"Cas," Gabriel pleaded but his brother seemed disinclined to answer him.
"I made sure he made it out of his grave," Samael spoke up. "I've been protecting him the same way I watched over you when your brother was downstairs." Gabriel gaped at the demon but with a grumble of the ground the devil's trap split and Samael was gone. Gabriel stared at the spot the demon had just stood. Was Sam really the one that had saved his life? He glanced at Cas who was looking equally surprised by the revelation that Samael had been watching over them.
"Do you think he's telling the truth?" Gabriel asked and Castiel shrugged.
"I don't know Gabe. If he's watching us why hasn't our resident angel done anything about him? And why does Dean, or Dumah, seem so desperate to keep him away from us?"
"Like I have any idea," Gabriel replied with a shrug. "Come on Cassie, let's get back to Bobby's house. I'm starving." He grinned as he heard Castiel snort and mutter under his breath before walking after him.
---
"Dumah we need to talk," Samael demanded from the roof of the barn, growling at the sky. Thunder rumbled in the sky and Sam laughed. "You think you can scare me off like that? I was an angel in Hell. You're going to have to try harder.""Samael," a cool voice hissed. "So now you finally crept out of whatever hole Lucifer had you locked into."
"Uriel," Sam growled, turning to glare at the angel. "What rock did you creep out from under? Michael must be truly desperate to send you back to Earth after what you did last time. Either that or Michael isn't in the building."
"Shut your mouth you poisonous excuse for a creature," Uriel snarled but he had backed off unconsciously when Sam had suggested that Michael wasn't around. Samael grinned and advanced, circling around Uriel easily despite the fact that he was balanced on the roof.
"Mikey doesn't know what's going on, does he?" the former archangel questioned. "Then who is running the game? And don't tell me Dad because we all know he isn't in Heaven."
"God is dead," Uriel sneered but Samael just laughed.
"Oh Uriel. If you believe that you're stupider than I thought."
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
"You keep your pocket demon under control."
"He isn't my pocket demon," Dumah growled, turning to glare darkly at his brother in arms. "Samael is nothing to me." Maybe the words were a tad to emphatic and defensive, even after all these years of hurt and betrayal, because the other angel smirked at him.
"He doesn't believe that," Uriel retorted. "He was attempting to call you down and he's lurking around your pet mud monkeys even now."
"He has been warned," Dumah replied, forcing his voice to be as emotionless as possible. as he ignored the wash of regret and hurt that rushed through his grace. "If I catch him there, Samael will be eliminated."
"Good," Uriel said, fluttering off to leave Dumah thinking dark thoughts. He and Samael had been close once. Brothers in arms, and close enough to be called blood brothers by human standards. They had guarded each others' backs from enemy threats and treated each others' wounds. Then Lucifer's silver tongue had turned Samael against the host. The pair of archangels had fallen from Heaven in a ball of flame, leaving Dumah separated from his closest friend. Over time betrayal had festered to become hatred and deep hurt. The wounds had become thin scars in recent years that had been sliced open by seeing Samael again.
The warrior turned his gaze to earth, considering returning to check on Castiel and his brother. In recent years orders from Heaven had become oddly specific about the pair of Novak brothers. Castiel was the Righteous Man and it had been his breaking in Hell that had shattered the first seal on Lucifer's prison. Dumah had pulled Castiel from Hell and restored his soul to his body because Castiel was to be Heaven's warrior. The orders about Gabriel Novak were much less concrete. The older Novak had been drinking demon blood from a demon named Ruby whose allegiances were proving difficult to discover. If it was discovered that Ruby was working with Lilith then Gabriel was to be dissuaded from his current course of action and, if he could not be convinced to stop, he was to be eliminated.
Samael's presence in all of this was puzzling. Dumah's former brother in arms had been missing from the earth since the Roman Empire had fallen. His sudden appearance and interest in common affairs was nothing short of baffling, as well as worrying. After all, Samael had been personally responsible for Rome's downfall. That he was taking such an interest in the apocalypse could merit disastrous results for the side he decided was his enemy. A voice calling his name drew Dumah's attention to earth and this time he decided to answer. It was time he and Samael had a talk about the former archangel's involvement in the apocalypse.
---
"We need to talk." Castiel had dreaded the appearance of these words from his older brother's mouth from the moment Samael admitted to protecting Castiel when he'd risen from his grave."About what?" he asked, hoping his cold tone would stop Gabriel's train of thought in his tracks.
"About what Samael said," Gabriel replied. Castiel's brother was sitting slumped across Bobby's kitchen table from Castiel, a bottle of cheap beer clutched in one hand. "I don't exactly like the idea of an demon powerful enough to scare an angel playing around in our lives."
"I don't either," Castiel admitted. "But I don't know what we can do about it."
"We can at least admit the encounters to each other," Gabriel said. There was a pause where he gulped down half of his beer before speaking again. "I'll start. Remember when I told you about the demon that saved me from the werewolf?" Gabriel didn't wait for a reply, just kept talking. "I think we can safely say now that the demon was Sam. There also, uh, may have been a couple other cases where I was, umm, a little more than slightly intoxicated that I found the dangerous part of the case mysteriously taken care of."
"And you think that Samael had something to do with that?" Castiel asked.
"That was what he implied with his little speech," Gabriel said with a sigh. "So, you're turn. How has our little pocket demon saved your ass?"
"He gave me a ride into town after I climbed out of my grave," Castiel said, his voice emotionless even as Gabriel winced at the reminder of what his younger brother had gone through. "The town was empty and there were goblins haunting it. Sam fought them off and gave me the truck so I could get back to Bobby."
"Did he say why he was helping you?" Gabriel pressed and Castiel shrugged uncomfortably.
"He only claimed that he was around to ensure I got where I needed to safely because he left me out in the middle of nowhere."
"Well that's very helpful Cassie," Gabriel drawled sarcastically. "Did it not occur to you to ask who he was?" Castiel simply stared at Gabriel, unamused, until his brother sighed and glanced down at the table. "Okay, maybe you were a little distracted then. After all you'd just been dead." There was a pause and then Gabriel asked suddenly, "Do you think the he Samael was referring to was Dean?"
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The last thing Samael had actually expected was for Dumah to descend to talk to him. After Uriel's little hissy fit he'd expected either to be ignored or smote on the spot, not the flutter of wings behind him. He turned slowly, meeting furious green eyes. "Dumah," he greeted and received a cold growl in reply.
"What is your end game?" the angel demanded and Samael tilted his head in confusion. "Don't give me that," Dumah snarled. "You're aiming for something. What is it?"
"Why do you care Dean?" Sam sneered, years of hurt rising to the surface in a tidal wave. Lucifer had dragged him to Hell and tore off two of his three sets of wings, leaving him at the mercy of demons while Michael confined Lucifer to the Cage. When Samael had first dragged himself up through the layers of Hell he had been hurt and furious and betrayed. He'd plagued the Roman army and eventually brought down the entire Roman Empire in a vain attempt to gain Daddy's attention and favor. Instead he'd been thrown back down by Michael and called an abomination. Over the centuries Samael had learned to hide the aching hurt with hatred but somehow seeing his closest brother again brought that pain and bitterness to the surface."Why are you so involved in what's happening? Is it because Michael's precious vessel got sent to Hell and now he wants retribution? You lot don't even care about humans so don't try to spin that little lie."
"And your kind do?" Dumah hissed back. "You're involved in human affairs all right but you just make them worse."
"I am nothing like them," Sam shouted, fighting back tears of pain. All his life he had tried to do nothing but help. First attempting to change Lucifer's mind, then trying to stop the Romans from destroying Father's chosen people, and now trying to assist the Righteous Man and stop the rising of his broken brother from the Cage. All his efforts had come to naught. They had brought him nothing but pain, misery,despair, and disdain from everyone he met. Now the only person who could genuine thank him for anything was Castiel, the Righteous Man that Dumah had drawn up from Hell, and Dumah was about to demand he stay away. "Nothing like them," he repeated in a softer tone as he turned away, unable to stand the disgust he knew he would see in his former brother's eyes.
"I'll go," he said, voice soft and broken. "I'll go to Antarctica or something where I'll be well out of the way. Watch out for Ruby. She's working for Lilith now and if she has her way Lucifer will rise." He headed for the broken remnants of a gas station, unwilling to show Dumah the tattered and ragged mess that were what remained of his once glorious wings, when a hand on his shoulder stopped him. He turned back, meeting those suddenly unfathomable green eyes. Years ago Samael would have been able to read his brother like an open book. Now he was saddened to realize he had no idea what the angel was thinking.
"Samael..." Dumah began and then stopped as if he weren't sure what he had intended to say.
"Yes?" Sam asked, unable to stop the smallest glimmer of hope from entering his voice. He had believed once, during one of those agonizing years strapped to the rack, that hope would simply die. Now he knew better. Hope was the true crushing power of Hell because nothing was so shattering as having the hope that you were free, that somebody cared about you, yanked away. It always left you with a moment of breathless clarity, the knowledge that the rug had been pulled out from under you, and then the crushing agony of yet another defeat. Dumah's wings fluttered uncomfortably and Sam pulled away, resigned to another disappointment. "Stay safe," he said, leaving his brother behind in the dust once again. He was gone before Dumah could come up with a reply.
---
Ruby smirked from the battered and rust spotted blue sedan parked behind the gas station. She lowered the binoculars from her face and tossed them carelessly in the cracked and torn leather passenger seat, barely avoiding hitting the massive Hellhound curled up in it. The beast growled at her and she grinned, flashing this meatsuit's straight white teeth and wiping a nonexistent strand of drool from her bare shoulder. The red tube top crinkled slightly as she bent to draw the silver colored plastic of the cell phone from a black designer boot. The jeans she was wearing were too tight to hold the phone without it looking awkward so despite the discomfort of having the phone in her boot she kept it there. Besides, the awed and lust filled looks she got from most men when she bent down to retrieve the phone were worth it.Originally Ruby had been wary about this job. Samael was a dangerous entity, even for Hell, despite the fact that he seemed to have resigned himself to the tortures handed down to him. Lilith had pushed though, insisting that the angels would drive Samael off in an attempt to prevent the very thing that Sam was attempting to. "They'll chase away their strongest ally," Lilith had purred, smiling at Ruby across the grimy table of the diner they had met in somewhere on one of the back streets of Chicago. "Then Gabriel will be ours and Lucifer will rise." Sure enough, Lilith had been proven right and Dumah had driven Samael away, leaving Ruby free to corrupt the older Novak as she saw fit.
Ruby dialed the latest number she'd been given and let it ring twice before hanging up. She waited for the required sixty seconds, tapping a booted foot impatiently against the floor, before calling back. "Hello?" The voice that answered the phone was cool and uninterested. Ruby could almost picture the look on the face of Lilith's current meatsuit. Ice blue eyes would be staring at the nearest wall with cool disinterest, long blonde hair would been drifting over her shoulders, and thin lips would be pulled into a frown.
"Samael has left, supposedly for Antarctica." Ruby's lips tugged up in a reluctantly grin at that statement. From anyone else it would have sounded foolish and petty but from Samael, former archangel and now broken angel of Hell, it was a very real possibility. The Hellhound grumbled in the seat next to her, displeased that her amusement came with a lack of blood, and Ruby's smiled widened. "Is there anything else you wish me to do before I return to Gabriel."
"No," Lilith replied simply. "You've done well." Then there was the click of the older demon hanging up. Ruby's smile stretched wide across her face as the phone was tossed to join the binoculars and the Hellhound. She turned the keys, gunned the engine, and pealed out of the parking lot. Everything was falling into place. Lucifer would rise and, in return, Ruby would be rewarded for her loyalty. Life was looking up.
---
Sam didn't make it to Antarctica. He did make it to Chicago but what happened after that made that accomplishment feel foolish. With broken and tattered wings the former archangel was unable to fly as far as he should have been. Lucifer had made sure of that when he'd attempted to escape in the early days of the Morningstar's rebellion. He landed in Chicago wings and shattered remains of his grace aching, and was surrounded almost instantly. He wasn't disturbed to realized he didn't recognize a single one of the demons. Since he'd crawled out of Hell twenty-six years ago on the exact day that the Righteous Man, Castiel Novak, had been born he'd avoided any possibility of returning there. Two of the demons snatched his wings, not seeming to realize that he was far too exhausted to simply fly away, and the rest led him down the streets and down a set of stairs slimy with mold.Lilith was waiting, sitting under the harsh yellow light of a single dingy lightbulb in the basement of some sleazy bar. In her little girly white dress with her neat blonde hair falling in waterfalls of gold down her back and her icy blue eyes she looked out of place; like a china doll someone had dropped in a mud puddle. Her current meatsuit was in its early twenties, still with enough girlish innocence to make Lilith seem young and unassuming. Lilith was the First; Lucifer's first precious demon. She had laughed at Sam's pain and watched his every move with hungry eyes in the days before Lucifer was confined in the Cage.
"Samael," she said, voice cool and cordial. "Have you rethought your new-found morality? Now that your brothers have abandoned you will you side with the only one who cared?"
"Cared?" Sam asked, voice colored with disbelief as he was shoved into the chair opposite of Lilith. "Lucifer ripped my wings off Lilith. He didn't care."
"He cares more than the host does," Lilith retorted and Sam leaned his elbows on the grimy formica table between them. He didn't have a response for that. If he helped Lilith, helped Lucifer to rise, then the fallen Morninstar would welcome him with open arms. It would be the first acceptance Samael had felt since he had been dragged down to Hell and he knew that if he accepted Lilith's offer her would truly fall. "The others would accept you," Lilith continued, as if sensing Sam's train of thought. "Alastair and I would welcome you into the fold with open arms. And Lucifer, Lucifer would be overjoyed. You would be loved, accepted."
"Fallen," Samael countered weakly, his voice a mournful counterpoint to Lilith's calm tone. "Broken."
"You're already broken," Lilith returned. "Members of the host aren't meant to be alone and their lack of contact with you, along with their disgust, have already broken. At least if you fall we'll be there for you." The sound of it was so tempting. Samael had been alone and hated for so long that the idea of companionship, even from one as despicable as Lilith sounding like returning to Heaven. His hands trembled like in addict in need of his next fix.
"Let me think," he said when he could finally gather enough moisture in his mouth to speak. Lilith smiled, a little satisfied smirk that made Sam want to scrub himself clean of her presence, and pulled a silver plastic cell phone from the canvas bag lying at her feet.
"This has my number programed into it," she told him, handing the device over. "If you wish to take me up on my little offer call me and I will send someone trusted to bring you to me. If you decided not to but refrain from picking a side then I swear on Lucifer's legacy that we will leave you in peace. If you continue trying to prevent the apocalypse you will be treated as a dangerous enemy. Do you understand?"
"I understand," Sam replied calmly, meeting those cold blue eyes. Lilith studied him for a moment and then nodded, gesturing at the other demons to move aside.
"Travel safely Samael," she said, voice just as cool and uninterested as it had been when he'd been led into the room.
"And you," Sam returned automatically before turning and walking away from someone for the second time that day.
---
Gabriel Novak stood in the middle of Bobby's salvage yard considering how much he should tell his brother about Ruby. Castiel knew that Ruby existed but he hadn't liked her before his little trip to Hell. She'd shown up twice with information, trying to convince them that she could help them break Cas's deal. Neither one had trusted her but with Castiel dead, Gabriel had felt as if he had nothing left to lose. When Ruby had showed up a month after his little brother's death, claiming she could help him get revenge on Lilith and maybe even his brother back if they were lucky, he had accepted her help. Now he was stuck with the dilemma of how to tell his brother. Or if he even wanted to.Now that Cas was back it felt as if everything had changed. Ruby had gone from being around almost constantly and having precise information to vanishing for days at a time and either betraying them or giving ill informed tips. The last tip she'd given them had turned out to be a disaster. Maybe she'd assumed that Gabriel would use his powers, and wasn't he conflicted about those, instead of trying to exorcise them with Cas. That was the only thought that prevented Gabriel from saying flat out that she'd tried to get them both killed. He had been using his powers, given to him by ingesting Azazel's blood as a child and now Ruby's blood as an adult, to exorcise demons for about a month now. If he'd utilized them on Ruby's last tip the job would have been easy but mending the bond between the two brothers would have been nearly impossible.
As if sensing that he was thinking about her, the silver plastic cellphone, the one Ruby had given to him so they could contact one another, rang. Gabriel pulled it out of his jacket pocket and stared at it with trepidation. His fingers were trembling and he felt like addict on the edge of spiraling out of control. It wasn't a good feeling. Slowly, almost reluctantly, he flipped the phone open and pressed it against his ear. One more time, he told himself silently as Ruby talked. He would do this one more time and then he would stop and everything would be back to normal once again.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Ruby chewed on her thumb as she surveyed the hotel the Novak's were currently staying in. She had hijacked a bright red convertible, unable to stand that trashy, rust spotted, piece of crap sedan she'd been driving around picking up Gabriel Novak in for the past week and a half. Gabriel had called an hour ago while his brother was in the shower, telling the demon that Castiel Novak's angel had come to tell them that Samhain was trying to rise and transported them to the correct town. Ruby had then followed the GPS in Gabriel's phone to find them. Now she watched as Gabriel paced, waving his arms wildly as he tried to articulate something to his younger brother. He looked upset, which mean that Ruby would be getting a call from him before the night was up.
Her phone rang from somewhere under the hellhound in the passenger seat and she shoved a hand under its stomach to fish it out. She glanced at the number and then grimaced when she saw it was unlisted. Lilith. "Yes?" she asked when she picked up, forcing her tone to be cordial.
"Samael has neither taken nor denied my offer," Lilith said coolly on the other end of the line. "He claims to be considering it but the desperation in his eyes says he will soon be ours. Our fallen angel to help Lucifer rise and destroy these filthy humans and all those who dare oppose us."
"That's nice," Ruby drawled, arching an eyebrow at the hellhound who huffed at her. It seemed unhappy with her sarcasm. It figured; the hellhound was Lilith's.
"How goes the work with Gabriel?" Lilith continued, undaunted by Ruby's sarcasm.
"He keeps coming back to me. In fact," Ruby replied. "From the looks of it I'll be seeing him again tonight."
"Good," Lilith crooned, sounding ridiculously self satisfied. "What seal are you at now?"
"Samhain," Ruby answered, not even questioning how her boss knew she was at a seal. Lilith had eyes everywhere.
"On schedule, as usual," Lilith drawled. "Let's just hope he doesn't muck things up like he usual does by choosing the wrong tools." Then the older demon abruptly hung up the phone.
"Oh what do you know?" Ruby snarled at the phone as the dial tone rang in her ear. She snapped it shut and bounced it off the hellhound's forehead before it rang again and she was scrambling for it. "Yes?"
"Ruby?" Gabriel's voice was furtive and soft.
"It's me," Ruby reassured him, forcing herself to sound concerned. "Is something wrong?"
"I just need to get out for a couple minutes. Can you meet me?"
"I'll be there in five," Ruby said, already starting the engine. She could ditch the convertible and get and more subtle car in five minutes.
"Thanks Ruby," Gabriel gushed softly and then hung up the phone. Ruby gunned the engine and sped away.
---
Gabriel was acting strangely, not that Castiel knew what to do about it. Gabriel had always been strange but this was not the usual strange. This wasn't the usual strange that involved eating too much candy, watching porn on their laptop, and flirting with every woman in his path. This involved sneaking out at strange hours and having whispered conversations that cut off the instant Castiel came into the room. Today was no different. He and Gabriel argued about the best way to keep Samhain from rising and then Gabriel had vanished. Castiel had watched as his brother slipped into a dark green car that all but flew away the instant the door was shut. Gabriel was only gone for a minute when there was the sound of fluttering feathers and Castiel found Dean standing an inch away from him.The angel yelped and stumbled back from Castiel, green eyes wide. Castiel just stared blankly at Dean, not entirely sure what was going on. "Sorry man," the angel said with a shrug. "Personal space and all that jazz."
"Do you need something?" Castiel asked and Dean sighed. It was only then that Castiel realized Dean was not the only person, angel, in the room. The newcomer was wearing a black man and his eyes were dark.
"You and your brother need to leave town," Dean said, voice suddenly all business.
"Why?" Castiel questioned, already moving to pack.
"We are going to destroy it," the black man said. Castiel froze, turning what he knew were suddenly cold eyes to the newcomer. Before he could say anything the door to their motel opened and Gabriel froze on the doorstep.
"Am I missing something?" Castiel's older brother asked warily.
"They're going to destroy this town," Castiel said, voice icy, and Gabriel growled under his breath.
"Why the fuck would you do something like that?" the blonde snarled, glaring at the two angels.
"You have no right to address us abomination," the black man snarled, lunging forward, and Dean's arm snapped out to stop the other angel in his tracks.
"Silence Uriel," Dean hissed and the black man subsided with a dark glare.
"Listen here you morons," Gabriel continued as if Uriel hadn't spoken. Castiel could see the shadow of hurt in his brother's eyes at the new angel's insult. "We're going to stop Samhain from rising and you're going to leave this town alone. Understand?" Castiel nodded when Dean glanced at him.
"Very well," Dean said. "God's grace go with you." Then Dean and Uriel were gone.
"I hate when they do that already," Gabriel muttered and Castiel's eyebrows arched toward his hairline. "Come on Cassie. We have work to do."
---
Defeating Samhain turned out to be not as easy as Gabriel had hoped. First they found out that the girl the witch had tied up was actually his sister and another witch. Then the witch had raised Samhain and the demon had simply walked out of the house. Now the two brothers scrambled down the street toward the church at the end to their possible deaths. Even with a fresh bout of Ruby's blood pumping through his veins Gabriel wasn't sure he could jerk Samhain free from his host and send him plunging down into Hell.The brothers entered the church together, Samhain waiting for them at an altar like a pastor watching his flock enter on a Sunday morning. His eyes were white and his lips curled up in a wicked smirk. A hand lifted and Gabriel threw himself in front of his brother as a white light washed over them. When it faded away both were standing unharmed and Samhain stared at them with sudden fear in his eyes. "The demon ray gun?" Gabriel questioned with a cocky quirk of an eyebrow. "It doesn't work on me." He lifted a hand, focusing all the power he had on Samhain. It wasn't enough.
It was enough power to freeze the demon in place for a moment. The Gabriel felt an agonizing tearing in his head, blood began dripping from his nose to his chin, and Samhain broke free. Castiel went flying into a wall. Gabriel went flying next, head pounding, and through the rushing in his head he heard Castiel shouting a name. A terrible pressure squeezed down on his chest and Gabriel moaned as he heard his brother scream. A sudden flap of wings revealed Dean standing in the center of the church, Uriel at his side. "Samhain," Dean growled and the demon laughed.
"Little angels," it hissed, expression amused. "You cannot harm me."
"I'll show you hurt," Uriel snarled, lunging forward only to be rammed back against the wall. Dean tried to help his fellow angel only to be flung to another wall.
"What shall I do with the two of you?" Samhain crooned thoughtfully. "Crucify you like your precious Christ? Yes. I like the sound of that but first I must deal with your meddling hunters." The white eyed demon twisted his head toward Castiel and Gabriel flinched as his brother screamed.
"Samael," he found himself whispering, almost praying. "If you can hear me then Cas and I really need you right now. Please." Castiel screamed again, Dean yelled something that sounding almost like a high pitched squeal of feedback, and the ground rumbled. Everything fell silent and Samhain turned slowly, limbs looking like they were laden with dread, toward the door of the small church. There, standing in the doorway, was a tall shadowed figure.
"Hello Samhain," the former archangel all but purred. "Long time no see." Samhain was frozen in the spot as Samael lifted a hand and snapped. Abruptly the two angels dropped from their positions on the wall and Gabriel felt all bindings slip away from him. "Too bad it couldn't be under better circumstances."
"There are no better circumstances with you, you spineless traitor," Samhain snarled, lifting a hand.
"Ah, ah, ah," Samael crooned. "None of that now. You wouldn't want me to eliminate you for good instead of just sending you back to Hell." Samhain snarled, flexed his hand, and then gagged. Gabriel watched in fascination as the same black smoke he always dragged out of possessed humans flowed in a river out of the demon's mouth, vanishing with a crackle of flames when it hit the floor. In moments it was over, the dead body falling to the floor.
"Samael," Uriel and Dean both breathed, Uriel sounding furious and scandalized and Dean sounding surprised.
"You've both made your positions on my damnation perfectly clear and I have just made my position to Lilith equally clearly so I would appreciate if you would both shut up," Samael grated out, sounding almost betrayed. Then he turned towards Gabriel and Castiel and added, "If you need anything do not hesitate to call." There was a ragged snap of wings that had Uriel smirking and Dean looking sickened and then Samael was gone as if he'd never really existed in the first place.
---
His brother was broken. Dumah had known this since Samael's fall from grace. What he hadn't known was what had happened to his brother's wings. Two sets were gone, no longer existing. The final set was ragged and torn, the bare skeleton of what angel wings were supposed to be. The sudden stab of pity that had reached him by the obvious torment in Samael's voice during their earlier conversation reached him again as he brother vanished with a snap of what remained of his wings. He was drawn back to the present with a brush of Uriel's grace. "May I return to the garrison?" the angel asked and Dumah nodded once. Uriel vanished with an easy flap of his current pristine wings.Castiel groaned on the floor of the church and Gabriel was moving, albeit sluggishly, toward his younger brother. The man might have been tainted by demon blood but his intentions were pure which was the reason why none of the angels had moved against him yet. He walked over to the two of them, carefully healing their wounds with a brush of his fingers. Even as he guided them out of the church, reassuring them that their work was done, his mind turned to Samael and his brother's ruined wings.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
"What were you idjits thinking?" Bobby Singer demanded as Gabriel and Castiel sank down exhaustedly at his kitchen table. "Going after Samhain like that is almost like asking to be killed."
"It turned out all right," Gabriel mumbled and Castiel narrowed tired eyes at his brother.
"Because Samael showed up," he mumbled. Gabriel looked grouchy at that.
"He shouldn't have had to. Ruby said my psychic powers should be strong enough to throw Samhain back to Hell but they weren't."
"Ruby said?" Castiel demanded. "And you're using your psychic powers?"
"Listen, Ruby hung around some when you were gone," Gabriel shot back. "She was helping track down Lilith to see if we could convince her to bring you back topside. She claimed that in order that force Lilith to release your contract I'd have to learn how to use my psychic gifts and I didn't exactly have much to lose."
"Fair enough," Castiel admitted with a sigh. "So why do you think it didn't work?"
"The better question is why it worked for Sammy boy," Gabriel replied with a shrug. "Think we should call him and ask?"
"I really don't want to call him if we don't have to. He's done enough for us already."
"Let's ask your pocket angel then. He should be good for something." Castiel arched his eyebrow at his brother who just grinned back at him. "Come on Cassie, loosen up. Have some fun. Let's go call us up an angel."
"That sounds like a phenomenally bad idea," Castiel retorted and Gabriel turned wide butterscotch puppy dog eyes on his little brother. "Fine."
"This isn't a good idea," Bobby called after them as they headed out the door.
"I know," Castiel called back.
---
He was in Heaven when the prayer came. Dean who art in Heaven...Do I have to do it like this Cassie?...Fine. Dean who art in Heaven get your pocket angel ass down here. We have questions. Dumah was tempted to ignore the prayer just to annoy Gabriel Novak but it was too amusing to ignore. "Pocket angel ass?" he questioned as he landed with a flutter of wings."Shut up," Gabriel grumbled, sticking his hands in his pockets. "We have questions."
"So I heard."
"How was Samael able to eliminate Samhain?" Castiel spoke up and Dean felt his forehead crinkle.
"First off he simply exorcised the bastard," he began blithely. "And secondly, I have no idea."
"Then what good are you?" Gabriel asked.
"Gabe," Castiel hissed and got arched eyebrows in return.
"Call him," Dumah suggested and got two blank looks. "If you want to know the answer to you question then call Samael. He'll come for you." The two brothers exchanged glances before Castiel reluctantly nodded.
"Samael," the older Novak called, tilting his head slightly toward the ceiling. "If you can hear me we have a couple questions we need you to answer. I mean if you have the time." There was a long pause as they all waited and then a ragged flutter of wings. Samael landed, panting as he leaned heavily against the wall of the barn. When the fallen angel look up and saw Dumah his entire countenance darkened.
"You," he hissed. "I should have known you'd use them to get to me."
"It isn't like that," Castiel protested before Dumah could speak up for himself, stepping in between Samael and the angel. "We have a question and we're trying to get an answer." Dumah watched as the lines of tension in his former brother's body faded away and ragged wings were carefully folded against his back, dropped from their defensive curving around his form.
"Ask away," Samael said and Castiel nodded once, a stiff little motion.
"How were you able to exorcise Samhain?" Gabriel spoke up and the last of Samael's tense anger drifted away.
"Ah," the fallen angel said. "I should have guessed you would wonder about that." Samael sighed and slumped further against the barn wall, entire body broadcasting exhaustion. Dumah puzzled over the fact that his former brother was so injured and tired yet so willing to fight if need be. "Hell seeps into anyone eventually, even angels. I absorbed some of its power along with my grace. The combination allowed me to stand up against Samhain's power and banish him back to Hell though I do not think I would be able to do it again. I burned up most of my power in the action."
"Thank you," both Castiel and Gabriel said in synch, their eyes fixed on the fallen angel. Dumah read the colors of surprise, relief, and something that was almost a sense of awed loyalty in their souls as they focused on Samael.
"Is that all you required?" Samael asked and Castiel nodded.
"Yes thank you," the younger Novak said and Samael vanished in a flutter of wings. Without really thinking about it, Dumah followed.
---
Sam wasn't stupid. He sensed the figure following him the moment he set off and he landed heavily in a muddy field half a dozen miles away from the barn where he'd been speaking to the Novaks. Dumah landed moments later, much more smoothly than Sam could ever hope to anymore. "What do you want?" he snarled, a wounded and cornered animal taking a last stand against his killer."Why did you come?" his brother asked and Sam's eyes narrowed. "You could have left Uriel and I and the Novaks to die. Why did you come?"
"Because they called," Sam snarled back. "And because they're the only ones who don't want to kill me, whether in the short or the long run. They want to use me, yes, but at least I can respect that. Heaven and Hell just want me dead."
Dumah studied him for a moment, face creased with confusion, and then asked, "What kind of game are you playing?"
"I'm not playing any game," Sam threw at him, trying to hide the pained waver in his voice. "Why don't you understand that?"
"Then what are you doing?"
"I'm trying to survive." Sam turned his back on his brother, unable to hold his uncaring expression. Tears welled in his eyes, a very human outpouring of emotion, and Samael didn't try to fight them. "If Lucifer rises he'll rip me apart and you lot have already made your position of me surviving any longer perfectly clear. I'm just trying to make it through this mess without someone tearing me any further apart." There was a moment of long silence and then a hand came down lightly on his shoulder.
"What has been happening to you?"
"Why do you care?"
"Do me a favor. Pretend that I do," Dumah said and Samael felt a fresh welling of anger rise up in him. He spun around and stared directly into those green eyes. They were always green with Dumah. Samael had never understood the appeal but when he observed the affairs of angels over the years he had always seen his brother inhabit vessels with green eyes.
"You want to know what's happened?" Sam growled. "Lilith asked me to join them and I've been alone for so long that it sounded almost like Dad calling me home. I almost said yes." Dumah looked as if he'd just been punched but Sam couldn't find it in himself to care anymore. "You know why I didn't? Because I was called to help and I did. And now I'm back to where I was when Michael sent me screaming back into Hell after Rome. Alone." He pulled away from his brother then, fighting back the renewed wash of tears, and with a terribly painful flex of his aching wings he flew again. This time no one followed.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
"So to summarize; Samael is almost powerless right now, your pocket angel is pretty much useless against any demon that's stronger than average, Lilith is breaking seals left and right, and we have no idea what's going to happen next."
"That pretty much covers it," Castiel informed his older brother as they walked back toward Bobby's house.
"Great," Gabriel grumbled. "We're doomed." Castiel didn't even bother to respond to that. They were. Gabriel's phone rang and he pulled it out, growling lowly when he recognized the number.
"Wonderful. Just what we need right now."
"Who is it?"
"Ruby," Gabriel grumbled and Castiel paused, considering their options.
"Answer it and see what she wants," he said finally and Gabriel nodded, flipping the phone open.
"Hello? Yes I know who this is. I checked my phone before I answered. I'm not as stupid as you seem to think I am," Gabriel snapped into the phone. "What do you want?" There was a pause and then his face creased in confusion. "Can you say that again?" His eyebrows arched. "Are you sure? Ok. Do you have a name?" A pause and then he said, "I'll see what we can do. Thanks Ruby." He snapped the phone shut and turned to Castiel. "Ruby says there's a girl named Anna Milton who just escaped from a psych ward somewhere. Heaven and Hell both want her. Think that's worth checking out?"
"Yes," Castiel replied, staring directly back at his brother. "I do."
---
Anna Milton doesn't exist in the now. Not anymore. Instead she exists in increments; in the sound of angels' voices and the mumbles of her psychiatrist and the world of her drawings and the barest whispers of normality. The psychiatrist is gone now because Anna left the psych ward. She had to; the demons came for her though she isn't exactly sure when. Her timestream is all messed up. Some part of her knows, the kind of knowing that is instinctual and unexplainable, that humans aren't meant to hear Angel Radio. She doesn't question the knowledge or how any of this is possible. She just goes with the flow. And she listens.
The angels talk in her head while she sits in the church and ponders her next move. They question why the Novak brothers aren't being told more, what Samael's purpose is for this whole mess, and one questions why Uriel is being sent everywhere with him like a guard dog. Then they mention her, vaguely, as if there's something wrong with her. Anna could have told them that when all this started but they never bothered to ask her. She isn't even sure they know she can listen in.
The Novak brothers show up what could be two hours in or a few days or just a couple minutes. Anna isn't sure but she recognizes their names. Then a dark haired girl with a face that is all smokey and full of flashing fire and fury shows up and claims that someone else more dangerous than her is coming. The girl, Ruby she says, gets Anna out and to safety without expecting a thank you. Anna gave the demon one anyway because Ruby didn't have to help them. Then came the psychic named Pamela who tried to open Anna's mind. Anna held back when she felt a secret vault inside her mind opening, knowingagain that if she let lose she could kill the nice psychic. Things began to settle in her mind, time coming back, because now she knew what was happening. Now she knew that she was Anael.
---
Sam was surprised by the call although he wasn't quite sure why. The Novaks had called him before in times of danger, seemed to almost trust himdespite the fact that he was fallen and everyone wanted to destroy him. His wings still ached with the strain of so many trips over the past couple of days but he had gotten adequate rest and his power was finally building back up. Carefully spreading his damaged wings, Sam snapped them in a firm flap and found himself standing in an old, creaky barn. "We have a problem," Gabriel Novak blurted the instant Sam appeared to them but the former archangel's eyes were focused on the new figure standing slightly behind the older Novak.
"Yes," he agreed, locking eyes with Anael. "You do."
"Samael," Anael said, her face creased with sympathy.
"Anael," he returned and she shook her head, red hair swishing over her slim shoulders.
"Just Anna now. Anna Milton ironically enough." Sam allowed a slim smile to cross his face and Anna smiled back.
"And I'm just Sam for the most part," he replied. He hesitated a moment and then hesitantly asked, "You fell?"
"Yes. Michael and Raphael are manipulating things to bring about the apocalypse and I lost faith in my orders."
"I am sorry," Sam told her.
"So am I," Anna told him. "To bring just one more problem down to you. I am sure you have enough problems of your own." Anna's gentle and unassuming nature was a balm against Sam's hurts. She seemed not to care that the rest of the angels had decided to hate him and eliminate him. Instead she was welling over with sympathy and kindness.
"The angels are demanded we hand over Anna so they can kill her," Gabriel explained. "Otherwise they say they'll throw Castiel back into Hell."
"They won't," Sam reassured the older Novak. "He is the Righteous Man. They need him. But they can make his life a living Hell and yours as well. It would be...inconvenient."
"Most likely," Gabriel agreed. "We were trying to come up with a plan to avoid any of that mess. We attempted to find Anna's grace so she could return to her angelic state but someone had already taken it."
"And I would rather not become fully angel again," Anna added. "I do not wish to return to incorrect orders and the wickedness that Heaven has become."
"So we need a new plan," Castiel finished. "And we're struggling." Sam considered, taking into account everything he knew about the behaviors of angels and demons. Suddenly he grinned, realizing the solution was staring him right in the face.
"Gabriel you are still maintaining contact with Ruby, correct?" he asked.
"Yeah," Gabriel responded warily. "Call her. Rumor has it that Alastair is out of Hell and hunting-"
"He is," Castiel cut in, expression dark, and Sam winced in sympathy. He knew firsthand what kind of tortures Alastair could come up with, both psychological and physical. He wouldn't wish Hell's Master Torturer on his worst enemy. "Have Ruby meet with him and convince him that she'll hand over Anna. In the meantime Castiel will be contacted by one of the angels. He can tell them exactly where you're at which will draw them to you."
"Angels and demons don't mix," Anna finished excitedly for him, eyes sparkling. "They'll fight each other instead of coming after me. That's brilliant!" Sam flushed and then flinched in surprise when she flung her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly. "Thank you," she whispered lightly against his chest. "You don't have to do this."
"Yes," Sam told her softly. "I do."
---
Castiel Novak had given in more easily than Dumah had anticipated. Uriel had come out of the younger Novak's mind triumphant on the first try and the two angels had descended back into their vessels and back to Earth. Now they walked into a small barn that was long out of use. Inside stood both Novak brothers, Anael, and Samael. Gabriel sent a betrayed look at Castiel who stared back steadily. Some kind of silent language seemed to pass between them before Castiel's gaze moved to Anael. "I'm sorry," he told her.
"It's all right," Anael told him. "I understand."
"I am sorry," Dumah told her as well and had the uncomfortable sensation of Anael studying him again. She had been the leader of their garrison before she had fallen and always looked at them as if she could see straight to the center of their being.
"Yes," she said finally. "I think you are." That was when the door flung open again.
"Don't you dare touch a hair on that poor girl's head," Alastair drawled as he stepped through the doorway, two other demons flanking him. Uriel snarled and growled threats which were returned in kind and chaos broke out. Dumah found himself facing Alastair as Uriel took on the other two demons. Hell's most infamous torturer pinned him, spitting out an exorcism that threatened to throw him back to Heaven. It was just reaching it's peak when broken wings flared out above him and Samael grabbed Alastair by the collar, throwing him into a post. "Well isn't it this cute," Alastair sneered, standing slowly and grinning wickedly at the former archangel. "The little unwanted angel standing up for his own comrades. Are you so eager to end up back on my rack?"
"If that's what it takes to end this," Samael hissed back. "Who knows, maybe you'll finally break me down into what Lucifer really wanted." Alastair's grin widened as he advanced.
"Stop!" Anael's yell rose above the clamor of the fighting. She was holding a shimmering vial over her head, expression furious. Uriel looked equally enraged. "Do you know what this is?" she demanded, glaring at the frozen figures around her. "This is my grace. I don't particularly want it back so we're going to make a little deal. You all return to where you came from and I won't take my grace back and send you all screaming into whatever afterlife you deserve; Novak brothers and Samael as exceptions. And if I ever feel a hint of you on my tail I will take my grace back and all Heaven and Hell will feel my wrath. Is that understood?"
"You cannot-" Uriel began but Anael glared him into submission.
"Yes," she replied coldly. "I can. Am I understood?"
"Yes," Dumah said before Uriel could cut in. "You are."
"Good," Anael replied with a triumphant smile before turning her gaze to Alastair. "As for you, scram before one of the five of us decides to end you, permanently."
"As milady wishes," Alastair purred, eyes calculating, and then vanished with a sharp crack. Uriel vanished as well with a sharp snapping of feathers, too angry to stick around.
"Thank you," Anael told Samael, expression gentle once again. "For everything."
"You're welcome Anna," Samael replied, his expression sad. Anael, Anna now Dumah supposed, studied him for a moment before stepping forward to hug Dumah's former brother tightly.
"You aren't sticking around?" Gabriel asked, sounding almost hurt, and Anna looked surprised.
"You want me to?" she questioned.
"It would be our honor," Castiel said with a slim smile and Anna's answering smile was brilliant.
"Then I shall," she said, turning with a smile just for Samael. "I suspect we will be seeing each other a lot more then," she added, dropping the pendant that held her grace in it over her neck and hiding it beneath the collar of her shirt. She stepped forward and stood on her tiptoes to kiss him lightly on his cheek. Dumah watched with surprised amused confusion as Samael flushed a pale pink color. "Are you sticking around as well?" she asked, turning to the only true angel in the room.
"I just-" Dumah cut himself off and then sighed, turning to look at his former brother. "Can I talk to you?" Samael hesitated and Anna cut in.
"Is this going to be an actual talk or is it going to involve arguing and yelling?"
"An actual talk," he reassured Anna and she smiled again.
"Ok," Samael gave in with a sigh and Dumah offered the fallen angel his hand. Sam hesitated for a moment and then took it, stepping a little closer. Dumah offered as much of a reassuring smile as he could vanish and pulled them both off with a powerful snap of his wings.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
They were in another field when they landed, a soft breeze brushing through their wings. A tree lined woods was just to the left of them, the wide expanse of field to the right. Whatever crop had been grown there had already been harvested this late in November and the air had a chilly bite to it. "What is it with you and fields?" The question was a mixture of Samael's dry sense of sarcasm and genuine curiosity and it drew Dumah's attention away from the natural beauty of the world their father had created. He considered the question probably more seriously than he should have.
"Open space," he admitted finally. "And a sense of privacy you don't get in Heaven." A long time ago that would have drawn an amused smile from his brother. Now all it earned him was an almost wistful look as Samael turned to glance into the woods.
"There is plenty of silence here. Lots of empty spaces too." Dumah frowned as he tried to reconcile this new broken visage of his brother with the bright being his brother had once been, seeming to delight in each of their father's new creations. Samael had been an exceptional warrior but his heart had often gotten in the way of his reason, leaving him vulnerable in the field of battle. That was how their brotherhood had began, Dumah defending the archangel from one of the Leviathans because its twisted words had caused Samael to falter. Now his brother seemed a shell of his former self with tattered and broken wings and a downtrodden outlook on life.
"What happened between you and Lucifer?" he asked at last.
"What have you been told?" Samael shot back and Dumah winced at the wariness in his brother's eyes. Once he had trusted the former archangel completely and he found himself wondering when orders, official stories, and his own stubbornness had started coming before that trust.
"That you chose to fall with Lucifer," he admitted. "That you agreed with his idea that the humans should not be above us and stood against Michael with him. For that you were cast down into Hell and when you returned again you were angry. Your anger led to the destruction of Rome and Michael was forced to cast you down once more because of the risk you posed to our father's chosen people." Samael flinched as if each word uttered was condemnation against him, looking more and more downcast at each passing moment. "What really happened?" Dumah pressed and his brother let out a choked sigh.
"Lucifer was wrong," he began, voice heavy. "I went to speak to him but he was unwilling to listen. Instead he ripped my wings and cast me down to his newly created army of demons. When he fought Michael and was cast into the Pit I was being tortured in Hell. I managed to crawl out after centuries, searching to redeem myself. The Roman Empire posed a growing threat to our father's chosen people and I sought to eliminate that threat to protect them and perhaps gain our father's forgiveness and healing. For that act Michael cast me back down into Hell, calling me an abomination and a threat. I rose from Hell on the very day the Righteous Man was dragged down to it and have been keeping an eye on things ever since." Samael spoke the words in the tone of one who did not expect to be believed and he did not look up from the ground.
"If you are trying to avoid being sent back to Hell then why help the Novaks?" Dumah asked, grace flinching at his brother's slumped posture. "Heaven and Hell both have eyes on them. It would be safer to avoid them and wait this all out."
"And allow Lucifer to walk free?" Samael demanded, not looking up from his intense study of the ground though his shoulders tightened with anger. "Lilith is destroying seals as quickly as she comes across them and there is nowhere near the full strength of Heaven on earth to stop her. The few garrisons posted make futile attempts like children poking at an angry bear with a stick and occasionally they manage to slow her down. Then Heaven expects the Novaks to blunder in and save the day without the slightest knowledge of what they are getting into. The end result of this is Lucifer's cage opening and Hell on earth since no one seems to have seen Michael in centuries. If Lucifer walks the earth then he will destroy me for a perceived betrayal of him to Heaven so I have no choice but to help and hope I can avert an early apocalypse."
Dumah absorbed the knowledge in silence, holding it up to the brother he saw before him. Samael was broken, grace in shreds and wings ripped beyond the repair of anyone besides their father. His body was slumped heavily, eyes on the ground, and his fingers twisted almost nervously with one another. It all seemed to fit. The story he had just been told was much more characteristic of the Samael he had known and considered as his kin in Heaven and the reasons he had been given fit perfectly with the picture of his now broken brother he had received since coming to earth. "I am sorry," he apologized at last, reaching out his grace to brush against his brother's only to flinch when his brother shied away from the contact. Samael glanced at him, seeming to earnestly study his every aspect before giving him a weak smile.
"It was not your fault Dumah. You were only believing what you were told," he replied and he winced at that. Even in Heaven he should have known better than to blindly believe every bit of spoken word that had been passed around since their father's sudden disappearance.
"Dean," he corrected finally, unable to think of anything else to say.
"What?" Samael asked, eyes suddenly wide and startled as he struggled to process what was going on.
"If you're going by Sam now then I'm Dean," he explained. "Besides, it's the name that I've told the Novaks to use and it has less negative connotations between the two of us."
"Ok," Sam agreed hesitantly, eyes still wide and lost looking.
"So what's the plan?"
"What plan?"
"The master plan for the stopping of the apocalypse or whatever flower and overly poetic name you've decided to give it." Sam's eyebrows rose into his hairline but a slim little grin graced his face.
"I don't know. Mostly I was just playing it by ear," he admitted.
"You and strategy are not friends any more than you were before you were dragged down," Dumah observed with a smirk and watched, pleased, as Sam's smile widened. "So what's Lilith's objective? Where is this going to end?"
"With her dead," Sam said simply. Dumah gaped and Sam's expression turned worried. "Du-Dean? Are you okay?"
"I think," Dean said softly, resisting the all too human urge to swear, "that we may have a bigger problem than I originally suspected." Sam froze, eyes going empty as he stared at his brother, waiting for Dean to expand on that statement. "Heaven aims to kill Lilith, but there's a time limit attached. I originally thought it was to prevent a seal from breaking but if she truly is the last seal then..." he trailed off, swallowing hard before continuing. "Then Heaven may be planning to bring about the apocalypse as well." He watched as Samael's hand dropped limply to his side, eyes going wide and body shaking with terrified tremors at the thought of Lucifer free once more. He longed to pull his brother into his arms and reassure Sam that everything would be okay but he also knew better than to lie to the former archangel. His brother may have once been lighthearted and gentle but he hadn't tolerated liars easily and Dean doubted that it had gotten any better over the years.
Sam pulled himself together minute by agonizing minute, slowly straightening fully and shoving shaking hands into his pockets. "We need a plan then," the former archangel said at last. "And allies. And neither one will be easy to come by."
"Are there any angels on earth?" Dean asked and Sam considered the question seriously.
"Balthazar is rumored to be around somewhere," he said finally. "Gabriel as well though there have been no hints of him since his supposed fall." Dean frowned at that.
"No help there, unless we're extremely lucky," he said. "What about demons?"
"I could persuade a few to work with us, if only warily. There's a price for power and Lilith's made enemies both during her time in Hell, despite the fact that she was Lucifer's first. They may work with me just to spite her."
"Work on that," Dean ordered, already building plans and discarding them in his mind. "I'll warn the Novaks of what is going on. We'll meet back here in twenty-four hours."
"Right," Sam agreed, expression suddenly determined as he carefully spread his damaged wings to take flight.
"And Sam," Dean added and his brother turned his full attention upon the angel. "Stay safe."
"You two Dean," Sam returned with a soft smile, vanishing with a strained flutter of wings.
---
Meg was sitting in a small Indianapolis coffee shop watching people bustle by the wide window on their own missions. The Starbucks coffee shop at Circle Center had become her favorite lookout spot in the past week and a half as she hid from Lilith and the bratty demons goons. She may have been all for her father's plan of using Castiel Novak to lead an army of demons to take over earth but she was not behind Lilith's plan of raising Lucifer from the Cage. As much as she detested humans, Meg admitted that they were necessary, and even entertaining at times. The bell above the door on the shop jingled and Meg turned her head to the door and froze at who she saw. Samael, former archangel who Lucifer had dragged down to Hell, was standing in the doorway looking directly at her. Meg's last encounter with Samael had not gone well. She had been attempting to kill the Novak brothers and the angel Dumah when Samael had stormed in and demanded she left. The fact that he had taken the time to track her down did not bode well for her current welfare."Mind if I sit down?" he asked when he approached her and Meg motioned to the chair opposite her with forced laziness. He sat and studied her for a moment before asking, "Has Lilith approached you yet?"
"No," Meg said flatly. "She knows that I do not like her. In fact, I think that all of Hell knows how much I despise her."
"How would you feel about working with me to thwart her plans?" Sam asked and Meg considered her options. She did not like Samael but she hated Lilith with the kind of passion that could lead to someone willing becoming a demon in Hell.
"I'm in," she said at last. "What do you need me to do?" Sam hesitated at that, looking down at the table and swallowing hard. When he looked up again his eyes were cool and determined.
"I need you to put me in contact with Alastair."
"Alastair?" Meg was sure she had heard wrong. Yes, Hell's Master Torturer was well known to loathe Lilith and her machinations but he was also considered the most dangerous demon in Hell. Cunning as a fox and with the sudden striking speed of an angry viper, Alastair was not someone you crossed lightly or simply walked up and spoke too. Samael shuddered slightly at the name, probably lost in his own imagined mental torment. It was Alastair who had taken hold of the former archangel and chained him to a rack when Michael had thrown Samael back into Hell for the fall of Rome. He and the white eyed demon had a history, and Meg doubted it was a pleasant one.
"You heard me," Sam said after a moment, voice firm despite the nervousness in his eyes. "I need to speak with him and Alastair isn't going to let an angel, even one as far fallen as me, waltz right in to have a chat. He knows you. He taught you on Azazel's behalf. He'll let you approach to speak to him."
"Wait a minute," Meg said, eyes narrowing at Sam's words. "He's on earth isn't he? And you already know exactly where he is."
"I know he's on earth," Sam replied warily and Meg growled low in her throat, making the people sitting at the table behind her scramble to their feet and hurry away. "I don't know for sure where he's at but I know where he was a few hours ago," Sam amended, reaching with his fingers toward her temples before hesitating, as if he wasn't sure she'd welcome the transfer of information.
"Go ahead," Meg grumbled and closed her eyes as his fingers reached her. The information flowed into her mind like some kind of bizarre instant replay. The light pressure of Sam's fingers vanished and she opened her eyes, shaking her head slightly to clear it. "Right," she huffed out, feeling his eyes on her. "I'll find Alastair. How can I contact you when I do?"
"Don't you know how to call angel?" Sam asked with a sudden grin, heading toward the door.
"How?" Meg called after him.
"You pray."
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
"So where to next?" Anna asked as Dean and Sam vanished into thin air. Castiel and Gabriel exchanged glances and Gabriel shrug.
"To Bobby Singer's house," Castiel decided for his older brother. "We can regroup there and figure out our next move." Anna shrugged, expression accepting, and followed them out of the barn.
"So?" Gabriel asked as they walked, feet making the gravel road beneath them crunch and crackle.
"So what?" Anna asked, expression innocent and amused.
"You and Sam," Gabriel pressed, not at all embarrassed. "Is there something going on there?"
"Why is it any of your business?" Anna didn't sound defensive, just curious. She glanced at Castiel who shrugged, a bird like and almost awkward motion, and then turned back to his older brother, waiting for an answer.
"Just curious."
"Ok," Anna said and for a moment both brothers though it was the end of that conversation. They had settled down in the car and Gabriel was just pulling on to the road when she added, "There's nothing between us. Yet." Gabriel swerved slightly and slammed his foot on the breaks, twisting around to look Anna in the eye.
"Don't say stuff like that when I'm driving," he snapped and Anna began to giggle. Castiel felt his lips twitch into a grin and Gabriel looked between them before groaning. "Oh God, I'm doomed!"
---
Meg found Alastair in four hours. He was actually sitting inside a small diner waiting for her when she came across him. It was a typical midwest affair, tiny and neat with large portions and generally tolerable food. Meg entered the diner, making the bell on the door cling, and found herself locking eyes with a sandy haired man. He would have been unassuming, flowing right under her radar, had she not been able to vaguely make out what was hiding just beneath his skin. For a moment his eyes turned white and Meg crossed the diner to the booth on legs that shook. She sat down across from him and he smiled at her over his coffee cup. It wasn't a pleasant smile and Meg looked away from it, noting that the coffee was cold."Why are you looking for me?" Alastair's voice was as cold as the drink sitting in front of him and his posture tense.
"I'm just the messenger," Meg said, forcing her voice to stay blank as she looked up into those now white eyes. Alastair considered her for a moment and then took a sip of his now steaming coffee.
"The message?" he asked pointedly. Meg looked down at the table, taking a moment to organize her thoughts before speaking.
"Samael wishes to organize a meeting between himself and you."
"Oh he does, does he?" Alastair drawled. "And what exactly makes him think I want anything to do with the angelic scum he is besides stringing him up on a rack?"
"He intends to stand against Lilith's machinations," Meg said, looking Alastair straight in the eyes. It went against every instinct screaming through her being in order to read his reaction. Alastair went very still for a moment and his expression turned very blank. Meg tensed, ready to vacate her host at a moment's notice. Then Alastair smiled, flashing her a grin that would have made the Devil himself think twice about crossing the demon.
"Tell him twenty-four hours from now in this very spot. And to come alone." Then Alastair stood and walked out of the diner, leaving the coffee and the bill to Meg. As soon as he was gone she let out a shuddering breath and closed her eyes, composing herself before praying to Samael.
---
Dean appeared in the back seat of the car next to Anna with a flutter of wings. Gabriel cursed up a blue streak and swerved on the road, slamming his foot on the breaks. Anna giggled and Castiel turned his head to glance impassively at the angel in the backseat. "Don't do that," Gabriel growled but Dean ignored the older Novak, expression worried."We need to talk," he said and Gabriel, with a grumble about angels appearing out of nowhere in his car, pulled over to the side of the road, parked, and shut off the car before twisting in his seat to face the angel.
"Ok. Talk," the oldest Novak ordered.
"First of all Ruby is working for Lilith," Dean said and Gabriel gave a guilty little flinch. "But that isn't the real reason I'm here. Lilith is the final seal to Lucifer's Cage. If she is killed, as the angels and demons wish it to be, then Lucifer will rise."
"Wait a minute," Gabriel growled. "Demons and angels?"
"Yes," Dean replied grimly. "The angels are trying to bring about the apocalypse as well. Sam and I have discussed the matter and he is gathering what allies he can from Hell. We cannot expect assistance from Heaven."
"Why?" Castiel questioned and Anna made a face.
"We cannot know for sure who exactly is running the show," Dean said. "Or who is loyal to who."
"It could be Michael or Raphael," Anna continued, picking up where Dean had left off. "And either one is a formidable enemy."
Dean nodded in agreement, expression distant, before opening the car door nearest to him and stepping outside the vehicle. "Sam," he yelled and suddenly the former archangel was standing the middle of the road looking mildly irritated.
"I have perfectly good hearing. There is absolutely no need to yell at me like the world is ending," Sam growled. Then he took in Dean's frozen expression and his whole face paled. "What is it?"
"Someone in Heaven has grown tired of your interference. They're sending Uriel to kill you." Sam flinched slightly and then groaned. "What?"
"I already have a meeting set up with Alastair tomorrow. The last thing I need to be doing is worrying about someone else killing me."
"Call me if you need me," Dean said, looking straight in the former archangel's eyes. "And I will come if I can."
"I know," Samael said with an odd half smile before turning to look at the people in the car. "There's a demon called Meg, at least in this century, who will be coming to find you in the next eight hours. She is on our side so please attempt to refrain from killing her." Castiel and Gabriel exchanged a dark, unhappy look but didn't protest.
"What about Ruby?" Gabriel called and Sam seemed to consider that for a moment.
"She may be useful, at least for now. Don't believe a word she says but try not to kill her as well. At least not yet." Gabriel nodded and then Samael was gone in his usual ragged flutter of wings.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
"So you came."
Samael had a, grudging admittedly, respect for Alastair. Most demons when confronted with his person and his reputation would chose to take one of two routes. The first was Lilith's way; surround him discretely, bring him in, and try to convert him to their way of thinking. The second way was less subtle and, coincidentally, took less planning. The demon in question would have filled the diner with demons, from the slightly greasy cook to the young bubblegum popping waitress who had asked him if he needed anything when he stepped through the door. The demons then would have attempted to kill him; attempted because none of them would have obtained the proper weapons to eliminate one such as him. Alastair had done none of these things, and Sam knew this because he had checked the entire diner for signs of demonic activity before he had entered it. All he had found was the demon he had arranged, through Meg, to meet.
"I did," Sam confirmed, fighting down a shudder as he met those cold, and momentarily white, eyes. Alastair grinned, silently informing the broken angel that his efforts had been in vain. Besides a grudging respect Sam also held an all too rational fear of the demon sitting across from him at the tiny booth. Alastair was considered and artist of the highest regard to demonkind. Like all highly regarded artists, the demon was a master of his craft. True, his canvas may have been souls and occasionally beings of celestial or demonic intent, but his work was unequaled.
Samael had been under the knife, so to speak, of Alastair's skilled craftsmanship. Not the first time he'd been cast down, for those demons had long since been eliminated both by human hunters like Samuel Colt and by himself or true angels. No, his time under Alastair's knife had been after he was cast down a second time, thrown into Hell by Michael, and he had escaped several long years afterwords through he suspected is escape had been more of a willing release from captivity rather than a prison break.
"She said you wanted to speak to me," Alastair said, the same calm tone Sam remembered him using. He may have taken great pleasure in his work but most often his tone remained a soothing counterpoint as to the pain as he took you apart. There was no need for the dragged down angel to ask who she was. Meg, or whatever one of the hundreds of names she had gone by in the past century that she used around Alastair. His messenger.
"I want to stop Lilith," Sam said, keeping his voice low as he reluctantly leaned across the plastic table top sticky with dish soap residue to get closer to Alastair.
"Stop Lucifer from rising?" the demon asked, arching a skeptical eyebrow at the former archangel. Alastair graciously ignored Samael's flinch at the mention of the Morningstar's name and simply continued with his line of thought. "And what do you want to speak to me for?"
"I need allies. We need allies," Samael admitted, swallowing hard and willing himself to stay calm.
"The angels won't help you?" The question was pointed, as if Alastair already knew the answer but wanted to see what Sam would say. He went with the truth.
"They're helping her, but I think you knew that already."
"I did," Alastair admitted, settling back in his seat. Sam stayed where he was, not daring to hope. "It would annoy the bitch, wouldn't it?"
"More than annoy," Sam replied evenly. In truth Lilith would probably go into one of her rages and kill every single on of her subordinates before she finally managed to calm down. Alastair grinned, a suddenly cruel smile, and seized Sam by the throat to keep the former archangel from fleeing.
"I will help you," the demon said softly. "But you will owe me afterwords. And don't think of trying to run when I come to collect. I let you go once. I won't do it again." Then Alastair released him, stood, and left. Sam sat at the booth until his hands stopped shaking and he too could leave the diner behind.
---
Bobby's introduction to Anna had gone well. The older man had taken to the fiery redheaded former angel with only his token wariness. Now the four of them were sitting at Bobby's table trying to uncover as much about the apocalypse and the coming seals as they possibly could. "What we really need," Gabriel grumbled as he flipped through another thick book. "Is a way to keep the angels from coming after us when they find out what we're doing." Castiel rolled his eyes at his brother and Bobby snorted but Anna's expression brightened."There is," she said, beaming at them. "Well sort of anyway. I don't remember precisely everything but I can show you how to banish an angel back to Heaven."
"Well what are we waiting for?" Gabriel demanded, eagerly slamming the heavy book shut. "Let's get started."
"Patience grasshopper," Anna chided, giggling at Gabriel's eye roll. "First off this isn't something to do lightly. The sigil has to be drawn in human blood, your own, and to banish and angel you have to slam your bloodied palm on to it. Furthermore everything has to be perfect or you are simply going to have one pissed off angel and no time to react." Gabriel nodded and Castiel grinned as his older brother turned suddenly serious. Anna looked around at the three faces focused on her and smiled lightly. "Let's get to work."
---
Uriel was lurking. The angel had been doing so for a while now and Dumah was not appreciating the sentiment. He now sat impatiently on top of a crumbling barn roof glaring at the sky. "I'm waiting," he snapped and was unsurprised by the irritated flutter of wings that followed as Uriel landed next to him."You are being rude," the other angel informed him tetchily but Dumah was not particularly inclined at the moment toward politeness.
"You've been following him all day like a particularly unlucky penny," he growled. "Excuse me if I'm not exactly finally happy to see you face to face." Uriel silenced as that, as if unsure how to respond. Dumah had been excellent at keeping his temper even since Samael had been dragged down. With no one left that he felt he really needed to protect there had been no need to explode into a storm of righteous anger. Now, however, the tables had turned leave Uriel struggling to catch up. "What do you want?" He turned his head to watch Uriel's expression. Saw the other angel stabilize. Act as if this was familiar territory.
"Samael," Uriel replied. "He has interfered too much already and our superiors are afraid that he is working to bring about the apocalypse." Dumah let the other angel finish and then stood to glare directly into Uriel's cold, calculating eyes.
"Bullshit," he said and watched the normally unflappable angel falter.
"Pardon?"
"You heard me," he snarled. "You want me to believe that Sam is working with Lilith to bring about the apocalypse while the entire time that is exactly what you lot in Heaven are doing."
"It's for the greater good. Surely even you can see that. Or has that fallen angel blinded you to our true cause," Uriel demanded. "We are charged to bring Heaven to earth and we cannot do that until Lucifer and his taint is destroyed."
"You're sick Uriel," Dumah said, voice laden with dread. "All of Heaven is if that's what they believe."
"Dumah-" Uriel tried, voice suddenly uncertain.
"Screw you Uriel," Dumah replied, voice lacking the bite of moment's ago. "Screw you."
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
A hand rapped roughly on Bobby's door and they all froze halfway through their breakfast. They'd spent the previous day learning about the process of banishing an angel back to Heaven from Anna and so had slept late, if you could qualify nine o'clock in the morning instead of seven thirty late. They all exchanged nervous looks but no one moved. Finally Castiel stood. "Cassie what are you doing?" Gabriel hissed at his younger brother but Castiel was already heading for the door.
"It could be Sam," Castiel whispered back but despite that idea he still proceeded with a wary tread. Sending once final nervous glance between his brother and the door before unbolting it and opening it. A woman with a short, almost white-blonde, bob stood there. She was wearing a red leather jacket, jeans, and tall black boots and her arms were folded over her chest. She looked Castiel up and down and then frowned as if she were not impressed.
"So which one are you?" she asked, tone abrasive. Castiel tensed and gave her a dark glare with icy blue eyes. "Ah," she said, expression lightening somewhat. "You must be Castiel." She said the name as if it were something sour and her mouth twisted as if she was sucking on a lemon. "Can I come in?"
"Who are you?" Gabriel spat from over Castiel's shoulder.
"I'm Meg sweetie," the girl said, eyes turning demon black. "Didn't Sam tell you I was coming?"
For a moment they all stood in frozen silence. Then Bobby growled, "Something you boys want to tell me." Gabriel and Castiel exchanged a silent, almost nervous, glance. Bobby had been a second father to the two of them and they didn't want to lose him because of the mess they were in. Surprisingly it was Meg who came to their rescue.
"Heaven and Hell are both trying to cause the apocalypse. You know, the end of the world," Meg drawled. "There are a few of us that don't want Michael and Lucifer to have their big drag down fight here on earth just yet so we're working to stop it. Now can I come in? I'll even sit around in a devil's trap if it makes you feel better." Bobby nodded reluctantly and Castiel stepped back to allow the demon in. She was ushered into a devil's trap and she stood in the center of it, surveying the room for a moment before sinking to sit cross legged on the floor. Moments later there was a rap at the door accompanied by a flutter of wings and a startled yip. Castiel and Gabriel exchanged amused glances and Gabriel went to open the door.
---
"Geeze Sammy! When did you get to be so jumpy?" Samael had been glaring pointedly at his brother but now he looked away quickly, unable to hold Dumah's eyes. His newly restored brother had appeared almost on top of him when Samael had rapped on the door and Sam, who hadn't been expecting anyone to appear out of thin air, had nearly shot out of his vessel to escape. Only Dean's hand clamping down hard on Sam's shoulder and the sudden flare of his grace had kept the former archangel on Bobby Singer's doorstep.The front door swung open to reveal Gabriel standing there with a wide grin on his face. "Startles you too huh?" the oldest Novak asked and Sam nodded with an uncertain smile.
"May we come in?" the former archangel asked, wincing as Dean simply shoved past the human.
"Yeah," Gabriel said with a shrug, stepping aside to let Sam in. He slipped inside the house only to be froze by his brother's piercing green eyes.
"Are you sure you're all right?" Dean asked and Sam forced himself to nod. It wouldn't do the angel any good the learn about his…arrangement with Alastair. His brother would do nothing but worry, which was pointless because Dean couldn't do a thing about this deal.
"So," Meg called from a devil's trap in the center of the living room. "Is Alastair in?" Sam jerked to a stop, eyes wide like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming semi. Meg's lips pulled into an almost concerned frown and Dean spun around, stopped in midstep from where he was heading to check on the younger Novak. Castiel, who was standing in the kitchen doorway, had lost all color in his face and Gabriel looked furious. Sam swallowed hard and forced himself to turn from the others to look only at Meg.
"Yes," he said, words feeling heavy as they left his mouth. "He's in."
"Good." Meg's satisfied smile could almost be qualified as angelic but she was the only one in the room who looked happy.
"Did it have to be him?" Castiel asked, sounding nauseated.
At the exact same time Gabriel snapped, "I thought you were on our side." The older Novak sounded a mixture of hatred, betrayal, and pain that made Sam's stomach churn. Dean's reaction, however, was the worst.
"What did you do?" The words were so low that they could have been missed had the room not gone completely silent. Those green eyes were cold, the expression hard. Sam shook his head helplessly but his brother was not so easily persuaded to let go of this particular topic. "Sam, what did you do?"
"I made a deal," Sam spat out, throat burning as if the acid in his stomach was trying to crawl its way out with the hateful words. "Alastair will give us the help we so desperately need but in exchange I'll owe him. And he'll come to collect." There was complete silence after that. Dean's expression turned desperate in the way that Sam had been trying all along to avoid.
"Did you seal it?"
"It's Alastair," Sam shot back, hanging his head. "I'm not going to simply waltz away from this one. That's okay. I wasn't expecting to walk away from this fight anyway." He managed a crooked, broken smile for his brother but Dean just looked sickened. Sam sighed and turned back to the Novaks. "There's a werewolf in Missouri killing little kids. It'll be striking tomorrow. You should look into it." Then he spread his broken wings again and fled before Dean could pin him with a disappointed gaze.
---
There was a werewolf in Missouri. Castiel wasn't entirely certain of what to make of that little piece of information. They had just had a load dumped at their feet and even Anna and Dean had been left scrambling to catch up. "So tell me again what's going on," Bobby demanded from the back of the car with Anna. Anna had Castiel's phone and was tapping away at it, probably increasing his data charge."Sam made a deal with Alastair," Gabriel said from where he was driving. Castiel shifted uncomfortably in the front passenger seat at the mention of the name. It was Alastair who had broken him, from what Castiel could recall of Hell in those flashes of memory he got at night, and now it seemed the demon was working with them. "Something about him being in debt to the demon which made Dean really angry but I'm not sure why because Sam's a demon, sort of, so I don't see what the big deal is." Gabriel had said it five times already and by now Castiel had resolved to punch his brother if they got anywhere close to ten.
Surprisingly it was Anna who provided an answer to Gabriel's frustration on the subject. She glanced up from Castiel's phone, her expression a weird mixture of sadness and irritation. "Sam isn't really a fall angel. He was ripped practically apart and thrown down by Lucifer but he didn't fall per se so technically he's still an angel. A very broken and very weak one but an angel none the less and an angel in debt to a demon as powerful as Alastair definitely isn't a good thing."
"What do you mean?" Gabriel asked but Castiel shuddered as if a sudden chill had washed over him. He knew exactly what Anna meant. Alastair could break anyone and if he could break an angel the demon would have all of Hell bowing at his feet.
"If he could break an angel on the rack there's no telling how much damage he would be able to do," Anna told the listeners. "Especially an archangel like Samael. There's a distinct possibility that he could learn how to destroy all of Heaven."
"Right," Gabriel said a little too brightly, shuddering. "On that happy note let's focus on the werewolf."
---
It took Dumah four hours to track down his brother. When he did find Sam he had to wait another hour to approach the angel because he and Meg had been discussing something over coffee in a crowded coffee shop in California. The angel hadn't understood the significance of the location until he'd seen the name of the shop. El Diablo. The Devil. He'd settled back and watched as the two chatted before Meg left and then Sam, both of them stepping out of the shop and glancing warily around before vanishing. Dumah followed his brother and found himself in the middle of a snowy forest that was probably in Canada. Sam was perched on a lower branch of a pine staring at him."Get it over with," the former archangel said tiredly, expression downtrodden.
"With what?" Dumah asked, mystified.
"I'm a great disappointment, I shouldn't have done it, yadda, yadda, yadda," Sam grumbled, seeming to regain some of his recently added dark humor now that it was obvious the yelling wouldn't be imminent.
"Sammy," he grumbled and then winced when Sam's shoulders flinched up to his ears. He hesitated a moment and then said, "I'm scared, okay? My brother made a deal with a demon that's bad enough to practically be the devil and short of killing Alastair, which is pretty much impossible, I can't do anything about it."
"Sorry," Sam said miserably and Dumah sighed.
"It isn't your fault."
Dean! The sudden cry snapped Dumah's head around, his body going tense. It took him a moment to realize there was no immediate danger to him and it had come as a prayer. "You should answer that," Sam said and Dumah stared at his brother strangely.
"How are you hearing that?"
"Magic," Sam said with a weak smirk and then grinned slightly when Dumah stared at him, unamused. "I've picked up a few tricks over the years."
"I'll-" Dumah we need you! That was a flat out scream that made the angel flinch.
"I know," Sam said with a reassuring smile. "Besides, all this won't do us any good if the Righteous Man and Lucifer's vessel die in the process." Dumah went.
---
Anna wasn't entirely certain how everything had gone so far south. The case had started out well enough. They'd got all the research they needed to peg the werewolf as twenty year old Melody Parks, a red head who'd been bitten four months ago and been committing two to three bloody murders every month since then. In the meantime she'd been searching for any sign of her sword, knowing that it must have fallen with her but that she had lost it while hurtling toward earth. Then everything had gone south.They'd talked to Melody, who preferred to go by Mel, during her lunch break. She was a secretary at a high end office with a lot of held in frustration, which could explain the brutal killings during the full moon, but fairly sweet and oblivious. Or so they'd thought. In reality Mel had been on to them, at least on some level, and waiting to kill them when the moon rose. Now they were fighting for their lives, both Gabriel and Castiel screaming for Dumah to get his butt over here before they were all killed. Anna sighed, pulling a strand of her red hair out of the blood that was leaking out of the cut on her forehead as the urgent sound a flapping wings came from the next room. It was going to be a long night.
---
Uriel had been waiting for this opportunity. He had come across Dumah and Samael at that ridiculously named coffee shop in Texas and had followed them all the way to a secluded forest in Canada. He had sneered through their stupidly sappy talk and then grinned as Dumah had been called away by the two mud monkeys. The situation was just too perfect. Sword in hand he stepped out from behind his tree, a sneer on his face. "Hello Samael.""Uriel," the demon masquerading as an angel said. He dropped down from the tree branch to land heavily on the ground. "Here to kill me?" Uriel didn't bother reply, just swung the sword.
Samael was ready for him and dodged out of the way, ducking under a pine branch to try to circle around Uriel. His ragged wings were folded in defensively and his body a tense line. Uriel moved with him, using the opportunity to get closer to the demon. Samael was out of practice and it showed as Uriel swung again and opened a slice on the former angel's collarbone. Samael hissed and stumbled back, barely managing the twist out of the way of another blow. The next slice opened up a gash on the demon's right arm and Sam stumbled over a tree root in his haste to get out of hitting range, barely dodging a killing blow.
The angel blade went through Samael's left shoulder instead, the demon letting out a ragged howl of agony as Uriel pulled it free. The angel was enjoying watching this freak bleed. He would enjoy even more watching that abomination die. With that thought in mind he stepped forward, blade raised properly for a final thrust forward between ribs to the heart that pounded beneath and, coincidentally, the core of the being before him. Samael held out a weak hand, as if to prevent the blow from falling.
Just as suddenly they both froze. Samael's expression was pure panic as he was whisked away to who knew where. It would take the angel at least a day to locate the abomination again. Left in Samael's wake was a sense of an almost familiar presence and a crushing feeling of disapproval. Then that too faded, leaving Uriel alone in the chilly Canadian woods.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Sam landed with a crash, cracking the oak coffee table that he had landed on in half. Sam lay there, panting for breath and staring at the ceiling. "Dad?" he asked finally, heart racing."Sorry to disappoint," a cool voice drawled. "But I'm not God." Sam turned to see Alastair standing there and felt his face crease in confusion."Did you-""No," Alastair denied flatly. "I have no idea how you got here but while you are present I have something to tell you.""What?" Sam asked, biting down a groan as he stood slowly, leaving the wreckage of the table behind him."What exactly happened?" Alastair asked, expression wary as he studied the fresh cuts on Samael's person."Uriel," Sam admitted and the demon's expression turned to a smirk."If that feathered hypocrite shows up here he'll be dead before you can blink," Alastair said, a kind of dark pleasure in his eyes. Sam had been questioning what he believed to be his father's actions early, wondering if this was a sign that even God had declared him damned, but now he understood. Dumah could have prevented Uriel from striking but his brother had been busy saving the Novaks and their companions so Alastair was the next safest bet. The demon would protect Samael as an investment. "You said you had something to tell me," he prodded."I found Anael's sword," Alastair replied promptly. Sam just stared, mind racing a mile a minute. His own sword had been lost long ago, someone in Hell probably held it, but he hadn't considered looking for Anna's. "Can you reach it," he asked after a moment and Alastair nodded."Meg and I can. You, Anna, Dumah, and the Novaks are much too conspicuous. You're held in the public eye." Sam nodded at the logic and let out a soft sigh. "Ok. Let's go tell the others."
---
After the whole werewolf disaster Dean transported them all back to Bobby's home. Samael was waiting for them there with a guest. "Alastair," Castiel hissed, giving a full body shiver. The demon in questioned smirked but didn't move from where he was lounging in a dining room chair. Samael was sitting in another one, his entire frame tense."Relax," Alastair drawled. "I'm just here bearing information and an injured…" The demon hesitated for a moment, glancing at Sam out of the corner of his eye. The former archangel shrugged and Alastair shrugged back. "Whatever he is.""Injured?" Instantly Dean lunged forward, grabbing Sam by the shoulders and yanking him out of the chair. Sam went with a pained cry, eyes flinching shut, and Dean instantly released him. Sam swayed where he was, white shirt stained with brilliant red blood, and then crumbled toward the floor. Dean was staring, white as a sheet so it was Alastair who moved quickly enough to catch the falling figure. "What did you do?" Dean snarled, lunging forward only for Castiel to grab his arm in a vain attempt to stop the angel from attacking the demon because he'd seen the look on Alastair's face before. It was the same twisted protectiveness that haunted his dreams about the time off the rack."Nothing," Alastair replied levelly, glancing up at the irate angel with pure white eyes. "He appeared in my temporary quarters in this shape. He claims it was Uriel who attacked him." Dean growled and was kneeling next to Sam when a blaze of light just enveloped him. Castiel cried out and covered his eyes, Anna shrieked in fury, and Gabriel tackled Cas to the floor. Moments later the light was gone and so was Dean."What just happened?" Gabriel asked as Castiel muttered something that wasn't quite understandable and shoved at his brother. Gabriel obediently got off of his younger brother, still looking between Anna and Alastair for answers."Dean's been dragged back to Heaven," Anna said, her expression dark."And that isn't a good thing?""Considering that the angels are helping bring about the apocalypse?" Anna snapped sarcastically. "Probably not." Then her face softened and she sighed. "I'm sorry. That was unnecessary. I'm just worried.""About Sam," Castiel said and Anna turned to look at him with eyes glittering with unshed tears."Yes," she said at last and he nodded at her."Gabe and I will go upstairs and rest. You can keep an eye on Sam and patch him up down here then and Alastair can do, well…" Castiel trailed off awkwardly as he realized they'd never found out why Alastair was there."Meg and I will go retrieve Anna's sword," the demon graciously supplied."You found it?" Anna asked, momentarily distracted from her worry over Sam by her delight."I did," Alastair said with a courtly bow toward her. Then he vanished into thin air, leaving Gabriel gaping after him."What? How?" Castiel's older brother stammered."Oh shut up," Castiel grumbled tiredly, already heading for the stairs.
---
Dumah had known something was wrong the instant he had started kneeling. Now he was standing in Heaven looking at the most loathsome little toad of an angel God had ever created. Maybe that was a little harsh but Zachariah deserved it. Realistically the angel shouldn't have been able to call him back to Heaven, which meant he'd done so on an archangel's orders. That didn't bode well for Dumah. Not well at all."Oh Dumah," Zachariah said, tsking slightly. "What are we going to do with you?""Nope," Dumah thought. "This was not going to go well at all."
---
Some days Meg really hated her life. Take today for instance. It was supposed to be a simple job. Alastair was distracting the two angels on guard duty and Meg was sneaking in the barn to bring out Anna Milton's sword. It hadn't turned out to be quite that simple. The first problem was that there were three angels instead of two. Three. Meg grumbled sourly under her breath as she snuck around behind the angel. Anna's sword was stabbed in the middle of a rock in the middle of the barn floor, sort of like the legendary sword in the stone. Meg snickered and wondered who had thought that was a good idea.Anna's sword practically dripped with grace and angelic will and Meg was going to need an oven mitt to pick it up probably. Yet another problem to deal with. Lovely. She was going to murder Alastair. And she was going to enjoy every minute. The angel stood next to the sword, heading turning slowly from side to side as a way of scanning the area. The demoness considered how to get the angel to leave the sword alone. Very carefully she slid her hand across the ground, grinning when she came up with a chunk of glass the size of her fist.Very carefully she scooped the glass up, so as not to cut herself, and threw it hard past the angel's head. It whizzed on to shatter against the far wall and the angel's head instantly snapped around to where it had hit. Meg's grin turned into a wicked smirk as the angel left the check out the disturbance. She stood from her hiding spot and stalked over with fluid steps to where the sword was stuck in the stone. Then she hesitated, unsure what to do next. After a moment she pulled out a cell phone and dialed the number Samael had given to her during their last meeting. Sure enough, since Sam was injured according to Alastair, Anna answered. "Hello?" her voice was soft and sweet and everything an angels should be and it made Meg want to laugh."Can I pick up your sword?""Who is this?" Anna demanded suspiciously."Meg," the demon returned flatly. "Now can I pick up your sword without being incinerated?""Yes," Anna said certainly and then hung up."Huh?" Meg said, staring at the cell phone and feeling mildly impressed by the former angel's rudeness. Then she snapped it shut, shoved it in her pocket, and grabbed the sword. That was when the angel came up behind her."What do you think you're doing?" an unfamiliar voice demanded and Meg reacted on instinct. She swung the sword.The angel's head fell to the floor with a heavy thump and rolled off toward the door, the body crashing down as if in pursuit. Meg gaped at the sight and then shrieked as a blaze of extinguishing grace blazed over her. When she could see again there was an imprint of wings on the floor on either side of the headless body, two angels in the doorway, and no sign of any help to come. She was so screwed. And she was definitely murdering Alastair.
---
The demons came shortly after Meg's call. Anna wasn't entirely certain whether or not Meg was responsible, though the recently awakened and blurry minded Samael had assured her it wasn't the demon's style, but she did know she was pissed off. Now she was standing in the center of Bobby Singer's living room with a shotgun full of rock salt and a furious snarl plastered on her face. Bobby had gone out to get more supplies since he was "going to have all these idjits running around in his house" so Anna was on her own."Get out of the way bitch," one of them demanded. Anna growled and fired off the shotgun at the demon. It yelped, stumbling back as the rock salt collided with its chest. The other demon gaped and Sam struggled weakly to sit up. Uriel hadn't wounded him too badly but he was still a little woozy from when he'd passed out. The demon she'd shot lunged forward and banged into the front barrier of a devil's trap. Anna smirked and turned to the other one.The second demon sputtered for a moment and then managed to get out, "You bitch.""Yup," Anna said with a dark grin as she fired the other rock salt filled shell into the other demon. "That's me." Then she exorcised them both in fluent Latin. That done she dragged the two empty bodies out the door and left them in the driveway for Bobby to deal with as he wished. When she came back into Bobby's living room she found Sam sitting up on the couch staring at her in awe. "What?" she asked, flushing with embarrassment."That was amazing," Sam said, his voice breathless and awed. Anna flushed a brighter red but it didn't matter anymore because suddenly Sam was kissing her and the whole world just faded away around her.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Sam kissed Anna like she was the only thing keeping him alive. He kissed her like she was air and water and necessary for survival. Anna kissed him back just as passionately, arms coming around his neck to hold him close. They pulled apart after a moment, both gasping for breath. Anna's eyes were bright with passion and a slow smile curved at her mouth. "Wow," she breathed.
"Wow," Sam agreed and knew his eyes were just as wide. Anna beamed then and kissed him again. Sam didn't protest, just enjoyed kissing her back. It had been so very long since he'd felt anything like love. The last time had been… He didn't even remember when. The last girl he'd kissed had been Sarah Blake, a witch, but he hadn't loved her. She had become more like a sister to him then a potential lover. Anna's was more precious to him than his life and he realized that, somewhere in all this he'd fallen in love. "Anna," he breathed out, awed, and she flushed.
"Sam," she replied, looking down at the ground. "I'm not worthy of that kind of devotion."
"Neither am I," he replied and her eyes snapped up to him. "I'm not," he said earnestly. "I'm a broken mess. I don't deserve any of this."
"Oh Sam," Anna said softly, reaching up to brush a hand against his cheek. "You're the sweetest person I've ever known. You deserve more than I could ever give you."
"Maybe I don't want more," Sam replied. "Maybe I just want you." Anna smiled shyly at him and kissed him again. That was when someone cleared their throat behind them. They both flushed and drew apart, turning to see an amused looking Alastair standing in the doorway.
"As much as I hate to interrupt," the demon drawled. "I have news." Sam's face instantly turned dark at the lack of expression on the demon's.
"What is it?"
"Meg's been captured."
"What happened?" Anna demanded. "She called me a little bit earlier and seemed to be close."
"Oh she was close," Alastair shot back. "She got the sword, got stupid, and killed an angel with it. They took her before I could get to her."
"They took her?" Sam demanded. Alastair nodded. "Shit." Sam slumped toward the floor, wrapping his arms around his knees. "They captured Meg and Anna's sword, took Dumah, and probably know our next six steps by now. We're screwed."
"Sam-" Anna began to protest but he shot her a hopeless look.
"Lilith's going to have figured out by now that I'm not ever going to join her," he continued, words coming out in a rush. "So she'll be out to kill me. Maybe I should have tracked down my own sword and fallen on it."
"Sam," Anna breathed, horrified but Alastair cut in before she could say any more.
"Oh stop the self-pity you idiot angel. We have work to do."
"I'm not an angel," Sam growled and the demon smirked.
"Fine," Alastair returned. "You're an overgrown pigeon. Now get up off the floor. We have planning and warding to do."
---
Lilith was pacing. Her power crackled around her like static electricity in a dry room. Her hair flared wide with each turn, making her look like some kind of blonde model in a hair product commercial. It had recently come to her attention that Samael had gone to Alastair. The demon growled and swung around in a wide arc, the vase on the table five feet away from her shattered, and she tried to reign in her raging temper. Obviously Samael was not going to help her any time soon. At least not with a little prodding. That meant that she needed someone to do some persuading. Alastair would never let her get anywhere near the former angel, protecting his investment, but a minor demon wouldn't prove enough of a threat to Samael to catapult the other white eyed demon into action.Lilith considered her options, growing more and more frustrated as she couldn't think of a single demon suited to the job. Light bulbs began popping overhead, covering the floor in a delicate shower of jagged pieces of white glass. Then she suddenly froze, a cruel smile curving about her lips. Samael was working with Gabriel Novak. The same Novak that Azazel had tainted and attempted to twist before his unfortunate but amusingly ironic demise at the hands of the one he'd sought to make into a weapon. There had been other…leftovers from the other demon's experiment though. And some of them had ended up in Hell.
With just a thought Lilith called a younger demon into the room. The demon was wearing an eight year old boy and it stepped inside warily, socked feet crunching painfully on the broken glass. "You," Lilith replied with a sneer. "Are going back to Hell and you aren't coming back until you bring me the demon that was once Ava Wilson." By all accounts Ava had been a devious little bitch and it would strike a double blow to the anti-apocalypse movement if Ava Wilson drew Samael away to Lilith's side. It was perfect.
---
"Well I'm out of ideas," Gabriel said, sweeping the map and pendulum off Bobby's table in frustration. "How the Hell are we going to find Meg and Anna's sword? At this rate the apocalypse will be over before we see any of them again.""Maybe not," Sam said, expression thoughtful as he stared out Bobby's kitchen window. "I…know someone. She's a-Well she's- Never mind."
"Spit it out," Bobby grumbled and Sam sighed.
"Her name's Sarah Blake and she's a witch. She might be able to find Meg and Anna's sword for us," he admitted with a sigh.
"A witch?" Gabriel demanded incredulously.
"I think it's a good idea," Castiel and Anna said at the same time and then smiled softly at each other.
"Seriously?" Gabriel asked, looking between the two and then turned to look at Bobby. "You can't think this is a good idea."
"What other option do we have?" the older hunter replied. "The longer we leave the demon and the sword in angel hands the less likely we are to actually get our hands on either of them."
"What about Dean?" Castiel asked suddenly. "I am not opposed to going to this Sarah but couldn't an angel possibly tell us where Meg and the sword are?"
"In theory, yes," Sam replied. "But Dean's been called back to Heaven and the last thing I want to do is interrupt a delicate situation."
"Ok," Gabriel said, defeated at last. "Let's go see Sarah."
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Sarah Blake was in the middle of pouring herself a refreshing cup of tea when the knock came at the door. It was a Saturday and the witch had Saturdays off from the auction house where she worked so no one should be calling. She stood and walked warily to the door, grinning when she saw who was outside. She unbolted the door and swung it wide open, leaning forward to hug her former lover. "Sam it's so good to see you," she said with a smile, pulling back. That was when she caught side of the red head standing a little too close to the former angel to be just friends. "And with a beautiful girl on your arm," she continued, grinning widely when Samael blushed. "You're a lucky girl," Sarah informed the red head and then stepped aside to let the group in. "Come in, come in. Make yourselves at home."
They stepped inside, glancing around her home curiously. It had belonged to Sarah's parents before they had died nine years ago and she'd sold her apartment in order to keep her childhood home. Sam knew where it was because Sarah was one of the few people, demons, whatever, that he actually kept in contact with. The other one that Sarah knew about was a demon that called herself Jessica. Supposedly Jessica had been Samael's lover some time during the crusades, and Sarah didn't question how he was out during the crusades because everyone had been out during the crusades, and that she had been murdered by another man in a jealous rage. The demon visited the witch occasionally and, as a byproduct, Sarah knew a lot of what was happening. "How can I help you?" she asked as the five settled down in seats in her living room.
"We're looking for a demon named Meg and Anna's sword," the dark haired man said and Sarah hummed thoughtfully.
"And you want me to find them?" she questioned.
"If you can," Sam answered, eyes tired.
"I believe so," she said with a gentle smile, beckoning to Sam. "Help me gather the supplies." Sam followed her with only a little prodding from the red head, even though he already knew Sarah didn't need help. "I've been scrying," she informed the former archangel as she pulled a bowl down from one of her kitchen cabinet. "Looking as far into the future as I can."
"It isn't good, is it?" Sam asked, tone self-depreciating. "I probably should have stayed in Hell where Michael put me."
"None of that now," Sarah ordered, placing the bowl on the counter and turning to look at him for a moment. "The future is a lot better with you in it than if you'd stayed in Hell where your misguided siblings believe you belong." She turned back to gather supplies for the work at hand. "That girl is really something special. Anael isn't it?"
"Anna," Sam corrected, voice so full of love that it made Sarah's cheeks ache with a wide smile but her heart hurt.
"Anna," she agreed gently. Supplies gathered she turned to look at Sam again. "Things are going to get very difficult Samael. And they're going to hurt."
"What are you trying to say?"
"I'm trying to say that things get bad before they get better and things are about to start getting very bad indeed." Then she turned and walked out of the kitchen. Sam followed her a moment later and she placed the bowl on her coffee table, lighting the ingredients on fire. Sweet smelling smoke filled the room and Sarah breathed it in, closing her eyes and humming slightly. Her hands clenched, relaxed, and she sighed. "Peoria," she said, the name coming out of her in a soft breath. "Peoria, Illinois. 224 Lincoln Street." Her eyes opened and she smiled at the watchers. "That's where you'll find Hosanna and the sword."
"Hosanna?" an unfamiliar voice asked and Sarah blinked as she met butterscotch eyes.
"That was Meg's name, Gabriel," Sam filled in and the man nodded.
"I'd send Alastair," Sarah advised, standing and shaking out her chestnut hair. "Anna, would you mind helping me clean up?"
"Not at all," the red head replied, standing, gathering up the bowl, and heading for the kitchen behind Sarah.
"I've seen a lot of Sam over the years," Sarah told the graceless angel as they cleared out the bowl and put it away. "But I don't think I've ever seen him love someone as much as he loves you." It was true. Sarah often enough scryed the past because it was easier to see than the future and she had seen Sam with Jessica. He had loved her, true, but not the way he loved Anna. Not with everything that was in him.
"I'm lucky," Anna said frankly. "And I don't deserve that much devotion."
"You and Sam both deserve as much happiness as you can manage," Sarah said with a grin. "And if the time ever comes I expect an invitation to the wedding."
"You have my word," Anna replied with a laugh. "Thank you Sarah. For everything."
"You're welcome," Sarah said, ushering Anna towards the others and leading them toward the door. "Now get out there and save the world. I have an important sale at the auction house on Friday and I'd hate having it interrupted by the end of the world."
---
"How are we going to get through all of that?" Gabriel asked as they sat in a car across from 224 Lincoln Street in Peoria. Samael had transported them to the location after they had left Sarah's and now they were looking at the few angels gathered in front the house."I have no idea," Sam said tiredly from where he was slumped next to Anna in the back of the car. "Try calling Dean. He might be able to help."
"Right," Gabriel agreed, tilting his eyes skyward with an almost mocking smirk. "Dean who art in Heaven get your feathery butt down here and give us a hand will you?" Samael snorted with tired laughter, Anna giggled, and Bobby muttered something about idjits under his breath. "Come on you overgrown bird, get down here," Gabriel demanded and then sighed in exasperation. "You try Cassie. I think he likes you better." Castiel acquiesced but there was still no answer. Samael frowned at that and struggled to sit up.
"Something's wrong," he said, turning wary eyes toward the house again. "Maybe Sarah was right. Maybe we should let Alastair handle this."
"Why?" Gabriel demanded. "We're already here. What else could go wrong?"
"Ok. We're leaving," Castiel said immediately and Anna giggled.
"Why?" Gabriel whined, turning a pout on his little brother.
"You just cursed us," Castiel explained dryly. "Samael, can you take us back or do we need to start driving?"
"I've got it," Sam said tiredly, closing his eyes. There was a rush of air, a flash of almost wings if anyone was paying enough attention on the celestial plane, and then the car was gone as if it had never really existed in the first place. Moving on to somewhere else.
---
"You might as well come in." The demon that had once been Ava Wilson froze where she was, standing on the doorstep of a neat little house in Allisonville, Indiana. Sarah Blake was standing in the doorway looking at the demon girl. Ava was wearing a blonde, she'd always wanted to be blonde, that was about twelve. She'd thought it would help her remain inconspicuous when approaching the house. Apparently she'd been wrong. She hesitated a moment and Sarah turned, walking away into the house. Ava, deciding she had nothing to lose, followed the witch. "You must be Ava," Sarah said, walking straight through the house an out the back door. Ava followed her and immediately realized she'd made a mistake.She never made it off the back porch. Instead she hit the colorless barrier of a devil's trap. "He's not here you know. None of them are," Sarah said, turning back to face the demon. The witch's eyes were wide and luminous in the moonlight. "You're hours too late."
"What do you want?" Ava snarled and Sarah Blake laughed, exposing a pale throat as she did so. Ava so wanted to see blood spilling down that throat.
"What I want doesn't matter," Sarah said, voice cold. Ava suddenly shivered at the bite in the witch's tone. "No. What really matters is what you want?"
"What do I want then?" Ava asked, voice curious and Sarah smiled. It was a cold smile, full of ice and malice and pent up rage.
"You want Samael," she said, voice curiously empty as she stepped toward the edge of the devil's trap. Ava's fingers twitched hungrily as she watched the other woman's every move.
"What are you doing?" Ava asked as Sarah reached up to brush the edge of the devil's trap.
"Making sure you never get what you want," Sarah said but Ava was already in motion, ripping out the witch's throat.
---
They were all sitting in Bobby Singer's living room, the humans drinking beer and the former angels sticking with water, when the flapping of wings whooshed in, accompanied by the cracking of an end table as Dean landed squarely on it. "Where were you?" Gabriel snarled at the angel. "We called. We needed you. Where were you?""I was being reminded of my duties," Dean said, voice curiously empty of emotion.
"Bullshit," Gabriel growled. "We needed you."
"Do not call me that," Dean retorted. "It is a human name, not befitting one of my stature. You will use my real name or none at all."
"Fine," Castiel spoke up levelly. "But come when we call. We do not just shout at the sky for no reason."
"I am not a dog to come at your beck and call," the angel hissed.
"Dumah-" Anna tried and was flung aside.
"Do not address me," he snarled. "You being here is simply another sign of my failure."
"Brother-" Sam pleaded but he too was thrown aside, slamming hard into a wall.
"Stay away from me abomination," Dumah snarled. Then he was gone with a snap of wings, leaving his stunned former friends behind.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The call came at just after seven in the morning. They had all drifted off, all being even Sam who claimed he needed some sleep to recover from the effort he had expended on their behalf, last night, stunned by Dean's sudden behavioral change. The blaring ring of the phone roused them it but it was Sam who got there first. Anna stood in the doorway as Sam picked up with a cautious hello. She watched his face fall grim, listened to his half sound answers, and then hang up. "Sam," she asked, stepping into the room and reaching up a hand to brush Sam's hair out of his face. "What is it? What's wrong?"
"It's Sarah," he replied heavily. "She's dead." Anna let out a little gasp and then wrapped her arms around Sam.
"Oh Sam," she said. "I am so sorry." Sam wasn't crying. Instead his expression was dead. Anna was crying softly and his arms came around her. She hadn't known Sarah long but the Sarah she'd met had been kind and vibrant and full of life. Anna found herself crying for that loss of life, for the loss of Sarah's beautiful smile, and for another loss strung together in a long chain that seemed determined to tear apart her Sam's heart. The others filtered into the kitchen in various stages of awareness and Sam gave them the news, voice just empty.
In an ordinary house on an ordinary day there would have been condolences and nothing more. Instead people slumped in chairs or went for coffee once the shock began to wear off. Eventually the tears stopped flowing and Anna squeezed Sam tighter before releasing him. "What happened?" she asked, turning to get a cup of coffee.
"They say she was outside with her throat ripped out," Sam said, voice dead. "By human teeth."
"What kind of psycho would do that?" Gabriel mumbled, marginally more awake now.
"A demon," Sam said darkly and Anna handed him her coffee cup to give him something to do with his hands and went to get another one. "A fairly new one still caught up in bloodlust." He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. His other hand clenched on the coffee cup so tightly that for a moment Anna thought it would shatter. She shooed the Novaks and Bobby out of the room silently and gently eased the cup from his hands.
"I'm so sorry Sam," she told him. "But this wasn't your fault."
"You are being nicer than I deserve," Sam told her. "Because it is my fault. If I had never suggested that we go to Sarah she would still be alive."
"You don't know that," Anna protested but Sam was already shaking his head. "Samael listen to me," she demanded. "This is not your fault. Sarah was a smart, capable woman who knew exactly what she was getting into when she was around you. It was her choice to help us and I dare say she knew exactly what was coming." Sam nodded hesitantly and she stood up on her toes to kiss him. For a moment the world faded away. Then a crash in the next room drew them apart and the sound of rustling wings settling set them into motion.
---
They tried praying again. Castiel wasn't entirely sure why Gabriel had insisted they try again but he had gone along with the idea. This time it worked but in retrospect it would have been better had it not. Dean, Dumah now he supposed, was standing in the middle of Bobby's living room. The angel's eyes were narrowed and cold as invisible wings rustled with an almost annoyed sound. Anna and Sam came scrambling out of the kitchen, Anna sliding to a stop and Sam wrapping an arm around her waist to help her keep her balance. "Dean," Anna breathed and the angel turned icy green eyes on her. Sam stiffed abruptly and gently pushed Anna behind him."Get out," he softly told the Novaks and Bobby.
"But-" Gabriel began to protest but Sam was already holding a hand up to silence to older Novak.
"Come on Gabe," Castiel murmured, gently helping Bobby steer his brother out of the room. He had a feeling that whatever was coming wasn't going to be good. "Anna," he said in a whisper as soon as Sam was out of sight. "Do you have any idea of how to contact Alastair?"
---
"Dumah," Sam said coldly, feeling the angel's icy eyes on him. That hurt. In fact Sam just hurt. Sarah was dead, his brother had been turned into a Heavenly robot, and life was looking to be very, very short. "Why are you here?""They prayed," Dumah said shortly and Sam tried not to flinch because he knew why they had. The situation was turning desperate and they needed all the help they could get.
"I'm surprised they did after you being such an angelic bastard last time," Sam snarled. Dumah's eyes narrowed and his sword was suddenly in hand. Sam didn't falter, angry and furious and hurt. "We don't need you."
"The Righteous Man will not be influenced by an abomination such as yourself," the angel snarled and the blade sliced through the air. Sam twisted aside, striving to ignore the hurt at hearing his closest brother call him an abomination, and tried to circle around his former brother, wounds from Uriel's attack already screaming with pain. Dumah was fast, faster than Sam remembered, and the second slash opened up the skin over his collarbone. The wound blazed and leaked blood and Sam barely managed to duck under the blade to slam a fist into Dumah's throat. As he tried to pull away the angel jabbed the blade through his side and Sam cried out, tumbling to the ground.
Dumah's blade was poised to end Samael's miserable little life when salvation came from an unexpected source. A wave of power wacked the angel square in the chest, sending him stumbling back and the sword clattering to the floor, and Alastair strode across the room with Anna right on his heels. Anna knelt next to Sam, cradling his head in her lap. "Oh Sam," she murmured, brushing a gentle hand through his hair.
"Out pigeon," Alastair demanded, smirking at Dumah. "You're not wanted here anymore. Especially not after this visit's little escapade."
"Why do you care?" Dumah hissed and Alastair smirked even as Anna stood and slid a slim switchblade out of her pocket. She sliced her hand and, using the blood pooling there, began to draw on the wall.
"Didn't anyone every tell you, you overgrown canary?" Alastair mocked. "The devil always takes his due." For a moment something flickered in the angel's cold eyes. Then Anna's hand slammed against the symbol and Dumah was gone once again, leaving Sam panting on the floor. Anna knelt again, brushing through Sam's hair as Gabriel, Castiel, and Bobby came around the corner to peer warily down at the former angel. "We're warding this house against angels," Alastair said, voice firm but eyes surprisingly sympathetic as he looked down at Samael's prone form. Nobody bothered to argue with the demon and even if they'd wanted to all they had to do was look at the pool of blood former around the former archangel and the protests would silence before they even reached lips.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
She had found them. It had taken Ava the best part of a day to find the Novaks, the angel masquerading as a human, and the all-important Samael but she had done it. She had stolen Ruby's cherry red Corvette in the process and wasn't the prissy little demon bitch pissed off about that particular thing. Ava didn't see what the problem was. It was just a car. Actually, Ava smirked as she propped her high heeled shoes on the dashboard of the car, she did understand. It was a gorgeous hunk of metal. She was in an alley in Peoria, Illinois not far from an angel surrounded house. The Novaks and their companions were settled in a car behind the house, watching it intently as if searching for signs of life. It would be so easy to saunter up to them and bask in the look of incredulous fear and disbelief but her focus was Samael, not Gabriel Novak. She'd just have to hang out and bide her time for now.
---
They were sitting behind the angel "safehouse" when Gabriel's phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket, already scowling. He hit ignore and shoved it back in his pocket only to have it ring again. He ignored it and then his scowl darkened when he realized everyone was staring at him. "It's Ruby," he grumbled."Answer it," Samael spoke up, his voice nothing more than a pained croak. "Find out what she wants. It could be useful."
"I don't want to answer it," Gabriel protested, pouting at the angel as the phone began ringing again.
"Gabriel," Anna and Castiel both chided, Castiel from the passenger seat of the car and Anna from her position in the back stroking her hand through Sam's sweaty hair.
"Alastair will be here in ten minutes so we can get Meg and Anna's sword out," Sam said, voice frail but stupidly reasonable. "It won't do any harm to hear Ruby out." Gabriel sighed but gave in, pulling the phone out just as it stopped ringing. He sighed in exasperation and dialed the number.
"That bitch took my car," a female voice shrieked when Ruby answered her phone. Gabriel pulled the cell phone away from his ear and stared at it as if it had grown a second head. After a moment he delicately placed it back against his ear.
"Ruby?" he asked and got an embarrassed little cough in response. "Is everything okay?"
"Umm…yeah," Ruby replied, sounding awkward and embarrassed. "Sorry about that. I thought you were someone else."
"Yeah," Gabriel replied, sounding equally awkward. "I could tell." There was a long pause and then he said, "So what is it you wanted?"
"I wanted to see you." Instantly Ruby's voice turned coy and pleading. "Come on, Gabe, I haven't even seen you since your brother came back. I missed you."
"Ruby-" Gabriel began, blowing out a breath, but the demon interrupted him.
"Just set up a meeting spot and I'll be there," she continued. "You could have your fix. I know you want it." Gabriel could feel his hands trembling as the phantom taste of demon blood burned on his tongue. Part of him wanted that so badly, even though he'd only tasted the flavor a couple times, but the rest of him was screaming in denial. Gabriel sided with the screaming side.
"I can't Ruby," he said, hoping his voice was steady enough to convince her to lay off.
"Please," Ruby begged, her voice all coy and sugar sweet. It was a tone that might have worked when Castiel was dead but his little brother was back with a comforting hand against Gabriel's shoulder and Ruby's pleading was becoming easier to ignore.
"Sorry Ruby but we're one a job," he said, voice heartlessly cold. "Good luck getting your car back." Then he hung up on her. The phone rang again but he ignored it as Alastair appeared in the back of the car with a small crack and the barest hint of sulfur.
"Am I interrupting something?" the demon asked with a smirk. Samael managed a weak growl and Alastair turned his smirk on the former angel. "No need to get touchy. I was just asking," the demon said in a slimy tone, not even managing to sound apologetic or defensive. "Ready to hear the plan?"
"There's a plan?" Gabriel asked mockingly, placing a gentle hand on his little brother's shoulder as Castiel tensed in the presence of his former torturer.
"Yes, oh wise one," Alastair drawled with a roll of suddenly white eyes. "There's a plan."
"Spill," Sam demanded, voice rough with pain, and Anna hushed him gently.
"You're not going to like it," the demon informed the former archangel with an almost wicked sense of glee. "Because I'm going to need a distraction. And you are going to be it."
"He's injured," Anna protested and Alastair's eyes turned white again.
"Anna," Sam croaked out, shoving himself upright. "I believe that's the point."
"But-" Anna began and then her eyes widened as they drifted past him to peer out the window. "Oh."
"Right," Sam replied with wry grin. "Exactly."
"What?" Gabriel protested, torn between worrying about his brother who was getting tenser the longer Alastair was in the vehicle and worrying about Sam who was already hurt enough.
"The angels out there are all relatively young," Alastair answered, voice cool and slimy and self-satisfied. "They won't know what Samael's grace feels like or what his true form appears as. They'll just see a damaged angel, possibly one injured by demons. Their first instinct is going to be to help him, not guard the demon trapped inside. Anna is going to help with the ordeal by waxing hysterical about someone who just fell from the sky at her feet."
"But won't they be on alert about Anna?" Castiel asked, speaking for the first time since Alastair had appeared. "Dean and Uriel were going to kill her earlier and I'm sure Uriel has spread the word since then."
"Good, your free ride back topside hasn't turned you into a complete idiot," the demon cooed at Gabriel's younger brother. Gabriel growled as Castiel flinched and the demon turned calm eyes on the older Novak. "I didn't mean any offence. Anna has a hood. She can tuck her hair underneath it and they'll be much too focused on Sammy here to more than register Anna's existence."
"They'll be safe?" Castiel demanded, eyes unyielding even with his former torturer looking at him.
"Perfectly safe," Alastair replied levelly.
"How can we trust-" Gabriel began but his younger brother quickly covered the older Novak's mouth with a palm.
"He's telling the truth," Castiel said softly. Then he turned back to the demon. "We're the getaway drivers."
"Yes," Alastair replied, already opening the car door and ushering the two former angels out. "That's exactly what you are."
---
Sam's wounds ached. Despite the near constant pain from angelically induced wounds he wasn't stupid and he knew that Alastair shooting him sidelong glances at him wasn't a good sign. "What?" he asked in a low, wary voice as the demon shooed Anna to the front of the alley to see what the angels on guard were doing."I wish I could say I'm sorry for what I'm about to do but I'm not," Alastair said, voice full of a dark kind of pleasure. Sam opened his mouth to ask what the demon meant but words wouldn't come out. Instead he let out a long, drawn at scream as Alastair's true form sliced directly into his own being. "Good luck," he heard the demon hiss before vanishing as Anna scrambled to his side.
"Oh my God," she was squeaking. "What happened? Are you okay?" Sam managed to give his beloved a meaningful look through watering eyes and she helped him up, staggering under the weight as she led him out of the alley. He knew he looked terrible, broken and bleeding, and that idea was only reinforced as the two angels guarding the door were suddenly rushing over. One was wearing a young blonde woman who looked like she was just out of high school. The other was a man in his early thirties with wavy brown hair and wide blue eyes. It was the woman who approached Anna as the man helped lower Sam to the ground.
"What happened?" the woman asked the distressed red head.
"I-i don't know," Anna wailed out. "I was just walking down the street when this-this-this man just fell out of the sky and he's h-hurt and I d-d-don't know what to do."
"Just calm down Miss," the blonde said. "I am Adriel and this is Israfil. This man here is our brother. We will help him if you will trust us to do so."
"Y-yes," Anna stammered out and, with one worried backwards look at Sam, stumbled away from the way she'd come leaving the former archangel at the hands of his younger siblings.
"What happened brother?" Israfil asked, carefully cradling the other angel's head, and Sam found himself struggling for words.
"I-It-I mean," he stuttered, gasping for suddenly strained breath. "There was-"
"Calm down brother," Adriel soothed. "You are safe now."
"There was a demon," Sam managed to gasp out and the two younger angels exchanged worried glances.
"What demon?" Adriel prodded gently.
"Alastair," Sam gasped out truthfully and watched them both flinch. He couldn't stop his own flinch at the fear in their eyes. The demon in question was fearsome enough to Sam, damaged as he was, and Alastair could kill these young angels with barely a second thought. Regardless of obviously knowing that fact the two hastened to reassure him that he was safe. It was almost sweet, in a way, until another angel came out of the house. And this one was old enough to recognize Sam for who he was. The former archangel hoped Alastair was having better luck than he was.
---
"You," Meg snarled as Alastair untied her. "Are a bastard." The older demon had decimated the devil's trap and was now quickly moving to free her from the ropes tying her down to a chair. "You left me in there to die.""A necessary sacrifice," the other demon all but purred, freeing her. "Now about the sword."
"Next room," Meg growled with a roll of her eyes. "Please tell me you have someone distracting the angel inside and not just the two kindergarten ones lurking around outside the place."
"Samael is playing distraction," Alastair said and the younger demon was startled by something that was almost concern in Alastair's eyes. "But he won't be able to for long. Not if they discover who he is."
"Then we'd best hurry," Meg said, speeding up her steps as she snatched up Anna's gleaming sword. Somewhere outside they both heard Samael's name called and Meg's lips pulled down in a frown. "Because I think our time just ran out."
Both demons rushed toward the door to find the last angel assigned to keeping Meg pinned up and Anna's sword out of the Novak brothers' reach storming toward the downed Samael. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," Alastair warned and the angel spun, her short gold hair swishing around her face. The other two younger angels had backed away from the injured former archangel.
"Of course," she sneered. "Demons. I should have known you'd side with our fallen brother."
"Tahlil," Samael cut in weakly as the angel advanced on the demons. "I don't think that-"
"Silence," Tahlil shrieked, spinning with a hand blazing with grace to glare at the former archangel. Meg reacted on instinct. She shoved Anna's sword forward and it slide through Tahlil's back like a hot knife through butter. Tahlil shrieked, lighting up from the inside, and blazed for a moment with dying grace. When the light cleared the second female was lunging forward at the demons. Alastair moved before Meg could, obliterating the angel in a show of pure power. The third turned on Samael.
"You," he hissed, knife gleaming in hand. "You did this." Samael tried to scramble up out of the way but he had lost too much blood already to be effective. Neither one of the demons were going to move fast enough. They knew it and Sam knew it too, head bowing with defeat. The angel had lifted the sword to strike when another blade burst through the chest of the angry angel.
"You stay away from my brother," Dumah snarled, eyes bright with rage and hurt and betrayal while the rest of the world looked on.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The return of their guardian angel had drawn Castiel, Gabriel, and Anna out of the car and across the empty street. They stared at the three dead angels lying in the street, the injured form of Samael trembling on the ground, and Dumah banishing his sword with a flick of his wrist. The angel looked more sane than he had been since he'd been whisked away from Heaven right in front of their eyes. "Sam," Dean said, kneeling carefully and reaching out a hand towards his injured brother and then jerking it back when the former archangel flinched away from him. "Sam I am so sorry."
"Now is perhaps not the time for this," Alastair said, tone less snide than normal. "We need to get away from here before more of the kindergarten angel brigade shows up."
"Good idea," Gabriel muttered, stepping around the kneeling angel to offer his hand to Sam. "Come on Sammy-boy. Let's get you cleaned up." Sam took the hand, his own trembling, and allowed the older Novak to pull him painfully to his feet. The two staggered toward the car, Anna and Castiel on their heels. Dean moved to follow but Alastair reached out a hand to stop the angel.
"If you hurt Samael again," the demon threatened in a low voice. "If you ever try to kill him again you will not see the dawn of another day. Do you understand?"
"Yes," Dumah replied, meeting the demon's white eyes with ones that were suddenly blazing blue. "I do." Alastair studied the angel for a moment and then released his arm.
"Good," he said. "Go catch up to your brother then. He needs help and with the way this day is going it's only going to get worse."
---
If Ava had been a demon less determined to see the crushed looks on Gabriel and Castiel's faces when she took their precious help away she probably would have left by now. Actually if the demon that was formerly Ava Wilson had obtained more common sense over the years than God have given the household goldfish she would have run the instant the first angel had been destroyed. Instead she had hung around. She had waited out three angelic deaths and an overabundance of chatter and now she was following a car to a sleazy looking motel in the next town over. She waited until the Novaks, Samael, Anna, and their newly arrived backup entered their room before slipping out of Ruby's car.As she sauntered across the cracked pavement, she had traded out the younger blonde for an older female in her mid-twenties with artificial red hair, her cell phone rang obnoxiously in her pocket. Casually Ava slipped the phone from her pocket and flipped it open. "Yes?" she purred, smirking when she got a muted snarl in response.
"I want my car back you bitch," Ruby all but shrieked.
"Come and get it then," Ava taunted, not breaking stride as she snapped the phone shut, shoved it in her pocket, and kicked down the motel door.
---
They ended up in some seedy motel that Dumah didn't care to know the name of because he intended never to return. Sam was bleeding on one of the beds while Anna tended to him. The former archangel had refused to allow Dumah to help heal him and after everything the angel had done under Zachariah's influence he didn't blame his brother. Gabriel and Castiel talking lowly about some idea or other they had to incorporate into the warding at Bobby's house. Dumah himself was lurking in a back corner simply trying to stay out of the way as he tried to figure out how to fix this entire mess.That was when a demon decided to kick down the door. "Hello boys," she chirped, her blood red hair gleaming even in the shadows of the hotel room. "Nice to see you again Gabriel. Especially after you so kindly stood by while Jake snapped my neck."
"Ava," Gabriel breathed out in muted horror. "How are you here?"
"I went to Hell Gabriel, not Tahiti," Ava drawled, rolling her eyes at the older Novak. "How do you think I'm back?"
"She's working for Lilith," Samael hissed out in a pained voice and Ava smirked at him proudly.
"Yes I am," she cooed. "And so are you."
"Not a snowball's chance in Hell," he shot back and Dumah felt a glimmer of pride at his brother's fire. Sam had been dragged through the dirt for centuries and still he managed to fight.
"Oh," Ava said, tilting her head to one side. "I think I can change your mind." Then she slipped a hand behind her, brought out a gun she'd stowed somewhere, and shot the rising Anna squarely in the head. Anna's eyes went wide and blank, a trickle of blood drifting down her forehead, her whole body wavered, and she fell in a crumbled heap on the floor. Sam let out a cry of terror and pain that shook Dumah out of his frozen state and he lunged forward, reaching out a hand and eradicating the demon in a blaze of light. The body that had once contained Ava crumpled to the ground much less gracefully than Anna had.
Sam had slithered out of the bed and was now hunched over cradling Anna's still body in his arms. He was crying softly and clutching her close as if that could bring her back to life. Gabriel and Castiel were gaping at her still frame in the trembling former archangel's arms as if they couldn't quite believe what was happening. Dumah wasn't entirely sure if Anna had really died either. As an angel, Anael had been a fearsome warrior, unmatched by any other ordinary seraph in Heaven. As a human she had burned with the same kind of brilliant ferocity. It had given the impression that she was invincible and now, to see her lying so still in Sam's arms, it was hard to believe she was dead.
"Sam," Dumah said as gently as he could and his brother looked up, eyes agonized and full to the brim with tears that just kept spilling over. "We need to go." Sam nodded but he didn't release Anna's body and Dumah didn't push him. "Gabriel, Castiel, come here. I'll take you to Bobby Singer's house."
"We uh," Gabriel gave an awkward cough as if this wasn't really the time to bring that up. "We kind of warded the house against you." Dumah absorbed that for a moment and then forced himself to shrug it off.
"That was practical," he admitted. "I can still land at the end of the driveway though." Gabriel considered that and then nodded, Castiel already moving forward to place a gentle hand on Sam's shoulder. Gabriel mimicked his brother's actions, placing a hand on Dumah's shoulder. In a flap of powerful wings they were gone and landing in front of Singer's Salvage Yard. The flapping wings had apparently drawn attention because Alastair and Bobby Singer himself were seen striding across the yard.
"What happened?" the demon demanded immediately, kneeling next to Sam.
"Ava," Gabriel growled, eyes blazing. "Lilith brought her up and she killed Anna." Sam sucked in a pained breath and then stood slowly, lifting Anna's body.
"We should bury her," he said and Castiel nodded in agreement.
"Won't she come back?" Gabriel asked but Dumah was already shaking his head.
"Anna was an angel," he replied. "The rules for her are a bit different than the ones for humans. Anna will not return as an unquiet spirit."
"There's a patch out back," Bobby spoke up. "My wife Karen is buried there. Anna will be in good company."
"Thank you," Samael breathed, stunned, and Bobby tipped his cap at the former archangel.
"You can hold Anna," Castiel said, his voice gentle. "Gabriel and I will dig."
"I will help," Dumah added and together the four of them staggered around Bobby's house, Anna still cradled in Sam's arms. Meg met them at the side of the house and pressed a gentle kiss to Anna's still forehead before following them around the house and out of sight.
"They are foolish," Alastair commented, watching them go. "Foolish to think they could have escaped this without any deaths and foolish to think anything else will go as planned."
"They are idjits," Bobby agreed sadly. "But they're determined."
"Yes they are," the demon replied, giving the human a sidelong glance. "And, sometimes, that is why I think we're all doomed."
"Oh we're doomed all right," Bobby shot back with a wry smile. "But who says that has to be a bad thing?"
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Sam stared at Anna's fresh grave, lost in a sea of grief. It was hard to believe she was gone. He had expected her to take her grace back eventually and leave him behind but that would have been bearable. Anna would have still been alive. Instead she was dead, just like Sarah. Jess was still alive and wandering the world somewhere but she had long ago moved on. "Sam," Dean murmured from his side, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. "At least let me heal you." Sam let out a shaky breath and his brother knelt next to him. "Sam," Dean said, voice surprisingly gentle. "I am so very sorry. I should have fled Heaven the instant I saw Zachariah."
"It wasn't your fault," Sam said, voice shaky. "Anna knew the risks. She knew what might happen."
"But it still hurts you," Dean replied. "Sam, I never set out to hurt you."
"I know." They sat there in silence for a moment, both looking at the wooden cross embedded there. The last testament to Anna Milton's existence.
"I'm sorry," Dean apologized and Sam reached a hand over to painfully squeeze his brother's shoulder.
"Thank you," he said softly, not even sure what he was thanking Dean for. His brother seemed to understand what Sam was saying though and he gently pulled the former archangel to his feet.
"Now will you let me heal you before you bleed out into oblivion?" Dean asked, trying to interject some humor into a bad situation. "It isn't what Anna would have wanted," he added softly.
"Yes," Sam sighed at last and Dean let out a sigh as well, this one of relief. Sam felt the touch of his brother's grace brush across his wounds and returned to motion automatically, only to find that something was missing. Something that was essential to humanity. A soul. "Dumah," he pressed gently, the angel's true name just slipping out, and his brother flinched away. "Dean," he corrected quickly. "What happened?" He didn't have to press any further. His brother knew exactly what he meant.
"I don't want to talk about it." This time it was Dean pulling away and Sam didn't know how to stop it.
"Dean," he pleaded but his brother was already walking away. Sam sighed and slumped to the ground, wondering what curveball Dad was going to throw at him next. There was a crack next to his head and he flinched only to register Alastair standing next to him casually leaning against a broken car.
The demon took one glance at the former archangel and asked, "Who kicked your puppy?"
"Shut up," Sam growled and the demon held his hands up in mock surrender.
"Calm yourself. I have news."
"Of?"
"There's another seal about to be broken."
"What?" Sam yelped, suddenly scrambling to his feet and ignoring Alastair's amused smirk as his first attempt almost sent him toppling back down to the ground. "When? Where? Which one?"
"Didn't I say to calm yourself?" Alastair demanded. "It won't do any good to tell you if you're overexcited and I have to repeat everything." Sam shot the demon a flat, unamused look but didn't protest the assessment. "I don't know the specifics but I do have a location. One of Lilith's little lackeys had the unfortunate experience of stepping into my web and let that little tidbit lose."
"He didn't happen to walk away, did he?" Sam asked suspiciously.
"No Samael. He did not get up and walk away. He is burning in Hell even as we speak." Sam nodded warily and waited for Alastair to continue.
"There's a ritual happening, one that another of Lilith's little brain dead minions is attempting to arrange in New Orleans. Something to do with a witch possessed by a demon, powerful Voodoo, and rivers turning to blood."
"Swamp land, but still," Sam said, wrinkling his nose in disgust while his mind twisted around trying to find a solution. "Permanently or temporarily?"
"Temporarily I think," Alastair returned. "Twenty-four hours in fact."
"What's happening in twenty-four hours?" Gabriel Novak questioned as he approached.
"Specific timeframe?" Sam questioned, ignoring the human for now.
"Not that I know of," Alastair returned. Sam began grumbling insults in Enochian as he stormed toward the house. Alastair watched him go, an amused look on his face.
"What?" Gabriel demanded, looking around for a moment as if waiting for someone to answer him before sighing and trailing after the demon and former archangel. Fifteen minutes later there was a massive influx of power and an angel, a demon, a dragged down archangel, and two humans were in a back alley in New Orleans.
---
It took the Novak brothers and Alastair eight hours to track down their demon possessed witch. The first problem was that Voodoo and Hoodoo and that sort of thing was huge in this part of the country. The second as that there were half a hundred demons wandering around the streets in meatsuits and it was incredibly difficult to distinguish which of those possessed humans was actually a witch as well. Finally they had settled on an artificial red head named Alejandra Isobel Vasquez Martinez. Gabriel had made a quip that with a name like that there had only been two options for her; be a supermodel or a witch and with her being slightly overweight being a supermodel was obviously out. Castiel had rolled his eyes and the three of them had settled in to trail Alejandra after sending a quick prayer to their resident guardian angel to let him know they'd found her.Sam and Dean had split off from the others as soon as they'd arrived in New Orleans with strangely wary looks on their faces, ordering Alastair to keep an eye on the humans before vanishing with a flap on wings. The demon had been strangely close mouthed on the subject, refusing to answer any questions on the subject. Now they were standing just outside a warehouse watching the demonic, but lovely as Gabriel had to point out, Alejandra set up her ritual.
"So what exactly is this ritual supposed to do?" Castiel asked in a voice so soft it was barely a whisper. Alastair had been equally close mouthed about the ritual this demonic witch was supposed to bring about. He had explained the bare bones of the idea; it involved a demon possessed witch and a ritual that broke one of the other seals after a period of twenty-four hours. Castiel hadn't pushed his luck to ask more about the subject but now that the information might be vital he had to try.
"The ritual is an old one," Alastair said, his voice low and smooth as black ice that sent you spinning across the pavement and into the nearest cement wall. "It turns water in the surrounding area to blood for twenty-four hours. All water. Once the spell is cast it is impossible to reverse but will reverse itself in twenty-four hours. By then thousands will be dead and the seal will have been broken hours ago."
"And how exactly are we supposed to stop this?" Gabriel asked. "Kill her?"
"That's the general idea," the demon drawled, amused smirk firmly in place. "So perhaps we could get a move on?" Gabriel gulped, Alastair looked pleased, and Castiel slipped from his hiding place with a roll of his eyes to creep forward toward the warehouse. The others followed him, ghost quiet, as Alejandra began chanting. A soft flutter of wings drew his attention to the left and he saw Dean landed, pulling Sam with him. Their eyes were focused on the warehouse and their faces were pale. Alastair reached out a hand to snag the back of Castiel's shirt and his other hand pressed against Gabriel's chest, stopping Castiel's older brother in his tracks. "What's wrong?" Alastair hissed. "What happened?"
Sam was shaking slightly as Alejandra's voice rose to a triumphant shriek and a blaze of power washed over to them. They all watched in astonished horror as the spell brushed by them, turning a couple of puddles in the street red and tacky with blood. Nothing but blood. "Watch," Dean croaked out and they all turned toward the warehouse and Alejandra once more. A blaze of brilliant light was suddenly filling the room, burning as brightly as the sun. Alejandra let out a scream of pure terror, the light blazed, and when it was gone there was nothing left of the demon possessed witch but dust.
"Who was that?" Alastair hissed, eyes furious and frightened. Castiel's mind locked on one single word; Who.
"We have to get out of here," Dean replied, voice distant and eyes wary.
"What's going on?" Gabriel demanded, voice almost frantic as he strained to push past Alastair.
"He's not going to let us go," Sam spoke up, voice wavering and fingers clenching tight on Dean's arm. "Dean, he's not going to let us go."
"Then we'll go to him," Dean said, voice a kind of steady that said it was forced. "It'll be okay Sammy. I promise."
"Okay," Sam replied, voice still breathless and frightened but grip loosening on Dean's arm. The angel turned to Alastair then and said, "Get them out of here."
"Not until you tell me what's going on," Alastair shot back, eyes pure demonic white.
"That was Raphael," Dean shot back, tone hard as steel. "Now do you still want to stick around?"
"Sam said he wasn't going to let us go," Castiel cut in. "How do you think Alastair is going to get us out?"
"Sam meant he and I," Dean replied, face grim. "Raphael has been lurking after us all day. He won't touch either of you. Now Alastair, get them out of here." Alastair nodded and before either Novak could protest there was a crack, the scent of sulfur, and the streets of New Orleans faded away right in front of their eyes.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
As soon as Alastair had vanished with the Novaks, Dumah spread his wings and took off, Samael right on his heels. Neither one aimed for anywhere in particular. They both knew that regardless of whether or not they tried to escape Raphael would simply snatch them up in midair and dump them exactly where he wanted them. Sure enough, power surrounding them, pinning their wings and yanking them down toward the earth below. They crashed through the rickety roof of a building to the sound of emergency vehicle sirens wailing by them. "You okay?" the angel asked his companion with a groan, sitting up slowly and shaking the debris out of his wings."Been better," Sam muttered back, shaking out his own wings with nothing short of irritation. "He could have at least put us down gently.""Have you seen Raphael in the past century?" Dumah retorted and got an eye roll for his trouble. "Oh. Right.""When did the healer in our family become so violent?" the former archangel murmured, standing slowly. "Better yet, where is he?""Looks like we're going to have to find him," Dumah replied with a shrug, taking Sam's offered hand and allowing his brother to pull him to his feet. "Let's get going. I really don't want to be stuck in New Orleans for the entire twenty-four hour disaster period." Sam nodded grimly, his face set in a worried line, and together they began to search the room. They seemed to be in someone's attic sealed from the outside with no way out. Well, no human way. The house hadn't been warded against angels so after twenty long minutes Dumah balled up his fist and simply punched through the roof of the house."You really shouldn't have done that," Sam protested mildly even as he knelt to help his brother widen the hole."Did you want to stay here all night?" Dumah retorted with a smirk before he dropped through the hole to the house below. Sam sighed but followed, unable to argue the point. Time was ticking down to stop the apocalypse in its tracks and the longer they spent playing Raphael's game the less time they had in the long run. That thought in mind, Sam set his jaw and reached out what was left of his grace, determined to find his older brother and end this now.
---
They landed with a crash in Bobby Singer's living room. There was a moment of complete, almost stunned, silence when they landed and they Alastair swore under his breath. "Why-" Gabriel began to ask and then cut himself off as he realized the thing he was staring at on the ceiling was a devil's trap. The demon had landed them square in the center of it and, in the process of rescuing them, had trapped himself. "Nice landing buddy.""It wasn't as if I had a lot of time to plan it you impudent whelp," the demon snarled and Gabriel snickered, rolling quickly out of the way of a smack as Castiel sighed for somewhere off to his left."Will you two stop it? We have actual work to do. Seals to prevent the breaking of and all. Any of this ringing a bell?""No need to be so bitchy Cassie," Gabriel shot back, standing slowly and smirking at his younger brother. "We can't do anything until your pocket angel gets back anyway.""Don't call me that," Castiel shot back with a furious glare. A suddenly knock on the door ended an impending shouting match with startling swiftness, leaving Alastair smirking as the two brothers exchanged nervous looks."You want to answer that or should I?" Gabriel asked after a moment, voice heavy with trepidation. They both flinched when the knocking came again and turned uneasy eyes in the direction of the door."If you let me out of here I'll go answer it," Alastair offered, smirk widening when they both flinched again at the sound of his voice. Castiel hesitated for a moment, eyes studying the demon's carefully, and then stepped forward, reaching up to scrape away some of the pain that made the devil's trap complete on the ceiling above. "I'd better not regret this," Castiel murmured as the demon slipped by on the way to the door. Alastair didn't bother to respond, simply shooting the human a sardonic smirk before stepping out of view.
---
Samael was annoyed. He and Dean had searched the entire house only to find that every available exit was warded so that they couldn't leave the house. Furthermore, other than the warding, there wasn't a single sign of Raphael anywhere. After searching with more and more frustration they found themselves sitting on opposite sides of a tiny kitchen table to wait because there was nothing left to do. "So what happened?" Sam asked after a moment of irritated silence. "With Zachariah I mean." Dean sighed and put his head in his hands for a moment before responding."He pulled us both up, my vessel and I, and was trying to bind my grace." Sam winced at that, torn between fury at Zachariah and sympathy for his brother. "The bastard was struggling with controlling me when he realized he'd taken the entire package and I was still protecting the soul. He-" Dean cut himself off and Sam flinched, already knowing what was coming next."You don't have to-" he began to protest but Dean raised a hand to silence him."Yeah, I do," he replied, swallowing hard and then finishing his sentence. "Zachariah obliterated him. Aaron Walton no longer exists. In fact, he pretty much never existed this way.""I'm so-""If you apologize I'm going to smack you," Dean threatened and Sam's mouth snapped shut and mock scowled at his brother when Dean snickered. A sudden breath of wind that rattled the windows and began wrapping around the house silenced their merriment. Raphael had arrived.
---
"So what exactly is this?" Gabriel asked, staring at the box sitting on Bobby's kitchen table with the same trepidation one gave something they knew was liable to explode on them. Alastair had brought the box with an envelope tapped on the top into the house with his perpetual amused expression, claiming that the post man had brought it up. Some post office in South Dakota now had the signature of a genuine demon and Gabriel would be amused by that at some point. Right now though, he was busy staring at The Box. And yes, it deserved capital letters. Any package that had to be signed for during the buildup of the apocalypse with a time stamp deserved capital letters."It's a box," the demon said dryly, answering Gabriel's inquiry. The older Novak glared warily at Alastair and got a dry smirk in response."Should we open it?" Castiel murmured, stepping forward and reaching toward The Box. Gabriel reached out to snag his brother's wrist and Alastair sighed in exasperation."For Lucifer's sake it isn't going to explode," Alastair grumbled."You sure?" Gabriel demanded warily and Castiel sighed, reaching out a hand and yanking the letter off of the top of The Box. "Dude you have to be more careful!""I already died once and went to Hell," Castiel shot back absent mindedly as he opened the envelope. "What else is gonna happen at this point?" Gabriel opened his mouth to argue, realized he couldn't exactly argue about that, snapped his mouth shut and settled into a pout instead. His little brother ignored him, as was Castiel's habit, and pulled a sheet of notebook paper out of the envelope. "What?" Gabriel demanded as his brother's expression changed from curious to flat out stunned awe. Castiel didn't answer, still gaping at the paper. "What?""Gabriel look at the signature.""Why?""Just do it!" Gabriel glanced at the signature at the end of the letter and then found himself gaping as well."No way," he breathed out, voice barely more than a whisper. "No way."
---
Both Sam and Dean turned expectantly toward the kitchen doorway as the rattling silenced. Sure enough Raphael was standing in the doorway wearing a fairly young brunette man in a business suit. The two exchanged eye rolls and then turned back to the pissed off archangel. "So what exactly has your panties in a bunch?" Dean demanded bluntly. Sam visibly flinched but inwardly he agreed with his brother. Raphael had tailed them for an entire day, let a seal break, dumped them in a warded house, and then left them to fume for hours. He deserved whatever tongue lashing Dean dished out. The archangel studied them with ever darkening eyes, grace fluctuating wildly."Do you even know what you're doing?" he snarled at last, hands clenching convulsively into tight fists, relaxing, and then clenching again."Um, trying to save the world?" Dean shot back like the archangel was an exceptionally stupid child. "What do you think we're doing?""Undoing our father's plan," Raphael snarled back and Dean snorted."Right. Because Dad didn't toss Luci in the Cage because he tried to break Dad's favorite toy or anything," the angel retorted. Sam watched the exchange with an expression of someone watching a gladiator match turned hissy fit and wasn't sure exactly how to respond to the sudden switch. "Now is the time that was foretold," Raphael shot back."And you know this how? Dad just walked up and told you?" Dean let out a derisive snort. "Yeah right. Everyone knows that Daddy isn't in Heaven anymore." Raphael lunged forward with a growl and Sam spat out of the only sentence that had any hope of stopping his older brother in his tracks."What does Michael think about all this?" It was as if Sam had suddenly pressed the pause button on a remote. Raphael jerked to a stop, wide and infuriated eyes turning to land squarely on the disgraced archangel."Michael?" Raphael sneered, eyes full with hurt. "I thought you already knew Samael. Michael is gone."
---
"How did Anna arrange this?" Gabriel demanded, pacing back and forth so quickly he was making Castiel dizzy. "How did she know?""Sarah," Castiel said in what he felt was a reasonable tone."What?" Gabriel squawked and Castiel groaned as Alastair snickered from somewhere behind him."Sarah," he said. "It explains everything in Anna's letter if you would just bother to read it.""Cassie," Gabriel whined and Castiel sighed."Fine. Sit and I'll read it out loud." Gabriel pouted but, seeing that his younger brother was unswayed, sank down in a chair. Castiel sighed in relief and then scooped up the letter, unfolding it once again. "To Castiel Novak and the other one. The annoying one.""Hey," Gabriel yelped and Castiel arched an eyebrow at his brother."I'm just reading what it says.""No you aren't!"Castiel relented and started again. "Castiel and Gabriel Novak, if you are reading this letter then it means I am already dead and another seal has broken. I'm so sorry I can't tell you any of this in person but Sarah and I both agreed that this is what is going to happen. You see, Sarah called me after our little visit with her and filled me in on something vital to the continued survival of the world. She uses her powers most often the see the future and the one she saw wasn't good. If Sarah and I both lived then Lilith would use the pair of us to threaten Sam into working for her. And if Sam works for Lilith then Lucifer's rising is guaranteed and the world ends. If we both die, killed by Lilith's lackeys, then Sam refuses to join her and there is hope."Now, on to the box. Inside the box are two packages, one for each of you. They're filled with random of pieces of research I found while I was searching for my grace and my sword. Put together they create a picture that is impossible for me to deny. I wish I could explain flat out what I mean but it's dangerous even sending you. Good luck and do not give up hope. I send you my best, Anna Milton.""And what the fuck is that supposed to mean?" Gabriel complained."Honestly?" Castiel replied with a shrug. "I have no idea."
---
"What do you mean Michael is gone?" Dean demanded as, at the same time, Sam said, "I guessed. I didn't know.""Michael is gone from Heaven," Raphael snapped. "Gone for a couple centuries now. He could be dead for all that we know.""Right, because almighty Michael being knocked off by some human makes perfect sense," Dean grumbled. "When did you lose what little logic you had left?""Maybe when all my brothers fell of the straight and narrow," the archangel sneered back. Sam flinched at that and then straightened up, standing to rise to his full height."What do you want with us?" he spat. "Want us to lay off? Because I'm going to tell you right now that if this is really Dad's will he'll put a stop to it himself." Raphael faltered, something seeming to catch him off guard. "Well?" Sam demanded. Raphael growled and with a snap of wings was gone, the house suddenly empty and the bindings falling away. The brothers exchanged looks in the now empty house, unsure how to take the new development in the plot."So," Dean said finally. "Think we should catch up with the rest of our help?""Yeah," Sam agreed, casting a wary glance at the ceiling as if his older brother might appear at any moment. "Let's get out of here before Raphael decides to come back."
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Castiel had spent the past four hours puzzling over what Anna had left he and his brother. All he had gained from it was confusion and a headache. Dean and Sam had returned to Bobby's late the previous night looking both shaken up and annoyed. They had been mysteriously close mouthed about what Raphael had wanted and even Alastair, who had pointed out darkly that the archangel could prove to be a danger to them all, couldn't get anything about the encounter out of them. Eventually they had given up on that line of interrogation and drifted their separate ways to get some rest before coming back to the problems at hand.
"Whatcha doin'?" a curious voice asked and Castiel found himself with a face full of white-blonde hair as Meg leaned in front of him to look at the newspaper clippings, birth certificates, pictures of comets, and one particularly grainy picture of a tree that someone from a Sci-Fi conspiracy theory magazine had taken. "What's this?"
"The stuff Anna arranged to have sent to us," Castiel said, leaning back and running a hand through his hair. "She seemed to think we should be able to piece this together but all I'm getting is gibberish."
"Isn't it obvious?" Meg asked, pulling out of the way and shooting a puzzled glance Castiel's direction.
"Isn't what obvious?"
"Oh for Lucifer's sake," Meg groaned, throwing her hands in the air. "Look!" She began rearranging the papers, starting with Gabriel's birth certificate. Following that she added six articles about the same two comet landings, a column about a mysterious healing of a cow, and an article about fast growing alfalfa. "These all go together."
"How'd you get that?" Gabriel had come into the room with Bobby Singer behind him, probably to inform his younger brother that the older hunter was home, and now was staring at Meg's organization. The demon was moving Gabriel's birth certificate, another few articles about two separate comet landings, and the picture of the tree along with article Castiel had suspected went with it together.
"You don't know?" Meg asked, frustrated. "Come on. I thought you were smarter than this."
"Break it down for us," Bobby ordered and she groaned, turning toward the door.
"Samael," she hollered. "Get your ass in here."
"What?" the former angel grumbled, sticking his head through the doorway.
"Come look at this," she demanded and he sighed but acquiesced, Alastair and Dean right on his heels. Sam studied it for a moment and they watched as his eyes widened.
"What? How?" Sam choked, body suddenly trembling.
"Sam?" Dean asked, ghosting forward to brush a hand against a trembling arm.
"Do you-"
"Yeah Sammy, I see it." Dean turned then and glanced at the Novaks as Alastair leaned over his shoulder and whistled. "Who gave you this?"
"Believe it or not Anna," Gabriel said. Castiel nodded once, digging through the mess to hand over her letter. Dean read it silently, winced, and handed it to Sam. As Sam read the angel shot a meaningful look at Alastair who nodded once, expression both grim and delighted, and left. Sam's face seemed to crumple with exhaustion and pain and he swayed slightly on his feet. Dean set a gentle hand against his brother's shoulder until Sam steadied.
"Meg," the angel said gently. "Will you explain?"
"Gladly," the she demon said with a half respectful, half mocking bow. "When an angel chooses to cut out their grace, fall to earth, and become human, both they and their grace falls to the ground at incredible speeds mimicking a comet or meteorite. The grace falls one way and the human the other. That's all I know about it really."
"The same that I know," Dean admitted.
"Grace ground zero is pure creation," Sam cut in, expression tired and mournful as he clutched Anna's letter to his chest. "Thus the trees and the crops."
"You mean," Castiel stuttered, suddenly realizing what Anna had been implying. "Are you trying to say?"
"Yes," Sam replied, looking Castiel squarely in the eye. "We are."
"Finally," Meg breathed with a roll of her eyes. "Give the boy a prize! He finally gets it."
"Hush up," Dean told her and she stuck her tongue out at him.
"Will someone tell me what's going on?" Gabriel demanded and Castiel sighed.
"Isn't it obvious?"
"Not you too," Gabriel whined, pouting at his little brother.
"What Anna is trying to say," Sam said patiently. "Is that you and Castiel are both fallen angels."
---
"Hello Uriel." The chilly voice crept up under the lurking angel's borrowed skin and sent a shiver down his true form that almost threatened to evict him from his host. Uriel turned slowly and found himself face to face with the man housing Hell's most infamous torturer. Alastair tilted his head and smirked at the angel. "You don't seem happy to see me pigeon.""Alastair," Uriel hissed, torn between trepidation and eagerness. He would be greatly rewarded for taking out the demon but he wasn't entirely sure he could manage that. The angel was calling his sword into being when he suddenly found himself pinned against a wall.
"Now listen to me very carefully," the demon hissed in his vessel's ear. Fingers curved around Uriel's throat almost tenderly and Alastair smiled at him; a smile to make the Devil turn and run. "You will stay away from Samael and his companions or death will haunt your every step until it catches up to you. Do you understand me?" Uriel growled but refused to answer even though fingers tightened viciously around his throat. "Do you understand?" the demon asked again levelly. "Or do I have to do some carving to make the lesson stick?"
In the end it was the vicious glee in the demon's face that made Uriel cave. "Yes," he spat out as if the word pained him. "I understand."
"Good," the demon crooned with a pleased smile. Then there was a crack, the smell of sulfur, and Alastair was gone, leaving Uriel to rub his throat and regain his composure. Yes, he understood, but that didn't mean he was going to listen.
---
"So," Gabriel said after a moment of absorbing that piece of information. "If we're fallen angels then where are our graces?""That's the brilliant part," Meg said with an all too pleased grin. "Anna's already shown you. Think."
"The trees," Castiel said with something akin to a delighted grin. "The ones in the articles she cut out."
"Exactly," Dean added with a wide grin.
"Wait a minute," Bobby cut in suddenly. "Back it all up. You three are telling me that these two idjits are really angels? How'd that happen?"
"If you want details I'm not entirely sure," Sam said, voice surprisingly subdued, "but I can guess. Both decided something was wrong in Heaven or they weren't satisfied with it and decided the only way to truly escape them was to cut out their grace and become human. It would have been Gabriel first and then Castiel. When they fell they were placed into a woman's womb, probably their mother couldn't have children but these were angels so there was an exception. From there they grew up as humans and by the time they could talk their memories of Heaven would have faded away."
Bobby absorbed that dead voiced explanation for a moment and then grumbled, "I need a drink" and headed out of the house.
"So all we need to do is what?" Gabriel demanded. "Touch the tree and BAM! Instant angel?"
"Something like that," Dean replied with a shrug. "I mean it isn't like anything like this has been done before. It's all theory."
"Can you take us there?" Castiel questioned softly. "To our graces I mean."
"It would be my honor," Dean replied with a grin. "Sammy, you coming?"
"We'll need a neutral place to meet," Sam said, eyes closed as if considering options. "Perhaps the barn where we foiled the plans involving Anna?" He opened his eyes to gauge reactions and when everyone nodded he said, "I'll meet you there. Meg, why don't you go tell Mr. Singer where we're going?"
"Of course," Meg replied, sauntering off to do just that even as Dean grabbed the Novaks and vanished in a flurry of feathers.
Alone at last, Sam turned pained eyes toward the ceiling as if it held all the answers in the universe. "Why Dad?" he questioned softly. "Why give me a family of sorts only to rip it apart again?" He slumped against a wall for a moment, defeated. Gabriel and Castiel would want nothing to do with the abomination once they had their graces back and Dean? Dean would have his brothers back. He wouldn't need a broken mockery of one to help him carry on. For a selfish instant Sam considered just vanishing from their lives forever, whisking himself away to Antarctica like he'd suggested to Dean in the beginning of all this. Then, regretfully, he shook that thought from his head, spread constantly aching wings, and took flight to the barn to await his rude dismissal.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
It was like falling down a black hole, but in reverse. Light came rushing back the instant Castiel touched the tree. Light and sound and memories so heavy that for a moment they threatened to crush him. He gasped, swaying on his feet, as suddenly the human body he had inhabited all his life felt too small. Wings that had been pinned for far too long stretched like dark shadows from his back, spreading across an empty hay field that gleamed in afternoon sunlight. Castiel breathed for what felt like the first time in a century and felt the weight of years shift from the agony of his time in Hell and the worry about how that would affect he and the brother he sold his soul for to the weight of knowledge and the wrongness of the coming apocalypse. The weight should have been crushing. Instead it was almost a relief.
"So. What's it feel like?" Gabriel asked when Castiel turned to he and the waiting Dumah. Gabriel, still painfully human, seemed worried and delighted all at once; happy for Castiel and uncertain of his acceptance. But Castiel knew his brother, both as a human and an angel, and he smiled reassuringly.
"It feels like coming home," he replied, stretching muscles once more before tucking enough of his grace in to avoid blinding any humans that chanced to walk by. "Now, shall we go collect yours?"
---
Gabriel hesitated in front of the massive birch, hand outstretched. He was uncertain whether or not he truly wanted the knowledge that was going to come with the return of his grace. His resolve wavered for a moment and he looked back only to see Castiel's reassurance gaze settle on him. Feeling determination rush back through him, Gabriel smacked his hand firmly on the tree. Power rushed into him, enough that he felt like he should be lighting up and visible from space. Three sets of wings flared wide and then settled against his back, a comforting weight, and knowledge whispered into him. Lucifer's fall, Samael's apparent rebellion, Raphael's attempt to drag him into apocalypse planning, and his desperate bid to escape by cutting out his grace and becoming human.With all that knowledge came the warning signs about his younger brother's early behavior. Something was hurting Sam, something big, and a hurt Sam was one that was also liable to bolt. Or in this case, attempt to end his life. Pulling in his grace as quickly as he could, as if it were something to be locked away in a box with only a few shimmers drifting through holes in the top, Gabriel turned to face his brothers. "We need to go," he said. "Because Sam may not be waiting for us and the longer we don't know he's gone the less time we have to track him down before he gets hurt." The archangel watched as Castiel glanced at him, confused, and Dumah went over the last moments before they left Bobby's and came to the same conclusion Gabriel had.
"Yeah," the seraph said instantly, already spreading his wings in preparation for flight. Castiel did the same, obviously uncertain about what was happening but trusting his brothers with a kind of blind faith Gabriel had once thought was dead. "We need to go."
---
Sam had expected feeling his brothers at full power again to hurt but he hadn't expected it to hurt. It was like a physical ache that had settled in his chest, a dull burn that was slowly consuming him whole. He had known it was going to be bad but he hadn't thought it would be like this. He couldn't take this. He backed away a step, spreading his wings in preparation to flee, and then flinched as hand came down on his shoulder. "Whoa there kiddo. Where do you think you're going?" Gabriel's grace felt how it always had; bright and loud almost to the point of being overwhelming. Feeling it Sam choked down a sob and curled his own damaged being tighter inside his vessel.He tried to jerk away from his older brother only to have the hand on his shoulder tighten, pulling him back a little. He huffed out a breath halfway between a laugh and a sob and felt his shoulders slump. "Sam?" Dean's voice was softer, more concerned than Gabriel's had been. "Is something wrong?" Sam let out a laugh that was more like a sob.
"Since when has something been right?" he choked back, focusing his eyes on the ground. The grip on his shoulder loosened and he shrugged it off almost impatiently. "Don't you have somewhere you need to be?" If Sam had been more prone to paying attention he would have noticed the suddenly nervous silence behind him. Instead he was simply waiting for the axe to fall.
"We're right where we need to be," Gabriel said, gently spinning his younger sibling around. "With you."Sam stared at his older brother with a wide, deer in the headlights look that had Gabriel pulling him into a tight hug. "We're not leaving you little brother."
"I'm not worth that," Sam protested, trying to squirm away.
"Yes," Dean shot back, speaking for the first time since they'd arrived. "You are. All this crap; it was done to you. It wasn't your fault no matter what Lucifer or anyone else told you."
Gabriel felt Sam give a full body shudder and a breathless sob slipped free of the younger archangel's control. He also heard Castiel's ragged gasp as the youngest angel finally realized why they had so urgently needed to come here. Of how close Sam had been to either running or finding a way to end it all. "We're not leaving you," Gabriel reassured his brother and Sam choked out a laugh, trying to pull away again. Gabriel hugged his brother tighter to him for a moment and then let Sam slip away.
"Sam-" Castiel began but the disgraced archangel held up a hand to stop him.
"Give me a minute," Sam panted out, sucking in short breaths and folding over.
"It's okay Sammy," Dean said, pulling Sam down to his knees and hugging the trembling figure. "Just breathe." Sam sucked in another shuddering breath, slowly beginning to calm down. "I know it's a lot to take in but not breathing isn't going to help that." Sam let out a hoarse laugh and Gabriel snickered.
"I think-" Sam gasped out. "That I could figure that out for myself." Even Castiel smiled slightly at that.
"My apologies," Dean shot back with a smirk. Sam was breathing better now, well enough to shoot a sardonic smirk at Dean. He rose slowly, shifting muscles that had tensed up during his panic attack. Wings stretched slightly and then Sam's whole body flinched when Gabriel reached out to brush against a few feathers.
"Sorry," the older archangel apologized immediately and Sam nodded in response, face drawn in a tense line. "I didn't think." Sam's wings tucked in tight, his expression cagey as Castiel approached.
"Sam," the youngest seraph said gently. "It is nice to finally meet you." Samael flushed slightly, unsure how to respond to that. Castiel had grown up in a Heaven where he was hated and seen as nothing more than an abomination. To be greeted so respectfully by someone who should have hated him threw the former archangel off.
"Cassie's always been a little misfit," Gabriel cut in and got three unamused looks. "Come on! Do none of my siblings appreciate my humor?"
"Well let's see," Sam shot back, seeming to regain his equilibrium. "You have the angel who has just been mind-controlled by Zachariah, the so called archangel that got tossed down to Hell twice by his older brothers, and the so called misfit. I don't think you're going to get many laughs right now."
"It was a rhetorical question," Gabriel grumbled, staring at the ceiling. Sam's smirk made it clear that the younger archangel had known exactly what it had been but hadn't cared. Then the smirk faded away and his shoulder's slumped slightly.
"Sam," Dean snapped when his brother headed for the door.
"I'm not running off, I promise," Sam replied, turning back to look at his brother-in-arms. "I just…I need some time to think. Alone."
"We need to explain what is coming to Bobby," Castiel said before Dean could protest further. "Join us there in an hour?"
"Yes," Sam agreed after a moment of thought, dipping his head respectfully. "I will be there." Then with a ragged flutter of wings that made all three fully powered angels flinch he was gone, leaving them nothing left to do by make their own retreat to Bobby Singer's home.
---
Bobby Singer was not, by nature, a man that was easily startled by the supernatural. After his wife Karen had been possessed by a demon he had dug up as much research as he could possibly find. Now hunters from all across the country called him for advice, solutions, or ideas. Having three angels just appear in his kitchen was enough to surprise anyone. "Hey Bobby," Gabriel said. "We uh…we have something we need to tell you. Well a lot of things actually." This, Bobby had the feeling, was just going to keep getting more surprising as it went. He wasn't wrong.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Having brothers once more was like learning to breathe again after a long period of being strangled; it hurt. It wasn't a bad hurt, just as the feeling of being able to breathe through an abused throat wasn't a bad ache. It meant you were alive. The flutter of wings behind him made Sam spin around. He expected to see one of his brothers checking to make sure he was still coming. Instead it was Uriel. Sam's hand clenched convulsively, power reaching out for some kind of weapon. Once the former archangel would have been able to call his sword to him that way. Now, with his powers diminished and cut off and with no idea where he sword was at, Sam was stuck. And he was tired of running.He'd been running since he'd gotten out of Hell during the Crusades and it had worked but only to a point. By that point in life he had been deep enough in Hell and had absorbed enough Hell energy that a member of the church had exorcised him. That had been a low point for Sam. A very low point. Since then he had kept running but it hadn't mattered. Lilith, Uriel, even his own brothers; everyone found him. "Uriel," he growled, hand clenching convulsively. Almost as if it were an afterthought, something that felt like kin brushed against his grace. Something that felt so familiar he thought he should have known it.
Now wasn't the time for looking into that. He dodged Uriel's first strike, slip, and then rolled out of the way of a second. The feeling brushed his grace again and Sam opened his hand automatically. He was surprised when something actually smacked into his palm. Uriel froze, mouth dropping open wide. "No," the angel breathed. Sam was similarly stunned as he stared down at what he was a holding. It was a sword. An angel sword. And not just any angel's sword; Anna's. "It isn't possible."
"No," Sam agreed. "It isn't." Anna's sword shouldn't have come to him. He wasn't connected to her in anyway; at least he hadn't been when she was an angel. Gabriel's would have made since. So would have Michael's. Hell, even Lucifer's would have made sense but not Anna's.
Uriel recovered before Sam did but that didn't make the former archangel's reflexes any slower. He may have forgotten everything but the bare basics of the hand to hand combat but hours of being drilled by three out of his four older brothers in swordplay was a little harder to forget. He blocked automatically and pushed back, actually managing to scramble to his feet. Uriel looked stunned once more and then lashed out again but this time Sam was ready for him.
Years of battle training kicked in and Sam blocked with ease. Uriel was proficient with a blade but nothing more could be said of him. Sam, however, thanks to his brothers insistence, was more than proficient. He twisted easily out of the way of another strike and this time returned to favor. Uriel barely blocked Sam's strike. He missed the second one. The knife slid home as smooth as butter. Sam gagged at the thought and pulled the sword free even as Uriel lit up from the inside out. Sam let out a little whimper, hands trembling. Panicking, he spread his wings and flew.
---
"So run all this by me again," Bobby was demanding when there was a flap of wings, a crack, and Sam fell straight through the center of his kitchen table."In a minute," Gabriel said, leaning forward to pull his younger brother out from the wreckage of the table. "Something wrong Sammy? You don't normally land this poorly."
"Uriel's dead," Sam panted out, muscles shuddering.
"And this is a bad thing how?"
"I killed him."
"Oh," Gabriel said, expression falling into something more serious. "I can see how that could worry you."
"Sam, if I can inquire about something," Castiel cut in. "How exactly did you manage to kill him? It would take an angel blade and to my knowledge you do not have yours."
"I don't," Sam said, speaking as if the knowledge pained him. "I think it's somewhere in Hell. I didn't kill Uriel with mine. I killed him with Anna's."
"Anna's?" Gabriel asked.
"I called it to me," Sam said, sounding lost.
"That isn't possible," Dean cut in. "You can't call another angel's sword to you."
"Like I don't know that," Sam shot back, his voice rising to a panicked shout. His whole body was trembling and instantly Dean looked lost and apologetic.
"You loved Anna," Castiel said in the sudden silence. "Perhaps that forged some sort of connection between the pair of you."
"Or Sarah warned Anna about more than just our lost graces," Gabriel theorized. "And Anna adjusted the binding on her sword to call it toward yours."
"Is that even possible?" Dean questioned.
"Possibly," Gabriel and Sam chimed at the same time.
"Anna could have manipulated the warding. She had an impressive knowledge of such things," Gabriel continued. "If she had a little of Sam's blood she could have temporarily nullified the binding set upon her sword that prevented anyone but her from calling it and keyed it to Sam's grace for a time."
"Well I'm officially impressed," Dean said, eyebrows arching to his forehead. "That doesn't solve the slight problem of Uriel's death."
"Sorry," Sam muttered, head hanging, and Dean pulled him into a quick hug.
"Not your fault Sammy. Besides someone needed to kill that son of a bitch." Sam managed a weak smile in response but relaxed slightly.
"Actually we have bigger problems on the horizon," Gabriel cut in. "Raphael has been helping Lilith break the seals. I am not entirely sure whether or not he thinks now is the time our father intended but the apocalypse is his goal."
"It gets worse." Heads snapped around and Bobby swore as Alastair appeared in the doorway. "Sixty-five of the sixty-six seals are broken and there's only one left on the agenda."
"Lilith's death," Sam breathed. "But who would-"
"There are plenty of demons who would be willing to murder Lilith in the middle of some church," Alastair snapped. "That isn't the point! I the point is that whatever demon kills her has to be partially human; has to truly believe that they have clung to some of their humanity."
"Ruby," Gabriel hissed suddenly.
"What?" Dean demanded urgently.
"Before Cas's deal came to fruition we met a Ruby who was a bit different than she is now. She told me that she was still partially human," Gabriel blurted. "Ruby could kill Lilith."
"Then we're running out of time," Alastair growled.
"Do we know where Lilith's even at?" Castiel questioned.
"Meg's working on it," Alastair shot back. A tap on the window cut the conversation short and they all turned to see Meg impatiently waving a newspaper at them.
"Think she's got it?" Gabriel asked, arching his eyebrows.
"Only one way to find out," Dean said, reaching up and unlatching the window. "Watcha got sweetheart?"
"First off, I'm not your sweetheart," Meg growled. "And secondly, Lilith. I found Lilith."
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
"Are you ready?" Lilith asked. Lounging in one of the pews, Ruby smirked at the blonde.
"Honey, I've been ready since this whole mess began."
"Please," Lilith shot back. "Try to reign in your excitement."
"You destroyed my life," Ruby growled. "So I think it's only right that I have the privilege of ending yours."
"Believe me, if it could be anyone else it could. I delight in the ruins of what you call a life demoness." Ruby just rolled her eyes and fingered her knife. She'd gotten the demon killing knife back from Gabriel the first time he had drank her blood. He'd been so overwhelmed by the power the blood had given him that he hadn't noticed until a month later and Ruby had denied any knowledge of the whereabouts of said knife.
A nervous looking demon scuttled into the church, bowing rapidly to Lilith. "My lady, the Novaks and their companions have found you. They are coming with the intention of stopping you."
"And you know this how?"
"I trailed the demon Hosanna, just as you asked, and overheard their plans. They could be here at any moment!"
"Then we must finish this now," Lilith said, standing and letting the fabric of her snow white dress fall around her. Ruby's smile gleamed eagerly in the dim light and she flowed smoothly to her feet. "Be gone. Keep them away for as long as you can." By the time the blonde turned to Ruby, the younger demon was already standing right next to her.
"Are you ready?" Ruby taunted. "Because I certainly am."
"The presentation has to be right," Lilith insisted with a stuffy sounding huff, stomping off to stand in front of the altar. Ruby rolled her eyes but didn't argue as she trailed after the older demon, knife in hand. If she argued she might not be able to kill Lilith and that would just be a major buzzkill. "There," Lilith said, smoothing a hand down her dress and turning towards the door of the sanctuary. "Now I am ready."
"So am I," Ruby returned and as the door opened behind her she slit Lilith's throat. Blood poured down the white dress to slide across the floor and drip down the steps to the floor. It began to glow with blazing light, symbols gleaming and twisting to form something new. Samael was in the front of the group at the door, frozen in something akin to terror. The two Novaks and their pocket angel were right behind him, expressions dark.
"We need to go," Sam blurted out even as a blazing light rose began to glow from the center of the circle. "Before he rises and finds a host."
"We will," Castiel confirmed, placing a gentle hand on the trembling traitors arm and then slipping by him. "In a moment. We have business to settle." He stalked toward Ruby who grinned viciously and waved the demon killing knife at him, flicking blood about her in small showers.
"Ah, ah, ah Cassie," she cooed. "You can't eliminate me without this."
"You know Ruby," Gabriel spoke up from his position next to Samael. "You really are a stupid bitch. You haven't even noticed yet that something has changed." Ruby's eyes narrowed and her head cocked to one side as she tried to figure out what Gabriel was talking about. "You see, Anna left us a little message after she died. A message leading us directly to our graces." Ruby's eyes widened as she realized what Gabriel was saying and she tried to scramble away but she was too late. Castiel's hand reached out and she blazed with light before her body crumpled to the floor.
"Job done," Castiel said with an uncharacteristic vicious glee. "Now we can leave before Lucifer comes to destroy us all."
"Good idea," Dean agreed. "Let's get out of here."
"Look out!" Sam yelped, as a flap of wings came from behind Castiel. The youngest angel was already turning when the blade punched through his chest to come out of his back.
"No," Gabriel screamed, lunging forward only to be grabbed by his brothers and pulled away. The last thing he saw was Lucifer grinning viciously over Castiel's dead body before wings snapped and they were gone. They appeared moments later in the middle of Bobby Singer's kitchen. The man in question had been cleaning up what was left of his table and opened his mouth to swear only to see the state of his visitors. Sam had curled up in a shaking ball on the floor, Gabriel was swearing in a language that made the windows shake and was tearing at his hair, and Dean was looking torn between the two of them.
"What happened?" he asked, looking around the three of them. Then it sunk in. They had left as seven. Alastair and Meg had said they'd take care of the demons while Castiel, Gabriel, Dean, and Sam stopped Lilith and Ruby from freeing Lucifer. "Where's Castiel?"
"Lucifer killed him," Dean said, turning a hopeless look at the hunter. "And now the world is going to end."
"And you three are just going to sit here and let it happen?" Bobby grumbled incredulously, drawing the attention of all three inhuman beings. "You're just going to give in and let Lucifer take over."
"No," Gabriel said finally, voice dark. "We find Michael and we end this. For Castiel."
"For Castiel," Sam and Dean echoed, voices solemn. They would save the world for Castiel whether it cost them their lives or not.