Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Dean was almost done fixing the Impala when it happened.

The truck that crashed into her had left Dean’s Baby in a state that approached the wreck more than the car. It would have been faster to sell her to a junkyard and get needed money. Anyone daring to suggest that to Dean would’ve been kicked in the ass, though. They had this car since 1973; in no way were they leaving her.

He fixed her religiously. It helped him to not think about his father’s death. Pushed away the idea in a corner of his brain.

And then it happened. Dean had found and replaced the LEGO bricks in the vent, the lead soldiers in the glove box. As he ran a last inspection over the car, he noticed a small trapdoor in the box, hidden to the sight.

“What the...” he thought as he opened it.

Three syringes rolled out and fell on the carpet. When Dean picked them up, his eyes widened.

They were filled with a strange substance. It seemed between the liquid and the gas, its color was a bright white with blue highlights.

“You finished repairing the Impala already, Dean?”

Sam’s voice made him hit his head on the ceiling of the car. He got out and faced his brother, who frowned when he saw the syringes.

“Hey, did you ever see anything like that? I just found those,” he asked, holding them to Sammy.

“No… where were they?”

“In a hidden compartment inside the car.”

Sam took one in his hand and held it in the sunlight. “Huh.”

The rest of the day lasted an eternity. When Dean was finally done with his Baby, he took his father’s journal to read it again and see if there was anything about the syringes.

And there was.

13^th December 1998

Need more syringes. Gotta go back to the storage.

Sam and Dean had to take their minds off of things, so they said goodbye to Bobby and left. The drive took half a day. When they arrived in upstate New York, they checked in one of the crappy motels and went to Castle storage, John’s lockup.

Dean parked in front of the place. Sam was absentmindedly fiddling with the key for an hour now. Maybe they shouldn’t enter. Maybe it would be best for everyone if Dean turned the car around, tossed the syringes away and never came back.

They got out of the Impala and walked to John’s space. When Sam opened it, Dean automatically checked for traps. A hunter’s lair always is warded. There was a string at ankles’ level, connected to an axe to chop the intruder’s head off, and a devil’s trap painted on the floor. They cut the string and started searching. What for, Dean didn’t know.

He found on a shelf a wooden box with empty syringes, the same as those he held in his hand. He took one but it escaped his grasp and shattered on the ground.

“Shit,” then “It’s okay, I dropped something.”

Dean took the shards away. A relief on the ground caught his attention and he swept his hand on the floor. He opened a trapdoor.

“Sam, come here.”

Dean loaded his colt and went down the ladder. This room was dark and cold. Dean felt that someone – or something – was there with him.

As Sam followed him, he ran his hand on the wall until he found the switch and lit up the room.

Dean’s first thought was that he faced a corpse.

The silhouette of a man curled up against the wall did seem to be dead. He had pale skin and too much bones were prominent for him to be well.

Dean rushed to him but stopped before touching the body. How could he be sure he wasn’t a monster?

He took a second look at him: he had black, messy hair, a sharp jawline, and wore a black suit under what used to be a trench-coat (now, only ripped fabric). And he was cuffed, a chain attaching him to the wall.

Why did John keep him if this thing was dangerous enough to need cuffs?

He moved slightly. Dean took a step back and noticed red dot-shaped marks on his neck.

Oh.

The light woke him up, since he raised a hand to cover his eyes. When the man saw Sam and Dean, he backed against the wall, looking afraid. Blue eyes.

“Hey, it’s okay, we’re not gonna hurt you,” Dean said, moving his hand towards him.

He figured he still had his gun and unloaded it before putting it away. Sam then did the same.

The man kept staring at Dean, arms folded around himself.

“It’s okay,” Dean repeated, then, “Do you, uh… do you know where you are?”

The man nodded hesitantly. “Good. Do you know John Winchester?”

He flinched. He was terrified.

“Hey! Don’t worry, he’s not here,” Dean quickly said. God, what did Dad do to him? “Jo- he, he is dead.”

The man stilled. His breath slowed – Dean hadn’t heard his quick pace.

“Really?”

This was the first time he talked. His voice coarse, as if he had screamed for too long. Dean nodded.

He stared at nothing, head slightly shaking, until he closed his eyes and passed out.

Dean was there to catch him before he hit the ground. He stabilized him before letting him rest on the floor. He then turned to Sam, who had the same ‘what the f’ face as he.

They tested him with silver, salt, iron, anything they could think of. The guy seemed clean.

“What do we do with him?” Sam said.

“I saw a mattress up there, it’ll be better than here.”

He picked the lock of the handcuff to free him. The ex-prisoner’s wrists were bloody and marked, as if he had the cuffs for years. The brothers managed to carry him through the trapdoor and on the mattress.

Dean got some bandages and started wrapping them around his wrists when something happened. The guy’s body started glowing white, especially around his neck and on his chest. It was the same color as the liquid in the syringes. As it faded, Dean revealed his plexus, and huge knife wounds were visible, then they just... disappeared. He was healing himself.

He was either a wizard or a thing, so the boys backed off.

He woke up a few minutes later. Confused at first, he looked up and saw them, but didn’t seem as frightened as before. He rubbed his wrists and neck.

“Who are you?” he asked with his deep voice.

“My name’s Sam, and this is -”

“Dean,” the man cut him off. “Are you here to finish the work of your father?”

“No, we didn’t even know you existed until fifteen minutes ago,” Dean replied.

The man let out a little sigh of relief.

“What’s your name?” Dean asked.

He eyed him hesitantly. “Castiel.”

Weird-ass name but why not.

“Okay… what are you and why did our father lock you up?” Sam asked.

“I am an angel of the Lord.”

It seemed like a really lame joke but Castiel’s deadpan made them doubt.

“An angel? like, biblical-style angel, archangel, seraph and all that crap?” Dean said. Castiel nodded.

The brothers excused themselves for a moment and freaked out together while Castiel examined his bandages. They then came back to him.

“D’you know what those are?” Dean inquired, showing him the syringes.

Castiel took one in his hands. “Your father used to use them to extract my grace,” he explained.

“Your what?”

“My grace. Grace is to angels what the soul is to humans.”

“Why would he take your grace?” Dean asked.

“An injection in the human body heals any type of wound and enhances strength and agility. Precious possession for a hunter. What year is it?” he asked out of the blue.

“2006,” Dean responded without thinking.

“I’ve been missing for ten years, everyone in Heaven must believe I passed away,” Castiel said to himself.

TEN YEARS?!

“I have to go,” he said.

“You’re gonna be okay?” Dean asked.

“Can I have the full syringes, please?” he asked.

Sam went to get them.

“I have other questions,” Dean said.

“They’ll wait for next time.”

“We’ll meet again?” Dean asked, more eager than he’d admit.

“Of course. I didn’t get to fulfill my mission,” Castiel explained.

Sam gave him what what he needed. They blinked and he was gone. It startled the boys.

“What...” Sam said. “Dad had an angel locked up in his basement for ten years...”

Staying there was of no use, they decided to go back to the motel. As they left, Dean saw a notebook on the shelf of the syringes. He opened it; the first date was September 13^th, 1996. He closed it and hid it under his jacket before following Sam.

Chapter Text

Night had already fallen when they joined the motel. They agreed to spend the night there before going back to Bobby’s. Sam went to get food. As soon as he closed the door, Dean took the notebook and inspected it.

The book really looked its age. Its dusty brown cover seemed ready to fall off at any time. The first page was strained with a dark liquid, probably blood. Dean started reading.

September 13^th, 1996

The restrains Bobby gave to me work well on the angel. Well, the teen. He can’t use his powers like I saw him do. I need to interrogate him. The first thing he said was that he needed to protect Dean. Why?

September 14^th, 1996

The regular knives don’t seem to cause him any pain, despite the damages it does to his body, his ‘vessel’ as he says. However, his own blade makes him scream quite a lot. The wound it creates has a blue light at first. Another subject to dig.

November 5^th, 1996

Had to go on regular hunts for a while. Apparently, angels don’t need to eat or sleep. Cuts on his chest persuaded him to talk a bit. His name is Castiel. He’s a Seraph (commands his own garrison). Still won’t tell me why he ‘needs to protect Dean’, or why he was watching Dean sleep in the motel room when I found him. Good thing I had read about holy oil and found some at the witch’s I had just killed.

Dean looked up from his dad’s other journal. He remembered that night. Dad had left them while he hunted a witch. Dean had awoken in the middle of the night, his dad by his bed, looking like he has just fought someone. A dim light was coming from the bathroom. Had he trapped Castiel there?

December 16^th, 1996

I’m trying something. I took a sample of the angel’s grace. It must have incredible capacities.

The next paragraph had been written later and as if in a hurry.

I injected myself the grace! The results are outstanding, it makes me stronger, faster… Hell of a boost for hunting! Taking his grace seems to weaken him.

December 27^th, 1996

I tried to take all of his grace. It almost killed him. I gotta restrict to use only one fix at a week.

Castiel said other angels were looking for him. But he also said he was old as Genesis. If I were a thousand years old and a soldier went MIA, I wouldn’t waste more than a week searching for him.

Dean flipped the pages. It went on and on for years – ten years…

He heard a noise behind him, like a bird shaking its wings, and turned with his knife in his hand. It was Castiel. Dean relaxed a bit.

“Hi.”

“Hello, Dean.”

Castiel stared at him without saying anything, it made Dean uncomfortable.

“New trench-coat, huh?” he said.

“Yes, the other one was… ripped..”

“Mmm. So, I happen to know that you came on Earth to ‘protect me’. Mind to explain?”

“You read your father’s journal,” Castiel said.

Dean frowned his nose. His dad’s journal was a tool to eliminate monsters, not the report of an innocent’s torture.

The angel seemed uneasy. He took a deep breath.

“Ten years ago, Heaven started to plan the next Apocalypse. We were told to gather our troops, but we had no information about what would happen. My questions remained unanswered, so I sneaked in the archives and read the classified files. It was about the battle between the Archangels Michael and Lucifer.”

Dean had to sit down for a second. The Apocalypse?!

“Dean.” He looked up to see Castiel mere inches from his face. He seemed concerned. That was new.

“I have to tell you this. You are Michael’s true vessel, the human he will possess during the fight.”

“Bullshit,” Dean muttered.

“And Sam is Lucifer’s,” Castiel added.

No.

“You’re kidding me. Are you fucking with me, Cas, ‘cause if yes it’s the worst joke in history,” Dean quickly said, standing up.

“I am not messing with you, Dean this is a very serious matter.”

“No, this can’t be true, he… Sam is not Lucifer’s vessel!” Dean exclaimed.

He passed a hand through his hair.

“I am sorry, Dean. In about a year, Sam is going to die. You will sell your soul to save him, and once in hell, you’re going to break the first of the 66 Seals that hold Lucifer in his cage. And when Sam will break the last one...”

“Lucifer walks free,” Dean finished.

Castiel put his right hand on Dean’s shoulder. Dean dried off his non-existent tears with the back of his hand.

“What happened to you after that?” he asked the angel.

“I was discovered. The sentence for such an act was death, but I ran away. I managed to find the two of you… and then your father came in.”

The silence that fell was filled with pain.

“Cas, I’m sorry for the way my father treated you. It should never had happened, if I had known...”

“But you didn’t. You don’t have to take the blame. Besides, I went through this because I rebelled against Heaven. If anything, I deserved it,” Castiel replied.

Dean’s concern turned into another emotion.

“Don’t you dare say or think things like this. Asking questions isn’t supposed to get you a damn death sentence, and doing the right thing, it’s… You didn’t deserve this,” he declared.

He lowered his voice and said, “My father was a jerk.”

Sam chose this moment to come in. He was surprised by Castiel’s presence, all healed up and clean, but didn’t mention it.

“Um, hi guys...” he said, putting down the bags of takeout food.

Dean looked at Castiel. “Could you repeat to him what you just told me? Please?” he asked.

He wasn’t able to tell Sammy, his baby brother, that he was Satan’s vessel.

Obviously he didn’t take it well. He started yelling at nothing and pacing in the room like a madman Dean sat on his bed waiting for him to calm down. Eventually, Sam stopped shouting and looked at his brother.

“Why aren’t you saying anything?” he asked.

“What do you want me to say? You’re gonna die,” Dean replied.

“And you’re gonna sell your soul! I mean, it’s impossible. You wouldn’t sell your soul to bring me back?”

Dean’s lack of response concerned Sam.

“Let’s say someone shoot me right now and I die. You wouldn’t sell your soul, right?” he questioned.

Dean looked at him in the eyes, “I would.”

Sam took back a more silent pace. Dean’s mind wandered back to the grace John used to take. All those years, Dean had tried to be as fast or as strong as his father but he couldn’t keep up. All those years, John was cheating?!

“I know, it’s unfair,” Castiel said to Dean. He looked up. “Uh?”

“Oh sorry. I forgot I could… read minds. I thought you said it aloud.”

Sam raised his eyebrows. “mind reading? Wow… What else can you do?”

“That humans don’t? I am faster, stronger, I can teleport, and my grace allows me to do all sorts of things.”

“Nice.”

Again, silence. It started annoying Sam. “So, what do we do?”

“We should go back to Bobby’s. If someone can help us untangle that mess, it’s him,” Dean replied. He eyed Cas. “You coming with us?"

“Of course.”

They took their bags and checked out. As they approached Baby, Dean pointed at Cas. “You’re in the backseat.”

Castiel was about to respond when the ground started shaking.

“Hey, what’s happening?” Dean asked, on his guard.

A flash of blue light blinded the boys, and when they got their sight back, a gray-haired man in a black suit had appeared. He was standing in front of them on the other side of Baby.

“Hiya, fellas!” he exclaimed with a joyless grin.

“Zachariah,” Castiel said in a low voice.

“Castiel, what on Earth are you doing?”

“The right thing.”

“Looks more like screwing up the Great Plan to me. Why are you protecting the Winchesters? You know it’s pointless! We can erase their memory anytime and smite your ass in a snap,” Zachariah said.

Dean took a step forward. “You wanna kill Cas, it’ll be over my dead body!” he replied.

The angel rolled his eyes. “Shut up,” he said. Dean tried to reply but his mouth was like glued.

He looked at Cas and noticed his bloody hand. He then saw that he was tracing a symbol with his blood on the window of the Impala. Questions being impossible to ask, Dean turned back to Zachariah.

“You should never have gone back to Heaven! I bet you wanted to see your little brother Samandriel. Well, guess what: he’s been MIA for half a year,” the asshole revealed.

Castiel grew concerned. “What?”

“Should I say it in another language? Il est mort! Er ist töt! Samandriel is dead.”

Castiel turned to Dean and whispered, “Pray to me once you’re safe.”

He put his hand on the finished seal. The two angels shone of the same light as earlier and then they were both gone.

Dean regained his voice and immediately proceeded to say, “What the fuck.”

“Where did they go?”

“Away. That’s all I need to know.”

“Wow… Are all angels dicks?” Sam asked.

“From what Cas told me, It seems so. Get in the car, I don’t wanna be here when the other one comes back.”

They drove for hours in the night, sharing the take out food, Dean focused on the road and Sam reading the journal of Castiel’s torture.

“Hey, it says here that when Dad took him, Castiel’s vessel was a teenager, but Dad kept him so low on grace that he still grew up. This angered Dad, so last year he...”

Sam paused his reading, shocked.

“He killed him.”

“What? You sure?”

Sam nodded.

Dean wanted to say that it surprised him but they were talking about the man who had ordered him to kill Sam before he went dark side. He started understanding that his father was not the hero he believed him to be.

They arrived at Bobby’s in the morning. Dean slept until noon. When he was ready, he started praying to Castiel.

“Hi, Cas. I don’t really know how to do this, I’m sorry if I break any ‘prayer protocol’. I never really prayed to anything. My mom used to say that angels were watching over me. I guess she was right, huh?”

“Anyways, we’re safe now, we’re at Bobby’s place… It’s in Sioux Falls, SD. Hope you’re okay.”

Dean opened his eyes. He had thought Castiel would have appeared in front of him. Maybe he was busy.

He then heard a distant flup-flup and turned to the window. He saw Cas appear and fall on one of the cars.

“Cas!” he exclaimed, running outside.

Chapter Text

Castiel wiped his vessel’s forehead, covered in blood. “I’m okay, Dean.”

“Bullshit,” he answered.

“I don’t understand why you need to use swears in order to convey your emotions,” Castiel said as they walked back to Bobby’s.

Dean checked him again for injuries and wiped the rest of the blood. “There’s thing you don’t need to understand, Cas.”

The angel frowned. “You keep calling me this way.”

“No one ever gave you a nickname?”

“No. We angels are not individuals. We’re expendable. A nickname singles us out.”

Dean raised his eyebrows. And he thought his family was crap.

“Well, angel o’ mine, you’re experiencing free will. And free will comes with benefits.”

Bobby came down from his room, along with Sam. He saw Castiel in his living-room and squinted.

“So that’s the angel, huh?” he said, taking a sip of his beer.

“Yes, my name is Castiel,” he responded, holding out his hand.

“Bobby Singer, owner of this house.”

“And hunter extraordinaire,” Dean added with a smile.

“Shut it, boy,” Bobby playfully said. “So, I guess we got ourselves a mess to fix.”

“Indeed. The easiest way would be to make sure Dean never sells his soul, or that Sam never gets killed, but it would take a lifelong watch. We could also kill the archangels.”

“Wow, Cas, stop there for a sec, Dean interrupted. Killing Michael and Lucifer? It sure sounds nice but how the hell would we do that?”

“We could use an archangel blade. That and Michael’s spear are the only weapons able to kill them. The problem is, they must be wielded by an archangel to be efficient. Raphael is on Michael’s side and Gabriel has been missing for a millennium,” Castiel revealed.

“Well, that’s just peachy. Back to square one,” Dean complained, sitting on the couch.

“Imma go run some errands, you three try to think about another way to solve this,” Bobby said.

“I’m coming with you,” Sam volunteered.

They left.

Dean eyed Cas to make sure he was okay. He seemed better... With his angelic strength back, his body was tan and fit. Dean caught himself staring and looked away.

“Hey, Cas?”

The angel turned to him.

“If Sam dying was what would push me to sell my soul, why did you wanted to protect me?” he asked.

Cas sat down next to him, their thighs brushing. “Your brother’s death was a catalyst, the cause, but it could’ve been something else. The important part was that you were not to go to hell. Besides, I figured I could help you. You had to be Sam’s parents and brother, a substitute for Mary and your father’s aide de camp...”

“So you pitied me?” Dean responded. It sounded harsher than he meant to.

“No, I didn’t. I thought you were brave, and still are, but you didn’t have to do all this on your own.”

Dean turned his head, and found out he and Cas were only centimeters apart. He could feel the angel’s soft breath on his mouth. A blush crept on his face.

“Anyways, he quickly said, getting up, the dude, Zachariah, he mentioned someone, your ‘little brother’… what was his name...”

“Samandriel, yes. He was part of the garrison I commanded, but our relationship was more of brothers. Him missing worries me greatly, he is one of the best angels I’ve ever trained.”

“D’you want us to organize a rescue mission?” Dean asked.

“You would do that for me?” Castiel replied.

“If we can’t figure out how to kill Michael and Lucifer, we gotta at least stay busy,” Dean replied.

The expression on Cas’s face made him add, “And I like you. You’re a pretty nice angel. So I can and I will help you save your brother. I’d do that for you.”

Castiel’s smile was beautiful. Dean couldn’t help but smile as well. Then John’s warning about getting too friendly with boys came into his mind. But Castiel wasn’t a boy. And, as shown before, John hadn’t always been right about things.

Bobby and Sam quickly came back from their errands, which turned out to be of the supernatural kind. Cas then said he had to reach the other members of his garrison. Dean wasn’t happy about it.

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but last time you saw an angel, he tried to kill you, right?” he said.

“Yes but I trust my garrison. They’ve always been loyal to me.”

Dean shrugged. “So, how will you contact them?”

“Angels are able to communicate via high-level frequencies. Each garrison has its own.”

“So, you’ll leave a message on angel radio?”

“If you like this analogy.”

Cas isolated himself in Dean’s room (lent, okay? don’t think you can kick me out) and the hunter hesitated a little before coming back to the living-room.

Bobby gave him a beer. “You really managed to find Heaven’s most problematic angel, didn’t you?” he asked.

Dean took a sip. “He’s not problematic, he’s a rebel. The good kind of rebel, those who do the right thing when anyone else is too scared or too coward to.”

Bobby smiled and leaned back to Sam, “He’s smitten,” he said to Sam.

“What?” Dean felt his cheeks turn red and hot. “I’m- I’m not smitten.”

“Oh, you are. Just like that time when you were 8 and you two spent a week here. You told me that the baker’s son was cute and you wanted to marry him,” Bobby told him.

Dean frowned. He had no memory of this. “Are you messing with me? Cause I don’t remember any of this.”

Bobby seemed concerned now.

“You surprise me, boy. ‘Specially after what happened next...” he replied.

“What did?” he asked.

“Well, John came back from his case and I had to go in town. While I wasn’t there you told him that and he gave you a hell of a beating. (A sigh) I always say to myself that if I hadn’t left you wouldn't have been hurt.”

Dean blinked. He had no idea.

“He-” Dean was cut off by Castiel coming back in the room.

“I know where Samandriel is.”

“Where?” Sam asked.

“A warehouse in a Wisconsin town. The garrison had to retrieve something from there but the demons were too numerous. They were forced to retire, leaving Samandriel behind. Zachariah didn’t want them to rescue him. One of my soldiers, Hannah, sneaked on Earth last week and saw him but they were alone against too many enemies.”

“Wait, why’d you say ‘they’ when there was only one angel?”

“Well, because they and them are Hannah’s pronouns. Angels don’t fall on the gender spectrum as humans experience it, although some of us choose to identify to the gender of our vessels.”

“So, how are we supposed to call you?” Dean said.

“He and him is fine. I haven’t been in a female vessel since 1901, after all.”

“Okay, so we’re going now. You have the address?” Bobby asked.

“Yes, we can go now.”

And so they left, with Sam, Dean, Cas in the Impala and Bobby in his own truck. The night soon fell and Dean started yawning.

“Sam, could you drive for a while? I’m having trouble keeping my eyes open and I don’t want us to end up in a crash again.”

They exchanged seats and Dean fell asleep.

There wasn’t a part of him that didn’t hurt. Tears flooded his cheeks as Dad raised his belt again.

“Never say that again, Dean!” he yelled, striking the poor boy.

He was gonna hit him again when a man in a trench-coat grabbed his arm.

Dean blinked a few times. They weren’t in Bobby’s living-room anymore, but in a big white place. Castiel rubbed his hands on his slacks.

“I apologize for entering your mind like that. You seemed to have a bad dream.”

Dean bit his nail, “More like a bad childhood. Where are we?”

“Inside your head.”

He looked down. “Cas, are you a dream.? Or are you, like, the real you?”

Castiel frowned. He seemed to hesitate for a few seconds before answering, “A dream.”

“Okay.” He then walked to his angel and hugged him.

Cas was taken aback at first. Dean figured he’d be like that. He himself was not the hugging type, but at this moment he just really needed to be held. Cas slowly put his arms around Dean.

It felt good. It felt… right.

After a while, Dean straightened up and realized that he was once again very close to Cas’s face. The angel had very pink, alluring lips. And this was a dream, Cas would never know.

Dean leaned, cupped Cas’s face in his hand, then…

A car honked. Dean woke up with a start. “Sorry Dean, a jackass tried to take my place,” Sam said.

Dean growled, “Don’t ruin my Baby,’ and turned around. Castiel was sat in the backseat behind him, looking somehow distraught. Still had alluring lips. What a dream…

“Can you see them?”

They were hiding in an abandoned building next to the warehouse. Dean gave his binoculars to Sam.

“It would be hard not to. Five outside, more in. They’re protecting something, aren’t they?” the younger brother said.

“My garrison was supposed to get in, kill them, grab the thing, and get out. No one told them what it was,” Castiel replied.

“If we die, I’ll kill you,” Bobby warned.

“Alright, let’s go.”

Dean went out and walked towards one of the demons. “Excuse me, could you light my cigarette?” he asked.

The black-eyed S.O.B. frowned, “You don’t have a...”

Before he could finish, Dean sucker-punched him and threw him a glassful of holy water. The demon yelled, then Cas appeared behind him and grabbed his head, smiting the guy on the spot.

‘That’s super cool,” Dean breathed.

The yelling had drawn the other demons, who were sent back to hell in an “Exorcizamus te.” They opened the door and gestured at Bobby and Sam to follow. As they were about to enter, they heard a shrill, painful scream coming from inside the warehouse.

“Samandriel,” Castiel growled.

He smote every demon they crossed path with, his face exempt of any emotion other than rage. It reminded Dean that his friend was an angel, an overly powerful creature. He hoped to never be the target of Castiel’s wrath.

Eventually, they entered a large room full of trunks. Dean opened one: it was full of shiny trinkets, things and stuff.

“There’s a million things here, how the hell are we supposed to find the good one?” Sam said.

Another scream. Castiel rushed past them and ran to a door. Sam and Dean followed as he burst in, and had to stop and take in what was in front of them.

Three demons were in there, one of them holding a sharp knife. They were surrounding a young man tied to a chair. He was wearing a fast-food uniform soaked in blood. He had a circle of iron around his head, pierced with holes through which passed steel rods. These rods were stuck in his head… One of the sons of guns pressed one and the kid let out a terrible cry.

Castiel didn’t hesitate, he grabbed the closest demon and ran his angel blade through his heart. The demon yelled as he died, and that attracted a whole lot of black eyes. Sam and Dean started fighting them.

One went to the vault room and found Bobby. The hunter pulled out his shotgun and shot the guy. He flew through the room and hit the wall. Bobby exorcised him there and then. He then noticed a trunk near the demon, ancient and gold-plated. It was the only one which had a padlock. Bobby pushed the corpse, picked the lock and opened it.

Dean shot another demon, who Castiel smote right after. The cadavers of demons all over the room were stilling smoking. Cas rushed to Samandriel, who had his eyes firmly closed. His expression changed, from the furious angel to a worried brother.

“Samandriel, can you hear me? It’s Castiel. Samandriel, it’s Castiel, can you hear me?” he said, gently taking off his restrains.

The kid’s eyes were glassy and filled with tears but he seemed to recognize Cas’s voice. “Castiel?” he whispered.

“Cas, we need to take the rods out,” Dean said to his friend.

He nodded and turned back to the younger angel. “Samandriel, take my hand,” he advised.

Sam and Dean extracted them one by one, trying to ignore the screams. When they were done, Cas put his hand on the kid’s head and healed him. The white light disappeared and Samandriel muttered “Thank you,” before passing out.

Cas took him in his arms. They returned to the room with all the trunks and found Bobby.

“Thanks for your help, Bobby,” Dean sarcastically said.

“’Stead of pestering, look what I found,” the hunter replied. He showed them a serrated knife.

“Yeah, a knife?” Dean said.

“Not just any knife, a Kurdish one. That stuff kills demons.”

“Oooh, I want it.”

Bobby rolled his eyes and took another weapon. This one was much more impressive. It looked like it was made of gold and had the same pure shape as Cas’s dagger.

“This what I think it is?” he asked Cas.

“Yes, it’s an archangel blade,” Castiel replied.

“Wait, are you kidding me? That’s awesome! That’s exactly what we were looking for!” Sam exclaimed.

“Yeah, exactly that. Almost too easy...” Dean muttered.

They heard a voice, and a demon appeared in front of them. She had blonde hair and wore a leather jacket.

“Gimme the knife and take the kid to the car,” Dean said.

He punched the demon two or three times, pushed her against the wall and held the Kurdish knife to her throat. “Tell me, whose vaults are we stealing from?”

She smirked. “You boys are way in over your heads. This is Lilith’s cave, one of them at least.”

“Who’s Lilith?”

“The one who’ll get your soul, dummy! The last of the seals. And right now, she’s not available, but it’ll change. For the moment Azazel is guarding them, and if you thought he already didn’t like you guys, you are not ready for what’s next.”

“Azazel?” Dean asked, pressing the knife against her throat. She started bleeding and seemed in pain.

“Oh right, you know him as the Yellow-Eyed Demon.”

Shit. Dean took a step back. “What’s your name?”

She frowned, “Ruby.”

“Goodbye, Ruby,” he said before stabbing her.

She collapsed, her body shining, then it stopped. Dean touched her with his feet to make sure she was really dead.

“A demon-killing knife,” he repeated before joining the guys.

Chapter Text

They drove home in silence, Samandriel, still passed, had his head on Cas’s shoulder. Dean couldn’t help but think about he and Sam when he looked at them.

“Is he gonna need anything special when he wakes up?” Sam asked to Cas.

“Lots of rest, obviously. And his vessel has been greatly damaged, so I suggest he eats plenty,” Cas said.

“You should too. Just to see humans don’t only have bad sides. I mean, you ever ate a cheeseburger?” Dean asked.

“I don’t think so.”

“Yeah, well when we got time we should go grab one. I’m sure you’ll like it.”

Cas nodded and Dean made a half-smile. He then yawned.

“God, how many hours left before we’re home?”

“Five,” Sam answered.

“Too damn much. I’m gonna park at the next motel I see.”

They stopped at the Rooster’s Sunrise and took three rooms: Sam and Dean, Cas and Samandriel, Bobby alone. He pretended he didn’t wanna hear snoring while he slept. Dean commented that it’d be hard to hear it over his own.

The oldest and youngest ones went to bed, and the three others found themselves in the boys’ room. When Castiel excused himself, Sam took the opportunity.

“Hey Dean, I don’t wanna make you uncomfortable, but did you ask Cas out earlier?”

Dean stopped right in his tracks. “What? No. No, I just said he should go to a diner and – what did you think it was?”

“I mean, Bobby and I, we can see you two. And you’re obviously all over him,” Sam added.

“Sam, whatever you’re implying, you’re wrong. He’s a guy!”

“First of all, he’s not a guy, he’s an angel. Second of all, you have a crush on him.”

“Dude, stop! I don’t have a crush on him, I’m not in love with Cas!” Dean shouted.

He saw Sam look over his shoulder and suddenly felt like the hero of a Hallmark movie. He turned around. Cas was in the doorway, and he wasn’t Mr Facial Expression but damn, he looked sad.

“Cas, can I talk to you?” Dean asked.

The angel nodded and followed him in the motel hall. Dean was gonna talk but Cas beat him to it.

“I didn’t understand what you said,” he declared.

Dean frowned, “What do you mean?”

“Well, even though I’ve been on Earth for about a decade, I only started to feel human emotions. I used to only be sad, angry, or scared. So I don’t know what love means. What is love?” he asked.

Dean couldn’t help, “Baby don’t hurt me.”

Castiel squinted and tilted his head to the side. “I would never hurt you, but why compare me to an infant?”

“Well, babies are cute, and this is a song reference. As for love… it’s complicated, there’s not just one love. Like, I I don’t love Sam like I do with Bobby.”

“I see. What about being ‘in love’?” Cas questioned.

“Ugh, it’s… when you really like what a person does, and how they are, and they make you smile… You know what, you’ll find yourself another teacher because, as I said, I’m not in love with you,” Dean repeated.

“Ok,” Cas said. But he still seemed sad. “I’m going to my room now.”

Dean watched him leave, with a tiny feeling that he had messed up somehow. But he didn’t. Because he wasn’t in love with Cas.

… right?

They arrived at Bobby’s in the morning. Samandriel was awake but didn’t speak much. He seemed better after a huge breakfast tho.

“Thank you for saving my life,” he said.

“No problem, kid,” Dean replied. “Hey, Samandriel, do you mind if we give you a nickname?”

Samandriel frowned and looked over to Cas, who shrugged. “I do not mind.”

“Cool.” Dean looked at his Wiener Hut uniform with the name tag Alfie. “Let’s say you’re Alfie.”

The newly-baptized angel didn’t comment on that.

“But what happened to the garrison? Why didn’t they come back?”

“When they escaped the warehouse, they were told not to rescue you. It seems Heaven got used to abandoning their endangered troops. But it’s over now.”

“I won’t go back to Heaven. I can’t, not after they left me,” the kid said, standing up.

“Samandriel -” “No Castiel, they left you too! And I can’t fight on someone’s side if their orders are wrong,” he replied.

Dean made a face. “Do you want to be on our side, then?”

“Depends on your quest.”

“You know about the Apocalypse? Well, we’re gonna make sure it never happens,” Sam revealed.

Alfie’s eyes widened. “How would you do that?”

“Well, so far we’ve got intel on what they’re planning, an archangel blade, three hunters and one (or two) rebellious angels. Doesn’t sound so bad to me,” Dean said.

“Team Armageddon’t,” Sam added. Dean raised a finger to correct him. “Team Free Will.”

Samandriel had a tiny smile. “Okay, then. Team Free Will it is.”

“Great. Now you should get some more rest,” Castiel advised.

Samandriel returned to the room he was borrowing and Cas, Sam and Dean went outside, Dean muttering that he should invent them a handshake.

“Hey, guys, don’t you think this is a little too easy?” he asked once he was sure Bobby and Alfie couldn't hear them.

“Too easy? What do you mean?” Sam said.

“Well, we talk about an archangel blade and we find one the next day, when it supposedly cannot be found… we rescue the kid and don’t even get a scratch whereas a whole garrison of angels couldn’t...” he exposed.

Sam sat on the hood of a nearby car. “I don’t know, man, it could just be coincidences.”

Dean shrugged. “It just seems weird to me.”

Cas nodded, then looked up. “Oh, I almost forgot.”

He put his hands on Sam and Dean’s chests, and a bright light (and tremendous pain) emanated from them. The boys recoiled.

“Ow! Cas, what was that?” Dean asked.

“Enochian sigils. They’ll make it impossible for any angel to track you down,” he explained.

“That hurts like a b! Did you brand us or something?” Sam said.

“No, I carved it on your ribs,” Castiel proclaimed.

Dean decided not to comment. “Moving on, I’m afraid I have bad news to share.”

“What is it?”

“Well, the last demon in the warehouse told me it was one of Lilith’s “caves” or whatever, and that they were guarded by the yellow-eyed demon,” he said.

“What, the yellow-eyed demon?! And are we talking about Lilith, first demon ever Lilith?” Sam replied.

“It is possible, yes. I’ve heard things about Lilith’s caves. However, I am confused about who you call the yellow-eyed demon,” Castiel added.

“He’s the one who killed our mom and dad. The reason why we became hunters. The demon chick called him Azazel,” Dean said.

Castiel’s eyes widened, which was rare enough to be mentioned. “The Prince of Hell? Comrade of Asmodeus, Ramiel, and Dagon? Everyone believed them to be dead.”

“Oh no, he’s alive and kicking, and killing our family since 1983,” Sam bitterly said.

“Yeah. Well, we always knew we were gonna kill him. It’s just that now that we lost the Colt, it’s gonna get real complicated. But maybe the archangel blade can kill him?” Dean suggested.

“Probably. Once again, we have to get our hands on an archangel. You said Gabriel was missing, right? Well, we just have to find him,” Sam said to Cas.

“You make it sound so easy,” Dean said as they went back inside.

So they took all books they could find about religion. Sam created an algorithm to detect archangel omens. Bobby taught Alfie/Samandriel how to do research.

On the first day, they read while waiting.

On the second day, they waited while reading.

On the third day, Dean realized he had fallen asleep on his book. He groaned.

“Give me something to shoot or end me,” he said, closing his copy of The Enochian Myth.

“Yeah, I get that. If I spend another day researching, I’m gonna go crazy,” Sam smiled.

“Ya boys wanna go on a hunt?” Bobby asked.

“I mean, I found a ghoul nest not far away. It would only take us the afternoon, a day if we’re slow,” Sam explained.

“If it pleases you… I’ll stay here,” Bobby said.

“What about you guys, you wanna come?” Dean asked the angels.

“No, I’ll keep searching,” Cas said. Samandriel wanted to stay too.

Sam and Dean left; Castiel watched the Impala drive away until he couldn’t see it.

“You seem… different,” his brother told him. Cas returned to the lore. “What do you mean?”

“If you were a human, I would’ve called you “infatuated”. But you are not one.”

Castiel sighed. “For the first time, I feel.”

“And what do you feel?” Samandriel asked.

When you really like what a person does, and how they are, and they make you smile…

“I do not know,” Cas lied.

They lit up the lamps at twilight. Bobby went to bed, leaving them to continue reading. They were running out of books, Samandriel even suggested that they search in other topics (“Gabriel was clever, he could’ve hidden using a pagan god’s identity”).

In the middle of the night, Castiel heard Dean scream.

Chapter Text

He stood up alert, knocking over a chair. “What is it, Castiel?” Samandriel said.

Cas could clearly hear Dean panting and in pain. Dean, where are you? he asked using prayer. As soon as he had the address, he took out his angel blade.

“Tell Bobby that Dean is hurt,” he ordered his brother before teleporting.

He appeared in a forest. In front of him was a small graveyard, and he could see Sam there, struggling to keep many monsters away.

The first ghoul did not see him coming. Castiel smote it without hesitation. The other things turned away from Sam to chase this interesting prey. Bad idea.

Alternating between his blade and his angel powers, Cas decimated the horde. Once he was done, he turned to Sam, who was holding his arm but didn’t seem too injured.

“Where’s Dean?”

“The crypt.”

Castiel opened its door and flew downstairs. The room was dark and smelled of dust and death. As his eyes got used to the lack of lights, he found Dean in the furthest corner. A monster was eating his chest.

The bolt of power Castiel shot instantly killed the ghoul. Cas then rushed to Dean’s side and started talking to him as he healed the wounds.

“Hello, Dean. I need you to stay with me. Please? Don’t die on me, I’m healing you, you are going to be fine. We need you alive, do you know that, Dean? Think of all those who love you, Sam, Bobby...”

Dean did not move after Cas was done with his healing. The next sentence was more of a whisper.

“And I love you too, I guess… In that other sense..”

He took Dean’s hand to check for a pulse and felt Dean trying to hold it.

“Dean!”

The hunter blinked and stretched. “Wow, Cas, what just happened?” he asked.

“A ghoul tried to eat you,” Cas explained.

“Oh yeah, I remember now, Dean said as Cas helped him up. It attacked me in the yard and dragged me inside. And I prayed to you.”

“Wise decision.”

They went out of the crypt and Cas healed Sam’s arm. Dean took a look at all the dead monsters around. “Wow, Cas, you really are super strong.”

“I have the strength and agility of any angel of my rank.”

“The friendly neighborhood seraph,” Dean joked before adding “I’ll explain the reference later.”

“What time is it?” Sam asked.

“9 PM.”

“I think I’m gonna go back to the hotel and collapse on my bed,” he said.

“Well, I’m not that tired and Cas doesn’t sleep, so we’re gonna go in town and do stuff,” Dean replied.

“Ok, just drop me off on your way.”

They took the Impala and left Sam at the motel they were staying in, Curtis Motor Court. Dean blasted AC/DC as soon as he was out of the car.

“So whatcha wanna do?” he asked Cas.

“I don’t know. I’ll let you pick the entertainment.”

“Okay!”

They passed in front of a Biggerson’s and Dean turned to the angel. “Why don’t we get that burger I promised you?”

“Alright,” Cas approved.

They parked, Dean led Cas inside and they sat in a booth by the window. A waitress came to them, Dean ordered them a hamburger and a cheeseburger. “So that you can try both,” he told Cas. She then left. An uncomfortable silence settled.

“Hey, Cas,” Dean cleared his throat, “I realize I didn’t thank you for saving me.”

“It was nothing.”

“No, it’s a big deal. I would have died if it wasn’t for you.”

Cas recognized Dean’s expression as a symbol of a negative emotion.

“How do you feel?” Cas asked.

Dean shrugged. “Scared, I guess? I was scared in the graveyard and I still am now. You know, I almost died once, just before we found you. I was in a coma because of a car crash, and my dad, he went and made a deal with Azazel to save my life. And let me tell you, this near-death experiment, I did not like it. So now that I know I have big chances of going to hell, I...”

Dean had a hard time finishing his sentence.

“I don’t want to die, that’s all. My life is messed up but I still like it.”

He wiped dust off his eyes.

“Look at me going all chick-flicky. Shouldn’t have told you about it.”

“No, it’s fine. Humans need to express their feelings,” Cas responded, putting his hand over Dean’s on the table. The hunter looked surprised but didn’t withdraw his own.

“What about angels?” he asked.

“We are supposed not to feel anything but exceptions happen.”

“What are the odds?”

Before Castiel could answer, the waitress brought their food.

“Aah! Come on, Cas, take a bite and tell me what you think!”

Dean watched Cas carefully bite into his burger.

“Tastes like molecules,” he said, putting it back on the plate.

Dean gave him his own burger, and the result was no better. “Cheese-flavored molecules.” So Dean ate both while they kept light conversation. He then paid the bill. The waitress gave them a look seeing their intertwined hands.

“Come on, Cas, let’s go,” Dean said.

He sighed when they got out. “Lesson n°1 on how to spot a bigot.”

“You think she showed bigotry?” Cas asked.

“Didn’t you see how she looked at us?”

“She didn’t say anything.”

Dean shook his head. “Because we’re customers. She’s not gonna insult us when we’re here to give money.”

He slid inside the Impala. “Anyways… Hey, what does Heaven says about queer stuff?”

“We are utterly indifferent to sexual orientation,” Castiel revealed.

Dean raised his eyebrows. “Huh. And did it ever happen that an angel, I don’t know, was in in a relationship with a human?”

Cas nodded. “It sometimes occurs, but Heaven’s punishment is heavy. Especially if a Nephil, the offspring of an angel and a human, is conceived. But in general it is condemned as unnatural. Humans are considered inferior to angels.”

Oh great, he found them inferiors. So much for trying to kiss the guy.

“I do not share this point of view, though,” Cas added.

Dean turned to him, a tiny, hopeful look in his eyes. “Really?”

“Humans are wonderful! When they say goodbye they put their arms around each other and to show how much they care, they give flowers. They say hello by holding each other’s hand, and sometimes tiny little dewdrops form in their eyes. For pleasure, they listen to arrangements of sounds, laugh together, smoke dried leaves, get drunk off of old fruit. They’re all just little animals, living at the fullest and having breakfast beneath billions of stars.”

Dean smiled at that. He understood Cas now. His friend was in love with humanity.

Chapter Text

“Where the FUCK is that archangel?!” Dean yelled.

A whole week running on nothing but coffee and Gatorade was really starting to use them all out. Sam looked up from the essay he was holding. “It’s like he freaking disappeared.”

Cas came back from Dean’s room. “The garrison has had no information on Gabriel ever since he left Heaven,” he said.

“There has to be a way of tracking him. A spell, maybe?” Samandriel suggested.

Silence fell.

“Alfie, you’re a genius,” Dean smiled.

He got up and took the phone. “We need a psychic or a witch...”

“Yeah, a spell, that was so obvious! Why didn’t we think of it before?” Sam exclaimed.

Dean searched through his father’s journal and found a number, which he dialed. Everyone was watching him, even Bobby had put his flask away.

“Hi, is this Pamela Barnes? Yeah, my name’s Dean Winchester, I’m a hunter. I wanted to know if you could realize a tracking spell. (…) An archangel. (…) Oh yeah, they’re hella real. (…) Tomorrow, Portland? Ok, seeya.”

He hung up the phone. “We go it.”

“Yes!” Bobby said.

“Who’s coming?” Sam asked.

Dean, Cas, and him were the obvious choice. “You should come too, Alfie, this was your brilliant idea,” Dean added.

“I’m coming too,” Bobby said.

The phone rang. Dean picked it up. “What, Rufus? (…) You’re a real son of a bitch, you know that? Alright, I’ll be there.”

He turned to the boys. “Actually, I’m busy. Rufus got a vampire nest to end.”

“Shame. Let’s go.”

The trip to Portland only took a few hours. Once there, they stayed in the motel, teaching angels how to play poker. Dean couldn’t help staring at Cas during the game. He was just really cute with his frowning face and his really blue eyes, trying to understand how the cards worked. Dean did wanted to kiss him again.

He made sure their eyes never met, of course.

They slept a little and went to Pamela’s place the next morning. She turned out to be a dark-haired blue-eyed woman in her thirties.

“Which one of you is Dean Winchester?” she asked when she opened her door and saw all those guys.

“I am,” Dean said. She quickly looked at him, then eyed Cas and smiled. “Well, come in. All of you, I guess.”

Her house was as messy as Bobby's. Supernatural objects were everywhere; Sam almost walked on a werewolf skull on their way to the living-room. She had set on the table a world map, some candles, and a bowl full of dust.

Pamela turned to them. “You’re lucky I am one of the best psychics in this country, because a tracking spell for an archangel ain’t a piece of cake.”

She then frowned at Castiel and Samandriel. “You two have unusual auras. You’re not human, are you?”

“No, we are angels,” Cas replied. She nodded.

“Well, that’s a bonus. People with a connection to the one being tracked make it easier.”

They all sat at the table, Pamela with Cas and Alfie on each side, Dean at Cas’s right and Sam at the kid’s left. She put a hand on Alfie’s shoulder.

“Why are you touching my thigh?” Castiel asked. Dean frowned.

She withdrew her hand, “Not the sharpest tool in the shed, that one,” she commented.

Pamela put some of the dust from the bowl on the map. “Everyone hold hands,” she ordered. They did as they were told.

“Which archangel are you searching for?”

“Gabriel.”

She started an incantation in another language. Dean understood but a few words. Her hands started glowing, and so did her eyes. She put her hand on the map and the dust started burning it. It went on until the map was almost completely consumed, then the fire went out. Only three small pieces were left, and they were all in the US.

“It would’ve been more precise if we had a fragment of his grace but that’s already good. One of these three towns is where Gabriel hides, the others are a powerful angel’s location,” she explained.

“Okay, so we got Miami, Springfield in Oklahoma, and Detroit. This should be fast,” Sam commented.

Dean paid and they thanked her. As they were about to leave, she called Cas. “Hey, hot stuff!”

“Buddy, that’s you,” Dean said to Cas. The angel turned.

“Don’t beat around the bush, okay?” she advised.

“I don’t understand.”

“I’m saying that if you wait too long, you’re gonna regret it. You boys don’t get to have that luxury.”

She then closed her front door, leaving the guys quite perplex.

“What was she talking about?” Dean asked.

“No idea,” Castiel replied.

Bobby was done with his vampire nest when they got home.

“We can split in teams: Sammy and I do Springfield, Bobby you take Miami, and the angels do Detroit,” Dean suggested.

“We’ll be back in no time,” Cas said. He and Alfie disappeared, then returned 3 seconds later, looking rather annoyed.

“The town has been surrounded with warding spells. Our powers are affected, we can’t appear directly inside,” Samandriel explained.

“That’s what she said,” Dean muttered under his breath. “Then I guess you’ll have to drive there, like an ordinary citizen.”

“That will take more time,” Cas opposed.

“We don’t have any other solution.”

Bobby lent them a car and they left, because apparently they both knew how to drive (‘I was there in 1969, I learned,’ Cas said). Sam, Dean, and Bobby split too.

“Hey, if we do find Gabriel, do we like talk to him, or we imprison him ‘til he agrees to help?” Dean asked on the road.

“How would you imprison an archangel?”

“If holy fire works for angels, it may do the trick for higher ranks.”

“Try talking first,” Sam advised.

“Okay. Do the papers have anything angel-related?”

“No, but there’s this weird thing: a college professor killed himself, out of the blue, when he was smiling at everyone that same morning.”

“That’s a thin lead, there, Samsquatch,” Dean mocked.

“Don’t call me Samsquatch.”

“You do have the hair for the job.”

Sam just rolled his eyes.

They arrived at Springfield two hours later, and since there was nothing stranger than Sam’s case, that was where they started. The professor taught at local community college. They interrogated the janitor at Crawford Hall, a short man with golden hair, sweet tooth, and a hell of a big mouth. Nada. And the EMF showed jack-squat.

They headed back to the hotel, Sam kept bitching about everything, which was annoying as hell. Dean proposed they stay here for the night and if there was nothing tomorrow, they’d return home. Even then, Sam had to comment on Dean’s food (‘what’s wrong with my food?’ ‘it’s not food, Dean, it’s Darwinism!’ Like Dean even knew what that meant). He agreed with himself to sleep it off.

In the morning, Sam threw him a pillow to wake him up, that bitch.

“What?”

“Frat boy says he got abducted by aliens. That’s for us.”

So they went at a bar, dressed as journalists for a supernatural newspaper, and asked the guy questions. He told them he had been probed, several times. Sam didn’t think Dean’s comment on how an alien had made him his bitch was funny. Then, since they were at a bar, Dean tried to have fun, what with an interesting drink and a classy chick talking to him.

He missed Cas, though. He thought the angel made things more interesting. He liked to have someone he could trust by his side, to whom he could explain his references, a best friend. But he also liked to hold him in his arms, or just touch him. It always came with some sort of tingling sensation.

He heard Sam behind him and sighed.

“Dean, what do you think you’re doing?” the annoying little brother said.

Dean turned to him. “Sam, please. If you wouldn't mind, give me five minutes here,” he asked, pointing the girl he was gonna kiss.

“Dean, this is a very serious investigation. We don't have any time for any of your blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah.”

He went on and on but Dean had stopped paying attention. He turned back to the girl and resumed pretending to listen to her while he was thinking about Cas.

Chapter Text

“You boys are idjts, you know that?” Bobby said the next morning.

They had called him after the body of a research scientist had been found in the sewers, eaten by an alligator. Whatever monster was there, it was out of Sam and Dean’s league. Besides they kept arguing and could use a mediator. Bobby was there in no time.

“The thing that’s been causing mayhem between you two? That’s a Trickster,” Bobby kept talking. “They’re all over the glob. Loki in Scandinavia, Anansi in West Africa. Dozens of them. They’ve got a passion for sweets and can be killed with a wooden stake through the heart.”

“The janitor at Crawford Hall. He kept eating sugar, and he was in reach of all the vics,” Dean said.

“Ta-da.”

“Huh. How are Cas and Alfie?” Dean asked.

“Last time I phoned, they were driving back from Detroit. Cas said that once in Sioux Falls he’d teleport here to help.”

“Okay.”

Dean avoided Sam’s look.

“Wait a second… If Detroit was covered in angel warding, one couldn’t have possibly hid there,” Sam said.

“But there was an energy powerful enough to mislead Pamela?” Dean responded.

“He set baits. That’s why we didn’t find crap anywhere!” Bobby exclaimed.

“Goddamn it, he played us! He must’ve known we were looking for him and he made traps, and we freaking fell right into them!”

Dean paced the room, biting his nails.

“We still have a monster to kill,” Bobby said.

“Yeah, anything to change the subject,” Dean said going out.

He walked to Crawford Hall, thoughts surrounding him. All this had been useless, they needed to go back and search in the lore. It could take years before they even get to see him.

“Son of a bitch,” he muttered to himself before entering the hall.

He soon spotted the guy, walking in a theater. Dean stopped at the door and tried to look inside.

“I know you followed me, Dean-o,” the janitor/monster said.

Dean dropped the act and opened the door. The man was standing on the stage.

“You know, I haven’t been as mean as I could’ve. Those people were pretentious bastards, and I simply put them back to their place,” he said as Dean walked down the stairs. “So maybe you could… not kill me?”

“I don’t think that’s how this is gonna work out,” he replied.

Bobby and Sam burst into the theater, wooden stakes in their hands. The Trickster sighed and snapped his fingers. Then, a Michael Myers kind of guy appeared behind Sam and tried to slice him open with chainsaw. Freaking psychopath.

While Sam and Bobby were fighting the illusion, Dean tried to get closer to the Trickster. He created other things but Dean defeated them easily. Sam threw him his wooden stake and as Dean struck the monster, the door opened.

“Gabriel?” Castiel said.

Every illusion stopped moving and vanished, even the man in front of Dean. They all turned around: he was sat in one of the chairs. He popped a lollipop out of his mouth and said, “So you’re the guys who’ve been trying to get me?”

Castiel snapped his fingers, making a lighter appear in Dean’s hand. The latter lit it and threw it near the archangel, setting fire to the ring of holy oil Cas had just made.

They finally had Gabriel.

Castiel walked down to his long-lost brother. The angelic grace shone brighter than anything else in the room. Dean’s soul often did the same.

“Hiya, Cassie. Heard you went missing a couple years ago. Apparently you got better,” Gabriel declared.

Seeing Cas’ confusion, he explained, “I keep tabs on some angels. Didn’t know what you were up to recently, tho. If I did, I wouldn’t be stuck here.”

“Gabriel, we have an offer to make you,” Dean said.

“Let me guess, it’s the kind I can’t refuse? No thanks. I can get out of this trap just by turning on the fire alarm. So you listen to me: leave me alone and I’ll let you live.”

This was going to be more difficult than what they had thought. Sam stepped up. “Gabriel, please. We just need you to listen to us, and then we’ll let you go.”

Gabriel pursed his lips. “Go on, Sammy.”

“We know there’s a new Apocalypse coming up. We have to stop it before it starts.”

“Honey, please, it has already started. It’s been on since 1973! If you wanted to prevent it, you should have asked your mom not to make that deal with Azazel.”

Cas saw Sam and Dean’s surprise. “What deal?”

“Oh, you didn’t know? Demons kills Johnny boy, Mama makes a deal to bring him back, and he gets her permission to enter their house ten years later. When he comes and makes you (he pointed Sam) drink his blood, she interrupts and gets burned on the ceiling. The end,” Gabriel told them.

“What? No, this can’t be… why would he make me drink demon blood?”

“To give you psychic powers. It makes you capable of hosting Lucifer. You were made for this from the beginning, so you’re gonna suck it up, accept your responsibilities, and play the roles that destiny has chosen for you!”

Gabriel snapped his fingers and the fire went out. “No, you can’t leave like that!” Sam exclaimed. It was too late, he was already gone.

“Son of a bitch!” Dean shouted. He stormed out of the theater. Sam stayed there, looking at his hands like they were covered in blood.

Castiel nodded to Bobby before following Dean.

The hunter was sat on a bench, his head in his hands. Cas sat with him and they stayed silent for some time. When Dean spoke up, his voice was broken and tired.

“All my life I’ve been trying to protect Sam, but what am I supposed to do about things that happened before I was even born?”

Castiel wanted to respond but decided against it. Dean sighed.

“Our whole plan is falling down. You know what, Cas, let’s introduce you to another human custom. It’s called ‘drinking your sorrows away’.”

They both got up and walked out of Crawford Hall.

When Sam returned to the motel, it was getting dark. Bobby had tried to help him but he’d been wasting his time. Sam’s hope was faltering, everything was teaming up for the Apocalypse for thirty years, how could they ever win?

Dean was wrong, nothing about this was easy.

He went to his room. The door was open when he knew Dean, Bobby and Cas were not there yet. He took his knife and entered the room.

“Didn’t think you’d be the nervous type, Sammy,” a voice said. Sam found Gabriel sat in one of the chairs.

“Why are you here?” he asked.

The archangel raised his eyebrows, “I do whatever I want.”

Sam sighed and sat down on his bed. Gabriel spoke up.

“If your plan contains an archangel, there’s also an archangel blade. I’m not killing any of my brothers. That’s all.”

“Then, I’ll ask again, why are you here? Do you want me to convince you of our cause? Because millions of lives of humans, demons, and angels are at stake. That’s the argument.”

Sam rubbed his hands to warm up.

“I don’t even know if we can make it. Maybe you’re right, maybe we should just play the part everyone wants us to.”

Gabriel looked away. “I came here because it was harsh of me not to sugarcoat anything. I’m sorry.”

Sam looked at him in disbelief. A being of a greater nature that he could ever imagine had just apologized to him. That was new.

Gabriel could read minds too, it seemed, because he responded. “Take the dang apology, Sammy.”

Sam nodded. “Still, it’s a shame the Apocalypse is gonna destroy everything on Earth. Like candy.”

“I can create some out of thin air.”

“Casa erotica.”

“I suppose I could save a human or two.”

“A place to hide from your brothers.”

He had found the weak spot. “That’s what you’ve been doing, right? For whatever reason, you fled Heaven and you’ve been running ever since,” Sam continued.

“Don’t talk about what you don’t know, Samwich.”

“Tell me, then.”

Gabriel smirked. Sam was surprised he hadn’t been smitten at this moment but the archangel seemed to like him. And Sam liked Gabriel too.

“You think the Apocalypse is one of a kind, but it has already happened before. I was asked to pick a side and I couldn’t. My brothers are great big bags of dicks but I love them. Trying to kill them… I just can’t,” Gabe declared.

“if they had to kill you, do you think they would hesitate?” Sam asked, ready to be seeing Heaven much sooner than intended.

Gabriel simply thought about it and muttered to himself something that sounded like a ‘no’. He turned to Sam.

“Where is the rest of your boys band?”

“At a bar, I think.”

“Take me there. I got something to tell them.”

Sam had a tiny smile. They started walking in the streets, Gabriel telling his best stories and Sam avidly listening. Gabe stopped when he scented something in the air.

“Hey Samantha, does it smell like sulfur to you?”

He turned around and Sam wasn’t there. He then felt a trace of demon power.

“Dad damn it.”

Chapter Text

“Sam got taken!” Gabriel told Bobby, Cas, and Dean once he found them.

The two hunters were completely drunk and slept on the table. Cas, who had something like 27 empty shots in front of him, was more reactive.

“What?! How did this happen?”

“A powerful demon sneaked behind my back and got him.”

Castiel put his hands on Dean and Bobby’s shoulders and closed his eyes. The empty bottles on the table started refilling as all the alcohol left their bodies. Dean sat up alert.

“Sam got taken?!”

They rushed outside to talk more privately.

“It has to be Azazel. Only a demon as powerful as him could capture someone under an archangel’s nose,” Castiel said.

“Thank you for that input, Cassie,” Gabriel sassed.

“But I thought all this was gonna happen way later? He’s like, 6 months ahead of schedule!” Dean stated.

“Apparently he changed his program. We need to find Sam before anything happens to him.”

Gabriel slowly curled his hand into a fist and did something that made all the lights around flicker. “I can feel a Prince of Hell in southern Wyoming. Y’all think this could be him?”

“What business would he have there?” Dean thought out loud.

“Wyoming, you said? There’s a gate of Hell there, a door to downtown. Samuel Colt created a giant devil’s trap around the area in 1800 something. If Azazel is there, he must’ve found a human to help him,” Bobby said.

Both angels grabbed the hunters and teleported them away. Castiel landed harshly.

“You okay?” Dean worried.

“Yes, it’s… the gate is warded against angels. If I walk in, I won’t be able to use my powers,” Cas explained.

Dean took a look at the landscape. The only light around was his lighter’s. In front of them, splitting the countryside in half, an old and rusty railroad which ran near them. The devil’s trap. He could make up a small building far away.

Azazel was over there with his henchman and probably a bunch of other demons. But Sam was there too.

“How did I get myself in this mess,” Gabriel muttered as they crossed the railroad.

They ran into no enemy at first, that set them on the edge more than anything. Dean wanted to shoot something, anything, just to break the tension.

“How big is the trap?” he asked.

“Radius of 5 and a half mile, I think,” Bobby responded.

The building Dean had seen turned out to be a graveyard. Somehow they always end up in graveyards. Gabriel tensed as they walked among the tombs.

“That’s the gate,” he stated, pointing at the only crypt. Dean shuddered.

Sam was pretty sure a firework had just exploded inside his head. When he opened his eyes, everything was dark. He feared to be blind for a second but realized he was facing the ground. He sat up against something and turned to see it was a tomb.

“Over here, Sam,” a voice called him. It was familiar but not in a good way.

Sam looked up to see the yellow-eyed demon sat on another grave in front of him.

“Azazel.”

“Oh, you know my name? I’m flattered,” the demon replied, a joyless grin on his face. “I took the liberty of throwing away all your weapons, I hope you don’t mind.”

Sam heard a loud bark nearby yet he couldn’t see no dog. He eventually spotted a cold breath near Azazel’s waist, but it came out of nowhere.

“You noticed the dog, didn’t you? It’s a hellhound, invisible to everyone but demons. And of course, humans who get dragged down to Hell after selling their souls.”

Azazel patted the hound, it seemed to be enormous.

“It’s not mine, I borrowed it from a crossroad demon named Crowley. He’s not loyal to Lucifer, I hope he’s the first one smitten when our Lord returns.”

“We’re gonna kill you,” Sam bluffed.

“Please, Sam, Heaven’s rejects and three weak hunters don’t scare me. Anyways, I see other guests approaching. I need to make sure this dog likes the taste of your brother’s flesh.”

Sam’s blood ran cold. “What?”

“Didn’t you heard the part about these beasts dragging people to Hell?” Azazel asked.

“Dean! You need to run-” Sam started yelling but Azazel snapped his fingers. Sam couldn’t open his mouth to alert them.

The demon stood up. “I’m not done with you, Sammy. Once Dean’s dead, I’m gonna make sure you’re ready for Lucifer’s coming.”

He walked away with the hound while Sam was desperately trying to get rid of the curse.

Chapter Text

Far away from the boys, a shout cut through the silence.

“Dean! You need to run-”

Dean looked around him. Sam was there. He walked toward the voice but Cas stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

“Something is off. Azazel should be trying to open the gate. This whole thing is a trap,” he quickly said.

“Of course it’s a trap, but I don’t care. Sam’s in danger and we need to find him,” Dean replied.

A loud bark resonated across the graveyard. Everyone froze.

“What was that?” Bobby asked.

They heard the sound of an animal running towards them.

“Oh my Dad, it’s a hellhound!” Gabriel exclaimed, taking out his angel blade.

“Dean, it’s going to drag you to Hell!” Castiel said. He took Dean’s hand, “We have to run.”

And so they started fleeing the invisible monster. Bobby and Gabriel felt it pass near them, its infernal rage burning the soil under its paw.

“We can’t help them, we need to find Sam!” the archangel said to the hunter.

Cas and Dean avoided the tombs as they ran. The hellhound was shortening the distance between them. Dean could almost feel the hound’s breath on his nape.

And then Castiel tripped.

He fell and hit his head on a grave. Dean stopped to help him up but the angel yelled, “Save yourself!”

By the time he had gotten up, the monster was at him, throwing him back on the ground. Cas took his angel blade but the hellhound bit his throat, making him scream.

“No, no no! Get off of him, it’s me you’re after!” Dean shouted.

It raised his head and slammed him down.

The beast tore Dean apart, slashing through his organs and taking large bites of his flesh. Dean had never felt any pain that came close to that. Cas tried to attack the hound and it didn’t even move.

Eventually the dog let go of him and ran back to where it came from. Castiel rushed to Dean’s side. His blood covered their clothes, his face, the grass under him.

“I-It hurts so much...” he whimpered. Cas placed his hand on Dean’s wound but remembered he was powerless.

“Dean, hold on, it’s gonna be okay,” Cas said holding Dean’s face close. He bit back tears.

Dean stared. “You have tiny little dewdrops in your eyes...”

He coughed out some more blood. “Cas, I’m so sorry.”

“No, no, Dean you can’t leave me! You mean too much to me, I- I love you!” Cas cried out.

In the midst of all that pain, Dean smiled. “Castiel, I...”

He didn’t finish his sentence.

Dean’s hand fell from Cas’. The angel could not believe it, couldn’t fathom the fact that Dean... He then looked into his eyes and saw that he was gone. So he held Dean’s body closer and sobbed his heart out.

He could feel the others walking up to him, and some part of his brain knew that Sam and Bobby had to see Dean too. Only they got to love Dean and he didn’t. He couldn’t let go, he was supposed to save Dean, prevent his death, and he failed. He failed Dean just like he failed Heaven.

A hand shaking his shoulder made him look up. Gabriel’s face was blurry because of Cas's tear-filled vision. Eventually he could focus on a point behind his brother. The gate.

Cas gently gave Dean to Sam and started walking.

“Wow wow wow, Cas, what are you doing?” Gabriel stopped him.

“I have to save Dean,” Cas said.

“Cas-”

“His soul is in hell, and we have a gate that can lead us there! I need to try.”

“You could die.”

“He could live.”

Gabriel paced around a few times before looking at him in the eyes. “Don’t you dare die there,” he declared.

The crypt had a special lock. It seemed one could only open it by introducing a specific object inside. While Cas and Gabe were theorizing, Sam examined it.

“It needs the Colt,” he stated, his voice still shaky.

“What Colt?” Gabriel asked.

“A special gun, forged by Samuel Colt himself in 1835. It can kill any living thing and, seeing the shape of that lock, it can also open the gate.”

“’35, you said? I’ll be right back,” Gabriel told them.

In a blink he was gone, and in another one he had returned, a long-barreled gun in his hand.

“Did you just… time-traveled to 1835?” Sam asked.

“Twas the fastest solution… Okay, here we go...” Gabe said as he placed the Colt in the lock.

The Colt turned like a mechanism a few times before stopping. The doors then opened and all Hell broke loose.

Black trails of smoke escaped Hell in a hurry. Their force knocked Castiel down. Sam and Gabriel stood next to the doors, ready to close them at any time. The angel got back up, took out his blade, and braved the flow of demons.

“Good luck, brother!” Gabriel said.

Castiel closed his eyes and jumped into Hell.

As he fell, the noise of the closing doors was heard for an instant before he was too far away. Everything around him was dark. The demons realized the gate was sealed again and they turned their fury toward the heavenly being who did not belong there. Castiel smote them relentlessly. He had to find Dean.

His impact on the infernal ground left a gigantic crater. Castiel took a look at what surrounded him. Nothing but black, red, and despair. In front of him stood a grid, high as a hundred men.

Castiel unfurled his wings. He would not get out of there without his love.

Every demon in Hell quickly learned to fear the angel on the warpath.

Chapter Text

Castiel was in Hell for thirty days, slowly making his way through the circles. He fought demons without interruption. Every time, he asked them, "Where is Dean Winchester?" Every time, they didn't answer.

Cas was getting weaker. An enemy had stabbed him with his own angel blade and he was unable to use his powers there.

He stumbled into an empty corridor. Souls were being tortured in the adjoining rooms. Castiel was ready to search them all when he heard a scream, a familiar one. The same cry of pain as with that ghoul a long time ago.

Cas stormed in that room, and there he was. Tied to a rack, naked, with open wounds and his blood everywhere. His eyes firmly shut and an expression of pain. But still beautiful. Still Dean Winchester.

The demon torturing him turned to Castiel. The angel struck him in the shoulder; his opponent retaliated by grasping his wings and ripping off handfuls of feathers. They fought for some time. As soon as Castiel had the upper had, he stabbed the creature's heart. The body flickered, then nothing.

Cas got rid of him, and walked to Dean. The poor man was all tensed and wouldn't look at what was going on.

"Dean, it's me," Cas gently said.

Dean turned his head toward Cas' voice. "Who is this? Do I know you? I... I don't remember anything," he quickly responded.

Cas' heart ached but he didn't show it. "My name is Castiel. I'm the one who's gonna grip you tight and raised you from perdition."

He cut the ropes tying Dean to the rack and helped him up. "You can open your eyes now," he told him.

"No, I can't. Alastair, he, he did something."

Cas then saw the dried tears mixed with blood on his cheeks.  He wiped them with the back of his hand. "It's okay, Dean, we'll fix that. Take my coat," he replied giving him his trench-coat.

They got out of the room. Cas saw the demons gathering on the other side of the corridor. There were a lot of them, perhaps too many for him to defeat. Cas held on his angel blade and made sure Dean stayed behind him.

The horde started crawling to them. As they were gonna touch Cas, a bright light appeared behind them. Cas closed his eyes and heard the demons yell. When he dared looking, every enemy was gone. Disintegrated.

Cas blinked in surprise. Dean held his arm tighter. "What's happening? Cas?"

Cas heard someone cracking his fingers. "Damn! Sammy, did you see that? I bet even Luci sensed this from his cage," Gabriel bragged to Sam, turning round the corner.

"How did you get here?" Castiel asked, both relieved and concerned.

Dean shuddered. "It's okay, Dean, they're our friends," Cas told him.

"Dean!" Sam ran to his brother, but when he tried to hold him, the older one flinched and took a step back.

"Dean, it's your brother, Sam. He's not gonna hurt you," Cas said to reassure him. He turned to the other ones. "He can't see nor remember anything."

"Let me take care of that," Gabriel said. "Hey, Dean, I'm one of your buddies. I'm gonna cure you, 'kay?"

"'Kay," Dean replied. Gabriel placed a hand near his had and used his archangel powers. Dean held Cas tight then let go. He blinked and slowly looked up to Cas. His eyes were back to the greenest green on every world. Cas and him smiled.

"Hi," Dean said.

"Hello, Dean."

The hug was unexpected but Cas returned it quicker this time. It reminded him of the doing the same thing after Dean's nightmare. And now another one had ended.

They let go of each other and Dean held Sam in a one arm, bone-crushing squeeze. He then noticed Gabriel and smirked. "You son of a bitch."

"Gotta take the compliment, I guess," Gabe joked as they had a bro-hug.

"Okay, now how did you get here and how do we get out?" he asked Sam and Gabriel.

"We were researching some shady magic, and we found a spell creating a portal to Hell. It requires a frequent dose of angel grace so Samandriel is at it. We should hurry up or else he'll be quickly empty," Gabriel explained.

"Alright, show us the way then," Cas declared.

The angels were ready to protect their humans, but all demons were afraid of Gabriel and didn't dare fighting them.

"Did it take you a long time to find the spell?" Dean asked his brother.

"Not really, a few hours. I have contacts," Gabe answered for him.

"And was the search for ingredients difficult?"

"Well, we happened to have everything at reach..."

Dean frowned, "Then what took you so long?"

"What do you mean, 'so long' ? You died last night!" Sam exclaimed.

Dean stopped. "No, it was longer than that!"

"For us, it was a month. Time passes faster in Hell than on Earth. I forgot about that," Cas informed them.

Sam turned to his brother, a gut-wrenching expression on his face. "You were in Hell for a month?"

"I don't wanna talk about it, I just need to get out of here."

They reached the portal. It looked more like a yellow crack through time and space. Gabriel wanted to cross it first but before he could call dibs, they heard a noise, like someone getting punched, and a person fell on their side.

"Bobby!" Dean exclaimed, helping him up. "Dean," Bobby replied in a breath, hugging him tight. He quickly let go, "Azazel found us!" he said to everyone.

They all crossed the portal. Castiel noticed that they were now in a motel room. Spell ingredients were gathered on the table. He then saw Samandriel fighting Azazel.

The angel tried to hurt Azazel with his angel blade but the Prince of Hell was stronger and defeated his attacks. Samandriel made another attempt; Azazel stopped his movement, twisted his arm, and used it to stab him.

Sam, Gabriel, Bobby, and Castiel cried out. Samandriel's eyes shone bright, then his body fell on the ground.

Castiel threw his angel blade at Azazel, but the demon dodged it. Gabriel raised a hand. Azazel seemed distressed when he saw his skin peel off. Gabriel snapped his fingers. That was the end of the yellow-eyed demon.

Castiel knelt by Samandriel's body but Sam and Bobby didn't move, somehow paralyzed. "He had an accomplice," Bobby eventually said.

Gabriel stormed out of the room. He found what he was looking for. When he came back, his clothes smelled like burnt flesh.

Castiel closed his little brother's eyes and placed his blade on his chest, as the angel custom ordered for soldiers fallen on the battlefield. He then looked up and noticed that Dean wasn't with them.

He found him on the bed. Gabriel had healed his body and the family replaced his old shredded clothes for undamaged ones. Cas touched his arm, smiling weakly when he felt the heat, the life, slowly spreading around.

Dean took a deep breath.

Chapter Text

They burned Samandriel’s body in the morning. Cas had said it was the moment on Earth his little brother loved the most. And yes, all the angels were created at the same time, but as leader of a garrison Cas felt responsible for everyone under his command. Samandriel had obliged in the role. Dean couldn’t possibly understand how it must be like, losing one’s younger sibling.

Cas threw the lighter. He then took Dean’s hand as the flames came up. Dean held it back, letting him know he was there.

They all agreed to take a break before returning to Bobby’s. Sam and Gabriel disappeared somewhere, and Bobby vanished pretty quickly too. All that was left was Dean, Cas, and the undeniable tension between them.

Dean got out of the motel bathroom to find Cas sitting on his bed. The angel looked serious as always, but also preoccupied.

“I think we need to talk,” he told Dean.

That conversation starter would’ve made Dean run out of the room before the chick that usually said that could start asking “what are we?” and those shit you learn from Hallmark movies. It either promised an actual relationship with commitment, or a break-up. He normally avoided it like the plague.

But no chick had said that right now. Cas did.

Dean sat on the other bed, thinking that maybe he wanted to take back what he had confessed, “Yeah?”

“When… when you were dying, and I said that I loved you, did you want to say it back?” Castiel interrogated him.

I loved you. Was that still true? Did Dean misinterpret it, or was the angel disgusted by what he had seen of him in Hell?

Millions of other parasite thoughts popped in his mind by the second, he tried to put them aside and answer the question. Be honest, for once.

“Yeah, I wanted to,” he said.

Castiel let out a sigh of relief, like it was the best news he had heard in a long time. This surprised the hunter, how could anyone be happy about Dean loving them?

Well, love was a big word. More like caring about the person a bit more than about others.

Cas didn’t know him well enough, Dean thought. Or else he would’ve noticed how much Dean was fucked up. A big stack of mommy and daddy issues, mixed with a tremendous amount of guilt, suicidal tendencies, and the cherry on top, 26 years of repressed feelings. Especially those concerning the same sex.

Because, when Dean really thought about it, he could find lots of examples of him being not that straight. Bobby’s anecdote was just the earliest. What about that time he accidentally ended up at a gay bar and it was the best night of his life? What about 10^th grade, him and Lee Webb holding hands at every moment they could until John saw it and scolded them? And let’s not mention Rhonda Hurley.

Now, he was with Cas. He wanted to hold him tightly, and maybe kiss him, and spend time messing up his hair to give him that bed head. He wanted to make Cas smile, show him his favorite movies, listen to his stories, all of them. Make new ones together afterwards.

Cas was nice. But Dean never had nice things.

“It’s funny how we both think so poorly of ourselves but so highly of the other.”

Dean looked up and met eyes with Castiel. He now realized the angel had his hand on Dean’s knee. You can’t really hide things from a mind-reader.

“I wish you could see yourself from my perspective. If you did, you would fall in love with yourself too,” Cas declared with a smile.

“Knowing what I do about me, I strongly doubt that.” Dean paused, fidgeting with his amulet. “I don’t deserve these kind of things… love, the apple pie life...”

“But do you want them, Dean?” Castiel asked.

“Of course!” he answered. “That’s all I ever wanted, normalcy. And I’ve been thinking, once this is over, if we make it… I’m gonna go and buy a house, get a dog, do what everybody does.”

He rubbed his neck and added, “And you could be there with me, if you want.”

The light-bulb on the dress table exploded, spreading shards of glass all around. “Cas!” Dean exclaimed, more amused than annoyed.

“Sorry, I... I didn’t do it on purpose,” Cas apologized.

“It’s okay, Cas. I think it’s pretty cool,” Dean reassured him.

They shared a smile. Sam chose that moment to knock on the door.

“Guys? Bobby wants us to go soon so that we’re home before night,” he informed them.

Dean nodded, “We’re coming.”

The moose disappeared to wherever. Dean gathered the supernatural objects they had in one of his bags. Once he was done, he turned to his angel. “Shall we?” he asked, gesturing at the door.

Cas followed him out of the room, and as they walked in the hallway, their hands brushed. Dean held Cas’s pinky finger without a word.

Chapter Text

Sam, Bobby, and Gabriel had seen how Dean and Cas were acting, and unanimously decided to give them time to process their feelings. Bobby drove away to the gas station.

Sam could tell Gabriel wasn’t in his normal state. He didn’t know him that well, but he had seen him at Crawford Hall, and when they were searching for a way to save Dean. Gabriel was supposed to be collected.

“I’m gonna get some candy,” the archangel said, gesturing to the nearby vending machine.

“That’s the stupidest excuse I’ve ever heard from someone who can conjure food out of thin air,” Sam answered.

Gabriel raised an eyebrow but did not comment. Sam followed him to the machine. “Hey, what was that about earlier?” he kept talking.

“What was what, Sammy? Gabe asked. And define earlier, because I’ve done things last century that still feel like yesterday.”

Sam’s eyes widened, to him there was only one thing he could be talking about: “You, killing Azazel’s henchman without thinking about it twice! It was brutal, I didn’t believe you to be like that.”

Gabriel rolled his eyes as he snapped his fingers once in front of the machine. “Like what, kid? Uncaring? Well, newsflash, that’s the thing I do best. I’m not that interested in humans.”

He retrieved the fallen bags of snacks and stuffed them into his jeans pockets.

“You’re lying, Sam replied. If you didn’t care, you would already be away, hiding somewhere, probably Alpha Centauri. Instead of that, you’re waiting for my brother to confess his love for your brother, and then for us to find a way out of that mess. You want to be with us.”

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t realize I was starring in Sam Winchester analyzes your psyche,” Gabriel sassed.

He placed a hand over his heart and spoke as if he was distressed, “Doctor, I killed someone responsible for my baby brother’s death, is that normal?”

Sam sighed and Gabriel glared. “To which I respond: yes it is. Now get out of my personal space before I decide that I don’t like you that much. I’d hate to bruise such a pretty face.”

“So you think I’m pretty?” the hunter responded sarcastically.

“Don’t push your luck, Sammy.”

“You killed him in cold-blood! His name was Jake, I saw it on his license. He had a mother and a sister-”

“What do you want, Sam?!”

“If you’re gonna be on our side, you have to follow our rules, and we are saving people!”

Gabriel waved his finger negatively. “Oh no, Sam, I don’t pick sides, and I don’t care for anyone.”

“Then why did you help my family save me? Why did you tell them what happened to me?” Sam asked.

Gabriel pursed his lips. The urge to snap him out of existence was strong. He hadn’t had to justify himself to anyone for hundreds of years. An archangel in hiding often is alone. Didn’t mean he felt lonely. Didn’t mean he was intrigued by this human and wanted to spend time with him.

“Don’t cloud your mind with useless questions, he replied. You only need me to wield the archangel blade, so pray to me when it’s time.”

Sam blinked and Gabe was gone. Again. He really didn’t know how to end difficult conversations without fleeing.

Unknown to Sam, Gabriel had not left, simply turned invisible. He saw Sam’s defeated face and him doing his best to toughen up. The hunter ran a hand through his hair – quite gorgeous if you wanted Gabe’s opinion – and tried to pull himself together. Whatever pep talk he was reciting to himself didn’t work, and he let out a growl of frustration.

“Why am I supposed to be responsible for him? I’m not his handler, or his boyfriend!” he exclaimed.

The vending machine shook slightly and a few snacks fell.

Sam turned, no one was here with him. The machine had shook alone. Must be a malfunction, he thought.

Gabriel stared at the machine after Sam left. There seemed to be a blur near the machine, probably nothing to worry about. If it were a threat, Gabe would’ve sensed it.

He ran back to Sam’s level, who was headed to Bobby’s truck. The older man rolled down his window to speak to his boy. “I’m ready to go, Sam. Can you tell the lovebirds to get their asses here?”

“Yeah, of course. I just hope I won’t be interrupting anything that would traumatize me,” Sam smirked.

“Have you met them? It’ll probably take them two or three weeks before they realize they get to do couple things,” Bobby replied.

Sam nodded and went to the motel. While Bobby was looking at his maps, Gabriel opened the door of the Impala and slid on the backseat. After they had closed the gate and decided to find a spell that could open a portal to Hell, Gabriel had zapped both Dean and Bobby’s cars from Crawford Hall to the nearest motel in the phone book. They were close to the gate yet had their books and lore and whatever – all these guys did was researching.

The Scooby-Gang emerged from said motel and walked to the Impala. Gabriel frowned when he saw the same blur move ahead of them. It settled in front of Gabriel, as if it was gonna drive the car.

The boys entered the car, Castiel sitting next to his brother without knowing it. Dean sat in front of the wheel and shuddered for a second.

Cold spots.

That could only be a coincidence. Dean fixed the air conditioner and started the car.

“Where did you say Gabriel was going?” he asked Sam.

The moose sighed. “I don’t know. He said I should pray to him when it’s time.”

“He loves to leave people behind, doesn’t he?”

“You don’t know him,” Sam opposed.

Dean raised an eyebrow, “Neither do you?”

Sam was wringing his hands. “He’ll come back. I trust him,” he responded.

Gabriel smiled faintly.

They parked in Bobby’s driveway around eleven pm. Dean rubbed at his eyes for a moment.

“You need to rest, Dean,” Castiel advised.

“No shit, I just got out of Hell and seven hours in shit traffic. I know I need to rest.”

Sam and Bobby had already hit the hay when he eventually entered the house. He brushed his teeth pretty quickly and put on a tee and jogs for a pajama. He was gonna fall on his bed when he realized something was wrong.

Dean opened his door; Castiel was standing in front of it. “You have plans for the night?” Dean asked.

“No, I thought I would… stay here,” Cas replied.

“In the hallway? Man, I know you don’t sleep, but that’s kinda sad.”

Dean pursed his lips.

“Okay, come on in,” he decided.

Cas followed him inside. Dean searched through his duffel bag and threw him a Zeppelin shirt and light shorts.

“Take off your clothes, put that on, get in the bed. I’m on the left side,” Dean explained.

Castiel nodded and shed his trench-coat and suit. Dean turned around when he started taking his pants off. Cas didn’t care for his own privacy, it was more about Dean not trying to rush it. Talking had helped, but it didn’t mean he was gonna be extra comfortable about their situation.

Dean got in the bed after Cas and turned the light off. In the darkness and silence of the bedroom, he felt more at ease than he had been for a month. Hell was always resonating with screams of tortured souls. Everything was red, even when you closed your eyes.

“What exactly are we doing now, Dean?” Cas asked.

Dean turned to face him. “Well, I’m gonna fall asleep, and you’ll have a comfy place to stay before tomorrow. Can’t say my bed isn’t better than the hallway, can you?” he smiled.

“It is indeed more comfortable,” Castiel replied.

Dean’s eyelids started fluttering. His hand landed on Castiel’s arm. “You’re warm,” he commented. “Like a… like a bear.”

“Do you appreciate body heat?” Cas said.

Dean nodded, expecting the conversation to stop there. Instead, Cas moved to be closer to him, then invited Dean to rest his head on his shoulder. Dean obliged, and Cas threw his left arm around Dean’s waist.

“’Tssnice,” Dean slurred, his voice heavy with sleep.

“You can rest now,” Cas whispered.

The rest of his sentence was lost to Dean.

Chapter Text

Sam woke around 6AM. He put on sportswear and put the breakfast on the table for everybody. His eyes lingered on Dean’s leather jacket, thrown away on a chair, and he thought he saw something out of the corner of his eyes. There was nothing when he turned. He shook his head and prepared coffee for three. Dean and Bobby would wake up in about half an hour.

Sam started his morning run, first passing through Bobby’s junkyard, then going into the woods. The fresh air was a blessing, the house was very hot for the end of October. After a few minutes, he stopped and looked around.

“I know you’re here, Gabe,” he declared.

The archangel appeared by his left side, his back to a tree. “You’re hard to keep up with, Samantha,” he replied, slightly out of breath yet still able to smirk. “How did you know?”

“You’re too heavy on your feet.” A pause. “So, you spied on us. Found anything interesting?”

“I saw that you trusted me. So I decided to repay the favor. You get to make the rules, and I follow them.”

Sam raised an eyebrow, “You’ll do everything I say?” he said.

“Don’t get too nasty, Samwise. I can read your mind, remember?”

“I didn’t know there could be something ‘too nasty’ for you...”

“Well, I guess I got prude. My latest fling was in 1945, an army captain called Harkness. Pansexuals do get along. But he didn’t have your intelligence, or kindness, or this hair of yours,” Gabriel declared.

Sam backed away for a second, trying to really understand what he had just said, because wow, a cute guy is flirting with me, WOW, an archangel is flirting with me, is he though? Am I reading the signals right?

(Spoiler alert: he was reading them right.)

“Sammy?” Gabriel’s voice made him snap out of his thoughts. “If you’re done with the gay panic and the unnecessary running, I suggest we go back to Old Man Jenkins’ home for coffee and new ideas.”

Gabriel didn’t even wait for a confirmation before turning and walking back to Bobby’s house. After another moment of thoughts about the flirting, Sam followed him.

Everyone else was awake when they entered the living-room, enjoying their coffee (you’re welcome, Sam thought). Dean was strangely close to Cas’ side, as if he had been scared. No one seemed surprised seeing Gabriel.

“So Sam was right, you came back. Guess I owe him five bucks,” Dean spoke up from his seat.

“I just really missed your snarky comments,” Gabe replied.

“What, you can’t deal with those that aren’t from you? Guess what, I don’t care. I just wanna fix this 32-year-old curse on our heads.”

Sam shot a concerned look at Dean, who avoided it. Cas responded by, “Bad night.”

“Come on, everybody put their clothes on and start working,” Bobby said, clapping his hands.

“It would help if we knew what we were looking for.”

“A way to get to Michael and Lucifer.”

“That’s all?” Gabriel scoffed.

“Yep.”

“This is useless. We’re been reading these books over and over for weeks already. What could we ever find out that we didn’t know before?” Sam said, throwing away another grimoire.

Cas shook his head, “Samandriel would know what to search for.”

“Hey guys, we’re back! Got our next supplies for a week,” Dean said, dropping groceries bags on the table. Sam found an apple and took a bite.

“And I found something funny,” Gabriel added. He closed the front door and joined the gang.

“For you, Samantha,” he said, handing Sam a wrapped up gift.

Sam frowned and tore up the paper. It was a dime novel, you could see two shirtless men on the cover. Supernatural, volume 6 - “Skin”.

“The MCs are called Sam and Dean, I thought you’d like it,” Gabe smiled.

“Thanks, but that’s not really my type of book,” Sam started. He stopped when seeing the summary.

“A serial killer shapeshifter adopts the likeness of Sam’s college buddy to commit a gruesome murder. When the brothers investigate, the being “borrows” Dean’s form to continue the killing spree,” he quoted.

“This sounds familiar, Bobby spoke. Didn’t you boys work on a case like this?”

“Yeah, and it went exactly like that,” Dean said.

Sam opened the book at a random page.

“Back at Rebecca’s house, Sam, Dean, and her had settled in the living-room. She showed them the security footage of Zach’s house. Dean was impressed by the braveness of this girl. When you added it with her looks, she really was a ten out of ten.

“Here he comes,” Bec whispered as she had seen the tape several times.

Zach walked through the screen and entered his house. There seemed to be nothing wrong with him.

“22:04, that’s just after ten, Dean remarked, pointing at the timestamp. You said time of death was about 10:30.”

“Our lawyers hired some kind of video expert, she replied. He says the tape’s authentic. It wasn’t tampered with.”

Sam noticed something on the tape, but he couldn’t talk about it with Rebecca in the room.

“Hey, Bec, can we take those beers now?” he asked his friend.

“Oh, sure,” she responded.”

“That’s what happened on our case by the word,” Dean breathed out.

“Where’s my laptop?” Sam asked, searching through the books stacks.

“Okay, so there’s like 22 Supernatural books, it’s a series that started last year. Doesn’t seem to be very popular. Most of the critics are negative.”

“And all of them relate your life?” Castiel asked, reading over Sam’s shoulder.

“Seems so. Volume 1 - “The woman in white” : Along a lonely California highway, a mysterious woman in white lures men to their deaths.”

“Constance Welch. Our first case back together,” Dean nodded.

“Okay, who the hell is this Carver Edlund dude who knows so much crap about you?” Gabriel exclaimed.

“The author? No idea, and it might not be so easy to find him.”

“Why not?” Bobby asked.

“No tax records, no known address. Looks like ‘Carver Edlund’ is a pen name.”

Dean ran a hand through his hair. “Ok, Sam and I are team ‘Interrogate the publisher’. Cas and Bobby, team ‘Find as much info on Michael as we can get’. Gabriel, stand there and look pretty.”

“Jokes on you, I always look pretty,” Gabriel smirked.

“What’s strange to me is that Heaven seems sure the boys will obey them,” Gabe said.

“Huh?” Cas replied, distracted by his research.

“I mean, it’s weird. They don’t have a back-up plan? What if something goes wrong?”

“If Sam or Dean die, they will get brought back. Dean didn’t last time because he hadn’t broken the First Seal yet.”

Gabe waved Cas’ response off. “Okay, but still, if they can’t force one of them to be a vessel? Surely they must have a sidepiece waiting somewhere, you know. A back-up plan.”

“Then that person would be in danger too,” Bobby realized.

“How can we find them?” Castiel said.

Gabe started pacing while talking. “Sam and Dean being Michael and Luci's vessel isn't pure dumb luck. They were chosen. Their bloodline extends up to Cain and Abel, and there’s even a Nephil in their genealogy tree. Makes for good vessels strong enough to host archangels. If Heaven have a second option, it’s logical that they’re from the boys’ family.”

“All their relatives are dead, I’m just the adoptive dad,” Bobby spoke up.

Gabriel’s glass of water fell off the table. Which was weird, because it was far from the edge and no one had touched it. Gabe frowned, trying to understand, then shrugged and repaired the glass with a snap of his fingers.

Cas took out his phone and called Dean, putting him on speakers.

“Hi, Cas.”

“Hello, Dean. Did you find anything interesting?”

“Yeah, Carver Edlund’s real name is Chuck Shurley – I’ll text you his address. What about you guys, you found stuff?”

“Yeah uh, Deano, Samwich, we might have problems,” Gabriel said.

Cas rolled his eyes, “We have this theory that a living member of your family could be used as an archangel vessel too, in case one of you cannot play his part.”

“All our blood family is dead.”

“And members you may not know about?”

They heard Sam mutter a light swear word, to which Gabe replied with “Language, Sammy”.

“You know what? You should come with us to ask this Shurley guy questions. Maybe he knows who it could be.”

Chapter Text

“Damn, he really didn’t make much money for his supernatural books,” Dean stated.

Back in his normal attire, he wore his leather jacket on his shoulder. He and the rest of Team Free Will approached the ramshackle house with trepidation. Did they really want to learn the secrets that lay behind that door? The group exchanged meaningful looks.

Then, with determination, Dean pushed the doorbell with forceful determination.

(a/n : chuck’s writing really is terrible)

The man who answered could’ve been a poster dude for the dangers of slacking off. No pants, a bathrobe, badly-trimmed beard. He squinted at the outside light, and Sam caught himself wondering about the last time this guy had touched some grass.

“You Chuck Shurley? The one that wrote those Supernatural books?”

“In person, and you are?”

“Sam, Dean, Cas, Bobby, Gabriel. You’ve been writing our lives and we want to know how you did it.”

Chuck scratched his beard, “Of course, the first fans I ever meet are obsessed. Um, please get a life, and don’t bother me again,” he sighed as he tried to close the door.

Dean caught it with his foot. “Nuh-uh. Cas, can you show him what we lived in the past few weeks?” he asked his angel.

“It’ll be no problem.”

Gabriel stopped Cas. “Careful not to go too hard and blow his brain out, Castiel. He’s gotta be able to respond to our questions.”

Chuck stilled completely, a flick of surprise in his expression. “Castiel? The angel of Thursday?”

“Yes. Why?”

“This character wasn’t in the published books. In fact, I didn’t even write his name anywhere, he’s just an idea for a future series… How do you know about him?”

“Because I am him.”

Chuck’s house was even worse in the inside. And the man himself was laying down on his couch, trying to drown his existential crisis in whiskey. Understandable, Dean thought.

“So what? I am a god? I can write and direct people’s life?” Chuck asked once he had emptied his bottle.

“Definitely not. You said you saw us in your dreams, right? Maybe you’re a medium,” Sam replied.

“I’m a god.”

Gabriel rolled his eyes, snatched Chuck’s new bottle of alcohol, and snapped it out of existence. “Sounds to me like you’re a Prophet of the Lord. A human who’s connected to an archangel – not me, fortunately – and has visions of the Word of God.”

“The Word of God? Seriously?” Bobby repeated.

“Can’t you see I’m wearing my serious face? Anyway, I didn’t think this could be the answer, ‘cause all angels know the list of prophets in activity, but I’ve been off the grid for a while, so… Cas?” Gabe asked his brother.

Castiel shrugged, “I haven’t been to Heaven recently myself, I can’t confirm. But this theory seems valid.”

“It doesn’t make sense,” Chuck spoke up.

All heads turned to him. “What doesn’t make sense?” Sam questioned.

The writer stood up and searched through the papers scattered on his desk. “You said your father died a few weeks ago, and after that you met Castiel. But that’s not what I wrote. Actually, - he gave Cas a bunch of ink-filled paper sheets – in the second episode of the new series, the boys are supposed to meet Ellen and Jo.”

“Who the hell are Ellen and Jo?” Dean wondered out loud.

“Exactly! You drifted away from everything I’ve been writing. Castiel was supposed to save Dean from Hell in, I don’t know, two or three series! It depends on my publisher’s opinion on this season’s work.”

“So you didn’t see the same thing. What’s the big deal?” Bobby replied.

“The Word of God is never wrong,” Castiel said sternly.

Dean frowned, “But our lives are?”

“We’re not in the world where Chuck’s visions are real, Gabriel responded. This, all of this, is...”

“A parallel world,” Sam finished.

They all stood in a stunned silence, trying to process the revelation. Ever since the 5^th of October, their lives had been fraud. And they probably couldn’t set the course straight.

“How’s the ‘real’ world like?” Dean finally asked.

“You’re trying to kill the Yellow-eyed demon. Sam’s got visions and psychic powers because of the demon blood in his veins. For the finale, I think Dean’s gonna make a deal for his brother’s life,” Chuck replied.

“And go to Hell? Well, we’ve already dealt with those three things. But in this universe, there’s not Cas yet? No Gabriel?” he inquired.

Shurley shook his head, “Angels and Heaven are for season 4.”

“Well that sucks for the other us, ‘cause in here we’re lucky to have them by our side,” Sam said.

Sam looked at Gabriel and smiled, Gabriel smiled and looked at Sam, and Dean looked at both of them before a look of understanding crossed his face. He looked away.

Bobby closed his eyes and sighed. “Hey Chuck, would you happen to know if Sam and Dean have a close parent still alive? It’s kinda the point of our visit, if I have to remind anyone,” he said.

“How close?”

“As much as possible.”

Chuck pursed his lips before replying, “I’ve had a dream about this kid, Adam Milligan. He’s supposed to be the boys’ half-brother -”

“We have a half-brother?!” Dean exclaimed.

“Yeah, he’s John’s son, born around 1990. He lives in Minnesota. I think I wrote down the address somewhere…” he said as he started digging in the stack of papers again.

Dean had to actually sit down for this one. “Holy shit, Sammy, we have a kid brother,” he whispered.

“He’s not a kid, he’s 16,” Sam corrected.

“That’s too young to be involved in any of this mess,” Bobby added.

Castiel stood behind Dean. “I fear Adam has been involved in this since his birth. If we make it to his location before the angels, we can protect him.”

“Yay, let’s go gatekeep the illegitimate child! I call shotgun,” Gabriel said, heading out.

He turned to wave at Sam and spotted that damn blur again, this time at Dean’s side. Its shape was more human-like than before. Gabriel told himself that he would take care of it after they had made sure Adam was safe.

Chapter Text

It’s trying to pierce through the Veil, Gabriel realized.

He had been watching it for a few minutes. The thing was conscious, it moved away when people walked close to it. It was also trying to move things around. Gabriel could make out its hand failing to grab the doorknob.

“This has got to be the worst motel in all of Minnesota,” Dean declared, cringing at a patch of moisture on the wall.

“At least they have plates and forks,” Cas replied.

“Don’t need any of these to eat a burrito.”

Gabe could feel Sam rolling his eyes. “What? It’s not my fault we only get take-out,” Dean said.

They ate dinner, talked about hunter stuff, then Adam. The archangel tuned them out, focusing solely on their unwelcome friend. He didn’t get why that thing was tagging along with them. But it knew that Gabriel had his eye on it.

“Adam turned 16 this year. So Dean is 11 years older than him, and Sam is 6 years older,” Cas did the math.

“I can’t believe John never told us about him. We all would have loved him, protected him,” Dean said.

Sam scoffed, “You and I would’ve. Can you believe John capable of loving someone?”

“He was not so bad when I was young. When mom was still around. But even then, they used to fight a lot. And when she died, he turned into a heartless son of a bitch. He was… cruel.”

“You don’t need to remind us,” Cas said.

Dean turned to his boyfriend, who was sitting next to him. Castiel seemed neutral, but was gripping the edge of his trench-coat a bit too hard. Dean took his hand and massaged it gently.

‘You’re holding your breath,” he said in a quiet voice.

“No, I’m not. I am fine.”

“Hey, lying and saying ‘I’m fine’ when you’re really not is my trademark. Get yourself something else,” Dean joked.

Cas looked down, which meant he was smiling. “Alright,” he said. He gave Dean a quick kiss on the forehead and stood up to go wash the dishes.

Gabriel felt some sort of energy. If the thing had emotions, it was angry.

“I wonder how he’s gonna react when we tell him we’re his brothers,” Sam pondered.

“And his mother too. Does she know even about you?” Bobby responded.

Sam looked over to Dean. “You think this is why we never had cases around here? Why John did all things Minnesota?”

“That’s an explanation. When we’ll talk to Adam, I’ll be more concerned about the part with the archangels, the Apocalypse, and Heaven and Hell. We have no proof of him being raised as a hunter. He could think we’re nutjobs.”

“Would only be half a lie,” Bobby smirked.

“Sucks for his mom, Dean contemplated. She had to raise him alone, since John always was with us.”

“I’m sure he turned out a great kid because of that. Can you imagine? Failing your kids, two because you were there, and one because you weren’t. Shit father in every way,” Sam concluded.

A framed photo fell, shattering the glass. They were all startled but Gabriel, who stood up from his chair, “Alright, that’s enough.”

He took the thing by its hand, steered himself on earth, and ripped it out from the Veil.

When the man became visible, Cas broke the plate he was holding.

John Winchester was still wearing the clothes he died in. He hadn’t aged, didn’t rot away, he was completely intact. And most definitely pissed.

Everyone stood up, Sam and Cas behind Dean, Dean behind Bobby. The porcelain shreds dug into Cas’ fists but he was unable to un-clench them. The sight of him knocked all air out of his lungs.

Dean said he was dead. Dean said he had sold his soul to Azazel and died. He was supposed to be in Hell-

Unless he had escaped when Cas had opened the gate.

“Um, who are you exactly?” Gabriel asked John.

The ghost turned to him, “These boys’ father,” he replied, gesturing at Sam and Dean.

“Oh.” Gabriel narrowed his eyes as realization struck him. “Oh, he repeated in a colder tone. You’re the one who hurt my brother.”

John shrugged, disappeared and reappeared much closer to his sons. Cas couldn’t help but flinch. He hated this, hated feeling so small again. He was supposed to be a soldier of Heaven, Dean’s savior, someone powerful. Someone in control.

“Sam. Dean. Bobby,” John said as a hello. He then stared at Cas - ‘if looks could kill’ now meant something. “How did you get out?” he asked.

Asked as in, ordered a response. Cas had no voice.

“Dad, back off.” Dean took a step toward his father. John turned to glare at his eldest.

“Stand down, Dean. You’re not part of this,” he replied.

“I’m not your soldier, you don’t get to boss me around,” Dean spat.

He never stood up to his dad. Younger him used to follow the drill sergeant’s every order. Keep Sam safe, do whatever it takes to get money, kill those gay nuns on your 17^th birthday. Father knows best. I slap you because you deserved it. Everything I do, I do it because they deserved it.

Cas didn’t deserve to be endlessly tortured. Dean didn’t deserve to have to sell himself for pizza money. Sam didn’t deserve to be banished from the family because of his Stanford dream.

“The hell are you doing out of Hell?” Bobby asked, walking to the ghost of his old friend.

“A gate opened. I went through. You were there.”

“So it’s our fault you’re back? You’re karma? Well, shit,” Gabriel commented.

He wasn’t blind enough to miss the look on the young ones’ faces. Sam had told him about John in quiet words, when he needed to think about something else than his brother in Hell. He needed to distract him from the kids. Then find what he was attached to and burn it.

Chapter Text

“This is so damn stupid,” the boy said as he replaced the moved dirt. He wasn’t exactly drunk, his body was just getting used to the feeling of his first beer.

Once he was done, he looked around. His friend’s house was 20 meters away, and he was standing in the middle of the crossroad. All alone. At 11:45PM. He shuddered.

Okay, he had done his part, realized that dumb dare. Time to go home.

Adam turned around and almost freaked out. A man was standing right in front of him. He hadn’t noticed him before.

“Oh, hi, sir. I’m sorry, I got a little spooked up,” he said, smiling nervously.

The man was wearing a long black coat. He was as tall as Adam (meaning, not that much), and his face was freshly shaven.

“What are you doing all alone at night?” he asked Adam.

He had a thick English accent- or Scottish.

“It’s nothing.”

The man gave him a questioning look.

“I’m at a party with my friends, and I had a dare to go here and bury a box full of weird trinkets.” Adam laughed. “My friend who says she’s a modern witch, she pretends it will summon a demon.”

“It did.”

Adam frowned. “Excuse me?”

The man chuckled. He then disappeared.

Adam froze completely.

“Over here,” the man said much closer.

Adam turned around and recoiled. The strange man had appeared right behind him.

His heart rate picked up. “Can someone get drunk with only one beer?” he asked, trying to process what he had just seen.

“No. Now let’s meet properly, shall we?”

He extended his arm. “Adam Milligan, I’m Crowley. Crossroad demon.”

Chapter Text

Adam’s Journal – November 2^nd, 2006

The past few days have been unusual.

Well, of course it’s been unusual, I met a demon. I don’t know where I’m going with this, but if I don’t talk about it or write it down, I’m gonna go crazy. Maybe I already have.

Crowley came back several times, four to this day. He can just appear and disappear, it’s really confusing. Batman-style. (side note: does that make me Gordon, or just a random citizen?)

He told me a lot about the creatures that live on Earth, and those that don’t. Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, it’s all real. Pastor Jim would be delighted that I finally believe. Crowley also said there were big things going on. Somehow I’m involved in all this. He won’t exactly tell me what, like, “when you’re ready, little grasshopper”. Dude, I’m 16, I’m basically an adult.

Big things, yeah. He wants me to be on his side, or him to be on my side, I didn’t really get it. Apparently angels, real angels, want something from me. I can’t get any more info from him, it’s so frustrating.

And yesterday I started hearing a voice. I should have told Mom, but it would only worry her, and it may just be nothing. The voice is called Michael, they say. I don’t know if they sound male or female. Will ask if the voice talks to me again. Michael said that I was really special (so does Crowley), that I was gonna part part of a great plan (so does Crowley), and that they like talking to me.

No, Crowley doesn’t say those sorts of things.

So I’m stuck, not between a rock and a hard place, but between a meddling demon and a possible case of auditory hallucinations.

I really shouldn’t have done this stupid dare.

“Dean, you should be asleep by now,” Cas whispered.

Dean had been having nightmares every night ever since they got out of Hell. But he had to fall asleep to do so.

Cas readjusted the cover on his and Dean’s body. Dean wasn’t looking at him, but instead staring at the alarm clock. Every thirty minutes, he touched the top of it to make it light up and see the time.

“I never sleep on that night. It’s the date my mother died,” Dean eventually said.

Cas mentally calculated.

“It’s been 23 years...”

“Yeah… 23 nights of insomnia. Among many, many more.”

After a while, Dean turned to face Cas. Castiel, the Angel of Thursday, soldier of God, leader of an entire garrison, was in Dean’s bed, wearing Dean’s clothes.

(Dean offered to buy Cas his own pajama. Cas replied that he liked the one he had because it smelled like Dean. The latter proceeded to turn tomato red for at least fifteen minutes.)

“Is that why you were so quiet all day?” Cas asked.

Dean nodded; his hair brushed against the sheets.

“I can make you sleep if you want,” Castiel suggested.

“But then I’ll have a nightmare. Not interested.”

The answer was fast to come out. Cas sensed Dean wanted to say more. He made sure to keep eye contact with him while staying silent, Sam had once said this trick could make people talk more.

Dean snuggled against Cas.

“They’re not all about Hell, the nightmares. Most of them are, but some, they’re just scary. Like, I’m in a gigantic pit at the beach, it’s too big for me to get out of it, and the water slowly fills it and I drown… Or...”

Cas could feel Dean’s heart beating faster, the panic settling inside him. He took Dean’s hand and put it over his own heart.

Jimmy Novak’s heart stopped when John killed him. But angels can do many things with their vessels. Cas mimicked a regular, quiet heartbeat to incite Dean to calm down.

“One time, I dreamt I didn’t left the house when it burned down, and I died with my mom,” Dean muttered. “I always feel weak and powerless. I hate that.”

“I know the feeling, Cas replied. When you’re not in control, and the others can do whatever they want with you. You just want to curl up in a corner, or make it stop. But you can’t.”

“Yeah, that’s it.” Dean sighed. “Sometimes, I just wanna run away. Stop for a second and say, Hey, I’m retiring, find someone else to handle this Apocalypse bullshit. The world’s beaten me down enough times.”

He shook his head.

“Having the weight of the world on your shoulders… it’s exhausting.”

“Be careful not to break your back,” Castiel said.

Dean let out a chuckle at that.

“What?” Cas said.

“It’s nothing. I promise I wont break my back.”

They stayed silent for a while.

“Do you like Led Zeppelin?” Dean asked.

“The band? Yes, I suppose.”

“I was thinking about making you a mix-tape. You know, I’d put my favorite songs on a tape, call it Dean’s top 13 Zepp traxx, I’d write it with two ‘x’… You could listen to it and you’d think of me. I bet you’ll like the songs I wanna pick.”

Most of the night was spent on plans for the future and slowly humming Stairway to Heaven. Dean fell asleep around 6:30.

Chapter Text

“Hello, Miss Milligan? We’re from Springfield medical school, I’m Dr May, this is Mr Deacon” Dean said to Adam’s mother.

“Oh yes, come in!” she smiled.

The house was small but prettily decorated, as much as Dean could judge. They followed her to the living-room. The walls were yellow and had reproductions of paintings and framed pictures of Adam and her.

The Winchester house in Lawrence used to look a bit like this.

“Adam’s not here at the moment but I can call him,” Miss Milligan told them.

“That’s alright, I have his number in my file. I can make the call while you and my colleague talk about your financial situation and if you’re eligible to a payed scholarship,” Dean told her.

“Of course, do as you please,” she answered.

Dean left Bobby to ramble about college and scholarships, and all those things they knew nothing about. Poor Bobby. Dean closed the door to Adam’s room.

Red shades. A Green Day Poster. Many, many Iron Man comics (like him already). A kid’s old angel-shaped nightlight figure; ironic. Some Polaroids of Adam and his friends.

Ah, there it was. Dean found it in one of the drawers. A picture of Adam and John.

They were in the Impala, Adam was in the driver seat, facing the camera and smiling. John was partly blurred but still there, riding shotgun.

Dean turned the picture around.

September 19^th 2005 – John let me drive his car for my birthday. (see my diary)

That was one week before Dean went to see Sam at Stanford. One week before Jess, before Azazel, before everything.

Dean resisted the urge to make a paper ball out of the picture. The kid probably liked it, and it wasn’t his fault that John was the man he was.

Since he was snooping around, he looked in the drawer again. The diary was just there, waiting to be read. Dean sat in the chair and looked for the birthday Adam was referring to.

September 19^th 2005

Boy, 15 years old! That’s like, super old. Today I kept thinking about the cool things my 8 yo self wanted to be when he’d get older. I didn’t achieve all of them but it’s hard to become an astronaut within 7 years.

John came to visit me. (note for later: should I call him dad? It feels weird, we’ve only seen each other three times). He said he remembered my birthday. I’m not sure, cause he didn’t know how old I was.

We had lunch with mom, then we went for a ride, he stopped the car in a parking lot and OFFERED ME TO DRIVE IT! Me, driving the coolest car in the freaking universe!!! I mean, I’m not really interested in cars, but his Impala is so awesome!

I have a Polaroid of me driving it to prove myself this was real.

But aside from that it wasn’t very eventful. We didn’t talk that much. I know he’s a mechanic, he knows I’m a teenager. That’s all. When I ask questions about his life he strangely avoids them, and he does small talk instead of trying to get to know me.

I have a hard time bonding with him. It’s about the missing answers. It feels like he’s keeping a huge part of his life away from me. Maybe he spends time with me because I’m not in that part. In that case, I don’t like being just a way to… I don’t know, avoid the rest, blow off steam.

I wondered how life would be if I still didn’t know him. If, when I was 12 and I begged mom to call him and tell him he had a son, she had refused.

Frankly, I think not much would’ve changed. He doesn’t have any impact or influence on me. We don’t know each other, because he doesn’t want to.

So, in response to my note for later: no, I won’t call him dad. He’s not my dad, I don’t have one, and maybe it’s fine that way.

Dean closed the diary and put it back where he found it. He looked one last time at Adam’s picture, and smiled at his half-brother.

He put the Polaroid back in the drawer too and dialed a number on his phone.

“What’s that?” Adam frowned.

“A rare primary sort of demon that are made of shadows. They can be hurt by great flashes or a strong light.”

“Does it kill people?”

“Say, when in the movies you see the character’s shadow on a wall, and a shadow of character 2 attacks the first one? It’s like that, but character 2 doesn’t have a body. In some cultures, they’re called Vashta Nerada.”

“But Daeva is the most common form? Okay, I get it.”

Crowley had decided that he would spend some time teaching Adam about monsters. Which, Adam appreciated, but that wasn’t the subject he wanted to talk about the most.

There was a forest near Adam’s house, and in that forest, an old stone quarry that had been left deserted. It had been his and his friends’ playground when they were younger. Now the quarry was the place of a lesson in Supernatural Things And How To Find Them.

Adam shot a rock. “Hey, are you ever going to tell me what you need me for?” he questioned.

Crowley rolled his eyes. “You’re not a patient one, are you.”

“I want to know what the angels need from me. Is that really too much to ask?” Adam replied.

His phone rang. He answered it and made a silent gesture at Crowley.

“Hi, Adam Milligan speaking.”

“Hello Adam, this is Dr May from Springfield medical school. We talked a few days ago, remember?”

“Oh yes, I remember.”

“Good. My colleague and I were passing by, and I thought we could meet in person to talk about your scholarship. What do you think?”

“That would be great, sir! I mean, doctor.”

“What did he say his name was?” Crowley asked, walking to Adam.

“Dr May, now shut up!” Adam whispered to the demon.

“I think I have your address in my file, and we’re five minutes away from your town, so we could meet with your mother?”

“His name is not May,” Crowley said.

“Is someone with you, Adam?”

“His name is Dean Winchester. He’s not a doctor, he’s a hunter,” Crowley insisted.

Adam held the phone away from the both of them. “The hunters that kill monsters?”

Then another thought popped into his mind. “Wait, did you say Winchester?”

“Give me that,” Crowley snatched the phone from Adam.

“Hello, Dr May, or Dean Winchester, whatever. This is Crowley, King of the Crossroads. What business do you have with the kid?” he asked.

The kid shook his head, eyes wide. “Stop it, you’re gonna ruin my...”

“Adam, why are you with a demon?”

Adam stopped. Crowley never said what he was.

“I asked my question first.”

“I don’t answer to Hell’s puppets.”

“Fortunately for you, I am not one of those.”

A sigh. “If you’re updated on the Apocalypse, you know why he’s important. My friends and I are coming to protect him.”

“What a shame, he already has my protection. Although I could trade it for an object of importance, but I’d still have something else you want,” Crowley declared.

There was a silence before Dean spoke again. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh, Dean, don’t you want your soul back?” the demon said before hanging up.

He gave the phone back to Adam. “If he calls again, don’t answer.”

The kid ran a hand through his hair, trying to make sense of all this.

“I don’t understand a thing… Who is this guy? How do you know him? Did you really say Apocalypse? Why do you have his soul?”

Crowley gave him a bitchy look. “Are you done now?”

Adam glared at the demon. “Just answer one of those.”

“Alright. This man is Dean Winchester, your half-brother. He’s the lead player of Heaven’s soccer team, his brother Sam is Hell’s team star. Your and your gold-winged jersey are sat on the bench. For now.”

He’s trying to manipulate you, said a voice in Adam’s mind. He needs you, not the opposite. Don’t trust him.

Michael.

Chapter Text

“Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap,” Dean groaned, hitting the steering wheel with his hand.

“You car didn’t do anything wrong, boy,” Bobby said.

“I know. It’s just.... Oh fuck. Oh crap.”

Bobby mentally noted to make a swear jar for the team, and use the money only for himself. Balls and idjit don’t count as swear words, obviously.

When Dean opened the motel door, Sam and Cas were trading books on the couch while Gabriel was lying on the carpet, watching TV. The archangel turned around and grimaced at Dean.

“Wow, Dean-o, you got so much negative energy surrounding you it’s a miracle air can get in your lungs,” he commented.

“What’s wrong?” Sam asked.

“Adam’s best buddy is a demon named Crowley who turned him on his side, the bastard won’t let him go without a compensation, and apparently he also has my soul. This is the worst.”

“Crowley?” Sam repeated.

“Ever heard of him?” Bobby asked.

“Yeah, it sounds familiar...”

“I mean, it doesn’t make sense, I didn’t make a deal with him, never even heard of the guy, so why would he...” Dean rambled.

Sam’s mind went back to a dark graveyard, and Azazel’s sick smile as he was talking.

“Oh, I remember! The night you were killed, Azazel told me the hellhound was property of Crowley. That he’s one of Lucifer’s detractors.”

Dean stopped his pacing around. “Okay, but you guys saved my soul from Hell, he shouldn’t ‘have it’.” He seemed concerned. “It’s still there, right? My soul. Didn’t slip out or something?”

Castiel faced Dean and looked him right in the eyes. After a few seconds, he spoke up.

“It’s still there, yes. I believe Crowley meant that he owns your soul, whether it be in your body or not.”

“Well, how do I get the ownership back?!” Dean replied.

“Did he say if he wanted to make a deal?” Gabriel piped up.

Dean sank in the couch. “Yeah, my soul and Adam against an ‘object of importance’. I don’t know what he wants specifically.”

“How come it’s never easy in this business,” Bobby mumbled to himself as he got some beers out of the fridge.

Dean sighed and looked in front of him, zoning out. Cas’ hand on his shoulder made him come back to Earth.

The angel was worried. Dean never liked that.

“Don’t break your back,” Cas whispered.

Dean tried to smile. “Okay,” he replied.

He sat straighter and looked at his family. “So, what did you do while we were out?” he asked.

“We went trough Bobby’s books about vessels. There were information that even us angels didn’t know, it’s incredible” Cas said.

“And I watched TV, ‘cause I’m not a nerd” Gabriel replied.

In a lower voice: “You-Know-Who kept appearing, I had to shove him back into the Veil several times. I really don’t like him.”

They wished they were talking about Voldemort. Turned out that every time they said John’s name, he could pierce through the Veil easily. They were already stressed enough like that.

“We gathered in the bedroom all things that could be his anchor to Earth,” Sam declared.

Dean turned his head to look at said room. “Hey, not my leather jacket!”

“You know it used to be his,” Bobby said.

“Yeah, it’s the only good thing he ever gave me,” Dean replied.

“Dean, it doesn’t even fit you.”

“It does!” he exclaimed.

He got up and went to put it on. When he came back, everyone shook their head negatively.

They could see that the sleeves covered Dean’s hands. He had tuned it out a long time ago.

“Forget about it. I’m going for a walk,” Dean said.

He left the room before they could stop him or join him.

There was a forest behind the motel. Dean followed a path between the trees. Thin birches were everywhere, and their fallen leaves made a nice sound at each of Dean’s step.

He found a large stone and sat on it, hands in his jeans pockets.

“I wanna talk, John,” he declared.

Dean heard his father’s footsteps behind him. He didn’t turn, and John walked to him and faced him.

“What is it, Dean?” he asked.

“We killed the Yellow-eyed demon a week ago. You can rest in peace now.”

“Not while you’ve got this mess on your hands. I want to be around and make sure you handle it correctly.”

Dean nodded. “Okay, I get it. But we’re all adults in the team, we can take care of this. In a month and a half, we managed to rescue two angels, find an archangel, and kill a Prince of Hell. We may not like it, but we’re the best people who could stop the Apocalypse.”

“So what, you want to toss me away? Dean, I’m your father, for god’s sake!”

“That’s true, and you’re Sam’s father, and Adam’s. I just wish you were our dad,” Dean replied.

John was taken aback.

“This is farewell, so if you have anything to say, it’s now,” Dean added.

“What? No, you’re not gonna do it!” John said, suddenly stressed.

“I can and will.”

“I don’t believe you. You’re too much of a pansy to do it. How dare you disrespect me like that?”

Dean grimaced, but forced himself to stay calm. He un-clenched his fists.

“You never did anything to earn my respect, John.”

John saw that he was losing. “Please, Dean, give me a second chance. I’m sorry for what I did to you.”

“What do you want? My forgiveness? You treated me like I was nothing but it’s okay because you’re apologizing?” Dean asked.

He stood up and walked to John. “I’m glad you realized you were wrong, but it’s not my job to give you a thumbs up. You made my life hell for more than twenty years, and I don’t have to forgive you for that. A “sorry” isn’t gonna fix everything you said and did, or didn’t.”

“So, well done, you understood that I am a human being with feelings. Have a good afterlife.”

Dean walked past him toward the motel. He stopped to look at John for the last time.

“You know what? They’re right. It doesn’t fit me,” he finished.

Dean took the leather jacket off and walked back to his family. They burned it in the afternoon.

Chapter Text

Some places in the world are not fit for human perception. Seeing the true form of these places would drive them mad. The mind invents another environment, resembling his ordinary one, so as not to sustain brain injury.

Dean’s cell room in Hell was a dimly lit, window-less room with stone walls and floors. Torture instruments handing from their hooks waiting to be used. He didn’t stray far from the reality of it, in the end.

If Dean could see Heaven, he’d imagine it a tidied up office, with white walls, glass panels. It would still lack a window, but the creatures living there don’t need fresh air.

There is a throne room, and the throne in itself isn’t as imposing as one could think. Especially when it’s been unoccupied for 6000 years. The Archangel Michael was sat in a nearby chair.

“Lucifer knows what to do, he declared. He’s clearly left instructions for his… children. I don’t have to do anything at the moment. This is just a distraction, Raphael.”

“I fail to see its purpose,” his brother replied.

“Dean Winchester thinks of me as his enemy because of his angel friend’s influence on him. I wanted to see if another vessel would trust me. If I reached out for him and told him all about the Great Plan, would he willingly accept me?”

“Are you gambling with the Apocalypse?”

“Simple psychological test, that is all. I can always twist his arm and make him say yes.” Michael paused in his speech. “Speaking of twisted… how is the traitor Castiel?”

“You shall ask Zachariah for that matter.”

“I will.”

Raphael was about to leave when he decided to warn Michael. “All eyes are on you, brother. And maybe if you’re lucky, His eyes are too. Choose your actions carefully.”

Michael nodded. As Raphael left the room, Zachariah entered it.

“You asked for me, Sir?”

“What do you know about Castiel’s whereabouts?”

“We located him in America. That traitor is soon to be captured. We will get him back to Heaven and he will be executed.”

“About that… I changed my mind. He deserves a worse punishment. Do your best.”

Zachariah’s smile would have made anyone’s skin crawl. “As your wish, Sir.”

“Did you know that I had brothers?” Adam asked.

Yes.

“Why didn’t you tell me, then?”

It didn’t matter for the moment. I would’ve told you later.

“Are they part of the Great Plan too? And is the Great Plan the Apocalypse?”

Yes and yes.

“Oh God...”

God left us. A long time ago.

“Ok, ok. You’re gonna tell me everything you know about the Apocalypse.”

I don’t have to.

“You’re gonna tell me everything, now.”

...Alright.

Castiel was in his and Dean’s motel room, searching for his angel blade. He could hear his friends discussing in the hallway. They were going to try to talk to Adam in person. Who knows what Crowley had told him.

“Looking for this, Ass-tiel?” a familiar voice asked.

Cas turned. Zachariah was holding the blade in his hand, with a look on his face that promised nothing good.

“You’ve been real difficult to find, you know. And so were the Winchesters. You did something so we couldn’t track them, am I right?” Zachariah said.

Castiel sent a message to the others through prayer. He heard their talking stop.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” he said.

“Well, personally I want to hurt you, so...”

Dean, Sam, Bobby, and Gabriel rushed to the door but Zach made a gesture and blocked it.

“Come on, let’s play for a bit.”

When the guys managed to open the door, no one was there.

“Cas?” Gabriel called.

People had fought in here for sure, all the furniture was thrown away. Castiel’s prayer said it was Zachariah in the room. But even him has disappeared.

Sam found Cas’ angel blade in a corner of the bathroom, blood dripping from it. Not much, but they knew well that a small wound, if at the right place, could be lethal.

“We don’t bleed,” Gabriel said. “An angel gets stabbed with a blade, he dies directly. This… this suggests something I don’t want to think about.”

“Guys…” Bobby called them.

They came back to the bedroom and saw Bobby staring up. Sam and Dean did the same, and their jaws dropped with wonder.

It was a bright white mist, spreading all over the ceiling. Some places had blue highlights, in other it looked more like a liquid. And that thing was definitely sentient. As soon as they looked at it, it started pouring around them, surrounding them. Dean touched it and shuddered.

“Cas,” he realized.

The mist moved toward Gabriel who looked terribly sorry. “Oh, my poor baby brother...” he whispered.

“What, this is Cas?” Sam asked.

“Heaven’s cruelest punishment. Strip an angel of his grace, of what makes him who he is, and send them anywhere in time and space.”

“So Cas is lost in time?”

Gabriel nodded and sunk into one of the chairs. “It is worse than death,” he added. He joined hands and closed his eyes.

Hey, dad. I know I didn’t reach out a lot lately. And I don’t really know if this is going to work, if you’re gonna hear it, and reply. You never replied to me. But that’s not why I’m praying to you.

My friends and I, we’re trying to stop the Apocalypse. It’s against Michael and Luci’s orders but I believe this is what you would have wanted. Saving the humans.

Now my brother Castiel is in danger.

Do you remember Castiel? It’s the angel you created after I told you I wanted a little brother who I could love and who could love me. But once you were done with him, you sent him into battle, instead of him being with me. It’s this Castiel. He’s done a wonderful job with the humans. He’s incredible.

He’s in danger. He’s been banished through time and space – it’s a punishment of Michael’s. And he could be anywhere at any time, and they took his grace so he’s human, and I’m so scared for him. I don’t know if he’s okay, I know they’re trying to kill him with this method. And it’s not fair. He’s only doing the right thing.

So please, please, please, dad, just… get him back to me. Back to us, back to… My friends and I, we need him. I need my little brother. And he found a human and he loves him. And the human’s name is Dean and he loves Cas too. He needs Cas and Cas needs Dean.

Please. Save Castiel. I didn’t ask for much in the last 6000 years. Save Cas, please dad, just do this for me.

I’m begging you.

Gabriel didn’t think there would be a reply. But for the first time in six millenniums, God answered his prayers.

He said no.

Chapter Text

“Are you my mommy?”

Castiel turned around. The quiet voice belonged to a child, barely 5 or 6 years old. He wore outdated clothes and a gas mask.

“No, I am not your mother. Are you looking for her?” Castiel replied.

The boy nodded. “She said I had to stay in the shelter while she packed my suitcase. But the alarm stopped and she didn’t come back,” he explained.

“What alarm?”

“The one for the mean planes destroying the city.”

Just at this moment, an alarm went off, resonating around them. It was a sound that Castiel had heard once, during one of his most difficult missions. He never thought he’d come back there.

He looked up to the barrage balloons flying over the city. Above them, the Luftwaffe dropped the first bombs. One of them exploded on the other side of Thames. The heatwave and debris reached them, Castiel held the kid close to protect him. When the dust fell, Cas heard another bomb falling farther away.

The gas mask wasn’t necessary, Cas helped the kid take it off. He was faced by sapphire blue eyes, a smile that missed a few teeth, and small dimples.

“Listen, sweetheart, we’re going to go to the shelter you told me about. Is that alright with you?” Cas asked.

The boy nodded. “What’s your name?” he replied after a moment.

“Castiel. What about you?”

“I’m Jack Kline.” A beat. “Can you help me find my mommy when the planes go away?”

Castiel took the boy’s hand. “Of course, Jack.”

Chapter Text

As the explosions made the bunker shake, Jack held tighter to Castiel’s leg. The poor boy was terrified and he wasn’t the only one there. Citizens of London were gathered in this excuse of a shelter, their homes being destroyed, lives taken. Cas remembered there had been bombings, but it didn’t affect him at the time.

“Come here,” Cas said. He found an empty seat for Jack.

“Do you think it’ll stop soon?” Jack asked.

“I’m sure of it. Jack, is there anyone else in this city that you can turn to?”

“No, it’s just my mommy and I.”

“Do you have another parent? A dad?”

Jack eyed him hesitantly. “Do you promise you won’t laugh if I tell you about him?”

Cas frowned, “Why would I laugh?”

“When I tell people, that’s what they do. And when they’re done, they say I’m making things up. But it’s just what mom told me.”

Castiel smiled. “I’m very open-minded.”

Jack started his story, and the more he talked, the more Cas’ eyes widened. By the end of it, Cas’ motivations had changed from ‘survive’ to ‘protect that child at any cost’.

“Is your mother Jewish?” he asked at the end.

“Yes. Why, does it matter?” Jack replied.

“Just a matter of name.”

The alarm stopped and the bunker doors opened.

“I’m sure your mother is at your house. Can you lead me there?” Cas questioned.

Jack nodded.

Ruins.

That was the Kline house now. Debris, stone walls down, bricks all over the place. What used to be a second story.

Castiel forbid Jack to go too close. The boy started crying as soon as he saw the destruction, and didn’t want to move anyway. Maybe he had the same dark feeling that made Cas shudder.

He had forgotten about shudders. And hunger, and thirst. That sharp pain when he cut his finger on a piece of metal. All the things he hated about being human or grace-less.

Kelly Kline’s body lay under a wall, next to a packed and closed suitcase. The blood thad spread around her was drying quickly. She had been there for a while.

Cas knelt and put two fingers to her jugular. The heartbeat was too weak. He wasn’t strong enough to lift the wall, which would probably crumble, and she had little to no chances to survive this.

“Castiel...”

Cas turned his head. Kelly was looking at him, even though she had trouble keeping her eyes open.

“Do you know me?” he asked.

“We met in the future… please take care of Jack, you said you would...”

She took a sharp intake of breath. Blood colored her lips. Her lungs were probably punctured.

“He’s here, do you want-” Cas started.

“He can’t see me like this,” she cut him.

“Alright.”

Kelly struggled to turn to her side. She covered her eyes with her right hand and spoke in a low voice.

"שמע ישראל, הנצח הוא אלוהינו, הנצח הוא אחד."

"Alright, I said it," she whispered to herself.

Kelly turned back to him. “I’m scared, Castiel,” she said.

“Don’t be,” he replied.

She made a half smile. Her head rolled on the side, towards the hole in the wall. Cas looked the same way and saw Jack. He was sat on a pile of bricks in front of the house. They were invisible to his eyes, watching over him.

Cas felt the heartbeat stop.

He stood up and covered the mirror in the room. He hadn’t noticed, but he was standing in Jack’s bedroom. The rare walls still up were covered by his drawings. On the bed, a sheet of paper.

Write about your family. What do you know of their history? Write at least 5 sentences.

My family is my mom, I love her a lot. She lived in America in 2016. She met my dad there, and he’s an angel, not a human. His name is Samael. I have powers because of him, mom says. I never felt them.

Something magical happened when I was born in 2017. We were both send back in time to 1936. She tried to return to the right piriod period but didn’t find a way. So we live here now. Mom says we still have three years of war before us. It’s lame.

Cas couldn’t help a chuckle at the childish mistakes. He folded the paper and put it in his pocket. He also took Jack’s suitcase and lit a nearby candle, hoping it’d burn all week long.

Outside, the sun was setting down. Castiel scooped Jack up in his arms. The six-years-old quickly fell asleep.

Chapter Text

“Does your brother not care about his soul so much that he won’t come to meet me?” Crowley asked.

This was like the fifth sentence he had said and Sam was getting tired of him already.

“Dean’s got better fish to fry,” he replied.

“Well, if he doesn’t want it back, maybe I should keep the contract,” Crowley shrugged.

“Don’t.”

“Alright then. Unclaimed souls that get killed by a hellhound end up in the Bad Place, and the claim goes to the owner of the hound. In that case, it’s me. Souls have a great value, and the one of the Righteous Man even more. So, do you have anything that matches its worth?”

“You don’t know what you want?” Bobby asked, an eyebrow raised.

“Oh but I do. I’m just making you think you’re leading the negotiation,” the demon smiled.

This was the twelfth sentence he had said and Sam had enough.

Castiel had to find food for the both of them. They didn’t stumble across any Red Cross office yet. He thought about stealing food from the houses people fled during bombings, but it was too dangerous. He couldn’t risk the life of a Nephil.

How strange, every time he was in London, he had to hunt down a Nephil. That was the purpose of his last mission there. It had been in 1944, though, and they hadn’t sensed another of these creatures’ activity. He hoped this meant they would escape the timeline.

Thinking about it, he hadn’t sensed Gabriel’s presence even though his brother later told he had been there until 1946. Something about a man named Harkness.

Jack needed to sleep. He could barely walk now, and Castiel feared they may have to spend the night out.

“This is a terrible plan!” Dean exclaimed.

“Do you have any other?” Gabriel retorted.

Dean looked up at the giant volcano dominating the city. “I mean, it’s logical that they’d drop Cas in an apocalypse or at a time where people got massively killed, but if we get killed too when looking for him, it ain’t gonna work!”

A man in a brown suit and a woman who wore a purple dress walked past them. The woman stopped and turned to them, “You need to leave the city, the Vesuvius is gonna explode,” she told him in an English accent.

“Oh, I know,” Dean said absentmindedly.

“How do you know?” she replied, surprised.

Dean then paid closer attention to them. The man had Converse shoes on.

“What the-” he started before Gabriel grabbed his arm.

“Cas is definitely not here, I can’t sense his presence. Let’s go!”

Chapter Text

Jack found the symbol – an Aquarian star. Cas should have been wary, but the sign under it promised free food and a roof above their heads. The men and women gave them bowls of soup, then directed them to a room with two camp beds. Maybe God still did miracles after all.

Castiel closed the door after thanking again the shelter staff. He had seen other refugees and people who had nowhere else to go.

“Cas, can you tell me a story?” Jack whispered once Castiel had tucked him in.

“I don’t know many stories, but I can tell you about your father.”

“Really?!”

“Yes. He was God’s favorite angel. When the humans were created, God told us angels to love them more than we loved him. Samael didn’t want to because he believed humans weren’t good. To prove it, he convinced the first humans to eat a fruit they were forbidden from touching.”

Jack made a pout. “He’s not nice.”

Castiel nodded. “Samael is his Jewish name, he added. An equivalent in Islam is Iblis, also called Al-Shaytan. The Christians call him Lucifer.”

“Lucifer?” Jack sat up, alert. “I’ve heard about him in school. The boys in my class say he’s the reason of the war.”

“I’m afraid it’s only men who started the war,” Cas replied.

“I don’t want to be his son. He’s evil. Does that mean I’m evil too?” Jack asked.

“No, it doesn’t, Jack. You are what you choose to be. Don’t think about it for now. It’s too much of a responsibility for a child your age.”

Jack nodded. His eyes were fluttering.

“How do you know so much about him?” he asked.

“I knew him. I am not a man, I’m an angel from the year 2006. But my grace, my magic, has been taken from me.”

Castiel thought Jack was going to comment but the boy had already fallen asleep. Cas lay on his own bed and soon joined the dreaming.

The Man of Letters eavesdropping at their door returned to his superior’s office.

“The adult is an angel, and the child a Nephil,” he reported.

“Do they have total control of their powers?”

“I don’t think so. Otherwise they wouldn’t need to come here.”

“Then you know the procedure,” Lord Bevell said.

He wrote down a note to the Elders. They hadn’t had an angel sighting since 1918, and the last Nephil one went back even further. But they still knew how to neutralize them.

When he looked up, the man hadn’t moved. Lord Bevell frowned. “What?”

“They’re both American, shouldn’t the American branch take care of it?” Mr Fell asked.

“Haven’t you learned anything at Kendricks? They’re monsters on British ground, they must be killed! The code has no exception for foreigners,” Lord Bevell corrected.

He added to the note a post-scriptum about the integrity of certain Men of Letters, Mr A.Z.Fell, specifically. “Make sure the human refugees don’t witness it.”

Chapter Text

“I thought they’d like to dump him in the 20^th century, since it’s when the more people died, so here we are!” Gabriel said.

“Where exactly?” Dean asked.

“A Boston hospital, 1919.”

It was crowded. Dean didn’t have much history with hospitals, they used to patch up their wounds on their own, but he knew it wasn’t supposed to have so many patients. They all looked young, and most of the men were scarred, or missed a few limbs.

“1919? It’s the, um, the thing that killed Edward… the Spanish flu!” Dean said.

“The thing that killed Edward?” Gabriel repeated.

“It’s in a book that was published last year, about a guy that got the Spanish flu and was turned into a vampire… forget about it.”

Gabriel’s frown turned into a smirk. “You read my book?” he asked.

“What? No, it’s...”

“Stephenie Meyers’?” Gabriel air-quoted, before pointing at himself.

Dean stared at him. “Your brother is lost in all of time and space!” he reminded him.

“Yes, alright. I suggest you go this way, and I go that way, and if we don’t find him we go back here,” Gabe said.

“Ok… wait, we’re not gonna catch the disease, right?”

“Noooo…” A pause. “If you do, I’ll cure you.”

“It goes for the lungs, right? Like a pneumonia or something… Or AIDS. God, dyou think Cas might get AIDS?” Dean quickly asked.

“Search for him before you get even more anxious! Oh, you’re gonna be an insufferable brother-in-law,” Gabriel commented.

Dean wanted to add something but decided best not, and they went their separate way.

“I want the Colt,” Crowley said.

“We don’t have it,” the giant – Sam – retorted.

“And yet you opened the Wyoming gate with it merely two weeks ago. I know for a fact you can’t just pick the lock or get a crow bar. So, how did you lose it?”

Sam sighed. “Azazel had it. He’s hid it somewhere we don’t know of. We used a Colt from the past to open the gate.”

“Time-travel, Crowley chuckled. You have a heavenly bastard on your side. What is it, then? Seraph, weeping angel, Cupid?”

Sam and Bobby’s glare was enough to send the message. Crowley leaned against a tree and produced himself a glass of Glencraig whisky.

He had to admit, Adam’s quarry was nice. Fresh air, a rural atmosphere… made him think of Scotland. And it was better than Hell.

That wasn’t complicated to achieve, though; everything was better than Hell.

“Well then, if you don’t have it at the moment, I say you take your phone and start making calls,” Crowley resumed.

“Can’t you ask for something else?” the moose said.

“Something you have? Alright. What about... an archangel blade.”

Sam and Bobby stiffened, Sam placing a hand on his belt. Wonderful.

“You just like Spain, that’s all,” Dean commented.

Gabriel shrugged, “It’s where Casa Erotica was created. No, being here, it’s because I saw a movie that happened in this time period. Creepy movie.”

“Did I watch it?”

“Don’t think so, it’s not out yet in the US. I saw it in Cannes, last May.”

“So glad to know that while Heaven and Hell were preparing for the Apocalypse, you were writing books and going to France,” Dean replied.

“And having sex. But, yeah.”

Countryside of Spain in 1944. Rocks, hills, pine cones. Probably a whole lot of fascists scattered across the place.

“We’re never gonna find Cas like that. It’s too random. Let’s get back to the motel,” Dean declared.

“Yeah, we’re gonna wait a bit before we do that. I used a lot of my mojo for this. Need some time to restore it, you know?”

Dean made a gesture, ‘you do you’ in a non-verbal way. Cas’ grace lightly pulsed against his chest.

They couldn’t just leave Cas’ grace alone in the motel room. Couldn’t risk it flying away or being discovered by a janitor. So while they were discussing who’d search for Cas, Dean took an empty phial he kept just in case. He didn’t think the grace would fit inside but it did.

Dean had stopped for a second and contemplated what he held in his hand. That grace, that magic and power and all defining what an angel was, so much more Castiel than everything Dean had ever seen from him.

Gave him shudders.

Castiel recognized his brother the moment he walked through the door.

He knew that the Principality Aziraphale spent a lot of his time on Earth. He had, as the rumor said, opened a bookshop under the name A.Z.Fell toward the end of the 19^th century. But Castiel didn’t expect him to be part of the organization that took them in.

“Jack, can you stay in the room for a minute?” he asked the boy.

Jack nodded. He was in a better mood now that he’d slept.

Castiel found Aziraphale at the doorstep of the building, speaking to a man with bright red hair. The man left, and Aziraphale turned to Cas. “Hello, how can I help you?” he smiled.

“Aziraphale, it’s me, Castiel,” Cas revealed.

The Principality froze. “C-Castiel? You changed your vessel! And how did you… how are you… you’re human!”

Cas nodded. “I was banished from my timeline,” he revealed.

“Oh, my. What happened?”

Aziraphale’s concern seemed genuine, and for a moment Cas felt better. Ever since Zachariah had appeared in his motel room, Cas hadn’t had anyone to turn to for help or support.

“It’s complicated. What about you? I thought you’d be in battle, not here.”

“Yes, about that. That was a mistake. I thought this was a place where they helped people, but I was wrong. And you and your... protégé, might be in danger.”

Castiel frowned. “What is it?”

“See, the people working here are called the Men of Letters. They’re professional hunters, and very black and white when it comes to supernatural creatures. Places like here were created to find monsters forced to leave their destroyed homes.”

“Do they know what we are?”

Aziraphale didn’t look at ease. He took a breath and quickly said, “I might have told them.”

Castiel blinked. “You what?”

“I know, I’m sorry! It’s just, I didn’t know it was you, and Heaven’s rules about Nephilim are quite clear, and I thought…”

“Why are you even working here?” Cas cut him, exasperated.

“They hunt monsters, it seemed a good thing to do for an angel! And when I discovered they didn’t hesitate to kill innocent people because of their nature, it was too late. I can’t erase their memories of me, I did too many miracles recently. Heaven is watching me closely,” Zira confessed.

Castiel walked past him and through the crowded corridors.

Jack wasn't in his room.

Chapter Text

“He might have wandered off, who knows?” Aziraphale suggested.

Castiel glared.

“I’ll look for him,” Zira said.

He disappeared, leaving Castiel in the empty room. Any trace of them had been removed, the beds were made, as if they’d never been here.

“Mr Novak? I’m Mr Moriarty. Please follow me.”

Cas turned and followed the man who had called him. “Excuse me, have you seen my son? I’m looking for him,” he asked.

“Sorry, I did not,” Moriarty replied with a sharp tone.

Castiel hadn’t noticed but all the people in there wore a ring with the Aquarian star on it. Now that he thought of it, this star had been the symbol of numerous secret societies, the Order of Ancient Mysteries for example. The Men of Letters probably took after them.

They walked through a long corridor with many rooms. Rectangular glass panels were inserted into the wooden doors, allowing one to look inside. There were all the same, white rooms with a table and a chair. “Where are we going, exactly?” Cas questioned.

No answer. Then a familiar voice pierced through the silence, singing a nursery rhyme.

Castiel opened the door on his left and let out a sigh of relief.

“Hi, Cas!” Jack beamed.

Cas picked the kid up. “Hi, Jack. I told you to stay in the room.”

“Yes, but a nice man told me you needed me here.”

Castiel held him tight. He could have been in great danger, and Cas wouldn’t have been there for him.

But they weren’t out of trouble yet. Cas turned back to the Man of Letters. “Thank you for everything, but we’re gonna leave now.”

“I don’t think so,” Moriarty retorted, locking the door.

Castiel didn’t feel threatened by the gun he pulled on them, until he remembered that such a weapon could kill him in his present state. He made sure the little boy couldn’t see any of it.

“You know what I am. Do you really think you can hurt me with this?” he bluffed.

“With these angel-killing bullets? Yes, I do. Although it wouldn’t be much fun, and that’s not what we planned for the child. Now, hand him over.”

“Cas, what’s going on?” Jack asked.

Cas stared at Moriarty defiantly. Instead of answering, the man aimed and shot at Cas.

It was calculated. Cas’ dodging reflex saved his life, but the bullet scratched his left cheek. The burn was intense and Cas could feel drops of blood starting to run down his face. The detonation so close to his ear gave him tinnitus. Thank God Moriarty hadn’t shot the other side; he would’ve hit Jack.

Cas put Jack down. The little boy was rubbing his ears. Moriarty grabbed his arm and yanked him away from Cas.

“Ouch! Cas, what’s happening?” Jack asked again, growing more scared by the minute.

This was a bad idea. This was such a bad idea. Cas rushed forward to take Jack back.

A door in the back of the room opened, and more Men of Letters came in. He was surrounded. They swooped down on him, Cas tried to fight back but there were too many of them. They punched back, and they punched hard. Through the glass panel he could see Aziraphale in the hallway. He was trying to get in but the door was locked.

“Let me go! I wanna stay with Cas! Cas, please don’t let them take me!” Jack screamed and cried.

“Well, thank you for everything, ‘Mr Novak’, Moriarty declared. It’s been a while since we’ve had a Nephil in London. We’ll make sure to extract all his grace before we kill him. Did you know that an injection could heal a human, as well as making them stronger and faster? So, really, thank you.”

No. Not Jack.

Cas tried to fight off the men and women holding him, until Moriarty held the barrel of his gun against Jack’s head.

“I wanna go home,” Jack said.

A violent flash of light blinded everyone in the room. Surprised, everyone let go of who they were holding. Cas ran to Jack and picked him up. The last thing he saw was Aziraphale coming into the room. The angel waved them goodbye.

Cas waved back, maybe – he didn’t remember. Then everything was light. Then he fell and landed on his back, on the grass. Jack appeared and fell on top of him, knocking his breath out.

Cas took a moment to get his breath back before he replied to Jack’s ‘where are we’. His cellphone indicated 8:36PM, November 5^th, 2006. Barely an hour after Zachariah had attacked him. And they had spawned in the forest behind the motel.

“Listen to me, Jack. I don’t want you to follow people you don’t know, even if they said they were sent by me. Alright?” Cas told him on the way.

“Did I do something wrong?”

“No, you couldn’t know.”

The motel, finally. Cas let his hand slide on the Impala’s hood as they walked to the room.

“We’re meeting my family today. There’s the man I love, his brother, my brother, and our father figure.”

He knocked and scooped Jack up in his arms. The door opened.

“Hello, Dean.”

Chapter Text

They landed on the couch, Dean took out his phone and texted Sam, saying they hadn’t found Cas and would join Sam, Bobby, and Crowley soon.

“I don’t even have enough magic to summon candy bars. That sucks,” Gabriel commented.

Someone knocked on the door. “Go answer, it’s probably a letter from 1885, Gabe told Dean. Cassie’s now a blacksmith in Hill Valley.”

“And I thought I couldn’t find anyone nerdier than me,” Dean replied.

It wasn’t a letter. It was Cas. Dirty, disheveled, bloody Cas.

He was beautiful.

Dean didn’t realize he was hugging him ‘til he was breathing in the smell of Cas’ hair. Fabric softener and soap, the backseat of the Impala, and something that reminded him of the sea.

Maybe Cas liked the sea. He thought of the angel in a trench-coat, toes in the water, staring at the horizon while little gray fish swam around him.

They should have that. Once they were done, they’d buy a house, get a dog, AND go to the beach.

God, he had been so close to losing him.

“Cas, is this man in your family?” a small voice interrupted their embrace.

Dean let go of Cas to look down, and discovered-

Shit. How much time was he gone?

Cas smiled and knelt to the kid’s level. “Yes, Jack. This is the man I told you about, the one I love.”

Jack nodded and waved at Dean. “Hello, Mr Sam.”

Dean snickered. “Utter betrayal, Cas. I can’t believe you don’t have the guts to tell me yourself.”

Cas’ look to Dean was a perfect mix of I love you and you’re fucking stupid. He turned back to the kid. “The other one, Jack. My boyfriend Dean.”

“Oh, sorry, Mr Dean,” Jack apologized.

He held out his hand. Dean lightly shook it before looking at Cas. “We’re gonna need an explanation or two.”

“He said no?” Cas repeated.

Jack was sitting on the couch between Gabriel and him, drawing. They hadn’t much sheet of paper, so Dean took the report of Cas’ torture and tore away those pages.

“Yeah, Gabe said. Sorry? We couldn’t get any more intel, so we tried to look around for you in different periods and places, but in the end it was just a waste of time. Didn’t hit the mark.”

Dean was staring at Jack. This kid was a Nephil! While reading The Enochian Myth, he’d learned that those monsters had even more power than their angel parent. He could be looking at a creature almost as powerful as God.

Right now, the creature was drawing butterflies.

“So! You’re back – that’s great – and you have with you the son of Satan himself,” Dean declared.

“Samael,” Jack corrected without looking up.

“Lucifer,” Dean countered.

“I’m just the son of my mom.”

Dean thought about it before shrugging. He then turned to Cas. “Just confused, I thought the catholic version was the “right one”? But he said Samael?”

“Monotheists religions are all different versions of the same story. Certain have the correct details on particular tales and are wrong on others. No one’s ever got the full thing completely.”

Dea nodded.

“Well then-” Gabriel clapped his hands “-shouldn’t we go meet Samwich and Old Man Jenkins? Your soul’s still on the line, Deano.”

“You and Jack can wait for us in the car,” Dean replied.

Once the door was closed, he looked back at Castiel.

“I thought you might want this back,” he said, reaching for under his collar.

He had attached the phial of grace to a necklace, so as not to lose it. Cas took it. “Thank you, Dean.”

“It’s nothing.”

Cas took away the cork of the phial. The grace flew up, reflecting in Cas’ eyes. He opened his mouth and sucked it in, his eyes glowing blue. Dean could feel the difference, the impression of power that Cas radiated.

Cas took a deep breath, relishing in the feeling of his senses back at a hundred percent. He had felt more sensations as a human, but the condition had diminished his hearing and vision. More stimulating but less intense. Being an angel felt better. He could see Dean’s soul again.

Dean ogled at the little bit of grace left in the phial, until Cas put the lid back on.

“You didn’t take all of it,” Dean pointed out.

“I want you to have it,” Cas replied.

“What?”

Cas put it in the palm of Dean’s hand and closed his fingers over it. “I want you to wear it close to your heart.”

Dean smiled. He loved Cas so much. “Alright then. But I want to give you something in return.”

When they got out of the motel, Cas was wearing Dean’s amulet.

They got into the car. Gabriel and his nephew were sat in the backseat, which reminded Dean that he’d have to buy a baby-seat if this little dude was gonna stick around.

“Hey, guys, while you had your usual romantic moment à la Jack and Ennis, we got a deliv-” Gabriel started.

“Why is Samuel Colt’s weapon in the glovebox?” Cas interrupted, showing everyone (but the little boy) the one and only Colt.

Dean’s eyes widened.

“I thought better to not leave it where the kid could reach for it,” Gabe said.

“Why do you have it in the first place?!” Dean replied.

“You’ll see in the next chapter, it hasn’t been written yet.”

Chapter Text

“Why do we have to leave?” Jack asked as he got into the car.

“Cas and Dean have some things they wanna say to each other. They do that all the time, you’ll get used to it.”

“And where are we going, Mr Gabriel?”

“You don’t have to call me mister. We’re gonna meet with other people in our family. It’s very important, so everyone has to be there.”

“Okay, uncle Gabriel,” Jack nodded.

That gave a warm feeling to Gabriel’s (metaphorical) heart. It was something that happened frequently when he was with the boys, Bobby, and Cas. Maybe he liked th-

Okay, screw beating around the bush. He loved them. They’d been nicer to him in two weeks than his brothers and his father in millenniums. He loved Cas and he loved Dean and he loved Bobby and he loved Sam. Especially Sam.

He was gonna get into the Impala when a car pulled up in the parking of the motel. It parked next to them and the driver got out, it was a woman with light brown hair who wore a leather jacket.

“Excuse me, do you know where I can find Dean Winchester?” she asked Gabriel. Her voice had a thick English accent.

“Why do you wanna see him?”

“There’s something I have to give him.”

Gabriel looked through the window. They were having their Hallmark moment.

“He’s busy at the moment, but I’m his in-law so I can take care of that delivery,” he replied.

She observed him for a moment, trying to figure out if he was to be trusted. Gabriel read her mind as she came to the conclusion that she wanted to be payed, no matter who gave the money.

She extended her arm. “I’m Bela Talbot. Professional thief, specialized in supernatural objects.”

He shook her hand, “Gabriel. Just Gabriel, like Cher. Hunter.”

She let go and took a small briefcase in the trunk of her car. “I received a call from Sam Winchester an hour ago. He said he’d found my number in the journal of his father. He wanted me to find a special weapon, but I happened to have it in my possession at the moment. He told me to give it to his brother, but let’s say the in-law is good enough.”

The Colt.

She had the freaking Colt.

Despite having seen the weapon only once, Gabriel recognized it immediately. The briefcase looked like there were 13 originals bullets. Only one was left.

“I found this in a warded warehouse, Bela continued. There were demons, I killed them, so my price is higher than usual.”

Gabriel tried to take it but she slapped his hand away. “I am lending it, alright? Gonna need it back as soon as you can,” she said.

“Don’t think that’s gonna be possible, he retorted. We’re gonna use it in a trade with the demon Crowley.”

She blinked. “Crowley?”

She knew him. Gabriel tried to read her mind again but she didn’t let him access her thoughts. “Let me know when you’re done with him. There’s things him and I have to talk about.”

“Okay. How much?”

Bela wanted a lot of cash. Like, a lot. Gabriel pretended to take something from the backseat, when he was actually creating a briefcase full of dollars. A briefcase for a briefcase, seemed fair. “Tell Sam to call me. He has my number, so no excuse, she said. I better go, there’s a zombie loose in the next county, I bet I can make a lot out of its bones.”

“Yeah, go join the walking dead,” Gabriel commented.

Jack waved goodbye as her car disappeared. Gabriel thought best not to leave the weapon near the kid, and put it in the glove box, before sitting next to him. Bart and Ernie finally left the motel room.

Sam had this… itching in the back of his mind. He’d started feeling it when Dean had left to talk to John. Sam went alone to the vending machine and zoned out for a moment. He didn’t remember exactly what happened. Probably nothing, he’d have known if he got jumped or stuff. But ever since, he felt strange. The zoning out had happened again when he was in the motel bathroom. And today the itch was getting stronger.

He heard the Impala park to the side of the road. They’d soon join enter the forest and join him, Bobby, and Crowley. Hopefully they’d ran into Bela and gotten the Colt.

The itch turned into a clawing at his mind, like something was trying to grab him – not him physically, his consciousness.

Sam struggled, but whatever was in his head got him and buried him deep down in his own mind. Everything went black.

Sam blinked, and his eyes were black for a second. Crowley noticed but said nothing. He blinked again and returned to normal.

Sam, Bobby, and Crowley watched the other ones walk to them. From the spot where he was hidden for nearly an hour, Adam observed too.

“Cas!” Bobby exclaimed, seeing the angel. He went and hugged him. “Glad to have you back. We were worried sick.”

Cas smiled. “Thank you. I’m glad to be back as well.”

He let go of Bobby to hug Sam, who hesitated a little before returning it. Not in a confused way, a… contemptuous? kind of way. Cas looked at Sam and saw something strange surrounding his soul. The eye contact was broken before he could see more.

“So, this is Crowley,” Dean stated.

“Hi. I own your soul, Crowley replied. Well, among millions of other souls, actually. Don’t think you’re special.”

“I’ve been told that I’m the Righteous Man, as well as Michael’s true vessel, so yeah I’m pretty damn special,” Dean said.

He made a gesture at the others. “I mean look at us. We’re the freaking Power Rangers. The angel who rebelled against Heaven, the best hunter in the world, Lucifer’s vessel, the archangel Gabriel, and myself.”

“And me,” Jack added, raising his hand.

Crowley looked down to him, he was gripping tight to Cas’ leg. “What is that,” the demon said disdainfully.

“A kid. You’ve never seen one before?” Gabriel asked.

Crowley them all a look that meant don’t mess with me. “Of course, I have. I make crossroads deals with children all the time. They’re the ones who say yes the most easily.”

“You take children’s soul? Dude.”

Oh, the urge to roll eyes. Crowley shook his head.

“Back to business. You give me the Colt and the archangel blade, I give you Dean’s soul and Adam.”

“He’s not your property, Castiel interjected. We’ll convince Adam of our cause. And it’s his decision, not yours.”

Adam looked at Castiel, the man in the trench-coat – the angel. In a corner of his brain, Michael was furious that he had survived the banishment. Adam paid him no mind. Castiel didn’t want to force his own opinion on Adam, like Crowley and Michael tried to do.

“Alright, alright. Do you still want Dean’s soul or not? Since he’s already been killed by a hellhound, he won’t be dragged downtown again, but I can send him there with a snap of my fingers.”

Dean took a deep breath. “Okay. I’ll trade the Colt for the ownership of my soul.”

Crowley had the title of King of the Crossroads because he possessed two qualities that were rare in demons: he was creative and meticulous. Dean’s soul was under a heavy contract, practically impossible to get out of. Unless another contract canceled the first one.

Dean thought this would’ve been cooler. Truth was, he simply read Crowley’s eight pages-long deal before signing. It didn’t look fishy to him. (It wasn’t. Crowley double-crossed people only when it benefited him.)

Crowley looked down at Jack again when they were going to give him the Colt. “Does the human child have to be here?”

“Jack’s a Nephil,” Cas replied.

“No, he’s not. He’s got a human soul.”

Everybody frowned but Cas, who squinted his eyes, head tilted. Jack was sat in the grass, he looked up at the adults when they mentioned him.

Gabriel cleared his throat. “Honestly I have doubts too, I don’t see any grace in him. I assumed it was because I had used all my mojo but now I see… well, I don’t.”

“I thought I couldn’t see it because I was human,” Cas muttered.

Jack made a face. “I didn’t lie, Cas.”

Castiel knelt down toward him. “No one’s saying that you lied. I believe what you told me. (To the others:) I’ve seen him display magical powers, and it happened before, when he was a baby.”

“Are you sure it was him?” Bobby replied.

“There was another angel in the room but he didn’t have the power to send us back like Jack did.”

“He didn’t do it! He’s human, Cas!” Dean replied.

“I had confirmation from his mother that they were sent back in time when he was born!” Cas retorted louder.

“Then it must have been another creature doing it,” Bobby theorized.

“Twice?”

“Maybe he’s got a protector.”

Dean smirked, “A guardian angel.”

“We don’t know if it’s an angel, Dean,” Cas said.

“Oh, you’re all so boring.”

Crowley didn’t say that.

Sam did.

Everyone turned to him, different degrees of confusion on their faces. Dean was the first one to notice something was off.

Sam usually leaned a bit to appear less threatening to victims on cases, but now he was towering, using all his height. The attitude was wrong, he didn’t put his hands on his belt like that. The archangel blade was visible even though he knew he had to hide it well. And the face…

Cocky and scornful. Sammy wasn’t like that.

“You’re not my brother,” Dean concluded.

Not-Sam smiled, like Dean was just a stupid kid who finally got it. “Sam can’t come to the phone right now. Hi, guys. It’s been a while,” it said, flashing black eyes.

The hunters took a step back, the angels a step forward, the demon and the child remained where they were.

“I can’t say that I’m happy to see you but it’s definitely gonna be pleasing, Not-Sam continued. I’ve been dreaming of getting revenge ever since you exorcised me. You remember it, of course? When you sent me back to Hell, this prison of bone and flesh and blood and fear. I’m really sore about it.”

“Meg?” Bobby asked.

Chapter Text

“The old man's the one who gets it!” the demon replied.

Dean’s hand hovered on the Kurdish knife in his jean pocket. Maybe if he struck a non-vital area, Meg would be cast out of Sam’s body…

No, the risk was too big.

“First, you exorcise me. Then you kill my father Azazel. And then John Winchester keeps going back and forth between Hell and here, so I can’t torture him properly,” she listed

“Why would you...”

“I guess you mean, “thank you, Meg”. And, think about it! Being a vessel is in the bloodline, so it can be you or your father! Breaking the First Seal is a family thing, honey.”

Oh, Dean was gonna slap her.

“What do you want, Meg?” Bobby asked.

“Dean’s gonna come back in Hell with me.”

“Never.”

“Now. Or else...”

Meg took the archangel blade and held it against her – Sam’s – throat. “No!” they all cried out.

“Or else, Sammy’s going downtown the fast way,” she finished.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Gabriel said. His eyes were glowing white.

Meg chuckled. “I trust my speed in terms of slitting throats more than your mojo. But if you’re willing to risk Samantha’s life...”

Gabriel hesitated when hearing the nickname. She noticed and smirked even wider.

“You know, I can see all his thoughts and memories. He’s in love with you. Sweet, isn’t it? So if I were you, I’d listen to the one holding his life in her hands.”

His eyes stopped glowing.

“How would you take us to Hell?” Dean asked.

She reached into her pocket and threw a pouch on the ground. “Angel, you prepare it.”

Cas cleaned an area of its leaves and spread the ingredients all around.

“That’s the spell we used to get Cas and Dean back,” Bobby realized.

“It needs angel grace,” Cas said when he was finished.

“I have the right thing,” Meg replied. She took a small bottle out of her, no, Sam’s jean pocket.

It felt so strange. It was Sam’s body but Meg’s mannerism. She was the one in control and could hurt him in many ways, and he couldn’t do anything about it. None of them could for the moment. They’d have to catch her off-guard.

“You have a friend called Hannah, is that it?” she asked Cas while she poured the grace on the ingredients.

He nodded.

“I’m so sorry for your loss,” she mocked.

Dean had to restrain Cas from attacking Meg. They both felt the same about her but she could still kill Sam easily.

The portal opened. “Alright, I’m gonna need Dean and the traitor. Don’t think you’re getting out of this, she told Crowley. I’m gonna make sure everyone knows waht you were plotting, and once our Lord has returned, you’re gonna be so screwed.”

“I’m going with Dean,” Bobby and Cas said at the same time.

“I wanna make sure she doesn’t hurt Sam,” Gabriel added.

“Who’s gonna babysit Jack, then?”

Meg rolled her eyes. “I’m tired of you and your kid,” she said, grabbing Jack’s arm.

“Hey, let me go!” he screamed.

She threw him into the portal.

“JACK!”

Cas, Dean, Bobby, and Gabriel rushed after him through the portal. Crowley followed under duress and she was the last to go through.

The forest was calm, except for the occasional crackle of the gate.

Adam slowly got down from his old cabin in a tree and looked around.

He hadn’t meant to eavesdrop. It was Crowley’s fault for choosing this place to meet with Sam Winchester and the other hunter. Adam only noticed their presence when they started talking. So much for trying to have a moment of peace.

“Holy… did you hear that?” Adam asked.

I did.

“I have to help them.”

How? You’re just a human.

“I don’t care, they’re my family! And even if they weren’t I’d still try to help.”

You’d willingly go to Hell to save people whom you’ve never met?

“I would. Wouldn’t you do the same for your brothers?”

I haven’t been the best brother recently.

“So help me! Your little bro’s one of them. It’d be a redemption for you.”

I see your point, but going head-first into Hell is still pretty stupid. You’re gonna get butchered.

“That’s why I need your support and powers, so I can get out alive. I know you wouldn’t let anything happen to me.”

I hate you.

“I know, I know.”

And on that last thought, Adam and the archangel Michael jumped into Hell.

Chapter Text

“It’s Adam and Eve, not Adam in Hell.”

It’s actually Adam and Michael, but, whatever.

They didn’t look like they were having a good time. Which wasn’t surprising because they were in Hell, and the locals weren’t fond of them. At all.

Adam’s plan was to run into the mess, kill the demons, take his brothers and their friends, then get the hell out of Hell. Michael didn’t like that plan. What did he even like?

French fries. I once ate some when I was in a previous vessel.

You wanna go to a diner afterwards?

Sounds interesting.

Adam cracked his knuckles and was about to start blasting when a new demon ran past him. Not even seeing he was there.

“It’s broken, it’s broken!” the demon yelled.

Everyone froze. Dean, Cas, and Bobby stopped punching the black-eyed monsters, Crowley and the demons stilled, Gabriel quit trying to smite Meg out of Sam’s body.

“It’s broken,” the demon said again, panting. Had he been running through all of Hell? “The First Seal is broken.”

The demons erupted in joy.

Adam felt a chill travel down his spine, but somehow it was more Michael’s than his own.

It has begun. I’m sorry.

What does that mean?

The Righteous Man, John Winchester, has broken the First Seal by accepting to torture souls. The Apocalypse is on its way.

Wait a minute, my… John is in Hell? He’s dead?! And he too has something to do with the Apocalypse?

Do you want me to tell you everything from the beginning? It’d help you understand what’s going on.

Okay, but quickly, we’re still surrounded by demons.

Dean was almost done fixing the Impala when it happened…

When Michael finished the tale, all demons were gone. Adam assumed they were going to Earth to break the other Seals. He tried to focus back to the instant.

“Well, it’s been a pleasure talking to you again, but I’m required elsewhere, Meg said. It doesn’t mean you get to leave, though. I’m not done with you.”

Adam straightened up. “No, we are done with you,” he declared.

Everybody turned to face him.

“Another human?” Meg said.

“Adam, what are you doing here?!” Crowley yelled.

“Adam?!” the others exclaimed.

“Uh, hi! Yeah, it’s me, Adam Milligan,” he said, waving.

Dean and Jack hesitantly waved back.

Adam then turned to Michael. “I think Meg should get out of Sam. Can you do that? Like, do you have the powers for it?” he asked.

Yes, but I can’t lend them to you. I’ll have to be in control of your body.

“Okay.. What about we share my body, and each of us get to do their things and we ask when we need to be the one in control?”

Meanwhile the guys were watching Adam talking to himself, wondering if their brother was crazy or – in Gabriel’s case – if he wasn’t the only one inside his head.

An arrangement? Alright, it’s a good idea.

“Cool. I have to say yes, right?”

Indeed.

Adam rolled his shoulders. “Michael, you can have me.”

His eyes became blue, so intensely it left Meg and Crowley blinded for a second.

When it stopped, Michael was in the vessel.

(It didn’t mean that Adam couldn’t see anything, though; he was in a metaphorical sidecar.)

Sam shook violently and screamed as Meg was cast out of his body. He fell down and her black smoke flew away, leaving behind the smell of sulfur.

Dean helped Sam up, checking that he was okay, before turning to his other possessed sibling.

“Michael?” Gabriel asked.

“Hello, brother.”

You should say something, it’s getting awkward, Adam whispered to Michael.

No, it’s not.

Tell him you’re sorry for what you did. Also, banishing Castiel was bitchy, he’s a really nice guy.

Language.

Ok, mom. Won’t be my fault if you can’t have a proper discussion with your bro.

Who are you to talk about this? You found out you had siblings two days ago.

“I thought you were dead, Gabriel. I had all angels in Heaven search for you,” Michael declared.

That wasn’t what he wanted to say. Actually he didn’t know at all what he wanted to say, except “hey, brother, what are you doing with the traitor and our vessels? What happened to your ‘not picking a side’ policy? You used to tell us you didn’t care for the fate of Earth but didn’t want us to fight; now, it’s the opposite. Who made you betray your own kin?!”

Instead, Michael sighed and said, “I’m sorry for making you run away.”

Gabriel visibly relaxed. “Sorry that I ran?” he replied.

“Forgiven.”

Michael turned to the humans. “Sam, Dean. It’s nice to finally meet you.”

“Yeah, we’re all super excited,” Dean grumbled.

Oh, the irritating ape. Adam definitely was a better choice.

I heard that.

“Castiel. You survived your banishment. Pretty sure you’re the only angel who managed that, ever. You just can’t stop breaking rules, do you?”

“Watch it, Michael,” Gabriel growled.

Can I talk to them for a minute?

Do you have to?

I wanna meet them.

“Give me a second,” Michael said.

The vessel’s eyes glowed again as the angel and the human exchanged seats.

It’s wasn’t panic, the angels aren’t capable of such a thing. They’d been waiting for it for millenniums, but it was supposed to happen two or three years later. The situation was as chaotic as Heaven could be.

“Naomi, is it true? Has it started?” Esther asked her superior.

Raphael led Heaven when Michael was away, but the infantrymen couldn’t directly address him. Zachariah and Naomi were in charge of communication. The only thing they were communicating now were orders to their soldiers.

Esther and Balthazar had been on Earth when an urgent message told them to go back to Heaven. They’d found everybody taking weapons and organizing, forming battalions that hadn’t been together in centuries. Cupids traded their love arrows for deadly ones, Seraphs ticked off the names of fallen soldiers and deserters. Balthazar thought it was too early, since Lucifer was still in the cage. No one listened.

“Yes it has. Go to your garrison and wait for instructions,” Naomi replied.

“But we’re missing our leader.”

“And who might that be?” Zachariah asked, appearing behind Naomi’s desk.

“Castiel.”

Zachariah rolled the eyes of his true form’s three heads. “Come on, grieve him a bit. He’s been gone for ten years!”

“And he has led us into glorious battles, and he was a great commander,” Balthazar said.

“Stop it, it looks like you’re growing a heart. Besides, I banished Castiel to 1942 on Michael’s direct order,” Zachariah retorted.

He took the second seat on Naomi’s side of desk to be more at ease whilst he glared at the angels.

“He’s back. I can feel him in this timeline,” Esther revealed.

“Where?” Naomi asked.

“Hell.”

“Let him stay here. Who’s next in the chain of command?”

“Samandriel.”

“Hmm, he must be still be in that warehouse where you left him, Zachariah pondered. No time to look for him. You two go tell Rachel she’s the new leader of your garrison. Now, shoo!”

The Seraphs teleported to another side of Heaven. Naomi signed the order to let all imprisoned angels out of Heaven’s cells and make them serve in the upcoming war.

Zachariah ogled over her paper. “You’re letting them all out? Even that idiot Gadreel who couldn’t properly guard Eden?”

“We will be needing everyone.”

Raphael himself entered the office. Zach and Naomi immediately stood up.

“Sir,” they saluted in unison.

“Rest.”

They didn’t change their position. It would be considered a disrespectful gesture, and they’d undergo a painful punishment.

Humans don’t know how Heaven is to angels.

“You two are the angels of the highest rank in Heaven, besides Michael and I. We decided that on the first day of the Apocalypse, we would transmit to you an information of a crucial importance. Michael’s absence means I will tell you myself.”

“A year ago, him and I received a message from God. It was the first contact we had with Him in millenniums,” Raphael declared.

Their eyes widened.

“It is about Amara.”

They gulped.

Chapter Text

“They should put signs for directions in here, since that idiot can’t find his way around,” the hunter grumbled.

“Do you want to leave already? I find the atmosphere quite welcoming.”

Dean walked faster so he was between Bobby and Crowley. As much as he wanted Bobby to shoot the demon, they kinda needed him.

“You’re sure this is gonna work?” Adam asked the group.

He was walking alongside Cas. Jack had taken to Adam immediately, and the teenager let him ride on his shoulders. It was really cute. It would’ve been cuter if it wasn’t in Hell, but they weren’t getting out for now.

“It’s infallible. The Colt can kill anything that exists. Lilith’s death by Sam is the Last Seal but it has to happen after all other Seals are broken. If Crowley kills her now using the Colt, it kaputs the whole operation. Earth saved, joy to the world, everyone goes home,” Gabriel replied.

“Huh. Cool. But if I have one objection...”

Dean turned to Adam.

The teen smirked. “Team Armageddon't is a better name than Team Free Will.”

“Ha!” Sam exclaimed.

“You can say goodbye to every birthday gift I planned to get you,” Dean retorted his younger brother.

Adam frowned. “My birthday was two months ago.”

“And we weren’t there, and I was gonna buy you stuff, but you’ll get nothing, zero, nada.”

“Can I have his gifts?” Jack asked.

They all laughed, and just for a second, Dean felt like the fate of the world wasn’t on their shoulders. It felt real damn good. They gotta stick together after it was over.

Hey, he could finally see a light at the end of the tunnel.

Sam and Gabriel were closing the walk. Sam had been scrutinizing Adam for some time. He made up his mind and got Gabriel’s attention. His boyfriend (boy toy? best friend? they had to talk about it) gave him a questioning look.

Sam took the archangel blade from his belt and gave it to Gabriel.

Gabe made a frantic ‘no’ gesture but Sam silenced him. “Just in case.”

Crowley led them to an old door, richly ornamented in Hell’s style. It had been centuries since someone last opened it.

“Alright everyone, we will now be entering the deepest part of Hell. You have to follow me and be absolutely silent,” Crowley told everyone.

“Why? I thought it was mostly empty?” Dean replied.

“Lilith lies close to Lucifer.”

General silence. Dean cleared his throat. “Oh. How close?”

“We won’t run into him. He’s locked in a cage 100 meters above the ground.”

“What’s that in feet?” Sam asked.

“Oh Lord, bless these Americans with the metric system,” Crowley said before opening the door.

The absence of light contrasted brutally with Hell’s dark red atmosphere. Dean feared he’d gone blind for a second as he couldn’t see anything. He looked back to the corridor they’d come from. When he turned around, he realized that ahead of them were a small platform and a stair on the side. Anything more than 10 feet away was invisible. They followed Crowley and waited for him to close the door.

Hell being called a pit was the right word. Dean felt it was gigantic, and he couldn’t even see the end of it. Darkness everywhere. He had to let a hand trail on the wall.

There wasn’t any torch they could light up. Dean was resigning himself to a long walk in obscurity when Jack squirmed. “Cas, I don’t like the dark.”

Cas took him on his shoulders before he cracked his knuckles. A blueish light illuminated their surroundings.

“Holy shit, babe, you’re a glow stick,” Dean smiled.

Crowley turned around to order silence. First time they ever saw him nervous.

Michael and Gabriel did the same as Cas. The team went down the stairs and started walking.

They were in the pit for half an hour when Michael turned to his brother. “Gabriel, why are you hiding an archangel blade behind your back?”

Gabriel stilled. “What? I’m not… it’s just my blade, I’m not hiding anything.”

“You’re hiding it, and it’s not your blade. We found it in the Garden when we were looking for you. Raphael and I have ours. The one in your hand is Lucifer’s.”

“Shhh! Can we talk about this later?” Crowley whispered.

Michael shot him a glare. “Why not now? We don’t have anything else to do.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that, maybe we gotta kill Lilith,” Sam replied, sarcasm dripping from his voice.

“Lilith got out of her shackles as soon as the First Seal was broken. She’s out on Earth, not here.”

Oh.

Shit.

“Proof?” Dean asked.

Michael sent a ball of light in the direction they were walking. It illuminated a rack and remains of iron chains dismantled on the ground.

At the same time, the light at the end of Dean’s tunnel disappeared.

“She’s gone. Why didn’t you say it before? We don’t have any time to lose in Hell!” Bobby said.

“Adam wanted to be with you. Now, Gabriel, who is this weapon for? Lucifer or myself?”

“Neither of you if it all works out,” the younger brother said, taking a defensive stance.

“It won’t! Stop resisting the Great Plan. You all know what your fate is.”

Bobby shook his head. “Yeah, guess what? We found out that fate doesn’t exist in our universe anymore. There was a script for the Great Plan, and Cas tore it all apart and burned the pages.”

“We’re making it up as we go but I can promise you it won’t end how you want,” Cas added.

“Free Will, baby!”

“Oh, I knew Amara’s return would mess everything up,” Michael groaned.

Seeing the way Gabriel and Castiel froze at this, the boys could fairly assume it meant nothing good.

“Who’s Amara?” Sam asked.

“God’s sister. The Darkness herself. Opposite of light and life,” Gabriel revealed.

“I’m sorry, God’s WHAT now?”

Michael sighed. “God is the creator, Amara the destroyer. She wouldn’t let life exist. God and the archangels fought her. They won, locking her away. Her cell had a key, a mark, which was given to Lucifer to protect. It corrupted him and that’s part of the reason we had to cast him out here. He passed the mark to Cain, who committed the first murder.”

“The Mark of Cain? Damn. Wouldn’t want that on me,” Dean thought out loud.

“Is this why my father turned evil?” Jack asked Cas.

“Yes. I didn’t tell you everything, I’m sorry. I told you about him in a simple way so you could understand.”

“Uh, excuse me, who exactly is this boy’s father?!” Crowley added, incredulous and nervous at the same time.

“God reached out to Raphael and I, saying that he released Amara on Earth, she has all her powers and is not to interfere with the Great Plan. If we find her doing so, we are required to kill her,” Michael added.

“I can’t believe you’re still faithful to God’s plan after he left us, and in his first message after millenniums he orders you to do something he couldn’t do!”

“Man, your daddy issues are even worse than ours!”

“Jack is Lucifer’s child-”

“And you brought him in Hell?!”

“Why are we saying that Michael’s our biggest problem when The Darkness is walking the Earth?”

“I’m surrounded by idjits.”

“Uncle Bobby, why are they all yelling?”

“You’re all traitors to Heaven! You deserve to die here!” Michael yelled.

He created a bolt of power in his right hand and targeted Gabriel with it. Sam caught him by the elbow, changing the bolt’s direction to above them all. The condensed archangel grace flew up as their eyes followed. Good thing the pit was so large it couldn’t hit anything.

It hit something.

The loud shaking of metal reverberated all around them. Before the light of the bolt vanished, Dean saw what it had touched. He prayed to everyone who listened for his family to get out alive.

One after the other, all chains holding the Cage broke down. The echo when they hit the ground resonated through Dean’s bones. Then silence returned.

Castiel made his hand shine brighter and raised it so they could see. They were under it.

The last chain broke and the Cage fell.

An object dropped from 100 meters doesn’t take that much time to reach the ground. In consequence, there’s not much time to run from it.

Dean took Jack in his arms and ran away with Cas. Gabriel used his own body as a shield for Sam. Bobby grabbed Crowley. Michael took steps back so Adam wouldn’t get crushed.

The Cage exploded. Everyone threw themselves on the ground. Metal flew everywhere as the bottom created a crater at impact. All of Hell felt the tremor.

When the dust settled, Cas looked around.

“What’s happening, Cas?” Dean whispered.

“Nothing yet. Don’t look, Dean, Jack. The sight of his true form could kill you.”

Cas sat up and noticed Michael, Gabriel, and Crowley had recovered from the fall as well. They’d given the same instruction to their own human.

A piece of metal fell from the wreck and then Castiel saw him.

Lucifer, rising from the Cage.

Castiel had never seen a true form like this one. Three pairs of hot pink wings and a gigantic body made of pure grace, but of a red liquid as well. It seemed to cover his torso and limbs as veins would. Demon blood.

Lucifer didn’t see them, or did not care. He extended his arm toward Earth and was gone in a blink.

“What have we done?” Castiel said.

Chapter Text

“What have we done? What has HE done!” Crowley shouted, pointing at Michael. “That idiot decided to destroy all of Heaven, Earth, and Hell, just because he wants attention from his dead beat dad!”

“Don’t yell,” Dean sighed.

He was getting a the-Apocalypse-is-happening headache. Or maybe it was from the scrap of metal that had hit his head.

They were all in shock. Jack curled up in Cas’ arms. Hell of a day for the little boy.

“I will yell if I want to, who’s gonna hear me anyway? Lilith and Lucifer are gone! Oh, bollocks, this is everything that I feared.”

Crowley helped Sam and Bobby up. When he turned back, Michael looked pissed.

“Did you just call me an idiot?” he said, eyes glowing.

Dean wondered how he was supposed to deal with a demon going berserk and an archangel with snappy tendencies.

“Are you not one?” Crowley replied.

Dean decided to pray.

“Watch your...” Michael started.

They vanished.

Michael blinked.

Adam blinked.

“Where did they go?” he asked.

“I don’t know. Gabriel probably teleported them back to Earth,” Michael replied.

He projected himself out of Adam’s body so that the human could see him. He still wore his image though.

“My brother’s a coward,” Michael continued.

“Mike?”

“Yes?”

“What the fuck, dude.”

Michael frowned, “What bothers you?”

“You let Lucifer out!”

Michael avoided Adam’s look, “It needed to be done.”

“No, it didn’t! If we’re alive at the end of this, I’m taking you to a therapist. I’m okay with you sticking around but you gotta talk to someone.”

“You want me to stay with you?”

Adam pursed his lips. “Yeah. I like you. You’re crazy and all powerful and sometimes dumb as f but I don’t mind. Except for what just happened, I’m telling you, you’re gonna have to make it up to everyone.”

“You like me? Is this about romantic love? Because angels aren’t supposed to feel such an emotion,” Michael said.

“Oh, this is awkward. Okay, you have my permission to melt my brain away, I want to forget everything.”

Michael smiled, “You humans are so dramatic.”

“No, it’s just me,” Adam chuckled.

His laugh echoed in the empty. The smile faded.

“This looks like the place angels go to when they die,” Michael said.

“It’s big and empty and dark? Huh. Not cool.”

Michael nodded. Adam wanted to add something else but saw his attitude. He had something on his mind.

“Crowley might have been right. When God left, I became the viceroy of Heaven and, to be fair, I didn’t know what I was supposed to do. So I spent all that time making sure we were going to fight in the Apocalypse. It seemed right. I thought, maybe our Father would see us and come back.”

Michael had a bitter chuckle.

“You know the funny part? I used to think I was His favorite son. I wasn’t even close. He loved Lucifer most, and that message we had from Him, Raphael received it. He was the one who told me about it. Ever since, he’s been acting different. He should be the ruler of Heaven, and he knows it. He has been chosen.”

“God abandoned us. And after these millenniums he doesn’t even care for me who watched over all his creation.”

“And you still want to fight Lucifer? Do you really need God back? He kept a huge part of his life away from you, and I'm sorry but he doesn’t seem to want to know you,” Adam said.

“I don’t know what else to do,” Michael confessed.

Adam nodded. “Can we just do one quick thing before the fight?”

“Anything you want.”

Chapter Text

“Gabriel, can’t you warn before you teleport us?” Dean groaned, rubbing his head.

They were on the road bordering the forest in which they’d met Crowley and Meg. Dean landed head first on the Impala’s hood, and loving the car didn’t stop him from calling her all kinds of names. Cas healed the future concussion with two fingers on Dean’s temple.

“Thanks, Cas,” Dean said.

“I would have warned if I was the one who did the teleporting, Dean-o,” Gabriel retorted.

He was laying in the grass, Sam on top of him. Some of them had an archangel cushion for the landing and it wasn’t fair.

“If I were,” Sam corrected, standing up.

“That’s not the question, darling, Gabriel replied. We know that it wasn’t Jack who just did that, so… who wants to reveal their incredible powers?”

He eyed everyone, as if they were going to say they were freaking mutants.

“Can’t you see the more logical conclusion? Someone’s watching over us,” Bobby declared.

“God?” Crowley asked.

“Nope, he hates our guts.”

“Wonderful. In a minute you’re gonna tell me that He has been here the whole time, playing us like puppets.”

“It’s not like that, we have free will,” Sam countered.

“Or someone’s cutting our strings,” Bobby said.

They pondered the question for a moment. Was another force in the balance, on their side against Heaven, Hell, and God Himself?

Dean thought of all the moments he felt like they were helped. The rescues at the last second. Finding Samandriel and the archangel blade. Chuck.

“Why would God ever release Amara, if she’s his arch-enemy?” Cas thought out loud.

“Maybe he was bored,” Jack said.

They all turned to him. He was sat in the grass.

“What? If I was special and I didn’t talk to the others, I’d be bored. I’d want someone I know to play with me.”

“Thank you for your input,” Crowley sassed. He turned back to the adults. “What do we do now?”

“Lucifer needs to find a substitute vessel, since Sam didn’t give him consent to control his body,” Bobby said.

Dean quickly counted.“No one’s available in the family anymore.”

Gabriel nodded. “We don’t know this vessel, but he probably won’t have your bloodline. This means Luci will be less powerful.”

“What ‘bout Adam?”

“I know where he is,” Sam said.

“Mom?” Adam called, walking into their house.

Kate Milligan was in the living-room, grading her students’ essays. “Hi, honey! Finally deciding to come home?” she asked.

“No, I’m just making a quick stop,” he said, taking a seat next to her.

She looked at him. “You seem tired. Is it because you spend all that time outside? You’re not used to it anymore?” she smiled.

“Yeah, probably.”

Adam would miss her so much. Michael said that it’d be over quickly and that he’d meet her again in Heaven. But these would be memories. A fake mom, he knew that. A perfect mom.

He didn’t want her to be perfect. He wanted her to be like she was, caring, happy, unable to speak before the first cup of coffee, trustworthy, forgetful. Just her.

He thought about not going through with the plan for a second, until a voice in the back of his mind reminded him of what was at stake. The voice wasn’t even Michael, just himself saying he had to do the right thing.

The right thing wouldn’t spare either of them.

Kate turned back to her essays. “You can stay outside for a little longer, but I want you to come back before night.”

“Mom, the sun’s gonna set super early, it’s November,”

“I know, and cover yourself, by the way. The weather channel said we’re gonna get snow. Don’t want to find you frozen in a block of ice.” She chuckled at the thought.

Adam nodded.

“Anything else you wanted to tell me, sweetheart?” she asked.

“Did you know that J...”

The rest of his sentence got lost in his throat.

She didn’t look up. “What is it?”

If he survived, he’d have to explain how he knew about his brothers. If he didn’t, it was the end of the world, and bothering her in her last hours was not what he wanted.

“They’re gonna make a new Iron Man movie,” he eventually said.

“Really? When will it be in theaters? We could watch it together, unless you want to go with your friends.”

“It’s in forever, 2008,” Adam shrugged.

He stood up and took a coat.

“Well then you’ll remind me in 2008,” she replied.

“Bye, mom.”

“Later, honey!”

Adam closed the door behind him. Michael appeared by his side.

“Are you alright?” the archangel asked.

“No.”

Adam wiped off a tear. “But enough with the talking. Let’s go.”

Chapter Text

They found him near his mother’s house. He was walking along the road. They didn’t ask where to. Dean simply slowed down and gestured him to get in.

The car was cramped. Gabriel was on Sam’s lap and Jack on Cas’ - even though the angel insisted that it could be dangerous to have the kid sitting shotgun but, well, they didn’t really have other options. Adam was gonna take Crowley’s place, and the demon would go in the trunk (Dean’s idea) but after vigorous protests from them both, they agreed to be squeezed.

Dean’s father once told him he had hesitated between buying the Impala or a Volkswagen van. He had laughed about it for a long time and was now reconsidering.

Castiel gave Adam (or Michael, who knew?) a map of the area. He pointed the place where the fight would happen. Dean looked over. He’d shown a field, maybe 20 miles away from where they were. Night was gonna fall quickly, they had to hurry.

Nick opened the door and smiled at Sarah. She’d been quick to run their errands. He’d insisted to do it himself, after all she was pregnant and needed to rest. She eventually won the argument. Stubborn woman. Nick loved her for that.

He should’ve understood something was off when he noticed her strange behavior. She seemed different: her baby bump almost didn’t show, she didn’t have the groceries in her hands, and when she held her hand to him, she didn’t wear her wedding ring.

She said she’d forgotten the car keys, when she didn’t need the car to go to the nearest store. She asked if he could let her in.

And, like a fool, he said yes.

They were all ready. Billions of angels gathered above the clouds, watching for any sign of Michael. They could all feel beneath them the demons squirming, a couple of feet below the surface. Surely the all-mighty, glorious angel army would triumph. Everyone was convinced of that.

Everyone but a few angels. Balthazar and Esther kept exchanging nervous looks. They weren’t supposed to be there. Fighting? Alright, if commanded by Castiel. This? The end of the world? No. Balthazar liked Earth too much.

He observed the rest of the garrison. They were so few of them left. Cas was nowhere to be found, Samandriel had been captured, Hannah was killed by a demon who wanted their grace. The people Bal trusted and loved the most, although he would never tell, out of the game.

Balthazar reported to Rachel and told her he had to get his flaming sword. He flew back to Heaven, which was completely empty.

He didn’t have a flaming sword, but the Principality Aziraphale did. He could steal Heaven’s weapons and flee to Earth. Or another planet. Alpha Centauri seemed a decent option.

He heard footsteps and hid behind a wall. The Archangel Raphael passed without noticing his presence. Balthazar dared not breathe; who knew what his fate would be, were he found running away? Angels had been smitten for less. He did not like the idea of being the war’s first victim.

Raphael walked into the throne room. Balthazar let him out of his sight, cursed at his curiosity for a second, then moved to follow him. He saw the archangel sit on God’s throne.

That was forbidden since the first day of His leaving. Even Michael didn’t dare taking God’s place.

Raphael placed a hand on his vessel’s forehead and sent a message, a telepathic one, but so powerful that Bal was able to hear it.

Let it play out, do not interrupt them. You disobeyed me enough already. You know what will happen if you make a move.

Balthazar closed his eyes and teleported himself away.

They knew when they reached the right place. Pitch dark surrounded them, but in a small cropped field, the light somehow remained. Nothing natural. The sky was bright white and the earth had a reddish color to it. All of Heaven and Hell had their eyes on them.

A man stood in the middle of the light. He had blond hair, and wore plain trousers with a green jacket and a yellow shirt. Dean hoped that it was an angel. Then the man’s eyes shone red. Lucifer.

There was no getting out of this now.

It started snowing.

Chapter Text

NOW

“Hello, brother.”

“Hi, Mikey. Long time no chatting.”

Wait. That was Lucifer?

“So who’s the Scooby-Gang around you? Your cheerleaders? Thought all of Heaven was good enough of a motivation.”

Satan, right there, sassing Michael.

Sometimes Dean just felt the need to take a step back and think about what led him to this life.

“Maybe they’re just for starters. You brought me humans to practice on before ganking you? That’s sweet, brother.”

Dean turned to the others and wanted to tell them to get in the car. He was just a bit too late. Lucifer snapped his fingers, and Crowley, Bobby, and Jack disappeared. They materialized next to the Fallen archangel.

“So, what do we have here? A demon (you traitor), an old man, and… a kid? Gross.”

“My name is not gross, it’s Jack!” the six-years-old retorted.

For God’s… for Amara’s… for somebody’s sake, Jack!

“Whatever. Go back to your dad.”

Jack ran across the field and leaped into Cas’ arms. Michael made sure the little boy was okay, putting a hand on his arm, before turning back to Lucifer.

“Brother, I don’t want to fight you,” he declared.

You could hear the billions of angels all screeching at the same time. The light they brought to the scene became real bright. Michael gave them a warning look and they stopped.

Dean focused back to Lucifer. His broad shoulders hid Bobby and Crowley but it looked like they were doing something. He shivered, because of the snow, or of that impossible situation they were stuck in. Couldn’t tell.

“You’re chickening out? Come on, Mikey. Who turned you into a wuss?”

Lucifer paid more attention to the rest of their group and noticed Gabriel.

“Huh, question answered. Hi, Gabe.”

“Luci. You look like shit.”

It was true. Now that they were closer, they could all see that the skin was peeling off his vessel’s face. Gabe had once explained that the power of an archangel was so strong it could only be hosted by a descendant of Cain and Abel. Gabriel’s own vessel was haute couture, apparently.

(Sam had wanted to ask how Cain, Abel, Adam, and Eve fit with the evolution theory. Gabriel didn’t even know.)

Point being, the vessel was degrading and Lucifer wanted to start the fight quickly.

“Well, I’m not exactly wearing the prom dress I ordered, am I?!” he said, glaring at Sam.

“And neither are you, Mikey. How sad. Now, I’d like to know how Heaven’s viceroy got softened by the black sheep of the family.”

It was so wrong, but Dean laughed. A small laugh, barely a second, but everyone heard it. Instant regret. Lucifer turned to him, eyes bright red in the snowy night, “What?”

“So, Gabriel’s the black sheep of the family? I mean, are you self-aware? Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel are “loyal to God”, and you’re literally Satan.”

Lucifer rolled his shoulders, “I guess I’ll start with you, then.”

“Now!” someone yelled.

And Crowley shot the Devil in the head.

They all watched his body go limp and fall face first in the middle of the field. Then looked up to see the demon holding a still smoking Colt, its case in Bobby’s hands.

The ground started shaking earthquake-like. It was safe to say Hell was coming on Earth. Bobby and Crowley contemplated the archangel, at loss for words. Well, not really.

“Aw, balls!”

“Is he really dead?” Cas asked.

Michael sighed. “No.”

“What do you mean, no? This gun can kill anything,” Sam replied.

“Anything but archangels. And God, Amara, and Death. He simply passed out, and will probably wake up in under five minutes.”

Bobby raised his eyebrows, then nudged Lucifer with his foot. Yeah, unconscious. Snow started covering his body, turning to water when it touched his skin. Sam would’ve made a comment about the thermodynamics of angels in another situation.

“We wasted a bullet for that? It was the last one, how are we gonna get more?” Bobby asked.

“I know a demon, she’s got expertise in ancient weapons. She can make us more bullets,” Crowley said.

Gabriel nodded. “Then I’ll go get her. What’s her name?”

“Ruby.”

Dean pursed his lips. “Ah. Son of a...” Jack was listening to him, “...gun.”

“What is it?” Sam asked.

“D’you remember when we were rescuing Samandriel, and there was a demon chick blocking our way?”

“You killed her,” Cas completed.

“Yeah, I killed her.”

Gabriel leaned toward the ground and shouted, “Hey, can you quit with the shaking? He’s not dead, calm down!” Moments later, the earthquake stopped.

Jack walked away from the rest of them, to the edge of the light. Sam called him but he didn’t listen. The kid waved his hand at the darkness. And the darkness waved back.

A woman emerged from the night. She wore a red suit and had brown hair. She looked in her thirties but she felt older. Not to be a bitch or anything, it just was a funny feeling that she was actually old as balls.

She entered the circle of light and stopped in front of Lucifer’s body, hands in her vest pockets. She stared at him for a while before looking up. “Who took the shot?”

Crowley pointed between himself and Bobby. “Team work.”

She nodded in approval. “Good job, that’s exactly what I was gonna do. It gives us a few extra minutes.”

“1. Extra minutes for what? 2. Who are you?” Sam asked.

“Gabriel, Michael?” she called the archangels in a tell-the-right-answer-to-the-class tone.

“She’s Amara,” they declared.

A rare thing then happened, and it was that a lot of people on Earth, in Heaven, and in Hell said the same word at the same time, and that word was “WHAT?!”

“I come in peace,” she added, making the peace sign.

The hunters went for their guns, but Amara didn’t seem impressed. “Not trying to be condescending, but if the Colt couldn’t kill Lucifer, a normal weapon won’t do me any harm.”

Shit, she was right.

“Why are you here?” Castiel asked.

“It’s the Apocalypse, or at least the fight that could lead to the Apocalypse. Seeing the people around here, I don’t stand out. And I had to take part in this.”

“Why, to watch as we all die?” Dean retorted.

She frowned, a look of repulsion on her face, “Who the fuck do you think I am?!”

“The Darkness? The opposite of light and life?”

She pinched the bridge of her nose. “Right, I forgot about the propaganda.”

“Propaganda? Oh, I see, everything’s a lie and you’re all sunshine and cupcakes.”

Amara sent a look that meant I’m so done with you. “Alright, who’s more of an adult than him?”

“Everyone but Jack,” Gabriel replied.

“Are you here to help us?” the kid asked her.

She smiled and leaned toward him. “Yes, that’s why I’m here. I already helped your… team? Family?”

“Family, my dad’s here,” Jack answered, pointing to Cas.

“OK. I pushed your family in the right directions but it seems I had to really do something myself, so here I am.”

“Pushing us in the right directions?” Bobby frowned.

She stood back up. “Are y’all ready to listen and not interrupt sarcastically?”

They nodded.

“Alright. About a year ago, I was released from my cage by God himself. He said he missed me (she rolled her eyes), and that he wanted someone to talk to and bond, you know. I was so sick of the cage that I accepted. At some point we ran out of things to talk about, so he let me go back to Earth to do my things. The only condition was that I must not do anything that could change his great plan, aka the end of the world. Which, honestly, I didn’t care at first.”

“Then I went to Earth and I discovered what humans made of it. I went to Reno, and France, and India, and I loved every second of it. So I thought, ‘fuck it, I’m gonna make sure this world doesn’t end.’ And I started looking for the true vessels.”

“I found you two around the end of September. At the time I wasn’t sure if I should show myself to you, but then you found Castiel, and he explained everything. I then decided to stay in the shadow – wow, how funny, because I’m the Darkness – and just help. It was the little things: killing a few demons before you showed up to a warehouse, letting the prayers get through no matter the distance, rescuing people from dangerous situations, putting a stupid book on a shelf of the store Gabriel and Dean were in!”

“So you’re saying that you’ve been manipulating us from the beginning,” Crowley summed up.

“That is so not what I said.”

Yeah, okay. “So what are you here to do exactly?” Sam asked.

“I’m hoping to calm down everyone, both topside and the undercity. And at first I wanted to knock Lucifer out, but you did that before me.”

“That wasn’t so efficient...” Bobby realized, taking a step back.

They all turned and watched as Lucifer stood back up. He healed the bullet hole in his forehead and his eyes glowed red.

Amara raised her hand and concentrated, challenging her powers. A wave of black magic fused toward Lucifer. He blocked it with his own grace but it was making him stagger.

Castiel and Michael joined Amara’s efforts. Lucifer wasn’t strong enough to contain the three forces against him. The magic burned his skin where it touched him, and he let out a scream of rage.

Amara, Castiel, and Michael lifted Lucifer in the air. The darkness and grace surrounded him. Crowley let go of Bobby’s hand to attack Lucifer too. A great flash illuminated the scene, showing the shadow of Lucifer’s twisted wings, before they disintegrated.

The darkness returned everywhere but the area where angels cast light. Lucifer fell on the ground.

His body was smoking, it melted the snow around him. He didn’t move. His eyes were open but had lost the red color.

“He’s human, now. And forever.”

Amara knelt and put a hand on his forehead. Lucifer disappeared.

“Where did he go?” Sam asked.

“I sent him to a hypothetical future, one of the billions that exist at the same time. If it’s not the one that’s gonna happen, he will be killed.”

Castiel looked from where Lucifer once laid to Amara, his eyes slightly wide. “You sent him to 2016.”

“Ho do you... wait, don’t tell me. I’ll know when it’s time.”

“Alright, but in a few years from now we’re gonna need your help,” he declared.

“I’ll be there.”

Cas nodded and turned back to Dean and Jack who, curiously, were looking up. He followed their look. The light of the angels was gradually fading. The demons’ light too.

Crowley frowned, “What’s happening?”

“Lucifer’s grace was broken into pieces and spread all over the Earth, Michael replied. It creates a shield between the dimensions. And since Hell, Earth, and Heaven are aligned, everyone’s locked in the place of existence they’re in right now.”

“It closed the gates. I heard of such a thing but it had never happened before,” Bobby commented.

“I don’t understand,” Jack said.

Sam squatted down to his height. “Alright. Imagine three identical boxes stacked on top of each other. That’s Heaven, Earth, and Hell. There are holes in the sides of the middle box so people can go from one to the other. What just happened is, some glue covered every hole, now it’s dried, and people can’t travel between the boxes anymore.”

Jack nodded. Dean ogled Michael, who left Adam in command of their body.

“So I’m trapped here?” Crowley realized.

“It’s not like anyone was waiting for you with opens arms downtown,” Bobby retorted.

Amara snapped her fingers, turning on the headlights of the Impala. “It’s over. You can go home now.”

“You’re not kidding, right? We did it? We stopped the Apocalypse?!” Adam asked, smiling.

She smiled back.

Adam pulled Sam and Dean in the tightest hug he could manage. “Holy shit, we did it, guys!” he exclaimed.

Gabriel soon stole Sam from Adam’s embrace and they started french-kissing. Dean laughed at his brother, who was completely manhandled by Gabe. He then looked around.

Crowley and Bobby still acted as if they weren’t holding each other’s hand. Jack passed from arms to arms, he never looked happier. He basically jumped on Amara, and they both fell in the snow and stayed there, laughing together.

Dean watched Cas as he walked towards him. They both sat on the hood of the Impala.

“Can you believe it?” Dean asked.

“I don’t think I’ve realized yet. Ask me again tomorrow,” Castiel smiled.

Dean chuckled. He contemplated his family once more.

“All of this, thanks to you,” he added.

“You helped a lot-”

“But you brought us all together. You went through so much and you lost people, but you kept going. You saved the world, because you wanted two kids to be safe in the first place.”

They looked over to Adam and Jack, making snow angels.

“I admire you, Cas. And I love you so, so, so much. I can’t believe I never said it before, because that’s the only thing in my mind from the moment I wake up to when I fall asleep. You’re in my dreams, you’re everywhere.”

“Thinking of me all the time must be incredibly boring,” Castiel replied.

They both laughed.

Adam sat up, overcome with fear, “I promised my mom I’d come home before night, she’s gonna kill me!”

“Let’s drive you home, then,” Sam replied.

They all got into the Impala.

“Need a ride?” Dean asked Amara.

“No, thanks, I’ve got stuff to do, she replied. And I think your car is full.”

“Not if we put Crowley in the trunk-”

“Start driving, you squirrel,” Crowley cut him, giving a kick to Dean’s seat.

“Thank you for everything!” Adam told Amara as they drove away.

Time works in mysterious ways. They had spent no more than a couple hours in the field, but when they stopped in front of the Milligan house, their watches showed 8:00am. Maybe Amara decided a new day should come earlier.

Adam took the key hidden beneath the flower pot and unlocked the front door. “Mom?” he called, walking in.

Soon, Kate came from her bedroom and hugged her son. “Hey, sweetheart! How was your night at Percy’s?”

Percy’s? Did she think he had spent the night at his best friend’s place?

Don’t question it, Michael commented. She wasn’t worried about you, that’s the only thing that matters.

Adam smiled. “Yes, uh, the night was cool. We, we watched Troy, you know, ‘cause he’s a fan of Ancient Greek stuff.”

Kate nodded. She then turned to the window and frowned. “Do you know those men outside? They… they have John’s car.”

“Yeah, about that...”

He led her outside.

Sam and Dean sent Adam specific looks: the stop-what-you’re-doing-right-now one and the we-already-met-before-but-we-had-different-names-and-we-don’t-know-how-to-explain-it one. Very, very specific, those looks.

But the Milligan were outside now and Kate didn’t seem to recognize neither Dean, nor Bobby. And if there was a time to believe in miracles, this was now.

“Guys?” Adam called.

The brothers got out of the car and walked up to Kate.

“Hello Miss Milligan, I’m Sam Winchester and this is my brother Dean,” Sam introduced them.

“We’re the eldest sons of John Winchester.”

“I didn’t know he had other children,” she replied.

She thought about it for a second. “I didn’t know much about him, in fact. Well, come in, I guess. You can tell me how you met my Adam.”

Cas watched as the four of them went into the house. He was then distracted by a voice, far away. Someone was calling his name.

He got out of the Impala, and a smile appeared on his face when he realized who was running towards him.

“Balthazar, my friend!”

“Castiel!”

Bal stopped in front of Cas. “I haven’t seen you in years, Castiel! What happened to you? First you disappear for a decade, then you’re back, then you’re in Hell, then as I’m on Earth looking for you, I realize the gates of Heaven and Hell are sealed! I’m pretty such you had a part in this.”

Cas nodded. “I’ll explain everything. But first, how is the garrison?”

“We’ve seen better. Hannah was killed recently, and Samandriel was taken, so Rachel’s the commander. Anna is still lost, Hester follows Heaven blindly, so does Inias, and Uriel has a personal battalion already here to kick ass. I guess they’re trapped on Earth too.”

Bal shrugged. “And me, I’m just here. Wasn’t really interested in fighting without you.”

“If you don’t have anything to do, you should try hedonism. You’ll like the lifestyle,” Gabriel commented.

Bal raised his eyebrows, “Gabriel? We all thought you were dead!”

“I was merely missing. I’m too pretty to die.”

“This is a long story,” Cas added.

“I like long stories,” Bal countered.

The angels walked away as Cas started his tale.

Gabriel turned to the demon. “Hey, Crowley? Does the name Bela Talbot mean anything to you?”

Crowley frowned. “I made a deal with a child named Talbot. But she was British, her name was Abby. Her deal’s gonna end in a year.”

“That’s close enough. She’s the reason you got the Colt and could shoot Luci with it. Is there any way her deal can be broken?”

“I guess I can remove her name off the list.”

“Great. Thanks.”

Bobby, Crowley, and Jack watched as he got out of the car and walked towards the two angels.

“I gotta call Rufus, Bobby said. Let him know that we stopped the Apocalypse.”

“Who’s Rufus?” Jack asked.

“My best friend, and a hunter too. Hey, you know what? He’s Jewish like you, so maybe he can give us tips on how to raise you properly.”

“Not like a gentile,” the kid added.

“Exactly.”

Crowley rolled his eyes. “How wonderful, you’re all turning domestic.”

“What are you gonna do, then?” Bobby questioned.

“Buy a castle in Scotland.”

“Scotland is far away,” Jack said.

“No shit! It’s not like I want to stay with Squirrel and Moose.”

Bobby took a look at the demon. “Would you want to stay with me?”

Crowley frowned, opened his mouth, then closed it. “I don’t know if you’re being straight right now, or...”

“I’m flirting with you, you idjit,” Bobby said.

“Idjit,” Jack repeated.

The older men smirked. “I like this one,” Crowley declared, ruffling Jack’s hair.

“Alright. Maybe I’ll stick around.”

Chapter Text

Amara watched the team drive away until the headlights of their car couldn’t be seen.

She looked up to the snow clouds and snapped her fingers. They slowly dissipated as the sun rose. She walked away from the field and along the road.

A mile away was a bus shelter. No bus was gonna pass for some time.

Someone was sat on the bench, waiting for Amara. To humans, it was a black woman wearing a suit. To angels, it was Raphael. But Amara could see who was hiding under the archangel’s true form.

Amara sat next to her.

“You killed your own son,” she stated, matter-of-factually.

God made a hand gesture as to dismiss the idea. “I gave him life. I had every right to take it back.”

“When did you do it?”

“After I released you.”

God eyed Amara.

“You had one job. Stay away from the Great Plan,” she declared.

“And you had one job, which was to create life and not to end it. I had to do something.”

“Technically, my children were the ones in charge of the Apocalypse.” She frowned. “I don’t get how you could help them. Positive actions aren’t what you do.”

“I destroyed your plan. Loophole,” Amara replied with a thin smile.

“So, you spent a year and a half masquerading as Raphael. What did you see?”

“Three of my sons fell in love with humans and that was enough to save the world,” God said.

She sighed. “The thing is, I didn’t know if I really wanted it to end. I guess everyone was going with the plan, so I allowed. Humans make me bored now. I wanted to something new, start from scratch. If Earth had to be destroyed in the process, so be it.”

“Why not create another universe?” Amara asked.

“I don’t have enough power. I don’t know what’s different from when I did this one, but there’s something missing.”

“Yeah, that’s because I helped you make this, remember?”

Amara let a silence pass. “Let’s just say I help you create another universe, and you leave this one alone. I like it here.”

“Alright.”

They both stood up. Amara then turned to her sister. “About Castiel...”

God nodded. “He changed everything. Created a parallel universe. In the original one, they just learned about soul deals and that John made one to save Dean. But the story is still pretty much the same, and it doesn’t interest me.”

“I hadn't taken Raphael's true form for myself at the time but I still watched. I saw him sacrifying himself for Sam and Dean. I don’t praise him but I guess he did a good thing. Going through that pain because he wanted to protect people he didn’t even know… Then I thought of myself.”

“You only think of yourself,” Amara retorted.

“And of you. He inspired me to release you.”

Amara’s eyes widened slightly. “I’ll thank him next time we meet.”

They took the other's hand and vanished.

Chapter Text

The thing is, Lilith was still alive and kicking. Whatever demons she could find on Earth, she told them to defeat humans with the power of incredible violence. All kinds of fucked up omens appeared in the weeks after Armageddon't.

(“You see? My name was the one that fit best from the beginning,” Sam said.

“We literally voted it out, you don’t listen to democracy.”

“Just admit I was right.”

“Team Free Will, baby!”

Cue Cas and Bobby rolling their eyes, and Jack trying to understand what they were looking up at.)

Those omens were numerous but scattered around the globe. Tracking Lilith down just by browsing through SearchTheWeb.com and the newspapers wouldn’t work.

So here they were, at the doorstep of Pamela’s house, trying to find a powerful being. Second time in what, two months?

Pamela opened the door and smiled. “Sam. Dean. Cas.”

“He’s taken,” Dean quickly said.

She smirked at the hunter. “Ok, protective boyfriend alert. And I’m taken too now, so...”

She then noticed Gabriel and her eyes went wide. “So you did manage to find him,” she said to the boys, not looking away from the archangel.

“M’lady. I assume you helped them find my manor.”

“You were faking being a janitor in a shit college,” Dean corrected.

Gabriel bashed Dean on the back of his head. “Shut up. And I didn’t fake cleaning everything. It was spotless.”

Pamela let them in and stepped back. “I’ll prepare the spell. You know the way.”

The house was slightly less messy than before. At least the werewolf skull stood on a shelf instead of lying around. They could hear the TV playing in another room.

“This time you’re trying to find Lilith? You have a thing for powerful eldritch beings. You know, I offer different services...”

“Next time, maybe,” Gabriel replied.

Dean looked over to Cas, then cleared his throat. “Actually, there won’t… there won’t be a next time.”

“For us, at least,” Cas clarified.

“This your last hunt?” Pamela asked, setting up the map.

They nodded. She smiled before taking a pouch from a drawer and sitting with them.

“Ok. Demon, demon, demon… we don’t need to sing Kumbaya for this one.”

She took a small black stone from her pouch and threw it on the map. It was like a precious stone; it had the form of a diamond.

“What’s that?” Castiel asked.

“Crystallized demon power. Their black smoke, but in a solid state. I collected it and cut it myself.”

“Cool cool cool,” Gabe commented.

Pamela started a chant. “Non rinuncerò mai a te. Non ti deluderò mai, Lilith.”

The stone started rolling around on the map, faster and faster, until it was standing on its tip. “Non scapperò mai abbandonandoti.” It kept rolling for a while before stopping on the west coast of the US. Pamela took the stone back.

“She’s in Palo Alto.”

“You’re going back to Stanford, Sammy,” Dean chuckled.

Castiel flinched.

Dean looked over to him. “Cas?”

“Sam, you went to Stanford?” the angel asked, trying to act normal.

“Yeah, I got my LSAT and law diploma there. 2002-2005.”

Pamela stared at Castiel. “Why are you locking up your thoughts?”

“Because it’s private.”

“Alright, thank you for everything,” Gabriel smiled.

“Bye, guys.”

Pamela turned around and walked back to another room. “Bela, you better have not finished all the popcorn!”

“Bela?” Gabe stopped.

It was indeed Bela Talbot. She had changed her leather jacket for a sweater and large pants.

“Gabriel?”

“Fancy meeting you here,” he said.

She shrugged, “Not really. I basically live here, when I’m not touring the country searching for funny items.”

“I’m gonna make you pay rent,” Pamela smiled. “You know them?”

“I lent them a thing.” She turned back to Gabriel, “By the way, I want it back,”

“To negotiate your demon deal?” he asked.

Bela froze for a second. She clearly didn’t think he knew about it. She pursed her lips, then returned to her carefree attitude. “Maybe.”

“You used to be called Abby?”

She nodded.

“I got Crowley to call it off. You’re not gonna go to Hell.”

Her mask of nonchalance fell off again as she raised a hand to cover her mouth. Tears were shining in her eyes but it felt like she had never been happier. Pamela walked up to her and rubbed her back gently.

“Well, I mean, in this line of work you might end up downtown one day, but no hellhounds for ya next year,” Gabriel added.

She wiped her eyes. “Thank you.”

“No problem. Bye, girls.”

“Bye, boys,” Pamela replied.

They walked to the door. Bela smiled before turning back to Pamela. “You are really going to make me pay rent?”

Pamela had a lustful smile. “It depends...”

“Can I get a discount if I...”

She whispered something in Pamela’s ear and it made her grin. “How many times?” she replied.

Suddenly, Pamela, Castiel, and Gabriel turned to Dean and swatted him.

“Ow! I hate mind readers!” he screamed, running away from the three of them.

Castiel had never seen him like this. John looked like he wanted to kill, and he had the perfect victim chained in front of him. But he didn’t take the final blow, just kept slashing deep lines across Castiel’s skin. Castiel couldn’t do anything but watch as blood and grace leaked from the wounds.

“Fucking 18 years of raising him properly, and this is how he pays me off! Fucking Stanford!” John yelled to himself.

Castiel didn’t understand a thing. John had shown up drunk in the basement before. When it happened, he made sure to stay silent and tell him everything he wanted to hear. This time John wanted to lash out at someone.

“And you, you want to escape!” John turned back to Castiel and kicked his body.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have!” the angel cried out.

The attempt at escaping had just added up to whatever fueled John’s anger. Stanford… Castiel just knew that it meant excruciating pain for him.

As an angel, he was supposed to die in the battlefield, next to his siblings. Not bleeding to death in a dimly lit basement after being detained by a madman for six years.

John started punching him repeatedly, and the part of Castiel that could still think told him it was all his own fault. He betrayed Heaven because he wanted to protect the vessels, but he had failed to even do that.

John eventually stopped the blows. Castiel heard a new noise, and when he dared to look up, John raised his belt above his head. A sharp crack resonated-

Cas woke up with a start.

His breathing was erratic and he felt his limbs trembling. It was the middle of the night, Dean was still sleeping. Cas forced himself to breathe deeply in and out. After a few minutes, he started to feel better, or at least less crappy.

He then wondered how he managed to fall asleep. He only did that when he was human.

His eyes darted on Dean’s phial, the one that held some of Cas’ grace. The missing part didn’t impact his powers but his biology.

Cas slipped out of the bed, discreetly as to not wake Dean up, and went to the motel room kitchen.

He was making himself an herbal tea when Sam left his and Gabriel’s room.

“Oh, hey,” the moose waved his hand.

“Couldn’t sleep?”

“No. I had too much on my mind.”

Cas smiled back. “Want some tea? It’s theine-less.”

“Yes, please.”

Cas found them two mugs, with yellow characters drawn on it. He took the one with a skating boy and Sam the one with a blue-haired woman. Cas then poured the water in the mugs.

“Thanks,” Sam smiled.

Cas sat with him at the island and took a sip. “So, ‘too much on your mind’? What were you thinking about?”

“Things. The future. Dean and you said you’ll retire to raise Jack, Bobby is gonna keep doing his thing...”

“What’s his thing?” Cas asked.

“He impersonates high ranking government agents, Sam explained. Basically, when someone asks to talk to a hunter’s boss, he’s the one who picks up the phone.”

Castiel nodded.

“Adam will go to medical school. And Crowley’s gonna make more crossroads deals. Or stop them. Didn’t really get it. But Gabe and I… we don’t know what’s ahead of us. He doesn’t mind, but I wish I had an idea of what we’re gonna do.”

“You can put your degree to use.”

“I know, that’s what I originally planned, but it’s so… I wanted that when I got out of Stanford. Ever since, I changed. I don’t think I can stick to this plan anymore. On the other side, I don’t wanna die at 30 from a bullet wound.”

Sam stared at the reflection in his mug.

“You want to help people but also live in peace, if I get it right?” Castiel summed up.

He nodded.

“You could still help hunters. Taking after Bobby, helping people in their researches… whatever you’re gonna do, you don’t have to find it right now.”

“Thanks, Cas,” Sam smiled.

Cas smiled back and drank more.

“This what you do when we’re sleeping? Staying up all night drinking tea and offering advice?” Sam asked, chuckling.

“What’s wrong with my advice?” Cas laughed.

He heard Dean groan in his sleep from their room. He went and silently closed the door. The reason why he wasn’t there with him came to his mind.

Cas sat back, sighing.

“Sam… when did you leave for Stanford?”

“July 13^th, 2002. Why?”

It was the right date. Cas mustered his strength. “Because, after you left, John went to the basement he kept me in, and he gave me the beating of my life. I almost died that day.”

“Oh, Cas… I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be, you didn’t hit me. He did.”

“It came back to me today, and I needed to tell this to someone. But I could never blame you. You’re my best friend, Sam. Sometimes I feel like I don’t say it enough.”

Cas had a weak smile. “And Dean is my best friend too, but I also sleep in the same bed as him.”

Sam smiled. “You’re my best friend too, Cas. And so is Gabriel.”

“The difference is that you fuck Gabriel.”

Sam almost spat out his tea. “Cas!” he laughed, blushing furiously.

“What? I’m only ‘innocent’ when it comes to me,” Castiel grinned.

They talked for a while, before Gabriel came out of his own room, sleepy and squinting at the lights. He grabbed Sam and dragged him back to their room, muttering ‘night, Cassie’.

Cas washed the mugs and turned out the light.

Dean had spread over Cas’ spot while he was away. Cas gently moved him away and got in the bed. The angel let Dean lay his head on his chest.

Cas fell asleep with a smile on his lips.

“Man, I can’t remember the last time I went for a swim,” Dean thought out loud, staring at the sea.

“When we saved Lucas Barr last year? In the lake?” Sam replied.

“It doesn’t count! The kid was drowning at the time.”

It didn’t take them long to reach Palo Alto and find Lilith. After all, they were the freaking Team Free Will/Power Rangers.

(“Pretty sure there’s a trademark on that name.”

“Shut up, bitch.”

“Jerk.”)

Taking her out was quickly done. Lilith might have been the most powerful demon ever but she was no match against an angel. Or an archangel. Or the second and third best hunters on Earth – Bobby came first.

They were gonna head back to Sioux Falls soon, after a stroll on the beach. Gotta enjoy the scenery, they didn’t go to California everyday. But the scenery was drowned in clouds and November weather.

Dean turned away from the water. “Doesn’t matter. It’s too cold anyway.”

“If you wanna go, knock your socks off. We’re done with Lilith, nothing’s holding you back.,” Sam countered.

“I’ll turn into a block of ice the second I touch the water.”

Cas and Gabe shared a knowing look and snapped their fingers at the same time. All clouds disappeared.

Sam and Dean looked up at the now burning sun. The temperature rose up twenty degrees in a few seconds.

“What the...” they muttered before turning to Castiel and Gabriel.

The brothers were smiling, Gabe was holding a beach bag.

Sam leaned to whisper to Dean, “I think they’re the ones.”

“Yeah, we got the right guys.”

And then Gabe’s smile turned malevolent. “Everybody on Samwich!”

“What?”

He hadn’t much time to react; the three others grabbed his limbs and started carrying him through the beach.

“Wow! Guys, put me down!” he laughed.

“Why are we doing this?” Cas asked.

“Because it pisses him off!”

As they ran with Sam towards the sea, they felt the warm sand under their feet. And Dean could swear that two seconds ago he wore shoes and not flip-flops, but it didn’t really matter.

They stopped when the water reached their ankles. “On three! One…”

“Gabriel, if you let them throw me in the water, I swear...” Sam started.

“Two...”

“It’s ok, I don’t let them; I lead them,” Gabe retorted.

“Three!”

They threw Sam as far as they could. He splashed water all over them. They couldn’t stop laughing. When he stood up, he was in swim shorts, and not soaked clothes. Cas shrugged and snapped his fingers again, giving swim shorts to Dean, Gabe, and himself.

“Ha! Now it’s payback time,” Sam grinned.

They all jumped in the sea before he could grab them. Dean and Gabriel started splashing water on each other, because deep down, they were both six years old.

Which made him think… With a gesture, Cas teleported Jack on the beach.

The kid still had crayons and a paper sheet in his hands. He turned around, confused, until Cas walked out of the sea and to him.

“Hey, sweetheart, how are you?” he said, pulling him into a hug.

“I’m good! I missed you, dad!” Jack replied, smiling.

Every time he said it, it gave Cas a warm feeling inside. He thought of what Dean told him about the different kinds of love. He didn’t love Dean, Sam and Gabe, Bobby, or Jack in the same way, but that didn’t mean he loved any of them less.

It was wonderful.

“I missed you too. How were those two days?”

“Uncle Bobby made me pasta and mashed potatoes and we went to the park everyday! Crowley and Adam and Michael visited us. I was drawing something to give to Uncle Bobby.”

Jack showed him his drawing. Two stick figures played on swings: a big one with a baseball cap and a small one with blond hair. On the top, Jack had written “Uncle Bobby and me”.

Castiel recalled seeing children’s drawings in a box at Bobby’s. Some dated back to 1985, but they were all worn out, like someone looked at them under the sunlight for too long. Cas glanced at Sam and Dean before turning back to Jack.

“I’m sure he’ll love it.”

Jack saw the sea and a big smile appeared on his face. “I wanna go swim with them!”

“Do you know how to?” Cas asked.

Jack shook his head no.

Cas looked around, and a buoy had appeared next to the beach bag. It had yellow and black stripes with bees drawn all over it. It matched the yellow swim shorts Jack now wore.

They put the drawing in the bag and joined Sam, Dean, and Gabriel in the water.

Chapter Text

10 years and 6 months later

They’d known for a while now, who the threat was. Turns out Uriel had been on Lucifer’s side all along. He hoped that Jack would be a Nephil. With his powers, they could find Lucifer back and restore his grace.

Of course, they couldn’t. Jack was 100% human. Castiel and Balthazar had made sure no one found him, at least no one they didn’t trust.

Castiel and Jack appeared in front of Kelly’s house. It was lovely, a great place to raise a child. It resembled their own house in Sioux Falls.

Dean was home, waiting for them. Cas knew he was wringing his hands and throwing hopeful looks at the door every time it opened. He offered to go with them but it wasn’t his fight. He hadn’t fought in years anyway. Cas didn’t want his husband to get hurt.

Cas looked at Jack again. The teenager was nervous but determined.

Cas rang the bell. Kelly opened the door; she was like the first time Cas had seen her, except with less blood over her body, and a nine month baby bump. 17^th May 2017. Jack was to be born in the next hours.

“Can I help you?” she asked.

“Hello, my name is Castiel Singer, and this is my son. We’re here to protect you.”

Kelly looked between him and Jack, intrigued by her son she did not recognize.

“Protect me? From what?”

“The angels who are after you and your child. The one you have from Samael,” Jack said.

She gasped softly. They both wondered if she had been able to tell anyone. It was likely she didn’t; who would have believed someone telling they met the devil? She had protected herself and her son by isolating herself in this Washington house, away from any city. It took longer for Uriel’s angels to find her.

“How do you know...?”

The rest of the question faded as she turned to the teen. A look of revelation crossed her face. “Jack?”

He pursed his lips and nodded, tears shining in his eyes.

“Oh my baby...”

She didn’t have time to understand more before he hugged her so, so tightly, like he had been waiting for this moment for years.

She stayed in the embrace but turned her head towards the man, Cas Singer, whispering “How?” Because how was her child yet to be born, as an adult in her arms?

“We can’t explain everything. There’s been mix ups with the future.”

She invited them in and they made tea. “You were raised by this man?” she asked.

Jack nodded. “And his husband, and both their brothers. But Cas really is my dad. He did a great job.”

“It looks like it,” she smiled.

A contraction made her grip the edge of the table. It wasn’t worse than period pain yet. Doctor Shepherd had said they could happen hours before labor started. Jack and Castiel didn’t notice.

“Now, about the angels after me, and Samael...”

Castiel nodded. “In 2006, we defeated Lucifer before he could end the world. We took away his grace – what makes him an angel – and sent him in our future, 2016.”

“Didn’t it occur to you that he could do things in 2016?”

“The person who helped us sent him in one of the thousands of possible futures that existed. We had no idea that this peculiar one would be that one we’d live through. It’s an unfortunate coincidence.”

“Hmm.” Sucked for a coincidence. “I met him in a bar. He didn’t seem devil-like at the time. Said he was called Nick. Took him home, and after it was done, he told me his true name was Samael. Or Lucifer, depending on your religion.”

“Cas is an angel and I’m Jewish. Cas raised me in your religion, and mine as a kid, then when I was 16 he offered me to follow the religion I wanted. I didn’t change.”

Jack showed her a thin necklace with a David star. Kelly smiled.

“I see. So, he told me that he was an archangel and, well, I didn’t believe him. So he showed me the shadow of his wings. Big, scary, skeleton-like.”

Jack turned to Cas. “Does that mean he’s gaining power again?”

“No, his wings are broken beyond repair. Showing their shadow is the easier trick an angel can do. It doesn’t necessitate much grace, and as an archangel I’m sure Lucifer can do it without his powers.”

Kelly nodded. “I got scared and he left. Three months later I realized I was pregnant.”

“So, what do the angels want my son for?”

“When an angel conceives offspring with a human it creates a Nephil – a being even more powerful than the angel who birthed it. They believe they can use Jack’s powers to restore Lucifer’s grace,” Castiel said.

“Angels doing that?”

“A rogue faction.”

“They didn’t find the older Jack?”

“We gave him protection sigils that make him impossible to track down, Cas explained. Uriel doesn’t know that this Jack exists right now. However he knows that your baby is coming to the world.”

“So we’re screwed either way-”

A wave of pain forced Kelly to stop talking and grip the table to the point of white knuckles.

“Are you okay?” Jack quickly asked.

“Contractions. You’re coming, baby,” she told him. “I’m prepared to give birth by myself but if you want to help, it would be appreciated.”

“We will both do our best but Uriel’s angels are coming. We can’t flee them, I’ll have to leave and fight them at some point,” Castiel replied.

“How many angels in that battalion?”

“Twenty.”

Her eyebrows raised. “Twenty to one? Don’t we have someone else to help?”

“In case of unavoidable danger, maybe.”

“Yay. Now, I need to go lay down. Jack, can you keep me company?”

“Of course.”

Kelly sighed in relief after laying down on her bed. “That’s better.”

Jack brought a nearby chair close to her. “I’m hurting you. I’m sorry.”

“It’s not really your fault, baby. You’re not doing this consciously. If it was the case for all babies, we would all be blamed by our moms. Imagine the family dinners.”

Kelly groaned in pain. “I’m gonna miss the epidural.”

She turned to Jack. “If I ever curse you, or baby you, be assured I don’t think any of it.”

“Alright.”

“You still haven’t explained why you’re here, at that age… how old are you?” she asked.

“Sixteen, but seventeen tomorrow,” he replied.

“Oh right, it’s your birthday after all. Well, I now know that this won’t end until midnight at least. But I wanna know more about what happened.”

Jack pursed his lips. “The situation is going to get messy. I’m the proof of that.”

“Why is Castiel raising you, why isn’t it me?”

He refused to say anything. She stayed silent until she realized, “I’m gonna die.”

Jack’s face betrayed him. Kelly shivered.

“Oh, okay. In the next hours or later?”

“I can’t tell you...”

She took his hands in her own.

“Please, I need to know if I’m gonna live longer. I don’t want to lose you the second you arrive… I don’t want you to lose me either...” she told him.

He looked down. “A few years from now. Cas will be there for you. He’ll take care of me too.”

Kelly hugged him tight.

They let go, and a scream of pain came from her lips.

“Okay, I quit, I don’t want this baby anymore,” she said.

Jack frowned, and she smiled awkwardly. “I’m kidding, it’s just a joke. I’m trying my best.”

“I don’t really understand humor. Cas is the same.”

A weird sensation made her look down, “Oh god.”

“What?”

“My water just broke.”

“I’ll go get Castiel,” Jack said before rushing out of the room.

18^th May 2017.

5:03am.

Castiel had teleported Jack back home hours ago. The boy couldn’t stand seeing his mother in pain, or all the blood.

Cas wasn’t a medic angel. Seraphs were fighters and didn’t heal other angels. Besides, Kelly was human, more fragile. She was bleeding but mostly they were fine, she was simply in tremendous pain.

“Kelly, you’re doing fine, it’s okay,” he tried to calm her down.

Which was a terrible idea. If she could’ve grabbed the lamp on her bedside table, she would’ve thrown it at him.

“Please tell me anything else, distract me,” she pleaded.

“I don’t know what to say, I’m not the chatty type.”

“Well then, become one!”

Her took her hand. A vision of Kelly dying came to his mind but he forced himself to not think about it. She was alright.

“Why is an angel even helping me?” she asked after another difficult contraction.

“Jack saved my life.”

“But how? You two refuse to tell me anything!”

Cas pursed his lips.“I was lost and he found me. I protected him and raised him in return.”

“After my death?” Kelly asked.

“I know about it,” she added, seeing how he reacted.

“Yes, after your death. He’ll turn out fine, I think. You saw him.”

“I don’t know which part is my education, which is yours, and which is just Jack, but he’s a good kid.”

The pain made her scream again and grip Cas’ hand tight enough that it hurt. He didn’t say a word.

“Please tell me anything else, take my mind off things,” she asked again.

“I’m not really an angel anymore. Years ago, I cut a part of my powers away and gave them to the man I love. That part had my immortality. I’m slowly aging. I’m thousands of years old but my body is 36.” Cas smiled, “I’m happy that I’ll get to grow old with my husband.”

“What’s his name?”

“Dean Singer. Born Winchester.”

“Angels have last names?” Kelly questioned.

“Not really. I used to simply be Castiel. When Dean and I got married, we decided to take the name of our father figure. He was Dean’s best father. His real one was a piece of crap.”

“What? He was homophobic?” she asked.

“Yes, and worse,” Cas replied.

“Racist?”

“Probably.”

“Misogynist?”

“I don’t doubt it.”

“Bad father?”

“Horrible.”

Kelly shook her head. “That’s not it. He did something to you.”

“It’s a long story...”

“Cas, I need it. Please make me think of something else.”

Cas told her almost everything, starting from 1996. He avoided most of the parts with Jack, even if it created a hole in the story. He also didn’t tell her about being there as she died.

He was telling about how Michael released Lucifer when lightning struck.

Every electric device in the room – and probably in the whole house – let sparks and turned off. Thunder never rolled. This wasn’t natural.

“They’re here,” Cas declared.

“The angels?”

Cas stood up and came to the window, wiping Kelly’s blood off his hands. The house was surrounded. He could count at least ten angels on this side. Something didn’t click, though, they should have been taken by surprise. No angel appeared with lightning.

Castiel then saw the magical ingredients at Uriel’s feet. A wide range tracking spell.

Clever. They could now track down the three of them: Cas, Kelly, and Jack. It was a double circle spell, with the inside circle aka the house containing those being searched, and the outer circle containing the trackers. Anyone on the outer circle could find them anywhere on the planet, starting now and forever.

Starting now. But not if they were in a time period before the spell was cast.

He understood now why they had to leave 2017. The story was written for Kelly and baby Jack. Cas had to make sure his own didn’t end tonight.

“Cas?”

He turned back to Kelly. She was terrified; her face sickly pale and covered in her own blood.

“I’ll be back in no time,” he lied.

She’d wait six years and he’d never see her again.

Castiel left the room. He walked down half the stairs and stopped, listening for any suspicious noise. He could hear them walking around the house, making sure no one fled.

He looked up to Kelly’s bedroom one last time. He should’ve asked Adam to come, a doctor and his own archangel would’ve been useful.

Too late to regret it. Cas closed his eyes, praying.

Hello, Amara. It is Castiel, Angel of Thursday. You know me. Years ago, you promised me that you would come when I’d call you. This is the time. I need your help, now.

Cas hadn’t finished praying to her when he felt a new presence in the room. Amara walked out of the shadow. She hadn’t changed in appearance; her suit was now electric blue.

“I’m here.”

“Thank you. There’s a woman in the room upstairs who needs your protection,” he started.

“The baby’s coming,” she cut him, walking past him.

“What?”

“The baby’s coming!” she repeated, walking up the stairs.

She stopped before opening the door and turned to Castiel. “If things get messy, do you have a safe place I can send them to?”

“I was in London in 1942, you can try then.”

She nodded and rushed in Kelly’s room. He couldn’t know it but as Amara crossed the outer and inner circles of the spell, she focused its energy on Jack, and then extended it to all of time. This gave her past, present and future selves the capacity of finding him anywhere in time and space. She’d be watching over him.

Cas walked out of the house, closing it behind him.

Uriel had lost his angel charisma after being cut off of Heaven for so long. Angels used to look like musicians; all sharp-dressed and manicured nails. Cas had turned comfortable and welcoming, paint on his hands, warm to the touch.

Uriel and the other angels in front of him were dirty, dried blood sticking to their skin. They never stopped fighting, even when there wasn’t a fight.

“Castiel. The Fallen One,” his former friend greeted him.

“Less Fallen than your master. Hello, Uriel.”

“So you know about Lucifer’s child. I’m not that surprised: wherever there’s a heavenly plan, there’s Castiel to throw it off the rails.”

Cas was aware of the other angels slowly surrounding him. He drew out his angel blade. “How is working for Lucifer a heavenly plan?”

“Once we’ve given him his powers back, we can storm Heaven and rule over every dimension. It’s simple. And you’re not gonna stop it.”

“Are you sure about that?”

The closest angel tried to stab him. Cas dodged his blade and punched him in the face. He hoped not to kill any of his siblings. A dozen angels then joined the fight.

He had trouble guarding the door and defending himself against the attacks. Soon enough, the first thing proved useless, as one of Uriel’s soldier broke the window and crawled inside the house. This distracted Cas, and Uriel swiped his legs and made him fall.

Cas’ head hit the ground, and as a sharp pain pierced through his skull, he could feel blood and grace starting to trickle down his wound. Uriel kept him on the ground with a foot on his chest.

“I’m disappointed, Castiel. You don’t live up to your reputation,” Uriel declared, the tip of his angel blade on Cas’ chin.

Cas was prepared to join Samandriel, and then he heard Jack scream.

The first baby scream of Jack Kline. His son was just born. He felt tears filling up in his eyes as he imagined Kelly holding Jack in her arms.

Uriel turned to the rest of his battalion, “Get him.” They rushed in the house, leaving only Uriel and three other angels with Castiel. He couldn’t let them hurt Jack or Kelly.

Cas grabbed the nearest limb and gave his owner a fourth degree burn. The angel yelled and recoiled, letting space for Cas to roll over and stand back up. He finished smiting the angel and took their blade.

Cas turned back to Uriel and his men, the two blades in hands. He killed both angels coming for him at the same time. Uriel started forming a bolt of grace in his hand, until Castiel stabbed it to the wall. Uriel made another attempt with his own blade; Cas stopped his movement, twisted his arm, and used it to stab him.

Light shone out of his mouth and eyes, then his whole body collapsed, but his hand pinned to the wall.

Cas looked around him. Four pairs of wings were burned on the ground. Then he heard new screams and ran back inside.

Before he could enter the bedroom, a great flash illuminated it, that he only saw by the crack of the door. When he opened it, no one was here.

Shadows of wings covered the room floor to ceiling, and he knew Amara had disintegrated the angels. The sheets were all bloody but Kelly and Jack weren’t them.

Cas sat on a chair for a second and covered his face with his hands.

The fight was over. End of story. They were finally free to live life as they wanted.

And Cas knew what he wanted.

He was going home.

FIN