A/N: I've tried to get a picture on how angel hierarchy really works, but I got contradicting theories, even within themselves (like the archangels are only second to last on the ladder, yet even the highest ranking group of angels is ruled by an archangel.... Yeah, talk about being sensible.)
Sticking my nose into a bible didn't help either.
Apparently angels' main job (next to worshipping God) is to tell random old, childless women that they're pregnant after all, and would they please rejoice? Because their son – nah, no daughters, folks, watcha thinking? – will be big and important and will multiply until nobody can count the offspring anymore, hallelujah.
So, being educationally confused, I decided to rank them to my own liking.
Three Times (or maybe a couple hundred) Dean Died and Four Times He Didn't
... and what Castiel had to do with it
25 May 1978 – † demonic spell
Mary Winchester stood in the living room of her new home, ironing her husband's shirts. Cas felt her calm, her silent joy. Apparently she liked this work. Or maybe it was being married that made her happy. Or maybe the knowledge about the new life growing inside of her.
At 3:15:59 pm the little body was prospering, its cells multiplying and specialising, the tiny heart beating a fast, steady rhythm.
At 3:16:00 pm the heart stopped.
At 3:16:01 Castiel reached into Mary Winchester's womb, gave the heart a push, and it picked up its rhythm again. A bit irregular at first, and faster than usual as if to make up for the second it had missed.
It was not hard to determine the culprit: a demon, and a powerful one too. It required a lot of skill and practice to stop an unborn heart without giving the mother so much as a fleeting feeling of discomfort. And as it was, Mary Winchester kept ironing happily throughout the entire incident.
Castiel realized only that afternoon how very important this particular human actually was, and how hard it would be to keep this descendant of Cain alive. Dark creatures would keep coming after him.
But at least for the duration of the pregnancy there was a surefire way of keeping this child safe. Castiel burned protective symbols on the inside of Mary's womb.
This life, hardly begun, had to be protected.
14 April 2008 #1 – persistence
Castiel didn't like being persistent with his brothers, because he felt it upset them. But sometimes there was no other way than to disturb Heaven's tranquillity, and now was such a time. He had been given an assignment, and he planned on fulfilling it. If that meant making himself unpopular, so be it.
Unlike most angels, he had heard of the Campbell-Winchester Line and its importance long before either Mary or John had even been born. It was not because he was a Watcher or even officially associated with them. He simply found it relaxing to talk to Haniel on occasion, who was a Watcher. It seemed just natural that they should talk about the bloodlines Haniel was following at the time.
That's how Castiel had learned of the Winchesters. And it was, he pondered, probably this prior knowledge that had earned him the assignment. He was to watch over the older Winchester Son, like a common Guardian, really. But apparently the importance of this human called for a more experienced angel.
He had received his orders almost exactly thirty years prior to today, and they were quite clear:
Make sure he lives.
Don't mess with his life.
Intervene only if inaction would result in his certain death.
Hard to misinterpret.
Which was why Castiel would disturb Heaven's tranquillity. Dean Winchester was going to die if Castiel didn't take action. And he would not just die. If this were just another simple case of dying, Castiel wouldn't bother much. He'd step in and right the wrong, wasn't like he hadn't done it before. Dean Winchester had a rather unique talent for dying.
But this time he wouldn't just die. He would lose his soul to Lucifer.
And Castiel wasn't going to let that happen if he could help it.
