"Sam. Sammy! Sammy stay with me." Dean tried desperately to keep Sam awake, but he was slipping away. The pain of the trials was almost to much for Sam to bear. Although the price for stopping the completion of the third trial was great, had it been completed, Sam would surely be dead. As the brothers were propped against their Impala, the impact of an angel to earth could be heard across the lake; small points of yellow light in the dark sky indicated there were more to come.
On the other side of the clearing, the fallen angel woke. As he stood, he opened his eyes with a start; the world looked different. Apart from the sound of the angels falling, the silence was deafening. Where he normally heard the sounds of his brothers discussing orders, he found nothing. Castiel looked to the sky overhead as the emotions began to surface. Cas had felt feelings before, had felt remorse or regret or even sadness, but without his grace, there was nothing to suppress the full effect of everything he'd done. Cas found himself feeling pain, loss, and confusion; that mixed with the sight of his brothers descending to the earth was enough to bring him back down to his hands and knees. As the tears started to flow, Castiel heard a faint scream from across the water. Who was that? That voice was familiar, friendly. Someone was calling his name. "Cas? Castiel!" He knew that voice. He had known that voice for many years; it was Dean.
"Dean!" he tried to scream loud enough. Cas returned to his feet, and stumbled back into the trees. As he ran, he could not stop his mind from drifting. Even in all the confusion, he couldn't help but focus on small things he was not used to; the feeling of being cold and wet, the feeling of hunger, of emptiness. Surprisingly, he felt more whole without his grace, he felt a certain physicality. As an angel occupying a vessel, Cas always felt like something from his true self wasn't contained in his human body, but, in the absence of his grace, he felt as if there was nothing more to him than what was in his vessel, nothing left of his former self.
Cas reached the old wooden church just in time to see an angel collide with the roof, bringing most of the building down with it. Sam and Dean still lay by the Impala, Sam screaming in pain whilst Dean tried to calm him. "Dean! Sam!" Cas yelled as he ran towards the brothers.
"Cas! Cas- fix him, now! Heal 'em up from this trial thing!"
"Dean I- I can't. I fell, I- I'm not an angel, I'm-..." Cas trailed off as the tears began to swell. He was right beside them then. As Dean stood, lifting Sam, he stared at Cas in disbelief.
"Wha- Cas you... what do you mean you're not an angel?"
"I'm a- a human I'm- Metatron... he- he took my grace then I fell. All the angels they- it was a spell. They're all falling." Cas was almost breaking down.
"Cas- Cas! Hey, we'll figure this out, but right now we need to get Sam to the hospital. Help me get him in the car." Dean said with an unusually soft tone. As Cas struggled to get Sam's arms around his shoulders, Dean started the car and helped Sam in the backseat. Once Cas and Dean were both in the car, Dean sped off in the direction of the nearest city, not looking back towards the church. In the passenger seat, Castiel couldn't help but stare out the window up towards the speckled sky. The angels were still descending rapidly, and it was all Cas could do to not start sobbing on the spot.
"Hey- Hey! Don't you go all depressed on me you son-of-a-bitch, we will find a way to fix this." Dean said harshly. "There's gotta be something we can do. Maybe we can-"
"No Dean!" Cas cut in, turning his face to the Winchester. "You don't understand! The angels are walking the Earth! And they're not even angels anymore! Thousands of them, all over the world! And there is nothing to stop them from slaughtering each other, now that almost anything will kill them. The war has spilled out from heaven onto Earth, and now they won't stop until everyone of us is dead; me, you, Sam, we've got targets on our backs and no where to hide!" Cas was screaming his words, something he rarely ever did. After a moment, he returned his gaze to the sky above, and the three of them remained silent throughout the rest of the drive.
The next day
Sam had remained in the hospital overnight. The doctors had said that they didn't know what was wrong with Sam ( for good reason ), but would try to heal him with the tools they had. After the necessary paperwork was done, Dean and Cas had returned to the motel. On the news, the government was declaring the falling objects as being meteorites; there had been many casualties that were said to have been caused by the "meteorites" impacts. Cas was still a mess, while Dean was doing everything he could to save the sanity of his friend. In a brief conversation, Dean had told Cas about the proper use of the bathroom, and told him a little more in depth about sleeping, although Cas had once before fallen asleep in the back of the Impala, so the information was not entirely new. Once the boys were settled, Cas lay down to sleep, whilst Dean found himself browsing his laptop for any distraction he could find ( aside from porn, that is ).
