AUish. As in, fuck you, Sera Gamble, season 6/7 totally did not happen. Nope.
...Yeah, I don't like what she did with the show as you can probably tell.
Disclaimer: None of this is mine, 'cept the little guy. Kripke owns the rest of 'em...unfortunately.
Bed Time Stories
A few years after the averted apocalypse, a young boy climbed into bed, his mother sitting beside him.
"Mommy, why do I have such a weird name?" he asked. The mother smiled warmly at her son, gently caressed his cheek.
"You're named after an angel, baby." she whispered, love radiating out of her to the child. He furrowed his brow and turned his head slightly to the side, something the angel he was named after did frequently.
"An angel? What kinda angel?" he asked, sitting up. The mother's eyes moved to the window, briefly glancing into the night before turning back to her son.
"One that helped save the world." she said. The boy's eyes lit up.
"Wow, really?" he exclaimed, jumping up a bit. His mother giggled and nodded.
"Yes! He, along with two boys." The child's emerald green eyes grew wide with wonder, and he shifted closer to his mother.
"How'd he do that?" he asked. His mother ran a tender hand through his hair and kissed his forehead.
"It's a long story, baby. Aren't you tired?" she replied, trying to get her son to lie down again. They boy wouldn't budge, though, and shook his head.
"Not tired! Wanna hear the story!" he demanded. A sigh passed through his mother's lips and she nodded.
"All right, but don't complain to me when you're cranky like daddy in the morning!" she warned in a stern tone, a last ditch effort to convince the young boy to go to sleep. He was determined to hear her story, though, and shook his head again.
"Don't care! Tell me!" he insisted, stubborn as could be. Another sigh was heard from the mother as she glanced out the window again before turning back to her son and began.
"Before you were born, a man named Draven went to Hell to save his brother, Stephen. He went through thirty years of a lot of terrible things, and every day, the demon doing those things to him would offer to let him go if he stared doing those terrible things to other people. Every day he told the demon that he'd never, until one day, he couldn't take it anymore and agreed to his terms."
"Why would he do that, Mommy?" her son asked.
"Because when someone goes through that much pain, sometimes they take it out on other people. Like the kids at school that make fun of you for your name. It doesn't make it right, but it gives it reason other than just because they can" she explained. The boy's eyes softened and he nodded, allowing her to continue.
"What Draven didn't know, was that he had broken the first of the seals that opened Lucifer's cage, and brought on the apocalypse. Then, one day, an angel named Castiel-"
"That's my name!" the boy exclaimed proudly. His mother absolutely swelled with pride and she nodded.
"Yes it is! Castiel raised Draven out of Hell and brought him back to life! He was scared of the angel at first, thinking it was a powerful demon or a spirit. Then Castiel explained why he pulled the man out, and he understood. He didn't like it, but he knew he could trust what this angel was saying. The person who starts the breaking of the seals is also the one meant to end the apocalypse once it begins, he'd told Draven.
Over the course of their time together, the angel and the human grew close, close enough that one day Castiel had planned to tell his friend the true nature of what he was destined to do, but was sent back up to Heaven and told that if he tried to meddle, he wouldn't be an angel anymore, so when he went back to Earth, he didn't tell Draven his true destiny.
See, Heaven wanted the apocalypse to happen-"
"Why would Heaven want that?" her son asked, tilting his head in that oh so familiar way again. She shrugged.
"Because to the angels, we don't mean much. Most of them, anyway. They don't care for us. They want what is written to happen and that is that."
"So, how was Draven 'apposed to stop it?" he responded. She smiled.
"I'm almost at that part. Hang on, baby." He nodded, eagerly awaiting the rest of the story.
"An angel's true form can't roam the Earth properly. It needs a human vessel to take over. It possesses them, but it has to be with the human's permission, unlike demons, who can simply crawl into whomever they see fit. Draven's destiny was to be Michael's vessel, and his brother was meant to be Lucifer's vessel once he broke out of Hell. They were supposed to have an epic battle that Michael was prophesized to win. An epic battle that would've wiped out the entire planet.
Draven didn't want to do that, so he said no. The angels tried to convince him, Castiel included. One day, though, when Draven was able to talk to his friend alone, he changed his mind. He got him on our side. It was too late, though. Lucifer had already risen and was wreaking havoc all over the Earth in a temporary vessel. The angels tried again and again to persuade Draven to say 'yes' to Michael, and Stephen to say 'yes' to Lucifer, but they wouldn't have it. Castiel was a tremendous help, shielding them from other angels when needed, protecting them from outside threats. Together, they fought destiny itself."
"Whoa…did they win?" the boy asked, grinning widely. She couldn't help but smile back, and laughed.
"I'm almost at that part, baby! Just be patient. After a while, the angels gave up on Draven ever saying yes to being Michael's vessel, his sword of sorts. Instead of using him, they used a long lost brother the boys didn't even know was alive anymore. He wasn't, but the angels, being desperate, raised him from the dead for this purpose.
Running out of time, and options, Stephen had an absolutely insane idea. He was going to say 'yes' to Lucifer as well, but instead of carrying out the prophesized battle, he was going to attempt to take control of his body long enough to jump back into Lucifer's cage, trapping himself and the fallen angel in there until the next time someone decided to jump start the apocalypse. Draven kept saying that his brother shouldn't, that he wouldn't let him, but Stephen did anyway. At first, he wasn't strong enough. He couldn't take over, and Lucifer and Michael met in an abandoned graveyard to start their fight. Draven interrupted them, though, determined to somehow stop them, even though he knew he really couldn't. The two angels were going to kill him on the spot, but Castiel showed up and sent Michael away long enough for the man to open the cage up, and for his brother to fall in, but not before Michael came back and attempted to stop them, only to be brought down into the Pit with his fallen brother.
Heartbroken, Draven begged Castiel to dive back in and bring his brother back, and the angel loved the human so much that he did. He reached down into the cage and brought his brother back safe and sound. It's said now that the three work together, fighting ghosts, ghouls and other monsters all over the world, saving as many people as they can."
The small boy was silent for the longest time after she'd finished, eyes wide as quarters and mouth slightly open in complete awe.
"Whoa…" he whispered, still with the same expression on his face. She smiled and ruffled his hair, which seemed to break him out of his trance as he wrinkled his nose and glared up at her. His mother simply laughed.
"See? Your name isn't weird. It tells an amazing story!" she exclaimed. He giggled and nodded, clapping his hands even.
"My name is awesome!" he replied, absolutely beaming. The sight seemed to cause her body to move forward on its own, kissing her son's forehead again before moving so she was standing up and the boy was lying down again. He yawned, turning on his side, still smiling, as was his mother.
"Good night, Castiel." she said, looking adoringly down at her son then shot a glance out the window before tucking the small child in, and turning out the light.
Out in the yard, an angel in a trench coat stood, stoic and peaceful looking, but exploding with joy on the inside. His mouth twitched in what appeared to be a small smile before he spoke. "Good night, Lisa." he said, noticing that she'd addressed both her son and the angel outside when she'd said that. He chuckled to himself as he heard her scold her older son, Ben, for Lord knows what reason then sighed contently as she made her way to her own room, wrapped her arms around one of the men she just told her son about, and kissed him softly. Satisfied with their well being, the angel fluttered away to the man's brother who was silently studying in a Stanford library, also safe and sound for the time being.
The angel then went back to Heaven to his own family, who were finally at peace with one another for the first time in over a millennium.
Little Castiel never did figure out that his mother had changed the names of the men in her story, never knew that one of them was his father, Dean Winchester, and one was his uncle, Sam Winchester, and that they didn't actually travel the world killing monsters anymore, that they decided to live as normal as a life as they could possibly have with what'd they'd done, only dealing with whatever happened to come their way, but not seeking it out any longer.
For now, there seemed to be no reason to inform the child of his true family history, so the story remained the same to him, even years after he'd first been told it.
All was well in the universe. Things were finally balanced again. Not exactly peace and love balanced, but not so far off the wire that the world was going to end, so it was good enough for them.