Dean woke up to a bright white light with a shape of someone standing ahead of him in the distance. As his eyes adjusted to the blinding light, he spotted a figure with massive dark wings, spread out from a shape of someone wearing a long coat. A trenchcoat, he thought.

"Cas?" Dean called out to the figure.

"Hello Dean," the figure responded, though it wasn't Castiel's voice. The voice was much too feminine to be Cas.

Dean hesitated. "Who are you?" Dean demanded of the strange figure looming ahead of him.

Dean stepped closer to the imposter with small cautious steps. His eyes adjusted more to the light and saw that the figure was not Castiel, but a beautiful woman with large black wings, wearing Castiel's blue tie and beige trenchcoat.

The woman stared at Dean in a curious way that looked quite familiar and stepped closer.

"You don't recognize me Dean?" The woman's eyes glowed blue for a moment as the white lights flickered, causing shadows to make like a storm was approaching and then as quickly as it happened, the room was white again.

Dean's head was spinning. It couldn't be Cas. Castiel did not look like this, but her facial expressions, her light, everything about her radiated like Castiel used to. Dean stepped closer so that they were face to face.

"I know I no longer have the vessel you are used to, but you should know me enough to know I am still who you think I am- who you know I am."

Dean raised his hand to the woman's shoulder and touched the collar of the trench coat. He then held the tie that hung around her neck and began to adjust it like he had always done with Castiel.

Why was he doing this? Why did he believe that she was Castiel? Why did he have the feeling like it was true, why he knew it was true?

The woman raised her hand and placed it on top of Dean's to stop him from fixing the tie.

Suddenly Dean felt an overwhelming sensation. He saw the day he met Castiel, and felt everything he felt that day when he found out angels were real. He saw his whole relationship with Castiel before his eyes. He even saw Castiel watching over him during his time with Lisa and Ben. Even after Cas was killed in the final showdown, he saw the angel transfer angelic matter to Dean so that he could help set the world straight yet again and be with him until the end.

"Cas?" Dean whispered. "But how, why are you…"

Dean couldn't articulate his thoughts at all. Castiel was a beautiful woman with long brown hair and piercing eyes, but somehow, Dean knew that this was still Castiel.

Castiel smiled and did not remove her hands from Dean's.

"You are in a place that many people do not get a chance to ever experience. This is my true form Dean."

"You're a.. lady? A smoking hot lady..."

Castiel laughed heartily.

"You are still human despite being in the realm of angels. Your mind cannot comprehend me in my truest form, so it changes my grace and essence into a being that your soul can understand. It is not me that identifies with being a woman. Angels do not identify with gender."

"But I've seen you with the same vessel since I met you, how come I don't see the form I'm most familiar with?"

"Your mind is deciphering my grace, the true essence of what I am. My vessel was just my earthly body. It is similar to looking at light through a prism. At first, it is just a white light, but when a prism is placed in front of the light, it breaks it down to a spectrum of colours. Vessels are like the prism so that angels can walk among humans without our light burning out a human's vision and mind. You are seeing angelic light in its purest form without the protective screen of a vessel."

"So, this is… you?" Dean was surprised he understood what Cas was telling him.

"Yes, in my truest form."

"So why didn't you grab a female vessel?"

"Angels do not identify with gender."

"Okay, I got it, gender means nothing." Dean paused. "Soooo, you really are you?"

"Look within yourself Dean and tell me that you do not believe that I am who I say."

Dean looked at Castiel carefully and pulled her towards him in a deep hug.

"It's good to see you Cas." Dean said with tears in his eyes.

As he pulled away from the hug, Castiel placed her forehead on his so that they were still close together. ""I missed you Dean," Castiel whispered as he looked deeply into Dean's eyes. With no warning, Dean closed the gap between his and Castiel's lips and kissed her deeply. Castiel returned the passion and they put their hands around each other, pulling each other closer as they embraced.

Sam opened his eyes and felt a cold, hard surface beneath him. His entire body ached and after a minute or so of adjusting to the dark, night sky, realized he wasn't sure if he could even move. Sam groaned and placed his hands on the ground beside him. He pushed with all his might on the ground until he realized he couldn't get up and turned onto his back again. Staring up at the starry sky, he thought about everything he and Dean had been through within the last few days. "Dean," Sam murmured to himself. It hadn't been the first time that his brother had died, but each time it happened, it was more painful to Sam than the last. After all, how many more chances was he going to have to bring him back? How much life did he have left? They had only died together once, but he doubted they would be lucky enough for that to happen again.

What was he going to do? Firstly, he needed to get up. His surroundings faded in and out and he felt like he was going to lose consciousness soon. He rolled back over on to his side. He felt quite numb. Was it cold? He didn't feel much pain though until he saw what he was dealing with. Sam's entire right side of his body was broken and bloody. His skin was burned to a crisp from the right side of his face to just above his elbow. Suddenly all the pain rushed up through his body and he screamed in agony. He must have been cut and burned when he jumped from the roof when he raced down and held Dean's body after he had been killed.

There was no one left. No one left to help him recover so that he could save his brother. Cas was gone. Obliterated by what was left of the Archangels and their army. No allies to call on. Not a human in sight.

On the bright side, there weren't any demons around either. All of the demons were safely stowed away in the new hell, and the monsters had been silenced for another few days. A few days? What day was it? Did he still have time to recover before the ghosts of the past came back? Will they come back?

"Hello?" Sam called again fruitlessly. As he screamed, it felt like a wave of fire had washed over him again.

Sam shut his eyes and waited for the pain to subside again.

Eventually they broke away from one another, though still remained close together. Dean eventually took another look around the area that he had appeared in.

"So where are we anyway?" Dean asked looking around at the great white room.

"This is my Father's house. A place reserved for only the elite of the garrison."

"And we're elite? I'm not part of any angel army man."

Castiel dipped her head down for a moment and looked back up to Dean.

"That's kind of why we're here," Castiel said after a moment. "Dean, we'd like you to consider leading the new Archangel garrison."

"Um... Wait. What?"

"We'd like you to consider…"

Dean cut her off. "Yeah, I heard you the first time." Dean paused for a moment. and sighed. "I'm no leader Cas, and I'm no angel. There has to be rules against that."

"My Father has determined that it will be acceptable to do so if I co-lead with you."

"Leading an angel army with my best friend. Sounds… kind of like a lot of responsibility Cas."

Castiel smirked. "I'll even let you pick your commanders. Anyone you wish."

Dean went wide eyed.

When he opened his eyes again, a substantial amount of time had passed. How long did he pass out for? Sam was almost certain he was going to die there. As he drifted off into blackness again, he saw it. It looked like a light at the end of the tunnel.

Sam laughed to himself, but was only able to let out a sound that was in between a grunt and a moan.

So there is a light at the end of the tunnel, he thought, wondering how many time he'd actually seen this light. The light was getting brighter and brighter. He felt like he couldn't take it anymore, except his eyes couldn't be more shut. He struggled to concentrate on the growing light, and just as he was straining to look away , he saw a figure of a man standing in the middle of the light.

"Chuck?" Sam managed to whisper, voice cracking even as a whisper.

"Come on Sammy!" Dean laughed. "I'm flattered you think i'm the man upstairs, but it's a little too much responsibility for me; with having to save your ass all the time and all." Dean came into view and winked at his dying, broken brother.

"Dean!" Sam mouthed, though the pain was too much for him and no words came out.

"Dude, you look like crap," Dean called as he snapped his fingers.

Suddenly Sam felt calm and relaxed; blissful almost. He gave a deep sigh.

"Now that you're better, come on, we need to go lead an army of archangels." Dean said

"What just happened?" Sam started. "Are you... an angel?"

Dean laughed hard for a moment. "Hell no! Though I did put you out of your misery, with my new badass 'leader of the angel powers'." Dean winked again "Let's go Sammy! I need your help. We need to go and save the world and you know I won't be able to do it without you. It's the family business!"

Sam tested his strength and leaned up from the ground. He looked at his brother for a moment, thinking about what exactly was going on.

"Up and at 'em! Cas is waiting to give you a rundown of our recruitment assignment." Dean gave out his hand to help Sam to his feet.

Sam had no idea what was happening, but the more he pondered, the more he knew what he was born to do- what he was created to do- and that he wouldn't rather do any of it with anyone else.

Sam nodded. "Well let's go then." He grabbed Dean's outstretched hand so that he could be helped up. " We've got work to do."