So this fic was inspired by Pentatonix's song Run to You. It just seemed to inspire this little oneshot, you should totally go listen to it if you read this fic! But you don't have to... I mean only if you want to!
An: And to those who always tell me the rules when I put some form of lyrics in my fics, yes, I do indeed know the rules but thank you for reminding me. Each, and Every, time. I do not, let me repeat do not, copy and paste the lyrics. I switch pages back and forth to write them down because the artist had to write them down before they sang it so it is only fair that I must do the same. So, if you feel the need to remind me of those rules then by all means feel free to do so, and even though you may not think it, I do in fact know them and try to follow them as best as I can. It is not like a person can email the writer of the song in order to get permission for every single song lyric they want to put in a fic. Thanks again for your help in remembering the rules, Stay cool. And stay in school. But only if you want to...
Anyway! The fic!
I've been settling scores
I've been fighting so long
But I've lost your war
And our kingdom is gone
When Michael had finally been put in the cage, the angels, young and old, stopped. They had been fighting this war, brother against brother, friend against friend, for so so long.
There was no more singing.
There was no more laughter.
No more fledglings playing.
No more of anything that was once the happiness that Heaven had once been filled with.
Heaven, like its angels, was broken.
Now that they had no more orders, fighting, clashing of weapons, they didn't know what to do. Against popular (Gabriel's) belief, they were not mindless drones who were sheep waiting to be given their sheep boy to lead them around. It was simply that they had been fighting a war for so long, that they didn't know what to do now.
When the sonic wave of an archangel being cast in the cage had shook the Heavens all of the warriors froze. They looked at each and every brother, at every sister, and yet they saw nothing. They saw a broken being, both mentally and physically. Wings were drooping towards the ground. Once silver and white and colorful robes were now tattered rags.
Swords, bows, knives, all weapons clattered to the ground as the angels fell to their knees. When He had come home, He had found them like that.
Broken, sad, lost.
Silent choirs.
Crying fledglings.
His broken children.
As He walked through the masses, a thousand angels it seemed, He saw things that made Him flinch. Featherless babes. Poor fledglings who had been put in situations they never should have been put in, tortures that He never wished upon any of his children (even Lucifer).
He frowned, swallowing back bile, burns and broken wings, everything was out of place. Everything was broken.
How shall I win back your heart
Your heart which was mine
I have broken bones and tattered clothes
I've run out of time
When He had found his eldest children. He was still in so much shock at what He had just witnessed that He merely waved a hand at them, and they followed without a single word.
He returned to Heaven, with the four archangels in tow, and everything was still the way it had been when He left. When the angels next to the gates saw them, particularly Michael, they snapped to attention. Stumbling to their feet, wings trying to stay firm behind their backs but failing. They were merely children, children hardened by a war they should never have had to fight.
Michael's eyes widened, finally taking in what he had done for the first time, as he gazed into the dead stares. He had murdered them. they were nothing but broken beings. He had destroyed his brothers and sisters all because of his need to get even with Lucifer. He recognized one, Gadreel, and didn't miss the way he flinched when his gaze met his stare. The brother he had locked in prison without ever hearing his story. All because his mind had been suffering from the fall.
A single angel among thousands that he had broke.
"Do you see? tell me, my children, do you hear anything? Do you hear the wails of pain? Of sorrow? Do you see the fledglings? Do you see their broken wings and tattered robes? Do you see their tears?"
He led them through the main path of Heaven. He led them past the crying fledglings. The little angels who barely had their flight feathers and yet would probably never fly. He led them past the fallen warriors, watching as they flinched away or scooted away. Past a wailing babe with one and a half wings. Past swords and bows and weapons.
"Do you see what you have done?"
He stopped in front of what was once the main hall, where all angels of all rank would gather, but was now an abandoned building. Factions, separated by rank, settled around the floor not even daring to gaze at one another.
Gabriel saw Castiel among them.
All the angels had been called back when He had returned. And all of them, even those on Earth, were broken by this war.
"All of you have taken part in destroying the only beings who would ever and for always love you. Even after your abandoning, Gabriel, Castiel still tried as hard as he might to save you from Lucifer."
Castiel was there, still and silent as ever, staring off into space as he stood at command in front of the four archangels.
"Michael, even after everything, they would still kill one another if you so asked it, but tell me, would they do it out of loyalty to you? Or out of fear for what might happen if they don't?"
The babes, fledglings, stood ready to fight, ready to attack, if so given an order to do so. Staring blankly up at him as if they were expecting those orders within the next few moments.
"Lucifer, do you hear your choirs? Do you hear their songs, the songs you were so happy to have taught them? Do you hear them?"
His choir angels, his choir brothers and sisters, stood tall but stood broken. They were not singing any more. They were wailing.
"Raphael, does it make you happy to know that your younger brothers are hurt and yet refuse to even look in your direction for help? That they are to afraid to even look in your direction?"
As the healer looked at them he couldn't help but frown as they all turned away. avoided his gaze at all costs, moved away when he reached forward for them.
It hurt him.
It hurt them.
It hurt Him.
"Fix this, my sons, fix your brothers and sisters. Be the brothers you once were, the brothers some never got the chance to meet and some miss with their entire being but are to afraid to look for. Show them, show them that you are not monsters"
And He was gone.
They knew their orders, but looking at their broken siblings they became more orders. They became much much more than any order ever given.
A thousand Angels.
All broken.
And it was all their fault.
I will break down the gates of Heaven
A thousand angels stand waiting for me,
Oh, take my heart and I'll lay down my weapons
Break my shackles to set me free
As one, or as one as they could be at the moment, they all looked in the direction of Naomi's office. At the screams that filled the air for a mere moment. At the sound that had some running to see the cause of, even the archangels ran.
There, among the torture devices and blood, stood a fledgling. Slamming his blade, given to him at too young an age, into the body of Naomi. She was lifeless. She was dead.
And he was broken.
His screams broke them out of their daze as the four rushed forward. Gabriel and Lucifer (surprising the young one at his appearance and gentleness) tried to calm him, asking his name to which Castiel filled in as Samandriel. Raphael kneeled next to the body, trying to find a pulse of grace but never succeeding.
"She is dead"
Michael was looking between the hysterical fledgling and the dead seraph. He mind filling in the blanks on what had been happening. Naomi had went to far on the wrong angel it seemed. He ignored the body, as best he could at the moment, and walked to the hysterical sobbing little mess. Samandriel froze as the arms wrapped around him, froze as he was pulled into someones strong chest, and in one desperate moment grabbed onto him like if he let go Naomi would get off the floor and come for him again.
"I-I'm n-no-not bro-broken! I'm no-not bro-broken!"
Michael ran his hand over the young angels tattered ruined wings. Tears breaking from his eyes.
"I know... I know..."
And that was all he could say.
It had taken a while, but they had soon gathered all the fledglings in one area. Did a head count. and mourned the ones who were lost to them forever.
Gabriel found Castiel next to the same rock he had found him by when they had first met all those millennia's ago. His once bright blue eyes now a dark hue of their former glory.
"Hey Cassie"
"Hello... Brother..."
Gabriel swallowed hard. He could hear it, see it, even if Castiel was trying as hard as he might to hide it. He could see the small fledgling he had left in the gardens still wanting him to come home again. And yet here he was, and Castiel was to nervous to even look at him.
"Cassie... I am so sorry"
Now he was looking at him, and Gabriel wished he would look away once again.
"For ever what brother? You have nothing to be sorry for"
He would never tell anyone outside of this small duo, but a tear or two leaked down his cheek. The angel that had taken him so long to open up was now a shell of his former self.
"I.. I should never have left you like that... Never... And I am sorry... So sorry"
Tears fell from the younger angels eyes, but his stoic expression stayed the same.
"...You never even said bye..."
Gabriel laughed, a slobbery tear filled laugh, as he pulled Castiel into his hold. His arms wrapping around the younger angel. Castiel hesitated but returned the embrace.
Sobbing into his shoulder.
And they sat there, a sobbing seraph and crying archangel, until the younger had cried himself to silence.
Until Castiel showed to ultimate sign of trust, and fell asleep in his arms.
Raphael had snatched him up before he even had a chance to escape once again.
Ramiel burst into tears at the thought of being alone with him. Scratching at the healers arms as he was carried into his pantheon. Still pretty much void of the other healers except for a certain few who had slowly trickled back. Raphael set the little angel down on one of the beds, immediately taking him back into his arms when he had tried to make a run for it.
"Ramiel, stop, why are you so afraid"
"No kill me! No kill me! I good angel! I good angel!"
He was still to young to grasp the concept of proper grammar and yet could easily break ones wing in two. Raphael sighed as he adjusted his grip on the struggling fledgling who had almost squirmed his way free once again. Falling back on the bed behind him, holding the small angel close to his chest, both arms wrapped tightly around him. Ramiel pounded his tiny fists against his chest sa he tried to gain his freedom.
"Rami I am not going to hurt you! Stop it little one! I promise!"
Ramiel stopped at the name, the pet name he had been given before everything. When he had been a small mischievous angel who always managed to find his way into Raphael's care at least twice a day. Something in his lavender eyes snapped, something must have came to his mind, a memory long since forgotten now remembered. He stopped his struggles altogether.
"You promise you not hurt me?"
"Yes Rami... yes..."
To Raphael's amazement, the fledgling stared at him for a minute longer before laying his head back down. Snuggling into his grip as he settled his small self down. The elder ran his fingers through his short, messy, lavender locks as the fledgling fell into a healing slumber, right there, on his chest. His thumb making its way to the babes mouth.
At the sight of the calm little angel, others began to trickle in for comfort. For healing.
For Help.
And help them they would. Heal them they would.
It was their fault they were broken, but, with time, it would be them to fix it.
So? Make sense? Hope it does! Hope you liked it! Let me know!
AN 2: OK so I was thinking about the part where Gabriel had said that the other angels were sheep, sheep waiting to have someone to follow. that they would never understand free will like Cas and him. But, what if they did understand, they did have it, but they have had to been fighting for so long. We only hear about the angel civil war when Castiel had gotten involved, but what if it had been happening for way longer then that, since before Cas had gotten involved? So when you do nothing but fight and follow orders for so long, you begin to lose a part of yourself. What if the other angels did in fact have free will, but they were broken because of all the fighting and the war, and so now they just wait for orders because it has been all they had known for as long as they could remember? It has been what kept them alive for this long so why would they try anything other than that?
Anyway... I'm rambling again...
But, seriously, I hope you enjoyed the story! Tell me what you thought!
