{A.N. Hey guys, here's Chapter 2, hope you guys like it! Thanks for all the awesome reviews; thanks for the praise FeveredDreamscape and here's hoping it delivers what it promises netherlady! I really love doing things from different POVs so I'm glad you liked how I did the first chapter moria galadrial.}

Chapter 2: Miraculous Recovery & Meteor Chases

"Metatron lied. You finish this trial, you're dead Sam."

Dean watched the orange glow fade from his brother's arms and he let out the breath he'd been holding. Every time he'd seen that glow, Sam had gotten worse. Hopefully that was the last he'd ever see it.

"Think about what we know, huh? Pulling souls from hell, curing demons, hell, ganking a hellhound! We have enough knowledge on our side to turn the tide here. But I can't do it without you."

Dean's heart dropped when he saw Sam double over in pain. Agony that he, Dean, had no way of stopping, no way to help his brother. Dean wracked his brains trying to solve the problem while he grabbed Sam and supported him towards the church door and away from Crowley.

"I know we've had our disagreements, okay? Hell, I know I've said some junk that's set you back on your heels. But Sammy…come on. I killed Benny to save you. I'm willing to let this bastard and all the sons of bitches that killed mom walk because of you. Don't you dare think that there is anything, past or present, that I would put in front of you! It has never been like that, ever! I need you to see that, I'm begging you."

Dean tried to comfort his brother as they made it outside and towards the Impala. Sam groaned and fell down next to the Chevrolet, he couldn't concentrate, could barely see, he was in such pain. Dean called out for Cas but Sam knew it was no use, somehow he knew.

"Come on, let it go okay? Let it go, brother."

Dean Winchester looked up to the sky and saw what would be a once in a lifetime event. If his confidence and faith had buckled when his brother collapsed in pain, it was now gone completely, replaced by a soul-destroying pit of worry deep in his stomach. When one of the angels stuck the lake right next to them, Sam looked up.

"What's happening?" Sam gasped.

"Angels," Dean replied. "They're falling."

Five days later.

Dean yawned loudly as he walked into the central room of the Men of Letters' secret lair. Truth be told, he loved the place. He had his own room, they had hot showers every day, it was a secret lair with its own dungeon, what more could a hunter want? Immediately after the events of five days ago, they'd driven the 6 hours straight from Sioux Falls to Lebanon, Kansas and holed up in the Batcave with Crowley left and forgotten at the abandoned church. It wasn't like he was the most popular demon in Hell after all now that he had a semi-conscience.

Sam had gotten progressively worse over the first two days but over the last three he'd started to get better. Dean had been beside himself with worry when his brother's condition had worsened. There was no one to call, no one to ask, no one to summon. Balthazar was long dead. Castiel hadn't responded. Garth wasn't answering his calls. Kevin, who'd gone back to Garth's boat, couldn't find anything on the angel or demon tablets.

But now things seemed to be looking up. If you discounted the fact that every angel in Heaven had now plummeted to Earth, including, Dean assumed, one of their closest on-again, off-again allies, things weren't too bad. Nothing had popped up causing Dean to worry.

There'd been a couple of strange news stories which Dean attributed to angels assimilating badly, but he wasn't sure if he should do anything about it. Shouldn't that be their leader's concern? Dean had lost track of the goings on in Heaven (not that Castiel kept him entirely informed) but he had no idea who the angels would be turning to right now.

Dean had been busy this morning. He'd already gone out on a run and picked up the essentials: eggs, bacon, beer, peanut M&M's and had made a huge cooked breakfast for himself and his brother. Sam was already seated at the main table in the library, a book propped open in front of him. Dean set down the plate in front of him, on top of the book, earning a glare from Sam.

"I make you breakfast and you glare at me. Seriously dude, we gotta work on your manners," Dean said, sitting down himself and surveying the masterpiece of food that was his breakfast. "Home cooked meal…" he murmured in mock anger.

"Have you heard anything?" Sam asked.

"From who?" Dean looked up from his bacon and egg sandwich.

"Castiel? Naomi? Metatron? Any of the angels?"

Dean was confused for a moment. Then he realized that this was the first time that he'd had a relatively lucid chat with Sam about what had happened. This was the first day that Sam had actually gotten out of bed, showered and dressed and come out to the main room. Dean had been focusing on that fact and not all of the worries that were gnawing away at him.

"There has been absolutely no news on the angel front," Dean replied. As an afterthought he added, "Haven't heard from Cas yet."

"Yet? What do you mean yet? Have you tried looking for him?" Sam asked, putting his knife and fork down in exhausted irritation. "Did you even try?"

"Of course I tried Sammy," Dean shot back angrily. "But how do you think we are supposed to find those self-righteous dicks anyway? They're all human now. We can't just summon one of them."

Sam sighed unhappily. "We need to try. Cas…he thought he was doing the right thing"-

"Yeah he always does. He's a sucker for good intentions and we all know where that leads," Dean cut in, before taking a bite of his breakfast. "The very same thing happened with Crowley and the souls. Now the same thing has happened again. He gets a hit of sympathy from someone and then he's like putty in their hands. All ready to be manipulated."

"You can't say that about Naomi though. She was mind-controlling him. That's not the same," Sam countered. "And he broke it up with her anyway. Deep down he knew what he was doing wasn't right. And he stopped."

"Not before he'd beaten me up. Again, I might add," Dean said. He tapped his nose. "I'm really tired of this beauty getting broken."

"Yeah, but he fixed you," Sam replied.

Dean sighed. He didn't know what to think of Castiel anymore. At one point he had been their best friend, his best friend. The best ally they could've had in the war against Lucifer and the apocalypse. Cas had helped them fight off other angels – his own family – to make sure that the Winchesters were safe. But he'd changed. He'd tried to find God. And that's where things had fallen down. An angel without any faith is like a semi-trailer with severed brake lines. All the freedom in the world, but a complete disaster waiting to happen.

And then the problems with Raphael had started. Sure, that was something no one expected. Why the hell would anyone want to jumpstart the apocalypse? Again? But if only Cas had come to them for help, they could've…Dean thoughts drifted off. What could they have done differently? Dean wasn't sure what they could've done, but hell, given the chance, they might've found something.

Dean sighed again. "Okay," he said.

"Okay, what?" Sam asked, confused.

"Okay, we'll try and find him. But I did a little digging and there were 9,842 meteorite sightings around the world, five days ago. Which one was Cas?" Dean questioned.

"Well you said the Naomi told you what Cas was doing wasn't to close the gates of Heaven. It was to cast out the angels, right?" Sam said, working through his theory in his mind.

"Uh-huh."

"So, killing a Nephilim, getting a cupid's bow, that was the start of it, the spell or trials or whatever Cas was doing," Sam continued.

"Yeah…"

"So obviously there was at least one more thing he had to do to complete it. You know, like with closing the gates of Hell – kill a hellhound, check. Rescue a soul from hell, check. Cure a demon, not quite check. But once Cas had done whatever he did, the angels started to be cast out."

"Okay, Sam, I don't know where you're going with this, but yeah."

"So maybe if we figure out what that third trial was, we could figure out what happened to Cas," Sam finished.

"Yeah, I guess. But, still, how do we know that Naomi was telling the truth?" Dean replied.

"Well, look at it this way. She might have been mind-controlling angels for millennia but she was right about this one. She said that what Cas was doing would cast out the angels from Heaven, and that's what happened. Why don't we, just this once, trust her?"

"Fine."

Two days later.

Dean and Sam were waiting on a response from Kevin about the Angel tablet, but they both had an inkling there wouldn't be anything on the tablet that related to casting out the Angels. To pass the time they'd been researching any and all leads on angels in the books at the Men of Letters lair.

While digging through a box in one of the storerooms, Dean had come across a tattered old manila folder with the words 'Angels to Earth: Trials' written on the tab. Inside were the three trials needed to cast out all the angels from Heaven to Earth.

"What the hell?" The first thing that struck him as odd would be why the Men of Letters would have a copy of the trials. But still, it wasn't a hugely effective weapon compared to, say, shutting the doors of Hell forever and ever, amen. He supposed someone picked it up somewhere and filed it away for any potential future use.

He brought it back to the main table and he and Sam poured over it. There was the first trial, instructing the trial-taker to kill a Nephilim, the offspring of an angel and a human. The second trial, to cut off a cupid's bow. And the third.

To give up your own Grace and be the first to fall.

Both Dean and Sam sat down at the table and let that thought wash over them. Would Castiel have really given up his own Grace because he thought it would fix Heaven? Surely not.

"He wouldn't have been that stupid," Dean finally said. "I mean, he's done some pretty damn stupid stuff in the past but, come on. 'Give up your own Grace'? That's gotta raise a few eyebrows."

"But Naomi said that it was all Metatron though," Sam suggested. "That it was Metatron wanting revenge on Heaven."

"So…what are you saying?"

"Well, maybe they use the term 'give up' loosely here. Maybe Metatron just took it from Cas?"

"After seeing that place he was living in, I figured that guy was all kinds of screwed up, but I can't picture him doing that," Dean said. "Cas had a hard time pretending to be an FBI agent and all he had to do was fool a few hick cops. Surely pulling the wool over another angel is a bit trickier."

"Yeah but compare the two, Dean," Sam argued. "Cas said that he'd only ever been watching, for thousands of years. That the first time he actually had to come down to Earth and do something was when he pulled you out from Hell. Metatron's been here since before Columbus for god's sake. And he's been reading up on us. If anyone knew how to act out a part it'd be him."

"Goddamnit," Dean murmured. "Cas would never have seen it coming." Dean ran a hand over his face. He suddenly felt seriously guilty for thinking that Castiel was just some blind puppy following anyone and everyone. He'd been tricked by his own kind. He'd spotted Gabriel a mile off, knew that he wasn't just some trickster, some Pagan demi-god. But he'd never suspected Metatron. "Alright. We gotta find Cas."

"Well it shouldn't be too hard," Sam said. Dean frowned at his younger brother.

"No?"

"It says right here, 'give up your Grace and be the first to fall'. The first to fall. We're not looking for a needle in a haystack anymore. We're looking for the first one," Sam said, triumphantly. Dean couldn't help but smile. A week ago, his brother had been a wreck, all dark circles and 40 hour naps, and now, he was almost back to his old self. If anything was a miracle it was this.

An hour later on his laptop, and Sam had found the first meteor sighting. "Washington State."

Dean looked up from the musty old volume he'd been looking at. "Huh?"

"The first meteor sighting was reported by a Ranger Luke Johnston of the Lake Chelan State Park in Washington State. That's gotta be him, don't you think?"

"I suppose so. Shall we get going then?" Dean said, standing up.

"Wait, Dean, it's been a week. I doubt he'd still be there," Sam said. "He's human now right? Which means he's gotta eat. He's gotta sleep. He would've moved on."

"Yeah, but what other leads do we have. Garth put out the call to everyone to let us know if they find him and we've got nothing on that front."

"Dean, it's almost 24 hours if we drive there without stopping," Sam said. His older brother mused on that thought for a moment before nodding and pushing his chair in.

"We've driven further for less," was the reply and two hours later they were on the road.

As they were taking the Impala slowly and steadily up the fireroad that led through Lake Chelan State Park, Dean was starting to think his brother had been right. They'd spoken to a few people in town and no one had seen Castiel. The rangers they'd spoken to said the same thing. Everyone had been a little distracted by the meteor shower that they wouldn't even have noticed him. While Dean was easing his huge Chevrolet through the forest to the mile marker the ranger had said was closest to where he'd assumed the meteorite may have landed, Sam was on his laptop, hacking into the CCTV of some of the businesses in Chelan.

"Bingo," Sam erupted from the passenger side.

Perfect timing, thought Dean as he saw the 6.2 mile marker and pulled the Impala over. "What have you found?"

"Here, it's CCTV footage from a Biggerson's the day after the meteor shower. Take a look." Sam swivelled the computer around on his lap so it faced his brother. It showed the foyer of a Biggerson's with the entrance to the fast food restaurant on the right and the doors to the restrooms on the left. People were walking in and out going about their business but a slight man in a muddy, tattered trenchcoat caught Dean's eye. He did a double take as the man walked into the men's room.

"Is that"-

"Keep watching," Sam promised. A few moments later the men's room door opened again and Castiel walked out. His trenchcoat was still ripped and torn in a few places but he appeared to have roughly cleaned some of the muddy patches. There was a cut on his cheekbone but it didn't look too bad. What Dean noticed most of all though, was how he really looked, wrecked trenchcoat and cut cheek aside. His shoulders were hunched, his head was bowed, and he barely looked at anyone as he walked out. He seemed completely defeated.

"Well I guess we've got the right place, but I think we're a little late," Dean said. "If he was already in town by the next day then he's well and truly blown it by now."

"You're far too late, I'd say."

Both Sam and Dean jumped at the sound of a female voice at the open driver's side window. A red headed woman was standing a few feet away from the car, hips cocked to one side, checking out her fingernails. The brothers got out of the Impala slowly, careful not to make any sudden moves, and Dean pulled Ruby's knife out of his jacket's inner pocket.

"And who the hell are you?" Dean asked, exasperatedly. If there was one thing he'd had enough of, it was demon bitches who always knew more than him.

"Well, you'd think I'd made an impression on you two boneheads since you cut me up into little pieces and all," she replied.

"Abaddon," Sam said.

"Give the giraffe a medal!" she exclaimed sarcastically.

"What do you want, Abaddon?" Dean questioned, knife at the ready.

"Well, considering you were just checking out your angel boy toy on video and you appear to be right where he landed, I'd say that what you want is Castiel," she deducted.

"Wow. Give the red head bitch a medal," Dean snarled back at her.

"You might want to be a little nicer to the demon that's holding your ex-angel captive in a dungeon all tied up," she replied.

"What?" Sam shouted. "What would you want him for? He's not even an angel anymore!"

"Yeah, I know," Abaddon said. She started to check out her nails again and pulled out an emery board. "But he still screams when you cut him. It's actually been kind of fun."

"You bitch," Dean started, walking up to Abaddon, knife raised, " tell me where he is or I swear to God I'll"-

"You'll what?" Abaddon didn't even look up from inspecting the nails on her right hand when she grabbed Dean's wrist with the other. She squeezed and the knife fell from his hand along with a cry of pain escaping from his mouth, as bones crushed together. Dean punched her across the face with his left hand. It hardly distressed her as she kicked him in the stomach sending him flying. "You can keep your little skewer, that'll barely leave a scratch on me," she said, picking up Ruby's knife and throwing it. It landed inches away from Dean's unconscious face. Sam just stood there, frozen to the ground, he wasn't sure if he should run or what. After all, the last time he'd seen Abaddon was when he'd been setting her previous vessel on fire.

"Now Sam, how about you do what your older brother is clearly incapable of and be a polite gentleman, while I write down the address of where I'm keeping Castiel."

"What? Why?"

"Why should you be a gentleman or why am I telling you where your angel is?"

"Uh, the second one?"

"Because, truthfully, I'm kind of bored. It was fun playing with him, but I've got bigger fish to fry. Now that you've completely incapacitated Crowley you're looking at the next King of Hell. Or Queen I suppose. Now I'll give you back your angel on one condition."

"What? Anything?"

"I'm really over you and your brother. Your whole family in fact. So I'll just ask one thing. Leave me the hell alone. You even think about closing the gates of Hell and I will be on you like white on rice. Anyways, looks like you've got bigger fish to fry as well," Abaddon said. She handed him a scrap of paper. Sam looked down to see an address written in cursive and when he looked up, the Knight of Hell was gone.

He looked over at his brother, out cold next to the Impala. "Guess I'm driving then." He looked down at the note. "Evergreen, Missouri it is."

{A.N. Hope you liked the second instalment, as I said before, constructive criticism is always appreciated (as well as just plain old love haha!) so review away!}