Author's Note: Again, this wasn't supposed to turn out like this, not at all. It got morbid again, really fast... I guess I just don't like happy endings. Sorry (not really...)


Though all we knew depart,
The old Commandments stand:
In courage keep your heart,
In strength lift up your hand.


It doesn't take long for the petty squabbles of angels to drive the earth to ruin, factions battling across the globe, decimating the human population as they wage war. And those who stand up for the human race are struck down without a thought, until only two remain - the broken hunter and his fallen angel.

The angels come for them eventually, on a brilliantly sunny day with a sky the blue of Cas' eyes.

Not a bad day to die, Dean thinks.

There are too many angels for them to even have a hope of coming out of this alive, and a small part of him is annoyed that after everything, after surviving monsters and demons and the freaking apocalypse, it's come down to this, but that's their life, he supposes.

This is what you get for standing in the way of the angels one too many times.

But there's no way he's going down without taking as many of them with him as he can, so he tightens his grip on the angel blade and shifts his weight to the balls of his feet. Behind him, he senses Cas doing the same, and he reaches one hand back and touches his angel's elbow.

"Wait for it, Cas. Let them come to us..."

And for an instant, everything freezes, and the sound of a hundred angel blades dropping into their owners' hands rings out in the eerie silence.

In that moment, Dean wishes that there was another way, a way where they could live, could bring Sammy back, find a quiet lake somewhere and leave the world and heaven and hell behind, just the three of them. Hell, Cas never even got to live any of the good parts of being human...

But their choices led them here, to this end.

At least he'll die back-to-back with his angel.

And as the angels start forward, he hears Cas ask quietly, "Now, Dean?"

Dean nods grimly, though he knows Cas can't see him.

We're coming home, Sammy...

"Now."


There is but one task for all,
One life for each to give.
- For All We Have and Are - Kipling