Sam was left all alone once more. He had nothing. Bobby had died, he killed Kevin and now, his own brother was gone too. On top of that, he had stupidly turned down Amelia not to leave Dean alone. Even Castiel deserted him.

Castiel was right. Sam owed Dean a lot. The eldest Winchester had saved his younger brother sorry ass a bunch of times. He had done lots of bad things, such as when he was hooked up on demon blood, when he broke the last seal and started the Apocalypse because he was too stubborn to listen, when he left Dean for dead in the purgatory without even trying to look after him.

He was the worst brother ever. He had to make up for it. He had to save his brother, even if it is the last thing he would do.

Anyway, a lot of water had run under the bridge since then. Maybe he had waited too long so it won't count as a trial to close the gates of hell. Maybe, now that he'd hosted an angel and temporarily a demon he was no longer pure enough and everything he had done then had vanished. He had to try, for Dean.

Castiel could feel his vessel consuming. The blood that ran into his veins seemed like lava, every heartbeat like a jackhammer. The pain was awful. It felt like his body wrapping's layers were burnt and torn apart from the inside. He had worsened his condition when he went to Sam. He was wearing another angel's grace. It was payback for the angel he had killed.

Someone knocked on his door. It was his angel sister Hannah.

"Castiel, some angels and I thought about your grace."

"Thank you."

"We believe that you better turn human until we find another way. It will stabilize you."

"What? You want me to leave heaven?"

"Castiel, if you don't, you'll die. We don't want you to die."

"Do you really care that much about my life?"

"Yes, we do, Castiel. You are our brother."

"So, why did you kill Metatron before I had the chance to ask him where my grace is? You haven't even thought about it? Even so, you would have killed him anyway. You don't care about me. You don't care about anything. You say we are brothers and sisters, but we keep slaughtering each other."

"You are wrong. We are a family, we don't want you to die, neither had we wanted to kill Metatron, but we ought to, in order to keep our family safe."

Family. That word reminded him of Dean. He always said that family is the thing that will always help you, no matter how deep in shit you are, no matter how shit you've done to you, to them, it didn't matter. Family will always be there.

At that instant, he realized what he was feeling. He missed Dean. He will always miss him, no matter how many years would've passed. He was anchored in his memory. He was no ordinary human to him. He was more.

Maybe turning human wasn't that bad. The pain would stop, his body would recover. Eventually, he would die by natural causes like all of them, and he'll stop suffering once for all.

"If I do become human, will you search for my grace?"

"We swear we'll do."

He looked at her deeply into her eyes to scan for the truth. Her blue eyes were pure and full of sincerity. She radiated bliss and comfort so that Castiel couldn't mistrust her.

"Alright then".

She took her angel blade and cut his throat. His grace evaporated instantly. She didn't collect it because it was nobody's grace. He had trouble to breath, he was on the verge of dying, he could sense blood running down his neck, yet he felt relieved. His bones weren't smoldering coal burning his flesh anymore. Hannah put her hand on his throat and healed him. They gazed at each other's eyes.

"Now, you have to go, Castiel."

"Where should I go?"

"On Earth, among humans."

She touched him. Suddenly, they were on Earth in front of the bunker door.

"Goodbye Castiel."

She flew away.