We're in the home stretch! I finished writing the last chapter this afternoon, so all that's left is proof-reading!

TheRiverScribe owns Raphael's sloth.

Quick notes- Sleipnir is Gabriel, Fenrir is Castiel, Hela is Luna Lovegood, and anyone who comments with Jormungandr's Wizarding identity gets a digital cookie.


The front door of the bunker opened, revealing Samuel Winchester. "We kind of expected you to appear inside the bunker. But come in, come in. Are these the fledglings you wanted us to babysit while you go off doing whatever it was that you needed to do?"

"They're not babies. They're fledglings. Then again, I suppose the sentiment is similar." Michael considered. "Fledglings have more needs than angels. They eat and sleep, though not as much as humans. I'm not sure if these two will tell you that they're hungry, but they need to eat."

"What about their powers?" Sam asked. He stepped out of the way to allow Michael entrance into the bunker, and then led the way towards the empty room he and Dean had decided would work.

Michael followed. "They have angelic powers. Using them will make them sleepy, like human children who have played hard and fall asleep. That's why they're asleep right now. A healer I ran into earlier said they may have started a molt, so don't be too surprised if there are feathers."

"How did it go with Balthazar earlier?"

"He was having far too much fun reveling in human decadence. I have no idea why he thought trading heaven's weapons for human souls was appropriate, but I believe that once I fix heaven, he can be convinced to return them."

"You just let him be?" Sam asked. He rounded another corner in the bunker.

"I don't know how many of my siblings Naomi tortured. Balthazar may have left heaven because of that, but I refuse to kill any more of my siblings if it can be helped. Balthazar gave me no reason to kill him."

"So what did you do about Lucifer? You said the apocalypse is over, and Sigyn said it was because of Raphael, but what could he have possibly done? Dean said that when he and Cas trapped Raphael in holy fire, he was all for the world to end."

"Do you even understand why Raph and I wanted the world to end?" Michael didn't shout, because he didn't want to disturb either fledgling sleeping in his arms. They didn't need to hear this. "The first thing I can remember is opening my eyes and seeing Lucifer. Mortals may hear that I was the oldest, but Lucifer and I were born in the same instant of one another. We were twins, Sam. I couldn't kill my twin any more than you could kill Dean. And maybe I did the wrong thing by putting him in the cage in the first place, but 'God spoke, and he said if I didn't lock Lucifer in the cage, he would put me in there instead and kill Lucifer. So I did. I did it because I could have handled being in the cage, but I couldn't let Him kill the brother I was closest to."

"So you were going to kill him when he got out?"

"There's way more to the story than that. But no. There's no scenario in which I could have killed by twin. If it had come down to an actual battle, I would not have defended myself." Michael stopped moving. He and Lucifer couldn't even remember which of Sigyn's children they were. At this point, they could only remember being one and the same, but maybe that was for the best. "Lucifer wasn't acting of his own free-will. In the beginning of this universe, there were two primordial deities. God and his sister, Amara. He was Light, and she was Dark and whatever he created, she destroyed. So he created a plane of existence called heaven, and then he created his four archangels. We started out as fledglings and he didn't make us all at once. But time as it is now didn't exist then. And eventually, eventually he sent the four of us to defeat Amara and lock her in a cage. When Amara was defeated, Lucifer was the least injured, and God gave him the key to lock her away. But it corrupted him. It corrupted him and he started doing deceitful and evil things. He passed the Mark to Cain after convincing him to kill his brother, and that's where demons came from. But even after passing off the Mark, Lucifer wasn't free of its influence. It corrupted his grace, Sam. It corrupted his grace and none of us ever thought to examine it, and He chose to lock his favorite son in solitary confinement instead of checking to make sure nothing was wrong with him."

Sam turned around to look at Michael. "You're going to stand here and blame God for the apocalypse mess?!"

"God left not long after shoving Lucifer in the cage. We thought he was dead. And then Gabriel was gone too. He had us all convinced he had died. Raphael and Gabriel were close. As close as Lucifer and I were in the beginning. The Raphael that wanted the end of the world? He wanted to get to Paradise so he could see his favorite little brother again. The little brother that invented the sloth in the image of what he saw in Raphael and the platypus because he saw what he liked in other creatures. The little brother that fell asleep curled around a baby dragon because we had all exhausted ourselves creating them."

"But Gabriel is Sleipnir?"

"That does not negate the fact that in this universe, he was my baby brother. And when Lucifer almost killed him, he saw what he was looking for. I had wondered since the Cage door closed if Raphael and I together could fix Lucifer. Raphael saved Sigyn's life and found out that the baby brother he missed so much was still alive, but only because of Sigyn's actions. At the time, Sigyn and Loki had only managed to track down their first four children. Gabriel saw two things in Lucifer. First, that the taint from the Mark should not have been there, and second, that Lucifer was one of Sigyn's missing children." Michael wasn't entirely sure why he was telling Sam all this, except that it was important that he understand that the Lucifer that had tried so hard to use him as a vessel was not the Lucifer he had been in the beginning, the Lucifer he was now. Even if Michael wasn't sure he should tell the Winchesters exactly which two fledglings they would be babysitting.

"Vali and Nari, right? The twins that in mythology were the children of Sigyn and Loki? Didn't Odin turn one of them into a wolf?"

"It's not that strange that I was the baby brother in the universe we were born in and the oldest brother in this one. But don't you dare mention wolves. There's still nightmares about that. Anyway, Gabriel's observations convinced Raphael that my suggestion would work, except he didn't wait for me. He destroyed all the residual effects from the Mark in Lucifer."

Sam glanced at the two sleeping fledglings Michael was holding. "Let me guess how the story ends. One of those fledglings in Raphael and one of them is Lucifer. And if they meant us any harm at all, you wouldn't have brought them here."

"All their memories are intact, as far as any of us know. But for the most part, they just act like fledglings. Sigyn loves them and she loves having them around. I think she still feels cheated that she and Loki didn't get to raise most of their children. That wasn't the first universe, and all she ever wanted was to be a mother." Michael glanced down the hallway. "Are we almost to wherever it was you were leading me? I'd like to put these two to bed."

"Sorry." Sam turned around and finished leading the way to the room he and Dean had selected. There were two twin sized beds in the room. "Will this do?"

"Yes," Michael agreed.

"Alright. Well, I'll go tell Dean you're here. Which fledgling is which?"

Michael tucked the fledglings into bed, telling Sam as he did so which was which. As Sam stepped towards the doorway, he went to Lucifer. It seemed like a bad idea to just leave the fledgling in another place without first telling him what was happening. "Hey, Luci, will you wake up?"

It took a few minutes, but Lucifer eventually woke up. "Mica?"

"Hey, kiddo. I need to run up to Heaven to find out what happened with the memory spell, do you think you'll be okay staying with the Winchesters for a few days? Raphael's sleeping over there."

"Sam?" Lucifer whimpered, tone conveying his fear that Sam might retaliate for everything he might hold Lucifer responsible for.

"If anything goes wrong, you can call me, or Ephraim, he's a Rit Zien Raphael likes, or Balthazar. Although it might be best if you only call Balthazar as a last resort. But don't hurt the Winchesters."

"Everything will be okay?" Lucifer asked.

"I think everything will be just fine," Michael replied. "Make sure you and Raph eat, okay?" Lucifer nodded. "I love you. I'll be back as soon as I can."

When he was sure Lucifer and Raph would be okay, and with a last glance at the hunter standing silently in the corner of the room, he flew to Heaven.


Sam waited for Michael to leave, listening to the quiet whispers as Michael soothed Lucifer. He was wary that Lucifer was here, but Michael had been adamant that this wasn't the same archangel that had wanted to end the world. It seemed unreal that after everything that had led up to here, that it could so easily be over. Dean had said yes, had been very sure about the choice he was making, so it wasn't just an attempt to lull them in a false sense of security. There would be no purpose to that.

Sam met Dean in the kitchen, mind reeling. What the hell was he supposed to tell Dean? 'Oh yeah, by the way, we're not just babysitting any fledglings, but Raphael and Lucifer themselves?' He didn't know exactly how the conversation with Dean, Cas, and Raphael had gone, but he was sure it hadn't been pleasant.

"How'd it go?" Dean asked.

Sam shrugged. "Michael put two sleeping fledglings in the bedroom we picked for them. One of them looked about two and the other about four or five. They just looked like babies to me."

"Really powerful babies that could kill us, Sam," Dean replied.

Sam shrugged. "I don't think Michael would have brought them here if they meant us any harm. And I suspect that if they did hurt us, Michael would just bring us back again."

"He promised no more angel business. Why the hell did we agree to this?"

Sam poured himself a cup of coffee. He was going to need it. "He didn't have anyone else to trust, and who knows when, if, we'd see Cas again if Michael doesn't find out where they are."

"Surely Cas, Gabriel, two powerful whatever-they-are, and whoever else went missing can bring themselves back without Michael's help."

"And what if they can't, Dean? What if it really does take Michael's help to bring them back?"

Dean's phone rang. With a glare at Sam reminding the younger Winchester that this was far from over, he answered it. "Hello?"

"Hello, Squirrel." Dean mouthed Crowley at Sam.

Dean put the phone on speaker. "What do you want, Crowley?"

"I was curious about how the apocalypse was going. But I saw the strangest thing today. Down in Limbo, the deepest part of Hell, there used to be a Cage. You know, the Cage Lucifer was in until you two fuckers decided opening it was a good idea? Anyway, it's not there anymore. There's this fucking gigantic ash tree in its place. It's huge. And someone decided to flood Limbo with sea water. This is not cool. I want to know what's going on and I want you two to find out!" Click.

"Ash tree in Limbo?" Dean looked at Sam. "Why would the Cage be replaced by some Ash tree?"

"How should I know?" Sam shrugged, putting his empty coffee cup in the sink. "I'm going to bed. We'll probably need all the sleep we can get if we're going to be babysitting fledglings. At least they need sleep too."

Sam headed to his room, grabbing the translation of Snorri's Poetic Edda on his way. If Loki's history had been recorded with any accuracy, then he needed all the understanding of Michael and Lucifer that he could get. And why were wolves so familiar…?

Sam didn't figure out anyone's motivation, but he found the Ash tree at around 3 AM. "Dean! Dean! I know why there's an Ash tree in Limbo!"

Dean woke rapidly. "The fuck, Sam! It could have waited until morning!"

"The tree in Limbo is Yggdrasil, the world tree in Norse Mythology. I think that's where Cas and his family are."

"Why there?" Dean asked.

"I don't know! But you should call Michael, he'll want to know."

"Why can't you do it? It's your research. You didn't need to wake me up, you could have just called him."

Sam swallowed. There was plenty of reasons, not least being that he still had no idea why the angels tolerated him. Sure, Michael had told Zachariah that Sam's soul was beautiful, but Zach had ticked Michael off by messing with Dean, his vessel. That didn't mean he actually felt that way about him. What it he'd only said that to argue with Zachariah? What if he didn't feel that way? What if he even told Sam as much? Sam didn't want that, didn't think he could handle that kind of rejection.

"Sam! Just call Michael already so I can go back to bed!" Dean tossed his cell at Sam. Sam dialed Cas' cell, hitting each button with more apprehension. What if Michael didn't want to hear it? What if he hung up because it was Sam? What if…

The phone was answered on the second ring, "Hello," and it took Sam everything he had not to hang up.


Michael flew straight to Raphael's office. There was no reason to try anywhere else first. He didn't care to run into any other angels because he was on a mission. He was looking for some old book Balthazar had found. This wasn't where he had found the recipe, but since it was where Balthazar had likely found the book after considering trying to cast the spell.

The dominating feature of the room was the heavy limbed cecropia tree, a rainforest native with dark bark, that erupted mid trunk from the floor and grew seemingly unheeded through the walls and ceiling. The slightest movement among the branches revealed to Michael what he had already assumed to be true. Raphael's Sloth was still here, sleeping peacefully in a limb of the tree. Michael smiled at it.

This was the first sloth, the one Gabriel had spent so much time crafting by hand. Most of the 'firsts' had not been kept in Heaven, but Raphael had not been about to give up the creature Gabriel had made especially for him. He approached Sloth. "Hello." The sloth opened a lazy eye at Michael. It didn't move. This wasn't a surprise to Michael. Gabriel, after all, had watched Raphael sit and study entire life cycles without moving. The sloth wasn't lazy. It was infinitely patient. He considered. "Would you want to go visit Raphael?" He didn't think Sigyn would object if he brought Raphael's sloth home. It was his little brother's friend, and being a fledgling again, he might appreciate having one of his friends back.

The sloth didn't answer, not that Michael expected him to, and the archangel studied the rest of the room, trying to decide where the best place would be to start looking.

Raphael had always been a scholar, and that was visible in the way he kept his office, although maybe not at first glance. A warm dark wood, similar in color to the bark of the tree, although Michael suspected it to be Hickory, rather than an exotic wood, dominated the features in the room. Tall shelves graced earthy colored walls, and were overstuffed with books, scrolls, tomes, and a multitude of mismatched papers that would not be contained. The papers trailed from the shelves, scattering themselves across the room. A large desk of the same build lay across one side of the room, a comfortable yet simple wooden chair sat behind it and Michael knew it was the place that Raphael had spent so much of his time studying and learning. It was seemingly just as chaotic as the rest of the room, although Michael knew that there must be some type of organization put in place by Raphael to keep all of his notebooks, pads, and sheaves organized, or else he would never find anything, let alone be constructive enough for the stellar productivity for which he had been known.

Michael wasn't sure where to begin. Balthazar had suggested that he was looking for a book with the page he'd found torn out, but Raphael would never consider tearing out pages acceptable. The page he'd found had been in another room, but what if Raphael had brought said book back here to repair it? Would it still be here, or would he have returned it to the library?

Being here made Michael nostalgic. He found he didn't want to disturb anything because despite knowing exactly where Raphael was and why, he couldn't help but feel like Raphael would return any moment and scold him for disrupting his space. "Michael! Stop touching! I'll never find them again!" But that wouldn't happen, because Raphael was with the Winchesters. He played with his food, repeated words over and over again because he liked the way they sounded, and he didn't chastise his siblings for messing things up. In all likelihood he would be the one to mess his things up, considering his current fledgling status.

Michael swallowed. He needed to focus. He was looking for a book with the Memory spell, written in Enochian. Every book ever written could be found in heaven, so that narrowed down the search a little bit. Had Raphael known that Balthazar had gotten into his things? Balthazar didn't remember getting into trouble, but that didn't mean Raphael hadn't known. Either way, he didn't think it was something a fledgling should get their hands on, and so Raphael may have chosen to move it off the ground. And yet, the appearance of the book itself had been something interesting enough to even attract a fledgling's attention to begin with.

Balthazar had said many pages had been missing, so it might have looked interesting for some reason related to that. Michael approached a cluttered desk, hoping to find something useful. There were books in various states of wear, but mostly just papers and journals. Michael was rifling through a sheaf of papers when a page from another pile blew off the table and onto the floor.

Despite the large quantity of papers already on the floor, Michael couldn't help but pick up the paper that had fallen. He hadn't looked at it yet and he wanted to put it back. Someday, someday when heaven was fixed and Raphael could be trusted not to make a mess, he would get to bring his little brother back here and he wanted it to be the way Raphael left it. He didn't even know if this was how it had been when Raphael had been here last.

As he was putting it back on the desk, Michael saw what the paper was. It was a piece of paper with Raphael's neat scrawl that was easily identified as a list. Michael blinked. When was the last time he'd read something Raphael wrote? But that wasn't the important question. On the side of the list was scrawled, "Why are all the lists of ingredients for these spells missing?" At the top of the page, the topic was scrawled. "Enochian Healing Spells for Emotional Pain and Memory Retrieval."

And there, near the bottom of the list, was the spell Michael was looking for. There was even a note about that spell at the bottom of the page. "What are the safety precautions, Raph? It's possible inter-dimensional travel, isn't it. Would the recollection spell have been better? If you had not deaged yourself, you could have told me this before they ever cast that spell."

With the book's title written out for Michael, it was easier to look for. It was not any of the books on Raphael's desk, but the note also meant he hadn't finished working with it. Michael examined the floor. There were papers everywhere. There was little on the floor besides papers, except not far from the desk there were a few stacks of books.

Michael approached the stacks of books on the floor. The stacks weren't tall, each a few feet at most. They were a good height to be interesting to a fledgling, not unlike a stack of blocks. One of the stacks had been knocked over, random collection of mismatched worn out books lying haphazardly on the floor. The assortment itself was colorful, the books' variance in their covers provided a myriad of colors and textures.

Some books were in terrible condition, pages loose in bindings and falling out of their covers. Other books had all their pages, but the pages had torn off pieces in different places. They were probably books Raphael had rescued but hadn't had time to pull out those that were lost causes and fix the ones that could be fixed. The book Michael was looking for was right there in the books that had fallen over. It was a few feet away, spine up with pages spread out on the floor, as though someone had dropped it in their haste to leave.

Michael picked the book up off the floor. "Enochian Healing Spells for Emotional Pain and Memory Retrieval." The cover wasn't as worn out as some books were, but it was easy to tell that countless pages were missing. Thumbing through it, he found that his little brother had written on the bottom of each exactly which spell it was concerning, like a footnote for each page. Colored sticky papers covered in Raphael's neat scrawl were stuck on each of the pages, lists of possible ingredients, notes on the usage of the spells, whether Raphael had ever used the spell or a similar one, and if so, would he use it again. Michael wanted nothing more than to stand there and read the entirety of the book just for Raphael's opinions, but he didn't have time for that. With much regret, he flipped through until he came into the section with notes and warnings for the reincarnation remembrance spell.

The sticky note at the top was caution sign red. "I swear that if someone mistakenly uses this spell because the list of ingredients got left out, I will find out who tore out all these pages and I will turn them into a bunny and give them to Gabriel to play with."

That was… not what Michael was expecting from Raph. He continued reading through the spell warnings, notes, and extra information. And Raphael's irate scrawl on various colored papers. Not only did the spell need to be anchored to whoever it was being cast on, but the spell would in addition automatically anchor to any human or angel who gave up some piece of themselves as a spell component given that they were in the same dimension the spell was cast. And if the spell anchors weren't anchored to their dimension, they could sometimes end up in another dimension. *Spell anchors have been irretrievable after the casting of this spell and the author of this book would not be held responsible for any spell mishaps.

They weren't in heaven or on Earth. The obvious answer was Purgatory or Limbo or Hell, but Michael was well aware that the possibilities were endless. If he had to traverse every single dimension, he would, if that's what it took to find his family. He could fix heaven without Gabriel, but he wasn't going to. He had spent aeons separated from his parents and his siblings. No longer.

There was a soft knock on the wall next to the open door. Michael turned around to see Ephraim standing in the doorway, expression of concern on his face. "Michael?" Ephraim's voice was quiet, tentative, like he was still nervous at what might happen if he spoke to the archangel out of turn. When Michael nodded, but didn't speak, Ephraim continued. "Are you alright?" When he decided that Michael was not going to smite him, he stepped into the room, slowly approaching Michael. He stopped a few paces away from the archangel. "It's okay if you don't want to talk about it, but it might help."

Michael closed the book in his hands. He wanted to keep it, but he needed to put it back more. When was the last time Raphael had even been here? He suspected it had been Balthazar who had knocked the pile over, but why would Raph have left it? That had happened centuries past. Raphael's duties had changed after Father left, had Raph been so busy or preoccupied that he hadn't stepped in here since before Lucifer fell?

"Michael?" Ephraim repeated. He stepped closer. Michael wasn't responding, so Ephraim decided he was going to try something else. He really hoped Michael wasn't going to smite him, but once, this had been the normal treatment for these kinds of things.

Michael was still contemplating Raphael when he felt the warmth of another angel next to him. Besides holding fledglings, when had another angel hugged him? Who had it been?

"Michael," Ephraim repeated yet again as he hugged Michael. "What are you thinking about?"

"I was thinking about Raphael." Michael didn't push Ephraim away. Even though he was worried about his family and still angry at Naomi, and regretful that it had taken the deaging of two archangels to heal Lucifer of the Mark when he should have been healed instead of thrown in a cage, his grace was almost purring. "And I was thinking about…"

Ephraim waited for Michael to finish the sentence, but he didn't. "You were thinking about your family, right? The family you needed this book to find." Michael flinched, but Ephraim didn't let him pull away. "Michael, it's okay. They need you. We need you too, but Heaven isn't going to fall apart. It's been this way for centuries. A few more days aren't going to hurt any of us any more than we already have been."

Castiel's phone rang. When Michael found out how cell phones worked, he would wonder about it, but not then. He was surrounded by Ephraim's warmth, and Rit Ziens were even warmer than other angels, and he didn't want to move. But Ephraim seemed to understand the importance, because he did pull away. "Answer it," he said. "It might be important." Michael hesitated. "It's okay. Everything will be okay. If you go bring your other family back, maybe you'll get to cuddle with them too."

"Maybe so," Michael agreed. He pulled out Castiel's phone and answered it on the second ring. He waited a moment. "Hello?" There was a crash, followed by a far-away shout of surprise, but no click that represented the ending of a call. A few moments later, Michael repeated, "Hello?"

"I'm sorry," was the first thing Sam said. "The fledglings are still sleeping, everything is fine, but this is important. I know you had to go find a book related to the spell that didn't work correctly, but I think I know where they are."

"Sam?" Michael could follow what Sam was saying for the most part, but he didn't understand the way Sam was going about it.

"Crowley called. I know he's a demon and I know he's not to be trusted because I know that my mistakes stain my soul, but demons are selfish by nature which means he's serving his own best interests and if there is salt water in Limbo, that's bad for them. And why would he be lying? There's no way he knows what the ash tree represents and I only know because I was reading the Poetic Edda which is human exaggeration at best if Asgard happened at all, especially if it was in another universe, so how could Snorri have even known? But Crowley wouldn't."

"Sam? I think you're rambling," Michael said. "What are you trying to say?"

"Crowley said there's an Ash Tree in Limbo where the Cage used to be. According to Snorri's Poetic Edda, which is obvious human exaggeration as much or more than the bible was, says that Yggdrasil was an ash tree surrounded by a sea. It didn't exist until today, yesterday I mean, possibly right after the spell was cast, which suggests that your parents and siblings might be there. Right?"

Michael blinked. "It's worth looking into." He considered everything Sam had said. "Sam, why did you say your mistakes stain your soul? You have a very old soul, that's true, but it's not stained or tainted, merely colored by the whole of the experiences it has ever gone through."

"But…." Even through the static of the phone, he could hear the surprise coloring the hunters voice.

"But nothing. Do you think I would have left my little brothers with you and your brother if I thought your soul was marred in any way that might affect them?"

"I just…"

Michael waits to hear Sam's argument, but nothing comes. "I know this conversation is important, but can it wait until I get back from Limbo and we can have it in person?"

"I… Yes. I'm sorry."

"You don't need to apologize," Michael said. The phone clicked. Michael wasn't sure what had been going on in Sam's head, but whatever it was, he was sure it probably needed to be said.

"He's in pain too," Ephraim said. Michael glanced at him. "I've heard from someone in one of the soldier garrisons that when they had met Sam Winchester, Uriel called him an abomination and Castiel addressed him as the boy with the demon blood." Michael raised an eyebrow. "Um... I'll stop gossiping and go back to healing the rest of the Rit Zien so you can go to Limbo. Are you taking any backup?"

"I'm sure I can find a giant ash tree where the Cage used to be. If Sigyn and Loki remember who they used to be, which they should, then they will likely gather their children. Hela and Fen were in Niflheimr and Jor was in the big sea that Crowley was complaining about. They will probably go for Jor last, so I will go find him first. Goodbye, Ephraim."

Ephraim was gone, so Michael decided to leave as well, taking the book with him. He could always come back to return it or get a different book. Michael flew.


Sigyn woke first. She could feel the warmth of one of her children at her side. This was what she'd been missing in all the universes since the first one. But this wasn't good enough. Not until she had all of her children back. All of them. She shifted, careful not to wake up the child nearest her. And didn't she have so much practice. It turned out that the child she had been trying not to wake was Sleipnir and he was already awake.

"Mom," Sleipnir whispered, moving his head to rest it against her shoulder.

"Hey." Sigyn reached over to rub his shoulder. "What's up?"

"Were we really just "things" in the first universe?"

"You saw that too, huh?" Sigyn sighed. "I'm sorry, Slip."

"Mama," Fen said from the other side of Sleipnir, referring to Loki. "Where are we headed next?"

"Hela next," Loki answered. "If you guys are ready to go?"

Both children of Loki turned angels agreed. They walked back to the water so Loki could turn into a hippocampus and carry them to shore.

"Is Hela in Hel?" Sigyn asked.

"I thought she was here," Sleipnir said. "It was snowy and icy and cold."

"I thought only the dishonorable dead went to Helheim and that Hela lived elsewhere," Fenrir interjected.

"Or you could just, you know, ask me where I live? Or not. I mean it's all the same to me."