Chapter 9: Heaven is Calling

Heaven was something Castiel always looked up to. He knew his father was there, hiding in the center of all. The problem was that the center could not be found. There were millions, even trillions of heavens. Each heaven was made for each deceased human. Castiel knew of a few heavens to which he journeyed to, but he had yet to find the center of it all. He had yet to find his father, to talk to him face to face. Sure Castiel had prayed to his father and received advice in return, but he had never seen his father. Talking with his father was how he knew where to find the Winchesters, and how to save them. God had told him. But why was God's plan failing? Why were Michael and Lucifer winning the battle and starting the apocalypse early? Castiel had to have the answers.

"Do you know where he is?" Castiel wobbled up to a standing position. He steadied his feet on the green grass. " Gabriel, Balthazar, please." Castiel begged. Dean was in trouble. He didn't want to lose him.

"No one knows." Balthazar said, his voice thick with a heavy accent. He stood back from Castiel once he knew his brother could stand on his own. "You're just going to have to wait this out. They're just humans after all." Balthazar eyed his brother once over. "And there is no way you can possibly get back down there, looking like that." Balthazar pointed a finger at Castiel's appearance. It was heavenly. He was no longer in the vessel from earth. The teenage body was no longer his. That body was long gone, still down on earth, unconscious in the Winchester's motel room. His figure now was shining blue, from his grace, and pulsating with heat. "You're in limbo right now. Not quite vessel worthy, you need rest."

"I can't rest. I need to save them." Castiel clenched his glowing fists. Balthazar tried to calm him down, but Castiel was infuriated at his failure. "Now, can you help me or not?" That was one of the few times Castiel lost his cool. He was a pretty levelheaded angel, but at that moment he could start a war with just the anger in his voice.

Balthazar stared at his blue-eyed brother. He was speechless. He had never seen an angel so attached to those they were supposed to watch over. Dean Winchester must have been some human to change an angel that drastically. "I wi-" Balthazar was hesitant, but Gabriel finished his sentence for him.

"We will. Because no one else is a bigger and greater bag of dicks than Mike and Luci." Gabriel gave a bright smile and placed his hands on his brothers' shoulders. "Shall I lead the way?" They needed to move quickly if they were going to take Michael and Lucifer down before they got into their destined vessels. Gabriel closed his eyes, thinking hard about which heaven would be closest to the center. Upon opening his eyes, the three brothers found themselves in an airy heaven, filled with flowing wind and water running between their feet.

"Whose heaven is this?" Balthazar asked. The wind whipped at his clothing and rippled through Castiel's form. Castiel's form wavered before Gabriel shook his head at the scenery. He knew this heaven wasn't close enough to the center. He placed his hands at their shoulder once more and they moved onto the next heaven.

The third and fourth heaven trip caused Castiel to crumple to his knees. Balthazar was right. He needed his rest. His angelic abilities were at a dangerous low. He sat on the ground next to the road that was in the heaven. Cars sped past like a fast-forwarded recording. Balthazar sat next to him and took a deep breath. "We should be getting closer." He assured Castiel, patting him on his glowing back.

"Unfortunately we're not." Gabriel kicked some dirt at his feet. " We're currently in the heaven of a man who died only recently, so this is pretty close to the edge of it all. This is one of Michael's vessels' heavens." Gabriel waved his hand in the air. Fog had begun to creep into the heaven. It clouded the angel's visions. Gabriel frowned. "I think we are in for a little show. This being Michael's old vessel's heaven after all."

The cloudy fog began to show images of earth. Castiel sat straight in attention. He knew these images. They were very like the times he had encountered with Michael's green-eyed, curly brown-haired vessel. The one he had kept longest before moving onto the woman.

The images moved quickly, blurring at the edges of the foggy clouds. There were memories of Dean in the fog. Castiel's heart ached at the sight of the special human. Balthazar gave him a sad look. He took pity in his brother for getting so attached to a human. Especially since human's life spans last only a second in the lives of angels. "Castiel-" Balthazar watched the images and felt his brothers pain. Even though humans were mere insects on the scale of all other beings, he had a soft spot for them like his brother, Castiel.

"Enough of this pity party. We got a baby daddy to find." Gabriel clapped his hands together and the angels appeared in a new heaven. This time, the heaven around them was the same as many others. It was a typical heaven. It was a hilled valley of golden flowers. The wind swept down the hill and rustled the flowers, throwing petals into the air around the brothers. Gabriel sighed and blew his hair from his face. "We're way past our three strikes."

Castiel could feel it. Even though they had been jumping from one heaven to another, he felt energized. That could only mean one thing. "We're close." He said, squinting his eyes and looking off into the distance. He could feel his body start to form back to look like his vessel. He chose that image, he could really look like anything he wanted to, but Dean knew the image of his teenage vessel, so he was going to stick to it. His glowing skin faded back to its normal, peachy tone.

As Castiel's skin repaired its self and the overall blue-ish glow faded, he could easily stand up on his own and explore the heaven. He found himself climbing the side of the hill to overlook it in hopes of seeing something that would lead to his father. Unfortunately, over the hill was just more flowers. The field was still golden in color, but completely still. Gabriel and Balthazar had followed Castiel up the hillside and were baffled by the change in the wind, but after a moment Gabriel had a wide grin on his face. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Gabriel asked, nudging Balthazar with his elbow.

"I'm thinking we made it." Balthazar responded. He took a step forward and the wind picked up to hurricane proportions. The flowers began to rip from the ground revealing something shining underneath. The glow was much like Castiel's graced skin, by more powerful, with more heat. Castiel stared at it in awe.

Upon seeing his brother's confused face, Gabriel started to laugh. "You've never seen it, have you, Cas?" He held his hand out for his brother. "It's quite amazing, isn't it?

"What is it?" Castiel asked. He squinted at the brightness of the scenery change.

"The gates to true heaven." Gabriel had seen it before, a very long time ago. His heart was pounding at the thought of the last time he had been even remotely near that place. Michael and Lucifer had argued there. That's where it all started. Gabriel took a step forward. "Come on, you wanted to see daddy didn't you?" As each of the brothers took their steps forward, the heaven around them changed and morphed into the spectacular. The intensity of the place blinded Castiel for a moment, but then he opened his eyes, he was nearly in tears from its beauty.

Before them was a large gate. One could say they were the Pearly Gates of heaven and they would be right. The shined like no other grace Castiel had seen. He was almost afraid to touch them until Gabriel and Balthazar merely stepped through then and disappeared on the other side. Centering himself, Castiel followed them through.

On the other side, the once serene field of flowers with large gates turned into a bustling center filled with many angels in formal wear. Balthazar and Castiel felt extremely out of place. They were babies compared to Gabriel's age and the age of the angels walking around in true heaven. It was no wonder when they stepped forward into the bustling group of working angels that they all stopped and stared at the brothers. The recognized Gabriel instantly, but they were weary of the other two angels at his side.

"Alright, alright. Back to your business." Gabriel walked forward, raising his hands in sort of a hello to the other angels. "That's right, Gabe's in the building. Now where's papa?" The suited angels resumed their hurrying about the true heaven. They made sure to get out of the way of the three that had just stepped inside. Only one stopped them, she looked extremely uptight and judging by her stance, she was someone of importance.

"Did you have an appointment?" She asked, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose. She held a clipboard in her arms and a pen was placed behind her ear. "You cannot be here without an appointment of the right credentials." She eyed Castiel, Balthazar, and Gabriel over and smirked. "You three do not look like you would have the right papers to be here. Please state you reasoning for being in true heaven."

Balthazar smiled at her sweetly, but poison was behind his words. "I think that since we are all his children, that we should be able to see him without and appointment." He then walked right past her. She was so flustered by his disobedience towards the system that she dropped her clipboard. Castiel picked it up for her and placed it back in her hands.

"See you later, doll face." Gabriel winked at her and her hair frizzed out. Her glasses fell down her nose as she watched the angels walk off towards the center of true heaven. Castiel could feel his grace grow stronger the closer they got to the center. He was sure that Balthazar and Gabriel felt it also. Castiel was thankful that they were almost there, but worried about how much time they had spent in heaven. Sure time was spent differently on Earth than it was in heaven, but every second counted when Dean and Sam were in trouble. Castiel picked up the pace and they eventually made it to a large glass green house. It was much like a botanical garden. Castiel pushed the large glass door open and thick, hot, air flowed out. He took a deep breath, wondering about what his father actually looked like and what he was going to say to him.

Inside the large green house, the angels found themselves lost in a sea of green foliage. Not only were there exotic plants, but also vibrantly colored birds that flew overhead. Just ahead from the entrance of the green house there was a small bubbling waterfall. Koi fish swam in the small pond where the water from the waterfall fell. The beautiful natural sounds created a calming effect on the angels. Balthazar found himself wandering off into the foliage, as did Gabriel. Castiel walked forward and soon they were all separated. Castiel called out to his brothers, but all he could hear were the caws of the wild birds overhead and the water from the fall.

Castiel wandered around the green house, it seemed like it never ended, until he saw a clearing ahead of him. He stepped out of the bush he dug through to get there. It was a small platform that adorned the center of the green house. Castiel looked to his side and saw Balthazar coming out from the plants; at his other side was Gabriel. They had all found the center. The air thickened and Castiel looked ahead. There was a man. Castiel's heart pounding, and his grace burned slowly inside of him. "Is that-?"

"Hey, dad." Gabriel said nonchalantly, walking forward towards the man. Gabriel was taller and looked so much older than the man who was tending to a single flower in the middle of the platform in a small pot. "Gabriel." He said in a pleasant tone. He then turned around and faced the angels. "Castiel and Balthazar too!"

"Father?" Castiel walked forward, amazed at how young God was. He was sort of short for someone so powerful. He wore a robe like garment and honestly looked like someone who had just gotten out of bed. He was holding a cup of water in his hands, most likely to water the beautiful flower he was tending to.

"Call me Chuck, Castiel." Chuck dripped the water gently over the flower and then the cup in his hands disappeared. "So Michael and Lucifer are causing trouble on earth?" Chuck paced around and then pulled a book out from the inside of his robe. He took out a pen and wrote down a few things before closing it and placing it back into his robe. "I think I know how to fix this." He rubbed his eyes and walked over to Castiel. He placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I've failed you." Castiel hung his head low. "I couldn't keep the Winchester's safe." It was the sad reality and Castiel waited for his punishment, but only a nervous laugh came from Chuck.

"You think this is a failure? It's life, Castiel! I can't expect all of you guys to succeed at everything you do." Chuck patted Castiel on the shoulder. "You just need a little back up is all." Warmth spread from Chuck's palm into Castiel. "I'm going to get you back down there with something a little extra to help you throw Lucifer back down where he belongs." Chuck got a sad look on his face. The thought of Lucifer still hurt. He looked over to Gabriel and then to Balthazar. "And you two, I need you two bring Michael back upstairs where I can deal with him. He wasn't supposed to interfere with the Winchester's destinies until the time was right." Gabriel and Balthazar nodded. Castiel couldn't believe that he had a chance to talk with his father and he actually wanted to help. He was thankful for his chance to redeem himself. The brothers had their orders. Before they could thank Chuck for giving them guidance and the power to bring Lucifer and Michael down he was gone.

"What are we waiting for?" Gabriel grinned, taking Castiel by one arm, Balthazar had the other. The green house around them shook and the glass started to crack. Before they knew it, they were beamed through the clouds down to Earth. Castiel returned to his healed vessel's body. The lights in the motel room flashed, revealing each of the angels' wings. "We have some big brother ass to kick."