"No. Absolutely not."
"Dean, we have to get Terriel out! It's my fault that Zachariah captured him-"
"No, it's his own damn fault for running right back to him!"
Sam looked back and forth between Dean and Cas, listening to the heated argument. It was all they could do to keep the angel from flying off right away to find Terriel, but Sam agreed with Dean: it wouldn't be a good idea for Cas to fly right back into Zachariah's hands.
On the flip side, he agreed with Cas, as well. They'd only met Terriel briefly, but the angel had clearly put himself at great risk and broken through millennia of angel "rules" to defend Cas and stop Zachariah. Besides, from a strategic standpoint, they might have an ally in the angel.
Besides, Terriel simply didn't deserve whatever Zachariah was most likely doing to him.
"Dean, we should check it out," Sam put in, causing his older brother to turn towards him in exasperation.
"Look, I'm not saying don't do anything," Dean protested. "I don't wanna leave the guy there. I'm just saying, let's not just run in there and end up right back where we started from."
"We don't have time-" started Cas, but Sam held up his hands to cut him off.
"We have time to come up with a reasonable plan, Cas. We'll get him out, don't worry."
The soothing reassurance in Sam's low, solid voice seemed enough to make Cas sigh slightly, but nod. Sam nodded back to him, offering the angel a sympathetic look and a squeeze on the shoulder. Together, the three hurried back towards the Impala.
It was agreed that they would first drive back to Bobby's, before anything else. That would buy them a little bit of time to gather what they knew, to think things over, and come up with a plan. As Sam pointed out to Cas softly, he would be no use to Terriel if Zachariah got his hands on him.
Clearly, Cas still wanted to just go, to reach the other angel as fast as possible, but even he had to see the logic in what the Winchesters were saying. The fight had done him some good, though; his victory over Josiah had given him a confidence boost, helping to remind him that he was strong enough to fight.
Sam could see it, as he watched Cas furtively in the rearview mirror. The angel was silent, but instead of staring out the window with a lost expression, he was glaring straight forward with a brow furrowed in intense thought. It was good that he had something to focus on, something to do, some task to help take his mind off of everything.
Besides, Sam thought as they drove, if Cas could defeat Zachariah now, it would prove to himself that he wasn't weak or useless, that the bastard didn't own him at all.
This might be exactly what they had been waiting for.
"There you idjits are," Bobby greeted them as the trio piled into his living room. "What's going on?"
"We might have found Zachariah," growled Dean, quickly filling the older hunter in on everything that had happened. Cas didn't add much, merely nodding slightly when Bobby offered him congratulations on beating Josiah.
"The question now is, how do we get Terriel away from Zachariah without getting caught ourselves," Sam pointed out when Dean was finished with the story. "Dean and I are only going to be so much use. If Zachariah shows up, Cas is the only one who can fight him."
"Why don't we just use the angel banishing sigil?" Dean suggested, but Cas shook his head.
"No. That would banish all the angels in a half mile radius," he pointed out. "All of us. That would include Terriel, and I doubt he would survive that if his condition was bad enough."
Frowning, Sam looked to Cas, clarifying, "A half mile radius? Exactly?"
"Approximately. Why?"
So then, all they really needed was for whoever was doing the banishing to far enough from wherever Terriel was being held. If they could draw Zachariah to them… and that should be easily accomplished, if they could convince Zachariah that they had what he wanted…
A smile broke out across Sam's face as he traded a look with Dean. Clearly, his older brother had come to the same conclusion that he had. Both of them nodded, then turned to Castiel.
"Ok, here's the plan…"
"Still don't understand why we couldn't drive here," grumbled Dean. He shook his head to clear it, while Cas stepped back and looked around. There was a wary look on the angel's face, not paying attention to Dean's complaints about being zapped here.
Frowning, Sam looked around. "How far did we go? Are we still in South Dakota?" he asked in surprise. Cas nodded.
"Yes. We're about an hour east from Bobby's, actually. The prison is disguised as a bungalow, about a quarter mile from here."
"And we couldn't drive, because…?"
"Let it go, Dean," Sam advised with a grin, clapping his brother on the shoulder. "You ready?"
"As I'll ever be. I'll get Zach outta there, then give you a call to come get me, Cas." Which meant getting zapped around again. The things Dean did for his friends…
Cas nodded, then reminded the hunter, "You have to be at least half a mile away from me, or I'll be banished, too."
"Right." Quickly, Dean hurried off down the gravel road they were on, in the opposite direction that Cas had indicated the angel jail to be. They were definitely in South Dakota; the only thing around him was trees, and more trees, and there was a chill in the cool Northern air that made Dean glad he still had his three layers.
While he jogged quickly along, Dean pulled out his knife, gripping the blade but not yet making the cuts. The banishing sigil required blood – a gift he was only too happy to provide, to screw Zachariah over.
When Dean had figured he'd gone far enough, he slowed to a halt and looked around. There was a rotting tree nearby, toppled over by the road to reveal the stump, devoid of bark. That would work. Quickly, Dean dug the knife blade into the flesh of his palms, grunting only once in pain. The blood flowed freer as he squeezed his fist a couple of times, then drew the sigil onto the flat of the tree stump.
"Ok," he said out loud, voice gravelly and pissed. "Zachariah, wherever the hell you are, come get me, you son of a bitch! That's right, I'm praying, so you'd better get your ass here! We're gonna settle this once and for all! If you win, you get Michael's vessel… if I win, I get your head on a stick!"
There. If that didn't bring Zach running, Dean didn't know what would.
Of course, he didn't have the slightest intention of letting the angel win anything. As soon as Dean heard wings, he was gonna slap his hand on that sigil, not giving Zachariah a chance to even open his mouth. Dean poised, ready. His hand was nearly itching with anticipation, prepared to blast Zach back to wherever the hell. He waited… waited…
There! Even with his eyes closed, Dean's highly trained hunter's ears could pick up the just barely perceptible sound of flapping wings, and he reacted instantly. Slamming his hand down onto the trunk, Dean finished the blood sigil to banish any angel nearby.
There was a blinding light, so powerful that Dean had to turn his head, hand up to ward off the brightness. He could hear a shocked but distinct "No!" and then there was absolutely nothing.
Another one bit the dust.
If only the sigil was able to kill Zachariah, Dean thought with a sigh, but at least he'd be out of the way long enough for them to grab Terriel and get the hell outta Dodge. Closing his eyes again, Dean prayed,
Cas, I pray you come get me the hell outta here so we can get home-
"I'm here, Dean." There was a touch on his forehead, and Dean was yanked through space to be deposited down next to Sam outside a sturdy little bungalow at the end of the gravel road. Dean's eyes widened, arms extending to help himself find his balance.
"Damn it," he muttered, turning to Cas as the angel's trench coat fluttered back into place from the flight. "Next time we drive."
"So it worked?" Sam asked urgently, to which Dean nodded.
"Blasted his ass back to Heaven," he answered. "What's the story here?"
"Well, we cased the place, nothing going on inside that we can tell," Sam replied. "Cas doesn't sense any angels."
With a frown, Dean pointed out, "Wait, shouldn't you at least be able to sense Terriel? We're sure he's here, right?"
Cas nodded shortly, his back against the bungalow's wall as he peered inside cautiously from around the edge of the window. "They will have bound his grace," he explained briefly, "so I won't be able to sense him. We need to hurry... Zachariah will be back."
"Don't have to tell me twice," muttered Dean, leading the way around to the front door. He gripped the doorknob, glanced at the other two to make sure they were ready, then thrust the door open.
Inside, predictably, it looked absolutely nothing like an old country bungalow. It was similar to the building they'd contained Alistair in: cold, dark, and dripping. Everything was metal and shadows. The front room that they had burst into was small and unfurnished but for a table and a couple of chairs over which a single bare lightbulb hung. The walls were covered in Enochian sigils, none of which meant anything to Dean.
In the back, though, was a heavy door, and it was through this door that the trio proceeded now. They were unchallenged; no one else was in sight, friendly or otherwise. Still, they went cautiously, with Dean leading the way, through to the second room.
This second room was even colder and danker, with a row of three barred cells along the back wall. Only the center one was occupied, its prisoner in a bloody heap on the floor.
"Terriel!" Sam gasped. He was already reaching for the door when a hoarse voice choked out,
"Don't! Don't touch the door!"
"Well, he's alive," Dean pointed out, grabbing Sammy by the back of the shirt and pulling him back, in case he had considered ignoring the ominous words. The pile on the floor shifted with a clank of metal chains.
"Terriel, we've come to get you out," Cas growled, striding over to the caged angel and squatting down. "How badly are you injured?"
"Very badly." Terriel shifted again, this time raising his head and uncurling his body so that they could see him. The two humans winced, trading a swift look. 'Very badly' was right.
Cas looked pained, also wincing. Gruffly, he asked, "You… you rescued me from Zachariah?"
There was a sigh, then Terriel answered weakly, "Too late, I'm afraid. I'm… I'm sorry, brother."
"Yeah, ok, I hate to break up this little moment," Dean interrupted, tapping his watch, "but maybe we could have this conversation on the road."
"Right," Castiel said quickly, straightening back up. His eyes went to the walls, covered in the sigils, though it didn't seem like he could make heads or tails out of it, either. "You said not to touch the door."
"No... it is designed… to prevent escape. The sigils... Forcing the door open… it would just… kill you."
"Well, isn't that just great," grumbled Dean. "Where's the key, then?"
Weakly, Terriel pointed towards the wall, chains rattling again as he moved. They could see the sigils carved into these chains as well, realizing this was probably how his grace was being bound. "The sigils," he murmured. "Obliterate… the fourth… first… and tenth. In that order."
"You're sure?" Sam asked.
Terriel nodded, his one eye that wasn't swollen shut meeting Sam's squarely. "I… designed them. I am sure."
His voice was getting weaker by the second. It looked like he was still oozing blood from wounds that were gaping a bit too much to close on their own, and they had no idea how long it would take Zachariah to get back. Quickly, Cas flew to the wall, following Terriel's directions with determined eyes. Taking his angel blade, he drew a line through the fourth, first, then tenth sigil that had been carved into the wall.
Inside the cell, the manacles fell from Terriel's wrists, and the door creaked open on its rusty hinges. Dean hurried in, pulling the beaten angel up. Terriel instantly cried out, yelling for Dean to stop. Too late, the hunter saw the ghastly white bone sticking out of one leg, the odd angle of the other, and he swore. Two broken legs… that would slow the angel's escape.
"Why aren't you healing?" Dean demanded in concern, given that they'd unbound Terriel's grace. Shouldn't he have snapped right back together? "Cas, can you do something?"
Castiel had hurried back over to them, nodding. Just as he reached them, though, a voice suddenly said,
"'Fraid not, gentlemen."
Zachariah! The blood drained from Sam, Dean, and Cas's faces as they all whirled around in dismay! There he was, standing with his hands clasped behind him, grinning like a kid in a candy shop. Beside him, his other angel was waiting with angel blade in hand and a smirk on his face.
"But- I banished your ass!" Dean gasped, one hand on Cas and the other still on Terriel. He couldn't have gotten back this fast. They never came back this fast.
"Nope, sorry," retorted Zachariah with an arrogant shrug. "That was just Stunt Angel Number Four that I sent to collect you. Did you really think I was going to come when you called? Dean, Dean, Dean. You-"
There was a flurry of movement and flannel, as Sam suddenly shot forward past the other three. Zachariah was still in the middle of talking when the hunter physically leaped onto his back, long limbs wrapping around the furious angel.
"RUN!" Sam shouted, grappling with Zachariah, fighting to keep his hold. He could slow the angel down for only seconds, but just long enough for the others to escape. The other angel was rushing Dean and Cas, and Castiel had only a split second to decide what to do.
Time froze, everything slowing down, as the angel assessed the scene in the blink of an eye. He didn't have time to gather Dean and Terriel and reach Sam, and get them all out of there safely. On his left, Zachariah was already throwing Sam to the floor with wrath sizzling from his grace. There would be no reaching him; the hunter had sacrificed himself to buy time for the others.
On his right, Dean was shouting at Sam in fear for his brother, and Terriel was still too weak to heal or fly. The other angel was about to overtake them, if they didn't fly now.
"Cas, take them and go!" Sam roared, as Dean yelled,
"Sam! No!"
Castiel made his choice, whirling back around to face Dean and Terriel. "I'm sorry, Sam," he said softly… before reaching out and tapping two fingers to the foreheads of both Dean and Terriel. "But I can'tleave you here alone."
"NO-" But Dean was gone before he could even finish yelling. The other angel reached Castiel half a second too late to stop him from sending Dean and the injured Terriel away. A furious fist connected hard with the side of Castiel's head, and then everything went dark.