A/N: Looks like notifications still aren't getting sent out...
Chapter 10
Castiel felt a small tremor of trepidation as he approached the portal in the playground. The last time he had been here, he'd had to return a battered and bleeding Metatron after Dean had lost control and beaten the Scribe mercilessly. Any favors Castiel might have called upon after that had dried up at his inability to keep his promise of returning the prisoner unharmed. And then the Winchesters and Ryn had broken into Heaven to free the Scribe.
So, Castiel's rapport with the angels was on precarious ground, but he still believed they could come together for a common cause.
The guard at the sandbox narrowed his gaze at Castiel's approach. "That's far enough, Castiel," he spoke out.
Castiel drew to a stop. "Excuse me?"
"I have orders. You aren't allowed upstairs."
Castiel's heart twinged at the news, though he wasn't entirely surprised. "Please," he said. "You know what's happening on Earth. The Darkness is a threat to us all."
The guard continued to gaze at him blandly. "Hold please."
Castiel furrowed his brow in confusion, but then the portal cracked open, and the guard tipped his head back. An angelic wavelength of light streamed out and through the glowing gateway, only to be replaced by another. The male vessel's eyes glowed blue for an instant, and then he looked up, eyes softening.
"Hello, Castiel."
Castiel relaxed, giving a small smile. "Hannah."
She roved her gaze over him. "You got your grace back."
He shifted his weight. "Yes."
Hannah nodded soberly. "I'm glad. But, Castiel, what the Winchesters did…"
"I know," he interrupted. "I know you're probably angry—"
"They broke into Heaven, Castiel," she said, tone sharpening. "Mortals. And they freed the traitor." Hannah shook her head. "That cannot be forgiven."
Castiel stiffened. "Hannah, you wouldn't think of barring them entrance to Heaven?" Sam and Dean were heroes; they belonged in Heaven, not Hell. They deserved peace at the end of the long and arduous road they had traveled. If Heaven refused them…
"And Metatron is dead," Castiel went on. "He is no longer a threat to the angels."
"That wasn't their decision to make," she retorted. "Metatron's sentence was to be imprisoned for eternity."
"They meant well," Castiel pressed. "They were only trying to save me." He couldn't let them be punished for it.
Hannah drew her shoulders back. "And the disturbance in Illinois?" she said coldly. "What are the odds that they were in the middle of that?"
Castiel cringed. He couldn't deny it, but again, they were just trying to save him.
"That wasn't their fault, but they are trying to stop it. Hannah, this Darkness has been around since the dawn of creation. God and the archangels beat it back when He created the world. And now it intends to take over again, to drown everything in darkness as it was in the beginning."
Hannah frowned. "How do you know this?"
"I had a brief encounter with it," he replied. "And it was confirmed by someone else who was lucky enough to survive a conversation with the entity."
Hannah shook her head and looked away as though she didn't quite believe him.
"We've obtained a Hand of God," Castiel went on. "But I'm afraid it won't be enough. If the angels will band together for a unified strike, then we might succeed at weakening the Darkness enough to lock it away, forever."
He took a step closer, eyes pleading. "Hannah, I know we've had our differences, and I know the Winchesters have made mistakes in the past. But they are good men and they're trying to do the right thing here, trying to save the world. Please, will you help?"
Hannah's expression was guarded, reluctant, but she wasn't outright telling him no. "Alright, Castiel," she finally said, and he allowed himself a breath of relief.
He nodded gratefully. "Thank you."
Her mien remained sober as she regarded him. "And if the Winchesters succeed in saving the world this time…I will remove the ban on their souls. But," she continued quickly before he could thank her again. "If they interfere with Heaven again, their names will be blotted out of the Book. For eternity."
Castiel stiffened. He wanted to argue, to plead their case…but the fact of the matter was that if they failed to defeat the Darkness, there wouldn't be a Heaven or Hell for any of them to go to when the universe was eventually swallowed up in darkness.
Castiel just hoped that what they had would, in fact, be enough.
Sam glanced up from his laptop as Dean paced yet another circuit in front of the table. "Dude, would you stop?" His brother had been getting more and more antsy the longer Cas was gone. It was getting distracting.
Dean shot him an incredulous scowl. "I can't just sit here doing nothing, Sam."
"You could help me look for more Hands of God," he suggested pointedly.
Dean just shook his head and resumed his pacing. Sam rolled his eyes.
"I'm sorry, Sam," Ryn spoke up from a sofa chair in the corner. "I didn't know that's what you were doing. I'll help."
He sighed, and pushed his laptop away. "No, it's okay. I'm not actually finding any." Most of the things that had been touched by God in biblical times were considered mythical relics, or the pieces that would still contain traces of that power were fragments of the original object, lost or destroyed long ago.
Still, it had given Sam something to do, since he was also worried about Cas approaching the angels. Even if Cas hadn't been involved with freeing Metatron, it wasn't like he hadn't been on Heaven's bad side enough times in the past. Sam was second-guessing letting him go alone.
"If your wee pal Castiel can't convince the other halos to help, you'll have to do better than that, Samuel."
Sam shot Rowena a dark glower. "Aren't you supposed to be packing some heavy power?" he retorted. "Because if not, why should we even keep you around?" He had half a mind to hand Rowena over to Crowley, except the King of Hell had disappeared shortly after Cas left, presumably to get the Cage box again. At least it meant Crowley and Rowena weren't currently going at each other's throats, but Sam was getting very irked at the witch lounging around and drinking tea as if she were at a five-star hotel.
Rowena lifted a haughty chin. "Of course I have significant power, Samuel. The Darkness was only able to grow so quickly due to my helping it."
"Yeah, not a selling point," he rejoined sharply. "Since that makes all this partially your fault."
"Would you both just give it a rest," Dean muttered.
Sam leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms with a huff. He was the one actually trying to be productive while the rest of them were brooding.
Ryn got up and came over to his table. "I'll help," she said softly.
Yet before they could pull the laptops up again, Crowley teleported back into the room, sans Cage box.
"Where the hell have you been?" Dean demanded.
"Procuring more firepower," the demon replied blandly, and set an object wrapped in cloth on the table.
"What is that?" Sam asked.
"The Horn of Joshua. Another useful artifact with the power of God tucked inside."
Sam raised his eyebrows. "How do you have all of these?" To think the demon had had access to God-level power this whole time…just fortunately hadn't known it. Sam wondered if Crowley was holding any back for after they defeated the Darkness.
"I'm a shrewd investor," Crowley said, turning away from Sam to narrow his eyes on Rowena darkly.
Sam reached across the table to get a look at this horn, but Ryn shot a hand out to grab his wrist.
"Careful. Once activated, there's no stopping that power's release, and it'll burn up any mortal who tries to use it."
Sam snatched his hand back, giving the cloth-covered lump a wary look.
Dean came over to join them, also eyeing the concealed item. "That's what Delphine said." His mouth tightened. "She used it anyway. If the sub was going down, she wanted to take out the Nazi bastards with them."
Sam's heart clenched in sympathy for what his brother had gone through, what those young sailors had gone through. Dean could probably use a good bottle of liquor to decompress from it all, if they had the time and luxury for that. Which they didn't.
"So who's gonna use these?" Sam asked, turning to Ryn. "You and Cas?"
"That's not dangerous for either of you, is it?" Dean pressed.
Ryn shook her head. "We'll be fine."
Sam caught Crowley staring at them, particularly Ryn.
"You look familiar," the demon mused. His eyes widened a bare fraction. "You were in Ohio, when we set that trap for Cain." Crowley turned his gaze on Dean, narrowing on his arm. "How did you remove the Mark?"
"Not really important right now," Dean scowled.
"Didn't you know, Fergus?" Rowena piped up, sounding delightfully smug at knowing something he didn't. "Ryn here is a phoenix."
Sam gritted his teeth. He might have preferred Crowley not know that, though it was bound to come out eventually.
Crowley turned back to Ryn with an intrigued look. "You Winchesters are keeping interesting company these days."
"One might say the King of Hell and his mother are interesting on their own," Ryn replied.
Crowley gave her another once-over, but before either could decide to say anything more, the sound of the front door grating open echoed from the map room. Sam looked that way expectantly, and a few moments later Cas came in. Some of the tension in the library instantly abated as Ryn and Dean gave the angel looks of relief, which mirrored Sam's own.
"And the verdict?" Dean asked.
"The angels will help," Cas said. "Hannah will meet us on the western side of Illinois where highway 36 becomes highway 72." The lines around his mouth tightened. "Hopefully the Darkness will not have spread that far by the time we can get there."
Sam wished their most hopeful news didn't have to also sound so ominous.
"Then we'd better get going," Dean said. "That's an eight-hour drive."
"We'll have to draw out the Darkness's core," Rowena spoke up. "Its heart, so to speak. A direct strike is the only way an attack will be effective."
Sam shot her a vexed look; she couldn't have mentioned that before? "And how do we do that?"
Rowena shrugged. "It would have to be something big to get its attention, but not enough to tip our hand."
Great, what was gonna catch the 'eye' of a shapeless blob the size of a freakin' state?
"Why don't you just ask it to come out?" Crowley sneered. "Since you and it are so close nowadays."
Rowena turned her nose up at him. "If I called to it, it would know to expect a trap."
"As we all should."
"Not helping," Dean growled.
"I can get its attention," Ryn interjected, drawing every eye in the room.
"What? How?" Sam asked.
"The Darkness wants to eradicate all light on earth…I'll light up my fire and give it a beacon it won't be able to ignore."
"No," Cas said sharply. "That is too dangerous."
"I've fully recovered from the last encounter," Ryn insisted. "And I bet the Darkness will recognize my signature, and want to know how I managed to survive it dousing my spark."
"You barely survived that first confrontation," Cas argued. "We were lucky there was a way to restore your spark this time; if the Darkness devours it again, there won't be a second."
Ryn reached out to gently touch his elbow. "I trust you all to succeed…and if you don't, it won't really matter in the end, will it?"
A muscle in Cas's jaw ticked, but he didn't seem to have a counterargument to that.
"Can you give Cas part of your spark again?" Sam broke in. "As safe-keeping?" Removing it hadn't exactly been pleasant, but Cas had survived the procedure, and would no doubt be willing to go through it again if it helped Ryn.
Cas shook his head regretfully. "My grace was weak enough the first time to accept the spark, but now that it's also recovered, I'm afraid it would just burn Ryn's own flame out."
Sam pressed his mouth into a thin line. Well, crap; he didn't have any other ideas. The Darkness was now too big to be tempted by something like a portable generator as it would have been back in Eureka, Oklahoma. Sam again mentally cursed Rowena's betrayal—and idly wondered if they could lure the Darkness out by offering it her head. It did try to kill her, after all.
Dean cleared his throat. "We'll just have to make sure we don't fail, then," he said. "Ryn's right; if this doesn't work, the world will end."
Saying it out loud cast a dark pall over the room, and Sam swallowed hard. He would have thought that with all their experience averting an apocalypse, more than once, that the task wouldn't seem so impossible. Except this time the end of the world included the end of everything. Earth, Heaven, Hell.
And where was God in all this? He may not have cared back during the Apocalypse, but surely he had to know what was going on now. Was he really going to sit back and let all of his creation be thoroughly wiped out? Well, maybe, since he obviously didn't give a crap. Maybe the Darkness was just the excuse he needed to wipe the slate clean.
Sam clenched a fist. It didn't matter, he decided, because they weren't going to let it happen.
Ryn tightened her grip on Cas's arm. "I'm only drawing its attention. Once the core reveals itself, you'll be ready to activate the Hand of God before it can touch me."
Cas still looked hesitant, but then gave her a staunch nod. "I won't be late this time."
Ryn angled a dry look at him, then turned to Crowley. "You'll have to use the second Hand of God."
Crowley had been eyeing her and Cas with intense curiosity, but managed to shift to a blithe air. "Naturally."
"You found another one?" Cas asked.
Ryn pointed to the table, and Cas stepped forward to flip the cloth over, revealing the ram's horn underneath. It didn't look like it contained the power of God, but both Crowley and Cas seemed to think it did, so Sam would put his trust in that.
"Well, then," Crowley said. "I will see you boys at the border." And with that, he vanished.
Sam rolled his eyes. He glanced at the Horn of Joshua, and the Rod of Aaron Crowley had left on the other table. "Cas, you should probably pack those up."
It wasn't until he turned around and spotted Rowena grinning at him that he realized Crowley had also left something else behind.
"Road trip!" Rowena beamed.
Sam exchanged an irked look with his brother.
"Great," Dean muttered.
They got on the road as quickly as possible, which meant Sam didn't have time to make a certain phone call until all five of them were crammed into the Impala together, which meant no privacy for the conversation he needed to have. But it had to be done.
Dean cast him a knowing look when he pulled his phone out and hit dial. Sam didn't put it on speaker, though.
"Sam!" Charlie answered before the first ring had even finished. "Please tell me you guys have something, because I'm coming up with diddly-squat."
"Uh, yeah, actually," he said, having to pause to clear his throat. "We've got some weapons, and the angels are on board for an attack. I- I think we have a real shot." He might have been trying to convince himself with that more than her.
"That's great! Where should I meet you?"
"No, no," he said quickly. "You don't need to be anywhere near ground zero when this thing goes off."
"Where else would I be?" Charlie squeaked indignantly. "You're my family; I should be there with you!"
Sam's lips tugged upward with a fond smile. "I know, but Dean and I want you somewhere safe for this. Look, Charlie, you've helped us so much already. And we love you. So, please, just find shelter and- and pray this works."
"Don't make me hack your phone's GPS," she rejoined.
Sam shook his head with a sigh. "Charlie…"
Dean gestured for him to hand the phone over, so he did.
Dean pressed it to his ear. "Charlie, listen, if this doesn't work…someone's gotta be left to keep looking for a solution. And if anyone's got a shot at that, it's you, kiddo."
Sam couldn't hear Charlie's side of the conversation anymore, though it seemed as though she might be slowly caving. Dean usually won using that argument, after all.
"We will," Dean said, and then hung up before tossing the phone back at Sam.
Morose silence filled the car after that, at least for a little while. Sam should have figured it wouldn't last.
"Stop looking at me," Cas said.
Sam craned his neck to glance into the backseat where Cas sat with Ryn on one side and Rowena on the other. The angel was currently gazing pointedly back at the witch.
Rowena's lips pressed into a pursed moue. "I'm sorry. You're just fascinating. An angel that rejected Heaven. That's like a fish that wants to fly, or a dog that thinks he's people."
"Hey," Dean lobbed over his shoulder.
"Well, I'm a lot like people," Cas replied sincerely.
Rowena gave him a simpering smirk. "Keep telling yourself that, dear."
Ryn leaned forward to shoot the witch a warning look around Cas, and Sam thought he might have seen a flicker of live fire in the phoenix's eyes.
"Rowena," Sam spoke up before things could escalate. "Be quiet. We can always gag you for the rest of the drive."
"Is that any way to speak to a benevolent benefactor?" she replied in mock umbrage. "Are we not a team?"
"No," Sam and Dean said at the same time.
Rowena huffed and crossed her arms, stewing in silence for a few more minutes before her lilting accent broke the tranquility once again. "You wouldn't think a road-trip with two such strapping lads could be this tedious." She scooted forward in her seat to lean closer. "Shall we have a wee sing-song?"
"No!" Sam and Dean repeated in unison yet again. Honestly, if she didn't shut up, Sam was going to ask Cas to simply shove Rowena out of the moving car.
Rowena heaved a heavy sigh as she leaned back in her seat. "I've only myself to blame," she lamented.
"Yeah, you know what," Sam retorted, "you do."
Dean suddenly reached over to turn on a tape, one of his heavier rock collections. "Fine, you want a sing-along? Sing to this."
A blaring electric guitar filled the cabin, making Rowena reel back like a bat that just had its ears boxed.
"What in god's name is that?" the witch sputtered.
"That, is a classic," Dean replied, and cranked the volume all the way up until even Sam was wincing slightly at the vibrations in his eardrums. But at least it got Rowena to shut up. Or, more accurately, drowned her out.
He flicked an apologetic glance toward Cas and Ryn, who were giving each other squinty looks under the assault of the guitar solo.
It was gonna be a long ride.
A/N: Getting so close to the big showdown! Also, after getting a few requests, I ended up writing a follow-up chapter for "The Choice" that I'll post Wednesday. ^_^