A/N: Thanks so much to my guest reviewers, as well as laureleaf! I'm SO HAPPY you all are enjoying Terriel so much ^_^ This is the big moment...
Castiel glowered at Laz, tightening his grip on his angel blade. The thrum of his own grace pulsed from within the ethereal metal, warrior and weapon knowing each other's feel. As long as Laz had the reapers to draw power from, though, the sword might well be useless. As effective as Sam's blade had been on him when he'd been fueled by Purgatory souls.
It didn't help that Castiel still felt exhausted from having so much grace taken away from him, with only a fraction of it returned. Laz, on the other hand, was fresh for the fight and stronger than ever.
"You sure you want to do this, Castiel?" the demon taunted him. Light flashed down the chain he held, power surging from the reapers into him. "You're looking a little… used up. We both know you can't beat me."
If Dean were there, he would have lobbed a quick-witted remark back at him, but Castiel didn't waste his breath. He flew forward, slicing with his blade as he went. Laz raised his own sword just in time, so the strike glanced off the metal, showering sparks down on the combatants.
"Is that all you've got?" Laz demanded as he yanked on the chain to force the reapers to shuffle around with him. "This will be even easier than I expected."
Again, Castiel didn't reply. He did know that he would be hard pressed to win this battle.
He also knew that winning was the only option he had. If Castiel failed now, Dean would be lost, as well as Sam. Gabriel would be lost. All his brothers and sisters, all of Heaven—and every soul in it. The Earth would be lost as it was overrun by the homeless spirits, the same Earth that he'd fought and bled and even died for, for so long. This demon could shatter the very fabric of existence if Castiel failed, and so he had no choice but to win.
Flooded with this one, overarching fact, Castiel flung himself back into the attack. His blade flashed silver, weaving a pattern of ferocious will. Laz parried the blows, hindered and aided by the reapers he clung to. They left him with precious little mobility, but Castiel could feel the power they gave the demon when each clash of their weapons jarred him to the bone.
And yet, Laz was clearly no swordsman. Though he'd managed to block every strike directed at him, the demon had yet to levy an attack of his own, holding Castiel at bay but unable to advance.
Finally, Laz jumped backwards and dodged behind the line of chained reapers, creating a living shield.
"Give it up, Castiel!" the demon barked in the brief pause. "You won't risk their precious heads."
The angel gritted his teeth, knowing it was true. The reapers were the perfect hostages: unable to do the slightest thing to help themselves, unwittingly helping their own captor and making him stronger. In the old days, Michael would have ordered they be killed for the greater good to stop Laz, but Castiel couldn't and wouldn't do any such thing. Sam and Dean had taught him that there was always another answer.
No, his best bet would be to separate Laz from the reapers, but getting close enough would be tricky. Castiel lowered his body weight slightly, preparing to attempt a short flight forward, but Laz moved first.
The demon's hand shot out, using the reapers' stored power to lash out with an unseen force. It threw Castiel off-balance, flinging him several feet away to crash down to the dusty ground. All the breath was driven from his lungs. With Laz continuing to thrust his power in the angel's direction, Castiel couldn't even struggle back to his feet.
Laz smiled, emerging from around the reapers. His hand remained extended with the blade held loosely in his grasp, approaching the downed angel with an air of victory. From somewhere nearby, Castiel heard a low grunt, but didn't dare turn his attention away from the demon bearing down on him. Thus, he almost didn't see Sam careening towards them on shaky legs until Laz whirled with wide eyes.
"Stay away from him!" Sam growled, barely able to keep his feet as he swung the blade he clenched in a wild arc.
Laz deflected the blow but was left without a spare hand to return the attack. Instead, he resorted to twisting his body and landing a bruising kick to Sam's ribs to fling the hunter away.
"Sam!" Castiel shouted.
But Laz didn't advance on Sam for the finishing blow. Nor did he return his focus to Castiel; instead, the demon spun to glower at Theodore, who had drawn closer without any of them realizing it. He was speaking now, but Castiel didn't recognize the language. Some variant of Enochian, he believed, perhaps a tongue known only to the reapers.
Whatever he was saying, the other reapers were still able to hear. A ball of radiant light erupted from the female at the front of the line—the one who had taken Dean's soul.
"No!" Laz bellowed as the implication clearly struck him at the same time. But it was too late.
The light streaked away from the reapers, solidifying into Dean's form as he hit the ground and rolled. The hunter leaped to his feet without losing stride, backing into line between Sam and Castiel. For the briefest second, no one moved. Dean was breathing heavily, but he was there.
They were united once again as Castiel's eyes shifted from one Winchester to the other. His heart beat faster. Confidence built with the memory of other fights they had faced in this same formation, united against some of the darkest enemies imaginable. Fights they had won.
Turning back to Laz, Castiel snapped, "You think fate brought me to you? It didn't. It brought us." He raised his blade. "So I can assure you… fate is not on your side."
With a snarl, Laz swung his sword hand towards the group again, throwing another wave of power in their direction. Castiel dove to the side, wrapping his arms and invisible wings around Dean to shield him as he went. Though he strained to reach Sam as well, he wasn't in time to stop all three of them from being knocked off their feet.
"We need to separate him from the reapers!" Castiel gasped as he jumped back up with a flap of his wings.
"Yeah," Dean coughed. "On it!" The hunter scrambled upright, already racing forward as Castiel and Sam moved in from either side.
Laz narrowed his eyes, shoving Dean back with a wall of power and then swinging his blade around just in time to catch Castiel's attack. Sparks flew again, light flowing in a pulsating crackle down the chain from the silent reapers. Castiel gritted his teeth as the energy nearly forced him back, thrusting again with the blade. This time, Laz's parry carried enough force to knock the blade from Castiel's grip.
"Why won't you just die?" Laz shouted, twisting to deflect Sam as the hunter charged in once again. His blow drove an already exhausted Sam to the ground.
"We are dead," Dean retorted. "Imagine what a pain in your ass we would've been when we were still alive."
"Enough of this." The chain in Laz's hands glowed brighter, the luminescence nearly blinding. Light washed through the demon, illuminating his skin from within. The black pools of his eyes turned grey from the pure energy.
If he unleashed that power now, Castiel realized as his heart stuttered to a halt, it was all over. His frantic gaze sought out his angel blade, but it was too far out of reach. There was nothing he could do.
Laz's hand rose.
The light erupted.
But instead of consuming them like devouring flames, the power arched into the air, condensing as it went. Smaller and tighter, the energy collapsed in on itself, coiling and shrieking with power. Castiel watched it fly high over their heads, turning to see the light continue on its journey until it came to a jolting halt in the form of a glowing crystal nearly the size of his head.
In the following silence, broken only by the light ring of the amethyst stone, Castiel gaped. Below the crystal, Terriel knelt, pressing his hand to a strange sign carved into the ground. Castiel didn't know what on earth he was still doing there, but somehow, he had saved them. He'd given them one more shot.
Castiel whirled and everything happened at once. Dean grabbed the end of the chain and yanked it out of a dumbstruck Laz's hands. Sam shouted the angel's name and pitched him the blade he carried. Castiel snatched it out of the air and flew forward to plunge it hilt deep into Laz's abdomen.
And Laz himself gasped, breath echoing on the rocky ground, as angel and demon stood nose to nose. Laz's eyes flicked back to the normal, human brown, as his body crackled and spurted from the smiting power he'd been struck with from the blade. For a second, his face twisted into an expression that spoke only agony.
"R-Rosie," he whispered, blood trickling from his mouth. The blade he'd stolen clattered to the ground from nerveless fingers and he gripped Castiel's sleeve instead. "I promised…"
Castiel nodded.
"I made promises, too."
He twisted the blade. The orange spurting intensified, and then the demon's form exploded into ash.
The dust settled, revealing a wide-eyed Sam and Dean heaving in deep breaths. Castiel offered the pair a short nod of gratitude, though his heart could hardly feel light in the wake of such a waste. Laz might have contributed great things to the world, had things gone differently.
But there was no use in such musings, so Castiel turned instead to what needed his more pressing attention. "The reapers," he growled, hurrying towards the line. "Sam, Dean, help me. Theodore!"
Quickly, the four began to pull the pins out of each of the reapers' heads, dropping most of them into a pile on the ground. Castiel pocketed one so that Gabriel would be able to see what they were dealing with, then left the hunters and Theodore to work on the chains while he hurried to Terriel's side.
The sigil crafter was sitting on the ground, hand pressed against a heavily bleeding wound that rang faintly of grace. Castiel frowned, easing his brother's hand away so he could assess the damage.
"Damn it," he muttered, seeing how deep the wound was. With his grace so low at present, Castiel doubted he would be able to heal Terriel and make the flight back to Heaven with passengers. "I can stop the bleeding, but the rest will have to wait until we're safely home."
Terriel nodded with a shuddering breath, not arguing. He hissed in pain as Castiel began to pour a bit of grace into the damaged flesh.
As he worked, Castiel glanced up again at the alien crystal hovering over their heads. Bafflement flooded him anew. "Terriel, what is that? What did you do?"
"That?" The sigil crafter smiled, tight against the pain, but with obvious excitement glowing in his eyes. He pressed his hand to the sigil he'd carved into the ground. "I'll show you."
The healing grace from Castiel's hand suddenly pulsed, shooting up with a whistle. Soon, another crystal hovered above them, though this one was little bigger than a pebble, and radiant blue as a sapphire instead of amethyst. Castiel gasped.
"I got the idea from the demon," Terriel explained hoarsely, reaching up to gently pull the sapphire down. "Take it."
Castiel frowned, holding out his hand tentatively for his brother to drop the glowing stone into. He gasped again as the pure power it contained filled him with warmth. "It's almost as though the grace has…"
"Crystalized," Terriel finished. "Yes. This sigil forms a conduit for power to flow through, like those chains, but it's refined and concentrated as it goes. Much like an angel blade being formed from the ether, but in this case, pure power."
"So this one is purple because it's the reapers' power."
"But lightened because it's mixed with your own grace. Whereas the one you're holding is purely angelic."
Castiel inspected the crystal, turning it several times in his hands as he wondered again at how warm the stone was. He'd never seen grace in this form before, or in any form aside from the wispy celestial light. No one ever had.
A thought struck him then, so fiercely that Castiel nearly dropped the crystallized grace. "Terriel… This could be it." Castiel licked his dry lips as he handed the stone back over. "This could save Heaven."
"They're batteries, Castiel! Batteries to fuel Heaven even if you aren't there. You'll regenerate the spent grace long before the crystallized form has run dry. Anyone who wishes to donate grace to the cause, we could power Heaven with these. One crystal of Gabriel's grace could sustain us for years! We could-"
Terriel broke off with a hitched cry of pain, his hand shooting back down to protectively cover his wound.
Standing, Castiel turned to see Sam and Dean watching in silent shock. Theodore had his arms wrapped around the huddling mass of blinded reapers. Right, one mission at a time.
"We need to get everyone back to Heaven," he said with a frown. "I- I don't know how many I can carry, and Terriel's too injured to take passengers." The reapers needed the most immediate attention, but the idea of leaving Sam and Dean here even long enough to fly to Heaven and back… assuming he could even make that many flights in his current state…
Theodore's grim face tightened. "I can take them all. That's what we do, Castiel. We're ferrymen."
Castiel nodded, wincing with chagrin that he hadn't thought of that. He was going to need a long rest when all of this was done, to recharge both his grace and his mind.
With a whisper of soft reassurance, Theodore's encompassing arms squeezed tighter as the remaining reapers shifted into a puff of grey and plum, evaporating into him to carry home. He gave Castiel one more nod, then disappeared as well.
"Cas," Sam's quiet voice spoke up at last. "You alright?"
The Winchester way would have been to reassure them that he was fine, but Castiel wasn't sure he could maintain that lie at the moment. What he wanted was to just go home, to get Terriel safely back to Gabriel for healing, to retreat to the Winchesters' personal heaven and soak in the security of the familiar walls. He tried to give the hunter a reassuring look in place of actual words, but he could feel even that falling flat.
"Thank you," he said instead, gravelly and low. "Thank you, all of you. Thanks for coming after me."
Both of their faces softened a bit as Dean strode forward and clapped a hand to his shoulder.
"Like we would've sat it out, knowing you were down here on your own somewhere?" he demanded. "Not a chance in… um-" Dean cut off, awkwardly withdrawing his hand. "Yeah."
Castiel bit his lip as the corners tugged up ever so slightly, relieved that his friends hadn't suffered any permanent effects from being down here. Particularly given their histories with this place. He could read pain in both of their auras that would need to be dealt with, but not here. Castiel turned back to his angelic brother, who was painfully scuffing out the sigil he'd drawn. The two scintillating crystals were clenched in his grip.
"Will you be able to make the trip?" Castiel asked, nodding to the still bleeding wound as he reached out a hand to pull Terriel to his feet.
"Yes, I- I believe so."
"Alright. You should go first, then, so I can keep an eye on you. We'll take it slow." Castiel returned to the two silently waiting Winchesters and put a hand on either of their shoulders.
"Hold on. We're going home."
SPN SPN SPN
Gabriel stood at the front gate, fists clenched so tightly that the gold rivulets in the massive doors were starting to spark dangerously with his stress. The reapers' return had triggered both relief that the threat had been neutralized and rage at the condition they were in. Gabriel's warriors had taken them to the halls of healing, and he would join them soon to see how much of the damage he would be able to reverse.
But first.
Gabriel's golden eyes flashed as the flapping of wings brought two more angels, as well as two familiar humans. Finally.
"Cas!" he shouted, knocking one of the Winchesters out of the way as he reached out to grip his brother's face. "Thank Dad. You're alright?"
Cas winced but nodded. The way the kid's grace was spluttering, barely there, suggested otherwise. The skin around his neck was reddened slightly, and boy was Gabriel going to have words when he found out what that was about, but his little brother did at least seem like he would make it. Lingering for a second longer, just to be sure, Gabriel nodded and then let go.
Knocking the other Winchester aside, he flew next to Terriel with thunder in his eyes.
"And you!" he snapped, jabbing a finger at the young angel. "I gave you an order!"
Terriel ducked his head, peering up at Gabriel with apology, and damn it, was he bleeding?
"A direct order!" Gabriel shouted louder as he placed a hand over the wound. Light flared from beneath his palm, healing the injury in seconds. "I told you to get out of there! Do you realize you could have died?"
"Gabriel, we all could have died if I hadn't-"
"And what if it hadn't worked, huh? Did you think about that? Did you think about what would have happened if- DAMN it, Terriel!"
Terriel lowered his eyes and nodded. "The fledglings?"
"I already had them brought back! Don't change the subject! I could have lost you, do you realize that?" Overcome, Gabriel grabbed his brother and yanked him in tightly, crushing the younger angel against him to reassure himself that he was still there. Taking a shaky breath, Gabriel snapped, "When I took this job, I agreed to be responsible for all of you impossible rugrats. I said I would protect you! Do you understand why I'm pissed as hell?"
"Yes…"
"Good!" Gabriel growled as he released the angel. "Because you're confined to Heaven!"
Terry blinked and glanced around before replying, "We- we're all confined to Heaven-"
"Oh, for- go to your room!"
"Gabriel," Cas cut him off, stepping forward. "He did save us all. He fought well and bravely, as bravely as any of our warriors. Besides… Terriel might have found a way to keep Heaven running."
Nodding eagerly, Terry held up a couple of glowy rocks that Gabriel was apparently supposed to recognize—and actually, one of them did have a strong grace signature, which was weird, because it was a rock, and even weirder that he knew that grace signature, and… actually, what the hell was this thing?
Snatching the blue glowy rock away from Terriel, Gabriel gave his young charge a side-eyed glare, then looked closer at the thing.
….Okay, so this might actually be important. Huffing, Gabriel jerked his thumb over his shoulder.
"Get to the healing wards. We'll talk more later. You're still in trouble."
Nodding, Terriel flitted off. Gabriel rubbed his temples.
"Kids," he muttered. "I don't know how Dad did this job, because you're all gonna be the death of me."
"Hey, go easy on Terry," the shorter Winchester piped up. "We never would've found Cas without those sigils he gave us-"
"Bye." Gabriel waved a hand at the two hunters, relishing the quiet as they both disappeared back to their personal heaven. He took another cursory gaze at the rock, then stuffed it into his pocket and turned to Cas.
"Are you going to yell at me, too?" the angel asked.
Gabriel snorted. "I ought to," he griped. "What's the last thing I said to you when you left with Grumpy Reaper?"
"…not to let any strange demons in my pants-"
"Yeah, no, the thing right before that. I told you to be careful. I need you, Cas."
Cas nodded, mouth twisting. "I'm sorry. But maybe with what Terriel discovered-"
"No, I'm not talking about Heaven. I need you. Frankly, these angels drive me crazy."
Castiel glanced up at him, face smoothing ever so slightly, and Gabriel knew he understood. Shaking his head, the archangel finished,
"So you're grounded, too. Healing wards. Now. We'll debrief as soon as you're back up to speed. And we gotta figure something out for those reapers."
Gabriel stalked off, shaking his head.
Whoever had said it was good to be king was a dead-ass liar.