Dean, Sam, Castiel and Samandriel had been sharing a tent, trying to rest after a short yet emotionally exhausting journey. And with all the bad news they'd receieved, Dean had wanted more than ever to just close his eyes and sleep. He tried to settle for the second best thing, closing his eyes and trying to relax as he sat on the floor, resting his back on the wall of the little room. It didn't help much, as he stayed wide awake, and he listened in as Sam and Castiel spoke quietly together.
Suddenly, there was a ground-rumbling boom from not too far away that shook the little room they were in. They heard the shouts and cries of the angels outside. One of them swiftly pulled the tent flap aside. "There's been an ambush!" She cried, before sprinting off. The four looked up with surprised faces and clambered to get out of the tent and fight.
It looked like all hell had broken loose when they stepped outside. Everyone was yelling, shouting and sprinting around, as faint booms were heard as angels died or loud, ground-shaking booms from the bombs. There was a whizzing sound in the air, and as Sam watched a Leviathan bullet sped just inches past his ear and zipped through the air, colliding with a tree's trunk and leaving a dark black spatter. Sam's heart started pumping, and fear and determination flooded his system. He felt something heavy and secure fall into his palm; his own blade.
Dean watched as Sam pulled a long, silver blade from thin air and it flashed in the light, playing against his face with his dangerously determined facial expression. This was the type of Sam that no one in their right mind would mess with. He sprinted off with those long legs, following a pack of angels who had just went off together, heading straight to the battlefield.
Dean couldn't think straight as people rushed around him and noises filled the air. Swirling snowflakes all added to the mix and created an air of chaos.
"Stay here. Hide yourself if they come looking for you. If you need to, run away." Cas commanded Samandriel, using his dangerously low voice that meant business. The little dark-haired angel looked very afraid as he receded back into the tent, and Castiel turned his head quickly and locked his deep blue eyes with Dean's.
Without a word, he reached out and grabbed Dean's wrist and started to sprint and lead him. Dean felt disoriented as the snowflakes kept coming down heavier and heavier, swirling white so that he could barely see beyond the back of Castiel's tan trench coat. He saw a split-second flash of silver as something zipped by, a melted down blade bullet that had missed him by inches.
The yelling grew louder and louder, and they had finally reached the scene of the battle. Flecks of white danced sporadically as Dean caught glimpses of what was happening- he saw three human-body angels all take down one creature that looked like a radioactive waste spill gone wrong, with a somewhat human shaped body that had sprouted all sorts of miscellaneous animal parts. The thing fell to the floor hard, painting the snow with black charcoal wings. There were many other creatures like that, as the human angels kept trying to gang up and take them down.
Dean recognized Sam with a jolt. He was working alongside three other angels, and he saw Sam grip his blade ruthlessly and deliver the final blow to one of the enemy angels, sweeping in a fierce arc with a powerful hand. He got just a glance at his face, and Dean got a chill through his body, and he watched how quickly Sam rushed off to the next one. Damn, his baby brother, the one he'd always needed to protect, was taking down the enemy like it was nothing.
An angel not four feet away from him and Cas suddenly was struck down, right in the center, with a blade bullet, and Dean felt a sharp tug behind his heart that almost made him cry out. He felt more and more as angels started falling all around. With each one he hoped with all his heart that it wasn't Sam.
Dean now pulled Cas along to try and find Sam so he could fight alongside him, Cas cried out and Dean felt himself being shoved out of the way. He fell with his shoulder digging into a pile of snow, the cold pricking his skin like he'd fallen on needles. Contrastingly, he felt a blast of heat on his back as he and Cas had narrowly avoided the blast range from a fiery bomb. Dean finally felt his heart race, and with a pang of fear he felt his own weapon slide smoothly into his palm. Just the blast alone had cleared the air of snowflakes if for just a few seconds.
Dean realized the pile he'd fallen into was a quickly constructed bunker, and he found Calcifer and two other angels behind it. Calcifer's face quickly turned into one of genuine fear as he was able to see clearly, and spotted Isiah knelt on the ground, clutching his side with his face contorted in pain, white light streaming through the wound, trying to wrap his wings around him for protection, but his stubby amputated one did not even cover his back.
"Isiah!" Calcifer screamed out in Enochian, the way he said it pulled on everyone's heartstrings, they just almost taste the fear and heartbreak. Calcifer went to scramble over the bunker, and just then Dean saw something and life seemed to play in slow-motion. The one angel was holding a bomb in his hand, and was ready to act as a self-sacrificing trap to the seven or eight angels that had started to gang up on him.
Dean saw Sam, who was oblivious toward the plan, start to sprint and help. He felt the largest rush of the need to protect Sam overwhelm him, and suddenly Sam stopped in his tracks, looking like he'd hit a wall. Dean simultaneously pulled Calcifer, who was still screaming for Isiah, down to safety as the bomb went off, sending a fiery wall over their heads. Calcifer struggled to get Dean off of him, still trying to reach as far as he could. Dean his chest squeeze painfully as he felt at least eight of the angels die all at once.
Calcifer was still reaching with partially singed fingers, tears had instantly started to stream down his cheeks. "No-o-o-o!" He sobbed, his cries racking his body. Dean tried to stop him as he powered over the top, and he collapsed in total heartbreak as he saw a pair of unbalanced black wings were Isiah had been just moments ago.
Calcifer stayed there, curled in a little ball as his body shook with sobs, not even acknowledging that there were still dangerous things whizzing around him. Dean picked up on his mindset; he didn't care if he lived or died. Not anymore.
"Calcifer!" Dean barked out for him, as Castiel looked at him with weary eyes. Dean saw another enemy angel coming toward them, and scrambled out of the little hole they were in, his blade tight in his hand. He saw Sam again, and they exchanged glances for just a split second before they came together to take down the mass of human-shaped animal parts. Dean's heart was throbbing from all the losses, and he didn't even hesitate as he lunged and sliced at the thing.
He felt a boom rattle his bones as the creature timbered to the ground, but he felt nothing in his chest like when angels on his side died.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw a mass of humans slipping through the trees as stealthy as cats, and they moved quickly and lithly in packs of three or four. Dean knew that this had to be backup from one of the other troops that Gabriel had mentioned. These angels knew what they were doing, and Dean watched as the scene unfolded and these lethal teams quickly swept in and overcame the few enemy angels left.
The whizzing of bullets died down, and the stealthy new angels who had arrived started to round up the wounded and dissapear with the flapping of wings, no doubt taking them to Adam's or other places like his. Dean looked back and noticed Calcifer had not moved, even after it was all over.
"Cal?" He asked, coming up to the angel who was supposed to be one of the five powerful commanding officers. He was curled up in a fetal position, one of his hands lying limply on top of the pair of charred wings, and his eyes were blank as if he was looking through everything.
"Get the fuck away from me." Calcifer practically growled, as he sunk his hand into the snow and gripped his hand angrily into a fist. "You don't understand. You can never understand. He's never coming back. I can't just go to heaven or hell or purgatory to get him back." Calcifer sneered, anger beginning to glint in his eyes as he looked up to Dean with narrowed eyes. His nose wrinkled in disgust as he continued. "You think you'd do anything for Sam? You've only known him for thirty years! I've known Isiah for thousands!" He curled up tighter and looked like he would never move from that spot.
Dean didn't know what to say, and he looked over his shoulder to see Castiel standing there, a look of grief on his face as he had collected Samandriel and held him in his arms. "Just go away," Calcifer exhaled softly, his back to Dean. Dean noticed that the fifteen-something stars that dotted his grace seemed to twinkle and try to comfort him, as his body started to shiver from the cold and shake from sobs.
Castiel put a gentle hand on Dean's shoulder, as Dean stared at the vulnerable angel with a bewildered look on his face. He finally understood the gravity of his situation; if he did lose Sam, there would be no getting him back. He would be gone forever, his substance would mesh into a giant grace and be recycled. He felt his stomach drop at the realization.
"Just leave him for now," Castiel said softly, as Dean took one last glance at Calcifer. He felt maybe he could understand. Sam and Dean trailed Castiel, exhausted, and the two came back into the camp to see Gabriel conversing with a short, pretty little angel.
She was probably around five foot one, and she had long wavy white-blonde hair, and soft dark gray wings. When they came closer, they realized that she had stony gray eyes, much like Samandriel's. She was smiling, and she looked strong willed and sharp.
"...thank you for coming to help, Antheniel." They heard Gabriel say to the little woman. She smiled and shook her head. "It was nothing. We were very close by anyway. I would suggest that you train your troop soon, Gabriel. It would be a shame to see such losses again."
Gabriel nodded, looking very grim. "I agree. Isiah is no longer with us."
Antheniel had to divert her eyes. She'd really liked those pesky twins, who were so often overidden with human emotions that it was almost hard to tell they were even angels at times. "I'm sorry to hear that." She said softly, and turned to a stern-looking warrior who was standing beside her and made a quick hand motion, it was time for them to move on.
Gabriel looked like he was doing some serious pondering when he nodded curtly to the small woman and looked right at Sam and Dean.
"Come here," He called for them with a beckoning hand. All four of them came up and stared gravely that the powerful archangel in charge.
"You both were close with the prophet when you lived on Earth?" He asked the rhetorical question, and Dean and Sam were not sure were he was headed with this, but Cas clearly did.
"You can't, they're not ready yet-" He tried to speak up, but he was interrupted by Gabriel.
"How do you feel about getting out here and paying a little visit?" He asked, and they both understood. But would they even be able to return to earth? And how the hell would getting vessels work?
"We need to find out if there is any way to open hell up again. We need to rescue Michael soon, we're running out of time. With Antheniel here, we could afford to have you both off on your first mission, even after the losses from today."
Dean had adverted his eyes, thinking deeply. But Sam looked angry again, as he glanced at Samandriel.
"I know exactly what this is. You want to get rid of me so you can get at Andy. I'm not letting that happen," Sam said, curling his fist tightly.
"I'll do it," Samandriel spoke up quietly, and suddenly all four eyes were on the kid. "I'll try to get on the other network. After what happened to Isiah..." The kid was wearing a much too sad expression on his face for someone his age. "I want to help. I want everything to be over, no matter what it takes."
Sam and Dean looked extremely surprised, and Gabriel grinned. "Atta boy," He said, and reached out to tuck a tiny little strand of brown hair behind the kid's ear. Dean could tell that Gabriel was used to being a big brother and this was an extremely kind, familiar gesture, but still the little kid shrunk back and wrinkled his nose a tiny bit in fear, but he still allowed him to do it.
"I will stay here with him and make sure everything is fine," Castiel said, glancing down when Samandriel had cringed into him, trying to reassure Dean and Sam.
The brother's exchanged questioning glances, but finally nodded. However, Dean caught a little glimpse of something in Sam's eye and knew something was up.
"I'm not leaving until you tell me why he does that. Why he's afraid of you," Sam said, narrowing his eyes. Gabriel closed his eyes and looked skyward, looking frustrated and like he didn't want to say the answer.
He exhaled and his breath swirled away, and he leveled his eyes to look into Sam's, they twinkled hazel. "You should know the story better than anyone. Brother fighting against one another, Michael and Lucifer, until one killed the other and prevailed. Well, what do you think the other archangels were supposed to be doing while that was happening? Standing by with a tub of popcorn and enjoying the show?" He looked somewhat angry again.
"You should know by now that most things have a balance. Why do you think there were four archangels? And if two of them fought each other on earth, what do you think the other two are destined to do?"
Fight each other in heaven. Sam concluded, but he still didn't understand. Raphael was dead...
"That's where you're wrong. You really thing Castiel could kill an archangel? Oh, please." Gabriel rolled his eyes. "Who do you think started this war? Raphael always hated the humans, much like Lucifer. He just wasn't as upfront about it, so he got to stay. Him and Lucifer are very much alike."
Sam blinked, unbelieving. "You're saying Raphael is still alive?"
Gabriel looked at him with an annoyed expression. "Someone get this kid a medal. Yes, he's still alive. And parallel to my brothers down in the cage, I'm the only one who can kill him." Gabriel suddenly got extremely tired eyes and didn't look like he wanted to continue.
"It was Raphael who is heading the other side. And it was him who killed all of the newborns. Well, all except one." Gabriel's eyes flitted to Samandriel for just a second. He avoided their eyes as he continued. "Do you understand the gravity of the situation now? I'm giving you two your first mission; retrieve Michael. Bring him back here, and we'll both work to end this damn thing."
Dean felt something strange tugging from behind his back. He turned around to see a throbbing hole, pitch black inside, which was opening larger as he watched. "Have fun," Gabriel said with his trademark sideways grin, as Dean's eyes widened and he and Sam fell backwards into the the newly opened wormhole, and Dean felt the worst falling sensation in the pit of his stomach as he hurtled backward toward earth again, returning for the first time since he'd died.
He felt himself collide with the earth not a split second later, soil impacting on his back as he slid a few yards. He felt something in his chest burst out swiftly and search like a radar bing for a suitable vessel. He didn't like the feeling he got here, the atmosphere was grinding on his whole body. He realized with a jolt that it was the atmosphere being corrosive to his grace. He still somehow didn't want to come to terms that it was really who he had become.
He felt himself being catapulted to the match he'd finally got. An acne-ridden teen who looked like he hadn't quite grown into his body yet was walking home by himself from school (as usual). Suddenly, he felt much happier than he had in a while.
Hi, um, my name's Dean, and uh... mind if I...uh, just say yes to me, dude.
...
Dean was a sight to see. He walked like he usually did, with a long gait and powerful stride like he had somewhere to go, but this looked hilarious on a lanky, gangly teen with a spotty face. He was following a tiny tug in his chest, telling him where to find Sam. He saw a little girl standing much too still underneath a street lamp. She was wearing a little pink flowered dress, and she had long, straight brown hair and big brown doe-eyes, and looked about seven. Dean strode up and knew that Sam was near. Wait, could it really be...
"Not one word," The little girl said in a high-pitched voice.
"Sam?" Dean guffawed, and his new thin body almost fell over at his large belly laugh.
"It was the closest thing, okay? You don't look so hot yourself," He retorted grumpily, crossing his little girl arms. "Come on, our purpose is to go and find Kevin, okay? So let's just do that."
...
Kevin opened the front door, to see two very different people standing there. One was a tall, skinny teenager with a red, irritated face, wearing a private school uniform and a shoulder bag. Next to him was a short little girl, who for some reason was standing in a strangely masculine way, her arms tucked behind her back and her legs spread shoulder width apart.
"Are you guys selling girl scout cookies or something?" Kevin said tiredly, wiping one of his gooey eyes. He'd been doing nothing but college apps for the past few days straight, and he was exhausted. The teenager pointed at the little girl and rudely laughed extremely loudly, and the small girl narrowed her eyes, faced the teen with square shoulders. "Shut the fuck up, Dean!"
"It's just too hilarious!" He wiped a tear from a dark brown eye. "Of all the people on the world..."
Kevin stood dumbstruck in the doorway. Who were these people? It had to be a coincidence that this kid's name was Dean too, wasn't it?
"Kevin, look, we need your help. We need to find out how to open up hell again." Dean turned to the stunned kid, trying to push the fact that Sam was now occupying a seven-year-old girl out of his mind.
Kevin backed away, reaching behind him to the squirt gun of holy water he kept on top of the shoe rack by the door. He whipped it out and instantly a stream of water splashed Sam and Dean, who blinked and wiped the water off of them.
"We're not demons," Sam said, cocking his head to the side. "It's me, Sam. And this is Dean." Kevin slammed the door hard in their faces and sprinted back into the house. Dean quickly kicked in the door, and the two of them sprinted after the teen.
"Get away from me! Dean and Sam are dead! I don't know what you want from me, but I'm not working for you!" Kevin screamed out, sprinting and quickly turning down the hallways until he finally burst down out his backdoor.
"Kevin, stop! We need to explain!" Dean hollered after him. Kevin tried to scramble over his backyard fence, but slid down and tried and failed a few more times. Dean and Sam finally caught up, cornering him, Dean puffing hard. Damn, this kid should get some more exercise.
"If you're here to kill me, just make it quick." Kevin squinted his eyes tight and turned away slightly.
"Kevin, we're not here to kill you." Sam laughed, taking Kevin's hand to help him up, but he frowned when he realized he wasn't strong enough in this body to help him up. "We need to explain."
Kevin scrambled to stand up, and he looked the two up and down several times. This made no sense to him. But for some reason he saw a little bit of his friends in these two random people, the way they stood, the way they looked at each other and at him.
The spotty teenager spoke up first. "It's true that we did die. But do you remember that day we went to hand off the tablet to Crowley?" Kevin nodded, still in a daze. But how in the world was it possible for this to be Sam and Dean? Unless they were demons, how were they able to possess people? He had almost pieced it together when Dean continued.
"Those two stars you saw? Those were meant for us. And now, the war in heaven is getting worse, and long story short-"
The little girl interrupted him. "We need to free Michael from the cage, or else they'll torture him until he turns into a sort of demon himself. We need you to help us, if the tablet says anything about opening hell again..."
Kevin slowly started to walk back to the house, pushing past the two people in his yard, a blank look on his face. The brothers exchanged a glance. They both understood; in retrospect, maybe they should have approached the topic more delicately. Sam grinned, and Dean laughed again. "Who's the tall one now?" He asked, picking Sam up by the armpits and swinging him around, and finally putting him back on the ground, were he wore a large frown.
"You're never going to let this one go, are you?" He frowned and crossed his arms. "Nope , never. Come on, let's go see what Kevin can dig up for us."
...
Kevin leafed through his notebook full of scribbles of the whole tablet translations, every so often looking up at Sam and Dean with a skeptical look. After a few quiet minutes filled with only the sound of turning pages, Kevin spoke up.
"There may be one thing we can try. The spell worked like this; by having a substance from Earth that was righteous and a substance from hell that was horrible, it showed that hell was not to plague earth anymore and be shut off forever. But I think if Michael can be considered good enough, he could possibly pass through again without opening all of hell."
He closed the book lightly and looked over the two pairs of stranger's eyes that looked at him. He looked a bit uncomfortable as he continued. "The seal works like this; there are two layers, one which is extremely thick and another that is thin. The thick one was created from final seal, of the heart of the survivor, while the thin layer is basically a filter between good and evil. So, if we can open the first one just a little, Michael should be able to pass through the good-evil barrier and escape. That is, if it's not too late and it cannot distinguish between him and a demon." He stopped and squinted his eyes, as if he would be able to look past the stranger's bodies and see his friends.
"Is it really you?" He asked softly, squinting his eyes even tighter. The two nodded simultaneously, and Sam spoke up. "I'm sorry if we frightened you at first. We probably should have approached that a little better." Kevin had a tiny smile on. What a Sam thing to say.
He suddenly stood up, the chair squeaking behind him. He reached out and squeezed the two into a hug. "I'm just glad you're okay." He said softly, and Dean and Sam realized how much it must have hurt him to realize they had died.
"It's all going to be okay. We can fix this," Sam said in his little girl voice, as Kevin pulled away. "Okay, that is pretty hilarious." Kevin finally broke into a smile, looking to Dean. "Yeah I know right!" Dean laughed, and Sam rolled his eyes. "Please. We're here to do business." The two older boys broke into laughter again. But they had a big task ahead of them. And they wouldn't be so lighthearted if they knew what was going on in heaven.
"How many are left?" Gabriel asked Samandriel, staring at the little boy with a great interest sparkling in his eyes as he interrogated him from the other side of a table. Samandriel looked different- he wore a blank expression, his hair was falling into his eyes, he seemed like he was looking through Gabriel.
"About two hundred. They want to attack Melchoir's next." He said monotonously.
"Good. Now tell me, where is Raphael?" Gabriel asked, bringing his hands together and drumming his fingertips.
"Heading the raid."
"Good. Go back to Castiel now, and tell him everything's fine." Gabriel reached out and patted the little boy's head of brown hair, and the kid did not cringe this time. He didn't even look like he acknowledged the gesture whatsoever. "Yes, Gabriel." He replied, blinking slowly.