"Missing? Wat do you mean she's missing?" needless to say the brothers had been shocked Cas didn't already know, Dean had figured since they two were some kind of freaky version of mated, the angel would have some kind of connection to their sister.
"I mean she's gone, Cas. Into thin air. Poof." The angel narrowed his eyes,
"People don't just "Vanish" Dean." He had obviously gotten better at the air quotes over the last few years.
"Yeah, well, the briefing room was trashed, so either something spooked her, or she was taken." Castiel turned his gaze to Sam, Lucifer had to maintain his cover so he kept his/Castiel's face stoic, but he knew where grace really was, but knew if he told them these two buffoon's would ruin his fun before it really had a chance to begin.
"You should have seen the room, books were thrown every which way, papers scattered the floor, place was trashed, man. Pain in the ass to clean up." Dean mumbled, sitting at the table.
"I'm certain she'll turn up." Sam and Dean both looked uncertain.
"Lucifer is caged." Ha, that's what they thought, Lucifer was standing right in front of them, wearing their friend, and his prisoner's mate as a meat puppet. "The only beings strong enough to beat Amara are gone. If we're gonna fight her, we need to arm up."
"You two keep looking see what you can come up with, I'll see what I can find out over angel radio, see if anyone has seen her."
"Thanks, Cas. Let us know if you find anything."
"I will." And with that he was gone.
*A week later*
Grace had been in lockdown for a week and a half, with no way to reach her brothers and Lucifer keeping a close eye on her, there was no sign of an escape. At least she no longer had to eat, if that were the case she'd have been close to death by now.
"Ah, how's my little Ava doing today?" she could hear him, but could see nothing, his twisted idea of fun was keeping her blindfolded and gagged.
"Oh, right…" he snapped his fingers and the gag vanished, but the blindfold remained.
"Why are you doing this, Lucifer?" the angel before her smirked, it was still unbefitting of his shared vessel.
"The reason? I thought I'd made that clear. You need to be kept away from Human's, Avarin, away from those idiots you were forced to call your brothers. I'm closer to being your actual brother than they are." Grace scoffed, he was joking, right?
"You? You think we're close enough to be called siblings? You have me locked in a cage, in hell. Oh, but you know if you let me out I'd kick your feathery ass back to the cage it belongs in. that's it, isn't it? You're afraid of me." The cage rattled as Lucifer kicked it.
"I think I liked you better with the gag in." she could hear the clanging of fingers over the metal bars.
"Hey, I get it. Id fear me, too. After all I was made from both God and Amara, and I'd hate to be you when they find out." She was bluffing, wasn't she? Hard to tell when half of her expression was covered.
"I don't fear you, Ava. I pity you. Or at least I did, until you opened your mouth." With that he shoved the cage over sideways, her head knocking against the metal bars, her arms and legs now bent in uncomfortable positions. With another snap of his finger the gag was replaced, the lights turned off and she was left alone, and in pain.
Lucifer headed back towards the throne room, where a crowd of demons had occupied the space.
"Sir, we have news on Amara. The update is…well, that there is no update. We still haven't found her."
"Sir, if I may…since you've claimed the throne, we could use some direction. Any direction. We could deploy a force. Real boots on the ground, shake the trees to find her. W-with you leading the charge, of course." Lucifer already looked bored of the woman's speech, pulling out a tablet to resume a game of 'Angry birds'. "We have had a coward and a fool at the helm for too long. Perhaps it's time to…" He finally shushed the woman as a groan came from the cage in the corner.
"Shh, doggie wants to speak." The wrought iron door slid upwards and something slid out, revealing Crowley. The gag was removed and the former king spoke.
"How dare you. The impudence. The lack of humility. That's no way to talk to your master…" Crowley turned his head to look at the true sovereign of hell.
"Lucifer."
"That's a good doggie. Too bad you're not both good doggies." Crowley was left to wonder what this meant s he was put back in his "Kennel".
"Who knew the men of letters had European chapters?"
"Maybe it wasn't an entire chapter." The boys were digging though old archive books. "Just some assets, you know?" Sam opened a dusty, leather bound book, flipping through pages.
"Yeah, and letting women join way back in the '40s? I just never got the impression that they were so big on gender equality. You know, it's right there in the name." Dean flinched, waiting for a book to be thrown, but it never came, he had momentarily forgotten their sister was no longer in the vicinity.
"Well, it was world war II, kind of an All-hands-on-deck situation, you know?"
"Yeah, Rosie the riveter. Hmm. Cool."
"Here ya go. This report was written by Clifford Henshaw, a Bunker-based Man of Letters, back in 1943. It's the right era." Sam thudded the book down on the table. "But it's in French." Dean tilted his head as Sam scooped the book up and went to scan it into his computer for translating.
"Well?"
"Hey. So it's definitely about Delphine. Her name's at the top of every page. And check this out." He slid the pages towards Dean. "They're transcriptions from transatlantic cables between Clifford and Delphine."
"What do they say?"
"Uh, give me a second. Web translation's kind of buggy." Dean took another swig of his beer, Sam looked unimpressed, "Seriously? Dude, it's, like, noon."
"Uh, well, you drank all the coffee, s what am I supposed to drink? water?" Sam scoffed at his brother's stupidity.
"Look at this. They were making arrangements to get the artifact out of Europe to keep it safe. Uh, Henshaw pulled some strings with a Man of Letters in the O.S.S to requisition an active U.S submarine to transport Delphine and the weapons back to the states. Back to here."
"Wait, the bunker?"
"Yeah." Sam kept reading the letter on his screen
"So, it's been here the whole time?" there was no way it would have been that easy
"Uh…" He did another small search and the results were what neither of them wanted. "No, never arrived. Uh, the U.S.S. Bluefin came under German attack midway through it's trip across the Atlantic. The sub was sunk. The ship and its contents haven't been recovered to this day." Another dead end, Sam sighed, running a hand down his face.
"Great, it's lost."
"Or is it?" whatever gears were turning in Deans head, Sam was not picking up on, "Well, yeah, I'd say so. I mean, tides took the wreckage. Submersibles have been trying to locate it for years. I mean, if James Cameron and his "Avatar" billions can't find it…"
"Yeah, but…we have something James Cameron doesn't have."
Doors rattled as two demons revealed a large cart full of medieval style weaponry, a female, unknown in name, pushed the cart into the room. Crowley was shackled at Castiel/Lucifer's feet, as the fallen angel stood to inspect his new toys.
"I don't see her, I specifically told you to bring the girl, as well." Another trolley was brought in, A sheet draped over the cage to hide who was inside, but this did not stop Crowley from watching as it was brought in.
"Ah, both of my doggies in one place." A weapon was handed to lucifer who sighed.
"That's all of it?"
"Yes, sir. The requested weaponry from your crypts. Does it…please you?" Lucifer looked highly unimpressed as he turned.
"Spare me." As he stepped towards Crowley, he dismissed the demons. "How are your wounds, doggie?"
"They are…no less than I deserve." Lucifer reached down to scratch Crowley's head, similar to how humans would scratch behind a dog's ears.
"Aww." He chuckled you're scared of your master, much like my other new pet. That's a good doggie." Crowley once again looked to the covered cage.
"Ah, you know my other little doggie, quite well actually." Lucifer moved to pull the sheet off of Graces cage, Crowley's face went from curious to almost horrified.
"She's been a bad doggie, too. See, I broke you, but, um…I can still smell it on her, she's got a delectable little whiff of defiance in her, still." Lucifer rattled her cage, eliciting a muffled scream from the grimy, filthy girl as her body shook, jerking her bruised wrists and ankles about.
"What should I take first? An Ear? Or maybe some of her pretty, pretty hair."
"The truth, Sir. You're not strong enough, You've had your weapons delivered, you realize they won't be enough. If you thought you could beat Amara, you'd be taking the fight to her, right now." Crowley's eyes drifted back to Grace "And honestly, I don't care what happens to her."
"Aw, my doggies don't get along, what a shame. But you're a clever doggie. You're right. at the moment, I-I may be a bit underequipped. Maybe defeating Amara was a bit more of a team effort than I led certain people to believe. You know, all that said…I'm still your master. Did I let you out of that kennel too soon?"
"No." The ringing of a cell phone distracted lucifer long enough for Crowley to get another look at the girl, his previous thought stood, the blonde looked like hell warmed over, which was ironic, given their current location, she was somehow thinner, which he didn't know was possible for someone like her, her hair fell in greasy ringlets around her face, draped over her shoulders in a mop. her skin was grubby and sallow.
As lucifer retracted the cell phone from the trench coat he looked between the two, "No barking. It's show time." Lucifer walked back to the throne, taking his usual, self-promoting position before answering the phone.
"Hello, Dean."
"There were several God-Touched objects, but it never occurred to me that any had survived the flood, let alone the 20th century." Cas turned, arms crossed over his chest as he contemplated this new news.
"Do you think we can use it against Amara?"
"It's perfect." Sam's inquiry didn't fall on completely deaf ears, " I can get you back there." Dean looked both impressed and confused, as the angel carried on.
"Without wings? Cas, you can't even teleport."
"Time travel is a…it's a whole different system." Dean snapped his fingers from accorss the table.
"See, told ya."
"So, uh, these the last coordinates?" Cas flipped through the print out, "That's the Bluefin's last transmission to shore, yeah."
"All right."
"Wait a second. Cas, aren't there still risks with time travel? I mean, aren't there consequences that—" Dean cut his little brother off, he could see the angel was getting annoyed.
"Sam…this is the ideal scenario."
"What?"
"That sub is a tin can floating in the middle of the ocean, doomed to go down. You can't really mess with history at 20,000 leagues. So we get in, get the weapon, we get out. It's a milk run."
"Well, t-that's not a-a very good plan."
"Well, if things get out of hand, then Cas'll just zap me right back." Sam seemed fine with it until the last word.
"You?"
"You're not going." Dean flashed the "End-of-discussion" look at his younger brother who was having absolutely none of it.
"I beg your pardon?"
"You need to stay here."
"Stay here?"
"Just in case things go sideways. We also both know someone needs to be here incase Grace somehow resurfaces. So yeah, you're staying here. We can't risk us both, and at the moment, I'm the least valuable player. You both know that I can't kill Amara, so the east I could do is get the thing that we need so you can."
"So you expect me to sit here and ride the pine, waiting for Grace who may or may not have been kidnapped, while you and Cas go play Jules Verne?" Sam was growing tired of his brothers selfishness, always being left on the backburner incase he fucked up somehow.
"Yes. No. uh, who?"
"I won't let him out of my sight." Sam sighed, looking between the two incredulously.
"If you'd kept Grace in your sight maybe she wouldn't be missing now. You'll stay by his side the entire time?" that was a low blow, even for him, if only he knew the truth, it would really make Sam Winchester's skin crawl with disgust.
"Sam." Castiel feigned hurt as Dean scolded his brother but put on a face of resolve. "I will."
"Sam…let me do this. Okay? I need to do this." They both knew Team free will needed a win right now.
"Be safe."
"When am I not?" Sam rolled his eyes as Dean stood.
"Let's do this, Cas." He looked around for a few seconds, "Bon voyage." In the next second he was on the Bluefin.
"Cas?" Why are you…wait a second. Where's dean?"
"We made the leap. He got on, I didn't." The poor angel was soaked through, looked kind of like one of the sopping wet cartoon cats, the ones form the old MGM animations.
"What?"
"I couldn't make it past the hull. Someone must have warded the ship." Cas headed for the briefing room his trench coat in his arms, finally he tossed it onto one of the chairs, hastily along with his shoes.
"Delphine? I mean it has to be. I mean, she's protecting the weapon, right?" The angel appeared to be ignoring Sam,
"Cas? Just go back to their last port before she boarded, leave a message so Dean knows."
"Where?" blue eyes met green, "Where would Dean see it that the crew wouldn't? He's as likely to find the warding as he is any message I'd leave."
"Then send me. You got Dean past the hull."
"Right. We'll double-down on what screwed us the first time. You're really bringing your "A" ideas today." Castiel took a seat, the towel gripped tightly in calloused hands, "I can't believe I lost it." Sam looked confused.
"Him. Mm. Can't believe I lost Dean. Well, it's up to him now to find and clear the warding."
"No. we can help. There's gotta be something in—in—in magic or angel lore." Castiel just looked tired, mainly of Sam's annoying tone and perseverance to help his idiot older brother. It was almost as useless as their shared effort to find Grace.
"You know, some way to clear the sigils from the outside. Cas…" Sam had another one of the archives old, dusty book in his grasp as the angel ran a hand over his face.
"Don't worry, we'll bring him back." Lucifer looked over all unimpressed, but he had to keep the 'Castiel' façade up until he got what he wanted.
The two flipped through book after book, "Wait a second, I think I have something. "The spell of gathering." It's an incantation used to "Focus the power of celestial beings"—angel's— "Against all drawn forms of evasion." The spell was designed to clear all mystical or occult blockages. I mean, this is highly theoretical magic. It's never been used before, but it sounds like it could work."
"Do you have the ingredients?"
"Uh…" Sam muttered off the ingredient list to himself before sighing, slouching back in his chair. "All but one. That's why it's never been used before. It requires the power of an archangel."
"Well, Sam, we may as well try." Sam scoffed, "We don't have time for long shots, Cas. Even at full power, you're not strong enough." As Sam stood and walked off, Castiel grabbed the book and flipped it open again.
"Hey. Cas, what is this?" the angel was throwing ingredients into a metal mixing bowl, "It's your spell of gathering."
"Are you nuts?" another clank of something falling into the bowl. "you're not strong enough, Cas. You could get hurt."
"You find a better option?"
"Well…no, but without a serious boost to your angel power, that spell won't even work."
"My strength may surprise you." Castiel continued chopping ingredients as Sam looked around, "Wait a second. I remember Bobby told me, when you needed strength to retrieve us from the past, you used him to power up. You—You touched his soul. Right?"
"That's right. I did that. But that—that, uh, procedure it can be fatal."
"Use my soul." There was no way he was letting up, Sam felt like he had to do this. "That way maybe you'll have enough power to wield the spell."
"That isn't necessary."
"It's worth the risk. Cas, Dean needs our help. Grace is a high priority too, but we need to get Dean back first. I trust you." And the facade broke, Castiel broke into laughter.
"What?"
"Oh, it's ju—I don't—I don't need you anymore. I mean, Deans the one with the link to Amara, and as far as power sources go, I have Grace. Why have I been trying to spare you? I mean, maybe it's because you're like the girl who kept turning me down at the prom." Lucifer had finally come to the surface, grabbing Sam by the shit and tossing him around.
"I will touch your soul, just because you asked so nicely. And I'll use your spell to blast through the warding and retrieve Dean and the, uh…Hand of God. And then when Dean comes back and he finds this place decorated with your guts, I will tell him the truth, Sam. I'll just say "Dean"—" he paused for a second, dropping his voice back to match Castiel's "Dean…he knew the risks. He wouldn't take no for an answer"
"Lucifer." The angel almost looked on the verge of tears.
"In the flesh." Then he pushed his hand inside Sam's chest. "I'll be sure to tell little Ava her big brother says hello." Sam fell, unconscious, to the floor s Lucifer struggled to keep control over his shared vessel.
"Hello, Castiel." Castiel fell to the floor.
"No, No." thinkig it was lucifer he stayed still. "Sam. Sam, its me."
"Cas? Why?" Sam groaned in pain, Lucifer wasn't wrong, having his soul touched hurt like…well, hell.
"I wanted to be of service to the fight. And only Lucifer can beat her."
"You chose this? You have to fight, Cas. Eject him now!"
"I can't. It's taking all my strength to keep him from killing you. And, he has Grace, he took her to hell. I'm doing my best to make sure he doesn't cause her serious harm, and besides, we need him."
"No, Cas, we don't." there was a small hint of relief in Sam's eyes at Castiel's news, at least he knew where she was, and that Castiel was not going to let any serious harm come to her. It was good news he could give to Dean.
"We'll find another way to stop Amara." Cas continued to struggle.
"We need him to save Dean."
"You can't time Travel." Th angel shook his head.
"Only lucifer can." Then for an instance Lucifer was gone and back again, with Dean beside him.
"Dean. That's not Cas." Lucifer looked like a kid, caught with his hand in the cookie jar, "Cat's out." Then he threw Dean over the table where he rolled to the floor.
"Mm! I feel a burden lifted. You know, this whole "Deep cover" thing, it just wasn't—it wasn't terribly well thought out. Donning this…this Cas mask. This grim face of angelic constipation just ugh. And don't even get me started on Ava, do you know how hard keeping that secret was? And let it be no secret, kidnapping that one was no piece of cake. Even wearing her mate's skin." Dean looked to Sam for validation who was drawing a knife from his belt.
"And then teaming up with you two? I mean…I thought you boys were insufferable as mortal enemies. But working with you? Ugh. that's the soul crusher." Dean had gotten back to his feet, a dangerous look in his eyes. Lucifer took this chance to pin him to the wall with his grace.
"Why the long faces, boys? You should be cheering. We have a common enemy. With this, she will be no problem. I mean…I will have killed you both by then, Ava will be free of her duty to you two imbeciles by then, but still…come on."
"What do you even know about her anyways? You think she serves us?" Dean was trying to buy time.
"That's certainly the way it seems, she's always pulling your asses out of the fire."
"Grace doesn't serve us, she's our sister."
"mm, no, she's really not." Lucifer now looked like a parent, scolding a child. "Didn't I tell you before, she was never meant to be here in the first place? Ava isn't human, now I have her, in a place where filth like yourselves can't touch her, and you want me to give her back? All because of some fake ties. I don't think so!" he unwrapped the artifact.
"No. No!" however, nothing happened when he touched it. Lucifer looked absolutely pissed.
"It's kicked." He exhaled letting out a breath he didn't know he was even holding, Dean sighed with relief from across the room "Well…who'd have thought the hand of god would turn out to be a one-hitter?" The angel tossed the useless artifact onto the table with a loud thud and advanced on the eldest sibling, anger evident on his face. That's when Sam tapped the sigil, blasting Lucifer way, even if only temporarily.
The brothers sat on an old, dilapidated dock, fog rolled over the waters surface.
"So…"
"So…" the two brothers shared an uncomfortable silence.
"Cas." There was a solemnness to Dean's voice as he stared out of the quiet, almost unforgiving surface "He took her, Sam."
"I know. I mean, we at least know where she is now. What do we do?"
"What else? We hunt Lucifer, trap the bastard, save Cas, and we get her back. Real sister or not, we can't lose her." Lucifer's words were really starting to sink in.
"Hey, despite what he says, Grace is our real sister, we have all these memories of us growing up, trips on the road with Dad, you can't fabricate memories like that. Lucifer may be in control now, but Cas may not come back willingly. I mean, he chose it."
"No. not possible. He wouldn't do that, not to her. Like I said, that nerdy little angel loves her." Sam sighed, there as no getting through to Dean, not right now.
"So, how'd you get through today? I mean, what did you do?"
"Nothing. Sam, they…I was just a witness."
"Do you want to talk about it?" Dean thought about for a few, hard seconds, before shaking his head.
"No. No. story for another day."
"Hey, the, uh…the German ship that sank the Bluefin, what happened to it?" Sam looked perplexed at the sudden, strange question.
"It went down. Unlike the sub, it's wreckage was found. Um, there was a giant hole that'd been ripped rough the entire thing. Something must have hit the fuel tanks and exploded. But it burned. Sank." That's when Sam walked off, Leaving Dean, artifact in hand, staring out at the still unforgiving water before him. His mind set on getting Cas and Grace back where they belonged.
A/N: So, I'm going to be honest with you all, I am losing motivation to post this story because the only reviews I am getting are little emoticons, or things like "Nice chap." PLEASE tell me your thoughts and feelings, they keep me motivated. I do not write only to be met with things like; :0 or :D or this :))). Please do not leave these kinds of reviews on my work, I'm not saying they are not appreciated, they are nice, but I want to hear from you, that's why I continue this story, that's why I write. I want to know what makes you mad, what I can improve on, what things you as my readers would love to see more/less of. it hurts me to only get those emoticons, makes me feel like i'm a bad writer. I do not want flame reviews though, I don't condone hate reviews either, only constructive criticism. I am pleading with you guys, help me keep this story going by telling me things! I love you guys!