Author's Note:

Drama and angst ahead! The flashback scene is dedicated to Susangel for the idea, and the wing scene of Gabriel is dedicated to GhirardelliFan as it was her idea :D I apologize if this chapter is too confusing for anyone, all the ties and alliances and whatnot are explained in the following one! I was having a little spurt of writer's block when I wrote this, so feel free to yell at me for it. Song lyrics are from the wonderful song Hurricane by Thirty Seconds To Mars.

Thank you to all the readers and reviewers :-)

"Tell me would you kill to save a life?

Tell me would you kill to prove you're right?

Crash, crash, burn, let it all burn

The hurricane's chasing us underground."

Castiel's P.O.V.

The presence of another angel jolted me awake, and I was already on my feet when Bobby said Dariel was here. I did swift mental calculations of how long we had before he found a way inside. The holy oil Bobby had ringed the house with when Sam and Dean had been away had long since dried and wouldn't be of any use, but I'd carved sigils into the house that would deter Dariel. We maybe had half an hour at best.

"What can I do?" Dean asked after glancing out the kitchen window and seeing the problem.

"Have Gabriel get you, Sam, Robert and Huntress out of here. Now."

I'd had my back turned to him when I spoke, and he grabbed my arm and turned me around, forcing me to look at him. "No. We're not leaving you here."

I searched his eyes, seeing how sincerely he wanted to remain here. I could technically just transport him somewhere to keep him out of harm's way, which was my first instinct, but then again I had to consider how useful Dean could be in the fight. He was a trained hunter that had multiple skills. I sighed quietly before responding.

"Dean, you have to make me a promise," I started, taking his hands.

Suspicion danced in his eyes. "What?"

"If I tell you to go, you go."

"I don't care if it starts raining jellybeans and feather boas, I'm not going anywhere," he replied flatly.

Again, I stared at him deeply. I knew there was no changing his mind. I nodded slowly, and he gave my hands a tight squeeze before releasing them. I wanted to say more, but we wouldn't have long before Dariel found a way inside. I pulled my blade from the waistband of my slacks, hand tight around the hilt. Pressure built on either side of my spine, my wings aching to come out. Gabriel was standing next to Sam, his slender finger running down the surface of the blade he held.

This would be the beginning of a war. I was certain of it. My eyes fell closed as matte black wings released from my back, and Gabriel followed suit, his massive wings unfurling on either side of him. They were beautiful, my brother's wings. The wings of any angel were something to behold, but Gabriel's were particularly captivating.

They were such a dark brown they were nearly black, with glossy highlights the same amber color as his vessel's eyes. Everything about him seemed to have a glow to it, from the majestic form of his wings, to the lethal blade he held with such a firm grasp that his knuckles were white, to his slicked back blond hair. Even his eyes seemed to be lit up. I knew why. Our true forms were showing through.

"Let him in," I commanded. We couldn't run forever.

"Uh, hate to break it to ya chuckles, but it's more like let them in," Dean corrected, staring out the window, his gaze fixed on something far more serious than the dirty pane that separated us from an army of Heaven.

"He's brought the entirety of his Garrison," Gabriel said.

"We'll take them on. We'll take them all on," I said in a statement very highly resembling something I'd once said to Dean about holding off an archangel.

I waved my hand, banishing the sigils ringing the house. Dariel materialized in the center of the room, his silvery black wings bristling with anticipation, causing Huntress to run and hide under the table. His alliances flanked him shortly after. I stared at him with a clear in my eyes that he hastened to accept. He drew his blade, and the six angels surrounding him followed his example. I assumed this was only part of the assembly he had with him; Garrisons consisted of anything from ten to sometimes one hundred angels. His was somewhere in between.

My wings, which had been on either side of me, snapped upwards the closer he came. I flipped the blade around in my hand, excitement and bloodlust coursing through my veins. This son of a bitch had tried to kill my brother. If only he had any idea just who he was dealing with.

"Unless you strongly wish to die tonight, Dariel, I strongly suggest you back down," I growled, walking forwards with Dean, Sam and Gabriel closely following.

"Not a chance," he hissed.

In a simple wave of my hand, I had knocked his blade from his hand and sent him flying across the room, crashing into the bookcase. Power surged within me, desperate for release as adrenaline pumped through my blood. I picked up the blade he'd dropped, now holding one in each hand.

"You have one more chance to rethink that decision," I intoned in a low, dangerous voice.

"Oh you think you're really something, don't you Castiel?" he asked, suddenly in front of me, so close I could feel his breath on my face.

I dug one of the blades into his wings, twisting it and smirking in a cruel satisfaction when he dropped to his knees in front of me. I ripped the blade out, only to plunge it back in, ripping into the tender flesh of the wing. As Dean would say, karma's a bitch. I placed a sharp kick to his chest, watching as he fell onto his back, writhing with the pain of his torn wings. The sight brought back a fragmented memory, engulfing my mind before I could think to stop it.

"Tell me what you were going to tell Dean Winchester," Dariel hissed, digging the blade into every sensitive area he could reach.

"Never," I spat.

After speaking with the older Winchester in the dream, I'd been ripped from my vessel and forced back to Heaven, only to be tortured and interrogated until pain was ripping my mind inside out. I had known it was risky, trying to warn Dean, but I'd wanted to at least try. My efforts had been in vain. I was now restrained beyond hope, being cut into with my own blade.

"Let's try this again," my torturer said quietly, slicing into my left wing with the blade and causing me to scream out in agony, "What were you going to tell him."

Something I'd once heard Dean say came to mind and seemed like an apt response. "Fuck you."

It could have been anywhere from a day to decade that they spent torturing and carving me, slowly reducing me to nothing but one of their minions with no mind of my own. They'd stripped me down to the very essence of who I was, leaving behind nothing but an empty shell animated solely by the vicious orders of Heaven. When I returned to Earth in Claire Novak's body, and then Jimmy's, I was completely hardened against mankind.

Yet still, when it came down to Dean really and truly needing me, I again found my way. I thought I was too programmed to ever be helped, but he showed me just how very wrong I was. I'd rebelled, died, been brought back, and didn't regret a moment of it. And it was all thanks to the demon hunter that had convinced me to rebel in the first place. Only a very special human could make one of God's creations turn his back on Heaven, bur true to his headstrong nature, he'd managed it.

When I returned my thoughts to the chaotic events in the present, I was no longer the tortured angel, but the warrior amidst a battle. Gabriel was holding his own extremely well against the angels that had come here with Dariel. I tossed the second blade I'd gotten off of my former torturer to Dean, who caught it and immediately stabbed one of the angels through the heart. Gabriel slid an angel's blade from the dead hand of a fallen enemy and tossed it to Sam, who like his brother, didn't hesitate to partake in the slaughtering of my former brethren. My brother also threw a blade to Bobby, who sliced the throat of an angel coming too near. More angels appeared, but in the end, the only one left alive was Dariel.

I stood over him, getting a morbid pleasure out of the dread that colored his eyes when he looked from side to side and saw that his army had been reduced to nothing but a pile of corpses at the hand of two angels and three fiercely loyal humans. Dean came up behind me and took my hand, squeezing it briefly. The feathers of Gabriel's wings brushed lightly against my back in a gesture only an angel would understand the meaning of. Even Sam rested a hand on my shoulder for a moment, his large hand surprisingly gentle.

I knew these were gestures of sympathy. Because though I would not admit to grief, I had just slain a number of my brothers and sisters. They would have killed us all had they not been killed first, but they at still been my family a very long time ago. Now, I had one more thing to do: Figure out what I was going to do with Dariel after I was done questioning him. The angel blade had done enough damage to leave him immobilized, so I had time to think on it. He was hiding something, that much was obvious, and I had every intentions of figuring out exactly what that was.

I left him laid out in the living room floor before wandering upstairs to Dean's room. I was slowly becoming more of one with my vessel, resulting in human tiredness. Fatigue settled in as I perched on the edge of the bed. Dean, Sam, Bobby and Gabriel had offered to take care of the bodies, so I'd let them. Before I realized what I was doing, I laid down on the bed, exhaustion pulling my eyes closed.

They fluttered open again a moment later when a presence entered the room. I looked up at Dean as he laid down next to me. Giving a small nod of acknowledgment when he said the bodies were gone, I pulled myself close to him, burying my face in his shoulder. Weakness should not be an issue right now, but I was so tired I could barely hold my eyes open.

"Cas?"

"Hm?" I murmured sleepily.

The blood drained from my face when I looked up and saw the wicked grin curving his mouth. If there was only one thing I was completely certain of, it was that this wasn't Dean. The cruel gleam in his eyes, the smirk twisting his lips…I knew it wasn't him. Nausea pooled in my gut when his features melted away to reveal the angel underneath. Short brown hair, a vessel that was slowly coming apart at the seams due to not being durable enough to contain its angel…I recognized every single part of the evil creature before me.

When I said his name, it came out as a choked whisper that sounded like that of a frightened child.

"Lucifer."

"No matter how many deaths that I die I will never forget

No matter how many lives that I live I will never regret

There is a fire inside of the heart and a riot about to explode into flames

Where is your God? Where is your God? Where is your God?"