This is a tag to the Rapture. How exactly did Castiel find out what was happening?
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NOW:
The second time Raethaniel was forcefully dragged back to Heaven, it wasn't for the verbal and physical lashing she had received the first time. This time she was chained beneath the great mountain like an animal, away from sun and wind and sky, unable to fly or even to see. Smothering beneath tons of earth, chains forged to hold angels digging through scales into the tender flesh beneath, she had never known such agony. The chains held her legs to the ground. Another chain looped around her body, pinning her wings, searing the feathers so that they fell in a shower of ashes whenever she moved. Fire could not touch her so the pain ran through her like shards of ice, tearing her apart.
Adding to the torment was her connection to Sam. They had not sundered it but left it intact. So when Sam was locked in the panic room and his private hell had begun, she felt every moment of it and was helpless to stop it. Sam's screams echoed in her head, worse when he called out to her, her name a plea, begging helpmehelpmehelpme….. She hoped never to hear such a sound again.
For herself Raethaniel knew she would do all of it again. But for Sam…..
THEN
Lamechiel met Castiel and Raethaniel in a distant and rarely used dimension. They were all in their vessels, hiding behind a veil of Lamechiel's doing.
"What is all this about?" Castiel demanded.
Lamechiel turned large dark eyes to regard Castiel. There was respect and deep sadness in those eyes.
"I am sorry, my brother," he said. "What I have discovered is very disturbing to me. I considered not telling either of you. But-"
"Lamechiel," Raeth interrupted, "Just please tell us."
"You are being lied to. We are all being lied to, from the highest possible level. No wants you to stop Sam Winchester. He is on the path both angels and demons want. His path will take him straight to freeing Lucifer and starting the Apocalypse."
"Angels don't want that!" Raeth burst out, stunned.
"The most powerful ones do," Lamechiel insisted. "Michael, Raphael, the heads of every Heaven and some of the princes, Araquiel."
"No," Castiel breathed, "Araquiel is charged with protecting the Earth."
"He has dominion over the earth," Lamechiel corrected. "It seems that means he can do what he wants with it."
"But why?" Raeth cried, anguished.
"They think they can win, defeat Lucifer and the demons and bring about paradise on Earth."
For a stunned moment neither Castiel nor Raethaniel could speak. The depth of a conspiracy like this…. The degree of betrayal was unfathomable.
"And if we stop Sam?" Cas asked.
"He seems to be the key to this," Lamechiel replied. "Killing Lilith will free Lucifer. But, my brother and sister, we'll be defying the most powerful of Heaven if we stop him, perhaps even our Father Himself."
Castiel and Raethaniel exchanged anguished glances. They shared a long silent communication, both caught up in what they had learned about Sam and Dean and the need to protect them. Realization dawned, painful and horrible.
"They made me Sam's guardian because they didn't think I was strong enough to see through all of this," Raeth said, tears rising in her eyes. "They made me his guardian because they thought even if I did I would be too weak and afraid to stop them. I've been nothing but a pawn moved into place and used."
"No one expected that it would be me who reached Dean in Hell," Castiel said. He was shaking. His gruff voice sounded even more as if it was being raked over hot coals. "Not a mere foot soldier, not even one in the garrison of Uriel, not strong enough, not driven enough to accomplish something that would bind me to Dean forever. I have to tell him."
Her tear filled eyes widened in horror. "You'll be punished. That has happened to me once already, for questioning too much."
"I don't care," Castiel growled. "This is wrong. Those two men deserve to make this choice of their own free will, no matter what they have been groomed for over centuries."
"Sam would never choose this," she answered. "If that's what they have been trying to do for centuries – turn him into our brother's disciple – they've failed; or they've moved too soon. Sam is willingly turning himself into a monster to stop all of this not to start it. This will kill him if we don't put an end to it before he frees our brother."
"I'll go tell Dean. Dean will bring Sam and I can try to talk sense to both of them. If Sam is too deeply into his addiction maybe Dean can still stop him; and then only one of us will suffer the wrath of Heaven. Stay here and protect Lamechiel," Castiel said. Then he turned to the other angel, "You, stay here and protect Raethaniel." When they both started to protest, he silenced them, holding up his hand, "I outrank both of you. There will be some measure of protection in that. Stay here. I'll go to Dean."
He vanished with a rush of wings, leaving the other two angels staring at each other helplessly.
"I can't just stay here," Lamechiel said sadly. "Not knowing what I do now. I'm going to try to warn as many of the others as I can."
"I'm sorry I asked you to do this, to try to find out what was going on. I'm not sorry that we know, but I am sorry if punishment falls on you because of it," Raeth told him.
"This is my doing, Raethaniel," he replied. "I did not have to tell you or Castiel anything at all. I chose to do that."
Raethaniel nodded. Once an angel chose to do something on his own it was automatically rebellion. There was no free will for angels.
"I can't stay here either," she said, "not with Sam in danger." Her greater brothers had underestimated her. They had committed her to a Gate for most of her existence, tamped down her demon hunting instincts, until the rise of Enepsigos' offspring had made it necessary to return her to that duty. But now her demon hunting instincts were combined with a fierce ability to guard; and they had made the mistake of giving her Sam Winchester instead of the Third Heaven's Gate. "The last thing I was ordered to do was to protect him. They can do whatever they want to me. But they can't have Sam. Not like this."
She changed into her dragon form and rose, then flattened her wings against her body and dove straight back into the other dimension, the one that held Sam.
Sam! Her heart was set on that one goal. Sam, stop! She willed the thought to him, sent it on an angel's spear thread, hoping his supernatural sense would hear it somehow.
She was hurtling towards the Earth, straight for Sam, when they caught her.
A sound like thunder accompanied her unwilling return to Heaven. Raethaniel thrashed and fought but she was being held in the power of the archangels. Even struggling slightly was considered rebellion but she was beyond caring. Her only goal was Sam.
But she would not attain it. The Third Heaven appeared and vanished before her and she was plunged into darkness. Chains snapped into place and the agony began…..
NOW
Raethaniel threw herself against her chains, ice/fire sizzled and branded, bit deep into her body as she did. She threw her head back and roared in fury, pain and frustration.
Sam!
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