Author's Note:
Have I ever mentioned that I REALLY suck at writing action scenes? No? Well I do! I hate writing action scenes. I will stick to angst and fluff, thanks! This fic is almost over, and I am sad to part with it, but I am also eager to start on Get Out Alive! The prologue is already written and will be posted after the next chapter of this :D Lyrics are from Weapon by Matthew Good.
Don't kill me for this chapter and you can have Gabriel with a cherry on top ;-)
"Careful, be careful
This is where the world drops off
Where the world drops off
Careful, be careful
You breathe in and you breathe out
For it ain't so weird how it makes you a weapon."
Gabriel's P.O.V.
"Oh bloody hell," Crowley said exasperatedly as creatures began filling the room.
"Hiya guys, welcome to the party!" I said, clapping my hands together.
A werewolf lunged for me, but I flicked one finger and reduced it to a pile of dust. I was even stronger than usual now that the merging was over. With a tiny rotating of my wrist, I beheaded a vampire that was trying to rip into Dean's neck. He shot me a grateful look before returning to battle.
"Calm down, children," said a high, clear voice from the center of the room.
We looked up from the now stilled creatures and into the Mother of All's cold eyes. A low growl sounded from the corner. Crowley's hellhound, presumably. Cas was staring sightlessly in the Mother's general direction. Our friendly resident demon curled his fingers around the hilt of the newly re-forged blade, his dark brown eyes becoming solid black.
"I'd offer to buy you a drink, but hey, even I have standards," Dean joked, standing up from where he'd been wrestling with a skin walker.
The Mother tossed her long hair over her shoulder. "Such a charmer you are, Winchester. I see where you get your reputation."
"What can I say? I'm a ladies' man."
"Well you won't be for much longer sweetie," she said.
Light emanated from her body as she raised her hand, simultaneously bringing all the humans in the room to their knees. Before I could stop him, Castiel tried to attack her, which only resulted in him being knocked across the room. He was back on his feet in an instant. I noticed Crowley reaching for the blade he and Cas had re-forged in Purgatory.
Apparently so did the Mother of All. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."
"Well you're not me, are you lass?" he asked, twirling the blade between his fingers.
"I hate to destroy something so much like one of my own precious children, but sadly you just don't know when to stop," she replied.
Suddenly Crowley doubled over and sunk to his knees. Noises of pain escaped him as he collapsed onto his back, convulsing wildly. It was hard to tell because they were solid black, but I was fairly certain his eyes rolled back in his head. He looked like he was dying. He very well might be. His already fair skin was paling rapidly.
"What did you do to him?" Cas growled, somehow recognizing the noises of pain as Crowley's.
The Mother shrugged delicately. "Nothing much, just replaced somewhere around fifty percent of his blood with holy water."
I flung an arm across his chest to keep him from trying to attack her again. The last thing we needed was for him to get hurt worse than he already was. Right now our major issue was that we were in way over our heads. Crowley, Dean and Sam were all immobilized. We were just this side of royally screwed.
Castiel's P.O.V.
I could make out each individual presence in the room, recognize every single heartbeat. The two fastest belonged to Sam and Dean, who's hearts were accelerated with restrained fear. Gabriel's beat a few paces faster than usual, but he was remaining calm. He had to, given that he was the only one besides me that was still standing. Crowley's heartbeat was all over the place because he was a demon and not as adjusted to his vessel as angels were.
In the midst of it all, there was a strong, steady beat that was not one bit heightened. The Mother's. I could hear the calm thrumming of it from several feet away. The second calmest to hers was Balthazar's, who had just appeared in the room as well. I heard him mutter a quiet "What the hell is going on…" before he saw the Mother. I knew he saw her simply because he cut himself off.
"You're a right…bitchy little thing…" Crowley choked out.
"Thank you," she said with a smile.
"It wasn't a compliment darling."
"Such a feisty creature you are."
He spit out a mouthful of blood before smiling. "So I've been told."
He was calm. Too calm. If there was anything I knew about Crowley, it was that his top priority was survival. We both knew that him laying on the floor, holy water still powerful enough to hold him down as he made small talk with the Mother of All, was getting him nowhere. Not alone, anyways. I knew what he was doing. He was distracting her.
I willed the blade into my hand, feeling the hilt press reassuringly into my palm. It was up to me now. I'd heard Gabriel and Balthazar's noises of pain as she forced them to their knees, leaving only me to kill her. Of course she didn't bother immobilizing me, she most likely assumed that a blind angel could do no harm. That was her first mistake.
She strode over to Crowley and laid a hand to his forehead, presumably to kill him. Knowing my time was limited, I slowly crept up behind her. I projected a copy of myself several feet away so she would think I was still in her line of vision. My feet made no sound as I neared her.
With a smooth movement, I stabbed her deep in the back, cleanly severing her spine. The blade almost reached her heart. She whirled around before the blow could take full effect. I still had the upper hand. She was injured severely. I pulled the blade from her back and prepared to make a second try at her heart, locating it by sound, but before I could react she took the blade and drove it into my stomach.
"Cas!" Dean screamed.
That was the last thing I heard before the room filled with blinding white light.
Dean's P.O.V.
When the Mother got injured, her hold broke on all of us. We were free to move again. I leapt to my feet, ready to finish what Castiel started. I didn't get very far. The sight before me held my body more immobile than any magic could ever hope to. Dizziness consumed me and threatened to take me under.
Cas was laying on his back, his massive black wings scorched into the ground below him. I knew what that meant. When an angel dies, truly dies, their wings are burned onto whatever surface is underneath them. Just like that…my heart shattered. My entire world fell apart at the seams. Castiel was dead. For good. There was no bringing him back this time.
"You bitch!" I screamed furiously. I was out for more than blood. I was out for fucking vengeance.
I fought to ignore the stinging in my eyes when I pulled out the knife and it was coated in my brother's blood. Nausea pooled in my stomach as a single drop of blood fell from the blade and splattered on the floor. Fury and pure, unadulterated grief warred in me as I prepared to make the final strike. A tear escaped my eye as I looked at Cas one more time.
The Mother didn't have the faintest chance to defend herself as I buried the knife in her chest, all the way through her heart, not stopping until it was through her back and she was held to the wall by it. I yanked it out and drove it in again, and again, and again. Her chest was soon in ribbons. I probably wouldn't have ever stopped viciously mutilating her had Sam not pulled me off.
"She's dead, Dean. It's over."
Dropping the blade, I felt tears make their way down my face. I saw that he too was crying. Soft sobbing came from the corner, and I turned to see it was Gabriel. Sam walked over and embraced the archangel, who folded himself into my brother's arms without hesitation.
Even Balthazar and Crowley looked pretty damn choked up. Heedless of the blood on the floor, I crawled over to Cas, staring down at him in shock. The vibrant, stunning blue eyes that had been beautiful even when he was blind stared blankly in death. There was no light, no signs of life. Just emptiness.
"I'm so sorry…"
"Sorry for what?"
I let out an embarrassing squeak that I would definitely deny later. "C-Cas?"
He blinked up at me, looking tired and weary. I saw Gabriel stiffen out of the corner of my eye. He stared at Cas, looking happier than I thought was possible in spite of the tears streaking his face. Sam had worn the same expression when I'd come back from Hell. I gathered Cas up into my arms and pressed my lips to the top of his head. A joy that I had never known before in my life filled me, so powerful that I closed my eyes to bask in the sheer warmth of it.
"We thought you were dead," I whispered.
"Balthazar taught me a thing or two about faking my death."
I said "Why the hell did you fake your death?" just as Gabriel screamed "You were in on this? You sorry son of a bitch, you are dead!" at Balthazar.
"Cas, you have got some serious explaining to do," I said. The attempt at intimidating was killed by the clear relief in my voice.
He smiled and snuggled deeper into my arms as Gabriel and Balthazar screamed at each other. "I know, Dean."
"Here by my side, an angel
Here by my side, the devil
Never turn your back on me
Never turn your back on me, again
Here by my side, it's Heaven."
