Castiel placed a hand on the force field which blocked his escape. Charlie stood behind him, shifting nervously from foot to foot and watching as the slayers running towards them started to assemble. She tried to block the blasts of magic that they had started throwing at Castiel with her body.
"Thank god for the white witch's kiss," she thought to herself. Aloud she asked, "So, how's it going with that force field?"
Castiel grunted in frustration.
"Not great. I only just got my grace back. I'm rusty. It took most of my energy to break in. I didn't anticipate that the force field would have repaired itself when I tried to leave."
Charlie looked around and considered their options.
"So we're trapped?" she asked, trying to sound casual as a line of pissed-off, weaponized women formed a circle around her.
"Well, I can't break the force field, but I can transport us anywhere inside the circle."
"So we run and hide, wait for you to get your strength back?" Charlie asked, looking up at the huge building they had just left. If they were able to evade her captors long enough, it might work. Of course, with both regular and magical security, hiding didn't seem like a really feasible option. Barricading themselves in a defensible position somewhere might work... As Charlie considered the possibilities in her head, a shadow passed over her.
She looked up and was rewarded with a quick up-skirt panty-shot of a pissed off redhead floating towards her at alarming speed.
"Cas!" she yelled, knowing that there was no way the subtle defense charm on her could withstand the concentrated power of this particular sorceress. Cas heard the distress in her voice and turned from his task. He grabbed Charlie and put her behind him as the red-headed enchantress set down in front of them, her eyes and hands glowing with eldritch fire.
"Stay back!" he bellowed at Willow, who stopped in her advance as his words echoed across the lawn.
"Castiel, I presume?" Willow sneered. Cas glared.
"We are leaving. Lower the force field," he grated out. Willow smirked.
"Fat chance, angel boy. That force field could keep a god contained. You two aren't going anywhere. Not until we get some answers."
"I would think twice about this course of action," Castiel warned, letting the transparent shadow of his wings grow around him. All the humans on the ground winced at the rise in discordant noise that accompanied this display of power. "You cannot contain me. You can only slow me down. Do not make me ask again."
Willow refused to shrink back at the immense power she felt suddenly pressing upon her and the slayers, but it was a close thing. She bared her teeth in an angry grimace.
"You don't know who you're dealing with!" she yelled, ramping up her energy, drawing on reserves she hadn't had to tap into in quite some time to combat what she felt was a commiserate threat.
"Cas, let's just go!" Charlie yelled behind him, grabbing his arm as it became apparent that Willow was about to let loose some sort of massive attack on both of them. Unfortunately, Cas's attention was focused somewhere behind Willow and he didn't react.
Willow drew her arm back, a blinding cocoon of magical energy encasing her fingers. With a cry of rage she thrust her power out towards Castiel. So intent was she on her target that she hardly noticed the brownish blur in the corner of her vision, a blur which resolved itself into a human form lunging between her and the intruders.
Dean didn't think, he couldn't. He just ran. He ran back through the hallways, seeking out a stairway that would lead him down to the grounds. He heard a commotion behind him but couldn't be bothered. In his head a phrase was repeating like a chant. "Cas is here. Cas is here."
He found the stairs and jumped down them two at a time. When he reached the first floor it didn't take him long to navigate his way outside; he just followed the sounds of crazy shit happening. When he exited the building he kept running, picking up speed as he closed in on the crowd of people gathered around the edge of the force field.
Luckily for him, the women on the edge of the crowd were too focused on what was in front of them to notice what was in back of them. He was able to shoulder his way through fairly easily. Once he cleared the obstructing crowd he felt his heart catch in his throat.
"Cas. That's Cas. Cas is here," he thought, pausing momentarily. Then he took in what he was seeing. The witch, amping up for an attack; Cas, stupidly putting himself between her and Charlie, who was also apparently here. Dean felt his heart stutter, realizing the danger Cas was in.
"Cas," he whispered softly. At his involuntary emission, Cas's gaze tilted from the danger in front of him to Dean. When their eyes met, Cas could only gape in shock. Dean felt their connection zinging like an electric pulse. He hadn't even realized he was moving when he suddenly found himself halfway to Castiel. The look in Cas's eyes suddenly turned from shock to panic, and Dean realized belatedly that he was throwing himself into danger. Not that anything short of Chuck Shurley himself could stop Dean from reaching Castiel.
Dean barreled into Castiel's arms, inertia spinning them around so that Dean was looking up at Willow over Cas's shoulder, who was about to unleash holy hell on them.
Dean had just enough time to think, "Unexpected, but not the worst way to go," before he saw Willow's face change from determination to alarm. Her arm, the one glowing with buzzing energy seemed to spasm, and instead of rushing forward to annihilate both Cas and Dean, her magic shot out wildly above them, smacking against the wall of the force field.
There was a sonic boom as Willow's power collided with the barrier and it blinked momentarily out of existence. Willow fell unsteadily to the ground, trying to recover. Before she was able to steady herself, Cas reached out and snagged Charlie around the shoulder. With an insubstantial fluter of wings, all three were gone.
Willow glared at the empty space they had occupied. She turned around and looked into the ruined hole in the side of the building.
"New priority: Bring me that angel!" she yelled. She started walking towards the building. "And someone fix the barrier!" Willow stomped through the crowd of confused slayers, not aware that the grass was dying in her wake. "Someone has some explaining to do," she grumbled murderously.
