- Chapter 29: Borne on Wings of Steel -
Castiel and Gabriel escorted the pair of humans back to heaven's sanctuary, where a decently sized host of armored angels and the remaining archangels greeted them. Hannah had summoned most of the remnants of her army that she had previously left in heaven to protect the souls; she figured here was where they would make their final stand, and so here was where they were needed. The souls remained in their personal heavens for now, with only her lieutenant and a small elite force with him to act as their bodyguards. But she – and the rest of the angels – knew that if this army were to fall here, the souls were likely not going to survive either. Her lieutenant had been thinking of ways to evacuate heaven, to find somewhere to safely guide the souls, but it really made no difference; Chaos would find them wherever they went.
She stood in front of her army, her seraph's wings large and looming; even with the archangels present, it was once again clear that she was the one who was truly in command of heaven's forces.
Cassiel was in his armor by the time he entered heaven, and Dean couldn't help but admire how valiant his angel appeared. He stared for a few seconds, but was knocked out of his trance when Gabriel shoved one of the pieces of the Staff of Moses in his face.
"Here," Gabriel said. Dean took the piece, and watched as the golden-winged archangel gave the second part over to Sam. "You two are gonna need these."
"Wouldn't it make more sense if one of you had them?" Sam asked, taking the piece gently.
"Maybe, but the rest of us will make do with the five. If you guys are gonna be fighting in this thing, we're going to make sure you have some protection. Those guns of yours aren't exactly going to be much use against any of Chaos' dark angels." Gabriel dug through the bag, giving out the weapons to his comrades. He of course, kept his Horn of Truth. To Ramiel, he handed over David's Sling. The gentle archangel closed her eyes and said a soft prayer; the sling glowed and changed into a large radiant white bow.
"Woah!" Dean said, his eyes widening. "How'd you do that?"
She giggled, looking over her weapon fondly. "This is the true form of the sling, when an archangel wields it. You just need to know the words. All of heaven's weapons have their secondary forms, which are more powerful than their dormant states. And, of course, able to be used more practically in battle."
Dean watched as the weapons transformed one by one. The dinky little knife that was the Spear of Destiny became a large golden scythe of light in Castiel's hands. It was practically sparkling, actually. Cassiel held it fondly, closing his eyes and breathing deeply, basking in its power.
Balthazar had received Lot's Salt, which Gabriel had changed into a flail, with the Salt itself becoming spiked. "Hit anyone with that," Gabriel explained, "and they'll crumble just like Raphael did." Balthazar smiled.
Hannah was the one to open the Ark of the Covenant and retrieve the two holy tablets of stone inside. For her, these tablets transformed into dual blades after enveloping her in a soft yellow light. "I feel…stronger," she said, looking down at herself. The tablets temporarily gifted her with an archangel's strength and wisdom.
"Doesn't yours change?" Sam asked Gabriel, when the Horn of Truth seemed to do nothing after the archangel said his soft prayer to it. Gabriel just winked and replied, "Oh mine changes in a way you can't see just yet."
Raguel, unfortunately, was left without one of heaven's weapons. She didn't seem to mind, however, summoning forth her own sword.
Sam and Dean stood off to the side, watching as Hannah spoke to her host in Enochian. From her tone, she was giving one of those final battle speeches which the two brothers had always seen in movies. They both wished they were able to understand her in that moment, each feeling as though they could use the extra encouragement.
Cassiel glided over to the brothers, landing softly in front of them.
"I want the two of you to stay together as much as possible, and try to stay out of the main fray. I'll be watching over you as much as I can, but trust in the Staff if the worst happens."
Neither one of them wanted to be reminded of the fact that the worst that could happen was the most likely scenario at this rate: that Chaos would win this battle, slaughter the remaining angels, and cover heaven in a blanket of Darkness.
"Sam, Dean…" Cas looked at each of them fondly, yet also sadly. "I…I may not remember all of our time together, but…I am glad to have met you both. Truly, I am. You both are the some of the finest beings I've ever been able to encounter in all of my time being alive."
"Cas…" Dean whispered softly. He stared into his angel's eyes – which if possible were bluer in heaven than even on Earth – and decided to do something that even surprised him. As Castiel turned to walk away, Dean grabbed the archangel's hand to spin him around and kiss him roughly…desperately. He shockingly didn't even care that Sam (who awkwardly shifted his body away from the couple) was right there. This might be the last time he could feel Castiel's lips on his own. Dean secretly regretted all the times he did not acknowledge his deeper feelings for his best friend…
When the two pulled apart from each other, Castiel's expression was initially one of shock; he also wasn't expecting Dean to do something like that. But it melted into a loving smile, and he gently put his hand on the back of Dean's head and guided their foreheads together. The both closed their eyes and breathed deeply, forgetting for a moment that they were not alone. It was only when Gabriel loudly cleared his throat that their eyes opened and they recognized again the bleak reality of where they were.
Castiel turned to rejoin his brother, flying back over to his position next to Gabriel. Dean didn't take his eyes off the archangel, feeling his chest tighten. He knew that their prospects of survival were near zero. That didn't stop Sam, however, from smirking over in Dean's direction.
"So…" Sam started. Dean whipped his head around to glare at his younger brother.
"Shut your face."
Sam put up his hands defensively, but did as he was told. His smirk remained, however. He always had a feeling there was something deeper between Dean and Castiel, and was glad to see that it had finally come to fruition, even if it was unfortunately very late.
They watched the angels take their positions, and waited.
Before long, the smoke of the Darkness began to leak through heaven. It was slow, which was not what Dean and Sam had been expecting. They had been anticipating Chaos to swing the gates open, guns blazing, but really…that wasn't her style. She was on her way, and was letting her opponents know that she was coming; she wanted a fight. After all, wanting more than a little bedlam was in her very nature.
The angels were even more apprehensive once they saw the clouds of smoke penetrating heaven's light. They gripped tighter onto their weapons, but waited for orders from Hannah, who told them to hold until they saw the physical manifestation of their enemy. The archangels had flown high into the air, observing from above. Dean and Sam waited in the spot where Castiel had told them to stay; neither would admit that they were more scared of this than of anything else they had faced before. And neither would show any fear on their faces.
After all, they too, were soldiers.
The smoke began to get thicker and heavier, pouring into heaven with greater speed and density.
Suddenly, Ramiel shot an arrow into the Darkness, blowing away some of it with a bright light.
"Didn't expect you to make the first move, of all your brothers and sisters," they all heard the goddess' voice say, and she stepped out of the shadows to reveal herself. Despite heaven's light weakening her somewhat, none of the angels could tell, for she had her army at her back. Sam and Dean could pick out the angels that had fallen among her troops; Raphael, Michael, Naomi, Uriel…they were all behind Chaos, with hallowed eyes and smoke surrounding their bodies.
Lucifer stepped up next to Chaos, and in his hand was the corrupted Fate-Killing Blade. Following him was Metatron and Rowena, with Crowley and Adam. The two demons still had those purple hues obscuring their eye; the witch was still in control.
"Begone from this realm!" Raguel shouted from above, her eyes narrowing as she clenched her sword tightly. She particularly was unhappy to see her older brother and the traitorous scribe; in her eyes, they were even worse than the goddess, because they betrayed their family.
"Why not we skip the formalities, my dear?" Chaos then outstretched her hand, ordering her army to charge forward. The dark angels obeyed without a thought, flying past her and clashing with the angelic army that Hannah had lead against them in that moment. Dean and Sam watched as the seraph plunged her twin blades into the chest of the first enemy she encountered, fighting with a ferocity that both were somewhat surprised to witness. The normally laid-back Balthazar was too, fighting intensely; every dark angel he swung his flail into crumbled into dust.
The archangels initially waited, each searching for a particular target; Ramiel was assisting the army with hails of arrows, looping and spinning to dodge dark blades when enemies responded to her. Gabriel and Cassiel began to dive down towards Chaos, but the goddess encircled herself in an orb of blackness; the smoke swirled around her like a storm, and Darkness spit out in all directions, heading towards the different corners of heaven.
She was infecting everything.
Lucifer stretched out his giant wings and came to blows against Gabriel, wielding the once-holy weapon against his younger brother. Gabriel had his Horn in one hand and a light sword in the other, parrying Lucifer's swing and evading his attack. When the two clashed together, a shockwave emitted from their weapons, causing an intense gust of wind which almost threw Sam and Dean off their feet. As Cassiel was about to turn around to assist Gabriel, the undead Raphael tackled him mid-air, causing the archangel to crash towards the ground in a tangled mess with his opponent.
"Cas!" Dean saw Castiel crash, and was about to run over to him, only for Crowley and Adam to block his path. They each were smiling creepily, and Dean could hear the growling sounds of hellhounds; how could those damned dogs even survive up here in all this light?
"Hello boys," Rowena practically sang, appearing behind her two henchmen. "Finally. I've been waiting for my chance to do this to you two." She chanted something in a different language, and Adam charged at the brothers with Crowley's hounds. Sam and Dean held up their pieces of the Staff of Moses, but nothing seemed to happen at first. They cursed, and decided to pull out their guns despite Gabriel's warning that they wouldn't really help them. Of course, the archangel was right; the bullets that they poured into the hounds and Adam did nothing to stop their pursuit.
"Come on, you damned thing, work!" Dean shouted at his piece of the Staff, which finally seemed to activate, shooting a beam of light into the Knight of Hell. Adam was blown backwards, past Rowena and Crowley, hitting the ground a few times. Just as Dean was about to celebrate his hit, however, one of the hellhounds knocked him off his feet.
"Dean!" Sam ran to his brother's side, and kicked the hellhound off. The second hound latched onto Sam's leg, causing the younger Winchester to also fall, yelling out in pain. He used his piece of the Staff to hit the hellhound off him; every time the Staff made contact with the beast, it let out a small burst of light. The light hurt Crowley's pet, eventually causing it to release Sam, whose leg was now bleeding profusely due to the bites and scratches he sustained. He was having trouble standing again, causing his brother to rush over to him. Dean put Sam's arm over his shoulders and helped him back up.
"You two just don't give up, do you?" Rowena was annoyed at the brothers' persistence; they were clearly outmatched and yet somehow never seemed to stay down.
"Not in our nature, lady. Thought you'd have that figured out by now?" Dean was glaring at the witch, still supporting the weight of his little brother. Rowena just waved her hand, dismissively.
"Unfortunately." She again spoke in that language that neither brother understood, calling the hounds and both her demons back to her side. Dean saw that as an opportunity to shoot her with the staff, but a black cloud of smoke shielded her and her pets at the last possible moment. When the smoke cleared, they had all disappeared.
Meanwhile, Cassiel had gotten back into the air, facing off once again against Raphael. The dark archangel was not alone this time, however, as Michael appeared next to him. Castiel cursed softly under his breath, and flew further upward, folding his wings in and spinning to avoid the dark shadows that threatened to cut him. He knew the two were pursuing him, and so, he quickly cut a sharp corner and switched his direction, to attack them head-on. They seemed taken off guard, which Castiel took advantage of: he swung his scythe in a horizontal fashion, cutting both dark angels across the stomachs.
At first, nothing seemed to happen. Cassiel was sure he had hit them…was Chaos really so powerful as to shield them from even that, while in heaven? As his morale dropped, he then noticed a soft light coming from the cuts. Both Michael and Raphael looked down at their wounds, and the light became more intense, enveloping them from the inside. Castiel watched as the Darkness surrounding them dissipated; they began to scream and their skin began glowing. It was almost as if their insides were lit on fire.
Unable to listen to his brothers cries, Castiel again sliced at the dark angels; this time he took off both of their heads in one fell swoop. Their bodies disappeared with a puff of smoke and returned back to the goddess, who was still encased in her protective orb.
He looked down at the carnage; although Hannah was admirably leading the angelic forces against the Darkness, it seemed as though with every enemy destroyed, another three took its place. Even with Ramiel's assistance from above, her holy arrows hitting each mark they aimed for, they didn't seem to be making a dent in Chaos' overall army. Raguel had pursued Metatron – having a personal vendetta against him – but the scribe was well-protected; she was fighting hordes of dark angels all on her own, and there was no way that even she could last for very much longer. Angels were being pierced with blades of shadow, their lights going out and wings turning to ash.
That was when Gabriel, who knocked Lucifer down at one point, blew his horn.
The sound was warm, enveloping heaven's forces (including the two humans) almost like an embrace. All wounds were healed and energies restored.
Hannah yelled out in Enochian, eliciting a battle cry in response from her army.
But despite the morale boost and physical recoveries, Castiel knew that they wouldn't last very much longer; Chaos' forces were still overwhelming the angels, who were dying left and right. And unlike the goddess, heaven's forces were not near-eternal. To make matters even worse, with every angel that perished, another soldier was added to the Darkness.
Castiel knew who he had to go after.
He saw an opportunity; with all of her forces occupied, Castiel dove down towards the black orb that Chaos had enveloped herself in towards the beginning of the battle. He hacked away at the shadows with his scythe, trying to pierce the dark armor.
Lucifer had tried to turn around to pursue Cassiel, but Gabriel blocked him, making a double of himself in the process. The Devil just sighed.
"I thought we went over this, little brother. You learned all your tricks from me," he said, almost exasperatedly.
"Not quite," Gabriel responded, before making more copies. Soon, he had around ten of himself circling the fallen archangel, moving around quickly in order to keep Lucifer guessing as to which one of him was real. "I've learned some new things since you've been away!"
Lucifer clicked his teeth in annoyance, and slashed at the copy he thought was the actual Gabriel. But the angel's duplicate just faded, and was quickly replaced with a new one.
"Oops, guess you were wrong! Wanna try that again?" The trickster taunted, much to Lucifer's annoyance.
Castiel continued his assault, grateful that Gabriel and his other siblings were holding their own and giving him this opportunity. He sliced and slashed, his strength not fading despite how many times he swung his gigantic weapon. There was no way that her shadows could hold up forever against him.
Suddenly, the orb cracked.
The shadows slowly dissipated around the goddess, who dodged the next swipe of Castiel's scythe without effort. The archangel kept trying to hit her, following her into the air as she ascended, but she evaded every attack, looking almost bored. Just as he was about to swing again, however, some of her shadow grabbed hold of his arms and legs, suspending him motionless in the air. He struggled against them, letting go of a smiting light from his free palm, but the goddess didn't seem fazed.
"Cassiel, you have surprised me a few times, I'll admit. Your light is brighter than your brothers and sisters. But now it's time to put that out…" She said while guiding her shadows around the archangel's head.
Dean had been watching all of this unfold, and felt a panic rush over him when he saw Chaos grab a hold of his angel. Without thinking, he began to run towards them, barely even hearing Sam call out his name. The younger Winchester had tried to follow, but the witch and her pair of demons materialized again, stopping Sam and forcing him to face them on his own. Dean – unaware of Sam's predicament – kept sprinting, clutching onto the Staff tightly; he figured if he could get close enough, he could shoot Chaos and at least force her to release Castiel…
At least, that was the plan.
But instead, the beam of light never made contact with the goddess; she had one of her dark angels materialize from her shadows and step in front of her to act as her shield. Although she did not release Castiel, her focus did shift to Dean. Darkness surrounded the hunter and closed in on him; he felt like he couldn't breathe for a moment. Chaos lowered herself and Castiel to the ground.
"Dean Winchester. I wanted you to survive. You would have been perfect in my world," she said, almost sadly. Dean grimaced, his teeth clenching as the shadows seemed to envelop his entire being. He could see blackness around his eyes as his vision began to blur, and he gasped for air.
"No!" Castiel cried out and his eyes began to glow. He had to save Dean…he could die but Dean had to live through this…
But Chaos had been anticipating that reaction. From her previous encounters with Cassiel, she knew by now that the human was something special to the archangel, and that his power and light seemed to grow exponentially whenever Dean was in trouble. Why, she wasn't completely sure, but that was of no concern to her, really. She didn't care about the why, only the how.
"Now you're mine…" She grinned wickedly and turned again back towards the archangel. Most of the shadows released Dean; he could feel himself breathe again. Unfortunately, he still couldn't move, and so he was forced to watch.
Forced to watch Chaos maneuver her Darkness down Castiel's throat.
The archangel stiffened, and his eyes went wide. At first, they continued to glow intensely. He tried to fight against the hold the shadows still had over him, but with more Darkness entering his body, he became weaker and weaker. And Chaos was sparing no expense; she was pouring wave after wave of blackness into Castiel's mouth and body. She was planning on suppressing that light from within the archangel before he could use it against her. And she knew how bright this angel burned.
Dean was screaming, but his voice seemed to fade into nothingness; Castiel soon couldn't hear anything other than the sound of the shadows working their way inside him. He was suffocating on them. Slowly. Painfully.
Soon there was nothing but darkness.
The light faded from his eyes before closing, and Cassiel's hand dropped his weapon. It clattered to the ground almost pathetically as the archangel went limp in Chaos' hold. She released him, watching as his lifeless body sank to the floor.
And then Dean was forced to watch as that lifeless form remained still for a few minutes. Still, and then…movement. Castiel almost lazily got back to his feet.
Dean was forced to look into hollow blackness when Castiel opened his eyes again.
Notes: Guys I'm so so sorry about the lengthy wait for this one! I got a full time temp job and then got really sick so it took me a while to get back in the groove. Hopefully the next chapter won't take as long!
