Dean sat across from Castiel, leaning forward, arms on the table and his hands around a cold bottle of beer. They were in the kitchen of the safe house with Lamechiel, Raethaniel and Sam. The angels had all decided to let Cas tell Dean their plan because it seemed that Dean would be more likely to go along with it.

Besides, even if he argued with Cas, they all knew that if Sam was in, Dean was in. He wouldn't let Sam do something like this alone. Dean had seen the real exhaustion that seemed to be lurking in Sam's eyes. He knew the furrow between Sam's brows was more than anxiety.

Outwardly, Dean hadn't so much as glanced at anyone but Cas; and no one else had spoken. Sam was picking at the label on his beer bottle with his thumb nail and seemed intent on looking at the table as if he was trying to memorize it, trying hard not to catch his brother's eye.

When Castiel finished speaking there was a long silence in which Sam destroyed the beer bottle label and Dean finished drinking his in several long slow swallows. Raeth walked over and put a hand on Sam's shoulder, squeezing gently and then offering him a full bottle. Sam waved it off but gave her a small, wan smile of gratitude.

Dean exhaled slowly and then looked straight into Castiel's intense blue eyes.

"When it comes to angels," he said, slowly "you I trust." He paused and then looked up at Raethaniel, "You I trust, at least when it comes to protecting Sammy." Then he turned his upper body to face Lamechiel. "You, I don't know. So I don't trust you."

Lamechiel stood up straighter. A dark scowl appeared on his handsome features. Cas spoke quickly,

"Mecha. Sam and Dean have not been treated well by angels; especially not lately. Zechariah-"

"I am not Zechariah," Lamechiel spoke through clenched teeth.

Castiel moved so fast no one saw it; at least, neither of the Winchesters saw it. One moment Cas was seated. The next he was standing toe to toe with Lamechiel, looking up forcefully into the other angel's eyes.

"Nor are you Briathos," Cas's voice was like hot coals, rough and burning, "but Dean Winchester doesn't know that and you're asking him to go up against a demon angel who has been training for this moment for eons. He's going to be risking his life. So he gets to decide who he'll be trusting in this situation. Is that understood?"

Lamechiel swallowed and looked down at the floor. Behind Sam, Raeth had dropped her hand from his shoulder and stood up straighter, as if she was coming to attention. The air in the room changed. It was suddenly charged with tension. Sam was sharply reminded that Raeth had once told him that Cas outranked her, that the ways in which he outranked her were impossible to calculate. Angel of the Seventh heaven, Seraph….. It seemed that Cas had vanished for a moment. But Castiel was there in full force. The specter of his wings darkened the wall behind him.

Lamechiel was taller and broader than Cas. He was almost as big as Sam. But he backed down, ducking his head and looking away.

"Do you understand?" Castiel demanded again.

"Cas," Raeth begged, softly. "Enough of our brothers and sisters are fighting each other."

Cas turned around and speared her with a look that should have seared through her and scorched the wall behind her.

"I just want everyone to understand who is in charge here," he growled.

"You?" Dean demanded, matching blue fire with green.

Cas turned back to the table and said, "No, you; and Sam too, of course."

That took some of the fire out of Dean's eyes. He nodded satisfied. "Okay, then sit back down and let's discuss this."

Cas obeyed, which went a long way to cementing the idea that he had just ceded control over to Dean. Cas gestured Lamechiel into the other chair.

Sam rolled his eyes, turned and reached for the beer Raeth had offered him before. When she handed it to him, Sam caught her wrist and pulled her down into his lap. There were no other chairs and it didn't seem right that she was standing. But he also liked the closeness, the implied intimacy. Raeth hesitated but then settled, leaning against him. She reached up and took an errant lock of his hair between her fingers and smoothed it back behind his ear.

Sam was aware that Dean had just given him a long, hard look. But he ignored it and Dean finally went back to discussing the matter at hand.

"All right so what are we dealing with? A demon angel? What the hell is that?"

"Any angel who falls and gives over his power to Hell becomes a demon angel. They still have all their angelic powers," Castiel explained.

"But they can be killed?" Dean asked, skeptically.

"An angel blade will kill anything that moves," Lamechiel said.

Sam was looking at Dean anxiously. "If it bleeds you can kill it," he said. "You taught me that."

"Dad taught us that," Dean corrected.

With soft determination, Sam said, "Dad might have taught you. But you taught me."

The brothers locked eyes for a moment but it was Dean who backed down first. It wasn't an argument he felt like having in front of three angels.

"Okay, yeah," he said, turning back to Castiel. "What do we know about this thing other than that? What is this demon angel's name to start with?"

Cas hesitated and then grumbled, "Belial."

Sam inhaled sharply.

"What?" Dean asked.

"The second angel to fall," Sam said, "The first to be swayed to Lucifer's rebellion."

Raeth smiled at Sam as if he was the angel in the room. Dean didn't miss that, but he wasn't distracted by it.

"Yes," Castiel agreed, grimly and then quoted from the Dead Sea Scrolls. "You yourself made Belial for the pit, an angel of malevolence, his dominion is in darkness and his counsel is to condemn and convict. All the spirits of his lot - the angels of destruction- walk in accord with the rule of darkness, for it is their only desire."

"What does that mean?" Dean demanded.

"It has always seemed that our Father made Belial purposefully," Raeth said, as if it pained her, "and none of us have ever understood why. All of our names have a meaning and end in 'of God'. Belial has always meant 'lawless' or 'without a master'. He was one of the original 4 crown princes of Hell – Lucifer, Satan, Leviathan and Belial."

"Wait, Satan and Lucifer are two different people?" Dean asked, and then looked annoyed with himself. "Angels, demons, whatever. They're different?"

"Satan was destroyed, Lucifer and Leviathan were caged. But Belial has remained free, hidden but free," Castiel explained.

"Until now," Lamechiel said, daring to speak up again. "If he rejoins Lucifer and unleashes his army, the loss of life will be incalculable. Will you help us?"

Dean put his hands on the table and pushed back his chair. "You had me at 'kill a demon'," he said, "When do we start?"

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