(6/16/2017) This fic apparently tops 125K words at 41 chapters, more than some have at 100 chapters. I don't know whether to be proud of myself or to bang my head on the table for writing too much.

Thank you Princesskarlita411, demon19027, Sage of Wind Dragons, jkmp28, thedarkpokemaster, IoSolUno, missmeow1968, Sal the Guest, RHatch89, and philly cheese dude for the reviews! And everyone favoriting and following gets some California sunshine!


Joyce took things surprisingly well. Considering.

After getting the tale of Mary Winchester's murder and John's subsequent leap into the world of hunting, there were three things she wanted explained in full: John's death, Dean's death (and resurrection), and Heaven and Hell.

Joyce's ubiquitous ire at John softened slightly after hearing how and why Mary had died. Finding out that the man she'd had a daughter with had sacrificed himself to save his son brought tears to her eyes. "Sounds just like him," Joyce murmured. "Jumping headfirst into the most immediate solution and to hell with the consequences."

Her expression when she found out Dean had followed in his father's footsteps after Sam had been killed made Buffy's eldest brother cringe. "How could you?" she gasped.

"I wasn't thinkin'," he mumbled.

"Well, obviously!"

Joyce's reaction was so reminiscent of her daughter's that Dean prepped himself for a blow to the face. Thankfully, Buffy's mother showed more restraint. She contented herself with a tirade that had him hanging his head in shame (and had his siblings looking smug) which made it clear that she thought Dean's choice had been selfish and that he'd been beyond fortunate to have escaped his fate.

That discussion brought them to the topic of Heaven and Hell. Despite Dean's continuing protests that he didn't remember what had happened in the Pit all three siblings were adamant that Hell existed. Who went there and why wasn't quite as clearcut as the dutifully religious made it out to be, but for certain it was populated at least with those who had made pacts with demons.

The exact nature of Heaven, however, was a mystery to all of them. They revealed that proof of the existence of angels was a recent phenomenon; as in they'd only discovered their validity about a week and a half ago.

Joyce, just like her daughter, was enchanted at the thought. "Do they have wings? Are they watching and protecting us? Oh! Can I meet one?"

"Wings, yes," Dean replied. "Ain't sure about the protecting but apparently they're watching us. Or some of us." Then, mostly to himself, added, "God, it better not just be me. That'd be just frigging creepy."

"I don't know if it's a good idea to meet one, mom," Buffy said cautiously.

"Why not?" Joyce wondered.

"The only one we've seen is Castiel and he's kinda living up to the 'ass' part of his name."

Undeterred, Buffy's mother asked, "Well, how do you get one to show?"

"We did a summoning ritual thingy."

"Prayer?" Sam suggested. When Dean gave him a disparaging look, the younger brother added, "Why not? Isn't that what the lore says?"

"Then why haven't any of them shown up before?" Dean retorted.

"You said it's because they didn't really have a reason before now."

"Don't tell me if I start sayin', 'I pray to thee, Castiel, to show your feathery ass,' that he'll start showing up."

"Castiel," Buffy recited, her hands clasped and her eyes set beatifically up on the ceiling. "Oh, Castiel, angel of trench coats. Please show your feathery ass to us."

"I'm certain that's rude," scolded Joyce. "Maybe, 'Castiel, I pray to you, please come and bless us with your presence."

"Maybe something in Latin?" pondered Sam. "Castiel, ego conjungo te…"

They expected to continue speculating, perhaps even calling Giles to get his opinion on the matter. What they didn't expect was said angel to suddenly appear, gust of great wings and all. Joyce let out a yelp in surprise while the three siblings all jumped out of their seats and brandished cutlery.

"Please stop," Castiel said to the gathering. "It's very annoying."

Flabbergasted, Joyce was unable to form a complete query. "Who…? What…? How…?"

The angel then turned a jaundiced eye at Sam. "The correct word is 'conjuro.' I have no intention, now or ever, of joining you in holy matrimony."

Embarrassed at his error, but still excited at finally meeting an angel, Sam smiled tremulously at Castiel. He put down his steak knife and proffered a hand. "It-It's good to meet you…"

Buffy, however, was too irked at the angel's brusque arrival to be courteous. She interrupted her brother's attempt at congeniality by shoving him aside. "Is this a thing you do?" she demanded of the intruder. "Just show up without asking?"

"But you were asking," Castiel replied, baffled.

Buffy opened and closed her mouth a few times, bereft of a witty response; they had been praying to the angel even if they hadn't expected to actually summon him. "Next time you knock, got it?"

"That seems unnecessary and inefficient."

"It's called 'being polite'! Learn it!"

Bemused at her impertinence, Castiel looked at her brothers. "Are all humans this presumptuous?"

"She's, um…special," Sam said in an attempt to placate him.

"Yeah," added Dean. "Special ed."

"Butthead," Buffy threw at him.

"Midget."

"Dean," Castiel said, his focus suddenly narrowed to the named individual. "You will be coming with me. You need to stop it."

"Stop what?"

The angel placed the tips of his first two fingers on the hunter's forehead. A moment later, the pair was gone.

"What just happened?" Joyce asked, bewildered.

"I think Dean was just angel-napped," answered Buffy. The girl then shouted, "Hey!" as her remaining brother charged for the front door. She grabbed his sleeve as he turned the handle. "Where are you going?"

"Where do you think? To go find Dean!"

"Yeah?" Buffy let him go and folded her arms. "Starting where?"

"I dunno! At least drive around and see if he's in town!"

"Sam, Dean could be in Timbuktu for all we know. Or Mars. Or upstairs in my underwear drawer! Just sit and think for a bit."

Someone knocked on the door before Sam could retort. Joyce approached as he yanked it open and revealed his "girlfriend" standing on the stoop. At first the newcomer's expression was sour, but upon seeing Buffy's mother the woman affected a friendly face.

"Hello," Joyce said congenially. "Can I help you?"

"This is, uh, my girlfriend," Sam stuttered. Then at the delight in Joyce's eyes added, "No, no I mean, uh, my friend. Who's a girl."

"Smooth," deadpanned Buffy. She focused on the creature at the door. "What do you want?"

"Buffy!" scolded her mother.

"Just to talk to my friend," the woman said sweetly. "My friend who's a boy."

"Fine, whatever," scoffed the Slayer. She pushed her brother over the threshold. "Have fun," she concluded as she slammed the door shut.

"What was that all about?" Joyce wondered, overwhelmed by the past hour's events.

Buffy ticked the first point off her index finger. "Castiel is the one who pulled Dean out of Hell. Apparently they're besties or something now and they'll just take off whenever." She ticked another point off of her middle finger. "Sam has a secret girlfriend that he doesn't want Dean to know about." She ticked the final point off of her ring finger. "Said girlfriend is a skanky demon or vampire or something. I don't like her."

"Oh." Buffy's mother blinked a few times then shook her head. "Well, come help me clean up."

"Do I have to?" whined the teenager.

"Yes. Even with Slayers and angels and demons about the dishes still need to be done."


No longer impeded by a small, imperious sister, Sam headed straight for the Impala. Ruby slid in front of him and put a hand on his chest. "Hey! What the hell is going on?"

"That angel took Dean!" Sam snarled softly, conscious that they could be easily observed.

Ruby's lips pressed tight. "If the angel has him then there's nothing you can do for now. What you can do is come with me to take care of this demon I've got trussed up and waiting. Who knows? Maybe he has some answers."

"But—"

"Tell me you've got a better idea."

Sam sighed in resignation. "Fine. But if he has nothing then I'm moving on." After all, there was the minuscule possibility that the demon did know something. Maybe they could at least ask it if there were defenses against angels.

Sam absolutely was not going off to do this thing just so he could tap into his powers again; just to feel the ecstasy of that dark energy flowing through him; just to be in Ruby's intoxicating presence.

No. Absolutely not.


Dean reappeared in his bed at Angel's mansion a few hours later. His gasp of horror brought the vampire running, not only for its tone but for the fact that his formerly empty abode now suddenly had a second occupant. Angel screeched to a halt at the doorway that was once Drusilla's and saw Dean sitting up in bed over the covers, knees drawn up and hands fisted in his hair, with a stranger in a trench coat standing off in one corner.

"Dean?" Angel asked warily as he shifted his eyes back and forth between the two men.

"Liam," the visitor said by way of greeting. Taken aback at being addressed by his birth name, Angel gaped. His preternatural sense of smell caught something that triggered a memory, one from several years prior, of a thing wearing a ludicrously outdated outfit who claimed to be a demon.

"What are you?" Angel finally demanded.

"I am an angel of the Lord."

The vampire decided to clarify his previous encounter. "Was Whistler one of you?"

"Yes."

An expanded answer seemed not to be forthcoming. Angel wanted to ask more, to at least find out what Whistler had been aiming for when he'd recruited him all those years ago, but Dean had finally regained his equilibrium. "I couldn't stop any of it," he spat viciously at the angel. "She still made the deal. She still died in the nursery, didn't she?"

Angel blinked. From what he could recall of their talks in Hell, Dean was most likely referring to his mother. The rest of it, however, made absolutely no sense.

"Don't be too hard on yourself," said the angel. "You couldn't have stopped it."

Stunned by this revelation, Dean unfolded his legs and rose to his feet. "What?"

"Destiny cannot be changed, Dean. All roads lead to the same destination."

"That's ridiculous," Angel inserted.

The vampire felt fear skitter up his spine when the being's piercing blue eyes settled on him. "You also have a destiny. One written in blood and foretold to cause great destruction."

A wave of despair washed over Angel. The notion that he should be caged back in Hell took root once again. Hoping to goad the creature into acting, the vampire impolitely queried, "How can you be so sure?"

The angel's eyes narrowed as Dean snapped out, "Cass—" He grit his teeth, unwilling to give a fond nickname to the thing causing him such anguish. "Castiel. Why the fuck would you even send me back then?"

"Send you back where?" wondered Angel, his own distress fading away before confusion.

Apoplectic with rage, the hunter shouted, "This feathered dickhead sent me back in time just so I could watch Azazel trap my mother into a deal!"

"It was so you could know the truth," Castiel said calmly. "Now you know everything we do. We know what Azazel did to your brother. We just do not know why. He went to great lengths to cover it up."

"That was cruel," Angel admonished quietly.

There was a fleeting moment where the vampire could have sworn doubt and regret crossed Castiel's face. Then proper stoicism reasserted itself. "I had my orders," he said definitively.

Dean blurted another obscenity. He then looked around wildly. "Where's Sam? And Buffy?"

"She is at home. He is at a warehouse on Waterman. Number four hundred twenty five." Castiel frowned deeply. "Your brother is headed down a dangerous road, Dean, and we are not sure where it leads. So stop it. Or we will." With the flapping of tremendous wings, the angel was gone.

Dean's brow furrowed. "What the hell is Sammy doing there?" He shook his head. "Hey, you know where that is?" he asked the vampire.

"Yes."

"You gotta car?"

"No."

"Well, let's go get one."


After Dean hot-wired one of their neighbor's cars (a late eighties BMW that looked as if it had seen better days) Angel directed him to the address in question. It was one of many dilapidated business holdings falling victim to the recession. Despite the sign crying its discounted price and historical value it seemed to be slated for abandonment. The structure's financial woes, however, couldn't possibly have led to what atrocities were being committed inside.

What Dean and Angel found put the former in a towering rage. Sam was exorcising demons. Telepathically. Not only that, but he was apparently doing it with the aid of Ruby.

A heated confrontation took place during which Sam had the audacity to defend the resurfaced hellspawn from Dean's assault. Seeing that the victim of the exorcised demon required medical assistance, Angel reluctantly held the elder brother back so Ruby could bring the human to the emergency room. The vampire didn't think Dean was conscious of a hapless person; all that was on the man's mind was sticking the Kurdish knife into the belly of its previous owner.

As soon as he was released, Dean cast the vampire a murderous look before holding his hand out at Sam for the Impala's keys. He snatched them from his younger brother as soon as they were in reach, stomped out the door, and, in a spray of gravel, roared out of the driveway.

Forlorn, Sam glanced at Angel hoping that the vampire might have something, anything, to say that would alleviate his guilt. The creature deigned to make judgement. Instead Angel merely turned and left.

At this point Sam figured nothing was best.


Although the vampire had left the purloined BMW sitting outside the warehouse, Sam decided to walk back home. Sunnydale wasn't a large city by any means and it gave him hours to think uninterrupted. Unfortunately, despite weighing the pros and cons over and over he was unable to come to a decision. There was too much at stake, too many people he could save, to just throw his newfound abilities away.

But the thought of ostracizing himself from his family, from the people he loved and cared for the most, hurt fiercely. In the end, Sam thought it came down to whether he thought the lives of others were worth more than his own happiness. He could, feasibly, go on without his brother and sister and use what Azazel had corrupted him with to undo the infectious misdeeds spread by the demon's machinations. The possibility that the source of his powers might someday negate any of the good he would try to do barely crossed his mind. After all, under Ruby's tutelage everything Sam had done had been beneficial, not destructive.

When he finally arrived at the mansion the sun was peeking over the horizon. Angel gave him a cursory nod before heading into his lightless bedroom, but Dean was nowhere to be found.

Sam risked sending a text to his brother, which went unanswered, then one to his sister, which also went unanswered. With his stomach roiling in dread breakfast was out of the question. Coffee, however, maybe with a splash of something extra, was definitely welcome.

He was on his second cup when he heard the rumble of the Impala in the driveway. Sam noted, nervously, that Buffy tailed Dean inside. Both wore grim expressions.

In a valiant attempt to placate the both of them, Sam stood up and said, "Hey, I'm sorr—"

His apology was cut short when Dean's fist cracked into his cheek. Wryly, Sam wiped blood from his lip and asked, "Satisfied?"

Dean smacked him again. A finger tapped Sam on the shoulder as he tried to shake off the second blow. He turned and Buffy punched him hard enough to send him to the floor.

Sam groaned and tongued a cut cheek as Dean shouted down at him, "Do you even know how far off the reservation you've gone? How far from normal?"

"I'm just exorcising demons," his brother claimed defensively as he used the couch to pull himself up.

"WITH YOUR MIND!"

While Dean took a few breaths to calm himself, Buffy leapt into the breach, her voice rising with every syllable. "This is why you were ignoring me? So you could go off and be BFFs with a demon?"

"I wasn't ignoring you!" Sam cried. "I thought you were okay. You didn't say anything!"

"Of course I didn't, Chief Drinks-My-Weight-in-Whiskey! I was trying to let you deal with your own issues first, but apparently you were already off dealing with them with some black-eyed ho."

Indignant, Sam lurched the rest of the way to his feet. Before he could confront his sister, however, Dean stepped in between. "What else can you do?" he asked, ominously quiet.

"I can send them back to Hell." Pleadingly, Sam added, "It only works with demons, and that's it."

Dean grabbed two handfuls of flannel and slammed his brother into the nearest wall. An iron candleholder rattled in protest. "WHAT ELSE CAN YOU DO?"

"I told you!" Sam yelled as he pushed Dean away, his anger momentarily overwhelming his contrition.

"And we have every reason in the world to believe that," Dean scoffed.

"Look," Sam said as he ran his fingers through his hair and hung his head, "I should have said something. I'm sorry. I really am." He looked hopefully from one sibling to the other. "But try to see the other picture here! The only other way we've seen that defeats a demon is Ruby's knife, and the knife kills the victim! What I do, most of them survive!"

"This is just—" Buffy lifted her arms and let them drop. "Sam, it's demon power. Tell me one thing good that comes out of that."

"You," Angel said quietly from the hallway entry.

The three siblings stared at the sleep-tousled vampire. "Sorry," he apologized. "You weren't exactly being quiet."

"What do you mean?" Dean wondered.

"There's stories that the Slayer's power comes partially from a demon."

"See?" Sam said, hoping to be vindicated.

Dean stabbed a finger into his brother's chest. "The difference is she's got no choice and you went and looked for it!"

"But she's using it for good. So am I!"

"I'm right here," said an annoyed Buffy.

The eldest brother folded his arms. "Then why did Cass tell me to stop you?" At Sam's shocked expression, Dean added, "He said that if I don't stop you, he will. See what that means, Sam? That means that God doesn't want you doing this. So are you just gonna stand there and tell me everything is all good?"

Silence descended. Tears stood out in Sam's eyes as his siblings stared at him, fury unabated. Finally, Buffy sighed. "Are we calling him 'Cass' now? Because, honestly, 'Castiel' is kind of a mouthful."

Dean rolled his eyes as Sam's phone began to ring. He answered it, desperately trying to hide his anguish from whoever was on the other end. "Yeah, hey Giles… Oh. Oh yeah? …O-Okay. We'll be there soon as we can. Thanks." The hunter hung up and explained, "There's a vampire coming to town. Old one. His name's Kakistos."

"Great," Buffy groused.

"Giles wants us to meet him at his house. Apparently you're still not allowed on campus."

Buffy uttered an expletive that had Angel's eyebrows lifting and Dean smirking. She led the way out of the house, her eldest brother following. Left alone with the one-time Scourge of Europe, Sam pleaded, "You understand, right? I'm saving lives! It's better to do it my way!"

"I do understand," Angel said carefully. "But I also know what a slippery slope you're on."

"What do you know about it?" Sam retorted.

"Everything." The vampire walked closer to the man and took in his scent. "The first time I met you, I smelled it. Whatever the yellow-eyed demon did to you changed you. It wasn't so obvious before. But now," Angel said, his tone darkening, "you smell almost as much of demon as you do of human."

Stricken, Sam fell back against the wall. Angel's hope that Buffy's brother found this revelation to be a significant deterrent was dashed when the man said, "I can control it. I just… need to keep it at the level it's at. I'll be fine."

Angel approached and glowered up at him. "I'll only say this once," the vampire stated quietly in a tone that made a chill run down Sam's spine. "You do what you think you have to. You save lives if you think you're doing good. But if I find out that what you've become puts either Buffy or Dean in danger I will kill you myself. They'll hate me for it. But they'll be safe. You keep that in mind." Without waiting for a response, Angel headed to his bedroom.

Sam jumped when Dean barked his name from the car. He wasn't evil, Sam told himself. He was doing the right thing. They just didn't understand. But they would. Soon.


Acknowledgement : Some lines of dialogue are taken directly from the episode, "Metamorphosis" (SPN 4.04).

Author's note : "Ego conjungo te," as far as I can tell (through google), is "I marry thee." It's probably not conjugated correctly or whatever, but I was just trying to substitute "conjuro" with something similar and funny ;)

The Slayer's origin will be slightly altered, thus Angel's comment. It'll be explained. Eventually. Sometime. Futuuuuuure.