I'm still alive and I haven't forgotten about this. In fact, I read, edit, and write a few times a week when I have the time. Thank you all for sticking with this story, and for reading, favoriting, following, and reviewing. It really means a lot to me.

Disclaimer: In no way do I have any rights to Supernatural or any of the characters you are familiar with. I only own Amriel and any OCs that pop up along the way.

Twenty Seven: Trade Off

"Tonight, I thought I'd tell you a little story… Let you decide. That was my plan, anyway. I guess that's where my story failed," Metatron stopped the music that was playing in the background and removed Castiel's gag. He pulled at his trench coat, inspecting the torn pocket. "Yes, this is 'The Curious Incident,' eh, Inspector Gregory?"

"Who?" Cas asked, his brows creasing in confusion.

"Inspector Gregory. Sherlock Holmes. 'Silver Blaze'?" The Scribe rolled his eyes dramatically, sighing as he spoke, "You've been around since scaly things crawled out of the muck. Would it have killed you to pick up a book, watch a movie? Here, I know it's a bit of a retcon, but it's gonna make this whole conversation a whole lot easier."

Metatron pressed his fingers to Castiel's forehead and he reeled back, gasping in pain. What had just happened to him?

Before he had time to ask, Metatron answered his question, "I just gave you every book, movie, and TV show I have consumed in the last couple of millennia. Now do you understand that 'the universe is made up of stories, not atoms'?"

"I understand that that's a— a quote by Muriel Rukeyser," he muttered, still somewhat confused by what had just happened.

"Ah! It can be taught," Metatron beamed, "Here are a few more lessons. First rule of writers club, steal from the best. Second rule? Every hero needs a villain."

Cas listened as Metatron went on to explain that he had set up the slaughter of the angels Hannah had been with. He had ordered Gadreel to kill all who wouldn't join his army, but to let one live to tell the tale. He told Castiel that he was supposed to lead the angels, to which Cas fervently shook his head and denied that he was a leader.

"So, I did my homework," Metatron said as he picked up a copy of Tall Tales by Carver Edlund. "The 'Winchester Gospels.' Pulpy stuff."

With that, he threw the book into the lit fireplace.

"It gave me an idea, though. You needed to be taught a lesson, and nobody teaches lessons better than good old Gabriel, aka the Trickster, so I started typing."

"And you did all this to make me a hero?" Cas stared up at Metatron, who merely laughed at him.

"Ah, that's priceless," he chuckled. "Um, no. You're not there hero in this mess-terpiece. You're the villain. I'm the hero."

Metatron continued to pace the room, running his fingers along the desk, humming every once in a while before he finally turned back to face Castiel.

"Do you know why I didn't kill you after I stoke your Grace? I like you, truly. Among all God's little windup toys, you were the only one with any spunk. I left you human because I was hoping you would live happily ever after, but then Amriel came along and you screwed that up too. And now… Uh, well you leave me no choice. If you want to get back on board, fine, but you're gonna have to follow my script."

"Well, based on your assessment, that doesn't sound like me." Cas didn't like that Metatron had brought Amriel into the conversation. Hopefully he didn't have her tied up somewhere…

"Lead the dumb, disenfranchised, rebellious angels against me, Castiel. The will follow you, and they'll all die. But I'm gonna save a nice, warm seat up at the top for you. Maybe even two seats- you and Amriel will be saved."

Castiel's response was a firm no, and Metatron didn't take it very well.

His eyes narrowed briefly before shrugging, "You're gonna make me do the hard pitch, aren't you? How's that stolen grace inside you working out?"

"It's fine," Cas answered, lying through his teeth and hoping he wouldn't call him out.

"No, it's not. It's burning out, and it's gonna burn you out. But I'll give you an endless supply of rechargeable batteries. Deal?"

The door opened and a woman walked in, drawing Metatron's attention from Cas.

"Sorry to interrupt your writing session, sir, but something's happened," the woman said quickly. "It's Gadreel."

Cas watched Metatron follow the woman out of the room, the door slamming shut behind them and leaving him alone, wondering what was going on with Gadreel. He had no idea how long he had been missing for, but he was sure it was enough time for Amriel to notice. She would look for him, or at least send a few angels from their headquarters to find him.

He stared up at the ceiling and sent her a silent prayer, hoping she would hear it.

Amriel groaned as she hung up her phone and set it on the desk she was currently seated at. This was the fourth time she had tried calling Cas and hadn't gotten an answer. Where was he?

Sam and Dean would be able to find him. They were probably out on the road, and they could trace his phone whereas she had no idea how to do that.

The blonde grabbed her phone again and dialed Sam, closing her eyes as it rang.

"Hey Amriel, what's up?" Sam finally answered, and the angel let out the breath she had been holding in.

"I haven't heard from Cas since he left on this lead… He won't answer my calls or texts- I was wondering if you've had any luck?"

"We haven't, actually. Dean turned on the GPS on his phone, and he's still in the same town we talked to him last. I'm on my way out there right now."

"Do you need me to send backup? I can have a couple of angels meet you—"

"That won't be necessary. I can handle it on my own. Thanks, though." Sam was quiet for a moment, and Amriel could hear faint sounds of the radio playing in the background. "How are you holding up? It's been a while since we talked."

"I'm leading over a dozen angels in a hunt for Metatron. It's been challenging…" Amriel sighed, feeling the need to open up to her charge. "There's only so much we can do unless he surfaces."

"I'm sure you'll find him. I can't tell you how many times we took something down on much less intel. Look, I'm almost to his motel. Do you want me to stay on the phone with you while I look around?"

"No, that's alright. I have too much to do here, and the others will wonder what I'm up to if I don't leave my office soon. Call me if you find anything out though, okay? I'm worried about him…"

"We all are, Amriel. I promise you'll be the first person I call once I figure something out. I'm here now, so I'm gonna go. But you'll hear from me soon."

The blonde thanked Sam and told him to be careful before hanging up and taking a deep breath. She had to go back out and face the others without letting them know that something was wrong. The last thing she needed was for them to find out Cas was missing.

Amriel stood up and stuffed her phone into the back pocket of her shorts, closing her eyes briefly and mentally preparing herself to face them. Once she felt like she was ready, she left her office and made her way to the large conference room where several angels were hovering over a map laid out on the table.

"Have you acquired any new information?" she asked, startling the four that were so focused on the map, Mihr included.

"No, Amriel. It seems we're at a dead end. Wherever Metatron is hiding, he's warded very well," Hannah spoke up, straightening her posture as she turned to face her.

"Well then perhaps we should focus our efforts on devising a plan to make him come to us. Look for similarities at the previous places Metatron has appeared at, and let's try and recreate them so we can trap him," Amriel proposed, watching the angels look between one another.

"We'll get started right away," Mihr nodded, and the four returned to the map, pouring over the locations to look for any sort of similar geography.

Amriel left them to their work, pleased that they had listened to her command. Perhaps Cas had been right the whole time— they did respect her and her ideas.

Hannah, however, made Amriel nervous. She didn't like the way the dark haired angel watched Castiel with adoring eyes, jumped at any chance to do something for him, whether it was get coffee or organize teams to go on scouting missions.

It rubbed her the wrong way. Amriel was his equal, but Hannah only acknowledged her when Cas was around and it was expected of her. She would have to have a word about it with Cas at some point.

Sam walked up to Castiel's motel room and got in with ease. He looked around, spotting the angel's cell phone sitting on the table. Picking it up, Sam saw that there were six missed calls from Dean and eleven missed calls from Amriel along with countless texts.

He knew he shouldn't read them, but he did anyways. They had started out normally, asking how things were going. Then as the hours passed, the texts turned more frantic, and Sam felt something in him ache at her words.

Cas, I don't know where you are but something isn't right. Sam is on his way to find you, and I hope he does soon. Please, come back in one piece…

As he was setting the phone down, Sam heard something behind him. Turning, he drew his gun and saw Metatron standing in front of him.

"Easy there, tiger. I'm here for a trade," Metatron said, hands up in a surrendering way. "You have something of mine, and I have something of yours. Bring him here tomorrow, say.. 6ish? If not, Castiel dies. No comebacks this time."

"An even trade?" Sam asked, and Metatron nodded.

"I'm an entity of my word."

"Let me call Dean, see if he'll go for it."

The angel said he'd be outside, and Sam quickly pulled out his phone and called his brother. They decided to have Dean bring Gadreel to the meet-up, make the exchange, and trap Metatron.

When Sam confirmed that they'd make the deal, Metatron merely nodded before disappearing.

So Sam waited for Dean to arrive, putting together a trap. They stood together outside in the parking lot, close to the Impala, and caught each other up on what had been going on.

"We can't let Amriel know Cas was held hostage… She's freaked out enough as it is that he hasn't been answering her calls," Sam told his brother, crossing his arms over his chest as he leaned back against the car.

"Well we're gonna have to if Metatron doesn't show up for this exchange. He's late," Dean grumbled.

"Of course I'm gonna show," Metatron suddenly appeared, "I was just waiting for you two to finish setting up your little trap for me. Uh, am I hitting my mark? Well, come on. Let's go, I'm waiting."

Dean threw a lit lighter on the ground, igniting a holy fire circle around the angel, and the brothers watched him fake agony and laugh. Metatron blew out the flames and sent the Winchesters back into the Impala when they tried to come towards him with angel blades drawn.

"No thanks," Metatron told them as he walked towards the Impala's trunk and opened it, flicking away the angel warding. "Bye-bye."

Gadreel climbed out of the trunk as a car pulled up and Cas gets out, quickly walking over to the Winchesters.

"Well, a deal's a deal," Metatron said with a shrug.

"Why are you doing this?" Dean asked, and Metatron looked at him briefly before replying, "Because I can. Because you and your little brother and your fine, feathered friends and all those secrets you got locked away in your bunker can't stop me. But I'm gonna enjoy watching you try. It's gonna be a hell of a show. I'll see you around, Castiel. Never forget I gave you a chance."

Once Metatron was gone, Sam gave Cas his phone back, watching him look through his texts, the frown on his face getting deeper with each one he read.

"What's the matter, Cas?" Sam asked, drawing the angel's attention away from his phone.

"Oh- Amriel is worried. I need to call her and let her know I'm okay," he said in a far-off tone, like he was speaking to himself, and Sam furrowed his eyebrows in concern.

"That can wait," Dean interrupted. "Does somebody want to tell me what the hell just happened here?"

The angel nodded, saying that Metatron was trying to play God.

"Play God? Cas, he erased angel warding. He fucking blew out Holy Fire! He is God. He's powering up with the angel tablet. How are we supposed to stop him?" Sam said all in one breath, and Dean sighed.

"Okay. So, what if there is a stairway to heaven? We find it and get a drop on the guy."

"You want to sneak onto the Death Star, take out the emperor?" Sam asked his brother, and Cas furrowed his eyebrows.

"Okay I… I'm not sure what a fictional battle station in space has to do with this, but if taking out the emperor means taking out Metatron, I'm on board."

Dean looked from Cas to Sam, then back to Cas," Wait. Did you just understand a Death Star reference?"

"Yeah, I think so," the angel shrugged. "But I don't understand what that has to do with Heaven."

"It's halfway, I guess," Sam offered, and Dean asked Castiel if he was all right, patting him on the shoulder with his right hand.

"I'm fine," he replied, grabbing Dean's arm and pushing up his sleeve, revealing the Mark of Cain. Cas' eyes darkened as he stared at the Winchester, "What have you done?"

Dean yanked his arm back, saying that it was a means to an end. He pulled his sleeve back down and straightened himself out, taking a step back away from Castiel.

"Damn it, Dean," he frowned, shaking his head in disappointment. He never wanted Dean to take that mark. It wasn't going to end well for the Winchester.

"Look, you find Heaven, you drop a dime. In the meantime, I got a knight to kill," Dean snapped before stomping over to the driver's side of the Impala, leaving Cas and Sam to say their goodbyes.

"Be safe out there," Sam told him. "Get back to Amriel. She's going crazy without you."

"You be safe too… Keep an eye on him, okay?" Cas glanced from Sam to where Dean was sitting in the car, and the younger Winchester nodded, saying that he would.

Castiel returned to the motel he had been kidnapped from, immediately tearing down all the maps he had pinned up onto the wall.

He pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed a number he had seared into his memory, listening to it ring until the other line finally picked up.

"Cas," Amriel breathed into the receiver, and he felt his heartbeat begin to race. "Where are you? What happened?"

"Metatron happened. He kidnapped me in an attempt to get me to lead angels to rebel against him… If I text you the address of the motel I'm at, will you meet me here?" Cas ran his hand through his hair as he spoke, looking around to find chalk.

"Of course. I'll be there as soon as I can. What should I do about the angels here at headquarters?"

"Tell them Metatron has been on Earth— have them look for where he went."

Cas started to draw a sigil, but left it incomplete. He didn't want to finish it until Amriel arrived.

"Okay. I'm going to leave now, so I'll see you soon," she said and he could hear her rustling around and typing at a computer. "I love you, Castiel… I'm glad you're all right."

When they hung up, all Cas could do was wait for her to get there.

He paced the room, ending up in the bathroom and staring at himself in the mirror. Cas raked his fingers through his unkempt hair in an attempt to tame it before straightening out his tie. It had been days since he had seen Amriel, and he was somewhat nervous and he didn't know why.

Chalking it up to anticipation, Castiel peered out the curtains and looked around, hoping she would appear any moment.

Nearly an hour and a half later, Cas heard a car pull into the motel parking lot and turn off, and as soon as the door slammed shut he knew it was Amriel. He walked out of his room and looked to see that she was across the lot, and he watched her glance around for the number he had given her.

Amriel was a complete vision, wearing a flowing tank top and denim shorts, her golden hair falling around her shoulders and down her back in waves. He could tell that she couldn't find him, so he called out her name and smiled when she pivoted on her right foot, a bright smile taking over her face as she broke into a sprint.

As soon as she was close enough, Amriel leapt into his arms, wrapping her legs around his waist and locking her arms around his neck, pressing kisses to his lips, forehead, and everywhere else she could touch.

"I missed you so much," she muttered in between kisses before finally pulling back and frowning. "I am so sorry that Metatron kidnapped you and we had no idea…"

"It's okay, Elle. I know what I have to do now." Cas pulled her closer and walked into the room, closing the door behind them with his foot. "But that can wait. First, there's something I need to take care of."

He tossed her onto the bed and followed suit, hovering over her and running his hands up and down her smooth thighs, kissing her neck and reveling in the way she writhed beneath him.

"Cas, please," Amriel sighed, threading her fingers in his hair and pulling him up to meet her lips. She felt his warm fingers slide up her shirt and she arched into his touch, wanting more. His lips went back to her neck, and Amriel turned her head to give him better access when she saw the sigil painted on the wall.

"What is that?" she asked, pushing Castiel away and getting off of the bed, walking up to the wall and inspecting the sigil like they hadn't just been making out.

When he didn't answer, Amriel turned around and stared at him expectantly.

"Who are you going to summon here?" the blonde asked again, crossing her arms over her chest and narrowing her gaze.

Heaving a sigh, Cas explained everything that had happened when Metatron had him— Gabriel, Metatron's talk, and how he thought he had to gather the rest of the undecided angels so they could band together.

"Are you sure about this? We already have enough on our plate…."

"I know, but if we want to find Metatron and re-open Heaven, we're going to need all the help we can get," he told her, getting up from the bed and heading towards the wall and picking up the knife he had used earlier. "Are you still willing to help? I understand if you aren't."

Amriel frowned, wondering why he would think she would back out. Maybe he was used to it with the Winchesters not supporting him for the past few years.

"If you think it'll work, let's do it. I trust you and your judgement, Cas."

She watched him nod in appreciation and slice his palm, wincing even though she knew it didn't hurt him. Castiel completed the sigil with a few strokes and walked over to the door, opening it to find twenty or so angels standing outside.

"Please, come in," he said, motioning for them all to enter, and Amriel took a deep breath, nodding to the angels as they came into the room, welcoming them with a small smile on her face as they all gathered inside.

She had no idea what was going to come of this, but as long as they dealt with Metatron and got Castiel's grace back, that's all that mattered to her.