(And now, sadly, our story is over. Well, except for the epilogue. I want to thank everyone who's read, reviewed, favorited, and followed this story. You guys are awesome!)


It was done.

Lucifer was bound inside the Cage, trapped in Hell forever. The power of the archangels had imprisoned him, and Cas had actually wielded the ring of an archangel and survived. Not just any angel could do that. Maybe everyone was right and he was special.

They'd done it. It was a great victory for Heaven.

So why was he feeling so depressed?

They returned to Heaven with no victory parade, no fanfare, no cheering crowds. No one even knew what they had done. No one would ever know.

The portal room looked sad and lonely now, empty as it was. The dust at Cas' feet swirled when he walked through it. He wondered how he was going to just go back to his normal life after doing something like this. This was a big thing. Maybe the biggest thing he had ever done.

The ring was warm in his pocket. He wanted to pull it out and throw it away, but Father had said to hang onto it. He would have need of it later. What was He planning to do?

Cas watched as Michael went to the instrument panel that controlled the transport, drew his blade, and thrust it through the dials and switches with a loud outcry. Sparks flew, like the sparks that had come from the ring while Cas was still wearing it. He pulled the sword out and drove it into a different spot, screaming all the while.

"What the heck are you doing?" Gabe demanded.

Michael looked up at him. "No one will ever use this room again," he declared. "Its purpose is finished. Help me destroy all this."

"Why? Why can't we just leave it? No one else knows it's here."

"Just do it!" He attacked the control panel again and again, stabbing it like an enemy, and now Cas got it. He was working out his frustration on the thing that he blamed for taking his brother away from him.

Gabe snapped his fingers and produced a large hammer. "Hope Thor doesn't mind me borrowing this," he said.

"Who's Thor?" Cas asked.

"Pagan god. I know his brother. You need a sledgehammer? Maybe a shovel?" He snapped again, and a long-handled shovel with dried brown stains on the blade appeared against one wall.

Cas picked it up. He moved toward the secondary computer bank, lifted the shovel, and swung it down. There was a clang and a crunching sound. He swung it again and again, not really thinking about what he was doing. He thought about Luci standing on the rim of the Hell Gate, pleading for his life. He thought about how things had been, way back when.

For no reason at all, he found himself singing a song that Luci had often sung to him. "Carry on my wayward son, there'll be peace when you are done . . ."

But would there? Would there ever be peace in Heaven again?

"Lay your weary head to rest . . ."

He wanted to cry. He wanted to put his head down and just sleep for a thousand years, or a hundred thousand.

"Don't you cry no more," Gabe finished with him. He dropped the hammer and came over, putting his arms around his little brother. "It's okay, Cassie. It's gonna be okay."

Raphael, who had been systematically dismantling the pad, drifted over and embraced both of them. "It's over, little ones. It's all over now. Everything will be all right."

All Cas could do was cry, standing there in the circle of Gabe's arms.

Eventually Michael noticed, and he came over and joined the group hug. They stood like that for a long time. It might have been hours, or days, but when they finally broke free, the light hadn't changed.

"Come on," Mike said. "Let's go find Father."


He wasn't in His office.

He wasn't in His private quarters, either. Cas had been surprised that the Creator of the Universe, who never slept, had a bedroom. There was a bed and everything. It was all so quaint that he wanted to laugh.

He wasn't in the central administrative offices of Heaven; Naomi, who had been recently Assigned there, told them she hadn't seen Him for days. "I wasn't aware He was back," she said. "No one ever tells me anything. They don't respect me!"

"Gee, I wonder why," Gabe remarked.

Naomi glared at him. "At least I do something useful around here!"

"Yeah, sure, keep telling yourself that. Have fun typing and filing, babe." As they left, he said, "Well, she hasn't changed, has she?"

They finally found Him in the garden, under Lucifer's tree. He was sitting very still, a green and yellow butterfly perched on one finger.

"I've always been so proud of these," He said. "They start life in one form, go through some big changes, and become this. It reminds us that everyone can change, for the better."

"Almost everyone," Michael said.

"He could have. He chose not to. It's nobody's fault but his own. It's done, then?"

"Yes, Father." They knelt on the grass before Him.

"Come sit, all of you. You too, Castiel. You did very well, My son. Come sit, right here." He patted a patch of thick grass right next to Him, and Cas, ever the obedient child, came and sat.

"We have the rings, Father." Raphael handed his over. Michael followed suit, and then Gabriel. When they turned and looked at him, Cas realized it was his turn. He fished the ring out of his pocket and handed it to his Father.

"Very good. The rings of power will go to four beings whom I will create, who will ride out during the Final Battle at the end of the world."

"What?" Gabe was staring at Him in shock. "I thought we were done here! I thought this was the final battle!"

"Oh, no. There's still more to come. A lot more. At the end of the world, Lucifer will rise, and his dark forces will fight the forces of Heaven for supremacy."

"No . . . I can't do this again. I can't!"

"You have to. I have seen it, and it will be. You must be there at the end of all things-"

"I can't! You said this was the end of it! I can't do this again!" He turned and fled the garden suddenly.

"Gabe!" Cas started to go after him, but Father called to him and he stopped in his tracks.

"Castiel. Let him go. Everything will be all right. You have a job to do now."

"What job?"

Father leaned in close to him, and he said, "Have faith."

Cas waited for more, but it seemed that was it. "Have faith?"

"It seems like such a simple thing, but it can be difficult in the face of trials. I have seen what's in store for you, Castiel, and one day, you will do great things. But you must trust in the Plan, and believe in yourself."

"Even if what I want doesn't seem to be Your will?"

"I gave you free will, Castiel, so that you would not obey blindly, but follow Me out of love. I also gave you an understanding heart that always knows what the true path is. No matter how wrong it may seem to you, trust in Me. Trust in yourself. You know what to do. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise."

"That sounds like what He said."

"Who?"

"Your Son."

"Well, He is a chip off the old block. Go back to the barracks now, Castiel. Do your duty, but always keep your mind and your heart open. In the end, you will be rewarded."

He stood up, brushing dirt off His robes. "Michael, you can take charge of things while I'm gone, right?"

"Gone? Where are You going, Father?"

"Oh, just on a little vacation. I'll be back before you know it. I expect to find this place looking just the way I left it." He leaned against Lucifer's tree for a second, but pulled away with a jerk. "Ow! That's hot!"

"The trees are connected to us," Cas said with growing horror. "It's burning because he's burning, down Below."

"It'll be fine. I'll tell Joshua to put a rope around it or something." Father looked at his sons with resignation in His eyes. "No regrets," He said. "We did what had to be done."

Then He was gone. Just like that. He was often gone from Heaven, sometimes for thousands of years at a time, but this felt . . . different. It felt final. Like He wasn't coming back.

"Well," Mike said, getting up as well, "you heard Him. We've got work to do."


Cas looked all over Heaven for Gabe, but he couldn't find him anywhere. Not in the Communications Hub, where he got his orders. Not in the Library, or the Administrative Building ("Can't you keep track of anyone?" Naomi griped), or in the Main Square. He wasn't near the human areas or the dark, secret parts of Heaven where no one else would go.

In desperation, Cas tried his room. He probably wasn't there either—he wasn't there often—but he was hoping that there might be some clue as to where he had gone.

There was nothing.

The room was empty.

Not even the furniture remained, except for the couch which was too big and heavy to move easily. On the end of the couch, balled up in what looked like an aborted folding attempt, was . . .

Cas' old animal blanket.

He picked it up. It was still warm. Gabe had been here, not that long ago, but now he was gone. And he hadn't left a single trace behind.

Cas sat down on the couch as all the strength went out of his legs. He clutched the blanket to him and cried.

He'd lost two brothers today. And his Father. And now Mike and Raph would be so busy running things that they wouldn't have any time for him.

He was alone.

He didn't know how long he sat there crying into the balled-up blanket. It felt like days. But surely not; surely he would have been missed.

He didn't want to go back to the barracks. He didn't want to go anywhere or do anything again. His family had broken into pieces, and there was nothing left.

Someone knocked at the door.

Cas raised his head, wondering what time it was. It felt late. Or early. Or so late it was early. He spread the blanket out along the back of the couch so it would dry, and got up to answer the door.

"I thought you'd be here," Uriel said. "Where's Gabriel?"

"That's what I'd like to know. I can't find him. I think . . . I think he's gone for good."

"Maybe he just went with the Father. On a secret mission." Uri's eyes lit up as he painted a picture, with his words, of the kind of exciting secret mission that God might need Gabe for. "I mean, he's the coolest archangel, right? Mike's kinda stuffy, and Raph's . . . just there. They're not as cool as Gabe."

"Yeah, he is cool." It wasn't fair! For so long, Gabe had been there, morning and night, watching over Cas. Even when he wasn't actually there, his presence was felt. But not now. Now he was completely, utterly, and totally gone.

What was Cas gonna do now?

"He'll be back. And he'll tell you all about his amazing adventures, and then he'll ask what you've been up to. You've gotta have something awesome to tell him."

"Awe . . . some?" The word was unfamiliar.

"It's a word humans use. It means really amazing, incredible, wonderful, great! Pick one. You come with me now and we'll go do some awesome stuff to tell him about later. Okay?"

Cas didn't know what to do. He thought he understood what Uriel was talking about, but he wasn't really sure of anything anymore.

Uri got down on his knees and looked Cas straight in the eye. "Make him proud of you," he said. "Make all of us proud of you. Be the best soldier in the garrison. In the legion, even. I know you can do it. Now come on. If you miss check-in they'll come looking for you, and it's a black mark on your record."

Okay. Small steps. He could do this. Step one: get up off the couch. He pressed the balls of his feet into the floor and gradually raised himself into a standing position. Done.

"What's that?" Uriel peered at the blanket still in Cas' arms.

"Oh. It's, um, my baby blanket."

"You bringing it with you?"

For a moment, Cas almost said yes. He'd had the blanket his whole life; it was as much a part of him as his blue eyes or black wings. But it was a baby blanket, and he hadn't been a baby for millions of years. "No," he said, dropping it back onto the couch. "I don't need it anymore."

"Maybe you should fold it up and put it away, in case you change your mind."

"Fine." He put it on the top shelf of the closet, which was as empty as the rest of the room. It was the first time he could remember actually seeing the back of the closet; Gabe had kept so much stuff crammed in here that all you could see when you opened the door was assorted junk, piled up from the floor almost to the ceiling. All that was gone now.

So he wasn't coming back.

Maybe not ever.

Uri slipped an arm around his shoulders. "C'mon, Castiel, let's go do something awesome."

Cas let himself be led out of the room, and back to the barracks. He never set foot in that room again. Too busy being awesome. It took him less than a decade to rise from brand-new recruit to garrison commander. He led armies into battle time and again, and was always victorious.

Once he battled a legion of demons in the Black Hills of South Dakota, and he had that feeling again, the feeling that he was in a place where he'd been before, even though he hadn't yet. He knew this spot, although he remembered it looking completely different. He didn't have much time to think about it, though, as the demon battle took up all of his attention. By the time he returned to the barracks, he had forgotten about it.

It was several years later when Michael came to him and told him that he had a very special job for him. A job that only the best and the brightest could do.

"What is it?" Cas asked.

Michael sat there, in his shining office, and he said, "We need you to pull a righteous man out of Hell."

And just like that, everything changed.