(Sam Winchester)
"Dude! Dude!" Dean keeps repeating, shaking me. Maybe it's the ground underneath me that's shaking and has me feeling like I'm lying on a cheap motel Magic Fingers bed. Angel stands up and looks down on me from what seems like ten feet up. She's beautiful and glowing and I'm thinkin' it's because of her and not Castiel that I can see again.
I slowly sit up and feel the dried blood that's run down my chin from my nose crack as I smile. Dean leans in to hug me anyway and then, holding him at arms length, I ask him, "What happened?" I hear Castiel make a noise of disgust and say under his breath, "How original," and I think I really don't know anything at all about angels. Evidently Angel hears him, too, and, in full on Mother Superior mode, she tells him to put a cork in it. I can't believe it but angels sulk and he moves away from us and back to the alter.
"You did it, Sammy," Dean tells me and, looking around, I wonder with great apprehension just what it is that I've done.
Dean continues and tells me, "Lilith's gone, left the building, bit the dust, gave up the demon, is picking turnips with a step ladder." He rattles on and I gather that the incantation worked. I breathe a sigh of relief but then I realize I'm surrounded by hundreds of bodies and when I get to my feet I wish I was still blind.
"It's all right, Sam," Angel says soothingly, "These were glorious and righteous deaths."
'Righteous deaths' she says and not 'righteous kills' but I don't feel any better. It must show on my face because Dean grabs my arm and says, "They're not all dead." and, to show me it's true, Angel raises her arms and people begin to stir. They sit up or get to their feet and, though they were all witness to one heroic struggle between good and evil, she says they won't remember any of it. As far as the villagers and the outside word are concerned a minor earthquake and not an avenging angel has hit Armadillo Infantes and the surrounding mountains.
Although the death toll is moderate the devastation to the town is almost complete. The fact that most if not all of the townspeople were inside the Cathedral at the time "it" hit, combined with the fact that the Temple of the Immaculate Conception didn't crumble like the other structures in town, saved most of their lives. A miracle in itself. they begin to run out of the Cathedral, el mano de Dios, el asesino del ángel and la madre bendecida all quite forgotten.
Bobby is the last one up and walks cautiously toward us mesmerized by our old friend. Not knowing why she's here he asks, "It's good to see you, ain't it, Angel?" As an afterthought he adds, "I still call you Angel, can't I?" and she laughs.
Before she can answer, Castiel's wings rustle and we all turn toward the bloodied alter. He scowls and says testily, "Her name is Anahita and she's known as "the Immaculate One" to every other angel but me. To me she's "the pain in the ass," and with that, he's gone.
Angel snorts a laugh and Dean, thinking it's a sneeze, says, "Bless you." We all stare at him like he's grown that second head but she seems to glow even brighter. "Oh, yeah, right," he concedes, she doesn't need blessing. He sighs and silence begins to stretch out before us until Bobby asks about Lilith.
Before Dean can start, Angel says, "She's kicked the bucket, snuffed it, rode off into the sunset, popped her clogs."
Dean repeats, "Popped her clogs?"
He begins to laugh and that does it for the rest of us. We all start laughing until tears are running down our faces. Angel nods in satisfaction but, even after a much needed and completely insane laughing spell, things still suck out loud. She hears the villagers as they start to return to the church and says, "Its show time," then tells us, "It's time for you all to go."
We stand around like a foundering ship without a rudder until she takes me by the arm and tells me to listen to my heart and to my brother. She then smiles fondly at Dean and tells him to trust in me and in himself and to help me to keep faith. To Bobby she just says, "Take these 'ijits' home."
Anahita begins to shimmer brightly as she unfolds her wings and in a flash she's gone but not before leaving the believers, including us, with the image of an angel dressed in flowing robes, hovering above Armadillo Infantes. It's an image not bright enough to blind us but more like a beautiful heavenly watermark and I'm more confused about angels than ever.