They waited, making idle conversation to take up time before they heard back from the angels. Dean had a million questions he felt he should ask, a million more things he thought he should say if the apocalypse really was around the corner. As usual neither of them would bring it up, it seemed too final, too pessimistic. They were gonna make it.
With an impatient huff Dean slowly crossed the room again. It'd be nice to hear it from an angel; that everything would be okay. It'd be nice to hear anything. He reached out and tipped one of the white angel statues over, it gave a satisfying crash as it shattered on the floor.
"You wanted to see me?" Castiel spoke from the other side of the room.
Dean glanced at him, a little embarrassed that he'd tipped the statue over. "Yeah, I need something."
"Anything you wish."
"I need to speak with Sam."
"About what?"
"What's it to you? You said anything I wish, that's what I wish so make it snappy."
Castiel hesitated. "I don't think that's wise."
"I didn't ask you what you think. Look, I'm gonna do whatever you guys want but I need to tie up this one thing."
"No."
That's when the tables turned. Divine hope was replaced with suspicion; this was all wrong. The angels were lying.
"What do you mean no? I'm trapped here?"
"You can go wherever you want."
"Super, I want to see Sam."
"Except there."
Kayla laughed. "I can't believe we bought into this whole thing. We're no better off than Sam, maybe worse." Her whole belief system had been shot down. Even if they did live through this, what was there to look forward to?
"It's not how it seems." Castiel argued.
"Fine, I want to go for a walk." Dean told him.
"Fine, I'll go with you."
"Alone."
"No."
He shook his head, he'd had enough. "Screw this, we're out of here."
"Through what door?"
Dean studied his expression, then looked around the room. Sure enough, the room had become four flat walls. They were trapped and Cas was gone. Prisoners of angels.
"That bastard." Dean muttered and grabbed one of the statutes to chuck it into the wall.
"Did Cas really just do that to us?" She watched him rear back on the wall again. "I wouldn't bother, I'm sure they expected that from you."
"It'll still give me something to do." He picked the thing up off the ground and used it as a hammer against the wall. "Sorry about Cas, you had a lot of faith in him." She didn't respond and he continued. After he'd put a pretty good dent in it, the wall returned to normal, as if nothing had touched it. "Son of a bitch."
"Quit hurling feces like a howler monkey, it's unbecoming." Zachariah was back. Super.
"What the hell is going on?" Kayla demanded. "Why are we stuck here?!"
"I already told you, it's not safe out there. Demon's afoot."
"I've been getting my ass kicked all year, now you're sweating my safety?" Dean snapped. "You're lying, I wanna see my brother."
"That's…ill advised."
That's it. We're done playing nice. "You know, I am so sick of your crap riddles and your smug fat face. What's going on? Why can't I see Sam? And how am I gonna ice Lilith?"
He looked at him a moment, his expression changing. Acceptance. "You're not going to ice Lilith."
"What?"
"She's going to break the final seal." He went and sat comfortably on the couch against the wall.
"But we can stop it. If you let us out of here, we'll get Sam and…" he glanced to Kayla, she was seeing the same thing he was. "You don't want to stop it."
"Never did. The end is nigh, the apocalypse is here kiddo, coming to a theater near you."
"So why the theatrics?" Kayla asked. "Why fake it?"
"Lot of grunts on the ground, we couldn't exactly tell them the whole truth. We'd have a full scale rebellion on our hands."
"Grunts meaning the angels lower on the totem poll." She said. "Like Cas." There was hope for him after all.
"Think about it." Zachariah chuckled. "You think we're really so incompetent to just let sixty five seals get broken? Management wants it this way."
"Why?" Dean didn't know if he was confused or just plain pissed.
"Why not? When our side wins, and we will, it's paradise on earth. What's not to like about that?"
"And what happens to all the people during your little pissing match?"
"Well," he stood, his tone still casual. "Can't make an omelet without cracking a few eggs. Well in this case, truckloads of eggs but you get the picture. Look, it happens. This isn't the first planetary devastation we've delivered." He watched Dean's eyes go to one of the angel figures. "Ah, no, you probably shouldn't try to bash my head in with that. Wouldn't be too pleasant for you."
"What about Sam? He won't go quietly, he'll stop Lilith."
That's what they were counting on. "Sam has a very important part to play. He may need a little nudging in the right direction but I'll make sure he plays it."
"Is he gonna be okay?" Kayla interrupted. "I mean, you want him to do something, but he's gonna be okay if he does it right?"
"Sam Sam Sam, Marsha Marsha Marsha, forget about him!"
"You say that like we'll just agree!"
"Guys, please." Zachariah smiled. "Why do you think I'm confiding in you? Dean, you're still vital, we weren't lying about your destiny. You are chosen, you will stop it. Just, not Lilith or the apocalypse."
He wanted to ask this question for the last time and actually get an answer. "What does that mean?"
"Lucifer." He motioned to a painting on the wall; the battle of heaven versus hell. "You're going to stop Lucifer. You're our own little Russell Crowe complete with surly attitude. And when it's over, and when you've won, your rewards will be…unimaginable. Peace, happiness, you guys can finally get out of this hunting mess, be the family you've wanted to be." Zachariah started to walk away. "Someday we'll look back at this and laugh."
"Tell me something." Dean stopped him. "Where's God in all this?"
"God? God has left the building."
