Castiel returned to his safe hiding place. After talking to the Winchesters he had met with Balthazar, hoping his brother might have some information. But not only had Balthazar claimed not to know anything, he had also refused to help Castiel fighting the creature. If Balthazar was scared, things were very bad.

Castiel sighed and thought about what his next step should be. He only knew as much as he already did, because he had overheard two of Raphael's' henchmen talking about the beast, before they had discovered him. He had barely made it out of that situation alive.

He was fairly sure though, that it wasn't Raphael himself who had lent the witch some of his powers. It probably was a powerful angel who supported Raphael's crusade. He would have to try to find out more about this angel by himself, not something he was looking forward to.

At least the Winchester brothers were trying to find the witch, so he wasn't completely alone in this fight. Maybe it would be enough to eliminate the witches influence to weaken the beast enough, so he could kill it. But there was no way to be sure, which meant he had to collect as much information as he could.

Thinking of the two hunters, especially of Dean, made him feel better and a plan was forming in his mind. Immediately he started to prepare everything and called out to Raphael when he was done.

"Raphael, here I am, come and get me." Castiel knew he was taking a great risk, but he didn't expect Raphael to show up himself, as he had the last time he had called him.

"Castiel, brother, do you want to surrender?" a voice behind him asked. Castiel turned around to see one of Raphael's soldiers standing there, blade in hand, but still holding it loosely by his side.

"No, I do not wish to surrender." Castiel answered, drawing his own blade, as the other angel advanced on him. He didn't really want to fight his brothers, but he didn't have much of a choice. And he wasn't planning on killing him, he just had to defend himself for the moment.

But his opponent made it very easy for him. He charged Castiel, who simply sidestepped his attacker and gave him a little push in the direction of the wall of the cave they were in. The other angel hit the wall and the impact made him bounce back a little and fall to the ground.

Quickly Castiel lit the ring of holy oil he had prepared and the other angel was captured.

"Nice trick, but you didn't expect him to come alone, did you?" another voice called out. Castiel turned to look at this second angelic thug.

"No, not really. But if you leave now I won't kill you. He can't help you anymore." He pointed at the captured angel in his ring of holy fire.

"I don't need him." was the short answer as the angel attacked Castiel. He wasn't much better than his partner though, and it wasn't hard for Cas to block the attack and deliver a killing blow with his blade. Shaking his head sadly at the loss of yet another brother, he wiped the blood off his sword on the dead angel's clothes and straightened to talk to the one he had caught.

"I only have one very simple question." he told him. "I just need to know who is working together with Raphael."

He waited for a while, but didn't get an answer. "Well, then I just hope you'll enjoy eternity in this cave." he said and turned to leave the cave on foot.

"Wait. You can't just leave me here." the captured angel called after him.

"I can and I will, if you don't tell me what I want to know." Castiel replied coldly, slowly walking back to stand in front of the fire.

"Micah." the angel said quietly. "Micah has joined forces with Raphael."

Of course, Castiel thought. It made sense. Micah was the angel of the divine plan and he, Castiel, had prevented the apocalypse from happening, going against the divine plan. Naturally Micah couldn't be happy with that.

He let the fire die down and watched Raphael's thug disappear before he left as well. He had the information he needed; now he had to figure out what to do with it. Micah was a powerful opponent, which made this fight so much harder.

As you may have already guessed, this still isn't the final chapter of the story. I thought I'd get to the end a lot faster, but the charakters keep interfering. Chapter 2 was Sam's fault, this time it was Castiel who wouldn't let me write the end yet. Although I already know the ending, I'm as curious as you probably are, to find out what else is going to happen on the way. Something to look forward to, I guess ;)