Calling All Angels
Hell Has a Beard
Lily jumped as Adam stormed back into their room. Throwing the door shut behind him, he proceeded to stand as if rooted to the spot, glaring at the floor and repeatedly clenching his hands into fists. He was obviously trying to calm down, his chest heaving as he took in several deep breaths, and Lily translated the raised voices she'd heard into 'argument'. Across the hall, another door slammed.
"Please don't punch anything," she said quickly as Adam's jaw twitched. He looked up at her voice, and she was relieved to see his eyes soften and the tension leave him a little.
"I won't," he said, though there were still traces of the argument in his tone. He eased himself down onto his bed, one hand fisted in the other, and stared determinedly ahead at nothing. Torn between whether to try and comfort him or not, Lily tentatively asked if he wanted to talk about it. He gave her a tight smile. "Just family drama. Where's Castiel?"
The topic change screamed 'diversion' like a banshee, but Lily went with it. Adam, it seemed, had survived worse sibling fights than whatever had just happened. "He said he was going to talk to someone called Bobby, then he did that freaky vanishing thing." Her shudder was involuntary, and made her feel a tiny bit guilty; Castiel was nice – he was a freaking angel – but the way she talked about him made him out to be some sort of monster. He'd been kind to her since they met, and she didn't want to think badly of him if she could help it.
"Bobby?" Lily nodded. "Huh. I forgot about him."
"You know him?"
"Yeah. Well, no, but I've met him. Briefly." And from the sounds of it, she guessed, it hadn't resulted in the two being friends. "From what I saw, though, he'll be able to help. And I'm fairly sure Sam and Dean trust him, so that's good by me."
The last sentence was said with a begrudging note. About to ask again what had happened between the three of them, Lily opened her mouth, only to be cut off by the sound of flapping wings. Looking to the sound, she was surprised to see Castiel stood back in the room again, this time accompanied by another man. He was older than Dean and Sam, with a grizzled beard and shrewd eyes under a cap that looked like it was rarely taken off. He wore the easy flannel shirt of a man who works at his leisure, and from the oil stains on his trousers Lily guessed he worked around machines. This, then, must be Bobby.
Their arrival was accompanied by a silence of the stunned variety. Glances were exchanged between Adam and Bobby, who then switched to scrutinise Lily before turning to Castiel behind him. "Alright, so you weren't kidding," he said. "But give me some goddamn warning next time you feel like zapping me someplace that ain't the same state!"
"My apologies," Castiel said. "I thought that bringing you here would be reassuring to Dean and Sam, as well as suspending your disbelief."
"Oh it's suspended alright," Bobby muttered, looking back over his shoulder at Adam.
Adam became awkward all of a sudden. "Hey," he muttered in greeting.
Bobby's eyes tracked up and down him once. "How'd you get out in one piece?" he asked gruffly.
He cleared his throat. "Uh, I don't know about one piece, but then I'm not even sure what happened," he said. "One moment I'm in… there, the next: Windom, Minnesota, a couple of streets down from where I used to live."
Taking a moment to process this, Bobby nodded, then turned back to Castiel. "So I'm guessing the boys are nearby?"
"Yes, they're in the other room."
He wiped his hands on his trousers. "Okay. Let's go see what they got."
"Dean went out," Adam said bluntly. Bobby raised an eyebrow.
"We heard a door slam," Lily elaborated hesitantly. "There may have been an argument."
Bobby heaved a heavy sigh, shaking his head slightly and muttering something like "Idjits" under his breath. Then, almost as abruptly as he had arrived, he left, and with an apologetic look Castiel followed him, leaving Adam and Lily to stare after them confusedly.
"Enochian Priests? Not a lot," Bobby told Sam when he asked him what he'd found on them. "As far as I can tell, no-one knows they exist."
This wasn't what Sam wanted to hear. "So, what, we're going in blind?"
"Well I didn't have time to look properly," Bobby said, skewering Cas with a pointed sideways look, "but I wouldn't say 'blind', per se."
"You managed to get something?"
"Well I was thinking we had angel power on our side. That and a small hunch."
"Spill."
Bobby rubbed his beard thoughtfully. "I know it may seem like a bit of a pointless question, but why's Adam back? I mean it can hardly be coincidence that he pops up at the same time as this priest thing and a prophet. So, what's the link?"
Sam glanced at their angelic companion. "Cas?"
Castiel pondered it for a second. "I can see a reason as to why Adam might have been resurrected," he said. "But I'm afraid I cannot ascertain as to why a Priest would be after the girl. Perhaps it simply followed Adam when he was sent to Earth."
"Well what can you tell us?"
Quickly checking over his shoulder, as if worried Adam might appear angel-style behind him, Cas explained. "Adam could have been resurrected to protect her. In the absence of any full archangels in heaven, and with Michael more or less inaccessible, he would be the ideal choice, particularly as Michael seems to have been able to send some of his grace out with him. He is, I suppose, a semi-angelic being."
"Excuse me?" Bobby asked incredulously.
"Oh, um, Adam didn't get out of the Cage alone. Some of Michael's grace came with him, and he says it's acting like a barrier for the memories. Sort of like the wall Death gave me," Sam explained, trying to ignore the way Castiel turned away at the mention of his fallen mental shield.
Bobby's face was a mirror of what Dean's had been when Adam first told them. "Holy shit," he breathed, then added under his breath, "Quite literally."
"But anyway," Sam pressed, "I don't see how this information helps us; Cas, you say Adam's like a half-angel now. Does that mean he can do angel stuff?"
"I shouldn't think so," Cas said. "However, having an archangel's grace in his body is bound to have some effect. It may be that we can use Michael's essence to our advantage somehow."
"Any ideas how?"
"Unfortunately, no, but I suggest asking Adam. As the vessel, he'll probably be in tune to the grace, and could tap into its power in some way."
"Will he want to?" Bobby mused.
Sam nodded. "If it's to protect Lily, I think he will." He blinked as his phone burst into life, and a quick check of the caller ID made him roll his eyes. "It's Dean."
"Tell him to stop sulking and get his ass back here."
Sam snorted. "Dean. Where are you?"
"I'm in town. I told you, I went for a beer."
"Yeah, well we could kind of use your help back here –"
"Sam I think you need to put the books down for a sec and get out here too."
"Why?"
Dean sounded grim. "Because our friendly neighbourhood Priest has paid a visit, and it's anything but holy."
"I'm telling you, if there's any such thing as miracles, then it's a miracle people survived this," Dean said, raking his eyes over the burning rubble that had once been the town's library. The immediate whisperings were that it had been a gas explosion, but Dean had seen too many 'gas explosions' to know when supernatural forces had happened to be nearby at the time – and as far as supernatural destruction went, this was impressive, to say the least.
On the other end of the phone, Sam sighed. "We'll get out there as soon as we can then. Unless you're planning on suiting up?"
"Nah, I don't think that's necessary this time round. I'll see you in a bit."
Normally Dean would be more than willing to pull on the FBI gear, but something about this situation made him hesitate this time. For one, a gas explosion wasn't something that would require FBI assistance. Secondly, he wouldn't have known what to ask for without seeming crazy anyway; they knew so little about these Priests (plural because he was struggling to believe one oversized, fancily-dressed skeleton could do this), so what were they looking for?
As a troubling thought crossed his mind, Dean jumped back into the Impala. If Castiel and Lily's descriptions were anything to go by, then finding an Enochian Priest should be a doddle. So why hadn't they seen one? True, most ghouls and the like preferred to come out at night, but if this thing was destroying buildings during the day why had it not been seen, either by them or by civilians? Deciding to put the question to Sam and Cas when they arrived, Dean settled down in his seat, the wrecked library still in view and half-drunk beer in his hand.
He'd finished it by the time Sam knocked on his window, and crumpled the can as he got out. "'Bout time," he grumbled, shoving the can into a bin. "What took you guys so long? Cas, I thought you'd just –" Turning round, Dean stopped in his tracks. Either Castiel had turned into Adam or his eyes were deceiving him.
"Surprise," Adam said, no suggestion of such in his tone.
Sam rubbed the back of his neck as his brother rounded on him. "He wanted to come, Dean. I didn't think it would do any harm."
"What about Lily?" Dean asked gruffly.
His tone was mirrored in Adam's response. "She didn't wanna come, so Cas and Bobby are taking care of her 'til I get back."
"Bobby?" Taken aback, Dean looked at Sam for confirmation.
"Oh, yeah, Cas zapped him over not long after you left."
He took a moment to process that. "Did he have anything to say?"
"Uh, he told us that there wasn't much on Enochian Priests seeing as very few people know they exist; Adam may be linked to them somehow, and we're all 'idjits' for trying to take this thing on." Next to him, Adam rolled his eyes.
"Right." Dean blinked. "That's… helpful. What does he mean you're linked to them?" he asked Adam.
Their half-brother shrugged. "Castiel thinks I can tap into Michael's grace sometimes. Draw on a bit of archangel power."
He stared at him. "So, what, you're like a… a demi-archangel now?"
"Which is why he's here to protect Lily," Sam added, continuing with, "It makes sense: the angels knew the risk of trying to get Michael out – and Michael himself may have refused anyway – so Adam was chosen instead to act as a vessel for a tiny bit of him."
Turning this revelation over in his head, Dean looked at Adam again, who met his stare without faltering. After a minute, he huffed. "Why is it that our family is always working for or indebted to some supernatural control freak?" he complained. He let slip a small smile at Adam, hoping the kid would see there were no hard feelings between them, and was pleased to see him give a wry grin back.
"So. The library?" Sam asked when the silence began to stretch.
"Yeah, it's – well it was round the corner." Beckoning them to follow him Dean took them past the empty corner shop so that they could see for themselves the smoky remains of the building. "Who'd've guessed libraries burn so well?" Maybe it was inappropriate, but the joke had to be made.
As it finally came into full view, his brothers' eyebrows rose considerably. "Whoa," was all Sam could say.
"Shit…" Adam was a bit more expressive.
"Did – did one Priest do this?"
"Not sure," Dean said. "Wondered that myself."
Adam shook his head, jaw still hung open. "But it's just… gone," he said at last, and Dean read the worry in his face.
"Adam we ain't gonna let that thing get near Lily, okay?" he reassured him, dropping a hand on his shoulder. There was no indication the boy had heard him but he meant it. He turned back to Sam. "Got your notepad and pen?"
"Right here," Sam said, pulling out the reporter's accessories as he spoke. "What am I asking?"
"It's not what you're asking it's who; talk to witnesses," he suggested, "people who may have seen something."
Sam's eyebrows pulled together. "Seen what, Dean? It's not like we're familiar with this thing."
"Sam, a library was just blown up by a seven-foot wizard-skeleton. If it was here, people would have seen it!"
"Alright! I'll go ask." And with a tap of his pen on the notepad, Sam was gone, slipping into the persona Dean had never quite mastered.
"What do you mean, 'if it was here'?" Adam asked quietly, a deep frown on his face.
"Giant skeletons don't normally stroll topside during daylight hours," he explained in a low tone. "Even if this is the first thing it's done here, why haven't we heard anything on the news line?"
"Maybe it's hiding?"
"Where?" Dean gestured around them. "You know how big it is. Name one place it could hide without being detected." Adam stayed silent, and he nodded. "So where is it?" he asked rhetorically, and strode back to the Impala. He pulled a couple of beers out from the trunk and motioned for Adam to take shotgun, handing him a bottle once they were both inside. It was received hesitantly, but appreciated nonetheless.
"I'm sorry about before," Adam said a while later.
Surprised, Dean looked at him. "Come again?"
"I shouldn't have flipped out at you guys like that," he elaborated with a sigh. "I know you guys tried to help me out, and I appreciate that, really. In fact, I didn't expect you to. Especially not after Sam –" He stopped abruptly, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose.
Dean watched him closely, noticing the stiff set of his shoulders and the tautness in his posture. "Adam, how are you really?" he asked. "I mean, I know I told Sam to learn how to cope on his own, but if you feel like you wanna talk about it… Well, he's probably the one to do that with actually, I'm not so good at the hugs and cuddles crap."
Adam snorted. "No kidding," he muttered. When he opened his eyes, he suddenly took on the appearance of someone much older, a man who had seen more than he should have in his life. "So Sam hasn't told you about anything?" he asked. Dean shook his head. "Huh." He dropped his gaze, fiddling with the beer bottle in his hands, and Dean let him take his time, waited as his brother worked up the courage (or maybe even just the ability) to talk.
"Being in the Cage was like being in the middle of a fight between two nightmares," he began. "Lucifer was intent on ripping into everything he could get his hands on, whether that was Michael, Sam, or me. When he fought with Michael, Sam and I would try to hide. If we didn't, we got caught in the crossfire, which meant intense pain everywhere for what felt like days on end. Sometimes we'd be hot, from Michael, sometimes we'd be cold, from Lucifer. Sometimes we'd break completely, either because we'd been crushed beneath them or because we just couldn't handle the temperature changes. When we got lucky, we'd find somewhere out of reach; only that's when the demons would find us." He swallowed. "There was one demon – Duncan – he was their 'leader', an expert in torture. Apparently he'd trained next to some other demon called Alistair, but I don't know why that's significant. Sam just said he tortured people too. Anyway, Duncan was… inventive, I guess. He used anything he could to hurt us, and he did it in so many ways – I never knew I had so many nerves." Adam paused. "But it wasn't just physical, you know? Every now and again he'd make this comment about our families. He'd talk about our moms, about John, about you. He knew how to get under our skin, how to make us angry, or simply feel like everything was over. Michael would always stop him, but by that time…"
"You said Michael protected you."
He nodded. "When he could, anyway. He regretted that I'd ended up in there. He would heal me, fight off Duncan and his lackeys, and try to keep me sane." He chuckled. "He's still trying to keep me sane, I guess."
A pang of jealousy shot through Dean, making him bristle. "Yeah, well at least you got him to help," he said. Adam glanced at him questioningly, and he was forced to explain. "I spent thirty years on the rack, tortured by Alistair." The recognition in his brother's face made him grin darkly. "Yeah, there's a reason you know his name, kid. As far as torture goes, he knows it all. He's dead now, but at the time he was at the top of the game. Tell me something – did this Duncan ever offer you anything?" Adam thought about it, and to Dean's dismay shook his head. "Well every night for thirty years Alistair asked me the same damn thing: would I like to learn his trade in return for getting off the rack? And you know what, after thirty years of being flayed, burnt, and being skinned alive, I said yes. And Alistair kept his word; I became his… 'apprentice'. I learnt how to make souls suffer like I had, probably like you and Sam. But what's worse is that the more I did it the more inventive I became, and I did it for so damn long that I could still do it today."
The way Adam was watching him, like an animal being approached by a hunter, made Dean's stomach knot. "How long did you do it for?" he asked guardedly.
"Ten years."
He looked away sharply. "Wow." A mixture of emotions crossed his face, and Dean could almost see his thoughts trying to comprehend the information. Eventually, they formed a question; "And you're okay with that?"
"No," he said in a tone that suggested the stupidity of such a question. "I wish to God I'd never done it. But my point is, Adam, that unlike you or Sam, I didn't have any help blocking those memories. I still don't. I also had no-one to share the experience with. Sure, Sam and Bobby thought I should've talked, but how were they supposed to understand?" He made sure Adam was looking at him before continuing. "You've got another chance at life, Adam," he said, "and believe it or not the memories fade. Now I'm not saying it's an easy time, 'cause it sure as hell isn't, but you're innocent. Michael knows that – it's probably why he's set himself up as a wall inside your head. So whatever happens, don't let your time in that shit hole get to you; Lily needs you now, and I guess that despite Dad's best intentions, you're a hunter in the making. And you're gonna be a damn good one – okay?"
Speechless, Adam nodded, gazing at Dean with a mixture of awe, fear, and respect. It wasn't what either of them had expected, but it was nice to know that things were better between them. In fact, unbeknownst to them, they both hoped it was the start of a stronger relationship