*I changed something in the last chapter... i realized that I left Spike in a devil's trap a few chapters back, so he clearly wouldn't be with them in the warehouse, silly me. this is the issue when I sporadically update this fic... My mistake, plot holes and such, whatevs, NOBODY SAIIID IT WAS EEEAAASSSSYYYYY... (sorry, that was random.) So there's no Spike, not here, he's toughing it out in his devil's trap.
ALSO! I'm slowly dying of bronchitis, OMFG, I cannot breathe... But despite the incessant coughing... Here's a chapter, because it was my 24th birthday (on the 24th, heh) and I want to celebrate, YAY!
Castiel was unaware of how he ended up at the bunker, but he used his new found location to his advantage and began tearing through book after book on rituals and magic. He was hoping to find something, something that could stop Rowena, drain her of the power she'd just accumulated.
A book flew from a shelf across the room and Cas turned to it; he stared at it in confusion for a few brief seconds before shrugging it off and reading what it had been opened to. It was exactly what he needed, a way to reverse the effects of Rowena's ritual.
"Sam?" Castiel called out into the emptiness of the bunker. It was just a guess, but he knew the book hadn't crawled out of its resting place on its own. If the younger Winchester truly was dead, his spirit could possibly be tied with the building he'd called home for the past few years.
There was no response, the name just echoed through the cavernous halls. So not Sam, then. Who? Or what, could have set him on the right path. He almost contemplated the possibilities until he remembered the reason he needed the book in the first place, he had a witch to stop.
He couldn't stretch his wings inside the bunker, how he got in was a mystery, but he knew he wouldn't be able to get out. He rushed from the library into the main foyer and up the stairs. As he pushed through the front door and out into the crisp night air, something hit him, he wasn't Kansas at all. It wasn't night, either. It should have been, though. California was behind Kansas in time and it was night there. Surely he hadn't been gone so long.
Though his surroundings were familiar, his favorite spot in Heaven, the eternal Tuesday afternoon.
"Cas?" A familiar voice called out to him and he turned, Sam. Castiel smiled and rushed to his friends side; they didn't embrace, instead Cas reached out and pushed at the taller mans' shoulders, testing to see if he was real.
"Sam." Castiel said after determining the hunter was really there, "Why-how are we here?"
"Uh, that's a good question, Cas." Sam replied, huffing an awkward laugh, scratching at his neck, "I'm not sure you wanna know."
"Of course I want to know, that's why I asked." Castiel replied, confused. His hand gripped tight at the book it held and he began to look around them, "You're dead." He said, as he searched for the reason behind his sudden return to Heaven.
"Yeah, I am." Sam nodded solemnly, "And you'll never guess who I met."
"Abraham Lincoln?" Castiel asked, staring at the Winchester, whose brow furrowed, "James Dean?"
"I said you'll never guess, so stop trying."
"Sorry." Cas apologized, though he kept going through other options in his mind, Sam's mouth twitched up into a smile.
"Your father." He said, Castiel stared up at his friend in disbelief, feeling as though he'd had the wind knocked out of him, which was saying a lot, considering he didn't even need to breathe. It made his searching around them become all the more frantic. He looked every which way, even up into the sky, but he couldn't see another person anywhere.
Then he felt it, the presence at his back, the warmth and serenity that it generated. It felt right, it felt calm, it felt like home. He turned to lay eyes upon his father for the first time since his creation, but was dumbstruck at who he saw standing before him.
"Cas?" Sam asked as the angel turned and stared at the man before him, "You ok?" He was unmoving, unresponsive. Sam couldn't know that Castiel was now replaying every moment he'd ever interacted with this man over and over again in his mind, searching for something. Some sort of sign that would tell him that he'd known all along. He'd known that Chuck was his father's vessel. Perhaps his father was lying dormant in the prophet's mind all along.
After all, weren't all prophets the vessels of the lord? Castiel shook that off, that couldn't be right, vessels were all about blood lines. There was no way that Chuck and Kevin were a part of the same family.
"It's a bit different with me." Chuck, no not Chuck, God, his father, replied, smiling slightly, "Technically, I can occupy any vessel I want, I created them all... Though I do hate that word... Vessel."
"What would you have us call them?" Castiel asked, finally finding the ability to speak again; he had so many questions he wanted to ask, but that was the first that came out.
"What they are, bodies." Chuck shrugged, "I'd be more than happy to explain it to you, Cas. Explain how we all have our one specific body, sure there are vessels along the way, but when we find our true form, it's the one we stick with. Gabriel found his, as did Balthazar, and I found mine, just as you found yours."
"Why not just give us human forms, then?" Castiel pushed the subject, Chuck sighed.
"How else were you supposed to learn?" He asked, "I'm all about learning lessons, haven't you realized that by now?" He smiled mischievously but before either of them could respond, Chuck held up his hands, "Let's focus on the task at hand-"
"How am I supposed to do that when I've finally found you?" Cas saw Sam raise his brows from the corner of his eye, it was obvious the hunter was surprised at the tone Castiel was taking with his father.
Chuck only smiled, "You will see me again, after this. I'm done hiding out. The sudden appearance of... Buffy's world, as you guys have begun calling it... Was completely unexpected. Their universe was remarkably without faith. There were no angels, no heaven, no me. I have a lot of work to do."
"What sort of work? Will you be requiring my help?"
"We'll talk about that later." Chuck said, slightly irritated, "For now, let's stop Rowena from destroying everything, shall we?"
"Now where did that angel go?" Rowena asked, cheerfully, looking all around, "Did he run away?" She tutted as she knelt down in front of Dean.
"He'll be back." The hunter said, determined, trying his hardest not to show the fear that he felt when Cas disappeared.
"Sure he will." She laughed, "He'll come back to find your dead bodies."
"Try me, bitch." Willow was standing now, her hair was whipping around her face, her eyes had grown almost fully black; she resembled a demon and Dean was momentarily frightened of her. Rowena only laughed more, she seemed to be extremely pleased.
"Good!" She shouted, "You're tapping into that raw power. Keep doing it, dear."
A bolt of something resembling lightning suddenly flew from Willow's hovering form and crashed into Rowena. She fell to her knees as it worked its power through her, but it didn't seem to drain her, in fact it seemed to power her more and when she stood, she sent a beam of energy twice as lethal looking at the other witch, who screamed when it hit her.
Willow sagged to the floor, Tara wrapped her arms around her, pulling her in close and Dawn rested a hand on her arm.
"Now if there won't be any more interruptions, I'd like to begin phase 2 of my plan."
"As soon as I'm out of this, whatever this is you're doing to me, I'm gonna kick your ass so hard." Buffy struggled against the force that was holding her in place.
"Believe me, love, it'll do you no good." Crowley sighed, clearly having dealt with Rowena's movement restricting spells before.
"Anyway, before I was rudely interrupted, I'd like to begin phase 2." Rowena rolled her eyes and opened the book again, "Now where was I? Oh yes, I was about to draw all the power of the earth to me." She cleared her throat and was about to start reading when a sudden flap of wings echoed through the room.
Dean looked around hopefully, waiting for Cas to announce himself and start kicking ass. He didn't do any of that, instead he threw a liquid concoction of some sort at Rowena and it broke. Everyone waited, expecting it to start smoking and make her melt, but nothing happened. Before anyone could talk, however, Castiel raised a book of his own and began reading.
"prohibere in potestatem-" He looked up from the book, slightly unsure, before he kept reading, "durum offendit atque nullum ulterius... meminerat." He read the last word and then looked at Rowena hopefully. She stared at him, unmoving, entertained.
"Is that all?" Clearly she'd been expecting a bigger response as well. She moved to step forward, crushing the broken glass beneath her shoe, and that's when he saw it. You'd have had to have been where Dean was at the time, on the ground, her legs in his direct eyesight. When she stepped on the shard of glass, he saw the faint glow come from the liquid and when she took another step forward, he saw the liquid begin to become a bit more dense than it had been.
She tried to step again, but her foot was caught and she looked down, trying to force her foot from the now glowing puddle around her.
"What magic is this!?" She demanded to know, Castiel said nothing and continued to stare and wait for his spell to take full effect. Though he didn't know what the spell actually did, he was sure it would get rid of her once and for all.
"It's beyond your comprehension." Castiel replied simply, he could see the rage building behind her eyes and she thrust out a hand, as if to cast a spell on him, but nothing happened. For a moment Cas was afraid he'd be sent into attack dog mode again, but he was free of it. There was nothing happening, she flicked her hand a few more times, the rage slowly turning into panic. She still couldn't move.
Dean watched as the liquid slowly climbed up her legs, his eyes widened as he saw that it was turning her skin to stone. He groaned as he tried to push himself away from the scene before him. Sensing his discomfort, Castiel was at his side, pulling him away from it.
Rowena's arm fell to her side as she bent down and tried to remove her now stone feet from the area around her, but nothing worked, it instead spread to her hands faster and she stood, screaming as the spell covered her completely, turning her into a statue where she stood.
They all stood in silence, staring at what once was a crazy and powerful witch, the book in her hands had been effected by the spell as well and Buffy was the first to walk up to her and knock against her head. It was solid rock and the slayer huffed a laugh.
"Huh, cool." She said, touching the now stone spell book, "Guess we don't have to worry about anyone using that anymore." She shrugged and turned back to the rest of the people in the room who were still staring at Rowena, mouths agape. Crowley snapped out of it and suddenly strolled up to her.
"I think I'll take this off your hands." He smirked at his mother, "She'll be a wonderful conversation piece, don't you think?" Then they were gone; the room was a bit more empty than it had been before. Buffy rushed to Dawn's side and began checking for injury, but was relieved to find none.
Castiel helped Dean to his feet and they looked around, all else was forgotten when they looked to the stone slab where Sam's body had been when this ordeal started. It was gone.
"What the hell?" Dean shouted, rushing to the empty space, "Where'd he go!" He kicked the slab and immediately regretted it, Castiel walked up to him and laid a hand on his cheek, the throbbing in his foot vanished.
"You should be more careful." Cas scolded him, Dean brushed off his hand and rolled his eyes.
"I'll be more careful when I find my brother, what could have happened to him?"
"Maybe Crowley took him to do weird demon stuff?" Buffy suggested, joining the two men.
"Nah, he did that with me already, wouldn't wanna do it with Sam." Dean rubbed the back of his neck and sighed, defeated. He couldn't possibly figure out what happened to Sam, and it's not like it mattered, he was gone, "Where the hell did you disappear to, by the way?" He turned on the angel who shuffled uncomfortably.
"I was pulled to Heaven-"
"Not another Naomi situation-"
"No, Dean. Not like that." Cas sighed, "It was, my father."
"Huh?" Buffy and Dean asked simultaneously.
Fun fact... The Latin... It legit says, "Stop the power" hahahah.. Also, the rest of it...I pulled it from the Hobbit translated into latin (Cause they translated the WHOLE book into latin, for some reason...) and it's just words from Misty Mountains Cold. YAY! LATIN!