Disclaimer: If you saw it on TV, I don't own it. Abdiel is mostly an OC, and although fans of Milton will recognize him, I don't expect Milton to have any problems with me using him.

Revelations

Castiel rapped his knuckles softly against the wooden door, stepped back and waited. Jane shivered in the night air. Her jacket was too thin for this weather, but she hadn't thought to take another one. How was it this cold in August anyway?

If Castiel noticed the cold, he gave no indication of it. They stood staring at the door for a few moments, silent in the dark, the porch lit by a tiny yellow light bulb above the front door. Jane was just beginning to think that no one was home when the door opened.

The room beyond was dark and she couldn't see who was standing there until he stepped into the light of the porch. It was a priest, clad in cardigan and collar, the small white square standing out against the black. He looked young, not yet forty, with blondish hair and a face that would have been pleasant if it didn't look so grave.

The priest looked at Castiel with apparent shock and concern, searching his eyes for answers. Before he could ask, however, Castiel spoke up.

"I ran into some trouble," he said grimly.

"Yes, I can see that," the priest said, casting an eye over Jane, not altogether approvingly. Jane looked down, embarrassed and feeling out of place, wishing she could just get out of here and get some rest. Did everyone have to point out how unwelcome she was?

There was a small awkward silence after his remark. Castiel cleared his throat and gestured towards the priest. "This is Abdiel. He's one of us." The priest—Abdiel—nodded towards Jane. She tried to smile, but her mouth wasn't working right. She settled on a nod back at him.

"She's been targeted by Eliul. You know what that means," Castiel said, looking gravely at the other man. Abdiel fixed Jane with another stare, brown eyes just as intense as Castiel's ever were. He nodded slowly.

"We'll talk," he said, and he gestured towards the door, stepping aside for the others. Castiel led the way, and as Jane passed Abdiel, she caught his eye and felt the full force of his stare, x-raying her, getting inside her head, she thought. She looked away quickly.

Castiel and Abdiel left her in the sitting room and went off further into the house, to talk about how royally everything was screwed up, she imagined. She was slightly annoyed at having been left here alone, but then again, she couldn't be expected to confer upon the angelic battle plans. Suddenly feeling very weary, she sat down on a sagging sofa and examined her predicament.

They'd come to this place outside of town, a church she'd never heard of, St. Augustine's according to the sign out front. The building she was now in was the rectory, a sad little brick building where the priest lived, located next to the church. It was pretty shabbily furnished, judging from this sitting room. Everything was very clean but quite worn, and it probably hadn't seen a new piece of furniture since the eighties. Still, that was to be expected with the vows of poverty and all that.

Jane sighed heavily, sucking in her breath hard and feeling it sting her chest. Maybe she'd been too hasty to give her promise that she would help the angels hunt down Eliul. After all, she didn't have a clue what she was doing—hell, just twenty-four hours ago she hadn't even believed in angels, let alone demons. Did they even need her? Surely an army of angels was way better suited to taking down demons than she was. This Abdiel guy certainly didn't seem too happy to have her tag along. Maybe she should just leave….

Then Jane remembered her family, and the things she saw in that house. She remembered her seven-year-old nephew face down on the floor, and the blood everywhere. Jane put her head in her hands and her shoulders shook, silently and wrenchingly. But she only allowed herself a moment for her grief. She straightened her shoulders, wiped her tears with her hands, and remembered that scene, engraving it in her memory. She would never, never forget. She dug her fingernails into her hands until they stung. No. She had made the right decision.

Jane heard footsteps and turned to see Castiel standing in the doorway. Rather pointlessly, she hoped he hadn't seen her crying. He was looking at her with sad eyes, comforting and consoling. She stood and faced him, shoulders squared. He stepped into the room and gestured for her to sit, taking a seat in a chair opposite the sofa. Jane sat back down.

"So? How screwed are we?" she asked.

Castiel shook his head to himself and almost chuckled. He looked up, fierce and intense again. "We'll be staying here for a while. This house is safe… protected against demons. We are working on a plan for defeating Eliul. We may be able to guess his next move."

"Yeah? What do you think it will be?" Jane asked.

Castiel was silent, looking at her with uncertainty.

"You can't protect me forever, Castiel. There's a demon out to get me, and God knows what else out there. I have to know. You have to teach me."

Castiel met her eyes for a long moment, but he was the one to break away. He looked off into the darkness, seeming to chose his words carefully. "Eliul and the other demons… many of them… are here to bring Hell on earth. It will be the end of the world if they succeed. They are breaking the… Seals, you would call them. They break enough of them and Lucifer, the Prince of Darkness himself, will be unleashed, and no power will be able to stop him." A long silence followed his words as Jane pictured the scenario he described. The Apocalypse. It made her feel cold and sick.

"How many Seals are there?" she asked finally in a small voice.

"The demons only need to break sixty-six, but there are many more. Some of them are being guarded by our forces, but we don't know where all of them are, or even what all of them are."

"Is that what you're doing here?"

"Partly," Castiel said.

Jane shook her head and rubbed her temples. This was all just too much…. Her family dead, the end of the world, angels and demons….

"What can I do?" she asked finally.

"What you can do is stay alive. That's all you need to concern yourself with," Castiel said, almost angrily, standing up now and looming over her.

Jane jumped up. "I want to help, Castiel! This is my world too, and I want to keep it from becoming Hell as much as you do, heck, probably more! Being alive isn't going to help much if the freaking devil is ruling the planet!"

Castiel looked at her sadly. "I never should have gotten you involved."

"Yeah, well, it's too late for that now," Jane said bitterly, turning away, angry at herself for having lost it and angry at Castiel for—just everything.

"You're tired. You need to sleep. You've had a difficult day and you're going to collapse if you don't rest," Castiel said. Jane scoffed and closed her eyes. A difficult day indeed.

"And what about you? You've got a human body now, angel-boy, and you need to sleep as much as I do," she retorted.

"Yes," he said pensively. "We can discuss this in the morning. There's a guest room upstairs for you."

Jane scoffed again and shook her head, rolling her eyes with her back turned, although she still had a feeling that Castiel knew what she as doing. "Yeah, goodnight, angel-boy," she said sarcastically as she stomped up the stairs.

Castiel, at the foot of the stairs, watched her go.

"She throws something of a wrench in our plans," a voice said behind him.

Castiel turned to see Abdiel standing there, watching him watch her. He didn't like the look on his face.

"I know," he said tersely. He looked up the stairs and heard the sound of her footsteps behind the door. "I never wanted to involve her. What happened to her... to her family... It's on my conscience."

Castiel walked across the entranceway and into the sitting room where they'd been a moment before. He sat on the sofa, shoulders hunched over, eyes scanning the blank wall in front of him, looking everything like a man defeated.

"I need to find someplace safe for her," he said, almost to himself.

Abdiel followed his movements and stood in the doorway, black suit almost blending in with the darkness. "There are no safe places anymore. And there especially won't be if we fail," he said.

Castiel turned to look at him. "What are you saying?"

Abdiel seemed to choose his words carefully. "Merely that it is perhaps... your duty to equip her for battle. Whether we like it or not, she is involved in this, and Eliul will kill her if he gets the chance. Or do worse."

There was a long silence, as Castiel sat with his eyes closed, and Abdiel leaned against the door frame.

"It wasn't your fault, Castiel. We do what we can."

"But I could have done more," Castiel said. There was bitterness in his voice, anger directed towards himself.

"Maybe, maybe not. You can wrestle with your conscience later. For now, we have work to do," Abdiel said.

Castiel sat in silence for a moment, lost in thought. Then he stood. "Yes. I appreciate your council, Abdiel. There are some who would say you should be the one with this mission." He looked out the window, into the almost pure darkness, seeing only he knew what.

"I lost that opportunity a long time ago. If this is the necessary price for my contrition, then so be it," Abdiel said.

"I only hope I can do what is needed of me. And this human... this mortal girl, she does indeed throw a wrench in our plans." He could see his own reflection in the darkened glass. How strange it was to have a reflection.

"My advice is the same," Abdiel said, somewhere behind him.

"And if I take it...train her into a soldier….What kind of life will she have? This is no way for mortals to live."

"Better than no life, which is what she will have if you leave her ignorant. Besides, she may prove to be useful."

Castiel shook his head, sighed, and looked away from the glass. He knew it was right, but why did it have to be so difficult? He'd made mistakes, so many mistakes, foolish, some of them, and she did not deserve to suffer for it. It seemed she would have to anyway. He mourned the innocence lost even as he knew it was pointless to dwell in it. There was a bigger picture.

Castiel turned around, his moment of weakness over and his face set. "Then there is only the question of Eliul. He chose this place for a reason. He intends to break a Seal here. We need to find it before he does."

"I have my own orders, Castiel."

"I understand that. But I require your cooperation." There was a hint of warning in his voice. "You know what's at stake here. Whatever your orders are, I am a superior officer, and you will obey me."

Abdiel nodded with the deference due to those of higher rank. "We're fighting for the same end, Abdiel. All of us need to work together. Some of us might not like to admit it, but we're fighting a loosing war, and we've lost too many battles already. This is one we can't afford to loose." He walked over to the other man, sober and intense. "Now, tell me everything."

5:00 AM, Sunday

Jane sat alone in the church, cold on the wooden pew as she watched the darkened stained glass windows slowly grow lighter with the coming dawn. They were just dark blocks of dead color now, shapes and figures impossible to determine, but when the sun rose they would reveal their saints and holy scenes. The church was likewise dark, no lights turned on this early in the morning, no one yet here. The only light came from the small votives on the side wall, flickering red candlelight, tiny, yet it seemed able to illuminate the entire building.

Jane bowed her head and rubbed her eyes. She wasn't sure if she felt tired or not. She had fallen asleep almost as soon as she'd hit the bed in the guest room five hours earlier, surprised that she could sleep at all, but it had not been a peaceful sleep. Half-formed figures haunted her dreams, strange ideas and terrible emotions that kept her tossing in the musty sheets until she'd woken up, restless and desperate for the sunlight. There would be no more sleep for her.

She'd come into the church to wait for morning. It was not a large church, but it was an old one. The dark wood of the pews gleamed faintly, polished by generations of parishioners and saturated with age. It was strangely peaceful, sitting there in the semi-darkness, watching the red lights of the votives. She'd lit one for her family. She didn't know why. She was never a religious person, and she had very little experience with churches. But it felt like the thing to do.

Jane suddenly became aware that she wasn't alone. She didn't need to turn around to know who was there.

"So what, you can teleport now?" she asked, staring ahead.

"As I told you, I've been getting accustomed to this form. It's taken some time for me to appreciate the full extent of my abilities," Castiel said.

Jane turned around in her seat. He was sitting in the pew behind her, looking towards the altar, where the crucifix hung on the wall.

He met her eyes suddenly. "You said before you wanted to fight."

Jane said nothing, her eyes set and determined. He knew her answer.

"It's been decided that you will have the opportunity to help us." He looked down, elbows on knees, his voice low. "I hope you know what you're getting into." He searched her face, and Jane met his gaze and did not look away.

Castiel leaned back and sighed. "Let's walk," he said.

They stood and crossed the aisle, walking down the center of the church, the windows just beginning to glow with the morning.

"You know how the demonic forces plan to free Lucifer."

"The Seals," Jane said.

"Yes. Eliul and his cohorts are looking for one of the Seals here. At this time, we do not believe they know where it is. Unfortunately, neither do we," Castiel said. They stopped at the baptismal font at the back of the church, Castiel looking at her grimly.

"You said there were tons of Seals. Why don't they just go for another one?" she asked.

"This one is of special significance. They'll try to break it if they can, and it will help them greatly if they do. It's of the utmost importance that we prevent that."

"What is the Seal?" Jane asked, one eyebrow quirked up.

Castiel shifted his eyes and tightened his lips. "You don't know?" Jane said, eyebrows rising.

"They hide their plans well. Which is why we must work all the harder to stop them."

"Don't know what it is, don't know where it is, and we have to protect it. Sounds kind of hopeless," she said.

"Nothing is hopeless."

They were silent for a moment, each lost in thought. "Okay, so we don't know what Eliul's going to do, but there's gotta be things I can… learn. I mean, that thing back at the warehouse…." Jane trailed off. It seemed a lifetime ago. "I don't want to be caught like that again."

"There are defenses," Castiel said, nodding.

"Like that choking the black smoke thing?"

"I'm afraid that's somewhat beyond your abilities," Castiel said. Jane cracked a half-smile.

"He's going to try to kill me, right? Before all this is over." If it was ever over.

"Yes. Not for your sake. He'll do it to get to me." Jane stared at him, inquiring. "There is a certain... enmity between us. It goes back a long way," Castiel said finally. He seemed to pause and redirect his thoughts. "I'll tell you what you need to know about combating them. You won't have much time to learn, but… let's pray it's enough."

They left the church just as the sun rose and struck the stained glass windows, fiery light banishing the shadows.

A/N: Updates are probably going to be less frequent now, because I don't have the rest of the story written. Don't worry—I have it all outlined, I know where I'm going, and I intend to finish this. Thanks for sticking with it.