Castiel didn't have time to go about exploring his other options. He needed to find Chronos as soon as possible. So, no matter how unpleasant it would be, he needed to go to his best option first.

Castiel walked up to the quaint bungalow that his brother was now taking refuge in, located on the coast of Cancun. Gabriel was the first to leave heaven after the disappearance of their father. Even though it was forbidden, Gabriel was an archangel; the only one with enough authority to bring him home would be Michael himself, and the older angel was not about to leave his position in heaven to pick a fight with his wayward brother. So Gabriel lived a peaceful life traveling around the earth. It was Gabriel's vessel though, that made him the most likely to know the whereabouts of Chronos. He had managed to coerce the norse god, Loki, into saying "yes." There was a lot of perks to having such a powerful vessel, but it is not without it's faults. If any of the other gods were to find out, it could spell disaster for Gabriel. So, he kept tabs on all of them.

As Castiel took another step closer to the bungalow, the ground shifted, and suddenly clasped beneath him, and he found himself in a pit of complete darkness. "Come on Gabriel, I don't have time for your games. This is important," Castiel called out to the dark.

The pit was suddenly filled with a soft laughter, as light surrounded Castiel and he found himself sitting in the comfort of a small living room, filled with large cakes and other sweets. His brother approached him, "You don't call or write, and now you suddenly decide to visit and you're all business?" Gabriel let out a low sigh, as he sat in a chair across from Castiel, "So what is it? Michael finally had enough of my sexual escapades and wants me back home? Well you can tell him to get his ass down here and bring me back himself."

Gabriel's and Michael's relationship had been rocky ever since God threw Lucifer down into the pit, and when their father abandon them, their relationship completely fell apart. "I am here on my own behalf, not Michael's," Castiel replied.

A smirk spread across Gabriel's face, "So you're here to join me then? Great! I've been wondering when you guys would start to come around, it's actually been a little lonely lately. Not that I ever get lonely," he raised an eyebrow as two beautiful women appeared on both sides of him, "Yeah you guys have no idea what you've been missing."

Castiel tried to remained focused, but found himself very distracted by the two women who now had their hands all over Gabriel. Clearing his throat Castiel began to explain, "No I'm not here for that either. I was just wondering if you could tell me the location of Chronos."

Gabriel's face was filled with disappointment, but also curiosity, "Why would you want to know?"

Castiel fumbled around in his brain for an appropriate answer. He didn't want to reveal anything about he and Dean's relationship, he didn't even fully understand it, "On his last journey into the future, he brought a man back with him, and now it is his responsibility to fix it."

Gabriel scoffed, "That's so boring Castiel, really? So what if one human is misplaced in time. Just stay here with me. I'll make it worth your while," Gabriel said in a suggestive tone, and with a snap of his finger, two more beautiful girls appeared, but these two were in front of Castiel.

He tried to keep a straight face, as they ran their fingers all over him, but finally Castiel could not take it anymore. He stood up to remove himself from the situation, but before he could move any further, one of the girls pushed him back into the chair. She leaned into Castiel, and brushed her lips against his ear, whispering "Just relax, hun, let us take care of you," her voice was soft and sweet. She began to suck and bite at Castiel's earlobe. The other circled the chair and began to mimic the other's action on the opposite side of Castiel's face.

Castiel closed his eyes, hoping that it would lessen the effects of the illusion, but that made it no less real, "Please, Gabriel, this mission is really important to me." The girls backed off slightly, and Castiel opened his eyes to see a concerned look on Gabriel's face.

"Is the mission really what's important to you," he began to ask, hesitating slightly before finishing the question, "or do you really mean that he is important to you?" Castiel was speechless. The blood rushed to his face, and the girls both disappeared. Gabriel just gave him a sympathetic, knowing look, before letting out a sigh, "There's a girl. Lila Taylor. That's where you'll find Chronos."

Castiel smiled at his brother, "Thank you, Gabriel."

Gabriel smiled back, "Hey! Now that you're a big rebel, you can stop by and see me more often!" and with that Castiel disappeared.

A quick look in the phone book told Castiel exactly where Lila Taylor lived, and that's where he found himself now. He hesitantly approached the screen door and lifted a hand to knock, but before he could, he heard a low voice come from inside the house, "Come in, Castiel." Regardless of the fear inside of him, Castiel enter the house. In the middle of the living room, a tall slender man sat in a red armchair, "I've been waiting for you. You're late." The atmosphere of the room was very ominous, the only light coming from the window, "Where's your friend, Dean? I am so sorry for getting him trapped here, but it's his own fault. He should have never summoned me"

"I came alone," Castiel said, but was careful to stay focused. Chronos was known to use his gift of foresight to distract his opponents in a fight.

"Let's skip the part where we pretend I don't know all about your little plan," Chronos stood up and began to walk towards Castiel, "I know that Dean, and all your other little friends are waiting outside with their stake, and that once you have me distracted, they'll come in and try to kill me." Chronos was now a foot in front of Castiel. "but you see, it won't work. I've outsmarted the lot of you, because the men of letters; they don't have the real stake, I burned it. All they have is a useless oak stake, and their brainless hunters never noticed the difference." Chronos swiftly wrapped a hand around Castiel's neck, "So don't come in here and try to play games with me boy!" Then, Chronos threw the angel across the room like he was as light as a feather.

Castiel struggled to get back up, but Chronos appeared above him, and kicked him back down with enough force to shatter a human ribcage. "Fine, throw me around the room," Castiel said before spitting up blood, "You can't kill me, I'm an angel." Castiel tried not to let the pain show in the tone of his voice.

Chronos simply laughed at the angel's bravado, "Oh can't I?" All of a sudden Castiel let out a loud scream, due to a sharp pain shooting down his arm unlike anything he had ever felt. When he looked up he saw an archangel's blade sticking out of his hand. Chronos simply laughed once more, "Now that I have your attention," Castiel let out a low whimper as Chronos pulled out the blade. Then proceeded to pick the angel up, and pin him against the wall, "Let me tell you what you're going to do. You're going to give the others whatever signal it is for them to attack, and then you're going to stand by defenselessly while I slaughter every last one of them right in front of you," he held the blade up to Castiel's throat, "That, or I could go ahead and kill you now, and save your friends for later."

"I have no idea what you're talking about, I came here alone," Castiel grunted, which was the truth. To Castiel's knowledge, Dean didn't even know where to find Chronos. It didn't look like Chronos was going to start believing him any time soon though.

"Fine. Have it your way," Chronos raised the blade above Castiel's chest. Castiel let out a loud cry, as he was consumed by a bright, white light, and when the light was gone, so was the angel.

"Hey father time!," Chronos turned around to see Dean standing in the doorway with a bloody hand over the angel banaishing sigil on the wall, "We need to have a talk."

Chronos smiled, "Hello, Winchester, back for another beating?"

Before Dean could reply with a witty comment about how this time he was going to be the one taking the beating, Chronos was delivering a punch right into the man's stomach, slaming him against the wall. The blow knocked the words, and the wind, right out of Dean.

Chronos took a step back, allowing Dean to fall to the floor, "So, you thought you could just run around, slaying gods and never have to suffer the consequences?" Dean managed to fight the pain and stand back up on his feet, only to be thrown back down, "Well we've had enough."

Chronos crotched down, pining Dean's chest down with his knee, "First, I'm going to kill you, and your brother, Sam, we're going to use your angel friend to destroy heaven's amory, and then we're going to have a little apocalypse of our own."

Dean tried to let out a laugh, "You'll never get to him. He's probably halfway to heaven by now."

"No," Chronos shook his head, "he cares about you too much. He'll come back. It's just too bad you won't be alive when he gets here." Chronos applied more pressure to Dean's chest who let out a groan.

Dean could hardly speak, "No, he doesn't care about me."

"You couldn't be more wrong about that," replied a voice coming from behind Chronos, and when the god turned around, he was met with a pain through his chest, and a pair of bright blue eyes.

Castiel threw Chronos off of Dean, and crotched on the floor between the two, feeling extremely protective of his friend on the floor. Chronos was in shock, his vein began pulsing with a red glow, and when he spoke, his voice was muffled by the stake in his chest, "It wasn't supposed to happen like this. I saw- I was prepared! You weren't supposed to-" Before he could finish his sentence, the red light in Chronos's veins faded, and his head dropped lifelessly on to the floor.

With Chronos finally dead, Castiel's body relaxed, and he turned over to Dean. The man smiled at him, "So you stole the stake after all?" his voice was still very faint.

"Well," Castiel replied, "I thought that since Chronos would be dead, heaven wouldn't miss it much." The two men shared a short laugh. Castiel looked down at the man's smiling face, enjoying the happiness in his eyes. He brought his hand up to Dean's face, caressing his cheek, and healing his injuries. Castiel suddenly understood everything. He understood why he had answered Dean's prayer, and why he was willing to go to hell and back for him.

There was no denying that he was in love with the man, but as Castiel realized the answer to one question, he found himself asking yet another. Did Dean feel the same way?