Thank you for both the alerts Linava, Superwholockgirl001, phoenixmoon25572 and the favorites from Zwetschge14 and Hurricane.'97
I am so sorry that it has taken so long to get the next chapter out. The mid-season cliffhanger threw me for a loop. I had delete what I had written and start over. then I had a final project from Hell. I think Crowely thought it up.
Notes for the story- From now on the story will both keep elements of season 9 and diverge. Thank you for reading
Chapter 7
Castiel looked out the window and watched as the landscape speed by the window. He didn't know how he was feeling. Leaving the Sip & Go was difficult. Nora would be fine without him. But it was there in that little service station he found a way to be useful. He knew it would never be as important as what he did as an angel or even when he worked with the Winchesters but it made him feel needed. Metatron tricking him and stealing his grace to power the fall was horrible but what was really unbalancing him was not being able to help the fallen angels.
Then there was the Winchesters. He didn't know how to feel about them. He couldn't be angry about giving up everything in heaven to help them. He had been told two thousand years ago that a human would change everything he thought about heaven and his brothers and sisters. Dean Winchester had most assuredly done that. Until recently Dean had treated him like family and then suddenly Dean didn't want him around. Although Dean had no love for angels he wondered if the hunter held the fall against him.
Now he had Shiloh to worry about. This was not the time for her to come to light. Dean had lived his entire life without knowing about her. Why now that heaven was in chaos did she decide to break the rules? He'd met her twice and still didn't know if her revealing herself was good or bad for the Winchesters. Even as he traveled with Dean and Sam she had not communicated with him. There were times that had he not seen where she intervened he wouldn't have known that she was there.
He was trying to figure out what to tell Dean about Shiloh. He knew the older Winchester would not be happy. He thought back to the second time he meet her.
June 2008
"Excuse me Castiel. One of those things are here to see you. It said you know it, and it's name is Shiloh."
Castiel's radiated brilliance and then dimmed to show his lieutenant displeasure. "SHE is correct, I do know Her. And you will remember that no matter her origins she works as command by our lord. Show her in."
"Sir, I meant no disrespect to you."
The angel turned his full presence on his second in command, "No, Hester, you just disrespected one who gave up everything she was to do what God commanded the angels to do. If she was acceptable to him why do you think she deserves your disrespect?"
"Castiel, I just meant… she was…"
"Yes she was but she is an angel now. Go show her in," Castiel said in a tone that dared her to disobey a direct order.
"Sir, yes sir," Hester snapped.
When the chastised angel returned only a moment later she was guiding a woman into the room. "Sir, your … guest," the angel said struggling with the last word.
Shiloh stood there in the middle of the room and looked around. "Not what I had expected?"
"I am a soldier. Would you have thought to find me in a beekeepers heaven?"
Shiloh smiled. "My last charge would have said that even studying bees has an importance. And they are soldiers too."
"Yes Kusan Sunim, was a brilliant man even if he did not believe in God."
Shiloh clicked her tongue, "He was a Zen Buddhist, Castiel, he believed in God, just not your god. I would have thought you were the last one to look down on them based on their beliefs."
"I did not look down on him. I merely stated that he lack the belief in our lord."
Shiloh clasped her hands in front of her and stared at the brilliance that was the head of the angel Castiel. The last time she met him he had taken the form of a Sheppard and he was much easier to talk to. "That maybe, but he was important enough to be assigned a guardian making those that don't believe just as important."
Castiel thought about her words carefully. From the first time he met her in what would become Rome why nonbelievers were assigned guardians. He still didn't have the answer and he would have to do something about that. Yet right now he did not have the time. Demons were rising all over after the gate was opened last year and it was causing problems for his brothers and sisters."You may be correct. I will have to think about it more, when I am not as busy. Did you required something thing?"
Shiloh looked down at her manifested hands and said, "I need your help. My charge went to hell and he shouldn't have."
Castiel was surprised for several reasons. If a human went to hell then that was where they deserved to be. And for a guardian to ask for interference from an angel was unheard of."
"If he should not have gone to hell then he would not have," Castiel answered neutrally.
She did not want to alienate the angel especially since Joshua said that Castiel was the angel destined to help her. "A lot of things happen that should not. Dean was not supposed to go to hell, and I need help getting him out of there before he is damaged."
"Explain to me why he is there if he was not supposed to go."
Shiloh decided to tell the truth and hope for the best. "His brother had been killed by a demon lackey and he made a deal with a crossroads demon."
If Castiel's angelic form had been created with eyebrows they would be scrunched down in confusion. "If he made a deal with a demon then why should he not be in hell? As his guardian angel you should have stopped him from making the deal."
"I could not as there were others who wanted the deal to happen. His brother's guardian for one and he implanted the idea in to Dean's head."
"There were two angels assigned to the same family at the same time?"
Shiloh knew she had Castiel's attention. "Yes. The Winchester are important to heaven and both hunters were given…"
"As in Dean Winchester, Michael's vessel?" Castiel demanded.
Shiloh nodded.
"That would make his brother…"
"Sam, or Samuel."
"I was going to say Lucifer's vessel. You were right the wrong brother went to hell. We must do something about this."
Castiel was agreeing to help and it made Shiloh wonder if she should tell him the rest. He would find it difficult to believe and if he didn't believe he might not help. "I am glad you are willing to help but there is more you need to know."
Castiel flexed his brilliance in irritation something needed to be done now to retrieve the Michael sword from hell. He would need to inform his superiors. "What more is there that I should know?"
For a moment Shiloh was quiet trying the best way to tell the angel but she could feel his impatience mounting. "Heaven and hell worked together to send Dean Winchester to hell. Heaven wants him there."
"What?" Castiel could not even consider that she might be telling the truth. Angels would never work with demons. "You are wrong."
"Am I? Then tell me this, you know what I am and what I was. No angel or demon could have stopped me alone. I was chained, banished and buried in one of my old destroyed temples until the deal was made."
"It should not have been able to hold you since the binding?"
Shiloh shook her head. "No it should not but yet it did. I do not know how but one day four months later I was free. I was standing in a desert of waste looking at the ruins of what was originally my city. When I located Dean and Sam the deal was made and Ruben had been killed."
"Ruben?"
"You knew him better as Romulus."
"As in… yes. Then you were able to convince him."
"Of course, He would be able to watch over his city and his descendants in a way a demigod never would have been able to. But that is beside the point. I need your help getting Dean out of hell."
"Very well I will help you but I must speak with my superiors."
Shiloh shook her head, "Castiel, I think that is a mistake. Can you not just take your garrison down there and pull him out?"
"No if I was to remove him without Zachariah's permission I would lose my garrison and all my angels would have to report to Uriel."
"And if they tell you no?"
"They will not tell me no, he is Michael's sword."
"I hope you know what you are doing, Castiel because if he is damaged it will not be good for heaven. I will make sure of that."
"Shiloh?"
"You heard me Castiel," Shiloh said as she turned to leave. She had already left Dean and Sam too long and Lilith was getting closer.
Current Day
He had taken her threat seriously and healed all of Dean's wounds when he pull him out of hell but was not able to undo the damage mentally. Heaven did suffer he just was not sure if she had a hand in any of it.
It was when the bus stopped Castiel realized how much time had passed. He turned to the older woman sitting next to him and asked. "Where are we?"
"Caribou Wyoming, the driver said we are here for a half hour and we weren't going to make any other stops until Lebanon. You might want to get yourself something to eat."
Castiel thanked the woman for her help but his mind had not been paying attention. He was listening to the lamentations of his brothers and sisters morning the loss of both other angels and vessels. From the disjointed voices he could hear it was a bar on the other side of town. He should have enough time to go over there and get back to the bus before it left. Today he was going to be a hunter again. Maybe, he could stop Dean from being angry at him and let him come back to stay.