Disclaimer: No matter how hard I wish, they will never be mine.
Yeah, I have a bad habit of misusing punctuation.
AN: Again, I'm really sorry for the delay. This chapter was written on a boat by someone who gets lightheaded extremely easily, so some parts may not make sense even after I edit this.
Dean stared blankly at the angel. "Exactly what do you mean by talk? Talk like sit down and have a serious conversation talk or talk like you give me a lecture before you explode me talk." The angel didn't respond. All the staring was really starting to seriously creep Dean out. "What the hell do you even want?"
The angel frowned at him and said, "I told you Dean, we need to talk. There are a few things you should know before you continue down the path you are set on."
"Yeah, like what?" Dean snorted derisively. "So an angel is going to give me a career talk. Nice. Well that's screwed up."
"My name is Castiel," the angel said, "I believe you have already encountered one of my brothers before."
"You mean the ass clown who tried to disintegrate me?" Dean interrupted. The absurdity of the entire situation was almost humorous. It was only the looming prospect of incineration that kept him grim.
"Which means," Castiel continued as though Dean hadn't said anything, "you know what we are and what we will do. Angels are warriors of God and we will do whatever it takes to prevent the breaking of the 66 Seals. Lucifer cannot be allowed to rise."
Dean scowled at the angel and said, "I don't think you're doing a great job with that. Forty three of the Seals have already been broken. Hell's winning this battle."
"We are at a disadvantage," Castiel replied, looking somber. "Lilith can choose any of the existing six hundred Seals to break. And out of those six hundred, only two are required. The first one and the last one."
"What are those Seals then?" Dean asked, curiosity suddenly getting the better of him. The demons of Hell operated mostly on a need to know basis. The leaders were often stingy with information. When Dean had turned he, like every other new demon, was given a brief rundown of the 66 Seals and why it was crucial for them to be broken so Lucifer could rise and bring Hell on Earth.
Dean wasn't expecting an answer so he was mildly surprised when the angel responded. "You," was all Castiel said. "You broke the very first Seal. You set everything in motion."
Well that wasn't something you heard every day. "Wait, so I broke the very first Seal. How?" Dean asked, wondering vaguely why no one had ever decided to share this piece of information before.
"And it is written, that the First Seal shall be broken when a righteous man sheds blood in Hell. As he breaks so shall it break." Castiel said, his expression grave. "Lilith needed that Seal broken before she could do anything else.
"This doesn't change anything," Dean spat out. "So I lit the match, I started the spark, but now I'm fanning the flames. What difference does it make?"
"We tried to stop it Dean. The angels laid siege to Hell, but it was too late. As soon as you broke the Seal, we abandoned our efforts." the angel said almost sadly.
The wind whistled around the pair as silence fell between them. Dean looked around, noting the remains of the old factory as he said, "I still don't get why the hell you're even telling me this in the first place. What's done is done. It's not like I can go back and change it. And if I could, I wouldn't. It's so much simpler now. No gray areas. No indecision. Just follow orders and you live."
Castiel started to say that there was a way Dean could go back in time and possibly stop the breaking of the Seals but stopped himself, remembering that the orders had changed. After Dean's death, legions of angels had stormed the Pit, desperately trying to rescue him before he could break the first Seal. The Apocalypse had to be prevented at all costs. But the Seal broke anyway. And then the plans changed.
Now Heaven wanted Armageddon. After the original plans went awry, Michael saw the Apocalypse as a new opportunity. Lucifer would rise and Michael would then destroy Satan and bring Paradise to Earth. As God had been absent from Heaven for a good while by now, the upper class angels felt comfortable with making the decisions on how to run Heaven. In this case, it also included starting the end of the world.
The very idea of letting Lucifer rise could have possibly started an open rebellion among the lower level angels though. Such orders would have caused dissention in the ranks. Therefore, the lower class angels were not aware of Heaven's true plans. The demons couldn't know that the angels wanted Lucifer to rise either. They would be suspicious if the angels suddenly turned a blind eye to the turmoil on Earth.
And now angels were walking the Earth for the first time in over two thousand years. They would every now and then send a few lower level angels to prevent the breaking of a Seal to give the impression that the angels were fighting a losing battle.
Once the Apocalypse started, Michael and Lucifer would need their vessels which happened to be Dean and Sam Winchester, respectively. Sam could be swayed into saying yes and the angels planned to resurrect Dean when he was needed.
That was when the plans went wrong again. Dean rose from Hell as a demon. This was unprecedented as the damned souls in Hell took centuries to turn into demons. Dean had only been in Hell for a year. To make matters worse, he was possessing his human body. As an angel required consent in order to take a vessel, it certainly complicated things.
So Heaven could not let Dean Winchester be killed again. For the time being.
Dean eyed the angel with apprehension. Firstly, because he was an angel who could kill him in less than a second, and also because the guy was really starting to unnerve him. Castiel had started to say something but suddenly lapsed into thought, a pensive look on his face as if the as if the angel had forgotten Dean was even there in the first place.
"Are all angels like this?" Dean thought confusedly. The last angel he met seemed a little trigger happy and was fully intent on reducing Dean into a pile of ash. This one, Castiel, seemed almost friendly compared to the last one, speaking to him as though he were an equal.
"Well," Dean said almost impatiently, "You said we needed to talk so spit it out already and kill me. You know, just to speed things up a bit since this is really starting to drag along."
Castiel snapped out of his reverie and said to Dean, "I will assume that you are aware of your brother's powers and how he acquires them. He needs to be stopped. He cannot be allowed to use Azazel's so called gifts."
The angel knew that his words would have the contrary effect. He planned on it. If Dean relayed the message, Sam would do the opposite. If Dean didn't, Ruby would ensure the outcome. Either way, Sam would continue to develop his powers until he would be strong enough to kill Lilith. Then the End would begin.
"Sure," Dean scoffed, "An angel came all the way down here, went to all this trouble so I could play messenger. You want something else. Otherwise you would have told Sam yourself."
Castiel ignored his accusations and said, "I'm not going to kill you either."
Dean blinked in surprise, "You're not?"
"We have orders to keep you alive," the angel replied, ignoring the bemused expression on Dean's face.
Dean's eyes narrowed with suspicion. "I don't know what game you're playing here but your side isn't going to win," he said angrily. "From what you're saying it sounds like you're trying to convert me or something. You have something else planned though."
"All that I am saying is that you should think about what I've told you," Castiel said. "All of it," he added as an afterthought. Then he vanished, leaving the demon standing in the wreckage of the factory.
The entire purpose of the meeting was to twist Dean to Heaven's will. All they needed was one little push and everything would play out the way it was supposed to. Very little effort was required; all they needed was a word here, or a threat there. Everybody had a part to play. And now everything was now going as planned.
Castiel couldn't help think that maybe, just maybe, what they were doing was wrong. That it definitely wasn't what God would have wanted from his children. But the angel quickly shook those thoughts away. He couldn't think like that or let anyone sense his doubts. He had to keep those qualms hidden. His life could very well depend on it.
Back in the factory, Dean cussed loudly. This sucked ass.
They failed at breaking the Seal because an angel decided to join the party and smote the entire place. Then the creepy ass angel dropped a bombshell of information on him and gave him a message for Sam. Also, because all of the other demons who were assigned to this particular Seal happened to be dead, Dean going to be the one who had to report this.
No one wanted to be the bearer of bad news. And Hell was very big on the whole 'kill the messenger' thing. Dean mentally braced himself for what he was about to do and vanished, leaving behind plenty of shrapnel and quite a few dead bodies. This was not going to be fun.
Remember, I really enjoy those reviews. And again, this chapter was written entirely on a boat, so some parts may confuse you. I'm really not sure since I can't seem to stop my head from spinning.