Title: The Life of Death
Summery: Dean knows what its like to be a big brother, to live and breath for the protection of the younger sibling, there isn't anything he wouldn't do for Sam. But, as he's about to learn, Big Brothers come in all sorts of sizes, shapes, and backgrounds. So, just how far will a Big Brother of the Heavenly variety go to protect one of theirs? Especially when their life hangs on the line?
Awerry and Robin0203 (chapter 1 cause I was too lazy last chapter lol ;D): Thank you so much you guys! I think I will! I have a couple chapters written out already and wanna see where it can go! You guys are awesome, thanks so much for the comments!
(And now chapter 2 lol ;D)
Ally (guest): Thank you sooooo much for the review! They're sort of like that, I actually had to do a bit of research for them in order to get it right, I actually got the idea for what they are from Teen Wolf! Thank you so much, your kind words mean a lot! Your awesome!
Robin0203: I know right! But after this I'm not so sure...You have to read to find out! Things are going to start to get a bit choppy really soon! They've been out of the game for too long and its their move! Thanks so much for reviewing so much! OMG your amazeballs!
An: I have made it my goal to try and at least update one story a night, what with graduating and no more school, just boring work ;C, but I get off at 7 so its no biggie! Thanks for being so amazing guys, your the reason that I do this!
Reviews, comments, and critiques are always appreciated and accepted, but flames are not, so please don't start a fire!
"The dead cannot cry out for justice. It is the duty of the living to do so for them."
~~Lois McMaster Bujold
His hand shifted, a tiny minute movement, but the keen eyes of the one Hound caught it. He whined out lowly, almost silently, but his brother heard it and they both jumped up to lick at his fingers. His pale cold fingers.
Alex was still wide awake, the same book she had found still splayed open in her lap. There was something about it in that she just couldn't put it down. Her attention and curiosity was peaked. Coming to think of it, she should have probably been freaked out by mysteriously finding a book sitting under one of the chairs on the front porch, but she just couldn't find herself wondering that.
Her mind was already too preoccupied.
"Azrael, the Archangel of Death."
Hmm. Interesting.
"His job is to guide the living through the process of Death, guiding the souls to their final destination."
That was it, there was nothing more in this part of the book, she flipped through white blank pages, absolutely nothing. The ink on the page changed, forming new words right before her eyes, she yelped, throwing the book across her bed.
"What do you mean! Like we don't have enough to deal with right now!"
Sam nodded completely understanding where his brother was coming from when he stated this. The Universe just seemed to hate them. Bobby was silent as he listened, not commenting on anything yet and on the verge of telling Dean to shut his trap and let his brother finish whatever it was he was trying to say. Dean seemingly got the hint and his mouth closed with an audible whup.
"There have been reports from the next town over, all over the place, about 'strange occurrences'-"
"Leviathans?"
"Spirits"
Alex inched closer to her book, peering at it from behind the pillow she had grabbed to use a makeshift shield.
"The true story of the Life of Death"
She inched closer.
"Long before the creation of the Universe, there was nothing, but Life and Death, and the Darkness. The light, God, created beings in his images, his warriors, his children, The Angels. Death, the destroyer of all, the final End, Death created his reapers, for what must Live must Die. And the Darkness, she bidded her time, watching silently (unknowing her fate in the near future)
And so, Life and Death came together, creating one being with the perfect mixture of both entities. Death gave him his rule over death itself, the power over Souls, the Heir of his domain. Life gave him his Light. His power over the universe given to him, the lock one could say,the Heir to the entire creation.
And together, they raised him. Raised him to be bold, independent, strong, loving, and gentle.
They named him Azrael."
Alex inched closer, folding her legs and settling her pillow in her lap, pulling the book up onto the pillow. Turning the delicate page with gentle fingers.
"Together, Life, Death, and their child lived in perfect Harmony. God created four other beings, before Azreal, and one day decided to introduce them all. The four Archangel's, Lights truest children, took to the mysterious angel almost immediately. Treating him as their baby brother despite his differences.
And so, as they all lived together in The Garden of the Lord, Light decided to create more beings of himself, The Angels.
Death agreed to leave them be so long as Azrael remained his, Theirs."
She leaned back against the wall, the book balanced perfectly.
"The other Angels, though, did not take to Azrael as the others had. They despised him, threatened him, cursed him. He was an outcast among his own family, but he was loved. Azrael needed nobody but his older brothers, The Archangels. He lived happily with them in their garden, grew under their care and their watchful eye. He learned from Michael and Lucifer. Played with Gabriel. And watched all with Raphael. However, then came the day that the Archangels were given tasks over the other angels, to watch over them and guide them, teach them the way of the Light.
And so Azrael was left alone.
Azrael continued to grow in their garden, alone, isolated by his own family."
The form on the table twitched again, his fingers moving once more. The two Hounds whined once more, licking at his fingers gently as if trying to raise him from his long slumber. They had been together for as long as they could remember, and they did not want to be separated now.
He moaned out, his hand lifting from the table gently, sluggishly. Something, someone reached out a hand from the shadows and caught his hand before it fell back down, clutching it tightly.
Sam was pacing the floor, his hands on either side of his head. How had they come to this. They had two angels, one who was AWOL and another who was laying there slowly dying on Jody's kitchen table. Everything had been working out, in their favor, where had it all gone wrong.
"So your saying-"
"Yes Dean, Azrael escorts the souls, he picks them up and takes them where they are meant to go, he told us so, with him out of commission-"
"The dead have no way of getting to where they need to go, they're stuck here."
Bobby understood exactly what he was saying before he could even say it, Dean took a moment to catch up but once he did his face fell in dread. All those souls and no where to go, nor anyway to get where they were supposed to be going. As if Leviathan weren't bad enough now they had multitudes of souls and spirits to deal with. As if life couldn't get any worse!
"And those dogs?"
That had Sam falling onto the bed wiping a hand down his face, "No idea, he didn't tell us anything about them, they just arrived when he did."
Their conversation was cut to a short end when loud barking filled the house, waking all its inhabitants.
"Death saw what was becoming of his son, his only Child, and so he gifted him with two Hounds. The first and only Hellhounds, who like him were made to protect and guide the souls.
Dante and Nero, he named them.
Mere puppies when they arrived, they and Azrael grew together.
The Archangels were alarmed at first, but accepted them, as they made their dear Baby Brother happy. They trained them together, teaching them, something that brought the five brothers together once more. But all good things must come to an end, and soon the four had to return to work, something they despised much rather being in their garden playing with their Baby Brother, but they must do as they were told.
Azrael was left on his own once more, with his two new friends, until the day a group of venturous nosy angels decided to break into the garden."
Alex set her glass of water on the table at her bedside, turning another page with gentle fingers.
"They saw the angel whom their siblings had cast from their groups, the outcast of their family, and decided to play a cruel joke on him. They snuck up, taking both pups when his back was turned, hiding them away for centuries.
Azrael cried day in and day out for his lost Hounds.
The Archangels were beside themselves in finding the lost Hounds, anything to make their Baby Brother smile once more, to stop his cries of distress. The Hounds in the hands of their captors fought back, wishing to return to their masters side at hearing his cries of distress. The angels holding them tried as they might to keep them contained, but they were not creatures of the Light, they were creatures of Death, and when they attacked they attacked viciously.
The Hounds fought and bit and jumped and growled.
The Angels howled in pain as the sharp teeth of the Hounds closed around their skin. Darkness spreading through their veins at rapid speeds, making them fall to the ground in agony. They writhed on the ground as venom traveled through their veins.
The Hounds yowled and howled in the air, calling for their master, as masses started falling upon them. They were beaten down, muzzled, and drug towards the Throne Room. Azrael and the Archangels followed suit.
God detested the position he was placed in, having to do away with his youngest son's most favored possessions, but he could not allow any creature to harm his children."
Her heart ached in her chest, she knew where this was going. She felt bad for her friend. They had merely been trying to protect themselves and him. They hadn't done anything wrong!
Nothing!
"God ordered for the Hounds destruction, at the Hands of his eldest two Archangels as he himself could not touch them. Michael and Lucifer detested this order, fighting it and protesting against it, but God's word was law.
Azrael begged, pleaded for the life of his two Hounds, but Life was having none of it.
The other angels smiled viciously as Michael and Lucifer both raised their swords, making to strike quick and painless, taking joy in the pain they caused the outcast. The other two Archangels tried to comfort their youngest, Raphael trying to draw his attention, and Gabriel trying to distract him from the proceedings, but Azrael would have none of it. Those Hounds were his and his alone, they understood him, they were there when no one else was.
And so he struck back.
With a power only others had seen Death himself use, gathering souls behind him, and pointing a threatening finger at God, his Father. His eyes were solid black, swirling around in his irises. The gentleness he was known for gone in a mere moment.
He threatened God, cursed him and his Angels, cursed those who cursed him, free'd his Hounds from his elder brothers mercy and called them back to his side. God had been furious, shocking the other angels as he stood from his throne, his eyes blazing at such behavior from his youngest child. He yelled, his voice bounding off the walls, making his way down the stairs away from his throne, anger clouding his vision in the moment as he wrought punishment down on his most greatest creation, his true favored Son.
He'd banished Azrael from the Heavens, much to the utter shock of the Archangels, banished him from this home, from his title, stripped him of all he was, casting him and his Hounds out of his grace. The eldest angels, the Archangel fought this, protested, begged him to see reason, but he silenced them with a look and a clap of thunder.
Azrael watched as his beloved older brothers bowed to his will. Betrayed when God ordered Michael and Lucifer to drag him to the gates, Raphael and Gabriel to muzzle his Hounds and bind them to him for eternity. The searing pain as Raphael placed the sigil on his skin, carving it into his back, sealing him and his grace with his Hounds of Death. The betrayal as Michael and Lucifer bound his wings, breaking away the second and third pair, his screams of mercy and agony falling on deaf ears.
Following His orders.
And he watched, completely drained, as he fell from his Father's glory, as his betrayers watched him fall from Grace.
Forever marked as the first Fallen, The Destroyer."
Alex gasped, that was not what she had expected at all, she had thought his hounds would surely die, but that even had her wiping tears from her eyes. Someone knocked on her door, Jody's head popping in.
"Alex, are you alright? I heard your cries down the hall!"
She nodded, thrusting the book away from her and breaking into a sob. Her mind still flashing with the images of what had happened, of Azrael's demise, of his life and his 'death'. Jody's eyebrows met in concern as she crossed the floor, coming to sit on the edge of her adopted daughter's bed, picking the book up with shaking hands. She didn't recognize it.
"Alex where did you get this?"
She sniffled, clutching a stuffed animal to her chest tightly, her tears still falling into the fluff.
"Alex!"
"I f..found it! Outside when everyone was fretting over Azrael, it was just sitting under one of the chairs and I was curious so I took it...Jody is horrible..Its so bad! Why would they do that! He hadn't done anything wrong! He was standing up for them! Why would He do that to his own kid!"
Jody looked at her in concern, "What are you talking about? Who? What did he do?"
Alex shook her head, snatching the book back and opening it intending to show Jody the writing on the inside, to show her what had happened.
But when she opened the book this time, she gasped, the words had changed once more, writing out a new sentence slowly over the crinkled old paper.
"Azrael laying there fading on the table in the kitchen of the Sheriff, candles flickering a warm glow over his pale body, his Hounds whining at his side, reaching a hand out for anything to grab onto, and a hand reached back, out of the darkness, enclosing his in its grasp, the Hounds barking in the background..."
They both jumped up from the bed when the loud barks and growls of the Hounds from down in the kitchen reached their ears. Alex threw the book down on her bed as her and Jody ran out of the bedroom and towards the stairs, right on the Winchester's and Bobby's tail.
Someone was down stairs, and it wasn't Azrael.
They all missed as the title on the front emerged from swirling black ink.
"The Life of Death"
Soo?
Who's down stairs? Michael? Lucifer? Gabriel? Raphael? Another Angel? Maybe Cas? What's happening to the souls? Will Alex tell anyone what she read? Will Azrael wake up? Where's Death in all of this?