Part III

Gabriel stood over the maps of the world spread out on the war room table, arms crossed and fist tucked under his chin as he stared at the numerous x's taking up the grids. All places the Seals were not. He was getting frustrated. The whole garrison was feeling frustrated, Gabriel could tell. The Seals had been his idea, and granted, the only one they had to combat the Apocalypse. But that just meant that their failure packed more of a despondent punch.

"Do you think Michael or Raphael would have retrieved them if they knew we were looking for them?" Anna asked.

Gabriel shook his head, at a loss. "Maybe."

Good luck getting into Heaven to steal them.

He sighed. "Let's give it a rest for a bit, come back tomorrow with fresh eyes."

Anna pursed her mouth. "When's the last time you had a sparring session?"

Gabriel arched a dubious brow. "Are you calling me out of shape?"

She gave him a smug smirk. "It was just an invitation. Unless you feel you are out of shape."

He snorted. "Please. I—"

The front door to the underground pocket dimension banged open. "Gabriel!"

He spun at the familiar voice of Dean Winchester as the human came barreling in, and the look of terror on his face somehow filled Gabriel's veins with ice. "What's wrong?"

"It's Cas," he gasped out. "Hurry."

Gabriel didn't wait for further explanation, immediately leaping into action and following the human back through the portal into a wooded area set in the central United States. There was a black SUV pulled up just outside, with Sam standing at the open back door. Gabriel's stomach dropped out from under him as he drew closer to get a look inside. Castiel was laid out across the seat, eyes closed, breathing shallow. He looked like death warmed over.

"What happened?" Gabriel demanded as he surged forward and started to pull Castiel out of the vehicle.

"Lu- Lucifer," Sam stammered.

Gabriel's brows shot upward. "What?" How the hell had they ended up running into the Devil?

"He tried to rip out Cas's grace," Dean said, voice raw.

Gabriel's heart seized, and he turned to Anna who had followed him out. "Get Hael."

Anna's eyes were wide, but she spun and ran back inside.

Gabriel slipped one arm beneath Castiel's shoulders and the other under his knees, and then hefted him out of the car. Castiel's head lolled limply against him. Gabriel carried his little brother back into the compound and straight to the infirmary, the Winchesters on his heels. Gasps went up among the other angels as they scrambled to get out of the way.

Hael and Anna were just running in from the opposite corridor when Gabriel reached the infirmary. He laid Castiel on one of the cots.

"What are his injuries?" Hael asked sternly.

"They said Lucifer tried to rip out his grace," Gabriel replied, jaw tight at the implications. That kind of attack…it was unheard of. Barbaric. Gabriel took in his baby brother's ashen pallor and felt like his heart was about to be clawed out of his chest.

Hael looked terrified, but she swallowed hard and knelt down next to the cot.

"He's got a burn on his chest," Dean spoke up.

Brow furrowing, Hael paused to lift Castiel's shirt. His torso was bandaged, so she picked at the edges of the tape and peeled it up, revealing a circular burn right in the middle of Castiel's solar plexus. She immediately held a hand out over it, bluish-white grace suffusing from her palm into a butterfly's lavender tinged wings.

Gabriel pivoted back to the Winchesters, who were watching with openly worried and devastated expressions. He cocked his head at Anna to follow so they could give Hael room to work, and together they ushered Sam and Dean just outside the room.

"What exactly happened?" Gabriel asked. They were supposed to have gone to a rogue demon's lair to retrieve the second Seal. "Was it a trap?"

Why hadn't he sent additional soldiers with them? Castiel had reported the place was warded against angels, and he'd need the Winchesters to penetrate its defenses, but Gabriel should have sent more backup anyway.

The brothers exchanged what looked like a guilty glance.

"No," Dean said, voice rough with emotion. "We got the Seal. But also…"

"The Colt," Sam stepped in. "We thought it could kill Lucifer, and we knew where he was going to be…"

Anna stared at them incredulously. "You went after him on purpose?" she exclaimed.

Gabriel mentally reeled back. They had…oh, father help him, he didn't know whether to yell or smite them for being so stupid. He should ream Castiel's ass for such an idiotic plan, too! Gabriel's chest constricted as he glanced over his shoulder at Hael, head bowed over their wounded brother.

Pounding footsteps came running up the passage, and Balthazar pushed his way past the gathering crowd of other angels. He cast a questioning look around before his gaze went past them all and landed on the cot inside the infirmary.

"Is he…?"

"We don't know yet," Anna answered.

"We tried to get him back here as fast as we could," Dean spoke up again, eyes wavering. "Gabriel, I am so sorry. We thought the Colt would work."

Gabriel closed his eyes in dismay. There were five things in all creation that gun couldn't kill, and an archangel was one of them. But few knew that tidbit, not even most angels. If Gabriel had known that weapon was even in play, he would have told them not to bother…

Dammit, Castiel, why didn't you come to me first?

Because Castiel was an ardent soldier, and if he saw an opportunity to defeat the enemy and end all of this, of course he would take it, especially if he thought he had to act quickly. Gabriel was both proud and furious at him.

"Gabriel, I need you in here!" Hael suddenly shouted.

He whipped back around and rushed inside to find Hael's face drawn in panic.

"Everything's crashing and I can't hold it all. I need you to take over for his heart."

Gabriel's own skipped a beat as he dropped down on Castiel's other side and pressed a hand against his brother's chest. He could feel Castiel's stuttering heart on the verge of giving out.

Oh no you don't.

Gabriel pushed a surge of grace into his fading brother and forced that organ to keep pumping. It wasn't a permanent fix, though, just a placeholder while Hael worked on healing Castiel's other vital systems.

With one hand over the burn, she sent a wispy butterfly down to sink into his core and touch his grace, while the other moved light fingers to brush his forehead, another tiny butterfly gliding across his brow. Hael's eyes were squeezed shut in concentration, but after several long moments, she removed her hands and rocked back, utter anguish on her face.

"What is it?" Gabriel demanded.

She shook her head. "There's too much damage. I- I can't heal it."

"What?" Dean blurted, pushing his way into the room. Sam, Anna, and Balthazar piled in after him. "You have to heal him!" the older Winchester nearly shouted.

"I don't understand," Sam pressed. "Why not?"

Hael's eyes glistened. "Entire chunks of Castiel's grace have been ripped out. The damage is too extensive for me to…" She seemed to struggle for the right metaphor. "Stitch."

"Well, won't he get better on his own?" Dean said desperately. "He just needs time, right?"

Hael's expression fell. "His entire system is in shock from the trauma and can't heal itself." She hesitated. "He's barely holding on as it is."

Gabriel felt his heart fracturing, and he dropped his gaze to his brother, the one whose heart Gabriel currently held beating in his hands. Castiel's face was chalky white, dark bruises under his eyes. He was already slipping away.

"So he needs more grace?" Sam asked.

"A transfusion," Balthazar exclaimed. "I volunteer."

Hael shook her head regretfully. "It won't work. Our essences aren't compatible in that way."

The last dregs of hope were slipping through Gabriel's fingers as through a sieve, but he maintained his grace in a pulsing cocoon around Castiel's heart, encouraging it to keep beating. Maybe if they helped him along, for however long it took…he could recover eventually.

"Would some of Cas's own grace work?" Dean said suddenly.

Hael frowned. "Of course. But—"

"Can you extract what was left in me, from when Cas healed me?"

Hael blinked, and Gabriel straightened at the absurd notion…or maybe not so absurd. He turned to Hael. "Can you?"

Her mouth moved soundlessly for a moment. "I…don't know. I suppose I could." She shook her head again. "It'd be such a small amount."

"But it'd be healthy," Sam put in, pressing forward to stand next to his brother. "And I have some, too. Between the two of us and that grace being undamaged by Lucifer, it'll at least give Cas a chance, right?"

Hael fidgeted as every set of eyes in the room turned to her expectantly. She nodded. "I believe so, yes. But an extraction like that won't be easy. At the very least, it will probably be painful."

"But since you're a healer, if something did go wrong, you could heal us without having to infuse your grace the way Cas did, right?" Sam checked.

Hael thought about it for a second, and then nodded. "Right."

"Then let's do it," Dean declared.

Gabriel turned his gaze back to Castiel's lax face. You hear that, kiddo? We're gonna fix this. Just stay with me.

Gabriel kept his grace securely around his little brother's heart, counting out each measured beat as Hael prepared the Winchesters for the procedure.

Hael swallowed nervously as she knelt on the floor beside the cot Dean Winchester had laid down on. She'd never done anything like this before, and there was a lot riding on her succeeding—mainly, the life of her brother. She could feel everyone's eyes trained on her, and wished she could tell them all to go away, but she knew they were just worried. And hoping.

Taking a centering breath, she reached out to hold a hand over Dean's chest. Unlike the others, he was looking straight up at the ceiling as though trying to brace himself for what was to come. Hael extended her grace, the soft luster of her butterfly spreading its wings to glide down and alight on the human's sternum. He tensed, but her touch was gentle. She eased her grace to seep into his core.

The human essence was a vibrant medley of dazzling auras. Hael had always found that part of them fascinating—the colors. Dean Winchester's was numerous shades of brilliant green, from deep, dark forest to pale jade, with emerald in between.

But that wasn't what she was there for. Hael sent out her grace in search of the crystalline blue tenor of an angel's essence. She found a thread of it, then another. Castiel had literally stitched Dean Winchester back together, infusing his grace nearly everywhere…

Hael stopped, and retracted her butterfly.

"What is it?" Balthazar asked. "Why'd you stop?"

A lump started forming in her throat, the defeat palpable. "Castiel's grace, it's- it's woven into his soul."

Dean sat up from the cot. "What does that mean?"

She gave him a sad look. "It means I can't extract it without taking bits of your soul with it." She shook her head. It wasn't fair. All this garrison cared about was helping people, doing what was right. And the longer they fought for good, the more soldiers they lost. Hael couldn't bear it.

"What about me?" Sam spoke up.

Hael got to her feet and walked over to him. He towered over her small form, and she had to reach up to settle a hand over the center of his chest. After extending her grace to do a cursory inspection, she pulled back in dismay.

"It's the same."

Perhaps from all the exercises she knew the three of them had done trying to strengthen the bond between them, but she wouldn't say that. Guilt was radiating from the Winchesters enough as it was.

A heavy, disheartened silence fell over the room like a tangible pall.

Dean cleared his throat. "Okay, well, will that hurt Cas?"

Hael frowned. "Will what?"

"Bits of our souls getting transferred. Will that hurt him?"

She blinked, taken aback by the question. "Actually…I don't believe so. His grace has been woven into them for so long that I think it's become…acclimated. But we're talking about your souls. They're not meant to be splintered off."

"Will there be any permanent damage?" Dean asked, apparently undaunted.

Hael just gaped at him. Was he serious?

She managed to give the matter some thought. "Well…I don't think so… I mean, there's no precedence for this, but…" She pursed her mouth, afraid she'd be wrong.

"But what?" Gabriel prompted.

"Well…it's essentially the opposite of what Castiel did in the first place—infusing some of his grace into them. Siphoning off the small amount didn't hurt him. And, since it created a profound bond…" Hael hesitated, glancing at the looks of desperate hope on everyone's faces, and finally settling on Sam and Dean, who, despite the risks, were nothing but adamant and devoted to saving her brother.

"I think that bond will make it work," she finished. "Because you two won't actually be losing bits of your souls, just…relocating them."

Dean and Sam exchanged a wordless look, and then Dean lay back down on the cot, arms at his sides. "Do it."

Hael made her way back over and knelt on the floor again. "Would you like me to put you out for this?"

"No." Dean flicked a look at the cot just on the other side of her where Castiel lay, barely clinging to life.

Hael reached out her hands and summoned forth her grace animal yet again. This had to work.

She would make it work.

Castiel floated in a sea of warm auras. They ebbed and flowed around him, with soft murmurs sometimes accompanying them. Sometimes when they receded, a vicious chill tried to seep in, but it didn't stay long before a fresh surge of glowing warmth pulsed into a cradling embrace. There was a constant thrum of golden light. Gabriel? And a soothing kiss of lavender and wind chimes. Hael. And…swirling green and saffron whose chords Castiel knew by heart.

He wanted to reach out to them, to find out where they were, where he was. But he couldn't seem to find his physical form. Or eyes. Why not? What was wrong with him?

"Shh, you're okay," the golden sphere holding him vibrated.

Castiel started to twist and writhe, but a glistering butterfly swooped down and folded gossamer wings around him.

"Sleep, Castiel."

He did.

Voices faded in and out, indistinct, yet all somehow comforting in their familiarity.

"It's working."

"His heart's still weak."

"He's not out of the woods yet."

"Would you like me to take over?"

"How are Tweedledee and Tweedledum?"

"Still sleeping."

"Hey, Cas. You keep fighting, you hear me?"

Castiel drifted among the soothing burble.

The next time awareness returned, he found he had eyes again, though they were heavy as he struggled to open them. He felt weighted down, as though someone had pumped his marrow full of lead. It was a decidedly unpleasant sensation.

When he did finally manage to pry his eyelids open, all he saw was blurry pastel colors and the light made his aching head throb worse. Discomfited by the sudden and overwhelming feeling of vulnerability, he tried to move.

A firm hand settled on his shoulder. "Easy, kiddo. Take it slow."

Gabriel? Castiel tried to speak, but found his tongue was too thick and his mouth felt like cotton. A muffled moan was all he could seem to get out.

"Here." A dark shape shifted on his left, and then a hand was cupping the back of his head and lifting it slightly as another brought the rim of a cup to his lips. Cool water trickled into his mouth, and Castiel started to drink greedily. Gabriel took it away before he'd quenched his thirst.

"Just a little bit to start," the archangel said. "You've been through the wringer."

Castiel let his eyes slip closed again. That certainly felt accurate.

"Sam and Dean?" he rasped.

"Getting something to eat. They've spent most of the past three days commandeering two of our cots in here."

Castiel forced his eyes open again. "Were they hurt?"

"No." Gabriel paused. "They were worried about you. We've all been taking turns sitting in here. You almost died, you know."

Now that his vision was adjusting, Castiel could see the dark look in his brother's eyes.

Castiel swallowed thickly. "Are you angry?"

"At the fact that we almost lost you, yes. And at Lucifer for…" Gabriel gritted his teeth and shook his head. "I'm not mad at you, though. Or those two knuckleheads, believe it or not. Sam and Dean told me everything that happened. It was stupid, but you all meant well."

"I'm sorry," Castiel said quietly.

Gabriel reached over to lift his head and let him drink more of the water. Even that small effort was exhausting, and Castiel dropped back on the pillow with a wince.

"How bad is it?" he managed to ask.

"Like I said, you've been through the wringer. Whole chunks of your grace were ripped out."

Castiel felt a phantom burn in his chest from when Lucifer had shoved a hand into him and hooked searing talons into his grace. Even now, he felt as though he'd been flayed.

"But your grace is healing," Gabriel went on before Castiel could start to panic about being permanently injured. "It's gonna take time, though, to recover from all the trauma. The good news is that Hael thinks the slivers of the Winchesters' souls are giving your grace a boost."

Castiel's eyes snapped wide. "The what?"

"Ah, perhaps I should have started at the beginning. Hael extracted the bit of your grace that was left behind after you healed both of them. Like a transfusion, if you will. There was the unfortunate side effect of splintering a little of their souls with it, but hey, it worked."

"Gabriel," Castiel sputtered in horror.

The archangel rolled his eyes. "Relax. There's no permanent damage. It was actually their idea." He folded his arms across his chest smugly. "Worrying, isn't it? When people go to extreme lengths for something that has the potential to endanger themselves."

Castiel cringed. "I thought you weren't still upset about that."

"I'm not. If anything, I understand better why you did it. As long as you understand how things like that make the rest of us feel."

Castiel ducked his gaze, properly chastised.

"I'm sorry," he said again.

Gabriel leaned forward and patted his arm. "I'm just glad you're going to be okay." A sad, haunted look flickered in his eyes, which Castiel felt bad for being the cause of.

The sound of a commotion drew their gazes to the entryway.

"I'm telling you, I felt something," Dean's voice drifted through as he, Sam, and Balthazar came into the infirmary, and then pulled up short.

Balthazar crossed his arms. "Look who's finally awake," he said with a cheeky grin.

Castiel couldn't help but smile tiredly back at them. "Yes. Finally."

Dean and Sam hurried forward, and Gabriel stood up to retreat and give them space. Both brothers crowded into the aisle beside him, faces alight with relieved smiles.

"Hey, Cas," Sam breathed, sinking down to the floor and reaching out to squeeze his hand. He tried to return the grip, though it was somewhat lacking in strength.

Dean knelt next to his shoulder. "How you doin'?"

"I'm alive, thanks to you two." Castiel paused, emotions welling up inside him. "Gabriel told me what you did for me."

"You've done the same for us," Dean instantly replied.

"Still, yours was the bigger sacrifice."

The older Winchester shook his head firmly. "It wasn't a sacrifice, Cas. Not to save you."

Castiel smiled; that was no less than what he'd considered his own actions once upon a time.

Dean's mouth quirked almost mischievously. "'Course, it does mean you're stuck being bonded to us now. No take-backsies, even if you wanted to."

Castiel blinked. The bond?

"It was quite curious," Balthazar spoke up from behind them. "Dean sensed Castiel was awake."

"I didn't know he was awake," the hunter corrected. "I just felt that something had changed."

Castiel furrowed his brow in surprise. It hadn't even occurred to him that the bond would still be intact, what with his grace having been removed from the two of them…but if bits of their souls had been transferred to him in reverse…he supposed it made sense.

And he couldn't deny that he took some comfort and relief in knowing that the bond was still there. He'd gotten used to it, after all, and it meant more now than the unintentional accident it'd started out as.

"That means we'll have to continue our meditation sessions," he pointed out to Dean.

Sam bit back a grin while Dean scoffed good-naturedly.

"You've gotta get back on your feet first."

Castiel conceded that point with a tired nod. He had a long recovery ahead of him, but he was alive, and home, and surrounded by family whom he loved and cherished and who loved and cherished him in return.

With that, he could get through anything.

…

NEXT TIME

"Line up!" Gabriel shouted, doing a quick mental count of who was here. Only half of the garrison, and he couldn't wait in order to call everyone back.

"What's going on?" Anna asked urgently.

"I found the last two Seals," he replied. "Or, well, I know who's going to lead us to them. But we have to move now."

A/N: Check out 29-pieces-of-me on Deviantart for a stunning picture of Hael and her butterflies.