Chapter Seventeen

Dean snapped awake, frowning as his lingering sleep masked an unusual hum in his whole body.

"Dean."

Dean jumped, rolling over on the cot to see Castiel standing in the middle of the Summers' basement. "Jeez, Cas, knock much?"

"Dean," said Castiel.

Dean frowned at Castiel's tense, almost spooked tone. He never sounded like that. In fact, Castiel had never looked so freaked. His eyes were wide, and he kept looking around the room as though expecting an attack at any moment.

"Cas, what's wrong?" asked Dean.

"They're coming," Castiel told him, still watching for a mystery assailant.

"Who?" asked Dean, getting up off the cot.

"Angels," said Castiel.

Dean stared at him. "Okay…And?"

Castiel's gaze finally settled on Dean. "And they will destroy me."

"What?" Dean exclaimed. "Why?"

"I have rebelled against heaven," Castiel went on. "So that I may help the human race."

"What does that mean?" asked Dean.

"There is no time to explain," said Castiel quickly. "You must get Buffy. We do not have much time."

"You want us to fight angels?" asked Dean incredulously.

"Just hold them off," Castiel told him. "I'll take care of them."

Dean jumped off the cot and hurried towards the stairs. He suddenly froze as something akin to a psychic semi plowed into him. Something was coming…something big. A high-pitched hum began echoing through the room as it began to shake a little.

"Go!" shouted Castiel. "Hurry!"

But Dean was already halfway up the stairs. As light poured through the windows, Dean flung the basement door open.

"Buffy!" Dean yelled. "Get down here! We got incoming!" He charged back down the stairs, glancing over at Sam's cot near his own…it was empty. "Where's Sam?"

"He was not here when I arrived," Castiel told him, pulling an impressive silver blade out of his trench coat.

"What?" asked Buffy as she hurried down the stairs. "What's going on?" She looked worriedly at the shaking walls and otherworldly light coming in the windows.

"Angels!" Dean told her. "We need to hold them off while Cas takes 'em out!"

"But they're angels!" said Buffy.

"No time!" yelled Dean over the ringing.

The light, trembling and noise ceased in a second as four men in suits appeared, surrounding them.

"Castiel," said a black man in a low voice.

"Raphael," said Castiel. "Don't do this."

"You have fallen, Castiel," Raphael said. "You dare to disobey heaven?"

"Brother, see reason," Castiel pleaded. "There is another way. These cannot be our Father's orders."

"They are your superiors' orders," said Raphael. "Which you have failed to obey."

Raphael charged towards Castiel as the other three did also. Dean and Buffy each intercepted an angel, doing their best to keep them away from their friend. It was hard work; Dean felt like he was punching a sack of concrete. He pushed past the pain, relying on his heightened pain threshold and rapid healing powers. It also didn't help when the person you were fighting could move in the blink of an eye and was double your own strength.

A flash of light burst through the room, burning Dean's retinas. As Dean's eyes readjusted, the angel he was fighting grabbed him, pushing him back against a wall. As the room came back into focus, he saw the angel as he wrapped a hand around his throat. Dean raised a fist to punch him before the angel froze, light coming from his eyes and mouth. Dean slammed his eyes closed as he felt a wave of energy explode over him.

Dean opened his eyes as soon as it was over to see Castiel yanking his blade from the angel's back and pushing him to the floor. He disappeared, and there was another burst of light, forcing Dean to shield his eyes again. He glanced over afterwards to see the body of an angel falling to the floor at Buffy and Castiel's feet.

Dean stepped away from the wall, looking down at the three bodies on the floor. Underneath each body, a pair of massive wings was imprinted onto the floor, almost like charcoal.

"Wait a minute," said Dean, looking at the three bodies, "where's that Raphael guy?"

"Retreated," Castiel told him, stowing his blade back in his trench coat.

"What the hell was all that about?" asked Dean. "Last we saw you yesterday, you were headed back to heaven for orders."

"They gave me my orders," Castiel replied. "I found myself unable to comply."

"Why?" asked Buffy.

"They revealed their true plan to me," said Castiel. His eyes grew sad and disappointed. "Plans I would not have thought my brethren to ever be capable of."

*****************************************SPN/BTVS* ************************************************** **

"You think everything's okay now?" Dawn asked Willow up in Willow and Tara's room.

"Well, the house isn't all quaky anymore," said Willow.

"We may be alright," said Tara. "We should go check on Buffy."

"Yeah," said Willow as they got up and headed for the hallway.

They slowly made their way down to the first floor, keeping an eye out for danger. Several things had been knocked over in the quake, but it all seemed quiet. As they turned the corner into the dining room, footsteps came pounding up the basement stairs, and Dean came tearing around the corner, follow by Buffy and Castiel.

"Where's Sam?" Dean asked the three girls. "Did any of you see him leave?"

"No," Willow told him.

"Crap," Dean muttered, pulling out his cell phone and hitting a speed dial. He put the phone to his ear and waited a moment. "Damn it! He must be with Ruby. He always turns his phone off when they're training."

"But isn't Sam training a good thing?" asked Dawn.

"No!" Buffy and Dean exclaimed.

"I can do a locator spell," said Willow, hurrying to the dining room table and spreading out a map.

A few minutes after some confusing spell-casting, Dean was jumping into the Impala and heading across town. On the edge of the shopping district, he pulled up to an old house.

Sam looked up in confusion from Ruby's car in front of the house as Dean jumped out. "Dean?"

Dean rushed over to Sam. "I need to talk to you."

Sam closed the trunk of Ruby's car and began heading towards the house. "Can it wait? Ruby found a demon that may have information on where we can find Lillith."

Dean stepped in front of Sam, stopping him. "You can't kill Lillith!"

Sam frowned. "Since when?"

"Since it starts the apocalypse," Dean told him.

Sam's frown deepened further. "But Lillith is breaking the seals. We need to kill her to stop her from freeing Lucifer."

"Killing Lillith doesn't stop the apocalypse, it starts it!" Dean told him.

Sam stared at him. "What?"

"Lillith's death is the final seal," Dean explained. "You kill her, and you will open Lucifer's cage."

"Who told you this?" asked Sam.

"Cas," said Dean. "He popped in this morning with an archangel on his tail. When he went to get his orders, they told him their real plan. The angels want to free Lucifer so Michael can kill him and bring paradise."

Sam stared at him like he was insane. "And we'd be stopping them from doing this, why?"

"The battle's gonna torch half the planet, not that the angels give a crap," muttered Dean.

Sam's eyes widened. "Why would they wait till the last minute to tell Cas?"

"To keep the lower angels in line. If they had known about the plan, they would've rioted."

"So the angels are gonna let billions of people die?" said Sam. "And they're letting him out by getting me to free him? Couldn't they just…" He stopped, seemingly realizing something. "Oh, my God…That's why Ruby's been so gung-ho for the Lillith hunt. She's been using me to free Lucifer, the lying bitch!"

"Not to mention, fed you demon blood," Dean pointed out.

Sam's face twisted in disgust and rage. "Oh, my God…Now, I really wanna kill her."

Dean smirked. "Good to know we're finally on the same page."

"Sam."

Sam and Dean both looked over to see Ruby standing impatiently at the door of the house.

"Hog-tied and waiting for ya in here," said Ruby. "Let's go." She headed back into the house.

Sam's jaw clenched as he glared at the doorway she'd disappeared into.

Dean looked back at Sam, his angry glare still in place. "What do you say we go in there and give her a piece of your mind?"

Sam looked over at him, sharing his conspiratorial smile.

*************************************************S PN/BTVS******************************************* ***********

Ruby stood in front of the demon they'd tied to a chair inside a devil's trap.

What the hell is keeping Sam? she thought.

As though hearing her summons, the door of the room opened, and Sam walked in, followed by Dean.

Ruby frowned at the older brother. "You decided to stick around? I thought you were squeamish when it came to the whole 'Sam psychic' thing."

"Oh, trust me," said Dean. "I wouldn't miss this for the world." He was smirking at her in a way that made her very uneasy.

"Okay…" said Ruby. "Whatever." She turned towards the demon, who glared up at her. "Where's Lillith?"

"Go to hell," the demon spat at her.

"We can do this the easy way or the hard way," Ruby told him, tilting her head back towards Sam.

"I'm not telling you a damn thing," said the demon.

Ruby shrugged. "Hit it, Sam."

Ruby stared down at the demon, watching as the demon looked past her at Sam and frowned. The next second, electric agony radiated through her entire body. She screamed as her vision whited out. The pain lasted several moments before it stopped, and she leaned her hands on her knees, panting. She spun around to see the Winchesters glaring at her.

"What the hell, Sam?" Ruby demanded.

"What's the matter, Ruby?" said Dean. "Did we ruin your little goodwill mission to kill Lillith?"

Ruby glanced at Dean's glare and looked over at Sam's royally pissed off glare at her. "You know."

"About your plan to use Sam as a key to the devil's cage?" said Dean. "Oh, yeah."

Ruby looked back over at Sam. "Well…this puts a kink in my plan…" she gave them a smug smile, "but not a big one."

"You—" snarled Sam, raising his hand towards her again.

Ruby threw her head back, screaming as she bailed out of the body before Sam could get his clutches in her.

********************************************SPN/BT VS************************************************ ************

Sam sighed as Ruby's host dropped to the floor and the smoke flew out the window. "Damn it."

Dean patted Sam once on the shoulder. "Don't worry, Sammy. We'll hunt the bitch down." He pulled the demon knife out and began stepping towards the tied-up demon. "Now for this son of a bitch."

Sam raised his hand towards the demon, who coughed up the black smoke. The smoke fell down, burning through the floor and into hell.

Dean shrugged. "That works, too." He tucked the knife back into his jacket.

"We gotta find her," Sam said, turning towards him.

"Yeah, no arguing with ya there," said Dean. "I kind of wanna stick the bitch myself."

"No, you don't understand," said Sam urgently. "I know her. She won't stop until she finds another way to kill Lillith."

"You're serious?" asked Dean, frowning.

Sam huffed, giving Dean his classic bitch face. "No, Dean, I'm being incredibly sarcastic."

Dean held his hands up in a placating manner.

"We need to find her," said Sam. "Before she frees Lucifer."

Oh, no! Will the Winchesters stop Ruby in time? Or will she kill Lillith and unleash the apocalypse?