Thank you everyone for the reviews! I really wasn't going to do anything with this but I started to further develop the plot thanks to your encouragement. Really, thank you! :)
Samandriel was having a nightmare. In his dream he relived the experience in the infirmary, as he felt himself floating, and then he felt the sharp feelings of fear as one of the angel gave him his instructions. He felt himself being held in shaking arms and could almost smell that awful scent of spilled angel blood as the person who was cradling him in his arms was brutally murdered...
"I thought they weren't supposed to sleep." Samandriel vaguely heard a familiar voice say in a low tone.
"He has somewhat of a...complicated bond with his vessel. So, he might have a few more human qualities than normal."
Samandriel awoke with a gasp as he still felt aftershocks of fear from his nightmare. He instinctually shrunk back into the leather seat, and was immediately calmed by his older brother as he held his shoulders in a tight grasp. Samandriel looked up with confused, wide eyes, before he finally got his bearings as to where he was. Sleeping was just so similar to floating as a piece of grace, he'd been disoriented. He felt extremely embarrased as he felt three pairs of concerned eyes on him.
"You feeling alright?" Dean asked from behind the driver's wheel. Samandriel looked down and realized that he'd for the most part subconsciously healed his vessel's body as he slept. Alfie was still sleeping, and every now and then Samandriel caught just a glimpse of a dream- his girlfriend's face, dinner table with his family...
"It seems that skills I've acquired from my ethereal ancestry has lead me to restore my vessel's lacerations subconsciously. Much obliged for your concern." Samandriel answered, looking over his arms and chest to see that he'd healed alright, there were only shallow scratches and scabs remaining.
Dean guffawed, and Samandriel looked up, a puppy-dog confused look in his eyes, as he tilted his head slightly. "I'm failing to understand. Why are you expressing amusement at my acknowledgment of your inquiry?"
Dean turned his gaze to Castiel. "You're saying he's a baby? Those words are pretty damn big for someone who just popped out of some cloud!"
Cas shook his head and replied monotonously. "Enochian is engrained in all angels, although it takes many other years to fully master it. He is only trying to turn the complex language into English through vocabulary that his vessel possesses that are the closest to his thoughts." He paused for a second to take a quick glance at the disheveled baby angel.
"He doesn't sound anything like when we first met him." Sam interjected.
"Again, it has to do with his bond with his vessel. It seems that he used Alfie to speak for him back at the auction house." There was a small pause before Cas continued.
"And Angels are not born from clouds, Dean. They are recycled from the Internal Grace, or the place it goes once an angel dies. They exist in the infirmary until they have developed enough to join our ranks."
Dean and Sam were able to immediately pick up the sad tones in Cas's voice as he explained.
"What happened?" Sam asked gently. Castiel sighed and turned his eyes to the ground, and unseen to them unconsciously tightened the protecting wing slung over Samandriel's shoulder.
"Samandriel here is in fact an infant, but he's the last survivor of his generation. The angels fighting the civil war have done some despicable things. I heard the message when I was still in Purgatory." He didn't lift his downcast eyes.
"Do you mean all of them were killed? But, why...?" Dean prompted, he seemed shocked by the news. Admit it or not, he was fascinated by angels, and he wondered how the seemingly always-composed beings could suddenly become so savage.
"There are two sides to the war, Dean. My side: pro-human, and their side: pro-apocalypse. All the developing angels had been influenced by emotions and become sympathetic, and would have grown up to be on the pro-human side. Our network is tearing apart, so it wouldn't hurt them physically as much as it hurts us. All angels are connected, even if it's hanging on by a thread now."
"That's pretty heavy, man." Dean replied and focused back on the road, not knowing what else to say. Cas had never gone into detail about the war before, and now he could see why. It almost looked like it physically pained him to talk about it. Dean realized that it must be pretty hard to be at war with your brothers and sisters, which it was clear Castiel loved all of them.
Meanwhile, Samandriel had been waiting in silence, embarrassed at his real first impression with the subjects of his mission. He felt a little hot around the ears when he thought about how he'd laughed at him. All the while, Alfie had still been dozing as Samandriel had struggled to understand these strange humans without help.
Wake up, Alfie. I need your help. He sent a message out in desperation.
I haven't sleep for weeks. You can at least give me a few hours. His human replied grumpily, his thoughts themselves felt groggy, heavy and a bit uncollected. Alfie immediately saw the new memories and tried to make sense of them in his tired state.
Is it bad? Do you think I messed up big time? Samandriel shot out nervously, feeling their body's heart race at the thought. Alfie seemed to rise to a better mood. He was only kidding around. I think he likes you.
Suddenly, Cas was staring at Samandriel with a sharp expression, which was met with an innocent expression.
"I know you're just a young blood, but you have to know that you can't do that. It's dangerous." Cas scolded him.
"What are you asking?" He answered, twiddling his thumbs. Alfie had gone completely silent.
"You know what I mean. You can't talk to your vessel like that, you should have known that by your first instinct. You have to supress him."
Samandriel shied slightly away from his brother. But, it had been so horrible, like that other person had been drowning as he felt every single thought that bounced in his head as the angel held his head under, waiting for their thoughts to grow weaker and weaker...he shuddered slightly.
"I came into this world with a complete absence of any instruction. My vessel has become a mentor in all terrestrial affairs. He has become my acquaintance." He replied, hurt, as he shielded his chest as if Cas was going to do it for him.
"A vessel is supposed to be something you use, nothing more. It can be harmful mentally to the human to be conscious for it, sometimes transport and injuries can be excruciating."
Samandriel shook his head with a small frown, like a stubborn little kid who refuses to eat their vegetables.
"Now I can see the little baby in there," Dean commented with a smile. Cas shot him a look as if to say don't encourage him.
"Please. I only want to reveal my mission to you that my caretaker assigned to me with his dying breath. My whole existence so far has been focused on locating you. " Samandriel begged, wanting to get off the subject of Alfie quickly.
Dean raised an eyebrow from the front seat. "You were looking for us? More like we just bailed you out of that demon torture-dungeon."
Samandriel got frustrated and his tiny white wings started flapping in irritation. "Listen to me. I needed to find Castiel in order to ask about the archangel Gabriel. My caretaker affirmed that the only way to win the war was to get him affiliated with the pro-humans."
Sam looked back at Samandriel with a distraught expression. "I hate to break it to you like this, Sananmandereal.. Alfie, but Gabriel's dead."
Samandriel dropped his gaze to the floor, feeling the news physically as if it was a crushing blow. His whole existence was meaningless now. He'd never get to avenge the brothers and sisters of his generation, he wouldn't even be able to stop the war before all of heaven and earth were ripped to bits. It had been his responsibility to find Sam and Dean and Castiel, and in turn find Gabriel, where he could save countless angels. Now everything was ruined. The responsibility had been put on the wrong shoulders, big time.
Hey. Don't be so hard on yourself. Alfie tried to comfort him in a whisper, as if he was afraid Cas would say something again. Samandriel started to feel a prick in their body's eyes, and for a second lost focus on his worrying and was concerned, thinking something was seriously wrong with his vessel.
You're just crying, dummy. Alfie said, but he was sympathetic in his tone as he felt the same emotions Samandriel felt about blowing everything. Their vision started to be blurred with tears, and Samandriel bit his lips together in a big frown.
He looked so pitiful and worried that Sam immediately felt bad for saying anything. Samandriel looked up with pale blue eyes shining with tears, opened his mouth to talk but closed it again quickly, and adverted his eyes out the window.
"Hey, hey. I didn't mean to upset you. I mean, we can do something about it on our own, right Dean? Cas? We managed to stop the apocalypse on our own, right?" Sam said quickly, trying to get the baby angel to feel better. Man, he hated seeing people cry. And to think about everything this little angel had been through already, and to hear news like that when hearing a good answer had been what his whole life goal had been... "Please don't cry. We can fix it, okay?"
Cas who had remained pensive for the whole ordeal finally spoke up softly. "Gabriel might not be dead. There's no way to tell for sure right now, but there's a chance he's still alive somewhere."
Samandriel immediately looked to his brother's face, and again was able to quickly see past the skin and bone to his human true form, and was a little reassured. He felt a little better when he realized that Cas would take care of him, that he was on the good guy's side. And now maybe Gabriel wasn't dead? He sniffled and felt his emotions of extreme sorrow die down.
"Like I said before, all angels are connected. It is hard to tell if Gabriel is still with us, and he might not be because his powerful, old-time grace is hard to mask. But he could be alive, but weakening his bond with us though existing in an alternate dimension and not tuning in the network on purpose. That was how he was able to avoid his family before, and there is a slim chance he's doing just that again."
"Well, how do we find him?" Dean asked, not looking up from the road. He felt just a little bad that Gabe had gone out fighting for the humans, but he immediately didn't feel so bad when he remembered all that crap he had to deal with in TVland, and how Gabriel had thought up practically every way humanly possible to kill him. He wasn't particularly thrilled to see him again.
"I'm still not sure. But according to Samandriel, it is essential that we do."
"Great." Dean replied, still not getting over that whole nutcracker fiasco.
"Give him a chance, Dean. He really did try helping us humans out before. Maybe he'll try to solve things with his family this time around." Sam interjected in his usual glass half-full manner.
"Let's hope so. I don't want my seats getting ruined from all these baby angel tears."
That was a joke. Samandriel heard a foriegn voice in his head which wasn't coming from Alfie or the network. It took him a second to realize it had come from Castiel.
I knew that, Samandriel lied horribly. It's not like you can lie when someone can read your thoughts, anyway.
You're starting to get the hang of it. This time it was Alfie's warm and familiar thoughts. If thoughts could smile, this would be one of those thoughts. Samandriel felt a pang of anxiety when he thought about whether or not he'd really have to get rid of Alfie for good. For now, things were looking alright. That subject had been avoided for now, and the people he'd been seeking had wholeheartedly agreed to help him. Things were looking up. And Samandriel realized why it was better to have feelings, good and bad, than have none at all as he was filled with a sense of happiness.