"Where are we going?" Samandriel asked out of the blue, when he realized that he had been so relieved at having been rescued that the question had not occurred to him.
"We're going to go pick up Kevin, and then we're not sure where we'll go from there." Sam answered him, eyes still straight ahead at the road.
"You kind of dropped in at a bad time, kid. We're sort of trying to seal demons out of the world forever," Dean said with a tiny laugh as he realized how over their heads they were.
"If we don't help Samandriel and heaven, there might not be a world to save anymore." Castiel interjected, looking extremely concerned himself. "I suppose we must take on both."
Dean looked back at him with a lifted eyebrow. "Really? Both of them? Why don't we just do something else while we're at it?"
"This is not a laughing matter." Castiel replied somewhat angrily, narrowing his eyes. "Time is running out for the war in heaven. Our network is splitting, and once the communication completely breaks off, there's no telling how much damage could be done."
There was a beat of silence.
"Great. Just great." Dean sighed, looking back to the road ahead and gripping the steering wheel tightly.
"If there is some way we can get the tablet and speed up that mission-" Sam tried suggesting.
"Do you think we haven't been trying to do everything already?" Dean shot back, already on edge from the bad news.
Sam had a look on his face like he'd been kicked. "I have an idea, and it might be the only thing that will work for now. But you're not going to like it." He sighed and continued. "I say we make a crossroads deal-"
Dean interrupted him quickly. "No. Absolutely not." It was clear he was trying hard to mask his pain as he clenched and unclenched his jaw, staring straight ahead with narrowed green eyes.
Sam looked frustrated. "Look, we make the trade for the tablet, and if it works, there won't be anyone to collect."
"They won't give anyone ten years for that. Maybe not even one. I'm not letting anyone I care about go through that. Plus, they could refuse and then anyone could know our plan."
"They won't refuse if it's an angel soul." Samandriel came into the conversation. He needed to help the situation in heaven, and if that meant making a deal so they could focus on that, he was fine with it. He was never meant to survive, and he'd rather die nobly than for no reason.
Again, all eyes turned to him in the car. There was almost an uncomfortable silence. "Samandriel, you are too young to make judgement calls like that." Castiel finally broke the silence, looking disturbed at his suggestion. "It's not only dangerous for you, but dangerous for heaven- we have no idea what demons could do if they got their hands on an angel's soul..."
"But if we get the tablet, it can close hell forever, right?" He asked naively.
"Well, I guess that's how it's supposed to work-" Sam started.
"I need to do this. We must shut off hell, and then immediately work to restore heaven."
Dean was frustrated, and it showed. "Let's focus on one thing at a time. We need to keep going on the same track, and then maybe we'll move on. But right now, this has to be our main concern, sealing up hell."
Samandriel suddenly felt a bitter spike of emotion coming from Dean when he said the last sentence. He wasn't sure what to call it, but he could tell that Dean's heart was broken up about the issue. Samandriel tried to wrap his mind around the feeling and tried to turn it to english, but it was difficult.
"There's a piece missing here," He finally said, hoping he expressed it the right way. Sam looked away right when he had said it, emoting potent feelings of guilt. Dean permeated the air with extreme sorrow.
"We found that we had a younger half-brother. Long story short, he's still down there." Dean said in a quiet voice, not lifting his eyes from the road. "But if it's the price to pay..." Samandriel could tell he didn't mean that. He could tell he wanted to do anything to rescue that kid, but he felt defeated in that there was nothing he could do.
"I'm truly sorry," Samandriel replied quickly, dropping his eyes to the floor. There never was an easy way out, was there? There was silence that followed, and Samandriel could tell that he should not be bringing up the subject of their half-brother in the future.
Suddenly, Sam and Dean heard a synchronized gasp from the backseat. They both looked back, surprised, to see the teenager and the dark-haired man identically clutching their chests.
"Something's happened. There's been another tear: it might the penultimate-" Castiel started, was interrupted right away from Samandriel. He didn't seem to have taken the angelic message so lightly. When Cas began to explain and lower his clutching hand from his heart, the mousy-haired teen had only clenched his fist tighter and had doubled over on himself, his teeth powerfully interlocked in a twisted grimace as he let out a wrenching cry.
"What's wrong with him?" Sam quickly cried out. He knew that look, the look of pure pain. He tried to reach back to steady the kid who was swiftly falling forward, but Cas beat him to it. He grabbed him by the shoulders and swiftly pushed him back to a upright sitting position, and the teen didn't suppress his noise anymore, as his voice grew from a low-pitched yell to a full on scream of pain, broken by up-and-down sobs.
"Pull over." Castiel demanded in a low, montone voice. Dean didn't need to be told twice as he swung the car off to the side of road and the tires crunched on the gravel. Castiel scooted the immobilized kid with his body and quickly opened the door and shoved the two of them outside. He held onto his little brother's shoulder's tightly as he doubled over again and emptied his whole stomach. The kid wretched a few more times before straightening up, still clutching at his chest tightly with one hand. With the other, he roughly wiped his lips. He spat the sour taste from his mouth, and again clentched his teeth tight as his whole face wrinkled around the deep grimace.
"Fuuuuccckkkkk." He groaned, doubling over again and putting his hands on his knees, his light brown hair falling over his face as he breathed heavily.
"I didn't know angels had such dirty mouths," Dean said as they all observed the kid with surprised faces, as he was trying hard to regain his composure.
"This is not Samandriel. What you are seeing right now is his vessel, Alfie. Samandriel has regressed into the unconscious in order to cause less pain to Alfie."
"We cannot share our bodies with humans, like he's been doing, for this reason and many others. The truth is the human soul is not remotely comparable to the strength of an angel's. Just a small warning message could send the human soul in the most excruciating pain."
The three men watched silently as the kid slowly straightened up. There was something different about him that they noticed right away: he seemed a lot less tense and more laid back than when Samandriel had been present. He had the look of just any regular teenager, and when he started to speak, it was apparent in the casual way he spoke that the powerful being wasn't in control.
"Fuck. Oh, damn. I did not sign up for this. Oh, fuck me. Oh..." He rubbed his chest with little circles tenderly. The change was almost physical: his mannerisms and look on his face seemed to change and turn from loose and teenager-y to rigid and authoritative as Samandriel started to appear once again.
I'm sorry. I didn't know something like that would happen. Are you feeling better now? Samandriel quickly shot out to Alfie, feeling guilty as their body still shuddered and ached.
Yes. He said meekly, in a quiet thought that felt weak and sickly. Is anything like that going to happen again? He asked in a quiet voice, sounding like an afraid little kid. Samandriel felt a lurch in his chest as he was hit with a wall of guilt. He thought about what he had heard Castiel say: human souls just weren't strong enough for deal with normal things angels did.
They might. The two were silent to each other for a long while.
I'm scared. Came Alfie's small voice, breaking the long silence.
Samandriel knew there was only one solution, but he didn't know if he could bring himself to do it. He needed his friend in his life, he couldn't drown him. But he didn't want him to suffer again.
The brothers had decided to go to a motel for the night, as it was getting late anyway and they wanted to sleep after their long day and go pick up Kevin in the morning.
Sam and Dean bought just one room, in seeing that angels didn't need to sleep. The two flopped onto the beds and were able to fall asleep relatively quickly, after spending their lives with catching short amounts of sleep in dingy motels they were able to go out like lights.
When the two angels noticed they were both asleep, Castiel looked deeply into Samandriel's eyes.
"I know. I did not do what you instructed, and now I have experienced what you were trying to tell me. I apologize." Samandriel started, looking guiltily down at the floor.
"I did the same thing, you know." Castiel said in a low voice, and Samandriel looked up, surprised, to see him looking off to the side, with a misty gaze as if he was looking through everything. "I tried to make it work with Jimmy, he really was a wonderful man. He was so full of love, and faith, and he was just so pure-of-heart... I learned the hard way that angels and their vessel just can't mix. I had received a message, just like the one today, but I still kept him around."
"It was right in the middle of action that I had to push him down. I was going to meet with Dean, and they began shooting at me and it pained Jimmy so much that I had to do it. I did it even though he was the one who showed me emotions aren't such a bad thing, he was the one who showed me how to have friendship and love. But he's stayed completely dormant since. Samandriel, I did it to protect him." He paused and sighed.
"I know you are young and naive, but things are not meant to be this way. Are you friends with Alfie? Do you love him, do you want to protect him?" Samandriel felt his heart squeeze. "Yes," He said quietly, feeling a tear drop from his eye as he avoided the angel's gaze. Cas looked up at him with deep blue eyes, not saying anything else.
Samandriel closed his eyes lightly, and took a deep breath. He reached to find that instinct that had hit him the first time he'd melted into his new body, and seized Alfie's consciousness.
Sam? Alfie piped up in a small, innocent voice as Samandriel seized him. I'm sorry. Then he shoved, hoping to get it over with as quickly as possible. Alfie didn't put up much of a struggle, as if he knew that he was doing it so that he could avoid the pain. I'm sorry. Samandriel repeated, but this time he could tell it wasn't reaching anyone as the thought only bounced around his own head.
He slowly opened his eyelids, tears had slipped though under them. He looked to his older brother for comfort. He just felt so...hollow.
"You did the right thing, Samandriel. I promise I'm always looking out for you, I'm never going to have you do the wrong thing." Samandriel let another tear fall as he squeezed his eyes shut, nodding continuously. Cas put a gentle hand on his shoulder.
Suddenly, an obnioxious ringtone started trilling in the dead of night. The two angels wearily turned to face the object of the noise. Dean groaned loudly and woke up to answer it, reaching with a heavy arm a few times until he found his cell phone.
"Hullo?" He answered in a groggy voice. "Kevin?!"
Sam stirred and shot up in bed. "Whatsgoinon?" He said in a slurry voice as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes.
Kevin sat criss-crossed and squished in his closet, the black tablet in full on his lap. He spoke in hurried, hushed tones into his cell phone.
"I-I dunno what really happened, I blacked out again like when I'd located the tablet the first time, and next thing I know I have the full thing in my hands... I have no idea what happened or how I got it-"
"Wait, you're saying you have the full tablet right now?" Dean replied, and everyone in the room perked up and looked to Dean on the phone.
"Yeah. Can you guys come and get me now? Once they find out it's missing, I don't know how long it will be before they come after me." He said in a scared voice, just mentioning it he shifted his eyes around the small, cramped closet.
"Yeah, yeah, of course. Did you get the spell?" Dean asked excitedly.
"Yes, but...there's some bad news. It's some sort of code or riddle or something, and I have no idea what it means. It says... 'To close the gate to hell forever' -
A deadly piece of a hell beast's hand
The skeleton key of a righteous man
A drop from where the three rivers collide
The seal is the heart of the one who survives.
That's it. I don't know what it means, but please come and get me soon..."
"We're on it. See you soon, Kevin." He snapped the phone shut quickly and looked to Sam, Castiel and Samandriel. "He's got the tablet, but he says he has no idea how he got it. He says he read the part that we need, but it's encoded. No need to do any trade," He said happily looking up to Samandriel. "No matter what you said before, I think it's really you who has too much heart." Samandriel looked down at the floor and smiled sadly, remembering what Alfie had said before about Castiel. Maybe I do.
"Thank god luck actually decided to play on our side for once." Sam sighed, rolling out of bed and starting to pull on clothes. "What did the tablet say?"
Dean repeated the rhyme he'd heard. Sam and Dean were still confused, but Castiel looked like he understood at least one of the sentences.
"I think I know what the first sentence means. A deadly piece of a hellbeast's hand, it has to be talking about hellhounds. The deadly part of their hand has to be their claws, which is how they kill what they are there to collect. It could be extremely dangerous to get the claws, but there are ways to kill them."
"Let's start there, then. Now let's go get Kevin." The four silently slipped out of the room in the middle of the night. It was pitch-black outside, and they padded out to the car quietly in the chilly night air under the dim yellow light of the streetlamps. Suddenly, things were falling into place. Maybe Samandriel wasn't a complete failure. Maybe he really could be the one who saves heaven from itself.
The shiny black car started up with a rumble as it slid out of the lot, sliding into the dark night. They had work to do.
Thank you everyone for your reviews! Ideas have been pouring into my head for the outcome of this story ever since. Please continue to review and/or suggest! I love each one!