The final split had stuck as quick as lightning. With no warning whatsoever, Samandriel simply collapsed and hit the ground hard. Castiel was very disoriented, but still conscious. He squeezed his eyes shut and pressed firmly on the sides of his head, and sank to his knees.
"Cas!" Dean cried out, rushing foward to catch his swiftly falling friend. Castiel looked up into his face with strained eyes, as if he was looking directly at the sun, before quickly shutting his eyes again.
"It's happening," He said hoarsely, as he pressed his palms over his face and doubled into himself. Things went into emergency mode from there: the two angels were quickly placed in the backseat of the car, and the engine roared to life.
"What are we looking at here, Cas? Come on, you have to answer me." Dean demanded from behind the wheel as Castiel struggled to stay conscious.
"I don't know. This has never-" He paused as his face grimaced in pain at a particularly strong tear. He tried hard to keep from crying out. Him and Samandriel were looking progressively worse: their faces had become substantially paler, and clammy sweat was beginning to bead on their foreheads. Cas was obviously battling to stay awake, but sleeping didn't look any more pleasant from the way Samandriel appeared.
"I can't...I can't feel my brothers..." Castiel looked confused and disoriented as his eyes began to look more delirious. "They're...I..." His heavy eyelids started to close, and his body was loosing strength. Finally he dropped into a deep, but feverish sleep as he leaned heavily on the car door.
"We need to find someplace safe for them until this whole thing is over. Look for any motel or-"
"Dean, watch out!" Sam cried, as suddenly the headlights illuminated a person just standing in the middle of the street, as the bright white lights shone on his round, very serious face. The very strong beams of light cast his shadow on the ground: complete with shadows of wings. There was a deep crater of concrete and he was standing in the very epicenter.
The dark-haired young man (he looked around nineteen or twenty) looked completely distraught as he stood with his legs shoulder-width apart in a fighting stance. His clothes were distinguished and high fashion, but they were completely wrecked now. His collared shirt and pullover sweater combo had been torn, dirtied and completely tattered. One of the sleeves had been torn off completely to reveal a slender, pale arm that had been scratched up and he had his bicep thickly wrapped with white cloth, with some black bleeding through. His black combat boots and bottoms of his black denim were caked with a dark mud. He saw the car's lights and looked up with a heartbreaking expression: Dean knew that expression far too well, it was the look of someone who was ardently worried about someone close to him.
Dean went to open the car door, but was roughly stopped by Sam. "Stop. Haven't you been listening? How do we know he's on the right side? On Cas's side?"
The young man climbed from the crater and looked exhausted, wiping his dirty cheek with the back of his hand before putting showing both of his palms and walking toward the car. He didn't look like he was doing so well as he started to amble slowly toward the car. He walked with a slight limp, and he looked like he might collapse at any moment.
"Look at this guy, Sam. If he wanted to hurt us, he would have done something by now." He reached for the door handle again, and Sam tried to grab him as he swiftly slid from his seat. "Dammit! Stop being stupid and use your head, Dean!"
Dean strode up the young man and loaded his gun and pointed it right between the young man's eyes. The fallen angel looked up wearily with pale grey-blue irises, looking like he didn't care if he shot or not.
"You're with the pro-humans?" Dean asked in a low growl, the gun was extended without even a waver or shake of his hand. The man nodded and wiped his forehead with the back of his hand, which was beginning to bead with sweat as well.
"My name is Calcifer. I'm not only on the pro-human side, I'm one of the five who practically run it." He spoke as if he was short of breath, but that didn't mean he left out his caustic way of speaking. He leaned down with his hands on his knees to breathe for a second before he straightened up slightly.
"That means you are still connected to Castiel?"
The man nodded, closing his eyes this time. He really did look like he was about to fall over. He swayed a tiny bit.
"Tell me something that only Castiel would know." He demanded, and the guy seemed like he wasn't going to respond for a second as he stood there with closed eyes, but finally he spoke up sleepily.
"You have a nickname for him, Cas, but he hopes that you never learn Enochian because the nickname sounds ugly in that language." The man smiled slightly, a happy light dancing in his semi-closed eyes if for only a brief moment. "He is very clever, Castiel. But it never fails to amuse me how much of a liking he had taken to you two. He'd do anything for his humans."
Dean knew right away that the man was being genuine. Plus, the 'other side' frowned upon human emotions, but this guy was blatantly flaunting them.
"May I ask for your help?" Calcifer asked, now grabbing on to his wounded and wrapped arm. He looked like his mind was somewhere else, worried about someone else. He looked like he was on the verge of collapsing just like the other two had done.
"Alright, get in the car." Dean said gruffly as he strode back to the driver's seat. The lanky young man followed him slowly with a limp as he opened the back door and crawled into the last available seat, and he curled up in on himself as he leaned onto the limp Samandriel in the middle seat. He looked so pitiful that the two humans couldn't help but feel bad.
"Why is it that you're still awake while these two aren't?" Sam asked, trying to get as much information of this is new guy before he passed out as well.
"Think of heaven like a heat source. Before it had been a blazing fire, and now it's only a few coals. It cannot be far reaching anymore, and those who are left in the cold are beginning to loose energy quickly." He closed his eyes and drew in a quick breath.
"All of us are going to be experiencing fallout. The system is now trying to function at only half the size, and as a separate entity. It needs to...grow on it's own...before...we can't..." He was getting extremely short of breath as he reached over to hug Samandriel like he was a large teddy bear, his eyes were closed now, and by the looks of it he wasn't opening them anytime soon again. He sighed deeply and looked like he was about to cry. "...Isiah, Isiah, I'm going to find you again, later, I promise..." He muttered feverishly before he was breathing shallowly, asleep.
The two brothers exchanged glances. "What, are we just sick angel daycare or something now?" Dean said, glancing at the sickly, sleeping faces in the back seat.
"Dean, they need our help. God knows they've helped us." Sam answered sympathetically. Dean flashed back to when Cas had come to the rescue and quickly healed him of those horrible burns. He'd done so many other things, too many to count. He just hoped that things wouldn't be this bad for long: carrying around three low-power angels was basically like painting a bright red bull's eye on their backs.
"But look at them, Dean. They're kind of sweet," Sam said, looking back at the three sleeping angels who were unconciously hugging onto each other as if for warmth. It was strange to think that their vessels didn't reflect who they truly were; an army general, a sympatheic warrior, and an infant. They were actually so starkingly different, but so similar at the same time. "Let's get these little angels to safety."
Samandriel had felt the split like he'd been struck down by lightning. He could have stayed conscious for a little longer, but he decided to not fight it and let the blackness pull him down, deep down. It was painful to say the least. He felt each rip right down in his very soul, right to the bottom of his existence. As it got closer and closer to cutting off completely, he started to feel what was really happening. So many of his brothers and sisters, although he had never met them, started flowing out from his awareness as they became completely lost. There was no way he could tell how many slipped away, how many seemed to be torn out of his mind and basically turn into nothingness.
Samandriel felt a sensation a lot like sleeping as he felt like he was fading: he could imagine himself becoming smaller and smaller, and more and more transparent until felt barely any power anymore. Then, the worst thing he could imagine started to happen. He felt as he was getting weaker and receding into a deep sleep, he felt a familiar conscious bubbling up as he sunk closer and closer to where it was located.
Oh, no. No, no, this can't be happening. He thought to himself, reaching with a weak hand to try and push down. He found himself not even being able to hold up his hand, and much less push down with the strength required. Alfie began to surface and sputter inaudibly, as Samandriel sunk deeper into nothingness. Then, just as he felt like he was going to disappear into nothingness as well, he felt a painful tug and he went skyrocketing away, and fear gripped him as he didn't know where.
There was a flash of light from the bedroom, where the three men had been tucked away and sleeping soundly. Sam and Dean had been eating dinner after a long day, and they both widened their eyes and rushed up immediately to the back room. The three still appeared fast asleep, and Dean went up to Castiel right away. He lightly shook his shoulder, then tried to slap his face to wake him up. Nothing. They got the same result from Calcifer. Or rather, Calcifer's vessel. It seemed like the angels had left, leaving empty bodies behind.
Alfie took a while to fight his way to open his eyes or even lick his extremely parched lips. He knew that once the angel returned he would be lost again, and the only reason he was here was because Samandriel had been very, very weak, and had sunk even farther than were Alfie usually was in his mind. Now, the barely-there force was completely gone. His eyelids fluttered open weakly, A dark room came into view- a dingy motel, as he saw two men staring at him, and he stared back through half-closed lids, as he wasn't able to muster enough energy to even open them all the way.
He struggled to remember these people's names- one of them started with a D, he was pretty sure. It seemed like a lifetime ago that he had shared his body with its new host: he felt like he'd finally awoken from a deep, deep sleep.
"Great, you're awake." One of them said, turning on a dim lamp that emitted soft yellow light, and Alfie's irises contracted sharply at the light source. The man's face fell when he looked at the teenager who was tucked snugly into the blankets. "You're not him." He said, raising his eyebrow. Alfie was unable to respond as he only stared with slightly open eyes.
"How is he doing? Is he okay?" Dean asked, feeling genuinely concerned. He had grown to like the little Samandriel, and he was extremely worried about how Cas was doing too.
"He's gone," Alfie managed to croak out. He was hungry, thirsty, and tired. He almost just wanted Samandriel to come back so he could just sleep in comfort again. It felt almost sickening to be fully conscious after being gone. The brothers exchanged glances again; this was not good.
Castiel opened his eyes, and without even looking around he knew he had been pulled sharply back to heaven, it felt very alike to when a sigil had jerked him back in the past. He felt a strange sensation and realized that he had not brought his body with him- it was just his core form that he had painfully shed all his extra decorations to his soul that had grown with age, so that he could wear his core human form as an emblem of his commitment to the pro-human side. He didn't look much different than his vessel on earth; he still had vivid, deep blue eyes, and ink-black hair. He stared at the blazingly white-grey sky, and felt a chill as he saw snowflakes float down slowly and melt into little droplets on his face and arms. He rolled over and got up with difficulty, he felt drained of energy. He shook his massive black wings to rid them of snow and he looked around.
He had landed in the middle of a cold, wintry forest. Thin, charcoal black trees extended into the sky and faded into gray-white mist. It didn't take him long to see little Samandriel lying there flat on his back, eyes closed. He looked about three now in his human body, with thin, pale arms and legs that were now in a starfish position. His pure white wings were almost blending into the white snow that layered on the ground. The little boy had messy, straight dark brown hair and a string of freckles on the tops of his cheeks and the bridge of his nose. An angel with freckles. Castiel could only recall a few others like that- it was almost as rare as twins. Speaking of twins- he looked to see a Calcifer-shaped imprint in the snow, followed by fresh footprints.
He knelt down and softly shook the kid's shoulders, and he got no response. "Samandriel. Wake up, we need to get home..." He then laid a soft hand on his little brother's cheek. It was warm, and Castiel felt a similar sensation as grace began to tug from his chest and float peacefully toward the kid. He understood now; he needed extra strength when he was weak, like he had been when they'd rescued him from the torture chamber. He opened his big, childish eyes. They seemed to plead Castiel for help from their deep stormy gray depths. He raised his skinny arms toward him as if he wanted him to lift him up and carry him.
"Okay, come here." Castiel had strain himself reach under his armpits and lift the small body, he felt so weak himself. He had just brought Samandriel into a tight hold as the kid went into a side hug and Cas held the small of back, when a large boom went off, it was so loud and had such force that some of the snow fell from the branches of the black trees.
"We need to get out of here," He said almost to himself as he began to run through the trees, which didn't seem so peaceful anymore. He wasn't running for long when he heard muffled noises of fighting, and the scene opened up before him like a horrible painting. Down in an open field covered in white, a battle raged on. Angels wearing human bodies were on one side, they all emitted warm, white light that brought feelings of comfort and emotions, while the other side consisted of lumps of coral-like pieces of all different animal parts, with several faces. Their light felt cold, piercing and harsh. It was like a nightmare as everyone rushed around sporadically, blades flashing, screams, yells and shrieks pierced the air.
Castiel finally found the source of the loud boom before. Someone (from which side, he wasn't sure) threw down a holy oil bomb, which exploded with such force to push a diameter of angels away and the ones who the flames had hit were immediately incinerated. Castiel and Samandriel hugged each other tightly as they both got a thick surge of fresh pain- a few on their side had just been hit. Cas looked down and saw that one had been gravely injured, in trying to shield the others, the wall of flame had hit him from the side and burned away half of the protective, light grey wing with white spots. Isiah. Calcifer and his brother might seem a bit cocky and pretentious, but damn, they had heart. That was probably why they and three others were in control of the whole operation.
He saw the mass of human bodies sprint and swarm away in the opposite direction, shouts to retreat repeated over and over. Castiel dipped back into the forrest and went to meet up with them, trying to slide as quickly and quietly as possible among the trees. He heard soft talking and crunching in the snow and he finally met up with a few angels on his side. They shone with their warm lights, and he felt almost like a man coming in from the cold and sitting in front of a fire. He finally set Samandriel down, who clung tightly to his leg as he looked out with worried eyes to the bunch of people.
"Castiel," He heard Calcifer call to him softly from not too far away. He made his way over to the voice, reaching down with a gentle hand to hold Samandriel's. He read his little brother's emotions: he was shaken up at the scene he'd just witnessed, and now he felt scared and uncomfortable at everyone staring at him. They hadn't known that there had been any survivors from the pro-apocalype's horrible massacre, and now all eyes fell on him. He tried to avoid their stares as he held tightly onto Castiel's significantly larger hand.
Calcifer was sitting right next to his identical twin with a gentle arm thrown over his shoulder, looking relieved at having found him but at the same time looking guilty that he couldn't do more for his pain. Isiah's right wing had been halfway burnt away, and now the edges of his remaining feathers were a deep black, and a few charcoal bones even stuck out from the top. His face was tight with pain and very pale as he leaned slightly toward Calcifer. His white-blonde hair was falling over his closed eyes as he breathed in shallowly.
Calcifer looked up with his twinkling golden-amber eyes, which were possibly his best feature. Castiel was ready for him to sentence him to stay; he felt his chest squeeze in the fear of the thought of having to abandon Sam and Dean when they needed him most. But once the order was given, he would not be able to ignore it. In a world with hardly any authority, they had to respect any of the five in command's directions. His body tensed up as he waited for Calcifer to speak.
Instead, he started with a surprisingly uncharacteristic kind voice. "Your humans were very kind to me." He said, blinking slowly. He had taken off the white cloth he'd wrapped around his upper arm, and Castiel was shocked to see a thick black horizontal line streaked across his arm, with darkly colored veins extending past the wound and regressing into his body. If he was right, it almost looked like the effects of an angel killed from Leviathans.
He noticed Castiel staring at his arm. "When you return, you must be extremely careful. There have been innovations in weapons and warfare. What you're looking at right here was the effects of a holy oil bomb." He said, nodding toward Isiah. "What you see here, thank god they only nicked me, are Leviathan poison bullets. You get one of those to the core and you're a goner." He sighed deeply, and the breath curled opaque into the cold air, swirling among the softly falling snow.
"When I return." Castiel repeated almost unemotionlessly, shocked. He wasn't going to order him to stay? "You may return to Earth and help your humans if you wish. Or, you may stay here and lend a hand. God knows we could use it. I am giving you a choice, Castiel." He looked up at him with those golden eyes again, and Cas could tell it wasn't a trick this time. Maybe he never gave these mini-tricksters enough credit.
"I am going to help close up hell for good. And if you'd like, I will continue to try and search for Gabriel." Calcifer nodded, and closing his eyes, leaned to rest his head with his very wounded brother's. Isiah would probably never fly again. Castiel shivered as he thought about how this was only the beginning. This war needed to end quickly, or there would be many others who went back into the Internal Grace. There were so few of them left, and with so many functions failing... he was aware of the two tiny stars he carried, but he knew only two could never be enough to fill the void that was quickly expanding.
"I will return, Calcifer. As soon as I can." Castiel suddenly felt very passionate about the issue. He could not abandon his side in their time of need, and he shivered again as he thought about what would happen if the other side won. He didn't even want to think about it. Maybe they'd even go to extreme measures and wipe the whole earth clean and start over from their standards. There was no way he could ever let that happen.
Calcifer looked at him intently, narrowing those lovely eyes slightly as he was thinking. "A drop from where the three rivers collide, that's one of the ingredients to close hell, isn't it?" He asked as he had read his mind. "I know what that is. The rivers leading out from heaven, purgatory and hell which flow to supply earth at the great waterfall. I will get you the last ingredient if it insures that you will be return swiftly."
Castiel's deep blue eyes lit up. What had seemed like an overwhelmingly complicated and impossible task was finally coming together. However, Castiel felt somewhat fearful as he thought about what closing hell might mean. There had to be a hidden consequence to the spell, such powerful magic was rarely so simple. Castiel agreed silently, sending thoughts of gratitude towards his brother that he had grown to admire so much more. Calcifer nodded, both an acknowledgement and a dismissal, and gripping Samandriel tightly to his chest, Castiel hurtled back to earth.