Part Two: Light

Chapter Seven: Save Her

You had never known fear.

You knew only the taste of blood;
Of battle and of victory.
You knew the violence of storms,
For it was in your hearts.
You knew the ferocity of earthquakes,
For it was in your fists.
You knew the rage of volcanoes,
For it was in your veins.

You did not walk the paths carved by man;
You broke the spines of mountains,
Tour the tendons of the oceans,
Made them bow and move for you.

And then you met her.

Then you were the one bowing, moving;
The clouds of your heart parted, the storm calmed,
And your hands were gentle wherever they touched.
And all that you had conquered
Meant nothing to you without her.

Now you know what fear is.

You had only ever gained.
You took because you could;
And all that you had,
Nothing could take from you,
And nothing could be taken.
Now the one thing you did not take
Is the one thing you cannot bear to lose.

And you realized how truly terrified
You are capable of being.

May 5th, 2011

Vetis spread the cream-colored map over the table, holding the corners down with four lit candles. Lighting a match, he whispered a few words in Enochian along with the names of the people he wanted to find, and dropped the match. The fire burned through the map, leaving black ash in its place. He cursed when he saw that there was nothing left, though it wasn't a surprise. He could hardly expect Castiel to have left them without protection. But, contrary to popular belief, Castiel did not know everything. So Vetis reworked the spell, this time using older magic to try to find the place in America that Castiel had most recently been, mainly by drawing the younger angel's sigil on the map with his own blood.

In his mind, front and center when usually it was so subtle, Vetis heard his brother shouting at him. Stop! We're too close; you can't do this!

Vetis lit the match.

Stop! Brother, STOP!

He dropped the match, forcibly slamming the voice out of his mind. Shut up, Lucifer.

Soon there was only a small rectangle left with the words South Dakota in slanted script. He summoned a new map of the state, and repeated the process.

Sioux Falls.

Dean was getting antsy.

After what had happened to Sachiel, Cas had forbid them to go on anymore hunts. That went about as well as one would expect. Dean still refused to talk to him, much to Sam's annoyance as he was now forced to serve as Dean and Castiel's middleman, delivering messages to and from each of them. It didn't take long before he flat out refused to keep doing it, hoping that it would force the two to talk to each other. Instead, Castiel was using the angels guarding the brothers to send them important messages, which only served to piss Dean off more.

Yesterday, one of the angels told them about a priest in Adrienne's hometown that went insane two days ago and started killing people, soon being blamed for the Morgenstern's disappearance. Now they were all but confined to Bobby's house, with angels guarding the property 24/7.

Which was why it was kind of terrifying to see flashing white lights out the window.

Sam called for his brother and Bobby, and together the three of them looked outside the window to the front yard. They couldn't see anyone, but that didn't necessarily mean that no one was there.

"Do you think it's Adrienne?" Sam asked.

"Do you think it's not?" Bobby replied.

"Yeah, good point." A beat passed. "Well it's not like they can get in anyway. Cas warded the house."

Before either of them could reply, they heard several high-pitched beeping sounds. After a brief moment, Dean asked, "Is that the smoke alarm?"

It felt pointless to answer that when smoke started to fill the room. Within minutes, they were forced to either leave the house or face death by smoke inhalation, and holy shit, that should be an easier decision.

They tried to stick to the porch, but it didn't matter. Vetis knew the moment they left the building, and was in the yard to greet them. His smile was absolutely cheery, which was even weirder paired with his red eyes and general creepy aura.

"Hello, boys!"

Dean had grabbed an angel blade before going outside. Now Vetis forced it over, leaving them more defenseless than they'd been before. Dean sent a prayer to Cas, but knew it was probably useless. There was no way Vetis would come here without making sure no other angel could.

"What do you want?" Dean felt ridiculous asking, but he couldn't stand to just stand there and wait to die.

"I'm so glad you asked Dean." Vetis walked while he talked. Dean felt like a helpless rabbit being stalked by a wolf, stuck between the instinct to run (which would get him killed instantly) and just standing there and hoping it was a quick death.

"I want to make a deal."

Dean was still bracing himself for lightning to strike him when he realized what the fallen angel had said. Being the incredibly clever and witty man that he was, he asked, "What?"

Vetis chuckled. "Always so eloquent Dean." He stops smiling, looking so serious that it makes Dean more uncomfortable than his smiling did. "Tomorrow, Adrienne is going to complete the spell to raise Lucifer. I want you to stop it."

None of them really knew how to respond to that. Finally Dean said, "Bullshit." Sam looked at his brother as though to say 'Shut up!', but Dean kept going. "You've been waiting for a chance to bring Lucifer back since the day you fell. Somehow, I don't see you giving that up."

"It doesn't matter why I want you to stop her; all that matters is that you do."

"It matters because we have no reason to trust you. For all we know you're trying to lead us into some sort of trap to kill us and Cas." Really, it was the only thing that made sense. He probably came to kill them, realized Cas wasn't here, and was luring them into a trap to get rid of them all at once. And as angry as Dean was with the angel, he'd die before he let Vetis anywhere near him.

Vetis looked angry, but there was something more to it. Dean realized he was nervous, saw it in the way his hand twitched, all the more noticeable as angels were usually completely still if they weren't walking or fighting. Dean filed the information away for later, unsure if it was important or not.

Vetis's eyes flicked from one man to the other before they landed on Dean again. He realized he had no other options, and bit the bullet. "Adrienne will die if she does the ritual."

Well that was shocking.

A beat passed before Dean asked, "Sounds like the sort of thing you might want to tell her."

"No. She can't know. She doesn't know, and she's never going to know."

Dean stared at him, surprise and disgust slowly marring his features. "So this is what I'm hearing: You found out that Adrienne was going to die trying to raise Lucifer, and instead of telling her, or even just convincing her not to do it, you decided it would be easier to sic us on her, and then her on us."

Sam shook his head, joining his brother in his suicidal quest to find out what the hell was going on. "No, it's more than that. This isn't something he's just found out; you've known about this, haven't you?"

Vetis said nothing.

Sam continued. "The obvious answer would be to just let her do it anyway. The Antichrist isn't the endgame, the devil is. And for a while, that's what you did. But something changed, and now you can't let that happen. So the question is, what changed?"

"That doesn't matter."

The angel had appeared behind his brother, his expression as cold and stony as ever. He had panicked when he realized the angels stationed at Bobby's house were gone, but now he was careful not to show how tired he was from disarming the wards, or how scared he was for the boys' lives. But despite how tiring the wards had been, he worried at how easy it had been to disable them (or at least not as hard as it could have been).

Castiel's gaze briefly flicked to the boys and Bobby to see that they were all right before returning to Vetis. There was an angel blade in his hand. He was stiff, ready to attack at the first sign of danger. Vetis rolled his eyes when he saw the weapon. "Oh, come on brother. How stupid do you think I am?"

An identical blade slid into Vetis's hand. The angels stared at each other, each trying to decide whether or not to make the first move before Vetis settled their silent argument by throwing his dagger at the angel. The blade embedded itself in Castiel's shoulder. Castiel threw his own a moment too late, and Vetis dodged it, teleporting to his brother's side. Vetis grabbed Castiel's neck, forcing him to stand still while he quickly fastened a glowing white collar around his neck.

By now, the men had snapped out of their shock and were running towards the angels, but it was too late. Vetis had disappeared, Castiel with him, leaving a small note on the ground. Dean picked his up, eyes scanning it several times before his mind had cleared enough to read it.

Go to Stull Cemetery tomorrow at noon and disrupt the ritual.

Dean reread the note several times until Sam wrenched it from him. When Dean finally came back to himself, he shouted, "Son of a bitch!"

Castiel wasn't sure where they were. He was certain they were on Earth, and it seemed to be a mountain. There was no wildlife, no plants or water. They were surrounded by dull gray stone that Vetis had painstakingly carved over a dozen sets of enochian sigils to ward off any angels - and Adrienne.

The collar was still around his neck, and attached to it was a chain connected to a pillar made of the same white material as the collar and angel blades. His wrists had been cuffed and chained to similar pillars in two different directions, stretching his arms so tightly he could barely move them.

Vetis secured a matching pair of cuffs to his brothers ankles. It was when he began fixing the second one that Castiel found he could no longer abstain from saying anything. "You're a hypocrite."

Vetis looked up at him, eyes glowing red. "Excuse me?"

In his usual monotone voice, Castiel explained, "You mock me for my commitment to protecting Sam and Dean, but here you are, doing everything you can to protect a woman who's half-human woman you were willing to let die only yesterday."

Vetis straightened, eyes hard as he backhanded the blue-eyed angel. "The Winchesters are pests, no better than rats. Adrienne is a goddess." He left without saying anything else.

Vetis slipped into Adrienne's bed, curling his arms around her still form. She didn't stay still, twisting around to look at him almost as soon as he got in.

Adrienne blinked wearily, but didn't seemed surprised or upset, so he counted it as a win. "What's going on?"

"Nothing," he says reassuringly, "I just had to handle a few things. You can go back to sleep."

Adrienne's eyes were white, and though they weren't glowing, there was still that sense of other to her, and his own eyes turned red in response. In a weird way, they match, and he smiles, brushing his hand over the side of her face before gently kissing her on the forehead, nose, and lips. "I love you."

Adrienne pulls back a bit, staring at him in shock. Then she smiles, kissing him softly on the lips. "I love you too." Adrienne grinned, kissing him once more before yawning and going back to sleep. Vetis chuckled, curling his arms around her, only allowing his face to fall when he was sure she couldn't see. And for the first time in thousands of years, he prayed.

The poem from the beginning is "Some Lessons Come Too Late" by dvoyd on tumblr.