As Dean stomped on Famine, Castiel wasn't sure whether or not he should be pissed with Dean or himself. He'd suspected something was up since Carthage, but like an idiot, he'd continued to deny it since acknowledging it would mean that Dean had said yes and he'd defied Heaven for nothing. Since he spent so much time away from Dean searching for his Father so that he could stop the Apocalypse before things got too far out of hand, it was easier to deny things, since he wasn't there to see them because he was so far away. Seeing Dean bring Famine back from the dead more than once however was more than he could ignore.

What the hell was all that stuff about defying fate and following one's own free will if Dean was just going to say yes to Michael...?

"Dean, are you aware that you've been bringing Famine back from the dead?" Sam said, looking as if he'd been refraining from commenting, but finally had to speak up around the fifth time that Dean had returned Famine to the afterlife.

"I have?" Dean - or should Castiel say Michael - said in false surprise. "Wow, I just thought that he was just a stubborn SOB who refused to die...I wonder who else I can bring back."

"Nobody." Sam said firmly. "Humans can't bring people back from the dead Dean."

"Oh, yeah, right. That's right isn't it?" Dean said. "Let's get out of here and forget this ever happened."

"Agreed.:" Sam replied.

With that, Sam and Dean turned to leave as if one of them hadn't entirely shattered Castiel's world view and destroyed everything he had thought he'd been working for with a simple snap of his fingers. As they left, Castiel longed to pound Dean into the dirt for making the sacrifices he'd made completely worthless. There was no way that he could beat Michael however, so he refrained, quietly simmering as he followed his "friend" out of the restaurant.

Very pointedly not looking at Dean, he turned to Sam whom he'd been trying to forget existed since the beginning when he'd pulled Dean out of Hell. Looking, really looking, rather than directing a comment or two at the other man while focusing his attention on Dean, he could now see that there was something seriously wrong with Sam. It was almost as if the younger Winchester brother was folded in on himself. Almost as if the younger Winchester brother had very carefully folded himself into something approximating a human shape.

Curious, very curious...

Looking back at "Dean", he realized that Michael had folded himself into a more neatly done human form that looked almost exactly like the Dean he'd always known, but more somehow.

"What was the point of everything if you were going to say yes?" Castiel grumbled as his anger got the better of him.

"Huh?" Michael asked, giving him a look that was so purely Dean that if he hadn't known, he almost would've believed it was Dean.

"What was the point of everything if you were just going to say yes to Michael? Why did I do any of this?" Castiel asked.

"I didn't say yes to Michael and I'm never going to." Michael said, giving Sam a rather shifty glance.

"Yes you-" Castiel started.

"Castiel, leave it." Michael said, growling his name before barking his order.

He flinched. Dean almost never called him Castiel, preferring to shorten his name to "Cas", and hearing that name come from the man he'd sacrificed everything for...

That had been the last straw. Launching his weakened form at the creature who had taken his friend from him, he aimed for the wings that were pulled incredibly close to the human body that the Archangel occupied. Michael had been waiting for him though, and the other angel had clotheslined him before knocking him to the ground and pinning him down.

"I'm just going to go over, er, somewhere while you to sort out this whatever the hell it is out." Sam said slightly shiftily.

A moment later, Sam who'd moved faster than was humanly possible was gone.

"You've joined Lucifer?!" Castiel exclaimed in surprise when realization had finally dawned on him.

"I have no idea what you're talking about Cas. Sam's Sam like he always was, and I'm Dean like I always was, and there's no way in hell that I'd ever help Lucifer destroy the world." Michael replied, letting him up.

Castiel wasn't entirely sure what to make of that curiously specific denial. While Michael had said he wouldn't help Lucifer destroy the world, he had never once said anything about not having joined Lucifer.

"Now Cas, I'm going to go see where Sammy has gone off to. Next time I see you, you'd better not be spouting any wild theories about me being Michael or Sam being Lucifer." Michael said in a seemingly nice tone that carried an undertone of "Disobey me and I will smite you".

Michael left, leaving him wondering exactly what the hell was going on. Moments after Michael left, Gabriel appeared.

"Welcome to the insane asylum." Gabriel said as he handed him a bottle of something called Everclear.

"I'm not in an insane asylum." Castiel said as he accepted the bottle wondering what 190proof meant.

Gabriel snorted at this as he summoned a candy bar.

"May as well be." Gabriel said as he unwrapped the candy. "I see you finally decided to come out of denial regarding Michael and Lucifer."

Before he could come up with a reply of any sort, the Cupid from earlier timidly approached them.

"Gabriel, sir, if I may...What's going on?" the rather nervous and shaken looking Cupid asked.

"Short version," Gabriel said, swallowing the bite of chocolate he'd been chewing on. "Zachariah and Raphael are being dicks and Michael finally decided that he wasn't going to go along with it, and that he'd finally be his own man, er, angel even if it means stopping the Apocalypse that they'd gotten rolling. When it comes to Lucifer...Well, when have you ever seen him follow any plan that Heaven has made?"

"Oh." the Cupid said, looking uncertain whether he should be relieved or not. "Which side are you on sir?"

"The side that doesn't end with us going back to the same old same old World War III for Sunday dinner each week." Gabriel replied. "There was a reason I left after-all."

Castiel winced as he remembered the rumors of the fights that tended to break out in the upper echelons since Father had vanished. If that had been all he'd had to look forward to, he would've left as well. The question was, should he try to make his way back to the side of Heaven since working with Michael meant working with Lucifer and accepting whatever punishment they would give him, or should he be stopping the Apocalypse like he'd promised Dean he would help him do before Dean had vanished and Michael had taken his place? The right thing would be to go home, but he'd sworn that he'd help Dean and stay by his side...