So how about Tuesdays episode? Let me just say Ezekiel... if Cas trusts him I don't.
Oh and remember none of these new episodes happened in this even though i can sort of see Tuesday's episode happening... it didn't though because Chuck knows how this Ezekiel arch will work out.
Chapter 32
"Hundreds of Californian fields have been eaten by loci despite it not being locus season," Sam's voice woke Dean from his reluctant sleep and he opened his eyes to see Cas walk across the room and stare at the computer screen.
"That's them", Cas finally confirmed.
"Cas, have you fought them before?" Dean asked recognizing his friends face of regret.
"A very long time ago I was part of a team set up by Michael for the sole purpose of fighting them," Cas replied hesitantly, " They were Lucifer's fist creations made even before the demons. In the beginning there were 7 of them and a thousand of us. By the end there were more locus-women then angels standing in a leveled forest now called the Sahara."
"So you mean to say that a thousand angels went up against 7 of them and only 2 angels survived? Now the three of us are somehow supposed to kill the rest. Who was the other angel? Any chance he'd help us for a favor?"
"Oh I'm sure he would," Cas responded immediately, " But the price is far too high."
"To high? What could be higher than our lives?" Sam asked annoyed but Dean knew.
"It's Michael isn't it? Michael is the only other angel who survived. He'd help us now, but only if I said yes…. And I can't say yes until we trap Lucifer in Eden or they'll roast the planet."
"D*mn Cas. You fought with Michael," Sam remarked trying to move away from the touchy vessel topic. "How high on the angelic ladder were you to do that?"
"Right below the archangels," Cas confessed offering the boys one of the first insights into his angelic past. "Before I messed up with Vassagio I was Michael's right hand man."
Cas always seemed to know what to say to shut the Winchesters up. They packed and moved out in silence processing the information of how much Cas gave up fighting for humanity. Not only did he lose his grace, his wings, he lost his honor and his status.
When they arrived in California the boys discovered that for once the news had under-exaggerated. Entire vineyards were torn and eaten to the ground.
"Thank Chuck I don't bother with this high-class alchohol. Wine prices are gonna be a b*tch." Sam often wondered if Dean had any sense of perspective or if he knew that it wasn't the time to joke and joked anyways.
Even without his celestial powers Cas had been trained to track the locus-women and found clues where the Winchesters wouldn't have even known to look.
"That's them," Cas deduced as they arrived at a street covered with unconscious women. Crouching besides the closest one he pulled out his blade and prepared to slit her throat.
"Whoa! Cas! What the Hell?" Dean asked jerking Cas's hand just in time.
"Do you know how these creatures work?" Castiel asked the fire of fury dancing in his eyes. "They're like demons but worse. These women are long dead and inside them a new locus-women is forming. Within 24 hours they'll be formidable opponents. Killing them will save countless lives."
No one liked the thought. These new born locus-women had yet to hurt anybody just like the werewolf Kate they'd let go or even Amy Pond's son. They tried so hard to only hurt monsters who had hurt humans. Yet now the boys couldn't take the chance. This was war.
Dean reluctantly released Cas's hand and together the three quickly and brutally butchered the helpless bodies. The entire time they just played the same words in their head-this was war.
Once blood flooded the street and team free-will was done their work Cas led the Winchesters through the desolate town in the direction he knew the locus-women would go-west with the setting sun.
"Where is everyone?" Sam asked as they passed through the third town without a body-living or dead-being seen.
Cas look disgusted as he replied. "The only bodies these creatures leave are the ones they have implanted. They eat the rest."
Just the answer Sam wanted.
Finally they arrived at a half eaten field. Parking the Impala they got out of the car. "Maybe you should stay here Cas," Dean suggested. "You don't have a weapon to kill them and you're not an angel this time. They'll kill you."
"They're going to kill us all one way or another. I might as well go down with you"
A weaponless Cas led the charge into the vineyard maze. They couldn't see the locus-women but in the darkening dusk they knew they were being watched. "Why don't they just ambush us and get it over with?" Sam whispered to Cas who seemed to know these creatures inside an out.
"They're waiting to see if it's just us or if they're others. Even in this body they recognize me as the one who killed their alpha and are weary. They will figure out soon enough that we're alone and attack."
At this point no one was even surprised that Cas had killed the Locus-Alpha even if they were impressed. Someday, if they all lived through the Apocalypse, they'd sit Cas down and get his story. After all he knew everything about them, possibly more.
"This way," Cas told them taking off at a run. "It'll be best to fight them in a clearing where they can't sneak up on us."
There was no reason to run. The locus-women knew that no human could see in the dark, and despite their position of dominance they waited until only the half moon lit the sky.
Rustling vines as lion bodies hit them alerted the waiting hunters to their enemy's arrival. With a nod the three prepared for their impossible fights aware that they might never see each other again.
A crushing blow sent Dean flying away from his comrades as a locus-monster approached. Quickly rising to his feet Dean faced a creature unlike any he'd ever looked upon before. Despite the morbid situation Dean couldn't help but wonder what Lucifer had been thinking as he created these piecemeal creatures. They were hideous but as he moved to attack he realized something else-they were fast.
The three hunters danced with their monsters each suffering major blows. Limping Sam misjudged the creature and ended up dodging to the wrong side. Dean caught sight of his brother pinned under the locus-women and instantly forgot about his own fight. As he dashed to his brothers rescue staff Dean felt a giant lion claw catch his back.
All of a sudden a hundred figures descended upon the vineyard. Light returned to the night and Dean and the others shut their eyes knowing what was to come. When the light died away and Dean slowly opened his eyes he saw the limp lions bodies strewn across the fields and a hundred angels united in a circle around Castiel and the Winchesters. A middle-aged women with short graying hair separated herself from the other angels as he approached team free will hands up in sign of piece.
"Count yourselves lucky. If Michael didn't believe in the prophecy so much and hadn't sent us you'd be dead," she told them without introductions.
"Who are you?" Sam's gruff tone was filled with spite at the angels who wanted to possess his brother.
The angels smiled charismatically as she replied. "I forgot we'd never formally met. Well Castiel I've met but that was a long, long time ago. I am Ruth the guardian." Cas scowled at the sound of the angel's name causing Ruth to laugh softly before continuing. "My job is to protect certain people, usually saints, until their work is done as Heaven foresees it. Michael has asked me to protect you until you either succeed in or give up whatever foolish plan you're working on and say yes."
"I don't need your protection. We've survived fine for years thank-you-very-much," Dean spit back. Who did Michael think he was?
"I can see that," Ruth told them with a chuckle as she looked at the locus-women. "You were fairing so well with these abominations before I stepped in. Never the less Michael has told me to protect you three so I will do my job. Consider me your new angelic liaison since Castiel here seems to need a bell to ring."
"Well why doesn't Michael just give Cas his grace back and we can all go our separate ways," Dean suggested fully in tune to the fact that Ruth seemed to want to spend time protecting the Winchesters about as much as the Winchesters wanted to be protected.
"Michael is… concerned that you're having second thoughts about saying yes and is holding Castiel's grace as a bargaining chip you could say. Now, I must report back into Heaven. Try not to get yourselves killed; I do hate the paperwork."
Ruth and her legion disappeared with a pop. "That son of a b*tch." Dean cursed. "He thinks blackmailing me into saying yes so you can get your wings back will work?" Fury coursed through Dean as he realized it would work. No way could he break his promise to Charlie if it meant Cas would never get his grace back. They were opening Eden and setting things right and that was that. "Come on. I think I know where we can find Chamuel. Maybe we can even get ourselves killed along the way and get that Ruth chick demoted."
