"Well, we're gonna get to all the results, in just a second. We're gonna start with, uh…lts go back to our first story."
"Cas, Phone. It's probably Dean." The angel looked over as she tossed him the cellular device,
"Hi."
"Cas, how ya doin', buddy?" Jenny Jones kept playing in the background why Cas found this show entertaining, of all things, she had no idea.
"Oh, I'm fine." Grace frowned, why was he lying?
"Find anything on Metatron."
"Uh, nothing on Angel radio."
"How long's it been since you left the bunker?"
"Oh, why would I leave? I've got everything I need right here." Grace rattled off a couple in her mind, fresh air, sunlight, actual research…to name a few.
"Wait, is that—are you watching Jenny Jones?"
"That's what I said!" She could almost hear the smirk in her older brother's voice.
"It's a re-run. She's just about to announce the paternity results. Jenny, he is not ready to be a father." Grace snatched the phone from the angel.
"Dean, for the love of cas' father, . .HERE! all he's been doing is watching that idiot box, I think his…wait do angel's have brains? Well, regardless, I think his is fried."
"Okay. I-I-I thought you were going with socially acceptable binge watching. Uh, you know, "The wire," or "Game of thrones."
"Grace, give me back the phone."
"Not until you get out of that chair!" Dean, who listened to their bickering from the other end of the line turned to look at Sam and mouthed 'Trouble in paradise' to which Sam responded by chuckling.
"Grace Winchester, give me the phone!" Figuring his sister would take over the role of getting Cas out of the bunker he hung up.
"It's about damn time. I swear, if I never see another episode of "Jenny Jones" in my life again, it'll be too soon." Castiel rolled his eyes at her, "You know, I still owe you for stealing the phone from me." Grace just smirked,
"Ooh, is the mighty Castiel going to punish me?" the angel let out a low, almost predatory growl as he finished slipping his trench coat on, "Maybe I should, now that you're no longer human." There was a dark and twisted side to the angel Grace had never really seen, however somewhere in the back of her mind, she liked it.
"Maybe Later, Love. Right now, we need to help Sam and Dean." As they neared the door Castiel seemed hesitant, his hand trembled as e reached for the door knob.
"Cas?" The images of him Beating Dean senseless and Hannah's death flashed in his mind, "Cas?" He was scared, his body was shaking,
"Castiel, look at me…Look right at me." The angel looked right past her, sounding like it was under water, when the images stopped he looked petrified, "Castiel…"he pushed past her, heading back to his room to watch the T.V again. The blonde watched with sad eyes.
"Castiel…we need to talk, about whatever is going on with you." The woman on the T.V faded into background noise, "Grace, I…" he stopped, seeing something on the screen.
"Grace, look. Is that?" He rewound the footage and Grace followed him to get a closer look.
"No fucking way…"
"Metatron." His voice was dangerously low now as he tried to mentally burn holes in the man on the screen.
"I need your help." The look in his eyes aid everything, He wanted revenge.
"Cas…"
"Oh, this is good. A night-leader if ever I saw one. And this is gonna fetch me $500, minimum" The outcast Angel leaned over the corpse, rifling through the guys pockets.
"I, uh—I know that $500 sounds like plenty, but with my overhead…Daddy's gotta eat." The guy coughed and sputtered as Metatron went to take the money from his wallet, "Oh, come on."
"Help, please." Metatron scoffed, he had never doe the right thing in his (long) life. "I'm sorry, buddy. Y-You live, there's no story" the man kept choking on his own blood and the angel still looked torn. "You know, there was a time I could have brought you back from the brink with a snap of my fingers not tat I would have."
He pocketed the man's money and dropped his wallet back on him, "But I'm not that guys anymore. I can't save you."
"We can." Metatron turned, surprised to not only see Castiel, but a blonde woman he had thought long dead.
"How did you find me? And you, how are you alive?" silvery blonde hair blew around in the slight breeze of the alley way, "I owe you no explanation's, Metatron. However, my father is very cross with you."
"Your father?" he looked mildly terrified at the news, Grace just frowned "Y-You know, that whole…there's a bigger player thing was just—"
"Oh no, you were right, and he's about to join the board, he's just waiting for the right moment. Regardless…" She looked to Castiel who stared on with narrow, cat like focus.
"We found you the same way you found him. Scoured the police scanners, got ahead of the authorities." Castiel knelt next to the man who was bleeding out and healed him, Grace shoved past Metatron who'd filmed the whole thing, almost knocking the camera to the ground.
"What was that?" Grace stayed near the man as he regained his bearings as Castiel turned, his expression frightening yet collected.
"Look, a real-life angel caught on tape? That is way better than some random homicide." Grace slowly helped the man to sit up as Castiel broke Metatron's camera. The man had it coming, he'd toyed with Castel long enough
"Hey! Do you have an idea how much stuff I had to steal and then pawn to pay for that?!"
"You'll be all right, I promise." She gave the man one last smile as sirens and flashing lights filled the area, Cas motioned for Grace to hide as he drug Metatron with them. Shoving him around.
"Okay, 'Marv'…You're picking pockets, leaving a man to die. I-I—I don't know what to expect. But this is disappointing." Grace pulled herself onto a near by table, staring at both Castiel and Metatron, "I have to say…I actually did expect this."
"You did?" Castiel and Metatron both looked confused, "Well, Yeah. I mean come on, dude's never been human or had to want for anything in his life, being an angel and all, Cas. At least you had my brothers to show you the ropes."
"One to talk. You chose the life of a wage slave, slinging slurpees, for, what, a month? Plus you got the girl who went out of her way to provide you a home." He gestured to the blonde sitting only a few feet away, her legs tucked under her, in similar fashion to how kindergartners sat for story time.
"I am in it to win it. I was at Zero when you took my grace, hiding from angels, not a cent to my name. but I found my calling, and I pulled myself up by my bootstraps and started a business."
"A very shady business." She sighed, watching the two men circle around like predators with prey, it was certainly a show, if nothing else.
"And, you know, my story has only just begun."
"What story is that?" Grace herself had a few suggestions, "If he answers with a T.V show called Desperate angels of America, I'd watch it…" Castiel looked unimpressed, the blonde shrugged, "What? it beats "Jenny jones" revealing that "So-and-So" is in fact the father."
"He's preying like a vulture on human tragedy"
"Oh." He chuckled "At least she has a sense of humor. Castiel. What century are you in? religion is dead. The novel? Deader. You two think I'm ashamed for dealing in fleeting visual sensation, in gift-length glimpses of horror, waste, and degradation?! No! I just caught up with the times. Reality is the great literature of our era, and I am out there, on the streets, every single night, capturing it! I am reality's author."
Grace quirked an eyebrow at his ran, but Castiel just looked tired and bored "Oh, save your story. It's not what I came for. Metatron looked mildly put off at this news.
"Oh. So…straight to business. You want the demon tablet?" The sound of rubber soles meeting concrete filled the momentary silence as Grace hopped down from her perch.
"Well, you're not gonna get it. I have hidden it very carefully in a place were you and your…friends—" he gave grace a once over before a disgusting smirk etched onto his features, as Castiel pulled something from his jacket pocket.
"You hid it under your mattress. The t.v station gave me your address, and I-I checked the place out. You realize you have bedbugs?"
"He's not wrong you know…the infestation's pretty bad, you should probably call a pest control specialist." Metatron turned to look at her, "Will It get rid of you two?"
Her lips pressed into a tight smile as she shrugged, "Afraid not, but it might do something about that nasty attitude of yours."
"Hold on a second, you two broke into my apartment?" the apparent shock had finally seemed to set in,
"And we have a winner, tell him what he's won, Cassie." The angel frowned at her making light of the situation, "Okay…tough crowd." Looks like it was strictly business this round as Castiel tucked the tablet away and advanced on the now fallen Metatron.
"What do you know about the darkness?"
"The band?" Castiel was in no joking mood as he cornered the older looking man. "Okay. Uh…sometimes during late-night writing sessions, when god was deep in his cups, he may have let slip a few choice words. But…I don't have to tell you anything." All right, well Grace as finally starting to have enough of his games, it was time to play hard ball.
"My father brought you into creation, Metatron. And given some time, and a lot of effort, I'm sure I can take you right out of it."
"You don't have the juice." Castiel looked stunned, "Even Castiel knows who I am now, just as you claimed to before my mortal body died and I came back as, well, this."
"I'd listen to the woman, Metatron, she's come a long way from your last run in." Grace was ecstatic he'd chosen to play along.
"Are you forgetting, you are human now, and I could crush you like a bug. But that is nothing compared to what she might do to you."
"Could, but you won't." Grace just smiled, she looked like a kid in a candy store, "Try me, Meta-douche. Yu know, you're the butt off all the jokes in heaven right now."
"Did you two really think I wouldn't notice? You are Broken, Castiel. You were always a bit of a Nancy, but this? And you, Avarin I know full well you could erase any sign that I even existed from the books, but you're just not that kind of person, sweetheart. I don't know what it was that happened, but whatever it was, your boy toy here, he's scarred…deep. Paralyzed by trauma, by fear."
The ex-angel broke into laughter, "I mean, look at you. You can't even hit me." That's when he reared his fist back and just slammed into Metatron's face.
"I'd maybe not piss him off, you know, if you wanna make it through the night, alive." Castiel gripped Metatron by the lapels on his jacket and drew him close, "It's not fear." She stepped back and let him just go at the man who'd made his life a living hell.
"The Darkness—wat do you know?"
"Okay. So I misjudged. You're not scared. You're mad. And I get it. I mean, it must suck being everyone's tool, manipulated and used by the angels, by your enemies, by your friends…by her." He motioned to the blonde, now sitting perched on the table again, feet dangling over the edge.
"She has never used me." He kicked Metatron in the ribs, knocking him back to the floor. "You thought if you could get your grace back, it would help fix you, but it hasn't!" He struck Metatron again, grabbing the collar of his under shirt now, "The darkness."
"Who do you have to thank for how angry you are, how lost?" Castiel threw him into some old, seemingly long-forgotten, Machinery, Metatron's face bruised and bloody as Grace watched from the side lines.
"You're welcome." Castiel just punched him again, and again, and again, repeating the action.
"Castiel…" her tone was even, balanced one might say "Enough, Castiel."
"Go on, Castiel. End me" The angel looked down at his hand, splattered with blood, whether it was his own, or a mix of the two, he didn't know, nor care.
"No."
"Oh, please, Castiel. Help me."
"You said you were happy, your "Bootstraps."
"I was faking it. I mean, I thought, "How—how hard could it be?" can't take anymore—not a single human day. I mean…the indignities—they just don't stop—Make—making my rent and keeping my phone charged…Hemorrhoids."
"You were right, Metatron. I am sick of having my strings pulled, which is why I won't let you manipulate me into letting you off easy. Tell us about the darkness."
"The truth—ha—it'd make the bible thumpers' heads explode. I mean, they want their god to be a-a f-finger snapping, all-powerful creator, you know…and they want magic…Mary Poppins. But what he did—Creation. That took work. Took sacrifice. To create the world, god had to give up the only thing he'd ever known. He had to betray and sacrifice his only kin. The Darkness…his sister."
"But then how did…How was Grace even…?"
"Avarin was made from pieces of both of them, She is neither light nor darkness."
"How can something be neither light nor dark?"
"Simply put she is Apeiron, boundless. But that's just one translation, others might include: impalpable or intangible. Apeiron generated the opposites, hot-cold, wet-dry, those sort of things, which acted on the creation of the world. Everything is generated from Apeiron and then it is destroyed by going back to Apeiron, according to necessity. She's the very product of two opposites."
Castiel looked at the blonde who just shrugged "Don't look at me, He told me nothing other than that I had to come back. I still get flashes of memories from time to time, but I don't remember the word Apeiron ever coming up."
"That's because it was off the books, no one told you because no one knew but a select few. The Apeiron has generally been understood as a sort of primal force. It acted as the substratum supporting and directing the movement of things, by which there grew up all of the host of shapes and differences which are found in the world." Grace quirked a brow up at the fact he seemed to know so much about her creation.
"And just how do you know all of this?"
"I watched you grow, just as much as Castiel, Arda, Michael, Gabriel, and Lucifer, as well as all the other Angel's did. I did get some of my memories back of you, you know, despite no longer being an angel. To put it layman's terms, you are imagination in a physical form."
"Look, Cas, I'm as glad as anyone that Stella got her groove back, okay? But you let Metatron go?"
"Dean, how many times are you going to repeat that question?"
"I'm gonna say it again. You let Metatron go?"
"He's not going anywhere. If he makes a move, if he draws the slightest attention, the full force of Angelkind will snuff him out. Look, you—neither of you saw him. He is a human, and a pitiable one at that. He's not a threat to us. I-I mean, I put him in traction."
"Guys, bigger fish to fry here. Amara is in the wind."
"Yeah, god's freaking sister…" Grace looked torn, she wanted to tell her brother's everything that had transpired
"You said you were close. Dean how'd she get away?" now all eyes fell on the eldest Winchester, "Yeah, Dean. How'd Amara get away?"
"I'm sorry, what part of "God's freaking sister" did you not understand? She overpowered me—end of story. What's our plan here, Fella's…and…lady?" Grace quirked a brow again, "Since when do you refer to me as "Lady?""
"You said you got everything you could out o Metatron, right? So, where on earth are we gonna find and answer on how to stop her? I don't suppose god's decided to share an wisdom on the matter."
"I'll look into the lore." with that Sam turned to lave the briefing room.
"Sammy?" He turned, looking startled, "Oh, Hey. What's up?"
"Why do you look like you've seen a ghost? He never could resister her blue-eyed stare, he wasn't sure what it was about the color but any girl with blue eyes turned guys into an idiot, but this was is sister, he knew he could tell her anything and it would stay in confidence.
"I, Uh…I saw something I thought I'd forgotten about, that's all."
"I know when you're lying to me, Sam." In that moment he could have sworn he heard his mothers voice, but that was impossible when he hadn't heard it since he was an infant.
"Sammy, please, talk to me. I want to help."
"I saw the cage."
And that's where I am going to leave chapter 6, please let me know how I'm doing guys. Also, I do apologize that this is over a week late, I had building inspection and midterms last week so I jut had zero time to write. Updates might be slow with only 5-6 weeks left of class and I gotta make sure I ace finals, but I will write over spring break (this week) when I have time.