As soon as Castiel is reasonably well-rested, Balthazar flapped off to God knows where, and Dean grilled the Angel for the details.
"What the hell happened, Cas?" He asks as Cas pokes at the pie Dean ordered. Because pie is just one of the things that helps the most after any life and death situation.
"C'mon, man, talk to me." Dean leans back, eating his own pie and stifling a moan. Pie is good. Pie is always good.
"I was not behaving accordingly." Castiel tells him, voice still rough with the slightly confused edge that it carries. He bites at the pie.
"What do you mean?" Dean asks, but Castiel shakes his head and tells him to mind his own business, and Dean has to laugh because right now, the Angel seems so human. By the time they go on the road again, Dean feels a little less broken and a lot happier than he has in a long time. Since Sam fell. Thinking about Sam hurts, because Sam is still down there burning in hell and it makes Dean feel so damn guilty to be happy when Sam is hurting. Castiel makes Dean happy. When they are together, in the same room, on a mission together, in the same team together.
"I became too human." Castiel gazes out of the window, watching the cars and tress rush by. "The factions deemed me too human to rule."
"Don't mind those winged dicks," Dean says mildly. "They don't know you, man, not like I do." And he does because he knows that he knows Castiel the best, despite the fact that the time they spent together was just a blink in Castiel's long life.
"You do know me best." Castiel replies, and Dean smiles back at him, and kicks the feeling of guilt away to the side.
"Michael is not...as bad as you think he was." Castiel tells Dean, later in the Motel room. For once, Dean has no direction, Maybe they could pick up a hunt or two, but for now, it was just him, Cas, the impala and the road.
"Seems like a massive prick to me." Dean never liked Michael much- why are they talking about Michael?
"He raised me." Well, shit. Dean knows how attached you can be to the guy that raised you- And if Castiel betrayed Michael for him- "He named us. All of us, after...after father left. I heard that many of us- would rather sing their praises for Michael instead."
"Why are you telling me this, Cas?" Dean asks. They were touching on sores Dean would rather just leave in the past. John was not like what God seems to be. At least his father left to protect him and Sammy. He tried his best. And Dean really, really don't want to sympathize with Michael, the guy who wants to wear him, for fuck's sake.
"I will take you to hell." "Excuse me?"
"We shall go to hell, Dean. And save Sam. And Michael."
"Oh." And just like that, Dean can see the future get better. He can go and save Sammy. Protect him, because it will always be Dean's job.
"Yeah, lets go do that." Dean grins, and pats Cas's hand.
The Cage is a construct that God created. It holds Lucifer, and now it holds Michael, and two humans as well. But it is still Lucifer's cage, as such it was named after him. Lucifer shapes the cage. Lucifer cannot escape the cage. He does not know. What is beyond the cage? Not Heaven, nor Hell or the world of man.
Beyond the cage is the world of monsters, and beyond the monsters is the world of the ancients. Beings that came before Elohim. Sometime after the beginning, barriers formed between the worlds, but this is not of import. Not yet, at least.
The beginning of this story started shortly after Elohim leaves and the Morning Star fell.
The Messenger tears himself away from the Host, and the Host mourns. But the Healer and the Sword of Heaven cannot mourn, for they have a job to do. The Healer, Raphael, shut himself off from Heaven. Not the way Gabriel did, suddenly and without a warning. He did it slowly. Staying behind in corners of Heaven, buried in his own thoughts. Only showing up when there are wounds to be healed. He fought, too. He fought more ferociously than any other Angel. Most believed that he fought so he could fade away and not care anymore. Unfortunately for him, Archangels are impossible to kill, and Michael would rather raise his sword against himself than against another Archangel.
The Host looked up to Michael, for he was the first. With Elohim and a third of Heaven ripped from the Host Michael was all they have left. Heaven is a little less bright with the Morning Star gone, and the songs of doubt and sadness echoed through the walls of Heaven. Elohim may be their father, their creator, but Michael was the one that raised all the Seraphs and Angels.
He instructed many of them flight, and the elder Angels went on to teach the fledglings. Ever since the beginning of man Michael was the only constant that remained in Heaven. Their Archangel. It was a heavy burden to bear, with Lucifer in the pit.
There are days when Michael wondered if he should just twist time and space to the days before Lucifer's rebellion, to try and convince him to keep his voice down. It would be of no use. Lucifer was always too bright, too proud and sure of himself, and it lead to his downfall. Michael never cared much for the humans(until Adam) but Lucifer hated them for being what their father wanted.
Michael sang his Angelsong alone. Lucifer was gone. Gabriel was gone. Raphael remains silent. Heaven was missing pieces ever since the first war, and, no matter how hard he tried, Michael cannot piece his broken family together. The brokenness only became more noticeable as time passed.
He grew cold, himself. It was infinitely easier to hide behind a mask of indifference, casting down the fallen ones, giving out orders to the others. He himself is unsure of when Michael failed to become Heaven's caretaker, and became Heaven's fearsome General instead.