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"You're what?"

Castiel was staring at Chuck with fire in his eyes. He had to resist the urge to let them turn black like pitch, to glow with the darkness Amara had infused in him to replace where there was once light. He fought the urge to use the dark power Amara had given him and attack Chuck. He may be God, but Castiel had been changed by God's older sister. While he couldn't kill Him, perhaps he could hurt Him.

"I, uh, I'm God," Chuck said, "are you feeling alright, son?"

"Don't call me that!" Castiel snarled, the shadow of his wings appearing on the wall behind him. "You left me. You left all of us. You have no right to call yourself my father. You have no right to call yourself any angel's father."

"Cas," Dean breathed, staring at the shadowy wings adorning the wall. "Your wings…"

"Amara fixed them," he said in a steely voice, not taking his eyes off of Chuck. "Another sign of the guilt she felt for hurting me, for hurting someone you care about Dean. I told you she wasn't evil. She healed me when my own father wouldn't even bother."

"Castiel, I brought you back from the dead multiple times-" Chuck started.

"As punishment," Castiel spat. "My resurrections are punishment for what I've done, nothing more. They get worse every time, the mistakes I make get worse each time you bring me back. Like I come back more wrong then I was before."

"Castiel, there's nothing wrong with you!" Chuck sounded desperately.

"Tell that to Naomi," he laughed bitterly. "What exactly did she say to me? Oh, yeah: I came off the line with a crack in my chasis. Why would you make me wrong? Did you want me to suffer like this?"

"No, I just knew you would need free will for the future, so you could help Sam and Dean," Chuck said.

"And that's it, isn't it? That was the entire purpose for my creation: to help Sam and Dean. Ambriel was right: to you I was expendable. But not anymore. I don't belong to you, God. I am not your son!"

"Castiel, I am your father and-"

"And what? I will obey you? No, I won't," he snarled. "I spent so many years following you, trying to do what you wanted me to. I looked for you when Lucifer was freed from his cage and the world was going to burn. What results do I get? Joshua saying that you don't think the apocalypse is your problem, even though every second of it was your fault. You gave the Mark to Lucifer. Did he already loathe humans? Yes, but he wouldn't have disobeyed you. He's been inside me; we've seen into each other's minds. He would have followed you until the end, regardless of whether or not he agreed with you, but you gave him the Mark and then he twisted, contorting into the monster human parents warn their children about. You made him evil. It's your fault. Therefore, the apocalypse was your fault. And then let's not forget when I prayed to you for guidance when I was at war with Raphael. I wanted you to show me the right path to take, to guide me for once, but you didn't. And then to defeat him, to stop him from destroying the world with his own apocalypse, I took those souls and those leviathans inside me. I've blamed myself for every death the leviathans caused, but if you had just told me to find another way, I would have listened to you. And on top of it, the leviathans were your creations. Why is it, when your creations go wrong, you just lock them up so they can escape another day? Why not destroy them?!"

"Castiel, I could never destroy something I've created," Chuck murmured, staring at the angel in front of him with wide eyes. His voice was gentle, like speaking to a cornered wolf. "I am not Amara."

"And that is why Amara is better than you," Castiel said. "If Amara had made the leviathans, she would have obliterated them when they went wrong."

"Castiel, I may be God, but I'm not perfect," he said softly, looking his broken son in the eyes. "I've made mistakes. I shouldn't have given Lucifer the Mark, but he already hated humans. I had to make sure they'd be safe with him around. They weren't. I made the leviathans, but they were too dark. I thought I could fight Amara's darkness with more darkness, and I was wrong. They only became darker, so I locked them in Purgatory. They made me realize that I needed light to destroy the darkness, so much light… so I created the archangels and together we locked her away. And then when Lucifer went wrong, I left because I was disappointed in him and that disappointment came back every time I looked at any of you. Not because you did anything wrong, but because I would look at you and wonder if I had done the right thing in creating all of you. If one of you could go wrong, could all of you?"

"By leaving, you made them all 'go wrong'," Castiel snarled.

"Castiel, I'm here now," Chuck said desperately, "I'm here to help all of you. We can lock Amara away again."

"You want to imprison the sister you wronged again because of your mistakes? You pushed her away," he snapped, "it's your fault she wants to destroy everything. Besides, you're too late. Do you remember creating an angel called Hannah?"

Slowly, Chuck nodded. "Yes."

"She's dead now," he said, "but I remember one of the last few conversations the two of us had. Hannah was my friend. She came to my aid when no one else would. When I told her the darkness had escaped, she said 'God help us'. You know what I told her? 'I wouldn't count on it'. You never help anyone. You let everyone fend for themselves; confused, frightened… you left Earth in chaos, Heaven in a corrupt dictatorship. And now you come back after countless millennia, thinking everything's going to be fine?" Castiel shook his head. "Amara would make a better parent than you."

And with that, before he could hear a reply, Castiel vanished from view.

"Cas!" Dean screamed. "No, no, son of a bitch! We just got him back here, Lucifer free, and now… dammit."

"Dean," Sam started, "did you notice how loyal Cas sounded to Amara?"

"What? Cas would never be loyal to that bitch," Dean said.

"But he was," Chuck said. "Little comments he made. It's… interesting to say the least."

"You don't think that she gave him Stockholm syndrome, do you?" Sam asked worriedly. "He's been acting that way since he got back."

"That wasn't loyalty," Dean said, "he was just sympathizing with her. He's a sympathetic guy for an angel."

"I thought you didn't like chickflick moments," Sam said.

"I don't," Dean replied defensively. "I'm just talking about Cas's personality. He's so… he just loves people. It's been amazing watching him grow like that. I mean he comes down here as this all-powerful angel who threatens to toss me in Hell if I don't show him some respect, and now he does the puppy dog eyes better than you, Sammy."

"Dean, that sounded chick-flicky," Sam said.

"It did not."

"This is beside the point," Chuck interrupted. "Will Castiel come back here? Or should we go looking for him? You know him best." Chuck looked like he didn't like admitting that the Winchesters knew his son better than he did.

"I don't know if he'll come back," Sam confessed, "He seemed pretty pissed at you. Let's give him a little while, and if he's not back soon, we'll go looking for him."

"What? We're not going to go look for him now? Chuck, couldn't you just summon him back here?"

"Let's use summoning spells as a last resort," Chuck said after a moment's hesitation. "He's upset enough without that. Perhaps he just needs to blow off some steam."

Dean frowned, but nodded. He hoped that that was all Cas was doing: blowing off steam. He hoped that he was just knocking down some trees like he did to the ones around his gravesite after bringing him back. He didn't want Cas to do anything stupid while he wasn't stable.

Castiel landed inside the warehouse Amara was staying in, getting down on one knee as he bowed to her.

"Mother."

She reached down and lifted his chin up, his stunning blue eyes turning up to look at her.

"Son," she smiled, "did you see the Winchesters?"

He nodded. "Yes. I told them the story you told me to. But that's not all, Mother. I saw God."

She perked up, excitement entering her dark eyes. "You did?"

"Yes," he replied, "He is wearing the guise of a prophet called Chuck Shurley. He is with the Winchesters."

"And how did you feel about seeing him, Castiel?" she asked.

"I openly rejected Him," Castiel said, "I feel no loyalty toward him, Mother. He is no father of mine."

"Good," she said, "but I want you to go back and apologize."

"What?!" Castiel was astonished by her words. "Why?"

"Because," she said, "I want Him to think you're another of His prodigal sons, like Lucifer. Only this prodigal son will return, will beg for his forgiveness for his harsh words. I want you to deceive Him into thinking you love Him, Castiel. And then I want you to lead Him here."

"And what happens when I lead Him here, Mother?" Castiel asked.

"Why, my dear son," she grinned, "when you lead Him here, I will destroy Him."

AN: This is a birthday present for jkelly1251. This chapter probably wouldn't have been written for a while if I hadn't got a PM from you today, jkelly1251, especially since I'm not going to be home most of the day, but I couldn't ignore a birthday request :). Happy early birthday, :D! I really hope you and everyone else enjoys this chapter!

-DragonsintheMoonlight