Content Warning: This chapter contains torture, specifically involving needles, that still falls within the realm of SPN canon-typical violence. It is the section that begins As a general rule Ketch…
Unfound
Chapter Eight
Season 12 – Episode 10: Lily Sunder Has Some Regrets: Lily Sunder's daughter was killed by Castiel's flight of angels (Ishim, Mirabel, Castiel, and Benjamin) almost a hundred years ago and she has gone to extreme lengths in search of revenge. Cas is called in by his friends to help. Sam and Dean join him.
It had disturbed Castiel that none of the Winchester's prayers had gotten through to him while they had been locked up. Not that he could have done anything about it – with no wings it would have been impossible for him to find this prison.
As it was, he had parked his car someplace where it wouldn't be suspicious and had hiked in to see the place that had kept his friends for so long.
The warding was something that he had never seen before. More than anything, he was surprised at how old it seemed. He had been expecting, from Dean and Sam's descriptions, that this concrete prison had been built in the 70s or 80s. But the warding suggested that the building was far older and used more complex magic than he could have imagined.
Too complex.
This wasn't just a regular government facility. This one had wizard's handiwork all over it. It made Castiel wonder what MACUSA wanted with his friends. He knew that they may have been persons of interest, especially because of their connection to their very famous brother, but he had never asked the Winchesters about what happened between them and the wizarding world directly after he had died. It didn't seem like a wise topic of conversation.
But it was more than old wizarding magic here.
There was angel magic here. Warding that he recognized from his ill-advised attempt to break into the British Ministry of Magic. A bit more clumsily done, but still strong. Even if he had heard Dean and Sam's prayers (which must have been blocked by this warding) he didn't think that he would have been able to break in without doing considerable harm to himself.
Before he had the chance to look at the wards any further, he heard a loud, insistent prayer in his head.
"CASTIEL!"
Not even the sarcastic, 'Uncle Cas,' he had come to expect.
"Harry?" He responded with a prayer.
"WHERE ARE YOU?"
"You don't need to yell," Castiel grumped.
"FOUND YOU."
Before Castiel knew what was happening he felt himself being pulled and he landed, on his butt, in the middle of the Bunker.
However, there was no one in the map room, but he could hear voices in the kitchen.
There he found the entire Winchester family – the boys all gathered around Mary, who was prone on the floor.
"What happened?" He asked, making everyone whip around.
"Harry unblocked Mom's memories," Dean explained.
"She said that she remembered and then collapsed onto the floor," Sam said, bending down to check on the woman's vitals.
"I don't know what I did wrong – I'm new to this whole angelic power thing," Harry said, panic evident in his voice. "Can you fix her Castiel? What did I do? When you gave Sam and Dean their memories back this didn't happen to them!"
"Move out the way," Castiel said gruffly as he went to inspect Mary himself, placing a finger on her head. "She's fine," he pronounced after touching her forehead.
"Then why is she passed out on the floor?" Dean demanded.
Castiel frowned. He placed his hand on her head and concentrated for a second while Sam, Dean, and Harry all looked down with concern. "Physically, she's healthy. Were the memories that you unlocked painful ones?" He asked, squinting up at Harry.
"I don't know," Harry said quietly. "I – I didn't want to invade her privacy. I didn't look at the memories."
"Ah."
"Ah, what, Cas?"
Castiel hesitated. He didn't want to make Dean angry with Harry, knowing how fragile the man was. But he was also not one to mince words. "My guess is that Harry's conscious desire to protect the memories themselves forced Mary inward where she could remember in peace. She'll wake up when she's done."
Harry looked like he was about to throw up.
"Harry, it's ok," Sam said, noticing the spooked look on his brother's face and placing a hand on his shoulder. "She's alright. Dean, why don't you help me carry her to her room?" He wanted to remove Dean from this situation before he said something hurtful, as he usually did.
Dean just nodded and moved in front of Sam as the youngest Winchester picked up their mother.
Harry stared at the spot she had been.
"Harry," Castiel said, to get his attention. "You didn't harm your mother."
"Didn't I?" he whispered. "Gabe was right – I'm not ready to be around humans. Maybe I should…"
"No," Castiel said a little harshly. "Gabriel is, at the end of the day, extraordinarily selfish. He likely said that just to try and keep you from coming here at all."
Harry didn't respond to that.
"Harry – I'm not very good at human emotions. I'm not sure how to help you," Castiel admitted. "But I want to. I regret the way I treated you before."
'Not a human,' Harry thought to himself. But he scoffed at Castiel's apology. "I already said I forgave you for that, didn't I?"
"You did. But you seem to think that what I thought about you still has bearing – Harry, the way I treated you, it was for my own gain and had nothing to do with…"
"Everything alright in here?" Sam asked as he re-entered the kitchen. He hadn't wanted to leave Harry and Cas alone for any length of time.
"How's Mom?"
"Still sleeping, but Dean is watching over her."
"Sam – I'm sorry." Harry looked truly miserable.
"For what? Trying to help Mom when she was in pain? That's more than Dean or I have done for her since she's been back," he dismissed.
"Harry is concerned that he shouldn't be around humans. He was going to leave. I was attempting to stop that."
That earned Castiel a glare from Harry and Harry a bitchface from Sam. (What the hell, man?)
"Harry – you promised you'd stay."
"Yeah, I did, but that's before I hurt Mom. What's Dean gonna say?"
"Dean's not gonna say anything. Especially once she wakes up. You didn't do anything wrong. I don't know what we're going to have to do to convince you that any misstep is completely unforgivable. You're not disposable, Harry."
"Your brothers are very forgiving," Castiel added. "They hurt each other regularly – both accidentally and on purpose. They still like each other."
"Castiel, it's not the same – "
"Fuck yeah, it is," Dean said from the door of the kitchen.
"I thought you were going to stay with Mom," Sam ground out. And by that, he meant that he had ordered Dean to stay with her. Dean was like a bull in a China shop when it came to feelings and he didn't want to send Harry into a tailspin.
"Shut up, Sammy," Dean said. "Mom's fine. She just needs some rest. But what's this bullshit you're spouting Harry? You're our brother."
"I – I know, but…"
"No buts," Dean interrupted. "I know we didn't look for you like we should. Yeah, we let ourselves get distracted by like the next three apocalypses. But Cas is right, Sam is a knucklehead about eighty percent of the time but it doesn't change the fact that he's my brother."
Sam rolled his eyes.
"Now, have we had enough girl talk? Harry, you're stayin'."
Harry wasn't sure that he deserved that, but he gave Dean a slight smile. "Alright."
"Also, I've been meaning to ask, how'd you get Cas here so quickly? I thought he lost his wings, but that was like the old days."
"I – er…" Harry looked to the angel. "You want to explain it, Castiel?"
"He pulled me," Cas said, like that explained anything.
"He pulled you?"
"Yes. It was…uncomfortable, but I felt his hand grab me and pull me here. I was tracking Kelly."
"Huh," Dean said, looking at Harry critically. "If he could do that, does that mean that you can just find Kelly and pull her here too?"
"Who's Kelly?" Harry asked.
All eyes in the room snapped to him.
"What? Cas mentioned that he was looking for her, but not who she was. Who is she?"
"You haven't told him about the Nephilim?" Cas practically growled at Sam and Dean.
"We've been a little busy, Cas," Dean shot back, annoyed. "We haven't had a chance to fill him in on the latest apocalypse."
"What's a Nephilim?" Harry asked.
"It's the child of an angel and a human," Sam explained.
"And Kelly Kline is a Nephilim?"
"No," Dean said. "Kelly Kline is carrying a Nephilim. But not just any Nephilim. Remember how Sam told you that Lucifer took the President as a vessel?"
Harry's eyes got wide. "Lucifer procreated?"
"Yeah," Sam said.
"But – the child is just that, right? A baby? If this Kelly Kline raises him…"
"No," Cas cut him off. "Nephilim are unholy. They destroy worlds. After they nearly ended this one, it became Heaven's most sacred law – any angel caught having congress with a human was executed. Their progeny as well," Castiel explained.
"Right. And we thought that we had convinced Kelly to get rid of the thing, but she changed her mind and managed to slip away from Cas."
Harry's eyes narrowed. "The thing? That is a child you are talking about," he said fiercely. He didn't know why, but something in him was screaming that this Nephilim, that he hadn't even known existed, needed to be protected.
"It's the child of the Devil," Sam said as if that changed something.
"So? Who cares who the kid's father is?"
"Harry, Nephilim – they're evil. The ones born to regular angels were fearsome and nearly destroyed the world. We can only imagine what one with more power could do."
"Oh, well, if Heaven decided that they're evil, then it must be true," Harry rolled his eyes. "Uncle Cas, I thought your whole deal was that you disagreed with the laws of Heaven."
"Well, yes, but…"
Seeing Castiel floundering, Dean jumped in. "Harry – you can't seriously believe that the child of Satan is going to turn out anything but pure evil. This is Lucifer we're talking about."
Harry could see that it was a lost cause to Dean and Castiel. Which left his more compassionate brother. "Sam?"
Sam at least had the grace to look a little chagrinned at the thought of killing a baby. "You don't know Lucifer like we…like I do. Anything that comes from him has to be bad."
"You were his vessel, Sam! Are you evil?"
"Hey now, that's not the same…" Dean tried to cut in.
"No, Dean, it is. And you would never consider killing Sam because of his association with Lucifer. Un-bloody-believable. We can talk about this later. I'm going to go check on Mom." Harry flew out of the room.
Dean sighed. "I guess that he's not going to be much help in finding Kelly," he said to Cas and Sam.
"We'll talk to him," Sam assured Dean. "Make him see reason."
Dean snorted. "Good luck with that."
Cas frowned a little. While he sometimes founds humans to be very confusing, if he understood any type of human, it was the Winchesters. Even Harry. There was something else below the surface of the young angel's response. But he knew that he would have no chance of figuring that out. They hadn't directly asked, but Castiel figured it was time.
"Sam, Dean," he said in a low voice.
The brothers looked at him.
"I have something to tell you about Harry."
III
Ted anxiously looked at the hotel room in front of him. It had cost him a lot to get to this place. If Aunt Hermione ever found out about the deal he had made, she would kill him. If he wasn't dead already. The hotel was on the grubbier side of ones that he had been to, and he'd stayed in some pretty dodgy places. But, after doing a slight compulsion charm on that hotel manager, he had confirmed that this was the place.
He knocked.
It didn't take longer than a minute or so for the door to quickly open and a woman with red hair and an eyepatch to point an angel blade directly at his heart.
"Woah!" He said, stepping back slightly. "Please don't hurt me."
She looked him up and down. And the lowered the blade. "You're not an angel," she said suspiciously.
Ted gulped. "No, I'm not. But I hear you're in the business of killing them."
"What's it to you?"
"My name is Ted Lupin. My father was killed by an angel. I've been hunting one for some time now and haven't had any luck. I found your journals. Please – can you help me?"
The woman looked at him with interest and stepped back. "Come in."
He smiled and gladly entered.
III
"Son of a bitch," Dean exclaimed. He should have known. It was too good to be true that Harry was just back. Even with wings, but this…this was considerably scarier.
Sam looked shell-shocked. "But what does it mean? What does it matter that he has a human soul?"
"I…I was trying to find out what it means. But, he's new. There's no lore on this. His power may rival that of the Nephilim. But, from our conversation – I believe that he thinks that he needs to protect you from it, and he's willing to die to do so."
"Over my dead fucking body," Dean said, ready to storm off and go confront Harry. He couldn't believe that they had just gotten their brother back and he already had plans for things to go the same way they had before. Well, not on Dean's watch.
"Dean, wait," Sam said, stopping Dean from going off and doing something dumb, as he normally would.
"Wait for what? He has to know that this is not ok. Aren't you all about talking things out?"
"You look like you're more likely to punch him than talk to him," Sam pointed out.
"Yeah? Well, maybe that's what he needs."
"No," Castiel said. That got him surprised glances from both Winchesters. "That's not what he needs," he said simply.
"And who the hell do you think you are to talk about what Harry needs?" Dean said hardly.
Cas looked down. "When I, well, when I was…" it was unlike for the angel to stumble over his words but he was extremely uncomfortable talking about this at all.
"An evil asshole?"
"Misguided," Cas tried. He gave a frustrated sigh. "Dean, I knew that you could be the one to push him over the edge, and you did."
Dean's face went blank.
"Cas!" Sam chided, knowing what that look meant.
"Are you suggesting," Dean asked in a dangerous voice, "that you used me to kill my brother?"
"Yes. I did. And it worked." He said it all in a matter-the-fact way. He wasn't going to back down from his mistake. "I was wrong to go after him at all, but you were an essential part of the plan."
"You son-of-a-bitch," Dean pounded the kitchen table. "You stupid, son-of-a-bitch. What is wrong with you?"
"Many things," Cas responded. "But I will not allow you to hurt Harry in the way that you did before. If not for his sake, for your own."
"You won't allow me to…" It was as if what was happening did not compute to Dean. "How could you – why would you think that…"
"Castiel, that's enough," Sam said sharply, defending his eldest brother.
Even though he had had similar thoughts on how Dean had treated Harry, he wasn't going to allow Cas to bring him down in that way. It wouldn't help anything and it wasn't as if Dean didn't carry enough guilt as it was. "Dean, Harry's life isn't in your hands. It's on all of us. We have to figure out how to deal with this Nephilim, of course, but we also have to show Harry that he's got a better life here on Earth than he does in Heaven. Which is what Cas should have said," he threw a glare at the angel.
"I – yes, of course. That's what I meant," Cas agreed.
"Right," Sam responded sarcastically. "What we need is a game plan. Which means more than just us. We'll have to talk to Mom too when she wakes up."
"A game plan for what exactly?" Dean demanded.
"A game plan to keep him here," Sam responded like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "A plan to show him that we don't care that he's some sort of angel, human, wizard combination. He's still our brother."
"Damn right he is."
"And Cas, you've got to tell us this kind of stuff. Anything you find out."
"Even if he asks me not to tell you?"
"Especially then."
"Understood."
"Alright. Let's talk specifics…"
III
Harry sat next to Mary's bedside, head in his hands. He didn't know how this had all gone so sour so quickly. Of course, he could hear that his brothers and Castiel were talking about him. What part of angel didn't they understand? He wondered how often Castiel overheard every single thing Sam and Dean were saying or if he had learned to tune it out over the years. Harry was certainly going to try his best to tune them out now – otherwise, he might die of embarrassment.
He hadn't been back for more than a couple of months and he was already making everyone miserable. If even Castiel was worried about his mental health, things were not going well.
Harry had forgotten how complicated being on Earth was. He would have thought that his hundreds of years in Heaven would have cured whatever was wrong with him before. Years and years and years of peace. He got the love from his parents that had always been missing in his life. Apologies and explanations from Dumbledore. Appreciation from Remus and Tonks. Forgiveness from all of the friends that he had lost during the war.
Harry Potter had healed. Henry Winchester had not.
Or, at least, that's how Harry was rationalizing it.
It wasn't until Gabriel had found him that he realized how much he missed his family. He thought of his brothers at first, but also his wizarding family. Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Teddy – everyone. Coming back with Gabriel would allow him to make all of his amends.
Those hopes had been dashed when Gabriel told him what he was. Or rather what he wasn't. Human.
'A freak, like always,' Harry thought.
That's when he had made up his mind. He'd help Sam and Dean. Get his brothers in a better place than they had been and then he would quietly return to Heaven and wait for the rest of his family there. He'd try to stay above it all, not get attached. Keep his head down, do the work, not hurt anything.
He had forgotten about the fear.
Fear that he wasn't enough. That he never had been. Fear of letting everyone down. Fear of rejection. If Sam and Dean and now…now Mary, saw who he was, who he really was they would want nothing to do with him. He wouldn't leave – they would force him to. And he couldn't imagine anything worse than that.
And now his brothers were plotting to keep him here. He didn't want to be there when they realized that they didn't want that at all. That he wasn't worth it.
Harry was so buried in his own thoughts, that he didn't notice Mary wake up.
Mary slowly and silently came to. She wasn't quite sure why she had passed out after remembering everything, but it had been a blessing. Her sleeping mind had absorbed the memories and she could now think of them with clarity. Everything – going back to what had happened to Liberty. And her brother. But not just what the wizards had taken from her. Also, the angels. She remembered meeting Sam and Dean when they time traveled. The interactions that they had with her and John.
It changed everything. How Dean begged her to stay in bed on the day of her death. How Sam had stared at her with wonderment.
Waking up now, she saw even more of the miracle she had been given. The opportunity to get to know all three of her sons.
She didn't say anything just lay observing her middle boy.
Henry was hunched over and she couldn't see his face because he was hiding it with his hands. But his body language felt familiar and there was a vulnerability there that he hadn't shown her before. He looked – young. And that spurred hope in her that she could still protect him. And Sam and Dean. In a way that she hadn't been able to before.
He exhaled, looked up, and ran a hand through his hair. Then he noticed her.
"Mom!"
"Henry," she smiled.
"Are you alright?" He asked anxiously.
"I am. I remember."
"Er – what exactly?" She had said that she remembered everything. Did that include when she met him in the woods? Did she hate him now?
"Maybe you should get your brothers in here? So, I can tell everyone at once?"
Harry nodded. He was more than a little annoyed (and mortified) that Sam and Dean were discussing his mental health with Castiel, so he decided to see if he could do the same thing that had done to Castiel earlier with them.
"Oomph," Dean said as he landed roughly in Mary's bedroom. Sam looked like he was ready to fight something. Harry smirked.
"Don't do that!" Dean yelled.
Harry shrugged. "Mom's awake, she wanted you in here."
"And you couldn't have just called out to us?" Sam asked, annoyed now that it was clear that there was no danger.
"Wouldn't have been as fun," Harry justified.
Dean pointed his finger at him. "Don't do that ever again."
"No promises."
"Wait – " Dean got over his surprise at being pulled from the other part of the bunker. "Mom?"
Mary sat up on the bed.
"Hey – easy there," Sam said, trying to help her up.
"I'm fine, Sam," she said, brushing him off. "Henry gave me my memories back."
"And?" Dean asked urgently.
"I'm fine. Better than fine. Everything makes more sense now. It's clearer," she gave Henry a sidelong glance when she said that, remembering what he said to her about being back on Earth. He smiled at her.
III
Ted felt slightly sick after Lily told him the story of what happened to her daughter.
"They just killed her? For no reason at all?"
"Because Ishim was obsessed. But I can be obsessed too," she said with very little emotion.
"Not to be rude, but how are you…" he indicated to her general youth.
"So young still? I learned to do angelic magic. It's kept me young. But I've used just about everything to track down Benjamin. I don't have much left. I can feel it in my bones. It's now or never."
"I thought all magic was Enochian magic?" Ted asked, confused. "That's what Harry told me, at least."
She frowned slightly. "Of course not. There are two types of magic that humans use. Demonic and Earth magic. I am one of a kind. Through my studies, I learned everything about angels. That's why I'm able to do their spells."
Right, she was a Muggle.
"Ms. Sunder, can I trust you?"
"It's Dr. Sunder, but yes. I don't wish harm on anyone other than the angels. And specifically, Ishim's flight."
"Oh, I'm sorry, Dr. Sunder, I should have known that. I've read your journals you see, and I thought, form them, that you were aware of…"
"You read my journals?" She interrupted. "Those went missing ages ago. Where did you find them?"
"I – er, I got them from the Men of Letters' library."
She stared at him for a second before her face turned to fury. "Those pompous jerks! They dismissed me – told me that as a woman my knowledge was useless. Are you one of them?" She accused.
"Oh no. I'm not! I just – I visited their archive a couple of years ago. Here – I made copies, would you like them?" He dug into his ruck sack and pulled out his well-worn copies of her journals. He handed them out to her. She took them.
"Remarkable," she said.
"They're great. They made me realize that it wasn't hopeless to go after Castiel."
She was still thumbing through the book. "I thought these were gone forever. Yes. It is possible to track and kill an angel. That's why I'm here, in fact," she said looking around the room. "I have finally tracked Benjamin. He made the mistake of staying in this town for too long."
"Er – your journal says that you found the ritual for summoning an angel. Why didn't you just summon him?"
"Because I want more than Benjamin," she said hardly. "I want them all. I plan on making him call out to his friends. And once they are all here…."
"You can kill them all? By yourself?"
She raised an eyebrow. "I'm stronger than I look."
"Oh, of course. But, please, Dr. Sunder, I want to help. Please – no one else will do anything. You understand. Harry – he was everything to me. And Castiel took him."
"You're terribly young," she said.
"I'm old enough," he argued back. "Please."
She considered him for a moment. "Alright. You can help. But only after I get Benjamin to call his friends here. I'm going after him tonight."
Ted nodded in understanding and he grinned.
III
"But how could even communicate with all of you from the cage?" Sam asked Cas. All the Winchester brothers and Castiel were gathered in the library. Mary was off on a supply run in town.
"I don't know," Castiel responded. "But he had tempted angels before – you remember Uriel. It might be difficult, but it wasn't beyond the realm of possibility. He never attempted to speak to all of that way before, though."
"Great," Dean said. "So, Lucifer is siccing angels on Harry – why?"
"I would assume that it's because he thinks that Harry is a threat to him."
All eyes turned to the middle Winchester brother.
He shrugged. "Don't look at me. I don't know what kind of threat I could possibly pose to the Devil."
"You helped us defeat him before," Sam said.
"Yeah. But that was after you had put in years of effort."
"You did say that you knocked Gabriel on his ass," Dean pointed out.
Harry smirked a little at the thought. He was still not thrilled with the archangel. "We were play fighting."
"Gabriel is less powerful than Lucifer," Castiel also said.
"Really?" Sam asked.
"Yes. Michael and Lucifer, being the first, are the most powerful of all angels. Gabriel is a close third, but he has also been living far from Heaven for a very long time. Not to diminish how dangerous he is. He is not someone you want as an enemy."
"Gabriel wouldn't want you to know, but he still hasn't recovered from his fight with you, Uncle Cas," Harry said. "He wouldn't tell me what you did – but whatever it was packed a punch."
Castiel shifted uncomfortably but didn't answer the question.
Dean looked at Cas with interest. "Do you think you could take Gabriel in a fight now, Cas?"
"And why would Castiel need to fight Gabriel?" Harry asked with an edge to his voice.
"Dunno," Dean said a little too quickly.
"No, I couldn't. Not after the fall," Castiel said. "Gabriel is the last remaining, uncaged, archangel. He could "take me," now without much effort." He used air quotes when using Dean's expression.
Sam, as always, was about ten steps ahead of the rest of them and while they discussed power levels, he was more concerned about the implications of all of this.
"So, Harry has an angelic ABP out on him? And you didn't hear it, Harry? Aren't you all connected to angel radio?"
Harry looked down. "I – uh, I turned it off," he admitted. "They kept shouting at me. It was overwhelming."
"And you didn't think it would be useful to know what the angels were up to?" Dean asked, incredulous.
Sam shot him a look.
"They're all locked up in Heaven, I didn't think it was a big deal," Harry said more casually than either of his brothers liked. But Dean, going against instinct, decided not to argue with him about it.
"Well, until you figure out what the hell is going on with them, I think you should stay here in the Bunker. You said that you are protected here?" Dean opted for.
Harry fought the urge to roll his eyes. "It's not like I have anywhere to go anyway," he responded, also wanting to remain civil. It's not like Dean could stop him if he wanted to leave.
"In the meantime, maybe we should work on a cover story for you, Harry," Sam said, trying to find the middle of the road of this situation. They couldn't keep Harry here forever. Neither physically nor practically. "Cas, can other angels tell that Harry, uh, has a soul just from looking at him? Or does he look like an angel?"
Castiel looked at Harry intensely. Which Harry did not appreciate.
"No. I can't see his soul," Cas said. "He looks like an angel – but not like any of the ones that I know."
Harry had spent a lot of time with angels in the afterlife. More than he cared to have. He knew what they looked like – to each other, at least. He concentrated on manipulating both his native wizarding magic and the angel magic he know had full access to.
Castiel took in a sharp breath.
"What?" Dean asked, concerned.
"H – how did you do that?" Castiel demanded.
"It's just a glamour, Uncle Cas."
"That shouldn't be possible."
"Well, neither should I, yet, here we are," Harry said.
"What did he do?" Sam asked.
"He – he changed his appearance."
Dean glanced at Harry. "Looks the same to me."
"Yes. But his wings…and his presence he looks – normal."
"Thanks, Castiel," Harry said sarcastically.
"So, he looks like a regular angel now?" Sam asked.
"Yes." Castiel looked a little freaked out by it.
"Well, that was easier than normal," Dean said. "Not that there are that many angels left on Earth, but maybe now they won't recognize you."
"You should probably come up with an alias too," Sam said.
Harry snorted. "Should I follow your pattern? Somehow, I don't think that people will be too impressed if I introduced myself as Nashtiel," he said adapting the first classic rock name that came to mind.
Castiel looked very confused while Sam and Dean laughed. The door to the bunker opened, Mary appearing with her arms filled with groceries.
"Well, you're all in a great mood," Mary said as she came down the stairs. Harry got up to help her with the bags.
"We were just trying to give Harry an angel name," Sam explained, also going to help out.
"Doesn't he have enough names as it is?" Mary asked, setting the remaining bags down on the map table.
"I do have a number of them," Harry said. He looked at his mother thoughtfully. "But none that you gave me. What do you say, Mom? Would you do me the honor of a name?"
His tone was light, but Mary was touched. She patted his cheek. "I would love to," she said. "Let me start thinking about it."
Harry grinned.
III
As a general rule, Ketch wasn't interested in the how or why. He cared that the weapons worked and that he could use his killer instinct without being sent to jail. Ketch knew that he wasn't what most people would consider to be a good man. But that had never bothered him. He was sure that his Men of Letters file had some sort of personality disorder diagnosis in it. He didn't care about the label. At the end of the day, the only thing that mattered was that he did his job well.
And he was excellent at his job.
But the higher-ups still wanted him to be proficient in theory. After all, if something broke in the field, he may not always be able to get it back to headquarters in time to accomplish his task. It was monotonous but necessary.
What he saw when he arrived at the compound was a surprise. A pleasant one.
He arrived in the cleanroom, where there was a woman strapped down on a table. She had many wires connecting her to monitoring machines as well as an IV drip. Her skin was stretched and she looked like she was moments away from death.
"Just in time," Alton Morehead, their head of Research and Development for their little…excursion…in the United States greeted him. "I think she's on her last leg now. Did you read the briefing file?"
Ketch gave him a look.
"Ah, of course, not," the man muttered. "Bloody hunters."
"This is a witch?" Ketch asked, ignoring the annoyed man.
"Yeah. I have to say that with the disorganization of the MACUSA, it is far easier to snatch them here than in Britain."
MACUSA was about as lightly organized as a magical government could be. It had one head, of course, but most of the power lay in the Nation States – many of which had existed long before European Muggles had colonized the land.
It is what had allowed the American chapter of the Men of Letters to finally break free of their government in a way that they had never been able to in Great Britain. If only they hadn't been wiped out. The things they may have accomplished.
It was best to leave the what-ifs to the scholars though. Ketch walked over to the woman who looked at him with silent, pleading eyes.
To him, she was the same as all the other monsters he killed and he felt nothing. Not that he would have felt much more if she was just a regular human like him either.
"Well, are you going to tell me why I was summoned here?" Ketch asked, wanting to get back to his day job. Which largely involved cleaning up the messes that American hunters were too sloppy to mop of themselves.
"If you had just read the file you would know," Morehead snapped before pulling himself together. Ketch wasn't worth it. And the man loved riling him up. "I've successfully been able to extract grace from her. It's a far cry from what we were able to get from fallen angels, but there are enough of these dregs-on-society here in the States that we should be able to keep our supply plenished."
He jabbed a needle into the woman's neck and pulled back. A tiny bit of white grace came out – barely more than a centimeter or two.
"Does that mean that I will be issued the weapons I requested?" Ketch asked eagerly. Once the angels had sealed themselves in Heaven and the couple that they had managed to keep prisoner had escaped, the weapons that were most efficient against both wizards and angels had been strictly rationed. It was a lot of bloody paperwork to get his hands on even one these days.
"Soon, I'm sure," Morehead said. He did one more pull of the needle. When the last bits of white light came out the woman took a shuddering gasp of breath before dying.
Ketch watched impassively. He felt a vague pang of sympathy for Morehead who would now have to complete the paperwork for both the experiment and for disposing of a body. He hoped the man would be efficient, because the quicker this procedure became routine the faster Ketch would have reliable access to all the toys he wanted.
"But surely you didn't call me here today so that I could watch you end this creature," Ketch said, looking away from the dead witch.
"Of course not. You've made your disdain for these activities known," Morehead stripped off the rubber gloves he had been wearing during his experiment.
"Well, get on with it, hmmm," Ketch replied, impatient.
"Before we started extracting the grace from this witch we were able to successfully complete an earth-bound magic bond seal on her."
Ketch quirked an eyebrow. That was interesting news.
"And she passed the observation period unharmed. She could still resist orders, of course, it doesn't make them mindless, but it did cause her considerable discomfort to resist us. Enough so that she didn't resist for long. After all, these people will do whatever they can to preserve their magical abilities. Even ones with the pathetic amount of power that this one had."
"But you still felt the need to strap her down to this table?"
Morehead shook his head. "That was just to control her body's natural responses that she couldn't prevent. But, with this successful test, and our past trials, we feel ready to move in our target. The boy has already agreed, of course, as part of the contract for giving him the information he sought."
"And you want me to perform the spell?"
"No. Of course not – I will do that. But after it has been performed, he will need to be watched. Observed. The Winchesters have had contact with him and we can't risk them knowing. The Old Men have decided that he will be your responsibility."
Ketch groaned. "Really?"
"Yes. I'll need a blood sample from you to make sure that he is particularly attuned to your person."
Ketch knew there was no point in arguing. He supposed he should read the file that he was sent. And, really, in the end, this assignment would be giving him another new toy to test out. A weapon to be experimented with. It could be interesting.
"Very well then," he said, rolling up his sleeve. "Let's get this over with."
III
"I have to go," Castiel announced to the Winchester family, who had just finished dinner. They had spent a couple of weeks doing casual hunts near the Bunker and generally having some family bonding time. He had done his best to stay out of it.
Castiel had spent most of that time doing his own scouting trying to find Kelly. He kept his research in a room that Harry was unlikely to go into as to avoid upsetting him on the topic again.
All of that work was undone, however, when Sam asked, "Got a lead on Kelly?"
Dean surreptitiously glanced at Harry, who showed no reaction.
"No. This is personal," Cas responded shortly.
"Meaning what?" Dean asked.
"Another angel. An old friend. He called out for help."
Harry frowned. "I didn't hear anything." After several lectures from Dean, Harry had kept his angelic ears on. Castiel had helped him learn how to moderate the frequencies so that it wouldn't be so loud all the time.
"He didn't call out to all angels – just a select few. He was begging for help and he just stopped. I need to know if he's still alive."
"Yeah, alright. Well…we'll come with you," Sam volunteered, much to the surprise of everyone else in the room.
"All of you?" Cas asked, alarmed.
"Well, yeah, in case you need one of us to help you kill another," Dean quipped. Things had been frosty between him and Cas since their conversation about Harry.
Cas glared his way. "I don't think it's wise for Harry to show himself to any angels. Even if he does have a disguise," he said, indicating to Harry with his last comment.
"You know, Harry, there was a shifter case in Atlanta that I caught wind of," Mary said, not wanting her middle child to feel left behind if Sam and Dean went with Cas. "I thought it was too far to travel, but with your wings…"
"Wait, wait, Mom, you want to take Harry hunting with you?" Dean asked.
"Why not?" She asked looking back and forth between Harry and Dean.
Dean couldn't come up with a good answer to that.
"Perfect," Sam declared. "Dean and I will go with Cas to help with his angel buddies and Mom and Harry will go to Atlanta."
Harry looked unsure. He still didn't trust Castiel with his brothers, but he didn't see another option here. Unfortunately, he could see the angel's point about trying to avoid other angels. Not that he couldn't take them. He was sure that he could.
"Fine," he finally conceded. "But if you need me…"
"Yeah, we'll pray," Dean said.
"Or you could call my mobile."
"Right, because, in the past, that's worked so well," Dean said sarcastically.
"Just – ring me if something happens."
"We will, Harry," Sam reassured him. It looked like he was going to have to have another talk with Dean. He just didn't seem to know how to back the hell off.
"Alright. We'll just be off then. Where in Atlanta are we headed, Mom?"
III
Ted and Dr. Sunder were waiting in an alley behind a diner. She had just returned from scouting out the location.
"Is he in there?" Ted asked anxiously. If he was being honest with himself, he was more nervous than he thought he'd be. He'd been dreaming of this moment for years and yet…
"Yes. He's meeting with Ishim and Mirabel," Dr. Sunder responded. She looked at him with sympathy, which he hated. "Maybe you should wait in the car, Ted. I can handle them."
"No, I – I can do it," he said, trying to put on a brave face. 'Think of Harry,' he thought to himself. Harry had always been brave. The bravest man he ever knew. Would ever know.
Her expression softened. "One of them is coming out now. Go hide behind the dumpster, if it's Castiel, I promise, I'll let you deliver the final blow."
Ted nodded in agreement. He followed her order. It was something he had agreed to do if she allowed him to come along tonight and he couldn't risk angering the one person who was going to be able to help him get Castiel.
"Mirabel, right?" she asked as a woman entered the alley. No, not a woman. An angel.
Ted was relieved. He could relax for now. He'd keep his eyes out of Castiel.
Mirabel screamed as Dr. Sunder ran her through with an angel blade. She had never stood a chance. It made Ted feel a little sick. He tried to remember the story that Dr. Sunder had told him about her daughter and why she was doing this. That angel – that monster, he corrected himself, deserved far worse. Who knew how many innocents she had killed?
"You alright?"
"Yeah. Yeah, of course," he said after she had come and found him behind the dumpster.
"You know, I doubt that I'm going to be able to get all three of them just now," she said. "Why don't you get in the car. Be my get-away driver, just in case."
Ted didn't want to agree. He wanted to stay and fight, but he looked at the body slumped on the ground and it made his stomach roil. He had been hunting with Ben, of course, but Sam had been right. The two of them hadn't dealt with anything so human-looking before.
"You promised, kid," she reminded him gently. He wondered if she regretted bringing him along. Hopefully not, so that when his chance came, he'd be there to do what he came here to do.
"Ok," he agreed and went to the car. She was lucky that Ben had insisted that he learn how to drive when they had been on the road together. Before coming to the United States, he never would have been able to do that. Of course, Dr. Sunder didn't know that he was a wizard and he planned on keeping it that way.
He watched carefully as an older angel found Mirabel on the ground. Once again, not Castiel. The angel leaned over the dead body and looked mournful. 'Yeah right,' Ted thought. 'Those monsters don't have feelings.' He looked around to try and find who had killed his friend.
Dr. Sunder approached. "You!" He yelled out.
Dr. Sunder fought with him and successfully slashed his side with the angel blade. She got him in a headlock and had him twisted against her chest. Ted almost ran out of the car when he saw the angel palm on the top of Lily's head, but even with the light pouring out of his hands, nothing happened.
She grinned and laughed. "You can't smit me, Ishim. I'm not powerless anymore."
'Yeah!' Ted cheered from the car. She was showing him. The happiness faded as another man, dressed in a tan trench coat, rounded the corner, angel blade in hand. That had to be Castiel. Ted put his hand on the handle of the door, ready to go.
"But how – No! Castiel. Kill her!" Ishim yelled from the hold that Dr. Sunder had him in.
That confirmed it. But then everything happened so fast.
The angel that must be Ishim headbutted Lily and Castiel came around the other side and slashed her side. Dr. Sunder fell to the ground, dropped her blade, and called out.
"I know you," Castiel said to her as he approached. She kicked at him.
Ted was already halfway out the door when he heard a familiar voice yell, "Hey!"
'Bollocks,' he thought as both Sam and Dean rounded the corner. Of course, his Merlin-damned uncles would be there. With him. Ted quickly got back in the car and started it.
He was glad he did because a bright white light shined in the alley. He was far enough away that he was able to glance away, and before, he knew it, Dr. Sunder was in the car with him. "GO!" She yelled. He floored it, praying Sam and Dean wouldn't notice him as they drove past.
III
Ted helped Dr. Sunder to her room in the hotel that she was staying in. She was bleeding heavily.
"Thank you, Ted," she said to him as he helped her lay down on the bed. "You were a great help back there."
"You're welcome."
She hissed in pain.
"That looks painful, let me get something to bandage it up," he said, moving quickly to the bathroom to get some towels and water. She didn't protest.
First aid was something that Ted had gotten better at in the time that he had been in the States. He paused for a minute while he was alone in the little room. This woman had a power of some sort. And fixing her with magic really would be much easier. He made up his mind and walked back into the main room.
"Will you let me see it?" He asked. She lifted her shirt.
'Ouch,' he thought. He quickly moved to clean the wound off a bit.
"Dr. Sunder, this looks really deep," he said.
She nodded. "I know. Don't worry about it, Ted. I'll be fine."
He worked quietly for a couple of minutes.
"What was that?" he finally got the courage up to ask.
"I was wondering when you were going to ask," she sighed. "I've studied angels my whole life. Long before I even met one. After they killed my May, I dedicated myself wholly to Ishim's destruction. For almost a hundred years, there was nothing I could do but study and prepare. There was no way to track them you see until they fell. Until they lost their wings." She looked at him to confirm that he was following.
"I remember when they fell," he said to let her know she could keep going.
"Patience is talent," she said. "You'd be amazed what a person can do with a little bit of purpose and an abundance of time. I started learning their magic. To fight. To hear them. To stay alive."
That startled Ted. "You're a witch?"
She laughed. "No, no I didn't make a deal with a demon. It's Enochian magic."
Ted knew that the magic he used was Enochian. Ish. He had once had a conversation with his Aunt Luna about it. It hadn't made a lot of sense to him, but he knew that angels were where witches and wizards, of his variety, got their powers.
"You weren't…born with magic?" He hedged.
"No," she said, not showing any sort of recognition. "I'm not a natural-born magic-user either. Enochian magic is possible. If you're willing to pay the price of admission," she indicated to her eye patch.
Ted's eyes got wide.
"Every time I use one of their spells, a piece of my soul burns away. And once it's gone…"
"What?" Ted asked with fascination.
Her expression was blank. "I won't be me anymore. And May will be completely lost to me."
"Dr. Sunder. I – I think you'll understand. Now that I know what you can do. I'm a wizard. I can heal this wound."
She looked at him with confusion.
"I didn't make a demon deal, I promise. I can explain, but maybe it would just be better to show you."
He pulled out his wand. This looked like this was more than what a mild healing spell could do. Ted thought for a moment, then, "Vulnera Sanentur," he said.
The wound stitched itself back together. It still left a little bit of a scar and Ted saw Dr. Sunder looking down at it. "The scar should go away with time," he said. "Sorry, I don't know the spell to fix that."
"That's incredible," she said with awe in her voice. "Can you teach me that spell?"
He shook his head. "I don't think so. But do you feel better?"
"Yes. Much. Thank you, Ted. I could have healed myself, but it would have cost me dearly. I'm lucky you found me." She sat up in the bed.
Ted winced. "I'm not sure that it was." He took a deep breath, but she looked at him encouragingly. "Those two men with the angels?"
"The humans?"
"Yeah. They're – they're my uncles. And hunters. Very good ones, we might want to try and find a different motel."
"A wizard related to hunters, huh?" She asked. "You're just about the most interesting person I've met in a century, Ted. I'm not scared of them. I wish no harm to humans. Or wizards, like you. But we'll have to do some work to start tracking Ishim and Castiel. They couldn't have gone far – I injured Ishim greatly in the fight."
"About that…"
III
"Well, that was the easiest hunt I've ever been on," Mary said the Harry after they had found and killed the Shapeshifter that she had found in Atlanta.
Harry grinned, pleased to have been able to help his mother out. "I'm new to this whole, 'smiting,' thing, but it does seem to do the trick, doesn't it?"
"Didn't even have to waste one of the silver bullets I brought with me," she said, indicating to her gun. "You're really a money-saver," she teased lightly.
Not only had they managed to kill the monster, but they had also saved the three people that it had been holding captive. One of them was a young teenager, whom they had just dropped off at his parent's house.
"Mary Winchester?" They heard a British voice behind them say. Harry froze. Just to be safe, he quickly changed his facial features. Honestly, it was a bit risky for him to go around in public looking like himself, in any case, even if he had died five years ago.
"Yes?" Mary said. "Oh. I know you."
Harry relaxed just a fraction. But that changed because he also recognized the man talking to them.
"Yes. We met after that…unfortunate incident with Lady Bevell and your sons," he said. "But I don't believe I've had the pleasure of meeting your companion…" He looked to Harry.
"This is He – Hadraniel," Mary said, using the name that she had picked out for her son. Harry looked at her gratefully. "He's an angel," she added to avoid even more suspicion.
Mick cocked an eyebrow. "Oh, really. I hadn't realized that there were any angels other than Castiel who were helping hunters. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I'm Mick Davies," he held out his hand.
Harry reluctantly shook it.
"That was good work that you did on that shifter," he continued. "We were just working on getting a team here to take care of it, and then you showed up and solved the problem all on your own. Our cleanup team even complimented your work. And they are very hard to impress."
He said this all casually as if nothing was alarming about the fact that he had been following them.
"Thank you," Mary said tightly.
"I was wondering if I might have a moment of your time? Dinner, perhaps? We got off on the wrong foot, and I would very much like to make it up to you."
Mary looked as though she was about to refuse him, but Harry desperately wanted to know what the Men of Letters were doing in the United States, when, by all means, they should have been disbanded years ago.
"We'd like that," he answered for the both of them. "Or, rather, Mary would. She hasn't eaten anything all day."
Mick noted the British accent that the angel spoke with. He had been pretty sure that they had had a complete list of the British vessels that the angels had taken when they had fallen and their names. He didn't recall a Hadraniel. He'd have to consult the list later.
"Excellent. There's a lovely little bistro just up the street. Just a short walk. I noticed that you don't have a vehicle with you."
Harry looked at him sharply. He didn't know if it was common knowledge that all the angels had lost their wings in the fall. Well, all the angels that had been in Muggle Heaven. Wizard angels hadn't fallen at all, so no damage was done. But if anyone would know, it would be the Men of Letters. Harry swore at himself for being so careless.
"That would be lovely," Harry replied, not commenting on their lack of transportation.
The three of them walked in tense silence just a couple of blocks up the street.
'Henry, this man is dangerous,' Mary prayed to him. 'I don't know how much Sam and Dean told you about what happened, but a woman in this man's organization kidnapped and tortured Sam.' She also tried to picture what Sam had looked like that day and transport that in the prayer.
Harry nodded slightly to show that he had heard, seen, and understood. He was also fuming that Sam had been hurt. Where the hell was Hermione? She should have been able to prevent them from harming his brothers. They were too big for their britches if they thought they could get away with torturing a member of Harry Potter's family.
They sat at a table. Mary and Mick ordered food while Harry, of course, refused. "Angels don't eat," he had said and used the time to carefully observe the British man across from him. He had only met Mick in passing when he was Head Auror. Enough to know that, even though he appeared mild-mannered, this man was a killer. All the Men of Letters were.
He started his sales pitch.
Harry wasn't impressed. It was very rehearsed. He knew all about the various weapons and technology the Men of Letters had developed. But he also knew how they treated hunters. Like nothing more than attack dogs.
"I know that Mr. Ketch showed your boys some of his toys. He said they were impressed. Did they tell you about what we can do?"
"Even if they were, why would we want to work with a group that tortured m – Mary's son," Harry quickly caught himself. He was angry, so he had almost forgotten to watch his words.
"I do apologize. It was a misunderstanding. And we helped Sam later, didn't we?" Mick asked Mary.
"It doesn't inspire trust," Harry ground out.
"They trust you, don't they? Angels have certainly harmed the Winchesters in the past. Please don't judge our entire organization based on one, misguided, agent's actions. I assure you that Lady Bevell has been suitably punished."
Harry doubted it.
"Look, just give it a thought, will you?" Mick said to Mary, ignoring the angel for now.
He offered out a business card. Mary took it.
"I think you'll find that our goals are the same. And we can do more together than individually. Now, I'm afraid that I must take my leave."
He stood up from the table, nodded at the two of them, and walked off.
"That was something, wasn't it?" Mary asked Harry.
Harry frowned. "Let's get back to the Bunker. But your prayers were right. He is dangerous. They are dangerous. I'll tell you, Sam, and Dean everything I know."
He didn't want to say anything more in the vicinity of where they might be overheard. He suspected that there was at least one other agent in the restaurant, listening in on their conversation.
"Of course. Let's go," Mary said, sensing Henry's tense energy.
III
"They're here," Ted said tensely when his ward altering him that another wizard had entered the floor went off. Dr. Sunder had talked him into staying here, even though they knew that Sam and Dean were likely to find them. After Ted had told her about them, she thought they could be reasoned with.
So, they had made a plan.
Ted had been able to use a location spell to know where Sam had gone the night before. It was likely that Dean and the angels would be in the same location. They knew that Ishim had been injured in the fight the night before, so it was likely that his uncles would come looking for them without the angels.
He had laid at the wards and was going to apparate to the church as soon as they arrived. With Ishim weakened, he would take on Castiel, kill him, incapacitate Ishim, and leave before Sam and Dean could come back. He had promised Dr. Sunder to leave Ishim for her.
"You ready, Ted?" Dr. Sunder asked him.
"As I'll ever be," he responded. "Thank you, Dr. Sunder, for everything."
"Of course, thank you, Ted. Please, be careful." She felt somewhat regretful for using this young man in this way. But she also knew that she didn't have much of her soul left. If she didn't get Ishim soon, she may be doomed to Hell, where she would never get to see May again. She didn't want Ted to die, but if he did, she would just mourn him as another thing she had had to give up in her quest. A necessary evil.
"They have to be close now," she said to him. He nodded and left with a loud crack.
"Did you hear that?" Sam asked Dean as they came down the hallway. It had sounded like a wizard apparating.
Dean looked at him and nodded in agreement and they both took their guns out.
Sure enough, they round a corner and there is Lily Sunder. She pulls out her double angel blades.
"Whoa! Whoa!" Sam said.
"Give us a second," Dean asked, dropping his gun slightly.
"How did you find me?" She demanded. Ted had said they were good, and she had to admit that he was right.
"We're here to talk," Sam said, also lowering his gun, "that's it. We come in peace. Just hear us out. We heard what happened to your family."
"My family?" Lily asked.
"See, Cas is our family, so we can't let you hurt him."
"Let me?"
"We don't wanna kill you," Dean assured her.
"I don't wanna kill you," she agreed.
"Ok. Good," Sam said. "Look, there we go. Agreed. Listen, it's not Cas' fault that Heaven has these crazy rules about Nephilim. Your daughter," he explained.
"You think…" she dropped the angel blades and pulled out her locket. She opened it. "Her name was May, and she was beautiful." She paused and thought for a second. "All my life," she continued, "I dreamed about angels. I studied them. I made them my life's work until finally, I learned the spell to summon one – Ishim."
This surprised Sam and Dean, but they let her keep speaking.
"When I first saw him, it was like looking into the face of the Divine. I thought he was perfect. But he is a monster." She grimaced, remembering the day that the angel had slaughtered her daughter. "I had my daughter long before I ever laid eyes on an angel."
Understanding dawned on the brothers' faces.
"Wait, so…" Dean started.
"My daughter was human," she said calmly.
Dean felt anything but calm. He turned slightly and spoke quietly to Sam. "Are you buying any of this?"
"Yeah, kinda," Sam whispered back.
"Alright, well, we gotta make sure, you know. I mean, Ishim's a tool, but – " he pulled out his cell phone. "I'm gonna call Cas." It started to ring. "Come on, come on, come on," Dean begged. "Yeah, he's not answering," he said, worried.
"Ok. Just go. I'll stay here," Sam said, thinking that he could question Lily about the cracking sound they had heard.
"What? And leave you're here with her? You kidding me? She – "
" – She is no threat whatsoever to humans," Lily completed for him. "And she can hear you." She exhaled.
"Ok. Ok," Dean hurried away.
Lily hoped that she had bought Ted enough time.
III
Ted managed to sneak into the church, unseen and undetected. Crouching just yards away from the two angels, he couldn't help but feel extremely accomplished and extraordinarily anxious at the same time.
This was it. The whole world owed Harry. Ted was the only one who had loved him enough to do something about it. He brushed away the hot tears that fell on his cheeks as he readied the angel blade and watched.
Castiel had his hand out over Ishim's wound. As the glow died up and the wound healed, Castiel stumbled back, weak.
'Even better,' Ted thought.
Ishim stood and flexed his arms. He started doing pushups while Castiel sat down.
"Mm," Ishim said. "I haven't felt this good in a millennium. Mm!"
"Oh, goody," Castiel said sarcastically.
"Ah, quit your whinin'. You'll regain your strength soon enough."
Castiel started patting his coat. "Where's my phone?" He asked rhetorically.
"You'll have to keep better track of your things, Castiel," Ishim said as he stood up.
Ted waited.
The two angels chatted for a couple more minutes. Then, Ted got lucky. Ishim walked off – he wasn't sure where to.
Castiel was sitting by himself, looking like death warmed over.
It was time.
Moving quickly and quietly, angel blade held tightly, Ted moved towards the angel, sneaking up behind him.
He stood poised, with the angel blade held high over his head.
He was just about to plunge the blade in, when the angel surprised him, turning quickly and knocking the blade out of Ted's hand.
"Who are you?" Castiel asked, struggling to his feet.
The angel blade lay just a couple of feet away from each of them. Ted carefully glanced its way.
But not carefully enough. Castiel followed his eyes before flicking back.
"You're a wizard," Castiel said, matter-of-factly and calmly. "I am not a threat to your kind," he said gently. The wizard was young and no match for him, but he didn't want to hurt him.
That statement reminded Ted of that fact. He slid his wand out from its holster and summoned the blade, which came flying into his hand.
Castiel stood a little taller. "We can talk, wizard. I don't want to hurt you."
Ted leered. "It's a little late for that, Castiel." He lunged forward, but the angel managed to move enough out of the way that he was just slightly cut by the blade. He fell to the ground.
The wizard grinned. He had him now. He approached, pulled the blade back, ready to finally get his revenge when something grabbed him from behind and held a blade to his throat.
"Drop it," a voice said.
Ted did and it clacked on the ground and rolled away.
"Ishim – " Castiel said.
"Who's this, Castiel? Another one of your simian friends?" He pushed the blade into Ted's neck a little more.
"No. I don't know who he is, but Ishim, look, he's just a child…" Castiel pleaded as he scrambled up from the ground.
"NO!" Ted roared. "I'm not a child," he spat, wiggling against the stronghold of the angel behind him, fighting. There was no way that he was going to get this close and not kill Castiel. He had to kill Castiel.
"Do you think that matters? I see this one is a filthy wizard. I didn't think that you had fallen this far. The hunters were one thing. But this abomination…" He tightened his grip.
Ted changed his body shape – made himself smaller and slipped out of the angel's grip, once again going for the blade on the floor.
He slammed himself onto the ground, hoping to get the momentum to just reach out, and – the blade was just within his reach when Ishim used magic to push the blade away. He forcibly rolled Ted over so he was on his back, and had his foot on Ted's chest so that the teenager couldn't move.
"Hm, an interesting one," he said. "Too bad I'm going to have to kill it. It might have been interesting to study." He pulled Ted up from the floor and slammed him against a wall, ready to smite him, when another voice called out.
"TEDDY!"
The terror in Ted's heart calmed, just a fraction. Dean came running in. At last, his uncle would finally see what Castiel was. And he would be able to tell his family what had happened to him.
"Get away from him," Dean said gruffly, attempting to remove Ishim from his nephew. Ishim let go without a fight, letting the boy fall to the ground with a sickening, crack.
Dean rushed to him and kneeled down. "Teddy, are you alright?" He said, looking closely at the boy's face and body, trying to assess if he was hurt.
Ted coughed. "Dean – you have to…"
"You know this wizard, Dean?" Castiel asked.
Dean helped Teddy off the ground, carefully. "Yeah. This is my nephew."
Ted hurt everywhere. He could feel all of the bruises as Dean carefully led him to a sofa and laid him down. "You ok, buddy?" He asked.
Ted nodded, unable to speak.
Dean turned on the angels.
"What were you thinking?" He asked, stepping towards Ishim.
"That wizard attacked Castiel, I was only defending him."
"Cas?"
"He – yes, he attacked me, but Dean…"
"He murdered Harry!" Ted found his voice at last. "Kill him, Dean."
That snapped Dean's attention to his nephew once again. "Oh, Teddy, look buddy…"
"This is Harry's son?" Castiel interrupted.
"Yeah, this is Harry's kid," Dean answered.
"Castiel," Ishim snapped. "Are you going to allow this thing to live after it attacked you? I knew you were weak, but this…"
"Ishim, it's complicated…"
"Ishim's playing you, Cas," Dean said, remembering the task at hand. "This Lily chick? Says her daughter was human."
That caught Castiel's attention. "Is that true Ishim?" He asked, distracted away from the distraught young wizard on the sofa.
"She's a liar," Ishim said calmly. "Can't be trusted."
"Why would she lie?" Castiel asked.
"She's human. It's kinda what they do."
"Well, if she's a liar, she's pretty good at it. You, on the other hand, kind of suck," Dean said.
"Who are you gonna believe?" Ishim asked Castiel. "Your brother, or some filthy ape who's always talking down to you, always mocking you."
"You know," Dean started, "Cas and I might not agree all the time, but at least he knows who his real friends are."
Behind them all, none of them noticed as Ted's eyes narrowed. It was one thing to know that his uncles knew and worked with Castiel, it was entirely another to hear Dean call him a friend. His blood boiled. Carefully, he maneuvered himself to a sitting position. With his wand, he once again summoned the angel blade to himself.
"Why do his words bother you so much, Ishim?" Castiel asked, not realizing what was going on behind him.
"Who is he to question my choices? Who is he to question yours?"
"Well, it seems that some of my choices may need to be questioned," he thought back, specifically, to Harry. "Now tell me. The girl – was she human?"
"Oh, you're not gonna like the answer," Ishim grinned.
Dean pulled out an angel blade. He rushed Ishim – Ishim tossed him against a wall. Cas came up quickly behind Dean and threw a punch, only to be blocked. Ishim pushed Cas down so that he thudded loudly onto the floor, before grabbing him by the collar.
"I used to envy you, Castiel. You believe that?" He said in the angel's face.
Dean cut his palm with his angel blade. Ted inched closer to the angels.
"You survived Hell. You were chosen by God. But now, look at you. You're just sad and pathetically weak." He punched Cas, making him fall to the floor, where he wasn't moving. "So now…I'm gonna help you," Ishim continued. "I'm gonna cure you of your human weakness the same way I cured my own – " He moved away from Castiel and towards Dean. " – by cutting it out."
Ted was torn. Did he help his uncle, who was looking worse for wear, or take this shot on Castiel? It was likely to be his last chance.
The decision was taken away from him when he felt his body being pulled towards Ishim, a wand blade to his throat again.
Dean's hand hovered over an angel banishing sigil. "Let him go," he growled at Ishim. "Don't move."
Ted was frozen in fear. The grip was so tight that he wasn't sure that the trick that he had used the last time would work again.
"Do it," Ishim challenged Dean, positioning the wand blade so that if he got pulled away, it would cut Ted's neck. "You blast me away, you'll blast every angel in the room. I'll survive. This blade will slash this abomination's throat. Not only that, but Castiel, he's hurt. He might not live or he might just end up a bloody smear on the wall. Two birds, one stone for me. Roll the dice."
Dean lowered his hand. "HARRY!" he prayed as loudly as he could in his mind. He hoped it worked – it was the first time that he had dared to call out to his brother in this way.
"That's what I thought," Ishim crowed.
"Ishim!" Lily and Sam had arrived. The angel dropped Ted to turn around quickly.
"Hello, my love," he said nastily. She motioned him forward.
Sam ran over, "Teddy what are you doing here?" He hissed. "You've gotta go."
"Unca Sam," Teddy slurred, relieved. He was safe at last – so he let go of trying to stay awake through his injuries and passed out.
"Yeah, that's right, buddy, I'm here," Sam said, holding him. "What the hell, Dean?"
Dean shrugged.
Lily and Ishim were fighting.
There was a crack like lightning.
"I called for backup," Dean said.
"Good thinking," Sam responded as Harry appeared.
Harry looked around wildly, quickly spotting Dean on the floor and Sam, crouched over a small body. He also spotted Castiel, bloody, attempting to get off the ground just a little distance away.
An angel and a human were fighting.
"The angel, Harry!" Dean called out.
That's all he needed to say. Harry strode forward, quickly disarming the angel that was locked in battle and throwing him against the wall.
He knew that he must be responsible for his brother's injuries. Which infuriated him. With one quick hand slam to the head, green light engulfed the angel, and he slumped over, dead.
For a moment his eyes glowed green. Which was terrifying.
"You alright?" He asked, flying over to his brothers. "What's happening? Why was that angel…" Suddenly, he spotted the smaller figure that he could now see Sam was cradling.
"Teddy," he breathed.
AN – Oi. It was a long one this week. I couldn't figure out a good place to split this chapter, so y'all are just getting a super long update. Hope you don't mind! (I also like to make the chapters a bit longer when I'm using so many direct lines from the show.)
There is a lot going on in this chapter – but it's also a turning point. A number of you have expressed frustration with the brothers' relationship, which, is fair enough, I swear these characters have minds of their own and the boys are very hard to control. But we see Dean pray to Harry for the first time here and that is a signal of growth for him.
As always, thank you so much to everyone who interacts with the story. In my Discord group someone recently shared their favorite comment to put in their AN's – for the lovely commenters/reviewers, I will see you in the comment section. For the lurkers, I'll see you in my statistics. 😊