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dauntperplexityAuthor: dauntperplexity
Rating: PG 13
Characters: Castiel, Dean, Uriel, Alastair (no pairing)
Spoilers: everything up to 4.10
Warnings: Some violence.
Summary: In the outermost ring of Hell, he could still hear the screams of Alastair. He knew that this fight wasn’t over.
Disclaimer: I own nothing from this story except the idea behind the story. There are angels in this story that everyone should know about and if not, could easily look up. I’m using the concepts of circles in Hell, like Dante’s Inferno, but not so specific. And I did some weird math, so according to it 1 year in Hell was almost 3 days on Earth, so do what you want with that information. In this story there are flashbacks, a dream sequence, and present time.
Author’s Note: Okay, so I was going to write a story with Castiel recalling pulling Dean out of Hell and another story for the end of Heaven and Hell. But, I decided to just combine the stories. Not because I’m lazy, but because it made sense the way that they fit together in my head. Okay, in this story, Dean doesn’t remember Castiel rescuing him from Hell. That is the impression that I get from the show, and I needed to write this story.
Italic is flashback
They landed in a church. It was a state or two away from the barn where they left the Winchesters, their demon ally, and the chaos that took place earlier in the day. The smaller angel sat in a pew, sagged and sighed. The larger man stayed standing. “Castiel, are you all right?” the larger man asked.
“I’m fine, Uriel,” he replied.
“Then tell me what happened back there in the barn.”
He rubbed his hands over his face and looked up at Uriel. “What do you mean?”
“How was Alastair able to get the upper hand on you?” Uriel questioned. “You should’ve been able to send that scum back to Hell with ease.”
Castiel folded his hands and rested them on his lap. “I don’t know,” he answered, regretfully.
“If I had known that you still weren’t strong enough to fight, I never would’ve left Alastair to you.”
“It won’t happen again.” He paused, waiting for Uriel to say something else. “I have to go and thank Dean,” he said when he got no reply.
“You don’t owe him anything, Castiel.”
Castiel stood up and glared at the archangel. “He is the reason that I’m still here and not in Hell.”
“And you pulled him out. The way I see it, your debt is repaid. I don’t understand why you like the mud monkey so much.”
“I pulled him from Hell, he is my responsibility.”
“I know.” Uriel sighed. He put his hand on Castiel’s shoulder. “I saw what Hell did to you. I had to watch as Raphael struggled to heal you. I had to see you in pain. And I couldn’t do anything about it. And now, with the canto that Alastair started when he had you.”
“I’m fine, Uriel.”
“I would feel a lot better if you went up to Raphael and had yourself healed,” Uriel countered.
“There isn’t time,” Castiel sighed.
“I wonder what Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael were thinking when they put me with you,” Uriel said.
The archangels, Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel, stood and watched as Castiel knelt down and prayed. They knew what was happening. They had all gone through something like that before. They have seen other angels kneel as they watched. Now it was Castiel’s turn. He was getting an order from their Father.
They felt the shift in the balance when the Pure Heart died. They knew that someone was going to be chosen to raise him from Hell. The obvious choice was Castiel. He’d raised people from Hell before, but this time was different. “Are you sure about this, Michael?” Uriel asked, not liking that Castiel was the one chosen for it. He knew that Castiel was skilled enough to do the job that their Father was giving them, but Castiel was young in his eyes.
“Of course, Uriel.”
“Is he ready for something like this?”
“He says he is. Our Father says that he is.”
“But—”
“If it makes you feel any better, you can go down with him,” Gabriel said.
“Father wants him to go by himself,” Raphael countered.
“And we just have to wait up here,” Michael said.
“Besides, we aren’t allowed in Hell,” Raphael stated. The archangels weren’t allowed in Hell because that was a small part of the pact that Heaven and Hell made.
“He will be fine, he is strong enough.”
“I do not like the fact he has to go alone. He has to find the human first. Then he has to raise the boy and put him back into his body.”
“I never realized you were so protective of him, Uriel,” Gabriel said. “We can leave you in his care when he’s done.”
“He is our brother,” Uriel replied. “I can see that you three are worried about him too.”
The three archangels went silent for a moment. “It is his destiny,” Michael said.
The four archangels paused their conversation as Castiel stood up. He bowed and his wings beat once then came to a rest. He turned and walked toward the archangels. He had received his mission.
They both remembered that day. They remembered the urgency and frenzy the side of good was in when Dean was pulled into Hell. Uriel watched as Castiel had taken on the sole responsibility of Dean Winchester, not caring that he did it at the expense of himself. It was at that moment that Uriel disliked Dean Winchester and Dean would have to do something miraculous to gain Uriel’s respect. “Go,” Uriel sighed.
“What?” Castiel said.
“I know you want to go and talk to that mud monkey. Go, before I make you sleep and drag you back to Heaven.”
Castiel smirked, but he knew that the threat was valid. He left Uriel in the church and headed two states over where he knew the Winchesters were.
Castiel landed in Dean and Sam’s motel room. He looked around and saw that Dean laid on his bed asleep and Sam was nowhere to be seen. Castiel backed into a corner, between the wall and the table against it. He closed his eyes and prepared to enter Dean’s dreams.
LRLRLRLRLRLRLRLR
Dean sat up from his bed and looked around. He felt another person in his dream. “Dean.”
Dean turned around and saw Castiel standing in the corner of his room. “What are you doing in my dream?” he groaned.
“I needed to talk to you.”
“You couldn’t come and talk to me in person?” Dean asked. He was still angry with the angel, and he didn’t do well to hide it.
“You aren’t awake right now.”
Dean stood up wand walked over to the angel. He leaned against the table in his room and folded his arms across his chest. “Is it urgent?”
“No. I just—”
“Save it,” Dean interrupted.
Castiel sighed. He shouldn’t have expected anything less from the man. He didn’t. “I understand that you’re angry with me, Dean.”
“You can’t know what I’m going through. There is no way that an angel could understand. Anna was right.”
“Dean, don’t say that. You really can’t believe that angels don’t feel,” Castiel whispered. “You have to know that what we were doing—”
“Was for the greater good and all that preacher bull? Whatever you have to say to convince yourselves.” Dean paused and waited for a reply from the angel. “If Alastair and his thugs hadn’t shown up, you and Uriel would’ve just killed Anna,” Dean said, sauntering to Castiel. “You’re lucky that we—”
“That was your plan all along, wasn’t it?” Castiel asked.
Dean calmed himself and leaned against the desk. “Yeah.”
“You wanted us to fight it out.”
“There was a lot for us at stake during that fight too,” Dean replied.
“And to stay out of our way,” Castiel continued as if he didn’t hear what Dean said. Dean looked away, confirming Castiel’s claim. “Then why did you get involved when Alastair had me?”
“I wasn’t about to let him kill you,” Dean said.
“But you were angry with me.”
Dean looked at the angel. He had to know that he would never let anything bad happen if he had a chance to stop it. “That doesn’t matter. I know Alastair. As hard as he was on me, he would’ve had more fun torturing an angel.” Up until that moment, Dean didn’t believe Castiel when he said that angels weren’t indestructible. But he saw the look on Castiel’s face when Alastair had him. He never thought that he would ever see the angel scared of anything. Especially not dying. Now he knew.
“So you told your brother,” Castiel said, looking at Dean.
Dean met his eyes for a second before he looked away. He never could keep eye contact with the angel for very long. It was too unsettling. “I had to.”
“You wanted to. I think it’s a good thing that you did. It can help you.”
“Are we really going to have this heart to heart right now?” Dean asked, his frustration with the angel resurfacing once more.
Castiel recognized the tone. “Okay. I’ll leave,” Castiel said, throwing his hands up in defeat. He knew that Dean listened to all he wanted to hear. They weren’t going to get anywhere else tonight.
“You’re giving me a warning for once,” Dean said.
“I don’t want to give you more of a reason to be angry with me. And besides, this is your dream.”
“Damn right, this is my dream,” Dean said. “Now get out so I can dream about some hot supermodel.”
“Okay.” Castiel nodded to signal that he was about leave. But as if an invisible force attacked him, he grabbed the corner of the table with one hand, the other going to his chest.
“Cas?” he said, reaching out to him.
LRLRLRLRLRLRLRLR
Dean jerked up from his bed, not liking his dream. He didn’t like that he dreamt about an angel getting hurt. He sat up and rubbed his hand up and down his face. He was hoping that the dream meant nothing more than he was angry with Castiel and he wanted to exact some revenge on him without actually doing any harm to the angel. But he couldn’t shake the feeling about what he dreamt about. Like some part of it was real. He leaned over and turned on the light. He looked over to his brother’s bed and saw that Sam wasn’t there. But he felt someone, or something, else in the room. He looked over in the corner and saw Castiel leaning over the table, like in his dream. Dean immediately jumped off his bed and was at the angel’s side.
“Cas?” he said, just like he did in his dream. Dean grabbed Castiel by his shoulders and stood him up straight. “Are you all right?” Dean asked.
Castiel looked up, his eyes unfocused. He realized that he lost the hold on Dean’s dream. “I’m fine,” Castiel said, shaking, but grasping onto Dean as a lifeline. He brought his hands to Dean’s forearms to brace himself. He was weak, and because of it, he was assaulted by memories that he had kept at bay during his time on Earth. They were making his head hurt.
Dean felt Castiel sway. He led the angel to his bed and sat him down. “That’s a lie. I tell that to Sammy all the time, and it’s never the truth. But can angels lie?”
“No,” Castiel sighed.
“I guess if you believe it enough then somehow it gets confused as the truth,” Dean said to himself. “Honestly, Cas.”
Castiel’s hands went from Dean’s forearms to his shoulders. One of the hands lined up perfectly with the burn on his shoulder. Then Dean saw a flash of something.
“He isn’t yours, Alastair!” Castiel yelled.
“I know that, angel, but what are you going to do about it?” Alastair let go of Dean and sauntered over to the angel.
Castiel reached behind him and grabbed a feather from his wing. A second later the feather changed into a sword. “What I need to do.”
Dean stepped away from the angel, which caused Castiel to no longer have a grip on anything. He fell sideways onto the bed. “What was that?” Dean asked.
“A memory,” he whispered.
“Whose memory? It’s not one of mine,” he said, his eyes wide. He recognized the place, and Alastair’s demon form. But he couldn’t remember being a witness to scene.
“I couldn’t finish,” Castiel whispered. “I’m sorry I wasn’t strong enough.”
Castiel’s eyes shut and Dean stood there watching the angel lose consciousness. A second later, Castiel’s eyes shot open, but they were glazed over. Dean snapped his fingers in front of Castiel’s face but got no response. Dean stared at the angel wondering what was happening but also thinking of ways to wake him up.
End Part 1
Author's Note: I wanted to post this in one entry, but apparently the file is too big. Please review!
Part 2
