Unexpected Destinies Chapter 186
Title: Unexpected Destinies
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: up to and including Exile on Main St., AU from the end of season 5
Warnings: AU, slash
Word Count: 4,400
Summary: Michael ponders his true vessel and his younger brother's new situation.
PRESENT
"What's this?" Colonel Anrig asked, stepping up to where the scrolls were laid out.
"It's something we found that we need decoded," Michael explained. "We have reason to believe that the cipher is located here."
"Yes, I've seen something like this before," Father Giordano stated.
"You have? Where?" Dean demanded, excited.
His vessel's emotions were not only evident on Dean's face, but Michael could also feel the echo of them as well along their bond. It distracted him for a moment as it was stronger than ever before. He would not have thought that was even possible if he wasn't experiencing it himself. Yet here it was nonetheless; their bond was clearly growing ever stronger even when he wasn't actively taking his little one as his vessel. He could only assume that it was due to a mix of Dean's unique soul and the fact that his bond brother was almost constantly exposed to Grace, which could serve to strengthen all of his precious vessel's bonds, especially when Dean was so receptive and accepting of the two different Graces in question. Still, the fact that it was so unprecedented would worry him but for the fact that he strongly suspected his Father's hand at work in all of this.
Dean was the Righteous Man and all, plus his Father had already proven that He was willing to break all of His old rules when it came to this particular human, so Michael wasn't as concerned as he might otherwise have been. Despite all that had happened, he still had faith when it came to things like this. And if he turned out to be wrong in that, well then he would do all that he could to ensure that things ended well for his friend. First, though, they needed to take care of his brother and prevent this Apocalypse and anything which brought him and Dean closer together was probably an advantage in terms of accomplishing that particular goal.
That thought inevitably brought Michael's thoughts back to Lucifer and the fact that his brother now had himself a vessel. That fact chilled him and his eyes automatically sought out Dean who stood talking with Raziel and Father Mancini. Absently he noted that the others had vanished off somewhere else, but he paid it little notice. The fact that Lucifer now had a vessel was worrying for a number of reasons beyond the immediately obvious one. Among them was the fact that his own vessel had now lost yet another member of his family. True, Dean hadn't been close to Christian Campbell- had actually hardly even met the man in point of fact- but he knew how important family was to his little one so to lose any of them to Lucifer had to hurt. Especially when it was someone that his bond brother might think that he could have saved. He'd have to have a word with Castiel about that so they could make sure that Dean didn't end up blaming himself for this. All of them had warned the man about his brother and the fact that Lucifer could use him as a vessel and what Christian could do to prevent it from happening. The fact that the stupid idiot had gone and given his consent to Lucifer anyway was entirely beyond their control. It was no one's fault but Christian's and Lucifer's and he absolutely refused to allow Dean to even consider anything else.
Luckily his vessel hadn't shown any overt signs of grief yet, unlike Sam whom Michael had seen react to the news as if the boy had received a physical blow. No, what had visibly affected his bond brother had been the news of Lawrence's destruction. He'd relayed the news to Castiel and Raphael at once and his brothers had taken a few garrisons and gone to check it out with an eye on mitigating the damage as much as possible and seeing if they could come up with an explanation for the disaster that most humans would find plausible. He wasn't sure if- or for how long- that they could keep the truth hidden now that his brother had himself a vessel, but they had to try. Dean had stressed the importance of allowing innocents or those who could do nothing to keep their ignorance so that their lives wouldn't be ruined fearing and worrying about things that they could do nothing about.
The thought of what his brother might do next also bothered Michael greatly. Would Lucifer repeat what he'd done to Lawrence or would he shift his attention elsewhere? If he did the former, then he and Dean would have little choice but to confront Lucifer together. The problem with that, of course, was that they had no idea of what to do. They had no plan other than the fact that he couldn't, under any circumstances, kill his brother. While a huge relief as he'd never wanted to kill Lucifer even when he thought that he had to, it did leave them in a difficult position. Short of temporarily trapping his brother in Holy fire, there was no way to imprison Lucifer and he couldn't just try to dog his brother all over the globe either, not only would he inevitably be too late to save everyone, but it would keep both Dean and himself from seeking for alternative solutions. Not to mention the fact that constantly confronting his brother like that would almost certainly lead to putting him in a position where he had to make a choice between either killing Lucifer or being killed himself.
If his death were to be beneficial, then Michael would lay down his life in a human heartbeat, but he'd never allow his brother to kill Dean. Nor would he allow his own death without clear proof that it was the only or best course of action as he was only all too well aware of the fact that he was the only one powerful enough to stand up to Lucifer. Oh he knew Raphael, Castiel and Raziel would do their best, but they simply didn't have the raw power necessary to stand up to Lucifer and win. Together the three of them might stand a chance, but definitely not alone.
The metal image conjured at the thought of his brothers not succeeding in his absence made Michael shudder and he was more than happy to shift his focus when Sam and the others who had vanished during his musings returned. The excitement of his vessel's brother told him that they'd managed to locate the code cipher.
A foreign sense of foreboding and excitement went through Michael and he looked at his bond brother with a frown. His initial suspicion that it hadn't felt like Dean was confirmed when his little one gave him the same look. But if the emotion hadn't been Dean's, then whose had it been and how had the two of them experienced it?
As worrying as the thought was, Michael hardly had the time to ponder it before the others had reached them.
"Father Giordano was right!" Sam began, nearly breathless with excitement and his whole demeanor almost vibrating in a way that disturbed Michael as much as it confused and confounded him. "The book was also exactly where he thought that it was too."
"Where is it?" Dean asked.
"Here," Father Giordano replied, stepping forwards with a large book held carefully in his now gloved hands.
Michael tried to learn the reason for the gloves directly from Dean's mind, but it seemed that his true vessel didn't actually know the reason himself, just that it was done with dreary old books. In addition he got the best equivalent that his bond brother could come up with for the poking of his Grace that Dean so loved to do whenever they were joined and he either annoyed or exasperated his vessel.
"Here, allow me," Raziel said, reaching for the book. "I can keep my hands free from anything harmful to the pages and turn them more gently than you can."
Surprised once more at his brother's extensive knowledge of humans, Michael nonetheless approached so that he could easily see everything. Father Giordano readily handed the large tome over to Raziel who carefully placed it on the table next to the scrolls.
"The section that I saw those symbols in was towards the back of the book, after the original text," Father Giordano said.
Raziel opened the tome towards the back and carefully began turning the pages. Seeing the frailty of the paper, Michael was once again reminded of the finite nature of all things on Earth. It was something which he'd pondered before, especially after his Father had first created mortal life, but now it affected him in a way that it never truly had before. Back then he'd always viewed mortality objectively but from an intellectual distance. He'd seen it as something new and different, to be pitied when the frailty and decay of advanced age set in but then to be envied when allowed into Heaven to rest if the soul in question had deserved such a reward. It had never truly affected him much beyond those vague musings however.
Now, though... now it struck home in a way that Michael had never even imagined that it could before and he didn't even understand why.
Sure, watching his precious vessel age and slowly die would have been difficult to bear at best, but Dean never would as Castiel had already ensured that his bond brother never suffered that kind of physical decline. And if his brother hadn't done it, then he himself would have. Nor did it make sense from a mortality perspective either because death for Dean would not be the same end as death for himself or any of his brothers and sisters would be. It was but a physical death for his vessel, Dean's soul would live on, so his little one's mortality really shouldn't disturb him like this, yet somehow, it did.
Briefly Michael wondered if he was perhaps picking up on Dean's own feelings on the issue, but he didn't think so as he couldn't recall his bond brother ever brooding on the topic. Yes, he knew from Castiel and personal experience that Dean didn't look particularly kindly on Heaven, nor had any specific desire to go there, but he doubted that his bond brother would be terribly unhappy there either as Dean would have his bond mate, brother and friends there with him in addition to all of the new bond brothers and sisters that his vessel now had. He had to admit that he was looking forward to seeing how his friend handled that particular aspect of his bonding. He knew for a fact that his little one had no real understanding of just how many angels there were and most, if not all of them, would want to meet Castiel's chosen bond mate, especially as Dean was also the Righteous Man.
All of which left Michael at a bit of a loss to either explain or understand his emotions as they made no logical sense whatsoever. Or were they not supposed to? Make sense that was. He could, effortlessly, recall dozens of situations where his vessel had said or done things which had defied all rational and logical explanations and, more often than not, he'd suspected that his bond brother had been driven by emotion. So perhaps he wasn't supposed to be able to make logical sense of what he was feeling now. He'd used to think that such emotion driven irrationalities were one of the many flaws and weaknesses that his Father had given humans, but now it seemed quite clear to him that angels possessed the ability as well. They just didn't normally experience the depth of emotion necessary to bring it out. There was still a part of him that was predisposed to thinking of that as a bad thing, but now he knew better than to just assume that he was right. If there was one thing which both Dean and his Father had irrevocably proven to him, it was that emotions were a good thing. Michael merely wished that they didn't always have to complicate matters so much or make things so much more difficult.
"Yes, that's it!" Dean proclaimed excitedly, drawing Michael's attention back to his surroundings.
Raziel had obviously turned further and further to the back of the tome until they'd gotten to what had once been a series of blank pages as the script on them didn't match the meticulous and ornate calligraphy from the main portion of the book.
"This was written by one of your ancestors," Raziel said, eyes quickly scanning the archaic writing.
"That makes sense," Sam responded. "You said that they'd had this cipher at some point."
"Yes, but this would imply that there was originally a different source," Michael said.
Dean shrugged. "Things get lost, damaged or destroyed."
"Well, either that or whoever wrote this was the person who invented the code in the first place," Colonel Anrig suggested. "Or do you have reason to believe that this isn't the case?"
"It's possible," Raziel mused. "The scrolls are slightly older than this book, but it could simply be that the cipher wasn't written down until later."
"What, that it was just passed on verbally before that?" Father Mancini asked.
"For instance."
"Does it really matter?" Dean questioned.
"The source of the information determines its validity, Little One," Michael pointed out.
"Yeah, but given how anyone could be a prophet or even get the odd vision or two, how are we to determine if it was valid now?"
"There are no prophets in your line," Raziel stated. "All angels know the names of every prophet."
"Even ones that might have married into the line?" Sam inquired.
The proximity of Father Giordano to his vessel's brother and the fact that they'd been whispering to each other told Michael that the priest must have been doing his best to translate for Sam as he suddenly realized that somewhere along the line they'd all switched back into Italian. It was something he almost didn't even notice, the transition from one language to another, as he spoke all languages known to man as well as those of both Heaven and Hell and so had little need to differentiate between them. Instead he simply responded in whatever language he was addressed and so Father Mancini's shift from English back to Italian had shifted the entire conversation. The interesting thing was that Dean had done so as well and he wondered if his bond brother was even conscious of having done so. If not then perhaps that was a consequence of the way that he had given his bond brother the knowledge. Aware only of how angels knew a language, he doubted that he had programmed it in Dean's mind the way a normal human third language would be. That his vessel had still taken to it so easily was merely another instance of his vessel's easy ability to adapt to all things angelic.
"Yes, even those," Raziel confirmed.
"But that doesn't preclude a prophet having been close to your family," Michael said, deliberately switching back into English so that Sam could understand him directly. "In which case your ancestor might have been the scribe for Father's message."
"And what is that actual message?" Dean inquired with a significant look at the tome and scrolls.
"Right," Raziel said, beginning to look through the pages.
Since he knew that human memory was fallible and that Dean preferred to have a written record to refer back to, Michael grabbed some paper and a pen and wrote down the plain text as he and Raziel figured it out, flipping through the book with no reference back to the original scrolls. He'd had the cipher text memorized from the first time that he'd seen it and so had no need to do so. The seemingly mixed up order of the cipher, though, meant that he only knew the full meaning of the plain text message shortly before his little one did as Dean had come to stand close behind him, reading over his shoulder. He'd briefly considered making a comment about that precious personal space that his vessel used to complain about so much, but the moment that fingers had reached out and carefully nudged an errant feather back into place the words had dried up in his mouth. He wasn't sure if Dean was even aware of doing it or whether the wing grooming had become second nature to his bond brother, but he definitely wasn't going to complain. Having another's fingers or touch on his wings had always felt good, but for it to be those of his vessel felt amazing. Castiel was a lucky angel to have found a bond mate as generous and beautiful as Dean and Michael could only pray that he did too someday.
The moment that the meaning of the plain text because clear, though, Michael instantly forgot all about that and he only finished writing it out because it took less thought to do so than it would have to stop writing.
Beside him, Dean took a deep breath and shock rippled between them. "Is that even possible?" his bond brother demanded, stunned.
"What?" Sam demanded, pushing closer to see for himself.
"I have never heard of something like this before," Michael replied, stepping back and drawing his little one with him by gently enfolding Dean in some of his wings.
"I-" Raziel began before pausing with a frown. "I have not heard of it either, but now that I think of it, Father did say something once that kind of hinted at this."
"What does it say?" Colonel Anrig questioned and Michael could tell that the human was only just stopping himself from pushing forwards to see for himself.
"It describes a method for containing an angel's power," Raziel stated dully.
Michael could totally understand his brother's lack of outward emotions. He knew that he himself wouldn't be displaying any as he was still far too much in shock to be able to feel anything, let alone show it to others. Before today he hadn't even known that it was possible to bind an angel's power. He'd always thought that the only way for he or any other of his brothers and sisters to lose their power was to rip out their own Grace or to Fall. Well either that or for their Father to do so, just because He never had before didn't mean that Michael didn't think that He couldn't.
"Wait, contain as in bind?" Dean demanded urgently. "As in not being able to use it?"
"Yes," Michael confirmed, trying to use his vessel bond with his bond brother in order to share some of Dean's rapidly rising excitement.
Of course Michael knew that he should be both happy and excited; this was the solution that they had been searching so desperately for after all. And, best of all, it didn't involve killing his own brother. Sure, he knew that Lucifer would hate it and possibly even wish that he had been killed instead, but for them it was perfect.
"Can it bind all of his power?" Sam asked. "Or only some of it?"
"Even if it is not all of his power, it will still be enough for us to end the Apocalypse," Raziel replied. "Lucifer is only just a match for Michael as it is, so any reduction would allow Michael to put an end to it all. And it is highly unlikely that this would only cause such a small reduction in power."
"But will it hold?" Dean questioned, suddenly grave and Michael turned to look at his bond brother as genuine concern rolled off of Dean. "Will it last?"
"What do you mean?" Sam asked.
"You don't think that it'll work?" Raziel inquired with a frown.
"No, I'm wondering if it'll be permanent," Dean clarified.
Michael felt some of the elation that he'd finally started to feel fade as he got what it was that his vessel meant. "You fear that Lucifer and Simiel will be able to find a way to either counter or undo the effects of this."
"They did with the Rite of Contressa."
"Surely if God went to the trouble of giving someone the vision necessary to come up with this, He wouldn't then just make it temporary," Sam argued.
Dean threw his brother a look that Michael couldn't immediately identify but he had a feeling that it had something to do with his friend's lack of faith in Father. Though the thought still caused some instinctive form of condemnation deep within him and would probably always pain him, he had gotten to the point where he could understand a little of why his bond brother felt the way that he did. From Dean's point of view, God had never done anything tangible to help humanity and had instead vanished, leaving them alone to deal with the Apocalypse. And unlike him, his vessel didn't have the faith and knowledge that his Father had to have some lesson- some purpose- to this to sustain him. After all that had happened to his little one, he knew that his Father would have a lot to make up for in order to gain Dean's forgiveness. His vessel's days of easily forgiving people were over, not that he thought that his Father would ever have qualified for that kind of leniency from his bond brother. The thought amused him in some odd way and, even more strangely, he didn't feel nearly as guilty as he'd once felt that he should have at that kind of thought.
"Dude," Dean said. "I'd rather consider it and be prepared for the possibility than to be caught off-guard with our pants down if it does."
"It is a valid concern," Michael replied. "But once we have Lucifer, and Simiel as I'd perform this on both, powered down, then we can imprison them in Heaven quite easily."
"Indeed," Raziel agreed. "Once they are equal with one of the classes of lessor angels, restraining them becomes a valid possibility."
That seemed to ease Dean a little but not all of his bond brother's tension faded and it put Michael on alert. His friend had proven to have excellent instincts in matters like these so if his vessel was still on edge, then he now knew better than to ignore the warning. He'd speak with Castiel, Raziel and Raphael about how best to ensure that neither Lucifer nor Simiel could ever harm anyone ever again if they succeeded in this option and managed to bind most of their power.
"Some of this stuff isn't going to come cheap," Sam declared, looking at the list of ingredients.
"The Vatican's got that covered for us," Dean stated with a nod at Father Mancini and the others. "Unlimited credit, remember?"
"Dean! Some of this stuff starts at over half a million dollars, if we're extremely lucky."
"Part of the reason why we gave your brother the credit card was precisely so that he could purchase and acquire rare and expensive ingredients," Colonel Anrig explained. "We knew that fighting Lucifer was likely to require access to rare and expensive items and we didn't want your brother to have to spend time acquiring the funds to get his hands on what he needed to save us all."
"Oh," Sam commented.
"That's fortunate as we won't be able to harvest or collect everything necessary ourselves," Michael said.
"Really, why not?" Dean questioned.
"Some of these need to remain pure and untouched by Grace until they have been combined or else their properties will be irrevocably altered."
"Okay, well why don't you guys get what you can and Sam and I will see to getting the rest of this stuff."
"That sounds like a plan," Raziel agreed. "Just beware that it will take at least two weeks to properly cultivate a Forbidden Blossom as it needs to come from a seed in Eden that has been washed in the Water of Life there before being planted in the ancient Hanging Gardens of Babylon until it flowers."
"Eden?" Father Giordano breathed in awe.
"You mean the ancient Hanging Gardens?" Sam questioned, stunned. "The ones of Nebuchadnezzar II? You're going back there for this?"
"Seed?" Dean asked. "You mean from one of those funky fruits on the trees next to the kalsika?"
A second wave of shock rippled through the room only this time it was all focused on Dean and it occurred to Michael how unaware of the effect that he had on others his little one was sometimes. He was slowly starting to learn, though, that it was just a part of who his vessel was. At least comments that seemed as innocuous to Dean as that one did allow others to realize just how special his bond brother was and he knew it would make those who might otherwise not do so treat his vessel right.
"Eden?" Father Mancini whispered. "You've been to Eden and seen the garden and fruit there?"
"Uh, yeah, Mike and I went a while back," Dean explained.
"What's a kalsika?" Sam inquired with a frown.
Dean tilted his head, clearly considering his brother before his friend shifted so that Dean's back was to those of the Vatican present before he tapped his wedding band. Michael tried but failed to understand the look that passed between them, but his bond brother clearly came to a decision in the process.
"Mike, could you take Sam and I to the apartment on the way back?" Dean asked. "I probably should clear it out and give it up seeing as we don't spend any time there anymore."
"Of course," Michael replied.
"I believe that we have some of these items here," Father Giordano stated, looking at the plain text.
"I shall remain here and collect them," Raziel offered. "You go ahead and take Dean and Sam, Michael."
"Thanks for all of your help," Dean said, looking at the Vatican officials.
"It was our pleasure," Father Mancini stated.
"Do let us know if you require anything else," Colonel Anrig added.
"We will," Dean promised.
A.N.:So, as I'm sure that everyone has noticed, it's been nearly a month since my last update. This is because something came up in 'real life' that put everything else on hold. I'd rather not go into any more detail than that as it wasn't fun, I'm just sorry that it meant keeping you guys waiting. I did once or twice think of doing a quick update, but I didn't want the quality of the fic to suffer or to forget a crucial detail this far towards the end of the fic. But, anyway, things seem to be under control now so I've been able to turn my attention back here.
For those of you interested in my Gabriel Big Bang fic, my artist and I have been given the 19th as our posting date so it'll be a weekend read. The art is also amazing! :)
Oh, if anyone could point me towards any good fics that have come out since my last update, that would just make my night! Destiel of course for the win, but anything nice Dean and/or Cas related would be awesome.
Chapter 187
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: up to and including Exile on Main St., AU from the end of season 5
Warnings: AU, slash
Word Count: 4,400
Summary: Michael ponders his true vessel and his younger brother's new situation.
PRESENT
"What's this?" Colonel Anrig asked, stepping up to where the scrolls were laid out.
"It's something we found that we need decoded," Michael explained. "We have reason to believe that the cipher is located here."
"Yes, I've seen something like this before," Father Giordano stated.
"You have? Where?" Dean demanded, excited.
His vessel's emotions were not only evident on Dean's face, but Michael could also feel the echo of them as well along their bond. It distracted him for a moment as it was stronger than ever before. He would not have thought that was even possible if he wasn't experiencing it himself. Yet here it was nonetheless; their bond was clearly growing ever stronger even when he wasn't actively taking his little one as his vessel. He could only assume that it was due to a mix of Dean's unique soul and the fact that his bond brother was almost constantly exposed to Grace, which could serve to strengthen all of his precious vessel's bonds, especially when Dean was so receptive and accepting of the two different Graces in question. Still, the fact that it was so unprecedented would worry him but for the fact that he strongly suspected his Father's hand at work in all of this.
Dean was the Righteous Man and all, plus his Father had already proven that He was willing to break all of His old rules when it came to this particular human, so Michael wasn't as concerned as he might otherwise have been. Despite all that had happened, he still had faith when it came to things like this. And if he turned out to be wrong in that, well then he would do all that he could to ensure that things ended well for his friend. First, though, they needed to take care of his brother and prevent this Apocalypse and anything which brought him and Dean closer together was probably an advantage in terms of accomplishing that particular goal.
That thought inevitably brought Michael's thoughts back to Lucifer and the fact that his brother now had himself a vessel. That fact chilled him and his eyes automatically sought out Dean who stood talking with Raziel and Father Mancini. Absently he noted that the others had vanished off somewhere else, but he paid it little notice. The fact that Lucifer now had a vessel was worrying for a number of reasons beyond the immediately obvious one. Among them was the fact that his own vessel had now lost yet another member of his family. True, Dean hadn't been close to Christian Campbell- had actually hardly even met the man in point of fact- but he knew how important family was to his little one so to lose any of them to Lucifer had to hurt. Especially when it was someone that his bond brother might think that he could have saved. He'd have to have a word with Castiel about that so they could make sure that Dean didn't end up blaming himself for this. All of them had warned the man about his brother and the fact that Lucifer could use him as a vessel and what Christian could do to prevent it from happening. The fact that the stupid idiot had gone and given his consent to Lucifer anyway was entirely beyond their control. It was no one's fault but Christian's and Lucifer's and he absolutely refused to allow Dean to even consider anything else.
Luckily his vessel hadn't shown any overt signs of grief yet, unlike Sam whom Michael had seen react to the news as if the boy had received a physical blow. No, what had visibly affected his bond brother had been the news of Lawrence's destruction. He'd relayed the news to Castiel and Raphael at once and his brothers had taken a few garrisons and gone to check it out with an eye on mitigating the damage as much as possible and seeing if they could come up with an explanation for the disaster that most humans would find plausible. He wasn't sure if- or for how long- that they could keep the truth hidden now that his brother had himself a vessel, but they had to try. Dean had stressed the importance of allowing innocents or those who could do nothing to keep their ignorance so that their lives wouldn't be ruined fearing and worrying about things that they could do nothing about.
The thought of what his brother might do next also bothered Michael greatly. Would Lucifer repeat what he'd done to Lawrence or would he shift his attention elsewhere? If he did the former, then he and Dean would have little choice but to confront Lucifer together. The problem with that, of course, was that they had no idea of what to do. They had no plan other than the fact that he couldn't, under any circumstances, kill his brother. While a huge relief as he'd never wanted to kill Lucifer even when he thought that he had to, it did leave them in a difficult position. Short of temporarily trapping his brother in Holy fire, there was no way to imprison Lucifer and he couldn't just try to dog his brother all over the globe either, not only would he inevitably be too late to save everyone, but it would keep both Dean and himself from seeking for alternative solutions. Not to mention the fact that constantly confronting his brother like that would almost certainly lead to putting him in a position where he had to make a choice between either killing Lucifer or being killed himself.
If his death were to be beneficial, then Michael would lay down his life in a human heartbeat, but he'd never allow his brother to kill Dean. Nor would he allow his own death without clear proof that it was the only or best course of action as he was only all too well aware of the fact that he was the only one powerful enough to stand up to Lucifer. Oh he knew Raphael, Castiel and Raziel would do their best, but they simply didn't have the raw power necessary to stand up to Lucifer and win. Together the three of them might stand a chance, but definitely not alone.
The metal image conjured at the thought of his brothers not succeeding in his absence made Michael shudder and he was more than happy to shift his focus when Sam and the others who had vanished during his musings returned. The excitement of his vessel's brother told him that they'd managed to locate the code cipher.
A foreign sense of foreboding and excitement went through Michael and he looked at his bond brother with a frown. His initial suspicion that it hadn't felt like Dean was confirmed when his little one gave him the same look. But if the emotion hadn't been Dean's, then whose had it been and how had the two of them experienced it?
As worrying as the thought was, Michael hardly had the time to ponder it before the others had reached them.
"Father Giordano was right!" Sam began, nearly breathless with excitement and his whole demeanor almost vibrating in a way that disturbed Michael as much as it confused and confounded him. "The book was also exactly where he thought that it was too."
"Where is it?" Dean asked.
"Here," Father Giordano replied, stepping forwards with a large book held carefully in his now gloved hands.
Michael tried to learn the reason for the gloves directly from Dean's mind, but it seemed that his true vessel didn't actually know the reason himself, just that it was done with dreary old books. In addition he got the best equivalent that his bond brother could come up with for the poking of his Grace that Dean so loved to do whenever they were joined and he either annoyed or exasperated his vessel.
"Here, allow me," Raziel said, reaching for the book. "I can keep my hands free from anything harmful to the pages and turn them more gently than you can."
Surprised once more at his brother's extensive knowledge of humans, Michael nonetheless approached so that he could easily see everything. Father Giordano readily handed the large tome over to Raziel who carefully placed it on the table next to the scrolls.
"The section that I saw those symbols in was towards the back of the book, after the original text," Father Giordano said.
Raziel opened the tome towards the back and carefully began turning the pages. Seeing the frailty of the paper, Michael was once again reminded of the finite nature of all things on Earth. It was something which he'd pondered before, especially after his Father had first created mortal life, but now it affected him in a way that it never truly had before. Back then he'd always viewed mortality objectively but from an intellectual distance. He'd seen it as something new and different, to be pitied when the frailty and decay of advanced age set in but then to be envied when allowed into Heaven to rest if the soul in question had deserved such a reward. It had never truly affected him much beyond those vague musings however.
Now, though... now it struck home in a way that Michael had never even imagined that it could before and he didn't even understand why.
Sure, watching his precious vessel age and slowly die would have been difficult to bear at best, but Dean never would as Castiel had already ensured that his bond brother never suffered that kind of physical decline. And if his brother hadn't done it, then he himself would have. Nor did it make sense from a mortality perspective either because death for Dean would not be the same end as death for himself or any of his brothers and sisters would be. It was but a physical death for his vessel, Dean's soul would live on, so his little one's mortality really shouldn't disturb him like this, yet somehow, it did.
Briefly Michael wondered if he was perhaps picking up on Dean's own feelings on the issue, but he didn't think so as he couldn't recall his bond brother ever brooding on the topic. Yes, he knew from Castiel and personal experience that Dean didn't look particularly kindly on Heaven, nor had any specific desire to go there, but he doubted that his bond brother would be terribly unhappy there either as Dean would have his bond mate, brother and friends there with him in addition to all of the new bond brothers and sisters that his vessel now had. He had to admit that he was looking forward to seeing how his friend handled that particular aspect of his bonding. He knew for a fact that his little one had no real understanding of just how many angels there were and most, if not all of them, would want to meet Castiel's chosen bond mate, especially as Dean was also the Righteous Man.
All of which left Michael at a bit of a loss to either explain or understand his emotions as they made no logical sense whatsoever. Or were they not supposed to? Make sense that was. He could, effortlessly, recall dozens of situations where his vessel had said or done things which had defied all rational and logical explanations and, more often than not, he'd suspected that his bond brother had been driven by emotion. So perhaps he wasn't supposed to be able to make logical sense of what he was feeling now. He'd used to think that such emotion driven irrationalities were one of the many flaws and weaknesses that his Father had given humans, but now it seemed quite clear to him that angels possessed the ability as well. They just didn't normally experience the depth of emotion necessary to bring it out. There was still a part of him that was predisposed to thinking of that as a bad thing, but now he knew better than to just assume that he was right. If there was one thing which both Dean and his Father had irrevocably proven to him, it was that emotions were a good thing. Michael merely wished that they didn't always have to complicate matters so much or make things so much more difficult.
"Yes, that's it!" Dean proclaimed excitedly, drawing Michael's attention back to his surroundings.
Raziel had obviously turned further and further to the back of the tome until they'd gotten to what had once been a series of blank pages as the script on them didn't match the meticulous and ornate calligraphy from the main portion of the book.
"This was written by one of your ancestors," Raziel said, eyes quickly scanning the archaic writing.
"That makes sense," Sam responded. "You said that they'd had this cipher at some point."
"Yes, but this would imply that there was originally a different source," Michael said.
Dean shrugged. "Things get lost, damaged or destroyed."
"Well, either that or whoever wrote this was the person who invented the code in the first place," Colonel Anrig suggested. "Or do you have reason to believe that this isn't the case?"
"It's possible," Raziel mused. "The scrolls are slightly older than this book, but it could simply be that the cipher wasn't written down until later."
"What, that it was just passed on verbally before that?" Father Mancini asked.
"For instance."
"Does it really matter?" Dean questioned.
"The source of the information determines its validity, Little One," Michael pointed out.
"Yeah, but given how anyone could be a prophet or even get the odd vision or two, how are we to determine if it was valid now?"
"There are no prophets in your line," Raziel stated. "All angels know the names of every prophet."
"Even ones that might have married into the line?" Sam inquired.
The proximity of Father Giordano to his vessel's brother and the fact that they'd been whispering to each other told Michael that the priest must have been doing his best to translate for Sam as he suddenly realized that somewhere along the line they'd all switched back into Italian. It was something he almost didn't even notice, the transition from one language to another, as he spoke all languages known to man as well as those of both Heaven and Hell and so had little need to differentiate between them. Instead he simply responded in whatever language he was addressed and so Father Mancini's shift from English back to Italian had shifted the entire conversation. The interesting thing was that Dean had done so as well and he wondered if his bond brother was even conscious of having done so. If not then perhaps that was a consequence of the way that he had given his bond brother the knowledge. Aware only of how angels knew a language, he doubted that he had programmed it in Dean's mind the way a normal human third language would be. That his vessel had still taken to it so easily was merely another instance of his vessel's easy ability to adapt to all things angelic.
"Yes, even those," Raziel confirmed.
"But that doesn't preclude a prophet having been close to your family," Michael said, deliberately switching back into English so that Sam could understand him directly. "In which case your ancestor might have been the scribe for Father's message."
"And what is that actual message?" Dean inquired with a significant look at the tome and scrolls.
"Right," Raziel said, beginning to look through the pages.
Since he knew that human memory was fallible and that Dean preferred to have a written record to refer back to, Michael grabbed some paper and a pen and wrote down the plain text as he and Raziel figured it out, flipping through the book with no reference back to the original scrolls. He'd had the cipher text memorized from the first time that he'd seen it and so had no need to do so. The seemingly mixed up order of the cipher, though, meant that he only knew the full meaning of the plain text message shortly before his little one did as Dean had come to stand close behind him, reading over his shoulder. He'd briefly considered making a comment about that precious personal space that his vessel used to complain about so much, but the moment that fingers had reached out and carefully nudged an errant feather back into place the words had dried up in his mouth. He wasn't sure if Dean was even aware of doing it or whether the wing grooming had become second nature to his bond brother, but he definitely wasn't going to complain. Having another's fingers or touch on his wings had always felt good, but for it to be those of his vessel felt amazing. Castiel was a lucky angel to have found a bond mate as generous and beautiful as Dean and Michael could only pray that he did too someday.
The moment that the meaning of the plain text because clear, though, Michael instantly forgot all about that and he only finished writing it out because it took less thought to do so than it would have to stop writing.
Beside him, Dean took a deep breath and shock rippled between them. "Is that even possible?" his bond brother demanded, stunned.
"What?" Sam demanded, pushing closer to see for himself.
"I have never heard of something like this before," Michael replied, stepping back and drawing his little one with him by gently enfolding Dean in some of his wings.
"I-" Raziel began before pausing with a frown. "I have not heard of it either, but now that I think of it, Father did say something once that kind of hinted at this."
"What does it say?" Colonel Anrig questioned and Michael could tell that the human was only just stopping himself from pushing forwards to see for himself.
"It describes a method for containing an angel's power," Raziel stated dully.
Michael could totally understand his brother's lack of outward emotions. He knew that he himself wouldn't be displaying any as he was still far too much in shock to be able to feel anything, let alone show it to others. Before today he hadn't even known that it was possible to bind an angel's power. He'd always thought that the only way for he or any other of his brothers and sisters to lose their power was to rip out their own Grace or to Fall. Well either that or for their Father to do so, just because He never had before didn't mean that Michael didn't think that He couldn't.
"Wait, contain as in bind?" Dean demanded urgently. "As in not being able to use it?"
"Yes," Michael confirmed, trying to use his vessel bond with his bond brother in order to share some of Dean's rapidly rising excitement.
Of course Michael knew that he should be both happy and excited; this was the solution that they had been searching so desperately for after all. And, best of all, it didn't involve killing his own brother. Sure, he knew that Lucifer would hate it and possibly even wish that he had been killed instead, but for them it was perfect.
"Can it bind all of his power?" Sam asked. "Or only some of it?"
"Even if it is not all of his power, it will still be enough for us to end the Apocalypse," Raziel replied. "Lucifer is only just a match for Michael as it is, so any reduction would allow Michael to put an end to it all. And it is highly unlikely that this would only cause such a small reduction in power."
"But will it hold?" Dean questioned, suddenly grave and Michael turned to look at his bond brother as genuine concern rolled off of Dean. "Will it last?"
"What do you mean?" Sam asked.
"You don't think that it'll work?" Raziel inquired with a frown.
"No, I'm wondering if it'll be permanent," Dean clarified.
Michael felt some of the elation that he'd finally started to feel fade as he got what it was that his vessel meant. "You fear that Lucifer and Simiel will be able to find a way to either counter or undo the effects of this."
"They did with the Rite of Contressa."
"Surely if God went to the trouble of giving someone the vision necessary to come up with this, He wouldn't then just make it temporary," Sam argued.
Dean threw his brother a look that Michael couldn't immediately identify but he had a feeling that it had something to do with his friend's lack of faith in Father. Though the thought still caused some instinctive form of condemnation deep within him and would probably always pain him, he had gotten to the point where he could understand a little of why his bond brother felt the way that he did. From Dean's point of view, God had never done anything tangible to help humanity and had instead vanished, leaving them alone to deal with the Apocalypse. And unlike him, his vessel didn't have the faith and knowledge that his Father had to have some lesson- some purpose- to this to sustain him. After all that had happened to his little one, he knew that his Father would have a lot to make up for in order to gain Dean's forgiveness. His vessel's days of easily forgiving people were over, not that he thought that his Father would ever have qualified for that kind of leniency from his bond brother. The thought amused him in some odd way and, even more strangely, he didn't feel nearly as guilty as he'd once felt that he should have at that kind of thought.
"Dude," Dean said. "I'd rather consider it and be prepared for the possibility than to be caught off-guard with our pants down if it does."
"It is a valid concern," Michael replied. "But once we have Lucifer, and Simiel as I'd perform this on both, powered down, then we can imprison them in Heaven quite easily."
"Indeed," Raziel agreed. "Once they are equal with one of the classes of lessor angels, restraining them becomes a valid possibility."
That seemed to ease Dean a little but not all of his bond brother's tension faded and it put Michael on alert. His friend had proven to have excellent instincts in matters like these so if his vessel was still on edge, then he now knew better than to ignore the warning. He'd speak with Castiel, Raziel and Raphael about how best to ensure that neither Lucifer nor Simiel could ever harm anyone ever again if they succeeded in this option and managed to bind most of their power.
"Some of this stuff isn't going to come cheap," Sam declared, looking at the list of ingredients.
"The Vatican's got that covered for us," Dean stated with a nod at Father Mancini and the others. "Unlimited credit, remember?"
"Dean! Some of this stuff starts at over half a million dollars, if we're extremely lucky."
"Part of the reason why we gave your brother the credit card was precisely so that he could purchase and acquire rare and expensive ingredients," Colonel Anrig explained. "We knew that fighting Lucifer was likely to require access to rare and expensive items and we didn't want your brother to have to spend time acquiring the funds to get his hands on what he needed to save us all."
"Oh," Sam commented.
"That's fortunate as we won't be able to harvest or collect everything necessary ourselves," Michael said.
"Really, why not?" Dean questioned.
"Some of these need to remain pure and untouched by Grace until they have been combined or else their properties will be irrevocably altered."
"Okay, well why don't you guys get what you can and Sam and I will see to getting the rest of this stuff."
"That sounds like a plan," Raziel agreed. "Just beware that it will take at least two weeks to properly cultivate a Forbidden Blossom as it needs to come from a seed in Eden that has been washed in the Water of Life there before being planted in the ancient Hanging Gardens of Babylon until it flowers."
"Eden?" Father Giordano breathed in awe.
"You mean the ancient Hanging Gardens?" Sam questioned, stunned. "The ones of Nebuchadnezzar II? You're going back there for this?"
"Seed?" Dean asked. "You mean from one of those funky fruits on the trees next to the kalsika?"
A second wave of shock rippled through the room only this time it was all focused on Dean and it occurred to Michael how unaware of the effect that he had on others his little one was sometimes. He was slowly starting to learn, though, that it was just a part of who his vessel was. At least comments that seemed as innocuous to Dean as that one did allow others to realize just how special his bond brother was and he knew it would make those who might otherwise not do so treat his vessel right.
"Eden?" Father Mancini whispered. "You've been to Eden and seen the garden and fruit there?"
"Uh, yeah, Mike and I went a while back," Dean explained.
"What's a kalsika?" Sam inquired with a frown.
Dean tilted his head, clearly considering his brother before his friend shifted so that Dean's back was to those of the Vatican present before he tapped his wedding band. Michael tried but failed to understand the look that passed between them, but his bond brother clearly came to a decision in the process.
"Mike, could you take Sam and I to the apartment on the way back?" Dean asked. "I probably should clear it out and give it up seeing as we don't spend any time there anymore."
"Of course," Michael replied.
"I believe that we have some of these items here," Father Giordano stated, looking at the plain text.
"I shall remain here and collect them," Raziel offered. "You go ahead and take Dean and Sam, Michael."
"Thanks for all of your help," Dean said, looking at the Vatican officials.
"It was our pleasure," Father Mancini stated.
"Do let us know if you require anything else," Colonel Anrig added.
"We will," Dean promised.
A.N.:So, as I'm sure that everyone has noticed, it's been nearly a month since my last update. This is because something came up in 'real life' that put everything else on hold. I'd rather not go into any more detail than that as it wasn't fun, I'm just sorry that it meant keeping you guys waiting. I did once or twice think of doing a quick update, but I didn't want the quality of the fic to suffer or to forget a crucial detail this far towards the end of the fic. But, anyway, things seem to be under control now so I've been able to turn my attention back here.
For those of you interested in my Gabriel Big Bang fic, my artist and I have been given the 19th as our posting date so it'll be a weekend read. The art is also amazing! :)
Oh, if anyone could point me towards any good fics that have come out since my last update, that would just make my night! Destiel of course for the win, but anything nice Dean and/or Cas related would be awesome.
Chapter 187