Unexpected Destinies Chapter 45
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: 2,347
Summary: Team Angel needs to figure out where they stand.
PAST
Dean was just leaning over the sink to spit out a mouthful of foaming toothpaste when he heard the distinctive sound of fluttering wings behind him. When his mouth was clear, he looked up into the mirror and was surprised to find Michael standing next to the shower, watching him.
"What are you doing?" Michael asked, head tilted slightly to one side.
"Uh, brushing my teeth," Dean replied, looking down at his toothbrush and then back up at the mirror before he just turned around to make things easier.
"Brushing your teeth?"
"Yes, to keep them clean and prevent cavities, uh, holes in them, I guess."
Michael merely regarded him with the expression Dean was starting to learn meant that he was trying to process that and make some sense of it. The thought made him pause as he realized that he'd spent enough time with the archangel to be able to begin picking out patterns in what had once been a pretty inscrutable face, well, when it wasn't twisted in anger or disgust anyway. He was sure his familiarity with Castiel's mannerisms helped, but still, it came as a shock how easily he was starting to read Michael. He wondered if the converse were true as well. There had been a lot less friction between them of late, though that could easily be due to Raphael being present and being a greater douchebag, but he didn't think that was entirely it.
It was with a start that Dean realized that he didn't exactly mind the archangel's presence anymore. Sure, Michael could still get on his nerves and enrage him quickly, but for the rest of the time, he didn't view their encounters with trepidation and dismay anymore. Just when exactly had that happened?
"Why would they have... cavities?" Michael questioned.
"Because of the sugar and stuff in food. Brushing my teeth also gets rid of any bits of food still stuck between my teeth that can cause bad breath."
The face Michael pulled at this startled a laugh out of Dean and he quickly rinsed his toothbrush and mouth. Seeing the archangel glancing around the bathroom when he turned back to face him did remind him of something else.
"Dude, you can't just fly into the bathroom in the future."
"Why not?"
"Because I could just as easily have been taking a piss or having a shower."
"And?"
"And that stuff's private, meaning others, like you, don't just get to come in without any warning."
"Why not?"
"Because, just because," Dean said, caught between frustration and amusement. If he hadn't gone through this whole song and dance with Castiel, he'd think that Michael was being deliberately difficult, but as it was, he knew better. "Look, just zap into the main room and knock on the door, alright? If it's okay for you to come in, then I'll let you know, otherwise you stay out, okay?"
Michael regarded him for a few seconds, no doubt trying to read more of the reason why this was important, but Dean just didn't know how to explain it. As it was, he still thought Castiel had respected these boundaries more due to the fact that he'd asked him to rather then out of a true understanding of the reasoning behind them. And if his angel didn't get it after coming so close to being human, then what chance in hell did he have of making Michael understand it?
Finally the archangel nodded. "So long as I do not think you are in danger, I shall do this."
"Fair enough. So, what brings you by?"
"I believe we need to discuss what we know and what we plan to do next. Lucifer's cage is weakening fast now and it will not be long before he manages to break free if we do not find anything to prevent him from doing so."
"Yeah, okay. You wanna do this now?"
"Preferably."
"Great, call the others, I don't have a hunt just now and I'm not getting anywhere with the latest set of books Cas dropped off."
If there was one thing that Dean hated more then researching something when he had no clue what he was looking for, it was doing so and finding didly squat. He'd long since lost count of the number of books he'd gone through, but if Enochian had been at all fragile in his brain, it was now well and truly entrenched. He'd read more in Enochian just the past few weeks then he had in English for the past few months.
With that thought in mind, Dean stepped past Michael out into the main room and collected together all of the books he'd already gone through so that Castiel could take them back to Heaven with him. The seemingly endless flow of books had him wondering just how large of a library there was upstairs, but it was a question he'd never dared ask of his lover, somehow far too afraid of the answer. If he hadn't already disliked Heaven, he'd definitely have started questioning what it was like up there quickly. His idea of Paradise just didn't have that many books, period.
The fluttering of wings had him looking up and Dean scowled as he saw that Michael was the only angel present. "Dude, did you just zap yourself here from the bathroom?"
"Yes."
Dean goggled. "Why? It was only a few steps."
"Why not?"
Okay, now the bastard was being deliberately obtuse, Dean just knew it. "I've said it before and I'll say it again, you guys are going to get flabby at this rate."
Two could play at that game. If Michael wanted to pretend to be confused by what he was saying, then he was more then happy to give him something to be confused about. Somehow he couldn't quite see either of them backing down and it gave him a little thrill like the rush of satisfaction he used to get when baiting Sammy. The thought threw him for a loop but luckily he was saved by Castiel's arrival in the room.
"Dean, Michael."
"Hey, Cas," Dean smiled at his lover. "Mike wants to talk strategy."
The slight narrowing of Michael's eyes caused another little thrill to run through him, but Dean tried to show it aside, not wanting to examine it too closely or start thinking about his brother right now.
"That is a good idea," Castiel said, saving him once more.
Dean wasn't sure if his angel had done it intentionally or not, but he was grateful for it nonetheless even though the urge to stick his tongue out at Michael from behind Castiel's back rose within him once more. What exactly was going on here? It wasn't even three months ago that he'd hated the bastard's proverbial guts with a vengeance. Then Raphael was there and Michael seemed to turn his thoughts to other matters. They started off rehashing what they'd already done before turning to what they could do from here.
"I merely wish that we knew what Father wanted," Raphael stated. "It would be so easier to decide on the best course of action if we knew that."
"Perhaps that is why He isn't telling us," Castiel replied. "To avoid letting us take the easiest course."
"There must be more to it then that," Michael argued. "I refuse to believe Father would do all of this without a greater purpose."
"So you believe Father meant for us to be here like this?"
"Careful, Castiel, that is bordering on blasphemy," Raphael warned
"I am merely questioning what He could be gaining from this."
"Father must have wanted us to be here," Michael stated.
"Does it even really matter?" Dean questioned.
"Excuse me?" Raphael demanded, clearly scandalized. "Of course it matters!"
"How? I mean, really, how would it matter? If it's not true, then we have no guidance and need to figure it out for ourselves. Whereas if it is true, then you need to accept that everything that has already happened so far was also part of God's plan," Dean said, catching how the two older archangels flinched at those words. In a way he felt sorry for them, if things really did turn out to be like that, then they'd basically been set up by their own father while He knew that they'd fail. If that were his dad doing that, he'd be pissed to all hell and back, that was for sure. "And the only way that things have progressed so far was by Cas, Sam and I figuring things out for ourselves. Which would mean that we need to keep doing as we have been and figure things out for ourselves. So, basically, the end result is the same either way. So how does it matter which it is?"
His words were met with dead silence and as it stretched, Dean was starting to get a little worried that perhaps he'd broken the angels. It all seemed quite logical and easy to grasp to him, but he was constantly forgetting that these were beings who'd been especially created to worship and blindly obey their Father's orders and Word. On top of all of that, he'd been spending the majority of his time with Castiel, the one angel who'd adjusted the most of all of his brothers and sisters to humanity and the concept of free will. Given how much trouble his lover had experienced, and still did sometimes, how could he possibly expect any better from Raphael and Michael?
Before the moment could stretch, there was another flutter of wings and suddenly a very familiar angel was in the room with them.
"Xarael," Dean greeted in relief.
Hopefully her arrival could ease the growing tension. It seemed to work, although Dean suddenly found himself tensing as he realized that he didn't know if Michael and Raphael'd had any previous contact with an angel under Castiel's command since their revelation. Although he now knew and liked Michael a hell of a lot more then he used to, he couldn't help but be afraid that the archangel would attempt to take back control of both Heaven and his siblings, wrestling it away from his younger brother.
"Michael, Raphael," Xarael greeted, giving them a funny little half-bow each before she looked at him. "Dean."
Dean was just starting to bristle a little when he noticed that, despite greeting the other two archangels first, Xarael was standing beside Castiel. Like, really beside him, as in well within his lover's personal space. If it had been any other being, anything other than an angel, he knew that he'd be feeling a swell of jealousy right about now. He might not feel that way as easily as Castiel did, but he knew he had it in him to feel so and with anyone else, this kind of behavior would be a very definite sign of interest in what was his. All of his now significant experience with angels, however, had clearly taught him that among their kind, this type of behavior did not imply the same thing.
Hell, right now Dean actually kind of liked it as it struck him like Xarael was proving her loyalty to Castiel by standing so obviously on his side. Perhaps he'd been a bit harsh in his thoughts about the rest of the angels before. Yes, he did think that most of them would still blindly follow orders, but while Michael had been leading them for forever, Castiel had clearly been given approval by God himself. Surely that would outweigh Michael's authority if they stopped to think about it, something made much more likely by the fact that Michael simply hadn't been around when the switchover had happened.
"Castiel," Xarael finally finished her greetings.
"Xarael," Castiel replied. "Is something wrong?"
"I'm sorry to interrupt, Brother, but I have just received word that Cassiel came across Hizil while completing his task in Illinois."
Cassiel? Seriously? Dean couldn't quite believe his ears for a moment there. As if angel names couldn't get confusing enough what with most of them ending in -el, now they had to have such similar ones as Castiel and Cassiel? His lover had better never expect him to keep all of his siblings straight as that was an impossible task if he ever heard one.
"Has anyone else been assigned a task there that I was unaware of?" Castiel questioned.
"No. Cassiel also reports that the amount of Hizil left behind is indicative of an archangel."
Dean was totally lost, the word Hizil going completely over his head even with the Enochian Castiel had crammed into his skull. The best he could get was that it was a proper noun. Hizil clearly meant something to everyone else though, as Michael and Raphael both seemed to come to attention and something passed between them before Raphael vanished.
"It was neither of you, I take it?" Castiel asked.
"No, it was not," Michael confirmed.
"Eh, excuse me, Hizil?" Dean interjected.
"Traces of Grace use," Castiel explained.
"Huh?"
"Hizil is that which is left behind when a significant amount of Grace power has been used," Michael expanded. "Such an event impacts the life energy in such a manner as to leave a temporary imprint behind which other angels can detect."
"Oh, okay. So something like what Gabriel did to us in the warehouse with the freaky TV land world would have left a Hizil?"
"Yes," Castiel confirmed.
Okay, so that made some sense, Dean just couldn't get why this news had worked all of the angels into such a frenzy. So some angel had used Grace in Illinois, big deal. He knew it probably hadn't been for anything good, but still, it was hardly something he would have thought would cause Michael and particularly Raphael so much concern. Angels were- oh, no wait, not just an angel, they'd said archangel. But that meant-
With a flutter of wings Raphael was in the room again, his face grave. "Simiel's cage has been opened. She is gone."
A.N.:If the name Simiel isn't ringing any bells (it has been a while!), let me direct you back to chapter 10 as the answer is there. Hope that helps :)
Chapter 46
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: up to and including Exile on Main St., AU from the end of season 5
Warnings: AU, slash
Word Count: 2,347
Summary: Team Angel needs to figure out where they stand.
PAST
Dean was just leaning over the sink to spit out a mouthful of foaming toothpaste when he heard the distinctive sound of fluttering wings behind him. When his mouth was clear, he looked up into the mirror and was surprised to find Michael standing next to the shower, watching him.
"What are you doing?" Michael asked, head tilted slightly to one side.
"Uh, brushing my teeth," Dean replied, looking down at his toothbrush and then back up at the mirror before he just turned around to make things easier.
"Brushing your teeth?"
"Yes, to keep them clean and prevent cavities, uh, holes in them, I guess."
Michael merely regarded him with the expression Dean was starting to learn meant that he was trying to process that and make some sense of it. The thought made him pause as he realized that he'd spent enough time with the archangel to be able to begin picking out patterns in what had once been a pretty inscrutable face, well, when it wasn't twisted in anger or disgust anyway. He was sure his familiarity with Castiel's mannerisms helped, but still, it came as a shock how easily he was starting to read Michael. He wondered if the converse were true as well. There had been a lot less friction between them of late, though that could easily be due to Raphael being present and being a greater douchebag, but he didn't think that was entirely it.
It was with a start that Dean realized that he didn't exactly mind the archangel's presence anymore. Sure, Michael could still get on his nerves and enrage him quickly, but for the rest of the time, he didn't view their encounters with trepidation and dismay anymore. Just when exactly had that happened?
"Why would they have... cavities?" Michael questioned.
"Because of the sugar and stuff in food. Brushing my teeth also gets rid of any bits of food still stuck between my teeth that can cause bad breath."
The face Michael pulled at this startled a laugh out of Dean and he quickly rinsed his toothbrush and mouth. Seeing the archangel glancing around the bathroom when he turned back to face him did remind him of something else.
"Dude, you can't just fly into the bathroom in the future."
"Why not?"
"Because I could just as easily have been taking a piss or having a shower."
"And?"
"And that stuff's private, meaning others, like you, don't just get to come in without any warning."
"Why not?"
"Because, just because," Dean said, caught between frustration and amusement. If he hadn't gone through this whole song and dance with Castiel, he'd think that Michael was being deliberately difficult, but as it was, he knew better. "Look, just zap into the main room and knock on the door, alright? If it's okay for you to come in, then I'll let you know, otherwise you stay out, okay?"
Michael regarded him for a few seconds, no doubt trying to read more of the reason why this was important, but Dean just didn't know how to explain it. As it was, he still thought Castiel had respected these boundaries more due to the fact that he'd asked him to rather then out of a true understanding of the reasoning behind them. And if his angel didn't get it after coming so close to being human, then what chance in hell did he have of making Michael understand it?
Finally the archangel nodded. "So long as I do not think you are in danger, I shall do this."
"Fair enough. So, what brings you by?"
"I believe we need to discuss what we know and what we plan to do next. Lucifer's cage is weakening fast now and it will not be long before he manages to break free if we do not find anything to prevent him from doing so."
"Yeah, okay. You wanna do this now?"
"Preferably."
"Great, call the others, I don't have a hunt just now and I'm not getting anywhere with the latest set of books Cas dropped off."
If there was one thing that Dean hated more then researching something when he had no clue what he was looking for, it was doing so and finding didly squat. He'd long since lost count of the number of books he'd gone through, but if Enochian had been at all fragile in his brain, it was now well and truly entrenched. He'd read more in Enochian just the past few weeks then he had in English for the past few months.
With that thought in mind, Dean stepped past Michael out into the main room and collected together all of the books he'd already gone through so that Castiel could take them back to Heaven with him. The seemingly endless flow of books had him wondering just how large of a library there was upstairs, but it was a question he'd never dared ask of his lover, somehow far too afraid of the answer. If he hadn't already disliked Heaven, he'd definitely have started questioning what it was like up there quickly. His idea of Paradise just didn't have that many books, period.
The fluttering of wings had him looking up and Dean scowled as he saw that Michael was the only angel present. "Dude, did you just zap yourself here from the bathroom?"
"Yes."
Dean goggled. "Why? It was only a few steps."
"Why not?"
Okay, now the bastard was being deliberately obtuse, Dean just knew it. "I've said it before and I'll say it again, you guys are going to get flabby at this rate."
Two could play at that game. If Michael wanted to pretend to be confused by what he was saying, then he was more then happy to give him something to be confused about. Somehow he couldn't quite see either of them backing down and it gave him a little thrill like the rush of satisfaction he used to get when baiting Sammy. The thought threw him for a loop but luckily he was saved by Castiel's arrival in the room.
"Dean, Michael."
"Hey, Cas," Dean smiled at his lover. "Mike wants to talk strategy."
The slight narrowing of Michael's eyes caused another little thrill to run through him, but Dean tried to show it aside, not wanting to examine it too closely or start thinking about his brother right now.
"That is a good idea," Castiel said, saving him once more.
Dean wasn't sure if his angel had done it intentionally or not, but he was grateful for it nonetheless even though the urge to stick his tongue out at Michael from behind Castiel's back rose within him once more. What exactly was going on here? It wasn't even three months ago that he'd hated the bastard's proverbial guts with a vengeance. Then Raphael was there and Michael seemed to turn his thoughts to other matters. They started off rehashing what they'd already done before turning to what they could do from here.
"I merely wish that we knew what Father wanted," Raphael stated. "It would be so easier to decide on the best course of action if we knew that."
"Perhaps that is why He isn't telling us," Castiel replied. "To avoid letting us take the easiest course."
"There must be more to it then that," Michael argued. "I refuse to believe Father would do all of this without a greater purpose."
"So you believe Father meant for us to be here like this?"
"Careful, Castiel, that is bordering on blasphemy," Raphael warned
"I am merely questioning what He could be gaining from this."
"Father must have wanted us to be here," Michael stated.
"Does it even really matter?" Dean questioned.
"Excuse me?" Raphael demanded, clearly scandalized. "Of course it matters!"
"How? I mean, really, how would it matter? If it's not true, then we have no guidance and need to figure it out for ourselves. Whereas if it is true, then you need to accept that everything that has already happened so far was also part of God's plan," Dean said, catching how the two older archangels flinched at those words. In a way he felt sorry for them, if things really did turn out to be like that, then they'd basically been set up by their own father while He knew that they'd fail. If that were his dad doing that, he'd be pissed to all hell and back, that was for sure. "And the only way that things have progressed so far was by Cas, Sam and I figuring things out for ourselves. Which would mean that we need to keep doing as we have been and figure things out for ourselves. So, basically, the end result is the same either way. So how does it matter which it is?"
His words were met with dead silence and as it stretched, Dean was starting to get a little worried that perhaps he'd broken the angels. It all seemed quite logical and easy to grasp to him, but he was constantly forgetting that these were beings who'd been especially created to worship and blindly obey their Father's orders and Word. On top of all of that, he'd been spending the majority of his time with Castiel, the one angel who'd adjusted the most of all of his brothers and sisters to humanity and the concept of free will. Given how much trouble his lover had experienced, and still did sometimes, how could he possibly expect any better from Raphael and Michael?
Before the moment could stretch, there was another flutter of wings and suddenly a very familiar angel was in the room with them.
"Xarael," Dean greeted in relief.
Hopefully her arrival could ease the growing tension. It seemed to work, although Dean suddenly found himself tensing as he realized that he didn't know if Michael and Raphael'd had any previous contact with an angel under Castiel's command since their revelation. Although he now knew and liked Michael a hell of a lot more then he used to, he couldn't help but be afraid that the archangel would attempt to take back control of both Heaven and his siblings, wrestling it away from his younger brother.
"Michael, Raphael," Xarael greeted, giving them a funny little half-bow each before she looked at him. "Dean."
Dean was just starting to bristle a little when he noticed that, despite greeting the other two archangels first, Xarael was standing beside Castiel. Like, really beside him, as in well within his lover's personal space. If it had been any other being, anything other than an angel, he knew that he'd be feeling a swell of jealousy right about now. He might not feel that way as easily as Castiel did, but he knew he had it in him to feel so and with anyone else, this kind of behavior would be a very definite sign of interest in what was his. All of his now significant experience with angels, however, had clearly taught him that among their kind, this type of behavior did not imply the same thing.
Hell, right now Dean actually kind of liked it as it struck him like Xarael was proving her loyalty to Castiel by standing so obviously on his side. Perhaps he'd been a bit harsh in his thoughts about the rest of the angels before. Yes, he did think that most of them would still blindly follow orders, but while Michael had been leading them for forever, Castiel had clearly been given approval by God himself. Surely that would outweigh Michael's authority if they stopped to think about it, something made much more likely by the fact that Michael simply hadn't been around when the switchover had happened.
"Castiel," Xarael finally finished her greetings.
"Xarael," Castiel replied. "Is something wrong?"
"I'm sorry to interrupt, Brother, but I have just received word that Cassiel came across Hizil while completing his task in Illinois."
Cassiel? Seriously? Dean couldn't quite believe his ears for a moment there. As if angel names couldn't get confusing enough what with most of them ending in -el, now they had to have such similar ones as Castiel and Cassiel? His lover had better never expect him to keep all of his siblings straight as that was an impossible task if he ever heard one.
"Has anyone else been assigned a task there that I was unaware of?" Castiel questioned.
"No. Cassiel also reports that the amount of Hizil left behind is indicative of an archangel."
Dean was totally lost, the word Hizil going completely over his head even with the Enochian Castiel had crammed into his skull. The best he could get was that it was a proper noun. Hizil clearly meant something to everyone else though, as Michael and Raphael both seemed to come to attention and something passed between them before Raphael vanished.
"It was neither of you, I take it?" Castiel asked.
"No, it was not," Michael confirmed.
"Eh, excuse me, Hizil?" Dean interjected.
"Traces of Grace use," Castiel explained.
"Huh?"
"Hizil is that which is left behind when a significant amount of Grace power has been used," Michael expanded. "Such an event impacts the life energy in such a manner as to leave a temporary imprint behind which other angels can detect."
"Oh, okay. So something like what Gabriel did to us in the warehouse with the freaky TV land world would have left a Hizil?"
"Yes," Castiel confirmed.
Okay, so that made some sense, Dean just couldn't get why this news had worked all of the angels into such a frenzy. So some angel had used Grace in Illinois, big deal. He knew it probably hadn't been for anything good, but still, it was hardly something he would have thought would cause Michael and particularly Raphael so much concern. Angels were- oh, no wait, not just an angel, they'd said archangel. But that meant-
With a flutter of wings Raphael was in the room again, his face grave. "Simiel's cage has been opened. She is gone."
A.N.:If the name Simiel isn't ringing any bells (it has been a while!), let me direct you back to chapter 10 as the answer is there. Hope that helps :)
Chapter 46