Heaven & Hell: The Barn

[thursdays_angel]

Castiel is not stalling, no matter what Uriel (who is grumbling less than quietly behind him) might believe. He is merely assessing the situation. Stalling will only prolong the sense of discomfort that this whole situation has elicited.

The barn is on the other side of the field. And in it are Sam and Dean Winchester. And Anna.

Castiel had really hoped that it would not come to this, but there are no viable choices left. He has his orders and he will carry them out. Though he had been forced to have a rather pointed discussion with Uriel as to exactly how they were going to be carried out.

“Need I remind you, this task was appointed to me? I will deal with Anna. You are to contain the Winchesters should they create problems.”

Which, knowing Sam and Dean, they probably will.

Light bleeds out of the thin cracks in the barn wall. There are no other people around, nor any demons that he can sense. The time is right. Just a few more minutes and it will all be over.

Castiel turns to Uriel and nods, and in an instant they are standing before the barn, the doors blowing open in the wake of their arrival.

It's the first time Castiel has seen his sister face-to-face since her fall.

"Hello, Anna."

Comments

[hear_the_voices]

"Hello, Castiel."

Well, really.

Who else were they gonna send?

Anna looks at both her brothers for a moment and then turns her attention back fully to Castiel.

"I like the vessel. It's a good look for you.

"The Man in the Coat."

[thursdays_angel]

"It's been a long time."

Not so much in years, but in all that happened in those years.

He can practically feel Uriel buzzing with Get on with it, already impatience, but Castiel ignores it. This task was given to him to do, and (by God) he will do it his way.

As soon as he figures out what that is.

"I wish that I could say it's good to see you."

[hear_the_voices]

Uriel was never exactly known around the Garrison for his patience.

Anna is still more or less ignoring him.

"Half a lifetime," Anna says.

If one is rounding.

And talking about her (human) lifetime.

"And it's far too late for it to be good for us to see each other, isn't it?"

[thursdays_angel]

"Too late from the moment, you Fell, I think."

Happier (or at least less difficult) moments at the End of the Universe aside.

Castiel steps forward a pace or two, closing some of the physical distance between them at least.

"I am sure you know why I'm here."

[gavemea_45]

Castiel getting too close to them might just bring this thing to a head way too early.

Dammit, Ruby, where are you?

"Forget that," Sam says, tightly. He addresses Castiel, but keeps an eye on Uriel as he talks.

(Too bad Anna hadn't been able to help them get hold of some weapon that works against angels. The way he's feeling right now, Sam doesn't think he'd have any problem using it.)

"How are you here, is what I want to know. How'd you find us?"

[thursdays_angel]

Castiel looks at Sam for half a moment.

And then looks directly at Dean.

He'll give him the chance to speak up of his own accord if he wishes to take it.

Without Dean they would never have found them so easily.

[hopeitsworthit]

Dean opens his mouth to speak -- because someone's got to -- but his throat's too dry, too tight.

Call it nervous tension.

Call it guilt.

Call it sheer gut-stopping terror.

At least half of 'em wouldn't be wrong.

He swallows, hard, looking at Sam, looking at Anna, then looking away again.

He's definitely not looking at their angel overlords.

"I don't know what you want me to say. Ain't like an explanation's gonna change anything, anyhow."

[gavemea_45]

Sam recoils at that -- visibly.

"Sure, Dean, let's trade stories. You first. How was hell? Don't spare the details."

"Yeah, well, maybe one might be good to have anyway, did you ever think of that?"

He couldn't control either the tension beneath his words or the way his voice cracks if he wanted to.

"Why, Dean?"

[hear_the_voices]

But it's Anna who answers.

"Because, Sam, they gave him a choice. Kill me, or kill you.

"That's how they think. Trust me, I know."

She didn't used to be half bad at it, herself.

"Cut to the heart of the matter and then twist the knife."

[thursdays_angel]

For Castiel, in the end it doesn't really matter who invited them in.

"You know we have no choice," he says to Anna. "You are a liability."

She never should have been. She had been one of the best. But she is, pure and simple.

[hopeitsworthit]

"Yeah," Dean says, low and rough, mouth twisting into something just this side of a sneer.

Who it's directed at may remain a little unclear.

"You guys are all about the liabilities, aren't you."

It's not the only thing making him sick, sure. Not that that changes anything, either.

[hear_the_voices]

Anna turns away from everyone else to face him.

"Dean," Anna says quietly, with a very slight shake of her head.

"This isn't your fault. We gambled and we lost.

"That's all."

[hopeitsworthit]

"Yeah, well."

His smile's way on the other side of pathetic, but at least he tries.

(His mouth's still so damn dry.)

"Doesn't mean I have to like it."

Or that Anna does.

Goddammit.

[hear_the_voices]

"Well, no. I wouldn't expect you to."

Her smile is slightly stronger.

"Thank you. For everything. Not just the past couple days, everything."

[hopeitsworthit]

"Same to you, kiddo."

His smile quirks up at one corner, just for a second or two.

This really fucking sucks.

It's gonna suck even if they don't all die, right here and now.

And not just because Dean's probably the only one that'd be getting out of it alive.

"You've really given' em hell."

[hear_the_voices]

"Yeah, I have, haven't I?" Anna asks, smile holding for a second longer.

And then she turns back to Castiel, and she's definitely not smiling any more.

"All right.

"Enough.

"No more running, no more hiding.

"I'm ready."

[thursdays_angel]

Overt sentiment has its place, and that place is mostly among humans. Which is the path that Anna chose.

Castiel has little time for it, particularly at a time such as this. But it seems as if some acknowledgment is called for.

"I am sorry."

He even means it, in part. Or rather, in many parts.

Sorry that she has to die. Sorry that he has to be the one to do it. Sorry that she Fell in the first place. Sorry that she has managed to bind Dean, who has already sustained enough damage, up in her death.

[hear_the_voices]

Anna left overt sentiment behind when she turned back to face her brothers.

"No, you're not," she says, calmly.

"Not really.

"You can't be. You don't really know the feeling."

[thursdays_angel]

That statement alone is enough to prove to Castiel that she's no longer one of them, memories or no.

It makes it easier in a way.

He could refute her, but what would be the point? Even if he had the luxury of time to belabor the point, Castiel would have no desire to do so before an audience.

"Still," he says, "we have a history."

Not always a good one, but a history.

She could at least grant him that. That this is not an easy task God set before him.

[hear_the_voices]

"We do."

One that cross millenia and worlds, to the end of the universe and back.

"But orders are orders.

"I know.

"Just make it quick."

[gavemea_45]

They're out of time.

Sam clenches his hands at his sides and prepares to try to do something, he's not sure what, when from behind them he hears a chillingly pleasant order.

"Don't you touch a hair on that girl's head."

He spins around to see Alistair standing there, smiling at Castiel and Uriel. Two steps behind him, Ruby hangs limply between a couple of demon thugs, in bad shape, especially if the thick blood all over her shirt is any hint at what lies beneath it.

His gaze meets hers for an instant before they discard her on the ground to one side. Ruby claws her way into shelter among the hay bales stacked there, and Sam swallows hard against a surge of relief and turns back to the others.

[thursdays_angel]

Uriel bristles in a way that makes the air around him smell faintly of ozone. Castiel holds his ground while trying to calculate out a new strategy.

Alastair. Of all the demons.

Alastair cannot take Anna alive.

"Leave, now. Or we lay you to waste."

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the demons choose to take their chances with Option 2.

Alastair is not as strong as Lilith, but he's strong enough. While Uriel dispatches the demon's underlings, Castiel, in due course, finds himself down, with Alastair preparing to rip his essence from his vessel.

Strand by strand.

[hopeitsworthit]

It's not like Dean didn't know Alastair was coming.

But seeing him --

Seeing him's like a hot poker to the gut each and every time.

God, but he wants to hurt that motherfucker.

This may go a long way to explain why, when his own personal demon's got his own personal angel down for the count, Dean wallops the fucker over the head with a crowbar.

Not like it's gonna do anything, but in the absence of any better tools --

Damn but it feels good. Almost like old times.

Except for how hard he's wishing it didn't.

[hear_the_voices]

It's almost too easy.

But then, it's not like Anna didn't have centuries upon centuries to study the moves her brother makes in a fight. She used to be the one telling him to make them, after all.

She knows to watch for the moment that Uriel's attention is elsewhere, distracted by the demons he's fighting, knows how long she'll have, knows exactly when to sweep in and pull the vial that contains her Grace from the chain around his neck.

Two choices. Go back or die.

And she's no good to anyone dead.

Easy enough, then. Make the choice, break the vial.

Good-bye, Anna Milton.

"Shut your eyes!"

And let there be light.