Chapter Text
"They're gone." Castiel whispered, digging his hands into the sand.
"Not forever." Chuck said slowly. Castiel snapped around to stare at him.
"What does that mean?" He asked.
Chuck rubbed the back of his neck.
"God chooses souls that have unfinished business to be reincarnated. He promises that everyone of them will be born again, around the same time, together again. And he will grant you this, so you can be with them again." Chuck pulled a necklace from thin air. It was Dean's necklace, the one that he had showed Castiel on the last night aboard Alistair's ship. Those stolen nights seemed like a lifetime again.
"How is that supposed to help?" He exclaimed.
"As long as you wear this, you cannot age, and you cannot die, and you will retain a certain degree of your old angelic powers. Don't worry- it can't be stolen, lost, or destroyed. You can only take it off yourself, and then your human life cycle will resume." Chuck explained. The gold of the amulet glinted in the setting sun.
Castiel let the information sink in.
"The-then what was the point? You said I had to give up my heart, and I did, but i'm eventually going to get them back? Doesn't that defeat the freaking purpose?" He stammered.
Chuck shook his head.
"It was your willingness to give up your heart that fixed the veil, the pain, the sacrifice. Haven't you ever heard the story of when God asked that dude to kill his son as an act of faith, and right as he was going to, God stopped him and thanked him for his faith?" Chuck shrugged.
"God's a bit of an asshole, isn't he?" Castiel sneered. Chuck laughed, and nodded. A roll of thunder, like a grumble from the sky, rang out. Chuck didn't seem phased.
"But, Castiel- they won't be reborn for a long time. You'll be waiting for what may seem like an eternity. A lot of things can happen in that time. It will be hard, almost impossible, I imagine. Are you really willing to risk it?" Chuck asked uncertainly.
Castiel stood, and took the amulet in his hands. He was silent.
He turned, and looked out over the sea, that had grown calm by now. The horizon seemed farther away than ever.
He lifted up the amulet, and slipped it over his neck.
For Dean, he would wait forever.
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"Here's your latte, sir, have a nice day!" The perky barista said, setting the steaming cup in front of him. He smiled at her and picked it up, sipping it as he walked down the pathway. Walkways made of treated blue glass cut through a yard of bright green and silver grass in front of the main building. The building itself was constructed of arching white stone and the same treated, multicolored glass, designed so that sunlight lit every room all hours of the day. And at night, the special glass released the excess light it had gathered during the day. Same with the pathways and streets, so you wouldn't lose your way. An ingenious invention that, no matter what the history books rumored about, Castiel had only helped to create. Truly, Dunya Garta, a genius of the previous century, had done most of the work. He had also been an excellent opera singer. But of course, the danger of being an immortal icon, was that wherever he went, he unwittingly stole the show, per se. There were a lot of things different in this New World, but paparazzi never changed, even post-celestial-apocalypse.
Castiel was a name every baby new, which was understandable, considering he had been an unchanging unit in an ever-changing world. He had fought wars, he had been a carpenter, a general, a gardener, a sailor, a newspaper editor, an erotic dancer (he blamed that decade's events entirely on intoxication), he had given humanity the tiny pushes it needed to head in the right direction as it progressed, hence the glass. Almost every major historical event, you would most likely find his name either in the headlines or in the side notes. He remembered the Time Before completely now, his memory had slowly come back throughout the years. He had come to peace with himself after years of hating every breath he took.
Yes, he had lived a lot of lives, done a lot of things, and mastered a lot of professions. But he had not, in fact, ever been a Professor. Which was part of why this new job was so significant. The other part was that Chuck had called him out of no where, after two millennia of being AWOL, and demanded he come up to the Halaerian mountains as fast as possible. So, here he was, on his way to an appointment with the School's Headmistress.
The morning air was crisp and fresh, especially this high up in the mountains. College students and staff milled about the grounds, all heading about their business. The Halaerian University, nestled in a valley between the highest mountains on the continent and only reachable by Orb, a sort of circular hovercraft that manipulated air currents. All of the most prestigious schools were in rather remote places, so that the events in the rest of the worlds would be a little more distant, hopefully keeping students more focused. The town of Grace Falls was centered around the campus. College-based towns. Some things never changed.
It was a beautiful place, to be sure. The inside of the sprawling university was just as simplistically elegant as the outside.
Everyone he had met on campus had been so preoccupied this early in the morning, they had paid him no mind yet. But the minute he walked in the door, a hush went over the office workers. An awestruck secretary pointed him towards the Headmistresses office.
Up a flight of stairs and through double oak doors.
He froze, and then sighed in exasperation.
"Really, Chuck?" He said, raising an eyebrow.
The woman in the suite, with the plentiful figure and the black hair laughed.
"It's Chadala, in this form, dude. And yes, really. I found them." She deadpanned.
Castiel's heart stopped in his chest.
"They're here, at the University. Most of them. The others are living in the town. That's why I got this job for you, to give you a chance. You'll be teaching Advanced History- who better than you for that, really- a class that they all share. But don't just come right out and blurt it, they don't remember you. I'm not sure if they will. The Big Guy won't clarify, he just wants you teaching that class. Whatever else happens is lightning in a bottle, or so they say. Good luck." Chadala continued, tossing him a glass plaque. He stared down at it.
Professor Novak AVH RM 201
He dropped his coffee with a splash.
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"Really? Castiel, that's amazing!" Nora's voice exclaimed over the phone. Not like the old phones in the Time Before, these were circular rings of glass with a screen of light woven material stretched in the middle, that displayed things like holograms, and was operated by voice only. The immortal sighed, sifting through his cloths. His apartment- on campus, but rather nice, overlooking the falls- was in a disarray, he hadn't had time to unpack yet. Not that he had much to unpack.
"It's a lot to take in. I mean, i've been waiting for an eternity for this, and now that it's here i'm choking on my own tongue at the thought of facing them again. What do professors even wear?" He threw up his hands.
"What about the tan coat Missouri got you, as a joke? Maybe it'll jog some memories." Nora suggested. Missouri, being the strong psychic she was (God allowed a small amount of the supernatural into the world past the veil for balance, but it was now regulated), could see into his memories of the Time Before, and some of his fractured memories of the alternate universes Chuck had shown him. In a lot of them, he had been prone to wearing a tan overcoat. She had thought it would make a nice Eclipse gift.
He pulled it out and pulled it one. It fit well, and it did have a vaguely professional air to it.
"One problem done." He muttered, running a hand through his hair.
"You'll be fine. Good luck, and remember, Missouri, Ava, Andy and I are coming up in October to visit you, alright? Hopefully, by then, you'll have a hot piece of reincarnated ass on your arm. Over and Out." She laughed, hanging up. The man blushed.
He had made good friends with these people after they had been stuck in an orb together on it's way over the Setebascian sea for eight hours, due to weather delays. They didn't treat him like he was some sort of God, which he was grateful for.
He looked at the sun clock, etched into the gold glass of his bedroom window.
He had a class to teach.
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He scrawled his name using a black marker, on the big panel of clear blue glass in the front of the classroom. It could be used like a whiteboard, or could be projected onto. HIs classroom was nice, circular, with pale gold light coming through the ceiling, made entirely of tinted yellow glass. He imagined it must look spectacular when it rained. He'd have to wait and see.
The strangest thing about the room was the students. All ranging from fourteen to thirty, yet bright eyed and eager to learn. But in his class, they all sat there, unmoving, silent, staring at him in awe and maybe a little fear. He supposed it wasn't every day you got an immortal celebrity for a teacher. He was used to it.
He set down the marker and took a deep breath, and turned to the classroom, smiling. One girl flinched, and a boy looked like he was about to come in his pants.
But he paid them no mind. His eye's were drawn to a boy, around nineteen looking, with dark blonde hair and bright green eyes.
Dean.
The boy looked up at him with wide eyes, but he didn't look afraid. He looked excited. Though, not as excited as the younger boy with brown hair next to him, around fourteen looking, who looked like he was about to explode with amazement when Castiel looked at him.
Sam.
A girl with red hair and braces in the back, two boys the same age sitting to the side, holding hands under the desk. An older boy in the very front who blatantly took out a flask, took a swig and winked at Castiel, then passed the flask to another younger boy, who was busy sifting through his backpack, trying to dig a tablet out of his mounds of candy he had stuffed in the bag.
Castiel had lived for millennia. But he had never felt quite as alive as he did then, knowing that he had a whole lifetime of opportunities laid out in front of him.
His waiting was over.