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It all started because of some odd case in South Dakota, a town where people couldn't die.
Sam and Dean had thought it to be something similar to their encounter with the lack of reapers in the past. Past where demons and seals to unleash the Apocalypse had been involved.
So the Winchesters had gone there with Castiel.
The town had had an unnerving air about it from the moment the brothers had stepped into it. The people were nice, too nice to the point of being straight out unsettling.
Castiel hadn't felt a thing out of normal, but he had still felt uncomfortable, something about this whole place felt wrong , he wanted to leave.
And then a witch appeared.
She had begun chanting something, making Castiel drop on his knees with a choked gasp. The witch grabbed his hair, pulling his head back harshly and holding a strange jar infront of his lips as she kept chanting.
He could feel his grasp on the vessel slipping, could feel himself being pulled. Realization hit him and panic flooded in. He was being pulled out of his vessel. Pulled and pulled , not to go back to Heaven, but into that strange jar.
And then the connection between the vessel and him was snapped and Castiel was caged.
~
Sam and Dean had known this was related to angels, it was the reason neither of them had fought Castiel when he had said he wanted to come. If either of them had known how this was related to angels, neither of them would have allowed Cas to set a single hair into this town .
Sam had been the one to find the room with the Enochian engraved tools and feathers of different colors scattered all over the floor.
And then he found a book that got his blood running cold.
It was a spell for immortality that needed an angel as a battery to keep on running.
And then, a ringing rippled through the air, high in pitch and metallic, making their hearts skip a beat.
An angel's voice.
Cas.
Both brothers bolted across the halls, hearts racing and several curses at the tip of their tongues, slamming the door open in time to see Castiel's body dropping to the ground like a ragdoll, the witch closing a jar engraved in Enochian sigils.
A bright bluish smoke fills it like a raging cloud of power, glitching between white, blue and silver. The hunters felt almost nauseous as realization of what, who that was hit them, hairs standing on end.
"Put him down, now, or so God help me I'm gonna put a bullet right between your eyes." Dean threatened, pointing his gun without hesitation as anger gawned at him, every instinct inside him screaming, because this bitch had Cas.
Somehow.
What he didn't expect, and for the looks of it neither did the witch, was for the jar to crack. A high pitched whistle leaking out along with light.
"What the-"
The jar bursts and the blinding searing heat explode into the room, forcing them all to cover their eyes, and as the light died down a shriek of horror came from the witch, the brothers turned in time to see a winged glowing… something lung towards her with such force the impact of it made her body slam against a wall, the sound of her bones snapping sending shivers down their spines, hands shooting forward and clasping around her throat.
She screamed as her entire skin cracked, blood oozing out, and then she burst into a shower of sand and light. The thing turned towards them, piercing snake eyes settled upon their souls, so blue it made their skin crawl, inhuman, dangerous. Run.
There were thousands of eyes covering most of his (her? Dean couldn't tell if it was a dude or a chick with how androgynous it looked) upper body along with silver scales and thin bluish lines/cracks. Its long hair was burning bright white with glittering dust of gold and silver, almost seeming to be made out of blinding flames.
A translucent ring with oddly familiar sigils humming with light around its throat. Six wings glowing a blinding shade of white with glitches of pure darkness, feathers sharp and promising nothing but death if touched, some feathers were missing and others in disarray.
The first set of wings was held high over its head, bent forward to cover its face, while the third set bent towards its legs.
There was also a row of fangs adorning its mouth.
And the most disturbing fact here was that if it weren't due the faint resemblance nor the recognition of those sigils on the ring to be from the Prophet's tablets, the word of God , Sam and Dean would have shot it without hesitation.
"Cas?" Dean's voice did not squeak.
"Hello Dean. Hello Sam."
Even his voice was wrong. It sounded deep and harsh, but it also sounded high and kind, like two mixed voices; female, male, with bells in the background that felt almost like the echoes of the apocalypse waiting to be let out. It sent shivers down their spines and made their hairs stand on end, a little voice screaming at the back of their heads for them to run and not look back.
"Dude, what the hell?" Is what Dean finds himself saying.
Castiel tilted his head to the side before looking down at himself.
"It appears my true form has been... reduced."
"You look like that?"
"No, I am taller. And brighter, so much brighter." Castiel told as a statement of fact, this before walking up to his vessel and crouching close to his head, hands cupping his face. He stared at it for a moment with a frown plastered on his face.
"You checking him out or what?" Dean couldn't help but tease, also to break the awkward silence.
"I cannot possess him." Came the distressed answer as the angel glanced back at them, looking half confused, half at the verge of panicking.
"Come again?"
"I cannot possess him."
"Is it a spell? Warding?" Sam asked, starting to come up with several reasons on what could be causing this.
"No, I... She pulled me out, and even if it was against my will I left the vessel. It means I cannot possess it back without permission, but I can't get permission because Jimmy is dead." Castiel said, removing his hands from the vessel. He lost it. He lost what Jimmy had died for. Father, if Claire found out... would she be relieved over finally being able to bury her father or would she be pissed that he messed up?
"Can't you just try to possess him without permission? It's not like he will be pissed." Dean exclaimed, his words got Castiel flinching, head snapping to attention.
"No, I can't- No." He looked as disturbed as he looked terrified, as if Dean had spoken a sin not even the devil would speak of.
'Why not? That's a corpse right there dude." Dean's answer was silence, and an elbow to the ribs from Sam who gave him a judgemental look.
And then.
"Demons possess humans without permission. If an angel does it it's no better than a demon and... because how we came to be, a forced possession could also end up making the vessel explode, or my grace, because possessing them against their will would also be a breach of the very thing humans have been gifted with, which would be free will." Castiel explained, as if he were talking to a child.
"But then how do you expect to... I don't know... hide the fact that you are fucking glowing and look a lot of things but human?" Dean asked, the guy was practically a friggin walking neon sign!
"I don't know."
"Can't you look for another vessel? Just until we can get you back into Jimmy?" Sam questions, he didn't feel comfortable with the idea of suggesting Cas to snatch some innocent person, but it wouldn't be long, and he needed permission, the human would be agreeing to it.
It still didn't felt right though.
"I can't."
Castiel's negative answer got both brothers raising their eyebrows.
"What do you mean you can't?'
Silence.
"Cas?" Dean called.
"I'm a Seraph, I told you that in Purgatory, we are... not quite similar to regular angels, much like the archangels, we have our own true vessels, in the entire planet, only two humans can hold me, Jimmy, and Claire, but I won't ask that of her. If I try to possess another human, they will explode, or burn from the inside out, some of which might end up with a destroyed soul and by extension won't be able to go to Heaven nor even become a ghost, they will just disappear."
Castiel gave Jimmy a sorrowful look. He didn't want to give that one up, both, because he owed it to the Novak's and because he didn't want to bring the pain he brought to the Novak's to someone else.
But he also knew there was nothing he could do.
"Let's just get back to the bunker for now, yes? We will see what we do from there on, we need to get you out of here for the time being." Dean suggested as he took his jacket off. "Here, put this on. I would rather not have someone seeing you right now."
"How is he supposed to put that on?" Sam questioned, giving his brother an arched eyebrow at his lack of tact. Castiel literally had six giant wings, how would a jacket even fit him at all in this situation?
"I don't know, you figure something out!"
"It's fine." Castiel interjected. "My true form was reduced, but that doesn't mean I'm unable to control how it looks."
And with that being said the wings seemed to melt into light, merging with his skin in the form of glowing sapphire tattoos with pitch black glitching cracks, he then put on the jacket.
Sam and Dean stared at him.
And stared.
"I think pants are also a good idea. I think people will freak out more over the junkless dude than the glowing one."
Sam gave his brother bitch face #23.
Castiel frowned.
Sam was the one who ended up picking up the... body , dragging it to the impala and after Castiel did a great job at taking the trench coat off the body Dean decided to throw it in the trunk, because God he couldn't deal with this right now.
After Dean forced Castiel to put on some sweatpants they were ready to go. Of course after Dean also threw a blanket at the angel to cover himself as much as possible.
Castiel still didn't cover himself all up, his head was still visible and so was the tousled hair of blinding white with golden and silver glitter.
Halo.
Snake eyes.
Fangs .
Some glances were stolen from time to time through the rearview mirror, but to be fair it was as unnerving as it was unsettling and creepy to have Cas there looking like that.
That was him.
Human sized.
And neither of them could help but notice how the angel could perfectly pass as some guy around his 20's if he was to drop all the supernatural features. Fuck, he looked younger than either of them, how the fuck was that possible? Shouldn't angels look like old people, all things considered?
And those fucking snake eyes were putting Dean on edge, the fuck was it with those creepy eyes?
"Dude, seriously, cover your eyes or something, what is it with that snake vibe anyways? Are angels just snakes in disguise or what? Because if so, that's really freaky."
Castiel flinched at Dean's remark and he seemed to almost sulk and melt deep within the blanket.
"I'm sorry." Sam glared at Dean before turning to look at the angel on the backseat.
"Hey, Dean's an ass, don't listen to him."
"Hey!"
"It's fine. I know how uncomfortable my eyes make people." Castiel mumbles, he had grown so comfortable amongst them he had almost forgotten that aspect of himself.
"Wait, others have seen them too?"
"Angels. And some demons too."
"I get it that as a human I can find them freaky, most humans find snakes freaky, it's nothing personal, but aren't angels and demons also freaky looking? What's the deal with snake eyes? If you think about it, snake eyes aren't even that freaky." Dean tried to assure, alright, he might have been a bit of a dick with that comment, but he's never been good at this touchy feely thing.
Castiel for his side didn't answer.
This was a path of conversation he hoped to never be faced with in the presence of the Winchesters.
If only they knew.
~
"That body won't rot in the car, right?" Dean asked as he closed the door of the motel room, pulling the curtains shut so no one would look inside and see the glowing dude.
"It won't, not as long as it has the fingerprint of my grace." Castiel conceded as he sat at the edge of Sam's bed.
"And how long will that last?" Sam questioned, both curious and concerned, he still couldn't bring himself to stop staring at the angel, but to be fair, this was Cas, not Jimmy, Cas .
"Around five months." Was the answer Castiel gave him without looking up from his tugging around the sleeves. He didn't seem comfortable at all with wearing a jacket and the trench coat.
And all things considered Sam couldn't blame him.
"You can take it off for a while if it bothers you." Sam suggested.
"No, I'm fine." At that same time Castiel flinched and his head snapped to attention as he felt a colossal zap in the air of obliterating power.
Before either of the brothers could ask what was wrong, Chuck appeared in the room.
"Christ!" Dean almost found himself decking God out of reflex, the man in question dodging the incoming hit.
Sam gave his brother a mortified look.
Chuck didn't even acknowledge it, staring straight at Castiel.
"Chuck?"
He doesn't answer, gaze fixated on Cas, an indecipherable look on his face.
"Can you put him back in the-uh vessel?" Sam asks, hoping for the answer to be 'yes'.
Chuck doesn't answer as he circles Castiel, Castiel who feels a shiver run down his spine, he feels like he is suffocating under the man's power.
"Show me your wings Castiel."
Castiel could have never expected that he would react so fast at the command.