Fallen

Chapter Seventeen

It takes about an hour for Cas to teach me the long, complicated process of tracking someone down. I do a few test runs using some of my old friends to see if my angel GPS is accurate. It's a little rough around the edges at first, but it eventually smooths out and becomes easier. After a while, I'm even able to see them in my head for a split second.

     "Sam and Dean are warded against angels, so it will be harder for you to track them," Cas mentions.

     "Well I'm not an angel," I smile.

     He smiles a bit. "It will still be a bit difficult."

     I nod and begin the process in my head. It takes a few minutes, but I finally find them. And they're not alone. "I got 'em," I say. "They're in trouble, I'm going to help them," I say, scrambling to get out of my chair.

     "Celeste!" Cas says just before I fly away. I turn to him. "Be careful."

     I nod and fly to the 100-Mile Wilderness in Maine. I appear behind a man in an all black suit. In front of him are Sam and Dean pinned high up onto two thick trees. I squeeze my angel blade in my right hand.

     "Let them go, you black-eyed, British bastard," I demand.

     The man from my nightmare turns around to face me. "Well," he starts. "Look what the cat dragged in."

     "Put them down, Crowley."

     "No, I don't think I will, but thank you for asking so nicely," he sasses. He's a cocky little prick. He turns back around and turns his attention to something hovering in the sky.

     I don't even bother to follow his gaze. I bring my angel blade up and advance towards him. Just before I get to him, I'm lifted off my feet and thrown over Crowley's head. I land hard on my back on the ground in front of him. All of my air is pushed from my lungs as the fall knocks my blade out of my hand.

     "Cel!" I hear Dean yell. I roll to my side and make loud gasps for air. "Don't you touch her, you son of a bitch!"

Through my peripheral vision, I see Crowley look down at me for a second then wave his hand. When he does this, it feels like my lungs catch fire. I manage to let out a yelp, and I curl myself into the fetal position. I'm suffocating. I'm dying. I gasp and wheeze and silently beg for air, but nothing comes. I'm dying.

"CEL!" Dean cries.

"Stop!" Sam adds.

I roll onto my stomach and continue to gasp for air. I spot my angel blade by Crowley's feet. Immediately, I begin to army crawl towards it.

"Oh come on!" I hear Crowley say. Then I hear a woman start speaking, but I don't dare break my pitiful stride. My fingers dig into the earth as I pull myself closer to my blade.

"Let me see if I've interpreted the situation correctly," the woman says. I gasp. "The Winchesters have freed an innocent from Hell. To which you are wrongfully trying to return." I'm so close to my blade. Only a few feet now.

"Siding with them, Naomi?" Crowley sneers. "You don't know those two; before they're done, we'll both be locked away."

"And what does the girl have to do with this?" Naomi says. I look in the direction of her voice. My vision is blurred from the lack of oxygen, but I can see her wings. An angel. She's an angel. I turn back to my blade and take another gasp as she continues. "What does she have to do with any of this?" Crowley kicks away my angel blade as she speaks. Great. She drew attention to me. Thanks, lady.

"She's with them, and that's enough for me," he says to Naomi. I roll back onto my back since my blade is too far away now. In the sky above me, I see what looks like a blob of black and blue smoke. My vision is still blurry. I feel my lungs start to contract and I gasp again. "Like I said, they're trying to lock us away," Crowley continues.

"I'm just hoping they lock you away, dear," Naomi says. "The rest I'll figure out."

"Bureaucrat," Crowley growls. "You're fighting outside your weight class." I gasp.

"Don't call me a bureaucrat," she snaps.

She raises her arm and a bright white light shines from her palm and her eyes. Just as soon as her hand is straight out in front of her, Crowley disappears. The burning in my chest disappears with him.

I gasp again, and this time, air fills my lungs. At the same time, I hear the boys fall from their trees. Immediately after, I hear footsteps rush towards me as I take another satisfying gasp of air. Dean falls to his knees beside me and puts his hand between my head and the ground, lifting it up ever so slightly. I'm finding it hard to keep my eyes open. I continue to sharply inhale and try to catch my breath.

The four of us turn our attention to the blob of smoke in the sky. Naomi raises her arm and gestures to it, causing the black splotches of the smoke to disappear. The glowing blue smoke spirals up toward the sky and disappears.

Dean puts his free hand on my side farthest from him and lifts me up into his lap. I'm still dizzy, but I try to help him by insufficiently pushing myself off the ground. We both look up at Naomi, I more lazily so, to see that she's looking right at Dean.

"I told you you could trust me," she says. Then, she disappears.

Sam turns to us. "What the hell was that about?" He says to Dean.

"I'll tell you later," he replies. He looks back down at me and moves his hand from my side and rests it on my cheek. I'm looking at him, but it's almost like I'm looking through him. I see him, but I'm not focused on him. "Where the hell did you come from?" His voice is worried, but also accusing. I know I wasn't supposed to leave.

I try to speak but nothing comes out. I'm still disoriented, and my body feels drained. I squeeze my eyes shut for a moment in frustration as I try to get sound to come from my mouth. I open my eyes again, but they stay straight ahead, looking through Dean.

"Don't you ever do that again," he says. I'm still trying to emit sound. I can't focus on him. My gaze is dead. My eyes aren't independent. "You hear me?! Ever!" I give up on speaking and just nod. He pulls me into his chest and hugs me.

Finally with enough air in my lungs, I work up the strength to lazily sit up. By then, my eyes are back. Dean helps me to my feet and walks me over to Sam, keeping his arm around me to keep me steady the whole time. When we get over to Sam, I'm still hardly able to stand on my own.

"Let's get this Trial done," Dean says. He adjusts his grip on me.

Sam nods and pulls a small piece of paper out of his jacket. He unfolds it and reads some four-syllable chant off of it. Immediately after, Sam starts griping out in pain, and he drops to his knees. Dean puts his free hand on his shoulder.

"Sam? What, what?" Dean asks him. Sam's right hand starts to glow underneath his skin.

"Sam?" I worriedly say. It's more of a croak, though, really. Sam continues to cry out in pain.

"Talk to me! What?" Dean tries again.

"It's okay, it's okay!" Sam says. A few seconds later, the light in his hand fades. Sam exhales. "It's okay, I'm fine," he says. "It's done." He looks up at Dean and me. "It's done."