"Castiel, uh... we need you for a little powwow down here, so come on down."
"Hello."
Sam, Dean and Bobby all turned to face me. They were still at Ellsworth's house for some inexplicable reason.
"Oh, Johnny on the spot," Bobby muttered.
"You're still here," I observed.
"Yeah, we had to bury the bodies," Sam explained.
"And we found some whiskey," Dean added. "Thanks for coming."
"How can I help?"
"Oh, look. We, um- we have a new plan. We think we finally figured out a way to track down Crowley."
"What is it?"
Bobby lit a match and dropped it to the floor, trapping me in a ring of holy fire.
"It's you," he said.
"What are you doing?" I demanded.
"We gotta talk," Dean replied, looking defeated.
"About what? Let me go!"
"About Superman. And Kryptonite."
"How'd you know what I said?" Bobby raised an eyebrow.
I groaned internally, realizing the error I'd made.
"How long you been watching us?" Sam demanded.
"You know who spies on people, Cass?" Dean asked. "Spies."
"Okay, just wait," I tried to reason with them. "I don't even know what you mean."
"What about this demon craphole? How is it so, uh... 'next to godliness' clean in here?"
"And how exactly did Crowley trick you with the wrong bones?"
I wondered if Eleanor knew what was going on right now. I was avoiding looking at Dean, focusing instead on Sam and Bobby.
"It's hard to understand. It's hard to explain," I told them. "Just let me go. Let me out and I can-"
"You got to look at me, man," Dean pleaded, stepping closer to the ring of fire. "You got to level with me and tell me what's going on. Look me in the eye and tell me you're not working with Crowley."
I briefly made eye contact with him, but immediately looked away again without a word.
"You son of a bitch."
Dean stumbled back by his brother, and I looked at him again, desperate to defend myself.
"Let me explain."
"You're in it with him? You and Crowley have been going after Purgatory together? You have, huh? This whole time."
"I did it to protect you. I did it to protect all of you."
"Protect us how?" Sam glared. "By opening a hole into monsterland!"
"He's right, Cass," Bobby added. "One drop got through, and it was Eve. And you want to break down the entire dam?"
"To get the souls," I told them desperately. "I can stop Raphael. Please, you have to trust me."
"Trust you?! How in the hell are we supposed to trust you now?"
"I'm still me. I'm still your friend. Sam... I'm the one who raised you from Perdition," I echoed my declaration to Dean from four years ago.
"What?" Sam's eyes widened, and Dean and Bobby shared similar expressions. "Well, no offense... but you did a piss-poor job of it. Wait. Did you bring me back soulless... on purpose?"
"How can you think that?"
"Well, I'm thinking a lot of things right now, Cass."
"Listen. Raphael will kill us all. He'll turn the world into a graveyard. I had no choice."
"No, you had a choice," Dean shook his head. "You just made the wrong one."
"You don't understand. It's complicated."
"No, actually it's not, and you know that. Why else would you keep this whole thing a secret, huh, unless you knew it was wrong? When crap like this comes around, we deal with it... Like we always have. What we don't do is we don't go and make another deal with the Devil!"
"It sounds so simple when you say it like that. Where were you when I needed to hear it?"
"I was there. Where were you?"
He was right, of course. He and Eleanor had both been right there, and instead of going to them and interrupting their perfect life, I chose to listen to Crowley instead.
"You should've come to us for help, Cass," Dean continued.
"Maybe," I admitted just as the wind picked up and a dark cloud of demon smoke approached the house. "It's too late now. I can't turn back now. I can't."
"It's not too late. Damn it, Cass! We can fix this!"
"Dean, it's not broken! Run. You have to run now! Run!"
All three of them turned and bolted out the door, leaving me standing there, trapped as my partner arrived.
"My, my. Playing with fire again?"
Crowley snapped his fingers, freeing me.
"If you touch the Winchesters-"
"Please. I heard you the first time. I promise- nary a hair on their artfully tousled heads. Besides, I think they've proven their point for me. It's always your friends, isn't it, in the end? We try to change. We try to improve ourselves. It's always our friends who got to claw at our insides and hold us back. But you know what I see here? The new God..."
He pointed at me.
"And the new Devil," he pointed back at himself, "working together."
"Enough. Stop talking. Get out of my sight."
"Well... Glad I came. You're welcome, by the way," Crowley turned back to head out the door. "You know the difference between you and me? I know what I am. What are you, Castiel? What exactly are you willing to do?"
⁘
Late that night, I found Dean pacing in Bobby's kitchen. The rest of the house was quiet.
"Hello, Dean."
"How'd you get in here?" he demanded, stopping his back and forth motion to glare at me.
"The angel-proofing Bobby put up on the house- he got a few things wrong."
"Well, it's too bad we got to angel-proof in the first place, isn't it? Why are you here?"
"I want you to understand."
"Oh, believe me, I get it. Blah, blah, Raphael, right?"
"I'm doing this for you, Dean. I'm doing this because of you. And Eleanor."
"Because of us," Dean scoffed. "Yeah. You got to be kidding me."
"You're the one who taught me that freedom and free will-"
"You're a freaking child, you know that? Just because you can do what you want doesn't mean that you get to do what you want!"
"I know what I'm doing, Dean."
"I'm not gonna logic you, okay? I'm saying don't... Just cause. I'm asking you not to. That's it. Ellie wants the same thing."
"I don't understand," I admitted.
"Look, next to Sam, you, Ellie and Bobby are the closest things I have to family- that you are like a brother to me. So, if I am asking you to do something... You got to trust me, man."
"Or what?"
"Or I'll have to do what I have to do to stop you."
"You can't, Dean. You're just a man. I'm an angel."
"I don't know. I've taken on some pretty big fish."
"I'm sorry, Dean."
"Then, I'm sorry, too."
⁘
So, that's everything. I believe it's what you would call a... tragedy from the human perspective. But maybe the human perspective is... limited. I don't know. That's why I'm asking you, Father. One last time. Am I doing the right thing? Am I on the right path? You have to tell me. You have to give me... a sign. Give me a sign. Because if you don't... I'm gonna ju- I'm gonna do whatever I... whatever I must.