Upon a warm summer night, people had been walking home to rest in their nice gentle beds, some to enjoy a nice bottle of beer or soda in their hands, and others to spend time with friends and family.
The warm weather brought warm hearts together. The comfort of these summer nights had brought people together as one many times. But on this dark night, something had changed. Something old, and new. Now a new light has emerged from the depths of despair and a new kind of power will take place.
In the forest rested an abandoned little house with a small lake rippling around it. It had appeared insignificant, some people would take it for a summer home. But in the back yard laid something no one could ever expect, a small hill of dirt and ash.
This small hill of burnt wood, ash, and dirt was used to cremate an old friend, a recently departed soul. As the wind swayed back and forth, a few pecks of the residue was lost to the world.
This was a place where someone, sad and broken, was lost to those who loved him. It was even worse since there was no way to bring him back. It was impossible.
Or was it?
Deep within the soil, a strange power brew. A power that started to stir. But how would be the question.
Three weeks ago, there was a burst of magical energy that had engulfed much of the world, a magic that could not be from the human world. A magic that didn't belong here.
Ever since they had encountered it by surprise, both angels and demons have tried to find the source of this magic but neither of them have succeeded in finding out where is came from. For the angels, it wasn't hard to detect magic, considering that it leaves traces in the environment around them. Most of the magic had come from the demons, so they wouldn't have trouble sniffing it out, normally. But this power, it so different from the magic practiced from witches and higher demons around the world, that it had expanded from a single blast all the way to the edge of American.
This magic was just different, too different. A magic that can do untold wonders compared to the limited forces here on Earth.
The power had faded away when the explosion ended, but not all of it disappeared into thin air. And not all of it was preserved in Beacon Hills. The excess energy from the blast had gathered in the pile of ashes, growing and growing, until now.
Finally, after three weeks, the power had started to surface as specks of the ash started to float upward, without the wind casting them away. A small rumbling could be heard as the earth responded to the magic stirring to life. Now was the time for the true power to awaken. The skies above roared softly as they started to darken and the wind started to move aggressively.
The sky was engulfed by dark clouds of lightning and thunder.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
The clouds cheered loudly for the return of one. The trees swayed and danced in the wild wind with glee and little critters ran due to the upcoming chaos that was going to take place.
Little specks of dirt began to hover above the ground just a bit. The wind picked up more and more and the dark clouds began to crackle to life, roaring through the skies. The once starry night had been replaced by destructive clouds of black. The hill of ash started to vibrate, shaking like an earthquake as something started to move from the inside. The glass of the summer house windows started to crack and shatter and the walls broke from force. Lightning that had been pouring through the night started to strike the small dirt hill. One by one, bolt by bolt, the dirt had spiraled in a vortex as lightning had struck the pile multiple times, sparks of light crackled here and there.
In the area surrounding the lake, telephone lines burst from the intense radiation, affecting signals and other forms of communication. The lightning didn't help as other buildings or homes that were stuck under the same storm cloud were forced to endure the intense weather with bolts striking down each lamppost or satellite dish.
But it didn't stop there...
Back at the lakehouse, out of the vortex that continued to grow in size, came a powerful beam of pure light and pierced the cloud sky above. Burning light erupted like a volcano as it continued to spread heat and destruction across the wilderness and from this great light, formed a figure with huge shriveled wings. The heavens roared for the fallen soldier to rise once again and fight the forces that are yet to come.
BOOM!!!
The beam of light burst in all directions, engulfing the entire forest and lake. Heat and energy had expanded a little in the distance by the force that was undeniably strong.
When the light dimmed and cleared, the small house, most of the trees and parts of the lake nearby had been scorched away by the intense heat. All that was left in the explosion were hills of rocks and mud, with running lake water filling up the empty space.
All was desolate and burnt to a crisp...
Except for a small figure emerging from the mud with nails broken and defiled. A body had rose from the ground, naked and dirty, crawling out like a zombie from a cheesy horror movie. Mud had covered most of his body that smelled like death and burning wood. The figure was in perfect condition, besides the mess he didn't have any fatal injuries, however the only thing that was different was a marking on his felt shoulder of a six pointed star that glimmered a bright white light until it faded.
The figured laid upon the warm mud and cooling water as he breathed heavily and rested his head. After a while, the figure looked up to see that he was abandoned on destroyed land. The clouds above had cleared and the stars were shining again.
Everything was calm.
"W-Where, am I," The angel, Castiel, asked as he slowly brought himself off the ground and stood up the best he could. He almost slipped but he adjusted his feet so that way he could walk. Castiel could feel the mud digging between his toes and the water sinking up into his knees. He shivered as the light breeze brushed against his naked, mud covered skin.
It took him awhile, but then the memory of what had happened to him crossed his mind. He remembered traveling to another dimension when he should have been protecting the baby nephilim. He remembered the arrival of Lucifer and the Winchesters who tried to defend him. He remembered the Bobby Singer from the apocalyptic dimension. He remembered the sacrifice of Crowley, and most importantly, his death by angel blade when Lucifer had run him through.
Everything...
He remembered everything. It wouldn't be too hard to forget to be honest. However there was one simple question that running through his head that he desperately needed an answer for, "How am I alive?"
What has happened to me? How am I back in the human world? Did someone bring me back?! Was it the nephilim? Did he save me from death? Wait. Where's Dean and Sam? Aren't they supposed to be here? Where are my clothes? Was I buried when I died? What has happened to me? Please someone answer!
But there was no one to answer his questions. So he did the only thing he could do, he thanked whatever force brought him back and kept moving. Even though he didn't how he was brought back that didn't mean it was going to stop him from finding his family. So with that in mind, he slowly walked away from the destroyed lake house and into the woods.
***
Castiel had walked for miles, without end. The morning sun had already begun to rise, casting colors of yellow, orange, blue, and purple. The summer air was calming and soothing, enough for Castiel to remain calm with his curtain crisis. Cars rushed by and avoided him when he made the thumb sign for a lift to anywhere he could use a phone. Probably has to do with the fact that he was only in jeans going commando on this one because he couldn't find any underwear and a flannel button down shirt that the Winchesters would normally wear. It was true, he looked a bit shady, but it was all he could his hands on. This was all he could get from that campsite that was nearby where was resurrected.
He was lucky to even be wearing these clothes. Let's just say, the father of three with his wife by his side, wasn't happy to see a naked Castiel stealing his clothes.
All night he had asked for help, to get him somewhere where he could ask for assistance or somewhere to contact people he knew. He had prayed for his brothers and sisters to help him, but they never answered, so he thought they were avoiding him for protecting Kelly. Not to mention, they have been radio silent for awhile. When it comes to angel radio, it was on constantly on matter how loud or quiet, but right now, it was utterly silent. Castiel would be lying if he said he wasn't worried about the angels in heaven.
Suddenly the smell of pancakes and sausages hit his nose, he immediately followed the smell to a small diner. Mama's was its name, and there was a sign that said it was open for service. Castiel smiled at how adorably it was compared to other joints he had been at. He ran towards it and crossed the street. He avoided incoming cars and rushed inside. People who walked in and out gave him strange looks, some even dragged their children away from him as they got close. He couldn't blame them, he knew that he still smelled like the dead, with a hint of ash and ember. Dirt had still covered his jet black hair and his body was still badly damaged. He simply avoided eye contact with them and walked inside.
The diner itself was simple yet charming, it had bright red and green colors. The smell of breakfast was everywhere and families on camping trips sat by and ate while enjoying themselves. Quickly, he rushed to the bathroom and groaned at the condition of it. Despite it's cleanness, he could smell the mold that was building up in the man's room and he felt sympathetic towards the humans. He shrugged it off and turned on the water faucet. With both hands, he washed most of the dirt off his hair and used a paper towel to dry it. When he was done, he walked out of the restroom and into the diner.
To rest himself, he sat in one of the window seats and quietly rested his head against the table. The seats were made of red leather and the table had sparkles on it. On the far end of the table, near the window, a few containers of mustard, ketchup, and majo sat.
"Hello sir, may I take your order?" Castiel looked up to see a teenager by the age of sixteen with pink lipstick, fair skin, and her dark hair curled up in a bun. She had a gentle smile on her face, Castiel could tell she was a kind high school student, with a pure soul. She wasn't any harm to him, and for once he was glad.
The girl cleared her throat, "Sir, what would you like to order?"
The angel shook his head. Castiel hesitated a bit and asked for a simple glass of water. The waiter smiled nicely and said that his water would be here soon.
Castiel sighed in relief and took out a damaged phone from his pocket. He had stole it from another campsite with a young couple. He felt guilty for doing this, but he still had no choice; however, as soon as he was spotted, the guy had tackled him down and tried to get it back. Luckily, Castiel used whatever strength he had left to put them both to sleep and wipe their memories away. Not that the phone was any use now. While in the collision, it had broke. It had pieces of glass sticking out of it with a dead battery to go along with it. He had tried asking other people to borrow their phone but karma had to bite him in the ass for stealing a phone.
"Here's your water!"
He looked to see that the girl had brought the water to him He kindly smiled at her and thanked her. He was about to drink until he heard screeching. He looked out his window to see a cute yellow bug drive uncontrollably in the diner's driveway. People were yelling at whoever was driving for nearly running over them. He 'oooh'd when the car had accidentally scrapped an expensive looking one. Ouch. I don't think the own of that car will be very happy.
The car had finally parked with a few angry humans yelling towards it. He looked away and traced a finger on the glass of water. He wondered if Dean and Sam were even trying to help him, trying to bring him back. Maybe they found a way, but they just weren't there to meet him.
Although, deep down, he highly doubted they were even trying to save him.
In the past, he had screwed with people, other angels, and even his friends. At times like this, Castiel had wondered if he was even worth saving. Everything he's done has ruined him or others around him. He hated letting people down and not making it up to them. Even more so now, because of the danger he had realised into the world. A danger he should've destroyed the minute he heard of it.
He knew that Jack had deceived him, he may not have been a genius but he wasn't stupid. From the looks of it, the boy had simply manipulated him, the effects of Jack's influence was great but now the enchantment has faded away. He knew that it was now his responsibility to do what he should have done from the very beginning, stop Jack from hurting or manipulating everybody else before it was too late. He had promised Kelly that he would raise Jack to be a good man, a man that would help people, and now he won't even be able do that.
No matter. As it appears, it doesn't seem like saving him will be much of an option. But he wasn't going to fail on stopping him.
But how was he going to find him? Tracking a nephilim as powerful as this one would normally leave traces, but so far there was nothing he could sense. It didn't help that he wasn't at his full potential, being resurrected again had made him vulnerable from attacks on all sides, Heaven, Hell, monsters, hunters. If only Dean and Sam were here, they could've helped Castiel revive his strength. If only he had some sort assistance to help find his friends before it was too late.
Little did he know, help was already walking through the diner door with a ding of the bell and heading towards his table...
"Are you Castiel?"
He looked up and was surprised to see a boy, with dark brown hair and gentle dark brown eyes, he looked pretty charming. This boy looked like he was roughly thirteen years old, ironically he was wearing a navy blue trenchcoat with a red and grey striped scarf hanging around his neck. He held a backpack in his bandaged hand.
Castiel scrunched his face in confusion and said, "Yes, indeed. Hello? Excuse me, but how do you know me?"
The boy smiled friendly at him and sat at the opposite side of the table. "I know a few things about you, I've read about you. It's a pleasure to finally meet you." The boy held up his hand and Castiel shook it. But as soon as Castiel heard that, he immediately assumed that this boy as a fan of Chuck's work. He remembered when Dean would company about how these stories were basically an invasion of privacy. The angel couldn't help but roll his eyes. These fans were more annoying than most of the humans out and about in the world. However, the boy looked kind hearted, so in order to not sound offensive to the poor kid, he proper declined his compliment. "Look kid, I'm no fan of Chuck's stories, I'm glad you are, but the thing i-"
"I didn't read about you in those books. Trust me when I say, those books need work. I was actually talking about this one," The boy opened his backpack and brought out a hard covered book, the leather was brown with golden designs and font. The title read 'Once Upon A Time...'
Despite it's odd name and simply appearance, Castiel could sense all of the supernatural and magical energy the book itself was packing. It was beyond anything he has ever felt before. Whoever made this book was probably very powerful. He looked up at the boy, "May I have a look?"
The boy nodded and smiled respectfully. Castiel looked into the book and read a few paragraphs here and their. The illustrations were perfect and well drawn. Stories of fairytale heroes and villains were spoken. But what amazed Castiel the most was not the chilque characters everyone's heard of, but the stories behind them. Each one explained a villain's back story. How they became evil and why would choose a dark path, and it also talked about how heroes like Snow White, Prince Charming, the seven dwarfs, the great wizard Merlin, and demigods like Hercules had to rise above all other fairy tales creatures and fight against the forces of evil.
Castiel smiled but then frowned a bit as he turned towards the boy, "Look child, these are fascinating stories, they truly are. But I don't see how this has anything to do with me."
The boy pouted a bit, a grim look on his face. Castiel was all too familiar with that look, he had seen it on Dean and Sam, the look of loss. The boy placed his banged hand in one of the coat pockets and pulled out a piece of the same paper material as that of the book. "It has a lot to do with you." the boy handed the paper to him and Castiel took it.
What he saw upon the page had shocked him.
Castiel sat there speechless as to what was on the book page. "I-I don-don't understand. How?"
"Hello, may I take your order now?" They were interrupted by the same waitress as before. The boy smiled and said, "Yes, I'll have a," He picked up the menu and scanned through it until he looked back at the waitress again, "I'll have the a meat omelet with extra cheese and a lot of pepper, a lot of hash browns, and most importantly, can you make a hot chocolate with cinnamon, please?"
Both Castiel and the waitress had their eyes wide at the meal the boy just ordered, "Y-Yeah. Sure." She wrote his order down and then looked at Castiel. "And what will you be having sir?"
Castiel snapped out of his gaze and looked down at the menu in confusion. Many years on Earth and he still hasn't been able to handle buying his own meal at a diner. In haste, he answered, "I'll have the special, please?"
She giggled and smiled, "Okay, it'll be out in a jiffy!"
Once she left Castiel, turned towards the boy with curious eyes, "Are you pregnant? I mean despite your gender, you're eating a lot for a normal person."
The boy laughed a little and said, "No, but driving a car alone across the country isn't as easy as it seems. In fact, doesn't sound easy at all."
"You didn't drive it, you crashed it. I don't think the owner will be happy about you ruining their car," Castiel noted. The boy shrugged, "They'll live."
The boy sat back and sighed in relief and closed his eyes to rest a little bit. Castiel looked at him, and really looked at him. Something about this boy made him seem special compared to other children around the world. He has seen what most children are like, and he's never met anyone like this boy before. At his age, most preteens ether shopped, ate, played football, and did things most preteens do. But this boy had an adventurous side of him, he really was different from the rest.
"You're running aren't you?" Castiel asked. The boy looked back at him, with a sorrowful look in his eyes.
The boy sighed, "Maybe. Why do you ask?"
Castiel was about to ask something else until the waitress came with their plates. "There you go, one meat omelet with a side of hash browns, and one special." The boy laughed as he gazed upon the special which consisted of two sunny side up eggs with a long piece of bacon that formed a smiley face. "And also one hot chocolate with cinnamon."
The boy smiled, "Thank you ma'am."
The waitress cooed, "Awww, your such a gentleman. I swear there are hardly any boys out there with good manners like yours. Your raising your son right." She stated the last part to Castiel. The angel just sat there with a shocked expression on his face as the boy started to giggle at the the older man's reaction. "He-He's not my-"
"I'll be back, enjoy you meal."
The boy had begun to dig in his food like a wild animal. Castiel cringed. Talk about good manners. He thought. "So, what exactly do you know about me?" Castiel asked as he poked at the eggs with his fork.
The boy finishing chewing and swallowed a piece of the meat omelet, took a sip of the hot chocolate and then explained, "Well, it all started with why I ran away." Castiel could sense a hesitation from the boy as he started. But instead of stopping, the boy continued, "My town, Storybrooke, was attacked by monsters."
"Storybrooke?" Castiel rubbed his chin, "I don't recall of a town called Storybrooke..."
The boy explained further, "No one has, it's hidden by magic. Anyway, off topic here, our town was...is in danger. It was attacked by some weird monsters, they raided the town and nearly destroyed everyone in it. A lot of kids in my school didn't make it the next morning. My family was in the crossfire. They tried protecting the town, but it didn't work. They were able to stop most of the monsters, except for the person controlling them." Each word he said was full of dread, sadness, and anger. He twirled he butter knife in his hand and breathed in and out rapidly. The memories of people dying from the monsters that invaded Storybrooke. It wasn't supposed to be like that. At the beginning of the day, he and stepfather were planning to take his ship to the borders of Storybrooke to teach him how to control it. He was a good stepfather, always tried to reach out to him and treated him like a son. And for all his family to be taken away from him, only made him angrier than he already was.
This instantly caught Castiel attention. "What person?"
The boy continued, "This man was evil, I mean, he personally visited my family and commanded the monsters to imprison them, were as my mom," the thought of what could have happened to his mother haunted him, "He wanted to meet her personally and vanished into the night. My stepfather, Hook, drove me out of the town and allowed me to continue to drive away from the attack and seek shelter of any sorts. I was going to use the apartment that my dad was using in New York until I found an illustration of you in the book. Under the picture, it said, 'Castiel, the angel of the Lord.' It also had a picture of a diner and the city and state it was in. So I knew that I had to find you, and here we are."
Castiel shook his head at the news of this boy's experience with his family being taken from him. "So you want my help?"
The boy nodded. He sat up and properly introduced himself, "I'm sorry to keep you from waiting, my name is Henry Daniel Mills. I really need your help Castiel, no one can help me but you."
Castiel sighed in worry, because he knew more than anything that he couldn't help this poor boy. That he was useless, even more so now due to the fact that he lost a lot of his power when he came back to life. This boy was putting his faith in the wrong angel, but he did know who can truly help him. "Henry, I don't have the power to help you."
Henry Mills frowned in hopelessness and looked away to hide the anger dying to get out.
"But I know some people who can." Henry looked up at Castiel as the angel explained further, "I have human friends that have accomplished so much and I sure that they are willing to help you, especially in your time of need. If you help me get to my destination in time, I'll put in a good word for you to allow them to help your town."
"Isn't an angel more useful than a human?"
"Yes, but these two humans that I'm talking about have done so much good that it's hard to even make a list. But one good thing that stands out is that they stopped the biblical apocalypse from destroying this world." Henry's gasped a bit in surprise. He had learned about the Christian apocalypse in school, but he didn't believe it could actually happen.
"So they can help me? Are they reliable enough to help?"
Castiel nodded with a hopeful gleam in his eyes as he remembered the time Dean and Sam have helped him when he needed them. "Yes, and I promise you, Henry Daniel Mills, that I'll do my best to help you save your family in any way I can."
Henry smiled and brought his glass mug of hot chocolate and said, "Okay then. Deal." Castiel smiled and brought his glass of water up cling them together in unison of their starting companionship.
Castiel realized that even though he had the habit of hurting people, he was going to help himself and assist his friends in anything they need. And he was going to start with helping Henry Mills save his family.
Henry Daniel Mills
Castiel