Chapter 17 As They Tear Your Hope Apart
Hope wasn't speaking to Sam. She understood that he was angry, and she agreed that Dean had made a mistake by not telling Sam about Gadreel, but that was no reason to let your brother go off on his own, especially when he thought that he was poison to the people he loved.
She really wasn't even happy with Cas, but she responded to him when he asked her a question, which was more than Sam could say. Dean had been gone for more than two weeks and she spent most of her time reading off by herself somewhere after her first few attempts to find Dean and bring him home failed. He simply didn't want to be found, which made Hope even angrier at the ones who let him go.
Which is why neither of them noticed right away that she was missing. Not until Castiel heard the Horn of Gabriel.
He was finishing up a healing session with Sam when he froze, his muscles going rigid. "Cas?" Sam asked, concerned. The angel didn't respond. "Cas?" Sam asked again. Castiel didn't even look at him, just walked out of the room.
Sam climbed out of his chair and chased after the angel. By the time he got to the main room of the bunker, Cas was out the door. "What the hell?" Sam muttered to himself. "Hope?" he called. No reply came, which wasn't unusual. Nevertheless, he tried again. "Hope?"
He searched the entire bunker. Most of the time he could at least find Hope--normally in the library or Dean's room--but now she was nowhere. A pang of unexpected loneliness washed over Sam as he realized that the bunker was empty except for himself. Where did they go?
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Castiel found himself driving up to an abandoned warehouse in a stolen car. He wasn't sure exactly why he came; there was some pull, some voice calling him that he couldn't resist. He stopped the car and walked inside.
The sight that met him was enough to shock him out of the trance that he had been in; the ground was littered with bodies. Castiel would've said they were angels but they lacked the ashen wings that marked the death of a celestial being.
A muted sound drew his attention to the corner where two demons stood holding...Hope?
Before Cas could react, the demons began chanting. A bright light emitted from a sigil painted on the wall. The Horn of Gabriel. Castiel could see Hope's wings emerging, huge and shadowy.
One of the demons holding Hope grabbed her wings and pulled them sharply away from her body. She screamed as they were ripped from her shoulders and suddenly Cas understood. White light erupted from Hope, glinting off of the angel blade on its way to her chest. Cas lunged forward and knocked the blade to the ground. He shoved the demon against the wall but was dragged off of him by his companion, who had dropped Hope to grab Castiel. The first demon walked toward him, black eyes glinting cruelly.
"Cas!" Hope called from the floor. He looked to the sound as she tossed him the angel blade that she had retrieved from where the demon had dropped it. He caught it and plunged its point into his attacker's chest, then turned and stabbed his captor. Both demons erupted in a flash of white light.
Castiel dropped the angel blade and ran to Hope. She was slumped on the floor, clutching her abdomen, eyes squeezed shut. "Hope?" Cas asked. "Hope, are you alright?"
She nodded tightly. "Fine." She breathed.
Cas looked around nervously. "We need to get out of here before more of Bartholomew's people show up." Hope nodded again. "Can you stand?"
"I think so--ah!!" Hope cried, her legs buckling as she tried to get to her feet.
Castiel caught her. "I've got you." He said, scooping her into his arms and carrying her out of the warehouse to his car. He sat her gently in the passenger seat and she leaned her head back against the headrest, her eyes still closed. As Cas climbed into the car he remembered how he had left the bunker, left Sam, abrupt, with no explanation. He reached into his pocket to call Sam but realized he had left his phone at the bunker. "Damn it!" he muttered. With one more glance at Hope, he started the engine and began driving to the bunker.
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Castiel rushed into the bunker, Hope cradled in his arms. Her face was tight and her pale forehead was beaded with sweat, but she was still conscious, which Cas decided was a good thing despite the fact that she was in pain. "Sam!" he called. "Sam!"
The hunter came running out to meet him. "Cas? Where have you--what happened?" he asked, seeing Hope.
"Abaddon." was all Cas said. He didn't stop, so Sam fell in step behind him, following the angel to the bunker's hospital.
Castiel laid Hope down on a cot and placed a hand on her forehead. She opened her eyes, briefly glancing at Sam before her glassy gaze shifted back to Cas. "Dean?" She murmured questioningly. "'Want Dean." her face screwed up and she shut her eyes again, clenching her fists.
Cas looked up from Hope to look at Sam for a moment. "Call him."
"What?" Sam asked, not comprehending.
"Call Dean."
"Cas, I--" Sam protested.
"Just call him!" Castiel insisted. "This isn't about you and your brother having a petty argument, Sam. This is about Hope. She has had her wings torn out. And Dean needs to know. So if that's inconvenient for you, if you don't want to, suck it up and get on the phone!"
Sam nodded, locking his jaw, and left the room. Cas sighed and turned back to Hope. He could feel her grace writhing inside of her, threatening to burn her up from the inside. An angel's wings were simply a manifestation of the part of their grace which allowed them to fly, so the feathery shapes were inseparable from that piece of grace, which was what made them so powerful. When Abaddon's men ripped out her wings, they took part of her grace, badly damaging the piece left inside of her; it was raw, celestial power spiraling out of control inside a mostly human body. He had to repair it.
As he worked, Cas thought about what he had seen in the warehouse, the bodies littered everywhere. Now he understood why there had been no wing marks; Abaddon was using the Horn of Gabriel to lure angels to him and steal their wings. Castiel shuddered in disgust. Still, he had to admit that angel wings were a great source of power. But to inflict such pain for the sake of obtaining power...well, Cas had been there, and had learned where it led.
It was almost merciful of Abaddon to kill them right after. Cas thought despite himself, examining Hope's tattered grace. He wasn't sure he could fix this.
In the other room, he could hear Sam on the phone. His tone sounded strained, but he wasn't yelling, and Cas supposed that was the best he could ask for right now.
Finally, he had done all he could to put Hope's grace back together and repair the damage it had done to her body, even using some of his own stolen grace to smooth out the frayed edges. He hoped it would be enough. At some point she had drifted off into unconsciousness and she seemed to be in less pain, which was a good sign.
There was a knock on the door and Sam poked his head in. "Um, I called Dean." He said quietly, glancing at Hope. "He's on his way. You might want to call him, though. He...uh...he's kind of freaking out, but he didn't really want to talk to me."
Cas nodded. "Keep an eye on her." He said, tilting his head toward Hope as he left the room.
Once he retrieved his phone he dialed Dean's number. The hunter picked up halfway through the first ring. "How is she?" the gruff voice asked.
"Dean?" Cas asked.
"Yeah, it's me. How is she?"
"Uh, okay. She's okay." Castiel assured him. "She's sleeping right now."
Dean let out a breath on the other end. "Good. I'm on my way, should be there in a few hours." He paused. "Cas...what happened? Sam-" he spoke the name cautiously "uh, said something about her wings? That she...that they were 'ripped out'?"
Castiel could hear the worry in Dean's voice and was hesitant to answer. "Yes," he finally said. "Abaddon's men, they're luring angels using the Horn of Gabriel and....stealing their wings." He explained.
Dean was silent for a moment. When he spoke his voice was rough and quiet. "Damn it, I left to protect her. I thought.....I should've been there."
"Dean, there was nothing you could do. I couldn't stop it and I was right there--"
"Well I should've been there." Dean snapped. He sighed. "I never should've left." Cas could hear in the hunter's voice that he was rubbing his forehead in frustration. "God, I'm such an idiot."
Cas shook his head. "You're not an idiot, Dean. You just made a bad decision."
"Yeah, I've been doing that a lot lately." Dean shook his head. "You'd think I'd be able to do at least one thing right."
"You're coming back. That's right, Dean." Castiel assured him.
"We'll see."
Castiel sighed. "I should check on Hope. I'll call you if anything changes."
"Yeah." Dean replied, his voice gravelly. "Cas?"
"Yes?" the angel asked.
"Thanks."
Castiel smiled softly. "You're welcome, Dean."