milliways_bar | (no subject)

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The debriefing with Zachariah had not been pleasant.

Fortunately, he had stopped short of taking punitive action. Castiel had, after all, gone to the barn with the honest intent of doing his duty and killing Anna. None of them had foreseen her taking a gamble as big as pitting demons against her brothers.

Still, Castiel has gotten what you might call an earful of biblical proportions.

He is quite relieved to be able to take refuge in Milliways for a while.

Castiel is sitting in a booth. A mug of coffee is on the table in front of him.

It’s full. He just wants to appear occupied.

[Plotlocked: Here there be very focused and powder-keggy angels.]

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See what he means? Annoying.

"We do."

And thanks to Milliways, it's a more convoluted one than even Heaven knows.

"But history is, by definition, the past."

And it's a tricky situation they find themselves in at present.

"You no longer have a part in what's happening now, except as a fugitive."

And given the swath Lilith has been cutting across the Earth, no matter how undesirable Anna might be, there are bigger problems to be dealt with.

"Such certainty, little brother.

"But ask yourself . . . can you truly, truly be sure that I have no role to play?

"An angel with out orders, on the edge of the Apocalypse?"

What would you do? Join the demons?"

It's not an entirely idle question.

It's not like she can slap on a disguise and join up with a regiment of angels.

"If I understand the expression, you have effectively benched yourself."

"Maybe.

"Maybe not.

"Neither of us actually knows what I might do.

"Exciting, isn't it?"

Castiel never heard people talking in his head before Milliways. But right now he can quite clearly hear, "Scary as fuck is more like it," in Dean's voice in his ear.

"Not the word I would choose," is what he says aloud.

"By rights I should kill you here. Before you can do something the rest of us will live to regret."

But he knows he won't. Not here. Milliways means to much for him to be cast out of it, which is what X told him would happen the next time he engaged in violence.

"By rights, perhaps, you should try.

"But your success at such an attempt would be far from certain."

And they both know it.

"The time may very well come when we will find out."

He is under orders, after all. And yes, he knows he could well lose. She is, or at least was, his superior. Older. Stronger. But he would still be obligated to try.

Castiel sits back ever so slightly in his seat.

"But this is not the time. And Miliways is not the place."

"I do want to ask one thing of you."

"And what's that?"

It may be a mistake even to ask. Who knows what Anna will do with anything he says?

And yet.

"Do not interfere with Dean Winchester."

That is a situation that's fraught with enough complications.

"Well, well.

"Look who's giving the orders now."

"I am asking you. As my sister. And as someone who once believed in what we fought for."

"God has work for him, and it will not be easy. Is not easy."

"Would you interfere merely to spite us?"

"Not merely to spite you, no.

"But I will intervene for other reasons, should I decide it's necessary.

"What can I say? I'm invested."

Well, at least he has an idea of where things stand now. At least on that front.

"Invested. After a span of days."

Really, Anna?

"So, you would use him toward your own ends, then?"

Anna doesn't bother to explain. After all, a century, after all, is just a span of days. Thirty-six thousand, five hundred twenty-four and a bit (on average) of them.

"That's not what I said, Castiel."

Castiel's eyebrows have suddenly gone very sarcastic.

You know. For him.

"Forgive me. You make your point so clearly I do not know how I could possibly misunderstand you."

The Milliways education sometimes pays unexpected dividends.

"Well, if that's the case, then I have no reason for offering clarification, do I?"

Since he could not possibly have misunderstood her.

"It's interesting, you know," she continues, conversationally. "Of the two of us, I'd expect to be the one who had changed more in the last two decades. And yet, while I've 'forfeit the right to assume' I know you, you seem to still be free to presume you know me."

"You left me. I didn't leave you."

And he never had, really. He's followed her human life, out there and in here.

"I didn't leave you.

"I just left."

"It amounted to the same thing."

If she believes otherwise, she's kidding herself.

An uncharacteristic smile crosses Castiel's face. But this once it's devoid of humor.

"I wasted a great deal of time, wishing that things could be as they once were again."

"Now here we are. And it feels as if it would have been best if you'd never returned."

Just lived out her human life and moved on.

"Well, there I have to agree with you."

Returning certainly wasn't anything she ever intended or desired.

But her hand kind of got forced on that one.

"For what it's worth, you're probably most of the reason I didn't Fall sooner."

And as irrational as it is, that only makes him feel as if he failed her in the end.

Because she did Fall.

"I'm not certain what that's worth."

He's not handing back an insult. He genuinely is not certain. Maybe, in time, it will become clearer.

"You didn't forget entirely, you know. Not in the beginning."

"I know."

She studies her brother across the table for a moment.

"That was you, wasn't it?

"In my room when I was little.

"'Look at me.'"

Castiel, in turn, studies his coffee.

"I did not think you would know."

He didn't go with the intent of...well what happened.

"So why'd you go, then?"

"I have no good explanation."

That, at least, is true enough.

"I succumbed to a moment of foolishness."