Smoke

Castiel didn’t want the role, Hannah could see. But Castiel hadn’t wanted to lead them when they gathered against Metatron. He hadn’t really wanted to search for the angels who refused to return home. She doubted very much he’d wanted much of what had happened to him over the past years.

He’d done those things anyway.

Besides, Castiel just didn’t see the power he had. How compelling he was.

And he tried to do good, to be good, but he didn’t see how he inspired fear just as surely as he inspired love. She couldn’t think of any angel better suited to take the throne that had been Lucifer’s.

Now, his newly returned Grace was a riot of colors and lightning, but she didn’t question him about it. Instead, she watched as he excused himself and left the room, waving Dean off when the hunter tried to follow.

Dean left a minute or so later, in any case. Maybe to follow him. Maybe not.

“That wasn’t fair,” Sam said, when they were both gone. “Throwing that at them. At Cas. That wasn’t fair.”

Odd, that he seemed more protective of an angel than of his own brother.

“They just got over themselves and got together,” Sam said. “And they’ve both got all kinds of crap to sort through. And you suggest this? Becoming Hell’s ultimate power couple?”

Bela sparked, her smoke flaring up, and Hannah put out a hand to keep her from saying something which would make this harder.

“I only said what makes sense,” she said. “Sam, until Hell and Heaven are settled, it will only mean more trouble for your kind.”

“Cas has done enough-”

“Castiel is a soldier. And a Seraph. He needs a mission.”

Bela coughed when Sam and Hannah stared at each other.

“We’ve said our bit,” she said, when Hannah turned to her. “Dean will think it over. If he refuses, we’ll think of something else.”

Sam looked like he was going to leave it, but as Hannah stood to follow Bela from the room, he spoke again.

“And what’s your mission? You’re an angel, too. What mission do you have?”

She had Heaven to help heal, a job Castiel couldn’t help with, not after being so directly involved in so much of the damage, but she didn’t want to explain it all to Sam now, to explain how the other angels Bela had managed to lead back to life were waiting for her. She didn’t want to explain how they’d met Gabriel and Anna and others, how they’d shown her how to create herself a body. Create one for Bela.

There was too much to explain and it wasn’t that she wanted Castiel to be chained to Hell. Of course she didn’t. She was one of the few angels who still cared about him. But angels rarely got to do what they wanted, and Hell needed a ruler. And Heaven needed to know Castiel was somewhere he wouldn’t hurt the Host again.

“There are more than enough missions,” she said. “This one is Castiel’s, if only he’ll see it. You once wanted to close the Gates of Hell, Sam. This is a way to close them without any of you dying. At least consider talking to them about it. You could live almost free of demons. Isn’t that what you’ve always wanted?”

She left then, sickened at playing the serpent, even if it was to make a necessary point.