10 || CHOICE

Moonlight shone through the windows, illuminating Bobby's living room as Vanessa sat sleepily at his desk, a vast pile of papers spread out in front of her.

She'd been so focused on trying to rescue Gabriel she'd forgotten that Castiel was close to cracking open Purgatory. And despite what Chuck had told her about it being inevitable, she knew she had to at least try and find a way to stop him. But she was having no luck.

There wasn't a single thing in her notes that could help her figure out how to defeat Raphael without opening the door. She had no idea where the archangel blade was, or if she'd even be able to use it given that she wasn't an archangel herself. She had no idea where Gabriel was, and even if she did, he may not feel inclined to help them kill his brother.

Jack wasn't born yet and probably never would be born if she could stop Abaddon before Dean received the mark, thus preventing Amara from escaping which means Castiel would never say yes to Lucifer and they wouldn't have to deal with him again. Although she had no clue how to do any of that either.

It was hopeless.

The eclipse was fast approaching, and by fast it was literally in two days. Two days and Castiel would either become the new God and they'd be summoning Death in a strangers living room, or he'd return all the souls after destroying Raphael and they'd have to deal with the Leviathans a little earlier than predicted. Either way did not sound very fun and Vanessa was starting to get fed up.

Maybe she should have just said yes to Lucifer and dealt with the consequences of it afterwards.

"You should have, I can be very helpful." The voice made Vanessa jump, her papers falling from her hands and scattering over the floor.

"Jesus." She breathed, her hand over her heart that hammered hard beneath her chest. Talk about a jump scare.

"Not exactly... Hey Nessie." Lucifer waved at her from where he was lounging on Bobby's couch, an old book in his hands.

"Great, instead of Sam getting Hallucifer, I'm getting him." Vanessa mumbled, ignoring as Lucifer clapped just his book shut and sat up.

"Oh, I'm not a hallucination sister. I'm very real, except... I'm inside your head." Lucifer wiggled his finger towards her, watching as her eyebrows knitted together before her face fell to one of annoyance.

"I'm dreaming aren't I?" Vanessa sighed, rubbing her hands down her face and hoping Lucifer would be gone when she opened her eyes, peaking through her fingers.

But he wasn't. He was still there.

"God, what is with your family and invading my dreams?" Vanessa exclaimed, annoyed that yet another celestial being had invaded her dreams. Not that she could call this a dream, she was still sitting at Bobby's desk, researching. Not exactly a trip to the Aqua Dome.

"How are you even here? Shouldn't the cage stop you becoming a dream warrior?" Vanessa asked, watching as Lucifer conjured up a spinning chair and sat backwards on it in front of the desk.

"Normally, it would. But..." Lucifer dragged out the word. "...when you touched me, you know to show me my brother being tortured and that, I may have left a little bit of my grace inside you, just so I could come and visit you."

"Gross." Vanessa shivered. She had angel juice inside her?

"Hey." Lucifer said, offended, a frown on his face.

"Sorry." Vanessa mumbled, once again rubbing her eyes in hopes that we would disappear. "Actually no, I'm not sorry. You tried to strangle me."

"Yeah..." Lucifer hummed out. "I may have gotten a teensy bit angry when you wouldn't let me out."

"You don't say..."

"Look, you try being locked away since the dawn of time and see how your anger issues get."

"Okay fair enough." Vanessa nodded a little, he had a point. "Why are you here?"

"I'm lonely." Lucifer sighed, spinning once on his chair.

"You're... lonely?" Vanessa questioned, her face puzzled. Lucifer was lonely? Lonely enough that he willingly came to hang out with her in her dreams?

"Michael's so boring now, all he does is sit in the corner and talk to himself." Lucifer complained, his tone of voice almost like a whiny teenager who wasn't allowed go out after curfew.

"Maybe because you're annoying." Vanessa mumbled, grabbing the pages from his hands that he was currently trying to nosey at.

"Hey! I'm trying to help you here, okay. You could try being a little less rude and a little more appreciative."

"You want to help?" Vanessa raised her eyebrow and Lucifer nodded. "Okay then, tell me where Asmodeus is."

"I can't."

"Then go away." She didn't have time for this.

"Nessie, don't be like that." Lucifer pouted, his voice whining before he sighed. "I can't tell you where he is because I don't know where he is. I can't sense him from inside the Cage."

"So you're telling me you're useless?"

Lucifer stayed silent, his eyes squinting at her, a seemingly offended and a little hurt look on his face. Because that did, in fact, hurt him a little. He just wanted to help. For once. He was sick of being the bad guy.

"Sorry." Vanessa sighed, she really was sorry. She didn't mean to be rude, even if it was Lucifer. She was just tired. "I'm just exhausted."

"You and me both, sister." Lucifer's elbows propped up on the edge of the desk as he looked down at the papers scattered atop it. "Why have you written everything in Gaelic?"

"So the guys can't read it. This is their future after all."

"Fair." Lucifer picked up a page, hesitantly, incase she snatched it from him again, but to his surprise she didn't. "Leviathans, huh?"

Vanessa wasn't the least bit surprised Lucifer could read Gaelic. He could probably read every language.

"Yep. Castiel's about to let them out if we can't stop Raphael first, which is seeming impossible as the eclipse is in like two days."

"It's not actually. The eclipse is tonight, you've been asleep for almost a full day." Lucifer said nonchalantly and Vanessa froze.

She what?

"I've what?" She blinked, mouth gaping. Surely Lucifer was lying, there's no way she could sleep that long and there's no way Sam, Dean or Bobby would allow her to when they knew she had to find a way to stop Raphael.

Or maybe that's why they let her. She had been pushing herself a lot. A lot farther than her small body could take. The endless research, the all nighters, the gallons of tea she drank and the only thing she ate all day was packets of crisps and Wagon Wheels. God she was an absolute mess. She was surprised they hadn't thrown her into the panic room just to get her to stop.

"It's too late." Vanessa sniffled, her eyes watering. "I can't stop him."

"No, you can't. And it's not your fault." Lucifer replied in a soft tone of voice that Vanessa had never, ever heard him speak in before. Which is why it made her look up at him with her eyebrow arched. "All you can do is try and convince him not to go all Dad-like."

"Hold on, how do you know that's what happens?" Vanessa wiped her eyes as Lucifer looked up at her from the page he was currently looking at.

"I'm in your head, I know everything."

"Oh, great. That's great." Just what she needed, Lucifer knowing the future. And everything about her.

"Do the angels really fall?" He asked, which confused her as she would have thought his first question would have been about Chuck... Unless... Of course. Chuck was in her head too, clearly he must have done something to block him from seeing that. Seeing his father go through his villain era. And he must have blocked out Jack too has Lucifer didn't seemed to mention him either.

Was her own thoughts and personal business not even sacred anymore?

"Not if I can help it." Vanessa stood up, adjusting the large hoodie she wore that Lucifer could only assume belonged to Sam. "I need to wake up."

"And how do you plan on doing that?" Lucifer asked casually.

"Haven't the foggiest. But I need to be awake if I'm going to stop Castiel from becoming the new God." Vanessa replied, a hint of determination in her voice that sparked a little pride in Lucifer.

"That you do." He stood up, rounding the table towards her. "Go get him, Nessie."

The last thing Vanessa saw was Lucifer's fingers rising towards her forehead and the next thing she knew she was wide awake, sitting bolt upright on Bobby's couch.

"Wow, where's the fire?" Dean asked, sipping his coffee loudly from beside her, she couldn't help but notice her legs were over his lap.

"It's tonight. Castiel's going to the open the door tonight." Vanessa exhaled, swinging her legs round and standing up, then almost falling over before Sam caught her.

"Easy, easy." Sam said softly, holding her upright before she fell over. "We know it's tonight. Crowley told us."

"Crowley was here? And you didn't wake me up?" Vanessa seemed offended that they'd left her to sleep while Crowley was here. She hadn't seen her demon bestie since he took her to Hell, and she missed him.

"We figured we wouldn't get you back to sleep if we did." Dean replied, followed by another loud slurp of coffee that made Vanessa want to stab him. She hated noisy drinkers and eaters. Dean knew that but he just liked irritating her.

"We need to get to the lab." Vanessa went to pull away from Sam only to start feeling faint, her vision blurring as if she had an iron deficiency and stood up too fast.

"You need to eat." Sam caught her once again, frowning. "Something that isn't processed potatoes and chocolate."

Sam had hated seeing Vanessa as she was the past week. Her nose constantly stuck in her notes, mumbling away to herself in a language he didn't understand. How she wouldn't sleep, and when she did it was never more than three hours. She hadn't cooked in ages, not that he cared about the food, it was more the fact that she didn't want to even cook that bothered him, since she loved it.

Dean was just annoyed he had to make his own food that didn't taste anywhere near as good as Vanessa's cooking.

And that was exactly why when Vanessa finally fell asleep and didn't wake after three hours, they decided not to wake her. They knew she'd be pissed at them, but they'd rather endure her ranting at them than have to haul her ass to the hospital or call for Balthazar when she worked herself to death.

At the mention of proper food, Vanessa's stomach rumbled loudly.

"Okay yeah, I could eat." She nodded to Sam's relief, he thought he'd end up having to force feed her some proper food.

So, Sam made her some scrambled eggs, extra crispy bacon, just as she liked it, and some toast. And he didn't even make any for anyone else which made Dean complain and be forced to make his own bacon, which he happily kept to himself, slapping Bobby's hand away as he tried to take a piece.

Vanessa cleaned her plate, much to everyone's relief and she was already starting to feel a lot better now that she'd eaten and had a decent nights sleep. For the first time in like a week.

"You got a plan for if things go south with Cas?" Bobby asked, his own coffee in his hand as he leaned against the kitchen counter.

"Maybe." Vanessa chewed at her lip, she hadn't thought much about what to do if Castiel decided not to listen to her when she asked him to put the souls back, but she did have one idea. "I'm gonna show him."

"Show him? Show him what?" Sam asked, intrigued.

"Show him what he does when he goes all Thanos-"

"Who?"

"-on the world. How much he hated himself afterwards and was scared to go to heaven in fear that he might kill himself over what he did."

Those words were enough to pull on everyone's heartstrings.

"I just have to hope that it's enough to get him to return the souls before it's too late."

"You think it'll work? I mean, it didn't work on Lucifer." Dean added, the three of them unaware of the current guest inside Vanessa's dreams who seemed to now be willing to help to the best that he could.

"That's Lucifer, this is Cas. He's your family he's-"

"He betrayed us. You said so yourself, he broke Sam's wall, he almost killed us. He's lied to us, he-"

"But he didn't, Dean. He didn't break Sam's wall and he won't since you stood down and you let him get on with it. He hasn't tried to kill you and the only reason he lied to you was because he knew you'd try to stop him and he needed a way to defeat Raphael."

"But we could have figured out another way to stop Raphael, if he'd given us the chance." Sam added, making Vanessa sigh in defeat. There really was no way to get this through to them that Castiel was only doing what he thought was best.

"We wouldn't have." Vanessa shook her head, a few curls falling from her loose bun. "God told me, many times, that opening Purgatory was inevitable. It seems like it's one of those events that's carved in stone, there's no way to stop it no matter how hard we try-"

"He could have stopped it, he's God isn't he?" Bobby interjected, a valid point.

"Aye he could have, but he won't. He doesn't like to interfere, he made free will for a reason." Vanessa stood up, finding herself wanting to move on from this conversation as it's one she'd had too many times already. "Now, I'm going to shower and change, then we need to call Crowley and make sure the plan is set so that Raphael shows up when he needs to... Then it'll be on to the hard part."

"Convincing Cas to return the souls." Sam said with a sigh.

"Yep. If he doesn't, then we'll have a date with Death." Vanessa headed up the stairs before anyone could answer her. She wasn't in the mood to talk anymore.

"A metaphorical date with death or what?" Dean called after her but she ignored him. He'd find out soon enough, if it came to that, which Vanessa prayed it wouldn't. 

-

The entire car ride to the Purgatory lab was tense, no one spoke and no one wanted to speak either. The only noise to be heard was the rumble of the engine and the faint music coming from the radio.

Vanessa was tempted to fall asleep so she could talk to Lucifer instead but she didn't want to risk them not waking her up again and their whole plan going to shit because of it. She was the main part of it after all.

Crowley had text her, the plan with Raphael set in motion. It would basically be going to exact same way as Vanessa remembered it from the show, with a few minor adjustments.

Castiel would pretend to betray Crowley, it had to be believable to make him want to team up with an archangel. Then Crowley would side with Raphael who was just as eager to get his hands on the souls.

Castiel would then give them the wrong blood and do the ritual himself in another part of the lab. Then once Raphael found out, Crowley would pretend to be shocked, making use of his incredible acting skills, his words.

Castiel would then kill Raphael and hopefully return the souls without Vanessa having to show him the future.

Easy. They hoped so anyway. Just because Castiel promised he'd return the souls, doesn't mean he would once they were inside him.

And so they arrived at the lab, it was dark outside and the eclipse was just starting.

Crowley and Raphael were currently inside, reciting their own spell that everyone but the archangel knew wouldn't work.

The four of them snuck in, angel blades in hand just in case. You never know who might be lurking around the corner. They quietly entered the room just in time for Crowley to finish the spell, and for nothing to happen.

"Hm, maybe I said it wrong." Crowley pondered, knowing fully well he said it right but he was working with dog blood and not half virgin half purgatory native blood.

"You said it perfectly." Castiel's voice reached their ears, gaining the attention of Raphael who hadn't even noticed the four extra people in the room.

Vanessa snuck down the steps while Castiel spoke, coming up behind Crowley who stood protectively in front of her, ready to zap her, and the guys, out of there if things went a little too south.

But it didn't. The first half of the plan went perfectly.

Raphael and Castiel talked back and forth before the glow of the souls emanated from Castiel's body, eliciting fear in Raphael, who soon enough ended up splattered all over the walls. Dead. Finally.

Now came the hard part.

Getting Castiel to return the souls.

"I did it." Castiel half-whispered, a smile rising on his face. "I defeated Raphael."

"You did, Cas and we're really proud of you." Vanessa said carefully as she slowly approached him. "Really proud."

"Ness." Sam whispered, trying to follow her only to be held back by Dean.

"Let her work." Dean whispered back, praying that he wasn't about to watch Sam lose his soulmate. He couldn't go through that. Couldn't see Sam go through that. But he had faith in Vanessa. And in Castiel.

"You have to return the souls, Cas. Just like we said, remember?" Vanessa's hands held out in front of her showing him she meant no harm towards him. Not that she could do any harm to him, she knew angel blades wouldn't work on him anymore. Nothing would.

"But why? Why should I return them when they make me so powerful, so Godlike." Castiel said, head tilted a little at her and a smile on his face that Vanessa didn't like. "Raphael has many followers, they need to be dealt with."

Not good.

"And they will be. When we find Gabriel, when he returns to Heaven where he can restore balance. Where he can make a change." Vanessa was lying through her teeth, she had no idea if Gabriel would ever return to Heaven if they found him, but she needed to tell the angel something.

"Yes, Gabriel." Castiel nodded, making Vanessa have hope that he would listen to her. "Gabriel is still out there."

"He is. And we need your help to find him. But not when you're like this." She stepped closer to him, making those behind her hold their breath. "Will you- Just- Let me show you."

And he did. Castiel took hold of Vanessa's face as she showed him his life. Well not all of it, just that which related to the aftermath of his massacre, which she also showed him.

Castiel saw the destruction, the bloodshed and the death. All those angels who died at his hand. Their wings burnt into Heavens floor where they'd stay forever. Those on Earth whom he slaughtered. Showed him his face as he grinned while covered in their blood, that really unsettled him.

He heard the voices of the Leviathans, messing with him, taunting him. He saw himself go off the rails to the point where he begged Sam and Dean for help, and despite what he'd done to them, they still helped him. They still cared enough about him to help him clean up his mess.

And lastly Vanessa let him hear the words, spoken from his own mouth to Dean. The words that broke the hearts of those who watched the show... The words that proved just how much Castiel hated himself for what he did.

"Dean, I... When I was... bad... and I had all those things the- the leviathans... writhing inside me... I caused a lot of suffering on earth, but I devastated Heaven. I vaporized thousands of my own kind, and I can't go back. Because if I see what Heaven's become– what I what I made of it... I'm afraid I might kill myself."

Castiel stumbled back, a mixture of emotions shown on his face and playing in his mind.

"You have a choice, Cas. You can choose to do the right thing and return the souls or you can choose to go down that path. The path that has you hate yourself, has you so afraid to go to Heaven, to go back home, because you're scared to see the devastation you caused.

"That you're so afraid that if you go back there, you won't want to live anymore... And we don't want you to have to feel that way. You're family, we care about you. We love you. And we're begging you to do the right thing. Return the souls, Castiel, please. Only you can do this. Just please, make the right choice..."

"She's good." Vanessa heard Crowley whispered and she couldn't help her lips rising a little.

"Listen to her, Cas. You know she's right, please buddy. You did good. You stopped Raphael, but now it's time to do right. Return the souls. Please." Dean stepped beside Vanessa, the two of them sharing hopeful looks.

Vanessa was glad Dean spoke up, she knew if anyone could get through to Castiel it would be him.

"How do I do it?" Castiel finally spoke after minutes of thinking to himself. After fighting against the urge of the souls, the power that flowed through him, pushing him down the wrong path. But he couldn't, he had to fight. He couldn't become the angel Vanessa showed him. That wasn't who he was.

A collective sigh of relief followed his words and soon enough, with Crowley's help, the spell was spoken once again and the souls were returned to Purgatory.

Vanessa had done it. She'd actually stopped Castiel and she honestly couldn't believe it. The guys couldn't either, of course they had had faith in her but they didn't think for a second she'd be able to talk Castiel out of it. But she'd proved them wrong.

Sam had never been more proud.

However, now came the second hard part, as they watched Castiel walk deep into the reservoir, the black goo leaking from his body and polluting the water...

It was time to face the Leviathans...

-firstly I want to apologise for once again un-publishing a chapter and changing it... this one was changed a lot, lot more than the last one I did as this one went the complete opposite direction... but I was honestly so unhappy with the first one I posted that I wanted to change it and I'm glad I did because I'm really happy with this chapter

i promise that i won't do this again and that i will make sure i'm fully happy with a chapter and that it fits into the story before i post it as i know it can get irritating when authors edit chapters constantly

so thank you for putting up with that but you don't have to worry about me doing it again! anyway... i hope you like this new chapter and don't worry if you liked the other other too, I will be incorporating part of it into the story, just further down the line!