A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who's followed, favorited, and reviewed the episodes in this verse. I had a lot of fun with it, and I'm glad you did too. ^_^

Part II

Dean's sternum was starting to vibrate, like he was standing right next to a jet engine without the sound component assaulting his eardrums. He didn't want to think about what was being done to Cas to trigger the sensation, how much worse it was for the angel on the receiving end of it. But it meant Cas was still alive, and Dean was gonna be grateful for that small assurance as he gunned it down the abandoned highway.

Balthazar abruptly leaned forward from the backseat. "We're heading toward the Devil's Gate."

Dean stiffened. Shit, he hadn't even realized, having been so focused on simply following the invisible tug resonating deep inside his soul. But it made sense, if Michael was trying to banish the Earth into Hell; why not use the portal that was already open?

There was a small 'zpp', and Dean twisted his head around to find the backseat suddenly empty. "Dammit," he cursed, ramming the gas pedal harder. Damn angels and their flight and not waiting for the rest of them.

No, they'd get to Cas that much faster and get him out of that hell hole.

Or so Dean hoped more than anything as remembered terror started surfacing from the first time he'd been at the Devil's Gate, when it had first opened and he'd been dragged into Hell. And now instead of the doorway spilling out demons onto Earth, it would be trying to suck them all in.

Just like that vision in the mountain cave where the first Seal was buried had said. Its warning was coming true after all.

Dean's heart stuttered, and his instincts were screaming at him to turn around and run.

But he wouldn't. Not then. Not now. That wasn't who he was.

They careened past the broken welcome sign for the town that had been the first to fall to the demons spilling from the Devil's Gate. The sky was awash with silver and blue lightning streaking through the air and colliding in crackling starbursts. Dean assumed they had to be angels.

He slammed on the brakes and brought the jeep to a skidding halt at the edge of the crater. Both he and Sam scrambled out, the others in the vehicle behind them doing the same a split moment later.

Dean pulled up short at the ridge. The Devil's Gate was twice as big as he remembered it, reaching all the way to two of the sloping sides. Down in the basin, two figures were locked in combat, their human forms barely visible within the shimmering grace shields extended around them, one a fiery red dragon Dean instantly recognized with a thrill of fear, the other an equally terrifying aura of golden wings and talons. Michael?

The crater was also full of demons that were spilling over the sides across from the human hunters, both beasts and humanoid. Dean watched one get too close to the pulsing portal and get sucked inside. The others were charging away from the Gate and toward a lump on the ground this side of the caldera.

No, not a lump—Cas. Dean's lungs seized as a brutish demon came galumphing toward the prone angel, but before it could lay a claw on Cas, Gabriel's golden eagle came swooping down from the sky with a shriek and snatched the beast up. But more were coming, maybe able to sense that Cas was the source of the spell trying to banish them, or they'd been given orders. Either way, Dean and Sam needed to get down there.

He whirled back toward the jeep and sprinted around to the back to grab one of the submachine guns loaded with angel bullets, which worked just as well on demons, too. "Sam and I will cover Cas," Dean ordered. "You guys cover us."

Everyone made an urgent dash for their weapons, and then Dean and Sam wordlessly started their foray into the battle in order to reach their friend. Demons heading toward their position started dropping as rapid gunfire punctuated the sounds of fighting already echoing through the sky. Dean didn't even slow his descent as he fired haphazardly across the crater. Most of the angel fighting was happening in the air, so he didn't have to worry about hitting any friendlies. Except for the archangels, who were currently brawling halfway across the basin. The ground shook from the impacts of their grace animals throwing themselves at each other.

Dean and Sam reached Cas and dropped down beside him, trusting the other hunters to watch their backs. Cas's hands were cuffed, and he was curled in on himself in what looked like spasms of pain.

"Cas!" Dean gripped the angel's shoulder.

Cas forced his eyes open with a gasp, expression blanching in horror. "No, you have to get out of here," he ground out.

"Not a chance," Dean snapped back. He jumped to his feet again and shot a demon that was getting too close. Then he dropped back down and scanned Cas for injuries. He spotted the Seals, now connected into a larger shape, seemingly held against Cas's chest by unseen magnets. Dean reached for them and tried to rip them off, but they didn't budge.

Cas shook his head. "It's no use. They're bound to my grace."

Crap. "Alright, can you stand?"

Cas propped himself up onto his elbows and shook his head again. "It won't matter. My grace is powering the spell to open Hell further. Distance won't make a difference."

Dean exchanged a panicked look with Sam. What were they supposed to do?

Cas grunted. "If we can get these cuffs off, I can try to take control of the spell. Maybe even redirect it to open the Cage instead."

Dean wanted to ask then what, but they didn't have time. He set his gun aside and reached into his jacket for his lock picks. Funny how in the Apocalypse he'd never gotten out of the habit of carrying them, mostly because they'd gone from breaking into crime scenes or monster lairs to breaking into buildings to scavenge supplies.

Sam continued to pick off demons while Dean worked, though trying to keep his hands steady enough for this task in the middle of a friggin' war zone was a new feat for him. But he finally managed. The cuffs fell away and Cas rubbed at his wrists as he tried to sit all the way upright.

"Are you sure about this?" Dean asked worriedly.

Cas nodded, though his expression was grim. "I have to try."

Right, because if they didn't, it was the end of the world once and for all.

"Okay," Dean said. "We'll watch your back."

He scooped up his gun and lurched to his feet to join Sam in firing at the swarms of demons converging around them. Up on the periphery of the crater, the Harvelles, Bobby, and Risa had taken up positions and were shooting down as many demons as they could, but that had also drawn attention, and some of the hell beasts had started heading their way. Dean fired at one slinking up toward Jo below her line of sight. It exploded in a puff of black vapor.

He cast a look back at Cas, who was still sitting on the ground, one hand clutched around the Seals pressed to his chest, eyes squeezed shut in concentration. The portal to Hell gave a sputter and then seemed to shrink a fraction. Dean hoped that wasn't his imagination…

"That's it, Cas!" Sam shouted in encouragement.

Not his imagination, then. Filled with a surge of hope, Dean spun and took out three more demons charging toward them. A hellhound slunk over the ridge above them and came loping down. Dean whipped his gun up and fired four times into the ghastly beast, its pained yowls piercing the air amidst the discordant cries of other dying creatures.

"Dean!" Sam shouted, and he whirled as a vaporous entity came shooting toward him. Yet before he could get his gun up, a phantasmic blue fox zipped down from above and snatched the smoky snake between its teeth, tearing it away.

The Devil's Gate continued to contract in size, and now when demons ran past it, they weren't sucked inside. Which was no longer helpful, but at least it meant Cas must have reversed the spell to get the rest of them thrown into Hell, too.

Unfortunately, it was apparently drawing more attention.

The electrifying griffin suddenly broke away from Lucifer's dragon and came barreling toward the Winchesters. Dean nearly tripped backward when it landed in front of Cas, a tall man with dark hair and blazing golden eyes standing in the middle of the huge grace animal.

"What are you doing?" he seethed at Cas, who merely glared up defiantly.

Dean swung his gun that way. "You must be Michael. Nice to meet you, asshat." He squeezed the trigger and peppered the archangel with a series of rapid fire bullets.

The griffin's amorphous contours spurted from the impacts and it screeched, though two managed to hit dead center and strike the human form. Michael staggered back a step, eyes flying wide with surprised pain, but the bullets didn't bring him down.

There was a gust of air as two massive wingbeats preceded the dragon landing a few feet away.

"You disgusting human," Lucifer snarled. "You dare attack my brother?"

Dean's jaw slackened in stupefaction. Wha- weren't those two just trying to kill each other?

Lucifer's eyes blazed red. "I should pop your head like the pustule you are."

Dean instinctively took a frightened step back, but then stopped and frowned as he spotted the ground behind the Devil starting to crumble and disintegrate, falling in on itself to create a gaping hole that seemed to go down into an abyss.

Lucifer paused, eyes narrowing a fraction, and he cast a look over his shoulder.

"Castiel, don't you dare!" Michael shouted.

Lucifer whipped back around, expression livid. "You think you can throw me back in the Cage?" he raged at Cas.

Two pops sounded, spaced apart. Lucifer dropped first, then Michael, like puppets with their strings cut, and their grace animals dissolved in on themselves. Dean gaped at them incredulously before lifting his gaze to his brother, who was holding the Colt.

"Cas, hurry," Sam urged.

Right, the Colt wouldn't keep them down for long. Dean spotted the handcuffs he'd taken off Cas, and in a split second of brashness, snatched them up and hurried to snap them on the two archangels. Then he scrambled backward as they started to stir.

Michael raised a hand to clutch his forehead, only to stop as he was met with resistance. The moment he saw he was chained to Lucifer, his face turned an irate shade of puce. Lucifer's nostrils flared with rage as both archangels lurched to their feet.

"Why you putrescent little—" Michael started, spittle flying from his mouth, but he was interrupted by a shriek as Gabriel swooped down and landed between the archangels and the Winchesters.

He arched a brow at the handcuffs. "Hey, now there's a good look."

"Gabriel," Michael seethed, and took a menacing step forward, only to be hampered by Lucifer.

Gabriel gave the Devil an almost regretful look, which made Lucifer's eyes crinkle in confusion. "You both leave me no choice."

The rebellious archangel turned to Michael and punched him so hard in the chest that it sounded like thunder. Michael reeled backward—falling right into the Pit. Lucifer's eyes blew wide just as his brother's weight yanked him in as well, and they fell, almost in slow motion, into the dark chasm.

Dean stared dumbly long after their figures had disappeared. Had they just…?

Cas suddenly let out a pained grunt and bowed forward, digging his fingers into the dirt.

"Cas!" Dean dropped down next to him as the angel pitched to the side. "What is it?"

Cas choked on a strained sound. "I can't…close it. Not without…being sucked in too."

Dean's heart shot up into his throat. "No, no, no, you have to hold on!"

Cas slid a fraction through the gravel, and Dean grabbed his arm to hold him back. Sam also dropped his weapons to latch onto Cas, both of them digging their heels in as the vortex in the earth raged louder.

Cas shook his head. "I can't," he forced out through gritted teeth. "You have to let go. I won't pull you in with me!"

Gabriel dropped down in front of them. "No one's going anywhere," the archangel said fiercely, and reached out to grab the Seals. His eyes flared with sapphire brilliance, and Cas screamed.

Dean couldn't see what was going on, but Gabriel was rotating his hands and flexing his fingers as though literally trying to undo a knot, and Dean's stomach clenched as he imagined Cas's grace tangled up in the Seals. His muscles started to strain as he clung to his best friend, the abyss only five feet away.

And then suddenly the weight dragging on Cas vanished, and Dean fell backward with the angel on top of him and Sam. Gabriel jumped to his feet and turned to toss the Seals into the Pit. The gaping portal shuddered, and then the ground folded back up to cover it, like it had been nothing more than a trapdoor.

Gabriel then pivoted toward the Devil's Gate, which was now merely a small crack in space, and shot a beam of blazing golden light at it. There was a crackling rupture as it was destroyed. The demons that remained in the crater had now turned and were fleeing up and over the ridges. In the sky above, several glowing phantasms were retreating into the heavens.

Dean pushed himself up onto his elbows, chest heaving. He glanced at Sam and Cas in disbelief. They were alive. And they'd won.

Crinkling pebbles drew his attention to the slope where Bobby, Ellen, Jo, and Risa were making their way down to join them. The rest of the angels in the sky that belonged to Gabriel's garrison were also gliding down to land.

Sam got to his feet first, and reached down to give Cas a hand up. The angel looked exhausted, but he gave the Winchesters a small smile of sheer relief.

"I can't believe we did it," Cas breathed.

"What about the Seals?" Sam asked as Dean stood up as well.

Gabriel shrugged. "Lost. They opened the Cage and then locked it by literally throwing themselves away."

"Uh," Dean interjected, "Michael and Lucifer can't use them to get back out, can they?"

"No," Gabriel assured him. "The Seals are long gone." He sighed. "I have to wonder if that was maybe Dad's plan all along."

Dean just shook his head; he didn't care one way or the other on that front, just that things were finally over. He clapped a hand on Cas's shoulder. "You good?"

The angel nodded. "I will be. Thank you."

Dean felt the beginnings of a giddy grin plaster across his face. They'd actually done it. Won the war, beat destiny…saved the world.

Dean beamed at his brother and best friend. "Let's go home."

Castiel rode back with the Winchesters in their jeep. Not that he couldn't have taken the ethereal currents along with the rest of his garrison, but after everything they'd been through, he was happy to just…sit, for a while. It was all a lot to process, too, having achieved a victory that had seemed almost impossible from day one. And with the fight over…what came next?

There was a crowd gathered in the center of Camp Chitaqua when they drove through the gate, along with most of the garrison.

"Is it true?" someone shouted when the Winchesters climbed out of their vehicle.

Gabriel sauntered over to them. "I couldn't resist spilling the beans." He then pivoted and clapped his hands together. "All hail the conquering heroes!"

Sam and Dean exchanged disbelieving looks before turning to address the camp.

"It's true," Sam confirmed. "The Apocalypse is over."

A cheer went up, and people started to converge on the Winchesters and their other human companions who had fought beside them at the Devil's Gate.

Castiel frowned. "It will take a long time for humanity to rebuild, and there are still demons on the loose," he pointed out.

"Oh, details," Gabriel huffed, but then his expression sobered. "Heaven will be in as much disrepair as Earth."

Castiel started; he hadn't even considered what the state of Heaven would be now, nor that he would ever see it again after having rebelled. "Are we going home?" he asked incredulously.

Gabriel nodded. "There's a lot of work to do up there, but I think we can handle it."

Indeed, Castiel suspected that restoring order would not be easy, as Raphael was bound to be unhappy. Still, there was hope, and it had been a long time since they'd had any of that.

His gaze caught a head of red hair weaving through the crowd toward him, and his heart lifted. "Anna."

She looked much better than she had in Zachariah's torture chamber.

Anna stopped in front of him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Are you all right? Balthazar told me what happened at the Gate."

"I'm fine," he assured her.

She searched his gaze for a moment before shaking her head in exasperation. "I thought you knew better than to pull sacrificial stunts like that."

"I learned from my captain," he replied.

Anna let out a snort, but then pulled him into a hug.

"How's Muriel?" Castiel asked when he drew back.

"She's okay. She's around here somewhere." Anna roved her gaze around the throng. "What a day this is," she marveled. "The end of war, and of this strange partnership we somehow managed to cultivate with humans."

Castiel's mouth turned down as his eyes automatically drifted toward where he knew the Winchesters were, surrounded by friends. Almost as if sensing his attention, they glanced over their shoulders to meet his gaze, and smiled. Castiel nodded in return, though at the moment his thoughts were not as jovial as the situation warranted.

The crowd began to thin out as people returned to their cabins and many of the garrison headed back to the pocket dimension to begin packing up. Castiel, however, lingered.

Dean and Sam walked over.

"I know the world isn't gonna be fixed tomorrow," the older Winchester started, "but I still think we should drink to today. What do you say, Cas? Know where Balthazar's stash is?"

Castiel frowned. They wanted him to raid Balthazar's cache of wine?

"I do," Gabriel interjected from a few yards away, and turned to come join them. "Consider it a farewell gift."

Sam quirked a confused brow. "Farewell? You're leaving?"

"With Michael out of the picture, there's going to be chaos in Heaven," the archangel replied. "But don't you guys worry about any of that. You've got a world to rebuild."

Both Winchesters shot their gazes to Castiel, looking shocked and perhaps a little disappointed. Castiel took a deep breath, and turned to his brother.

"I think I'll stay here, on Earth." He flicked a glance at the brothers. "I could remain here at the camp, or Gabriel could leave the pocket dimension intact…"

"Of course you can stay here," Dean interrupted.

Castiel gave a tentative smile, but sobered when he met Gabriel's eyes again.

His brother leveled a considering look at him. "We could use you, Cas. You're one of my best soldiers. Look how many of us you already helped to remember our duty to creation."

Castiel shifted his weight. "Then they can teach our brothers and sisters in Heaven the same. But…the humans still need our help, too."

Gabriel's gaze bored into him for another prolonged moment, then shifted to the Winchesters. His shoulders finally sagged with a sigh. "Can't say I'm all that surprised."

"I will come if you call," Castiel hurried to say. "If you ever need me."

Gabriel's mouth twitched with a smile. "I know. But you're right; there are too few able to fulfill our duty on Earth right now. And it's not exactly safe out there yet."

"Sounds like me and Sam should get back to hunting," Dean said. "Lots of demons still out there." He nodded to Castiel with a proud look. "The three of us in the family business."

Castiel's lips curved upward in agreement.

Hael, who had been standing a little ways away, suddenly crept forward. "I'd like to stay, too," she said hesitantly to Gabriel. "I can do a lot of good here, especially when medicine is becoming harder to find."

The archangel let out an exaggerated sigh, but then nodded in understanding to the meek healer. Castiel was mildly surprised by Hael's decision, but it made sense; she wasn't a fighter, and conflict in Heaven wasn't something she'd want to be in the middle of.

"I will leave the pocket dimension," Gabriel said. "Just in case you need it for any reason."

Castiel nodded gratefully. "Thank you, Gabriel, for everything."

His older brother flashed him a debonair grin. "Don't think I won't be checking up on you from time to time."

Castiel smirked. "Of course."

The archangel turned to Hael and wrapped her in a hug, then stepped away. He looked to Castiel, gave a stout nod, and then his grace rippled out in golden waves as he transformed into his eagle. With a beat of the massive, glowing wings, Gabriel ascended into the sky.

Castiel felt a small pang at the distance he would now have from the rest of his siblings. But their paths had diverged, for now, as was necessary. And goodbye wasn't forever.

Dean and Sam took a step closer to him, the auras of their souls a firm, bolstering presence. Castiel may have missed Heaven, but this was his home now, too. They'd all made a life here, a foundation to build upon for the weeks, months, and years to come. And yet, at the same time, as the three of them gazed out toward the horizon, there was a profound sense of something different.

A brave new world.