#vitto:

In the foreseeable future it should've been Sam who said yes. But then again, in Detroit, too many accidents. Ripping up Fate's plans can change the course of life. But it was true what Dean had told them. What Lucifer had said.

We will always end up here.

But it was supposed to be Sam. Sam, who was panting and covered in dirt and grit and grime, was running a head of him, beside a brother who was almost dragging Sam to move faster.

It was Vittoria who changed it all, and not for the better. Dean could not let Sam go. And when Lucifer realized they were in possession of something greater in a way, he gave up Sam's life for Vittoria's servitude. They thought she'd be able to fight it but god the infection he instilled in her...she had no chance.

She was lost from that moment on. 

"Cas!" 

Dean looked back. Amazing enough still angel, Castiel knew that look. The look that pleaded he had some idea of how to get out and as he pushed his legs to work harder, pushed his human vessel's lungs to breathe harder, he swooped forward, hand on each Winchester's shoulder, and let his wings move them through space and time.

It was rare they would escape like this because Castiel could smell her hot on their trail. She knew Castiel's every in and out. His scent. His movements. And as he barely let go of one location before flinging himself and the boys to another, the sweet smell of winter wind and roses wrapped itself around him.

They could not keep running forever. 

He pushed harder, but he could hear the flutter of wings not far behind his own. His sudden change in direction, heading almost backwards threw her off his trail long enough so that he could deposit the Winchesters and give them one single instruction.

"Run."

Dean barely got to yell wait before Castiel was breezing away. His feet touched ground when the smell of dirt and oil hit his nose. Mangled messes of cars rose high above him as his trench coat seemed to settle down from his flight. 

So many memories lay there. The sweet smell of her used to calm him. They danced here. In the rain. Trained for the end out here. His blue eyes observed the dust as he waited because there was no more running from her. She would have him and the boys but he hoped it would be that getting him would give the boys enough time to flee. 

Just as his head tilted back something wet and cold fell on his nose.

A snowflake.

It was the middle of August. The temperature never died down from at least over one-hundred. 

And yet another one fell. And soon, as he observed the heavens, they began to fall in a multitude. Snow flakes. Littering the too warm ground and melting. A strange occurrence often times brought rare smiles to Castiel's face but this one did not.

Only a sigh of reverence to intimate moments lost. Because this was no random occurrence. 

This was her arrival.

He felt her cold body against his back before he had a chance to blink. Slender arms wrapping around his waist, cool lips against his neck. "Castiel..." 

She even sounded the same but she wasn't. She was infected. She wasn't his anymore. He stiffened under her touch the moment her finger spread out against the cloth of his coat. 

"I'm tired of this Vittoria..."

"Then stop running."

He turned slowly, eyes hard but since when could Castiel ever deny Vittoria. Even now, standing there before him in white and black, barefooted, curled black locks dotted with white from the snow, she looked ethereal.

Not his.

"You didn't see this coming. Neither did I. But this is the truth of the matter Castiel. This is the fact of the now." Her fingers delved underneath the trenchcoat to touch at the shirt he wore and he grit his teeth. "You know what I will have to do right?"

"You will not kill the Winchesters--"

"Are you defiant because if they're gone you will have no purpose?" Her head had tilted as she simply looked him over as if this were the first time they had ever met. "That you've lost me and now losing them will what? Leave your existence empty?" 

The twist in his chest was almost more than Castiel could take. 

"Come with me?"

The look she gave him was earnest. "If you come with me Castiel I can promise we will never be apart. You won't have to feel empty. And all this running and fighting and end." When he refused to respond she sighed softly. 

"Remember the first time it snowed and we went outside?" He didn't want to relax at the little smile of the memory. Even as she took his arm and wrapped herself in him, tucked up close like a dance he wouldn't participate in. "Remember you told me the snow reminded you of me. How I smelled." 

"And I laughed and told you that you were delusional and you kissed me?" Her head tilted back to view his face that had turned away from her. There was an ache in Castiel that would never die away because of her.

He needed her and now she was feeding that flame. Either she died, he died, the boys died or...he went with her. It was an unfair situation. 

"Remember what it felt like knowing that the other would always be there? Touch me Castiel--" 

He tried to resist, even as she took his hands and ran them down her sides she was still the same. Lithe. Strong. 

He muttered a broken, "Stop. Please--" But she didn't, turning his arms again to face him once more, fingers coming up to cup his face because his hands hadn't left her hips.

"I miss you. All the time Castiel. I want you to come back to me. We can be happy together remember? Like before--" Pale pink lips. They were so close to his.

"We were halves of the same whole remember..."

Their eyes met and Castiel tried to put up a wall to block everything but she muttered his name in that way she did when all she wanted was to hear him say hers.

"Cas...?"

Goddamn it.

"Vitto--"

The movement was quick, the joining of two to become one. The needy noise they both made when their lips pressed together almost wiped the doubt from his mind. 

But this was wrong. She was his enemy now and forever. The chaos and destruction she did in his brother's honor was proof but God even as she began to shuck him free of his tench coat he couldn't deny that it still felt just as good. 

They were a tangle of limbs, of Castiel starting to push her away even as she pulled him deeper into her sin. Until they were both nestled into the snow, her on his back, and him hovering uncertainly over her. 

He noticed now the roses. The light hint of them that dotted the snow covered landscape. Impossible for them to be there since there was nothing but hard clay underneath the snow but he didn't argue. 

"Cas--"

And impatient tug and he looked down at her once more. "Promise me. Come with me..."

His mind had to answer for her because his heart had whispered yes. 

"No."

The disappointment that rested on her face was obvious and then shifted into resolute, upset, sadness. "Then you know how this will have to end--"

Yes he did know. Even now when she leaned up to kiss him again, he knew. "I can't let you leave here. Let me be the one to do it. Lucifer doesn't get the right. I do. I loved you. I still do. Just one last time Castiel?"

The way her body pushed flush to his he almost lost his train of thought. 

"One last time to be together and I will be gentle. And I will love you through to the end and I will lay your weary body to rest--" 

Clothes were being lost. Castiel was tired. More tired than he knew until this moment. She was striking nerves as always.

"No more running or fighting or responsibility. Just rest. I will give you that." 

And of course she had to do it and when her voice parted as he unzipped his pants, his own want for her undeniable, she was singing that goddamn song that had been burned into his memory from times long lost.

Come with me, where chains will never bind you

All your grief, at last, at last behind you

Lord in Heaven, look down on him in mercy

There were tears beading up in his eyes because this was going to be the end. He couldn't fight her like this anymore. Couldn't run from her. What had to be done would be done. 

Even as her lips caressed his neck, the song resonated in the air so loudly that Castiel let loose a noise. 

A pained one. He wanted back what was taken. Again. His family. He wanted the warmth. The good times. The bad times. The adventures. 

Take my hand, I'll lead you to salvation

Take my love, for love is everlasting

"I loved you," he muttered through clenched teeth and all he got back was a resolute,

"I know-- Let me do this out of love Castiel." 

Who was he to keep fighting now? A soldier of God. 

God had never been there for him though...oh...

And remember the truth that once was spoken

To love another person is to see the face of God

There was a clarity...and a terror to what Castiel was about to do. Even as his hands came up cupped her face and he died a little in the last kiss he would ever give her he felt the tip of her angel blade pressing into his back.

"Shh--"she muttered against his lips, "It'll all be over soon--"

"I'm sorry."

"What?..."

The sudden light was so blinding that Castiel had to shut his eyes against it but held firm. Her scream had resonated so loudly it made his ears ring but it was necessary.

He had to do it right? No matter the guilt that would haunt him for the rest of his life. If he lived that long. He knew doing this to her would kill her. He had hoped and prayed in that second it would not. That God would have mercy on him. But she was never pure to begin with and this should've been his course of action from the beginning. 

When everything died down...the roses began to wilt, the snow fell harder, he looked down into her blank face. Dead. Gone. 

"Vittoria--"

Forgive me all my trespasses

And take me to your glory

All his time with her he swore he'd never hurt her. It would've been his downfall.

Quietly as his head rested against hers as the snow fell in blankets now, he searched the land for Sam and Dean in his mind, spotting the two souls easily he gave her a chaste kiss that was not returned and left her there in a puff to be buried beneath the snow. Proper for her. 

Among her dying roses.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Upon his locating the brothers in a run down empty motel building they flocked to him, pushing for answers to their neverending questions.

All he could give them was a simple, "She's dead."

And they fell quiet.

The one thing Castiel knew he couldn't do had been done. Their angel had to break to save them. Though Lucifer would now not have the strength of having the angel of Purgatory for his, he would make himself known soon enough. 

They had to prepare.

Castiel shrugged them both off, wanting a change of clothes to be warm, knowing he'd never be able to shake the chill of her off. She'd always be in his bones, always be there, whispering. It would be the death of him. 

------------------------------------------------------------

Even as the snow fell now, covered up all evidence of what had transpired there, Lucifer merely stood, eyes curiously staring. Waiting. 

Until that thin slender hand shot out from the whiteness. With a sigh of relief he watched as Vittoria, slightly covered in frozen bits of ice, pull herself from the depths of snow and cold without realizing he was there. 

Her back to him he approached slowly, chuckling as she managed to stand shake somewhat. "You are alive."

She didn't move for a moment and perhaps the angel though she was coming to terms with the truth that she had been bested. "Come--"

She turned to him quickly in a flurry of snow and Lucifer knew....knew right down to the feathers in his wings that she was not his.

This was not his servant.

"Oh god..."

Her words fluttered out in fear.

That angel had ruined her.

"We can fix you," he whispered with assurance but when he moved forward she stumbled back. 

A realization came into play. 

He'd have to take her back. Lunging at her suddenly she twisted on the spot to disappear and she managed the feat out of sheer luck. But then he was on her tail. A flutter of wings, of fighting, of near misses and sheer dumb luck.

Hopping from landscape to landscape and Lucifer was furious...yet calm. She would lead him to the Winchesters and their darling Castiel afterall right?

Right.