Disclaimer: I own nothing

The angel screamed as Amara let another surge of pain course through him. She had ripped her nephew, Lucifer, out of the vessel belonging to the angel Castiel and sent him far away back into his little cage down in Hell. Amara was intrigued when she had seen Castiel still alive and ready to fight her after all of that. He had been holding an archangel inside of his vessel for months and had endured her torture without his mind being shattered. She realized that perhaps she had been wrong before, perhaps there had been a good reason for her brother to take such a special interest in this little seraph. Maybe his taste in men wasn't as horrible as she had originally thought.

Amara had been torturing just Castiel for several days now. There had been no sign of Dean or his brother or her own brother God. That had been why she had grown frustrated and sent Lucifer away; her plan wasn't working. And then she had noticed Castiel. His body was broken and she could tell part of him was too, but there was still determination in his eyes, a kind of stubbornness that was hard to find, a kind of stubbornness she had herself, after all, with how many millennia she had spent trapped in the Mark of Cain, she had to be resilient to have not gone insane while trapped in solitary confinement. She was so grateful to Dean for freeing her. She would do anything for Dean… and she realized while digging around in Castiel's mind, that so would he. This had intrigued her even more and had a plan formulate in her mind.

Amara ceased her work torturing him, leaving Castiel panting where he was tied to a cross in front of her.

"Castiel?" she said, wanting to make sure he was listening.

The angel tilted his head up; Amara found herself feeling quite pleased when she saw the determination still in his eyes. How had her brother managed to take an interest, but never even meet this angel? He wasn't like the others; if Amara didn't know better she would say he was one of his archangels. They were the only ones with free will and such a strong stubbornness; all the other angels were mere mindless, will-less, cannon fodder. But Castiel… he wasn't. He would make a perfect soldier.

"I've noticed something, Castiel," she said. "We both want the same thing: Dean's protection, and I suppose Sam's protection as well, after all, he is Dean's brother so I care about what happens to him in terms of how it affects Dean and you have grown very fond of Sam as well. From what I have seen, you have given up on God, you don't believe in Him anymore… not in the way that you think He doesn't exist, you just don't believe in Him anymore. You know He will never help you."

"So… what…?" Castiel panted.

"So, we're alike," she said. "We care about the same things and have been hurt by the same person. You can never go back to your family because they have shunned you for being different from them. My brother shunned me for being different from Him… for being darkness while He was light. He got rid of me so He could build His precious worlds, because He feared the darkness inside me would destroy everything, and the angels would destroy you out of fear of your free will. You are the only angel who has it other than the archangels. You may as well be one."

Castiel was silent. All he did was stare at her, that determination to not show weakness still in his eyes.

"Now, I meant what I said before: you reeked of fear and self-loathing; you still do," Amara said. "You hate yourself for being different, for doing things you regret… but I've seen into your mind, Castiel, and I don't see anything wrong with what you did."

"That is because you are monstrous abomination," he snarled.

Amara slapped him before continuing, "I think what you did… betraying Heaven, waging two wars with angelkind, releasing the leviathans… you were powerful, confident, when you had declared yourself God. A better God… don't you see? That is what I would be. I could be your Goddess, Castiel. You could serve me rather than a pathetic man who left you and all the rest of your kind merely because he couldn't own up to his own mistakes. We want the same thing: the Winchesters alive. We are the same, Castiel. Be my soldier and we can protect Dean… and Sam, and we can get revenge on the father than left you and the brother that betrayed me."

"I will never serve you," Castiel spat at her.

Amara crouched down beside him shaking her head sadly. She placed a hand on his cheek. "Oh, Castiel… you don't get a choice."

And with that, she touched his forehead and Castiel screamed as black light exploded from his vessel.

Time passed. Whether it was seconds, minutes, hours, days… Castiel didn't know, but eventually Amara stopped and took a step back.

Castiel felt different, very different. There was a darkness inside him spreading from the center of his grace out to his wings. Oh, his wings. His strangely black wings, a color unlike the wings of any other angel, they were suddenly rebuilding. No longer withered little husks, his wings repaired themselves and several other pairs sprouted from his back.

Suddenly, everything Amara said made sense. They were the same. They wanted the same thing. They could protect Dean and Sam, after all, she was in love with Dean and he had had a profound bond with him since he pulled him out of Hell. And Amara did care about what happened to Sam as long as she was thinking about how it would impact Dean. Castiel cared about Sam too. He hadn't had such a profound bond with the younger Winchester at first, but their friendship had grown until it was just as strong during their time in the bunker together after Sam was free of Gadreel's possession. And most of all, Amara was right. God had betrayed them all. God had left Castiel, left him to have to be the one to clean up His mess after He left all of his children to do whatever they wanted, whether that was start the apocalypse or wage wars with one another. God had abandoned him just as He had abandoned Amara.

Castiel opened his eyes and they glowed with the light of his true form, of his grace, only rather than a purple tinted blue, his eyes glowed black. Not black like a demons, as they still shined with light, but their color had changed.

"How do you feel?" Amara asked, snapping to remove the bindings tying him to the cross she had been torturing him on.

"Amazing," he whispered. "What did you do to me?"

"I ironically enlightened you," she smirked. "And now you are mine. I turned you into an archangel, Castiel. An archangel of darkness. You are no longer a son of God, anymore. You are my son, and together, we will bring Dean… and Sam here to us to be protected until we destroy this world. We will find my brother, and this time, I will be the one with the archangel by my side to imprison Him so He can watch the world He made burn into nothing before dying a slow and painful death Himself."

Castiel stood up, feeling stronger than he ever had before. A cold smile stretched across the archangel of darkness's face as he looked up at Amara, eyes still glowing an eerie black.

"Let's get started," he said, "Mother."

AN: Well that's it for chapter one. We'll see where this story goes soon enough. The idea just came into my head when I got tired of Castiel constantly being used, broken, and abused, and while Amara is using him in this fanfiction, Castiel has been restored to being a powerful angel, an archangel this time, even if he is one of darkness. I just think Sam, Dean, and Chuck kind of deserve this at this point. Not one of them have really been that nice to him, though lately I admit that Dean has been really concerned about Cas, but it's a little too late, and Sam has been really nice to Castiel quite a bit in the last couple seasons, and Chuck has resurrected him, none of it changes the fact that Sam and Dean have both used Castiel a lot and Chuck needs to work on his parenting skills. I also noticed that Amara and Cas do care about the same thing: Dean. And Sam in Cas's case, though I do think Amara would care about Sam too if only to the extent of how it affects Dean.

Well, I hope everyone who read this chapter enjoyed it.

-DragonsintheMoonlight