Rachel's training urged her to strike the finishing blow to her enemy, and yet she stopped at the last moment, stepping back slowly to leave the other angel alive, though shuddering from the injuries Rachel had dealt her. Despite Hannah's remarkable adaptability, Rachel had always been her superior in combat.
She would not have wanted to prove it this way, though.
Hannah watched her retreat from administering her death, her hand pressed to the bleeding gap in her side and confusion written across her face. She checking their surroundings as if to suddenly find reinforcements driving Rachel off, and finding none, asked, "What are you doing?"
An excellent question. Rachel wished she understood herself, but that was something only angels higher in the grace of God were allowed to know. "Castiel's quarrel is not with the Host. Our orders are to spare whenever possible." She drew her sword to Hannah's chin. "And to kill when not. I'm showing you mercy, Hannah, on Castiel's behalf. Will you accept it? Or die?"
Hannah's eyes widened. "Mercy isn't Castiel's to offer me. Or yours. He is not God, no matter what he would have you believe."
"He is God's chosen," Rachel said curtly. "God brought him back to be his Voice in Heaven. How can you not see? Lucifer destroyed him, just as Raphael destroyed him! And both times he came back! It can only be God's doing!"
Hannah shook her head. She didn't injure herself on Rachel's sword, though this was merely due to how short and slight she moved. Her eyes glowed with intensity. "No. It's lies from a fallen angel. You've all been lead away from the path by him. But the rest of us have stayed true under Raphael. We're not like you." She raised her chin more highly and exposed her throat with dignity. "I die serving God."
Rachel was silent and still a moment. She had been given a clear answer, and yet she had not struck. She had not wanted that answer from Hannah. She had wanted Hannah to take her mercy and flee. They had been comrades once, and close. While she disliked killing her own kind, Rachel found the prospect of killing someone she had once served beside particularly unpleasant. Hannah was the first one from her previous choir she had come across one-on-one.
And somehow Hannah's answer had stopped her in another way. Rachel was, above all, a servant of God. She followed Castiel against their superior because she believed that God had chosen Castiel to be their leader. Why else would He have brought him back from the punishment of the archangels, and cast Michael into the Pit with Lucifer, if He was not displeased with the Head of the Host? Rachel could not understand why He had chosen a fallen angel, but if He had forgiven him, she was not one to question.
And yet. Hannah's words about Castiel seeing himself as God… they made her uneasy. Castiel spoke on such strange new things God wanted of them. It did not sound like what God wanted before. If Castiel - forgive her - but if Castiel were pretending his gospel was God's own…
Even Lucifer had not gone so far.
Hannah's eyes were fixed on her, unwavering. Castiel's eyes were always filled with doubt, fear. Uncertainty.
Rachel's sword lowered again. She sheathed it without looking away.
"What are you doing?" Hannah asked again.
"I don't know," Rachel answered, this time honestly, before she left, taking her misgivings with her.
And sending a prayer to God that she would not see Hannah again.
