A short rapping woke Missouri up from her nap. She'd fallen asleep in her chair, her tea having gone cold in the time since she initially sat down. The door rapped again. She stood from her chair and made her way to the door, shouting that she was coming and for whoever it was to hold their horses. When she opened the door, a young girl with springy curls and freckles stood at her porch looking solemn.
"Isn't it too late in the year for Girl Scout cookies?" Missouri asked.
"Missouri Moseley?" the girl asked.
Missouri looked at her sideways. "Yes. And you are?"
"Jophiel. May I come in?"
"That's a strange name for a little girl."
"I'm not a little girl," she snapped. "I'm an angel."
Jo's shoes clacked uncomfortably loud against the tile floor three doors later and they had made it to a gleaming white hallway full of offices and angels walking around an open common area, seemingly on very important missions. Bobby and Ellen stayed by the door in the vacant hallway they entered while Jo went looking. She didn't know who to be looking for, and didn't know if any angel would be fine or if she should be looking for a specific type. Someone higher up would know more than anyone running around looking scared on the main floor, but ducking into the offices seemed unnecessarily stupid. She walked the hallways, keeping track of where she was in reference to where her mom and Bobby were located. As she crossed the main floor she looked up to the second floor landing where a dark-haired man stood at the three-rung metal railing staring down at her. She dropped her eyes and kept moving.
Jo reached the secluded back hall and rounded the corner, making her way down the short length of space between offices and the hall that would lead her back to the common area. She stepped around to make the loop back to her mom and Bobby and ran straight into the chest of the man who had been staring at her.
"Oh, excuse me!" she said, flustered. She pushed a short wave of hair that had come loose back behind her ear.
"I don't recognize you," he said, narrowing his eyes.
"New vessel," Jo said, continuing her path to safety. "Still breaking it in," she said over her shoulder.
He followed. "No, I'd still recognize you. I didn't think that Metatron had anyone new working in this area – only the original loyal followers allowed in this area?"
Jo sped up. "Just transferred. Finally got my promotion," she joked. "Did a special favor, got me moved up the ladder."
"Really?" he asked. "Now what kind of favor got you moved up into Metatron's inner circle?"
"Oh, you know," Jo stalled, quickening her pace. "Told him where Castiel was." It was a shot in the dark, but one she thought would at least keep him from calling out to his buddies. Providing they were still looking for Castiel, and that Castiel wasn't dead.
"Castiel?" he said, taking longer steps until he was alongside her. "Is that so?"
"That's so," Jo smiled. She turned left into the short alcove where Bobby and Ellen were, turned, and Tased him in the neck, throwing him off guard just enough for Ellen and Bobby to grab him as Jo opened the door.
The four practically fell through the door of the Roadhouse, and as soon as the door was shut, Ash and Bobby had the stolen angel in a chair, Ellen strapping him down, while Pam circled the six foot area with holy oil. As soon as everyone was clear, Pam dropped a match.
"Who are you people? What are you doing?" he yelled.
"We're gonna need your assistance in some matters, to which we hope that you will be as open as we are accommodating," Ash answered.
"Accommodating?" the angel spat. "This is accommodating?"
"We could be unaccommodating, if that's more your style," Ash suggested. The angel huffed. "Okay then. What's your name, rank, and affiliation with Metatron?"
"Seriously?" he asked.
"Seriously," Jo responded.
He looked at the steady flame that encircled him and sighed. "I am Sariel. I judge the angels who have violated divine law."
Bobby laughed. "Oh I bet you're busy these days."
"I am," he answered. "I am a benevolent angel of death."
"Let me guess, you're besties with Metatron too?" Bobby sneered.
"Well…I'm supposed to be. But I'm not. I am allied with the angels who fell."
Everyone looked at each other. Ash spun a chair around and sat. "Tell us everything."
"So," Missouri said, putting down the cup of tea in front of the angel in little girl's clothing, "you're an angel and you need to send a message to the Winchester boys? On behalf of who?"
"On behalf of friends in Heaven," Jophiel said. "I used to stand with Metatron millennia ago, but I have grown closer to humanity and even loved it. I'm the one that created Samuel Winchester's amulet and declared that Dean Winchester be raised from Hell."
Missouri's face went blank. "Well aren't you a busy little thing. Since you're so close to the Winchesters, why haven't you been in contact with them yourself?"
"I've never met them myself," Jophiel said, raising the cup to her lips, blowing quietly before taking a sip. "I'm what you would call one of the background actors. I make little noise. I'm only here to do my job. In this case, I feel my duty lies to the friends of the Winchesters in Heaven. If they've worked out a way to call out through the angels, then they must be worthy enough for me to at least play interpreter."
"What friends in Heaven?" Missouri asked.
"I do not know. But they have specifically asked for you to be found. Seeing as how I must not have been the only angel to hear this, it's possible more may be on their way. We should get moving toward the Winchesters as soon as possible."
Missouri scoffed. "I don't know where those boys are. I haven't seen or heard from them since before the Apocalypse. One of them at least." She rolled her eyes. "Those boys are always up to some world-ending nonsense though, aren't they?"
Jophiel placed the cup on the saucer. "They are very important, Miss Moseley. And I think that between the two of us, we can find them. We should go now."
"So the reason why everything's been so quiet is because Heaven's got its 'Closed' sign up?" Bobby asked. "How's…where…."
"We don't know. Metatron has set up portals between Heaven and Earth. They move. They're never constant." Sariel looked down. "He has to be stopped."
"Okay yeah, we got that part," Ash said. "Now how do we do it?"
"All I know is that Metatron must be killed, and he's too smart to let anyone near him who might actually do it," Sariel said. "Although through his arrogance, he might step too closely to the one with the Mark."
"The Mark of what?" Ellen asked.
"The Mark of Cain. A human bears the Mark given to him from Cain himself. Together with the First Blade, he would be unstoppable against Metatron."
"The First Blade? Like the one that Cain killed Able with?" Jo asked. "Who's the guy we're looking for?"
Sariel looked up to her and exhaled deeply. "Dean Winchester."
"You've got to be shittin' me," Bobby said. "Dean Winchester was given the Mark of Cain by the actual Cain?"
"Yes," Sariel said. "Not everyone knows this, but Metatron and his circle are aware of the Mark. This includes me. I don't know how we can kill Metatron, but I know how to reverse the spell that cast out all the angels."
"Why should we trust you?" Pamela asked. "How is any of this information helping us actually find Sam and Dean?"
"I have no idea how to find them. They're warded. Wherever they are must be warded as well. You'd need someone on Earth to find them if you wanted to get them a message."
"Could you give them a message? You could like, jump through one of those portal things and talk to them for us." Jo suggested.
"Yeah but the second we let him out of the burning ring of fire he's gonna go ghost on us," Ash argued.
"He might be our only chance," Jo countered.
"We still might have one out there."
Pamela cut in. "What, hoping that your call to everyone across all frequencies landed on someone's ears that one, could find Missouri, and two, is on our side?"
"Well what are we gonna do?" Bobby yelled. "We can't just sit around here with our feet up our asses, holding an angel hostage, and for what? We have no leverage, and we're not helping the boys who obviously have gotten into some serious shit."
Everyone went quiet. Static on Ash's laptop settled for a moment on one station before a small voice came across the airwaves.
"I'm with Missouri Moseley. She is safe. We are heading to find the Winchesters. Send your message as soon as you hear this and then continue scanning channels for further contact."
Ash scrambled to his radio contraption and flipped it on. "Hello, yes, Missouri – this is Ash, and Ellen and Jo and Bobby Singer and Pamela. We need you to find Sam and Dean and tell them we have a spell to reverse the angel thing. We don't know if it'll open Heaven, but it'll at least set things back to somewhat working order."
They waited in silence until a voice came across again. "Excellent. Thank you for your hard work. You are truly honorable and have my sincerest gratitude," the small voice spoke. "Begin the spell. Commence scanning. We will be in touch."
Static continued. Ash smashed the scan button and it began its usual task of jumping from station to station.
"Okay we said we had the spell. Let's get to brewing this bitch."
"I said I knew of the spell, I didn't say I had the ingredients," Sariel said, annoyance coating his words.
"Well we have all kinds of stuff. And what we don't have, we can get, right?" Ash looked at his crew, then glared at Sariel. "Especially with a very cooperative insider."
Sariel sighed, realizing that there is no point in arguing. "Bring me everything you have."
Ellen looked at Jo, and she gathered everything Ash, her mother, and Pamela had collected while she held down the fort, bringing out two boxes from the back to go with the one on the table, and together they laid out everything on the table closest to Sariel.
"How did you get the ashes of an angel?" Sariel asked, looking betrayed and suddenly uncomfortable with his captors.
"Was attacked. Holy fire Molotov does some interesting things," Ash said.
His eyes crossed the table and stopped abruptly. "And grace? How did you obtain this? Self-defense?"
"In your boss's office, tucked nicely in a drawer," Ash said, half sitting on the table. "Surprised he hasn't found it missing and completely lost his shit. The question is, whose is it, and why did he have it?"
"You found that in Metatron's office?"
"Yes sir."
"If that is true, the grace belongs to Castiel. Metatron took it as part of his spell to close Heaven, and we'll need that to open it again. What else do you have?"
"We've showed you our cards, now you show us yours," Bobby said gruffly. "Pony up."
"We can use these things. We need to save a dying soul with fruit from the Garden. We need to return the stolen grace of an angel. And we need to kill Metatron to close the last portal with his dying grace."
"How do we get the fruit from the Garden?" Ellen asked.
"I know of the Garden. I guarded it. I can get you this."
Jo laughed. "Okay let's just set you free then so you can get us a holy fig or something. Are you crazy?"
"Do you have another idea?" Sariel asked. "Either you trust me and we do this, or we waste time and more people die."
Bobby looked at Ash. "Let's get started. Waiting never helped anybody."