"Author"'s note: hi, the more this story goes on the slower I am to write it. Oh well, I suck. I hope you'll like the chapter, I hope I haven't made a fuckton of mistakes, if anyone wants to point them out laughing at how grammar-useless I am they can do it, and if anyone wants to offer to beat this story I'll love them to the end of times. If you leave a review I'll give you cookies.
Disclaimer: Supernatural is nt mine, I don't make any money from it and blah blah blah
As Kevin walked, miraculously without getting hit by any car, he wondered just how was he going to find Balthazar. He had no idea of how angels found each other when needed, and any kind of tracking spell was out of question. And he couldn't just ask someone either - "Hey, I'm sorry, have you seen my friend? Yeah, Balthazar, you know, the one who died a while ago?". The only option seemed to physically fly around all the USA to find him.
Sighing, Kevin surrendered and opened his wings. Flying with a vessel - he noticed after ten seconds - was far more difficult than without. It took out more on his Grace, and his wings soon started to feel tired. Funny how they could take him around while he was about the size of a skyscraper, and then protest if he added just a thin human's weight. Angels really were strange things. Though probably, being wavelengths, they didn't have any weight - while humans did.
Searching for Balthazar proved to be an awful task. Kevin had to find every angel who was even vaguely similar to the seraph - since he still had some problems distinguishing them - and then fly close enough to see the angel clearly enough without being found. And there were a lot of angels with light brown wings that he could mistake for Balthazar around. Luckily with all the burnt wings he saw the number diminished exponentially. And after a while he started to notice little differences in their Graces, which made his work quicker, since he was pretty sure that, for what he had seen, Balthazar's wasn't like theirs.
Still, despite this and his angel speed, Kevin was sure it'd take him ages to find the seraph. And every once in a while he had to stop to rest his wings, which slowed him even more. Add to that the stress of fearing to be approached by anyone, he was cursing the Balthazar in his head after less than an hour.
Kevin landed on a field. At least, he assumed it was one. His Grace was tired after dragging him along all that time. He didn't want to know how he started recognizing the signs of having a tired Grace, but he knew it needed some rest. He would have gladly ignored it and kept going, but his wings had just short of gave out this time, leaving him barely enough time to pick an isolated place to land. Well, more than a landing it had been a fall. Which ended with him laying down on his belly in the mug, wondering, not for the first time, what had he done wrong to deserve all of this.
He had all the intentions of giving his damn Grace just five minutes and then move again, when he felt something coming his way. He stand and looked in the direction he was getting the feeling from. Some lights were coming closer to him. Angels. Now that he had an heart, it definitely skipped a beat. Don't be coming for me, don't be coming for me, don't be coming for me... Of course they were coming for him. They literally surrounded him. He sent a mental curse to Dean for telling him he was family and hence transmitting him the proverbial Winchester luck.
«Who are you brother? I don't remember ever seeing you» one of the angel asked.
«I'm... no one of importance» Kevin said, eyeing the others suspiciously. They were four, and all of their wings were burnt and wounded, no more than darkened bones, broken in a couple cases, probably from the impact, with just two or three feathers barely attached. Right now he missed not being able to use any but his vessel's eyes. He didn't trust having any of those angels behind his back. He could sense anger and suspect radiating from them, and it scared him.
«You have four wings, I would hardly call you no one of importance» Kevin instinctively pulled his wings closer to his vessel. He'd learnt on the angel tablet the more wings you had, the more powerful you were. Most angels had just two wings, like seraphs, and were the lower ranked; then came the four-winged ones like himself, who usually held some position of importance; and last were the archangels with their six wings.
«Right now, any importance I could have had it's lost» Kevin murmured, knowing he wasn't really making any sense but having no real clue of what to say and figuring that criptic answers were the best. After all, probably all angels in a privileged position were at the same level of the two-winged ones in this fall.
«You're not funny brother. Tell us who you are right now» an angel said, making Kevin spin around to face him.
«His wings are intact» another one commented «And his Grace seems brighter than ours. He was probably hiding here when we were cast out and has done nothing since to conserve all that power» Kevin swallowed. This was so bad. Being thought some kind of traitor was the last thing he needed right now.
«Tell us just this» the first one to speak interrupted «Are you on our side?»
«And on which side are you?» Kevin asked.
«Bartholomew's» the other answered. And then grinned in way Kevin didn't like at all «And exactly how could you not notice his mark?» Kevin mentally cursed. Of course there had to be some kind of mark to establish who was with who. And he completely missed it. Actually, now that he thought about it, they all had some kind of strange shining, but at first he had labeled it as angel's normal light.
«I say we take him with us» an angel who hadn't spoken until now said. His left wing - or what remained of it - was twisted in a horrible way that made Kevin uncomfortable just by looking at it. «Just to ask him some questions» the ex-prophet could basically read the word "Torture" written all over his face. The anger they were radiating was growing, together with some kind of smug satisfaction. His eyes darted around. They were four, probably armed and much more used to being angels than he was, so he did the only thing he could think of. Run. Or better, fly.
It took them less than three seconds to go after him. Luckily for him, with their wounded wings and weak Graces they could barely follow him, let alone catch him. But Kevin's wings were still tired, and he couldn't fly perfectly yet. Fuck, fuck, fuck, Balthazar were the Hell are you bastard? he thought. Many angels turned to watch them as they passed, curious, and Kevin knew it was just a matter of time before someone tried to stop him.
He avoided a group of angels not far and winced at the pain his wings sent for the sudden change of direction. It was becoming harder to maintain this speed. His wings were protesting, and he thought he could almost feel cramps. He forced himself to ignore them, but it didn't work very well. He dared to turn back. His chasers were grimacing in obvious pain, their bony wings barely able to sustain their weight. Kevin didn't hope in losing them, though. It looked like they were too angry at an angel who wasn't on their side to pay attention to themselves.
Kevin literally crashed against something. That something being an angel in his vessels. Kevin almost panicked before seeing the familiar brown of Balthazar's wings.
«Hey Kevvy, what about watching when you fly?» the seraph huffed in annoyance, before glancing at the other angels, who had come to a halt, their wings moving frantically to keep them from falling.
«Balthazar» on of them said «You faked your death once again»
«I'm afraid it didn't exactly go like that. And I know you're all so happy to see me again, but me and the idiot here have to go right now sooo... See ya guys» he hadn't as much as turned, when two angels attacked him. He managed to escape both of them and stabbed one with an angel blade he had hidden in his vessel's clothes. The angel screamed, his Grace illuminating him whole and literally catching fire. The vessel fell to the ground pathetically, smoke rising from where wings had spurted from his back. The other attacker - the angel with the destroyed wings - tried again to stab Balthazar with a blade of his own, but the seraph was quick to stick his blade in the angel's vessel.
Balthazar turned, blade raised, but the other two angel had already flown away.
«Wow» Kevin commented.
«Technically speaking, I am a soldier, I just have better things to do. Now let's go down there and speak while we're not keeping these humans floating, shall we?» Kevin nodded and descended slowly, trying to not land badly. He managed to hit the ground with his feet, but lost balance and ended up falling on his butt. Balthazar snorted.
«Screw you»
«Care to tell me how you managed to get into that?» Balthazar asked.
«I didn't see their mark or something so they got angry» Kevin got on his feet and grinned «How is it that even your vessel is shorter than mine?» he said. Balthazar wasn't really that much shorter, just an inch or two, but the seraph grimaced anyway.
«How is it that yours looks like he hasn't eaten in a week?»
«Because the guy you told me to posses was an asshole» Balthazar huffed.
«Prude. Now tell me, do you have any idea of where we can find your Winchester friends?» he asked.
«Yes, why?» Balthazar sighed and pinched his nose.
«Well, usually I'd rather just go my way and let you save the world with your other hero-complexed friends, but if I did Gabriel would find me and kill me, and besides right now hide somewhere isn't a good option, especially since now their boss will know that I'm alive, and the quicker we get done with this, the quicker I can get back to my old lifestyle. So, since the Winchester are the ones always dealing with this kind of shit we should find them and get over with it. It seemed pretty obvious to me, but probably it isn't for you Kevvy» Kevin wanted to punch the other angel for being an ass less than half an hour after he found him, but he decided to just try and stay calm.
«If I give you an address, can you find the place?» he asked instead.
Sam massaged his temples, feeling the early stage of a killer headache. He had spent hours reading various books on angels, but still he found nothing on how to track Gadreel. Castiel had gone somewhere reading books in languages too old for Sam to even know their names, and hadn't come out of the library in two hours. The hunter leaned back in is chair. While Cas assured him he was cured by now, he still felt tired as Hell. The angel told him it was normal, but Sam knew that his tiredness was more mental than physical, what with the angels and Dean- No, he shouldn't think about him now. He should just concentrate on his work, but he didn't want to. He wondered how did Kevin handle all of that work, before feeling a pang in his chest. The memory of Gadreel killing the young prophet was still fresh in Sam's mind, and from his point of view it just hurt more.
The door of the bunker opened. Sam snapped open his eyes at the sound, not remembering when he closed them. Two male voices were coming from the entrance. He grabbed a gun he left lying on the table. The only other people who should know about the bunker were Dean and Crowley, but neither of the voices were Dean's and Crowley didn't know the exact location.
The hunter hid behind a column and watched. Two guys were coming down the stars, talking between them. They were too far for Sam to hear their voices, though one of them sounded strangely high-pitched. The man who led the way was about thirty, brown hair all messed and dressed in an horrible fashion. The other one was younger and ill-looking, with dark hair and definitely too thin for his own good, clothes dirty like he often slept in them. Sam tilted his head in confusion as the younger man took his steps carefully, one hand never leaving the handrail, like he didn't see well where he was going.
«Who are you?» Sam asked, coming out of his hidden spot, gun raised toward the older man's head.
«Sam, really? After all this time the first thing you do is pointing a gun at me?» the man said, like he was speaking with a small child. The other one flinched and widened his eyes, which held a strange vacuity.
«...Sam? Is that really you?» he whispered, his voice sounding strangely distorted.
«Do I know you?» Sam asked, eyes darting from one man to the other.
«Balthazar?» Castiel's deep voice said. Sam turned slightly, never really losing sight of the two intruders, to see Cas standing with a shocked expression. Well, more or less shocked. You could never be really sure with him.
«Cas, it's great to see you again, but what happened to your Grace exactly? Is it me or it's quite strange?» the older man said.
«Wait, what's happening here?» Sam asked, confused.
«He's Balthazar, Sam» Sam frowned and turned toward Cas.
«I thought you killed him» Cas nodded.
«I believed that too» he said. The man - Balthazar - sighed.
«Me too, isn't it nice that we all agree on something? Now Sam, put down that gun, you wouldn't need it anyway» he said, pointing at the weapon. Sam lowered it, without losing his grip.
«And who's that guy?» he asked suspiciously.
«He's an angel. But I never saw him before. I hope he's not some kind of... prisoner too» Cas said, tilting his head.
«Look, this will sound crazy» the other man began, his strange voice stopping for a moment, like he wasn't sure what to say «So... I'm Kevin» Sam blinked and then raised his gun again, anger bursting through him at the mention of that name.
«Who are you?» he asked. Balthazar sighed.
«He's not lying, he's that prophet friend of yours who was smited a while ago. By the way, weren't you possessed?» the seraph said, pointing at Sam and speaking with his usual annoyed tone.
«I don't believe you» Sam looked the stranger angel straight in the eye.
«Sam, it's true. Why don't you put it down so we can explain?» he said.
«Let's listen to them Sam» Cas piped in «I am curious of hearing what story they've prepared to give us» Sam stayed still for a moment, before pulling down his gun. Balthazar started saying something about Cas really thinking that if he wanted to lie to them he wouldn't have thought of something more clever, but Sam interrupted him.
«Fine. But don't think I'll believe you after» he said.