Episode 4: It's Hard to Hold a Candle In The Cold November Rain
I woke up late the next day. Sam had left my bed earlier, brushing a kiss across my lips, and went to go jog. I had rolled back over and fallen back to sleep. I was depressed, and since I was basically trapped in the bunker, and responsible for the deaths of over a dozen people, what point was there for me to even get out of bed?
At around eleven, there was a knock on my door. I could hear a whispered conversation outside, not quite quiet enough.
"Just let her be, Dean. This hit her pretty hard." I could hear Sam say to his older brother.
"I know man, I know. But she's gotta eat. I have a stack of pancakes with her name on it." Dean replied. "She's our responsibility, and she isn't gonna starve on my watch."
"I just think some space would be a good-" I opened the door, interrupting Sam.
"Pancakes sound great." I nodded at each of them. "First, where can I wash my clothes? And then you two can fill me in on last night while we have breakfast."
They both looked at me sheepishly.
"I appreciate the concern from both of you. But I'm fine." I lied.
Dean showed me where the washer and dryer were, I threw in all of my clothes, and followed him to the kitchen. We sat around the table. I was the only one eating. They'd saved my pancakes in the microwave and had both had breakfast earlier.
"So, how did last night go?" I asked casually.
"About as well as you'd expect, calling up the King of Hell, trapping him, and trying to get information out of him." Dean replied. "Guy wasn't thrilled."
"We didn't get a whole lot." Sam admitted.
"Apparently the demon that Quantum Leaped into your mother decided she wanted back into hell's good graces, and sold you out." Dean said, as Sam got up to make coffee.
"So the demon was my mom, and the angel my dad?" I pondered this. I couldn't imagine my mom as a demon. Of course I also couldn't imagine my parents doing shrooms after a concert either, so there was that.
"Cas is trying to find out which angel took control of your dad, maybe appeal to their sense of... humanity..." Sam trailed off.
"So my demon mom sold me down the river. Awesome." I drizzled maple syrup on my pancakes. "That's a great start to a parent/child relationship."
"Hey, if Angels are dicks, Demon's are worse." Dean said. "But, in all honesty, she probably didn't give you up that easy. Crowley likes to make himself look good. It probably actually involved torture, and not her willingly turning herself in after gallivanting around like a friggin hippie for 50 years." He frowned into his coffee cup.
"But Crowley wants to get his hands on you, badly. We assume the angels want you only to keep you away from Crowley." Sam poured me a mug of coffee and slid it over to me.
"So why don't we ally with them?"
The brothers looked at each other. Dean finally sighed and responded. "Listen, you're really not getting this angel thing. They aren't nice and cherubic. They're warriors and they will straight up gank you if that's the only way they can assure Crowley can't get you."
I was silent. I was pretty sure I understood now. Sam stood behind me and put a hand on my shoulder. "We're gonna figure this out. Unfortunately a lot of cases involve a LOT of research, and this is going to be one of them. If we figure out what Crowley wants you for, and shut down his end game, you'll be safe."
I nodded, but noted that neither brother looked all too convinced.
Unbeknownst to Mina, Dean, Sam, or Castiel, there was another player involved. He was looking for Mina, and he was pretty sure he knew where to find her.
The United States wasn't his neck of the woods. To be honest, anything above ground wasn't his neck of the woods. But he'd been stuck ruling underground for too damned long, while his brothers all basked in the sunlight of their terrestrial domains.
Several years ago, he had found a relic. A very, very old relic, and one that was very dangerous. Recently, he'd gotten his hands on it. He could not, however, open it. It was a jar, sealed shut by forces beyond even him. To open it would wreak havoc on the world above. And that was an idea he relished. Make the world above so hellish, they would be begging on his doorstep to let them in.
And so Hades had emerged from his kingdom underground, beyond the river Stix, and made his way to North America, the jar in his briefcase. He was going to bring more souls to his domain, and he needed Mina to do it.
Days had passed. Sam had been relentlessly researching. He had piles of dusty old tomes stacked two feet high all around him. He stayed up super late and woke up super early to investigate. I helped as much as I could, but I didn't really know what I was looking for. Dean helped too, but his attention span was shorter than Sam's, though he was no less committed to the cause. It also didn't help that there were literally no references for an angel/demon hybrid.
Cas had come up with a dead end. The angel who had possessed my father had been one of Rafael's army, and Cas himself had killed him a few years before when he had been playing God. He apologized profusely to me on this count, and of course I forgave him. It's not like I was close to papa-angel, or even knew him. However, he had figured out that this angel, Aavan, had told a friend about his child. A greek Goddess named Eirene, best known for peace and diplomacy. He was now busy tracking down Eirene. The fact that we were currently looking for a Greek Goddess blew my mind.
It was late one morning, about a week later, when Cas showed up in the library of the bunker, a beautiful woman in tow. She had olive skin and long, cascading black hair, and wore a simple white skirt suit.
"My friends, I have found Eirene." Cas stated simply as he pulled a chair out for the woman. She nodded thanks to him.
"Castiel tells me you are in need of my assistance." Eirene said, crossing one leg over the other and leaning back in her chair. "What can I do for you?"
The two brothers stared at her, until Sam cleared his throat. "Uh, well, we need to know what the angel Aavan told you about his daughter."
"I see you found her." She gestured toward me. I nodded. "Aavan would be pleased to know she's being protected. Unfottunately he can't be here today." She gave Castiel a sharp look.
"A grave mistake, and I take it very seriously." Cas said, lowering his eyes.
"Pay no mind. The world of angels really doesn't concern me, except Aavan was my friend. As much as any of you can be anyone's friend." She said disdainfully. But when she set her eyes on me, her focus was soft. "He often spoke of you. He told me of you several years ago and he watched over you. But no one knew about you except for himself and your Demon mother. Then Aavan was slain by Castiel in the civil war, and I took it upon myself to protect you. I hired, if you will, a mortal, to go in and out and protect your house. You never paid her comings and goings any heed."
"Jennifer, my housekeeper?" I asked. Eirene nodded. Jennifer had been young and needed money, so I had her come vaccuum and dust once a month.
"She refreshed the sigils each month, keeping you safe. Just in case." Eirene sat up straight. "Two weeks ago, however, you were found out."
"Do we know exactly how that happened?" Dean asked her.
She shrugged. "Not exactly, but I hear things. Mina's mother was caught by other demons, and likely interrogated."
"This is a long shot, but do you know what everyone wants her for?" Sam asked.
Eirene stood. "I can't even begin to imagine. An angel/demon hybrid would be useful in a great many ways to a great many different beings. I highly doubt the angels and the demons are the only ones who want her. There's talk of her even on Mount Olympus. But it's purely speculative."
"Mount Olympus?" I asked. She nodded.
"Your Gods aren't the only ones around." She smoothed out her skirt. "So far, all I've heard is some mumbo jumbo about Pandora's box. Which is most likely just silly rumours. No one knows where it even is, and that idiot already let everything out of the box a long time ago." She looked at Cas. "I really must be going." Then she turned her deep brown eyes back to me. "Keep safe, child." She vanished.
We all were silent for a while.
"What the fuck just happened?" Dean finally said.
"You were visited by a Greek Goddess." Cas answered.
"I'm so confused." I said.
"So now someone also wants her to open Pandora's box?" Sam pulled out his laptop. "That's a good start." We all looked at him. "What? It gives me something to go on!"
"Pandora's box, dude?" Dean asked.
"We've seen weirder things. Like Mjolnir." Sam reminded him.
"Youve seen Mjolnir?" I asked incredulously.
"Sweetheart, he's wielded Mjolnir." Dean gave me a superior look, then, walking by Sam, mussed up his hair. "That's my little Sammy!" He laughed and went to the kitchen for a beer. Cas followed him.
I was still looking at Sam. I was impressed. "I hear not everyone is able to do that." I said, scooting my chair closer to his.
He looked embarrassed, and rubbed the back of his neck absentmindedly. "I only held it for a second. It's no big deal."
"That means Thor is real then, too?"
"If I say yes, are you still going to want to spend time with me?" He asked me with a joking smile. I smiled back, and he leaned in for a quick kiss before Dean and Cas came back.