The ritual to open Heaven with that scythe had a two day preparation period. Sam was dead exhausted. He'd slept a total of two hours in two weeks. It wasn't hard to guess that the only reason he wasn't wasn't. completely losing it was the two Archangels. Gabriel had taken to cooking. Lots and lots of cooking. If he wasn't cooking he was hiding out in the bedroom he'd claimed as his own and Sam wasn't really sure he wanted to go in there. If he saw the source of barking he was certain he'd heard he'd be obligated to tell Dean and, well considering the fact that Gabriel was about to use his grace to open Heaven for them and leave himself human, they had no right to demand he get rid of a dog and Dean was on edge. Sam knew it. Could see it. It wasn't promising. Whoever would be on the other end of that he wasn't sure but it would probably be him.
Considering how many more people were in The Bunker than he was certain was normal the lethal silence was almost unsettling. He knew Gabriel was in the kitchen due to the smell of cinnamon rolls wafting through the halls and Lucifer had been down in the dungeon since him and Gabriel had returned from a shipwreck. Something he wasn't sure he understood. Dean and Crowley had left a couple hours previous to go to the bar. Despite Crowley's wish to stay in the bunker. Which left two demons and a nephilim unaccounted for since Cas was still bedridden.
Since when was this his life?
If he were to guess Ruby was in the kitchen and Meg was with Cas.
Of course they were guesses but all the same… yeah, he didn't want to check and see. Best avoid the drama between Ruby and Gabriel and the strange atmosphere between Cas and Meg. Which left the inevitable situation of tracking down the nephilim to make sure she wasn't plotting to kill them all. At least that was what he'd tell Dean. In reality it was much simpler. Everything was dead silent and since he was unable to sleep without a nephilim wearing Lucifer's face torturing him, he was going to shower and sink away into the sound of water pouring on his skull.
The only real issue with the showers was that it was a group shower setting.
Technically, it shouldn't have been an issue. There were only four humans in the bunker which meant four people who needed showers. Unfortunately, as he'd learned a week ago, Ruby enjoyed showering. Dean had told him that apparently Gabriel did too. So when he arrived outside the showers he didn't dare step in immediately, listening closely for the sound of running water. Satisfied though slightly disappointed at the still lethal silence he stepped through the doorway.
Of course it wasn't that simple. When would something as simple as taking a shower ever be that simple. Sam bit hard on his cheek as he was met with the sight of two large raven wings in the corner. To his luck, she wasn't showering. But…
"-Raum. I am so sorry. Truly, terribly sorry." A shudder rippled across her wings, feathers fluffing out. Sam didn't need to understand her wings to recognize the agony in her tone. The cracking of her words. "I apologize, Samuel."
Sam watched her stretch her wings out carefully as she rose to her feet, turning around to meet his gaze.
She was pretty normal looking, minus the two wings and four tails. Her skin was an olive shade, hair jet black and large brown doe eyes to match. She was no older than twenty, by appearance, and if it wasn't for the tails and wings she'd have looked completely human. Completely inconspicuous. Despite the story Gabriel had told them about her being completely harmless, Sam was slightly wary. Then again, he was wary of Gabriel. Even if he was about to sacrifice his grace to fix Heaven for them. Maybe she was trustworthy, to an extent.
"It's Sam." He corrected her, earning him an apologetic smile.
"Apologies." She muttered, gaze flicking away."Gabriel told me it was best I stay away from you and your brother. It did not occur to me that someone may come in here at this time of day."
"No it's fine." He responded, his gaze wandering to her wings before returning to her. "I mean, the showers are for anyone to use. Just make sure when you're in here to at least turn on the water. So no one barges in."
She pressed her lips together, nodding and glancing past him.
"What were you doing?" He blurted and she blinked, staring at him with a heartbroken look before looking at the floor.
"When I escaped Hell I sustained a lot of injuries due to my brother destroying the portal behind me. It is why it took a week for me to find my uncles. If someone were to look upon the true visage of my wings they would see the true damage."
"Those aren't your real wings?"
She bit her lip, "They are a physical manifestation of my angelic heritage as are my tails. Most angelic offspring are capable of shielding them. I cannot, I can only mask them and I do to the full extent of my power."
"Can Gabriel and Lucifer see them?" That was a stupid question that he instantly regretted. Of course they would be able to see her true form.
"No." Or not. Sam raised an eyebrow and she stretched the wings on her back out carefully, as though the motions hurt. "What you see. The normal wings of a raven. These are the same sight that the Archangels perceive. They cannot bypass what I have chosen to show. Only Mother and my siblings can."
"So you are stronger than Gabriel and Lucifer?"
"And Michael." She answered automatically, surprising Sam. She was actually stronger than Michael? How much stronger?
"I was also more powerful than mother to an extent. The children of angels are feared because we are powerful. Until today, I only believed we could die to those who shared our grace. Our blood. That information was apparently inaccurate." Her wings slumped to the side, her expression falling. "Bael learned of Raum's betrayal and has killed him. He was killed because of me and…"
"Hey, Sammy boy. You better not be getting down and dirty with…" Gabriel's voice came from behind him and Sam turned to see the archangel stopped dead in the center of the locker room halfway to the doorway. "Who? Who did this?"
Flauros yelped, jumping back from his voice and Sam barely turned quick enough to grab her hand and stop her from falling flat on her back as she flailed her wings behind her, flickers of beaten and torn flesh flickering into view before vanishing.
"Bael. It was Bael." She said quickly, giving him a grateful look as she struggled to balance herself.
"Every single one of you?" Gabriel asked, the question carefully controlled. Angelically stoic. His mind supplied.
"Raum is hidden within the remains of Lucifer's Cage with two of my sisters and a brother. All of the rest…" she trailed off and without warning threw herself into Sam's arms. It was awkward, maneuvering his hands around to avoid the wings, but he didn't dare let go because he knew enough to understand what had happened to her.
Bael, who he'd been informed was the nephalem child of Michael that was currently ruling Hell, had killed off basically all of her siblings. Or at the very least had captured and was torturing them if their very limited understanding of Bael was anything to go by. Either way…
"Flauros, come with me." Gabriel's voice took on a harsh authorative tone that made Flauros stiffen in his arms. Then she spread her wings, flapped them once, and was gone. Sam turned around and, sure enough, Gabriel was gone.
.-~*~-.
Crowley fidgeted with his martini as Dean downed another whiskey. This was only going to end horrendously but Dean had insisted.
He'd figured out almost immediately when they'd arrived why they were there because at the back of the bar Meg, Ruby, and to his astonishment Castiel were all settled. Dean had stolen the now human angel a wheelchair a few days ago and apparently the demons had decided to take advantage of that fact.
"So, Crowley." Dean began and Crowley moved his gaze from the group to the hunter. "You've been avoiding the subject. You're keeping something and I want to know what it is."
It was something he'd been avoiding. He was great at lying. Always had been. Lying, manipulating, all of those things, but it apparently was easier to do when possessing a vessel because Dean was a good hunter for a reason. He'd managed to avoid the subject for days but now he was cornered and Dean had nothing better to do than harass him while he not-so-discreetly stalked the demons and ex angel.
"I'm keeping a lot of things from both of you." He responded as he took a drink of his drink.
"Course you are. But whatever you're keeping about Verrine is clearly big because none of you will spill. So talk, Crowley. Who is she?"
Crowley took another drink, not at all drunk enough to get away with this conversation without pissing off Lucifer. Dean would just kill him. Lucifer, she wouldn't be so forgiving if he got Ruby killed. And Dean would kill her. Especially now.
"Let me try this again." Crowley stiffened at the distinctive sound of a gun. His gaze flicked down to see the weapon pressed carefully into the side of the hunter's coat. Would Dean really kill him? Possibly. "Tell me who she is."
In that single moment it hit like a train. Enough force to daze him slightly as panic flared to life in him. He didn't want to die. He wanted to live and Dean had a gun pointed at him and he could die to it. The word left his mouth before he could stop it and a lethal silence followed. "Ruby." Three… two…
Then Dean was on his feet, crossing the bar, and Crowley was racing after him as the hunter grabbed a handful of blonde hair, pulling Ruby violently from the table and throwing her to the floor.
Everything that followed was a blur. Dean threw his weight onto her, putting the demon blade to her neck. Then Dean was flying across the bar in a wave of demonic energy, Meg standing defensively between the hunter and the ex angel and demon. There were shouts of confusion from all around them and it occurred to Crowley that they needed to get the hell out of there but rather than take off like a rational human, well, at least he had an excuse, he was rushing to the bar where Dean lay unconscious in a pile of shattered bottles. Meg threw him too hard.
"Dean, wake up." He demanded as he shook the hunter, checking for a pulse and nearly sagging with relief when he felt it.
"Gabriel." He prayed for the first time in his damned life. A single word to an archangel that he was unsure was actually an ally. But he wouldn't. Never would he ever submit to Lucifer. Not in a million years. No matter how pure she would be acting her intentions were, he would never stoop low enough to pray to her. So of course when he looked up at the sound of fluttering wings he could only be met with the sight of blonde hair.
"Rosier, get over here. Now. Verrine, take the scum back."
"I'm not-" Meg's voice was a bit off, panic clear in it, and there was a part of Crowley that felt heavy satisfaction in it.
"That wasn't a request." Lucifer growled out, her voice tearing across the space like a velvet blade. Then she was kneeling down next to Crowley, hands on his chest and a bright glow emerging across the space.
"It was a mistake. I just-"
"Death is looming to take the brothers and keep them in Heaven, Rosier." Lucifer ground out. "While I really don't care whether Dean lives or dies, Michael wouldn't forgive me for me causing his death."
"Because you're in such peachy shape with your lover." Meg snarked and Lucifer stilled next to him.
"You seem to forget that I let you live, even after your betrayal."
"It wasn't a betrayal, Lucifer. It was self preservation which has always come first."
"Until you threw yourself on the usurper's blade."
"You were in The Cage and we couldn't find a way to get you out again. So I did what I had to. And then I fell in love with an angel."
Crowley wasn't surprised in the least at that revelation. He'd known for years. It was a piece of information he'd once used to torture her. "That angel you love. He'll never feel the same. An angel will never love a demon. He won't save you. Doesn't even know you're gone."
Would he ever be able to make up for the things he's done? Probably not.
"Demons can't love."
"I do. Just as strongly as I did as a human. You know nothing, Lucifer. Nothing of what we are. Only what you made Lilith and Cain into. Now do what Gabriel sent you to do and fix the bar."
There was an ear ringing silence that followed that. A dangerously lethal silence. Crowley didn't look, but he knew, Lucifer had frozen time around them. Shut it down. The silence went on forever then the scene shifted and he was sitting next to Dean's bed in a chair, the hunter unconscious, and Meg nowhere to be seen.
Crowley wondered, for a moment, if Lucifer would kill her. Then he was rising to his feet and headed for the door.
That was the plan.
"Crowley, wait." The ex-demon paused in his steps, turning to see Dean awake, staring at the ceiling.
"I-"
"She's not going to go after Sam again. You're going to help me make sure that doesn't happen."
"You aren't going to kill her?" Crowley didn't believe that for a moment.
"I didn't say that." Dean responded bitterly.
"If it weren't for everything else, would you be as angry with her?"
"Yes."
"In the long run, what she's done is probably the worst of all of our offenses."
"It's different."
"In what way is it different?"
Dean didn't answer and Crowley took that as a dismissal. His allyship with the brothers was iffy at best, but at the same time Sam and Dean were probably why Lucifer hadn't killed him. It was a strange mix and rationally, he should've left. It was more dangerous to stick around that to leave. What would he do in the real world though?
He paused, looking over his shoulder at Dean once before walking out of the room.
.-~*~-.
Lucifer stretched her wings out, leaving Verrine a slightly bloody powerless mess on the floor. Yes, she was being slightly irrational, being angry at the demon for defending Rosier, something she would have done herself, but the situation was drastically different for her.
No. She was not being a hypocrite.
"Lucifer. I am bringing them to Hel. You should join me."
Two days. Lucifer had given Gabriel two days even though they had everything they needed. Gabriel had begged her for two days. Two days to bask in her power a bit longer. It ached in her grace. She was so close. So close to Michael. So close to rescuing him. Once they succeeded…
"I want you to meet my daughter, Luci. Please. The daughter that none of you touched. After this, we will save him. I swear."
Lucifer followed the feel of her brother's grace, stepping through dimensional walls and stretching her wings out, spreading them and catching the air as she dove downwards, down and down until she felt the rift that opened to Hel.
It was there that Lucifer caught herself, flapping steady wingbeats to keep herself afloat as she looked down upon the realm. It was nothing like Hell was. A long stretch of villages and icy fields stretching further and further out as it went. Lucifer had never entered a pagan realm, avoiding all domains of afterlife in favor of spiting God on the Earth. Gaea had once told her she created the early pagans for her. As a sign of her unending adoration for her. This place reminded her of the early days. The original Heaven that had housed thousands and thousands of fledgling angels. Had been a beautiful landscape where the first fledglings had explored Earth's natural landscape in a safe environment. This was strangely reminiscent of that Heaven and Lucifer wondered if Gabriel had something to do with that.
It almost hurt to see. But only almost. Lucifer had long since been outcast by all of Heaven and it wasn't home.
She was becoming a sap.
Lucifer spread her wings and dove downwards, flying over fields of souls and only sparing them a bit of attention as she flew. There was a distinction between the pure and impure souls here. The pure ones were leisurely doing things with their friends and family. The impure were being subjected to what Lucifer could guess was their own reason for corruption. There was a man that had cloaking magic surrounding him. By the way a farmer was ordering him around Lucifer guessed the cloaked man had probably been a slaver in life. There was a clear alignment between the tainted souls and Gabriel's strange sense of judgement. Despite Lucifer's disdain for humans, it almost seemed purer than God's alignment for Heaven and Hell.
By all rights, she was ruler of Hell and Michael was the ruler of Heaven in God's asbence. Assuming God stayed gone, they could change the functionality of both locations. In theory. God hated her so much she wasn't completely certain that her and Michael's reunion would be allowed without some form of punishment. It had been far too long since things had worked in her favor.
Lucifer reached out for a moment, drawing a breath of power from The Mark of Cain as Gabriel had taught him to.
Mara may have tried to kill Michael, but she had been straightforward. Some days, she missed Mother.
Shoving those dangerous thoughts aside she caught the air, diving downward into a large crevice in the ground and sucking in a sharp breath as she was pulled through another gateway and landed in a large elegantly barbaric, if that was possible, dining room. The walls were lined with half breed wings, skulls, and many other objects. In the center was a large table that reached across the massive space, stone chairs lining the area, some with backs and some without.
Lucifer had arrived behind the largest of the chairs where he could see golden eagle wings poking out from around the stone. In the seat closest to that on the right side Gabriel was sitting, lounged back, with his legs propped up on the table. In several of the further away seats were four nephilim, a nephalem, and a nephilo. They were crowded into the seats together, Flauros among them were her wings wrapped tightly around a much younger sibling. Lucifer recognized the trace of grace in them. They were Raphael's children.
"Don't just stand there like a fool, foðurbroðir. Take a seat." Lucifer was drawn from her thoughts at the chastising female voice coming from the seat in front of her. After a second of consideration Gabriel snapped his fingers boredly and a gust of energy caught her before she could stop it, moving her from where she stood to the seat across from him.
"Welcome to Hel. The good one if I do say so myself."
Lucifer glanced over to see who had to be Gabriel's daughter sitting on what could only be a throne. "This is my daughter, Hel. The rest of the kids are out of town." The pale skinned girl flexed her hole covered golden eagle wings before they vanished.
"Faðir has spoken about you many times, Lucifer."
"I sure hope he told you all the good stories."
Hel smiled at her in a way that was welcoming. It was odd. Being welcomed. It had been far too long since anyone had welcomed her anywhere. Except Michael. Michael had opened his arms for her and begged her to come back to him. It had taken years, but he had been the first to ask.
"All of the good and bad. Not that I'm picky." She tilted her head the waved her hand, piles of food appearing along the table on and off plates. "Eat, systrungr. It does us all a lot of good."
The group of Raphael's children cast her a nervous look before digging in. The two Archangels and nephorlo watched in silence at the way the children of Raphael ate together, it was oddly peaceful compared to how Lucifer and Michael's children had behaved. They were different than any of the others. Connected in a way that they would only ever understand.
"Those are the last of her's." Gabriel said quietly and Lucifer cast a confused look at her brother. "Bael destroyed the rest. Because Flauros escaped Hell." Lucifer grit her teeth. Bael. Lucifer remembered her son vaguely. He had been one of the crueler of Lucifer's children. One of the most destructive.
"Don't blame yourself for what he did, Luci."
"What it did was the result of my arrogance." She responded grimly and Gabriel sighed heavily.
"Yes. You were, and still are, an arrogant dickbag. But you aren't the only one that fucked up. I made Aedmiel with Cain and she nearly destroyed all of Heaven. We're both fuckups but you know what? We attempted to deal with the problem. I threw my daughter in that fucked up Cage and when the time came and you needed imprisonment I shoved my blade in her heart so you could take her place. So stop with this pathetic self loathing shit, that's not what you do. We can fix the mistakes at a later point. Right now I want to spend time with my family before I'm trapped as a mortal for the rest of my life."
After that speech Lucifer did as told, getting herself together and focusing on the idea that Gabriel would be mortal soon. Very soon. Hel gave them a tour, showing them the cage where Gabriel had explained Jörmungandr and Fenrisúlfr were imprisoned many years ago by Odin. The irony wasn't lost on him, the children imprisoned until their head ruler deemed it time for the world to end.
Gabriel had told him Odin was a good man and that Gaea had resurrected him after Lucifer's slaughter of the pagans.
She'd apologized and Hel had waved it off. Apparently Gaea rarely allowed the pagans to die unless she saw their deaths as just. It was in that grey area of God's orders to her. Resurrecting her creations was hardly against the rules but resurrecting the offspring of angels? It was grey area all the way.
Gabriel spread out on a hillside, looking across the large fields that made up Hel and materializing his six large golden wings behind him. Lucifer hesitated before she joined his side, the two of them sitting in silence as fog covered the land.
"Do you remember the last time?"
Lucifer flexed her ethereal wings behind her as she glanced over at Gabriel. "Not long before God created them."
It had been eons. Or so it felt. Eons since she sat with her brother and watched weaker creatures frolicking. It was peaceful despite the situation. The longing and desperation that seeped beneath the surface.
"When did Heaven stop making fledglings?" Lucifer asked instead of the thousand other things that could be asked.
"Around the time He left. Without Him there they stopped being able to split. At least that was what Michael believed." Gabriel paused, a wing brushing against Lucifer's back. "I think He was punishing me for leaving. I always loved the fledglings."
"We all did. Even Gaea did."
Gabriel snorted and withdrew the wing. "Gaea loved anything she could use to shape her little specimens. And you of course. God knows why."
Lucifer instinctually pulled one wing set to the physical plane, using the end of it to shove her brother. Gabriel squawked indignantly and suddenly a tail was wrapped around her wings base, pulling her onto her back and sending her tumbling down the steep slope, her and Gabriel hitting each other and laughing at the ridiculousness of it all as they went. By the end of it Lucifer and Gabriel were a pile of wings, tails, and limbs at the bottom of a cliff while a confused soul stood a few feet away.
"Was that necessary?" Lucifer demanded without any hostility and Gabriel grinned up at him as he shifted her wings around, fluffing the feathers awkwardly from his place beneath his sister.
"It's always a necessary evil, sister. Now do me a favor and fix my feathers."
Lucifer paused halfway off, casting a conflicted look at Gabriel who was sitting up, shoving her off of him and flexing his wings behind him. A sense of surrealism crossed her mind as she fully comprehended his words.
Lucifer knew why he asked. But the gesture in itself was something they hadn't done since they were fledglings. Since the day Gabriel realized that Lucifer would never again return the offer because she was mated to Michael. From Lucifer's understanding, Cain had been the last being to touch her brother's wings because it was a symbol of pure trust. Trust that had been shattered long ago.
Lucifer composed herself, nodding in affirmation and not missing the gratitude in her brother's eyes when she didn't say anything on the matter. Because this was something else.
A final farewell to the most sacred part of himself. Which meant that when Lucifer finished grooming him, they would go to Heaven. They would save Michael.
Gabriel stepped around him with practiced ease and spreading his wings shakily before Lucifer who took to combing feathers carefully, straightening and aligning them properly because this was the last time Gabriel could ever have this done and no matter how much Lucifer longed to save Michael, she had to give her sister this.
Gabriel took a breath and relaxed into her, one of his tails coming out and half wrapping around Lucifer as she did her diligent work.
"Thank you, brother."