In heaven, Jessica walked with Aleanah at her side. As the boys knew, Aleanah gets bored very, very easily, and usually fills her boredom with questions. Dean calls it the "why" game and he told her if she tries to play it again he'd strap her to the hood. Aleanah being Aleanah immediately asked why he'd do that, setting the entire game in motion.
Thus it began with one question, "Where's Ellen and Bobby?" She peered up at her new friend, who never didn't smile, now her face fell and they stopped.
Jess turned to Aleanah, a stern frown on her face. "You've been to the Roadhouse?"
Aleanah didn't know what the right answer was. She felt like if she said yes, Jess would be mad at her...but if she said no….Aleanah hated being confused, since she always seemed to be. "Yeah. Castiel brought me there. He told me to stay but…."
"But you didn't," nodded Jess and they began walking again. "Heaven is safe, if you go to the right places. The Roadhouse is safe, but the places around it aren't. Sometimes...you can get trapped in someone else's heaven. Sometimes the angels visit, and they don't like travelers."
"Is it like the Hunger Games?"
"The what?" Jessica frowned, her understanding of the outside world was slim.
"What did they call them...Districts? Yeah. Are the different heavens like the districts? And then where the angels stay...that's like their capital?"
Jess held her frown in confusion. "Kinda. You watch too many movies kid, but yeah. Kinda."
Yes. The Games begin, Aleanah celebrated in her head, preparing for the possibility that her new friend might not like this game. "Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why do you think I watch too many movies?"
Jess smiled to herself, though shaking her head in confusion. "Well, you just compared heaven to an action movie. I'd say if you can do that you watch too many movies."
"Why did I compare heaven to an action movie?"
Jess was a little more short circuited that Aleanah would have suspected, but that was the fun part of the game. "I don't know kid."
"Why?"
"Though I've heard a lot about you, I just met you kid. I don't know why you do certain things."
Aleanah's face went from curious to a frown. "Why'd you hear about me?"
"Mary talks about you. You've kinda been the main topic in angel radio for a while...Castiel didn't tell you that?" Aleanah began to understand why Dean and Sam would keep things from Cas sometimes. She kept her frown. "Not now of course, but it's your Destiny-Mary explains it better than I do."
"Destiny?" Aleanah played with the word on her tongue. Something inside her did not like that word, though she couldn't put her finger on why.
"Destiny is for chumps," a voice called from the trees. Aleanah noticed Jess stiffen, her blue eyes shifting the trees. Her hand squeezed around Aleanah's to the point of pain. "You're going to take her to Mommy Mary and spill all the family secretes. Now that's no fun," a man comes from the trees. He had dark brown hair brushed out of his oval face. A devilish smirk played on his thin lips. Though that was just what the vessel looked like, dressed in jeans and a dark jacket, Aleanah could see his angelic properties.
"Gabriel," Jessica hissed, pulling Aleanah behind her. "We heard you were dead."
"Things change," he smiled, brown eyes fixed on the girl. "I'll take the bugger off your hands now."
"That's not going to happen," Jess spit through teeth.
"Question," Gabriel held up a finger and began to walk slowly towards them. "Does dear old Sammy know what his girlfriend is doing up in daddy's four star hotel in the sky?" Aleanah trembled at the name.
"Sam." Jessica said, stiffening and saying the name like she hasn't in a long time, as if dusty memories were coming to into light. "Sam is alive," she retorted with less emotion. "He needs to live out the rest of his life. What he does doesn't affect me or this child."
Gabriel snickered, "see that's where you're wrong. What the Winchesters do always affects the attic, the basement, and the sweet humanity center. Right now, they're on a mission to track this kid down. And you know all too well how stubborn our boys can be."
Jessica clamped her hand on Aleanah's arm. Aleanah, being just as stubborn as the Winchesters, however impossible that might sound, struggled in Jessica's grasp. She didn't want destiny, or Mary, or Gabriel, she wanted the Winchesters. She decided Jess and this Mary she was supposed to know would only keep her in heaven longer. Aleanah also decided she was bored with the 'grown up talk' Gabriel and Jess were having about her, and God knows what happens when that girl gets bored.
"I am never going to allow you to take her," Jessica warned, grasp tightening as Aleanah struggled.
Gabriel threw his head back in laughter, suddenly stopping in all seriousness. "Are you kidding?" The angel snapped his fingers and just before Aleanah and he flew away, Jess shrieked. Aleanah opened her eyes to an empty warehouse that smelt of mold and dust. Her shoes crunched against the rocks and dirt that made the gloor.
There were no windows in this large warehouse, except for the various sized holes in the roof. Aleanah felt at once cold, wrapping her arms around herself. Water from rain poured in. Aleanah heavily sighed. "We're still in heaven," she stated, though directed as a question.
Gabriel frowned at her, examining her head to toe. Her blonde hair, that was cropped unevenly to her chin, possibly one of the Winchester's doing, was in curly waves and damp from the rain water. Her bluish-grey eyes were bossy and expectant. The kid was dressed in some kind of Disney cartoon pajamas, little green lizard things all over her sleeves and pants. Her shoes were little red converse sneakers, slightly dirty. She kept a hand on her hip, her foot tapping for an answer.
"Looky here Gabriel," she snapped his name, crossing her arms. "I don't want to be here anymore. I want to see my Dean and Sammy. No more games."
Gabriel chuckled, making Aleanah's hands curl into little fists. "Don't get me wrong, I want those knuckleheads to be in your protection. Right now princess, you're a danger and in danger."
Aleanah chewed on the side of her cheek, nervously twiddling her thumbs as he spoke. You're a danger, he says. Like the fire. Like that scream at the store. You're hurting people. I am hurting people. Her eyes found interest in his leather shoes.
Gabriel realized by speaking he's upset the small human. Rolling his eyes and sighing, he says, "fine, watch this." He snaps his fingers and no longer are they in the warehouse, but a small diner, sitting at the bar.
"The usual," pipes a grinning waitress.
Gabriel nods, adding, "the same for my friend here." The waitress twirls away with another flirtatious smile.
"I'm not hungry," Aleanah grumbles, arms crossed and refusing to look anywhere but the bar. The diner smelled like coffee and syrup, the sound of rain tapping against the roof was obvious. Her stomach growled in rage.
"Sure you're not," Gabriel snapped. "You see this," he gestured towards the diner, spinning in his chair. "I made all of it. The waitress, the customers, the food, all me." He looked back at Aleanah, "I want to teach you how to make this to."
Aleanah frowned, looking up at Gabriel. "Why?"
Gabriel twirled back around, "because," the waitress set a steaming plate of syrupy strawberry pancakes with a side of crispy bacon in front of them. "I know a bit about control. You see kid, the Angels were growin' Grace under Dad's nose like teenagers and pot," Aleanah's face scrunched in confusion, "nevermind. Anyway, for years they'd just been growing Grace to later take or, if they were to say fall, they'd have Grace still. Am I losing you?"
Aleanah blinked hazely, trying to understand. She shook her head however and nibbled on bacon as he began again.
"Then the Demons proposed a plan to raise an army of those things that they've created. They brainwashed the kids like you over years and years until the kid that they took isn't there anymore."
"Someone said I got Untapped power," Aleanah didn't know what 'untapped' meant, so when she said it, she spoke as if it were a species of power. She chewed on the strip of crunchy bacon.
"Bet your ass-" Gabriel shook his head, chastising himself for the curse, "yes, yes you have untapped power."
"Mmm, what 's that though?"
"Eh. It's like a bunch of energy just waiting to be released. You're stronger than a demon and 'bout as strong as an angel if you set your mind to it. You've got spunk kid, and when you're making an army you don't want the other side to have one of their secret weapons." Aleanah nodded though she still didn't quite understand.
"Just one questions."
Gabriel took a mouthful of pancakes, "and that would be," he asked, chewing on the left side.
Aleanah cocked her head to the side, "what's brainwashing?" Gabriel shook his head and sighed.
****SPNSPNSPN****
"It's been eighteen hours Sam!" Dean shouted, foot pressing on the gas pedal.
"I know Dean, eighteen comes after seventeen, which comes after sixteen. I can count," Sam retorted. From hour one Dean had been shouting how long it's been, like Sam wasn't counting the minutes himself. "Look, we'll go to the bunker, finish the summoning spell, we'll trap Cas and Cas will bring her back."
"What makes you so sure?"
Sam shrugged and looked out the window, the rain hadn't stopped pouring. "I'm sure you'll threaten him one way or another. He'll bring her back Dean."
"I'm glad you're freakin' peachy about this," Dean threw his hands off the wheel to gesture, 'this.'
Sam grunted in response, looking at the heavy rain clouds. He couldn't help but think, and it truly kept popping up in his mind no matter how hard he pushed it down, that Aleanah was behind all this rain. But that's not possible, Sam reassured himself. Then again…it is Aleanah we're talking about.
