The Lies We Tell

Chapter 12: Fatal Encounter

Written by RippleInThePond


Lyriel sat in heaven's library, her eyes scanning a page in an ancient text in an attempt to find Metatron as she searched for the truth about the prophecy. However, much of the information that she found unhelpful or irrelevant. She gave a deep sigh and rubbed her eyes as sleep began to permeate her senses and creep into the edge of her mind.

There was a quiet flutter of wings as an angel entered the room and Lyriel felt a hand be laid on her shoulder. "Sleep, sister," Michael whispered. "Exhaustion will do you no good in your search for answers." She chuckled morosely and rubbed the back of her neck, groaning in pain from the stiffness. "That's not the only thing that's evident."

She tipped her head back to look at Michael. "I envy you normal angels with your vessels that don't feel pain." She dropped her head down to the desk. "My neck hurts like a rock." He smiled softly and leaned over, placing a hand on her neck and massaging her shoulders. She sighed softly and closed the book in her lap, her eyes drifting shut. "You could just heal it, you know?" She said, her eyebrow raised although he couldn't see it. He shrugged . "I could heal it, true, but taking the mortal route gives me a reason to stay."

After a short, companionable silence, Lyriel sat up to make it easier for him. "Have you found anything yet?" He whispered a short 'no' and dropped his hands to his sides. "Unfortunately, we have not found anything. It has been a long time since he departed from heaven, so many of the trails we could have followed long ago have long been cold." Lyriel groaned and dropped her head into her hands, leaning over. She ran her fingers through her hair, that was currently light blue to purple ombre, as she sat back up.

"This all feels so hopeless. We will never find him, will we?" She stood up and rubbed her temples. She turned her head back and looked into Michael's eyes, her own eyes watering with fear and despair. "I will have to watch you and Lucifer fight. I will have to watch one of you die." A tear silently slipped down her cheek, almost going unnoticed by Michael.

He rushed over and wrapped his arms around her waist from behind. She froze. "What are you doing?" He shifted uncomfortably as he blushed slightly. "I, um, believe that humans call it a hug. Humans use it to comfort and show affection, right?" She snorted and turned around, wrapping her arms around him.

"This, is a hug." There was a comfortable silence before Michael whispered, "I feel warm… my grace, not my vessel." She nodded against his chest. "That, brother, is called love." She looked up at him. "Angels can feel. I am sure of that after being on earth for so long." He tightened his arms and sighed.

There was a short silence and Lyriel whispered. "Why'd you do it? Why did you cast me out?" He rested his chin on her head, chest heaving with a sigh. "I like this, hugging." She growled and looked up at him, fire in her eyes. "Do not attempt to evade the topic, Michael. I can tell that you do not loathe me as you do not, and never have, looked at me the way Raphael and Lucifer once did. You have always looked at me with love and affection, even though you have not quite accepted that angels can feel emotion."

He stepped back and sat on a nearby sofa, unwilling to reply. He paused. "The Morning Star said that it was right, that we should. I was just foolish enough to believe him." There was a pause before a sharp ringing filled the room, Lyriel's phone echoing in the silence. She fumbled through her pockets before she found her phone. She turned around and flipped it open and answered after seeing the caller ID identifying Sam as the person calling her.

"What?" There was a pause as she heard heaving breathing before Sam responded.

"Look, I know you told us not to go after the Coltー" Lyriel groaned. "You went after it, didn't you?"

Sam sighed. "Yeah, we did. We got attacked by hellhounds though. Jo is hurt. Bad. We would appreciate it if you would come and save our moronic butts." Lyriel sighed, rubbing her eyes in exasperation. "Where are you?"

"Carthage, Missouri. Hardware store. Just fine the hellhounds. They're trying to get in." "How many are there?" She could practically hear his bitch-face through the phone. "We can't exactly see hellhounds, now can we?" She snorted. "No, but I assume that you can make a guess based on the quantity of the barks and how loud they are." "... ten, maybe 15." Lyriel groaned. "Great." She turned back towards Michael, covering the receiver. "Can you spare two angels?" Michael tilted his head to the side. "Yes, but what for?"

"To save the idiotic, moronic, and impulsive asses of the Winchesters and their friends from becoming dog chow." Michael snorted before nodding. "Of course." After a second, two angels named Remiel and Zerachiel appeared, blades ready. "Quick run through, the Winchesters are trapped and surrounded by hellhounds in a hardware store at Carthage, Missouri. One of their companions is severely injured. We go there, find the hounds, and then I get inside the store. You kill the dogsーthere's ten to fifteen of themー, I save the humans. We clear?" The angels nodded stoically and Lyriel pulled out her angel blade and spread her wings. "Let's go."

They landed on a building and the other two angels marveled at the sight of all of the reapers that were standing completely still. They could immediately hear the feral barks of the hellhounds, and they flew to the rooftop of the building across the street. Lyriel sighed in relief that Sam's guesstimate had been rightーthere was 15. She turned towards the other two angels. "You know your job."

She flew into the building silently as to not alarm the Harvelles. Jo was sitting against the counter, blood seeping through the once white bandages to stain them, and her hands, a deep red. Her hand rested on her stomach, holding in her intestines. Her face was a sickly pale as her body went into shock from the pain and blood loss. Dean stood across the room with a duffel bag, shoving whatever he could into the bag. After all, free was free. Sam stood on the left side of the store as to keep an eye on the whole area, stuffing products into a duffel bag as well. Ellen Harvelle kneeled next to her daughter, unshed tears wetting her eyes as she watched her daughter get closer and closer to death.

Lyriel took a step, her shoes clicking on the floor to announce her presence. The heads of each of the hunters shot up. Ellen pointed her rifle at Lyriel before turning to Sam. "Who the hell is this?!" Lyriel calmly walked towards Jo who was staring at Lyriel nervously. She came to a stop a few feet from Jo at Ellen before turning back to Jo. "I am Lyriel, an archangel, and I am not your enemy." There was a howl of pain outside as one of the hellhounds died. Lyriel turned to Sam. "Hello, Sam. I'm glad you have some common sense to call me. A prayer would have worked fine, but I guess you needed me to be able to communicate back."

Dean started. "You called Lyriel? Why?" Sam glared at Dean before gesturing towards Jo and the door outside which hellhounds were being slaughtered. "We didn't exactly plan this very well, Dean. You may be fine with throwing your life away out of guiltーI am tooーbut Jo and Ellen don't deserve to die." Lyriel tuned them out as they began to squabble and walked to stand at Jo's feet before kneeling. "I can heal you, if you'll let me." Lyriel tilted her head to the side as a thought came to her. "Well, I can heal you even if you don't want me to, but I would prefer consent."

After a moment, Jo nodded and her mom shook her head before they called out opposing answers at the same time. They turned to look at eachother in shock, both affronted by the other's answer. Jo raised her free hand and gestured to Lyriel. "Mom, if she can save me, I would prefer not to die today." Ellen sighed and put her hand on her daughter's leg. "I"m sure of that, but we don't know her. We can't trust her."

Lyriel sighed, annoyed. "All due respect, Mrs. Harvelle, but this is not your choice. I didn't ask you." Lyriel looked into Jo's eyes. "Do you want to live?" Jo paused for a moment before nodding. Lyriel laid her hand on Jo's leg and and slowly, as to not scare her nor her mother, pulsed her grace through Jo and into the wound. Jo gasped at the warmth and then at the lack of pain. After Lyriel lifted her hand, Jo quickly pulled off the bandage and ran her fingers over the perfect skin.

Jo gave a broken laugh, shocked. Lyriel stood and held a hand out to Jo. Jo took her hand and Lyriel pulled her up and Lyriel jumped in shock as Jo threw her arms around Lyriel, tears streaming down her cheeks. "I-I I thought was going to die." Jo sobbed and Lyriel smiled softly before hugging her back. She ran a hand over her back before passing her off to her mom.

She walked over to Dean who was still fuming. "Give me the Colt." Dean shook his head. "No." Lyriel scoffed and then held out her hand. "I'll ask nicely one more time. Give. Me. The. Colt." Dean shook his head again and Lyriel flicked her hand. The Colt flew out of his jacket and into her hand. She walked up to him and smacked him across the face. "You moron. You're so fucking guilty about hell that you are willing to get not only yourself killed, but the people around you! I told you that the Colt would not harm Lucifer, but you still ran to your death." Dean tried to interject and Lyriel held up a hand, holding Dean's lips closed with her grace.

"No, Dean. You don't get a say. Not until you can think straight." She touched a hand to his forehead and her fell to the ground asleep. She turned to Sam. "I know you have enough common sense to have brought Cas, so where is he?" Sam shrugged. "He ran off as soon as he saw the ridiculous amount of reapers there are outside, apparently." Lyriel sighed. "Stay here." She flew above the town and felt for Cas' grace, finding him in an abandoned warehouse on the edge of town of the second floor. She silently flew into the room. She found Meg, goading Cas.

With her grace, she marked a rope with sigils to keep her from leaving the vessel and quickly bound Meg. Meg gasped in shock. "What theー" Lyriel snapped her fingers, knocking Lyriel unconscious. She turned to Cas and scrunched her nose at the sight of the holy fire. She snapped her fingers and it vanished, the floor untainted by the flames. Cas walked over and hugged her. "Hello sister. I thought you did not condone the use of the Colt on Lucifer."

She raised an eyebrow. "I don't. I'm here to save your stupid ass." She glanced at Meg. "Will you take her to Heaven for me? I have to take care of the kids." Cas chuckled before sobering up. "I… I can't." Lyriel looked at him in confusion. "Can't what?" Cas sighed sadly. "Take her to Heaven. When I sided with the Winchesters, I was barred from Heaven." Lyriel snorted. "Well, you're not anymore, seeing as Heaven is working with the Winchesters instead of against. I know for a fact that Balthazar has been wanting to see you."

Cas looked at her with tentative hope. "Are you sure?" She nodded and Cas walked over to Meg, picking her up and heaving her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. "Say hello to Balthazar for me, Cas." He nodded and spread his wings before taking flight.

Lyriel flew back to the hardware store and grabbed the duffle bag Dean had been using as well as the one Sam was holding. Sam looked at her in confusion. "Where's Cas?" She smiled softly. "Visiting an old friend. Grab your brother, please." She turned to the Harvelles as Sam walked past her, picking up Dean. "Are you two good to go?" They nodded, although Ellen still looked at her with apprehension.

They walked out of the store and Ellen jumped at the sight of the other two angels. "Remiel, take them to their bar, The Roadhouse, please." Remiel nodded and laid one hand on each of their shoulders before flying away. "Zerachiel, I need you to keep an eye out until we leave. It would be a very inopportune time to get jumped by demons or hellhounds." Zerachiel nodded and Sam led to way to the Impala.

They arrived without incident and Lyriel threw the duffel bags into the trunk of the car as Sam stuffed Dean into the back seat. As Lyriel slid into the passenger seat, she saw Shadowfax in his cage and gasped in protest. "You left him out here?! He could have been killed! You could have at least let him out of his kennel!" Sam shrugged. "Dean didn't want his fur on the upholstery. His car, his rules." She scoffed. "Screw his rules." Lyriel leaned back and pulled Shadowfax out of the kennel and put him on her lap, rubbing the area behind his ears as he purred in delight. She rolled down the window and leaned out of the window slightly to address Zerachiel.

"Thank you for your assistance, Zerachiel. You are dismissed." He bowed slightly before flying away. Sam turned the key in the ignition and they drove out of the town.

After distancing themselves 5 miles from Carthage, Lyriel woke Dean up. He sat up groggily. "Morning sunshine." He groaned. "I hate it when you guys do that." Lyriel pat his knee. "Suck it up, buttercup. Anyways, now that I've cleaned up your mess, it's time for me to head out." She disappeared in a flash and returned to Heaven as Dean and Sam traveled to the nearest hotel.

Lyriel landed in the library that she had been in before the call. Michael was sitting at one of the desks, his nose stuffed into a book. Lyriel plopped down into one of the seats in front of the desk and Michael glanced up at her before looking back at the book. "How'd it go?" Lyriel ran her fingers through Shadowfax's fur, relaxing into the chair. "Fine. You get my present yet?"

Michael laughed. "Are you talking about the demon? Yes, Castiel delivered her. She is now in Heaven's prison. I'm will visit her later and question her. I'm not surー" Michael's eyes went wide as he saw the cat and his grace identified it as one of Heaven's holy felines. "How? How did… I thought that they were extinct." Lyriel shrugged. "I found him on Earth in an animal shelter. He isn't completely of Heaven though. He is part average house cat."

Michael walked around the desk and held his arms out tentatively. "May I?" Lyriel placed Shadowfax into his arms and Michael squealed, although he would deny it if asked. As she stared at the two of them, Lyriel swore that she felt her heart stop. She stood up quickly and Michael looked at her in shock. Lyriel danced around the room, her grace bright with joy. Michael stared at her, confused and nervous. "Sister?" She continued to dance around the room until she came to a stop in front of Michael, her eyes shining bright.

"I know how to find Metatron."


Hi! I hope that you all enjoyed this chapter. Follow, favorite, and especially REVIEW. Please. I didn't get any on my last update, and that hurt. Anyways, I am planning on putting ships in now. I'll be putting up a poll for the possible ships involved. I will put the top two into the story. See you in two weeks!