Chapter 29

Serra

"Come on," I urged to Cas, "let her loose so we can go home. I'm really not in the mood to deal with these assholes." Castiel nodded, standing in the darkness of the canopy of the trees. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath and slid away, my sister standing in his place almost instantaneously.

"I'm never going to get used to that," I muttered, shaking my head. "Alright, Grace, focus. What do you need to do to get Faith back?"

"Cas said she would recognize me," she answered, turning a full circle while she looked around. "Faith?" she asked the open space, looking around. "I don't know, is it that easy?" she asked me.

I made a face at her, furrowing my eyebrows. "He didn't brief you on this before we came into Heaven? Are you seriously telling me that you're making this shit up as you go?"

Grace shook her head. "No," she replied, jogging towards the edge of the trees. "He's right, I can hear her." She glanced back towards me as I followed closely behind. "I just don't know what muscle to flex." She paused that the edge of the trees, listening. "Faith? Baby, it's me," she whispered. "Can you hear me?"

The back of my neck began to tingle and I knew that Ouriel and his crew were gaining on us. "Grace," I warned. "They're coming."

"Wait," she urged. "Faith?"

There were voices just out of my pitiful human range and my mind was moving a mile a minute, thinking of the best possible plan to fight an entire choir of angels. We could use the trees to our advantage, climbing them and getting the literal drop on them. It seemed that Ouriel was unable to actually hear or track Grace's movements, so I was at least mildly comforted by the fact that we didn't seem easy to find.

She moved closer to the clearing and I could tell that her impulse was to run out, abandoning our cover. "Grace," I asked, "where are we headed?"

Shaking her head, she shrugged. "I don't know," she said. "I feel like we should be going this way, but I can't promise anything."

"Can we get to her before Ouriel gets to us?"

She shook her head again.

"Alright," I said, making a decision. "We're staying in the trees for now. Ouriel can't seem to get a bead on you and we're going to use that to our advantage." I smiled at her, gaining confidence. "We're going guerilla on their asses."

"They're not ready for the Browning sisters," Grace replied, grinning slightly, holding out her hand.

I slapped an angel blade into her outstretched palm and smiled back, pursing my lips. "No one ever really is," I replied, turning towards the closest tree. "Up you go," I said, gesturing towards the branches.

"This is a first," she said quietly, putting the blade in the belt of her jeans and pulling herself up into the leaves. "Are we attacking or waiting for them to pass?"

"Play it as it lies," I said, joining her among the branches. As we got settled, Ouriel came closing in on our position. I stared at the top of his head, holding my breath. I had no idea why Ouriel couldn't hear my sister on Angel Radio, but I wasn't going to question it. I would count my lucky stars and wait for the opportune moment to bring it up.

"I know they're here," Ouriel whispered, looking around. "What do they hope to accomplish by coming to my own territory?"

Another angel stepped next to Ouriel and shook his head, adjusting his tie and breathing deeply. They had been running as well. "I am not sure, sir," he replied, his voice still very young. "They do not seem to want confrontation."

The other angels circled around the clearing. "I do not sense them anywhere nearby," one of the other men continued. "Do you think they took a door?"

"There are no doors here," Ouriel replied, the edge of fear pushing into the tone of his voice. "I need to know what their play is. I need to know their plan."

Grace glanced towards me from her place in the tree and tilted her head. "You want me or Cas?" she asked, still clinging to the tree branch.

"You for now," I replied. "Shit gets heavy, I want you to let Cas take the lead."

Grace nodded, staring back down at Ouriel. The angels had begun to disburse, taking their search to other parts of the forest. "Sir, I will head back to the windows to see if I can catch them attempting to escape," one of the angels said quietly, addressing Ouriel. "We will check the halls on our way back to see if they took a different door."

"Fine," Ouriel replied, shaking his head. Five of the angels walked back the way they came, leaving us alone in The Gardens with only six angels. Eleven may have been a bit difficult to take on, but six? That was a different story. I turned silently towards my sister and raised my eyebrows. "I have three blades on me," I thought, raising my eyebrows. "You have one. Fish in a barrel."

Grace shook her head slowly. "Seems risky."

"Have you lost your nerve?"

Rolling her eyes, she stared at me from her branch of the tree. "First kill owes the other a steak," she thought.

"You're on," I said, pulling my first blade.

I stared down at the angel below me. There was at least six feet between the angel's head and me, and closing my eyes, I decided now was as good a time as any. I leaped from the branch and Grace followed my lead, jumping in tandem with me.

I sank the blade without remorse into the angel's back and he froze, his head tilting back and burning from the inside and then collapsed to the ground. Grace did the same, landing lightly on her feet next to me. Two other angels turned towards us and we leaped towards them, not allowing them to call out before we attacked. Grace stabbed the angel in the chest, using her entire body to push the blade through his rib cage as I took the angel nearest to me down with one movement, kicking his legs out from under him and stabbing him through the neck.

Ouriel still hadn't realized an attack on his men had begun and he was still wandering towards the edge of the forest. Grace glanced at me, nodding towards Ouriel. We both stood and padded silently through the shadows, intent on attacking Ouriel with the same ferocity as we had the other angels.

"It was a good effort, ladies," he said quietly, making us stop dead in our tracks. He still faced the sunny clearing, considering it carefully as the last angel in his group stood next to him, obviously ready to fight us off. "It makes me happy that after the loss you suffered, Grace Winchester, you are still able to find it in yourself to move on with your life. Especially knowing that there's no cure for your son. Or your husband for that matter."

My eyes flicked to Grace and watched, as she stood taller and more rigid than she had before. Castiel had taken control of her body once more. "Ouriel," he began, "the loss of angelic life will be catastrophic if you see your plan to the end. How can you decide to sacrifice so much over something so small?"

"So small?" Ouriel repeated, turning towards Castiel. "I will have control over Heaven, Hell, and everything in between when this is over."

"And what will you do when the demons and the humans don't want to be ruled by someone like you?"

Ouriel smiled in response, "That's where Grace's son comes in handy, Castiel. He will be my enforcer." He moved closer to Grace, leaning towards her face and smiling. "She creates some powerful creatures, and knowing that she allowed you to take her as a vessel tells me that they are trying again for the boy's counterpart." He tilted his head, considering Grace's body, and my impulse was to immediately attack the angel and take him to the ground.

Time seemed delayed as I watched Ouriel drop his own angel blade from the sleeve of his suit and attempt to stab my sister in the same place as he had before; intent on killing the infant she carried. She sidestepped him this time, moving towards the trees, as I jumped into action, using the weapon I had created from the Weapons Stone.

Ouriel seemed surprised by the attack and stepped away from me, the last angel that accompanied him moving into my path. I lunged at him with my curved blade, whipping it towards him and allowing it to sweep across his chest. The deep cut suddenly glowed blue and I smiled, knowing that the design of my weapon was successful.

Dean and I had designed the blade, basing it on ancient weapons that created the most blood loss. The kukri blade seemed to be a favorite of mine; the long curved sword could catch a victim, even if dipping out of the way, much like this younger angel tried to do. A leather cord kept the sword around my wrist as I danced around meeting blades with the angel.

"This is a needless fight," Ouriel was saying as the younger angel held the wound across his chest. "I have no idea what you are doing here, but I will find out." Grace came from the other side of the fight, jumping onto the smaller angel's shoulders and forcing him to the ground as I kicked him across the face. Ouriel swung at her, his angel blade clipping her cheek, the cut glowing blue for the slightest moment. I hammered the kukri blade towards Ouriel's head, but he countered with another angel sword, the metals clanging together with an echo through the forest.

Grace stood from the ground, wiping her cheek with the back of her hand. She froze in place and looked around as a high-pitched hum began, telling me that another player was about to enter the fray. "Grace, who's coming?" I yelled, tossing the smaller angel off of me once more.

She turned to grin at me and I heard, "Faith," through my mind.

As soon as she thought the word, the forest lit with a blinding blue light. Ouriel and the smaller angel froze in position, watching for the new comer. Grace froze in position, staring up towards the sky as the silhouette of her wings showed on the forest behind her. Closing my eyes, I bent away from her, using the pause in the fight to move away from my attackers.

The light was so bright, even bending over, facing the other direction; it was too much for my human senses. I tried to face my sister, to help her if I needed to, but she seemed perfectly safe. Ouriel was too distracted to be much of a problem. I attempted to stand, to make a move on Ouriel or his smaller counterpart, but he glanced behind to see me moving and met my attack with his own blade.

All of a sudden, there was a flash of white light and the feeling that we were being sucked through a straw once more. I was slammed down to the sand of the playground; harder than I felt was necessary, next to my sister. She was still standing, staring back at me, grinning from ear to ear.

Grace extended her hand and helped me up, pushing me towards the Chevelle. "Let's get out of here before he realizes what happened," she was saying, almost laughing with happiness. "Come on, Serra. You're too heavy for me to carry."

I tripped twice, trying to find my footing as I jogged back to the car. Glancing back at the playground, the angels Mahalia sent to guard the playground were gone, and we were left alone to drive away. We made it.