Angel-Touched

Ariel was on edge. It was like the air was charged with static electricity. Something powerful was close by and it was hungry. She could feel its gaze on her skin, making the fine hairs stand up. One thing was for certain, whatever it was, it wasn't a werewolf, or a vampire, or one of the other lesser supernatural creatures that they'd been hunting lately. This thing was old and powerful.

"Ariel? You're makin' me nervous." Sam didn't look up and his tone was light.

Ariel kept scanning the horizon, senses on high alert. The fact that Sam didn't feel it didn't faze her. She'd always been better at sensing danger then most others, even when she'd been a Son. It was why Michael sent her on so many scouting missions. "Maybe you should be nervous, Sam."

Sam looked up at her from where he was crouched assessing the tracks on the hard ground. He wasn't as good as John or Dean, but he was better than most. She'd been around humans long enough to realize that if she ever said anything about it to him, to leave out the part where she thought anyone was better. Humans had fragile egos, especially with male humans. She could feel Sam's aggravation like it was her own and knew he could probably feel her apprehension the same way. "I think you're nervous enough for the both of us."

She blinked at him and started to say something when she was suddenly thrown. The last thing she remembered was watching the trees overhead sail past her before everything went black.

Dean had been unable to reach Sam or Ariel with the news that the baby had arrived. He figured that they were on the hunt and their phones were off. But something about it was bothering him, scratching at the back of his brain like something important he'd forgotten. Bothered him until he finally sent Enoch back. And kept right on bothering him until he called Alex, who said she'd check things out for him.

"Baby?" Cassie's soft, tired voice cut through his thoughts and brought him back to the present, back to their peaceful bedroom and the small, warm weight of his new son draped across his chest and the slightly larger warm weight of his baby girl against his side. His entire little family all crammed onto one bed.

"Uh huh?"

"Put the baby in his crib. He'll want to be held like that when you're gone, and I only want to have happy thoughts of you when you're off on a trip."

Dean chuckled softly and got up to do as his wife asked. It was hard, putting the baby down. Ever since he first saw him and his little misshapen head all he'd wanted to do was hold him and smell him. He stood there, staring down at the tiny baby sleeping contently in his crib for a few minutes before returning to bed. "You need anything," he asked softly.

"Just for my husband to settle down and get some sleep. You've been bouncing around all day."

"You sound like Dad. The man actually ordered me to stay away from caffeine."

Cassie giggled softly. "Can't say I blame him. Now go put this one," she ran an affectionate hand over their daughter's unruly curls, "in her own bed and come back here and get some sleep with me."

Enoch arrived just in time to see Ariel slam against a tree head first with a sickening crunch and collapse bonelessly on the ground. Sam was already in motion, chasing after her, eyes widened with fear. Enoch only had a split second to react, a split second that could mean the difference between life and death because anything that could throw Ariel like that had to be trouble. He turned in the direction that Ariel had been thrown from, already in a defensive crouch, and found himself face to face with an ancient evil from a time so long ago that even he barely remembered it. A time when he was still alive, when he had a family, a wife and children. Abadon, one of the Thirteen chained in the Abyss, General of the Demon Scorpions. Apparently, Evil Sam had found some way to free him.

"Enoch, old friend! Come to die with Ariel?" The Nephilim was smiling, and it was the same arrogant smile that sent chills up his spine that he remembered.

"Leave him to me," Dean said sharply and it wasn't hard for Enoch to come to the conclusion that this was his friend's evil double. "Just stay on task and finish the bitch off."

Abadon snarled at him, but he was already focused on Enoch, a small smirk on his face. He was so much like the Dean Enoch knew and so different at the same time. The way he stood comfortably, almost casually even as he was on high alert. The calculating look in his eyes. It was all Dean. But Dean didn't have that kind of malice behind his smile, didn't make you feel like you needed a hot shower just from sharing the same air. Abadon stalked off towards Ariel, but Enoch didn't have the luxury of worrying about that now. He could only pray that his old friend was conscious and capable of defending herself.

Evil Dean's grin widened suddenly, flashing brilliant white teeth, as he threw a right hook, moving so fast that Enoch had trouble tracking him. But Enoch was an elemental demigod. He didn't duck. He simply disappeared into thin air. The momentum of his punch almost knocked him off balance when his fist met nothing and Evil Dean snarled, a mask of pure rage turning his features ugly for a split second before he regained his calm and smiled mockingly. "Oh come on. Don't tell me you're going to leave your bestest friend all alone in his… er… her time of need. You're honestly just gonna run like a frightened little bitch?"

Enoch reappeared behind him and tried a kidney shot. But the bastard was fast, and had unbelievable reflexes and senses. He turned just enough for Enoch to miss and grabbed the demigod by the throat. Enoch transformed again, into water this time. Evil Dean snarled angrily as he shook out his wet hands. "Stop that, you slippery son of a bitch and fight like a man!"

"But I'm not a man." Enoch's voice seemed to come from everywhere at once. Thunderclouds appeared rapidly in the sky, building themselves from nothing, dark and ominous. "I'm a demigod. This is how I fight." Flashes of lightening lit up the night so bright that it robbed Dean of his night vision and thunder boomed deafeningly loud. The wind picked up debris and hurled it at him like shot gun pellets.

"You think you can kill me with some wind and rain, demigod?" The demon sounded somewhere between amused and insulted.

"No," Enoch's voice echoed in the thunder, loud and menacing. Unfortunately, Enoch didn't know how to kill him and he didn't want to run the risk of Dean finding his weaknesses during a fair fight right now. "But, I can get you out of the way."

Enoch created a whirlwind around Dean. Whipping the wind around him stronger and faster until it was as dense as a wall of steel, the force of it sucking the demon inside, and then flung the tornado along with the demon out into the night. Enoch knew it wouldn't feel like he'd been thrown far, that he wouldn't realize that he'd been sent through a portal until he landed in the Dead Sea with no idea where he was and, hopefully, in agony trying to get out of all that salt. That should keep him occupied for a while.

Ariel was engaged in hand-to-hand combat with Abadon, her sword and knives nowhere to be seen. Sam was unconscious, but alive. He must have tried to protect Ariel at some point. Abadon had never been a warrior, not like the kind that Ariel was used to dealing with, and without his scorpions he wouldn't have been so dangerous that Sons would have had to be sent to dispatch him during his lifetime. But even so, he was still a first generation offspring of the Fallen. He could easily handle Sam and was more than a handful for Ariel. Enoch poured rain down on them, turning the hard earth into sucking mud. Ariel was smaller, lighter, more nimble and those conditions would favor her. Ariel was a warrior in the oldest of traditions, knowing how to use everything to her advantage.

There was a sudden blur of movement and Abadon was sent tumbling away from Ariel. Alex. Alex had tackled him. Not that she was any match for Abadon, but it gave Ariel the space she needed to retrieve her sword. It was embedded in a tree. It took her a few precious second to pull it free and then she was attacking, Alex ducking aside as if they had choreographed the entire thing. Abadon lost an arm and nearly lost his head, but he was gone with a flash of light and a puff of smoke. Old magic.

Ariel stared at the spot where he'd been standing for a second, breathing hard and soaked through, before screaming in rage. Enoch stopped the rain and dissipated the clouds, materializing beside Alex. Ariel was shaking with rage, and maybe something else, something more human, as she returned to Sam's side without acknowledging either of them and checked him for damage. She gently put his head in her lap and wiped the hair away from his face. He moaned and stirred, tried to sit up as his eyes opened to a squint.

"Ariel!"

"Shhh… I'm fine. Be still."

He blinked up at her. "Did you get the license of the truck that hit me?"

She snorted softly as she felt his ribs, movements quick and efficient. "I said, be still."

He rolled his eyes, but kept quiet and still as she finished. Alex leaned close to Enoch and whispered, "What's up with the two of them?"

"I think they have bonded."

She gave him a sidelong glance and a smirk that was exactly like her father's. "Is that what they're calling it these days?"

"We've got trouble." Ariel's voice crackled over the speakerphone in Dean's office. He heard his father snort incredulously from his end of the conference call. Because, seriously? They'd had nothing since trouble since Dean was four.

"Care to elaborate," Dean asked pointedly.

"Have you ever heard of Abadon?"

"The fallen angel from Revelations?" Mike Krieger piped in. He was their resident religious expert. Well, aside from Ariel.

"No… not Fallen. Nephilim. One of the very first, born long before the Great Deluge. He is the general of the demonic scorpions."

Dean sat up a little straighter. "Demonic scorpions? Well, I don't like the sound of that."

"You shouldn't," Ariel said. "There's virtually no way to contain them. They're hard to keep out and harder to kill."

"Wait a minute, are these the things that you told me about before? The ones that have human heads?"

"Yes. We have to be prepared. I have an idea."

Sam was just about to consult his scrying mirror again when Dean stormed into his office without knocking and slammed the door behind him. Dean had a crusty white coating of salt covering his skin, hair and clothes that flaked off as he moved. "Where the hell have you been? I spent hours scrying for you. All I kept getting was dead space. "

"Fucking Dead Sea, Sam," Dean bit out through clinched teeth.

Oh. So that explained the salt. And probably the dead space. That much salt would probably screw things up. "Why?"

"I was taking a vacation there, Sammy. What the fuck do you think? A line of salt is one thing. I can cross it, hurts like a motherfucker, but I can cross the damn thing. But being stuck in the fucking middle of an entire god damn sea of salt? Just floating there like a freaking piece of cork? I'm going to pull Enoch's lungs out through his nose a piece at a time! I'm gonna cut off his eyelids and make him watch while I feed his intestines to hellhounds! I'm gonna pull of an inch of his skin at a time and I will keep him alive for days while I do it!"

"Enoch? I thought you were going after Ariel. Why would you attack her with Enoch around?"

Dean growled like a pissed off bear and glared at him briefly as he kept wearing a grove in the floor. "Do I look like a fucking moron to you? I didn't… he showed up after we were already there. But Abadon had already knocked the bitch out. I figured, I'd just distract Enoch long enough for him to finish her off, but he went all demigod on me and trapped me in a tornado, then flung me into the fucking Dead Sea. Please tell me that Abadon at least did his job?"

"No. Alex showed up too and he came back missing an arm."

Dean stopped pacing and stared at his brother. "You're fucking with me."

"I wish I were."

"This is going pear shaped real fast, Sam. In the other reality it was just Alex. Here it's Enoch, Ariel, Alex, Dad, and our goodie-two-shoes doubles and whatever kids any of them might have in the future. We can't fight 'em all. We gotta find a way to pare down the herd."

"We will. But first, we release the scorpions. Abadon wants to 'avenge his arm.'"

Dean grimaced. "The prissy son of a bitch actually said that, didn't he?"

Sam sighed and looked away. "Yeah. He did."

Dean rolled his eyes and snorted in disgust. "He can avenge whatever the hell he wants, so long as someone ends up dead!" He turned on his heal and stalked towards the door.

"Where are you going?"

Dean paused with his hand on the doorknob. "Shower first, torture someone next. Today's clusterfuck damaged my peace. And you'd better keep that bitch Lilith out of my face for the next forty eight hours if you want her to stay in one damn piece."

Ariel and Sam were laying in bed at the no-tell motel where she'd caught up to him and Dean earlier. He was laying on his back and Ariel was lying with her head on his stomach. Sam ran his fingers absently through her hair as she spoke. "Before the flood, Sons were dispatched to destroy them. But after the Great Deluge, whenever the Nephilim arose there were people chosen to destroy them. They were known as the angel-touched. Blessed by a Son in childhood, these humans were impervious to magic of any kind. They could not be thrown or pinned to a wall by either demon or angel."

"Wait a minute, wait a minute… don't you keep telling us that you're not angels? You're Sons?"

Ariel gave a pu upon sigh. "Some Sons are angels… messengers. And you humans are the ones who called them the angel-touched anyway."

"So they were… invincible?"

"No… they were impervious to direct supernatural attack. They could be killed by natural means. So they were chosen carefully. They had to be quick-witted and physically strong. They had to have a strong sense of justice. A reverence for God and a desire that they and all other men are free from tyranny. Many things that are hard to judge in a child, but things which must be innate in an angel-touched. Joshua was such a child. As was David. I believe there is one alive today."

Sam raised his head a little to look down at his wife. "How do you find this person?"

"They will find us when it is time. Many of us may die before that day comes."

He smirked and let his head drop back on his pillow. "You're just a ray of sunshine."

"I'm being realistic," she said with a shrug. "The more attachments we have, the harder the coming years will be.

Sam frowned up at the ceiling, his fingers still rubbing her hair between them. "Do you regret what we did?"

"What? No… I'm just…" She paused and sighed. "When you tried to defend me, you could have died."

"Still not seeing your point."

"I don't fear death… not my death. I fear yours. And I don't know if I can stop."

"Oh. For the record, I fear yours. That's what it means to be family, to be mortal and love someone. You don't know what you'd do if you lost them. Don't know how you'd survive the pain. When Dean died… when he died, I was lost. I was in so much pain and so fucking angry that I just took it out on the world. The only connection I had to anything human was De, and I didn't… I didn't give a damn about anyone else. Grief is… horrible, especially when you don't have anyone to share it with, or when you cut yourself off from anyone who would be willing to help you. I could have turned to Bobby. I could have let Cassie grieve Dean with me – God, what I did to Cassie. I don't know how she can stand to even look at me."

"But you're not there anymore." Ariel reached up and wrapped her fingers around his wrist.

"Thanks to Dean. And you. Just promise that when I die, you won't go through it alone."

Ariel shrugged. "As long as you promise the same. Abadon wants my head on a platter, and he's not the only one. I made a lot of enemies and they will all see my mortality as a golden opportunity to get even. It may make you a target as well."

"Then teach me to defend myself."

"Sam…"

"Teach me what is safe for me to know. I'm your… your husband, right? I need to be able to protect you. Or at least not be a liability in a fight."

Ariel sighed. "Okay. As long as you understand how dangerous this may be. You've already tapped into the darkness, it may be hard to avoid now."

"I understand."

"Do you? Really? If you go dark again…" She left the rest unspoken, but she'd already made it clear in the past that she would feel personally obligated to stop him.

"I understand. I'd want you to be the one to do it."

She pressed her free hand against her stomach. "I'm not sure I could survive it."

"It won't come to that… I love you. I love my son, and my brother and his family, and Dad. I've got too much to fight for now, to hold on to. We'll be okay."

Ariel sighed. She hoped he was right.

A/N:

I want to apologize to everyone for that horrendous bout of writers block. I haven't written anything in almost two months… Hopefully it's over now, and this chapter was worth the wait.

I love writing for the Evils, as you call them, redgriffin7. But I guess my mojo wasn't working as as full an order as we thought. LOL… that was the longest bout of writer's block ever.

Thanks, Rosasia! I hope you enjoy this update. I love all of these characters… they have such amazing chemistry together.

-Angie