Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise; the original concept of this story was inspired by 'To Hell & Back' by EventRider87, but I've added my own spin to things and have received EventRider87's permission to use their idea for this
Feedback: Much appreciated
The Corrupted Innocent
"This is it?" Bela looked up at the Elysian Fields Hotel in surprise as Ellen's car came to a halt in front of the building in question. It was a surprisingly well-lit building for something on a stretch of highway that probably wouldn't get much business, its name- The Elysian Fields Hotel- displayed in blue neon lighting above the door and at the entrance. It was only a couple of stories in height, but those stories seemed to be well-built, and what Bela could see of the rooms from outside was significantly higher-quality than what she was used to finding the Winchesters staying in.
"Apparently," Ellen nodded, glancing at her phone once more before she looked back at Bela and nodded. "Yep, this is it; Dean sent Bobby an update and Bobby sent it to us."
"Well… I suppose I can't exactly complain about them finding somewhere comfortable for once…" Bela said, smiling slightly as the two women got out of the car and walked into the hotel. Like the outside, the interior was illuminated with blue lighting, a bar to the immediate left of the door and a very comfortable lobby inside, with modern-looking white chairs arranged around a large fire.
"Bela?" Dean called out, prompting Bela to turn around to see her lover walking into the lobby from around a corner, his phone in his hand as he smiled at her. "Ellen? I mean, you texted me, but… seriously, what happ-?"
"My father's dead."
"In the real sense of the word, right?" Dean asked, looking urgently over Bela as he walked up to her. "I mean, you're both-?"
"We're fine," Bela smiled at him, glad to see this evidence that her mother had been right; whatever his faults as a man, Dean Winchester would always do his best to satisfy her desires rather than just decide he knew best and ignore her own input. "And he's been banished back to wherever demons go when they really die."
"…Good," Dean nodded in satisfaction, giving Bela a brief hug before he turned to look at Ellen. "And what got you caught up in this crap?"
"Bobby called me for help when he found out that Bela was missing," Ellen clarified. "Used a tracking spell to find her, I shot the bastard in the face when I found their room, and then Bela managed to… not sure if 'exorcise' is the right term or not, but she's fairly sure he's gone."
"Cas's gift?"
"I'm not sure if I burnt it out or not," Bela said, rubbing at her shoulder as she looked at her partner, "but that was the biggest blast I've ever used it for."
"Not the worst thing to use that up on," Dean reflected, joining Bela in rubbing her shoulder before he turned to give Ellen a similar hug to the one he'd just given Bela. "Thanks for helping her."
"Hey, we're all friends here," Ellen smiled reassuringly at Dean before she studied him with a new curiosity. "So where's Sam and Deanna in this?"
"And what about Adam and Cas?"
"We… lost 'em," Dean conceded, his voice lowering as he led the two women to another part of the hotel.
"What?" Bela and Ellen both hissed urgently as soon as they were in a reasonably private area.
"How could you lose Cas?" Bela looked at Dean in outrage.
"Adam?" Ellen looked at Dean in confusion. "I mean, Bobby mentioned he'd been brought back, but… look, I get how the angels got him the first time, but twice?"
"Cas had to force back a group of attacking angels by carving an angel-banishing sigil on his chest, and it ended up banishing him too," Dean explained, the almost-default expression of guilt clear on his face. "We got to Adam and managed to gank Zach, but when we were gettin' out, I mentioned the kid, and… well, he decided to stay behind."
"He stayed behind?" Ellen repeated. "Your just-resurrected brother decided to stay with the damn angels?"
"Told me that he wanted to give me a shot at bein' with my kid even if he couldn't get his mom back," Dean explained, his tone reinforcing his guilt and self-loathing at this turn of events. "Grams went off to the family compound to see if she could find somethin' that might help us track him down, and Sam and I spent a bit of time checkin' out a few hoodoo places who might have a clue…"
He trailed off, which was more than enough for the two women to establish that the Winchesters' efforts hadn't been successful, before he continued. "Anyway, we were on our way back to Bobby's when we found… well, we found this place and decided to take a break for the night."
"I see," Bela mused, before she gave Dean a wistful smile. "Well, at least that proves Adam's your brother."
"Yep; sacrificing himself to try and keep the family safe," Ellen said grimly. "That's Winchesters all over."
"Even Dad?" Dean asked.
"I was ticked off at him for failing to save Bill; never meant to suggest that I thought he didn't try to do it," Ellen acknowledged with a solemn smile before she indicated the door. "Well, long as we're here, any objection to an old woman joining you three young 'uns in a night off?"
"I think we can work with that," Bela smiled at her.
"Never complained about company," Dean nodded in confirmation.
In hindsight, Bela supposed that it would have been too much for them to expect that they could find a four-star hotel on a highway to nowhere and believe that they had just lucked out after a difficult day. She and Ellen had been able to check into the hotel easily enough, and the food had been enjoyable enough, but when they went up to their rooms and heard their neighbours doing something loud before their room suddenly became empty, it became clear to all four hunters that there was something out of the ordinary taking place in this hotel.
It had taken a few moments for Bela to argue that she was safer staying with the rest of the group than going back to her room, particularly when she made the valid point that they didn't know what was going on and couldn't be sure where she'd be safe. The lone engagement ring was a troubling clue that none of them wanted to analyse any closer than they had to, but while a talk with the reception staff had tentatively confirmed he had some role in whatever was going on, that didn't give them any clear ideas beyond Dean's report of seeing an elephant in a room that was subsequently occupied by an overweight man.
"Elephants?" Ellen shook her head in exasperation as the four of them stood on the edge of the lobby. "Why is it you guys get the really weird hunts?"
"I'd say we were just lucky, but these days…" Dean shrugged.
"And there's no point trying to leave," Sam put in. "I checked the doors while you were talking with the receptionist, and they're pretty securely locked up."
"Which fits the idea that something lured us here," Bela said. "Or at least it lured you two here and Ellen and me just followed you at the right time."
"Right time?"
"Right time not to get caught in the worst of the weather out there," Bela noted, indicating the wind blowing outside the nearest window. "Obviously this isn't a good time to be here, but I have a feeling this place isn't intended for people like us however you look at it."
"Add in what I found in that kitchen, and I'm inclined to agree with you," Ellen observed grimly. "So, what are we…?"
Her voice trailed off as she turned around to look in exasperation at the men who had gathered behind the group while they were talking. "This isn't good."
"Quite," the man said firmly.
"Ladies and gentlemen," the tall man in the dark suit who was apparently in charge of this meeting said, clinking a fork against his champagne glass as the hunters sat in their seats in front of the main table, the apparent gods sitting solemnly in their seats, "thank you for coming, although in all my centuries, I never thought I'd see this many gods under one roof."
The four humans exchanged anxious glances at each other at that statement. They appreciated that a few gods were content to just retain power from their remaining worshippers, but any time gods gathered together like this couldn't be for a good reason, even before factoring in the human organs that had been delivered for dinner earlier.
"Now," the speaker continued, "before we get down to brass tacks, some ground rules. No slaughtering each other. Curb your wrath. Oh, and uh, keep your hands off the local virgins. We're, trying to keep a low profile here."
"We're in big trouble," Ellen mused grimly.
"Now we all know why we're here," the apparent god continued. "The Judeo-Christian apocalypse looms over us. I know we've all had our little disagreements in the past. The time has come to put those aside and look toward the future. Because if we don't, we won't have one. Now we do have two very valuable bargaining chips; Michael, and Lucifer's vessels, and a couple of their close associates into the bargain. The question is, what do we do now? Anybody have any bright ideas? Speak up. This is a safe room."
One of the gods- an overweight Japanese-looking figure- said something in an angry tone that didn't give any of the hunters the sense that he liked them
"Kill 'em?" the fat dark-skinned man on the other side of the table asked. "What, so the angels can bring them back again?"
"I don't know what everybody's getting so worked up about!" an old man said, this man wearing a fur-lined leather coat in contrast to the suits and evening dresses of the other gods around the table. "'Cause it's just a couple of angels having a slap fight! There's no Armageddon. Everybody knows, when the world comes to an end, the Great Serpent Jormungandr rises up, and I myself will be eaten by a big wolf!"
"…Odin?" Ellen looked at the old man in surprise before glancing back at Bela. "If that's Odin, isn't he meant to have one eye?"
"Maybe he got a glass one rather than stick with the eyepatch?" Sam observed as the overweight foreign god spoke again.
"Oh yeah? And why is that?" the apparent Odin responded. "Because your beliefs are so much more realistic? The whole world's getting carried around on the back of a giant turtle? Ha! Give me a break!"
"This is getting ridiculous," Bela shook her head as the foreign god spoke again, which somehow degenerated into the other god arguing with Odin while Bela glanced over at the others before jerking her head towards the door. As the other attending gods watched the argument between Odin and the other god, the quartet of hunters tried to move towards the door, before a chandelier suddenly fell into the middle of the room with a loud crash.
"Stay," an unfamiliar dark-skinned woman in a red dress said, standing up to glare at the hunters before she turned her attention back to the surrounding gods. "We have to fight. The archangels… the only thing they understand is violence. This ends in blood. There is no other way; it's them, or us."
"With all due respect, ma'am, we haven't even tried talking to them," the god who had been the concierge began, before he started choking up blood and clutching at his throat as she glared at him.
"Kali!" the original speaker said.
"Who asked you?" the apparent Kali said, still glaring coldly at the other god even as he stopped coughing.
Before anyone else could say anything, the door swung open behind them and a figure walked in, dressed in a casual leather jacket and blue shirt, smiling around the table.
"Can't we all just get along?" the new arrival said, as Dean and Sam looked at the new arrival in shock. Dean began to say something before the new arrival held up his fingers and Dean was suddenly holding his throat as though surprised at the loss of his voice. "Sam, Dean, it's always wrong place wrong time with you muttonheads, isn't it?"
"Loki," the original speaker said. The name at least answered Bela's immediate question about the new arrival's identity- she recalled Dean telling her how they'd learned that the Trickster they'd encountered in the past was actually the archangel Gabriel in his own personal form of 'witness protection'- but she suddenly wasn't sure what Ellen knew about this guy…
"Baldur," Loki/Gabriel said (Bela had to wonder where some of the Norse myths even came from if Baldur wasn't dead). "Good seeing you too. I guess my invitation got lost in the mail."
"Why are you here?" Baldur said.
"To talk about the elephant in the room," the new arrival said nonchalantly, waving an apologetic hand at the overweight dark-skinned man as he stood up. "Not you; the Apocalypse. We can't stop it gang, but first things first. The adults need to have a little conversation; check you later."
The disguised archangel snapped his fingers-
The four hunters found themselves standing in a hotel room, looking anxiously around themselves before they had confirmed there were no tricks or traps awaiting them here.
"OK," Ellen looked firmly at Dean and Sam, "if we've been sent out, what the Hell does that Loki guy not want you to tell everyone else?"
"Probably that he's not Loki," Sam responded. "He's Gabriel."
"Gabriel?" Ellen repeated, shaking her head in confusion. "As in the angel?"
"The archangel," Bela nodded in recollection as she looked at the Winchesters for clarification. "You mentioned that; he's in… witness protection, right?"
"Witness protection?" Ellen repeated incredulously. "You sods seriously… what would an angel need with witness protection?"
"He basically decided to stay out of the whole Apocalypse thing after his brothers started trying to beat the crap out of each other," Dean explained.
"Right…" Ellen nodded, shaking her head in exasperation. "The one archangel who doesn't want the Apocalypse just decided to cut and run… So what do we do now?"
"…Get those saps out of the freezer?" Dean suggested tentatively. "Bust 'em out? Gank a few freaks along the way if we're lucky?"
"And when are you ever lucky?" Gabriel's voice said, the four humans turning around to see Gabriel sitting nonchalantly in the corner of the room.
"You know what?" Dean glared at the other man. "Bite me, Gabriel."
"Maybe later, big boy," the undercover archangel smirked.
"I should've known," Dean said bitterly. "I mean, this had your stink all over it from the jump-"
"You think I'm behind this?" Gabriel shook his head as he stood up. "Please, I'm the Costner to your Houston; I'm here to save your ass."
"You're going to save us?" Bela looked at him in surprise. "I thought you told Dean and Sam you were staying out of this mess?"
"Ah, the delectable Bela Talbot, I presume?" Gabriel grinned at her. "A pleasure to meet the mother of the next generation-"
"My daughter will not be Michael's next vessel!" Bela cut him off with a firm glare.
"Never intended to imply otherwise," Gabriel raised his hands nonchalantly before he turned to Ellen. "And Ellen Harvelle, correct? Basically the badass mommy hunter to these disreputable sods?"
"Get to the point," Ellen folded her arms and fixing the angel with a cold stare as though he was just a troublesome customer from the Roadhouse. "You're getting us out of here?"
"Bingo!" Gabriel affirmed with a snap of his fingers. "Those guys are either gonna dust the Winchesters or use them as bait, while keeping you two lovely ladies around to keep them contained; either way, you're uber boned."
"After all that crap a few months ago about us needing to 'play our roles'?" Dean countered.
"Oh, the end's still nigh," Gabriel conceded. "Michael and Lucifer are gonna dance the lambada, but not tonight; not here."
"And why do you care?" Ellen asked.
"I don't," Gabriel said, suddenly shifting awkwardly as he stood in front of the group. "But… me and Kali, we, uh, had a thing; chick was all hands. What can I say? I'm sentimental."
"She got jiggy with you when she thought you were some Norse trickster?" Ellen asked.
"They don't exactly spend all their time either beating the crap out of each other or killing people, you know."
"Do they have a chance?" Sam asked. "Against Satan."
"Wh- oh, you've got to be kiddin' me," Ellen looked over at Sam. "You think we can do a Godzilla/King Kong match-up here?"
"And it's a bad idea anyway," Gabriel cut in firmly. "Lucifer's gonna turn them into finger paint, so let's get going while the going's good, mmm?"
"OK, great," Dean said. "Why don't you just zap us outta here then?"
"Would if I could," Gabriel shrugged, "but Kali's got you by the short and curlies. It's a blood spell; you boys are on a leash."
"We're stuck here as long as she wants us here?" Bela asked.
"Bingo; no way outta this place unless she lets you go," Gabriel confirmed, pulling a small phial of breath spray out of his pocket to spritz his mouth. "Which means it's time for a bit of the old black magic."
"OK, that works," Ellen nodded. "You get the blood spell down, we empty that freezer down below-"
"Yeah, that's not gonna work," Gabriel cut her off as he held up his finger. "It's gonna be hard enough pullin' this off for just you four mooks-"
"Unless you want them to know that this little 'Loki' alias you've got going for yourself is just that," Bela cut in with a foreboding smile.
"You wouldn't," Gabriel countered, his smirk faltering into a cooler glare.
"Help us get those people out, and the anti-angel crowd down below will never have to know what you really are," Sam nodded, picking up on Bela's train of thought.
"I'll take your voices away."
"We'll write it down," Dean retorted.
"I'll cut off your hands."
"Well, then people are gonna be asking 'Why are you guys running around with no hands'?"
"Which won't stop us getting a pencil in our mouths and writing it that way," Ellen added.
"And I can try and break out my old interpretive dance skills," Bela grinned.
"Interpretive dance?" Dean looked at his partner with an amused smile.
"My mother took lessons when she was a child and taught me a few things," Bela noted. "Granted, I'm probably a bit rusty, but I think I can pull something off when those gods will certainly be curious about what happened to us…"
"Fine," Gabriel groaned in exasperation. "I'll… see what I can do."
"Thank you," Bela nodded politely at the archangel.
Granted, she wasn't sure if she could actually 'mime' the idea that Loki was Gabriel to the gods, but the idea that she could at least seemed to be making him think.
Here's hoping that's enough incentive for him to help us get everyone to safety…