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
"So," Kali looked coolly at Sam as Ellen sat off to the side, the older woman clearly dismissed by the gods, "you're going to summon Lucifer?"
"Sort of," Sam observed. "I just need you to squeegee some stuff from my ribs and he'll come running."
"What?" Ellen looked sceptically at Sam.
"Cas put Enochian sigils on our ribs to block angels from finding us-"
"Which means we could just break them-" Kali began, before Dean walked into the room with a cool glare.
"Show's over," he said. "Sword's a fake, and Gabriel's still kicking. I hate to break it to you, sister, but you've been tricked."
"What?" Kali looked pointedly at Dean.
"Yeah, Gabe gave me the 411 on his own plan before he cut out of here," the elder Winchester said grimly. "That archangel blade's useless, but maybe we can hold the prick off with the standard models now that you're backing us up-"
The lights began to flicker above them, prompting an anxious glance upwards from Balder before they heard the sound of screams from further in the hotel.
"What's happening?" Baldur asked, before a strangled scream was heard from further in the hotel.
"It's him," Sam said grimly, as bloody 'explosions' and further screams reached their ears, each one growing worryingly closer.
"How?" Kali asked.
"Does it matter?" Dean said. "Shazam us outta here, would ya?"
"We can't," Baldur said, walking up to the door of the conference room just as Lucifer walked in, his vessel now displaying what looked like sores around a pale face.
"Of course you can't," Lucifer said. "You didn't say 'Mother, may I'?"
"You're really doing that?" Ellen spat out before she slapped a hand over her mouth, looking anxiously at the devil before her.
"Ellen Harvelle, I believe?" Lucifer nodded at her before he turned to the Winchesters. "Sam, Dean; good to see you again."
"Baldur, don't," Kali said warningly, even as the other god stood before Lucifer.
"You think you own the planet?" Baldur proclaimed. "What gives you the right?"
As the hunters and Kali watched, Baldur walked up to Lucifer, only to be met with a sickening crunch as Lucifer plunged his hand into Baldur's chest.
"No one gives us the right," Lucifer observed, as the dying Baldur stared at his killer in shock. "We take it."
With those words, Lucifer turned to face Kali as the last goddess standing was suddenly engulfed in fire before she hurled the flames at Lucifer, leaving the hunters to dive for whatever cover they could find under the nearest table. When the flames had faded, they looked up to see Kali attempting to attack Lucifer with her still-blazing arms, only for the archangel to punch Kali and send her flying. Sam was just about to ask for ideas when the door to the conference room opened once more.
"Lucy, I'm home," Gabriel said, blade in one hand and the other outstretched, hurling Lucifer to the other side of the room.
"You're stepping up, huh?" Ellen asked as she and the Winchesters got to their feet.
"Better late than never, huh?" Gabriel responded, as he passed a DVD to Dean and helped Kali to her feet. "Guard this with your life, and get her outta here."
Out of options, the three hunters ran for the door as Gabriel stood between them and Lucifer with his angel blade in one hand, Kali beside Ellen as they left the hotel. The goddess put up a token protest as she got into Ellen's truck, but it was clear that she had no serious objection to the situation as the two cars pulled away from the hotel.
"Where's Gabriel?" Bela asked from her position in the Impala's back seat, the Winchesters in the front as they rapidly drove away from the building.
"Facing off with Lucifer," Sam replied grimly.
"And if he can't take the bastard down now, we're pretty much out of options," Dean said grimly, hands tightening on the wheel before he looked back at Bela. "And what are you doing here?"
"Gabriel… when he left, he said that he sensed Lucifer on his way," Bela explained awkwardly. "Considering that we don't exactly want to advertise that Lucifer can't sense me, he suggested that I should just… stay out here until you could all get away."
"Fair enough," Sam smiled slightly at her, turning back as the Impala settled onto a straight stretch of road. "So… that was a bust, huh?"
"We've lost two of our best chances to stop Lucy without just turning Michael on him and hoping it all works out, and now we're even more screwed," Dean nodded, his tensed shoulders giving the impression that he would have hit something if he hadn't been driving. "I'd say we're running out of options, but we didn't exactly have options to start with-"
Conversation was cut short when Bela's head suddenly reeled backwards and her eyes and mouth glowed a brilliant white, prompting Dean to slam on the brakes as he and Sam turned to look anxiously at her.
"What the Hell?" Dean yelled as the glow faded from Bela's eyes. "What just-?"
"Nothing big, Dean-o," Bela replied, a teasing grin on her face as she looked at him. "Just decided to switch for a few minutes."
Dean didn't know if he should laugh or yell at this turn of events.
The way Bela was looking at him… the way she'd said his name…
"…Gabriel?" Sam looked uncertainly at Bela.
"In the flesh," 'Bela' nodded at Sam with a grin before 'she' looked down at 'herself'. "Although maybe 'Gabriela' would be more appropriate right now-"
"What the hell are you doing-?" Dean began.
"Now, before you get all worked up about this, I feel obligated to clarify that not only will this just be a temporary measure, but it was all her idea in the first place," 'Gabriela' held up her hands with a reassuring smile.
"What?" the Winchesters said simultaneously.
"Yeah, she told me about how her demonic former daddy tried to capture her in the hope that she could be a temporary vessel for old Luci because of her kid giving her vessel-esque traits, and asked if it would be possible for me to pull that off if she gave me permission," the now-female archangel explained. "It's only good for a few minutes unless I want to put the kid at risk, but that's enough for what she was thinking."
"Which is?"
"I fake my death," the archangel grinned.
"You faked your death?" Dean asked. "After all that-?"
"Look, I tried to take him down, but Luci caught me off-guard and stabbed me in the gut; it was bail out and make my departure look like my death or stay in my vessel and really bite the bullet," 'Gabriela' protested, winching as 'she' placed a hand on 'her' ribs just between the baby bump and 'her' breasts. "Point is that I managed to time my ditching the old vessel so that my psycho bro managed to damage my Grace without doing enough to actually kill me, which means I'm not going to be in fighting shape for a few weeks until I can heal the damage, but does give him the illusion that he took me off the board while I give you all another idea before I go back and get my true vessel to safety."
"And we should believe this?" Dean asked. "After you were all 'play your roles' last time?"
"Seriously," 'Gabriela' said, shaking her head with an exasperated smile, "as much as I loved my brother, these days, he's one big bag of dicks, and Mikey and Raph aren't much better. I mean, the guy was Dad's favourite back in the day, but then the new baby comes along and all he can do is complain about how he's lost his place…"
The archangel shook 'her' head in exasperation. "When you get down to it, the guy might call you 'broken, flawed abortions', but at least some of you try to be better; Bela alone's gone from being a self-centred bitch to putting herself at risk to try and help other people, and you can't tell me that's just because Dean's such a-"
"The point?" Dean cut the archangel off with an indignant glare.
"OK, sensitive topic," 'Gabriela' conceded before he continued. "Anyway, like I was saying, I can't help you kill Lucifer in this state before he decides to try and wage the Apocalypse on his own, and with me off the board there's not exactly an alternative beyond letting Michael to his thing, but there is another option."
"What?" Sam asked.
"The cage you sprung Lucifer from?" 'Gabriela' continued. "It's still down there, and maybe, just maybe, you can shove his ass back in. Not that it'll be easy; you gotta get the cage open, trick my bro back into it, and, uh, oh yeah, avoid Michael and the God Squad. But hey, details, right?"
"I'll be damned…" Sam said, grinning as he looked between Dean and the angel. "That could actually work."
"And even better?" 'Gabriela' grinned encouragingly at the Winchesters. "Lucifer himself doesn't even know that the keys to the cage are out here."
"Keys?" Dean looked sharply at the archangel. "Lemme guess; that's the catch?"
"Bingo," the archangel nodded with a more solemn expression that Dean still wasn't used to seeing on Bela's face after over a year in a relationship with her. "To be precise, it's four keys in the form of the four rings of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse."
"The Horsemens' rings?" Dean looked at 'Gabriela' incredulously.
"Guess Dad wanted a way to get Luci out if the guy was sorry that didn't require him to kill people," 'Gabriela' shrugged. "It works two ways, but I obviously can't give you any pointers on how to get those rings or get my brother to go into that cage in the first place, but hey; you've pulled off the impossible before, right?"
"Is that-?" Dean began, before 'Gabriela' suddenly vanished from the back of the car, prompting a frustrated yell from Dean before the woman was back in the rear seat, her head leaning back as a brilliant white stream emerged from Bela's mouth. Dean slammed on the brakes to watch as the glow hit the roof of the car and then vanished, leaving Bela to look between the brothers.
"…Hi?" she said tentatively.
"That's-?" Dean began.
"It's me," Bela nodded.
"Gabriel?" Sam asked.
"Used me to get his vessel's body somewhere safe, and then brought me back here so that he could go off and focus on healing his vessel and himself," Bela explained. "He'll let us know when he's back to fighting shape-"
"And what the Hell were you thinking?" Dean cut her off. "We've been fightin' not to say yes to these guys for the last year-!"
"I had an opportunity to help an ally-"
"By letting him go for a ride inside you?"
"That sounds a lot dirtier than it really should-"
"This is no time for jokes, Sam; this is my goddamn kid we're talking about here!" Dean yelled. "You can't just-!"
"Can't what?" Bela countered. "Take the big risks to save the world? Put my life on the line to save other people? You do it all the time, and I'm sorry that I had to put Johanna at risk too, but it was the best way to give Gabriel a chance!"
"I… it's just…" Dean began, before he trailed off and slumped back into the driver's seat in exasperation. "Damnit, why can't I just be angry at you?"
"That's our relationship," Bela grinned, reaching over to caress his face with a warm grin. "We've got a very volatile dynamic."
"But it works for us," Dean nodded, grinning back at the ex-thief before he sighed and looked solemnly between his brother and his lover. "Well… if we're gonna do this, at least we've already got War and Famine's rings; all we need now is Pestilence and Death's."
"It's… a plan," Sam nodded tentatively.
Gabriel may not be able to help them out in the upcoming confrontation until he had healed, but Dean felt slightly better now that they at least had a tentative plan beyond 'don't say Yes to the archangels'…
AN: And before anyone asks, Bela being Gabriel's temporary emergency vessel is not her secret 'anti-Lucifer' plan that she's been working on since Carthage; that particular card is still to be played…
