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That being said, enjoy.
Chapter 9:
Dean struggled to contain his shock and as is the norm with him, he hid the unpleasant emotion under the veneer of anger. But before he could act on it, Crowley took hold of Dean's forearm, freezing him in place, literally and figuratively.
"Anubis."
A smile spread on the being's face while Dean whipped around to face the Crossroad demon.
"Anubis?! I thought Anubis was the Egyptian God of the Dead or something and not a trickster."
"I'm both. I admit that it kind of gets weird when you are both parent and child." Anubis cuts in airily.
"What?" Crowley and Dean asked simultaneously and then shot each other looks.
"Cute." Anubis said with a chuckle.
"To the Egyptians I'm both Set and Anubis. The Norse believes me to be both Loki and Hel. Dolos and Hades to the Greek. Chaos and Death. Trickster and Guide to the Dead." he continued in the same breezy fashion that he had maintained since the beginning of that particular conversation, very much unlike the barely contained energy that the being had exuded during the hunter's previous run-ins with the demi-god.
"Not a demi-god, not really. It's easier to deal with dead people in the form they believe Death takes. Else they fall into denial and make my job infinitely harder. You really ought to try collecting the souls of devout grannies. They get into such a fuss and will try hitting you with weapon-class hand bags. Not fun, not at all." Anubis said reading the flustered hunter's thoughts.
Dean's expression twisted when he realized what had happened. Then his mind caught up with what the Trickster-or-whatever-he-was said. "Wait a sec. If you're not a demigod then what are you?"
"The angel of Death and Resurrection." A deep voice answered behind them.
Sam and Cain found themselves standing outside a dilapidated diner. It was such a derelict place that they were wary of entering. While Cain had sensed a presence possibly stronger than his King himself, he was more worried about the whole shack tumbling down onto their heads than the presence. While it wouldn't do any damage to himself, he didn't want to explain to the Morningstar why his true vessel was dead. Cain was forcibly brought to the end of his musings when Sam drew in a deep breath and entered the shack, ducking to fit through the low door. Internally cursing, Cain went after the reckless human.
Sam stepped through the door to find a lone table in the entire- surprisingly spacious-hall. Even more disturbing was the fact that the person no, Being, sitting at the table was being served by a ghost. Even though he lacked Cain's ability to sense people, every instinct in his body was screaming at him to not cross the Being in front of him.
"Sam Winchester and Cain, Son of Adam. You are here to request my aid in dealing with The Beast of Hell. Am I correct?" the being asked languidly. The nonchalant modulation of his voice was belied by the shrewd eyes raking across them, taking in their every move and expression.
"Yes." Sam answered uncertainly.
"The answer to your request is a resounding no. Both you and your brother have escaped from my clutches through deals with petty crossroad demons. I don't appreciate those who play with the balance of the world, human." he hissed out.
Then Sam saw the light. "You're Death."
"Indeed, that I am. God gave you my message, didn't he?"
"That's not all he gave us." Sam replied unsteadily, his voice refusing to rise above a barely heard whisper, much to his frustration.
Death's eyes blazed with a sudden fury. It was so fierce that Cain was momentarily worried for the young hunter. He relaxed when Death's expression changed into something closer to apprehension and annoyance. "As much as I dislike you and your infernal sibling, I'll have to agree to help. It is not, and I state this clearly, because of your pathetic attempt at convincing me to help. It is because if the Beast is free to do as it pleases, the death toll will be high and my reapers are over worked as it is. Do I make myself clear?" Death said almost hissing out the last part.
"Crystal." Sam and Cain replied in unison.
"Very well, let us leave before your brother and the King of Crossroads gets turned into frogs or something." Death said in an irritating voice.
So that's were Raphael picked it up from, thought Cain amusedly.
Sam's thoughts too were amused but not for the same reason.
For all his insistence on how our attempt at convincing him to help was pathetic, we didn't have to do much now, did we?
Cain smothered a laugh when he picked up that thought from his charge's mind.
Crowley spun around to face the new entity while Dean struggled to get a look behind him. Being stuck in a body bind neck below sucked, he thought. Crowley seeing the pitiful attempts took mercy on Dean and released him from the bind and bowed deeply at the being trying to keep the distaste the action caused him off his face. He raised himself and asked "What brings you here, Death?"
"A bunch of harassing humans thought they could annoy me into doing something I don't want to. I thought I could dump it on my PA here but turns out you are harassing him as well." Death replied with a rumble.
"Huh, so you were actually Azrael?" Cain asked sounding vaguely impressed. The angel opened his mouth to answer but was beaten by Death.
"Azrael is an intern. This one is my PA. There's a difference." Death replied with a snort and muttered something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like pathetic humans.
Cain levelled an unimpressed stare towards Death. He said "Technically, I am a demon. So is Crowley there. That aside, are you saying that there are multiple angels of Death? I thought angels had exclusive titles." in his usual curt, no-nonsense manner.
"Azrael is the angel of Death. This one here is the Archangel of Death and Resurrection. There's a difference." Death answered slowly, as though explaining things to a very slow toddler. "God decided to give this one to me as a part-time Personal Assistant. Then you humans spawned at a ridiculous rate and even with all the reapers we couldn't deal with the influx of souls. So Azrael was created to aid us. That sums up about everything."
"Archangel? Please tell me you aren't Michael." Dean asked tiredly.
"With the cage opening, I would have thought Lucifer was the bigger threat." the Archangel asked with a raised eyebrow.
"We met the Devil. He doesn't seem that bad. At least, he isn't interested in ending the world." Sam replied with a shrug.
"So you found out about the Beast, huh."
"Yup. How do you know about it? Even Raphael thought it was Lucifer who had been in that cage."
"Perks of being the Messenger I suppose. You can't channel all that omniscience for as long as I have without picking up a few party tricks."
"Messenger? Wait a second, Gabriel?" Cain asked incredulously.
"In the flesh."
"You do know that Raphael's called dibs on punching you in the face for the whole death stunt you pulled, right?" Cain asked the shock leaving his voice to give way to amusement.
"Wait a sec. How do you know that?" Sam asked turning to face the Hell Knight.
"The Morningstar told me."
"Which means he's called the dibs on the second punch?" Gabriel sounded resigned.
Cain merely nodded at the Archangel.
A/N:
1. Special thanks to Auroras Black, Sourai-ken, storylover1981, titihervieux, CzarZelinsky, S4vvy, and arik4326.
2. Feel free to send your opinions, suggestions and criticism.
3. Minor edits done on 28 October 2020.