This chapter was inspired by the song Rise and Fall by The Rigs.
Two weeks had passed since Logan had left the Roadhouse to track down a lead on a Djinn, which he had finished just before finding hints of a Woman in White the next state over. Once both cases were wrapped up and he had nothing else on his radar, he'd headed back toward Nebraska. He normally didn't mind being constantly out on the road, but at the moment all he wanted to do was see a familiar face and get blatantly drunk. In the short time he'd known Ana he had grown to like her, even consider her a friend, she had saved his ass more than once when he needed help looking for a hunt or giving pointers when he was lost. Pulling into the small parking area, Logan glanced around at the few vehicles that were already there, it seemed that business was finally picking up. Jumping out of the cab of his old truck, he slammed the door shut before making his way closer to the door, his eyes scanning the inside through the windows. When he saw Ana standing behind the bar with a smile on her face he grinned slightly, that girl's happiness was infectious, which was one of the reasons why hunters came back to the place. It wasn't often you came across someone who knew about all the crazy crap in the world and could still smile like a kid at Disneyland.
The bar wasn't too busy, looked like there were only about ten people, but he wasn't going to count. The hazel eyes that met his once the sound of the bell above the door filled the room pulled his attention elsewhere. Moving toward the bar, he took a seat and waited for Ana to make her way around to him. He watched as she served a couple of drinks to two men sitting on the other end of the bar before she walked over to the tall fridge near the cash register, grabbed his preferred beer, and came walking toward him. "Aww, you remember my order." he teased as she set the bottle down in front of him.
Ana scoffed, "Well it wasn't hard to remember what with how much time you spent here drinking it." she retorted. Things had been picking up slowly since Logan had been there last, this wasn't the busiest she had been, but there had only been one night where she hadn't had any customers. Thankfully the hunters that had come in looking for a place to regroup before taking off on their next hunt seemed to approve and because of that word was spreading faster.
"Valid point." he agreed after taking a long drink from the bottle. The drive had been a long one, probably too long to warrant it being worth the gas and time, but Logan didn't care. Something about being back at the Roadhouse felt like home, even if Ellen and Jo were gone and it wasn't exactly the same. Then there was the new owner, she had caught his attention to say the least and not just in the way he was sure she caught most men's attention. She was beautiful, dark coloring of her eyes and hair making her fair skin seem a little lighter and though she didn't act like it, she was lethal. Logan hadn't seen it for himself, but when she wore shorts or tank tops it was easy to see the toned muscle that was associated with being good at the job. Underneath all of that though, he could tell that there was something else, something she kept hidden under lock and key, and he wanted to know what it was.
"You're normal room is open if you plan on sticking around. I'll be closing down in a bit, need anything else before I go check on the others?" She asked, knowing that sometimes he'd get something harder to go along with his beer.
He shook his head, "I'm good for now, thanks Ana."
With a quick nod and a smile, she turned from him and moved toward the group of three hunters that were sitting around a table near the center of the room. It wasn't often she got lone hunters in here that would group together and chat like these three were, but there was a first time for everything. "How are you doing, fellas?" she questioned, taking a look at their drinks to see if they were in need of refills.
"I think we're calling it quits for the night, miss." One of the men spoke up, all three seemed to be rather old for being working hunters. Or at least she assumed they were. John, Bobby, and Rufus were the only men she had seen reach over forty-five and still actively hunt or even be left alive after years on the job. Though they were each now dead, they had made it a lot longer than most hunters did.
"Say, can we ask you a couple of questions?" One of the other men asked, giving her a slightly tense look.
Ana nodded as she pulled out the fourth chair at the table and took a seat on it, "What can I help you with?" she raised an eyebrow. It wasn't unknown that she had been a hunter before she'd opened the bar back up so it was often that she got stopped and asked things by the patrons. Sometimes it was things to test her, the hunters wanting to make sure she was the real deal and knew what she was talking about. Other times it was when a hunter was truly lost on a case and needed a fresh set of eyes to look the evidence over.
"You hear a lot more than we do with these other hunters in and out of here. We've been noticing demonic omens picking up everywhere. Widespread and heavy hitting stuff." The same man spoke, his hand pushing through the thick, black scruff that lined his face as he spoke. "We were wondering if you'd heard anything about what's going on. We've been sitting here trying to come up with ideas, but we've got nothing."
The first man that had spoke to her scoffed, "We have something, but you just won't listen." He leaned forward in his chair, eyes setting on Ana as if the next thing he was going to say would be the most important words to come out of his mouth. "I've been telling these two that this is all really similar to what happened a few years back with those Winchester boys. It's apocalyptic signs."
Ana's breath caught in her throat, if these signs were as bad as these men were saying they were, if they were so similar to what happened when Lucifer was released the first time she could only assume that it all meant one thing. "I have noticed the pick up of demonic activity, but my reach isn't that wide, I've only been getting information on the stuff near here. I can sure look into it for you guys, but if it's another apocalypse it wouldn't surprise me if the Winchesters knew something. Someone may need to give them a call." she offered with a soft smile, before standing up slowly, forcing herself to stay controlled. "If you'll excuse me I need to check on the rest of the customers." Giving the room one last walk through, she made her way back toward the bar where Logan sat. "Can you watch everything? I need to go check on something upstairs." He had helped her out around the place before and she trusted him to keep an eye on things while she went to check out the demon omens she had just learned of.
"Yeah, of course." Logan had watched her talk to the men at the table and noticed when something they said made her noticeably pale. Waiting until she was clear of the room, he stood up with his beer in hand and walked over to the men. "Sorry to intrude, but I was just wondering if you could fill me in on what you asked Ana?"
"The young gal?" One of the men asked him, waiting for a nod before continuing, "We were hoping she'd heard something more on the onslaught of demon omens."
Logan's brow furrowed, demons were scary bastards that was certain, but she seemed more afraid of something bigger than some demons. "Thank you." he told them before moving back toward the bar and giving the clock a glance, it was a little earlier than it normally was when they gave last call, but he needed to go check on Ana and the sooner he got these people either out of here or to one of the rooms in back the sooner he could do that.
Once upstairs, Ana grabbed her laptop and set it on the small kitchen table. It didn't take her long to find the information on the omens the men had been talking about, the only reason she hadn't noticed them before was because she prefered to get most of her information from the hunters that came in or on the local news. This was bad, though, these were big signs of something evil and her only thoughts were of Lucifer and Michael. "Shit shit shit!" She swore, this was not good. Trying to think her way through it, she stood up and began to pace, "It's just omens, no mass death yet. Which means that they're still in the cage and that there's still time, but if I even went back could we stop it? Maybe if Gadreel was dead, maybe that would end it, but then again maybe not, he has enough followers that someone could finish whatever plan and then we're fucked."
Logan had walked into Ana's apartment, she had left the door wide open and he could tell that she was worked up about something when she stood and began to talk to herself. She was talking fast and a lot of it was mumbled, but he picked up on most of it. "Woah, slow down. Who's in what cage? And who is Gadreel? What are you trying to stop, Ana?"
Spinning around quickly, Ana stared at Logan wide eyed, she really needed to pay better attention to her surroundings. "What?" she questioned, as if she had no idea what he was talking about when she had clearly heard the words come out of his mouth. "Aren't you supposed to be watching the bar?"
Logan rolled his eyes, "I made last call a little early. It wasn't like you had many customers and they all left." he shrugged.
"It's pretty late. They all left? No one took a room?" She questioned, though she was positive that no one had been drunk when she left, it still seemed weird that everyone would leave like that this late in the night.
"Yeah, it sounded like they all had hunts to start up on. They were just passing through." He told her, knowing that each of the hunters that had been there knew well enough that they were welcome to stay if they wanted to. "Now will you tell me what you're wound up so tight over?"
Ana shook her head, "Nothing you need to worry about. I should go clean up the bar." she muttered, pushing passed him and making her way down the stairs in a hurry. Standing in the empty room, she glanced around it before moving toward the kitchen to grab a large container that she could use to collect the empty glasses and beer bottles.
Logan had waited a moment before following her, wondering if she really thought that he would just let it drop. Just as he stepped off of the last stair, Ana walked back into the room and began to clear off the few tables that had been used. "You said we were fucked. I'm assuming that we encompassed most of the world." he moved over to her and stepped in her way before she could move on to the next table. "You know something, Ana, what's going on?"
She tried to move around him, but he quickly stepped in her way again. "Look, I don't know for sure, alright? There are other possibilities and things I need to check out before anyone needs to go freaking out about what's happening."
"But you're freaking out about what's happening. Just tell me." Logan grabbed the container out of her hands and set it on the nearest table. "Ana, you're shaking. Whatever you think is going on is obviously scaring the crap out of you, so just tell me."
With a sigh, she rubbed her eyes with her fingertips, glad that she hadn't worn much makeup that day. "One condition." she told him, turning her head to look out the window into the dark night. A storm was moving in, lightening already lighting up part of the sky. "Call Garth and ask him about the omens first, then I'll explain what I think is going on."
Logan frowned at her, "Why can't you call, Garth?"
"Just do it, Logan." Ana snapped, moving her eyes away from the window to glance at him before picking the container back up and moving to clear off the other two tables that had been used.
Logan watched as she moved toward the bar to clear off the used glasses on their, considering his option. He could continue to argue with her to get his answers or he could do as she asked, call Garth and get some answers about the omens that had been escalating. Grumbling, he pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialed Garth's number.
"Put him on speaker." Ana told him, once she saw that he was actually going to do it. She finished clearing off the bar and then set the container to the side, waiting for Logan to do as she asked.
He walked over to the bar, his phone to his ear until it began to ring and then he placed it on speaker. Stopping on the opposite side of the bar of Ana, he placed the phone on the surrface between them as it continued to ring. "Logan." Garth's voice filtered through the speaker, "How was the Woman in White?"
Logan sighed, "A bitch to take down, but most of 'em are that way." he glanced up at Ana, "I was wondering if you had any idea of what was going on with the demon omens." There was a pause on the line, he and Ana both stared at the device.
"I don't know much, just that they're picking up in pace and that they're a little worse than the normal omens." Garth finally answered.
Logan answered his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by Ana. "Don't lie, Garth. These omens aren't just a little worse, they're freaking bad. Now tell me what you know."
"Ana?" Garth's voice was filled with shock and the tone made Logan glanced up at the girl in front of him in question, "Anastasia Winchester, do you have any damn idea how worried we've all been looking for you?!" he yelled, knowing very well who the voice on the other side of the phone call belonged to.
"Winchester?" Logan almost spat the word, his eyebrows knitting together as he tried to figure out what was going on.
She sighed, "This is not the time for a lecture, Garth. I need to know, how close are they to opening the cage?"
"How close?! You've been gone for close to three months! How damn close do you think they are?!" Garth snapped, "Your dad, Sam, and Charlie have been trying to keep track of things, but they haven't been able to get a solid lead on Gadreel or Jade."
Ana swore under her breath, this was worse than she thought. "What about Gabe and Cas? They haven't been able to find anything either?"
"Nothing. Which isn't surprising since everyone's focus is split between trying to keep track of what's going on with the Devil and trying to find you." Garth paused, "I'm going to call and tell them where you are, you know that, right?"
"Don't bother." She told him, glancing up to see Logan glaring at her with a frown, "I'm going to call him myself once we're finished."
Garth sighed in relief, not wanting to deal with the wrath of an angry Dean Winchester once he was given the information on his daughter. "Good, then we're done. Call him, Ana." With those words the call was ended.
Ana reached for Logan's phone, intending on using it to call her father, but it was snatched off of the bar before she got the chance. "You lied to me!" he claimed, "You're Ana Winchester!" he looked her over, wondering where her red hair and green eyes went to. Hair dye was easy enough to come by, but it seemed like a lot of trouble to go through with wearing colored contacts.
"Yes, I lied to you, and I'm probably not the first hunter that has." She raised an eyebrow at him, "I promise I'll explain everything once I call my dad, which I can do with your phone or the landline." she pointed out, wondering if he planned to keep her locked in the conversation by forbidding her to use his phone.
Logan handed over his cell phone, still glaring at her, "Put it on speaker." he repeated her words, not wanting anymore lies. If something big was going down, he wouldn't be left out of any information.
Nodding, Ana dialed her father's number from memory and set it back down on the bar. She clasped her hands together, trying to keep them still as she waited for Dean to answer the phone, this was not going to be an easy phone call.
"Hello?" His deep voice carried over the line and Ana almost lost it then, she didn't realize how much she missed her father until just that moment.
"Dad?" Her voice wavered, she knew that he was going to be so mad at her for running off the way she did, for staying out of contact with any of them for months. "Dad, it's me."
There was a small pause, one that was sure to be broken with yelling any moment. "Ana? Where are you? Are you okay? What happened?" the words rolled off of his tongue with no control. An entire state away Dean sat frozen in his chair in the library, eyes staring wide at Sam who sat across from him. It had been months and Dean had been beginning to wonder if they would ever hear from her again and now here she was, calling him sounding scared out of her mind at an ungodly hour of the early morning. The only reason he and Sam were still awake was because they were trying to follow up on a small lead they had on Gadreel.
"I'm fine, dad. I'm at the Roadhouse." Ana paused, wanting to tell him everything that happened while she was gone, but knowing that this wasn't the time for that. "These omens… How bad is it?"
"Put her on speaker." Sam told his brother, listening as Ana asked about the omens. God, it was good to hear her voice. "It's bad, Ana. We haven't been able to keep a solid lead on Gadreel for weeks, they're closer than we hoped they would ever get."
Ana sucked in a deep breath as she listened to her uncle's words, "Of course they are, which means we have little time to prepare for this fight. Where's Connor?"
"Does anyone want to explain to me what exactly is going on?" Logan asked, not being able to keep it in any longer. There was so much talking and he had no idea what the context of it was so none of it made sense.
Dean and Sam shared a look, both at Ana's question and the strange male voice. "Who the hell are you?" Dean snapped, wanting to know who was with his daughter.
"Logan, I told you I would explain once we were off of the phone." Ana shot him a look, the last thing she needed was for there to be some misunderstanding about the random guy she was with. "Logan's a friend dad, a hunter. He was my first customer when I opened up the Roadhouse."
The Winchester brother's looked at each other in shock, they had heard about the Roadhouse being back open, but neither thought that it was Ana's doing. "You reopened the Roadhouse?" Sam questioned, wondering where she came up with the money for that, though it did explain where she'd been.
"Yes, I reopened the Roadhouse." Ana sighed, "Can we please focus? If they're this close to releasing Michael and Lucifer, Connor and I need to be together so we can work on a plan. Where is he?"
"I don't know, he's your soulmate shouldn't you know where he is?" Dean pointed out, frowning at his phone.
"Soulmate?!" Logan looked up at Ana as if she had just grown a horn out of the center of her forehead.
Ana rolled her eyes, "Yes, I have a soulmate, also something we can talk about later. Sam, where is Connor?" she directed the question at her uncle, knowing that he wouldn't play any dumb games with her like Dean was.
Sam glanced at his brother, before looking back toward the phone, "He left about two months ago to go live with the Council. He was in a really bad place after you left."
Closing her eyes, she sighed. Of course Connor had been in a bad place after she left, they had just lost their child, none of them were in a good place. "Okay, I'll find him. We need to get together to figure out a plan, so you guys better get on your way here."
"And why can't you just teleport your ungrateful ass back here?" Dean snapped, now that he knew she was safe he was royally pissed off.
"Because I have a business to run, hunters to give information to, and if the world is going to go ass up there needs to be some place where we can all come together. I'm assuming you don't want every hunter in North America to know where the bunker is at, so this is the next best pla-" Ana paused mid-rant, something at the edge of her senses was tingling and she knew something was off.
"Ana?" Logan questioned, noticing the sudden change.
Ignoring the man in front of her, she released all of her magic from where she had been keeping it hidden inside of her, forcing it to expand and survey the building and the surrounding area. It was an odd feeling, relearning to control her powers since it had been so long since she had used them other than her glamour.
"Ana?" Dean's voice carried over the line filled with worry, "Ana, what is it?" When she still didn't answer, he began to direct his questions to the hunter who was with her. "Hey! What's wrong with my daughter?"
Logan looked back down to the phone, "I don't know, it's like she all of the sudden zoned out." he explained, wondering where her focus had gone.
"Ana!" Dean snapped, worried that she was having a vision.
"Demons." The word was a whisper out of her mouth, "Dad!" she almost yelled as the room was suddenly filled with bodies that hadn't been there moments before. This is what she had felt, this large gathering of demons headed her direction. They not only surrounded the inside, but she could sense them circling the outside as well, apparently they didn't want anyone to escape.
"Ana?!" Dean yelled, not noticing that their connection had been cut until there was no answer. "Ana!" he called again, knowing it was useless. "We need to go." he told Sam, standing up quickly.
"I'll call Cas and Gabe, you go wake up Charlie." Sam instructed, already sending up prayers to both angels. They had finally found Ana and now it seemed that she was in trouble.
Before Ana could react she was being thrown across the room, where she crashed into a wall. She expected to slide toward the floor, but there was a force holding her against the wooden surface. Her eyes scanned the room, looking for the one demon she was sure would be among the rest and there Jade stood in the middle of the room with a wicked grin on her face as she slowly spun to look at Ana. "I've been waiting for this for a while, but I honestly never thought it would be this easy."
Ana glared at the blonde demon, preparing herself to use her magic after months of ignoring its presence. "How did you even get in here? I have this place warded like it's freaking paranormal Fort Knox." she glanced across the room to see that Logan was being held against the bartop by a demon, there was a thin line of blood running down his forehead.
"There are always people willing to do things for the right price, Ana dear, and just imagine that amount of rogue witches I have at my beck and call. All willing to do anything to further our plans for you, to rise our master. Turns out that when you completely ignore the power you've been given that you don't notice other witches as well." Jade bragged over the success of her plan, watching as one of the many demons she had under her orders walked over to the witch and placed iron cuffs around her wrists. With a nod, the demon that held Ana against the wall dropped his hold on her and the witch slid to the ground, landing on her back. "Looks like things are about to get pretty rough for you and your friend over there." She turned her head slightly to look at the male hunter who was being held down by another of her soldiers.
"Well, I guess I should ask now before I die." Ana began, pushing herself into a sitting position with a wince, that fall hadn't been a gentle one. "How many times do I have to prove that coming up against me is a dumb decision?" the question rolled off of her lips just before she slammed her shoulder against the wall, thankful that the demon had pressed her up next to an old painting she had hid an angel blade behind. The demon closest to her lunged, but Ana plunged the blade into her chest before she could do anything. "Also, did you think I wouldn't stock this place up with weapons? I mean, really, what'd you think I did for the month this place was being built?" Once the light was done burning up the demon in front of her, Ana pulled the blade out and stood up. Twirling the weapon in her hand, she grinned at Jade, "I'm done letting you live. Let's finish this."
At her words everything began to move at once. Ana caught a glimpse of Logan fighting back against the demon who was holding him down, but before she could see if he succeeded in getting completely free she was surrounded by demons. This wasn't her first bought with being outnumbered, but it was the first where she had no use of any of her powers. If she and Logan were both going to get out of this alive she would need to get rid of the iron cuffs. With the angel blade held tightly in her hand, she slashed at the demons that were surrounding her with it, sure that this was all about to go downhill when the sound of fluttering wings filled the room.
"Ana!" Dean called from across the room. He, Sam, and Charlie had grabbed their weapons and once Cas and Gabe were there they flew to the Roadhouse.
Looking over at the sound of her father's voice, she missed a punch that was sent toward her abdomen and she swore as the fist connected with her ribs. The sound of gunfire surrounded her, the demons slowly becoming frozen to their spots. Ana straightened up and glanced around, noticing that both Dean and Logan had pistols aimed at the demons that were surrounding her. Looking to the other four people in the room, she smiled slightly as both angels along with Sam and Charlie were already taking care of the demons they could. "Gabe!" Ana called, shoving her arms in the air to show him her wrists. The angel grinned from across the room and with a snap of his fingers the cuffs with gone, "That is so much better." With a wicked grin she shoved all of the demons that were closest to her on the ground with her power, ignoring the wide eyed look Logan was sending her way. Scanning the room, she noticed Jade about halfway across the room, keeping herself out of the immediate fray of battle. Their eyes locked before Ana quickly teleported next to the demon, angel blade driving toward Jade's chest.
Jade blocked the blade with the swipe of her arm, twisting Ana's quickly before bringing her in and slamming her knee into the witch's sternum. Ana lashed out with her power, shoving Jade back as she straightened up painfully, trying to regain the breath that had been knocked out of her body. The demon began to use her power against Ana's, pushing against it to once again get near the witch, but Ana was strong and she pushed harder, focusing her power to lift the demon off of the ground. "Go ahead and kill me, witch. It won't stop Gadreel from raising Michael or Lucifer."
Ana scoffed, glancing down at the angel blade in her hand before looking back up at the demon, "Killing you is just going to have to be enough for tonight." she spoke before throwing the blade, using her magic to sink it into Jade's chest. Watching as the grace within the blade burned up the demon, Ana waited for it to stop before dropping the dead body to the ground. Looking around there were still demons everywhere, her family quickly being overpowered by them. She was moving back into the fray when a familiar power filled the room, catching her off guard, and causing her to lose focus as she looked around. "Connor!" she called, once her eyes landed on him, this would all be so much easier now that he was here. Teleporting over to him Ana looked up into his eyes, noticing how rough he looked, part of her wondered if this would even work. If he was too weak any spell they tried that required a lot from each of them wouldn't be as effective.
Connor gave Ana a long look, wondering why in the world her hair was brown and her eyes resembled Sam's rather than Dean's. With a shake of his head, he told himself he could ask later, right now they needed to get rid of these demons. Offering her his hand, he sucked in a deep breath, this was not going to be easy on his part.
Quickly grabbing his hand with her own, she gave him a soft smile before both of their powers joined in a way they had only a few times before and then escaped out of them in a flash of bright light. It filled the entire room for seconds before it was suddenly gone, leaving those still standing blinking quickly to let their eyes adjust.
Logan was the first to react as he looked around at all of the dead bodies on the floor, "What in the hell was that?" he snapped, turning to look at Ana with wild eyes, not entirely sure if he should be aiming his weapon at the woman he thought he could semi-trust and the man she stood with.
Ana was about to answer when Connor suddenly let go of her hand and scowled down at her, "How is he?" he asked, assuming with the way that the other man was looking at Ana that they had known each other for a while.
Again trying to open her mouth to speak, she was cut off by the sound of her father's voice filling the room. "Anastasia Marie! You have about five seconds to explain to me what the hell you were thinking!"
The young witch groaned, eyes slowly moving from Connor, Logan, Dean, and then to Gabriel who looked like he was waiting for an explanation as well. It was going to be a long night.
A/N: The gang is back together again! Not the best circumstances, but there really aren't any good ones with the way Ana left. That fight scene was a little shorter than I originally planned, but I think the following craziness of Ana trying to explain everything to everyone is going to be much more entertaining. Let me know what you guys think!
Thank you JediCat1965, Happygoddess2003, and elaearien for the reviews. ROADHOUSE! I'm so glad that you're as excited about it as I am. I'd love to know what you think about this chapter! :)
As always, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter :)
Thanks for reading.
