Anna

There was a bright flash of light, a hard tugging sensation in her stomach accompanied by a weightless swooping feeling. Then her feet met solid ground. Cool air echoed in a large space around her, her nearly soundless reverberating against metal. She blinked, trying to clear the vertigo of near instantaneous travel from her head. There was a loud crash somewhere in front of her, the creak of wood splintering and the clang of heavy metal objects hitting the floor.

Anna's head snapped towards the noise, searching for a threat; one hand reaching for the stolen knife she'd strapped to her hip.

A woman with deep red hair stood in the center of a brightly lit garage, several cars sitting around the edges of the space, hoods propped open, tools laid out on tables beside the not-yet classic vehicles. A dark haired man was sprawled across the floor, laying in the debris of a destroyed shelving unit. He groaned loudly, as he slowly turned over, one arm braced under himself. There was something familiar about the man, but Anna shoved the thought to the back of her mind. That is a problem for later. She doesn't see either of the boys. She resisted the urge to swear - which would give away both her arrival and position.

She should have known better than to trust Castiel's angelic mojo.

Anna forces herself to focus. The red headed not-human being in front of her has to be the renegade angel Ana gunning for Sam. Not for the first time, Anna reaches for a sword that isn't there. The boys had brought Eleos with them into the past, but Dean had taken it with him, giving Sam the three sided angel blade from Cas. All she has are a couple of filched combat knives, which are only useful against people, and things that bleed. Not so much help when it comes to an angel.

The man slowly forces himself to his feet, subtly reaching back to grab something from the ground. Anna creeps up behind the angel, moving silently. She waits, spotting the tire iron in the man's hand. He rushes the angel, who weirdly enough doesn't make a move to defend herself, and lands a harsh blow across her face.

Anna doesn't wait for the angel to recover, diving shoulder first into the celestial being. The angel moves out of the way, and Anna rolls as she hits the ground, sweeping her leg under the angel, knocking her off balance. She spun with the movement, boot heels scraping over the concrete floor, giving the man time to wallop the angel a second time, this time getting her across the back of the head. The redhead collapsed to the ground, but before Anna could press her advantage, Ana rolled back to her feet.

This angel is good. Better than Castiel even, and is clearly aiming to kill - something the other angel hadn't been doing the night they'd fought. Anna felt a feral grin curl across her face. This type of violence was familiar. It was almost calming. The two of them stared at each other, the air electric between them as they took each other's measure.

They both exploded into a flurry of movement, and the world sharpened around her as Anna moved. There really was something to be said for demigod reflexes. Anna dodged and weaved, deflecting punches, and redirecting the angel's momentum, trying to avoid taking on a celestial being's strength straight on. She spun, catching the angel's arm and using her momentum against her to hurl her across the garage and into a wall. Anna lunged, panting, not letting up her attack for a minute.

The angel ducked, swung, and kicked at her, every motion fluid and insanely fast - human motions from an inhuman thing. It was eerie on Ana in a way is wasn't on Castiel. Somehow on the less experienced angel those inhuman motions in a human body felt honest. Ana was just wrong enough to be noticable, but if someone didn't know how to look for the inhumanity - and Anna knew how - it was easy to dismiss.

Anna jumped over the kick, twisting as she spun through the air, and landed behind Ana. In one fluid movement she unsheathed her first knife and lunged forward to slice at the angel's midsection. Fabric tore, the blade slicing through her shirt, but the knife was made of steel. It was about as effective trying to cut her with a rolled up newspaper. Might sting, but it's not going to actually hurt her.

Ana was faster than she'd anticipated, and in a flash was leveling a mule kick at her chest. Anna dropped the knife as all the air in her chest was expelled in a rush. But she leaned into the blow and caught the angel's booted foot. Planting her feet, she yanked the angel off balance, sending them both crashing down to the ground. Anna grabbed the knife in her waistband and slammed it through the angel's hand, pinning it to the floor, and moved to straddle her. Ana backhanded her, sending her flying across the room to painfully slam into the side of a car.

Anna's head ached, and she could practically see little cartoon birdies flying around her head. She hissed, as she shifted to her side, trying to push herself back up to her feet. A hand brushed against her shoulder, and Anna grabbed the man's wrist, twisting it viciously. He gasped, eyes wide. Anna let go as if burned. He carefully shook out his hand before reaching down to help her up.

"You ok?" He asked her. The tire iron was still tightly gripped in his other hand. Anna bit back a groan as she got to her feet.

"You should run." She advised him. The man snorted.

"And leave you to get killed by that psycho? Not gonna happen." He informed her crisply. Anna huffed out a laugh.

"I'm Anna." She said, carefully peering around the garage. The knife she'd driven through the angel's hand was still laying bloody on the ground, the concrete where the two of them had been fighting streaked with red.

"John." He offered, sticking out his free hand. "Winchester." Anna didn't have time to process that the young attractive guy crouching next to her was John freaking Winchester, because Ana appeared in front of them both. A vise like grip grabbed her by the shoulder, and Anna went flying across the open garage again. She couldn't help the yelp that exited her mouth as she collided with a wall. There was a second crash somewhere to her left, the clang of the tire iron against the concrete floor echoing.

Anna blinked the stars out of her eyes and tensed to move. No way was this hopped up halo wearing bitch going to get the best of her. In the next blink, the angel reappeared in front of her. Anna smoothly ducked Ana's punch, then threw a wide kick that Ana caught. She launched herself into the air, twisting her body so that her captured leg locked Ana's arm against her throat, as her legs wrapped around her neck. The momentum of the motion slammed the two of them back into the ground. The impact of the landing loosened her hold long enough for Ana to break free, throwing back an elbow and slamming it into Anna's side hard enough to make her wheeze. Anna rolled clear, smoothly transitioning back to her feet.

"Look out!" John's voice echoed through the space, the man in question looking rather dazed from his position upside down and plastered across a windshield like a bug. Anna glanced towards Ana in time to see a blur of red hair barreling towards her. Anna relaxed her body, allowing her body to absorb most of the impact, and dragging them both to the floor again. She kneed the angel in the gut twice before bringing her feet up under her and kicking the slightly stunned angel off of her.

Anna flipped to her feet in time to block another flurry of punches aimed at her face and body. She landed a harsh punch to the vessel's solar plexus, but Ana hardly even reacted. She just kicked Anna's legs out from under her again. Anna is tough, but she isn't a wrestler. Being forced to fight on the ground for too long is going to get her dead. And it looks like Ana has figured that out. Anna barely managed to roll out from under the angel's next blow, leaving Ana to slam down on the ground next to her, missing Anna entirely. Anna twists to kick her in the face. Ana lands a hard punch to her stomach that leaves her gasping. Anna manages to deflect the next blow and twists to kick her again.

She managed to get to her feet a split second before Ana, but it didn't last long before she was decked by the angel. Ana's hands went around her throat, and Anna choked on the vanishing air. The angel's fingers pressed with terrifying accuracy over the arteries in her neck, while her weight bore down on Anna's windpipe.

"I'm sorry." The angel offered quietly, even as she leaned over her, pressing down on her neck even harder. Anna's hands clawed at the steel bands constricting around her throat. The angel did look sorry. And Anna might have bought it if her vision wasn't going dark at the time, while little white stars winked into existence behind her eyelids. Anna survived over twenty years of being a daughter of Athena. And she survived centuries of fighting for survival in Tartarus - she'd survived three mortal years in freaking hell. Getting choked to death by an angel four years before her parents even meet is not how she plans to go to Hades.

Her vision was growing black, and she could feel her body begin to crash as adrenaline in her body spiked. The world around her narrowed, and Anna knew that if she didn't get out of this hold and fast, all her higher level brain functions were going to shut down. And if she can't think - then she's going to die. She tensed, shifting her weight to try and flip Ana.

"GET OFF HER!"

Air suddenly rushed into her lungs and Anna gasped, harsh coughs racking her body as her body desperately gulped at the air it had been denied. She was only distantly aware that the weight against her neck was gone, too busy trying to breath evenly as her vision started to clear. A familiar figure had crashed into the angel, and the fight started up again a few feet away. Sam crashed to his knees next to her as Anna rolled onto her hands and knees, limbs trembling with adrenaline as she kept coughing.

"Anna! Are you ok? What hap- how did-" Sam stammered, hands fluttering around her as he alternated between trying to check on her while also watching Dean unsuccessfully attempt to stab the angel. She shot him an unimpressed look as she sat up carefully, wheezing with the strained movement. Her chest ached, and she was barely able to bite back the groan of pain, managing to turn it into a pathetic sounding cough. Anna pointedly ignored the worry on Sam's face. Judging by the pain radiating through her torso, Ana had probably cracked a couple of Anna's ribs while trying to choke the life out of her.

"Not now Sam." She warned, shooting him a significant look. She's careful not to glance towards the blonde stranger crouching nearby. The woman had the same eyes as the pouty puppy dog hovering over her. Considering that she'd landed in a mechanic's garage with John Winchester, it was a good guess that the second stranger was probably Mary Winchester - the boys' mom.

There's a loud crash, and glass shatters across the floor. All three of them glance up to see Dean sprawled on the remnants of a window, and John laid out on the hood of a different car from before, the windshield dented and crushed behind his back. Anna tries to get to her feet, but both Sam and Mary clamp down on her shoulder, keeping her seated.

Mary carefully slips towards the fight, scooping up Dean's dropped weapon.

"Sam." Anna hisses urgently. Mary was going to get killed if she attacked the angel. Sam grips her shoulder tighter.

"It's ok. She's a hunter. Besides, we've got a plan." Anna shot him an incredulous look. She might have spent Zeus knows how many years in Tartarus, but she still remembers what a Winchester's idea of a plan is.

It usually involved a few dozen bullets, a quarter gallon of flammable liquids, and significantly uncomfortable levels of improvising. Also there tended to be a lot of destruction of property. And occasionally needing to run away from the authorities.

"That is not as reassuring as you seem to think it is." Sam just glares at her and pulls her back from the fight, dragging her into a defensible position by a wall. She doesn't even bother trying to stand without help. She's tired, she's in a time period where she wasn't even an idea in her mother's head yet, and she'd just gotten beaten black and blue by an angel. She's entitled to a breather. Sam takes his knife from his belt and slices into his palm.

Anna rolled her eyes. There are easier, better, and far less painful places to get blood from on the human body. Hands are important. By slicing into his palm Sam has just rendered himself entirely useless in a fight for the rest of the week - possibly longer.

Using two fingers he started to paint a familiar sigil on the wall. Anna groans and hauls herself closer to the wall, propping herself up against a workbench. Glancing over her shoulder, she manages to spot Mary Winchester plunging an iron crowbar into Ana's chest.

Huh. Sam had said his mom was a hunter, but Anna hadn't really believed it until now. Took a certain kind of vicious ruthlessness to kill something that looked as human as an angel in a vessel does. Takes a lot of strength too. It's hard to stab a person with a sword - and they're made for stabbing. Crowbars are not.

Mary backs away with a kind of horrified fascination as Ana slowly pulls the crowbar out of her body, blood and gore dripping from the metal as she carelessly drops it to the floor beside her.

"Sorry. It's not that easy to kill an angel." Anna checks on Sam's sigil. It's a little messy, but that's to be expected when fingerpainting with your own blood. It'll do.

"No." Sam calls out, distracting Ana from attacking his mother. "But you can distract 'em." Ana's eyes widen as he slams his palm against the enochian symbol. Magic popped and sizzled as a white light filled the room. There was a cut off shout, and Anna blinked the light spots out of her eyes.

The angel was gone.

The garage was silent, a heavy feeling settling over them now that the fight was over. Terror was painted over Mary's face as she stared at John. John was staring right back with a kind of betrayed horror, slowly rolling off the dented and damaged car. He silently limped over to his wife, reaching out a hand to touch her face, then pulling back suddenly as though he was afraid of getting burned. Mary flinched, as if she'd been slapped by the abortive gesture.

Dean popped up from behind a different car, leaning heavily against the frame to support himself. Anna barely even waved at Sam to go before he bolted towards his brother, kicking a fallen paint can on the way. The resulting clang had both Mary and John looking up, pulled out of whatever trance they'd been held in. John spotted her still sprawled on the ground, and limps his way over to her.

"You ok?" He asked her, offering her his shoulder. Anna smiled tiredly up at him.

"Yeah. I could go another ten rounds." She joked, bracing herself against both John and the wall as he hauled her to her feet.

"I bet you could. And uh, thanks." She frowned at him quizzically.

"What for?" He scoffed, carefully leading her towards the others.

"Saving my life." The duh in the statement was implied. Anna huffed out a laugh that very quickly turned into a groan and a cough.

"Ah, that. Don't worry about it. You woulda been fine. Besides, the boys would have never forgiven me if I hadn't tried to stop her. Apparently she doesn't like them very much." John and her stopped in front of the three very guilty looking hunters.

"Well, what I'd like to know is who - and what - the hell she was. Cause either I hit my head too hard, or she disappeared in a flash of light after Mary stabbed her with a crowbar." Dean slid up next to Anna, ducking under her arm and taking her weight from John. His eyes were very carefully fixed on the floor. Sam's back was stiff as he also tried to casually look any place but his father.

Mary was white as a sheet, but she managed to hold her head up high and look her husband in the eyes. Anna half hoped that she would pass out.

She didn't really want to be part of the monsters are real conversation they were about to spring on John.

AN: AHHH! I know it's been a while since my last update, but here's the next chapter! Thank you all for your patience, and I hope you're all staying safe and healthy.

Remember to drink water and wear your masks!

Cheers,

Hartley