Anna
An awkward silence filled the kitchen after Sam had left the room to go look for Mary and Dean. The pair had been gone for a while, and neither of them were comfortable with the idea of any of them outside the protection of the wards her family had carved into the very foundations of the house they were in.
Anna shifted uncomfortably in her seat, shifting the makeshift ice pack from her ribs from her shoulder. That angel really had given her a beating. And no matter what the boys claimed about fighting angels before, she has her doubts. Because even properly armed, that would have been a tough fight for Anna, and she's a demigod.
The boys are lucky to be alive right now. Although, that was a good way to describe the Winchester boys most days.
"You say angels want to kill us. Why?" John finally broke the silence that had stretched out between them. Anna shrugged stiffly.
"Honestly? I'm not too clear on that myself. Probably has to do with Heavenly politics or something equally stupid. You'll have to ask the boys for a better answer." John frowned at her.
"You don't know?" She shrugged again, hissing her breath out through her teeth as she shifted the ice pack back to her ribs.
"I ah… I spent the last few years somewhere… bad. Sam and Dean, they found me again after I managed to escape. I haven't been... the most, uh, well adjusted, lately. They haven't been telling me much of anything. Their way of trying to help." Her lips thinned, and Anna couldn't force herself to stop staring at the wall just behind John. A knowing look crossed his face, and he accepted her vague response with nothing more than a nod. Whatever else they might be, they were both soldiers. John understood.
The new silence didn't last long.
"But why angels?' John burst out. 'Why do angels want to kill us? Aren't they supposed to be good? All fluffy wings and halos?" Anna sighed and sat up.
"You can't think of them like that. It's a mistake. One most people make, but it's still a mistake. God is not human, ok? Get that through your head now, cause it's important. God isn't, God can't be Good or Evil the same way you and I understand it, and neither are the angels or demons or any of the other archetypes that God created." Anna pauses, organizing her thoughts. She needs to give him the most mortal friendly explanation she can.
"Angels… they have Functions. One of them is to fight on the 'good' side," Anna used air quotes, "and to oppose evil. But they have no sense of balance, no way to really measure what is good or bad. Their only goal is to wipe out everything they're told is darkness to leave only their own blinding Light. So an angel that could provide a miraculous healing, could just as easily smite a city. Remember the story of Sodom and Gomorrah? That was done by angels." Anna shrugged.
"Mostly good and bad belong to people. Angels, they just do as they're told. And if it makes you feel any better, as far as I've heard, the angel trying to kill you isn't technically an angel anymore. She stole herself a little free will, and for some insane reason is trying to kill you and Mary." John didn't seem reassured by that. But he didn't ask her any other questions.
In the still quiet of the kitchen Anna could faintly hear the murmur of Sam, Dean, and Mary's voices out on the front porch. She lets out a quiet sigh as she shifts the ice pack again. Anna almost wishes she'd stayed at the motel with Castiel. She probably wouldn't have cracked a rib while watching over the drained angel.
A faint whispering starts up in her head again, staticky and painful. The house starts to shake and the ground rumbles audibly. Anna's head snaps up to meet John's suddenly fearful expression.
"Something's wrong. Get the others inside." She orders, standing up abruptly, dripping her ice pack onto the table. John doesn't hesitate, racing out of the kitchen to warn the three missing members of their group. Anna takes a deep breath, pressing one hand to her side, breathing through the pain. Once the bright spots in her eyes faded, she carefully clasped her hands together, bringing her fist up to her forehead.
"Castiel of the fifth day, hear my prayer. Come to Lake View." She kept her message short and to the point. If she really was starting to tune into angel frequencies, she would like to try and stay off of them as much as possible. She has no idea if angels could track her with it the same way Greek monsters can track her by scent or through her internet and phone use. Castiel should be mostly recovered by now, and if Anna's right, as long as her and the Winchester boys beat a hasty retreat back to their timeline, they'll be ok.
Hopefully the safe house's defenses will have bought them enough time for Ana to get the attention of some higher ups who will be less than pleased by her kill-the-Winchesters-to-prevent-the-Apocalypse plan.
Anna heads unsteadily towards the living room, every injury in her body sending lighting shocks of pain radiating through her body with every step. She scoops up Eleos from inside Dean's duffle just as the front door blows open, knocking all four Winchesters to the floor. High pitched Enochian echoes in the fierce wind blowing around the house.
"Take cover!" Anna yells over the sound, ducking behind the couch to protect her face from glass as the windows shatter. Every inch of her body protested her sudden drop. It takes her a minute to catch her breath again, but as the wind dies back down she's able to slowly climb back to her feet, gripping the back of the couch for support. Across the room from her John and Dean are also hauling themselves back onto their feet, shifting back into defensive poses as they face the threat. Sam carefully helps Mary to her feet, while they all turn towards the open door.
An unfamiliar black man stands at the base of the porch. Next to him is a more familiar face.
Ana.
"Guess I'll need to update the wards to cover the windows next time." Anna comments blandly, kicking at the glass shards covering the floor as she crosses the room to take point.
"Let us in." Ana demands.
"No." Anna smiled back unpleasantly, all teeth and no warmth. She held Eleos to her side, not threatening, but at the ready nonetheless. "This house is protected. I do not offer you hachnasat orchim nor do I offer you the right of xenia. By demanding entry and threatening us you have violated all agreements and have rendered my obligations to you as guests null. You may not enter." The man shuffles his feet uncomfortably, his eyes fixed on the small mezuzah fixed to the doorway. The plain blue and white box glowed brightly with Anna's words, and when Ana attempted to step closer to the house, the light grew brighter. The light rippled, and expanded across the walls, revealing glowing symbols from more than a dozen belief systems etched across the entire house. Anna leveled her sword at the angel, her chin tilted up in open defiance.
"Holy shit." Sam breathed. There were some shuffling noises as the four people behind her shifted around the room. Anna ignored them, her entire focus on the threat in front of her. The house was protected, but that only went so far. Most angels lack the creativity to get around the house's protections. But Ana the angel had stolen some free will for herself. She just might be creative enough, might be clever enough, to get around the wards.
"You cannot stand against us." The man warned, shifting forward to stand shoulder to shoulder with Anna.
"Watch me." Anna taunted. She heard more than spotted Castiel's approach - a development Anna was decidedly ignoring for the time being. The other angel landed silently behind Ana and her lackey. A silver blade fell from his sleeve. She flicked her eyes up to meet with Castiel's.
Anna launched herself out the door, Eleos raised in the offensive. She collided with Ana, metal ringing loudly as Eleos slammed into Ana's suddenly raised blade. Grappling in the front yard, Castiel and the other angel moved faster than she could track out the corner of her eyes.
A vicious backhand sent Anna flying against the wooden railing of the porch, punishment for her momentary distraction. Rolling under the next blow, Anna retaliated by kicking Ana's feet out from under her and slamming the pommel of her sword into the angel's hand, forcing her to drop her weapon.
Anna scooped up the celestial blade in her non-dominant hand, and reversed her grip on the blade. The sharp blade ran along her forearm, and as she advanced, she kept her guard up. Ana spit to the side, clearing her vessel's mouth of blood.
"What are you?" The angel hissed. Anna rolls out her shoulders uneasily. She keeps the house at her back, guarding its inhabitants. The haze of survival instincts she'd relied on in years in Tartarus presses against the edge of her awareness. If she gives in, she'll definitely win. But her instincts won't care how alive she is at the end of the fight, only that her opponent is put down with extreme prejudice.
And with Sam and Dean already edging closer and closer to her demigod secret, she can't risk that loss of control.
"Better than you." She taunts. Behind her the porch creaks as someone gets closer and closer to the edge of the wards. Ana tries to race around her, but Anna spins into the motion, both blades slicing two neat parallel lines down the angel's side. Blood pours out of the wounds, staining her clothing. Ana bounces off the wards and turns the momentum onto Anna, slamming into her hard.
Crashing to the ground, she just barely gets her weapons up in time to prevent the angel from curb stomping her skull in. The pommels of Eleos and the angel blade she'd stolen from Ana dig into her palms as the angel presses down on the crossed blades. Anna strains away from the sharp metal getting closer and closer to her face. There's nothing she can do to prevent Ana from pressing a knee to her chest and pushing down until another rib breaks with an audible crack. Anna lets out a hoarse scream before twisting to leverage her own leg up to kick Ana's leg off her chest, but fails at getting the angel off of herself entirely.
"CAS!" Anna glanced up at Dean's roar. The entire Winchester clan was standing on the front porch, bodily restraining a thrashing Dean. While Sam, Mary, and John all looked conflicted, they nonetheless held Dean back, staying firmly inside the protective wards.
There was a low boom of power, and Anna howled as the static rose to a shrill screaming as thousands of voices overlapped each other, reporting the death of Uriel. Her hands slipped, Eleos and her stolen angel blade falling from her hands. Above her, Castiel tackled Ana away before the other angel could take advantage of Anna's distraction, like her very own knight in shining trench coat.
Hacking out a cough, Anna rolled over onto her hands and knees, blood trickling down from her nose. Coppery iron flooded her mouth, and she spit blood onto the grass. Just in front of her Castiel and Ana grappled in the grass. John and Dean both dropped from the porch, finally having convinced or overpowered the others, and sprinted towards her.
"Anna!" She sat up onto her knees, one arms wrapping around her chest as she struggled to regulate her breathing around her damaged rib cage. John gave her a worried glance before kneeling down to pick up the angel blade, holding it up defensively. Anna noticed the way he carefully placed himself between her and Dean and the fight between Castiel and Ana.
Dean on the other hand, crashed to his knees next to her. "What the hell were you thinking?" He scolded her, his angry tone a sharp juxtaposition to how gentle his hands were as he carefully poked and prodded her to check over her new injuries. Anna shrugged, leaning over to spit out more blood.
"Can't promise there was a lot of thinking involved this time." That got her deadpan look of disbelief.
"You have never not thought through anything in your life." She grinned up at him, ignoring how macabre her bloody teeth must look.
"You got me there." She teased. A shrill whine started up inside her head, and Anna jerked back at the sharp pain. Her nose started to bleed again as she dropped her head into her hands, fingers tangling in her hair.
"Anna, what's wrong?" John asked her gently, one hand going to cradle the back of her head.
"I-" Before she could explain, a bright white filled the air. Anna's head snapped up, eyes wide.
"What the hell…" Dean muttered, reaching for Eleos, tucking Anna behind him as he tried to place her in a defensive position. Anna writhed in his grip, scrabbling towards John, who was surrounded by the white light. His eyes were staring directly into the light, unblinking. Anna panicked, reaching out towards him as John crumpled to the ground, the light growing too bright to look at.
"NO! JOHN DON-"
The light faded away, and John Winchester's body straightened up. He turned mechanically towards where Ana had hurled Castiel into a tree. The other angel had Mary gripped tightly in one hand, and was holding Sam back with the other.
"Ana." Dean froze, Anna hanging limply in his arms. Her jaw dropped as the thing wearing John strode away from them.
"Michael." Ana whispered, her face paling in the low porch light. She dropped Mary and Sam, backing away from the oldest archangel. All four of them watched in wide eyed disbelief. Michael placed his hand on Ana, and with a scream the other angel began to glow, flames licking at her body from the inside out, her Grace burning away. The vessel rapidly turned to ash, collapsing in on itself with a final haunting scream.
"What did you do to John?" Mary demanded, her eyes wide but voice steady. Sam reached for her arm and rapidly began to tug her backwards towards the supposed safety of the house.
The only problem is that the wards on this house, in this time, weren't strong enough to stop an Archangel. Especially not Michael.
"John is fine." Michael murmured. Anna rolled her eyes weakly. Angels are intensely creepy while wearing vessels. They're inhuman beings in a human skin, and especially to anyone who knows the difference between human and human shaped, angels are so obviously not human it's not even funny. The only thing creepier in her opinion are skinchangers. At the very least a skinchanger knows how to act human.
"Who- what are you?" Mary demanded. Her and Sam were now standing firmly on the porch. Dean slowly stood up, lifting her up with him. Carefully supporting most of her weight, Dean started to edge back towards the house. Behind them, Anna heard Castiel join them, a silent presence on her other flank. The three of them moved closer to the house.
The wards would slow Michael down, but he would breach them. The question was when, not if. But any amount of bought time would give them a better chance at survival.
"Shh." Michael hushed gently. He smiled, with what Anna is sure the angel believed was a reassuring smile, but was just creepy as Hades's robes. Then he reached out, his hand wavering where the wards flared brightly for a moment, and pushed through the barrier to press two fingers to Mary's, then Sam's, foreheads.
Mary crumpled to the floor. Sam on the other hand, vanished.
"SAMMY!" Dean roared. He shoved Anna towards Castiel and charged forward.
"Dean don't!" Castiel stepped forward to stop him, one hand catching her steadily under her elbow. Anna lost her breath entirely as half her body slammed into Castiel's, jostling her broken ribs. Dean ignored him completely. Anna wasn't surprised in the slightest. Michael turned to stare at Dean charging towards him across the uncut grass.
"I'd say this conversation is long overdue, wouldn't you?" The angel asked blandly.
"WHAT DID YOU DO TO THEM?" Dean slammed into an invisible barrier as Michael held up a hand in a stop gesture.
"Nothing. I've sent your darling little Sammy back home to the future. Mary is just sleeping."
"Michael…" Castiel breaths, sky blue eyes staring up at the most powerful angel in heaven. Anna grips his wrist tightly in solidarity. Even though Castiel has his Grace back, there's no telling what the archangel would do to the somewhat belligerent angel.
"Goodbye Castiel." The irritation in Michael's eyes worried Anna. It didn't worry her nearly as much as the sudden disappearance of her human shaped angel crutch. It took almost all of her concentration to keep herself from crumpling onto the lawn.
"And what did you do to Castiel?" Anna asked evenly as soon as she regained her balance.
"I sent him back to the future as well." Micheal looked up at her, and a flash of recognition flashed across the archangel's face. Anna tilted her head up defiantly. No angel was going to scare her. Not even the biggest baddest boss angel. Micheal blinked at her, the pause lasting long enough to be noticeable and a little awkward. Dean glanced between them suspiciously, then took a large deliberate step to his left, sliding neatly between Anna and the archangel. Backing up slowly, Dean ended up right by her elbow. A warm arm snaked around her back, pulling her closer to Dean. She let out a small sign of relief as she leaned against him for support.
"How did you end up in my dad anyway?" Dean demanded, breaking the awkward tension. Micheal visibly forced himself to refocus, and looked up at Dean.
"I told him I could save his wife and her family. He said yes."
"I guess they oversold me being your one and only vessel." Dean's tone took on a distinctly mocking quality, irritation leaking from the hunter's every pore as his gaze darted between his collapsed pregnant mother and the archangel standing in between them. Anna deliberately did not stiffen or twitch or betray any sign of shock at the revelation that Dean was the Michael Vessel.
The Fates worked in insane and highly irritating ways.
"You're my true vessel, but not my only one." Michael explained patiently.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Dean blustered. Anna decided to insert herself into the conversation.
"It's a bloodline. All angel's vessels are descended from each other. I bet anyone related to you and your mom would function as a vessel."
"Bloodline?" Dean sounded disgusted by the idea.
"It stretches back to Cain and Abel. And you're close, but it's their father. It's in his blood, it was in his father's blood, and if you'd had children it would have been in theirs too."
"Awesome." Dean muttered sarcastically under his breath. "Six degrees of Heaven Bacon… What do you want with me?" Anna carefully straightened up.
"You really don't know the answer to that?" Michael demanded.
"Absolutely not." Anna would rather have been the child of a Great Prophecy than ever be the vessel for an angel. At least the Egyptian gods are useful to their hosts. Angels either don't know or don't care to shield their hosts from their Grace, and end up burning their hosts up from the inside out.
It's like being chained to a splitting atom. It's not something a human soul is meant to survive.
"Well you know I ain't gonna say yes. So what are you doing here? What. Do. You. Want. With. Me?" Anna gripped Dean's elbow tightly. She hated the whole vessel thing. It was gross and violating and there is no way in Hades that she will ever allow Dean to do that. And if he is ever coerced into it, she will exorcise the fuck out of the angel dumb enough to try. Even if the angel in question is Michael.
"I just want you to understand what you and I have to do." Michael stepped towards them, and the two of them stepped back, matching the archangel step for step to maintain their distance.
"Oh I get it. You got beef with your brother. Go get some therapy. Don't take it out on my planet!" Dean snarled, following Anna's lead as she slowly starts edging them in a circle, still keeping a good distance between them and the archangel. Slowly, steadily, they inched closer to the house and Michael inched away.
"You're wrong." Michael's voice was soft, and deliberately even in a way that couldn't be explained away as a weird angel quirk.
"Lucifer not only defied our father, but he betrayed me. And still, I don't want this anymore than you want to kill Sam." The pause hung in the air delicately between two frozen parties. Michael's eyes flicked from the porch and back to Anna and Dean. Anna slipped her hand down into Dean's palm, and his focus on Michael was so intent he didn't protest her reclaiming her sword.
Michael took a deliberate step back from them, away from the house. Dean ushered Anna in front of him and the two of them dropped down to their knees next to Mary on the warded porch. Even though they both knew he could breach the wards, there was still a sense of security to standing behind the still glowing protections.
Mary's breathing was deep and even, so Anna just carefully stretched her out onto her back, and shifted the other woman's head into her lap as she eased out of her jacket. Dean stood just in front of her, eyes still warily watching Michael.
"You know… my brother, I practically raised him. I took care of him in a way most people could never understand, and I still love him. Even after everything… " Michael's voice steadied, and when the angel looked up at them again, it was the Sword of Heaven who spoke, not the older brother who loved Lucifer in spite of his flaws.
"And I will kill him. Because it is Right, and because I have to."
"Oh, because God says so?" Dean scoffed. Anna huffed with him. Even if Dean was resisting the idea of predestination out of pure bullheaded stubbornness, he was right. Free Will was written into the base code of reality, and is a fundamental trait of humanity. Not even God can screw with that.
"Yes. From the Beginning he knew this is how it was going to end."
"And you're just going to do whatever God says?"
"Yes. Because I am a Good Son." Michael's voice was steady with a certainty only achieved by a millennia of knowing and accepting a destiny he believed to be written in stone.
"Okay, well. Trust me pal. Take it from someone who knows. That is a dead-end street." Dean challenged. Anna gently eased Mary's head off of her lap onto her wadded up jacket. If she was in an angel-induced coma, there was nothing Anna could do to make it better. In front of her Dean and Michael were still arguing over the merits of destiny and choice. Anna curled her hand around Eleos, the sword a comforting weight in her hand. She's a demigod, it's not that weird to treat her sword as a security blanket.
"And you think you know better? Than my Father? One unimportant little man? What makes you think that you get to choose?" Michael scoffed, his feet right at the edge of the boundary set by the wards.
"Because I've got to believe, that I can choose. With my one, unimportant little life."
"You're wrong." Anna used Eleos to push herself up onto her feet. Stepping forward, she curled her free hand around Dean's shoulder.
"I don't know, you're working pretty hard to tell Dean he's unimportant. Telling him that he has no choice. Usually that means the exact opposite." She cocked an eyebrow down at the archangel. One glance up at Anna and his brave facade cracked. Just a little. Not enough for Dean to notice, but more than enough for Anna's searching eyes.
Michael's face hardened, and as he stepped forward something intangible swelled around them. Anna felt Dean tense up, both of them resisting the urge to step back.
"Think of the million random acts of chance that let John and Mary be born. To meet. To fall in love. To have you and your brother. Think of the million random choices that you make, and yet how each and everyone of them brings you closer to your destiny. Do you know why that is? Because it's not random. It's not chance. It's a plan, that is playing itself out perfectly. Free Will is an illusion Dean. That's why you're going to say yes." Anna scoffed at the ridiculous pronouncement.
This is why she hates angels. At least with demons they're honest about how evil possession is. Angels pretend like they obtain consent, but this attitude is just more proof that it's just coercion dressed up in a pretty outfit and paraded around to give angels a moral high ground over demons.
"Yeah that's the most bullshit thing I've heard in a while." Anna scoffed, glaring directly at Michael. "Do not disrespect us by undermining the importance of our decisions. Free will is written into Laws more ancient than you or your Father. It's no illusion. This life is ours to live. Divinity is not as important as you like to think you are. Destiny only determined that at some point two brothers descended from the original brothers would become Vessels. It never decided that would be Sam and Dean. There have been other brothers before them, and for all you know there will be more brothers after them. Humankind is not divine or particularly powerful, but it has one thing no divine being has. We have free will. The responsibility of choice, of our victories, our defeats, our triumphs, our crimes, our happiness - those belong to us. No one, angel or not, can take that away from us." Michael dragged his eyes up to meet hers. He studied her expression for a long minute before he let out a soft laugh. It wasn't a nice laugh, but it wasn't a particularly threatening one either.
"Well then, I suppose we'll just have to find out." He acknowledged before turning back to Dean.
"You know, unlike my brothers, I won't leave you a drooling mess when I'm done wearing you."
"Well, what about my dad?" Dean snarled, his fists tightening by his sides. Michael smiled with John Winchester's face.
"Better than new. In fact, I'm gonna do your mom and dad a favor." The archangel promised. Dean frowned. Anna knew what was coming.
"What?"
"Scrub their minds. They won't remember me. Or you." Considering the fact that neither Sam or Dean had ceased to exist, this came as absolutely no surprise to Anna. Dean on the other hand, was starting to panic.
"You can't do that." He demanded, stepping towards the angel, fear and panic and stress weaponized and externalized into a familiar anger. Michael gave them another creepy smile.
"I'm just giving your mother what she wants. She can go back to her husband, her family-"
"She's gonna walk right into that nursery!" Dean shouted.
"Obviously," Michael said scornfully. "And she will die. John will raise you and Sam as brothers, you will go to hell, and you will be the vessel I need to fight my brother." Michael's smile didn't reach his borrowed eyes.
"As you were meant to be." The angel's voice was cold. "You can't fight City Hall, Dean." Michael stepped towards them, and with only the briefest of hesitations he crossed the wards protecting the house. He knelt down and pressed two fingers to Mary's head, and her body vanished. He picked up her jacket, shaking it out gently. He held it out to Anna, almost gentlemanly as he offered it back to her. She took back warily, draping it over her free arm.
"Now almost everyone is home, safe and sound. Your turn." Michael gently smoothed down the folds of Dean's jacket. "I'll see you soon, Dean." In a flash of light, Dean vanished.
Now Anna is alone with archangel she'd openly defied. She gripped Eleos tightly, prepared to use the sword if she had too, not that she really expects to win in a fight against the archangel. Micheal turned to her, his expression soft with emotions Anna couldn't quite identify on the inhuman being's borrowed human face.
"You look like her. Like my Anat. You're of her line, aren't you?" Anna blinked in surprise. She thought he'd recognized the weak and diluted Grace still flowing in her blood. She hadn't realized that she actually looked like her long dead ancestor. The original Ventura. Not that they were called that back then. They'd become Ventura in Spain during the Inquisition, long after the Diaspora had sent her family fleeing from the land Michael had first come to her family in. Long after Anat bat Yonatan bat Sarai had offered a grieving archangel hachnasat orchim and hospitality from the harsh desert.
"I'm named after her. אנה בת צידון בת ענת " She's not entirely sure why she tells him her name. Her secret name.
Anna, daughter of Sidon, daughter of Anat. Her original birth certificate says Isolde. It's a good name. A legal name that used to define her in public. Her abba used to call her that. He'd also called her by a number of different nicknames. Keeping a person's true name secret is an old protection from Death, one her family has taken seriously for centuries. She doesn't even know what her abba's secret true name was. He'd died before she was old enough to be told.
Anna had refused to lose her secret name. So she made for herself so many identities, gave herself so many new names, that using any one of them, even her true name, didn't matter.
She keeps her gaze trained on Micheal, observing him as he nods. He is observing her back, studying her carefully, like he's trying to memorize the lines of her face. Anna files that information away in the back of her mind. Knowing she has the face of Anat is useful.
"And you have her sword."
"Passed down to me from my father, who got it from his mother, and her from her mother before her." Anna acknowledged. Micheal nodded firmly, something almost like approval in his expression as he studies the way she carries the sword.
"You'll need to hold onto that for me a little longer. I'll need it soon to fight my brother." She scoffed.
"You don't need worry about me losing this. And I'm not giving it back to you."
"I will need it to protect you from my brother, from the Host-" She cut him off, uninterested in hearing his placating response.
"I can protect myself." Michael sighed, an oddly human mannerism she hadn't expected from an angel who hasn't been on earth since the pre-biblical era. The angel stepped up to her and Anna did her best not to flinch as the archangel cradled her head in his hands. With more care than she could have anticipated, the angel tipped her head forward so that he could press a kiss to the crown of her head.
Anna blinked hard to repress the sudden burning feeling in her eyes as Michael whispered the words of a prayer she hasn't heard since Azazel burned down the farmhouse with her father still inside it.
"יְשִׂמֵךְ אלהים שָׂרָה, רִבְקָה, רָחֵל, ולֵאָה. יְבָרֶכְךָ יי וְיִשְׁמְרֶֽךָ. יָאֵר יי פָּנָיו אֵלֶֽיךָ וִיחֻנֶּֽךָּ. יִשָּׂא יי פָּנָיו אֵלֶֽיךָ, וְיָשֵׂם לְךָ שָׁלוֹם" A warm feeling spread through her as her injuries vanished, replaced by the dull ache of healing bruises. Pulling back from the angel, she looked up at the divine being inhabiting John Winchester's body.
"Why?" She asked quietly. For an angel who was so convinced that the world was going to end, and that free will didn't exist, and that Dean should just give up his body now, Michael was going to some unexpected lengths to arm Anna with the protections she'll need to prevent the Apocalypse.
"That is the blessing of your people. Of Anat's people. She used to bless our daughters with my Father's name like that." A surprisingly gentle smile crossed his face as the archangel reminisced. 'You are the last of her line. If you plan to wield that sword, the way Anat did, the way our children did, you'll need that blessing. That sword wasn't meant for human hands." Anna smiled at the angel, the expression hard and bitten off.
"I may not be a nephilim, but I'm no mortal. But thank you, for the blessing." Michael's expression briefly soured at her declaration, before he nodded firmly.
"I will be seeing you Anna bat Sidon, bat Anat." The angel reached out two fingers and pressed them gently to her forehead. Anna blinked and the world rematerialized back into the ugly motel bedroom in 2010. Next to her Castiel, Sam and Dean were also peering owlishly at their surroundings, surprised by their sudden reappearance in their correct time.
"Well... that went." Anna mused quietly, sitting down gingerly on the ugly bedspread. She glanced towards her shellshocked friends.
"I think I could use a drink right about now…" Dean muttered.
"Yeah." Sam agreed, turning sharply on one heel to crack open a bottle of whiskey they'd left in a duffle bag, left unzipped on the floor.
"Anna you want?" Sam asked over his shoulder as he poured a generous portion into two glasses for himself and Dean.
"No, I'm good. But an ice pack or two would be nice." She admitted, groaning mildly as she eased further onto the bed, kicking off her shoes before they touched the covers.
"Here, let me help." Dean carefully fluffed a pillow and he kept his arms around her shoulders while she slowly reclined against the headboard. Castiel brought her over some ice and Sam handed his brother his glass. The four of them huddled in exhausted silence.
"Well this is it." Dean sighed, taking a long sip of his drink.
"This is what?" Sam asked, eyebrows pulling low over his face.
"Team Free Will." Anna huffed out a laugh that quickly turned into a groan. Castiel patted her knee gently, eyes glued to her face to make sure he didn't accidentally hurt her again.
"One ex-blood junkie. One high school drop out with six bucks to his name. One exiled angel and… uh, Anna." Dean gestured at their little huddle hopelessly.
"I think you mean two kick ass hunters, their angelic side kick, and their only recently sane friend,' that earned her a startled bark of laughter from Dean, 'I think we'll do just fine. There are worse teams to be on." Anna patted Castiel's hand absently, watching as Dean smiled into his whiskey. Sam just frowned harder.
"That's not funny guys."
"It's a little funny Sam." Anna smiled at him. He shook his head, long hair flopping into his face.
"It's not. They all keep saying we'll say yes. That we're gonna be their vessels and end the world." Sam sank down onto the bed, a white knuckle grip on his already mostly drained glass of whiskey.
"I know. It's getting annoying." Dean huffed, swallowing the rest of his drink in one go.
"What if they're right?" Sam asked in a small voice. Anna shook her head.
"They're only right if you both decide to say yes. And considering how stubborn you both are, I find it highly unlikely." Sam shook his head even harder.
"How do you know? I've been weak before."
"Sam…" Dean sounded sad, sad in a way she's never heard him be. Not after John died, or Sam. Not in Hell, and not since she's been back. Anna shrugged as casually as she could, reaching out to take Sam's hand, and squeezing it gently.
"Look I don't actually know what Dean means by ex-blood junkie, but I can guess. Addiction isn't weakness. It's an illness, and it's one that takes a lot of strength to recover from. Sounds to me like you're actually pretty strong."
"Michael got Dad to say yes." Sam countered her. Anna frowned. She doesn't know if she'd call the man who spent an entire lifetime grieving his wife, and turning his children into child soldiers in order to get revenge, particularly strong. Maybe he was physically strong, John Winchester the hunter had definitely earned his indomitable reputation. But he'd been unable to see past his own vengeance to be strong for his children. Or for himself.
"That's different. Ana was about to kill Mom." Dean insisted.
"And John didn't have the literal Apocalypse hanging over his head Sam. For your dad it was a split second decision based on one event. You both know that the world will end if you say yes. That changes the game." Sam finally looked up at her. He squeezed her hand back, and set the rest of his whiskey to the side.
"Okay." He agreed, taking a deep breath. Dean set a hand on his brother's shoulder, and took Anna's free hand with the other. Sam gripped Castiel's knee, and the angel set his hand over Sam and Anna's clasped hands.
"Okay." Anna agreed.
'Here we go.' She thought to herself. 'Team Free Will.'