Dust and dirt covered everything, the distant screaming making Grace wish that she had a weapon on her. The hunters in this world had fashioned incredible weapons, making improvements she wanted to try out in their own. But for now she was stranded, without a way to get home and without anything to defend herself with. Checking her phone, she realized, of course, that there was no way to get ahold of the boys. Even more worrying, there was no way to tell where she was.
Everything looked like a bombed-out wasteland, thanks to Michael and his soldiers. Mary was over here. If she could find Mary, find Bobby, or Charlie, or anyone else who could help, she'd be fine. She'd at least have a friend. A friend, an ally, anyone would be better than trekking through this place alone. Michael's soldiers were quick to get rid of any rogue hunters on their way to decimate the rebels.
"Stop!" Grace froze, only a few yards from where she had been dropped into the Apocalypse World. She put her hands up, slowly turning to see a woman about her own age pointing an angel blade at her. Normally she would've thought to run. The woman wasn't far, but she was far enough that Grace could probably make it, unless she had a great throwing arm. But something told her that there was no way she'd get out of there in time.
"Hannah?" Grace asked, the woman raising an eyebrow. "Hannah, it's me. We've met before. In another world."
"Impossible!" Hannah strode up to her, looking her over. "You stink of hunters. I don't work with hunters. Give me one good reason I shouldn't just smite you right here."
"You must think there's a good reason if you haven't killed me already," Grace told her boldly, half expecting she was seconds away from being impaled right there. "Angels in this world don't leave humans alive without a good reason."
"I saw you come over. How did you do it?"
"There's a nephilim on the other side who ripped a hole in time and space." Grace glanced at the angel blade centimeters from her throat. "He's Lucifer's son. Lucifer is alive over there. Well, he's trapped over here, or, he was, but he's the Lucifer from our dimension. There's a Lucifer out there somewhere. That's why you haven't killed me. People don't just hop between worlds."
Hannah regarded her with scepticism,shaking her head. "No, it's rare, but I've heard of jumpers before. You can hear them, can't you? The high-ranking creatures of Hell? That means you can help us find your Lucifer and destroy him."
"I, uh, maybe," Grace shrugged, realizing she would have to play off of this. If it kept her alive, it was something, even if it meant temporarily helping the angels. If she could find Lucifer, she'd at least have someone who wanted to get back to their world.
"You're coming with me." Hannah grabbed her arm, the two of them instantly transported into a hollowed-out building. Angels were everywhere, coming back from hunts covered in human blood, preparing their legions to go out, standing around and strategizing. Most of them turned to look as Hannah marched her prisoner by, never having seen a human alive for more than ten seconds. The two of them stopped at an old oak door, guarded by an angel Grace recognized. "Let me through, Balthazar, I've got one he'll want to see."
Balthazar looked at Grace, scoffing. "That thing? Hannah, we only take valuable humans."
"She came from the Other World. She can hear Lucifer. The Other World Lucifer is hiding, we all know it. He even told us to keep an eye out for him. If it's a waste of his time, he can disintegrate her. I think she's going to be a useful one, though."
"Keep her here. I'll let him know." Balthazar disappeared into the room beyond the door, Hannah keeping her angel blade pointed at Grace's ribs. When Balthazar returned, he thanked her, telling her to take the rest of the day off. She'd earned it. He beckoned for Grace to come with him. Having no other choice, she followed the angel into what appeared to be a throne room.
"Very good, Balthazar, she'll do quite nicely." An unassuming man in a dark coat floated over to them, dismissing Balthazar. "Hello there, Grace. Let's talk. Do you know who I am."
"Michael."
"Over here, I'm practically God. You're going to help me find Lucifer and obliterate him. But do you know what else you're going to do?" Before Grace could answer, he put his fingers to her temples, sending her hurtling through hundreds of memories at once. When he let her go, the self-satisfied smile on his face scared the hell out of her. "As I thought. You're going to be very useful. I've heard stories about you, second or third-hand, of course, from humans we've killed. This just confirms everything I already knew about you."
Grace was silent for a moment, trying to get a read on him. "What do you want from me? I can be the compass that leads you to Lucifer, sure, but that's… that's small. You could do that on your own. What's the main event?"
"My perfect vessel is in the Other World. He would do anything for you."
"You're using me as a bargaining chip. You give me back safely, Dean gives himself over to you. It won't matter if it costs him his humanity if he knows I'm safe," she realized, stepping back apprehensively. "That's how you're planning on getting into our world. You don't have a perfect vessel here. You use me to get to Dean, and there you go."
"Clever girl. He'll do anything for you," Michael nodded.
"What if I say no? You melt me, and then what happens?"
Michael nodded, admiring how defiant this pitiful human could be, even in the face of the most powerful being in the world. "Then I give you to Zachariah, and you end up saying yes anyway. I'm trying to spare you the pain, little monkey. You're really in no position to bargain here. If you say yes now, you get all the power and glory of an angel. You say no, and I hand you over, and you come back to me with a lobotomy at best. I just need you alive. Doesn't matter the condition. Dean Winchester will come after you as long as he knows you're still breathing."
"Fine," Grace nodded, twisting the ring on her finger. She knew what she had to do, but she needed to get her hands on an angel blade first. Bide her time, help Michael find Lucifer. It's not like their world wanted him around either. But then she'd have to take matters into her own hands. They would take her alive, but they wouldn't keep her that way.
"You know, she was the one who led Lucifer to him in the first place," Rowena said, casually flipping through a spellbook. "Ripped a hole in time and space, landed us here… I admire that kind of spellwork, but allying with the Devil -"
"You've done it yourself," Dean spat back. He was pacing around the room, barely able to contain his anger. "How's that spell coming?"
"You've asked me that four times since I sat down. Ten minutes ago. I can do it, I'm just going to need some ingredients that may be a bit hard to find." Rowena looked between him, Sam, Cas, and the archangel Gabriel, their newest ally. "Boys, I'm going to give you a list. I need them all, no substitutions. Most of all, we need archangel grace."
"But you can do it?" Dean pressed.
"Aye. With your help. All of you."
"Then let's go."
Grace had never intended to fight. She'd never meant to be assigned a squadron of angels to follow around, acting as their compass as they eradicated the few remaining groups of demons in the Apocalypse World. But she could hear them better over here, even the low-level black-eyed demons, so they tried to make her useful. Killing demons wasn't a problem. I was when they took her on a human hunt that she realized how much they were trying to indoctrinate her.
It was nothing more than a couple of families who had banded together in the mountains, but the angels wanted every human dead that they could reach. As screams carried through the air, Grace, armed with the angel blade they had given her, tore into a tent hidden a little ways off. There were two children in there, no more than sixteen. "Please -"
"Ssh. Go out the back, head for the river. We passed another hideout there. Ask them for help. If you can find Bobby Singer, find him. Get them to find him. They're leading a resistance. I can get you a five minute head start, more if they don't notice." As she left the tent, she stopped dead, seeing that Anna, one of the angels in the squadron, had followed her.
"What did you do?" Anna asked, staring in disbelief.
"They're children."
"Human children," Anna corrected. "If you don't kill them, I will." She started off for the tent, Grace rushing after her. With no option left, she sunk her angel blade into Anna's back, the angel dropping as she opened the tent.
Grace noticed the children hidden behind a tree, watching her curiously. "Run."
She took off to find the others, wiping the blood from her blade and announcing that there was nothing there but stores of food that they'd been trying to keep dry. In the meantime, the angels had made quick work of massacring the others. As the closest angel asked where Anna was, the space next to Grace began to shimmer. It sparked for a second, Grace immediately knowing that it was another rift. She reached out for it, falling into the abyss just as it closed.
The ground was hard beneath her. Concrete. The clattering of her blade on the floor sounded far away, a multitude of voices speaking at once. "That's not nearly enough grace. We're going to need more. No shame in it, but -"
"I told you I was wounded."
"Not going to get a good rift going like that."
"Guys." Sam. That was Sam, she could tell.
The room went silent, save for the footsteps running over to her. Sitting up was painful, Grace just regaining her sight as Dean sunk to his knees beside her. Before she could say anything, he had wrapped his arms around her. "Gracie, oh my god. I thought you were dead, for sure. Grace, you've been gone for -"
"Dean, I'm sorry. I - none of this would've happened if I hadn't made a deal with Lucifer to get you out of that hellhole of a secret prison and -"
"Ssh." He gave her a kiss, helping her to her feet as he explained, "We've got it figured out. Kind of. We're going through to get Mom back, to lock Lucifer away for good. We're going to fix this."
"Dean, listen to me." The others stared, watching as she revealed even more bad news. "Michael wanted to use me to get to you. He's killing everyone and everything that isn't an angel over there, and he wants to use you to do the same thing over here. I think he's going to try to kill Chuck too, if he can."
"Well we'll stop him too. For now we've got to get that portal working again." He turned to Rowena, asking, "How much more grace do we need? Can we get enough from Gabe?"
Rowena shook her head, looking at the disgraced archangel. "We're going to need more than he can give us. Tearing a hole in time and space, and keeping it open, is no tiny task."
Dean looked back to Grace, apologizing in advance for what he was about to ask her to do. "There's only one more archangel left on this side. Lucifer's been back and forth, but... Do you think you can find him?"