Michael backed away, eyes widening, chest tightening, heart leaping up to his throat in complete, absolute terror as he watched the souls flickering above.
But he wasn't scared for himself. He was scared for Adam; How was he supposed to defend the demon from all of these souls? It had seemed easy when it was just two - but even then, Michael had been in a slight panic. He could feel himself losing it now, steadily and surely, driving himself to the brink of pure, absolute panic. He had used up so much of his power smiting only one of the damned things; There was no way he could handle this many. He could try, but he had no idea what using what was left of his power would do to him, and he didn't want to leave Adam completely defenseless, on the off chance that it knocked him out cold.
They flinched back as another soul swooped down, and Michael snapped his fingers, almost a reflex now that he'd already had a hand raised to do so; The soul vanished in a bright flash at once, and Michael staggered a little, feeling the energy drain from him at once. If it weren't for Adam, holding the both of them up as he was, he'd have crashed to his knees.
The souls could feel him weakening; They wriggled, up above in the air, bringing themselves a little closer to the archangel and the demon. Adam hissed out a sharp warning, which caused only a few of them to retreat; The bolder ones inched closer, almost daring either of them to move; Daring Michael to smite them, to use up what was left of his power. The archangel faltered, pulling his hand back a little, forcing his fingers apart. He couldn't.
Two of the souls shot down at once, but instead of making a straight-forward attack, they lunged in opposite directions; One swerved around them on one side, and the other soul made a beeline for the other side. Michael wanted to turn, heart pounding, but Adam kept them facing forward, not wanting to turn his back on the swarm. The archangel couldn't think; Which made it even better that Adam was there, because he was currently thinking straight enough for the both of them. One of the souls lunged, straight for them; Michael had tensed, waiting for it to swerve upwards, but Adam suddenly launched himself forward right back, snarling.
The soul jerked back at once, seeming startled, and swerved upwards along with the others when Adam lashed out. Their hand closed around empty air, the souls having retreated to the sky again, put off by the demon's sudden outburst and probably rethinking their game plan.
"They're more scared of us than we are of them," Adam mumbled, and, upon closer inspection, he seemed to be right; They only seemed to be attacking when they thought that neither of them could attack back. The moment they moved, or made any real sign of aggression, or anything remotely threatening, they retreated again, uncertain, but still on the attack.
"It's because they- they don't have- physical fo-"
Michael stopped, pupils shrinking.
Pain ripped through his wings, greater than he'd ever felt before; It was enough to bring a scream from the archangel's lips as his back arched. He felt the panic rise up at once, from Adam, but he couldn't focus on anything aside from the pain. It was finally enough to bring them down, tears rising to the corners of his eyes as he bit his tongue, keeping back another scream. Of all the places, it had to be the wings - where an angel was weakest. He could feel the souls ripping at them, clawing at their back, latching into the skin. Adam tried to shake a few of them off, hissing a little from the pain, himself, and Michael struggled to move his wings, trying to get them off so that he could stand up and fight back, or at least try to.
They couldn't go down like this - how could he have let his guard down? How could he have gotten Adam into this mess? The archangel clenched their teeth, vaguely tasting blood.
The others had started diving down now, the vultures making their way for the prey now that it was weakened; Adam let out a vicious snarl, but it didn't deter them this time. Michael screwed their eyes shut, their entire body tensing as they waited, holding their breath, the souls ripping away at Michael's wings, claws scoring over feathers and flesh again and again and again-
Two gunshots rang through the air, and the claws stopped. The pain didn't fade, not a bit; But it didn't get any worse, so that was good. Breathing heavily, Adam managed to crack their eyes open and look up. Dean and Belphegor stood side by side, each holding a shotgun, while Sam was shooting at the ones in the sky, more focused on taking them down. The relief was dizzying on Michael's end; Adam just spit blood out and forced them up a little, managing to get them up onto only one knee and arching their back a little with a low, pained groan.
"Adam?" Michael mumbled around the coppery liquid, spitting more out onto the ground. He was shaking, whether from the pain or the fear, he couldn't tell; This really had been a bad idea, knowing he wasn't at full strength in any way, and putting Adam in this kind of danger anyway.
"I'm fine," Adam growled, and another snarl was wrenched from his teeth as he pushed them up again, this time managing to make his way completely to their feet. Dean had turned his attention to the souls in the sky, him and Sam struggling to shoot them all down while they zigged and zagged around in a blind panic; Belphegor made his way over to them, however, one hand reaching to steady them while the other gripped the shotgun.
"Idiots," he was mumbling, seeming more angry than anything, "fools, what the hell were you thinking? Michael, what the hell were you thinking?"
"I wasn't," Michael managed, and Adam turned their head to the side, spitting out the last mouthful of blood and wrenching them out of Belphegor's grip. They stumbled, but stayed upright; The archangel was having a hard time not giving in to the pain searing through his wings. It felt like they had been completely ripped off - the thought alone made him twist his head around just to check, alarmed - but they were still there. Just a little mangled, ripped and bloody in some places, feathers having fallen off and dissolved on the ground.
A screech overhead made Michael flinch; Belphegor raised the shotgun again, shooting at something just behind the archangel and the demon, before lowering it once more. He reached out for them again, but Adam jolted backwards before the maybe-demon could come into contact, his eyes narrowing to slits at the other. Belphegor just stared, teeth clenched. "What?"
"We didn't need your help," Adam hissed in response, licking at the blood that had begun to dry around his lips. Belphegor's eyebrows furrowed faintly at the demon, almost skeptically, but he gave no response. Instead, he raised the shotgun again, firing off a round of shots at the sky; More souls had flooded out through the rift in the barrier, and more daring ones at that; They were lashing out at Sam and Dean, and making lunges for Adam and Michael, as well; Michael flinched away from one, in particular, that had gotten too close.
"Hey," Belphegor's voice gave both Michael and the soul pause; It screeched to a stop just before it could touch him and Adam, swiveling in Belphegor's direction. Michael took the chance to stumble backwards, ignoring the demon's internal curses as Belphegor raised the shotgun again. "No one dicks with those two but me."
The soul screeched and started to lunge upwards, only to dissolve in a flash of orange light as another gunshot rang through the air, and Belphegor lowered the shotgun, satisfied.
Sam and Dean were back to back now, shooting at the souls that just seemed to keep coming. Several of them were circling in the air, while others were diving straight down; They disintegrated, again and again, with each attempt to attack, as the two hunters shot them down just as easily as Belphegor seemed to be handling the ones that were going for Adam and Michael. The archangel was slowly getting dizzy, whether from the pain or the steadily-diminishing power and energy, he had absolutely no idea.
He did know, however, when Sam and Dean tried to shoot again and the only thing that came out was an empty click, that they were very, very much screwed. The rift was growing even bigger, souls continuing to fly out, blocking the rift, some of them struggling to get past others; They were multiplying by the second, and the anxiety hit Michael and Adam both at once.
For a moment, Belphegor's eyes narrowed toward the barrier, an odd look crossing his face; In the next instant, he was aiming toward the sky again, alternating between shooting the souls that were attacking Sam and Dean and the souls that were attacking Michael and Adam.
"There's too many," the maybe-demon was mumbling, firing another few rounds in Sam and Dean's direction, then whirling another few shots over Adam and Michael's head. "I'm almost out, and there's too many."
"Son of a bitch," Dean was cursing, checking his pockets rapidly. He must have found something, because in the next second he was loading the shotgun and shooting again.
Michael stepped closer to Belphegor, despite Adam's protests. Like it or not, he was their best chance at surviving this at the moment; Michael was close to passing out as it was, there was no way he'd be able to do anything, as weak as he was now. Sam and Dean were backing toward them, Dean still shooting at the souls that were getting closer, while Sam struggled to dodge the ones that were lunging for him; Belphegor managed to shoot one down just before it could touch the taller hunter, but his attention was more or less focused on the ones that were going for Michael and Adam; The stress was evident on his face, mouth pressed into a thin line.
"I'm out," he finally declared, and dropped the shotgun, deeming it useless now that he was out of ammunition. Dean cursed again, stepping backwards, closer to Sam, as they continued to back toward the other two, only pausing when Dean was beside Belphegor, facing the other direction. "There's too many."
"And I'm almost out, too," Dean hissed, firing off another few shots toward the sky.
"We need to get Sam and Micha out," Belphegor mumbled. Michael spared him a glance, and paused, just for a second. The maybe-demon wasn't even paying attention to him now, head turning side to side as he searched, probably for an exit. The archangel paused, opening his mouth to say something, only to cut off with a sharp gasp when something cold and sharp dug into their shoulder, yanking him and Adam away from the others.
The demon whirled around, snarling, lashing out; But something was gripping their legs, now, and both of their arms, and then their back, and then a sharp, sudden pain ripped through Michael's wing, forcing a yell from the archangel's lips.
"Adam!" That was Sam, his voice somewhat distorted. Everything went slightly blurry for a moment, from Michael's end; The pain was becoming too much, and what was left of his power was slowly but surely deteriorating. A rush of panic enveloped them from Adam's side, the demon's struggles increasing tenfold as he roared and tried to wrench away from the souls.
"No-!" Belphegor roared, ready to lunge, shotgun or not. Michael clenched his teeth, finally faltering under the weight of the souls; Dean was shooting, trying to fend them off, but there were too many now. It was getting darker, and darker, and darker…
"BEGONE, THOT!"
And then, suddenly, a bright flash of light blurred through the darkness, steadily becoming sharper; Adam almost screwed their eyes shut, but Michael kept them open. Something about the light was familiar, something about the sudden rush of power, the energy that was suddenly blazing around them. The souls screamed, disintegrating, the claws digging into their flesh disappearing in bright beams of white light.
And then they stood, unsteady, the souls gone. None around them, and none in the sky. Gone.
Michael blinked rapidly, struggling to clear the rest of the blurriness from his vision. It was Adam who managed to raise their head, eyes narrowing, squinting and struggling to see what the fuck had just happened, and who the hell had just saved their asses. There were two figures, hard to make out at first, but once Michael managed to blink past the haze that had started to cover his eyes, one of them was all too easy to recognize - their true form, at least, once Michael regained enough energy to look beyond the vessel. The archangel went still, shocked.
A hand tensed around their shoulder; Michael's eyes darted to the side at once, startled, expecting to see another soul. But it was just Belphegor, the maybe-demon holding them up, and even Adam remained still, accepting the support - albeit somewhat reluctantly. Belphegor was silent, jaw set, eyebrows pinched together and mouth shut as tight as possible.
Michael returned his gaze to the figures again, forcing himself to focus on the familiar one. It took a while for the name to rise to their lips, a while for him to be able to sort out his own thoughts. Finally, though, he managed to speak, his voice cracking from the mixture of exhaustion, relief and pain. "... Gabriel?"
Looking down at him, the figure paused, froze, and paled all at the same time. Beside him, the other one quirked an eyebrow, almost questioningly. Sam and Dean had straightened; Sam was gripping his shoulder, and Dean had been busy checking him over. But once they looked over at the other two, they both seemed to stiffen, eyes going wide with shock as their eyes darted back and forth between the two figures, mouths opened but no sounds escaping.
"Michael?" Gabriel finally managed to spit the word out, disbelief lacing his tone, but also something else. Something akin to uncertainty, wariness; Not quite fear, but something along those lines. Michael couldn't place it, and trying to made his head hurt.
"Hey, little brother," the archangel managed to mutter, the dizziness returning tenfold. Gabriel just continued to stare, confusion evident on top of everything else. "Long time, no see."
"Well, what an interesting family reunion." The other figure had decided to pipe up, then, sparing Michael and Belphegor an intrigued, yet wary look. Adam turned his focus onto him, at once; It took a moment, but Michael quickly recognized the other being as a demon. "And I do hate to interrupt - believe me, truly, it hurts me on a physical level, but-" The figure turned toward Sam and Dean, quirking an eyebrow and inclining his head toward the barrier. "Care to explain, boys?"