Chapter 3

"You really think this will work?" Adam asked skeptically. "I mean, waiting around until Raphael attacks you doesn't really seem very...y'know, proactive."

"I'm not trying to be proactive," Ariel reminded him wearily. "I don't even want a war in the first place. The only reason I'll fight is if Raphael instigates it." She and Adam were sitting in his Heaven contentedly, this time in an ice cream parlor (he'd blushed and mumbled something about his first date being here, and Ariel had been too amused to be jealous). She was now nibbling on the edge of her waffle cone absently, having finished most of her mint chocolate chip ice cream, while Adam was spooning some of a sundae into his mouth.

"I just think it'll end up with you getting hurt," he pointed out.

She shrugged. "I'll be okay. I'm sneaky."

He snorted. "Air, you're as subtle as a neon sign. I don't even think you know how to sneak." She huffed, annoyed, and he grinned, nudging her foot with his own. "I'm kidding." Feigning irritation, she turned her head away pointedly. "Aw, come on, Ariel, I'm sorry." When she didn't turn around, she felt something cold touch her cheek and yelped, turning back to face him as she felt sticky vanilla ice cream trickling down her cheek. Adam had apparently scooped a little onto his finger and smeared it against her cheek.

"Oh, that's mature." She squished the remnants of her cone against his cheek in return, leaving a smudge of green ice cream on his face.

He rolled his eyes. "Y'know, for someone scolding me about not acting maturely, you're not being very mature yourself." He wiped his face with a napkin before getting the vanilla ice cream off Ariel's face for her before she could snap it away. She stuck her tongue out at him and he grinned before kissing the corner of her mouth. Unable to keep from smiling, she turned to catch his lips with her own in a soft kiss.

It wasn't a war so much as random attacks on each other at any given time. Angels would ambush each other and catch their victims off-guard, and casualties piled up almost on a daily basis. Ariel herself was the target of a few attacks, but she was surprised at how easily she was left alone more often than not. Still, she only used it to her advantage, joining Castiel and Rachel in meetings to plan defensive strategies while still attempting to keep up with Adam on the side.

As time went on, her visits became less frequent, but Adam understood, so she focused her full attention on keeping her family alive and in one piece. The latter wasn't as easy as it sounded.

Every day, another angel would change sides, another angel would want to quit the war completely, another angel would fall in battle. It broke Ariel's heart whenever she saw wing marks scorched into the ground, which was far more often than she would have liked it to be. She still went to Adam's Heaven once in a while to fill him in on what was happening in Heaven.

A year passed like this, and Ariel and Raphael never came face to face since that initial meeting. She thought it was weird that he didn't seek her out, but didn't question it. Maybe it was better that way. She didn't want to let her emotions overwhelm her like they had the first time she and Raphael had fought.

Ever since Sam had come back, Dean was wary of him. He was different somehow, and it was weird. He didn't even think Sam realized he'd noticed, because he kept going about his business like a freaking robot. At least that was how Dean saw it. It wasn't all that was wrong with Sam, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what the problem was, exactly.

He'd tried calling for Castiel or Ariel as soon as Sam had turned up, but neither angel came. He'd expected that from Castiel, but Ariel had always answered his prayers at the beginning of the year with Lisa, often dropping by whenever Dean was alone and just talking with him for hours. She'd even told him a little of what was happening in Heaven now and then. At the time, she'd said things were peaceful, but it felt like the quiet before the storm. Their conversations had been somewhat therapeutic, though Dean would never admit it.

Then her visits whenever he prayed began waning for no apparent reason, and soon, she stopped altogether, even when he continued to call her every day. Castiel was no better, having not spoken to him since the day Sam had jumped into the Cage.

But Castiel was understandable; he'd often made it clear that he wouldn't always come if Dean called him, but Ariel was different. She always came whenever Dean called, and was always willing to lend a hand if he needed help.

So why wasn't she responding now?

"Don't you think it's odd?" Castiel asked and Ariel looked up at the sound of his voice.

"What is?"

"That no prayers have come your way. You used to go to Dean's side all the time."

Ariel frowned, shrugging. "If he's been praying, I haven't heard anything. Maybe he's just moved on, doesn't need our help anymore." Castiel's forehead wrinkled slightly and she rolled her eyes. "Come on, Cas, it's not like he's gonna be dependent on us forever. Hell, he probably blames Heaven for what happened to Sam." Castiel seemed to stiffen a little at the mention of Sam and Ariel's eyes narrowed. "Cas?"

"What?" He feigned innocence instantly, but she'd already seen the slip.

"What are you hiding from me?"

"I haven't the faintest idea what you-"

"Castiel." Her tone was firm and he abruptly fell silent, grimacing. "What do you know about Sam?"

"He's..." Castiel chewed his lip, clearly debating whether to keep his secret or not, but before Ariel could coax it out of him, a prayer finally slipped through her metaphorical radar, the voice disturbingly familiar.

Hey, Air. Look, Dean told me you've been busy lately, but I figured you'd at least listen to me. You mind coming down here with Cas?

She froze and Castiel looked vaguely alarmed.

"Ariel?"

"Why did I just hear Sam praying to me?" she demanded, turning on him.

She'd never seen anyone resemble the deer-in-the-headlights look more than Castiel at the moment. "I-I, uh..." He stiffened suddenly and quickly said, "Dean is calling for me as well."

She was itching for answers, but she couldn't let the Winchesters' prayers go unanswered, so she just said, "You're gonna explain this as soon as we're done with the Winchesters." She grabbed the sleeve of his coat and he barely had time to give her a disgruntled look before they disappeared.

They landed in a motel room somewhere in Easter, Pennsylvania, near the window. Ariel couldn't stop staring at the broad shoulders of the man facing away from them, wearing a stupid plaid shirt like he always did, even as Dean's eyes widened from where the elder Winchester was seated on the bed.

"They're standing right behind me, aren't they?" He even sounded the same, too. Ariel swallowed as Sam turned around, his hazel eyes softening slightly when he saw her. She wanted to say something, but no words came out.

"Hello," Castiel said first, breaking the silence.

Sam turned an incredulous look on him. "'Hello?'" he echoed before lowering his voice in a terrible impression of Castiel. "'Hello.'"

"That is the correct term?" Castiel's eyebrows furrowed, clearly not understanding Sam's mockery.

"I spent all that time trying to get through to you! Now Dean calls once, and now it's 'hello?!'" Sam snapped.

"Dean and I do share a more profound bond," Castiel conceded. Dean turned an odd shade of red.

"Oh, so you just like him better, that makes sense," Sam grumbled.

"Hey, I had a hand in dragging him down here," Ariel said, affronted.

"Yeah, and where the hell were you all that time I kept calling you?!" Dean demanded, recovering from his embarrassment, and Ariel turned to him, her eyebrows knitted together in confusion.

"You prayed to me?"

Dean's anger faltered as he blinked, bewildered. "Wait, you didn't hear me?"

Wide-eyed, Ariel shook her head. "I haven't heard anything from you in months. I just figured you'd stopped." Her face crumpled in guilt. "Sorry."

Dean sighed as he got to his feet. "Don't give me the puppy-eyes, Air, it's okay. You probably had no signal or something."

"Yeah, probably." Ariel chewed her lip, doubting that was the case, before turning to Sam. "Did you pray to me, too? Before now?" Sam nodded tersely and she was even more disappointed in herself. "I'm sorry. I really didn't hear either of you. I don't know what went wrong."

"It's okay." Sam squeezed her shoulder lightly, and the familiar contact was enough to make Ariel smile tremulously and want to just throw her arms around him and never let go. She restrained herself, figuring they could hug all they wanted later.

"All I'm saying is that Sam went to hell for us," Dean cut in, "I mean, he really took one for the team. You remember that? And then he comes back without a clue, and you can't take five friggin' minutes to give him some answers?"

"Hey, I didn't even know until he prayed to me just now," Ariel answered, holding her hands up in surrender. "Don't take it out on me."

Castiel blinked when everyone turned to face him next. "If I had any answers, I might have responded."

"Wait, so you knew Sam was topside?" Ariel asked, raising her eyebrows. "All this time?"

Castiel might have flushed at this point, had he been human. "Yes. I felt you didn't need to be bothered by it. You were busy."

"Not that busy," Ariel muttered irritably, mentally reminding herself to scold Castiel later.

"Wait, so neither of you know what brought me back?" Sam interrupted their bickering.

Castiel shook his head. "It wasn't God. No one's even seen God. The whole thing remains mysterious."

"So who's been in charge of Heaven, then?" Dean prompted before automatically glancing at Ariel, who grinned sheepishly.

"I have, for at least part of Heaven, anyway. Raphael's got the other half."

"Well, look at you with your big-girl wings," Dean teased, a grin tugging at his lips at last.

Ariel rolled her eyes and punched his arm lightly. "Can it. What did you guys need, anyway?"

"Well, we wanted to know if it was you guys committing these murders," Sam said, nodding to the newspapers spread out on the table. Ariel went to survey them even as Castiel shook his head.

"It's not us. But they were committed with one of our weapons. There's only one thing that could have brought this into existence. You call it the Staff of Moses."

"The Staff?" Sam's eyebrows shot up.

"It was used in a dominance display against the Egyptians, as I recall," Castiel pointed out as he lifted a jar to survey its contents.

"Yeah, that one made the paper," Dean muttered sarcastically.

"But I thought the Staff turned a river into blood, not one dude," Sam insisted.

"The weapon isn't being used at full capacity. I think we can rule Moses out as a suspect," Castiel answered dryly.

"Wait." Ariel looked up abruptly from the paper she was scanning. "You knew these murders were happening?"

Castiel looked a little sheepish again. "I may have heard of them."

"Is there anything else I'm unaware of?" she demanded irritably as Dean snorted.

"Man, running the joint really takes you out of the loop, doesn't it?"

"Shut it, Dean, or I'm punching you again." He obediently shut up. "The Staff of Moses was stolen, wasn't it?" Ariel asked Castiel, who nodded, before adding for the Winchesters' sake, "After the Apocalypse, Heaven was a mess. During the chaos, someone made off with a bunch of our weapons."

"You're telling us your nukes are loose?" Dean asked, his eyebrows rising.

"I'm afraid so." Castiel's expression was grim. "But you've stumbled onto one of them. We must find the weapon that did this. We need your help."

Sam scoffed suddenly. "Yeah, that's rich."

Castiel huffed, tossing the jar to Ariel, who caught it instinctively. "Sam, Dean. My 'people skills' are 'rusty.' Pardon me, but I've spent the last 'year' as a multidimensional wavelength of celestial intent. But believe me, you do not want that weapon down here. Help us find it or more people will die."

Ariel couldn't help a grin at his use of air-quotes. He was really learning from her. "Nice overuse of air-quotes there, bro." She glanced at the jar in her hands, shuddering when she realized it was filled with live locusts. "Oh, ew." She automatically shoved the jar away from her and Sam caught it with a barely-suppressed smile at her reaction, setting the jar down safely on a table.

"What about you, Air? Your people skills rusty, too?" Dean shot her a teasing grin.

"Nah, dude, it's all good up in the hood." She gave him a thumbs-up and earned a strange look in response.

"Okay, new rule, never say that again." She grinned shamelessly. "Anyway, if the angels didn't pull the trigger, then that brings us back to motive."

"Right now, we got three dead cops. Only thing linking them is this." Sam picked up a newspaper clipping from the table, handing it to Ariel.

"'Father of slain suspect calls for investigation,'" Ariel read aloud, frowning. "And the three dead cops-"

"-were the ones to kill the kid, yeah," Sam finished for her.

"So the kid's father has the Staff," she concluded.

"It seems most likely," Castiel agreed.

"Awesome, let's go get your nuke back," Dean said mock-cheerfully and Ariel smirked.

"Have you missed angel-travel yet?" His smile faded into an expression of horror.

I have no idea why this chapter refused to write itself. It just would not come until I was staring at a blank document and my fingers just sort of started moving. At least we finally got into our version of Season 6, just in time (okay, three weeks late) for Season 9!

I'll try to get the rest of The Third Man up before my workload sets in again and I am lost to you for another month or two, but I can't promise anything. Enjoy and please leave reviews! I'd love to hear any comments you've got!