"Hello, John Winchester."
As the rest of the group catches up, John is caught completely off guard by the presence of the stranger.
"Where are my boys!?" he demands when he sees the empty car behind the large suited man standing on the grass in the front yard. His heart begins racing immediately.
"With all the hype around your children, I thought the great Johnny Winchester would be more… impressive," the man patronizingly chides as he casually paces around the yard, hands behind his back and eyeing John in an aloof manner.
"Uriel!" Dean shouts out, running to his dad's side while highly disturbed to see the sinister angel suddenly visiting them. "What did you do!?"
"Hello Dean, Sam, Lizzy… and Castiel. Ah, good to see you brother."
"What are you doing, Uriel?" Castiel booms out as he steps in front of the group, sword at the ready, as he prepares to keep his human cohorts safe.
"Trying to undo all of the tremendous damage you're already caused," Uriel angrily responds. "You are well aware that what you are doing is highly against orders."
"I beg to differ," Castiel sharply returns. "Orders or not, I did the right thing. This poor girl deserves to understand what is happening to her."
"And you think that will end well?" Uriel asks with surprise and eyes narrowed at his fellow angel.
"Regardless of how it ends, Elizabeth is a good person," Castiel defends, lifting his sword little high. "Having watched over her since birth, I know this to be absolute fact."
"Ah yes, the sniveling, pathetic animal with good intentions. She is just another pathetic cockroach under our feet, Castiel. That is all. She is not the saint you seem to view her as. I think we all can agree on that, right?" Uriel rebuts, cocking an eyebrow at Lizzy as he does.
"No, but who the hell likes saints anyways," Dean comments in her defense. "Bunch a' fucking no-fun prudes if you ask me."
"Such quick wit," Uriel quips with disdain. "Those oh so clever one-liners always spewing from your ever flapping mouth without a single thought. You really are a one of a kind, Dean."
"I'll take that as a compliment," Dean returns with a serious tone.
"Don't," Uriel answers back quickly.
"Where are they!?" John shouts out, ready to know what it is that happened to his kids. All this talking isn't getting him any closer to finding them.
"They are in a safe place." Uriel smiles, his pure malice for the humans clear as day. "I simply took them for collateral."
"Collateral against what?" Sam yells over to the powerful angel.
"Against you getting away," he explains to the group in front of him. "You flee and go back to your own time, knowledge still intact, I make sure you cease to exist when you get there. The childhood version of you won't take another single breath."
"No!" John shouts out.
"So either you let me take away your newly acquired information, or…" Uriel's grin grow a little in size. "Cute little Sammy and his brother Dean will not get to see another day."
"Relax, he's full of shit," Dean challenges while eyeing Uriel with hate. "They've been so hard into us for a while now that I'm pretty sure they need us around. They can't kill us."
"Don't be so damn certain," Uriel lies. "You two are a dime a dozen. Foul mouthed, drunken hunters with poor decision-making skills… not exactly difficult to come by."
"Uriel, I am warning you…" Castiel begins.
"Oh please, you warn me Cas?" he arrogantly interrupts. "I don't think so. You've grown weak and untrustworthy."
"Fine!" Lizzy breaks in, ready to end the verbal fighting and get the kids back. "You bring them back right now, give the kids back to John unharmed, you do whatever you have to do to us."
"L, no," Dean says to her pleadingly.
"Why not? What would be the point of knowing about my past if you two ceased to exist when we got to our time?" Lizzy asks him while covering the few steps between them. She places a hand on his arm and looks up to him sincerely. "Already told you, I'm not doing this life without you. I'd rather be in the dark about my own life than be without you and Sam."
"But that's not right…" Dean tells her.
"No shit, but what choice do we have?" Lizzy says right back.
"You need to know!" Dean gets angry with her way of thinking. "You deserve to!"
"Not at the cost of your fucking lives!" Lizzy yells back, letting her hand drop. "Are you nuts!?"
"Can we save this little domestic dispute for another time?" Uriel calls out, ending their argument were it was. "In the name of my father! Aren't you two supposed to agree on everything?"
"That's kind of a rarity actually," Dean counters with annoyance. "We like to keep the spice in the relationship."
"Ah yes. The extraordinary bond formed by father himself between two mud monkeys," Uriel mysteriously says. "Look at you two. It's amazing how good we really are. Aren't we Cas?"
"Uriel," Castiel warns out with both anger and fear in his voice but Uriel just keeps smiling in return before looking back to Dean and Lizzy.
"So Dean, it appears that you appreciate our hard work greatly."
"What are you blabbing about?" Dean asks with utter confusion. "What work?"
"Lizzy, of course," Uriel proclaims. "We made her to be exactly what you'd want after all."
"What!?" Lizzy immediately asks with total fright over the heavy statement. Her eyes nearly pop out of her skull as she takes a step in Uriel's direction.
"What the hell does that mean?" Dean asks, face scrunched and feeling disgusted already by the angel's brazen words.
"Like you haven't wondered about how oddly similar you are without a hint of suspicion attached a few times," Uriel spits out while looking to Dean. "She likes your music. She loves food and eats as much as you do. She curses, she hunts, she is highly attractive, and to top it off she is almost as big a slut as you are, Dean."
"Watch your fucking mouth!" Dean shouts, angry to hear the angel speak of his Lizzy that way.
"And who else could ever understand you as much as she does?" he keeps going, ignoring Dean's threat. "She lost her parents to a demon, she was thrust into the hunting life, you even share an adoptive father figure. Did you not ever stop and think about how similar your lives are? What are the chances that it's just a random occurrence?"
"You fucking asshole!" Lizzy bursts out, fists balled as she takes large, anger-filled steps in Uriel's direction. Sam, knowing her well, reaches out and grabs her around the waist, holding her back as she fights against him while still shouting. "I am not some moldable, impressionable bitch for you to use as you like!"
"That is exactly what you are," Uriel informs her heatedly, the fire in his voice coming through clearly. "We molded you into the perfect match for Dean Winchester. That was always your purpose, since birth. You wanted to know everything, did you not? Well there it is. You were made by us for our purposes and only our purposes."
"Fuck you!" Lizzy screams in sheer madness as she begins to fight harder against Sam with all she has. "I'll kill you!"
"That's not true," Dean comments while stunned, turning to Castiel. "That's not true… Cas?"
Castiel's silence as he looks to the grass beneath his feet confirms it all.
"No," Dean lets slip out while looking at her, anger toppling her much better judgment. There's no way that could possibly be true. Why would heaven care enough about him to do that? How could he live with this information?
"Sam, let go of me!" Lizzy fights still, her fists landing on his arms hard. Sam flinches when the sharp metal of his mother's charm bracelet stabs into his forearm.
"You can't take him on, Lizzy!" Sam shouts to her, trying to talk some sense into her, as John steps towards the two with the intentions of helping Sam hold her back. Before he can get to her, Lizzy stomps on Sam's foot hard, making him groan in pain and loosen his grip just enough. Her training comes in quite handy now as she slips out of Sam's slackened hold on her easily with her self-defense background. She pushes past John and barrels by Castiel, swiping his sword from him in the process.
"I am not just some pawn for you winged ass-fucks to get what you want out of Dean!" she darkly informs Uriel as she approaches him quickly. She twirls the silver angel blade in her hand expertly before gripping tight as she goes in for an attack. "I am exactly who I want to be, exactly who my parents made me."
"You mean who your lying whore of a mother and fake father made you?" Uriel evilly provokes, still cool and collected as Lizzy eyes him.
"Don't you dare talk about my family," she glaringly warns, moving in to strike. Raising the blade above her head she drops it down hard, only to find the angel brought out his own blade and blocks her blow with it.
"And do not think for a second that you have a chance of winning this fight," Uriel growls, pushing her away from him. "This is not a battle you could ever win. I suggest you stand down."
This makes her even more angry and Lizzy, after recovering from her few steps backwards after being pushed, moves in again.
"Lizzy, stop!" Dean shouts, taking steps in her direction but having Castiel hold his hand out and stop him. "Do something!" he asks desperately of Castiel.
"He won't hurt her," Castiel assures.
"How the hell do you know?" Dean asks loudly.
"We have our orders," Castiel cryptically explains. "Lizzy is off limits."
Dean looks at Castiel with utter shock and horror before turning back to the mini battle playing out on the front lawn. She's off limits which means she's seriously important. Shit.
Uriel deftly blocks every blade swipe and punch thrown by Lizzy. He was right, she is no match for him. Lizzy finally sees an opening and grabs Castiel's blade with both hands. She brings it in with all intentions of thrusting it straight through the angel's stomach. Before she can take the shot, Uriel calmly reaches out and presses two fingers to her forehead. Her body instantly drops lifelessly into a heap at Uriel's feet.
Dean and Sam are sprinting to her before she even hits the ground.
"I suggest you stay back," Uriel evenly warns, blade pointed in their direction. "Unless you want me to inflict some serious damage on this young lady."
"You won't," Dean challenges with dark anger, knowing he can't after what Castiel just told him.
"Try me, monkey boy," Uriel smirks and the brothers both freeze, neither ready to be responsible for any harm falling on her on the off chance that Uriel goes rogue. He already seems more than vindictive as is. "She is fine," he explains, his wingtip poking into her side. "Consider it an involuntary nap. Now, since you clearly aren't all in agreement here, I'll do you this one favor. I'll give you twelve hours to come to a decision. I'll find you then and I'll either erase your brains or the kids die."
"You son of a bitch!" John shouts out, having a difficult time dealing with the idea that his kids are in such danger. He's working tirelessly his whole life to avoid this kind of thing from happening. It's his worst nightmare come true.
"Watch your tone with me," Uriel says quickly back before happily leaving them with his departing words. "You have until tomorrow morning."
With that, the angel is gone, leaving disagreements, fear, and an unconscious Lizzy to take over where he left off.
"Cas!" Dean shouts on his way across the lawn to Lizzy with Sam hot on his heels. He lands on the grass at her side, lifting her head into his lap. "Wake her up!"
Castiel strides quickly to the slumped woman and presses his fingers to her forehead, eliciting a large, loud inhale from her as her eyes pop open.
"Hey, relax," Dean softly tells her with a hand on her cheek. "You're good."
"Dean?" she looks with wild eyes up at him. "What happened?"
"You went off the rails, as I believe the saying goes," Castiel angrily remarks, roughly taking back his blade that was still in her hand. "Not a smart idea, Elizabeth."
"Not at all," Sam adds, upset with her way of reacting to such a powerful being. "What the hell were you thinking?"
"I wasn't. I was angry," Lizzy admits while sitting up. "The things he said… Cas, was he telling the truth?"
Castiel looks down at her with hardened eyes. "We will discuss this later. Right now, we need to get Dean and Sam back where they belong. One issue at a time."
"They have my kids," John says in a panic a few feet back. He hasn't moved through the whole ordeal. He couldn't. "Shit, my kids are with that asshole."
"And we'll get them back," Sam reassures quickly.
"John, they will be returned to you," Castiel repeats. "I will make sure of it." Castiel disappears.
"Where the fuck…" John starts.
"He's off doing work," Lizzy explains, her eyes closed in concentration. "He's getting us weapons and searching for Dean and Sammy. He'll be back soon."
"Alright, let's get back inside," Sam suggests. "We need to figure out what we're going to do."