Chapter Six: Alliances

Addison offers to drive when they leave the National Park to find dinner and a place to sleep so Gadreel agrees. It gives him time to actually look at his surroundings before the sun disappears and appreciate seeing the world once more. The park hadn't been very crowded due to it being "off season" according to Addison but he wasn't quite sure what that meant. And honestly, he didn't care. He had spent a day not having to maintain a false persona or keep meticulous track of details so his subterfuge wouldn't be discovered. His original crime is known and forgiven by his companion. He can breathe.

It has truly been his first day of freedom.

As lost and despondent as Addison had been, he had been surprised to see her change as the day moved forward. Grief still clung to her and would bow her shoulders and dull her eyes at times but for the majority of the day, she saw nothing but beauty before her. Her descriptions of wildflowers covering the meadows particularly fascinated him to the point of wondering if they would be able to return at the proper time to see them in person.

"May I ask you something," Addison breaks the silence. "If you don't want to answer, that's fine."

He braces himself for the accusations now. She's had a day to think over what he has done and the end result is not going to favorable. But he had this day and he intends to treasure the memory of it. "Go ahead."

"Everything that you saw today, was there anything like that in Eden?"

There is only curiosity in her voice and he releases the breath he had been holding. He hasn't allowed himself to dwell on Eden without the shame and guilt tainting it. But Addison has given him a reason to remember it in its perfection. "It was much more untamed than this. Trees, ferns, flowers of every imaginable color were everywhere. And the animals were just as numerous as the plants. The Garden was a different climate than this. It was more," he searches through his vessels knowledge and pulls the word from there, "tropical. "

"Tropical? Really? Most Biblical scholars think that the Garden was located between two rivers in the Middle East. Not exactly a tropical climate there."

"I am afraid to inform you that the Garden was not on Earth proper."

"Where was it then?"

"In another dimension, I believe that is the term you would use."

"Trippy."

"I do not know what 'trippy' means but the Garden itself was beautiful. I have yet to see anything that resembles the perfection of that time. The park that we were in was enjoyable to see though. There are remnants that can be seen in your world as it is today."

"I guess when you're used to perfection, everything else pales in comparison."

"I would not say that. Yellowstone holds a different beauty, but it is all to be enjoyed."

Addison seems to perk up at his statement. "So you enjoyed yourself today?"

"Yes, I did." Humans are chaotic messes, and Addison is no different, but Gadreel still hasn't lost his affection for them. Thaddeus tried to beat it out of him, to drive the fascination and compassion he felt towards these creatures from his being, but Thaddeus had failed. The realization that he is still able to hold onto those feelings brings more satisfaction to him than running the blade through Thaddeus' heart. Perhaps that's what Abner had meant when he showed distaste for Gadreel's act of revenge.

"Well that's certainly not a happy face."

"My apologies. I was thinking of a friend."

"A friend? Why didn't you say something before? Where are they? Can they help us?"

"I am afraid he cannot help us. I doubt he would be willing even if he was able."

"If he's your friend, I'm sure he'll be willing to help."

"He is dead, Addison. I was told he was a threat to Heaven and ordered to…" he can't bring himself to finish the statement. Perhaps now Addison would see the need for her to find another angel to guide and protect her. He just wasn't fit for a job as important as guarding the anchor.

"You killed your friend because someone ordered you to?"

"Yes."

"Was it the same asshole who told you to kill the Prophet?"

"And you. Yes." He feels the change in Addison's demeanor as if it were a thunderstorm rolling across the plains. Her good natured mood has clouded over and anger grows in its place.

"Rule number one down here: if someone tells you to kill people, they're not the kind of the person you want to be around. Anyone who wants you to harm someone or something else isn't worth your time. Do you understand me?"

"Yes."

"Good."

Addison's anger burns out quickly but still simmers on the surface. He can see the traces of it in her grip on the steering wheel and the line of her jaw. For some reason though, she doesn't seem angry at him. Because of that, he's brave enough to ask a question. "What do you think of hunters, such as Sam and Dean and your mother?"

"That's different. What they do is either self defense or they're defending other people who are being attacked. They fight for the people who can't fight for themselves. If you want to defend Heaven, you fight against the person who kicked you out and closed the place down in the first place."

He's about to ask her how they would go about fighting Metatron when a set of headlights crest over the hill in front of them. The car is driving erratically, weaving across the entire road with no consistent trajectory. Addison slams on the brakes and pulls their car over to the side of road.

"Get out and away from the road as much as possible!" she shouts to him as she jumps out of the driver's seat.

He follows her as she slides down the small gully alongside the road and jumps a fence into a field. They stand in the field until the car passes and by some miracle, misses their car completely. He turns to make sure that Addison is unhurt only to find her bent over and retching in a bush. Confusion gives way to understanding when he remembers it was a car accident that put her in a three-year coma. Of course she would find this deeply upsetting.

Comfort, she needs comfort. He had been able to find it within himself to care for Abner, he could do the same for Addison. He waits for her to straighten up before letting his fingertips brush against her elbow. She doesn't pull away as she wipes her mouth with the sleeve of her coat.

"Sorry."

He curls his fingers around her arm to steady her as they start to walk back up to the still running car. "I will drive the rest of the way."

"Alright," comes the shaky answer as she leans into him periodically during their climb out of the gully.

When they reach the car, the hairs on the back of his neck stand up and he senses something that he had hoped not to encounter for a few days at least.

Angels.

"Get in the car and go."

Addison is still pale but shakes her head. "What? No. What's going on?"

He pulls out his angel blade and tries to push her around the car, back to the drivers side. "You need to leave quickly."

"Not until you tell me what's going on!"

"Allow me to fill in those details," a strange voice says from the darkness.

Gadreel tries to keep Addison behind him but a circle of angels have surrounded them on all sides. The one who spoke steps into the light from the headlamps of the car. He makes a motion with his hand and the car's engine stutters and shuts off. The angel's face is scarred and haggard, as are most of his followers. Addison has pressed herself close to his back and he can feel her tremor with fear.

"There's no need for weapons," the strange angel says. "We're only here to talk and offer some...assistance."

"What kind of assistance?" Gadreel asks.

"Protection for one. There's a lot of angels out there looking for that little girl cowering behind you."

"Who are you?"

He laughs easily. "Where are my manners? I'm Malachi. And you are Gadreel, aren't you? The original anarchist."

He doesn't know how to respond that so he stays quiet.

"Are you going to come with us willingly or are you going to make this interesting?"

There are too many of them, almost twenty by his count. He's still too weakened to properly do battle against so many. It was also possible for Addison to become injured in the cross fire if he did choose to fight. So he made the best decision for her he could and dropped his blade.

Malachi smiled. "Willingly it is."

Sam finds the police report online of an abandoned black sedan on the side of Route 26 outside of Yellowstone National Park. It's been two days since Addison high tailed it out of Denver so it wasn't far fetched that this was the car. The next morning finds him and Dean flashing FBI badges at the precinct in Idaho Falls, the closest town from where the car was found. Thankfully, the officer on the case was more than happy to hand over the file and the car to them.

"Found some weird stuff in that car," he tells them over a cup of coffee at the local diner.

"Like what?" Dean asks.

He slides the file over to Sam, who opens it to find photos of the car and the contents of the trunk.

"There were three bags in the trunk," the officer continues. "Two held clothes, normal stuff. But the third, the canvas one, had all kinds of weapons in it. Machetes, knives, guns, journals with pentagrams and talk of ghosts. As if finding an abandoned car on the side of the road with no sign of anyone around it isn't freaky enough."

"Well, it's our freaky problem now," Dean says.

The officer shakes their hands and heads out to his patrol car as Jael comes into the diner and takes the recently vacated seat. "Well? Is it them?"

Before Sam can answer her, Dean closes the file. "Our case, sweetheart, not yours."

Jael's eyes narrow. "If you really want to get into a pissing match with a Rit Zein, by all means, Dean Winchester, let's do that."

"I've taken on a lot of dicks with wings, a Rit Zein too, so yeah. I'm more than up for a pissing match with you."

"Addison Weaver is the anchor, the anchor I created. She is my responsibility. You want to hunt down Gadreel, that's fine. You have my word I will not get in the way. But as long as Addison is with Gadreel, I'm coming with you."

Sam has had enough the bickering back and forth between them. Jael is determined to find Addison and quite frankly, Sam is thankful for having another angel on their side. "Fine. You're coming along until we find Addison."

"Sam-"

"Dean, look. You still need to find Abaddon and finish her off. Swing back to Denver, pick up Cas and go finish that. Jael and I will look at the car and see if we can't figure out what happened to Addison and Gadreel."

"And you're okay with that plan?"

"Yeah, I am."

Dean gives Jael a glance and shakes his head. "Well, I'm not okay with that plan."

"We're running out choices here. Addison needs to be found. Gadreel needs to be dealt with. Abaddon needs to be killed. We can't do it all."

"Actually, it works out quite nicely," Jael interjects. "You have Castiel and Sam has me. An angel for each of the Winchesters."

Dean scowls. "That doesn't make me feel any better."

Jael straightens her glasses. "I heard you were the one that dealt with Ephraim so you know exactly what a Rit Zein is capable of doing to a human. If I had any intention of harming you or your brother, I would have turned you both into a red mist and gone after Addison myself. You don't trust me, get over it. We're fighting the same fight here and I would appreciate a little respect."

Whatever response Dean had was cut off when his phone rang. Sam figures it's Crowley and not Cas when Dean gets up from the booth and steps outside.

"You really don't have a problem with working with me?"

Sam looks over at Jael and shakes his head. "No, I don't. You're right. If you wanted us out of the way, you would have done that by now. Which makes me wonder why haven't you gone after Addison by yourself?"

"I'm not very good at this human thing. It was easy to track her when she was unconscious and then to follow her around her hometown for two and half weeks. But now that she's god knows where, I just don't know what to do. You, your brother and Castiel are my best chance at understanding how this world works and how I can use it to find Addison."

"So you've never taken a vessel before?"

"Never."

"I have to say, you've doing pretty good for your first time on earth."

Jael smiles, a genuine smile but Dean returns to the table before she can say anything.

"Well, that was Crowley. He found Abaddon. And then Cas called. He said there's some chatter on angel radio that Malachi is the one who snatched Addison and Gadreel."

Sam straightens up in his chair. "So, what do we do?"

"You really okay with going off with her?"

"Yeah, I am."

Dean shrugs. "Fine then. I'll grab Cas and meet up with Crowley and you go with Miss Angel Medic and take care of Gadreel."