After what felt like half a day, but in reality was only truly two hours, Afriel had to give it to Alastair: he was one tough cookie, not easy at all to break. God, now she was starting to sound like Dean... Shaking her head, she looked over their work, the demon half of her proud of what she had gotten to do, but the angel half inside of her revolting in horror at the sight of one of her Father's precious vessels being destroyed like this. Alastair had been injected and soaked in holy water, knives sent through his gut, his arms and legs slowly leaking blood from her additional vein-slicing, and now had anointed salt shoved down his throat. He still wouldn't break. At least the trap was still holding, because both of them were certainly going nowhere in a great rush. His human suit was definitely dead by now, if he wasn't before.
Dean grabbed a hold of his chin, just waiting for the answer that would never come. At that moment, Ariel switched places with Afri once more, a thoughtful frown on her face. Even if Kushiel was right and she and Dean would find forgiveness in doing God's work, this wasn't God's work, not anymore. I mean, this was a human! One of her father's creations! She had coped, all right, telling herself that this was a demon, the one who had marked her, that it was divine retribution of sorts to let Afriel torture him like he had tortured her for so long. But hearing the screams reminded her too much of Hell.
She wiped a bloody hand over her face to try to get rid of the sweat, but just left a streak of blood in its stead. She didn't know about Dean, but she was tired of this. Alastair was talking to Dean about something, Dean's back turned away from the demon, but her attention was caught by something else. There was a hole in the trap. Trying to keep her face calm, she looked up at Alastair, and he was free!
"Dean!" She pushed him out of the way and took the hit that was meant for him, knocking her to the ground. Getting back on her feet, she stared at her old teacher, letting the blood from her split lip run down.
"You know," Alastair spat out more blood as she touched her chin where his fist had made contact. "You could almost pass for one of us, Afriel. Look at you," they began to circle, Dean hopeless to do naught but observe, "an angel resorting to torturing a demon for information? Isn't that kind of contradictory for you people? What happened to 'follow my father's orders'?"
"I am!" She decked him under the chin, but he grabbed her throat and pinned her against the wall. Somewhere deep in her heart, she accepted the words that he spoke. He was right. This was not her Father's work. But there was no way that she was going to let him know that.
"You're just a plague on this world, you angels. So, I'm gonna send you back where you belong..." He began to chant in Latin, and she could feel herself being shot out from her body and back to the Citadel. The last thing she saw before she was jettisoned back was the look on Dean's face, knowing that they were both screwed...
As soon as she hit the floor of the Citadel, she began to run. She needed help. She needed her brother. Angels all around her looked at the blood and the human form and began to murmur amongst themselves as she ran by them. Her brother would mostly likely be in conference with her Father; she had recently received the message that their Father had returned from... wherever he was before. She reached the study, but there was another complication. Her old rival stood in front of the door, looking nonchalant but also pompous at the same time. His graying hair was combed back from his face, but he had not bothered to hide his form's obvious corpulence underneath the suit he was.
"Zachariah." She spat out the name. He was a pestilence on all angels, he and Phanuel, his alter-ego. They, as one, controlled the angels, all expect the archangels like she and her brother. Let's face it, she was of a higher pay grade then him. "Get out of my way. I need to speak to Father."
"No can do, Ariel." He looked at his nails, completely ignoring her. The old Ariel would have closed her eyes and begged him for entry. Nowadays... well, she was much different now. Ariel exhaled sharply before summoning her powers and pushing him aside. Now was no time for old pissing contests and she knew that. Opening the doors to her father's study, she marched up to him and knelt at his confused feet.
"What's going on, Ariel?" He took in the blood, but he had no chance to speak.
"Father, I was fulfilling the orders that Michael gave me in your name. I was helping Dean Winchester to interrogate a demon, but it became clear to me that he isn't the one doing this, slaughtering my kin." She looked up at his face, "But you already knew that, didn't you?"
Father lifted her onto her feet and sighed, looking down at the map and away from her. "Yes, Ariel. I can read the minds of all my children, and I know that Uriel is the one. But that isn't why I told Michael to summon you to help the Winchester son."
Silver tears streaked down her dirty face, smearing the blood there from her recent beating. "Tell me why, Father. Tell my why you put Dean and I through Hell again down there before I tear my Grace out." She stuck out her chin, content to live forever at this point as a vessel solely to Afriel. Maybe the rogue Anna was right. Maybe her Father was cold and distant after all.
She knew that he could hear her thoughts, so she wasn't surprised when her Father closed his eyes and continued to refuse to look at her. "Because you both had to realize that you can't be saved. Not this time. You two will always bear the scars of your time in Hell, and I cannot erase it. What you needed to do was understand that this part," he waved at all the blood, "is now a part of you, and that will not, and cannot, change."
Ariel could feel herself go into shock. "You don't think that I know that, Father? I've been doing your bidding since I was created! Everything that I did was for you, and you let Alastair torture me for thousands of years before you did anything! What did I do to earn your wrath like that?" A tear ran down her face, but she was far too angry to care. "Everyone of us could be saved; you taught me that! But apparently, that doesn't include your firstborn daughter! I know that Afriel is a part of me! She is the reason that I'm doing your work: to rid myself of her sins!" She jumped to her feet and began to pace in the study; her eyes were going black as she let herself grow angry. "But why are you letting Dean do this? Has he not suffered enough? Aren't we supposed to be stopping the Apocalypse?"
"That's enough, Ariel!" A voice from behind her made her growl. How did Zachariah get in here? This was a private meeting! He walked up to her Father and smiled at them both. "Now, kiddy, listen up and listen good. Father here's a little preoccupied with the war, so why don't you let him be. After all," he clapped a hand on their Father's shoulder as Father looked to the ground, "he's the one we follow, remember?"
He motioned his head to the door. Before she could stop it, two angels came and hooked her arms behind her. Zachariah looked down on her before slapping her in the face. "You will stop hanging around with Dean Winchester. He's becoming a bad influence on you, my dear."
That was when she snapped. Her eyes went pure black and her wings snapped open and were black as night as well. She ripped herself away from the two cronies, and stared at Zachariah and her Father. She nodded her head to Father, showing him that this discussion of theirs was far from over, but she was currently preoccupied with the younger brother standing next to him. "I just got two words for you, Zac: Fuck you." With that, she jettisoned herself back down to Earth, to Dean's location.
She landed outside of Cheyenne's Regional Medical Centre, her energy sapped from the trans-plane leap. Ariel made sure that her clothes were clean and that the blood was washed off her hands and face before entering the hospital, a fake smile on her face as she walked to the information desk. Materializing a lab coat over her jeans and tanks and a stethoscope around her neck, she flashed her hospital ID before asking the clerk where one of her patients was. She made up a cover that she had come down from New York to see a long-time patient of hers who had been in an accident; it wasn't necessarily a lie, but just a modification of the truth here and there. While the human looked at the computer, Ariel used that moment of distraction to gather the information from his unsuspecting mind. Flashing her smile, she walked down the hallway and let herself into Dean's room and closed the door behind her.
Alastair had done a number on him after she was forced back to the Citadel. Dean was laid out on the bed in a drug-induced coma; the vital sign and heart monitor the only way she could tell if he was alive without the use of her powers. He was hooked to a ventilator, so he must have had a pretty bad concussion. His pretty face was all lacerated and sutured, probably from punches. His left arm was the site of two IV locks, both currently running; it was most likely painkillers. Moving the blanket ever so slightly to peer at his abdomen, she saw that massive bruises were forming there. He would probably need surgery for the internal bleeding.
She took a look at the chart dangling at the end of the bed. Today, Dean was Samuel Cole. The emergency attending on call was going to have him go to surgery within the hour for the bleeding. He was on IV propofol, hydromorphone, and saline to re-hydrate him. He was on 15 liters of oxygen via ET tube until after he woke up. His x-rays were clear of any skull fractures, but he was still in pretty bad shape with the bruised kidneys, broken cheekbone, and bruised everything. He was especially going to hate the catheter when he woke up...
The door came open and Ariel heard a person walk up and stick a blade to her throat. "Who are you?" She could smell the demon blood inside of him and knew exactly who it was.
"Sam Winchester, know that that little knife won't kill me. It will simply make me angrier, and you most likely do not want to see that right now." She turned and faced him, letting, for a moment, her Grace shine through her eyes, shielding Afriel from the white light. "I am like Castiel. I'm an angel... well, more of an archangel. My name is Ariel."
Sam sighed and put the knife away. "Wait, you're telling me there's more of you?"
She chuckled once, a small smile on her face for the first time in a long time. "We, the angels of the Lord, are legion, Samuel Winchester. I am truly an archangel, the firstborn sister of Micheal." That got Sam sitting in a chair, his hand to his heart, as he processed the new information. "I was sent to help your brother, as well as myself, to get back on the path of forgiveness. But thus far, I have failed in understanding the reasons behind this. At least, until now." She looked down at Dean, hearing the truth come through her ears as if they were her own voice. "You killed Alastair, didn't you?"
Sam had the audacity to look shocked, and that simply annoyed her. "Samuel Winchester, don't look shocked on my behalf. I know that you are using your powers, and that you suck the blood of demons to give you strength like that. I know this, although I don't understand it. Frankly, I don't wish to understand it. I ask again: you killed Alastair, right?" Sam just nodded his head. She looked down at Dean, and felt Castiel at the doorway. "Wait here."
Closing the door behind her, she looked up at Castiel. "Castiel, I have to tell Dean something, but I don't have time. Give him this message." She could feel her heart begin to beat faster. Taking out a pen and paper from her pocket, she wrote down two lines before holding onto her heart. Castiel knew what was going on, but he could not stop it. He grabbed the note and watched as his friend was jettisoned back to heaven, awaiting her punishment for disobedience.