It was the column of blinding light that made the Winchester brothers and Ariel run towards the locked door. They banged on the door, trying to get free of this place, but the spell that was unleashing Lucifer was too powerful. Then, the voice began to ring in the air. Ariel turned in horror as the two brothers cupped their hands over their ears and began to wince and grimace at the high-pitched voices, slowly going to their knees as the power of the unleashed angel overwhelmed them. To Ariel, however, it was crystal clear.

"At last, I'm free. At last!" There was a chuckle in the air, but it was quite unbelieving, as if the concept of Lucifer becoming free was now an impossibility after so long for him. Just then, the brothers disappeared into thin air and she was left alone. The voice rang out again. "Hello, sister."

Ariel's fists were clenched so hard that it made her knuckles turn white. "Hello, brother." Her face was drained off all color as the light dissappated and she was left with the ethereal form of Lucifer.

Since he had no form, Lucifer was fog for the moment. However, the fog became slightly corporeal, and there was a form in the mist before her. For every few moments, there was a chin or an arm or a leg, but his voice was ever-present. "Why are you here, baby sister?"

"I'm here to protect the Winchester brothers, Lucifer." She collapsed to her knees, her injuries overcoming her once more. The ghost of her brother, long locked away, came over and knelt beside her. She felt her shirt being lifted up and her brother look at her wounds. Without being asked, she stripped off the leather jacket and showed him the brands on her arm. He was silent as he placed his fingers against her brands, against the whip marks on her back; he looked revolted as he saw his own seal branded to her shoulder blade.

"Who did this to you, Ariel?" For once, the voice was serious; it was almost angry on behalf of his younger sister.

"Several people, Lu. First of them all, Alastair had his claws in me for four hundred mortal years before I became his pupil. After him it was Kushiel, because I was disobedient in that I disobeyed Phanuel and followed Father's orders." A gentle light filled the air as he healed her wounds, leaving her scars behind as a testament to his rusty powers. Little was it known by the mortals (for it was shunned by the heavens) that Lucifer was a healer; in fact, he was Ariel's mentor before he fell.

She placed her hand against the solid fog that formed her brother's cheek, wishing that it was flesh and skin that she was touching. "Why, Lu? Why?"

The chuckle filled the air again. "I loved our Father too much, Ari. Humans were his favourites, not us. And when he began to toy with us, I had enough." A misty hand cupped her chin. "God had no right to allow this evil to happen to us." She leaned into the misty hand of her brother, silvery tears falling down her face. "Know that I have missed you, and Michael." The hand disappeared and then she was jettisoned away.

Dean and Sam walked through the debris of the prophet's house when Ariel fell to the floor from the sky. Dean was the first one to help her to her feet, but she hid her face from him. By the time that the dust was brushed off of her and she was standing straight-backed, her face was clear again and the Sword of Lucifer was in her hand. She would not let the brothers see her emotional battle.

"You all right?" She asked them as she looked both of the brothers over. Scanning Sam, she saw that his powers were currently depleted, but that he was no longer dependent on the demon blood. How was that possible? He should be jonesing for his next hit of demon blood, because it was ten times more addictive than crystal methampthamine and heroin combined.

"Yeah; where'd you go?" She shook her head, telling Dean that she would discuss it with him later.

"What happened here?" Her question was quickly answered when something swung through the air and hit Sam in the head. The Sword was pointed to the throat of the offender as he turned the corner. Seeing the prophet, she sheathed the sword and bowed from the waist.

"Sam! You're all right!" The prophet, Chuck Shurley, dropped the plunger to the floor when he saw the brothers.

"Well, my head hurts." Sam rubbed the part of his head where the plunger hit.

"No! My last vision, you were like full on Vader! Your body temperature was 150; your heart rate was 200! Your eyes were black!" That got everyone in the room to pause. Ariel looked to Dean before looking across the room at Sam.

"Your eyes were black?" He looked at Sam with disbelief in his eyes. Sam simply glanced at Dean before looking to the floor. He didn't know; Ariel cocked her head at him as she walked over to the wall to lean against it for a moment or two: he truly didn't know how far gone down he had truly gone with drinking the demon blood. Well, now the question was: would he try it again now that he knew about the good, the bad, and the ugly of his choice?

It was then that Chuck noticed the angel leaning against the wall. "Who are you?"

Ariel smiled. "I'm Ariel, prophet. An archangel. You wouldn't know me, but," as she picked up a ruined copy of his book "No Rest for the Wicked", "I'm a great fan of your work."

"No, really? You're Ariel? Michael's sister?" She nodded her head, but then he blurted out, "You're the sister of Lucifer?"

The brothers looked to her in horror. Dean looked utterly betrayed. She tapped her finger on the hilt of the Sword in her hand. "Yes."

She found Dean's hands wrapped around her throat. She shoved him aside with what was left of her strength. "Lucifer is my brother, Dean, but I don't know him anymore." Well, that was a lie, seeing that she had just caught up with him back in Ilchester. "He was locked away since before I was in Hell."

Dean looked back to Chuck, his back stiff with anger. "Where's Cas?"

Chuck backed away from them, a guilty look on his face. "He's dead. Gone. The archangel smoked the crap out of him. I'm sorry."

"Dammit, Chamuel!" Ariel cursed as she hit the wall with a fist. Another angel was lost to the fight, but this one was her lover, her mate. This one cut much deeper.

Dean continued to look at Chuck with that look of disbelief in his eyes. "You're sure about that? Maybe he just backed into the light or something."

Chuck shook his head, a sure look in his frightened eyes. "Oh, no. No, he's… eh… he like exploded like a water balloon of chunky soup."

"Goddammit, you stupid bastard!" Dean looked up at the ceiling for a moment before catching the furious eye of Ariel. She looked like she wanted to backhand him for that comment, but then, displays of violence against one's charge is typically frowned upon by the upper echelon command.

Suddenly, Chuck looked up and said, "Crap!" All three turned to look at his blanched face. "I can feel them!"

Ariel felt the brand in her arm light up and hissed. "I can feel them, too."

Dean was pissed. "Feel what?"

"Thought we'd find you here." That voice rang through the debris behind them, that voice dripping with the syrup of sarcasm. Ariel stiffened. Turning around, she saw Zachariah with his two cronies standing in the remains of Chuck's kitchen. With a chipper smile on his face, he looked to the eldest Winchester and ignored everyone else. "Well, Dean. Time to go back to work."

"You should keep your distance, ass hat!" Dean pointed his finger at Zach to keep him from moving forward. Ariel leaned the Sword of Lucifer against her already injured shoulder, getting ready for another fight.

Zachariah seemed nonplussed. "You seem a little tense, Dean."

Dean was furious now. "Little? You sons of bitches jumpstarted Judgement Day!"

Zachariah remained nonchalant about the whole thing, like he had given Dean a bad mark on a school assignment. "Okay, one: maybe we let it happen, but we didn't start anything!" Now he looked to Sam with that smug look on his face. "Right, Sam?" When Zach winked as Sam looked guiltily away, he began his admonishment again. "Second: you had the chance to stop your brother, Dean, and you didn't. So, let's not quibble over who started what. Let's just say it was all our faults, and move one. 'Cause like it or not, it's Apocalypse now, and we're back on the same team again."

Dean made his face clear of his emotions. "Oh, is that so?"

Zachariah continued. "You want to kill the devil; we want you to kill the devil. It's synergy."

"And I'm just supposed to trust you?" Dean's face turned angry. "Cram it with walnuts, ugly!"

Zachariah's face turned serious, his lips curling slightly. "Lucifer is powerful in ways that defy description. We need to strike now! Hard and fast, before he finds his vessel." He looked at Ariel, and his contempt only grew. "Ariel here remembers just how powerful her oldest brother is, don't you?" He winked at her and turned his gaze back to the

Sam looked disgusted. "His vessel? Lucifer needs a meat suit?"

Zachariah chuckled. "He is an angel; them's the rules. And when he touches down, we're talking four horsemen, red oceans, fiery skies, the greatest hits. You can stop him, Dean; you can, but you need our help." Ariel's face jolted momentarily at the words, 'four horsemen', before hiding her shock again.

Dean kept his face clear, but his voice was low. "You listen to me, you two-faced douche. After what you did to me, to Ariel, to Cas, I don't want jack-squat from you!"

Zach's face turned ugly. "You listen to me, boy! You think you can rebel against us, as Lucifer did?" Something caught his attention and he looked down at Dean's hand. "You're bleeding."

From behind Dean, the three people saw that he motioned for them to move back. In front of him, Dean simply looked down at the blood on his hand. "Oh, yeah… a little insurance policy in case you dicks showed up." Dean pulled the kitchen door and revealed the blood sigil. Zachariah tried to rush forward, but Dean slammed his hand down on the sigil.

Ariel nodded as the sigil took her away too. Dean looked behind him, growing horror on his face, as she disappeared as well.

The ground was hard landing on as she fell upwards to the Citadel. As she, Zachariah, and his cronies came to, she walked away and headed off to find Michael. He was her superior now; well, him and Father, but mostly him now that their Father seemed to be out of the picture for the time being. She needed her orders. She knew that she was supposed to look after Dean and Sam, but now she wasn't so sure. Doubt began to creep into her, bringing back the recollection of Lucifer's recent visitation with her. Her other brother was back...

A tear streaked down her face as she remembered the bloodlines. Humans were taught that the Garden of Eden was the beginning of time, but that not true. It was the beginning of human life. There was Heaven, and that was the home of the angels. Michael, Lucifer, and she were anomalies in that they were blood related. God created the angels, yes, but he had created the three of them from the same part of his body, the first of his children. Lucifer was the first born, the eldest of the three. He was the original healer, beloved of God. Michael came next, but he was the warrior; he trained so hard, and the first task that he used his skills for was to cast his brother down. Finally, there was her, Ariel, another healer following in the steps of Lucifer, and... something else beside.

She should have noticed when God created the Garden that Lucifer was unhappy. They were all raised to love God as their Father, and Lucifer loved him so much. But when God made Eden, when he formed Adam, he ordered all angels to bow down to his newest creation. Lucifer tried; oh he tried so hard! But he couldn't. He begged God to treat both angels and humans equally, to not place one above the other. But Father wouldn't listen. That was the beginning of the battle.

Ariel was forced to choose sides at the very onset. It was like being the rope in a tug-of-war, only this time she was being torn apart by her brothers. It was with a heavy heart that she chose to side with Michael and Castiel, but she was too young then to understand what Lucifer was doing. He used his Sword and fought off the battalions as he tried to explain to them what he was doing, but his explanation fell on deaf ears. Soon, other angels joined Lucifer and torn Heaven apart; they were not following Lucifer's choice, but they wanted the power that God's left hand angel could give them if they joined him. They were the first, the Fallen.

The war lasted for two years, during the one hundredth year of her life: a year of brother against brother, sister against sister, son against Father. That was when Michael took his own Sword and 'smote' Lucifer, sending him down to the Earth and imprisoning him in Hell's cage. That was when Alastair, Heaven's first inquisitor, kidnapped her and brought her to Hell. She was his first, his angelic pupil. All that time she spent in Hell, she could only imagine what her brothers were thinking.

Coming back to the present, she knocked on the door of the war room. Michael called it that because he had nowhere else in the entirety of the Citadel where he could simply rant in private without losing face before his lieutenants. Hey, even the commander of the Heavenly Host had bad days, too.

"Come in." Pushing the doors aside, she came over to Michael and began to weep in his arms as he wrapped them around her. All of the pain, the agony, the hurt, came to the surface once more as the brother and sister tried to find solace in one another. Once again, they were forced to choose their sides, to choose to fight against their own flesh and blood, their own brother.

Michael used his powers to close the door for a moment of privacy; at this point, Ariel could have cared less. "Ari, I know."

"Why does this have to happen again?" She got out in between the sobs. "Why, Michael?"

"Because it is our destiny, Ariel. Because it has been foretold since our beginnings, that this was how it was going to end. Because our Father orders it so, Ari." At the mention of God, Ariel pushed away.

"'Our destiny'? Our destiny is to fight the Apocalypse once again? Michael, seriously. Our Father wants the two of us to kill our eldest brother?" She stood away from him, disgust riddling her face. "Michael, does our Father really not see how wrong that is?"

The hand rose through the air and slapped her across the face quicker than she could see. Ariel did nothing to stop it, but just let the pain echo through her. Michael's face was red with anger as he stood up. His wings and his eyes were steadily becoming black with rage. "Ariel, you are bordering on blasphemy. Be grateful that only I heard it." Ariel's heart broke in half as she listened to him. Blasphemy? It was the truth, or least, what truth she had been led to believe. I mean, really, what kind of a God would put his daughter through one and a half thousand years of hellish torment and four thousand years of exile in the guise of serving him, would make her choose sides between brothers, would make her seem less like his first daughter and more like his soldier?

Refusing to rub her cheek, she bowed before her brother. "What are your orders, general?" She had to get through this without showing her emotions.

Michael didn't seem to notice. "Go back down to Earth and watch over Dean. Consider these your only orders for the rest of the war. You are not to contact me or any of the other angels. You and your lover can stay on Earth until my mood has improved." He turned his back on her and let her dematerialize.

She landed in New York City, her old stomping grounds. Breathing out, she latched onto Dean's signature that she had discovered within the handprint on his shoulder. She ran as fast as she could to Castle Storage only to find that Dean and Sam were facing off against Zachariah.

"We did lose the Michael sword. We truly couldn't find it, until now. You've just hand-delivered it to us." Zach was standing before them, not paying any heed to the demon corpses laying on the ground. Ariel came up and stood behind Dean and Sam, her hand on her brother's Sword.

Dean shook his head. "We don't have anything."

Zachariah looked at the three of them as if they were three year olds. "It's you, chucklehead. You're the Michael sword." Ariel's brow furrowed as she looked from Dean to Zac. The Michael sword? Michael always carried his sword by his side. "What? You thought you could actually kill Lucifer, you simpering wad of insecurity and self-loathing?" Zac gave a sneer. "No. You're just a human, Dean, and not must of one at that."

"What do you mean, I'm the sword?" Dean just looked at Zac before feeling Ariel standing behind him.

"You're Michael's weapon. Or rather, his receptacle."

Dean's eyes shot up with confusion. "I'm a vessel?"

Zac continued his speech. "You're the vessel: Michael's vessel."

"But that's impossible. I saw Michael; he already has a vessel." Dean looked behind his shoulder to Ariel for some kind of confirmation.

"Dean, he can glamour the air to make him seem human, but for an extended stay on Earth, Michael needs a human form as his vessel." Ariel finally understood the prophecy. Michael must have known, but why didn't he tell her? Yet another stab in the heart, yet another tip in the scale for the Commander. He played her like a patsy from her sentence on, and she let him. What had happened to him to change Michael so? The brother that she held dear in her memories would have never thought twice about doing something like this to her.

Zachariah looked over at Dean, who just stood there baffled and asked, "How? Why me?" To that, Zachariah repeated the words that had been told to Dean for the last part of a year. "Because you've been chosen, Dean. It's a great honor." He was trying to dangle that in front of the hunter like bait. Did he not tell them that whatever happened to his body, he would feel? If he died, he would only come back to life?

Dean knew that, though. "Oh, yeah. Yeah, life as an angel condom. That's real fun. I think I'll pass, thanks." Ariel tucked her head to keep her from laughing; now was so not an appropriate time.

Zach shook his head. "Joking, always joking. Well..." he brought up his hand and made a gun with his thumb and index finger pointed in Dean's direction, "no more jokes." Turning the gun to Sam, he said, "Bang." Sam fell to the ground as both of his legs broke. He cried out and began to breathe through the excruciating pain, just like his dad had taught him.

Dean was livid. "You son of a bitch!"

But Zachariah wasn't having it. "Keep mouthing off, I'll break more than his legs. I am completely and utterly through screwing around. The war had begun. We don't have our general. That's bad." Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Ariel kneeling by Sam to make ready to heal him. "Ah, ah, ah, Ariel." Using his power, he lifted her from the ground and slammed her against his cronies. She was forced on her knees while her arms were wrenched behind her back; the Sword was taken from her, and she was made to watch.

Turning back to Dean, Zach continued his rant. "Now, Michael is going to take his vessel, and lead the final charge against the adversary. You understand me?"

Dean stood his ground toe-to-toe. "How many humans die in the crossfire, huh? A million? Five, ten?"

Zach conceded the point. "Probably more. If Lucifer goes unchecked, you know how many die? All of them. He'll roast the planet alive." Turning to Ariel, Zach used the Sword and cut through her shirt to reveal the sigils carved there. "She's Lucifer's sister. How can you trust her over me? So disobedient, this one, and now I can't punish her for her crimes because she's Michael's right hand."

"Because she's saved my life. She's fought beside me." And then it dawned on Dean. "There's a reason you're telling me this, instead of just nabbing me." His brow was furrowed as all the pieces so far came into place. "You need my consent. Michael needs my say-so to ride around in my skin." Ariel nodded.

Once again, although it was painful for him, Zach conceded the point. "Unfortunately, yes."

Dean tried to negotiate. "Well, there's got to be another way."

Zach found his footing in the debate. "There is no other way. There must be a battle. Michael must defeat the serpent. It's written." At that name, Ariel spat on the ground at Zach's feet.

"His name is Lucifer, not the serpent, dumbass, and he was your superior for almost one hundred years. Use it." That earned her a slap across the face to silence her.

Dean moved his head from side to side as if considering. "Yeah, maybe. But on the other hand..." now his face turned stern, "eat me. The answer's no."

Now the gloves were off, in a manner of speaking. "How about this?" Now it was Zach's turn to propose something. "Your friend Bobby; we know he's gravely injured. Uh... say yes, and we'll heal him. Say no, he'll never walk again."

Dean stood his ground. "No."

"All right then. Say yes, Ariel returns to your side completely healed. Say no, I rip out her Grace." Without waiting for an answer, Ariel felt her Grace being slowly yanked from her. Her eyes, mouth, and ears began to glow white as her vessel and her Grace were slowly being separated. Afriel screamed inside of her, breaking past the fake sigils and trying her best to keep her vessel whole

Still, Dean answered, "No."

Zachariah wasn't finished yet. "Then how about we heal you from... stage-four stomach cancer?" Dean began to gag as he went to his knees and coughed up blood. Still, his answer remained the same. "No."

"All right, let's get really creative. Uh... let's see how Sam does without his lungs." Now it was Sam's turn for more pain. He couldn't breathe, and he began to choke slowly. All around Zach, the three of them were in pain: Ariel struggling to keep her Grace inside of her; Sam with his broken legs and lack of lungs; Dean with the blood dripping from his mouth from the tumor and ulcers in his stomach. All that Zach said was, "Are we having fun yet?"

He knelt before Dean, and took his chin to make Dean stare at him. "You're going to say yes, Dean."

Dean nodded his head. "Yes, kill us."

Zachariah laugh. "Kill you? Oh no, Dean. I'm just getting started."

Suddenly behind him was a brilliant flash of light. Ariel fell to the ground and covered her face so that her Grace would stay in her vessel and not escape through her eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. She didn't see what was happening, until she heard the voices again through her semi-muffled ears.

"How are you..."

"Alive? That's a good question." For a moment, Ariel's heart stopped. Castiel? No, he was dead. Chuck had seen him. "How did these two end up on that airplane? Another good question. 'Cause the angels didn't do it. I think we both know the answer, don't we?"

"No. That's not possible." She could hear the shock in Zach's voice.

"It scares you. Well, it should. Now, put these boys and Ariel back together and go. I won't ask twice." She heard the rustling of the wings and then her Grace settled back into place. She took a massive gasp of air and turned to lay on her back. She felt a hand on her shoulder lifting her to her feet. Opening her eyes, she saw that he was real.

She placed her hand against the cheekbones of her lover, tracing the bones of his vessel's face. The blue of his eyes watched her face as it went from shock, to confusion, to happiness. He was real, he was alive, and this was no illusion. "How?"

Castiel simply shook his head. That was a conversation for another time. Turning back to the brothers, he carved a set of Enochian sigils into their ribcages to hide them from all angels. Then Sam asked, "How?"

At that, both of the angels disappeared.

Ariel returned later that night to the Impala. Dean and Sam were just standing there talking to one another. Ariel didn't have to have good hearing to know that Dean was telling Sam that he wasn't sure if he could trust him anymore after the whole demon blood mess. Sam just stood there and took it; Ariel saw that he wanted to be punished for this, that he wanted to feel guilty about this for a long time to come. Walking out of the shadows, she came towards them, only to receive an impressive right hook to her jaw.

"Why didn't you tell us, Ari?" Dean's eyes pleaded with her. She nodded her head. Leaning against the trunk of the Impala, she told her story.

"My brothers and I were the first angels to be created, Dean. Lucifer was a healer, like me. You wouldn't recognize him when you first hear of the Devil lore.

"You have to understand this, Dean. We were around long before Eden was created. We were God's favorites, his beloved. When he created Adam, he told all of us that we were to bow down to his new favourites. We, the angels, were shunted aside, all but forgotten as the children of the God. That's why so many of us are warriors, Dean: to keep the hurt from so long ago under wraps. And also, because we were ordered to become warriors.

"At this time, I was mated with Castiel. He and I were the first angel couple, and God couldn't be happier that his daughter was happy as well. But Lucifer tried so hard to follow God's orders. How would it feel, Dean, if all of the work that you did for your father was looked over because Sam was at Stanford, that nothing you did would be good enough for John? It was the same for Lucifer. He begged God to explain to him why he chose the humans over his first, to treat us both the same. But my Father didn't like that.

"The war began. Michael and Lucifer made me choose sides, and I reluctantly sided with Michael because God, Castiel, and my brother urged me to turn my back on Lucifer. He fought against the battalions for a second chance, but no one but me felt that he deserved it. After that, Michael smote down our oldest brother and locked him away in Hell. In order to make sure that no one was tempted to release him, he had Phanuel create the six hundred and sixty-six seals, making sure that only sixty-six were needed to free him. Soon after that, Alastair kidnapped me."

For a moment, there was silence. "Dean, Sam, imagine something tearing you apart and making the ones that you love having to choose between the two of you. That's what it was like for me. After I returned from Hell, I made sure never to think of Lucifer again, until now. But now he's free. And I don't know what side to choose..."