All mentions of Tiesen, Gaelen, Chale, and Rika belong to the wonderful mind of silver ruffian and the story "The Black Horse and the Cherry Tree".

The Winchester brothers had heard neither hide nor hair of Ari since Carthage, and that was almost two months ago. Hadn't seen her; hadn't spoken to her. Bobby had his feelers out for her, but there was literally no word of her, let alone any of the other Horsemen. For Sam, he was still wondering why Ariel could join the side of the demons. I mean, weren't the Horsemen under Lucifer's purview? Why, after all the demon hunting, would she join their side?

For Dean, the betrayal was far deeper. His mind kept going back to the vision of 2014: Ari chained up in his alter-reality's basement, laughing as she told them that she was in league with the Horsemen now. It was slowly coming true, all of it. It was just like what Michael had said when he came back for their little heart-to-heart: free will is an illusion. But when he said that, Michael lied. Apparently, he thought Ari was just going to follow his orders, follow God's orders, like the good little soldier that she used to be. Carthage had changed all that. She was the catalyst to something big.

Michael said, back when Anna was executed for trying to kill his parents, that eventually he and Sam will say yes, that Lucifer and Michael will enter their bodies and they will fight. It was so, because it was their destiny. It had been laid out to happen like this since before the Fall of Lucifer. However, the two angelic brothers both had different reasons for it. Michael was following God's orders, while Lucifer wanted revenge for being cast aside for so long. God, the parallels between their lives was unmistakable. It was like looking in the mirror.

Well, their latest news was taking them to another little town in Massachusetts: people were dying in rapid numbers. Sounds like their kind of gig...

Three weeks earlier...

Ari, Chale, Gaelen, Rika, and Tiesen were lounging around in a bar, tossing back drinks and having a good laugh. Soon, it would be Rika's turn to wreck havoc before the final showdown. Man, this was going to be a blast!

"Ari, no using your angelic powers!" Gaelen hip-checked her as she attempted another shot on the pool table. She was wiping the floor with him and Tiesen, but what else could you expect from a student of Dean Winchester? Besides, the whole having a eidetic angelic memory was awesome sometimes.

"It's not powers, Gaelen. It's physics and math." She worked the angle and won the game. "Dean taught me well." At the mention of her former charge, she grew a little morose and ordered another drink. Lucky for them, Horsemen metabolisms were fast; liquor didn't affect her as much as Dean or Sam. Still, after the five drinks that night, the dizziness wasn't yet starting to take affect.

"I think you've have enough, Ari." Chale took the beer from her hands and gave it back to the barkeep. "You know, it's better to talk about it then to drink it away. Trust me."

She sighed. "You know, Chale, you can be a real dick at times." She ran her hands through her now earlobe length hair before rubbing her hands on her black jeans. "I don't know, bro. I think, sometimes, I wonder if I chose right. I mean, I liked Dean and Sam. It was fun sometimes with them, but I wanted the choice. Not the order from Michael." Her fist pounded the bar, annoying the bartender and drawing some glances from some of the other patrons. "I don't want to choose between two brothers anymore. I guess I'm between a rock and a hard place right now."

"Then don't." Tiesen walked over to them, placing his disfigured hand on her shoulder. "That's why you came to us, right?"

She grinned a bit. "Yeah." She turned around and nodded, letting go of the transient worry. "So, Rika... your turn, right?" He grinned.

"Yeah! And what better day to do it then on Valentine's Day?" All five of them laughed as they exited the bar, leaving the keep with a substantial tip. Rika, since he was Famine, was coming into his full capabilites. He had the ability to make people's deepest desires become their only hunger, be it food, drink, or sex, whatever they desired. Anything that they truly hungered for became their sole purpose, their sole desire to live. They would die happy, because they sated their greatest hunger. At this time, Rika needed human souls to nourish himself. It would only last for about three weeks, and then he would be sated enough to last until the final showdown.

"Perfect time for indulgence, eh?" Chale and Rika grinned, slapping high fives as they jumped into the cars. Before Gaelen could turn his engine on, six demons showed up. Ari drew her swords and twirled them in her hands. Tiesen held her in place.

"Well, well, well... what does Lucy want now?" Gaelen got up from his seat and stood before the demons with his massive arms crossed over his chest.

"Our father wishes us to accompany the Horseman of Famine, to be his protection while he hungers." The leader- from their combined mind, she knew that his name used to be Tyler before he descended the ranks of Hell- took a look at her. "Madam Afriel. Lucifer wasn't aware that you were accompanying the Horsemen." Afri jumped out of the car and stood at Gaelen's side. The demons bowed to her, some even going as far as prostrating. She was Hell's princess with Lucifer as King. She was bloody royalty on both sides of the war.

"Tell my brother than your protection is necessary, only so far as two of you are needed once the Winchesters arrive. The rest can meet us at this location and can have free reign among the humans there." The look the demons gave her was akin to an early Christmas present. "Now, the rest of you, be gone." She snapped her fingers and all of them left. Shrugging the tension out of her shoulder, she turned back to the Horsemen and grinned. "Let's blow this joint!" Gaelen kissed the top of her head before sliding into his Barracuda, revving his engine a couple of times. The Horsemen were on the prowl...

They sauntered into Ipswich two days later, renting an old home where they could all convene and Rika could stay hidden to gain his strength. Tiesen was most looking forward to meeting up with the brothers once more, as he massaged the stump where his ring finger used to be. They all sighed. The Winchesters thought the rings were their power source? Please... give them a little more credit. It was a temporary thing, a little charm to make the people think that they were truly going mad. Every Horseman had one; even Ari had one now. According to Gaelan and in agreement with his brothers, she was now the Horseman of Change; it was truly the one thing people feared more than death.

Earning that title was a huge accomplishment for her. Gaelen was the one to walk her through the ritual not even a week after Carthage. She and Afri had to combine souls, becoming one in the most literal sense. She barely remembered it; amidst a pretty thick cloud of incense, she saw a lot of symbols, hear a few Latin and Sumerian incantations, and blood. She had the scar running down her palms from when Chale and Tiesen took both her knives to them. Afterwards, she was really sick, extraordinarily tired. Chale sat by her bed, lending her some of his power to help her heal. That was about a month ago. Now, she was completely healed, sans the scars. She had the ability to turn her eyes black when she wanted to speak as Afri, or she could make her eyes normal. Over time, they would change into the golden of the Horsemen. She didn't have a car yet, so she rode with Tiesen. But the rings... those were simply a conduit for power, not the power themselves. Besides, rings were easily reforged.

Rika was already losing strength as she laid him out on one of the beds. He would begin needing souls soon. She summoned two of the demons from earlier and gave them one instruction: "Harvest the souls of the recently dead." Because his powers were out of whack, Rika would infect mortals around him all throughout the town with no problem. Also, the other demons would be aiding the process along, killing off mortals and taking their souls and tribute. Soon, they would be dropping like flies, and Rika would be stronger than ever.

Present time...

Dean and Sam were so confused until Castiel came around. If Cupid wasn't killing people, then who was? It was bad enough listening to how their parents had been shot by Cupid's arrows- literally- and that this destiny of theirs was really beginning to suck. Then Sam brought back this briefcase and the massive white light that burst out from it when it was opened had to be something Cas knew about.

When Castiel came around, eating hamburgers, and told them that Famine was here, Dean's first thought went to Ariel. Was she still with them? "Well, can you track Ari, Cas?" Sam looked funnily at him, but Cas understood. He turned to Sam and explained. "She was last seen with the Horsemen. Maybe she's still with them."

Cas did the same spell that he used to find Anna, but the spell gave no results. Dean looked at Cas before saying, "Why didn't it work?"

Cas stood up. "She's not an angel anymore, Dean. That is the only explanation." His voice grew sorrowful. "Her inner demon must have taken control of her."

Suddenly, Sam stood up and ran to the window. "Guys, that same demon from before!" He felt his insides clench and his mind scream for the demon blood. "You guys have to follow it. Lock me up here, tight. Go after it." Dean handcuffed him to the sink, and Cas shoved the bookcase in place. They hopped in the Impala and tailed the demon. It led them to a small house in the outskirts of town; four beautiful muscle cars waited out front. Cas stayed behind, his craving for hamburgers becoming insatiable, leaving Dean to handle this one on his own.

Strangely enough, he wasn't affected by the demon spell. Why wasn't he craving anything? Was it because he was a creature of pleasure, well-fed from hedonism? Or was it something else? Maybe Famine had an answer for that.

But it was the sight before him that shocked him as he peered through a slight crack in the door. Ari was sitting by a bed, her head lowered and her eyes closed. She was holding the hand of an elderly man as the demon opened up the briefcase and let loose the soul inside. The man on the bed absorbed it up, his eyes growing wide for a moment before a small grin on his face made him seem non-threatening. Three other men, all of different nationalities and builds, were waiting by the window; all of them had golden eyes. Instantly, Dean was reminded of Azazel and his yellow eyes.

"Dean. You can come out now." Ari spoke up before the door opened wide and he was pulled into the room. He recognized War from River Pass, but he was different now. Ari stood up from her vigil and placed a hand on his shoulder, pulling the Horseman back. "Tiesen, revenge later." She waited until he was calmer and backed away. "So Dean, I'm surprised it took you this long to find us."

He took a moment and really looked at her. The noticeable difference was her eyes. Still the hazel brown that he knew, they now had rings of gold around the irises. Her hair wasn't long anymore, but cut to the ends of her ears and slightly curlier. She was dressed in the same get-up as the others: black jeans, white shirt, black duster. But somehow, it suited her.

"Yeah, well. Tracking Horsemen ain't all that easy." His hand fiddled with the knife in his pocket.

"Dean, that's won't kill me. Not anymore." Pushing him against the wall, she pulled the knife out of his pocket and lodged it in the wall level with his face. By now, the demon he had been tracking was gone.

"What, are you one of them now, Ari?" His tone sounded quite accusatory. But that didn't faze her.

"Yes, I am." She let him go and walked back to her vigil. The big black guy walked forward and almost growled at Dean, but he resisted snapping back at her. Dean looked from War, to the black guy, to the mulatto on the bed, to the tanned one by the window, and then back to Ari.

"Why?" She didn't look away from Rika as he slowly reached his capacity. "Why did you join the bad guys, Ari? You know, being an angel and all."

She chuckled once, reading the thoughts that he was projecting unknowingly. He thought that the Horsemen were demons? Working for Lucifer? Yeah, right. "Dean, I haven't been an angel since Michael last saw me. That would be... a little after Lucifer was set free. Afri will always be a part of me, whether it disgusts you or not; but now, she and I are truly one entity. Dean, I'm the enigma, remember?" She prodded his mind to bring back the memory of River Pass, to the angelic genealogy. "I'm the only being on Earth that doesn't have a destiny."

Dean shook his head. "But, Michael-"

"Michael doesn't know. Only God did, and me. I would never tell my brothers that." She looked to the Horseman panting and moaning on the bed. "It would hurt them too much." She looked back at Dean. "Hell, I only found out when I was released from Hell, and I was sent to do my stint here right after I found out." She shook her head, patting the Horseman's hand. "I don't want to choose anymore between my brothers, Dean. Why should I? Besides, what made you believe that the Horsemen were evil?"

"Cas..." Dean's eyebrows furrowed. Ari cut the air with her hand, silencing him.

"Don't mention that sack of shit within my hearing again, Dean Nathan Winchester. He made his choice, and it never included me. He wants God, wants my dear old Father to come and make all of this better. Anything that isn't of Heaven or Earth is automatically evil in his eyes. What, did he tell you that Afriel had taken me over when that tracking spell didn't work?" Dean's eyebrows grew wide, and she chuckled. "I have eyes everywhere, Dean. It didn't work because I'm not an angel, not anymore. Nor am I a demon, so don't bother to ask me that either."

The big black man came forward and sat on the opposite side of the bed, moving the sweaty hair from his brother's face as he arched his back and moaned for a moment. "Peace, brother. It's almost over."

Then it clicked for Dean. "You're behind the deaths?" Ari nodded, not denying a thing. "Why?"

"Because my brother needed them. That last soul, Dean, was the last one he needed. Now he is ready for the showdown." That was when he took his chance. With a swift movement, he rushed to the bedside and cut off Famine's finger and got the ring. The creature on the bed groaned, but Ari stopped her brothers from rushing Dean in righteous fury.

She looked up at Dean, her eyes now fully gold and quite pissed. "Change is a bitch, ain't it, Dean? Something you can barely control, something that can change the name of the game in an instant." She smirked as she helped the ailing Horseman to sitting, covering his mutilated hand in a torn part of the bedsheet. "Well, this is a whole new ballgame now, bucko. And you've made the bitch pissed!" She snapped her fingers and all five of them disappeared. Dean ran outside, but the only car there was his own.

Castiel came out, no longer eating. "What happened, Dean?" He looked around. "Did you kill the Horsemen?"

He shook his head. Without a word, he got back in the car and headed back to the motel. Ari was right; this was a whole new ball game now.