All mentions of Tiesen, Gaelen, Chale, and Rika belong to silver ruffian and the story, "The Black Horse and the Cherry Tree"
As usual, I don't own a cent of Supernatural. Would if I could, but I don't.
Ari lounged around their base in Ipswich with a snoring Gaelan as the others went out prowling for new targets. With the upcoming Apocalypse, all five of them felt their powers growing. After that last little meet and greet with Michael, all of them came to an agreement: they would work for no one, and they would work for both sides. After all, both sides had their purposes, their needs for the Horsemen. But they were freelancers, working on contract and for the rewards of greater power and their names being spread around. It, however, had been a few weeks since that last engagement and they were getting bored.
A gust of wind blew open the securely locked door; she was quick to her feet with Lucifer's Sword in her hands. "Oh come on, little one! Is that how you greet your elders?" She would have recognized that voice anywhere. As the wind settled, a man dressed in a valet suit stood before her. Gaelen was slowly rousing from his feet; as soon as he saw the man in front of him, he hit his head to the pillow and groaned profusely.
"Mercury." She sheathed her sword and looked him over with a disparaging eye. "You haven't changed a bit in the last couple millennia, have you?" He completely ignored her inquiry and went straight to Gaelen.
"Lord Death, your presence has been requested at the Elysian Fields Hotel two days from today in order to discuss our plans for the impending Judeo-Christian Apocalypse." Gaelen lifted a lazy eyebrow and stared at the Roman deity. "It has been deemed prudent that one of the Horsemen attend, to allow for a different set of eyes on the situation." He placed a embossed envelope on the dresser and zoomed out of here as the rest of the brothers came through the door.
"Whoa! What the hell happened?" Chale and Rika looked around, expecting some kind of danger. Tiesen, on the other hand, just yawned and crashed in a chair, chugging at a bottle of dark ale.
"I've been invited to go to the local pagan's gathering..." Gaelen sighed, sitting up. He took the envelope in his giant hands and turned it over. Ari sat back down again and groaned. Some of the local deities were just pissy in their contests, but they were talking major league, if the envelope was any indication. I mean, gold trim? Embossed with a wax seal? Calligraphy? This was meant for the hoity-toity of the pagan world. Wouldn't it be awesome to be a fly on the wall during those conversations? She was lying back on her bed when the envelope landed on her lap.
"Ari, you go." She cocked an eyebrow at him, but she picked the envelope up with curiosity. She was never good at hiding what she was feeling around her brothers; why should she? She ripped open the seal and read the invitation. It contained no more information than what Mercury had told them. "I mean, you're the closest blood relative to both sides of the war. You are perfect for this mission." She looked over at Gaelen as he laced his fingers behind his head and stretched out, a sly smile on his face.
"You just don't want to go because you don't like parties, do you, Gaelen?" At that, all of them laughed and she opened up a new can of beer.
"Yep. And as head Horseman, I choose you to go. Now get! You gotta get to Route 35 in Indiana quick-like." With that, they shoved her out of the door and locked it behind them, laughing all the way. She chuckled, slipped the envelope in her duster pocket, and revved her engine. She placed a hand on her hip, where the pommel of Lucifer's sword was resting. She would need all the help that she was going to get if she was going to be in the same room with a bunch of ancient deities for who knows how long.
Hopefully, they had some seriously good liquor there.
She pulled into the Elysian Fields Hotel off Route 35 in twelve hours time. It was nothing for her to travel so far; besides, she liked driving in cars. They could go so fast! Not as fast as angel-zapping, but she would take what she could get. As she parked, she saw a familiar vehicle that made her head hurt. What the hell were the Winchesters doing here? This just got a whole lot more complicated...
Still, she walked into the hotel with her usual swagger as she stopped at the front desk. There were mortals everywhere, just waiting to become unknowing sacrifices for the gods. Mercury was at the front desk, typing away. She rang the bell and smirked at him. "Checking in." Mercury looked up at her with a brief look of surprise before smiling back at her.
"Welcome to the Elysian Fields Hotel. For how long will you be staying with us?" She wanted so badly to wipe that smug look off his face.
"For as long as this conference takes, godling." She grabbed the key from his hand and walked off to her room, bumping into someone on the way there. She locked her room and laid out on her bed. The conference was starting in a day; time enough to eat and relax before the punches would inevitably begin to fly.
After waking from her night's rest, Ari got up to sample the breakfast buffet supplied for all of the 'guests'. She saw a greater number of deities than humans than the night before, but what could you expect of gods that ate humans as their general meals? Herself? Give her an all-American cheeseburger and a cold beer any day, and she was a happy camper. For the rest of the day, she spent it to herself in her room listening to music and reading a new novel that she had found, The Singing Sword by Jack Whyte.
At five in the evening, she walked down the hall of the hotel to the conference room, her black duster swirling at her feet. She made sure that her clothes were spotless, that her sword was cleaned, and that all her hair was tied back without a strand out of place; she didn't want to make a poor impression on the gods for the Horsemen, especially since the point of the meeting was to talk about their Apocalypse. Mercury opened the door for her and she walked into the room with a confidence that she wished was hers for real. There were so many of them...
"Who are you?" An African-American man, a giant, walked towards her. He and Gaelen could have been twins except for the fact that Gaelen was easily stronger than him. His suit was crisp and his hands were soft, as if he had never fought a day in his life. He bore a name-tag near his lapel that read 'Baron Samedi'. She walked over to the table and wrote out a name-tag for herself: 'Change'. "What kind of a name is that?"
"No name, but a title. One that I have earned." She walked past him, grabbing a flute of champagne, and sprawled out in a chair.
"How dare you sit before us all?" This time, it was a woman of Indian descent that came to her; her eyes were cold, and yet Ari could see the fire burning in them. Her name-tag read 'Kali'.
"There were no rules against it, Kali. Besides, I am not one of you." At that, the goddess got mighty angry, but another god stopped her hand. He was dressed in a fine suit and he was a handsome man, but his brown eyes were cold. His tag was 'Baldur'.
"Ah, the Horseman of Change." Everyone in the room grew quiet as they turned and looked at her. "Welcome. However, I didn't expect you to come."
"Mercury dropped the invitation off for my brothers. Said only one of us had to come. So, my brothers decided to send me." She kept her lineage a secret, for now. That would become a useful bargaining chip for later in the game. "Out of them all, they believe that I am the better at negotiation, Baldur."
"So, Change." Baron Samedi walked up to her with another of the gods, 'Odin'. "Do you have any other names?"
She sipped at her champagne, looking at the glass in her hand intently. "Yes."
Odin tried to be charming; that was a hard act to pull off considering his hunter clothes and easily cold demeanour. "What are they?"
"Private." Before either of them could say another word, the doors slammed open and Dean and Sam were pushed into the room by two other gods. Baldur stood up and smiled at them. "Our guests of honor have arrived. Now, we can begin."
Once all the gods and Ari were seated around the tables, Baldur stood up once more. "Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming this evening. In all my centuries, I never thought that I would see this." He looked around at all of the gods present. "This many gods under one roof."
Ari was sitting close enough to the brothers to hear Sam sputter, "Gods?" in a scared confused voice. They truly didn't know what they were getting themselves into.
Balduer continued his speech. "Now, before we get down to brass tacks, a few ground rules. No slaughtering each other; please curb your rage. And please, stay away from the local virgins. We're trying to keep a low profile here." That got a couple of the male gods looking sheepish.
Sam spoke up again. "Oh, we are so screwed." Ari shot him a glance: he had no idea.
"Now, we all know why we're here. The Judeo-Christian Apocalypse looms over us. Our newest guest," he motioned to Ari, "is a testament to that. Change and her brothers War, Pestilence, Famine, and Death are agents of the Apocalypse, and as such, have been invited to witness and to tell us of their work.
"Now, I know we've all had our little disagreements in the past, but the time has come to put them aside and look towards the future. Because if we don't, we won't have one." Ari took a sip of the champagne in her hand as he continued.
"Now, we do have two very valuable bargaining chips." He raised his arm and pointed to the Winchester brothers. "Michael's and Lucifer's vessels. The question is," he looked around once more, "what do we do now? Anyone have any bright ideas? Speak up: this is a safe place."
Zao Shen stood up and ranted in Chinese. Ari could understand it, though. "We should kill them!"
Ganesh snorted. "Kill them? Why? So the angels can bring them back again?"
Odin leaned back in his chair and began to speak about his version of the end of days. Ari stopped listening for a while. The gods tended to get finicky when their ideas of the end of the world were challenged by others. It was best to keep her opinions to herself at that point. She did see the brothers try to leave, but the chandelier from the ceiling crashed in front of them, disrupting the arguments at hand.
Kali stood up, her face calm and yet angry at the same time. "Stay." The brothers turned around and stared at all of the gods as Kali did the same. Ari turned and watched the Indian deity speak. "We have to fight. The archangels, the only thing they understand is violence." Ari bit back a snort in her champagne; how right and yet how wrong Kali was at the same time. Luckily, no one noticed her. "This ends in blood; there is no other way. It's them, or us."
Mercury raised his hand to mention something. "With all due respect, ma'am, we haven't even tried talking to them." Kali glared at Mercury, and he began to choke in his seat. Ari grinned: Darth Vader would be proud of her. This kept up until Baldur stopped it. "Kali!"
Kali looked at Mercury. "Who asked you?" She was right on that point. Talking to the archangels would do nothing this late in the game.
That was when the greatest surprise ever walked through the conference doors. Her brother Gabriel walked in like he owned the joint. "Can't we all just get along?" He grinned at all of the gods as Baldur got to his feet. "Sam... Dean... It's always wrong place, worst time with you muttonheads, isn't it?" Gabriel looked around, saw Ari, and winked at her.
"Loki." Baldur growled.
Gabriel looked in front of him with that sanctimonious tone. "Baldur. Good seeing you, too. Guess my invitation got lost in the mail." Ari noticed that Kali looked at Gabriel with something like remembrance.
"Why are you here?" Baldur was easily getting frustrated.
"To talk about the elephant in the room." All of the fun was wiped off his face now. Ganesh stood up, insulted by the remark, but Gabriel pointed at him to sit down. "Not you. The Apocalypse. We can't stop it, gang." He looked at the gods and held up a finger. "But first things first." He turned to Dean and Sam. "The adults need to have a little conversation. Check you later." He snapped his fingers, and the humans were gone.
But Baldur had other plans. "Let's take a moment, shall we?" He looked at the clock on the wall. "Say, half an hour?" With that, he burst out of the room by Gabriel and stalked up to his room.
Ari stood and followed Gabriel, walking side by side with him in the direction of her room. "So, little brother." She spoke in whispers so the others wouldn't hear her. "Want to explain yourself, Loki?"
"Big sister." Gabriel played it subtle as well. "Well, angel's gotta make a life somehow. It's the best way to keep under the radar, after all." He opened the door to the Winchester's room and said, "And when are you ever lucky?" Both of them turned to the angel and Horseman with shock on their faces.
Dean recovered the quickest. "I shoulda known. This place had your stink on it from the get-go." He glared at Ari. "You were invited here?"
"Technically, Death was, but he hates functions. So I'm the emissary." She sat on the sofa, sinking slightly into the plush wealth. "Deal with it, Dean-o."
Gabriel spoke up. "You think I'm behind this? Please!" He rolled his eyes. "I'm the Costner to your Huston. I'm here to save your asses."
Dean obviously didn't believe that. "You wanna save us?"
Gabriel smirked. "Bingo! Those gods are either gonna smoke your asses, or use you as bait. Either way, you're uber-boned."
"Wow, 'cause a couple of months ago, you were telling us to play our roles? You were uber-boning us!" Dean was trying to understand what was going on, and he got so cute when he was frustrated.
Gabriel continued to smirk and began to walk around. "Oh, the end is still nigh." He looked at Ari sprawled out on the couch. "Ari here is prime example of that. Michael and Lucifer are still gonna dance the lambada, but not tonight. Not here." He turned around to them.
Dean still looked confused. "And why do you care?"
Gabriel began to look a touch bashful. "I don't... care. But... me and Kali... well... we had a thing." Ari looked in disbelief at her younger brother. "Well, what can I say? The chick was all hands."
"Ugh!" Ari wiped her face. "Didn't need that mental image, Gabe!"
Gabe looked insulted at that. "What can I say? I'm sentimental!"
Sam walked forward and steered his piercing gaze at the angel. "Do I have a chance? Against Satan?"
Gabriel leaned forward. "It's a bad idea. Lucifer will turn them all into finger paint. So let's get going while the going's good."
"Lucifer won't kill me, Gabriel." Ari stood up. "I'm his only access to the Horsemen. So if you don't mind, gentlemen, I have a meeting to go back to."
"What the hell, Ari?" Dean stopped her from leaving. "You just gonna leave the humans there to rot?"
She pretended to think for a moment, when truly she had her answer already. "Most likely. Dean, I don't like many humans; hell,I'm barely sure that I like you two anymore after what you did to War and Famine." She looked at the chain around Dean's neck that held the rings there like trophies. "You gonna cut my finger off, too?" She waved the ring in his face. "Humans have destroyed paradise. They have had their time. Lucifer is right: they are nothing but maggots. But," she raised her hand to stop him from speaking, "at least some of you are willing to change in order to survive. That, I respect." With that, she left.
Her headache was getting bigger, and she rubbed her temples as she walked back to the meeting room. This wasn't going to be good.
She sat in the conference room and drank some of her champagne as the other gods slowly trickled back in. She hid her smile behind another sip.
"So, Change." Baldur leaned against the table next to her. "What are your thoughts about all this?"
Just as she began to speak, Kali dragged Gabriel into the room, followed by Dean and Sam. "How long have you known?" Ari laughed; so he was found out? Big surprise there...
Kali looked quite stern. "Long enough." That was when Ari found herself with two gods holding her to her chair. "Looks like you're not the only one keeping secrets from us." The goddess of destruction walked next to her, Baldur looking confused as he backed away from her. "So, this is the little sister of Michael and Lucifer." All of the gods looked at Ari with disgust.
"Ex-, actually. Those two need to fight their own battles." She fought against Odin's hold on her.
"Ariel, the third archangel ever created." Kali reached into her duster and pulled out the Sword.
"Hey! Personal property, bitch!" Kali shoved the blade into her shoulder, but was shocked when it had no effect on her. "Christo, Kali! I'm not an angel!" Even Gabriel was shocked by that. "I gave up all of the angelic and demonic powers that I had when I became a Horseman! I'm not on either side!" Odin let go of her and she took the sword out of her shoulder. "Next time, do more homework before you use pointy sharp weapons on would-be allies!" She wiped off the blood on the table cloth and sheathed it once more.
Kali turned back to Gabriel. "Surprise, surprise." She looked crushed as Ari's shoulder wound began to heal. "Look's like the Trickster has tricked us."
Gabriel looked at her with a plead in his eyes. "Kali, don't."
Kali leaned down to face him. "You're mine now." She sat down on his knee. "And you have something I want." She reached into his jacket and pulled out his Sword. Ari wanted to bang her head against the table. "An archangel's blade, from the archangel Gabriel." All of the gods were shocked now. Two angels, both under their nose?
Gabriel tried to make light of the moment. "Okay, okay! So I got wings, but that doesn't make me any less wrong about Lucifer!"
Kali looked down on him, betrayal written all over her face. "He's lying. He's a spy."
Gabriel looked at her through his eyebrows. "I'm not a spy. I'm a runaway. I'm trying to save you." He leaned forward in the chair. "I know my brother, Kali. And he should scare the living crap out of you. You can't beat him! I've skipped ahead; seen how this story ends."
Kali interrupted him. "Your story. Not ours." Gabriel looked back at her, a strange look on his face. "Westerners, I swear. The sheer... arrogance." She stood straight and looked down on him, but the hurt was still there. Ari leaned forward without hurting her freshly-repaired shoulder too much. "You think you're the only ones on this planet? You pillage and you butcher in your God's name. But you're not the only religion, and he's not the only God. And now you think you can break this world apart?" A single tear came down Kali's face. "You're wrong. There are billions of us, and we were here first. If anyone gets to end this world," she walked forward and cupped his face in her hand, "it's me."
The next thing happened so fast that not even Ariel could stop it. Kali took Gabriel's Sword in hand and rammed it into his heart. His Grace began to shine as it was destroyed and his scream tore a new scar on her heart.
"Gabriel!" She ran over to him and knelt by his side. "Brother..." Even though she hadn't seen Gabriel in a long time, he was still her brother, the fourth archangel and her kindred. She began to weep over him; she never got to apologize to him for what was last said between them. This war was tearing her family apart.
Kali stood straight, another tear falling down her face. "They can die. We can kill Lucifer." Ari took Gabriel's Sword, the tears running from her golden eyes, and tucked it into her jacket.
That was when Dean stood up and began to walk. "All right, you primitive screw-heads, listen up." Everyone, including Sam, looked at him like he was nuts. Sam asked him if he was crazy; apparently, insulting the gods of the world was Dean's last option before completing losing his life. "Now, on any other given day, I'd be trying my damnedest to kill you, you filthy murdering chimps. But, hey, desperate times." He stopped behind Gabriel's body for a moment and patted Ari's shoulder.
"So, even though I'd love nothing more than to slit your throats, you dicks," he began to walk backwards to the liquor table, "I'm gonna help you." He poured himself a glass, and turned back to the gods. "I'm gonna help you ice the devil." Ari and Sam both looked at him like he was on drugs. How were they going to do that? Dean just smiled and talked. "Then, we can all get back to ganking each other like normal."
He took a sip. "You want Lucifer? Well, dude's not in the yellow pages. But Sam and me, we can get him here."
Kali seemed the most interested as Ari stood up and stared at him. "How?"
"First you let those main courses go. Then we talk."
Ari sat in her seat, drinking Jack Daniel's now while she listened to Sam try to convince Baldur and Kali of Dean's plan while he was convincing himself at the same time. Something wasn't right, though. When Gabriel died, his wings should have burned to the ground. Why didn't they in this case?
She was brought back to the present when Dean burst into the room. "Show's over." Ari, Kali, and Baldur all looked at him. "The Sword's a fake. And Gabriel? He's still kicking." Dean spared a look at Ari as she sat back down, trying to understand what was happening. Why would Gabriel do something like that? "Yeah, I hate to break it to you, sister, but you've been tricked!" Kali, however, seemed okay with them.
The lights began to flicker, and Ari stood from her seat. She could feel his presence. Lucifer was here. All of them heard the screams outside the conference room.
Sam stated the obvious. "It's him."
Kali looked around, trying to understand the puzzle at hand. "How?"
Dean tried the same thing, only he looked between the two deities. "Does it matter? Sha-zam us outta here, would ya?"
Baldur kept looking at the door. "We can't." Out of all of the gods here tonight, Baldur and Kali had earned Ari's respect. However, standing up to her big brother when he was mad was never the best plan.
The doors opened up, and Lucifer walked through. "Of course you can't. You didn't say, 'Mother, may I?'" He smirked as everyone sans Ari looked at him with shock and horror. "Sam, Dean, good to see you again." He nodded to them before looking at Ari as she walked forward. "Baby sister, you and I need a talk."
Baldur, however, wasn't having it. "You think you own the planet? What gives you the right?" He ran to him, intent on fighting, only Lucifer slammed his hand through Baldur's chest and crushed his heart.
He leaned closer to his ear and whispered, "No one gives us the right. We take it." With that, he made Baldur fall dead to the floor. Kali, utterly furious now, made her arms glow on fire and she tried to tackle with him. That didn't work out so hot either, until he was pulled away from Kali with angelic force. Ari looked over and held back a smile as she stood there watching the prevented bloodbath. Gabriel, truly alive this time, stood up with the real Sword in hand, and spoke. "Lucy, I'm home."
Lucifer tried to attack Kali once again, but Gabriel got in his way. "Not this time." He yelled over his shoulders. "Guys! Get her out of here!"
Both angels ignored Ari for the present moment. Lucifer was surprised as he spoke, "Over a girl? Gabriel, really? I mean, I knew you were slumming, but I hope you didn't catch anything."
Gabriel let that comment go as he stood up in front of his brother. "Lucifer, you're my brother, and I love you, but you are a great big bag of dicks."
Lucifer walked forward. "What did you just say to me?"
Gabriel stood his ground. "Look at yourself! Boo-hoo! So Daddy was mean to me, so I'm gonna smash up all his toys!"
Lucifer got annoyed at that. "Watch your tone."
"Play the victim all you want, but you and me? We know the truth. Dad loved you best, more than Michael, more that Ariel, more than me. You were his favourite. Then he brought the new baby home, and you couldn't handle it. So all this? It's just a great big temper tantrum!" Gabriel adopted a lethal look and shook his Sword at Lucifer. "Time to grow up, big brother."
Lucifer tried to reason with him. "Gabriel, if you're doing this for Michael-"
"Screw him! If he was standing here, I'd shiv his ass too." Gabriel took a little bow, always keeping his eyes on his brother.
Lucifer couldn't believe his eyes. He pointed his finger at him, "You disloyal-"
"Oh, I'm loyal, all right, to them. To people, Lucifer."
Lucifer furrowed his brow. "So you're willing to die, for a pile of cockroaches? Why?"
Gabriel lifted his chin. "Because Dad was right. They are better than us."
Lucifer was now on the brink of losing it. "But they're broken flawed abortions!"
Gabriel stood his ground, once in a while darting a glance at Ari. "Damn right, they're flawed. But a lot of them try. To do better. To forgive. And you should see the Spearman rhino!" Ari chuckled once, her only addition to the whole conversation. Lucifer looked devastated at the words that their baby brother was saying. "I've been riding this wave a long time. But I'm in the game now. And like Ari, I'm not on your side or Michael's. I'm on their's."
Lucifer looked down for a moment. "Brother, don't make me do this." At that moment, Ari finally realized that one of them was going to die tonight. She tightened her grip on her Sword, moving away from both of them while still standing between them. How could she choose between her brothers one more time?
However, Gabriel said something that made her pause. "No one makes us choose anything."
Lucifer looked at him once again, the tears barely holding back. "I know you think you're doing the right thing here, Gabriel. But I know where your heart truly lies." That was when Ari saw it out of the corner of her right eye. Another Gabriel was standing behind Lucifer, the real Sword in hand. They were talking and listening to a fake? Lucifer turned around and rammed the Sword into Gabriel's chest so fast that nobody could have stopped him. "And it's right here."
"GABRIEL!" Ari screamed out his name as she ran and fell to the floor beside him, holding him as he fell to the ground. She sobbed as his Grace was truly destroyed this time, his wings burnt to the ground. She held his body in her arms as she keeled. Lucifer just stood there, watching as he sniffed back his own tears. Ari stood, Gabe's blood on her hands, and began to beat on Lucifer's chest. "You son of a bitch! Why? Why him?"
Lucifer just held her still as she ranted. Yet another brother was gone, but it didn't have to be this way. "I'm so sorry, Ari."
"You're SORRY?" She ripped himself away from him and drew her own Sword. "You're SORRY? You KILLED HIM!"
"He was going to kill me! It was justified!" Lucifer held up his hands, trying to back away from his beyond-livid sister.
"Justified?" She grew quiet for a moment, rage vibrating off her body in visible waves. "You felt it was justified to kill your own brother?" She let loose an almighty roar that shook the hotel to its very foundations, knocking even Lucifer off of his feet. "HOW MANY, LUCIFER? HOW MANY MORE NEED TO DIE? One? Five? Ten? One thousand? HOW MANY MORE?" Her golden eyes were shining with the light of her fury as every bone in her body shook. "YOU AND MICHAEL HAVE DESTROYED EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE THAT I EVER LOVED!" She backed away from him, trying so hard not to run him through. "And before this world burns, I'm going to destroy you both." She disappeared out of there, leaving no trace behind.
She landed back in Ipswich, her majestic rage depleted and leaving her completely wiped. Her brothers were waiting for her outside of the house, but they saw the look on her face and started to come forward to her. "What happened, Ari?" Gaelen walked forward and caught her as she fell to the ground.
She grabbed onto his jacket and held onto it like it was all that was holding her here. "He's gone. Gabriel's gone." Tiesen, Rika, and Chale had all come forward and knelt next to her, trying to get her calmed down before she blew up again. "I wanna kill them. Both of them." She looked at them all as they helped her to stand. "We have work to do."