Part Two: Light

Chapter Three: Goddess

May 1st, 2011

Adrienne scooped water with cupped hands, splashing her face with a content sigh before sinking back into the tub, bubbles glowing yellow from the soft candlelight. She scrubbed herself until her skin was red from the harsh treatment. Whenever she stopped, she thought of Vetis again, and renewed her efforts. Apart from the sting of her raw skin, it was nice. Quiet and peaceful where her mind was a hurricane. She would have liked to stay in their for hours, but the water soon grew cold and she didn't feel like heating it.

Adrienne got out of the tub and wrapped herself in one of the fluffy towels she'd requested before going to her adjoined bedroom. Once she was dry, Adrienne sat down in front of her vanity. She wet her face, having been careful to keep it dry, with clean water from a small bowel before rubbing it dry with a cotton hand towel, placing it carefully down on the vanity. She went through the motions of applying her face moisturizer and sweet-smelling lotion, having refused assistance from her over eager servants. When she was done with this, she picked up a bottle of foundation. She opened it, but froze when she looked in the mirror. She almost couldn't stand what she saw. She looked small and weak, and, having destroyed the clothes she was wearing earlier, was now naked. When she looked at herself, she saw Vetis, so confused. A second passed, and she thought of Adam, dark eyes dead, like a fish.

Adrienne grit her teeth and threw the small bottle away. It shattered in midair from the force of her anger, along with the mirror. Adrienne refused to look at it, instead going to her walk-in closet to pull on a trumpet style dress. The smooth feeling of the light, airy fabric against her skin was comforting, and she relished in it, securing the black fabric with a silver belt with a ten pointed star with a ruby in the middle as a centerpiece.

Adrienne looked at herself in the full-length mirror, half scared to see someone else looking back again. Instead she saw herself, regal in her dress, elegant without opulence or even shoes. She looked exactly as a leader should.

Adrienne felt incredibly stupid in that moment, worrying about boys, of all things, when there was work to be done. She sent a demon to tell Vetis she needed to see him and waited in the parlor.

Vetis hadn't known what to do after Adrienne left, and had stayed sat in the chair for several minutes until he finally decided to leave. He thought of going to see her, but soon decided that she probably didn't want to be around him right now. Instead, he locked himself in one of the private rooms Adrienne had gifted him, refusing to see anyone. It was only when he was certain no one would disturb him that he began berating himself.

What the hell had he been thinking?! He couldn't just touch Adrienne, not like that! She was Lucifer's daughter, she was going to die soon! And even if she wasn't, it was clear that she didn't want him from the way she'd reacting, mainly running away from him.

When Vetis arrived, Adrienne was careful not to show any reaction to how nervous he was, as though he thought she might kill him on the spot. Adrienne smiled easily at him, gesturing to the seat next to her. Vetis sat down, still wary, but Adrienne acted as though everything were normal, sipping from a glass of wine as though it were any other day. "What do you need?" Vetis asked, careful to keep his voice level and emotionless.

Adrienne smiled calmly, setting the wine down and grabbing Vetis's hand. "Vetis, you don't have to be so worried. I just want to talk about what we're going to do next."

Vetis tensed at her touch, but allowed himself to relax at her words. "All right. What do you want to do?"

"Well the next step is of course to get the ingredients for the spell. Now, we basically already have the sacrifices and my blood, so we don't have to worry about that. What we need are the angel grace, the soul, and the heart. What do you think we should do first?"

Vetis is almost relieved at how trusting she sounds and finds it easier to talk now. "I think we should get the angel grace first. If we do the other things first, it will draw too much attention from Heaven and we're already on their blacklist as it is."

Adrienne nodded. "If you think that's what best. Problem is, the angels are already avoiding us as is. I doubt that's gonna change just because we need them."

Vetis thought for a moment."Well, there is a spell that will draw any angels on Earth to a specific place. Shouldn't be too hard for me to get it set up."

"Will you need anything?"

"Just some fairy bones, griffin feathers, and blood. Nothing I can't get on my own."

"Okay then. We'll do it tomorrow. I'll wait here while you get the things you need." Adrienne stood up, clearly intending to return to her room, but Vetis stopped her.

"Adrienne...about what happened earlier,"

"We don't have to talk about it."

"Well no, but I just wanted to,"

"Vetis." He focuses on her entirely then. She's not smiling anymore. Her face is like ice. Cold and closed off. "We don't have to talk about it."

She left before he could respond.

May 2nd, 2011

Sachiel had to admit, if only to herself, that she was quite miffed by her new assignment. She was an angel of the lord, a warrior of Heaven, reduced to watching over Dean Winchester. She almost wanted to argue, but she knew better than to question Castiel. And while this job was certainly not glamorous, the Winchester brothers may be needed once more if Adrienne succeeded in raising Lucifer.

Sachiel contemplated this as she watched over Dean, and to a lesser extent, Sam, on earth whilst her brothers and sisters watched from Heaven.

Without warning, Sachiel heard a pulsing sound from far away. She checked on the brothers to see if either of them had noticed anything, but neither reacted at all. Sachiel attempted to stay on guard, but the compulsion was too much. She flew to where the sound was leading her.

She was in an abandoned warehouse. On the wall was a sigil painted in blood. The sigil was in the shape of a capital 'V' with the right line ending in a backwards question mark. Above the V was a half circle with several short lines coming out of the top. It briefly glowed blue, and when she turned around, there were two people behind her. Or rather, two affronts to nature.

Adrienne didn't say anything. She only advanced on Sachiel, grabbing her by the wing when she tried to escape. Sachiel screamed when Adrienne pulled on the appendage, but stood silent when the nephilim raised an angel blade to her throat. Before Adrienne could cut, Sachiel said, "Please don't kill me. I… I have information."

Adrienne lifted one eyebrow in curiosity, but Vetis scoffed. "Kill her Adrienne."

Adrienne still looked at Sachiel and held her wing, but now she pointed the blade to Vetis. "Let's hear what she has to say." Vetis frowned, but said nothing.

Shaking, and incredibly angry with herself for even considering this, Sachiel said, "The pagan gods know about you. They're looking for a way to kill you. Castiel told me about it."

Adrienne turned to Vetis. "Pagans?"

Vetis nodded. "They exist, but most of them aren't what they used to be." He looked at Sachiel threateningly. "Not enough of a threat to be considered useful information."

Sachiel flushed, trying to think of something else to say. "They're having a meeting. They're there right now at a hotel they've erected in Nevada."

"First of all, not a good enough reason to say 'erected'. Second, how do I know you're telling the truth?"

"I swear I am. Please, please spare me."

Adrienne was still, feeling Sachiel tremble under her hand. Finally, she moved, her blade cutting into the Sachiel's throat. The grace flowed freely from her throat, caught in a bottle by Vetis. When it was gone, Adrienne raised her hand to the angel's neck and healed the cut. Sachiel gasped, clutching at her throat. She stared at Adrienne.

"You're human now," Adrienne said without emotion, "You may go anywhere, do anything you want. But if I ever see you again, I will kill you, swiftly and without remorse." Without another word, Adrienne vanished.

Adrienne and Vetis reappeared in her sitting room. As soon as they did, Vetis asked her, "What were you thinking? What if she tells the angels about us? This could end everything-"

Vetis tried to talk, but his jaw refused to move, followed by the rest of his body. After a moment of confusion, he realized that Adrienne was doing it.

"You do not question me," she said through gritted teeth, eyes glowing white. "You do not question me, and you certainly do not question me in front of my enemies. If you do it again, it will be your grace I take next." With that, she turned and stalked to her room, only allowing him to move once the door was closed.

Sachiel lay gasping on the ground for over a minute trying to control her breathing. The room looked weird. She could tell that nothing had really changed about it, but it seemed...less now. Duller, not as bright. She tried to separate herself from her human vessel, but began to hyperventilate when she realized that this was no longer possible. Her vision filled with fuzzy dots of color as blackness creeped in around the edges.

When she woke up, it felt like she had been unconscious for hours, though in reality, it was only a few minutes. She lay there on the floor, not knowing what to do, before finally deciding on a plan. Or the beginnings of one at least.

Sachiel shut her eyes and clasped her hands together, whispering her prayer. "I pray to the angel Castiel. Brother, Adrienne has attacked me and stolen my grace. Please, I need help."

It was only a few moment later when Castiel, along with a dozen other, well-armed angels. He strode towards Sachiel, grabbing her face without preamble. "Are you alright?"

Trembling, Sachiel shook her head. Hot tears flowed down her face. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry…"

"Sachiel, what happened?"

"I… I was watching the Winchesters, like you told me to, and I heard this… this pulsing sound, and I went to it. I didn't know what it was, but I couldn't ignore it. I didn't want to. And then Adrienne was hear…"

She stopped talking as a fresh wave of sobs overcame her. "Castiel, I told her about the pagans! I told her where they are, I told her that they want to kill her!" Sachiel broke down, crying while shouting apologies. Castiel pulled her into his arms, comforting her as best he could.

"What do we do?" One of the other angels asked him.

Castiel thought about this. "The meeting has already begun, and if Adrienne is already there - which I'm sure she is - then we can't go. She'll kill us as soon as she sees us." He frowned, thinking of when Sachiel had prayed to him. "Sachiel, why did Adrienne take your grace?"

"I don't know… maybe she needs it for a spell?"

Castiel nodded distractedly. "Maybe." He stood up, dragging Sachiel to her feet. "Don't worry. We'll get you somewhere safe."

"What about Adrienne?"

Castiel sighed. "We can try to get a message to them, but I doubt it will be of any good. The most we can do is hope that she doesn't do too much damage."

Hecate sat at the end of her table, far from the front where several of the more important beings presided over the others, raised on a dais like the pompous asses they were. They had argued back and forth for an hour now - do we kill her, do we ally with her, do we ignore it altogether. None of them thought of the possibility that they could not kill her. They were all-powerful beings who had existed for eons. Adrienne was a child, only capable of doing anything because of her demon horde. The fact that she'd killed angels with ease was nothing to them. Angels were not gods.

Hecate saw the truth. Adrienne was dangerous, perhaps more so than anyone in this room. But they didn't care. They had survived for thousands of years. Some were as old as time. They'd survived apocalypses and murder attempts and every upstart - as they were now calling Adrienne - that every tried to take them down. They didn't even think of her as a threat really. More like an annoyance that might become a threat in the future.

Hecate tried to make them understand, but they didn't know. They couldn't know. To know would mean to acknowledge that they were not invincible. They forgot every human that ever felled one of them, they forgot what Lucifer had done only a year ago.

The smartest option, in her mind, was to hide. Adrienne had yet to show any interest in them and she would rather they keep it that way. If all else failed, they might consider allying with her. But she doubted that Adrienne would be open to that - the same girl's father had slaughtered her kind so little ago.

One of the others, a Norse god that she didn't care to know the name of - there were so many important things to know, it seemed stupid to waste time on something so trivial - said, "She's too much of a threat! We have to kill her!" The Norse always were no-nonsense types.

A Greek god - A disappointment to our people - scoffed. "She's a child! She could never possibly be a threat."

"I'm not sure we would be able to kill her," Hecate said. They turned to stare at her, as though they'd forgotten anyone else was in the room. "I doubt it would be wise to make such an attempt."

The Greek from before - Poseidon, she remembered - made an irritated noise. "Please. I could kill the girl with the snap of my fingers, and I will if I ever see her."

"Then why don't you?"

Before, they'd been too caught up in their own arguing to notice Adrienne (to be fair to them, she'd only been there for a few scant seconds). She stood at the entrance now, robed in a light one-sided red dress with a black belt with small stone beading. Her eyes were a brilliant white light. Their glow fell on the floor and walls around her.

Adrienne strode forward, quickly passing the two tables that were against the wall. She stepped onto the main table, crouching down to look Poseidon in the eye. "What? Is the earth-shaking scared of a little girl. C'mon. Snap your fingers."

Poseidon must have had some sort of death wish, because he raised his hand to do just that. Except when he made to snap, he stopped moving. He was completely frozen, unable to move at all except for his eyes, which stared at Adrienne in terror.

Adrienne didn't seem worried at all, not even when the god's body began to expand before bursting completely, sending flesh and blood flying throughout the room. It marred her dress and her face, though she didn't seem to notice.

Hecate stared at Adrienne as the others screamed and cursed. One of them stood up, face screwed in anger. "You think you own the planet?"

Adrienne hopped off the table, smiling like a child. "Of course I do."

The god strode forward. "What gives you the right-"

Adrienne's arms ripped through his chest. His mouth was left gaping in shock as she pulled him closer. "No one gave me the right." She pulled her arm out and pushed him away. "I took it."

Adrienne was a hurricane, creating a whirlwind of blood and screams and fear. Hecate might have been awed if she weren't so scared. She hid under her table, feeling the constraints Adrienne had placed on their powers like heavy chains around her body.

Soon, Adrienne finished with the others. Hecate hoped she would leave now, but she must have sensed her, because soon she reached under the table, grabbing the goddess by the ankle and dragging her out. Hecate screamed, kicking her legs out and clawing at the ground in desperation.

Adrienne flipped her over, clutching her wrists and straddling her hips to hold her down. She tried to think of something that might stop her, anything that might save her life.

"Wait! Please, I can help you!"

Adrienne scoffed. "Yeah right."

"No, I mean it. Your family's dead, right?"

Adrienne's eyebrow arched. "Really not the direction you should be going."

"No, I'm the goddess of magic, and necromancy. I can summon them, you could see them and talk to them."

Adrienne still held onto her, but she loosened her grip a bit. Her face was disbelieving, her eyes fading to brown, full of hope and heartbreak. "How do I know you aren't lying?"

Hecate shook her head frantically. "I'm not, I swear I'm not."

Adrienne was thoughtful, her red dress sliding smoothly against Hecate's tyrian purple one as she shifted in her lap. FInally she moved back, slowly standing up and reaching her hand out when Hecate doesn't move. Hecate cautiously took her hand, heaving her up. The feeling of being sucked through a small hole overcame her, and they were gone.