I wasn't sane. Maybe I never would be again. But once the birds all landed, everything was quieter. Dean kept me quiet. Not because he was. But because he was so scared inside that the sounds of it pushed away all the endless colors that made me wrong.
It was all that mattered. Sam mattered. And if he should leave, Dean would matter.
I was convinced, barely, to not think about Castiel. Dean kept me focused. He was right. They needed me.
All we could do is get him to a hospital. Wait for them to poke and test and poke some more until they let us see him. Then wait in agony for the doctor to talk to us.
I never let Sam go. Never drop the stone. Fragile glass now.
Watching things the machines could not see.
"How-how bad...how bad is it?" Sword asked me.
"Falling away from us...shutting off the lights as he goes..." I whispered without taking my eyes off the pale unmoving brother on the bed.
"Can..can you do anything? That grace you got..."
"No.."
My own words hurt. All I could do is touch him. Powers trapped inside me. I couldn't reach him.
The doctor finally came in, not looking at the charts in his hands. He didn't need to. He didn't bring good news. He's done this a hundred times over. Never easier. Delicate hopeful faces he had to crush everyday.
"The MRI shows massive internal burns affecting many of the major organs. Oxygen to the brain has been severely deprived. The coma is the result of the body doing everything in its limited power to protect itself from further harm."
I clenched my eyes and my fingers over Sam's. "Running but it can't hide..."
Dean looked at us. The ones he loved most. Both broken. Only one left.
"This wasn't supposed to happen. "
"If your brother continues on this trajectory, the machines might keep him alive, but -"
"He'll be dead," I finished for him.
"Technically, yes. I'm afraid so."
Swords were stubborn. They didn't like to accept to defeat.
"So, there's - there's no recovery? I mean, there's no bounce-back? There's no nothing?"
"I'm afraid its in God's hands now."
Wrong thing to say. Even I was angry now. "God is a child...broke his toys and ran away."
He looked at me strange. Every one always did. Stupid wrong mind...
"You're a doctor," Dean snapped not too loud yet," You're a medical professional. You're trying to tell me that my brother's life is in God's hands? What, is that supposed to be a - a comfort?"
"Mr. Dougherty-"
"No! That's not good enough! God has nothing to do with this equation. At all!"
"I didn't mean-"
"Leave it, doctor," I said, masking my own red colors to be kind. He bowed his head and left the room.
News on the television chattering. Burning birds mistaken for burning stars. Everywhere...
But mine was missing. Maybe gone. If I dropped the stone, then I would remember to hurt. I tried not to listen. Family first.
Dean pulled up the other chair to sit next to me. Quietly mourning what hasn't happened yet.
Sam reminded me too much of older hurts. The father I never asked for, but loved to death.
Watched him go away in life and death. Lost twice.
They looked the same.
So tired of death. If only could stop him from coming. Forever. Mom. Friends. Castiel. Bobby. Meg. Now Sam.
And so many more I slew with my own hands. Even the monsters. Just wanted to be done with death.
"Ha-Hazey?" he breathed my name unto the abyss in which he stared.
"Hm?"
"I hate to ask...But...can you still the future if you want to?"
"Most of the boxes are locked," I answered,"secrets go in, but can't come out."
"I know.." he said, trying to understand me, "can you try?"
Biting lips. I didn't want to watch the movies again. Always too many colors. Too many doors.
"You want to see if he lives..."
"If...If I can. I need something. Please. I'm...trying really hard not to give up on him. Aren't you?"
"The sword is seeking hope, " I finally looked at him. Pleading for me to help. His last hope. The last light.
"Yes."
I took a deep breath. "I will try."
Standing, holding a hand on Sam's forhead, I fell into myself.
The place between all things swallowed me. Drowning in the colors. Focus.
Flexed my control. Pulled on the reins. Searching.
It hurts, like it used to. I can't hear the world. Just the endless voice of all things. "Show me the Serpant!" I begged into the vortex. It fluctuated. Flailing. Failing.
Blocked.
"No!"
I pushed harder. Walls were searing. Burning. My own screams in the distance. Determination stabbing a hole through the resistance. White light spilled out from between all the spectrums. A way through.
Blinded, if only for a moment, or maybe an eternity. All relative. Almost forgot why I was there. A test of willpower.
Then I saw him. Far from the here and now. Just sitting. Talking. Reading. Shaky vision. Barely possible. Certainty was fragile. My grip was fragile and it broke. Throwing me off. Slamming so hard back to what only the mundane could know, that I fell.
The chair came down with me. Mouth tasted of blood. I hit my chin and bit my lip very hard.
Dean's voice calling, reminding my ears to listen to the realness.
"You okay?"
My head thundered with a vicous pulse. Migraine of the ages. I almost forgot what it felt like. But the worst was my back. Stinging and searing like snakes of fire instead of lines of ink. Smoke rising.
"I'm sorry, Haze, that was a bad idea...I'm mean Jesus Christ, you almost caught fire."
I smirked through my split lip as he helped me up. "But I am the Seer."
"Yes you are," he agreed with shaky pride for me, "did it work?"
"Mostly. "
"What do you mean mostly?"
I lowered back to my chair, grunting at the snakes still cooling and steaming. "I saw him," I began, while massaging my throbbing eyeballs, "but it is fleeting. A shaky ripple in the sands. Almost lost."
He didn't care. He smiled in newfound lightness. "You crazy ass-" Dean abruptly grabbed my aching head and kissed hit hard, "you're the shit. You know that?"
"Someone has to be," I said. It tasted strange. Like the me before. How did I do that? Hazel came forward. The right mind. Just for a second.
Dean yanked me into a hug, immediately letting go at my cry of pain when he touched the burning places. "Sorry...thank you, sis. Its not much but...I know what I need to do."
"Where are you going?" I asked as he moved to the door.
"To pray. "
☆☆☆☆☆
He prayed too all of them. Any Bird that would listen. I heard his desperation almost as if I were an angel myself.
And so we waited. Hoping one would come. But so much time passed. A whole day.
Hope was falling away with Sam.
Dean had been trying to be alert and confident. Guzzling coffee and watching the door and window. I got up to use the restroom only once. I wouldn't eat or drink. I wouldn't rest. I wouldn't take my hand off Sam. Dean tried to make me. But I was stronger. If I dropped the stone I would remember...
A woman walked in. Soft heart. Listener.
Dean snapped to his feet upon her greeting smile. I shook my head but he didn't notice. Not a bird.
"Hi," he greeted, "I'm just gonna break the ice...are you an angel?"
She wasn't bothered. Heard strange things before. Sweet thing.
"Sometimes I wish I were. My name is Kim Schortz, and I'm a grief counsellor here at the hospital."
Here to help us make sense. But she didnt understand. We were the ones who didn't make sense.
"Right. Yeah. Uh... Sorry. I'm just tired. Well, all due respect, but, uh, we're not grieving. Not yet at least, so -"
"I'm afraid, as hard as this may be, this might be a good time to talk... about the inevitable," she said gently.
Dean wasn't giving up.
"Look, I'm sure you're a nice person and that you mean well, but "inevitable" - that's a fightin' word where I come from. There's always a way."
"Always," I echoed quietly, rubbing my thumb over Sam's knuckles.
"And I am a prayerful woman who believes in miracles as much as the next, but I also know how to read an EEG," Kim said, trying to reason with the unreasonable, "And unless you're telling me you have a direct line to those angels that you were looking for..."
"Yeah, no, I, uh... Guess I don't," he admitted, downtrodden. But then he lit up. Bright little ideas popping, "But I might have something better. I got the King of Hell in my trunk."
"I'm sorry...is that a metaphor?" Now we lost her.
Dean grabbed my elbow with a little tug. "Come on, Haze."
"But-"
Kim was still watching, so he leaned in by my ear. "He'll listen to you..."
I sighed, letting him pry my fingers off Sam and drag me away.
☆☆☆☆☆
The emergency parking lot was relatively empty. An unused ambulance and one other car near the Impala. I was going numb in the head from exhaustion and being pulled away from what I had been so focused on. The trip from the room to the trunk was a blur.
Dean rapped on the lid with his knuckles. "Crowley, listen up, you son of a bitch. One for yes, two for no. You alive?"
No response. My turn.
"Dont be a pouter."
A single knock.
"There we go," Dean grinned, preparing to unlock it.
But a Bad Bird in a suit grabbed him, held his knife across his chest. I froze.
"You prayed?" he hissed.
"Yeah for help," Dean answered.
"Yes, you'll be helping me," I made a move, just one, and the blade was flicked in my direction as a warning, "not another step, Seer, or I'll cut his heart out."
He bent Dean over the trunk roughly, pressing down.
"If you lie to me Dean Winchester, I will kill you, I will kill her first, so you can watch. "
"You're not very smart, are you?" He taunted. SLAM
"Where is Castiel!?"
"Who's asking?" Stupid brother and his mouth.
"Try every angel who was ejected from their home..."
"Oh well, in that case, I got no clue."
Bad Bird bounced his head off the car again and again, then and let him slide off, seeing stars. Then he advanced on me.
"No matter...there's a price your head too, sweetheart."
Old Friend came to me. Taking the angel by surprise. "Stupid birdy," I smirked.
"Oh please," he scoffed as we circled each other, "every angel knows you've been powered down and left a useless, drooling heap. No one's afraid of you anymore."
Dean groaned from the ground.
"Stupid birdy," he mimicked me, chuckling through bloody teeth.
Bad Bird attacked, but I just blocked his blade with mine. He didn't think I was fast. Then he threw a punch. That hurt. But it made me remember.
Muscles remembered.
I hit him back. He didn't think I was strong. Angry now.
Strike and block.
But he grabbed my head and gave it an unpleasant meeting with his knee. Nose broken again. Split open just like my lip. Eyes watering with nerve pain and rage as I buckled forward.
"Imagine the glory to the angel who finally killed the Seer," he sneered proudly. Pride was stupid.
While he boasted, I stuck him clean through the leg. He roared with shock and pain, the blood and light spraying. Not slowed down enough. Handle of his blade cracked the top of my head and I went down hard.
Dazed, I twisted to see him spin the sword in his fingers, raising it to strike me down.
"Hazey!" Dean cried, half crawling half lunging to my rescue. He managed to cover me some, but it was not needed.
Another Bird caught Bad Bird's arm in the air behind him.
"Easy there, brother. This young man has prayed for our assistance. Are we creatures of wrath or compassion? I would argue the latter..."
The first one turned, on edge as he faced his kin. "Forgive me brother...I dont recognize you."
The much taller, prettier bird was calm. But he didn't let him go. "Happy to make your reacquaintence...After you disarm."
Bad Bird laxed his shoulders, falsely, punching the newcomer firmly in the mouth.
"Come now, is that any way to treat a brother injured in the fall?"
Fists exchanged. Blade dropped to the pavement. Tall Bird was losing. I snatched up Old Friend, and rolled Dean off me. Then charged on to my feet and thrust the spear head through the enemy's chest dead center. Lights burned out.
Dean got to his feet now too.
Tall Bird was panting. He wasn't well. Wings like bones dropping feathers. Lights flickering and weary.
"Who are you?"
"Never mind me," he said, leaning against the other car, "you're Dean Winchester. I heard your prayer, and I am here to help."
Tall Bird swayed, sliding, eyes rolling...Lost himself and fell.
☆☆☆☆☆
I helped as much as I could. Tall Bird was heavy while I was tired. The angel blade rattled my castle. Things were making less sense. I dropped the stone.
Forgetting the focus. Following the blood ties. Following the Sword. Voices and colors screaming.
Emergency entrance was a sad place. Hearing it all. The anguished deaths.
The garage. He went to the garage. Quieter there.
"Hey!" hissing sword sees me falling into the wrong mind. Tall Bird is trapped in flames. "You good?"
Looked up. Anchored in the green waters. Remembered.
"There are shadows and screams in the walls..."
Pity. Worry. "Stay with me" His songs sing. "My fault, my fault ..."
Tall Bird stirred and wakened. Not surprised by the holy fire. He rose to his feet unsteadily. Very weak.
Dean left me by the wall to circle around the the flames and face him.
"You want to help?" he said darkly, "start with a name."
"Ezekiel..."
"Alright Ezekiel, " Dean began, no further trusting yet, "How do I know you're not hunting me, Hazel, or Castiel like the other angels?"
"Pretty Bird..." I whimpered lowly. He made me remember. Tall Bird let his eyes find me momentarily. Squinting. Not sure if I was who I was.
"Oh I'm sure there are many angels who are," he confessed, "many more on their way here, most likely," angel asnwered.
"How do you know that?"
"You put out an open prayer like that..."
"I must really be desperate..."
Ezekiel stood more straight.
"Believe it or not, some of us still do believe in our mission. And that means we believe in Castiel. And you..." He spoke to the Sword, but he looked at me, "you are who they are calling abomination, yes? The Seer with the rebels grace?"
Dean was protective. Didn't like angels taking interest. But he wanted to trust. He needed to trust.
I nodded slowly.
"Castiel was not the only angel to say it was wrong to keep the line of Oracles snuffed out," Tall Bird explained, "I once praised my sister for your creation. A novel idea; a champion of power for the people."
"Power corrupts. Burns. Destroys...No help, no control..."I said in frantic whispers.
Now the Tall Bird has pity on both faces. Looking to the Sword with condolences. "It drove her mad, didn't it?"
"You said you were hurt in the fall," Dean veered back on topic agressively.
"I was. Entangling with my brother back there did me no favors," Tall Bird admitted, "But what strength I have left, I offer to you."
☆☆☆☆☆
{Castiel}
Hael stood nearby, waiting for me to make a call on the payphone. I had promised the frightened angel I would help. Previously my mission since falling was to get back to my Seer. But in the circumstances, I thought it would be better I stay away.
Still, I knew without a connection to me, she might be distraught. I myself had no way of knowing if she was safe, either. Last I knew, she still didn't have a phone after her time in Hell, so I had to call Dean.
"Yeah?"
"Dean."
"Who is this?
"Dean.." I repeated more clearly, "Its me."
"Cas? What the hell's going on!?"
I sighed shorly. "Metatron tricked me. It wasn't angel trials, it was a spell. I wanted you to know that."
"Okay. That's great, but we've got ourselves a problem."
"What's wrong? Is Hazel aright?"
"Hazel's fine...little more cookoo than usual cause I think she thinks you're dead...But its, Sam...they say he's dying."
"What happened?"
"I don't know. I mean, first he was okay, and then he wasn't. And I - have you heard my prayers? I've been praying to you all night."
"Dean...Metatron...He...He took my grace."
"What?"
And then I heard her in the background. Whining at her brother to give up the phone. Difficult to hear with my human ears now, but even so, I could tell Dean spoke to truth. She didn't sound as clear as she did when I was around.
"Dont worry about me," I said, loud enough I know she heard me, "what are you doing about Sam?"
"Everything I can...there's actually another angel in there working on him right now."
"What other angel?" I felt my guts lurch. Stronger now, as a human.
"Uh, his name is Ezekiel. He's cool...I mean I think he is."
Relief flooded in. "Ezekiel..yes. He's a good soldier. He should be able to help until I get there."
"Wait no,no,no..." he hissed urgently but I hardly heard, checking on Hael over my shoulder, "hey that's not an option right now."
"It might be a few days but-"
"Hey, Cas, listen to me. There are angels out there, okay? And they - they're looking for you, and they're pissed."
"Not all of them, Dean. Some are just looking for direction. Some are just lost." I looked back at Hael again, helpless as her young vessel appeared to be in a place like this.
"What are you talking about?"
"I met one. I think I can help her, Dean."
"No, Cas, I know you want to help, okay? I do, but helping angels is what got you in trouble in the first place. Now, I'm begging you - for once, look out for yourself. Until we figure out what the hell is going on, trust nobody."
"And do what? Just abandon them all?"
"Damn it, Cas. You hearing yourself? There's a war on, and it's on you. And Hazel. There's thousands of them out there... You said you lost your grace, right? That means you're human. That means you bleed and you eat and you sleep and all the things you never had to worry about before."
Damn. I should have known. Hazel was with Metatron and I the whole time. She helped us. If the angels were angry at me, they would surely be angry at her too.
"I'm fine, Dean. But you need to make Hazel go home. Now."
"Yeah," he scoffed into the phone, "she won't leave Sam. And now she knows you're alive. Good luck with that.....Whoa.."
"Whats happening?"
"I think we got more company..." he said in alarm.
My fist tightened around the receiver.
"Tell her to leave, Dean. Please. Whatever it takes."
"Yeah..sure, no promises. She is stronger than me, you know. Look, you just get your ass to the bunker. Alone. You hear me?"
"Dean..."
"Go Cas!"
He hung up just as I sensed a rise in panic. I set the receiver back in its place shakily. I was a fool to think I could just go about my business and help my brethren. Sam was dying. Hazel was being hunted, just as I was.
I prayed she would obey her brother, and head for the bunker. But I feared for her; venturing on her own.
Being without me was one thing. But without anyone familiar to keep her grounded...In all honesty I didn't trust the warding. Not after what I saw before she had it.
Hael crept up behind me in questioning. I wept inside for the disappointment I had to give her. Strange...looking upon and angel seeing only their vessel. Seeing the very human face express what the angelic face would hide. Big blue eyes pleading with uncertainty and hope.
"I have to go..." I said carefully, "I need to see my friends. "
She shook her head in taken aback confusion. "I don't understand. I'll come with you. We can see your friend together."
"It's complicated. There could be trouble. It's-it's best if I go alone. My-my friend sh-... he... needs my help."
"I need help..." she insisted in anxiety.
"You can do this, Hael," I assured her kindly, "This is your chance to help people, to help yourself. I'm sorry."
I walked past her, ready to take to the highway on foot if I had to. But not three steps ahead had I taken, before something struck the back of my head very hard.
Everything went black.
☆☆☆☆☆
Consciousness returned to me in an aching, blurry throb stemming from the back of my skull. I found my sight filled by a road flying by through a windshield. I touched the source of pain at the crown, feeling the wet and congealing blood cling to my fingers.
Hael was driving. Her blade laying across her lap. Focused solely on the road until she noticed I was awake.
"You understand that I couldn't just let you leave. I'd be lost without you, Castiel."
"Yes, I'm... beginning to see that..." I replied in bitter disappointment. Once again I gave one my kind too much credit..
"It's the least I could ask of you, considering, well... This is all your fault, isn't it? Making the angels fall? So, we'll drive to the Grand Canyon, you'll tell me more about humans, and I'll show you what I'm capable of. We're going to become more than just friends, Castiel. We're going to become one."
"You want to possess me.." I inferred, feeling an emotion I wasn't entirely familiar with. Feeling violated..
"Your vessel is strong," she explained, then pulled the collar of her blouse aside to reveal a bruise like sore festering on her shoulder, "This one won't hold me much longer. You were right, Castiel. With us together, I think I could learn to like it here."
My insides were trembling with the struggle to think of a way out of this. Even when I was humanized during the apocalypse, I never felt so helpless. I wasn't alone then. I wasn't at the mercy and held captive by something stronger than me. No friends to rely on. I had to figure this out on my own. Had to do what a human would do. Because I was one.
What would the Winchesters do?
I assessed my surroundings. Small van in decent condition. Running smoothly at highway speeds. Naive angel beside me driving likely purely based on the memory and knowledge of her young vessel. A weapon in her lap at the ready, but her hands busy at the wheel. Confident and ignorant celestial being that she was, she didn't wear a seat belt. Yes. That was it.
I casually buckled mine, watching her for a change in focus. There was none. I checked the road behind and ahead of us. No other vehicles to endanger. Perfect.
In a reckless and quick decision, I abruptly took hold of the steering wheel, veering us off course in a hard hooked right turn.
The van slammed into a concrete guard rail over a creek. My head bounced in the impact on the passenger window and I lost consciousness once again temporarily.
When I woke, Hael was gone, a bloody hole smashed through her side of the windshield where the force ejected her as I had planned. My face and neck were bleeding some, my head no less shaken than before but clear enough to painstakingly get out of the car to find her.
She was in grassy ditch nearby, legs bloody and broken, face and hair cut up horribly by the glass embedded in the flesh. Her blade was to be found on the curb, so I picked it up for safety, and walked over to her.
"I don't want to hurt you," I said sincerely, "I didn't want to hurt any of them. I want to help you. I will devote my life to helping you all."
Panting and scowling vehemently at me, she spit blood from her lips.
"Do you know how ridiculous you sound? Help angels? After what you did? They don't want your help, Castiel. They want your head. You and the Seer."
I ignored the stinging of both my flesh and my feelings, crouching in front of her. "You're wrong. I'm one of you. I will never stop being one of you."
"Don't you get it? Together, I can protect you, Castiel."
I shook my head. "I don't need your-," I got to my feet and turned my back on her, "I don't want your protection." I was ready to keep moving and leave her. She wasn't as teachable as I'd hoped. Lost cause.
"If you leave me here in this broken girl," she began to threaten, halting my feet to listen, "I swear it, Castiel...I will tell them where you are! And they will hunt you. Until their last breath, they will seek revenge on the angel that did this, who destroyed Heaven!"
Damn. Why couldn't they ever leave well enough alone? When did my kind lose their sense of loyalty? So easily swayed to turn their tides.
"Stop.." I warned quietly, still turned away.
"They will seek a vengence on you that will make God striking down Lucifer seem like child's play! And who will protect your pet Seer then?"
"Stop it," I repeated more darkly, facing her down again.
"Some of them already know where she is," she continued spitefully, "I will go on angel radio and I will tell them all everything! Unless you open your heart...and say yes."
Admittedly, it was a tempting negotiation. But I had no reason to trust Hael now. For all I knew, she would go after Hazel, herself. She would have no interest in helping Sam. Or sparing Dean.
No. She had to be silenced.
Before she could utter another threat, I ended her with own blade.
A regretful waste.
☆☆☆☆☆
{Hazel}
Rumbling and ringing. Vultures coming. Circling above the desert to pick out their prey.
Dean burst back into the room with me and the Tall Bird.
Anxious and alarmed.
"One of yours?" he asked Ezekiel.
"Trying to circle a vessel," Tall Bird confirmed, "we need to move."
"No, no..." Dean argued, "if we move him, he dies."
"If we stay, we could all die," the weak angel fired back.
Panicked and making desperate plans as he goes, Dean snatched the whiteboard marker and started to hastily draw enochian wards in the walls. I reluctantly dropped the stone. Found a new focus. Help draw the blocking. Help build the bird net.
After several minutes, Sam's hospital room was secure with scribbles.
"Long as these are up," Dean announced, "no angels are coming in. No one's coming out. You gonna be okay with these?"
Tall Bird weakened more. Lights feeling dull. Broken wings sagging to the floor like crumpled and torn curtains.
"I'll manage..."
Ringing intensified. Ezekiel and I grimaced. Unhurt but afraid. Vultures had landed.
"What?" Dean asked us.
"They're here..." I said, moving to steady to the wobbling angel. He was good. He deserved a kind touch.
"Shit..." Dean cursed, then grabbed both my wrists with purpose, "you have to go."
"What..? No...Soft Stone-"
"We got it covered..." he said with a shake, "...I think. Hazel, they want you just as bad as they want me or Cas. You need to beat it. Now."
"He's right," Ezekiel huffed, "the further apart you all are, the harder it will be for them to catch any of you."
"Can't be alone..." I argued in despair, "I get lost...I forget..."
Dean clamped my cheeks in his hands. "Yes you can. You can, Hazel. I believe in you," he said with loving confidence, "Get to the bunker as fast you can, you hear me? Don't stop. Don't fight. Just run."
"I have to find him..."
"Hey, he's headed there too, ok? He's fine. Just go."
Had to listen. He was afraid. Can't let the sword be afraid...
"Hurry, Seer," Tall Bird advised, "or you will not escape without a fight."
I held up my Old Friend.
"I remember all the fights."
☆☆☆☆☆
Vultures were disoriented. Distracted by Dean. They saw me but they couldn't catch. No wings. Only feet. Mine were faster. I knew how to use them.
But I heard them shout out loud to their flock. Any others who would listen. They told them where I was. That I was fleeing. Promised to get the boy, so others could get the girl.
I was being hunted.
Voices of the secrets said they were coming. Not far now. Changed direction to get me instead of Dean.
Parking lot. What to do?
Cars all locked.
But there was a bike.
Two wheels that carried loud songs of power. Bright green. Low to the ground. Full gas tank.
Ninja, it said. Yes...I needed a ninja.
Keys, keys....Yes. Keys forgotten.
Remember. Remember. Done this before. Once or twice. No. Not this fast. The Queen was fast. I could do this. I had to do this.
I slammed my foot down hard on the kickstart. Monster inside roared to life. Helmet? No helmet...Worth the risk.
Throttle...
We fly. She needed a name. Maybe new paint.
Soaring down highways. Driven. Determined. New focus. Not the bunker. I lied.
Catch the Pretty Bird. He made sense. Broken birds can't fly. I had to be his wings. He needed help.
Hours passed. Monster beneath me served her new master well.
Followed now. Hunted.
Clever birds chasing with monsters of their own.
Three other sports bikes closing in. Only one with a helmet but I could see all their faces and shredded feathers. Unafraid of high speeds, they got too close. Trying to run me off the road or get me with their blades.
Car coming. Separated. I fly ahead.
Catch me if you can.
Flipped the bird at Birds, laughing.
That made them angry. But I flew higher. Won't catch me.
Short lived victory. Charging bull stopped by a careless rabbit. Squealing in terror. Won't hurt the rabbit...
Hard turn. Spinning. Sliding. Too fast. Leg scraping and shredding. Slid right into the ditch and rolled.
Precious grace saved me, but I was hurt. Elbow shattered. Leg ripped and burned. Rocks in the ditch cut, cracked and bruised my skull and face.
Bad Birds crashed too. Not hurt so bad. Left their mounts and were coming. Get up. Have to get up. Catch the Pretty Bird.
Leg was stiff and hurting so bad...Can't walk. Old Friend in the wrong hand because the right one was useless.
Stand my ground.
Bad Bird's in biker leathers encircled me. Bleeding but not broken.
"End of the road, Oracle," one in front of me said, "nowhere to run."
"Stupid birdies should run, not me," I spat defiantly.
"You don't scare us," he said, "tell us where the traitor Castiel is, and will make this painless."
"Accustomed to pain," I seethed through that very thing. Here was death. Coming after all this time. Never give them what they wanted. Never stop fighting. Family taught me that. I remembered.
"You will tell us, even if we have to beat it out of you!" another one yelled from the side, "either way. You are dead."
"So much chirping..." I taunted, then painstakingly made my move first, hopping recklessly to the side to swing my axe. Blocked but he stumbled in the uneven terrain of the ditched. I slashed him arm.
First one closed in grabbed my tender, shattered elbow and twisted. I crashed to my knees in excruciation.
Don't give up.
Blade coming down at me.
Deflected with a swift flick. I flipped the handle and stab sideways at the knee. He fell shrieking. My chance.
Upward thrust to the neck. Dead.
Last one, the female, launched and held onto my back, dragging me backwards. Trying to stab my chest. I braced her wrist, holding it back as hard as I could. Shaking. Faltering.
She let go of my chest so she could grip and squeeze, torture, at my other arm. Agony told me to let go. Let it end.
No.
Backwards headbutt. Broke her vessel's teeth that cut my scalp. Enough to make her stop.
I sat up, grabbing the spear, and stabbed backwards. Dead.
Just the one I sent to the ditch was left. I couldn't see him as I rolled trying to get back on my feet. But he kicked my good arm out from under me as I attempted to crawl to my bike for support. He flipped me over to my back again, stomping and pinning my biceps under his riding boots. Towering over me, his bleeding arm dripping on my clothes as he brandished his blade.
"Last chance, abomination," he panted, "give up the rebel."
Out of options. Not strong enough to get up again. Needed help. Pretty Bird always came before. But not this time. Red King was trapped. Brothers busy and too far now. Who could come? Who lived and and loved and would answer? It seemed hopeless.
But then I remembered.
Parts of me lost and forgotten came forward. Remembered what she remembered. I was there.
A big secret. Please answer...
Coughed a little blood. Trying to find my voice. One last sneer in Bad Bird's face.
"GABRIEL!!!" I screamed into the universe. Back burning. Voice trying to carry further. Past the walls.
Bad Bird shook his head, chuckling almost in pity. "Really? You're powerful but even you can't bring back the dead."
He lowered to his haunches and started to dig at my chest with the blade. Blue sparks sprayed and blood trickled. It hurt so much.
Light blinded me from his eyes. Too close. Had to shut mine. The ringing was loud so close.
Weight lifted and my arms were free so I opened my eyes again.
Shaking smile cracked my bloodied mouth. Giant wings of lovely white spread high. Tricky, kind eyes beaming blue-green in the face of a great eagle. Gabriel.
He touched my nose. "Boop."
Hurts melted away. I took his hand and I stood strong.
"Bright Brother..."
"Hey, kiddo."
"You came...?"
Play-knocked my chin. "Don't get used to it. I don't like to make special appearances."
"Then why..? Why would Bright Brother answer my songs?"
He looked at me funny. Realizing I was wrong mind.
"I owed it to her," he said, smirking but it was a sad smirk, "its what she would have wanted..."
"Bright Sister..." I breathed with an understanding nod. Then I hugged him. Hard as I could. He felt safe. He made sense too. "Thank you."
"Whoa-ho ok," he huffed, lightly patting my head and pushing me off, "dont mention it. Seriously. Don't mention it. Ever."
I nodded. "Safe secrets."
"Good," He snapped his fingers, and my bike was back on the road standing strong and repaired, "Now go pull Cassie's sorry ass out of the fire. And uh...kick him the nads for me?"
Bright Brother left.
Time to fly again.
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