09x13 - Icarus - Part Two: Mountains of the Sky
Episode Number: 09x13 of Season 9 Fan Fiction (S9FF)
Title: Icarus
Subtitle: Mountains of the Sky
Author: dracox-serdriel
Word Count: 2,594
Rating: R
Warnings: language, violence
Status: Complete. Feedback appreciated.
No Man's Land, South Dakota. Cas teleported back to Dean, cloaked with invisibly. Kevin's concern was well founded, as the hunter was lying on the ground, unconscious and bound. Atropos and Nona seemed oddly delighted at the hunter's condition.
The angel noiselessly positioned himself in Dean's direct line of sight. He needed to teleport to him and then immediately away without a hitch to escape to safety. He hesitated for a moment, not knowing why, until -
"Nona, Atropos," Lachesis said. "My two favorite sisters."
The first two Fates kept a solid distance between themselves and Lachesis. They didn't trust their middle sister any longer.
"Lachesis," Nona replied. "How have you been?"
"In hiding for months, thanks for asking sis," she replied. "What do you two want?"
"Us? How about our lives back?" Atropos replied. "You abandoned us and left us with your mess."
"My mess? Neither of you need this job," Lachesis explained. "I hoped you'd follow in my footsteps - "
"Follow your footsteps?" Nona repeated. "I've looked up to you my entire life, but even I would never do what you'd done."
"That's why you've summoned me here? To tell me what a bad sister I've been?"
Atropos spoke, "No. We've got a present for you." She indicated Dean's unconscious body.
"Dean Winchester?" Lachesis asked.
"We can use him to get his younger brother and his little angel here. One for each of us," Nona said.
Cas saw the plan to restore Lachesis to Heaven's service quickly falling apart. She was no more interested in returning to her old job than she had been months ago when Crowley died.
So, the angel waited. All he needed was an ample distraction to make his move.
Hundred-Mile Wilderness, Maine. Sam stood, helpless, as Kane collected Madison's soul. At the very least, he would remain with her until the reaper took her away.
Both spun around at the sound of wings. Kane disappeared immediately. Whatever Sam looked at, it burned so brightly that he found himself knocked on his ass. He scrambled to remove his holy-fire x-ray specs.
"Sam Winchester," a familiar voice said. "What are you doing here?"
Sam saw Naomi before him. Apparently the special specs revealed angelic existence in a vessel. He made a mental note never to wear them with Castiel around.
"Hi, Naomi."
She indicated the soul that Kane abandoned. "This is?"
"Madison, she - she was a werewolf."
"A werewolf?"
"And a good person."
Naomi's eyes filled with curiosity and pity. She replied, "I see."
"Dean and I tried to cure her, but we failed."
"You killed her?" Naomi asked.
"Madison asked me to. When she realized she couldn't be cured, she asked to be killed so she'd never hurt anyone again."
"That's why you've freed her soul from Purgatory?"
"She doesn't belong there!"
"That's not for you to decide."
"Madison didn't have free will! It wasn't her choice, and when it was her choice, she chose to die over risking other people's safety. She didn't choose to be a werewolf, Naomi, some asshat bit her on her way home from a friend's house," Sam spoke as calmly as he could, slowly loosing traction as he concluded the story.
"It's not everyday you liberate souls, Sam," Naomi said. "And today, you've liberated two. Why?"
"I only meant to take the first one, Elias Finch. He was a phoenix. His ashes helped us send Eve back to Purgatory," Sam explained. "He didn't deserve to be stuck there for that. He's innocent. Madison, she guided me to him so I could leave quickly."
Naomi considered what he said for a moment. She waved her hand, and the glistening star that was Madison's soul traversed the space above her into Heaven.
"Do you plan on doing this on a regular basis from now on?" Naomi asked.
"No, not really. Thank you for."
"Don't," Naomi replied. "Maybe you're not lying to me about who these souls are, but I can tell. There's something you're not telling me."
"You mean like where Castiel is right now?" Sam asked quickly.
"No, it's something else. Whatever it is Sam, consider it carefully. I've said it before, and I mean it, we're on the same side."
She disappeared.
Sam waited a few moments before he started his journey in the general direction of the road. He thought a silent prayer to Castiel, filling the angel in on Naomi's visit.
His musings screeched to a halt as an invisible force yanked him into silky darkness.
Atropos, Nona, and Lachesis circled together, bickering bitterly about the failed Apocalypse. As soon as Dean came-to, Cas seized the moment and teleported -
Sam's voice lingered in the angel's consciousness. Cas, Naomi dropped in on me in Maine. Don't come get me. Keep your head down, okay? And watch out for my big brother, man. You hear me?
Normally prayers didn't penetrate so directly into his consciousness, but the level of intent, the degree of Sam's prayer, grabbed his attention.
Cas made it to Dean, but before they could escape, Lachesis brought her arm down and across the angel's face, throwing him into the air. Nona and Atropos closed in around him, and they trussed the angel just like his hunter.
"A matching set," Nona concluded. "How long do you think it'll take your brother to get here?"
"We haven't met," Dean said to Lachesis, ignoring the question entirely. "I'm - "
"I know who you are."
"You don't know her because she's been, uh, 'on leave,'" Nona said casually.
"Ever so passive aggressive," Lachesis replied.
"A year! We did your job for a year, and you can't take a little comment?" Atropos asked. "You always have been an over-privileged brat."
"I see your high-horse is still in tact."
"Are you really that incapable of saying you're sorry?" Atropos asked. "Of apologizing and admitting you were wrong?"
Lachesis scowled at her elder sister. "What am I apologizing for exactly? Wanting my own life? My own job? Having an identity separate from my sisters? Believe it or not, being second fiddle was never my dream."
Nona's laugh boomed throughout the badlands. She spoke directly to Lachesis, "Did it ever occur to you that we want all those things too? Just because we want something doesn't mean we break every commitment we've ever made - "
"You know what? No, it never occurred to me," Lachesis cut her sister off. "Because both of you are so ridiculously desperate for the approval of others that the idea of either of you forming an independent thought seems impossible!"
Dean laughed.
"This is funny to you?" Atropos rounded on Dean.
"No, it's not, it's just - this reminds me of an argument Sam and I had," Dean said.
Lachesis answered with a solid kick to his stomach. Dean felt a few of his ribs crack.
"Sammy said that approval thing to me, and the abandoning thing I said to him - "
Crack! Lachesis threw another kick and spat, "We're nothing like you."
"You're siblings," he replied. "Which means under all the crap, the real reason you're mad is because you're family. You still care."
Lachesis raised her foot -
"You're saying you don't care?" Nona asked. Lachesis turned back to her sisters, sparing Dean a third kick.
Elk Creek, Nebraska. Sam opened his eyes. He was inside an old farmhouse.
"Sam?" a teenage boy said.
"Who are you?"
"My name is Jesse, you might not remember me, I was like ten when we met," the boy replied.
"Uh, we met? Where am I?"
"Nebraska. I summoned you because I need your help."
"Wait, what? Humans can't be summoned."
"I didn't know what else to do," Jesse said weakly. "You and your brother managed to help me before, so - "
Sam remembered. "Jesse Turner? The Cambion? I mean, half-demon, half-human?"
"Yeah, I guess."
Jesse was now fifteen and almost six feet tall.
"You've grown," Sam commented.
"Yeah, that might be part of the problem."
"Okay, let's go back like twenty steps. What problem?"
"You'll help me?"
"If I can, I will."
Dean struggled to an awkward sitting position next to Cas. The angel seemed particularly miserable, and Dean wondered if Lachesis had poisoned him.
Atropos yelled, "We've been covering for you this entire time, stupidly thinking you'd care enough to - "
"To what? Tuck tail and crawl back to my domineering sisters? To beg for forgiveness for wanting a little freedom?" Lachesis bellowed back.
"Freedom isn't signing up with Crowley!" Nona shot back "You could've taken a vacation, gone on strike. Instead you bring shame on - "
"Shame?" Lachesis cut her off. "Don't even start with - "
"There is a right and a wrong," Atropos interrupted. "You're telling me that you thought working with Crowley was right?"
"No, of course not!"
"Then what are we even fighting about?"
Silence greeted these words.
Men of Letters Bunker. Kevin checked the coordinates Joshua gave him. No matter how he sliced it, it was at least a twelve-hour drive. There was no way he'd get there by himself. He'd needed to wait.
His phone rang.
"Hello?"
"Kevin, hi, it's Sam."
"Sam, how did your - "
"Done," Sam replied curtly. "Dean and Cas?"
"Castiel is with your brother right now, not sure how far along they are."
Sam moved on, "Have you gotten a chance to - "
"Speak with God?" Kevin completed. "No, not yet."
"Good. You think you can give God a message for me?"
"Uh, what?"
Sam hesitated. "Something's come up - "
"What could possibly be - "
"Kev, this is important," Sam interrupted. "Trust me."
"Uh, okay. What's the message?" Kevin asked.
Heaven. Archangel Batkol and Archangel Emunah gained new names, or special titles, for their work with humanity. Batkol, originally Ruth, earned her Hebrew name as the Divine Voice of God on Earth. Emunah, initially Lucas, received his Hebrew name as the teacher of Fidelity and Faithfulness.
Archangels came in two primary forms. The first, and best-known, was those angels formed specifically for leadership, such as Michael, Raphael, and Lucifer. The other form was that of an angel elevated to archangel for an appointed station, such as Gabriel, Ruth, and Lucas. The two kinds of archangel were not, strictly speaking, separated so simply. For instance, Gabriel had been formed for leadership and later won an additional station as the Angel of Annunciation.
Ruach knew these stories because she had been there. She was the first living entity to walk the surface of the newly created Earth. God sent her to ensure the crust of the Earth was cool enough for living organisms to touch and strong enough to support the weight of life.
To this very day, she remained the only angel to have a vessel created by God solely for her to traverse the Earth. Her skin and eyes were a deep, dark brown, but the rest of her features remained mutable, constantly changing with the advent of humanity. Yet every angel who ever met her recognized her immediately.
After her first mission on Earth, she returned to Heaven and mentioned that the air felt stiff; thus, God made the wind blow. She went to Earth as Sarah-Rebecca, but upon her return, she became Ruach the Archangel.
Before humans and their languages existed, no one understood the nature of her name. God said she would come to comprehend it in time, and now she knew. The word was Hebrew, and among its complex and intricate meanings, it referenced the Spirit of life with the underpinning of moving air, as Breath and Wind. Ruach the Archangel was the Angel of Spirit, of Breath, and of Wind.
Batkol and Emunah were similarly meaningful and multifaceted, but after all the history, all the neglect, Ruach wondered if any of them deserved those names, those gifts, that told everyone who they were.
Sarah-Rebecca came suddenly to this realization when she met with her brother and sister.
"Ruach," Lucas said as he bowed his head.
"Lucas," Sarah-Rebecca greeted him. She contineud, "It is time we dropped the titles we no longer deserve."
"What do you mean?" Ruth asked.
"Sister, we cannot continue as if nothing has happened, as if we are as we once were," Sarah-Rebecca replied. "My captivity has given me insight into the nature of humanity, into the workings of the Earth, even into the minds of abominations."
Ruth spoke with trepidation, "Raphael left his post to fill the void Michael created. In so doing, he abandoned the prophet, and his death created even more chaos. Had he kept his post, Kevin Tran would never had fallen prey - "
Ruth fell silent as she saw Sarah-Rebecca's reaction. Michael, Lucifer, Raphael, and even Gabriel all had superior power to the other archangels. They were the oldest, the first-born, the first sons. The other archangels either earned greater power through service, like Metatron, or were appointed very special, very specific duties. No one knew, or maybe no one remembered, where Sarah-Rebecca fell among the archangels. Was she the first daughter? The fifth angel formed? Or was she among those appointed?
"We follow the example of Joshua," Lucas explained. "After the Apocalypse, we remained constant in our posts, even as others abandoned their own to seek more power."
"I understand," Sarah-Rebecca said, "and I am not here to judge that choice. But we cannot keep names that are no longer ours. When was the last time you spoke to humans for God, Ruth? And Lucas, when did you last teach Fidelity and Faithfulness?"
Both archangels considered these questions and seemed heavy with thought.
"What shall we do?" Ruth asked.
"Go back to being Ruth and Lucas, start again, as I will start again as Sarah-Rebecca. Maybe one day we will earn those names again."
"The others know you, they respect you," Lucas said. "You weren't here during the civil war or the apocalypse."
Ruth said, "Most angels are afraid they will be killed for their chosen loyalties during the civil war, or their failures during previous service. That fear alone drives the survival almost all the factions."
Clearly they had practiced this, because Lucas followed seamlessly, "You are considered neutral, unbiased. Your mind is clear from the millennia of squabbles that have broken us apart."
Ruth concluded, "We need a leader who can reunite Heaven. If you will do this, giving up our names will simply be a sign of our loyalty to your leadership."
"I was meant to be Raphael's second in command," Sarah-Rebecca answered. "To help protect the prophet. I see now that we no longer do that."
Lucas and Ruth exchanged ashamed looks. "That was only at the request of Kevin Tran. We will continue to protect the next prophet."
Sarah-Rebecca measured their words. They were sincere, but she sensed that much of their concern was to protect those they allied themselves with.
"I will try to reunite Heaven," she said. "But not as the others have done before me. I'm not made of the same stuff, you cannot expect me to work in the same ways."
When neither Ruth nor Lucas fretted over that notion, Sarah-Rebecca pushed ahead. She spoke directly to Ruth, "I need you to speak with Naomi. She only begrudgingly answers my questions, and she won't follow my orders. If she continues on this path, she will become lost."
"Naomi would never - " Ruth started.
"You love her," Sarah-Rebecca talked over her. "And she loves you. She will listen to you if anyone. Go now."
Ruth nodded and left.
"Lucas, tell me everything about the prophet, the Winchesters, and Castiel."
<<< Previous Part:
Part One: Crimson Skies
Next Part: >>>
Part Three: Rainbow's End
Primary Post: 09x13 Icarus
Primary Post: Season 9 Fan Fiction (S9FF)
Title: Icarus
Subtitle: Mountains of the Sky
Author: dracox-serdriel
Word Count: 2,594
Rating: R
Warnings: language, violence
Status: Complete. Feedback appreciated.
No Man's Land, South Dakota. Cas teleported back to Dean, cloaked with invisibly. Kevin's concern was well founded, as the hunter was lying on the ground, unconscious and bound. Atropos and Nona seemed oddly delighted at the hunter's condition.
The angel noiselessly positioned himself in Dean's direct line of sight. He needed to teleport to him and then immediately away without a hitch to escape to safety. He hesitated for a moment, not knowing why, until -
"Nona, Atropos," Lachesis said. "My two favorite sisters."
The first two Fates kept a solid distance between themselves and Lachesis. They didn't trust their middle sister any longer.
"Lachesis," Nona replied. "How have you been?"
"In hiding for months, thanks for asking sis," she replied. "What do you two want?"
"Us? How about our lives back?" Atropos replied. "You abandoned us and left us with your mess."
"My mess? Neither of you need this job," Lachesis explained. "I hoped you'd follow in my footsteps - "
"Follow your footsteps?" Nona repeated. "I've looked up to you my entire life, but even I would never do what you'd done."
"That's why you've summoned me here? To tell me what a bad sister I've been?"
Atropos spoke, "No. We've got a present for you." She indicated Dean's unconscious body.
"Dean Winchester?" Lachesis asked.
"We can use him to get his younger brother and his little angel here. One for each of us," Nona said.
Cas saw the plan to restore Lachesis to Heaven's service quickly falling apart. She was no more interested in returning to her old job than she had been months ago when Crowley died.
So, the angel waited. All he needed was an ample distraction to make his move.
Hundred-Mile Wilderness, Maine. Sam stood, helpless, as Kane collected Madison's soul. At the very least, he would remain with her until the reaper took her away.
Both spun around at the sound of wings. Kane disappeared immediately. Whatever Sam looked at, it burned so brightly that he found himself knocked on his ass. He scrambled to remove his holy-fire x-ray specs.
"Sam Winchester," a familiar voice said. "What are you doing here?"
Sam saw Naomi before him. Apparently the special specs revealed angelic existence in a vessel. He made a mental note never to wear them with Castiel around.
"Hi, Naomi."
She indicated the soul that Kane abandoned. "This is?"
"Madison, she - she was a werewolf."
"A werewolf?"
"And a good person."
Naomi's eyes filled with curiosity and pity. She replied, "I see."
"Dean and I tried to cure her, but we failed."
"You killed her?" Naomi asked.
"Madison asked me to. When she realized she couldn't be cured, she asked to be killed so she'd never hurt anyone again."
"That's why you've freed her soul from Purgatory?"
"She doesn't belong there!"
"That's not for you to decide."
"Madison didn't have free will! It wasn't her choice, and when it was her choice, she chose to die over risking other people's safety. She didn't choose to be a werewolf, Naomi, some asshat bit her on her way home from a friend's house," Sam spoke as calmly as he could, slowly loosing traction as he concluded the story.
"It's not everyday you liberate souls, Sam," Naomi said. "And today, you've liberated two. Why?"
"I only meant to take the first one, Elias Finch. He was a phoenix. His ashes helped us send Eve back to Purgatory," Sam explained. "He didn't deserve to be stuck there for that. He's innocent. Madison, she guided me to him so I could leave quickly."
Naomi considered what he said for a moment. She waved her hand, and the glistening star that was Madison's soul traversed the space above her into Heaven.
"Do you plan on doing this on a regular basis from now on?" Naomi asked.
"No, not really. Thank you for."
"Don't," Naomi replied. "Maybe you're not lying to me about who these souls are, but I can tell. There's something you're not telling me."
"You mean like where Castiel is right now?" Sam asked quickly.
"No, it's something else. Whatever it is Sam, consider it carefully. I've said it before, and I mean it, we're on the same side."
She disappeared.
Sam waited a few moments before he started his journey in the general direction of the road. He thought a silent prayer to Castiel, filling the angel in on Naomi's visit.
His musings screeched to a halt as an invisible force yanked him into silky darkness.
Atropos, Nona, and Lachesis circled together, bickering bitterly about the failed Apocalypse. As soon as Dean came-to, Cas seized the moment and teleported -
Sam's voice lingered in the angel's consciousness. Cas, Naomi dropped in on me in Maine. Don't come get me. Keep your head down, okay? And watch out for my big brother, man. You hear me?
Normally prayers didn't penetrate so directly into his consciousness, but the level of intent, the degree of Sam's prayer, grabbed his attention.
Cas made it to Dean, but before they could escape, Lachesis brought her arm down and across the angel's face, throwing him into the air. Nona and Atropos closed in around him, and they trussed the angel just like his hunter.
"A matching set," Nona concluded. "How long do you think it'll take your brother to get here?"
"We haven't met," Dean said to Lachesis, ignoring the question entirely. "I'm - "
"I know who you are."
"You don't know her because she's been, uh, 'on leave,'" Nona said casually.
"Ever so passive aggressive," Lachesis replied.
"A year! We did your job for a year, and you can't take a little comment?" Atropos asked. "You always have been an over-privileged brat."
"I see your high-horse is still in tact."
"Are you really that incapable of saying you're sorry?" Atropos asked. "Of apologizing and admitting you were wrong?"
Lachesis scowled at her elder sister. "What am I apologizing for exactly? Wanting my own life? My own job? Having an identity separate from my sisters? Believe it or not, being second fiddle was never my dream."
Nona's laugh boomed throughout the badlands. She spoke directly to Lachesis, "Did it ever occur to you that we want all those things too? Just because we want something doesn't mean we break every commitment we've ever made - "
"You know what? No, it never occurred to me," Lachesis cut her sister off. "Because both of you are so ridiculously desperate for the approval of others that the idea of either of you forming an independent thought seems impossible!"
Dean laughed.
"This is funny to you?" Atropos rounded on Dean.
"No, it's not, it's just - this reminds me of an argument Sam and I had," Dean said.
Lachesis answered with a solid kick to his stomach. Dean felt a few of his ribs crack.
"Sammy said that approval thing to me, and the abandoning thing I said to him - "
Crack! Lachesis threw another kick and spat, "We're nothing like you."
"You're siblings," he replied. "Which means under all the crap, the real reason you're mad is because you're family. You still care."
Lachesis raised her foot -
"You're saying you don't care?" Nona asked. Lachesis turned back to her sisters, sparing Dean a third kick.
Elk Creek, Nebraska. Sam opened his eyes. He was inside an old farmhouse.
"Sam?" a teenage boy said.
"Who are you?"
"My name is Jesse, you might not remember me, I was like ten when we met," the boy replied.
"Uh, we met? Where am I?"
"Nebraska. I summoned you because I need your help."
"Wait, what? Humans can't be summoned."
"I didn't know what else to do," Jesse said weakly. "You and your brother managed to help me before, so - "
Sam remembered. "Jesse Turner? The Cambion? I mean, half-demon, half-human?"
"Yeah, I guess."
Jesse was now fifteen and almost six feet tall.
"You've grown," Sam commented.
"Yeah, that might be part of the problem."
"Okay, let's go back like twenty steps. What problem?"
"You'll help me?"
"If I can, I will."
Dean struggled to an awkward sitting position next to Cas. The angel seemed particularly miserable, and Dean wondered if Lachesis had poisoned him.
Atropos yelled, "We've been covering for you this entire time, stupidly thinking you'd care enough to - "
"To what? Tuck tail and crawl back to my domineering sisters? To beg for forgiveness for wanting a little freedom?" Lachesis bellowed back.
"Freedom isn't signing up with Crowley!" Nona shot back "You could've taken a vacation, gone on strike. Instead you bring shame on - "
"Shame?" Lachesis cut her off. "Don't even start with - "
"There is a right and a wrong," Atropos interrupted. "You're telling me that you thought working with Crowley was right?"
"No, of course not!"
"Then what are we even fighting about?"
Silence greeted these words.
Men of Letters Bunker. Kevin checked the coordinates Joshua gave him. No matter how he sliced it, it was at least a twelve-hour drive. There was no way he'd get there by himself. He'd needed to wait.
His phone rang.
"Hello?"
"Kevin, hi, it's Sam."
"Sam, how did your - "
"Done," Sam replied curtly. "Dean and Cas?"
"Castiel is with your brother right now, not sure how far along they are."
Sam moved on, "Have you gotten a chance to - "
"Speak with God?" Kevin completed. "No, not yet."
"Good. You think you can give God a message for me?"
"Uh, what?"
Sam hesitated. "Something's come up - "
"What could possibly be - "
"Kev, this is important," Sam interrupted. "Trust me."
"Uh, okay. What's the message?" Kevin asked.
Heaven. Archangel Batkol and Archangel Emunah gained new names, or special titles, for their work with humanity. Batkol, originally Ruth, earned her Hebrew name as the Divine Voice of God on Earth. Emunah, initially Lucas, received his Hebrew name as the teacher of Fidelity and Faithfulness.
Archangels came in two primary forms. The first, and best-known, was those angels formed specifically for leadership, such as Michael, Raphael, and Lucifer. The other form was that of an angel elevated to archangel for an appointed station, such as Gabriel, Ruth, and Lucas. The two kinds of archangel were not, strictly speaking, separated so simply. For instance, Gabriel had been formed for leadership and later won an additional station as the Angel of Annunciation.
Ruach knew these stories because she had been there. She was the first living entity to walk the surface of the newly created Earth. God sent her to ensure the crust of the Earth was cool enough for living organisms to touch and strong enough to support the weight of life.
To this very day, she remained the only angel to have a vessel created by God solely for her to traverse the Earth. Her skin and eyes were a deep, dark brown, but the rest of her features remained mutable, constantly changing with the advent of humanity. Yet every angel who ever met her recognized her immediately.
After her first mission on Earth, she returned to Heaven and mentioned that the air felt stiff; thus, God made the wind blow. She went to Earth as Sarah-Rebecca, but upon her return, she became Ruach the Archangel.
Before humans and their languages existed, no one understood the nature of her name. God said she would come to comprehend it in time, and now she knew. The word was Hebrew, and among its complex and intricate meanings, it referenced the Spirit of life with the underpinning of moving air, as Breath and Wind. Ruach the Archangel was the Angel of Spirit, of Breath, and of Wind.
Batkol and Emunah were similarly meaningful and multifaceted, but after all the history, all the neglect, Ruach wondered if any of them deserved those names, those gifts, that told everyone who they were.
Sarah-Rebecca came suddenly to this realization when she met with her brother and sister.
"Ruach," Lucas said as he bowed his head.
"Lucas," Sarah-Rebecca greeted him. She contineud, "It is time we dropped the titles we no longer deserve."
"What do you mean?" Ruth asked.
"Sister, we cannot continue as if nothing has happened, as if we are as we once were," Sarah-Rebecca replied. "My captivity has given me insight into the nature of humanity, into the workings of the Earth, even into the minds of abominations."
Ruth spoke with trepidation, "Raphael left his post to fill the void Michael created. In so doing, he abandoned the prophet, and his death created even more chaos. Had he kept his post, Kevin Tran would never had fallen prey - "
Ruth fell silent as she saw Sarah-Rebecca's reaction. Michael, Lucifer, Raphael, and even Gabriel all had superior power to the other archangels. They were the oldest, the first-born, the first sons. The other archangels either earned greater power through service, like Metatron, or were appointed very special, very specific duties. No one knew, or maybe no one remembered, where Sarah-Rebecca fell among the archangels. Was she the first daughter? The fifth angel formed? Or was she among those appointed?
"We follow the example of Joshua," Lucas explained. "After the Apocalypse, we remained constant in our posts, even as others abandoned their own to seek more power."
"I understand," Sarah-Rebecca said, "and I am not here to judge that choice. But we cannot keep names that are no longer ours. When was the last time you spoke to humans for God, Ruth? And Lucas, when did you last teach Fidelity and Faithfulness?"
Both archangels considered these questions and seemed heavy with thought.
"What shall we do?" Ruth asked.
"Go back to being Ruth and Lucas, start again, as I will start again as Sarah-Rebecca. Maybe one day we will earn those names again."
"The others know you, they respect you," Lucas said. "You weren't here during the civil war or the apocalypse."
Ruth said, "Most angels are afraid they will be killed for their chosen loyalties during the civil war, or their failures during previous service. That fear alone drives the survival almost all the factions."
Clearly they had practiced this, because Lucas followed seamlessly, "You are considered neutral, unbiased. Your mind is clear from the millennia of squabbles that have broken us apart."
Ruth concluded, "We need a leader who can reunite Heaven. If you will do this, giving up our names will simply be a sign of our loyalty to your leadership."
"I was meant to be Raphael's second in command," Sarah-Rebecca answered. "To help protect the prophet. I see now that we no longer do that."
Lucas and Ruth exchanged ashamed looks. "That was only at the request of Kevin Tran. We will continue to protect the next prophet."
Sarah-Rebecca measured their words. They were sincere, but she sensed that much of their concern was to protect those they allied themselves with.
"I will try to reunite Heaven," she said. "But not as the others have done before me. I'm not made of the same stuff, you cannot expect me to work in the same ways."
When neither Ruth nor Lucas fretted over that notion, Sarah-Rebecca pushed ahead. She spoke directly to Ruth, "I need you to speak with Naomi. She only begrudgingly answers my questions, and she won't follow my orders. If she continues on this path, she will become lost."
"Naomi would never - " Ruth started.
"You love her," Sarah-Rebecca talked over her. "And she loves you. She will listen to you if anyone. Go now."
Ruth nodded and left.
"Lucas, tell me everything about the prophet, the Winchesters, and Castiel."
<<< Previous Part:
Part One: Crimson Skies
Next Part: >>>
Part Three: Rainbow's End
Primary Post: 09x13 Icarus
Primary Post: Season 9 Fan Fiction (S9FF)