Angel Warrior

“Okay, it’s been bugging me, do you know why Hunter made that deal?” Dean asked Castiel as they watched Sam doing chores with the ladies, all of them smiling gratefully at him. Dean knew that one of them - Andrea, he thinks - absolutely despised doing chores and wanted to do the men’s work but since the small group fell upon them, there wasn’t an opening for her to take watch and she was just being a terror for everyone, except Shane.

“Dean, you already know,” He furrowed his eyebrows at Castiel’s vague answer and frowned at him.

“What?” Castiel sighed and gave his boyfriend a look that just screamed ‘wow, you’re clueless’.

“Why did you make the deal to save Sam?” He asked instead, throwing Dean off.

“Because he’s my brother, I couldn’t live without him,” Castiel nodded, agreeing with Dean’s answer.

“Now, who were Hunter’s family?” Dean’s eyes lit up in recognition, only to dim again when he remember.

“She sold her soul for the twins,” Castiel nodded solemnly at Dean’s gruff words.

“It was when they were still in the business and Hunter was away in Iraq. She came home and a couple weeks later, they were killed in a robbery. Kind of ironic if you think about,” Castiel ignored Dean’s surprised choked noise and continued, “She didn’t even think about, she just went straight for a crossroads and made a deal. They gave her three months,” Dean was silent for a while, absorbing all this information about his twin.

“How long was she down there?” He asked quietly, gazing off into the forest where he knew Gabriel was searching for Hunter.

Castiel sighed, bowing his head, almost like he was ashamed to answer, “A year and a half,” Dean inhaled sharply, grinding his teeth to keep from yelling.

“Did she...” He trailed off, not wanting to say it but also not wanting to know if she did the same thing he had done.

“No, she refused,” Dean nodded to himself, pressing his lips together as he kept a tight hold on his emotions. On the one hand, he was glad she didn’t make the choice he did but on the other, he felt like a failure for caving, if only he held out a bit longer...

“Don’t compare yourself to her, Dean,” Castiel snapped, not even having to read Dean’s thoughts to know what he was thinking. “While you are twins, you’re vastly different from one another. She’s a trained Marine, you were only raised by one. She was taught to withstand those types of torture, was even a torturer at one point - being the torture at many others in warfare. While you understand various types of pain, you weren’t tortured until you went to Hell, you had no back experience. Do not blame yourself, do not compare yourself to others. You did what you could, accept that,” Castiel stared furiously at Dean, trying to will him into accepting his words. Dean just nodded, giving Cas a tight-lipped smile and a chaste kiss on the cheek - he kept telling him it was to keep up appearances but they both knew better - before venturing down to Sam, nodding his head towards the group of men and clapped him on the shoulder as he left.

Castiel sighed heavily, rubbing the back of his neck to ease some tension and ambled his way towards the house, hoping to have another lovely conversation with Hershel.

Gabriel grumbled as he smacked another tree branch out of his face - he didn't like how far out Hunter had gone into the woods but that's just who she was and while he wished she would care more about her self-preservation, he wouldn't change her for anything.

"So, what happened after y'all stuck me here? Besides the whole zombie apocalypse thing," Maggie asked, breaking the silence and sidestepping an exposed tree root. Gabriel sighed heavily, kicking at the dirt as he tried to think of how to explain what happened.

"Well, as I'm sure you were aware, Lucifer raised the four horsemen and the Winchesters were working on getting Famine's ring - they got it but they were too late. So, after shoving Lucy back in his cage, this problem sprung up and no one has any idea of how to fix it. Hell wants nothing to do with it and Heaven's turned a blind eye, with the few exceptions. We're on our own in this, got to survive just like the others," Gabriel paused, turning to look at Maggie with a serious look that most would call his ‘archangel business’ look. "Even we're not safe. I've seen both angels and demons who either got bit or died, thinking they were immune - yes, the walkers do generally tend to avoid us but eventually, we'll all die and turn just like them." Maggie swallowed thickly and nodded, looking away from Gabriel's dark eyes to continue their search.

Her eyes scanned the forest floor, looking for any indication that Hunter had been anywhere around here when she saw some unusual tracks - they looked like human footprints but they were too elongated to be 100% human. She stopped, eyes going wide as she realized that maybe not everything was affected by the virus.

"Hey, Gabriel?" She called out; he hummed, "What are the chances of there being a wendigo out here?" She looked back at him, worried and curious green eyes meeting confused amber ones; she gestured to the ground in front of her and held her breath as he stalked over, cursing under his breath when he took in the tracks.

"Dammit," he muttered, "Should've know one would be out here, it's the backwoods of Georgia for Christ's sake," Gabriel shook his head, still mumbling under his breath as he followed the footprints, Maggie having no choice but to follow after him. After a few feet, he stopped and spun around in a circle, eyes glued to the ground; he looked up at her after a few turns with furrowed eyebrows and a deep frown.

"The tracks just disappeared, how could they just disappear?"

Maggie shrugged, "Maybe Hunter found it,"

"If she did, then she has a secret blowtorch that I don’t know about," he argued, spinning around again in a vain hope that the tracks would just pop up again. “I mean, really, I thought you were a hunter for a while, you know that wendigos are only killed with fire,” Maggie flinched, feeling something land on her head; it was wet and another came down a few seconds after the first one.

Frowning, she reached up, trying to wipe it away, wondering where the water would be coming from when it hasn’t rained for days. She felt her blood run cold when her fingers came back red, the blood still warm; looking up slowly, she made a sort of squeaking - gasping noise when Hunter’s body hanging limply above her came into her sight. Gabriel’s head whipped around when he heard Maggie and followed her line of sight, cursing loudly before scrambling up the tree.

"Keep an eye out, the thing needs to be killed with fire! You know what to do it," he called down to her as he maneuvered his way on the branches - for an archangel, he really didn't know how to climb. After a few tense seconds, Maggie was starting to feel fidgety - she had gotten lucky since she got out here, not having to deal with monsters made her drop her guard.

“Shouldn’t we go back and get the Winchesters?” She called up to him, eyes darting around the forest rapidly.

“Are you nuts?! The thing would just follow us right into a buffet - I doubt it cares about it being broad daylight, it hasn’t had fresh meat in a while. We’re lucky it hasn’t found us this far,” Gabriel grunted, struggling with Hunter’s tall dead weight as he tried to maneuver his way down again. Maggie huffed, casting her eyes and senses out for the wendigo - really, one would think she would've gotten the hang of working her senses by now but she didn't really think she'd be using them to find a monster. Her ancestors must be rolling in the graves right now at her patheticness.

She heard Gabriel sigh in agitation above her, "Maggie! Due North about two miles, it's wounded but not dead. Go! I got Hunter!"

"On it!" She called back, already jogging in that direction. Now that she had a general location, she could find it easily - Maggie just hoped she had it in her to conjure fire. Stumbling upon the downed monster, she stayed behind one of the trees, not wanting it to find her while she tried to center herself, to locate that kind of power she hasn’t tried yet.

Even though it took her a good five minutes to find it, she managed to set the wendigo on fire, trying not to acknowledge the fact it’s weakened screams gave her pleasure.

“What the fuck?” Maggie jumped when someone spoke right next to her and snapped her head, eyes wide as she finally noticed one of Hunter’s group members standing just a few feet from her. He had a crossbow aimed at her, eyes just barely a slit as he glared, dirt and blood just covering him from head to feet, and a rope of dead squirrels hung from his belt. She opened her mouth to explain herself when he interrupted her, “You’re a demon?”

Maggie furrowed her eyebrows and took a step back - how the hell did he know about demons? She knew that there were no hunters in their group, save for the Winchesters, otherwise Gabriel and Hunter would’ve told her, warn her to be on guard around certain individuals.

“What?” was the only thing she could mutter, still stunned into silence that he knew about her secret but she had no idea who he was; it made her very uncomfortable and on edge - he could send her back to Hell and, since she had no idea what was going on right now, she might not be able to crawl her way back out again.

“I said, you’re a demon, aren’t you? Or a demon-witch. Doesn’t matter, really, just tell me why you’re here,” He growled, stepping towards her like a predator. Maggie had to control the urge to gag when he mentioned the demon witches - those bitches were nasty as fuck and, if she wasn’t threatened by this man, she would’ve smacked him nine different ways to Sunday for even mentioning she might be one.

“I’m here because this is my home, this is my body,” speaking through clenched teeth, she wondered if she could make her way back to Gabriel, either by running or leading this man there slowly; Maggie figured the latter would be better - she had a feeling that if she took off running, he wouldn’t hesitate to fire that crossbow at her, not caring that he could potentially ruin their groups chances at staying.

“Bullshit, you’re possessing an old man’s daughter!” He practically screamed at her, little flecks of spit hitting her face. “Tell me, is she still alive in there or did you kill her before taking her body?” Right now, Maggie was on the border of being scared shitless by this man and wanting to kill him so he doesn’t go blabbing to everyone else. Knowing that anything she said would just fly right over his head until he got the answer he wanted, she had no other choice than to call for Gabriel. Hopefully Gabe would talk some sense into him; if not, then they’re all screwed.

“Gabriel!” She yelled, putting more power behind it, so that it would echo louder and give Gabe a sense of urgency.

“Hey! Shut up!” The man shouted, jabbing the crossbow in her face, just as a flutter of wings came from behind Maggie; the aggrieved man tensed at the noise but his eyes never left her face.

“Whoa, hey, Daryl. What’s going on, what’s with the crossbow?” Gabriel came between them after setting Hunter propped up against a tree. The man, Daryl, snarled at Maggie before shifting his gaze towards Gabriel, keeping his crossbow aimed at her.

“She’s a fucking demon, how the fuck did you miss that? Why is she still here? We’ve been here for a couple days now, why did y’all exorcise her?” Gabriel had to hold a hand up to stop Daryl’s rapid questions.

“Okay, hold your horses, Dixon. Yes, she’s a demon but!” He paused and gave Daryl a look when he went to interrupt. “But, she’s a friend of ours - back when she was still human. Maggie was telling you the truth when she said it’s her own body. When Hunter asked me if I could find and rescue her friend, Maggie was already a demon but she chose to keep a part of her humanity. She’s on our side, Hell doesn’t want anything to do with her,”

Daryl stood stock still as he processed what Gabriel told him, eyes darting back and forth between them and Hunter; eventually, he lowered his bow with a displeased grunt.

“What’s the matter with her?” He nodded towards Hunter, who was still out cold against the tree and soaked in blood, changing the subject on a dime, and they figured that was his way of dealing with something he no longer wanted to talk about. Gabriel followed Daryl’s line of eyesight and swore loudly as he ran to Hunter, whom he momentarily forgot was injured and was listing on the side, her face inches from planting on the ground.

“Wendigo,” Maggie answered for him, nodding towards the now pile of ashes that was once the wenidgo. Daryl nodded, humming in a slight thanks towards her before going to Gabriel’s side. He couldn’t see how bad the damage was but he knew she’d have new scars later on - he just didn’t know where, she was literally covered from head to toe in blood and it was hard to pin-point an injury.

“Where’s she hurt?” He asked, slightly hesitant because even though they were all in this supernatural thing, Daryl hardly knew her and it felt awkward for him to ask.

“Her chest.”

Now, Daryl felt really awkward for asking, trying to ignore the slight burn in his cheeks as his eyes darted away from Hunter’s blood soaked shirt.

“I’ve already healed most of it but the cuts are still deep enough to cover any suspicion amongst the others.” Daryl grunted in agreement to Gabriel’s statement, moving to pick her up to carry her back.

“We better get a move on then, Rick’ll want Hershel to take a look at her - hope y’all thought of a cover story for that,” He threw over his shoulder, already going a steady pace towards the farm, the other two just staring at his back as he walked away. Maggie and Gabriel looked at each other, a little bewildered, before Gabriel shrugged and jogged a bit to catch up with him; Maggie sighed tiredly, her chin dropping to her chest as she followed at a slower pace, already feeling the drain on her unused powers catch up with her.

“We’ll say a wolf got her again. Worked last time,” Gabriel gestured towards her face, the three scars stood out more against her gray-ish pallor. Daryl grimaced as he tried to find any loop-holes.

“They’re gonna ask why I didn’t catch it, since I’m coming back with y’all,” Gabriel gave a short groan at that.

“Then say that it was too skinny, no meat, and the fur was disgusting,” Daryl thought it over before shrugging - it was the best they could come up with in short notice, as they broke through the forest line and onto the Greene property, the farm house looming in the distance.

“Go find Rick, tell him what happened, I’ma wait for Maggie,” He suggested to Gabriel, noticing that Maggie was lagging behind a bit and looked like she was on her death bed.

Gabe shook his head, “No need, I sent Cas a message and he already told the important people, Hershel’s getting a room ready for her,” Daryl sped up at that, wanting to get this over with and wash off Hunter’s blood off his arms. He strode past her brothers, ignoring their shouts for him to slow down and explain what happened, and into the front door Rick was holding open for him.

“In here,” Hershel waved him into the room opposite of the one Carl’s in and found the youngest Greene setting up shop next to the stripped bed. Daryl sent Hunter down on it gently and left as they started working on her, his cheeks burning again when he caught the sound of ripping fabric- it was one thing to know where her injuries are, it’s another to actually see them and he was pretty sure that if Hunter was awake, she’d hit him for lingering.

As he stepped out on the porch, he spotted the Winchesters and Castiel with Gabriel and Maggie on the other far end and started towards them, his back burning with the stares of his group’s eyes following him. When he stepped into their little circle, he could tell that they already told her brothers what really happened and that the Wendigo was already taken care of.

“Hershel’s stitching her up now,” He announced, leaning against one of the wooden beams next to him. He held a hand out and shook his head when Maggie moved to go inside. “Beth’s helping.” Maggie nodded and changed her direction to sit in the rocking chair next to the front door, her body sagging once she sat. He was still curious to why she made a deal and why she still kept part of her humanity, even though she twisted her soul enough to become a demon.

Seems like he wasn’t the only one thinking about it either.

“So, how was Hell, Bela? Oh, wait, do you still go by Bela? Or is it Abby?” Dean taunted, his mouth twisted in a sneer as he glared at her. Daryl furrowed his eyebrows as he watched the two glare at each other, Maggie’s hands clenched into fists while Dean stood proud with his arms crossed.

Sam sighed, exasperated, “Dean, c’mon,”

“No,” He snapped, turning his glare on his brother. “Sam, she made our lives hell when she was human and now that she’s a demon, who knows what kind of shit she’s going to pull,” Daryl could understand Dean’s anger towards what Maggie (or Bela, whatever her name was) did before but he could tell that it was a bitter anger, one that was stubbornly held onto for who knows how long.

“That was years ago and I was only doing my job,” Maggie snapped back, refusing to rise to Dean’s level and tried to calm herself. Dean went to tear into her again when Castiel dragged him off somewhere, possibly to lecture him or something, judging by the look he was giving him.

“Bela --” Sam started but she interrupted him, her voice and eyes hard as she regarded him. “It’s Maggie, start using it,” He swallowed hard and nodded, giving her a sheepish smile; even after all these years, she still had that effect on him.

“Right. Maggie. I can tell you’ve changed but for the sake of Dean’s sanity, can you tell me what happened?” He pleaded, using his tone-down version of his puppy-eyes to convince her. By her defeated sigh, he knew it worked and got comfortable against the railing across from her.

“When I got to Hell, they put me on the racks next to Hunter,” She started, her voice quiet and soft, like she didn’t want to speak about it but knew she had to to defend her case. Again, Daryl wanted to know what made her make a deal and now he was curious about Hunter’s deal. “It went on for years, almost made it to two centuries before I cracked. Gabriel had already come for Hunter a century back, then I was on my own.

“I tried so hard to avoid this but without Hunter,” She croaked, tears pooling in her eyes as the memory flashed through her mind. “I was no longer distracted, no longer had something to hold out for. He came back for me about five years into my young demon years. They managed to track down my body, fixed it up, found an old hunter who was willing to keep me and I got a new family in exchange.” It was silent for a while as Sam processed what she just told them and Daryl let his curiosity get the better of him.

“Why’d you make the deal?” He wanted to punch himself in the face once he realized that the question came from him. Maggie smiled softly at him, like she knew that he didn’t mean to blurt that out and was only curious.

“I made the deal to kill my parents,” She admitted, softly, only looking at Daryl since the others already knew this. “I made the deal to get away from my abusers.” Daryl looked away from her, swallowing thickly once he got what she was saying - her parents, or one of them, was abusing her and once she found a way out, she didn’t hesitate to take it. He wondered if he’d do the same if he was the one to find that way out but he’d never know and a part of him was thankful for it. There were too many pros and cons regarding something like that and seeing what the outcome was with Maggie, that part of him that was thankful for it, knew he was glad he wasn’t offered the same thing.

“You made the right choice,” He told her, expressionless but his eyes showed sympathy. Maggie gave him a loving smile as the Winchesters gave him a look of betrayal; Daryl just gave them a shrug and jumped over the railing, not giving any of them a second glance as he made his way to the watering hole - he really should’ve taken advantage of their bathroom but it didn’t feel right. He didn’t feel like he belonged in the nice house, being all dirty and smelling worse than the walkers.

Daryl was in the middle of washing the last of Hunter’s blood off when he heard the crunching of grass behind him. Tensing, hands automatically going for his crossbow as he turned, only to immediately drop them when he saw it was just Rick. Daryl waited, arms hanging limply by his sides, blood tainted water dripping off his fingertips as Rick stopped in front of him.

“What happened out there?” He asked, one of his hands in his front pocket while the other rested on his Python.

Daryl shrugged, “Wolf got her.” Rick looked at him like he lost his mind.

“And you didn’t catch it?”

“Was too skinny, had no meat. Fur was no good for clothing,” It amazed Daryl how easy Gabriel’s words fell off his tongue - he almost believed the lie himself. Rick nodded, looking off into the woods as the sun was starting to set.

“Hunter’s awake, been asking for you,” Daryl stopped short, staring at RIck like he was the one who lost his mind this time.

“Why?”

“Gabriel told her that you were the one who carried her back. I’m guessing she just wants to thank you,” Rick shrugged and motioned for Daryl to follow him, already turning to head back. “It’s getting dark.” He was already a few feet ahead before Daryl realized and shook himself out of his reverie. Why would Hunter want to thank him? All he did was carry her back, anyone could’ve done that. He almost didn’t want to go see her, just to spite her request and ignore her, like before. But Daryl found himself heading up the porch steps and through the front door, heading up the stairs and stopping in front of the room he put her in. The door was already open and Gabriel sat beside her on the bed, grinning at him as he tried to force-feed Hunter.

“Gabe, I swear to Morrigan, if you try to shove that spoon in my face again, I’m gonna shove it in your eye,” Daryl had to bite his lip to prevent the grin that wanted to break free, Hunter’s threat was weak as a kitten but he still saw that tiny bit of fear in Gabriel’s eyes.

“Aw, c’mon, you can’t threaten me with the ghost of your Aunt,” Gabriel tried to downplay it, laughing nervously as he set her bowl of soup on the nightstand, pointedly ignoring her glare.

“Try me,” She growled, trying to look murderous but with how pale and weak she was from blood loss, she looked very non-threatening. Gabriel let out another nervous laugh as he backed away, his hands up in surrender. He motioned for Daryl to follow him out into the hallway when he was sure that Hunter was occupied with her food.

“Hershel gave her some painkillers, so she’s a little loopy. If she mistakes you for someone else or starts crying when she sees you, don’t take it personally - all her walls are down because of the meds and she’s not aware of it.” Gabriel told him, his voice low so only Daryl got it; he gave Gabe a confused look, though.

“What makes you say that?” Daryl didn’t like the look he gave him.

“She knew your cousins, Connor and Murphy,” Now, Daryl really didn’t like the look Gabriel was giving him. He chewed on his lip as he realized Gabe was using past tense and that his cousins were dead - he already knew they were, something told him they were, but to actually hear it was something else. Now, he was debating again on whether he should go in there or not; Daryl wasn’t sure if he could handle being told he looked like Murphy’s twin but he knew that Hunter probably couldn’t handle looking at him right now either.

“Maybe I’ll see her tomorrow, after the drugs wore off a bit,” He suggested, shrugging like it was no big deal.

“Maybe. Maybe not. She did ask for you, ya know,”

“Yeah because you told her I carried her back, you ass,” Gabriel just grinned at Daryl’s glare and pranced away, patting him on the shoulder as he passed. Daryl just huffed at his retreating form and peaked into the room again, relieved to see her passed out cold. He’d save the embarrassing talk for the morning, taking off down the hall and out the door like his life depended on it.