04 || BALTHAZAR

Meeting Balthazar went exactly how Vanessa had expected it to, he still tried to send Sam and Dean into the fake universe where their lives were a TV show, pretty much her world but... not at the same time.

"There isn't time to muck around, you need to keep this key safe!" Balthazar held the key up in front of him and Vanessa sighed, her body blocking him from drawing the sigil on the window.

"You mean the key to a bus locker in Albany?" She said in a flat tone that made Balthazar's mouth open, then snap shut again.

"How did you...?"

"I'm from the future." Vanessa told him bluntly. "And you should be thankful as I may end up saving your life."

She would definitely be saving his life, she loved that chaotic little angel.

"What are you-" Balthazar was cut off when a huge wind swept throughout the house, blowing papers off desks and wrecking Vanessa's hair she'd spent ages on perfecting.

"Crap, it's Virgil. It's too late now." Balthazar glared at Vanessa for ruining his plan, but she just rolled her eyes, lighting a match and dropping it the second Virgil appeared, circling him in a ring of holy fire.

"Future." She said again to Balthazar who seemed to be a little impressed with this new addition to the Winchester gang. Maybe she wasn't as bad as he'd just thought after all.

"Are you gonna explain what the hell is happening?" Dean asked, completely lost and surrounded by too many angels. There was only two angels but even that was still too many for his liking.

"Balthazar was going to send you two on a wild goose chase with Virgil here." Vanessa gestured to Virgil, his face riddled with anger over being trapped in holy fire.

"Who is this girl?" Virgil spat, looking Vanessa up and down. Raphael hadn't mentioned anything about her to him and he didn't like not knowing who she was and how she knew he was coming.

"Quiet you, the adults are talking." Vanessa gestured to herself, Sam, Dean and Balthazar, who couldn't help but smile at the girls brazen attitude.

"I like her." Balthazar said quietly, but not quiet enough as Vanessa heard him and felt all giddy inside as Balthazar didn't seem to really like anybody in the show besides Castiel, you know, before he killed him.

"Raphael will come for you all." Virgil said through gritted teeth.

"Let him try, we have a trap set for that gobshite and all." Vanessa muttered, leaving Virgil confused as to her words.

They didn't actually have a trap set for Raphael but Vanessa knew Virgil would try and warn him, tell him not to show up so she figured it was the best idea. They weren't exactly well equipped to deal with the wrath of an angry archangel, not yet anyway. Vanessa was still waiting on Crowley to update her as to Asmodeus' whereabouts, they could really use Gabriel right about now.

"Balthazar, you need to go and find the weapons before Raphael does." Vanessa turned to the angel who nodded, surprisingly listening to what she had to say.

"Right, yes well, cheerio." Balthazar vanished, leaving Vanessa and the Winchesters to deal with Virgil.

"What do we do with him?" Sam pointed towards said angry angel.

"Kill him." Vanessa replied to their surprise. "But not yet, at least not until Balthazar gets the weapons." She sighed, clapping her hands together before she spoke again. "In the meantime I'm going to call Crowley and see if he has any news on you know who."

Vanessa wasn't about to open her mouth about Gabriel in front of Virgil, she couldn't risk word getting back to Raphael about his brother and having him find Gabriel first.

"I don't think I like you being so buddy-buddy with Crowley." Dean explained, Sam agreeing with a small huff followed by a quiet 'yeah'.

They hadn't been to pleased when Bobby told them about Vanessa's phone call to Crowley, or the fact that she knew his phone number. (They didn't even know it). They'd been less amused to hear that Crowley had actually shown up and offered his help, that came as quite a surprise to them. As did Vanessa's trust in the demon.

"Tough." Vanessa said bluntly, dialling Crowley's number and holding the phone to her ear. "You're just gonna have to deal with- Hey, Crowley, it's Vanessa."

Vanessa walked out of the house, phone held to her ear by her shoulder as she was deep in conversation with the King of Hell. You know, as you do.

"Creepy." Dean shivered and Sam made a grunt of agreement as he stared into the empty space Vanessa last stood in.

Sam and Dean didn't know about Vanessa having favourites from the show, least of all her favourite being Crowely. She wasn't eager to hear their response to that when they'd eventually find out, which they would, of course they would. It wasn't exactly something Crowley would keep to himself, not when he knew it would get under the boys skin.

"Teaming up with demons, typical Winchester behaviour." Virgil spat, mainly at Sam who cringed a little at the angels true meaning behind the words.

Ruby always would be Sam's biggest regret and he was a little surprised that Vanessa hadn't seemed to bring any of that up. Although he figured she probably knew he felt guilty for siding with Ruby over Dean and didn't want to reopen old wounds, which he was glad for. Come to think of it, Vanessa hadn't talked much about the past, the past she already knew... but then again why would she, that was the past and she was more focused on fixing the future, whatever that was.

"Zip it." Dean groaned, his eyes rolling and his fingers itching to plunge his angel blade into Virgil's face.

"How long do you think you can keep future girl there safe?" Virgil taunted, a toothy grin on his face.

"I said, zip it." Dean grunted, his fingers white-knuckling around the handle of his angel blade.

"It's only a matter of time before she gets kidnapped and tortured for information. I myself would love to cut up that arrogant little-"

Before Virgil could say anything else a huge white light filled the room, accompanied by the pained cries of the angel. The light dimmed and both Winchesters blinked in shock over who stood behind him on the edge of the holy fire. Virgil now dead on the floor with an angel blade stuck in his back.

"Rude." Crowley spoke to the dead angel on the floor before dusting his hands off, straightening his suit and carefully rounding the fire. "Hello boys."

Vanessa shuffled in behind him, not the least bit surprised Crowley had killed Virgil, she knew she was growing on him.

"Great, get rid of one dick only for another to appear." Dean grumbled, rolling his eyes at the newest guest in the room.

"Always the flirt, Dean." Crowley replied sarcastically, his usual grin on his face.

"Why are you here, Crowley?" Sam asked with an exasperated sigh.

"I thought I'd deliver the news to Vanessa in person, I am her favourite after all." Crowley's grin widened at the shocked faces of the boys and the annoyed look Vanessa was giving him over telling them that.

"He what?" Dean practically choked out. "He's your favourite? Him?" He pointed at Crowley who seemed to become even more amused with the revelation.

"Jealous?" Crowley moved a step closer to Vanessa, just to add to the fact and annoy them ever more.

"Will ye all relax, it's not a big deal." Vanessa muttered, fed up. "Can we just get the news, please?"

"You two could learn a thing or two from your new friend here about manners." Crowley said in the boys direction, making Dean grit his teeth and clench his fists.

"Crowley." Vanessa warned and Crowley smirked before he turned to her.

"I'm afraid I come bearing bad news. No one has seen Asmodeus in many, many years therefore no one knows where he or Gabriel are."

"Bollocks." Vanessa mumbled, earning a raised eyebrow from Crowley.

"That's my line." He muttered to himself which went ignored by the others.

"Isn't there a sort of tracking spell for Princes? Or archangels even?" Vanessa asked no one in particular, the show didn't go into much detail about the Princes so she had no idea how to even begin to track one down, let alone kill one, especially without the Colt.

She wondered if maybe Ramiel would lend it to them, obviously not telling him they planned to use it to kill his little brother. That wouldn't end well. But it was doubtful, and she didn't want to go near the Prince if she didn't need to.

"Archangels, yes. But it requires their grace." Crowley told her, resulting in an annoyed groan leaving her lips.

"Who came up with that ass backwards spell." She grumbled something else to herself, none of them understanding a word of it, especially when it turned out she was ranting in Gaelic. "And Princes? Didn't your da summon yellow eyes at one point?"

"He did, but we don't know how." Sam shook his head, an apologetic look on his face that he couldn't bring Vanessa better news.

"What about Ramiel, do you think he'd help us?" Vanessa turned to Crowley who thought for a minute, his last meeting with the Prince wasn't all that fun, and he didn't exactly want to go and bother him about the whereabouts of his brother. That demon could be scary when he wanted to be.

"Doubtful." Crowley eventually replied, his tongue running over his teeth. "He doesn't like getting involved."

"How do we get Gabriel in the future? Can't we just do that?" Dean asked, oblivious to the true nature of Gabriel's rescue in the future.

"You don't get him, he's brought to you. And not until like season 13 or something like that, so no, we can't."

"Who brings him?" Sam asked curiously, wondering if it was anyone they knew.

"You haven't met him yet and if things go my way, hopefully you never will." Vanessa wasn't about to spill the beans about the British Men of Letters, if she could she'd be keeping them as far away as humanly possible. Even if she did have a soft spot for Mick and eventually Ketch, she didn't want them here at all.

"Then we'll just have to figure out some other way to find Gabriel, before it's too late." Sam added, too late meaning before Castiel opened the door, which Vanessa couldn't help but think was what was going to happen. But at least she'd be prepared.

Although Vanessa had a strange, lingering feeling that when Castiel "dies" after releasing the Leviathans that he may not come back, especially if it was Chuck who brought him back. He had given her permission to change the story but she couldn't help but wonder if he'd change anything himself, like resurrecting Castiel without his memories. She really hoped he would as they'd need his blood for the weapon against the Leviathans, which got her thinking...

"Crowley, are there any alphas left alive?" Vanessa asked, earning confused looks from Sam and Dean.

"There are, for now."

"Great, could you do me a favour?"

"For you, anything." Crowley teased, shooting a grin at the brothers. He'd found his new favourite way of winding up the brothers. Flirting with Vanessa.

"Can you get me their blood? If Castiel opens the door, we're going to need it and I'd like to prepare in advance so we don't have to deal with the Leviathans for as long as you did." She glanced briefly at the brothers who both seemed lost. "Right shower o' bastards that lot."

"Certainly, any particular flavour you'd like?" Crowley asked, ignoring her last sentence but finding amusement in how Irish she was.

"Ew, no. Just any will do." Vanessa waved her hand in front of her, her nose scrunched up in disgust.

"Alpha blood can kill Levia-whatever?" Dean asked.

"Not on its own. We need a bone, one of a saint or a righteous person I can't remember. You guys went for nun I think, but anyways it has to be washed in the three bloods of the fallen. Alpha blood, Crowley's blood and Castiel's blood."

"My blood?"

"Cas' blood?"

"You're the leader of fallen humanity. Castiel is a fallen angel. And alphas are the father of fallen beasts. The three bloods mixed together and poured over the bone is enough to kill the Leviathans."

"That you remembered but not Eve?" Dean asked with a small scoff.

"I happen to like the Leviathan season and I tend to remember random pieces of information which is lucky for you lot." Vanessa folded her arms, a smug look on her face as Dean sighed in defeat.

She was right obviously, it was lucky for them that she remembered a lot about what was going to happen.

"Sorry, Eve? Like the Eve? Mother of all, that Eve?" Crowley asked bewildered.

"Aye her, she's out and she's pissed at you for torturing her kids so I'd stop doing that if I were you." Vanessa told him blankly and Crowley just blinked at her, for once at a loss for words.

"So if Cas opens the door, and these Leviathans get out we can kill them straight away?" Sam asked, hopeful. "Save us from having to deal with them?"

"I don't know about right away but it will be easier down the line, especially if we make them think we aren't after them." Vanessa replied, she hadn't got a clue when the Leviathans took over Dick Roman so she didn't want to go in guns blazing and accidentally kill the real one before he'd been replaced by the Leviathan one.

And if she kept the boys away from them then maybe they wouldn't go on that killing spree disguised as Sam and Dean.

"Shouldn't we deal with Eve first?" Dean questioned, thinking they'd all seem to have forgotten about that little problem.

"We'll get to her eventually. Like I said, I have no idea where she is yet so I'm afraid we have to let her do her thing which will eventually lead us to her." Vanessa explained, truthfully she wanted to go through with the whole Kahn Worm thing so she could see Samuel get killed and save Rufus herself.

Oh, and she'd also need to stop Balthazar from un-sinking the titanic and somehow convince him to send them back in time to kill a phoenix. She doubted getting Castiel to do it would end well and she wanted to keep him as far away from Sam as she could to stop him breaking the wall.

She remembered vaguely the moment he broke Sam's wall, what had happened before that but she wasn't quite sure what it was. Probably wasn't important anyway.

"I also think we need to let Castiel open Purgatory." Vanessa's words came as a shock to everyone, even Crowley.

"Are you mad?" Crowley exclaimed, not quite believing he'd just heard those words coming from her mouth. Especially when she'd come to him not too long ago to warn him and Castiel what would happen if they did exactly that.

"Ness, you can't be serious." Sam almost stuttered over his words, his eyes a little wider than normal.

"I'm dead serious. Without Gabriel we have no other way of defeating Raphael who is probably an even worse archangel than Lucifer-"

"Lucifer." Sam exhaled, a small smile rising on his lips. "That's it. What if we use the rings to throw Raphael into the Cage."

"That's a suicide attempt and you know it." Vanessa replied, a little harsher than she meant to. She'd thought about that herself but she didn't want to risk a) opening the Cage incase Lucifer and Michael got out and b) going up against Raphael with a weak plan and no back up.

Sam seemed to shrink a little under her tone, his lips twisting as he looked down at the ground.

"I'm sorry, Sam, I didn't mean for that to sound so harsh. It's just, I had thought of that but there's too many risks involved, like letting Lucifer and Michael out." Vanessa approached him, hesitantly taking his hand and making him look up at her with his big sad eyes.

Crowley and Dean both, surprisingly, exchanged a knowing look, the two of them watching the couple with raised eyebrows.

"No you're right, it was a stupid idea." Sam exhaled, turning his hand in hers to give it a squeeze and intentionally avoiding the gaze of his brother and Crowley, who he'd stab in a minute if he didn't wipe that look of his face. Dean too.

"It may have been a wee bit stupid..." Vanessa chuckled slightly, making Sam smile. "But speaking of Lucifer and and Micheal has reminded me, there is something out there that can kill an archangel besides another archangel."

"What is it?"

"The archangel blade." Vanessa finally let go of Sam's hand, to his disliking, and turned to the others. "The only problem is-"

"You don't know where it is." Dean muttered, shaking his head as if to say here we go again.

"It was only brought in in later seasons, once again by Asmodeus... Funny how he seems to keep coming up as a somewhat solution to all these problems." Vanessa replied, taking a breath and moving to sit on the sofa. "If I was brought here earlier we may have had time to track down Asmodeus, rescue Gabriel and maybe get the blade but I came in too late-"

"When did you get here anyway?" Crowley asked curiously, he had no idea how Vanessa even ended up here or if they'd even tell him but we was dying to know.

"Pretty much the same day Sam got his soul back. I was at home when I felt this like burning pain in me chest, I honestly thought I was having a heart attack and then I passed out and woke up here. I thought I was dead or dreaming but turns out I wasn't." Vanessa chuckled a little and Crowley's forehead creased, his teeth running over his bottom lip as he thought to himself.

"You felt a burning pain in your chest, the same time Sam got his soul back? Interesting."

"What's interesting? What do you know?" Vanessa stood up, standing face to face with Crowley.

"Did it ever occur to you that Death retrieving Sam's soul from the Cage and stuffing it back down his throat may have been the very thing that brought you here in the first place?" Crowley arched his eyebrow as he looked around at those in the room.

"But why? Why would that even happen, it's not like we knew each other or anything before that." Sam seemed confused, as did Vanessa, she'd been so busy trying to save the future that she hadn't even taken a moment to figure out how she even ended up here.

"Haven't the foggiest." Crowley replied with a hint of humour in his tone as he did actually have a theory, one he wasn't particularly inclined to tell them. They could figure it out themselves. "Well, I best be off, Hell won't run itself."

And with that he was gone.

"Douchebag." Dean muttered, his eyes falling to the dead angel still on the floor. "He could have at least cleaned up his mess!" He called out to no one, as if shouting to the no longer here Crowley.

"Do you think what he said is true? Could I have been the reason you got stuck here?" Sam seemed distressed over that theory, he didn't want to be the one at fault for basically ruining Vanessa's life.

"It would make sense, I guess." Vanessa replied with a shrug of her shoulder. "But it wasn't your fault, and I don't blame you. I don't even miss home much, well except the things that aren't out yet and a hell of a lot of food that you can't get here." She chuckled a little and Sam smiled. "If anything I'm kinda glad I ended up here, my life was fierce boring and here it's kinda exciting."

Sam hadn't expected that reaction from her at all. He'd thought she'd be a little more angry with him for pulling her here but she almost seemed grateful and for that he was relieved. He didn't want the weight of ruining her life on his shoulders.

The two of them must have been staring at each other as Dean mumbled under his breath about them getting a room which made them snap out of it, blushing and feeling awkwardly flustered.

"Oh dear, would you look at that." Balthazar appeared beside them, his eyes on Virgil's dead body. "Well that's just going to ruin that rug."

"Did you get the weapons?" Vanessa asked, rolling her eyes at the angel.

"I did. Your beloved trench-coated friend has them."

"Good. Now I want you to listen to me carefully." Vanessa stepped towards the confused angel, his eyebrow arched. "You need to stay away from Castiel, don't help him open Purgatory, don't un-sink the Titanic for him-"

"Un-sink the what?"

"-Just go on the run and don't come back until I tell you it's safe."

"Ness, what are you talking about?" Sam stepped up beside Balthazar, his own face as confused as the angels.

Vanessa sighed and her mouth opened, telling them everything that happened with Balthazar and Castiel, from the Titanic to Balthazar's unnecessary death which she really didn't want to happen.

"Dear me, well, that doesn't sound pleasant." Balthazar seemed shocked at this new knowledge and wasn't quite sure what to do with it. "And if Castiel asks why I'm deserting him in the midst of a Civil War?"

"Tell him you're looking for more weapons. Hands of God to be exact-"

"Hands of who?"

"-he'll know that they could be useful against Raphael so he shouldn't suspect anything else, just please. Stay away from him." 

"As you wish, dear." Balthazar spoke sincerely, he liked his life and he wasn't planning on ending it any time soon so he'd listen to Vanessa, who seemed a little distraught over the mere thought of his death.

"Thank you." Vanessa sighed in relief, that was one person saved, here's hoping to many others to follow. "Oh, wait actually, we may need your help with something in a little while."

"Really? With what?" Balthazar asked, intrigued.

"Time travel."

"Didn't you just warn me not to do that?"

"This is different, we need to go back in time to kill a Phoenix so we can get its ashes to kill Eve."

"Naturally."

"If I pray to you when we need you, will you come?" Vanessa was silently pleading, begging that he would say yes as it was the only way she could think of to get the ashes without involving Castiel.

"You saved my life dear, I'm forever in your debt. So yes, if you pray to me, I'll come." He smiled at her, a genuine one before he vanished.

"Let me guess, another one of your favourite characters?" Dean seemed annoyed when she turned to him, arms folded.

"So what if he is?"

"Are any of your favourites not dicks?"

"Sam isn't." Vanessa flashed him a grin before walking away. Honestly Sam wasn't her favourite, sure she liked him but neither brother actually was one of her favourite characters, but she knew it would annoy Dean.

And by the noise he made behind her, it had worked. Sam on the other hand, nearly fainted.