InsaneJournal

Who: Anna Milton, Adam Milligan and Alice
What: Angel-on-immortal fighting.
Where: Anna Milton's apartment.
When: Night. Around 11pm.
Status: Log. Complete.

The whole town was in a state of chaos. Anna's brothers were bickering and it was a very, very sad day when Anna was the most faithful angel in a town full of them. Even more so when Gabriel and Loki agreed on things. Anna wasn't sure what was so hard for everyone else to see, but she was seeing it as clear as day. There was a time for planning and a time to wait for the right moment. This was the latter. Loki clearly knew something that no one else did. He stepped in and stood up to Michael, telling him to calm down, and that clued her in heavily to the fact that there was something going on here that was not to be known by anyone but the involved parties, until the time was right.

Herself? Castiel? Not involved parties.

Not only that but there were people being attacked; people being killed left and right. Dawn had contacted her in a panic, hoping for some sort of detail that Anna didn't have. Anna didn't know when she'd become the ray of hope to distraught teenagers in Colligo, but she was suddenly. And she supposed that she'd have to take that as it came.

There was something off right then, though. Well, there were many things off right then, but Anna could feel something. It was like a switch had been flipped and Anna's nerves were keen to everything going on in the general area. Sometimes, senses like that were good. But other times, other fewer times, senses like that were bad. This was one of those times. There was a strange, foreign source of evil power in the area. Continuously getting closer and threatening Anna's self-proclaimed charge. She didn't like this. If Lucifer was coming for Adam, he likely planned on using him to try and get to the older two Winchesters, and Anna knew that could only end in disaster.

Standing from where she'd been sitting by the window with the shade still down from earlier, she walked into the bedroom, which she'd set up comfortably just for Adam, to find him sleeping on the bed. She hurried over to the bed and shook Adam's shoulder. "We have to leave, Adam. We aren't safe here."

Adam woke with a start. The dream he'd been having faded into something intangible as his gaze immediately landed on the redhead standing beside the bed. His forehead furrowed a bit and he sighed heavily. That was the first bit of decent sleep he'd had since arriving in Colligo and it had been interrupted. It figured. He really couldn't win for losing, these days.

Still, if Anna was saying they had to go, he knew better than to question her. So with a simple nod of his head he rolled from the bed and to his feet. "What's going on?" he questioned, voice still thick with the final remnants of sleep. He blinked a few times and rubbed at his eyes while moving to where he'd kicked off his shoes earlier. "This better not be some sort of damn drill," he added in a mutter. If it was, he was going to be pissed.

Anna's shoulders slumped and the annoyance on her face was hard to miss when he asked her if it was some kind of drill. "I'm not a firefighter, Adam. I'm an angel," she snapped. "I'll be right back. I'm going to go out into the living room to make sure that nothing got into the apartment," let alone close enough to Adam for it to count for anything. Nothing was getting past her.

Except, when she got into the living room, she was surprised to find a tall, dark haired woman, standing nonchalantly beside the door. She was bleeding heavily from her arm and the look she flashed Anna would have worried her, if she didn't have a mission. She looked at the woman, then crossed her arms, not fearing. "This is my apartment," she said, eyes wandering over the cold, callous looking woman, who merely raised her hand and let a small smile cross her face.

"Maybe you should pay attention to detail, huh?" the woman asked calmly, smacking her hand against the wall.

Anna barely had time to process that she'd put her hand in the middle of a banishing sigil. With a scream, she felt her whole body begin to burn and then in another instant, she was gone.

Any sort of smartass reply that Adam might be able to counter with was forgotten with a scowl as Anna left the room. He shook his head and finished yanking on his shoes before running a hand through his short hair to smooth it down a bit. He was tired. He was irritable. He was scared out of his mind and now he was apparently going to have to leave the apartment for some unknown location for some unknown reason and...

His thoughts were cut abruptly short by the sound of Anna's scream. Without thinking - because if he had been, he would have tried to find some way out of the bedroom without using the door - he dashed out to check on her. He didn't hesitate to all but run into the living room, not even thinking that it was probably the worst thing he could do. After all, if something had made her scream, odds are it wasn't something he wanted to meet up close and personally. However despite his shortcomings and rather self-involved nature, Adam did have a good heart and he certainly didn't have to fake his concern as he called out, mid-run into the room, "Anna? Are you-"

Coming to an abrupt stop as he realized the woman standing there was not the angel sworn to protect him, he felt his stomach drop clear to his feet. His eyes widened and he swallowed hard before taking a step backward. "Who are you?" he managed to ask, only faintly impressed with his ability to not sound as utterly freaked out as he was feeling. "And where is Anna?"

Alice wasn't sure what had triggered the change at first, but the mind control that Umbrella had implanted into her was somehow active. No matter how she fought it, she suddenly had an uncontrollable urge to kill pretty much every human being that came into her range of vision. She'd still been clueless about who to start with, until she'd been told to kill Sam and Dean Winchester's younger brother. Alice wasn't stupid. When she saw what had been going on around the forums, she figured out that it was very centric to those two boys. And the third was nothing more than a pawn to the plan.

So, her mission was pretty clear. She had to kill the kid.

Thanks to Sam Winchester's help, the angel had been easy enough to dispatch. She'd learned to draw the sigil pretty quickly, quickly enough to do it when the angel was out of the room checking on the boy. And when the redhead had appeared, it had been easy enough to just smack her hand into the middle of it and send her to who knows where.

Of course, predictably, out came the boy, looking at her inquisitively and worriedly. Smart kid. "Not here," she said, walking toward him and letting one side of her mouth curve upward as she nodded back toward the sigil on the wall. "You know why I'm here, right?" she asked, putting her thumb and forefinger on his chin when she stopped in front of him, making him look up at her.

Adam managed one more step back toward the bedroom before the woman was touching him. He wanted to flinch away from her grasp but found himself all but rooted to the spot as cold, hard realization dawned over him. He swallowed and gave a small nod of his head. "You're here to kill me," he stated simply. There wasn't any point in pretending that she was here for any other reason. Granted he had no idea why, really, but it didn't come as such a shock to him. Not really. Just another screwed up twist in his already screwed up life.

"Mind if I ask who the hell you are?" he questioned a heartbeat later with far more bravado than he actually felt. Why not? It wasn't like she was going to change her mind, and he wasn't about to give her some sick satisfaction out of begging. He'd already died twice. Maybe this third time he'd finally find some peace and be able to keep it. Maybe he'd even get to see his mom. It wasn't ideal, of course - he actually rather enjoyed living - but it was the best he could hope for in what was shaping up to be a pretty hopeless situation.

"You know, it's about this time that I usually start telling people that they're cocky, asking them why they think I want to kill them. But that's exactly why I'm here, and you figured it out, so I figure you deserve a bit of credit as far as that goes, for not being a total moron," she said coldly, releasing her hold on his chin. "All you need to know is that my name is Alice. And these are going to be the most unpleasant moments of your life, kiddo. Also...the last. So at least there's that to look forward to..." she said, smirking as she picked him up like he weighed nothing and tossing him against the wall like a rag doll that a toddler was bored with.

She watched him crumple after he hit and walked over to him, dragging him back up from the floor. "Whoever brought you here must be one sadistic son of a bitch, you know that?" she asked, balling her hand into a fist, except for one finger which was bend solidly in half so that her knuckle was a harsh point. Drawing back, she punched him in the ribs with all her strength. "With all that's going on, it's essentially like putting a target on your head, hm?" she toyed, repeating the punch and then shoving him down to the floor.

"That must be a bitch..." she pointed out, shaking her head as she closed in on him again.

Adam felt as though he'd been hit with a ton of bricks that were loaded up inside the back of a truck and dropped on him. Repeatedly. He couldn't draw in a breath, he couldn't feel anything but pain - agony the likes of which he'd been pretty sure he'd left behind when he'd been pulled out of Hell and brought here. He choked on his own blood as one hand pressed into the ground and the other wrapped around his middle as best he could manage.

She wasn't an angel. Of that he was sure. However, she also wasn't human. At least, not a normal one. Not even by a long shot. Choking some more, he did his best to wriggle into a sitting position by using the wall as support. Tossing his head back, he sucked in some much needed air with a soft groan, coughed harshly, then stared up at her with pain shining in his eyes. There was blood that coated his teeth and lips as he wheezed out, "It's not the only bitch around here. And I just came from Hell, you fucking psycho. I can take it."

It was bravado, mostly. His own pride refusing to let him give in that easily. He'd been through worse, had experienced things that no one should experience. Getting stomped into the ground? Not the most pleasant experience ever but definitely not necessarily the worse, either.

"If you're trying to offend me, you're gonna have to try harder than that."

Alice laughed, because really, the kid was the type of kid she could have used when she'd been taking on hoards of Umbrella zombies, if only for his bravery. But with bravery in this case, unfortunately, came stupidity. "Hell, hm?" she asked, eyebrow quirked as she kicked him in the shoulder, sending him rolling flat onto his back and looking down at him with a shake of her head. She pressed her foot against his shoulder, keeping him in place on the floor.

Hell, she supposed, was really what you made of it. She considered a planet where there were more zombies than healthy human beings hell. Maybe his hell was actual hell, in which case she didn't know whether to feel sorry for the kid, or wonder what he'd done. It couldn't have been too bad, she figured, since he had an angel protecting him, and angels generally didn't protect the unrighteous or whatever. She knelt down, her calf stretching across his chest and shoulder and keeping him firmly in place, as she reached into her jacket for her knife. Really, cutting was messy, but it was the most effective way to kill someone and not have anyone know. Shooting them was neater, and a little bit quicker, probably, but louder.

"Too bad I have to kill you, kid. You seem like the most interesting person in this town," she said simply.

Right. Because a compliment from the bitch about to kill him was something he really wanted to hear. If he wasn't in such pain, Adam probably would have made a pretty big show of rolling his eyes and scoffing. As it was, though, he was barely able to get past the agony enough to focus on her. "Yeah, Hell. As in, the place that your boss calls home," he stated flatly. Or, at least, it would have been flatly if he was able to draw in enough of a breath. Considering he was having a hard time just getting enough air to his lungs to stay conscious, it came out sounding much more like an old man about to keel over any second from lung cancer or something.

Man, but dying sucked.

Glancing at the knife, he blinked then looked back to Alice. This time there was absolutely no fear in his eyes. There wasn't much of anything, really. "A knife?" he questioned around a rasping cough that caused droplets of blood to go flying past his lips. The corners of his mouth turned up into a smile that was in no way an actual smile but rather a simple acceptance of what was about to come and determination to just be done with it, once and for all. "Well, that's new at least."

Alice was sort of taken aback by the fact that he actually had actually been to hell. So much so, actually, that she didn't have time to react to the fact that she'd been grabbed by the shoulders and thrown off of Adam, into the wall on the other side of the room. Well that was interesting.

Laughing as she pulled herself from the floor, she looked at the redhead and shook her head. "Bitch," she smirked as she advanced on the girl with her knife brandished.

Anna rose her hand, however, and Alice froze in her tracks, opening her mouth to speak. Anna, however, just shook her head. "I'd quit while you're ahead," she seethed, flicking her wrist and sending Alice out the window. She hurried over to Adam and grabbed his arm, transporting him to another, vacant apartment on one of the upper floors of the complex. She looked him over and frowned. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have left the room," she said softly, touching her hand to his chest and quickly healing him. "We need to find a new place to hide you. My apartment isn't safe anymore, obviously..." she said with a bitter laugh. "I'd ask if you're okay, but..."

And just like that, he was safe - at least, he wasn't being threatened with a knife and having the crap beat out of him - and he could breathe again. "I'll live," he replied dryly as he climbed to his feet. He was shaken, understandably so, but he'd been through worse and at that point was just considering himself fortunate to be alive. With a shake of his head in the hopes that it would help him focus a bit, he glanced over to Anna. "Thanks," he said simply. "Good timing on your part."

Looking around the empty room, he frowned in thought and looked back to her. "Any idea how she found me?" he questioned curiously. "Because if she can track us some other way, I don't think just moving to another apartment is going to cut it."

Anna looked at him when he pulled himself from the floor and nodded her head once when he thanked her. "I tried to get back faster, but it takes awhile after being banished for my angel mojo to come back strong enough," she explained, smoothing her hair from her face.

Standing up and absently straightening out her blouse, she looked over at him as he looked around. "No. She wasn't a rogue angel or a demon or anything like that, though. Just...a really strong, really bitchy woman," she shook her head and sighed softly. "So she could have simply asked which apartment I was in and whoever answered had no idea who she really was. Something like that," she explained, pushing up from the floor and thinking for a second. "As for somewhere to hide out...I think we're sort of low on options, aren't we? What's safe from Lucifer isn't safe from witches and demons and badass humans..." she laughed hollowly.

"I guess we could still stay in my place. We just...I just have to be more careful. Really never should have gone out to see what the bump in the night was," she shook her head.

"You aren't the only one who screwed up," Adam admitted lowly. He sighed and glanced to the side. "I ran right out there after you, when I heard you scream." His brow furrowed and he looked back to her. One corner of his mouth lifted into a partial smirk. "Not the smartest thing I've ever done. But, also not the dumbest, so there's that."

Looking around once more, he grew thoughtful. Contemplative. Alice knew where Anna stayed now. Even if she didn't come back herself, she could tell anyone else where they were. Including Lucifer. Which would pretty much be a worst case scenario and, knowing his luck, exactly what would happen. And although he didn't really know Anna, he had to admit that the thought of her dying - which she would, if she faced Lucifer - wasn't something that he wanted to see happen.

"Why don't we just stay here?" he finally suggested. His gaze flickered back to her and he gave a slight shrug of his shoulders. "It's vacant, so nobody would be able to rat us out accidentally or not."

Anna had to admit, she was a bit surprised when he said that he ran out there after her when he heard her scream. "You really are like your brothers," she laughed, giving him a sincere smile. "Girl screams and it's like a radar goes off in your heads or something," she teased.

She laughed a little bit when he smirked and mentioned that it wasn't the dumbest thing he'd done. "For me either. So there's that," she said. She was sure he'd know what she was talking about if he listened to his brothers at all. They were alike, the two of them. Both made really dumb mistakes in what they thought would stop the apocalypse from happening. And they both died because of it. She empathized with him a lot because of that. Probably why she'd wanted to protect him.

He suggested that they stay there and Anna looked at him thoughtfully. "That could work," she agreed, thinking for a second. "We can at least go back and get some of your things..." she said softly. "For just a second, though. Long enough for you to grab those magazines and comics and stuff," she offered. "That way you can at least do something instead of sit here bored."

Adam gave a slight shake of his head. "It's not that I don't appreciate it," he tried to explain, "but I just have this feeling that going back there is a bad idea. There's nothing stopping that bitch from telling Lucifer where she found me." He shifted slightly and stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jeans, idly finding himself grateful that he'd at least fallen asleep fully dressed. It would really suck to be standing there in boxers. He shifted a little more at the thought then spoke again to re-focus on the topic at hand rather than his own sporadically-placed thoughts.

"Besides, this place has a TV and..." He paused, looking around with a snort. "A whole hell of a lot of nothing else, besides some furniture." Yeah. Boredom was going to be one of his main companions, it looked like. But it was better than being dead. His attention slid back to Anna. "I'll figure something out," he finished a little lamely.

Okay, so the kid wasn't too much like his brothers. Because she'd made that offer under the assumption that he was like them and he'd be more than happy to put both of them at risk to go and get a couple of comic books and magazines. They would have. Apparently, he was smarter. "I bet you're wishing I was Gabriel right now. He could make this whole place into whatever you wanted it to be," she chuckled softly and sat on the couch, pulling her legs up and sitting cross legged, leaning back a little bit. Angels didn't need to sit, no, but Anna liked feeling more human sometimes, even if she had her grace back and was glad to be an angel again - even if it was only until God came back. "Maybe I'll contact him. Ask him to bring you something. And some food, since this place doesn't have anything like my place did..." she trailed off.

"You can try to go back to bed, if you want," she said softly.

To be perfectly honest, Adam didn't know enough about Gabriel to have a real opinion. He knew he was an Archangel, but was completely different from both Michael and Lucifer. Which, in Adam's opinion, was a good thing. However, just because he wasn't the sort of dicks that his brothers were didn't mean he wasn't a dick himself. It was almost like a prerequisite for being an Archangel... or any angel, really, with the only main exceptions being Castiel and Anna as far as he was concerned. Still, he had to admit that it would be nice to have a few things to do besides just sitting around staring at the walls. And eating would also be a plus.

He shook his head at the offer to go back to bed, though, instead taking a seat in one of the chairs across from the couch. "Not really tired," he said only to pause and give a faint snort. "Actually, I'm exhausted, but there's no way I'm falling back asleep right now." At this rate, he wasn't sure he'd ever sleep again. Or at least not until all of this crap was over with. Fondly he remembered a time when he would get a good ten hours of sleep a night, at least. Back when his biggest worry had been making good enough grades to get into a decent college. He really missed those days, sometimes. He also wasn't going to do anyone any good sitting around reminiscing over them.

"She said her name was Alice." The statement came abruptly and took him a little by surprise. Why had he said it? Adam wasn't sure, but decided to just go with it. If nothing else, idle conversation that didn't involve discussing his feelings or some other lame crap was a welcome respite from the directions his thoughts seemed to keep traveling. "And I'm pretty sure she broke a few ribs with just one punch." His brow furrowed a little. "I was expecting a demon. Maybe another fallen angel, you know? Not a psychotic bitch that was human. At least, mostly."

Nodding when he said that he wasn't tired, Anna put her elbows on her knees and listened when he said that he wasn't falling asleep any time soon. She felt bad, once again, for leaving the room. Watching his mannerisms carefully, she tried to read him. Exhaustion was ever-present, but he'd said that flat out, so she'd known that was the case. However, he looked, among other things, angry and sad. And scared, not that she thought he'd ever admit it. She felt bad. Not that she felt sorry for him or anything - she knew that humans hated that - but she felt bad because life liked to shit on him. They weren't so different.

He started talking about Alice and Anna was even more surprised. That had definitely been the last thing she'd expected. "No, she wasn't any angel I know. At least not from my world," she said, thinking on the woman for a second. "And I would know if she'd been a demon, unless my sense for that doesn't transcend universes...which I'd think it would," she trailed off, because she was rambling. "But there was something else off about her. Not just that she was a psycho bitch, but there was something...I mean, no normal woman would be able to just...get back up after being thrown into a wall on the other side of the room. I'm about ninety-nine percent positive, though, that it isn't anything supernatural or whatever, though..."

That left her wondering, though, who else was getting involved in this. Suddenly, she was very glad she'd chosen to protect Adam instead of being involved in any other way. Thinking of the fact that there were people - actual people - involved in more ways than the obvious? If Anna could get sick? She would. "All I know is that there was something weird about her. Not only psycho...just plain weird."

"I don't think she knew much about me," Adam added with a thoughtful frown. His right hand clenched and unclenched as he spoke, the muscles jumping beneath the skin in small spasms. His hand hadn't done that since he'd first showed up in this place, during his chat with Sam. Phantom memories of pain, he supposed. Whatever. "She didn't know I'd been to Hell, at least. So whoever she is, she isn't part of Lucifer's in-crowd." Honestly, he wasn't sure if that bothered him or not. On one hand, it was almost an insult that some nobody had been sent to kill him. On the other hand, though, it was probably a good thing that Lucifer wasn't taking a more active role in his intended demise.

His gaze turned toward the bay doors leading out to the balcony. Standing up, he moved to them and peered out at the city beyond. He pressed one palm against the glass and leaned forward, resting his forehead against the smooth, cool surface as well. His shoulders were ramrod straight and, when he spoke, his voice was a mere mutter. "I wish I knew what in the hell the others were waiting for." With a heavy sigh, he glanced over his shoulder at Anna. His face was unreadable, save for his eyes. They shone with barely contained anger and frustration.

"I know Sam said he wasn't going to agree to Lucifer but I don't know how much I trust that. How much I trust him." He turned back to the view of the cityscape filling the horizon. He shook his head and snorted. "God, this whole thing just blows."

Shrugging, Anna thought on their attacker again. If she wasn't part of his in crowd, that likely meant that her fallen brother was running around town, just flicking switches and turning good beings and people evil. She looked at the floor. "Just a pawn he used, I guess. A super-powered pawn. Just what the planet needs..." she laughed bitterly.

"I want answers, too," she muttered. She wasn't going to interfere, because she knew that if Loki was getting himself verbally involved, there was a master plan and he was involved somehow. But she didn't know what it was. And seeing the chaos in the streets below, as well as having been on the front lines a bit now, she really wished that there was some kind of answer she could give to both Adam and herself. She uncrossed her legs and stood up, walking over to the window with him.

It was still pretty chaotic out there. Not in the same way - there weren't battles and from that high, it was a little harder to see anyone die, which was an improvement. Maybe she'd move up here. Not so much to be away from people, but away from chaos. She looked over at Adam and put her hand on his shoulder, trying to calm him a little bit. He was trying to put up a tough front, Anna could tell, but it was pretty obvious that he wasn't coping well. She squeezed his shoulder and looked out at the horizon.

"You should put a little more trust in Sam," she offered up. "I know it's probably not the smartest thing for me to say, given my past with him, but he just might surprise you. He needs you."

Adam snorted softly at her last words. He deftly pulled away so her hand wasn't on his shoulder then turned to look at her. "He doesn't need me," he said flatly. Simply. There wasn't any pain there, wasn't any sense of great loss at his revelation. It was simply the way it was. "He needs Dean. And Castiel. And... I don't know, whoever else is here that's part of his little merry band of Apocalypse stoppers." He shook his head and crossed the room to the bookshelf along the far wall. There wasn't much there beyond a phonebook and a handful of 'how to' manuals that, he assumed, were put there for those who didn't know how to live in the current century but found themselves in the city regardless.

Running his fingertips along the spines of the books, he shook his head and muttered in a low tone, "I'm just some guy that he didn't even know about for most of his life."

Anna frowned. Part of her understood how he felt. How he was bitter toward his brothers and their friends because, as far as she gathered, he was alone in this. She didn't say anything, but turned with him when he walked back into the room to get away from her. She leaned against the wall and watched him carefully. It was understandable that he was angry. He'd been pulled from a happy life, into this chaos...and not just into it, but smack into the middle. He was more of an integral player than he ever thought he'd be.

She chewed on her lip when he spoke again and shrugged a shoulder. "I think, if he had, he would have come to find you," she said, matter-of-factly. "Both of your brothers are big on the family thing. If they'd known about you? They'd have been there," she finished.

Not that she actually thought this was making it any better. He was too angry at this point. Maybe at some point, she could get him to open his mind to the idea of talking to his brothers. Letting them be his brothers. She smoothed a hand through her hair and looked at him again. "I'm not gonna try and preach to you, though. That makes me no better than my brothers..." she said.

"I think," Adam responded with a glance at her, "that it doesn't matter anyway. He didn't know about me and considering how screwed up my life has been since I found out about them? I'm not exactly complaining that they weren't there." He knew, logically, that being angry with Sam and Dean over the things that had happened recently wasn't really fair. He knew it wasn't all their fault - that most of it, in fact, wasn't their fault. However it was a lot easier to blame tangible people than some sort of crap destiny that he'd been handed.

Sighing, he shook his head. "This is all pointless," he stated simply. He crossed his arms over his chest as he leaned against the bookshelf. His expression was stony as he stared at Anna. "It is what it is. They know about me now and, because of that, I get to spend the next God only knows how long in hiding." He shook his head once more and pushed away from the bookshelf. "Screw this. I'm going to bed." With that, he headed toward the bedroom. Pausing as he reached the doorway, one hand flat against the wall, he sighed softly and dropped his gaze. A heartbeat later, he looked back to her.

"Thanks," he said dully. "For coming back. For, you know, saving my life and all that crap." Then he stepped inside the room and shut the door behind him.