It was three days without progress. The only evidence he had to show, for any of his work, was a charred crater in the place of what had previously been a dune of golden sand.

The Angel sat down in the dust. He wasn't capable of physical exhaustion, but a touch of something closer to the mental end of the spectrum was eating away at him.

To be proven unworthy of his position. And so early into his ascension.

The magic of a Jotun, outwitting that of an Archangel? Even Gabriel would have been appalled, and it wasn't often his older brother was bothered by anything.

"Castiel."

Unlike humans, he didn't need to jolt when surprised. Instead, he turned his head around to better view his sister.

Ariel was in an elderly body, with milky eyes. It was thin, nearly emaciated, and female, with gray hair and pale skin. Blind. Healed though, once his sister had entered. The woman wore a black dress and a silver rosary. She spoke with an accent that indicated more remote regions of eastern Europe.

She was...she should have been allowed to live out her final days in peace.

His sister was rash and reckless. Such actions were not necessary.

"Ariel, what are you doing?"

She looked surprised at his critical tone and opened her new mouth to address him. "I do not understand the question, Brother."

"A vessel like that will burn out in days. There is no reason to make her suffer."

Ariel's clouded eyes lit up. "Suffer? I offer her eternal exaltation."

"She was faithful. It was already hers."

"Then, as a true believer, she should be jubilant at this opportunity," the other Archangel continued. "It is, as you say. She will burn quickly and then she may go in peace. A few days is all I need."

Callous. Everything he worked not to be. But, his sister was his equal, and he had no right to truly question her decisions.

It was better to work in harmony.

He dropped the issue.

"Very well then. Might I ask, Sister, what you expect to do these next few days?"

"I plan to search," she said. "My garrison already begins. If we cannot find him via magic then we will find him through our own power."

"You mean?"

"We are searching, the whole globe, manually. There will be no stone unturned. The Jotun will only be able to hide so long."

His sister was zealous, ambitious. And had the potential to be entirely successful.

"Will you join us, Castiel?"

The archangel shook his head. "No, if that is your plan, then I will return to my charges. There is no point in my wasting time on fruitless efforts."

Much like he had in days past, Captain America was conspiring with a Stark against his own government.

Because, also like they had been in the past, even in modern days, they were wrong.

Unfortunately, progress was slow.

"Nothing?" Steve asked.

"Nothing," Tony affirmed. "They still haven't given us a lab. And there's only so much I can do off my phone."

The two of them, along with Dr. Banner, were sitting in one of SHIELD's cafeterias. It was a communal one, hypothetically anyone could have joined them. But, well, one didn't just plop down next to the World's Greatest Soldier, the Merchant of Death, and a Giant-Green Rage Monster on a whim. And so, they three of them were sitting in relative peace and complete solitude.

"SHIELD has Hydra weapons," Rogers said. "That's a big enough problem in it of itself. But-"

"If they're using them," Banner said.

"Then things are even worse than we thought," Stark said. "And, right now guys, things are pretty shitty."

His mother's voice, 'language Steve', shuffled through his mind. But he kept his opinions to himself.

"This whole thing is stupid," Tony said, oblivious to Captain America's mental censure. "If SHIELD would just let me take the scepter to Stark Tower, we could recreate the tracking program and discover all the skeletons hiding in their closest. Waiting around is not my style."

Oh yes, Ironman's style. He'd been introduced to that quite a bit these past few days. It was loud, tacky, and obnoxious. Dr. Banner was, infinitely more pleasant.

That said, after three days of nothing to do but work and talk together, the three of them were actually...sort of getting along, despite how crazy the Steve of three days ago would have found that idea. Ironman was caustic, and a lot of his mannerisms irritated him, but, Steve realized he had somewhat misjudged the man. He was, legitimately looking to do good in the world.

Tony Stark's way of doing so was just a bit more, flashy, than the soldier was used to.

"Damn," Ironman said "If the bug I'd planted had a bit more range, I could at least go back myself and do something from home. But, it doesn't have that kind of juice. I don't think it can transmit information from however many feet we are in the sky right now."

Steve didn't really know what any of that meant but he did know that splitting up was a bad idea.

"It's better that we all stay together anyways. Loki could attack at anytime. It's better to mobilize as a group."

Dr. Banner laughed, sardonically. "No, I won't be doing any 'mobilizing', thank you very much. I'm just here to play around with radiation."

"Come on, big-guy! The Hulk would be perfect to throw at Loki. I could just imagine it 'Puny God!' Bam! Slams him around a couple times," Tony mimed with his fork, clinking it against the table a few times for good measure. "It'd be awesome!"

"It's not happening."

"You know, Banner," Tony said, pointing his fork at the man. "You really need to lighten up. After this is all over, you and I are going to Miami. Beach days and fun days. Booze and women, to your heart's content," he looked over at Steve. "Even you can come Captain, as long as you promise not to be a stick in the mud."

"Pass," the two said, in unison.

"You guys suck-"

The helicarrier shook violently, sending their food to the floor and cutting Ironman off. Another intense spasm sent the three of them down the same path as lunch.

The Captain recovered quickest and he shot to his feet, grabbing the edge of the table as another shake reverberated throughout the room. He turned to help Stark up and Banner recovered before he could offer the same.

Tony was already snarking as he held himself steady on one of the walls, "earthquakes don't normally happen in the sky, right?"

"Put your suit on, Stark. We're under attack. Dr. Banner," he nodded at the man. "Stay safe."

"You too," the scientist replied. "And, don't do anything reckless, Tony."

"No promises, mom," cheeky grin.

"I take it back," Banner said. "Captain, if you have a chance to accident him. Well, accidents do happen."

"You guys suck."

A/N: Hello. Longtime no see. :D

My normal outlining style is Plot point, plot point, plot point, (interlude here for the sake of pacing), plot point, plot point (interlude), etc. This chapter was supposed to be an interlude. However, I couldn't think of one, and it was making it very hard to update. I run into this problem quite a bit to be honest, haha. So, this time, I decided to cut the interlude and jump straight to the next plot point. That means the timing is a bit off. I wanted a month or so between the last chapter and the Ariel gets a Vessel/Attack on the Helicarrier scene, but it wasn't happening...So, if things feel like they're going a bit fast, well, I totally agree with you. That said, I'm also assuming that between bad pacing or no update, people would rather have bad pacing. :)

Also, the Ariel thing. This is sort of covering a Supernatural plot hole that really bothered me, haha. If Angels can search a whole town in seconds, then I could never figure out why they didn't find Sam and Dean, or Demons or Weapons or whatever else they were looking for. Even if they were shielded from location spells or divine angel finding abilities, whatever, the Angels still should have been able to find them, just by looking. I mean, hypothetically, they should have been able to search the whole planet in a matter of days.

Sorry for the wait. I am not sure as to when the next update will be out. But, at the very least, I'm pretty sure it will happen.