as usual, * explanations will be in inline cmts!

barely edited, it got too long & i got lazy 🌚 enjoy

~~~~~

Bzzzt!

Something lands on her face, ticklish as it moves across her forehead — and Dorotea opens her eyes to find herself lying on a bottom bunk bed, butterflies fluttering softly all around her. The creature on her face takes flight, and she is pleasantly shocked to find out it is a honey bee, body fuzzy and soft as it lands onto the back of her hand this time, gossamer wings trembling as if injured. She sits up, and the various winged insects all around her take flight, while the spiders and praying mantises resting atop her mattress scuttle away in surprise. She peers down at the bee for a second, wondering how she can help the poor creature.

Wait. Wasn't it Christopher I was helping instead, just now?

The icy claws of fear immediately grip onto her as she jumps out of bed, hurrying toward the door of the tent she's in. But before she can make it out, a tall figure suddenly appears in the doorway, and Dorotea slams against them hard, the bee fleeing her hand for a second before shakily landing higher up her arm.

"Dory!" A strikingly familiar voice exclaims, and Dorotea looks up to see Stella's surprisingly heavily-made-up face. "Where've you been? We're set to go in five minutes!"

"Set— where?" The demon struggles to grapple with the situation. "But I thought... shouldn't the sigils be ready as soon as possible? Was somebody waiting? Is that why that breach happened?"

"What are you on about?" Stella laughs, raising a hand to push her hair back — and only then does Dorotea notice she's wearing some kind of sparkly skin-tight leotard, a far cry from what hunter Stella would put on. "One of us down is enough; don't tell me you need to go to the infirmary too!"

"Someone's in the infirmary?" She echoes helplessly, and Stella nods, chasing away a butterfly that has landed on her shoulder:

"Yeah? Since, like, three this morning. DoDo's down with overexertion, haven't you heard?"

3 AM? DoDo, overworked? Something clicks inside Dorotea's head, and she pushes past Stella, cupping a protective hand around the bee as she runs off in a direction she isn't sure how she knows will lead to the infirmary:

"Better pay him a visit! Go on ahead, I'll meet up with you right after!"

She skids to a stop in front of the infirmary, panting slightly as she pushes the tent flaps aside and walks in. Sure enough, that's Donatello is lying face-up on one of the patient beds — but before she can move toward him, a strong arm shoots out from the side, blocking her off:

"What are you doing?"

Arlo frowns at her suspiciously, other hand hooked not-so-casually onto his belt loop. His gun holster is open. Dorotea attempts to push his arm away, but all her demonic strength has been lost for some reason. Speaking of strength, her last memory was becoming wall paint under the hand of that silver-eyed bastard... Dorotea shakes her head to refocus. She clicks her tongue at Arlo's narrowed eyes:

"Visiting my friend DoDo. What are you doing? The show starts in five minutes."

"I don't even know what I'm supposed to perform. If you do, then go ahead." The gunslinger says, and Dorotea feels a huge wave of relief washes over her as she exclaims:

"You're the hunter?!"

"I— yeah!" As expected, his guarded facade falls away, and Arlo buries his face into his hands as he rants to her:

"Oh my goodness, I'm so glad you're here too! I had no idea what happened when I suddenly popped up in this tent. I thought I was going crazy! I saw Christopher outside the door, but he was speaking to Josette for some reason? What the heck is going on?!"

"I'm not sure yet, but I think we've been transported to a different reality." Dorotea says grimly, and fills Arlo in on the details. He winces out loud when she reaches the part about her being flung into a cement wall:

"Yikes. Is this an illusion, then? Should I be happy or worried that you're whole right now?"

"I don't know." Dorotea has to hold back a shudder, when the phantom sensation resurfaces inside her head. "But at least, now there's a way for us to test out my hypothesis."

She leads Arlo to Donatello's bedside. Then, without warning, Dorotea raises a hand and brings it down on his face, hard.

"Agh!" Donatello cries out as his eyes snap open, and he springs up on the bed, hand flying up to his reddening cheek. "Dorotea, what—?"

"Tell me the last thing you remember, now." She cuts him off, voice intense as she grips onto the bedrails. Donatello cocks a confused eyebrow at her, then glances at Arlo, before stuttering out:

"Er, well... I had a fight with Josette, and I... I was about to lose, but Arlo showed up last minute, and when she was distracted I teleported both of us—"

The butterflies on Dorotea start and take off into the air, when Arlo suddenly lunges forward and pulls Donatello into a bear-hug. The demon groans inside his crushing embrace:

"Ar-lo... your gun... is stabbing me right i-in the ribs...."

"Oh! Sorry!" The hunter pulls back straightaway, but Donatello waves his apology off, before turning to Dorotea:

"What's going on? Why did you slap me? ... Why are you covered in bugs?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out as well." She sighs miserably as she reaches up, retrieving a rose-gold orchid mantis that has jumped onto Arlo's back. "I don't know exactly what happened, but this is most likely the work of Hiroaki. You know—"

"The angel that attacked us?" A male voice sounds from the tent's door, and Dorotea feels her heart jump with joy when Trent walks in, hair now in a loose braid behind his back. "Stop staring at me, I didn't want this hairstyle either."

"But it looks really good on you." She blurts out, and the youngest demon's cheeks dust with pink while he frowns:

"Quit it. We have more pressing matters to discuss. Good to see you, Arlo. DoDo, how you feeling?"

"Perfectly fine." The blond slides off of the bed, waving away a butterfly that keeps trying to land on a terrified-looking Arlo. It floats away and settles for Trent instead, the pinkette holding out a gloved hand for it to rest on when it comes close. The sight is so adorable Dorotea wishes she could snap a picture. "I just can't use any of my powers, for some reason."

"Yeah, me neither." Trent sighs, pointing with his chin toward the doll he has been cradling in his arm all along. "Apparently I'm a ventriloquist? When I tried to tell Ontario telepathically that I have no idea how to do that, he made fun of my "death glare" and put this braid onto me. It was horrible."

"Shit, so that's why Stella was looking at me like that when I yelled angel and demon stuff into her face." Arlo mumbles, and Donatello pats his back sympathetically, like hey, at least you didn't get woken up with a bitch-slap.

"Wait, so Ontario isn't here?" Dorotea asks, to which Trent grimaces:

"Not the one we know, that's for sure. Everyone here seems to believe we're some kind of circus troupe. Which reminds me, I've been sent to tell you that the show starts in four minutes, two minutes ago. Shit."

He sends the butterfly back to Dorotea; she's yet to figure out what kind of performance troupe-member!Dorotea would set up with all these insects. Donatello pipes up:

"How about this? You three just head to the show right now, to avoid any unwanted attention. Since I'm not performing, I'll use this free time to sneak around and find out as much as possible about this place. We can meet up here again when you're done, and hopefully figure out a way to get ourselves out of this strange reality."

"Sounds good." Dorotea nods, and together with Trent and Arlo she makes her way to the stage.

~

"Two minutes til the shooting!"

Where the fuck am I?

Ontario jolts when somebody glomps him from the back. "Hey, O! Haven't seen you in a while! Where have you been? Thought you were gonna miss this Week!"

"H-huh?" He turns around, and the gold-dusted face of someone in equally-gold-dusted clothes blinds him for a brief second. "I— what? What week?"

"Fashion Week, duh?" The person slaps him playfully on the chest — which draws his attention to the gargantuan shoulder pads attached to his shirt. What the fuck kinda outfit? "You seem tired, honey. Are you good? Hungry? I've got some jelly gummies you can just pop into your mouth; want some? Promise it won't ruin your lipstick."

"I, uh, yeah! Man, I'm beat! Jeez, I've been back and forth between so many shows, my brain's all jumbled up!" The lie comes out easily this time. "Remind me what's happening again?"

He chews on the gummy the person places into his mouth. It's sweet and sour, fragrant grape-flavored. "Pre-runway shooting begins in about a minute. The vibe is vibrant but calming, energetic but elegant. We're wearing Trussardi-Kishibe's Change of Seasons collection."

That's Marino! Ontario nods appreciatively, but before he can ask anything else, another all-too-familiar face enters the conversation:

"Fancy seeing you here, Ontario."

Josette is wrapped in ruffly blue and white, reminiscent of an end-of-autumn, start-of-winter morning sky. But her eyes when they drill into him are nowhere close to elegant or calming:

"Do you mind if we have a chat? Privately?"

The gold-adorned person nods respectfully, before sauntering off, leaving the two of them be. The brunette glares at him, face twisting into a grimace:

"What are we doing here?"

"So you don't know either, huh." Ontario remarks, catching Josette's little jawline twitch. She scoffs:

"Please. An alternate dimension where we're all models acting chummy and supportive of one another? Don't make me sick."

"Can't handle a little spotlight?" Ontario teases, watching the angel's face darken. "C'mon. Be a people person for once. Smile for the camera, won't you, JoJo?"

"Shut it." The brunette's immaculately-manicured hand fly up to his throat in a flash, but nothing happens. He can't feel a drop of grace in her. Ontario shoves her hand away, dusting off his neck with mock disgust. That only riles the angel up more, and she gets right up in his face, lip gloss shimmering when she sneers:

"Next time you order me around, you're dead. But I suppose it's only fair for you, that you're utilizing your one single chance to ridicule me. After all, in this dimension or the next, you'd still be as ugly as they come*."

"Do you have a problem with my model, Joestar?" An irritated male voice rings out, and Ontario lets out a breath he doesn't know he's been holding, when the person that emerges from the crowd turns out to be Marino. Unlike them, he's clad in a simple, aquamarine-green suit that hugs his figure and complements his eyes beautifully, and patterned to match his dangling teardrop earrings. "If you have any constructive criticism, you can come to me. Otherwise, please return to your place — I would hate for the first shooting of my collection to be ruined by something so unprofessional."

The DESIGNER badge flashes around his neck, and fortunately for the both of them, a powerless Josette snorts before striding off, outfit bouncing like a cloud all around her. Marino immediately turns to him, eyes filling up with worry as he places a hand onto Ontario's bare arm:

"Are you okay? She didn't actually hurt you, did she? I saw you guys talking and immediately had to come over."

"I'm fine, thanks." The demon feels heat rush to his face as he replies. "It wasn't anything major. She's lost all her angelic mojo for some reason, so all she could do was run her mouth a little bit."

"What was she on about, anyway?" The hunter wrinkles his nose as he straightens out a fold on Ontario's shirt collar, warm fingertips grazing his skin lightly. The brunet sighs:

"Dunno; "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" or some stupid shit like that. Angels can see us for what we really are, you know. Through our vessels."

"Oh." Marino says. Behind them, models have begun to walk out onto the shooting venue. Ontario glances to the bright exit nervously, but his attention snaps back toward Marino when the hunter speaks up:

"Hey. Don't think about that. You look amazing to me. And not just as a model."

Words feel stuck in his throat when Ontario stares up at Marino, mouth slightly agape. The backstage lighting is too dim for him to see properly, but he thinks there's a hint of anxiety in the hunter's expression. Deciding to let it go, Ontario nods and smiles up at him:

"Thank you. I need to get out there and do this shooting now, but I think the designer goes out last after all the models have walked. How about you try to figure out what's going on, while I keep an eye on our celestial friend over there? Maybe we'll figure out a way to get back to our reality."

"Let's hope we do." Marino replies grimly, and Ontario gives him an encouraging squeeze on the shoulder before strutting out into the blinding limelight.

~

Christopher gasps as his head shoots up from some kind of surface, pain flaring as though his scalp is about to be ripped off of his skull. He waits for the gruesome moment to arrive, but instead, all he feels is a soft hand thread into his hair:

"Soleil?"

There's only one person who calls him that — well, one being. He buries his face into the crook of Alexandre's neck, feeling him confusedly pet his hair:

"Arcanis! When did you arrive? Did you know Hiroaki is here? He was—"

"Wait, what? So this is Hiroaki's doing?" The angel's puzzled tone makes his head snap up — and only then does Christopher realizes he's not lying in rubble, but rather a comfy bed, inside pyjamas that he's sure are not his, but fit perfectly nonetheless. When he sits up from Alexandre's arms, he's surprised to feel all the pain in his body from that blast has miraculously gone away.

"Arcanis, where are we?"

"My guess is as good as yours." Alexandre sits up as well, raising a hand to rub at his shoulder blade. Worry flashes across his features. "Most of my grace is gone. Even my wings.... Chris, what happened before you woke up here?"

Christopher gives him a quick summary of events, trying to skim over the part where Hiroaki was roughing him up. Still, Alexandre's eyes narrow as he listens to the story.

"He'd be lucky if he has a single feather left when I'm done with him." He growls darkly, and Christopher waits for the lights to explode* as a force of habit, but the only thing that happens is a mere flicker of their bedside lamp. "Lilliano needs to know how to keep his men in check."

"Hey, this is no time to shift the blame...." The blonde says, but already Alexandre is jumping off the bed, going to his closet to grab some clothes:

"He's too kind. If that doesn't come back to bite him, it's gonna come to bite us — like it's doing right now."

"Alex, just wait a second." Christopher snaps, and the angel finally stops his angry mumbling to look at him. "We don't know what's happening yet. What if Lilliano, or even Hiroaki, is experiencing this very same thing? Let's just try our best to figure out what's going on first, okay?"

Alexandre scowls at him for a moment, then sighs. But before he can say anything, the sound of a doorbell frantically rings through the space, and instinctively both of them tense up. Christopher climbs off the bed to join the angel, whispering as the shrill sound gets louder:

"I don't have any weapons. You?"

"Nothing." Alexandre shakes his head, before his hands ball into fists. A faint glow begins to emit from his eyes, but after a few seconds, it shuts off. "Shit. I barely have any grace left, too. I—"

"Alex, what's that?" The hunter's shocked voice pulls him back to the present, and Alexandre looks down to see a strange wooden longbow and a quiver full of arrows in his grip. He has never seen them before, but somehow they feel familiar, as if he's been using them his entire life.

"I... don't know." He raises the bow and tries to nock an arrow. They fit perfectly into each other, and in his hands. "But I can make do with this. Get behind me."

They walk slowly out of the bedroom. Christopher realizes they're in some kind of apartment, small but beautifully decorated, just to his liking. Alex and I... live together here? The doorbell's incessant ringing keeps interrupting his train of thought though, so he abandons it altogether, fixing his gaze on the front door.

"Who's there?" Alexandre shouts over the noise, and immediately it stops, before a muffled but familiar voice sounds:

"Chris?"

"I said, who is it?" Christopher speaks up this time, and Alexandre pulls the bowstring taut when the door handle begins to rattle. But realization strikes them like a lightning bolt, when the intruder yells:

"Chris! It's me, Stella! What are you doing?! Open up!"

The blond rushes to the door, and when he swings it open, a lilac blur immediately tackles him with a hug. "Oh my gosh! Thank goodness it's you! I was beginning to get so scared — I woke up in this building and had no idea where the heck I am, until I blurted out your name to the receptionist, and she sent me up to this room! You... you live here? With Alexandre?"

The male hunter groans as he attempts to pry off Stella's arms:

"I t-think so? Stel, stop squeezing, I-I can't breathe...."

"I thought you were dead!" Stella rambles on, oblivious to Christopher's mortified head shakes. "Trent and I were proofing the east entrance when suddenly that huge explosion happened, and then I saw Dorotea run past with an angel blade in her hand... I was so worried! Are you hurt? I heard you screaming! What happened back there?"

"Whatever it was, someone's going to pay." Christopher mentally facepalms when Alexandre seethes behind them, and Stella springs back, slapping a hand over her mouth. Thanks a lot, he mouths at the fellow hunter, before turning around and placing his hands onto the angel's tensed shoulders:

"Alex— it's fine. Don't get agitated now, you'd be doing it for nothing. I'm okay, see?"

"I'll kill him."

"Alexandre, stop." Christopher pleads, forcing the redhead's bow-holding hand down. "What we need to do right now is figure out a way to get back. And then... and then you can do whatever you want with Hiroaki, okay?"

"But don't kill him, lest a multi-species war breaks out." Stella chimes in, before slapping a hand over her mouth again, as Alexandre almost seems to start vibrating with anger. Holding back a frustrated wince, Christopher speaks:

"Let's, let's not talk about that right now. Let's focus on the matter at hand, okay? Stella? Alex? Alex."

"Fine." Alexandre growls, and the longbow and quiver in his hands dematerialize at last. "So? What are we gonna do?"

He puts a hand onto the small of Christopher's back, and the little gesture reassures the blond more than he can imagine. Turning to Stella, he asks:

"You spoke to the receptionist, right? Did you find out where we are?"

"I think it's a parallel universe, where we're all just... normal." The other hunter shrugs helplessly. "All I know is that we're in Paris, you live together in this apartment, and both of you are college students or something."

"That'd make sense." Christopher mumbles, trying hard to not think about how good it'd be if this reality is the only one. "So—"

"Oh! I almost forgot. I think while in the elevator I saw something on the display screen about an international outbreak." Stella continues, completely putting out his fire of hope. "Vampires, or something. Looks pretty bad."

"Not that different from our own dimension, then." Alexandre huffs. The lilac-haired hunter retorts:

"Well, sure, but here we don't even have stakes or holy water or anything! And, I mean, while I'd love to be a multidimensional warrior, I'd rather go back and see what the hell is going on at our base."

"You have a point." Christopher nods grimly. "Alright. We've been put here, so obviously the reverse is possible. Alex has a little bit of grace left, so what do you two think if we use that to try and get in contact with somebody on the other side that can zap us back?"

"I'll try Lilliano." The angel proposes. "I don't know if you can sense it, but this whole space is flooded with Hiroaki's grace. I doubt he'd send himself into here though, or dare to mess around with Lilliano like that. Lilly is that weird type to enjoy keeping track of anomalies like this, so there's a good chance he'll pick up if I call. How's that?"

"Sounds like a plan." Stella shrugs again, and the three of them head into the kitchen to prepare a celestial radio.

~

"What did you do?"

Hiroaki hisses as invisible strings tighten all around his body, even his wings, trapping him in place. In front of him, Lilliano is inspecting the ruined base, a soft golden glow from beneath his skin providing light for the both of them. Hiroaki doesn't need his vision, though, to sense that the other angel is extremely pissed.

"Nothing. I just put the distractions away for a moment so I could focus on actually doing my job— UGHH!"

He grunts as Lilliano's strings squeeze him again, not hard enough to kill, but definitely enough to hurt. His vessel is beginning to bleed, bones straining underneath the long-haired angel's hold. Lilliano turns to him, a disapproving frown on his face:

"You do not "put" them away without their permission. And you do not call them "distractions." Understood?"

"Let me go." Hiroaki growls, but Lilliano only glares at him before walking to the next room. "Wait! Lilly, I'm sorry! I got it! I got it! Let me go, please?!"

The invisible strings suddenly disappear, and Hiroaki crashes to the ground, panting for breath. Lilliano's shoes enter his vision, and the blond speaks, tone as troubled as if addressing a spoilt child:

"We need to gain the humans' trust, not their contempt. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"I know." The silver-eyed male grumbles, grabbing onto Lilliano's extended hand to pull himself up. The blond sighs:

"Hiro— you're a valued member of my team. But if you keep acting like this...."

"I know already!" Hiroaki snaps, kicking at the ground and stirring up a cloud of dust. He dimly realizes how Lilliano is still holding onto his hand. "That... that was my bad, okay? What do you want me to do? I can bring them back in a flash, just—"

"There's no need." The blond's refusal catches his whole attention. A devious smile blooms on Lilliano's lips. "You shouldn't have moved them in the first place. But now that you have... well, maybe it's a good thing we have their base all to ourselves. Let's get to work before they can find a way back, yeah?"

"This is why I agreed to work for you." The younger angel grins, and together they walk further into the hunters' base.

~~~~~

this was inspired by the musical ep in spn, as well as the gabriel vs. the winchesters ep!!