(A/N) Oh, hell. It's been over a year since I updated this poor li'l fic. Somebody slap me. Not that I expect anyone's still reading this, but if you happen to be out there, I am so sorry. Life and other fics have been calling. I have no intention of letting this one die, though, so hopefully I'll be able to work out a way of giving due care to all of my stories in the coming months. So for all you mystical unicorns out there who might still be reading, I hope you enjoy this.

The Rose of Sharon

Chapter 16: Marking Time Waiting for Death

"I'll tell you what you can do, Dick. You can set my baby girl down and walk away."

Cas winced when he heard Dean's voice from behind him. He had prayed for Dean's help, but now that it came down to it, he wasn't actually sure it would do any good. He was worried for Rose, of course, but…Dean's involvement might just make things worse.

Roman smiled invitingly as he looked past Cas and Benny at the new arrival. "Ah, Dean Winchester. So you heard about my little party."

"I know everything that goes on down here. This is my show now, shithead, so it's 'Your Highness', if you don't mind," Dean said as he moved into Cas' line of sight, flanked by Charlie and Olivia.

"Daddy!" Rose cried out in relief, her voice still tinged with fear.

"Hey, there, sweet girl," Dean said, his focus purely on her now, and Cas felt something inside of him twist in grief and love at the sight of the tiny kernel of adoration in the demon king's eyes. "Don't worry. Your daddy's gonna take care of everything."

"Dean," Cas began warningly, reaching out a placating hand. "Be careful. Don't make this worse for her."

Dean just sneered as he glanced over at him. "As I remember it, you called me. Now you got a problem with this?"

"I didn't think you were actually listening."

"It's like I said, Angelface, I know everything that goes on down here. So are you gonna let me take care of this or not?"

Every molecule of his being screamed that he shouldn't. He knew that Dean's influence would only do harm to Rose; he knew that, but…at the same time, their daughter was in the hands of one of the most dangerous creatures in all creation. He wanted Rose back, and the truest part of him didn't care how that happened. Finally nodding, he stepped back, allowing Dean to move forward.

"You sure about this, Castiel?" Benny asked him quietly as they watched the three demons advance.

"Not in the slightest," he responded, eyes remaining locked on Rose. "But I will have her back," he finished, voice dropping into his lowest growl.

"Sure. That I can understand," the vampire returned, passing no judgment, only empathy at the need to keep a child safe.

"Perhaps you've forgotten, Winchester, but I look down to no one," the leviathan snapped at Dean. "Least of all some upstart pretender to the throne. No demon commands more power than I do."

Dean laughed at this, shaking his head. "I almost feel sorry for ya, Dick. Almost."

Roman's eyes flared briefly in anger as his grip on Rose tightened. "You think this is a joke, Dean? Do you think I've gone soft? Think I won't devour every last morsel of your precious little princess?" the creature demanded, sneering in relish before revealing his true face. Rose screamed in terror at the horrifying sight.

"Rose!" Cas shouted, ready to throw himself on the leviathan's jaws rather than watch him even attempt to harm her.

"That little mosquito ain't anything to be afraid of, Rosie!" Dean called to their daughter. "Look what your daddy can do."

With that, Dean raised a hand, eyes going black, then red as he channeled Rose's power. Sneering, the new king of Hell brought that power to bear on Roman's four lieutenants. One by one, the monsters began to scream, true forms bursting from the human figures before they each melted into black slop and boiled away to nothing.

Roman's figure shifted back to human, eyes filled with fear as he watched the horrific scene. Once his minions had been literally boiled out of existence, he turned back to Dean, demanding, "What have you done? What have you done!"

"Did you not believe them when they said that anybody who didn't bow down was gonna get melted down? Just what did you think was gonna happen when you called me out?" Dean challenged, eying the leviathan with that ever deepening sneer.

"Well…what do you think will happen if you threaten me while I've got this darling monstrosity in hand?" Roman challenged right back, holding Rose up.

When Cas looked between Rose's tear-stained face and Dean's burning eyes, he felt the demon's rage roiling in the space between them. Rather than unleash that anger, though, Dean just started to laugh.

"You're one to call anyone monstrosity, Dick. If you think you even can threaten her, you really don't get it at all."

"I'm warning you, Winchester-"

"No!" Dean snarled. "We are so past bargains and threats at this point. Even if you can't hurt our Rosie, you still threatened her. That's something I can't ever let go. And y'know," he suddenly trailed off, eyes glinting as an idea struck him, "why don't we add insult to injury. I don't even need to kill you myself."

"Kill me?" the alpha leviathan repeated in shock, though his voice was verging on hysterical. "I was the first. I'm older than your reality! You can't KILL ME!"

Dean ignored the creature's outburst, focusing instead on Rose. "Hey, Rosie?"

"D- Daddy?"

"That jerk hurt your papa. He and his kind tore him apart once. It's all right for you to make him go away."

"Dean!" Cas cried out sharply. "Rose, don't!"

But the little girl had ceased to listen to any of them. She stared up at the leviathan who held her, eyes flaring in anger as they began to go red. An angry wind started to whip through the forest as power began to boil from her tiny figure.

"N- no!" Roman cried out in fear, attempting to drop the child and run, but Rose didn't fall. She hovered there in the air, the hot wind stirring her lovely curls into a frenzy as she held up a hand, freezing the most ancient beast in place.

"LOOK! AT! ME!" she commanded in a voice like thunder and void, twisting the leviathan about to face her. Though her eyes glowed red, an aura of holy light began to shine about her, and within that halo of divine fire, Cas could just barely make out the impression of a set of wings. Unlike her angel wings, though, these wings were demonic, red and bat-like.

"My god," Benny whispered in horror as he watched.

"Rose! No!" Cas cried out, attempting to move closer, but finding himself held back by her power. "Don't do this!"

But Rose was far past hearing him. Pulling her victim close, she hissed in a voice that was somehow both angelic and demonic, "You are going to pay for what you did to my family!" Then, as the sky went completely red overhead, the little girl slashed a hand violently across the space between them and slowly began to strip away every particle of Dick Roman's existence, atom by painful atom. She held him in place while she did it, letting him feel everything she did; and with every horrified, agonized scream she drew from him, she smiled.

Rose stripped the leviathan down until there was nothing left, not even a pile of ash or a bloodstain to mark where the colossal existence had once been. She was so thorough, it was almost as if the creature had never existed at all. Once it was done, the light went from her being and she blinked several times, wobbling precariously in the air before crashing back to the ground, unconscious.

"Rose!" Cas shouted, racing forward and gathering his baby girl in his arms, cradling her close against his chest as he rounded furiously on her father. "How could you do this? How could you let her do this?!"

"Sorry, Angelface," the demon said, though the smirk on his face said every inch the opposite, "but she's gotta learn sometime. Her power's not gonna just go away. Isn't it better for her to practice on a dick like that who deserved it…or would you rather this had happened on Earth?"

Cas would have argued, except at that moment the entire space just seemed to crack. The whole dimension jolted, tossing them all to the ground like an armful of ragdolls. Cas fought to hold onto Rose, but she was torn from his arms. When he looked to the spot where Roman had once stood, he could actually see the fabric of the dimension begin to tear. The crack in reality widened quickly and in hardly more than an instant it had started to form a vortex, rapidly beginning to pull in the surrounding forest.

"What's happening?" Olivia shouted over the roar of the vacuum, ducking as a tree flew overhead, pulled into the heart of the anomaly.

"Rose!" Cas called out, searching worriedly for his daughter. When he finally caught sight of her, her unconscious body was being dragged slowly toward the vortex.

The angel let out a wordless scream of panic, ready to throw himself forward to save her, but before he could make a move, Dean was already there, gathering Rose in his arms and carrying her back to safety.

"Forget going back to Earth. We gotta get out of here," the demon said urgently as he passed their daughter back to him. But no sooner had the former hunter done this than he began to blink, weaving on his feet in exhaustion. "Oh, you gotta be fuckin' kidding me!"

Cas could feel it, too – the inexorable drain from having shared in too much of Rose's power, pulling him unerringly toward unconsciousness. "No. Not now. Please not now," he whispered. If they went under now, none of them would survive this.

"CAS!" a new voice suddenly sounded on the scene. The floundering angel fought through his exhaustion, looking up to see none other than-

"Gabriel?" he mumbled in shock. "What are…when did you-"

"No time for questions, baby bro. We gotta blow this popsicle stand," the archangel said as he made his way toward them with a demon Cas had never seen before. But before the pair could reach them, the dimensional fabric tore even further, shaking Purgatory up all over again. Barely conscious, Cas lost his footing, feeling the vortex's pull grab hold of him and Rose. He didn't have the strength to hold on! They were going to be pulled in!

"Where do you think you're goin', angel boy?" he heard Benny's voice at the last possible moment as a hand wrapped around his arm, pulling him back from the edge. As his grip on Rose began to slip, the vampire grabbed hold of them both, holding them securely against his chest. "That sweet girl a' yours can't die before she lives."

"Benny…"

His senses were starting to go. He could no longer hear the roar of the vortex or see the effects it was having on the dimension. He looked over to see Charlie and Olivia holding Dean up. The demon met his eyes and in the sudden silence of his fugue state, he very clearly heard Dean say, "Go. Get out."

Dean held up his hand one more time, using the last of his energy to push the three of them safely toward Gabriel and the other demon before falling completely unconscious.

"Dean…" Cas whispered as he watched the two knights disappear with their king, knowing he wasn't long for consciousness himself. His gaze shifted vaguely to Gabriel as the archangel shook his head.

"Cas, Cas, Cassie. Why is it you're always in the middle of the explosion? Mags, you and Fangs here get them back to the portal. I'll catch up in a minute."

Gabriel didn't watch as the demon and the vampire carried the half-conscious angel and half angel away from the swirling storm. He just shook his head again as he sent out a tendril of his own grace to probe at the anomaly. As he'd feared, unmaking the first leviathan had created a well of potential energy, neither nothing nor something, but at the same time anything. It was the power of possibility, and that was the most dangerous power of all. It was the power that God alone could wield – and it was what Metatron was gunning for. A well like this could swallow all of creation in a day if it was allowed to grow unchecked.

Heaven would no doubt be sending some suits to scope out the situation, but they would need time to get here and still have at least a little bit of reality left to save. So Gabriel set up a few patches on the tear, being careful to leave no traces of his archangel scent on the seals. They wouldn't hold for long, but it should be just long enough for Heaven to get off its ass.

"Sure hope you a-holes are in the mood to go on existing," he ground out before heading off to join the rest of his ragtag band.

Metatron had wanted to stir things up. Well, he'd definitely gotten his wish.

XxX

Arakiel growled in frustration as he shoved aside yet another record.

The commander had given his support and resources to Hannah and Metatron's holy crusade. God knew Heaven needed an archangel to lead right now, but that didn't mean he was anymore inclined to trust the former scribe than he had been before. As such, he'd been trying to track down information on this mysterious fifth archangel, but it seemed that Metatron was correct in saying that all traces of her had been wiped.

Heaven's records covered nearly every possible subject, stretching all the way back to the time of the archangels, but he could find not even the slightest trace of anyone named Israfil. Nowhere in all of history, from the time of the archangels and the Garden to the current moment, had there ever existed any being known as Israfil, and somehow he knew that couldn't be right. Now that he was thinking about it, the absolute absence of even the name was beginning to appear suspicious. It was a simple enough name – Israfil…the Burning One. Had there truly never been anyone in history with that name?

No. That couldn't be. The way his very being was arguing within itself was already beginning to speak to the truth of Metatron's words. Logically, he knew he'd never heard the name, but still, something within cried out in protest at the notion of law and logic. He felt anger and sorrow and uncertainty the like of which he'd not felt since the time of the First War. What was it about this erased being that could evoke such a strong reaction?

As his thoughts turned more and more toward what was not there to be seen as opposed to what was, the commander suddenly found himself looking at a scroll he'd never seen before. It didn't look any different from any of the other records, but he could tell that it was just from the feel of it. He had been one of Heaven's more brilliant commanders in his heyday and a good leader knows the value of information. He knew what he knew, and this was something he did not know. Reaching for the tag that identified the record, he read aloud from the small slip of paper.

"Record 3434. Year 56 of the Third Epoch. Man's calendar, 2944 B.C.E. Herein is set forth the Heresy of Michael."

What?

Curious, Arakiel pulled the scroll from its resting place, bringing it to rest on the central table in the records room before unfurling it. Instead of being written in the typical Enochian, he found the record to be written in hieroglyphics – the language of the Egyptians. As it had been several millennia since he'd seen the language in common use, it took him longer than he would have liked to recall its mechanics, but he was able to summon it up in the end, beginning to read the long-forgotten document to himself.

By the hand of the Metatron, in the service of Him who is called I Am,

It has been forbidden by our most holy brother, Michael, First among Angels, that these accidents should ever be put to record, but my orders come first from our Father, I feel it is my sacred charge to see that all events which occur on this planet are set down and made ready to be taken to account. Therefore, I shall tell what I know of these happenings.

Twenty-five years having passed since the end of the Second Epoch and the Fall of Lucifer, the Rebellion was quelled only with the promise that Michael and Lucifer would be permitted to battle for the fate of creation one final time. Before his retreat into seclusion, Father decreed an era of five thousand years before the beginning of a new epoch and the preparing of a final battlefield. Michael vowed to abide by the decree and promised to keep the law well while the Lord abode in contemplation.

In spite of his vow, Michael was restive, still angered and embittered over Lucifer's betrayal. Driven by hurt, he sought a way to bring about the Final Battle before its preordained time, and Father, being then in seclusion, had no knowledge of his firstborn's actions. I had thought it impossible for Michael to instigate the Apocalypse ahead of the Lord's determination, but somehow he found a way, locating a suitable descendent of Cain in the blood of the first noble line to achieve dominion over the children of the Nile – firstborn of his father, a baby prince named Khasti.

An angel was chosen to guard and guide the boy, seeing that he survived to become a man, and though many children were born to his father, Djet, only a handful were marked as Special, hand-picked by the demon Malik to receive Lucifer's favor. Ultimately, as had been prophesied, only one of them was worthy enough to attain the status of True Vessel – Khasti's only full brother, Senedj.

The brothers grew to maturity together, endlessly loyal to one another in the treacherous royal court, just as Michael and Lucifer had been. Khasti was raised to follow in his father's footsteps and Senedj served as his ever-faithful retainer. Who can know what truly lay in the First Angel's mind, but perhaps it was that he recognized something of himself and Lucifer in the two mortal brothers. Whatever the circumstances, the two princes continued to fight side by side under the care of their guardian – until a plot was orchestrated to break the first seal on Lucifer's cage. Prince Khasti was compelled to enter Hell on a mission to rescue that which was most dear to him – to be led to spill blood as a Righteous Man in Hell.

None are aware of what occurred during the prince's quest, but whatever did happen, the seal was not broken. Michael repented of his decision to bring about the Apocalypse before the beginning of the next epoch and both factions ceased all attempts to break the seals

Arakiel read through the abruptly ended manuscript several times, still trying to take it in. Was this honestly the only record that existed of such a major event as this? Could it be another attempt of Metatron's to set them all up? Perhaps there had been other records and Michael really had seen fit to have them all erased. He had served Michael faithfully in the past, but he had never really known him, and the more he learned, he found he liked the First Angel all the less. Though, if this was truly an account of Michael's misdeeds and not just another of Metatron's tricks, it would mean that the chief archangel had kept his plans extremely close to the breast in those days, because Arakiel had never heard of anything like this in all his years, and his position in those days certainly would have merited such knowledge.

More suspicious than all the rest, even, was the curious lack of detail in the report. An angel? Their guardian? Even the demon involved had been identified, but not the servant of the Lord? Not the soldier given the honor of this supremely important but sacrilegious task? Was this…perhaps…an un-erased trace of the lost archangel? Could it be that it was more than her involvement with a demon that had led to her punishment? Maybe it had something to do with this open defiance? Whatever the case, he was going to confront the former scribe with this information. It was when he went to note that he was removing the record from the archive, though, that he received another surprise.

When he entered the record number into the scroll at the head of the archive and the ink sank into the parchment, it should have come back with a space for him to record his purpose for removing the record. What came back instead was a single word.

Destroyed.

"Destroyed?" he muttered in confusion. That wasn't possible. Records were not destroyed. Never. All knowledge was kept in the archive, unbiased and unedited. How could this be? Growing angrier and more confused by the moment, Arakiel took the supposedly destroyed record and removed it from the archive, only half-amazed when he wasn't stopped. Normally it was impossible to remove a document from the archive without a listed reason, but seeing as how this record seemingly didn't exist, the rules were clearly different. With frustration boiling at the core of his being, the commander stormed to the prison, thrusting the uncanny scroll up against the bars of Metatron's cell.

"What is this?" he demanded, only getting angrier when the former scribe yawned and glanced lazily up at the document.

"Well, from where I'm sitting, it looks like a scroll. Damn, Rocky, I didn't think anybody was still using the Library of Alexandria setting on the archive. You really are old school."

"It speaks of the Heresy of Michael. You wrote this, Metatron, and you wrote it in the hand of the Egyptian people. Why? What is the Heresy of Michael?"

For a moment, Metatron actually looked shocked. Moving rapidly toward the cell bars, his lips moved as he read through the ancient words. After several minutes of this, though, he actually began to laugh.

"It's happening. Holy shit, it's actually happening!"

"What?" Arakiel repeated, slamming the scroll against the bars again for emphasis. "What is happening?"

"Well, you've read it, haven't you? You know what the Heresy of Michael is. That's not really what you're asking me," he pointed out.

"True enough," the commander granted, pulling back a step to try and rein in his anger.

"So talk plain, man. Forget the Holy Ghost Two Step for a minute and just say what it is you want. Why do you think people keep quittin' this place? They get sick of all the double speak."

"The record speaks of an unnamed angel – a guardian for Michael's True Vessel. Is this a reference to Israfil?"

"Heheh, yes," Metatron answered, a satisfied smile stretching across his face.

"But how can that be? If, as you say, Israfil was erased, how can there be a record?"

Metatron sized him up for several silent moments, looking more and more self-satisfied. When he finally spoke, it was to ask, "Anything…unusual about that file, Rocky?"

The commander glared at the former scribe for a moment before nodding. "Fine. Yes. The archive lists the record as being destroyed. I was even able to remove it from the archive without any kind of clearance. I don't see how that can be. Heaven doesn't just destroy records. All of history is kept in that archive. Why would any of it be destroyed? Heaven isn't some brutal regime attempting to rewrite history."

At this, Metatron gave a loud burst of bitter, amused laughter. "Oh, c'mon, man. You know that's not true. What do you think it is we're doing here? We've been nothing but regime after regime ever since God walked out, and even then, well…we already know the guy rewrote his own history, else why would you be here? That scroll is listed as destroyed because, up until the moment your hand came into contact with it, it didn't exist."

"But how is that possible?"

"Something must've happened, something to start God's little retcon moving in reverse. It means Israfil's imprisonment is already starting to break down. I did write that scroll way back in the day. I tried to preserve what was being erased, but even that little scrap was destroyed, along with everything else. What you see there, it's part of what happened, but it isn't the whole truth," Metatron said bitterly, taking a few steps back himself.

"Metatron…why haven't you spoken of any of this before?" Arakiel asked him. "If you knew all of this, why bring it forward only now?"

"Because I couldn't speak of it before now. The memory was left with me, but it was locked inside of me, too. Before Castiel's child was conceived, I was physically incapable of even speaking Israfil's name. I couldn't have told you about it even if I'd wanted to, but things have begun to change. As we get further along the path to releasing her, I imagine you'll see this record shift, too. I'll be able to tell you more, but right now, I'm still limited in what I'm actually capable of revealing. If you want to know more, Hannah and Matarael are going to have to get the rest of those items."

Arakiel wanted to ask more, but he was interrupted when Tzipporah came racing into the prison, visibly shaken.

"A- Arakiel…Sir," she panted out as she dropped to one knee before him.

"Tzipporah, what is it? What has happened?" he asked, making sure to keep his tone even as he knelt beside her, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"We have had…a reaction – a confirmed report from Purgatory."

"What is it? Seraphim class? Castiel?"

"No. No, it wasn't- Seraphim. This reaction…it was Yahweh."

Arakiel froze at the younger angel's words. A Yahweh class reaction – a confirmed sign of the Divine Presence…Father…

"And it is…confirmed?"

"Yes. It is confirmed, Sir. What- what do we…what are your orders?"

Arakiel barely had a moment to feel joy at the idea of their father finally coming home to them when he looked up to see Metatron smirking down at them.

"What did I tell you?" he asked with that same all-knowing, self-satisfied look. "Something's happened."

Glaring briefly at the former scribe, Arakiel drew in the angel equivalent of a calming breath before helping Tzipporah to stand. While still holding Metatron's gaze, he said to Tzipporah, "We will send a contingent to investigate. Confirmed though it may be, we must still know more. Come," he said, leading the rattled angel from the prison.

He was so focused on the news of the reaction, he little remembered that he'd left the scroll lying just outside the cell at Metatron's feet.

XxX

Cas remained in that same strange half-awake state during the escape from Purgatory. He was aware of Benny carrying Rose and the demon helping him stumble along. Even more vaguely, he was aware of pieces of the dimension simply breaking off and spiraling away somewhere behind them. He didn't know how he was still conscious when Dean had clearly fallen under, but he lacked the capacity to really reason it out at the moment. When the band finally reached the portal back to Earth, they hesitated only a moment before Gabriel came up behind them.

"All right, kiddies. Hold your breath while we go through the tunnel."

Then they were in motion, passing through a swirl of form and color and shadow that did absolutely nothing for Cas' barely functioning senses. By the time his vision managed to resolve itself into something like coherency, it was to see Gabriel's face leaning over his.

"Rose!" he shouted in panic as he bolted upright, looking around for his daughter.

"Calm down, man. It's okay," the archangel reassured him, placing a hand on his shoulder to keep him from jumping to his feet. "You're not gonna see her. We're back on Earth. Li'l Rose is with you again."

"With…with…" he couldn't fully repeat what Gabriel had said. He just let his hands drift to the small swell in his belly, faintly feeling the presence of the little girl within him. She was still weak from expending all that power and was resting safely, but beneath her shroud of unconsciousness, he could sense pain. It wasn't anything physical, nothing rest would cure, and he knew they would have to confront it, but for the moment he was just happy they were all alive.

"Okay, what the flying fuck happened down there?" the demon was the one to finally ask.

"We can talk about that later. Right now, I think we should probably be getting back to HQ," Gabriel said.

"Wait…wait!" Cas started, looking around yet again. "Where's Benny? What happened to him?"

"Don't worry, Mama Bear. Got your fanged friend right here," he answered, holding up his arm to reveal the glow of the vampire's soul just beneath his vessel's skin. "Just gotta track down his remains."

"Sam will know where they are. We should get back to the bunker," Cas said, shaking Gabriel off to climb to his feet.

"Hold up there, Mama Bear. Take it easy. For all we know, you're gonna pass out in a sec. I'll call us a cab," the archangel said, and within moments, Lailah had appeared among them.

"Castiel!" she started in relief, moving forward to embrace him. Cas wasn't sure what kept him from passing out altogether when she had him in her arms. He was so tired, but he somehow managed to remain conscious. "You're such a fool, Castiel! Why did you take off like that?"

"I had no choice," he mumbled blearily as he returned the hug. "Or at least…I thought I didn't at the time. Dean knows. He found out about Rose. He and Hannah, they…they used me. They used me to create the fourth item," he said, hugging her a little tighter, feeling for the first time since he'd flown to confront Dean that he actually had someone to lean on.

"I know. We know. Crowley told us. A lot's happened since you've been gone," she said, running a few soothing fingers through his hair.

"How long have we been gone?" Cas asked as he looked up at her.

"Later," Gabriel interrupted. "We need to skedaddle. We're a little exposed out here."

"Of course," Lailah said with a nod, keeping a hold of Cas while reaching a hand out for Gabriel. She waited for the demon to grab hold of her shoulder before flying them all back to the bunker. The archangel and the angel mother both made sure Cas was sitting down before exchanging a few words and one vampiric soul. Lailah disappeared once again as the others began to trickle into the library.

"Cas!" Sam shouted when he entered the room, making a beeline for the angel. Cas barely had time to notice the hunter was still wearing sleep clothes before he was pulled into a brief but tight hug "You're all right."

"All right as can be expected," the angel said as he looked up at his friend. "Did we…wake you?"

"Well, it is about four in the morning, so maybe a little," Hunter said casually as she walked into the library with the twins and Rachael trailing behind. The three of them were in pajamas, but hunter was still in daywear, as was typical of her.

"I'm sorry. I know everyone needs their rest."

"Are you kidding, man? We've been waiting for you guys to get back for weeks," Sam said. "What's a few lost hours?"

"Fair bit when you haven't seen a bed in a week," Dorothy put in as she entered the library. "Welcome home, kid."

"Hello, Dorothy," Cas said quietly as Atreus and Sekhmet entered behind her, followed shortly by none other than Linda Tran. "Linda," the angel mumbled in surprise.

"Hey, Castiel. Long time, no see," she said with a pained smile. "I hear you'll be joining the noble ranks of parenthood in a few months."

"That is true."

"I would say 'congratulations', but I think the phrase 'good luck' would be more apt, even if it was just a regular human baby," she said. The words seemed to leave a taste of bitterness in her mouth, but even so, the smile stayed on her face.

"Thank you," Cas said with a small nod. "How is Kevin fairing?"

"And now we're getting into the territory of 'long story'," Sam said before the conversation could progress further. "Maybe we should make sure everybody's here first. Where did Lailah get to?"

"Right here," the angel of conception announced as she landed in the room with Benny in tow. "It seemed only polite to ensure that everyone has a body for this conversation."

"Benny!" Sam started in surprise. "You're back."

"Doin' all right there, li'l Winchester?" Benny asked, waving faintly before leaning against the table, clearly wrung out after such a lightning round of flights. "You got one heck of a niece cookin' up there."

"So I've seen," Sam said, gaze shifting between Benny and Cas for a moment.

"He helped us escape from Purgatory," Cas explained. "Rose believes she will be able to purify his soul and allow him to become human again."

"I'm sorry. Rose?" Sam asked.

"Rose," Cas repeated, resting a hand over the swell of his stomach. "Rose is the name I chose for her. I wanted something…human."

"Okay. That I get, but…Rose believes? As in…she actually said this?" Sam tried to clarify.

Cas was about to explain when two more people popped into the room – the two jackal spirits, Tek and Kiah.

"Sam, what has happened?" Tek asked frantically. "It's as if everything's splitting apart!"

Sam glanced between Tek and Cas for several more minutes, his expression having long since gone past Bitch Face. "And I'm officially lost. What the hell is going on here?"

Once again, Cas opened his mouth to explain when he found himself interrupted yet again, this time by Crowley and another demon.

"All right, what have you bastards done this time?!" the former king demanded, red eyes going directly to Sam. "What's a hell spawn got to do to go on existing these days, huh? What?"

"Crowley," Linda suddenly entered the conversation, voice a low growl in her throat. When the demon looked over and saw her, the red immediately drained from his eyes.

"Oh."

Throwing his hands in the air in exasperation, Sam took a step back from Crowley. "That's it. I give up."

However, just when it seemed the library really was going to devolve into screaming chaos, Gabriel's voice suddenly rose above it all.

"Would you ass hats all just calm your tits for half a minute!" the archangel thundered, and at his words everyone in the room actually froze, held in place by his power. "Okay. That's better. Sorry for the time out, but it seemed like it was necessary. And as long as you're all just standing around, you may as well listen. From what I can see, most everybody in this room wants at least one other person in it dead. Thing is, personal vendettas aren't really conducive to the continuance of reality right now, so if we could all just agree to get along for the foreseeable future, that would be good. Can I get a nod from all of you if we're in agreement?"

However, the room remained stark still after the archangel's declaration and it was only after several minutes had passed that he finally seemed to remember. "Oh, heh, right. You can't move yet. Okay, nod…now," he finished with a snap of his fingers. Even so, the room remained perfectly still. Gabriel glanced between them and his fingers several times, twiddling the digits for a moment. "Is this thing on?"

"We're capable of nodding, Gabriel. The point is that we don't want to," Hunter clarified, turning her head in Gabriel's direction – apparently the only thing any of them could currently move. "A, you're not exactly known for being upfront. B, we're a ramshackle collection of humans, beasts, angels, and demons. You're asking us to blindly trust demons?"

"Demons like existing just as much as you do, sweetheart," Mags bit out. "That's at least one thing we can all agree on."

"Demon or no demon, you're asking me to trust the creature who imprisoned and tortured me, tortured my son!" Linda snarled, her enraged glare burning in Crowley's direction.

"Don't suppose it would help to say I may or may not have changed?" the former king put in.

"Yeah, I'm sure that's true, but that's kinda the thing about you, Crowley. You change from minute to goddamn minute," Sam pointed out. "You want me to list your offenses chronologically or alphabetically?"

"Um…maybe this doesn't help with the decision making process, but…Crowley did save Elaine's life," Rachael pointed out, reaching for the elder Serra's hand as she spoke. "Even when it wasn't really in his best interests to do it."

"There's also…the fact that he removed his claim on her," Merry reminded them.

"Crowley?" Cas started in surprise, looking in the demon's direction. "I've never known you to give up that which was yours."

"Don't read too much into it," the former king snapped. "It just seemed less than ideal to be putting souls in Dean's hands at the moment."

"Word for the wise. Defending your demonic honor might not really help your case right now," Gabriel reminded him.

"If you want to blame someone, blame Moose. I didn't ask to get hopped up on his blood. If anything, I'm the victim here."

"Oh, if you even-"

"Cake holes shut!" Gabriel commanded with yet another snap of his fingers, silencing the room once more. "You all seem to be misunderstanding what's going on here. We are sitting on the equivalent of about a hundred nuclear warheads, and that's actually the least of it. At least Rosie can be reasoned with. Metatron, on the other hand, would very much like to see every last one of us six feet under. Normally, I'm about the last person to be giving the 'stick together' speech, but if we can't forget about what happened in the past, then there's no future. If we can't work together and at least pretend to trust each other, then we might as well just lie down and die right now, save Metatron the trouble. I can see I'm gonna have to take things slow with this gang, so for right now, can I at least get your agreement not to kill each other in the next hour? Is that cool with all you assholes?" the archangel asked, looking around at all of them as he released his hold. Slowly, grudgingly, each of them nodded.

"Gabriel…how do you know- what Metatron's plan is?" Cas asked him.

"Before the battle for the bunker went down, I'd snuck into Heaven to have a chat with the old faker. Things hadn't been looking too far out of the dream team's ability to handle until Miss Rosie came along, so I decided to see what I could get out of him. Hannah didn't just happen to go to him for help. Turns out he's been scheming all this from the very beginning, probably since he saw what was between you and the shorter Winchester."

"But…why?" Cas pressed, feeling something like guilt beginning to tear at his heart. "What could he possibly hope to achieve with all this?"

"Exactly? I'm not sure," Gabriel admitted. "He told me that Heaven was going to attack before I could get anything else out of him, so I just had to come step in. From what I could gather, though, Rose's conception started this whole thing, freeing Israfil and all, and that's somehow going to allow him a stab at becoming the god of our reality."

"But he's done that already," Sam pointed out. "We've stopped him before. What else does he think he can do since Cas destroyed the angel tablet?"

"If Metatron is to be believed – dubious statement at best, but still," Gabriel continued with a shrug, "that was just the beginning. He'd planned to get captured, planned to have Dean become a demon and for the UST between him and Cas to ignite in spectacular fashion. Rose being conceived was the only way to begin awakening Israfil, and I don't know what, but apparently with her is some kind of secret. Whatever it is, it'll allow him to do more than just pretend. The way he was talking, it will allow him to actually become God, and from what I saw down in Purgatory, I don't think that's even remotely outside the realm of possibility."

"So…what did happen down there?" Crowley was the one to finally ask, looking more to Cas than to Gabriel.

"After…Hannah's betrayal…Dean and I fought," Cas began, staring at the floor rather than at any of them. "It had been his intention to show Heaven just what kind of power we now command, but I didn't want us to be involved in the fighting. I knew he could easily destroy anyone that stood against him…and I feared he wouldn't stop with Heaven's soldiers. So I fought to prevent him from intervening. That fight kept us contained during the battle, but…when we finally awoke, I found that Olivia and Charlie had carried us to Hell. Dean tried to tempt me into remaining by his side with promises of protection for Rose…but I knew I couldn't. I couldn't betray what we really are, so I resolved to return to this plane. Dean allowed us to strike out through Purgatory. I saw what he's been using Rose's power to do."

"I'm sorry. Us?" Sam tried to clarify. "You mean Benny?"

"No. We met up with him later. What I mean is that I was able to actually see Rose in Hell and Purgatory. She manifested as a little girl…a lovely little girl with brown curls and Dean's eyes. Our child…she's so beautiful," Cas said distantly, hand tracing faintly over the place where Rose grew within him.

"Cas," Sam started, taking a step forward, but not really knowing what else to say.

"What…more happened, Castiel?" Kiah was the one to finally press. "Tek and I can feel it and I'm sure the demons and the other angels can feel it, too. Why does it feel as if the threads of reality are unknitting themselves?"

"I'm not- really sure what happened. I just know that we were close to escaping when we were tracked down by Dick Roman."

"The arsehole leviathan?" Crowley asked.

"Yes. He'd meant to use us against Dean, but Dean showed up to help us and…and he…"

"He what, Cas?" Sam pressed.

"He told Rosie it was okay for her to make the bastard go away," Benny supplied when Cas was unable to. "I don't rightly know what the little lightnin' bug did, but it was ugly to watch. She pulled him apart, bit by bit, 'til there weren't nothin' left."

"She unmade him," Gabriel stepped in to explain. "She didn't just kill him, she erased him from existence. No chance of ever being remade, unless Rose chose to herself, and that's unlikely. If she'd kept it up any longer, she could have made it so that he'd never existed at all – that none of us would even remember him and we'd have no idea why there's a great big well of potential energy eating up Purgatory as we speak."

"Sorry? Potential energy?" Mags asked him.

"Shyeah. I sure hope nobody thought you could just unmake the oldest being in creation without consequence," the archangel snapped out. "Undoing his existence created a spring of potential energy on the spot where he last stood. It's the most dangerous kind of power there is and only Dad can wield it. Rosie's not even at a point where she can actually control it. She just inadvertently generated it."

"That doesn't- really answer the question," Dorothy pointed out. "Sure, it's bad news, but what actually is potential energy?"

"Pretty much what it says on the label. It's potential. It exists and doesn't exist. It's everything and nothing. It's what came before existence and what will be there after it ends. It's what makes God God. Even archangels can barely tap it. Right now it's tearing up Purgatory in favor of being able to make something new."

"And…what happens if it just keeps spreading?" Elaine asked.

"Nothing will happen because it won't be allowed to keep spreading. I put some bandages on the tear and Heaven's looking into it now. They'll be able to maintain the tear, keep it from getting bigger. On a happier note, it'll probably keep their eyes off us for a little while. Point being, though, that this is probably the real reason Metatron's orchestrating Israfil's resurrection, not your kid," he said to Cas.

"Either way, the archangel's awakening will prove deadly for her," Cas mused partly to himself before looking around at all of them. "And where does Hannah stand in her hunt for the items?"

The twins shared a look before glancing at Cas, then looking guiltily away.

"She got the blood," Merry admitted. "Elaine was captured after the battle and I got stupid."

"Afraid I did, too," Crowley put in without actually looking at any of them. "Hannah wasn't going to let her live and, as I've already mentioned, I don't much care to be handing soul currency to the squirrel king just now."

"So that leaves Hannah with four of the items," Cas ground out.

"And us with just two, whatever those two even are," Sam said with a pained groan. "I'm sorry, Cas."

"This isn't your fault. How can it be your fault?" Cas pointed out, though he could still feel his wings flaring with tension. It wasn't anyone's fault. How could it have been when Elaine's life had been at stake? But just because there was nowhere to lay blame didn't mean the whole situation wasn't painfully upsetting.

"Even if we don't know what the items are, at least we know who they'll be coming from…somehow," Hunter said. "We still have no idea what the last item is. Maybe it would serve us better to figure that out?"

"Okay. What was that riddle again?" Gabriel asked.

"A mother whose circle is unbroken," Elaine supplied.

"Not anything from said mother? Just the mother?"

"Sounds like."

"Wow," the archangel started up with a chuckle. "Cas? Lailah? You didn't get this? Neither of you?"

"What?" Lailah asked.

"Things have been a little chaotic of late," Cas said, turning the flattest expression he could manage on the older angel.

"Come on, you guys. Seriously? What's the one thing an angel needs in order to manifest on Earth?"

That did it. It clicked at once for all of them, but Sam was the one to finally give voice to it.

"A vessel."

"Yup. So all we need to do is locate Israfil's true vessel, a mother whose circle is unbroken."

"'All we need', he says," Crowley grumbled with a roll of his eyes. "As if it puts us any closer to actually finding this person."

"Well…if this final tenet remains true to form, it will be someone you've already met, or will meet very soon," Lailah speculated. "In my time, I have known every mother on this planet, however briefly. That is…a great deal of backlog to go through."

"So how many mothers do we know?" Sam asked the group at large.

"Well, myself not included, you have at least one present already," Lailah said, nodding toward Linda.

"It would make sense," Cas said after several moments of silence. "She is the mother of a prophet."

"Yes, but how would that mean my circle is unbroken? I don't know of anything that fits that," Linda pointed out. "Besides, the only circle that makes me a mother is pretty well broken."

"And it's just mother and not parent?" Sekhmet asked. "Because Atreus is a father."

"Was," the tall witch snapped, his typical stoicism slipping briefly into a simmering anger. "It would be the same issue as Linda."

Everyone except Hunter, the twins, Rachael, and Sekhmet glanced to the man, but his expression and the tone of his voice did not invite questions as to his statement, so it was left alone.

"I guess Jody's a mother again," Sam mused in the ensuing silence. "But if this whole circle thing's a family that's not dead, she's got the same deal. Honestly, that's- probably gonna be the issue with most of the mothers we can think of."

"Yeah. This business sorta runs on dead family members," Dorothy said with a wry smirk.

"That could be a way to narrow it down," Elaine suggested.

"Assuming that's what an unbroken circle even means," Mags ground out.

"It is kinda the only thing we have to go on at this point," Kaoru said quietly.

"So who else have we got?" Merry asked. "I mean, there's Alma. She might fit the bill."

"True. What about Circe or Weaver?" Sam asked, directing the question more toward the members of their coven. "Do we know if either of them have been mothers?"

"Weaver I cannot speak for," Crowley began when the witches offered up only shrugs. "But Circe was a mother once. Best that fate put a stop to that before another one of those could be unleashed."

"Got something to say, demon?" Atreus challenged, throwing a glare the former king's way. "Cuz some of us might not think too highly of it."

Crowley gave a dark chuckle as he looked around at the members of the Circle of Moonrise. "There's lots of things I could say, children. Things and things again, but the least of which is to ask you a question. How well do you really know the woman you've sworn to live under?"

"Hope you don't think you can turn us against her," Sekhmet said as she moved to stand beside Atreus. "For a lot of us, Circe was there at a time when no one else was. Nothing in this world could turn us from her."

"Don't believe that was the answer to the question I asked. I don't care what your opinion of the woman is. I'm asking you if you know anything about her. Do you even know her real name? Have you asked her?"

"We don't have to ask her," Rachael insisted. "It doesn't matter what she was before. It doesn't change that we're family."

"I don't know that you would claim that with pride if you really knew what tends to happen to the members of her family. The fact is that you don't know who Circe Jones really is," the former king ground out.

"And you do?" Sekhmet challenged.

"As a matter of fact, yes. I would say I know her better than anyone alive today. In fact, I don't even have to tell you anything if you don't want to listen to me. This is a Men of Letters bunker. If you want the truth, go into their records. I've no doubt even a backwater outpost like this has records of one of their earliest enemies. Go into the files and see what they have on a witch known as Elspeth De Súile Dorcha. I guarantee you'll find it most interesting reading."

"We done?" Gabriel asked with a roll of his eyes. "This is kinda what I meant about not going for each others' throats. I seriously doubt you guys have named every mother you know."

"Nothing to do with mothers, no, but there is…something not good you all should know parenting wise," Crowley cut back in.

"And here we were hoping the former king of Hell would have some good news," Merry said with a sneer and a pained sigh. "I mean, I'm not really seeing how this can get worse, but-"

"But you should know better than to ever say something so moronic," Crowley snarked back before she could finish. "I told you why I chose Olivia for this task, but not any of the others. The truth is that they're all very much the same, the demons I've chosen."

"Which means…" Dorothy prodded.

"It means that, somewhere along the line, each one of them made a deal for someone else's sake," Crowley explained as all eyes in the room turned to the other two demons, who both very pointedly looked at the floor. "They each made the decision to go to Hell for the sake of someone they cared about."

"And why would you need a group of demons like that?" Sam asked.

"Call it a change in strategy," the former king returned. "Their kind, the few of them who exist, have something of a stigma in Hell. Lacking any form of greed or ambition, a soul like that is thought to produce a weaker demon, even though there's no factual basis for the bias. After all, Cain is such a beast, and he was once the strongest of all of us. Anyway," he interrupted himself with a shake of his head, "point is that such demons don't usually see service during the varying regimes that move through our hallowed halls of the underground. I've never used them, but then I found myself thinking of some of the, frankly, impossible bollocks you and the other two members of your boy band pull off simply through your loyalty to each other. I wondered if maybe there wasn't something to this whole business, so I sought out the only souls in Hell capable of any kind of loyalty."

"You do get that loyalty isn't a trial membership, yeah?" Sam challenged as he raised an irked eyebrow. "It's something you earn."

"Anyway," the demon interrupted again, cracking his neck and continuing as if the hunter hadn't spoken at all, "while the decision has proven to work in my favor thus far, Dean's also managed to use it against me…and it looks like he might have the opportunity to do it again."

"Sir?" Mags started, looking up at her boss in confusion. Crowley stood in silence for several moments before continuing.

"All of my other recruits died at least before 1950. Akilina being the only possible exception, I didn't think any of the others could possibly still have loved ones left alive, but I was wrong – painfully wrong."

"Sir…who is it?" Mags continued to press, her voice tinged with a strange something none of the others could seem to identify.

"Dana. He died in 1684 and the daughter he gave his life for is still breathing," Crowley answered with a growl.

"But how's that possible?" Hunter asked.

"Because she's a witch. Most of you know her. It's Weaver McKenna, Circe's darling niece."

"Oh, God," Lailah was the one to finally voice what they were all feeling.

"Are there- any others?" Cas asked haltingly, finding himself unnerved by the thought of a man choosing an eternity in Hell for the sake of his daughter.

"Well…I admit to being worried after finding this out, so I did a little digging. Kaoru here died in 1868, and while there are…descendants…the man he gave his life for is long dead," he started, gaze lingering on Sam for a moment before continuing. "Mags died in 1925. The man she sold her soul for went in 1940, but their daughter died only last year."

Most of them expected Mags to react to this news in some way, but for once, the mouthy demon had nothing to say. She just stared at Crowley with a completely inscrutable expression, waiting for him to continue.

"As I'd feared, Akilina did prove to be the only other exception. She made a deal for her family and died in 1945. Her husband died in 2005, but up until recently both of their twin daughters were still alive. One of them died just last month and the other isn't likely to live much longer. She's not the one I'm worried about. It's Dana. Charlie, Olivia, and even Dean are all very young demons. They're just coming into their power. But as demons go, Dana is even older than I am. Had he ever been so inclined, I imagine he could've made a formidable contender for Malik's position back in the day."

"Malik?" Sam asked.

"Crowley's old boss," Mags was the one to answer this time, finally snapping out of her contemplative silence. "Malik was king of the crossroads before he came along."

"Back on track here, the point is that I find the notion of Squirrel creating a knight of Hell with Dana's power and experience somewhat disconcerting. I'm completely open to any suggestions on how to keep our squirrel from using this against us."

"Circe will protect Weaver," Rachael insisted. "She wouldn't let anything happen to her."

Crowley actually laughed at this. "Pretty sure we've had this conversation already. I'm not exactly inclined to trust to a woman whose track record is soaked in blood. Circe couldn't keep anything alive, even if she wanted to. I wouldn't trust her with a bloody goldfish, let alone something as important as this. You all can trust your fate to her if you want, but I'll be searching for something better if it's all the same to you."

"Where even is Dana?" Mags asked. "This kinda seems like something he'd want to be around for."

"He took off," Kaoru answered. "When he figured out who Weaver was…guess he just couldn't deal. Lina's looking for him."

"Just one more thing to worry about," Atreus said with an exasperated roll of his eyes. "As if Circe didn't already have enough to deal with in the search for Cain."

"There's always at least one more thing to deal with," Sam sighed. "Even now, there are things we still need to work through, but it's been a long not-quite-morning and I think we could all probably do with some sleep before we tackle any more of it. Anyone else?"

"I'll drink to that," Atreus said, shoulders slumping in exhaustion as he began to head away from the library. Dorothy and Sekhmet weren't far behind.

"Well, I'm already up. So I'll start prepping breakfast, but you guys can go back to sleep," Elaine said. "Food should be ready by the time everyone wakes up. I'm thinking pancakes and sausage."

"I'll help you!" Rachael immediately jumped to join her.

"Would you like any help?" Linda asked them.

"No, I don't think they would," Merry answered before either of them could. As she led Linda from the library, she tossed a teasing grin over her shoulder at her sister. "Kitchen's all yours, ladies."

"And Merry has spoken," Hunter said with a small laugh, bearing the brunt of the flat look Elaine fixed them all with. Despite her irritation, though, it didn't take her long to lead Rachael toward the kitchen. Hunter turned to look at Sam with a tired smile. "Feeling a little déjà vu?"

"Maybe a little," Sam said, returning the smile as he reached out to take her hand. "Have you actually slept any?"

"A little," the gunsmith returned with a shrug. On the surface, the whole exchange appeared casual, so only the two of them knew just how tightly they were each gripping the other's hand. "Been awake for about an hour, so I'll probably just go ahead and get to work."

"Gonna be okay?" Sam asked, keeping his grip on her hand when she moved to pull away.

"I'll be fine," she answered, not resisting the hold too much. "I'll get a cat nap in later if I need to."

"All right," he said, finally releasing her hand to allow her to move toward the music room door. As she walked, she slipped the key from somewhere on her person Sam was absolutely not going to allow himself to think about. Maybe a cold shower would be better than another hour of sleep?

"Is that a colt in your pocket, Moose…or are you just happy to watch her leave?" Crowley couldn't seem to help jibing.

Sam glared at the former king for a moment before allowing the look to shift into more of a smirk. "Well, if it was a colt, you'd be shit out of luck."

The demon's eyebrows rose for a moment before his own smirk returned. "Did you just toss the ball back? Now I know the world's coming to an end."

"The world's been coming to an end ever since it first got started," Sam shot back, voice a strange mix of fondness and bitterness. "Besides, it's not like Hunter needs me to defend her honor."

"True enough," Crowley conceded. "And as I'm satisfied that the world's not ending right this second, there are other matters that need my attention, so if you'll excuse me," he said, nodding once before vanishing from the library with his two minions. This left just the three angels, Benny, Sam himself, and the two jackal spirits.

"Cas?" Sam started, realizing they'd forgotten to ask the truly important question in all this. "How're you holding up with all this?"

Cas thought for several moments before answering. He hadn't moved from the chair he'd been settled into once during the entire conversation, and indeed, he wasn't completely sure he could manage his own feet if he attempted to move.

"I'm not sure," he said, resting his head in his hands. "I saw Dean lose consciousness down there…after the well opened up. I was so sure I would as well, but I haven't. I'm so tired, but I'm afraid if I sleep, I might be trapped…and more of that barrier will be worn away. I don't know what to do."

"If you need sleep, there's not much you can do. You'll have to rest," Lailah told him.

"Not yet," Cas said as firmly as he was able. "Not until I know."

"Well, you know what I think of that decision, but I can't make you do anything," the elder angel granted. "Will you at least go to your room and lie down, even if you won't sleep?"

"I will- need help actually getting there, but I will agree to those terms," Cas conceded with a nod.

"Cas?" Benny called out before Lailah could whisk him away. "How…how's li'l missie holdin' up?"

"Still with us. She's resting now," Cas returned quietly, a hand briefly trailing along the small bulge in his belly as an exhausted smile moved across his face. Both of them knew there was more to be said there. It just wasn't the right time for it.

"All right. Go get yourself rested up then."

"Thank you," Cas said to him as Lailah placed a hand on his shoulder. "Without you, we…Rose and I wouldn't have made it out. Thank you."

"Aw, shucks, angel boy, you'd have figured somethin' out, but you're welcome, just the same. Now go."

Lailah nodded to the vampire, not giving Cas a chance to say anything more before disappearing with him. Gabriel just stretched and yawned.

"Well, this has been fascinating, but I've got some snooping of my own to do, so-"

"Gabriel, wait," Tek protested before the last angel could take off. "I know you have had a difficult time of things-"

"That's putting it mildly," the archangel scoffed. "Good to see you, too, Tek."

"If we could make a request for when Castiel has recovered enough, Anubis would like to speak with the two of you about Heaven."

"Oh, sure. Let me just pencil that in," Gabriel jibed. "Because apparently one of the most powerful beings in creation now plays secretary to Heaven's Most Wanted."

"Gabriel-" Kiah started.

"Yeah, yeah, don't worry. We'll be there," Gabriel said, waving dismissively before heading out of the library to who knew where.

"You two gonna hang around or is there work to do?" Sam asked the two spirits.

"As you well know, there is always more work to do, but should you need us, you know you have but to call," Kiah said before she and her partner also vanished into thin air, leaving Sam and Benny alone in the room.

"I guess I never really got a chance to thank you either," Sam said. "For getting Bobby and me out of Purgatory, especially after I'd been such a jerk to you."

"Ain't no thing, Sam. What other way did you know to behave toward a vampire?"

"Yeah, but Dean trusted you…and I should have, too. So I'm sorry for that…and thank you…for me and for Cas."

"Well, you're forgiven…and welcome…though I s'pose if I'd known back then what was gonna happen, I'd've done better to come with you then," the vampire said with a self-deprecating chuckle.

"Maybe, but you never can tell what's gonna happen. Looks like we're going to need to get you set up in one of the rooms down here for the time being," Sam said, nodding toward the library exit, indicating that Benny should follow him.

"Room?" the vampire asked in confusion, following after several moments of hesitation.

"Sure. You're part of this now, too. We may not be much of an army, but we've got to stick together if we're gonna have any shot of making it out of this in one piece. You'd be surprised just how extensive this place is."

"A room," Benny repeated, still barely comprehending. It had been so long since he'd had anything even like a room of his own – back during his time with Andrea. Now, to have such a simple thing offered so suddenly and unexpectedly, well…he supposed Sam was right. You never could tell what was going to happen. There he'd been, resigned to Purgatory forever, and along had come a lovely little girl with enchanting green eyes and promises of hope and salvation, and now maybe even…something like home?

Petite…you really just might be this Rose of Sharon everybody keeps talkin' 'bout. I promise…if it takes the last breath in my body – again – I'll keep you safe.

XxX

Dana didn't really think about where he went when he left Fall River. He just ran. He ran as far and as fast as he could. But no matter how far he ran, he couldn't outrun the memories. He couldn't escape the bits and pieces of his former life burgeoning up in his soul from beneath centuries of evil and horror.

The sound of his mother's voice singing a lullaby – his oldest memory – from when he'd still been swinging in a cradleboard…

Praise for the red dawn

Grass that we walk upon

Praise for the river's whispered tune

Learning the paths through the forest from his father…the days before anyone had understood why Red River's clumsy boy had been given a name like Eyes of a Wolf…

"It isn't just what has been seen for you. You have to earn it. See with eyes unclouded."

Praise for the Wind Brother

Praise for the Earth Mother

Praise the Father Sun and Sister Moon

Always running after his sister – Icy Rain…the special one…the powwaw's apprentice…the girl everyone loved, but who loved only her little brother…

"It doesn't matter what they say. You will learn. One day you will see, Little Wolf."

The powwaw's words when he was still just a boy…that Red River's son would love no mortal woman…that he would see with eyes unclouded…and the teasing he had taken from the other children for those words, for surely it meant he would love something ridiculous, like a skunk or a rat…

Praise for the high tide

Praise for the seaside

Praise for the sun at high noon

The lonely young man they all just called Little Wolf…wandering alone until the day he'd come upon the remains of a ship dashed against the rocks along the coast, her English dead scattered on the sand and in the icy surf…all bloated and milky-eyed…all save one – a girl wrapped in a red cloak that even a naïve boy like him could tell was steeped in strong magic. Clearly it was the garment alone that had saved her from the fate of her tribesmen.

The soaked, pitiful, bedraggled thing lying at his feet had looked up at him with sick, fearful eyes, life barely sparking in them. However, even in their exhaustion, he had seen beauty in those eyes – a strange color he'd never before seen in human eyes…grey with flecks of green and gold. It had only been when he'd looked into those eyes for the first time that he'd begun to understand the powwaw's words.

Marnie.

Marnie Mac Cionaoith had been unlike any other settler he'd known. Even after being brought back from the brink of death, she'd had no wish to join her people in any of their settlements…always said they wouldn't want her…that they would drive her out if they knew who she was.

"Even now, she protects me. Her power saved me and guided me to the only harbor in all the world that would accept me."

Though she was mysterious and she kept a large part of her heart hidden away, there had also been a sense of childlike wonder about her. She'd been amazed just to see the sun rise each morning and to hear the rain pattering on the river during a spring shower. The world was beauty itself to her…and she was beauty itself to him.

"Something dark haunts her steps. Her heart is good, but there is blood on her footprints. She is Manitou – a strong spirit – no woman of mother and father born."

No mortal woman. That was what they'd said. He'd heard it all, but it was not for the sake of the half-whispered prophecy of his name that he loved her. No. He loved her because he saw the truth of her. He saw her with eyes unclouded – his beloved White Willow.

Even as the world had begun to spiral out of control around them, with conflict between the Abenaki and the English erupting in ever more violent ways, even so, they'd been happy together. He'd had White Willow for his wife and in her womb, she'd carried the seed of their love – a baby girl more beautiful than the moon among the stars. Nanatasis – their Hummingbird.

Their time together had been all too brief, over in no more than a flash. He hadn't fully been able to comprehend all the things White Willow had tried to explain to him in that final stretch of time. All he'd really been able to grasp was that someone was coming for her. Though she'd hardly been recognizable as the Englishwoman he'd reclaimed from the sea all those years ago, someone from that hidden past had known her, had convinced his fellows that only a witch would choose to live among savages. They'd been captured.

"Did you truly believe you could escape, Marnie? I made a vow to see that every last drop of fey blood in this world was eradicated. You and your unholy seed will be put to the torch. Not even your murderous sister can save you now!"

They were to be executed together, but at the last moment, a strange man had come to their cell offering him a deal.

"In exchange for your soul, I will save either White Willow or Hummingbird. One or the other will die with you."

"No! You cannot do this! He does not understand. Make a deal with me! Take me instead."

"No. I deal with your husband or not at all."

"What is it that he wants?"

"Maybe…it would be better if we all just died together. If you do this...your soul will not pass to join the ancestors. It will belong to him. We will be apart for eternity. I will never see you again."

"But…Hummingbird…she will live?"

"…Yes."

"And there is nothing I can do to save you?"

"A life for a life. Consider carefully, Eyes of a Wolf. I will save only one life. Your wife or your child. The choice is yours alone to make. Decide."

"All right."

With a kiss, the deal had been sealed and their little girl had been spirited from the cell, leaving the two of them to their final embrace.

"How could I do it? How could I let him do this to you?!"

"Because it was the only way we could save her. I will never regret it, my love."

And the men had come for them. Their leader had been enraged at the loss of White Willow's child, but the execution had gone forward anyway. They'd been dragged through the town, out to a cleared patch at the edge of the forest and bound to stakes. The men had spit on them and taunted them shamelessly, but they'd ignored them. Their pettiness had been nothing against the last moments he and his love would be together.

He hadn't watched them prepare the fires or light them. He'd kept his gaze fixed on White Willow's the entire time, not watching her burn – not hearing the blaze roar and crack or seeing her skin roast and peel from her bones – no. He'd just looked into her eyes, pressing them into his soul, focusing on her to keep from feeling the agony of his own end – just being with her until he saw the light go from those eyes, eyes that had changed his world from the moment he'd looked into them.

Once she was gone, safe away from the pain and torment, he'd seen her rise above it all, above the smoke and fire and up into freedom, and when she'd looked back down at him he'd felt himself begin to rise up after her – but just as quickly, he'd felt himself held down, unable to be with her.

"You only get to watch."

And a look of horror had been the last he'd seen in her eyes. Desperate to comfort her, in spite of his own despair, he'd given her one last smile.

Have no fear. I do not regret it. I will never. I will love you always.

And he had. It had been the only thing that had given him enough strength of will to become a demon rather than simply fading away beneath torture. Until he'd looked into Weaver's eyes, he'd forgotten the reason why, but that love had still been there. He had no idea when Eyes of a Wolf had become Dana, but it happened to all of them eventually. You needed to abandon what you'd lost in order to accept what you'd become. And when he finally started to think again, to take note of his surroundings, he realized where he'd run to with a rush of horror.

He'd come to the place where it had happened.

In the grand scheme of things, it didn't really mean anything. It was just a small patch of ground in a forest somewhere in Maine. It was nothing. But for him, it was what he had lived and died for, all represented by a single stretch of earth and a small collection of boulders, still stained with the ashes of their execution all these years later.

Nothing had grown in the place where they'd burned. He knew that a settlement had once been here, but there was no trace of it now – deserted and long since reclaimed by the forest, no doubt. Perhaps the murder of one such as White Willow had been had left its own mark on the land – and its own curse on the men who had carried it out. At least there was something to soothe the ache in his scorched soul.

Kneeling slowly in the dust before the boulders, Dana let his gaze sweep the stain of ashes on them – until his eyes picked out a faint impression in the dim predawn light.

A small handprint.

Hummingbird. Weaver.

He didn't know how, but something inside of him knew with absolute certainty that his daughter had been here – had come to see the place where her parents died. Feeling a wave of anger and anguish move through him, he pounded a fist against the rock beside the small impression. It did nothing to affect the centuries old stains, but it made him feel a little better.

"Dana?" he suddenly heard Akilina's voice from behind him. He would admit to being grateful when she didn't actually approach him.

"This is where it happened," he said quietly, not turning to face her. He knew she'd heard everything Circe had said. "This is where we died…where she died."

"Well…at least you know it wasn't for nothing. That deal's bought your daughter a good long life."

"True enough," he granted as he shifted into a sitting position, reaching a hand out to trace a circle around the impression. "What about you? Do you remember…where you died?" he asked, still not looking at her. It wasn't a subject that was typically discussed among there kind, if at all. Really, it was better to try and think that they'd always been as they were now…than to try and think about the things that had been.

"A long way from here," she responded, her voice tightening up for a moment as she moved closer to him. "In Poland. It was…1945 or 44…so not nearly so long ago as you."

"And…was it worth it?" he asked as he laid his hand over his daughter's handprint, imagining he could see her kneeling in the spot where he was sitting now.

"You should know better than to ask that question…Dana," she said as she sat down beside him. "I don't know what the answer is. If you're asking me if I'd do it again…knowing what I know now…and I had the choice to make all over again, the answer to that question is 'yes'. Inescapably. Do I know if my sacrifice meant anything? No. I have no idea. I don't know if my family lived well after we were separated. I don't know if any of them lived long lives or if they died the next year. I don't know, and I've never felt compelled to find out. Whatever end they came to…I'm just satisfied knowing they didn't have to suffer the horrors I went through. The one thing I do know was worth it…is that I was there in Hell when the man who put me there came down to join us. I was there to personally pay him back tenfold for every torture he'd inflicted on me. That was worth everything," she finished, her voice hard with cold fury. When Dana looked over at her, he found she wasn't looking at anything. She was just staring straight ahead, at something far off that only she could see. Not daring to interrupt her reverie, he simply waited for her to return to the present moment, just as he'd had to. When she finally did, it was with a tired smile. "Well, hey, I guess you'll get the chance to find out if it was really worth it. You'll get to meet her."

"Really think that's a good idea?" he pondered, half to himself and half to her. "Things like this…they can only lead to trouble. Right? I mean…look what happened to Olivia."

"Heh, you're going to, Dana. Don't pretend like you're not. I know you. You're going to talk with this woman and you're going to relive every moment of her life with her. Not just because you want to feel like what you went through meant something; you already know that it did. It's because she's your daughter, and you really want a chance to be her father, even if it's centuries after she's needed one."

"And…what happens if she won't talk with me?" he pressed. "After all, it- it can't be a very pleasant experience…learning your father's a demon. Is forgiveness…even possible?"

"There I cannot help you. Never tried, myself. That's your call to make."

"I…" he started, reaching a hand forward to trace along the handprint one last time. It was an impossibly tough call to make. In Hell…perhaps it was the thought of a confrontation like this that had always kept him believing he could endure worse. What would happen to him if it went badly? But then…what did he really have to lose?

"I'm going to try," he said as he got to his feet.

XxX

The next time Dean wakes up, he finds himself expecting to see Cas again. Only it's not the angel standing across from him.

He's looking at himself.

It isn't like his encounters with Cas. Instead of a barrier between them, there's an open pit of fire. As he looks through the flames at his mirror image, he sees the other's features twist into a sneer, his eyes going black.

"Hey there, beautiful."

"You're him, aren't you," he says, glaring contemptuously at the doppelganger. "The demon."

"Heh, him? What him? Ain't no him. It's just you. We're all the same beast here. Just Dean Winchester."

"That's where you're wrong," Dean snaps back as the two of them begin to circle the fire. "I would never do the things you've done."

"That we've done. That you've done," the demon corrects with an indulgent sneer. "There's no part of me that wasn't born from you. I'm just the unrestrained you. I'm the you that's free."

"Bullshit."

"Don't give me that, man. We both know you'd do anything to take on the powers that be."

"I wouldn't kill innocent people," he argues.

"If it was to protect your family, you would, and let's face it, that's exactly what I'm doin'."

"They're gonna stop you, y'know. Sam and Cas."

At this, the demon laughs. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure they would…if you hadn't asked our dear angel baby not to cure you."

For a moment, Dean ceases the circling movement, freezing in place as he stares at his counterpart.

"Heh, thought I didn't know about that, didn't you. Cute. Seems to me you've developed a taste for it, this doin' what you want because you want it."

"Don't lump me in with you, asshole. I asked Cas to let you hang around because we've got bigger problems than your demon ass right now," Dean says as he shakes himself off, quickly resuming the circling.

"So you admit you're better with me."

"Stronger. Not better," Dean clarifies.

"This from the guy who said he preferred the purity of Purgatory?" the demon mocks. "You don't even know what's goin' on out there."

"I know demons are and always will be complete sacks of shit, so it doesn't really matter what the situation is."

Again, the demon laughs. "Aw, hell, but that is Dean Winchester all over. The one thing you hate most in the whole damn world…and you're completely willing to use it to get what you want. Wanna remind me how we're different again?"

"Oh, come off it, dick wad. What do you think you can tell me that a shot of African dream root didn't already say?" he challenges, throwing his arms wide as if welcoming a blow. His demonic side just sneers in response.

"Well, you said it yourself, didn't you? That wasn't real. This? This ain't no dream. This is you. This is what you chose. Back then, you didn't understand what dying meant, but now you've been through the door. You can see the possibilities. Sam, Cas, Kevin, Charlie, Elaine, Mom, Bobby, Dad, Jo, Adam, Rosie! They all deserve better! They deserved so much better than what they got. We deserve better," he snarls, violently gesturing across the space between them. "You. Me. Dean. This whole damn world deserves better…and I'm gonna give it to 'em."

"How?" Dean demands, voice much quieter than the anger boiling in his gut warrants. "By abusing Rosie's power? The power we created by…by hurting Cas," he finishes, closing his eyes as he turns away from his other self. He knows he won't be able to take the look in the demon's eyes when he talks about this.

"Don't stand there and piss self-righteousness at me, Dean. I only did what you've wanted to do since you first laid eyes on him in Hell. Maybe you'll never say it to him, but it was fuckin' love at first sight. I know you don't remember it yet, but when he came for you, when you saw that halo shinin' in the dark, you saw him. You saw the truth of Castiel, nothin' separating you – just you and him. Didn't matter that you weren't worthy, that you couldn't be further apart from each other. He was your fuckin' savior. He was yours and you were his. You loved him, and even after you figured that out back on Earth, you were too much of a coward to admit it. You never would have. You wanted him. So I took him. Nothing you say will ever convince anyone you didn't want it."

Dean swallows heavily as he opens his eyes, still looking away from his darker half. He knows there's no point in denying wanting Cas. That cat's out of the bag and on the other side of the world. But…

"I never wanted to hurt him."

"He doesn't see it that way," the demon points out.

"No, he wouldn't. Doesn't mean we didn't hurt him," Dean says as he finally looks back up at the demon. "Is that how you plan on givin' everyone better? Hurtin' 'em first? Don't we end up like this every time you take too much from Rosie?"

"Maybe that's the real Winchester legacy. Fathers who use their kids. 'Cuz you know that Dad saved you and Sammy the only way he could. Not much difference here. Because of what Rosie is, this is the only way we can save her."

"Oh, you are not gonna compare my parenting to John Winchester's. You're just not gonna do it," Dean snarls at himself.

The demon shakes his head as he sighs. "I don't really have to compare it. The evidence pretty much speaks for itself. You wanna know what got us here? Have a look," he says with a snap of his fingers. Immediately, an image appears above the fire – an image of himself, Dick Roman, and a little girl with his eyes and Cas' hair.

"That jerk hurt your papa. He and his kind tore him apart once. It's all right for you to make him go away."

"LOOK! AT! ME!"

And as Dean watches his sweet little girl strip away the first leviathan atom by atom, he feels a growing tide of horror gripping at his heart, and the demon's soon casually giving voice to every secret word contained in that tide.

"You get it now, don't you. This is what you chose when you asked them not to cure you. It's more power, yeah, but more power to encourage this? How is this any different from the first time Dad put a gun in our hands? You've become Dad, Dean!"

"SHUT UP!" he screams as the dreamscape shatters around them. The image of Rosie's power twists into smoke and the demon is lunging through the fire, hands clawing for his fragile soul –

– but then Dean found himself shooting up from a bed, panting harshly as his gaze darted around.

"Damn! Damn!" he snarled as he realized what had happened. "I almost fuckin' had it!"

"Good dreams, boss?" Olivia asked as she moved into view from the shadows of the room.

"I almost got through the barrier that time. One more second and I would've had him," Dean growled in frustration as he ran a hand through his hair. "Fuck it. Next time. What- what happened with Purgatory?"

"Well, if we're reading everything correctly, it looks like your little Rose basically punched a hole through reality when she got rid of Dick Roman. There's a group of angels maintaining the break. Charlie's keeping an eye on them."

"Get someone else on that. Get Charlie back here," Dean ordered as he got to his feet, calling the First Blade to his hand. "We've got work to do."

"Whatcha thinkin'?"

"I'm thinkin' that with Heaven occupied, it's a good time to create another knight. I need more…and I've got the perfect candidate in mind."

XxX