Plan B

Note: I'm kind of curious just what "John knew everything" really means. It would be kind of awesome if they really do mean EVERYTHING.

The thing that always got to Sam was just how easily his father could make him feel like he was the asshole. Sam broke his arm and Dean had to take him to the hospital on his bike, leading to some awkward questions when John finally got back from whatever hunt he'd been on? Sam didn't want to move for the sixth time in one school year? Sam wanted to get a dog so he could have someone other than Dean and – sometimes – his dad in his life? Sam wanted to go to college and not be a hunter forever? After spending a year tracking down John (who, though just fine, had just up and vanished one day without leaving a note) Sam wanted answers? Sam wanted to stick together and try and take down the thing that killed his mother and girlfriend?

Yeah, apparently that was all on him.

And now Dean was lying in a hospital bed, dying, and even though Sam was the only one conscious and able to chase the demon away, it was all Sam's fault for not murdering his father.

How was this even his life?

Now his father clearly kept trying to sneak off and go summon Yellow-Eyes. And yeah, Sam understood it. He wanted vengeance, too. But Dean was dying and he finally understood what his brother had been trying to tell him. Some things were more important than revenge and now he almost wished they'd never found him. Couldn't the obsession just lie for five freaking minutes? John kept denying that that was what he was doing, had even sworn to him that he would do nothing but Sam had seen right through him and wasn't leaving him alone long enough to break his word.

This was frustrating John and the fact he even had to do this in the first place was frustrating Sam and the whole situation was frustrating the both of them.

So they responded to that frustration the way they always did.

"I'm just saying, there's no way you didn't know how to use a devil's trap," Sam snapped. "I just won't believe it."

"Of course I knew about it! I've used it myself countless times. The real question is why Bobby had to tell you about it in the first place!"

"Because you didn't!" Sam shouted. "You're the one who taught us to hunt. It's bad enough you just never mentioned vampires! At least with that, though, I could assume you wanted us to stay away from them even if you not telling us could have gotten us killed if we'd just stumbled upon them on our own and knew nothing. This, though…were we just never supposed to run across any demons either?"

"I'd feel better if you hadn't," John said.

"While we were out literally hunting a really powerful demon?" Sam demanded.

John glared at him. "You knew that I didn't want you boys involved with that."

"Yeah, you'd rather have us spend our whole lives preparing to go find Yellow-Eyes and then just not even be there when we finally do find him," Sam said bitterly. "But since, you know, you did let us come-"

"At your insistence!"

"You could have told us then! You knew we were up against demons. Hell, you even knew about Meg!" Sam exclaimed. "So why didn't you tell us?"

"You boys had been on your own for a whole year now," John said. "What, in the five minutes we had together before I had to go-"

"Which was your choice," Sam interrupted. "Even if you absolutely had to go right after we found you again, no one was stopping you from picking up a phone! You called us when it was about a case."

"I was supposed to quiz you on what you'd learned?" John asked, raising his voice. "You're not thirteen anymore, Sam."

"I wasn't thirteen when I was thirteen," Sam grumbled. "And of course I wasn't expecting you to ask us a million stupid little questions but this was important!"

"It's all important," countered John. "You never know when one 'stupid little thing' could mean the difference between life or death!"

"Yeah, maybe," Sam agreed reluctantly. "But just the same, there's some things that you have to figure are going to be more likely to come up than others and knowing how to trap a demon is essential. You might as well not have told us that rock salt works on ghosts!"

"Well I'll tell you one thing," John said. "If I hadn't told you that and then left you all alone for a year hunting monsters then, if you'd survived, I damn well would have expected you to have learned that! Devil's traps aren't exactly obscure, you know. Every damn demon knows about them and sometimes they can even tell right when they've walked into it. If you knew you were up against demons and didn't do the proper research then that's on you."

"You are impossible," Sam growled.

"Ah, yes, throw a fit because you know I'm right," John said, nodding. "Did you even know that demons could only manifest by possessing people and, though they might shrug off any number of wounds, if they get mortally injured their host will die when the demon leaves?"

Sam looked away.

John shook his head incredulously. "And you're supposed to be the smart one! That's an easy one!"

"Hey, I was never off on my own before me and Dean went looking for you," Sam said defensively. "You never let us near demons before and then I took four years off!"

"Oh, so you're blaming your dying brother for this, are you?" John asked.

Sam glared. "No. I just-"

"In the interest of full disclosure, so nothing like this happens again, I should probably tell you that all demons are remains of humans who went to hell for whatever reason and were tortured until they broke," John informed him. "They can only be killed by the Colt but they can be hurt by Holy Water, flinch at 'Christo', and can be sent back to hell with your basic exorcism chant."

Sam's glare intensified. "I know that, Dad, I'm not stupid!"

"All I'm saying is that last time I expected you to not be stupid and know things you started complaining that I didn't tell you anything. I'm trying not to make that same mistake twice."

"Oh, I know exactly what you're-"

That was when the Doctor came in and told them that Dean was gone.

There were times when Zachariah really missed Gabriel.

Of course, there were plenty of perks to him being gone as well. Gabriel might not have been Lucifer but he did have this rather disturbing tendency to do the most absurd things to people for no clear reason and no matter how many times that literally anybody asked him about it he refused to properly explain. And Zachariah did have to admit that he did rather enjoy having to only take orders from two archangels instead of three or four. Of course, had either of them stayed he wouldn't complain but he took the little victories where he could.

Certainly if Gabriel were around things would be much more interesting. He had somehow managed to occupy himself doing…whatever it was that he had been doing ever since he left thousands of years ago. There were rumors, mostly from Raphael's staunch beliefs, that Gabriel was dead but the rank-and-file dying was such a rarity that Zachariah refused to give the idea of an archangel perishing any serious consideration. Gabriel had always managed to find ways to entertain himself and it had certainly made life…interesting which they had been sorely lacking for far too long.

He couldn't even imagine what life would be like if Lucifer had just done what he was told. There would really be no apocalypse to start at all, would there, and so things would probably be even worse. Not that that in any way excused their fallen brother, of course.

But the thing that made Zachariah really miss Gabriel, right this second, was Gabriel's role as messenger. If he had still been around, then breaking the new to Michael never would have been his responsibility and frankly he really didn't want to be the one who had to do this.

But, given the nature of the new, he couldn't just not do it so it was really best to just get it over with and stop worrying. If Michael was going to smite him then Michael going to smite him and was spending another five minutes agonizing over his fate really worth it?

"My Lord Michael," Zachariah said respectfully as he approached him.

Michael looked calmly over at him. "Yes, Zachariah?"

"There's been a-a bit of a setback down on Earth," Zachariah admitted.

Michael's grace flickered in displeasure but all he said was, "Setback?"

"Your vessel, Dean Winchester, he died two days ago," Zachariah said.

"I do not understand why this is a problem," Michael replied. "Being a righteous man, Dean is probably here in heaven. And if he is not, for some reason, then he can begin to move towards shedding blood in hell and beginning the apocalypse."

"Well it's a problem because righteous men are hard to find," Zachariah explained. "You are quite correct that Dean Winchester is here in heaven. He actually managed to escape his own heaven and track down his mother. It's all very…sweet." He resisted the urge to shudder.

"We do not need a great many righteous men," Michael pointed out. "Dean Winchester will suffice and I'm sure that Azazel will find a way to get him into hell some other way."

Zachariah winced. "See, there's where it gets complicated. Azazel possessed John Winchester in a bid to get one of his sons to kill him. They had the Colt but he clearly did not expect Sam or Dean to kill him with it or he would not have risked it. He was forced to flee but one of his underlings possessed a truck drive and hit the Winchesters' car. Sam and John were not seriously injured but Dean died from his injuries."

"Azazel's failed attempts to kill John Winchester are not something that concerns me," Michael said. "I understand that he knows uncomfortably much about our plans but it is highly unlikely that he knows that a demon still sealed in hell is the key to freeing Lucifer and, even if he does, he will not be able to stop what is coming. If his knowing means we have to rely less on the Winchesters before the apocalypse is begun then so be it. Other righteous souls are rare but they do exist and it honestly does not matter how Lilith dies so long as she does it after the seals are all broken. It might be most fitting for Sam to do it but she could end herself for all the difference it will make."

"Before Dean's death, Azazel was keeping an eye on the situation," Zachariah told him. "He believed that John Winchester would seek to save his son and that he could get the Colt and John's soul in exchange for saving Dean. John Winchester is a righteous man, as well, and not only would his knowledge cease to be a threat but when he eventually broke the apocalypse would begin that way."

"I take it John did not do as he was expected to?"

"From what I understand, he tried. Sam Winchester suspected he was trying to kill Azazel and did not let him alone to secretly summon Azazel and he would not have let his father make the trade if he had been aware of it," Zachariah responded.

"I still fail to see why this is a problem," Michael said. "Demons can return humans to life just as easily as preserving that life in the first place provided a deal is made. If John Winchester was so open to the idea then why has this been brought to my attention at all?"

"Azazel did exactly that and tried to make a deal," Zachariah said. "I don't know the specifics but apparently it ended with a bullet to the brain for Azazel."

"So he misjudged John Winchester?"

"Actually, Sam Winchester shot him," Zachariah clarified. "I don't know what happened. He shouldn't have even been there. Maybe Azazel got careless. Maybe Sam didn't want his father hunting Azazel so soon after the death of his brother. All I know is that now the king of hell is dead and Lilith hasn't been freed so we've hit a significant snag in the proceedings."

"That could certainly be a problem though you won't find me mourning a demon," Michael said. "With luck, whoever takes control will want to restore Lucifer as well even though it will cost them their throne. Do you have any information about that?"

"Things are a bit of a mess right now," Zachariah told him. "Azazel has been in charge for a very long time and his death was so unexpected. If I had to guess, I'd say it looks like Crowley will be next for however long he can survive."

"Crowley," Michael repeated. "The…king of the crossroads, is it?"

"Yes," Zachariah confirmed. "He seems trustworthy enough, for a demon. I'll speak with him once it's confirmed that he is, in fact, Azazel's successor."

"Well this is certainly inconvenient," Michael agreed. "Still, it is hardly a mortal wound. John Winchester in hell would have begun the apocalypse soon and Dean in hell could have done the same thing but there will be others. Perhaps Crowley, as somewhat of a deal expert, can tempt one of the Winchesters into making a deal. Even if they would not accept less than ten years, we have been waiting a lot longer than that already."

In truth, for all that righteous men were hard to come by, they were not so rare that there weren't enough that somehow ended up in hell over the years that they could have started the apocalypse already. The problem was that all of this had been before Dean and Sam were around and ready to embrace their fate as vessels so it was ultimately useless. Any righteous man from days past in hell now was far too broken to serve their purpose.

"Since Dean is now dead, he could be in hell," Zachariah suggested delicately.

Michael was appalled. "Dean Winchester is a righteous man. That is the entire point. We cannot simply send a righteous man to hell! If he is to end up there, he must seal his own fate."

Honestly, since they all knew where it was heading anyway, Zachariah didn't understand what the big deal was. Dean would – probably – eventually go to hell and break the first seal then come back to life and fix it when he consented to Michael so why not just cut to the chase? But Michael was full of righteousness himself and there was little productivity in arguing the point. This wouldn't be his problem until Lucifer was freed and he was dispatched to get the yes. Shouldn't be difficult, it never was.

"Well then I guess that for now there's nothing to do but wait and see how things progress in hell and whether we need to do anything or if they can recover from this," Zachariah said.

"I must confess that, for all it is time for the apocalypse to begin, I would rather leave the freeing of Lucifer and everything leading up to that to the demons," Michael said. "We do not wish for them to prevail, after all, and so it would be unseemly to aid them."

That Zachariah could get behind. Any time he had to spend more than five minutes with a demon without smiting them made him ill.

"Shall I restore Dean Winchester to his body then?"

"No, not just yet," Michael said. "I would like to meet this vessel of mine first." His grace shot out and a moment later Dean stood before them.

Dean drew back, immediately on guard. "Not that I mind being torn away from my reunion with my dead mother or anything, but why am I here with some sort of middle-aged tax accountant and…well, me?"

Zachariah glanced over at Michael who looked no more like Dean Winchester than he had two minutes ago.

"I'm not you," Michael told him. "And Zachariah here is not a middle-aged tax accountant."

Dean cocked his head. "Yeah, I'm afraid there's really no other way to phrase it. There's being generous and then there's outright lying. Dude's definitely middle-aged."

Zachariah bit back his original retort (something very scathing involving both mud monkeys and maggots) as it wouldn't do to lose his temper so easily in front of Michael, especially given that he would need to convince this human fairly soon. "I'm an angel. I've been around for millions of years. I don't know what kind of definition of 'middle-aged' you're operating under but if I fit the bill then that word probably does not mean what you think it means."

Dean stared at him then snorted. "An angel. Right."

"He is," Michael confirmed. "And I am Michael."

"Michael. Michael the angel. Zach the angel. Yeah, that seems legit."

"It's Zachariah."

"I'm not just an angel," Michael corrected Dean. "I am an archangel."

"I have literally never heard of you," Dean said.

"Really?" Michael asked skeptically. "I am not…unknown to humans."

Dean shrugged. "Well if you're claiming to be an angel then let me tell you that all that religion crap wasn't really big in my family."

"That is disappointing," Michael said slowly.

Dean shrugged. "Well what do you expect? There's nothing quite like watching your wife burn on the ceiling of your infant's nursery right before the house explodes to kill a man's faith."

"And what of your faith?" Michael asked intently. "You said that I am 'claiming' to be an angel?"

"You did, in fact, say you were an angel," Dean said. "I don't really see what's up for debate here."

"I'm not just claiming to be one. I am one," Michael insisted.

"Sorry to break it to you, pal, but you're either lying or delusional because there's no such thing."

Zachariah had to say something at this point. "You are literally in heaven. You know demons exist so there's a decent chance that you do and you just had a touching family reunion with a woman twenty years dead and you don't believe in angels?"

Dean nodded. "That about sums it up."

"Why not?" Michael demanded.

"Well, to begin with there's the fact I haven't seen any indication of angels in my life and I'm not really a 'through faith alone' kind of guy," Dean explained.

Michael and Zachariah exchanged a look.

"There hasn't been much angelic presence on Earth for thousands of years," Zachariah told him. Would that they could say there hadn't been any.

"But that can't be the only reason," Michael said, gazing intently at Dean. "You know that most people haven't seen demons and yet you know they exist so their denial means nothing."

Dean held up his hands. "Look, all I'm saying is that if angels do exist then you guys are pretty crap at what you do, you know? You're supposed to protect people. I haven't seen any evidence that you guys don't just let demons screw with people. So if angels do exist and you guys are angels that's really nothing to be proud of."

Zachariah bristled at that but Michael appeared unconcerned.

"Bitterness," he said, nodding. "Yes, that does make sense. You are to be commended that your doubt and insecurities have not taken away from your righteousness. Fine. If you do not wish to believe on faith alone you know we are real now."

Dean squinted at them. "Why do you even care? Say you two are angels. Well, there might be a million angels for all I know so maybe you two just don't have anything better to do today than talk to me. But if you're supposed to be an archangel, too? Why are you wasting your time trying to convince me? And you never did tell me why you looked like me because, honestly, it's kind of creping me out over here."

"I don't look like you," Michael said, "any more than Zachariah truly looks the way you describe. We are angels and you simply cannot perceive our true form so your mind is translating what you see into a form you are more familiar with."

Dean laughed. "Oh, yeah, that's one form that I am definitely very familiar with. Why are you me?"

Zachariah could guess.

"It is your brain," Michael said instead. "I cannot possibly hope to explain it to you. As for why I am here, you are a righteous man, Dean."

Another laugh. "Am I?"

"You save lives and you make great sacrifices to do it," Michael said. "You are human, you make mistakes, but you always try to do the right thing."

"And the drinking and sleeping around and fraud doesn't bother you?" Dean asked skeptically. "Personally I think it tarnishes the halo a bit."

"Don't argue with an angel when it comes to matters of righteousness, human," Zachariah snapped.

Dean rolled his eyes. "Fine. I'm righteous. I guess that's how I got into this joint in the first place. But why am I here with you?"

"You weren't supposed to die," Michael said gravely.

"Really," Dean said, the sarcasm thick in his voice. "Because that's not the reaper who told me I had two minutes to decide to go with her to someplace she sure as hell didn't describe as heaven or else I was stuck on Earth forever until I became a vengeful ghost for some hunter to get rid of said. She had a very moving speech about it being my time and all that."

"You were mortally wounded, yes, and no mortal means could save you," Zachariah said. "Reapers work for Death and he does not like to make exceptions. It was your time to die, yes, but not your time to be dead."

Dean blinked at him. "Run that by me again?"

"Fighting Azazel was important," Michael said.

"Fighting who now?"

"You know, Azazel," Zachariah said impatiently. "Killed your mother? Had yellow eyes? King of hell? Any of this ringing a bell?"

"Oh, him," Dean said, nodding. "We didn't actually catch a name. We've been calling him Yellow Eyes."

"How quaint."

"Your brother killed him with the Colt," Michael informed him.

Dean's entire face lit up. "Did he, really? Good for him. I guess there's nothing stopping him from going back to school, now. It's not the way I wanted this story to end but it's not like him staying with Dad will keep him with me and frankly without a buffer those two would just kill each other. Little Sammy killed the demon. Let him have his boring-ass normal life."

"Your selflessness does you credit," Michael said. "But your information is a bit off. Azazel is dead, yes, but the legions of hell will reorganize and the chaos that ensues while they do may not be beneficial for your world. I am here because you should not be dead. You have work to do, Dean, and you cannot do it from heaven."

"Work?" Dean repeated. "You mean hunting things? If I were down there right now, of course you know I'd be doing that. I'm not Sam; I don't want the picket fence. I'd like to think I do some good but I'm hardly the first hunter who died. Hell, Meg slaughtered her way through half our phone book. Is this some mass resurrection day or am I somehow special?"

"The loss of so many dedicated hunters is a tragedy, Dean," Michael agreed. "But it is no casual matter to restore somebody to life. We have the power, of course, but there is a natural order and there should be a compelling need. How can we pick and choose? If we bring back all your hunter friends then why not every hunter who has died? Why not every doctor or cop or teacher? Why not every good man? A line must be drawn somewhere or we wouldn't have death at all."

Dean gave him an unimpressed look. "And you're drawing the line after saving me? What do I have that they don't? Or did you just pick my name out of the proverbial hat?"

"You and your brother can do a lot of good," Michael said. "You are young and have a long way to go but you have a lot of potential. And by losing you we lose your brother or do you really think he would carry on the good fight without you?"

"He'd be happy," Dean said but he looked suddenly uncertain.

"Happy like he was when he lost his girlfriend?" Michael asked rhetorically. "Happy when he knows that if he had just killed your father then you would still be alive? Happy when your father himself won't let him forget it?"

Dean looked down, annoyed. "Well, what? Do you need my permission to send me back or something?"

"No," Michael said. "We do not. But I wanted to meet you. It's not common but it does happen that people die temporarily and come back and they think that they remember heaven but they don't. They aren't meant to. You, however, I think I will grant this gift."

Dean's eyes turned wary. "Why all the special treatment, Michael? I'm not signing up to be your girlfriend, you know."

"You're special, Dean, and you can do incredible things," Michael said earnestly. "I just want you to remember what you've learned, remember how you were saved, when the time comes for us to meet again."

"Oh, I definitely do not like the sound of that," Dean muttered.

"You may change your mind when you are faced with the sort of evil you will be faced with."

"What, do you want me to gank Satan or something? Because I am telling you right now that I am not down with that," Dean said. "I'm still getting the hang of demons and vamps."

"This is a discussion for another time," Michael said. "And this is not just about me. You got to speak with your mother again and you will carry that memory with you. Most would offer thanks."

Something flashed across Dean's face and Michael's grace reached out and the human was gone.

"That could have gone worse," Michael said. "But I was hoping for a bit more faith, to be honest. He may not have meant the part about fighting Lucifer, though it would not exactly be him, literally but this may take more patience than I had thought."

"I don't like him," Zachariah said.

"I can't believe you're blaming me for this," Sam said tightly as they prepared Dean's funeral pyre.

"I'm not blaming you," John responded, just as tense.

"Oh really? Then why is it you can't even stand to look at me?" Sam challenged. "Dean's dead, Dad. I'm the only one that's left and you can't get far enough away from me!"

"At least this time you're letting me."

"Is that what this is about?" Sam demanded. "You're mad because I wouldn't let you go and hunt down Yellow Eyes when Dean was dying or before his body got cold? Dad, my brother is dead and we're not going to go and hunt anything until we do this right."

"I'm standing right here, aren't I?" John asked archly. "Besides, you're hardly one to talk. I'm not the one who killed him in the end and I didn't summon him."

"What was he even there for?" Sam asked distractedly. "To gloat or to try and kill the rest of us while we were weak? But don't tell me that you're upset that I got to kill him after all this time and you didn't."

"I wouldn't care if Bela Talbot killed him so long as he's dead," John growled.

"Then what is it?" Sam demanded. "Are you still blaming me for the fact I couldn't shoot you in cold blood back at the cabin?"

"It wouldn't have been cold blood and you did shoot me," John retorted. "I was begging you to do it and you wouldn't do it properly. You even wasted a bullet with an intentionally non-lethal shot."

"Like you 'wasted' one saving me?" Sam challenged.

"I had to see if it really worked as advertised before even trying to use it on Yellow Eyes," John insisted.

"You are so full of it."

"And either way, it did save you," John said.

"And what I did saved you!"

"Fine job of that. Five minutes later and that truck incapacitated you and me and killed your brother," John pointed out.

"I couldn't have known that!" Sam shouted.

"It could have been over and it wasn't," John said. "But no, Sam, I don't blame you for that. I knew, deep down, that you never would. It was why I didn't want you coming along in the first place."

"Are you blaming me for-"

"Would you stop accusing me of blaming you for things?" John snapped. "I just lost my son, Sam. I told you I couldn't stand to do that and that was why I stayed away all this time. I've spent the last twenty-three years trying to prepare you boys and making sure I wouldn't have to bury you and now I had no choice but to watch him die from a damn car accident! An accident caused by a demon but an accident just the same!"

"So why was it that all you wanted to do was to go summon Yellow Eyes?" Sam shot back. "You just wanted to distract yourself? Turn on the TV! Pick up a book! Anything but continuing your obsession!"

"I was trying to save him!"

"By doing what?" Sam asked, laughing incredulously. "Making a deal with a demon?"

John didn't say anything.

"No," Sam said, horrified. "No, no, no. You could not possibly be that stupid."

"Stupid?" John asked. "What's stupid about trying to save your brother?"

Sam just shook his head helplessly. "Dean's dead, Dad, and I get it. I really do. But do you really think Dean would want you to consign yourself to hell forever just so he can get a few more years on this Earth? If he even gets that! What we do is dangerous."

"Sam, look me in the eye and tell me that if you knew how you wouldn't do the same thing," John said seriously.

"I wouldn't!"

"You're either lying to me or to yourself, son, but I know you better than that," John told him. "Frankly if I weren't here you'd already be racing off to look for a crossroad."

"Look, as much as I appreciate hearing about just how awesome I am and how sad and deprived your lives are without me, could we maybe getting me off of this thing?" Dean's voice suddenly said. "Because, match or no match, being covered in lighter fluid is freaking me the fuck out."

Sam's head shot over to Dean's corpse. Its eyes were open and it was sitting up. It sniffed its arm and made a face.

John's eyes went wild. "No. No, you are not using my son like this!" He reached for a match.

Dean's body held up its hands. "Hey, hey, easy! It's really me, Dad."

"People don't just come back to life," John bit out. "And we didn't make a deal."

"Well apparently the Archangel Michael thinks that I'm going to be some sort of superhero or something because shortly after I met up with Mom in heaven he told me he was sending me back and even letting me remember it so I'd feel indebted to him or something. I don't know if I even believe in angels but I definitely do not trust them," Dean announced.

That gave John pause. "Sam? Get the holy water."

Hours later, once they had confirmed it was really Dean and all of those moments that Dean usually decried as being too 'chick flick' but somehow always ended up involved in anyway had passed, Sam was finally able to think straight again and he had questions.

"I don't see why this can't wait," John complained. "We just finally did what we had set out to do all those years ago. Azazel is dead. Dean saw Mary. Dean's back with us. Why do you have to ruin this moment with all your accusations?"

"Hey, we took the time," Sam defended himself. "And if there's one thing I've learned from this life it's that we never see the really bad things coming. We might not have time to wait before another truck slams into us and I need answers. What if you really had made that deal? What if Azazel had killed you? We might never have known."

Dean looked up at the ceiling. "Five minutes. That's all I ask."

"This is important, Dean," Sam said firmly.

"It always is," Dean said tiredly.

"You can deny that you know these things all you want but I don't believe you and you're not helping us by keeping it a secret," Sam said.

"And what, exactly, do you think that I know?" John challenged.

Sam threw his hands up in the air. "I don't know! Whatever it is you're keeping from us. Maybe why I have these powers, why Max had those powers, why Mom died. Why are angels so interested in Dean? Why did the king of hell himself have such an interest in us? Why was he even in our house?"

Dean looked conflicted. "Yeah, Dad, there's a lot of crap that's not making any sense right now. I don't know if you have the answers here but you probably know more than we do. You were gone for a long time and I'd like to think you made that time count. If you know anything, please, just tell us."

John hesitated.

"Dad, come on. Azazel is dead. Chances are more demons are going to be coming for us. You can't protect us by keeping us in the dark," Sam said earnestly.

John sighed heavily. "Well, I suppose I couldn't keep this from you forever. There's a reason Azazel wanted me dead, you know, and it's not because of my skill as a hunter. He thought I knew too much and while that puts me in the firing range, he was never going to kill the two of you."

Dean raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"Oh, yes, you died from the injuries but that was indirect," John said dismissively. "He had no way of knowing you'd be the one to die and not Sam or myself. Besides, why do you think he even showed up for Sam to kill in the first place? He was trying to get me to trade my life for yours. I just didn't think the angels would bring you back but maybe I should have. It might have been the grief clouding my judgment. Everyone knows you boys are my weakness."

Sam exchanged a worried look with Dean. "Dad. Talk to us. What's going on?"

"It's like this," John said, rubbing his forehead tiredly. "Your mother was a hunter."

Sam stared at him. "What."

"She did actually tell me that," Dean said. "She said she hated it and demons killed her parents and she was always planning on running away from that even before then. She said that didn't want this life for us but that she was proud of us just the same."

"I knew that Mary wouldn't want that," John admitted. "She never even told me she was a hunter once. I had no idea that any of this even existed until after her death. But what could I do? All I knew was that there were monsters out there and one of them, the one that killed your mother, had some sort of interest in Sam. I had to choose between burying my head in the sand and just hoping or trying to keep you safe by making you prepared for whatever was out there. And now that I know more…I really do think I made the right choice."

"Know what?" Sam asked again, frustrated. "Just spit it out, Dad."

"This is a long, complicated story, Sam, and I can't just skip to the punchline," John insisted.

Sam sighed and made a 'get on with it' gesture.

"I'm glad you met angels, Dean, as that makes this next part easier," John said. "And no, you really shouldn't trust them. Azazel made a lot of deals with a lot of desperate people. He killed me and offered to bring me back not in exchange for your mother's soul but her permission to enter her house in a few years. The night she died. He entered the homes of lots of six-month infants and if he was interrupted by a parent then there was a fire and that parent died. If not, no one was the wiser."

"But why?" Sam demanded. "What did he want with me?"

"He fed you a little bit of his blood," John replied. "It's why you and the others like you have powers. I'm afraid I really don't know how many of you there are but you all have different abilities."

"Sammy's got demon blood in him?" Dean asked, appalled. "That's just nasty."

"It's not like it's my fault!"

"No, I know, just…that's not going to be good," Dean said.

"It's not," John agreed.

"Why would he even want to give a bunch of people abilities?" Sam asked.

"What I know and what Azazel somehow didn't is that you were the one he was looking for," John said heavily.

"Wait, how do you know something that the king of hell doesn't?" Dean asked.

"I hear things," John said blithely. "And I'm good at putting the pieces together. He knew that he needed a special child to have demon blood. He just didn't know who it was so he was trying to create as many potential children as possible. He knew that this child would at some point need to consume a lot more demon blood to prepare him…"

"To prepare me for what?" Sam asked, beginning to get a very bad feeling about this.

"Angels are sort of like demons when it comes to how they manifest in the world," John said instead. "You've recently learned that inside every demon is an unwilling human host. Well angels are supposed to be better than that so they need permission. Of course, I imagine they're not all that concerned with true coercion-free consent."

"What?" Dean asked, confused. "So the king of hell wants Sam to go off and be an angel host? Why would he want that? And why would he need demon blood to do it?"

But Sam knew suddenly. "Lucifer was an angel."

Dean's eyes bulged. "Lucifer?"

John smiled sardonically. "End of the world."

"Michael said that Sam and I are meant to do a lot of good," Dean said.

"I figured out that the demons were planning on using Sam as a vessel for Lucifer a long time ago," John admitted. "It wasn't until a lot more recently that I realized that Dean was meant to be Michael's vessel. Being angels, I imagine they didn't have to guess like Azazel."

Sam opened his mouth but somehow the sound just wouldn't come out. He'd spent a lot of time wondering just why he had these powers and what it could mean. It had gotten a little dark sometimes, wondering if he was meant to be a killer or evil or something. But being possessed by Lucifer and ending the world? Apparently his imagination was somewhat…lacking.

"You okay?" Dean asked, studying him closely.

"No."

"Well apparently you have to agree to do it, right? It's like heroin. Just say no."

"It will probably be a little more complicated than that," John said reluctantly. "Once Lucifer is out of the cage, they could do all manner of things to you to try and make you say yes. We'll see how easy it is to keep resisting after the kinds of torture hell can inflict."

"That's really not helping," Sam groused.

"I want you to say no just as much as you do," John insisted. "It's just that I don't want you to underestimate what you're up against."

"And I'm supposed to be Michael?" Dean asked. "I'm not digging the thought of being possessed but if we're talking end of days and Lucifer and destroying the world and all that fun stuff, wouldn't it be a bad thing if I didn't let Michael at least try and stop it?"

"Well…that depends, really," John said. "Demons can possess whoever. Angels require vessels with a certain bloodline and archangel vessels, and Lucifer is still an archangel, so while without you boys Michael and Lucifer would be left without their true vessels, it's still not that easy. Their true vessels are a better fit and can withstand them easier – from what I've heard, being host to just a regular angel is like being chained to a comet – and allow them more power but it's not the only option. If Sam never says yes, Lucifer can still get another vessel and Michael can get the same."

"But they still really want Dean and me," Sam said.

"Hopefully heaven won't resort to actual torture but I don't trust them," John said.

"How is this even our lives?" Sam demanded. "I have been assured that we were once normal people, not that I'd know, and then we were just normal hunters and now we have magical archangel bloodlines and Dean and I are supposed to be vessels for the apocalypse."

"Your bloodlines, both on my side and your mothers, are very rare and very powerful," John told him. "You know my father disappeared when I was young so I had no idea and if Mary knew that her family was more than just a family of hunters she never shared that information with me. Apparently I'm descended from Cain and Abel. I've wondered sometimes if there was any supernatural matchmaking to get such a bloodline together, the Campbells and the Winchesters, but then I have to ask myself if I really am just getting too paranoid."

"Man, I sure hope you are being too paranoid," Dean said, shaking his head.

"With Michael by all accounts being the good, loyal son who stays loyal no matter how long his father is missing and Lucifer rebelling and the two of them being brothers…the parallels are there."

"Are you-are you seriously saying I'm like Lucifer because I went off to college?" Sam demanded.

John rolled his eyes. "I'm not comparing you to Lucifer. But I'm saying that the basic family dynamics, minus the attempt to destroy all of humanity, are there and I have to ask myself if it means something. Maybe the similarities are part of why you're the true vessels and maybe your status as vessels is what caused the similarities. It's really a chicken or the egg kind of situation."

"You never answered my question," Dean said. "Why does it depend if it's a good thing that Michael gets to try and stop Lucifer from destroying the world, whether or not he uses me to do it."

John sighed. "It would be nice to think of the angels as the good guys in this situation. And I suppose that if we absolutely must have a good guy then the angels would be it but that's only because the only other party are the demons of hell."

"What are they doing?" Sam asked, almost afraid to know the answer.

"If we absolutely must have Lucifer trying to destroy the world then, yes, of course it's for the best that Michael is on hand to hopefully minimize the damage by stopping him before he wipes out all of humanity," John said. "But the problem is that Michael isn't interested in saving the world."

Dean groaned. "Of course he isn't. What's he after then?"

"The angels have…as far as I can tell they've just gotten bored. Or tired, perhaps. God disappeared quite some time ago and left them in charge and they have decided that it's time to end the world. Michael will fight Lucifer and maybe he won't actually kill any survivors of the fight, assuming he wins, but he's not trying to save the day and we're all a lot better off if this never happens."

"Wait, God is missing?" Sam couldn't believe it.

"Most of the angels don't know that," John confided. "The archangels try to keep it quiet."

"Then how do you know that?" Sam demanded.

John just gave him a look.

"So the angels are dicks then," Dean summarized. "Well that's just great. I was definitely getting that vibe from that Zachariah dude."

Sam took a moment to attempt not to get overwhelmed by all of the hopelessness John was giving them. He almost wished he hadn't asked but that would hardly change the situation, would it? Since when had ignorance ever protected anybody? It certainly hadn't protected Jess.

"So what do we do?" he asked, hoping that since John had appeared to have all the other answers he'd have the answer to this, too.

"The apocalypse can't start until Lucifer is free," John told them. "And fortunately for us, he's been locked up for a very long time. The angels can't free him, not directly. If we can stop this from happening then we don't have to worry about any of this."

"How are we supposed to keep Lucifer locked up literally forever?" Dean demanded. "Even if we all live to be a hundred and spend the rest of our lives stopping him from escaping, sooner or later we're going to die and then what?"

"Then we hope that the angels have changed their minds or we've found a more permanent solution or there are people ready to carry on after us in preventing the apocalypse," John said. "For all we know it is the time to have an apocalypse but I really don't care. I'm not about to just sit back and let the world end on my watch."

"Of course not," Sam agreed. "What has to happen for Lucifer to get freed?"

"A long time ago, at the end of Lucifer's rebellion, God had Michael cast Lucifer into hell and built a special cage to contain him," John narrated. "He's still in there now. But there are over 600 seals keeping him in place and those seals can be broken. Only 66 of them have to break and, aside from the first and the last, it can be any number of seals. A teacher killing 66 students, for example, or reapers being killed. Things that go against the natural order."

"Then it seems like our best bet is to prevent hopefully the first and if not then definitely the last seal from breaking," Sam said. "We could try with the others but there are just so many and how are we really supposed to keep an eye on every teacher to make sure they don't go on a killing spree?"

"We can't," John said grimly. "And while some rank-and-file angels may be ordered to try and save the seals, they can't keep an eye on that many for that long and the leaders don't even want them to succeed. The first seal is that a righteous man sheds blood in hell."

Dean looked ill. "Michael called me a righteous man."

"But why would a righteous man even end up in hell anyway?" Sam wondered. "Dean went to heaven."

"My money's on crossroads deal," John said.

"Like the one that you were going to make for Dean?" Sam asked pointedly.

"Son, I don't know if I'm a righteous man," John replied. "But if I am, know that I would never shed blood in hell and break the first seal willingly. Time moves faster in hell, though, and if they had me at their mercy for all eternity torturing me until I would do anything to make it stop…I wish I could promise you I never would but that's one of those situations that you don't know until you're there."

"Right so no crossroads deals, got it," Dean said distractedly.

"It's easy to say," John said tiredly. "But what about the next time one of you dies? And it doesn't even have to be one of us. What about a man who makes a deal to save his dying child? There's a lot of ways this could happen."

"Well so what if one of us dies?" Sam asks. "I mean, you might be stuck dead but Dean already came back from the dead without our help and if they need me so badly it's probably the same story. We'll just sit back and wait for heaven to return Dean or me so the apocalypse isn't cancelled."

"I'm not saying it's a bad plan, Sammy, and it could even work," John said carefully. "But on the other hand, what if the angels are playing hardball? All they need is you and Dean around for when Lucifer is free. They can bring people back whenever they want. How would you like to live twenty years without your brother and only have him brought back for Michael's use?"

Sam looked away. Dean hadn't been back long enough for him to forget what it was like to face living the rest of his life without his brother. Even when he had spent four years at Stanford he hadn't really faced the thought of that. He knew that Dean would come the minute he picked up the phone.

"And the last seal?" Dean asked eventually.

"Lilith. She's the first demon, the first human soul Lucifer twisted to create those abominations," John said disgustedly.

"Wait, demons used to be people?" Dean asked, alarmed.

John nodded. "Yeah, they all did. All of them went to hell for one reason or another. Except, I suppose, those first ones. Those Lucifer just picked to corrupt. But despite the fact they were once human, despite the fact that some of them were probably just good people who made bad choices, they don't become a demon until they've had everything good in them wiped away by centuries of torture. Do not pity them and do not try to find the humanity they no longer have. It's a sad situation, perhaps, but nothing's changed just because demons were once like us."

"Can I just say, again, that you were going to make a crossroads deal and turn yourself into a demon?" Sam asked because focusing on that was better than focusing on the horror that John had just dumped on them.

John sighed. "And I said it would have been worth it. Besides, I wouldn't ever become a demon on purpose and I'd like to think that should it happen I'd really make them work for it. And it didn't even happen."

"Don't let it happen next time!" Sam ordered.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," John said calmly. "Though in all probability, I'll go before you two."

"So this Lilith is going to break the final seal?" Dean asked.

John shook his head. "No, and this is where you have to be very careful. Lilith is the final seal. If she dies after enough other seals are broken then Lucifer will be freed. But as far as I've been able to find out, it doesn't matter how she dies. She could kill herself if it came down to it and how could we stop that?"

"Can't stop the first seal, can't stop the last seal…we're boned," Dean announced.

Sam was feeling a little less fatalistic. "So if we kill her before the other seals are broken then…what? The cage stays shut forever?"

"Or at least until they think of something else," John said, nodding. "But we're all out of bullets. And no, Sam, I'm not blaming you for using the last of them to kill Azazel. It's what we got the Colt for in the first place. But I don't know how else we're going to kill a being like her or even trap her on a long-term basis given that demons have an annoying tendency to break the surface the devil's trap is drawn on to free themselves. She's supposed to be even stronger than Azazel."

"But wait, then why have we never heard of her?" Dean asked. "Why wasn't she the, I don't know, queen of hell or something?"

"See, that's where I think we stand the best chance of stopping this before it even starts," John told them. "Lilith herself is sealed away in hell and, though her prison is easier to escape than Lucifer's, so long as she is trapped I don't think they're going to bother even starting to break the seals and even if they do they can't finish breaking them. If the new king of hell doesn't want Lucifer to come back then we might stand a better chance as that means there will be far less demons trying to free Lilith. But we can't count on demons and there will always be the fanatics not willing to toe the party line."

"How does Lilith come out to play?" Dean asked.

"By opening a Devil's Gate," John said. "Specifically the one in Calvary Cemetary, Wyoming."

"Okay, so why don't they just hurry up and do it?"

"Probably because of the 100-mile Devil's Trap Samuel Colt created around it," John said.

Dean cocked his head. "Yeah, that would do it."

"So no demon can open the gate," Sam mused. "But a human could do it. I could do it."

"Any human could do it," John said. "But yes, that's probably what Azazel intended."

"I would never," Sam swore.

"Never is a powerful word and Azazel is quite imaginative," John cautioned. "We don't know what he would have done and maybe he would have used one of the other special children. But none of that matters now because he's dead."

"But what's to stop some other demon?" Sam asked.

"The Colt," John said. "Samuel Colt built the Devil's Gate and there's only one key. So long as we hold onto this gun the demons can't free Lilith and the apocalypse will have to wait."

Sam frowned. "But do you really like we can keep it from them forever? I mean, even if we keep it under a devil's trap, demons have found ways around those before. And it's useless now that we've used the last bullet. Why not just melt it down and make sure that it can't be used against us. There. Problem solved."

"We can't just melt down the Colt!" Dean objected. "It's the only way we have of killing demons! What if we need it to kill Lilith?"

"Then clearly the Colt was the reason Lilith even got out and either way we won't have it because there are no more bullets," Sam pointed out.

"We may be able to figure something out!"

"Your brother's right, Sam," John said. "We may be able to find a way to make more bullets for the gun and we don't know that this particular devil's gate is the only way Lilith could be freed. We don't want to destroy our only way to kill demons and then have Lilith freed some other way."

Sam slumped back. "Fine. But we need to be careful."

"We're always careful," John said.

"I'm just saying, I feel like you know pretty much everything, even things that Azazel didn't, and I'm really really curious how that came to be," Sam said.

"Well, you know," John said vaguely. "I've spent years digging into this and putting together patterns and whatnot."

"But it's just really specific and I don't see how you could know all of this."

"It's a long story," John said, sighing. "It goes back many years and I don't really want to tell it."

"Big surprise," Sam mumbled.

"You could read my journal," John offered.

"Dad, I've read your journal cover to cover and there's nothing in there about any of this!" Sam exclaimed.

"Well, no, not in my regular journal that I left behind for you boys," John agreed. "I didn't want you to know about any of this yet. I'm talking about my secret piecing together the apocalypse journal."

Dean blinked. "You have a secret piecing together the apocalypse journal?"

John shrugged. "It seemed like a good idea at the time. You know, keep me organized."

Sam supposed that this did absolutely justify his reputation as being one of the best hunters alive despite the fact that he'd been losing fights and getting captured all over the place since he'd come back into their lives. That and something about how he and Dean were like John's kryptonite which he really didn't want to think about.

"Damn do I need a drink," Dean said suddenly.

"I'll go with you," John said.

"And me," Sam added. "Maybe this will all look better in the morning."

"It won't," John assured him. "But it will all look better after a few rounds, at least."

Something occurred to Sam suddenly. "Wait…while Dean and I are supposed to be the true vessels, what about you? You have our same bloodline. Could the angels possess you, too?"

Dean turned to look at John sharply.

John shrugged. "I've considered it but I'd never say yes and if they're looking to force somebody they wouldn't waste their efforts on me when it's you two they want."

"But we know that you could probably serve for either Lucifer or Michael so there's at least two potential vessels for each," Sam said. "I don't know just how rare this bloodline is but I don't like giving them options."

John hesitated.

"What?" Dean asked. "Don't tell me there's another potential vessel out there that you know about!"

"Maybe it's about time I told you two about Adam…"