"Where is she?!"

Dean has been pacing in the war room since Mary disappeared while his family sits at the table playing Sorry!.

"She's doing her Mary thing," Bobby says. He turns to Sam. "Can we play something that doesn't SUCK?"

"Stop," Sam warns firmly. "Look, your dad is tense and I need to keep Ellen and Sammy busy."

"What about Risk?"

"We can play Risk later. With your mom."

Cas nods from the other side of the table. He taps a game piece and weakly says, "I'm sorry." Sammy and Ellen laugh. Dean, however, is still pacing.

"What's with that girl?" he asks tensely. "Every time things get weird, she disappears!"

Sam stares at his brother. "She's a Winchester," he says.

"Ugh…right…stupid girl." Dean takes a stiff breath and rubs his forehead, trying to correct himself. "No, no. She's not stupid. Actually she's too smart for her own good."

"I agree," says Cas. "Dean, please sit down. You're stressing yourself out for nothing."

Ignoring Cas' comment, Dean takes out his phone and pulls up a number. "I'm gonna call the bookstore again, just in case."

"Is she supposed to be at work?" Sam asks.

"Not today, but maybe she's turned up." He dials out, standing still now. "Hey, this is Dean, Mary Winchester's dad."

Bobby nudges Sam's arm. "Is Mary gonna be okay?"

"Sure she is," Sam tells him, nodding slightly. "Whatever she's doing probably makes a lot of sense, we just don't know yet."

"But what about that monster that attacked you? D'you think she got hurt by one of them?"

Sam and Cas both say, quite sharply, "No."

"Okay, okay…"

Dean hangs up his phone looking grumpy as ever. He finally joins them at the table but does little more than rap his fingers on the surface. Cas reaches out to touch his hand but Dean retracts.

"They'll let me know if she comes by," he says.

"And you're sure you can't track her phone?" asks Sam.

"No, it's off. Damn girl knows what we'd do. Shit."

"Daddy!" Ellen peeps. "Don't say that."

"I know, sorry. I just…I just don't know what to do."

Cas stands up all of the sudden. "I know," he announces. "I will try to pick up on her essence and track her. It's a longshot, but I may be successful."

Egypt. Mary has read extensively on the subject but this is her first time visiting. Upon arriving, she's able to focus on the task at hand instead of being distracted by the sights. Her target is the Sphynx, no less.

She had originally sought to find the Tree of Life first, but the amount of research needed to accomplish that would involve the bunker's library. She isn't ready to tackle going home yet. No, not yet. She needs to let Crowley know that she's serious.

"Crowley…"

Mary's mind wanders a bit as she teleports up to the right shoulder of the Sphynx. It's dark, and she clings to the old stone easily. She's a nimble girl for sure, but one slip of the wrist and she almost tumbles. Better focus is required now.

There is a spot in a crease that feels tender to her. Not tender in way that any human could sense, since the structure is solid stone as far as they know. But to Mary, her fingertips graze a strange power. It's warm and tries to pull her in, so she doesn't hesitate at all and allows it to. As if warping dimensions momentarily, her entire body is sucked through a narrow slot. This tosses her to a small chamber.

"Oof," Mary grunts, hitting the floor. She gets to her feet and looks around. It's far too dark to see, so she conjures a bit of fire in her palm to act as a torch. The room is hardly bigger than her bedroom, and the walls are covered with perfectly preserved frescoes. Her hieroglyphic skills are a bit lax currently so she isn't able to decipher all of the writing. There's an empty torch at one end of the room and she shifts her flames into it, giving her the use of both hands once more.

Beside the torch stands a most curious door. It has no handle but Mary knows it's a means of passing through because it's a different piece of rock, shaped just like a door. In the center there is a picture that Mary can only describe as a wheel, similar to a gameshow or a carnival attraction. It is painted with bold colors and divided into quarters. The first one is just a person, but the next is a person with wings and blue eyes.

"An angel," Mary mutters to herself, stepping closer to the door at a slow and cautious rate. Below the angel, there is a humanoid with black eyes and strange, spiked bat wings. Mary recognizes this as an attempt at picturing a demon. "Crowley doesn't look like that sort of demon…"

The final drawing is almost identical to the angel, only the figure has just one wing and the eyes are grey. Obviously, this is directed toward her folk. What sort of intelligent being created this room?

Mary steps directly in front of the door and realizes that there is a single, smooth tile beneath her feet. It illuminates the moment she shifts her weight onto it.

"Shit," she mumbles, but doesn't move.

The tile wiggles slightly, then stops. She hadn't noticed before, but there is a thin bar of gold hanging from the center of the door-wheel. It's brought to her attention because it starts to spin around erratically. It ceases to move and points to the drawing of the Nephilim. This incredibly technology is able to detect what sort of creature she is!

The door slides up, making a terrible grinding noise as it does so. Mary wonders the last time it has opened, if ever. Regardless, she progresses through finds herself in an even smaller room. No light again, so she brings another flame out. There are more hieroglyphics in this room which she tries to memorize so she can look them up later. The only other object before her is a narrow pedestal, topped with a single brick. That is exactly what Crowley spoke of.

Without hesitation, Mary picks up the brick and tries to teleport away. Nothing happens. Apparently the room is warded to a certain degree. She searches around for a way out, and after a few minutes, there is another weakness in the wall. She eases through this one just as she did with the first, and finds herself slipping out of the Sphynx's head. The moment she leaves, she flies back to where Crowley is being held.

In the meantime, Cas has successfully picked up on Mary's essence. It has brought him all the way to Egypt. He has insisted on going alone, not just because it could be dangerous but also so reserve his power. These days, he finds himself being drained easier than before. The last thing he wants is for his children to use their energy on him.

Cas finds the sensitivity in the Sphynx's right shoulder, too. In fact, he finds it much quicker than Mary but he is also pursuing her essence. He falls into the small room. The torch is still lit, and Cas can tell that it's fire originally from Mary. The desire to find Mary is so strong that he barely stops to consider anything, except he does take a moment to read the hieroglyphics. Surely he knows them fluently.

His stomach tightens after reading them and he walks to the door with the wheel. It has closed again. The golden bar spins around and lands on the figure with the two wings, naturally. Instead of opening as it did for Mary, the tile slides out from underneath Cas and he goes plummeting down a narrow passageway. His body is pushed and slid through all sorts of terrible twists and turns, not to mention awful spells designed especially for angels. By the time he is shot out of the Sphynx's rear end, his wings are torn and his body is badly damaged. He has just enough strength to barely fly back to the bunker. He crashes on the front door and weakly manages to call Dean.

"Cas? You there?"

"Front…door…"

"Okay, coming right away."

Dean passes through the security points on his way out of the bunker and finds Cas in a heap on the floor. "Cas?!" He is followed by Sam and Bobby, who help pull the angel inside and to his bedroom. Sitting up in bed now, Cas' dark eyes look at Dean.

"It's bad," he mumbles.

"What happened to you?" Dean asks. He sits down next to the angel and takes his hand. "Bobby, heal him."

The young boy walks up to his mother but he pulls away. "No," Cas insists. "I will heal. Save your strength."

"But, mom," Bobby says, looking sad. "You're really hurt and my power is limitless, you've said it yourself."

"Your power is limitless as long as nobody uses a spell specifically to target Nephilim. I…I don't know the nature of the circumstance, but…but Mary seems to be seeking the three sacred items that can kill Nephilim."