Yes, I had this posted yesterday, but as some of you know, I deleted it. I wasn't happy with the direction of the story and I wanted to change it. I'm much happier with this new angle, and I hope you will be too. A lot has changed from the first draft, so please, enjoy. And as always, reviews are appreciated.

Been to Hell

Chapter 1: "Back in Black"

THEN

Lightning crackled in the sky above Mount Olympus. Thunder shook the foundations. The weather men were calling it a freak storm, but they weren't privy to the supernatural. Aphrodite appeared in a flash of light, a young woman with onyx streaked diamond hair and sapphire eyes beside her. "You sacrificed yourself for love," the goddess said softly, putting a hand on the woman's arm. "Go, find him again." She disappeared in the same light she'd appeared in, leaving the woman standing on the mountain alone.

She looked around, no memory of who she was, where she was, or who the goddess had spoken of. All she had was a strange tattoo on her chest, and another of an elegant swan spread out across her back.

NOW

Dean picked up his demon killing knife and looked at the demon he had chained to the chair in the dungeon of the bunker. It had been six months since Dalia's death at the gates of Tartarus. He'd been searching non-stop for a way to bring her back. Despite what Sam and Elena had tried to pound into his head, he'd gone to every crossroad demon that would meet with him, but no one would deal. Now, he was working on a way to just get her soul back to her body. He'd buried it on the grounds of the bunker under an oak tree he'd caught her reading under one day. Every morning when he woke up, she was his first stop, and his last stop every night before he went to bed. If he could get her soul back to her body, that was good enough for him.

He walked over to the demon, bracing his arm on the back of the chair as he leaned down, getting eye to eye. "Let's try this again," he growled dangerously. "Tell me where Dalia's soul is."

The demon growled, spitting blood in Dean's face. "She's not in hell, you moron. How many times do I have to tell you?"

Dean wiped the blood away and smiled. "Wrong answer." He slowly dragged the knife down the demon's arm, listening to its screams. "Where is she?" he demanded.

"I don't know!" the demon wailed. "She's not in hell!" Dean cut another line down the other arm. "I swear!"

Dean stood back, looking down at the demon. "You swear?" he asked. The demon nodded its head, in too much pain to try and speak. "Fine." He stabbed the knife deep into its chest, turning his back as it died. He didn't believe it. He walked over to the table filled with instruments of torture and picked up a towel, already stained bloody and wiped his hands. Six months, and he wasn't anywhere closer to finding Dalia than he'd been when he'd started. He threw the rag onto the table and walked out of the dungeon, going to the kitchen.

He needed to fuel up, dump the body, and summon another demon to take its place. He was running out of options. He knew she wasn't in heaven, he had Cas search every inch of it before he'd finally given up. His last option was hell because he refused to believe that she was stuck in purgatory.

Sam and Elena were in the kitchen, making dinner when he walked in. "Anything?" Sam asked.

Dean shook his head and sighed. "Nope." He pulled a beer out of the fridge and twisted off the tab, dropping it on the counter. "You?" Sam and Elena had been keeping an eye out for signs of a soul coming back from the dead. They were searching for the same events that had happened when Cas pulled Dean out of hell.

"Nothing yet, just another case." Elena pushed a plate towards Dean. "Eat."

"What kind of a case?" he asked.

"Zela, West Virginia. Police have reported multiple cases of homicide where the heart was missing from the victims." Sam handed the paper he'd found the case in to Dean.

"Sounds like a werewolf attack to me." He read it over. He really didn't want to take time out of his search for Dalia, but he couldn't sit by and let a werewolf kill people. He sighed and pushed his empty plate away. "You and Elena go deal with it."

"Dean," Sam sighed.

"I don't want to hear it." He got up and finished his beer. "I'm going back to work."

"Dean."

Dean threw the empty bottle at the wall and rounded on his brother. "Don't. Just don't Sam because I'm an inch away from breaking your nose." He shook his head. "You just don't get it do you? You've got Elena and what do I have? The same shit I've always had. I know she's out there and I'm not going to stop until she's home."

"That's not…Dean I didn't mean…"

"Save it, Sammy. She's family. You don't turn your back on family." He walked back down to the dungeon and prepared another summoning spell. Sam just didn't get it. Every time he walked into a room and caught him and Elena cuddling, or kissing, or just talking before they could break apart killed him. It took the knife in his heart and twisted it just a little bit deeper every time.

He dropped a lit match into the bowl and spoke the incantation to summon a demon. As soon as it appeared in the devil's trap Dean punched him, not enough to knock him out, just enough to stun. He forced him into a chair and quickly shackled him in. He stepped back and looked over his new playmate. He was dressed in a suit, a nice one too. About fucking time. This was one of Crowley's higher ups. If anyone knew anything, this guy would. The demon shook off the punch and glared up at Dean. "Hi there, ready to play?" he asked, picking up his demon killing knife.

The demon laughed. "Oh boy, did you pick the wrong demon." He leveled his eyes on Dean. "I know who you're looking for, and I can't help you."

"Yeah, we'll see about that." Dean walked over and stabbed the knife into his shoulder, drawing a scream. "Now. Where's Dalia?" he asked.

The demon laughed. "I don't know where your bitch is. Only two people in hell do."

Dean crossed his arms over his chest, narrowing his eyes. "Who?"

"Crowley and his new number one." The demon relaxed in his chains. "No one knows who she is, the King is keeping his new bitch on a very tight leash. No one's even seen her. But if anyone knows where your whore is, they do."

Dean smiled dangerously and nodded his head. "Good to know." He stabbed the knife into the demon's chest, watching as it died. He set the knife down and headed back up stairs. He had work to do. If Crowley and his new number one knew where Dalia was, then he was going to have to find them. That's all there was to it.

xXx

She walked out of the terminal, black skinny jeans tucked into biker boots, black tank top under a black leather jacket. Dalia hiked her bag a little higher on her shoulder and pushed her aviator sunglasses up the bridge of her nose. She pulled her earbuds out of her pocket and untangled them, slipping them into her ears and pushing play on the iPod she'd stolen when leaving Greece. She'd managed to scrounge enough money for a fake I.D., passport, and a plane ticket in the five months since Aphrodite had dumped her on the side of a mountain. Too bad the goddess hadn't actually taken her home, or at least to someone who could tell her who she was. She'd just landed in D.C.'s airport and she had no idea where she was going.

She'd managed to get onto a computer to run the address on the I.D. she'd had on her when she'd gotten into Athens, but it'd come up as an empty field in the middle of Kansas. So that had been a bust, big deal, she'd figure it out. She'd managed five months without knowing who she was, she could go a little longer.

She walked out of the airport and just started walking. She needed to get a few supplies before she got on the road. She had this set on instincts that she couldn't shake. They'd freaked her out the first time they'd surfaced. She knew karate, or something, because when some guy twice her size had tried to mug her in Athens she'd kicked his ass and put him on the ground. The instinct was deep, always whispering to her, guiding her next moves carefully.

She needed to get her hands on a gun and a car. Some new clothes wouldn't hurt. She knew where to get the clothes, any secondhand store donation center at night. The gun and the car were going to be a little harder to come by, but she could manage. Her first stop was an army surplus store. They would sell her a gun, and she'd be able to work her way around the waiting period.

Dalia walked up to the counter and removed her ear buds. "What can I do for you?" the man behind the counter asked.

Dalia scanned the hand guns in the case under her. She pointed to a black .45 and looked up at him. "I want that, and a box of bullets."

He eyed her as he removed the gun. "Are you sure you know how to handle one of these?" he asked, sliding the gun across the glass. Dalia picked it up, quickly slid the clip out, checked it and slid it back in, pulling the shaft back, cocking it and aimed it off to the side. The man chuckled a little. "Alright, you can handle it." He set a box of bullet down with the form she'd need to fill out. "Gonna have to sign this, darling."

"Or," Dalia said, pulling a roll of twenty's out of her pocket and sliding it discreetly across the counter, out of sight of the cameras. "We can call it even."

The man took the money and quickly did the math in his head. "Have a good day."

"Thanks." Dalia opened the box of ammunition and dumped a handful into her pocket, putting the rest of the box in her bag before walking out. She kept to the back streets where no one would see her as she loaded the gun and pulled a nail file from her pocket. She quickly filed the serial number off and looked around. Now she needed a car. Clothes could wait until she was out of D.C.

The first car she came upon was a 2008 Dodge Avenger. It was inconspicuous enough for her. She unlocked the doors and climbed in, dumping her bag onto the seat. The next city she stopped in she would change the plates. She pulled out of the alley the car was parked in and kept to the back roads as she drove out of the city. She turned on the radio, quickly finding a rock station and eased back into the seat.

Crowley appeared beside her. "Glad to see you made it home." He leaned back in the passenger's seat and tossed her head into the back seat. "I took the liberty of changing the plates for you."

"Thanks." She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. Crowley was the only one she trusted at the moment. He said that he knew who she was he could get her memories back. Since he was the King of Hell, she assumed he had the power to do it. She just had to do one thing for him, kill someone he wanted out of the picture. "So, where are we going?"

"For now? Just drive west. I'll let you know when we're ready to stop." He folded his hands in his lap and looked out of the window. "He knows about you."

"Who? The guy you want me to kill?" she asked.

"Indeed. Apparently one of the demons I thought was loyal spilled the beans about my new number one."

She shrugged and glanced at Crowley. "As long as he doesn't know my name or what I look like, I don't see what the problem is." She passed a car that was dragging ass and eased back to the seat, dropping one of her hands onto her lap. "Besides, he's expecting a demon, not a human."

"Demigod love, you're not human anymore."

She sighed and rubbed her eyes. "Yeah, sure." When Aphrodite dropped her on the side of the mountain, the goddess hadn't told her that she'd been given a gift. Whenever Dalia was around people she could tell if they were soulmates or not. A glow would illuminate their bodies. If the colors matched, they were destined to be together. It'd freaked her out the first time it had happened and she'd screamed herself hoarse trying to get Aphrodite to answer her. When the arrogant goddess finally showed up she refused to take her "gift" back. So she was a freak with Jason Bourne skill and the powers of a demigod. She was Percy Jackson on steroids.

"So, our deal still stands, right? I kill this guy for you and you give me back my memories?" she asked.

Crowley smirked and leaned over, brushing his lips against her ear. "We kissed on it, love. You'll get your memory back, as soon as Dean Winchester's heart stops beating."