The scene of the city whipped by Dean as the he stared out the window on the bus. The buildings, taller than he was used to, were blurred from the speed. Wind howled by the window that couldn't quite close, and the occasional raindrop landed on Dean's skin as rain pattered the bus, drenching the outside world.

All unfamiliar sensations. All sensations that would be normal on Earth.

The bus lurched to a stop, letting out passengers, and Dean walked down the old, creak-y steps, foot landing in a puddle of water at the bottom. He walked through the long streets of the city, buildings which seemed like they should be shorter towering over him, and found his way back to the motel he and Cas had checked out.

It was four stories high. Seemed like the kind of thing you'd see in a fancy hotel- but all of the buildings on Earth were bigger than he was used to. He supposed that was inevitable, having been gone for fifty years.

Dead. In Heaven.

Better than dead in Hell, he supposed.

Dean unlocked the door to his room, swinging it open to see Cas still staring at the notes Dean had pinned on the wall, old fashioned style. You could do it on a computer these days, but Dean didn't exactly know how, and he doubted the angel did, either.

"You still looking that over?" Dean asked.

Cas didn't respond. Instead, he asked, "How was it?"

"What?"

"Earth," Cas said, without taking his eyes off the wall.

"I don't know, man. Earth-like. What do you want me to say?" Dean said, and before Cas could respond, "Hey, if you're actually getting something from looking at that, please let me know."

Cas shook his head. "Did you talk to any hunters?"

"Yeah," Dean said. "I managed to find a hunter who both remembered me and didn't try to exorcise me, seeing as how I should be dead." He internally winced. It sounded whinier than he meant it to.

If Cas noticed, he didn't mention it. "Who?"

"Nobody." Dean sighed. "I was being sarcastic."

"Oh," Cas said.

"We should still try to talk to some hunters," Cas said, turning towards Dean, and after a slight pause, "I don't think they tell me everything."

Dean gave a small laugh. "No shit, Cas. Have you met you? I wouldn't tell you everything either." Dean shifted a little. "Not that I'm lying to you." He winced. "I mean, I'm not. I just realized it sound—" foot, mouth. "It sounded bad," he finished awkwardly.

Cas nodded, but Dean couldn't read his face. As usual.

"Could you talk to them?" Cas said. "Please." It was still brusque and cold, but Dean got the hint. It was a request, not an order.

He sighed. "Alright. But don't get your hopes up. I'm still dead, you know. They like real humans."

Cas nodded. "I know."

...

Dean and Cas drove to a hunter's apartment. It was a small, one room place, inside one of those tall, impressive buildings. The room Cas led Dean to was dark, lit only by a lamp with a cracked shade, and, even though the wallpaper pattern was sleek and cold, it still felt almost like normal. Not too future-y at all. Dean sighed. He had to get over that.

The hunter was a middle-aged woman. She had short, black hair, and light brown skin. A younger man hung with her, also with short black hair. He sat on the table off to the side, holding some notes. The hunter glowered at Cas.

Dean fidgeted. Being around the living felt…wrong somehow.

"You actually made any progress?" the hunter asked.

"Yes," Cas said. "I brought help."

"Wow," the hunter said agitatedly. "That counts? Cuz I brought help, too," she said, pointing at her partner. "Still not farther on the case."

"This is Dean Winchester." Cas said, gesturing a hand to Dean. "He was present when Lucifer's cage was first open—and when it closed."

The hunter looked at Dean. "Well?" she said. "You have anything?"

Dean felt his jaw clench. He tried to think back on what he knew about Lucifer and his cage— Sam. Sam was trapped in the cage with Lucifer and Michael. He swallowed. Because if it's open… Sam was dead, anyway.

"Hello?" the hunter asked.

"There were two archangels in there," Dean said quickly. "Cas and I went back to where the cage closed last, but we didn't find anything." Going back had been – well, even more painful than he'd expected. He bit the inside of his cheek just thinking about it. And he couldn't even go for a drive to try to clear his head- he didn't have his own car yet- he'd had to take the bus.

"Great," the hunter said.

The young man fidgeted for a second, then stood up from the small table he'd been sitting on. "There's, uh, something else," he said.

"Yeah?" Dean asked.

"There was a monster outbreak a couple days ago—that's when the whole cage thing happened, right?"

"It is," Cas said.

"Yeah. So not the same area, but the timing's sure a coincidence. Reportedly there were some vampires, werewolves, and a wendigo. Also some demons, too." He paused. "So, pretty weird. Not all of the reports matched up— some parts we didn't even recognize."

Dean looked at Cas. "So, I was going to hear about this big monster thing when?"

"Now," Cas said. "I mean, I just heard." Then he turned to the other hunter. "Linda, why didn't you tell me?"

"I tried," the hunter—Linda—snapped. "Kevin and I were trailing two of the demons when you and your angel buddies decided to come in and derail our hunt."

"I—Lucifer is more important," Cas said.

"People are dying!"

"Many more people will die if we don't find Lucifer!"

"So," Dean coughed. "We should go check that big monster thing out, right Cas?"

Cas sighed, quickly glancing around the room. "We need to find Lucifer."

"You have somewhere else to start looking?" Dean asked. "I know its flimsy, but it's the only connection we've made so far."

"Fine," Cas said.

"Do you need help?" Linda asked reluctantly.

"I'll tell you if we do."

...

Dean used the money he'd won at pool, which fortunately hadn't changed, to rent a cheap car. It was sleeker than the impala, and red. Dean thought whoever designed the car was trying too hard for 'cool' and overshot.

"Who were they?" Dean asked as they sped down the highway.

"Hunters," Cas said. "Sort of. It's complicated." He opened his mouth to say more, but stopped.

"Yeah, whatever," Dean said. He leaned forward, in the passenger's seat. "Hey, lemme drive."

"Dean, you don't have a license anymore."

"So? Neither do you, I bet."

"And you haven't driven a car in decades."

"…That's a no, then?"

Cas rolled his eyes.

Dean ignored him, turned on the radio and leaned back. The music was unfamiliar and faster than he was used to, but it was loud, and drowned out the rest of the noise in the car. Soon, he'd managed to drown out everything except the music and the noise of the road.

...

Cas teleported Dean and himself to the scene of the crime. They had to bypass security because Dean had yet to get a fake ID. Dean looked around the house. The design was different than he was used to- long curved walls smoothed the transitions between rooms.

Dean looked around the room. Whatever did this didn't care whether it made a mess. The bodies had been removed, but blood was still splattered across the walls. That's going to take a while to get off, Dean thought. Then, I wonder if there were any survivors. But most people weren't prepared to fight the supernatural.

He took out the EMF reader Cas had managed to get. He wondered if Cas got it from a hunter- for some reason, it was weird imaging an angel asking for tech.

Dean walked around the room. Nothing. He looked at Cas. "Find any sulfur?" he asked.

Cas shook his head.

"We've gotta check the bodies," Dean said.

Dean lay on a motel bed with the TV channel turned to the first half-decent thing he could find. Cas paced. He stopped, fidgeted with one of the sleeves of his shirt, and paced again.

"So," Dean said. "What have we got?"

"We haven't gotten any closer to Lucifer," Cas said, agitated.

Dean ignored him. "No EMF, so not ghosts. No sulfur, so I don't think it was a demon. Still plenty of other creepy crawlies out there. What do you think?"

Cas turned toward Dean. "I think," he said, "That we should be looking for Lucifer."

Dean sighed. "I meant about the case, Cas."

"The case? We don't even know if this is where we should start looking!" Cas said.

"Either way," Dean said, raising his voice. "People are dying here. We need to do something."

"I know that, Dean," Cas said. "But don't you think it's a little more important—"

"No," Dean said. "I mean, I'm doing what I can. If you really don't like it, you can always send me back to heaven."

Cas blinked. "Don't be ridiculous." He sighed. "Just keep going. What do you think it is?"

Dean relaxed. Of course, Cas wouldn't do that. But sometimes Dean could never tell.

...

Dean was putting his money on a rugaru. He and Cas had checked by the morgue, but not much of the bodies were left. Sounded like something ate them. He pocketed a bottle of gasoline and a lighter, and out of caution grabbed a machete, too. The other hunters did mention vampires. And demons. Wonder if I can still remember an exorcism.

He and Cas had split up to search the area with the most recent police report Cas heard. Apparently he could do that now. Dean could never tell what an angel's powers were. Splitting up was fine by him, however. He needed some alone time.

The sun was setting by the time they started, and Dean perked up, hearing a commotion up ahead, he ran forward against the alley's wall, ready with the torch and gasoline. When he peaked around the corner he saw a man and a woman, standing over the body of something beheaded. Dean wondered if they were other hunters, but stopped himself from stepping out. He wasn't friendly with any hunters right now.

"That's another one," the woman said.

"How many does that make it?" the man asked.

"So far, twelve. Damn." Dean heard a sigh. "You aren't blaming me for this, are you?"

"You mean, because those things were following you? Well, maybe a little…" the man said.

"Following us. And it doesn't matter. At least we left, and we're cleaning up this mess."

After another sigh, Dean heard footsteps. He peaked around the corner again, to see the man and woman walking away with the body, and made a snap decision to follow them. They obviously knew more about this problem than he did.

He crept closer, and ducked behind a car as the couple walked up to their own car.

The man set the body down in the trunk and the woman put the head in. She yawned. "I'm tired," she said. "And hungry. How about we burn this sucker in the morning and get something to eat now."

The man grunted. "Why can't we burn him now?"

"I don't feel like it."

"But if the hunters find him—"

"They'll just assume another hunter took care of it. Geesh. You've been non-stop grump since you got out of hell."

Demons, Dean thought. And he didn't even have Ruby's knife anymore. I should have asked Cas for his angel blade.

"I wonder why," the man said sardonically

He needed Cas. He tried to back up quietly, but, as he was turning, knocked the car's mirror. Damn.

"Fine," the woman said. "I'll help you get rid of the body now, if you help me dispose of whatever soul was foolish enough to follow us."

Dean blinked. So they had heard him. He turned to run. He took two steps before something heavy hit him in the back. He groaned and rolled over to see the female demon facing him, with her hand raised.

"Why are you following us?"she asked. "I'd rather know before I kill you."

Dean grunted and didn't respond. He tried to remember the exorcism, but it wasn't coming to him. He'd never thought he'd need to practice it in heaven.

"Answer me!" the demon said. Dean winced as she pushed harder on his ribs, keeping him pinned to the cement floor.

"I don't know," Dean said. Buy some time. "Curiosity, I guess. I wanted to see what you were."

"Too bad for you."

The male demon finally walked over to him. He seemed puzzled. "We're going to kill him?"

She sighed. "Unless you have a better idea."

"Cas," Dean whispered, hoping it was to quiet for the demons to hear.

"Shouldn't we not up the body count? It'll look suspicious," the male demon said, while the female demon cocked her head to the side, curiously.

"Cas, if you can actually hear me, two demons are about to kill me. Just thought you should know."

"Who's Cas?" the female demon asked. Dean swallowed.

The alley was mercilessly quiet for a moment before Dean heard the familiar rustling of wings. He tried to push himself up, wincing at the pain in his ribs, to see Cas and the two demons standing a few paces away from each other. None of them moved. The stillness almost made Dean hesitate to act.

Then he inhaled and charged the female demon, who was closer to him, before he could back down, and yelled, "Cas, your knife!"

The demon stepped out of the way, letting Dean slam into her partner, who was still frozen by the sudden appearance of an angel. Her partner caught Dean by his arms, almost reflexively, it seemed, and Dean could see his face for the first time.

The man regained composure and quickly shoved Dean towards Cas – or at least where Cas used to be. By the time Dean hit the ground Cas was already at the opposite 180, behind the demons. As he pulled out his angel blade, the woman grabbed her partner and they both vanished into thin air.

Dean took a moment to catch his breath as Cas walked over to him. "Are you hurt?" he asked, pulling Dean to his feet.

Dean grimaced. "I may have cracked a rib when those guys were pushing me around, but I'll live," he said. Before he even finished speaking, he felt Cas's hand rest gently on his chest. A second later, the pain trickled away.

"Is that better?" Cas asked.

"Yeah," Dean said. "I mean, I said I was fine. And some help you were back there – nice reactions. What, were you waiting to see if I was bluffing about them wanting to kill me? Cuz I don't really look forward to going back to heaven yet."

Cas blinked. "I thought I saw…" he said.

Dean sighed. "I know, Cas. I saw it too."

Cas looked at Dean, confused.

"The demon possessing the man," Dean said. "He had yellow eyes."