Bang. The shot reverberated around the room; the echo had almost an air of disbelief. What would not have normally hurt an angel had a human dead in an instant. Cas turned to look at Dean with shock written on his face, and then before he could say anything, he fell like a stone.

"Cas!" Dean started towards him, but stopped as the gun went level with his head. Sam glared at the man holding the gun and said "What the hell did you just do?" He smirked and gave a quick glance at the angel.

"Oh, as it turns out, humans can be killed much easier than angels. It was so simple, I almost can't believe it." He shrugged.

"Cas is not dead, you son of a bitch. He can't be." Dean's voice cracked. "Cas, you listen to me. You get up right now and help us gank this bastard, or so help me I'll kill you myself." There was no response from the figure slumped on the floor. Dean's voice was shaking now, and it was barely above a whisper. "Please, Cas… Please…" For a beat there was silence, and then he looked at the man holding the gun.

When he spoke this time, his voice was soft. "Listen here. I will personally see to it that you get killed. And not a quick death, oh no. You'll have the worst torture you could possibly imagine. I know a thing or two about that, and believe me when I say this. I'll have you squealing like the coward you really are. You bitch!" His voice was loud and angry by the time he finished his sentence. The man chuckled.

"Dean, Dean. Don't you recognize me? I would have thought blood meant something to you. After all, Sam certainly does. But, I suppose, in your eyes, I'm just one of the many casualties in this endless bloody war." It was Sam who spoke, his voice filled with astonishment, and guilt.

"Adam?" Adam winked at him.

"Hey, you remember me! Finally!" He switched moods like a flip of a switch. He gave both the Winchesters a look of pure loathing. "You left me there. You left me in the pit." His eyes were suddenly full of pain as he flipped his gaze to Sam. "Sam, you know how it felt, you were there with me. And then you were gone, and I was the only one left for them." His voice shook. "Sam, you had it so much better than I did. So much better." Adam looked at Dean. "And Dean. You served your time, too, didn't you. First in hell, and then purgatory. You know about the time difference, right? Ha, well in the pit it was much worse. I was in there for 200 years. Ask Sammy about that." Dean looked at Sam, who made a point of avoiding his gaze. Instead, he focused on Adam.

"Adam, look. I know what we did was wrong. We should have tried to find you. But that's not important. What's important is that you're here. I don't know how you managed to escape, but you did. It's over. And we, Dean and I, we can help you. You're right, I do know how it feels. And that's exactly why I can help you. Adam, listen. No matter how hopeless it seems, it always gets better. It always does." Dean shot a look at Sam. "Sammy, he killed Cas!" He hissed. Sam's eyes were filled with sadness. "I know, Dean."

Adam laughed. "That's funny, Sammy, but it's too late. It won't get better, not for me. It almost killed you, hey? And you had it easy. You know, I came here with the intention to make you suffer for what you did, but you know what? You're so naïve, still, it makes me laugh. And I guess you've had enough. You did spend quite a long time in the pit. A hundred years, was it? But Dean. You will suffer. You knew about me the whole time, and not once, not once did you ever try to rescue me. Hell, I bet you didn't even think about me." He raised his gun level with Sam's head. "Sam, I don't know where you'll end up. If it's hell or purgatory, great, heaven, so be it. I'm not even sure you'll go there; you might just become a vengeful spirit. But you know what? That's what you deserve. That's what you deserve because I DIDN'T DESERVE ANY OF THIS!" Adam screamed. Then he shook himself, and smiled bitterly. "Goodbye, Sam Winchester."

"Adam…" Sam's voice was full of fear.

"Adam…. Please…" Dean whispered.

Bang. Adam lowered his arm as Sam crumpled. He turned to face Dean.

"Happy now? Well this is nothing compared to what I felt." He smiled. Dean sunk to his knees as the realization that everyone he had ever loved was now completely gone hit him.

"Adam. Kill me." He begged. Adam winked at Dean.

"I don't think so, brother. You see, this is what I've been looking forward too, ever since I realized that you weren't coming to rescue me. I thought up all kinds of delicious tortures, most of them I was lucky enough to experience firsthand. It wasn't until a while in that I realized that this would be the worst. Seeing your brother die right in front of you, and seeing your best and only friend die right before that. And know that they won't be able to come back this time, hey? No more angels, remember." He flipped the gun to the other hand. " I'm not stupid. I know as soon as I'm gone, you'll try to kill yourself. And don't get me wrong, I'll let you… eventually. I've almost moved on. Almost. For now I'm going to play with you for a bit." He grinned, and then moved forward so fast if Dean had blinked he would have missed it.

And blackness.

When he woke up, Dean was tied to a chair. Adam was enjoying some bagels and orange juice. He looked up when Dean started stirring.

"Morning, Sunshine." Adam sung in between bites. "Hands and feet tied, mouth gagged you so won't bite your tongue off, am I missing anything? No? Alrighty, then. Shall we begin?" He stood up, and took out a small knife. "You see, I learned a couple tricks myself. It's quite useful actually. Watch this." He bared Dean's arm, and started cutting symbols into it. "You see, this is Enochian for 'remember.' And remember you will" Adam finished and stood back to admire his handy work. The symbols stayed normal for a beat, but then started glowing a bright orange.

And then- Dean was no longer in the chair. He was back in Hell, and he remembered everything, all the small details, all the things he had made himself forget because they were just too painful to live with. He could smell the sulfur so strong it made him want to throw up. He could feel the utter hopelessness that sunk into his very bones and settled on his mind like a damp blanket. And the pain- it was so much worse than he had remembered- as if he had tried to convince himself it wasn't as bad as it really was. It ran through his body, and he screamed, spewing blood from his mouth. He screamed his brother's name, he screamed Cas's name, but mostly he screamed for it to stop. Every day, he saw Alistair's face, offering to stop the torture, and everyday he said no, until he couldn't stand it any longer; couldn't bear the worst pain of his life. And he resented the lessons at first, hated himself for hurting others, and beat himself up inside almost as much as he had been beaten on the outside. But gradually he started to like it; to relish their pain, but mostly he was grateful that he was doing the hurting, and not being hurt. And then he saw a face- just for a second, shinning brighter than all the flames and then-

He was back in the chair. Only a few instants had gone by, but he had had to live out the entire forty years in his mind. His face was streaked with tears. He tried to say something, to beg Adam to just end it, but any sound he made was caught by his gag.

"Hey. Don't be like that. I'm going easy on you. Trust me, if I knew how, I would make you live out my memories of the pit. I guess you're just one lucky kid, eh? Well, I'm not done yet. I need you to feel guilt. For what you did to me, for what you did to everyone. This here is going to be Enochian for 'guilt.' Fancy, my little trick are, aren't they." He took his knife and started carving. Again, the symbols did nothing for a second, and then flared to life.

Dean was just a kid, on his first job ever, with his dad. It was supposed to be something easy, a typical small vengeful spirit in a haunted house, but Dean had screwed up, and had almost gotten a woman killed. John had yelled at him afterwards. He didn't physically hurt him, but he put down his son over and over again. The scene shifted, and kept shifting, going through every scenario in which he had cause to feel guilt, which was a lot. It even went to the time when he had just gotten out of purgatory, and had found out that Sam hadn't even looked for him. By all means, he should have been mad, but he had kept thinking- is it because I'm a bad brother? I took him away from collage, and dragged him back into the life that he had tried so hard to avoid. And now, everything he's had to go through- It's all because of me. So is it really that ridiculous for him to not want me back? It changed to when Sam completed the first trial. It should have been Dean who had done that. It would have saved everybody a lot of time. He could have closed the gates of hell- unlike Sam, he actually deserved to die. As the scenarios changed, he realized that most of them involved his own brother. He wasn't the perfect big brother Sam wanted him to be. He was far from it, far enough to be exactly the opposite.

And he was back in the chair. "Feeling better? Well, I've got to admit, I'm getting a little bored. Not even a peep from you!" Adam paused to laugh at his own joke. "I've got one last thing for you. It'll be different, though. No absence of mind. You'll be seeing these at the same time you see the real world. I'll leave you here, and I'll leave the gun here. As soon as you escape, you can go be with your precious brother and your angel." He put the gun down on the table. "Dean, don't you see?" His voice was tinged with sadness again. "We could have been brothers, you and I. I like you. I- I admired you. You knew our dad, and you weren't a coward like I was. If you had only remembered me…" His voice trailed off. "Well, too late for that. The next symbol is Enochian for 'loss.' Have fun with that one, Brother." Adam bent over and carved the symbols onto Dean's arm, and walked through the door. It started up almost immediately. A ghostlike image of Cas, and then Sam being shot. They were the strongest, but he could also make out others, all people he had loved, who were now dead. He started to work at the ropes that held his wrists, all the while tears staining his face.

It took him almost two days, as weak as he was, to escape. He could barely move for stiffness as he pulled himself over to the table where the gun still lay. He took it in his shaking hands, and crawled over to where Sam and Castiel's bodies lay. With his last remaining strength, he crawled in between them and pressed the cold gun to his head.

Bang.

Dean woke up with a start. He was sitting in his impala, in the middle of the woods, in front of a blue, two-story house. This must be his heaven, he realized. And if this was his heaven, then that must mean that Sam and Cas were here-

"Hello Dean." Dean jumped, and looked at the passenger seat. There was Cas, looking perfectly healthy.

"Cas." He whispered, and he realized he was smiling. Castiel looked down at Dean's arms, which, despite the rest of him being healed, still had the pale scars from the Enochian symbols.

"Dean, what did he do to you?" Dean looked away.

"Nothing." He replied.

"Dean, those are the Enochian symbols used in ancient torture techniques. Tell me what he did to you." Dean avoided his gaze as he spoke.

"He, uh, he made me remember hell, Cas. Really remember it." Now it was Cas's turn to look away.

"I'm truly sorry, Dean."

"Yeah, okay, thanks." They sat there in awkward silence for a moment when Dean saw a tall figure come out of the house.

"Sammy." He whispered. He got out of the car, and started walking at a brisk pace towards the house. Sam looked closely at the man walking towards him before calling out

"Dean?" Dean smiled.

"Hey Sammy!" They met in a hug. Dean was full of relief that he could see his brother. Sam looked at him with a light in his eyes that Dean rarely ever saw.

"Hey Dean. Guess who else is here?" But Dean didn't have to guess, because at that moment two people walked out of the house.

"Dad? Mom?" Dean's voice was incredulous.

"Who else did you expect? We are in our heaven, you know." Mary spoke.

"So, is this how it ends then? No more ganking monsters, just living here for the rest of eternity? Because I'm completely fine with that." Dean asked. There was a rustle, and Cas appeared, making everyone jump.

Dean faced Castiel. "Cas, how can you do that? I thought you were…?"

"…Human. Yes, I still am, but for some reason, since I've returned to heaven I've gained back a few skills. I'm not sure why. But biologically, I am not an angel. As to your previous question, there is still Metatron. He is in heaven, I know it. I can feel it."

For the first time in a long time, Dean felt truly happy.

"Well then. Let's gank that son of a bitch, and then I'm going to get me some pie."