Gods Like Us

by Isadora26

Part Two of the Gods Trilogy. Dean, Sam and Ambre come out of hiding to find out what's inside them and some way to defeat what hunts them.

1Chapter One

Gabriel sat in the car across the street sipping on his cup of coffee as the soft sounds from the radio greeted him like an old friend. This had been the most uneventful job he'd ever had. He looked down to the clock above the radio dial and sighed.

"Another 3:30 stake out." He whispered to himself as he stretched his arms, his chest, and unfurled his wings. He couldn't believe that Nessa had called him. Nessa, of all guardians. Gabriel smiled sadly. He always knew that she couldn't hide behind the veil forever. That there was something inside her that wanted out of the monotony of the Foci's control.

He still never imagined that she would make that leap so suddenly. To call the rebel faction in the middle of the night for the sake of her current charges. His team had made it to the hotel three hours after the police had carted her body away.

Gabriel gulped down another sip. She wanted him to watch after them. He knew that much. It had taken him months to find them though, and that only heightened his sense of nervousness, because if found them...then Alturoc couldn't be that far behind. He was doing this without his team now. Things were so quiet he'd long ago sent them on to bigger things.

He perked up as he saw the light come on in the small suite of the hotel room in the kitchen area. Maybe something of interest would happen soon, but even if it didn't. He was in this for the long haul.

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

Sam was the first one to yawn as all three stood around the tiny stove of the kitchenette looking at the green bubbling goo that resided in the pot before them. Dean yawned next as all eyes remained tiredly transfixed on the gruesome brew. Ambre was the last one to succumb to the contagious event.

"This sucks." Dean breathed looking to the clock on the wall over the couch.

"I told you we shouldn't have drank the last batch so early...that we'd have to..."

"Shut up." Ambre yawned again getting a chuckle from Dean.

"Someone's testy this morning." Dean smiled slightly.

"Someone's not testy." Ambre angled her head up at him with a glare. "Someone is pissed as hell to be up at 3 in the morning standing over a stove because no one could agree on who was going to make this batch. I've made the last two...I should be hugging a pillow." Ambre complained.

"Do you even remember what happened last time I cooked this stuff up?" Dean asked matching her tone. Ambre groaned and walked over to her over night bag for the Tylenol. "Oh oh...I want some."
"Me too." Sam spoke up.

They all had headaches. It was like a hangover effect from the antiscrying potion. Sure Ben had been right. The intoxication effect got to be less and less over the last few months but it had taken weeks in what felt like a college bender type setting for them to get there. They hadn't even been able to leave Ben's for an entire month as they waited for one of them to feel comfortable enough to drive.

Ambre grabbed the bottle sitting at the top of the bag and paused at the small paper bag that sat beside it peeking out under her toothbrush. Ambre took a breath looking to her back to Sam. It was early...maybe he wouldn't notice anything. He wasn't really awake yet.

Making the hasty decision that had been halted time and time over her nervousness that Sam would read her mind and find out her fear, she finally resolved to do it. Ambre tucked the bag into the pocket of her jacket and turned on the boys with the pills in hand. She walked on over and handed them out watching as Dean swallowed his dry and Sam went to get a glass of water.

Ambre took her opportunity. "I'll be right back. Don't let it burn...I don't think I can drink it black again." Dean's face scrunched up at the mention of the black burnt potion that Sam had been responsible for.

"Where you going?" Dean asked as if she was betraying them by leaving the two of them to finish this batch alone.

"To pee." She replied quickly. Dean made a face as if he didn't really want to know that which caused Ambre to smile brighter and Sam to chuckle out, his back still to the both of them from where he stood over the sink to take the headache medicine.

Ambre closed the bathroom door behind her and set the bag in front of her. She bit her lip and looked to the door hoping against hope that Sam couldn't sense her feelings, her thoughts from the kitchen. His powers were growing faster then hers and Deans combined. She let out a deep breath and took the pregnancy test from the bag.

"Three minutes." She whispered to herself.

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

"Dean we need to talk." Sam walked over to the pot watching as Dean carefully stirred the green glob inside.

"Talk." Dean nodded. "Sounds good...what about?" He asked as he cut a glance up to Sam shortly before returning his eyes to the pot before him.
"You know what about." Sam watched as Dean slowly quit stirring and gave him a 'no I don't' glance. "Dean, it's been six months and you still have Ambre crawling into your bed every time she has a nightmare."
Dean sighed. He wouldn't really admit it, but he'd gotten used to her being there. Every night. She woke at the same time, sometimes screaming...sometimes not, but she always ended up where ever he was. "It's just a..."

"A what...comfort... I think your deluding yourself." Sam paused sensing something from the back of Dean's mind without even really trying. "Wait have you two?" Sam broke off knowing that Dean knew what he was asking.

Dean paused just a little to long. "No, man."

"You do know she's still mourning her boyfriend...right?" Sam asked softly. "And that I can read your mind."

"Yeah I asked you to stop doing that." Dean cut a glance to the bathroom door. The hotel room had grown quiet. He stirred the glob harder and looked to Sam. "This isn't something I really want to talk about." Dean finally said as the bathroom door opened and Ambre walked looking pale and shaken.

"You alright?" Dean asked quickly as he and Sam both turned their gaze to her.

She nodded and gave them a smile before walking back over to the stove to help supervise the potion before them. Sam glanced around Dean's back to Ambre his eyes widening. Ambre arched an eyebrow as she looked nervously in his direction at the same moment and knew that he had sensed it.

No...no...no ...no. She had known better. She should have stayed in there long enough to calm down so that she could hide her feelings from Sam.

"Well you two probably need to talk about it." Sam continued on as if it now didn't matter that Ambre had rejoined them. Dean looked to Sam as if he was being way too intrusive then looked back to Ambre who was looking nervously to the floor.

"It's done." Sam called out pulling Dean away from the confusion in his mind as he tried to figure out what in the hell was going on. Dean looked down to the green goo and frowned. He was glad that it was done...it was the drinking part that he was never thrilled about. But the alternative was less then savory so the green glob won out...over and over again. Every 48 hours to be exact. Other wise every manner of underworld minion would be knocking down there door incessantly as the demon lord Alturoc decided to rid the world of the last of the old gods.

Sam poured the mixture into cups for all of them and then tossed the pot in the sink. He handed them out quickly and the three of them stood there with the green drinks looking anything but thrilled as Sam held up his cup. "Here's to surprises." Sam said looking straight at Ambre. She looked up just in time to meet his eyes and was finally sure that he knew.

She held up her own cup taking it that he wasn't going to tell Dean as she downed the fluid in one gulp. For once in a long while she wished she still got punch drunk on this stuff. Or maybe not...She swallowed thickly making a face at the after taste as her eyes moved from Sam to Dean. She couldn't believe this was happening.

It was Sam who saved her again as she almost began to talk about it.

"We have an appointment at the Foci command center in Washington in three days. They've agreed to let us look at the ancient texts." Sam smiled victoriously as they had been seeking to find out about the roots of their new found powers for months. "I made it clear that we weren't staying."

"Good." Dean nodded. "I guess we better get packed up and head that way then."

"Sounds like a plan." Ambre's nodded thankfully. She still needed to sort out her own jumbled thoughts and she was glad that Sam seemed to understand that.

Chapter Two

He shouldn't be looking. He knew that. He should be concentrating on getting comfortable, in catching a little bit of sleep on this ride to D.C. He shouldn't be feeling the sad pang of jealousy or the anger that was slowly building within his heart. He should be happy. Happy that Ambre was moving on from her loss, moving on from having watched her boyfriend's horrendous death six months ago. He should be thrilled that Dean had connected with someone.

Sam found his eyes resting on her lips as she propped herself up between the seats, elbows resting on the head rests. They were fighting. If you could call it that. Dean and Ambre had settled into an easy routine that much resembled his own and Dean's without as much hostility and now they had stumbled onto the music debate. Dean was winning just by sheer volume and Sam was waiting for fire to burst from Ambre's fingers at any moment.

When she full heartedly laughed at the humming of Metallica as a zen moment, Sam felt his heart squeeze as he looked through the windshield of the borrowed Charger that they were all still getting used to. Ben had been kind enough to let them take his spare car for a while. Sam knew he shouldn't have the feelings locked inside that had been slowly surfacing for the last few months. Still he hadn't been able to shake it.

He found himself wanting to spend time with her when Dean was out, some way to edge closer then the friend zone. And he knew he shouldn't want that. This had never been an issue. Dean and Sam didn't like the same women, not generally. So it was when his own voice sounded out of no where interjecting in their conversation that he truly knew that he was losing control of his emotions. That he had a problem. He didn't sound mad as his voice rose over Dean and Ambre's. Still Sam looked straight back at Ambre and said in his usual supportive tone. "Don't you think you should tell him?"

Ambre turned three shades of white as the words hit her like daggers to the heart. She near choked on her laugh as Dean still smiling looked to the rearview to get a good look at her before asking an innocent "Tell me what?"

Ambre licked at her lips her voice caught in her throat, choking on the shock and the disbelief that Sam had outed her right there, like that. She slowly drew in a deep breath trying to keep from igniting a spark as Dean looked from her reflection to Sam and asked again. "Tell me what?"

Sam shrugged making sure that his the smile that wound around inside his heart as he looked back to Ambre waiting expectantly. Dean's smile was slowly fading as he saw the look on Ambre's face while changing his view from the road to all the passengers. "Ok. What's going on here?"

"How could you?" Ambre's voice should have sparked some guilt, but he was too angry for that to work.

"I'm not the one hiding things." Sam remarked quickly turning the focus off him again and right back onto her.

"Ok someone start talking." Dean spoke up his voice betraying the annoyance that had crept inside him.

Ambre couldn't believe Sam had done this. She looked to him and shook her head before finally focusing the whole of her attention on Dean. She swallowed thickly and took in another deep breath.

"Ambre?" Dean looked back at her nervously. "We're not about to go up in a fireball are we? Cause that would really wreck my day here."

"Depends." Sam whispered under his breath.

"What did you say?" Dean asked him angrily, having lost all patients with this nonsense.

"Nothing." Sam sniffed as he ran a finger across his nose and looked to his hands as he waited for Ambre to force the words out.

"I'm pregnant."

Dead silence consumed the car, followed by Dean pulling over onto the shoulder, and slamming the car into park. He sat there, this stunned look falling over his features as he starred out the windshield in utter shock.

Three months previous

The darkness sank in softly, deceptively. There were mingled visions of Shay's death and climbing the wall of body parts that led to her freedom at the farmstead. There was so much blood and death and somewhere in the chaotic mass of dreamscapes Ambre woke panting as the tears ran down her cheek.
She wished just once that she could fall asleep and not see it. To not see Shay dying, To not climb that wall, to not be on that ceiling again bleeding on the book of incantations, to not be so scared. She scrambled up and looked frantically around the darkened bedroom before her eyes adjusted enough to the dim moonlight filtering into through the window. She had been sleeping on the couch again. They switched off and she insisted that she join in the rotation.

She spotted Dean's form sprawled on his stomach under the covers and remembered that Sam had gone out to get some food a bit ago. Ambre made her way over as she had a hundred times before over the last few months...just like the night Nessa died. "Dean." Ambre's voice was barely over a whisper, but he stirred.

Dean rolled over and looked up at her tiredly. Without another word he smiled up at her and held back the covers for her to climb into the bed. She smiled back as she wiped the tears from her face and climbed into the bed scooting all the way over until she could feel his body against hers.
He draped his arm over her and seemed to settle back in.

Ambre wasn't sure why, but tonight was different. It was if she couldn't get close enough to make the dream fade away. It was as if it hadn't really ended this time. She rolled over to face him and Dean repositioned himself as if to ask what was wrong as he lifted his arm for her to move. As his arm settled back over her though Ambre pulled herself closer to him wrapping her arms around him. That was a first. Because Ambre had always let him hold her. To help her pass into sleep without fear of the monsters that waited for her there.

Ambre never used to be this way. She had lived a life full of stress in line of work, a trauma nurse. She had never wanted to let someone else hold up what was left of her. She even felt guilty for letting his arms surround her now. The guilt had come every night since this pattern began. The comfort though made up for the guilt. She felt the sob shudder through her as if she betrayed every weakness in that one moment. It was weakness that made her hate herself at times, like this one moment. But she was caught up in the warm arms of relief. As if the humanity of one person could save her from herself, from the woman she was becoming, from the power that grew inside her. Ambre took in a breath against his hair and buried her face against his neck as her form trembled against his.

She slowly wrapped her arms around his waist and pulled him closer as if the hunger for the comfort she so desperately needed was more then she ever imagined. The feelings from before reminded her of who she was and that there was something in his eyes that seemed to connect with what was left of her falling spirit as she pulled back slightly unable to control her need for him. For this. For some form of human contact that told her that life was worth living. That she was alive. Her hands roamed upward and soon cupped his neck, his chin, his cheeks so tightly as she brought her lips to his. It was like ravenous hunger that set this in motion and she couldn't stop it now if she wanted to. There was no reason or rhyme to it, just need.

Dean was taken aback at first but it wasn't long before he gave into the kiss. He couldn't help it. His own need was beginning to over ride sense. When she pulled back and panted an apology he shook his head as his own hands found their way to her face, tenderly running across her cheek. "Don't be." And he pulled her back to him. Back to the Present

Dean turned around in the seat and swallowed the knot forming in his throat.

"You're what?"

Chapter Three

"I'm pregnant." It didn't sound any more reassuring the second time that the words left her mouth. The look on Dean's face caused Ambre's heart to slip slowly down into her stomach even if it mirrored her feelings from before in the bathroom. The feelings that Sam so easily detected with just a glance.

Ambre glanced at Sam in disbelief that he could do this to her, but he had shifted his gaze to the passenger window and was running his finger over the dust they had yet to clean from the interior.

"How long have you known?" Dean didn't know what else to say yet.

"Just this morning." Ambre whispered looking down at her hands.

"How long have you known?"Dean asked Sam who turned back from the window with little more then a fleeting glance before he continued his task.

"This morning." Sam said softly.

"I didn't tell him." Ambre replied defensively.

Dean nodded thoughtfully as it sank in that she hadn't been talking to Sam about it before she discussed it with him. There was a long draw of silence intermingled with the sound of Sam's finger against the glass as Dean tried to think of what to say. "In our line of work, a baby is scary...but here and now with the way things are...it's even scarier. I wish I knew what to say..."

Ambre sank back against the seat sniffing back tears that had yet to fall. "I think you just said it."

Dean hadn't even really wrapped his head around it yet so how could he possibly tell her how he felt about it? He hated to hear the pain in her voice, but right now he needed to just think...think and drive. Before Dean put the car back into drive as a solemn quiet had now fallen over the group he cast a glance to Sam who seemed to have finished with is work on the window.

Dean narrowed his eyes at the words that Sam seemed to have traced over and over in perfect form even though they were backwards as if meant to be read from outside the car. The noon day light that filtered in made it difficult at best to read, but Dean took the time. After processing the letters he finally put the phrase together in his head.

The Covenant Is broken

"Sam whatcha doing?" He asked quickly as his breath near froze in his throat.

"I was just..." Sam looked to the window as if realizing for the first time that he had scrawled it there. "I uh..."

"That's what I thought." Dean nodded thinking back to another time he had heard Sam use the word Covenant as Ambre sat up to get a good look at the window.

Six months previous - Excerpt from "Sins of A Lesser God"

Dean raced across the room and knelt beside Sam as the lights continued their dance on and off. "Sam." Dean grabbed his brother by the shoulders and pushed him back so that he could have a look at him just as Sam opened his eyes.

Dean didn't mean to gasp. He had seen some pretty freaky crud in this line of work. Most of it he had hunted - killed - or both. He generally tried to be strong and not let things take him off guard. However, at that precise moment he couldn't help but recoil from Sam.

Sam removed his hands from his head and raised his head as if the pain had gone, as his jaw pulled tight, his visage changing into a snarl of a smile. His eyes had taken on a red tone that completely covered the pupil...looking as if bloody pools resided there in their place.

Dean backed up as Sam rose to his feet. "Sam?" Dean's voice wavered this time.

"Death comes swift to the ill prepared." Sam's voice became so low and deep that it seemed to reverberate from the depths of hell.

"Not good." Nessa whispered low inching forward towards Dean. Sam's head twisted in her direction and she near jumped at the contortion of the muscles in his facial features.

"You have become intoxicated with the spoils of plunder...It has made you weak." Sam near growled at her.

"Sam!" Dean felt Ambre slide up behind him. "You still in there Sammy?"

Sam's head snapped back to face Dean with a snarl as his limbs moved forward disjointedly. Sam stepped right up to Dean face to face so close that Dean could feel his breath against his skin. "Do not let him break the covenant."

Sam suddenly closed his eyes and pitched forward falling to his hands and knees before Dean gasping for breath. Dean stood his ground a moment before Sam looked up at him his eyes normal again except for the few stray tears of blood that dripped down his cheeks. "Sam?" Dean dropped to his knees in front of his brother and pulled him back up so that he could give him a look over.
The lights quit flickering around them.

Sam's face contorted again as the pain seemed to take back over.
"Not again...Come on Sam...talk to me."

"It was the god." Sam gasped out.

Back to the Present

"What does that mean?" Ambre asked wearily as fear finally made it's way into her voice.

"I don't know." Dean and Sam replied in unison as Dean put the car back into drive so that he could get them to Washington. He hoped the answers were there. He hoped he could sort out this new news in his mind on the way...and he hoped that they could all remain in control of their own bodies long enough for at least those two things to come to pass.

Chapter Four

Six months had shown them that the powers that rested inside them were bound to other spirits. Dean had first seen the god that resided in him at the pharmacy they had run to after the attack outside the hospital that had claimed Sam's life. Ambre had heard hers after the explosion that had near taken her own life. Sam had always sensed the god that resided in him, but he hadn't seen it or heard it, not like Dean and Ambre. It had an uncanny ability it seemed though to take him over every now and again. Sam would often wake to find himself standing in front of the mirror looking at some cryptic message.

It scared him, but he'd never told anyone. He felt like he couldn't, like he wasn't suppose to share the ranting of his alter ego with anyone or the repercussions could be devastating. Once he'd woken standing over Dean and Ambre feeling enough rage pent up to break something. Sam had used the pull off the whole of his will power to sustain from the action and forced himself back to bed.

Whatever was happening to them was terrifying at best. The powers growing exponentially had given strength to the alternate personalities that were the source of those powers. Sam knew that Dean and Ambre had been seeing their own other personas more readily, but no one was talking about it. It was like some solid secret everyone thought they had to keep. Some unspoken truth that had be kept buried. No one wanted to talk about it. No one could.

Even now having ridden the rest of the three day journey to Washington, none of them had questioned the message on the window again. They hadn't spoken of Ambre's news either. There were moments of easy going banter but the tension in between made that short lived at best.

They pulled into the small parking lot that sat before a tiny brick building with no marking on the outside, no signs, no indication that this was the right place. Dean gave it a cursory glance with a sigh as he put the car in park and turned it off. "You sure this is the right place, Psychic wonder?"

"Yeah." Sam looked over at Dean with a smirk and a shake of his head. " You know I think I prefer Sammy to psychic wonder. And you know how I feel about Sammy."

"Really?" Dean flashed a huge smile that he had gotten under Sam's skin again. "I was thinking we all needed super hero names."

"You're not picking them." Sam chuckled as he opened his door and climbed out of the car.

"What are we going to call you?" Ambre climbed out behind Dean with a laugh of her own her own pain masked in the humor as the others had done. "Band-aid boy?"

"Hey watch it...Match girl." Dean put a finger up in the air as a matter of warning. Sam had already doubled over though from Ambre's chosen name for Dean.

"Watch what... B.B.?" She asked shortening Band-aid boy to a even more condensed nickname. Ambre smiled as she extended one flaming finger in his direction.

"Alright...keep it up." Dean nodded as Sam finally straitened and slammed his door shut. Sam started toward the building still laughing at Ambre taking up the gauntlet to find Dean a super hero name.

"How about Stitch?" Ambre smiled indeed keeping it up.

"Maybe I shouldn't have suggested super hero names..." Dean shook his head. " Sparky."

They paused at the door before walking in and right up to a receptionists desk. The woman behind the desk unfurled her wings and smiled kindly as she looked up from her magazine. "Can I help you?"

"We have an appointment." Sam replied shifting his back pack on his shoulder.

"Wonderful. If you'll have a seat someone will be with you shortly." She motioned to a row of chairs in the tiny lobby before looking back to her magazine.

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

"Foci command - D.C." Gabriel muttered into the cell phone. He couldn't believe he was sitting outside the largest command center in the country. It was like tempting fate. If anyone so much as gave him a glance he could be discovered.

"That's what you get for following up on this." Justin - his teammate laughed into the phone.
"I had to."Gabriel replied softly as he saw Nessa waver through his mind again. Justin lost his laugh.
"I know." Justin followed up. "Well they can't be in there too long. I wanted to let you know that we've picked up some movement from Alturoc."

Gabriel straightened in the seat and turned the radio down.

"He's contracting out with the KGB right now. They're following land lines and covert ops to do the tracking since the scrying is void at this point. Anderson told me to hook you up with a handler from the CIA in order to get them into government hiding if it comes down to it."

"Jesus." Gabriel looked to the building before him. This wasn't good news at all. " I hate working with the Feds."

"I know it's a low profile gig, but it may come down to it." Justin paused. "I've got one other option, but I don't know how much you'll like it."

"Just let me hear it." Gabriel sighed.

"Augustus has a contact near D.C. with ties to the Russian Mafia. He's got a man inside that can put them up for a few days if all hell breaks lose."

"I'll take that over the CIA." Gabriel replied quickly.

"Alright. I'll make the calls. Expect an attack in the next 24 hours."

"I'm on high alert." Gabriel smiled. "Don't you worry."

"About you." Justin chuckled again. "Never."

Chapter Five

Dean clicked his tongue as he looked to Sam blatantly daring him to read his mind at this one moment. When Sam's eyes met his Dean let the thoughts reach the surface, though he hadn't really been hiding them. Sam smiled softly and looked around the citadel of faces sitting in stadium seating style around the large cavernous space in between where the three of them stood before them as if on display.

The creatures, human and non, were all on their knees even the one known as Sebastian who now stood in the recess with them before the members of the command. "You know." Dean finally said out right as he looked around the bended knees. "I thought we were going to the library."

"I haven't seen a book yet."
Sebastian rose to his feet reverently. "All in good time, Sire. First we have a proposition."

Ambre had crossed her arms across her chest and was standing against the wall nearest the door. She was ready to move should the slightest tremor shake the place. She hated being under ground...with a passion. She was keeping her distance from Sam at the moment.

"No, no see I already informed the last member of your organization how things were going to work. So let me give you the run down, in case she forgot to relay the information before the demon we've been hunting for the last year and a half ripped her soul from her body and dragged her to hell with him." Dean wasn't about to let these Magus bastards, having already assumed that the three of them would fight for the Foci, take advantage of their presence as time for a sell. He was firm in his decision. They all were.

"We're really only here to look at the text." Sam said softer just before Dean went on.

"You guys have been horrible at this whole protection gig. And we're not fighting your battles for you. We're going to look at the books and be on our way." Dean nodded in agreement with Sam. "Now I'm not saying that if he doesn't come to find us that we won't kill the bastard, but we're not readily looking for him at the moment. Or did you guys miss the last time he hunted us. Oh right...you were watching us the whole time...scrying for us...seeing my brother die...watching Ambre blow herself to near hell and wasting the last Command center we were at. I'm sure you already knew Nessa was dead. "

"Sire," Sebastian looked shocked as a grumble went through the crowd around them.

"No...We want to see the text." Dean got out between clenched teeth as Sam placed a hand on his shoulder to hold him back should he have to. Dean shoved the hand away with a quick thrust of his shoulder as Sebastian finally nodded looking as if the winds had been taken from his sail.

Sebastian started to the door as one from the crowd rose to his feet. "This is an outrage. You were brought back for one purpose. Without the magus of the world you would still be locked inside your stone vessels sleeping til death's embrace captured you Do you not owe us some support? "

Ambre pushed off the wall as Dean whirled on the man standing in the crowd. The low murmur fell silent as Dean's scoff sounded over the noise. Sam even felt the anger beginning to build with in him again.

"We never asked for this." Sam called back. "We had our own lives before you started messing with them. Now instead of hunting, we've been running...something we plan on clearing up as soon as we see those texts."

"So you see it's in your best interest to sit down and shut up. Because once we have a handle on what we're capable of, we plan on taking care of our own problems, and killing every evil son of a bitch from here to there. Lucky for you...Alturoc happens to be one of them." Dean added as a smile began to work it's way across Ambre's face. There was a low murmur as the crowd bristled at the prospects that were becoming very apparent here. Sebastian stepped in to calm them though.

"The god's have spoken " Sebastian put his hand up to silence the crowd. Ambre almost giggled at the reverence that was shown for them as Sebastian finally motioned to the door. Sam was the first to leave followed by Ambre and then Dean who had to look behind him at the bowing figures one more time with a chuckle before he followed Ambre down the narrow corridor.

Dean slowly lost his smile as he saw the way she hugged her arms around her. He could have kicked himself. The last time she had been in one of these places she had been near ripped in half before igniting 32 white phosphorus grenades and setting off a chain reaction that left a crater near Huntington, MS.

He wouldn't have thought so much about it had the way they had found her not stuck out in his mind so. Dean thought he was going to have to resurrect her. He wasn't even sure if he would find her in one piece. Ambre hadn't been the same since that moment. It was the moment that Dean had stressed to Nessa that they may have housed gods but that the three of them were very much human, and that they all had their breaking points. Ambre had reached hers that day. She had been slowly healing since then. Dealing with Shay's death, dealing with her pent up anger through weapons training and hand to hand combat that Dean and Sam had both been working with her on. They had all sacrificed to be where they were, there whole worlds had seemed to stand still as someone handed them a whole new set of rules, laws, and trajectories.

Now a baby. Dean swallowed as his breath caught in his throat. It was as if he had almost forgotten. In a normal life, Dean's sense of family made him a prime candidate for parenthood. But in his current situation it scared the shit out of him. Sure Ambre was great, she might even be someone he could spend the rest of his life with, but a baby... now... They could barely keep the themselves alive...and adding a small helpless person to that mix. Dean didn't know how to make it work. Still there was a glimmer inside of him that began to feel a bit of happiness - thrust against the pain and horror and fear.

Ambre looked over her shoulder nervously as she felt Dean's eyes on her. He met her eyes as soon as she looked. She almost looked away - to quickly hide the fear resting within her- but there was some acknowledgment in his eyes that made her hold contact. He slowly gave her a soft smile that began at the corner of his lips and then in a moment of truth as if he was betraying all that he felt in that one moment the smile reached his eyes.

Sam could feel the emotions slamming into his back as he clenched and unclenched his fist. The moments of jealousy and frustration were coming more frequently and it was draining on his conviction to hide this emotional upheaval from his brother and Ambre.

He was relieved when they reached the library. It gave him something to draw his attention from the flood of emotions at his back..

The library was merely a small study, it wasn't big really, but the books seemed to be in good condition to have lasted the ages. They had all expected something more from the D.C. Foci command. Dean shrugged it off as soon as he walked through the door. As long as they had what they needed, then everything should be fine.

"There are only two tomes that match your desires for knowledge." Sebastian explained. The books were already laid out on a small table with three chairs around it. "There was a third, but it was stolen by the rebel forces, by Vanashi."

"Bastard." Dean breathed as he sank into one of the chairs.

"Indeed." Sebastian smiled at him as he went on to explain the books before them. "This is Garifar's history. It chronicles the time of the God's war and what led to the war. This is Halisticomb's reference to the ancient religions of Andigar. Both will help you in your quest, I believe."

"Thanks." Sam nodded as he took his own seat and immediately pulled the history in front of him. Dean grabbed the other book as Ambre scooted her seat up next to Sam so that she could read the history also. She was always pretty good with history so she'd take it over a desk reference.

"Yeah thanks." Dean called to Sebastian drawing most of the attention from the patrons in the library.

"Thank you." Ambre mirrored her thanks as well.

"You're very welcome...call me should you need anything."

Dean was about to just nod and go about his business, but he realized that he they really were hungry and the last time he'd been asked that question he hadn't gotten the meal or the beer he'd asked for...course that wasn't really their fault there were kinda fighting a battle at the time...at any rate...they'd just come in off the road and all of them were hungry and Dean had to keep reminding himself...Ambre really needed to eat. "Uh Sebastain...could we get some lunch here."

"Of course." Sebastian replied before folding his hands in front of him and making his way out the door.

Twelve hours later

There was a groan as Sam shifted his position tiredly while adjusting his neck. Ambre had come and gone from the bathroom six times and Sam had followed Dean's gaze after her every time. Now she was scooting closer to Sam again as she tried to read the passage over his shoulder while nibbling on the rest of a carrot.

Sam felt her chin rest on his shoulder as she gave a weary sigh.
"Give me the last name again." Dean sighed as he twittered his pen back and forth against the table.

"Ea." Ambre whispered as she closed her eyes breathing in deeply. "I could go to sleep right here."

"Ea...is like a couple of vowels thrown together. It's not a name." Dean rolled his eyes frustrated at not being able to find what he needed in the reference that he was looking through. So far he had found descriptions on two of the gods in that were involved in the gods war and those were both men. Neither had any of their abilities. "What was the next one..."

Sam breathed in the smell of the camomile soap that Ambre used and tucked his other hand under the table to ball into a fist again as he fought the feelings stirring inside him. "Lavreshi."
Sam finally answered him as he cast a nervous glance in Dean's direction.

Dean wrote both names down and looked to Ambre who had closed her eyes, her head still resting on Sam's shoulder. Her head lulled to the side and near slid off Sam's shoulder before she jerked awake.

"Why don't you go find a place to catch some sleep." Sam said before Dean could get it out. Dean raised an eyebrow in Sam's direction. "We've only got the two books anyway."

Ambre shook her head. She wasn't giving up that easily. "Nah I'm just going to go find some coffee...anyone else want some?" She shook her head with a yawn.

"I do." They answered in unison. Dean was the one that followed up with the. "But should you be drinking it?"

Ambre narrowed her eyes at him in wonder then instinctively touched her stomach. She simply shook her head and laughed before walking out of the room and heading down the corridor.

"What?" Dean called after her as Sam chuckled beside him.

"Dean we're downing God only knows what every 48 hours I don't think a little caffeine is going to hurt." Sam reassured him with a pat on the shoulder.

"I guess you're right." Dean finally nodded and then looked back to the book. "I'm not getting anywhere. I think we need the other book."

"We don't even know what the other book is." Sam pointed out quickly.

"Well Vanashi is the one who put these guys in us and he chose to steal one book. Stands to reason everything we want to know is in it...don't you think?" Dean asked as he pushe dthe end of his pen between his lips.
"Actually yeah." Sam nodded. "That does make sense."

"Don't look so surprised." Dean flipped the page of the book and paused. "I have a good idea every now and then."

"Coffee anyone?" It seemed Ambre hadn't even made a sound as she walked back into the room. Dean was glad that Sam seemed distracted with her at the moment because that meant he was out of his head and not paying attention to the electric fear that had just shot down his spine.

'Daniseyal' Dean mentally memorized the name as he looked at the blood red eyes that starred back at him from the page before him. Dean read as fast as he could hoping that Sam stayed focused on Ambre for all of two seconds so he could finish reading. Dean felt the blood running from his face as he finished reading and then felt the worst feeling he had ever felt in his life slowly begin to work it's way through his body system by system. It was like a shock wave.

"What was that name?" Sam asked as if Dean had spoken the name that kept running through his head while he was looking at the twisted face of the god who he was sure in habited his brother. "Daniseyal?"

"Yeah." Dean swallowed as he took the cup of coffee from Ambre and slammed his book shut, quickly shoving what he had read from his mind.

"I doubt that's one of our guys." Sam shook his head as he flipped back through is own pages. "He's one of the three that actually started the God's war. Says he laid waste to his brother's kingdom over Inan. What's an Inan?"

"I don't know." Dean looked to Ambre trying to keep focused so that Sam couldn't tell that anything was wrong. Just when he thought he wasn't going to be able to pull it off Sam suddenly looked to the door. "Something's coming...uh lots of somethings actually...doesn't feel tied to the weave though." Sam closed his own book getting to his feet.

"Well you don't have to tell me twice." Dean jumped up and grabbed the book he'd been looking through pulling it up under his arm.

"What are you doing?" Sam asked as he saw Dean making his way out the door with the book.

"Borrowing it. I'll get it back to them." Dean called. "It's not like we don't deserve a little compensation for what they've already put us through here."

Sam looked to the other book laying before him knowing that it was wrong...but then the need for answers seemed more important at the moment. He slid the book under his own arm and then followed Ambre out the door and toward the staircase that led to the main level. They had learned long ago that trusting Sam's new sense was well worth it.

Approaching the receptionists area they picked up the pace and merely waved to the perky woman there on their way out the door. Dean stopped abruptly as what sounded like 40 guns cocked in front of him and he took in the parking lot full of flashing lights, catty corner cars, men and woman peering over the hoods of the white and black government vehicles as they trained their guns on them. Sam slid to a stop beside him as Ambre slammed into his back nearly knocking him over.

"Sorry." She breathed as she straightened and looked between the two of them to the seen before them. "Oh."

"We can't let them take us." Dean whispered.

"There human Dean." Sam replied quietly.
"Sam if we end up in a cell we'll be sitting ducks for Alturoc's men or whatever it is he plans on sending after us."

"Drop what your holding, Put your hands on your head, and lay on the grown face first." One of the group of officials before them called out over a bull horn.

"Sam I need you with me on this." Dean breathed.

"I'm with you." Sam whispered.

"Ambre?" Dean asked quickly

"I'm with you." Ambre's voice shook. "What are you going to do?"

"Just follow my lead." Dean answered her.

Chapter Six

"'Alturoc's using his KGB operatives.'" Gabriel said in a mocking tone under his breath as he fastened the FBI vest over his chest and walked through the door that led to the roof of the building across the street from the Foci Command. "'We've got a handler in the CIA for you or the Russian Mafia'...Justin, I am so going to kill you. "

"Hey " Gabriel yelled at the sniper waiting there as he flashed his fake Id and started over like this was just another job.

The sniper looked over and gave him a nod as Gabriel finished his approach at a crouch. "Listen the boss sent me up..." As soon as he was close enough he slammed his fist into the man's face and watched as he crumpled to the roof top. Gabriel dropped the clip out of the gun and quickly dismantled it before pocketing the clip and stepping on the ledge of the roof.

He looked to the three standing there at the entrance and wondered how many bullets he was going to take trying to save them and if it was even possible.

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

"No Dean...wait" Sam shook his head having already plucked his plan from his head. "First off they aren't just here for us. This is part of the war. Their going to arrest everyone in that building behind us. Second, I think we can get out of this a whole lot easier if we let them take us. Then we escape on our own from the cars before we make it to the precinct."

Dean looked over as Sam seemed to be reading the minds of everyone he could and it looked like it was causing quite a headache. "Yeah I think you're right. It's going to be a lot easier to escape individually then to try and walk out right here. Be a lot less messy too."
"You really think so?" Ambre asked nervously as Dean was already setting his book down and lowering his body to the ground. Ambre and Sam began to do the same thing.

Dean looked over to her as he placed his hands behind his head and laced his fingers. "Oh yeah, Piece of cake."

"I've never..."

"You'll be fine..." Sam assured from the other side.

"Ok guys...but I feel an I told you so moment coming."

Gabriel could felt the stirring in the wind as it clipped through his wings. There was a taint to the air, like the gates of hell had been sprung wide. He stood ever watchful on the roof top and watched as the D.C. police and FBI rounded up the contents of Foci Command feeling some how as if the whole scene was ironic. Sebastian had been damned by his own rules. They all had.

The three persons of interest however Gabriel kept his eye on. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed quickly swallowing the horrid taste on the breeze as he grimaced at the impending swell to the sinking sun at the horizons edge.

"Oy." a sultry voice cood into the phone as what sounded like a flock of geese carried on in the background.

"I need backup in D. C." Gabriel was glad it seemed to take the police forever to decide who needed to go in which vehicle. That bought him some time.

"On our way."

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

Steffs trailed a disappointed finger down the 6'4 dreamboat's chest as the song ended in the back ground and she hung up her cell phone. He followed her finger's trail with a mischievous smile and she slowly shook her head and unfurled wings that she knew he would never actually see.
"Sorry, Love. Maybe next time." She smiled before stretching on tip toes to give him a long kiss goodnight. She had met him ten minutes ago, but she knew he would never forget her. She released him and heard the pant of approval before she turned unfettered on her heals and looked for her partner in crime at the bar.

Robin wasn't going to be undone, not tonight. She had the bet and would follow through. She gave a giggle as she finished down the rest of the liquor from the tight navel of the college boy before climbing up his body in order to press her lips to his so that she could suck the juice from the lime that resided into his mouth. There lips only met for a moment, but that was the end of the bet. She won. One body shot...one win. She picked up the money from the bar as Steffs walked up behind her.
"Tequila?" Steffs asked with a slight frown. "You know what happened last time we drank tequila on a job?"

"We're not working." Robin replied as she handed Steffs the next shot of tequila.

Steffs looked to the shot and sighed. She quickly knocked it back and slammed it down on the bar with a side smile. "We are now... D.C."

"Mmm." Robin unfurled her wings and stretched. "Good I was about ready for a nice flight."

OOOOOOOOOOO

The motor parade began to pull out of the parking lot making Gabriel glance to the skies to see if his help was every planning to show up. He saw two figures in the skies to the east and smiled as he lifted off the roof and took to the air to keep up with his charges.

Sam leaned back against the seat and sighed as he shifted his hands in the cuffs behind his back. He looked the back of the car over as he listened to the soothing sounds of silence in the car. He truly had a headache. Too many people all in one place. It was hard not to listen to the myriad of thoughts all around him.

Now he concentrated on the lock in the cuffs around his wrists. It was sometimes easier to just break the chains then to pick the lock with your mind and this was one of those moments. If it weren't for the headache then Sam would wager that he could have picked the lock relatively easily. Now he fought through his throbbing brain to make the chain give instead.

He felt it snap and smiled as relief wavered through his head. Now he could simply pop the locks on the back door and roll out of the car...would be nice if he did it where the wouldn't just pick him right back up though. He spotted his chance miles away towering over the city scape in the form of support beams for a bridge ahead.

Dean was true to his word. He really was. He had always carried paper clips since the incident with the nut job family that had kidnaped Sam. He worked at unfolding it behind his back as he smiled at the officer that turned to look at him. "How's it going?" Dean asked leisurely with a nod. "You know you're so going to get fired for this?" Dean asked with that same smile.

"Hush up back there." The officer called loudly as the radio gave a hiss of noise the resembled EVP. Dean quickly lost his smile as he looked to the metal support beams of the two mile bridge ahead.

Ambre listened to the radio crackle as she took a breath working on a lock for the first time since Dean and Sam had locked her in the hotel bathroom with nothing but a paper clip. They went out drinking that night. Said it was field training. She had cussed them both up one wall and down the other, but now she was almost glad they had done it.
Still it was one thing to pick a lock in front of you, but with your hands secured behind your back, and being a bit of an amateur at it - well it made things difficult. Ambre froze with her paper clip stuck in the lock as she heard the radio. Sam and Dean had explained all about their trade in the last 6 months, but they hadn't been hunting - so there wasn't very many examples. Still the recording that they both had of EVP were pretty eerie so she recognized the emissions as soon as she heard it.

She looked to the bridge ahead and worked harder wondering how in the hell the boys actually expected her to get out of this. Her car was the first of their three to move onto the bridge with Dean's following behind and Sam's at back. Ambre sighed. She didn't need Sam's visions to know that something was very wrong.

Gabriel saw Steffs and Robin inbound over the bridge as the cars began their crossing. He gave them a wave as the stench grew. Gabriel cast a glance toward the bridge and frowned seeing the structure sway slightly.

To anyone not able to see through the veil...the bridge was in the middle of an earth quake...to those who could however...there was a whole host of screaming...

Ambre was the first to see the explosion of shades burst through the concrete in the center of the bridge and flow upwards like an eruption of darkness. There had to be hundreds of them. Chunks of concrete flew with the condensing cloud of beasts and suddenly began to rain down on the shaking structure like boulders of hail.

"God." She breathed as she realized that things had just gone from bad to hell.

Chapter Seven

"Son of a bitch." Dean's eyes went wide as he followed the geyser of shadows that flew upward through the bridge as they tore chunks of concrete out of the foundation and brought them upward with them before tendrils of blackness broke forth in tiny jet streams from the main current. The streams of shadow beasts began their descent toward the cars on the bridge. "Guess Alturoc got tired of pulling the punches!" Dean got out through clenched teeth as he wiggled the clip in the lock faster.

"Everything's going to be alright, son." The officers in front of him couldn't see the wall of wriggling darkness before them, but they knew that the bridge was swaying and that chunks of concrete were breaking loose. So the fear factor wasn't lost on the poor saps.

"Easy for you to say." Dean screamed as they climbed out of the car and left him locked in the back seat. Dean grunted in frustration as he looked to the back of the car in front of him and saw the back of Ambre's head there. The officer's from her car had already climbed out as well. And the whole of that vehicle rested only inches from the black storm of shadows that swirled upward like a massive tornadic whirlwind. "Let me out!" Dean screamed again and then promptly lost his voice as he saw Ambre's car begin to inch forward into the blackness.

"No." he whispered.

The lock finally gave and Dean pulled his wrist free leaving the other cuff in place as he began to look around the car for a way out. He turned his attention to the car behind him for some help. "Alrighty Sam. Pop these locks." Dean needed Sam to feel him in his head...he really needed him to just open his mind enough to hear him scream at him!

Ambre had just watched the two men step out of the car and slam the doors closed having told her that everything was going to be ok, when the car started to roll forward. The officers had yet to notice. She gave a whimper as the stream of shadows gave but a mere edge of friction to the downhill roll as the car tipped on it's edge over an unseen hole shielded by the shadows. "No..." She fell backwards on the seat and kicked at the window trying to get the cops attention but they had been walking away down the motor parade to get a better view of what was happening.

Ambre felt tears steaming hot against her cheeks as she scrambled back up and looked out the back windshield barely able to prop her body up against the grating that separated the back seat from the front as the tilt to the car became steeper and steeper. She could barely see Dean his fingers tightly wound around the grating in the car behind as he watched her falling.

"Help me." She mouthed and then screamed as the car plummeted over the edge.

"SAMMY!" Dean was through being subtle trying to get his brothers attention. Watching Ambre's car go over the edge was like watching his life pass before his eyes as he finally realized just how much his feelings had grown for her. Dean turned around looking to the car behind him and slammed his hand against the back windshield trying to get Sam's attention.
Sam could feel Dean in his head, but he could also feel Ambre's terror and Sam was still reeling watching the shadows coming at the cars. He was about to pop the locks on the car he was in when the barrage began. The streams descending from the main shadowy mass began to run through the cars. Sam froze as just before Ambre's car plummeted toward the depths below...the shadows twisted and suddenly began their search with his car first.

The host of the first stream - all 47 shadows - raced through the car like some psychotic roller coaster straight through Sam. His body arched off the seat as they passed through him the whoosh of their presence mingling with his scream. As the last one passed through he fell forward with a groan of frustration and anger as all the door handle flew off the car and the locks disengaged.

Sam kicked the door open and stepped out of the car still trying to catch his breath from the first assault. He was moving toward Dean's car when the cops finally seemed to notice that he had gotten out. "Hey!" The first screamed drawing his gun. Sam didn't even wave his hand this time. He simply glance over his shoulder as the cops fell like dominos to the concrete.
Gabriel flew over the top of the wall of darkness and watched the tiny tendrils that snaked from the main mass as He finally saw Steffs and Robin catch up. They were already battle ready...he knew that much so he dove into the mass without the slightest hesitation.

Steffs hovered a moment trying to find the swirling patterns to the way the shadows broke off in groups to make up the tendrils before flying through something or someone. She had only watch for a moment before she entered into a nose dive in order to catch the next one. She could see it forming...could almost sense it's heading. She looked to the still locked car and the figure inside As she flew in front of the now rushing wave of shadows. The force of the slap was like being hit by a speeding train and every cell in her body seemed to scream as she was propelled upward and then slammed back down through the roof of the squad car and into the seat next to the awe struck young man that resided there.

Dean was in mid panic trying to kick the door open when the guardian came crashing through the roof top of the squad car holding off a host of shadows in her wake and landed in the seat next to him with a scream of pain and frustration. He gave her a look over then glanced at the hole in the ceiling and managed a quick. "Thanks!" Before jumping through the opening and pulling himself onto the roof of the squad car.

"No problem." Steffs sighed as she looked back up through the hole to the tangled black mass of hellish beasts. She had never seen anything like this. The shades were flowing over all the cars ripping the tenants of the Foci to shreds as they went. The cops had seen enough to start running and those that remained fell to the barrage as well. Steffs crawled out of the car as the handsome man jumped off the top and suddenly broke into an all out run for the wall of shadows still penetrating the center of the bridge.

"DEAN!" Sam screamed as he saw Dean break into a run for the wall of shadows. Suddenly Sam saw a tendril whipped down toward his brother swiping a car along it's way and heading straight for him. Sam swatted the car off the bridge with a mental shove and then slammed every single tendril coming from the swirling mass back into the main form as he erected a force shield to keep the monsters at bay.

Robin looked down with a gasp as the tendril of 23 beasts she had been fighting were suddenly yanked backwards with a hellish scream and secured into the mass in the center. She was finally able to look to where the car had struck the water as the shadows danced over the surface of it and then plummeted through the depths to get to their intended victim.

The car slowly dipped below the surface in the midst of the black shadows as Dean jumped into the shadows after it.

Chapter Eight

Dean dove into darkness. The tangled shadows tossed his bodies up and down on the winds of movement from hundreds of disembodied beasts. Dean sucked in a breath as he plummeted and made an effort to destroy everything he touched on his way down. Like a greatly organized display of dominos the life force of the connected shadows began to be drawn into Dean. The withered husks began to fall from the mass on Dean's way down.

By the time he hit the water he had collected so much precious life that his whole body seemed to be glowing. He couldn't explain it. Watching the life drain from the evil around him was like sweet justice, but the worry for the woman below seemed to siphon the pleasure...the victory. Far above him over the whirring of the multitudes of monsters he heard gunfire and knew that they had assistance. He didn't think very highly of guardians...but at least they were up there doing something.

She had to be alright...even if she couldn't pick the lock surely she could melt the metal of the cuffs. There had to be away for her to get out. Dean fought his way through the water and the shades that were swimming down to get to Ambre. She wasn't going to die...and by god if she did he'd bring her back. What made him move a spot faster was that she was pregnant...and he didn't know how that would work...so far he'd only been able to bring back one person at a time...so if two lives were held in the balance then could he only bring back one?

Dean pushed through the masses faster struggling downward. Each life force that he touched on the way seemed to give him a breath. Finally he reached the car.

Ambre kicked against the back seat as she felt another swipe from the shadow trying to rip her heart out. Her hand was broken shoved between the grate with the cuffs wedging it at an awkward angle. She was pinned against the grate between the seats and having to put pressure on the broken hand in order to get high enough to breath now. To make matters worse - she couldn't seem to get her powers to work. Normally she may have called it a fluke or attributed it to the frigid water that was surrounding her body.

This was anything but normal though. Every time she had tried to access it pain had racked her body like electroshock. And that paper clip! That damn paper clip...she had lost it when the car tilted all the way forward. She had comforted herself with the fact that Dean could bring her back as she screamed against the shade's claw ripping through her chest again. Ambre almost choked on a mouthful of water before she shoved her way up again and felt something snap the rest of the way in her thumb before she gave out a low breathy whimper.

"Let her go, bitch." Dean panted as he climbed into the car from the front passenger seat and swam into the small recess thrusting his hand through the grate so that he could grab the monster that had it's hand buried in his girlfriend's chest. As soon as he touched it, it gave a gurgled hiss before fading into a shell of it's former glory. It was swept away on the current. Dean instantly pulled his hand back and begin to fell where her hand was stuck in the grate. "You alright?" Dean had to move up as the water level was rising still.

"Yeah." Ambre pressed her head to the roof of the car in order to draw in a breath as she gave a smile unable to actually turn around and face him.
Dean slipped his fingers over the slipping bones of her fingers feeling the muscles tighten reflexively. He instantly knew that she wasn't alright. Not that being trapped in a sinking car with a shadow with a hand in your chest had ever really averaged out to alright before, but the broken bones weren't going to help with the escape. He began to heal her and she suddenly jerked ripping her broken fingers from his hand with an agonized scream.

Dean let go of her as his eye's widened in terror. "What is it?" He panted swimming back up to the top where she was near bawling in pain.

"Don't heal it, just push it back through." She managed to choke out. Dean's eyes narrowed in confusion, but he didn't have time to argue. He reached down with one fluid movement and shoved her hand back through the way it had come. Ambre's scream could be heard even below the surface and Dean closed his eyes briefly as if that was going to shut it out. Dean quickly unlocked the back doors from the front and then swam back up to the top.

"Listen, I'm going to pull you're going to push...we're getting that door open before the pressure gets any worse...Soon as it's open enough you slip through, I'll pull you to the surface...got it?" Dean gave her the plan barely finding enough air to speak there now.

"Got it." Ambre called out.

"Ok...I'm going." Dean ducked back under and swam around to the outside seeing Ambre slip under the surface as the car finally finished filling with water. He grabbed the handle and pulled as hard as he could. Ambre likewise began to push. In a few seconds they managed to move it just enough for Ambre to squeeze through the opening. No sooner was she through then Dean wrapped a hand around her upper arm and began their swim to the surface as he fought through the shadows again. His life saving power of health was reversed in order to destroy as many of the bastards as he could on the way up, yet again.

Once they got close enough to the surface he edged them out of the shades and toward a clearing to surface outside the mass.

They broke the surface and sucked in a breath in tandem. Dean quickly swung his arm around her chest pulling her against him so that he could tread a moment while they both caught their breath. "Ambre?"

She coughed a few more times before sucking in another breath.

"You alright?" Dean panted against her ear as he looked up the length of the shadows to the crumbling of concrete from the bridge. He felt her nod against him and let out his own breath of relief.

"Dean," She panted finally.

"What?" he was still hoping for an explanation...some reason for her not using her own power or his power seeming to hurt so bad. He wanted answers...A chunk of concrete hit the water inches away from them.

"I told you so!" She screamed over the splash from the concrete as Dean cursed under his breath and realized that the two of them were going to have to clear the bridge before it collapsed on them. Dean almost laughed that she picked this moment to get her well intentioned I told you so in.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Sam didn't dare glance to see how much progress Dean had made...he knew it was enough as he had been seeing husks of shades falling from the main mass like dead leaves in autumn for a few minutes now. Toward the top of the pillar gun fire sounded as the guardians that Sam had finally spotted had entered into the fray to take out as many of the shades as possible. Now things were getting a might hard for him as he stood on swaying support while the bridge began to collapse.

Sam propelled his own body upward in order to not plummet should the bridge drop from beneath him as he continued to concentrate on keeping the shades locked in their pillar of force...As the guardians seemed to be shooting the remaining fish in a barrel. Sam heard the creak and groan of the bridge and felt Dean and Ambre's mind stretch out. They were at least on the surface. Moving away from the bridge.

Sam couldn't refocus any more energy though or the shades would sweep down and destroy him. He looked up to the flashes of muzzle fire and smiled.
OOOOOOOOOOOOO

Robin broke right pulling in a wing to avoid a chunk of concrete hurled at her by one of those shady bastards. She took aim and fired before ducking again then kicked out backwards to the unsuspecting shade who was looking to swing through her back. She looked around with a satisfied smile surprised that three guardians and one human could take out hundreds of shades. Not that it was without effort. Shades were just damn tough any given day of the week.

"The charges are in the water...get them before the bridge falls on them." The voice wasn't exactly in her head more like in her general vicinity. Robin shot another shadow and shoved it's husk out of the way as she looked out of the force shield to the figure now floating over the crumbling bridge. She looked to the water and spotted them...There was no way they could possibly make it. "Steffs!" Robin screamed. She looked back over her shoulder and made sure that the other guardian had heard her before giving a hand signal to follow and dive bombing the couple in the water. Steffs followed and broke into the dive in perfect synchrony. "Get the girl." Robin called then broke left to catch a chunk of concrete that was about to fall on the two in the water. Robin screamed under the weight that nearly dropped her all the way to the water before she turned and hurled it backwards into the pillar of shadows and heard the screams from within.

She brushed her hands off as Steffs slowly dropped to the waters surface careful not to get wet. "Need a lift?" She called to the couple there.
"Can you get her out of here?" Dean asked hopefully trying to adjust Ambre's near unconscious form in his arms.

"Sure." Steffs quickly plucked her from him and swung her over her shoulder.

"Be careful." Dean panted. " She's...hurt."

"I will." Steffs replied respectfully as Robin flew down to get Dean out of the way before the rest of the bridge collapsed on him.

"Come on hero." Robin wasn't really mocking him...he was more then human...she knew that...she just didn't know what yet. So she opted her normal attitude when dealing with a charge. Before Dean could protest she had him in her arms and was sailing upwards past the road on either side of the crumbling bridge and up the cliff facing to higher ground. She was looking to where Steffs was going which seemed to be toward the country side outside the city on the Virginia side.

Robin looked back as the figure that had just turned the tide for them began to fall. She almost turned back, but Gabriel had already seen it...Robin smiled as Gabriel intercepted the man and followed behind them.

Chapter Nine
"In Breaking News the South Capital Street bridge collapsed during an Earthquake that rocked the nations capital early this evening. There have been hundreds of casualties and injured so far and rescue efforts are still under way..."

Dean closed his eyes as he walked through the visitors lounge cup of coffee in hand. He heard the drone of the TV that seemed to have every man, woman, and child, glued to the lies that bore a striking resemblance to events he had just lived through. He ran a hand through his still damp hair shaking off the frustration as he forced his body to move onward.

He passed Sam who was still talking to the uniformed officers in the hall. Sam looked tired still - pinching the bridge of his nose as the questions went on and on. It was amusing that the cops had yet to piece together that they had been in the back of the squad cars when the bridge collapsed - then again they had more to worry about at the moment.

The guardians were here and there. Dean saw the man that had grabbed Sam standing over Ambre when he finally made it into her room and sank into the chair there beside the bed. "I don't think I've had a chance to say thank you." Dean leaned way back and let his head settled against the wall there as he smoothed the pair of scrubs he'd been given out over his body. His clothes rested in a soggy bag under his chair.

"Don't worry about it...you guys did most of the work." Gabriel smiled before sinking into the chair next to him. "I've heard you guys have had some problems with the Foci and just wanted to let you know we're not with the guy. This is kind of a personal gig." Gabriel explained quickly as he folded his hands in his lap.
"Who do you work for?" Dean was surprised the guardian was so quick with the answers. He'd had to fight tooth and nail to get anything out of Nessa and the Magus before.

"The rebel faction that broke from the Foci years ago. Though officially I'm doing this as a favor to Nessa. She called me right before she died." Gabriel sighed. "My official team is working some other cases at the moment but Robin and Steffs are good. I've worked with them before. And if you don't mind the company...during a war having a few guardians in your pocket is usually a good thing."

Dean took a sip of his coffee and smiled softly with a nod. "I can imagine..." He paused as it finally sank in that this man worked for the deceased individual that had caused all of this. Therefore he really did need to keep access to the faction readily available. "Seems we could always use some more protection." Dean offered his hand to appease some since that they had struck an agreement and as Gabriel shook his hand Dean gave a nod before looking wearily back to Ambre. "Welcome on board."

"We promise to do everything on our power to keep you and your companions alive." Gabriel replied as he rose to his feet sensing that there was a need for privacy here. Dean nodded again as he swallowed another drink of the coffee.
"Thanks."

Gabriel walked out of the room and down the hall.

In between the various Tv's playing in the background Dean could hear Sam's voice as he explained to the officers what they were doing on the bridge and how it was Dean and Ambre had climbed out of the river...how they had been picked up by some helpful travelers who could confirm the story as they were still in the hospital.

Over all the noise around him Dean shifted his gaze to the figure laying before him as he sucked in a deep breath.

He couldn't heal her.

He'd tried again when she'd passed out. At first he thought he'd simply lost control of the flow of life force again...but that wasn't it. He'd healed Sam, Robin, Steffs, Gabriel, and himself since then. It was just Ambre. The only thing he could think of was that it had something to do with the baby...that was the only thing that had changed...wasn't it? Still it presented a whole new set of problems.

What was more, Sam couldn't get in her head any more. He couldn't read her mind. He couldn't detect anything, even her dreams. He couldn't even feel her mind.

Dean set the coffee cup in the floor next to the chair as he rose to his feet and walked to the bed looking over her pale figure to the two monitors...all the things hooked to her. His hands rested on the bed rail for a moment as he took in her flat stomach exposed so that the feedback was uninterrupted from the monitor there. Dean looked from the wire there to the even feed from the monitor...the heartbeat that ticked away on the monitor beside Ambre's own heart monitor.

He lightly ran a finger over her abdomen and then slowly unfolded his hand to lay flat against it as he swallowed the lump in his throat. He'd already had to shut the what if's out as he realized that he couldn't heal her...or their baby. There were so many...so many peeking questions...so many unanswered mysteries. He wanted the answers, but right now all he could hold out for was her to be alright, for their baby to be alright.

She was alright for now...slight hypothermia...38 stitches and her left hand in a cast. They said the baby was fine. Dean just didn't know how long it would last...how long it could. And then what happened the next time Alturoc sent something after them...or they got caught up in some part of this war? For six months he'd gotten used to the idea that he had gained the ability to help them all survive and now when he needed it the most, he felt like it had been striped from him.

He had the new fear that something was horribly wrong with Sam...and that he didn't know where it was going to lead. He felt alone even amidst Sam...Ambre...even in a hospital full of people. Like he was lost in a maze in wonderland and no one would give him a freaking clue where to start looking.

The cold stone halls of blackness swallowed her as she walked slowly toward a lightly illuminated mirror that seemed to consume the whole of the alcove before her. Ambre refused to turn back even though fear had jacked into her nervous system and seemingly taking over the rivlets of electrical surges that branched from her spine. She felt like she was hooked into an electrical outlet.

She knew what seemed like hours before she finally managed to make it all the way to the mirror that it wasn't her own reflection that looked back. That the blood red letters being scrawled there backward...from the other side of the glass was a message from the god that resided inside her. The weeping god that resided inside her.

The woman's tears streamed down her face as if she was consumed with such grief that she was completely beside herself. Ambre followed the trail of blood though as she read the word there.

As the woman drew her finger away from the glass Ambre narrowed her eyes as she tried to read the word there. nanI

Ambre began to switch the letters up as a swift sinking began in her spirit. Inan

She felt her memories dancing through her head working over time to put the pieces together...as she looked up to meet the weeping eyes of the god with in her. "Oh God." Ambre breathed.

"What was that name?" Sam asked as if Dean had spoken the name that kept running through his head while he was looking at the twisted face of the god who he was sure in habited his brother. "Daniseyal?"
"Yeah." Dean swallowed as he took the cup of coffee from Ambre and slammed his book shut, quickly shoving what he had read from his mind.

"I doubt that's one of our guys." Sam shook his head as he flipped back through is own pages. "He's one of the three that actually started the God's war. Says he laid waste to his brother's kingdom over Inan. What's an Inan?"

"I don't know." Dean looked to Ambre trying to keep focused so that Sam couldn't tell that anything was wrong.

"I'm Inan." The ghostly whisper flooded her brain as well as the pain. The woman seemed to be racked with it...trying to mask it from Ambre. "The War will come again."

"The war between Alturoc and the Foci?" Ambre asked even though she knew without a shadow of a doubt that it wasn't the war Inan was speaking of. The god shook her head and Ambre felt her knees growing weak as she approached and slowly began to push her hand through the mirror. Her icy fingers touched Ambre's face and where ever they pressed pain erupted.
"No...the covenant is broken...the God's war will come again. They will destroy everything."

Ambre jumped awake and felt a hand leave her abdomen in a rush as Dean looked down at her in concern. "Whoa whoa...hey...it's alright." Dean started quickly. Ambre looked up at him in terror before she saw Sam out in the hall and her mouth fell open in horror. He turned and looked at her as if he suddenly knew that she knew...something...

Ambre snapped her head back up to look at Dean. "No it's not...It's not."

Chapter Ten

Sam turned back to Ambre and Dean when he felt the terror flow through Dean. By the time he turned he could see it written through out Ambre's features. "Officer's if you'll excuse me...can we finish this up later?"

"Sure. We'll find you later."

"Thanks." Sam pulled his jacket around him tighter as a chill went through him and he made his way into the hospital room. "Everything alright? Good to see you awake."

Ambre didn't speak as she looked at Sam as if she had seen a ghost her eyes still wide with fear...near bordering on panic. Sam paused cautiously shooting Dean a questionable look.

Dean looked from Ambre to Sam trying to figure out some reason why Ambre would be this freaked out. It had to just be another nightmare...maybe she wasn't aware that she was awake yet...maybe it was the medicine she was on? Dean didn't know...he just needed her to calm down. "Ambre, You're awake. Everything is alright." Dean said slowly and evenly wondering if she could even use her abilities in the state she was in. He really didn't want to find out though right now. "We're at the hospital in D.C...do you remember what happened?"

She looked up to Dean her breath coming fast as he reached for her again. It was a simple gesture. She always turned to him, so it was no great leap for him to assume that it would be a comforting move. "Don't." Ambre scooted away with a jump and he watched the pain play across her face from the contact and force against her broken hand and the stitches.

Dean paused sharing another glance with Sam before he held up his hands a bit with an "Okay...okay...see I'm not going to touch you."

"You never should have..." She whispered as her eyes slowly drifted back to Sam. She fought the urge to sob not because she needed to seem strong now, but because there was no way she could possibly say what she needed to if she so deeply gave into the desire. The torrents were opening with enough force that it seemed to take an act of a god to keep the sobs from racking her body as she met Sam's eyes. "I never should have..." She gasped out against the tears building behind mortified eyes. "Oh no...I'm so sorry. I'm sorry."

Ambre brought her good hand to cover her mouth as Sam's eyes narrowed in pain for her as well as confusion. "Wh..what are you sorry for?" Sam almost whispered.

Dean backed away watching the play of emotion between the two of them worriedly. He especially was getting more and more concerned about Ambre. He'd heard pregnancy could make a woman emotional, but this was bordering on the supernatural side of emotion. "Ambre, what are you sorry about?" Dean echoed as she slowly closed her eyes. He watched as her hand fell away and her body went rigid, as her sobs seemed to melt from her along with the tension.

When she opened her eyes though his heart only sank lower as he watched the flames dance in her sockets. She turned her head towards Dead first. He had no problems guessing who had control at the moment. It sure as hell wasn't Ambre. "What's she sorry about?"

"Her time with Malachi. The unclean union that destroyed the covenant."

"Malachi?" Sam asked and watched as Ambre slowly pointed at Dean. "He's Malachi?"

"He is." She replied."She has broken the covenant and her vows to Daniseyal." The god within her said heatedly.

"What covenant?" Dean asked quickly ready to take whatever answers he could get. "What vows?"

"The treaty that ended the God's war...the covenant...that Inan would forever be bound to Daniseyal her holy husband and no other or be stripped of her heritage forever."

"Whoa whoa whoa..." Dean suddenly felt like some one had just punched him in the gut. "Ok so ..Daniseyal/Sam is married to Inan/Ambre. They had some sort of vow that ended the whole big war that near destroyed the world and everything magical in it...and she messed that up by sleeping with Malachi/Me? Even though she had no clue...you no if we could just work on our communication here we could avoid all these silly little mix ups." Dean was fully animated by now...hands moving as he talked nervously.

"There was no mix ups...you were warned."

"Warned?" Looked from Ambre to Dean in confusion.

"In the hotel by Daniseyal. He warned you not to break the covenant." Ambre said evenly.

"Ooookay." Dean licked at his lips still trying to process this. "So When Sam went nuts in the hotel room and said 'Do not let him break the covenant...that was the warning?"

"Yes." Ambre nodded.
Dean threw his hands up in the air. "Come on the demon came like five seconds later... I thought he meant something with him!"

"You were warned." She replied again.

"Hell of a warning." Dean muttered under his breath. "He couldn't have said 'Hey Dean don't sleep with the god in Ambre...she's my wife'?!! How hard is that?!!"

"What's going to happen to Inan and Ambre?" Sam suddenly broke in scared that Inan was going to disappear before he could find out. " She can no longer use or be touched by anything from the weave...I will die as a result...and she will die with me."

"What?!" Dean and Sam both exclaimed.

"No...no...there had to be something we can do. She didn't know! I didn't know!" Dean screamed out. "Sam..."

"Is there any way to preserve Ambre and Inan?" Sam asked as his voice fell to near a whisper.

"Separate the bodies." There was a long pause. "But one will be sacrificed in the process."

"Which one?" Dean's eyes widened as he swallowed the agony rasing through him.

"You have four days." She suddenly whispered. Dean and Sam both rushed forward as her eyes rolled back and she fell against the covers deathly still.

"Four days? What? What does that mean?" Dean looked to the monitors and only felt a measure of relief that it seemed that both heart beats were still beating along albeit slowly. Dean felt as if his legs couldn't take the strain of shock as he suddenly sank into the chair at his back and pulled his hands up over his face.

"Dean." Sam turned slowly finally realizing that his feelings for Ambre were Daniseyal's feelings for Inan and not truly his own for Ambre...unfortunately everything was so closely related that it was hard to distinguish especially without knowing anything about what lay inside you.

"Don't...just let me...I..." Dean's eyes fell on the heart rate of the baby monitor as he fought the tears. "They keep changing the rules." he breathed.

"They aren't changing them...they just never told them to us." Sam sank down beside him.

"I'm not letting them die." Dean balled his fist up angrily. He wasn't talking about Inan...he could have given two shits about Inan. Or any of the gods that resided in them at this point. He was talking about Ambre and the baby.
Sam met his eyes and nodded. Sam swallowed and looked up to Ambre feeling the strength of the god inside him. He could feel Dean's thoughts...and so could Daniseyal. Unfortunately...Daniseyal was thinking the exact same thing...only he wasn't about to let Inan die. Sam slowly rose to his feet taking the gun from Dean's soggy bag beneath the chair. "No she won't die." Sam nodded.

Sam knew he didn't see it coming...he was too caught up in Ambre. Sam slammed the back of the pistol into Dean's head and said a soft sorry as he watched Dean crumple before him. He then quickly walked to the bed and began to unhook the equipment before he scooped her up and walked out of the room, pausing only once to look at Dean's fallen form in the chair. "I'm sorry." he said again.

Chapter Eleven

"Every once in a great while the easiest thing that you'll ever do...is to wait for your enemies to pick each other off...one by one...until only you and one adversary stand..." The whisper floated through darkness.

Dean groaned feeling his pulse throb through his head with a beat that was like a hammer driving a spike through his temple. He tried to move and felt a small hand on his shoulder. "Whoa there Cowboy." He hadn't opened his eyes yet but he heard the soft female whispers that followed. There was something familiar about the Cowboy part. "Look guys...I'm going to go find Gabriel. Get him talking in the mean time."

"They'll do it for us...all we have to do is wait." Like an ancient memory the whisper floated in and out the volume coming and going through the haze in his aching mind.

Dean felt wood beneath his fingers...against his cheek as he slowly opened his eyes and squinted in the smokey dim lit light of the crowded bar. He jerked in surprise trying to snap everything back into place at once in his mind and focus at once...though it didn't seem to be working.

He had been laying on a bar. His face now bearing the mark of a peanut hull where it had rested too long against the offensive and course material. Dean ran his fingers across the indentation feeling a days worth of stubble as his hand trailed down his face. He slowly turned his head to the right and narrowed his eyes as the guardian there, Steffs smiled softly and gave him a little wave.

Without a word he turned and looked to the other side of him and got a similar response from Robin. He could feel one supportive arm from each of them around his back. And near turned all the way around when he heard a man walk past and say softly under his breath. "Lucky bastard."

Dean closed his eyes one more time with a groan and tried to clear the cobwebs from his mind. As soon as they closed however he saw a face before him...a face he almost didn't recognize...Inan. She smiled down at him from her perch on top of the figure in his whispy sort of day dream. "We'll destroy them all..." She whispered into his ear.

Dean jerked with a sniff and frowned as his eyes flew open again. He looked straight to the bar tender this time who seemed to be eyeing the trio in concern to begin with. "I need a beer." he called out wincing at the sound of his own voice.

"So you back in the world of the wakey, love?" Steffs asked softly. Dean cut his glance in her direction.

"Possibly." Dean gave a slight nod. The response got a hardy laugh from Steffs.

"Possibly, he says." She called over his back to Robin.

"Well you look like shite."

"Your brother hitting you in the back of the head will do that." Dean grasped the beer that was passed his way and quickly brought the bottle to his lips gulping down near half the bottle as fast as he could.

"Do you know where he's taken Ambre?" Robin asked as she ordered herself another drink.

"No." Dean answered solemnly, thoughtfully. He took another gulp of the beer.

"Do you know why?" Steffs asked without giving him a chance to collect his thoughts. She needed to keep him talking. She needed him to remember everything as swiftly as possible.

Dean gave a half scoff as he downed the rest of the beer. "Why?" a half smile of frustration...pain...and genuine awe began to turn the corners of his lips upwards in a delicate arch. The smile slowly faded as he actually remembered why and he swallowed the fear that replaced the pain. He swayed slightly and he felt their arms around him tighten slightly holding him up and in place. "You sure you want to know?"

"Yeah." Robin cood kindly. "We really do."
"It's really kind of amusing..." Dean almost whispered. "How much do you know about the God's war?" He looked to Steffs first. "And about gods like us? How much do you suppose your buddy Vanashi knew?"

"Well Vanashi kept this plan close to his heart. So a lot of us didn't even know about it until after he..." She paused as a genuine display of emotion came over her face. "Died...Afterward though...We heard the talk. That he had found the remaining old gods...that he had released them."

"Did anyone know which gods?" Dean shook his head as he finished off the beer and raised his hand to order another one.
"Only Vanashi and his second, Caleb, knew that." Robin interjected.

"What about the God's war?" Dean waited for the bar tender to pop the top on the beer before taking a smaller swig from the bottle. "What do you know about it...who started it...why it began...how it ended..." Dean saw Sam smiling back at him in his head as he closed his eyes momentarily and shook the image away. He felt Steffs arm steady him again.

"Whoa there. Maybe we should go to a table." Steffs near whispered feeling his body sway against hers. "Robin." Robin wound her other arm around his mid section and the two of them quickly guided him to a nearby table. Robin made sure that Steffs had him situated before she relinquished her hold on him and went back for their drinks. "The God's war stories are half rumor, half fiction, half truth thrown in just to make it interesting." Steffs finally replied once they had all gotten situated again.

"Well maybe you can share the ones that seem closer to fact." Dean leaned way back in the chair and took another sip. He need to know as much about all of this as he could. He wanted to find Sam and Ambre...but he wasn't going to do anyone any good if he walked back into this blind again.

"Well two brothers started it over a chick." Steffs said as she folded her hand across her lap. "That seems to be pretty prevalent in all the stories. It started out as like this family dispute and then allies and adversaries got dragged into the mix until the whole world was engulfed in war."

Dean wasn't any happier to hear that as he closed his eyes with a moan. Inan's face greeted him there this time. "We did it. They've killed themselves..." landscapes of horrors unmentionable flooded his vision in the still darkness behind closed eyes as the ghostly memory voice droned on happily. "Now we only have one enemy left...and we can destroy him...when we wake...when the world has renewed itself..." Far a way he heard the man whose arms in which she rested ask who that enemy was only to see a wicked grin growing across her face. "Why your brother of course...my husband."

"Near all the old gods died during the final battle when the weave was so damaged that they could no longer draw their power from it..." Robin explained.

Dean held up a finger as he opened his eyes back up, wincing against the light in the room. "So without being able to draw on the weave...we'd die too?"

Steffs nodded. "You, me, Robin, everything that had some sense of magic needs it to survive. There was a time following the retreat after the God's war when even guardian's had to leave."

Dean remembered the conversations before Sam had so kindly taken to thwacking him in the head as they talked about things he knew so little about. Ambre had said that as punishment for breaking the covenant she had been cut off from the weave. Which meant she could play with fire, Sam couldn't read her mind, and he couldn't heal her or bring her back to life...no magic would work on her, for her, or better for him still against her. So that gave him a bit of piece for the moment...still without it...she was going to die. Like slowly starving to death.

"How did the war end?" Dean asked softly.

"The story goes that having seen so much destruction. The two brothers and the woman made a pact...some oath to keep in way of a treaty to secure the end of the fighting. I think they left after that though...had to join the retreat...Nothing much could remain after that last battle."

"No...they didn't go anywhere." Dean muttered taking another long sip from the bottle.

"What do you mean?" Robin narrowed her eyes in confusion.

"Your pal Vanashi took it upon himself...to release the three gods responsible for the most destructive time on this planet that I've ever heard of...and you're looking at one of them. The other two are who knows where...doing god knows what...And one of them is dying and dragging my girlfriends spirit down with her." Dean clenched his fist as the anger swelled within him.

"What?" Steffs asked in disbelief. There was a moment when a nervous laugh came bubbling forth. "Vanashi wouldn't have done that."

"Oh really?" Dean scoffed. "Trust me...knowing or unknowing...he did."

"So what happened back at the hospital?" Robin asked in confusion. "I mean that would make the gods inside you and your brother - brothers as well...right?"

"Well yeah...but I think their relationship is more screwed up then mine and Sam's. Ok I'm going to try to make this coherent, but it barely makes sense to me...so try and keep up. Sam is Daniseyal who is married to Inan who is inside Ambre who is my girlfriend and carrying my baby. When Ambre and I..." he cleared his throat watching as two pairs of captivated eyes followed his meaning. " Well we evidently voided that last treaty and Inan and Ambre can no longer access the weave...meaning they are dying. Inan said that the only way to save either one of them was to separate the bodies and one of them would have to be sacrificed. I told Sam that Ambre and the baby were going to live and well I guess Daniseyal has other plans."

Steffs and Robin took it all in with an awe laced expression as they starred back at Dean in wonder and sympathy. He saw their eyes travel upwards to someone who had walked up behind him though and sat still a moment feeling that the person was about to speak their mind. He assumed it was going to be Gabriel's voice that greeted his ears.

"Cowboy, that is the most pathetic twisted relationship I think I've ever heard of...I mean I think I'm about ready for a rendition of 'I'm my own Grandpaw'...but only if Kermit's singing it." Dean narrowed his eyes in disbelief and then slowly turned around. He was so overcome by the site that he pulled the seat back and rose in one fell swoop capturing Nessa in a huge hug. She wrapped her arms around him as well and smiled against his cheek. "Glad to see your still in one piece too." She laughed against the hug.

Chapter Twelve

"So your little brother snagged your girl...saw that coming a mile away, by the way..." Nessa pulled back and gave him an appreciative glance up and down.

"The snagging or the being my girl part?" Dean couldn't believe he was standing face to face with Nessa. The last time he'd seen her she had been telling him to let the demon drag her soul to hell. She looked good to be dead. Her hair was a little longer...but otherwise there wasn't a whole lot different with her. He could feel the shoulder holster and the gun tucked against her wrists when she hugged him. The hard metal pressed up against his t-shirt...Dean looked down his body to the t-shirt and jeans he was now wearing. When Sam had knocked him out he was still in scrubs provided by the hospital.

How he had just noticed that his clothes had been changed was beyond him. He looked with narrowed eyes back to Steffs and Robin. Dean motioned to his body questioningly and Steffs simply raised her eye brow in response with a broadening smile.

"The being your girl part...something about fighting side by side through a war...trust me." Nessa yanked his attention back to her with the next word. Dean really wasn't worried with the small talk though or how his clothes got changed. He knew that officially Ambre and he hadn't really talked about their relationship especially since the baby announcement. It just seemed easier to explain that she was his girl at the moment with everything else being so complicated. Besides it's what he wanted.

"Where have you been, Nessa?" Dean asked quietly.

"Hell for starters, yet self sacrifice kinda gets you a free fight your way to the top and you can leave loop hole in the whole contract." Nessa smiled as she patter him on the arm. "The snagging thing kind of threw me. So you have any idea where Sam and Ambre are?"

Dean wished he had a clue...he wished he had some idea. "They may have gone back to the Foci command to pick up the car." Dean suddenly had a thought as he looked up over the bar to the clock there. "Wait ...wait...whoa..."

"What?" Nessa, Steffs, Robin, and an approaching Gabriel all asked at once.
"Can any of you scry? The potion should have worn of fifteen minutes ago." Dean paused as it also occurred to him that, that left him as well as Sam and Ambre open to attack by Alturoc. "Christ...I need a potion or we're going to be covered up here."

Steffs pulled a vial out of her pocket and placed it on the table. "This it?" She asked quickly. " Found it in your bag with your clothes." She smiled. "Thought it might be important."
"Yeah...thanks." Dean was brought back to the whole clothes changing thing as he eyes the potion on the table. He didn't even think about the after taste as he quickly grabbed it up and downed it. He chased it with the rest of his second beer and looked back up to Nessa. She seemed to have assumed command of the small band of guardians as soon as she walked in the door. "So scry?"

"Robin can scry." Gabriel spoke up. "I'll be right back." Gabriel ran up to the bar and retrieved a glass of water in a black mug. He set it in front of the nervous looking guardian. "Why don't you and Steffs work on that while I run to get the car from the Foci command and Dean you and Nessa can catch up here."

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

Whoosh...there was low hum to the air as low conversations reverberated through the metal behind her back as the screeching of the rails brought her back to the waking world with a jolt. It took Ambre a whole of two seconds past waking to feel her mind under assault by Inan, who desperately wanted control.

Being at a loss to even access her powers Ambre fell under Inan's influence rather quickly in her weakened state. She looked up blinking the spark from her eyes that had betrayed the goddesses presences earlier as she looked to Sam seated beside her in the subway car seat. He had just shoved a bag from the Charger in between his legs and under the seat. It didn't take a genius to figure out what was inside the bag. "Sam?" Inan asked in Ambre's voice trying to make the confusion seem real. "What are we doing here?"

"Oh hey." Sam replied quickly. She seemed to have pulled him from his thoughts...thoughts of guilt for having hit Dean. Sam hadn't been in complete control at the moment. Daniseyal had taken him moment and by the time Sam had the control again they were already on the subway. So he just had to get them back to where ever Dean was and apologize before Daniseyal tried that stunt again...or worse...tried to exorcize Ambre from her own body. "We seem to be headed uptown." Sam replied clearing his throat nervously.

"You don't know?" Ambre asked with a hint of a smile playing at her lips.

"Not really." Sam chuckled softly. "Seems these gods are really garnering some influence lately. What I do know is that we need to get to our room soon and take the potions...or we're going to have a lot of company."

"Yeah." Ambre nodded. Inan looked to the bag between Sam's legs knowing what she had to do. Malachi would help her once it was over. This is what they had agreed upon. This is why they were back...or part of it. She just had to distract him long enough to grab a weapon from the bag.

Her opportunity came when a young woman stopped to ask him about her stop with a map in hand. Normally she wouldn't have been able to pull one over like that but Sam seemed unable to assist without rising to his feet thus leaving the bag within reach and easily open to Inan without Sam suspecting.

Inan pulled the gun up under the jacket that she assumed Sam or Daniseyal had placed on her and waited...all it would take was one shot...and Dean wouldn't be able to stop it...to heal him...to bring him back. Not after she was finished. Daniseyal wasn't coming back whether it took killing Sam or not.

OOOOOOOOOOO

Four pairs of Black wings glistened in the moon light as the winged devils flew toward the location that Alturoc had sent them...toward the subways...they were to destroy the target or die trying...and that's exactly what they planned on doing.

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

Dean grabbed his jacket from the chair back as Robin announced Sam and Ambre's location to the group just as Gabriel walked back into the bar carrying a duffel bag. "We ready?" Gabriel asked quickly. Dean looked to Nessa who nodded before adjusting his jacket with a nod to Gabriel of his own.

On the way out to the car Dean was the one that began to lay out the rules for the encounter before them. "Remember Sam and Ambre may both be ...possessed when we get there...by the gods...we need to incapacitate with as little damage as possible. And Ambre is pregnant...so keep that in mind."

"Gotcha Cowboy...we'll take care." Nessa smiled reassuringly. "And rest assured I won't hesitate to incapacitate your ass should you get all googly eyed on me...got that?"

Dean smiled at Nessa. "Oh yeah."

Chapter Thirteen

"Here." Gabriel called from the passenger seat as Nessa drove the car toward the intended target. He began tossing chain Id's to Steffs, Dean, and Robin in the back seat while they finished checking their ammo and snapped the clips into place one at a time before holstering the weapons either in actual holsters or in waist bands. "Might as well go in with the badges blazing to keep any delays for packing heat to a minimum."

Dean flipped the chain over and smiled at the badge that stared back at him. "Nice work." he cocked his gun as the car slammed to a stop near the closest subway entrance to Sam and Ambre. Dean slipped the badge over his head as did everyone else.

"Thanks." Gabriel smiled over his shoulder as he shoved his door open and broke from the car at a run for the entrance. "Spread out! Nessa, stay with Dean."

"As if there was a doubt." Nessa muttered under her breath as she climbed out of the car and waited for Steffs and Robin to fall into formation with Gabriel. Dean met Nessa around the other side of the car and followed the other three guardians down into the subways as people gave them a wide berth from the fire power on display as well as the badges.

Two Entrances Down the Street

"Here." Tanner motioned to the entrance to the subway as he and his men descended the steps folding their black wings in close to their bodies as they drew their own guns before descending down toward the impending fight.

Their own FBI badges shown in the dim street light as they moved quickly in their suites for the steps taking them two at a time as they screamed for everyone to clear out of the way. People began to scatter...many choosing to run out of the subway station.

Inside the Train

Sam rose to his feet as the train began to come to a halt and paused feeling the presence of the devils on their way...of Dean nearby. He quickly grabbed the bag from the floor about to turn to tell Ambre that in leu of the circumstances that this was their stop.

As the doors opened though, Sam jumped at the sound of a gun shot from behind him...followed by a loud " Take the next train!" As Ambre leveled the gun at Sam. Passengers quickly vacated the car for other cars or the platform as others on the platform took off or stared in wonder. No one tried to enter the car now.

Sam slowly turned toward her holding his hands up. "Ambre..." Sam started softly...cautiously.

"Shut up." Ambre replied coldly. "I want to talk to Daniseyal."

"Inan." Sam finally understood. "I can't just give him control when I want to. He generally chooses it."

"Then let him choose now." Ambre whispered. "Daniseyal, I know you can hear me...we need to talk."

The black winged devils entered the emptying cars at the end of the train while it was still stopped and began to make their way forward toward the targets.

Dean broke in front of Nessa jumping the barrier where a line had formed to pay fairs as he then jumped steps two at a time trying to keep up with Steffs and Robin. Gabriel was running ahead screaming for everyone to clear out of the way. Dean picked up the pace when the gun shot rang out through the domed walls of the underground station.

Dean spotted them without even slowing down as he pushed past Gabriel and stepped into the car aiming right at Ambre in one breath.

Nessa motioned to Gabriel to take notice of the black glint from the wings of the devils moving through the cars towards their charges. "Move to intercept!" She screamed at him looking to the Mexican stand off that was forming as Sam suddenly dropped his bag, drew, and aimed at Dean as Daniseyal took over. Nessa cursed under her breath. The charges were going to have to battle their inner gods alone...at least until the guardians could take out the enemy swiftly approaching.

Nessa, Gabriel, Steffs, and Robin entered the car behind their charges and started in the opposite direction for the devils headed straight for them. "This is going to get messy." Robin whispered as they made their way forward.

"Hell yes." Nessa nodded as both guns dropped from her wrist straps into her hands. "Very."

The train jerked back to life.

Dean steadied his aim despite the moment he saw as Sam drew on him. He refused to take his aim from Ambre still. "We could all just talk about this."

Ambre as Inan didn't acknowledge him as she kept her focus on Sam as Daniseyal. She couldn't tip her hand just yet and Dean knew it.

"I'm here." Daniseyal said to Inan. "You can lower your weapon."

Dean watched her closely knowing that she wasn't about to.

"Sam may return...I only do this for your protection." Inan replied with fake emotion in her voice as she chanced a sideways glance at Dean. "Malachi wants you dead..."

"She's lying." Dean spoke up.

"You both have lied." Daniseyal's voice quaked as he kept his aim steadied on Dean.

"No actually Inan and Malachi have lied...not me." Dean replied coldly.

"You knew about who lay in side your brother long before you said anything." Daniseyal replied evenly. Dean sniffed in reflection.
"Well yeah there was that." Dean felt his aim begin to waver slightly as a sensation began to overcome him. It was stronger then any of the moments before the mirrors watching Malachi in his reflection. He tried to stave the god off, but suddenly he knew exactly how Sam felt the first time Daniseyal had taken him over.

However...

Precisely at that moment Ambre clawed her way to the surface of her own mind and shifted her aim to Dean as he adjusted his aim to Sam and Sam broke through Daniseyal's mind and shifted his aim to Ambre.

They froze again as the whole group looked around in confusion trying to catch their breath.

"Dean watcha doing?" Sam asked suddenly.

"He's not Dean." Ambre's voice wavered as her aim shook.

"How do I know your not Inan?" Sam asked her as the frustration worked it's way into his voice.

"You don't." she panted.

Dean's smile became unsettling. "We always seem to find ourselves at a stale mate."

"Why don't we all drop our weapons and have a talk." Ambre breathed.

"You'll kill us both." Malachi replied through Dean.

"What?" Ambre asked in confusion.

"This was never about killing Daniseyal. You wanted the whole world on a platter." Malachi shook his head. "And for that I knew you'd need me out of the way. For the record, I never agreed with the plan."

Gun fire erupted through the darkening tunnels as four cars back light and dark waded into battle in a flurry of bullets, claws, and broken wings. A guttural growl shuddered through the train causing Ambre's aim to waver further.

"What plan?" Ambre had to raise her voice to be heard over the gun fire at their back.

Suddenly the car shuddered from the barrage behind and Ambre lost her balance. Sam slammed his foot into her hand and watched the gun sail through the car against the back wall. As Sam moved, Dean as Malachi, jumped him from behind knocking Sam's gun from his grasp as well.

Inan shoved her way back in control as Dean's fist connected with Sam's jaw before Sam retaliated with a low growl and he used his other leg to kick the gun from Dean's hand. Inan scrambled for the bag in the floor as it was closer then her gun now. Dean and Sam were in a flurry of motion...the well matched pair took the punches and came back with enough force to rival each other near perfectly. The dance of a fight was almost poetic...if not for the blood.

Dean shoved Malachi out of his head just as Daniseyal claimed control of Sam again. Dean landed a foot to Sam's groin just as he saw Inan reach into the bag in the floor of the car. She drew the gun out as Dean scrambled backwards trying desperately to get his own gun.

His fingers wrapped around it as Inan aimed at Sam who was still struggling to get to his feet. Dean sprawled on his back took aim at Inan.

"You did agree." She said without even looking at Dean. He saw her resolve was firm as he struggled with the own internal dilemma. If he shot her...he had to kill her to make sure Inan's spirit was forced out of her body...then maybe...just maybe...he could bring her back. And as she was about to kill his brother...he didn't see many other options.

"I never did." Dean replied for Malachi as he squeezed off the bullet that went straight through Ambre's heart then swiftly shifted his aim to Sam. "Stay back!" He screamed.

He could see the rage building inside Daniseyal as he watched Inan fall. Daniseyal looked from Dean to Ambre's body as the gun slipped from her hand. Dean watched as Daniseyal went to her as she lay dying.

"She was going to kill you...She slept with Malachi and then told him that she wanted to kill you once the war was finished and the world was renewed. Malachi never was going to go through with it. He planned on killing her when you all awoke. It had just been so long it took so much for even the memories to surface." Dean said the words as he watched Ambre's life slip through away and fought to stay in control of his own emotions. "You know I'm not lying...you can see in my mind." Dean breathed.

Sam fought his way back to the surface as Daniseyal disappeared inside him to deal with the pain of the revelation. Sam shoved the gun further away from Ambre's hand as he saw her take in her last breath.

Sam slowly turned back to Dean in shock. "What have you done?"

"The right thing." Dean whispered as he fought back the tears and doubt. "You got control for now?"

Sam nodded as his eyes glassed over. He looked up to the fighting still going on beyond them in the cars toward the back of the train.

Dean put the gun away as he pulled himself up and crawled to Ambre. "I'm sorry." he whispered. He near jumped back and repositioned the gun on her when words erupted from her mouth despite the death...
"You'll regret your decision...Malachi." And suddenly there seemed to be a winding wind that ripped through the car as Inan finally vacated Ambre's body. Dean dropped his aim again and then the gun as he pulled Ambre's lifeless form into his arms and hoped desperately that now that the one who actually broke the covenant was gone...he could heal her...bring her back...bring them both back. As he held her to him Dean let one hand travel between them to her abdomen.

"Come on, baby." Dean breathed against her neck.

Sam grabbed one of the discarded guns and walked toward the back of the car holding his aim on the door should anything get past the battle that was still on going beyond as he half listened half tried to give them a moment should this not work and it be their only good bye.

"Come on." Dean's voice trembled against her as he tried to give two spirits the precious gift of life that he had so unflinchingly taken away a moment ago. Dean closed his eyes in utter relief when he felt her draw in a breath against his chest. He fought the urge to slip into darkness as he had so many months ago when he had brought Sam back to life as he felt the tiny flutter of a heart beat separate from hers in her abdomen. Dean let out a gasp of a laugh of relief as he pulled back slightly taking in Ambre's face before him.

It seemed to take a moment for her eyes to focus on him lost in the confusion that death could bring. When she did though...there was no trace of Inan in her.

"She's clean." Sam whispered in confirmation still watching the bullets fly in the car beyond.

Dean pulled her back to him and felt her arms raise slightly as if she wasn't sure of what to do. "It's alright...everything's going to be alright." Dean reassured her. "Ambre, you're safe." he felt her jump at the barrage of gun fire behind them and tightened his hold around her. " I know you wanted something more then I had to give when you first told me." he whispered not giving her a chance to talk as he needed to finally say what neither of them had confirmed or denied in the last four days. That he loved her...that he wanted to be with her... and that in his own insane way he was happy they were going to have a baby, despite the circumstances. "I know that I let you down."

Ambre shifted against him uncomfortably and pulled back fearfully. Dean's eyes narrowed as he pulled away to take in her face. He waited as she searched his features pulling even further away from him in shock and terror. "Ambre..." he didn't understand. He always thought she felt the same...that...

"Who are you?" Ambre's voice shook as she asked the question.

Chapter Fourteen

"Who are you?"
Dean looked to the hole in Ambre's chest as the words settled over him like a cold breeze sweeping through his bones. The chill of it set off a tremble in his soul that translated nothing through to the surface save a vague expression of shock as he slowly let his gaze rise to meet Sam's.
Sam still held the gun steady on the door before them but he had turned back at the last utterance, the concern running through his features not near as masked as Dean's. "Uh...Dean." Sam's voice betrayed something even more pressing then Ambre's sudden amnesia however.

"Where are we?" She looked to the perfect stranger before her as in her minds eyes she went from her work out in the gym to a subway station god only knew where in the blink of an eye. She was supposed to meet Shay. They had dinner plans. What in the hell had happened? Had she been kidnaped? Ambre tried desperately to force the empty spaces in between the gym and here and now come together...to figure out some crazy way to connect the inconsistent dots. "Where's Shay?" Tears spilled over her cheeks as she spoke and she was shaking so hard that every word seemed like a chore to get out. Not even the badge however on the man's chest before her seemed to give her a moment of peace.

Dean looked to Sam as he called out his name feeling another one of those impending 'oh shit' moments just as Ambre continued, her voice betraying just how much confusion resided inside her head at the moment. And all he could come up with at the moment as the gun fire prevailed in the night around them was the he wasn't about to hand her a gun. He didn't have time to dawdle over the pain that every word out of her mouth seemed to twist deep into his spine...sending rippling waves through his system like a tsunami. Still Dean held it back. And even managed a "Perfect." In a low mutter under his breath as he looked from Sam to Ambre then back again.

"What's up?" Dean called to Sam not quite ready to pull off the show that he'd need to actually pretend to Ambre that everything was alright.

In reply Sam turned swiftly and turned on his heels at a run grabbing the duffel bag of weapons from the floor of the car before reaching for one of Ambre's arms to help Dean get her to her feet.

"Run." Sam breathed.

Dean scrambled to his feet and immediately fell into the seat beside him barely catching himself on the pole there before His vision caught the fire ball from the blast that had just blown the last car off the train as the guardians began to run through the last three cars for them...at a startling pace.

"Shit." Dean breathed still feeling the ringing from the explosion as he witnessed the dark shapes that followed the guardians toward them.
Without another word Dean reached down and grabbed his fallen pistol before taking Ambre's other arm and running with Sam's help forcing the still traumatized woman forward through the door into the next car. They didn't stop as Dean felt Sam insistently pushing onward.

As they grabbed her up with little explanation Ambre tried to jerk her arms away but felt them both tighten their hold. "Hey." She screamed out still fighting as they jerked her through the doorway and into the next car. "Let me go." It was more of a sob then a scream.
Dean would have given pause to calm her down, but he could tell by the pace Sam was setting that they didn't even have time to slow down. So with a heavy hand dragging the woman he loved behind him he simply tried to connect in some fashion that could radiate some sense of context to their predicament. "Look as confused as you have to be right now, I'm going to need you to just trust me that we're trying to keep you alive at the moment."

She gave pause to the hysterical water works to give him an utterly confused look before peering over her shoulder at the fire ball pushing forward behind them. "Oh God." She breathed.

Nessa burst through the door behind them, kicking it off it's hinges as she swooped into the car and ran for the next door, near cutting through them to get to it. "RUN " She screamed as she went. Suddenly the roof top over the car gave a loud thud as the metal roof dented downward from a tremendous impact.

"What was that? " Dean screamed after her as he and Sam picked up the pace dragging Ambre though the next door.

"Steffs " Nessa called over her shoulder. The next car thudded in as another impact created a downward convex that was almost body shaped. "And that's Robin " Nessa explained as she ripped the next door open and they crowded into the car that actually still had now cowering people in it.

Sam almost dropped Ambre's arm at the shock of seeing Nessa, but quickly got control of the emotional play that rushed through him. "Nessa? " Sam asked in wonder his voice betraying the relief and joy that a simple sweeping glance had given him.

"Hey Sugar." She called back. "You miss me?" She smiled brightly.

"Yeah I did." Sam smiled back at her. He didn't know how or why she was back, but there was a sense of guilt that seemed to alleviate some hidden recess in his soul from just seeing her there before him.

The second to last car on the train exploded sending a shock wave rippling through the rest of the cars and near sent them all sprawling to the ground. "What the hell is going on back there?"
Dean asked Nessa who had stopped as she was now trying to decide how to get these people out of here. "Gabriel got a little carried away." Nessa almost smiled. "Oh and there are some shades."
Shades...shadows...Dean hated them.

Ambre let out a whimper as she twisted her arm in Dean's hand. And Nessa seemed to finally look to her as she narrowed her eyes a bit. She didn't look long though as Dean suddenly took the initiative and held his badge up and away from his shirt so that everyone could see it. "I'm with the D.C. Police...everyone needs to move as far forward as you can...to the very first car...as fast as you possibly can."

There was a mad rush as the passengers began to run forward. "Thank you " Dean called as he reached back and took Ambre's arm again.

"You're cops?" She asked in disbelief... "We're in...the capitol?"

Nessa's gaze shot to Ambre in an instant. "What's wrong with her?" She barked out the whole of her demeanor changing to anger and frustration.

No one had time to really answer though. The cars were exploding faster now behind them and every few feet they were having to grab onto a seat to steady themselves. Dean forced his breathing to keep up with him as he almost faltered from the blackness of the shades closing around the cars Steffs and Robin fell through the ceiling of the car before them and the dark shapes of the shades that were now effecting the dim lights of the tunnel corridor began to pour into the car with them, on top of them...filling the car like a fish bowl in need of water.

Behind them another car exploded before Gabriel jumped through the door hurrying forward with his cell phone in hand. "Justin, you know that contingency for all hell breaking loose..."

"Gotcha." Justin replied as he had a hard time making out Gabriel's voice from the static and loud noises coming from his surrounding area. "Making those calls...where you need a pick up at?"

"The Wayland Street Subway exit." Gabriel screamed into the phone as he slid to a stop watching the car before them filling with shadows. It looked like a thick smoke. "Hurry." Gabriel breathed then slammed the phone shut. Gabriel looked behind him at the two remaining cars at there back.

"We have to move." Gabriel called moving toward the door to the car engulfed in blackness. Screams from the passengers unlucky enough to be caught in the car to begin with began to reach them. "Now."

"Into that?" Ambre felt her heart sinking fast...like she couldn't keep up. This was some night mare from hell that wouldn't end. All she really wanted was to wake up and go to dinner with Shay like they had planned. Laugh and forget that the dream every happened in the first place.

Before her as everyone had stopped and was now looking petrified to move forward, fear oozing off them like a cloud of harsh aerosol, all she could see was terrified people screaming as the blood seemed to be torn from their bodies. Wounds opened from out of no where and the people fought off what looked to be invisible attackers. It was like a slaughter house. And theses crazy people with her wanted to move in there? Hell no!

The car now on the end of the train exploded and the shockwave sent them stumbling into the door.

"Come on." Dean didn't like it any more them the rest of them...but as explosion after explosion had shown them...there wasn't many other places to go and they could either face the darkness or they could get blown to hell. Dean was relatively sure that he couldn't pick up the pieces and heal everyone should the later happen. Dean started with Ambre back through the door and felt her slam her foot into the door jam to give herself enough leverage to stop. "I'm not going in there!"

"Ambre, It's alright...everything is going to be..." Sam and Dean both started talking in a rush at once trying to get through to her. Just as Nessa stepped up.

"We don't have time for this." She slammed her fist into the back of Ambre's head and caught her as she slumped forward. Dean cut Nessa a look that could have killed had he possessed Sam's abilities and she simply glared right back as she pulled Ambre up and over her shoulder. She shoved Sam with her other arm and then followed him through the door with Ambre. "Come on Cowboy!"

Dean grit his teeth together as Gabriel followed Nessa and Ambre. Dean paused just past the door as the world exploded around him. The shock wave from the last car sent his body flying against the outside of the shadow car with a snap that sent pain cascading down his spine in waves of agony.

Sam spun around as the shock wave sent him reeling into the blackness of the shadows and he slammed into a soft body that instantly slapped the hell out of him and kicked him in the mid section. God he was glad he could fight blind. He blocked the next kick catching the ankle in his hands and then twisted the tender joint...eliciting a scream from Robin. Sam cursed under his breath and suddenly sliced through the darkness parting the shadows like the sea of old as he slammed half the shadows to one side of the car and the other half to the other side.

Steffs jumped from the floor of the car as the shadows parted just in time to see Dean hit the outside of the car. "Holy..." She broke off and broke into a run for him.

"Steffs...that cars About to explode!" Gabriel screamed then he broke off as he saw who she was going after.

"I know." She screamed back. Steffs felt the initial shock wave before the actual explosion as she wrapped her body around Deans and flew the both of them to the ceiling of the tunnel covering his body with hers as she used her wings to cover the both of them.

Sam turned just in time to see Steffs and Dean's body disappear from the back of the car as the shock wave of the last explosion sent the whole of the occupants of the car all the way forward. The car tilted upward breaking loose from the rails and the car full of passengers in front of it then slammed to the right tossing them all like a tumbler against the windows. As soon as they hit the glass tore through them like scissors through paper. It broke from the impact with the rails as the car hit once...bounced...then slammed back down again finally sliding to a stop in front of the Wayland Street Station.

Sam shifted his weight off Robin and heard a groan from beneath him as he felt her shift uneasily. A piece of glass protruded from her middle straight through her back. "God." he whispered as he slowly pulled himself off her and quickly resurrected the barrier to keep the shadows at bay. "Robin?" He asked softly. "Can you move?"
"Yeah." She whispered back as she struggled to pull herself up despite the piece of glass impaling her.

Nessa gave a grunt as she pushed the seat that had slammed into her and Ambre off. She rolled Ambre's body over and felt for a pulse as she noted the odd angle to her arm and the cuts and scrapes along her body. Finding one she breathed a sigh of relief and hoisted her up back over her shoulder before making her way to the door at the front so she could get out of the car in case it had been rigged to explode as well. "Robin you alright?"

She called on her way as she let her vision comb over Sam first. He was banged up pretty bad with a piece of glass through his right leg, but he hadn't complained about it yet. Nessa was pretty sure he hadn't even noticed yet as he was pretty busy looking after Robin and trying to keep the shadows back. "Gabriel?"

A seat flew up and then to the side as Gabriel rose from the remains of the glass encrusted floor and looked to Nessa out of breath. "Robin needs some help." Nessa called. "And is this car going to explode?"

"Maybe." Gabriel replied as he moved to quickly get Robin. "Good grief woman...that looks painful." He smirked at Robin before helping her to her feet. "Where's Dean?"

Silence followed a moment before a thud struck the Side - now ceiling of the car. Suddenly Steffs dropped through one of the now open panes with Dean in her arms. Steffs was a little charred and her wings looked near plucked and painfully raw, but she quickly looked around her to make sure that everyone else was alright. Dean was unconscious. "Time to go?" Steffs asked out of breath.

Nessa nodded. "Yeah...Sam let them go as soon as we clear the car...Everyone hurry...I think this thing is about to go up." That got everyone moving. They rushed out of the car and climbed onto the platform Sam still holding the shadows as they went. He didn't release them until they had rushed into the back of the scattering crowd of panicked people. One last time the world exploded behind them. The group slid behind the support beams of the underground station as the plaster, ceramic, and chunks of metal was dispersed around them in an expanding debris cloud. Nessa was the first to start moving back up the stairs as the sound of the explosion and the people screaming seemed to accompany them like a chorus. The rest of the group fell in with her limping, and carrying each other's battered bodies out of the station to a waiting black van.

The large man holding the door open for them didn't even look phased by their condition as he ushered them into the van and quickly made his way around the other side muttering under his breath in Russian.

Chapter Fifteen

Nessa cursed repeatedly under her breath as she walked down the hallway with another bowl of water and a bag full of medical supplies. Dean was till out and she had to do some triage before they started losing people to blood loss if he should take his sweet time waking up.

She had to admit that when Gabriel said that his contacts in the Russian Mafia were going to put them up that she had envisioned some mansion on the waterfront with a nice heated pool and a view to kill for.

Not this.

She felt like she was in suburbia hell. In a three bedroom flat with houses so close next door that she imagined poor unsuspecting neighbors having a heart attack should they catch a glimpse of this muddled group in their prestigious gate guarded, home owners association hounds from hell, smiley desperate housewife setting. Nessa sighed before pushing bedroom number one open.

"I wanted to be on top." Robin was whining as Nessa entered the room.

It was pink...with it's oaken bunk beds and extra day bed it was obviously meant to house three girls of school age. The pictures on the wall were of teeny bopper boys who had yet become old enough to peak Nessa's interest and then a host of flowers - and animals like cute cats and dogs and such...little butterflies. She could have gagged. She moved toward the night stand that separated the bottom bunk from the day bed and cut a glance at Robin who was lying on the bottom bunk.

Steffs swung her head over the rail of the top bunk with a bright smile then a slight wince. "You can have it next time." She said looking at her partner in crime with an upside down taunting flutter of her tongue past her lips.

Robin returned the favor by sticking her own tongue out at Steffs with a huff as Sam gave a soft snicker from the day bed. "This is like a scene from M.A.S.H. only with a subdivision instead of a hospital tent in the middle of a war zone...well the war zone kinda fits." She added the last bit thoughtfully as she looked at the glass protruding from her middle. She glanced up at Nessa as she wrinkled her nose up.
"I'd rather have Gabriel dress it...he actually takes care." She narrowed her eyes at Nessa.

"He babies you two." Nessa muttered as she slammed the water basin down on the table sloshing the water from the bowl in a spray of disinterest and then threw a clothe into it. Nessa then tossed the bag of supplies onto the bed. "Dress it yourself." She turned without waiting for Robin to reply and walked out of the room. Robin stared after her with her mouth hanging open.

Nessa continued onward to the bathroom where she had another bowl of water and a similar bag waiting. She looked into the mirror with a long winded sigh of exasperation. It had been a rough six months, but at least what she was doing now was less agonizing then hell. She didn't like to think about her time there, of the things that she did to get out, but it was getting harder and harder to forget. Nessa pulled a small flask from her jacket pocket and quickly twisted the top off before downing the whole of it's contents.
"You alright?" Gabriel stopped in the doorway a moment when he saw her downing the liquor.

"Fine." She replied coldly as she replaced the flask in her pocket then picked up the bowl and bag before heading into the next bedroom.

"You don't look fine." Gabriel replied as he followed her inside.

She looked back at him over her shoulder and shook her head. "That's the pot calling the kettle black." She smiled softly as she set the bowl down on the bedside table next to the double bed they had placed Dean in. "How's Ambre?" Nessa asked as she sat down lightly on the side of the bed.

"I set her arm. I think she's going to be out for a while though." Gabriel sighed. "She has a few bad cuts, but I think she'll be fine so long as the hysterics are kept to a minimum. Have you talked to Sam about what happened yet?"

"No. Robin and Steffs are keeping him busy I think." Nessa chuckled at the picture of the two guardians in the bunk bed. She shifted her gaze thoughtfully though to the man in the bed before her. "Ambre lost it back there. I don't know how stable she is, but it could become a problem. Did you finish making the potions?"

"Yeah. I've got Sam's here." he reached into his pocket and tossed Nessa another vial. "Why don't you get that into Ambre when you finish here."

"Sure." Nessa nodded.

"I'm going to make a few calls. You sure you're alright?" Gabriel asked one more time knowing that she wasn't.

"I'm fine." Nessa replied in annoyance. Gabriel held his hands up in defense and began to back out of the room.

"I'll be downstairs if you need me." Gabriel said softly at Nessa's back.

Sam watched as Steffs helped Robin remove the piece of glass from her abdomen and winced at the face she made. He quickly shielded his eyes as Steffs cursed and yanked Robin's shirt the rest of the way up trying to staunch the blood flow. "I'll just..." Sam said as Steffs seemed to have it under control. He hurried out of the room and limped down the hall to check on Dean.

Sam stopped in the doorway watching Nessa with Dean. "Is he alright?" he asked as he moved on in folding his arms protectively across his chest as he looked down at Dean's form on the bed. Dean didn't look alright. Sam realized that Dean couldn't heal himself when unconscious though that theory hadn't been tested all that much, his current condition seemed to indicate that it was pretty set in stone.
Sam grimaced as he shifted his weight on his legs and sank down beside Nessa. Dean looked like hell. Worse then Sam felt himself. Dean gave a soft groan and shifted a bit. Nessa looked up expectantly, but Sam could tell he wasn't truly waking. He couldn't really feel his mind reaching consciousness yet. He could feel the turmoil though that resided there even in the uneasy slumber. Dean's pain translating through unconsciousness caused Sam's heart to slowly sink.

He had known that Dean was having a hard time dealing with finding out that he was going to be a father. Sam had been trying to stay out of Dean's head for the last few days, but sometimes even when Dean was smiling and cutting up Sam could just feel it. The fear and doubt...so much fear. He was scared to death that he couldn't protect a baby, that he didn't know how to be a father, that the only example they had had been more militaristic then family like, and that his child would be born into the same life.

Sam could still feel it now, but it was abated by the small grip that Dean had come to in his own mind...some ease and happiness over the baby and some sort of resolve to his feelings for Ambre. There was a new pain surfacing there now though and it tore into Sam with a vengeance. Sam didn't have to feel Dean out to figure it out. Sam had been in Ambre's head the second she asked Dean who he was.

She didn't even know her boyfriend was dead, that she was pregnant with Dean's baby. She didn't remember sleeping with Dean for the last six months, or how much she loved him. Sam had felt that much, her love for Dean, from her before her mind had been closed to him. Now he didn't know where things stood, wether or not her memory would return. Or when or how...and Dean... Sam could feel the thoughts that hadn't even been given a chance to be properly hashed through...it was like just a gut full of raw emotion wading on the surface and it was so strong that Sam half thought he was going to be sick.

"I don't think he's alright." Nessa finally replied.

"Me either." Sam replied softly fighting back the tears that the emotions running through Dean in his sleep caused. He finally hesitantly took the cloth that Nessa had yet to utilize and finally began to clean the blood from Dean's face. The cuts and abrasions that marred the skin here and there from his slide against the dome of the ceiling with Steffs during the explosion.

"What happened back there?" Nessa's voice was soft as she new she was treading dangerous ground.

Sam's hand paused trembling over Dean's cheek as Daniseyal's feelings came flooding back. He had to close his eyes to keep from screaming with the sheer amount of rage that impacted his system like a power surge. He slowly pulled his eyes up to meet Nessa's. "It's kind of personal." His voice near faltered to even get that much out. On the one hand he knew that Dean didn't know about the gods and their infidelity when he and Ambre had slept together. He knew that Dean didn't realize just how much Daniseyal's feelings had bled into his own. So that he didn't really know how much of him falling for Ambre was his own feelings and which were Daniseyals. Now the harder part was separating the hate. Daniseyal hated Inan's vessel as much as he hated Inan. Hated and loved...and it was ripping through Sam with such gravity that he was hard pressed to discern who was feeling what.

"Sam, I need to know what happened." Nessa pushed as she was now wondering if Ambre was going to break down on them.

"No you don't." Sam said with authority. "All you need to know is that Ambre is god free and without a single memory since Inan came to reside inside her. She won't remember you, or Dean, or me...and she doesn't have a clue what's going on. The rest of it doesn't help you with your efforts."

"Whoa... Are you telling me Ambre is going to wake up out of her head?" Nessa rose to her feet quickly.

"Probably." Sam nodded solemnly.

"Shit." Nessa hurried out of the room and down the hall.

She hadn't been gone more then a few seconds when Dean finally stirred. Sam watched in wonder as the moment his mind began to climb the ladder of consciousness his wounds began to heal. By the time he actually opened his eyes Sam was placing the cloth in the water with no more use for it.

Dean had to blink several times to clear his vision as he came to and the physical pain was now a fleeting nightmare. He took in Sam sitting there a moment before Ambre waded through is head and he felt the pain follow like a knife twisted in his heart. "Is she..."

"She's alright." Sam nodded. "She's sleeping."

Dean relaxed a bit taking in a deep breath as his gaze traveled to the ceiling. There was a long uneasy silence before either of them spoke. " I'm sorry." Dean finally breathed.

"For what?" Sam had let his gaze travel to the door as he listened for any sound from Nessa but had yet to hear anything. Now though at the sound of the apology he looked back to Dean in wonder, wondering what in the hell he had to be sorry for. Dean had been willing to sacrifice Ambre and the baby for Sam and for that Sam felt like he should be apologizing.

"I should have seen it sooner." Dean whispered referring to Inan's evil plans inside Ambre. God how much of this could have been prevented had he just seen it long before now. Maybe they could have found another way to get Inan out of Ambre...found some other way. " I should have known."

On the surface Sam knew that Dean was saying that he should have simply known by her personality...something that Ambre gave away...but Sam knew the moment the words left Dean's mouth that he was really berating himself for everything that went wrong, including Ambre's failed memory. "If I hadn't shot her..."

"I'd be dead. You said yourself that you did the right thing." Sam finally met Dean's eyes and suddenly felt like something had squeezed his chest tight as he watched the tears cascade down Dean's cheeks. Dean looked away quickly trying to hide the display, but finally gave up as the sheer power of the pain overwhelmed his senses so far that he couldn't even continue to mask it. "Dean." Sam paused as Dean slowly sat up wiping at his face even as more tears escaped his breaking defense. Dean slowly shook his head unable to force any more words out.

Sam slowly eased forward half expecting Dean to crack a joke about a chick flick moment, but he didn't. Which only confirmed just how far the jagged wound had been cut into Dean's soul. Sam wrapped his arms around him and embraced him in what felt like the first real hug they had shared in a very long while. By the time they connected the pain was so heavy that Sam had to fight to hold it together himself, just from feeling Dean's pain.

Dean finally pulled back and wiped the remaining tears from his face. "I need to see her." he breathed. Sam nodded. He understood. No matter how much more pain it might cause. He understood.

Before either one could get up though Nessa was walking back into the room clenching and unclenching her fists. She paused in the door way. "Ambre's gone...she's run away." She said her lips pulled together in a thin line of anger.

Chapter Sixteen

He sat at the head of the table, a slow wicked grin growing across his face as he watched the woman sauntering with the confidence of a queen to his side. She moved with the pride of a warrior, with the grace of a god, and with the victorious demeanor of a champion.

All his generals watched in wonder, all his commanders bowing down with respect. She was heaven in hell's light with an air of authority that rocked the minds of all that laid eyes on her.

"Oh the weak of mind will fall." Alturoc smiled. "For since the dawn of time have our plans been lain."

"How easily they line themselves up to be slaughtered." The woman smiled wickedly in response to his words. "How easily do they fall into the traps set eons ago." She ran her hand over his flesh less physique unflinching and slowly sank into his lap turning to address his followers. "We have waited ages for this moment, for everything to come to pass as it should. For the weave to become ripe for the plunder, for the world to become open to the taking. We have waited, and slumbered deep, and now the queen has risen...and the world will burn."

Inan smiled at the cheer that rose up from the table as she took her place in command of Alturoc's minions. Her trusty servant to the end, he had made every preparation she expected him to and more and now she accepted her rule of the underworld as her plans began to fall into perfect harmony, one by one.

"Have you readied the lost one?" She asked Alturoc finally.
"I have."

"Wonderful..." She took a moment to remove a small picture that had been folded into the palm of her hand and she placed it onto the table before Alturoc's site. " I want him to come in this persona."

"Your will be done." Alturoc looked to one of his commanders. "Make it so."

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Dean felt like his world was spinning out of control as he looked at the open window before him. His world was shattering...falling around his feet. As if everything wasn't bad enough. It was like time had crawled into slow motion so that he could reel before that damn window and the soft drifts of snow that flowed in through the wisps of curtains that danced around the frame. Dean's tears became frigid stabbing pains behind his eyes as the cold seeped into his veins, plummeting further through him as he slowly combed over the rest of the room before speaking.

When he did managed to get the words out, his voice was low. He had to clear his throat several times before he could actually make it work and he left off eye contact in leu of fact finding. "How bad was she hurt?" He started as he slowly placed a hand in the indentation on the bed and ran a loan finger over the tiny dried droplets of blood there. The bed was still warm and that alone seemed to spur him into action.

"Gabriel said she had a broken arm - cuts, scrapes." Nessa rattled off the half assed progress report as she stuffed her hands into her pockets and froze. She paused as she craned her head down and looked to the potion the she slowly pulled from her pocket. "Shit." She breathed. "She hasn't had the potion yet. Alturoc's going to be all over her."

Dean turned from the bed as the shock settled over his face. "What?"

"She doesn't know what's going on. He'll tear her to pieces before she even sees him coming." Sam whispered as he tried to shield himself from the emotional backlash coming off of Dean. His own emotions were enough to deal with at the moment and Dean's were not helping.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

The snowflake kissed air danced around the lone figure walking down the road into the city lights with arms huddled around her. Her teeth chattered against each other as she fought to control the shivers that coursed through her body as her arm throbbed from every tiny sliver of movement.

She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the diner open on the street corner and slipped in and to the pay phone that resided in the corner near the bathrooms. When Ambre had woken in the house she had reassessed the situation for the worse. They couldn't be police officers. Police officers would have taken them all to the hospital. She didn't know what was going on, but she knew that she couldn't stay there.

She felt like someone had taken a baseball bat to her then dumped her down the rabbit hole. Numb shock ridden limbs finally complied to an even more shell shocked brain as she picked the phone up and slowly dialed the phone. She leaned forward against the wall as she did so feeling the tears come slowly.

"Pick up Shay." She whispered through the pain as she listened to the ring for the longest time. A mechanical voice finally relayed to her that the line had been disconnected and she choked on the next sob as she convinced herself that she had simply dialed the wrong number.

She dialed again nearing a panic and placed the finger of her good hand against her lips as she waited intently for Shay to pick up the phone. When the message sounded again she let out a near hysterical sob and hung up again before dialing the Huntington Memorial Hospital.

"HMH this is Stacey." Finally came an answer. Ambre breathed a sigh of relief and held the phone in trembling hands as she tried to steady her voice.

"Oh God Stacey, you have no idea how glad I am to hear your voice." She breathed hardly able to keep the tremble out of her voice.

There was a long pause.

"Who is this?" Stacey finally replied.

"Ambre Gallagher." Ambre whispered into the phone. "Listen I don't know what's happened, but I need help."

"Is this some kind of joke?" Stacey's voice betrayed the uncertainty and anger all in one sweep.

"What? No...Stacey listen I can't get a hold of Shay and I am in some deep shit." Ambre continued at a loss for Stacey's reaction.

"Ambre?" There was a moment of hope in Stacey's voice that took Ambre off guard and simultaneously sent shivers racing down her spine. "God where have you been?"

"I don't know." Ambre breathed. "I'm in Washington now." She closed her eyes, finally feeling like she had found one piece of reality to hold to...some anchor to the chaos of the last few hours."I don't know how I got here or what's going on..." She paused breaking off as the sob finally over took her again. "I can't get through to Shay."

Stacey was quiet for a long moment. "Ambre, Shay's dead. You've been missing for six months."

Ambre almost dropped the phone. "What?"

"Right after your surgery...the police were calling it a kidnaping, because there was no way you could have walked out of the hospital that night. There were two men here with you though. One of them had been hurt as well, but you all three disappeared at the same time. Listen where are you right now...maybe I can find someone that can get out there to help you. If not we can just call the police there and have them bring you in..."

Ambre interjected at that moment remembering that badge on the man that has been dragging her through the subway cars. "No I think the men responsible are somehow involved in the police here. I'll try to find a way back to Huntington then I'll talk to the police there. Stacey..." Ambre swallowed the pain against her throbbing throat and sniffed back enough tears to go on. " What happened to Shay?" The whisper almost died on the tip of her tongue as she fought to force the words out.

Ambre felt all the blood rush from her face as Stacey began to explain.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Robin stretched feeling her muscles burn around the wound where Steffs had dressed it. She looked down to the bandage and wrinkled her nose up. It was already mending itself...she could feel it...Just as Steffs wings looks near good as new by now. "Thank god for regeneration..." She smiled. "Steffs you hungry?"

Steffs stared into the mirror as she towel dried her hair and shook her head. "Starving actually..."she barely got it out as what sounded like a herd of elephants started down the hallway. Robin and Steffs both turned to see Dean, Sam and Nessa headed out as they pulled their coats on, on the move. Steffs sighed. "Guess it will have to wait."

"She couldn't have gotten to far..." Dean was saying as his heart thundered away in his chest. God how far did she have to get for Alturoc to take her. He moved faster pushing past the tightening his chest forcing his breath to reach past the terror that was driven down the depth of his heart. He didn't notice when Robin and Steffs fell in line behind them.

Nessa was already putting her own plan together though and she turned to the girls as they went. "We can take to the air and look...we'll cover more ground that way." Steffs and Robin were already nodding in agreement.

"That's good." Sam was still struggling with his own mixed feelings. Daniseyal was screaming at him to just let Ambre go, but his own heart was saying something completely different. He almost told Daniseyal to shut up out loud before he caught himself.
"We should..." Dean paused trying to force his muddled brain to work for him. He needed to think strategically and the emotions weren't helping tonight. "We...Robin can scry for her."

"Right." Robin called out as she hurried down the steps past him and into the kitchen. "Go on I'll catch up when I've got something."

"What's going on?" Gabriel paused in mid phone conversation and walked up handing Sam his potion.
"Ambre's missing. We think she ran away." Nessa began.

"I'm going to scry for her." Robin called from the kitchen quickly.

Dean was oblivious to the movement around him as he walked out into the night without so much as a comment on the whole situation. Sam followed him quietly out the door and placed a hand softly on Dean's shoulder. "We'll find her." he whispered.

"This uh...this can't be good..." Dean sniffed back a running nose brought on by the cold and tears as it felt like his eyes lashes were freezing together. "For the baby." It was the first time he had mentioned the baby...really. "This weather."

Sam felt his heart breaking in two for his brother as he saw the pain and uncertainty falling over Dean again. "Hey, we'll find her." Sam gave Dean's shoulder a squeeze hoping that it got through to him.

Dean gave a slow nod as he looked first down one side of the street and then down the other, pushing back the pain, swallowing the fear, and forcing himself to move. "I know." he whispered. He had not doubt that they would find her. His overconfidence helped him in that respect. It was the condition she would be in when they found her that had him dancing on the razors edge. "I know." he repeated one more time to Sam before they started down the side walk pulling their arms in close to their bodies, sinking hands into their pockets, to try and find some way to stay warm in the harsh winter wind.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Ambre sank into the booth and leaned forward until her head rested on the table. She felt like she'd been hit by a train...or at least been on one that exploded. When the waitress came she ordered a coffee and then didn't move until it arrived. She seemed to hear the clank of the coffee cup against the table as the entrance bell chimed another person's arrival and she slowly sat up so she could take a drink.

The man at the front of the diner pulled his gloves off and rubbed his hands together with a genuine smile to the waitress that came up to talk to him. The waitress gave him a light laugh as he turned his eyes on the diner and looked down the rows of booths finally settling on her. He gave his gloves against his hands and started in her direction. Ambre breathed in a deep breath as she watched him on his way. She felt her heart pound in her chest as the fear swept back over her.

He paused beside the booth watching her closely. "Ms. Gallagher?" he asked in a soothing tone. She swallowed the fear not sure if she should confirm who she was. "Listen, I'm a private investigator. Stacey called me from Huntington and asked me to stop in and check on you. She asked me to help you get home."

Ambre wanted to believe it...she really did...so she finally just let it sink in that this could be her moment of peace...that this could begin her long journey home. She didn't speak yet, not sure that her own voice could carry just now. Instead she gave a slight nod and watched as he slid into the booth in front of her. "I'm not going to pretend that I know what you've been though, Miss. But I do promise to get you where you need to be." He went on seemingly trying to bring her some sense of reassurance that she was doing the right thing by allowing him to sit with her. "Everything is going to be alright." he gave her a comforting smile and Ambre finally felt herself beginning to relax. Slowly being enfolded into his confidence.

He smiled as he saw her demeanor slowly shifting. "How rude of me." he slid his hand across the table before her. "I know your name, but you've not been given mine...John Winchester." His smiled brightened as she finally let her hand be covered by his in a soft handshake.

Chapter Seventeen

"You're hurt?" He could tell the moment he looked at her from the entrance. It was such a instinctual observation. The way she held her arm, despite the other tell tale signs that had been shaded by shadows of the dim lit diner like bruises, cuts...She was in bad shape...not just physically. Anyone with any kind of back ground in trauma could see shock a mile away...and she was drowning in it.

He had been following a trail when his boys went to Huntington. Following a long trail that ended dead to rights as soon as the shit hit the fan. His boys destiny had been thrown off kilter and for the first time in a long time he was so glad to know that something more could be for them then the bits and pieces of what ifs that had been floated to him for years. Sam and Dean had a shot at least. The demon was already stuck in hell...and now despite the danger...it meant that the world's path had been set in a new course and for once in his life he was glad as hell that he didn't know what it had in store for them...either one. That he didn't have to carry that burden.

He didn't know a lot save what he could drum up from his contacts that had contacts inside these secret circles. SO he knew that Sam and Dean had gone from nothing to the top of the oh shit list in a matter of seconds...but they also had become the talk of the magical community and what he was hearing was that they were invincible...they and the girl they traveled with.

Unfortunately he'd been unable to track them since Chattanooga...and THAT was a first. He had kept up with the only outside link that he had and that was with the girls friends and family...he'd been lucky tonight. He was already in D. C. following up on a bridge collapse that stunk to high heaven of paranormal activity when Stacey had called him about Ambre.

"I'm alright." She whispered with a nod that was more to convince herself then him. "I just want to get away from here...to go home." She met his eyes for once and he slowly nodded.

"And I'm going to help you do that." John assured her. "But I need to know..." He removed two pictures from a folder tucked in his jacket and placed them on the table before her. "Whether or not you've seen these two men...they were the ones that brought you into the hospital that night..."
She looked down at the pictures and drew in a hiss of a breath as a shiver raced through her. She tucked her arms as close to her as she could without twisting the broken one. "The night Shay died?" She narrowed her eyes still meeting his as if daring him to day yes. He didn't back down though.

"Yes." He nodded. There was sympathy in his eyes, but there was something else there...more pressing...as if he was searching for something. Just when she thought that he wasn't here for her after all, he looked away...as if she had won the stare down. Only he simply was gathering his things together. "Listen I understand you not wanting to go to the hospital...in your position I would want a stiff drink and a way home...so what do you say...want to get out of here?"

Ambre thought about that a moment. She could use a drink. And a way home. "I'm game." She finally smiled pushing herself up with her good arm. John rose to his feet and waited for her to move past him before he began to follow after her.

If he could get her drinking...he could get her talking...and he needed to know what she knew about Sam and Dean. She faltered moving past the table as her knees near gave way and John was quick to catch her bringing her back to her feet. He wrapped his arms around her to help get her out to the car and carefully guided the both of them in that direction. "Everything's alright now."

She wanted to believe that. She really did. But something was telling her exactly the opposite.

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

Dean wasn't used to not being in control. And he felt like things were flying way out there...entirely too far past the control zone...farther still past the even remotely comfortable zone. He had shoved past every built in defense to get to where he could tell Ambre exactly how he felt...and the moment he was ready too he felt like God had kicked him in the balls. Dean sniffed back the anger...the tears...the frustration...he was used to pushing past it all...to just go on...to just do what ever the hell needed to be done. And tonight it just happened to be hunting down his girlfriend...his ex- girlfriend...hell what ever she was now. He wasn't even sure she would ever remember what it was that had brought them together...the feelings they shared...he wasn't keen on exploring the whole shebang. He just... Dean breathed in a deep breath as he looked to Sam who sat behind the wheel.
Nessa was talking in a fast prattle at his back keeping up with Robin as she was trying to locate the now moving target that they were searching for. Steffs sat beside her starring out the window in the back seat. "She says turn right on Hackleburg...then take a left on Lewis...that Ambre stopped there."

"Great." Dean pulled his gun out and made sure that it was loaded properly...that he had enough ammunition. Hell he didn't really know what he was checking for save that maybe he would need it and the damn thing felt like home most days...especially now that his whole world went from somewhat manageable to steeped in shit.

When they pulled into the Hogs and Heifers bar and grill he breathed in deeply before promptly pushing the door open as he thought about the kind of people who hung out at places such as these ...and that Ambre and the baby were in there with them. She didn't even know she was pregnant! Dean felt his anger rising as he made his way around the car. He didn't wait for everyone to follow him as he made his way into the bar and began to scan the crowd.

OOOOOOOOOOO

Ambre sat still looking to the beer before her. She had only taken a sip or two. The P. I. seemed to be pushing for her to loosen up, but for some reason she couldn't let it go...and she knew no matter how much she drank that it wasn't going to happen. Ambre looked to where he had disappeared for a moment to the bathroom and then back to her drink thinking about the last time she had seen Shay. He was gone...dead...and yet no matter how many times anyone told her she wanted to see for herself.

She picked up the beer before her and looked at it long and hard wondering if six months had really gone by...and if so ...how anyone could possibly forget six whole months of their life?! How? Ambre took a long hard swig of the beer and only froze when a hand clasped over her and pulled the beer from her lips all the way to the table. "Don't."

It was the man from the subway...the one who had been holding her when she came to...and she gasped as his hand wound around hers and pulled the beer from it. He didn't stop by just slamming it on the table though...he flung it across the room. Ambre gasped as she heard the bathroom door slam and new the P. I. was on his way.

"What do you want?" She whispered slowly meeting his eyes. She just had to keep him talking long enough for John to get there.

What did he want? Dean faltered at that. What did he want?

"You." He didn't even force it...it just came.
"Well you'll have to go through me." Dean had been so caught up in the woman before him...that he hadn't seen the man that had drawn on him. And when he did look up he would have sworn someone had slipped something in his own drink...had he had one...but no...

Sam was just now coming to his back and it was Sam's words that mirrored the question in Dean's heart and soul as he looked from Ambre to his father.

"Dad?" Sam's voice cut through the noise as everything became quiet. The patrons had noticed the gun being drawn and now the whole of the bar rested on them.

Chapter Eighteen

The bar was crowded and smokey and his instincts hadn't been subtly effected as he felt the tension rising before he had even left the bathroom. He'd learned to hone his instincts...not fight them. And right now... The bar was crowded.

There was a mesh of leather between him and Ambre as he exited the bathroom. And all he saw was her beer bottle hit the far wall before he had drawn on the unsuspecting man who had been the cause of the action. He hadn't really taken in his visage...his face...just his presence and his action. The mere force between the two of them...the bikers...the people had clouded his view...
It wasn't until the softer presences and the voice baring the "Dad?" had arrived that he felt his aim waver.

John finally saw the man who had just tossed the beer bottle as he drew and thought. He should have dropped his aim, but his arm failed as he saw Dean and Sam before him with two beautiful women at their backs.

"Sam...Dean..." His voice reached them as he tucked the gun away seeing the easing faces as the men around him began to ease into submission from him pulling his piece and then putting it away.

Dean watched his Dad in a null sort of pain as he put the gun away. He was alive!

Alive...there was difference in the feelings that wavered through him then when he knew that Nessa had survived hell. It had given him hope that his father had been able to make it through. But this...was it real...was it a monster...was it his father? How could anyone so easily sum it up?

Sam's question about "Dad?" Should have so easily put the questions to rest...but no. He was torn between the distraught woman before him that he loved and his father. "Dad?" Dean's voice mirrored Sam's.

John drew in a long breath. He hadn't really thought that he'd see them here. He was counting on having to track them down, much as they had him so long ago.

Dean stood his ground as Ambre rose to her feet looking between the three of them in dismay...her easy calm fading. Dean took a step closer to her though...not his Dad. "You shouldn't drink." Dean whispered to her from the corner of his mouth as he looked to his Dad not sure that he could truly believe that the man stood before him.

"Seemed like a good idea at the time." She whispered in reply not realizing his cause for the utterance. In fact what right did he have to say such a thing. She just lost her boyfriend...what the hell did he think that he was going to prove by being seemingly protective?

Sam felt like his world was folding around him into a million sharp corners. He listened to Dean with Ambre and knew that Dean had to...but after everything that had happened...after all that they had been through...looking at his Dad before them should have offered some sort of relief..some sort of reprieve. Something. "Dad?" He asked again as John had already put his gun away. "Dad?"

It was as if he couldn't stop himself. "Dad?"
How many times did he have to say it before it made sense. Before the man replied...before the world fell into order inside his head.

"Sam." John heard the urgency in his sons voice as he looked to his eldest who was still holding out to make it on his own.

Sam followed John's gaze to Dean looking to Ambre. "How are you..." He trailed off. Meaning to ask how it was that his father was alive when he had seen him die months ago.

"Hi John." Nessa smiled softly.

"Nessa." John replied quietly. "Sam...Dean I owe you..."

"Nothing til we get the hell out of here." Dean turned his gaze in one fell swoop from Ambre to his father. He held his hand out to Nessa who placed the potion in his own. Dean looked to Ambre as he looked to the vial of green goo. "Drink this." he whispered meeting her eyes.

She met him defiantly. "No."

"Drink it so we can get out of here." Dean wouldn't back down. "Or I swear to God I'll force it down your throat."

She balked at that in shock, her mouth falling open.

"Dean." John and Sam uttered at once as they both saw the look on Ambre's face. Nessa simply smiled behind Dean's back as she looked away from the group. She was a strong advocate of force when required.

Ambre narrowed her eyes at John as she looked around the group from Dean to Sam to Nessa and then to Steffs. "You lied to me." She finally breathed to John. "This was all some ruse to kidnap me again." She said louder knowing that she had the entire bars undivided attention. Ambre fully intended to use it to her advantage. She was not going with them...any of them. She was going home...A pack of bikers began to make their way over. Ambre suddenly jumped as Nessa started around Dean with a snarl and Dean reacted just as fast by shoving Nessa a good two feet backwards startling the woman.

"Nessa, if you hit her again - you are gone." Dean got out between clenched teeth. Dean wasn't about to let anyone touch Ambre. She may not have remembered him, but that didn't change the fact that he remembered her...remembered everything that the two of them had shared in the last six months...and for now that was going to have to do for the both of them. He didn't give Nessa another thought as he looked back to Ambre in time to see the tears slip down her cheeks.
"I just want to go home." Ambre whispered.

"You need some help here, miss?" Dean looked up to meet eight pairs of eyes from a leather clad rough looking group.
Ambre followed Dean's gaze and suddenly felt a shiver race down her spine from a sound like thunder outside. The hair on the back of her neck bristled. "Thunder." She shuddered as the view of her bedroom window fluttered into her mind...her hand drawing back the curtains.

Dean saw Ambre seem to slip into her own head and he turned on the group of bikers as he fished out the badge that Gabriel had given him earlier. "Look. She's not well. We don't want any trouble..." He held up his badge and watched as the men took it in with a frown.

Sam was still looking to John when he felt it. He slowly turned toward the door hearing the low rumble of thunder outside as he watched a couple walking toward the exit laughing together in conversation. He narrowed his eyes and suddenly felt his mouth fall open from the pain that shot down his back.

John didn't miss it and he barely made it there in time to catch his youngest son. "Sam?" Dean turned to look fearfully as Ambre continued to weep and the bikers looked on in wonder at what was happening with this wayward group.

Suddenly Dean felt it too...it was like a stabbing pain behind his eyes...that brought him all the way to his knees. "Oh God." He barely got the words out before he saw Ambre double over clasping her hand over her abdomen. "No..." He breathed through the red streaks of pain as he watched her fall to her knees as well.

Nessa had to say this was the first time in her life that she was completely at a loss for what to do...She didn't understand what was happening...and then she felt it too...and knew...something had tapped straight into the weave and was jacking power from it in tidal waves. She hit the floor on her knees beside Steffs.

"What's happening here?" One of the bikers called out fearfully before John could ask the same question. The biker looked over the group as if they had just contracted ebola and began to back away toward the door.

Sam grabbed John around the shoulder to try and pull himself up as he saw the biker's movement. "Don't go outside!" He screamed out suddenly and with no more warning Sam slammed every door and window shut...as he erected a force shield around the hole building. He had to let his father hold him up though as the pain and the exertion left him little reserves to stand on his own two feet. "We can't go outside." Sam breathed to his father as his breath came in labored pants. "No one can go outside."

"It's alright Sammy, No one's going outside." John looked to the door wondering what in the hell they had stepped into now...what was coming...what Sam knew that he couldn't tell them yet. He looked over the solemn group the potion that Dean had gone nuts over not even an issue any more as it had slipped to the floor...the distrust in Ambre's eyes replaced by a new found fear...and a whole host of mysteries left to unravel...

Chapter Nineteen
Being a week night Hogs and Heifers was running a little slow on the evening in question. So the fallen five member group with only John to tend them was the star attraction. The bikers that had been headed for the door were now looking fearfully as it had appeared that the doors had closed themself and were now held fast. NO amount of beating, berating or screaming seemed to do any good in that respect.

The bartender, a tall red head with muscular arms from years of unloading trucks now walked around the side of the bar to the small office to check on her son. The little boy of eight looked up from the desk where he sat coloring with a questioning glance. "Come here." the woman kept the door open and looked back across the room so that she could keep an eye on both her son and the occupants of the room.

The jukebox fell quiet as the lights flickered and the lone old man sitting at the bar finally turned to look around the room. No one went to help the party that seemed to be writhe with agony at the moment.

Steffs was on her knees by the time the pain forced her forward with a moan and she hit the floor with her hands against the cold wood floor.

Nessa forced in a breath through the pain as she looked up and met John's eyes. He was the only one who seemed to be able to focus right now and though his hands were full with Sam at the moment he looked to her. "Alturoc's pulling from the weave...I don't know what he needs that much power for...but whatever it is... It's going to leave one hell of a mark." Nessa tried to explain what she could her words coming amidst gasps of agony.

Sam gave a pain laced groan as if he wanted to tell them what he knew, but couldn't force the words out through the pain and the amount of focus it was taking to keep the doors shut tight. John wrapped his arms tighter around Sam as he slowly lowered him to the floor on his back. "Hang in there Sam." he breathed shaking his head as he followed what Nessa was saying.

John suddenly noticed the chill to the air as his breath came out in a cloud before his face. He followed the frost cloud narrowing his eyes.

Ambre dropped to her side and cried out as the pain knotted her up so bad that she couldn't even maintain her posture on her hands and knees. She felt like someone had shoved a hot poker through her belly button and then twisted it back and forth. Now Dean was crawling to her his own body shuddering as he moved. "What's happening to us?" She cried out.

"It will pass." Nessa offered hoping that it passed sooner rather then later because she didn't know how much they could take. Alturoc couldn't shatter the weave in one night though that much she knew. Just because he was practically raping it...she knew he still needed it in tact for whatever he had planned to come to pass.

Dean was near on his belly clawing his way to Ambre by the time Nessa's words reached him. His eyes widened as he finally lay a hand on Ambre's stomach. If what she was saying was true then the magical nature inside them all was reacting to the desecration of the weave for some kind of magical act. Ambre's magical source having been expelled she should have been fine...but it seemed that a child conceived under the influence of gods had left something magical inside her...their child.

Dean felt her muscles relax as long as he kept his hand resting there...the pains seemed to abate enough for her to look to him in awe at the peace his touch sent through her.

The whole of the room grew silent save the labored breathing that fear and pain left them with. The temperature took a nose dive...plummeting in a matter of seconds and a frost began to creep across the walls and windows causing the whole of the building to shutter and groan under the change in temperature. Those not consumed in pain cast their eyes to the frame of the building watching in silent wonder as the frost spread over the whole of building and began to encrust the floor.

"Don't let it touch you." Sam finally managed to get out. John cursed under his breath and turned in a whirlwind of action as he quickly pulled his arm under Sam's and hoisted him to his feet only to drag him to a bar stool. Nessa managed to crawl in that direction and together with Steffs they took to a bar stool as John went back for Dean and Ambre.

"Get her." Dean said pushing himself back to his hands and knees so that he could force himself to the bar along with the rest of them. John nodded without protest watching as Ambre's finger just missed the frosty growth before he hurriedly pulled her into his arms.

"Everyone has to get off the floor. Don't touch the frost." Sam called out as strong as his voice would carry. The site alone along with the warning was enough to spur most of the patrons into action, but one of the bikers panicked and ran to the door. No sooner did he touch the frost coating the surface then his hand stuck fast to the door and frost consumed him in one breath. That served as a warning to everyone else who had yet to take action.

The bartender gasped and hurried into the office grabbing her son as she pulled the both of them onto the desk there. The bikers quickly climbed onto the remaining bar stools and the old man stayed right where he was.

It seemed to last forever...the pain...the creeping frost...the terror filled silence. All at once though...the pain let up and the five effected by it were finally able to draw a complete breath. The frost stopped at the same time leaving only a small area in the center of the room untouched.

Sam was the first to move...he slowly climbed down off the stool and let his feet touch the frost knowing that now that the magic wasn't being drawn that it could be touched now. John gasped at first but as Sam didn't freeze in place he slowly followed his lead. No one spoke as Sam walked to the door...the only explanation he had being to show them...

He paused moving the frozen biker out of the way before he placed his hand against the frigid nob and slowly opened the door. Everyone rose and followed to see what lay beyond. The whole of the occupants stood silently in shock at the scene that lay before them.
Outside the door along the busy stretch of commercial buildings...the world was frozen...not just cold and iced over...it was as if time stood still. Cars...people...everything...frozen...Sam felt his eyelashes near freeze together from the bitter winter wind as there was a collective gasp at his back and he slowly closed the door back in order to conserve heat. He turned to the group behind him casting his glance to the floor as he licked as his lips remorsefully...he should have felt it coming...they could have saved more people...but he hadn't. "It's started." he began not caring who knew what anymore...it didn't matter now. The world was about to change...the war had come...not just some petty war between the Foci and Alturoc...a war much larger in scale then that...the war for the Earth. "Alturoc is seizing control."