A/N

Hey guys! Thanks so much for reading! Ok so here's the deal. This a sequel to a story published about 9 months ago called "One Way Ticket" that interrupts season 10 episode 3 with Adam's unexpected return. Since a lot of things get resolved in that story, here's how everything is now: Charlie never died, Hannah never left her vessel, the darkness was never unleashed, but Cas did get his grace back, the book of the damned was found, Rowena exists, and all the other hunts they went on in season 10 happened. The story picks up in early October, 2015. Be sure to read the first story if you haven't, and as always, review, check out my other stories, and enjoy!

Ch. 1

Living Legends

Let's recap. Adam woke up in October, 2014, in a field called Stull Cemetery. He stole a car (which turned out to be Cas') and hightailed it to the bunker to kill the Deanmon. Why? Because Crowley said so. Hijinks ensued, identities were revealed, intentions were shed light on, Dean became human, Adam became decidedly less crazy, Sam, well... he was a little freaked out. Then Adam was apparently the harbinger for the second apocalypse (poor guy), but because the Winchesters have the luck of the devil (and then some), said crisis was diverted with the help of Jody, her adoptive daughter Alex, Garth, Chuck, Hannah, Cas, and yes, even Crowley. The mark of Cain was transferred to Michael, safely in the cage, instead of, say, sticking around to screw up the Winchester's lives and force them to use the Book of the Damned in desperation, unleash an ethereal darkness upon the world, and kill Charlie in the process. No, that would be crazy.

It had been a crazy year for Adam, not just getting resurrected and getting rid of the mark, but everything that had happened afterwards. After rigorously training him, Sam and Dean had finally taken him on some hunts, and boy, those had been intense. Dean had been turned into a fourteen-year-old boy, Metatron had made a reappearance and restored Cas' grace, they found some girl named Claire who apparently knew Cas, there had been the Clue mystery murders, those had been fun, and apparently Crowley had a mother, which was weird. Let's also not forget the Frankensteins! It had taken some serious manpower to take down those guys. See, they had found the Book of the Damned, purely by accident- Adam could still remember the look on Dean's face when Sam had almost died getting the codex- but they never used it. They didn't need to.

Adam had kept in touch with Alex, though she had insisted they were just friends, and Adam had no problem with that. She even got him to listen to her favorite band, The Black Keys. They were all right, though Adam kept flashing back to that awful car ride with Sam on the way to Stull Cemetery.

Now, though, Adam was in the bunker's shooting range, Desert Eagle aimed at a target while Dean watched.

"If you hit the bull's eye, I make dinner and you get to come with Sam and I on the hunt tomorrow." Dean said mischievously.

It was good motivation. For one thing, Dean was an amazing cook. But also, despite the fact that Adam was 20, 25, or 625 depending on how you counted, Sam and Dean still had qualms on taking him on hunts. So before each hunt, they would make him prove himself. And every single time, he nailed it.

Adam raised the gun and fired 5 shots in succession. Every single one was a bull's eye.

Dean whistled. Adam shot him a grin as he clicked the safety on, removed the cartridge, and tossed his brother the gun. "You're making burgers." he said gleefully, brushing past an astonished Dean.

Dean scoffed. "Whatever. I could totally do that too..." but Adam was already gone and in the library.

"Alright, Sam!" Adam shouted at his other brother, who was typing away at his computer. "Tell me about this case."

Sam looked up from his computer with a furrowed brow. "You shot a bull's eye?" he asked incredulously.

"He shot five." Dean grumbled from behind Adam, beginning to make his way to the kitchen. "I'm beginning to think we should have his prerequisites be archery or something. Apparently, I'm making burgers. Do Cas and Hannah want any?"

Sam chuckled in amusement. "Yeah, they should be here in a few minutes. Make extra just in case."

"Alright." Dean said, before vanishing into the kitchen, mumbling something about Famine and White Castle.

"So." Adam said, sliding down into the seat next to Sam on the long, brown table. "The case."

"Right!" Sam said, attention back on his computer. "So get this. Chicago, Illinois, four tourists disappear. They were supposed to turn up for a river tour with some friends and they never showed, weren't able to be reached." He brought up a news article from the Chicago Sun Times. "But that's not the weird part. Each of them turn up 1 week later, scattered across the country."

"Hm." Adam mused. "It could be a witch, demon or angel? Maybe separating a group of people across the country they see as a threat."

"See, that's what I thought at first!' Sam said excitedly, and Adam could just see the gears in his brain turning madly. "But the locations weren't random! One turned up at the headstone of his ex girlfriend, another in the cemetery where her mother was buried. They all turned up at the graves of people important to them, with no recollection of the past week, seemingly out of thin air. But that isn't the weirdest part."

"Really?" Adam asked incredulously, head swimming with all of the new information.. "What could be weirder?"

Sam looked grim. "There were five tourists originally. The last one just vanished. It's been two weeks since the others re-appeared, and no one has heard from him."

"This guy got a name?" Adam asked, leaning forward with intrigue.

"Yeah." Sam said with an unreadable look. "Adam Milligan."

Adam ricocheted back from the table. "But that's-"

"Yeah." Sam said with a ticked off expression, closing his laptop in frustration. "I know. Wanna know the names of the other four victims?"

"Not really." Dean said with a stern expression, having emerged from the kitchen with a sour look.

Sam scoffed, and quoted the article from memory. "'Unexplained tragedy strikes when Winchester family disappears. John Winchester, 66, was on his way with his wife and three adult sons to meet up with another family by the Chicago river when suddenly he was swept up by a breeze unfamiliar to the Windy City. A week later, he stumbled out of a graveyard in Normal, Illinois, dazed and confused. His wife, Mary, was found in Stull Cemetery, in her hometown of Lawrence, Kansas, while his sons Sam and Dean were found in Palo Alto, California, and Pontiac, Illinois, respectively. All four family members were badly shaken both by the strange occurrence and their unexpected memory loss of the week before their return. The real tragedy, however, is the continued disappearance of twenty-year-old Adam Milligan, Sam and Dean's younger half-brother. As of now, the hunt is still on for the truth behind the incident, and the missing boy.'"

Adam and Dean stared at Sam with stupefied horror. Dean's eyes welled with hurt, and Adam could not imagine the pain he was going through at the mention of his dead family.

"This was in the Chicago Sun Times?" Dean asked with a slightly husky voice. Sam nodded mutely. "Well... what the hell? What the hell, Sammy?"

"I don't know." Sam replied, equally spooked.

"This can't be real." Adam said, re-opening Sam's laptop to look at the online article.

"Article's legit." Sam said stiffly. "Published in yesterday's paper."

"That wasn't what I meant." Adam said, squinting at the computer. "The names alone could be a coincidence, yeah, but when is it ever a coincidence? Major newspapers don't just broadcast the supernatural."

"So what, then?" Dean asked, teeth grit, staring at the article with a special kind of hatred.

"You and Sam were FBI most wanted and made national news multiple times. Digging up your names and your parents' histories would be easy. But me? I'm a nobody. And nobody knows we're related."

"It wouldn't be too hard to figure out." Dean said. "It probably says something on your birth certificate."

"Yeah, but even so," Adam squinted at the article. "It says how old John and Mary would have been now. It says Sam is 32 and Dean is 36. Again, how old you are now."

"Dude, you're getting old." Sam said to Dean.

"Shut up." Dean said with a grimace. He looked at Adam. "Go on?"

"So, it says that I'm 20." Adam said triumphantly. "But anyone who does their research knows that I was born on September 29th, 1990. I'm 25, as of 1 week ago-"

"-happy birthday, by the way-" Dean grumbled.

"-and only a select few know that I was in hell for five years."

"So this article was written by someone who knows." Sam said, getting that look on his face. The one that suggests researching is fun. "It isn't an article at all. It's a message."

"What, to us?" Dean said incredulously. "Saying what? 'Hey, I know everything about you and your perpetually mortuous family, wanna come hang with me in Chicago?'"

"Well, yeah." Sam said with a shrug. "Except it's not for us. It's for him." He pointed at Adam. "It was his info that was 'wrong' in the article."

"Yeah, but it was also him that disappeared without a trace." Dean said. "What if this message is a little on the ominous side."

"Scroll up." Adam muttered at Sam. Then he took a harsh double take. "That's a chance we'll have to take." he said sternly. "We need to check this out. I made the bulls-eye's, Dean. I'm on the case. Get the guns and the salt. We'll leave in one hour." He turned away from Sam's laptop and made to storm to his room, but Dean stopped him by placing a hand on his shoulder.

"You wanna tell me what's so important that you're so anxious to leave?" Dean asked Adam with thinly veiled concern.

Adam stared Dean down. "The author of the article." Then he moved around Dean's arm and stormed out.

"What the hell was that all about?" Dean asked with an exasperated look at Sam.

"I told you this case was weird." Sam said defensively.

"Well yeah, but maybe you could have briefed me before you lit a fuse under our reckless brother who's still a freaking novice!"

"Dean, it was his name in the article." Sam chastised. "He's got as much a right to check this out as us. Probably more, considering his reaction to the author."

"Who is it?" Dean asked curiously. "Chuck Shurley? Carver Edlund? Am I getting warmer?"

"Kate Taylor." Sam said.

Dean squinted at Sam, then looked to the left and right of the bunker, confused. "Is that supposed to mean something."

"Maybe." Sam said sardonically. "You mentioned Adam's birth certificate? Well I pulled it up the moment I read the article. Father, Unknown. Mother, Kate Taylor Milligan."

"Crap." Dean said.

"Yeah." Sam said in agreement.

"Crap."

"Yeah, Dean, I know. This is shady as hell. Adam's right, whoever wrote this knows way too much to be ignored."

"We need a plan." Dean said, staring at the table with a heavy intensity, as if willing it to give him answers.

"I think we have one, Dean." Sam said with a barely concealed smirk. "'Get the guns and the salt. We'll leave in one hour.'"

Dean stared mutely at Sam before his shoulders slumped in the realization that he would take orders from Adam. "Jeez, the kid's here for one year, and already, he's calling the shots." he grumbled.

"Relax," Sam said with a laugh. "He won't be driving." He stood up, closed his laptop, and patted Dean on the shoulder affectionately before leaving to go pack his things. "I will be."

"Oh, hell no!" Dean shouted after him, before barrelling down the hall to get packed, fully prepared to race Sam to the Impala.

Let's recap. Chicago is a big city. Weird stuff happens there all the time. Like Wacker drive going in four different directions. Or a demon named Meg taking over a city block with the Daeva, you know, things like that. (I think we all want to ignore the mob monster plotline.) You might also recall that it was in dear old Chi-town where Death, the horseman, was introduced. The boys have a history with Chicago. But they also have a history with the unpleasant. And it's been established that the Mark was transferred to Michael, saving Dean from months of agony, Death from death, and the world from the mysterious force of the darkness. And yet, these are the Winchesters. So even as they hit the road, knowing they were heading into something unknown and strange, they were satisfied with the knowledge that it could have been so much worse.

And yet, these things seem to happen anyway.