It was the first day of October.

It didn't really seem like it was getting so close to the end of the year already, but the cool weather that was settling over the state of Colorado like a fog was hard to ignore. It was still fall, but areas like that, that were high elevations, had a tendency to be chilly mostly year round. Let alone when it even actually was winter and was covered completely in snow.

Daniel had no huge urge to see any more snow.

He did take the advantage of being able to wear his coat again, however, and wrapped the thick fabric over his cool skin as if he'd been waiting the entire summer to pull it comfortably back on. It still smelled of the detergent that Molly had offered him when they'd stopped for laundry in Memphis. Her entire life had been in the back of that rig, which consisted of about three times more than Daniel had, but it still wasn't much. She'd had the kind of truck that you could sleep in the back of, which he had always been fascinated by but never really had the opportunity. That luxury was the driver's, and the driver's alone.

The road out of Fort Collins wasn't all that busy, and there didn't seem to be very many that would be willing to pick up a hitcher down that particular highway, so Daniel resided himself to walking. He didn't mind, it gave him the excuse to strengthen what he'd lost after being sick for a week.

Which was also why he was more willing to button up his coat as far as it would go, covering his neck and allowing him a place to put his hands for warmth. If he'd learned anything else recently, he was certainly in no hurry to be sick again. That was an experience he definitely could have done without.


By the time he was able to find himself a ride, Daniel had nearly reached Denver, and he was absolutely exhausted.

It didn't make much sense to him, especially since he had spent the majority of his time in the RV sleeping, why he could still be so incredibly tired. He knew he had pushed himself just a bit, mere days afterwards too, but he was hoping he'd be able to bounce back quickly.

Why his strange powers seemed to be so picky about certain things pertaining to his health and well-being, he wasn't quite sure.

Daniel almost knew now that if he was to get severely injured, it would not be a wound that lasted for long. On the other hand, if he fell and scraped his knee, or fell ill to the elements along the cold, Colorado highway, that same power would do nothing but wait. It was weird, and annoying, and he wondered if he should start trying to figure out what kind of guidelines and specifics to watch out for.

Mean or hurtful humans didn't send off warning signs, but demons definitely did. His body would heal itself without conscious thought, but he wasn't so sure about healing others. It was plausible, but would it always happen by accident? He didn't even want to think about testing that. He'd put his hands on Shannon's ears just to see what would happen, but the boy had simply laughed at him as if he was playing a joke. He still heard nothing afterwards, but seemed perfectly content about it.

Daniel's dreams made no sense anymore, but it wasn't like they ever had to begin with. He could scream and cry out like any human, but it was only at the worst of his grief that his cries became a force all their own. Like something inside of him that had yet to be addressed but was still hurting so terribly much.

Daniel wondered if it was Dean's death that had done this to him. If perhaps he was in shock of some kind.

But then he remembered that he'd awoken on the streets of Detroit with his head bleeding and that horrible ache every time he tried to recall something useful. He didn't get headaches anymore, at least.

Or maybe he was just something else. Something that was human-like, but not quite. Who had been to war once, hopefully assisting on the side against demons, but had the advantage of special powers. Like one of the superheroes from Shannon's video games.

The thought made him laugh. And as Daniel moved to pull his exhausted body up into the tractor trailer that had pulled off road to offer him a ride, he knew that that couldn't possibly be right.

Superheroes didn't get this hungry when they couldn't afford food.


The man that had picked him up was named John, and he was on his way from Denver back to Home Base after unloading a very important shipment of supplies to northern Colorado.

He was a tall black man, with very large hands and a stern face that looked like he hadn't accepted any sort of foolishness in his presence for as long as he'd lived. Daniel had accepted the ride gladly, despite first impressions, if just because he was so weary after an entire day of walking that he needed to sit down. John had assured him that he meant no harm, but that it was a now or never shot, and that was all the convincing he'd needed.

John wasn't much of a talker, however, and Daniel was okay with that. Not everyone had a story they needed to tell. Sometimes, it was easier to understand them just by what they never said.

There was a long scar going from John's hand to his shoulder, with names tattooed beneath it like they were cities on a map.
Daniel just couldn't figure out how the man wasn't as cold as he was.


Against his experienced instincts, he'd slept for a few hours at first, waking up only after John had pulled over for a pit stop in Colby to refill his truck's tank and 'empty his'. Daniel had taken the opportunity to stand up and stretch, refilling a water bottle and doing what Sam had instructed of trying to keep himself hydrated. He'd been convinced that that was why he'd had gotten sick in the first place by not taking care of himself, but Daniel didn't want to think about the real truth of it.

Humans got sick, therefore, so did he.

There were a few families at the rest stop, and a great deal of cars where people headed in all different directions were taking the chance to relax for a few minutes. Daniel had always liked rest areas, where people of all ages, shapes and colors mingled around one another without ever knowing the destinations of the person beside them.

Sometimes people would meet there, sometimes people would be lost there. It was just a place where everyone came through and no one stayed. An oasis that offered more than repetitive music and cold asphalt to the weary traveler.

Daniel had been a weary traveler for as long as he could remember. Silent, and hidden save for the story in his eyes. He wondered how many others he might have passed by without knowing they were like him. It wasn't like he advertised.


Daniel and John parted ways in Hedville, a few hours into Kansas, since John would be moving from the 70 to the 135 towards Oklahoma City.

He felt much better after sleeping a bit longer and had emptied his bottle of water dutifully just as he'd been instructed to do. So he was hoping that the extra rest and hydration would be more than enough to keep him on his feet for travel.

There was nothing to the town aside from a few gas stations and a tiny grocery store that was advertising whole pigs for sale. If there were any developments there, he couldn't see them past the wall of trees on either side. He was in middle America now, where the fields stretched out as far as the eye could see and Daniel still couldn't tell the difference between what was a corn field and what was soy beans. He'd never actually been told the difference, he just knew that it was the majority.

As he walked back towards the highway itself in order to find himself another ride east, Daniel was surprised to see that he wasn't the only one walking that road.

Ahead of him, standing near to the exit onto the main highway was a young woman. She was standing with her side to him, staring ahead of her at the passing cars and holding out her thumb as he himself had done on such occasion. She was wearing a dulled, but warm looking jacket over her lithe frame, dark blue jeans that were spattered with mud and had deep red hair that fell just past her shoulders.

Daniel couldn't help but stare as he approached, heading in that direction anyway and somehow curious since he hadn't noticed her standing there before. She had a small bag that slung over her back with a rolled up blanket attached to the bottom of it, and he got an odd feeling that she looked almost like a mirror of himself.

He didn't want to startle her, but it didn't look like it mattered since she turned towards him as he approached and didn't look concerned in the slightest. In fact, she smiled at him.
And she had a lovely smile.

"Hi." She said softly, hazel eyes light and open in the mid-day sun. Daniel gave her half a smile, still wary of others on the road, but not completely terrified of getting attacked again. Demons could take any and all shape or form, but he didn't want to go the rest of his life being afraid that it could be anyone. If he did, he'd never get anywhere or meet anybody.

"Hello." He said simply, staying about five or so feet from her to be polite.

"Doesn't look like much more than a one horse town, huh?" She stated, marking the obvious that he readily agreed. John had told him it wouldn't be much, but he'd at least hoped for a truck stop of some kind so he could clean up a bit. He still felt like there was a layer of grime on him that only road travel had the ability to create.

"Agreed. Where you headed?" He asked, knowing it was a personal question, but it wasn't like he was making her answer it. She grinned starting to take a step more towards the highway itself than being on the entrance ramp. Daniel moved to step with her.

"Oh, here and there. I'm not really that picky. Yourself?"

"Bout the same, actually. Although at the moment, I'm hoping to find someone headed towards Kansas City."

The woman smiled, but her eyes were oddly detached from her expressions, like she knew all the motions but couldn't put much behind them to show for it. It was strange, but Daniel had seen far too many people in that single year to have any right to judge. People-reading was something he knew well, but it didn't necessarily mean he was good at it yet.

"Sounds like an adventure. My name's Anna."

"Daniel."

"I like that name. You named after someone important?"

Daniel swallowed, giving her a small smile as he steadied himself for the blow. It never got any easier, explaining to people how little he actually knew of himself. Part of him wondered if he should just start making things up so that people didn't feel so sorry for him. He didn't want sympathy, he wanted answers.

"I'm not actually sure. It's not really my name."

"No, it isn't." She stated simply, her eyes moving over him as if taking in all of the facts by sight alone. "You don't really look like a Daniel."

That made him smile.
"What does a Daniel look like then?"

Anna laughed without answering, and there was amusement there, but it didn't sound like her heart was in it. Daniel couldn't shake the feeling that there was something he was missing, but too much had happened to him recently for him to sort it all.

"Are you lost?" She asked.

Daniel paused, his chest clenching slightly at the question as his eyes moved from her to the ground. He swallowed again, taking a deep breath and hating that it was something he couldn't even hear without it reminding him of how small he was.

"Yes." He answered. And something told him that she understood it had nothing to do with his location on any map. The more he walked with this woman, the more he felt like he knew her, and that didn't make sense at all. He didn't want to frighten her off by asking either, especially if that feeling was completely unprecedented.

"Well that's not good. Anything I can do?"

"Not really, unless you can tell me what I was doing this time last year." He gave a small huff of a laugh, adjusting his bag on his back and pulling up his collar. Even with the sun nearly at the highest point in the sky, it was still cold.

"Would that really do you any good though? I mean, it's not like you could change it." Anna said wisely, and it reminded him of the advice that Molly had given him.

A large tractor trailer went speeding past them, but didn't slow down. Daniel watched it go with a weary gaze, wondering if he should pull out his map to find the nearest city. Small places like Hedville wouldn't have food to offer someone as poor as he was, but bigger cities made it easier to find temp work. He couldn't remember having to worry so much about being hungry a few months earlier, and it made him wonder what had changed.

"True. But it would tell me who I am. Aren't we shaped by the actions of our pasts?"

"Yes. But that knowledge wouldn't change who you are now, would it?"

Anna smiled at him again, and it struck Daniel just how odd the conversation they were having was. Something was nagging at the back of his mind that he should be paying more attention, but he was drawn in completely to staying just a few feet behind her. Like she'd willed him into it just for that very reason.

"What are you really looking for, Daniel?" She asked, stopping on the side of the road and turning to him full face. She was small, her head only coming up past his shoulders, but she seemed far bigger than he was for some reason. Like she knew everything he didn't, but that he wouldn't find out what that was unless he asked the right questions.

"Do you know me?" He asked instead of answering, before pursing his lips. It made his stomach curl slightly and he suddenly knew that he was on the right path.
"You do, don't you. You were waiting for me on that entrance ramp. Who are you?"

Her smile was sad this time.
"A friend, someone who watches, but nothing more."

"Are…are you a demon?" He asked hesitantly, worried that there were very little places for him to run if he needed to. The closest line of trees were nearly a mile away and the rest was open field. Daniel could see the makings of a storm starting to brew from the west, but there wasn't much else around. He stared at her eyes with trepidation, as if they would go black at any moment.

"No. I'm not a demon, I promise. I'm not here to hurt you, just to help."

"If you want to help me, than tell me what happened to me. Tell me why I'm like this and why…" He trailed off, unable to bring to voice everything that he'd been fearing. Why was he so different, why was he being punished, why couldn't he find even a trace of the life he'd had before?

Why had he let Dean die?

The thought had been boiling to the forefront of his mind ever since he'd watched Molly stand up and run, in perfect health after being shot. After his hands had healed her and made everything bad go back to the way it should be.
If he could do that, then why hadn't he done so when it meant the most?

"I can't tell you."

Daniel suddenly felt furious, the urge to grab a hold of Anna and shake her being very hard to resist as his trembling fingers clenched at his sides.

"Why?! What did I do? How much longer am I going to be wandering across the Earth wondering if I even belong on it?! Why am I still HERE?"

"Because the war is over, Daniel."

"What?"

He paused, his anger halting in the midst of his confusion as she stood so calmly and resolutely before him. He knew, now, that she knew who he was. Possibly where he came from and why he was there and what had happened, but it didn't look like any of it was registering on her face anymore. Like she'd already known beforehand that he would demand it of her but that she would say nothing to help him.

It was so frustrating and terrifying at the same time, meeting someone who knew more about him than he did.

"The war ended. Angels, demons and humans battled on the Earth, and lots of people died, but the world went on. It always will and that's just the way it works. Everything is the way it should be…everything but you."

"That doesn't make any sense."
Demons he'd seen, but there were angels too? Where were those angels when demons had attacked Molly? Where were they when he'd nearly been killed by them? Daniel's arms twitched and he raised his hands slightly, reminding himself not to touch and hating that it was something he had to watch out for. Hating that he was different enough that he could actually hurt people without even thinking about it.

As if sensing his distress, Anna took a step towards him, barely a foot of space between them.

"He's not in Lawrence, Daniel."

Daniel's breath caught, and he looked down at her to see the expression he hadn't wanted to. To see that she felt sorry for him and that there was nothing she could do.

"I know that."

"Then why are you going there? You want so much to be human, then live a human life."

"It's not a choice! I am human!" Daniel cried out, enraged with his fear and his misgivings and everything else that he couldn't stop from bubbling to the surface. He was so sick of justifying that very thing, but he couldn't stand the thought of being something else, something other, that the people around him might be afraid of.

Because if he was human, then being helpless would make sense.

Daniel jumped when he felt Anna's hand on his cheek, but it succeeded in drawing his attention back to her. He felt like he was trapped there, and there was a power to her that was increasingly familiar. Like something inside her small, human form was calling to him. Singing, almost.

"Why was this done to me?" He asked softly. "Am I being punished for something I can't recall?"

Anna shook her head, pursing her lips.
"The only one punishing you, is you. No one did anything, Daniel. You did it to yourself."

Daniel felt his eyes sting, the clouds that he'd seen in the distance slowly covering more of the blue sky with an inky grey as they lit up behind Anna like fireworks. It was probably going to rain soon, a thunderstorm, and the traveler in him knew that he should find somewhere else to be instead of barely on an entrance ramp to the highway. He was going to need food soon too, and possibly a place to refill his bottle, just like Sam said he should…

"No, no Daniel, don't do that. Don't ignore it, don't push it all down. You can't keep running from this, or it's going to overwhelm you."

He shook his head, trying to physically pull himself back but being unable to. Daniel couldn't deal with this, not after everything he'd seen already.

"I want to find my home."

Anna nodded, her expression softening, changing slightly from compassion to determination as if she'd been waiting for him to say exactly that.

"And you will, as soon as you are ready to. But you gotta stop running."

He couldn't, it was all he knew and all he'd been able to do when nothing else had been provided. The knowledge was there, but the memory that should have gone hand in hand with it was missing. Or misplaced, or stunted somehow like it was on the other side of a wall that he couldn't reach the top of.

Standing still meant heartache, and hurting people. Starving or freezing to death, just like Eaton had. It meant disappearing into the air like he'd never existed in the first place and there'd be no one left to remember him.

She leaned upwards on her toes, her head tilting slowly as she kissed him gently on the lips, just long enough for it to relax him slightly but not enough to mean more than that. He could tell she cared, even if it wasn't the way he usually read people. She seemed otherworldly to him now, like something that was shining in the middle of a rolling fog. Still hard to see, but easy to follow.

"Just tell me if he's really dead." He pleaded, his voice breaking slightly. "Tell me if it's true…"

She smiled, gazing at him for a quiet moment as if searching his eyes for something he couldn't see. Then she moved two fingers to his forehead and planted them there as it forced his eyes shut.


A split second later, Daniel was standing beneath the carport of a truck stop, now thirty miles down the road and staring at the down pouring rain.


Lawrence, Kansas wasn't what he'd expected.

According to the woman that had picked him up at the truck stop, Lawrence had once been one of the largest battlefield's in the war. The third biggest of five, she'd said. So not everything had happened all at once, it had been a gradual rise from bad to worse to apocalyptic.

It had been an unwinnable war, she'd said. Between creatures that didn't fall to guns, or knives or anything that any military could bring. They took you from the inside out and made you fight each other. There was no telling if the person next to you was actually on your side, nor if the person offering you safety had any inclination of the sort.

The entire year had, literally, been Hell.

Those who had fought on their side, fought for the sake of humanity, were called Hunters. They were the ones that had changed the tide of the war.

Not everyone knew, or believed this, because the majority was still apparently in denial. Barely a fraction of the population had actually witnessed the blood shed in their front yards, and how did you honestly explain to the masses that the world had been populated by angels and demons fighting for dominance? It was insane to even think it, but that was precisely what had been happening. Apparently for a long time, just building and building beneath their ignorant noses before it finally exploded.

She'd explained this all to him, and Daniel didn't feel like he could deny it anymore. He'd seen and heard too much, and this was a world that involved him even if it terrified him. There was a truth that he was missing about himself, something that he'd once hoped would make him whole again, make him a person like everyone else.

But the truth was starting to become much more involved than he'd thought it could. Regardless, he still didn't have anything to return to, so he kept going.


Like Oklahoma City, Lawrence was also a place where the residents had taken it upon themselves to rebuild and refit to structure their future. It was still in a long process of putting back together what had come apart at the seams, but it was progress and it was working.

In the center of Lawrence had once been the University of Kansas that had been ground zero of the battle and had taken the most damage. There wasn't much left of the school. In its place was now a memorial of sorts, erected on behalf of those that had given their lives for the cause, or had lost them in the process.

Thousands upon thousands of pictures, flowers, candles and letters had been placed around the structure, layering it with a feeling of both loss and warmth that surprised Daniel at the sight. He wasn't sure exactly what he'd been expecting, but this was the first place he'd been to where the people weren't mourning their dead so much as honoring them.

People were filtering in and out of it constantly. Some bringing things, some rearranging, some just there to walk amongst it all and look. He could see nothing guarding it and no one trying to fence or patrol the area, so he simply made his way down into the center and joined others there.

Unfortunately, however, despite how glad he was to see such a place and what the survivors had done for it, he didn't even know where he could look to find anyone specific. It wasn't like there would be any sort of monument erected or categorized pictures or anything, but he'd hoped that there would at least be something that would draw his attention.

Though like Anna had said, it wasn't like Dean would be there.

"You look lost, kid."

Daniel startled, turning to see a man standing near him wearing a large, woolen coat and steel toed shoes. He was a bit older than Daniel, and his ash colored hair was pulled back into a ponytail with a matching mustache down the sides of his mouth. He was smoking a long, black cigarette that smelled of spice.

"Isn't that why people come here in the first place?" He asked, his hands moving to clench around the straps of his pack. "Because they've lost something."

The man smiled, which wasn't so much with his mouth than it was with his mustache. His eyes were a deep blue, and looked far older than he was. Daniel could see the outline of a knife hilt in his boot and the handle of a gun beneath his jacket. This was a man who'd 'seen a few things'.

"True indeed. But I didn't say you'd lost something, I said you looked lost."

Daniel gave him a half smile in return before nodding, glancing back down at the small memorial he'd been staring at without really looking. It was for someone's mother, that had also been a sister and an aunt. But it wasn't asking for information about her, it was honoring her memory.

"I hear that quite often, actually, but I'm not really sure what that means. What does that look like? Before even speaking to someone and knowing for sure, how can you tell by just looking at me?"

The man took a long drag from his cigarette, letting the breath out slowly that was a thick fog dissipating in the air before him. It was a combination of both the smoke and the air from his lungs, seeing as the air alone could create small puffs of white from Daniel's breathing.

"Because you're good at telling it to people without even speaking. I may not know ya, or know why you're here, but if I didn't know any better, I'd say you'd not just planned on visiting this place, but also sleeping damn near close to it too. I doubt you drove here on your own, and it's a pretty safe bet to say that everything you own in the world is in that bag your holding onto right now." The man finished, pointing a gnarled finger towards the pack on Daniel's back as his hands tightened reflexively on it.

"A drifter, I'm guessin, but not the type that knows where he's goin. You got a name, kid?"

"Daniel." He answered simply, unsure what else to say. Just by looking at him, the man had dissected him completely and practically summed him up in a single sentence. There wasn't anything else to him, having only a year's worth of life to lead, so there really wasn't much else to say. It wasn't like he could honestly argue.

"Nice to meet ya. My name's Alder. You got someone you're lookin for?"

Daniel swallowed, watching the man take another small puff of his cigarette before placing it back between his teeth and letting it sit there. There was something about him that was familiar, but not the person so much as how he appeared. The way he was standing maybe, or acting, the weapons, or maybe the way he'd been so quick to correctly dissect everything Daniel was, just by sight alone.

"Sort of…but I'm not really sure how to find him. Or to find anything for that matter…I don't even have a clue where to start, there's just so much here." Daniel said honestly, gazing around him and taking in all that there was to see. The small memorial at his feet was literally one of thousands, and there was no semblance of organization. If he was in here somewhere…

"What's the name? Victim or…"

"Dean. A hunter…I think." And he really did think that. He wasn't sure if it was correct or not, but there was a strong feeling in him that told him that his Dean had once been someone who had saved other people. Fought for other people.

"Wait…Dean Winchester?"

Daniel froze, his eyes widening as his vision tunneled for a moment and everything felt like it was slowing down again.

Winchester. He knew that name…knew it and had spoken it many times. A name he'd learned sometime long ago when he had arrived looking for help. Seeking out someone that he knew would assist him because that was what righteous men did. He'd come to save him, but as it happened, they'd saved each other.

Daniel blinked, realizing a bit too late that there was a hand on his chest and that he was staring at the ground a few feet from his face. His head was pounding, eyes wide and unblinking before he realized he'd forgotten to breathe.

He took in a deep and gasping breath, his vision still blurring and his heart racing as the images that had been flashing through him became just a little more distinct and a little more clear. It still wasn't something he could decipher, but there was a clue in front of him that was bigger than any he'd gotten so far. What had just happened?

"Whoah, whoah, hey, breathe Danny. Just breathe. You ok, man?"

Alder, the man he'd been speaking to, that's right. Daniel glanced down to see the same gnarled fingers that were now supporting him and he felt a flush of embarrassment. Had he just passed out? Really?

"I'm ok. I'm ok…I'm sorry…" He said softly, feeling the hand linger there for a moment longer before it was pulled slowly away. Daniel noticed before it moved that the man was wearing a silver ring with the sigil of a five pointed star. There was something relevant about that, but it took him a moment before he realized it, everything coming together of what he'd noticed previously.

"You're a hunter." He said as a statement, balancing himself from the sudden vertigo before turning to face Alder crouched behind him. "That's how you read me so quickly…how you know that name. You're a hunter as well."

The man's eyes narrowed, his lips pursing as he took a slow breath before replacing the cigarette back between his lips. The smell of spice was even stronger now and Daniel wasn't sure what to call it. It didn't smell like any cigarette he'd ever seen.

"It wouldn't have mattered that I am one to know that name, kid. Them Winchester boys're famous. I'm not sure what you think you might know, but I said that name and you damn near went white as a sheet." He stood to his feet, reaching a hand down to help Daniel stand as well, still a bit embarrassed that it had happened to begin with. Then Alder stood and stared at him for a curious moment, a question on his face that went unspoken with his hands now stuffed deep into his coat pockets.

Daniel sighed.
"I…it's a difficult story to tell."

"Do I look like I got anywhere to go?"


Alder walked with Daniel for the entire rest of the day, in and out of every crevice of the memorial that the hunter apparently knew by heart. All the while he spoke of his journey, unafraid of what he was saying simply because he didn't feel as if he had anything to hide. He'd met plenty of private people, and he himself had had times where he hadn't felt comfortable speaking of what he'd been through, but there was only so far that would take him.

He did not, however, speak of the strange powers he possessed. The last thing he needed was for this Hunter to think him a demon and shoot him on sight.

It ended up that one of the biggest reasons that Daniel had nearly passed out wasn't just because of the name, however, but because he'd once again forgotten to eat. The old hunter had laughed at him before handing him a granola bar, which Daniel had happily devoured.

Alder listened quietly, making a comment here and there, considering that the story wasn't all that involved with only the last year to feed it. It felt good to Daniel, however, to simply lay it all out. One fact after another with only a few small things changed for the benefit of keeping himself human.

He was always doing that, too. Making excuses, believing he was normal.
Anna had scolded him for this, and he knew he'd deserved it. But advertising; giving in to the abnormalities of his hands and heart, where would that take him? Home? Home where?


Getting towards the end of daylight, Daniel finished where he had now left off. Standing in a decorated cemetery with no bodies but plenty of misfortune and memories. He'd mentioned what little he could about Dean, but there wasn't much.

He wondered why he felt so strongly with so little to go on. Was that how human's loved? If so, then at least he was doing something right.

By the time he finished speaking, it was then that he realized that Alder had led him to a small building that was off to the side of the memorial. It looked like it had once been a greenhouse for the University, but was now in ruins with broken glass windows and faded signs that were both falling apart and burnt. It didn't look like a place that had been well-kept, especially since it was a bit off the beaten trail through the area itself, but still significant.

Alder stepped inside and Daniel followed, his eyes adjusting to the lesser light before he focused on a small alter-like area that had been set up as its own unique memorial of sorts. There weren't as many pictures or flowers in this place, but it wasn't the same as the thousands outside the door.

"This ain't the same thing as what we've been lookin at." Alder said grimly, his fourth cigarette now planted between his lips as he spoke around it. He stared down at the small batch of gathered words, flowers and pictures like it was more important to him than anything outside.
"These were the hunters that fought in the war here."

Daniel walked up beside him, crouching down and picking up a picture atop what had once been a tier to hold blossoming plants. It was a picture of a young man, with shaggy brown hair that curled up at his neck and a large smile on his face. He was wearing a hooded sweatshirt and jeans that covered his long legs while flicking off the camera. His eyes looked familiar.

"That's Sam Winchester." Alder said, pointing to the picture in his hands. Daniel swallowed, taking the image to memory. He wished it was more familiar, but there was only that feeling again and nothing more.

"Dean's brother." He said, more to himself than to the Hunter. He placed the picture down slowly next to a small batch of flowers that had long since dried. Daniel scanned around the area with his eyes, hoping to see something nearby it that might possibly stand out or remind him of something else. Something…

"But you won't find Dean here."

Daniel turned to look up at Alder with small surprise, his heart somehow moved to his throat without him noticing.

"Why?"

"Because Dean Winchester didn't die here. They were on two different battlegrounds when the shit hit the fan last year."

Daniel swallowed, holding down his disappointment, but glad enough that he at least knew what one of them had looked like. That alone was a step in the direction he'd been intending.

"Do…do you know how they died?"

"Both shot, I think. Both died the same way, just hundreds of miles from one another."

Daniel tried not to let anything show on his face.
"How? What happened?"

Alder sat himself down on the nearest bench with an aching groan that was the plight of an old man, taking a slow drag of his cigarette again before letting it out slowly through his nose. It seemed to Daniel that this was what the man did when he was trying to think. He wondered if it helped.

"Sam was the younger of the two, but that didn't mean much. They'd been brought up by a damn good hunter from birth, and it was all they knew. These are things that nobody really knew about them boys until afterwards, after the war and their deaths. Stuff that had only been rumors, of the like. Once so many demons, and then them damn angels started flooding this place, it was hard to argue with any Winchester anymore. Cocky bastards."

Alder laughed, but it was at a memory, at something he was picturing that Daniel couldn't see. He felt envious of this, but said nothing, eyes still fixed on the hunter determinately.

"They'd both been fighting this war long before the rest of us, but it didn't make no difference. If not them, then those otherworldly sons of bitches woulda found someone else to do their dirty work. I didn't believe it at first even, but it's hard not to when it's barreling through your front door set to kill. Damn bloody ignorant, really."

Another drag of the cigarette, Alder wasn't really looking at him anymore.

"By the time we realized just what was really goin on, it was too late to step back from it. Doorways to Hell opened up in five places across the US. They were bent on settin what they could here, before movin on to the rest of the world, but they needed a home ground first. Somewhere they could build and destroy before branching out.

I was with a few other hunters here when the first of the fires started. It was damn terrible, watchin this place burn and not being able to do a damn thing about it. Homes were destroyed, lives with em, and all the rock salt in the world wasn't enough for what was comin.

I remember when Sam Winchester showed up here, it was their hometown, actually, and he took the lead without askin or tellin nobody. Not that anyone argued cause he was damn good at what he did. The boy was half demon, something that had also only been a rumor once, but he didn't like them assholes anymore than we did.

We held our front, but we were shootin our next door neighbors, our friends and our relatives. It was crazy. Kids with black eyes, not enough people who knew how to do any exorcisms, and even if they had, as soon as a body was free it was snatched back up again. Only those of us with wards could get around that, but sometimes I wondered if it would just be better to ward them off with a bullet to the brain instead. That'd keep em outta there.

We were aiming for headshots like it was the damn zombie apocalypse, just so they wouldn't get back up again as someone else."

He shook his head, and Daniel didn't know what to say, if anything at all. He'd seen war in his dreams, knew that what had happened couldn't have been anything good, but it was different hearing someone else speak of it.

"By the time December rolled around, there was little else to do but give up. I was with a group that had been fighting for months, but we were freezing, starving and runnin outta ammo just like the rest of the country. We'd set ourselves up in a church that was warded all to hell, but that was nothing more than a prison we'd erected for ourselves. Sam was in constant touch with his brother, and from what I understood, things were going about the same on his end.

What made it a bit different though, was that Dean was workin with angels. There were rumors that there were both good and bad angels mixed in with all them demons, but it wasn't like you could just lift up their skirts and tell. There were a few rogues that had joined our side though, and most of em with Dean since he'd been dragged outta hell to lead em anyway. Don't even get me started on that bizarre tale.

Anyway, Dean and one particular angel friend of his had found themselves a couple of prophets who were workin on a way to close the doorways and cut off the demon's supply. If you could cut the bloodline, you could stop the heart, so to speak.

So it became their main focus, and we didn't hear from that area again for about a week. Each of the five cities were just as bad as we were, but were all holding out the hope that something would come through. Our provisions were down, we were low on people who were warded from possession…Hell, I cannot even begin to tell you how many protection sigils I burned into people as we went. But that's war for ya, I guess."

Daniel could have openly agreed with him on that, knowing what he did now and from the people he'd met who's stories were just as awful. This was the closest he'd ever heard from someone on the front line, though. And Daniel knew that was where the worst of it was ever going to come from.

"By the time Sam got word from his brother, we were told that the doorways had been closed. It was kind of a shock of information, especially since we hadn't heard much around us for a few days aside from the normal amount of screams and taunting. The whole place was burning, but there was no one really left to put out the fires. It was hard for the whole lot of us, since we'd all been used to workin on our own and fightin our own battles. Being helpless didn't do us well, and we'd lost a few hunters because of just that.

Sam was taking the worst of it though. He missed his brother, but they'd split up for a reason. Something about making sure that they spread themselves out enough to cover more ground, I don't really even know. But that day, when we'd heard that the upper hand was ours, that was a damn good day. Dean had gotten his hands on a prophet, apparently, that found the key they needed. An older guy that had been possessed by both an angel and a demon at some point and knew more than he should have.

There're more details there, but I didn't know em. Still don't. Regardless, we were able to start weeding out what was left and fight back. Oklahoma City was sending out ammo in armored and protected trucks to the other four cities now that they were making it themselves. We'd finally gotten the bastards on the run and the war had turned so damn quickly in our favor that they didn't know what to do.

The worst of it was on Dean's end, though. That was where Lucifer was, yeah, Lucifer himself if you can believe it, and that was going to be the real deciding factor of whether or not we survived it. There are too many stories at this point, and too many people arguing that they know what happened, but I don't think anyone really knows anymore. I only know what I've seen and heard, really."

He took in another slow drag, a deep breath filling his lungs with cold air and smoke as the light faded and they were surrounded by nothing more than the light of the candles. Daniel shivered, still watching and listening intently despite how cold he was getting. He shifted up his collar and pulled his knees to his chest.

"That angel of his was something special, that I knew. He was supposed to be helpin the baddies but had chosen to stick with Dean instead. Unfortunately, though, because he got cut off from his buddies up north, the angel was left unguarded and got himself possessed by Lucifer right up at the end of it all. Not on purpose, mind you, it wasn't something he'd planned on doing.

Dean couldn't kill him. It woulda been like killin his brother at that point and he couldn't do it. So the possessed angel, man that sounds weirder every time I say it, the possessed angel shot him, twice. Right in the chest with Dean's own gun, like it was poetic or something.

We didn't find out until later that day, when Sam had been actin funny and throwin himself recklessly into stupid fights that should have been handled with more strategy. We were all tired, we were all hurting, but he found out about his brother and just lost it. Ended up getting himself shot in the back by a possessed hunter when he wasn't payin attention. Or so I heard, didn't actually see it happen. Damn pointless if you ask me. But they died the same day."

Daniel swallowed hard, feeling the tears on his face before he even noticed that they were starting. He didn't move to swipe them away, instead placing his nose into his folded arms and staring unblinkingly at the candles behind Alder's silhouetted form.

"How did the war end?" He asked softly, his voice muffled by the cloth on his arms. "If the Winchester's were dead, how did they defeat Lucifer?"

"The angel did, actually. I don't think I ever learned his name. He went batshit after Lucifer made him shoot Dean and just exploded with some crazy, holy power. After that, that old prophet that had figured out how to close the doorways forced Lucifer into a human body where he'd be helpless to do anything more but watch and be human. He made the devil possess him, then kept him there, the crazy old bastard. But it worked. I don't even begin to know how, it just did."

Daniel worried his lower lip, trying hard to process everything that he was being told when it started to fit into bits and pieces of his glass shattered memories. Not all of it made sense, and some of it seemed slightly different, but the general idea was the same. He wasn't entirely sure where he'd fit into it, but something was telling him more and more that he was just trying hard not to see the obvious.

"After that, those bastards started to clear out, bit by bit. The smaller battles were still being fought in the surrounding towns, still kinda are actually, but their reason for fighting had disappeared and they were now the ones runnin out of resources. The war was officially over at the end of December."

Alder smiled sadly, leaning himself back against the glass wall and hearing it creak slightly with his weight. Silence filled the air between them for a few minutes as Daniel almost felt like there was too much information for him to organize.

"What…what happened to the angel?"

Alder shook his head.
"Not a damn clue. I heard that Lucifer took a large chunk outta him as a parting gift before he let go. Whatever human he'd been possessing was killed in the process. That and the angel damn near wore himself to death trying to fight back. He wasn't so high up in Heaven's graces much, so I heard he just kinda disappeared. But I ain't heard nothing more after that. It was just as well."

Daniel wiped his face on his sleeve, his eyes closing as he took in a slow breath.
"And the prophet?"

"Which one, the one who beat big ol Satan?"

"Yes."

"No idea either. I hear he died right around then, takin Lucifer with him I guess. Damn good man too, prolly woulda made a good hunter."

Daniel nodded, his gaze still settling on the flickering candle flames in the lingering darkness.

"What was his name?"

"The old guy? Uh…" He scratched the back of his head before readjusting his own coat, a cold breeze filtering in through the cracks of the old greenhouse.
"Davis, I think. Or something like that. Eaton Davis. He'd joined the war after he'd lost his son, and did one of them holy retribution things for revenge. I'd say he got it, more than anyone else really… hey, you ok?"

Daniel stared at him with wide eyes, his focus having moved from the flame straight back to what little he could see of Alder's face. He sat forward, his crossed knees pushing back behind him as he pushed himself upward and felt the blood drain from his face.

"What?!" He said with exasperation, his heart suddenly leaping back to life with a panic.

Alder stared at him for a moment in startled curiosity.
"What's the matter?"

"Eaton…the man's name was Eaton? With a son named Daniel?" He didn't recognize the sound of his own voice, and his entire body was starting to feel numb.

"Well, yeah. Why?"

"Where were the other battles? The worst of them, in the five cities that had doorways to Hell. Where did the final one with Lucifer take place?" Daniel's words were rushed, and he almost stuttered through them, begging silently to himself that what he was thinking couldn't possibly be true.

Alder's eyes narrowed.
"Well there was this one, in Lawrence. Then Oklahoma City, Phoenix, Arizona, Great Falls, Montana, and then the biggest one, the one where Dean died, was in Detroit, Michigan."

Daniel felt the blood drain from his face, his hands falling uselessly into his lap as the silence that stretched around him became far too loud for him to hear anything else.