Oh god, it's been ages. I'm so sorry guys. Life's been so beyond complicated I can't even begin to explain. Ugh.

Thing is, stuff's starting to straighten out. I'm hoping to get everything completely taken care of within the next few months and get a crap load of stress off of my shoulders. Stress is after all my biggest writer's block and I've had more than my fair share dumped on me. Mostly by family. Urgh… I'm venting. Sorry. Anyway.

Story… right. I have absolutely no plans to stop writing this even if the chapters did slow way the hell down. Sorry again. Now that everything is finally, finally sorting out I'm hoping to start picking back up on the speed.

Please enjoy the chapter and accept my apologies for the delays. : )

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American readers out there.

Dayton, Texas

A small house on a mostly empty street stood illuminated. All around it laid the half finished shells of other houses. Wood beams stood eerily like bones and two figures walked among them, one whistling, the other glaring.

"Stop whistling."

The melodic whistling stopped immediately but a dirty look was thrown in the direction of the speaker.

"I was going for inconspicuous." The whistler argued quietly.

"By drawing attention? Sounds a bit like you were doing the opposite."

The whistler muttered a few low curses but didn't openly argue any further. The other man stopped and nodded to his right. A small path was cut between the newly built house they were prowling and the fence that guarded its property. In that space the glint of a window was just noticeable.

A grin lit up the whistler's otherwise bland face as he made his way to the home. Dim light filtered through the pane.

"I can smell her." He said headily.

His companion tapped lightly on the metal window frame until there was a low, almost inaudible, click. He slid the window open and turned to his musical partner.

The whistling man spared no time slipping through the gap with a smile. Minutes passed before there was a loud crash followed by screams. The man waited patiently by the window through all the ruckus. After several minutes his partner reappeared with a young woman slung over his shoulder. Her head lolled to the side.

"You didn't kill her did you?" The serious man asked as they passed her limp form through the window.

"Do I look like an idiot?"

"Yes."

"No, I didn't kill her."

The serious man nodded noticing the girl's chest rise and fall. She was clearly unconscious.

"That makes twelve."

Harry shifted just a bit and his pant leg lifted to reveal a half inch of skin. He stared at his legs with a frown. Just a bit more and they'd be their normal size and their normal size was already pretty scrawny. He didn't think their current emaciated state was particularly attractive. He crossed the offending appendages and turned his attention outward.

Ellen sat down the cobbled sidewalk a little ways. He tried to maintain his annoyance at her presence. Since his recovery from being in Hell was going slowly rest the group had decided to have someone trail him at all times in case anything happened. It was good in theory but it was driving him stir crazy with the lack of privacy. What exactly was a human supposed to do if he got into trouble he couldn't manage on his own anyway? Sure his magic was still recovering but he could still do better with his half measures of magic than a human could with their bare hands, or even a gun in most cases.

Harry's eyes snapped to Ellen as she moved toward him. A small frown was playing against her lips. She sat down beside him on the bench and motioned with her head to the left. Harry followed the direction with his eyes and found a young woman in perhaps her mid twenties staring at him. He blinked twice then turned to Ellen.

"Either she likes her men on the thin side or I'm being watched."

"Considering she's been staring for about twenty minutes and hasn't made a move it's probably the latter." Ellen agreed. She fiddled with the large bag she'd brought. Harry knew there was more than just one gun hidden in its folds. She rummaged for a minute more before producing a sandwich.

Harry blinked as she unwrapped the thing.

"Is this really the time?"

She shrugged. "I've been keeping an eye on her the whole time. Unless she's telepathic she hasn't called anyone. So if she makes a move it'd be us against her."

Harry sent her a disbelieving look. "She could be an angel Ellen." He said, like it were the most obvious thing in the world.

She choked a bit on her bite and gave him a look. "I hadn't thought of that…" she said remorsefully.

Harry sighed.

"Should we call the others?"

Harry stood and brushed off his pants. The material fell into nice folds that hung just a bit wrong from his too thin hips. Without another word he made his way to the staring woman. He made it perhaps a quarter of the way across the small courtyard before she realized she'd been spotted and that he was heading towards her. At first her eyes grew large. Then she started to fidget.

Harry smoothly transplanted himself on the bench beside her never taking his eyes off of her. Ellen was scrambling behind him with her stuff.

"I don't believe we've met."

"I… uh…" she floundered.

She wasn't an angel. He could tell when he'd moved closer to her. She didn't feel like an angel. She felt like… a changeling? How odd…

Harry hadn't had the pleasure of meeting many changelings in his long life. For the most part they hid from view; skulking in the shadows and doing their best not to get noticed. This one had been trying to engage in a staring match. Odd indeed.

"Harry Potter." He offered her a hand. She didn't seem particularly like she had it out for him, or even like she'd been intentionally following him. She looked rather amazed to see him all things considered.

She shook herself from her stupor shortly and gave his hand a rapid, nervous shake. "I never thought…" she started, then stopped herself and restarted. "They're looking for you and I found you first. That's just..."

"Who's looking for me?" Harry immediately edged in on the peculiar statement. Ellen had finally found her way over and now she was looking at the changeling with open curiosity.

"Everyone." The mousy woman replied, wide eyes not changing. From the corner of his eyes Harry noticed that an alarmingly large number of the children on the playground just to the right of the courtyard had stopped moving. Every one of their bodies was angled in the direction of the conversation. "The vampires, the werewolves, the wraiths, everyone. If you can think of one of our kind with even a bit of sentience they're on the move... and they're looking for you."

"Is that what's been making all the out of place attacks?" Ellen interjected. "Apparently all of the m… your kind have been changing their usual attack patterns."

The changeling turned heated eyes on the blonde hunter. It was obvious she knew what Ellen was. In fact, Harry was sure that had the two met under different terms the changeling and Ellen would be fighting right now.

"No. That's not because of you." She had turned her eyes back to Harry. "It's because of the demons."

"Demons?"

Her eyebrows scrunched together momentarily and then she looked on him in understanding. "You don't know."

"Know what?" Ellen bit out.

"That explains it." She continued undeterred. "Why you haven't done anything."

"Done anything about what?" Harry interrupted her. He didn't like it when people went on long rambling rants while he was stuck perpetually in the dark.

"The demons." She reiterated. "They've been taking us."

"Taking you?"

"They're after the alphas."

"What's that mean?" Ellen asked, unsure.

"Alpha monsters…" Harry started looking concerned. "They're the origin of each monster race. I don't understand, why would they be taking alphas? More importantly, how? Alphas aren't exactly easy targets."

The changeling shrugged. "We don't know, but whatever they want it can't be good. Nothing demons want ever is."

Ellen snorted eying the changeling in an obvious show of derision.

The woman stared directly at Ellen for the first time. "You and I may have different goals but neither of us has ever wanted to destroy the world."

"No, you just want to kidnap children and murder innocent women." Ellen shot back, voice full of acid. Her eyes were travelling from the changeling woman on the bench to the children that had eerily stopped playing to listen to conversation. Harry knew the hunter had caught on as to whom they were dealing with. Now that Ellen had identified the 'monster' in front of her she seemed to be having a hard time not removing a flamethrower from her bag and torching the woman.

"That's enough." Harry stepped in. He offered a firm glance in both of their directions to dissuade either one from making a move. "We have bigger problems right now than each other."

Dean took a bite of his burger and placed it back on the plate in front of him. Across the table Sam made the same motions. Sam… with a burger… the world really was going to hell. Dean hadn't seen his brother eat a burger since he was a teenager. Unless you counted that time some kid body swapped him… Dean tried not to count that time.

But then, this wasn't really Sam either was it? This 'Sam' was like a remorseless robot. There was no emotion in his decisions. Dean never thought he'd miss Sam's countless guilt trips and overbearing empathy on a hunt but it didn't really feel like Sam when he didn't do those things. And soulless Sam hadn't once asked him to turn the music down in the car.

Dean couldn't find any common ground with the guy. Apparently he didn't even remember Hell, not that that was the best of bonding topics.

He had all of Sam's bad taste and none of his redeeming qualities.

"So," 'Sam' said through a mouthful of food. "Any more news from Harry about my soul?"

Dean was the only one with a phone right now. Apparently 'Sam' had dropped his somewhere during the hunt.

"Nope." Was Dean's short reply, which earned an irritated glance from Sam.

Dean hadn't been talking much more than absolutely necessary to Sam. Sam might not have a soul but it hadn't made him any dumber. He'd figured out Dean's play from day one and it had been rubbing him the wrong way since. Apparently anger was still something you could feel without a soul.

"Look, I'm not any happier with the situation than you are." Sam blurted with irritation lacing his voice. "I didn't ask to be brought back this way but it doesn't change who I am. All of Sam's thoughts, his feelings, his preferences, they're all up here." He motioned to his head.

Dean's eyes flashed. "You are not him. Do you understand me. You might look like him, you might talk like him but you are NOT him." He pulled out his wallet and slammed a twenty down before making his way to the door. He turned, halfway up the aisle of the empty restaurant. "And the sooner we get him back the better."

Sam's calculating eyes watched him from the booth before turning back to the food.

"I feel… conflicted."

Gabriel turned back to his brother who was kneeling next to an unconscious girl. A small cut on her abdomen closed under Castiel's guidance. "Nobody likes seeing kids hurt." Gabriel supplied. "That's normal."

"Not about that." Castiel countered, standing.

"Then what?" Gabriel asked in annoyance. They were in the middle of recon. Being distracted by small issues was a bad idea considering they were trying to figure out heaven's play in all this 'Harry' business.

"Sam." Castiel replied simply.

"What about Sam?" Gabriel asked with confusion. They hadn't talked about the Winchesters since the duo left for the other side of the country a week ago.

There was silence for a long moment. Gabriel didn't see anything near them. In fact, this whole ordeal just screamed of another monster attack. He turned to Castiel.

"I brought Sam back to the fight with Lucifer. I feel it was my fault his soul was separated from his body."

Gabriel certainly hadn't been expecting that. They'd found each other again just days after everything had went down and they hadn't really left each other since. Castiel was on Heaven's most wanted list right now. Gabriel had only escaped having the same fate by being believed dead. But Castiel's hit had made Gabriel anxious to leave him alone for any notable amount of time. In all that time together Castiel had yet to mention anything about Sam. Perhaps coming back into contact with the hunters had reaffirmed his initial fears.

"I wonder if what I've done has caused more trouble than it has solved." Castiel continued.

Gabriel shook his head to clear it. "Well, I can honestly say I didn't see that one coming… but stop beating yourself up about it kid. When you live as long as we do you're bound to mess a few things up."

"I don't think this was the work of angels." Castiel said motioning to the children they'd been healing for nearly an hour now. Leave it to Castiel to change the subject so entirely without a moment's notice, but he was right.

"Looks more like…"

"Vampires." Castiel nodded.

"Well they're not very nice if they're going around feeding on children." Gabriel frowned.

"Perhaps we should… 'deal with them'?" Castiel paused and fixed his gaze on his brother to see if he had used the term right.

"I don't think we'll have to." Gabriel stood and dusted off his knees before pulling out a snickers bar. "These guys seem to be heading in the same direction as all the other monsters. I give them about a week at most and some hunter will take care of them. They're being too sloppy not to get caught."

"You thinks it's wise to let them go? What if they kill more people?"

"No one here is dead." Gabriel gestured to all the live but very unconscious people around them. "Besides kid, you can't save everyone."

Cas gave him his usual heart wrenching stare.

Gabriel cleared his throat and made a show of glancing down at his watch. "Besides, we're on a schedule. Where's next on the list?"

Harry paced the room, his face drawn in as he concentrated on his thoughts. Ellen let him walk for the longest time, not interrupting. An hour passed, two. Still she let him go on his way. Finally she grew upset with his silence.

"What aren't you telling me?" she said softly.

He stopped with his back to her pointed towards the mirrored vanity outside the suites bathroom. She couldn't see his eyes even in the reflective surface.

"My life is vast and complicated Ellen." Harry finally said after a long moment. "You'll have to narrow that question down."

"That… monster…. She talked to you… about you like you were some sort of savior." She said sounding caught between distraught and livid. "She made it seem like you took their side over ours."

"My life's full of entire chapters that were better left unwritten, but they were written Ellen. I can't un-write them."

"Is this one of them?"

A long silence filled the air but eventually he turned to her. His eyes were dark. "That depends."

"On what?" she nearly spat. What could justify turning one's back on humanity.

"What they're trying to do." Harry answered simply. "What they want me to do."

"They're monsters Harry!" Ellen countered. "They're killing people and you want to help them?!"

"Not everything is black and white Ellen." Harry replied calmly.

"Not every… they're monsters Harry. We hunt them it's-"

"You hunt them." Harry threw in. "But you also hunt demons."

"So it's not really an issue if the two start killing each other off." Ellen quickly added.

"Except that it's causing the 'monsters' to change their patterns. They're killing more because of what's happening and your hunter logic won't allow you to see that the simplest solution to your own problem would be to fix theirs." Harry rattled out, a spark of indignation in his eyes. He took two deep breaths, steadying himself.

Ellen was speechless. She'd never seen Harry defend anything like that. He was usually so detached from the world. She swallowed back her unease.

"There's a reason for this. I know there is." She said finally. Her eyes scanned him from head to toe. "There's a reason you defend them."

"Of course there is." Harry turned away from her and slammed a few drawers on the vanity as he searched their contents. "There's always a reason for everything."

Brown, decaying leaves littered the ground around him as far as the eyes could see. To his right some ways into the distance there was a river. He could still hear it now. All around him were trees. Ancient, ominous looking trees.

This was the place Harry had woken up some twenty or thirty years ago. He'd lost track after a while. Time seemed to blur together here.

He'd been approached several times since his initial waking, but each time his magic had lashed out. They had approached too swiftly. He found it hard not to strike out. Particularly after the first attack.

Harry let out a sigh. His whole body throbbed with the raw power of his magic and it was scintillating. But it was also exhausting. He just couldn't figure out what he was supposed to do with all of it. He didn't know how to put a cap on the overflowing magic.

"Whatcha doin'?"

Harry startled so bad at the sudden voice that a tree to his right tore itself from the ground and then plummeted to the forest floor with a loud boom. The ground itself shook under the weight.

"Whoa… I ain't tryina hurt you or nothin'." The same voice spoke again. Harry turned towards it and frowned.

"Who are you?" he finally managed. His voice was raw from disuse. This was the first person he'd run across that actually just talked.

"Name's Lenny." The man, or perhaps kid was a more apt description, supplied. "You?"

"Harry." He replied eagerly. Perhaps he could finally get some real answers. "Where are we?"

The kid looked confused. "Whatya mean 'where are we'?" he replied. "Don't ya know where ya are?"

Harry shook his head absently.

"Ya must be new kid… this here's Purgatory."

For those who were paying attention you'll notice I've started unveiling some of Harry's back story with purgatory. That's something I promised to do in the side story section… I changed my mind… yup. I won't be writing a side story section. Bits and pieces will be revealed in this sequel about Harry's past.

I've found that the nature of season 6 coupled with how I worked his back story out sort of suit each other. Sure, we won't see everything. But! The occasional detail will work its way in.

That said, we're starting to move in human-Harry territory. Scary I know, but team free will has a way of bringing out the humanity even in those who aren't human. *cough*Meg*Cough*

I hope you guys understand about the lack of updates and that you continue to support this story despite its slow progress. Many thanks for reading, enjoy your holidays. 'Til next time!

~Kanathia