Dean sat slumped in a chair his eyes on the bottle of blood still standing on the table. Sam was pacing the room talking heatedly into his phone but Dean wasn't listening, the list of plagues was running through his head. He knew it made sense, he knew it fitted the facts as they knew them but he was having a little trouble believing it. If Sam was right, then apparently if they didn't stop it, he would die, along with every other firstborn in god only knew how big of an area. Sam snapped his phone closed and stalked over to the table throwing himself into his chair in front of his laptop.

"What does Bobby have to say?" Dean asked as Sam began to flick through websites, his brown eyes almost blurred as he scanned the information.

"Not much, he's as skeptical as you" Sam replied without looking up, "He's going to do some digging though but he said that if we're right then he has absolutely no idea how to stop it."

"And if the angels know they aren't telling which means it's up to us" Dean snapped coldly kicking his chair aside as he stood, angrily running a hand through his hair. He was sick of all the pressure falling on him, on everyone standing back and waiting for him to fix the impossible. Soda glanced up at him as he paced past but her attention was quickly reclaimed by the TV set in front of her. Dean couldn't help dwelling on what Castiel had said. It was true, he had only been thinking of his part in the apocalypse but what about Soda? Was she connected to this too? He had spilled blood in hell and broken the first seal, but he hadn't given a thought to the actual blood that had been used to break the seal. A thought suddenly occurred to him and he swung around to look at Soda again, they had used him on purpose just another part of their sick game. When his Dad hadn't broken they had used him, a weaker model. Maybe the game hadn't ended with him, maybe there was no coincidence that Soda had been the first victim and that now she sat in front of him. Maybe the reason she hadn't turned into a demon had to do with why the demons had chosen her blood to break the seal. Dean sighed irritably striding back to the table. It just sounded like a lot of 'maybes' and 'what ifs' to him.

"So first things first, we need to find out what or who is doing this" Dean said picking up the chair and sitting down on it backwards facing Sam.

"Well I've been thinking about that and my best guess is that it's a demon or demons."

"So what? Instead of the seven deadly sins it's the..the 'ten horrible plagues?"

Sam shrugged, "Maybe, though I'm not too sure on the 'horrible' part."

"Right" Dean rolled his eyes, "So what happened in the bible? What stopped the plagues?"

"When the Pharaoh of Egypt let the Israel slaves go" Sam answered, "But something tells me that wont work this time, unless of course you have a horde of slaves you haven't told me about?" Though the joke was only half-hearted Dean couldn't help smiling, despite the gravity of the situations, this was how it used to be between them. Light, easy and fun despite all the darkness. He'd give anything to get that back. Sam blinked in surprise to see Dean's smile and grinned back, it had been a long time since he'd seen his older brother smile.

"Alright, so we find point zero, where the plagues are originating from and go straight for the source before this thing gets out of control."

"And if we find it are we bringing Soda?"

The brother's glanced at her and both jumped back as they realized she had come up upon them silently, she stood by the table her eyes on Sam's laptop, unmoving.

"What else would we do with her?" Dean asked

"We could get Missouri to look after her?"

Dean thought about it, chewing his lip as he looked at Soda. Her eyes slowly rose to meet his and Dean knew, "No" he said finally, "She needs to be there."

Dean fell to his knees as the earth beneath him shook, he could not raise his eyes, he no longer had the strength. The wails and screams around him had intensified and the dark, pulsing light of hell was steadily being replaced by a blinding whiteness. Snarls and pleas for help and deliverance were mingling together but Dean couldn't move. Hell was gripping him, a regular beat like the pumping of a heart that held him immobile. He was unable to move against the rhythm, it was pulling him under and he realized that even his few remaining thoughts were moving in time to it. The lights were pushing the rhythm back so that it began to beat in the background and Dean was able to raise his head, he'd never realized how heavy and how controlling the beat had been until it was dulled. A voice screamed for help close to him and Dean raised his eyes to see a glorious light in front of him. He couldn't focus on it and cried out in pain as the light pierced his eyes, burning, it was so much brighter than anything he had seen in forty years. His eyes had become accustomed to the dark. He wilted before the light covering his eyes with his hands trembling with pain but that was nothing to the hand he felt close around his upper arm like a brand. The burn spread through him and Dean was pulled away from himself. If this was in preparation for some further torment he would take it, for the moment at least, there was no pain. He felt something brush against him, feather light, as it mingled with him, coming with him, as he was dragged, dragged away.

Dean jerked awake, blinking sleep and sweat out of his eyes. Slowly he stretched out his arms and back, blinking at the red lines on his arms from where his head had been resting on them. He yawned widely and glanced around the dim motel room. Soda was curled up in the corner, she always slept on the floor and the brothers hadn't yet managed to convince her to sleep in a bed. Sam was sprawled out fully clothed on the far bed, printed sheets of paper littering the bed and the floor around him. Dean yawned and climbed stiffly to his feet, falling asleep at the table? Not a good idea. He grabbed his jacket off the back of one of the chairs and silently moved towards the door. The night was cool and he stood in the car park closing his eyes as the cold and the silence enveloped him. Silence, it was the dead silence in the middle of the night that enticed him out into the streets.

"Hello Dean" a soft voice said and his shoulders slumped, so much for that.

"Nice of you to turn up again" Dean snapped without turning around or opening his eyes, "What do you want?"

"I want to talk to you" Anna said gently stepping up beside him. At last Dean opened his eyes and turned to look at her. She did not look exactly like she had done when she was human, there were subtle differences but he could still see that same girl surviving among the tweaked features, but she wasn't the same. He could feel the change as easily as he could see it; she was no longer warm, open and human. She had her grace back, she was an angel and she was as detached and expressionless as the others.

"I haven't seen you since the night we helped you get your grace back but you just thought you'd pop in for a chat?" Dean said raising an eyebrow as he turned away to move over to the impala, leaning against the hood.

"I know what the others aren't telling you" Anna replied ignoring the jibe as she followed him but stopped before she reached him standing a few steps away.

"About?"

"The soul"

Dean paused frowning at the angel, "What about her?"

"The angels do not wish you to know" Anna glanced up uneasily at the sky "but I think you should."

Dean's eyes flicked up to the empty sky "They don't know you're here do they?"

Anna smiled and a twinge of sadness touched Dean's heart, it wasn't the same smile, it wasn't even close. "They never know where I am or I am sure they would have tried to rid themselves of me but I can still hear them and I spoke to Castiel he-"Anna's voice faltered, "He does not like deceiving you Dean."

"I'm sure he doesn't" Dean replied sarcastically.

"I think he let me hear so much on purpose in the hopes that I would tell you what I had heard."

"And what did you hear?" Dean asked folding his arms while he watched the angel carefully.

"They know what part the soul with play" Anna said her voice almost sad.

"I know they know" Dean said simply "Feel like letting me in?"

"To stop the seal from breaking it requires the pure soul from which the blood ran when the first seal broke. The Angels have been searching for the soul since they found out but only recently did they realize that the soul had escaped hell on its own." Anna hesitated, "They didn't know that the soul would be so damaged and thin, they are afraid it won't be enough."

"Then find another" Dean said through gritted teeth a sick feeling of apprehension coursing through him.

"It can be no other" Anna answered "but Dean there's more. There's a chance that what she will have to do will completely destroy her soul."

The blood drained from Dean's face as he tried to swallow, his mouth suddenly dry. "Her soul?"

Anna nodded her eyes wide with pity "It wont be death Dean, it will be the end. She won't exist anywhere anymore."

(hopefully will have more up soon. please review! and thanks for reading xoxo)