AN: Sorry this one is so short, next chapter will be longer (and up soon), promise.
7. In which questions are asked
After fetching some iron chains in the car Jo carefully walks inside the devil's trap.
"You better not try anything", she says as she fastens the chains around Ruby's wrists. "I'll shoot you if you as much as talks without permission."
Ruby gives her an amused look but nods all the same.
"Okay, I suppose you can talk, but you're not doing anything else. Start walking", Jo says and points the salt filled rifle at the demon. She gets an uncomfortable feeling in her stomach when she carves away a piece of the devil's trap to let Ruby out.
Under normal circumstances she would never transfer a demon with this lame security, if Ruby tries something she will never be able to hold her, she will have trouble making it out of it alive.
Yet Ruby seems willing to cooperate, she walks slowly towards the car and waits patiently while Jo opens the passenger door.
"Why are you working with Sam?" Jo asks when she starts driving, still with the rifle aimed at Ruby. The demon silently watches the human girl for a long moment before she decides to answer.
"Because he's fighting for something worth saving, I don't want hell on earth, I don't want Lilith or possibly even Lucifer to be free to do as they like. I happen to like the world as it is."
"There could be fewer monsters." Jo mutters under her breath.
"Really, you're a hunter, you like what you're doing, don't you? You like being important, like saving people, like feeling alive⦠It's what all hunters are like, depressed, angry, but they like what they're doing. In a world with no monsters, then what would you be Jo?"
She would be a regular girl, study, work, get married, have kids, grow old... Jo keeps quiet, tries not to show Ruby just how close to home she's hit. Truth is this is what Jo wants to do, if she had the possibility of changing everything, have a normal life, her father alive, she's not sure she would pick it, it makes her feel like a bad person, sometimes. This past year, hunting, it's been fun, it's what she's meant to do, she can't imagine doing anything else, so she keeps quiet and Ruby just smiles, like she knows what she's thinking.
Castiel stands alone in a far off corner in heaven, watching the earth, thinking. He can still feel the fragments of Dean's demon soul dripping from his wings, his right hand that he pressed into Dean's shoulder feels dirty, but when he looks there's nothing there, he is as shining white as ever. It can't be seen but he can feel it, he can feel a swift stream of blackness flowing through his grace, just as he can feel a part of his grace somewhere else, flowing through Dean.
Castiel finds he despises himself for what he's done, yet he knows he couldn't have done anything differently. Even now when he knows there's no way of saving Dean, that he's a demon as any other and that there's no way of changing that he cannot help but think that he is different. There's something about him that makes Castiel wonder. He must stay away from this creature he realizes, it confuses him, he should just stay here, in heaven, a millennium or so, then maybe he would feel cleaner.
"It took a while to find you Castiel." It's Raphael's voice and when Castiel turns around he sees that Uriel is with him.
"I've been thinking", he responds.
"Really, about what?"
"Hell, and our failure down there." It's true, more or less, he finds he doesn't feel comfortable telling Raphael what he has done. It's not outspoken forbidden, healing a demon, if you don't need it for anything, is so unthinkable that there's no need for rules, but Castiel suspects it would still be seen as a crime.
"We have been given a new mission", Uriel says and breaks Castiel's line of thought. The angel realizes maybe this is what he needs, something to do, a heavenly mission.
"What is it?"
"Sam Winchester, the boy that Azazel infected with demon blood, the boy that is destined to help the devil out of his cage and be the general of his armies. He is important to the demons and we need to know what he's up to."
"We should just kill him", Uriel mutters but Raphael just holds up a hand.
"We'll consider that option if Sam would prove to be an annoyance. For now I just want you to watch him, and keep him on the right track, if we keep him on our side he could be an asset."
"I'll expect a report as soon as possible", Raphael says and that seems to be the end of the conversation.
"Well, we should be going then", Uriel says.
"You can go, I'll be there, soon." Uriel gives him a strange look at that but leaves all the same.
"Is something troubling you Castiel?" Raphael asks, the tone on his voice knowing and Castiel can't help but think his older brother suspects something. After a long pause he decides to ask the question that's been ringing in his mind since he left Dean.
"Can darkness be beautiful, brother?"
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