Dean jolts awake to a sound at the door. They had been off for about 3 weeks now, tracking angels and trying to get a lead on where Metatron's portal might be. They were currently following the trail of a particularly murder happy group of angels that had landed them in Mesa, Arizona. Dean goes for the angel blade under his pillow, and then tosses his pillow at Sam, waking him up. Sam jumps awake and looks over at Dean, who is shushing him and pointing towards the door. Sam reaches for his angel blade as his eyes follow where Dean is pointing, and sees the figures crowding by the door to their motel room. They immediately roll into action, positioning themselves on either side of the door. There is a loud bang and the door explodes of its hinges. Three figures spill in from outside the door, and another 3 pop up from behind. Dean gets stabs one of them right away, taking them by surprise. The other two coming from the hallway advance on Dean, while Sam covers his back, facing the other three. They each take down one more before Dean sees it. Their eyes are black.
"What the hell?" He grunts. "Sammy, they're demons!"
Sam looks at them, alarmed. "Why the hell would demons want to keep us from reopening heaven? Don't you want the angels to leave?" He addresses the two demons in front of him.
They snarl at him, getting in a blow to the head before replying. "If they go back to heaven, they'll stop killing each other. Down here, all alone and abandoned, they couldn't give a damn about us demons, they're too busy killing each other to notice us! But if they returned to heaven? Well then it would go right back to how it was before, and ain't nobody wants that."
Sam takes out the demon as it finishes talking, and turns to face the last one, just as Dean takes his out. The final demon's face turns up in a sneer.
"Don't think this is over. There's a price on your heads. Thousands more of us will come for you, and one of these times, we will kill you. You can't hide forever." Just as the demon is about to cut it's losses and get the hell out of there, Dean surges forward and slashes it's neck. Sam wipes the sweat off his forehead while the demon lights up shutters out. Dean collapses on the bed.
"We need to start covering our tracks better. We've left a trail of angel bodies in our wake, it's a wonder they didn't find us sooner," Sam says as he takes a seat on the other bed.
"You still know how to make those hex bags? To hide us from them?"
Sam nods and sighs.
Things just got a lot more complicated.
Eight. There were eight angels in the group they had followed to Arizona. All of them mean, ruthless, and completely opposed to Sam and Dean's plan. When hunting down the angels, they tried to give them a choice. Stop killing innocent people, or they would kill them. But then Sam and Dean would try to explain their plan. That they were trying to reopen heaven, so that the angels could go home, but they needed to find Metatron's portal. They would then offer the angels a chance to help them. Unfortunately, explaining this only served to aggravate this group of angels.
"Follow you? You are a lowly human!" One of them was shouting. "I would sooner praise Buddah, than follow you. You, who has destroyed Metatron! The one true leader we have had since God, and you have the audacity to ask me to join you?" The angel spits in Dean's face. "HA!"
Dean pulls out his lighter and tosses it to the ground, where a ring of fire erupts around the angel who had spit on him. The angel looks at him with outrage, and begins shrieking in rage. Dean steps up and stabs him through the throat, leaving one angel still alive.
Dean turns to help Sam, facing the last of this group. This angel is still mad- they can clearly see that etched into his face. But more than that, this angel looks frightened.
"We're not trying to lead you guys," Sam was saying. "We just want to help get you all back up in heaven where you belong. 13 of you guys have already realized the merit of our plan, and have agreed to help us."
"I will never join you," he spits.
Sam sighs, "Come on, All we ask is that you stop killing humans. You don't have to help us if that's not what you want, but we can't have you keep killing. You have to know that's not the way to fix this."
The angel shakes his head. "I will never betray Metatron! And even if you do find Sorush, he would never tell you where the portal is. He would die first, than betray our rightful ruler!"
The angel moves fast, and a fist connects with Sam's jaw, knocking him back. Dean reacts, grabbing onto the angel's shirt and shoving him onto the floor, stabbing him through the heart.
Sam looks up at Dean , grinning a mouthful of blood. "Did you hear that?"
Dean looks down at Sam, returning the smile. "We got a name."
Sam's phone rings from inside his pocket, and he checks it to find he has seven missed calls from Cas in the last 30 minutes. He flips the phone open.
"Cas? Is something wrong?" Dean tenses up, waiting for the response.
"Sam." Cas's voice is strangely calm, steady. "The recent attack of angels on my hotel room seems to have jarred loose some memories."
Sam's eyes widen in worry. "Wait, angel attack? What the hell happened? Are you okay?" Dean appears to have stopped breathing.
"Yes," Cas is still eerily calm. "They came to my room maybe half an hour ago, looking for revenge against Metatron's death. The attack sparked a sort of deja vu, returning many of my memories. I was able to catch the two of them off guard and killed them with their own blade. They mentioned my teaming with the Winchesters... I had assumed that to mean that we have fought together against Metatron, and it occurred to me what you both might be out doing right now."
Sam answers wearily, "We're, uh. We're out trying to find the portal to heaven that Metatron had. The angels have started taking their panic out on humans, killing thousands of them. We figure the best way to get that to stop is to get them back to heaven."
"I want to help," Cas states. "This is my doing, I am the one who got them cast out, who opposed Metatron and played into his trap. Let me help you."
Sam looks up at Dean. "Honestly, we could really use the help. They are forming groups, which are getting larger and larger. Plus, with angels and demons both out hunting us, it would probably be best to team up."
Dean's jaw is tight, the muscle in his forehead jumping. Sam gives him his best 'quit being dumb and get over it, you know I'm right' face as he tells Cas they'll be back in a couple days to get him, and hangs up the phone.
"His memories are back?" Dean says through clenched teeth.
Sam's brow creases. "Not all of them, from what I can tell. He said 'many' of his memories came back. I don't know what that includes though. He remembers Metatron, and heaven closing- casting the angels out. I don't know if he even remember us though."
Dean nods stiffly and stalks out of the ruined and charred building. Sam gets to his feet, and hears a loud smack from outside. Sam makes his way over fallen angels and towards his brother at the Impala. They climb in and drive off.
Sam makes a point to not notice the bloody and bruising knuckles of Dean's right hand.