In the pale afternoon light coming into the shed from somewhere, Dean wakes up without being hit again. He cranes his neck to see if Caroline's around. Instead he's greeted by Ada's face, smeared with blood.
"Ada," he groans, "What happened?"
"We killed two of them," she whispers, "the third's in there with Cassie. We're waiting for him to leave, so there's no chance of him hurting her."
He feels her messing with the chains at his hands and feet.
"Damn," she mutters, "Need some bolt-cutters."
"We're in a workshop," Sam says from the other side of the room. Ada rolls her eyes and starts to search.
"So, Dean," says Sam, "What happened."
"This isn't the time for that," says Ada, "you can fight it out later. Let's get Cassie, first. Here we go." There's a clatter and Ada comes back into Dean's field of vision. He feels his bounds loosen one at a time and Ada helps him stand. He has trouble keeping his balance.
"You OK, there, Dean?" Ada asks.
"She kept me knocked out," he mutters, tenderly feeling the layers of fresh bruises his skull received.
Sam shushes them and they join him at the door.
"Concentrate!" Benjamin shouts from inside. They hear Cassie say something.
"I don't care if you're tired," the demon snarls. Dean sees Sam ball his fists. Ada takes one and holds his hand.
"We'll kill him," she whispers soothingly.
Suddenly, there's a cold breeze from under the door and Cassie screams.
The three outside the door throw all thoughts of surprising the demon out the window. Dean breaks down the door and they burst in. Benjamin lies, dead, on the floor, blood pooling around him. Behind Cassie swirls something dark.
Tears run down the girl's cheeks. "I broke it," she sobs, "They're mad."
Sam and Dean grab the chair and Ada's right behind them as they run from the room. They pause for only a few seconds in the workshop so Ada can cut Cassie's ropes. She stumbles, but is soon running faster than the rest of them. She slams open the outside door and runs into the sunlight. Behind them, the sound of voices begins.
"Cassie! Cassie." Sam catches up to her. "What happened?"
"He was trying to make me talk to them," she says, hysterical, "But I got mad and I broke it, now they can get out and it's all my fault."
Something clatters to the ground inside the workshop. Sam scoops up Cassie and they sprint into the woods.
"The car's by the highway," Ada says, "It's a mile from here, maybe more."
Behind them, figures appear, incredibly fast.
"Sam," Dean says, "We have to get that hole shut."
"No," Sam says, "We don't. We're going to the bunker where we can figure out what to do."
"Daddy, put me down!" Cassie yells, "I can run just fine!"
He puts her on her feet and she speeds ahead. Sam looks behind and starts to run faster too. The figures are gaining on them.
Ada looks backwards and trips, sprawling in the dirt.
"Ada!" Sam shouts. He stops to help her up and the figures overcome them. Without turning back Dean runs.
"Cassie!" he yells, "Don't stop running!" She gets faster and farther ahead. Dean feels an icy hand on his shoulder and he's pulled back into the horde.
Sobbing as she runs, Cassie saw the figures take Dean. She can feel her legs starting to get tired, so she runs faster and hopes she'll get far enough away that they won't see her.
She feels herself slowing down, and there's nothing she can do to stop it. The forest turns into a farmer's field like the ones she has at home, and she sees a little white farmhouse at the far side.
If she can get to the house, she thinks she'll be safe.
The field is a lot longer than she had thought. Behind her, the mass of figures bursts through the trees.
Terrified, the little girl falls to her knees and does the only thing she can think to do;
She prays.
Instantly, she feels a warmth in her pocket and pulls out the small metal box she forgot she stole from her parent's closet. The symbols are glowing and it's too hot to touch. She pries at the burning opening and the box bursts open with blinding light.
Like a phoenix, the light in the box swoops over the figures and they dissolve. It disappears into the woods and the figures' smoke rises up in a trail after it.
There's a final burst of light from the direction of the workshop and Cassie feels a peace settle over her hurting.
It's been set right.
"Castiel?"
"Cassie," she corrects, before turning around to see who spoke.
It's a man in a trench coat, standing a few feet from her.
She looks him over. Shock makes her shake.
"Are you an angel?" she asks, wrapping her arms around herself and standing up.
"I am," he says.
She starts to cry, and the man approaches. He scoops Cassie into his arms.
"You're all right," he tells her.
"You're Castiel," she hiccups, "Aren't you."
He smiles and nods, walking back towards the forest.. Cassie watches his face as he carries her. She hasn't seen this face before, but she knows this angel.
"You're my friend," she says softly, wrapping one of her arms around his back.
He doesn't answer her. He walks into the woods towards their fallen family. They find Dean first, cold and lifeless. Cassie hides her face in Castiel's coat and doesn't look until she hears Dean's voice.
"Castiel," he says, sounding weary. Cassie peeks and sees Dean, alive and standing, looking up at the angel's face with tears in his eyes. She looks up at the angel's face, too, and sees a similar expression.
"Uncle Dean," she says quietly, "This is my friend."
To Castiel's surprise, Dean hugs them both.
"Thanks for looking out for her," he says in Cas' ear.
"We must go," Castiel says, "Sam and Ada."
"Mom and Daddy?" Cassie whispers.
"Cover your eyes, Cassie," Cas says. She doesn't listen, and soon sees her parents.
Their bodies were in worse shape than Dean's had been. Cassie looks at their bloodshot eyes and crooked limbs and starts to cry.
Even when Castiel gently touches each of their foreheads and they stand, Cassie still sobs for what she'd seen. She knows that someday they will die and she will be alone. She doesn't want to think about it. It's too much of a pain for her to bear. She reaches her arms towards her mother like she did when she was much younger and wanted to be held.
Tired and worn out, the five drive home in silence. Cassie sits between Cas and her mother in the back of Sam's car. The adults can't stop looking at the angel. It's been years since he'd died, and they thought- no, they knew he was gone for good. They'd done their research. They'd even attempted things they knew wouldn't work.
Their friend was dead.
And now he was in their car.
They send Cassie to her room to play when they get back to the bunker.
"Cas," Sam says once the little girl has left, "Don't get me wrong, it's great to see you, but how in hell?"
"I'm not sure. I don't really even remember dying," he says, "The part of me that was in that box-"
"The box!" Sam and Ada say simultaneously.
"Cassie must have taken it," says Ada, "we didn't check."
"Didn't I tell you to give it to her?" Cas asked.
"We planned to," Sam said, "When she was older. She's only five years old."
Cassie, unseen by the adults, takes the empty box out of her pocket. She's listening to what they're saying. She mostly doesn't want to be alone in her daddy's room when all she can think of are her parent's dead eyes and the evil she'd felt only hours before.
"She opened it," Cas says, "I don't know what drove her to do it, but she must have. I put a piece of my grace in that box so that when the time came, my seer could release me."
"Your seer?" Ada says, only slightly indignant.
"I told you when you first were pregnant that Cassie was of heaven's interest. I figured out not long before I was killed that it's because she's a seer. And I am the angel assigned to her."
"That's why..." Sam says quietly.
"Why what, Sam?" says Dean.
"Well, you remember. Cas said we had to name Cassie after him. It didn't make sense to any of us then."
Cas nods.
"You died before you explained. I thought it was... resolved, I guess," Ada says.
"I didn't know," he says, "And then I died. Which I don't remember, as I was explaining."
"Right, go on," says Sam.
"Because the piece of me in the box was separated before I died, that is not a memory I have easy access to."
Cassie closes the box with a snap and the adults' heads swivel towards the noise.
"Cassie?" says Sam softly. She stands and steps into the room.
"I-" she says, tired and sad inside, "I just didn't want to be alone."
Sam, Ada, Cas, and Dean all hold their arms out for her. Without thinking, she climbs into Castiel's lap.
Sam and Ada are hurt. Cas is unsurprised.
The girl sits on his lap while he explains some of the spells involved with splitting off a piece of his grace and keeping it in the box. She pulls the box out of her pocket and puts it on the table.
"Oh," says Ada, "You still have it." She picks it up and inspects the marks.
"What made you keep it, Cassie?" Sam asks, "And open it?"
"It was important."
And that's all she'll say on the matter.
Ada scoops Cassie off Cas' lap when her head starts to bob and her eyelids close on their own.