Chapter Eleven
Turnaround Outside

Naomi's fury radiated beyond her office. Anyone walking in the general vicinity could feel her anger simmering to the surface, and everyone knew that Naomi never became angry. Not like this.

Amber weathered the storm fairly well, given the circumstances.

"Five dead, five! You said you had Castiel and Metatron!" Naomi yelled.

"Benjamin sent me to report to you, but when I returned, they were all dead. Except Gideon. He wasn't there."

"Two were killed by Leviathan," Naomi continued. "Why were Leviathan there?"

"I don't know, ma'am," Amber answered. "But when I returned, one of the demons Benjamin killed was alive and cavorting with Therion."

"Just the two of them?"

"Yes, there was no sign of Metatron or Castiel."

"Anything else?"

"No, ma'am."

"Do we have status on Crowley's other attacks?" she asked.

Amber nodded. "Yes, ma'am. They've stopped attacking schools, but we have intelligence Crowley may target other groups soon."

"Any specifics?"

"We know Crowley's only goal is to distract the Winchesters," Amber replied. "Sapphire will be back soon with additional reports."

"Dismissed," Naomi ordered.

"I do not know," Castiel repeated. "What part of that escapes your understanding?"

"Cool it, both of you!" Dean interjected.

Sam barely managed to hold back, but Dean knocked him into his chair.

"Dude, reign it in, you can barely stand," Dean said.

"If I knew how to complete the trial," Cas continued more calmly, "then I would tell you."

"Fine, then, who would know?" Sam asked. "Who would know how to remove a mark from a living soul?"

"That's not the problem," the angel replied. "Removing a mark is nothing, the problem is that the mortals we're discussing have taken the mark voluntarily. I can remove a brand placed by force. A mark added to a willing soul? No angel can remove that. Not without killing the individual."

"That's not an answer, Cas!"

"Sam, cool it," Dean cut in.

"I like this," Ellie added casually. "Three guys fighting over me."

The angel began, "We aren't fighting over you, just how to – "

"Cas, not now," Dean said. "Let's focus on what we know."

"When a claim is placed on a living soul, it is branded," Cas began.

"Marks added by way of demon details stick harder," Dean added.

"And as far as we know, all the methods used to expunge those marks wind up killing the person," Sam completed. "Unless you deal with another demon – "

"Sorry, what?" Ellie asked.

Sam answered, "Kevin said that wouldn't work for this trial, but you can make a deal with a demon to remove the claim on a soul."

"One time, Sam held off the hellhounds while I got the devil bitch in a trap," Dean recounted. "And we made a deal. I'd let her out if she'd let the guy live."

"That was before we knew how to kill demons," Sam said.

Cas said, "That's another reason why that wouldn't work now. Demons won't deal with a Winchester," the angel said to Ellie. "They're known for having no mercy."

"Towards demonic douchebags," Dean commented.

"Ah," Ellie said, sitting down. "Besides, that'd mean your soul would be marked instead, wouldn't it?"

"Yeah," Sam agreed.

The room filled with silence.

"Oh, com'on!" Dean exclaimed. "We gotta know something more than that."

"What about those, uh, things that collect souls?" Ellie suggested. "The evil dogs."

"Hellhounds," Sam said. "They must hone in on the mark."

"Fido can sniff'em out?" Dean asked as he scribbled a note and pinned it to the corkboard. "I dunno what that means."

"Cas, what about how souls are branded?" Sam asked.

"I never branded a soul before," Castiel replied. He slipped into wide-eyed contemplation and didn't elaborate.

After about two minutes, Dean spoke up. "Uh, Cas. Hello? Earth to Cas?"

The angel shook his head clear and made eye contact with Dean. "Did you just refer to yourself as 'Earth'? Is that a new nickname?" he asked Dean.

"No it's just, uh," Dean began. He realized explaining the expression to Cas might take too much time, so he went back to the topic at hand. "Balthazar did it, didn't he?"

"Yes, he did."

"How?" Sam followed up immediately.

The angel shook his head. "I imagine it had something to do with the deals he struck."

"Deals? As in plural?" Dean asked. "I thought it was just that one kid."

"Dean, not now," Sam said. "Cas, tell us everything about these deals."

"It's basic binding magic, I'm sure there's a book about it somewhere."

"That's not – " Sam began.

Cas interrupted, "Binding is different, and much easier, than unbinding magic."

Ellie asked, "What about the special cases you mentioned before? You said angels could remove marks from people who have made deals."

"Indeed," the angel replied. "A mark forced on someone's soul can be purged, burned away. But that same effect on a willing soul is always fatal."

"Why?" Dean asked.

The angel shrugged. "Unbinding a mark takes serious power, and when the soul's branded willingly, it takes ten times more. Removing it from a living soul simply comes at the expense of the body."

Sam sat up straight. "What if it isn't in the body?"

"That would be an effective measure," Cas said, "but then you would die, and the effort would be in vain."

"So if Ellie's soul is in her body, it burns away her body, and if the soul isn't contained, then it burns away my body?" Sam asked.

"Assuming you were stupid enough to try, yes," Cas replied.

"But that's something," Dean said, pinning up another note to the board. "A way to remove the mark and not kill Ellie. Feels like we're halfway there."

"All we'd need to do is figure out how to keep Sam alive," Casitel added. "That seems easier."

"Seriously?" Sam asked.

Dean turned to Ellie, "This is why we don't usually have brainstorming sessions."

"Okay, a crossroads demon can remove a mark from a soul if a deal is made," Sam started. "I vote we summon one for a heart-to-heart."

"I gotta better idea," Dean replied.