"Anything?" Dean asked me and Sam, offering us beers. I accepted mine with a smile, pouring over my notes.

"Nada." Sam said, accepting his drink.

"Nothing here, too." I agreed. "Each spell I try just fizzles out. I actually burnt more holes in this shirt." I said, holding up the fringes of said shirt.

"Yeah." Dean nodded, cracking open his own. "You're gonna run out of shirts at this rate."

"You know, I can't believe I'm gonna say this, but, for once, I actually wish Rowena was here. I mean, maybe she could track down Amara. She's done it before."

"Yeah, but you can bet she and the Book are gonna stay stashed until this whole thing is over. Where's Chuck?"

I shrugged as Sam answered. "Sleeping in, I guess."

"Does God sleep?" Dean asked.

"I know he takes really long showers."

"Right?" Dean agreed. "And sings, too… Like… crappy old folk songs. I had to tell him to cool it three times."

"You told God to cool it?" Sam asked with a laugh.

"Yeah, I sleep. Don't you agree, Diana?" He asked.

"I actually like his singing voice." I answered.

"You know, I know this is a really strange situation and all, but it's also really amazing, you know? I mean, it's God." Sam let out a small chuckle. "There's so many things I want to ask him, uh, like, uh, t-the planets, you know? Why are they round? Or ears. I always thought they were strange," he could've gone on, but Dean cut him off.

"Okay, fanboy, calm down." He said. "Let's stay focused. We got to find Lucifer before it's too late."

"Find Lucifer?" I asked.

"Too late?" Sam asked.

Dean just nodded. "Amara is… she's in my head." Both of us cast him sharp looks. "Hey, I didn't ask for it, okay? She just showed up. But she's showing me visions of…" I could almost hear him say Castiel's name, but he changed his mind. "Of Lucifer." Dean fixed. "By Lucifer, I mean Cas, and he looks like crap," I let out a small wince. "Like she's really doing a number on him."

I saw Chuck walking in behind Dean, wearing a robe that certainly wasn't his. "Shush." I told them quickly.

"Hey. Morning." Sam said, and I could hear him snicker as Dean turned around.

Dean did a doubletake. "Is that my robe?"

"I'm telling you guys, it's a mistake to get mixed up with Lucifer." Chuck warned us. "Diana, you know more than anything. And as much as it pained me, I had to walk away. Too much drama." He walked past us. "Do you have any bacon?"

"You eat bacon?" Dean asked.

"Yeah."

"I'll cook for everyone." I offered. "Anybody want anything else besides bacon? Eggs? Toast?"

"I'll say yes to that!" Dean said, smiling brightly. Sam suddenly got all of our attention.

"Hey, guys, this just came up. Looks like that fog, the, um... Amara fog, uh, hit another town." He said.

"And?" Dean asked.

"And this one wasn't as lucky as the last one. Thousands died. Uh, everybody died. But, uh, except for one man."

Dean turned to Chuck, surprised and… slightly angry. "How'd you miss that one?" He asked.

"She's baiting me. I can't respond every time." Chuck explained. "I won't be manipulated."

"Yeah, but thousands of people are dead." Dean argued.

"Unfortunately." Chuck agreed. "So find her."

"Here, look at these," I swirled my notebook around to Chuck and Dean. "I'm trying to figure out something that will protect towns. Any of these plans look plausible or workable?" I had negative feelings on all of them, but I wanted Chuck's opinion on it just in case.

"Oh yeah, they all look plausible." Chuck agreed, nodding as he flipped through the pages. "Not against Amara, of course, but against anything else with lesser power yeah!"

"Great." I muttered, snagging the theories back from them. Dean cocked his head to the side, turning the page as he tried to make sense of one of them.

"What in the hell did you write this in?" He asked. "It's… Weird and circly and not English."

"Pictish Swirl." Chuck answered. "Good job, by the way. They really are good. Just not powerful enough."

"Thanks." I grabbed the page from Dean, looked at it, and crumpled it up in to a ball. "So, bacon, eggs, and toast, all in favor?" I got four raised hands, with two being from Dean. "Awesome, be back in a minute."

When I returned with the food, Sam and Dean were suited up to leave. I shrugged, threw the bacon and eggs on top of the toast for the brothers, and they left to go investigate the sole survivor. I stayed behind with Chuck, who munched happily away at his food as I tried to figure out different ways to protect towns.

"What about a… A blimp?" I offered. "One that…" I let out a sigh. "One that rains magic protection dust all over the world, and sends us in to a thousand centuries of peace?"

"Now you're phishing." Chuck commented, pointing a piece of bacon at me. "They recognized your writing."

"What?!" I asked.

"The swirly letters. Sam saw them on your notes before. He has copies. He'll probably ask you to translate."

"Do they know?"

"No." Chuck assured me. "Just letting you know."

"Ok." I nodded, and focused on working again. "Any chance that any idea or thing I formulate has a shot at working to defend people against Amara."

"Oh yeah."

"How much?"

"Well, your blimp protection dust idea, I'd say somewhere in the point-zero range," he answered. "But some of them have promise."

"Really? Like what?" I dared.

"I dunno. The idea of a protecting ring wasn't bad." He said. "And the anti-Amara jewelry too."

"Just out of curiosity, why're you letting me think all these up?" I asked. "I mean, you're gonna stop Amara, right? You said that was why you came back. Why should I worry about defending against her if you're going to trap her again when we find her?"

When he didn't answer, I had a bad feeling.

"You… You are going to stop her, right?" I asked. "And why did you voluntarily write a book nobody will read? I mean, you wrote for an audience of one, but we all know you want others to fill in that audience too. That's why you beamed me in with you and Metatron, so you wouldn't be lonely."

He didn't answer still, just kept eating. "Chuck," I said slowly. "Do you intend to win?"

"I do."

"And how do you define winning?"

"I know Amara, Diana." He said. "Her beef is with me, not the rest of you."

"So, what, are you just going to roll over and give up?" I asked. He just pushed his empty plate aside. "Seriously? That's what you came back for? To give her the world? To die and give up?"

"It's a solid strategy." Chuck defended. "And I won't be dying. I'll be caged. I'll trade myself for... everything I created. The world will keep spinning, life will go on," he shrugged. "The world has gone on without me being an active part of it for a fair amount of time. I'm certain that it can continue if Amara and I switch places."

"Hell hath no fury like a scorned woman." I stated. "And your sister is that times, like, at least an infinity amount of millions. She's been locked up since the dawn of time, maybe a little earlier!" I took a breath. "She wants the world, alright, but she'll want to destroy it. You picked this over her. She won't want to keep the rest of us along as a reminder of that."

"If my plan doesn't work, then the rest of you will step up. You, Sam, Dean, Cas, all of you will have to find a way." He motioned to my notes. "Like you're doing now."

"You said that nothing I was doing was going to be strong enough."

"Not on your own." He said. "You'll need some angel juice in there to offset the rest of the power needed, without overblowing it and destroying everything."

"Don't I already have that?"

"Yours is diluted, backlash from a spell." He answered. "You would need pure angelic power."

"Like grace?" I asked. "I still have some of Metatron's left over. I could easily use that."

"You would need a lot more than what I'm estimating is… One-third of a vial left." He guessed.

"Half." I muttered. Chuck just smiled.

"But you see my point?" He asked. "Your best bet would be the individualized necklaces or bracelets or charms, something that people could keep on them easily. The problem then lies in having enough juice to do that many, and widespread distribution. That's where having the angels comes in."

"You want me to work with the angels?"

"If it comes to that, yes." Chuck agreed. "Amara is torturing Lucifer right now, according to Dean. This indicates that she hasn't made an alliance with him. He would be able to get you the distribution and angel magic to make it work."

"What about Cas?" I offered.

"Lucifer is still in control."

"He could cast him out?"

"You know that won't happen." Chuck reminded me. "Not as long as Amara is still a threat."

I went back to work as Chuck got up, taking his plate with him. His words cycled through over and over in my head, almost like a broken record.

Chuck returned a little later with what looked like Dean's laptop, and made a sour face at it. "Wow. That is a LOT of porn." He flicked the laptop around to me. "Did you know about all this?" He asked. I ignored it, and kept working. "Suit yourself." He muttered, flicking through Dean's computer.

He was right, after all.

As long as Amara was out there, and a threat, I was going to have work to do.