Emma woke up at dawn. Still in love with Dean Winchester. She groaned and pushed the thought out of her head. She needed a clear mind for what was to come today. This was the day that changed everything.

She sighed and climbed out of bed. She stopped in front of the mirror, wanting to memorize every little detail about herself. She had talked to Cas about this. The chances that they got out of this alive were next to nothing. She had accepted that. She was perfectly okay with sacrificing her life if it meant providing a safe life for her sister. For Sam, and for both of them to lead the happy life they deserved together, once they'd realize how deeply they'd fallen for each other. For Dean. For her Dean. It'd be hard for them, but they'd get over it. At least, so she hoped.

She turned around, wanting to grab her bag and pack a few things. But then it occurred to her that there was nothing she needed to take with her apart from her conscience, her memories, and her angel blade. And she already had those all on her.

She walked out of her room, refusing to look back and risk having her mind changed. Cas was waiting for her outside. She wanted so badly that she'd had a chance to say goodbye, even if they didn't know it was a goodbye. She wanted nothing but a chance to look at them one more time and leave for battle with their image imprinted on the back of her mind. With their voices as a soundtrack.

She shook her head, knowing how bad of an idea this was. She had already made up her mind that her heart couldn't stand a goodbye, because, while she had accepted the possibility of not coming back, the hope of seeing them again was kind of her fuel for this whole crazy thing. And still, as she walked past Melody's room, her legs stopped. She couldn't move, she couldn't breathe. She'd seen Dean for the last time last night. She couldn't say goodbye to Sam. But she'd be damned if she would leave for this suicidal mission without seeing her sister's face again. Mel was the main reason why she was going through this in the first place.

She cracked the door open, careful not to make any noise. It was the crack of dawn, so she knew Mel had to be asleep. She saw her little sister curled up under the sheets, her blond hair spread over the pillows, a peaceful look on her face, her lips slightly parted. This was the only reassurance she needed. She smiled to herself, blinked back the tears and shut the door behind her.

Okay. She was ready.

Or so she thought.

"Em?"

She gasped and squeezed her eyes shut. Not again. Not now.

She considered pretending she hadn't heard and walking away just like that, but feeling his aura behind her kept her frozen in place. How silly of her to think she could sneak around him just like that. Even if between them was nothing but silence, she was foolish to think there was any way to keep her soul from calling to him so loud, the shockwaves kept bringing him to her.

She turned around and forced a painful smile.

"Dean," she whispered, breathlessly. "'Morning. Why are you up so early?"

He took a few steps towards her, his gaze scrutinizing her.

"Where are you going?" he asked her, ignoring her earlier question. Of course. Of course he saw through her.

Emma gulped, her mouth so dry she could barely speak.

"N-Nowhere," she stammered then she chuckled nervously. "I-I mean, I couldn't sleep and I thought I'd go for a walk."

Dean got even closer, and her thoughts went flying. Please, don't let him come any closer, she prayed. No more. No more. One more step and I'll be lost. One more and I'll never be able to walk away from him.

He stopped inches from her, shattering her every defense. It took every ounce of self-control to restrain her impulses.

"I don't believe you," Dean told her sharply, articulating every sound, more intense than Emma had ever seen him. "Where are you going, Emma?"

She gulped, perfectly aware that he'd be able to read through every lie that was about to roll over her tongue. There was no going past him right now.

"I-I told you. For a walk."

"And I told you I don't believe you," he repeated, and Emma's breaths started to fasten.

"Dean—"

"No, Emma," he cut her off. "Please. Whatever it is you wanna do, whatever it is you think might make it better, it won't. I don't know and I don't give a rat's ass where you wanna go. Don't. Stay here, dammit, we can fix this."

His eyes captured hers and his face was painfully close to hers. They were breathing the same electrically charged air. She had sought shelter for so long and now that she knew it was in his arms, she had to leave it. It was just so unfair.

She shook her head helplessly. "You can't. I'm sorry, Dean."

She leaned in with the intention to kiss him, if only for the first and last time. As she touched his shoulder, she felt him stiffen and she felt his aura intensify, his heart speeding. There was no denying, they both longed for it. But she knew that, the moment their lips touched, she would never be able to go. She'd abandon everything for one broken human. She'd stay, if only to fix her Dean. So she purposefully avoided his lips and kissed his cheek so softly it resembled the touch of the lightest feather.

Dean caught her wrist just as her lips left his skin; now, there were no more than millimeters between their mouths and she saw it in his eyes, how badly he wanted to close that distance.

"Emma," he whispered her name like a prayer and she couldn't stand it, dammit, she could not stand him anymore. There was only so much power of will a human can have.

"I'm sorry, Dean," she whispered back, against his lips, and she felt a small tear slip from the corner of her eye.

With a movement he didn't have time to catch, Emma pressed two fingers on the inside of his wrist and his lids fluttered closed, depriving her of the glow of their green. Dean fell on the floor, at her feet, unconscious. Just a little trick Cas had taught her, just in case. She had prayed so badly that she wouldn't need to use it.

"I'm sorry," she muttered again, even though Dean couldn't hear her anymore, and she left without looking back this time.

Cas was waiting for her outside, by his car.

"Are you prepared?" he asked her when he caught sight of her.

She nodded wordlessly and avoided his gaze, but Cas noticed her mood.

"Is there something wrong? Did you have any unexpected encounters?"

Emma shook her head, not trusting herself enough to voice the words banging so loud against the defenses of her mind, they deafened her. There was nothing Cas needed to know now. Nothing else mattered than their task.

"It was nothing important," she lied. "Let's go. We have a long day ahead of us."

Mel heard Emma. With a light sleep like hers, it was impossible not to wake up when she heard her sister open the door of her bedroom. She knew what Emma was there for. She was leaving. It was happening today.

She didn't give any sign that she was awake. She didn't think it was necessary. She knew Emma enough to know that it would've just made things harder and more complicated for her. Instead, she waited until the voices outside her door died out and got out of bed, grabbing her phone.

She searched through the contacts until she found the one she needed and she pressed dial. It rang a few times until he picked up.

"Hey," Mel whispered. "It's me. You were right. My sister just left. I just called to let you know that I'm in."

She could almost hear his smile on the other end of the line. "That's the spirit, blondie."

Emma and Cas went over the plan all day long. They had had to leave at dawn in order to avoid the others, but it was all staged to happen after sunset.

It was near. Emma felt it in the air. Her lungs cherished every breath of fresh air they took. She and Cas were several feet away from the playground were the portal to Heaven was.

"Are you entirely certain that you know what to do?" Cas asked her for the twentieth time.

She sighed. "Yes, Cas. That little girl and the mom are the guards. We move fast, take them down, then seal the portal before too many angels have a chance to make their way back here, then we hope they're not too many and we can handle them."

Cas sighed and glared at her, clearly not too happy with her explanation.

"I know, I know," Emma told him before he had a chance to remind her over and over again how serious of an issue this was. "Trust me, Cas, I know this is big. But I've got it. Now we'd better get moving."

Truth was, she was scared out of her mind. The clock was ticking. She counted her blessings. Cas nodded and she could practically hear the cannons go off. Show time.

They moved fast, indeed, but silent as cats. They sneaked up on the guards as close as they could without being seen. Emma's heart was beating so hard she could feel it slam against her rib cage.

"I will go against the mother," Cas whispered to him, and by the intensity in his voice, Emma could tell he shared her fears and anxieties, though he was by far more focused. "You should take the child, then rush to the portal and channel the grace like I instructed you."

She nodded and swallowed against her feelings. She needed her whole focus.

Then everything happened in a haze. Cas jumped on the mother. She must've sensed him, because she fought back with no hesitation. They were still caught in a lethal dance, Cas' moves precise and deathly, when Emma went to attack the child.

She pulled out her angel blade, channeled grace in her muscles and felt her senses sharpen. She went straight for her heart, not affording to waste any time or to give her enough of an opening to fight back. However, the angel ducked and Emma missed her shot, so she did the next best thing she could, just like Cas had taught her. She didn't hesitate. She pushed her muscles before they had a chance to relax, never missing a beat, and was about to strike again.

But the little angel never gave her the chance. She didn't fight back, and Emma was left baffled, not knowing how to react, as the angel flew past her.

"Emma, the portal, now!" Cas shouted at her, and she saw that he had already taken out his angel.

She turned around and saw that the little angel had vanished into thin air. She stopped breathing when she realized what she'd done. She'd gone back to Heaven. She was going to come back with reinforcements.

"Hurry up, before they ambush us!" Cas prompted her, and she pulled herself together.

Emma closed her eyes and tried to take deep breaths, visualizing the grace flow throw her circulatory system, from the smallest vessels through her veins all the way to her heart, which pumped it into her arteries, filling her with energy. She tried to connect with the grace of the portal, since Cas had told her that the only way to close the portal was extract its energy, so that it wouldn't have any fuel left to run on, and then dissipate that energy into thin air so that the former portal would be nothing less than a broken wormhole.

She heard the ruffle of wings around her, but she tried to keep her mind off of it. In the distance, she heard Cas grunt and kick and she knew that he was trying to cover for her, keeping every angel that had managed to sneak out through the portal away from her. She just hoped he diverted them long enough for her to do her job. She felt it. It was close now. Any minute now. She was—

She gasped for air as she fell to the ground, one of the angels knocking her down just before she got the chance to finish the job. She got on her feet as fast as she could, ready to fight back, and she took in the scene. Cas stood by her side, bloody and muddy and breathing heavily, and before them stood a dozen angels.

"Emma—" Cas began in a hushed voice, but whatever it was he wanted to say to her, she didn't want to hear it. She needed to stick to the plan.

"We can do this," she told him, more for her sake and encouragement than his. "I just have to fight my way through them as efficiently as I can, and you need to keep them off my ass for just a while. I almost had it. I only need a few seconds."

"Emma, even if you manage that, we are still outnumbered. We can't make it."

She swallowed around the lumped that was forming in her throat. Focus. Focus. Focus.

"I know," she said simply, and Cas understood every word she wasn't saying. That she was perfectly aware that they wouldn't make it. That it was a risk she was willing to take. That she'd known all along that this possibility existed. That she would take it nonetheless because she owed that to herself, to her sister, to the Winchesters and to every single person she'd left behind along the way. The cards were dealt and even if she were to lose the game, she'd play the hell out of it.

She launched herself in the middle of them, swinging her blade left and right, and she felt Cas moving by her side in the same way. She felt sharp edges grazing her skin, tearing her flesh, but she didn't stop. She couldn't stop. She had to get to that portal.

For the briefest second, Cas had managed to create a small opening for her, at the cost of being surrounded by five or six angels. She hoped he could handle them, that it'd be enough to accomplish what they needed.

It wasn't.

She was knocked down again and a few angels were lounging at her, too. How many of these bastards were there? She got back on her feet and prepared for another spin in this crazy carousel, but as she took the scenery in, she lost all hope.

This was impossible. They'd die for nothing. Not only would she leave her sister and the Winchesters alone, breaking their hearts, but she would also leave them behind to fight this stupid war with two men down. Without her or Cas. Stupid, stupid idea. She and Cas were now back to back, facing more angels than she could dare to count. She'd never seen so many in one place. They had them surrounded. Helpless. At their mercy.

Emma swallowed hardly. "Cas?" He didn't answer right away, but she knew he had heard her, and that he understood.

"I know," he replied. "It was an honor fighting this war alongside you."

She gave a humorless laugh. "Same goes for me, Cas. But it ain't over yet. We're still going down swinging."

Back to back, they were about to launch themselves into this suicidal mess, when the mass of angels parted to create some sort of pathway that led to the two of them. And at the other end of it stood Emma's nightmare incarnated, dressed up in a suit, with cruel, merciless blue eyes sunk in his orbits.

"Raziel," she whispered breathlessly, and prayed that her knees wouldn't give in just now. Actually, she wasn't really praying. It would've been pretty ridiculous, considering she was now facing the blade of the very thing she had used to pray to.

"Well, well," Raziel began to talk, sounding rather bored than bothered. "You've been quite the pain in the ass, haven't you?"

He started walking towards them between the angel soldiers fighting for them. Emma saw Cas step in front of her, protectively, and she wanted so badly to tell him there was no need for this. They weren't gonna make it anyway. What use would it be?

Raziel chuckled maliciously at Cas' act of courage and loyalty.

"How foolish of you to think you can protect your little human," he mocked Cas. "Quite brave. But foolish nonetheless. Seeing your affection towards her, I think I'm gonna kill her nice and slow first, just to spite you."

Emma saw the muscles in Cas' back tense, and she meant to put her hand on his shoulder, but she found that she was unable to move.

"You will not lay a finger on her," Cas spoke intensely and fierce.

"I'd like to see you stop me," Raziel kept mocking them. "You really thought you could march in here and stand against us? Have you no self-preservation? You came in like rats into my cage!"

He laughed loudly, his voice booming in the night, making Emma's blood freeze in her veins.

"Oh, I'm so gonna enjoy killing you off," he laughed to himself like he had just come up with the funniest joke anyone's ever heard. "You, Castiel, spawn of treachery, the one who turned his back on Heaven. I've been waiting for a long time to get my hands on you. And you, silly girl, who's been nothing but trouble for the past years. The only thing shadowing this glorious night is not being able to end your little sister as well, along with those Winchester boys you slick bitches were multiplies after. But all in due time."

As Raziel's words registered in Emma's head and she acknowledged the threat over Melody and the boys, her body finally reacted and she gripped her blade and lounged for that bastard's neck.

"Don't you dare go anywhere near them," she roared, wanting nothing more than to put that blade through that asshole's skull, but Cas pulled her back before the other angels would put their blades through hers.

Raziel seemed to find it amusing and gave a whole-hearted laugh.

"You ants," he snarled. "I'm already getting bored of this game. How about we end the charade, shall we?"

He extended his arms with the highest level of arrogance he was capable of, pulling an angel blade out of his sleeve, and Emma and Cas knew their minutes were counted. Any moment now. Emma realized she'd made her peace with it. She was still resentful and her lungs filled with the heaviness of regrets and fear for what awaited her on the other side. She hated the unknown. But other than that, she had accepted her fate. Any. Moment. Now. She waited for the blow.

It came out from somewhere behind her.

She felt the sharp, cold edge of a blade near her skin.

Then it flew right past her.

And it stopped right between Raziel's eyes, making him glow like a Christmas tree.

The other angels stood there frozen, unable to fully process what had just happened. The girl and the rogue angel should have died. Yet they were still standing. And their leader was dead.

Emma and Cas let out the breath they were holding, not really understanding either. They turned around in the direction from where the blade had come and Emma gasped as the pieces fell into place in her head when she saw who had thrown it.

"Surprise, motherfuckers!"

A few feet away, surrounded by dozens of angels who looked strangely enough on their side, rolling an angel blade around her fingers, stood Melody, with the most wicked smirk on her face.

Cha ching! Hoped you liked it and enjoyed it as much as I did! This chapter was lots of fun to write.

Anyway, for some pretty awesome gifs and photoshoped pictures, check out my Tumblr blog that I created for this story. I've been told the link still doesn't work, so if you're interested, you can look it up on Tumblr. The url is supernatural-fanfictional.

Lots of love, xoxo