God began to wonder if his universe was flawed. He had thrown his closest Archangel into oblivion. His heart tore some more, and more demons were created.

"Wait," Dean interrupted. "God's not even sure if his universe is flawed or not? What kind of a God is he?"

"God…sounds…human," Sam said.

"The Bible does say we were made in his image," Rick said.

"Our God is a doubting God?" Bobby said. "And what exactly does all this mean for Lucifer breaking out and going into a battle with Dean?"

"Breadcrumbs," Rick said, looking at the ceiling.

"Breadcrumbs?" Dean, Bobby and Sam said in unison.

"This is really starting to scare me," Dean said. "What if God doesn't want Lucifer destroyed? What if God just wants a happy reunion with Lucifer, and even if that means the human race will have to be destroyed?"

"What were you talking about with the breadcrumbs?" Bobby asked.

"A path has been laid out to lead Lucifer away from Hell. It included whatever events that lead up to his release from hell. All I can think of is God's laying a trail of breadcrumbs for Lucifer to follow out of hell. Dean and Sam were both breadcrumbs, huge ones. No offense, guys."

Dean stood up, angry. "So, what are we, just little pawns in a game? Well, I've had it. God and Lucifer can have their love spat without me and Sam."

Sam grabbed Dean. "Lucifer wants to destroy the human race. I think we're important in stopping that."

"Isn't God more powerful than Lucifer? What is all this nonsense anyway? Why did God suddenly want Lucifer free?"

"We might not know the answer to that," Bobby said, "But we know now what Lucifer's motivation is. He blames humans for his separation from God."

"Yeah, but how do we use that to stop him?" Dean asked. No one had an answer.

--

Dean drove towards Washington state wondering if humans were nothing more than playthings. It disturbed him to the core. He felt like more than a plaything. Sam, Bobby, and Castiel felt like more than a plaything. If God truly wanted to protect us from Lucifer, Dean wondered, why would he lead him out now? He wasn't sure he bought the breadcrumb idea. Nothing made sense anymore. All Dean was caring about was getting to Castiel. He hoped with all his heart that he'd hidden out at the Abbey, where he was supposedly safe. Dean couldn't even think ahead to what he'd be doing if Castiel wasn't there.

"What do you guys think of us all being pieces of some archangel?" Bobby asked.

"It made no sense to me," Dean said. "I thought people went to heaven when they died, not became an archangel."

"Well, remember Rick said that it was the first time around it happened. And how God made it so people could earn a place in heaven the second time around."

"Maybe. I don't like the idea that I used to be a pimple or something on an archangel. It's weird."

"Dean, archangel's don't get pimples." Sam said.

"How do you know?" Dean snarled. "Have a sense of humor for once, Sam."

Sam ignored Dean's nastiness, knowing it stemmed from Dean's pain.

"What about how demons were pieces of God originally? I thought that was interesting. Not to mention impossible," Sam said. "God's divine, demons aren't even close."

"Yeah, but Lucifer was once a divine archangel, and look at him now," Bobby said. "Who knows what happens when divinity gets unhappy?"

--

At a gas station, Sam bought a newspaper to see if anything apocalyptic was happening. At first he thought there was nothing newsworthy, until he took a second look at a tiny article on page 3.

"This is interesting, you guys," Sam said. "Two people were murdered at the exact same time at opposite sides of the globe. The only reason the journalist heard about it was he ran across the coincidence on Twitter. What was unusual about it was loved ones were twittering the birthdays of the people that were murdered. The guy who wrote the article dug deeper and discovered not only had they been born on the same day, they'd been born the exact same minute. Different time zones by far, but in real time it was the exact same minute. Born the same minute, and killed the same minute."

"Their lives were exactly the same length," Dean said. "That's gotta be rare!"

"Not only the exact same length, but lived their lives at the same time? Wow," Bobby said. "I don't think this is a coincidence. This smells like a ritual to me."

"What could this mean?" Dean asked.

"I have no idea."

--

Pulling into the Abbey a few days later, Dean braced himself for disappointment. This was it. Either Castiel was here and he could let out a huge sigh of relief, and actually feel happy again, or he wasn't, and Dean could face days of worry and depression. Not just days. Weeks. Years. Dean had no idea of knowing he'd ever lay eyes on Castiel again.

One of the nuns greeted them, and Dean was asking about Castiel before she could even finish saying hello.

"Yes, he was here, but left a day or so ago," she told him."

"He was?" Dean was already sighing with relief, even though he felt sharp disappointment he wouldn't see Castiel immediately. "Did he say why he left? What was he doing here?"

The nun seemed a little puzzled that they didn't know. "He was here to learn to meditate. He was making great progress, and then said he needed to leave. We did think it was odd he showed up without a car. Do you all live near here?"

"Not even close," Dean said. "Did he leave me a message?" he asked hopefully.

"No, he was rather quiet. Said he needed to learn to meditate, and then left. We don't ask questions, really."

Dean wanted to strangle him for not leaving him a message, but not as much as he wanted to hold him and kiss him and speak to him. He got a grip on himself. Cas must be acting discreet for a reason. He was going to have to be patient.

--

"Well, at least we know he's alive, or has been recently," Bobby said as they were unpacking in one of the cabins. They had asked if they could spend a couple nights here, in case Castiel returned.

"Would you leave out the 'has been recently'?" Dean asked. "He's alive. I can't let myself believe otherwise."

Bobby and Sam just nodded, understanding. They too wanted Castiel to be alive.

--

Sam spent some time searching the internet for any other unusual news. It didn't take him long to discover there had been more murders in kind with what he'd found in that article.

A couple of teenagers in Ohio had been killed in the same way, their throats slashed at the exact same time. Despite the fact that they were 300 miles apart that night, their time of death by the coroner was identical. Not only that, they had been born in the same hospital, at the same time, and were called the 'hospital twins' by the community because of it. They grew up together being best friends.

"Wow, something really is going on here," Bobby said. "Do you know how rare it has to be for people born at the exact same time to die at the exact same time? It just doesn't happen. At least not to my knowledge."

Sam found a few more cases of the same thing with more digging. "Write down everywhere that these people are being killed, and their birth times and death times. It could be important," Bobby said.

Bobby did a little digging around of his own, first to ask the nuns if Castiel had specified what kind of meditation and/or why he needed to learn. He hadn't. Bobby did learn the type of meditation though, that the nuns taught him. It was a distinct breathing exercise designed to help people connect with their true selves, and involved imagining a tether that tied them to that true self.

"You taught him that specific visualization even though he didn't request anything in particular?" Bobby asked with eyebrows raised. They confirmed it. Bobby told Dean and Sam, and they all concluded that Castiel must be trying to reach his angelhood again. Dean was grateful to at least know something about what was going on with Cas, and then shoved his feelings about what that could ultimately mean for their relationship later into a space inside him. He didn't plan on looking at for awhile.

Bobby also poured through his books to see if they listed any rituals that involved lives that lived identical times.

A couple days went by and Castiel hadn't shown up. Dean was getting ansty and bored with sitting around. Plus he had this feeling Castiel wasn't showing up there anytime soon. Dean was disappointed. Here he was, sitting in this safe place and at least Cas could show some courtesy and pop in for a minute. Then Dean tossed the thought out, realizing that Castiel could very well be in trouble.

Everyone agreed to drive to Ohio and look into the deaths there, since the double murder was the only one so far that had both of the murders happening in the same state. Each day Sam found news about another similar double murder, but it was getting to be rare if the people were in even the same country. Sam diligently logged each one he could find on a spreadsheet.

Something that stood out too was that each time a murder happened, their throats were cut. And then Sam found some forensic notes that had bled into general cyberspace.

"Wow," Sam told everyone. "Not only did they live the exact same length of time, and have their throats cut, - well first I should say another case happened in the US. Down in Florida. The coroner was saying that they both lost the exact amount of blood from the cut, which isn't too unusual, I guess, but the fact that the blood they lost was missing from the crime scenes – someone took it."

"Now this really smells like a ritual," Bobby said. "I wonder if that happened for each case, and if this is just the first time we saw it documented?"

"I bet it is," Sam said.

Bobby continued to pour through his books when it wasn't his turn to drive.

--

Dean lay flat on the motel bed in Wisconsin, staring at the dark ceiling. They'd taken so many turns driving that they hadn't stopped for a motel until now. It was nice to be on a bed again, but he was painfully aware that he wasn't curled up next to Castiel. He lay awake and found that secret compartment inside him opening up and filling him with questions.

Was Castiel becoming an angel again? He wondered. If he was, Dean couldn't decide if that was good or bad. Part of his heart felt it was bad, because Dean might never be close to him again if Castiel wasn't human. Part of his heart wanted to be happy for Cas, because he could be getting back what was wrongfully taken from him, his angelhood. Dean felt so confused but knew this was all speculation. His stirring mind finally decided the only thing that was a fact was that Dean missed him terribly, right before he fell into a strained sleep.