Ch 38

They wasted no time, packing only the bare essentials of what they would need in case they were attacked.

It was a day's drive away. Her mom's old house before she met her dad. Bobby cracked it. Her mom lived on an old ranch, Raven's Claw. Not of the most popular places and not given the most friendliest of names. But there was a reason for that.

Cass laid asleep with her head in dean's lap while he drove and Sam sat in back with a snoring Bobby.

"What do you think we'll find when we get there?"

"I have no idea Sammy...the stuff Bobby said he read about what had happened there before Cass's mom was born...I can only hope some things aren't still hanging around. They won't be happy to see us there."

Cass was slightly awake listening to the boys' conversation. She knew Dean was right and she knew she would have to cross that threshold alone. The question was, how? Dean...NONE of them would agree to it. But she knew that was one of the many reasons Tessa was pushing her to practice. Her mom's journal stated that she wouldn't be able to find what she was looking for with "blocked vision." She could only think that her mom was talking about having to use her other sight. But how would her mom figure out that she would figure that out? More than actually finding these weapons to help kill Nero, she was hoping to find some answers.
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"You sent me to a dead end!"

"What are you talking about? "

"They weren't there! They weren't at the house!"

"Well, it's not like it should be that hard to track down their beloved car. You have your eyes open and I'll have mine do the same."

"Who's to say they haven't figured it out?! Who's to say they haven't already found it?!" Nero paced the room getting anxious. He was SO close. He only had to wait two more days for the alignment of the stars that he needed for the ritual to be complete.

"Nervous are we?" Crowley asked fairly amused.

Nero grabbed Crowley by the collar of his shirt and flung him up against a wall bracing him under his arm.

"Cross me...and even after my demise you will pay..."

"Empty promises don't scare me." Crowley pushed Nero off of him and straightened his suit back out.

"Now if you'll excuse me I have to find rocky, Bullwinkle."
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They arrived at the ranch and Bobby and Cass started to unpack the trunk.

"Bobby...you KNOW I have to go in there...alone...reaper status, I know you do."

"And you know none of us would let you," Bobby responded.

"Yeah...I do..." Cass put Bobby in a sleeper choke hold while the boys were busy inspecting a map of the ranch they had laid on the hood.

"Dean! Sam! Something's wrong with Bobby!"

Both boys came running around to the back of the car.

"What happened?" Both boys were leaned over trying to check on Bobby while Cass knocked Dean out across the back of his head first.

"Sorry baby."

Sam had a second to react and rolled out of the way before Cass had a chance to strike him.

"Cass...what are you doing?"

"Sam...I need to do this...ALONE...those spirits in there, they'll tear all of you to shreds! I'm part of their line, we share the same blood, they won't hurt me."

"We don't know th..." Sam passed out and fell to the ground to reveal Tessa behind him.

"What did you do?" Cass asked as she ran to check on Sam.

"He's fine, but you're running out of time. Nero AND Crowley are getting hot on your trail. Hurry! Before it's too late."

And she was gone. Cass placed all the boys close to the car as possible and put a salt circle surrounding them all. She got herself comfortable in the backseat and focused.

She opened her eyes to find herself standing outside the circle, the entrance to the ranch just a few feet away from her. The field was scattered with spirits of all shapes, sizes, and...decays. Some looking more lively than others. She moved carefully as she made her way to the center where they all seemed to rotate around. No one hardly paid her any attention as long as she kept her pace matched with theirs. She gets closer and closer to the opening they've created between all of them. Its only when she steps inside the opening do all of them stop.

Frozen, partially in fear and also trying to mimic the rest of them Cass looks at each of them ahead of her on the other side of the clearing. All of them are staring at her as if actually seeing her for the first time. Questioning, maybe daring her to continue. She takes another step and their heads turn up to the sides like a puppy wondering what you're up to. She takes another step and their heads straighten. Another step and they start to look angry, but still no one dares to step in the clearing with her.

"What is it you seek?" A woman, she resembles her mother vaguely from what Cass can remember of her asks.

"I am here for that which can slay a demon of power. Once a fledgling now crazed of power...My mother, she left me a journal telling me to look here. That the weapons and other materials I would need to END the fight would be here."

"And you are alive? How do you have the ability to see and communicate with us?"

"A reaper taught me to expand my foresight. To be able to see and cross into this plane of existence."

"A reaper? Interested in helping a human? This is a first, even for me. We've used reapers before, they just weren't so...cooperative."

Cass looked to the ground a little ashamed that her lineage could be so cruel.

"It's not like we did any of it for fun. It was all to protect our own, past, present, AND future...You."

"Why me? Everyone keeps saying that I was meant for something great. What is it that I'm meant to do?"

"Cassandra...you are meant to end our family's curse. We are not allowed to use our gifts without a price in return. You are to end all that."

"I don't even know what that means."

"You haven't used your gifts enough to know what that means. But this demon, it's in his blood the key to lift the curse is found. BUT, a great sacrifice must be made in return."

"What kind of sacrifice?"

"Find what you seek and it shall be explained." She nodded in the direction of the center of the clearing just a few feet away from Cass where there was now a shovel as well.

Cass wasted no time to started to dig. As soon as the shovel struck through the dirt a crack of lightning rang through the sky. She looked over to check on the boys seeing they were still ok, she continued to dig as quickly as she could, rain started to fall from the sky. It felt like forever, but it wasn't long 'til she hit something hard. She revealed an iron chest. Decent in size, but not huge. She removed it from the ground and climed out of her whole only to see Nero and his men making their way down the hill towards the boys.

"Please! You need to help!" Cass yelled to the spirits around her. "That's the demon I need to kill!"

The ones around her turned to look at the men coming down the hill and started to make their way to them. Trying to run while focusing her energy enough to take the chest in her current state was getting to be too much. Cass fell to the ground feeling a wave of exhaustion hit her.

"Cass! Cass!" Dean was up and searching all over for her. He found her out cold in the backseat to then scan his eyes across the field looking for any sign of her.

"Dean!" She tried to yell to him as he woke up Sam and Bobby. He got a glance of Nero and his men fighting forces he couldn't see himself.

She made a rash quick decision to leave the chest there and run to return to her body. She would come back for the chest once she was back to normal. She sprinted as fast as she could, returning to her body she opened her eyes to green ones hovering over her.

"Don't you ever do that again!" Dean was furious.

"I need to get the chest. Then you can tear me a new one, ok?" Cass ran back out of the car to where she had left the chest more than relieved to find it still there. Turning around to head back to the boys she beheld a fearful sight. One that made her heart stop. Nero had a hold on Dean with a blade held to his throat.

"I say we have a trade. Lover boy for the chest. What do you say Cass?"

"Don't do it Cass!" Nero only responded by pressing the blade closer to Dean's throat.

"Come on Cass, you know my patience has grown much thinner than before."

In a blink there was a wall of spirits between Cass and the chest and Nero and Dean.

"I see your family has other priorities than lover boy here...Tell you what. I'll let you think about it. I have a couple of days to kill anyways." And with that him AND Dean were gone.

Cass fell to her knees unable to breathe knowing that Dean was who knows where at the mercy or lack there of from Nero.

"Cass! Cass! Come on! Snap out of it! We need to get back to the house, open this chest and end this!...Before it's too late." Sam was picking Cass up and putting her back in the backseat before him and Bobby got back in the front and headed back to the house.

The only relief Cass had was that tether feeling she knew Dean was on the other side of. As long as she still felt something tethered to the other end, she knew she would find Dean. And...that she would kill Nero, once and for all.
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Sorry it's another shorty. Just wanted to get something out to you guys. Have a great weekend! Reviews good or bad are awsome!