No One's POV

"Hey, let's stop for pizza." Crowley walks with Dean and Jeremy through Chicago.

"Are you kidding?" Dean looks at Crowley like he's playing an elaborate joke on him.

"Just heard it was good. That's all. Up ahead. Big, ugly building. Ground zero. Horseman's stable, if you will. He's in there." Crowley gestures to a building.

"How do you know?" Dean asks.

"Have you met me? 'Cause I know. Also, the block is squirming with reapers. I'll be right back." Crowley suddenly disappears. "Boy, is my face red. Death's not in there." He reappears a moment later.

"You want to cut the cute and get to the part where you tell me where he is?"

"Sorry. I don't know." Crowley shrugs.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a minute. You don't know?" Dean questions, looking incredulous.

"Signs pointed. I- I'm just as shocked as you." Crowley shrugs.

"Bobby sold his soul for this!" Bobby yells.

"Relax. All deals are soul back or store credit. We'll catch Death in the next doomed city." Crowley promises.

"Millions, Crowley. Millions of people are about to die any minute." Dean yells some more.

"True. So I strongly suggest we get out of here." Crowley answers.

"So, what? Call in a bomb threat? 1,000 bomb threats? I mean, how the hell am I supposed to get three million people out of Chicago in the next 10 minutes?" Jeremy questions looking around a bit helplessly as they sit in the Impala.

"Oh, come on!" Dean shouts, to a now empty Impala as Crowley disappears again, clearly frustrated by Crowley's disappearing act.

"What? I can't hear you!" Crowley mouths from across the street, suddenly popping up in front of a pizzeria.

"I said I found him. Death- he's in there." Crowley answers, appearing in the Impala front seat and pointing.

"You coming or... Not." Dean mutters as Crowley disappears once again.

"Nice…" Jeremy mutters sarcastically as he follows Dean into the pizzeria.

"Join me, Dean… Jeremy… The pizza's delicious. Sit down. Took you long enough to find me. I've been wanting to talk to you." Death says calmly, facing away from the door. "Particularly you, Jeremy Gilbert."

"Uhhh…" Jeremy looks nervous.

"I got to say- I have mixed feelings about that. So, is this the part where... Where you kill me? Us?" Dean asks, adding a little snark at the end.

"You have an inflated sense of your importance. To a thing like me, a thing like you, well... Think how you'd feel if a bacterium sat at your table and started to get snarky. This is one little planet, in one tiny solar system, in a galaxy that's barely out of its diapers. I'm old, Dean... Very old. So, I invite you to contemplate how insignificant I find you."

"Eat." Death offers the pizza in front of him. "Good, isn't it?"

"Well, I- uh- can I ask… Death- uh, sir… How old are you?" Jeremy asks tentatively, actually raising his hand as if he was afraid to ask a question or intrude.

"As old as God. Maybe older. Neither of us can remember anymore. Life, death, chicken, egg. We exist together. As a balance."

"A balance…" Jeremy repeats slowly. "I- I'm not sure I understand, Death, sir…" Jeremy asks, still obviously a bit skittish around Death, understandably so, he was Death, an immortal, an entity of immense power.

"All things die, Jeremy. It's the cycle. But God creates, brings life. The circle of things. Too much of one… And well, you get disasters such as this." Death answers Jeremy, with a wave of his hand to what was happening around them. "I am not the villain many believe… Death is a balance to things. And it does not discriminate. Without death, life exists without balance. The cosmos must have balance."

"You know, I do have sympathy for you, Jeremy Gilbert. Your family has suffered unseemly loss. But, it could have been worse. Believe me. I am more powerful than you can process, and I'm enslaved to a bratty child with a temper tantrum." Death answers looking rather bored and unamused at that.

"Well, this is way above my pay grade." Dean mutters through his bites of pizza.

"Just a bit." Death offers dryly.

"So, then why am I still breathing, sitting here with you? Uh... What do you want?"

"The leash around my neck- off." Death emphasizes, leaning forward. "Lucifer has me bound to him. Some unseemly little spell. He has me where he wants, when he wants. That's why I couldn't go to you. I had to wait for you to catch up. He made me his weapon. Hurricanes, floods, raising the dead." Death answers plainly, turning his attention to Dean.

"And you think... I can unbind you?" Dean answers.

"There's your ridiculous bravado again. Of course you can't. But you can help me take the bullets out of Lucifer's gun. I understand you want this." Death holds his hand up, showing his ring.

"Yeah." Dean nods, trying not to take offense to Death's words.

"I'm inclined to give it to you. Just like my brother, Pestilence."

"To give it to me?" Dean echoes.

"That's what I said." Death repeats as if talking to a small child.

"But what about... Chicago." Dean trails off, vaguely looking around at Chicago.

"Chicago? I suppose it can stay. I like the pizza. There are conditions." Death hums.

"Okay. Like?" Dean questions a little suspiciously.

"You have to do whatever it takes to put Lucifer in his cell."

"Of course."

"Whatever it takes." Death repeats, leaning closer to Dean.

"That's the plan." Dean nods.

"No. No plan. Not yet. Your brother. He's the one that can stop Lucifer. The only one." Death emphasizes.

"What, you think-" Dean echoes, surprise and hesitation on his face.

"I know. So, I need a promise. You're going to let your brother jump right into that fiery pit."

"Well, do I have your word?" Death makes Dean promise, holding his ring, the last of the Horseman rings, away from the eldest Winchester; among Death's powers were supernatural precognition, of course, there were many variables that could alter the course of those powers, such as God himself, and the angels, but the future seemed fairly steady in many of the futures that flickered through his sight.

"Okay, yeah. Yes."

"That had better be 'yes,' Dean. You know you can't cheat death. Now, would you like the instruction manual?"

I know... I didn't change a whole lot in "Two Minutes to Midnight", but there were actually two important scenes. Particularly the scene with Pestilence & Castiel! A big hint about Gen's fledglings.

And, then, thanks to Fanficqueen306 there was the scene with Jeremy & Death that was important.

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