"There is something else to consider," Cas stated, "You are no longer human. You may not be able to go through that portal. Which means you'd need..."
"A Reaper to help out," Sam interrupted, "Or a demon, or you."
"See, this is why I didn't want to talk about it," I grumbled. "The more we talk about it, the worse it gets. Cas will attract Leviathans again, not sure any other angel would want to pitch in, which leaves us with trusting a Reaper or a demon."
Sam had thought of something, "Maybe not. Cas knows the spell to open a door to Purgatory."
"Which worked oh so well last time. It's not like we'll know where that door will be in Purgatory and who knows what will get out this time."
"It actually worked as intended Dean."
I scowled at him and chose not to reply to that statement.
"But what if it works from inside Purgatory?" Sam continued.
He'd lost me. "What?"
"He teaches us the spell, we use it to bail and get out on our own."
"Cas? Would that work?" It was clever if nothing else.
Cas thought about it for a few minutes, "It's possible, but there is no guarantee you would end up at a specific place here. You could end up in another country, or in the middle of an ocean. It wasn't designed to be a door to go through, it was a portal to let things out."
"Well, maybe we can refine it." Sam suggested.
"Perhaps."
Cas didn't seem all that confident about that idea though, I was about to say something when Death reappeared, he looked somber, even for him.
He ran his eyes across us and leaned on his cane before he spoke, "There are four young humans in Purgatory."
A mix of fear and boiling rage ran through me, I kept a lid on it though, barely. "How young?"
"Teenagers. They are being protected by creatures similar to yourselves."
"Goddamnit!" Sam ground out between clenched teeth. "Dean? We..."
"Shut up, I know. We have to find a way in!"
Death held his hand up, "They are deep within Purgatory, it would take you quite some time to get there and you may not be able to return. Purgatory is designed to trap non humans permanently. It isn't, however, designed to hold angels or me."
Cas studied Death for a second and nodded, "I see."
"We don't," Sam said.
"Are you taking sides?" I asked.
"Hardly. However, those humans are there because of my Reapers. Therefore, it falls upon me to correct their errors. I cannot bring the humans back myself, humans don't travel well with me as you can imagine. Castiel however would be able to protect them from me as we traveled. If he still had his wings he could do this on his own, but since he does not, this is the next best solution." He gave Sam and I a piercing look, "I am not doing this for you, that must be very clear. I am doing this to rectify an error."
"Is this his way of saying he likes us but can't actually admit that?" Sam's voice echoed inside my head.
"I'm going with yes and taking it. Anything to keep you and I from going back to Purgatory that's not a deal with a demon sounds good to me."
"We totally understand," I said. "And, even though it has nothing to do with helping us, thank you."
Death relaxed, "Your appreciation is not required." Is what he said, the little upward twist to his lips said otherwise. "Castiel, are you ready?"
"Of course."
We needed to talk to those kids, "Wait, before you go. Any chance you could bring them back here? We'd like to talk to them."
"I think that can be arranged," Death replied then held his cane out towards Cas. Cas wrapped his hand around the end of it and they both vanished.
"Never, ever saw that coming," I said. "I mean, yeah he helped out with the Apocalypse but this?"
"He does have a set sense of how things are supposed to run though," Sam reminded me, "He was pretty pissed about what the Reapers did."
"Yeah but still." It was weird having a supernatural being other than Cas helping us without seeming to expect anything in return. I was still waiting for the other shoe to drop with Fenris. Death may have said he was an honorable guy but I didn't know Fenris so I wasn't quite willing to take the optimistic view.
"We summoning Crowley?" Sam asked.
"Not yet. If the portal shuts when the humans are out of Purgatory and Death gets the Reapers in line we may be able to avoid all of that. "The important thing is shutting this plan down. That's it."
"Right, but.."
"Crowley schemes," I interrupeted, "It's what he does. Unless you want to kill him and take the chance that who ever takes over isn't going to just come straight for us, I'm not seeing a whole lot of options here. If he's in on it, he'll know Death stepped up to shut him down. That should make him back off." I did not want to get back on Crowley's radar and I didn't want Sam to piss him off even more.
"Agreed, but those kids may have signed their souls away already. We just going to let a hellhound take them in ten years? He can void those contracts."
"Oh. Damn." He didn't say anything. "Let's see what the kids say." That was my weak ass way at avoiding the problem. I knew they would have already made their deal. No demon would work it any other way.
"Sure."
We stared at each other for a few minutes then Cas and Death reappeared with two teenagers. A short, nerdy looking guy with dirty blonde hair and a Hispanic girl that I would have thought wouldn't need a demon's help. She was going to grow into an attractive woman and seemed confident as all hell. The guy was scared shitless, the girl may as well have been at a mall with as much emotion as she was showing.
Cas' eyes were glowing, "Here's these two, we'll get the other ones and return." They left again before I could say anything.
"Where are we?" The girl asked.
"You're in Kansas," Sam said.
She blinked a few times and gave us the default teenager not believing the adults look, "Really? You're not, like, making a joke right?"
So much for thinking kids these days don't know the classics. "No, as insane as it sounds. You'e in Kansas," I clarified, "I'm Dean, this is my brother Sam. We're going to help you out."
"I didn't ask for your help, don't need it," she snapped, "Now send me back. I've got a job to do, I gave my word."
"Hold on, wait, you want to go back to Purgatory?" I asked.
"Yeah old man, I do."
I took a better look at her, her hair was short, she was in beat up jeans, an old grey short sleeved t-shirt and heavy black boots. I saw scars on her arms, a few of them looked like bullet holes and the bottoms of some tattoos peeking out of her sleeves. Her eyes were hard, way too old for her age and filled with that street kid, hard life toughness most of which was faked to hide her fear.
The guy on the other hand looked like a suburban kid, a little overweight and probably got picked on a lot. He was in slacks, a dress shirt and the only thing on his face was regret and a desperate hope. "You can save me? All I wanted was straight A's so I could get into college and superstrength! Jesus!"
Yup, called it.
Sam looked at me, shifted his eyes to the girl then back to me. I'd do better talking to her than he would.
"Okay, the job you have to do, it's been shut down," I started to explain, "The tall skinny guy in all black? That's Death. The things that took you into Purgatory were his Reapers, doing things they weren't supposed to. The guy in the trenchcoat, angel named Castiel. Between the two of them, the demon that came to you scheme isn't in play anymore. Now we need to get your souls back. That's if you signed them away. Did you?"
The poor guy looked like he was about to faint, Sam propped him up and helped him to the chair, the girl just stood there. "I didn't sign a damn thing."
"Did you kiss someone?"
She didn't say anything the flinch gave it away, "Right, okay. How long?"
"How long what?"
"Don't play dumb, you're not. How many years did you get? Or maybe the demon just said they'd come see you in a few years."
Her eyes shifted away from mine, yup. I fricking hate it when the demons use that line.
"How do I know you're not just screwing with me? This could be some jacked up other world like that one was."
"Follow us. Both of you." Figured I may as well get both of them convinced.
We walked out through the halls and got to the main room.
"Whoa! Is this like a secret hide out?" The guy asked, his eyes wide, "Are you guys like some secret society?"
"Kind of," Sam answered.
"Huh, a library, must be a sucky secret society," The girl added.
Girl after my own heart. I shot Sam a quick look, he just rolled his eyes and kept walking. Once we got outside I pulled out my phone, unlocked it, went on the net and showed them the screen.
"See? Real world. Look, I know it's hard to believe, we've both been to Purgatory but this is home, the real world."
The girl's tough act cracked for a second when I'd said we'd had our own trips to Purgatory. "You've been there?"
"Yeah, wasn't being protected either. Got stuck there for a year, Sam did a quick tour too. It sucks, we know, but you're safe now. We just have to get your souls back from the demon. We need your help to do that."
She looked at my phone again, the rest of the tough girl act faded, "Is that date right?"
"Yeah, why?"
She grabbed the phone out of my hand and started typing.
"Hey!" I went to get it back but Sam stopped me.
"When were you taken?" Sam asked.
She bit her lower lip and started looking like a teenage girl, not some bad ass chick, "Two months ago, but..."
"Time works differently there and here," Sam explained. "What's wrong?"
She stopped on an obituary post and almost dropped my phone.
"No! That bastard! He promised! Said I'd be able to stop it! Fix her!"
Oh hell. The obit said someone named Gloria Hernandez had died of cancer leaving her daughters Cecilia and Vicki behind.
"Let's back up," I said, "What's your name?"
"Cecilia, that's Greg." She answered while fighting back tears.
"Gloria was your Mom?" I asked.
"What do you think genius?"
Sympathy wouldn't work on her, not yet, "Okay, this bastard, what did he or she look like?"
"Snarky, old, British dude. Weird name." I could probably give her Ruby's knife and let her kill Crowley for us, she'd gone straight to homicidal.
Sam kept the anger off his face but I felt it. "Crowley?"
"Yeah."
Greg shook his head, "Mine was a hot, brown haired woman. Tall..." his eyes went out of focus as he described her, probably the first time he'd ever kissed a chick, "So pretty."
"Pretty and possessed by a demon. You get a name?"
"Rebecca."
Cas' name popped up on my phone along with a text, "Where are you? We have the other two and have returned."
"Cas is back." I told them, "Let's get back inside and figure this out."
"Teenagers!" Sam's voice flooded my brain, "This is low, even for him."
"Not really, trust me."
"He won't want to give up those contracts."
"Yeah, I know. Not without getting something for them."
"No deals! Never again Dean, never." Each word was like a punch inside my head. He wasn't mad at me, just that set on not making a deal.
"Ow! Easy man, I'm not up for that either."
We'd made it back to the room where the dungeon was. We spotted Cas standing there with two other girls, one of them was staring up at Cas, there was a bloodstain on her arm. They must have gone to the same private school since they were wearing the same uniform. The other one had her head buried into Cas's chest and was sobbing. Death was standing off to one side.
"What happened?" I asked.
"Small skirmish, she's fine."
"How did you do that?" She asked.
"I'm an angel," Cas replied then looked at us, "This is Kelly and Tiffany. They traded their souls for the chance to shift into a wolf."
Kelly was the one who'd been bleeding and Tiffany was the other one.
Oh great, "Why?"
"They apparently thought it would be, and I quote, "Amazeballs", whatever that means."
"Is it over? Is it?" Tiffany almost screamed in between her sobs.
Sam spoke up, "You're not in Purgatory anymore but it's not over yet. Let's get everyone into some chairs and get you some food and water okay?"
Cas nodded and started guiding the two girls out of the dungeon.
Sam looked at me, "You see if Death knows anything else, I'll take care of them."
"Got it."
He followed Cas and the kids out, leaving me with Death.
He'd calmed back down, or that's what it seemed like anyway, "Are you going to attempt to convince Crowley to void their contracts?"
"Yeah, any tips?"
"Just this. Do not assume that because no demon has attacked you while you were on vacation that he is not unaware of what you have been doing. Tread carefully Dean." He paused and lost that small bit of humanity that he'd shown, "I have met my obligations regarding this situation. Try not to muck anything else up." Then he vanished.
Death's never needed a lot of time to deliver a crap ton of bad news. Looks like I'd get to catch up with Crowley after all. Just what I wanted to do.
