"Am I… Am I dead?"

The thickly accented voice let out a chuckle, "Well, you are in Hell darling."

"What did I do?" Axel questioned, pulling her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, "Is it… is it because I'm gay?"

Crowley laughed heartily, "Oh no sweetheart, I had no idea you were gay."

Axel was trembling, "What did I do?"

"The simple fact that you exist is a stain on the world. You have no idea what you are, do you?"

Axel sucked in a sharp breath, "What's going to happen to me?"

"Nothing so long as your mother gives me what I want."

"What do you want?"

"Her," the man replied, "I want my queen back at my side to rule Hell until the end of eternity."

"You-your queen?" She stuttered.

"Yes, your mother is my queen. But we wanted to bring you along to Hell with us, she insisted on keeping you safe. She was supposed to grab you and bring you home, but humanity got to her so I've got to convince her to come back."

"I'm losing my damn mind!" Dean barked, "I can't just sit here and wait. I've gotta go out, I've gotta do something."

"Well what the hell can you do?" Sam snapped, "Cas is out there looking over literally the entire world for her, Jody put out an APB on her, but you know as well as I do that Crowley's got her locked up somewhere that we're not gonna find her. Yeah Crowley's a bag of dicks but he's not an idiot."

"Well then let's find the son of a bitch and rip him limb from limb!"

"How do you want to find him?" Sam retorted, "Hell is so damn heavily guarded. Crowley's got hell on his side again… they only want one thing."

"No," Dean barked lowly, "They're not taking Imogen back. There's no way."

"Why not?" Imogen said, rounding the corner, "If he wants me he can have me if that means Axel is safe."

"No," Dean stood up from where he was sitting at the map table, "We're not sacrificing you."

"Why do you always get to make all of the decisions? Who the hell knows what Crowley is doing to Axel right now?"

"You said yourself that he wasn't going to hurt her. You said he couldn't," Dean reasoned.

"No, he can't torture her. But he could be poisoning her mind, brainwashing her. Who the fuck knows what he's got going on down there? At least if I was there I could make sure that she was safe. This is all my fault anyways."

"So what," Dean snapped "You just want to waltz back into hell and become the queen again? Because I can guarantee Crowley isn't going to just switch off. He wants the both of you."

"Oh my god, Dean. You think I don't know that? But I'm not hearing any better ideas coming out of your mouth right now. At least if I'm there with her she'll be safe."

"No, fuck that," he snapped, "She's not going to be safe being raised by two demons and you guys taking over the world together."

"Can you both just shut up for five minutes?" Kristen snapped angrily, "Jesus Christ I can't even think straight."

Both Dean and Imogen went silent.

"Look, Imogen I know you've got that Winchester blood that's telling you that you have to sacrifice yourself but that's not going to fix a damn thing. So maybe if we all just put our heads together for five minutes we'll be able to figure this shit out."

"I second that," Sam stated, knocking back the rest of his beer, "Look, what if the four of us plus Cas invade hell? Go in and take Axel."

"Really Sammy?" Dean scoffed, "You really think that's going to work? How many demons do you think are in Hell that the five of us will be able to take on?"

Sam simply glared at his brother and would have had some kind of a snappy comeback but instead was interrupted by Castiel's reappearance in the bunker, "Cas," the man stated, "Please tell us you have news."

"Yes," the angel stated with a nod, "I've made contact with Axel, or I suppose a more accurate statement would be that she made contact with me."

"What?" Dean screeched, "You have? How in the hell did you do that?"

"She prayed to me. Now as you know I cannot locate her the way that I can most people, but she prayed to me and she told me what was going on to the best of her knowledge."

"Is she okay? Is she hurt?" Kristen demanded.

"No, she's not hurt physically. Very shaken up though," he slowly turned to face Imogen, "Crowley wants you to return to Hell and resume your spot at his throne."

"We already know that, Cas. She's not doing that," Dean stated, "It's not happening. No way."

But Castiel wasn't looking at Dean and he certainly wasn't acknowledging his statement, "Imogen, you know what you have to do don't you?"

Her whole body went numb, for she was sure of what she would have to do. She just thought that she would have a little more time to do it. He had told her about it just a few days ago on the day after Axel had wrecked the impala and Imogen had wanted to run away, she had called on Castiel for help, and he gave her much more than she had asked for.

"Imogen," he had taken a step towards her on that cool morning, "I am not convinced that you ever were a demon."

She had scoffed with surprise, "What are you talking about? I was the queen of Hell for fucksake."

"I know that, but in the history as far back as I've existed, which I may remind you predates the universe, there has never been a demon with golden eyes."

"What about Azazel and all of the princes or whatever?"

"They had yellow eyes. Nothing like yours."

"Well, there's never been another queen. I was special."

"Yes," the angel had agreed with her, "You were special, because you were not a demon, not completely."

"How do you even know? What are you an expert on demons and the supernatural?"

"I have done my research," he had assured her, "And I think that I know what happened. It's something that I'm absolutely sure has never happened before, and no angel in creation would believe it to be so."

"What was I then?" she asked, "If not a demon then what?"

"I think you were an angel."

A loud laugh had escaped the woman, "Ah come on man. I'm trying to have a serious conversation with you and you're blowing smoke up my ass."

Castiel shook his head, "I am being serious. Yes, you were a brutalized and demonized version of an angel, that's why the holy water and the devil's traps worked on you, but Imogen you were an angel. I could feel it, I can still feel it."

"Why are you telling me this, Cas?"

"Because you need to know."

"Why?" she had demanded, "Why in the hell do I need to know this?"

"Because you know as well as I do that Crowley isn't going to stop until he has you back, and that means that Hell will take over the Earth. The entire host of Heaven will not be able to stop them."

She turned around and shook her head, "There's nothing I can do except stay away from him, Cas."

"No, there is something else that you can do. Imogen, you are stronger than Crowley. We both know that, and I know that he knows that. Which is why the two of you together, you're unstoppable."

Imogen didn't say anything, still didn't turn to face him.

"You, as an un-demonized angel, can take over hell and you can rule it yourself."

She scoffed, "You really think that Crowley is just going to step aside and let that happen?"

"Of course not," he said with a shake of his head as he grabbed her shoulder and he turned her around, "You will have to kill him."

Her jaw dropped, "I-I can't. I can't kill him."

"Yes you can," Castiel began, "In fact, you are the only one who CAN kill him. You are the only one that he will be able to trust enough to let you get close enough to do it, which is precisely why you have to be the one to do it."

"I can't rule hell," she argued, "I don't want to rule Hell."

"We all do things that we don't want to do," he reasoned, "We don't do them because we want to, we do them because it's the right thing to do, and an angel ruling hell well it's the best option. I have full faith in your ability to rule it fairly and safely, with no risk of an uprising. You can do this, Imogen. I know that you can and I know that you will, because we both know that this is the only option if we want to keep the world safe… If we want to keep Sam and Dean and our daughter safe. We have to do this."

Imogen shook her head, "Cas, don't ask this of me. I'm just… I'm just getting back everything that I lost."

"I wouldn't be asking you this if I thought that there was any another way. If we don't do this then you will absolutely lose everything all over again, forever. There will be nothing except chaos and Armageddon. Is that what you want for your child and your brothers?"

Imogen had paused briefly and run her hand through her hair, "No, it's not… Just give me a little time to think about this, Cas… can you at least do that?"

"We don't have time. We have to act now."

"I just need a little time to process this!" she snapped at him.

"You better process it fast. Let me know when you have decided," he said before he vanished.

Several hours later Imogen had told Castiel that she would do it, but she had just needed a little while to prepare, get things right with her family, all of that good stuff. But apparently the time was now.

"Imogen," Dean's voice cut through Imogen's memory, "What the hell is Cas talking about?"

But Imogen didn't look to Dean, she just kept her eyes on the angel, "You're right, Cas. This is the only way to keep everyone safe and I want to do it."

"What's going on here?" Dean demanded, walking over and stepping in front of his sister so that she would be forced to look at him, "Imogen, talk to me."

"Dean, move," she stated, "I'll explain when I can but right now we have to get a move on."

"No, we're not doing anything until someone tells me what in the hell is going on here."

"I second that," Sam said, getting up and walking over, "We're all in this together."

"Imogen," Kristen breathed, "Talk to us. We can sort this out."

But with a flick of his wrist Castiel sent the others flying across the room into the wall and his angel blade dropped from the sleeve of his coat into his hand, "Are you ready?" the blue eyed angel questioned.

Imogen took a deep breath, "Almost," she said, taking a step towards him, her hand gently grabbing the back of his neck to pull him closer to her level, and kissing him deeply and confusing everyone else besides the two of them. When finally the kiss broke Imogen was breathing heavily and so was Cas despite the fact that he didn't actually need to breath, "Now I'm ready," she assured him."

The reflection of the light on the metal of Castiel's blade temporarily blinded Dean from seeing it piercing his sister's chest, but not Sam. Sam was on his feet and across the room in the blink of an eye, but it was too late and she was lying on the floor and the bloody blade remained in Castiel's clenched fist even when the larger of the Winchester brother's tried to wrestle it away from him. With a simple touch Sam was rendered unconscious, but Dean wasn't.

"What the hell did you do?" Dean yelled desperately in disbelief.

"Don't worry," Castiel assured Dean, "She will wake soon."

"Soon? She's gonna wake soon?" his voice broke, shakily getting to his feet with the familiar pain of a broken rib shooting through him as he reached out a hand to help Kristen up as well, "You stabbed her in the fucking chest and now you're telling me that she's going to wake up soon?"

"Yes," Castiel assured the man, "And in a few hours when she wakes she will be able to fix everything."

"Cas you better tell me what the fuck is going on and you better tell me now," the only conscious Winchester demanded.

"I will," he agreed, "In good time," he said with a nod, laying a hand on both Kristen and Dean's heads to simultaneously heal their wounds and knock them unconscious as well. When they woke both Castiel and Imogen would be gone.

Imogen thought that she would feel nothing. She thought that the transformation from a human into a full-fledged angel would be as simple as going to sleep and waking up, spoiler alert: it wasn't. It burned, it stung, and it felt like there were thousands of cars driving over your body one by one. Long story short, it fucking sucked and to top that off what only lasted a couple of hours felt like years. But when she awoke she felt strong, powerful, and fearless in fact. It felt like nothing had ever harmed her before in her entire life, nor would it ever harm her again either. It was a good feeling to say the very least. Slowly standing up Imogen looked at Castiel who was the only conscious person in the room, everyone else was collapsed on the floor.

"What happened?"

"They're sleeping," he explained, "I thought it would be easier than trying to explain everything that was going to happen. We will tell them when it's done and over with and we have won."

Imogen nodded, "That's better than them trying to argue with us and tell us that our plan is stupid."

"Yes, we both know that they would try and talk us out of it then come up with something convoluted that would get one or all of them killed."

"We better get our plan in motion," Imogen stated, "Can you get us into hell?"

"Normally I could, but it's been heavily warded so I really don't think that's going to happen. I can get you to one of the gates but that's as far as I can go."

"I'm an angel too. How will I be able to get in?"

"I could physically get in," he explained, "But they will attack me and kill me on sight. You on the other hand they won't because you are their queen."

"Good point," Imogen said with a nod of her head, "Okay, let's do this. Let's make our daughter, and the world for that matter, safe again."

The angels joined hands and in an instant the two were standing in front of one of the seemingly innocent gates of hell. Castiel turned to her, "This is where I must leave you," and then he kissed her, "I love you, Imogen. I know you will succeed."

Imogen had no doubt in her mind that she was going to succeed, first off she had no other choice, and secondly she was a Winchester, Win is right there in the name. She had to win. So she found herself turning to knock on the gate, knowing full well that there would be someone there behind it, and she was right as she was met with a pair of black eyes.

"Password," the deep voice command.

Imogen's eyes flipped to their sparkly golden color, "The queen of Hell doesn't need a password," she stated, eyeing the demon intensely.

"Yes ma'am," he said, opening up the door and letting her in, "We hadn't seen you in a while. Crowley said you were occupied."

"I was. Now I'm not. Where is my king?" she questioned.

"Perhaps on his throne," he suggested, "I saw him there earlier."

"Thank you," she stated, marching swiftly to where she was confident that she would find him… and she did, "Crowley," she called to the man who was sitting at his throne.

Slowly the king looked up from whatever it was that he had been concentrating on and when he saw who it was calling his name he stood and strolled over to her, "Hello my queen. Long time no see."

"Too right you are," she said with a nod, "But we made a deal, you and I," she pointed back and forth between the two."

"I wouldn't so much call it a deal as I would a plan. Though I'm surprised you even remember, since it's taken you so long to get here. Thought you either had forgotten or flipped sides on me.

"Never," she said with a smile, "I just had to make it look like something it wasn't to those other people. Obviously I did a good job if I even fooled the king of Hell," Imogen very much so remembered the plan that she and her king had made.

"They are going to know something's wrong if you just stroll up to them," Crowley had argued with her when they were discussing how to locate her daughter and bring her to Hell years ago.

"You're right," she agreed, "They're going to have to think it's their idea."

"Too right you are… Darling, you're going to have to let them do that stupid cure on you. They won't just hand the little girl over to a demon. This is going to have to be real and you are going to have to be with them a while, perhaps even years before they will bring her to you."

"Why should we waste all this time and let them cure me? Why not just torture them until they tell me her location?"

"Come on love, you're not stupid. You know that there's no amount of torture that would make either of those boys anybody anything about that child, they've proven that time and time again."

"True enough," Imogen nodded, "But there has to be some weakness," she looked expectantly at the man, "Someone one of my brother's is close to that we could use as leverage?"

"Possibly," Crowley said with a nod, "There is another child a wee bit younger than your own. If we torture her it could elicit a response from the Winchester brothers," he shook his head, "But even so, I think we should go ahead with the plan to trick them. It is much more full proof."

Imogen shook her head, "You just said that plan could take months, years even. And if I'm human that long who's to say I won't really join their side? Tell them all about this plan? If I'm human then I may not want to come back to you. I was a weak human, Crowley, and I'm sure I would be again. I'm not weak now, and I don't ever want to be weak again."

"Oh," he ran his hand through her hair and kissed her forehead, "My dear, you may be weak for a little while, but it won't be for any longer than it has to be. I will come back for you. I will turn you back into the fierce and formidable creature that I adore."

She smiled lustfully at him, "You promise?"

"I swear on …" he paused to think, "Well, I can't think of anything I care about other than myself, so I swear on me."

"Oh yeah?"

"Absolutely. But don't get too flattered," he teased, "I only want you back because you complement me well."

"I see. So you're only protecting your assets?"

"Precisely, my queen."