Dean felt fine when he finally awoke, so fine in fact that he automatically knew that something was wrong and he shot bolt right up to see Sam laying on the floor and Kristen as well, thankfully they were both breathing and he remembered Castiel knocking them all out… Whatever the angel and his sister had planned, well Dean had a bad feeling about it. As he was using the map table to help him get to his feet he heard the loud squeak and groan of the heavy door entrance to the bunker being opened and he grabbed his gun out of the waistband of his pants, he didn't care who it was he was ready to shoot, but he lowered his weapon when a young blonde came down the spiral staircase.
"Claire," he stuck the gun back into the waistband of his jeans, and slowly approached. This was the first time that he had seen her since he had gotten her fiancé killed on a hunt, "What are you doing here?"
Claire shrugged her shoulders, "Figured you idiots could use all the help you can get. We gotta get Axel back."
"Jody told you," he said with a sigh, "I told her not to."
"Yeah, well she did and here I am.
Thought you said you didn't want anything to do with me ever again."
"I don't," she snapped angrily at the man, "But this doesn't have anything to do with you."
Now Sam was waking up and groaning, the first thing he saw was the girl as well, "Claire?" he rubbed his eyes so that they would focus in on her, "What are you doing here?"
"Gonna help you find Axel. It's bullshit neither one of you called me. She's my sister."
"Didn't want you to get involved," Dean stated, "You got those kids to look after."
"Speaking of which," Sam was getting up off of the floor, "Where are they?"
"Jody is taking care of them until I get back. Now can we stop talking about me and start talking about where the hell Axel is?"
Dean sighed, "We think she's in Hell… Actually we know that she's in Hell. The only question is-" but Dean was cut off by the bunker door opening loudly once again, and now he was on high alert, with his gun aimed and Sam was doing the same thing until once again they saw who was coming down the stairs.
"Olivia," Sam headed over to help the aging woman down the set of stairs, "What are you doing here?" then he looked to the young girl behind her, "Not that I don't want to see you both, but what are you doing?"
"Something's wrong," Olivia stated, "I know that. I can sense it."
"You never cancel trips, Uncle Sam," Azrael stated, "So we came to you to see if we could help."
"Uh," Dean cleared his throat, "All due respect, but I'm not really sure you two are gonna be the best out on the combat field if it comes down to it."
"Dean!" Sam barked unhappily at him.
"No," Olivia shook his head, "Your brother is right, we wouldn't dare slow you down by trying to join in the fight, but there are other things that we can do. And now that I'm here and I can sense your thoughts I know exactly how I can be of service."
"Like what?" Dean asked in disbelief.
"Like I can help you find where you need to be. I have connections, I know a little witch craft that can at the very least tell you where you can start looking for Axel."
"Awesome," Claire barked, "Then let's get this show on the road."
Of course Imogen was lying. She hadn't forgotten the plan that she and Crowley had made before the Winchesters cured her, but she had flipped sides. She wasn't on Crowley side, of course not! She was here to make sure her daughter was safe, kill Crowley, and lastly keep the world from imploding. In that order.
"Well then aren't I glad you finally made it. How far behind are your brother's?"
"Maybe a few hours, a day tops," she lied, she truly had no idea when or if they were going to show up. She was sure that Castiel would at the very least try to keep them occupied, "Where's the child? I'm assuming you're keeping her safe?"
"No doubt," he said with a nod, "I have her locked up in our room where no demon will set foot. She is out of sight, she will not be harmed."
"Just like we agreed," she said with a smile.
"Exactly… Now you do remember what else that we agreed on?" he questioned, "About you giving me an heir to the throne?"
She eyed him briefly, she actually didn't remember making him that promise but she wasn't about to argue with him about it. She needed to get on his good side to make it easier to run him through with the angel blade she had so strategically hidden on her person, "Absolutely. I think we should get right on that."
"As do I," he moved closer to her, "I would suggest going back to our private quarters, but your child is in there, so here will have to do," he looked around, "Everyone out," he ordered his demons and with a flick of his wrist closed the doors.
"Always such a romantic," she said with a short laugh.
Crowley snapped his fingers and the melodic instrumentals of Careless Whisper filled the room, "Better?" he questioned.
She rolled her eyes, "You have no idea how much."
"Good," he was leaning in close to her but suddenly stopped, "Hold on a moment, I have something for you," and he turned his back to her and that's when Imogen saw her chance. Her hand closed around the cold metal of her blade and she raised it up above her head and went to bring it down on him when he flipped around and grabbed her by her arm, violently twisting it until he heard a crack and the blade slid far across the room, "How stupid do you think I am?"
She flinched when her bone cracked, but it didn't hurt quite as much as one might think since she was no longer human, "Apparently not as stupid as you look. Congratulation."
"I knew the second you walked in here that you weren't on my side, Darling. Oh but you will be."
"How much you want to bet?"
"I don't make bets," he stated, "But I can promise you in just a few years of delicious torture you will be just as perfect, if not more, than you were before."
Dean, Sam, Kristen, Claire, Olivia, and Azrael were all standing around a table and watching a map burn after Olivia had done a tracking spell on it. It burned slowly until there was only on area left on the map. "Calvary Cemetery," Sam read the name, "The devil's gate. Cas must have opened it."
"No I didn't," the deep voice boomed through the room, "I didn't have to. It's opened and manned by one of Crowley's most trusted."
"Well what the hell is our sister doing there, Cas? I mean I sat here and watched you knife her, so she's dead, right?"
Castiel shook his head, "No, she's not dead. She's reborn and she will save the world."
Dean blinked slowly trying his best not to leap across the room and start pounding on the angel, "What the hell are you talking about?" he was grinding his teeth, and if it hadn't been for Kristen taking his hand then he would have attacked.
To the best of his ability Castiel explained the plan to the lot, which of course was met with contempt from Dean.
"That's the stupidest damn idea that I have ever heard!" Dean snapped at the angel, "You're going to get her killed."
"No," Castiel shook her head, "She is going to save the world. I know that to be true."
"You sent her in there to die! She needs us as back up and I swear to God Cas if you don't send us there right now I'll kill you myself."
Castiel took a step towards Dean, "Will you now?" he questioned.
In an instant Sam was between the two, "Okay guys, and come on. This isn't helping," he looked to Cas, "Can you just take us to the gate? We're not asking you to go in there and to fight, we just want to help our sister."
Kristen had pulled Dean back and away from Castiel, gently rubbing his shoulders, "Dean," she said softly, "I know you don't wanna hear this, but I think it's a good plan and if anyone could pull it off it would be a Winchester. I know you don't want your sister down there with demons and ruling hell, but if anyone was going to do it and do it right it would be a Winchester."
"You're right," Dean snarled, "I don't want to hear that," he turned his attention back to Castiel, "I want you to take us there."
Castiel sighed and looked down at his feet, "Fine," he stated, "But for the record I don't think this is such a good idea."
"I'm going too," Claire, who had remained silent up until this point, finally spoke up.
"Oh hell no," Dean spat, "There's no way we're bringing you to Hell. Just me and Sammy."
"Uh excuse me," Kristen snapped, "I'm going too."
Dean groaned.
Castiel turned his attention to Claire who he hadn't realized was there until right in that moment, "Claire, you can't. If something was to happen to you what of your children?"
"What about your daughter, Castiel?" she stated coldly, "I'm going."
"Me too," Kristen stated, "There's power in numbers."
"They aren't wrong," Sam looked to Olivia and Azrael, "You two stay here until we get back all right? Make yourselves at home," he kneeled down to Azrael's height, "If I don't see you again-"
Azrael put a hand over his mouth to silence him, "No," she said calmly, "Whatever it is tell me when you get back," but she already knew, because she could read his mind. She wrapped her arms around him and when their hug broke he hugged Olivia as well.
"Come back safe, understand?" Olivia ordered with a wag of her bony finger, "You're a good man, Sam Winchester," she looked to Dean, "So are you, Dean."
Dean nodded in acknowledgement and turned to Castiel, "Let's kick some ass."
Castiel nodded and held his hand out, "Everyone grab on," and once they did in the very next instant everyone was transported to right outside the devil's gate.
"Are you coming with us?" Dean questioned the angel.
"No," Castiel said with a shake of his head, "But pray to me when it's done and I will return," he stated and disappeared before anyone had a chance to respond.
Imogen was bleeding, not badly of course but she was in fact bleeding. Her nose was shattered and the blood was dripping down her face onto the previously white blouse that she was wearing. "Does beating your wife get you hard?" she questioned, spitting some blood at him when he knelt down in front of her.
"Oh darling, you have no idea how much," he ran his hand through her hair and grabbed a fistful of it, "You have don't know how long I have waiting to have you back in my violently loving embrace."
"Well keep on fucking waiting," she snarled at him.
"Should I? Perhaps you should rethink that seeing as I have your daughter chained up in a room. Perhaps I'll forget to feed her for a few days or maybe I'll let another demon have some fun with her. I promised that I wouldn't do her any harm but I can't always keep control of my subjects."
Imogen scoffed, "Come on now Crowley, I'm not stupid. You've probably already had her killed."
"That's where you would be wrong. See I am a loyal king, and soon enough you will again be my loyal queen."
"Prove it," Imogen snapped, "Prove that she's still alive."
Crowley scratched his chin, "Fine," he stated as he turned on his heel and headed out of the room to go and retrieve Axel. He was back in less than five minutes, his hand grasping tightly on the back of her neck, "See, she's very much so alive."
Imogen would have gotten up and headed over to her, but she was restrained to a chair, "Has he hurt you?" she demanded, "Are you okay?"
"What's happening?" Axel asked shakily, "What's going on?"
"Don't worry," Imogen assured the child, "I'm going to do everything that I can to make sure you're safe."
Crowley rolled his eyes, "Sit," he ordered her and Axel immediately sat on the ground, backing herself up against a wall and pulling her knees up to her chest, "Now I am your Uncle Crowley," he pointed to himself, "I am the King of Hell, and this is your mother, the queen of hell. You do exactly as we tell you and you will have nothing to worry about. Understand?"
She nodded her head, keeping her eyes fixed tightly on the floor.
"Good," he walked slowly over to Imogen and had her angel blade in his hand, lightly tracing over her leg with it, but not applying enough pressure to do her any harm, "Now, this is going to be so much fun," and as he started to press the blade deeper into her bare thigh there was a ruckus out in the hallway, "Oh bollocks," he said turning to see the hunters had found their way into the room, "Hello Dean," he said with a pleasant smile, "It's been quite some time," he added as he stabbed the angel blade into Imogen's already bloodied thigh, causing her to scream in pain.
"Oh yeah," Dean barked, "We have lots to catch up on," and that was it, Dean was charging full force into the room, followed by his brother, Kristen, and Claire. Dean and Sam jumped on Crowley, but we quickly thrown off of him while Kristen's first move was to get Imogen untied from the chair, no one noticing that Axel was also in the room. It didn't take long before there was a whole swarm of demons joining in on the fight and Imogen didn't waste a second before pulling the blade out of her leg and getting up and going hand to hand with a demon. It would have been nice if there hadn't been all of that angel proofing, but she could still hold her own physically.
It didn't take Dean very long to realize that Axel was in the room with them. A demon had grabbed her and was trying to drag her out of the room and she started screaming bloody murder, Dean's head whipped around as his blade plunged into a demon, he quickly pulled it out and tossed the dead body to the ground as he bounded after his daughter and stuck his blade through the neck of the offending demon and pulled Axel close to him.
"Are you okay?" he demanded, his hand tightly gripping her arm.
"I'm fine," she assured him with a nod. In an instant Kristen was by his side too, checking the girl and making sure that she was okay.
"Stay close," Dean ordered, keeping her behind him as did Kristen so that they made something of a body shield around her as another demon descended upon him and was almost instantly knifed by Sam.
"Axel!" the long haired Winchester said in surprise, having just then realized she was in the room with them.
"We gotta get her out of here," Dean stated, "You and Kristen take her, and I'll stay back and hold them off."
Sam frowned, he knew that Axel needed to get out of there as soon as humanly possible, he just didn't want to leave in the middle of the fight. Kristen didn't want to leave either, but she would have done anything to keep Axel safe, but she wasn't going to have to. Without a word Sam spotted Claire who was being pinned down by a demon and quickly he bounded across the room and plunged his knife into the demon's back and threw him off of Claire and helped her to her feet.
"Thanks Sam," she said, checking herself to make sure she was okay.
"Don't mention it," he replied, "You've gotta get Axel out of here," he pointed to the girl who was being protectively shielded by Dean's body, "You've gotta make sure she's safe."
Claire started to argue but Sam held up a finger to silence her, "You said you only came here to save Axel, well getting her out of here is the best way to do that. Call Cas as soon as you get out and he'll take you home to your kids. Please Claire, keep your sister safe."
Kristen turned to face Axel and took her face in her hands, "I love you."
"I love you too," Axel squeaked.
At Sam's words Claire jogged across the room, nodded to Dean, and took Axel's hand, running from the room with the teen and both Sam and Dean were able to put their minds more on killing off the last of the demons that were left in the room now that Axel was running to safety. Claire didn't let go of Axel's hand as the two sprinted down the long corridors, Claire navigating the hallways of hell as best she could remember from making it down to that room earlier. It wasn't an easy task, especially when you're in that much of a panic, but Claire was sure she was on the right path as they rounded a corner and were met with a set of black eyes.
"Hello there," the demon's voice was cool and smooth, "Where do you two think you're going?"
Claire snarled and dropped Axel's hand, readying her blade to plunge into the demon's chest and she did, the blade pierced his heart, but not before a similar one stuck inside of Claire's abdomen and when the demon went down so did the blonde girl.
"Claire!" Axel screamed as she dropped to her knees.
Claire was laying on her back with her hand pressed up against the wound that the blade had caused her. She looked down and lifted her shirt up to see the damage, and it wasn't good to say the least. "God dammit," she choked out, a little bit of blood staining her own lips and her skin growing paler and paler by the minute.
"Claire," Axel's voice was shaken, "We've gotta get you out of here. Cas can help, we just gotta get out of here."
Claire took a shaky breath and her glassy eyes met Axel's, "I'm so sorry," she choked out, "I'm sorry I couldn't protect you."
"No, don't say that," Axel's voice broke as she pushed some hair from Claire's face.
"If you make…" she coughed up a little more blood, "If you make it out alive I need you to promise me that you'll protect my babies."
"Claire, no please. You're gonna be fine."
"Axel… just promise me."
Axel nodded, "I will."
Claire took Axel's hand, "Just like Dean," she closed her eyes for a moment before she heard the struggle coming down the hall and she looked back at her sister, "Axel, play dead. Lay down next to me. If they think you're dead maybe they won't go after you."
Axel immediately did as she was told, lying face down next to Claire and being as still and as quiet as possible, her hand gripping Claire's tightly. She knew the second Claire was gone as her grip loosened and it took everything in her not to cry, but she had to keep it together.
It wasn't until the last demon had fallen that Crowley reappeared. Oddly enough no one had even noticed the fact that he was gone. Dean, Kristen, Sam, and Imogen were all standing together breathing heavily and wiping the blood off of their selves when he made his presence known by clapping slowly, the sound echoing off of the walls.
"Bravo," he said with a devilish smile, "Once again you hunters prove you're at least worth your salt, taking out over a dozen of demons," he looked down and gently kicked at one of his demon lackey's bodies, "And very few fatalities on your end."
Dean scoffed and looked to his partners, "Hate to break it to you Crowley, but none of us are dead."
The smile that came across the man's face actually gave Dean chills, "No, of course you aren't. But you remember those two girls you cast out of here?"
Dean's blood ran cold (not to mention the blood of all the other hunters in the room) and they all simultaneously lunged at him, and of course they were all deflected with a flick of his wrist, throwing them into the cement wall, all except for Imogen who he grabbed tightly by the hair and drug from the room, despite her struggling.
Everyone else was writhing in pain on the ground and Crowley shut the lights off and stood in the doorway, "I hope the lot of you have fun starving to death in this room together," and the door was shut and latched as Crowley began dragging Imogen down the hall.
"Stop squirming," he barked at her.
"Fuck you!" she snapped angrily, finally breaking out of his grasp and attempting to throw her fists into his face, but he caught her once again. She was weak from the battle and from all of the anti-angel warding around them. It wasn't until Crowley drug her down the hallway that both Claire and Axel were laying in, covered in blood, did she actually collapse to her knees, trying to scramble over to her daughter, but Crowley grabbed a fistful of her hair and threw her up against the opposite wall, his back to Claire and Axel.
"You can come into my kingdom, OUR KINGDOM, and you can decimate our numbers, kill our subjects, but you won't best me, because I can promise you that I will always be one step ahead."
"Kill me," Imogen snarled, "Because I will never be your queen again, and if you let me live I can guarantee you that I will spend every last day until the end of eternity figuring out a way to make you suffer. I swear, Crowley."
"I guess we'll have to see about that," Crowley stated, pulling her back up.
"You can bet on it," she locked eyes with him.
Neither of them saw it coming, not Imogen or Crowley. Imogen had been absolutely sure that her daughter was dead, but she wasn't. Axel had grabbed Claire's blade and forced it as hard as she could into Crowley's back, bright light shone from his eyes, his grip on Imogen released, and he collapsed onto the floor into a pile.
Imogen just stood there for a moment staring at the daughter that she had created, and then she pulled her into a strong hug before holding her at arm's length, "I thought you were dead," she looked passed Axel to Claire who was still laying on the ground, "Is she?"
Axel swallowed hard, willing herself not to cry, "She's gone… Where's Dad? Please tell me him and Kris and Sammy are okay."
Imogen nodded and took Axel's hand, pulling her down the corridor back to the room that they had all been locked inside of. Luckily the key was hanging on the wall beside the door and in just a few moments Imogen had the door open and the people were pouring out.
"Boy I have never been more glad to see light," Dean breathed, seeing Axel and pulling her into a hug, "You're okay?" he held her at arm's length, "You were supposed to get out of here. Why'd you come back?"
Axel looked away from her father.
"Axel, speak to me," he demanded.
"Dean," Sam pushed his brother away, "Where's Claire?" he asked, "Is she okay?"
Still Axel didn't reply. She wanted to, she didn't want to hold them in suspense, but she couldn't find it in herself to say the words again.
"No," Imogen answered for her daughter, "She's not okay."
"Where the hell is she?" Dean barked and followed the finger that Imogen had pointed, running down the walk as fast as he could until he reached her body. Axel on the other hand couldn't move. She stayed in that one spot, trembling until Kristen wrapped her arms her and then she just fully broke down and it took everything in Kristen not to sob with her, but someone had to be strong.
"You got this?" Sam asked, knowing that Dean was going to need some help and waited until he got the okay from Kristen and Imogen before he too headed off in search of Dean, who he quickly found sitting next to the pale body of the blonde girl, "Dean," Sam announced himself, "It's not your fault."
"Of course it's my fault," Dean snapped at his brother, "I was supposed to keep her safe. I wasn't supposed to let her come on this hunt and let her get killed."
"You weren't gonna be able to stop her," Sam said, kneeling down, "You told her no and she insisted on coming anyways. She knew the risks Dean. You didn't ask her, she wanted this."
"Really? You think she wanted to die? You think that she wanted to leave her kids as orphans?"
"No," Sam shook his head, "But she knew what she was getting in to, she knew that it was worth the risk, and we needed her. Who knows what would have happened if we hadn't had her with us?"
Dean shook his head, but didn't respond to his brother's comment as he lifted her body and stood, "We need to get out of here," and just as he was saying that Imogen, Kristen, and Axel were all rounding the corner, "Who knows the way out?"
"I do," Imogen explained, motioning for everyone to follow her as she led them to the exit in which they had come. When they were all standing at the mouth of the opening Imogen turned to Kristen and hugged her, "I know we haven't always gotten along and a lot of that is on me, but I want to thank you for giving my child a mother when I couldn't."
Kristen nodded, "It was my pleasure."
Imogen took a deep breath and turned to Dean, "And thank you for always cleaning up my messes, you and Sammy were the best big brothers a girl could ever ask for."
Dean half smiled at her, he liked her words, but he didn't like where this was going. He knew from Castiel's plan what was going to happen, but that didn't mean he had to like it.
Now Imogen turned to Sam, "You always had my back, maybe even when you shouldn't have and because of that I never felt alone when I had you. Thank you Sammy."
"You don't ever have to thank me for that, Em. Being yours and Dean's brother was the best part of my life."
Finally Imogen looked to Axel and took her hand, "I'm so sorry that I never got the chance to be your mother… but I think you did a lot better with these two," she pointed back and forth from Dean to Kristen, "They're both pretty great."
Axel looked at her silently for a moment before finally speaking up, "You're not coming back with us, are you?"
Imogen took a deep breath and slowly shook her head, "No, I'm staying here. You can get your dad or Cas to explain it to you later, but I just want you to know that I love you so much."
Axel bit her lip and threw her arms around Imogen, "I love you too, Mom," then she let go of Imogen, "Most girls aren't lucky enough to have two mom's and two dads," she looked over her shoulder at Kristen, Sam, and Dean who all looked pretty broken right now.
Kristen gently grabbed Axel's hand, "We need to go," she said softly.
"Okay," Axel said with a nod and wiped the tears from her eyes, "I guess this is goodbye," she said, looking to Imogen.
A small smile filled Imogen's face, "It better be. I don't ever want to see any of you here in Hell ever again," she stated firmly, "I mean it."
