And here we continue. I should say that 90% of this was written on my phone this time.

...

They stepped through the rift into a snow-covered forest, nowhere near the place Dean had come through last. He had no idea where to even begin searching for Jack and his mom.

"Ah, well. Here we are." Ketch interrupted his thoughts.

"Yeah…" Dean trailed off, trying to decide the best course of action. He had hoped this would be a simple grab-and-run.

Ketch huffed impatiently "You do know where we are, don't you? Because we've only got 24 hours before the rift closes. I wasn't counting on having to search through all of Narnia."

"Yeah, yeah. Just give me a moment. This is… different than my last drop-by. Let's get going till we find a reference point. Or hell, someone to ask for directions." Dean grumbled, pulling on his backpack as they started to walk. "You still gonna bail?"

Ketch frowned and stopped to look him. "What are you insinuating exactly?"

"You were gonna go your merry way when we got through right? As you said, getting away from Asmodeus would be a smart move." Dean shrugged.

Ketch rolled his eyes and started walking again. "I was going to stay here afterwards, but I'll have you know that I always had plans of helping the boy and… your mother. She's in danger. I owe her that."

Dean snorted. "She'll probably kill you. Again."

"Yes, about that – do you think that we can avoid telling Hermione about my passing perhaps? My return to life was not exactly achieved with lightest of magic." Ketch requested carefully.

Dean snorted "You used dark magic?"

Ketch huffed "As if you haven't made deals with demons, witches and the actual devil. You haven't a leg to stand on, Winchester"

Dean had to concede that point. They reached a bridge, which he tried to recognise. He hoped the lay of the land would be approximately the same as back home in their own world, but he couldn't be sure without a map or someone more known to the area. As he stood, contemplating the bridge, he heard a sudden noise.

"Down, down, down!" He hissed at Ketch when he realised that a group of people were coming up on the bridge.

Charlie.

There was an angel kill squad and with them were three prisoners and one of them was Charlie. Two of the prisoners were killed but luckily, they decided to keep Charlie alive. He had to make sure she stayed that way.

…

Arthur Ketch was, in his own opinion, a quite simple man. He took orders and he fulfilled them without nonsense. The mission into the Apocalypse World had been simple – Get Mary, get the boy and get them out, but there they were, chasing some other girl that he quite frankly could care less about.

Dean was adamant that she was necessary in order to find out where they needed to go, but he was obviously more driven by a sentimental attachment to a girl who was no longer amongst the living in their own world – Perhaps they were intimate or perhaps Dean had a hand in her death and felt guilty? While Arthur could relate, he had learned the hard way, that compartmentalisation was the only way to get the job done – yet here they were, wasting time trying to locate this Charlie-person, despite not even having a trail to follow because the angels had bloody teleported away with her. Their best bet would be to find some poor sod, jump them and interrogate them, but Dean Winchester was stubborn as a mule and had the stealth of an elephant. It was likely to go the other way around and Dean would get them both killed, so Arthur did the smart thing and kept his distance. If Dean wanted to act like bait, Arthur was not one to stop him.

True to his predictions, Dean was ambushed. He was shot, which wasn't the plan, but you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs. C'est la vie.

He contemplated just letting the cretin take Dean and follow them without engaging in a fight, but unfortunately, he needed Dean on his side if he wanted a chance of not getting shot by Mary. Even with Dean's support there was still 50/50 chance of death for him once he would meet Mrs Winchester again, so he couldn't afford letting that small ticket to redemption slip away. Even if said ticket was an annoying, flannel-wearing sack of potatoes.

"You're a strong one! Angels'll pay double for you. Most of the slaves are scrawny" He heard the would-be abductor taunt as he tied Dean's hands behind his back.

With a long-suffering sigh and an eye-roll, Arthur tackled the miscreant.

"Where were you going to take him? You do want to live, yes?" He inquired politely while holding the man down. Unfortunately, he was a bit stronger than Arthur had expected and managed to catch him off guard, turning the tables.

He was then held at knifepoint and saved by Dean Winchester like some damsel in distress. Disappointing, to say the least.

"You heard him – Where were you gonna take me?" Dean growled impatiently at the man. Understandable since he had shot him in the shoulder.

The dirty bounty hunter sneered "You think I'm gonna tell you?"

Then Dean shot him in the leg and Arthur had to give it to him – he was becoming more and more ruthless. When the idiot had given them the location, Dean did the stupid thing though and only knocked him out. A headshot would have been appropriate, but Arthur didn't want to start that argument. Hopefully he would stay unconscious and didn't have a communications device he could use to give them up. Stealth truly was their best bet if they were all going to make it out alive.

…

Dean winced. Hitting that guy with an injured shoulder probably hadn't been his best decision, but he'd be damned if let Ketch show him up. They needed to get moving. They had three people to save now instead of two. He wouldn't let Charlie down, not again.

Ketch was going through the bounty-hunter's bag. "That hunter may've been a bumpkin, but his weaponry is cutting edge. These, I don't even recognise."

Dean smirked a little. It felt good knowing something about tech that Ketch didn't. "Yeah, that's angel-killing bullets. Might wanna hang on to those."

His small victory was short-lived though. Damn, that shoulder-wound stung like a bitch.

"You don't look good." Ketch pointed out with a frown.

"Yeah, well, you're not my type either. I'm fine." Dean shot back.

Ketch looked at him with – was that concern? Gross. "We'll take a break. Your wound may be more serious than we thought." He insisted.

"No, he barely hit me. Come on, we don't have time for this." And Dean didn't want his whatever that was. He was being nice and it was weird. He didn't like it.

"What was it with you and this Earthly 'Charlie' anyway? Old girlfriend? Let me guess – she broke your heart." Ketch mocked. There was the smarmy bastard that Dean loved to hate.

But damn that shoulder. He'd been shot several times before, why the hell did it hurt so much this time? And why was he getting dizzy? Suddenly he found himself on the ground.

"Dean!" Ketch shouted, but he sounded far away. He felt the assassin put a hand on his forehead like a mom would and he wanted to slap it away but found that he didn't have the strength to do it.

"Oh god, you're burning up. Let's take a look at that wound." Ketch demanded, and Dean really didn't feel like playing nurse with the asshat.

"No, no. I'm fine. We gotta keep moving." He protested half-heartedly.

"Do shut up." Ketch told him and ripped his shirt open.

Dean didn't like the concerned frown Ketch was displaying. "How's it look, mom?" He snarked.

Ketch started pulling stuff out of his backpack and mixing it on a rock like some boy scout, talking about toxins and poisons and stuff. The gist of it was that the Men of Letters were using poison to slow down and kill, and Ketch thought the hunter might have done the same. Using poison - that was just cheating. Then the bastard shoved the gunk into his bullet wound.

Dean winced. "Fine. You're done playing doctor." He slurred. "Can we get on with it now?"

Ketch rolled his eyes condescendingly. "By all means. If only so the antidote can be pumped through your system faster."

He helped him up by his uninjured arm as if they were pals.

They walked on in silence, the only sound being the snow crunching beneath their feet. Dean was freezing his ass off, but they were on a tight schedule. They couldn't afford any delays.

They walked for hours and Dean pushed himself to the limit and probably a little further than that. He needed to push through the night, especially because he was moving slower than usual. The hunter dude had said it was 4-5 hours walk to the POW-camp, but they had spent 7 so far.

In the end he collapsed. He tried to continue, and Ketch insisted they should rest, but he couldn't let the bastard be right. Unfortunately, his body agreed with Ketch. Traitorous meatsuit.

"Perhaps we can use this moment to revisit the Charlie-issue?" Ketch requested and Dean felt like choking him. That British accent that had sounded cute on Hermione, made him want to barf when coming from Ketch.

"No." He growled as a response from his place on the ground.

"Your point – your reason for killing yourself here is that we're running out of time. So why are we chasing two rabbits? We risk not saving any of them. I propose we return home, regroup and reinforce ourselves – maybe even see if we can bring some backup. That way we might have a chance of saving everyone." Ketch pointed out.

Dean sighed and rolled over. He shuffled a little to lean against a rock. "Look. Charlie isn't gonna give the angels what they want. When they realise that, they're gonna kill her, 100% sure, and I'm not –"

"Your Charlie might not talk but you don't know this Charlie. What's the story? What aren't you telling me?" he inquired.

It hurt and Dean didn't want to, but he found himself telling Ketch anyway "Charlie was like family. She was like a sister to me. She did more for me and Sam than I can even begin to say, and she was butchered for it. We couldn't get there in time to save her and I – " He broke off.

"You feel like you failed her" Ketch finished.

"I know I did." Dean sighed.

Ketch sighed tiredly "That, I understand." He said, and Dean knew immediately who he was talking about – the other girl who was his actual sister, something he felt conflicted by. He couldn't help but compare the two. He had known Charlie longer; they had been through some rough shit together. They had so much in common and she was everything he could ever have wanted in a sister. But what was Hermione? She'd helped them with the Darkness, but they had never really gotten along. They constantly butted heads and the attraction he had felt towards her made everything so much worse. Even though the attraction was very much gone, he still hated the fact that she was with Gabriel. Before he had thought that Gabriel wasn't good enough for her. Now that he knew that the girl was his sister, that sentiment increased tenfold. What bothered him most was that she was blood, but he still knew next to nothing about her.

He hesitated, but found himself asking anyway; "What happened to her?"

"Pardon?" Ketch asked, seemingly shaking himself out of his own memories.

"Hermione. What happened to her?"

Ketch frowned and looked down on the ground. Then he sighed and looked Dean directly in the eye. "First, you must ask yourself if you really truly want to know." The assassin implored, seriously

"I need to know. Or else I'm just gonna go and drive myself crazy, thinking about it." Dean shook his head.

Ketch stared off into the distance "Knowing isn't quite beneficial for one's sanity either." He pointed out.

"Just tell me, Ketch." Dean huffed impatiently.

Ketch creased his forehead in thought, seemingly unable to decide where to begin. "I separated the file with the experiments and their results from the rest of the data I managed to pull. That way your brother won't stumble upon it accidentally."

"Okay" Dean shrugged.

Ketch pulled a usb-drive out of a small hidden pocket in his tactical vest and reluctantly offered it to Dean. Just when Dean was about to grab it, Ketch drew his hand back.

"Can I trust you with this?" he asked, his eyes boring directly into Deans, looking for the slightest deceit. "Can I trust you not to use this against her? Not to use it against her kind? I know I'm a right bastard. I'm a back-stabbing double-crossing arsehole of a turncoat. But not to that girl. I need to know that you will protect her and her secrets. So, will you?"

Dean frowned. "I'm her brother, aren't I?"

"You and I both know that while family isn't necessarily blood, blood doesn't necessarily mean family either." Ketch smiled ruefully at him

Dean sighed. He thought hard about that and came to a realisation. "I want it to. I want her to be family. I mean, we don't get along and we argue a lot, but most of the time it's probably just arguing for the sake of the argument, y'know. I'm stubborn and she is not one to back down"

Ketch snorted softly "No, she always was slightly aggravating in that way, but that's mostly a good thing. So – can I trust you with this?"

"Yeah," Dean nodded and reached out his hand. "Yeah, you can."

Ketch gave him the small usb-drive. "Don't look at the video-files." He cautioned and Dean frowned.

"Can you tell me some of it?" he requested as he stuffed the small thing in one of his inner pockets.

Ketch sighed and stayed silent for a long time. Just as Dean was sure that the guy would stay quiet, he started. "The powers Hermione has, was a curiosity to the Men of Letters. At first, they were assumed to be some sort of high-powered telekinesis. However, when they discovered it was more than that, they wanted to understand that power, but more than that, they wanted to find its weakness. They wanted to find out how to take down magic-users most efficiently and if the magic would act in defence subconsciously.

Dean frowned "How'd they do that?"

Ketch rubbed his face tiredly "They would expose her to different kinds of trauma and observe how the magic reacted. First while she was fully anaesthetised, then under weaker sedation and then while she was fully conscious."

Dean felt himself getting angrier and angrier. "What kind of trauma?" he growled "And remind me again, why you didn't just take her and run."

"Many of these experiments were conducted before I met her. I didn't even know the full extent of them until recently. They burned her, broke her bones, cut her, poisoned her, electrocuted her, beat her. In between, they would observe her healing capabilities. I'm actually quite cross with your Jody Mills for killing Dr Hess. I had several delightful accidents planned for her here in the States. She doesn't travel often so this was a prime opportunity. She was the one who sanctioned it all." Ketch huffed in irritation. "I suppose I should be happy she's gone, but I had hoped to see her suffer a little.

Dean closed his eyes and tried to get his breathing under control. He knew humans were messed up. It had been confirmed to him time and again. Monsters he understood, they killed – most of the time in order to survive. But this? This was pointless. It was evil in a way that was beyond any kind of thing he had ever fought. And they had done it to a little girl. Not just any little girl either.

His baby sister. Yep. She was definitely his sister.

"Are all of them dead? The ones that were a part of this?" He ground out.

Ketch sighed and hung his head in shame "No. That's just one of the places where I've failed. Two are at the bottom of the Atlantic, some are spread around in various ditches. One of them, I threw into a wood-chipper while he was still alive, which was most satisfying." He paused, seemingly getting lost in a good memory, but then his expression darkened again. "Some still have a pulse though. But I don't just want them to die. I want to tear down that entire organisation. Especially now that I know that she's alive. I have a lot of sins to atone for and I have a lot of things to apologise for. Hess should have died a long time ago, but I let her live. I've killed in the name of self-preservation and sacrificed friendships. It's time to redeem myself now though. I've left the Men of Letters, I've left Asmodeus to help you, even though it doomed me. And now it's time to kill the rest of those bastards."

Dean nodded. "Well, I'm in. So, let's get going. We've got people to save and things to hunt."

"Are you sure you're ready?" Ketch looked at him sceptically.

"Shut up. I'm fine." Dean rolled his eyes.

Ketch shrugged and stood. "If you say so" he accepted and helped Dean up.

"This doesn't make us friends or anything like that" Dean sneered.

Ketch smirked "Well, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. But I believe that I can accept that that is the extent of this relationship." He quipped.

"Whatever. Let's just get going."

And that they did.

…

When they reached the camp, Dean wanted to storm the place, right away, but Arthur stopped him. It was still dark, and they had no idea of the layout or the number of hostiles. Going in blind was a fool's errand.

"Charlie is in there right now" Dean hissed as they crouched behind the bush Arthur had pulled him down at. "They might kill her at any time"

Arthur had to concede that hearing the girl's screams was disconcerting, but it was too high a risk.

"They won't kill her right away." He argued. "She's supposedly high in this resistance. They'll want to kill her with an audience. She'd make a good example."

Even though he couldn't see it in the dark, he could practically feel the other man's scowl at him.

"This is supposedly a POW camp, which means there are other prisoners here, who are going to have a grudge against the angels as much as we do. If we wait until they're awake, we can use them as allies if not a distraction. We also have a chance of saving more lives – that's what you Winchesters are all about after all, isn't it?" he pointed out.

Dean huffed "Fine. But if she dies, I'm blaming you. And there ain't noting that can stop me from ripping your heart out." He growled.

Arthur rolled his eyes "If you must." The level of drama was unbelievable.

It took the several hours and a lot of arguments to make a plan. It was a horrid plan, but at least they had one.

Around dawn, the screaming stopped. Angels came out into the courtyard, herding people in various conditions. Some looked relatively fine if a little bruised, some were limping, and others looked ready to keel over. All wore the same expression of utter desolation.

A stake was raised in the middle of a scorched spot on the ground. Obviously, this wasn't the first execution the place had seen. Some of the prisoners were forced to build a pyre around it. When a man was dragging his feet, he was killed immediately by a completely expressionless angel. Arthur wondered if he sometimes looked like that and realised that he probably did. Because Hermione was right. He might be Arthur in his own head, but in reality, did he truly have the right to call himself that? He wanted to redeem himself, but was it even possible? He had become Mr Ketch through and through. Killing both monsters, humans and friends in the name of self-preservation.

"There" he whispered to Dean, when they dragged the young woman from another building. She was tied roughly to the stake and the angels started a sort of speech, probably listing her crimes. This was their cue. Arthur counted down from three and they attacked in perfect synchronisation.

Dean launched three well placed smoke grenades over the fence while Arthur hung back with his rifle, taking out angels with the fancy bullets providing cover for Dean who climbed the fence like a bloody monkey. Next, Arthur discarded the rifle in favour of two handguns and ran to the fence, planting a proper grenade in it. The following explosion created an escape route for all of them. He ran through it and took out the angels guarding the prisoners while Dean went to cut Charlie down from the pyre.

"Run!" Arthur yelled at the now liberated prisoners and they didn't have to be told twice. He was relieved to see some of the stronger ones, help the ones who had trouble walking.

Soon, more angels arrived as backup and Arthur had trouble keeping up.

"Dean!" he roared "No pressure, but now would be a good time to take our leave!"

...

He should have expected it, but it was hard, when Charlie didn't recognise him and even looked at him with distrust.

"Who the hell are you?" She yelled over the sound of the mayhem Ketch was creating.

He faltered slightly, but recovered fast "Doesn't matter. We need to go, now! Unless you wanna be barbecue."

"Yeah, probably not" she shrugged and shook her head in a pure Charlie-like fashion that made him smile.

He cut her loose quickly and turned around to see more angels arriving. They needed to get back to the rift, but he realised that with all the delays, they would never make it back in time. Ketch yelled at him and he looked around trying to find a solution to their problem.

"Ketch!" he yelled and pointed to a jeep standing behind one of the buildings. He pulled Charlie with him and pushed her into the back seat. Luckily for them, the keys were in the ignition. Ketch came running towards them, turning around every so often to shoot angels. He threw himself into the passenger seat.

"Drive!" he yelled.

Dean didn't need to be told that twice. They raced towards the hole in the fence Ketch had created. It wasn't quite big enough and they all ducked instinctually when they ripped into the fence. Luckily it gave easily and they sped back towards the rift the way they had come.

They didn't talk much as angels were on their tail and Ketch leaned out of the window to answer the fire, they were under.

"I've run out of ammunition." He announced eventually.

"Doesn't matter. We're almost at the rift." Dean responded. They arrived at the spot and just as the rift came into his field of vision, the world was turned upside down, when the jeep was hit by an explosion.

The car flipped, once, twice, three times. Luckily, Dean wasn't hurt too badly and he scrambled out of the car. He heard Ketch grunting and ran to him. He didn't look too banged up, but one of his legs was under the car. He grabbed him by the arms and started pulling.

"No, Dean. I'm stuck – we don't have time. See if you can get the girl out." Ketch ground out

Dean frowned "What? No, I'm not leaving you behind."

"You have no choice. The rift is closing" Ketch pointed out and he was right. The rift was getting smaller.

Dean ran around the car to find Charlie unconscious. He couldn't get the door open to get her out.

"Run, Dean!" Ketch roared as angels started to arrive around them. "Go, now! If you stay, we're all dead, if you go you have a chance of returning with reinforcements. GO!" he urged.

Dean stood for a second, unable to decide. Then he ran like hell towards the rift which was getting so small it was almost disappearing. He jumped through at the last possible second.

...

When he returned, it was to a very different sight than he had expected. At first, he was nervous that maybe he had been transported to a whole new world by accident, one where the Men of Letters in America wasn't defunct and that was the explanation to the many people hanging around in the bunker but then he saw Gabriel standing in front of him, looking apologetic.

"What. Did. You. Do?" he growled at the archangel and grabbed him by the front of his shirt.

"He-hey, Dean-o boy. Um. Meet the Campbells?" Gabriel shrugged with a grimace.

Castiel turned the corner to the library with an exasperated sigh. He put a hand to Dean's forehead, healing the wounds and scratches he had sustained in the car crash he had been in not 5 minutes previously.

"We need to go. It's Sam. And Hermione." He told Dean tiredly.

"Where's Arthur?" Gabriel frowned at Dean.

"One thing at a time" Dean grumbled and strode towards the kitchen, passing several strangers on the way. He couldn't have any serious conversation without having a beer first.

"Now what the hell is going on?" He asked and turned around with the bottle he had just pulled out of the fridge. One of the strangers had followed him, Gabriel and Castiel into the kitchen. "And who the hell are you?"

The newcomer looked at him uncomfortably. "I- I'm Eric. Everglade. Eric Everglade. I'm Alice Campbell's son."

Dean pulled a gun at him. He really didn't have the patience for any kind of bullshit. "I'm not really on good terms with my mom's side of the family. Give me one good reason why I shouldn't just put a bullet in you."

Eric's eyes widened and he raised both hands defensively "Because we need to get your brother and Hermione back? And you can't do it without me because none of you are wizards?"

Dean looked at Cas who nodded apologetically. "It would be best to keep him alive."

Dean lowered the gun and the guy looked like he was ready to shit himself.

"Tell me what happened" He demanded.

..

Please leave a review on the way out - you know I want to hear your thoughts.

I should say that I don't think the relationship between Ketch and Hermione would have been any kind of typical father-daughter relationship. No tea-parties or any such thing. They would primarily be two people brought together in messed up circumstances. Ever since I saw Ketch as a character, I've been curious to understand his motivations and how he became the creepy and detatched psycho-killer he is. I'm still curious about that tangent and I'm seriously considering making a prequel to this some time, describing Hermione's early childhood and up until he shoots her.

When I'm done with this fic.

And done with the other stuff I have on hiatus.

So probably in a couple of years.