Supernatural Omens

by CrowleyLives

Sam and Dean cross paths with a powerful supernatural entity that, prophecy has it, will either save the world or destroy it. What could possibly go wrong? Eventual Dean/OFC and Crowley/OFC. TW: Rape/attempted rape, attempted suicide. Also everybody swears, a lot. Non-canon compliant. Eventual smut.

15. Chapter 15: The End of the World, Part 1

A/N: Sorry it took so long to get this chapter up! It feels more like a rough draft to me, so sorry about that. Also I apologize, I seem incapable of writing any kind of smut, even if it's just kissing...Anyway, on with the story...

Dean woke up and immediately reached for his whiskey, taking a healthy swig from the bottle before he even bothered to check the news. Ash sat up quickly, like she'd been shocked.

"What's happening?" she asked, already on Full Red Alert.

"Nothing's happening; relax. I just woke up."

"Oh." Ash looked around the room, reassuring herself that they were not, in fact, under attack. Satisfied, she leaned back against the pillows, waiting for Dean to check his laptop.

"Okay, let's see if the world's still standing." He grabbed his computer and pulled up all of the leading news feeds on separate tabs, clicking through them one by one. All around the world, people were battling Lucifer's unnatural disasters, but not everything was bad news. The President of France was urging peaceful cooperation among the nations, as was the President of Brazil and the Prime Minister of New Zealand. North Korea had attempted to bomb South Korea, but miraculously both missiles had missed their targets and landed in unpopulated areas, following which the entire computer infrastructure responsible for deploying missiles had caught fire and exploded.

"That sounds too miraculous. I wonder if Cas knows anything about this stuff? Come on; let's see what he's been up to on Angel Radio."

Dean got up and dressed; while he was in the bathroom, Ash rolled out of bed to change as well. She pulled her shirt over her head, and realized she couldn't take it off while the cuffs were on. With an indignant huff, she put the shirt back on.

"You alright?" Dean asked when he emerged.

"I can't change my shirt," she grumbled.

"Oh. Right. Hang on a sec…" He reached under the bed and pulled out a small ammo box. Inside was a keyring with about a dozen keys on it: He held them up, searching for the right one. "Here we go." He grabbed Ash's wrist and put the key in the lock. "I'm only undoing one side. You still won't be able to use your power."

She nodded. While she changed shirts, she checked to see if she would be able to shift (just in case Dean didn't know what he was talking about). But nothing happened.

Dean clicked the cuffs back in place, and they went to find Castiel. He wasn't in his room, so they checked the kitchen, where they found a note:

Have to take care of an emergency in Russia. And possibly China. Probably America. Keep Ash safe. Do not leave Bunker.

"Great. We lost Cas." Dean leaned against the table, drumming his fingers against the wood. "Okay. Everything's fine. We just…Wait for him to get back."

Charlie appeared in the doorway, yawning. "We lost Cas?"

Dean jumped. "Temporarily. He's gone to stop the world from blowing itself up, I think."

"Good someone ought to. What do you have for breakfast?"

"Bacon. Eggs. Um…I can do pancakes…"

Charlie opened the fridge and sniffed a bottle of orange juice. It didn't smell fermented, and that was good enough for her. "Sounds good." She located a cup and poured herself a drink. "Want help?"

"You can make a pot of coffee. Filters are in the cabinet to your left."

She opened the door. "So, what's the plan? I assume there is one, other than 'wait for Cas'?" She spun to look at Dean when he remained silent. "'Wait for Cas' is the plan?!"

Dean sniff-tested an open pack of bacon and set it beside the stove. "Cas says that Ash can't fight Lucifer until all the angels are ready to go. And right now, all the angels are busy. So yeah, we wait for Cas to tell us it's 'go time.'"

The sound of something falling in the media room caught their attention; Ash went to investigate.

Sam stretched out on the recliner, grabbing the remote that had fallen on the floor. Eileen yawned and sat up on the couch. They'd fallen asleep talking: Ash smiled and retreated to the kitchen without being noticed.

"Sam and Eileen passed out watching the movie," she told Dean and Charlie.

Dean's face lit up. They may not have hooked up, but they'd enjoyed each other's company at least. Mission accomplished.

Sam appeared a few moments later, looking like he'd slept in a chair that wasn't quite big enough.

"Coffee in a minute," Charlie said.

"Thanks." Sam ran a hand through his hair to straighten it. "I got a text from Garth. He'll be here in a few hours. Says the roads are getting better, but power's out across most of the state, and the wildlife's getting worse." He held up a photo Garth had sent him of a pack of wolves walking down the side of the road, their mouths full of frog legs.

Dean showed him the note from Cas. "He can hurry up and wait with the rest of us."

Eileen wandered into the kitchen, and Sam filled her in on the situation. She smiled, but the look in her eyes said the same thing Ash had been thinking: Hurry up and wait to die.

Breakfast was quiet, lacking the light-hearted comradery from the night before. Jody Mills called, saying she was on her way with Donna and the girls in the toughest police car she could get her hands on. Though she wasn't about to let Claire and Alex face off against the Devil, she thought they'd be safer in the bunker than out in the real world. Bill and Gavin, two hunters they'd met a while back, called to say they wanted in, assuming they could find their way around a massive wall of animal carcasses that had built up in northern Texas. They said the flies were so bad, it was worse than driving in fog, and damn harder to clear off the windshield. Garth called back to say he had a few more contacts that would show up, barring any unnatural disasters that kept them at bay.

Ash grew more anxious as more hunters were announced. It was alright having people that Sam and Dean knew and trusted, and she supposed that if they trusted Garth, that meant he had good enough judgment to trust his own hunter friends; but she didn't like the idea of being stuck in the bunker with a bunch of people who normally wouldn't blink twice at the thought of killing her. Especially since she was stuck in the Enochian handcuffs.

Dean hung up on Garth and set another box of bullets on the armory table. Charlie, Eileen, and Ash were carving more Devil's traps into regular bullets, since their supply of demon-killing bullets was laughably small. Charlie, having spent years painting miniatures for D&D, had a special knack for the task, and Eileen's manual dexterity made her a natural. Ash was having trouble with hand-eye coordination, but at least it was taking her mind off of other things. Sam's big hands always made small-scale work like this difficult, so he busied himself by sorting and cleaning weapons and loading them into their vehicles. Dean moved fairly constantly between the girls and his brother, relaying news about the other hunters and carrying ammo back and forth.

"Ouch!" Ash hissed, dropping one of the new bullets. She sucked on her finger, the skin burning.

"Sorry, my bad," Dean said, plucking the offending bullet and shoving it back in the box. He closed it up and set it in a separate pile, taking out a sharpie and writing 'silver' on it.

"Do you think we'll need those?" Eileen asked, reading his hastily-scrawled label.

"I wouldn't doubt it. Lucifer won't just have demons working for him: He'll have all the big guys. Werewolves, shifters, vamps—any monster that has the capacity to take and follow orders."

Great, Ash thought, There will be TWO kinds of bullets that can kill me. Plus, you know…Lucifer.

Garth was the first to arrive in the evening, and the storm followed him in, stronger than ever. Lightning danced across the sky, the thunder so loud it shook the garage. Hail the size of marbles pelted down, mixing with freezing cold rain. The front of his car was caked with frozen insects and frog guts, his wheel wells clogged with chunks of ice and amphibian.

"Lovely weather we're having," Garth greeted them, shaking sleet out of his hair.

"Yeah? It's only gonna get worse," Dean replied. "Another couple days, it'll all be fire and brimstone."

Garth kept his grin. "'S okay, I don't have any plans for the weekend."

Jody and the girls were next. Donna, Claire, and Alex were all soaking wet and covered in mud from having to push their car out of, over, and around every obstacle the Apocalypse threw at them. Jody looked shell-shocked, and she was having a hard time un-clenching her hands.

"The storm knocked out some fences at a zoo," Donna said, pulling their bags out of the trunk. "We passed a very sad-looking elephant."

"And a tiger!" Claire said. "It was trying to catch an octopus that had fallen in the road when it rained fish—did you hear it rained fish? Anyway, the octopus was NOT having it. Eventually, it gave up and found a regular fish."

Dean introduced them to Ash.

"Oh, Claire told us all about her," Alex said.

"Claire!" Sam scolded.

Claire shot Alex a nasty look. "I told you not to say anything!"

A hunter trio showed up soon after the girls: Garth introduced them as Jonathan, Simon, and Danielle. They'd been friends with Bobby for ages, and when he passed, they went to Garth for help. Jonathan and Simon were brothers, three years apart, and Danielle was their cousin. Jonathan looked like the Brawny paper towel man: Big, burly, and hairy, and nearly as tall as Sam. Simon was just as burly but shorter and with less facial hair. Danielle shared her cousin's penchant for height, but she had a slender, more feminine build, with long blonde hair and a thin, birdlike face. Dean thought he deserved major brownie points for not openly ogling her, though Ash saw him perk up when she stepped into the bunker, shirt soaking wet, the thin fabric clinging to her cleavage. And there was a lot of cleavage to cling to.

The newcomers eyed Ash warily, focusing on the Enochian handcuffs. Garth assured them there was nothing to be afraid of, that they were all on the same side. The boys seemed to take Garth's word for it, but Danielle kept her distance.

Bill and Gavin arrived during a short break in the storm. Bill had torn a pectoral muscle trying to lift a fallen tree out of the road, which automatically benched him from the fight against Lucifer. He was now trying to convince Gavin to stay at the bunker with him, and out of harm's way, but Gavin wasn't having it. The partners had no problem taking Garth's word about Ash, however. They had him go over, twice, the bit where she possibly helped Lucifer destroy the world, but Garth assured them that she was not going to bend to his will.

Just as the weather was picking back up, two more of Garth's friends arrived. Sarah and Olivia were young and had only been hunting for a few years, but they were determined to do what they could to stop the end of the world. Olivia was very friendly and very attractive: Though he knew she was over 18, she screamed 'jailbait' to Dean. She didn't seem capable of talking to someone without touching them. Sarah, on the other hand, was quiet and on the plain side. The first word that sprang to mind was 'dumpy,' though part of the issue could have been that she was covered in mud and sleet, and there were twigs stuck in her hair.

The new arrivals took turns showering and changing into dry clothes while Sam and Dean cooked. Since Eileen and Charlie were already settled in, they helped sort people into guest rooms and showed them around. Ash stayed glued to Dean's side, wary of the strange hunters. If one of them decided to attack her, she was defenseless. The war room buzzed with chatter: Sam and Dean kept the food and beer coming, and eventually the chatter transitioned from how-is-your-family to how-do-we-kill-Lucifer. Ash kept quiet for the most part, not wanting to call attention to herself amidst a slew of people who killed things like her every day.

The hail became more audible as the night wore on, and a quick check outside determined that it had increased to golf ball size. The group discussed their available weapons and ammunition, had a refresher course on devil's traps and other useful symbols they could make, and went over a list of the likely monsters they might encounter in addition to demons. Lucifer could have any number of baddies under his wings, the most likely being vampires, werewolves, and shifters: They were the most 'human' monsters, and the most willing to form groups and take orders. He would have a harder time attracting the wilder things, like wendigos and banshees, and it would be difficult for him to have any ghosts on his team, since he'd have to go around collecting the things they were attached to, which were often locations. And he probably had a few angels on his payroll as well, just to put the icing on the cake.

Donna and Jody gave a quick refresher course on vampires, for those who weren't familiar with them. Garth talked about werewolves; Gavin recalled a particularly nasty hunt where he and Bill had gone up against a group of shifters that had formed into a cult. Sam covered demons, silently daring anyone to so much as mention Ruby, Lilith, Azazel, or drinking demon blood. The point was, he knew damn well what he was talking about. Dean spoke briefly about the angels, though he urged the group to let angels handle other angels, and to focus on demons and other monsters that were more…Down to Earth.

The bunker's 'doorbell' security alert went off, indicating there was someone outside. Dean looked at his phone: it was just after 10 pm.

"Hey, Garth. You expecting anyone else?"

Garth shook his head and looked to Sam. Sam shook his head and shrugged.

"Right." He drew his pistol, checked that it was loaded, and motioned for Sam and Garth to follow him. "Ash, go to my room and don't come out until I tell you. Charlie, Eileen, go with her. She's not good with weapons."

"But—" Ash started.

"That's an order," he snapped.

Ash shut her mouth, glaring at Dean. She turned on her heel and let the two young women follow her back to his room.

"He's just trying to protect you," Charlie said. "It's kind of sweet, in a misogynistic kind of way."

"He's protecting humanity," Ash grumbled, sitting down on the bed.

"Side note, Danielle's cute."

Eileen smiled. "She's very friendly. Her brother's not bad, either."

Charlie laughed. "You have a type, don't you? Jonathan is just a smalle version of Sam."

"But he has very broad shoulders," Eileen pointed out. "And his arms are more muscular."

"Hmm. We'll have to get to know them better, won't we?"

Dean had Garth on his left and Sam on his right. Jody and Donna were crouched in the stairwell, ready to provide backup, and Gavin stood at the base of the stairs, ready to alert the other hunters at the first sign of trouble. Dean nodded to his brother, and swung the door open.

A red-headed woman in a dark green gown stood before him. Despite the wind, sleet, and hail that swirled around her, she remained dry, and not a hair on her head was out of place.

"Rowena!" Dean growled. He raised his gun: Though it didn't have witch-killing bullets, it would still piss her off.

"Hello, Dean." She peered around the corner, ignoring the pistol in her face. "Samuel. How have you been? And…I don't believe we've met…?"

"Garth," said Garth, unsure if he should raise or lower his own weapon. He didn't know much about the witch, but he'd heard she'd been helpful in the past (when she wasn't trying to kill them).

"What do you want?" Dean snapped. "We're a little busy at the moment."

"Yes, I would imagine it has something to do with Lucifer rising and starting the Apocalypse. Again."

"It wasn't our fault this time!" Sam said.

Rowena looked momentarily surprised; then her smile returned. "Anyhow, I'm here to offer my services in the fight against the Devil. So you could, perhaps, let me in?"

Dean laughed, lowering his gun but keeping the safety off. "You're here to help. Right."

"Why should we trust you?" Sam asked.

The witch looked hurt. "I want Lucifer gone just as much as anyone. Surely you remember what he did to me last time he was topside? Not to mention what he's done to my son!"

Dean smiled faintly at the thought of Rowena being barbequed alive. He shook his head. "You hate Crowley."

She shrugged. "A mother's love is hard to understand. I wouldn't expect the two of you to know anything about it."

Sam rolled his eyes. "What do you need?"

"Just a few minor ingredients. This and that. Access to your library, of course. I have one recipe for demon bombs, but I'm afraid it doesn't pack quite the punch I was hoping for. I know there are better ones, and you've got access to them."

"Bombs?" Garth repeated.

"Yes, dear. Just as effective as an angel blade, but from a distance. Mine hardly covers any ground at all, but I've read accounts of the things that have a fifteen-foot radius or more."

"How many can you make?" Sam asked.

"Sam!" Dean hissed. "You're not really considering—"

"With a few helping hands and the right ingredients, I'd say two, maybe three hundred in a day. Would come in quite handy, don't you think?"

"We'll pass," Dean said.

"Dean." Sam pulled his brother back, nodding to Garth to keep his eyes on the witch. In a low voice, he said: "We could use her help. It's a handful of hunters and a few hundred angels, if that, against every monster Lucifer can dig up. There're millions of them. We need all the help we can get."

"Not hers."

"Dean! She's helped us before. With Lucifer. Remember?"

Dean clenched his jaw, grinding his teeth together. She had helped them before. But that didn't mean they could trust her. Hell, Crowley didn't trust her, and he knew her better than anyone. "Fine. But we keep an eye on her."

"Of course."

They turned back to Rowena, who smiled brightly. "So it's settled, then? Wonderful." She grabbed an enormous suitcase that had been parked against the side of the building and wheeled it inside.

"One more thing," Dean said, barring her way. "Everyone gets tested." He splashed her with holy water and made her hold a silver candlestick. She'd already walked through the devil's trap on the ceiling, just as every guest had before her.

Rowena wiped her face on her sleeve. "That was refreshing. Right. Shall we begin in the library?"

Dean left Sam and Garth in charge of the witch and went to warn everyone about her. He passed out their supply of witch-killing bullets and had everyone make their own protective hex bag. They would supervise her in shifts, helping her with construction of the demon bombs at the same time.

"If you're not on witch duty, I suggest you get some rest," he said. "We don't know what tomorrow's going to bring, but it's not gonna be pretty. If this is the last night's sleep you ever get, might as well make it a good one."

He retreated to his room, needing to deal with one more thing.

"It's Rowena," he told the girls. "We're going to let her help us."

Ash's eyes went wide in alarm. "Crowley's mom?"

"Sam's watching her. And Garth. There's always going to be at least two people watching her. Just to be safe, though, I don't want you to leave this room without me."

Her fingers threaded through the chains between her wrists, forming tight fists. This was not a good time to be without her powers.

"We're not going to let her get close to you," Dean said. "I promise." He turned to Charlie and Eileen. "You guys should get some sleep. Big day tomorrow. Probably."

"Last day tomorrow," Charlie said.

I should have slept with Sam when I had the chance, thought Eileen. What an anti-climactic way to go out.

Ash didn't know how she was supposed to sleep with a bunch of hunters in the bunker AND Rowena AND the end of the world on the horizon. Dean must have been having the same problem, because he'd been pacing in front of the door for a good five minutes, opening and closing a switchblade.

"Dean."

He shut the blade and turned to look at her.

"You don't have to guard me all night. I can go hang out with Eileen or Charlie, or Claire and Alex—"

Dean tossed the knife onto a bookshelf, trading it out for a bottle of whiskey. He knew he couldn't get completely wasted with Rowena there—it was only a matter of time before she started trouble, and he'd need all his faculties to deal with her—but he needed to take the edge off. "Nah, that's okay. I'm good here."

Ash watched him throw back his drink like it was water. "I just thought you might have a better time with Olivia. Or Danielle. They seem…Available."

Dean choked and coughed, the alcohol burning the back of his throat. Had she really just suggested that he sleep with one of the other hunters? He turned to look at her. Normally, when chicks said that sort of thing, it was because they were angry or bitter: They felt like he was focusing too much on other women, and they needed his reassurance that of course he would never so much as think of leaving them for someone else. It was a whiny, childish ploy, and he hated it. But Ash didn't look bitter or angry. She looked…Concerned. Her fingers traced the Enochian symbols around her wrists, pressing the metal cuffs into her skin until it turned red.

"I, uh…" He coughed again and cleared his throat. "Maybe a little too available, if you know what I mean."

She cocked her head to the side. She didn't know what he meant. "When has that ever been a problem for you in the past?"

Jesus, Dean thought, explaining the pizza boy to Cas was easier than talking to Ash. "Things change. People change. After, you know…Hell, and—and Leviathan drugs, and satyrs, and cursed notebooks—look, the point is, I've done a lot of shit, but I've never cheated on anyone."

Ash looked more confused. "I don't think it counts as 'cheating' if I can't have sex with you and they can."

"I don't think you know shit about how relationships work."

"And you do?" Ash snapped back.

"Look—" Dean cut himself off as the whiskey finally hit him. His head tingled pleasantly: Though it was just a mild buzz, it was enough to calm his frayed nerves a bit. He shook his head, and tried again, calmly: "I'm not hooking up with a random hunter I just met when I've already got you." He motioned for her to come closer; she rolled her eyes and opened her mouth to protest. "End of discussion."

"Wha—You can't 'end of discussion' me! I've ripped the heads off Leviathans! I killed a demon while it was possessing me!"

Dean smiled and slid over to her, wrapping his arms around her in a big bear hug. "Is that a threat?"

Ash snuggled up to him, unable to hug him back with the cuffs on. "I'm hardly a threat to anyone right now."

He released her and shoved his hand into his pocket. "Tell you what: We'll both feel better about having Rowena here if you're out of those cuffs. But I need you to promise me you won't try to leave."

Ash sat up straighter. He was going to let her go? She watched him fish around before retrieving the key. "I promise."

"I'm not kidding, Ash. Swear…Swear on Crowley's life, that you won't try to leave the bunker."

Her eyes narrowed. Was he really going to go there? Fine. "I swear, on Crowley's life, that I won't try to leave the bunker."

She held out her hands, and Dean removed the handcuffs. Her wrists were raw and red; she rolled them back and forth, flexing her fingers to try to restore her circulation.

"Better?"

Ash nodded and kissed his cheek. She finally felt like she could relax, in spite of the challenge (and almost certain death) that loomed ahead of her.

Dean turned and kissed her on the lips, a pleasant tingle running down his spine. He was still worried about Ash and Sam and Cas and Rowena and Lucifer and all the other hunters in the Bunker, and the end of the world; but right now, they seemed to be safe. Right now, it was just him and the nephilim, and he was 95% sure that she wasn't a satyr disguised by a fairy-dust hallucination.

Okay, 90% sure. Give or take about 10%.

Sam dipped another one of the cloth-covered balls in holy oil and set it on a cookie rack to dry with the others. He was starting to go cross-eyed, keeping one eye on his work and the other on Rowena. He had to be vigilant because Garth was passed out in a chair, still holding a bowl full of palm fronds that he'd rolled and tied off with rubber bands. Occasionally, Rowena would walk over and grab a handful from the bowl without disturbing him.

"So, how is my granddaughter?" Rowena asked.

"She's…Fine." Sam wasn't sure what she already knew about Ash, but he didn't want to give her any more information, on the off chance she could use it against her.

"Fine? That's all I get? Tell me who she is, Samuel. What does she like to do? What's her personality?"

Sam narrowed his eyes. Those didn't sound like dangerous questions, but he was still wary of saying too much. "She's…She likes hunting. She's good at tracking things down and killing them. And she likes Dean." She likes Dean? Did he really just say that? Well, it was true; she followed him around like she was his dog—a dog that was in love with its owner, which was…Probably not weirder than anything else they'd come across, honestly.

"Really?" Rowena looked up from rolling finger bones in what looked like curry powder and smelled like durian. "I would have thought you were more her type."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, Dean is a little…Rough around the edges. Stubborn. Hot-headed. And he'll stab you soon as look at you, whereas you…" She looked Sam up and down and smiled. He instinctively took a step backward. "You have empathy, Sam. It's what makes you so good with people. And you love dogs."

She knows Ash is a shifter, then, Sam thought. The way Rowena was looking at him, though, it was becoming increasingly harder to think at all. Is she going to try to hex me? he wondered, taking another step back. He glanced at Garth out of the corner of his eye: If the witch tried something, could he wake him up in time?

"You're also far more handsome," Rowena continued, wiping her hands off on a spare piece of cloth. "Dean might hold a certain appeal for today's primitive youth, but an experienced woman such as myself can tell that you're the real catch."

Sam blushed and backed into a lamp; startled, he spun to catch it before it crashed to the floor, then spun back to keep an eye on Rowena.

"You look tense, Samuel. End of the world got you down?"

He cleared his throat, one hand inching toward the gun stowed in his waistband. "I'm fine. Everything's fine. Just another day at the office."

"Hmm. Right." She stepped closer, and her long gown swished elegantly around her legs as she moved. Sam hadn't noticed how low-cut it was until just now; had it always been like that, or had the neckline suddenly plunged lower? There was more cleavage showing than any three-hundred-year-old woman should have. Granted, for three hundred, she had a great body. All things considered. Not that he was considering them.

"Are you sure you're alright?"

Sam blinked and shook his head, hastily looking away from her chest. "Uh, I should probably…Get some rest…I'll get Gavin and Bill to help with the bombs—"

"Oh, you're no fun, Sam." Rowena was now close enough to touch him; Sam froze with his fingertips touching the butt of his gun. She could throw any number of magic spells at him before he had a chance to draw: How had he allowed himself to get in this position? Had she already done something to him? As his mind raced through possibilities, she reached out and touched his arm, lightly squeezing his triceps. "You know, we're both likely to die in the next twenty-four hours. Only one of us will stay that way, of course; neither, if you have another one of your miraculous Winchester resurrections." She shrugged, slowly running her hand down his arm, feeling every scar and muscle fiber. "Still, dying makes for a rotten day. So why not blow off a little steam while you still can?"

Sam grimaced. "Why on Earth would I want to have sex with you?"

Rowena laughed. "Because I know more tricks than you could possibly learn from Pornhub. Because you hate me, but you find me attractive, and you desperately want to let out all of this fear and anger you're feeling. Because, Sam Winchester, I'm also terrified of Lucifer, and I want your giant Moose cock to make me forget all about him."

Her hand jumped from his arm to his thigh. Sam jumped like she'd electrocuted him. She spun on her heel and walked away from him, turning back with a coy smile.

"Offer's on the table, love. One night only. I'll be in my room, if you need me. And if not…" She pouted, shrugging her shoulders. "I promise to be a good girl and not disturb your friends. We're all on the same side, after all."

Sam didn't move for several seconds. What just happened? Had Rowena really propositioned him? There was no way in Hell he was going to take her up on her offer. Nope; he'd done the Bad Decisions thing with Ruby, and he wasn't going down that road again.

"What'd I miss?" Garth mumbled, snapping awake. He looked around the room. "Where's Rowena?"

Sam still had one finger on his gun; he relaxed his arm. There was no one around to shoot right now. "She…Went to her room. Said she needed a couple hours of sleep before we start working again."

"Smart woman," Garth said, yawning.

You have no idea, Sam thought.

"You want me to guard her door?" Garth said, getting to his feet.

"Hmm? Oh. Uh, no, that's okay. You should get a few more hours in, yourself. I'll keep an eye on her."

Garth reached up to pat Sam's shoulder; Sam could feel the ghost of Rowena's fingers on his arm. "You let me know if you need anything, buddy. See you in the morning."

"Yeah. 'Night."

Sam stood in the empty room, looking at the mess of half-made demon bombs. Then he remembered he had to guard Rowena's door, in case she decided to cause trouble. If there was one thing he knew about her for certain, it was that she couldn't be trusted.

He wondered what sort of tricks she knew about that Pornhub didn't.

Ash was happy to let Dean take the lead. He continued to kiss her as they laid down, his hand moving from her hair to glide down her back, and over her ass. He kissed down her chin and along her neck; at first, she thought he was going to bite her, but he continued to kiss her, sucking on her skin and teasing her with his tongue. Her skin felt electric wherever he touched her, and she wanted him to touch her everywhere. She wanted more of his skin against her; more tongue, more hands, more…Friction. She needed him—she needed things she couldn't have, but that wouldn't stop her from taking all she could get. She dug her nails into his arm, trying to pull him closer. He sucked on her neck until the blood vessels burst, and damn was that good. She wanted to kiss him back, to suck on his neck the same way; she wanted to bite him until he bled, she wanted to tear him open and make him scream, and rip him apart—

No, that wasn't right. That was what a lifetime of sexual repression did, she supposed. But she did want to suck on his neck. Maybe bite him. Just a little.

She pushed him away and he looked concerned, like he might have done something she didn't like. Before he could say a word, she was smashing her lips against his. She bit his lower lip, running her tongue across it and tasting copper. Her kisses trailed down to his neck, gentle at first, then with increasing pressure. Dean was breathing hard, and she could feel his pulse quicken as she licked over his carotid artery. Again, the urge rose to bite hard and draw blood: She imagined the thick spray that would come from ripping an artery; the feel of hot blood on her face; the rich, coppery taste on her tongue—

No. She had to be gentle; this was Dean, not some monster she had to eviscerate.

Still, she couldn't help focusing on his pulse point for one more moment, giving him soft, open-mouthed kisses and swirling her tongue around. As she moved away from the artery, kissing turned to sucking; Dean moaned and his hands went to her hips, moving her so that she was on top of him, straddling him. As she continued to lick and suck her way across his neck, he squeezed her ass and pressed her hips into his, grinding his erection against her. He rubbed against her pelvic bone, which was a little unpleasant; her brain took that moment to remind her that Dean had once tried to assault her while drugged on Leviathan serum. She stopped licking his neck, freezing in place as the memory played over again.

Dean felt her freeze. "Ash? What's wrong, baby?" She was looking at him, but her eyes were unfocused. "Is the grinding too much?"

Ash's eyes were glazed over, remembering how scared she'd been that she wasn't going to be able to stop him and everything—the Prophecy, the end of the world, destroying Lucifer—would be ruined, and it was all her fault for trying to get a leg up on the Leviathans. She shook her head, and the movement traveled down the rest of her body like a wet dog shaking off.

"No. It's fine, I just…Got stuck in my head for a second. I'm fine." She gave him a fake smile and bent her head to suck on his neck.

Dean stopped her. "Maybe we should stick to kissing."

Ash looked hurt. "But—no, we can do whatever you want; I just can't touch you…But you can grind on me as long as we're wearing clothes. That's not against the Rules." She wriggled her hips, feeling the bulge of his dick through thin fabric. She wanted to grab him; she wanted to take him down her throat like the porn he watched; she wanted him inside her, any and every way that was possible. But all she could do was grind against him. She nipped at his lower lip, feeling like she was disappointing him. She couldn't have sex with him, give him a blowjob, or even a handjob. She was essentially just a cock-tease at this point, and not a very good one. "I'm sorry—I'm sorry I can't…"

"Ash. It's okay." He put his hands on her hips to stop her from moving, and kissed her again. "Look, why don't you give me five minutes in the bathroom, and we can cuddle like we normally do, alright?"

He started to push her off of him.

"Wait! What if...What if I gave you five minutes right here? I know I can't…Jerk you off, but I can keep kissing you. It's like…3-D porn. Right?"

Dean looked at her without blinking. His head tilted slowly to the side. "You want to make out with me while I jerk off?"

She sat up straighter, her hands on his chest. "Is that weird? You're making it sound like it's weird. I'm sorry; I just thought it might be nicer than being alone in the bathroom—"

"It's, uh…I mean, it's kinda different, but it's not weird. You want to know about weird sex stuff, google 'Hentai.' Can I make a request?"

"If it involves tentacles—"

Dean laughed. "No, no tentacles. Though I'm sure you could grow them if you wanted. I just want you naked."

"Oh. Okay." Ash dismounted reluctantly and took off her shirt and pajama bottoms. "Can you take your shirt off, too?"

As soon as his shirt hit the floor, she pounced. Ash straddled him again and nipped at his collarbone, nibbling and sucking from one end of his chest to the other while her hands explored his bare chest. She could feel the slight change in texture where his tattoo was, and the little dips and bumps from every little scar. Dean's hips twitched as she brushed her fingers over his nipples, and he began to grind against her again. She adjusted her position so that he wasn't hitting bone anymore, and now it felt really good. Damn—too bad she wasn't allowed to get off. She growled and nipped at his shoulder, fingers still exploring his chest. His nipples hardened as she rubbed them, and his hips bucked harder; he kept his hands on her ass, rubbing her against him in rhythm. As she licked her way back up his neck, he was breathing hard, making almost imperceptible whimpering noises that did Things to her she didn't quite understand. But she knew she wanted him to keep making those sounds.

The Internet had told her that nipples were important; very erogenous. Ash didn't have any personal experience in that department, but they certainly seemed to work for Dean. She thought about what else the Internet had told her, and shifted position, scooting down slightly so that her hips were on his thighs and her head was even with his chest. She licked over one nipple and he sucked in his breath sharply; she did it again, leaving her tongue on him for a moment longer.

"Yes—Ash—"

Encouraged, she swirled her tongue around the tender point, feeling it harden even more. She closed her lips around it and sucked, gently at first, then harder, lapping her tongue over him at the same time.

"Yeah—fuck—"

He bucked his hips into her, but now she was at the wrong angle. He tapped her hip, motioning that she should get off of him; she slid to one side, never losing contact with her tongue.

Dean shoved his pants down to mid-thigh and wrapped his fist around his cock. He hadn't done anything like this since, what—high school? 8th grade, maybe? It was still hot: Who would've thought someone like Ash, with zero experience, would attack him with such intensity? She was going at his nipples (and neck, and lips) with the same ferocity he'd seen when she took out Leviathans. Being slightly afraid that she might actually try to kill him only made it hotter.

Ash moved to his other nipple, giving it a teasing lick before sucking hard. Her teeth scraped against his skin and his back arched; again, she fought back the urge to bite him. Instead, she began to lick down his chest to his ribs, nibbling on each of them and sucking on the taut skin that covered them. Then she made her way back up his chest, rolling one nipple between her fingers while she licked the other.

The corners of the Internet in which she learned about nipples tended to have a lot of ads for things like vibrating cock rings and other sorts of things that vibrated. Ash didn't have any toys she could use on Dean, but she did have supernatural mojo. She slid her free hand down his stomach, stopping just above his pubic hair. She didn't want to get in the way of his jerking-off hand, and she knew she wasn't allowed to touch him.

Ash focused on her power, and released a pulse of energy.

Dean felt her hand glide down his body and his dick twitched in anticipation: Evidently, it had not gotten the memo about No Touching. He felt a tingle where her fingers touched his skin, sort of like when a foot falls asleep, and then…Holy shit. Vibration traveled up his cock and through his balls, buzzing behind them to hit his prostate. His whole body lit up, fizzing from head to toe, but mostly cock to balls. His hips bucked like he'd been electrocuted and he bit back a shout of surprise and pleasure, turning it into a rather undignified moan.

"Shit! What was that?!"

Ash removed her tongue from his nipple, looking up at him guiltily. "I wanted to try something. Did I hurt you?"

"No! Fuck, that was awesome! Can you do it again?"

She smiled, sucking at his lower lip, and gave him another pulse of energy. Again, his hips bucked and he moaned into her mouth. Ash could have listened to that sound for the rest of eternity; she wanted him so bad, she was shaking. She sucked on his tongue, then bit his lip, pressing her chest against his. She felt Dean's hand on her breast, and the urge to attack and actually injure him rose up stronger than ever. She growled, pushing the feeling to the back of her mind, and compensated by biting his shoulder hard enough to leave a mark. She sent another pulse of energy toward his cock, and again he made that delicious sound.

"Ah—shit, I'm gonna come! Do it again!"

Ash let out another burst of power, stronger than before. She felt his body stiffen, and his hand stilled as ropes of cum shot onto his stomach and her hand. It had a gooey texture that she hadn't been expecting. Curious, she licked the back of her hand clean: Definitely snot-like in consistency, but otherwise not bad.

Dean used his shirt to clean himself up, then tossed it on the floor. He looked more relaxed than Ash had ever seen him.

"You know," he said, motioning for her to snuggle up to him, "for a virgin with no experience whatsoever, you're not half bad."

"Well, I am half-demon," she replied, resting her head on his shoulder. "To be honest, though, I just do what the Internet tells me."

"The Internet didn't tell you about that—that thing you did."

Ash smiled. "You can thank the half-demon bit for that." She could hear his heart pounding in his chest, and the urge to tear into him like a wild animal and rip it out was still there. She sat up and located her clothes, taking her time to put them back on. "It wasn't too weird, then? I didn't do anything wrong, or—"

"No. God, no. That was effing hot. Kinda felt like you wanted to eat me."

She laughed, snuggling into him again and nipping his shoulder. "Hmm. Maybe a little."

Dean rolled onto his side, wrapping his arms around her. "You better not! It's against the Rules. You eat me, I'm telling Crowley." He kissed her, long and slow, still riding his post-orgasm high. Ash could feel how at peace he was, and the feeling allowed her to relax a little. The mixture of lust and blood-lust surging through her veins dissipated, and she was left with her own kind of peace. In the back of her mind, there was a voice saying, this is the end, but she chose to ignore it. The end could wait a little bit longer.

"That…Wasn't too weird for you, was it?" Dean asked, realizing it was her first vaguely sexual encounter.

"Hmm? No; I like making you feel good. And now I have something decent to dream about when I die."

"…What?"

"Cas says that in the Empty, you dream about your life." She nuzzled his chest with her nose. "Mmm. I hope I dream about this a lot."

Castiel sat in a diner outside of Washington, DC, surrounded by some of the best angels he knew. Most of them were absolute pricks, sure; but they did their jobs, and did them well. Despite the weather, a massive upsurge in wildlife attacks, food shortages, insect-borne diseases, and a few boils and rashes, humanity seemed to be falling back into place. The President of the United States had been the toughest nut to crack, and in the end the angels had done a few things they swore they'd Never Do to Humans, but they'd more or less mended things back to the way they should be. More than one world leader would wake up in the morning with a blinding headache and a blank space where the last 12 hours should have been in their memories, but all the proper treaties had been signed, and all the proper precautions taken to ensure that no big, scary red buttons were pressed.

"That wasn't so bad," Castiel said, staring into coffee that was at least 50% sugar at this point. He tore open another packet and stirred it in.

Naomi narrowed her eyes and leaned back in her chair. "Not so bad?! That jumpy little man in North Korea tried to put Jorael's head on a pike!"

Cas winced and shrugged it off. "He looks fine now."

Naomi sighed that special sigh she reserved for her most challenging angel. "Yes. But this whole diversion, it's taken valuable time away from us. We should be marching on the gates of Hell as we speak, and yet we're here, recuperating lost grace that's been wasted on the most vile of humanity—politicians."

He smiled. "I have to agree with you on that." Castiel took a sip of coffee and made a face—the molecules were still too bitter. "Never thought I'd say that." He looked around the diner at the other angels: Only a few were still healing from wounds (and he was going to ask some very specific questions about how the US government got its hands on an angel blade once this whole thing was over), but everyone's grace was depleted after manipulating politicians, making some things happen that needed to happen, and more importantly making sure that some things that had happened, hadn't.

Lucifer must have known they'd do this: He was an evil, conniving little bastard, but he wasn't stupid. So why go to all the trouble of building up the world to the edge of nuclear war, if he knew he'd be thwarted? The angels had expected some sort of resistance in the form of demons, but they hadn't encountered any more than usual (many demons were in politics; it was one of the most popular jobs, Earth-side, after working crossroads deals). Sure, the devil liked to mess with people for fun; but there was still something Castiel was missing. There was something important happening, he just didn't know what—

"A diversion," he said, starting Naomi out of her own thoughts.

"What?"

"You called it a diversion."

She sighed again. "Yes, Castiel. It's a word that means—"

"Straying from a course," he snapped. "That's how you meant it, at least. But what if it's more?"

"An attack or feint that draws the attention and force of an enemy from the point of the principal operation," Naomi answered, then gasped. "You think he set all of this up—went to all the world leaders and stirred up all this trouble—just to—to—"

"Create a diversion?" Castiel stood up suddenly, his chair screeching back across the tile floor. "What's the one thing he still wants? The one thing we're counting on to win this?"

Naomi stood up more gracefully. "The hybrid."

Their movement drew the attention of a few other angels, who gathered closer.

"But she is safe with the Winchesters," Anael said, more of a question than a statement.

Naomi snorted in derision. "Please. They can't even keep themselves safe. That's why Castiel has been assigned to them."

"But I'm not with them now," Cas said, already stretching his wings to take off. "I've been diverted."

Jorael squared his shoulders. "I should go with you—"

"No," Naomi said. "Castiel will go alone. The rest of us must recover our grace while we still can. Even at our strongest, we barely stand a chance against him; weakened, he will crush us like ants."

Castiel flapped his wings, and vanished.

Ash woke up to a woman's scream. She sat up, and Dean bolted upright next to her.

"Rowena," he sighed. He threw on jeans and a shirt—he wasn't fighting a witch in his pajama pants if he could help it—and grabbed the gun with the witch-killing bullets. "Stay here," he ordered.

"I can fight."

"Your fight's with Lucifer. You leave Rowena to me and Sam." He stood at the door, listening: There was no one in the hall. "Lock the door behind me," he said, and left.

Ash locked the door and shifted into a mouse, looking out through the gap between door and floor. She saw Dean's feet disappear down the hall; then other doors began to open and close, and more feet passed by her. She could smell Charlie and Garth; the other hunters weren't familiar enough for her to pick out by smell. There was also a hint of sulfur, though it could have been residual scent left over from someone's last hunt.

"Rowena!" Dean bellowed in the distance. There was a lot of other shouting, but it all melded together; the sounds faded away, then grew closer. Doors were pounded on as every hunter was woken; rushed explanations were handed out like a game of Telephone.

"Was it the witch?"

"Someone's dead! One of the boys—Danielle's cousin, she found him-"

"The witch killed Jonathan!"

"Jonathan's dead. We haven't found any hex bags, and someone's been watching Rowena all night, but we can't rule out—"

"Check your room for hex bags!"

"We don't know that it was Rowena—"

"Who else would want to kill a hunter?"

"What if something else got in?"

"Let me see him; I might be able to tell—"

"Have you seen the body?"

"Where's Rowena?"

"In her room," Sam said.

"You're not watching her?!"

Sam's eyes narrowed. "I followed the screams. But look, if she is behind this—"

"Looks like a succubus to me," Eileen said.

The hall went quiet as everyone turned their attention to Eileen.

"Succubus?!"

"How'd it get in here?"

"Can't be! This place is warded, ain't it?"

"There's a devil's trap above the door, but it's possible to avoid it." That was Sam's voice. "And do we know for certain that a devil's trap will work on a succubus? They're not a true demon."

"There are different breeds," Eileen said. "Some don't respond to silver. Some only respond to silver."

"Anybody see who was in here with him?"

"Well, Danielle found him. Might be her."

"He's my cousin!" Danielle snapped. "He was dead when I found him! I'm not a succubus, if that's what killed him. Test me." There was a bit of a scuffle, and Ash squeezed under the door frame to get a better view. A silver knife was offered, then an angel blade, then holy water. "See? It's not me."

"Alright, let's do this rationally," Sam said as more arguing erupted. "We each get tested. One at a time."

"Hold on, some people are missing."

"Yeah, where's Dean? And the girls aren't here," a new voice said.

"Bill and Gavin haven't come out," someone else noted.

"I'll go get—"

"No, we stay together!"

"But it could be going after them as we speak!"

"Dammit. Okay, we split up in groups. No one on their own. Everyone gets tested. Does everyone have silver on them?"

There was a chorus of "yep's" and "nope's." And angel blades were in short supply.

"Dean's got one in his room," Sam said, moving toward the door. He tried the doorknob, but it was locked. "Dean? You in there? Ash?"

Ash shifted to human but didn't unlock the door. What if Sam was the succubus?

"Dean told me to lock the door."

"Where is he?"

"He ran out after he heard someone scream. You haven't seen him?"

"No. Damn it. Ah…Okay. Do you see his angel blade?"

Ash looked around at the various piles of weaponry. A familiar hilt stuck out of a duffel. "I'll slide it under the door," she said.

"See if he has any silver, too."

She flipped the duffel upside-down and let the weapons clatter onto the floor. She felt around until one of them burned her hand, and slid that one through the door, too.

"Thanks. Stay there."

Ash turned back into a mouse and took up her post under the door again.

As Sam turned back to the group with Dean's weapons, Jody reached for the girl Sarah's arm to test her. Sarah's eyes widened, and in the time it took to blink, she'd thrown Jody across the hall. Jody's head hit the concrete with a solid 'thunk' and she collapsed to the floor. Sam ran to help her while Garth and the other hunters turned on Sarah. She flung her hands out and they were all knocked off their feet; by the time they'd scrambled back up with their weapons drawn, she was gone.

Sam took charge, dividing everyone into groups and directing them to different parts of the bunker. "Remember, you have to stab it through the heart and then cut off its head!" he called to the retreating teams. He led Garth and Eileen to check on the other hunters that hadn't been seen yet.

Bill and Gavin had woken up but remained in their rooms, and met Sam with a pair of silver daggers and a revolver loaded with silver bullets. They established that everyone was human, and Sam had them lock themselves back in the room to reduce the number of people running around. Next, he checked on Alex and Claire, who'd found a room with bunk beds, and realized both girls had fallen asleep with ear buds and couldn't hear anything over their music. Again, he directed them to lock themselves in.

They ran into Dean in the library, where he was talking to Castiel.

"We need to get everyone out of here," Castiel was saying. "I believe that Lucifer is planning an attack—oh, hello, Sam."

"Cas! You're back already?"

The angel tilted his head. "Why are you running?"

"It's a succubus," Garth said, panting for air. "It killed Jonathan."

Castiel's expression darkened. "Then the attack has already begun. We must leave, now." He reached for Dean's arm. "Get Ash. It is of utmost importance that we protect her at all costs. If Lucifer gets his hands on her, we will lose this war."

"I'll come with you," Sam said. "Cas, will you stay with Garth and Eileen?"

"Of course."

Dean pounded on his bedroom door. "Change of plans, Ash. Cas is here, he says we gotta go. Now."

Ash sniffed from the other side of the door. It certainly smelled like Dean. Could a succubus change its scent? She shifted to human, and looked around for more silver. She managed to find a silver switchblade, testing its authenticity by cutting across her palm.

"Ash, come on—"

She slid the knife under the door. "Test first," she said, then shrunk down to a mouse so she could watch him.

Dean picked up the weapon gingerly and brought the blade to the inside of his arm.

Ash's head went fuzzy and her vision blurred. She felt dizzy, and her heart raced like she'd just sprinted across the room. What the hell? She looked up at Dean and saw blood on his arm from where he'd cut himself. Not a succubus, she thought, but it was hard to make sense of her thoughts right now. She scurried out from under the door and shifted into a dog, pitching to the side as she lost her balance.

"Ash? You okay?" Dean crouched down and reached out to steady her. She tried to focus on his face, but it was blurry, and sort of gray…With her head spinning, his face contorted, and for a moment his skin was sunken into his skull, oozing with blood and pus like a rotting corpse, and his eyes glowed red. But then her head cleared, as did her vision, and he looked perfectly normal. What was that?

"Come on; we have to go." He pocketed the switchblade and strode toward the war room.

What just happened?

"Keep up, kid."

The fuzzy feeling returned, and now there was a new feeling, a pressing desire to obey Dean. She ran forward and smacked into a wall instead of turning, backing up and shaking her head. Dean turned and crossed back to her, holding her head up to look in her eyes. "You alright? How many fingers am I holding up?" he asked, holding three fingers out.

Ash tried to focus on the fingers, eventually barking four times. Dean repeated the game, and again she got the wrong number.

"Something's wrong. I'm gonna carry you, alright?"

Her head drooped to the side, the back of her neck tingling and her skull feeling like it was made of cotton balls. Dean scooped her up easily and started for the exit again.

"Hey! What the hell?!"

Ash's head snapped up at the sound of Dean's voice. It was coming from across the room. Wait—if that was Dean, who was holding her? Or if Dean was holding her, then who was that? Shit.

Even though Sam had just seen Dean cut himself with the silver knife and an angel blade, he still found himself second-guessing things when the second Dean appeared in the war room holding Ash. He stepped away from his brother, pulling both knives just to be safe, and began stepping sideways around the room.

Ash wriggled in her Dean's grip, trying to jump down, but he held on tight. "Don't," he warned. "It's him—he's the succubus. If you let him get close to you, he'll use his power on you and make you think he's the real one."

Somewhere in the back of her mind, that sounded like an excellent reason not to be close to either Dean at the moment, but the fuzzy-headed feeling was getting stronger, and making it increasingly difficult to move.

"Ash, get down," Sam ordered, and in a burst of level-headedness, Ash shifted into a mouse, dropping through Dean's arms and shooting off across the floor, where she once again shifted into a dog. She stood opposite Sam, so the four of them were approximately equal distances apart from each other.

"Ash!" her Dean protested, stepping toward her.

The fuzzy feeling disappeared for a moment, and she focused her attention on seeing souls. Sam's was visible, as was that of the Dean she hadn't been with. Looking at the Dean that had carried her, she could see the rotting flesh again, and it was obvious he was the succubus—

She fell onto her side as the strange feeling came back. Her vision clouded, and when it cleared she could only see the humans' physical forms. Wait, but…She'd just seen the succubus. Why couldn't she remember who it was? It was definitely Dean—a Dean. Or Sam. It was someone in this room, at least. Wasn't it?

Ash growled in frustration. She wondered if she could make it to the door on her own. But was she really supposed to go outside? Dean had told her they had to leave. Was that succubus-Dean telling her that, or real Dean? She knew the damn things preyed on people through sex, but apparently they could also manipulate others in non-sexual ways. Whoever it was, it was doing a damn good job of it.

If she left, it might chase after her. But it also might stay behind and eat everyone in the bunker. She should fight it, but she couldn't even break through its magic to figure out who it was. If it goes after Dean, I'll chase it back to Hell and eat its freaking heart, she thought, feeling fiercely protective.

The Dean that had carried her suddenly dropped to his knees and clutched at his head. Ash could see the succubus's true face again, all putrid and rotting. It screeched, and Sam and (the real) Dean covered their ears. It responds to emotion like demons? Ash wondered, fascinated by the sudden change in the thing's disposition. If so, she just needed to feel really strongly about things until one of the hunters could kill it.

Sam moved first, darting toward the fake Dean. Before he could reach it, the succubus recovered and leapt to its feet, catching Sam off-guard and throwing him against a wall. Ash ran after it but it spun to face her, and her paws tangled around each other as the fuzzy feeling returned to her head. The room spun, and she could no longer see or remember which Dean was real. She staggered back and tried to focus on the three men in the room: Two should be human, she told herself. There were two Deans: One of them had to be fake. She backed away from both of them, growling.

And, because things were going so well already, Castiel appeared behind one of the Deans.

"Dean! I can't find—Oh." He stopped in his tracks, looking from one Dean to the other.

Ash turned her full attention on the angel, and realized she couldn't see his grace at all. Even with the fuzzy cloud over her mind, she could tell, without a doubt, that the creature in front of her was not an angel. She shifted to her human form, very aware of the fact that she was naked.

"It's not Cas! It's another suc—"

The power hit her from multiple directions, as fake Cas and fake Dean lashed out at her with demonic energy. She was propelled up and back, then slammed into the floor. She ducked her head to avoid cracking her skull on the hard tile.

One of the Deans ran toward her; Sam ran toward the other one, trying to get between him and the imposter Cas. Ash rolled to the side and kicked out, trying to trip her attacker, but he dodged easily and reached down to grab her ankle. The succubus was much stronger than Dean, and it wasn't about to let go of her, so she shifted to get away. She changed into a mamba, a fast and very poisonous snake—not that the venom would affect the succubus, but at least she was quick. Her foot vanished, slipping out of his grip, and she spun to bite his hand, slithering out of his way as he hissed in pain. By the nasty howl he let out, her bite still hurt even if it couldn't kill him.

Ash slithered under a desk and groaned inwardly as the fuzzy cloud descended on her brain once more. She blinked reptilian eyes and tried to focus on the scene in front of her: Dean and Sam were back to back, Sam pointed towards fake Dean and Dean pointed toward fake Cas…Except there was no more Cas. In his place, there was a fake Ash. She reached out for him, and he seemed caught in a daze like the real Ash had been, unable to resist.

Ash bolted forward, shifting into a hellhound, but she'd barely managed to get her feet settled beneath her when she felt the succubus's power pull her back. She felt fake Dean's arms wrap around her chest and he tackled her to the floor, pinning her. She turned her head to snap at him and felt the cloud return; he adjusted his stance so that one knee was digging into her ribs and both hands were at her throat, keeping her teeth at bay.

"Take it easy, Ash. You couldn't do much to a succubus like this, but you could kill a human."

She snarled at him, but the fuzzy cloud was now full of doubt. What if she accidentally attacked the wrong Dean? What if she killed the real one? Protect Dean, she thought, the feeling so strong it almost overrode the cloud. Protect Dean, Sam, Crowley, Cas.

The succubus screeched and slammed her head against the floor; when the feeling didn't go away, it scrambled away from her and clawed at its head, hissing. Ash caught her breath and rolled to her paws; she ducked out of Sam's way as he hurdled toward the monster, silver knife in his fist. The thing glanced up at him just before he struck, and for a moment it tried to change its face—for a second it looked a little like Jess—and then the knife was in its heart, and it screamed, and Sam was pulling the blade back to hack at its neck. Ash turned her attention to the other one, the one that looked like her, and panicked to see it was luring Dean away.

Leave him alone, you bitch! She snarled, charging at her look-alike.

The demoness smiled serenely and held one hand out, freezing Ash in her tracks. "Your boy toy looks delicious," she taunted. "You won't mind if I have a taste?" She tugged on the front of his shirt and brought him in for a sloppy kiss. Dean twitched, like he was trying to struggle out of her grip, but she had too much power over him.

Ash tried to push back against the power holding her, but this thing was strong. So she shifted instead, changing to human. Her head spun from shifting so rapidly, and it took her a moment to find her footing.

"Dean!"

Dean jerked back from the succubus, breaking the kiss, and turned to face Ash. He blinked slowly, stupidly, like he had heard her but couldn't quite see her.

Protect Dean, Ash thought ferociously. Love Dean.

Fake Ash growled and shrieked, releasing her grip on his shirt and letting down the wall of energy that was holding real Ash in place. Ash fell forward, caught her balance, and ran toward the succubus, trying to get between it and Dean. Protect, she thought, focusing as hard as she could. But it was hard to focus on emotions and fight at the same time. As she came upon the false Ash, she realized she didn't have a means of killing it, and Dean was still too far under its spell. She turned to see Sam getting to his feet, and someone else appeared behind him—someone she didn't recognize.

"Mom?" Sam said, choking with emotion.

Mary Winchester smiled and held her arms open. "I'm here, Sam. It's me."

"Sam!" Ash shouted in warning, but he was already caught up in its magic. Damn, how many of these things had snuck in under the guise of being hunters?

Fake Ash took advantage of real Ash's distraction, grabbing her by the throat and pushing her up against a support beam. "Don't worry," fake Ash growled. "He'll have the most pleasurable death a man can have."

Ash snarled and let the panic of losing him take hold of her mind. It was such an intense feeling, and feelings were exactly what she needed right now. Fake Ash hissed, its face contorting in a horrible mass of wrinkles and gray flesh. She kept her hand on Ash's throat, but she was losing control of herself and the situation. Like demons, succubi were never meant to feel.

"You won't," real Ash growled back at her, and shifted again.

The succubus was strong, but the hellhound was heavy, its neck much wider than Ash's human form. Momentum from her change sent her tipping over on top of fake Ash, and she tore at the thing's face, trying to blind it. It wailed and clawed back at the hellhound, but Ash maintained the feeling of Protect Dean and held her position. She bit into the chest of—well, herself—snapping ribs and breaking the sternum. She ripped the monster's heart out, and grayish red blood sprayed across her fur. Dean appeared above her—the real Dean—holding an angel blade. Ash dropped the heart and he stabbed it just to be extra safe, then set about hacking at its neck. When the head finally rolled away, the last of the monster's façade faded away, no longer a clone of Ash but a wrinkly, fetid corpse of a monster.

Ash turned her attention back to Sam, who was hugging his 'mother.' Before she could move toward him, there was a flutter of wings behind the fake mom and Castiel appeared, the real Castiel, and shoved a blade through her back into her heart. Sam shouted in surprise and jumped back, and the spell faded from his brain as the succubus collapsed. With a single swipe, Castiel removed its head from its body.

"Cas?" Sam asked, suspicion heavy in his voice. Even though he'd killed one of them, it had still been a very confusing couple of minutes, and he wasn't sure he could trust his own eyes yet.

"I came as fast as I could," the angel said. "Are there any other survivors?"

Sam held his own knife up defensively. "How do I know you're real?"

Ash padded forward and shifted back to human, and now the vertigo from changing so many times was bad enough that she pitched forward immediately, catching herself in a crouch on the floor. Waiting for the room to stop spinning, she mumbled, "He's real. I can see his grace."

Sam looked down at Ash, still suspicious, and blushed. "And you're…You're real," he said, though it was more of a question than a statement.

"If I was fake I think I'd conjure up some clothes," Ash replied, managing to focus on Cas's shoes.

"Ah. I can help with that," the angel said, snapping his fingers. Ash found herself wearing jeans, a t-shirt, and a flannel. Huh. At least there was no overcoat, she thought.

"Nice of you to show up, Cas," Dean said, wiping blood from the knife onto his jeans. He took the blade and slid it across his forearm again, creating a small cut. "Your turn, Sammy."

Sam took the knife and followed suit; then Cas did as well.

"We can't test Ash like this," Dean pointed out.

"We don't have to. It's her; I'd be able to tell if she was a succubus," Castiel said. He helped her to her feet and she swayed against him. He passed her off to Dean, and she leaned against him gratefully. "We need to search for other survivors, or other succubi. Dean, don't let her out of your sight. If there are any left, they'll be coming after her."

Ash fought back an unexpected wave of nausea as she watched Cas and Sam retreat.

"You okay?"

"Gimmie a sec." She swallowed hard and tilted her head back slightly, trying to take deeper breaths. "Okay."

They set off opposite from Sam and Cas, hoping to loop around and meet them in the hall. The succubi behind them were starting to stink like rotten flesh, but there was a rotten smell in front of her as well. Ash stopped in place, nearly falling over as Dean continued forward; he turned to steady her, grabbing her shoulder.

"I can smell them," she said.

Dean frowned, tightening his grip on the knife in his free hand, and they continued.

There were five hunters in the kitchen: Garth, Jody, Donna, Simon, and Olivia. They were quiet and tense, sitting at the table with their weapons in front of them, and everyone stood at once when Dean and Ash entered.

Ash sniffed: One of them was a succubus. She'd seen it for a second, but the haze had returned to her brain, and she couldn't remember which one it was anymore. She squeezed Dean's arm, hoping he'd understand the warning.

"Dean" Garth said, stepping forward with a silver blade. "Welcome to the party."

Dean sheathed his own knife and took the one being offered to him, making a small cut on his already slashed up forearm. He was starting to look like a cutter. "You happy? I'm me."

"What about her?" Danielle asked.

"She's a shifter, she can't handle silver." Dean put an arm protectively in front of her.

"So make her shift. Succubus can only take on human form; you said she can do animals."

Ash groaned. Between all the rapid shifting and the stupid succubus's magic, it was a miracle her eyes hadn't popped out of her head yet. And now they wanted her to shift again, just to prove she was real?

"Mouse," Dean suggested.

She looked surprised. Why would he want a dinky little mouse? She could be something a lot more powerful. Then again, she wasn't much use on her feet right now—it would be a lot easier for him to move her around if she could fit in his pocket. She shifted, hopping onto the hand he offered her.

"Okay," Dean said, taking a step back and cupping his free hand over her, "Your turn."

"We already did that," Donna protested, holding up her cut arm as proof.

He sighed heavily. "Everyone show me where you were cut."

The five of them held up their arms.

"So we're all good here, then." He held Ash up to make eye contact with her as he spoke. "Everything's good?"

She shook her head, but the way his hand was curled around her, no one else could see the movement.

"Okay, great. Awesome."

Ash hoped he was bluffing, and that he really had seen her shake her head. Hell, she was so out of sorts at the moment she wasn't sure she had shaken her head.

Dean sat down at the table and the others took their seats as well. He put Ash on his shoulder and leaned back in his chair, silver knife back in his hand. "So, you guys come up with a plan?"

"Pretty much just stay together, and test everyone that comes in," Donna said. "We figure one succubus can't overpower all of us at once; they normally hunt one person at a time, I don't think they're built for dealing with groups of people."

"I dunno, the two we just took out were pretty damn strong."

"Two?! There was more than one?" Jody asked.

"I think there's more than two," Dean replied.

"But they never hunt in packs," Simon said. "They're solo hunters."

"Yeah, and so are most of us. But they're workin' together now, just like we are. It's the end of the world, if you hadn't noticed. Things are different."

"Well, shit."

Someone in this room was a nasty, rotting demoness, and Ash was going to figure out who it was if it killed her. She tried to focus on her emotions again, but it was hard with the fuzzy cloud in the way. What could she focus on?

Well, she was on Dean's shoulder. He was warm, and smelled nice, and—and I like it when he kisses me, she thought.

Simon coughed, then really started hacking like he had something caught in his throat. Across from him, Danielle startled and nearly fell out of her chair.

"You okay there?"

Simon stood and went to get himself a glass of water. "Sorry 'bout that. I'm not as young as I used to be, and the air in here's so dry."

Right. Dry air, Ash thought sarcastically. I wonder…All the hunters had their knives in front of them on the table, either in a hand or resting on the wood. Presumably, all the knives were silver, and the hunters would have all used them in previous hunts no doubt, so they'd know if it was a fake, or different, metal. But if one of the hunters was a succubus, they wouldn't have a silver knife: They'd have a knife that looked silver, but couldn't hurt them. And since it didn't affect a human either way, the real hunters would have no way of knowing. But Ash could feel the difference.

She leapt off of Dean's shoulder, landing on the table and startling Donna.

"Oh! Right. Thought you just had a real mouse jump off've you," she said, recovering.

Dean swept his hand out to try to corral her. "Ash, get back here. There's a lot of silver here you don't want to be messing with."

She dodged around him and began a circuit of the table, running from knife to knife and just touching each one with a paw, nose, or tail, just enough skin to feel it burn. The other hunters glanced down at her but continued to talk strategy, now wondering if they should comb the bunker as a group rather than wait for the others to come to them. When Ash got to a knife that didn't burn, she almost stopped in her tracks, but caught herself and ran onward, hoping the succubus wouldn't catch on that she'd spotted the difference. Then a second knife didn't burn her, and oh shit, there's two more? This is not going to be fun. She completed her lap of the table and hopped back onto Dean's shoulder.

"What the hell was that all about?" he asked. "You just feel like playing 'daredevil' all of a sudden?"

The fuzziness in her head grew until she could hardly remember where the bogus silver had been Simon and Danielle, Simon and Danielle, she chanted to herself, determined not to forget. Now, how to tell Dean discreetly?

"You guys leave me any beer?" Dean asked, pushing his chair back.

"One or two," Jody said. "Want me to grab you one?" She was closest to the fridge.

"Nah, I've got it." He started working his way around the table, and Ash realized he was giving her an opportunity to tell him. She climbed over his collar so she was right up against his neck: Biting seemed to be the most obvious form of communication, and she was fairly hidden from view in her current position. Squeaking would only alert the others that something was wrong.

He grabbed a beer and continued his way around the table; as soon as he was behind Simon, Ash nipped at the base of his neck. Aside from the little spasm in the surrounding muscle, he made no sign he'd felt it. As he stepped behind Danielle, she bit him again, and he grunted in surprise, playing off the sound by opening his beer with his belt buckle. He slid back into his seat and listened to Simon's latest idea.

"We could split into two groups of three—you know, divide and conquer. If we run into one of the sons-a-bitches, it's still three to one. An' we can keep our phones on for communication."

"Well, it'd be risky, but it might be the best plan so far," Dean said carefully.

The others argued for a few more minutes before agreeing that Simon's plan would have to do. Sam and Castiel hadn't made their way back to the kitchen, which could mean they were in trouble, and there were still several hunters that were either missing or hopefully still locked in their rooms—but a succubus was strong enough to bust through a door in a pinch.

"I'll take Jody and Garth," Donna offered.

The corner of Danielle's mouth curled up almost imperceptibly, but Ash was watching her and her counterpart closely.

"Right," Dean said, getting to his feet. "You guys head down through the main hallway, around past the dungeon—Garth knows where that is—and loop around through the library. I'll take Simon and Danielle through the war room, we'll check out the garage, then meet you somewhere in between." Underneath the table, he had his phone out and was messaging Sam: '2 more. Kitchen now, try to lead them to cars.' If he wasn't dealing with his own situation, he and Cas might be able to give them backup. If they couldn't help, then…Well, he'd handle it. It was only mind control, right?

Dean slid the phone back into his pocket and stood abruptly, heading out of the kitchen before anyone else could tell him it was a bad idea. Simon and Danielle followed him, holding their knives at the ready.

In the war room, Dean paused to see if he could hear anything. The place was eerily quiet, aside from the occasional rumble of thunder from outside or a clatter of hailstones over a bit of exposed metal. Cas and Sam spread out to either side of him, checking closets and other hiding spaces. Dean was glad he had them with him again, instead of those other hunters—what were their names? Huh. He was drawing a blank, like there was a fuzzy spot in his head, but that was okay. He had his brother and his best friend with him, and together they'd kick the asses of those friggin' succubi.

"Nothing," Sam reported.

"Nothing," Cas confirmed.

"Alright, well let's check the garage out just to be safe," Dean huffed, starting up the stairs. He brushed against Sam in passing and a shiver ran up his spine. Ash's whiskers tickled his neck and he had to resist the urge to swat at her like an insect as she touched his skin with her tiny little paws. "Christ, that tickles! Cut it out!" he snapped, though as he spoke he wondered if she was trying to tell him something. Was the succubus nearby? But she'd bit him last time, and she wasn't biting him now. She should really change back into a human—that would make things so much simpler. But she was tired, wasn't she? Dean felt tired. He wanted to crawl into Baby and fall asleep. It was late at night, or early morning, maybe; no wonder he was so exhausted.

The sound of hail was much louder in the garage, which was more exposed than the rest of the bunker. They had to shout just to be heard over a sound like hundreds of people running across the roof in steel-toed boots. Ash tried to focus on what the others were saying, but it was hard enough with this damn cloud over her senses. She'd felt it coming on and had wanted to bite Dean to let him know, but she'd stopped, having forgotten why she was supposed to bite him.

Dean yawned. "You guys check it out. I'm just gonna…Sit down for a second," he said, climbing into the back seat of the Impala.

"Dean? Are you alright?" Castiel asked with his usual head tilt.

"'M fine. Just…Just need a second."

"You can't fall asleep. What if the succubus is in here?"

"It's alright, Cas. I'm sure you and Sammy can handle it. 'S just a nasty rotting demon bitch from Hell, you eat those for breakfast."

The angel cocked his head. "I have never eaten a—"

"Figure of speech, Cas."

"Ah. Of course."

Dean scooted farther into the car and laid down across the seat, propping his head up on his arms. Ash moved onto his chest, feeling concerned about the situation but not sure what she was concerned about. Sam and Castiel were here: They would protect Dean if he wasn't feeling well. It was natural for him to be sleepy after staying up all night hunting. Cas would let them know if something was wrong.

Sam wandered back over to the car and joined Cas, who was watching Dean quietly. "He alright?"

"I believe he is suffering from a combination of lack of sleep and too much alcohol," Cas said. "I can watch over him if you would like to keep hunting."

"No, we should stick together. Let's get him back to his room, at least." Sam tapped Dean's foot with his own. "Dean? Wake up, jerk! We gotta move!"

Dean mumbled "Bitch" automatically and started to snore.

Sam chuckled. "Okay. Can you blink us back to his room?"

Cas gripped Dean's ankle and Sam's shoulder. "Ash, you have to be touching me," he instructed. She ran down to touch his hand where he had a grip on Dean, and the world shifted. A moment later, Dean was safely on his bed, and Cas released his grip.

Ash could smell sulfur: A succubus had been here. She ran back up to Dean's chest, still feeling wrong. Cas and Sam stepped to the side, speaking quietly about how to proceed. Okay, it's time to think. Think past the cloud. What's wrong? We were in the kitchen. There were two people who were succubi. We went with them into the war room. Then we went through the war room with Sam and Cas, and into the garage, then Cas ported us here. There was something off about that, but she couldn't place what it was. Okay. Now we're here, and a succubus was here very recently. They could still be here, in the bathroom or the closet. Why haven't they checked for that? That should be the first thing they do. Maybe Cas can just sense if there's anyone else?

She couldn't see his grace or Sam's soul, but that was just part of the demoness messing with her. You can see—her brain started to tell her something, but the magic cut it off. Okay, you're really starting to piss me off now. As her anger rose, her mind became clearer. Castiel didn't use his wings to move us. She hadn't heard the usual flutter of angel wings, and that was…Well, eventually she'd figure out why that was bad. I can see Dean's soul. That felt important, too. She nipped at Dean's neck, trying to wake him up, but he was out cold. Dean is a light sleeper; it's how he's survived as a hunter. What the Hell? She bit him again, harder; he grumbled something in his sleep and rolled onto his side.

"You alright, Ash?" Sam asked, walking back to sit on the edge of the bed. "Why don't you hang with me for a while, so you don't get smooshed?" He held his hand out to her, and she started to walk toward him.

I can see Dean's soul, but not Sam's. I can see Dean's soul but not Sam's. I can't see Sam's soul or Castiel's grace…

"Ash," Sam said sternly, when the mouse froze in front of his hand. He reached out to grab her.

Fight! Ash's brain instructed, and she darted out from under his hand. She zipped across Dean's sleeping form and shifted as she leapt toward Sam's chest, hitting him with the momentum of a 150-pound hellhound. Unfortunately for her, her body wasn't as on board with the idea of shifting again as her brain had been, and after striking him back off the bed, all of her muscles seized up at once and she collapsed to the floor. Her vision dimmed as the false Sam and Castiel smirked above her.

"Nice try, Nephilim. But I'm still gonna eat your boyfriend," Sam winked.

Ash snarled. The succubus flicked a hand over her, and she blacked out.

"Dean!" It was Sam's voice, and from the angry, worried tone it had to be the real Sam, not the succubus. Ash could hear his heavy footsteps as he ran into the room, heard the door slam against the wall. Someone, or something, moved next to her. She wanted to open her eyes, but that would be…Difficult. Something snarled—definitely a succubus, judging by the wet, phlegmy nature of the sound—and lots of people were shouting.

"Cas!" Sam shouted. "Little help!"

A large body slammed into her. "Oof!" Sam coughed. Then: "What the hell?"

Ash's eyes finally opened. Sam's knife had flown out of his hand and slid under the bed. Fake Cas stalked toward him, changing to a woman Ash had only seen pictures of.

Sam struggled to his feet, still unsure of what he'd run into. It felt like he'd hit a dog, which would make it a hellhound, but it hadn't ripped his face off yet. "Don't you dare," he growled at the fake Jess. "I'll fucking kill you!" He pulled a gun out of his pocket and held it up to the monster's face, clicking the safety off. The demoness smiled and waved her hand to the side, sending the gun flying out of his grip.

Dean screamed. Ash snapped her head up to look at him, and saw the other succubus, the one that had been Sam before, straddling him. Only now, it wasn't Sam, it was Ash, and she was naked. Evidently when the thing was making out with him, its face had taken a cue from The Mummy and started deteriorating from the lips outward: It now looked like Ash's face was rotting off, and she was oozing corpse juice onto Dean's face. Fake Ash collected itself and restored its face, but whatever power it had held over Dean had broken. He struggled to get out from under it, and fake Ash had to hold him down with her superior demonic strength.

Ash staggered to her feet, muscles protesting, and made a running leap for the bed. She missed, slamming into the side of the mattress, but the succubus turned to see what had made the bed shake. Ash was lying so close to Sam's silver knife; she pushed off with her back feet and grabbed the handle in her mouth, scooting back out from under the bed. She clawed her way up the mattress and onto the bed, dropping the knife so she could bite her own (fake) neck. Both Ashes pitched over the far side of the bed, and the succubus landed hard on her back on the floor, hellhound still latched firmly onto her jugular.

The form underneath her shifted. "Ash," Dean's voice pleaded. "You don't want to kill me. You can't kill me."

She felt a rush of air behind her as Castiel entered the room, and heard him head away from her, toward the succubus Sam was fighting. She could taste blood in her mouth and feel her teeth sinking through skin, but now she could see Dean's face above her jaws, and hear him continue to plead with her.

"It's a trick, Ash. It's using its demon mojo on you—I'm real! You know I'm real!"

For a moment, Ash stood frozen, poised over him. He smelled like sulfur, but so did the whole damn room. The succubi had been screwing with her brain all night; it was possible that they'd pulled another bait-and-switch somehow, and what she'd seen just a moment ago had really been in reverse. She couldn't see the other Dean from her position, and turning to look at him might give her current victim a chance to push her away.

"Ash? Ash, are you holding it down? I don't want to hit you." Other Dean hopped off the bed, wearing only his boxers, holding the knife at the ready. In her peripheral vision she could see him now, and his eyes were focused on his doppelganger, like he was looking right through her.

"Don't listen to him," the Dean in her jaws gasped as she kept pressure on his throat. And Ash realized, this one can see me, that one can't. It's not a trick. "You couldn't really kill me, could you? Your knight in shining flannel?"

Ash snarled and bit down hard, bracing one paw on his head so she could rip out a chunk of flesh. Nasty black blood spurted everywhere.

"Ash, move!" Dean barked. He swatted one hand in front of himself and she sprang back; he brought the silver knife down into the monster's chest, and what had been healthy, fake-Dean flesh now rapidly rotted into a putrid, mangled corpse. Ash spat the disgusting chunk of neck out. Dean looked up and grimaced at the floating patch of blood and guts that made up Ash's muzzle.

Cas appeared beside him. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm…Just gonna need a really long shower. Is Ash okay?"

"She's fine."

I don't think I can change, Ash told the angel. I seized up last time and the succubus knocked me out.

He nodded. "She can't shift right now." He snapped his fingers and the blood disappeared from her face. "The others are safe; they've assembled in the dungeon, and Rowena has created a series of spells and traps that will stop anything that comes at them. But I'm fairly certain we've cleared the bunker. Danielle and Gavin are dead; I believe that the succubi gained entry to the bunker disguised as Simon, Bill, Sarah, and Olivia, as their bodies are nowhere to be found."

Dean sat down on the bed and looked around for his clothes. His shirt was shredded down the middle, and his pants were no longer jeans as much as they were a series of fibers under various stages of disintegration.

"Great," he huffed, going to grab more clothes from the closet.

Pants in hand, he froze as the bunker's alarm system went off, bathing the room in red light.

"Oh, come on. You let in a bunch of succubi, and now you come on? What the hell is wrong now?"

"I believe that would be me," a smooth voice hissed from just beside Ash.

Sam went pale. "Lucifer," he hissed, clenching his fists.

Castiel drew his angel blade, his wings ruffling like a bird trying to scare away a larger predator.

Lucifer smiled at them. "I should have known I couldn't trust a bunch of two-bit hell-whores to get a job done. Good help is so hard to find these days."

Castiel, Sam and Dean all stepped toward him, despite being comically under-equipped for a fight. Lucifer threw them backwards and pinned them to the walls: He raised a finger, and it felt like their kidneys were being run through a meat grinder. They groaned and writhed in pain as the phantom meat grinder chewed its way from kidneys to spleen to liver, then down through the intestines. Ash growled, trying to look tough, though if a strong breeze had come through at that moment she would have fallen over.

"So here's how this is going to go," Lucifer said conversationally. "Ash is going to come with me, and in return, because I am a much more benevolent deity than my father—" Castiel snorted, and he shot him a snake-eyed glare that shut him up quick, "I am not going to kill everyone in this building. Alternatively, you can not come with me, and I will kill everyone in the bunker, then take you anyway."

"Don't—" Dean started to say, and Lucifer removed his ability to speak.

"Shush. Adults are talking."

Ash looked up at Castiel helplessly. They were all good as dead now, anyway. She had nothing left in her—if she tried to fight now, they would all die instantly. At least if she left with him, it would give them a chance to win the war later.

Castiel, Ash prayed, Could you just tell Dean…Tell him I… She shook her head. Oh, he knows.

She stepped toward Lucifer, head hung low in defeat.

"Good girl," Lucifer purred, and everything around them vanished.

"What the fuck!" Dean shouted as the three of them dropped to the floor. The excruciating pain inside them had disappeared, but now they had other problems.

"It was the only way, Dean," Castiel said, sounding tired. "We have to play his game."

"I thought the whole point of this—all of this—was to make sure he never got ahold of her." Dean finally stepped into his pants, flustered that he'd had to face Lucifer in his underwear.

"The point is to stop him from destroying all of Creation," Castiel replied. "We can still do that."

They gathered the surviving hunters and Rowena back in the war room, and Castiel ushered two newcomers in from the outside world. Both looked familiar to Sam and Dean, though their faces were hard to place. The man's serious expression clashed with his fuzzy argyle sweater vest, which brought to mind a cheerful college English professor.

"Tim?!" Sam said, who recognized him first.

The man's scowl broke into a smile, his eyes lighting up at the younger Winchester. "Sam! Good to see you again!" He pulled Sam into a bear hug and clapped him on the back. Sam patted Tim's back awkwardly.

Dean looked at them both incredulously. "Who…?"

"The cherub from the bar," Sam explained. When this got a blank look, he expanded: "Valentine's Day? You were worried he was going to alert the other angels that Ash was there?"

"Oh. Right. Tim." His brow knit together. "They got cherubs fighting now? No offense, but you guys aren't exactly warriors."

Tim's grin broadened. He snapped one arm out in front of him and a massive black bow appeared. It was not the cutesy little Cupid bow Dean had envisioned: This was the kind of bow that ancient armies would have used to slaughter thousands of the enemy. An arrow appeared in his other hand, its tip holding a familiar metallic shine.

"It's an angel blade," Sam muttered.

Tim winked at him and both bow and arrow vanished. "Best way to kill a demon. Cherubs weren't always Cupid's little helpers, you know. Back when things were…Not as civil down here, or up there, we were specially trained archers in Father's army. When our skills were no longer needed to kill, we were repurposed—but we haven't forgotten our roots."

The woman cleared her throat pointedly.

"Anael," Castiel said by way of introduction.

"We are ready. Where is the Nephilim?"

Castiel hesitated. "The, um…Lucifer…"

Anael sighed dramatically. "Really, Castiel? You said you had it under control!"

"Hey, we're gettin' her back!" Dean snapped. "Don't get your feathers in a twist."

"And how is that, exactly? You humans, up against an archangel? You have no means of killing him. We have no means of killing him."

"Anael, please," Castiel said calmly. "The plan remains the same. Ash will find a way."

"You lost my granddaughter already?" Rowena sighed. "Somehow, I'm not surprised. Alright, what is this plan, then? Don't tell me it's the typical Winchester mess of 'run in guns blazing and get yourself killed?'"

Dean glared at her, but she ignored him. Sam started to speak, and stopped.

"That…Is more or less the plan," Castiel said, eyebrows furrowing. "Unless you have a better idea…?"'

Rowena was silent for a moment. She shrugged. "I suppose it's as good a plan as anything at this point."

"What about the rest of you?" Castiel asked the surviving hunters. "Do you still wish to fight?"

Every man and woman nodded with grim determination.

Jody put a hand on each of her girls' shoulders. "Claire and Alex will stay here."

"Jody!" Claire protested.

"We've been over this. I know you're legally an adult, and I don't care," Jody replied sternly. "I lost my family once, and I'm not doing it again. You and Alex are going to guard this bunker from whatever Hell throws at you, and when the smoke clears you can drag my dead body off the battlefield!"

"Is this…All of them?" Anael asked, looking around at the small and exhausted crew.

Castiel nodded. "Yes."

"You should stay here, then," she said to the humans. "All of you. You will die if you come with us."

Garth tried to puff his chest out, which was difficult given that he didn't have much of one to begin with. "You kidding? We do this every day. I'm a hunter—if I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die fighting. We aren't letting the monsters win that easy."

"Darn straight," Donna said, and when she puffed her chest out, Anael had to resist taking a step backwards. "We aren't afraid of a bunch of demons, and we aren't afraid of the devil."

Tim and Anael blinked in tandem. "You…You really want to do this?"

There was a smattering of emphatic nods and 'yeps.'

Castiel put his hands on Sam and Dean's shoulders, nodding for Tim and Anael to do the same with the other humans.

"I think you put too much faith in your hybrid's abilities," Anael warned, stalling their takeoff. "She'll never overpower Lucifer on her own; he's going to use her to—"

"She's not alone," Castiel interrupted.

"Oh? And who in Hell is going to magically save her—a demon?"

Castiel gave her the most wicked smile an angel could possibly make.

"Oh, fu—"