A/N: Hey guys! Just a warning, I wrote the majority of this late at night so I sincerely apologize if there are mistake or it doesn't make sense in parts! My bad... This is a minor chapter compared to the previous ones, I'm setting up some things for future chapters, please bare with me if this is a little boring. The song I reference in this chapter is Down by Jason Walker, all rights to him. (Yes, I know he and my OC have the same last name. No, I did not plan that. I just really like the song.)
I do not own Supernatural or any of it's characters, which you already know. Please enjoy! :)
The silence that filled the room after Castiel's words was almost tangible. All eyes were on Ana as she sat, not moving in her chair, eyes wide with shock and fear. Dean watched her carefully for a moment, so many thoughts rushing through his mind, then turned to look at Cas, "Why her?" he questioned, trying to suppress the anger that began to fill him.
Castiel slowly moved his gaze from Ana to Dean, "I have yet to find the reason that Barbas has chosen her, but for a ritual like this I'm assuming it wasn't at random. It's an ancient ritual and most are very picky with their sacrifices." he explained.
"Why would he want to do this ritual in the first place?" Sam asked, getting up from his chair, "Unleashing Hell on Earth I get, most demons want that, but dropping Heaven down too… wouldn't that be counterproductive?"
Castiel sighed, obviously very taxed with the trouble at hand with this ritual, "How it happens doesn't work out so well for the angels. The way the demons are released from Hell is simple, any devil's gate on the planet will be opened wide and left that way. Heaven, on the other hand, will be… dropped onto Earth. Everything that is there would then be on this plane. All of the angels and the souls of the dead alike. The souls alone would cause utter chaos."
"What would happen to the angels?" Ana asked softly. The first words out of her mouth after learning of her impending death wasn't about her own safety, but curiosity about others'.
Sam and Dean watched Cas carefully as he made his way over to Ana, sitting down in a chair beside her. "Unlike when all of the angels were dropped from Heaven, not all will lose their grace. The weaker angels, the ones who are youngest and of lower ranking will most likely be stripped of it, but the stronger angels whom have been alive for many years will be able to keep theirs if they are prepared."
Ana looked into Castiel's blue eyes, seeing the worry he held there for his brothers and sisters as well as for the fate of mankind. "We need to make sure this doesn't happen." Ana stated, standing up and turning to look at the brothers.
"We're obviously not going to let you die, Ana." Dean commented flatly.
She shook her head, "This isn't about me. This about the angels, about the souls in heaven, the people on this planet."
Dean crossed the distance between them in three long strides, "Don't you dare say this isn't about you. He chose you for a reason, Ana, and whatever that reason is may be important. This doesn't seem to be anything to do with us," he gestured between himself and Sam, "so there is something specifically about you that made you the choice. I've seen enough of this crap in my life that I know it's going to have something to do with your visions." he was almost yelling by the time he finished speaking.
Ana stared up at him, confused about his sudden anger at her words, so confused that all she could do at first was nod, "I get that, I understand, but how many times have you two faced down something big and bad, not caring about your own lives because you could save so many more?" she questioned, "It's not that I don't care about my own life, it's that I realize that this is bigger than just saving me. Missouri told me I could save lives and I'm going to do just that." she explained, her tone even.
"You two need to stop arguing and we need to start figuring things out." Sam said, moving over to them. "We need to start figuring out why Barbas chose you and anything else we can about this ritual. Ana, you're going to be staying here for a while so you're safe. Why don't you go back to the garage and grab your things? We'll find you a room and we can all get some rest tonight, then we can start working in the morning." Staring at Dean a few moments longer, she nodded before moving around the man in front of her and heading back the direction they had come in from.
Sam waited until he could no longer hear her footsteps before turning on his brother, "What the hell was that, Dean?"
"What?" Dean snapped, moving over to a small table that a bottle of whiskey sat on, "She was acting as if she had zero disregard for her life." he said as if that were an explanation. He grabbed a glass and opened the bottle, filling the glass half full before he put the bottle back down.
"You're not telling us something," Sam observed as he sat down next to Cas, "You've been acting weird ever since we went to Jody's."
Dean scoffed into his glass before swallowing its contents whole. He took a deep breath before he spoke, "Yeah, weird." he commented more to himself as he looked at the empty glass in his hand.
Castiel looked at his friend carefully, "Dean, you can tell us anything." he pushed on, hoping to get answers.
"I don't want to talk about it, alright?" Dean snapped, turning his back on the table to pour himself another drink.
"Whatever, man, but if what you're not telling us is going to hinder getting information about this damn ritual, I will beat it out of you." Sam warned as he pushed the chair away from the table and stood up.
Ana cleared her throat, she had caught the end of their argument but didn't quite catch what it was about, "Am I interrupting something?" she questioned, sheepishly.
Sam turned around to see her standing just at the edge of the room with her bags over her shoulder, he shook his head, "No, you didn't. Why don't we go find you a room and you can get settled? There's no telling how long you're going to be here, might as well make yourself at home." he offered, as he ushered her out of the room and down the hall toward the bedrooms.
Castiel watched Dean empty another glass of whiskey before he spoke, "I'm going to see what else I can find out about the ritual." he stated before disappearing.
Waiting until the sound of ruffling wings was gone, Dean turned around to make sure he was alone before grabbing the bottle and making his way over to the table. He sat down, leaned back, and kicked his feet up on the corner of the table while pouring himself another glass, knowing it would take a lot more than what was left in the bottle to wipe away the guilt of his secret.
-A-
"This is my room," Sam tapped the doorknob as they passed it, "and Dean's is just down the hall, but all of these other rooms are open so you can pick whichever one you want."
Ana nodded, "It doesn't really matter to me." she told him with a shrug, opening the next door they came across. The room was pretty bare; full size bed, dresser, and a desk being the only things taking up space. "This will do." she decided, placing her bags on the bed. It wasn't anything like home, but it was better than a hotel room.
"There are a few bathrooms in this place, there's one with a shower right there," he pointed to a door to the left and across the hall, "that neither of us use so you can take that one." He explained, "You should get settled for the night, you could probably use some sleep."
She shrugged, "I'm not too tired. I'm used to running on less sleep than what I got last night." she told him, "But I could really use a shower."
Sam laughed softly, "Alright, well I'll leave you alone. There should be towels in there, but if not I'll be in my room. If you need anything at all just let me know."
"Thanks, Sam." she gave him a smile which he returned before leaving, closing the door behind him. Ana looked around the room one more time before she opened her duffle bag, finding a pair of sweats and a tank top to sleep in, she grabbed her toiletries and headed for the bathroom.
The bathroom was simple, as she began to realize that most things in the bunker would be that didn't pertain to the main goal of the Men of Letters, but it had a shower and that's all she really cared about at the moment. She set her clothes down on the closed lid of the toilet and placed her shampoo, conditioner, and body wash in the shower. Turning the water on, she adjusted the temperature and left it to run a minute before she moved over to the mirror above the sink, noticing that she looked a lot worse than she thought she did.
There were light purple marks already surfacing on her neck and that made her frown, but her eyes were what really caught her off guard. They were red, almost tired looking, but she didn't feel tired. She sighed and turned away from her reflection, hoping that the water would get hot enough to help drown out her new worry.
-A-
When she opened the door to the bathroom, steamed flooded into the hallway, and the cold air that surrounded her as she walked into the hallway made her shiver. She had stayed under the hot water until it began to turn cold. As she made her way back to her bedroom, bare feet padding against the floor, she noticed the silence that had fallen over the place. The boys must have gone to bed, she thought to herself as she opened the door to her room and set her clothes from the day on the bed.
She stood there for a moment, looking back and forth between her duffle bag and the dresser across the room, finally deciding that since she didn't know how long she was going to be there she might as well unpack. It would save her the hassle of having to dig through her bag for things. It didn't take her long, she had packed maybe a week's worth of clothes, they didn't even fill up an entire drawer. With her dirty clothes in her duffle bag, she set it on the floor near the dresser then moved to place her laptop bag on the desk.
As she looked around, she realized that she wouldn't be sleeping for a while, so she grabbed her iPod and headphones out of her laptop bag then left her room. She opened a playlist and turned the volume on full blast as she walked down the hall, back toward the main room of the bunker. Happy to see that no one was there, she walked in and began humming the soft song playing in her ears, making her way toward one of the bookcases and glancing over the titles of the books, those that were in languages she could read at least. Reaching for a random book, she took it over to the large table and was about to sit down to look at it when the song changed.
The music instantly pulled her focus away from the room, it was one of the songs that could distract her from almost anything. The beat and melodies calling to the dancer in her. She had found her passion for dance just before she entered school and it only grew the more she realized that it was one of the things that just came easily to her. Not being able to stop herself and since no one was around, she moved away from the table and let the beat of the music fill her mind.
I don't know where I'm at, I'm standing at the back and I'm tired of waiting... Waiting here in line, hoping that I'll find what I've been chasing...
The lyrics rang through her ears as she reached up toward the lights and rolled on to the balls of her feet, the feeling of the muscles in her legs and feet working made her smile. Letting everything else fade away, she continued on in a beautiful flurry of arms, legs, and still damp hair.
I don't want to hear the sound of losing what I never found….
She slowly stopped moving as the words of the second chorus hit her hard, this song had always reminded her of her mother and sometimes her father. A tear slid down her cheek and landed on her hand as she lifted her iPod to stop the song, she pulled her headphones out and turned to place them on the table, freezing as her eyes made contact with the man watching her from across the room.
"That was amazing." Dean told her, watching her carefully, he hoped that she wouldn't think that he had been intruding on her.
Ana stood there a moment longer before she spoke, "How long were you standing there?"
"Uhh.. the whole time?" Dean admitted, "I tried to get your attention before you moved away from the table but you must have had your music turned up pretty loud."
She nodded, "I didn't think anyone was awake, otherwise I would have stayed in my room."
"Hey," he walked over to her, stopping when he stood in front of her, "You don't have to hide out in your room. If you want to dance somewhere though, there's a room that we converted into a sort of a gym. There's more room in there." he told her.
"I just… you seemed mad earlier and I didn't want to make it worse." She explained, "I know that sometimes you just need your space."
The comment made Dean chuckle, "Yeah, I guess you do know a lot about me that most people don't." he agreed, turning to sit down at the table.
"I do." she agreed, "But I understand that the things I know aren't to be told to just anyone. I don't feel the need to share everything about you that you try to keep to yourself." she assured him.
"I appreciate that." he told her honestly, "And I'm sorry about earlier, I promise I'm not trying to be an ass."
Ana laughed, it was a happy sound, "You're just naturally a little abrasive." she told him with a grin as she sat down in the chair that she had pulled out earlier. "I'm not expecting you to suddenly change, I'm a big girl, I can handle you being an ass."
"We'll see about that, Sam claims to be a big girl too and he just gives me the bitch face any time I'm an ass." he pointed out, placing his arms on the table as he leaned forward, giving her a strange look, "But I don't think you're the bitch face type."
"Nah, making a face like that would give me premature wrinkles and I avoid anything that would cause that." she told him seriously, "I don't let the sun hit my face, I only drink water, I don't eat anything that has salt in it or isn't gluten free, and I never smile or frown." she mimicked his pose.
Dean looked at her like she was crazy, "What? You're eighteen freaking years old? And how do you not eat anything with gluten, that shit is in everything!" his voice grew frantic, "I will never understand women."
Ana watched him have his mini freak out before she began to laugh, "Oh my God, you should have seen your face!" she continued to laugh a little, "I was joking! Pft, like I'm really that vain, plus gluten free food is disgusting."
"Right?!" he agreed, watching her a moment before he breached a topic that had been on his mind since she left with Sam after their argument, "So, how are you holding up, kid? This whole Barbas crap is kind of a lot to take in."
The smile slowly faded from her face as she was reminded of the threat on her life, "I… I'm okay I think." she told him honestly. "I'm in probably the safest place on Earth with two of the men who are more familiar with this sort of stuff than anyone should ever have to be, so I figure that's a good start at stopping it. I just wish I knew why he needs me."
Dean nodded, giving her a soft, almost apologetic smile, "We'll figure it out, Ana, and we're going to keep you safe until we find a way to stop it. I promise."
"Dean Winchester making me a promise, now I know this is serious." she commented, trying to lighten the mood a little.
"Well don't get used to it, I don't make 'em often."
She nodded, "I know, thanks Dean." she told him, knowing that those words meant a whole lot more to him than they did to almost everyone else. Reaching her arms above her, she stretched and began to yawn.
"Go to bed. It's late and you've had a long couple of days." He told her as he glanced at the clock and noticed that it was almost one in the morning.
"Sleep does sound pretty amazing." she said, standing up from her chair. "Good night, Dean." she smiled at him before turning to head back toward her bedroom.
"Good night." He replied, sighing to himself once she was out of the room.
-A-
It hadn't taken Ana long to fall asleep once she got into bed, but her rest was quickly interrupted by more visions. She watched Sam and Dean as teenagers in school for a while, then she watched as Mary burned on the ceiling of Sam's nursery, then bounced forward again, seeing them meeting Ellen and Jo for the first time. For a while it was really confusing, then the vision suddenly shifted again and she saw herself tied to a wooden chair, her wrists in cuffs.
Even sleeping, she could tell the difference between the feeling of seeing something from the past and the feeling of seeing the future; knowing that she had never been tied to a chair like that seemed to help make sense of it all and it made what she was seeing so much harder to watch.
Her head was dropped low, as if she were unconscious, but she could see the rise and fall of her own chest which was a good sign. At least she was still alive. The room that she was being held in was dark, but what she could see of it looked familiar. There was the sound of squealing hinges as light flooded the room, revealing the metal walls and the devil's trap on the floor. Just as she realized where she was being held, her future self lifted up her head, opening her eyes to reveal nothing but black.
Ana hadn't realized that she had been screaming out until strong hands gripped her shoulders and shook her slightly, "Ana! Wake up!" Sam yelled at her, trying to pull her out of whatever vision or nightmare she was caught in.
Her eyes snapped open and she stopped screaming, sitting up quickly to look at the man that was sitting next to her on her bed. Dean moved from where he had been standing by the door and walked to stand next to her bed, "You alright?" he questioned, part of him was almost waiting for her to start screaming again, the look on her face was pure terror.
"Ana?" Sam dropped his hands from her shoulders, waiting for her to speak or at least blink, she was starting to worry him.
As she let out a breath, she closed her eyes and took another deep breath before opening them again, "How long was I screaming for?"
"Couple of minutes." Sam answered, "I'd been trying to get you to snap out of it but it wasn't working."
She nodded, looking at Dean as he squatted down next to her, "So… vision or nightmare?" he asked, his green eyes squinting at her in worry.
"Vision."
"What part of our crappy lives was it this time?" He stood up again, assuming that they could be there a while so he grabbed the chair from her desk to sit on.
Ana shook her head, "It wasn't about either of you. Not the worst part at least." she explained as she leaned back against the headboard. "It was my own future."
Sam moved to sit at the foot of the bed, wanting to give her some room and not as worried now that she was talking, "This is the first time you've seen your own future, isn't it?"
She nodded, "Yeah and if they're all going to be like that I think I can go the rest of my life without having another vision about myself."
"What'd you see?" Dean questioned as he rubbed a hand over his tired eyes, he had just gone to bed when she started screaming.
"I was…" she closed her eyes, seeing another quick flash of herself with pitch black eyes, "I was possessed, you had me chained up in the room with the devil's trap."
The brothers shared a concerned look that was completely missed by Ana. "Well, I know of one sure fire way to make sure that vision never happens." Dean piped up, "How do you feel about tattoos?"
Ana chuckled and looked over at him, "Well seeing as I've already got a few I don't think I can object to your idea." She said, understanding that he was thinking about the anti-possession tattoo.
Dean leaned forward in his chair, raising an eyebrow at her, "You've been eighteen for what? Two months and you already have more than one tattoo?"
"Let's not go there, alright?" She questioned, "Look, I'm exhausted, we can talk more about this in the morning. Now get out of my room and go back to bed, both of you."
"Who do you think you are?" He snapped halfheartedly as he stood up, looking down at the girl that just gave him an order.
Sam stood up and a small smirk, patting his brother on the shoulder, "Come on. Let's get out of here so she can sleep."
Dean looked at Sam, clearly shocked that a girl half his age tried to give him an order, "But she-"
"I know, Dean, come on." Sam interrupted as he steered his big brother out of the room, being careful not to show how much the situation was amusing him.
"This is not over, Anastasia." Dean told her over his shoulder, glaring at her, "So not over!" he shouted as Sam closed the door behind them.
Ana rolled her eyes and chuckled softly to herself, she sure as hell wasn't sure what to think of the way Dean had been treating her, but he had his moments. When she closed her eyes to try to fall back to sleep all she saw was her own black eyes, an image she was sure would stick with her for a while. She took in a deep breath and pushed the image aside, forcing herself to focus instead on the vision she had of her mother. A large part of her hoped that whatever path she had just decided to take would have made her mother proud, it had been her main goal for as long as she could remember. It didn't matter what else she did in this life as long as whatever she was doing would some how grant her even partial forgiveness for causing her mother's death.
-A-
The rest of the night was, thankfully, quiet in her subconscious, but it was rudely interrupted by the sound of loud banging on her door. "Time to wake up, sleeping beauty!" Dean yelled as he threw the door open hard enough to bang obnoxiously against the wall behind it.
"Go away." Ana grumbled, grabbing her pillow and hiding underneath it, hoping that he would leave her alone so she could get more sleep.
"Oh no. You're not getting off of the hook that easy. No one gives me orders." He informed her with a smirk, leaning against the door frame. "You have ten seconds to get out of bed before I start to sing, and trust me, it won't be pretty."
She lifted the pillow off of her face enough so she could speak, "I swear I'm going to throw something at you." she warned, knowing that it had to be pretty early in the morning. "What are you even doing up? You went to bed after I did."
Dean scoffed, "I'll sleep when I'm dead, plus we have to start research on this whole Barbas situation." he looked down at his wrist as if there was actually a watch there and looked back at her, "Well, would you look at that, your time's up." he commented walking over to her bed and squatting next to her head.
"Mama! Just killed a man…" he began to sing, no not sing, he was definitely yelling lyrics, right next to her ear. She gripped the pillow that was over her head in both hands before moving to push it against his face with force, successfully ending his song. "Don't you dare do Freddie Mercury the injustice of ruining his music like that." she grumbled before letting go of the pillow and sitting up.
He grabbed the pillow as it fell from his face, grinning widely, "I warned you, just because you didn't move quickly doesn't make it my fault." he stood up, dropping the pillow on the bed. "Come on, there's breakfast and we really do need to get started on research."
"I know, I'm just not much of a morning person. Well… at least not when I get some actual sleep at night." a yawn escaped her mouth as she pushed the blankets off of herself. "Wait, did you say breakfast?" she asked, looking up at him, "Frozen waffles and cereal kind of breakfast or did you actually cook?"
"I guess you'll just have to get up to find out." he answered with a grin before turning on his heel and leaving her room.
She groaned and stood up out of bed, not bothering to change into different clothes, she just grabbed the purple pull-over hoodie out of her dresser and pulled it on. Something about the mornings kept her colder than normal, even when the weather was another yawn she left her room, pulling her wild hair into a messy bun on top of her head while she walked toward the kitchen.
"Good morning." Sam greeted with a smile as he poured himself a cup of coffee.
"Morning." she mumbled, still irritated that she was woken up, even more so when she looked around the kitchen, "Seriously, Dean, you could have warned me so I didn't get my hopes up." she growled at him as she realized he hadn't made breakfast.
She turned to see him grin in triumph as he poured himself a bowl of cereal, "I don't cook for disrespectful children."
"I'm eighteen!" She snapped, glaring at him, "I am not a child and I am not disrespectful. What you may have taken as an order last night was my tired attempt to get you two out of my room so I could sleep!"
Sam watched them a moment before deciding that if he didn't distract them this argument would go on longer than necessary, "How did you sleep?" he asked, Ana, "Anymore visions?"
Ana continued to glare at Dean, "I was actually sleeping well when someone decided that I needed to be up at the asscrack of dawn!"
"Hey, it's past seven, I could have gotten you up at six."
Groaning, Ana turned away from him and walked over to where Sam was standing by the coffee pot, "I don't know how you've lived with him your whole life and haven't killed him yet." she told him as she reached for a mug off of the counter and filled it up.
Sam laughed, "Trust me, I've considered it more than once, but I know he'd just come back to haunt my ass."
"I can hear you two, ya know?" Dean growled, glaring daggers at them before grabbing his bowl and heading toward the library. "Come on, we've got work to do."
"We've angered the beast." Ana joked in a whisper before following Dean, Sam following behind her chuckling to himself. "So where do we even start with something like this?" she questioned, setting her cup down on the large table, "All we know is what the ritual does, right?"
"Right." Sam agreed, walking over to a stack of books he already had on the table, "One of the good things about dealing with demonic rituals like this is, for the most part, they're all based out of God based religions. Christianity, Islam, Judaism… so anything polytheistic we can already cancel out."
She scoffed, "But even then that's a lot to go through. Those three separate religions alone have a lot of differences, but at least we're not dealing with the whole damn world." she grumbled the last part to herself.
"Exactly, you don't want to even think about how long this would take if we had to dig through pagan rituals too." Dean pointed out.
Sam shook his head, "I've already glanced through these books and haven't found anything in reference to an ritual like what we're dealing with." he tapped the stack of books next to him, "I'm going to see if I can find anything online, why don't you start pulling more books off of the shelves? Get a good stack and we can start going through those."
Ana nodded and set off on her task, "This is going to take a while, isn't it?" she asked, glancing over her shoulder at the brothers.
"Unless Cas comes up with something that can be helpful, this could take a long while." Dean informed her, "So you better prepared yourself now, you may not be leaving this place any time soon."
"Good to know." She grabbed a cart and pushed it over to one of the shelves. It honestly didn't matter to her how long she was going to be there, from what Missouri said she was meant to be with the Winchesters for a while and with the situation at hand she knew there was no where safer for her to be. Part of her just hoped that neither her or Dean tried to kill the other before they figured out how to stop this ritual without keeping her locked in the bunker permanently.
