A/N: Hello my dears! Who's ready for another update? I wanted to get this up as fast as I could after posting the last chapter, so here it is for all of you. I'm really excited for upcoming things and I'm going to hopefully be posting faster because of it. Let me know what you all think! I hope you enjoy this chapter :)
Morning rolled around before anyone was the wiser about Ana's escape. Sam had been the first awake, per usual, and when he found Kellen unconscious in the library it didn't take him long to come to the conclusion of who his attacker had been. Once he had gotten the young man to come back to the conscious world the tallest Winchester moved quickly through the bunker to awake the remaining people in their family. Not even bothering to knock on his brother's door, Sam threw the door opened and met his brother's confused expression as he rolled over in bed with a frantic one of his own, "Ana's gone."
"What?!" Dean snapped, the grogginess that he had felt moments before dissipating with those two words. Jumping out of bed he didn't stop to change his clothes or even to grab his robe as he stormed out of his room in nothing but an old pair of sweats. "What the hell happened?" he demanded to know as he stormed toward Ana's bedroom, hoping that this was some sort of sick prank.
Sam sighed and followed after Dean, "Kellen says the last thing he remembers is talking to Ana about the book he had been reading before everything went black. From the lump on his head I'm assuming she laid into him with the shackles."
Shoving Ana's door open with a growl, Dean swore under his breath after his eyes did a quick scan of the space. His next thought was to head toward the library, wanting to talk to Kellen himself about what had happened while he was supposed to be on watch. If Ana had used force against him it wasn't the kid's fault, but the elder Winchester's anger had been building over the weeks and this was the last straw. As he rounded the corner into the library the little anger that was aimed at Kellen disappeared once he saw the younger man holding an ice pack to his temple. Making his way across the room he took in a slow, deep breath, forcing himself to calm down before he spoke with the victim of his soulless daughter's escape plan. When he reached Kellen he removed the ice pack and took a look at the deep purple bruise that was already forming, "Of course she fucking did this!" Dean snapped, turning away from Kellen, his anger was no longer at the kid, but at the person that began this whole thing. "If you hadn't taken her damn soul we wouldn't be dealing with a crazy powerful witch on the loose!" he aimed his yelling upward, ignoring the appearance of Gabe and Cas as he continued. "This is your damn mess Chuck or God or whoever the hell you are, now get your holy ass down here and fix it!"
"Dean-"
"No." Dean interrupted Cas' plea before he could get any further, he knew by the tone of the angel's voice that he was going to try to reason with the angry man, but Dean wasn't going to put up with it. He had the right to be pissed, damn it! "I'm right and you know it. The only reason Ana is soulless in the first place is because your Father removed her soul. Well, now we don't have a body for that soul to return to and there's no telling what she's doing out in the world without a moral compass."
There was silence as Dean and Cas stared at each other, but it was quickly broken by the sound of a clearing throat. "Do you really think that I would let her get that far?" Chuck asked, making sure to keep the table that Kellen was sitting at between himself and Dean. Yes, he was God, but there was no way he was going to underestimate the anger of Dean Winchester.
"You know what I think?" Dean sneered at him, "That you're a selfish ass. You took her soul and put it in Hell, all for what? To fix a problem that you don't feel like taking care of? Because that's what it seems like!"
Cas stepped up, "Dean, I would appreciate it if you didn't speak to my Father that way." he spoke in the same calm tone that he normally did, but the angel's eyes held a hint of anger.
"He took my daughter's soul, Cas!" Dean snapped, glaring at the man he had claimed as a friend, someone he was sure loved Ana just as everyone else did, but if that was true then why was he standing up for the person who had put her in danger.
"God! That is enough!" Chuck yelled over any further comment that could have been made by anyone in the room. Taking a moment for the shock of his raised voice to wear off and to calm himself down, he sighed, "I didn't take her soul, Dean. I gave her full choice to the offer, Ana knew she could turn it down and that I wouldn't have done anything else. We spoke in great lengths about what I was asking of her, about what she would be dealing with while she was fixing the cage, and how she would have to find her way back to her body on her own." Pushing a hand through his curly hair, Chuck considered his next words, "I couldn't have done this myself. Ever since I cast Lucifer out of Heaven, Hell has been his domain and just as he is not allowed back into Heaven, I'm not allowed into Hell. Terrible things would happen the moment I stepped foot there and I wasn't willing to bring the walls of Hell down, releasing demons and other terrible souls to fix what was broken. Ana was the logical choice and I will be forever grateful that she agreed to go, to keep both of my sons locked away."
The fact that there was a reasonable explanation as to why Chuck couldn't have gone to Hell himself did little to appease Dean. He was still rolling with anger and worry for his daughter. They had no way to tell how her mission with the cage was going or when she would be returning home and the fact that her body was missing as well on top of everything else was enough to send him over the edge. Just as he was about to let Chuck have another piece of his mind the sound of his phone ringing echoed through the hall and toward the library, he had left the device in his bedroom and was thankful that he'd left the volume up on his ringtone.
"Maybe it's Ana." Connor spoke the hopeful words that had already passed through Dean's head.
Turning around the elder Winchester jogged toward his room and made it to his phone just before the call ended, glancing at the screen his eyebrows knit together in confusion. Hitting the call back button he made his way back into the library, meeting seven pairs of hope filled eyes. "Crowley." he spoke flatly once the phone on the other end of the call was answered.
"Squirrel. I think I have a couple of things you're missing." The King of Hell spoke with an amused tone.
-A-
To say that watching the two separate parts of the Winchester girl argue was entertaining could be considered an understatement. Crowley had seen many things in his time as a demon, but a soul fighting with it's living body was one that he had yet to witness and he wasn't disappointed. With an amused grin on his face, the King of Hell took a seat on his throne to watch the show that was being played out in front of him.
"What do you mean you don't want me back?" Soul Ana snapped, looking at her body as if she had lost her mind. Not only was it very confusing to be arguing with herself, but add that on top of the fact that her body was apparently okay with being soulless and she wasn't ready for this argument. Not after what she had just gone through with the cage, Michael, and Lucifer.
Soulless Ana scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest and rolling her eyes, "Of course I don't want you back! Do you know what it's like to live with you? Constantly worrying about one idiotic thing or another, too self-conscious to do what you want, and damn is it boring living with all of the 'traumatic experiences'. We were tortured as a child, big freaking whoop. The guy is dead, isn't he? Get the fuck over it already!"
Crowley chuckled softly, causing both parts of Ana to snap their heads to the side and glare at him. "Don't mind me." he waved a dismissive hand at both of them, not wanting to get in the way of the show they were putting on.
"You know that you don't really have a choice right? I'm going to do the spell that puts us back together and there's really nothing you can do to stop it." The soul informed her body, knowing that it was easier said than done.
"Right." The body scoffed, "I am just aware as you are that the spell requires contact between the two of us and you're either crazy or stupid if you think I'm letting you get anywhere near me."
Clenching her jaw, Soul Ana lashed out with her magic, forcing her own body to be thrown across the room. "And you're either crazy or stupid if you think I'm giving you a choice in the matter. We share the same magic and in case you hadn't noticed I'm the majority holder of that power right now, so you may want to rethink your strategy."
It was then that the fight broke out. Ana's body stood back up on her feet and threw her own magic out, knowing that if she was going to have any chance of getting out of there without her soul jumping on board that she would have to be the quicker thinker. Which was harder to do when she was fighting against something that thought exactly like she did when it came to battle strategy. The separate pieces of Ana fought, each blocking most blows that came their way, making it more difficult for both of them to weaken the other.
Crowley continued to watch with a smirk until the fight began to tear apart his throne room. It wasn't like he would do any of the cleaning himself, but he would rather not replace anything that would be broken during their battle. Sighing, he reached into the pocket of his suit jacket to retrieve his phone, wondering why he even kept the damn thing around. The search through his contact list was short, there weren't many people that he communicated with via the cellphone, which was why he was considering getting rid of it. The Winchesters rarely spoke with him and it was the only reason he had it in the first place. Selecting Squirrel's contact file, he tapped on the call symbol and placed the phone to his ear, watching the fight in front of him escalade as the soul of Ana pushed her body up against a wall and held her there by her throat. When there was no answer Crowley hung up the phone and considered what to do now, but the thought was short lived as his phone began to ring with Dean returning his call. The King answered the call, not speaking, just holding the device to his ear as the Winchester spoke his name. In return Crowley smiled slyly before replying, "Squirrel, I think I have a couple of things you're missing."
Dean was about to counter that he wasn't in the mood for Crowley's games when he distinctly heard "You bitch!" snapped in a voice that he was certain belonged to his daughter and not the soulless body version, it held all of the emotion that soulless Ana hadn't been able to show in weeks. "Where are you?" he demanded, ready to go find his daughter and bring her back home, soul in tact.
"Me? I've got a front row seat to the biggest bout of the century. Ever seen one witch fight against herself? It's rather amusing, the collateral damage is something I could do without though." The King answered, eyes glued to the body and the soul as they each threw a wave of power at the other, the magic ricocheting off of itself and slamming back down on the witch's separate parts.
"Wait, they're both there?" Dean asked, shocked that Ana was closer to coming home than he thought. "What do you mean she's fighting herself?" he questioned after replaying Crowley's last response in his head.
Crowley rolled his eyes, "Long story short, your daughter is having some inner turmoil, though it's all out in the open now. Either way, they're tearing apart my throne room and I'm growing weary of it. Would you like them back now?"
There was a frustrated scream that made both Crowley and Dean wince, the latter glad that he was only hearing that over the phone. "You do realize that you have no choice in this, right? I'm going to reconnect us and you're just going to have to deal with all of the emotions again. Not like you're going to be able to complain because we're the same damn person!" Soul Ana yelled, at the crumpled form of her body on the ground, turns out that if one cuts off the trachea long enough and causes a little blunt force trauma to the head even a witch becomes dazed.
"Well, if we're the same person," Soulless Ana began weakly, pushing herself up from where she laid on the floor, "then you should have seen this coming." Before her soul could respond, she teleported herself out of Crowley's throne room and as far away as she could get.
"Damn it!" The soul swore, spinning to look at the King of Hell, "Crowley, how do I get out of here?"
He turned his attention away from the conversation he was having with Dean to look at the soul of the witch, "I can provide a little help with that, figure I owe you one for keeping the cage locked down. You did succeed in fixing it, didn't you?"
Ana rolled her eyes, "Yes, Lucifer isn't getting out any time soon. Now get me back to my family." she stated, pausing at the pointed look that the demon in front of her was piercing her with. "Please." she added begrudgingly.
Crowley smiled, "I'll get you back to your precious family, but a quick warning dear," he paused to move the microphone of his phone away from his mouth, "you may want to make quick work of getting your body back before she hurts your unborn child." The wide eyed expression was exactly the shock factor he was going for and he grinned as he turned back to his phone. "I'm sending part of your daughter back to you, Squirrel. Be expecting her in three.. two.. one." He snapped his fingers and the soul was out of his sight and if the sharp intake of breath from the other line was anything to go off of she had successfully appeared in the bunker. "Tell the witch that this makes us even. She kept me on the throne, I got her soul out of Hell."
Dean didn't even bother responding as he ended the call, shoving his phone into the pocket of his sweats. "Ana? What happened?" he moved toward his daughter, ready to wrap his arms around her in a hug, but the shocked expression on her face made him pause. "What's going on?"
It was hard to think around the shock that had set into her system. Had Crowley been telling the truth? Was she really pregnant? Her thoughts rushed around as she tried to come up with a logical reason for the demon to lie, but the truth was much more devastating than lying about it would be. Her eyes met her father's seeing the worry there before she flicked them quickly toward Connor, there was no telling how he was going to take this news. Neither of them were prepared to deal with the prophecy that concerned their unborn child, Hell neither of them were ready to be parents. This wasn't supposed to happen for a few years, they had been careful. Ana had been on the pill for years and they had used a condom, how in the Hell was she pregnant?! Shaking her head, she tried to pull herself back in, they could only deal with one thing at a time and right now she needed to focus on getting her body back before it did something dumb that could possibly harm the baby. She focused back on her father and realized that he had been speaking to her, "Sorry, what were you saying, dad?"
Dean visibly relaxed at the sound of the last word, a small smile forming on his lips. Sure they didn't have her body back, but at least her soul was out of Hell. "What happened? Crowley said that you were fighting with… you. This is all so weird."
"You think this is weird? I literally just had a full out knock down with myself, I spent months next to the cage fixing the damage and listening to Lucifer trying to converse casually with me. I think I've got you beat." She informed him, her mind wandering back to the subject of her unborn child, hopefully the fight hadn't caused any harm to that part of her body.
"Did it work?" Chuck asked, finally stepping forward, causing Ana to realize that the room was filled with more than just her father and Connor.
She nodded, "Uh, yeah. The crack is fixed, I fortified the magic already around it and added a spell of my own. I triple checked it all; a normal demon isn't going to be able to break through it so we won't have to worry about Jade letting them out. Which is good because now we have a bigger problem to deal with."
"Your body." Chuck nodded, having not considered that there would be a fight when it was time for the two to be reunited. "What happened?"
"Apparently it's too boring to have a soul so she teleported away once she had the chance. We need to hurry and find her before she does something stupid." Ana told them, not voicing the real reason for her worry. "Is it weird to anyone else that I'm talking about myself in the third person? At this point am I even one person or am I two?" she aimed the last question at Chuck or either of the angels, assuming they would have the best idea.
Gabriel stepped forward, giving Ana a soft smile, it was good to know that she was back in one piece. Her soul at least, they would get her back in one whole piece shortly. "You're still one person when it comes down to it, but we won't have to worry about that much longer. Cas and I will track down your body and bring it back here, kicking and screaming if we have to."
"Thanks Gabe." She gave the angel a warm smile, happy to be home and in the company of angels she knew and trusted rather than at the side of the cage. They all watched the angels disappear before it seemed all attention was back on her. "I am so ready to hug all of you, but I'm going to assume it doesn't work while I'm like this?" she asked, raising an eyebrow at Chuck.
He nodded, "Sorry, you'll have to wait until you have your body back before you'll be able to touch anyone." Chuck took a look around the room and came to a conclusion, "I'm going to leave, give you some time together. Ana, I'll speak with you soon." Giving her one last knowing look before he disappeared from the room.
Sighing, Ana wondered what He wanted to speak with her about, but she was assuming since Crowley knew she was pregnant that Chuck most likely did as well. That was going to be a fun conversation. Deciding to distract herself while they were waiting for the angels to come back with her body she looked around at everyone, "So, how's it been since I've been gone."
"Really?" Dean questioned, looking at her in disbelief. "That's what you're going to lead off with? How we've been? Ana, you were in Hell, your body left here soulless and you didn't even have the decency to warn us about what you were doing. How about you explain that?" he snapped, anger getting the best of him.
"If I would have told you, you would have tried to find a way to stop me. I couldn't let that happen, dad, Connor and I caused the problem, it needed to be fixed so I went to do so. I'm fine, other than the whole body-less thing, but we're working on that." Ana explained, throwing her hands in the air in a dramatic huff.
Dean scoffed, "You're fine?" he didn't believe her, what little time he had in the presence of Michael and Lucifer led him to believe that she wasn't completely fine after spending so much time near them. "You said months passed while you were down there, Ana, and you want me to believe you're no different than when you left?"
With a sigh the youngest Winchester turned her back on her family, "Look, I'm not saying it was a good time, I never want to be that close to either Michael or Lucifer every again, but it could have been worse." She slowly turned back around to look at Dean and Sam, knowing that both men knew what it was like to be in Hell. "The difference between your time there and mine was that I wasn't dead, I wasn't being tortured physically at all and the magic around the cage kept both of them out of my head. The only thing that either of them could hurt me with were their twisted words and yes, they did do that, but I'm out now. That's what matters."
Before the conversation could get any further Castiel appeared at Ana's side with a grim expression, "We can't find your body. She must have cloaked herself from us, Gabriel is still trying while I'm here hoping that you and Connor can find her since we can't."
Ana turned her head to look at Connor, finally seeing the dark circles that were under his eyes and the weariness they held. It was clear to her that he hadn't been doing well with her absence, "She could be anywhere right now." she concluded, trying to process through the strongest tracking spell they could us. "Blood to blood."
"What?" Connor raised an eyebrow at her, "That spell is a witch to witch spell and in case you weren't aware we're lacking in a witch that's blood related to you." he pointed out, knowing that she already knew that information.
"Just trust me, it will work." She told him firmly, really hoping that he wouldn't continue to question her, but she knew her luck was slim.
He raised an eyebrow at his soulmate, "Ana, there are only two blood to blood spells that either of us are aware of and the only one that would be powerful enough to summon your body requires that the witch casting it be the blood relative of the person they're tracking. Obviously you and I aren't blood related so it isn't going to work."
"Will you not question me about this and do the damn spell?!" She snapped, surprising everyone in the room. They weren't used to their Ana snapping like that and it was something that made them all worry.
"Fine!" Connor snapped back, moving over to the table that Kellen was still seated at and waving his hand over the table, using his magic to make one of their mixing bowls and a knife appear. "You're going to hate it when I say 'told you so'." he told her, knowing that he was taking out his anger on her soulless body on the woman he loved, but he was so sleep deprived that he honestly didn't really care. Picking the blade up off of the table, he held his hand over the bowl and began to chant in Latin, dragging the blade down his hand as he spoke and letting his blood drop into the bowl on the table. When the chant was finished there was a quick flash of light and then an aggravated sound from Ana's body as she realized that she had been beat. "How-"
"There's no time, I'll explain later." Soul Ana told him, pulling on her power to teleport herself right behind her body. Pulling on the power that the two shared, she took enough to keep her other self from teleporting as she grabbed onto her body's hand and began chanting quickly. This had to be done fast if she was going to complete it and keep her body from running off again. Her body fought against her, but Ana only tightened her grip as she finished the spell causing her soul to slam back into her body and then fall to the floor.
Dean hurried over to his daughter as she lay still on the floor, wondering if something had gone wrong with her spell. "Ana?" He knelt down next to her and pulled her up so her head was resting on his knees, "Ana?!" Becoming frantic, he looked up to Connor and Cas, "What's going on? Why isn't she waking up?"
"It's most likely going to take some time for her body to readjust to having a soul. It took Sam some time to recover once he got his back and I wouldn't be surprised if we're dealing with the same scenario." Castiel walked over to Dean, kneeling down on one knee and touching his fingers to Ana's forehead to check on her. It was then that he realized why the spell that Connor performed worked, Ana was carrying his child and therefore making the premise of the spell work in their favor. "She's going to be fine." The angel assured Dean, keeping the news of Ana's pregnancy to himself since he doubted that anyone knew, she was barely a month along. He pondered how she knew, assuming that it was the reason she was positive the spell would work. No human technology short of a blood test would show that she was with child and he was almost certain that she had no chance to go see a doctor with how much they all had going on lately.
Connor walked toward the three of them, his own head spinning as he tried to figure out how the spell worked. "Here," he spoke to Dean, "I'll take her to her room."
Dean looked up at the witch and shook his head, "Man, you're dead on your feet. I'll go put her in her bed, you should go get some sleep. Hell, you all should get some sleep." he commented looking around at his family, seeing that all of them looked just as tired as he felt. It had been a hard couple of weeks trying to keep Ana's body from doing something stupid.
There was a moment where Connor thought of arguing with the older man, but Dean was right. He hadn't slept right since Ana had been gone and now that she was back home maybe he would be able to get some decent sleep so that he would be in the right mind when she woke up. "Alright." he finally conceded and turned to leave the room, hoping that she wouldn't be out long, he wanted answers about why the spell had worked.
"I can send her to her room if you'd like." Cas offered, knowing that Dean was just as tired as the rest of the family, maybe it wasn't a smart idea for him to be carrying Ana's weight either.
Shaking his head, Dean adjusted his daughter so that he could pick her up and he slowly made his way to his feet. "Thanks, Cas, but I've got her. Why don't you let Gabe know that she's here and back in one piece, I'm sure he's still trying to find her."
Gabe suddenly appeared in front of Dean, "I knew the moment she was here, whatever she was doing to cloak herself from us disappeared once she arrived." he explained, looking at the unconscious witch in Dean's arms. "Cas, Dad has asked to speak with us." he spoke, eyes still focused on the witch that he cared so much for. His little brother gave him a short nod before both angels flew out of the room.
The rest of the family slowly filtered out of the room, Charlie moving to Kellen's side as she was afraid that he might have a concussion and not wanting him to pass out on the walk to his bedroom. Sam paused for a moment once it was just them in the room, watching his brother with his niece, "She's home and Cas said she's going to be fine." he spoke, knowing that his brother would need to be reminded of both facts.
"But she was in Hell, Sammy. There's no telling what either of those douches said to her while she was down there. What if she's not okay after that?" He questioned, heading out of the library and down the hall, knowing that this brother would follow.
"After what happened with Brandon, she's built up a tough skin. I think that she's going to be fine. Is it going to be hard for her to process? Yes, but she's not alone Dean. She has all of us and we're not going to let her try to deal with any of it alone." Sam spoke sternly, knowing that his brother needed him to be one hundred percent certain of the words coming out of his mouth. "She's going to be fine. She's going to wake up and go back to embarrassing you in front of the women you're trying to pick up." he added the last part with a chuckle.
Dean scoffed, "Of course, because that's exactly what I need." he muttered as they walked through the door into her bedroom. Being as careful as he could, he laid her down on her bed and covered her up with a blanket. "You really think she's going to be okay?"
"She's a Winchester," Sam pointed out with a wide smile on his face, "of course she's going to be okay." He patted his brother on the shoulder comfortingly as they both looked down at Ana's sleeping form. It wasn't going to be easy, but they were all going to be fine. Sam was sure of it.
