A/N: Hey guys! *Insert usual new chapter mumbo-jumbo paired with a declaration of my undying love for all of you followers* Alright, onto something I would love feedback on. So as a reader of some great stories on this site I love that some of the authors and/or people close to the authors have set up forms of social media to follow the story. I've seen instagrams as if it's run by one of the characters, tumblrs that have gifs and stuff that correlate with the storyline in one way or another… I was wondering if you guys would like something like that? Or maybe a playlist of songs that go with each chapter? If you're into it I'm willing to make this story a little more 'interactive' for all of you amazing followers! If not then I'll just continue to do these chapters and leave you these lovely author's notes full of my rambling. Let me know what you think! Review or private message either way works :) Also I'd love to know what you guys think of where the story is going. Enough of this garbage, I hope you enjoy this chapter! :D
Awerry: Thank you so much for the review! I'm glad that you're enjoying it so far, there is plenty more to come :)
Without wasting any time Connor and Ana teleported their group back to the bunker; Ana wanted to give everyone time to prepare and they needed proper time to make a plan. All of the hunters were ready to roll with anything, but with Connor being not much of a hunter and Kellen being brand new to even the lore they had to make sure that whatever plan they made got everyone home alive. Ana refused to lose anyone because of improper planning. Not even bothering to talk about it Connor and Ana simply agreed that any plans they had about what was going to happen in the next few days would be put on hold until the demon problem was taken care of. Talking to her family in Montana could wait along with whatever it was that Dean had planned for that night. These demons took precedence over almost everything else, the damage that Ana had witnessed in her vision was just too much for her to even consider focusing on anything else. Though Ana had the vision and was more than capable of taking over lead on this she didn't argue when her father took charge, directing everyone in their jobs to make sure that their weapons were packed in bags that could be flown or teleported easily.
"Charlie, Ana, grab as much devil's trap ammo as you can fit in a small duffle. Connor, I want you to make sure that you have that handy witch bag that you normally have when we're dealing with stuff like this stocked. Whatever you may need, have it. Kellen, you can help me and Sam load salt rounds for the shotguns because I'm pretty sure we don't have enough." Dean instructed, his mind reeling with possible scenarios that they might face going up against a large group of demons. They wouldn't be caught unprepared like they were when they were at the Fergan house in Montana. "Let's move fast. The moment Gabe and Cas have a location we need to be ready to move out."
With that everyone went their separate ways. Ana and Charlie were the first to leave the library, each woman smoothly transitioning into hunter mode, their usually relaxed demeanor hardened. They walked with the power and confidence of those who had gone to war and were ready to face whatever challenge may lie ahead. The four men in the library watched as the two redheads moved out of the room, standing shoulder to shoulder. "Remind me to never piss the two of them off." Kellen commented, knowing that both women were more than capable of taking down anything that they came against.
"Yeah, like either of them would let any of us forget what they're capable of." Sam scoffed. He and Dean had met many hunters in their time, few of them being women, but of the ones they had the chance to encounter Ana and Charlie were probably some of the most lethal. Which was partially due to their training coming from the Winchester brothers, they weren't perfect, but hunting was something they were both scarily good at. It was a comforting thought to know that he and his brother passed that along to the two women.
Dean merely grunted in agreement before walking out of the room as well, leading Sam and Kellen toward the reloading room which they had set up just across the hall from the shooting range. None of them spoke as they passed the open door on their right, catching a glimpse of the redheads packing two small duffles full of pistol rounds before they veered off to the smaller room on the left. The setup was simple enough; there was a long table along the back wall that held the large reloading press and enough space to work next to it, the scale to measure out powder, and rows of ammo boxes for different calibers. On a small table near the door they kept the powders and primers, the spent brass that had already been put through the tumblr to be cleaned, the tumblr itself, and all of the other small odds and ends that went into making bullets. Thankfully making a salt round was one of the easier ones to make, the shells were always new so they didn't have to be cleaned and working with salt instead of something like buckshot made it a little easier. "Sam, you're on measuring out salt, I'll work the press and Kellen you can work on putting them in boxes." Seeing the look that crossed the younger man's face, Dean knew that he was about to get an earful for putting him on the simplest task. He held up a hand to stop Kellen before he could start, "Look, you need a crash course in everything we know about demons. That will be easiest for you to pay attention to when you're not also focusing on making the ammo."
Kellen took a moment to consider what Dean was saying before nodding, he had gotten through some books on supernatural creatures but hadn't touched much on demons other than what had already been explained to him. Since the fight that had broken out at his family's house Kellen had assumed that he knew almost everything you needed to know about killing demons, apparently that had been a false assumption. "Alright, let's get started."
Dean and Sam both moved to their stations. The younger brother would take the red shell, load it with the right amount of salt, and then pass it on to the elder who would use the press to close the excess plastic on top. They were lucky that in his spare time Dean had taken to already prepping the brass end of the round, making sure that they had a stock of shells already set with primers and powder so all they had to add was the salt and close it up. Handing over the first closed round, Dean pointedly looked at Kellen, "Salt repels demons so these won't kill them. It will make them extremely uncomfortable and to a weaker demon might force them out of the body their in if you shoot them enough, but these are mostly used to push back an attack."
"And the rounds that the girls are packing will basically lock them down, right?" Kellen asked, looking closely at the round before placing it in a box. "They won't be able to leave the body they're possessing and they won't be able to use any of their powers."
Sam nodded as he measured out salt for another round, "Yeah, they also make it so demons can't move. Which is extremely useful when you're going up against a lot of them at once."
Dean turned to look directly at Kellen, letting Sam continue his work since it would be easy to catch up. "See the hardest part about going up against demons is that there aren't a lot of ways to kill them. Angel blades, the demon killing knife, smitting if you're lucky enough to have an angel fighting with you, but other than that the best we can do is send them back to Hell. It takes a while for them to crawl their way back out, but they will."
"So what's our plan going to be with this one?" Connor inquired from the doorway where he had appeared in the middle of Dean talking. "Ana only has a rough estimate of the number we'll be going up against. Obviously we're lucky because Cas and Gabe will both be there, but if the look on Ana's face was anything to go by we may still be extremely outnumbered."
"We'll kill as many of them as we can." Dean responded, turning back to the press to continue with the work. "Pistol rounds to keep them in place long enough to gank them by other means. We'll pair off; one person with a pistol another with a shotgun, work in tandem to push them back while trapping others. Cas and Gabe can use their blades while you and Ana do whatever witchy nonsense you two normally do."
"Did you really just say 'witchy nonsense'?" Ana questioned from behind Connor as her and Charlie joined the conversation, both women keeping near the door but still out in the hall. "I'm slightly offended by that."
Dean rolled his eyes, "You know I didn't mean anything by it." He assured his daughter, glancing up from the press long enough to notice that she wasn't in his line of sight before looking back down. "Did you guys hear the plan?"
Charlie pushed herself around Connor and into the room, "Just the tail end of it. Want to fill us in on the parts we missed?" She questioned, moving over toward Sam watching him as he worked. Though she had spent some time in the reloading room, Charlie never really got the hang of the whole process, which was one of the reason neither brother would let her do it alone anymore. After the one time she had put too much powder in a pistol round and when she fired it the gun had basically exploded in her hand, breaking some bones in the process.
As he re-explained his plan, Dean and Sam picked up their pace, wanting to get as much ammo loaded as they could before they were out of time. "Charlie you'll go with Sam, Kellen you'll be with me. I think it'd be best if we completely separate into two groups so we can cover more ground." Pausing he turned to look at Ana who was leaning against Connor, "Can you tell us exactly what you saw in your vision, if I have a better idea of what we're going into I can make this work a whole lot better."
Sighing, Ana closed her eyes and leaned further into Connor's touch, that vision was not a thought she wanted to linger on. "Large group of demons in a small town. They pretty much surround the place and kill everyone they can get their hands on, torture some of them before they end them. It's gruesome and bloody, nothing near as neat as they have been recently. People sliced open from the bottom up, everything that's supposed to be on the inside coming out one way or another." She shivered and hid her face in Connor's chest for a moment, taking in a deep breath to calm herself with the familiar scent of the herbs he worked with on a regular basis, before turning back to meet her father's gaze. "We need to stop this before it can get too far."
"Which is why we have to leave." Gabriel spoke as he appeared in the middle of the room. "Now." The word was accompanied with one of the most serious looks any of them had seen on the archangel's face.
The look and the tone in the angel's voice caused everyone to act quickly; Sam and Dean finished the last couple of bullets as Connor and Ana ran across the hall to grab the bag full of the already packed ammo and the set of guns that the girls had laid out before hand. Dean began shouting out orders, getting everyone organized and ready with a semi put together plan. "Sam, take Charlie, Connor, and Gabe with you. Let Charlie man the shotgun. Kellen, Ana, and Cas you're with me." Ana and Connor walked back into the room, each carrying a shotgun and a bag of ammo. Taking the shotgun out of Ana's hands he held it out to Kellen, "Don't miss."
Connor held out the gun in his hands toward Charlie, "Where is Cas?" He asked, looking around quickly to make sure that the angel hadn't popped in while everyone was scrambling and somehow missed it.
"Keeping eyes on the demons." Gabe answered, watching as the group grabbed last minute things. "I'm going to be dropping the first group of with him, then take the rest of us to the other side of town. We're going to need to move fast." With that Gabe used more grace than he had accessed in a while and moved everyone out of the small room in the bunker to an empty street near the edge of the small town. Just as he was about to take the rest of them to the other side of town he was stopped.
"Wait." Cas spoke before his brother had the chance to fly away. "They want Ana."
Everyone paused, expressions taking on varying forms of shock, "What do you mean they want, Ana?" Kellen spoke up, moving closer to his childhood friend. Why was it that every corner they turned it seemed that Ana was in the middle of it all? Sure there was some weird prophecy based around her, Connor, and apparently the daughter they would have in eight short months, but couldn't that be the end of it? He just couldn't understand why the supernatural world was stuck on something like this.
"I'm not entirely sure what they want from her, but I've been able to pick up some of the discussions the demons are having. Her name is repeated often." Cas explained, turning his gaze on Ana, "I'm not sure that it is a good idea for you to be here."
Ana raised an eyebrow at the angel, holding back a scoff because she knew that he was just trying to watch out for her and the baby. "I'm not going to let you guys do this without me. If they think they can take me or kill me, they have another thing coming. Apparently my powers get an extra boost while I'm pregnant so I'm going to use that full power if I have to." She informed all of them with a tone that said she wouldn't be changing her mind. Either she was going to do this with them or she would do it by herself, none of them were going to stop her.
"Ana-" Connor began to argue, but Dean cut him off.
"New plan." Dean spoke up, eyes focusing toward the town. "Ana, Gabe, Sam, and I will move to the center of town. We'll draw the attention there and the rest of you can work on getting the humans around there out of the way so there's no unneeded death. We'll see what they want with her and then if it comes down to it we'll take them out."
Ana gave a curt nod, glancing at Gabe before placing a hand on her dad's arm and teleporting the two of them to the center of town. She knew that Gabe would bring Sam when he followed and that she would avoid an argument with Connor by leaving quickly. "Got a plan to draw their attention?" She questioned, giving Gabe and Sam a small smile when they appeared in front of her.
"Why don't you just do some magic? If it's strong enough they'll be able to sense it and should draw them right to us." Gabe suggested with a shrug, not sure that he was one hundred percent okay with this plan, but they were already rolling with it and he had nothing better in mind. As long as Ana stayed safe, which he would make sure of, he saw no problem with it.
"Sounds easy enough. You guys ready for this?" She questioned, noticing that Sam had traded his pistol for a shotgun, that must have been what kept them behind longer. When none of them said anything against it, Ana unleashed a wave of power that wouldn't really do anything. It was mostly a beacon, something she would have sent out if she were in trouble and had been somewhere more populated by other witches. The nice thing about not having to keep her power dampened so that they weren't instantly spotted was that she was able to sense the demons in the town and felt it the moment they began to move in her direction. "They're coming." She warned, watching as both Dean and Sam's bodies tensed up.
"Anastasia." A female voice caught her attention from behind.
Turning Ana saw Jade a few feet away from them, "Of course it's you doing this." She shook her head, watching the demon's movements and realizing that she didn't look like she was about to attack. The rest of the demons that Ana had felt in the city began to appear around them and she was able to recognize a few faces from her vision. "What's all of this about, Jade? You wanted me here and now I am."
Jade smirked, "Heard an interesting story about you being soulless, I had to come see for myself if it was true." She didn't move from where she stood and neither did any of the demons who were under her orders.
"Sorry to disappoint, but that's old news." Ana took a step forward, ignoring the soft spoken words of her father swearing behind her. "Sounds like you need to have a word with your sources." She added with a small smile. The only thing Ana could think of was the amount of damage that the demons had been ready to cause to get her attention, to draw her here so they could do whatever they had planned with her soulless self. Anger began to take over and she lashed out with her power, throwing Jade down the street a few feet. "Also, you should probably know better than to meet up with me like this." The words were spoken through gritted teeth as she held back the three demons that made their way toward her to defend their leader.
"Incoming!" Gabriel shouted, warning his group of the presence he felt heading there way. An angel appeared at Jade's side, stepping in front of her to stand in her defense. "Gadreel. Brother have you made some terrible life choices."
Gadreel looked past the witch to see Gabriel, "We only came for confirmation of the information we have received, it is not time for our battle yet." Turning his attention back to the witch, his eyes focused on her abdomen. "Seems that we'll have to move faster than I planned." He spoke offhandedly as he turned to Jade and gave her a slight nod before disappearing.
Shortly after Gadreel disappeared the demons that had been surrounding them followed in his action. "What the hell was that about?" Ana snapped, turning to the men that were behind her, hoping that one of them had a better idea of what had just happened.
"He knows about the baby." Gabe spoke, his tone filled with worry. "We need to get you back to the bunker." He added, sending a quick message to Castiel before flying the group he was with back to the bunker. Once they were in the library the angel began to pace, muttering to himself as he did. "The whole damn supernatural world will know about the baby soon enough. Dammit. This is bad. Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad." He shook his head, turning to look at Ana. "We're in trouble."
Cas, Connor, Kellen, and Charlie appeared in the room shortly after the others and were met with the sight of Gabe's pacing. "What's his deal?" Kellen questioned, watching as Connor moved over to Ana to make sure she was alright.
"What trouble?" Cas addressed his brother, "What did the demons want with Ana?"
Ana sighed, "Apparently they got word of me being soulless, other than that we didn't get very far. I may have attacked Jade before we could get more answers, but then Gadreel showed up and said something about it not being the time to fight yet. Then he gave me this weird look and said something about moving faster than he originally planned."
"The baby." Cas came to the same conclusion that his brother had. "Gabriel is right, this situation is bad. There will be a lot of creatures on the side of releasing Michael and Lucifer, the majority of nonhuman races have false ideas that our brothers will help diminish the human population or somehow control it. Word of the prophecy will spread and then there will most likely be a bounty for your life and the life of your unborn daughter."
"So we go back on high alert." Dean stated with a small shrug, the solution seemed easy enough. "We keep our eyes on demon and angel activity, make sure that none of these normal monsters are acting weird, all while keeping Ana locked in here until she has the baby. Problem solved."
Ana looked at her father as if he had just sprouted horns. "You're joking right?" She moved away from Connor to move toward Dean, "I can't stay in here for the next eight months. There are rogue witches that need to be dealt with, we still need to figure out how to stop Gadreel and Jade, add that on top of the fact that there will be other hunts to do... you can't really expect me to hide here the entire time."
"Like Hell I can't." Gabriel and Dean both snapped at the same time, both men pausing a moment to give the other a shocked glare before turning back to the witch they were both trying to protect. "Ana-" they began at the same time and then stopped, taking another moment to glare at each other before Gabriel silently handed over the floor to Dean.
"Ana, if Gabriel's right you're going to be on the radar of every monster we've ever come across. The only place safe for you will be here." Dean spoke, using his stern voice. "This isn't about keeping you away from the world or you not being strong enough to protect yourself, but if you're too largely outnumbered you could get seriously hurt. We don't want anything happening to you or the baby. This is about keeping both of you safe."
Connor took a step forward and placed a comforting hand on Ana's shoulder, he could feel the anger building within her and really didn't want her to explode on her dad. "Not that I don't agree with keeping both of them safe, this rogue witch problem really needs to be dealt with. The castle we were at this morning is almost as heavily protected as this place, not only that but if something were to happen she would be surrounded by the witches of the nine most powerful lines in all of Europe."
"Plus you guys will be there too." Ana interjected, feeling a little calmer now that Connor was trying to keep the peace. "They're going to need all of our help. If we don't go back to Ireland and help, there's no telling how bad this all could turn out." She stepped forward, already able to tell that Dean was going to continue to argue against her leaving the bunker. "Dad, I'm not weak. I understand that I can't keep myself protected from everything, but I'm also not going to hide from the world while Michael and Lucifer still have the chance of rising. I don't want anything to happen to me or the baby, but we have to keep fighting. This family started the apocalypse, ended it by throwing both archangels in the cage and now that they are both threatening to be set free on the Earth again it's our job to stop it."
Sam listened to the argument happening in front of him, keeping his mouth shut as he listened to both sides plead their reasoning. He could understand both views. Dean was the protector of the family, he always had been, and knowing that his daughter was carrying a child that could help save the world only made that protectiveness multiply ten fold. At the same time Ana was a powerful witch and apparently being pregnant gave her more power, Sam doubted that much could harm Ana while she was carrying that child. He could understand why she didn't want to be sentenced to the bunker for the rest of her pregnancy and the rogue issues the Council was dealing with had sounded pretty bad. They couldn't sit back and do nothing while witches were rising up to aide in the one thing they all wanted to prevent. He was lost in these thoughts while Dean raised his voice, arguing that this was the safest place for her to stay, but before his brother could get too far lost in his ranting Sam interrupted, "She's right, Dean."
"What?!" Dean spun to glare at his younger brother. How could Sam be agreeing with her right now? Out of all of the people in the room he figured that Sam would be the one to understand where he was coming from, to see that Dean only wanted to protect their already small bloodline.
"Ana's right. We can't keep her locked down in here until the baby comes. There are going to be so many other things we have to go up against before this Michael and Lucifer thing is finished. Chuck said that the reason she was even pregnant now was because she was going to need the magic boost to help stop this." Sam sighed, "No child has been born into this family without some sort of purpose in life. Mom and Dad were both born to give us life, their parents were meant to be so they could create both of our parents, Connor and Ana are meant to have this baby. I highly doubt anything is going to stop that. Look, she's not going to be alone while we're helping the Council and I highly doubt that those witches would let something break into their home without putting up a fight. It's pretty much the second safest place she could be right now other than here."
Dean scowled at his brother, part of him wanting to snap and tell Sam that he had no idea what he was talking about, but honestly so much had happened lately that Dean wasn't sure if he wasn't the one who didn't know what he was talking about. Taking in a deep breath, he closed his eyes for a moment before releasing the breath slowly, "Let's just talk about this tomorrow, alright? It's getting late, if we keeping going back and forth it's going to get ugly fast." He offered, silently wondering when he had started thinking logically instead of just reacting to his emotions. Opening his eyes, they instantly met the only pair in the room that mirrored his own. It was Ana, something about being her father and handling all of the craziness that came along with that title had him trying to handle every situation with a level head instead of the usual Winchester bullheadedness and sharp anger.
No one spoke for a while, all silently agreeing that they weren't going to get anywhere productive with the fight they were in the middle of. "I'm hungry." Ana spoke up, breaking the silence with a soft whine and a pouted lip. "Can we order pizza?"
The question caused Charlie to chuckle slightly, "Pregnancy is going to be a good time for you, Little Red. You've already got the mood swings and the food cravings down, just imagine how the next eight months will be."
There was a collective groan as the group imagined living with a pregnant witch for the next eight months. "I change my mind, you can move wherever you want as long as I don't have to deal with any of that." Dean teased, hoping that by arguing against his daughter he hadn't ended up on her bad side.
Ana laughed dryly, "You're all so funny, but seriously. Pizza? I'm starving." She looked around to see if anyone was going to agree with her. They hadn't eaten since breakfast and it was getting closer to dinner the more they stood there.
"Pizza it is." Sam agreed, giving Ana a smile as he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. "I'll put in the order, while you guys put our stuff up?" He questioned, pointing to the bags and weapons that had been discarded between the floor and the table.
"Sounds good to me." Kellen nodded, moving to pick up the bag of ammo he had set at his feet shortly after their return to the bunker. "You want to give me a hand with that one, Connor?" He gestured to another near Sam. Connor simply nodded, moved to pick up the bag, and followed Kellen out of the room.
Charlie stepped forward, grabbing both shotguns off of the table, "I'll get these put up." She could tell that Dean and Ana needed a moment alone to talk. Giving Gabriel a pointed look, she jerked her head to the side in a sign that said to follow her or get the heck out of the room.
Gabriel raised an eyebrow at the redheaded hunter, wondering if she understood the concept of prayer since he would be able to hear whatever she was thinking as long as she aimed it at him. "Cassie and I will do a quick sweep of the wards and what not. Just to make sure everything is as it should be just in case we were to get attacked here." He offered the lame excuse, knowing that it sounded as stupid as he thought it did.
"Why would the wardings be failing?" Cas questioned, frowning at his brother as the archangel walked over to him and ushered him out of the library.
Shaking her head, Ana watched as Sam walked toward the kitchen, placing their order and the local pizza place and conveniently leaving the father and daughter the last people left in the room. "So, that wasn't obvious or anything." She offered up, trying to break the tension.
"You know I'm just trying to protect you, right?" Dean asked, getting straight to the point. "I've seen too many bad things happen to the people I care about and I don't want you getting hurt, Ana."
"I know, dad. I really do, but you have to understand that asking me to stay in here for the next eight months is just completely ridiculous. I'm not going to spend leisure time out in the world with the possibility of being jumped by any vampire, werewolf, or djinn I come across, but what you aren't remembering is that my life was like that before Gadreel found out I was pregnant. Being a Winchester painted a giant bullseye on my back and I did just fine living in the world with that, just because this is adding on top of that doesn't mean that I won't be just as careful." Ana sighed, "I'm always careful, you taught me to be constantly watching what's going on around me, that doesn't change because I'm carrying a baby and neither will the fact that I'm going to be on a supernatural monster's wanted list."
Dean frowned at his daughter, if he argued her point they would only be going in circles and he really wanted to avoid that. Instead of speaking he walked toward Ana and pulled her into a hug, extremely proud of the determined woman she was while at the same time being extremely annoyed that she wouldn't just do as she was told. He smiled as she wrapped her arms around him, returning his hug. There were many fights down the road ahead, there would be so much that he would want to keep her out of, but at least Dean knew that when it came down to it all that they would always love each other and that thought made his smile even wider.
