Song Remains the Same

Chapter 104 / Corporate Takedown

"How far should a person go in the name of true love?"
- Nicholas Sparks

Purgatory

He could feel the darkness before he even opened his eyes. It permeated in a way all his senses were aware of, it crushed him downward and turned his stomach.

And then somewhere above him, a dark, deep voice spoke.

"Wake up."

Dean's eyes snapped open at the familiar voice and the sudden realization that he wasn't sleeping or dreaming. Above him spidery silhouettes of tree branches crisscrossed jaggedly against an unpleasantly dark purple night sky. Dean stirred then sat up, his danger senses beginning to spark to life. He could just make out dead leaves scattered across the cold ground he'd been laying on, and all around there were bare, skeletal trees spreading as far as he could see in the darkness. The air was cold and cloying, ominous and weighty in his lungs and against his skin. Dean turned while sitting to look at the source of the voice. It was Castiel. The angel was standing up nearby and his eyes had a certain sharpness and focus to them that Dean hadn't seen there since… well, not for what seemed a long, long time. As Dean got to his feet warily, Cas spoke quietly and urgently, his eyes casting around the wooded darkness furtively. "We need to get out of here," he said, and from his tone, he was deadly serious.

Here? Where was 'here'? Dean looked around but didn't recognize anything and it made zero sense to him. "Where are we?" he asked cautiously. A minute ago they'd been in a shiny man-made lab with artificial lighting, chrome steel tables, and shelves full of chemical mixtures. Now they were in something that looked like the wilderness in the dead of winter. But it was spring, right? Eyes darting around the surroundings as his heart rate picked up, Dean realized something was very wrong with this picture. "Last I remember, we ganked Dick..."

"And where would he go in death?" Cas prompted intently. Again, Dean noticed how the long-lost authority and grimness carried in Cas's voice and demeanor.

Okay, where would Dick go when he died. Dean blinked twice when he realized what Cas was implying. His stomach dropped as the horror started. "Wait." Oh no. "Are you telling me…?"

"Yes, Dean," Cas confirmed, glancing around with watchful, suspicious eyes. "Every soul here is a monster." Terrifyingly close, there was the sudden sound of rustling in the trees. Cas's voice lowered and he inched closer to Dean. But not like he was afraid. Like he was protecting. Getting freaked, Dean edged closer to the angel, because he could feel it now. There were eyes everywhere, and monsters beyond number in close proximity. "This is where they come to prey upon each other for all eternity," Cas told him in the softest voice. "If I were you, I'd get out your machete."

Dean did no such thing. "W-we're in Purgatory?" he asked, alarm skyrocketing. No. No! He couldn't be here, he had to get back to his brother and his sister and Jamie! Panic set in. "How do we get out?!" he demanded in a frenzied whisper.

"Out?" Cas asked, seeming to find the question regrettable. "Dean… I don't think that's a possibility. I'm afraid we're much more likely to be ripped to shreds."

As if on cue, there was a hissing sound and a rustling behind them and Dean whirled, his heart racing. In the trees, obscured by night, he could make out two hulking shadows of huge beasts. These beasts had glowing blood red eyes that were watching him. Dean immediately began to back up, alarm bells screaming in his mind. "Cas, I think we better—" he started in a whisper, then stopped short. Cas was no longer at his side. Dean looked around for him with wide eyes. "Cas?" he hissed.

But the angel was not there. Dean's heart plummeted as he heard rustling sounds of huge, unknown enemies stalking closer. A slow, horrible realization came over him. He was going to be crushed like a minnow by the proverbial sharks out there. He was gonna be obliterated by whatever hellspawn this place had to offer. So, this was what it felt like to know you were about to die. But he'd be damned if he went down without a good fight. Dean whipped out his machete as his blood thundered in his ears to the beat of his jack-hammering heart. A thousand thoughts shot through his mind all at once, but most of all he thought of Sam, who would have to take care of the family now. He thought of Alex, who he'd never gotten a chance to make things right with. And he thought of Jamie and his chest hurt as he thought of her never getting the promised call from him and being pregnant alone (if she was at all).

Dean despaired. I have to find a way out of here. A low, wet snarling growl sounded somewhere to his left and he whirled toward it, backing up slowly because he couldn't see the source of the sound. Behind him, a soft hiss and more rustling. Dean whirled again, his heart rate doubling and tripling in rapid succession. He was alone. Alone in the place that promised to rip him to shreds—alone and surrounded by bloodthirsty monsters on all sides—alone and petrified, out of his element, outnumbered completely. Cas had abandoned him. After all that talk about running away and how it was bullshit, Cas had run away again and now Dean was a dead man walking because of it. Son of a—

"I'm right here Dean." Dean whirled again, breathing hard, his heart slamming up into his throat in shock. Cas was behind him with a severe look on his face Dean would never forget. It was like the angel knew just how bad things were about to get. "We need to run." He grabbed Dean by the shoulder of his jacket and Dean let himself get dragged along blindly.

The fallen angel and the righteous man fled into the unknown darkness of Purgatory as all around them, monsters howled and gnashed teeth and snarled promises of death.

Back in the realm of earth in a totally dimension altogether, Jamie Ward waited for the phone call that never came and Alex Winchester was about to discover she was all on her own against impossible odds.

SucroCorp

Sheltered by Sam's hulking form as a typhoon of exploding black ooze splattered the entirety of the lab, Alex and Kevin both huddled for a brief second until Sam began to straighten and look back over his shoulder at where Dick had stood with Dean and Cas on either side just a second ago. But now, no one was there. Only Bobby's flask remained and it was fallen to the floor, rocking slightly from momentum. Black spatters laced the entire lab and the air was still, eerily so.

Already drifting forward in shocked silence, Alex looked around dumbly, because Dean and Cas… they had just been there. She crouched and picked up Bobby's flask. "W-what the hell?" she asked, standing up slowly, in a total daze. "Where'd they go?"

Behind her, Sam gave a soft sound of pain and something knocked over just before glass shattered in a sparkle of sound. Even as Alex turned around to see what was happening, Kevin was stating the obvious in a high-pitched, scared voice. "A-Alex? Something's—something's wrong with Sam!"

And something was. Sam had fallen over backwards and knocked over a table-full of beakers and chemicals in the process, he had this look in his eye as he stared into space with horror, seeming to see something that no one else could. He was floundering backwards on his hands, getting palmfuls of glass as he did. "Sam? Sammy!" Alex rushed to him and dropped to a crouch in front of him as she tried to get him to stop injuring himself. His eyes came to hers and he freaked out.

"No no no," he said in a breathless, rushed voice, then louder, almost scarily so. He fought away from her like she was the devil incarnate. "No! You're gone! You left! Get out of my head!" Sheer, rising terror had him in a shouting fit as he kicked at her, backpedaling away as hard as he could. "Cas took you! Get away from me! No!" He abruptly went prone, arching his back and shutting his eyes as he screamed through gritted teeth like he was in agonizing pain. He took his hands, which had glass shards in the palms, and slammed them to either side of his head then screamed all the louder.

Following him and getting sharp shards of glass in her knees as she did, Alex caught his wrists hard and yanked his hands away from his face forcibly. He'd cut himself pretty badly on both sides and he was groaning through clenched teeth, keeping his eyes shut. "Sam! Sam what's wrong?!"

His eyes opened and cold fear rippled across his face at the sight of her face. He shoved her away hard. "Don't touch me!" he shouted. "You're the devil!" His eyes dropped to his leg and he freaked out like he saw something on himself. He began to beat at his own leg like it was on fire, screaming in horror as he did.

Alex was on her feet after being shoved back—she charged up to her brother and slapped him in the face and shook him by the shoulders. "Sam! Snap out of it!" she shouted, because she was going to have to knock him out if he didn't get a handle on himself.

It seemed to work—Sam was traumatized and he shrank into the boxes of creamer he was sagged against. There he whimpered, shaking like he was cold, and it was a petrifying sight to see a grown man huddling on the floor. "My head, my head… I see him…" he moaned, burying his face in his glass-riddled hands and scratching himself in the process.

"Sam, stop, you're hurting yourself!" Alex pleaded, crouching and yanking his hands away again. His palms were bloody and riddled by tiny, cruel slivers of glass.

"Alex, we gotta get outta here!" Kevin hedged, looking around in paranoia. "T-the chompers'll be back any second!"

"Not to worry, Kevster," came a calm, silken voice nearby. Alex whipped her head sideways. It was the one and only Crowley, and he had a smug little smile on his face. "You're safe and sound," he told Kevin. "Moose and Mouse, however…" he looked at the twins. Alex crouched with her brother, who was breathing laboriously and sweating, struggling to stay in the least rational. "Well let's just say I won't be placing bets on them in the bloodbath that's soon to follow." Alex stood slowly and balefully, knowing, just knowing that Crowley had something to do with what had happened here. The demon smirked, continuing onward in his monologue. "See, these Levis were quite enamored with you before, Miss Winchester, but now that their daddy's been boned, well. I think they'll blame you and my my we all know what a scorned lover's vengeance can look like, don't we." He sauntered forward a couple steps, his hands in his black coat pockets. "I do have a small army of demons outside waiting to cleanup the leftovers you don't manage to take down in what I'm sure will be quite a valiant effort," he said, mystifying her and filling her with foreboding all the same. "I think I'll pop some corn. Might get entertaining, what with Sam's…" he paused and watched as Sam groaned in agony and spasmed a few times. "Whatever the hell that is."

"Crowley, what the hell just happened?" Alex demanded.

There was a single wiggle of the eyebrows. "Mm, I'd say a one-way ticket to Purgatory for all who were unfortunate enough to be in range of the exploding Dick." He chuckled at his joke and then patronized her unapologetically. "Sorry for your loss, darling. Big brother and wayward hubby aren't coming back this time." Alex's face began to fall as Crowley looked upward in feigned thought. "They're… oh, what's the word…" his dark eyes came back to hers and his voice was sharp, making the words he spoke next almost viscerally slice into her heart. "Dead." He shrugged. "Gone. Dearly departed. And Sam's… well, looks like he's gone crackers to me." Crowley made a slight face as Sam struggled onto all fours and tried to stand but turned red from the effort and let out a sobbing sound and a soft protest as well. "That's just…" Crowley said, seeming revolted at Sam's weakness. He didn't finish his sentence. "Anyway, onto more pressing matters." His eyes slunk from Alex to the short teenage boy behind her. "Kevin. You're coming with me."

Bristling, Alex was incensed. "No," she spat. "Leave this kid out of it."

Crowley smiled lazily and snapped his fingers, unperturbed. Two demons appeared on either side of Kevin, who jumped and cried out his surprise. "Sorry, sweetie. Prophet's mine."

Helpless, weaponless, powerless, Alex's voice rose and cracked from desperation. "Okay you listen to me, you can't have him, Crowley!"

An amused, challenging expression played on the King of Hell's sly features. "You gonna stop me then, darling?" he asked, knowing full-well that she had nothing to stop him with at all. "You and what army? Look, leave well enough alone for your own good. Dick's dead, you saved the world! Call it a day, go home and put your feet up and tell yourself 'job well done.' That is if you get out of here alive, of course. Sure, might've lost a brother or two and an angel and, mmm, a crabby old man you called uncle along the way but that's just business isn't it." He became mildly more serious. "Remember, I helped you lot gank the bugger in the first place." He pulled a face that implied he was owed something. "So I want one little prophet. Fair's fair. I'm taking him." He snapped his fingers again and the demons disappeared with Kevin in tow.

Absolutely beside herself at how the people surrounding her were dropping like flies, Alex stood in front of the demon and it began to sink in. Dean and Castiel were dead. Sam was crazy again—maybe when Cas exploded, the shifted insanity had reverted back to him. Kevin had been taken. It was so much. Too much. Crowley looked vaguely sympathetic, but there was no telling if it were genuine or not. "Sorry, Mouse. Wish I could help. You certainly got a lot on your plate right now. It looks like you are well and truly... on your own." He chuckled and nodded toward the lab exit. "Those chompers Kevin was afraid of? They'll be here very soon, darling. I'm afraid you're very outnumbered." He sighed, bittersweet. "And so the Winchester melodrama ends once and for all." He'd already decided Sam and Alex would die, and she paled, swallowing hard. Sam had a machete. Sam had a machete and that was it. Crowley winked at her. "It's been fun, princess. Oh, and by the way… Dick installed a panic switch for whatever reason and I'm about to go push it 'cause I don't want this creamer getting out into the general populace. Need as many meatsuits as possible, after all. So, everything's smithereens in, what, I think three minutes from now? Tootles."

He disappeared out of thin air, and Alex was left alone with Sam. "Crowley! Crowley!" There was no response and Alex cursed her circumstances. "Son of a bitch!" she snapped, angry and grieved and afraid all at once. She rushed to Sam, panicking because they had to escape while they still could. "Sam?" he resisted her touch and grimaced, turning his head away. At that moment alarms began to blare loudly across the loudspeakers and emergency red lights washed the lab in a color like blood.

"Evacuate the premises immediately," came a calm robotic female voice.

Shit, shit! Alex pulled on her brother, who was suffering profound, obvious pain. He wasn't standing up, he just looked sick and wounded. "You need to pull it together!" she insisted in a voice rising with despair, "We gotta fight our way outta here!"

Sam shook his head, gulping for air with valiant effort. "No, I c-can't—" he said and with a sharp cry of pain he unsheathed his machete and pushed it at her. "Just leave me, get outta here, take this and go," he said, panting and looking at her through a mask of pain she hadn't seen on his face since his Lucifer hallucinations. "I can—y-you can use me as a distraction and save yourself," he said.

Alex felt like she'd been slapped, and her reaction was to get pissed. "Are you kidding me?!" She grunted and grabbed him, trying to pull him up. "Get on your feet, I am not leaving you!" she shouted, trying to be heard over the ear-piercing volume of the emergency alarms.

"Alex, I can't, I can't!" Sam insisted, breathless and terrified. "He's everywhere, he's you, and the fire, oh the fire, ahhh—" He shut his eyes. "Not real, not real," he muttered to himself, his youthful features working hard. "I'll just slow you down," he insisted, looking at her pleadingly. "You gotta go without me!"

Alex grabbed him by his jacket and shook him hard. "Samuel Henry Winchester you fucking listen to me! Get up and walk your ass out of here!" she shouted in a cracking voice. His defeated eyes looked into hers and she yanked at his incredibly heavy form uselessly. "I can't carry you, you have to walk!" She shook him again, gritting her teeth as her chest and throat constricted mightily. If he didn't comply, she literally would be unable to move him, and the thought of that had her in the cold fist of mind-numbing panic. "I am not losing three of the most important people in my life on the same day now get up goddammit!" she shouted in rising despair. "If you don't get up I am staying right here and we'll both die!" He shook his head faintly no, and when he still didn't move, Alex hauled off and slapped him in the face. "GET—UP!" Shocked and briefly awakened out of his haze, Sam blinked with a slightly ajar mouth. "Now!" Alex screamed hoarsely.

And he began to move. Alex pulled on him and he struggled to his feet, swaying mightily, looking around the room with wild eyes. "I see him everywhere, oh god!"

"He's not there, it's just me," Alex said in a shaking voice, under the crook of his arm to help him stay on his feet. "It's just you and me and we're getting out of here," she said, throwing everything she had into convincing herself of that as well as him. Her nerves were screaming, her limbs were trembling. The fear was overwhelming. But she focused on Sam. "Just walk, just keep walking, one foot in front of the other, there you go—come on—" They stumbled out of the lab as quickly as they could and down a hallway that was washed in red. "This way, this way!" she said, piloting them in the direction of the front of the building where surely to god there would be a exit. Sam's steps were uneven and he kept pitching around in jerky motions, making it difficult to move with any efficiency whatsoever.

They rounded a corner and Alex came to an abrupt skidding halt and Sam nearly fell over. About twenty Leviathans who all looked like either Alex or Dick were ahead, and they turned to look at the twins.

"Shit, nope, other way," Alex muttered tensely, then turned around and stopped abruptly. More Leviathans, all either Dick or Alex, were crowding into that hall where they'd just come from, effectively trapping the twins in the corner. Alex backed them into said corner. There had to be at least forty or of them altogether and Sam was at the point of passing out. Alex set him against a wall and he promptly slid down it and breathed loudly, barely able to tell what was going on from the look on his face. He kept blinking hard like something was clouding his vision. Alex stood in front of him, her stance open to both hallways, her machete gripped tight. "Okay, Sam, okay," she said in a tight, high voice as she backed up slightly to her disoriented brother and looked back and forth between the two approaching threats. "I-it's not that many," she said, trying to sound confident even though she was pretty sure the two of them were dead. "Just like… fifty to one," she said, voice rising in frantic quality. "Those are good odds, right?" They were terrible odds, but she couldn't stand for Sam to be any more terrified than he already was. "Bobby, you with me?" she asked, remembering the flask in her pocket. In answer, an office door slammed nearby. "Okay, so two to fifty," she muttered, marginally relieved. Marginally. "That's… that's not worse."

But as the Leviathan closed in, her resolve began to crumble in favor of fear. There was no way they were getting out of here. No way.

"All right, I got the ones to the left, you get the ones on the right," said a deep tenor voice to her right and she jumped, whirling at the unexpected appearance of… someone she didn't know.

Where there had been nothing and no one a heartbeat ago, a tall young man who couldn't be any older than twenty-five stood. For a split second, Alex thought he was Cas because he had a similar build, if a few inches taller, same hair style and color, and very similar facial features—down to the unreal-blue eyes and clefted jaw and strong eyebrows. The resemblance was in fact so striking that she stared and gaped at him openly—was this Jimmy Novak's much younger brother or something? Whoever he was, he was dressed in an outfit that Sam or Dean might have in their closet: dark jeans, steel-toed boots, a gray henley and a dark green cargo jacket. He had a visible self-assurance to his posture and a strong, youthful gleam in his eye; he wore this jaunty, crooked grin on his face at her expression of confounded befuddlement. In his hand he held a very beautiful gunmetal bolo-style machete. He was a hunter. Had to be. But maybe not.

Alex narrowed her gaze sharply. "…And just who the hell are you?"

The stranger contemplated, like he hadn't thought she'd ask that, then he gave her a conspiratorial look like it was some huge secret. "You'll see," he said cryptically, then whirled the machete gracefully for effect and looked at the Leviathan that were drifting closer. He nodded at them then he looked back at her with a smile playing on his mouth. "Right now, I think we have more important things to do." He grinned, and he was so handsome and dashing that she had trouble not feeling immediately like he had to be a good guy. "Shall we?" he asked, then went to work, attacking the Leviathans to the left just like he'd said—and Alex watched, dumbfounded.

The stranger killed the first Leviathan he encountered—a copy of Dick—and instead of the head rolling off the body, the entire Leviathan exploded in thick puff of black dust when he was beheaded. Alex blinked. Then remembered the tablet: Cut off the head and the body will flounder. So… now that Dick Roman was dead, Leviathans weren't unkillable bastards? Alrighty then. Good enough for her. As the alarms screamed overhead and Sam sagged against the wall uselessly behind her, Alex went to work fighting for her life. Around her, Leviathans went flying left and right, no doubt thanks to Bobby. They smashed into walls and flew into the ceiling as her invisible ghost partner watched her back and helped her raise a little hell.

Nearby, the mysterious stranger almost looked like he was dancing through the crowd of Leviathan who were all attempting to grab him, hit him, and eat him. He dodged their touches and sliced heads like it was just another Thursday to him, like it was a walk in the park in between brutal, powerful blows from his machete. He had no trouble, and seemed to have eyes in the back of his head. Alex however struggled, beheading Leviathan after Leviathan. The dust they exploded into was thick and stung her eyes, it made her gag and gasp, she felt like she was fighting blind, slashing at the thick black cloud and hoping for the best. She put about fifteen down before she heard her brother in clear distress, screaming.

Alex whirled to see that he was being held by the neck by a Leviathan copy of herself. A wide mouth with teeth was gaping open, about to bite Sam's head off. Oh no. Even though she knew she was too far away to get to him in time, she ran. And then a small, shorter figure dashed in from seemingly nowhere out of the cloud of black dust and yanked the Leviathan off of Sam, who hit his head on the floor when he fell. Sam did not move again. Alex froze, watching none other than Zip grapple with his own kind and then with a loud, desperate shout, he whipped out a machete he'd had hidden in his hoodie and finished his attacker off. Panting heavily, he looked at Alex, who was dumbfounded.

"I killed you!" she protested.

He pointed to his head, sort of prim. "Our heads grow back," he said, then abruptly whirled as another Alex copy attacked him. "Or they used to!" he shouted, struggling against his attacker. He glanced at Alex, then his eyes shot open wide even as he held off his own kind. "Behind you!"

She turned fast and ducked just in time, avoiding being eaten alive on the spot. She kicked the Leviathan in the torso and used its stumble as her way in. With a slash of her blade, that Leviathan exploded into another thick poof of ashy dust. Overhead, the calm female robot voice announced something that made Alex freak out even more than ever.

"Final. Warning. One minute remaining until facility destruction."

Covered in what looked like soot but grinning widely, the tall nameless hunter who looked like Cas called over to her. "Hey, so do you guys think we should go or what!?" he asked, then laughed merrily and picked up then threw a Leviathan with what appeared to be superhuman strength. That Leviathan crashed into a few others, knocking them over like bowling pins or dominoes. "Hole in one!" he cheered.

A little appalled, Alex gave the stranger an indignant look. "Hey! This isn't playtime!" she snapped, ignoring the wrong game reference he'd made. "We gotta get out of here!"

"Sorry m—" his eyes went really wide and his smile disappeared like he'd caught himself about to say something wrong. "Ma'am."

A few Leviathan remained nearby, and Zip was at a standoff with them, holding his machete out and daring one of them to mess with him. None of them did. Alex tugged on Sam, who was too heavy for her to lift or even drag effectively—but she had to get him out. He looked awful—cut up face, grimy gray color from sooty ash drifting over onto him, and her heart hurt. Please be okay, Sammy. The stranger came over and shooed Alex away then picked Sam up like he weighed nothing and put him over his shoulder then stood up easily from his crouch. Alex was pretty convinced this guy wasn't even a human at this point. He couldn't be. The alarms continued to scream overhead, urging them to get out while they still could.

"This way!" Zip said, then took off at a run down the hall. He slashed at a Dick copy as he ran past one, and the black dust exploded across Alex's side as she stayed in stride with the strange man who carried Sam's unconscious form. They ran through another hallway and then into the reception area, which was huge and grand and deserted. Maybe for dramatics or maybe because the doors were locked and he knew better, Zip picked up a marble coffee table and flung it through the all-glass wall that looked into the parking lot, and he waited for Alex and company, urging them to be fast in scrambling out the ground-level window.

They ran out into the parking lot, and Alex, who had kept a rough running estimate of the time they had left, realized it was about to get a whole lot hotter and she shoved the man carrying Sam sideways against a pickup truck with a shout of "get down!"

Zip followed, falling into Alex clumsily. No sooner had they ducked behind the vehicle than the blast tore through the air. A small sonic boom deafened all as the ground shook and glass flew like sideways rain, scattering across the pavement. A blinding heat wave rippled out and made the air shimmer. Car alarms went off, a strange chorus of beeps and wails that didn't stop. And then it was over.

The stranger grunted and set Sam down gently to sit unconscious against one of the truck tires. Alex checked Sam's pulse, which was normal, and she smoothed her hand against the side of his face, deeply worried about him to the point of sickness.

"You okay?" the stranger asked her, looking her over carefully.

She looked at him. His face was dusty gray and his piercing blue eyes reminded her of another pair she knew. "F-fine…" she said, a little dumbstruck to tell the truth. He nodded and stood up, checked out the damage done over the bed of the truck.

Still clenching his machete, Zip was silent with a drawn face. He stood up from where he'd been crouching. "Gonna see if any got out," he said tersely, then disappeared.

Alex stood slowly and looked at the building that had just blown up. It was on fire now and even though it wasn't utterly obliterated, the explosion would have done enough to destroy all that creamer Kevin had mentioned. And hopefully the explosion killed the majority of Leviathan scum that had leaked out of Purgatory and into the human population, too.

The stranger shook his head, seemingly amazed at the explosion. "Damn!" he commented through a grin that made his eyes light up. "That was bad ass!" He suddenly seemed contrite and glanced at her in veiled worry. "Uh. Sorry."

Apologies for his very G-rated swearing didn't interest her. "W-who the hell taught you to fight like that?" Alex asked, impressed and wary all at once.

His eyes faltered into a more vulnerable, hesitant expression and he looked down at a hand, brushing at his blackened palm with his own thumb. "The best." His eyes flicked back up to hers, and Alex could swear... she knew him somehow.

Softening into curiosity still tempered by caution, she eyed him closely. "You got a name?"

"Who doesn't?" he returned impishly, before he grew hesitant. "Look, I'm not even supposed to be here…"

"Who are you?" she pressed. "Angel? Demon?"

A cheeky little grin made his mouth curve up to one side, showing him to be amused for reasons she remained in the dark about. "None of the above," he said in cryptic playfulness, then his shockingly blue eyes looked into hers and his smile faded. "Look, I... can't stay. I just… just thought it might be better if you went through the next few months without the broken arm. And I guess I was kind of curious, too."

Alex's puzzled feeling grew, even as the feeling kept growing that this person was something very, very significant. "Curious about what? And what broken arm?"

He smiled, shrugged his hands out, carefree and playful and seemingly satisfied with himself. "Exactly."

Gosh. He just… something about those incredibly blue eyes and facial features. Even the way his face moved reminded her of Cas, if a much more animated and self-assured version. Stilled, Alex searched his eyes deeply. "Do I know you?" she breathed, convinced that she did but had forgotten him somehow or, maybe... hadn't met him yet.

He said nothing, but his face softened and some faintly sad quality settled in his eyes. He smiled at her without words, and Alex understood without being told. Yes. He looked down and fished out a scrap of old yellowed paper from his pocket. "Here," he said, handing it to her.

Alex took it slowly and opened it. On it, words she couldn't read in some ancient language were written in spidery black ink underneath a sketch of a huge, bare tree. Beside the tree there was a round object drawn with a strange symbol inscribed onto it. "…What's this?" she asked, looking at him for explanation.

"Something that's gonna come in really handy for you real soon." He smiled again, and he seemed fond, familial, and knowing. "I think you'll know when to use it."

It was starting to drive her crazy. "Okay, seriously." She looked at him hard. "Who are you? Tell me."

"Sorry," he said, wincing sympathetically as he looked around briefly. "Can't say. Dad would kick my ass for this little stunt. He says time travel is something we shouldn't mess with but… well." There was that grin again, this time accompanied with a roguish shrug. "Every once in awhile, I like to bend the rules a little."

Nearby, Sam groaned and Alex turned to look at him. He was waking back up. Thank god. Alex turned back to look at the stranger. But he was gone. Nowhere to be seen. She looked around for him, disconcerted. But he had seemingly vanished out of thin air. Thrown off and mystified, intrigued, and struck by the possible significance of what had just happened, Alex had no choice but to get back to business. She stashed the piece of paper into her jacket pocket and decided it was time to get the hell outta dodge. She'd had enough crazy shit happen for one day. "Come on, Sammy," she said, groaning a little as she helped him stand.

He stood with great effort, moaning the entire time. He was woozy and injured, maybe more mentally than anything else though. "Who was that?" he asked in a mumble. "Looked like Cas."

"Don't know," she answered honestly, but she would spend many hours later questioning exactly that. "Can you walk?"

He gave her this heartbreakingly defeated look, a soft, broken smile. "My body is on fire," he said softly. "Walking is… no."

Alex dug deep and decided she was gonna get him out of here even if it killed her. She pulled his arm over her shoulder and put herself into the crook of his arm and then looped an arm around his waist. "Come on, we're gonna go get that car over there," she said, nodding at the Honda Accord a few rows down. She knew how to jumpstart older vehicles best since they had wires easily accessible under steering wheels, and that Honda was the only old car she saw in the parking lot full of fancy, new cars.

"O-okay," Sam said weakly, and he tried his best, but he was falling over and Alex could barely support his heavy self.

"Need a hand?" came a familiar voice. Alex looked at Zip, who stood nearby sadly. His machete was stuck through his belt. "Or do you wanna cut my head off again?"

Alex breathed hard as she struggled to stand under Sam's weight. Zip had saved her brother's life back in there. He'd saved her life, too. She didn't really trust him per-say. But she also couldn't see killing him again, at least not today. "I'll pass on the cutting your head off thing," she said gruffly, and he said nothing, just went to Sam's other side and helped her walk his huge, two-hundred-pound-plus frame to the old Honda. All the windows in all the cars had shattered, so it was easy to unlock the car and get in it. Just as they managed to shove Sam's woozy ass into the back seat, Sam's phone began to ring. Heart jumping, Alex hesitated, then scooped it out of his pocket with some effort. Maybe she'd been half crazy to think the name she would see was going to be Dean or even Cas. Instead, the caller ID said J. Ward.

Alex stared at the name and almost didn't answer. But it could be important. "Jamie," she greeted cautiously. "Hey."

Zip watched a few feet off, his expression shrewd. Jamie's voice sounded surprised on the other end of the line. "…Alex? Hey." There was a long pause that felt incredibly awkward. Alex stared at the building she had just run from and it was all sinking in anew. Gone. Dead. "Look, I'm sorry, but I was—I'm trying to get a hold of Dean," Jamie said, but Alex barely heard her as she relieved the moment when Dick had exploded and Dean and Cas disappeared. Died. "I-it's kind of urgent."

Blank, maybe saying it to herself more than anyone else, Alex's voice was barely audible. "Dean's dead."

There was a long silence, then a severely confused, anxious, "…What?"

"He's dead," she repeated, louder. "Th-they're both dead." Her voice caught and she dropped the phone completely, took a couple staggering steps forward, then caught herself against the side of the car and began to break down as it really hit her for real. Both of them taken away at the most unthinkable time. The fights, the misunderstandings, the hurts they had dealt each other, the unfinished business. Well, now it was finished whether she liked it or not. Pain ripped her apart inside as realization crashed over her again and again. How many times could a heart break before it turned to dust?

Zip gently placed the fallen phone, which he'd turned off, onto the top of the car beside her. He put a hand onto her back. She shuddered and pulled away, wiping at her face. He was looking at her grimly when she turned a semi-glare onto him. "You let me live. Thank you." He paused, then worked his eyebrows inward. "They're not dead. The angel and your brother. Not really, anyway."

Alex's tears stopped immediately. "What?" She could see it in his eyes: he knew something. "Where are they?" she asked urgently, fully prepared to slice it out of him if she had to.

His answer was somber and dark. "Purgatory." Her blood went cold in shock. He hesitated, then seemed to think better of what he'd told her. "I'm sorry, but they're not coming back. There are very few ways out."

"But there are ways," she responded immediately, because 'few ways' meant there were ways. And Alex, owner of one passed-out brother in the backseat, a ghost uncle whose spirit was tied to the flask in her pocket, and a Purgatory-bound husband and brother… well, let's just say she was not of the mind to leave them there. "How do I get there?" she demanded, a little out of her mind at the moment.

Zip eyed her oddly. "Uh… you don't."

"Like hell I don't," she fired back, pressing into Zip's space threateningly. "If they got in, then so can I! And if there are ways out, you're not leaving until you tell me!"

Zip shook his head, backing up a step from her. "I can't go back there. I won't." His voice shook. "It's… the worst place you can imagine. The darkness is there even in daylight. And even when you die, you come back. It's nothing but an endless massacre. Empty. Cold. Black and white."

Alex managed a sharp, derisive laugh. "…And you think, for one second, that I would leave them there?" she asked, incredulous and terrified all at once. He said nothing and Alex prompted him forcefully. "You said you wanted to help. So help!"

Zip looked at her for a long, reluctant moment, then let out a tensely held breath. "...If you can find the Waymaker, I'll consider it."

Alex made a confused face. "The what?"

"The Waymaker. It's supposed to be in the Garden of Eden," he said, making Alex's eyebrows rise. "Somewhere on Earth. God hid it there, according to old legends." He gestured in flippant, half-convinced uncertainty. "Apparently, if you have it you can activate a portal from Purgatory at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It's this big ass tree like smack dab center of the place, can't miss it." He drew his mouth up doubtfully to one side. "No one knows what the Waymaker looks like or if it's even real, or where the Garden of Eden even is, but… yeah. That would be the only way out unless the stories about the human portal are true, which, you know. Probably wouldn't work on him." Zip's dislike of Cas was still a thing, then. But he let out another weary breath and grudgingly continued. "So, if you can find that… I'll tell you how to get in. Maybe."

It sounded like a tall order. Find the Garden of Eden and then some kind of relic that no one knew about? "How would I know what this portal thing is if no one knows what it looks like?" she asked, feeling like she was gonna fail before she even tried.

"Exactly," Zip said, seeming to find it impossibly hopeless. "I mean, I think I'd recognize it if I saw it, maybe. Because old things, things from the time when God was here… they have a certain energy to them." He shrugged, scratched his ear, and crossed his arms. It was like he wanted her to give up on the idea.

And then Alex remembered the piece of paper that strange hunter he given her. "Wait. Wait." She pulled it out and then unfolded it, showing him the sketch. "Is this the tree?"

Zip frowned at the paper in surprise. "…Yeah, I think so," he said, then looked at her in vast apprehensive interest. "...Where'd you get this?"

She ignored the question and tapped the writing she didn't recognize as any language she'd seen before. "Can you read that?"

Zip could, and she knew he could. He hesitated, then looked at her grimly. "Yeah. It says 'the way out.'"

Her heart jumped. Alex looked at the paper one more time and the circle with the symbol on it. That had to be a drawing of this Waymaker thing. So all she had to do was find the Garden of Eden and track down this bitch. Thank you, Cas lookalike, whoever you are...

Alex pocketed the piece of paper and decided right then and there that today was the start of a new chapter. She had made her mind up the second Zip said they weren't dead that she was gonna do something about that. Whatever it took. She was also gonna save Sam from whatever was happening to him and find Kevin too. And while she was at it, she was gonna see what she could do about, Bobby. Then, Purgatory better get ready because she didn't plan to pull any punches. In fact, she was beginning to feel so pissed and filled with righteous fury that she pitied the jackass who would stand in her way. The time for moping around and regretting everything was over. Gone was the day when she would just sit by and cry about the shit life kept handing her. She was tired of getting run over and being a punching bag. She was ready to be the one who delivered the punches instead. Alex swiped Sam's phone from the top of the car and shoved it at Zip, her adrenaline at an all time high.

"This is your phone now," she said, her voice commanding and unforgiving. "Do not lose it. I will call you when I have the damn Waymaker and you will tell me how to get into Purgatory, all right? I don't care how long it takes and I don't care what I have to do." She held up a warning finger. "If you disappear on me, if you pull anything, Purgatory will be a fluffy little daydream compared to the hell I give you." She gave him an incredibly ugly look. "Now get the fuck outta here."

"Geez…" Zip muttered, pocketing the phone sullenly. "What'd I ever do to you?"

He got quite the look for that one.

Meanwhile
Boise, Idaho

"He's dead. Th-they're both dead."

The call ended and stunned, no longer able to stand, Jamie sat down slowly, not seeing anything in front of herself.

The witch's blank, horrified gaze dropped down to what she held in her hands. The test she'd just taken. She was supposed to have waited for Dean but then she'd second guessed herself and gotten antsy and panicked. And now this.

Jamie's entire world was crumbling around her anew. Dean was dead. And she was holding a pregnancy test that had a little blue plus sign in the result window.

Positive.

Barely able to breathe as she struggled to comprehend what was happening, Jamie clenched that test tight in her hand and balled her fist up to her chest, which was hurting so badly she thought she was going to have a heart attack.

What am I gonna do? What the hell am I gonna do?

The tears came, and she cursed herself, she despaired over how to face this alone and what to do with her promised death day marching ever closer.

Six Days Later
Lakewood, Washington
Western State Hospital

Alex was in a place that had become too familiar as of late. A mental ward. But this time, not for herself or for Cas. For Sam. He couldn't sleep—it was like it had been before but worse. He hadn't slept even once since Dean and Cas had been sucked away to Purgatory. And he just wasn't doing good at all.

Sam laid in bed nearby and he jumped every few seconds as if a loud noise was bothering him. Alex watched, her face pained as she saw how he endured his never-ending torture. Yesterday, he'd stopped responding to her completely. He didn't seem to see or hear anything she said or did—the hospital staff couldn't get him to respond either. He ate nothing and drank nothing as of two days ago—they were having to feed him with a tube. His color was pale, his eyes had dark bags underneath them, he had grown a thick stubble beard, and his shoulders slumped. He did not smile at all, ever. He muttered things about Lucifer and 'his plans' and 'have to stop them' and 'can't let him do that to us' and he had insisted frequently in the days when he'd been able to converse that Alex had to get away from him. He wouldn't say why. He was not the same Sam she knew and loved. He was jumpy and haunted, traumatized, internally ragged, and at death's door. Soon, he would die if he didn't sleep. Alex didn't have time to criss-cross the country and visit shamans and witches and medicine healers, although she doubted any of them could do anything for him. Cas had been pretty certain before that nothing would ever truly remove Sam's insanity. Only shift it.

Speaking of Cas. Every single day that passed was another day Dean and Castiel were trapped in Purgatory. Was Cas still loose a few screws? Was Dean okay down there? Would a human survive multiple kills in a place made for monsters? Would an angel? She didn't know. But she had to get them out. She was the only one left who could do a single damn thing and it was in her hands. It was time to man up. Or woman up. Whatever. She thought of Castiel the last time she had laid eyes on him. He'd been yelling at her to get back and get away. He'd known she would be sucked in with them if she'd gone any closer. I hope you're okay. I hope you and Dean can keep each other safe. I hope I see you again. She stared at the table she'd set up in Sam's room. It contained a demon summons. Nothing fancy. But the thought of why she was summoning this specific demon was the clincher. She contemplated it again. Did she really want to do this?

Alex looked at Bobby's flask, which she'd packed into an oversized ziploc bag full of salt for his own good. He wasn't able to do anything with all that sodium around him. She sighed and winced, shifting her arm slightly in the sling it was in. Oh, yeah, her arm was broken. Despite what that Cas-looking guy had said he 'came back to change,' Alex had sustained the break after Bobby, in a fit of completely irrational rage over losing Dean, crashed the car as she tried to get herself and her loopy brother to a motel room. That's when she decided Bobby needed to be subdued for his own good until she could figure out what the hell to do with him. She still wasn't sure. But she had an idea. A wild idea that might not work, but… hey. It was worth a shot. But most important; first and foremost… Sam. She looked over at her twin brother, who was breathing hard through his nose and staring at the ceiling, then wincing repeatedly and thrashing his head back and forth, muttering protests of "please, no, no, don't…"

Unable to see him suffer any longer, done with having to stand by powerlessly as he went through agony, Alex stood up from the chair she'd been sitting in, picked up the pack of matches, and decided time's up. I'm doing this. She struck a match and dropped it into the bowl and recited the Latin lowly, telling herself to just do it. She'd thought it through and had it all set in her mind. And now came the hard part: following through.

The flames leapt up and died, and across from her, who should appear but the King of Hell. His mouth was in a wan, unimpressed line. "Ah yes. Heard you survived." He sighed as if he were disappointed.

"Shut up Crowley," Alex said, no interest in his banter. "We have business."

His eyebrows rose. "We have business? Darling, whatever do you mean?" He offered her a sympathetic little smile. "I'm afraid I've no interest." Alex glanced upward and Crowley did too. A huge devil's trap was painted on the ceiling and Crowley's face fell. "Of course," he muttered.

"You're not leaving this room until I have what I want," Alex said in a measured, dark voice. She walked a few slow steps outside of the circle.

"Which is…?" Crowley prompted impatiently.

Her eyes snapped over to his. "Very specific."

"My goodness." Crowley chuckled deep in his throat, smiling devilishly. "If I didn't know better, I'd think you were about to peddle your soul to me."

Alex looked at him unnervingly without blinking. "That's exactly what I'm about to do."