A/Ns: Heya folks! I was chatting with ForestPelt over the very long covid-related break The Road So Far (this time around) took over the last year. We got to talking about re-reads of the story, and how the last one she tackled took quite some time due to its length (oi vey and also verbose AF, no?). I realized that, having been absent from posting for so long, most if not all readers will need a re-read of some sort, but may not have the time commitment for that. So, I present to you, a short, sweet recap for your quick reading pleasure!
New Here?: Welcome! Please note immediately that this summary is NOT meant to replace the actual story. I know it's long, but please don't read this one instead of that. For starters, this is bare-bones plot only, and is mostly just hollow spoilers if you haven't read the main beast. It's missing most of the good stuff that makes that lengthy story actually worth it ;) So I really encourage you to head over to the main story if this is your first read through. (You can find it linked as part of the series on A03, or on my profile on ff-dot-net)
Warnings: This summary is meant as a refresher course only. It covers the things in the story that are vital to the plot and leaves out most of the juicy, fun bits. I will update it every 10 chapters or so, or anytime an arc is completed.
Reviews: As this is just a summary, reviewing is not necessary. Feel free to leave a comment if you feel something has been left out that is important, but otherwise there's no need. Thanks, and I hope you all find this helpful!
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The Road So Far (This Time Around)
A Shortcut
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SEASON 1
Chapters 1-10
(The Beginning, the Jess Arc, and Psychic Dean)
During the final battle with Amara, Cas decides to send Dean back in time from 2016 to 2005. Dean wakes up the night before Jess is fated to die. Realizing he can save her, Dean manages to exorcise Brody, but Sam follows him and hears Brody promise Jess will never be safe. The brothers have to leave Stanford with Jess (who takes 'the talk' fairly well), and find a way to keep her safe from the Yellow Eyed Demon. Dean has to come up with a lie to cover his knew knowledge, and ends up claiming he has psychic dreams, just like Sam.
While Azazel is chasing them – kidnapping Jess's parents to draw them out – Dean realizes how to keep Jess out of Hell's game. He gets the Colt from Daniel Elkins in Colorado and then he, Sam, and Jess use a crossroad to confront Crowley and Azazel. They make a deal; Jess is out, or Sam kills himself with the Colt. Dean knows Azazel can't afford for Sam to die permanently. Azazel agrees, so long as Sam takes back up the life of a hunter, and the deal is sealed by Crowley (putting his life on the line if either side breaks it).
Sam and Jess part ways with mutual heartbreak and understanding.
Chapter 11-21
(The Meg Arc, the Reverend Reaper Arc, and the Dream Arc)
The boys hit the road, running into several familiar hunts, including Bloody Mary, their childhood home in Lawrence, Kansas, and one fugly scarecrow. In the meantime, Hell is up to no good. They've sent a Baku after John Winchester to hunt him in his dreams and get his location, as well as put Meg topside to find and become buddies with Sam.
She corners them in a Sacramento diner, where they manage to outwit her – escaping with a free Meg Master – but not before witnesses mistook the rescue for a kidnapping. A thin, confusing file on the boys was created by the Sacramento police, which would show up on an FBI agent's desk six months later.
Desperate to find their dad, Sam is sure he can push his visions – make them as clear as Dean's – and ends up pushing too hard. He's dying, and there's little Dean can do to save him, lest he wants to trade his brother's soul for an innocents' through Reverend Roy LeGrange's hooked Reaper. Luckily (or maybe not), he doesn't have to make that decision; Azazel shows up, forcing Sam to drink a jar of demon blood to heal and start his blood addiction.
John, desperate to escape the Baku which he has mistaken for the Yellow Eyed demon, uses Bobby's panic room as a place to catch some sleep and hide. Unfortunately, he doesn't wake back up, and Bobby is forced to call the boys. As they devise a plan involving African Dream Root, Meg is up to no good. This time, she's gone after Dean's friends rather than John's, because she knows Dean has the Colt. Garth and Caleb both fall under her knife, and she threatens Bobby next – it'll only take her a few hours to get to Singer Salvage Yard from Caleb's.
Under a strict time limit, the boys go into their father's dream to rescue him from the Baku. Unaware of the need to control his appearance in the dream world, Dean appears ten years older and Sam picks up on it, along with several other temporal hints. He begins to think about time travel as an explanation for why Dean is so different, and yet still clearly his brother.
When they find John – the Baku feeding on him – Castiel shows up in the dream and kicks Dean out of it. He wakes to find that Meg has arrived early, already knocking Bobby unconscious. Dean managed to trap Meg beneath a devil's trap painted on Bobby's ceiling. While Sam fights the Baku using his demonic blood powers, Dean kills Meg with the Colt, but not before telling her he'd traveled ten years back from the future, and that's how he knows she loses. Unfortunately for him, Bobby regained consciousness just in time to hear that confession.
Back in the dream, a screaming white light, not unlike the true voice of an angel, chases the Baku away, saving Sam and John. Seconds later, a hoard of bodiless demons swarms the Singer House, only to vanish seconds later to the confusion of all. John is alive (weak and in need of a good sleep, but alive), Sam hides the fact he used his powers to fight the Baku, and Dean has to tell Bobby the truth about who he is and where he's actually from.
Chapters 22-32
(The Future Talk, the Max Miller Arc, and the Season Finale)
Dean and Bobby talk about the future, about his and Sam's destinies, about Cas and the Apocalypse. Dean starts to wonder if Cas might have come through the trip with him, because his chest hurts anytime he's around demons, and the angel keeps showing up in his dreams at convenient times. But if he is there, he's not answering anytime Dean prays, leaving the hunter feeling frustratingly alone.
Once rested from their fight with the Baku, John (stupidly) decides to steal the Colt and leave in the middle of the night. Sam, furious with Dean's attitude about John and his refusal to confide anything in Sam, confronts him about being from the future. He pieced it together himself, largely from the dream world where Dean appeared about a decade older and had a son, roughly ten years old, named Ben. Reluctantly (and caught by surprise, despite Bobby's 'told ya so' look), Dean tells Sam what's coming – namely the Apocalypse – as they head to Max Miller's house.
The two hunters confront Max about his telekinesis and his plan to kill his parents. In an attempt to move him off the plan, Dean pushes him towards a direct confrontation instead. Max kills his dad and stepmom incredibly violently, and Sam and Dean are too late to stop him. At the last minute, Dean remembers that Max also went after his uncle last time around, and they rush to try and save the last of the Miller family.
During the confrontation, Sam tries to use his newly developing powers to stop Max, unaware that he is inadvertently killing the boy. Dean stops him, fearing Sam's getting too close to the dark side. Before the scales can tip one way or the other, however, Azazel shows up out of nowhere, killing Max and abducting the boys for a 'chat'.
He takes the Winchesters to an abandoned cabin and calls John using Dean's phone. He wants the Colt. While waiting for John to show, Azazel tortures Dean while Sam is forced to watch, helpless. Knowing things haven't been lining up like they should, the demon is starting to suspect that more is going on than simple bad luck. Demonic scouts had followed an angel that showed up on Earth and stopped for a visit at Bobby Singer's house before fleeing. Putting two and two together, Azazel sets out to prove a hunch. He soul searches Dean and finds a sliver of angelic grace in the kid's chest.
John shows up shortly after with a fake Colt and Dean in bad shape. Sam threatens to use the real Colt on himself, and Azazel lets them leave. On the way to the Hospital, Sam at the wheel, John shotgun, and Dean bleeding all over the back seat, a semi truck crashes into the Impala, running it off the road.
INTERLUDES
Interlude I
(The Adventures of Castiel and Balthazar)
In Heaven, Castiel confides in Balthazar about the man praying to him on Earth. Balthazar convinces Castiel to break the rules and go planet-side to find the human. Instead, they encounter a swarm of body-less demons almost the moment they land and are forced to flee. Balthazar, wounded, stays behind to fight them off, giving Castiel a chance to find the human, who is in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Castiel lands in the house of Bobby Singer, only to find another battle in progress. The human who called to him is confronting a demon caught in a devil's trap, and his younger brother is trapped in their father's dream with a Baku dangerously threatening their lives. Castiel purifies the Baku, saving Sam and John Winchester, before the swarm of demon smoke catches up to him and he's forced to flee.
An earth-bound unit of angels led by Ishim save him from the swarm, only to inform him that Balthazar perished in battle. Grieving and guilt-laden, Castiel reports his disobedience and his brother's death to Zachariah, who demotes him and puts Uriel in charge of his unit instead. The uncharacteristic rule-breaking from Castiel, who always rubbed Zachariah the wrong way, raises the angel's suspicions.
Interlude II
(The Adventures of Azazel in the Deep Dark Tomb)
In Hell, Lilith has a conversation with Azazel, who is injured from touching the angelic grace, but starting to form his own theories about what Heaven is up to. He wrongly believes that Heaven has picked an angel to stand guard over Dean – the potential Righteous Man – and bulk him up as a vessel, the same way Azazel is doing to Sam. Only instead of ingesting demon blood, they're putting grace into Dean a bit at a time.
Azazel has a plan to counter-act Heaven's deviousness. He recalls a creature that even Heaven can't do much about, and that Lilith once thought she'd found the location of one such being. He travels to a destroyed city, deep into a tomb of ancient kings, until he finds a warded sarcophagus. He breaks the warding, opening the tomb to reveal a woman with fierce green eyes.
SEASON 2
Chapters 1-13
(The Hospital Ghost Arc, a Chat with God and Demon Blood Withdrawal, and the Summning Cas Arc)
Dean wakes up in a hospital as ghost, his body most definitely dying. While Dean tries to get his family to realize he's there with them, John insists his youngest get the Colt from the police and gather some supplies for a protection spell. Dean, knowing his father's plan to summon Azazel for a Deal, tries to get Sam's attention. He's distracted from the task when Castiel shows up, trenchcoat and all.
Cas appears somewhat confused – he confesses he's a just a shadow of his old self, he thinks Dean should move on rather than stay and fight, and doesn't seem to know about the older Winchester's time traveling – but Dean is too happy to see him to really care. He gets ghost lessons from Cas while waiting for Sam to return, lessons that work well enough to convince John to request Sam come back with one more item: a Ouija board.
Sam and Dean finally have a conversation, but just as Dean gets across the danger John is in, Castiel draws attention to the fact the eldest Winchester is already missing. Sam and Dean waste no time, splitting up to search the hospital before John can summon Azazel. As Dean and Cas start their half of the search, though, Cas once more tries to convince Dean to let go of life and move on. It's out of character enough for the stubborn, fight-till-there's-nothing-left angel-turned-Winchester, that something clicks and Dean puts two and two together. That's not Cas – it's the reaper, Tessa, there to convince him to move on.
Tessa changes into the dark haired female form Dean is far more familiar with, and admits she used Castiel's visage to try and help him move on. He refuses, and instead convinces her to help him save his dad. If they can save him, then Dean will go with her willingly. She agrees to help, and as Dean runs off to start the search, Tessa turns to the shadow of an angel who's been following Dean since she first arrived at the hospital, even if the human couldn't see him. The audience learns that Castiel did make the jump, although he is nothing but a shadow of himself, a sliver of grace that isn't ready to give up on Dean Winchester or the work he has left to do.
Despite the boys' desperate attempts to find their father, they don't make it in time. John sells his soul and the Colt in exchange for Dean's life, two months earlier than the previous timeline. Dean wakes up, his time as a ghost gone from his memory, as John comes into his room with a final message. Realizing what's happening all over again, Dean tells his dad he'll never kill Sam, but he will save him. And in a year, there'll be a hellgate. John better hold on long enough to get his ass out of Hell in a year's time.
Sam and Dean give their dad a hunter's funeral. Sam is grieving, but Dean is just pissed – pissed he lost his dad again, that he can't change anything. He tells Sam there's someone he needs to have a chat with, and against all of Sam's arguments, he leaves his brother to head back to Bobby's, and shows up on Chuck's front porch, glowing amulet in hand and ready for an angry talk with God.
Chuck tries to explain his side of things to Dean; he is helping as much as he can. The angels are learning what it's like without God in the picture, and sure, maybe it's not going all that well, but it'll go even worse if Chuck steps back in now. When Dean doesn't take that stance particularly well, Chuck sends him back to Bobby's with no memory of God's identity, all the ingredients needed to summon an angel, and an olive branch in the form of the Bunker Key, which Dean immediately loses without ever realizing he had it. God learns what it means to 'headdesk'.
Back at Bobby's, Sam is going through demon-blood withdrawal. It isn't pretty, and it would have been a hell of a lot less terrifying with Dean there, but Bobby helps him through it. He comes through the other side just as Dean shows back up, angel-summoning ingredients in hand and a rough explanation that he had a chat with God. Beyond being furious for the suicidal stupidity of having an angry conversation with God, Sam is once again pissed he was kept out of it for his 'protection'. In a completely precedential argument, an unprecedented turn of events results. Dean finally realizes that he hasn't been protecting Sammy this whole time, he's been trying to control him. He makes himself a promise to do better.
From there, the boys decide to summon Castiel. It takes Dean several days of fixing up the Impala, sharing everything that's to come with Sam, and fetching a pitcher of holy oil from Pastor Jim before he's worked up the nerve to do it, but they finally summon their missing angel. During that time, Sam eventually figures out that his brother sold his soul for him in another timeline, and makes Dean promise not to do it again. Even if it means eating a bullet from the Colt. Dean reluctantly promises, though he's neither happy nor entirely sure it's a promise he can keep.
They summon Castiel in a similarly abandoned barn, only this time it's straight into a ring of holy fire. They can't risk him rejecting their story and reporting them to Heaven. Castiel is not pleased, but when Dean tells him to look at his soul, he cannot deny the man is from the future and holding a piece of his own grace. He must accept Dean's truth that the end times are on them and Heaven is not on the right side. The angel attempts to remove that bit of grace from Dean's chest, only to fail. He is concerned about how entangled it is in Dean's soul, but the hunter seems relieved not to have lost his one connection to his friend and previous timeline.
Castiel needs time to consider what the humans are asking of him. They give him an hour, and the demand that he find a different vessel, since the one he's wearing has a wife and a damn good kid who doesn't deserve to lose her dad. Castiel spends the hour sitting in a park, trying to talk to God. God doesn't answer, but Jimmy Novak does. He helps the angel realize that he can not be both the good soldier and the good son; one way or another he must disobey, and disobeying will likely mean death. So which path is worth dying for?
While awaiting Castiel's return, Sam has a painful vision of Azazel, deep in a tomb in some sort of sacked city, talking with a mysterious, angry woman with glowing green eyes. He doesn't know what to make of it, but he tells Dean and Bobby. The latter gets to work on trying to identify the city, and maybe place the woman.
The angel returns to the Winchesters in a new vessel – one that had no surviving family to leave behind – and agrees to help. Unfortunately, the new vessel, Angela Garrett, proves to be problematic for Dean, who expected Castiel to find some old grandpa with no family left. Instead, Angela is Dean's waking wet dream, Hawaiian edition. She is neither old, nor a grandpa, and has Jimmy's same piercing blue eyes, all of Cas's awkwardness, and the same personal space issues.
Dean is absolutely screwed.
Chapter 14-25
(Planning for the Future, Daniel Elkins, Crossroad Chats, Meeting the Harvelles, and the Two Angels Conferencing while Watching Jaws Arcs)
Castiel has a lot of catching up to do in order to be of assistance planning against an apocalypse. Dean does the best he can to explain what he feels is pertinent, while avoiding some of the other, touchier stuff he swears isn't going to happen this time, so no one needs to know about it. Like Naomi. Only, he's dealing with a supernatural extraordinaire, Angel of the Lord. So things like Naomi come out, whether or not Dean likes it.
Even knowing much of what is coming for her own future, Castiel is adamant she return to Heaven before they notice she is missing. She can be their eyes and ears up there, as well as follow her own timeline as closely as possible so they do not accidentally change more than they absolutely must. Dean is not pleased, but there's little he can do to dissuade her. Sam insists they teach her how to lie, which does not go well at all until he realizes she doesn't need to lie, she needs to evade questions. They switch up their teaching style and instead instruct Cas on the ways of obfuscating and running around a question in so many circles your questioner gets dizzy and just gives up.
Castiel returns to Heaven, leaving Angela Garrett's comatose body in the care of the Winchesters and Bobby. Cas is determined to find some angels to join their cause, though she promised Dean she would do so subtly. Given the hunter's warning about all the angels falling in line once the Apocalypse begins, she knows she has to be careful with who she chooses to confide in. Surely one of her closest siblings and brother in arms is a safe choice; she seeks out Uriel first.
Meanwhile, Sam is working on cracking their Dad's voicemail. Dean is certain there's a message on there from Ellen. Once they have an excuse to show up out of the blue, they can go see the Harvelles. While milling about at Bobby's waiting for that excuse to pop into existence, Daniel Elkins calls from Colorado; the vampires Dean warned him about have shown up. Sam and Dean leave for Colorado to help save Elkins this time around.
The hunt doesn't go quite according to plan, but they do manage to save the old hunting buddy of dad's. On their way back to Bobby's, they decide to stop at a crossroads. If Cas is going to be their eyes up in the attic, they should get a pair for the basement. The boys summon Crowley.
It's a long and frustrating negotiation – when isn't it with the King of the Crossroads? – but Crowley reluctantly settles on helping the hunters on occasion, only when it suits his own needs. Crowley's got enough on his plate with trying to play along with Hell's plan to raise Lucifer while also trying to throw a wrench in those plans whenever the opportunity presents itself. Currently, that bit isn't going so well. Azazel had him locate the prophet – a writer of some truly terrible dime-store novels involving the Winchesters – and he and Lilith are coming up with backup plans for their backup plans on dealing with the angel giving Dean Winchester grace enemas.
Speaking of angels, Dean finally gets his dream Cas back on. The two have a painful, but honest conversation about why Cas, who's been riding around in Dean's chest all this time, never said anything. Cas confesses he's not all there – just a shadow – and will most likely fade with time. He can't be of much help. Dean has a long overdue confession of his own; he doesn't need Cas to be helpful, he just needs him to be there. Cas warmly agrees to stay as long as he can.
Sam cracks John's voicemail and sure enough, there's the same message from Ellen as the first time around. So the boys hit the road, headed to the Roadhouse. Once there, they run into Asa Fox, who Dean never got to meet the first time around. Asa is shocked to learn that they're Mary's kids. He promises to catch up with them another time.
Seeing the Harvelles and Ash for the first time since their deaths is hard for Dean, especially Jo, but he pulls through. He tells Ellen he and Sam are psychics, and she'll believe it when a case with a killer clown shows up on her doorstep in a couple months. They leave Ash with their father's research, even though Dean already knows what he'll find, and that that information is what gets Ash killed. But Cas told them to stick to the timeline as much as possible, and Dean has time to save Ash from a Roadhouse bombing this time.
The boys return to Bobby's, where the old hunter has figured out at least part of Sam's vision. The sacked city was probably Gomorrah, one of the five cities of sin that God wiped off the face of the earth. Or, apparently, sunk into the Earth. It doesn't give them much to go on, but at least they have an area of the world their mystery, green-eyed girl might be from. Bobby starts researching Gods and creatures from the Mesopotamian pantheon.
The boys hit the road. Bobby finds the bunker key but, not knowing what it is, leaves it on his desk for further questioning. It eventually gets swept into a desk drawer and forgotten about for far longer than any reader of this story is okay with. Azazel reaches out to Sam in a dream, working on convincing him to drink more demon's blood. He refuses, but he's clearly shaken.
In Heaven, Castiel has a conversation with Uriel about the coming Apocalypse. Uriel is furious that Heaven knows – but not for the same reasons that Castiel suspects. Uriel agrees to help Castiel gather angels to oppose Heaven when the time comes, knowing he can convince Castiel to join his side and help raise Lucifer when it comes down to it. Their conversation steers away from the Apocalypse and to other troubling matters Dean brought up, including Naomi, and angels being mind-wiped into obedience. Uriel confirms that he has seen such a thing happen, and to Castiel. The angel is shocked, and has as close to a panic attack as an angel can. Once Uriel leaves to go (subtly) find others to join their cause (the first of which he decides should be Malachi, the anarchist angel), Castiel flees Heaven, needing to get away from the truth and horrible wrongness that her home has become.
She spend a day and change – as long as she can without risking being discovered – with the Winchesters on a small hunt. Dean avoids discussing any Heaven business with Cas, already frustrated the angel chose Heaven over them (which isn't really how it went down, but Dean is butt hurt so he's sticking with that version), Sam avoids discussing his disturbing dream with Azazel, and instead the boys take Cas clothes shopping, including bras and a certain trench coat, female edition.
Castiel, who suspects something is wrong with Sam, gets the truth out of him. Greatly troubled by the idea of the demon able to find Sam in his dreams, the angel gets the boys better warding – hex bags since they can't risk Enochian symbols on their ribs just yet – and a sleep coin for Sam that will block all dreams. While Sam is out a run and Dean is watching Jaws, Castiel confers with the grace in Dean's chest, a reassuring presence that helps calm her own frenzied nerves regarding the state of Heaven which she must return to shortly. It's embarrassing as hell for Dean, having a walking wet Hawaiin dream all up in his business, hand under his shirt pressed to his chest (because skin to skin contact is apparently just better for angel-soul-conferring), but the look of relief and comfort it clearly brings Castiel is worth the embarrassment in the end.
Castiel returns to Heaven shortly afterward and Sam and Dean have a tough, but good talk about keeping secrets. They agree to do less of that, even if neither of them know how yet. The next day, Ellen calls about a killer clown case that showed up on her doorstep.
Chapters 26-30
(Meeting (and avoiding) Gordon Walker, Meeting (and identifying) Persephone, and the beginning of the Editorial Arc)
The killer clown case is a breeze this time, when Dean already knows who it is, what it is, and how to kill it. They're done in less than 24 hours, back to the Roadhouse in time to walk into an infamous row between Ellen and Jo. Dean steps in it, knowing Jo is going to go off on her own to hunt with or without Ellen's permission, but there's not much he can do, especially because in this timeline, the Harvelles barely know him yet.
Azazel brings his 'son', Tom, to meet their green-eyed kink in the works, presenting her with the Supernatural Books. Tom will babysit her while she catches up on Sam Winchester's life. Azazel promises her she'll be meeting the hunter soon, and he expects her performance to be perfect.
On the road again, the boys pick up a vampire case in Red Lodge, Montana. Dean quickly realizes the case is familiar, and it gets a hell of a lot more so when they corner someone following them back to their hotel and it turns out to be Gordon Walker. Dean is torn between killing that SOB right then and there, or booking it out of town, hoping to never cross paths with the man again. He goes for the latter, but not before accidentally tipping Gordon off that something is going on with the older Winchester.
Several weeks later, while at the Roadhouse, Gordon overhears that Dean is psychic. The man who dropped the killer clown case off for Ellen heard her say it herself. Between that, and a routine demon exorcism that reveals Sam Winchester is slated as next in line for Hell's general, Gordon becomes convinced the Winchesters must be taken out.
Once they're out of Red Lodge, Sam tells Dean they can't always run away from these types of situations. With lives at stake, and the timeline itself, sometimes they will have to stand their ground. Dean doesn't disagree, but he does insist they pick their battles. And Gordon Walker isn't one of those.
Meanwhile in Hell, Lilith is calculating backup options for the Hell Gate. She goes with the next closest choice, though far more difficult to open, in Oaxaca, Mexico. Lilith tells a demon to get that one prepared as well, to have Azazel move up his timeline, and to summon Crowley to find the Winchester, who have gone off grid. Crowley conveniently remembers that an earlier Supernatural book by the prophet had John Winchester's voicemail – written out word for word during a scene in which Dean was trying to get a hold of him – which included Dean's phone number. If the boys still had that number, they could track it with GPS. Lilith demands he see it done and to report the results to Azazel.
Not wanting a voice the boys would recognize, Azazel has the green-eyed girl call Dean. She only has to keep him on the line for a minute or so before she tells him it was a wrong number. But now that they have the boys' location, Tom tells her to get dressed; it's show time.
Crowley decides to warn the boys that Azazel is coming. He is, after all, sort of partnered up with them (very strong emphasis on the 'sort of' there). Besides, whatever Azazel is up to, it won't be anything Crowley will benefit from, especially if he would like this Apocalypse business wiped off the table. He tells Sam and Dean that Azazel know where they are, ditch the phone, and oh, yeah, they'll owe him one for his charitable contribution to the cause.
The boys decide to booby trap their motel room and spend the evening at a noisy, crowded bar. Sam meets a young woman there – short, blonde-haired, blue eyed, with a subtle accent, possibly Yiddish – who's charming and flirtatious. She spills her drink on him, cutting his hand with the broken glass, but helps him clean it up with a bar napkin. He doesn't catch her name in the noise of the crowd, but she tells him to call her Steph when he asks if she said, 'Stephanie.' They don't chat for long, as she was on her way out anyway, but the experience is memorable enough for Sam to kind of hope he bumps into her again.
As Sam heads back for his table, the woman watches from the door to the bar. She still has the napkin she'd used to stem his cut, and she raises it to her mouth to sample the blood. As she does, her eyes glow green. Pulling off a silver necklace from around her neck as she exits the bar, she tosses it to Azazel, who is waiting in the parking lot. As she does, her blonde hair bleeds black, her skin darkens to an olive tone, and her eyes go green. She tells Azazel there is something funny in Sam's blood, but it will not interfere with the binding ritual, which is all he needs to no. They disappear from the bar parking lot, back to the hotel he's been keeping her in. Her next job is reconnaissance, but only from afar. Can't risk that pesky angel on Dean's shoulder catching wind of Hell's plans for her or for Sam. It will be Tom's job to track them and her's to spy on them, she'll just have to figure out another way to do it.
She shows up the next day in professional garb, warded necklace back on and appearance altered, at Chuck Shurley's house. Under the guise of an editorial assistant there to help with the latest book, she begins hanging around the prophet, watching the Winchesters through his writing. Chuck is intimated by the woman, God on the other hand sees right through the warding and is at first pissed. He puts her in a trance and asks why she showed up there. Under His power, she confesses that Azazel found her through Lilith, and that she is to watch Sam Winchester. God is surprised that of all the changes Dean's time traveling could make, this is the one Hell went with. It could be a disaster. For either party. Which…honestly might not be so bad. Before he retracts the spell, he asks her what she plans on doing, calling her by name: Persephone.
The boys return to the motel, only no demon is caught in their trap and it doesn't look like anyone entered the room at all. Still, they pack up and move on just in case, checking the car for trackers. They do find one, placed by Tom – technology based rather than magic – and stash it on an 18-wheeler at a gas stop on their way to Guthrie, Oklahoma.
Chapters 30-39
(The Andy Gallagher Arc, Jo's First Hunt, and the Baltimore Arc)
The rash of odd suicides in Guthrie sounds vaguely familiar to Dean, but there is a problem. He remembers being there for the most recent suicide, which means they're timing's off, and that's never a good thing. As they get to the outskirts of the town, a familiar van – decked out with a mural of a Viking queen riding a polar bear – almost crashes into them, swerving into a ditch instead. Dean realizes the case they're on: Andy Gallagher, the guy who could Jedi mind trick you with just his words.
Before he can warn Sam what's about to happen, Andy approaches their car and demands Dean gets out. Dean, of course, does, and Sam has a negotiation with the kid at gun point. Between the two of them, with Dean spouting truths about being from the future, and hunting monsters, and Sam immune to Andy's powers, they manage to convince the kid they're the good guys. Andy, with a wrecked van and nowhere else to go, allows the Winchesters to take him to the nearest motel and tells them what happened.
Weber, Andy's twin brother, had been convinced by the Yellow Eyed Man to start killing earlier and more aggressively in this timeline. He made their family doctor and biological mother commit suicide, then went after Andy and his ex-girlfriend, Tracy. When he couldn't convince Andy to kill Tracy, Weber did it himself, and Andy couldn't stop him in time. In a grief-fueled rage, Andy killed his brother and then fled the town in his van.
Dean convinces the kid to come with them. They're going after Yellow Eyes, who's now apparently telling his kids that Sam Winchester is the one to get in this battle royale, and Andy can join or he can just tag along until he figures something else out. With no other options, Andy agrees, and the Winchesters teach him about the Apocalypse, time travel, angels named Castiel, and hunting.
While Persephone watches on from Chuck's writing, which is not particularly detailed or revealing about things like the Apocalypse, time travel, or angels named Castiel, the boys go hunting. They meet Jo Harvelle at an apartment in Philadelphia where Dean knows H.H. Holmes ghost is kidnapping and killing women who just happen to be around Jo's age, height, and looks. Jo is less than impressed that they brought an amateur with them, especially while Dean keeps treating her like one herself, but they get through the hunt with only minor casualties. Jo gets kidnapped this time around, something Dean is furious and guilt-ridden he couldn't stop, but she comes out unharmed, though Dean did have to tell her about his 'psychic' powers, along with Sam and Andy's.
Tom, still trying to find the Winchesters, decides to pay Ruby a visit. She's been in Windom, Minnesota on a mission she won't talk about. But Tom is high up enough to food chain to know Lilith has her on some sort of secret mission. Not that she'll tell him. Instead, he asks for a map to track Sam, and she gives him a spelled map that will always show him where he is, so long as he stays in the continental United States.
In Baltimore on a case, Dean ends up framed for murder by a dirty cop and Sam is arrested for trespassing. Andy gets Sam out with his powers (and a most impressive fake mustache). While the two work on identifying the death omen and her killer, Dean tries to win over the cop's partner and lover, a detective named Diana Ballard. She ends up helping them when she gets a visit from the death omen and very quickly starts believing in ghosts. While Castiel breaks Dean out of jail, a confrontation between Diana and her lover, along with Sam and Andy, ends with Andy almost shot and Diana killing her own partner. She tells the hunters to go – she'll clean up the mess.
After days of IA interviews and questioning, an FBI agent meets with Diana. His name is Victor Henriksen, and he wants her to tell him everything she knows about the Winchesters.
Chapters 40-44
(The Croatoan Arc)
Persephone is still pretending to be an editorial assistant to get information on the Winchesters out of the prophet. What she doesn't realize is that that prophet is secretly God, and he's got his own agenda. Namely reminding her of who she used to be, which seems to involve protecting children or people. As Azazel calls on her (from afar, of course, to avoid tipping off that Archangel tied to the prophet), Chuck decides to show her some deleted scenes he wrote, including instructions for a hex bag that will paralyze a demon. He tells her to keep them, since he won't be including them in the story anyway.
Azazel has a new task for her: get the boys to Rivergrove, Oregon for a little test he's got set up. She initially refuses, tired of being ordered around, and he reminds her rather succinctly that it's his way or back to the hole he dug her out of. Reluctantly, she uses information she's gotten from reading Chuck's work to call Bobby Singer, posing as Detective Diana Ballard. She delivers a tip to him that there's something going on in Rivergrove that the boys should look into.
Luckily, the boys are starting to suspect Hell's tricks, and they aren't fooled for long. They realize the woman Bobby talked to had an accent, same as the fake call they got earlier that Crowley warned them about. Sam realizes that was the same night he met Steph, who also had an accent. Things are starting to piece together, and not in a good way. They realize Azazel's girl – likely the same from Sam's vision – is a new player on the board and they know troublingly little about her.
The name Rivergrove, however, does sound familiar, but when they google it to find out why Azazel would want them there, they run into one of Dean's worst nightmares, one he through he left far, far behind him. Croats. Sam talks him into going, despite the fact this is one battle Dean absolutely refuses to pick.
They form a plan for keeping the people of Rivergrove alive, since they at least know what's coming this time. Unfortunately, like everything Time has a say in lately, it doesn't last long. While trying to round up the infected townspeople using Andy's power, they encounter a demon hidden among the town's police force. Andy ends up shot and infected by the Croats, and the three boys have to make a run for it, hiding out in the medical clinic Dean remembers. On the way, they run into the same Sergeant that teamed up with them last time. Only, Dean is starting to suspect there was a demon hidden among their numbers last time too, and he starts to get awfully suspicious of the coincidence.
Unfortunately for Dean, he picks the wrong civilian. He's so focused on the Sarge that he misses the real demon in the group, who quickly over powers him and kills the Sergeant. Sam and Andy are forced to flee, but don't make it far before demons corner them as well. All three of them are taken to the local high school, where Sam and Andy are escorted to see Azazel, and Dean is left at the mercy of a bunch of demons determined to beat him within an inch of his life.
As Dean prays for Cas, knowing Azazel will force Sam to drink more demon blood, Sam tries to stay strong. Azazel uses Andy for leverage, injuring the already injured man further. Finally, just as Sam agrees to drink the blood if Azazel will heal Andy, Castiel answers Dean's call. Only that was exactly what the demons were hoping for, having laid a trap for the angel. Castiel is caught in some sort of demonic angel's trap that damages her grace. Dean, forgotten about in the chaos, is able to disable the trap, freeing Castiel. Tom, who was present to activate the trap, flees his vessel. Azazel, who arrives shortly after Cas is freed, is exorcised by the angel, who pulls on the grace in Dean's chest in order to beat the Prince of Hell.
Sam, who just barely kept from drinking the blood, arrives once Azazel's power disappears along with him. Andy is missing, sent away by Azazel, but they don't have time to search for him. Castiel is hurting and they have to leave before Heaven comes to investigate the massive surge of grace and power.
They angel-air back to Bobby's, where Cas insists she has to leave immediately. Dean tries to stop her, but fails. She promises the brother she confided in, Uriel, will help her heal. With that devastating reveal, she leaves Angela Garrett's unconscious, brain-dead body in Bobby Singer's living room.
Chapters 45-50
(The Cold Oak Arc)
Once they get Angela hooked back up to the life-saving machines in Bobby's guest bedroom – uncertain if her soul is still in there, but no way to know until Cas gets back – the boys head for Cold Oak. It's the most logical place for Azazel to have sent Andy. Dean tells Sam about Uriel, and the younger Winchester tries to reassure him that the traitorous angel is unlikely to kill Cas. She'll be alright until she returns and they can warn her. Dean is less than reassured, but what else can they do but wait?
In Heaven, Castiel is gravely injured, but with Uriel and Malachi's help, he evades Zachariah's growing suspicions and enters a healing trance. Malachi is less than impressed and believes they should eliminate Castiel. Uriel refuses, convinced he can bring his brother to their side.
Andy wakes up in Cold Oak, healed from the last near-death experience only to be stuck smack dab in the next one. He remembers Dean's warning about the Battle Royale, and that he might have to kill the other kids there with him. Two of them seem harmless enough; there's an emo kid named Scott who can electrocute people and a Berkeley Softball player named Amanda who can read peoples' thoughts. And then there's Jonathon, an asshole whose power Andy doesn't know until it's too late. Jonathon, bolstered by the Yellow Eyed Man's promise of a better life and anything he wants, attacks Andy first, slitting his throat to keep him from using his powers.
Scott tries to stem the bleeding by cauterizing the wound with his powers. Andy passes out from the pain and Scott, kind of having a panic attack and thinking he just killed Andy faster, makes a run for it. Amanda, torn between following after and taking care of Andy, never gets to make that choice. Jonathon, whose power is teleportation, blinks back into existence behind her, and then both disappear.
When Andy comes too, he's in more pain than he's ever been in his entire life, and he's alone. There's no sign of Amanda, Scott, or Jonathon. It kills him to leave the first two behind, but he quickly realizes that he's on death's doorstep himself and if he's going to help them, it's by getting out of that town and finding Sam and Dean. He heads for the woods.
In the forest, he encounters a demon, who tries to kill him as well. Andy manages to stop her by controlling her with his thoughts alone, a power that both terrifies him and saves his life. He's able to get far enough away from Cold Oak to get cell service and call Dean and Sam. They're only a handful of minutes away, having already been headed that way. They use the GPS in Andy's phone to track him and meet him along the road nearest to him.
He's in bad shape, but insistent that the two Winchesters head back to Cold Oak to save Amanda and Scott. They're incredibly reluctant to leave Andy, who refuses to go back to that town, but they ward, salt, and arm him. Their trip to Cold Oak takes just two hours. They find Scott and Amanda, both dead by Jonathon's hand, and the remains of their murderer, ripped to pieces by the demon Andy encountered in the woods. They build a hasty funeral pyre and head back to their wounded friend.
On their way out of the National Forest, they drive past a ranger, who happens to spot the orange light on the horizon. A sure sign of a forest fire in the direction of Cold Oak. He heads that way, at the time ignorant to the photo his dash cam has captured of the boys and their 67' Chevy Impala. Upon discovering the funeral pyre and three partially burned bodies, facial recognition is run on the image captured, and the FBI are immediately alerted.
Chapters 51-54
(The Hospital Arc)
The Winchesters take Andy to a hospital north of the forest, in the city of Sturgis. He's taken into surgery immediately, and after several harrowing hours late into the night and the next morning, doctors confirm he'll survive, though he has been permanently muted. Knowing such a serious injury will require significant recovery time, the boys get a motel room nearby and hunker down.
Learning from Chuck's writing that Azazel has been sent back to Hell and Tom is busy looking for a new body, Persephone takes the opportunity to sneak away from her usually constant babysitters. She steals a car (learning how to hotwire and drive via YouTube and a lot of trial and error) and arrives at the Winchester's hotel as they sleep. She breaks into the Impala's trunk, intent to steal the makings of the paralytic hex bag Chuck showed her. Realizing the opportunity to also gain one of the hex bags the boys have been using to hide themselves from heaven, hell, and everything in between, she ends up breaking into the front of the Impala. Her initial intention is to discover the contents and how it was made, but upon breaking it open she realizes those contents were not in the trunk, so she can not recreate it. She leaves the hex bag spread out on the hood of the Impala along with a note to be more careful. It is unclear whether it is a warning or a threat.
Andy, in coming to terms with being mute, begins practicing talking via his newfound mental powers. He uses Dean as a guinea pig, deciding to send him images of gay porn as a joke. Dean is less than amused, but Andy declares the test a success and realizes he can communicate via images, without having to exercise control over anyone.
Victor Henriksen arrives in Cold Oak in his constant chase to catch the Winchesters. An unidentified blood pool that doesn't match any of the recovered bodies leads him to start checking nearby hospitals. Meanwhile, Dean reveals he has been working on a plan to get Cas back from Heaven, worried about the angel. He's going to summon an angel Cas trusted in his timeline and try to pass along a message if the angel plays ball. Sam, worried about the inherit danger in this plan, makes Dean promise he won't do it without first telling the younger Winchester.
God-slash-Chuck pulls some crafty tricks to keep Agent Henriksen from spotting the boys on his way into the Sturgis Hospital. It gives Dean time to realize they're in big trouble, and the three manage to flee the hospital – Andy barely well enough to leave – before Victor can catch up to them. They head for Bobby's, knowing the road is no place for their injured friend. Back at the hospital, Henriksen orders the FBI tech analysis department to comb through phone records for every number that used a cell tower near Sturgis. He's going to find the Winchesters, one way or another.
After acquiring a new body, Tom manages to contact Azazel who is stuck in Hell. Though reluctant, the Prince of Hell must confide in his son Hell's real plan to raise Lucifer. Tom will have to be his eyes, ears, and hands on Earth if they're too succeed. He tells the demon to find a new location for the Battle Royale, as Cold Oak has been compromised.
Chapters 55-65
(The Heaven and Gordon Walker Arcs)
When they arrive at Bobby's, the old hunter has Andy start learning ASL so he can communicate with the non-supernatural world without freaking everyone out. After a brief recovery period where the boys finally get some sleep, they head for Lafayette, Indiana. Bobby found a possible werewolf case that needs looking into – a guy stabbed in a parking lot with a silver blade.
Once in Lafayette, the boys realize the case is a bust. The guy wasn't a werewolf, there's no sign of who murdered him, and the use of a silver knife, while definitely eclectic, doesn't seem to be supernatural. Tired of waiting, Dean takes the opportunity to enact his Cas plan. He doesn't want to wake Sam (a weak excuse) so he leaves his brother a note before heading out. He has to drive further out of town than he hoped because of a car following him – probably Sam – and ends up at a closed gas station on the outskirts of Lafayette.
There, he prays to Balthazar, hoping the angel has his ears on and will listen to some puissant human he doesn't know. He hopes including that Cas is in danger may motivate the dick with wings. Many hundreds of miles away, but not nearly as far away as Heaven, Balthazar, who is alive and living a secret life of human luxury, hears the prayer. He's torn. Castiel is his friend, possibly the only family he cares about, but helping will blow his cover. Balthazar chooses to ignore the plea for help; Castiel will be fine without him, he always is.
Frustrated when Balthazar doesn't show, Dean throws caution to the wind and prays to Rachel, instead. She was Castiel's second in command during Heaven's civil war, and though she was pretty cold and unimpressed with the Winchesters, she wasn't an angel that actively tried to kill Cas at any point. So she's his next best option. She does show up, uncertain as to why a human who claims to be the Righteous Man, knows of her or Castiel, but intent to find out. Dean is able to convince her, especially of Uriel's betrayal, as she never particularly liked or trusted that angel. She returns to heaven, promising to find Castiel.
Unbeknownst to Dean, the man who killed their not-werewolf with a silver knife, who followed him out to the gas station, was Gordon Walker. Who is now hidden on the rooftop above the pumps, sniper rifle lined up. He kills Dean Winchester with a single shot to the head. Before leaving, he takes a photo of the body – proof of the kill, and maybe some leverage against the younger Winchester – and steals Dean's phone. What better way to lure Sam in than with a text from his brother?
Sam, back in the hotel, woke to Dean leaving. He considered following, but a knock on the motel door interrupted his decision. Thinking it's Dean, who forgot something (and is going to get the lecture of a lifetime for leaving a note rather than waking him), Sam is surprised to find an unfamiliar woman in the doorway. Her name is Ava Wilson, and she's convinced he's about to die. She tells him about a vision she had, of him getting blown to pieces in some rundown house, and he realizes she's one of Azazel's children. He tries to get a hold of Dean to confirm, but his brother doesn't answer. Moments later he gets a text from Dean with an address. Ava confirms that's the house where he dies.
Castiel comes out of the healing trance in an unfamiliar human paradise. His awakening alerts Uriel, who arrives to check on his condition. While discussing his recent treks down to Earth and how Uriel believes they must stop or they risk discovery, Castiel tunes into angel radio. He realizes he has many prayers from Dean, and as he listens to each he realizes with growing dread that the angel in front of him is not the brother he thought he knew. He confronts Uriel about his plan to help Lucifer rise. It ends in a fight which Uriel easily wins, knocking Castiel back out, tying him up with grace, and hiding him in a different paradise.
Dean wakes up to a pleasant memory of his thirty-sixth birthday, celebrating with Sam and Cas in the bunker. It takes him some time to realize it isn't real, but as soon as he does he knows he's in Heaven. It was a happy memory, and there's really only one supernatural place or thing that causes those with such vividness. He breaks out the same way as the last time he was in the attic, finding a door and expecting a road. Only he stumbles into a hallway lined with doors, his own labeled with his name, birth date, and apparently death date. Probably not a good sign. Realizing someone friggin' iced him and he can't remember who or how, he takes off in search of Castiel. He's in Heaven, after all, why waste the opportunity?
Rachel, meanwhile, is searching for Castiel when she hears two passing angels discussing the death of the Righteous man. Realizing Dean did not wait for her to return, and instead got himself killed so he could find Castiel himself, she takes off after him. Against all odds, he is not in his personal paradise, so now she must search the halls of Paradises until she locates him. When she does, she is less than pleased, but he swears he didn't get himself killed on purpose. They team up to locate Cas, who she believes is hidden in a human paradise. She leads the way.
Sam sends Ava back home to her fiancé armed with a hunting knife (in case Azazel tries to take her). He then heads to the address Dean sent him. He doubts it's his brother, but he has to find out what happened to him. Wary of Ava's vision, he disables the first trip wire and grenade. Unfortunately, he wasn't prepared for the second. The explosion leads Gordon to think he's successfully killed the younger Winchester as well. A mistake he regrets when Sam pulls a gun from him on behind and demands to know where his brother is.
In Heaven, Dean and Rachel split up to search paradises. Dean finds Castiel first, being tackled by the angel who mistakes him for Uriel. Surprisingly, Dean is able to dissolve the grace binding Cas, something a human should be incapable of. Castiel is worried about the influence of his alternate self's grace on Dean's soul, but there isn't time to ponder it. The two flee as Uriel arrives. He tries to stop them, and ends up chasing them as Castiel bursts through Heaven's gate and heads for Earth. Rachel, alerted by the commotion, tries to follow but his stopped by Heaven's guard.
They hit the ground hard, Uriel landing almost immediately after. Castiel tries to shield the Righteous Man from his furious brother, but he is still weak from the demonic trap in Rivergrove, and Uriel is overpowering him quickly. Dean, in a desperate bid to save his angel, steals Uriel's angelic blade off of him and stabs him through the chest. Uriel dies in a burst of light and wings that Dean, for once, actually sees.
Sam and Gordon struggle in a life or death fight. Gordon reveals Dean is dead and Sam, in a blind rage, uses his powers. Gordon is further convinced Sam Winchester must die. He manages to shoot the younger hunter in the shoulder, shattering his phone in the process. Sam gets him in the leg, and the two are at somewhat of a standoff.
Taking Uriel's blade, Cas and Dean fly to the last place he remembers; a gas station on the outskirts of Lafayette, Indiana. There they find his very dead body. Cas heals his body, leaving it a glowing beacon that calls to Dean. But before he can hop in his body, Castiel passes out. Realizing he won't be able to see the angel – who is vessel-less at the moment – once he wakes up, Dean drags Cas over to the Impala and gets him the back seat. Then he steps into his body, waking up. He surveys the gas station, looking for evidence of the sniper, and finds a spent shell on the roof. He recognizes the amo Gordon Walker used when he tried to kill Sam in the original timeline, and realizes what's happening.
Driving the Impala as fast as he dares back towards the motel, Dean is desperate. Cas is passed out in the back seat (he hopes, since he can't actually see the angel), his cell phone is missing, and Sam's next on Gordon's list. He has no way to warn his brother until Castiel wakes up, true voice trying it's very best to shatter every window in the Impala. He sends Cas to Bobby's to get a phone so they can warn Sam or at least find his location. When Cas returns, he's too injured to stay in the driver's seat, and Dean gets to meet one Angela Garrett. Sam doesn't answer – his phone either off or dead – and so Dean resorts to calling the Roadhouse. He gets Ash and Ellen to hack Gordon's phone and get them the GPS. While they wait a painful five minutes in awkward silence, the two end up having a very surprising and embarrassing conversation about Dean, to his horror, 'tapping that.' 'That' being Cas. Dean regrets ever meeting Angel Garrett, aka, Dragon Lady.
Once they have a location, they leave the Impala about a half mile away from the house and Cas flies them in. They land smack in the middle of a fight between Gordon and Sam. Sam, who realized his brother's only chance at returning to life was Cas, is relieved to see them both. Dean, on the other hand, has a bone to pick with Gordon. Then he's most definitely killing the bastard. Sam stops him while Cas restrains the hunter, revealing herself as an angel. He called the cops before arriving at the house – they gotta go. The words are hardly out of his mouth when the sirens become audible. The three leave Gordon for the cops.
Too weak to fly, Cas sleeps in the back of the Impala while the boys head as far and fast from Lafayette as possible. On the way back to Bobby's, Sam talks about Ava and Dean, vaguely remembering the woman, realizes she's in trouble. They find her apartment in Peoria, but arrive too late. Her fiancé is dead and bloody and Ava is missing.
In jail awaiting arraignment, Gordon Walker gets one visitor: a very special agent, Victor Henriksen.
Chapters 66 - 74
(Dream a Little Dream of Cas'es and A Futuristic Con-Fab)
Sam insists they need to go to Cold Oak to try and find Ava. If Azazel took her, that's the most likely place she'll be. Dean doesn't disagree, but they've been run ragged and need rest. Cas is hurt, Sam got shot, and Dean just came back from the dead. They need a recharge, or they'll end up making the kind of mistake they can't afford.
Luckily, they have friends. They may be friends Dean is loath to bring into this, but he also knows they can't possibly go it alone if they want any chance at succeeding. So they call Ellen, asking her to find some hunters to go check out Cold Oak. The only ones she knows in the area are Asa Fox and Jo, who's been hunting with him for a couple weeks now. Dean immediately refuses the offer – they'll go themselves – prompting Ellen to ask why they needed the help in the first place. She knows somethings up. Learning that they're exhausted and been through the ringer – she was part of helping find Gordon, after all – she insists they catch a rest while Jo, Asa, and Bucky go investigate. They'll be careful: recon only.
Dean and Sam arrive at Bobby's which is on the way to Cold Oak. They plan to get Cas hooked up to the machines, so she won't have to focus on Angela's body, and can heal herself. She'll need to enter a healing trance, which Dean could assist with, given the grace in his chest. While Bobby and Andy patch up Sam, Dean enters a dream with Castiel – both of them.
The dream takes the shape of the bunker, a home for both angel and human at different times. Castiel has questions for her counterpart, namely about Naomi. While Dean revels in the homesickness of being back, however fleetingly, in the bunker, and heads to the kitchen to grab a beer, Cas shows Castiel what Naomi did to them in another timeline, cementing the horrible realization that Castiel can never go back to Heaven. When he returns, Castiel enters the healing trance, and Cas and Dean are awarded a moment to talk.
Cas guides Dean in the best way to stop the Apocalypse. He suggests they find a reason to kill Lilith before the final seal; a reason that has nothing to do with the apocalypse. Such as trying to free a contract. At first Dean balks – he's told everyone he won't sell his soul this time, damnit – before he realizes there were others they knew back then who'd made a deal. Like Bela Talbot. Cas also warns that he might not always be around. He's not always lucid currently, and that's likely to get worse until he fades away completely. Dean refuses to let that happen; he'll save him.
When Dean wakes back up, hours have passed. At first, he's mad; they were supposed to head out to Cold Oak after only an hour of rest. But Sam assures him there's no need. Jo called from Cold Oak. Ava wasn't there. Andy suggests their activity there, and the crime scene they left behind, likely meant the location was compromised for Hell's use. They must have found another place. While enlightening, the information is not helpful for finding Ava. They're back to square one – the original timeline – with a missing woman and a Battle Royale set to happen in an unknown location.
Jo, Asa, and Bucky also decided to come to them, rather then meet at Cold Oak or anywhere in the middle. It allowed the boys to get rest, and also the crew – including Ellen – to ambush them with something of an intervention. Ellen and Jo want to know what's going on. Caught between lying and revealing a truth less believable than any lie they might come up with, the Winchesters decide to tell everyone present the truth. They reveal that Dean is from the future, rather than psychic, that Sam and Andy were infected with demon blood as infants and now have special powers, and that it's all in an effort to bring about the apocalypse.
It takes some convincing, but in the end Ellen and Jo are on board, agreeing to help stop it, whatever it takes. Asa seems agreeable enough, even if Bucky is less convinced. Dean worries about what involving any of them will cost in the end, but it's also nice to have people on their side.
Many miles away, Ava Wilson wakes up in a haunted house armed only with the knife Sam gave her and no memory of how she got there. Unfortunately, she isn't alone. There are ghosts and other kids just as special as she is.
In Hell, Azazel joins Lilith. They need to be heading for the hellgate soon, but first Lilith has a job for Crowley. She tells him to meet up with Ruby, who he assumed, based on rumors, had turned traitor. Unfortunately for him, he doesn't know why Lilith wants him working with Ruby, and whether it bodes ill for him.
Chapters 75 - 80
(The Bank Heist Arc)
The boys hit the road while they wait for Cas to heal back up. They work cases for three weeks until one lands in their laps that sounds awfully familiar. A set of bank and jewelry store robberies that screams shifter, and one Ronald Resnick who saw the whole thing and has a theory all his own. They head to Milwaukee to talk with Ronald all about his mandroid suspicions, and end up taking him along with when they scope out the bank.
The shifter is posing as the bank manager, but before they can get out of the bank without being noticed, planning on following the creature back to his lair after hours, Ronald gives the game away. The shifter makes a run for it, and Ronald pulls a semi-automatic rifle out of his jumpsuit, firing in the open bank, making it look very much like the robbery Dean was trying to avoid this time around.
Dean decides to purposefully take the bank hostage. They lock it up so the Shifter can't escape, test the civilians with their only silver knife before locking them in the vault. Ronald and Sm are on hostage duty while Dean chases the Shifter. The police are outside soon enough and make the first call to negotiate. Ronald picks it up unwittingly, sparking a fight between him and Sam that draws Dean back. The three argue away from the vault, so as not to frighten their hostages, but unknowingly allow the shifter to sneak into the vault in a new skin. The phone rings again, and Dean demands to speak with FBI agent Victor Henriksen and him only. Dean takes Ronald with him to hunt the Shifter, giving Sam a break and some space. The pair finds the shifter's old skin and his fresh kill, which they recoganize as a man they saw only moments ago in the vault. They head back to Sam, running out of time before the FBI shows up.
They come up with a plan to take the civilians out of the vault in small groups, until only the Shifter remains. Henriksen arrives on scene, calling for Dean. But the Shifter is on to the hunters, and after the first two groups are removed, he attacks one of the other hostages. Sam rushes in to save the man, who's bleeding to death, while Dean and Ronald take off after the shifter. Ronald is in the lead, running through the bank lobby after the monster in a shockingly familiar repeat of events. Dean tackles Ronald as he enters the beam of the police spotlights, and a sniper's bullet breaks a window, taking the two men down.
Dean's hit in the shoulder, too close to the chest. The wound will be fatal. Unconsciously he prays to Cas while insisting Sam leave and get Ronald out. Cas shows up before Sam is forced to leave his brother behind. She gets the three of them out, healing Dean once they arrive safely at Bobby's.
Henriksen is left with an empty bank, a puddle of too much blood, a missing 1967 Chevy Impala, and video survailanece showing the same woman from Baltimore.
To Be Continued...