SECTION TWO

Later on…

"Let me know if you want seconds." Angel smirked and put the needle back on the cart with the other tools as Alataris groaned in pain, "There's plenty left."

"Go directly to hell." Angel smiled at that, "Do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dollars."

Back in the motel room…

With her demon eyes ever so present, Ruby chanted as she held a lit candle to the corner of a map, "Relax, the fire is our friend." She quelled as Sam watched the fire spread around the edges tensely, "Besides, the only part of the map we need is the 'where's Angel?' part." She studied the fire once more, "Out."

The flames vanished at her words. The map was charred to unreadability, but a small circle in the middle was untouched.

"There." Ruby pointed after her eyes went back to normal, "Your sisters there. It's a good thing angels aren't concerned with hiding their dirty business. Not used to being spied on." She shrugged and walked away from the tattered paper to lean on the door frame, "I mean, who'd be stupid enough to try?"

"Ruby, it's been weeks…" Sams now stressed and tensed pouty face was on power mode as he turned to face her, "I need it."

She matched his look with her own, "You don't seem too happy about it."

"You think I want to do this? This is the last thing I-" Scoffing, he ran a hand through his hair as he crossed the room to sit on the bed, "But I need to be strong enough."

"It's okay…" Slowly she moved over to him and straddled his lap, "It's okay, Sammy. You can have it."

Leaning down, Ruby kissed him softly as she pulled a knife from her ankle sheath. Pulling away from him she cut her arm, drew blood, and offered it to him. Sam eagerly leaned into her and drank her blood straight from the vein.

"It's okay…" She stroked his hair comfortingly as a smirk spread across her lips, "It's okay, Sammy."

Back in the prison room…

"There's that little pig-poker." Alastair chuckled when he caught sight of Ruby's knife, now in Angel's hands, "I wondered where it went." Angel dipped a ladle into a bowl of holy water and poured it over the blade silently, "Do you really think this is gonna fix you? Give you closure? That is sad. That's really sad. Sad, sad."

Angel then approached him slowly, watched him for a few seconds in silence, and then stabbed him. He grimaced and groaned in pain as the knife sizzled his body. She watched him closely, savoring every second of his pain. Reveling in it. Even though she knew she shouldn't be.

"I… carved you into a ne- new animal, Angel." He groaned out before inhaling sharply, "There is no going back."

"Who said anything about going back?" She drove the knife in deeper until she was inches away from his face and her lips were twitching with anger and hate, "It's my turn to carve."

As she began again Alastair struggled and groaned in his chains, "No!"

Several feet away from them, unbeknownst to both the hunter and the demon, a faucet was turned by some sort of unseen force. It began to drip, right onto the chalk of the devil's trap on the floor.

In the next room…

Castiel listened to Alastairs groans as Angel tortured him, his face tense with concern. The light above him began to flicker, catching his attention, before the bulb exploded.

"Anna."

The familiar woman's voice sounded from behind him, "Hello, Castiel."

He turned to look at her with a look of confusion, one that grew when he saw the body she was in, "Your human body-"

"It was destroyed, I know. But…" She walked up to him and stopped right behind him, "I guess I'm sentimental. Called in some old favors and…"

"You shouldn't be here." Castiel said when she got cut off by Alastair's loud screaming, "We still have orders to kill you."

"Somehow I don't think you'll try." Walking past him she walked closer to the door and peered in sadly at Angel and Alastair, "Where's Uriel?"

"He went to receive revelation."

"Right." Her attention was pulled by Alastair's loud screams once again before she turned back to Castiel with grim eyes, "Why are you letting Angel do this?"

Castiel's tense eyes went to the window before glaring at Anna and turning away, "She's doing God's work."

"Torturing?" She scoffed, "That's God's work? Stop her, Cas, please. Before you ruin the one real weapon you have."

"Who are we to question the will of God?"

"Unless… this isn't his will."

"Then where do the orders come from?"

"I don't know. One of our superiors, maybe, but not him." Anna went to stand in front of him, "The father you love… You think he wants this? You think he'd ask this of you? You think this is righteous?" Her words cut into Castiel and he couldn't even meet her eyes, "What you're feeling? It's called doubt, Cas." She touched his hand soothingly, "These orders are wrong and you know it, but you can do the right thing. You're afraid, Cas. I was too. But together, we can still-"

"Together?" Castiel angrily yanked his hand away, "I am nothing like you. You fell. Go."

"Cas-"

"Go!"

Without another word, Anna vanished and Castiel focused back on Alastair's screams.

Back in the prison room…

Angel twisted the knife in him once more, once again relishing in his pained groan. She roughly pulled it out of him and his head fell forward. Ignoring the blood, she leaned the pentacle with one hand and grasped his head to pick it back up with the other.

"Well…" Alastair choked out a chuckle, "It's your… professionalism that I respect."

Disgusted, Angel ripped her hand off of him and had to turn away. Alastair grinned and followed her with his eyes as he spit out the blood that was pooling in his mouth. Collecting herself, Angel grabbed a ready bowl of holy water and splashed Alastair in the face with it. He once again gurgled and groaned in pain as the water steamed and sizzled his skin.

Angel spoke over his loud choking, "Who's murdering the angels?"

When he didn't answer, she splashed more holy water in his face and watched as he screamed and choked while his skin sizzled. Once he managed to collect himself, he spit out the excess blood and holy water at Angel's feet.

"You're just not getting deep enough. Well, you lack the resources. Reality is just, I don't know, too concrete up here. Honestly, Angie…" He watched as she poured salt into another container, "You have no idea how bad it really was, and what you really did for us."

Her voice came out in a hateful whisper, "Shut up."

"The whole bloody thing, Angel. The reason Lilith wanted you there in the first place."

"Well…" Angel roughly grabbed his chin, "I guess I'm just gonna have to make you shut up."

"Lilith really-"

Cutting him off, Angel poured salt in his mouth causing even louder screams to emit from him. Agonizing minutes later, as she was preparing for her next attack, Alastair spit out blood and tried to breathe.

"Something caught in my throat." He coughed dramatically, "I think it's my throat."

"Strap in, sweetheart." She sent a brief glare to him from the cart as she tied her hair back into a ponytail, "The fun's just beginning."

"You know… it was supposed to be your father." He smiled when he saw her tense as she poured out more holy water, "He was supposed to bring it on. But, in the end, it was you."

"Bring what on?"

"Oh, every night, the same offer, remember? Same as your father." Angel shook salt onto the blade of Ruby's knife, "And finally you said, 'Sign me up.' Oh, the first time you picked up my razor, the first time you sliced into that weeping bitch…" She turned to face him, "That was the first seal."

Inside, something sliced through Angel's body at that comment. Visibly, however, she didn't show any reaction as she walked closer to him.

"You're lying."

"'And it is written that the first seal shall be broken when a righteous soul sheds blood in hell. As it breaks, so shall break the seal.'" Angel stiffened up and turned away from him to regroup as her mind started going three hundred miles a second at his words, "We had to break the first seal before any others. Only way to get the dominoes to fall, right? Topple the one at the front of the line." Shock spread through Angel like a wildfire as tears filled her eyes, "When we win, when we bring on the apocalypse and burn this earth down, we'll owe it all to you, Angel Winchester." She closed her eyes as she tried to quelch her emotions and not react, "Believe me, sweetheart, I wouldn't lie about this." Alastair then noticed the dripping faucet that had now broken the edge of the devils trap, "It's kind of a religious sort of thing with me."

"Well…" Conviction filled Angel, "Even if the demons do win…" Her hand gripped Ruby's knife tightly, "You won't be there to see it."

As soon as she turned around, Alastair was right behind her, out of his chains, "You should talk to your plumber about the pipes."

Grinning, the demon punched Angel so hard she was tossed halfway across the room.