What up. SCOOBYNATURAL. That is all.

Love you people. Go do something nice for someone else. I need to know there's still good in this world.

Jenmm31- thank you. You mean more to me than I can tell you.

A/N- this is part 2 of a three part story. If you haven't read the first part, please go back a chapter and read, otherwise this ain't gonna make a lick of sense. In this story, Natalie is 17. Please see profile page for disclaimer.

Part 2

Luckily for Natalie, Sam listened to her side of the story before threatening to dismember her.

Unluckily for her, now it was after that.

"I'm with your dad on this one, Natalie," Sam fumed, pacing around the war room of the bunker, his hands on his hips. Natalie was curled up in a chair on the opposite side of the table from Sam, her legs tucked into her chest like they always were when she was in trouble. Dean sat at the head of the table, still fuming but lost in thought, running his thumb along his bottom lip absentmindedly. Sam whipped around and faced her again, but didn't stop pacing. "Why the hell didn't you tell us any of this two days ago? Were you trying to do the solo thing again?" He stopped and fixed a glare at his niece.

Natalie resisted the temptation to sigh heavily, knowing that Sam would get pissed if she did so. He was already pissed enough as it was- he NEVER called her 'Natalie' except when she was in deep shit. She looked him right in the eye as she spoke, once again painfully aware that facing an angry Sam was almost as bad as facing an angry Dean. Almost.

"Like I told Dad, I thought I had gotten rid of the reaper. I didn't think it was that big of a deal."

"Did you kill him?" Dean interrupted harshly, breaking out of his reverie. She hemmed and hawed for a moment, but finally answered.

"I didn't have anything on me that would take down a reaper. No."

"So you knew you didn't really get rid of him," Dean said bitingly. Natalie hung her head. When he put it that way, it seemed a lot simpler- and obvious.

"No, sir," she admitted quietly.

"Then I wanna hear the rest of this story."

*FLASHBACK- TWO DAYS AGO*

Natalie couldn't believe what she had just heard. In fact, she must not have heard right.

"I'm sorry- did you say you wanted me to KILL Castiel?"

"That's right."

"Fuck off."

Cullum chuckled, turning on his heel and beginning to pace, which made her absolutely furious, for some reason. "No, see, you don't understand, dearest."

"Fuck all the way off."

He rolled his eyes at her linguistics. "It is my job to ensure that the natural order of things stays intact. That the creatures that are supposed to die- die. Simple as that. Castiel has been an incredible anomaly when it comes to avoiding death. He should have been mine years ago, but alas- someone upstairs clearly likes him."

"So you're planning on going against the will of God? Is that it? Just to bring Cas down?"

He stopped and gave her another patronizing look before resuming his pacing. "You believe Castiel being alive is God's will? Since God has been missing in action for the last, I don't know, THOUSAND years or so, I hardly see the need to bring Him into this."

"Well, if someone upstairs likes Cas, then, as you said, maybe it would be in your best interest to do as I suggested before and fuck off. All the way."

Cullum began wringing his hands dramatically. "But, you see, it…upsets me. Castiel wrecks the natural order of things, so I want to bring him in. He would be the…let's say…crowning jewel in my collection." The insane twinkle in his eyes was shiver inducing.

That twinkle was unnerving. Not only was she dealing with a supernatural creature- she was dealing with a nut job. "Why do you want Cas so badly?" she asked, almost curiously.

The twinkle in his eyes turned to cold, hard steel. "I have my reasons. He needs to be dead. Let's leave it at that."

In response, Natalie pulled out one of her Bulls eye throwing knives from her boot and sent it sailing, whistling through the wind, where it slid neatly into Cullum's left breast. After the knife found its mark, Cullum bit his lip, simply reached up, and plucked it from his chest.

"Impressive marksmanship, but you had to know this wouldn't kill me," he said, twirling the knife in his fingers, watching the silver gleam in the moonlight. The whimsy returned to his eyes. "A skilled hunter such as yourself knows that there are only two things that can kill a reaper." He eyed her up and down mockingly. "You don't appear to have Death's scythe or an angel blade up those flannel sleeves."

Natalie shrugged without apology. "I know. Still made me feel better."

Cullum made a pouting face at her explanation, before pocketing her knife. "I'm keeping this," he said, as if he was a five-year-old playing finders keepers. "So I take it you won't help me," he said, a tone of dry annoyance in his voice.

"Castiel is my best friend," Natalie thundered at him. "He's family to me. Why the hell do you think that I would kill him?"

Cullum, who hadn't yet stopped pacing, opened his hands and shrugged. The wild gleam appeared in his eyes again, as if Natalie had just baited her own trap. "That's just it. I DON'T expect you to do it- right off the bat. Like I said, this is a challenge for me. I want the irony of the thing to be just as satisfying as the death itself. Long story short- I'm booooooooooored," he finished, whining like a child. "And I want Castiel. So this is how I'm going to do it."

"Why don't you just kill him yourself?" Natalie asked hotly, not really wanting to ask the question, but years of training had taught her to keep whatever she was facing talking as long as possible. He'd slip up. He'd reveal his weakness. And then she'd know how to take this son of a bitch out.

Cullum stopped and turned back towards her on his heels, his praying hands perched against his lips. "Because that would take all the fun out of it," he said in a voice laced with insanity. "Not to mention the pesky little problem that Reapers technically can't KILL people. They can only take those who have been touched by Death. I mean, I can assist with that…"

"Really. And how's that?" Natalie asked dryly. Before she could even draw a breath to continue the mocking, a sudden rushing sensation filled her entire body. She suddenly felt shoved to the side, even though her feet hadn't moved one bit. She felt trapped in her own brain.

"Because I can do this," Cullum whispered from inside her head. To her horror, Natalie realized that the Reaper had possessed her, and she was completely powerless. She had no control over her limbs, her mouth, nothing. She even felt his race through her thoughts. Just as quickly, she felt another rush of wind, and Cullum was standing before her, his mouth pressed together in an impish grin. Before she could even choke out the first curse word, he leaned in to her.

"Now, before you try to- ahem- tear me to shreds- rest assured that I don't want to win like that. I don't want to possess you and force you to kill Castiel. That's cheating. No no, I much prefer you to do the killing of your own accord. It's just a nice little ace in the hole to have, should you continue to be stubborn."

Natalie found herself breathing hard- the sensation of being possessed was horrific. Not only did she feel like she'd been filled to the brim with an unholy substance; it brought back the memory of the brief time when she'd been possessed by a certain yellow eyed demon in the past. Her stomach turned and threatened to empty its contents. She wanted to answer him back, but she wasn't sure she could open her mouth without vomiting. She gasped for breath and pushed down the bile as she listened to the bastard monologue.

"I can make it very worth your while. I can promise you protection from Death, himself. Although, I guess you Winchesters kind of have your own…'thing'…with Death, so maybe that's an empty offer. I don't know. All I know is that I'm willing to give you whatever you want, if you just do me the teensy favor of driving an angel blade into Castiel. Also, and this may be asking too much, but I'd love to see it happen, so if you could be so kind and-"

"Listen up, you pathetic, wrinkled, masochistic mother fucker," Natalie growled, finding her voice and glaring up at Cullum with her eyes ablaze. Upon seeing that look, Cullum actually stopped talking and took a step back from her; his eyes were wide as he beheld her fury. Natalie felt the Winchester blood surge through her veins, with all the fire and rage of a thousand generations of all of the Men of Letters. In a low, controlled growl that would have made even Dean's hair stand on end, she continued. "I will never kill Castiel. So if you ever try to make me kill him- you possess me, possess HIM- whatever- I will find Death's scythe, steal it from him by whatever means necessary, and shove it so far down your throat, you'll have to get a proctologist to remove it."

"Well, that's a bit extreme, don't you-"

"I'M NOT FINISHED," she thundered, rendering him speechless again. "I will ward every surface of every dwelling I have against you, and I will do the same for Cas. Because buddy boy, if you EVER come for Cas on my watch, I'm going to throw the entire arsenal of heaven, hell, and everything in between at you. And I ain't never lost a fight yet. You got me?" she snarled, still in perfect control as the rage flooded her system. She both looked and felt ten feet tall. Cullum opened his mouth, shut it, and opened it again.

"Fine," he said simply, an arrogant, temperamental look on his face. He snapped his fingers and was gone.

"You done getting that slime off yet?" Dean called suddenly, unfrozen from his suspended-in-time state.

Without missing a beat, Natalie answered back. "Almost." She was too shaken by the entire encounter to say anything else.

*END FLASHBACK*

Dean gripped the back of the chair next to his daughter's tightly. "And you really thought that was it."

Chewing on her bottom lip, Natalie replied in a small voice. "Yes, sir." Dean exhaled noisily, shoving the chair a bit as he suddenly stood up. The sudden scraping noise of the chair on the ground made her flinch a bit. Dean looked at his brother.

"Do you believe this, Sammy? I know we taught her better than that."

"You're damn right, we did," Sam answered back evenly, before looking at his niece again. "Natalie, how could you honestly think that that maniac was just going to give up that easily?"

"I didn't," she said, looking up at Sam. His eyebrow shot into his hairline. She quickly amended her statement. "Well, okay, I mean that I thought he would still try to get to Cas, but not through me. I still warded the Bunker against the reaper yesterday morning, and I warned Cas. I just didn't think the bastard would make such a blatant attempt again so fast."

"And that's what led to you getting your ass tossed in the slammer?" Dean growled, reminding Natalie of her own tone of fury that night. She nodded in response, gulped, and continued the story.

*FLASHBACK- YESTERDAY*

"Castiel?"

A rush of wind.

"Hello, Natalie. Why are we meeting in an alley?"

Natalie looked around them quickly to make sure no one had seen or heard him pop into existence. She had been doing this for about fifteen minutes prior to calling Cas, ensuring that no one would accidently stumble down the broken concrete road and discover them. She answered in low, hushed tones.

"Because I'm afraid that if I try to meet you at the bunker, the son of a bitch that is after you will track me and find his way in."

"Someone is after me?"

"Yes," she answered again, looking around in a panic. "A reaper. Said that you've 'disrupted the natural order', and that he wants to set things right."

"This wouldn't, by any chance, be Cullum, would it?" Cas asked, the displeasure evident in his voice. Natalie reared back in surprise.

"How did you know that?"

Cas's face became a mask of annoyance and alertness. "Because this is not the first time he has attempted to-" He raised his hands and made air quotes. "-'bring me in'. He seems to have a personal vendetta against me, ever since I was taken from him."

Natalie held up her hands, not able to process the information so casually flung at her. "Whoa, hold on. 'Taken from him'? What does that mean? He had you at one point?"

Cas looked grim. "Yes. One time, I got into a fight with some of my brothers when Eve was trying to free herself. I was killed in the fight. Cullum was supposed to reap me, but when he tried to get me to follow him, something pulled me out of his grasp, and I found myself back here on Earth."

"Any idea what pulled you back?"

"None. I wish I knew."

She didn't have time to puzzle out what or who had brought Cas back from the dead. She waved her hands impatiently as if to say, let's get on with it. "Well, all that aside, the asshole is back."

"And he has involved you in his pursuit this time?" Cas asked, his gravelly voice straining at the stress of this revelation. Natalie nodded. Without warning, Cas spun on his heel and immediately began walking away. Surprised by his response, Natalie quickly ran to catch up to him.

"Cas, where you going?" she asked, grabbing the sleeve of his trench coat. He didn't stop walking, but didn't remove her hand either.

"I'm taking the fight to him. He has involved you in his petty squabble, and I will not stand for that," Cas answered back evenly, the fire igniting in his eyes. Natalie had only seen that fire a few times before, but she knew what it meant. Castiel was on the warpath, which was never a good option for anyone. She quickly darted in front of him, blocking his way.

"Whoa, hold on there, Cas," she said, putting her hands gently on his chest, forcing him to stop. He obeyed the pressure of her hands, his blue eyes flicking down to her green ones. "Listen. I know you want to protect me, and I love you for that. Okay?"

"No one will ever harm you, Natalie. Not as long as I'm around."

"And I know that. Okay? I've always known that. But please- this guy- there's something about him that really freaks me out. And you know this works both ways- there's nothing that I wouldn't do to keep you safe, either."

"I…know this as well."

"Good. So you know that I can't let you go charging off to face this guy."

"Natalie, I am an angel of the Lord. I will be alright."

"CAS. Listen. I've already pissed him off by refusing to play his game on his terms. That means that he's going to trying anything, and I mean anything, to get to you. Please don't go running into the trap."

Just then, Castiel's blue eyes raised and focused on something behind her. A grim look set on his mouth. "It looks like we're too late. We've already stepped into the trap." At that, Natalie whirled around. Cullum was standing on the street corner, about a block away from them. With a sinister look on his face, he raised his hand and fluttered his fingers mockingly.

Natalie's face blanched. "You've got to be kidding me. He's already trying this shit? It hasn't even been twenty four hours since I told him to go fuck himself."

Cas locked onto Natalie's upper arm. "You need to get out of here. Now," he commanded.

"No way. No way am I leaving you alone with this psycho," she shot back, pulling her arm from his grip.

"NATALIE."

"CASTIEL."

Angel and Teenager locked eyes for a moment; each determined to win the silent battle. With a growl and a shake of his head, Cas finally let her go. "Just as stubborn as your father," he said a bit disapprovingly.

"Damn straight," she said back with a familiar grin. Cas rolled his eyes, and then went into protective angel mode.

"Stay behind me. I won't let him get to you. Are you-" Before he could even finish the sentence, Natalie pulled out an angel blade. "Of course you are," he said, completing the thought as to whether or not she was armed. Both of them moved in tandem towards the open street, knowing that would make it more difficult for the reaper to act. It was the end of the day, just after 6, and there were quite a few people along the thoroughfare. Natalie thought to herself that there was no way this idiot would try something in broad daylight.

From across the way, Cullum's beady eyes narrowed in on the silver shaft in Natalie's hand. He seemed to be assessing something. With a patronizing tilt of his head, he suddenly disappeared.

"Wh-where the hell did he go?" Natalie gasped, surprised. She wildly looked around the street, trying to find any indication as to where he must have gone. Suddenly, the man walking down the street towards her lifted his hand and fluttered his fingers- in the same way Cullum had just done moments before. Natalie steeled herself, but just as instantly a woman across the way caught her attention by fluttering her fingers. Then the child holding his mother's hand, crossing at the crosswalk. Then the teenage girl coming out of the storefront. With a chill running up her spine, Natalie realized what was happening.

"Dammit," she whispered breathlessly to Cas. "He's jumping bodies. At light speed." Just then, a woman started walking across the street towards them. When she saw both Natalie and Cas looking at her, she broke into a run. Just as Natalie reared the angel blade back to stab her, the woman suddenly stopped running and looked mildly confused, then terrified at the shiny metal stake about to be driven into her heart. Then, out of nowhere, the man who was walking on the sidewalk towards them started running. Natalie shoved the bewildered woman out of the way, who fell to the ground with a shriek. Before the man could engage either of them, Cullum jumped bodies again, this time, into a teenage boy carrying what looked like take-out. He turned, dropped his plastic bags, and began charging Castiel.

Despite the speed at which it was happening, Natalie instantly figured out the game. Cullum was going to keep her distracted. He was going to get her so twisted and confused by constantly jumping meat suits in the hopes of her accidentally stumbling in her confusion and killing Cas, that it was entirely possible she was going to leave a pile of innocent victims in a heap before he was done.

Her mind spun out- how was she going to get out of this? Cas couldn't just zap her off the streets- what if one of the people caught either one of them and went along for the ride? Not to mention, reapers were just as adept at jumping through time and space as angels. There was no guarantee that it would be safer anywhere else. She couldn't run- Cullum would use the humans he was jumping in to block her. She looked down at the blade in her hand and cursed. She was holding what could kill Cullum- or Cas, if Cullum could distract her enough. Of course- that's what he wanted. She had to get rid of the blade safely, and get away from Castiel, somewhere where Cullum couldn't get to her- and fast.

Her eyes darted wildly around the street. That's when she saw the car. "Son of a bitch," she growled to herself, knowing the wrath she was about to bring down on herself for this, but she was out of options in her panicked state. Without another thought, Natalie darted over to the police car parked at the curb. The cop sitting behind the wheel seemed startled at the tiny teenage girl running straight for him, and began to get out of the vehicle. With the force of rage and desperation seeping through her body, Natalie jammed the angel blade directly into the cop's headlight.

"What the HELL?" the cop roared. Before he could move, however, Natalie twisted around towards Castiel.

"CATCH!" she yelled, throwing the angel blade towards him. Praying that he actually caught it with his hand and not his chest, she waited for what seemed like an eternity as the blade spun through the air. Castiel snatched it effortlessly. Natalie exhaled in relief, before screaming, "GO!" at him. She could see the indecision in his eyes, but he knew just as well as she did that this was their only option at the moment.

Just then, the cop reached out and grabbed Natalie, whirling her around and pressing her to the hood of the car. "You're under arrest for the assault of an official police vehicle!" the cop said, still unable to dismiss the shock in his voice from the little seventeen year old busting out one of his headlights randomly and in broad daylight with what looked like a railroad spike. He twisted her arms behind her back and pulled out his handcuffs. In the confusion of the crowd screaming, and being cuffed, Natalie watched Castiel take advantage of the chaos and disappear. She heard a scream of frustration in the distance.

"Take that, asshole," she muttered at Cullum, as the cop shoved her into the back of his car.

*BACK TO PRESENT DAY*

Both Sam and Dean were very quiet as she finished her explanation. Her eyes started darting back and forth nervously, waiting for one of them to break the quiet. They seemed to be having one of their silent conversations. She HATED when they did that, but it was still better than yelling. Finally, when they seemed to have reached some mutual conclusion, they both turned to her. She felt her insides turned to lead as they both glared at her.

"If I EVER get another call sayin' I have to come bail your ass out of jail-" Dean started.

"Dean," Sam said disapprovingly, giving his brother the back-the-hell-off look before turning a more compassionate one onto his niece. "Look, Bug, I get why you did what you did." She waited, expecting the other proverbial shoe to drop. "You were in a tight spot, and it was quick thinking. You got someplace where you'd be locked up, by yourself-"

"No chance of hurting Cas-" she added eagerly, grateful that Sam was her ally in this.

"And where it was pointless for Cullum to jump you, seeing as you yourself couldn't get to Cas even if you were possessed," Sam finished, nodding his head in agreement.

"Yeah, yeah, quick thinking, that's just great," Dean barked, interrupting his brother. But I still wanna know why the hell you didn't speak up in the first place. Why you thought it was A-Okay keeping this from your uncle and me," Dean growled, still not having it. The phone call from the police station had really done a number on his brain, and he was dealing with it in his typical Dean fashion- by yelling out his fear.

Natalie sighed, defeated. "Look, I…screwed up," she admitted. She originally wanted to choose a different word to make Dean truly understand that SHE understood how badly she'd messed up, but having Sam on her side was important, and he still didn't take too kindly to her swearing, even after all these years. "I know I screwed up in not telling you guys. I just really thought that I had a handle on it, and I didn't want you guys having to deal with something that was stupid and petty."

"Kid, ain't nothing petty in this line of work. You know that. You know damn well that we need to know about shit like this, whenever it happens. So I hope this teaches you a lesson that you don't forget, because if I ever get a call like that again, you bet your ass I'M going to teach you a lesson you won't forget. Got me?" Dean said in his forceful growl.

Natalie hung her head, ashamed at being scolded like a child, even if she did deserve it. Biting her lip hard to give herself the courage to look up, she met his gaze and said evenly, "Yes, sir. I'm sorry. It won't happen again." Dean's face relaxed slightly, and he nodded, once. Natalie knew that meant she had been forgiven. She quickly looked over at Sam for his reaction. He was smiling his benevolent smile at her, which made her heart feel better.

"Good," Dean said, accepting her apology. "So now- the next step is pretty damn clear." Natalie's eye flicked back to her father.

"Are we gonna go after Cullum?"

"After we take care of one important thing."

*SPN SPN SPN*

"Just hold on- it'll be over soon."

"I'm perfectly fine."

"Yeah, right. Tell me another one."

"Okay, then just…shut up. I don't want to think about this." The buzz of the needle was torture enough. If she actually had to think about what was happening, she'd definitely pass out. The tattoo parlor had been open late, which wasn't necessarily a good remark on its cleanliness and precision, but Dean was insistent that it had to happen now.

He had kept his daughter from getting the anti-possession tattoo for a while, insisting that it wasn't needed- that she wasn't ever going to get close to needing it. Even after her encounter with Azazel's brother, he had still made up an excuse that none of them fell for, but didn't challenge him on. The truth was, secretly, he knew Natalie hated needles, and he didn't want to put her through the pain of having one jabbed repeatedly into her skin as was necessary when getting a tattoo. But things had changed in light of recent events, and he was out of excuses.

He sat next to her, watching the spot on her back become black with ink. She had outright refused his offer to hold her hand at first, but after about five minutes in the chair, she had reached over and snatched his hand, not letting go. He didn't tease her about it- he just hung on.

They had mutually agreed that she was going to get the tattoo on the upper part of her back, on the left side. Originally, she and Sam had both agreed that she should have the tattoo in the same place as the boys- directly over her heart. But Dean had dug in his heels, remembering all the times that he had shown his own anti-possession tattoo off. He didn't want his daughter exposing her boobs for any reason, let alone a stupid tattoo. So he insisted that it be on her back, still over her heart. She hadn't argued, she had just sat down, face first in the chair, and waited for it all to be over.

*SPN SPN SPN*

"It's probably going to sting for a while, Bug," Sam said, trying to console her. She just glared at him, but didn't say a word. "We'll put lotion on it when we get home. That'll help."

"Thanks," she said begrudgingly. Sam gave her a sympathetic squeeze on her right shoulder, not wanting to cause any more pain. He knew her grumpy attitude was from the pain of the needle and the guilt she was still feeling, and he didn't take it personally. They walked back into the bunker. Sam immediately fetched the lotion. When he returned to the war room, he made his way over to his niece and waited.

"I'm fine," she said stubbornly.

"Bug."

She sighed again. "Fine." She lifted up the back part of her shirt so Sam could get to her tattoo. He peeled off the protective covering and gently rubbed some lotion onto the new ink. The relief of the cooling substance made her sigh in pleasure. Sam suppressed a smile and his "I told you so" and kept rubbing her back.

Dean wandered around the war room, thinking, planning. On his fifth lap, Natalie couldn't take it anymore and finally spoke up.

"So now what?" she asked, praying that he wasn't going to ground her from this battle. She had to fight. She had to get this bastard back. And Dean knew it.

Dean met her gaze and gave her an ironic grin. "Now we all take the fight to him."