One minute there was light and screeching that ripped through Sam and Dean's ears like a thousand tiny knives. One minute Lucifer was rising out of his cage in a convent in Illchester, the first step in the impending apocalypse. The next thing either brother knew, they were on a plane above the city they were just in. Somehow miraculously out of harm's way as the convent exploded in a blaze of white light and high-pitched ringing that barely anyone understood but them.

They'd ran from the airport before anyone questioned their presence on the plane, the last thing they needed was to be detained for questioning when Lucifer loomed over the Earth. Dean hot-wired a car and got them on the road as quickly as possible. Away from the convent, away from the devil and all the biblical signs that the world was doomed and towards Chuck's.

There was no mistaking something big had happened. The house was torn apart, windows were smashed, furniture was everywhere. The computer that Chuck used to type up the visions he saw was on the floor in complete ruins and blood smattered every surface it could reach. They both wandered through the house towards the kitchen, silently surveying the damage. Dean crouched down by a copy of a newspaper that was only a few days old, wiping up a splatter of blood with his finger. Was it Amelia's? He wiped it on his jeans as he stood back up again; he hoped not.

Something creaked in the living room and the pair spun around, immediately focusing all their attention on the possible threat. After a few moments, nothing appeared so they gingerly made their way back into the room, diverting slightly to make sure nothing was hiding from them, ready to attack. Sam made his way towards the stairs when someone jumped out at him, smacking him across the head with something blunt. He yelled as he stumbled back, Dean spinning around to see a battered and bruised Chuck stood there, as covered in blood as the house, lowering the plunger.

"Sam." Chuck exclaimed, sounding utterly relieved to see the Winchesters.

"Yeah!" Sam replied, holding his head and sounded distinctly less pleased.

"Hey, Chuck." Dean greeted over his brother's shoulder, calming down slightly after seeing Sam wasn't in any danger.

Chuck didn't reply, still amazed at the sight of the younger Winchester. "So...you're okay?" He asked

"Well, my head hurts." Sam snapped in reply, shooting him a very pointed look.

"No, I mean—I mean, my—My last vision." Chuck stuttered out, "You went, like, full-on Vader." Sam shifted on the spot uncomfortably, "Your body temperature was one-fifty. Your heart rate was two hundred. Your eyes were black."

"Your eyes went black?" Dean interrupted and Sam looked over his shoulder at him, ready to try and say something in his own defence. Instead, he just looked down, ashamed.

"I didn't know." He muttered and Dean looked him over. That was another battle for another time.

"Where's Cas?" He demanded.

"He's dead." Chuck replied apologetically, "Or gone. The archangel smote the crap out of him. I'm sorry." He looked away from the pair, devastated at the memory of what he had seen. That little angel in a trench coat had been a favourite in his visions. To think that he was gone was horrible.

"You're sure? I mean, maybe he just vanished into the light or something." Dean countered. Chuck shook his head.

"Oh, no. He, like, exploded." He explained, holding his hands up in the air, plunger still in one hand, to demonstrate the explosion, "Like a water balloon of chunky soup." Dean stared, horrified, turning to pace then spinning back.

"What about Amy?" He demanded, "Where's she at? They can't have got near her, she had them bastard angels protecting her!" Chuck shrugged.

"Last thing I heard was her-" He rubbed his face, "was her screaming for Cas as he exploded. Then, it was all over. They were gone, I hid." He didn't sound proud of his own actions, he could barely look at the pair at all.

"If she'd stopped singing." Sam started quietly, looking to his older brother for confirmation. Or for him to correct him, but Dean didn't. He stared at Chuck, eyes wide in horror at what he was hearing.

"No, you are not telling me those dickless sons of bitches blew her up!" Dean shouted, storming forward as if he was going to physically attack Chuck for even suggesting it. Chuck flinched away as Sam grabbed Dean's arm, pulling him back.

"I'm-I'm sorry, Dean." Chuck offered in his timid stutter and Dean spun, hands clenching in grief and anger. He grabbed the edge of a coffee table, chucking it over, although it made no difference in the decimated room. He flung himself onto an armchair, head in his hands. Sam watched him, more numb than anything over the idea his childhood friend, a girl he'd pretty much grown up with, was dead and gone. She'd paid the price for his selfish, misguided actions. He couldn't think about it, he couldn't think about how scared she must have been, how much it must have hurt. Instead, he turned to Chuck to apologise for Dean, although it wasn't really needed, when he spotted something white in his hair. Off-white, but white nonetheless.

"You got a—" He trailed off, pointing to his own hair.

"Uh...right here?" Chuck asked, reaching up to the wrong side and Sam shook his head.

"Uh, the..."

"Oh." Chuck switched the plunger into his other hand, reaching up into his own hair and feeling for what Sam had seen. Under his fingers was something hard and pulled it out. "Oh, god." He looked at the small bit of bloodied bone he'd found, "Is that a molar?" Dean looked up, "Do I have a molar in my hair? This has been a really stressful day." He told them as he felt himself on the verge of breaking down into floods of tears.

"Is that Amy's?" Dean asked, although none of them knew, they had no way of telling.

"What was she even doing here?" Sam asked his brother.

"She decided to go back for Cas." Dean replied, "Maybe she thought she could save him, I dunno." He rubbed his eyes, "Cas told her that they were stronger than the archangels, maybe she thought she'd be able to stop them."

"So, what now?" Sam asked.

~0~0~0~

Amelia took her first breath in what seemed like her entire life. It burnt her lungs, like fire burning down every vein. She tried to scream, but she just choked, rolling onto her side and curling up. Tiny knives stabbed at her entire body, even her clothes felt like they were tearing into her but she just couldn't get away from the world that was trying to rip her to shreds.

Something grabbed her arm, a firm grasp just underneath her shoulder and she screamed in agony as she was rolled back onto her back. Her eyes squeezed shut at the burning light above her. She had no idea who she was, where she was, nothing else seemed to exist.

And then, it was gone. Another deep breath had her eyes shooting open. Bright blue eyes stared down at her, tinged with a concern that seemed foreign in them.

"Cas?" She asked, sitting up, completely disorientated. They appeared to be outside, by some sort of road if the sound of speeding traffic was anything to go by. It was daytime, and quite warm, "Where the hell are we?"

"About 35 miles outside Kripke's Hollow." Castiel explained, standing up from the crouch he was in, "You seemed to be in terrible pain, do you remember what happened?" She shook her head, slowly climbing off the floor to look into the highway.

"Do you?" She challenged.

"I remember dying." He replied factually, "Then I was here. I shouldn't be alive at all, and yet I'm in one piece." He looked her over, suspiciously, "Did you do this?" She shook her head.

"You exploded. I remember that." She recalled, looking him over. They'd been completely overwhelmed by the angels that had turned up, not just Michael and Raphael but an army of their minions, including Zachariah. In fact, she'd been busy holding Zachariah off who was trying to get to her vocal cords again when she'd seen Cas being grabbed. He'd looked surprised, then he'd exploded, a blast of blood and trench coat. She'd screamed his name, then the same had happened to her, "They smote me! The bastards!"

He actually looked surprised. Well, she guessed surprised, but came off as more strangely confused, "How did they get past the Choir?" He asked.

"I, er, I stopped singing." She replied sheepishly.

"Why?" She stared, slightly stunned because he didn't seem to understand that she saw him explode. The thought dawned on her that she had, in fact, watch him explode in front of her, body and grace going everywhere. He was dead and angels didn't have a heaven, he'd just stopped.

She chucked her arms around him, burying her head in the crook of her shoulder as he stood as rigid as always under her. He tried patting her on the back like he knew humans did, and she chuckled wetly into his shoulder. Was that good? Laughing was supposed to be good, wasn't it? Then why did he feel slightly embarrassed by it?

She pulled back, smiling up at him with shining eyes, "I'm so happy you're okay, Cas." She told him.

"You're crying, which seems to indicate the contrary." He pointed out.

"Oh," She reached up, wiping her eyes, "that's happy crying. Humans do that."

"That's just confusing." He told her factually and she laughed, nodding again.

"It really is." She agreed, before sobering slightly, "We need to get to Sam and Dean, don't we?"

"I fear we may be too late." Castiel replied, finally adjusting to being alive again. The angels were calling out, "Lucifer is free."

"What?" Amelia exclaimed, "What about Sam and Dean? Are they okay?"

"They're on an airplane." He replied.

"An airplane?" She repeated. What the hell were they doing on an airplane? How long had they been dead for?

Castiel suddenly looked upwards, "We have to move." He told her, "No one knows we're alive, but they will come looking for us if they find out."

"Well, let's get to Sam and Dean." She replied, "We can find out what happened, and hopefully stop Lucifer before he finds his vessel." She looked up at him, "I mean, he didn't have a vessel already, did he?" She asked, "Not in the cage?"

"Not to my knowledge." He admitted, "But Sam and Dean will be heavily watched. We need to keep hidden until it's absolutely necessary. All of Heaven wants us dead, and we need to find out why we were brought back." She agreed, although she really didn't like it. So far, anyone being brought back from the dead expectantly hadn't exactly lead to pleasant things. The fact that someone wanted both Cas and herself alive was worrying, and the last thing she wanted was to bring that down on Sam and Dean. They'd have enough to worry about.

"That means I can't call my Uncle Bobby, doesn't it?" She asked and he nodded, "Right, where are we going?"

"There's an abandoned house two miles south of here. I can ward it, which should be sufficient for now." She nodded, opening her mouth to sing so she could move, "Don't!" He barked and her mouth slammed shut again, "If the Choir is summoned, Heaven will notice. I'll do it."

"Oh, yeah, sorry." She apologised sheepishly, stepping closer and taking his hand, "You're much better at this than I am, Trench Coat." He didn't reply, but the pair disappeared as if they had never been there at all.

~0~0~0~

Sam had protested when Dean had refused to tell Bobby about what had happened to Amelia. She was his only family, after all, and deserved to know the truth. All of the truth, including his part in her death. Dean had snapped, telling him to shut up about the seal, that he hadn't known and he certainly hadn't been the one to blow her into a million pieces. This was not something Bobby should have heard over the phone, he'd tell him in person and Sam should shut his pie hole.

They waited in the motel room they'd hidden in, Dean reluctantly agreeing to the use of hex bags that Sam had created. Even he could admit they were helpful, even if that bitch Ruby had taught him how to make them.

Dean sat at the small table the rooms always provided, as if they needed a place to dine in somewhere as crummy as this. He looked at his phone, pressing the menu key. Maybe if he called her, she would answer. But if she wasn't dead, the angels had her and that can't have been a better option. He didn't want her anywhere near those assholes, but at least she'd be alive. Alive and probably being tortured by angels.

He chucked his cell on the table; he didn't know what he wanted. Even the appearance of Becky, which was bizarre to say the least, failed to cheer him up. And she'd been all over Sam, touching his chest, gazing up at him with crazy puppy-dog eyes. At least they now had some sort of a clue to what the angels were up to. Maybe if they got their hands on the Michael sword first, they could bargain with it. Get back Amy, then turn around and cut their fucking wings off.

There was a knock on the door, and he and Sam shared a look. Dean stood up, pointing at his brother in warning as he headed towards it, "Not a word." He commanded before opening the door to reveal Bobby.

"Hey, Bobby." Dean greeted, trying not to flinch as Bobby leant forward, pulling him in for a hug, patting him on the back. He hadn't been entirely convinced that they'd make it through Lucifer breaking free, but they all had and he was immensely grateful. He pulled Sam into a hug of his own.

"Good to see you boys all in one piece." He told them, but his eyes were already darting around looking for his Goddaughter, "Where's Amelia?" He asked them. Dean and Sam shared a look.

"Maybe you should sit down first, Bobby." Sam replied gently and Bobby shook his head. They all knew that look very well.

"Where's my Goddaughter?" He demanded.

"She went back for Cas." Dean explained, "The angels got her."

"Got her?" He shouted, "What do you mean 'got her'?" He stepped forward towards Dean, who didn't move. He wanted Bobby to take a swing at him, Sam knew his brother well enough to know that he felt like he needed to be punished, even when there was nothing else he could have done.

"She wanted to help." Sam told Bobby in the calmest voice he could muster, "She thought the Choir was strong enough to hold back the archangels."

"Those bastard angels!" He shouted, storming off and sitting on one of the twin beds. He ran a hand over his face, the other taking his cap off.

"Look, we understand if you don't want to help." Sam told him after a long, tense pause, "Amelia, she-"

"She didn't deserve to die at the hand of some batshit crazy angel wanting to jump-start the apocalypse." Bobby interrupted, "We've got to stop this son of a bitch getting any further."

"Are you sure?" Sam asked him and he nodded, standing up.

"I can sit here feeling sorry for myself, or I can get even." He decided, "So let's find this sword of Michael, and gank ourselves a devil."

~0~0~0~

Amelia barely looked up as Castiel popped back into existence in the front room of the house he'd found. The stone walls were covered in angel sigils, all warding them from the searchlights of Heaven.

"Did you find them?" She asked, flipping to the next page of a book she'd grabbed off a bookshelf she'd found upstairs. The house didn't seem to have been abandoned for long, although the pile of mail suggested it had been few months.

"They appear to be hiding themselves as well." Castiel replied, "The whole of Heaven is on the lookout for the Winchesters and your Godfather, but no one seems to be able to find them."

"Or us?"

"The Choir seem to be doing their job." He agreed.

"So," She shifted so she could see over the back of the couch, "Can I call my Uncle?"

"I wouldn't recommend it." He replied, walking over to sit on the edge of the sofa next to her. His back was straight and he didn't lean against the couch, but he did sit next to her, "I understand this might be difficult for you." Her eyebrows raised in surprise, he seemed genuine in his concern for her, which was more than she'd seen in most angels.

"It is, actually." She confirmed, "I've never been out of contact from Uncle Bobby or Dean before. Wish I could check they were okay." She put her book down, shifting on the spot again so she was facing him, "What about you, though?"

"What about me?" He asked in reply, his brows furrowed as he didn't seem to understand her question.

"Well, yeah. How are you feeling? I mean, you rebelled against Heaven. You gave me my voice back." She prodded him in the arm, "Thanks for that, by the way. Do you regret it?"

"I believe it was the right thing to do." He replied and she beamed at him, a bright smile that lifted her entire face. It took him by surprise, something that rarely happened to him.

"Good, I think so too." She told him, "I knew you'd do the right thing eventually."

"How?" He asked, because he hadn't been certain that he would. He'd watched on as Heaven did everything they could to raise Lucifer and start the apocalypse and he'd not stopped any of it. He had known it wasn't right, but hadn't stopped them and up until she'd prayed to her mother, he still hadn't been going to. He didn't understand why, but her wish for his wellbeing had been his turning point. That little push he had needed to go out on his own.

"Because you have a brilliant grace, Cas." She replied, in a tone he was sure meant he should have known better, "You're a good angel, a good person. If I had to die I'm glad it was for you."

"I'd rather you hadn't had to die at all." He stated and she laughed again, making the corners of his own mouth twitch. The joy of humans was a staggering sight to see, the fact that it seemed to take over everything in them. It changed how they held themselves, how they saw the world and it was so fascinating.

"Yeah, okay, I'll agree with you there." She told him, "I'd rather we didn't have to die either." He tilted his head to one side; she'd said 'we', not 'I'. She was including him in that sentence, when he truly didn't deserve it. He'd gone against Heaven because of his own feelings for the humans, and he was still struggling with going against orders.

"Any idea why we're still kicking?" Amelia asked.

"I believe so." He replied, "There's only one person that would be able to bring both of us back from the dead while also saving Dean and Sam."

"Who?" She asked.

"God." He replied, so serious that if she had been about to laugh, it dissipated, "He must have been happy with my actions. If I can locate him, then perhaps He can tell me what to do next."

"Cas, I don't think it was God." Amelia told him as gently as she could, "Zachariah said he'd left the building. I don't think he'd care."

"There is no one else this could be." Castiel insisted, "If we are alive when we shouldn't be, then Father must have a plan for us." He looked so sure in his faith, she didn't have the heart to argue with him further. And maybe he was right, after all he was the Angel of the Lord. She just sang and they appeared, maybe there was something he knew that she didn't. Maybe angels could tell when God had disappeared on them, or if they'd been abandoned.

"Okay." She agreed, "It's more than I've got, so we'll go with your theory. Anything I could do to help?"

"You should stay here." He told her, standing up again, "I'll see what information I can gather."

~0~0~0~

Dean tried his best to keep an eye on his brother, he knew what Sam was like and he'd want to do the whole heartfelt apology to Bobby about breaking the final seal and bringing all this shit down onto them. But Bobby wasn't going to take it lightly, in fact the apocalypse would be the last thing on his mind when he found out. The thought that Sam's actioned had led to Amelia's death was something Dean was struggling with himself, he was constantly having to remind himself that Sam had not intended this to happen. His intentions had been good, he'd wanted to stop the apocalypse from happening, he'd not been the one to send Amelia to her death. It was hard to remember that, though, when his actions up until that point had been so twisted.

Bobby had shown them what he'd found out before setting off to meet them, which was that Michael's sword had been what had sent Lucifer down to Hell the first time, so they just had to get their hands on it before the angels did. All they needed to do was decipher Chuck's ridiculous message.

"Kid? You all right?" Bobby asked, causing Dean to look up from one of the many old books Bobby had fetched with him. Sam was stood across the room, staring at the books in front of him like his whole world had crashed around him. He looked up at Bobby, and Dean recognised the look on his face instantly.

"No, actually. Bobby, this is all my fault. I'm sorry." He replied quietly and Dean slammed his book down.

"Sam..." He snapped in warning, but Sam was intent on ruining it for himself.

"Lilith did not break the final seal. Lilith was the final seal."

"Sam, stop it." Dean commanded firmly.

"I killed her, and I set Lucifer free."

"You what?" Bobby exclaimed angrily as Dean shook his head. There was no going back now, why did Sam have to keep talking about it? It wouldn't change anything, it was just a constant reminder of what he'd done.

"You guys warned me about Ruby, the demon blood, but I didn't listen. I brought this on." Dean didn't say a word, what could he say now? Bobby stood up from the table, looking at Sam in angry disbelief. He slowly walked towards the younger Winchester, who looked ready for his punishment.

Dean yelled in surprise as Bobby lunged at Sam, right first connecting with his jaw and sending him to the ground. Dean grabbed the older man, pulling him back before he managed to attack Sam further, "You son of a bitch!"

"Bobby!" Dean barked, "Calm down."

"Calm down? He killed her!" Bobby yelled, "He started Armageddon and he killed my Goddaughter!"

"No, he didn't." Dean told him, "He may have made a few mistakes-"

"A few mistakes?!" Bobby turned to Sam again, who had stood up, blood trickling from his nose as he waiting for the next attack. Bobby's hands clenched by his sides, then he was pointing angrily at Sam, "If, by some miracle, we pull this off...I want you to lose my number. You understand me?" He warned, "Because, if I see you again after this, boy, I'll kill you myself." Sam just nodded, his expression not changing from the guilt-ridden one it had been since Bobby had arrived. Dean didn't defend his brother, he couldn't find it in himself to do so. All he knew was that he was surprised Bobby hadn't killed Sam there and then.

"There's an old church nearby." Sam whispered, the lump in his throat making him barely audible, "Maybe I'll go read some of the lore books there."

"Yeah. You do that." Bobby snarled, obviously struggling to hold himself back as Sam slowly headed towards the door, shoulders slumped. He'd been hoping that maybe Bobby would understand, but equally he had known he didn't deserve that.

Bobby spun as the door shut, aiming his glare and anger at Dean, "How could you not say a thing?!" He raged.

"You think I'm happy about any of this?!" Dean snapped in reply, "He didn't kill her! Let's focus on finding the bastards that did and ripping their fucking halos off!"

~0~0~0~

Sorry there's not much to this chapter, but it was getting so long I thought I'd cut it here :) Sorry to get you all excited, next one will be much better, and as I have some of it done, it should be much quicker as well XD