After washing her wine glass, Dina drove over to Jun's place unannounced and he was pretty surprised to see her.
"I love you, Jun, let's get married," she said without preamble.
"What? Wait, what? What the hell?" he said.
"If we're going to be fighting a war soon that there's no guarantee we're going to survive, let's do something crazy first and get married."
Jun frowned. "Where is this coming from? You don't love me."
"Of course I do. And you love me, I know you do."
"Of course I love you, but I'm not in love with you. We're friends with benefits, not boyfriend and girlfriend. I never thought our relationship was anything but one of convenience."
Dina considered this. Was he wrong? Not so much. But still. "Still, let's get married. We can always get divorced if we both manage to live through this thing."
"In the past few months we've barely spent any time together, not as friends or lovers. All we talk about is work. Or you're off with your sister or Bridget or even Uziel. The two of you always seem to be conspiring together and never sharing with the rest of us."
"Really? I don't think we've been conspiring, just making plans that the fewer people who know, the better. . . ." Dina trailed off. That did make it sound like they were conspiring. She hadn't noticed how much time she'd been spending Uziel or that Jun had been feeling neglected. He hadn't said anything. But she could eat some humble pie. "I'm sorry," she said.
"Now you're sorry because you need me so you can check off an item on your bucket list?"
"Hell no. I don't have a bucket list, I just thought-" Dina broke off. She wasn't even sure what she was thinking anymore. She put her hand on his knee. "Never mind all that, let's just make up for lost time now."
Jun took her hand off her leg. "I'm not in the mood right now."
"Are you scared of the battle?" Dina asked in a low voice. "There's always a chance we won't come back from a hunt, but this isn't the same, is it?"
"No, it's not," Jun said. "Listen, if we both make it back, let's just be friends only, all right?"
She had asked him to marry her and he just wanted to be friends. She'd blown it.
"All right," Dina said, no fight left in her. She'd neglected him, excluded him, and most of all, ignored him when he was inconvenient. Yes, he should have said something, but she shouldn't have taken him for granted. And this was how it ended. Not with a bang, but with a whimper.
That night Sam came home sloshed and happy for the first time in a while. Dina forced a glass of water and an aspirin down her throat to help ward off a hangover in advance and then put her bed. She sat up for a while after that, not being able to sleep.
The next morning Sam didn't seem too much worse for the wear but Dina still poured and served her a cup of coffee. Then she poured her own and joined Sam at the kitchen table.
"Looks like you had a fun time," Dina said.
Sam grinned. "You bet. Dev and Porsha are fun and it's amazing what even a rinky-dink town like this can get up to on a Saturday night. And Porsha and I are going to make a date to go to the mall in the city- if we survive this."
"So, about that. If you survive this, I don't want you to stick around here, I want you to go back to school. You only have a year left to go and I believe you'd been talking about law school after that?"
"How could you say that? After everything we've been through together, after everything I've seen and experienced, how could you think I could go back to a normal life?"
"One of us has to, Sam," Dina said, "and you know it's not going to be me."
"Why does one of us 'have to'? I can do more good for the world as a Hunter than as a lawyer."
"Who says? The world needs all types. Who's going to fight for people's rights if there are no lawyers?"
"Why are you pushing me away?" Sam said.
Dina got a lump in her throat. "I'm not trying to push you away. I'm trying to make sure that you live! I want you to live a long, healthy and happy life because I'm your big sister and I love you and I don't want this life for you."
Sam's chin trembled. "It's selfish for me to be safe and to leave you to face the monsters alone."
"It's not selfish. It's a favor you'd be doing for me."
Sam hesitated, then said, "I don't know if they'll let me back in after five years and I really don't want to do undergrad all over again."
Dina smiled. "We'll figure something out. If we can't find a place that will accept your credits, we'll have Dev create a fake record for you and then you can go straight to law school."
"Let's do that. It'll be cheaper, easier and quicker. I don't like the idea of being an older undergrad either."
Dina leaned over and hugged Sam tightly. "You got it. But you'll have to take the LSAT's on your own."
It was two days later when they all heard the ram's horn sound loud and clear. The battle was on.
It wasn't a pitched battle on a field, but wherever combatants could find each other. Angels against demons. Good witches against bad witches. Humans against vampires. Whatever other creatures that chose sides regardless of who seemed to be their natural ally.
The sun rose and stood still in the sky. Time had stopped for the rest of the world - they weren't witnessing this but when it was all over, they'd experience the fallout.
At first the two sides seemed about equal but over the course of the day, the Devil's side started winning. They were ferocious, determined and underhanded in their tactics. The good witches had never even heard of many of the spells the bad witches were using.
And then when it seemed that things were lost, out came heaven's secret weapon. Dina and Uziel had woken up an ogre who'd been sleeping for a thousand years. He hadn't taken the wake-up visit very well but they plied with food and gifts and left with the promise that he'd consider showing. And now he did. He was as tall as a house and as strong as fifty men, no exaggeration. Bullets and swords just bounced off his tough leathery skin. Some of the bad witches' spells knocked him back, but he managed to bite their heads' off.
Finally it was down to one demon versus one angel. Azazel versus Gabriel.
Azazel, the yellow-eyed demon who'd killed Dina and Samantha's mother.
Dina tried to throw herself into the fray but Sam pulled her back.
"Let me go!" Dina shrieked.
"You'll just be in the way," Sam said calmly.
"I just can't just stand here, I need to do something!" Dina yanked herself out of Sam's grasp and ran up to the warring holy and unholy creatures.
"Why did you kill my mother, you asshole?" Dina yelled.
Azazel stopped in mid-thrust of his knife and said, "Because I could," and laughed heartily.
Gabriel seized that moment of distraction and shoved his blade in Azazel's heart.
Azazel looked shocked, like Gabriel had cheated, and then disappeared in a flash of red light.
Gabriel met Dina's eye, nodded, and disapparated, as did the rest of the angels.
Any demons, monsters, witches and their creatures who still lived, retreated. The battle was over. Heaven had won.