The story takes place right after the season 10 finale, after Dean killed Death, the Mark of Cain was removed and Darkness was released into the world. I mentioned before, new characters will be added and thrown in the story and I will bring back several former characters from the show in the upcoming future.
Chapter 104 Return of An Old Friend
Dean and Sam just kept on staring with shock look on their faces at the two photos that Dean was holding showing what appeared to be a recent photo of their suppose to be dead close friend of Charlie. She appeared to be in a motel room wearing a long-sleeve striped T-shirt and jeans and was just looking up at the camera with a little smile on her face. Looking at the picture just brought back all kind of feelings for the two brothers as they never forgotten how they lost the girl who was like the sister they never had to death all because she made the misfortune of helping them. She was working with Sam on how to find a way to rid Dean of the Mark of Cain using that Book of Damned causing her to be tracked down by a member of those creepy Styne family who murdered her.
They will always remember the image of seeing Charlie in that motel bathtub where her lifeless body laid out all bloody from being stabbed to death. Dean still has the image of him wrapping her body in those sheets carrying her into the car and inside the trunk while Sam cleaned up all the blood. Then giving her that hunter's funeral in the middle of the woods. Neither of them got to tell her how much she meant to them and that made it sting a bit more when the lost her. Now they are glancing at suppose photos of her but this couldn't be true, this had to be just a trick, another cruel trick of them by Rowena to manipulate them, to mess with minds again and this just enraged them especially Dean all the more. Ava was looking all concerned as she stood near Dean.
"Dean, please tell me, what's wrong?" she asked him.
"This can't be freaking real, now way in hell!" cried out Dean with a half angry and half hurt look on his face as he was trying to maintain his composure.
"I can't believe it either" replied Sam who was also looking like he was about to cry.
"What, what can't you believe?" asked Ava.
"Yeah guys, you two are really freaking us out, what's in those photos anyway?" asked Adam.
"It's Charlie, but that's impossible!" cried Sam.
"But nothing's really impossible boys" replied Rowena smugly.
"Charlie, you mean your friend Charlie the one who died?" Ava asked as she went over to have a look at the photos herself.
"Yeah, you told me about Charlie your little friend that was killed not too long ago" replied Adam.
"Oh my, Sam" Gwen added looking quite surprised herself as she went over to look at the photo too.
"There is no way in hell this is Charlie, you bitch, you're just messing with us again!" Dean roared angrily at Rowena who wasn't intimated at all but just stood there calmly.
Both Crowley and Castiel just stood there looking confused while Rowena just shook her head.
"I'm afraid I'm not, you see that really is your not-so-departed dear friend in those photos. She's my leverage you see" replied Rowena.
Dean just shook his head while Sam couldn't take his eyes off the photos while Dean was still holding them up looking conflicted.
"No way, this is a trick, one of your hocus pocus or maybe a shapeshifter you had helping you!" Dean fired back.
"Sorry Dean, it was no shapeshifter, no magic trick, the girl in the pictures really is the very much alive Charlie. I know this is quite a shock for you boys, but I'm telling you it's all real" said Rowena.
"Oh my" replied Madame Bess who had been quiet all this time, but she also had a funny feeling about all of this.
"May I see the photo Dean?" she asked him as she walked over to where Dean was.
"Sure" said Dean quite confused and still not over his shock.
He handed one of the photos to Madame Bess who just stared right at it then gasped.
"What a minute, I remember this woman when I was with her not by my own choice. She was there when she and her witch friend brought her to that mansion and then tracked down the other witches, such an evil presence they were. Anyway, she was there serving Rowena's will just like I was but wasn't called Charlie, it was Celeste" Madame Bess said as she kept analyzing the photo before handing it back to Dean.
"Celeste, that was Charlie's real name" said Sam.
"Yes, you all know Charlie or Charlene Bradbury's real name was Celeste Middleton, she told me so herself. You see, I thought Charlie or Charlene was too flat, Celeste sounds more intriguing as a name so I just called her that" replied Rowena with a smirk.
"But how the hell could you have Charlie when she is dead, we know because we saw her dead body, we were the ones that cremated her with a hunters' funeral!" said Sam.
"What exactly did you do mumsy?" replied Crowley a bit frustrated himself by all of this.
"Well, if you all just give me a chance, I will explain to you all everything" said Rowena patiently.
"You got just one minute lady!" said Dean who was still skeptical about all of this and yet a part of him was scared that or was hoping it was all true.
"Well, after I escaped from my demon son and his sidekick here" said Rowena glancing over at Crowley and Castiel.
"I took the book and the codex and the notes of course and went into hiding after daylight vanished and the sky just went all black. Anyway, I hid out somewhere in a motel for a few days where I used most of that time using the notes to decode the codex and then decode the book for hours and found plenty of useful spells that I wrote down. One was a resurrection spell where you can bring a recently deceased person back to life. That's when I remembered you Sam dear telling me about your little red-headed friend who had died helping you decoding the codex and how sad you were on her passing" she said glancing at Sam who just had a sad and guilty look on his face.
"Anyway, I remembered how quite useful your dear friend Charlie or Celeste was as she managed to decode the codex that you needed to decode the book and all and how loyal she was to you Winchesters. So, I just started thinking about how useful she could be to me should the occasion arise, so I decided to resurrect her myself" she finished.
"How could you possibly resurrect Charlie, like Sam said we cremated her body for Christ's sake!" cried out Dean angrily.
"You can be quite surprised by what I can do luv, with the help of the book of course. The resurrection spell I used doesn't require a body or a skeleton for that matter, it works whether the body is burned or not" she said.
"Just get on with, how did you supposedly bring back Charlie?" asked Sam impatiently who himself was overcome by his emotions.
"I'm getting there dearies. Where was I? Oh yes, I first needed to locate where you cremated her, so I performed a ritual where I could see a vision where you guys took her body first. Then I gathered all what I needed to perform the resurrection spell. It took me some days, but I managed to get everything I needed first. Tracking down a reaper to take me into purgatory owing him a favor in return because the spell requires the blood of a creature in that realm as well as a heart. It wasn't easy, fending of creatures running for my life, hiding from being maimed by those beasts but I managed to find a werewolf which I slayed using silver and collected it's blood and cut out its heart. I honesty wonder where those creatures go after you slaughter them in that place, come back alive again with a new heart or something?" she replied taking a brief pause. Then she went on with her story.
"Anyway, I got what I needed and with the help of that reaper got out of that place. I also had to find a soul of a human, so I stumbled upon a dirty hobo to collect his soul, of course it requires me to take his life and perform a ritual to collect his soul" she said.
"You mean you ganked some poor bastard for his soul?" replied Dean not impressed by her actions.
"Hey, that was what to spell required and if it wasn't for that your friend wouldn't be alive again, so I suggest you be a bit grateful Dean Winchester" she said arrogantly.
Dean just gave her an annoyed look.
"Just finish you story, there mum" said Crowley.
"I am. Well, after collecting his soul in a jar, I finally found the spot where you cremated your little friend. I sprinkled the blood of the werewolf from purgatory over the spot in a pentagon shape and with the other ingredients, I performed the ritual to summon her back from the dead. It would have taken me even longer if it weren't for the Darkness being released from it's cage you know. The spell normally had to be performed by the lunar eclipse of the moon but by using the energy of the Darkness in my ritual that did the trick instead. And after performing the spell successfully, sure enough Celeste back from the dead materialized alive and well" Rowena explained.
Dean and Sam were quiet for few seconds looking like they were just processing everything they just heard.
"You're telling us not only did you resurrect our friend by killing some hobo so can use his soul but you're saying you used energy from Darkness to help bring her back to dead!" Dean barked still anxious about all of this.
"Hey, I had to use whatever that was necessary, you needn't worry about it corrupting her or anything, she was the same old quirky chatty gal you remembered and loved so you should be thanking me and instead of complaining that I brought back your old pal especially since she got axed trying to help you lot" Rowena fired back.
Dean felt a bit wounded upon hearing that last remark but tried not to show it.
"So anyway, even if you brought her back, Charlie would have totally contacted us unless you did something to her" replied Sam who was also wounded by Rowena's remark but was trying to hide it.
"Well, if you let me get back to my story. As I said, when I brought your little friend back she was totally unclothed as I expected. Luckily, I made preparations beforehand. Good thing about the Darkness being out and on the planet is it caused a lot of chaos, I mean lootings and everything. Some even raided stores. I just decided to use the opportunity to take part and I found a nice retail store that was already being looted and helped myself to some women's clothes for myself and of course Celeste. I didn't quite know her size although I have a good instinct on women's sizes, so I took some clothes that seemed close to her size, they were of different sizes that I felt could fit her and when the worker or anybody else gave me trouble, I just used my advanced servitude spell from the book so they wouldn't be a problem. Then I gathered them all in a couple of suitcases I took and borrowed a car, of course I had to use magic to influence the chap into letting me borrow it and I was off. When Celeste materialized, she was quite confused and a bit disoriented indeed being nude and all and not remembering much of what happened to her and seeing that the sky was dark. I had to reassure that she was safe and gave her the suitcases of clothes and just told her to pick out anything that fits and while she was getting dressed, I explained to her about everything that happened. It did come back to her what happened being in the motel bathroom and being stabbed to death by that Styne creep" Rowena finished.
"What happened next Rowena" Dean said getting impatient again.
"Well, I told her about performing the spell to remove the Mark from Dean here thanks to the notes you sent Sam and figured it caused the sky to go dark, she was so anxious to contact you guys and get back you both, but I just couldn't allow that. Like I said, I brought her back because she could be useful to me and more ways than just being leverage against you fellows. So of course, I used my servitude spell on to make her be under my control as long as I want" Rowena said.
Dean and Sam were once again silent for a while again trying to process everything they heard.
"This is all so much" said Dean who was lightly shaking his head again.
"I can assure you everything I said is real Dean, your precious Charlie or I say Celeste is alive and well out there all because of me" she told them.
Madame Bess then walked up to Rowena and spoke up. "You know I can tell you if anything she said is true" she said.
"How?" asked Ava.
"I can simply touch her see in my visions if anything she said is the truth like I did before when we were trapped in that other world" she replied.
"That's right grandmom, we both can do that but your more skilled in it than I am" said Gwen.
Sam just turned to Dean.
"Well, it's worth a try Dean" he told him.
Dean just nodded his head and said, "Okay then" still looking like he was having a hard time believing all of this.
"Do whatever you like deary, you learn that I'm telling you the truth" said Rowena smugly.
"Let's just see" said Madame Bess and with that she touched Rowena's arm with her hand.
After a few seconds nothing seem to happen but then Madame Bess appeared to be a in a trance that lasted almost a minute while the others just stared in curiosity. Finally, she released Rowena's arm and was out of her trance and had a surprised look on her face as she turned back to the others who were waiting for an answer.
"Well, what did you see, is this all true?" asked Sam as both he and Dean had anxious looks on their faces.
Madame Bess just nodded her head. "She's telling the truth boys, I saw everything, it's all true, she really did bring back your dear friend back from the dead using questionable forces I dear say" she replied.
"Hey, a girl gotta do what a girl gotta do and I just did what it took and you all should be singing my praises" she replied.
"For what, you just basically brought our friend back from the dead using some poor bastard's soul and sources from the Darkness, kept her from us and had her as your personal slave all this time?" Dean fired back angrily.
"I wouldn't say slave, I would call her my assistant and she was quite the useful assistant indeed. I mean she would decode other spells from the book for me freeing me for other useful things, like shopping. She hacked into computers including the bank so I could obtain money, she was a good décor so I could help myself while out shopping so I didn't have to use my servitude spell so much, she helped me locate the other witches so I could form my own coven and when I just needed someone to brush my hair, get the bags for me, fetch and serve like a good little servant" she replied.
"Like I said she was your personal slave" said Dean.
"If you want to get technical about it" she fired back.
"You know the one thing I'm wondering about is if you had Charlie with you this whole time, when tracked you down here in the city trying to flee at the airport, how come Charlie wasn't with you, she wasn't even at the hotel with you, I mean where was she, what did you with her?" Sam asked.
"Well, I had left dear Celeste with some of the members of my coven at Isadora's place to finish her work and which was translate the spells from the book which I written down in a notebook all the codes the decodes and the letters to translate them. I instructed her to do whatever Isadora commands while I arrived in this city in order to find a headquarters for my coven as I needed a lot more space than Isadora's home and we heard rumors that the grand coven heard about me trying to establish a coven so I wanted to make sure it was a place they couldn't find us and something that was big enough for anyone who wanted to join. I was seeking out a nice rich gentleman I could trick into having access to his home and make him my slave if you say, then I would have sent for the others, when I got those visions of you Winchesters and your little red-headed girlfriend here tracking me down and capturing me, so I had to make my exit plan and find new state to go to, and when I sent you guys away I thought my problems would be over but foiled again as you say" she finished.
The others just listened to her stride taken in everything she was saying but Gwen still looked a bit confused about something.
"Speaking of your visions, I was always wondering if you had these psychic abilities, then why take my grandmother with you, put her under your spell so she could see visions for you?" she asked sternly.
"Oh dear, about my powers to see the future, you see the problem is they are quite temporary and have side effects that causes a massive migraine, I'm talking feeling dizzy like your head is about to explode. I couldn't go through all that, so when I found a chance to use a real psychic instead, it saved me the trouble" she replied.
She then turned back to the others.
"You said you kept her partly as leverage, then why didn't you tell us you had her when we caught you?" asked Sam.
"Like I said before, that was as a last resort. I still had a trick up my sleeve when you fellows thought you had me trapped. Sending you on that wild goose chase for that spell that wind up sending Dean and girlfriend here to the Underworld, knowing that my dear departed friend Isadora would track me down here and rescue me. But now I have to admit that I'm all out of back-up plans, no more tricks up my sleeve and as much as I would love to keep my little assistant around, I value my freedom more" she finished.
"One thing I'm wondering about all this is, when me and Crowley charged to the mansion and fought off your coven, we didn't see any sight of Charlie at all, where was she if she is still alive?" Castiel who had been silent for awhile asked.
"Yeah, I was just about to ask that too" said Dean although he hadn't thought about that until Castiel mentioned it being so overwhelmed of the idea of Charlie being alive again.
Rowena just gave that sly grin again.
"Of course, as you fellows didn't know, when we discovered that you and your little army were in town and spying us out outside waiting, I decided to send Celeste to the cellar to move her out of the way just in case anything would happen even though I admit I didn't see you all storming inside my mansion coming but it was a cautious move, because I simply had a funny feeling that day for whatever reason. I even sent Madeleine, a member of my coven to go down with her and watch over her as she continued decoding spells from my notebook to keep her busy again taking precaution because of the gut feelings I was having were getting stronger. Then my old comrade from the grand coven Olivette showed up of course, and then you my son with his demon army charged in and all chaos was loose. You fellows were so busy fighting my coven that you didn't even notice Madeleine who had come up from the cellar hiding, I noticed her peeking around a corner and just looked at me, I gave her a nod and she got the message, and quickly retreated back into the cellar unseen. I know in my gut that she grabbed Celeste and they fled the through the back door in the cellar that leads up to the backyard and from there they escaped to safety" she said.
"If that's true the where the hell is Charlie now or do you know" demanded Sam.
"I have a good idea where Celeste is right now but I'm not telling any of you not until you can ensure my freedom" said Rowena smugly.
This angered Dean even more who was really growing impatient. He just learned Charlie is alive and he isn't going to waste time playing Rowena's game. He walked up to and got up in her face.
"Hey look bitch, you tell us where Charlie is or else!" he barked at her.
"Or else what? You're going to kill me, torture me, I already pointed out that you can't do any of those things anymore as I'm invincible now and if you don't believe me, be free to help yourself and try, and if you hand me over to my son here to lock me away in some pit for eternity, you won't have any chance of seeing your precious Celeste aka Charlie again. For if I don't have my freedom neither does she, and she is still under my spell and I'm the only one that can remove the spell from her. So, fellas, you got a choice here, release me and I will take you to her and release her from my spell or keep me a prisoner and never have a chance of finding her" she said with a satisfying look on her face.
Dean was seemed even angrier and was about to grab her when Sam stepped in and grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back.
"Hey Dean man, you got to calm down, going after Rowena like that won't help" he told his brother.
"Dammit Sam, she has Charlie and we need to get her back, and I'm not going to be played by her again" Dean said.
"I know man, but I don't like this either but there is a good thing about all of this. Charlie is alive, she really is alive, that's what really matters" Sam said with a happy look on his face.
Dean started face also looked like he was about to cry again as memories of Charlie started coming back to him. Sam was right, their good friend Charlie was really alive and their guilt over losing her started to flood back too.
"Hey, I never knew this Charlie, but I can tell that she was someone important to you both and the guilt you two felt when she was gone but now as Sam says, she's alive and now and you now have a second chance to have her in your life again" said Ava as she gently put her hand on Dean's shoulder to assure him.
"I agree with what Ava said, this is good news for you two and I have a feeling it will all work out alright" Gwen chimed in.
"Boys, this may be a blessing in disguise although she did use dark sources to bring back your friend form the afterlife but and you have a chance to reunite with your friend, I agree with what the girls said" Madame Bess added.
"Dean, Sam I didn't get to know Charlie the well you two did, but I saw how close you all were and remember how you felt when she died, you two were devastated. I can see how excited you feel now that you learned that she's alive even if it was because of Rowena. This is great news and we can just focus on that and figure out what the next step to take" Castiel added.
"Hey what everybody else said" was all Adam said.
"Okay, okay, enough with this sentimental crap, good old Charlie is alive, woopy and as much as I am happy you got our other little sidekick gal pal back that doesn't change a thing for me. My evil mother here is coming with me after all a deal was a deal, I'm not just letting her go not even for you fellas" Crowley fired back at them.
"Hey, like I said, if you want your precious surrogate little sister back, you better release me and let me bring you to her. If not, then she remains forever under my spell somewhere out there where you may have no chance on finding her. For all you, she could be headed out of the country soon, so what is it going to be, Charlie and my freedom or no Charlie and no freedom" she told them sternly.
Dean and Sam just quickly exchanged glances at each other realizing there was only one thing they had to do.