Iris was taken back to "The Bunker", whatever that was, with a bag over her head. She spent the ride there lying down in Baby's (apparently what Dean called his car) back seat with her hands and feet cuffed. Nobody said much on the way there. Once they arrived, Dean said, "It's probably easier to carry you," and she was thrown over someone's shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Some time later, she was lowered into a hard, uncomfortable chair. She heard and felt the cuffs taken off and new restraints being put on her and then, at last, the bag was whipped off her head.

The Winchester brothers and the angel were there, but now there was the addition of a younger man and an older, blonde woman.

The woman spoke first, glaring daggers at Iris. "I don't believe it. A 'decent' demon? Who sent you?"

"No one sent me," Iris responded. She met the woman's gaze and did her best to put the battle fatigue she felt into her voice. "I've been on the run for years. Even with the spell disguising me, I've had a lot of close calls, and I'm tired of running."

The woman sighed and shook her head, apparently not on board for what was about to happen. She looked askance at the men in the room. "Is it dangerous?" she asked.

"No, as long as the person doing it is not trying to complete the Trials," Castiel supplied. The frown the woman kept indicated she still wasn't happy about this.

"This will take a while to set up, so just sit tight," Sam explained to Iris. He turned back to the others. "I guess since I'm the only one with experience, I should-" Sam began.

"I want to do it," Dean cut in. "Seems like… I dunno, just seems like I should."

Sam looked taken aback. "Uh, okay, Dean. Sure."

Everyone left, apparently to gather the supplies, the younger man asking why they couldn't watch and wanting more information about the procedure. Iris heard the angel promise to take the younger man to the archives before their voices became too distant to hear. It seemed that she was in a hidden room at the back of some kind of storage room. She saw the storage room briefly as the access closed behind those leaving, and Iris was plunged into darkness.

*

"So, I need to inject you with this blood every hour for eight hours. Then I'll say some words, cut my hand, and put my hand over your mouth, and you'll be human again," Dean explained some time later, having brought into the room everything he needed.

"I wish you hadn't told me that," Iris replied. "You know how crazy that sounds, right?" Dean just raised an eyebrow in response. Iris rolled her eyes. "Okay, point taken. Let's just get this insanity over with."

They got through the first few injections without much happening. Dean would leave after each injection, leaving Iris in the dark once again. It was after the fourth injection that Iris started getting sweaty and looking a bit agitated. She was obviously struggling, and she was taking deep, slow breaths to ride out whatever was going on inside of her. "Definitely feeling something," she said breathily, gasping out a strained laugh at her own comment.

By the time Dean came back for the seventh injection, Iris was breathing heavily and drenched in sweat. She was also crying silent tears. "Okay, second to last one. Almost there," Dean reassured her in a low rumble.

"Dean," Iris suddenly said in an urgent tone. Her nose and eyes were red from the crying, and she struggled to talk past her gasping breaths. "I have to tell you something."

Dean tensed up, pulling the needle back in hesitation. Here comes the truth, he thought. I'll bet she's going to tell me what her real plan was, and who sent her.

Dean was surprised, however, when she said, "I'm not a good person. I took the deal, the one everyone takes eventually. I started torturing to get off the table." She choked out a sob. "And I…" Her voice dropped to a whisper. "I enjoyed it. God help me, I enjoyed it." Tears streamed freely down her face now. She looked up at Dean with bloodshot, desperate eyes. "How do I live with that? How can I?" Her head dropped back down. "You should have killed me like I asked you to," she finished dejectedly.

Dean was thunderstruck. He could have been listening to himself from another time. But he didn't know what to say. It wasn't like he'd really figured out the answers to her questions himself. "Look, just… Hang on, okay?" Dean ran a hand through his hair in agitation. "It's… it probably won't seem so bad when we're done," he continued lamely. Dean wasn't good with this kind of thing. Aside from his "no chick flick moments" policy, he just couldn't think of anything good to tell her. Telling her that he hated himself for the same thing didn't seem like it would be very helpful, even if he did dredge up the courage to say it."You'll be human again soon, and things will seem… better." It sounded lame, even to his own ears. But she nodded, head drooped forward, tears dripping down to absorb into her jeans.

An hour later, Dean administered the final injection. He cut his hand and began saying the incantation. "Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus. Hanc animam redintegra," he chanted. Iris's eyes turned black as soon as Dean had started speaking, an inhuman noise ripping from her throat as she jerked against the restraints. Dean put his bloody hand over the demon woman's mouth. "Lustra! Lustra!" Dean cried. As he did so, there was a bright flash of white light, and he was forced to look away, taking his hand away from Iris's mouth as he did so. When the light subsided, he looked back at her. She was slumped forward in the chair, quiet. Dean lifted her face, noticing the blood smeared in a jagged line across her mouth. He lightly slapped her cheek, grimacing as he accidentally smeared blood on her chin. "Hey, come on, wake up!" Dean said in a low but urgent voice.

Iris groaned and opened her eyes. They rolled around a bit before they focused on Dean. He saw that they were no longer black and had returned to being blue. "Well, that was… unpleasant," she grunted in a rough voice. "But I…" she trailed off, her eyes widening. "I can't believe it, but it worked!"

"Sorry, but I'm gonna need some proof," Dean said. He turned back to the table where the injections and blade had been to retrieve a glass of water that had also been waiting there. "Drink," he commanded as he lifted the glass to her lips. She swallowed the liquid gratefully. Dean watched her expectantly.

Once he pulled the glass away, still watching her, Iris's eyes widened in understanding. "Oh, was that holy water?"

Dean nodded as he wound a bandage around his bloody hand. He turned and walked out of the room calling, "Guys, I think it worked!" A few minutes later, the group of five from before trooped back in to look at Iris critically. "Cas?" Dean prompted.

Castiel stepped forward, two fingers already reaching out toward the woman's forehead. Iris flinched, expecting it to be painful, but her expression soon relaxed. It didn't take long for Castiel to open his eyes and let his hand drop back down to his side. "She is human."

"Okay, let's get her cleaned up," Sam said, coming forward to undo her restraints. Castiel and Dean helped steady Iris as they lead her down a hallway and into a bedroom.

"I'm good. You can go," she said once she was seated on the edge of the bed.

The older woman handed Iris a damp washcloth to get the blood off her face. "Okay, we'll keep someone nearby, so call out if you need anything. I'm Mary, by the way," she said. Good way to subtly tell me they'll be watching me, Iris thought as she cleaned off her face. Once everyone left, she kicked off her shoes and crawled into the bed. What should I do now? she thought helplessly as she drifted off to sleep.

*

Iris woke up some time later. Luckily, she couldn't remember having had any dreams. She tried not to think and instead focus on her physical needs. She just wasn't yet ready to face what being human again would mean. She got up and went to the door. When she opened it, an attractive redhead who'd been sitting in a chair across from the door stood up, scooping up a pile that had been on the floor beside the chair. "Hi, Iris! I'm Charlie. How ya feelin'?"

"Good to meet you, Charlie." Iris held one hand up and counted off on her fingers. "I'm in need of water, bathroom, shower, and food. In that order."

Charlie laughed. "I like your efficiency."

Charlie helped Iris get her needs taken care of. Once finished with her shower and in clean clothes, Charlie convinced Iris to hold off on the food for a while so that they could eat dinner with, "everyone who's here right now." The pair returned to Iris's room to talk in the meantime. Charlie started by telling Iris a bit about Apocalypse World and how the human refugees ended up living here in the Bunker.

"You're saying that, even though Heaven won, instead of making good on their promises, they embarked on a campaign to kill all the remaining humans? Why? I thought angels were the good guys from the human point of view?"

Charlie smiled wryly. "You don't know much about angels, do you? All I can think is that angels want submission. Absolute obedience. Because we wouldn't fall in line, they saw us as corrupted. At least, that's the conclusion I came to from what little I've heard from Cas about Angels in general." Charlie glanced at the clock on the bedside table. She chuckled. "That took longer to explain than I thought it would. Ready for dinner?"

Iris nodded. Dinner turned out to include, aside from Charlie and the five people from before, a handful of other folks from Apocalypse World. Iris was introduced to them but promptly forgot their names. They all talked about Iris's redemption over dinner. The younger man from before whose name turned out to be Jack asked, "Does this mean we should be trying not to kill demons? If we can save them instead?"

Castiel, who wasn't eating and simply joined in conversation, shook his head slowly. "I don't think so, Jack. I understand why you would think so, but…."

Sam cut in. "Think about how we usually encounter demons, Jack. They're usually trying to kill us. And usually it's the kind of battle where we're outnumbered and just trying to survive. It's why we've pretty much stopped using exorcism, too. If we exorcise them, there's always the possibility that they could come back, and not all demons respond to exorcism anyway. Trying to capture and redeem demons would really increase the chances of one of us getting hurt or killed."

"Yeah, I guess that makes sense," Jack said thoughtfully. He still looked unhappy, though.

"Honestly, we kinda forgot about it until," Dean paused before gesturing vaguely in Iris's direction, "this."

Iris frowned. "I'm not a 'this'."

Dean rolled his eyes. "Whatever."

"Shouldn't we spread the knowledge, at least?" Jack asked, clearly still dissatisfied.

Mary tilted her head. "You know, that might not be a bad idea. If more people had this knowledge, I'm sure the demons would get wind of it and maybe even be scared by the possibility." Others at the table agreed, and a plan was made to spread the word.

Everyone was almost finished, and Iris thought she'd get through the meal without having to think too much. But then someone did ask the question Iris had been dreading. "So, what happens now?" The question had been asked by one of the refugees whose name Iris couldn't remember.

Iris looked down at her now empty plate. "I don't know," she said in a voice that sounded small to her own ears. "I can't exactly step back into my old life. Honestly, I…" Iris swallowed against the thickness that had suddenly gathered in her throat. "I don't even really remember how to be human. Having biological needs again is…" Iris trailed off.

"Annoying?" Castiel supplied.

She laughed a bit shakily. "Yeah, actually."

"You can stay here until you get your footing," Mary offered. Iris looked at her and was surprised to see what seemed to be genuine concern on Mary's face. She was a bit tempted to be suspicious of her motives but ultimately decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth.

"Thank you," Iris responded with all the sincerity she could muster.

That seemed to be the signal to break up the party. Someone asked Charlie if she was going to take off as planned, but she responded that she'd rather stick around, "while things stayed interesting." She threw Iris a surreptitious wink, and Iris started in surprise. Charlie still departed the room, though, saying she needed to do some research. "Bye, bitches!" she sang as she walked off.

After placing her dishes into Mary's outstretched hand, Iris decided to seek out Castiel and just managed to catch seeing a tan trench coat as it disappeared down a corridor. She trotted to catch up, finally getting his attention as he entered what must have been the Archives. He turned around as he heard her approach. "Castiel, can I ask you something?" The Angel nodded, so Iris went on, though she felt a little cowed under that intense, blue gaze. "With where my vessel came from and me being human now, can you, um, well… can you cure me of anything that might be wrong with my vessel? It occurred to me I might have a ton of medical issues I wouldn't know about."

Castiel looked surprised. "Oh! I see! I healed you of your vessel's major injuries, of course, so that you would not perish upon becoming human. But looking for other disease had not occurred to me. Of course, I will help you." Castiel again reached for Iris's forehead with two fingers, closing his eyes as he did so. Iris also closed her eyes. Her mind's eye went completely white while a comforting warmth filled her from head to toe. She opened her eyes when Castiel pulled his fingers away. "You are now starting with, as it were, a clean slate."

"Thank you," Iris said again, thinking that this had been the most sincere thank-yous she'd uttered in hundreds of years.

"You're welcome." Castiel could see that she had more to ask and tilted his head as he stared at her.

"God it is unnerving to look at you and see only your vessel," Iris muttered. She blushed and looked away. "I'm sorry, I don't know why I said that out loud." She rubbed the back of her neck, looking to the side and at the floor.

"I must admit that it is rather surprising to look at you and see only a human," Castiel responded. "But I assume that is not what you still wished to ask me."

Iris shook her head. "No, I, uh… do you remember when you rescued Dean from Hell? What it was like? What he was like? At the time?"

Castiel's eyes turned soft. "Yes. It is a horrible place. The memory of it must be a terrible burden for you."

"Yeah, but…that's not…" Iris sighed. Her eyes flicked up to Castiel's face and then back down. "Never mind. Um, I kinda need to talk to Dean. Know where I can find him?"

The Angel looked taken aback, but he told Iris that she could probably find Dean in the media room and where to find said media room. Iris thanked him again and left.

After a few wrong turnings, Iris finally found the media room and was relieved to find Dean alone within. She shut the door behind her as she entered. Dean looked up at the noise and tensed when he saw Iris and the closed door. She put her empty hands up in a placating gesture. "I'm not going to hurt you; I just want to talk."

Dean frowned and looked back at the TV. "If it's about what I think it is, I sure as hell don't." Undeterred, Iris came over to the couch. She sat down, picking up the remote and turning the TV off. Dean retreated from the middle to the opposite end of the couch, staring at Iris suspiciously. "You're really not making me feel more like talking right now."

Iris folded her hands in her lap. "We need to talk about what I said, Dean, because there's more."

Dean raised an eyebrow. "More? Whaddya mean, 'more'?"

Iris folded her hands in her lap and took a deep breath. "I told you I took the deal. And you knew what I was talking about." Iris flicked her eyes back towards Dean's face, but his expression hadn't changed a hair. She looked back at her hands again. "I know why that is."

"I assumed basically everyone in Hell had heard about that," Dean replied dryly.

"Yeah, but… Well, I have, um, personal knowledge."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Dean was starting to sound alarmed.

"There's a reason I sought you out. There's a reason I approached you, beyond what I already said. There's a reason I wanted you to be the one to end my suffering." Iris took a shaky breath and braced herself for Dean's reaction.

"Dean, I am one of the souls you tortured in Hell."