This chapter contains elements from the episode 'Lucifer Rising' (4x22) and it was beta-read by the fantastic 'Igotzapped' who I can't thank enough!

Enjoy!

South Dakota, Sioux Falls. At Bobby Singer's.

After Bobby had taken care of Kate's injured palms, he noticed how much her temperature had lowered down. She had gotten freezing cold all of sudden, so he wrapped her in a blanket and quickly made some hot tea as she stayed sitting cross-legged on his couch. She was trembling from top to bottom, not only out of cold but out of fear. With one hand tightly holding the hex-bag that had been on her for days, she couldn't help but be grateful that Ruby had shown her how to make those hex-bags protecting her from angels and demons. And, although Bobby had the same hex-bag on, she couldn't help but wonder if drawing the sigils in the room wouldn't be a good extra of protection against the angels and the possibility of them watching them. This thought never stopped rising fear inside of her because it only made her think of what Zachariah could do to her now that she remembered absolutely everything that he had made her go through. She knew it could only be worse – much worse.

"So, you saying an angel did this to you," Bobby said as he returned in the living room with a mug of tea that he settled in front of her on the coffee table.

"Yeah," she murmured as she looked up at him. Her eyes were puffy and red from all the crying she had done, and her face was pale and drawn.

He dragged a chair next to the couch and sat, ready to have more information about all the things she had already been telling him in the last twenty minutes or so. "Why would an angel do this to you? It doesn't make any sense. They're the ones who told us to watch over you."

"Well," Kate started before she coughed a little to clear her throat that was sore after all the screaming she had done earlier. "I'm not really sure why they did this. But they did." She reached for the mug of tea with her shaky hand. Bobby started to stand up to help her but she shook her head as she brought the mug to her lips. "But, I think it was just Zachariah… I don't think all the angels took part in this."

"And, this Zachariah," Bobby started as she took a long sip of the tea before leaning towards the coffee table and put the mug back at its place. "He's the one who put you, Sam and Dean in that Sandover building with no memory too?"

"Yep, you got it," she nodded, her eyes dropping on the hex-bag in her hand. "He wanted to teach me a lesson."

"To obey Heaven," Bobby finished.

"To obey him, more precisely," Kate said in a little voice, as she struggled to block the painful images in the back of her mind.

"And that son of a bitch used tortures to get you to agree," he groaned as he ran his hand down his beard.

"I was being quite stubborn," Kate said with a little weak smile, attempting to lighten the seriousness of the situation. "At first, I was… I was not really against the idea of working for Heaven… All I had to do was…" She paused for a moment, pressed her lips together and then looked up at Bobby. "I had to make sure that Dean obeyed all Heaven's orders."

"But why you?"

She shrugged, "I don't really know. I guess, Zachariah believed that I could use my charms or whatever to keep Dean on the right path. But, I didn't think it was right."

"So, he tortured you," Bobby said and she squeezed the hex-bag as she lowered her head and nodded. "Why didn't you tell us?" He whispered.

"I couldn't. I just couldn't. Otherwise, he would torture me even more… Or worse..."

"Or worse? How much worse could it get than giving you the same tortures that Dean had to go through in Hell?!" Bobby exclaimed and Kate flinched. When he said it out loud, it only forced her mind to relive those moments, and she was already trying so hard not to let them dominate her present thoughts. "Sorry, I-" He started, immediately regretting his out-burst.

"No," she cut him off, her head shaking. "It's not your fault... It's just… Never mind." Bobby's eyes fell down to look at her hands covered with band-aids as he took a deep breath that he exhaled a few seconds later. "When Dean travelled in, um, my memory lane, Castiel came and did that thing to prevent flashbacks to, er, you know, hit me. And, he also made sure that whenever I wake up, I don't remember any nightmares I would have had about all those things that Zachariah made me go through," Kate explained as she looked up at him.

"I think that after that, Zachariah realized that he could torture me as much as he wanted, and I would still resist," she continued. "H-he could promise me to send me back to my universe and to make sure that my father would be alive back there, but I knew it would still be wrong to obey him. So, he…" She paused and shifted her eyes back to the hex-bag she was holding. "He, um… He threatened to torture you. All of you. If I didn't obey, he would just make you, Sam, Dean, Matt and all the people I care about, suffer… And, I couldn't let any of you go through that," she shook her head as she felt tears starting to form in her eyes. "I couldn't let Dean go through that again."

"God," Bobby sighed heavily as he brought one hand up and rubbed it down his whole face, leaning his back on the chair.

"Yeah, well this one has been a bit MIA if you want my opinion."

"And, those hex-bags, you think they're gonna keep the angels away?" He asked her.

"According to Ruby and to some stuff I've read, they can't locate us and they can't see us, wherever they are standing. But, if you cross path with an angel, I don't think it will send them away," Kate told him. "There are some sigils that can help do that, though," she told him, turning her head to look at him.

"That's good to know."

"Yeah," she nodded. "They're in one of my notebooks upstairs."

"Alright," he nodded. "And… I don't wanna ask you this, but I got to... How're you feelin' right now?"

"Better than earlier," she replied and he watched her, a bit confused and amazed at how she managed to keep it all together. "I still remember pretty clearly, though. But, I manage not to focus on it and to keep myself aware of what's a hallucination and what's not."

"Hallucination?"

"Yeah… It's not omnipresent, but it used to happen once in a while before. And, I, um, I got one earlier when you went to the kitchen," she admitted. "But, you don't have to worry. As long as there's not too much silence that force me into thinking too much, I-I can make out what's real and not real."

"What kind of - no, never mind, I shouldn't-"

"I wouldn't even be able to explain them," Kate cut him off with a weak yet gentle smile. "All I know, is that I'm grateful you didn't have to go through any of that. But, I'm afraid Zachariah will eventually find out, one way or another. So, you gotta promise me to keep the hex-bag I gave you, on you. Always."

"And, maybe you should show me those sigils too," he told her and she nodded. He stood up, took the mug and handed it to her. "Drink some. You have to warm up a bit."

She took the mug from him and drank a few sips even before putting it away from her lips. "What do we do about Dean?"

"I have no idea," he sighed.

"I think the angels took him."

""What makes you say that?"

"There's no smell of sulfur or anything demonic in the spot where he vanished. Besides, he swore to them he would do whatever they asked of him, didn't he?"

"Yeah, well, if he had one single idea about what that bastard of an angel did to you, he wouldn't have sworn anything," Bobby said walking to the mess of the things he had swept off his desk. "So, you really think the angels took him?" He stepped over them and stopped in front one of his many bookcases. He grabbed one book and glanced at her as she spoke.

"I'm not sure. But, I'd say so, yeah. If they need him, I'm pretty sure they can just 'poof' him to them. I mean Castiel did it so many times," she explained to him before she frowned her eyebrows. "But if he's been taken that only means one thing."

"What?"

"The big fish he was talking about… It's here."

He looked at her for a moment. The realization that it was all over washing over him with a force that only caused his feeling of helplessness to increase inside of him. "There's nothing we can do now, then."

"What?" Kate let out in a whisper as her gaze snapped up to him in surprise that he, out of everyone else, would give up so quickly and so easily. "You're the one who spent months working on stopping this to happen. You're the one who kept telling me there's always a solution to every problem. Any problem."

"Not with the end of the world, I don't think so. All we gotta do is wait for Dean to stop it," Bobby sighed as he walked behind his desk and opened one of the drawers. He pulled out a brown kraft envelope and looked intensely at it before lifting his blue gaze towards the young woman who was now looking down with a frown. "What if your theory is true? What if the angels are down for the big end to happen? What would they need Dean for then?"

"About that," Kate started before clearing her throat as she rose her head. "I found some things in the ancient Bible you've given me. I haven't finished translating, but I-I think my theory is correct."

"What?"

"I'm not one hundred percent sure, but the chances for my theory to be completely wrong are pretty slim," she told him as his eyes glanced down at her hands that, unlike the rest of her body, never stopped shaking.

"I'm sorry we didn't send you back home sooner, kiddo," he told her in a gentle tone. She looked up to meet his gaze and immediately saw the sincerity of his words. "And now that dick of angel has the last crystal that can help summoning the Opener of the Way," he said through clenched teeth as he made his way to the coffee table.

"It's not like we were really sure the Opener of the Way was gonna send me back," Kate told him, trying to reduce the remorse that she knew was building up in the old man. She could feel how truly sorry he was and she knew how unbearable it could be for some people to feel like you failed another human being.

"The thing is that I think he would have," Bobby told her before he looked down at the envelope in his hand. "Whatever that creature really is, if Matt didn't make any mistakes when he read that Ackers book, I think this creature wouldn't have let anything happen to you."

"Zachariah is powerful, Bobby. H-he wants to ensure my stay here as his, er, his joker card," she told him looking away for a moment, feeling the old man's gaze on her, she continued, "Those were his words. For him, I am a joker card that can help him and Heaven win, in case Dean doesn't play his part."

"But, Dean agreed. He swore his obedience to them, so why would they still need you?" Kate frowned at the true fact Bobby just pointed out. "Do you think… Maybe they don't need you anymore, but since you got the hex-bag on, they can't, um, tell ya you're free to go?"

"I don't think it's that… No, I think-" She cut herself off as realization hit her.

"What?"

"If my theory is true, then it means that the angels were okay with the breaking of the seals, Bobby. And therefore, it means that they were also okay with Dean going to Hell and breaking the first seal."

"So you think they were playing with him all along?" He asked her and she gave him a pointed look. "Right... But what for?"

"What if they want Dean to break the last seal?" She suggested, her eyes glancing behind Bobby where she thought she had seen a long dark shadow with a very long, thin and shiny sword which the blade was covered with blood.

"What?" Bobby asked as Kate closed her eyes and shook her head understanding she was hallucinating. "You okay, Katie?"

"Yeah, yeah," she told him, opening her eyes to see that Bobby and she were the two only people in the room. When she met his gaze, he looked very concerned, so she forced herself to put her entire focus back onto what they were just talking, "Maybe the one who breaks the first seal has to be the one to break the last? I mean, just think about it, it makes sense."

Bobby shook his head, "Dean would never do that."

"With their manipulation, he wouldn't know, Bobby," Kate told him, her thumb rubbing against the hex-bag that reassured her she was safe from Zachariah now. "He didn't know about the first seal."

"Damn!" He slapped the envelope on his thigh as he put his other hand on his hip. "And if he breaks the last seal, he'll break Lucifer out of his Cage."

Kate looked down and her eyes stopped at the envelope he had been holding, "What's in that envelope?"

"What?" He said before looking down at the envelope and then back to her. "Oh yeah, it's… Um, look, I'm not really for those kind of things. Hell, I hate those things. But, Pamela said we might need to do it one day."

"What is it?"

"It's," he started as he walked to sit next to her on the couch and opened the envelope. "It's a spell."

"A spell?" Kate said looking back and forth between the folded paper he took out of the envelope and his face. She knew Bobby wasn't very fond of anything related to witchcraft, whether it be black magic or white magic. The only times he was able to accept the use of magic was when he knew he had no other choice, and still, he would be very grumpy about it.

"Pamela said it wasn't really a spell, but I think it is," he replied with a light scoff as he took out a tiny plastic bag containing what looked like herbs. "Before she died, she told me that it would be very efficient to keep your mind off what might be hurting you… She was so good of a psychic that she knew you were going through much more than what we all thought."

"Why did you wait until today?" Kate asked him, her brown eyes focused on the tiny bag in between his large fingers.

"Because, Pamela told me to wait," Bobby sighed. "Somehow, she knew that I had to wait until you got it worse than ever."

"And how could you even know when I'd get it worse than ever?" She whispered.

"She said that you'd speak out about it," Bobby told her making her frown in confusion and look up at him. "She said that when you'll reach the point where it's too much, where it's the worst, then you wouldn't be able to keep it all in."

Meanwhile.

It had been almost half an hour or maybe more, that Dean was pacing back and forth in the large and lavish room he had been teleported to. It looked like a royal room with its walls painted white with gold trim and accents. From the chairs, sofas and marble tables to the paintings' frames, clocks and statuettes, everything was composed of gold. The whole room was just white and gold; a little too much for Dean's liking. But, what Dean found the worst was the pastoral paintings on the walls. He had observed almost each of them and not one wasn't creepily cheesy. All paintings showed off an atmosphere of calm, joy and liveness that seemed too much to appear true. However, he shrugged it off quickly enough; after all he wasn't a connoisseur.

The hunter was starting to get a bit impatient, if not annoyed. He wanted to know why exactly the angels had taken him here, because he knew it was them. He had been told that he had to wait until they got him. Nevertheless, he wasn't feeling very comfortable with the idea of them taking him without notice. More than that, he wasn't really sure if he could trust them. Not only was Kate's theory increasing his doubts, but there was also the fact that Castiel had suddenly declined telling him the important thing he had said he needed to tell him.

"I have to tell you something important. It's also about Kate. Meet me here. Tonight," Castiel had told him in the dream he had while staying at Kate's bedside in the hospital.

Dean had never stopped wondering what that thing was. What was that important thing he had to tell him? And what was he going to tell him about Kate? Would he ever find out?

Turning around with a sigh, Dean noticed that a large silver bowl and a platter were settled on the previously empty marble table. His eyes widened with surprise as he looked at the bowl packed with ice and full of beer bottles and at the platter other of hamburgers. He glanced around him with suspicion before picking one of the fresh beers up. He looked at it for a while and wondered what game the angels were playing at.

"Hello, Dean," a familiar voice said making Dean turn his head to the right. There stood in a black suit and white shirt the angel that Dean couldn't bear ever since the Sandover event, and behind him stood the dark-haired angel in his usual trenchcoat. "You're looking fit."

Replacing the beer in between the others, Dean looked at the angel giving him that usual not heartfelt smile, "Well, how 'bout this? 'The suite life of Zach and Cas'," Dean sarcastically said, causing the two angels to give him blank looks of incomprehension. "It's a... never mind. So, what is this? Where the hell am I?"

"Call it a Green room," Zachariah smugly replied as he advanced towards the hunter. "We're closing in on the grand finale, here. We want to keep you safe before showtime," he stopped in front of Dean and motioned at the food on the table. "Try a burger. They're your favorite. From that seaside shack in Delaware. You were eleven, I think."

"I'm not hungry."

"No?" Zachariah said replacing the burger on the platter. "How about Ginger from season two of 'Gilligan's Island'?" He suggested causing Dean's eyes to go a bit round with surprise and also a bit of interest. "You do have a thing for her, don't you?"

"Tempting," the green-eyed man replied with a raise of his eyebrows and the ghost of a smile before he slightly frowned. "Weird."

"We'll throw in Mary Ann for free. You do have a thing for brunettes with brown eyes, don't you?" Zachariah winked at him.

"What? Um, no. Let's... bail on the holodeck, okay? I want to know what the game plan is," Dean told him with seriousness.

"Let us worry about that," the angel replied. "We want you... focused, relaxed."

"Well, I'm about to be pissed and leaving, so start talking, Chuckles."

Zachariah looked down and sighed, "You're all so stubborn…" He circled Dean who turned to look at him. "I've been so patient lately, Dean. You have no idea all the things I had to do, to make sure that everything goes on the right path."

"Well, it's not like I don't care about all of this, fella. But, you know," Dean sarcastically said with a tilt of his head.

"Sure. Well, I think you'll care about the fact that all the seals have fallen. Except one," Zachariah told him, causing a frown to appear on Dean's freckled face.

"You angels have been chilling out a bit too long before you noticed that?"

"Heaven was going through a hard time," Zachariah replied in a thoughtful voice, his back facing Dean. "Some angels were busy making sure that others' angels ideas were for the greater good, and some angels needed to be reminded what their purpose was," he looked at Castiel whose blue eyes immediately looked down, a thing that Dean noticed. "But, now everything is back to normal. And the hierarchy is re-established."

"And, this is only now that you find out that impressive score of yours. I gotta say, that's... that's right up there with the Washington Generals," Dean sarcastically commented.

"You think sarcasm's appropriate, do you? Considering," Zachariah turned around to look at the green-eyed hunter. "You started all this?" Dean looked down for a second as he swallowed down his guilt that the angel was reminding him of. "But the final seal," he continued with a little smile as he made his way back towards Castiel who remained silent. "It'll be different," he tapped Dean's shoulder.

"Why?"

"Lilith has to break it. She's the only one who can. Tomorrow night – midnight," the angel replied.

"Where?" Dean immediately asked.

"We're working on it."

"Well, work harder."

"We'll do our job. You just make sure you do yours," Zachariah told him, feeling his impatience slowly rising.

"Yeah, and what is that, exactly? If I'm supposed to be the one that stops her, how? With the knife?"

"All in good time," Zachariah tried to stay calm as he watched the hunter showing the same annoying, rebellious behaviour than the female human from that other universe.

"Isn't now a good time?" Dean asked him.

"Have faith."

"What, in you? Give me one good reason why I should," Dean told him, his eyes and his voice stern and almost hard as he stared at the angel.

"Because you swore your obedience," he walked towards him, his eyes looking straight into Dean's. "So obey."

Dean looked past him at Castiel who immediately looked down guiltily. When the two angels vanished into thin air, Dean couldn't help the many questions that rushed in his mind. Questions like how the angels planned on him stopping Lilith or what was happening to Sam while he was in this place. But, mostly, the question that wouldn't leave his mind right now was about Castiel and what important thing he had to tell him that night in Illinois.

What was so important and so secretive that the angels had to quiet one of them down now?

Five hours later.

South Dakota, Sioux Falls. At Bobby Singer's.

Kate blinked a few times before completely opening her brown eyes. Her gaze immediately settled on the coffee table holding a mess of open books, she rubbed her eyes with her fingers and then looked at the band-aids covering the inside of her hands. A smile of relief cracked on her lips accompanied with a long sigh as she realized that it had worked. The beverage and the magic formula that Pamela had confided to Bobby before it put her into a direct state of sleep, had worked. Kate couldn't believe it but the facts were there. She remembered everything that happened to her, but somehow it didn't affect her because she couldn't focus on it. It was as though a door was put in her mind. On the other side of that door was all of those nasty, painful and unbearable memories, and she knew they were there, but as long as that door stayed close, they couldn't get to her. And, there was this strange feeling that prevented her from opening that door. As odd as it was, it still was reassuring and soothing for the young woman and it caused her to whisper a heartfelt thanks to the late woman who had helped her so much.

Sitting up on the couch, the blanket fell to her thighs as Kate scratched the back of her head and yawned. The beverage had knocked her out hard, but she still felt more fine fettle than she's ever felt before. As she turned her head to look at the window on her left, she frowned a bit. A red painted symbol was drawn on the glass of the window. The symbol wasn't foreign to her, but she couldn't point out where she had seen it before.

"You're awake," Bobby's voice said making Kate turn her head to the old man who was standing at the doorway. "How're you feeling?"

"Good," she replied before her lips curled into a corner smile. "Better than ever, actually."

He approached her and rested a hand flat on her forehead. "You ain't freezing anymore, that's a relief. And the memories?"

"There's still there. It's like I know I've still got them, but I don't wanna know? And, as long as I don't want to, I don't get them and I'm okay," she tried to explain as she looked up at him.

"So, it worked?" Bobby asked, taking a couple of steps back.

"I think it did, yeah," Kate smiled. "Thank you, Bobby."

"Thank Pamela," he told her.

"Already did," she whispered to herself, looking away.

"I put everything in a green plastic box in the cupboard next to the fridge, in case the effects don't last very long and you have to take it again."

"Good. Keep it within easy reach so I can have some everyday or so, because it really makes me feel great," she said, stretching her arms up in the air as he shook his head and went to lean against his desk with his arms crossed over his chest.

"It's pretty addictive according to Pamela, so we better keep it all in case of an emergency," Bobby said and Kate dropped her arms, a slight pout forming on her face before he continued, "Speaking about Pamela, you never told me if you finished listening to her recordings?"

"Oh," Kate let out as she pushed the blanket off her and stood up. "I haven't actually. I still got a couple to listen to, but with everything that had been happening, I've never really had the time to sit down and to put myself back into listening to them."

"Well, you should," Bobby told her as he made his way to his desk on which Kate noticed he had replaced all of the things he had swept off earlier that day.

"Yeah, I know," Kate said as she looked at the coffee table and her eyes widened when she spotted something. "Bobby, it's my… My notebook, isn't it?"

"Yep," he replied as she turned to look at him.

"You copied the sigils from it?" Kate said as she now noticed that other symbols were painted on the walls and she realized that those were the sigils Ruby had drawn all around the hotel room where she had taught her a few things.

"When the beverage knocked you out, I went upstairs to find the notebook you told me contained the sigils against the angels. I wanted to check them with what I found in some books. And, well, I gotta say Ruby was pretty honest for a demon 'cause everything she taught you is legit and very powerful."

"Huh," Kate said as she looked down, running her hand against her jeans' pocket where the hex-bag was. She was feeling a bit torn about the demon. The last time she saw her, their quick confrontation had made Kate realize that she had played a role in making Sam this lost. The demon hadn't forced her into not telling a word about the demon blood to Sam's big brother, and if Kate had told Dean, then maybe none of this would have gone this far.

"Some things are a little too witchy if you want my opinion," Bobby told her with raised eyebrows and a tilt of the head when she looked up at him. "Oh, and I found out that you had a couple more notebooks full of interesting things too."

"If you're going to scold me, please don't. I was really just trying to gather as much useful information as possible," Kate told him as she was sure that he was a bit disappointed that she didn't just take notes of her findings about dimensional traveling.

"Yeah, well it ain't what disturbed me the most," he said and she frowned. "I found something much more interesting," he turned around, grabbed a book on his desk and turned back to show the book in his hands. She fixed at the book as he continued, "'Supernatural' by Carver Eldund. Really, Kate?"

"Bobby," she breathed out, her eyes still glued at the book that reminded her of an idea she had had when she was still struggling with her memories.

"I know you wanna know what this world is about, but reading about the boys' lives ain't really normal-"

"Bobby-" She said taking a couple of steps towards him, her eyes never leaving the book.

"No, Kate, really. It's crossing the line of their intimacy, and it's really weird-" He said when she cut him off.

"Bobby, stop!"

"What?" He frowned, puzzled.

"Chuck," she told him with a pointed look. "He might know something that can help us. I mean, he certainly had a vision since the last time I called him."

"When was that?"

"Yesterday," she said as she walked towards Matt's black sweater lying around on the little sofa next to the doorway, and in which her cellphone was. "Maybe he can tell me now if my theory is right."

"Yeah, about that. I did some digging when you were knocked out," he told her and she spun around to look at him. "Like you already know, there are angels, archangels, virtue, ophanim and seraphim," Kate nodded at him, her hands holding her jacket as she listened at every word of his. "All of them are much more powerful than what we actually think. Not one single of those seals I sent hunters to stop, couldn't have been stopped by those angels. They deliberately chose not to stop them," he concluded as he put down the 'Supernatural' book. "And, I saw the notes you did recently on the books I gave you. Especially the old Bible."

"And?"

"And, I completed some of it," he said with a little shake of his head. "It ain't good."

"What do you mean?" She asked him as he grabbed her notebook on which he had completed some of the translation she had done when Dean was driving them both to get Sam back.

He opened the notebook and read out loud, "'Shall the breakers of seals not be held back by the soldiers of God, but shall they fight when darkness is upon the Creation.'"

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Kate asked him, her eyebrows knitted together in complete confusion.

"The soldiers of God are the angels. They had the power to stop the seals, but it was written that they mustn't. 'Cause the Apocalypse is supposed to happen. That's what it means."

"And, the angels aren't going to force Dean into breaking the last seal. It's gonna be someone else."

"Makes sense," he just said with a tilt of the head. Kate looked down, her upper teeth chewing on her bottom lip as she anxiously tried to grasp at the whole meaning behind that sentence.

"You think it could be Lilith, like Ruby said to Sam?"

"Maybe," he replied with a light shrug as he dropped the notebook on top of the several laying opened books on the coffee table. He crossed his arms over his chest, "If so, then all our hope lies on Sam's ability to kill her."

A short silence settled upon them. It seemed as if the more they advanced in their researches, the uglier everything turned out to be. It was almost demoralizing for both the old man and the young woman. It was a sad observation, nevertheless Kate couldn't help but feel like this universe, or more precisely the Winchesters and Bobby were cursed.

"Maybe we should try calling Dean? To tell him."

"Already tried. I can't get through him. Not even the voicemail," he informed her and she let out a long sigh.

"You think they're getting him ready to fight at the front if Sam fails to kill Lilith?" She asked him in a little voice, her eyes showing him that she was not only anxious and concerned about the whole situation, but also scared.

"If Sam fails, then that means Lucifer will be free and up here to party with all of the seven billion sinners around the world," he replied.

"We need to call Chuck," Kate said with a sudden increase of determination to not let any of that happen as she pulled her phone out of the sweater's pocket. "I'm sure he knows something we don't."

"If you call him, the angels will certainly know and prevent you from getting any information out of him. You can't angel-proof your phone call, Kate. He's a prophet, there's no doubt that he's being watched 24/7."

Kate looked back and forth at him and at her phone, before sliding it in her empty jeans' pocket. "Then, I'll go to his place," Kate told him as she started to slip her arms in the sleeves of the sweater.

"Are you crazy or just suicidal?" He exclaimed with furrowed eyebrows that emphasized the wrinkles of his forehead. "If you go there, the angels will see you with him, no matter how long the radius of protection your hex-bag will give ya."

"I know, but I gotta go," she told him, guilt boiling inside of her. The guilt of letting Sam deal on his own with his problem with demon blood and the guilt of causing Dean to lose faith in his relationship with his brother. "He might know something very important and-"

"What if Zachariah finds you there, huh?" He cut her off. "What do you think he'll do?" She looked at him intensively and gulped down the fear of facing that angel again resurfaced inside of her. Nevertheless, it didn't dissuade her, because she knew that she had to redeem herself for every damages she had caused into their lives.

"I'll be fine," she told him as strongly and firmly as possible. "The moment I'll get at his place, I'll immediately draw the sigils everywhere. It will definitely block them."

"They won't even let you put one sigil," he told her as she shook her head, her lips pressed together.

"It's our best shot, Bobby."

"Why don't you stay here and I go-"

"No," she stopped him, her brown eyes looking at him as if he were mad to even suggest going there himself. "They won't hesitate to kill you if they realize what you're doing."

"And they won't do a thing to you?" He asked her, with frowned eyebrows.

"Of course, they will. But, they won't kill me," she replied. "I told you, I'm Zachariah's joker. He can't kill me."

Bobby analyzed her face for a moment. He could see the fear she was trying so badly to hide behind her determination of doing this. Some would call it courage, but he wouldn't. Because that would only mean that she was sacrificing herself for them. And, Bobby didn't want this to be true. He didn't want this innocent girl who had nothing to do with their awful world to sacrifice herself for them instead of trying to stay alive until she got a way back to her safe home. For Bobby, it was impossible to call her behavior courage; for him it was nothing more than stupidity and stubbornness. Two features that she obviously shared with the Winchester brothers. Two features that he knew, after years with the Winchesters around him, were impossible to get through.

Throwing his head back with a sigh, Bobby muttered, "It's the worst idea I've ever heard."

"You know it's not true," she told him with a little smile, relieved that he was finally agreeing with her idea. "Sam and Dean don't know a thing about all of this. They still think the angels are fighting against the Apocalypse. And, if Sam can't stop Lilith from breaking the last seal, many will die. So, getting information from Chuck, I think that is our best shot."

"You know you don't have to do this, kid. If you do that and Zachariah finds out, he… He will never let you go back home," he told her, his blue eyes looking deep into her brown eyes, with a glimpse of hope that she would eventually understand what her idea to see the Prophet truly meant.

"It's alright," She softly said with a little smile, "I'm already home."

A few hours later.

In an abandoned house in the middle of nowhere.

After almost a full hour of torturing her with the power the demon blood provided him, Sam was sure that Lilith's "personal Chef" was going to give up. He was sure that she was going to tell him everything he wanted to know. Her piercing scream was so full of agony as she arched her body on the table he and Ruby had taped her on, that Sam knew it was only a matter of a few minutes before she revealed everything. Sam fixed his green eyes at her with a hard and more than determined look as he twisted his hand to increase the pain in the demon. Meanwhile, a few feet away from him stood Ruby with her arms folded against her chest as she watched carefully and quietly.

"Stop! Stop! Please!" The demon screamed.

"You'll tell me where she is?" Sam asked her.

"Fine. Fine. Just... let me die," the demon breathed heavily as she tried to calm down after the raw pain that she had been enduring ever since she was kidnapped by the hunter and his demon friend in the hospital where she kidnapped babies for Lilith's favourite meals.

"Deal," Sam said as he dropped his hand and stared at her.

"Tomorrow night, midnight," she panted. "She's gonna be at a convent - St. Mary's, Ilchester, Maryland."

"A convent?"

"Lilith... She's gonna break the final seal," the demonic nurse told him.

"And what is the final seal?"

"I don't know," she replied, which only caused Sam to immediately rise his hand up to torture her again. "Aaaah! I don't know! I don't know!" She screamed. "I don't know! I swear! Please! I'm begging you. Kill me, please!"

"Fine," Sam said as he understood that he didn't need this demon anymore now that he had all the information he needed to find Lilith and stop her. However, Ruby quickly moved up to him and grabbed his arm, stopping him from killing her.

"Wait. You can't," she told him as he looked down at her with confusion.

"Why not?"

"Because we gotta take her with us. It's the final run on the Death Star, and you need more juice than I got," she explained.

"You promised," the demon on the table sobbed as she looked up at Sam who looked at her with a bit of uncertainty. He felt as though he should put this demon to rest; not that he cared about that demonic nurse, but he had agreed on doing it, and he liked to think of himself as a man of his word.

"Sorry, sister," Ruby said as she started to walk towards the doorway of the rusty and dilapidated abandoned house they had settled in a couple of hours ago, for the time being. "You're a walking, talking can of whup-ass."

"You bitch!" The demon shouted as she glared at her.

"I know. Just can't trust anyone these days," Ruby said as she turned around to look at her.

"Well, least you won't be able to crack me open that easy," the demon smirked while Sam walked to stand next to Ruby. The young hunter had made up his mind; he needed to insure that he would be strong enough against Lilith.

"That so?" Ruby told her as Sam simply watched the interaction between the two.

"Don't forget - it's not just me you're bleeding," the demon said as she glanced at Sam who frowned in confusion. "In fact, I think I'm gonna take a little... siesta in the subconscious - hand over the wheel for a little bit."

"What are you talking about?" The hunter asked her.

"Cindy McClellan, R.N.," the demon replied before shutting her eyes and shouting, "Come on down!"

Sam watched her with a bit of confusion, still not sure if the demon could really hide in the deepest part of the human she was possessing while the human took back the control of the body. It seemed a bit unreal for the young man, but at the same time it was worrying him. Turning his head towards Ruby to ask her if the demon could do that, a gasp coming from the demon taped to the table stopped him as he returned his eyes towards her.

"What… Where am I?... Oh, my god, I can't move. What's going on? Help! Help me, please," the demon shouted as she struggled against the ropes keeping her taped on the table.

Sam's eyes widened in panic as he stared at the nurse and realized what was really happening. He threw a glance at Ruby whose face expressed pure annoyance as she rolled her eyes and muttered a very unenthusiastic 'great' at the twist the situation had just taken.

Meanwhile.

When Kate had convinced Bobby to let her go see Chuck, she was filled with so much guilt wrapped in a stubborn feeling of responsibility that she almost left the old hunter's house right away, without any weapons to protect herself if the angels came to get her at the Prophet's. Bobby, being quite the schemer that he was, had led her to the basement where he gave her a few weapons. A rather light long-sword that Matt had taught her how to use during a few of their training sessions, a M9 gun even though she was really bad at targeting and shooting, and finally a hunting knife.

Kate had tried her best not to show to the old man how it scared even more to be given so many weapons. Although she had been on a few hunts and she had shot a vampire, salt and burned a ghost and fought with bare hands on several times, she still didn't feel skilled enough to fight against run-of-the-mill monsters; let alone powerful creatures like angels. Truth be told, she was pretty sure that if she would come across them again, or more precisely across Zachariah, she wouldn't even have the time to take out a weapon as a snap of his fingers would drop her to her knees to go through one of his many tortures. But still, she was determined to do her best in order to redeem herself for every wrong she had done to all of the people who took care of her in this universe. And, fighting - or even trying to fight – it was the best she could do.

It was late afternoon when the brunette parked the car that Bobby had lent her a few houses away from the Prophet's, her eyes looking out the window to his house in the very calm street. She fixed at it for a while, her hands gripping at the steering wheel as she was, once again, hit by the realization of what she was going to do. She felt as if her legs were suddenly too tense and too energetic at the same time to move her out of the car. Her hands gripped tighter at the wheel as her mind ignored the slight pain that it caused to her injured palms.

Her heartbeats were wild as the thought of Zachariah catching her and doing whatever he wanted to her again, crossed her mind. And, she restarted doubting. What if she didn't have time to draw any sigils like Bobby had said? What she was going to do, was, no doubt, the most dangerous thing she would have ever done in her life. It was definitely stupid and completely suicidal.

Kate closed her eyes tightly and groaned as she threw her head back. She was even more terrified now that only a few steps separated from what she had to do and all she wanted to do was go far away and hide. She turned her head left and right in frustration of having such cowardly thoughts. She knew she had to be strong and to do this, but still she was so scared that she wanted to hide. As she opened her eyes, she immediately spotted the green apple that was laying with her back bag on the passenger seat next to her. She stared at the fruit that Bobby told her to eat after her sandwich on the road. She stared at it for a few seconds when her hands slowly and unconsciously loosen their grip from around the wheel and she reached out for the apple with her right hand. She took it and looked at it for a moment.

The green color of the fruit reminded her of Dean's green eyes, and how filled with sadness, grief, anger, pain and defeat they always seemed to be. But, she could remember the glimpse of hope that she noticed more than once in these green eyes of his.

She had to do this for this glimpse of hope.

She had to do this before he lost this glimpse of hope forever.

Lifting her gaze to look out the windshield at Chuck's house, Kate took a deep breath as she firmly put the apple back on the passenger seat and grabbed her back bag. She zipped it open and took out two felt-tip markers, her notebook on which the sigils were drawn so she could copy them. Glancing down at the sword wrapped in a towel, she clenched her jaw, closed her bag and opened the car's door.

Wearing a simple beige long-sleeved, dark blue jeans and her pair of converse shoes, Kate quickly made her way up to Chuck's house. She threw a few glances everywhere as she bit hard on her bottom lip and wondered if not carrying the sword in her hand already wouldn't have been a better idea than having it in her back bag. With her hand not holding the markers and the notebook, she felt the gun holstered above her left hip. It reassured her a bit, but no matter how strong she wanted to be, she couldn't stop the trembling of her hands.

She was afraid. But, she had to do this.

Bringing one hand up to knock on the writer's door, she was surprised when it widely opened before she even got the chance to make her presence known. The brunette didn't have time to say a word as the bearded prophet wearing only his brown mid-thigh long underpants and a white undershirt, grabbed her forearm and pulled her into his house.

"Chuck-" she started to say before her brown eyes took notice of the inside of his house. He closed and locked his frontdoor in a swift movement before turning to her as her eyes were travelling over all the walls where sigils were drawn quite big. Those were the sigils she was planning on drawing as quickly as possible to protect herself from Chuck's archangel and the other angels that would have possibly come to take her away from the Prophet.

"Yeah, I know," he nodded his head as he rested his hands on his hips and she turned her head to look at him.

"You knew I was coming and you-"

"Knew what you were going to do," he finished with a nod as Kate never stopped staring at him with a dumbfounded look. "I saw the sigils in a vision and I immediately wrote them before I forgot them, I'm pretty sure there's no mistake, but maybe we should check them-" Chuck cut himself off when she dropped the markers and the notebook on the floor and threw her arms around him. She hugged him tightly in thanks of the great relief he had just provided her. "Oh well, the hug was unexpected, though." Kate gave a little scoff-chuckle at this, before she pulled apart from him and looked at him with a smile that made her eyes sparkle.

"Thank you, Chuck," She told him.

"Yeah, well you know," he stammered nervously as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"So, you said you had a vision?" She asked him as he crouched down to pick up her belongings.

"Yeah, yeah. I did."

"And?"

"And, well, it's complicated," he replied as he handed her back her notebook and the markers.

"Complicated how?" She asked him as he scratched the top of his head and walked past her towards his living room and she followed him.

"My vision was kinda messy. I think it was more like three visions mixed together. Well, um, this morning I just kinda saw what happened to you, Sam and Dean lately and also what will happen soon."

"And what's that? What will happen soon?" Kate asked, stopping next to his armchair while he dropped himself on his couch. She fixed at him before looking up at the sigils on the windows and the walls, and connecting the dots in her mind. She returned her gaze towards the writer, "My theory is right, isn't it?"

"Well, I think there's a high probability that it is true," he muttered, grabbing the bottle of scotch on his coffee table and pouring himself a glass full.

Kate took her back bag off her shoulders and dropped it in the armchair before she advanced in front of the coffee table, her eyes glued to his face. "Chuck, how high?"

"Um very, very high," he gulped down a long sip of his glass before putting the glass down. "Too high…"

"Are you telling me that the angels are really for the end of the world to happen? When will that happen? Does that mean they're gonna use Dean for that? What about Sam? What if he succeeds on killing Lilith? Is it gonna-"

"Kate stop!" he stopped her, holding his hands up. "You're talking really fast and I just got rid of another headache a few minutes ago."

"Sorry," Kate mumbled as she looked away, running one hand through her brown locks. "Wait. You had another headache? Does that mean you're gonna have another vision or did you just have another one?" He gave her a simple nod, his eyes focused on his glass of scotch.

"I just got one," he muttered.

"Good. That's good. What is it?"

"I'm sorry," he replied in a little voice as he lifted his gaze up to meet hers. "But it's bad, really, really bad."

An hour later.

Although, they were in the middle of nowhere, Sam managed with a few typing of his fingers to get some free Wi-Fi connection to do his researches about St Mary's convent. The internet was very low and he had to refresh the pages several times, while trying to keep his mind off the unbearable thoughts not wanting to leave him in peace. After everything that happened lately, he was filled with so much remorse that it was starting to eat him from the inside. He didn't know what exactly he had to do to make it up to his older brother. All he knew was that stopping Lilith and the Apocalypse would take a heavy burden off Dean's shoulders, and that was all he truly wanted to do in the first place. Although truly hurt after his confrontation with Dean, Sam couldn't forget all the things that his brother had done for him and he surely couldn't forget that he had to redeem himself for all the mistakes he had done.

Sam's thoughts were interrupted when his laptop's screen finally popped up with a full page of internet containing an article about the convent. The article dating from October 1972 took Sam a bit aback, "You gotta be kidding me," he exclaimed, catching Ruby's attention.

"What?" She asked from where she was standing, a couple of feet away, ordering some knives in a clutch bag.

"Get this," he cleared his throat and started reading the article, "'St. Mary's - abandoned in '72 after a priest disemboweled eight nuns.'"

"What's black and white and red all over?" She smirked.

"That's not funny," he said before continuing to read, "The priest said it wasn't his fault. He said a demon made him do it. And that he even remembered the demon's name."

"Yeah?"

"Azazel."

Ruby turned around with raised eyebrows before walking up to Sam and sitting on the table where he had settled his laptop, "Wow. So, Lilith, Yellow-Eyes - all the A-listers are paying visits. Certainly gives the joint credibility."

"As a place where the final seal goes down," Sam said, his hazel eyes skimming the rest of the article.

"Well, it's good enough for me," Ruby announced as she stood up and advanced towards the now sleeping nurse. "Let's pack up Nurse Betty and hit the road."

"Hey," Sam stopped her as he stood up. "Maybe, um... look."

"What?" Ruby asked him as she kept her eyes intensively and impatiently glued to his face.

"M-maybe we can find another demon," Sam suggested with a glance thrown at the nurse.

"Sam, no. That blubbery 'don't hurt me' crap - it's just an act. She's playing you."

"I'm not so sure," Sam replied in a little and gentle voice as he looked at the nurse with guilt.

"Even if she's not, there's still a hell-bitch snoozing in there. I mean, come on. It's not like you haven't done this before, right?" Ruby told him, trying to dissuade him from freeing this nurse and letting her go.

Sam felt completely torn as he looked over at the nurse Ruby had knocked out earlier to get her to stop screaming. He felt as if wrong and right were getting too mixed up lately and he couldn't do anything to change that. All he could do was focus on his mission of killing Lilith and stopping the Apocalypse. But, did that mean that he had to risk killing an innocent in such a terrible way? Did saving the world mean to sacrifice not only a human so he could be strong enough, but also sacrificing who he was and becoming a real full monster?

The memory of Kate walking towards Lilith's host to check if she was still alive back in that motel room some time ago, came back into his mind.

"I'm just gonna check if she's alive… The human vessel, I mean," she had said as she had bent down and put her fingers on the unconscious blond woman's neck before Dean had made them all rush out to his car in case Lilith would have come back into the unconscious woman.

Kate wanting to make sure that the innocent was still alive back then, only made him feel guiltier about what he was going to do. Lately, he felt as though he lacked the humanity she was so full of, and he felt ashamed of that. But, that was it now and nothing could change any of that. Because, he knew that no good man would do all the things he had done, and no good man would kill an innocent woman even though a demon was buried deep in her.

No good man would sacrifice an innocent life to save the world.

But the truth was that he wasn't a good man anymore… Maybe he never was one.

His brother had told him what he was...

He was a monster.

Three hours later.

"Kate?" Chuck said as he looked at the young woman whose eyes were glued to the wall behind him. They were sitting in front of each other at his table where he wrote his Supernatural books in the middle of his quite messy kitchen.

After he had gone upstairs to take a shower and to put on some decent clothes, Kate had checked the sigils he had drawn with the ones in her notebook, just in case he made one tiny mistake that could change the whole sigil. She felt even more relieved when she saw that he had done a great job copying those symbols on his walls and windows.

However, when he had returned downstairs and had started to type down his latest visions, she began to anxiously pace back and forth in his kitchen and living room, wishing she could call Bobby to tell him that she had made it to Chuck without any problem, but knowing she couldn't. Indeed, Bobby had a good point when he had said that the hex-bags might not shield the calls she would make. So, she didn't call him even though she really wanted to. As a matter of fact, she didn't call anyone to make sure that she didn't risk the lives of those she cared about.

After pulling the long-sword out of the bag and unwrapping it from its towel, Kate had paced back and forth in the prophet's house with the weapon in hand. It worried Chuck a little bit, his eyes constantly glancing back and forth at his computer screen and at the sword in her hand. Moreover, it started to drive him crazy to see her constantly pacing back and forth so he decided to give her the chapters he had written about her since the last time he saw her.

After a while, Kate had finished skimming through the pages, looking for the important parts and the possible answers to her remaining questions. But, she didn't find anything she didn't already know. Plus, she realized that most of Chuck's writings had an alternating between a sort of internal and external focalization. She wondered more than once if he deliberately not writing some elements while he actually had visions that were much more complete and almost omniscient. It didn't really bother her, but she wanted to get some answers about the thousand questions that never stopped running in her head.

Reading those pages about herself, had succeeded on keeping her mind busy for a moment, but the minute she asked to tell her everything about his latest vision while he was typing it, she regretted not doing something else to keep her mind busy again. Indeed, when Chuck explained to her everything that was going to happen by midnight, she understood that it was all over now. There was nothing that would change the events that Chuck had seen and was now writing. It had demoralized her so much that she lost herself in thoughts of her old life and how easy it was.

"Kate?" Chuck repeated, pulling her out of her reminiscence.

"Mhm?"

"You're sure you're okay?"

"I'm not okay and I'm not sure of anything anymore," she mumbled with a worn out voice.

"You want some?" He asked her showing the new bottle of vodka he had taken out of his cupboard earlier. She looked up at him and gave a little nod, her eyes still lost in her mind. He poured half of the glass and then glanced up at her facial expression before deciding to fill the glass entirely. He put the bottle down and slid the glass in front of her and she slowly and absently took it. "Do you wanna eat? There's some pizza leftovers in the fridge?"

Kate looked up at him for a long moment, not saying a single word.

"I-I got some noodles too if-"

"What if I call Sam and tell him?" She asked him. "Do you think… Do you think he'll listen to me?"

"Sam's got so much anger in him that he'd do anything to kill Lilith, no matter what you say," he told her with an apologetic face.

"So, it really is the end," she let out in a whisper as she dropped her gaze to the glass she was still holding.

"I suppose, yeah," he sighed. "I wish I could have had a vision telling me how to send you back to your dimension so you wouldn't have to face any of this."

"Thanks," she mumbled as she put down the glass of alcohol, not really wanting to drink it anymore. "You know," she started in a little voice. "There's been a few times when I thought it was all just a dream… A very vivid dream, but still a dream. And, I liked to think that. I liked to think that I would eventually wake up and find myself back in Topeka or back in Paris, or even before my dad passed away," Chuck looked at her as she licked her lips and sighed through her nostrils when she looked up at him. "And, now that the Apocalypse is gonna destroy this whole world and maybe even kill us all, I-I don't wanna wake up… It's weird, but… I wanna be there for them," her voice started to crack a little bit and Chuck just listened to her, his blue eyes staring at her face as she looked away. He didn't even have to ask who she was talking about. "It's like I feel responsible towards them and I just… I wanna make sure they're okay," she paused as she took a long breath in. "Why is that no matter which world or dimension it is, bad things happen to good people?"

"I-I don't know," Chuck gently replied. "But, I don't think there are bad things and good things, just like I don't think there are bad people and good people," Kate stared at him. "I just think that there are things and people."

"I don't agree," Kate breathed out, her brown eyes looking straight into his blue ones. "Because, I've seen good and bad. Not just here, but back in my universe, too. I've seen some people doing things to others until making them cry and even wish they weren't alive-" Kate stopped herself and stood up.

"It doesn't make them bad people, Kate," Chuck slightly frowned as he looked up at her, "There ain't good or bad people."

"What are Sam and Dean Winchester for you, then? What about Bobby Singer, Matt Myers, Pamela Bynes and all those people you've written about? Huh? They're not good people? They're just people? They don't deserve to be happy after everything they've done? Huh?" Kate asked him and he looked away. "You'd know that better than me; better than anyone actually."

Chuck didn't say anything as he kept his gaze away from hers. She sighed and rubbed her forehead with her fingertips. "I'm sorry I'm just a bit… Tense. With everything, you know… Anyways, um, if you don't mind, I'm gonna crash on your sofa," she told him as she made her way to the couch in the living room.

"Maybe, you're right," Chuck suddenly said, causing the brunette to stop in between the kitchen and the living room. "I mean look at me, I-I'm not a good man, I'm an alcoholic and I steal about one hundred dollars from my publisher every month. But still, I don't think I'm a bad man, either," Kate turned her head to look at him. "So what am I then, huh? It's gonna be the end of the world in a few hours and I'm just a miserable person."

"No, you're not," Kate softly told him. "To me, you are a good person."

Chuck scoffed before he noticed the kind expression on her face that told him she was truthfully thinking this about him. She gave him a gentle smile before continuing her way to the couch while he stared at her, still a bit taken aback of what she had just told him. He watched her as she took the few manuscripts that were laying on the couch and put them on the coffee table before grabbing the pillow to put it at one edge before laying down with a long sigh. He turned his attention back to his computer as a little smile formed on his lips. It had been a long time since someone had told him something nice and warm.

Looking up at the ceiling, Kate wondered what would happen once the Apocalypse started. Surely, the angels would find a way to get past the sigils decorating the prophet's house.

But, what would they do to her? Would Zachariah take her back to one of those fancy rooms and let her wait here until she, his joker card, would come at use? Would any of the people she met in this universe survive?

Shifting to lay on her right side, Kate's eyes landed on Chuck's back as he was already back into typing his latest visions on his computer. The light emitting from the computer screen permitted her eyes to draw the silhouette of the bearded man whose back was facing her. It seemed as if he were a dark shadow surrounded by light and Kate was almost hypnotized by this image. She stared at him for a few minutes, her mind forgetting everything that was bothering her, except from what she had just talked about with Chuck.

"I just think that there are things and people."

Maybe he was right.

Maybe, at the end they were all just people.

Meanwhile.

The more time passed, the more frustrated Dean was getting in this so-called angelic green-room. He wasn't a very patient man, especially not when he was stuck in a place like this while his brother was away with a demon. After have tried to lay down a bit on one of the fancy long chairs, Dean had started to pace back and forth in the room. His impatience was growing by the minute and the fact that he was left on his own here, wasn't helping. All he was able to do was lose himself in deep thoughts that were all worse than the previous ones. He had even snickered at himself as he realized that most of his thoughts and memories were unpleasant ones. He felt even more miserable when he realized that the recent good memories he had were mostly filled with the brunette from another universe – the impossible girl Pamela used to call her.

Stopping in front of one of the numerous figurines on one of the many mantelpieces of the room, Dean looked at it for a long moment. He debated with himself and decided it wouldn't do any wrong if he pushed it to the floor. So, he tipped it deliberately to the ground causing it to shatter with a crash.

"You asked to see me?" Castiel appeared behind him.

Dean spun around and looked at the angel with a slight expression of guilt as he glanced at the pieces of the figurine, "Yeah," he cleared his throat, "It was about half an hour ago, but yeah. Listen, I, uh, I-I need something."

"Anything you wish," the blue-eyed angel told him.

"I need you to take me to see Sam."

"Why?"

"There's something I gotta talk to him about."

"What's that?" The angel asked causing Dean to frown a bit before advancing towards him as he replied with sarcasm.

"The B.M. I took this morning. What's it to you? Just make it snappy."

"I don't think that's wise," Castiel replied, turning his head to look away.

"Well, I didn't ask you for your opinion," Dean sarcastically replied as he stepped closer to the angel who turned his head back towards him.

"Have you forgotten what happened the last time you met?" Castiel asked him, his blue eyes staring right into Dean's green ones.

"No," the hunter replied, not breaking the eye contact for a second.

The thing was that Dean didn't forget any single thing from what happened when he confronted his brother. Not because it was still a fresh memory, but because it was a painful one. The things they had said to each other, the punches and kicks they had given to each other. Dean wished none of these things had happened. And, all he wanted to do was to make it up to his little brother.

"That's the whole point," Dean continued. "Listen, I'm gonna do whatever you mooks want, okay? I just need to tie up this one thing. Five minutes - that's all I need."

Castiel scanned the hunter's freckled face for a couple of seconds. He knew his intentions were good and honest. However, he also knew the orders he had to obey now. "No."

"Then, let me see Bobby," Dean told him in order to see what the angel who he used to think of as an ally, a friend even, would say.

"No."

Dean slightly frowned, not understanding why he wouldn't let him see Bobby. Not letting him see Sam could have been a way to preventing him from getting into another fight with him, but not letting him see Bobby made absolutely no sense.

"What do you mean, 'no'? Are you saying that I'm trapped here?"

"You can go wherever you want," Castiel informed him.

"Super. I wanna go see Sam."

"Except there."

"And Bobby?" Dean asked, Castiel gave a slight shake of his head. "Oh, what about Kate, huh? Can I see her?"

"Not for the moment," Castiel replied with a frowned expression as he looked down as though an upset thought crossed his mind. Dean analysed the angel's face, wondering why he looked so upset and almost sad now that he had mentioned Kate.

"I want to take a walk, then," Dean said.

"Fine. I'll go with you," Castiel said back.

"Alone."

"No," the angel said with a much sterner voice and gaze.

"You know what? Screw this noise. I'm out of here," Dean told him as he walked past him, heading for the door.

"Through what door?" Castiel asked him, causing the hunter to stop in track and turn his face full of confusion to him before he turned back for the door. His eyes slightly widened as he realized that the door was completely gone as if it never was there, replaced by a smooth wall.

Turning around to face Castiel, he cursed when he saw that the angel was gone too, "Damn it."

Later.

In the middle of the road.

The rain was pouring wildly outside as Ruby was driving up to the St Mary's convent. Night had fallen and the moment when the last seal was to be broken, was starting to get closer. Only a little more than three hours were left before the clock struck midnight. However, for once, Sam was far from worrying about this right then. His current preoccupation was the new voicemail that he got from his brother. He wondered what it contained, but in the same time he didn't dare listen to it. He was too afraid of what his brother might say; the fight in the hotel room still a very fresh and hard memory. From his brother's hurtful words to their exchanges of punches and of course, the final straw with him choking his own brother as if he was nothing more than an enemy to get rid of.

"It means you're a monster."

"You walk out that door, don't you ever come back!"

Sam couldn't bear his brother's words echoing in his head, and he knew that wishing for the voice-mail to be one in which his brother would tell him to forget about everything that happened and that they were still brothers. But, Sam knew that this time, just like all the others, wishing wouldn't make any change at all.

"What are you - a 12-year-old girl? Just play it already," Ruby said, causing Sam to slid his phone back into his pocket.

"Mind your own business."

"Let me out! Let me out!" The nurse locked in the trunk screamed louder than before, thumping on the roof of the trunk.

"God, I wish she would just shut up," Sam sighed as he threw his head back on the seat.

"Well, that can be arranged," Ruby smirked, earning a glare from the hunter. "I don't get it. All the demons you cut with the knife - what do you think happens to the host? How is this any different?"

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" Sam asked her.

"I know that you're having a tough time here, Sam, but we're in the final lap here. Now is not the time to grow a conscious."

"Would you drop the friggin' attitude?" He asked, frustrated. "I'm about to bleed and drink an innocent woman. While she watches."

"And save the world as a result," Ruby told him and Sam looked at her before turning his hazel eyes to look out the window on his left.

The way she had stated this as if it was the obvious rightest thing to come out of his actions should have made him feel a bit better. But it didn't. Sam knew that nothing could justify killing an innocent person; let alone drinking their blood to death. Although, he really wasn't himself back in Bobby's panic room, he could remember very clearly the way he had attacked Kate and drank her blood. If Bobby and Dean hadn't come as soon as they did, maybe he would have kept on drinking her blood. He wouldn't have stopped until she would be dead and he would notice no change in his craving of demon blood.

"Sammy?" Ruby said, pulling him out of his thoughts. "Don't tell me you're having second thoughts about this?"

"I don't know. I-I just... I'm starting to think... maybe Dean was right," he replied.

"About what?" She turned her head to look at him.

"About everything." Ruby didn't say a word as she turned her attention back to the road. Sam's mind already filled again with the memories of his latest behaviour towards those he cared about. He wanted to believe that he had no other choice than to do all of this. "There's always a choice, Sam," Kate's voice echoed in his mind.

"We're gonna see this through, right, Sam? Sam?" Ruby said, glancing at him.

"Let me out! Let me out!" The nurse restarted to scream and cry in the trunk, only causing Sam's doubts to get mixed with his deep guilt eating him up from the inside.

As much as Sam wanted to believe Kate's words, he knew that this time there wasn't any choice. Her world was different from theirs, and in his world the choices could often be inexistent. And, it was the case now.

It was tearing him apart, but he knew he had to do it.

Not just for killing off Lilith once and for all. It wasn't even for saving the world.

It was for saving Dean.

"Wait, sweetheart, I can explain-"

"Don't you dare call me sweetheart after what you just did!" The brunette shouted as she pointed at the face of the brown-haired man standing half-naked in the middle of a tiny and simple living room enlightened by the rays of sunshine passing through the thin curtains.

"C'mon, don't be so prude-" He started, taking a couple of steps towards her.

"Prude?!" She stepped back. "It has nothing to do with prudish! You fuckin' cheated on me with my friend!" She glared at him. "I trusted you and you did this to me, Peter!"

"It's not like we were engaged!" He said, which caused her to look at him agape.

"How… How could you have done this with my friend?!"

"Your friend? Well, that's your friend who came onto me. She's the one who's been hitting on me and she's the one who told me that since you're over your father's death, you wouldn't care if I slept with her!"

A loud thump caused the brown-haired woman to spin around. When she did, the entire room's light went down to gloomy which made her frown in confusion.

"What the hell?" She asked as she spun around, only to find herself alone in the now dark, cold and silent room. "Peter?"

"And to think that you gave up your purity for that guy!" A familiar voice exclaimed causing her to turn around again. The sight only of that black-suited man with his large grin plastered on his face, made her grasp the situation.

She was dreaming. Or rather having a nightmare since he was there.

"How are you doing Katie? What? Cat's got your tongue or you're just so happily surprised to see me that you can't say a word?"

Kate remained silent as she kept her brown gaze fixed on the angel she detested more than anything else.

"I see… You recently got all of your memories back and this is why we can't locate you lately," he sighed. "Of course, even with your stupid hex-bag on, it was easy for us to locate you when you were with the Winchesters, since they were watched very closely. But, right now, it's like you've completely disappeared from our world. So, what about you tell me where you are? Huh? And, then maybe I could help you cope with those terrible memories?"

Kate simply watched him, not speaking one word nor moving one inch of her body.

"It's funny," he said, tilting his head as he scanned her from top to bottom, "For someone who's had some unfunny memories back, you're doing pretty well." He frowned and then he realized. "Oh, of course, you had recourse to witchcraft. I've always known you were a smart woman. A little stubborn, but now that I've got everything in hand with Dean Winchester, I guess I can forgive you for your behaviour."

"Where is he?" Kate asked and Zachariah's eyes got round and wide as he laughed.

"So, now that I mention Dean, you decide to open your mouth! I should have known, though. He makes you weak in the knees, doesn't he? Don't worry, I won't say a word to him," he winked at her.

"Where is he?" She repeated, her voice much sterner.

"Damn, you really care about the boy," he whistled, sliding his hands in his pockets as he gave her a serious face. "He is safe and sound, waiting in a calm room for the time to play his role to come. But, don't worry," he said, advancing towards her. "You're still very important."

"If Dean is going to play his part, what am I important for?" She asked him, his lips curled into a smile as his eyes washed all over her face.

"You have no idea what the future holds for you. It's magnificent and dreadful," he whispered to her as she stood perfectly still, her eyes fixing over his shoulder. "You will have to make choices that will tear you apart, you will lose people dear to your heart and you will play the role I want you to play. And it all started in October 1983."

Kate frowned as she shifted her eyes back to look at him, "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, you will know. Sooner than later. Because, you and I both know that you will get out of your hiding place," he smirked as he stepped back. "But for now, I gotta go back to your precious Dean. He seems to be getting a bit impatient and unmotivated."

"What are you gonna do to him?" Kate fisted her hands.

"Come on, Kate. Who do you think I am?"

Dean smashed the pedestal onto the wall again and again, until it smashed through to the foundation of the wall. Suddenly, the hole he had done in the wall repaired causing Dean to look back and forth at the wall and the pedestal with surprise before understanding that it meant there was no way out. He threw the pedestal on the floor and looked at the wall.

"Son of a bitch."

"Quit hurling feces like a howler monkey, would you?" Zachariah said as he appeared behind him. Dean immediately approached him. "It's unbecoming."

"Let me out of here," Dean said, his voice hard.

"Like I told you: too dangerous out there. Demons on the prowl," the angel told him calmly.

"I've been getting my ass kicked all year," the hunter replied throwing his arms in the air. "Now you're sweating my safety? You're lying. I want to see my brother."

"That's... ill-advised."

"Then let me see Bobby and Kate! Or is that ill-advised too?" Dean exclaimed with sarcasm.

"They're fine, you don't need to see them," Zachariah told him in a casual tone.

"You-" Dean started before he cut himself off and frowned. "I didn't ask you if they were fine… What happened to them?"

"Nothing," Zachariah rolled his eyes. "You need to stop being paranoid. Actually, Bobby and Kate are currently doing some research to know where you vanished to. That's it," the angel lied to him.

"You know what? I am so sick of your crap riddles and your smug, fat face. What the hell is going on, huh? Why can't I see any of them? And how am I gonna ice Lilith?"

Zachariah watched the hunter's face for a moment before sighing and dropping his head for a second. "You're not," he told him as he lifted his head to meet Dean's confused green eyes. "Going to ice Lilith."

"What?"

"Lilith's going to break the final seal," the angel said as he made his way to sit on an elegant sofa. "'Fait accompli' at this point. Train's left the station."

"But me and Sam, we can stop-" Dean stopped himself as he had an epiphany. Kate's voice appeared in his voice. The angels don't fight to stop it. They fight as the Earth is burning.' Her theory about the angels being pro-Apocalypse; the theory that had worried him even if he didn't show it, was turning out to be true. "You don't want to stop it, do you?"

"Nope. Never did," Zachariah smugly smiled. "The end is nigh. The apocalypse is coming, kiddo, to a theater near you."

Dean's eyes were filling with tears, the realization that the supposedly good guys were impatiently awaiting for the end of the world was a terrible blow to him. "What was all that crap about saving seals?"

"Our grunts on the ground - we couldn't just tell them the whole truth. We'd have a full-scale rebellion on our hands. I mean, think about it. Would we really let sixty-five seals get broken unless senior management wanted it that way?"

Dean turned his face, still not over the shock as he gulped out, "But why?"

"Why not? The Apocalypse? Poor name, bad marketing - puts people off. When all it is, is Ali Foreman. On a... slightly larger scale," Zachariah rambled as Dean looked up and noticed that the cheesy paintings were now completely different. Demons and angels fighting in a world of chaos filled of fires and human faces screaming in terror. The paintings were even creepier than earlier as a shiver ran down his spine. "And we like our chances. When our side wins - and we will - it's paradise on earth. Now, what's not to like about that?"

"What happens to all the people during your little pissing contest?" Dean looked at the angel, his voice almost broken as he tried to hold back his tears.

"Well... you can't make an omelette without cracking a few eggs. In this case... truckloads of eggs, but you get the picture," he replied, standing up. "Look... it happens. This isn't the first planetary enema we've delivered," he said as he noticed Dean eyeing a statue on a mantelpiece. "Uh, no, Dean. Probably shouldn't try to bash my skull in with that thing. Wouldn't end up too pleasant for you."

"What about Sam? He won't go quietly. He'll stop Lilith," Dean told him.

"Sam," Zachariah inhaled deeply. "He has a part to play. A very important part. Just like Kate. She's a bit stubborn, so it really is hard to make sure she obeys, but I'm sure that soon everything will play out the way we want it. And as for Sam, well he may need a little nudging in the right direction, but I'll make sure he plays it."

"What does that mean? What are you gonna do to them?" Dean asked him as he took a step closer to the angel, his voice even more desperate as he continued, "What are you gonna do to Sam?"

"Sam, Sam, Sam. Marcia, Marcia, Marcia. Forget about him, would you? Forget about all of them. You have larger concerns," Zachariah told him as he put one hand on Dean's shoulder and kept his eyes looking straight into the hunter's. "Why do you think I'm confiding in you? You're still vital, Dean. We weren't lying about your destiny. Just... omitted a few pertinent details. But nothing's changed. You are chosen. You will stop it. Just... not Lilith, or the apocalypse. That's all."

"Which means?" Dean asked, puzzled.

Zachariah smirked at him as he gestured to a painting, "Lucifer. You're going to stop Lucifer."

Dean turned his head towards the painting and looked at it in shock. There was what looked like an angel with a sword standing above a creature that seemed to be the Devil. The idea itself that there won't be a thing to stop Lucifer from getting out of his cage scared Dean, but the fact that he was going to be the one to bring him down terrified him.

"You're your own little Russell Crowe, complete with surly attitude," And when it's over... and when you've won... your rewards will be... unimaginable. Peace, happiness... Two virgins and seventy sluts!" He chuckled, playfully slapping Dean's arm before walking away. "Trust me - one day, we'll look back on this and laugh."

"Tell me something," Dean stopped him. "Where's God in all this?"

"God? God has left the building."

Later.

At Chuck Shurley's.

Quietly, Chuck grabbed his phone house settled on the coffee table, his blue eyes looking at the still fast asleep brunette on his couch. Holding the phone against his chest, he stared at her for a short while, wondering if he should wake her up now. Time was sticking and it was soon going to be midnight. His gaze traveled all over her soft facial features before he let out a sigh full of sadness for everything that was happening to her. When she scrunched her face in her sleep, he decided to return to the kitchen and let her sleep in peace.

The prophet glanced at his computer's screen and at the pile of the pages he had just printed, nearby the several beer bottles he had emptied on his own. While Kate was asleep, Chuck had quickly finished writing his story which he had titled 'Lucifer Rising'. When he wrote the last word of it, all he wanted to do was wake Kate up, so she could comfort him the way she comforted Dean so well. But, then he remembered that the reason she had went to sleep in the first place was because of how terrible the events he had told her would occur tonight, were. Therefore, he let her sleep in peace, thinking that she deserved it. However, he couldn't make himself go to sleep. He wanted to live his last night on Earth.

Grabbing one of his old newspapers, Chuck called the number of a society of hookers. He assumed that he could get one hooker or maybe more for the night and bring them upstairs without Kate noticing it. He pushed away the feeling of guilt that was rising inside of him. He knew that he couldn't do much about the events that were to occur at midnight, so there was no reason for him to feel guilty, right?

After some words exchanged with a woman on the phone, he found out that they offered much more than what he thought which excited him a lot.

"Oh yeah? Really? In the same time? Really?... That sounds moist… What are your rates?" He asked while pacing back and forth in the kitchen. "Okay, so I take twenty girls for the whole night."

"Really?" Kate's voice startled him as he spun around to look over the doorway where the brunette was standing with eyebrows frowned in disgust as she stared at him, one hand scratching the top of her head.

"Kate!" Chuck exclaimed, only to have the woman on the other line ask him who that Kate was. "What, uh, no, no one."

"Am I supposed to leave when your twenty hookers get here?" Kate asked him, dropping her hand as she leaned against the doorway and crossed her arms over her chest.

"What? No, not at all," Chuck stammered. "No, no, I wasn't talking to you," he said to the woman on the other end of the line before he rested his palm against the phone, his blue eyes looking at Kate, "I'm just trying to live like there's no tomorrow."

"And you do that by sleeping with twenty strangers in one night?" Kate asked him with raised eyebrows.

"It's not like I can choose," he replied. "No, no, I know that I can choose, lady," he said to the woman on the phone who kept on getting confused with what he was saying.

Suddenly, Castiel and Dean appeared in the kitchen, surprising both Kate and Chuck who looked at them with wide eyes.

"This isn't supposed to happen," Chuck whispered as he hung up and put his phone down nearby the sink, his eyes glued to the hunter and the angel who were standing in silence.

When Dean turned his head, he did a double-take as he was surprised to spot the brunette here. She made quick and firm steps towards them, her jaw clenched as she brought up one fist and pulled back ready to punch the angel in the face. But, Dean was swift as he grabbed her wrist and stopped her in track.

"Trust me, you don't wanna do this," Dean told her as he remembered the punch he gave the angel earlier in the so-called angelic green-room.

"This asshole has been lying to us!" She glared at Castiel whose head lowered.

"Yeah, I know, but it's okay now. He's on our side," Dean told her as she frowned as she shifted her confused eyes towards him. "What happened to you?" He asked as he noticed the band-aid covering the inside of her hand.

"Nothing," she replied as she pulled her hand away from his grasp. "Where did they take you?"

"To a five stars charming room," he replied before turning his head to the prophet. "Chuck, we-"

"You're not supposed to be here!" Chuck cut him off.

"How did you even get in here?"

"I cracked one of the walls from outside in order to damage one of the sigils, so Dean and I could get in," Castiel said in his grave voice.

"What?" Kate exclaimed. "It means Zachariah can come now!"

Dean snapped his head at her, "Zachariah? How do you know Zachariah?"

"H-he's not a good angel," Kate stuttered, shaking her head as she started to fear the arrival of that terrible angel.

"Cas, you didn't tell me she knew him! You just said that-" Dean looked over at the angel with a bit of anger.

"We don't have time to talk about this. If you want to stop Sam from killing Lilith, we have to hurry, "Castiel interrupted him.

"Yeah, right," Dean said, glancing at Kate before returning his attention to the writer. "We need to know where Sam is right now."

"I-I got it," Chuck replied as he walked over his stack of papers nearby his computer and started rummaging through the pages.

"What are you doing here?" Castiel asked Kate.

"I wanted to find a way to help Sam and Dean so I came to the only person who knows everything before everyone and that's how I found out that my theory was right and that the angels are bigger dickheads than I thought… I thought you were with us, Castiel. After everything, I thought-"

"He's with us," Dean cut her off, his green eyes looking at her with intensity.

"I-I was with them, but I'm not anymore," Castiel said, causing Kate to turn her head back to him. "I know that it's not what my Father would have wanted," he replied, his voice full of sincere regrets. She stared at him for a few seconds while Chuck returned next to Dean with a few pages in hands. Looking at the angel, Kate couldn't help but remember all the things that he had done to help her in spite of being ordered not to. Plus, he had been tortured by Heaven for helping the Winchesters so much; and maybe for helping her, too.

"I heard He's gone – Your Father... I'm sorry," she told him softly.

"We'll find Him," Castiel told her with a determination in his voice and eyes that Kate found rather reassuring.

"Alright, um, well here you go," Chuck said as he gave the papers to Dean. "It's somewhere in here."

"What are you looking for?" Kate asked Dean.

"Where exactly Sam is at, to stop him from killing Lilith," he told her as he went through the pages before he glanced up to Kate "She's the-"

"The final seal, yeah I know," Kate finished for him before she put her hands in the papers he was holding and took half of them to find the location quicker. "I remember Chuck said it was somewhere in Maryland…" she said as she flipped over the few pages in her hands and he did the same with the other half in between his fingers. "Here! Ilchester, Maryland." She put the page on top of those he was holding. He glanced at her before putting his full intention on the page and scanning the important lines.

"St Mary convent. A convent?" Dean asked as he glanced up at Chuck.

"Yeah, but you guys aren't supposed to be there," Chuck told them. "You're not in this story."

"Yeah, well, we're making up as we go," Castiel said surprising the three others whose eyes shot up at him.

"So, you're gonna stop Sam from killing Lilith and then what? Doesn't it still free Lucifer if someone else kills Lilith?" Kate asked.

"No, Sam is the only one supposed to break the final seal. No one else. Besides, no other human has the power to kill Lilith but Sam," Castiel told her.

"Can't you do it? You're an angel, you're powerful," she told him.

"That's the plan," Dean said, his green gaze looking up from the page to look at her. "We stop Sam from bleeding her and Castiel will kill her off later."

"I'm coming with," she said, her voice firm and determined.

"No, that's too dangerous. You stay here," Dean told her.

"You need as much help as possible, Dean. Do you really think that there'll be just Lilith and Sam waiting for you two to come and stop them?"

"It'll be easier for me to not have someone else to worry about," he told her looking straight into her eyes.

Suddenly, the two only lamps switched on and the computer's screen started to flicker as a piercing sound appeared and the whole house began to tremble causing cups, dishes and empty beer bottles to crash into broken pieces on the floor.

"Oh man!" Chuck shouted throwing his arms in the air. "Not again!"

"It's the archangel," Castiel shouted for all of them to hear.

"You gotta get out of here, now!" Dean shouted at Kate. "If they get you-"

"I'll be fine," Kate cut him off. "You go to Sam!"

"I'll hold the archangel back! I'll hold them all back," Castiel tried to reassure Dean before he held his hand up to put it on Dean's forehead to send him to where Sam was.

"Wait!" Kate shouted as she swiftly pulled her hex-bag out of her pocket, grabbed Dean's hand and put it inside. "Be safe!" Dean looked down at her hand as she squeezed his before letting go. He looked up at her, his green eyes meeting her brown ones for the split of a second before Castiel touched his forehead, sending him away.

Wincing at the piercing sound, Kate brought her hands up to put them against her ears before stumbling her way to the table on which she had left the sword. Castiel looked at her as she held the weapon firmly in between her hands and her face was still scrunched up in the pain that the piercing sound brought to her. He glanced at Chuck and understood that he was immune to the piercing sound just like him, whereas Kat had to endure it.

Approaching her, he brought one hand up to send her away, but she stopped him. "Don't! I wanna fight those sons of bitches!"

"It's suicide, Kate," he told her as he noticed some blood dripping from her ears.

"If there's anything worth dying for, this is it!" Kate replied shouting as the sound remained.

Castiel stared at her face for a couple of seconds during which he couldn't help but feel his fascination for the human beings increasing. The humans were such complex creatures filled with so much impenetrable features that made them fascinating. They were always ready to do incredible and risky things, even if they weren't sure where it would lead them.

"If there's anything worth dying for, this is it," Dean had told him too earlier. That was this sentence and the expression in the hunter's eyes that reminded Castiel of what he was truly meant to do. No matter what, he had to protect the favorite Creation of his Father.

In a trice, the piercing sound disappeared and the house stopped trembling. Kate frowned as she looked at Castiel whose face seemed to be concentrated on a thought.

"W-what's happening?" Chuck asked as he looked over at Kate who raised one hand to wipe at the blood she could feel on her ears.

"I don't know," she whispered in reply before she approached Castiel. "Castiel?"

"They're here," the angel just said.

"Yes, we are." Kate spun around to see three suited-men standing right behind the table where Chuck sat to type his visions onto stories.

"How could you betray your own brothers, Castiel?" The one in the middle asked as Kate tightened her grip around the handle of the sword and kept her eyes glued to them.

"I didn't," Castiel replied. "God would-"

"God would be disappointed if he could see what you did!" The one in the left cut him off. "You disrespectfully ruined every plan of his and you even had the audacity to attack Zachariah, and now you are taking refuge in the Prophet's house. How can you-"

"Wait a minute!" Chuck exclaimed before walking a few steps until he reached Kate's side. "Um, Cas-Castiel is a good angel. Y-you shouldn't be-"

"With no disrespect to you," the angel in the middle interrupted him. "You shouldn't interfere between angels."

Kate frowned, "One of you is his archangel, right?" The three angels turned their gazes to her. "One of you is here to protect him because God gave him the power to see things and to know more than the other humans and the angels. So, why don't you let him finish what he's gotta say?"

"And who might you be?" The angel on the right asked as Kate clenched her jaw, her brown eyes going over him.

"You don't know, really?"

"Your new tattoo blocks the view of your soul," Castiel said as he threw a glance at her.

"Oh," she just said before frowning. "Didn't Zachariah tell you about me?"

"Actually," the very familiar voice echoed from behind. Kate's heart seemed to stop as she froze in spot, her eyes slowly filling with tears. "I did."

"Zachariah-" Castiel turned around so he could still see the three angels and the one that just arrived before that latter one cut him off.

"Castiel, after what you have done, I suggest you don't say a word and you prepare yourself for your end. And, Kate," he paused.

During this pause, Kate's heartbeats started to get so wild that she could hear the thumping sound in her ears as her fingers tightened even more around the sword's handle as if her life depended on it.

"You better run."

Author's note:

So, this chapter wasn't as intense as the previous one and it wasn't as long neither. But, it needed to be like that for some reason that you will understand when you'll go page 26.

Hopefully, you still enjoyed it !

And, as promised, here are my replies to the latest reviews I got:

RedPaperOwl: You made me blush and smile in about twenty words. Thank you very much for reading and reviewing :)

Bjq: you're fabs and awesome! Thanks for reading!

Isabella Poulous: You just taught me a new word (riveting), thank you for that, I absolutely love learning new words! And, thank you for your review and especially the advice about the long sentences; it will come in good use :). I'm really happy that you've been enjoying my story so far.

Klandgraf2007: Thank you very much for leaving this review!

Guest(s): I don't think all the guests are one and the same, so here goes my replies to the different reviews:

Thank you for the guest who left a review on chapter 24! I'm really happy that you liked my reuse of John Winchester's famous line. To me, it was important to show a bit subtly that Dean never forgot those words that changed his life forever and that they mean saving his little brother.

Thank you so much for the guest who reviewed on chapter 23 saying that it took them two days to read my story. Your review was really sweet and I'm happy you think I did 'more than justice' to the show, because sometimes I really feel like I don't. And, yeah I can see you really wanna see a lot of things to happen. Well, let me tell you that I took note of it, so all you gotta do now is be patient ;).

Thank you very much for the guest who also reviewed on chapter 23 and pointed out something that bothered them which was that Bobby seemed to take too much Kate's side instead of taking Dean's. Well here is my explanation. When writing Bobby and the way he interacts with Kate, I try to take in consideration a few things: the fact that Bobby has spent days and days with this girl which made him get to know her better than Sam and Dean (or anyone else in that story), and this leads to the fact that Bobby knows she doesn't have the same background than Sam and Dean. Bobby knows that she comes from a much safer world and has been thrown unwillingly in a world full of monsters, so he feels responsible to protect her, simply because she doesn't see things the way they do. Bobby takes her side over Dean a lot, because he puts himself in her shoes and understands how hard it can be to be so far away from home and to be in such a dangerous and terrifying world. The old hunter tries to be gentle and patient with her because no matter what, he sees her as a fragile little human who shouldn't be corrupted by their world. I suppose that if you haven't grasped that in my story, it's my fault. So, I'll try to make it more obvious next time. Thank you again for leaving this review :)

Wolfenergy17: Your reviews have the gift to make me so happy and I feel like I can never thank you enough. I hope this reply will be sufficient to thank you for being so loyal and for taking on your time to write me those long reviews :).

So your review of my 23rd chapter made me realize that not only you've become really familiar with my OC and can already expect her reactions, but you also are really good at noticing all the little things that I put! I didn't think anyone would take notice of Beth's sorta obsession with her car and I certainly didn't think anyone would notice that Dean fell asleep the exact same way than Kate at the end of the chapter. It's something I've learned in Literature class this semester and I don't really know how to explain it, but basically putting two characters in the same position/situation create a bonding between them that the reader usually takes time to notice (most of the time, they notice it when there's been enough of those things); I don't remember what it's called but it's some kind of mirroring thing... Anyways, I just love the fact that you noticed it!

As for your review on chapter 24, I'm very happy that you found the reason why Beth is so attached to her car satisfying. And, I gotta say that one of the hardest parts to write was the part when Dean conceded on Kate driving his Baby. It was hard to make sure I don't get him too OOC as he hands her his car's keys, and when it was done, I avoided reading again this part, in case I wouldn't like it and just rewrite it again... Finally, I just want you to know that I am overwhelmed by your sweet words of support and love for this story and I truly hope that you will keep on enjoying my writings! Thank you so very much for your reviews!

And for those who didn't leave a review, a big thank you for reading my story anyway,

A.