Disclaimer: See Chapter 1

A/N: Just so we're clear, this is set during Dean's stay in Hell. For the next story in my little trilogy, the aspects of how that plays out will be AU. To me, it is too difficult to adequately cross the two shows over without one of them being tinkered with in some way, and this fic being Reaper-centered, Supernatural had to be the one to bite the bullet. Another thing: the dialogue between Sam and Andi was difficult to nail down in the chapter and I'm still not entirely pleased with it, but I didn't want to spend forever on something I wasn't sure I could get absolutely right.

Chapter 7: The Children of Edgar Ross

For a brief time after his revealing conversation with Sam Winchester, he had felt almost exuberant. That night, he had even managed a respectable five hours of sleep and had dinner, as well. The next day, he could feel the benefits of that extra energy and started a more vigorous search for Edgar. He had all but given up on the media to tell him about the homeless situation. With that avenue being closed off, he took to the streets to talk to the homeless himself.

Sam left Charlie with Ben and took Sock out to help him talk to these people. Sock, he decided, would be helpful here, as he was actually quite good at communicating with them. Every time they went downtown, he would always manage to strike up a conversation with someone living on the street. It was a gift that Sock had, something that Sam had always been a little envious of. It was the ability to talk to pretty much anyone without that awful sensation that he felt every time he stepped out of his comfort zone.

The two of them spent hours on the streets, trying to dig up as much usable information as possible. It cost them over fifty bucks and Sock's jacket to find out that some people who lived around Pioneer Square had been disappearing without a trace in the past week. Three people in total had been taken in that time, since just about after they flushed Edgar out of the mission. By the end of the day, they had gotten specific locations for these people and where they normally bunked down for the night.

Sam and Sock purchased a city map before heading home. When they got there, Sam tacked the map to the wall and pin-pointed the locations of the three homeless men and saw that they made for a rather large triangle. It seemed like a large area to search and he wasn't entirely certain where to begin. Ben suggested they try to identify all the abandoned property in the area and start searching those. It was the best (by virtue of being the only) idea they had to go off of, so Sam agreed to it and they began a plan to search all these places.

At one point, he had made the effort to stop by the bank and got a balance on his account. True to word, the Devil had credited his account with fifteen grand. He made arrangements to automatically transfer money to his friends' accounts, so that they could get paid for their troubles. With that taken care of, Sam was able to concentrate more fully on the job at hand.

Later that afternoon, they had a more-or-less complete list of possible locations for that part of Seattle. It would take forever to look through all those buildings and that was ignoring the distinct possibility that Edgar wasn't even located there. For all Sam knew, he could just be sending his followers out to that part of town to throw off the scent. Unfortunately, he didn't see any other option just then and would have to suck it up and give it a shot.

Their plan was to try later that night and hope they got lucky, a plan he didn't feel all that great about. It was too late to bitch openly about it, though, as he had already given it an okay. Regardless, they would have to be ready for it and that meant getting all their supplies together. It was fortunate that Sock and Ben had already taken the opportunity to replenish their stock of explosives. This time, they abandoned the gun idea and got more close range weaponry. Ben was wielding a wood chopping axe and Sock had procured for himself a sledge hammer and used any available opportunity he had to play with it lovingly. Sam had been given a machete with a sheath for his belt, needing something lighter and one-handed since he had to carry the auto-crossbow.

By early evening they had all their equipment sorted out and ready to go for when they headed out. Their plan wasn't to leave for several more hours when Andi showed up to watch after Charlie. He and Andi had decided that it would be better for her to come over there and look after him after the whole Josie incident. For the time being, they had nothing to do and spent the free time (with Sam taking breaks to tend to Charlie) playing video games, his mind elsewhere.

It was a couple hours before Andi showed, carrying a paper shopping bag. "Hi guys," she said, shutting the door. "I got dinner."

All three of them got up at once and headed over to the kitchen, Sam snagging Charlie from his little play area along the way. He gave her a kiss and peeked into the bag to see what she had brought. It turned out to be Chinese food and plenty of it, something hadn't had in awhile. "Thanks for dinner, babe," he said.

"You're welcome," she replied smiling, just before she returned his kiss with one of her own on the cheek. Ben grabbed plates from the cupboard and they started dishing out the food. Sam, knowing that Charlie couldn't have any of it, went about preparing him some formula. Andi snuck up behind him, snaking her arms around his midsection when she got up close and said, "Do you have any idea how cute you look when you're being all dad-like?"

Sam smiled and said, "like sexy cute or just boring old kid cute?"

"Hmm, is it wrong to think both?"

He laughed and said, "Maybe. I don't think I wanna explore that in detail, though."

"Well, alright then, let's just eat," she replied, letting go of him.

"I can get behind that," he responded, pulling Charlie's formula from the microwave.

The four of them plus Charlie sat down at the dining table and started eating, with Charlie sucking hungrily away at his bottle. He had just gotten strong enough to hold the bottle with his own hands, freeing Sam from having to hold it for him. There seemed to be something tragic about no longer being needed for that anymore, like the baby needed him less and was making some sort of step towards independence. It was laughable, he understood that, but he couldn't quite shake it from his mind.

As they all ate, they tried to keep dinner conversation to light-hearted small talk, but it didn't stay that way for very long. Eventually, Andi asked about their mission and how it was going. Sam had been trying his level best to avoid this topic since the Devil had told him what it all entailed. He knew that she would find out at some point, but he was desperately hoping that it wouldn't be until after they completed the task and the souls were all roasting in Hell where they belonged. As it was, if the insistent look on her face was any gauge, he was going to be forced to tell her right here at the dinner table.

"So tell me," she began after finishing off her broccoli beef, "why is it taking you so long to capture this soul? I mean I don't want to put you guys on the defensive and I'm sure you're all doing a great job of it, even though you haven't told me about any of it, so I'm just guessing there, but it's been about a week now and you haven't caught him yet. What about this soul is making it so difficult?" Andi leveled a steadfast gaze to all three of them to gauge their reactions.

"Um, uh, well you see," Sam hemmed and hawed at her, trying to come up with something to placate her and move things on to a much friendlier subject. Sock and Ben weren't any better at it either, as they just tried to look around the room and ignore Andi altogether.

"Sam, you guys, what aren't you telling me?"

"It's just that there's more than one soul to go after this time and I didn't wanna worry you."

"Well, how many is more than one soul?" she asked, looking a little concerned.

"Oh, just a few," Sam started saying.

"Considering the three we've already got, there's thirteen left to go," interrupted Sock.

Sam closed his eyes and muttered a curse under his breath, before saying," thank you Sock, that was very helpful of you."

"Thirteen!?" Andi cried out. "Oh God, Sam, why didn't you tell me about this?"

"Like I said, I didn't wanna worry you. I thought if you knew then you would just worry about it constantly and I guess I just didn't want that for you." He tried to look as sheepish as he could, hoping that it would be enough to assuage her coming fury; it wasn't.

"I will be the judge of what's for me, Sam. I don't need you to treat me like I'm made of glass; I can handle it and I do not appreciate any chauvinism from you. You've been doing that a lot lately and I put up with it because I thought you needed some space, but if this how you're gonna act about everything, then I don't know."

Shit, he thought, she looks fuckin' pissed. And she did; her face was contorted with what had to be anger and veins were popping out all over her neck and head. He needed to do or say something to calm her down, but he was at a loss at what he could possibly say to accomplish that. "I'm sorry, but that's not it at all."

"Then what is it?" she asked angrily.

"I wanted to protect you because I love you and I just wanted you to be safe and happy. If you think that's sexist in some way, then I don't know what to tell you. Look, it was obviously a mistake to keep this from you and I'm sorry for trying, but I didn't know what else to do."

"What you should've done was come to me and tell me the truth and trust in me to be strong enough to deal with it." Andi sounded less angry, but he wasn't about to fool himself into thinking that he was in the clear.

"Okay, I was wrong. You're absolutely right and I should've told you about this, but it wasn't because I thought you couldn't handle it. I just didn't want you to have to."

"Well, that's not as bad, I guess. I'm still mad at you, Sam, but I'll let it go for now."

"That's great," said Sam, smiling. "I was worried that you were gonna kill me for a second there."

"Make no mistake, that option's still on the table, it's just no longer a guarantee."

"Hey guys?" said Ben from his seat at the table. "Are we done?"

"Yes Ben, we're done," said Andi, sounding calm and pleasant, almost as if she and Sam hadn't just been in an argument. "So, now that I know, how about you guys bring me up to speed on your plan?"

Between the three of them, they got Andi up to speed fairly quickly, leaving out the whole thing about the demonic rats entirely. Sure, it went against everything Sam and Andi had just argued over, but this time he knew that he shouldn't tell her. Ben wrapped things up with their plans to explore all the abandoned buildings in the area, which led to Andi sitting up and looking like she had something to say.

"You know, there're more than just abandoned buildings around Pioneer Square, there are plenty of other places to hide there."

"Andi, I doubt that the souls are gonna hang out in a place with other occupants in it. It just doesn't seem to be their thing. I think Edgar prefers to keep his flock isolated from the rest of the world, even when he's in the middle of the city," said Sam.

"I'm not talking about occupied buildings, just not abandoned ones. Saint Ignacious is right off of Pioneer and it's currently being renovated. The whole congregation has been transferred to another church while the improvements are being made. Last I heard, they were still neck-deep in the project."

"How'd you know that?" asked Sock.

"My Grandma's a member of that church and it's all she ever talks about anymore. Then again, her church is all she ever really talks about, now that I think about it."

Sam, Sock, and Ben all looked at each other, silently mulling over the idea with each other. A consensus came in a matter of seconds and Sam turned to Andi and asked, "Do you have the address of this place, by chance?"

"I can do you one better, Sam, and give you directions. The only thing is that it's surrounded by a really tall fence, so you're gonna have to search around for a way in. There are some alleyways behind it and whatnot that I would say should be promising; I would try those first."

The three of them stared at her a bit dumbstruck. Sock eventually asked, "what? Have you been casing the joint, or something?"

"No," she defended, sighing, "I've just had to go there so many times, the layout's been burned into my brain."

"Right," said Sock, sounding unconvinced.

"Oh, layoff Sock," she said.

The four of them finished up dinner, Sam breaking off early to get a cranky Charlie out of his high chair and into his arms. He spent the rest of his time with the baby and Andi, while Sock and Ben went about getting the supplies down to the car. Sam went over the things he thought she would need to know about Charlie's needs, eliciting an exasperated response from Andi. She impressed upon him that she indeed know everything he was showing and telling her. When Sock and Ben returned from their task, the three of them left and told Andi goodnight.

They reached their destination and found an all-day parking lot nearby to park their car. Grabbing their things, they went around the lot, scoping it out. It was hard to see any of the building itself, due to the high-fence and because it was night. Walking around, they discovered a large drainage hole across the alley from the fence-line.

Ben discovered that he could pry the grate up with the head of his axe and they lifted it up. Sam went in first, dropping through the hole and landing deftly at the bottom. His feet splashed up a lot of water, drenching his legs in the dank filth. Sock came down after, hitting the ground with much less finesse and his legs failed to support him. His body collapsed on the cold wet concrete drainage tunnel and he groaned in pain.

When Ben had joined them, they followed the cramped tunnel to the point where it dropped off into an open space overlooking the construction site. The old portion of the church was uphill and just above level with their position. They had been rebuilding downhill, the end of the renovated wing set out directly in front of them. Getting down to the ground would be the problem, as it was somewhere around ten or so feet down.

"Not exactly prime real estate here, now is it?" said Ben, looking at the property with a critical eye.

"No kidding," added Sock, "I mean, who builds a church in the middle of a concrete pit?"

"Those who don't have enough money to move their church to a better location," Said Sam. "Now come on, let's get this done."

"So what, do we jump down, because I'm still hurtin' from the last one," said Sock.

"We take the ladder down; the one right there along the side," he answered, pointing to the right. Sock and Ben looked at where he was pointing to and saw that there was indeed a series of metal ladder rungs sticking out of the concrete, leading all the way down to the ground below.

The three of them climbed down the ladder and reached the wet soggy ground at the bottom. Garbage and construction litter was scattered all over the place, patches of wild grass sticking out in spots in the sea of trash. Sam got his crossbow out and strapped on his utility belt. Sock and Ben got theirs' on as well, getting their weapons out with them. When all three of them had equipped themselves, they began a search of the property.

For the next five minutes, they wandered around outside and looked for the best point of entry. Eventually, they decided on entering through the basement after finding a stairwell along the rear end of the church that led to an ancient-looking wood door. The padlock on it had been broken off at some point, allowing them entrance. It was a good sign that this was the right place and the souls inhabited this old church currently. Sam took the lead, as he preferred to do, and discovered that it led to a storage room. Mostly it was old furniture that was being stored here, but some boxes of hymnals and set pieces for plays could be seen amongst the stacks of old pews and chairs.

He motioned to them silently to follow him, as he led them through the old junk deep into the heart of the eerie old church. Everything was coated in a thick film of dust, a consistent theme in his new life; it was suggestive of abandonment and of all the lost things. Turning his mind away from that –as he found he often had to –Sam kept his focus strictly on his surroundings. The air in here was stagnant and felt harsh in his lungs, the urge to cough it all out almost overwhelming.

In the dark and silent, it seemed as if this basement went on forever. They had left the room they had initially found themselves in and were now creeping the way down a very narrow corridor. Sam was keeping his eyes peeled for any signs of a staircase up, without any luck so far. Eventually, they came across an open doorway. His light caught the door frame at an angle, the effect of which was that the interior of the room was shielded by formidable-looking shadows.

He edged silently up to the door and peaked inside, trying to let some light in, but not too much. Sam almost lost his composure at the sight before him. Piled practically from floor to ceiling, were those awful little creatures, those 'brimstone rats'. They appeared dead, but he could here this awful rhythm of breath and the slight rumble of a uniformed snoring. These pint-sized monstrosities were synched up, somehow, in their breathing and probably in even more of their basic organic functions. It all made for one incredibly terrible sensation; something that almost rivaled some of what he had encountered in that other place, in Silent Hill.

Sam motioned for his companions to back away and leave this area immediately, which got him some pretty confused looks in return. Regardless, they heeded his order without question or complaint, something he was incredibly grateful for. When they had reached a reasonable distance away from the slumbering horde, Sam whispered as quietly as he could. "The rats are in that room."

"Really?" asked Sock, just as quietly.

"Yes, they appeared to be sleeping."

"Do you think it was all of them?" asked Ben, keeping the discussion going.

"Maybe, I don't know," replied Sam. "It was a lot of them, I know that."

"Uh guys," chipped in Sock, looking past the two of them at something that was out of sight.

As one, Sam and Ben slowly turned around and came face to face with one of the escaped souls, its cloak flapping about in a nonexistent breeze. His light, which should've illuminated at least the bottom part of its face, showed absolutely nothing beyond that dark impossible void. As soon as they stopped their movements and faced the thing directly, it let out this ear-splitting shriek, thereby alerting everything that lurked within these old halls. The fallout of this action was instantaneous, as answering shrieks sounded off all around them. It had awakened the horde, complicating the matter severely.

Immediately after the soul in front of them stopped its banshee scream, Sam aimed the crossbow at its midsection and pulled the trigger. A bolt flew out and struck it squarely in the gut and it was instantly sucked back into the vessel, taking the damned soul with it. Turning to his friends, he said, "you guys try your best to hold back the horde, while I go after the souls. We cannot allow the two groups merge; that would just make things worse."

"Uh yeah," replied Sock, "we'll be successful at that, I'm sure."

The two of them turned to face the direction the horde had been spotted in, their weapons at the ready. Sam shot out one last thing to them as he started in the direction the soul had come from. "And try not to burn the place down if at all possible, Andi would kill me." With that, he ran down the hall and turned the corner, coming upon the illusive staircase. He took it up two steps at a time, making it to the upper landing quickly. It led out into an open hallway, which he immediately scoped out in both directions. Deciding on which way to go, he tore down the hall and started hunting after his prey.

Sock and Ben stood side by side solidly, waiting the oncoming tide of rats. They could be heard growling and screeching, clattering their way towards the duo rapidly. All too soon, the horde rushed at them, jumping and climbing all over each other in their desperate scramble. The creatures were piling up into a writhing organic wall, all shifting flesh and claws. In seconds they crashed into the two assistant bounty hunters, who responded by swinging out their weapons. Countless rats were knocked away and killed, but more just took their place. Tiny body parts and that noxious black blood flew everywhere, coating everything in the thickened goo.

Several rats leapt onto Ben, driving him to his knees and getting Sock's attention. He used his hammer as carefully as he could and started knocking the horrid beasts off of his friend, while making sure he wasn't being overwhelmed himself. Ben, once free, started in again on mercilessly slaughtering the monsters. It didn't seem to matter how many they killed, because wave after wave of them climbed over their fallen and maimed comrades and forced the two friends back toward the corner that the staircase was located around.

Sam, meanwhile, was running and looking for his enemy. He figured that they would mostly be located in the assembly hall, where their sacrifices were probably made. It didn't take him long to reach the hall and he burst out into the room, where he discovered the vast majority of the souls all congregated together and staring right at him. He had just enough time to aim his vessel at one and fire at it. The bolt hit its target dead-on and it was pulled into the crossbow, as Sam was tucking and rolling to the side. Several of those odd blasts of green energy flew through the spot he had just been occupying. They smashed into the pews, sending their shattered wood remnants flying and burning through the air.

He popped up from his new location behind a row of pews and fired at one, his shot going wide and embedding harmlessly in the wall behind it. As one, the souls began firing at him again. Sam could only fall to the floor and press his body flat, as the blasts sailed past him and singed his face, as they sheared through the wood above. His eyes were clenched tightly shut to protect him from the debris and the intensity of the light from the beams. Immediately after it flew by, he rolled himself over onto his stomach and pushed himself to his feet, where he launched himself forward ferociously. Several more blasts followed, each one just seconds behind him, as he ran at top speed. It was extremely hard to run so fast through the tight passage between the rows of pews, but he managed to get through and dove behind a pillar on the far end.

As for Sock and Ben, they were being forced back up the stairs, the horde pressing them back relentlessly. Dozens and dozens of rats were left to be trampled by their comrades, who thoughtlessly marched over them. Several of the things were even climbing up the walls and jumping down on them, their claws trying to rend through flesh without regard. Sock had decided enough was enough and he pulled out a pipe bomb. Getting behind Ben, he used that brief moment of space to light it up and lob it somewhere into the crowd of them. Using his free hand to grab the collar of Ben's jacket, he pulled him back and up the stairs. The pipe bomb thankfully bounced off the wall and disappeared around the corner, giving them some protection from the blast. Sock and Ben raced up the stairs hounded closely by the mass of rats behind them. The pipe bomb ignited and shook the very foundations mightily, sending them falling to their faces on the stairs and sliding back into the stunned mob of monsters. It felt wrong to have their lower halves stuck inside a pile of the disgusting things and they quickly kicked their way up and out, getting away in time to avoid the crowd as they recovered their senses. Ben pulled out a pipe bomb of his own and yelled out, "light me!"

Sock, once they reached the upper landing, sparked the lighter he kept handy and lit the fuse. Ben dropped the bomb squarely into the unrelenting horde and they ran around the corner into the hallway. The second blast brought them to their knees and they got up as one, turning their heads to see what was going on with the little beasts behind them. Body parts and whole bodies were flying out from the hole and smacking into the growing crowd below. This time, the rats weren't so affected by the blast and they were still pressing on unhindered. Out here, though, Sock and Ben had much more room to swing their weapons and they did so with utter abandon. It was a vicious and brutal scene, the two of them side by side, mowing their foes down in an orgy of small bodies and that odd black blood.

In the assembly hall, Sam had left his temporary shelter behind the pillar and tried a somersault, hoping he did much better than he did the last time he tried the move. Two more blasts followed closely behind, one of them crashing into the pillar he had just been using for cover. He had hit the ground and rolled forward fluidly, just as the walkway the pillar was supporting buckled and collapsed to the floor below. Something large clipped the side of his face and he immediately felt the burn of the cut. Sam turned to face where he thought his enemy was and fired, his shot hit one not ten feet from him, its form converting into a field of red energy that flickered with an eldritch glow before flying back into the crossbow. Just then, he felt the rumbling of something exploding somewhere below and he fired at another one, missing it by inches. He fired two more shots, which it dodged, before Sam gave up and rolled out of the way and into a corner, as the other souls started taking potshots at him again.

The souls sent an entire barrage of green blasts that slammed side by side into the stretch of wall that he had just come from, shattering the majority of the support pillars holding the walkway up. Coupled with the weakened portion from the earlier hit, that whole section of that walkway collapsed and crumbled loudly to the floor. Dust and debris rained down over everything, while Sam was crawling quietly away, hoping to give the impression that they had got him. He managed to creep his way to the end of the row right next to the center aisle, where he spotted one not five feet from his position. Aiming carefully, he fired and tagged another soul.

The action of the soul being sucked into the vessel attracted the attention of the other souls, who turned to face him. Sam ran across the aisle and dove to the floor on the other side, taking cover behind the pews, as they began firing at him again. From his angle on the floor, he could see the front of an alter that had to have been added recently. Drops of blood dripped down from the side, collecting in a pool on the floor below.

A sound coming from where he had run from, when he had found himself in the assembly hall, got his attention. Sam poked his head up, seeing that Sock and Ben had been forced all the way back to the entrance to the hall, the barely restrained tide of rats was a flurry of activity on the other side. They had managed to distract the souls, of which he counted six, who turned to face them. He took the opportunity to bag yet another soul, before yelling at the two of them to get out of the way. Sock and Ben turned to look, their eyes going comically wide at what they saw. Simultaneously, they dove to the side, each one breaking away in different directions. The souls let loose with their trademarked barrage of green energy strikes. Their shots flew into the open hallway, devastating the frontlines of the advancing army of rats.

Sam stayed crouched down and ran as fast as he could to his friends' position, keeping an eye on the remaining souls. He was almost to them, when the remaining rats burst through the charred husks of their fallen comrades, flooding the large space immediately. They overran everything indiscriminately, smashing uncontrollably into the souls and knocking them down. That was when everything descended into chaos. Rats were climbing up the walls and rushing over the broken ruins of damaged pews.

He could see Sock and Ben continuing their fight against the vicious little things, felling them with their weapons as quickly as they could. There was something so awful about seeing what his friends were turning into, about seeing them slaughtering countless living beings. It was something that he turned them in to and he felt that twinge of guilt return with a vengeance. Quashing it, he returned his attention to his quarry, trying to ignore the tiny monsters.

Sam struggled through the mob of rats, using his machete to force himself a path. It was too difficult to get a clear shot from his distance now and he needed to get closer. The place was in total pandemonium, with rats and souls rushing about everywhere. On top of that, he started to smell smoke. So much for not burning down Andi's grandma's church, that didn't look like it was in the cards anymore. A sound nearby got his attention just off to his right and he turned his head to look. A spark of fear rushed through him, seeing one of the souls standing right next to him, the palm of its open hand at point-blank range from his face. It began to charge its attack, lines of green light racing up from the arms and converging together in the center of the palm. In his peripheral vision off to the left of the soul, he could see the faint outline of a person standing there, holding something out at it. A flash of light and the loud bark of shotgun fire flared out, striking it in the face. The soul screamed in unholy pain and rage and flew off to escape. Sam looked over to see who his rescuer was, seeing that it was Sam Winchester, a sawed-off shotgun in his hand.