And I'm back! Hi, guys, it's Lily, and this is Chapter 2 of The Princess of Hell. Let's skip the long intro and just start the chapter.

Ralissa's POV:

It's better if it's only two. He says. Hold down the fort. He says. I leaned back in my armchair, seething. Father left to find Dean Winchester and go find the bloody First Blade and wouldn't let me come with. Hold down the fort? Hold down the fort?! I'm not a bloody child, Father! Why am I ranting in my brain to an empty room? We're better than this, aren't we, self? If we can't go on that mission, fine… I'll do something else than. I never got the chance to introduce myself to the younger Winchester. I think I'll go do that, if only to annoy someone else.

I stood from my chair and snapped my fingers, disappearing. I appeared at the top of the stairs in the Men of Letters Bunker. It stung a little to teleport in there, but I was human enough that the warding let me through.

I arrived in time to hear Sam say, "You're a terrible liar."

"That is not true," Cass replied indigently. "I once deceived and betrayed both you and your brother."

Hmm, did he? Oh, the purgatory thing… That kind of backfired, though. I think it did, anyway. I was in England at the time.

"Okay, that's not the point," Sam said. "Cass, what's wrong?"

"I noticed something. It's, uh… It's resonating inside you."

"What?"

"Something angelic."

"Okay, uh, what the hell does that mean?"

"Maybe we should call Dean."

"No. He wanted to go, and he's gone."

"Gone indeed," I said, making myself known.

They both whirled around to look up at me. Sam looked alarmed, Castiel looked slightly annoyed.

"Who are you?" Sam asked.

"That's Ralissa," Cass answered before I could say anything. "She's Crowley's daughter."

"What?" Sam looked back at me. "How did you get in here? It's warded."

I began slowly walking down the stairs. "I have my ways. You know, I was part of the team that got Gadreel out of you, Sammy."

He started reaching for the gun on his belt.

I stopped at the middle of the stairs. "Don't be so hostile. I come in peace. Look, my father left me out of a mission and I was bored, so I thought I'd come introduce myself to Winchester Number Two. There's really no need for weapons."

Sam narrowed his eyes. "And this was the only thing you have to do?"

I scowled. "Running hell because your father is locked in a Men of Letters basement doesn't leave much time for a social life. It seems I walked into something. Gadreel's left an angelic stamp on Samantha? How… Intrusive."

"Tell me about it," Sam muttered. "So, let me get this straight. You're here because you… have nothing better to do?"

"Pretty much. I'm twenty, I get bored easily."

"Don't you have, like, demons to order around, or something?"

I sighed. "Demons are…. Annoying, boring, and… quite stupid, most of the time. I get sick of them, and they don't need a supervisor all the time. It looks like you've got this thing to figure out now, so… let me help. You've got…" I glanced around. "…quite the library in here."

"Are you sure your father would want you here?"

I glared at him. "I don't know, and I don't care. I'm not afraid of my father. Look, I won't do anything, I promise."

Sam looked at Cass, who neither moved, nor spoke for a good minute.

"Let her stay," Cass finally said. "It's two on one, and we've dealt with her father before. Maybe she can help."

I placed my hand over my heart. "Thank you, Feathers. I appreciate that."

Sam sighed and looked back at me. "One wrong move…"

I waved my hand dismissively. "Yes, yes, I'm dead. I get it."

"Let's get started then."

As I looked through books, I could almost feel Castiel watching me intently.

I smirked, but kept my eyes on my book. "If you're going to stare at me like that, at least buy me dinner first."

"I-I wasn't… I," Castiel stammered.

I laughed and turned around to face him. "Angels are so easy to fluster. It's the perfect combination of adorable and hilarious." I glanced back at the book. "I think I've found something. It's Enochian, which… Is not nearly my best language, but I think it's a detail about what angels leave their vessels…? Is Enochian always this flowery? Um… "And the departed shall remain, and the remains shall be departed." What the bloody hell does that mean?"

"Okay, so, when an angel leaves a vessel, they leave behind a piece of themselves. Like, uh… Like an angelic fingerprint," Sam said.

"Alright, well, if I'm translating correctly, I think this piece of the departed contains grace. Care to have a look, Castiel?"

Cass took the book and looked at it. "Yes, I think she's right."

"Wait, you're saying there's angelic grace inside of me?" Sam asked.

"Yes." Castiel closed the book. "But it's fading each time I heal you."

"Okay. Is that good or bad?"

"Well, it's harmless. But the grace itself…. Might be helpful." Cass picked a Men of Letters file off the table. "According to this, we may be able to use the grace that remains inside you to track Gadreel… if we can extract it."

"How would we do that?"

"Well… painfully." He held up a picture of a rather large-looking syringe. "The Men of Letter believed that you could perform a tracking spell with extracted grace, but they were never able to test the theory."

"Well, they didn't have a guinea big, but we do."

"A rather tall one, at that," I added.

Castiel looked confused. "You have a tall guinea pig? Where?"

I frowned and glanced at Sam, slightly confused now. "Is he serious?"

Sam sighed. "Yeah. It's me, Cass. I'm the guinea pig."

Castiel nodded. "Oh." He looked at the picture of the syringe. "Any idea where that is?"

After another hour of searching through stuff upstairs, we finally found this syringe.

"Sam, may I ask you a question?" Castiel asked as we went back downstairs.

"You just did," Sam replied.

"Can I ask you another question?"

"Well, technically, you—"

"Just ask the bloody question, Feathers!" I snapped, annoyed.

Castiel cleared his throat. "Sam, the trials. You chose not to go through with them for a reason, didn't you? You chose to live rather than to sacrifice yourself. You and Dean… chose each other."

"Yeah, I did. We did. And then… Dean made a choice for me." Sam walked into the down the steps and into the other room, with Cass and I following.

"What Dean did—"

"It doesn't matter what Dean did. Look, I could have put a stop to all this, Cass. I could have closed the Gates of Hell."

"Oh, Sam."

"Dean's gone, okay? This is on me now, and if I can find Gadreel… I can fix this. Now… being a human means settling your debts. Let's start balancing the books."

I glanced around the room. "On a completely unrelated note, this room looks like a cross between an abandoned hospital room, and a dentist. I'm guessing these Men of Letters didn't get out much."

"You're not wrong." Sam handed Castiel the box with the syringe and then sat down in the chair, leaning back.

Castiel took the syringe out of the box and slowly pushed the needle into Sam's neck, causing Sam to grunt in pain. I couldn't help cringing. I've always hated needles.

"Now comes the part that will actually hurt," Castiel said. "I'm gonna begin the extraction."

Cass pulled up on the plunger slowly, and glowing white grace started to flow into the syringe.

"Is it working?" Sam asked, wincing.

Castiel sighed. "Yeah."

"But?"

"I-I need to push the needle in deeper. We need more grace in order to cast the spell."

"Okay. Do it."

"Sam, if I get too close to—"

"Damn it, Cass! Just do it."

Castiel pushed the needle in a little deeper, causing Sam to start yelling in pain. Cass pulled out the needle completely and stepped back. Sam gasped and put his hand on his neck where the needle had on gone.

"What the hell was that?" Sam asked.

"Your body is regressing to the state it was in before Gadreel," Castiel replied.

"Do we have enough grace for the summoning spell?"

"Sam."

"It's a simple question, Feathers. Stop stalling," I snapped. "Is that enough, or not?"

Castiel glanced at the syringe. "No."

Sam took a deep breath. "Then keep going."

Castiel hesitated, but pushed the needle back into Sam's neck. Barely more than a minute after Castiel started the extraction again, Sam's head fell to the side and his eyes started to shut.

"Sam? Sam?!" Castiel said in alarm.

Sam opened his eyes a little. "Keep going." He sounded very weak.

"Why?" I asked.

"We—we—we have to find Gadreel."

"Yes, I understand that, but it's not worth you bloody dying over it."

Castiel shook his head. "No. Why must the Winchesters run toward death?"

"Good question," I muttered.

He started to pull out the needle, but Sam grabbed his wrist. "No, don't. Don't. Don't stop."

"Sam, when I was human, I died, and that showed me that life is precious, and it must be protected at all costs, even a life as… as pig-headed as a Winchester's."

Sam took a deep breath. "My life's not worth any more than anyone else's—Not yours or Dean's… Or Kevin's."

Alright, I'm about to do something extremely out-of-character. "Nobody's saying that it is… Every life is equal, which means that it's also not fair for you to run towards death because you feel guilty for Kevin's. However…" I looked at Castiel. "You don't have the right to stop him, either. I think Sam's had enough of other people making decisions about his life for him. Human's feel the need to make things right, right? You have to let him do that." My voice was monotone and devoid of any emotion, but I made my point.

Sam caught my eye and nodded as best he could. "Keep going."

After a moment's hesitation, Castiel pushed the needle in deeper and Sam started screaming, which continued until his nose began to bleed and he seemed to lose the strength to scream. His breathing became weak, as well. I started to wonder if this was going to kill him. Cass glanced past me at something I couldn't see and then pulled out the needle.

"Hold on," he told Sam. "This may pinch."

"Cass, what the hell?" Sam asked.

Castiel didn't reply. He simply placed his hand on Sam's head and healed him.

"Cass," Sam protested, sitting up. "What the hell was that?!"

"I've healed your wounds completely," Castiel replied.

"Yes, because we all thought you'd only partially healed him," I said sarcastically.

"And the grace?" Sam asked.

"Well, whatever grace was inside you is gone now," Cass told him. "What's left of Gadreel is in here. We'll just have to try the spell with what we have."

"Damn it."

"Sam, I want Gadreel to pay as much as you do. But nothing is worth losing you. You know, being human, it didn't just change my view of food. It changed my view of you. I mean, I can relate now to how you feel."

"What are you talking about?"

"The only person who has screwed things up more consistently than you… is me. And now I know what that guilt feels like. And I know what it… I know what it means to feel sorry, Sam. I am sorry."

"I know."

"You know, old me—I would have just kept going. I would've jammed that needle in deeper until you died because the ends always justified the means. But what I went through—Well, that PB and J taught me that angels can change, so…" He picked up the box with the needle in it. "…Maybe Winchesters can, too." With that, he walked out of the room.

I cleared my throat, awkwardly glancing at Sam. "Well, as the apparently least human person in this room, I find this kind of thing uncomfortable, so I'm just gonna…" I turned to leave.

"Hold it," Sam said.

I turned. "Yes?"

"What you said before, was… probably the least demon thing I've ever heard. So, how does that work?"

I shrugged. "I don't know… I just thought of the cheesiest thing that came to mind. Humans always seem to like that stuff. Is there a problem?"

"No… I've just never heard your father say something like that. Well, except for… Never mind."

I smirked. "I am my own person, Mr. Winchester. I'm not a female carbon-copy of my father… Believe me."

I walked out after Castiel.

I stood back slightly from the other two as they mixed the ingredients for the angel tracking spell. Castiel poured in the grace, which was the last ingredient, and glowing gray smoke started to spiral out of the bowl before fading and disappearing.

"Well, that was anti-climactic," I commented, crossing my arms.

"Was that, uh… was that it?" Sam asked.

"I'm afraid there wasn't enough grace," Cass replied. "We'll have to find Gadreel another way. I'm sorry, Sam."

"It's all right, Cass. You, uh… You were right. You were right about everything."

With that, Sam reached over and hugged Castiel, who just kind of awkwardly stood there. I tried my best to hold in my laughter.

"Now's the part where you hug back," Sam said.

"Oh. Right. Uh, sorry." Cass awkwardly hugged Sam back.

"There you go."

When that happened, I couldn't hold in my laughter anymore. I only managed to get a hold of myself after they pulled away from the hug.

"As far as I'm concerned, Metatron is the key to fixing everything that's wrong," Cass said. "I'm gonna find him."

I looked back and forth between the two. "How do more people not ship you two? I mean, everything ships Feathers with Dean, but…"

Sam looked at me. "What are you talking about?"

"Oh, I used to read the books when I was under. You know, the ones by… What was it? Carver Edlund?"

"Ship?"

"It's a shortened version of relationship. Teenagers come up with the dumbest things."

Sam's face was priceless. "Aren't—aren't you a teenager?"

I glared. "I'm twenty, Skyscraper."

Castiel, who had been about to leave, turned back. "You know, Sam, we could use all the help we could get to find Gadreel and Metatron."

"We got this," Sam replied. After a minute, Sam turned to me. "What about you?"

I frowned. "What about me?"

"I don't suppose you'd be interested in helping with this?"

I eyed him. "I thought I wasn't trustworthy."

"But you're not exactly untrustworthy either."

"What about my father?"

"Crowley's stabbed us in the back several times over the years, but you haven't done anything. And you were helpful tonight."

"Hmm…" I smiled. "Well, I'll have to check my busy schedule, but… I'll see what I can do. I should be going. I have to get back before Father does. Until next time." I snapped my fingers and disappeared.

Alright, guys, that is it for Chapter 2 of the Princess of Hell reboot. I hope that you guys enjoyed it and please leave a review and tell me what you thought. In the words of Ralissa… Until next time, - Lily