Chapter 2

I don't care what it takes, Dean. You're not gonna go to hell. I'm not gonna let you.

We don't even know if Lilith actually holds my deal. We're going off of Bela's intel. When that bitch breathes, the air comes out crooked, okay?

Dean, she had no reason to lie. There was nothing left for her to lose so there is usually no point in lying unless someone really hates you.

Right and that's what Bela does. You know her better than that Angie and she's screwed you more times than me and Sam and she still didn't learn her lesson when you almost decided not to help her. Besides we have no way to gank Lilith unless Absolution is up to it and third she wants Sam's head and yours. Should I continue?

Angela knew that Dean laid fine points. Sure he knew about the possibilities but she could tell that he was still up in the air about her snagging his deal and fixing it. She got the feeling that he was more worried about her going down a path that no one in their little family would like. It was one of the reasons why they didn't say anything after her smoking binge and she left Dean to go to sleep for a few hours.

In that time she spent it training. She had Absolution out and was going through the motions of sword techniques she had learned throughout the centuries. Absolution knew her emotions well and remained focused and silent as they went through the motions. She had no idea that someone that was called Sasquatch one too many times was watching her go through her motions.

She practiced the sword kata that Onigen taught her and showed her how to put her abilities into play. She had attempted it before when she lost her hearing but that was more in grief. This time it was in focus and concentration. She twirled Absolution and it gleamed in the night just like how he showed her and imagined it was Lilith. She had no idea that Sam was watching every move in an inquisitive way since he was seeing someone he hadn't seen before performing those moves with an eye to kill.

She knew that Dean had a nightmare. She wasn't in the same room but she could hear the tiny movements. A blessing and a curse from her days being blind. She even saw the slight twitch when he looked at Sam. Thirty hours to go then and he was already seeing the hallucinations. Her hand on his shoulder had been more reassuring to him and she could see that. Maybe that was all she needed to be throughout this whole discussion.

We go in smart or we don't go in at all.

Okay, if that's the case, I have the answer.

You do?

Yeah, a sure-fire way to confirm it's Lilith and a way to get us a bona fide, demon-killing Ginsu.

That was what they were arguing over at the moment. Angela didn't like it any more than Dean did. She had enough of the lying skank. She had put in her two cents that Absolution was able to kill anything and they had seen it but it seemed to have been forgotten. She and Bobby were standing there watching the two brothers argue and no one noticed she had popped another cigarette in and was smoking it.

"Give me another option, tell me."

"Alright that's enough!" Angela disliked shouting but it was getting to be too much. She puffed a final blow on the cigarette before putting it out. "It's enough to make my blood boil and its already boiling."

"So you finally have something to contribute after months of me pestering you?" Sam was visibly upset at the whole argument.

"And you know me well enough by now Sam that I get all my facts before presenting them. My coward's way pretty much but Dean is right. We play this smart so I am laying out some cards and we'll see if it works," Angela replied. She flicked the extinguished butt at the wall and walked over to where her box of gear was stashed.

Dean raised his brow. Was she actually going to tell Sam what she told him? He knew that she was setting herself up for a big mess up in this but she promised that if he was going to support her even though she was going to do it anyway, she would tell Sam and Bobby. There was no way to know except ask and he knew Sam was speechless probably more by the fact that she was smoking than her self-degradation about her habits and the way she approached a situation. He asked, "What do you have in mind Angie?"

Angela glanced at Dean and then Sam before pulling out the case that she had made special rush order. She carried it to the table and said, "Since I am assuming that we are in agreement that we play this thing smart, it occurs to me that instead of going to Lilith, we bring her to us."

"Are ya nuts?" Bobby looked at Angela. He had been wondering if she had been losing a few of her usual good sense marbles.

"Not at all Bobby. We know where Lilith is and there are rituals and one sure fire summoning ritual of bringing her to us. The trick is to bind her in a devil's trap and with every known means of warding and keeping a demon in. We have a means to gank her and that is Absolution."

"Okay," Dean replied once he saw that she was setting a means to go ahead with her plan. Maybe he could be agreeable to it. "So we summon her. How can you be sure that you have her and can trap her?"

"Like Bobby's locator," Angela began as she opened the box. She put her hands in and as she pulled out what was in it, she added, "We get specific and we use this." She pulled out the altar cloth that she had obtained from Crowley and that she now knew he stole from Tiamat and placed it on the table. "This is Lilith's sigil. Like everything within the supernatural, there are different ways of having a symbol or a set of symbols refer to their name. Lilith is considered the first and has an interesting set of lore especially in Christian mythology so she is pretty powerful."

"So you're saying that names are power," Sam finally spoke.

"Something like that only in this case it is a sigil and with the appropriate incantation, we have her. She won't refuse." Angela looked at the three men looking at her. She lingered on Dean for a while in a silent gesture that this was an alternative to her getting close enough to snag his contract.

Bobby looked at the sigil. What Angela was suggesting was serious mojo work. It wasn't too long ago that… "I don't know Angie. That last thing with Tiamat left you pretty well drained. How do we know that this won't do the same thing?"

"It's a summoning ritual," Angela replied.

"Seriously, Angie. Does it require more than usual ingredients and this?" Dean looked at her. He remembered how they found her. She was alive but not completely there and she had minimal breath sounds. "No bullshit."

"It requires a bit of a kick. This is a powerful demon but it's not Tiamat."

"That's too much of a risk and no, Sam we are not summoning Ruby. No. We are not going to make the same mistakes over again," Dean replied and his gaze lingered on Angela. The more he thought about it, the more he was getting the idea that this contract snagging had more risks than she gave. "You guys wanna save me? Find something else." He gave Angela a firm look with that last line. He wasn't going to let her risk her life to grab his contract; not if there was a chance Lilith would skin her alive.

Dean knew that there was little to zero chance of finding something else. The real chances lay with Angela and they involved risks on her life. They were risks that she was gladly willing to take for his sake and he found that he couldn't have that. He was aware that he was being a huge hypocrite since Sam and he would do the same for her but that was repeating the same thing he did that got him in this position in the first place. It was something to do as he read through the books again.

Sam watched his brother and then turned towards Angela who was putting away the altar cloth. She was pausing to look at the sigil and her fingers were tracing the lines. He frowned slightly at her actions. It was like she was memorizing it before she put it away in what was clearly a sort of hex box. Some of the symbols he wasn't sure of but he got the feeling that piece of cloth had more value and how Angela acquired it could have put her on someone's target list. It wouldn't be the first time something like that happened. It was why she had valuable amulets stored in protective boxes like the Eye.

Sam sighed since he knew for certain that Angela was going to back Dean on summoning Ruby and asking for help. He knew they didn't like each other and Angela never missed an opportunity to stick it to Ruby like she did in Sheridan with her exorcism ritual. Of course Ruby paid her back by revealing that she knew that Lilith was after her for whatever reason and that she was going after the demon alone. It sounded petty between them but Sam realized that it took Angela a lot of restraint to not stick Ruby literally when she was helping them.

He thought back to what he saw earlier with Angela and Absolution. He had seen her practice a few times before but it was always in a more or less relaxed state. This last time, he saw something that actually had him worried. She had a look to kill meaning that she was going to go all the way if she had to. She had said it but he never really quite believed it since he had always seen her as a gentle person underneath the badass she showed.

"Your thoughts make the silence rather deafening."

Sam looked at Angela as she walked with the box she carried and stuffed it into her duffle. He sighed and walked over to ask, "How long have you had this idea?"

Angela looked at Sam as she tightened her duffle shut. "You want the honest truth? I thought about it for months and it took time to verify it. Now you're wondering why I didn't say anything it was because I hadn't heard of summoning ritual for demons like Lilith until now."

"Fine I'll buy that but what is so wrong with summoning Ruby? I know you're backing Dean on this and it's no secret that you don't like her."

Angela let out a slight chuckle. "Like has nothing to do with it. I hate her Sam and yes we have history and that history involved her trying to kill me. So you can imagine that I am exhibiting a great amount of patience and willpower not to grab her and send her back to the pit." She sighed as she tried to calm her temper. She then added, "Look I'm sorry if I'm in a bad mood right now. I knew that this idea would be rejected at one point or another since it might be like Tiamat all over again and truth be told both yours and Dean's rejection of Absolution's abilities…"

"I'm sorry about that. I know Absolution can do the same thing as Ruby's knife and I know you have one just like Ruby's…"

"Technically they are not alike. Different means of forging but same idea," Angela interrupted unnecessarily. It helped to lessen the fact that Sam was standing very close to her for the purposes of whispering so that Dean couldn't overhear. She kept her hands on the table as she leaned against it and could feel her nails dig into the wood.

"Good to know… I guess," Sam replied with a slight frown at that non sequiter. He had no idea why she would even say that but he continued, "Anyway I was thinking more along the lines of having an extra tool in the shed or something like that and we can confirm…"

"It is true about Lilith holding the contract," Angela interrupted again. "As I said before Bela had no reason to lie. Most people who are at the end of their rope don't have or need the reason to lie about things like that. That and I had a short and sweet conversation with Cary." She paused a bit to give a slight sigh. "I am not for summoning her Sam but I am not against it since I am just as guilty since I have a bona fide stoolie. Just know where I stand with regard to her. An extra weapon in the arsenal is more often a good thing in my experience but the source of it should be handled with care." Angela looked at Sam in his eyes before straightening up and taking the pack of cigarettes on the table she stalked out to think.

Sam watched her go. There was always a purpose to what she said. She was agreeing that Ruby's knife might come in handy. She was just giving the same warning as she had before; that he should be careful. Now that he knew the type of history if not all the details, he could understand better why things were as they were. An idea started to form and maybe it might work.

"Not gone. Dormant. And not just visions either. Why do you think Lilith is so scared of you?"

"Right she's scared of me. She's the one that wants Angie alive and broken." Sam gave a look of disbelief at Ruby. It was old news… well sort of. More likely Lilith wanted him dead to get to Dean and because Angela was around, it was much more difficult.

"If you wanted, you could wipe her off the map without moving a muscle." Ruby looked at Sam before giving a slight scoff, "At least it would be one step further than what Absolution would do. It's the truth."

"And you just thought to tell me now?"

"Uh demon. Manipulative's kind of in the job description. Fact is that you never would have considered it and she certainly wouldn't have bothered to mention it." Ruby saw the look of confusion flit across Sam's face. "Yes Absolution knows. She's the one who chased after the demon for centuries. Even she knows you wouldn't have considered it until you were…"

"Desperate enough?" Sam couldn't quite believe it. Yeah Angela knew that he had been given demon blood as a baby and she had found the other psychics. This was just a little bit harder to digest.

Ruby looked at Sam with a shrug, "You don't like being different. You hate the way Dean looks at you sometimes but I can't say much about how she looks at you. Maybe its pity since she is just like you or some misguided sense to ask to be forgiven for being a sideshow freak since her kind are not often well accepted. Misery loves company I guess. But suck it up because we've got a lot of ground to cover and we gotta do it fast but we can do it."

Sam was more agitated by the fact that Ruby implied that Angela was giving him pity. She never did that. Yeah Dean would sometimes shoot him the look like he was a freak but she was different. She didn't look at him like that. She looked at him like he was a person.

Ruby knew she had to go for the hook, line and sinker with Sam. "Look call me a bitch, hate me all you want cause I know she does."

"Well you tried to kill her so I hardly blame her for that."

"But I have never lied to you Sam. Not ever. And I'm telling you, you can save your brother. And I can show you how."

"Interesting how the same sales pitch can sound different when you're exploiting different parts of the same whole."

Both Sam and Ruby looked towards the shadows where the voice came from. There appeared two shining orbs and Angela stepped into the light. She gave a slight smile at Ruby and added, "So you want to play that card after you gave the same pitch to me about saving Dean? Telling me that I am the only one who can save him?"

"You gave up that chance when you decided to be a fool and go in halfcocked as always," Ruby spat.

Angela frowned a little in sarcasm, "Right because the level of power that certain abilities I have far exceed Lilith's… at least that's what you implied. Surprised me since I overdid it once and killed myself trying to save someone else."

"And that implies you have no control."

Angela made a slight look. She had started a slight pacing in an attempt to not just wring the demon's neck. "Control. Then I guess you should have been able to detect I was standing there the entire conversation. Hell Sam should have been able to see me."

"A parlor trick and you know it. The true power lies within those other talents that you use for holding hands and amusing children," Ruby returned. She had been disconcerted that Angela had been hidden that long. She may have seriously underestimated her abilities when she started on her campaign to get her on board. "I can get Sam ready with those dormant abilities…"

"Right and I have an inkling how you plan to do that." Angela looked at Ruby and then said something in a language the skank would understand. It was the proper name for what she suspected Ruby wanted to do.

"And you could be just as powerful if you did the same."

"So that's you, huh? Our slutty little Yoda," Dean entered from his place. He saw the look on Ruby's face and gave his usual grin, "Oh, I knew you'd show up. Because I knew Sam wouldn't listen. But you're not gonna teach him anything. You understand me? Over my dead body."

"Oh well you're right about that," Ruby shot back, "And you intend to have the dark brooding bitch here teach him?"

"Angie teaches what she teaches cause she knows what the lines are," Dean replied, not backing down.

"Oh really? And whose lines are those? After all you know her track record with ideas and plans," Ruby retorted. She listened to Dean's ultimatum and added, "Your brother is carrying a bomb inside of him and we'd be stupid enough not to use it."

"I believe you said the same thing about me once," Angela replied. "Lost faith in the horse because she didn't want to become your bitch?" She narrowed her eyes at Ruby.

"You were the one that insisted on this goody two shoe act instead of embracing what you really are," Ruby retorted. She then turned to Dean, "And I'm so sick of trying to prove myself to you. You wanna save yourself? This is how, you dumb spineless dick and not through some bitch who is too afraid of the power she possesses."

Dean gave a smirk. He was about ready to throw a punch when he heard his name being barked. He knew that it was Angela and he didn't say a word when she stood in front of Ruby. Even Sam kept his distance. Angela looked at Ruby and she said in a low voice, "The answer is no Ruby. Give us the knife and leave. You want Lilith dead, then you are talking to the one who will do it."

Ruby scoffed and laughed a little. "You won't do it. You don't even have the guts to use the full potential. You couldn't even use it on me if you wanted to." She looked a little proud of herself as she said that and she looked at Angela as if to dare her to say anything differently. She gave a self-satisfied smile.

Angela gave a slight strained smile as she looked away slightly. It was sudden when she came back with a punch with the full force of her telekinetic ability behind it. It made contact with Ruby and did more than made her stagger back. The result was Ruby giving a punch back and she didn't hold back. She didn't hold back when Dean entered and she gave him a couple of punches and she gave a few clouts to Sam and sent him into a beam.

Angela jumped in and gave Dean some room to breathe. She took a couple of punches but she countered with a few of her own and they were just as hard. She did get knocked away and that allowed Ruby to give Dean a few more punches and a kick. Ruby said, "You don't have what it takes."

Angela stood up with her eyes narrowed and teeth gritted and replied, "Are you sure about that?"

The next thing Ruby knew, she was being flung through the air. She found herself slammed into the wall and suspended. There was increased pressure on her midriff but she wasn't going to give the satisfaction of crying out. She looked to see Angela advancing, her eyes glowing orbs. She chuckled, "Parlor trick, bitch. It was the same thing you did when we first met and Lilith is going to skin you alive."

Angela narrowed her eyes as she suspended Ruby. She then made a slight motion and Ruby was flung to the ground hard and then shoved her into the wall. When Ruby stood up Angela was smiling with a stupid grin.

Ruby saw the grin and asked, "What are you smiling at?"

Angela motioned to Dean who was holding her knife. "Lost something?"

Ruby was pissed and tried to charge at them both but was stopped. She looked at them both and then upwards and saw the devil's trap. She looked at Angela and said, "This is your plan? You see how weak it is?"

Angela walked up to Ruby. She didn't have much to worry about. "You want to talk about weak?" Her eyes began to glow.

Ruby frowned a little. Something was wrong. She was hearing voices in her head. They were the voices of her victims. Each new one was louder than the last and they were all fighting to be heard. She put her hands on her head and looked at Angela, "What are you doing to me?" The response was louder voices and her shutting her eyes in pain.

Sam and Dean knew that it was Angela's telepathic ability. They had only had it in small doses but what she was doing was something different. From the looks of things, she was making Ruby go crazy or something and it was painful. It was rather a shock to see since this seemed a bit like torture and she didn't do that.

Sam turned to see Angela in full concentration but he could also see that it was taking a toll. Her nose started to drip blood. He had to stop it. "Angie. Stop."

Angela heard Sam's voice and relented. She looked at Ruby who looked relieved and gave a glare before starting towards the stairs after saying, "You were lucky."

Dean gave a slight sigh. That certainly wasn't part of the plan when Angela brought it up after she spoke to Sam. "Let's go Sam." He followed Angela up the stairs who was trying to gain some measure of calm even though she looked like someone broke her nose with the blood coming out.

Ruby realized that they were leaving her there and started hurtling insults. "I wish I could smell the flesh sizzle off your bones. I wish I could be there to hear you scream!"

Dean gave his parting shot, "And I wish you'd shut your pie hole, but we don't always get what we want." That was certainly the case especially with Angela.

Dean was certain she had wanted the skank dead but he was certain that her Vulcan mind thing was what scared her into stopping; that and Sam's quiet request. She wasn't around when they got to the top of the stairs but she didn't leave them since her gear was still there and she wouldn't go anywhere without Absolution. She just needed her space for now and Sam seemed to get that too.

A/N: Looks like the cards are being laid out on the table of what to do and Angie shows off what has been in the closet regarding her powers. This and more on No Rest for the Weary...