Hi, sorry for the delay, here's the chapter. Prepare for unexpected guests.

"The Pendant of Anulis." Harry said taking pleasure in Dean and Sam both jumping at the sudden sound of his voice. He'd somehow managed to apparate directly behind them, and had taken advantage of the rare opportunity to startle them. "As far as I can tell it's nothing special. Just a pendant that a primitive race thought was magical. It has changed hands a fair number of times over the centuries but other than that its history is a bit unremarkable."

"Jeez!" Dean said with a scowl still clutching his chest like Harry might try to scare him again. "Can't you use the front door like everyone else?"

"So what you're saying is it can't be the cause of all these people coming back to life?" Sam inferred ignoring his brother's reaction in favor of focusing on the details.

"Well it can't be Death." Dean cut in annoyed at his brother's dismissal. "They're not pale enough and the first ones have been walking around for several weeks with no signs of turning." He sounded annoyed as if he and Sam had already gone over this a million times.

"Unless Death changed the pattern for some reason." Sam countered.

"I don't think it's Death. There's no reason for Lucifer to get involved and Death wouldn't start resurrecting people without purpose." Harry offered. "It goes against his own rules."

"Maybe there is a purpose and we just don't see it."

"I followed some of them around for several days Sammy." Dean cut back in. "They're just normal, confused people who think they dodged a bullet."

Sam plopped back into his chair looking defeated. "What caused it then?"

"Bad call from a doctor?" Dean joked.

Sam scowled at his brother for making light of the situation.

"It happens more often than you humans would like to admit." Harry conceded. "But with so many cases in one area I rather doubt it."

"Witch?" Sam threw out.

"Bringing people back to life out of the goodness of his heart?" Dean sneered. "Yeah, cause all the ones we've met so far were great people."

"Maybe he knows them?"

"Let's not jump to conclusions." Harry offered with a frown sensing a massive argument coming from Sam if he didn't intervene. "You've done more research on the people since we last met I assume."

Sam nodded fishing out some papers and sliding them across the cheap wooden table. Numerous pictures stared up at Harry each of them showing one of the supposedly 'resurrected' patients. Some looked mockingly familiar like he'd seen them before somewhere though he couldn't peg why.

Dean heaved a sigh. "Cases are never straight forward anymore."

"Hmm…" Harry hummed to himself putting two pictures side by side when he noticed something off. One of the photographs showed a woman in her mid thirties. She had long brown hair that almost covered the mark that had piqued Harry's interest. "Are these pictures from before or after the resurrections?"

"A little of both." Sam replied scooting closer trying to see whatever it was Harry had spotted. "Why?"

"This mark here." He said pointing it out. "Several of them have it."

Sam surveyed the pictures. "You're right. It's identical."

"Let me see." Dean said snatching one of the photos to get a look himself.

"I don't recognize it." Sam admitted moving out of the way of his brother. "Do you?"

Harry shook his head.

"Do you think it means anything?"

"Perhaps." Harry pondered the mark from his side of the picture. "It seems we have another lead to follow at the very least."

Sam nodded pulling his phone out and taking a picture of the mark to mail to Bobby. Perhaps the old man would recognize it where they had failed.

"Dean, we have a problem." Castiel had appeared directly behind said man startling him for a second time that day.

Dean glared at the angel having almost dropped a plate of what looked to Harry like pie at the sudden intrusion. "Is it you forgetting to knock again?!" Dean asked glowering at both Harry and Castiel now. "It's freaky how many people we know that can just pop into a locked room!"

Castiel had ignored Dean's rant in favor of fixing Harry with a curious stare. "What are you doing here?"

"Curious. I was going to ask you the same thing."

Castiel seemed to remember he'd come for a reason, turning back to Dean he stated in his normal tone. "People are being resurrected."

"Thanks for the clue Watson, but you're a bit late." Dean said snippily. "We already know."

Castiel seemed caught off guard by that. "You do?"

"Do you know what's causing it?" Sam asked hopefully.

Castiel turned still somewhat shocked eyes on him. "To an extent." Castiel obliged.

"Is that a 'yes' or a 'no'?" Harry asked frowning. "I couldn't tell."

"I have an idea of what may be causing the disturbances." Castiel conceded.

"And?"

"There was an artifact stolen from a secure van."

"The Pendant of Anulis?" Sam cut in showing him the picture and using the name Harry had given them.

"No." Castiel said shaking his head. "It was larger. A staff. It belonged to a shaman."

"It's the only robbery I've heard of in the area." Dean said eyebrows drawn together.

"The amulet must have been worth more." Harry surmised. "If you want something to go missing unnoticed take something more important at the same time. The newspapers probably focused on the more valuable piece and completely ignored anything else that was taken."

Sam had already pulled out his laptop while Harry was talking and was rescanning the bookmarked page. He nodded turning the screen to the others and proving Harry right. Just one sentence in the article acknowledged that another item had been pilfered.

"So what does the staff do?" Dean asked curiously.

"It has the ability to reanimate corpses." Castiel answered.

"But that's not what's worrying you." Harry supplied again noting the way Castiel cut off.

Castiel just stared at him in response. "We do not know who is using the staff, but it must be someone of considerable power."

Harry nodded. He could read between the lines. Castiel was worried there would be another new power player in this whole 'apocalypse' mess.

Sam's phone rang and he flipped it open. "Hello? Yeah Bobby?" Sam nodded a few times before taking the phone away from his ear. "He said he'll meet us here. He's got a lead on the mark."

Harry scoffed. "So what, we have to wait six hours for him?" Harry stood up shooting an annoyed look at the phone in Sam's hand, aware Bobby was still on the other end. "I have a better idea."

In the blink of an eye Harry was gone. Approximately a minute and a half later he was back with Bobby at his side. Unfortunately Bobby took a tumble onto the floor as gravity set in and his wheelchair wasn't under him.

"What the hell did you do that for you idjit!" Bobby yelled propping up his upper body and glaring as menacingly as he could while sprawled on the floor.

"It's hardly my fault you didn't hold on to the chair when I apparated." Harry scoffed.

"Well go back for it!" Bobby said red faced.

"Better idea." Harry said again kneeling behind Bobby who tried to swat the wizard away. Instead there was a sharp red light and suddenly Bobby yelled in pain, but then, to the surprise of everyone but Harry, Bobby's legs spasmed.

The look on Bobby's face was priceless. Annoyance was still plastered there like a frozen DVD.

"Did you just fix his legs?" Sam asked wide eyed.

"No, he's been faking this whole time. What do you think?" Harry turned his gaze from Sam to Bobby. "Are you going to lay on the floor all night?"

Bobby seemed to still be trying to catch up with the fact that he was no longer paralyzed. He moved one leg, then the other, taking Dean's outstretched hand to stand. He nearly toppled over again at the unfamiliar feeling of standing. "You could do that the whole time?" Bobby asked incredulously.

"What's with the obvious questions today?" Harry snorted.

"Kid, if I wasn't so shaky on my feet right now I'd kick your ass."

"Love the sentimentalism that's spreading around but do you want to tell us what it was you found?" Harry asked eying the man as he retook his seat by the small table. If he was spreading miracles he was going to take one of the few chairs in the room. He was sure Bobby was relishing his ability to do anything but sit any way.

Bobby seemed to snap out of his daze and he withdrew a folded piece of paper from his pocket. "The Mark of Tergeo." Bobby said holding out the picture Sam had emailed him along with a few notes. "There were a couple of references to a staff."

"The Mark of Tergeo?" Dean repeated nonplussed. Harry, Sam, and Castiel were in the same boat though Harry was loath to admit it.

Bobby handed off the sheet to Sam still talking ignoring Dean's quintessential need to repeat things. "It hasn't been seen in centuries. We're talking King Arthur, knights of the round table old. The man who used it supposedly travelled up from somewhere around Egypt and started threatening Kings. Arthur stepped in to help some ally against them."

"Wait…Arthur?" Sam cut in. "As in King Arthur…from Arthurian legend?"

"Not that I usually have an issue with legends, but was Arthur even real?" Dean tacked on.

Bobby shrugged. "Do I look like I was around back then?"

The three sets of eyes turned to the only ones in the room old enough to have been alive during that period of time.

"The name does not sound familiar." Castiel said unsure.

"He was a bit of a prick. Never really kept his abnormally long nose out of other people's business."

"He was real?" Sam asked excitedly.

"No I just enjoy talking about fictional characters like I knew them." Harry said quipped shooting Sam a look.

"Were you around when any of this stuff was going down?" Bobby asked motioning to the paper Sam was holding.

Harry shook his head. "I never stuck around Camelot long."

"Was Merlin real?" Sam asked eyes lighting up.

Harry fixed him with a measuring gaze. "Is now really the time to play twenty questions?"

"Er, right…" Sam accepted the admonishment with more grace than usual sparking Harry's interest. "So, who do we think is using it now? Can't be the same guy right?"

"Dunno." Bobby said frowning. "There wasn't too much that made sense in those books. It was all pretty vague."

"Well his power was bringing people back to life right?" Dean butted in. "Maybe he's immortal."

"There aren't too many people running around that can claim immortality." Harry supplied. "If the guy's hostile it would be better for us if he wasn't."

Everyone seemed to share a moment of silence contemplating the difficulty of killing someone who'd had centuries more experience than them as well as being most probably harder to kill than the average human.

"I'll look into it." Castiel said, vanishing in his usual manner.

Harry spared the empty air where the angel had stood a glance before turning his attention back to the Winchesters. "I doubt sitting here's going to answer any questions. Feather probably had the right idea, leaving." Harry stood, but Sam lunged forward and grabbed his arm startling everyone in the room. Harry shook his arm loose of the big hands giving the tall man a bemused look. "Problem, Sam?"

"Right…er…sorry. I thought you were gonna…" Sam swiped his hand through the air in a motion that vague indicated disappearance. "I needed to ask you something."

"You have my attention."

The look in the younger man's eye told Harry this wasn't going to be a pleasant conversation. "I was wondering if we could talk…outside…" Harry didn't miss the look Sam shot his brother.

Harry shrugged, effectively agreeing and shaking Sam's hand the rest of the way off at the same time. The night air was warm and Harry waited impatiently for Sam to stop fidgeting and just ask about whatever it was that was on his mind.

"When we first met…" Sam started, more than a little hesitant.

"You were trying to get your brother off the hook for his deal." Harry finished for him. "I have very sharp memory." Harry tapped his head. "Besides, it's not like it's been that long. What about it?"

"Well, I was thinking…"

"Dangerous territory." Harry prodded with a smirk.

Sam continued as if he hadn't heard. "If you can enter hell and save people…"

"I wouldn't really call it saving…" Harry corrected.

Sam swallowed a lump in his throat. "I was wondering if you could save my dad."

Harry blinked. He wasn't sure what he'd been expecting Sam to ask, but it wasn't that. "You want me to save John Winchester from hell?"

Sam nodded.

"John Winchester, the raving psychopath who's tried one too many times to put a bullet through my skull?"

"He's not a psychopath!" Sam interjected as his brain caught up with all that Harry had said.

Harry scoffed. "Clearly you and I have a different definition then." Still, Harry changed thoughts. "Even if I could, your father's been in the pit for over a year Sam. I don't think you realize what that does to a person."

"I'm not sure he's even still down there." Sam said again, unsure.

"Meaning?"

"When the devil's gate opened we saw dad, but we don't know what happened afterwards. I just…he doesn't deserve to be down there. He wasn't the greatest dad ever…but he wasn't a horrible man." Sam couldn't meet Harry's eyes. "He doesn't deserve hell for saving Dean."

Harry watched Sam clearly trying to conceal the emotions roiling beneath the surface. He wasn't sure what part of him was spurred to say what he did next. "So, go to hell, check the guest book and see if Winchester's on the roster. Sounds doable."

Sam's head snapped up, surprised. "Seriously? Just like that?"

"Just like that." Harry replied. Honestly, hell had gotten him thinking about a certain lady he knew was down there right now. Perhaps he'd pay her a visit.

"I'm on it." The surly Scottish voice assured Harry.

"Good." Harry said eying his watch. Ten past three. He heaved a sigh clicking the disconnect button on his phone and sliding it into his pocket. "I'm going to have to hire someone to fill in for me at this rate." He said eying his office with a frown. They definitely weren't taking his office if he hired them. He wasn't going to share it with a twenty something year old with an altogether too positive look on life.

Alas, the apocalypse wasn't waiting and he still had paper work to file. It was a necessity to hire someone. He slid into the elevator and made his way down to reception with a frown. He felt slight amusement when the people who usually greeted him in the hallways seemed to drift to either side to avoid his determined gaze.

"Laura." He said stopping right in front of the front desk and drawing the attention of the receptionist who was more than a little startled by his sudden appearance. She stammered an apology to whomever was on the phone and promised to call them back immediately before replacing the receiver and turning his way.

"Y-yes, sir Mr. Potter? I wasn't aware you were in the building today."

Harry's frown turned into a pleasant smile and the tension seemed to leak from Laura's shoulders. "I needed to see to some things. Could you do me a favor and gather up all the resumes that have been sent in, in the past few days? I need them sent to my office."

"Of course. Is there anything else you need sir?" she asked looking she wanted to point out that human resources usually handled the resumes.

"No, I think that will be all for now." He made to step away. "Ah," he turned back something having caught his attention. "Could you tell Josh to cut back on the coffee? I think he might be about to blow a fuse over there."

Laura followed his gaze to a man in his mid-thirties whose arm kept jerking every couple of seconds like a nervous tick. Sure enough about eight Styrofoam cups were piled to the side of his desk.

"Actually…just ask him if he needs time off…" Harry said eying the man as if he might drop at any moment.

"Uhm…yes, sir. Anything else?"

"Nope, that's all. Keep up the good work."

Harry reentered the elevator and pushed the button for his office taking a moment to just breathe.

"So anything interesting happening?"

Harry tried not to flinch at the sudden voice to his right. Instead he shot the annoying angel a half-hearted glare. "You could say so."

"Ooh…interesting how?" Gabriel said following Harry as he exited the elevator.

"People are being resurrected, there's a really old staff missing, and I'm about to make a pit stop to hell. Pick your brand of interesting."

"You're going to hell?" Gabriel blinked. "What for?"

"Sam played the 'daddy's in hell' card and I'm being sentimental lately, merlin knows why, so I decided 'hey why not make it a road trip'?" Harry said taking a seat and watching as Gabriel paced for a minute in front of him.

"So let me get this straight…Lucifer wants you to join him."

Harry nodded.

"Something you're opposed to."

Another nod.

"Lucifer's stronghold IS hell…" Gabriel turned to look at him at this point. "And you're gonna go strolling in because that chucklehead asked you to?"

Harry shrugged. "Essentially."

"You know, even for you that's nuts."

"You're missing a few key details."

"Like?"

"Lucifer hates hell." Harry pointed out. "I'm probably safer down there than I am up here. If there's one thing Lucifer's afraid of, it's getting trapped in that box again."

"True." Gabriel conceded. "But every demon in the joint is gonna have sights out for you."

Harry shrugged again. "If I couldn't take on a few demons I don't think I'd have made it this far in life."

Gabriel opened his mouth to argue but Harry cut him off glancing at his watch. Half past three. "I have to go. If you want something to do try to figure out who has the staff while I'm gone. That would be brilliant."

Gabriel crumbled a candy wrapper in irritation as the room was suddenly empty, save himself. Just to spite the man he dropped the trash on the floor before he too vanished as if he were never there.

3:30 was the time when Harry found it easiest to cross the borders between the human dimension, and hell. If one tried to force their way through at any old time of day it was like fighting a raging current. At 3:30 Harry could step between the two like passing between two sheets hanging on a drying line.

Hell was much the same as he remembered. It was dark and damp and filled with the pained screams of others. He knew some of those doors he passed led to giant spaces unbound by the physics of the human world. They were lightening, and pain, and hooks, and every other horror imaginable…plus a few new ones.

HE skirted around what seemed to hell's arrival gate, a bustling hub of activity that was never quite complete without the miserable cries of the damned. Ah, yes, he was remembering why he'd hated this place so damned much.

Still, what he was searching for was near the 'entrance'. He pulled open one of the ancient doors, seriously the place needed a remodeling. Maybe he'd bring it up if he found himself in need of stalling topics while in the same room as that smarmy git Lucifer. The pungent odor of rotting meat instantly drifted out and Harry swung the door shut again with a shake of his head. Wrong door.

He tried the next. Half naked woman on a spit…Nope. Not what he was looking for. Demons really needed better organization skills.

He opened a third door and found another long dark hallway very similar to the one he was standing in. The only difference was the lack of cells…or any sort of door for the matter. The walls were instead lined with slates. Each one was approximately eleven by thirteen inches and spaced six inches from the next. To the ignorant it would look like and extraordinarily bland decorating style. To those in the know it was like a demonic filing cabinet. Harry ran his fingers over the first stone on his left. Names and dates filled his mind. Contracts. Well, low profile contracts or ones that had already been collected on. Just to annoy some demon, somewhere Harry smudged a few names in the records. Just enough that some man from Michigan who wanted his wife back got off of his ten year sentence. When it came time to collect a demon needed more than just their word to hustle a soul down to hell after all. Bureaucracy was a bitch that way.

Harry found no mention of John Winchester in the first tablet, so he moved to the second. Once again he found no mention of the older Winchester but he did find his second target. Bela Talbot. Or, Abby as she had been named by her birth parents. Her contract was just one among many. He doubted the demons had even protected the thing when it was still pending.

He checked the listed contents of her contract before flipping through the rest of the contracts. No Winchester again. He moved down the line tablet by tablet until he struck pay dirt. John Winchester's name rang every bell for top priority Harry could think of. Even his contract seemed heavier in Harry's mind than the others. But the fact that it was here, and not in the hands of a demon meant it had been fulfilled. That meant John was either here, or they thought he was.

Harry used a 'point me' spell to locate Bela's cell. There was a moment of slight dizziness as his mind spun in a way akin to a wand before he got a distinct impression of down and to the left. He cast another, this time focusing on John's name. His head spun and continued to for a good three or so minutes before Harry canceled the charm. He huffed in irritation. "Guess we're doing this the old fashioned way." He said moving toward the door and checking his watch. 7:30. He'd wasted a good few hours going through the tablets. He needed to make sure he had everyone he was taking back by the time the 3:30 marker rolled around again, lest he have to stay an additional twelve hours. Not exactly his idea of a day at the beach.

He made it back out onto the previous hall and cautiously made his way closer to the entrance. Now it was just a waiting game, and fortunately it didn't last long. He'd only been kneeling there behind one of the many pointless arches about ten minutes when a demon broke away from the throng and headed in his direction. Harry caught a full glimpse of the thing without its usual human vessel and was disgusted by its grotesque form. Still, he followed to what he proclaimed a 'safe' distance from the others and then attacked. With a kick to the back of the knee and two hands on its skull forcing magic through its every cell it went down fast. It let out one blood curdling scream and then went silent. He pulled the demons limp corpse from the hall so it wouldn't be stumbled upon as easily and then set to work.

Hands once again on either side of its face Harry closed his eyes and let information stream from the demons brain to his. He pushed as much of the torture aside as possible nearly retching at some of the more…vivid images. Oh yes, he'd gotten lucky. This was one of the demons who'd filled Alistair's recent hole in command. That meant he had access to the more…sought after victims. No John Winchester bells were ringing from its memories but he now knew how to get to the place where they would've been holding John if he was here, Alistair's racks. And that was definitely something.

It took a good hour of navigating the catacombs of hell and dodging demons before he found the place he was looking for. It looked perfectly innocent from the outside. Well, as innocent as a door in hell could look. But as Harry reached for the doorknob he felt his fingers twitch in remembrance. He'd spent centuries in here. It wasn't something he recalled fondly. He took a deep breath. No need to break down now. It certainly wouldn't help the situation. The door swung open easily to reveal exactly what he remembered. Hooks and lightening and carts full of instruments straight from a psychopath's wet dream.

But it was eerily silent. No screams from torture victims or laughs from demons. No sloshing of flayed skin or clanking of moving chains. Odd. There was a human pinned to one of the racks in the distance. Harry made his way over. It took longer than he thought it would but these dimensions didn't exist like the ones he was used to so he supposed that was to be expected.

"Holy shit." Harry murmured eying the man in front of him. Someone had left him in less than perfect condition just dangling from the meat hooks. "John Winchester." Harry said disbelievingly.

A groan followed his speech as the man seemed to rouse into semi consciousness.

"Who'd have thought Mr. Pessimism was right?" Harry said frowning. He'd more than half thought that Sam's worries were unfounded. He'd never heard of a soul getting dragged back into the pit after it had escaped. He supposed John was just unlucky enough to be important. "Good morning sunshine. You look like shit."

"Eat me." John ground out, not even bothering to open his eyes.

"Oi, don't get snippy with me Winchester. I'll leave you here." Harry shot back.

Apparently that hadn't been the programmed response John had been expecting. He opened his eyes just a crack, and then fully in surprise.

"Surprised to see me?" Harry said with a snort. "I'm staggered I'm here too. Strange isn't it?"

"Well…this is new…" John admitted eying Harry speculatively. "They've tried to guilt me about killing 'innocent' monsters before, but they've never used you. Guess they ran out of ideas."

Harry rolled his eyes before snapping his fingers and, slowly lowered the glowering Winchester. "That would imply you had the talent to kill me." He was debating just dropping him, but figured it would only damage his cause of getting out of there fast anyway. "I'm not a demon or an illusion. Use your brain Winchester. Besides, the demons don't have half enough class to have picked this suit out." He stepped forward and put and hand on John's shoulder, focusing. John swatted the appendage away and took a swing at Harry. Having expected something of the sort he managed to side step the punch and replace his hand. "I'm trying to heal you, you prat, hold still."

It took only a few seconds for Harry to pull the hooks from John's shoulders and sides before healing the most severe of John's wounds. It wasn't a physical body but if John believed it was injured it would still have inhibited him. Harry opened his eyes to find John watching him warily.

"Assuming you are the real Potter, why would you come to hell to rescue me?"

Harry shrugged, tugging John to his feet when the man still hadn't moved. "A favor."

"For who?"

Harry glanced back. John had stopped walking again. He huffed in annoyance. "Your son." Harry snipped back. "We really don't have time for a heart to heart Winchester. We're on a deadline. Not to mention you want to have this bloody conversation in the middle of hell. Not the best setting."

John's eyes were dark. "Which one?"

"Pardon?"

"Which one?"

"Sam." Harry answered plainly watching John's shoulders grow even more tense.

"What was his price?"

"Oh for the love of Merlin!" Harry shouted angrily. "I'm not a demon you ignorant ass. How many times did I tell you that when you were alive? And your son didn't pawn his soul so will you get a bloody move on? I have someone else to retrieve and we're running low on time as it is."

John said nothing else for a long time. He just followed Harry through corridor after corridor as Harry followed a point me spell toward Bela. It was a dizzying trip for the wizard and he was at least partially thankful for the silence. At least he could concentrate. He stopped outside of one of the many doors and checked his watch. 11:49. They weren't making terrible time. He shouldered the door open.

Cold stone walls stretched to either side of the entrance. A much more solid look than Harry was used to hell having. Then again Bela always had hated being caged and that was precisely what the room must have felt like to its shivering occupant.

Bela was huddled in a corner covered in burn marks and who knew what else. He couldn't tell if she was crying and just trying to distance herself mentally from everything that had happened to her.

"Afternoon Bela." Harry said crouching to be on level with Bela's eyes if she turned his way. He heard the solid thud of the door swinging into place behind John.

Bela seemed hesitant to even acknowledge there was someone in the room with her but eventually she swung her head his way. She immediately recoiled at the sight of him, revealing the blood her hands were covered in. Harry grimaced at the panic written on her face, but then she seemed to calm a bit as if her sharp eyes caught something only she could see. "It's really you…isn't it? Not some cheap copy."

"In the flesh, kid." Harry said straightening now that he saw he might not need to coax the woman out of her ball.

In fact, she seemed more than happy to move. She lunged forward trying to punch Harry much like John had. Unlike John's swing he hadn't been expecting her violence, and took the blow full on. He felt his nose crunch but caught himself before he could fall. "Ow!" he said indignantly clutching his nose.

"Why? Why now?" She said anger blazing in her eyes. She still seemed scared, like the situation might reverse at any moment and she'd be the one in pain instead of him, but she wasn't hesitant. "You left me to my fate before."

"Yes, well. One cannot learn from their mistakes without the chance. Call it penance, or cruelty. I don't really care." Harry shrugged it off righting his nose and healing it with more than mild annoyance. "I'm offering you an out now though. You're more than welcome to take it or leave it. I'm sure John wouldn't mind getting out of this place a bit sooner."

John huffed behind him. Whether in amusement or agreement he couldn't tell. Bela pushed herself forward. "Do I look like an idiot?" she said before making her way toward the door shakily.

Harry shrugged again as John let her and himself out. "Debatable."

Harry, Bela, and John were drawing close to their exit time, but with three people their movement became a lot slower. Harry was sure the demons were starting to catch on that something was up. They were passing more and more of the lower tier demons in the halls making it hard to move from area to area without being spotted.

They were found out about twice but Harry had gotten the jump on the demons and took them out before they could raise any sort of alarm. Harry motioned with his head for the other two to shelter behind a door as another group of demons passed. But they were close. Just a bit further.

And then they were there, sliding through the final door and into the relative safety of Harry's arrival point. It was just a blank room. Probably an empty cell. Harry checked his watch. 3:18. Just twelve minutes to spare. They had cut it close.

"What happens when we reach the other side?" Bela asked noting Harry's frequent glances to his watch.

Harry fixed her with a level stare. "You pass on." He supplied nonchalantly. "I haven't brought back either of your bodies. You don't have vessels to return to in the human world."

"Could you though?" Bela asked eyes sparking with intrigue in that familiar way. "Bring them back?"

Harry narrowed his eyes. "Theoretically? Yes. It is what I was planning to do with…" he stopped himself glancing over to John who was eying him speculatively.

"What year is it? Out there, how many years have passed?" John asked changing topic.

"Since you kicked the bucket?" Harry clarified. "Three years have passed."

"Three years." John said rubbing his face.

"A lot has happened John." Harry said with a frown checking his watch again. It wouldn't do to miss their jump time by being sentimental.

"How long since I…" Bela cut herself off with a clearing of her throat when her voice threatened to shake.

"A few months." Harry blinked.

"Can you bring me back?" she asked hopefully.

Harry sighed rubbing the back of his head. "I can try." He said in irritation. He held out an arm to her. She stared at it curiously. "I need to have a short conversation with Mr. Winchester before we depart."

She reached out and grasped his arm. Her energy seemed to draw in on itself before moving into him.

"Sam told me you escaped hell once."

"You talk with Sam a lot?" John asked roughly.

"And Dean." Harry said snidely. "What dragged you back?"

"I don't know. One minute I'm a ghost on Earth starting to pass on and then suddenly I'm back here in this hellhole."

Harry nodded taking in John's words.

"What happened?" John asked eying Harry with the same wariness he'd started with. "Why would my boys start talking with-"

"Someone like me?" Harry finished for him. "I never really understood your vendetta against me you know. It all seemed so petty. Still…" Harry sighed.

"It was Sam wasn't it?" John sounded slightly disheartened.

"You know who…what Sam is then?"

"For a few years. I prayed I was wrong. Has he…is he…"

"He hasn't said 'yes' if that's what you're trying to ask me. The kid did contact me first. You called that right, but he did it to save his brother. Considering your reasons for being down here I somehow think you don't really disagree with trying to save Dean. Funnily enough though, he was trying to save Dean from a deal that Dean made to save him. The world is a twisted place."

John looked equal amounts shocked and ready to punch someone's face in. "That idiot! How many times did I tell him! How many!"

"Never to deal with a demon? Plenty, I'm sure. You Winchesters never really seem to apply logic when it comes to family though. Besides, he was only following in his father's footsteps."

"Dean…did he…is he here?"

"No." Harry replied curtly.

"His contract isn't up yet." John said with some relief.

"No. He was here."

"You got him out?" John said with more surprise than Harry felt the statement warranted.

"Not quite. I got beat to the punch line."

"By who?"

"An angel." Harry shrugged checking his watch. "And we're about out of time…oh, and before you ask, no. I can't build you a body in the mortal world. Just thought I'd throw that out there before you asked."

"Not strong enough?" John growled out obviously mocking him.

"Stronger than you think. No, whoever laid claim to your soul wanted it badly. So bad that someone's still trying to pull you back here even after you leave. Being on Earth makes you that much easier to pull down. Besides," Harry brushed some lint from his sleeve. "I get quite enough Winchester idiocy with your sons running about. It would be torturous to add yet another one of you to the mix."

John opened his mouth, no doubt to obstinately deny either his sons' idiocy or his own, but Harry cut him off by holding out a hand.

"We're out of time. We need to leave." Harry left his arm outstretched to the old hunter waiting for him to make the move. "I don't have all day."

John finally reached forward obviously thinking that wherever he was being taken couldn't be worse than where he had been. The two flickered from existence as Harry passed back through the border into the normal world.

Harry just happened to come out of the borders in a forest. He couldn't tell where specifically and he didn't much care. He had more important things on his mind. With some focus Harry drew John's soul forward and out of himself letting it drift in the air in front of him.

Left to its own devices the soul seemed to take on a purplish glow and started to drift downward.

"Oh no you don't." Harry said trapping it in a bubble of magic. So he'd been right after all. Someone was trying to pull John's spirit back to hell even now. Well, he wasn't about to let them. He didn't want to make another trip down. He'd have to deal with more demons this time for sure.

Instead he forced himself to focus on the energy attached to the spirit. It was dark and disgusting just as he would expect from a demon, but it also made it very easy to distinguish between the two. With a few zaps of magic the foreign energy was dissipated to an almost nonexistent level.

Harry popped the bubble John's soul was stuck inside of and watched as it drifted skyward this time. He watched it for a good ten minutes before it was beyond his sight and he deemed it safe enough to leave. He had some thinking to do after all, about whether or not he'd be making a body for Bela.

So, a short trip to hell. I'd been planning on doing that for some time. It was inspired by the episode where Sam saves an innocent soul from hell as a task. If Crowley could drag souls down for pissing him off I'm pretty sure other powerful demons have that auspicious talent as well.

I do apologize for the long delay. I had a family member pass and I've been dealing with a medical flare up which might require surgery. It can be a b it difficult to write when looking at the screen causes migraines.

Well, enough self pity. I hinted to one reviewer that Ms. Talbot would be making a return but was anybody else even remotely aware of it? I did develop a soft spot for her before her untimely disappearance.

Depending on how fast I wrap up this arch The Hammer of the Gods episode will come into play either in chapter 20 or 21. I know there were a few of you looking forward to that.

I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. 'Til next time!

~Kanathia